Private/Closed Naruto AU: Roleplay

[Shen: King of Digimon]

*******
Several days later....
*******

As the days passed, the teams had been on their way to track down the fabled jinchurki. All around the nations people had sent their ninjas, warriors, even lowly bandits in hopes of becoming something great or helping the cause of something similarly great. From the mist, leaf, clouds, to even small nations. But only one would receive such a prize if it to be won. Who would it be? What nation? How will this shift the balance of power?

Let’s find out.....

Arc 4: Capture The Eight Tails

 

[Godjacob]

Darui and company had arrived on one of the many islands that were scattered between the Land of Water and Land of Fire, and with the sole exception of a light storm they had experienced no great difficulties getting to the islands. And with Aisha on dry land, she had once more been able to tail the Jinchuriki's sent with their article of clothing sample that had been obtained.

Though, it had not been an easy search. As there had not been just one possible island that the Jinchuriki fled to, but it traversed a fair number of them. Which prolonged the search process and made it only more complicated.

The one thought of comfort, was the belief that this would only made that much more harder for the other possible search parties. After all outside of Kiri, who they had yet to encounter it on their search, they had likely been the first arrivals on these islands and as such already had the jump so to speak when it came to searching them. Not to mention, it had been incredibly doubtful that any other search team had both a sent article like they did and someone with the capacity to track it like Aisha. Some like Konoha could have one, but they lacked both presumably which had been an encouraging step.

"Alright, I think we're getting close. The scent is getting stronger!"​

As had that, which only caused Darui to motion for Kenji and Taji to up the tempo to follow Aisha as well as Luna & Sky who seemed to be drawing closer to the source of the scent.

------------
"All things considered, these islands are rather lovely. Even if they are beyond a pain to search through."

Madoka made her captain obvious statement of the day, as she followed Pakura along while the latter led herself and Yasu through one of the numerous islands that made the connective chain between the Land of Fire & Water. Pakura and her coyote pack had managed to make great strides in the days since they left for the mission, and now appeared on the first of the multiple islands where the Jinchuriki was rumored to be hiding on.

Which one however, was the more difficult part to discern. And in truth to ensure that there'd be no stones unturned, there really was no other method but to explore each and every island there.

It was a chore, but so far they managed to avoid detection by the other presumed search groups that should have conversed on these islands by now. So at least it had not grown confrontational.

"Perhaps, but we must endure the pain and press on. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say." Pakura replied with a small grin of her own, as she seemed to enjoy the exploration herself. Not that she had been causal about accomplishing the mission, as a matter of face she scattered her coyote pack to cover more ground, but she seemed to her almost eager anticipation now that they were on these islands. Madoka lacked the general enthusiasm, but she simply nodded her head in agreement and continued to tail with Pakura.

------------

Kakashi's team arrived on one shores of the islands, whether it had been the same one that Darui or Pakura's teams had been on or a separately one entirely had been unclear. Not that Kakashi or his squad would have been aware in any event, though Kakashi's lone eye had been mindful to watch out for any other suitors to the Jinchuriki and keep his senses sharp.

Even if his almost bored expression surpassed only by Darui gave no indication of this.

"Well, we have a lot of ground to cover. Some extra eyes and ears can't hurt." Kakashi said, before he performed a summoning jutsu as he summoned his pack of ninja dogs. Though before Kakashi Pakkun and company out to scout he glanced back over to the Genin. Specifically the Hyuga.

"Don't suppose you can see if you see anything ahead of us." Kakashi asked, as he figured getting a general impression of what to expect ahead on this island would serve them well before they charged in blindly.​

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

*Shoom!*

The four figures of the sound had whipped across the trees. Zaku’s spiked hair ruffled in the wind as he took his turn being on point, leading the group. Sakon on his left, Kidomaru on his right, and Kou taking up the rear they made its closer and closer to their target. They had begun to narrow down locations as to where she could be located. An island close to mist territory, but still relatively neutral. They hadn’t detected any sign of other village activity yet. Which was both assuring and unsettling at the same time.

Heh, when are those leaf chumps gonna show up? Zaku thought. You’d think they’d be clawing at the chance to get a tailed beast. Guess we sound ninja are gonna beat them to the punch!

Kou, had drifted off hours ago into deep thought. His overactive imagination ran wild. So if Palentra is my mom, would that make Boss my father or my older bro? Uncle? But that would make Palentra his sister...but then what would Tomiko be? I already got a mom. Maybe a cousin? Auntie? But then she’d have to marry Boss...this is so confusing. But if she’s rock queen there has to be a king right? Would THAT be Boss? But where does Orochimaru fit into this...grandpa? Grandma?

“Hmph. Stay alert, the closer we get to this girl the more dangerous it’ll be.” Sakon explained. “If we are lucky, someone has already beat her do a bloody pulp for us. Then we could just sweep up the mess.”


.......


“And soooo♪ The old captain grew weary, and his sailor’s heart grew dreary♪.” Hama sang. “For he needed a love to call his own♪ and so the sea became his home♪.”

Hama preformed while the group calmly walked along a long path of ice Hama had created to cross the ocean. That particular bridge was being walked on for a few hours. Kai, twitched in frustration and anger, Hama’s music had been going on for hours while they crept along at a crippling pace. Land was in sight, nearly within touching range. Kai growled

“Finally! We can stop those wretched ear killing noises you call songs!”

“Oh? I could have sworn you found a couple of them appealing~”

Kai looked to the left, blushing slightly from behind his hunter nin mask. “...that’s besides the point. We are on ninja business! We need to get our head in the game, not focus on such trivial matters such as songs!”

“Oh Kai, any true ninja can do both without having to worry~” Hama mused. “But now we are on the island where are target is. Which reminds me.

Hama looked over to seiun, putting a thoughtful finger to her lips as he addressed the Ex-rain ninja

“Where would you hide if you were a traitor for your village hm?”

 

[kyuukestu]

Hyōryūgetsu

Unlike her teammates, Hyō was much more comfortable traveling within the water rather than above it, and as such she hadn't stepped onto Hama's ice bridge at all. Instead, she'd slipped right into the ocean and quite literally disappeared within the blue waters, becoming one with the waves themselves. Thus, at almost zero physical expenditure on her part she allowed the naturally occurring waves to brush her alongside the group, and as a bonus, she was more tuned into the sounds submerged beneath the waves than those cresting over them -namely, Hama's odd past time. Perhaps if those sounds had a bit more...omph, they'd be fun.

She was very tempted to drag one of her unsuspecting teammates into the water for a little fun, but event decided against it in favor of ocean-sun-bathing. Which managed to get a honey roasted tan in no time flat -an impossibly large surface area does wonders for attracting sun. Although mostly in a world of her own, Hyō was aware enough to have heard Hama's question, and responded bubbly -very literally as her voice only transmitted through the bubbles that rose to the surface of her ocean-dwelling body. "I'd hide right under their noses and pretend to be one of them~ Pursuers often miss things hiding in plain sight."

Yasu

Trailing after Pakura, Yasu's eyes scanned the horizon. Now susceptible to engagement at any time, he'd grown attentive, wielding a few of the tips he'd picked up while on the Iwa-Suna skirmish boundary.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Yes! Fight day is here!

The Leaf-nin was very obviously excited to be at their destination at long last. Taiyo couldn't wait to show the ninja world what he had learned from Jiraiya, since his last showing was a shit-show, and that's putting it lightly. It was taking every fiber in the genin's being to prevent his child-like excitement from seeping out.

"Don't suppose you can see if you see anything ahead of us,"

Immediately, Taiyo turned to Raiku, Kiro, Furījia, and anyone else he knew who had a Dōjutsu. He didn't know much about that specific type of Kekkei Genkai except for the welders usually belong to a specific clan, their eyes turn a special color and gain a cool pattern, and give then a special power, he never bothered learning about such powers.

Wish I had that kind of power...

Well my dude, some people are just born for success. Natural selection is a bitch and gives some people cool DNA mutations and others Kekkei Genkai's which are best seen in a freak show. And we kinda have FBS...what's that about?

To be completely honest, I don't know, if I had to guess, it's chakra in its purest form. When I first tried it-

You blew your arms off, I know. We share memories

-yeah that, and I think it was because I was just releasing raw, unadulterated chakra, energy at its purest form. I think I just let it emanate from my body when it appeared Rainbow-ish, and then when it became a solid red and orange, I started to shape the chakra. That s just my take on it, maybe I'll be a top ninja without some sort of genetic mutation.

Well first you have to start winning consistently.

Bitch...
Tsuki
There was a certain pep in the Yuki-nin's steps as she walked along Hama's ice bridge. Not because she was excited to fight other ninja and capture the Jinchūriki, quite the opposite actually, but rather it was that walking on this ice reminded her of Hama's first lesson to her; how to walk on ice.

“Where would you hide if you were a traitor for your village hm?”

Spine shivering, Tsuki began to ponder her sensei's question. The thought of treason had never even crossed Tsuki's mind, it frightened her, and it caused her to imagine outcomes she wished to have never conceived. Instead, she let the others give their two cents as she his her face, continuing to imagine the cruel and unusual punishments she would suffer as a traitor.
Seiun
An unusual feeling of whisky began to well up within Seiun. Sure he's been journeying for most of his life, so it wasn't anything new, but perhaps that he was going with companions. In truth, Hama's cell was the closest thing he had to a family, he even began to him the tune of Hama's songs.

Another one of Hama-sensei's oddities sure, but I actually enjoy it to provide a contrast with all these ice-faced soldiers they call children.

Seiun was aware of the question Hama had asked him, and just as he was about to give an answer, Hyo decided to jump in.

"I'd hide right under their noses and pretend to be one of them~ Pursuers often miss things hiding in plain sight."
It was an interesting concept to Seiun, aka, the resident fugative, so he decided to give his two cents while also not missing an opportunity.

"Well aren't you just a tall glass of water today~! Or at least, a tall body of water...And as for me, I'd usually like to find somewhere really remote, but civil enough to be habitable and just let myself fade into obscurity, but blending into the masses in genius, kind of like you now Hyo!" The Rainy Rouge then began to whistle Hama's sea tunes, almost unaware that he had basically came to die like a dog.

