Fandom Naruto: Shogun of Shadows Act one: Embers among the fallen leaves.

Black Market Search
At Minoru's sudden landing, the three thugs stopped in their tracks. It was clear none of them were expecting a shinobi to appear. The two with jitte grabbed their weapons, muscles tense, breaths held as they waited for her to make a move.

And waited.

....And waited.

The three exchanged confused glances. "You, uh . . . you okay?" The leader asked. "You do know putting on a mask suddenly doesn't let you do all those stunts you hear about in the stories, right?"

Ago's beetles would pick up on something odd about him.

He had chakra. It wasn't much, hardly an enticing meal, but it was still there.

"Market." She demanded, hands going threateningly towards her sword, and resting there.. "I am here to buy a much... larger blade."

"Are you now? We might know a thing or two about that." He cracked his neck. "See, I was a bit surprised by a ninja appearing in broad daylight like this. Funny thing is, my Pa was from that village; made real sure I knew what their hunters looked like. They don't wear animal masks like that." He tucked his staff into his belt. "So since you ain't one, let's have some fun yeah? You seem to be itching to draw that blade anyway. If yer still standing, maybe I'll tell you what you want."

He took a slow breath, pressing his hands together in the sign of the tiger.

One of his lackeys hesitated, "Boss, you ain't actually gonna-?"

Fire Release: Scattered Embers

A spray of smoldering embers shot from his mouth. Most scattered on the road between them, though a couple small ones struck Minoru head on. They were indeed real embers! The sharp pain was likely enough to undo her transformation.

From the lackeys' cheering, one would think he did the impossible. But many genin would be able to perform such a simple technique. With better results even.

And not be winded afterward.

He grabbed his staff and pulled, revealing the sword hidden inside. Minoru would see the blade was coated in liquid of some kind, droplets scattering in the air. Running at her, his sword brushed one of the embers left on the ground and the liquid ignited, flames climbing up the blade. His lackeys followed suit, also charging the genin with their weapons ready.

Feel free to mop the floor with these three. Leader does have a little sword skill, and that blade will splash. But it's like a tai of 3 vs Minoru's 7. Mooks are like at a 1. So if Shikane and Ago wanna knock some heads together they're all open. Ganryu AtlannianSpy Orikanyo

Ago²'s trail would come to an end as the boy disappeared in a small shop. A simple butcher at first glance. Perhaps a bit small and run down looking for being even on the outskirts of such a bustling city. But relatively unassuming nonetheless. It wasn't long after he disappeared that the trio of thugs emerged and left to pick their fight with Minoru near the city gates.

Armed thugs working in a butcher shop?

Another oddity as a crow, the same one Kaen pursued, flew around to the back of the building and vanished. Investigating would reveal an open window, a perch not far inside. The crow seemed more interested in preening her feathers than the man looking over the scrap of paper. A small black feather hung from an earring. "Tatsuo, you said one of them had a sword?"

"Y-yeah, and some fancy clothes too."

The man hummed, pocketing the slip of paper. "You'd best get going. Before they show up. Too many swordsmen like to draw their blades before asking any questions. Old bastard better be right about this before someone gets killed."


SomeRandomCanuck Orikanyo

Continuing her climb it was not long till the tattooed kunoichi was detected by her target. With only a hint of a challenging tone, she seemed rather calm, clueless to all that had happened below. Not threatening, so much as annoyed that she was being disturbed. The fact they were being so casual in enemy territory, considered them so defeated, it made her angry somewhat, that they were being dismissed as no longer a threat. That they were already a conquered people, this land was now their land.

Still, she kept those feelings deep down as her advance continued, and she took a gamble. These men so far were professional soldiers to a degree, even if mostly line infantry. That implied rules, standards and organization... It also hinted at corruption, for even the most well-oiled machine could not undo that most base of human nature. The desire of greed, sloth, and envy.

Course it was also possible this woman could be a hard ass who would not take to the bribery so well, keeping her ascent a bit slow going, Uta quietly just stepped using her feet, while her arm and leg claws gripped into the wooden ladder, she then made hand signs, spawning a shadow clone behind her that had to quickly grab the ladder as Uta threw her voice to be further below as she reposition herself to anchor into and stealthy climb the ladder from its right side. Taking care to make her own voice sound boring and undiscript, the yellow eyed woman narrowed her vision akin to a snake, as she readied to strike, the clone continuing the climb, she would speak.

