KageYuuki
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One of many locations members of Yoake and the Akai Kyoudai meet and rest. But most importantly, one of the few Daisuke uses to carry out his experiments on Kekkei Genkai.
Yoake Hideout
- Thread starter KageYuuki
- Start date
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
"So what's the basis for this technique of yours?" Hotaru asked whoever was possessing Yukari's body rather chirpily. The question disturbed what had been up until now a long, slightly tense silence as the pair had made their way through the forest around Konoha, picking their way over roots and dirt in the darkness of the late evening. The first few hours had been rather tense, Hotaru had been half expecting a squad of anbu to suddenly appear and dogpile them. But no anbu had appeared and the low chirping of birds and insects indicated the forest around them was largely undisturbed.
Later the two fugitives met up with three other shinobi, plainly allies, carrying a sack that was likely another captured konoha chunin. It was about this time that the extended silence started to wear on Hotaru. She was here to gather data she couldn't get with the leaf after all, what better time to start than right now?
"It seems superficially similar to what I know about the Yamanaka clan techniques but it doesn't seem like your vulnerable body is elsewhere so the actual mechanics must be quite different," Hotaru waited a beat then continued. "I suspect it’s going to be a long journey to make in total silence you know?"
“It’s similar in theory, yes,” Yukari nimbly moved through the trees as they continued. “But it’s overcome the glaring weakness in the Yamanaka’s abilities.”
“So is your body physically inside of Yukari’s in some form?” Hotaru asked thoughtfully. “That would be one way to get around that problem,”
A low chuckle, “Essentially.” This one was sharp for being so young, it was little wonder she’d managed to catch that one’s eye.
“Heheheeheheheheh~! Specs is a girlie today hhhhhm~!” the sharp toothed candy colored young lady snickered, Mimi not far behind her with a burlap sack roughly the size of one tied up Mai on his back.
“I wonder what Boss will think about this~! I certainly hope you didn’t do anything bad while in there~!”
“Continue that train of thought and I will withhold your pay,” Yukari said darkly.
“Ugh, as if you would specs, I did my job so that means we get paid! Momma’s orders!” Carrie spread her wide toothy grin open, an impish glee just seeping off her. Mimi looked unamused.
The third member yawned.
“Boring stuff is boring Mochizuki. What took everyone so long to gets their targets? I was done yesterday. Side’s Junni’s form ain’t that great. Least he all purdy this time.” Mochizuki looked like she’d drop any moment. She didn’t have a sack unlike the two to the right. As her eyes closed and opened as she tried to stay awake she started to mutter under her breath. “Negative two times mass times parenthesis *yawn* angular velocity times...huh, oh yeah, velocity of rotating frame… parenthesis… adds a…*snoring*”
With a sigh, Yukari formed a single handsign, a black tendril snaking from the sleeve of her yukata. It coiled around Mochizuki before she could fall, pulling her onto the shinobi’s back. “Honestly, child…”
“Hmm that would explain the slight irregularities in your gait,” Hotaru mused, watching Junnichi move Yukari’s body from tree to tree. “You could potentially gather a lot of interesting data about the physical discrepancies of the sexes that way depending on the extent to which you experience sensation through your host body… You would want a much larger sample size thou--” Hotaru cut herself off and watched the black tendril issuing from Yukari’s sleeve with interest.
“Sooooooooooooooo~! What’s your name, cutie pie? Certainly know alotta big words and stuff~!” Carrie spoke to Hotaru, looking about as friendly as a bear trap with a face painted on it.
“I’m Hotaru,” was the reply, sweet as could be, if Carrie’s manner disturbed her Hotaru hid it well. “A large vocabulary is useful for precision of language, people tend to have their own ideas about what exactly small words mean that varies according to their situation and emotional state. I like your teeth by the way,”
“HEHEHEHEHEHHE~! See Mimi, she likes my teeth~! Who doesn’t~!” Carrie seemed overjoyed by the simple compliment. “So why are you coming? Like, all for a new recruit buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut straight up weird seeing new people just pop up.”
“Mmm! They have some interesting implications for your digestive tract as well, since they would inhibit the grinding motion most people use to help break down food, to dissolve food to the same degree you’d need more acidic stomach juices, especially since your metabolism doesn’t seem noticeably slower than most people…” Hotaru explained cheerfully. “Food would even taste different for you since chewing is critical to releasing the flavor of most food. As for me I’m just… expanding my horizons you know. Meeting new people, seeing new things, experiencing the world!”
“*yawn* But people already experience things different. Like, I see different than other people, and everyone sees different from each other. My green ain’t yo green. Why I dun don’t think Junni’s all that special, getting used to a new world’s gotta be brutal.” Mochi yawned from the back of Junnichi’s back. “So it probs already tastes different than what you taste beforehand.”
“Really? It sounds more fascinating than brutal to me,” Hotaru said. “Being able to confirm through your own senses what would otherwise be limited to subjective and imprecise descriptions. For instance, I’ve spent some time with Yukari interviewing her about how her Byakugan works, but to be able to actually see through it myself,” Hotaru’s expression became slightly distant and dreamy, as if overcome by fantasy. “The experiments I could run.. I have to say i’m a little jealous,”
“While the Hyuuga’s body may be more than capable of handling their byakugan, for example, my mind would struggle to handle the spike in sensory information.” Yukari glanced over at Hotaru, “Believe me, I’ve been more than tempted to try out the famed doujutsu, but the sensory overload would likely just leave me with a migraine.”
“Hmm, I suspect as long as you can use Yukari’s visual cortex to process the information you’ll be okay, but without knowing exactly how your jutsu interacts with the brain of your host it’s hard to know how viable that is,” Hotaru put a finger to her mouth as she planned. “In any case, it would be hard to gather useful results right now, too many extraneous variables. We can circle back to this when we get where we’re going,” Hotaru arrived, apparently having decided to her own satisfaction that she would be running some kind of tests on Yukari and her temporary roommate at some points. “...Where are we going by the way?”
“The southern end of the Land of Tea, it’ll be awhile yet before we get there.”
“Ugh, Mochi hates big words. Headache I dun think is a problem. What it is you’re seeing is the problem. Like, a nice lady showed Mochi X-rays once, Mochizuki couldn’t make sense of them. If everything you see is X-rays and you’ve never seen X-ray, makes it tough. Also the fact ya don’t get info ‘bout weakness. Sure, Juuni could mind read them, but that’s aloooot of work. I think it’s faster just to cut to what beats’em fastest. Like, can you guess the weakness of my Kekkei Genkai? Or of Junni’s?”
Mochizuki’s looked over to Hotaru, blinking a minute and smacking her lips before making a handsign, and her irises expanded. She moved to lower her goggles out of force of habit, but decided not to.
“I zoom in! Huh… your pores are preeeetty big. So what’s ya jutsu?”
She shrugged on Junnichi’s back. “I don’t get smart people. Like, I don’t get why that weirdo Daisuke wants the Rinnegan so badly. Or why Junni works with Ms. Ko. She’s awesome. But yeah, you want power, you gots to work for it. Guess why I got kicked out my village for being stupid. Oh well.”
“What’s a rinnegan?” Hotaru asked, a strange, almost hungry tone coloring her question. Hotaru shook her head, almost as if clearing her thoughts. “Typically the downside of having more powerful sight is greater sensitivity to sudden, damaging stimuli such as flash bombs and the like.” She said to Mochizuki, leaning closer to study the girl’s expanding irises
“That might not be the case if you don’t actually have more receptors or let in more light than the average person, I’d have to dissect them to be certain.” Hotaru’s sleeve rustled and a moth emerged from her sleeve to circle around Mochi, Hotaru observing the reaction of her eyes to the new stimulus. “My jutsu are comparatively less interesting, it’s not even me who does most of the work!”
“But your X-ray analogy is quite appropriate!” Hotaru continued excitedly. “Typically people interpret the images their eyes receive by instinctively searching for a pattern. Shadows, perspective, foreshortening, based on its previous experience with objects the brain basically makes guess about what the images shown to it actually represent. But! If you only see outlines of things most of these visual indicators are impossible to distinguish, not only does the byakugan deluge you in sensory data, its sensory data is much harder to interpret than usual. That’s why I theorize the eye must make some kind of temporary alteration to the user’s brain while activated. The Hyuuga don’t seem to have any trouble at all interpreting this visual data but they also seem very concerned about preventing theft of the eyes themselves, which you wouldn’t expect to be the case if nobody else was even capable of making use of them and it's quite a bit harder to transplant sections of the brain than it is an eye,”
Mochizuki blinked.
“Did ya know everytime your mouth moves, funny sounds come out?”
She did watch the moth though with some interest. Her wings buzzed as she thought.
“See, what I gots a problem with, all this info and stuffs about kekkei genkais, all the research, and all of’em got problems. Yeah, bright lights and stimu- stemu…, and other things bug me, but I got these goggles to protect ‘gainst stuffs like that. Dun’t make it invincible. Really small stuff in the air gets zoomed in too. Like, I.am.useless in the rain. Don’t know why ya want to cut my eyes open, not like it’d tell you that. Come on, ya gotta be smart, I’m ‘spose to be the dumb one here. Like, name me a kekkei genkai, they make ninjas really weak. I could name the weakness of any of the common ones in like five seconds. I dun really know what a Rinnegan is, but I bets’you that it ain’t going to help someone against, like, 10 seconds of thinking it through.”
Hotaru hummed. “I can see how that would be a problem! But while it would be difficult to glean that solely from a dissection the procedure could give me a lot of other information! Knowledge isn’t merely a tool to exploit in combat, it’s a means in and of itself. I haven’t known him very long but I suspect Daisuke feels the same way,”
“ ‘dat guy’s weird, I seriously have no clue what he feels or if he feels. And that’s sayin’ something cause I know Junni. Wish Ko would just quit workin’ with’em. Oh well, what the boss lady wants, boss lady gets! Like the Uchiha girl in my pocket. Wonder what boss wants with’er. Oh well, I can always use new comrades! Still, I gotta stay busy, I’m trying to be her favorite, and that means results!”
Mochizuki looked happy before starting to doze off. She made sure to check her pouch one last time, specifically the pouch with the sealed Uchiha inside.
Aiko finally decided to sit up. The white room she was sealed in somehow allowed her to hear what was going on outside. She could hear lots of voices, but her head hurt too much to really remember too much of what they were saying. She didn’t even know who it was that had sealed her in the first place. Hell, the only way she knew she was sealed was the big seal on the floor in front of her.
Slowly, Aiko rose to her feet, wincing at the pain. She had cuts and bruises all over her. No doubt from having her father’s store dropped on her head. Aiko clenched her fists and grumbled. Maybe she could break out and kill whoever captured her real quick? She didn’t have much experience with seals, but it was sure as hell worth a try. Aiko knelt down in front of the seal and placed her hands on it. She let her chakra flow into the seal with rapid erratic bursts. When that didn’t work, Aiko rose to her feet again. An ice sword formed in each of her hands, and she started hacking away at the seal like an enraged maniac. She even threw in some profanity for good measure.
~
Mochizuki was surprised as she heard a poof beside her pouch and turned to see Aiko.
“Wait, what?”
With an ice sword in each hand, Aiko spun and slashed at Mochizuki, giving her two deep gashes in her torso. Now with her back to Mochi, she looked at the rest of her captors. Her sharingan activated, with ragged breaths displaying her fatigue.
Dance of the Blood Moths: Siphoning Children
Hotaru extended her hand arm and a flurry of moths burst from her sleeve, rushing Aiko and depositing a number of small, white larvae that began burrowing into Aiko’s flesh.
Hotaru had hesitated a moment, she did after all vaguely recognize her opponent as another konoha chunin. Still, she’d come too far to turn back now.
Yukari stopped on a sturdy branch a little ways away, “Mochizuki, will you be okay on your own for a few moments?”
“Y-yeah.”
Aiko let out a growl, that quickly developed into a scream as the larvae dug into her and the wounds she already possessed. She dropped both of her ice swords, and brought her hands together, forming a handsign. An ice sword formed above Aiko’s head, and lazily flew at Hotaru, before dropping down into the dirt below. Aiko fell to her knees, holding herself up as the larvae burrowed into her. Aiko remembered hearing about a ninja who used moths in their techniques. However, that ninja was from the leaf. Were they a traitor? Weren’t they her age? The pain was unbearable, so Aiko just went limp and stopped thinking, dropping off the tree branch.
Yukari sighed as another shadowy tendril roughly snatched Aiko from the air, pulling her back up to the group. “An interesting technique of yours, I don’t recall hearing that you’re from the Aburame.”
“Those people can’t lay any claim to this technique,” Hotaru said mildly, moving over to check on the unconscious Aiko. “Would you like me to tie her up? I can produce enough silk to at least impede another attempt like this,”
“That won’t be necessary.” The tendril held Aiko tightly in place, “Once she’s awake I can prevent this from happening again.” Greyed eyes glanced over at Hotaru, “could the silk serve as a bandage, however?”
“Oh yes,” Hotaru smiled, watching Aiko with an unreadable expression. “I can even provide a local anesthetic to go with them if you’d like,”
“I’m certain Mochizuki would appreciate it. Those wounds may be out of her reach.”
Without so much as a gesture from Hotaru a small cloud of moths retrieved the larvae from Aiko and moved them to Mochizuki, dusting her wounds with their numbing powder and allowing the larvae to convert some Aiko’s chakra into silk to bind her wounds. Hotaru ensured that as they left they plugged the small round wounds they left in Aiko to prevent her from bleeding out while unconscious.
“Sadly that’s about all I can do,” sighed Hotaru. “Medical ninjutsu is so fascinating but I’ve never had the time to pick it up,”
“Don’t fret too much about it, Mochizuki’s tougher than she looks. If need be, I can stitch her wounds once we make camp.”
Later the two fugitives met up with three other shinobi, plainly allies, carrying a sack that was likely another captured konoha chunin. It was about this time that the extended silence started to wear on Hotaru. She was here to gather data she couldn't get with the leaf after all, what better time to start than right now?
"It seems superficially similar to what I know about the Yamanaka clan techniques but it doesn't seem like your vulnerable body is elsewhere so the actual mechanics must be quite different," Hotaru waited a beat then continued. "I suspect it’s going to be a long journey to make in total silence you know?"
“It’s similar in theory, yes,” Yukari nimbly moved through the trees as they continued. “But it’s overcome the glaring weakness in the Yamanaka’s abilities.”
“So is your body physically inside of Yukari’s in some form?” Hotaru asked thoughtfully. “That would be one way to get around that problem,”
A low chuckle, “Essentially.” This one was sharp for being so young, it was little wonder she’d managed to catch that one’s eye.
“Heheheeheheheheh~! Specs is a girlie today hhhhhm~!” the sharp toothed candy colored young lady snickered, Mimi not far behind her with a burlap sack roughly the size of one tied up Mai on his back.
“I wonder what Boss will think about this~! I certainly hope you didn’t do anything bad while in there~!”
“Continue that train of thought and I will withhold your pay,” Yukari said darkly.
“Ugh, as if you would specs, I did my job so that means we get paid! Momma’s orders!” Carrie spread her wide toothy grin open, an impish glee just seeping off her. Mimi looked unamused.
The third member yawned.
“Boring stuff is boring Mochizuki. What took everyone so long to gets their targets? I was done yesterday. Side’s Junni’s form ain’t that great. Least he all purdy this time.” Mochizuki looked like she’d drop any moment. She didn’t have a sack unlike the two to the right. As her eyes closed and opened as she tried to stay awake she started to mutter under her breath. “Negative two times mass times parenthesis *yawn* angular velocity times...huh, oh yeah, velocity of rotating frame… parenthesis… adds a…*snoring*”
With a sigh, Yukari formed a single handsign, a black tendril snaking from the sleeve of her yukata. It coiled around Mochizuki before she could fall, pulling her onto the shinobi’s back. “Honestly, child…”
“Hmm that would explain the slight irregularities in your gait,” Hotaru mused, watching Junnichi move Yukari’s body from tree to tree. “You could potentially gather a lot of interesting data about the physical discrepancies of the sexes that way depending on the extent to which you experience sensation through your host body… You would want a much larger sample size thou--” Hotaru cut herself off and watched the black tendril issuing from Yukari’s sleeve with interest.
“Sooooooooooooooo~! What’s your name, cutie pie? Certainly know alotta big words and stuff~!” Carrie spoke to Hotaru, looking about as friendly as a bear trap with a face painted on it.
“I’m Hotaru,” was the reply, sweet as could be, if Carrie’s manner disturbed her Hotaru hid it well. “A large vocabulary is useful for precision of language, people tend to have their own ideas about what exactly small words mean that varies according to their situation and emotional state. I like your teeth by the way,”
“HEHEHEHEHEHHE~! See Mimi, she likes my teeth~! Who doesn’t~!” Carrie seemed overjoyed by the simple compliment. “So why are you coming? Like, all for a new recruit buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut straight up weird seeing new people just pop up.”
“Mmm! They have some interesting implications for your digestive tract as well, since they would inhibit the grinding motion most people use to help break down food, to dissolve food to the same degree you’d need more acidic stomach juices, especially since your metabolism doesn’t seem noticeably slower than most people…” Hotaru explained cheerfully. “Food would even taste different for you since chewing is critical to releasing the flavor of most food. As for me I’m just… expanding my horizons you know. Meeting new people, seeing new things, experiencing the world!”
“*yawn* But people already experience things different. Like, I see different than other people, and everyone sees different from each other. My green ain’t yo green. Why I dun don’t think Junni’s all that special, getting used to a new world’s gotta be brutal.” Mochi yawned from the back of Junnichi’s back. “So it probs already tastes different than what you taste beforehand.”
“Really? It sounds more fascinating than brutal to me,” Hotaru said. “Being able to confirm through your own senses what would otherwise be limited to subjective and imprecise descriptions. For instance, I’ve spent some time with Yukari interviewing her about how her Byakugan works, but to be able to actually see through it myself,” Hotaru’s expression became slightly distant and dreamy, as if overcome by fantasy. “The experiments I could run.. I have to say i’m a little jealous,”
“While the Hyuuga’s body may be more than capable of handling their byakugan, for example, my mind would struggle to handle the spike in sensory information.” Yukari glanced over at Hotaru, “Believe me, I’ve been more than tempted to try out the famed doujutsu, but the sensory overload would likely just leave me with a migraine.”
“Hmm, I suspect as long as you can use Yukari’s visual cortex to process the information you’ll be okay, but without knowing exactly how your jutsu interacts with the brain of your host it’s hard to know how viable that is,” Hotaru put a finger to her mouth as she planned. “In any case, it would be hard to gather useful results right now, too many extraneous variables. We can circle back to this when we get where we’re going,” Hotaru arrived, apparently having decided to her own satisfaction that she would be running some kind of tests on Yukari and her temporary roommate at some points. “...Where are we going by the way?”
“The southern end of the Land of Tea, it’ll be awhile yet before we get there.”
“Ugh, Mochi hates big words. Headache I dun think is a problem. What it is you’re seeing is the problem. Like, a nice lady showed Mochi X-rays once, Mochizuki couldn’t make sense of them. If everything you see is X-rays and you’ve never seen X-ray, makes it tough. Also the fact ya don’t get info ‘bout weakness. Sure, Juuni could mind read them, but that’s aloooot of work. I think it’s faster just to cut to what beats’em fastest. Like, can you guess the weakness of my Kekkei Genkai? Or of Junni’s?”
Mochizuki’s looked over to Hotaru, blinking a minute and smacking her lips before making a handsign, and her irises expanded. She moved to lower her goggles out of force of habit, but decided not to.
“I zoom in! Huh… your pores are preeeetty big. So what’s ya jutsu?”
She shrugged on Junnichi’s back. “I don’t get smart people. Like, I don’t get why that weirdo Daisuke wants the Rinnegan so badly. Or why Junni works with Ms. Ko. She’s awesome. But yeah, you want power, you gots to work for it. Guess why I got kicked out my village for being stupid. Oh well.”
“What’s a rinnegan?” Hotaru asked, a strange, almost hungry tone coloring her question. Hotaru shook her head, almost as if clearing her thoughts. “Typically the downside of having more powerful sight is greater sensitivity to sudden, damaging stimuli such as flash bombs and the like.” She said to Mochizuki, leaning closer to study the girl’s expanding irises
“That might not be the case if you don’t actually have more receptors or let in more light than the average person, I’d have to dissect them to be certain.” Hotaru’s sleeve rustled and a moth emerged from her sleeve to circle around Mochi, Hotaru observing the reaction of her eyes to the new stimulus. “My jutsu are comparatively less interesting, it’s not even me who does most of the work!”
“But your X-ray analogy is quite appropriate!” Hotaru continued excitedly. “Typically people interpret the images their eyes receive by instinctively searching for a pattern. Shadows, perspective, foreshortening, based on its previous experience with objects the brain basically makes guess about what the images shown to it actually represent. But! If you only see outlines of things most of these visual indicators are impossible to distinguish, not only does the byakugan deluge you in sensory data, its sensory data is much harder to interpret than usual. That’s why I theorize the eye must make some kind of temporary alteration to the user’s brain while activated. The Hyuuga don’t seem to have any trouble at all interpreting this visual data but they also seem very concerned about preventing theft of the eyes themselves, which you wouldn’t expect to be the case if nobody else was even capable of making use of them and it's quite a bit harder to transplant sections of the brain than it is an eye,”
Mochizuki blinked.
“Did ya know everytime your mouth moves, funny sounds come out?”
She did watch the moth though with some interest. Her wings buzzed as she thought.
“See, what I gots a problem with, all this info and stuffs about kekkei genkais, all the research, and all of’em got problems. Yeah, bright lights and stimu- stemu…, and other things bug me, but I got these goggles to protect ‘gainst stuffs like that. Dun’t make it invincible. Really small stuff in the air gets zoomed in too. Like, I.am.useless in the rain. Don’t know why ya want to cut my eyes open, not like it’d tell you that. Come on, ya gotta be smart, I’m ‘spose to be the dumb one here. Like, name me a kekkei genkai, they make ninjas really weak. I could name the weakness of any of the common ones in like five seconds. I dun really know what a Rinnegan is, but I bets’you that it ain’t going to help someone against, like, 10 seconds of thinking it through.”
Hotaru hummed. “I can see how that would be a problem! But while it would be difficult to glean that solely from a dissection the procedure could give me a lot of other information! Knowledge isn’t merely a tool to exploit in combat, it’s a means in and of itself. I haven’t known him very long but I suspect Daisuke feels the same way,”
“ ‘dat guy’s weird, I seriously have no clue what he feels or if he feels. And that’s sayin’ something cause I know Junni. Wish Ko would just quit workin’ with’em. Oh well, what the boss lady wants, boss lady gets! Like the Uchiha girl in my pocket. Wonder what boss wants with’er. Oh well, I can always use new comrades! Still, I gotta stay busy, I’m trying to be her favorite, and that means results!”
Mochizuki looked happy before starting to doze off. She made sure to check her pouch one last time, specifically the pouch with the sealed Uchiha inside.
Aiko finally decided to sit up. The white room she was sealed in somehow allowed her to hear what was going on outside. She could hear lots of voices, but her head hurt too much to really remember too much of what they were saying. She didn’t even know who it was that had sealed her in the first place. Hell, the only way she knew she was sealed was the big seal on the floor in front of her.
Slowly, Aiko rose to her feet, wincing at the pain. She had cuts and bruises all over her. No doubt from having her father’s store dropped on her head. Aiko clenched her fists and grumbled. Maybe she could break out and kill whoever captured her real quick? She didn’t have much experience with seals, but it was sure as hell worth a try. Aiko knelt down in front of the seal and placed her hands on it. She let her chakra flow into the seal with rapid erratic bursts. When that didn’t work, Aiko rose to her feet again. An ice sword formed in each of her hands, and she started hacking away at the seal like an enraged maniac. She even threw in some profanity for good measure.
~
Mochizuki was surprised as she heard a poof beside her pouch and turned to see Aiko.
“Wait, what?”
With an ice sword in each hand, Aiko spun and slashed at Mochizuki, giving her two deep gashes in her torso. Now with her back to Mochi, she looked at the rest of her captors. Her sharingan activated, with ragged breaths displaying her fatigue.
Dance of the Blood Moths: Siphoning Children
Hotaru extended her hand arm and a flurry of moths burst from her sleeve, rushing Aiko and depositing a number of small, white larvae that began burrowing into Aiko’s flesh.
Hotaru had hesitated a moment, she did after all vaguely recognize her opponent as another konoha chunin. Still, she’d come too far to turn back now.
Yukari stopped on a sturdy branch a little ways away, “Mochizuki, will you be okay on your own for a few moments?”
“Y-yeah.”
Aiko let out a growl, that quickly developed into a scream as the larvae dug into her and the wounds she already possessed. She dropped both of her ice swords, and brought her hands together, forming a handsign. An ice sword formed above Aiko’s head, and lazily flew at Hotaru, before dropping down into the dirt below. Aiko fell to her knees, holding herself up as the larvae burrowed into her. Aiko remembered hearing about a ninja who used moths in their techniques. However, that ninja was from the leaf. Were they a traitor? Weren’t they her age? The pain was unbearable, so Aiko just went limp and stopped thinking, dropping off the tree branch.
