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

[KageYuuki]

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

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Irezumi Uta
Location: Enemy Supply Depot

​

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 claw 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)

 

[AtlannianSpy]

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

 

[Phayne]

Kirigakure

Rengetsu Amesawa

Chunin

Treeline outskirts of Yamazaki Teahouse

Within short time, the trio would arrive at the designated area; the Yamazaki tea house. As was too be expected, the building itself was not much to marvel at, the rustic nature of the exterior had clearly shown its old age as well as its stubborn battle against the ages. Old and looking like it would fall apart with the simplest of nudges, the buildings exterior was clearly for show; its resolute fight against the times proven by how it still stood firm despite its flaws.

With one swift motion, Rengetsu pressed his right hand against his face, his thumb and index finger pressed against one another with the rest of his fingers bent over to form an 'O' shape which he held close to his face Had one observed closely, they'd have noticed a thin film of slime form within the circular shape in his hand, a faint shimmer visible against its viscous surface. With his one eye peeking through the hole, Rengetsu's vision had been enhanced, much like one staring through a spyglass; the sight of the tea house appearing before him as if it were only a few yards away.

"I count 1 guard..." spoke Ren, leaning against a large tree that stood firm along the outskirts of the open area; his head peeking around the trunk in order to observe their target "... nothing out of the ordinary considering the clientele.." he added, turning back to face the two kunoichi; his hand withdrawn from his face and now clambering at the tied not of his headband that hung around his left arm. "... so.. I'll enter first I guess..." he spoke, as he finally loosened his headband. "... I'll pose as a passing mercenary, while scoping out the inside.. I'll signal you guys if I see the courier inside..." he paused, looking up at the pair of them, before re-creating the 'O' shape in one hand and blowing through the hole.

A tennis ball shaped bubble would take form; levitating in the space between where Ren was and the two kunoichi were, its surface more resilient than what one would assume from a mere bubble. "If this bubble pops, then thats the signal that the courier is already in the building, otherwise if you notice the courier approaching whilst I am inside, then channel some chakra into your fingertips and pop the bubble yourself; that should be enough to notify me of their arrival" he finished, before sighing heavily and standing upright; his hands pressed against one another as he began to form the required hand signs for the transformation jutsu.

With a small puff of smoke, the visage of Rengetsu would quickly disappear and be replaced with a rather mundane looking man, the tall and lanky appearance somewhat similar to that of Ren's but most everything else substantially different. Rengetsu was quite confident in his transformations and his ability to go undetected by most; stealth often described as being one of his forte's.

"Before I enter, do you guys have any other idea's?" he questioned, glancing at the tea house then back at the duo; his voice much deeper than before.
EmperorsChosen AtlannianSpy Ersatra

Code by Serobliss

 

[InsaneAsylum]

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

 

[IG42]

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

 

[Ganryu]

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.

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?

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.

 

[Orikanyo]

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?

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Kasumi Sunemizuki
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

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

 

[Phayne]

Kirigakure

Rengetsu Amesawa

Chunin

Inside the Yamazaki Teahouse

Rengetsu nodded in approval as Kasumi spoke up, the man glancing at her then at Tsuyu whose Genjutsu would be the clinical factor of the success of this mission. Provided she could get the man to open up the message scroll, Rengetsu would be able to copy down its contents.

"As long as we can get the courier to open up the message, I can use this Jutsu to spy on the message and make a copy; provided I get the angles correct" added Rengetsu, referring to the bubble he had just created. So long as he had enough bubbles witin the vicinity, he could bounce his vision via each bubble much like a mirror reflection.

Satisfied, the transformed Rengetsu would begin to make his way towards the tea house, his mundane appearance showcasing no obvious discernible appearance. By all accounts he would appear as a rather average looking man, one who would not stand out of a crowd nor steal a place in anyones long term memory. By all accounts he was another face in the crowd, a blurred visage of a man who would otherwise go unnoticed unless a spotlight had been cast upon him.

Approaching the door to the tea house, Ren would pause in front of the burly man; his dark bangs obscuring his eyes from the one tasked with controlling the flow of patreons entering and exiting the building.

"State your purpose" growled the large balding man; his large intimidating figure an obvious attempt to elicit fear in those untrained in the ways of warfare. Alas, it was ineffective on the chuunin, rather Ren had to almost stifle a laugh at how cliché his whole act was. Honestly all that was missing was the dragon tattoo that covered one half of his face or a large scar down one cheek.

"Tea and business..." spoke the disguised Rengetsu, his tone sharp and cold; a far cry different to how he had spoken earlier when in the presence of the two kunoichi. Unlike then, Ren was now on the job and as if a switch had been flicked; the easily flushed and nervous demeanour of Ren had been replaced by an icy, almost calculating presence. Any extra noise or distraction had been pushed aside in favour of efficiency.

"Business?... We are just a teah..." began the man, puffing his chest out and staring at Ren as if to try and act intimidating.

Lifting his head slightly to meet the eye of the bald bouncer. Slit like irises, almost feline like in appearance would lock onto the eyes of the man opposite him; predator vs prey. While it was the mans job to act intimidating, Ren, in this moment was the embodiment of the very word itself. "Cut the crap...these are stressful times and I can't afford to waste any playing your game" spat Ren, his tone cutting through the air like knife through butter as he took a step closer to the bald man, his face mere inches away from the bouncer "I heard this place is a good place to de-stress make some money... tax free... " he added, hand clasping his blades hilt, hinting towards the kind of shady business he was referring to. "Unless... you want to be my stress reliever?" he queried, venom behind his words. Without ever once blinking or taking his vision away from the man, he would easily notice the bouncer glance down at the hidden weapon then back at Rengetsu; beads of sweat beginning to form on his brow as he measured the cost of offending the man before him vs the cost of being a good little doorman and letting the patron through.

Seeing the metaphorical scales tip away from his favor, the bald man would slink backwards slightly, opening the door in the process. "H.. head right in... the owner is a bit preoccupied at the moment, but... if you.. make your way to the counter..." he stopped as a hand was placed in front of his face as if to signal to the man to shut the fuck up.

Door opened, Ren would pass through the doorway of the tea house, heading for a secluded corner of the room, amidst a plethora of stares from members of both factions presently within the inn.

EmperorsChosen AtlannianSpy Ersatra

Code by Serobliss

 

[The Regal Rper]

Yuxuan | Camp Tsuchinoko

Wordlessly Yuxuan followed. He didn't respond or involve himself in the exchange, merely moved after the Hyuga as he moved towards the door and pushed it open with that clipped warning to the other guard not to impede their progress.

Moving past the guard, Yuxuan followed in, ready to take action as soon as they faced their target as Masumi was once the door was closed.

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Interactions: LadyOfStars IG42 AtlannianSpy RedArmyShogun