Fandom Song of Rage

[Ganryu]

Lost Legend​

Sachiko hit the side of the building with an 'oof', face planting into the wall, a small imprint of the little girl left behind as spidercracks started to vein outwards.

Please let no one have seen that... At least Shio's not here, she'd never let me hear the end of that...

Unpeeling herself, she started to feel around for a window. Sachiko deftly felt for the locking mechnanism, before grabbing a bo shuriken from her vest, and punching through it with a quick and efficient punch.

"Ha-hah! Working out's been doing me wonders."

Sliding inside, she quietly crept through the hallway. Upon hearing voices, she pulled out a cloak, and immediately filled it with chakra.

Cloak of Invisiblility

Becoming part of the wall, Sachiko waited for the nin to pass by, holding her breath. The footsteps didn't stop, so she felt like she was good.

Until a 'twang' echoed through the hallway.

Why do I have the feeling someone's about to ruin the Shamisen for me... Please don't, it, and money, are the last parts of high society I actually enjoy

The Hallway started to twist, Sachiko flying out of her camoflauged sheet, and faceplanting on the otherside of the room as the building started to spin.

"Crapbaskets." She called out in a muffled voice while embedded in the wall. Pulling out another small bo shuriken, she stopped for a moment, then put it away.

"How about a deal? I don't think either of us want to get bloody. And I think both of us want to get paid."

She called to the shamisen player.

 

[KageYuuki]

Kurio Shimizu
Squad Ichiro
The blow to Ichiro connecting came as little surprise, sensei had never been one to shy away from a hit. Still not enough to really even hurt him though... Kurio waited for the retaliating strike that usually came with these exchanges, blinking when it never came. Instead, Ichiro let out a loud whistle and called for someone or something to deliver a message for him. Kurio glanced behind him back down the tunnel, barely hearing the sound of rushing air. "Who...?" He frowned, sensei doesn't have a summon, and he'd rather kill the cat than ask it for a favor... But something had definitely just left the mine.

Kurio turned his attention back as Okimi landed roughly beside him, her transformation falling away as she tumbled a few feet. It was too early for bruises to begin forming on her hand if she did break anything from that punch. He'd have to keep an eye on it for the time being. He would say she should know better than to try and sucker-punch Ichiro by now, but this was Okimi.

Instead of fretting over Okimi, he studied the dark sphere of chakra at the heart of the room. It had even managed to get a flinch of pain out of Ichiro.

"There's actually a 13th level. Only one @#$!'ing monster has ever made it down there. Two guesses who."

A low hum, Kurio folding his arms in front of his chest as he thought. "You would be my first guess, given it seems your style." As the question on casualties was brought up, he glanced over at Aragi. Being a part of the medical corps, he already had the answer. Kurio nodded in agreement with his assessment.

"The Rhythm of Rage..." Kurio quietly mused, looking up at the curved stalactite hanging from the ceiling. So this was an akuma. But why hadn't it reformed? He blinked at the next piece of information, "Wait, but I thought that was..." Kurio frowned, brow furrowed as he thought. To the best of his knowledge, the song of rage was a technique. Was he wrong?

Lost in thought, Kurio almost didn't hear the question that followed. What was next for him? He frowned, his failure at the Well of Absolutes coming to mind.

“You aren’t going to really learn anything fighting me. Everything here’s the back of your mind. And this little nugget. If you want to be the best, you have to, heh, be the best. Everyone who comes in here fights the darkness in them. You, the darkness is what you could be. It really steams us up. And I don’t have any solution for you vanilla white ninja! Hahahaha… We suck and you know it. All that flash, sure it makes you happy, but, does it really do anything? Are you ever going to BE Tsumikage? Are we even the best in our class?
Okimi’s forever better at ninjutsu…
Shibata’s genjutsu is stronger…
Waka’s taijutsu is untouchable…
Heh, we’re not even starting to be special in medical knowledge, maybe our little pupil who didn’t know anything a few months ago is going to catch up. Didn’t she create that doujutsu too?
Do I ever shut up? Well, do your voices ever quiet down? Can’t beat us, can you…?”

What he needed was to figure out just who he was, to conquer the Well of Absolutes and tame the akuma. "I have a long way to go until jounin... Need to get Raiko under control and hone my medical knowledge further." Kurio hesitated, "I want to be able to fight you on an equal footing and surpass you."

Ganryu InsaneAsylum Spiderverse

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Akane Kabenari

Akane couldn't help but stare a little as they walked through the Yamamoto compound, although she tried not to make it obvious as they walked through to the sitting room. Everything seemed so expensive and new and clean that it seemed impossible to Akane that people actually lived here. Maybe the Yamamoto's didn't live here and it was all an elaborate façade to impress visitors. Maybe there was a cottage somewhere out the back where they actually lived with dirty laundry on the floor and child sized finger print smudges on the furniture. Probably not though.

Even Yamamoto sensei seemed like he felt a little out of place in this austere environment, so far he seemed kind and patient though, so Akane took his advice, sitting down at the table and taking a slow breath before sipping some of the tea that had been brought out. It tasted like that was probably expensive too. As she savoured the warmth and deep flavour of the tea Yamamoto asked about any questions she had and she wondered how much exactly she could say. Akane didn't want to come off as overly uncertain or insecure by asking about too many things. On the other hand having nothing at all to ask might look like apathy or a lack of initiative.

"Shibata and Aya, what sort of people are they?" Akane asked finally. "What do they need from a teammate?"

KageYuuki IG42 Ace Cream

 

[Orikanyo]

Wakanaka
Wrecking crew apparently.
Lost legacy.

"Man, what are they paying you in good will and... Whats that nois-"

Second time today he gets shunted through a wall, this time not his own fault, his back hurt from this one but thankfully the sword didn't.... Hurt too much. The oni hit harder, therein he hits harder, so he is stronger than this sword strike...

Wait that thinking doesn't make sense, when did he start thinking so dumbly?

Was that even a word? Why did he split off from everyone else.

Why...

Was he thinking about this while falling?

Rolling upin the ground he grabed the grass that was staining his clothes and ripped a line in the turf to slow his movement. He rose to a stand, brushing off bits of drywall.

"Tsk, still shocked they sent me to a sneaking mission. Hey! Don't you have bigger better things to do? Legendary criminal swordsman out front, you know?" Waka's words were accompanied to abit of the building falling apart, supporting structure fractured and broken. Waka's horn gave off a light yellow and red sheer, his gourd hanging from his side still intact and sturdy. "Well? I know how this goes. Got a story to tell? Straight to it? Maybe a sneaky technique or something?

Got your ambush off don't dissappoint me now."