 

[Mystic Zander]

After quite the long flight, all four member's of Team Iwa had reached the edge of the first small uninhabited island among the archipelago that made up most of the Land of Water.

"We'll be going about this on foot from now on. It'll allow us to be more thorough. Plus its eating up my chakra and we need to stay spry." Lady Guren announced from the head of her crystal beast as it slowly glided towards the earth below, breaking into a galloping spring as it finally landed.

"So this is the Land of Water huh? I like it." Katsuo remarked, noticing how the ocean carried out to the horizon from every direction. Plenty of ammo.

"Alright, our last report stated the Jinchuriki is somewhere located in the general area between these two land masses, so first things first, narrowing our island count down. Any of you have sensory-nin type skills or such?" Lady Guren questioned, scouting up and down the bank of the island as she did so.

"Well...I'm not a sensory ninja, but I think I could help with a temporary security alarm...." The allied shinobi added with a small smile as he stepped up to the edge of the water, casting a quick set of hand signs without warning.
"Water Style! Water Clone Jutsu." He said firmly, causing the water in front of him to ripple and eventually coil up into a shimmering figure resembling the appearance of himself.

"Hey Boss, ready to take over the world with your clone army?" The water double joked.

"He he, no, not just yet. You know what to do." The original replied cryptically, turning away to face the group.

"Right. Water Style. Bubble Dome Jutsu!" The clone spike quietly, sinking into the water as the shell of air cloaked him in protection. At the same time, the clone seemed to lose its detail, turning into a shimmering figure of water vaguely similar to the original.
"Water Clone Jutsu! Pop Off Style!" The clone roared in a somewhat joking manner as five other clones, with there own respective bubbles, seemed to 'pop' out of Katsuo's bubble, forming a semi-circle at the ocean floor.

"The clones will be able to traverse the water at pretty decent speeds, they'll scout the island perimeter and gradually work to any nearby islands. There info gets back to me if anything goes down and we'll know what exactly happened. Also, took its form away to make it less identifiable. Less people who know of our presence, the better." The original Katsuo explained to his teammates, glancing over his shoulder as the water clones fanned out in every direction, ready to analyze all if the nearby area.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Hama gave a small chuckle at both Seiun and Hyo, both giving their answers to the question. A small smile had begun to spread across her red lips.

“Oh ho both such good answers. Now class, let’s see which one is more likely.” Hama spoke. “A remote island doesn’t have the most bustling of populations, so for someone to becoming another and take on a new personna would be extremely difficult considering the location.”

Hama then Turned to Seiun. “Now, our resident expert on betraying their own village says that she would try and fade into obscurity here, just as you had done from your village. Now, on an practically abandoned island in neutral territory with no village in sights for a several days journey, that’s the one that’s more likely.”

Hama held a finger, waggling it in the air. Kai began to put the pieces together, as this spoke volumes about the target’s personality. Kai walked up toward the pair, clearing his throat.

“I’m a hunter nin. Finding missing ninja is my speciality. This woman must be wanting to distance herself from humanity. Can’t blame her. If i had to theorize, I would say she didn’t want to become a jinchurki in the first place or be used as a weapon, and fled. The last thing she would want is to interact with people, let alone mix in with them.”

Hama gave a smile and nodded, closing her eyes. “Call me a sucker for happy endings, but I say we start with a more gentle touch. That’s where you come in Tsuki. You are more...watchful with your words and genuine. If she is a ninja, she could tell if one was lying such as Hyo or even me. Your unique in this respect. So when we establish first contact, you will be our speaker. Congratulations on becoming our spokeswoman~”

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Running through a forest, a young woman wearing a cloak over her body suddenly came to a stop and removed her hood. This was the famous Jinchuriki everyone is after. "Whew, think I finally lost those guys chasing me." She spoke with a sigh. "I seriously can't stay anywhere for a bit without someone recognizing me and alerting the authority, what makes me worthy of such attention anyway? Sometimes I wonder if I running away like this is worth the trouble and if I should just stop. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?" She said to herself with a shrug. "You're in possession of a Biju, if they catch you they'll surely try to make you their weapon or worse kill you and extract me. Whatever it is won't be pleasant for either of us so don't you stop running!" A voice inside her shouted. "You sure are a bundle of positivity Gyuki." She responded sarcastically before starting to run towards a waterfall.

 

[DarkHydraT]

"The Land of Water eh? Don't mind the nature so far, hate the amount of water." Mori said as he looked at the ocean with an expression that mixed fear with rancor before stepping in a puddle, soaking his pants up to his knees. "For once I'm glad to be born in Iwa, this is gonna be an absolute pain to traverse." He said as he shook his legs and began to wring out his trouser legs to get rid of the water. "We need a boat or something, think we can cook something up like that Tomiko?" He asked his fellow Iwa-nin and closest friend after voicing his clear distaste of water, although it was unknown if said distaste was because of his inability to swim or something else.

"Well, I have random and sudden surges of sensing chakra but it is too random to base a strategy around and I have no idea how far I can sense and how much. To my knowledge the three of you could be my limit, and if I somehow pick up more chakra signatures I am at serious risk of fainting. We will need a different way of -" Mori was just about to say that they needed a different and more accurate way of sensing chakra when he saw Katsuo do..something as tendrils of water appeared, not sure if he should find cover, recoil or be in awe of this ninja's strength. He decided on the last option and looked at Katsuo before whistling at him and his strength, glad that he was on their side.

"Okay, you are cool in my book. Doesn't that take a toll on your chakra in the end though? Even with the water surrounding us, we have quite the amount of islands to search. If your chakra gets low, don't hesitate to tell me. Okay?" Mori told Katsuo, clear worry in his voice although even himself wasn't sure if he was worried because it could hinder the mission or because he knew from past experiences how dangerous low chakra levels were, his last fight with Reaver being a prime example of that.

------------------------------

Taji had been quiet during the last four days, her remarks about perfection were almost non-existant, only being whispered before going to sleep and waking up like some kind of sick prayer. She was getting jumpier as time crawled on, to the point that she always had a kunai with her and barely missing her team members with it when they called her name when they were behind her or when they put a hand on her shoulder. The weight of the mission seemed to have crashed into her mind after Darui's words four days ago, and it didn't seem to have done the young genin any good, only going on out of fear of disappointing her team members, her village and most importantly her parents.

Taji picked up her pace, sticking close to the middle of the group which was Darui. Realizing how close she was to the squad leader and right hand of Lord Raikage, she jumped a little and began to walk faster, passing him by and instead staying closer to Aisha and her wolves. She liked being with her, she always managed to calm her down even a little bit and she needed every bit of relaxation at this point of time.

 

[kyuukestu]

Hinagiku

Dusting a light grey powder from her fingers, Hinagiku finished sealing the last of the substance into a batch of scrolls and tags. She distributed the scrolls among the members of her group and by association, team Kakashi, who also gained some of the substance, though lower in quantity. She turned to the members of her team, shooting them a knowing look, and casting a particularly deep and meaningful look to Sagiso.

"Without further ado..."

Letting her words trail off, she departed, vanishing into the geography of the island. When she reappeared, a fair distance away, her appearance had transformed, and she now looked like the missing jinchuriki. A sly smirk on her fair, she activated her byakugan, and begun searching the surrounding isles.

A similar scene played out with Sagiso, who had also transformed to take the appearance of the jinchuriki, heading towards a different set of isles than her mother had. They both moved with a hint of caution, but no hesitation.

 

[Godjacob]

Aisha and Luna & Sky continued to lead their figurative "pack" before Aisha froze in her tracks, and motioned for the others to do the same, just ahead of where Taji had been behind her. Aisha took a moment to sniff the air carefully. Aisha seemed cautious for a moment before her eyes widened and she charged ahead.

"This way, hurry! The scent is close, it's on this isle I am sure of it!" Aisha called out as this got Darui and Kenji's attention and they quickly followed her.

​

"Are you certain the scent is up ahead?" Darui asked with clarification, as he had not doubted the senses of the Inuzuka but had to be sure. Aisha along with Luna & Sky kept forward as they followed the sent while she zoned in on where she believed the source was.
​

"Yes, I am absolutely positive. In the direction of that waterfall a ways ahead." Aisha explained as if her account had been true it would appear that they had found the correct island, and thankfully to this point in Darui's view had yet to encounter anyone else who might have searched for her.

"All right, as said before you three stay together. If the Host is unwilling to return by her own accord, we will have to neutralize and subdue her quickly. We cannot afford a full on chase, we have to try and box her in and keep her contained in this area. Somewhere you can provide support but stay on lookout and out of direct fighting range." Darui advised the group, and already it seemed Kenji had an idea for his contribution with that idea.

"Well, I could set up some traps around the area. Think I have a way to stun her if she tries to get away, or anyone else who tries to sneak up on us. Though I'll need time and some clones." Kenji explained before Aisha glanced back to voice her view.

"Maybe we should focus on persuasion first. If she gets fearful or aware that we'd jump her she'd be only more inclined to run away. And with dealing with something like this, maybe finding the root of her worry and easing her would help us avoid a troublesome fight. And the truth is when one feels they are backed into a corner that's when the claws come out." Aisha said, as she seemed to compare this situation to a wounded animal backed into a corner by the pack which only caused it to fight and react with more aggression than ever before.

Which, given a Jinchuriki was being used as a sub in that analogy, a fight like that needed to be avoided if at any degree possible.

-----------
"Well, no since in standing around. I've already informed my babies to report back to me if any of them sniff anything out. We need to clear this island quickly. Can't afford to linger on one place too long, in the event that the target is not here." Pakura said to both Madoka and Yasu, as Madoka nodded while she followed Pakura ahead.

Madoka glanced back at Yasu as she had done so, as it appeared he seemed ever focused as he scanned the area. Could perhaps he have had experience during those assignments at the border of Iwa and Suna? Madoka had to wonder what Yasu had gone through during that time, but she presumed it would prove a valued asset here.