Yukari sighed as another shadowy tendril roughly snatched Aiko from the air, pulling her back up to the group. “An interesting technique of yours, I don’t recall hearing that you’re from the Aburame.”
“Those people can’t lay any claim to this technique,” Hotaru said mildly, moving over to check on the unconscious Aiko. “Would you like me to tie her up? I can produce enough silk to at least impede another attempt like this,”
“That won’t be necessary.” The tendril held Aiko tightly in place, “Once she’s awake I can prevent this from happening again.” Greyed eyes glanced over at Hotaru, “could the silk serve as a bandage, however?”
“Oh yes,” Hotaru smiled, watching Aiko with an unreadable expression. “I can even provide a local anesthetic to go with them if you’d like,”
“I’m certain Mochizuki would appreciate it. Those wounds may be out of her reach.”
Without so much as a gesture from Hotaru a small cloud of moths retrieved the larvae from Aiko and moved them to Mochizuki, dusting her wounds with their numbing powder and allowing the larvae to convert some Aiko’s chakra into silk to bind her wounds. Hotaru ensured that as they left they plugged the small round wounds they left in Aiko to prevent her from bleeding out while unconscious.
“Sadly that’s about all I can do,” sighed Hotaru. “Medical ninjutsu is so fascinating but I’ve never had the time to pick it up,”
“Don’t fret too much about it, Mochizuki’s tougher than she looks. If need be, I can stitch her wounds once we make camp.”
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Hotaru Hagano
The rest of their journey continued with little incident, much of the time passed through the countless conversations between Hotaru and Mochizuki. It was a fairly unassuming place, a small farming village that grew and dried the tea the country was famous for. Though its residents didn’t seem to even bat an eye at the group of shinobi that traveled down the main street. Perhaps ninja were a common sight here?
Stepping through the gates towards the mayor’s residence, Yukari led the way inside the large building and down a few flights of stairs. She stopped at a plain looking wall and pressed her hand against it. The stone shifted silently, forming an archway for them to step through.
The stairs and hall that awaited them were lit by dark violet flames, the path eventually opening up to a room with several more branching halls. A familiar looking red haired shinobi sat inside, looking through reports and taking notes.
“I… Like the torches,” Hotaru ventured gamely. “Did you get a decorator down here or were they a personal touch?”
“They last a long time without having to constantly replenish fuel.” Daisuke closed his book and stood, offering the kunoichi a genuine smile. “But isn’t this a surprise?”
“Is it?” Hotaru smiled and moved forward to take a seat as well. “I get the impression nothing much really surprises you,”
A low chuckle, “Well, I suppose I just expected you to take a little longer in your decision.” Daisuke moved to look over the trio that had been captured. Mai and Aiko were both silent, seemingly still under the effects of the jutsu Junnichi ended up having to use during their journey. “I take it your trip went well?”
“About as well as could be expected I suppose,” Hotaru replied, glancing at the unconscious chunin. “Though it wasn’t completely uneventful. You’re uh.. Associates? Are very interesting,”
“Mmm, capturing shinobi is never a smooth process. Junnichi, you already know where to go.” The shinobi still controlling Yukari cast Hotaru a glance before giving a slight nod and leading the other Kyoudai members down a hall. “They’re members of the Akai Kyoudai, a mercenary group. But they’re effective enough.” Daisuke turned back to face Hotaru, “Is there anything you can tell me about those three, by chance?”
“Hmm it depends what you want to know,” said Hotaru thoughtfully. “I’ve worked with Yukari, the Hyuuga, but the other two I barely know their names… Although I’m fairly sure the Sanada don’t have a kekkei genkai,”
“A Sanada? Now there’s a clan I haven’t seen in a little while…” Picking up his notebook from the chair, Daisuke began jotting down notes. “There’s more to that clan than meets the eye. Now the Hyuuga, do you know which House she’s from?”
Hotaru’s lips curled up in amusement. “As I understand it Yukari’s the heiress to the whole clan. You couldn’t have picked a more high profile target,”
Daisuke paused in his writing, amber eyes moving over to her. “Is that so?” An almost wicked smirk crossed his lips, “and here I thought today would be rather dull.” His notebook closed with a snap, tucked away in one of his coat’s inner pockets. “But where are my manners? I’m sure you’re tired from your trip,” the older shinobi turned, motioning for her to follow. “Come, I’ll show you to a room you can use. Why don’t you tell me what you know of the byakugan along the way.”
The rest of their journey continued with little incident, much of the time passed through the countless conversations between Hotaru and Mochizuki. It was a fairly unassuming place, a small farming village that grew and dried the tea the country was famous for. Though its residents didn’t seem to even bat an eye at the group of shinobi that traveled down the main street. Perhaps ninja were a common sight here?
Stepping through the gates towards the mayor’s residence, Yukari led the way inside the large building and down a few flights of stairs. She stopped at a plain looking wall and pressed her hand against it. The stone shifted silently, forming an archway for them to step through.
The stairs and hall that awaited them were lit by dark violet flames, the path eventually opening up to a room with several more branching halls. A familiar looking red haired shinobi sat inside, looking through reports and taking notes.
“I… Like the torches,” Hotaru ventured gamely. “Did you get a decorator down here or were they a personal touch?”
“They last a long time without having to constantly replenish fuel.” Daisuke closed his book and stood, offering the kunoichi a genuine smile. “But isn’t this a surprise?”
“Is it?” Hotaru smiled and moved forward to take a seat as well. “I get the impression nothing much really surprises you,”
A low chuckle, “Well, I suppose I just expected you to take a little longer in your decision.” Daisuke moved to look over the trio that had been captured. Mai and Aiko were both silent, seemingly still under the effects of the jutsu Junnichi ended up having to use during their journey. “I take it your trip went well?”
“About as well as could be expected I suppose,” Hotaru replied, glancing at the unconscious chunin. “Though it wasn’t completely uneventful. You’re uh.. Associates? Are very interesting,”
“Mmm, capturing shinobi is never a smooth process. Junnichi, you already know where to go.” The shinobi still controlling Yukari cast Hotaru a glance before giving a slight nod and leading the other Kyoudai members down a hall. “They’re members of the Akai Kyoudai, a mercenary group. But they’re effective enough.” Daisuke turned back to face Hotaru, “Is there anything you can tell me about those three, by chance?”
“Hmm it depends what you want to know,” said Hotaru thoughtfully. “I’ve worked with Yukari, the Hyuuga, but the other two I barely know their names… Although I’m fairly sure the Sanada don’t have a kekkei genkai,”
“A Sanada? Now there’s a clan I haven’t seen in a little while…” Picking up his notebook from the chair, Daisuke began jotting down notes. “There’s more to that clan than meets the eye. Now the Hyuuga, do you know which House she’s from?”
Hotaru’s lips curled up in amusement. “As I understand it Yukari’s the heiress to the whole clan. You couldn’t have picked a more high profile target,”
Daisuke paused in his writing, amber eyes moving over to her. “Is that so?” An almost wicked smirk crossed his lips, “and here I thought today would be rather dull.” His notebook closed with a snap, tucked away in one of his coat’s inner pockets. “But where are my manners? I’m sure you’re tired from your trip,” the older shinobi turned, motioning for her to follow. “Come, I’ll show you to a room you can use. Why don’t you tell me what you know of the byakugan along the way.”
Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Mai groaned as the poison gas wore off. Her head was cloudy and she wasn’t quite sure where she was.
Suddenly Mai shot up and grabbed her left arm.
”Is it alright!?”
She couldn’t see any permanent damage in it. So… was it healed? Did someone take her in? Mai looked around the room, small and well lit. This wasn’t any room she recognized. Meant one of two things she could think of. This was beartrap mouth’s room. Or ANBU had questions for her. If it was the former…. A vicious smile formed on Mai’s face and she cracked her knuckles.
“If she comes in… I’m going to give her one hell of a dentist bill.”
It was some time before she’d hear footsteps approaching, the sound of a tag being removed and the click of the lock. The person that entered, however, didn’t quickly match either possibility. “Finally awake, are we? How are you feeling?” Daisuke’s voice was level, filled with an almost false kindness.
Mai flickered to black for a quarter of a second before returning to where she was. It wasn’t beartrap mouth. But… it wasn’t ANBU either. Who on earth was it? Mai was a little bit weary for once. Her pride had been taking one hell of a beating lately. Besides, if this was bad for Mai, she could use him as a hostage she guessed. Or maybe it was something else? Who knew.
“Mai, of the Sanada. Isn’t it polite to introduce yourself first?”
He gave a low chuckle, “I suppose I could humor you.” His boots lightly tapped on the concrete floor as he moved closer. “Daisuke Uzumaki is my name.”
Registration flickered in Mai’s eyes at the name, and she assumed a defensive stance as he approached… yet an odd crazed smile came to her face. Time was starting slow down for Mai a bit with the excitement, but she was managing to hold herself back for a second. Daisuke, he was criminal, and about the same level as the Mizukage… a benchmark… a stepping stone.
Still, Mai remembered the feeling of a tendril of darkness around her neck. Or the broken wrist. Or the katana through her torso… She’d wait five seconds.
“So, going to continue? Or do you want to dance? Or… ? Give me something to work with, I did just wake up, and to warn you, I like to exercise when I get up.”
Daisuke rolled his eyes, “I see your blood hasn’t thinned between generations. I’m beginning to wonder if being cocky is part of your kekkei genkai at this point.”[/Color]
”Come on! I didn’t come in here insulting your fam- Kekkei Genkai?”
For a second, Mai dropped her stance and cackled for a second.
”Really? That’s who you are! Got it! Haha, I don’t have a kekkei genkai! You got the wrong person, idiot! Everything I got, I trained for. Unless you’re kidnapping fair maidens to be cliche, don’t got a clue why I am here. Oh well. Got it. I’m in some strange lab, other people are here, villain’s in front of me, and they need a hero.”
Mai faded to black, reappearing in front of the man with an uppercut.
Daisuke sighed at her speech, forming a single hand sign as she faded to black.
Divine Seal: Judgement
And suddenly Mai was on fire. Or that’s how it felt anyways, Mai’s whole body burned starting at her neck and spreading throughout the rest of her. And Mai had the biggest grin on her face throughout it. Time just kept going slower from her, and from that, the pain more exquisite. Then a more familiar and unsettling feeling. Mai couldn’t move. At all. All the time in the world, and Mai couldn’t move.
Unable to stop, hit, or do anything, Mai simply crashed into Daisuke, and crumbled at his feet.
Think, Mai, think. Paralysis jutsu don’t come out of nowhere… Mom’s stiffens the muscles, so relaxing them stops the jutsu. Takara’s is a genjutsu… where’s the source of this. Every jutsu has a weakness.
Mai tried to slow her breathing and calm her muscles as her eyes wildly looked around the room.
Daisuke knelt in front of her, a smirk twisting his features. “It must be so frustrating, the thrill of battle slowing time to a crawl and you unable to act on it. Have you ever wondered why your clan thrives on battle?”
Mai’s breath continued to slow as she tried and tried to relax her muscles, but in her excited state, she couldn’t. Her muscles weren’t moving in the first place, so it wasn’t like her mother’s paralysis that locked them in place.
”We thrive on battle because we believe in strength. We don’t need to brag about being the strongest, because it’s not about having more than someone else, it’s about having as much as you can.”
Mai stopped struggling for a minute as she thought. Maybe genjutsu? Mai could move her lips, so… Mai bit her own lip trying to break free.
”Mmm poor wording, I suppose.” Daisuke raised an eyebrow at her now bleeding lip. “Tell me, when you’re in a dangerous situation, does time seem to slow to a crawl for you?”
Mai continued to look around. Her lip just hurt. Daisuke’s words were slow and it was hard to hear them, but she got the jist. She guessed she could entertain him for a second if it helped her break free. And he had gotten her attention. No one ever talked to her about it. She’d asked her father. Once. He changed subjects, her mother cursed her out. Takara-sensei looked at her like she was crazy.
”I guess? I mean, not sure I’ve ever felt like anything’s been that dangerous. Feel like I can never go fast enough. Faster I go, slower it feels. Doesn’t quite feel dangerous cause makes me feel, I dunno. Guess I’d say happy? Feels frustrating, but like I want more, and like I can’t stop. What about it?”
Mai still couldn’t figure out what was keeping her down. Wasn’t genjutsu she could tell, wasn’t any ninjutsu she recognized. Daisuke was right on one thing though. It was so frustrating to feel the thrill of battle slowing time to a crawl and being unable to act on it.
”You could almost call it an addiction, couldn’t you? Being in the thick of battle just feels so right for you.” Daisuke brushed a few crimson strands from his face, leaning closer. “That’s the blood of the Sanada. A fight or flight response that dwarfs a normal human’s. For some, time slows enough they can rival if not surpass the sharingan in reading their opponents.”
A sigh as he moved away, “but it also activates all manner of pleasure signals in your brains. The Sanada are quite literally addicted to danger. I’d almost call it more of a blessing than a curse.”
Mai stopped struggling.
”What?
But. But I’ve never heard anything about it. If I had a KG, would the clan be proud of it, and train people to use. The Hyuuga won’t shut up about theirs every time I visit. Why wouldn’t a clan..?”
Mai was honestly asking herself more than Daisuke. It had to be a trick of some sorts. Maybe he’d read a file on her and this was some trick to get her to trust him. But the details were exact. That WAS what Mai felt every time she rushed into battle. Even during what harem possessing pansies might call ‘dangerous’ training. No one had even talked to her about it.
”How do you know all this?”
”I’ve studied clans and their bloodlines for much longer than you’ve been alive. Bringing down enough Sanada to learn how you worked was simple enough. Given your penchant for rushing at a challenge.”
Mai blinked, and gave a sigh of relief
”So it’s just a guess. That’s good. I was worried for a minute that everything I knew was a lie. Wooh, I need to get some stronger convictions it looks like.”
Mai’s voice was still trembling. Her clan was so open, there’s no way. But the way he’d described, it hit her. It kinda stung
”It’s no guess, but if it help you sleep…” Withdrawing a syringe and three vials, Daisuke drew some blood before standing and leaving. The jutsu finally releasing its hold on Mai.
Mai bodyflickered after Daisuke the second the jutsu wore off of her. She’d heard a lock earlier, she had to beat him out of that at least. There were other people she had to save, she was a hero!
The kekkei genkai part stood at her mind, but so far, Daisuke evil, Mai good, simple enough.
Her backup plan was to listen after him once he left. She might not break out first time, but she could at least learn the layout of the area.
Seeing him not try to stop her in the least, Mai prepared a right hook straight to his face, then faded to black, trying to jump past him towards the exit. She could at least try and fight him in a place he’d have to get past her, not the other way around. Plus, she had to see that paralyzing jutsu one more time to figure it out.
A sharp crack resounded as Daisuke staggered a couple steps, leaving enough of an opening for Mai to slip past. Concrete floor and metal walls, numerous doors could be seen lining the hall. Mai wouldn’t get very far before a chain shot forward to coil around her arm.
Mai grimaced as the chain pulled on her good arm. Mai good, Daisuke bad, people needed rescuing, simple enough. Mai gritted her teeth forward as she decided on an unpleasant. She grabbed the chain, wrapping it further around her arm. Chakra emitted from her feet as she planted herself as hard as she could on the ground, the chain taut.
Solid Ground
”I can play the hero, I have.to.succeed.AT LEAST ONCE!”
Mai grabbed the chain with both hands, and pulled it with everything she had, her knees buckling.
The golden chain only extended further as she yanked on it, seemingly coming from his back. “Oh dear… a hero?” Daisuke spat a mouthful of blood as the chain tightened around her arm. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, a Sanada with a hero complex.”
Mai grunted as she could feel less and less of her arm. The chain was tight, and nothing she did seemed to make it any easier, just like life. Still, Mai wasn’t going to give up. Seeing several marks and blood starting to take place in her arm, Mai actually smiled… and let go of Solid Ground.
Flying towards her opponent from the built up momentum, Mai punched as hard as she could at her opponent’s kidney.
”Sanada? You shouldn't be surprised, cause I’m a LEAF NIN!”
Daisuke’s eyes narrowed as Mai threw herself at him, more chains shot from his back and rested in front of him to form a barrier.
Mai growled. She couldn’t retreat, she couldn’t advance, couldn’t defend, and she could attack even. Mai couldn’t think what to do anymore though. Her arm was pretty much shredded, and now her other fist hurt from the impact. She only had one last idea.
If Takara sensei learns of this, I’m denying it ever happened.
Mai kissed the chain, though it looked odd with how much anger her face had. She tried sending her chakra down it towards Daisuke.
Hopefully it would give her five seconds to rip the chain off and try to run again.
He could only tilt his head at her actions. She was likely trying to use a jutsu of some kind, but the sealing chains nullified chakra that came in contact with it, making the attempt useless. “Should I assume this is you surrendering?”
Mai grimaced
”Defeat and surrender are different things. I’d rather die tha-”
Suddenly to Mai, she felt a sword in her torso again, looking down, she didn’t see anything, but it reminded her. Shaking, Mai went slack, and fell to the floor on her knees, and stayed silent as she stared at the ground.
Some hero…
Daisuke chuckled, kneeling in front of her. “Yes, well,” the barrier receded, “fun as this may have been, I do have work that needs done. Now,” he lightly tilted her chin up so she looked at him, “behave and we’ll see about fixing that arm.”
The chain tightened.
Suddenly Mai shot up and grabbed her left arm.
”Is it alright!?”
She couldn’t see any permanent damage in it. So… was it healed? Did someone take her in? Mai looked around the room, small and well lit. This wasn’t any room she recognized. Meant one of two things she could think of. This was beartrap mouth’s room. Or ANBU had questions for her. If it was the former…. A vicious smile formed on Mai’s face and she cracked her knuckles.
“If she comes in… I’m going to give her one hell of a dentist bill.”
It was some time before she’d hear footsteps approaching, the sound of a tag being removed and the click of the lock. The person that entered, however, didn’t quickly match either possibility. “Finally awake, are we? How are you feeling?” Daisuke’s voice was level, filled with an almost false kindness.
Mai flickered to black for a quarter of a second before returning to where she was. It wasn’t beartrap mouth. But… it wasn’t ANBU either. Who on earth was it? Mai was a little bit weary for once. Her pride had been taking one hell of a beating lately. Besides, if this was bad for Mai, she could use him as a hostage she guessed. Or maybe it was something else? Who knew.
“Mai, of the Sanada. Isn’t it polite to introduce yourself first?”
He gave a low chuckle, “I suppose I could humor you.” His boots lightly tapped on the concrete floor as he moved closer. “Daisuke Uzumaki is my name.”
Registration flickered in Mai’s eyes at the name, and she assumed a defensive stance as he approached… yet an odd crazed smile came to her face. Time was starting slow down for Mai a bit with the excitement, but she was managing to hold herself back for a second. Daisuke, he was criminal, and about the same level as the Mizukage… a benchmark… a stepping stone.
Still, Mai remembered the feeling of a tendril of darkness around her neck. Or the broken wrist. Or the katana through her torso… She’d wait five seconds.
“So, going to continue? Or do you want to dance? Or… ? Give me something to work with, I did just wake up, and to warn you, I like to exercise when I get up.”
Daisuke rolled his eyes, “I see your blood hasn’t thinned between generations. I’m beginning to wonder if being cocky is part of your kekkei genkai at this point.”[/Color]
”Come on! I didn’t come in here insulting your fam- Kekkei Genkai?”
For a second, Mai dropped her stance and cackled for a second.
”Really? That’s who you are! Got it! Haha, I don’t have a kekkei genkai! You got the wrong person, idiot! Everything I got, I trained for. Unless you’re kidnapping fair maidens to be cliche, don’t got a clue why I am here. Oh well. Got it. I’m in some strange lab, other people are here, villain’s in front of me, and they need a hero.”
Mai faded to black, reappearing in front of the man with an uppercut.
Daisuke sighed at her speech, forming a single hand sign as she faded to black.
Divine Seal: Judgement
And suddenly Mai was on fire. Or that’s how it felt anyways, Mai’s whole body burned starting at her neck and spreading throughout the rest of her. And Mai had the biggest grin on her face throughout it. Time just kept going slower from her, and from that, the pain more exquisite. Then a more familiar and unsettling feeling. Mai couldn’t move. At all. All the time in the world, and Mai couldn’t move.
Unable to stop, hit, or do anything, Mai simply crashed into Daisuke, and crumbled at his feet.
Think, Mai, think. Paralysis jutsu don’t come out of nowhere… Mom’s stiffens the muscles, so relaxing them stops the jutsu. Takara’s is a genjutsu… where’s the source of this. Every jutsu has a weakness.
Mai tried to slow her breathing and calm her muscles as her eyes wildly looked around the room.
Daisuke knelt in front of her, a smirk twisting his features. “It must be so frustrating, the thrill of battle slowing time to a crawl and you unable to act on it. Have you ever wondered why your clan thrives on battle?”
Mai’s breath continued to slow as she tried and tried to relax her muscles, but in her excited state, she couldn’t. Her muscles weren’t moving in the first place, so it wasn’t like her mother’s paralysis that locked them in place.
”We thrive on battle because we believe in strength. We don’t need to brag about being the strongest, because it’s not about having more than someone else, it’s about having as much as you can.”
Mai stopped struggling for a minute as she thought. Maybe genjutsu? Mai could move her lips, so… Mai bit her own lip trying to break free.
”Mmm poor wording, I suppose.” Daisuke raised an eyebrow at her now bleeding lip. “Tell me, when you’re in a dangerous situation, does time seem to slow to a crawl for you?”
Mai continued to look around. Her lip just hurt. Daisuke’s words were slow and it was hard to hear them, but she got the jist. She guessed she could entertain him for a second if it helped her break free. And he had gotten her attention. No one ever talked to her about it. She’d asked her father. Once. He changed subjects, her mother cursed her out. Takara-sensei looked at her like she was crazy.
”I guess? I mean, not sure I’ve ever felt like anything’s been that dangerous. Feel like I can never go fast enough. Faster I go, slower it feels. Doesn’t quite feel dangerous cause makes me feel, I dunno. Guess I’d say happy? Feels frustrating, but like I want more, and like I can’t stop. What about it?”
Mai still couldn’t figure out what was keeping her down. Wasn’t genjutsu she could tell, wasn’t any ninjutsu she recognized. Daisuke was right on one thing though. It was so frustrating to feel the thrill of battle slowing time to a crawl and being unable to act on it.
”You could almost call it an addiction, couldn’t you? Being in the thick of battle just feels so right for you.” Daisuke brushed a few crimson strands from his face, leaning closer. “That’s the blood of the Sanada. A fight or flight response that dwarfs a normal human’s. For some, time slows enough they can rival if not surpass the sharingan in reading their opponents.”
A sigh as he moved away, “but it also activates all manner of pleasure signals in your brains. The Sanada are quite literally addicted to danger. I’d almost call it more of a blessing than a curse.”
Mai stopped struggling.
”What?
But. But I’ve never heard anything about it. If I had a KG, would the clan be proud of it, and train people to use. The Hyuuga won’t shut up about theirs every time I visit. Why wouldn’t a clan..?”
Mai was honestly asking herself more than Daisuke. It had to be a trick of some sorts. Maybe he’d read a file on her and this was some trick to get her to trust him. But the details were exact. That WAS what Mai felt every time she rushed into battle. Even during what harem possessing pansies might call ‘dangerous’ training. No one had even talked to her about it.
”How do you know all this?”
”I’ve studied clans and their bloodlines for much longer than you’ve been alive. Bringing down enough Sanada to learn how you worked was simple enough. Given your penchant for rushing at a challenge.”
Mai blinked, and gave a sigh of relief
”So it’s just a guess. That’s good. I was worried for a minute that everything I knew was a lie. Wooh, I need to get some stronger convictions it looks like.”
Mai’s voice was still trembling. Her clan was so open, there’s no way. But the way he’d described, it hit her. It kinda stung
”It’s no guess, but if it help you sleep…” Withdrawing a syringe and three vials, Daisuke drew some blood before standing and leaving. The jutsu finally releasing its hold on Mai.
Mai bodyflickered after Daisuke the second the jutsu wore off of her. She’d heard a lock earlier, she had to beat him out of that at least. There were other people she had to save, she was a hero!
The kekkei genkai part stood at her mind, but so far, Daisuke evil, Mai good, simple enough.
Her backup plan was to listen after him once he left. She might not break out first time, but she could at least learn the layout of the area.
Seeing him not try to stop her in the least, Mai prepared a right hook straight to his face, then faded to black, trying to jump past him towards the exit. She could at least try and fight him in a place he’d have to get past her, not the other way around. Plus, she had to see that paralyzing jutsu one more time to figure it out.
A sharp crack resounded as Daisuke staggered a couple steps, leaving enough of an opening for Mai to slip past. Concrete floor and metal walls, numerous doors could be seen lining the hall. Mai wouldn’t get very far before a chain shot forward to coil around her arm.
