A reminder: If you want to ask an RP thread creator if you can join their RP, do so in private - via conversation or profile messages - or via the thread's discussion thread, if one exists. Do NOT ask if you can join an RP on the RP thread itself! This leads to a lot of unnecessary OOC chatter and that's not what the RP boards are for.
Welcome back to Pokécharms! We've recently launched a new site and upgraded forums, so there may be a few teething issues as everything settles in. Please see our Relaunch FAQs for more information.
As the clones didn’t evade the attack, the tendrils bore through their chest cavities, stabbing them in like clone kebabs. Kai plummeted toward seiun, his newly crafted ice sword in hand. As everything was lining up, Kai, bringing his sword in front of him, he froze up.
...what?
His sword shattered, sending the Lightning coursed through his body. The final discharge was stronger than expected, sending him ragdolling back across the ground. He landed on his back, his body completely numb. What kind of power was THAT? I’m nerves...they won’t respond! Even my mouth can just barley...
The centipedes bore even deeper into seiun’s body, out of their backs grew three more antenna like connections. They reached for his arms, which just fired off his appealingly exhausting attack. They grew barbs, wanting to reach around his arms and immobilize them.
Meanwhile, the humanoid ice beings redirected their tendrils toward the immobilized seiun. Their tendrils aimed for his sides, as they slowly marched forward, even further expanding their range. It was a multi pronged attack!
........
“Rants? Rants?! Last time i ‘ranted’ to you, you need saving from your god directly in order to be saved. Your god cannot save you from me next time.”
He ignored Azumi’s motion, drawing a sawblade attachment to his wrist. He backed her up toward the trunk of a tree, several other connections revving up as well. Out of his shoulders, two drill attachments emerged, winding up on either side of Azumi’s Head. He wasn’t letting this go, it seemed.
“I’ll tell you this. As soon as I lay eyes on they girl, I will rip her heart out and mount THAT as a trophy. So whenever you try and bring that she somehow actually is ‘useful’ or ‘tough’ I will remind you where her place is. ON MY WALL!”
He really didn’t like being compared to Sagiso, someone that was far under his skills in his view. Allowing someone of her standing in would mean they’d open it up to any weakling from the street to join, polluting the very thing this group had over others: power.
Azumi frowned as she instinctively reached for her umbrella as Reaver worked her back up against a tree and placed twin blades next to her head as Reaver spat more of his venom towards Sagiso. Seems that their "partnership" was on very unshaky ground to have said the very least. If Azumi had continued this argument, much as she desired to still defend Sagsiso's name, she knew that if she angered Reaver's irrational temper all the more it could cost her an ally.
So she'd have to think of a compromise.
"You are right, in that we cannot count on Kami to protect us. Which means we ought to be mindful of people who are actually our enemies and not waste energy against each other. Least you want to deny yourself opportunity for new and greater trophies." Azumi said, as she held her tongue against the threat made to Sagiso. As well as herself, as she tried to remind Reaver the reason he agreed to come with her and how giving into this impulse would compromise his own goal.
----------
Tomiko and company continued to run forward at the Ramen stand. Naturally, with her chakra restricted the race was more even and not a guarantee that it would be only be a matter of her or Mori having a chance to win. Still, Tomiko's day to day training managed to pay off as she kept to the front of the pack. With Hoshi and Mori on her rear and shockingly enough Ren with Naomi on his back in a not too distant forth as Jirou, Mio and Miu followed close behind Ren.
Hoshi had done well to keep pace, in spite of not having the ninja stamina that Tomiko and Mori, but it was Ren who'd likely raise Mori's eyebrows as he pulled just behind Hoshi as they tailed Tomiko and Mori. Mori, who Tomiko saw come speeding up, caused her to move faster as she aimed to get to the front of the pack.
----------
Soon enough, Kenji emerged from behind the rock. Blush visible as the area around his waist had been covered by the leaf-material loincloth which only caused Rika's eyes to widen as she had not been prepared to see her teammate strip down like this. To have said the very, very least...
"Ah, that's more like it!" Aisha said as she jumped down from her tall rock within the cave and landed before Kenji. As Luna and Sky circled Kenji with Luna sniffing at Kenji's foot which caused Kenji to weary scan them before he focused to Aisha.
"Okay, so I stripped like you asked. Any other emasculating parts to your training here?" Kenji asked with a slight touch of sarcasm to his voice which only caused Aisha to spout another toothy grin.
"Indeed, now you'll need to gather a few things for me. In order to open up for a connection with your inner animal, I'll need you to find and father various natural elements here in Kumo." Aisha explained, which only caused Kenji to raise an eyebrow in understandable confusion.
"For what purpose?" Kenji asked as Aisha smirked while she folded her arms over her chest.
"Simple, to make a special mix for you to consume. A vital part of the process in your case, given you are not of Inuzuka blood." Aisha explained as Kenji could only think over what Aisha meant by that.
----------
Madoka grit her teeth as she felt the connection form within the base model of the puppet. Once she attached her threads to the network, she began to flick her fingers as she tried to see if she could get it to move.
Sure enough, it began to move around. Randomly at first, given Madoka only tested movement before she tried a more complex movement. Which extended to making the puppet spin in place with a fair amount of grace. It was a bit heavier than Raven, even as only the bare model, but Madoka was sure she could...
"Too light on its feet."
Chiyo's comment caught Madoka off guard as she glanced at the puppet master. Chiyo had observed Madoka's movements and saw that she tried to move with grace and speed with it despite the puppet being more for brute force and defense which was an oversight she aimed to correct.
"I understand you value your first puppet. We all do, but you must play into this puppet's strengths rather than try to change it to something it is not to fit your biased style." Chiyo advised, as Madoka thought it over. Madoka had never used a puppet for purposes beyond a agile and quick striking style, but Chiyo had a point. When she made the modifications to the design this puppet would be more of a ground and pound type that needed to have a firm base and not flail around like Raven.
So Madoka worked her gestures to try and get her puppet to act more like that. All the while Chiyo observed and continued to make mental notes.
----------
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE COCKY CUNT!" Tayuya yelled at Kiro, as his comments sparked her natural temper. She had half a mind to go after Kiro and beat his undeservedly arrogant ass but as he walked away. Tayuya grit her teeth, the nerve of this guy to try and sit all high and mighty after everything he did infuriated her to no end.
"Power only has meaning if there is purpose behind it! You have no will to speak of, as you are everyone's bitch so long as they wave the allure of power over your head. Especially after than Ame girl drained any dignity you had down the shitter!" Tayuya spat with venom, before she decided to go work out her stress through a hyper aggressive workout as she moved to the training fields to go let out some steam.
If she got a chance, no...when she got a chance. She's be certain to make Kiro pay for this, and humble him one way or another.
----------
"GAH!" Sakura yelled out in pain, as she pulled her hand away from Taiyo's mouth and held her hand as she felt Taiyo bite it. Which caused pain, confusion and anger to build up in Sakura which had been best expressed by a certain voice within the kunoichi's head....
Seriously, he bit you!? Who the hell does that!?Oh he is going to pay for that!
Sakura shot Taiyo a glare as she balled her free, unbitten hand into a fist and aimed to deliver a hard smack ring on the top of his skull. Sakura had been rightly aggravated and expressed it both with that and the yell that followed just before she fired that punch.
Moving away from her brother, Shiho turned to Raiku as he asked if he could spar with her. "Of course you can. But don't hold back too much against me, I've been told I'm pretty strong when I actually try." She said with a smile on her face and her arms crossed behind her head. "Follow me." She said as she began leading the way to the training fields.
Looking at his sister leave for the training fields, Shura noticed Tayuya going to the same area. "I guess I'm headed fro the training field too." He thought. Shura looked towards Sagiso. "So where are you gonna go now?" He asked casually.
Reaver’s Sharp eyes narrowed toward Azumi’s. She did have a point, conflicting with each other right now would only compromise later opportunities for trophy gathering. He grunted, his drill attachments on his shoulders folding back into the folds they were stored. His sawblade at Azumi was withdrawn, but his eye contact never wavered, not for a second.
“Tsk. Whatever. Your not worth the effort. But if I find out we are going all that way for some girl in a slumber party...there’s going to be hell to pay.”
Reaver huffed, going back on course. Gestured toward the trail ahead, looking back to Azumi.
“Well? You know the way don’t you?”
......
Zaku stretched, from head to toe, arm to arm. He took a few steps, feeling a bit off. His new body weight was something to get used to. He was most certainly not used to the rapid change, every wobbily step felt like he was balancing on jello. Taking another step, he rounded a corner, a black haired figure meeting close to his face: Orochimaru himself. He was taken aback at the sudden appearance of his master.
“O-Orochimaru sensei! Sorry about that. It’s just the surgery and-“
“Ah Zaku. I was looking for you. During the little ploy at the exams, did you run into any interesting bloodlines?”
A rather odd question for Orochimaru to ask, especially right out of the blue...and to him specifically. However the oblivious nin didn’t see any problem in it whatsoever. He had to remember back. Between madoka and Yasu...those two weren’t very impressive in bloodlines. Then there was the boy that tied with him in the finals...Katsuo.
“Now that I think about it, there was one punk. Katsuo I think his name was.”
“Ah, a member of the Ikeda clan.” Orochimaru licked his lips. “Did this one show any particular skill?”
He cringed, remembering the battle. “The kid had power, crazy power for a guy who didn’t have your strength in ‘em. He grew tentacles out of his back, and managed to bring out my curse mark in me. Even then, his sheer strength managed to tie with it! He was odd...tougher than he looked. Almost as odd as having a second headband on his shoulder.”
Orochimaru’s eyes seemed to flickered green for a second, going back to yellow. He gleaned in on Zaku, chuckling to himself. He seemed to be thinking rather...heavily on something. The snake sannin batted some hair away.
“Oh my, now that is interesting... funny little things such as that come into play again. After SUCH a long time hm?”
Taiyo
The Leaf-nin took the blow to the back of his head. Surprisingly, Taiyo didn't retaliate against Sakura, rather hugging the kunoichi for knocking some sense into him.
"Thanks Sakura, I needed that, can't say I won't have another outburst, but I'll try," The Leaf-nin then attempted to take the hands that he bit and kissed it the way that a mother would kiss her child's injury.
Wow I'm bad at dealing with girls, then again I am only 13 and puberty is a bitch, although, I think my b-day is coming up in, three- no two, two months. Seiun
The rouge shinobi had already come so far, he had Kai at his mercy and was in the position to force him to yield, all he needed to do was rid himself of these pesky centepedes. That however, proved to his biggest problem, as he was unable to remove them from the discharge of his last attack, nor could he remove them with clones. So he did the next best thing he could think of, he created four clones and had one pair attempt to cut of the barbs with chakra infused kunai, while the other pair actively attempted to break the Centepedes with large rocks. Since the barbs have yet to reach his arms, he could still use jutsu and as such, knew just the one for the occasion.
"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!" The Rainy Rogue fired off the electric beam yet again, albeit this time with noticeably less power, but still held a fraction of its destructive capability. This was his last attack, his clones would soon disappear and if they failed, he would soon subcumb to Kai's multi-pronged attack.
"I'll admit...your pretty good....but this will settle our little sparring session, whether I or you come out as the victor," A semi smirk grew on his face, seeing Kai as a competent sparring partner, and a satisfactory ally who deserves respect.
"Well...I haven't got any plans, so I guess I'll be tagging along~?"
She had no real obligations for quite a while, so Sagisō really hadn't been planning on doing anything. She didn't want to strain herself since she'd so recently been injured, so training wasn't much of an option either. She figured that it was about time she cut aside a few hours and minutes and dedicated them to leisure. Seeing as there was combat abreast, she figured she might as well enjoy the show.
Hinagiku
Lounging at her desk, Hina fiddled idly with a framed picture placed at the corner of her desk. Her fingers traced the contours of the person imprinted in colored ink, and if one could take a closer look, they would notice it was a much younger, more puerile Furījia. Within the photo the girl appeared a merely 5 or 6 years old, she wore a colorful Yukata and there was a blissfully smile on her face, only highlighted by the soft red substance smeared across her lips. Studying the picture in more detail would reveal that the young girl held a half-eaten candied apple within her tender fingers, and her remaining arm was entwined to that of a younger more carefree Hinagiku.
The picture was a scene from years ago...years before Hinagiku had taken up the mantle of clan head. Back then...life had been simpler. Sighing wistfully, Hina shook her head and steeled her heart, perhaps this was the destiny of all who bore the titles of Bloodline limit clans- outsiders only saw their power, but not their weakness, not the way they were constantly hunted for their eyes, or just a few scant drops of blood...
Shaking her head in bittersweet remembrance, Hinagiku slipped the picture back under her table, and her gaze lingered on it for a short while, only snapping back upwards when the clicking of the sliding door made itself known, and an unfamiliar young man made his way into her office. Ah, she'd...expected this, though she'd more expected him to get dragged here detained by one of two Hyūga. It seems his experience with the Yuki clan's head had changed him...he was certainly...less rash and perhaps more composed.
Weaving her fingers together atop her desk, Hinagiku shifted her weight onto her desk, her gaze filled with intrigue as it landed upon the visage of one- Uchiha Kiro. Merrily she greeted, "A pleasant afternoon is it not? I see you've finally woken up- but what brings you to my office today?"
The centipedes broke apart from the clones hacking and smashing away at them overtime, giving seiun time to fire off his thunderbolt at Kai. The thunderbolt rocketed his way, but not before one of the humanoid ice forms intercepted the attack, throwing itself in from of it. The humanoid ice form was obliterated, it’s fragments casting aside. The thunderbolt has failed to reached Kai, who was ever slowly twitching back his motor functions.
The remaining humanoid ice form watched as the other forms dissapated, it marching over to Seiun, who had seemed to run it if chakra. It drew two axes made of ice and hooked them to either side of seiun’s face, ready to snap it whenever neccisary. Kai slowly staggered to his feet, wobbling from the previous zapping of electricity he took head on. He looked to seiun.
“You fought adequately. Your lightning proving to be an...obstacle. If they are an obstacle to someone of my esteem, I could only imagen what they would be to a hostile Xeno invader. You have my...tolerance.”
With one finger movement, the ice drone melted, leaving seiun out of harm’s way, for now at least. Hama chuckled to herself, nudging Tsuki.
Taking only a few steps into the room, Kiro was greeted by an eerily familiar voice. He felt a chill go down his spine before eye contact was even made. ‘So this is the Hyūga’s Head, I swear I’ve met her before.’ The Uchiha would be right in that assessment of his memory. It soon dawned on him that the voice was similar to that of nearly two nights ago. If Kiro remembered correctly, the voice had told him too reconsider how he executed his lightning armor.
However, another unsettling thought began brewing in his mind. Now that he had actually taken the time to analyze her voice, the memory of the fateful event during the invasion came flying back into his head. It was right after Sagisō had gone off on Raiku for kissing someone Kiro believed to be related to her. An Anbu had come to collect the two and Kiro remembered being mesmerized just by sharing a look. The fear he felt that moment was only matched by a few others. What Kiro truly feared was to be powerless, incapable to do anything. Even if it was just a small taste, the Anbu had easily instilled that feeling into him.