"Ma'am, we were carrying out an inspection of the supplies and found illegal contraband, I decided climbing up here was more useful than going to the command tent. A few bottles of Alcohol and some sort of, and a few wrapped items that we are unsure what they are, were hidden in one of the crates." While the conversation was offered and the shadow clone continued the long climb, Uta was already via her hiden technique was climbing with what stealth her technique afforded, in the hopes of scaling the platform and launching a stealth attack from the woman's left side.

Interactions: LadyOfStars (Tachiagari) AtlannianSpy (NPC's) IG42 Masumi The Regal Rper (Yuxuan)

Black Market Search

Shikane Nara
"Alright so in terms of what went wrong here I think we can break it down into three main points," Shikane began, eliciting a weak groan from the thug whose back she was sitting on.

"Obviously unrefined technical skills was a factor: Your hand seals both slow and imprecise, which results in under powered jutsus, wasted chakra and unnecessary openings. That is to say nothing of your foundational hand to hand skills: All three of you displayed generally weak stances and a tendency to over-commit to swings and unbalance yourselves. I suspect in more drawn out engagements poor conditioning would become evident as well, although the speed with which you were defeated here rendered it a non factor.

Fortunately the solution here is simple: volume of practice. I would recommend some basic hand dexterity exercises and regular rounds of sparring. If there's a well reputed dojo in town I would consider joining for some instruction on stances and balanced movement,"

Here Shikane paused and leaned over to scoop up the shattered remains of a broken katana. "The second point I want to draw your attention to is poor quality, badly maintained equipment. Now I understand you're probably operating under different financial constraints but that should be no excuse to skimp on maintaining your equipment because with proper care even relatively cheap weapons will last longer and require less attention from an actual smith, saving you money and time in the long run!" Shikane stood up, walked around to the front of the defeated thug so that she could squat down to present the broken weapon in his field of view.

"See how the texture of the metal has changed here and looks rough and grainy?" Shikane asked, pointing with a finger. "Its because the sudden temperature changes that result from your technique with the oil have ruined the temper of your blade and left it brittle and easy to shatter. If you want to use a tactic like that you will need to invest in a more heat resistant weapon: there are, I believe, certain alloys and smithing techniques that can produce good results in that area but its a little outside of my area of expertise. You could also use something like kunai, which are traditionally made of untempered iron because of their traditional use as climbing implements that... ahh but I'm getting off topic," Shikane smiled sheepishly.

"The third, and I think most important area for improvement I want to highlight today is situational awareness." Shikane said in a more serious tone, gesturing towards Minoru. "Even though you saw through my companion's disguise, you discounted the possibility of an attack from soemone else in disguise, allowing me and Ago to strike from behind with relative impunity while you all focused your attention on her, exactly as she planned...At least I think that's what her plan was? Anyway, the point being that you can never be too aware of your surroundings! A good strategy can be to divide your radius into differnet sections and assigning each "wedge" to a different person in the team, or else designating a specific "overwatch" position whose responsibility is to focus on keeping an eye out for unexpected developments that you would roate people through on a shift by shift basis. Ultimately the optimal strategy will come down to what works for your team and what kind of jobs you tend to take on, so it will be something to discuss among yourselves."

Shikane straightened up and clapped her hands together. "Right! So in conclusion: Polish those fundamentals; Take better care of your equipment and maintain better situational awareness. I think if you guys can nail all three of those you could easily reach the level of genin level threat in as little as ten or twenty tears! As things stand I worry that other shinobi running into you could pick up bad habits or become complacent so I just felt like I should give you some pointers so that fighting you in the future ends up being a more productive use of somebody's time. Now, does anybody have any questions?" SHikane asked, looking around expectantly at the defeated goons. THen Shikane blinked as though she had suddenly remembered something. "No! Wait! I'm supposed to ask you questions! Your boss! Where's your boss?!"


KageYuuki Ganryu SomeRandomCanuck Orikanyo

Rikiko Nonoba
Slowly, Rikiko’s sword lowered down, until the tip of its trembling blade dipped into the water. Meanwhile, the genin’s gaze scanned the water, frantically looking for some sign of whatever had brushed against her earlier. The water was too murky now though, and the lighting was too dark. Water continued to pour in.