----------
"Well, I do have a little knack. I can feel the sensations or vibrations of people walking along the ground within a certain range. I'd say about anywhere from a 10....maybe 20 foot radius I can track, maybe more? I've never pushed it further than that, but I have been training in all areas and I think it might help." Tomiko said as she heard of Guren's general question about any sensory skills that they may have had on hand. Something Mori seemed to chip in as well.

Then Tomiko's gaze shifted over to Katsuo, who seemed to produce both clones as well as these water tendrils from the water around them. Her eyes widened as she looked on with amazement as Katsuo's sensory system while he began to explain the mechanics behind it which fascinated the Iwa-nin.

"Man, you really are prepared for any situation aren't you?" Tomiko asked with a grin as she inspected the tendrils.

 

[kyuukestu]

Furijia

Chin dipping softly, loose threads of hair bobbing in the wind, Furijia nodded, her eyes drifting from the departing figures of her mother and sister. Her eyes faded to a milky white, the signature dojutsu of the Hyuga manifesting itself. She opted to set her vision for 'zoom' rather than 'radar' so she focused on see further ahead rather than all directions at once. With a line of vision roughly clipping off at around 10 km away, she pivoted her head, observing the topography of the island. After several brief moments, she blinked, her eyes returning to normal. Taking a brief moment, she condensed her words, getting her point across in as little words as possible -time was valuable after all, and she couldn't spend to much of it piling on adjectives.

"Mostly tropical forest. Lots off...limestone? Animals plentiful, but little sign of other humans."

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“...hm?”

Kidomaru looked over to his left? His finger twirled around a bit of webbing. It twitched slightly. Following along his finger, it led across a chain of webs so tiny they were near impossible to spot. This path covered a several mile radius, where it made intact with a certain mole digger’s foot, Mori. This sent the delayed reaction all the way to Kidomaru, who gave a small snicker, looking to the team.

“Looks like we got company.”

“Jinchurki?” Sakon asked.

“Lets find out...”

Kidomaru stuck the strand in his mouth. He began sucking on it, trying to determine something. His thread, once tripped on, kept a small risedule amount of chakra the target had, negligible, under 0.01%. It carried the trace of chakra along the path, it was effective in telling if one was a jinchurki or not. A jinchurki’s chakra would taste differently from that of a ninja or even a passerby. If there was no taste, it was simply a civilian.

“Mmm...that’s no tailed beast.” Kidomaru spoke, taking the string out. “Looks like we got competition!”

“Then let’s not Dottle.” Ukon huffed. “If we don’t find this target soon, we will be exposed and our advantage will be gone. Let’s get a move on!”

“Right brother.” Sakon agreed. “Kidomaru, you pull up the front, we need your sensory skills to show us where she will be next. Zaku, your behind him to provide cover fire quickly with your particular set of skills. My brother and I have the rear. Eyes on the back of my head would be quite the advantage. And boy, you will-“

Sakon went over to point to where Kou should be when he realized that he was no longer there. Blinking, he looked to his left and right.

“...where is he?”

“You LOST him?!” Ukon growled. “Fantastic...i knew bringing that brat along was a terrible idea!”

“Yeah but he’s my brat.” Zaku said in defense, rising up from the ground. “He couldn’t have gone far, probabaly takin’ a leak or somethin’.”

Zaku didn’t like this. Not a bit. Kou alone somewhere with possible hostiles nearby and a rouge tailed beast. There are so many ways that he could die and it would be very easy. He pushed those thoughts aside for now. The kid’s smart. He can get himself out of danger...probably.


..........

Kou was walking along the woods, picking berries from a nearby bush. He was still deep in thought about who his newfound family was and where they would be placed in his family tree. The thought confused him utterly and never made much sense, especially if he threw tomiko’s relatives into the mix. The letter he read was very convincing of that. He looked side to side, taking one of the berries and bringing it to his pocket. In it, a small muzzle came out, sniffing it and taking a bite from his hand. It seemed as though he wasn’t just feeding himself.

“There, there.” He whispered to the creature in his pocket. “Mom would be happy to see you thickening up and getting some muscle.”

That’s when he noticed something close by, or rather, someone. They had a hood that was thrown off, sitting next to a waterfall. Kou became curious, as was his nature and walked closer. It seemed to be a girl, pretty like the rock queen. She talked to someone he didn’t see before she ran towards the waterfall. Kou decided that was time for him to speak.

“Um hello?” He squeaked out. “Uh, who are you?”

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Henshina stood as the base of the waterfall looing at the falling water with her hood off. She heard Kou's voice and turned her head to face the kid who addressed her. "Oh hey there kid, where did you come from?" She casually asked. He heard the question Kou asked her. "Oh me? My name's Henshina, Henshina Yotsuki." She responded. Suddenly, Gyuki spoke up. "YOU FOOL! Don't introduce yourself to some random brat you just met!" His voice boomed in her ear. Henshina flinched from the sudden shout from her partner and wiggled a finger in her hear. "Ow, come one not that loud." She said in retaliation. "So what about you kid?" She asked, turning her attention back to Kou.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Kou tilted his head At the woman. Where DID he come from? Such a deep question. Where did any of us come from? We’re we all born one day out of mud and water or were we placed here by a deity to serve some unknown purpose. Kou, you are over thinking it, she just asked where you came from recently. Okay gotcha.

“uh...from the trees. Y’a know, right there?” He said, limply pointing toward the treeline.

"Oh me? My name's Henshina, Henshina Yotsuki." She responded. “So what about you kid?"

“I’m Kou...uh....Kou.” He said, scratching his head

He didn’t have a last name, nor did he see any point in having one. They just made everything more confusing to him. He had too much to think about anyway. He looked in his left hand, berries he had still freshly picked. He held one out to her.

“I found these pretty cool berries, want one?”

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
The Fire-nin began to tap his foot impatiently as the Dojutsu users finished their recon. Furījia was the first to report.

"Mostly tropical forest. Lots off...limestone? Animals plentiful, but little sign of other humans."

Wow, great fucking report everyone, clap it up for her, she really deserves it, I bet knowing the prescise location of every single goddamn animal is going to be just perfect!

Okay then, glad someone is saying in my head, let me handle this.

"Thanks Furījia, but I think we'll need specifics....if anyone has any form of a signal that they can use, distribute it out to everyone. It seems we're going to have to look for the Jinchūriki the old fashioned way," Taiyo paused awkwardly, remembering that he wasn't the team captain, "Of course that s just a suggestion, anyone have better ideas?"
Tsuki
Fourtunately for everyone's sake, Tsuki was able to snap out of her series of imaginary tourte through treason, but only to ponder on Hama's words.

Well, I've never really thought myself as genuine, but in retrospect, I don't see it any other way, I've never been good at lying, so might as well be honest.

"Okay...." Tsuki replied nervously, shifting uncomfortably as she replied.

I just hope I don't mess this up, Hama-sensei, Kai, Hyo, and even Seiun are counting on me, though they'd resort to violent means, I'd be so ashamed if I had failed...

 

[kyuukestu]

Sagiso

Moving at a light trot, casually, the kunoichi made a hop, a skip, and merrily arrived at another one of the islands. She'd chosen the island at random, though it was really only one of two possible choices. Within this micro-archipelago, there were 4 observable islands. Excluding the one they started off on then, there 3 three other islands to explore. They'd started out on the island to the east, and her mother had headed off to the island on the south, so Sagiso figured she'd do the opposite and head to the northern island.

'The islands were each within sight of each other, resting perhaps 3 or 4 kilometers away from each other. The horizon is only about 5 km away, so since they're visible without my Byakugan my estimates can't be too far off. The stretch of ocean between them, is...I guess 10 square km or so? Simply squaring the distance longest stretch of ocean, 4 km, would give 16 square km, so if I shave off a bit...10 sounds reasonable?'

Musing to herself with idle curiosity, Sagiso breached the shore of the island. Her Byakugan casually scanning the surroundings. She'd kept it up while moving, but had reduced it's range to a paltry 10 m or so around her body. It provided sufficient view around her, and didn't eat away at her chakra in a significant way. Upon landing however, she immediately kicked her vision in overdrive, her field of visual narrowed as she opted for prioritizing her zoom rather than her field of vision. Her line of sight extended, quickly growing to several kilometers in length. With an extensive line of vision, she simply swept her gaze in an arc, essentially skimming the entire island in a matter of minutes. It certainly wasn't a very detailed search, but it would be enough. She wasn't looking for things in detail, but rather the distinct colored clouds of chakra signatures. Even with the speed at which she was searching the island, she'd find it hard pressed to completely miss the glowing blobs that popped into her vision whenever chakra was detected.

In this case, the whole group of chakra sources was rather difficult to miss, but in particular, she immediately locked onto one, very familiar chakra source. Eyes sparkling, she took off towards the direction of the team, dropping her transformation jutsu while she was at it. 'Don't wanna get swarmed by them.'

It was only a matter of minutes before the Nadeshiko kunoichi arrived on scene, alighting atop a branch overlooking the group from -as a quick peek at their headbands revealed- Iwagakure. 'Huh, Iwagakure!?' Eyes narrowing, she took a closer look; not just the stone, but leaf and mist headbands hung from Katsuo's body...a scene that told a mess of loyalties...or perhaps none at all. Removing her mask, and quite obviously revealing her face, she peered towards Katsuo,"What are you? Lu Bu?"***

She didn't really expect an answer, or rather, she didn't expect a reasonable answer she could agree with. The question was more rhetorical, as her attention shifted towards Katsuo's companions. She'd personally fought against Katsuo, and she'd seen Tomiko...fighting? Well, whatever Tomiko had been doing in the Chunin exams -something she hesitated to call a fight. Well, she had an inkling of the girl's capabilities as well, but she didn't recall much about the last member of their team, who...was a piece of work altogether.

Knee-deep within the drifting tides, his expression was one of discomfort, or even fright. From Sagiso's perspective, he seemed to be on the verge of tears -and the fighting hadn't even begun yet...

'So this is Iwagakure's A-team...a foreign ninja, a wide-eyed girlie, and a boy who looks like he's about to wet himself...is this a joke?'