Without his sharingan active, Kiro could only go on his suspicions and pure instinct at this point. Even if he wasn’t dealing with the same monster, treading carefully would be his best option. The Uchiha blinked to snap himself out of his daze and hoped the Hyūga hadn’t noticed his curious expression.
“Ah yes, a pleasant afternoon indeed. From having a child douse me in water before throwing a bucket and a towel at me. Other than that, I must say the weather is nice. Better than the gloominess of the Mist atleast...” Kiro’s voice grew to a murmur at the last part, throwing a subtle shot at his old home. “I am also disappointed in the lack of manners shown here. Not just the bucket but these sandals I found lying around as well.” Kiro lifted the bucket enough for Hinagiku to hopefully see before placing it down on the floor. He looked back at the Hyūga Head in front of him, still a bit on edge.
The Uchiha then glanced in another direction for a second, unsure of how to correctly phrase his question. Kiro really didn’t want too come off as demanding or insulting but he didn’t know how else to express his feelings. “I can think of a few options that may have been more suitable for a village of your stature to deal with the crimes I have committed. Torture, prison, even death but instead I find myself here trying too figure stuff out. It’s only been a few hours since I’ve woken up and I’ve tried acting on this chance I presume you’ve given me. So far, it doesn’t look like it’s working.” Kiro took a deep breath after speaking a good chunk of his mind. That wasn’t part of the plan but atleast the Hyūga would be tell he was probably losing it.
“I know I’m a prisoner, but there has to be some reason why I’m here instead of a cell. Political reasons, simple generosity, which one and when am I allowed to go free?”
Mori decided to glance back to see how far he was in front, and he certainly was surprised at Ren catching up. "You can indeed go faster, impressive." He said to Ren and tried to overtake Tomiko, although he was not sure if he could make it in time because the Ramen stand became closer and closer with each step.
"How much did you train these kids? They are surprisingly capable for civillians, especially the scarred one!" He said as he got closer to Tomiko, starting to feel some hints of fatigue. He forced himself to go even faster and ran side by side with Tomiko, sometimes falling behind her and sometimes overtaking her. "Talk about stamina training, and they are still keeping up!" He said in genuine surprise as he looked back and checked hastily for any rope that might've allowed the rest to keep up, but by the looks of it Tomiko just trained them a ton.
"You sure that they are not ninja? Because they sure are capable enough to be one!" The ramen stand became almost touchable and Tomiko could have a serious chance of winning. He didn't really need or want the second serving of ramen since he didn't really like it, but he refused to just give it away. Running would not allow him to reach the stand first so he had to think of something else, and he settled on diving the final steps to the stand. He landed face-first on the ground with his arms extended but just didn't touch it. If he dived a bit later he would've won, he couldn't do much now since getting up would take too long and at this rate Tomiko already made it to the stand.
Humming a light tune, accompanied by the steady click of her nails across the wooden, she absorbed Kiro's queries mulling on them for a while before responding with a few questions of her own. "Do you believe the Uchiha have sway here? I'll assure you now that they don't, and we are hardly as generous as you seem to believe. They Hyuga are best at observation so our method of keeping prisoners is to do just that. If a bed of stone and house of steel bars make you feel reassured, then that can be arranged for your comfort. People are best observed in their natural states, only then can the truth behind matters be gleaned. The duration of your release, however, isn't decided by us, but rather the Kage- or whoever shall fill that role in the interim. You've been in contact with an S-ranked criminal, and you should know the significance of the S-rank. It is reserved for matters that affect the fate of the village, so naturally a single clan cannot determine matters."
"Nevermind that, I see you've encountered Rakusupa- quite the flighty one isn't she?" Somewhat amused with the novelty of the situation, she spoke jovially. "You'll have to forgive her for that, she's quite timid, but she's been caring for you these past few days..."
Raku was a dutiful child, despite her reservations, she'd meticulously cared for the Uchiha, though her confidence seems to have scattered the moment the target of her care proved to be concious. Chuckling to herself she commented off-handedly, "If you wish to find her I'm sure she'll be hiding somewhere, perhaps..."
Shifting her gaze towards the window, her eyes landed on a tree far off into the distance. She stared for a few seconds before her gaze founds it's way back to the Uchiha, "any more questions?"
“Actually, when you put it that way, I don’t see why I should be complaining. Perhaps I did get off on the wrong foot.” Kiro responded in an understanding tone, falling back on his earlier beliefs.
Hinagiku’s response helped provide some clarity on the situation. Hearing that the Uchiha held no control of his being here only served to please him. The visual prowess of the byakugan also kept any prisoners in view at all times, so his imprisonment with the Hyūga was probably the best choice. He noted that his name was now connected to an S-Rank criminal, something which instilled a sense of pride in him. That being said, Kiro’s only chance of going free would be when he spoke with the Kage or whoever was now in charge.
Learning more about the child who had assaulted him made Kiro wonder if holding a grudge was necessary. It was the first time Kiro had scared a child so badly. Had he finally achieved the status of being intimidating? Kiro would have to ask the child that. He tried following Hinagiku’s gaze after the comment but his eyes didn’t allow him to see as clearly.
“Okay, so if I’m going to be your captive, how do things work around here? Food, training, showering...” Kiro subconsciously ran his hand through his hair, recollecting the fall into a large bush earlier. “Also, where am I staying? No offense, but that room I woke up in didn’t seem suitable for someone to live in long term.” Now that Kiro knew his situation, adapting to their daily life would have to be the next priority. If this was the prison he would be staying in, Kiro would try not too hold anymore qualms.
Azumi saw as Reaver backed away, though continued to stare her down and warned her though Azumi had grown used to that by this point. She'd have to, she figured this would be a long trip and Reaver seemed like the type to make a habit of this. Still, Azumi decided not to dwell on this as she moved ahead the main trail as she would take the lead given she had a general idea of where they were going.
"I assure you the trip will be worth it. Sagiso may lack "power" in your eyes, but if her account is credible which I have no reason to presume it is not this candidate may prove to meet or even exceed your standards." Azumi said, as she had confidence in Sagiso's word on this first candidate in question so she knew if she hyped her a bit it would make Reaver more excited or if nothing else keep him from complaining for the moment.
---------
Tomiko continued to lead the pack, as the rest of the group began to slow a bit given they lacked the ninja stamina that she and Mori had. Though their performance seemed impressive enough to warrant a question about it from Mori.
"Oh yeah~! I keep these guys in shape, but you gotta be tough to make it where we live and these guys are that and more." Tomiko said with a smile before her eyes widened as she saw Mori make a jump to the Ramen stand. Though her heart settled from the worry as he landed just short of the stand which caused Tomiko to grin.
"Good try, but that second helping is mine!" Tomiko said as she moved ahead of Mori and had been a moment from entering the stand, before Naomi's body flew past her as she landed on one of the seats inside.
"Yay! We did it Mr. Snugglebottom. Thanks bro~!" Naomi said with a smile as Tomiko stood speechless before she glanced back at Ren, who had been panting but greeted Tomiko with a sly smirk after he threw his sister to the stand which just passed Tomiko & Mori up. The rest of the group soon caught up and were naturally disappointed as they saw what had happened.
"N-no fair Ren! You cheated!" Jirou complained as Ren simply gave her a shrug.
"Eh, all is fair in love in war. Besides, it was her idea. Naomi won. Not me." Ren said as Tomiko shook her head...though had an amused grin as she turned to Naomi.
"Sneaky one aren't you?" Tomiko asked as Naomi giggled and held Mr. Snugglebottom to her chest.
---------
Kenji faced the exit of the cave after Aisha clarified what he needed to do, or rather the purpose of natural items he was set to get. Kenji was asked to lay out the terrain and what could be found out there, and when Kenji informed him of what he knew was naturally avaiable here in the mountain area combined with what Aisha has picked up with her nose she made a few recommendations before she shooed him off to go and bring them back to the cave.
"Are you sure about this? All of this seems....excessive for some training don't you think?" Rika asked Kenji, as he had to admit he wanted to agree with her...but he did trust Aisha and knew he had to get stronger as simply where he had been at not was not nearly good enough.
"Yeah...anything that can help me reach the next level. I owe a certain Hyuga some payback, and quite frankly we are on different planes of power & skill it is laughable. I need to try and chip away at that enormous gap, and this might be the only way to do it." Kenji replied as Rika let out a sigh...but she placed a comforting hand on his back and gave a nod.
"Well, I don't get how you feel...but as a teammate, I should offer you some encouragement. Just stay safe. It is gonna be a pain to heal you up out here anyway." Rika said with a smile as Kenji gave a nod...before he took in a deep breath and ventured to the wilderness as he aimed to gather the needed ingredients for this special drink that should be the gateway into learning the art of the Inuzuka.
---------
Sakura had never experienced such a swing of emotions. From concern Taiyo might hurt himself or do something stupid, to shock & pain when he bit her hand, to anger over that fact and now pure confusion as Taiyo first hugged Sakura after she hit him in the head. Sakura's face calmed a bit, though her eyebrow raised which was soon followed by her eyes as they widened when Taiyo took the hand he bit and actually kissed it.
Taiyo was a....strange individual, with jarring mood swings to have used the kindest description.
Sakura quickly pulled her hand back as she looked Taiyo in the eye. Her expression more relaxed as she let out a sigh before she would speak to the formerly temperamental fire specialist.
"I...I am happy to hear you've calmed a little. And please try, it could be fatal down the road if you allowed your emotions to flare like that. Though...do ask in advance if you want to try a "make up kiss" please." Sakura said before she heard a knock on the door and the familiar voice of Shizune was heard.
"Is everything all right in there." Shizune asked as Sakura acted quickly to diffuse and rightful concern she or anyone else the room over may have had.
"W-we're okay, really." Sakura assured Shizune, who seemed to believe her word as evident by what she asked next.
"Okay, if you are sure. When you and Taiyo are ready you can come in here. I'm sure you'd like an update on what happened since your fight with Lady Tsunade." Shizune explained as Sakura gave a nod before she glanced over to Taiyo.
"You...you are okay? Ready to go?" Sakura asked Taiyo, as she was curious what progress Jiraiya made in negotiations since she went out.
----------
Tayuya had found a practice dummy to work out some of her pent up aggression on, and had been wailing on it with various Taijutsu combos since she arrived in the Training area within the Hyuga Compound.
Tayuya had a lot of stress she needed to work out, not only from her shout fest with Kiro but also the fact the Sound 4 had been soundly humilated which likely lowered Orochimaru's value of her and the fact she had been reduced to a slave of their greatest enemy all had equal contribution to her ever visible frustration.
So, given her fight with Kai displayed her weakness of Taijutsu and overeliance on her Doki & Genjutsu, she aimed to correct that weakness so she'd never be reduced to a half-dead state like that ever again. So her solution was to try and beat this dummy into submission while she tried for something more extensive as a combo than her brawler style she had not polished in the slightest.
Walking to the training field, Shiho walked to a clear area so Raiku and her can have their sparing match. "Ready when you are Raiku." She said as she got into a battle stance.
Shura arrived at the training field as well and looked towards Tayuya. "She's even more worked up now." He thought as he observed her.
Taiyo
The Leaf-nin nodded, back to his usual, cheery self, at least for now. His facial expression was rid of any form of anger or frustration in favor of an unusually calm expression, usually one could read Taiyo's emotions like a book. Joyful, sad, scared, and especially angered, all could be told from the expression on his face, with this case being the first notable exception.
"I can try, but I can't garumtee any promises, and I'm ready to go Mrs. Shizune," He turned to the exit of his room so he could be ready to go faster. Tsuki
In a word, the sparring match between Seiun and Kai was, satisfying. Her notebook now had complete pages on both of them, and overall it was just a spectacle to see. But what took the cake for her was Kai deeming Seiun as 'tolerable'. It was indisputable that she was gifted with powerful teammates, and she realized that what made them powerful was their signature jutsu. This hypothesis was made on the conclusion that Final Discharge and Ice Drone Jutsu were Seiun's and Kai's respectively, with the former being able to render an opponent unable to move, which is perfect for a killing mission while the latter can overwhelm an opponent with a multi-pronged attack.
“You three will be a very interesting cell~” The words that came out of Hama's mouth only caused a sincere nod of concurrence from the Yuki-nin, since what she said next could change the course of how she developed as a kunoichi.
"Hama-sensei, I had an epiphany, I've been blessed with strong teammates, but what is truly the source of their strength? Simple, it's their signature jutsu, whether it be summoning an army, or paralyzing your opponent, these are both trump cards that change the battle to the user's favor. In a lame man's terms, I want to develop my own signature jutsu,"
~Two Weeks Prior: Shortly after the Sound Four attack~
"How could you bring them here! You know it puts all our lives at risk!" Shouted an older man with ashy grey hair pulled back into a loose pontytail, his voice a mix of panic and confusion.
"I had no choice! They were going to die! Besides, you said when he was ready, you would train him. Ive seen him fight, he's ready!" Pleaded the young woman who had been watching Katsuo at the hospital, he and Ichiko's unconscious bodies now strung over her shoulders.
"....Rittsu....I know you wanted to see them....I did to. But we just cant give in because of our emotions, we must overcome them and do what is right." The older man replied, his eyes locked on the limp bodies of the Ikeda Clan mother and son.
"Dad....theirs another reason I brought them. O...Orochimaru was the cause of the attack.....he's back..." The young girl revealed, her reply stated in a hesitant, almost inaudible tone.
The grey haired man's eyes widened at the mention of such an old and venomous name, his blood ran cold and his body was rocked with a chill that caused him to shiver slightly.
"Rittsu......" His voice wavered as he spoke, a long pause filling the air for a moment. The man clenched his trembling fist, attempting to steady his breathing, "....get them inside. Now!" He ordered, his demeanor shifting to stern and almost violent at a drastic rate.
~Present Day~
"Water Style! Windmill Water Shuriken!" Roared a heavily tattered Katsuo, launching his ace attack at Rittsu, who seemed to be in much better condition than he.
"Lightning Style! Tesla Stream!" Rittsu countered, throwing her hands out straight forward, a continuous bolt of lightning exiting each of her four fingertips. The bolts conjoined into a larger beam that rocketed through Katsuo's Windmill Water Shuriken at blistering speeds.
"Gaaaah! Daamn!" The water-nin groaned as he was sent rolling, lightning chakra painfully coursing up and down his nervous system, effectively immobilizing the boy.
"Thats that Katsuo, 3 to 0. Maybe tomorrow." Rittsu remarked in a rather snarky tone, flipping her wavy red hair out of her face as she turned away from her downed opponent, walking back into the large steel double doors ahead of her.
On the other side of the dirty arena floor, Ichiko and the grey haired man had been sitting with one another, watching the battle commence.
"Rittsu's grown so strong Kido, you must be so proud. If......if only I were able to do the same for Katsuo." Ichiko spoke in a rather dejected tone, staring at her son as he finally managed to roll onto his hands and knees.
"Ichiko, nonsense. " Kido replied, a comforting smile slowly arising on his face.