She took another step back, pressing harder against the wall only to immediately feel a powerful impact slam directly into her injured back. A loud "DOOONCK" accompanied the blow, sending Rikiko forward off her feet and face first into the water once again.

Rikiko dragged herself to her feet. Her back throbbed, and water was pouring out of her hair like a faucet. Leaning on her blade ever so slightly, Rikiko quickly tried to shake her hair a bit drier and wiped off her face. Once her vision was unclouded, she was able to see what had struck her. The wall she had leaned against had been morphed into the shape of some creature’s head!

Rikiko’s stomach dropped.

A grunt-like noise caught her attention, turning her gaze upwards into the dark void above. Rikiko knew she couldn’t know for sure. So, she didn’t hesitate.

“HEEEEEELLLLLPPPP MEEEEEEE!” Rikiko howled. She took a deep breath, and prepared to let it rip again before the water around her stirred. Something brushed against her leg.

Rikiko’s sword whipped through the air and into the water, slicing at nothing. She readied her blade, and watched as a dark fleshy worm like creature arose before her. Frozen, she locked eyes with it, only to find herself gazing into a horrific maw of razorsharp teeth!

Just before Rikiko could scream, it lunged at her. Without thinking Rikiko reached out to snatch it out of the air with both hands. Her blade dropped into the water in the meanwhile, immediately sinking. Wild panicked screams bounced throughout the waterway as the genin desperately tried to pull the lamprey’s jaws away from her face.

“GET AWAY FROM MEEEEE!”

Ganryu KageYuuki Japanime

Masumi Hyuuga
Meeting Tachi's infuriated reaction calmly Masumi gestured to their surroundings. "Shinobi allowing their personal feelings to affect their actions on the battlefield is how we ended up in this place, as long as you have a rational reason and aren't acting out of pure emotion I don't have any objection. I guess we'll see how much they appreciate this after they meet the interrogators."

Leaving the medic to his task Masumi wove a transformation in the shape of the guard Yuxuan hadn't taken and crossed the camp towards the officer's quarters. When one of the door guards spoke to him of his 'stuff' Masumi's eyes narrowed, thinking on his feet he decided that feigning ignorance would be the most suspicious thing he could do and that the discreet tone the guard used suggested it was something the higher ups weren't meant to know about. "Not now." He hissed back mixing impatience into his conspiratorial tone. "I can get it to you later, if I don't hurry up and deliver my report they might see what's keeping me." Gesturing towards the door he pressed forward and gestured for Yuxuan to follow while grabbing the handle banking on the guard's desire to not have a grouchy officer appear asking just what they were wasting time to chat about.

AtlannianSpy LadyOfStars The Regal Rper

Genin - Minoru Minori - The Black Market
Orikanyo Orikanyo
SomeRandomCanuck SomeRandomCanuck
AtlannianSpy AtlannianSpy
KageYuuki KageYuuki



(We had godmode permission, moving along, buuuut bit clunky.)


Minoru rubbed her burnt sleeve, wincing as she did. The physical pain was there... but negligible. What burned more was her pride. Not only had her disguise been seen through instantly, she'd nearly drawn her blade on those three. She wielded a warrior's blade, not a butcher's. A warrior's blade was meant to be struck with conviction, through the fires of adversity, to cut down willpower of those coming dead-on. To lock in a contest of wills. A butcher's blade was meant to cut through meat.

Granted, the fact the moment Shikane and Ago had launched their ambush Minoru suddenly screaming 'SNEAK ATTACK' and decking the third, did not help her case...

Also, she liked her sleeves. They were good sleeves. They looked cool. She didn't know how to sew and they were definitely too expensive to buy a new set easily... She could ask around camp, but somehow the thought of approaching a jonin to ask for sewing lessons terrified her. More if they said 'yes' and shattered her perception of them than if they said no...

At least it couldn't get worse. Minoru sighed, and pulled out a juice box.

Shikane said:

Even though you saw through my companion's disguise, you discounted the possibility of an attack from soemone else in disguise, allowing me and Ago to strike from behind with relative impunity while you all focused your attention on her, exactly as she planned...At least I think that's what her plan was?

Click to expand...

The word hit like an anvil, Minoru sputtering out her juice.

"U-uh, yes! Exactly the plan.. G-glad you all i-improvised so... thoroughly." She posed, flourishing her hair with a quick snap of her neck as if it had all been according to plan.

