Fandom Naruto: Leaves in the Wind

[Scion]

"THERE IS NO NEED FOR SWEARING, ESPECIALLY AT BUDDING STAGES OF NEGOTIATION! YOU SAVE THAT MUCH LATER DOWN THE LINE, YOU DO NOT START WITH THAT AS YOUR OPENING HAND!" Kotone shouted back out towards Kotori who remained up in the trees.

"As for the matter of ownership of lands, I must politely disagree with your assessment. If you allow me this volley, I shall explain to you the importance of boundaries. Territories, from smaller housing units, to large swathes of land of a noble must be marked efficiently to distinguish themselves from sectors designated for public use. For example, would you claim that a forest which is under the domain of a noble is that of the public or the noble? It is the responsibility of the noble, or the landowner, to carefully mark the boundaries of the territory of which they claim ownership and provide a proper reason for claim to it. This applies to your scenario of the village and killing; the individual might've broken laws which established a greater order for the community upon arrival. As for reasons to lay claim to land these can be things such as deeds, improvements made upon the land, or ancestral claims. The crux of the issue here is not whether or not the forest is owned, but rather what are the boundaries that have been established. This is a delicate issue, one that requires time and patience. I am willing to stay here and negotiate and come to a deal that is equitable for all, while a few others from our party can go about with the other task."

 

[Kloudy]

Shizuka Shinrai
Fishing Village - Unknown House

The young shinobi could only gaze up in shock and wonder at the massive crow that descended upon them, large black feathers as dark as night and two beady orbs that told of both power and intelligence. It was something even an idiot like Kotegiri could sense; Shizuka’s instincts suggesting that this was definitely the main event. The smaller crows were still a problem, but if he and his squad could take out the crow boss, perhaps the rest of the flock would flee and be driven off from the village.

Too lost in thought, a weakness thinkers like himself often shared, Shizuka snapped out of his stupor too slowly as he noticed the larger crow rocket towards him. Although it was too late to dodge out the way, even with his speed, he still managed to draw a kunai and raise his arms to block the incoming attack. But his surprise all but doubled as no physical force met him, only to then sucker punch him a second later as the pure turbulent force of immense air pressure from the crow’s flight hit him in the chest like a heavyweight taijutsu dropkick. He was sent flying back into the house at incredible speed, breaking through a table and slamming into the wooden wall in a hail of splinters. A spattering of blood escaped his contorted mouth upon impact and the wall gave under the force his body was travelling at, leaving Shizuka to lie in the crater he’d made in the wood.

He remained slumped in his impromptu seat for a few moments longer, taking his time to recover from the sudden powerful attack. He was definitely not one to tank hits: that job laid with Kotegiri “the meat-shield” to handle. Opening his eyes gradually, Shizuka coughed painfully and allowed his eyes to slowly travel across the room. The scared village couple were looking at him with frightful concern, convinced that this meant their doom.

“Honestly... it’s not like I can let Master Ryouta down...”

He spluttered a rattling cough again before placing a hand on either side of the rim of his crater. Freeing himself and unsteadily falling to his feet, Shizuka squinted through the bright doorway to try and see what was happening. All he could see was Kotegiri trying to fend off the smaller crows, all of which seemed intent on keeping their distance. That was unnervingly wise: Masamune was very much the loose-kunai of the group, especially when things got up close and personal. Placing a hand on his side, Shizuka staggered forward before finding slightly more surer footing. He’d definitely fractured a rib or two and probably had plenty of bruising, but nothing too serious. He could still fight.

Silently cursing his fragility, Shizuka awkwardly ran out the doorway again to see Tamatsuki dealing with the larger crow. With the large beast distracted, Shizuka was free to cast his jutsu: [Kyūkyoku Shijima]. The hand seals were almost a blur as his hands moved faster than most ninja were capable of. As a ninjutsu-reliant shinobi, executing techniques as quickly as possible was essential for gaining the upper hand in any battle - something that Shizuka had learnt quickly and perhaps had taken a little too seriously. Now his repetitively trained ninjutsu techniques were honed to such a level that his hand signing was something he scarcely even had to think about. Leaving his hands as the ram sign, Shizuka coated his entire body in chakra to complete his hidden sound release technique. Ultimate Silence negated any sound his body made or was affected by, no matter what. With the large crow turned away from him and the smaller crows preoccupied with Kotegiri, he was effectively invisible to them.