KageYuuki

 

[KageYuuki]

Katsuhito sighed, dusting off his cloak. To call it a fight would be an insult. The exchange following his ambush had been brief, two chuunin and a jounin now strewn on the ground unconscious. He turned to the still conscious Hane nin and smiled. “Shin the Phoenix, I presume? One of my comrades regaled me with the story of your fight in the exams, I would’ve liked to have seen it myself. A shame you were only toyed with.”

The leader of Bishamonten eased himself on one of the winding treetrunks that filled the grove. His wounds from clashing with the kage had yet to heal, but he didn’t have the time to remain idle for long. Katsuhito looked up at the floating islands around them. “Do you know much about your namesake the Phoenix? It’s an Akuma renowned for its regenerative abilities. Its former host was none other than the Third Tsumikage. Though he supposedly died in an ambush led by Sangogakure.” He looked back at Shin, “Ah, but that raises a few questions then, doesn’t it? Such as how did a neutral village like Hanegakure come into the possession of such a coveted Akuma?

“My dear Shin, I’m afraid you were nothing more than a messenger during the exams. Ochada wished to provoke Tsumigakure. Their kage is a powerful sensor and that little bit of Akuma chakra that escaped you was enough to alert her to what your village had.” Katsuhito hummed in thought, “But what could such a little village do? Taking action could spark a war, after all.”

Shin looked around to his fainted teammates strung around the mass of floating rocks, some of them floating away from the small little grove he and the fox were at. With a snarl, he sat down. Wasn’t like he was going to do anything after the guy here took out his sensei with a swipe of his tail.

“Fuck off.” The jinch said. He didn’t move to assault the man though.

“I already got in plenty of trouble for that. ‘Go fight your ‘peers’, but don’t use any of your actual skills.’ Then I slip off for not even a moment and it’s an ‘international incident’. Think it was all a sick joke as repayment for the Bajirisuku incident.”

Shin spat to the side, the glob falling off the floating platform, free falling hundreds of feet below. He then looked at Katsuhito, and cocked his head.

“Ain’t you going to violently abduct a jinchuuriki anyways? I’m a weapon, since when’s a weapon get to choose who gets to hold it.”

Katsuhito smiled, jumping down from his perch and approaching Shin. “I’m here to offer you an opportunity. A chance to no longer be a puppet of your village and forge your own path, if you desire it. You could be so much more than someone’s weapon.” He shrugged, “of course, if you’d prefer to remain here I can just knock you out and be on my way. Forceful recruitment does little in the way of inspiring loyalty. I may even be able to assist you in taming the temperamental Phoenix.”

Stopping in front of him, Katsuhito extended his hand, “Well? What do you say?”

Shin started to laugh where he was, grabbing the sides of his head as if he were in pain, but a smile coming across his face. “Taming the temperamental phoenix… taming the temperamental phoenix… taming the temperamental phoenix…”

Shin began to repeat in a mantra of madness, the smile across his face growing slowly wider, and more and more teeth showing. He flailed his head back in a motion that definitely looked like his neck broke with how far back his head was, his hands slumped uselessly to his side as the ‘pop’ echoed. His vision slowly crawled from the sky down to his eye peering at Katsuhito.

“I say, you don’t listen well. I said I couldn’t use MY abilities in the exam..”

His neck snapped to the other side as he approached the fox, the painful snap louder this time, a dark aura rising like fire off his skin. He slammed his hand into Katsuhito.

“You called?”

The fox’s eyes widened at the sudden change in demeanor, the shock soon settled to a look of understanding. What a fascinating seal. His smile returned as Shin’s hand met his own, paying little mind to the dark chakra seething between them. “Indeed I did.”

 

[Ganryu]

Ichiro, The Feral
KageYuuki Spiderverse InsaneAsylum ​

Ichiro snarled, but nodded at Aragi's answer. It was correct. At the mention of Fuuinjutsu, the snarl turned to a bark, and slightly translating to "Damnit". The feral man paced back and forth at that answer, rubbing his chin, and nashing his teeth. He had returned to his slouch, hunched back and swaying arms. Even so, he towered over most of the other ninja.

He continued his pace, mumbling for a moment.

"Don't know no seals. Tch, any lists of contacts... Ffff-... Fine. Basics of seals is laying chakra allows for complex chakra manipulations..."

He continued his mad rant, even as Kurio began to answer. Ichiro at least had manners to keep it to a mere mumble. As Kurio guessed that Ichiro was the one who made it down, he snorted, and raised an eyebrow.

"Kid, look into your clan sometime. It's actually something. Now... molding static chakra's a helluva lot harder than dynamic... most kids don't enjoy doing it. Kid's scrawny, but lithe. Still don't think he'd change his mind though. Hmm."

Then as Kurio stated his next goal was to beat Ichiro, the mumbling stopped. Ichiro immediately went stone faced. Then turned to stare Kurio. His head leaned in far too close, eyes open widely as he was inches away. He looked up and down Kurio, backing off, then laughing his ass off. For the first time, he stood straight as he howled, his head back. Then he went somber.

"Good!" Was all he said.

Still, Ichiro seemed less insane after that, a smirk across his face, seemingly glued. He snapped his fingers, and a shadow shifted in the distance.

"Cat! If your going to spy, you're going to go be useful. Go bring me Uzume's Metronome and Kagutsuchi's Acupuncture Needles from my senseis stash. Oh, and something to actually drink. Make it stiff."

A hiss could be heard in the distance, but then a creature slinked off. Ichiro nodded, and looked at the three.

"Alright, needed to think. We're going to be doing dual training right here. If each of you is going to ever get out of chunnin, you need to stop being average. Jonin are the best of the best. We all do something exceptionally well. Me. I'm tough. I don't think any of you have really seen how tough. Let me put this in perspective. There are 7 ninja in this village with an S-rank technique.

Ema Shimizu, the Tsumikage, World's Strongest Jinchuriki has a few related to merging with her beast and back, and, surprisingly for a kage, sensory jutsu. YEah, don't bother try sneaking up on her.

Shintaro Yamamoto has a crystal terrain jutsu that tends to force entire battlefields to just abandon. The crystal release is extremely flimsey. Which means it breaks easy. Which means breathing it in is bad. And it covers a huge area... I'm convinced that daughter of his is carrying too after her chunnin exam fight, but speculation don't mean shit.

Kei Kojima, has memory altering genjutsu that was declared kinjutsu after he discovered it.

Kaguya Ogumo's dolls are regenerative, steal chakra, and home in on it. She can hide in the dolls as well...

Keiji Kounna has a soft taijutsu style that grifts his Explosion Release kekkei genkai onto an opponent. The result is... gory.

Ryuuga Tagamatsu has one helluva of a breath technique that fills his lungs with the good shit. Calls it Dragon King Mode. Tch.