Suspicious as she might've been, the sight of Gurren, only a few meters away from the group, reassured her that this group was actually the real thing. Her expression wavered with conflict, and the girl observed curiously, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

(OOC:
***
Lu Bu is a Chinese Warlord, rather famous for his derisive nickname 'Slave of three surnames' because he had three different lieges after defecting from his previous lieges on 2 occasions.)

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Henshina looked at Kou. "Kou huh, that's a nice name." She responded, Seeing the boy hand her berries, the kunoichi was about to take some but thought about how Gyuki would yell at her again if she did so she pulled back her hand. "Uh no thanks I'm not that hungry." She said. "There's also the fact that someone would be mighty cross with me if I did." She whispered to herself. Gyuki huffing could be heard. Henshina made her way towards the waterfall. "Well it was nice meeting ya Kou, I'm going to hide behind the waterfall, don't tell anyone ok?" She said as she dashed behind the waterfall. Gyuki cursing her off while she moved.

Shura had followed behind Sagiso when Hinagiku had set them in motion. He was in charge of setting traps for the plan so staying relatively close to the 'bait' is encouraged. He stopped on a tree a bit further away from Sagiso when he saw her stop. Noticing the other team of foreign nin, Shura stayed hidden in the trees. He saw Sagiso reveal herself to the enemy and throw a quip at one of them. "The hell is she doing?" He thought.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku had mostly secluded himself from the group as he was busy concentrating on what to do on the mission rather than socialization. He had sent out a couple of crows and Ramer to look from above the previous day to get a better scout of the land. They had finally reported back to him and he was about to discuss his findings with the group.

"...well she is right. It's mostly tropical forest so it's a bit hard to see exactly what's on the ground in areas that aren't covered by trees. From what I heard from my summons... there are a few groups of people, though I don't know their exact location as they have probably moved by now. Most groups are west in this archipelago and there's also a waterfall. We appear to be a bit more north than most groups... if I had to make a guess the Jinchuriki might be near the center.. or some place hidden like a cave or something. Other groups are mostly from other villages which makes sense... maybe we can make an ambush or traps in the more southern and western areas of the archipelago? I'd be careful myself though as the Mist shinobi probably reached this archipelago first and probably have already done that..."

 

[Godjacob]

Azumi addressed Baiyan's question with a gesture; in this case, a flick of her wrist which produced a scroll that she made sure Baiyan could see clearly.

"I have your sword here. Though I believe it'd be wise for you and Reaver to focus on recovery first and foremost." Azumi explained as she summoned Baiyan's sword and set it aside in the room before she walked to the pair as she had gathered some medical herbs as she approached the pair.

"Now then, I managed to sway Setchi, our most generous host, to allow us to use this cabin for your recovery. I ask for now you two just lay down, and bite your tongues if you must. This might sting...."

-----Days Later-----
​

The sun just cracked in view over the horizon, as dawn had come; the birds chirped on the branches of the trees by the lakeside as the water seemed tranquil which added to the peaceful atmosphere. A reflection of just how much things had calmed down since the titanic battle between Baiyan and Reaver days ago.

Just along the edge of the lake shore, Azumi sat on her knees as she seemed to before some sort of make shift shrine; a moderate sized stone rested in the center with an inscription that read "mom" on it along with what appeared to be two sets of twin sticks that formed crosses with the tips ignited on the tip for a light flame. Presented before this shrine seemed to be a freshly planted white jasmine flower. Azumi herself seemed to have opted to not sleep that night, as evident by the bruises on her hands and the dirt marks on her clothing which indicated a night of intense training. But none of that seemed to be on Azumi's mind or of concern, as she knew this had been quite the important day and she allowed all other thoughts to drift to the background.

"Happy birthday, mom. You were a beacon of strength to me in those times of strife. I, I....I only wish I had the chance to say thanks and show you how much it meant to me. I miss you, more than you'll ever know...." Azumi said, as the normally composed Ame-nin felt tears drip down her cheek as she had been quick to wipe them away as she tried to keep her composure.

"Reaver tests my patience, and I am not certain Baiyan has seen anything to warrant respect out of me given my lack of control over that chaotic situation. But I will not let my failures so far ruin this vision I have. I won't rest till I make this cruel world a better place for those forgotten nations. I won't give up, I'll never give up." Azumi said with some fire, but knew she could not afford to dwell on this much longer. She wanted to avoid anyone listening in on this intimate moment as she faced her mother's shrine

"I....I only hope you've found peace. In the world beyond this one, and I hope when we see each other again I will have made you proud of me. I love you mom, I always will...." Azumi said, before she blew out the ignited tips of the crosses as if she had blown out candles of a birthday cake in her mother's spirit. Not that they had cake on hand in Amegakure during the rebuilding years, but the analogy had been fitting enough as Azumi stood up and began to make her way back to the cabin to check on Reaver & Baiyan.

------------
Darui and company kept pace after Aisha, before the Inuzuka came to a stop behind some thick foliage between the area of the waterfall and Darui motioned for the trio to remain silent as he carefully inspected what lied ahead at the waterfall. Careful to gesture for Kenji, Aisha and Taji to move in hidden areas so that they'd avoid detection to follow his example.

It appeared to be the Jinchuriki herself, as she seemed to be conversing with someone. A young boy Darui had not known. Though when Aisha and Kenji viewed the scene the latter's eyes widened slightly.

Hey, it's that kid. The one attached to that Zaku bastard's hip. What the hell is he doing here? And if he is here then that means....

"D-darui sensei, I think we may need to be mindful of a coming party. That kid there, he's harmless but he seems to have connections with those ninja of Otogakure which means they might be close by." Kenji whispered to Darui, whose expression remained neutral even as he took the weight of Kenji's words.

"I see. Well, we need to be mindful of that. Aisha if you or your companions pick up any additional scents beyond the two there and us. Kee[ your senses sharp, and stay close with each other." Darui explained with the same whisper as Aisha and Kenji gave nods at this, before Aisha had a flicker of an idea.

"Say, as far as the rest of the world knows. I am not a Kumo-nin and if anything I am "loyal" to the Land of Fire. Why don't we use that?" Aisha said, which caused Darui to raise an eyebrow before she whispered her plan more quietly to the group. The idea was that they'd all transform into wolves to try and mask in with Aisha's Luna & Sky as Aisha would try to persuade herself as a lone entity or at worst someone of loyalty to Konoha. That way the Jinchuriki would have less reason to immediately suspect that Kumo was here and she'd be less likely to panic which should open Aisha to a possible talking point. Plus if Oto appeared there they'd be able to surprise them with the disguised wolves which would grant them the advantage should a battle prove inevitable.

------------
Tomiko glanced over towards the voice of the new arrival, who at first appeared to be some sort of masked assailant but revealed herself to be that Hyuga of Nadeshiko Village.

Oh man, Konoha! A bit curious new headband design but one thing for sure if she is here then that means we are not alone.

Tomiko faced Sagiso as she asked Katsuo her question, and Tomiko simply kept watch as if Sagiso had taken up her full attention but in truth had subtly shifted into her nifty little seismic sense ability. One that had come in handy during the Forest of Death and the chase when she had been in Konoha, and although her range had been limited she had managed to pick of the presence of at least one other figures in the distance who remained hidden from visual cue. Along the tree if Tomiko had felt it right, which caused her to tap the back of her heel slowly as she tried to give a subtle signal to Guren & Mori that they were being watched; pointing the heel out in the direction the tree where she had felt the vibration.

Just beyond the range of said vibrations, Takato and Tayuya masked themselves within some foliage from the distance. Tayuya had assigned the task of using her musical prowess to give subtle signals to the group; in this instance, she whistled a tune that sounded identical to birds. The specific pitch had been a code for both Shura & Sagiso to inform them they had been in position. Takato himself kept an eye on Tayuya, but also stood at the very edge of his shadow's range should the situation turn south and a fight needed to happen. Takato naturally was curious what Sagiso seemed to want to gain from this, and felt they underestimated the Jonin there to a large degree but he'd play his role and trust her. Tayuya however had her own observation as she caught a glance of Katsuo and more importantly the multiple headbands he wore which had been a puzzling thought to the Oto-prisoner.

Okay, who the fuck is this guy? I swear he giving that Uchiha fuck a run for his money for number of times one can switch teams...

-------------
Kakashi listened to the conversation that Furijia, Taiyo and Raiku had about Furijia's observations as Raiku made his own thoughts on group activity and provided what he felt they should do, as he took that and Furijia's layout into consideration.

"Well, if the Mist have set up traps than that only means we should be ever mindful of anything that appears out of the ordinary. No matter how subtle it appears, ideally we'd want to drive the Jinchuriki away from other potential snatchers into an isolated area of our own design. Traps are a good way to go about this, though we should move closer to those areas in order to find ideal positions to set them." Kakashi said, as he motioned for the group to follow as given the immediate area ahead seemed safe he desired to get a move on while he already formed possible trap ideas that could be used. Sakura also followed her sensei closely as she glanced back at the group.

"Well, least we won't hit an immediate obstacle. That has to be good right?" Sakura asked Furijia with a friendly tone though her inner voice already seemed to speak against it.

Sure, for like the first part. But you know what is gonna hit the fan sooner or latter.

Thank you for your always optimistic view of things.

No problem!

------------
Pakura continued to lead her team through the mostly uninhabited island from what she had gathered, before one of her coyotes returned to her and seemed to have found something of interest.

Pakura signaled for Madoka and Yasu to follow with but a gesture as she led the group along the island with the coyote just ahead of her that came to a spot just before they entered an open clearing by the shore. Which seemed to have a figure that matched the description of the Jinchuriki near perfectly. Madoka's own eyes widened, as she presumed that they had found their target but Pakura held her hand up to discourage either she or Yasu from acting.

Something about the casual demeanor combined with the fact they found the Jinchuriki right away on the very first island they searched seemed to rise suspicion from Pakura. It all felt too easy, and she wanted to make certain they would avoid a rash jump and fall into a trap.

"Don't suppose either of you notice anyone else in the area?" Pakura whispered to Madoka and Yasu, as her own coyote gave a nod which seemed to imply it had not noticed anyone by the "Jinchuriki" alone though she encouraged for Madoka and Yasu to think it over as Madoka kept an ear out and scanned the area around them. She could see nothing, and glanced to Yasu curious if he picked up on any additional presence.