Congratulations Minoru, you're a failure as a samurai AND a ninja...

"Wait, where's Kaen?"

Damnit, I'm too stupid to remember what the actual plan is... I should ask Aunt- I mean Ago,.... but I'm too proud too. Well, plan 'stoic and pretending I know what I'm doing is a-go.' Heh.
------------------


- One short interrogation later-

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

-Suzu's 7 Man Blade Butchery-

Minoru stood looking up at the sign with disgust.

"Ever get the feeling the universe just really... really hates you sometimes...? Like some sick cosmic creator is in need of divine therapy?"

As she knocked on the closed steel door, a sliding latch opened. "Password."

Minoru froze. "Uuuuuuuuh...."

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Ago Aburame
The black market genin squad
SomeRandomCanuck Ganryu KageYuuki AtlannianSpy



"Any way the crow flies...." Ago spoke up, sounding like a proper shinobi now... She had spent the last 20 minutes laughing at the fact she had pulled off one of her favorite techniques.


The "Not so Sneaky" Sneak Attack attention reversal technique.

Yes, definitly not just being a loon and making noise for Minoru to actually hurt somebody.

But she had to say her idea of grabbing that shovel nearby and smacking the poor guy's head with it was certainly a good idea on the run.

But now she had to do her part before any of the others talked these people into combat mode.

"....Hurry up idiot we haven't all day. No doubt you all have been expecting us from the get go so come on and open up already." The woman tapped her foot with growing displayed grumpiness. Even if she was, in fact, more thinking on the fact that her clone was currently flat atop of the roof and slowly seeping bugs through whatever crack she could find, though from the outside perspective, from anyone capable of spotting a ninja...

It looked like she was on the room fucking melting and distorting in the sun.

Face dislodging and eye buldging...

For the squeamish we avoid the rest of this scene, and take note that Ago is giving them something of an... Advanced Termite problem?

If you think of it like that, is Ago not just a walking chakra termite mound?

Kasumi peered through the eyes of her shadowy machination, confirming much of the same that Ren reported. This was a neutral zone, and it was better for all parties involved not to give rise to tension here. So, it made sense that there was only a what was akin to a bouncer, someone to more ward of belligerent drunks and imbecelic thugs too foolish to respect the rules than to actually fight shinobi and warriors.

As he transformed, the 'bird' returned from its flight overhead. Kasumi outstretched her arm and the shadowy figure latched onto it, wings outstretched before closing in against its sides. Then, its form began to dissipate as if made from smoke and seeped back into her person. Just as it had been brought up, it was now gone, but the smoky essence still appeared restless around the kunoichi's figure. It radiated off her before travelling down to her footing and molding there. It took the shape of a spider this time, much smaller and less conspicuous, and wasted little time before skittering away toward the pathway leading to the teahouse.

"I'll keep an eye on the route for the messenger and warn you accordingly," Kasumi stated simply, leisurely strolling closer to the trunk of a nearby tree to lean against it. "If the courier is inside, then Tsuyu or I can go in next and distract them. Slap on some genjutsu on top of the performance and you should be able to grab it no problem. It'll be fun~" She further chimed, leaving the details of the 'performance' vague at best, but expressing them with a tone that was suspect to say the least.

All in all, the female shinobi spoke as if this was a casual outing rather than a serious espionage assignment, though this was rather natural for Kasumi. She did take it seriously despite her attitude, but in her mind failure was not a probability. Worst case scenario, they would just enact Plan B which, short of raising Ren's blood pressure, was still probable.

Phayne AtlannianSpy Ersatra

Supply Depot Raid
RedArmyShogun

Uta was able to close in to strike, but at the last moment the watchtower erupted in a cloud of dense, black smoke and the body she was aiming at was suddenly absent. Less than a second later and a sharp, multi layered whistling sound was the only warning before a salvo of heavy crossbow bolts penetrated the smoke screen to slam indiscriminately into flesh and wood, whatever happened to be in their way.