But, most importantly, mine is called Undying: Failing Heart, Beating Veins. Basically, if you take out my heart, it don't matter. I don't bleed to death easy, I'm hard to scrape, and I just the best high off of pain. So, I tend to be assigned a lot of body guard and distraction missions. That's what I'm known for. I ain't even the scariest monster out there. Afterall, Kurio there's gunna take me in a fight one of these days! I look forward to it! If your going to take me out, know what you're dealing with.

I'm tough. You ain't getting an S-rank tech over night. You might not ever get it. That's 7 nin. Out of 150'ish in the village. But you guys are gunna start training as if you are."

Ichiro grabbed Kurio by the skull, almost looking dangerous, but then Ichiro ruffled his hair in an... oddly affectionate way. He walked over to Aragi, going quite for a minute as he studied the boy as if he were an alien.

"So, been thinking about it. Aragi, not gunna lie, your specialties a pain in the ass to help train. But the problem with seals if the chakra needed to make them is difficult and slow. Most sealing nin are just like tool specialist, but they get wiped AND run out of tools. But, upside is, seals are powerful. Seals are damn powerful. I HATE messing with sealing nin, because doesn't matter how tough you is if you're stuck by a damn seal in the middle of hte battlefield. Shit sucks.

So, we'll be working on how quickly you can mold complex chakra to increase how fast you can make seals."

Ichiro began to shuffle back to Kurio. "You can study med shit in your own time. Your problem right now is you hesitate, bitch. We're going to beat that out of you. You want your beast under control? That's the damn wrong way to think about it. You're going to get to know him better first. Jinchuriki have one helluva battle. They don't ever get to let their guard down, and they're dealing with something stronger than they are that is ALWAYS out of control. You'd have better luck getting Okimi under control. I'd say Fuery, but he'd be easier."

Finally walking up to Okimi, Ichiro poked her straight in the collar bone. "And you. I already know what you want. You want a bigger boom, don't ye? Hitting a limit that you're not liking, ain't ya? You can only flow so much chakra out of your chakra points before they start to burn and hurt. There's a reason I wanted you to take a month off ninjutsu. Needed'em to heal, cause this next training I got in mind is a bitch. And if they ain't 100% up to it, this is going to sting. Hehehe. Actually, going to sting either way, but least if your healed up, won't hospitalize you.

Now, problem with flowing all your chakra out the same points again and again is they get loose. Not enough pressure pressing that molded chakra out. IT starts to lose precision, force, and it starts to burn you. If you want to go bigger, they might eventually catch up. In a few years. Or, you can learn to use ALL of your chakra points. Most jonin can't do that. Most jonin don't tend to use fire chakra like you do either, girl. You might already be the premiere fire user BEFORE you factor in Fuerey. Pity you're so damn stupid and blind."

Cracking his neck, Ichiro started to lean against a wall, before a dark shadow fell from above. A small black panther sized cat, carrying several trinkets on a bag began to lay them out. Lightning crackled from it's whiskers. It looked at Kurio, and mewed affectionately. It seemed the Akuma had... grown? Infront of Aragi, it laid a ticking metronome, a camo pattern of black and white ever changing on it's front.

"Figure out the proper yin and yang chakra combination to feed it when it hits the sides. If you're wrong, it shocks you. If you're right, it ticks. The amount needed will constantly change, and you have to adjust. Seals are complicated. You can do things with them normal nin could only dream of with ninjutsu. This'll help you mold chakra for seals in an actual decent amount of time."

Infront of Okimi, it dropped a bag of glass needles.

"Kagutsuchi's Acupuncture Needles. Ever been acupunctured, girl? These are great for your chakra points. We're gunna get them nice and ready for fire release. Don't worry, the needles don't hurt. Much. Bwahahaha..." Ichiro's laugh was darker at that.

The cat didn't bring anything to Kurio, but did drop off a jar of Sake to Ichiro. Ichiro laughed, and did toss it to Kurio. "Did try to poison me, you damn cat. Thankfully, I know what brew you'd'a used, and it's just what the sensei ordered. Kurio, help Okimi with those needles, then drink that. In for one helluva time. Oh, and you two know Kurio's a jinchuriki, right? Means he's got a real nasty sealed in him. Ya'll get to find out what that means as teammates. Well then, any questions?"

 

[Orikanyo]

Wakanaka Tsube
One morning, like another.

The birds were the first call of the morning, as the yellow rays of the sun blessed the village of Tsumikagure the second came in the form of the village beginning to wake up, or go to sleep from a long night. Waka was of the first group, slowly raising up from his slumber to his small room apartment, his body stretched out, large yawn breaking free from his mouth as his eyes finally opened up.

Blurry, he grumbled as he pawed the ground next too his futon and grabed his glasses, plopped them on the bridge of his nose and finally sat up. His eyes looked to his alarm clock, three minutes till it rung, naturally, he never wakes up for it but from the anticipation of it ringing…

His eyes turned to the room, first across the way towards a nearby window that was held open to vent in and out air, his brewing stand. Ever since he became an oni, and learned about a certain technique, hes been keen on keeping a good supply. It was… surprisingly simple to make a simple enough concoction, just took time, fruits, know-how and proper ventilation… The blood, well, from him, so it was easy.

Standing up, finally, he sauntered over to the cupboard, rummaging through for a box of cereal and turning around to put it on his modest table. He eyed the nearby bowl, rinsed on occasion, he grabbed it, bowled the cereal in and began eatting it dry like an animal. Not even a spoon, it was true caveman hours today.

Today was an odd day, he had little too no missions, and really he had been training for long enough his body was straining to build anymore muscle without rest. So, today, thats what he would do. Rest.

Though at the thought of doing nothing for a day… He couldn't help but try and think of things to do. So in an effort to not fill his free time with not so free things to do, he decided to not make any plans at all, forcibly. Anything and everything could wait for another day, today, was free. And so, after getting dressed, brushing his teeth, washing his face, combing his hair, and finally giving his horn a good once over; he finally headed outside to greet the day…

The small apartment complex he now lived in was… Modest, to say the least, he was certain he was neighbors with a couple fellow ninja who either did have enough cash to afford anything bigger, or simply weren't home often enough too care much about the place. He himself had moved here out of necessity… When he had returned home that fateful day… The issues had been twofold, due to his actions, his family faced a degree of dishonor due to an effective abandoning of the exams, even if for a good reason. The second reason lay atop his forehead, due to the corruption, latent potential within his genetics sprung forward and became forefront due to the large influx of akuma chakra. Instead of becoming a irradiated corpse, he changed, mutated and now was close to what one might call a oni.

Not quite like the one he had dealt with earlier the month, but it was clear… He was what he was.. And with it brought some changes… Temperamentally, he was… more aggressive, he felt like he could take on the world, which may have helped put him in this apartment, he felt stronger, was stronger, and he had this… Well… He was hungry, all the time.

Litterally.