"Katsuo is incredibly powerful. He's so far along in his taijutsu training and his control over the water chakra nature is almost on par with that of a jonin. The boy has skill, dont doubt yourself." Kido reassured her, lacing his arm around her left shoulder before pulling her in close.
"Thank you, Kido. But now, they'll have both of us around for them, so ill have no need to doubt myself, with you by my side that is. Youve always been there for us. Even after we had been separated for so long, Rittsu and you still came for us in a time of need, I dont know what id do without you." Ichiko replied softly and sweetly, tucking herself in close to Kido's chest. The fiery kunoichi gone, replaced with a woman of content.
"I would never leave you two behind, you two and Rittsu....thats why im around. And yes, with both of us around the kids training will progress beautifully. And if my hunch is correct...." Kido paused, his gaze trailing off towards Katsuo who was now begrudgingly limping off towards the same exit Rittsu had used. "...he'll go further than any of us expected."
Mori was still lying on the ground and was glad that he did, as Naomi flew overhead and landed on a seat. He got up and dusted his clothes off, eyes wide with surprise. He looked around and saw Ren panting and with a sly smirk, not to mention Naomi-less. "Did- did you just throw your little sister?" He asked with clear shock and a gaping mouth, although it quickly turned into a grin.
"Man, that was unexpected and amazing! Come on, you certainly earned your ramen." He said to Ren as he walked towards the ramen stand and stood instead of making use of a seat, not wanting to make any of the others stand. "When did you get the idea to let your brother throw you to the stand, you little genius? Did Mr. Snugglebottom give you the idea?" He grinned as he grabbed a tattered brown wallet from his pocket that was surprisingly well-filled. "Tomiko, I am positively shocked. Your friends are certainly just as capable as anyone else be it physically or with wits, and I found out the hard way. Each one of them certainly earned that bowl of ramen." Mori said with admiration partically oozing from his body.
Hama had a certain glint in her eye when Tsuki mentioned a signature justu. She chuckled to herself, putting the front of her hand over her mouth as she did so.
“Oh ho ho~ darling, you just became a ninja yesterday. A TRUE ninja anyway. You won’t be learning anything earth shattering~”
She booped her nose with her index finger, taking it off after she did. Tsuki had heart and spirit, which she took interest in, but would that same heart last in the true ninja world? She looked to her fingers and then back to Tsuki.
“Actually...maybe you could do something. Something others would not expect. Tell me Tsuki, what do you know of our bloodline?”
.....
Kai, getting the rest of his feeling back in his body, walked over to seiun, who seemed utterly exhausted. He flexed his fingers, the ice humanoid drone melting as Kai walked in it’s footsteps. He eyed the ‘tolerable’ Xeno, judging tsuki’s property.
“Hm. Your weapons at your disposal are crude but efficient. Perhaps if you focused your chakra on yourself instead of separating it into clones you could maximize your efficiency. Up soldier.”
"What can I say? These guys are a special bunch." Tomiko said with as mile, happy to hear how impressed that Mori spoke up for her group, and felt rather touched. So often people from the main heart of the city looked down on them for being "just slum kids" but Mori seemed to see the value in them that had often been overlooked.
"Oh, we came up with that idea together. Just Mr. Snugglebottom helped give me confidence it was a good idea." Naomi explained with some pride as she held her fluffy companion close, and the rest of the group had been eager to take their seats on the chairs available. Though Tomiko decided to motion for Mori to take her seat as she'd settle for the stool.
"Take a seat, you've earned that much. Besides where I sit doesn't matter too much. And before you argue, I insist and want this so just go along with it." Tomiko said with a smile, before her eyes widened at the menu and she seemed to lick her lips in anticipation.
"Anyway, enough chatter. Let's eat!"
-----------
Sakura simply gave a nod as she would walk through the door that Shizune opened, where she and Taiyo would find Jiraiya and Tsunade as they seemed to sit across each other on a pair of sofas. The two glanced over to the two Genin as Shizune moved by Tsunade while her trusted companion Tonton moved by her side. Jiraiya said nothing, as he merely glanced over to Tsunade who seemed to have not much to say herself...but eventually...
"Well, we've had a big discussion, and I decided to come back to Konoha. After all, the medical core seems to have been crippled and I owe it to Kushina to see what I can do about Minato's condition..." Tsunade started to say, as she paused a bit while she tried to find the right words. Those words of her brother and former lover rang in her head once more before she let out a sigh and faced them.
"...and, in consideration with the state of the village, my own history with it and...and persuasive arguments made by you two along with Jiraiya here. I decided that...I will accept the position of Hokage. Only until Minato recovers from his condition." Tsunade said, which in turn had stunned Sakura as it appeared her and Taiyo's battle had not been fruitless. That somehow, they managed to get through to Tsunade just enough for Jiraiya to successfully sway her.
They did it, they actually did it. Something her inner voice had been all too eager to celebrate.
Hell yeah! We managed to find a new Hokage. Suck it Ino!
No need to be rude.
Like you are not gonna brag about this to her and hold it over her head every chance you get.
Nodding absentmindedly, Hina clapped twice, signaling one of the maids just outside the room to enter. She sported a head of dark-green hair cut short with short bangs that framed the silvery sheen of her Konoha headband. Her eyes were limpid, the pure white that was most common within the Hyūga clan, and her expression was soft and tranquilizing. "If you have any further questions, Natsu here will answer them. The Hyūga clan...has business to attend."
Expression steely Hinagiku arose with vigor. Within the past two days, she'd managed to somewhat settle the external affairs that required her presence; meetings with the other clan heads, allocations of manpower to restore damage to the village, reorganizing of the guard schedules to increase village security etc. She'd spent the past few days almost without sleep dealing with paperwork and matters of village security. To say she was a bit tense and in need of some stress relief was a massive understatement. Fortunately, she had just the thing for stress relief, Training! Unfortunately, training could be very painful. But fortunately, or unfortunately, the ones being trained would be the younger Hyūga. No pain, no gain right?
A sadistic grin curving onto her lips, she strode right past Kiro, her chakra flaring with wild abandon. With a flourish she swept her sleeves outwards, kicking up a windstorm within the small office. The wind howled, throwing papers in every which direction, shattering the rooms windows, and battering Kiro and Natsu the full extent of the chakra intensity of an Anbu. That being said, Hinagiku's goal had been achieved, with the distinct bang of wood colliding against wood the door to the room was thrown opened, and without further ado, she strode out in the open.
Her voice thrummed across the Hyūga compound, rumbling like thunder in the ears of the Clansmen.
"Let's get down to Business, to defeat those Hounds. |The Huns You will be my warriors when war cries for blood |Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? You're the sadest bunch I ever met, But you can bet before we're through Listen, I'll make ninjas, out of you.|Mister, I'll make a man, out of you
Tranquil as a forest But on fire within Once you find your center You are sure to win
You're a spineless pale pathetic lot! And you haven't got a clue, Somehow I'll make a ninja out of you!
I'm never gonna let you catch your breath | I'm never gonna catch my breath Say goodbye to those who knew you |Say goodbye to those who knew me Man were you fools in school for cutting gym |Boy was I fool in school for cutting gym
I'll have you scared to death|This guy's got em scared to death I will always see right through you|hope he doesn't see right through me Now you'd better wish your days won't be so grim|Now I really wish that I knew how to swim
Be a Ninja,|Man You must be swift as a coursing river with all the force of a great typhoon with all the strength of a raging fire mysterious as the dark side of the moon
Time is racing towards us Till those hounds arrive |Till the Huns arrive heed my every order and you might survive
You'll be suited for the rage of war|You're unsuited for the rage of war So buck up your peace is through|So pack up go home you're through Somehow we'll make ninjas out of you|How could I make a man out of you?
Be a Ninja,|Man You must be swift as a coursing river with all the force of a great typhoon with all the strength of a raging fire mysterious as the dark side of the moon
Be a Ninja, Man You must be swift as a coursing river with all the force of a great typhoon with all the strength of a raging fire mysterious as the dark side of the moon."
As her miniature song and dance number progressed, Hinagiku was joined by the various other leaders within the clan. There was no frivolity in their voices, but instead, the spoke in a somber chorus and cold, callous expression. This younger, softer generation knew nothing of war, but they had grown within the thick of the 3rd Ninja world war, drafted as children to a battlefield strewn with corpses of friend and foe alike. While they couldn't grant the younger Hyūga experience of war, they could train them harshly, and break their weakness before it broke them. There would be no mercy, showing them that would be a disservice. Mercy to one's enemies is cruelty to oneself. True strength was born of suffrage and tribulation, and that was exactly what they would dish out to them.
Standing amidst the training field, Hinagiku glanced coldly upon the crowd of her clansman...How many of these faces will be alive a decade from now..? How many will never get to mature in young adults..? How many will die for a cause not worth their lives..?
Her voice devoid of emotion, she ordered flatly, "The Hyūga clan's compulsory training begins Now!"
===========================================
Shura stood around the training field observing the scene in front of him. Hearing Hinagiku's voice suddenly thrum across the Hyuga compound, Shura tensed up as he listened to what was being broadcasted by the clan head. Understanding the clear message she was telling them. "Oh, the training is beginning huh." He thought. Shura turned towards Hinagiku when she appeared at the training field and ordered the training to begin. He sighed. "Time to go through hell again." He thought, remembering the first time he trained under Hinagiku.
Shiho heard Hinagiku's announcement and gulped at the sight of her. "Sorry Raiku, but it seems I'm going to be busy for awhile. Maybe next time." She said to the Uchiha with an fearful smile. Shiho had never trained with Hinagiku before but from what she heard from her brother, she feared what awaits her won't be pleasant.
"They certainly are unique in the best meaning of the word." Mori said with a grin before looking at Naomi. "Mr. Snugglebottom must be very important to you? Maybe he can give you the confidence to rise up as Tsuchikage and take Tomiko's place, who knows?" He said as he ruffled her hair and saw Tomiko stand up and practically demand him to sit down, which caused him to shake his head and smile. "Stubborn as a rock, huh? I spent enough time with you to not protest since you'd make me sit down willingly or not." He said as he took her seat and grabbed a menu.
"Let's see, what shall I pick?" He said to himself as he read through the menu. "I'm starving, so a bowl of beef ramen please. What do you guys want?" He asked his 'guests' beside him and felt more at ease with these so-called 'slum rats' than with his parents, it was strange to feel a bigger attachment with these people than with family. He remembered something his mom told him once and he saw the meaning of it only now, in a ramen stand with a bunch of kids from the slums. As he recited the sentence a smile crept upon his face. Family is not determined by blood or genetics, but by the meaningful bonds you make with others. Guess you were true after all Mom.
Several ninja from the hidden cloud trailed after someone, many of these ninja after the person were well armed and teeming with chakra. The chakra of a tailed beast was afoot. A jinchurki. These ninja scattered everywhere, desperate in their pursuit. The ninja they had given the tailed beast to was powerful, and then the energy they got from the tailed beast...if it was rouge it could mean serious trouble.
Alarms sounded, ninjas out of breath, their search coming to an abrupt end as they had lost the trail of their target. They were frantically looking about, having no idea where to go. Although they did have someone of an idea where it could go...but they weren’t equipped for such a journey.
“Seargent! We have lost the trail.” A chunnin spoke. “What should we do?”
“Tell the raikage...”
The seargent looked out into the distance. The dark moon lit sky, looking ahead. The wind blew against his hair, flowing into the wind.
“....”
“We are going to chase the eight tails!”
Naruto RP:
Arc IV: Eight Tails Arc.
Days after the incident, At every village, birds flew and spies rushed. Near the same time, each village was given a message. Their spies and information scouts had managed to gain wind on the situation. The cloud wasn’t exactly quiet about it, as much as they seemed to think so. A scroll was passed off to the heads of each village, and subsequently, even against some of their wishes had been posted in several areas across the villages. The mission boards and many buildings were covered with copies of the scroll, it was popular news. Even the kage’s Couldn’t deny it was news, but it was a matter of how they would go about it. Especially the cloud, who was. Outraged that it was put up in several areas of their village. They knew it would be an arms race. They’d encounter resistance for sure. It was only but a matter of time.......
.
...
.....
.......
............
Jin walked down the halls of the Yuki, into the streets, and directly into the main hub of the mist. He couldn’t go down a street corner without seeing a scroll, detailing the eight tails jinchurki, and how it was out of the cloud’s grasp. Last reported somewhere half a day’s journey from the mist. It was incredibly tempting. However, it seemed too good to be true. He could mobilize the entire Yuki clan on the ground of a rumor on a scroll. But it seemed worth looking into. He pressed a justu inscription deal on His wrist, previously hidden.
“Hama. Your cell is needed.”
........
“Decapatating airwaves!!”
A powerful burst of air was fired, Kidomaru being shot backwards by it. Kidomaru was covered in plates, tanking the hit, although the armor had cracked and fallen to pieces. Kidomaru used a hand to wipe some blood off of his lip, while four other arms were crossed in front of him.
“Heh, your getting stronger. Even though it was a glancing shot you managed to hit through the armor. But don’t expect me to go easy on you!”
“Easy? Ha! I’m gonna break your legs one by one bugsy!”
Zaku and Kidomaru continued to fight. Sakon looked on, mildly entertained at Zaku’s progress. He’d come a while since he left for the exams. When he left to attended, he was nothing but some test run for some surgery. But now...he seemed to be falling into the mold.
Kou meanwhile was humming a cheery little tune, feeding a brown rat a slab of bread he had found from the mess hall. He had a smile on his face, ina. Sing-song attitude. It had been good on the boy since he came to the sound. He no longer had bones showing from his previous starving state. He had a family now, food in his belly, and the best big brother Boss he could ask for. Life was good.
“That’s quite enough...kekeke.....”
The fighting stopped, everyone in the room turning to the voice which came from the shadows. The rat sqeaked at the voice and scampered away. Out of the shadows, Orochimaru appeared, a cultured smile on his face.
“Orochimaru sensei!” The sound two and Zaku said almost at once, bowing on one knee.
“Now now, don’t be so formal. I’ve got a task for each of you.” Orochimaru said elequently. “There’s a jinchurki on the loose. Yukimaru and kin are fine additions to our band, imagine what I could do with three? Our power would be unquestionable. No one village alone could defeat us then. This power...is mine. And you all will get it for me.”
“Yes Orochimaru!” Kidomaru and Sakon agreed. Although ukon looked up from sakon’s back. “Lord Orochimaru, why not send kin and Yukimaru with us?”
“Send my prized pieces into battle? Dearest ukon, you think little of me. You all are supposed to pave the way for my tailed beast soldiers, if I sent them first, they would have an even bigger target on their back. Need I remind you what happened to Jirobo and tayuya when they fought to defend them...”
Ukon became dead quiet. Orochimaru’s words were convincing. Not being the sound four anymore was a blow to them, a blow that wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. Orochimaru walked over to Zaku, who remained kneeling. He put his hand in his cheek.
“Be my weapon Zaku. Use the power I have given you and fight for me.”
Zaku’s curse mark pulsated at the sound of Orochimaru’s words. Zaku’s Head cranes respectfully, noticing Orochimaru handing him something, wrapped up. It felt like paper in his hand.