Approaching silently and slowly due to his injuries, Shizuka was sure to move in such a way that the crow boss wouldn’t catch him in its peripherals. As he drew close, silent breath slightly laboured, he began to gather chakra in his arms once more. He didn’t have the energy or stamina to do any fancy moves or use his more powerful jutsu, so he’d have to be content with something more simple. Compressing the chakra in a thin line in each arm, Shizuka waited for the right moment before silently tossing his arms forth, letting loose a twin moon sickle of [Tsukigiri] jutsus at the larger crow. One air blade aimed for its left leg to cripple its jutsu, the other set to slice its right wing off to bar any attempt at escape and would probably slice into the creature’s body given the angle he’d attacked from. However his stamina was really running low now and he leaned against the house’s wall tiredly, his [Kyūkyoku Shijima] failing and disappearing in patches until it was all gone. Shizuka could only hope that he’d injured the big bird enough to render it defenceless and that Kotegiri would be able to deal with the smaller crows in the meantime.

CNHart Shining Wizard
KnightOfNight

 

[KnightOfNight]

Squad 5 + Takaya Ruka
Scion rennuelaw clarinetti Zerohex

After hearing what the outsiders had to say, the bear climbed the stone wall, swung his legs over, and sat at the top. "I, uhh... Didn't expect humans to want to talk this out. Your kind is typically more bloodthirsty so I thought I had to meet violence with violence. I am Otso, and you, large human." Otso pointed to Ruka as it spoke. "I accept your apology. And you, small one." This time Otso pointed to Kotone before continuing. "I suppose I am the ruler of this forest, so use whatever term is used for human rulers. And finally..." Otso turned his focus to Kotori and his gaze hardened. "Tell me, other small human, if outsiders entered your land only to kill anything that crossed their paths and steal the corpses, would you not act to prevent it from happening again? Or would you accept your lot in life and allow yourself to be killed? Would you allow your homeland to be despoiled? Would you let the rivers run red with the blood of your loved ones? Answer me human, since you seem to believe your kind superior to mine in all regards, what would you do?" Otso folded his arms and waited for Kotori to reply to his question.

Meanwhile, the two younger bears were still under the influence of Kotone's genjutsu and struggled against the overwhelming pressure they thought was holding them in place. It was clear from the hatred that burned in their eyes that they would be a problem if they escaped.

 

[Shining Wizard]

Kotegiri clicked her tongue as the next barrage flashed down from the sky on her two o' clock, taking a step backwards and stomping hard on the roof's surface. Having already cut a section clean through on her way down, a little downward force was all it took to flip an oblong chunk of wood and tile up, easily deflecting the force of the blast. She took a moment to stick her head out from behind cover and sneer at the flock.

"Ha! Call yourself crows, but yer really just chicken, ain'tcha? Pansies like you don't deserve to taste my blade, so I'm gonna- oof!"

Kotegiri was rudely interrupted by a blast of concussive force to the back, momentarily stunning her and causing her to stumble. Looks like they were hiding in the treeline, too, trying to catch her when her back was turned.

"So that's how you wanna play, eh..?", she grumbled, clasping both hands together and forming a giant mallet, "Alright then... How about a little hide-and-seek?"

Kicking into a spin, Kotegiri brought the mallet to bear on the face of her makeshift blockade, sending the whole assembly rocketing into the flock as she dove headfirst behind it into the hole she had created in the roof, disappearing into the darkened interior of the shack below.

KnightOfNight Kloudy CNHart

 

[rennuelaw]

"I CAN SWEAR WHENEVER I FUCKIN WANNA," Kotori yelled back, looking down at Kotone and stubbornly ignoring everything she had to say before turning to the bear who had begun to talk.

"I would not instantly assume every one of them was the same simply because of their species. I have been abused my whole life by my own land and I could have very easily written off everyone I met was the same but I didn't and I definitely wouldn't go around senselessly trying to murder people because I ASSUMED they had bad intentions. I don't assume I'm better than you in all regards, just in this one." He barked back, glaring for a few moments before sighing and shaking his head. Taking deep breaths, he tried to think about the situation logically.