 

[Mystic Zander]

Katsuo's lax nature quickly dissipated as a familiar voice rung in his ears, causing his head to snap up, giving him full view of the Nadeshiko Flower who decided to make her somewhat expected presence known.
"Sagiso...." Katsuo began, only to stop dead in his tracks at the distinct sound of who he could tell was Tomiko, taping her foot on the earth in a repetitive pattern, alerting Katsuo that there may be more trouble they should handle with caution and discretion.
".....this is not the time, or the place. Please, leave." He finally added, the water nins eyes never wavering, even during the obvious break in his words. He knew why the Kunoichi might be here, and it would cost time they can't afford to lose.

During all of this, Lady Guren simply stood and watched the interaction with a neutral expression, occasionally glancing to the treeline below Sagiso.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Kou blinked the girl’s words, wondering why she didn’t want. Him to tell anyone he saw her. But he was a respectful kind of guy, and would hate to disappoint such a nice girl he just met. He smiled and nodded his head.

“Okay! See ya!”

Kou hummed a little tune, turning his back to the waterfall, blissfully unaware that she was the jinchurki they were after. He went right back to picking berries. After a few moments, some rustling was heard, Zaku emerging from the woodline, sighing as he found Kou.

“Boss?”

“What are you doin’ all the way out here? Get your head in the game.”

“Oh sorry, I was just picking berries is all.”

“Right...” Zaku rolled his eyes. “I heard talking, there wasn’t any one else here was there?”

“Nope!”

Zaku wasn’t quite convinced, but looking at Kou, he couldn’t exactly say otherwise. There was no one in sight, so he assumed that Kou was just taking to himself. That is, until his sharp ears detected something in the bushes”

“Why don't we use that?" He heard.

Zaku became on edge, his ears locking into the noise. There was someone there. A female voice. Young. Familiar. But he couldn’t place it.


........


Hama lead her forces onto island Zeta, humming a small tune as Kai trailed carefully behind her. Seiun and the rest should be close behind kai. Upon traveling, Hama noticed a small body of water, a stream leading around the rest of the island. She gestured to Hyo.

“Say, would you be a darling and use your unique skill to traverse the island, that way we could quickly see what’s all around us and who is arriving. Report back when you have finished your search Hyo~”

 

[DarkHydraT]

Mori was far from amused, the ocean seemed a bit too eager to get close to him and he hated it as it managed to get to knee height. "Oh, how I despise you. Do that again and I will fight and drain you so much that I'll be pissing salt for the rest of my life!" He shouted out in frustration as he kicked the water before feeling a tremor of sorts coming from Tomiko. "What is it?" As he turned around, he saw two unnaturally white eyes and a vaguely familiar body accompanying them.

"An Hyuga? Why would she be here on her own? And didn't I meet you before back in Konoha?" Mori asked as his mind went all over the place to place her. Suddenly, he had an idea of the location where they met. "Wait, weren't you one of the ninja fighting Reaver in that cave system? Big armored guy, likes trophies a bit too much. Know who I mean? That is not important though, so just walk away and let us be." He said as he put his hands behind his back as if he was reaching for his tanto, but in reality he was weaving signs for his Earth Armor. If it did come to fighting, he was prepared better than back against Kiro.

-------------

Taji looked at Kou and felt bad for the young boy, why was he on this mission? He didn't seem to be scared though and was just talking to the jinchuriki as if they were good friends. "This kid has connections to Oto? Doesn't sound too promising." Her ears perked up as Aisha mentioned using her unknown affiliation as a way to get close to her. "Sounds good Aisha, shall we begin transforming now or do you see a better location? After all, the jinchuriki might get suspicious if she feels multiple chakra signatures." Her previous nervousness seemed to be gone and she even began to smile a bit.

 

[kyuukestu]

Hyōryūgetsu

Espionage on such a large scale wasn't really Hyō's area of specialty, but nevertheless, she was quite adept in it. Information gathering was key to an assassination after all.

'Didn't expect to be relying on her so soon...'

Slightly disgruntled, the woman-shaped blob of liquid lifted her right hand, her thumb entering her mouth and pressing itself to her canines. Unseen to her fellow mist shinobi, her teeth had liquified and reconstructed themselves, creating rows of daggers in her mouth. Just a prick was enough to pierce the skin on her thumb and draw blood. Following up her actions with several hand-seals, Hyōryūgetsu knelt, pressing her palm to the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Following a burst of water vapor, there was no longer one woman standing, but two. Formed by the coalescing water vapor was a small girl, appearing no older than 6 or 7. Deep blue hair frame eyes the color of storm clouds, and a face unnaturally pale and with an aberrant curvature. Elven ears angled themselves, their tips peeking through her hair. Small and delicate as she might've seemed, the girl was in fact, no girl, but an Ameonna, or Rain woman, and true to her name, she was capable of inducing rain. Something Hyō put on display as soon as her summon, Lluvia, arrived.

Moving in tandem, the summon raising her arms, and Hyō weaving hand seals, the two imposed their will on the weather, "Water Release: Hiding in Rain."

As the light shower descended, clouds slowly creeping over the island, Hyō's figure grew blurry with the descending water, eventually vanishing altogether as she moved with the falling rain. The summon, the only figure that remained, stuck her hands into the ocean, using the liquid to funnel the creation, and expansion of her rain clouds. When the clouds had become a localized rainstorm, blanketing their immediate surroundings, Lluvia began moving, trecking into the island following by weeping clouds.

It appeared like a completely natural, unassuming event, the slow descent of rain in the already humid, cloudy environment of the land of water.

Minutes later, around the location of team Mist, Hyō's voice echoed between the hush of rainfall. "A group from Konoha, almost 10 in total..."

(OOC: '-' Where's Kiro? I can't give a precise number because I don't know where he is ~w~ Oh well.)

Sagisō

Slowly replacing the mask on her face, Sagisō's eyes stayed trained on the group, but her attention had actually shifted to the teammates scattered in the forest below who, while certainly making the playing field more even, weren't supposed to have followed her...

She had no intentions of starting a fight since the odds would've been against her at the start, but the appearance of her concealed teammates gave the completely wrong impression. The bunch from Iwa grew tense, one of them even secretly weaving hand seals behind his back.

"Ah, no need to be so cold, if I was here to fight I wouldn't have revealed myself so openly."

Voicing those words, which were meant for her own teammates just as much as for the Iwa team, Sagisō tried to defuse the situation. In truth, she was just passing time, and she only needed a few scant seconds. Seconds she'd already acquired via their short exchange. Water, Earth, Earth...Earth? Chakra signatures & Elemental Affinities, she mentally noted the characteristics of the Iwa group and tucked them away. She grew curious at Gurren's chakra, which looked like earth nature, but was distinctly different. It was most certainly a Kekkei genkai, but Sagisō couldn't identify it. 'Mother might know.'

"Awfully unfriendly bunch aren't ya? Very well, I'll take my leave."

She paused for a few more moments, buying her teammates some time to take a hint and get going while team Iwa was more occupied with her. Turning on her heels, she muttered to herself, "We've searched West and this northern island is clear...guess we'll go south next."

Nibbly she departed, heading south at a casual pace.

Yasu

While not exactly a sensory ninja in any sense of the word, Yasu's senses weren't dull, and he had picked up a few tricks on scouting. His lips parted, moving to deliver his opinion, when the jinchuriki before them went Poof, her appearance changing as she released the transformation jutsu. Startled, Yasu took a step backward, instinctively going into a defensive position.

Hinagiku

It went without saying that with her Byakugan active, Hinagiku noticed the Team from Suna who made 0 attempts to hide. Well, 0 attempts as far as her Byakugan was concerned. Dispelling her transformation she dropped the facade of caution she'd adopted and briskly walked over to the Suna team, removing her mask and stopping mid-way, a solid 20m or so away from the group.

"Pakura..? So they sent you for this mission? Hmm, well I guess it could only be you after all. Have you searched this island already?"

Given they'd already searched the Eastern island, and Sagisō had headed to the southern island. If Pakura's team had already searched this island, the northern one, then by process of elimination the Jinchuriki would be on the Western island, or perhaps Sagisō would find it on the Southern Island. Either way, their area of search had been narrowed greatly, and they'd encounter the jinchuriki in at most, another search.

Baiyan

While she didn't know where 'here' was, as Azumi's gesturing was lost within her blindness, she was able to determine where Azumi had placed the sword after hearing the, almost inaudible, sound of it making contact with the ground. Even without the sound, however, Baiyan would've felt the residual traces of chakra within the sword and been able to pinpoint it's general location.

Azumi and Lianhua's priorities didn't exactly align perfectly, something the sightless swordswoman displayed by promptly disregarding what Azumi thought was 'wise' and retrieving her sword first and foremost. The inky black blade was cracked and riddled with injury, much like it's owner, and similarly, it would need to be nursed back to health.

Now with her blade in hand, the Nadeshiko kunoichi was content to let Azumi act as she pleased.

------------------Days Later------------------​

Having spent many of the past few days meditating in near absolute silence, speaking only when spoken to, and making the occasional poke in Reaver's direction, the white lotus had seen her injuries dwindle to a point where they no longer harshly limited her actions.

On a particularly early morning, Lianhua had picked up her blade and left the house. Arriving behind the wooden cabin, she lowered her waist, her legs spreading outward as she leaned down on her dominant foot. Her right hand hovered above the hilt of her blade -strapped to her waist where it belonged. Her left hand held tight to the weapon, or rather it's sheath, her thumb lightly resting belong the weapon's cross-guard.

The winds stirring, causing her hair and clothing to go adrift, but she remained steadfast and unmoving. As time trickled by second after second, the Lotus maintained it's aloofness. Unconcerned with the world around her, and poised to attack an enemy unknown.

When she'd exhaled for the 9th time, she finally moved. Her thumb tipped her sword, unsheathing the blade by mere millimeters. Just enough so the blade would no longer be adversely affected by the air-tight, negligible force of suction that came with a sealed container, and in this case the sheath.