"Nice try kid," said the woman from the roof of the barracks as the smoke was whisked away by the night air. She was clearly visible now and it was possible to discern a stocky, but athletic frame covered in scars and roughly cut, blonde hair. With one hand the female officer was cradling her heavy crossbow and the other hand was holding up a seal that was currently emitting a tower of bright, emerald sparks like fireworks, a flare and, too judge by the shouts of alarm and sounds of movement coming from all over the compound one that was a pre arranged alarm signal. "My soldiers don't usually take it upon themselves to conduct such thorough inspections on their own initiative though,"

Without further pleasantries the woman raised her crossbow and fired at Uta, the heavy looking bolt rocketing through the air towards the chunin's position as, from one of the guards on the walls the sound of an alarm bell shattered the serenity of the formerly silent night.


IG42 The Regal Rper

The heavyset guard's expression twisted as though he wanted to say something, but he ultimately decided to swallow his words and nodded the two disguised shinobi through with a resigned roll of his head. The infiltrators would have just gotten the door half open when a strange emerald light fell across the densely packed ground of the camp and a second later an alarm bell would begin ringing from somewhere nearby. After that second was over both of the door guards would spend around towards the infiltrators and try to grab them, but a second can be a long time indeed in the right circumstances.


LadyOfStars

As he was indoors and the depot building had now windows, Tachiagari would only be alerted to the changing situation when the piercing alarm bell became audible to him. However not being out in the open came with advantages as well, he would have several precious seconds to prepare, move position or take the offensive before heavy footfalls would alert him to the presence of several enemy soldiers approaching the depot building.

"Remember, green flare means suspected infiltration," Said a firm, male voice that was only partially muffled by the wall. "Stick together and remember your call and response phrases!" he said, before falling silent as the group reached the doorway.

Kohaku Fujioka
At Rikiko's cry for help, Kohaku dumped the multitude of scrolls out onto the ledge she and Riku were perched on. It was four backpacks worth of equipment and supplies, they wouldn't miss a few things, right? Not that she'd really be capable of returning anything to the scroll... There wasn't even a guarantee she'd succeed in getting anything out of the scrolls.

But there was a teammate that needed saving.

"Hang in there, RIkiko, we're coming!" She unfurled a scroll marked 'weapons,' eyes scanning the overwhelming sea of painted symbols and careful calligraphy. None of it really made much sense. Academy classes on it had been so boring, her attention instead diverting to doodling puppet designs or just doodling in general. Many laps were ran after class let out.

Please work. Kohaku pressed her hands to the paper, channeling chakra into it. In a puff of smoke, a small stack of massive shuriken sat before her. She grabbed one, letting her chakra threads coil around it before yanking, making the shuriken spin in her hand. It was easier to lift, easier to aim. Even still, her shoulder screamed at the effort as Kohaku threw it.

THOK

The massive shuriken punched through the creature's back like it was nothing. Had Kohaku been stronger, it likely could have easily torn through it instead of spattering her fellow genin in a small amount of blood.

A second shuriken cut through the air in a blur before slamming into the floor. There was a screech, another lamprey thrashed beneath the water. A sharp throb in her shoulder warned she wouldn't be throwing a third like that. "Are you alright?" She called down to Rikiko, panting as she scanned the intact shelves for anything useful. A coil of rope caught her eye. Water splashed, a brief flash of a tail in the dim light. There were more of them. And now there was blood in the water.

Pulling rope from the shelves, Kohaku tied it off on an exposed piece of rebar sticking out of the concrete before jumping. Thin blue threads shot out from her fingers as she did so, attaching themselves to her puppet and yanking it down with her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" There was rare, genuine anger in the small genin's voice as she plummeted towards the water. She swung her hands down like she was bringing down a great hammer. The cannonball shaped puppet followed the arc, striking a submerged creature with a sickening crack. Kohaku wasn't in the water long before springing up onto one of the walls.

Everything hurt. Her chakra was already feeling taxed. But she had to fight.

Ganryu InsaneAsylum Japanime

Courier Intercept
Phayne EmperorsChosen Ersatra

The surly crowd of patrons inside the teahouse turned away from Ren after giving him a quick once over, his disguise doing a good job of deflecting their interest. It seemed that the regulars were more interested in their own internal powerstruggles and posturing in any case: they soon went back to sneering across the room at their rivals and grumbling over the outcomes of their dice rolls and card games.

There was however, no sign of anyone who looked like a courier, at least not yet.