He could always eat, drink or a mix of the two, it was rough to know when to stop. Not too mention Stuff just… TASTED better, like he could eat anything. Without question, he had to stop himself from chewing on fish bones after dinner yesterday, and he didn't like fish.

...Well, when it came down to the question of where this bloodline came from, his mother had an answer. It was old, real damn old, and good at hiding it'self. Most stories from tbe family have largely been forgotten outside of when they try to figure out the white hair and red eyes thing. But outside of a degree of albinism there really was no outlining surprises from the line.

It was all but a forgotten tale.

Until Waka exploded.

Now he isn't allowed back home, his father is outraged, his mother is silent, and really… He expected as much.

He leaned on the window sill, gazing outside while his thoughts continued. Many times his father had scolded, reprimanded him, for not wearing his crystal. And now, due to no fault of his own, he was subject to it again. To a point where, again, due to not fault of his own, had been changed down to the bone to a form that was considered… Unwanted…

A freak.

Sometimes he wonders if it would have been better if he just died rather than changing… Sure hes alive. But tossed out of his home and now stuck in a small single room apartment and closed off from family… He even has to start cooking… Last part isn't too bad, but… He can't help but feel his luck has been terrible for the last year. Trouble after trouble… He guessed at the time it came with the territory as ninja, but… Gods above and below… This is why he hated not having anything planned to do. His mind wanders too much. Stuck in a downward spiral.

Sighing, the young man stands straight and stretches his back, getting a nice crack for his efforts, he then reached for the doorhandle.

But he paused…

Eyeing the back of his hand…

There lay, out of sight, the seal placed on him by that… Man… Whos name he cannot fully remember. A single handshake and now hes stuck with this… He began to wonder… What work do they do? They have strong people right? Strong… If he was stronger maybe his luck would turn around?

Stronger…

Harder…

These words echoed in his mind a moment. If anybody deserved more strength, why not him? Hes been working hard, but it never feels like its enough. Nothing really feels like enough. The pay? Shit. Work? Even worse. Its like the jobs he does put his all into are ruined by others as well! The sword, his own squad being idiots… The fact he wouldn't be a god damn Oni if Sachiko didn't drag them to fucking sneak into the Arashikage's office building!

A deep growl rumbled from Wakanaka, he spat upon the ground and ripped open the door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Should've left this damn village…"

 

[Ganryu]

Lost Legend​

The melody changed slightly in response, a rapid interlude before resuming its previous tune. “Alright,” a footstep as Yumi’s voice sounded beside her. “You’ve got my attention.” There wasn’t a heartbeat with the voice and shuffle of steps.

Sachiko gave a sigh of relief. “Oh good, another girl. I hate dealing with boys my age. Always so pigheaded. Then again, Okimi’s a girl too…” Sachiko held her finger to her chin as if in thought. “Or a strange… lizard thing.”

Shaking her head, she c[urtsied, before sitting on her knees as if at a trade negotiations.

“First things first. Know not a good way to start, but, uh, your client’s not the most… pleasant person is he? First things first, I gotta know what I’m dealing with, how much is he paying you guys anyways? Oh, and for good faith, I’m Sachiko Kounna, Gremlin of Tsumi.”

Sachiko gave a quick polite nod.

“So, business. Tell me, can you tell the difference between this sword, and the one behind you?”

Sachiko unfastened the replica they’d been given for the mission.

“Yumi Ishikawa,” the clone gave a polite bow before settling across from her in the same manner. “I don’t have any titles, but uhh, apprentice to Master [find a name, Sachiko would prob know though. One of the best shamisen players in the world]?” She shrugged. “I’m just glad to find someone that isn’t a ‘punch first ask questions later’ kind of person.”

She cringed at the question of her client. “Lord Tamenobu’s a . . . very special client to the village. So much so Lord Nendokage even declared this an A Rank mission. Heh, though I guess it really is with ninja showing up and not just rogue samurai.”

Yumi’s eyes lit up at the replica. “I knew something weird with that sword! Tsumi nun showing up just confirms it.” She studied the replica for a moment before shaking her head. “From here? I don’t see any difference. Even has the same unsettling feeling despite the seals on it. Or maybe because of them? Does everything in your village give off that feeling? Uh, sorry.”

“♪Yup.♪ It’s part of our charm.” Sachiko showed her crystal, starting to turn deeper purple, the same light miasma drifting off of it. She scratched her head.

“A-rank... ? Huh, that does make it difficult. Hmmm… Guessing 300,000 Ryo, Mission office gets 50%, leaving 150, double portion for sensei means about 30,000 each. Huh.” Sachiko tapped her fingers as she thought. Then she started to grow a smile.

“But you know what’s worth about 500,000 Ryo, and the mission office gets no cut from? A bounty outside this mansion right now. There’s a member of Bishamonten. He’s got an explosive sword. We’ve got an A-rank right here for that sword as well, and honestly all we’re here from.

However, ours is from the village itself, so not near as lucrative, but we get yelled at more if it messes up. You know how it is. But if we get by without much trouble, think it’s fair. How about this?

I’m going to swap out this blade for that one, and assist you in capturing the Bishamonten mooks? We can play it off as we were called as reinforcements. You guys get the bounty on those, no one notices the swapped out swords, you get paid twice. If anyone ever notices the difference, you get to pin it on us, and can say it happened at any time after you left. We circled back, and replaced it. Your village yells at our village, noble gets refunded if it's found, everyone’s happy.”

Yumi folded her arms in front of her chest as Sachiko spoke, quietly listening to the offer. Finally, she nodded. “Well Sachiko, you know how to spin a tempting offer. That’s quite a bit of Ryo you’re willing to hand over… A very tempting offer…” She hummed, thinking for another long moment. “Before I agree to anything, though, draw the replica. I need to make sure of something.”

“Might want to brace, wherever you actually are.”

Sachiko sighed, glancing up towards the roof tiles.

“And it was going so well. Man, if only it was Kurio or Okimi, or Wak… do I hang out with just freaks, huh?”

Lazily, Sachiko flicked the blade out it’s sheath with her thumb. A dark miasma pulsed out, filling the room, corrupting and burning the paint off the walls itself with a burning screech, the black mist spreading like lightning as it came in contact with any object. Vases cracked, paint burned, wood hissed.

Some of it drifted towards Sachiko’s purple crystal, the necklace heating up as it did so. Some of it didn’t, burn marks running up Sachiko’s arm.

She let the blade fall back into the sheath. It had looked like lightning had run rampant through the room.

“Thankfully, it is just a replica. Real thing bites a bit worse.”