Mai grimaced as the chain pulled on her good arm. Mai good, Daisuke bad, people needed rescuing, simple enough. Mai gritted her teeth forward as she decided on an unpleasant. She grabbed the chain, wrapping it further around her arm. Chakra emitted from her feet as she planted herself as hard as she could on the ground, the chain taut.
Solid Ground
”I can play the hero, I have.to.succeed.AT LEAST ONCE!”
Mai grabbed the chain with both hands, and pulled it with everything she had, her knees buckling.
The golden chain only extended further as she yanked on it, seemingly coming from his back. “Oh dear… a hero?” Daisuke spat a mouthful of blood as the chain tightened around her arm. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, a Sanada with a hero complex.”
Mai grunted as she could feel less and less of her arm. The chain was tight, and nothing she did seemed to make it any easier, just like life. Still, Mai wasn’t going to give up. Seeing several marks and blood starting to take place in her arm, Mai actually smiled… and let go of Solid Ground.
Flying towards her opponent from the built up momentum, Mai punched as hard as she could at her opponent’s kidney.
”Sanada? You shouldn't be surprised, cause I’m a LEAF NIN!”
Daisuke’s eyes narrowed as Mai threw herself at him, more chains shot from his back and rested in front of him to form a barrier.
Mai growled. She couldn’t retreat, she couldn’t advance, couldn’t defend, and she could attack even. Mai couldn’t think what to do anymore though. Her arm was pretty much shredded, and now her other fist hurt from the impact. She only had one last idea.
If Takara sensei learns of this, I’m denying it ever happened.
Mai kissed the chain, though it looked odd with how much anger her face had. She tried sending her chakra down it towards Daisuke.
Hopefully it would give her five seconds to rip the chain off and try to run again.
He could only tilt his head at her actions. She was likely trying to use a jutsu of some kind, but the sealing chains nullified chakra that came in contact with it, making the attempt useless. “Should I assume this is you surrendering?”
Mai grimaced
”Defeat and surrender are different things. I’d rather die tha-”
Suddenly to Mai, she felt a sword in her torso again, looking down, she didn’t see anything, but it reminded her. Shaking, Mai went slack, and fell to the floor on her knees, and stayed silent as she stared at the ground.
Some hero…
Daisuke chuckled, kneeling in front of her. “Yes, well,” the barrier receded, “fun as this may have been, I do have work that needs done. Now,” he lightly tilted her chin up so she looked at him, “behave and we’ll see about fixing that arm.”
The chain tightened.
Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Mai Sanada - Squad Damsel in Distress.
Mai was left to her bed for the next few days. In some ways, she was glad for the pain, it kept her sane. She felt, so that meant time passed. She wasn't dead. In other ways, it was her good arm, her left arm, that hurt. Daisuke's chain had snapped the bone. She'd already set it with two shafts of wood she had 'procured' from the room. The backs of those desk probably wouldn't be missed anyways. Mai was tempted to rampage in the room, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. In all honesty, she wondered if anything would do any good. Daisuke was strong.
... No. Mai was weak.
"Damnit... I want to be strong, I try hard to be strong, but every single time..."
She reeled her right arm back, then stopped. Breaking her other one wouldn't do any good. Was anything going to do her any good. She didn't want to be rescued, but she wasn't anyone's hero either. What was even worse, she was suppose to visit Shiki today. Who knew if she'd still be there when Mai got back.
Mai groaned as she sat back, and just remembered.
Her collapsing the mine on her first mission...
Breaking her fist against Takara with a dumb jutsu...
Internal bleeding against Kiyoshi...
Giving up against Koutaku...
Getting slammed into the wall by Shosuke...
Seeing her mother comatised...and her father looking dead inside.
Cutting her head against Hideki... and all the other losses.
Getting impaled against Murasame's men...
Bleeding out against Yukari... and all the other losses.
Getting cursed out by Shiki...
Never beating her mother or father in a spar....
Getting strangled by some creeps on the mission that should have impressed Takara...
And getting wrecked by Daisuke.
"Maybe I'm just a bad ninja...Maybe I should have just given up after I broke my hand the first time."
Other memories surfaced though.
Cuddling with the tiger...
Her punching Hideki through a wall when he was depressed...
Her girl talk with Aiko about her hand...
Her mother telling her not to give up...
Being ABLE to block Shosuke...
Her father taking time to teach her a new technique....
Her mother waking up...
Bringing cookies to Takara...
Meeting Yukari...
Meeting Uncle Koko...
Her follow-up visits to Shiki....
Masamune being proud of her ideology...
Succesfully leading a team in a taijutsu tournament...
And the thought of what she was going to do to Daisuke when she caught him.
Mai smiled. Something felt wet. Why were her eyes wet? It wasn't natural.
Sitting up in bed, Mai slowly and carefully put her hands together, taking about 10 seconds to form a seal, and then another, and then another. It took her nearly five minutes to finish the handsigns, her hands aching the entire time.
"I don't think I can use my hands again when I get out of this. But people need a hero. Someone has to be, even if everyone else treats them like shit. I'm not done. Not yet. If Takara-sensei ever finds out I did this... Thankfully, far as she knows, I'm just an idiot who never paid attention. Genjutsu: Re: Life."
More than remembering, Mai was suddenly no longer on her bed. She was on the floor, and in a massive amount of pain. A bastard hung over her, who she still wanted to punch.
" “I suppose I could humor you. Daisuke Uzumaki is my name.”
Mai stopped to think about the pain for a minute. It stemmed from her neck, and filled her entire body. Mai bit her lip, and was suddenly on the bed.
She checked her neck. It was hard to really notice anything. Mai took a deep breath, and faded to black, reappearing infront of the sink in the room. Mai filled it, taking calm breaths as she did. One thing at a time As the water settled, Mai splashed it on the floor, and looked down. She saw herself, and on her neck, a mark.
One question answered. Must be one of those weird seals. Kinda wish I'd studied seals before, if only to get the damn thing off. Wonder if I can tear it off? Questions for later. Even if I could, Daisuke would just catch me with those damn chains...
Mai looked at her broken arm. Under the split, Mai could still see chain marks.
She sat back down on the bed, and just meditated for 10 minutes. She was needed to rest for more chakra, and because her hands throbbed. It gave her a chance to listen, and to calm her self down.
One step at a time. I will get everyone out. I WILL BE A HERO.
As she meditated, she thought about Daisuke words.
"A Kekkei genkai... I ... I really don't want to believe it. I want to believe everything I have I worked for. Mom and Dad wouldn't just lie to me. There's something I'm missing. Right now that doesn't matter. I just have to get out of here. I gotta be a hero. Oh man... if Hideki rescues me, I'm never going to live it down. Thooooough, a hero does deserve a kiss for saving a maiden. Nah... Just gotta focus. I just gotta... remember. One more time... Genjutsu: Re: Life."
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Aiko Uchiha
It was too quiet, so Aiko opened her eyes, expecting to find herself in the next life. But instead, she was sitting on a cold hard floor, with her back against the wall. She wasn’t restrained, or at least, she didn’t think she was.
“Where…” Aiko wheezed, her voice scratchy. She looked down at herself, and didn’t see any wounds visible. But yet, she remembered rubble all around her, and then some creatures burrowing in her skin…
“Seems the medicine’s finally doing its job,” A man leaned against a counter on the wall across from her, “are you back with us?”
Aiko didn’t answer for a few moments. She just raised her head and looked up at the man. With a slight snarl on her face, Aiko replied, “Back with who, exactly?”
“The world of the living, of course. You were in such dreadful shape when you arrived,” he clicked his tongue, “you should have just ran when you had the chance instead of picking a fight you couldn’t win.”
“Pfft, I’ve never been a very fast runner,” Aiko paused for a moment and rolled her shoulders, looking around the room for a way out of… wherever she was. “Who are you, and what do you want?” Aiko was hoping it wasn’t who she thought it was.
A smirk tugged at his features as he offered a somewhat overdramatic bow, “Daisuke Uzumaki is my name. As for what I want… you carry blood from both the Yuki and Uchiha clans, how could I resist such a fascinating specimen?”
“Specimen?” Aiko asked, alarmed. She clenched her fist, and finally decided to rise to her feet, grunting as she did so. “I don’t know how my blood is gonna help you do anything but you’re not getting anything from me you creep!” There had to be a way out! Where was Mai to blow a hole in a wall when you needed her?
Daisuke rolled his eyes, they were always so difficult to start with. “I can glean quite a bit of information through simple observation,” He shrugged. “I can give you two options: cooperate and remain in one piece, or don’t and I’ll just dissect you to see what can be learned.”
For once, Aiko was confident she’d lose if she tried to fight this guy. He was the ninja that fought Hokage after all.
Aiko turned and punched the wall behind her. “Dammit, fine!” Aiko grumbled. She looked over her shoulder and glared at Daisuke with her icy blue glare. If she could find a chance, maybe she could kill him while he was unaware.
“Better,” he seemed unfazed by her glare. A golden chain appeared from his back, coiling around Aiko and pinning her arms to her sides. “Now then, if you’d come with me.”
Despite the initial shock of suddenly being wrapped up partially in this golden chain, Aiko begrudgingly followed after Daisuke. Her helplessness really pissed her off.
The pair made their way through numerous halls, stepping down flights of stairs and taking multiple turns. Was he purposefully backtracking to make it harder to remember the way they came? Or was the place really laid out like a maze? Finally, they emerged in a large room. With two levels, the first was open and devoid of any furniture. The second level was more of an alcove, meant to observe what happened below. Another person sat in the room.
“Why don’t we see how your sharingan interacts with Ice Release, hmm?”
Aiko’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? You want me to use them both at once?” Aiko asked, as she looked up and round the room, her eyes stopped on the second person. But she quickly looked back at Daisuke.
The second person was slumped in a chair. He gave attention to Daisuke, but never once looked up. He seemed to be completely broken, long matted hair, and scars from two broken manacles. He didn’t even acknowledge Aiko.
“Something like that,” with a few handsigns, more chains appeared from Daisuke’s back, eventually pulling free to slide along the walls and ceiling of the room. The chains glowed brightly as a barrier spread out from them. “I find practical applications to be the easiest way of gathering data. The precision of the sharingan and the lethality of ice release… combat is the most practical way of watching them interact.”
With a body flicker, Daisuke appeared in the alcove above, easily passing through the apparent barrier. The chains binding Aiko vanished as he formed an unusual handsign. Seals on the back of both captives’ necks were soon alight with chakra, spreading through their bodies and darkening their eyes. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, many had likened it to having fire spread through their veins before fading. It was a pain they grew accustomed, even numb to, given enough time. Not that it made the first activation any more gentle.
Divine Seal: Providence
“Got it… kill another one.”
He stood in the seal, not really even registering it anymore. He grabbed a rock… and then skipped across the floor, before shambling towards Aiko. He looked at her for the first time. His eyes seemed hopeless and full of murder. He had been here a long time. He did whisper almost under his breath.
“Sho… Ichirou….Sorry.”
Aiko let out a pained grunt, and clutched the back of her neck. She hadn’t even thought about him putting a seal on her. What did it even do?
Aiko stepped backwards, distancing herself from the person in front of her. She felt fear grip her as she made eye contact with him. Never before had Aiko seen somebody alive with eyes as lifeless as his.
“What is this some kind of cage fight?” Aiko asked, activating her sharingan.
Aiko would notice the rock he’d tossed filled with chakra, shortly before it detonated like an explosive tag.
“Yeah… Sometimes to the death, sometimes just to research. Just… don’t show me any mercy… please. We can’t escape… it's just life at this point… or death.”
Sho slammed his hand into the ground, and Aiko would notice his chakra spreading across the floor.
Aiko leapt back just in time to only be blown back by the exploding rock. “Damn,” she grumbled, as she rose her feet. Aiko spotted chakra spreading across the floor. Never before had she seen a technique like this, but if it was anything like what was done to the rock, it was safe to assume there would be an explosion.
“Fine then, I’ll play along for awhile!” Aiko declared.
To stop the chakra from spreading Aiko formed a hand sign, and two ice swords flew at her opponent. One from the front, the other from above and to the left. Aiko herself stood still, her hands ready to form another hand sign if need be.
Sho cletched his hands, grabbing a few pebbles he’d already sent his chakra through. Throwing them at the two swords, he activated a handsign, Lightning and Earth Release together.
Explosion Release: Cluster Grenade
It was just enough to crack the swords and divert them.
“Like I said, try and kill me. Don’t do it half-assed, Daisuke gets bored easy… Don’t analyze me, just come at me with everything you have.”
Sho crossed his arms, focusing chakra into his manacles.
“Fine then!” Aiko yelled back without hesitation. She couldn’t afford to die here. Too many people were counting on her. She had people to prove something to still. No matter what the person in front of her went through, she’d have to ignore it and take him down. Explosions were not something she wanted to mess with again.
An ice sword formed in Aiko’s right hand, and she formed another hand sign with her left hand. Three water clones formed around her. With her sharingan staring directly at Sho, Aiko’s clones sprinted forward without regard for their own safety, each one with their own ice sword in hand. Aiko followed a short distance behind them, ready to form another jutsu to lead into her favorite strike.
Sho waited until the clones were right on top of him before he did anything. He suddenly lept back, and made the same handsign as before. The earth beneath the clones erupted upwards, raining debris. Sho then punched the debris, the manacles sending out a blast, forming a shotgun blast straight at the girl and clearing the debris. Sho still had chakra left in the other.
Aiko cursed, as her clones were annihilated right in front of her. She didn’t pay enough attention to the chakra that was being spread. Aiko tried to focus and gain a sense of the chakra her opponent might have spread into the ground, but suddenly found herself leaping to the side to avoid some debris. However, her dodge wasn’t enough, as a larger piece of debris slammed into her side sending her sprawling to the ground. After a moment of shock, Aiko rose to a crouched position. Her breaths were a bit ragged.
Sho showed no mercy, as soon as she was hit, he leapt at her like a savage wolf, his wrist with the manacle charged pulled back.
“Sorry, whoever you were.”
He punched forward at her down.
Aiko quickly met his murderous gaze with her sharingan, as she unleashed a genjutsu on Sho with as much intensity as she could.
Genjutsu: Spreading Calm
Sho suddenly stopped mid punch. He collapsed to both knees and just looked upward.
“Just finish me…”
Aiko stood up, and let another ice sword form in her hand. She held it at Sho’s neck, but didn’t kill him yet. “Sorry it had to be like this…” Aiko raised up her sword, poised to strike, but found her that her arms wouldn’t swing down. He looked so damn helpless like this. It wasn’t as if he wanted to do this, why did she have to kill him?
“Dammit…”
Sho grabbed her arm and pulled her face down to his.
“DO IT, DAMNIT! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN HERE!? You leave one of us alive, that bastard watching us has more to work with. At least annoy him before he gets you too.”
Divine Seal: Judgement
The seal on the back of Aiko’s neck lit up with chakra once more. Pain would wrack her entire form as paralysis quickly set in. “Now Sho,” Daisuke calmly approached the pair, his hands folded behind his back, “I do believe we’ve talked about this before…”
Aiko couldn’t help but scream and crumple to the ground next to Sho. Her sharingan faded away, and her ice blue eyes returned. “S-sorry…” Aiko gasped out quietly, knowing she had failed Sho and herself.
Daisuke crouched beside the fallen kunoichi, “So soft, you really are from the Leaf. I wonder how long that will last?”
Aiko didn’t answer for a few moments, as she tried to think of a way to make it all hurt less. Being so helpless was terrible, it took all of her effort just to maintain her composure despite being paralyzed on the ground. “Shut up, I showed what you wanted… didn’t I?”
“Seems we’ll need to work on your manners as well…” He pulled a syringe from his coat, releasing the seal’s hold as something was injected into her neck. “Now sleep.”
It was too quiet, so Aiko opened her eyes, expecting to find herself in the next life. But instead, she was sitting on a cold hard floor, with her back against the wall. She wasn’t restrained, or at least, she didn’t think she was.
“Where…” Aiko wheezed, her voice scratchy. She looked down at herself, and didn’t see any wounds visible. But yet, she remembered rubble all around her, and then some creatures burrowing in her skin…
“Seems the medicine’s finally doing its job,” A man leaned against a counter on the wall across from her, “are you back with us?”
Aiko didn’t answer for a few moments. She just raised her head and looked up at the man. With a slight snarl on her face, Aiko replied, “Back with who, exactly?”
“The world of the living, of course. You were in such dreadful shape when you arrived,” he clicked his tongue, “you should have just ran when you had the chance instead of picking a fight you couldn’t win.”
“Pfft, I’ve never been a very fast runner,” Aiko paused for a moment and rolled her shoulders, looking around the room for a way out of… wherever she was. “Who are you, and what do you want?” Aiko was hoping it wasn’t who she thought it was.
A smirk tugged at his features as he offered a somewhat overdramatic bow, “Daisuke Uzumaki is my name. As for what I want… you carry blood from both the Yuki and Uchiha clans, how could I resist such a fascinating specimen?”
“Specimen?” Aiko asked, alarmed. She clenched her fist, and finally decided to rise to her feet, grunting as she did so. “I don’t know how my blood is gonna help you do anything but you’re not getting anything from me you creep!” There had to be a way out! Where was Mai to blow a hole in a wall when you needed her?
Daisuke rolled his eyes, they were always so difficult to start with. “I can glean quite a bit of information through simple observation,” He shrugged. “I can give you two options: cooperate and remain in one piece, or don’t and I’ll just dissect you to see what can be learned.”
For once, Aiko was confident she’d lose if she tried to fight this guy. He was the ninja that fought Hokage after all.
Aiko turned and punched the wall behind her. “Dammit, fine!” Aiko grumbled. She looked over her shoulder and glared at Daisuke with her icy blue glare. If she could find a chance, maybe she could kill him while he was unaware.
“Better,” he seemed unfazed by her glare. A golden chain appeared from his back, coiling around Aiko and pinning her arms to her sides. “Now then, if you’d come with me.”
Despite the initial shock of suddenly being wrapped up partially in this golden chain, Aiko begrudgingly followed after Daisuke. Her helplessness really pissed her off.
The pair made their way through numerous halls, stepping down flights of stairs and taking multiple turns. Was he purposefully backtracking to make it harder to remember the way they came? Or was the place really laid out like a maze? Finally, they emerged in a large room. With two levels, the first was open and devoid of any furniture. The second level was more of an alcove, meant to observe what happened below. Another person sat in the room.
“Why don’t we see how your sharingan interacts with Ice Release, hmm?”
Aiko’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? You want me to use them both at once?” Aiko asked, as she looked up and round the room, her eyes stopped on the second person. But she quickly looked back at Daisuke.
The second person was slumped in a chair. He gave attention to Daisuke, but never once looked up. He seemed to be completely broken, long matted hair, and scars from two broken manacles. He didn’t even acknowledge Aiko.
“Something like that,” with a few handsigns, more chains appeared from Daisuke’s back, eventually pulling free to slide along the walls and ceiling of the room. The chains glowed brightly as a barrier spread out from them. “I find practical applications to be the easiest way of gathering data. The precision of the sharingan and the lethality of ice release… combat is the most practical way of watching them interact.”
With a body flicker, Daisuke appeared in the alcove above, easily passing through the apparent barrier. The chains binding Aiko vanished as he formed an unusual handsign. Seals on the back of both captives’ necks were soon alight with chakra, spreading through their bodies and darkening their eyes. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, many had likened it to having fire spread through their veins before fading. It was a pain they grew accustomed, even numb to, given enough time. Not that it made the first activation any more gentle.
Divine Seal: Providence
“Got it… kill another one.”
He stood in the seal, not really even registering it anymore. He grabbed a rock… and then skipped across the floor, before shambling towards Aiko. He looked at her for the first time. His eyes seemed hopeless and full of murder. He had been here a long time. He did whisper almost under his breath.
“Sho… Ichirou….Sorry.”
Aiko let out a pained grunt, and clutched the back of her neck. She hadn’t even thought about him putting a seal on her. What did it even do?
Aiko stepped backwards, distancing herself from the person in front of her. She felt fear grip her as she made eye contact with him. Never before had Aiko seen somebody alive with eyes as lifeless as his.
“What is this some kind of cage fight?” Aiko asked, activating her sharingan.
Aiko would notice the rock he’d tossed filled with chakra, shortly before it detonated like an explosive tag.
“Yeah… Sometimes to the death, sometimes just to research. Just… don’t show me any mercy… please. We can’t escape… it's just life at this point… or death.”
Sho slammed his hand into the ground, and Aiko would notice his chakra spreading across the floor.
Aiko leapt back just in time to only be blown back by the exploding rock. “Damn,” she grumbled, as she rose her feet. Aiko spotted chakra spreading across the floor. Never before had she seen a technique like this, but if it was anything like what was done to the rock, it was safe to assume there would be an explosion.
“Fine then, I’ll play along for awhile!” Aiko declared.
To stop the chakra from spreading Aiko formed a hand sign, and two ice swords flew at her opponent. One from the front, the other from above and to the left. Aiko herself stood still, her hands ready to form another hand sign if need be.
Sho cletched his hands, grabbing a few pebbles he’d already sent his chakra through. Throwing them at the two swords, he activated a handsign, Lightning and Earth Release together.
Explosion Release: Cluster Grenade
It was just enough to crack the swords and divert them.
“Like I said, try and kill me. Don’t do it half-assed, Daisuke gets bored easy… Don’t analyze me, just come at me with everything you have.”
Sho crossed his arms, focusing chakra into his manacles.
“Fine then!” Aiko yelled back without hesitation. She couldn’t afford to die here. Too many people were counting on her. She had people to prove something to still. No matter what the person in front of her went through, she’d have to ignore it and take him down. Explosions were not something she wanted to mess with again.
An ice sword formed in Aiko’s right hand, and she formed another hand sign with her left hand. Three water clones formed around her. With her sharingan staring directly at Sho, Aiko’s clones sprinted forward without regard for their own safety, each one with their own ice sword in hand. Aiko followed a short distance behind them, ready to form another jutsu to lead into her favorite strike.
Sho waited until the clones were right on top of him before he did anything. He suddenly lept back, and made the same handsign as before. The earth beneath the clones erupted upwards, raining debris. Sho then punched the debris, the manacles sending out a blast, forming a shotgun blast straight at the girl and clearing the debris. Sho still had chakra left in the other.
Aiko cursed, as her clones were annihilated right in front of her. She didn’t pay enough attention to the chakra that was being spread. Aiko tried to focus and gain a sense of the chakra her opponent might have spread into the ground, but suddenly found herself leaping to the side to avoid some debris. However, her dodge wasn’t enough, as a larger piece of debris slammed into her side sending her sprawling to the ground. After a moment of shock, Aiko rose to a crouched position. Her breaths were a bit ragged.
Sho showed no mercy, as soon as she was hit, he leapt at her like a savage wolf, his wrist with the manacle charged pulled back.
“Sorry, whoever you were.”
He punched forward at her down.
Aiko quickly met his murderous gaze with her sharingan, as she unleashed a genjutsu on Sho with as much intensity as she could.
Genjutsu: Spreading Calm
Sho suddenly stopped mid punch. He collapsed to both knees and just looked upward.
“Just finish me…”
Aiko stood up, and let another ice sword form in her hand. She held it at Sho’s neck, but didn’t kill him yet. “Sorry it had to be like this…” Aiko raised up her sword, poised to strike, but found her that her arms wouldn’t swing down. He looked so damn helpless like this. It wasn’t as if he wanted to do this, why did she have to kill him?
“Dammit…”
Sho grabbed her arm and pulled her face down to his.
“DO IT, DAMNIT! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN HERE!? You leave one of us alive, that bastard watching us has more to work with. At least annoy him before he gets you too.”
Divine Seal: Judgement
The seal on the back of Aiko’s neck lit up with chakra once more. Pain would wrack her entire form as paralysis quickly set in. “Now Sho,” Daisuke calmly approached the pair, his hands folded behind his back, “I do believe we’ve talked about this before…”
Aiko couldn’t help but scream and crumple to the ground next to Sho. Her sharingan faded away, and her ice blue eyes returned. “S-sorry…” Aiko gasped out quietly, knowing she had failed Sho and herself.
Daisuke crouched beside the fallen kunoichi, “So soft, you really are from the Leaf. I wonder how long that will last?”
Aiko didn’t answer for a few moments, as she tried to think of a way to make it all hurt less. Being so helpless was terrible, it took all of her effort just to maintain her composure despite being paralyzed on the ground. “Shut up, I showed what you wanted… didn’t I?”
“Seems we’ll need to work on your manners as well…” He pulled a syringe from his coat, releasing the seal’s hold as something was injected into her neck. “Now sleep.”
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Hotaru stretched and yawned. Even after having been shown to her quarters her sleep had been sporadic and unrestful, her mind racing with thoughts of Konoha ANBU or the Yoake themselves sneaking into her room and slitting her throat. In the end, she had given up entirely on the idea and gotten up to reread Daisuke’s journal. Hotaru had noted a few blank pages at the end that she could use to record her own observations… if she could figure out a secure enough cipher, Daisuke and her saw eye to eye on a lot of things but she still needed to keep some thoughts private.