It would be Kasumi, watching outside who would likely see their target first. First would come the rhythmic clopping of hooves and then shortly after a horse and rider would come into view. Both were on the smaller side, the horse in particular was almost more of a pony, with a slightly shaggy coat of dull brown. The beast was well muscled though and besides a coating of fine dust from the road looked well cared for, flicking around intelligent looking, dark black eyes as it trotted forwards efficiently. The rider, similar to his mount was stocky and compact, with nut brown skin and narrow eyes alert for any sign of trouble. THe man wasn't quite wearing a uniform, but his practical riding leathers were recongisably of Army of Shadow make, although the compound bow strapped to the side of his saddle did not appear to be standard issue.

THe man rode up close to the entrance of the tea house and then dismounted to have a clipped conversation with the bouncer, when they didn't immediately reach an agreement the courier impatiently pulled out a small coin purse and counted out a modest bribe. The bouncer accepted the peace offering and jerked his head to the left, after which the courier began leading his horse in that direction around to the back of the tea house, where there was presumably a stable of some sort. It seemed the courier was the type to tend to his mount before slaking his thirst.

With the tables turned on her rather quickly, Uta was already falling backwards and dismissing her current jutsu as splintered wood and metal barely clipped where her head would have been, pieces of hair falling in the wake as the bolt took those and a bit of the tower with it, glaring a bit, Uta found it rather amusing, provided it didn't kill her. The enemy rear line soldiers lacked any sort of real discipline and initiative is what she could draw from this. She had sabotaged herself by simply doing what she would consider routine for an excuse.

It would make for a great story as well. That was if she stayed alive against this opponent as she landed she would direct her shadow clone to jump down with the supply bundle to deflect the attack by the narrowest of margins as she immediately set about flinging an explosive seal at the bag of supplies to detonate and scatter the contents as she quickly went about performing a complex hand sign in rapid succession, her skin grew all the more dark. It was a lot earlier than she would have liked to use this, but this all was her mess to clean up. And so long as the archer could keep distance, there was little she could do.

A ranged foe was the worst single opponent she could face as a melee specialist. As the misaligned shot sails up and past her, Uta smiles, likely unseen by the nighttime environment around them, the bruiser decided upon one course of action as she spoke loudly, "Your men? Kehahaha!" And with that said, before another shot could be fired, Uta would quickly jump from the roof and dived right towards those selfsame soldiers where she would set about bursting into the barracks as she took out a single Kunai and a single explosive seal in the same motion and at least carried out part of her plan, the aim being to snuff out any source of light in the room where she could set herself lose upon the soldiers who were only just alerted, in an effort to slaughter as many of them as she could before they became a threat.

And maybe, just maybe, force the crossbow woman to confront her in close quarters. If she didn't, then she could stick to the darkness and use the opportunity to get what few guards that escaped her attack could do much more.

Interactions: LadyOfStars (Tachiagari) AtlannianSpy (NPC's) IG42 Masumi The Regal Rper (Yuxuan)

Tachiagari Kagayaku
An alarm! Tachi quickly looked to his clone and directed it to follow him as he grabbed one of the unconscious foreigners and proceeded to stuff the body into the now empty crates. Hearing the footsteps and the voices approaching the depot caused Tachi's heart rate to spike and he quickly dispelled the clone, returning his chakra to him. He would hurry to climb into an empty crate himself after gathering all his belongings and close the lid behind himself.

He hoped that if the enemy came in they wouldn't bother to look around and inspect the room because he'd be greatly outnumbers. On top of that Uta was alone which meant that she'd also be outnumbered and possibly in need of assistance. Masumi and Yuxuan had one another so while he was worried for them there was less need to be.

While in the crate Tachi took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves.


AtlannianSpy

Masumi Hyuuga
Smirking internally as the waylaying guard decided he could wait for his mysterious 'stuff' Masumi had the door open and one foot inside when the green light pulsed overhead. Suppressing a sigh he unnecessarily turned to look up and already had his hand up ready to strike as the guard he had spoken to turned, rather than risk having his gentle fist blocked by the strange properties of the enemy armour Masumi stabbed two chakra coated fingers directly into the guard's eyes.

"Another half a second and we'd have been inside." Masumi grumbled under his breath as he turned on the other of the two guards next to them though he expected Yuxuan had handled that one, through his byakugan he watched Uta bail from the tower and duck into the barracks leaving the officer with the crossbow alone in their perch. "We need to get inside and hit our target now."