“This is the scroll I’ve compiled, showing the trek of the jinchurki. Make use of it and find it. Each of you.”
Orochimaru gave the other sound two each a copy of said scroll. They all nodded their heads, obedient and aware of their orders. All except Kou, who wasn’t directly talked to or given anything. He more so was glued to the wall, hoping to be forgotten.
“Yes lord Orochimaru!”
“Good...oh and little one.” He said, looking to Kou. “Go with Zaku.”
“Wha- why?! I’m not strong, I’m just me.”
“You could use the experience in the ninja world. Trust me on this...kekekeke....”
“Ummmm I....yes lord snakey snake.”
He had forgotten Orochimaru’s name, although the snake sannin didn’t seem to mind. He gave a chuckled, putting Kou on the head, before retreating into the shadows. Zaku got up from the ground, looking over to Kou.
“Phew, a loaded mission. Guess it’s me and you again kid!” He said with his signature smirk. “Ready to fight with the big leagues?”
Patience, contemplation, and thoughtfulness, those were the only expressions on Mei's face as her eyes swam across the scroll before her. First Orochimaru's attack on Konoha, now Kumo had lost one of it's largest sources of war potential... The balance between the 5 Great Ninja villages was slowly being disrupted, and if she recalled correctly -the scene of a bold declaration during the chūnin exams replayed in her mind- certain members of the Minor villages were getting...restless.
Her wrinkled brows relaxed as she rolled the scroll up and pushed it into her desk, "Well, I won't be sending anyone in particular...but you'll tell me how it went, won't you Koki'o?"
Let her head fall to the side, almost lopsided, Mei gazed at a young girl with pale skin and striking red hair, so vivid in its color that it seemed to stain the air with blood and effuse a faint stench of the iron-rich liquid. Just looking at her brought a faint smile to Mei's lips, and the girl returned a bewitching smile and replied jovially.
"Of course, I'm sure quite a few of my sisters will be there as well."
Even as she spoke she'd already propped her leg up against one of the windows and was half-way out of the office. Without further ado, she leapt from the window, a streak of crimson bounding over the rooftops and swiftly making its way out of the village- the proof of an alliance.
------2 months ago------
With the noble clan of the Mist rebelling against her in all but name, Mei naturally had to find another means of achieving her goals. While she could still mobilize shinobi on a larger scale than any of the 4 noble clans, she'd certainly meet resistance at every turn. With that in mind, the reigning Mizukage had taken a trip out of the village to visit another shinobi force hidden within the land of water and outside the view of her troublesome political opponents. Departing the village surreptitiously with Ao and Chino covering her trails and being the only people aware of her reason for her 'disappearance', Mei had taken leave for a few days.
Days later, the Mizukage sat leisure atop an irregularly shaped slab of black stone which cut through the waters at a rapid pace. Her fair legs dangled off the edge of her boat and into the water as her vessel of pumice -crafted through a deft display of lava style into the ocean super-cooling the heated substance until it formed the lightweight rock- while the currents beneath her bent to her will, carrying her forward.
Ahead of her was an island of decent size, though quite small compared to the main islands of the Land of Water. Off into the distance, cresting on the horizon, was the vague silhouette of a castle atop 3 hills- the little known Nadeshiko village. -------------------------------------------
Mudān --Present day--
It was a busy day for Nadeshiko village, the castle bustled with activity, or rather, on the contrary, it was almost devoid of life. With the news of the Hachibi deserting its village, anyone with half a brain could tell that the land of lightning would soon attract many talented ninjas who would be sent by their respective villages to get into on the action, no doubt it would devolve into a battle royal situation where only the most talented and elite of shinobi emerged. That scenario is exactly what had riled up the all-female village of Nadeshiko. Those who lacked husbands had departed on their way to the land of lightning in droves, and those who had husbands still went anyways to take a look at the monumental occasion.
Even more still had been out on missions, or rather a particular mission they'd been tasked with two months back. The scant few kunoichis that remained in the village were left to man- or rather woman- the fortress which was now desolate with the chunk of their population away from home. Mudān, the effective leader of Nadeshiko, was one of the few who remained stationed at the fortress, with little to do apart from twiddle her thumbs. Her namesake, the Peony, was aptly named the King of Flowers, and she was a Lord among the flower of women that composed the village. She lived up to that image, currently reclined on a plush throne within Nadeshiko's central castle. Her expression was lofty and aloof, but in truth, she was lost in thought.
The ninja world seemed all but thrown into chaos with all the events that seemed to be taking place in such close proximity, and recently even one of the kage of the 5 villages had discreetly made her way to Nadeshiko with a proposal. It had been an... odd request, but the reward was reasonable and it wasn't a request that was particularly risky to the kunoichi stationed within Nadeshiko, hence she'd accepted. From there on out the Mizukage had made full use of Nadeshiko's kunoichi to perform a variety of what could only be dubbed odd jobs, until they'd simply gone and sent an emissary to the Mist whom could relay messages- Koki'o Kānēshon. The girl had been the only one to remain within the village after her two teammates Baiyan and Sagisō had gone their separate ways on the traditional voyage for a spouse. Although somewhat reluctantly, the young bird had finally agreed to leave the nest, and the mere thought brought a smile to Mudān's lips.
However, now was not the time to immerse herself within fond adoration of the younger kunoichi. Times were becoming turbulent, and it would appear it was time Nadeshiko took more measures to protect itself.
Sagisō
Panting, dry heaving and ragged gasping in desperate attempts to funnel oxygen into her lungs and by extent her burning muscles, Sagisō stood atop a small platform on several centimeters in diameter. She was perched in the air atop the end of a bamboo pole, balancing on a single leg while her hands were tucked into her sides and her remaining leg was raised like a crane's. Around each of her fists, blue balls of fiery chakra swirled unsteadily, its form appeared to be irregular as if Sagisō hadn't been able to properly control her own chakra, and the manifestation of chakra seemed to be a bit on the shaky side, as the jutsu seemed to flicker in and out of existence.
Around her four shadow clones stood, replicating her stance atop bamboo perches of their own. Around each of their eyes veins protruded and seemed to tremble in exhaustion. Sagisō's body swayed as if fatigued, ready to simply fall from her perch and take a much-needed rest against the dirt floor. Although she appeared to be an arrow at the end of her flight, the girl persisted, and instead of falling from her perch, she instead flashed into the air, the clones moving in unison.
The five identical silhouettes overlapped in mid-air, crossing by each other with twists and turns of their bodies that allowed them to slip by without contact before alighting onto a bamboo platform. What Sagisō was performing now was a training regime where one would flitter back and forth atop bamboo poles with the addition of clones. The trainee would need to accurately move from pole to pole while avoiding contact with their clones. The goal of this way to train the user's agility, footwork and use of the Byakugan to track multiple other targets at once. While this went on to tax her concentration, the young girl also struggled to maintain the Twin Lion step, which was an advanced technique that was the epitome of the gentle fist style. She'd spent the past 3 months solely on this training, but since her arm was broken, what she'd been training was simply the chakra manipulation for the technique. It had been difficult, the Twin Lion Step having high requirements for chakra control, but it had been doable to a certain degree.
While she had certainly been capable of performing the Twin Lion Step, the concentration demanded by the technique meant that it tended to fail whenever she applied it to combat as the Kunoichi simply had too many other things to be paying attention to. What she trained now was precisely keeping the twin lion step active while paying attention to other stimuli. It was an arduous task that left her both physically and mentally drained, but one she considered far better than the tasks assigned to some of her peers.
With the ideology of 'To learn how to beat, one must first learn how to be beaten' her Mother had brought down a reign of terror upon the younger generation of the Hyūga clan through sparring with merciless opponents who suppressed them in skill, age, and strength. Only when the trainee had achieved a certain level of combat instinct where they could, no matter how pitiful it was -which it more often than not was-, defend against the assault of their far superior opponent were they allowed to begin training anything other than simple combat and survival skills.
While their curriculum still consisted of sparring against their senior, they could now be described as having graduated from 'Passively being trounced', to 'Learning how to be beaten up'. As the Hyūga gained familiarity with combat they were allowed to train in ways that would increase their offensive might. The focus was on teaching them how to survive in battle rather than instilling in them any great and destructive form of ninjutsu. A ninja wielding S-ranked techniques who was killed in their first clash with the enemy was of no use to anyone.
Shōshitsugetsu
It'd been a relatively peaceful time, but then again it was always quite peaceful in the ocean's depths. The Hōzuki clan had been slowly but surely infiltrating the coastline villages and casting genjutsu on key figures within the populace who had sway or clout. Through these figures, they went around implanting sentiments and ideals into the minds and hearts of the commoners, and slowly corrupting their views on certain topics.
It was a slow process, one that would take several more weeks or even months to be completed, but the shift appeared to progress naturally and without arousing suspicion.
Shiho flew across the field and slammed against a wall as her sparring match finished. The past few months had been tough for the young Hyuga as she endured the brutal training regiment. Shiho sat against the wall breathing heavily when she noticed her brother walk by holding his arm. "Hey bro, this really is tough like you said." Shura looked at his sister with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean, you still haven't gotten used to your training? You know they're still going easy on you right?" He said as he pushed his arm up, relocating it with a cracking sound. Before Shiho could respond, her expression now showing pure worry and discomfort, Shura stepped next to a huge boulder. "Miss Hinagiku ordered me to run a couple laps around the mansion for doing poorly on today's sparring match, so I'll see you later." He said to his sister. throwing his chain around the boulder, Shura tied the thing to his back and lifted it up and began his laps. Shiho watched with a lifeless look in her eyes.
"C'mon 'bro', just do it already." Mocked a proud standing Rittsu, staring down at her struggling sibling.
"Shut up! Leave me alone, ill get it..." Katsuo grumbled in response, staring at a small square piece of paper in front of him with eyes of fiery determination. "Concentrate. Remember what Father said, this isnt the calmness of water, its lightning, fierce and sporadic. I need to let this chakra flow from a primal place and let it course through me. Let it course through me...let it course through me....." The young water-nin repeated this mantra in his head over and over again, the paper slowly becoming soggy and soaked with water.
"Hah! You cant do it!" Rittsu teased, pointing and laughing at Katsuo in an intentionally childlike manner.
"Dammit!" Katsuo shouted, flinging the soggy piece of paper against the wall where it stuck for a moment before sliding down, being added to the massive pile that had accumulated, "Its just not possible! Ill never be able to use lightning how I use water!" He shouted angrily, closing the gap between he and Rittsu, who's laughter had faded quickly.
"Your wrong, Katsuo. Some of the fiercest lightning chakra on the world is hidden away inside you, deep down. Dad was sure of it." The kunoichi retorted, worried she mightve gone a bit to far with the teasing.
"You all keep saying that, yet ive still not managed to even generate a proper spark..." Katsuo felt defeated. He had always been so skilled in the art of chakra control, so why was this so hard? Why couldnt he overcome this hitch? Why now? After nearly dying just to get here, would it end up being pointless?
"Katsuo..." Rittsu could see the doubt that had slowly been slowly setting in over the past month had finally spilled out, "...your looking at it all wrong. Water chakra flows through you like a steady stream. Lightning chakra courses through you violently. You need to bring this chakra out from a different place.....and because of that..." She trailed off, jumping in the air where she flipped and tucked her body in elegantly. Her leg acted as a pendulum as her heel dug into the top of Katsuo's head, sending the boy reeling into the ground with a loud thud.
"Im gonna beat you into the right mindset!" She finished, jumping back away from the downed Katsuo.
"You....your just like my Mom. Filling my head with encouragement right before knocking the modesty back into me. I need that." The water nin spoke in a shaky voice as he pulled himself up to his feet slowly, his eyes piercing Rittsu's very soul. He cast a series of hand signs, a pattern he'd only recently learned but still hadnt managed to perform.
"Gives me a chance to catch my bearings....really pay attention to my own flaws!" He added in a strained voice, a crackle of lightning finally dancing across his body.
"I think youll find im not your Mama squirt. I wont be stopping just because you can make yourself into a sparkler." She replied, her voice far more dark sounding than prior as she bolted towards Katsuo in the blink of an eye, his body curling over her fist without any time to react.
Something Azumi figured would have taken a few days, maybe a couple weeks at the very most had proven to take far longer than she every could have expected. For one thing, the march from Amegakure to the Land of Water took longer than she anticipated archipelago make-up proved to be far more vast than even the map would have led her to believe.
Azumi's miscalculation only proved to be the first of many complications. As upon their arrival to the Land of Water, Reaver's own urges for trophy hunting had taken over and wasted several, irregular days on his "hunts" much to Azumi's own frustration. Though that had not been the only handicap on their journey.
As they explored each island of the archipelago, they discovered this....creature. Azumi presumed it was an octopus, but this one seemed a little bigger than the average one; and she only caught brief glimpses of it, and its apparent electric-charged tentacles proved to be much more than a curious site...but an obstacle at times as the two were attacked when they traveled between certain islands. But the beast would vanish deep within the ocean depths before they had a chance to properly fight back.
After what had felt like an eternity, Azumi stood at the base of three large castles that rested on high plateaus. Based off of Sagiso's intel, well more specifically what she had been willing to share on the matter, this seemed like the right place. With that, she'd advise Reaver that they'd get the best amount of info about the fortress they could before they stepped into it. Which ate up a few days but the more information Azumi had about the village the better off they'd be.
Azumi entered the village, and inquired some information about the one named Baiyan. Naturally, Azumi and Reaver had done their own research prior to them stepping foot in the village as Azumi made her friendship with Sagiso all to clear to help gain their trust. It took time, and Azumi figured she had not grown to be best friends with the residents, but she eventually got enough intel and was trusted just enough to be given a tell on where Baiyan was.
Which was Takigakure.
So, Azumi and Reaver would set out for there next. Azumi had not figured they needed to travel from one nation to another for their first search, but there had been nothing they could do about it as they had began their long journey to there.
Azumi walked through the forest that lied on the outskirts of Takigakure, as she kept her ear traced for the trademark waterfalls that bared the village's namesake. Sure enough, the sounds of a nearby waterfall caught her ear as she scanned ahead and soon saw the entrance to what appeared to be a village.
That had to be Takigure, Azumi was sure of that much.
"All right, we are here. Remember, if and when we find Baiyan we are here to converse with her not engage her. Making a scene in a foreign land we want no hostility with will do neither of us any good. So just try to avoid a needless fight." Azumi said as she glanced behind to Reaver, wanting her ally's word that he'd avoid doing something reckless before they stepped into the foreign village. The last thing she needed was Reaver going on a "trophy hunt" in the midst of a village that she had no quarrels with.
-----------
"Lord Tsuchikage! I have important news. A Tailed Beast has escaped Kumogakure's grasp!"
Onoki overheard the words of one of his attendants, given a report sent by the nation's top spies, as his aged eyes widened in response. With a Tailed Beast on the loose, that opened the door for Iwagakure to swoop in and gain some more footing in the global power scales to tip them in their own favor.
Course, Onoki had not been foolish enough to presume he'd be the only leader to try this, so a quick response was needed as he glanced over to Kurotsuchi.