A faint shaft of early morning light filtered into the room and Hotaru rubbed her eyes blearily. Now that she was here Hotaru realized she wasn’t entirely sure what exactly she would be doing here. Her goal was to learn as much as she could from Daisuke’s methods and the results of his study, but that would require earning a certain amount of trust first.
The question was, what would she have to do to earn that trust?
It was another few hours after the sun rose that a light series of knocks sounded at the door. “Hotaru, are you awake?” Daisuke’s voice was muffled through the door.
Hotaru stood up and gave her room a quick once over for anything… incriminating? Truthfully she wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for and in any case she didn’t see anything so smoothed out her clothes and opened the door for Daisuke with her usual smile.
“Good Morning,”
The red haired shinobi offered her a small smile, “Good morning.” The smile faded quickly, “Mmm, looks like you haven’t slept at all… It’s difficult, cutting ties with a village.”
“Really now, you should know better than to comment on a lady’s appearance like that,” Hotaru scolded him playfully. Then she sighed and her smile disappeared.
“I confess there’s been some… adjustment difficulties. My mind tends to wander when it’s occupied, to explore hypotheticals no matter how unlikely. Really the best thing will be to get busy on something constructive,”
Daisuke nodded in understanding, “Very well, we’ll get to work then.” He motioned for her to follow, “While we’re walking, care to give a brief review on your knowledge of the byakugan?”
“Well I don’t have my notes but I can cover the basics easily enough,” said Hotaru thoughtfully, taking on the slightly sing-song tone of someone reciting memorized knowledge. “The byakugan is a doujutsu, a genetically inherited trait that affects eyes and ocular regions of the brain. The byakugan is notable for the exceptional vision it grants the wielders, they can see through most objects, seemingly without losing the ability to easily recognize them and have spherical vision, able to see at any angle around themselves. The byakugan can see chakra and is also better at perceiving moving objects and detail. In fact, it can see chakra in great enough detail to detect and target specific tenketsu along the chakra network, which forms the basis of the Hyuuga clan’s unique fighting style.”
“It’s worth noting,” Daisuke added, “that the byakugan has a blind spot. The Hyuuga can’t see anything at their third thoracic vertebrae, nor anything directly in line with it. It’s one of the reasons they developed techniques such as the heavenly rotation.”
“Oh, Interesting!” Hotaru said thoughtfully, “I wonder if it corresponds to the optic disc as in most people? If so it would indicate that the visual areas of the brain are also substantially different in a byakugan user. Of course, that wouldn’t explain accounts of people trying to steal and implant the eye into themselves… Do you have any data on successfully transplanted byakugan?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. It’s fascinating, subjects with a transplanted byakugan don’t experience the increased field of vision. I believe the reports are in my study.”
“Really? I’m going to have to get my hands on those at some point!” Hotaru said enthusiastically, before trailing off. “Still I doubt you got me out of bed just for a pop quiz... “
A low chuckle, “While you’ll be free to pursue your own experiments and research, I’ll be having you assist me in mine. Taking notes, making observations, nothing strenuous until you’ve gotten settled.”
“I’m sure I can handle that,” Hotaru said. “Some scientists might look down on that kind of work but all science relies on data. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty,”
Daisuke nodded, guiding her through a series of halls.
Yukari shifted on the thin cot, staring up at the ceiling. How long had it been since she’d woken up on the floor, shivering and weak? The last thing she remembered was jolting awake at home, sensing a corrupted being nearby. Something had grabbed her wrist, then… nothing. At least nothing clear. It was all hazy and fragmented like she’d been dreaming.
The room itself didn’t seem to be anything special, concrete walls and floor, a metal door. She couldn’t see anything beyond that, seals of some kind interfered with her byakugan leaving everything a distorted, blurry mess.
A lock clicked, and Yukari was instantly on her feet. She still felt weak, too weak to fight effectively. But she wasn’t about to lay around and do nothing. Her stance shifted as the door opened, it was hard not attacking the first person that showed themselves.
“Awake already?” Daisuke mused, unfazed by the byakugan’s piercing glare.
Something about him had the Hyuuga instantly on edge. His chakra just seemed… wrong. “And just who-” Yukari hesitated, catching sight of who stood behind him. “Hotaru…?”
Ah. Well, that explained all the questions about the byakugan. Well, this was going to be awkward but it was bound to have come up at some point. Maybe, like ripping off a bandaid, it was better to try and get it over with. Hotaru flashed her usual, innocent smile, as if nothing was wrong.
“Hiya, hooow’s it going?”
Yukari’s gaze shifted between Hotaru and Daisuke. Long red hair, gold eyes, and that chakra… “Why are you with him?”
“Ah, so you know of me?” Daisuke gave a low chuckle, “Constantly introducing myself does grow rather tiresome.”
“You’re Daisuke Uzumaki, member of Yoake and the one behind the kidnappings.” For once, it seemed the lessons and affairs of the clan had actually been of use. Not that it gave any indication on what to do now.
“I expect no less from the heiress of the Hyuuga.”
“We happen to share a similar outlook on life,” said Hotaru simply. “Isn’t that funny? You can spend your entire life around a certain group of people, never agreeing with the way they do things, then right around the corner is someone who just… Gets it.”
“And so just like that you betray the Leaf? All of us?”
“I prefer to think of it as... pursuing a new opportunity,” said Hotaru, picking up a nearby chart and skimming through it. “It’s not like I really chose to be born in the Leaf, it’s unfortunate that the only procedure for leaving involves making enemies of all of you but I do feel the work I’m going to do here is important enough to justify it,”
Yukari gritted her teeth, “So we meant nothing to you?”
Hotaru pursed her lips. “Not... nothing, no. I enjoyed my time with the leaf, I just weighed things up and decided what was more important to me,”
“You… lousy…”
"Amusing as this may be,” Daisuke spoke up, holding up a small stack of tags, “We have quite a bit of work ahead of us today.” A single hand sign caused the Hyuuga to collapse on the floor, clutching the back of her neck. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, the sudden shock knocking the breath from her lungs. “I’m curious, Hotaru, would you happen to have any thoughts on a potential evolution for the byakugan?”
“This wouldn’t have something to do with something called the ‘Rinnegan’ would it?" Hotaru asked curiously, trying not to look at Yukari. “Otherwise I’m not sure what you mean by an evolution exactly. Ordinarily, the process is gradual, occurring over thousands of generations. I suspect that’s not what you have in mind,”
“Where, oh where did you ever hear of that?” An amused smirk played on his lips. “Ah, but it is related in a way. I suppose you could call the two doujutsu siblings.” In a flash of gold, Daisuke had Yukari pinned against the wall with chains of chakra. He released the seal’s crippling hold on her. “I fear I worded my question poorly, however,” tags were carefully placed on the Hyuuga as he continued, “Should the byakugan achieve a new, more powerful form, what would you suspect it capable of?”
“A more powerful byakugan…” Hotaru tapped her chin thoughtfully “It’s difficult to say, you would expect even greater vision but what does that even mean? Would it function like a byakugan but with higher parameters? Would it exhibit genjutsu related abilities like the sharingan? Or maybe it would become something altogether new. The trouble is, there’s nothing to really compare such an evolution with to be able to make conjectures about it,”
“Sadly, there’s hardly any surviving, concrete information on these jutsu, the Rinnegan and its counterpart the Tenseigan. What little I’ve learned comes from legends, ancient texts, and the tailed beasts themselves. Though, given their age, their memory is only so reliable.” He shrugged, “We’ll just have to learn the capabilities of these eyes for ourselves.”
“I actually only head Junnichi talking about it,” Hotaru said, somewhat sheepishly. “I don’t really know anything except the name and the nature of our conversation so far has lead me to suppose that it is closely linked to byakugan. You might have to start with the basics. What exactly are the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan?”
“Perhaps it’s best to start at the beginning then. Have you ever heard of the Sage of Six Paths?”
“Supposedly he invented ninjutsu, or the precursor to it. Something called Ninshu? To be honest I sort of assumed he was apocryphal or at least greatly exaggerated,”
“As do most people. A man who laid the foundation for jutsu as we know it, the progenitor of some of the most powerful clans in the world, and the creator of the tailed beasts themselves.” Daisuke paused for a moment, carefully adjusting a few of the tags. “The Rinnegan were his eyes. The Sharingan’s final form.”
“Hmmm, so rather than evolution what we’re after is an atavism, the re-emergence of traits previously thought lost,” Hotaru said thoughtfully.
“As for the Tenseigan… it would seem the Sage had a brother, whom the Hyuuga clan is descended from. Born with the byakugan, his eyes later became something that could surpass even the ‘all-seeing white eyes’. Some earlier tests proved that the byakugan can indeed become something greater, but that damned curse mark the Hyuuga use interfered with my tests.”
He started a series of handsigns, “But with such a pure byakugan, perhaps we’ll finally have some more concrete results.” The tags were soon alight with chakra, seemingly burning away to nothing.
“So, in summary, the Uchiha and Hyuuga, two of the most powerful clans in the shinobi world, both descend from a single bloodline and exhibit only a lesser version that bloodline’s original power…” Hotaru tilted her head slightly. “What exactly is the process by which these precursor eyes will re-emerge? Why haven't the Uchiha or the Hyuuga managed it before now?”
“You must recreate the Sage’s chakra.” Daisuke let Yukari drop back to the floor. “The Senju and Uchiha clans are both descended from him. On top of that, the Sharingan must be in it's most advanced form. I suspect the Hyuuga require something similar.”
“Recreating someone’s chakra… not just anyone’s either, recreating the chakra of the long dead progenitor to all ninjutsu. But you seem pretty confident in your work here,” Hotaru said. “So you must know how to do that or at least have some theories,”
Daisuke nodded, “it’ll be easier to show you.” He turned towards the door, “come, we’re finished here for the time being.”
A faint shaft of early morning light filtered into the room and Hotaru rubbed her eyes blearily. Now that she was here Hotaru realized she wasn’t entirely sure what exactly she would be doing here. Her goal was to learn as much as she could from Daisuke’s methods and the results of his study, but that would require earning a certain amount of trust first.
The question was, what would she have to do to earn that trust?
It was another few hours after the sun rose that a light series of knocks sounded at the door. “Hotaru, are you awake?” Daisuke’s voice was muffled through the door.
Hotaru stood up and gave her room a quick once over for anything… incriminating? Truthfully she wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for and in any case she didn’t see anything so smoothed out her clothes and opened the door for Daisuke with her usual smile.
“Good Morning,”
The red haired shinobi offered her a small smile, “Good morning.” The smile faded quickly, “Mmm, looks like you haven’t slept at all… It’s difficult, cutting ties with a village.”
“Really now, you should know better than to comment on a lady’s appearance like that,” Hotaru scolded him playfully. Then she sighed and her smile disappeared.
“I confess there’s been some… adjustment difficulties. My mind tends to wander when it’s occupied, to explore hypotheticals no matter how unlikely. Really the best thing will be to get busy on something constructive,”
Daisuke nodded in understanding, “Very well, we’ll get to work then.” He motioned for her to follow, “While we’re walking, care to give a brief review on your knowledge of the byakugan?”
“Well I don’t have my notes but I can cover the basics easily enough,” said Hotaru thoughtfully, taking on the slightly sing-song tone of someone reciting memorized knowledge. “The byakugan is a doujutsu, a genetically inherited trait that affects eyes and ocular regions of the brain. The byakugan is notable for the exceptional vision it grants the wielders, they can see through most objects, seemingly without losing the ability to easily recognize them and have spherical vision, able to see at any angle around themselves. The byakugan can see chakra and is also better at perceiving moving objects and detail. In fact, it can see chakra in great enough detail to detect and target specific tenketsu along the chakra network, which forms the basis of the Hyuuga clan’s unique fighting style.”
“It’s worth noting,” Daisuke added, “that the byakugan has a blind spot. The Hyuuga can’t see anything at their third thoracic vertebrae, nor anything directly in line with it. It’s one of the reasons they developed techniques such as the heavenly rotation.”
“Oh, Interesting!” Hotaru said thoughtfully, “I wonder if it corresponds to the optic disc as in most people? If so it would indicate that the visual areas of the brain are also substantially different in a byakugan user. Of course, that wouldn’t explain accounts of people trying to steal and implant the eye into themselves… Do you have any data on successfully transplanted byakugan?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. It’s fascinating, subjects with a transplanted byakugan don’t experience the increased field of vision. I believe the reports are in my study.”
“Really? I’m going to have to get my hands on those at some point!” Hotaru said enthusiastically, before trailing off. “Still I doubt you got me out of bed just for a pop quiz... “
A low chuckle, “While you’ll be free to pursue your own experiments and research, I’ll be having you assist me in mine. Taking notes, making observations, nothing strenuous until you’ve gotten settled.”
“I’m sure I can handle that,” Hotaru said. “Some scientists might look down on that kind of work but all science relies on data. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty,”
Daisuke nodded, guiding her through a series of halls.
Yukari shifted on the thin cot, staring up at the ceiling. How long had it been since she’d woken up on the floor, shivering and weak? The last thing she remembered was jolting awake at home, sensing a corrupted being nearby. Something had grabbed her wrist, then… nothing. At least nothing clear. It was all hazy and fragmented like she’d been dreaming.
The room itself didn’t seem to be anything special, concrete walls and floor, a metal door. She couldn’t see anything beyond that, seals of some kind interfered with her byakugan leaving everything a distorted, blurry mess.
A lock clicked, and Yukari was instantly on her feet. She still felt weak, too weak to fight effectively. But she wasn’t about to lay around and do nothing. Her stance shifted as the door opened, it was hard not attacking the first person that showed themselves.
“Awake already?” Daisuke mused, unfazed by the byakugan’s piercing glare.
Something about him had the Hyuuga instantly on edge. His chakra just seemed… wrong. “And just who-” Yukari hesitated, catching sight of who stood behind him. “Hotaru…?”
Ah. Well, that explained all the questions about the byakugan. Well, this was going to be awkward but it was bound to have come up at some point. Maybe, like ripping off a bandaid, it was better to try and get it over with. Hotaru flashed her usual, innocent smile, as if nothing was wrong.
“Hiya, hooow’s it going?”
Yukari’s gaze shifted between Hotaru and Daisuke. Long red hair, gold eyes, and that chakra… “Why are you with him?”
“Ah, so you know of me?” Daisuke gave a low chuckle, “Constantly introducing myself does grow rather tiresome.”
“You’re Daisuke Uzumaki, member of Yoake and the one behind the kidnappings.” For once, it seemed the lessons and affairs of the clan had actually been of use. Not that it gave any indication on what to do now.
“I expect no less from the heiress of the Hyuuga.”
“We happen to share a similar outlook on life,” said Hotaru simply. “Isn’t that funny? You can spend your entire life around a certain group of people, never agreeing with the way they do things, then right around the corner is someone who just… Gets it.”
“And so just like that you betray the Leaf? All of us?”
“I prefer to think of it as... pursuing a new opportunity,” said Hotaru, picking up a nearby chart and skimming through it. “It’s not like I really chose to be born in the Leaf, it’s unfortunate that the only procedure for leaving involves making enemies of all of you but I do feel the work I’m going to do here is important enough to justify it,”
Yukari gritted her teeth, “So we meant nothing to you?”
Hotaru pursed her lips. “Not... nothing, no. I enjoyed my time with the leaf, I just weighed things up and decided what was more important to me,”
“You… lousy…”
"Amusing as this may be,” Daisuke spoke up, holding up a small stack of tags, “We have quite a bit of work ahead of us today.” A single hand sign caused the Hyuuga to collapse on the floor, clutching the back of her neck. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, the sudden shock knocking the breath from her lungs. “I’m curious, Hotaru, would you happen to have any thoughts on a potential evolution for the byakugan?”
“This wouldn’t have something to do with something called the ‘Rinnegan’ would it?" Hotaru asked curiously, trying not to look at Yukari. “Otherwise I’m not sure what you mean by an evolution exactly. Ordinarily, the process is gradual, occurring over thousands of generations. I suspect that’s not what you have in mind,”
“Where, oh where did you ever hear of that?” An amused smirk played on his lips. “Ah, but it is related in a way. I suppose you could call the two doujutsu siblings.” In a flash of gold, Daisuke had Yukari pinned against the wall with chains of chakra. He released the seal’s crippling hold on her. “I fear I worded my question poorly, however,” tags were carefully placed on the Hyuuga as he continued, “Should the byakugan achieve a new, more powerful form, what would you suspect it capable of?”
“A more powerful byakugan…” Hotaru tapped her chin thoughtfully “It’s difficult to say, you would expect even greater vision but what does that even mean? Would it function like a byakugan but with higher parameters? Would it exhibit genjutsu related abilities like the sharingan? Or maybe it would become something altogether new. The trouble is, there’s nothing to really compare such an evolution with to be able to make conjectures about it,”
“Sadly, there’s hardly any surviving, concrete information on these jutsu, the Rinnegan and its counterpart the Tenseigan. What little I’ve learned comes from legends, ancient texts, and the tailed beasts themselves. Though, given their age, their memory is only so reliable.” He shrugged, “We’ll just have to learn the capabilities of these eyes for ourselves.”
“I actually only head Junnichi talking about it,” Hotaru said, somewhat sheepishly. “I don’t really know anything except the name and the nature of our conversation so far has lead me to suppose that it is closely linked to byakugan. You might have to start with the basics. What exactly are the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan?”
“Perhaps it’s best to start at the beginning then. Have you ever heard of the Sage of Six Paths?”
“Supposedly he invented ninjutsu, or the precursor to it. Something called Ninshu? To be honest I sort of assumed he was apocryphal or at least greatly exaggerated,”
“As do most people. A man who laid the foundation for jutsu as we know it, the progenitor of some of the most powerful clans in the world, and the creator of the tailed beasts themselves.” Daisuke paused for a moment, carefully adjusting a few of the tags. “The Rinnegan were his eyes. The Sharingan’s final form.”
“Hmmm, so rather than evolution what we’re after is an atavism, the re-emergence of traits previously thought lost,” Hotaru said thoughtfully.
“As for the Tenseigan… it would seem the Sage had a brother, whom the Hyuuga clan is descended from. Born with the byakugan, his eyes later became something that could surpass even the ‘all-seeing white eyes’. Some earlier tests proved that the byakugan can indeed become something greater, but that damned curse mark the Hyuuga use interfered with my tests.”
He started a series of handsigns, “But with such a pure byakugan, perhaps we’ll finally have some more concrete results.” The tags were soon alight with chakra, seemingly burning away to nothing.
“So, in summary, the Uchiha and Hyuuga, two of the most powerful clans in the shinobi world, both descend from a single bloodline and exhibit only a lesser version that bloodline’s original power…” Hotaru tilted her head slightly. “What exactly is the process by which these precursor eyes will re-emerge? Why haven't the Uchiha or the Hyuuga managed it before now?”
“You must recreate the Sage’s chakra.” Daisuke let Yukari drop back to the floor. “The Senju and Uchiha clans are both descended from him. On top of that, the Sharingan must be in it's most advanced form. I suspect the Hyuuga require something similar.”
“Recreating someone’s chakra… not just anyone’s either, recreating the chakra of the long dead progenitor to all ninjutsu. But you seem pretty confident in your work here,” Hotaru said. “So you must know how to do that or at least have some theories,”
Daisuke nodded, “it’ll be easier to show you.” He turned towards the door, “come, we’re finished here for the time being.”
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Aiko Uchiha
With a gasp, Aiko’s eyes fluttered open. She still felt drowsy, and her head hurt. A flood of memories rushed through her head as she recalled what had happened leading up to her sleeping again.
“Sho…” she muttered, disappointment in her voice. She had failed him, and couldn’t save him from his suffering. She also ended up letting that creep mess with her again. Is this what Sho had been going through? How long had he even been one of Daisuke’s experiments? Aiko grimaced. She didn’t want to end up like Sho, broken and empty.
Aiko tried to sit up, realizing she was restrained to a hard surface. She looked to the side, noticing she above the floor, and atop a table. Aiko struggles against the restraints. Was she about to get cut open or something? Aiko struggled harder.
“Wha- what the hell?” Aiko sounded desperate.
It was a long while before the lock on the door finally clicked and Daisuke stepped in. Flecks of crimson dotted the white coat he currently wore. “Have a nice nap?” He stalked closer, gold eyes studying her intently. “You were asleep for quite awhile.”
Aiko’s head jerked towards Daisuke when he entered, the red on his coat making a look of fear briefly come over her, before returning to an angry glare.
“I feel like shit,” Aiko stated bluntly.
Aiko had heard many times that people would go after clans with doujutsu, and try and take their eyes. It was a reasonable assumption, Aiko thought, that Daisuke was about to take her eyes out. It took every ounce of her willpower not to cry out.
“Anesthetic is likely still wearing off,” Daisuke commented as he moved just out of Aiko’s line of sight. “Sho only managed to leave you with some bruises, nothing to fret over.” She could hear something being set on the metal counter behind her, the click of a box being opened.
“W-what’re you doing?” Aiko asked, unable to hide the worry in her voice. She knew what she heard wasn’t anything good.
He ignored her, taking a moment to hook the Uchiha to a series of monitors. Daisuke turned away, a pen scratching against paper as he took a few notes. Finally, he took her arm and gave her a series of injections.
Aiko winced each time Daisuke even moved towards her. Being so helpless was both infuriating and terrifying at the same time. Aiko had never realized how scary needles were before. She stayed silent, her hatred burning within her.
“Quite the temper in this batch I was brought,” Daisuke chuckled, taking a few more notes before moving towards the door. “I wonder how long it’ll last…”
Aiko struggled against the restraints again. She couldn’t bear being so vulnerable. “I-I’ll kill you before my temper runs out! You…. you…” Aiko was hyperventilating, struggling to free herself.
“Mmm, the number of times I’ve heard that before…”
Aiko’s vision went blurry, her last sight being the smug face of Daisuke before she blacked out.
-----
When Aiko woke up again, she felt even more drained than before. Fortunately, her hands weren’t tied down anymore. She was in a cell, like before, but it was incredibly cold. Colder than when she got mad at Hideki or Mai. It was then she noticed the ground beneath where she was against the wall was covered in a sheet of ice. Aiko gasped, and leapt to her feet, nearly falling back down. “What the hell?” She hadn’t accidentally frozen anything in over a year!
Nothing felt right. It was as if she was getting colder by the minute. Slowly, Aiko reached out with her hand to touch the cell wall. Just before her hand touched the wall, a layer of ice formed over it.
“Damn it Daisuke!” Aiko screamed. As she did so, a blast of cold air washed through the cell.
Aiko plopped herself down in a corner of the cell and curled up into a ball, shivering.
With a gasp, Aiko’s eyes fluttered open. She still felt drowsy, and her head hurt. A flood of memories rushed through her head as she recalled what had happened leading up to her sleeping again.
“Sho…” she muttered, disappointment in her voice. She had failed him, and couldn’t save him from his suffering. She also ended up letting that creep mess with her again. Is this what Sho had been going through? How long had he even been one of Daisuke’s experiments? Aiko grimaced. She didn’t want to end up like Sho, broken and empty.
Aiko tried to sit up, realizing she was restrained to a hard surface. She looked to the side, noticing she above the floor, and atop a table. Aiko struggles against the restraints. Was she about to get cut open or something? Aiko struggled harder.
“Wha- what the hell?” Aiko sounded desperate.
It was a long while before the lock on the door finally clicked and Daisuke stepped in. Flecks of crimson dotted the white coat he currently wore. “Have a nice nap?” He stalked closer, gold eyes studying her intently. “You were asleep for quite awhile.”
Aiko’s head jerked towards Daisuke when he entered, the red on his coat making a look of fear briefly come over her, before returning to an angry glare.
“I feel like shit,” Aiko stated bluntly.
Aiko had heard many times that people would go after clans with doujutsu, and try and take their eyes. It was a reasonable assumption, Aiko thought, that Daisuke was about to take her eyes out. It took every ounce of her willpower not to cry out.
“Anesthetic is likely still wearing off,” Daisuke commented as he moved just out of Aiko’s line of sight. “Sho only managed to leave you with some bruises, nothing to fret over.” She could hear something being set on the metal counter behind her, the click of a box being opened.
“W-what’re you doing?” Aiko asked, unable to hide the worry in her voice. She knew what she heard wasn’t anything good.
He ignored her, taking a moment to hook the Uchiha to a series of monitors. Daisuke turned away, a pen scratching against paper as he took a few notes. Finally, he took her arm and gave her a series of injections.
Aiko winced each time Daisuke even moved towards her. Being so helpless was both infuriating and terrifying at the same time. Aiko had never realized how scary needles were before. She stayed silent, her hatred burning within her.
“Quite the temper in this batch I was brought,” Daisuke chuckled, taking a few more notes before moving towards the door. “I wonder how long it’ll last…”
Aiko struggled against the restraints again. She couldn’t bear being so vulnerable. “I-I’ll kill you before my temper runs out! You…. you…” Aiko was hyperventilating, struggling to free herself.