"You know what, I can see why you reacted the way you did. You went through alot of pain in your life at the hands of humans so it's understandable why you would react the way you did and assume." He said, loosely folding his arms over his chest and creating more glyphs that appeared below one another in a stair-like formation, walking down them before sparing the two bears a glance and making eye contact before rolling his eyes at the hatred he saw. Yeah, he definitely wasn't letting them go just yet.

"My clan believes, at least the elders anyway, that every living thing came from the earth, that the earth is our mother and we should love and respect her, not rule and conquer her. It is one of the few things they and I agree on. While I may not like it but, you are considered the ruler of this land and I should..respect that despite my personal feelings on the matter but I didn't and for that, I, apologize. The clan elders are being assholes, my father is sick, my sensei is a raging drunkard, the sun is hot and that fucking twat over there kept calling a female multiple times.." He said, a light growl appearing as he spoke and glanced at Ruka, his foot making contact with the ground before he turned back to the bear.

"In short my day has been shit, my emotions got the best of me and I immediately got on top of my moral high horse without trying to look at your side of things so again, I'm sorry." He said, looking at the large bear with sincere eyes before looking at Kotone with a high-intensity glare, feeling like she might try to disprove something he just said. It may not have been well spoken, but Kotori did try to apologize to the best of his ability.

Scion clarinetti KnightOfNight Zerohex

 

[Scion]

Kotone's attention, at first, was divided between the leader of the forest now known as Otso, and the two bears who were still in stuck in place from the earlier tactics. The former courtier's eyes darted at them with a glimmering sense of gloating. Many intricate natures of the court tended to be misunderstood or just not understood at all, and even here in this disgraceful and more savage land of the domain of the bears one of those many rules were still in place.

To fully have the ear of the lord to yourself, you needed to remove elements that already had it. Whatever the connection may be, from advisor, to relative to trusted confidant there were always individuals who could or had a higher impact upon your target than you had or would like to have. Therefore, it was crucial at times to remove these elements from play so that the Lord, or whoever you were influencing, would not be able to seek their advice as usual. You only wanted them to go seek advice from those who were angling for the same thing as you, which at one point these two might have but it certainly wasn't the case now. Unfortunately due to the fact Lord Otso was now sitting upon the make-shift earthen throne, which used to be a wall, he had a clear visage of Kotone and so she wouldn't be able to as stealthily keep those creatures under the horrible world of illusions.

Kotone's eyes flickered around gazing at each member of the group before turning back to look at the smaller bears for a moment. She just needed to make sure that they knew, without Lord Otso knowing, that their most important step for negotiation right now was less about establishing terms but keeping insidious internal elements which threatened the external foreign diplomacy they were offering.

Which, the kunoichi had an idea. She craned her head to Kotori and gave off a distinctive frown, "That has been two times you have violated the terms of agreements of the deal in which I was proposed earlier, if you do not remember what the conditions were of which I made, I shall explain it simply it was crafted in order to remove conversational elements which caused us much grief. It is not looking good for you if you wish to keep your coinpurse hefty." Kotone spoke out hoping that in this piece of dialogue that it was coded enough, yet easy enough for her team-mates to understand what the real matter at play was here. Now with that slightly out of the way, Kotone turned her attention upwards towards the bear sitting upon the wall.

"Then if you do not mind, I shall use the title of Lord." Shihashi Kotone said with a bow to Otso, before emerging upwards from the bow. "I thank you for being so gracious in giving your time to discuss with us Lord Otso. As you can see we understand you have dominion of the forest, we do not wish to seek that from you, we simply wish to make it more clear. Now then, if you do not mind me making any assumptions on your part, it appeared to me Lord Otso, when you were speaking to my compatriot and explaining the importance of protecting your lands and what laws must be in place to preserve both your lands and loved ones it was rather candid in its expression. Might you have had a situation earlier - by which I mean in recent memory and action - where outsiders, who were not us of course, proceeded to enter your land in an attempt to do what you had described to us?"

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