"Assemble the most capable available ninja we have. Make sure you get that Guren as I hear she returned from her own extended mission. We will not waste this opportunity!" Onoki stressed as Kurosuchi was quick to give a nod.
"Yes gram...I mean, right Lord Tsuchikage!" Kurotsuchi said before she vanished as she set off to find whatever ninja they could for a mission that might very well send ripples through the entire ninja world.
If only she knew just how right she had been.
-----------
Tomiko enjoyed a fine meal with her group and Mori, but would focus in on what she needed to do. Her experience with the Exams showed how hilariously outclassed she had been compared to her peers. Kiro and Reaver naturally stood out the most, but even among her friends she felt like the weak link among them; Mori proving to be far superior to her and Tomiko being reduced to a liability in every major engagement.
Something she could not stand for, would not stand for.
So Tomiko immediately went to work and began an intense training programs. Pushing herself every single day, as she first worked to expand her Earth style range with something new. The use of the very Earth itself provided plenty of means for creative uses, and Tomiko was in dire need of them given her current uses extended to mostly the defensive side. And not even a diverse range of that, as she relied on Rock pillars and walls which Lightning Style users could slice through clean like butter. Tomiko also knew that faster opponents such as Kiro and opponents with sturdier defenses like Reaver were poor matches against her slow, one-dimensional brawler blows and limited offensive jutsu. So three things were clear.
She needed more ways to hit harder, more diversified defenses and ways to deal with fast opponents.
Her first option was to try something she picked up from Reaver & Mori. Steel Release, which seemed like a handy technique on hand and the steel might work for a literal lightning rod to combat her elemental weakness. So Tomiko began simple...she took a metal trash can lid and simply aimed to try and move it as she experimented with various hand signs. However, with no experience and her own refusal to ask Mori to help due to stubborn pride, led to a couple days of visible frustration.
"Come on you stupid tin can...MOVE!"
One afternoon, during an intense session with her chakra drained, she finally got a result. On pure accident. As rather than move the trash can lid, she ended up causing some dirt to shot into the air a few inches when she botched but one hand sign from what she aimed to do. Naturally, she grew curious. And began to experiment around that botched sign with other combinations. And through that she discovered a curious technique that caused dirt and sedimentary materials to move and cover around her feet...one that caused nutrients those materials within the soil that were now around her feet to drift to Tomiko's body which caused some minor wounds to heal and her once depleted stamina to gradually build back up. It was a...curious technique, that felt different than traditional Earth Style.
And whatever it was, she desired to know more about it.
Tomiko searched the main village, simply with the hope to find answers, but in a moment of pure chance she happened to bump into the famed kunoichi Kurostuchi. Knowing this may have been golden opportunity, she decided to show her newfound technique to Kurotsuchi. Naturally, Kurotsuchi was rather intrigued by the bizarre technique, and after a prolonged discussion Kurotsuchi decided the girl's earlier vigor back in Konoha and her newfound discovery were enough reason for her to take her under her wind and train her per Tomiko's request.
The technique would be labeled under a new type of release, Gaia Release, and Tomiko aimed to make the most of it. Though really, she mainly worked to perfect the self-healing/stamina recovery technique she'd refer to as "Gaia Style: Nature's Restoration Jutsu." But also managed to use a mudslide field that slowed the opponent down and allowed for plenty of material for her restoration technique.
Though over the next couple months, that had not been all she worked on. Kurotsuchi proved quite useful in refining her Earth Release techniques. Helping her developed a sturdy, yet surprisingly agile suit of rock armor that not only added physical bulk to her gauntlet strikes but also greater defense. To circumvent the issue of more agile opponents, Kurotsuchi had her develop techniques that manipulated the terrain to its advantage. Spike generation, quicksand, mud, and the rotation of the ground itself. Some methods....more polished than others, but Tomiko was a master of trial and error and her constant dedication to her hours and hours of training was impressive. The girl had spirit and will, that much was sure and over time it led to pleasing results.
"Alright Ren. Here I come with a left hook!"
Tomiko had been in the middle of a unique "spar" with her friend Ren as the other members of her crew in Hoshi, Jirou, Mio & Miu and Naomi observed from the sidelines. They had been in the only training area within the slums of Iwagakure, and naturally given it was located here the field was a bit worn down and the practice dummies and other training tools used were a bit aged.
Still, they worked well enough to not break on impact. Besides, for this training, they didn't need tools.
Ren easily dodged the verbally telegraphed attack. As expected, as one would find it unreasonable to expect to land a punch on anyone if you told them where it was going to go first. However, Tomiko had no other way to simulate the effect of the Sharingan's ability to predict an opponent's movements than this. It was an annoying ability, but if Tomiko wanted a chance against a top level Uchiha like Kiro; someone she intended to fight again, she needed a way around it.
But, with her recent developments in Earth Style and her recent discovery with this "Dirt Release" she felt she had a way to get around it.
"Earth Style: Mudslide Jutsu!"
Tomiko delivered a hard punch to the ground, her fist coated with her rubber-sleeved gauntlet, as soon a wave of dirt washed over rose up all around the battlefield where Tomiko and Ren had stood. Naturally, the dirt and other sedimentary materials covered field that rose above their ankles made it harder for Ren to move around in as Tomiko faced Ren with a smirk, as she cracked her knuckles.
"Alright, a right hook then a left hook coming up." Tomiko called out, as again before she charged forward as she moved with unhindered grace through the dirt field as she aimed her right hook. Ren saw and had heard the tells, attempted to jump back though his movements proved a little sluggish. Still, he just managed to dodge one blow though had no time for the other as he held a guard up as Tomiko struck with her blow; though Tomiko pulling her punches caused combined with Ren's guard caused no more than for him to skid back along the dirt. Tomiko frowned...on one hand, even with a preemptive prompt, she managed to get a shot in but on the other the dirt field had not hindered Ren as much as she would have liked. Against a more trained opponent or ninja, this would serve as a slight inconvenience at best.
"Darn it....there's got to be a way to really screw someone over. I know it is there, I just can't see it." Tomiko said to herself, as she quickly flashed the signs for the restoration technique as the dirt she summoned wrapped around her feet and began to pump the nutrients into her body which worked to rejuvenate her.
"Wow, that is so cool Tomiko~! Though maybe you can try having the dirt wrap up his feet and thrash him around!" Hoshi suggested with a grin.
"Or you can use it to make a sinkhole." Jirou also said, as the crew began to toss some ideas around; all of which sounded nice, though this was a mudslide not a sinkhole or something so she doubted the same principles applied. Though as she thought that over, she wondered...if she could get energy from nutrients in the sedimentary elements, could she take said nutrients away from others who happened to be on such elements? As Tomiko thought it over, Naomi sensed she had an idea and was naturally curious as to what it was.
"What are you thinking Tomiko?"
----------
Ay received a report that the 8 Tails had managed to escape their watch, which naturally frustrated the Raikage as evident by a smashed desk next to his quarters as Daruri rubbed the back of his head. Unsure how to approach his temperamental as when he had been in this kind of state it was hard to get much rational conversation going.
"Lord Raikage, motions are already being made to retrieve the 8 Tails. I assure you it will be back in Kumogakure." Darui tried to assure as Ay shot his trusted aid a glare as he rubbed his temple before he would respond.
"Under no circumstances can we allow the 8 Tails to fall into the hands of another nation, especially one of those four or even worse that snake's domain. Do whatever you have to do to get it back! Do I make myself clear?" Ay said, as he stressed a key word to show the severity of the situation as Daruri let out an intenral sigh before he gave a nod.
"Yes Lord Raikage."
----------
Not long after Kenji managed to gather the ingredients, Aisha had prepared the mixture drink for him which Kenji had drank. The stuff tasted pretty good all things considered, though Aisha insisted this was but the beginning of the process.
And that it was. For the next three months Aisha would train both his body and "spirit" in order to harness his inner wolf. The drink and physical training help with developed theses "animal-like" alterations to his body. His punches packed a little more punch, his ability and quickness to it and his teeth would slowly develop fangs and his nails would shift into claws.
This last aspect made possible by a special ceremony that took place during a full moon. Where he was taught the Man-Beast Transformation technique in full. A process that caused Kenji's body great pain and brought much worry out of Rika, but the results seemed to speak for themselves. Though it was only with training day in and day out he had been able to channel this alteration on a consistent basis, as well as develop some additional Lightning style techniques to expand his
arsenal.
Though Kenji wanted to experiment with something. He lacked the experience and, during those months, had troubling finding a companion to further expand on the Inuzuka style. There was a wolf, a one-eyed wolf that was said to have wind properties to it. Kenji had tried to befriend it, but the creature seemed a loner by nature and resisted any attempts. Though Aisha insisted that Kenji should not give up on it.
Either way, he needed something more. The Man-Beast transformation helped with Taijutsu, but it was a far cry from what was needed to make the elite among his aged peers. That's when Kenji developed inspiration of his own, as he aimed to combine the wolf characteristic with his lightning style in the hopes to make something unique to help push him over the top. A way to use electricity as a cloak, similar to the LCA that famously was used by his own Raikage, only with differed utilities from just enhanced super speed and physical armor to that degree. As Kenji had no knowledge or way to replicate that. But as he worked on his "wolf cloak", he found other uses for it...
"Alright! We'll be coming at you full force Kenji, are you ready?"
Within the caves that they had made their training ground, Aisha and her two wolf companions Luna & Sky had shifted into their Man-Beast transformations as they had moved around Kenji. Who himself had also changed into his version of the Man-Beast transformation. Though Kenji had not been content with that for this exercise as he placed his hands together and formed some quick hand-signs.
"Lightning Style: Storm Wolf Cloak Jutsu!"
Much like a hunter with the skin of a wolf worn as fur, Kenji's body became coated with electrified aspects of a wolf's physiology. Elongated electric claws, a head of a wolf around his head, a electric "fur cloak" over his back and shoulders and a tail sprouted around him as his body crackled with electricity. Kenji glanced at Aisha and her companions with an ice cold glare as he gave a nod.
"Yeah, I'm ready. Give me your best shot!"
Aisha and Luna & Sky charged Kenji from all directions, though before their claws could close in on him Kenji vanished and appeared behind Luna. Kenji's speed had increased with this electric boost; though not to a comparable degree of a LCM or maybe not even to the level of a certain Uchiha's incomplete variant, but quick enough to get the drop on Luna as he aimed his electric punch at the wolf as she got a guard up but felt a pulsing shock just from the contact of the full blow as she was knocked back. Aisha and Sky moved behind Kenji and aimed a double claw strike; one which forced Kenji to jump up in a flash to the ceiling as he just avoided the blows.
Kenji decided to kick it up a notch, as he dashed around the cave; circling Aisha, Luna & Sky. The trio had a little trouble keeping their eyes on Kenji, as the best they caught was a faint outline and streak of electricity, so they responded in kind and fired some fireballs around with the hope to blast him as he dashed around. Kenji managed to avoid one that just passed his front, as he soon charged and appeared in-between the trio of wolf-girls as he reared his electric claws and tried to strike Aisha with a slash. One Aisha just managed to avoid as she picked up on Kenji's sent behind her.
Slash!
Kenji, after he fired kicks to force Luna & Sky back, chased Aisha as she moved by a wall and delivered a second electric slash that Aisha again just managed to dodge...though the electric claws proved to be devastating as they delivered deep gashes into the cave wall as the electric claws slashed through stone like a hot knife through butter. Aisha backed over to Sky & Luna and had a grin on her face.
"Not bad, not bad at all. But it's time to really give you a test." Aisha said, as she along with Sky & Luna began to spin rapidly as they charged at Kenji with their Inferno Fang of Fang techniques. Kenji's eyes widened a bit, and he worked to think of a solution and decided to go for broke as he experimented with a new additional technique he had been working on.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Wave!"
Kenji, with his electric wolf cloak acting as a natural boost, fired a surge of electricity which blocked the Fang of Fang attacks; as they stopped in their tracks and with the boost actually managed to push the trio of attacks back as Aisha, Luna & Sky landed with a thud on the cave floor. The trio recovered quickly and prepared for their next attack...only to see Kenji's cloak fade as the Kumo-nin fell off the cave wall and landed on the floor with a groan. Naturally, Aisha and her wolves relaxed a bit as they moved over and made sure he was okay.
"I thought you said you could hold it for 5 minutes? It's barley been half." Aisha asked with some concern, along with some confusion as she thought the cloak faded a bit prematurely. Kenji panted a bit as he faced Aisha and offered his own explanation.
"I...I tried to do too much. Seems my follow up lightning technique ate up my chakra and cut into my time I could hold it." Kenji explained, as he felt some frustration. The technique was strong, but the time limit and risk of chakra drain if he tried literally anything else on top of it made it seem a lot less viable than it could have been.
------------
Rasa had been in the middle of reading a document presented to him by Pakura, that detailed reports of their foreign-based informants about the recent escaped of Kumogakure's 8 Tails. Naturally, given Sunagakure had lost its own Tailed Beast this was prime opportunity to restore some of their lost power balance and get a key footing forward on their goal to restructure and increase Sunagakure's military power.
Rasa turned to Pakura, and simply gave a nod. A gesture Pakura understood all too well as she soon left with the aim to gather Sunagakure's best around with a mission above all other missions. There was little doubt she'd likely have to deal with elite ninja of the other nations. Such as perhaps Kakashi of the Sharingan in Konoha or a swordsmen in Kirigakure.
And that only caused her to smirk. This...was gonna be fun.
----------
The process was long and tedious, but that was expected when it came to quality work of her newfound puppet. Still, her hard work over the next couple months paid off in spades. As she finished her ground-based beetle puppet that she named Rhino; as much like Raven drew inspiration of the bird of the same name so did this puppet with the Rhinoceros Beetle. A humanoid puppet with dark blue skin color, a large horn on its head and additional layer of platting to simulate armor.
Madoka spend the these next couple months working on coordination with her new puppets. First getting a feel for how Rhino worked on its own; as the bulky additional armored layers provided great physical bulk for defense and striking blows. The poison coated beetle horn provided a blade-like projection that comboed as a battering ram. Once she got a good feeling down, she worked on how to use it in sync with Raven. Madoka had never used two puppets before, so it took time to get used to. But with practice and Chiyo's guidance Madoka soon got the hang of it and soon enough she managed to develop the skill needed to control two puppets. The tricker part was expanding her Wind-release techniques to compliment the poison weapons of the puppets. But with much practice and time, she added to her arsenal and even worked a combination between puppet and ninjutsu.
Madoka herself, with now twin objects mummy wrapped around her back that formed a cross, walked through the main streets of Sunagakure. After an intense day of training, she was eager to stop by one of the local ramen stands to get a quick meal. Madoka had a mind to stop by the craft's store, perhaps get some painting supplies to add some details to Rhino's design, just to add that little touch to satisfy her inner critic.
A curse of puppet makers, no matter how good the end result is...one will always dwell on "but it could be even beeter!" and would never be totally satisfied. Still, she'd not dwell on that for now. First food, then shopping and then she can dwell on working on those final details before some more training.
----------
"There is nothing to debate here! We must strike now while it remains out in the open!"