“Mmm, the number of times I’ve heard that before…”
Aiko’s vision went blurry, her last sight being the smug face of Daisuke before she blacked out.
-----
When Aiko woke up again, she felt even more drained than before. Fortunately, her hands weren’t tied down anymore. She was in a cell, like before, but it was incredibly cold. Colder than when she got mad at Hideki or Mai. It was then she noticed the ground beneath where she was against the wall was covered in a sheet of ice. Aiko gasped, and leapt to her feet, nearly falling back down. “What the hell?” She hadn’t accidentally frozen anything in over a year!
Nothing felt right. It was as if she was getting colder by the minute. Slowly, Aiko reached out with her hand to touch the cell wall. Just before her hand touched the wall, a layer of ice formed over it.
“Damn it Daisuke!” Aiko screamed. As she did so, a blast of cold air washed through the cell.
Aiko plopped herself down in a corner of the cell and curled up into a ball, shivering.
AtlannianSpy
Alarmed and Strangerous
Nagisa Kanazawa & Katsumi Nonoba
Special Delivery
Special Delivery
“Alright let’s go over this one more time,”
Nagisa felt a little strange addressing Katsumi inside the scroll, as she walked towards the Yoake rendezvous. It was a little like talking to herself, but it was better than letting Katsumi out and risking them being spotted together.
“Somebody snuck up on you and knocked you out with a sedative. You don’t know who I am or where you are, should be pretty easy to remember all that,”
Inside the scroll, Katsumi listened carefully, her mind taking in each word and planning out what she’d say. It wouldn’t be hard to act like a victim, Katsumi thought. But, she wasn’t looking forward to meeting whoever Nagisa was about to hand her over to. If only her voice could reach outside of the seal Katsumi thought as she mumbled Nagisa’s plan over again in her head.
“It might be easiest to pretend you’re still unconscious when I first unseal you,” Nagisa said, not quite sure how long she should wait between sentences. “I’ll have to show you off to some extent, they’re not gonna let me through just by seeing a scroll,”
Nagisa fell silent, as they approached the nondescript cave opening she had visited earlier. Just like before there was a long watchmen on guard, who Nagisa gave a curt nod to by way of greeting.
Standing at the entrance to the lab, a man in black clothing and a top hat greeted them. He touched his hands to his shades.
“My, my, I get changed in guard duty, and still as busy as ever. Well, how can I help a young star such as yourself? I take it your with Akai Kyodai, you sure look a less unruly in how you walk. Do you have one? I’ll verify.”
He seemed amused the whole time as he talked. Whether he knew anything or not, the man definitely had a piercing gaze behind his glasses, and his poker face was on point.
“Careful,” Nagisa snarked, tossing him the scroll so that he could unseal it. “It bites,” While he was busy with the scroll she approached nonchalantly, if Katsumi’s possum playing didn’t fool him she wanted to be within striking range.
The man simply tilted his head as he caught it.
“Well, if it bites, I certainly don’t want to hold ‘it’. I’m hardly a fighter, just a doorman. Take ‘it’ to cell 34-B. Though… hmm. I am curious.. And curiosity did often kill the cat. Why not?”
He tossed the scroll back, but not before undoing the seal, letting it unseal between him and Nagisa.
“Ah, so this is ‘it’. What does ‘it’ do? What clan? I do hope you forgive my curiosity. The facial features don’t belong to the Hyuga, or Uchiha, doesn’t seem to be from Hozuki or a Mist. I must admit, I’m going to take a guess that ‘it’ is new and interesting? Well, that should excite Daisuke immensely, hmm?”
He poked the girl slightly with a cane, though he watched very carefully.
When Katsumi first emerged from the seal, she hit the ground with a dull thud. Her eyes were closed, and she was silent. Internally, Katsumi was screaming. She had no idea where she was or what was going on, so she just trusted Nagisa’s plan and pretended to be knocked out.
“Don’t wake her up,” Nagisa said tersely. “I managed to sneak up on her with a tranquilizer the first time, but from what I hear she can be pretty dangerous if she gets going, it’s some kind of blood ability or something like that,”
“Interesting. Well, I’m no fighter, I’ll let you handle it. Inside is that way. I do hope its an actual Kekkei Genkai, Daisuke would be so disappointed if something else were to come inside his lab. Oh, by the way, the coliseum really does seem interesting at the moment. If you get the chance on your way out, I would definitely check it out. Regular price of course. Well… if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go on break. Have fun, miss.”
“Tchh, cheapskates,” Nagisa muttered, sealing Katsumi back up inside the scroll with an internal sigh of relief. “If you can’t even swing me a discount I’ll pass, I’m here to make money not blow it,”
With that exchange Nagisa passed the guard and made her way into the facility proper. The entry tunnel was unremarkable, with natural walls and scattered torches lighting the way. Slowly the tunnel started to widen up and a distant hissing became louder and louder until it was comprehensible as the roar of a distant but enthusiastic crowd.
The place wasn’t crawling with people, but Nagisa passed guards from time to time, definitely enough to pose a problem if things went south. So far though things were going smoothly, although as she passed through a doorway the terrain abruptly became much more artificial as the cave tunnel gave way to a concrete hallway full of identical doorways. Nagisa counted down to the one she’d been directed to, opening the door to reveal a room full of medical equipment and sturdy looking, steel cages large enough to fit people inside them.
“I have a prisoner,” Nagisa said, wiggling her scroll invitingly at one of the two guards slouching against the walls inside.
“We gotta check ‘em out then, unseal them in the cage,” said one of the guards, narrowing his eyes.
“Alright then, let’s do this,” Nagisa said, shrugging and unfurling the scroll and releasing Katsumi, not in the face of one of the guards, while she spun towards the other and extended the blade hidden in her arm to impale him.
Katsumi didn’t think she needed to pretend to be knocked out anymore, as Nagisa released her for the second time. She landed on her feet, instantly noticing the blade extending from Nagisa’s arm! It was action time! Katsumi turned to the nearest guard, and punched him in the chest. She didn’t put in enough chakra to obliterate him, but he wasn’t moving anymore as he lay on the ground.
“Nice work,” Nagisa said calmly, as her own target slid limply to floor, leaving a trail of blood smeared down the wall behind him. A quick look around the room they were in revealed a distinct lack of prisoners. They were going to have to search the rest of the hallway. Before they continued on Nagisa moved the two bodies into the corner behind the door frame and used a torn scrap from one of their shirts to wipe away the trail of blood, it wouldn’t keep the bodies hidden forever but it might buy them some time.
Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Nobushige Toyotomi - Squad 4
Nobushige stood calmly as the earth molded around him and he plunged downward towards the cave. In just under a minute, he felt air on his feet again, and opened his eyes as he plopped down onto the floor of the cave, silently touching down. He instantly turned around, checking for anyone around him. Behind him, a guard started a handsign, and had a kunai through his forehead before he could finish the 'ram' seal.
Nobushige instantly formed a cross, and silently a clone appeared behind the dead guard, catching him as he fell. Slamming a seal on the corpse, it disappeared.
Nobushige wildly looked around, and he couldn't see any further guards. He did, however, hear several footsteps running towards him. They were light, and extremely quick. In other words, actual ninja.
"Shit, actual sensor with a group. Caught onto me already, and ain't even been down here 5 seconds. Hehe. Dangerous as hell, normally would be fun, means we're in some deep shit if we don't hurry up. Shit, why did that old fart make me incharge of children."
Nobushige worked quickly with a series of new handsigns. His clone joined in.
As the group rounded the corner, 'Nobushige' was dead on the ground, and a terrified guard stood over him, the naginata bloodied in his hand.
"What happened?"
"T-this guy just popped out the ceiling! I swung as fast as I could, and well, here he is."
The leader of the group approached, nodding his head. He had a sword sheathed by his side, and a slender build, though he was covered in scars. The rest of the group seemed pretty scarred as well. Not officially ninja, but they might as well have been from how they react. Even small sounds drew their attention.
The guard backed, panted relieved as he leaned against the wall.
"What's up with today, intruder jumps out the ceiling, and I hear something at the coliseum."
"Yeah. Intruders just seem to be everywhere. To bad you suck at disguises. I can sense our transformation jutsu. Only an idiot uses that to infiltrate."
The sensor pointed with two fingers, and a jet of water shot straight through the guard. A transformation jutsu dispersed, and a very dead Nobushige hit the ground. The sensor waited several seconds very tensely, before slightly relaxing. He made a handsign and closed his eyes. On the floor, the corpse twitched as it touched its wrist with its middle finger. A spear appeared infront o the 'corpse', piercing the sensor in an instant. Three kunai were shared with his friends as the corpse got off the ground, stretching his arms.
"One of these days, this is going to stop being funny. Today is not one of them."
Five more corpses were sealed away, one being Nobushige very own clone.
Nobushige finally reached into his pocket, and unsealed Yuuki.
"Sorry that took a bit, Uchiha brat. Follow me for a moment, I heard a bit of a struggle to your 8 o'clock, that'll probably either be your teammates, or my gravesite. Which one? We'll see."
Running as fast as he could (which was only as fast as Yuuki could in the first place), Nobushige headed towards the two. A customary greeting met Katsumi and Nagisa, kunai thrown at their cheeks.
"Yo."
Stopping for a second, Nobushige put his hands on his knees and held up a finger.
"Alright. We're all inside. Good. I trust you two didn't have much trouble getting in seeing as your alive. This place is crawling with high end nin. I'm guessing the back is much more protected than the front which means we're in the right place. I heard some commotion going towards the front as well.
Well, then we can start for real. Our job is to bust out as many as we can here, looking mostly for Leaf nin. Koma said he'll handle extraction, hell if I know how. But let's gather the prisoners into one area, like say that blank room. I'm going to scout ahead. Your job is to either find a key, or burn through the prison doors, or punch them. They are meant to hold shinobi, so they'll probably be a big obstacle. I'm not sure we CAN brute force, but I'm going to buy you all all the time you need to find out. Now, if a prison entrance has a guard outside of it, assume its high priority, and don't save that person. That 'guard' could be a member of Akai Kyodai. We can't save everyone. But everyone we do save is a blow to Daisuke and a win for the Leaf.
Nagisa, keep hold of this, its worth more than you are, so be careful."
Nobushige tossed a bingo book at her.
"Katsumi, this is actually probably going to be the most we've ever needed your medical skills. Don't burn through your chakra too much, but try to patch people up to being able to run as much as they can. Try to rampage as little as possible until then. Well then, break!"
Nobushige formed a few handsigns for clones, and scattered in different directions. One stayed behind momentarily for questions.
Orikanyo
Do you hear it? The screams of Gacha salt?
"And I'm here to help as well." Koma chimed in, seemingly just appearing, again, Atsuko not quite to be seen anywhere around them either. "But don't get yourselves hurt just because you have jonin back up." He paused and looked around them for a second. "My my my... so much fear in the air... Careful as you traverse this place, it is a place of missfortune and death... Ah?" He paused looking to nearby his leg.
"Yes? What is it?" He asked his... Leg? "Hmm... I see... Yes, indeed it is rather dark... Oh? Would you show me the way?" He took out a small candle and lit it, holding it out to the air and... it began to float...
"I found a way to the labs, those going there, follow me." He began to walk off from the group, following the candle as it slowly floated down the cavern. "Come along, we have people to save." The air tempurature began to cool a great deal, shivers running down their spines as the mysterious being all but showed up, spoke to himself, made a candle float and fucking started walking away.
Made one appreciate their relatively normal sensei.
"Yes? What is it?" He asked his... Leg? "Hmm... I see... Yes, indeed it is rather dark... Oh? Would you show me the way?" He took out a small candle and lit it, holding it out to the air and... it began to float...
"I found a way to the labs, those going there, follow me." He began to walk off from the group, following the candle as it slowly floated down the cavern. "Come along, we have people to save." The air tempurature began to cool a great deal, shivers running down their spines as the mysterious being all but showed up, spoke to himself, made a candle float and fucking started walking away.
Made one appreciate their relatively normal sensei.
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Yukari Hyuuga
“It’s so dark…” a voice called from the seemingly endless blackness all around, a voice so soft, it almost feels as if it was but the wind, a soft, child’s voice. “Where's the light…?”
Yukari awoke with a start before quietly groaning. The air in this place was so heavy with pain and corruption, it left her feeling so weak and sick. It didn’t feel like she’d adjusted at all despite how much time had passed.
Just how long had it been anyway?
The Hyuuga ran a hand over her eyes, hissing as another sharp wave of pain cut through them. It had been getting worse lately, and far more frequent. Staggering over to the sink, Yukari splashed some cold water against her face and looked at her reflection in the tarnished mirror. The face that stared back looked exhausted and haunted.
Though it was her eyes that bothered her the most. No longer pools of milky white, light blue irides stared back at her. Did this Tenseigan actually exist? If it did, what kind of power would eyes that surpassed the Byakugan hold? Focusing chakra in her eyes, her byakugan flared to life.
Another wave of pain; enough to bring Yukari to her knees with a cry. This time it didn’t fade, each beat of her heart sending another pulse of pain through her eyes. Was anyone back in the Leaf even looking for her? The clan wouldn’t care, they finally had a way to replace her now that Masaru was born. Her teammates?
When you're ready to be my teammate again and not an elitist shinobi princess, let me know.
A weak sound left her, a sputtering mix between a chuckle and a sob. No one was coming… and she had no way to get out on her own. Even as thin as the veil between worlds was, she had no way to step through it. Sure, that world was likely a hellscape that made this look like a peaceful vacation.
But at least there she had a fighting chance.
The heiress to the Hyuuga… weak… defenseless… useless…
Worthless.
A scream tore free from Yukari’s throat as the pain reached its peak. And just as suddenly as the agony came, it left; leaving a dull ache in its wake. Even with the pain gone she remained laying on the cold concrete, staring blankly ahead.
Without even thinking, she increased the flow of chakra to her eyes once more. The pain in her eyes didn’t increase, but her confusion did. What lay beyond her prison was no longer completely obfuscated by the barrier that surrounded her. Blurred and unfocused, but she could see. More importantly, Yukari could see the tags responsible embedded in the walls.
Pressing her hand against the wall, she focused her chakra in her hand, molding it into sharp blades. The hidden tag was shredded as her hand slid across the smooth concrete. One tag down…
Two tags…
Six…
Seven. With the final tag destroyed, the barrier flickered and dissipated, allowing Yukari clear vision beyond the walls trapping her. The complex was far larger than she expected, cells lining the walls of multiple levels. Yukari felt her heart drop when she saw Mai meditating just a few cells away. Her good arm had been broken.
Yukari’s exploration was cut short when she spotted a familiar figure striding down the halls. The mere sight of him brought an ugly snarl to her lips. Judging by the quickness in his steps and the curiosity dominating his features, Daisuke must have known the barrier was gone.
She shifted into a fighting stance when he stopped in front of the door, watching him weave handsigns to move the slab of metal. “Will wonders never cease?” Daisuke murmured as he stepped inside, clearly taken aback by the blue eyes glaring back at him. Even her chakra felt different from before. Was this the Tenseigan? Or could it be something entirely different?
Over the years, he’d seen every known bloodline in the world, knew their power. He’d even brought back a line that had been lost to war. The possibility of delving into something unknown, into uncharted territory, was exhilarating.
And distracting.
Though he wasn’t the only one distracted. Ever since her eyes met his, Yukari had been frozen in place. A dark, billowing mass seemed to follow him filled with faces twisted in anguish and hands reaching for him, some clinging to him. Ephemeral beings grasping at the faintest tethers of his being, tied to the world only by a lust to live again and strike back at the one who so cruelly took them away and devoided them of the light of life, the pain, the suffering, to gaze upon their faces was to experience their anguish, pain that is lived over and over as they played their final moments of terror and agony over and over.
As if his very soul were toying with them beyond the grave.
A dry hiss rising from her throat, Yukari gathered chakra in her hand before thrusting her palm forward. Instead of the concussive shell of chakra used in the Hyuuga’s Vacuum Palm, a beam of chakra left her hand. It pierced clean through Daisuke’s chest, slamming him into the steel door. He collapsed to the floor with a dull thud, blood pooling beneath him.
Yukari’s breaths were heavy, ragged. Her hands shook. She could see the cloud around him writhe, gnarled hands grasping and clawing at him. How did I...? It didn’t matter. Not now. Right now, she needed to figure out how to get the door open and-
“My, for a moment there I felt death’s cold embrace.” Daisuke rasped as he pushed himself to his feet and swayed unsteadily. His dark hair had grown pale, face gaunt. But he was alive.
Yukari staggered back against the wall, trembling. Her mind raced. He shouldn’t have been able to survive a wound like that. Practically immortal, just what could he do with whatever her byakugan had become?
No, she couldn’t let him have it. As golden chains snaked towards her Yukari built up chakra, focusing it in her eyes.
Gentle Fist Art: One Body Blow
“It’s so dark…” a voice called from the seemingly endless blackness all around, a voice so soft, it almost feels as if it was but the wind, a soft, child’s voice. “Where's the light…?”
Yukari awoke with a start before quietly groaning. The air in this place was so heavy with pain and corruption, it left her feeling so weak and sick. It didn’t feel like she’d adjusted at all despite how much time had passed.
Just how long had it been anyway?
The Hyuuga ran a hand over her eyes, hissing as another sharp wave of pain cut through them. It had been getting worse lately, and far more frequent. Staggering over to the sink, Yukari splashed some cold water against her face and looked at her reflection in the tarnished mirror. The face that stared back looked exhausted and haunted.
Though it was her eyes that bothered her the most. No longer pools of milky white, light blue irides stared back at her. Did this Tenseigan actually exist? If it did, what kind of power would eyes that surpassed the Byakugan hold? Focusing chakra in her eyes, her byakugan flared to life.
Another wave of pain; enough to bring Yukari to her knees with a cry. This time it didn’t fade, each beat of her heart sending another pulse of pain through her eyes. Was anyone back in the Leaf even looking for her? The clan wouldn’t care, they finally had a way to replace her now that Masaru was born. Her teammates?
When you're ready to be my teammate again and not an elitist shinobi princess, let me know.
A weak sound left her, a sputtering mix between a chuckle and a sob. No one was coming… and she had no way to get out on her own. Even as thin as the veil between worlds was, she had no way to step through it. Sure, that world was likely a hellscape that made this look like a peaceful vacation.
But at least there she had a fighting chance.
The heiress to the Hyuuga… weak… defenseless… useless…
Worthless.
A scream tore free from Yukari’s throat as the pain reached its peak. And just as suddenly as the agony came, it left; leaving a dull ache in its wake. Even with the pain gone she remained laying on the cold concrete, staring blankly ahead.
Without even thinking, she increased the flow of chakra to her eyes once more. The pain in her eyes didn’t increase, but her confusion did. What lay beyond her prison was no longer completely obfuscated by the barrier that surrounded her. Blurred and unfocused, but she could see. More importantly, Yukari could see the tags responsible embedded in the walls.
Pressing her hand against the wall, she focused her chakra in her hand, molding it into sharp blades. The hidden tag was shredded as her hand slid across the smooth concrete. One tag down…
Two tags…
Six…
Seven. With the final tag destroyed, the barrier flickered and dissipated, allowing Yukari clear vision beyond the walls trapping her. The complex was far larger than she expected, cells lining the walls of multiple levels. Yukari felt her heart drop when she saw Mai meditating just a few cells away. Her good arm had been broken.
Yukari’s exploration was cut short when she spotted a familiar figure striding down the halls. The mere sight of him brought an ugly snarl to her lips. Judging by the quickness in his steps and the curiosity dominating his features, Daisuke must have known the barrier was gone.
She shifted into a fighting stance when he stopped in front of the door, watching him weave handsigns to move the slab of metal. “Will wonders never cease?” Daisuke murmured as he stepped inside, clearly taken aback by the blue eyes glaring back at him. Even her chakra felt different from before. Was this the Tenseigan? Or could it be something entirely different?
Over the years, he’d seen every known bloodline in the world, knew their power. He’d even brought back a line that had been lost to war. The possibility of delving into something unknown, into uncharted territory, was exhilarating.
And distracting.
Though he wasn’t the only one distracted. Ever since her eyes met his, Yukari had been frozen in place. A dark, billowing mass seemed to follow him filled with faces twisted in anguish and hands reaching for him, some clinging to him. Ephemeral beings grasping at the faintest tethers of his being, tied to the world only by a lust to live again and strike back at the one who so cruelly took them away and devoided them of the light of life, the pain, the suffering, to gaze upon their faces was to experience their anguish, pain that is lived over and over as they played their final moments of terror and agony over and over.
As if his very soul were toying with them beyond the grave.
A dry hiss rising from her throat, Yukari gathered chakra in her hand before thrusting her palm forward. Instead of the concussive shell of chakra used in the Hyuuga’s Vacuum Palm, a beam of chakra left her hand. It pierced clean through Daisuke’s chest, slamming him into the steel door. He collapsed to the floor with a dull thud, blood pooling beneath him.
Yukari’s breaths were heavy, ragged. Her hands shook. She could see the cloud around him writhe, gnarled hands grasping and clawing at him. How did I...? It didn’t matter. Not now. Right now, she needed to figure out how to get the door open and-
“My, for a moment there I felt death’s cold embrace.” Daisuke rasped as he pushed himself to his feet and swayed unsteadily. His dark hair had grown pale, face gaunt. But he was alive.
Yukari staggered back against the wall, trembling. Her mind raced. He shouldn’t have been able to survive a wound like that. Practically immortal, just what could he do with whatever her byakugan had become?
No, she couldn’t let him have it. As golden chains snaked towards her Yukari built up chakra, focusing it in her eyes.
Gentle Fist Art: One Body Blow
AtlannianSpy
Alarmed and Strangerous
Hotaru Hagano
Deep within Daisuke's laboratory, in a room set aside for archival purposes Hotaru sat, scratching quietly at a sheet of paper with a pen. She had volunteered to sort through the enormous quantities of raw data his years of experimentation had produced looking for anomalies and patterns of statistical significance. It was tedious, time consuming work but it was priceless being able to sift through all this data first hand and the work was demanding enough to keep Hotaru's mind off of some of the things she had witnessed in the last few days, things she'd rather not dwell on presently.
there was a distant tremor and the ceiling above Hotaru shook slightly, prompting her to pause from her work and look up. That in iteself wasn't all that unsual, this room wasn't very far from the arena after all, but the urgent footsteps and yelling she could dimly hear were more alarming. Was something happening somewhere in the compound? Maybe they were under attack.? Hotaru picked up her bag and a small flurry of moths emerged, splitting up to go scout out the rest of the compound.
Hotaru started sorting rapidly through the various papers in front of her, snatching up particular ones and stuffing them into her bag. If they were under attack, and the rapidly moving, elevated chakra signals her moths were detecting suggested she was, than it was important she be seen to be doing something useful. However going toe to toe with a Konoha attack force was fairly unappealing. The obvious course of action was to focus on the research material here, grab the most important files for evacuation and destroy the rest before it could fall into the hands of the village.
Hotaru finished packing away the most valuable notes and reached into her bag for some explosive tags, then hesitated. If she took this step she could no longer say she'd simply witnessed what went on here, she was actively participating. At the same time, even with the Leaf already here Hotaru was sure Daisuke was far from finished, everyone she'd seen so far indicated that he had more tricks up his sleeve so she was going to keep following him. Having steeled her nerve Hotaru swept the rest of the papers into a pile in the center of the room and dropped an explosive, detonating it behind her as she walked briskly towards Daisuke's chakra signature. It was faint and unsteady in a way she had never seen before and she wanted to know what was going on.
KageYuuki
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Mai Sanada
-1 day ago-
Mai continued to sit on her bed, using it as a surface to meditate as she began a long, and painful series of handsigns. She’d found time to think, and she might be pissed at her family, she might be scared, but dammit, so was everyone else here. Mai HAD to find a way to beat Daisuke. If she didn’t, who would?
Taking a deep breath again, she finished the last sign with a cringe, and suddenly, she was back to fighting Daisuke… again. Her memories along made him seem unbeatable, nevermind whatever else he had.
Genjutsu: Re: Life
The metal door to the cell slid open with a low groan, Daisuke raising an eyebrow as he stepped inside and studied Mai. Even with her injuries, the girl seemed able to fall into a trance while maintaining a handsign.
How interesting…
A golden chain snaked from his back, looking to coil around Mai and negate whatever technique she was trying to use.
Mai shook back from her dream straight back to staring at the chain. The damn chain. That would be the key to beating Daisuke. Stronger, faster, and more durable than her. Sure, it was metal, but it just wasn’t fair. Still, Mai hadn’t figured it out, so she just stared on.
“Yes?”
“It must be difficult, using handsigns with your arm in its current state.” Daisuke examined the dark bruises that still marred her tan skin. “If you cooperate today, I may just tend to that wound…”[/color]
Mai started to answer, but at the offer of healing, she started to laugh. She held up her right arm.
“I blew this up 2 years ago in an incomplete jutsu.”