The shamisen stopped briefly, long enough to allow the burns to break the Genjutsu twisting the halls. It started back as Sachiko returned the blade to its sheath. “The real thing is much, much worse.” Yumi replied after a moment. She sighed, “Truth be told, I was hoping it wouldn’t do something like that. But I suppose this makes it a better replica. Alright, Sachiko, you have a deal. The real sword’s in the room at the end of the hall. Display stand’s right in the center. Go swap them out and we’ll see about capturing a samurai.”

A loud crash shook the building. Followed swiftly by another. “What the heck...? Are they trying to bring the place down?”

Sachiko just face palmed with her non burnt arm.

“One job guys… One job….”

She glanced over at Yumi. “Nendo have any openings by chance…? Anyways, believe next part of the bargain is to get rid of this noise.”

Sachiko cracked her knuckles. “Man, I hate actually doing my job…”

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Okimi Bajirisuku
Sword Snatching

Okimi’s eyebrows furrowed as she watched the arrow whiz up past her into the air. “Where are they aiming?” She asked herself, scratching her scalp.

She was far from prepared for the sudden burst of arrows falling down around her. “Shit!” She yelled, quickly grabbing one of the stick behind her back. She swung it mid transformation, swiping an arrow out the air with her spear as Feurey began darting between them. Arrows skimmed past Feurey, narrowly missing his wings. He curved upwards flying up above the line of arrows. It was peaceful again.

“You ok?” Okimi asked Feurey, rubbing his neck as she examined him. There were a few arrows stuck in his back, but they weren’t deep enough to be an issue. There was a small tear in Feurey’s right wing. “Looks like you're ok for now. Let’s go light this place up for trying to hurt you. Sound good?”

Feurey responded with a sputtery snort.

Okimi nodded, and the two swooped down towards the chaos. The dragon ninja weaved a short series of hand signs as they did so, and she began firing small flow moving balls of fire behind her. They fell slowly, shimmering with red and orange light.

Feurey landed on a rooftop in stride, sprinting across it before jumping back into the air. He spread his wings, gliding atop the front gate. Okimi cleared her throat, looking down at the battle before her. Cherrytop was fighting another nin. This was a good chance to kick his ass.

“Samurai!” Okimi yelled out from atop the gate. She sat on Feurey’s back, spear outstretched pointing at the two. Explosions rang out behind her as her jutsu finally hit the ground. “I’m here for your head!”

KageYuuki Ganryu Orikanyo

 

[Ganryu]

Team Hayate, and Why Ganryu Shouldn't Be Allowed to Make NPCs on the Fly​

As Aya and Shibata walked, Aya's shadow began to darken on the ground with each step. A small bubbling sound began to resound, and slowly small black, tar like bubbles could be seen, popping and forming under her. It continued with each step, and didn't seem to want to let go. Aya would sprint a bit, and her own shadow would follow her. Walking into bright sun, it simply moved under her. It continued for several minutes unabated.


Meanwhile, under Hayate a similar bubbling began.

And in a previously unexplored house, in the Tanaka clan compound, a certain Eizo Tanaka would find his shadow also beginning to bubble, as well as the shadow of the stand next to his bed. Only in his case, a sudden white mask appeared, skull like with several gashes in it, from behind the hollows, eyes could be seen staring at him from the floor. Slowly, the tar like substance began to rise from the ground, morphing it's amorphous shape into more and more of a solid lump, towering over him. Gently, the tar bubbled into the shape of an arm, then another. Billowing behind him, a cape appeared. A dark, screeching voice resounded in the room. The voice grated and echoed.






He slowly shuffled through his cape, his hand seeming to pass through it into the tar like substance, before pulling out a stack of papers. Though they dripped with the tar, it quickly disappated, and they were fine.



The deathly shadow threw his cape forward, the fabric wrapping around and engulfing Ezio in the same material as everything else. Unfortunately for Ezio, it felt much like how it looked, a mess of sticky, thick wax wrapping around and engufling him, before a sudden tug pulled him into the shadow of the drawer.

Slowly, the specter began to rise out of Aya's shadow, causing a small squeak from the girl.

"W-what...?"

The figure appeared behind her, with hulking shoulders, only to open his cape and 'spit out' Ezio.





He brought out a stack of papers, presenting it to the girl. As Aya read the papers, her eyes looked surprised, and her face paled a bit.

Isamu turned to the group.





With another sweep of his cape, all four would disappear, drowning in tar all of a sudden as they disappeared.

All but Aya would reappear in Hayate's shadow, Isamu spitting up Shibata and Ezio. Isamu handed Hayate a stack of papers.




He turned to Shibata and Ezio and nodded.



And with that, the shadow collapsed into the ground, leaving the room completely.

 

[RoninN7]

Eizo Tanaka
Just another day, right?​

"Eizo..." A voice rang out from what felt like thousands of miles away. "Eizo, dear, are you there?"Closer this time. "Eizo!" The voice was now close enough for Eizo to recognize who it was: Akari. The boy's eyes snapped open as he flung his covers across the room, springing upwards until he was sitting on the bed. For a couple of seconds following Eizo's abrupt awakening, his head swung back and forth rapidly as his eyes scanned his room in a futile attempt to locate the source of the voice he heard. Once the sleepy haze passed, Eizo finally realized that he was looking for ghosts, and his heart rate finally slowed down. "It was just a dream, I guess..." The realization finally brought Eizo back to reality and made him realize his sheets were all over the floor and that he'd overslept a little. Eizo didn't have much planned other than training, which he always preferred to get through in the mornings before lunch. Sadly for him, however, it was almost lunchtime because his dream kept him sleep longer than he would've liked. He sighed and quickly went about making his bed and tidying up his room a little before changing into his green, sleeveless threads. Eizo decided that if he couldn't get a full training session in before lunch, he'll at least get a bit of a pump to properly wake himself up, so he began doing 300 pushups.

Just as Eizo was getting up after finishing his exercise, he noticed something funny. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but after staring intently for a couple of seconds, Eizo realized his shadow was bubbling. It looked like his shadow had turned into a little puddle of darkness at his feet, and Eizo immediately grabbed his staff, but before he could do anything with it, something started to appear from out of the shadow. The figure looked humanoid but somewhat inhuman. For a moment, Eizo froze, thinking to himself of many different ways he could fight this thing off. Maybe it's weak to sunlight; if I take the fight outside I could have an edge... Or maybe I can somehow blind it and blitz it fast enough to create chaos and disorient it... Is it even capable of falling under genjutsu? Maybe this thing is actually human, and, if so, I could catch it off-guard by opening the Third Gate... Before Eizo could think of any more scenarios and ideas, the figure fully formed and spoke. "Eizo Tanaka... your time has come. To join another team. I am Isamu Shimizu..." Isamu introduced himself and caught Eizo completely off-guard, making him furrow his brow and just stare. Before the young shinobi could have a chance to ask any questions or even speak, Isamu pulled out some papers and proceeded to envelop Eizo with a cape covered in something slick and sticky. The sensation of it made Eizo shudder, but before he could process the situation, everything went black.