"I understand, but sending our ninja out on what could be a wild goose chase could leave us vulnerable in our nation's current state.
"So what? Allow other nations to possibly leapfrog us by passing on such an opportunity?"
Tsunade had heard the words of various council members within her newfound office, as they debated the pros and cons of this runaway 8 Tails that they had received word on from their scouting teams. Shizune, along with her pig Tonton held in her arms, focused on Tsunade as the newfound "temporary" 5th Hokage thought over the arguments along with information that had been brought to her attention through the report before she let out a sigh and faced the council members.
"Understandably, we need to keep defense of Konoha as a priority, but we also cannot allow this chance to slip past our fingers. Not only would the other nations get a free chance to gain a power advantage over us, but that snake Orochimaru will no doubt be drawn to such a chance and I refuse to allow that monster to get a chance to add firepower to his forces." Tsunade said, as her worries of Orochimaru were obvious and well founded as she stood up and enacted her first major act as newfound Hokage.
"We will retrieve the 8 Tails, send word to our nin immediately!"
---------
The bragging and pride of helping to convince Tsunade had been a point Ino felt had been beaten over her head when Sakura first told her about it. Thankfully, Sakura quickly shifted focus to some more training, and while Kakashi helped out when he had the time Sakura knew what he could help here with would be FAR from enough. If the Sound were to attack again, she needed to be able to stand on her own and not just exist as support.
So she did what was natural, and turned to Tsunade and Shizune. Naturally, Tsunade had not been open to training someone she just met, nor had much capacity given her responsibilities. Though she had paired Ino and Sakura as part of the new medical core given the causalities. Naturally, this allowed the two to expand on their medical ninjutsu, but while that was nice Sakura desired to be more than just the token medic on any given team.
Something Shizune sensed as well, and she decided to help out Sakura with whatever spare time she had. Shizune encouraged Sakura to try and stake her own path, as she took up medical jutsu under Tsunade but developed her own poison style. The key to helping one stand out in the ninja world was taking what you are taught and making it your own; something Sakura took to heart as she decided to explore a different route.
With Shizune's guidance, Sakura began to work on a flora based Ninjutsu. Focusing on using flower petals among other attibutes and using them as offensive jutsu. A perfect compliment to a few of her Genjutsu as it were, and while it took months of effort to make progress in she soon turned something as "harmless' as flowers into a weapon. But maybe, just maybe, she had taken her first step towards that next level.
"Senbonzakura Style: Windmill Wrath Jutsu!"
Sakura, in the middle of one of Konoha's main training grounds, generated dozens and dozens of cherry blossom petals as they circled around her body. Sakura sharpened their edges with her own chakra, before she had them spin around her as they came together to form four seperate windmill blades that spun at a rapid pace.
Slash!
And the four practice dummies that Sakura had around here were each sliced clean in two, as soon after the petals faded and Sakura admired her handiwork with a pleased grin. Walking over to a stump as she sat and took a quick drink of some water. While there was still much to build on, it was comforting to know Sakura at least had a means to fight now instead of being forced to rely on just illusions.
----------
Tayuya heard the song break out before the Hyuga Head insisted that the training had began. And Tayuya had a complete, stupefied look of shock on her face as she had no way to process what she was seeing. Really, she could only sum it up with a single sentence.
"What the fuck is wrong with these people?"
For the next three months, Tayuya would undergo her...limited training. During such time, she ended up interacting oftenwith members of the Hyuga Clan. An inevitability to be sure, though Shura and Sagiso stood out the most. Tayuya had little alternative but to begrudgingly associate and chat with them. Mostly given the other Hyuga's kept their distance and she would be driven insane if she literally had nobody to talk to. Much as she denied it, she had to internally concede that they were not SO bad. Granted, she'd avoid being friends with them but they were...tolerable presence, even with her stigma about Hyuga members having sticks shoved up their ass.
Tayuya mainly worked on Taijutsu, and much to her own shock, the Hyuga actually were willing to spar with her in that as she picked up a more refined style. One that put emphasis on quick, strong strikes and counter blows. It allowed Tayuya a chance, even with her limitations, to expand on her biggest weak point as while she had been no Hyuga in Taijutsu skill she was no longer useless after months of practice.
Though it was a combination that sparked the biggest change, as she began to experiment on Genjutsu without the use of her flute. Given the seal, she had little chakra to experiment with still she had enough for the bare base testing. Mostly, in regards to working her Genjutsu with her Taijutus blows. When someone faced her, her flute was the obvious target as it was the focus of her Doki commands to her audio-based Genjutsu. So, if she could use her punches as a means of triggering a new kind of Genjutsu it would be a blow her enemies would not initially anticipate.
Though naturally, she had to be desecrate about this. Least she reveal anything more to these Konoha-nin. So she'd do this training late at night or early in the morning in isolated sections of the compound. So while her time had been limited, she gradually made some progress on it and felt she had reached a breakthrough. Though she had nobody to practice with, and a certain Nara in Takato who frequently visited the compound to rely Clan discussion news with the Hyuga had began to suspicious about it. Takato himself had been made an errand during these few months, and had expanded on his Shadow Possession a bit given that, regardless of whether he liked to train or not, if he failed to grow at all he'd likely end up dead on another encounter not unlike the one he experienced with the Sound 4. The fact one of them was living in the village only added to his internal "motivation" to improve in case she ever did manage to escape and bring more of her buddies back here for revenge.
"Ha!" Tayuya yelled as she fired a punch at a practice dummy, once more sent a subtle chakra pulse through her fist to the dummy as she previously made hand signs to simulate her newfound Genjutsu. Naturally, without a live target she'd never know to what extend she managed to perfect this trick but she could not risk spilling it to anyone. Clones only revealed so much with her chakra capacity as limited as it had been.
This shit could rock anyone stupid enough to screw with me, of course I end up in enemy camp and can't bother to show this trick to anyone to test it in full. Fuck, it's okay Tayuya....it's okay, you'll get your chance someday.
Takato himself had been dashing to the compound, mostly to relay word about Hokage Tsunade's decision on what was to be done. He hated this role of inter-clan errand boy but quite frankly it would have been more of a pain to protest it so he just swallowed his pride as he approached the gates and tried to speak to one of the guards.
"Excuse me, I need to speak with Lady Hinagiku. It is a matter most urgent!" Takato insisted, though despite the news he only somewhat raised his tone of voice with his request.
A bright smirk grew on the young genin's face as he celebrated in his success in convincing Tsunade to travel back to Kohana.
Good job, your little fight managed to convince her enough to go back with you.
I know, but this is only the beginning, I got trashed in every major fight I've had, whether it be Azumi, Jirobo and especially Tsunade, I can get stronger and I think I know just who to ask.
"Mr Jiraiya, train me please!" The Rainbow Flicker wasted no time in getting to the point, granted he could habe asked better, but Taiyo felt no reason to sugarcoat things. The bluntness of the request took Jiraiya aback, taking a random kid to a mission was fine, but training this kid was crossing a line. But all things considered, this random kid seemed to be rather strong, he even gave Tsunade some trouble with that Flashing Burst Style or whatever he called it. Itvwas at that moment that the Toad Sage realized that this technique of Taiyo's must've been what caused him to take a bit of interest in the firey genin.
"All right then, you get three months under my wing, although I must warn you, I'm not going to go easy on you for a minute, do you understand me? This training could kill you, are you sure you don't want another teacher?" This only caused Taiyo to let out a relaxed smirk to the Sannin's warning, his resolve shining in his eyes.
"Definitely, I blew my arms off to get FBS to where it is now, so naturally, I'll take any opportunity to master this!" Hearing this, Jiraiya returned Taiyo's smirk in kind, seeming rather pleased with the response.
"Very well then, training begins once we reach the village!"
Maybe, just maybe, this kid could be him... Maybe this is the kid that I was looking for...
Once the question of her knowledge of the very blood that flows within her, Tsuki turned away, her face becoming a slight shade of pink out of embarrasment regarding herself.
"The sad truth is Hama-sensei, I know next to nothing about our bloodline, any observation I've made could come from the mouth of a snot-nosed third grader, but there is something I do know. Those stiches you used to did Seiun's skin seemed to be potent, while you can use them for healing, I also believe that there is some untapped potential usage in combat, so I wish to learn how to manipulate such threads," The younger Yuki-nin turned back to her sensei, a sense of confidence lying beyond those pink cheeks of hers.
“Hm. Your weapons at your disposal are crude but efficient. Perhaps if you focused your chakra on yourself instead of separating it into clones you could maximize your efficiency. Up soldier.” Getting up from the ground, this caused the rouge shinobi to give Kai a warm smile, not only was this the nicest thing Kai has said to him, it was also in the form of constructive criticism, which was always appreciated.
"Noted, I believe you could attempt to strengthen the ice of your Centepedes, since they did break using a conventional method, then again, your the expert, not me, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt," Seiun attempted to give his own bit of critique, but he felt that the advice would fall on deaf ears.
Present Day
Taiyo
It was a heck of a time, those last three months, whether it be the time Jiraiya and him spent occasionally peeping on girls and women for research, turning fourteen 2 months into his training and receiving a pink armband to match the pink bandana given by his little sister Susei, which is tightly twisted in a pattern under his black ninja headband. But the highlight of the last quarter of a year was the event that followed.
"Fire Release: Flashing Burst Style!" Instead of just rushing to get the power up on, he focused and channeled his chakra to flow through him, thanks to the observation of a helpful, unnamed Hyūga shinobi. He shaped it to flow through his body as if fire was flowing through his very veins, then a bright red aura appeared around him, his eyes donned a red glow, along with their natural color. But that was only half of it, once he felt comfortable consistently maintaining the red aura, it soon changed to orange as Taiyo slowly intensified the strength of his flame, causing Jiraiya to smile off in the distance.
Good, that training sent for nothing, although if he is the child, then he may be able to deal with that Jinchūriki who's been causong trouble.
"Taiyo, do you know what a Jinchūriki is?" This caused a rather confused look to arise from his pupil, as the FBS master looked as if he asked him to trade his kidney for a dime.
"To be honest, no I don't, what is a Jinchūriki?" Facepalming in annoyance, Jiraiya sighed and motioned the Leaf-nin to come closer to listen.
"A millennium ago, the world was terrorised by a rampaging, colossal monster known as the Ten-Tails, a tree-fox like creature with immense power, who is a combination of Kyūga Ōtsutsuki and the God Tree. Eventually, through the combined efforts of the twin brothers, Hagoromo and HamuraŌtsutsuki, her sons, the Ten-Tails was defeated and sealed within Hagoromo, becoming its jinchūriki, the one who contains a tailed beast. Throughout his travels, Hagoromo used the Ten-Tails' power to perform many great deeds and promote peace during his lifetime, causing him to be revered as the "Sage of Six Paths". Towards the end of his life, Hagoromo, knowing the Ten-Tails would be unleashed on the world again when he died, split its chakra into nine living entities called the tailed beasts, fox-like creatures who contain a fraction of the Ten-Tail's original power. One of those Jinchūriki have escaped and now the other villages are sending ninja to stop him/her. I wish for you to be among them," Hearing this, Taiyo began to think over this deeply, before giving a stern nod to his sensei.
"Okay then Mr. Jiraiya, I won't disappoint you!" The young genin stretched his muscles before attempting to visit Tsunade, the acting temporary Hokage, to hear her opinion on the matter. Tsuki
At this moment, the Yuki-nin was sparring with her assistant, Seiun, remembering his fighting style. She was banking of him eventually creating clones and waited to capitalize on the opportunity. Tsuki blocked a kick to the side of her head and countered with a punch. Once she saw an opportunity, Tsuki grabbed Seiun's wrists and began to create the threads that Hama used to fix Seiun's ankle three months ago. Strangely enough, 3 months seem like a year ago, but it also felt like yesterday, still vividly remembering the spar between Kai and Seiun. Unfortunately for her, the thread began to disappear before weaving it's way into Seiun's skin, opening her up to take a headbutt.
Dammit, just can't seem to get this down, no matter, I'll master my signature jutsu eventually. Seiun
Blocking the double kick that preceded his mistress's unorthodox attempt, the rainy rouge decided to answer with a kick of his own, which was then later blocked. Remembering how Kai suggested not to create so many clones to spread his chakra to, he simply pushed on his kick, although being knocked away at Tsuki's punch to the face. Before he could recover from the disorientation of the blow, he soon found his wrists grabbed and soon being invaded by some sort of stitching. Or at least, that's what would have happened if it weren't for it suddenly disappearing mid-use, allowing Seiun to sneak in a desperate headbutt. They then resumed their sparring session, essentially on standby until their cell was needed.
After their mostly futile search, Reaver had occupied the time in buffing out every scratch and dent of his armor, over and over again. And when that grew dull, he’d find someone in their path that seemed to have a taste of power and slaughter them, collecting an article of theirs as a trophy, much to the annoyance of Azumi. After months of searching, they finally found their lead in taigakure, or the village hidden in the waterfall. Azumi mentioned not trying to attack anyone in the village, to which reaver stifled a laugh.
“In this backwater village? What are you afraid of? Then throwing sprinkles of water at us? We could crush them if we saw fit!”
As he said that, all of his hidden weapons emerged. Drills, saws, swords, branders, the spear of lugh and others, reaver doing the equivalent of flexing his muscles. He laughed heavily and deeply as he showed his strength, his eyes as sharp as his confidence.
......
Hama smirked, watching seiun and Tsuki spar. She had come a long way, that Tsuki. When the training started she would never put Tsuki in a sparing session because her power was too low. Now here she was, trading blows with seiun, who was several legs up higher than her. She raised a finger when her attack was unsuccessful.
“Tsuki darling, don’t treat it like an attack, treat it like a sowing needle, hook the thread~.”
Kai sat next to Hama, already finished with his training. Shards of ice littered the ground around them to prove such. Eyeing their movements, he found seiun quick and effective, although predictable and Tsuki slow and slippery. He took note of these traits, no doubt the information would come in handy later
Recognizing the young Nara, or more accurately, the crest of the Naras imprinted onto the boy's department, the guard wasted little time before leading Takato into onto clan grounds, and into the central district. They swiftly passed by building after building until the arrived at the Clan Hall- and walked right past it as they headed towards the training field.
What greeted the duo first was a black bullet that rapidly made it's way towards them cutting through the air and it whizzed past their bodies and slammed into a nearby tree, slumping to the ground and revealing the pale face of a Hyuga, blood trickling down his lips. The guard seemed completely unperturbed by the incident, and his expression showed it had been nothing strange. Quickly following was a calm voice that was, while pleasant sounding, devoid of compassion.
"Your legs are thin noddles, your react like a sedated slug, and your chakra control is a disgrace to your clan. Perform stance training for the remaining duration of the day, I expect to see improvement tomorrow!" Despite her terminology, it what she meant was his stance was weak, his reaction slow and his chakra control abysmal.