A single black stroke emerged from Baiyan's sheath as swung her blade, an upward stroke. She advanced a single pace, her heaven-ascending sword reversing course as she brought the hilt downward in a blunt attack -presumably to attack an enemies head -one who'd just managed to dodge her first stroke.

As her blade descended, about mid-way, she flexed her wrist, the blade spun as it was reoriented. The hilt no longer faced the ground, but rather Biayan's chest. The blade now having been positioned perpendicular to her body.

While it was difficult to switch directions mid-swing because one would have to go against their own momentum, skilled wielders would always have their own methods of working around that. In Baiyan's case, she simply twisted the blade without trying to affect it's momentum at all. Following that, she advanced again, her chest hitting the hilt of the blade and pushing it forward, the new force changing the downwards bash into a forward thrust of the blade.

Thrusts were usually difficult to recover from as they had the chance of overextending the body and they were incredibly precise and could be dodged with minimal movement, allowing the opponent to counter. This problem also had many solutions that varied from swordsman to swordsman.

Rather than drawing the blade backward, to herself, Lianhua lowered more weight onto her foremost leg and twisted her body to the right. Her outstretched right hand and blade then began to draw back as they completed their arc through the air, however, even as she retrieved her blade, her left hand -now facing her imaginary opponent- struck out with her sheath in a sweeping motion. Pressing her imaginary opponent further allowed her enough time to withdraw her blade, and striking in a sweeping motion prevented said opponent from targeting her leg and destroying her stance.

Her hind leg now drew an arc, usurping her foremost leg as she advanced once more. With both blade and sheath on her right side, from her earlier motions, she was able to swiftly resheath the blade and using the momentum from her advance, reverse the swing of her blade. Now sheathed, her blade swung left with blunt force, a diagonal swing that brought the weapon right back to her waist where she was once more poised to begin a new assault.

In like manner, the swordswoman continued, releasing stream after stream of blade-light which had only a beginning, and no end. A combination of footwork, wrist work, swordplay, and acrobatics created a scene where her blade was constantly in motion, and the after-images of the Abyss Orchid painted the air black.

 

[Godjacob]

As Azumi arrived back at the cabin, the find founds of something moving against the wind combined with her keen senses drew her to the back, where she gazed upon Baiyan as she seemed to be in the midst of some practice with her blade.

While Azumi internally had some issues with Baiyan being active so soon, it was a credit to Baiyan's ability and the healing remedies provided to her by Setchi that she had been on such a quick path to recovery. Either way, once it appeared that Baiyan had finished her routine she decided to make her presence known.

"Impressive form. Seems you were eager to get out of bed?" Azumi said, as she showed herself from the side of the cabin and walked towards Baiyan. Azumi had...not been, the best at small talk, but given that Baiyan had kept quiet for a majority of the time during this recover save for her verbal "teases" at Reaver. Azumi had likewise kept the dialogue minimal, apart from questions about their status and the occasional short general comment or two.

However, that needed to change. Even if it was small, she needed to get conversation between herself and Baiyan going. The incident with Reaver's suicide bomb had been a smear against her, so she needed to try and form some kind of connection if Baiyan was gonna consider joining her team. A general question like that was basic, but enough to get a something started without it being something stupidly awkward or cliche like how the weather was.

------------
Madoka flinched a bit when Hinagiku revealed herself and made the causal comment to Pakura, though Pakura herself seemed to remained composed and if anything it had almost been like she expected that to happen. Granted, the fact that it had been revealed to be Konohagakure's Hyuga Head had possibly played a part in Pakura being well composed. But Madoka sensed it would have been the same if it had been revealed to be pretty much anyone else as Pakura stood and eyed the Hyuga Head with a grin.

"Ah, and Hingaiku I presume? A surprise, but perhaps not an unexpected or even unwelcomed one. Hum, funny you ask that I was quite curious what this "Jinchuriki" had seen so far. Well, we've began to search this island when we bumped into you. I've presumed you've inspected some of these islands yourself?" Pakura asked back, as naturally she was curious what progress the Konoha allies had made while she revealed, but not give away totally to what extent they searched this island. Not by any sense of mistrust, far from it, but it was within her nature to be a big vague on things and she desired to see what Hinagiku had been willing to share.

----------
Tayuya had not been one to pass up on such an obvious hint, as the moment Sagiso turned he back to leave she did the same as Takato followed close behind. Naturally, Takato had been curious if they'd be pursued so he'd keep his guard up as the two worked back to gain distance away from the Iwa-nin.

Tomiko herself was unsure what to do. She in truth had no ill will for Sagiso or Konoha, despite their nations rather unflattering history with one another, but was prepared to persue if they had been given the order by Guren. But she made no motion to chase and waited for what they were to do next; whether it was to let them go or chase after them, not that Tomiko could consider a reason why it'd benefit them to do so. Though Tomiko had heard Sagiso mutter something under her breath...

----------
Before Aisha had a chance to make her suggestion, Luna & Sky began to to growl slightly as they seemed to have picked up on a scent of a new arrival. One different from Kou or the Jinchuriki's scent. Aisha picked up on this herself, as she sniffed out the curious new scent given her hightened senses and glanced over to the group.

"We have company." Aisha explained with the gentlest of whispers. As she tilted her head to the general direction past the waterfall where the woodline. Nobody had been visible, as they were likely a little further out but Aisha along with her ninja wolves sharp sense of smell had more than enough range to cover there.

Kenji had naturally been alarmed by this, curious who else had arrived relatively nearby while Darui remained with his usual composed, cool expression as he thought over what to do.

"In that case, we leave. We'll move south back to camp and regroup." Darui explained, as Kenji immediately felt confused given they had not set up camp on this island but before he could voice a complaint Darui held a finger over his mouth as he simply made a "hush" motion. Appeared Darui, either through reasonable suspicion based on past experience or simple paranoia, seemed to favor misdirection with this command while he made a non-verbal moton for the group to follow; as his aim was to have Aisha lead them to the source of the scent as the plan was to circle around and find a spot where they could view whoever the new arrival was from a safe distance where they could mask their presence.

Once they found what appeared to be the ideal spot, masked by some trees and bushes off to the distant side of the two figures, the group glanced ahead and took note of the figures; one had been Kou, and the other caused Kenji & Aisha's eyes to widen as it seemed the two were familiar with him. Kenji especially.

That...that's Zaku!

----------

Geez, I really should have brought a jacket.
Oh what gave you that impression genius?
I really don't need your sass right now.
​

Sakura had her internal argument as the light shower seemed to descend over the island. While it seemed like a mundane weather event, Kakashi had his personal doubts. The whether change seemed a bit....sudden, and given he had seen his fair share of odd events on top of the fact this was a high profile mission that likely was to involve multiple nations to dismiss the sudden appearance and just as quick disappearance as just a shift in the weather would have been a foolish oversight.

"Well, appears things might be getting a bit interesting around here." Kakashi mused to the group, as he scanned the area they happened to be in. Appeared to be by a river which seemed to divide the clearing they stood across from along with the bit to the forest they had been on. Seems Kakashi already had an idea or two in mind as he turned to the group.

"Well, ideally for this trap plan it would be best to draw the target...or possible agents that stand between us and the target, in an area of our choosing. So this seems as good as place as any to begin work on some traps." Kakashi advised to the group as Sakura gazed ahead and noted of some flowers in the clearing across the river. Which seemed to inspire her a bit as she walked across the river and moved by the flowers.

Alright, time to see if I can't set a little flora surprise....

 

[SageNeb]

Setchi observed as Baiyan had been practicing her swordplay and Azumi came along as well.

Did they really need my help...? She seems fine now...

“Hmmm... perhaps just a few days of rest is all that was needed for her to recover from that? The destruction and the battlefield was huge... how can she recover so quickly?”

Could it be I have been tricked? Was my kindness the result of a ruse?!

Setchi has begun to form an upset look on her face...

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Raiku had put multiple tripwires around the river and made multiple concealed holes in the ground so in case the jinchuriki were to walk nearby for water they would be captured into the whole, with the whole thing being connected to a kunai which after being moved would use a tree branch to catapult multiple bomb tags into the air, and the movements would cause them to explode. If the sound didn’t, the smoke would notify them if anything was caught. Raiku made sure to leave a small leaf symbol near the holes and warned the others to watch out for them.

There’s no way the jinchuriki would be that careful to notice the small leaf symbol... would they? Well the only people I can see finding it are hunter nin from the mist, since they’re probably somewhere on these islands. Then again... it wouldn’t really matter as the traps are supposed to be for the jinchuriki... not enemy ninja.

 

[DarkHydraT]

Mori glared at the retreating figure of Sagiso and bared his teeth as he straightened his back and began to pace around. "So Konoha has arrived, not good." He noted and jumped as he felt a wave crash against his legs. "Fuck off will ya?" He cursed at the ocean as he made an obscene hand sign that was not a hand sign used in jutsu. "What will we do now, Lady Guren? Follow them or go our own way?" He asked as he sticked close to the dry land and far from the shoreline, still cursing the ocean underneath his breath.

----------------------

Taji was not exactly surprised to hear that there was someone else nearby since the jinchuriki was being targeted by other villages as well, but she would rather have them show up later than this. Darui mentioned going back to set up camp, although his non-verbal order showed his true intentions. As she followed her fellow ninja her attention was drawn to the new person on the scene and the widened eyes of Aisha and Kenji. "Who's this kid? Do you know him?" Taji asked with the faintest of whispers, almost forcing the others to read her lips to understand her.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Setting traps, sounds good, but these are for the Jinchūriki. We'd be capturing her like some kind of animal, but she's just a human with a beast inside her, even with that beast, she's still a human, and I don't like that idea.

Regardless, Taiyo took out an five explosive tags and handed them to Raiku.

"I'm trusting you'll make good use of these, the only reason I'm not installing them myself is that I don't like trapping this Jinchūriki like an animal," The Leaf-nin began to stare at the newly falling rain.

It's raining...thats weird....

Why? It's just rain, rain's normal....

Maybe there's more to this island than meets the Byakugan.

I'm ashamed that I can understand that pun.

It didn't take the Fire-nin much time to figure out why: it was the clouds. The clouds seemed to be magnetized to a little water girl who was now taking her leave.