It didn't take long for Eizo to see light once again. This time, however, he was somewhere completely different from where the shadowy man had taken him. He couldn't quite make out the location as his eyes needed time to adjust, but he could make out the words that Isamu spoke. "This is your new teammate: Shibata Yamamoto." New teammate? I knew I'd be assigned a new team, but this is all more sudden than I expected. Eizo took a moment to gather his surroundings as his eyes wandered until they eventually landed on his new teammate. Not only was he shocked about how suddenly his new team was assigned, but he recognized the last name as that of the clan that possesses crystal release and protects the people of Tsumigakure. Eizo quickly stood as Isamu spoke to a third shinobi that was present. Without wasting any time, Eizo directed his attention to Shibata. "Uh, I'm not sure what-" Before he could finish his sentence, Eizo was interrupted once more by the ghastly voice of Isamu, who was now requesting that they go with him once more. Once more, Eizo didn't even get a chance to reply before being engulfed in the sticky substance and total darkness. This time, he and Shibata were both tossed out from Isamu's shadowy cape and placed before a jonin that Eizo recognized instantly: Hayate Yamamoto. Is he going to be my new sensei?

Eizo felt as though Isamu read his mind because as soon as the question entered the boy's head, Isamu spoke up, confirming that he was, in fact, now under Hayate's tutelage. Just as quickly as he appeared, Isamu vanished after giving a short introduction, leaving no time for any questions. Eizo looked around, his eyes darting from his new sensei to his teammates, trying to process everything that had happened that led him from doing pushups in his room to being assigned to a new team. "What... What the hell just happened? I, uh-" Eizo's eyes went wide as he calmed himself down and decided that asking questions would lead him nowhere, so he opted to instead deal with the mild heart attack internally and just introduce himself to his new team. "Hello Hayate sensei, I am honored to be forming a part of your team and will do everything I can for the team," he started, bowing slightly as a show of respect, "my name is Eizo Tanaka and it's a pleasure to meet you all." He gave his best smile and waved slightly, still somewhat shaken but much more composed. Eizo looked from Shibata to Akane, wondering what would be the best thing for him to say since he'd just met them. "I'm looking forward to getting to work with the both of you and go on missions together!"

 

[KageYuuki]

Lost Legacy
The lumbering figure tilted his head at Waka's mention of a wanted swordsman at the gates. The tattered scarf around his neck had the emblem for Bishamonten embroidered on it, the scratched out headband on his belt glinting in the moonlight. "You sure you're not with him, kid? Look the part, smashing the building an' all." His voice was rough and gravelly, fitting his appearance. With a shrug, the swordsman cracked his neck and swung his greatsword towards the ground. The earth shook on impact, the strike launching a torrent of dirt, stone, and grass at the Tsumi nin with enough force to shatter stone.

"They call me Taichi, the Mountain Crusher." He grinned, leaping after the spray of debris, sword overhead. He swung down towards where Waka was standing with the flat of the blade, threatening to smash him if he chose to whether the first assault.


Swords switched out, Yumi returned her shamisen to her back and stood. She reached up for the small radio microphone around her neck, "Tenzo, if you see anyone from Tsumigakure, leave them alone. I'll explain la--" Her eyebrows rose at the voice coming back through her earpiece. Yumi turned towards Sachiko, "You got a pyromaniac for a teammate?" As if to punctuate the question, the explosions from Okimi's jutsu lit up the room in a brilliant orange flash. "Kinda hard to get the sword if you torch the place..." She walked over and opened the window, "I need to see about putting out any fires, call your teammates off." With that, Yumi leapt outside and started climbing up towards the roof where her own teammate was perched.


As the hail of arrows ended, Tenzo emerged from beneath his cloak. He'd swapped out his arm again, switching from a longbow to a smaller crossbow. He searched the air for any sign of the duo he'd shot at, quickly taking aim as Okimi and Feurey emerged from the clouds. His earpiece crackled, "Tenzo, if you see anyone from Tsumigakure, leave them alone. I'll explain la--"

"You sure about that? One of them's raining fireballs on the place." He aimed the bolt intended for Okimi at one of the many descending fireballs. It exploded on contact with his shot. Several more bolts followed, each aimed at any fireball headed towards the building. "Tch," he spared Okimi a glance as Feurey ran briefly across the rooftop before diving towards the chaos out front.

As Okimi landed, she'd find most of the samurai guards from earlier sprawled out dead on the grass. Slashes and burns covered some bodies, others had been crushed, and others still had fallen victim to Nagareboshi's explosions. Akane sent the Nendo jounin tumbling away with an explosive strike, he turned towards Okimi. "Well, if it isn't the little miss from the graveyard. Certainly know how to make an entrance."

The other kunoichi pushed herself to her feet, sharp eyes studying Okimi. "As if this samurai and Taichi weren't headaches enough."

InsaneAsylum Ganryu Orikanyo

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Isn’t Acupuncture Supposed To Be Relaxing?

Squad Ichiro​

“You really expect me to put a bunch of needles in me? You’re dumber than I thought sensei! I don’t need little pokers to help me get stronger! Get me something better or nothing at all!” Okimi demanded, slowly distancing herself. Despite being a bit of a regular to the hospital, the kunoichi deeply detested needles. Thin little things that could stick into you with little to no resistance all while potentially injecting harmful substances into your body was a horrifying thought for her. Hell, even piercings were off putting to her.

“Come now, don’t tell me our little dragon is afraid of needles.” Kurio shuffled over to where the case had been set out. Flipping it open to reveal it was absolutely bristling with hundreds of tiny glass needles. He looked them over for a moment before nodding and clipping the case to his belt. Chances were good he was going to need his hands free.

“I’m not afraid of needles! You sound stupid! I just… don’t need them!” Okimi shot back, before pointing a finger at Kurio. “Don’t come over here with those!”

“Uh huh,” Kurio remained where he was, his usual placid smile on his face. “Sensei’s training methods are . . . strange, but it’s hard to deny their effectiveness.” He folded his arms in front of his chest, “You’re hardly the first difficult patient I’ve had to deal with. But let’s be honest, it’ll be much better if I do this than Sensei. Chakra points are about the size of a pinhead. He would likely need several attempts just to hit one.”

Okimi visibly flinched at these words. It would no doubt be better for Kurio to do this over sensei. It didn’t seem like she’d be able to avoid this either, as sensei would chase her down if she tried to run. For a moment, Okimi considered just caving the whole place in. She quickly shook the idea away.

“You’re so annoying… if you think I’m gonna let anyone here stick a single needle in me, then we’re gonna have problems!” Okimi said, her voice getting louder with every word. Her muscles had begun to tense and she alternated her glare between Kurio, sensei, and Aragi.