She pointed to her shirt.
“I got this a few months ago.”
She pointed to a large bruise across her neck.
“And this a few weeks ago. My body’s broken several times. Using jutsu is really difficult, took me over a minute to cast something small as practice. Been a ninja for years now despite it. A broken arm’s just a nuisance. I can still rip you a new one. I just have to figure out how first. You don’t seem like the chatty type though, what do you want?”
Mai bit her lip. In truth, a bit curious about if he was going to bring up the Kekkei genkai, but at the same time honestly wanting to murder the man. It made her more angry knowing she actually couldn’t, yet...
He shook his head, “Still stubborn I see… Runs in the family. Why don’t we put that boasting of yours to the test, hm?”
“Sounds more like we’re putting yours to the test. I hate dancing around the bush. What.do.you.want? Like I said, ain’t figured out how to put you down yet.”
Daisuke sighed, “Then I shall be blunt. A test, to look into the abilities of your bloodline. See how well it can be replicated and its drawbacks overcome.”
Mai remained silent, simply taking deep breaths. Her… bloodline. Was she allowed to even be curious right now? Was she allowed to want to kill the boredom of her small room? She shook her head answering her own questions.
Buuut… there was a thoughtline Mai did allow herself. Mai slowly rose, as if consenting. She glanced at Daisuke and scowled.
Still no openings…
"Good,” Daisuke started out into the hall. The chain coiled around her refused to leave as they walked, winding through halls and down a level. They finally came to a large room, blast marks marring the floor.
Mai walked silently thinking. The chain never leaving her meant Daisuke was an idiot. Mai’s body flicker was her strong point. She might not be able to escape, but she could give him a hell of a game of hide and seek. The entire trip, Mai kept checking Daisuke for openings that could lead to a foot to the head. She was disappointed the entire trip there.
The doors behind them opened once more, a clone stepped inside leading a girl close to Mai’s age. Her black hair was cut short, her face as hollow as her eyes. A quiet whimper as the seal on the back of her neck glowed and her eyes darkened.
“Let’s start, shall we?” Daisuke said as he body flickered to the upper level, forming a barrier before releasing the chains. “A simple sparring match is likely your style, Sanada.”
Mai nodded, forming a deformed sign of confrontation with her right hand… or at least attempted to.
“Mai, of the Sanada. You? You don’t look so good. Looks like you need some help soon, like a hero or something.”
"Hero?” The girl shook her head. “No such thing, they’re only in stories.”
Mai laughed.
“Well, welcome to a fairy tale! What’s your name? I’ll get you out of here when I figure out how I’m getting out.”
Mai miiight have struggled to her side to form the middle finger to Daisuke. It wasn’t complete with her hands as is, but maybe he’d get the message.
The girl watched Mai with a humorless expression, “Tsuya, if it matters that much.” She swayed as she took a step forward, “Though… you may be right about being my chance out of here.” Tsuya faded to black, flickering in front of Mai, her fist drawn back “I just have to kill you first.”
Mai was taken back as she hadn’t expect a fast opponent, sliding back from the punch. Was that….?
Mai flinched from the hit, jumping back to gain some distance. The pain, at least, gave her some clarity. Mai felt slower, and so did everything around her. Mai waited for a followup, scanning the area carefully.
“That’s pretty fast… I can go faster!”
Mai more barked than spoke. Mai crouched, her hands completely still by her sides.
“Feh,” with another body flicker, Tsuya appeared on Mai’s left side, already aiming a kick at her bad arm.
Mai smiled as her opponent moved, Mai was only just starting to be able to even read her opponent's speed, but that was because her opponent was just as fast as Mai. Mai never really got the chance to go equal with someone. Mai had only had the chance to have that much fun once, and it was beyond euphoric. Mai grimaced as she remembered her reasoning here. It wasn’t to have fun. She needed to see if what Daisuke had said was true.
Mai had only agreed to see if Daisuke had been lying or not… and what better way than with a fight?
“If you want my arm, try this!”
Mai slammed down her splinted arm against her opponent leg, aiming for the knee with an elbow. At the moment of impact, time stopped. Saying it was a bad idea was an understatement. Mai howled at the impact, her entire body seizing at the pain. Mai might have had slightly masochistic tendencies, but there reached a point where pain was pain. She hurt. Mai’s mind addled, and what seemed like every few minutes, she felt a great pressure rush through her entire body. It took her several of them before Mai realized that was her heartbeat. And that it wasn’t every few minutes.
Is this the Kekkei Genkai Daisuke had been talking about!? Can’t think…. Gotta fight. Gotta … have more.
To Tsuya, Mai had seemed a completely different person, now panting wildly and looking around like a savage animal, complete with howling and grinding her teeth.
Tsuya hissed in pain, rolling away to check her knee. It didn’t seem broken, but she definitely wasn’t putting her full weight on it any time soon. Though from the looks of it, Mai was hurting a lot more from that hit than she was.
It was strange, the way time seemed to be slowing down. Just what had he done to her?
And what had he done to Mai?
No, it didn’t matter. Her opponent had to die. It was the only way to go home. Tsuya lunged, looking to strike Mai’s face, disorient her further. Strategy had never been Tsuya’s forte, but she never considered herself a ninja to begin with. After all this, she definitely wanted nothing to do with them.
At close range, Mai suddenly turned to black. She reappeared inches in front of Tsuya, literally ramming herself at the girl with a headbutt, aimed at Tsuya’s nose. Tsuya wanted to strike Mai’s head? She’d get her wish, and Hideki’s dentist could verify that Mai had a strong head.
“Too slow! Gotta go faster than that. Faster. FASTER. FASTER!”
Mai suddenly felt fidgety in her flight. She needed to do more. She needed to hit everything. If it moved, it was an opponent! And a hero always vanquished the opponent.
Mai’s blow landed with a crunch and spray of blood. Time seemed to slow further for Tsuya, the injuries still definitely hurt. But at the same time… they didn’t. Ignoring her injured knee’s complaints at her weight resting on it, Tsuya snapped a forward kick at Mai.
With a snap of her head, Mai stumbled back.
“Call that a kick!? Hahaha!”
Mai crouched, her muscles twitching. She was annoyed her body seemed not to go near as a fast as she wanted, but it was a good fight!
“Shut up!” Tsuya nearly roared as she lunged again. She just wanted to tackle Mai, beat her until that grin was wiped off her face. Why were they fighting again? Didn’t matter. She was gonna pummel her opponent until nothing was left.
Mai at least didn’t talk as she laughed madly. Tsuya was lunging, perfect! Mai kicked off of the ground, sending herself flying upwards in a back flip, both legs striking at Tsuya violently. Even if it missed, the kick was violent enough to create a vacuum in the air. And if it did hit, well, Tsuya would become well acquainted with the top of the barrier.
Tenran: Heavenly Wheel Kick
The blow easily connected, slamming Tsuya into the barrier before she hit the stone floor. It was hard enough to make her black out for a few moments, and her jaw was definitely shattered. Tsuya blearily looked around in an attempt to get a grip on her surroundings once more.
Mai approached her downed opponent, somewhere between ragged breaths and giggling. Mai didn’t know. Seeing her opponent move, Mai leapt, raising one leg up mid air.
Leaf Drop
Stone cracked under her foot, and suddenly Mai looked horrified. Her foot was embedded in the stone inches away from Tsuya’s face. Suddenly time went normal again, and all the backlogged pain Mai had all hit at once. Screaming, she backed up holding her now shattered arm. It took her a moment to control herself, though tears were still in her eyes.
“Sorry, I went way overboard. Just, I never get to fight people fast as I am. Tsuya, i-is it? Let me help you up. What cell number? I’m GOING to bust you out. I’m 3-A.”
Mai held out, what while not have been her good hand, was definitely her non broken one.
Tsuya only looked up at Mai in confusion. Her ears were ringing, the world spinning, she didn’t understand anything the other girl had just said.
“An impressive performance,” Daisuke looked over at the thoroughly broken fighter. “Though I suppose I should have used a shinobi proper for this test. Wonder if she’ll survive?”
Mai gave a death glare to Daisuke.
“You ain’t getting an encore, I just wanted to see if you were telling the truth about having a Kekkei Genkai this once. You tried putting my blood in her, didn’t you? She’d better survive. Otherwise, I’m hunting down each and every lab assistant in this lab after I break out. If you’re too lazy to do it, put her in my cell, I can at least patch something like this.”
"Ah, but can you do anything for bleeding on the brain?” Daisuke smirked, “That was a rather nasty kick back there.”
Mai looked a bit worried, and turned to Tsuya, shaking her a bit.
“Cell number, what’s your cell number?”
There was no answer, only rasping breaths.
Mai quickly ripped off her sleeves, looking for bleeding.
“Gotta make sure the head's alright.”
Mai’s unbroken hand shook violently, and she dropped the impromptu bandage. Grabbing again, she dropped it again. She looked up to Daisuke.
“Ain’t she an experiment? If you want more detail, come bloody help.”
Mai tried again to get the bandage around Tsuya, but she had near zero grip strength with her one hand, difficult as it would have been to do one-handed anyways.
A blade pierced through Tsuya’s chest, the girl shuddering before growing still. “A labrat who served her purpose.” The blade of the jian Daisuke held retracted to its proper length. “There would be no progress if a scientist mourned every rat that dies in their experiments.”
Mai rose and didn’t say a word. Her deathglare was still the same. She’d made her threat. If Daisuke wanted to try her, he’d soon find out what a Sana- no, what Mai’s word meant. She slowly made her way to her cell, glancing at every cell number on her way past.
-1 day ago-
Mai continued to sit on her bed, using it as a surface to meditate as she began a long, and painful series of handsigns. She’d found time to think, and she might be pissed at her family, she might be scared, but dammit, so was everyone else here. Mai HAD to find a way to beat Daisuke. If she didn’t, who would?
Taking a deep breath again, she finished the last sign with a cringe, and suddenly, she was back to fighting Daisuke… again. Her memories along made him seem unbeatable, nevermind whatever else he had.
Genjutsu: Re: Life
The metal door to the cell slid open with a low groan, Daisuke raising an eyebrow as he stepped inside and studied Mai. Even with her injuries, the girl seemed able to fall into a trance while maintaining a handsign.
How interesting…
A golden chain snaked from his back, looking to coil around Mai and negate whatever technique she was trying to use.
Mai shook back from her dream straight back to staring at the chain. The damn chain. That would be the key to beating Daisuke. Stronger, faster, and more durable than her. Sure, it was metal, but it just wasn’t fair. Still, Mai hadn’t figured it out, so she just stared on.
“Yes?”
“It must be difficult, using handsigns with your arm in its current state.” Daisuke examined the dark bruises that still marred her tan skin. “If you cooperate today, I may just tend to that wound…”[/color]
Mai started to answer, but at the offer of healing, she started to laugh. She held up her right arm.
“I blew this up 2 years ago in an incomplete jutsu.”
She pointed to her shirt.
“I got this a few months ago.”
She pointed to a large bruise across her neck.
“And this a few weeks ago. My body’s broken several times. Using jutsu is really difficult, took me over a minute to cast something small as practice. Been a ninja for years now despite it. A broken arm’s just a nuisance. I can still rip you a new one. I just have to figure out how first. You don’t seem like the chatty type though, what do you want?”
Mai bit her lip. In truth, a bit curious about if he was going to bring up the Kekkei genkai, but at the same time honestly wanting to murder the man. It made her more angry knowing she actually couldn’t, yet...
He shook his head, “Still stubborn I see… Runs in the family. Why don’t we put that boasting of yours to the test, hm?”
“Sounds more like we’re putting yours to the test. I hate dancing around the bush. What.do.you.want? Like I said, ain’t figured out how to put you down yet.”
Daisuke sighed, “Then I shall be blunt. A test, to look into the abilities of your bloodline. See how well it can be replicated and its drawbacks overcome.”
Mai remained silent, simply taking deep breaths. Her… bloodline. Was she allowed to even be curious right now? Was she allowed to want to kill the boredom of her small room? She shook her head answering her own questions.
Buuut… there was a thoughtline Mai did allow herself. Mai slowly rose, as if consenting. She glanced at Daisuke and scowled.
Still no openings…
"Good,” Daisuke started out into the hall. The chain coiled around her refused to leave as they walked, winding through halls and down a level. They finally came to a large room, blast marks marring the floor.
Mai walked silently thinking. The chain never leaving her meant Daisuke was an idiot. Mai’s body flicker was her strong point. She might not be able to escape, but she could give him a hell of a game of hide and seek. The entire trip, Mai kept checking Daisuke for openings that could lead to a foot to the head. She was disappointed the entire trip there.
The doors behind them opened once more, a clone stepped inside leading a girl close to Mai’s age. Her black hair was cut short, her face as hollow as her eyes. A quiet whimper as the seal on the back of her neck glowed and her eyes darkened.
“Let’s start, shall we?” Daisuke said as he body flickered to the upper level, forming a barrier before releasing the chains. “A simple sparring match is likely your style, Sanada.”
Mai nodded, forming a deformed sign of confrontation with her right hand… or at least attempted to.
“Mai, of the Sanada. You? You don’t look so good. Looks like you need some help soon, like a hero or something.”
"Hero?” The girl shook her head. “No such thing, they’re only in stories.”
Mai laughed.
“Well, welcome to a fairy tale! What’s your name? I’ll get you out of here when I figure out how I’m getting out.”
Mai miiight have struggled to her side to form the middle finger to Daisuke. It wasn’t complete with her hands as is, but maybe he’d get the message.
The girl watched Mai with a humorless expression, “Tsuya, if it matters that much.” She swayed as she took a step forward, “Though… you may be right about being my chance out of here.” Tsuya faded to black, flickering in front of Mai, her fist drawn back “I just have to kill you first.”
Mai was taken back as she hadn’t expect a fast opponent, sliding back from the punch. Was that….?
Mai flinched from the hit, jumping back to gain some distance. The pain, at least, gave her some clarity. Mai felt slower, and so did everything around her. Mai waited for a followup, scanning the area carefully.
“That’s pretty fast… I can go faster!”
Mai more barked than spoke. Mai crouched, her hands completely still by her sides.
“Feh,” with another body flicker, Tsuya appeared on Mai’s left side, already aiming a kick at her bad arm.
Mai smiled as her opponent moved, Mai was only just starting to be able to even read her opponent's speed, but that was because her opponent was just as fast as Mai. Mai never really got the chance to go equal with someone. Mai had only had the chance to have that much fun once, and it was beyond euphoric. Mai grimaced as she remembered her reasoning here. It wasn’t to have fun. She needed to see if what Daisuke had said was true.
Daisuke said:
Mai had only agreed to see if Daisuke had been lying or not… and what better way than with a fight?
“If you want my arm, try this!”
Mai slammed down her splinted arm against her opponent leg, aiming for the knee with an elbow. At the moment of impact, time stopped. Saying it was a bad idea was an understatement. Mai howled at the impact, her entire body seizing at the pain. Mai might have had slightly masochistic tendencies, but there reached a point where pain was pain. She hurt. Mai’s mind addled, and what seemed like every few minutes, she felt a great pressure rush through her entire body. It took her several of them before Mai realized that was her heartbeat. And that it wasn’t every few minutes.
Is this the Kekkei Genkai Daisuke had been talking about!? Can’t think…. Gotta fight. Gotta … have more.
To Tsuya, Mai had seemed a completely different person, now panting wildly and looking around like a savage animal, complete with howling and grinding her teeth.
Tsuya hissed in pain, rolling away to check her knee. It didn’t seem broken, but she definitely wasn’t putting her full weight on it any time soon. Though from the looks of it, Mai was hurting a lot more from that hit than she was.
It was strange, the way time seemed to be slowing down. Just what had he done to her?
And what had he done to Mai?
No, it didn’t matter. Her opponent had to die. It was the only way to go home. Tsuya lunged, looking to strike Mai’s face, disorient her further. Strategy had never been Tsuya’s forte, but she never considered herself a ninja to begin with. After all this, she definitely wanted nothing to do with them.
At close range, Mai suddenly turned to black. She reappeared inches in front of Tsuya, literally ramming herself at the girl with a headbutt, aimed at Tsuya’s nose. Tsuya wanted to strike Mai’s head? She’d get her wish, and Hideki’s dentist could verify that Mai had a strong head.
“Too slow! Gotta go faster than that. Faster. FASTER. FASTER!”
Mai suddenly felt fidgety in her flight. She needed to do more. She needed to hit everything. If it moved, it was an opponent! And a hero always vanquished the opponent.
Mai’s blow landed with a crunch and spray of blood. Time seemed to slow further for Tsuya, the injuries still definitely hurt. But at the same time… they didn’t. Ignoring her injured knee’s complaints at her weight resting on it, Tsuya snapped a forward kick at Mai.
With a snap of her head, Mai stumbled back.
“Call that a kick!? Hahaha!”
Mai crouched, her muscles twitching. She was annoyed her body seemed not to go near as a fast as she wanted, but it was a good fight!
“Shut up!” Tsuya nearly roared as she lunged again. She just wanted to tackle Mai, beat her until that grin was wiped off her face. Why were they fighting again? Didn’t matter. She was gonna pummel her opponent until nothing was left.
Mai at least didn’t talk as she laughed madly. Tsuya was lunging, perfect! Mai kicked off of the ground, sending herself flying upwards in a back flip, both legs striking at Tsuya violently. Even if it missed, the kick was violent enough to create a vacuum in the air. And if it did hit, well, Tsuya would become well acquainted with the top of the barrier.
Tenran: Heavenly Wheel Kick
The blow easily connected, slamming Tsuya into the barrier before she hit the stone floor. It was hard enough to make her black out for a few moments, and her jaw was definitely shattered. Tsuya blearily looked around in an attempt to get a grip on her surroundings once more.
Mai approached her downed opponent, somewhere between ragged breaths and giggling. Mai didn’t know. Seeing her opponent move, Mai leapt, raising one leg up mid air.
Leaf Drop
Stone cracked under her foot, and suddenly Mai looked horrified. Her foot was embedded in the stone inches away from Tsuya’s face. Suddenly time went normal again, and all the backlogged pain Mai had all hit at once. Screaming, she backed up holding her now shattered arm. It took her a moment to control herself, though tears were still in her eyes.
“Sorry, I went way overboard. Just, I never get to fight people fast as I am. Tsuya, i-is it? Let me help you up. What cell number? I’m GOING to bust you out. I’m 3-A.”
Mai held out, what while not have been her good hand, was definitely her non broken one.
Tsuya only looked up at Mai in confusion. Her ears were ringing, the world spinning, she didn’t understand anything the other girl had just said.
“An impressive performance,” Daisuke looked over at the thoroughly broken fighter. “Though I suppose I should have used a shinobi proper for this test. Wonder if she’ll survive?”
Mai gave a death glare to Daisuke.
“You ain’t getting an encore, I just wanted to see if you were telling the truth about having a Kekkei Genkai this once. You tried putting my blood in her, didn’t you? She’d better survive. Otherwise, I’m hunting down each and every lab assistant in this lab after I break out. If you’re too lazy to do it, put her in my cell, I can at least patch something like this.”
"Ah, but can you do anything for bleeding on the brain?” Daisuke smirked, “That was a rather nasty kick back there.”
Mai looked a bit worried, and turned to Tsuya, shaking her a bit.
“Cell number, what’s your cell number?”
There was no answer, only rasping breaths.
Mai quickly ripped off her sleeves, looking for bleeding.
“Gotta make sure the head's alright.”
Mai’s unbroken hand shook violently, and she dropped the impromptu bandage. Grabbing again, she dropped it again. She looked up to Daisuke.
“Ain’t she an experiment? If you want more detail, come bloody help.”
Mai tried again to get the bandage around Tsuya, but she had near zero grip strength with her one hand, difficult as it would have been to do one-handed anyways.
A blade pierced through Tsuya’s chest, the girl shuddering before growing still. “A labrat who served her purpose.” The blade of the jian Daisuke held retracted to its proper length. “There would be no progress if a scientist mourned every rat that dies in their experiments.”
Mai rose and didn’t say a word. Her deathglare was still the same. She’d made her threat. If Daisuke wanted to try her, he’d soon find out what a Sana- no, what Mai’s word meant. She slowly made her way to her cell, glancing at every cell number on her way past.
KageYuuki
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Koma
Koma continued to ghost the place as he searched for his wayward student, slowly, he made his way through the place in purest silence. Checking each room, corridor, closet, bathroom stall until he found her, the slightest smidge of his student’s faded aura… Indeed, she was injured… fading away in this place.
He entered the testing area adjacent to the room, lots of experiments and such around, it looked like somebody had been working quite hard on his student… The thought made him uncharacteristically furious… But he did not let it out.
Save for allowing himself kicking over one table.
He eyed the door on the other side, many shredded tags litter the floor around it... Just what did that man do to her… Poor dear… he thought this as he laid a hand upon the door forcing the lock to come undone, he would not be barred entry, he had a child to save…
The door swung open, standing in the doorway he took in a small breath and spoke out. “...Yukari?”
The Hyuuga was motionless on the floor, deep crimson painting her face and pooling on the concrete floor. Faint as it was, her aura was still there. Alive, but just barely, but seeing this the man broke into a stride, quickly rushing over and began utilizing his mystical palm technique to seal the wounds…
Hand becoming coated in her blood, it would at least seal the wounds... But her eyes were most definitely gone… Different than extracted, destroyed. And judging from her bloodied palms, her posture, the blood on the walls… She did it to herself…
“Everything will be alright Yukari, your sensei is here… All will be well again soon.” He cooed softly, stroking the young lady’s head like a worried parent… he needed to get her out of here and quickly… Roku would be his best chance of keeping her alive... But he needed to get them all out as well... Atsuko was good, but she couldn’t do what they needed…
He reached down and lifted up the young lady slowly turning to exit the holding cell. Daisuke stood in the doorway, pale hair partly covering his face. His clothes were still soaked in blood, the tear in them easily visible. “You made it far without raising an alarm,” he hissed, “didn’t think there were any skilled nin left in the Leaf.”
“And here I thought I knew of monsters, guess even old folks like me learn new things everyday…” Koma’s face was as it usually was, a mask with that simple smile. His eyes gleaning out from beneath the minute cracks of his eyelids however, showed a deep rage.
“Tell me… What have you done with my student? And what may I call you?”
“Your student did that to herself,” His eyes narrowed, “and I find it hard to believe there are any Leaf jounin that don’t know who I am when even the girl knew-”
“I know your name wretch, I wanted to hear it uttered by your worthless snake tongue so that I may curse you and your worthless hide for the transgressions you have done.” Koma spat immediately, eyes narrowed.
“Death would be but a lovely dream for you… Had I not more important matters... “ he looked towards the unconscious Yukari, his eyes snapped to Daisuke.
“Step aside.”
A smirk twisted Daisuke’s gaunt features, “My, my, such harsh words. But I don’t think I’ll just let you waltz out of here.”
“Such a shame, here I thought I had been such a polite guest.” Koma verbally reposted with a bit of a raise of an eyebrow. “Well? It’s not good to keep your guest waiting for entertainment.
Get dancing monkey.”
Daisuke scoffed, golden chains erupted from his back and shooting towards Koma. Stretching from the around the frame of the doorway came multiple hands, alabaster white skinned hands ending with cruel looking sharp pitch black nails clutching the many chains as they came surging forwards.
“Shiney, but you know what they say, all that glitters isn’t gold... “ Koma smirked, another hand coming from the wall outside the door reaching for the man as a slightly muted red glow began to permeate the area.
“Just how many were slaughtered here hmm?” Koma asked softly, looking around at the walls around them as he stepped forwards.
Daisuke raised an eyebrow, studying the hands that had suddenly appeared. “A neat trick.” His hand twitched slightly, “and perhaps more than you think.”
“Don’t be silly, I can practically see them, so many calling for your head. My such a rousing hatred is easy to get lost in…” Koma mused as more hands began to creep out from the floor attempting to latch onto the man’s clothes and legs.
“So many dead… But for what reason? What are you after? Immortality? Power? Godhood?”
The chains shattered and vanished, Daisuke leaping back from the new set of hands. “Knowledge,” a blade shot from his sleeve, aimed at the unconscious kunoichi in Koma’s arms.
Koma sidestepped the blade by turning away. “Knowledge, how droll, could you have at least been unique… And no remorse it seems, such a shame… Well? What did you learn?" he asked as he was now but one step from the doorway.
“Keep it brief however, I truly do not have the time..”
“Tch, you care little for my research and I don’t have time for you.” He formed a handsign, the seal on Yukari’s neck glowing with chakra. “Now get the hell out of my sight.”
Koma tsked, before stepping through the doorway, all but disappearing before the man’s eyes through it. He will have his revenge some other day… that, the man would swear. The realm inside was ugly. But the man could manage well enough, a sea of blood and bodies… This place was horrid… but worked to transport them…
Heres hoping his plan worked to get that squad out or Gou will be soooo mad... For now, he just had to get distance from that shit brick… “Don’t worry Yukari... I’ll get you out of here…” and thus, he began his trip… He’d come back for the group, he had to get her out of range for the seal.