The so-called Stance Training was simply the practice of maintain a particular stance for an extended amount of time to train the body's muscle memory. Off in the distance a few Hyuga could be seen doing what appeared to be half-squats, but they were actually performing the Horse Stance. Their legs were bent at and angle and their arms were tucked in, a closer examination would find their muscles taunt and streams of sweat coating their brows. Many of them had bandages on their forms from earlier training sessions, and their clothes had distinct streaks of dirt and blood. Attached to their arms and thighs were weighted bands, which contributed to the way they seemed to quiver and spasm with sheer exertion.
Looking toward where the unfortunate Hyuga had been launched from, a scattered crowd of Hyuga anxiously faced a single female figure. Several of them were resting but that was simply another way of saying they lay prone in agony or had long been beaten unconscious. Either unaware or unconcerned with the plight of the fallen, the woman continued in her melodic voice, her gaze sweeping out to meet her opponents, "Next."
Wherever her gaze fell, the entire crowd retreated, steely, grim expression painted across their faces, some of them gulping down mouthfuls of saliva. They were hesitant, fearful even, but nonetheless a single youth bit the bullet and charged forward. He knew as well as the rest did, that if they did not bring the fight to her, she would bring it to them with brutal fury that knew not mercy.
Hinagiku
The owner of the voice was naturally Hinagiku, who'd taken charge of combat training. She watched passively as the youth charged towards her, veins pulsing at the corners of his eyes as his byakugan activated. He threw a flurry of palm swings towards her chest, but she stepped, slid, leaned and swayed backward, keeping a mere centimeter of space between her body and the incoming attacks. She inspected the boy's attacks as they came, either nodding slightly in praise or quirking her brow into a frown when displeased. When she had seen enough she moved abruptly. While she leaned back to dodge a forward thrust, her right leg shot out in a sweeping arc, hitting against the youth's ankle before he could react, the youth lost balance, but only for a fraction of a second, he was a Hyuga after all and had been training in taijutsu since the moment he could mold chakra. Immediately, he shifted his weight onto his remaining leg and stabilized himself- but that's exactly what Hinagiku had been waiting for. As he leaned onto his rear leg for support, her foot -which had continued its trajectory after a low-sweep to the ankle- gained altitude before curving back inwards, planting her heel into the vulnerable flesh at the back of the boy's knee.
With his knee, which had been supporting his weight, struck, the boy buckled, completely losing balance and beginning a slow descent to the ground, his forward moment causing him to topple face first. Unfortunately for him, as he fell forward his body entered Hinagiku's strike range, and completely focused on futile attempts to regain his balance, he was woefully ill-prepared for the palm that snaked outwards like a viper and planted itself against his chin. With a muffled bang the youth's body left the ground, and his consciousness flicked unstably. However, his misfortune had yet to end as, utilizing the angular velocity from her earlier leg sweep, Hinagiku lowered her stance and performed and rotated her body a full 360 degrees. Her gaze now inline with the torso -a combination of his newly gained altitude and her lowered stance- she struck outwards, planting a palm into the tender flesh of his stomach.
A wave seemed to ripple outwards as between the point of contact between Hinagiku's palm and the punching bag Hyuga youth, and with nary as sound, the youth was blown off to the side. Knowing that the blow to the pelvis would have forcefully re-anchored his consciousness to his body, Hinagiku commented
"You move like a disembodied pig, with the finesse of a brawling drunkard. Practice at the revolving poles, I expect to see some improvement tomorrow." Again, her terminology could be simplified to, sloppy footwork and overreaching movements, but where was the fun in saying that?
As the Hyuga youth responded with pained groans, Hinagik returned her attention back to the crowd, catching sight of Takato and the Hyuga guard. "Oh? And to what do I owe the visit of a Nara?"
Baiyan
"...I'd hoped I'd find more worth shinobi in the land of the rumored Hero's Water, but I'm disappointed. Is this the best Takigakure has to offer?"
With lotus like hair -a vivid hue that seemed to sway back and forth between pink and white, unsure of which color it wanted to be- framing her refined features and creating stark contrast to her dull amber eyes which seemed light-less, but filled with a noble vigor, Baiyan Lianhua, Nadeshiko's White-eyed Lotus, 'stared' down at her former opponents. A haughty looking youth who was hunched over on the ground, hand wrapped around his stomach and her gazed resentfully at his assailant. Having cockily proclaimed himself to be one of Takigakure's top shinobi, he'd naturally been challenged to battle by Baiyan, who was sorely disappointed by her opponent's utter lack of skill. As soon as the battle began he'd fallen right into her genjutsu and had taken a blow to the abdomen, crumpling without so much as a modicum of resistance.
Sighing at the utter waste of time and effort that lay at her feet, Baiyan raised her hand in the air, waiting for several moments until a small humming bird perched itself on her fair fingers. "Perhaps it's time we leave, I'd like to go to Suna, I've yet to experience sand beneath my feet before." Talking to the humming bird, Iris, or perhaps to herself, Baiyan stepped over her opponent and walked off. She'd been nearer to the outskirts of Takigakure, knowing that not every village would take nicely to a lone wandering beating up their shinobi, and having been of the mind to avoid trouble.
With a steady gait she walked, putting distance between herself and the village hidden in waterfalls. She hadn't gone far when the two voices fell into her ears, the first voice, most definitely female spoke;
"All right, we are here. Remember, if and when we find Baiyan we are here to converse with her not engage her. Making a scene in a foreign land we want no hostility with will do neither of us any good. So just try to avoid a needless fight."
A bout of suppressed laughter followed along with a ambiguous sounding second voice;
“In this backwater village? What are you afraid of? Then throwing sprinkles of water at us? We could crush them if we saw fit!”
The voice was androgynous, neither sounding manly nor feminine- but one thing was certain, the person it belonged to held boundless confidence, though perhaps it had chosen to manifest itself as brashness. A hint of intrigue clouded her face, and she spoke in a low voice towards Iris, "Be careful." A chirp of affirmation was quickly followed by the rapid beating of wings as Iris took off.
After waiting for a moment, Baiyan turned to the general direction of the voices she'd heard and voiced loudly, "Could I be the one you're seeking? Baiyan Lianhua, kunoichi of Nadeshiko village- though, if you've been seeking me, then I'm sure you already know that much."
Shura ran around the Hyuga compound carrying the boulder on his back. after finishing his laps, Shura dropped the boulder and looked to the sky, breathing heavily with sweat running down his face. He pulled down his mask to get better breaths. Training with Hinagiku had been as brutal as he remembered, maybe even more so. Shura took a second walk to cool off after his punishment and made his way to the bamboo poles Sagiso was training on. “Hey, so how are you doing? You’re not doing the same training as the rest of us so I’m curious.” He asked casually.
Skipping back and forth between the bamboo poles, performing a myriad of acrobatics as both she and her clones crisscrossed in mid-air, Sagisō had a pleased smirk on face. Although she hadn't perfectly learned the Twin Lion Step, she'd at least got down the basics and could feel herself making steady progress. Perhaps, within a month or two, she'd be able to perfectly execute the twin lion step without issue. A mix of glee and concentration had her sinking into her own thoughts, but Shura's voice soon arrived and snapped her out of it.
Halting her training, and allowing her body to miss her targetted bamboo pole by a thin margin. Sagisō, instead latching onto it with her hand as she fell, used it as a pivot, swinging her body around it as she descended in a spiral. Smirking towards Shura she quipped, "Of course I'm not doing the same training as you, I already got the basics beaten into me before the Chūnin exams, I haven't lost them yet. You're curious~? Would you like to see the results of my training?"
With a hint of challenge creeping into her voice, she goaded Shura to battle. Her arm having been broken for the past few months and having been reduced to low-intensity training, Sagisō was itching to stretch her muscles, and sparring would be the perfect medium.
Azumi had been prepared to Reaver's prideful boast, before she heard a new voice ahead of them as she glanced in its direction. If the owner of the voice's introduction had been any indication, it was the very Baiyan that they came all this way to find. Azumi had never been one to take anything for granted, but she made a non-verbal gesture for Reaver to quiet down all the same as she turned to the direction of the new sound and would address it in kind.
"Indeed. My name is Azumi Noriko of Amegakure, and friend of one of your own. Sagiso, a fine and proud kunoichi who graciously informed me of your reputation and talents. Along with my associate here, Reaver, I traveled a long ways to meet you." Azumi said, as she spoke with a respectful tone as she needed to assure the girl that they were not here as enemies. If this pitch had any chance to land, they needed her guard lowered so Azumi could shift to her attempts at persuasion and she figured giving the honest truth about her relationship to Sagiso was her best bet to ease any possible initial tension in meeting foreigners who sought her out.
"I humbly ask for a few minutes of your time, I come here on business of the upmost importance. Just a chance to speak, nothing more. Nothing less."
As Azumi made her request known, she had her shadow subtly extend towards Reaver, though made no attempt to strike or give itself away. Azumi needed a security measure after all in the event Reaver's nature got in his own way to prevent him from screwing everything up.
----------
On pure chance, Sakura had been on her way to see Tsunade as well to hand in a medical journal she and Ino were supposed to turn in when she saw the familiar face of Taiyo who seemed to be making a bee line for Tsunade's office as she moved next to him.
"Hey Taiyo, going to see Lady Tsunade?" Sakura asked as she had been naturally curious as they soon approached the office and saw Shizune standing there with her companion pig Tonton in her arms as she greeted the pair with a smile.
"Hello there, I see you two desire to speak with Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked as Sakura gave a nod.
"Yep, gonna hand in my medical report to her." Sakura said, though neither she nor Shizune knew what Taiyo's motive for coming had been.
Okay, whoever decided that one person needed to do this much paperwork for this job deserves a swift kick between the legs.
Tsunade internally groaned as she had been in the midst of organizing a large stack of paperwork. Every Hokage's favorite part of the job, when she heard a knock on the door and the voice of Shizune spoke up.
"Lady Tsunade, you have visitors. Kakashi and Jiraiya's pupils." Shizune said, as Tsunade knew that had meant Sakura and Taiyo as she had caught wind of Jiraiya taking the fire user under his wing. Naturally, she pushed the thoughts of what beyond his ninja skills he had taught him as she decided any excuse for a break was good enough and set her paperwork aside.
"Come in."
=========================================================================================
Takato had been around the Hyuga Compound enough to get a sense of who Hinagiku was that he had recognized her immediately as he gave the customary bow one did to the head of a clan. Least, that's what his mother had insisted was what you properly did and had said manners beaten into him. Irregardless, he soon faced Hinagiku and began to explain himself.
"Well, I was sent here by the old man. Seems there is a matter of great importance, one that would be better head in a more...private area." Takato stressed, as talking about even foreign Jinchuriki out in the open had not been the wise choice to make as there was no need for literally everyone around in the Training Field to hear it.
People like Tayuya, who subtly attempted to ease drop on the conversation after she moved out of her spot she had been training in. Naturally confused as to what Takato was talking about though thankful that living in Otogakure for these years caused her hearing to be sharp so she could listen in even without having to be right next to them.
They had been dueling for nearly twenty minutes straight now. Neither of them had let up as the rays of the morning sun bore down on them. Hands were thrown, shuriken had been tossed and kunai struck with each other. Only a few minutes ago, they had gone too far and a few rogue flames made contact with the vibrant green beneath them. The fires didn’t last long but the scent of smoke was still fresh. Each of them had their share of scratches, bruises and cuts. They really weren’t holding back their attacks.
Kiro took deep breaths as he looked at his opponent’s feet. Both of them seemed pretty fatigued but they would never admit it. The Uchiha ran the back of his right hand over his forehead. As he did, the feeling of a liquid caught his attention. It was sweat. Kiro glared at the back of his hand, perplexed at his discovery. Was he really that entertained to lose track of time so easily? Had the Uchiha in front of him become a challenge? What happened to the failure he met in the exams?
Unable to sustain his neutral expression any longer, a grin slowly began to grow on his lips. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself Raiku. I can assure you it’s just the sun. I’ll give you credit though, you’re not that bad.” Letting out another breath, Kiro raised his head up. Perhaps it was due to the three tomoe sharingan Raiku had improved. No matter how many times Kiro expressed his disdain, the power of the Uchiha couldn’t be ignored.
A nostalgic name indeed, it'd been many months since Baiyan had come into contact with any familiar presences from Nadeshiko. However, nostalgia alone would not be enough to move her. She frowned slightly at Azumi's almost servile manner of speaking, the greater the lengths to which someone went to please you, the more they'd want in return. Almost casually, her hand seemed to fall to the holy of her sword, and she quipped back with a formal but decisive time.
"Dispense with your platitudes, speech is free, and so is listening, however time is not."
To be more concise, she was telling Azumi to cut out the ceremony and get to the point. She was open to hearing out Azumi's request, but didn't appreciate the verbocity that came with it.
Hinagiku
"Oh..?"
Judging by the expresssion lacing the boy's face and his particular diction, the situation seemed to be quite dire, after all the Nara head would've known better than to cry wolf at such a...sensitive time. Her brow knotted together and in a moment later, she'd made her decision. Voice stern, she barked "Free Training!"
Her eyes having already gathered the chakra and focus necessary for their transformation into the Byakugan, she addressed Takato "Tell me where, time is of the essence.
Taiyo
The Leaf-nin's already good mood improved when he was greeted by Sakura, who seemed to be turning in some kind of paper. He saved back at her to return the greeting as he walked in to see his current Hokage. It seemed that there was an unorthodox like of paperwork aside the Slug Sage, which did bring up some questions, but none of them were relevant to his mission.
"Hello Ms. Tsunade," The Leaf-nin properly bowed as he delivered his greeting. He sounded cheerful, but he still needed to retain an amount of formality, "I'm sure you've no doubt heard about the troublesome Jinchūriki that has been recently discovered. I can only assume that some ninja are being dispatched from each village to retrieve this powerful shinobi or kunoichi, and I plan to recruit some of the strongest ninja I know to do the same, is this okay with you? Or is there a better course of action that could be taken?"
Well you are only a genin, and I'm pretty sure you're not even the strongest one at that.
That may be true....but Mr. Jiraiya did entrust me to deal with this, it's my responsibility, and I know I can't do it alone, which is why I'm recruiting some allies. Tsuki Like a needle and thread huh? When was the last ti-
Her thought was interrupted when she took a helicopter kick to the face. Understandably upset, the Yuki-nin decided to fire out a hail ball at her sparring partner, adding more, smaller hail bald to drive the larger one in further. Once he recovered, Seiun decided to blast a Thunderbolt beam, which was significantly faster since it only had one target. With limited time to react, Tsuki created an ice shield which soon broke, abruptly ending the sparring match.
Goddammit, when am I ever going to get this right? Seiun
Noticing that Tsuki was lost in thought for a moment, the rogue shinobi took advantage of it by delivering a swift helicopter kick.
Heh, sorry sweety, but this is combat, not study hall.
Almost as a response to Seiun's mental taunt, he soon found himself huddling towards an unknown location via a large hail ball. Although that didn't happen, it got the Rainy Rouge pissed enough to end the match.
"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!" He fired off the attack, penetrating through Tsuki's wall and eventually leaving her on the ground gasping for air.