Kurio sighed and shrugged. Flying through a short series of handsigns, he held out his palm and released a blinding flash of lightning. When the light faded, he was gone. The purple haired chuunin reappeared behind Okimi, a kunai slashing at her throat. “You know I can heal anything I do to you, right?”

Lightning Release: Reap

Okimi quickly tried to spin backwards, to hit Kurio, not realizing it was a genjutsu. Of course when he wasn’t actually there Okimi realized it. She quickly tried to spin back around.

The illusion faded as quickly as it had appeared, but it was plenty of time for Kurio’s next move. Electricity crackled in his palm as he closed the gap with a body flicker, aiming a palm strike at her lower back.

Spasm Strike

It was too late for Okimi, as the strike hit its target, sending her sprawling to the ground in a heap. She managed to gasp out one last sentence. “Fuck… you…”

Kurio caught her, lowering her to the ground instead of letting her slam into it. “Sorry,” he sat beside her, “but like I said, it’ll be much better and faster if I do this.” He withdrew a small glass needle, “and he said all of your chakra points, so the sooner we get started the better.”

While it was humiliating, Okimi was content knowing that she would get her revenge at a later date. For now, she’d try to relax to the best of her ability, and let the rage boil within. She prayed she wouldn’t be able to feel the needles poke her.

Kurio nodded, setting to work. Mercifully, the spasms in her back would settle after a few seconds, leaving a dull ache in its wake. It took time, Kurio carefully studying a spot before pushing in one of the small needles. Unfortunately, there was likely a light pinch with each one and the glass would begin to heat up in response to her chakra. A gentle warmth currently, assuming she didn’t try to use any chakra. Each needle seemed to fuse in place as it met her chakra point, refusing to budge no matter how much she’d pull. 361 chakra points, 359 needles…. Her eyes were the only spot on her body spared.

“This is worse than I expected,” Okimi grumbled to herself. Her eyes were closed as she focused, trying to ignore the fact she was practically a porcupine. Okimi couldn't help but ask, “Do people actually do this to relax?”

“Yes, actually.” Kurio rubbed the back of his neck. “Though it’s not really as . . . thorough as this. Typically just a few key areas around the body.”

Okimi rolled her eyes. “Great… what did sensei say I was supposed to do? Suffer for his amusement?”

He chuckled, “I’m not sure. He did say this was going to help you learn to use all the chakra points in your body.”

“Sure sure… sounds easy enough. I’ll do this fast so I can get all these out of me sooner.” Okimi started to let her chakra flow, but the needles instantly began to heat up. It burnt.

“Shit! I didn’t think they’d hurt this much! I knew this was gonna suck! Training my ass...” she let out an annoyed groan, staring up at the cave roof. “This might take awhile.”

 

[IG42]

Shibata Yamamoto
The door to the sitting room slid open the moment Akane asked her question but rather than Shibata & Aya it was Fubuki who shuffled in. "If you're looking for the scoop on Shichan I'm your girl." Making her way unsteadily around the table she placed a hand on Hayate's shoulder for support as she carefully sat down. "How's it going sensei?" She asked him once she was settled before turning her attention to Akane. "I'm Fubuki nice to meet you, Shichan's my baby brother so I can tell you anything you want to know about him. Like this one time when he was little saw me practising my tree climbing, Shichan being Shichan wanted to try it himself and of course fell flat in the dirt right away. The problem was we had visitors coming for this formal event so he was all dressed up, trying not to get in trouble he panicked and tried to-."

Before she could finish the story Hayate's shadow boiled before spitting out Shibata and another teen into the room along with a cloaked figure. "Heya Isamu-chan!" Barely missing a beat Fubuki greeted the ghoulish man cheerfully. "Go massacre those stains!" Waving as he left she turned to the other new arrival. "Hi there Eizo, I'm Fubuki Yamamoto your go-to source for dirt on Shichan here. Now that you're here I'd best start my story over again-."

Snapped out of his confusion at being teleported without warning by the imminent threat Shibata frantically cut in. "That won't be necessary Nee-san!" While secretly pleased at seeing his sister being more active he still despaired at just how much damage she could do to his image, sighing he gestured for Eizo to sit and poured out tea for him, Fubuki and himself. "So, Eizo and you must be Akane." He said to the other girl in the room. "Effectively an entirely new team aren't we?"

KageYuuki AtlannianSpy Ace Cream

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Akane Kabenari
Akane opened her mouth, realized she wasn't quite sure what to say about the whole situation and closed it again. Just as she had felt she had been starting to get a handle on her situation the whole thing had been violently upended, as if reality itself had suddenly realized it had been veering off in the wrong direction and suddenly course corrected. Akane hadn't found the... custodian or whatever he was especially alarming in and of himself, many of her clanmates were odd looking by conventional standards, but the suddenness with which he had appeared and disappeared had put her off balance. Not only that this boy the creepy shadow man had brought with him was now her new teammate instead of Aya who has never even gotten a chance to meet, she was technically no longer the new girl. Then while Akane was still processing all of that an older girl who turned out to be Shibata's burst in and started sharing stories about his childhood mishaps.

Akane let out a peal of laughter. It was all too much to do anything else.

"What is it with boys and climbing things?" Akane asked Fubuki. "Why when Tonsuke's claws came in he was suddenly climbing up every surface he could hook them into! Here was a little baby that could barely walk and yet he'd be scaling the kitchen walls and hanging off the ceiling! Grandma Michiko had to chase him down with a broom!"

Realizing she had forgotten her surroundings a bit Akane coughed lightly, the tops of her cheeks turning pink above her mask. "Oh uh, yes I'm Akane Kabenari. Tonsuke is my little cousin, oh well he isn't here right now so that doesn't matter but umm, anyway its nice to meet everyone,"

IG42 KageYuuki RoninN7

 

[Spiderverse]

Aragi OnigakeSquad Ichiro​

It seemed as though the answer that Aragi had given to his teacher was something of a pain in the ass for him, considering the frustration that was clear on his face and in his voice; something about it definitely had seemed off, the way that Ichiro seemed to move back and forth, having the young ninja's eyes follow the man's path back and forth as he further devolved into some kind of ramble about technique. Though there was a moment where it seemed like him and the rest of the squad had stood there silently, Kurio began to answer the question that their sensei had barked at him, even if it was liek nothing was getting through to the jonin at all. What seemed to immediately break the streak though was Kurio's goal of overcoming Ichiro, who seemed pissed at the answer that he was given, getting way too close in the shinobi's opinion, and just as he was about to say something it seemed their sensei was pleased with that answer. That's a relief, at least I'm not with one of those teachers that hate getting upstaged by their students..