We should follow her!

Yeah, follow her directly into a trap more like it. Not on my watch, that ain't happening.

Dammit, no matter what it seems like a lose-lose situation, we either let a spy get away, or we get trapped. But the former seems preferable, so I'll stay put.

You'll thank me later, trust me.

There really wasn't much else for Taiyo to do, as such, he sat on his hands and let the people who knew what they were doing do the work.

And this is why we never lead anything, unless we lead people into battle.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Zaku whipped up his left hand, a concusive burst of hair firing into the treeline, rocking the place with a resounding noise that echoed across the foliage. Zaku analyzed the damage, seeing no ninja in hiding amongst it. He gave a suspicious glance before looking to Kou.

“Eyes up, there’s something near, or someone. Don’t ask me who, but there’s something. Stay alert.”

Zaku walked slowly forwards, using a Decapatating airwaves setting that used no chakra whatsoever, for small bursts. He shot a burst to the left, uprooting a bush from the ground, then to the right. Again and again to weed out where his suspicions had lead.

Kou Eyes the waterfall sheepishly, thankful the woman got out when she did, or else Zaku might have some not-nice words to say to her.



.......



Around team Kakashi, a shuttering in the bushes was heard. Something approaching with a steady pace. Instead of going for a stealthy approach, Hama walked right up towards team Kakashi, a smile plastered on her face. A hand on her hip and the other waving.

“Hello all~” Hama said in her sing-song voice. “I’m here to ambush you~”

She was alone, none of her cell at her side, strangely enough. She was just waving with that smile on her face and her eyes closed. It was if she didn’t fear for her own life in the slightest.


.......


Around Team Guren, there was a little clatter coming towards them. Very slowly. Whirring and clicking was very obvious, and fairly low to the ground. Coming from the grass was a little tinker toy, a wind up key on it’s back. The wind up toy stepped closer to them, gaining a few centimeters per second. It was green and red, color split down the middle.

It carried a small scroll on it’s back, wrapped in a tight little red bow. It’s purpose was unknown, but it seemed to carry an aura of mystery behind it. The scroll was a golden color, dotted with greens and reds all over it as if a child had scribbled across it. Just what was it?


.......



Reaver has taken this time to ignore the rest of the group, instead focusing on how to better himself and his fighting style...by not training at all. Instead he had scrapped up some metal from the melted debris of his previous suit and had gotten to work on the newest model. Wires had been seemingly ripped off from sources within the house, like alarm clocks and light fixtures. He had repurposed them for makeshift wires for his suit, or what he had made of it.

He had only made a pair of hands, both having a bit of wrists as well with exposed wires. Reaver huffed as he closed a hatch on one of the two feet wide hands, stocking it with ammunition. It was the best he could do on such a short notice without any blueprints to follow. He turned around to the palm, it was time for the tradition.

He took a railroad spike and begun scratching a big rustic looking ‘R’ into it. After he was done, he took the same slide and slit his hand with it, wincing as he did so. Clenching his fist, he dropped the blood into the scratched ‘R’.

“By Blood are we born, by blood do we die.”

 

[Mystic Zander]

Guren grinned in satisfaction as the not so subtle group decided to fall back, saving them quite some time.
"Well, I intended to move clockwise around the islands....now I'm not so sure." She spoke aloud, surveying the area for a brief moment.

"Well, if I know her, there likely isn't malcontent behind her words. If she wants a good fight, she'll challenge her foe directly." Katsuo added on, still looking off in the direction Sagiso has fled.

"Hm, well that would definitely be a sign we should get a move on." Lady Guren replied, disregarding Katsuo's words as she took note of the small tinker toy that had randomly strolled onto the scene.
"There are others gathering nearby. Get on the move, stay close, now." Guren order, dashing into the treeline where Sagiso had retreated, but aiming her initial trajectory a few feet to the right, into a more dense part of the treeline.

"Guys." Katsuo spoke quietly, glancing to Mori and Tomiko with a nod of confirmation as he darted into the treeline along with Guren, not wanting his teammates to go through a moment of hesitation, as he didn't know how much experience either of them really had.

 

[kyuukestu]

Furījia

Allowing the rain droplets to collect in her palm, Furīja stared idly at the sky. Her brow was furrowed, not in concern but rather slight confusion. As far as she'd understood, the plan was that her sister and mother would lead enemies into a trap by taking the appearance of the jinchuriki. Glancing at Taiyo she raised her brow, 'What...is he going on about?'

Well, her thoughts didn't go far very far as from the bushes around a woman bearing a Kirigakure headband made her appearance, openly stating her claim to 'ambush' them. Unsure of what exactly was occurring, and what her next plan of action should be, the Hyūga heiress candidate simply expressed her emotions, "...whut?"

Hinagiku

"Well, if you've already searched this island, then I'd put my bets on the jinchuriki being on the Western island, or perhaps the northern island. No matter, if the jinchuriki's not here then I'll take my leave."

Turning on her heels, Hinagiku began to make her north, she regroup with Sagisō's team and then decide whether to advance onto the Western island or reconvene with Kakashi.

Baiyan

"I can't lay in bed any longer."

Exhaling a hot breath filled with the minor fatigue she'd accumulated, she resumed, "I recall you had something you wished to talk about?"

Hyōryūgetsu

The rain reduced itself to a light drizzle, now only fueled by the intrinsic abilities of Hyō's summon. The water-lady herself had descended in the rain, her figure swelling together as the little raindrops accumulated together to create a feminine form. Of course, the girl had chosen to reform directly inside the flowing river that traversed the battlefield. As quickly as she'd formed, she dissolved into the river, no trace of her presence left behind.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

The tinker toy stopped in it’s tracks. The scroll remaining unopened. Team Guren had decided to ignore it, despite it being a obvious telling to read the scroll. A light laughter could be heard...along with another sound....

*Tip Tap*

The world around team Guren had begun to blur, muddling like a water color painting. It had yet to take shape into anything, for now it seemed rather shapeless and messy, however obscuring most anything from view....

*Tip Tap*

The noise was heard again as the blurred surroundings solidified. They seemed to be in some kind of elaborate tent. Very similar to what a Circus might be under. The floors were a checkered Black and Red color while the roof of the tent was yellow. The floor was tile, yet felt bouncy...for some reason. There were mysterious boxes and tools that had made no sense in rhyme or reason piled up surrounding all edges and avenues of escape. Shuriken bent backwards, boxes that were unfolded with question marks on them, balloons that had one side blown up completely and the other half deflated, amongst other things.

Suddenly, a spotlight lit up around a small stage of sorts, a figure was seen on it taking a bow. He had bright green hair and had a green and red vest with both colors split down the middle. He had a white frilled neck piece under his yellow cape, which traded at his sides. He wore purple trousers similar to a magicians and has a ironclad grey mask on the right portion of his face. Most certainly in his 20’s

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen to tonight’s most dazzling performance!” The figures spoke in an announcer like voice. “On this eve of hallows and horrors, we invite you to indulge your wildest fantasies and come to life! You are the actors and the worlds the stage! For you stand amongst the star of the show!”

He put his hands out and opened his eyes, revealing sharp yellow beady eyes.

“The Most Ambiguous Absurd!”

 

[DarkHydraT]

"Sounds good Lady Guren." Mori said before noticing a tinker toy. "What the heck is this?" He didn't get much time to think about it as Guren and Katsuo made their way towards the treeline and the latter ordered him and Tomiko to follow them. "Righto." As he prepared to follow his team, a light laughter caught his attention. "What the?" Soon he found his world to blur, as if he was caught in a genjutsu. "Of course, genjutsu of all things."

As the world around him began to make sense again, it only got more confusing. There were all kinds of oddities in this new place, along with a bouncy floor and clashing colors on it and the roof. Mori's jaw dropped as he took in his surroundings as he instinctively kept his distance from anything in the room, not sure if his teammates were with him but not really caring at this moment. Okay, maybe that wasn't a genjutsu. Just as he finally began to get used to this weird place, a spotlight shone its bright light on a man certainly fitting of this madness. Mori listened to his 'introduction' with his mouth opened a bit and a twitching eyebrow. Yo, this guy has to be kidding me. Who is this clown? Why am I here? He cleared his throat and decided to play along, after if this freak brought him here he could bring him back.

"Well, Mr. Absurb. You certainly live up to your name, how did you make this? It is well, absurb, but this is some advanced technique. Impressive." He said as he surpressed the urge to beat this geezer up and force him to let him go.

---------------------------

Taji noticed Zaku shooting at bushes and she was afraid that he somehow heard them. "We should leave the bushes, this Zaku kid is shooting at the bushes and he'll get us at this rate." She mouthed as she kept an eye on the airwaves of Zaku who were coming closer at a steady pace and she could imagine that they would hurt like hell.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

“Oh? he-he! It’s quite grand isn’t it? Extravagant? Breathtaking?? Ah it even smells like a grand performance is about to begin!” Absurd cherished the moment. “But before it starts, let’s introduce our flavorful cast! Coming from the stone rock exterior of Iwa comes our new actors and actresses! Introduce yourselves! The stage is yours!”

Several spotlights lit up on team Iwa’s Location, four in total, with markings in the center of the spotlights. It seemed once fully connected like they were, they made a perfect logo...

Absurd pointed at them, an eager smile plastered on his face. It was as if he was awaiting something to happen, the ‘preformance’ he referred to no doubt. His cape glittered alongside him in the spotlight, giving off his brilliance, he would seem he had a flare for the dramatic

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Truthfully, Taiyo was at a loss for words at the moment. The Kiri-nin said herself that she was here on terms of an ambush, and as such, the Leaf-nin should attack first as to prevent such. But her appearance said otherwise, friendly and waving. Either she was mocking them or she was being sarcastic either way, the situation sent Taiyo into a state of doubt.

I say we fuck her shit up, if she's on the attack, why not beat her to the punch?

Yeah but what if she's just joking?

I really doubt that my dude. Fuck. Her. Shit. Up. Please.

Fine, but if I made a mistake in judgement, that's your fault.