Koma continued to ghost the place as he searched for his wayward student, slowly, he made his way through the place in purest silence. Checking each room, corridor, closet, bathroom stall until he found her, the slightest smidge of his student’s faded aura… Indeed, she was injured… fading away in this place.
He entered the testing area adjacent to the room, lots of experiments and such around, it looked like somebody had been working quite hard on his student… The thought made him uncharacteristically furious… But he did not let it out.
Save for allowing himself kicking over one table.
He eyed the door on the other side, many shredded tags litter the floor around it... Just what did that man do to her… Poor dear… he thought this as he laid a hand upon the door forcing the lock to come undone, he would not be barred entry, he had a child to save…
The door swung open, standing in the doorway he took in a small breath and spoke out. “...Yukari?”
The Hyuuga was motionless on the floor, deep crimson painting her face and pooling on the concrete floor. Faint as it was, her aura was still there. Alive, but just barely, but seeing this the man broke into a stride, quickly rushing over and began utilizing his mystical palm technique to seal the wounds…
Hand becoming coated in her blood, it would at least seal the wounds... But her eyes were most definitely gone… Different than extracted, destroyed. And judging from her bloodied palms, her posture, the blood on the walls… She did it to herself…
“Everything will be alright Yukari, your sensei is here… All will be well again soon.” He cooed softly, stroking the young lady’s head like a worried parent… he needed to get her out of here and quickly… Roku would be his best chance of keeping her alive... But he needed to get them all out as well... Atsuko was good, but she couldn’t do what they needed…
He reached down and lifted up the young lady slowly turning to exit the holding cell. Daisuke stood in the doorway, pale hair partly covering his face. His clothes were still soaked in blood, the tear in them easily visible. “You made it far without raising an alarm,” he hissed, “didn’t think there were any skilled nin left in the Leaf.”
“And here I thought I knew of monsters, guess even old folks like me learn new things everyday…” Koma’s face was as it usually was, a mask with that simple smile. His eyes gleaning out from beneath the minute cracks of his eyelids however, showed a deep rage.
“Tell me… What have you done with my student? And what may I call you?”
“Your student did that to herself,” His eyes narrowed, “and I find it hard to believe there are any Leaf jounin that don’t know who I am when even the girl knew-”
“I know your name wretch, I wanted to hear it uttered by your worthless snake tongue so that I may curse you and your worthless hide for the transgressions you have done.” Koma spat immediately, eyes narrowed.
“Death would be but a lovely dream for you… Had I not more important matters... “ he looked towards the unconscious Yukari, his eyes snapped to Daisuke.
“Step aside.”
A smirk twisted Daisuke’s gaunt features, “My, my, such harsh words. But I don’t think I’ll just let you waltz out of here.”
“Such a shame, here I thought I had been such a polite guest.” Koma verbally reposted with a bit of a raise of an eyebrow. “Well? It’s not good to keep your guest waiting for entertainment.
Get dancing monkey.”
Daisuke scoffed, golden chains erupted from his back and shooting towards Koma. Stretching from the around the frame of the doorway came multiple hands, alabaster white skinned hands ending with cruel looking sharp pitch black nails clutching the many chains as they came surging forwards.
“Shiney, but you know what they say, all that glitters isn’t gold... “ Koma smirked, another hand coming from the wall outside the door reaching for the man as a slightly muted red glow began to permeate the area.
“Just how many were slaughtered here hmm?” Koma asked softly, looking around at the walls around them as he stepped forwards.
Daisuke raised an eyebrow, studying the hands that had suddenly appeared. “A neat trick.” His hand twitched slightly, “and perhaps more than you think.”
“Don’t be silly, I can practically see them, so many calling for your head. My such a rousing hatred is easy to get lost in…” Koma mused as more hands began to creep out from the floor attempting to latch onto the man’s clothes and legs.
“So many dead… But for what reason? What are you after? Immortality? Power? Godhood?”
The chains shattered and vanished, Daisuke leaping back from the new set of hands. “Knowledge,” a blade shot from his sleeve, aimed at the unconscious kunoichi in Koma’s arms.
Koma sidestepped the blade by turning away. “Knowledge, how droll, could you have at least been unique… And no remorse it seems, such a shame… Well? What did you learn?" he asked as he was now but one step from the doorway.
“Keep it brief however, I truly do not have the time..”
“Tch, you care little for my research and I don’t have time for you.” He formed a handsign, the seal on Yukari’s neck glowing with chakra. “Now get the hell out of my sight.”
Koma tsked, before stepping through the doorway, all but disappearing before the man’s eyes through it. He will have his revenge some other day… that, the man would swear. The realm inside was ugly. But the man could manage well enough, a sea of blood and bodies… This place was horrid… but worked to transport them…
Heres hoping his plan worked to get that squad out or Gou will be soooo mad... For now, he just had to get distance from that shit brick… “Don’t worry Yukari... I’ll get you out of here…” and thus, he began his trip… He’d come back for the group, he had to get her out of range for the seal.
Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Again, this man seemed to appear out of thin air. And not coming out of hiding like they’d see with Nobushige, it was more like Koma just… materialized in front of them suddenly. The now floating candle was just icing on the cake.
Yuuki glanced between Koma and his teammates as if asking “are you seeing this shit?” Whatever was making the candle float down the hall, it wasn’t chakra.
To say nothing of the sudden change in the air.
“Let’s just.. fucking get on with it,” Nagisa muttered, squaring her shoulders and following after Koma. The dude had some weird tricks up his sleeve, but all tricks were weird until you figured them out and that could wait until they weren’t in the middle of an A rank mission.
Whatever kooky shit their jonin guide was up to was of less immediate concern to Nagisa than the prospect of their enemies catching up with them or ambushing them, so she ignored the weird drop in temperature and the floating candle as much as she could, straining her eyes to look into the darkness ahead of them, her artificial arm tense and ready to spring into action.
Katsumi followed along quietly, returning Yuuki’s uncertain glances. She didn’t understand what it was about the man that made her so uneasy, but she knew it was anything but familiar.
The walk before them as winding and near constantly turning, moving forwards, moving back the way they came, turning corners only to return to the same hallway they came from. But not once were they caught, the candle floating in the air like a silently flickering guide.
Koma however didn’t speak to the candle again as they walked, just keeping an eye(?) out for the chuunin he was with, occasionally looking out into the walls as he walked, watching some unseen thing off in the distance.
The candle floated in a hallway, as Koma finally looked towards it again. “I see… it seems we have hit the main laboratory... “ the man whispered softly, before snuffing out the candle, causing it to fall back into an awaiting hand.
“We will be finding… three guards it seems… Perhaps some researchers… Both groups seem bloody enough.. Hardly tell which is which…” the man stared at one of the walls before them. “There is.. Also a larger one inside… I suggest taking them out first, quietly, and quickly… That's what your sensei has taught you yes? I shall be around to aid you… But forgive me if I wander… I shall leave my staff to aid you in battle.” the man began to walk around a corner, not before leaving his staff standing on it’s own in the walkway.
“I have a new friend to meet, and a student to find.” and with that, he all but disappeared beyond the corner without a sound.
Yuuki watched Koma leave before looking back to the wall they’d stopped at. The door was nearby, his sharingan not picking up any obvious seals locking it. But from what Koma had said, there were multiple people inside that room, none of them looking to be prisoners… He shook his head, “Going in there’s just a deathwish,” the Uchiha murmured.
“Well I don’t see another way around,” Nagisa said under her breath. “We could get tags or chakra threads underneath the door but if we blow them up we’re pretty likely to attract more attention, otherwise we could bust in there and hope surprise evens the odds,”
“B-but can’t we just sneak through? We could transform into that one big mean guy that kidnapped our friends and sneak by!” Katsumi said, delighted she had come up with an idea, but wasn’t to keen on walking right into a room full of the enemy.
Yuuki clapped a hand over her mouth, motioning for her to keep her voice down. “That’ll just get us killed,” he glanced at Nagisa. “Can you use your threads to get a headcount in there?”
“Mmm, it’ll take a while to be certain I tagged them all,” Nagisa whispered, kneeling by the door and placing her palm down on the floor. From her spread fingers shot threads, invisible except perhaps to Yuuki, that spread out and slowly swept the room, latching on to the soles of any feet they bumped into.
“Six,” Nagisa whispered, after a few minutes. “More if somebody’s pressed into the ceiling or something,”
Inside the room, conversation could be heard.
“You going to respond to that alarm?”
“Bah, I’m part of Akai Kyodai, not freaking Daisuke’s experiments. Momma Ko’s the only one I serve.”
“Yeah, but its our paycheck on the line, you all don’t want to lose that. Come on, boys, find a couple of ninjas in over there head, and cut them down.”
“I’m sure they’re getting real arrogant over those shitty guards. Bright side, more of a pay check for us. Alright, guess we’ll go. Hey, ain’t you coming, uh… what was your name?”
Silence perturbed for a minute someone spitting could be heard.
“You gotta work for a paycheck too, you hear?”
“I only joined Akai Kyodai for somewhere to sleep once I had stolen this sword. I have stolen it, so what do I care about a paycheck? Go on flies, go swarm over your rotten meat. I, myself, want some fresh meat to sink my teeth into.”
“Tch, never do understand the bastard. Fine, leave’em. Let’s go.”
Five sets of footsteps could be heard leaving the room. All that was left in the room was a man with a long ponytail who was polishing a large sword infront of him.The blade was about as long as he was, a deep shade of purple which slowly lightened to pink at the end. The guard looked like a flower opening up, and the hilt was green, ending in a brown pommel.
Katsumi leaned towards the door, her brows furrowing. “Uh… I think they’re leaving. Do we go in now?” She tried to speak quieter than before, lest she have Yuuki’s sweaty boy hands over her mouth again.
Yuuki glanced at Nagisa, with just one left they may have a chance here. But they’d have to be quick and quiet, a fight would still likely be disastrous for them. He gave a short nod, if she was ready then it was worth a shot.
Time wasn’t a luxury they had.
Nagisa nodded tersely. “I’ll lineup a shot, Katsumi on three you break down the door and I’ll try pin them down while you two enter, try to flank him so that they’ll be trapped between the three of us,”
Katsumi nodded, and took a step back from the door. She paused for a moment, concentrating her chakra into her hand to a lesser degree than she normally would. This was still a stealth mission, and she couldn’t simply send the door flying across the room. She pulled her hand back, and gave the door a jab. The wooden door broke off of its hinges and dropped to the ground.
Instantly Nagisa caught sight of the guard inside, firing her crossbow without hesitation and then, instead of wasting time reloading it, summoned a handful of shuriken to throw as a follow up, hoping to keep some pressure on while her teammates maneuvered into a better position.
The man looked even before the door opened, looking slightly amused. At the shots fired he kicked up the table infront of him to block the shot, and stabbed his sword into the ground, beginning a series of handsigns behind the table.
“Would you look at that? Fresh meat. So eager to kill. I’ll have to show you something good then. ”
Earth Style: Ganryu: Muscle Reinforcement
To Yuuki’s sharingan, the man’s chakra started to carry throughout his body, specifically through his muscles. It was earth style laden.
Yuuki raced in along the side of the room, weaving signs he formed tags into shuriken to launch at the man. All he needed to do was restrain him for a couple seconds. His eyes narrowed at the jutsu, [i]Some kind of Earth Release armor?[/i]
Katsumi ran the opposite way as Yuuki, watching the man closely as she started to circle him. She was surprised their opponent had managed to block Nagisa’s bolt so easily! Had he known they were coming? Was it because she was talking too loudly? Katsumi skidded to a halt on the other side of the man, a safe distance away from him.
Inwardly, Nagisa cursed as her initial attack thudded harmlessly into the wooden table. It was hard to tell what exactly the jutsu he was performing would do exactly, but while he wove the handseals he had put down his weapon, so instead of targeting the man directly Nagisa launched her prosthetic hand towards his sword, hoping to snatch it away on the end of her rapidly uncoiling chain.
The man stepped forward, smashing his leg ontop of Nagisa’s prosthetic arm with enough force to crack the stone floor beneath them. He stomped on the back of Nagisa’s hand.
With the same motion he grabbed the leg of the table. Chakra flared in his muscles as he did so. With a frightening ease, he threw the entire table by the single leg, several thunks landing as the paper shurikens joined Nagisa’s in the table surface. Killing intent flared in the building, and Yuuki would briefly, before the table made it to him, see his life flash before his eyes, and his blood splattering across the wall. Right after that, the table actually flew at him. It had enough force in the throw that it would shatter against the wall of the cave.
“If you two are going to come and fight me, your intent to kill has to be stronger. You have to want to shred your opponent with every fiber of your body. Your entire body is a weapon. YOU are built to destroy. To take. Try again you two. TRY TO KILL me.”
He would step back off of Nagisa’s hand to let her retrieve it.
Before he could even remove his foot Nagisa simply detached the hand under his thought and the now free length of chain slithered between his legs, trying to wrap its way around a leg and an arm to try and hinder the man long enough for one of Nagisa’s teammates to land a blow.
His eyes flickered between Yuuki and Nagisa. He didn’t even glance at Katsumi, or even acknowledge her existence.
But before the table could crush the poor young man - who definitely isn’t poor nor really could be considered a young man due to the kills under his belt - the staff came to life! Quite literally, as the odd staff swung forwards and down, smacking Yuuki’s legs clear from under him to land him on his ass.
The staff then began to hop forwards, standing ridgid upwards once more.
A chill cut through the Uchiha at the sudden wave of killing intent. Dropping to the floor thanks to the staff, the table sailed harmlessly overhead and splintered against the wall. The tomoe of Yuuki’s sharingan spun as he pushed himself back to his feet. Killing intent poured from the chuunin as he wordlessly flickered behind the man, a kunai to his throat.
Genjutsu: Reap
Katsumi watched with shock as the swordsman almost effortlessly countered both of her teammates attacks. She couldn’t help bunch wince when Nagisa’s arm was stomped into the ground. Something was wrong about how he was so easily reacting to each of these attacks! He had hardly even moved from his original position in the room. Did he have a sharingan or something?
Katsumi drew a kunai of her own, not sure whether or not to attack the man. She didn’t want him to just turn and decapitate her or something. Of course, she couldn’t sit idly by and let Nagisa and Yuuki do all the fighting.
Katsumi took a few powerful strides forward, aiming a chakra enhanced kick at the man’s back.
The man looked excited at Yuuki appearing behind him, his bored expression growing to a crazed grin as he reached for his sword delivering a quick chop behind him. Then it returned to normal as it cut through air.
“The intent is there, I’ll give you that. I think I should show you that in real life though. Though, you two annoy me.”
With a quick movement, his foot moved backwards with great force, threatening to draw Nagisa with it, as to hinder him any, it would have had to have been taut in the first place. Looking nonplussed, Nagisa would see visions herself being split in half by the sword, extremely realistically.
Before it could be acted though, the man was sent flying into the wall with an extreme amount of force. The entire cavern shook, stalactites falling to the ground. Where he stood, Katsumi landed. The man hadn’t so much as noticed her.
The moment Katsumi’s kick connected, Yuuki let loose another wave of tags. Many had the word cripple written on them, though a few had purify scrawled on them instead.
Nagisa was briefly struck nerveless as a sickeningly familiar vision of bleeding out on a dirt floor, so she was yanked off her feet and into the ground when Katsumi’s kick sent him flying.The impact knocked the wind out of her, but it was also enough to jolt her out of her vision and, gasping, she was able to tap the seal on her hand and summon what looked to be an ordinary cloak, which she wrapped around herself before suddenly becoming invisible.
Now hidden underneath her cloak, Nagisa rolled a few metres to hide her location and took a rattling breath. How was this guy anticipating their attacks? Even weirder, Katsumi seemed to be able to blindside him, it was true he had been distracted by Yuuki and and herself, but he seemed barely aware of her presence, normally the slight hesitation Katsumi’s attacks had made her easier to anticipate not harder… Was that it? This guy seemed obsessed with killing intent, was that what he was reading?
Slowly, so as not to disturb her camouflage, Nagisa got up and started closing in on the swordsman, working to keep her thoughts free of lethal plans. The problem was she didn’t have much in the way of non lethal techniques, her taijutsu was decent enough, but would it be enough to take this guy down?
A red comet collided with Yuuki’s seals, being torn to shreds, but able to stop them at least. A few items fell out the comet, such as a tessen and kodachi, and a few stones, revealing it to just be his coat. The nameless man walked out of the crater, no longer wearing his coat, nor a shirt. Under his clothing, he was much more muscular than his frilly clothing had let on. He looked worse for wear, but the injuries on him weren’t that bad. Especially considering he’d just taken a full power blow from Katsumi.
“I suppose it does serve me right, I’ve become so dependent on my other senses, things like sight or sound really didn’t register. See, now I’m a little bit angry. I am not a mere warrior. I am a slayer of men. I eat the lives of those I touch. Normally I like my meat a bit tender from shivering and running, but I think I’ll start biting now.”
The man glared behind Yuuki for a minute, before reappearing behind the chunnin, slowly making a sheathing motion with his sword and his off hand, a grinding sound heard. To Yuuki his chakra simply surged, before disappearing without a movement. The sound would be evident before any chakra or sight would give him away.
“I do believe you’ll be first. You’ve eaten death, and threatened me with it, you must be… delicious.”
Yuuki’s eyes widened slightly as the man just vanished. The fuck? With the surge in chakra, it was evident it was some kind of jutsu. Hearing a sound behind him, Yuuki reacted. Drawing his own sword, he lashed out in a spinning slash.
The cut dug into the man, who was apparently stuck in his motions, not even reacting. Unfortunately, his hardened muscles stopped the blade. Still, it embedded itself into his abdomen, about an inch in. How thick the muscles were kept the muscles in place though.
A snap was heard at the end of the empty ‘sheathing’. Suddenly Yuuki was cut down, a cut going straight through his back at his side under his ribs, and leading back to the man’s sword. He licked his lips.
“One meal. Two to go. So, who’s next?”
Katsumi cold only tremblem in silence. Not only did the man shake off her attack like it was nothing, he appeared behind Yuuki faster than she could even react to. Then, Yuuki dropped to the ground in a bloody puddle.
“Y-yuuki?” Katsumi squeaked, her wide eyes, glaring at Yuuki. Her muscles tensed, and she body flickered down next to Yuuki, grabbing him as gently as possible before body flickering away. “Yuuki! Please don’t be dead!” Katsumi rubbed her hand along the missing area of his torso. It would take far too long to heal him before the swordsman attacked her and Nagisa. Speaking of Nagisa, where was she?
“Nagisa? Nagisa!” Katsumi squealed, looking around the room for her.
“YUUKI!”
Nagisa hadn’t screamed during a fight for years, but as Yuuki dropped a strangled, feral cry clawed its way out of her mouth. On instinct she burst out from under her cloak, the garment fluttering limply to the ground behind her.
Her body flicker was misjudged, the trajectory higher than it should have been and she reappeared at eye level, her knees colliding with his collar bone while her hand snatched wildy for his throat.
The man stumbled back, surprised at the savagery. Yes, there was killing intent, and he should read it, but it was so…. Animalistic. Her hand scratched his throat and grabbed tight before he could do much, but he was able to regain himself. With a quick thrust, the butt of his sword flew at Nagisa’s gut to try and knock her away. He quizzically held his arm to his collarbone, sword still in it loosely.
Interesting, even enhanced muscles won’t stop a bone taking a straight shot. I should be more careful. But… It’s just an animal at this point, it's over. Should I let them drink it in more?
At the sight of Nagisa leaping into action against the man, Katsumi took the chance to start trying to heal Yuuki as best she could. She held her hands inches above the gaping wound, and a warm white glow pulsed over him. If she could at least get Yuuki to a point where he wouldn’t die, she could hurry up and help Nagisa!
The sword hilt slammed into her stomach but Nagisa wasn’t thrown off, the swordsman would feel a thin line of pressure around the back of his neck as the chakra threads she had looped around him held her in place.
“I’m not gonna let you past,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “Not that easy!” Meanwhile Nagisa’s puppet hand, seemingly abandoned since the start of the fight twitched to life, it had been uncoupled from the chain, but the chakra threads that controlled it remained in place. Spiderlike the hand scuttled over to Yuuki’s sword and jumped on it, sealing the weapon inside.
Immediately after, Nagisa lifted a finger from her death grip on the swordsman’s throat to tap the seal on her palm, summoning Yuuki’s sword back into reality.
Surprise could be the only word to describe a man with a sword in his throat. Coughing on his own blood, he gave one final swing of his fist at Nagisa putting all of the rest of his power into it, before collapsing to the floor, blood spurting the walls from his neck.
This more powerful blow was far more than the thin strands of chakra could handle and Nagisa flew backwards, slamming into the opposite wall with a deafening thud and a quieter, wetter crunching noise underneath it.
White hot pain lanced through her body, and Nagisa could see only burning stars as she collapsed in a heap by the wall and groaned weakly.
With the slow padding of footsteps, a young woman came rounding a corner, jar enclosed in her hair she sighed as he rounded the corner. “Hey are you guys done yet- Oh shit.” Atsuko gazed at the group and the freaking out Katsumi who was trying her best to patch up a young man with a rather large hole in his body.
There was also a guy with a sword in his neck, she was pretty certain that one was a bad guy soooooo best she forget him. She turned her eyes on nagisa nearby and moved a strand of hair out of her face as she walked over. “Shoulda used the staff guys, why he's there..” she grumbled as said staff looked to be unsure of what it should be doing right this moment.
Atsuko knelt down beside nagisa and sized her up. “Yea… that's gonna hurt for awhile… Hold still, and try not to let your ribs break further…” she began to utilize mystical palm to bring Nagisa back to her feet… though it may take abit of time. Less than Mr. Uchiha over there at least.
“Jeeze… Could you guys have killed him without getting all hurt? Bad enough I have to lug the explosives…”
“Fuuuuuuck youuu,” Nagisa muttered then coughed and winced from the pressure on her ribs. “Next time I’ll carry the explosives and you can get your ribs caved in,”
“Nah, I’d just summon something to do it for me…” she liked this girl, though she definitely didn’t change her expression from “I’m tired and don’t want to be here.” But she did pause her healing for a moment to think. “...Fuck.. I coulda just… Ugh.. I lugged these all the way here and I could’ve just let them hold it…” she returned to healing, feeling more dumb just for that realization.
She remembered being dragged onto this mission, dad just tossing the jar shouting something about thinking fast and to follow him or loose her snack privileges for a month.
Fuck you too dad.
A few seconds passed and Nagisa was up to a, working, state. “There, now go get your ass kicked again… Oi you! Cry baby! You getting anywhere with the kid?”
When Atsuko mentioned “the kid” something clicked back into place for Nagisa and she pushed herself up onto her feet and passed her healer with surprising speed considering her state. Ignoring the opportunity to trade barbs for once, Nagisa hurried over to where Yuuki and Katsumi were, her chest tight at the thought of what she might see.
Pale and drenched in blood, Yuuki was still outside of pained breaths. Even with Katsumi’s treatment, the wound itself was far from a pretty sight.
“U-uhm, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna live… b-but that’s a-a-a-about all I can say…” Katsumi said as Nagisa approached. She stuttered terribly, and tears were streaming down her face. Nevertheless, she maintained her healing without fail.
“S-sorry I couldn’t be more useful…”
“I should have figured out what he was doing sooner,” Nagisa said bitterly. Despite Katsumi’s grim prognosis Nagisa couldn’t resist the tempting wave of relief that swept over her. He- They were all still alive, with some luck they could get home in one piece.
“Anyway we don’t have time for apologies,” Nagisa continued tightly, fighting to sound calm as she checked her watch. “We still need to make a jailbreak and the other teams probably can’t run interference for too much longer” Nagisa turned back to Atsuko. “Take Yuuki back to the escape route, we’ll round up whoever we can and meet you there,”
Atsuko huffed. “Who died and made you queen… Fine, whatever. Come on.” she walked over to the semi-conscious young man and made her hair lift him up, holding his princess style near her back. “You better not bleed on me… hey you, sass queen, take that jar and leave it somewhere that looks important.” she pointed to the jar she had been carrying around, sealed rather tightly at the moment.
“Don’t drop it, or you’ll need more than mystic palm to bring you back.” and with that, she began marching off down the hallway to god knows where.
“You think this is my first time handling a jar full of explosives? Come on,” Nagisa shot back, placing a hand on the jar and storing it inside her lightning flash seal. She also bent down quickly to do the same to Yuuki’s sword and, after a moment’s thought, the dead man’s flowery weapon as well. After all the trouble he had caused them they could at least get some extra money out of his death. After that she lead Katsumi into the adjoining hallway.
It was about what Nagisa had expected, a wide, smooth corridor of stone and concrete, with regularly spaced openings covered with metal bars.
“Hey look alive,” Nagisa said, striding to the closest cell. “It’s breakout time, stand back,” With that she produced an explosive tag and stuffed it into the lock on the cell bars, retreating to a safe distance herself and then detonating the tag. With that the door swung open effortlessly and Nagisa handed the dazed prisoner a kunai. He looked bewildered and shell shocked but Nagisa didn’t have time to do more than point him in the direction of Atsuko and describe her so that he didn’t end up trying to stab her, there were still dozens of cells left to go.