Reaver scowled at Azumi, his suit revving up slightly in irritation at azumi’s manner. But for now he bit his tounge, allowing Azumi to speak to baiyan first. Baiyan however wasn’t having it, snapping back at Azumi, a tang in her voice. Reaver gave a deep laughter, his tall form looming over baiyan like a mechanical monster.
“HAHAHAHA!!! Looks like she was as sick of your tone as I. Get out of the way.” He said, cutting in front of Azumi. “Bitch, do you want to roll with the roughest of the ninja world? That is, if you can handle that.”
Reaver was blunt and straight to the point, the complete inverse of Azumi. Seeing as how azumi’s words fell on deaf ears, reaver comeplte opposite way of attacking the issue would at the very least, turn some heads.
....
“Stop stop, your doing it all wrong Tsuki dear.”
Hama shook her head, walking over to Tsuki. She eyed seiun and then a training doll over to the right of him. She placed a hand on her shoulder and pointed to the doll.
“Needle and thread Tsuki. Don’t imagine your enemy and a person, but instead as a quilt. Observe.”
She looked at the doll, pointing two fingers, like they were picking up a grain of sand. she then flicked a small blue projectile, making an arrow like sound. The blue ice needle sunk into the doll, several cutting noises heard. Within a few moments, the entire dolls’s limbs severed from it’s body. The head slowly tore in half as the ice needle emerged from the head, flying back into hama’s fingers. She smirked, looking back to Tsuki.
“Something like that darling. You’ll get the hang of it.”
.........
“Lord Orochimaru.”
Kabuto stepped over into the snake’s research chamber. The snake sannin in question eyed the tubes before him, his eyes gliding over to his assistant. His tounge went from one side of his lips to the other, the glasses wearing assistant clearing his throat.
“The teams are en route. We have gotten wind that the leaf, grass, and many other villages of caught wind of this jinchurki. We will meet heavy resistance.”
“Only natural my dear Kabuto. I knew they would come at some point, a jinchurki running amok is not something easily concealed. Now, what’s the real reason you came here?”
Kabuto, surprised that Orochimaru deducted this so easily coughed, adjusting his glasses. He gathered himself back, and continued.
“The kid. Why would you bring him? He has no skills of note and would be fodder for capture. He’s a risk with no reward.”
“That boy. Kabuto. I’m putting him in harms way on purpose. If my theory is correct, then perhaps his bloodline will rear its ugly head after all. And then...
While Azumi's speech pattern was verbose, feeling more like a precursor that was simply to get her more responsive to the request to follow, this companion of hers...-Reaver was it? If Azumi was being a sly, if slightly manipulative, diplomat, then he had 0 diplomatic skills period. Lacking in even the most basic respect with which to regard another person, his mouth was exceedingly loose and vulgar, but at the very least he'd given her a few bits of information. Nevertheless, she ignored him and awaited Azumi's response.
Mori enjoyed the company and the decent food, but he kept thinking about his inevitable visit to Lord Tsuchikage. He finished his food surprisingly fast for someone who said that ramen was not his food of choice and paid for the food, even covering for any extra bowls the group might eat later. "It was a pleasure to meet you all, but I have something important to do. See ya!" He waved at Tomiko and her 'gang' as he made his way to the Tsuchikage's office.
He made an appointment and waited nervously until he heard the voice of his leader say that he could enter. He got up and entered his office, standing in front of the desk on which stacks of paperwork were laying with a rather small man in the middle of the mess. "Take a seat and tell me your name and reason for this visit, I'm too busy for small things so it better be worth my time." Onoki said as he continued working on the paperwork.
Mori coughed, took a seat and began to talk. "My name is Utamara Mori, chosen to represent Iwagakure in the Chunin Exams in Konohagakure alongside of Usagi Tomiko. Tomiko made it to the third round whilst I was too late to participate, but that is not why I am here. I have come to inform you that Konoha is attacked by Orochimaru and is absolutely trashed, but you should not attack it. Instead, if we help them to rebuild the village we might get be able to make Konoha owe us something." He noticed Onoki put down his pen and actually look at him, which only made him that more nervous. "Konoha is allied with Suna, and although their army is lackluster their Puppet Brigade is a huge thorn in the side due to the versatility of them and Lady Chiyo would use incredibly potent poisons which could kill a man with just a scratch. If you need any proof of deadly puppets, just take a look at Sasori of the Red Sand and although not a puppet wielder, the Kazekage can use sand so fighting them in a desert should be prevented if possible. If we somehow do win against Suna and take the Land of Fire as territory, we would be giving Kumo and Kiri an excuse to attack us. Kumo beats us due to the amount of Lightning Style users, and even though we have the elemental advantage, Kiri can use the ocean to attack and overwhelm us. Their respective Kage are not to be taken lightly, and the smaller nations can very well turn on us. Ame is especially a possible threat due to their leader having the title of 'Kami' and no ordinary ninja has that title. We just don't benefit enough from a war."
Mori felt like he was running out of breath and had a parched mouth from talking too much. "Is that all?" Onoki asked the young genin who firmly shook his head. "No Lord Tsuchikage, there is one last thing I want to discuss. We have a solid population and military force, but our economy is lacking. The mountains of our country must have a lot of mineral deposits so why don't we start some mines? If we can get some wood then we can create a lot of job opportunities and buff our economy a bit. The people who live in the slums can get a job and live in houses that are more than just shelter from the rain and have some food everyday that doesn't come from trash cans." He jumped up during his speech when he talked about the people in the slums and sat down, slightly embarrassed. "My apologies, I did not mean to get so worked up." Onoki didn't seem to be very moved by his arguments, or he was phenomenal at hiding his expressions. "Was that all, Utamara?" The leader of Iwagakure asked as Mori got up and bowed. "That was all Lord Tsuchikage, thank you for your time."
He was about to leave the office as he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks. "Utamara, stop right there. What happened to your headband?" Mori knew that this question would come eventually, but he never truly felt ready to lie to the Tsuchikage. "I lost it in a fight against a Fire natured ninja, it was too charred to recover." It wasn't exactly a lie because he lost it in a fight in which an Uchiha participated and they are known for being Fire natured but he lost it to Reaver, not who he presumed to be Kiro. "I see, take better care of this one." Onoki said as he threw a Iwa headband at Mori. "I will Sir, thank you." He quickly put it around his arm and felt a familiar weight come back. "Yeah yeah, just close the door when you leave." He followed the order of the Tsuchikage and made his way outside where he sighed out of relief. "That was much more stressful than I expected it to be."
Mori read about a runaway jinchuuriki, which was worrying to say the least. He felt the power of a jinchuuriki back in Konoha and he grew nauseous from it only having three tails, and unless he was mistaken this one had eight tails. Nontheless this was an amazing opportunity for Iwa and since other villages and villagers would think the same, he had to be fast to sign up. He made his way towards the Tsuchikage's office which wasn't exacly hard due to it towering over the other buildings and having it the kanji for 'Earth' on it.
Onoki was still plowing through piles and piles of paperwork as he heard knocking...on the window? He opened the window and Mori entered the room. "What is the meaning of this Utamara?! Make an appointment next time!" Onoki scolded the genin as Mori grinned and began to explain the reason for his visit. "Sorry Lord Tsuchikage, but I have a good reason for it. I want to volunteer to track down and capture the jinchuuriki of Kumo." The mole genin exclaimed his desire as Onoki though it over. "Tell me why I should send a genin on a mission that even jonin have trouble with? Sounds like a suicide mission to me."
"Lord Tsuchikage, give me a chance! I know that I won't be able to sway you by saying that I would be able to make it to chunin in the exams if I were on time, so I'll try other arguments. I have done 47 D-rank missions and 3 C-rank for the village and even did a S-rank in Konoha when pursuing the attackers of Konoha. I have enough experience for this and if I train my chakra capacity and chakra control, I would be a valuable asset to the group. I have the creativity to solve problems and I can create traps for enemies without being noticed unless said opponent can see chakra. I can create shelter for the night and I have basic first-aid training. If someone neglects a cut and it becomes infected then you have a bigger problem. Besides, I am a genin. It is easier to replace a genin than a jonin and if I can give my life to help the village, then I am happy. Your moniker is Onoki of the Scales, so weigh the pros and the cons and see what is the better choice." Mori said to Onoki, seemingly unwilling to take no for an answer.
Onoki had to admit, this kid didn't know when to give up. The mention of his moniker made him think about the idea and if he was brutally honest, the genin might have some solid points. "Fine, I'll keep you in mind but I won't promise that you will be chosen. It all depends on what others have to offer, but you were fast to volunteer, I'll give you that. Now leave through the door and enter through it the next time before I kick you out of the window." Onoki said as Mori grinned and made his way to the door. "I will, have a good day Lord Tsuchikage!" He said as he ran out of the building and Onoki sat down at his desk. "That kid is an odd one, no idea what to think of his future." He sighed as he faced an enemy that always returned, no matter how many times he slayed it, paperwork.
"Reaver, I appreciate the support. But I can handle this. So stand down...now." Azumi said, her tone become more chilling as she released some killing intent to try and get him to back down a bit as she moved in front of her armored ally and faced Baiyan. Seems her overly formal approached caused her to dance around the subject and she needed to correct it and get to the point to avoid risk of gaining the kunoichi's complete disinterest.
"Alright, I desire to form a team. One comprised of capable ninja among nations that have been overlooked by the powers that currently dictate the ninja world. One that will bring about change and allow greater opportunities for both our villages going forward. Based on Sagiso's account, you seem more than qualified...if Sagiso had not been making an exaggeration or two to her claims. Something I desired to see for himself." Azumi said, her tone more assertive this time as she outlined her reason for coming to Baiyan in about the briefest outline she could muster.
----------
"Alright, Ren just stand right there. I've got something I want to try." Tomiko said as Ren simply gave a nod, while she had not directly answered Naomi's question and felt it'd be better to show them.
On the still dirt covered slum training field, Ren waited as Tomiko flashed some hand signs. If she could borrow from the sedimentary elements below for rejuvenation, then the opposite had to be true as well.
"Gaia Release: Goddess' Offering!"
Dirt, soil and other elements of the mudslide jutsu gathered around Ren's feet as Tomiko tried to pull away energy from his body. And for a brief moment, she felt its effect kicked in as indeed some of Ren's chakra began to be sucked from his feet to the soil below. However, the process was a bit hard to maintain for her as she soon put it to a stop as she took a moment to think it over.
"Well, I think it worked. Problem is I don't have a practical use for a slow draining technique that leaves me open me to the enemy attack. I need to practice it so it is an unconscious reflex; kinda like the rejuvenation technique." Tomiko said as she evaluated her experimental technique.
"Well, least you began to make progress with it, and it seems like a good compliment technique to the rejuy...reje...the healing thingy." Mio said as Miu rolled her eyes.
"Rejuvenation." The twin corrected which only caused Mio to stick his tongue out at his sibling which caused Tomiko to laugh.
"I'll keep that in mind, for now I think I could use a break. I say we go to the dump and see if we can find some stuff for some...modifications to our pet project." Tomiko said which caused the group's eyes to widen as they grinned.
"Sounds great~!"
-----------
"Well, in any event..." Aisha said as she slipped on her cast as Luna & Sky transformed back into their wolf forms as she gave Kenji a pat on the back since he felt down about his "downsides" to his technique.
"...we should head back. Those short comings are just kinks to work out. The technique is quite powerful and versatile, and once you master it you will be a force I assure you of that." Aisha said as she tried to lift Kenji's spirits, and Kenji offered a tired smile as he gave a nod and the two walked out of the cave....only to run into Kumogakure Jonin Samui who greeted them with a cold stare.
So, more or less, her neutral expression.
"S-samui Sensei?" Kenji asked, using Samui under her respectful title as he seemed surprised to find her hear. Had she seen the spar within the cave moments ago? If so what were they to do now? Kenji had a million worried thoughts that plagued his mind and even Aisha seemed a little nerved before Samui's voice interrupted his thought process.
"Lord Raikage wishes to see you. The both of you, immediately."
----------
Madoka finished up her quick little meal, as she had prepared to make her way to the craft's store. Though some thought stopped her...one which concerned her other friend Yasu.
Madoka had been so focused on making Rhino and her training under Chiyo that she had hardly taken any time to see Yasu or find out what he had been doing. Prior to the exams, Madoka would not have paid this much thought as she was a loner by nature and felt more comfortable in the company of her puppets than people.
However, her experience in Konoha...with Tomiko and Yasu opened her up a bit. Made her realize that the company of others was not so bad. Madoka half wondered how different her life would have been if she didn't bump into Tomiko off pure chance when she arrived in Konoha those months ago. Still, she had no regrets and felt she should go check to see how Yasu had been doing since they departed from Tomiko. So Madoka aimed to go look for Yasu and pay him a visit.
-----------
Takato knew he needed to speak quickly given the distraction that Hinegaku had made as he thought over where a desired location would be.
"Well, do you have any private quarters? A personal office or something?" Takato asked, as he presumed someone of such high stature like Hinegaku would have her own office. The sooner that they could get some isolation the sooner Takato could rely his urgent news and be done with his errand.
Tayuya continued to listen in in secret, even with Hinegaku's call for training; which had only caused her to pull a practice dummy close to her as she threw some weak punches at it but kept her sharp ears trained to the conversation.
-----------
Jinchuriki on the loose?
Sakura had naturally been confused by Taiyo's comment which concerned this "Jinchuriki", a term she had not been familiar with given she had not been present for Jiraiya's explanation. So she figured it'd be wise to simply listen in and pick up any cues this conversation would give her on the matter.
Tsunade listened to Taiyo's proposition on gathering capable ninja to go deal with this Jinchuriki matter, which sounded good on paper though the question of trusting some Genin to handle a mission like this had been enough for Tsunade to raise an eyebrow.
"And you figure that sending Genin is a good idea? How can I trust you guys to deal with such a threat...it is quite dangerous to send people like that against such a target." Tsunade said rather bluntly to the Fire-nin.
Taiyo
That did cause him to think on the matter, there are plenty of capable Chunnin and even Jonin who were much more capable for the job, so it wouldn't make sense to send him.
"That is true, however I'm no ordinary genin, I single handedly killed one member of the sound four and beaten the other into retreat, not to mention being able to give the winner of the Chunnin exams a run for her money. I bravely fought off the sound invaders and I even held my own against you, albeit with a handicap. So I believe if you were to send any genin, I would be the best candidate for the job," He then powered up to FBS in its Red state, which was noticeably more powerful than the rainbow that the aura looked like 2 months ago, "As you can see, my training with Jiraiya has also made me a different shinobi, and if you don't believe me, I can prove it,"
Wow, when did you get the balls to challenge your Kage?
Bout the same time you decided to speak. Tsuki
The Yuki-nin closely as the the arrow flew into the doll. Her eyes widened in shock as the target had their limbs torn off as the decapitated head split in two revealing the arrow that was shot, but that isn't what disturbed her. Rather, Tsuki was concern of what consequences slight arise due to the use or misuse of such technique. Granted, she thought that the string she created in battle could be helpful as a whip, but the technique Hama showed her was clearly more effective.
"Thank you Hama-sensei, may I try now?" A sly look began to grow on the kunoichi's face, as she was brewing up her own method of the technique.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