The Regal Rper RedArmyShogun LadyOfStars AtlannianSpy

Kasumi cackled to herself, watching Ren's discussion with the bouncer from afar. Despite being so flustered, it seemed he could play tough as well. The spider was too far away to make out what they were saying, but she could tell from the way the bouncer backed off that it was likely intimidation.

Waiting a few moments, Kasumi glanced over to the bubble, but it just continued to float where he left it, unperturbed. She supposed that meant the courier hadn't arrived yet, or he hadn't spotted him. She then shifted her focus to that of the spider's on the road and it didn't take long for her to spot something. Dust kicked up down the route and as it drew closer, there it was. A horse and a rider, both seemingly rather focused and aware. The animal as well seemed to peer around, not nervously, but with purpose, similar to other shinobi companions. Though, nothing was really standard issue, except the riding leathers perhaps. Kasumi presumed that was purposeful. It could be another vagabond with some conspicuous leathers, she supposed.

'But...' She focused some chakra into her index finger and tapped it against the bubble, popping it.

It was unlikely.

"Time to go," She alerted simply. Kasumi's spider had already begun to travel from the road to the building, and she from the surveillance spot.

Phayne Ersatra AtlannianSpy

Ersatra


"Just the stall," said the man firmly, although not aggressively, allowing most of Tsuyu's questions to pass by unanswered. "We brought our own food and water, she's...particular when it comes to these things. Don't try and groom her or anything like either, she bites."

The horse gave a low whinny at that, as though snickering in agreement and then allowed the man to lead it into one of the stalls where he gave the animal a quick but thorough brushing and hung a feed bag and a canteen full of water against one of the stall walls where the horse could access them, then he bent down to whisper something in the horse's ear, then he patted it on the neck and departed the stables to enter the tavern without another word.

The horse, naturally, remained behind, eating daintily from its feed bag and eyeing Kasumi with dark, watchful eyes.



Shortly after that, the courier pushed his way into the tavern proper. The man's entrance attracted scarcely more attention than Ren's own and he quickly made his way to the bar to procure a mug of sake that he took back to a table in the very corner of the crowded room where he could sit and watch for anyone who might approach him.

Phayne EmperorsChosen

Supply Depot Raid


Uta might have heard a fragment of a curse before the wind she leapt through drowned out the sound of the woman's voice. The first part of Uta's plan went off without a hitch and the barracks was plunged into darkness and abject chaos, the soldiers still inside the building were immediately discombobulated: outnumbering Uta as they did, they couldn't attack to recklessly in the darkness and she would be able to reap a heavy toll on them in melee. For a brief window at least.

Then suddenly there was a THWAP sound and a familiar hissing sound before another crossbow bolt thudded into one of the rear ceiling corners, where the female officer had carefully aimed it to minimise the chances of hitting one of her own men. More important, the flare seal attached to the bolt erupted into overwhelming green light, temporarily blinding everyone inside the buillding. Someone standing outside of the barracks however, would be able to see the occupants inside perfectly sillouhetted against the light of the flare. Someone in that position would be an easy target for any marksman to hit as soon as they reloaded their heavy crossbow...

RedArmyShogun


Meanwhile, the door to the depot was flung open forcefully and heavy, booted footsteps thudded into the ground all around Tachi's hiding place.

"I don't see anyone," said one the voices, sounding agitated.

"They're shinobi, they could be hiding anywhere," said the original, more authoritative voice.

"Well we can't stay here and search through every crate while the camp is under attack!"

"Our orders were to secure the supplies and besides-"

"I can hear fighting from the direction of the barracks though! We need to-"

"Shut the hell up! What we need to do is follow our orders and-"

"But there's no one here! What we need to do is go somewhere we can actually be useful instead of standing here with out thumbs in our asses while the rest of the unit is out there fighting!"

I"ve had just about enough of-"


"Guys!" said a third, more youthful voice suddenly, interrupting the argument. "Does the ground here look different?"

"I...what?"

"See this patch of dirt here? it's a little darker, like it's been turned over or something?"

"You think the shinobi tunneled in here or something?" asked the leader, sounding doubtful. "Can they do that?"

"Even if they did, it doesn't mean they're still in here now!"

"Shit! I dunno what to do! Screw it, quick show of hands! Do we stay and search or reinforce the rest of the unit?"

The soldiers fell into silence as they held a quick, but urgent vote....