Without further hesitation, Taiyo swiftly threw a fireball at Hama, how she reacted was up to interpretation, in addition to that, hurting someone who looked rather friendly took a blow on Taiyo's moral compass.

 

[SageNeb]

Raiku had finished setting up his trap and took Taiyo's bomb tags before Hama had suddenly appeared from the bushes.

What in the- wait a second... mist ambush? There's no way she's alone... I bet her teammates are hiding somewhere waiting for her signal to attack...

He took out his sword in order to defend himself as he waited for Hama to make a move. More specifically a signal rather than her rushing us. However he noticed Taiyo had sent out a fireball to attack her and internally face palmed.

Fire style against a mist ninja?! Not to mention one with either the ability to solo a squad or with backup? Damn it! What's Taiyo thinking...

 

[Godjacob]

"Indeed I did, though I'll just say now you should take this training easy while you recover. Irregardless I did indeed have something I wished to discuss if I am allotted a moment of your time." Azumi clarified to Baiyan as she kept a natural tone while she kept her gaze on the blind kunoichi.

-----------
Tomiko had been quick to head Guren's call, as she followed close behind the Jonin before she felt the distortion all around them. Her senses were immediately put on edge as she struck a combat stance while she tried to process what was happening as a tent began to appear around them.

Tomiko already seemed prepared for an emergency evacuation for the team, as she formed the hand signs in preparation to burrow underneath the tent to escape. Though just after said preparations had been made, the rather "eccentric" figure appeared before them as he muttered something about them being "actors" and what not. All of which only confused Tomiko, and only added to the growing uneasy feeling she had about this masked man. Upon Mori's question, the man showed off what appeared to be a Kusagakure logo and asked for them to make their own introductions.

This only added to the general confusion, and to be quite frank she had been unsure what she was supposed to do as it felt like a trap. So, she figured if this guy was a performer than the best way to throw him off was game was to play every performer's worst enemy.

A critical heckler.

"Hum, I don't know. The tent feels kinda tacky to me. The colors don't blend well, and really? Just a village logo as a big symbol? So laaammmmeee. Not sure I can give a big introduction under these conditions, I mean I didn't grow up in the prettiest area so me saying that should tell you something." Tomiko replied with a simple shrug.

-----------
It was fortunate that Darui, Kenji and even Aisha could process lip reading as they nodded with Darui motioning for them to move back away from the source of the airwave. Darui figured they needed something, a distraction to bait away Zaku from the site to dispel his thoughts that they were being watched. So, in a flash, Darui generated a clone as that clone used a basic transformation jutsu to transform itself into what appeared to be a wild boar.

With that, the "boar" dashed away from the group and ran about the foliage; generating plenty of noise as Darui aimed to have Zaku focus on that given the Oto-nin's natural enhanced hearing against him for some subtle misdirection.

-----------
Pakura said nothing as Hinagiku departed, and simple used the suggestion that she offered her as she placed it under consideration. For half a second, the possibility of misdirection had entered the Suna Jonin's mind but it quickly washed away. Their status as allies on top of her natural ability to pick up even subtle traces of deception seemed to ease her enough to consider that the Jonin was telling the truth.

Besides, they had a lot of ground to cover. Checking one of those islands had been on the agenda anyway.

"Well then, I think we should head off as well." Pakura advised Madoka and Yasu as she began to set out for the next island, as Madoka followed suit even as she cast a glance back to Hinagiku.

-----------
"Ah, Hama of the Mist I presume? Fancy meeting you here." Kakashi replied, though even with his causal demeanor he had taken the new arrival with clear seriousness as he glanced in her direction with his lone eye showing clear focus.

Sakura herself seemed on edge, though she was cued by a subtle signal to her to be on guard. A signal he had subtly made to Raiku, Taiyo & Furijia all at once. A signal that had come too late as it seemed Taiyo decided it'd be wise to strike the Kiri-nin with a sudden fireball. Much to the shock of everyone present, even Kakashi as his lone eyebrow shot up. Sakura's jaw dropped in utter disbelief.

What the, what is he doing!?
That idiot!

Without a wasted movement Kakashi quickly revealed his Sharingan eye as he went to work. He flashed together some hand hands and pressed his palms to the ground.

"Earth Style: Earth Wall Jutsu!"
​

Kakashi produced an Earth wall which obscured Hama's view of them as Sakura quickly moved behind the wall while Kakashi gave a signal for Taiyo and Raiku and Furijia to group up with Sakura. Kakashi counted on Furijia to give a scan of the area with a specific signal to her, not just beyond the wall to Hama but the area in general to scout for anyone of curious to note as the odds of Hama coming alone seemed foolhardy.

Woosh!
​

Dozens & dozens of shiruken flew from a hidden hiding spot towards Hama Kakashi's elementary trap trigger with her less than subtle appearance in the area. Kakashi had no illusions that the trap would actually get Hama as this would end up being merely a distraction or force her away from the spot, as the flicking of electricity in Kakashi's free hand seemed to show Sakura her sensei had yet another plan in mind.

"You know, I don't know what your aim is. But is a battle against us really so wise on your end? Seems counter intuitive towards any progressive goal no?" Kakashi asked Hama while the trap and fireball would speed towards Hama.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Absurd cackled out loud in response to Tomiko’s little ‘heckle’ giving himself a tight hug as he seemed to get pink in the face, his only seen eye closing.

“Yes! Yes! Insult, berate! Make me feel less than scum upon your feet! Ah tis’ giving me goosebumps of glee to hear your precious screams of agony!” Absurd made a squee in ecstasy. “Set the scene my dear, your act shall go down in history! As will your final bow!”

He flipped open his eye, grinning madly. Only eye you could see darted left and right as he gave off another maniacal laugh, the spotlights jumbling up to reveal new symbols altogether. Seemingly a flurry of pardoxial shapes hastily strewn together.


......


Hama’s expression never faded, even upon the projectiles and a fireball being proppeled her way. All of a sudden, a pair of hands appeared from the bushes behind her.

“Ice stitching Justu!”

Small ice threads were previously down into hama’s dress, which now had been yanked due to the justu, sending Hama back towards the pair of hands, her expression still on her face. The fireball and projectiles hit the area around her, totaling the area in several yards....
.
..
...

“My my, keep those dogs on a tighter leash Kakashi, your good with that.”

Hama has suddenly appeared, next to Tsuki and Seiun at her side. The remants of an ice mirror appeared to be shattered where Hama used to be, and where she was now, a fresh ice mirror glistened. Tsuki has released her ice stictches and Hama appeared to look both smug and bored. She yawned, pointing over to Kakashi’s team.

“Oh ho ho, I haven’t seen a team with this little cohesion in a long LONG time. Honestly darling Kakashi, your talent is being so very wasted.”


........


Zaku blasted another bush, then another, and another. It wasn’t until a creature ran out into the woods did he realize who his target was. So it was just an animal eh? Huh. Alright brain, i’ll Play along. But I better keep my ears as acute as ever. Don’t want another mishap of imagining things...

Zaku rested his arm at his side, looking over to Kou, who had been blinking awkwardly, not quite sure what Zaku was doing.

“Uh...Boss? Did you pick up gardening or...?”

“Hmph! Just thought I heard something is all.” Zaku rolled his eyes. “Come on, we have work to do.”

With that, Zaku took point to lead Kou back to camp, walking away from the waterfall, which gave the younger boy a sigh of relief. Looks like she was going to have her privacy after all

 

[Mystic Zander]

As the group was encased in bright whimsical lights and loud obnoxious voices, both Guren and Katsuo shared a very similar expression, extreme annoyance.
"Child's play. Lady Guren, this is clearly meant to hold us up for no good reason, we should try and remove ourselves from the situation." The young water non spoke up while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Come now Katsuo, what did you expect from a Jinchuriki race? A smooth road?" The senior ninja replied, looking around the room for a brief moment.
"Well, based off what I've seen, this is either a Genjutsu, or a form of cheap imitation. So...real or not, if an overwhelming jutsu were to destroy it all, it won't matter either way..." She replied, an evil grin crossing her face. Whoever had done this should've thought carefully about there actions, because they had just locked a hungry lion in a frail cage.
"Crystal Style! Growing Crystal Thorns!" She shouted, casting a set of hand signs before jumping back off the podium. The location she had been standing was quickly enveloped by a sprouting thorny crystal branch that continued to grow at a rapid rate, filling the room with serrated crystals in almost no time at all. Guren made sure to just barely miss the location of herself and her three teammates as the walls, ceiling, and hopefully Absurb, were torn asunder. Bits of bright fabric beginning to rain down on the group as the crystal started to recede, eager to see the results of her handy work.

"Self repairing, ooor.....?"

 

[kyuukestu]

Furījia

"Five enemies total. Apart from the 3 we can see, there are 2 hidden chakra signatures, one in the river, and another approximately 500m away."

Her pupils vanished within the white of her iris', her rather trepidatious state of emotions had inadvertently activated her Byakugan, and, expanding her vision, she pinpointed the locations of her enemies. Unfinished with her analysis she continued, "One hidden approximately 500m away, another ...in the river? That's in addition to the three in front. Their chakra nat-hiyah!"

It didn't really take much to fluster the girl, and Taiyo's surprise attack wasn't much. Rather antsy from the boy's trigger-happy actions, she'd ended up biting her own tongue mid-sentence and interrupting her report. Retreating on account of Kakashi's signal, the girl gingerly stuck her tongue out, sullenly finishing her report, "ishe, ishe, ishe, yighshning, washther ..."

Which, butchered as the words were, would've translated to Ice, Ice, Ice, Lightning, Water.

Baiyan

"Your concern is appreciated, but unnecessary... I suppose I should properly introduce myself, we seemed to have glossed over that. I am Báiyǎn Liánhuā, a Kunoichi of Nadeshiko village, according to our village's customs I am the 27th ranked Sword Star, and Nadeshiko's White Lotus. Though, I suppose some may refer to me as the Blind Lotus. Well met."

Sticking the sheathed tip of her blade into the damp soil, Lianhua rested, leaning her weight onto the weapon. Relaxing, the Lotus fiddles with the engraving on her scabbard, indicating to Azumi that she was all ears.