Katsumi didn’t waste time. She hurried to a cell, and slammed her fist right through it. She then pulled the door right out of its frame, using the hole in the door as a hand hold. She set the door aside, taking a few awkward moments to wiggle her arm out of the door as the poor fella she just freed stared at her in confusion.
“Ummm…. so we are rescuing you, and uh…”
“IT’S A JAILBREAK!” Nagisa shouted to move Katsumi along, without turning from the cell door she was working on. “GET MOVING!” She moved back to let her tag detonate and moved on to the next cell, but stopped briefly when she saw who it was.
“Wow you look like shit,” she said wryly.
A kick nearly was aimed at Nagisa’s head, but Mai’s vanity quickly took over.
“Mirror, where? NOW!”
She supposed bruised, broken arm, and a general lack of hygiene from being a prisoner would affect her looks. Shaking her head, she tried to grab a tag from the jar, but failed. Cursing, Mai just made her way down the hallway looking out for any final dangers. Mai was taking the prison break remarkably well, but it was chaos, and honestly Mai was way more comfortable in chaos than she was in a cramped room. It DIDN’T give her time to think.
“Weirdo,” Nagisa muttered, finishing up the cells on her side of the hallway and moving into what looked like a small examining room at the end of the hallway. It seemed like as good a place as as any to leave behind their parting gift so Nagisa tapped her seal and summoned the jar, positioning it between a bench full of nasty looking tools and solid looking, metal restraint chair.
Satisfied with its positioning, Nagisa turned back to conduct one final check of the cells for stragglers, finding none she hurried to catch up with the untidy rabble they were herding towards the exit.
“Alright let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said to no one and everyone.
The trail left behind for the group to follow was simple enough, an arrow pointing here, a knocked unconscious guard there, and the stampede of prisoners making their way out came to the supposed exit…
A closet, pulled open and odAdly wide, inside one could barely see the end of it.
For those who wished to stop and ask what the hell was going on, the crowd seemed to disagree as most in the front were too busy being pushed in. one by one the many were pushed through the closet, only to find themselves flopped out unceremoniously into the wondrous daylight of the world above.
Confused, unsure of what happened, and dazzled by the sunlight, the group say as Atsuko appeared from behind them all from the old broken closet they all seemingly where thrown from, and Koma stood none too far off, holding a Hyuuga still. “About time, i was beginning to worry you got lost.”
“Just… shut up dad…”
Yuuki glanced between Koma and his teammates as if asking “are you seeing this shit?” Whatever was making the candle float down the hall, it wasn’t chakra.
To say nothing of the sudden change in the air.
“Let’s just.. fucking get on with it,” Nagisa muttered, squaring her shoulders and following after Koma. The dude had some weird tricks up his sleeve, but all tricks were weird until you figured them out and that could wait until they weren’t in the middle of an A rank mission.
Whatever kooky shit their jonin guide was up to was of less immediate concern to Nagisa than the prospect of their enemies catching up with them or ambushing them, so she ignored the weird drop in temperature and the floating candle as much as she could, straining her eyes to look into the darkness ahead of them, her artificial arm tense and ready to spring into action.
Katsumi followed along quietly, returning Yuuki’s uncertain glances. She didn’t understand what it was about the man that made her so uneasy, but she knew it was anything but familiar.
The walk before them as winding and near constantly turning, moving forwards, moving back the way they came, turning corners only to return to the same hallway they came from. But not once were they caught, the candle floating in the air like a silently flickering guide.
Koma however didn’t speak to the candle again as they walked, just keeping an eye(?) out for the chuunin he was with, occasionally looking out into the walls as he walked, watching some unseen thing off in the distance.
The candle floated in a hallway, as Koma finally looked towards it again. “I see… it seems we have hit the main laboratory... “ the man whispered softly, before snuffing out the candle, causing it to fall back into an awaiting hand.
“We will be finding… three guards it seems… Perhaps some researchers… Both groups seem bloody enough.. Hardly tell which is which…” the man stared at one of the walls before them. “There is.. Also a larger one inside… I suggest taking them out first, quietly, and quickly… That's what your sensei has taught you yes? I shall be around to aid you… But forgive me if I wander… I shall leave my staff to aid you in battle.” the man began to walk around a corner, not before leaving his staff standing on it’s own in the walkway.
“I have a new friend to meet, and a student to find.” and with that, he all but disappeared beyond the corner without a sound.
Yuuki watched Koma leave before looking back to the wall they’d stopped at. The door was nearby, his sharingan not picking up any obvious seals locking it. But from what Koma had said, there were multiple people inside that room, none of them looking to be prisoners… He shook his head, “Going in there’s just a deathwish,” the Uchiha murmured.
“Well I don’t see another way around,” Nagisa said under her breath. “We could get tags or chakra threads underneath the door but if we blow them up we’re pretty likely to attract more attention, otherwise we could bust in there and hope surprise evens the odds,”
“B-but can’t we just sneak through? We could transform into that one big mean guy that kidnapped our friends and sneak by!” Katsumi said, delighted she had come up with an idea, but wasn’t to keen on walking right into a room full of the enemy.
Yuuki clapped a hand over her mouth, motioning for her to keep her voice down. “That’ll just get us killed,” he glanced at Nagisa. “Can you use your threads to get a headcount in there?”
“Mmm, it’ll take a while to be certain I tagged them all,” Nagisa whispered, kneeling by the door and placing her palm down on the floor. From her spread fingers shot threads, invisible except perhaps to Yuuki, that spread out and slowly swept the room, latching on to the soles of any feet they bumped into.
“Six,” Nagisa whispered, after a few minutes. “More if somebody’s pressed into the ceiling or something,”
Inside the room, conversation could be heard.
“You going to respond to that alarm?”
“Bah, I’m part of Akai Kyodai, not freaking Daisuke’s experiments. Momma Ko’s the only one I serve.”
“Yeah, but its our paycheck on the line, you all don’t want to lose that. Come on, boys, find a couple of ninjas in over there head, and cut them down.”
“I’m sure they’re getting real arrogant over those shitty guards. Bright side, more of a pay check for us. Alright, guess we’ll go. Hey, ain’t you coming, uh… what was your name?”
Silence perturbed for a minute someone spitting could be heard.
“You gotta work for a paycheck too, you hear?”
“I only joined Akai Kyodai for somewhere to sleep once I had stolen this sword. I have stolen it, so what do I care about a paycheck? Go on flies, go swarm over your rotten meat. I, myself, want some fresh meat to sink my teeth into.”
“Tch, never do understand the bastard. Fine, leave’em. Let’s go.”
Five sets of footsteps could be heard leaving the room. All that was left in the room was a man with a long ponytail who was polishing a large sword infront of him.The blade was about as long as he was, a deep shade of purple which slowly lightened to pink at the end. The guard looked like a flower opening up, and the hilt was green, ending in a brown pommel.
Katsumi leaned towards the door, her brows furrowing. “Uh… I think they’re leaving. Do we go in now?” She tried to speak quieter than before, lest she have Yuuki’s sweaty boy hands over her mouth again.
Yuuki glanced at Nagisa, with just one left they may have a chance here. But they’d have to be quick and quiet, a fight would still likely be disastrous for them. He gave a short nod, if she was ready then it was worth a shot.
Time wasn’t a luxury they had.
Nagisa nodded tersely. “I’ll lineup a shot, Katsumi on three you break down the door and I’ll try pin them down while you two enter, try to flank him so that they’ll be trapped between the three of us,”
Katsumi nodded, and took a step back from the door. She paused for a moment, concentrating her chakra into her hand to a lesser degree than she normally would. This was still a stealth mission, and she couldn’t simply send the door flying across the room. She pulled her hand back, and gave the door a jab. The wooden door broke off of its hinges and dropped to the ground.
Instantly Nagisa caught sight of the guard inside, firing her crossbow without hesitation and then, instead of wasting time reloading it, summoned a handful of shuriken to throw as a follow up, hoping to keep some pressure on while her teammates maneuvered into a better position.
The man looked even before the door opened, looking slightly amused. At the shots fired he kicked up the table infront of him to block the shot, and stabbed his sword into the ground, beginning a series of handsigns behind the table.
“Would you look at that? Fresh meat. So eager to kill. I’ll have to show you something good then. ”
Earth Style: Ganryu: Muscle Reinforcement
To Yuuki’s sharingan, the man’s chakra started to carry throughout his body, specifically through his muscles. It was earth style laden.
Yuuki raced in along the side of the room, weaving signs he formed tags into shuriken to launch at the man. All he needed to do was restrain him for a couple seconds. His eyes narrowed at the jutsu, [i]Some kind of Earth Release armor?[/i]
Katsumi ran the opposite way as Yuuki, watching the man closely as she started to circle him. She was surprised their opponent had managed to block Nagisa’s bolt so easily! Had he known they were coming? Was it because she was talking too loudly? Katsumi skidded to a halt on the other side of the man, a safe distance away from him.
Inwardly, Nagisa cursed as her initial attack thudded harmlessly into the wooden table. It was hard to tell what exactly the jutsu he was performing would do exactly, but while he wove the handseals he had put down his weapon, so instead of targeting the man directly Nagisa launched her prosthetic hand towards his sword, hoping to snatch it away on the end of her rapidly uncoiling chain.
The man stepped forward, smashing his leg ontop of Nagisa’s prosthetic arm with enough force to crack the stone floor beneath them. He stomped on the back of Nagisa’s hand.
With the same motion he grabbed the leg of the table. Chakra flared in his muscles as he did so. With a frightening ease, he threw the entire table by the single leg, several thunks landing as the paper shurikens joined Nagisa’s in the table surface. Killing intent flared in the building, and Yuuki would briefly, before the table made it to him, see his life flash before his eyes, and his blood splattering across the wall. Right after that, the table actually flew at him. It had enough force in the throw that it would shatter against the wall of the cave.
“If you two are going to come and fight me, your intent to kill has to be stronger. You have to want to shred your opponent with every fiber of your body. Your entire body is a weapon. YOU are built to destroy. To take. Try again you two. TRY TO KILL me.”
He would step back off of Nagisa’s hand to let her retrieve it.
Before he could even remove his foot Nagisa simply detached the hand under his thought and the now free length of chain slithered between his legs, trying to wrap its way around a leg and an arm to try and hinder the man long enough for one of Nagisa’s teammates to land a blow.
His eyes flickered between Yuuki and Nagisa. He didn’t even glance at Katsumi, or even acknowledge her existence.
But before the table could crush the poor young man - who definitely isn’t poor nor really could be considered a young man due to the kills under his belt - the staff came to life! Quite literally, as the odd staff swung forwards and down, smacking Yuuki’s legs clear from under him to land him on his ass.
The staff then began to hop forwards, standing ridgid upwards once more.
A chill cut through the Uchiha at the sudden wave of killing intent. Dropping to the floor thanks to the staff, the table sailed harmlessly overhead and splintered against the wall. The tomoe of Yuuki’s sharingan spun as he pushed himself back to his feet. Killing intent poured from the chuunin as he wordlessly flickered behind the man, a kunai to his throat.
Genjutsu: Reap
Katsumi watched with shock as the swordsman almost effortlessly countered both of her teammates attacks. She couldn’t help bunch wince when Nagisa’s arm was stomped into the ground. Something was wrong about how he was so easily reacting to each of these attacks! He had hardly even moved from his original position in the room. Did he have a sharingan or something?
Katsumi drew a kunai of her own, not sure whether or not to attack the man. She didn’t want him to just turn and decapitate her or something. Of course, she couldn’t sit idly by and let Nagisa and Yuuki do all the fighting.
Katsumi took a few powerful strides forward, aiming a chakra enhanced kick at the man’s back.
The man looked excited at Yuuki appearing behind him, his bored expression growing to a crazed grin as he reached for his sword delivering a quick chop behind him. Then it returned to normal as it cut through air.
“The intent is there, I’ll give you that. I think I should show you that in real life though. Though, you two annoy me.”
With a quick movement, his foot moved backwards with great force, threatening to draw Nagisa with it, as to hinder him any, it would have had to have been taut in the first place. Looking nonplussed, Nagisa would see visions herself being split in half by the sword, extremely realistically.
Before it could be acted though, the man was sent flying into the wall with an extreme amount of force. The entire cavern shook, stalactites falling to the ground. Where he stood, Katsumi landed. The man hadn’t so much as noticed her.
The moment Katsumi’s kick connected, Yuuki let loose another wave of tags. Many had the word cripple written on them, though a few had purify scrawled on them instead.
Nagisa was briefly struck nerveless as a sickeningly familiar vision of bleeding out on a dirt floor, so she was yanked off her feet and into the ground when Katsumi’s kick sent him flying.The impact knocked the wind out of her, but it was also enough to jolt her out of her vision and, gasping, she was able to tap the seal on her hand and summon what looked to be an ordinary cloak, which she wrapped around herself before suddenly becoming invisible.
Now hidden underneath her cloak, Nagisa rolled a few metres to hide her location and took a rattling breath. How was this guy anticipating their attacks? Even weirder, Katsumi seemed to be able to blindside him, it was true he had been distracted by Yuuki and and herself, but he seemed barely aware of her presence, normally the slight hesitation Katsumi’s attacks had made her easier to anticipate not harder… Was that it? This guy seemed obsessed with killing intent, was that what he was reading?
Slowly, so as not to disturb her camouflage, Nagisa got up and started closing in on the swordsman, working to keep her thoughts free of lethal plans. The problem was she didn’t have much in the way of non lethal techniques, her taijutsu was decent enough, but would it be enough to take this guy down?
A red comet collided with Yuuki’s seals, being torn to shreds, but able to stop them at least. A few items fell out the comet, such as a tessen and kodachi, and a few stones, revealing it to just be his coat. The nameless man walked out of the crater, no longer wearing his coat, nor a shirt. Under his clothing, he was much more muscular than his frilly clothing had let on. He looked worse for wear, but the injuries on him weren’t that bad. Especially considering he’d just taken a full power blow from Katsumi.
“I suppose it does serve me right, I’ve become so dependent on my other senses, things like sight or sound really didn’t register. See, now I’m a little bit angry. I am not a mere warrior. I am a slayer of men. I eat the lives of those I touch. Normally I like my meat a bit tender from shivering and running, but I think I’ll start biting now.”
The man glared behind Yuuki for a minute, before reappearing behind the chunnin, slowly making a sheathing motion with his sword and his off hand, a grinding sound heard. To Yuuki his chakra simply surged, before disappearing without a movement. The sound would be evident before any chakra or sight would give him away.
“I do believe you’ll be first. You’ve eaten death, and threatened me with it, you must be… delicious.”
Yuuki’s eyes widened slightly as the man just vanished. The fuck? With the surge in chakra, it was evident it was some kind of jutsu. Hearing a sound behind him, Yuuki reacted. Drawing his own sword, he lashed out in a spinning slash.
The cut dug into the man, who was apparently stuck in his motions, not even reacting. Unfortunately, his hardened muscles stopped the blade. Still, it embedded itself into his abdomen, about an inch in. How thick the muscles were kept the muscles in place though.
A snap was heard at the end of the empty ‘sheathing’. Suddenly Yuuki was cut down, a cut going straight through his back at his side under his ribs, and leading back to the man’s sword. He licked his lips.
“One meal. Two to go. So, who’s next?”
Katsumi cold only tremblem in silence. Not only did the man shake off her attack like it was nothing, he appeared behind Yuuki faster than she could even react to. Then, Yuuki dropped to the ground in a bloody puddle.
“Y-yuuki?” Katsumi squeaked, her wide eyes, glaring at Yuuki. Her muscles tensed, and she body flickered down next to Yuuki, grabbing him as gently as possible before body flickering away. “Yuuki! Please don’t be dead!” Katsumi rubbed her hand along the missing area of his torso. It would take far too long to heal him before the swordsman attacked her and Nagisa. Speaking of Nagisa, where was she?
“Nagisa? Nagisa!” Katsumi squealed, looking around the room for her.
“YUUKI!”
Nagisa hadn’t screamed during a fight for years, but as Yuuki dropped a strangled, feral cry clawed its way out of her mouth. On instinct she burst out from under her cloak, the garment fluttering limply to the ground behind her.
Her body flicker was misjudged, the trajectory higher than it should have been and she reappeared at eye level, her knees colliding with his collar bone while her hand snatched wildy for his throat.
The man stumbled back, surprised at the savagery. Yes, there was killing intent, and he should read it, but it was so…. Animalistic. Her hand scratched his throat and grabbed tight before he could do much, but he was able to regain himself. With a quick thrust, the butt of his sword flew at Nagisa’s gut to try and knock her away. He quizzically held his arm to his collarbone, sword still in it loosely.
Interesting, even enhanced muscles won’t stop a bone taking a straight shot. I should be more careful. But… It’s just an animal at this point, it's over. Should I let them drink it in more?
At the sight of Nagisa leaping into action against the man, Katsumi took the chance to start trying to heal Yuuki as best she could. She held her hands inches above the gaping wound, and a warm white glow pulsed over him. If she could at least get Yuuki to a point where he wouldn’t die, she could hurry up and help Nagisa!
The sword hilt slammed into her stomach but Nagisa wasn’t thrown off, the swordsman would feel a thin line of pressure around the back of his neck as the chakra threads she had looped around him held her in place.
“I’m not gonna let you past,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “Not that easy!” Meanwhile Nagisa’s puppet hand, seemingly abandoned since the start of the fight twitched to life, it had been uncoupled from the chain, but the chakra threads that controlled it remained in place. Spiderlike the hand scuttled over to Yuuki’s sword and jumped on it, sealing the weapon inside.
Immediately after, Nagisa lifted a finger from her death grip on the swordsman’s throat to tap the seal on her palm, summoning Yuuki’s sword back into reality.
Surprise could be the only word to describe a man with a sword in his throat. Coughing on his own blood, he gave one final swing of his fist at Nagisa putting all of the rest of his power into it, before collapsing to the floor, blood spurting the walls from his neck.
This more powerful blow was far more than the thin strands of chakra could handle and Nagisa flew backwards, slamming into the opposite wall with a deafening thud and a quieter, wetter crunching noise underneath it.
White hot pain lanced through her body, and Nagisa could see only burning stars as she collapsed in a heap by the wall and groaned weakly.
With the slow padding of footsteps, a young woman came rounding a corner, jar enclosed in her hair she sighed as he rounded the corner. “Hey are you guys done yet- Oh shit.” Atsuko gazed at the group and the freaking out Katsumi who was trying her best to patch up a young man with a rather large hole in his body.
There was also a guy with a sword in his neck, she was pretty certain that one was a bad guy soooooo best she forget him. She turned her eyes on nagisa nearby and moved a strand of hair out of her face as she walked over. “Shoulda used the staff guys, why he's there..” she grumbled as said staff looked to be unsure of what it should be doing right this moment.
Atsuko knelt down beside nagisa and sized her up. “Yea… that's gonna hurt for awhile… Hold still, and try not to let your ribs break further…” she began to utilize mystical palm to bring Nagisa back to her feet… though it may take abit of time. Less than Mr. Uchiha over there at least.
“Jeeze… Could you guys have killed him without getting all hurt? Bad enough I have to lug the explosives…”
“Fuuuuuuck youuu,” Nagisa muttered then coughed and winced from the pressure on her ribs. “Next time I’ll carry the explosives and you can get your ribs caved in,”
“Nah, I’d just summon something to do it for me…” she liked this girl, though she definitely didn’t change her expression from “I’m tired and don’t want to be here.” But she did pause her healing for a moment to think. “...Fuck.. I coulda just… Ugh.. I lugged these all the way here and I could’ve just let them hold it…” she returned to healing, feeling more dumb just for that realization.
She remembered being dragged onto this mission, dad just tossing the jar shouting something about thinking fast and to follow him or loose her snack privileges for a month.
Fuck you too dad.
A few seconds passed and Nagisa was up to a, working, state. “There, now go get your ass kicked again… Oi you! Cry baby! You getting anywhere with the kid?”
When Atsuko mentioned “the kid” something clicked back into place for Nagisa and she pushed herself up onto her feet and passed her healer with surprising speed considering her state. Ignoring the opportunity to trade barbs for once, Nagisa hurried over to where Yuuki and Katsumi were, her chest tight at the thought of what she might see.
Pale and drenched in blood, Yuuki was still outside of pained breaths. Even with Katsumi’s treatment, the wound itself was far from a pretty sight.
“U-uhm, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna live… b-but that’s a-a-a-about all I can say…” Katsumi said as Nagisa approached. She stuttered terribly, and tears were streaming down her face. Nevertheless, she maintained her healing without fail.
“S-sorry I couldn’t be more useful…”
“I should have figured out what he was doing sooner,” Nagisa said bitterly. Despite Katsumi’s grim prognosis Nagisa couldn’t resist the tempting wave of relief that swept over her. He- They were all still alive, with some luck they could get home in one piece.
“Anyway we don’t have time for apologies,” Nagisa continued tightly, fighting to sound calm as she checked her watch. “We still need to make a jailbreak and the other teams probably can’t run interference for too much longer” Nagisa turned back to Atsuko. “Take Yuuki back to the escape route, we’ll round up whoever we can and meet you there,”
Atsuko huffed. “Who died and made you queen… Fine, whatever. Come on.” she walked over to the semi-conscious young man and made her hair lift him up, holding his princess style near her back. “You better not bleed on me… hey you, sass queen, take that jar and leave it somewhere that looks important.” she pointed to the jar she had been carrying around, sealed rather tightly at the moment.
“Don’t drop it, or you’ll need more than mystic palm to bring you back.” and with that, she began marching off down the hallway to god knows where.
“You think this is my first time handling a jar full of explosives? Come on,” Nagisa shot back, placing a hand on the jar and storing it inside her lightning flash seal. She also bent down quickly to do the same to Yuuki’s sword and, after a moment’s thought, the dead man’s flowery weapon as well. After all the trouble he had caused them they could at least get some extra money out of his death. After that she lead Katsumi into the adjoining hallway.
It was about what Nagisa had expected, a wide, smooth corridor of stone and concrete, with regularly spaced openings covered with metal bars.
“Hey look alive,” Nagisa said, striding to the closest cell. “It’s breakout time, stand back,” With that she produced an explosive tag and stuffed it into the lock on the cell bars, retreating to a safe distance herself and then detonating the tag. With that the door swung open effortlessly and Nagisa handed the dazed prisoner a kunai. He looked bewildered and shell shocked but Nagisa didn’t have time to do more than point him in the direction of Atsuko and describe her so that he didn’t end up trying to stab her, there were still dozens of cells left to go.
Katsumi didn’t waste time. She hurried to a cell, and slammed her fist right through it. She then pulled the door right out of its frame, using the hole in the door as a hand hold. She set the door aside, taking a few awkward moments to wiggle her arm out of the door as the poor fella she just freed stared at her in confusion.
“Ummm…. so we are rescuing you, and uh…”
“IT’S A JAILBREAK!” Nagisa shouted to move Katsumi along, without turning from the cell door she was working on. “GET MOVING!” She moved back to let her tag detonate and moved on to the next cell, but stopped briefly when she saw who it was.
“Wow you look like shit,” she said wryly.
A kick nearly was aimed at Nagisa’s head, but Mai’s vanity quickly took over.
“Mirror, where? NOW!”
She supposed bruised, broken arm, and a general lack of hygiene from being a prisoner would affect her looks. Shaking her head, she tried to grab a tag from the jar, but failed. Cursing, Mai just made her way down the hallway looking out for any final dangers. Mai was taking the prison break remarkably well, but it was chaos, and honestly Mai was way more comfortable in chaos than she was in a cramped room. It DIDN’T give her time to think.
“Weirdo,” Nagisa muttered, finishing up the cells on her side of the hallway and moving into what looked like a small examining room at the end of the hallway. It seemed like as good a place as as any to leave behind their parting gift so Nagisa tapped her seal and summoned the jar, positioning it between a bench full of nasty looking tools and solid looking, metal restraint chair.
Satisfied with its positioning, Nagisa turned back to conduct one final check of the cells for stragglers, finding none she hurried to catch up with the untidy rabble they were herding towards the exit.
“Alright let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said to no one and everyone.
The trail left behind for the group to follow was simple enough, an arrow pointing here, a knocked unconscious guard there, and the stampede of prisoners making their way out came to the supposed exit…
A closet, pulled open and odAdly wide, inside one could barely see the end of it.
For those who wished to stop and ask what the hell was going on, the crowd seemed to disagree as most in the front were too busy being pushed in. one by one the many were pushed through the closet, only to find themselves flopped out unceremoniously into the wondrous daylight of the world above.
Confused, unsure of what happened, and dazzled by the sunlight, the group say as Atsuko appeared from behind them all from the old broken closet they all seemingly where thrown from, and Koma stood none too far off, holding a Hyuuga still. “About time, i was beginning to worry you got lost.”
“Just… shut up dad…”