LadyOfStars



Sudddenly the door to the officer's quarters was flung open by the force of a wind release jutsu that would also knock Masumi and Yuxuan back several metres.

"Fear not! I shall do you the courtesy of coming to you instead!" Boomed a deep, bassy voice as the male officer strode forwards out of his office. He was a tall, well built man with thick neck and a bald head, his weapon appeared to be the the two heavy, metal gauntles he wore, which seemed sturdy but were apparently flexible enough not to prevent him from weaving hand seals.

The officer glanced down at the bodies of his fallen door guards and grimaced. "You shinobi really don't know how to do anything except skulk around and prey upon the unwary do you? But everuthing that lurks in the darkness will eventually be dragged into the light and purged! Prepare yourselves!" The man barked, beginning the seals for another jutsu.


IG42 The Regal Rper

(Kage's not having a fun time, taking a GM post here to move Black Market)
SomeRandomCanuck AtlannianSpy Orikanyo
Genin Mission: Black Market

The doorman stared at Ago and Minoru for a moment. Wordlessly he closed the slit. They could hear several locks begin to move, hopeful to them as they became more and more numerous.

Another moment passed. Then a full minute. Then a full five! The bastard had locked them out!

However, sounds of screaming could be heard from inside a few moments later.

"Oh god, they're everywhere!!!"

Rapidly locks began to unlatch... though considering how many there were, it still took a moment. And then a crowd of people, some covered in beetles ran into the streets screaming. In the chaos, a metal box somehow flew through the insect damage roof. A man, who wore a crossed out headband, jumped out, itching and scratching everywhere he could. He had the village symbol of the stone cross out, but lacked any chunnin jacket, and his gear, what little he had, was rusty, and in poor shape. Still, he seemed to have one helluva toss as he opened up the auction house's roof.

The same man who's scarred eye could be seen from the door looked at the group of Shikane, Minoru, and Ago. "WHAT DID YOU BRATS DO!? I know it was you! No one else would just give no password, and wait around while insects swarmed!"

As the doorman clambered out, he had to duck under the door to get out, evidently a giant as he had a large club.

Inside the auction house, other than the crawling beetles, it had an oddly refined inside. Paintings hung on the walls, a piano was set up ontop of a large stand, tables {now overturned in the chaos and fleeing guests}, had, moments ago, champagne bottles on them. The floor now had [broken] champaign bottles on it.

A large curtain hung closed, where items for sale were to be auctioned on stage.

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

Minoru Minori
Minoru gulped. "Uh... Hey, Shikane, are you, uh pretty strong? I mean physically. Cause, well... I don't think Ago's willing to put her back out to carry the sword, and I think Kaen might snap like a twig if he tried... Where is he, anyways? I, uh, think I might have to explain the situation to our new friend...? I'll keep him busy if you two want to go do... well, whatever ninja thingy it is you all do? N-not that I'm not a ninja or anything, or that I have no idea what's going on. That'd be insane. *gulp*. J-just know that I trust you completely! Yeah. That's it. I have trust in you and Ago, and... Yeah, anyways."

She gulped, before walking forward to the doorman, screaming and itching.

Ago Aburame.


"Lotta screaming for a bunch of folk I told explicitly not for them to eat alive." Ago spoke plainly and with a shrug. "Man so many people scream and screech over a lil beetle infestation, seriously! Grow up dude." She paused for a moment as she heard a "Oh god their everywhere!!!" From inside... "it's they're not their. Their means possession." And a responding "HOW DID YOU EVEN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE!?!"

"Tsk... Mini-min!! Remember we have the sealy-wheeli to take it out without issue darling! So don't worry about my YOUTHFUL AND VERY STILL FLEXIBLE AND NOT PAINED AT ALL BACK!!" The second portion was spoken with glaring eyes and a... smile? Yea, totally not gritted teeth.

"Shi-shi lets go." Turning away, she gave a sassy wave that was equal parts dismissal and "You deal with it I can't be bothered"ness that would only fuel to piss off anybody who cared. She would enter the... Damn... That was a NICE piano... Damn that was a NICE piano.

She wanted that piano.

But she'd need Minoru.

...Or she could use the seal...

....Which was easier to carry, the piano or the glorified butcher knife...?

Alright, check the knife, then see.

Walking over to the curtain, she unveiled what was on the stage with a type of theatrics that could only be found in the flair filled villain.