Before long though, it seemed he had ended his mumbling rant and began anew, changing topics to show the squad the true power difference between their level and that of the Jonin, as well as the skill required for something like an S-rank technique. But that stuff wasn't all that important, at least the info regarding the other nin wasn't, but learning about Ichiro's was... enlightening to say the least, to Aragi. Then he seemed to make his way over to the Chuunin, examining him in such a way that made him feel a little uncomfortable, before he began going off on the kind of training that he would be up to, specifically regarding the speed of his sealing techniques. The problem of speed had certainly come up before, with the time required for preparation being the main thing that held the shinobi back, so learning to completely avoid the problem in the first place would be awesome. He held up his hand to his forehead as if to salute his squad leader, letting out a hearty "Aye sir!" before the jonin moved onto Kurio and then to Okimi. It seemed as though he was way harsher to them than he had been to Aragi, but maybe that was because he was new. It was weird to be envious of such... anger? Reminded him of tough love.

Seems like he wouldn't have time to relax though, as he was immediately set with a task in order to train his speed. Some kind of metronome with a black and white pattern, with his situation being to give the proper chakra to the metronome at the correct moments, hopefully to give some kind of momentum to his chakra flow. Hearing about the other forms of training that his squad would be receiving was something fun, but what was even more surprising and exciting was the reveal of Kurio themselves being a Jinchuriki, which would factor a lot into any tactics that he would create later on. But for now, to focus on the chakra flow.

Aragi took a deep breath, considering the amount of chakra control that it would take for him to accurately feed the correct yin and yang chakra into the metronome, he sighed: "This is gonna be a challenge." Concentrating, he tried to manage the amount of Yin and Yang chakra, but... ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. "Yep..."

InsaneAsylum Ganryu KageYuuki

 

[Orikanyo]

Wakanaka
Lost legacy

"Ah, shit." He started off with diving to the side, prefering to dodge rather than test the blade again. "Mountain crusher huh? Simple, I like it.

Not everything needs to be so complex, why jump through hoops when you can just takr the straight path, smash through anything in your way." The young man's hand reached to his belt and grabbed his gourd, the large thing sloshed with it's contents as he ripped off the air tight cork and quick downed a couple gulps.

"Pppphew! Thats a burn!" He exclaims, eyeing the the fellah.

"Eyy mounting smasher you want a taste? Good for youuu!"

KageYuuki

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Okimi Bajirisuku

Lost Legacy​

“Don’t worry, I’m only here for the samurai. You can either help me kick his ass or you can get out of my way. Either way I’m leaving here with a Bishamonten head!”

Okimi hopped off of Feurey and patted his rear. “Go get him.”

Feurey took off into the air quickly gaining altitude. Then, he curved downwards, a divebomb. Feurey’s wings were pressed against his body to allow for maximum speed.

Meanwhile, Okimi began weaving handsigns. She had yet to use this technique in battle, but against this opponent she was more than willing to pull out all the tricks.

“Human Dragon Clone Technique”

In a burst of smoke, another green dragon identical to Feurey identical to Feurey sat atop the gate. It was a transformed Okimi! She lept off the gate onto the ground and started sprinting at the samurai like a wild cat chasing its prey.

 

[Ganryu]

"Wah!" Sachiko fell to the ground as the building shook, and flash of heat from fire filled the room.

"Am I the only person who knows what a ninja is!?" She complained. "Covert. Stealthy. Discrete. Since arriving here, they've set the gosh dang house on fire, are causing earthquakes, and screamed so loud I can hear them from here. Heck, this sucks... "

She looked at the blade (Well, pointed her wrapped face at it) then at the window as Yumi crawled through it. Well... she had the mission objective. And a certain scaley had made sure she COULDN'T be useful, even if she wanted to...

"You know... I could just go home, collect the reward... If anyone asks, I can just say I got beat by Yumi.

Hmmm... Yumi Ishikawa, Shamisen player. Huh. Sorry Yumi, you just got a bingo book entry for beating me. That genjutsu tech of controlling the corridor through sound sure was strong. Like the genjutsu is based off of reverberating chakra with the sound waves, and making the brain think that the reverb is the sound of the room moving. The strings of that Shamisen are pretreated with yin chakra. Think I know her kit.

Then again... no one's actually taught me genjutsu, and everything I got's just guesses of how it works. You know... not sure anyone even knows I can do genjutsu, let alone am best of the graduating class at it. Oh well. Best talents are the ones no one knows you have.

And what's funnier if I leave is if Waka and Okimi then break in here, and steal the replica. I think they forgot we had a replica to discretely replace the real one with so no one knew we were here. It'd be hilarious if they present that back to the mission office. I'd loooove to see the clerk's face. Then again... 50/50 shot that they remember the sword either. They just might burn down the mansion and call it mission complete..."

Sachiko gave a 'teehee' pose with her pinky picking at her front tooth, looking cutesy for no one in particular. With a few handsigns, Sachiko poofed into a new appearance, now looking like one of the samurai guard. Sure, she couldn't actually see, but she could fake it!

Running down the hallway, Sachiko counted her steps, trying to figure out how long the hallway was so she could guess the nearest exit.

Sachiko making it back first was bad news for everyone involved... friend and foe alike.

 

[Ganryu]

Search through Miasma​

Long ass, good mission with
Orikanyo Hanarei AtlannianSpy

Spoiler: Mission Description

How are my favorite little akuma hunters doing? Hopefully better than our village, it's been... a bit of an uphill battle recently in Arashigakure. But enough pleasantries. We got a problem we need some help with, and my cute little favorite former genin from Tsumi might be able to help us. A thick miasma has descended over the ANBU training grounds that you guys did the Chunnin exam in. The place with the rock pillars you can't Tree Climb with? That one. Lot of you caused explosions, it was fun to watch. Well, now our ANBU can't get into it due to the miasma. And we need some experts to check it out! Just a scouting mission, no need to seal another Akuma into another sword, but, well, if you happen to, that'd be awesome.

Anyways, look forward to it!

Aito Ukita, Jonin of Arashigakure

Spoiler: Part1

As the group travelled once more to Arashigakure, the journey seemed markedly different. No overcast skies, no rain, no pressure, and no thunder. The quietness of the mountains seemed almost daunting.

The plants themselves hadn’t yet adjusted to the new harsh sunlight, withered stalks in every direction across the mountains, and dried rivers as the eternal rains had ceased.

As the group passed by where the village had been, a blank valley waited for them. No sign the village even been there. The coliseum for the chunnin exams was now just a large plateau risen in the center. No metal or work could be seen anywhere.

A few moments later, a shadow passed over them, growing larger as it descended, wings covering Akane and Shio while a torso’s shade fell on Waka.

“Yoohoo! Cuties! Aw, aren’t you growing up to be fine ninja. Seems like just a couple months ago since I last saw you. And your getting so tall! And… wait, who are you?”

The last part was addressed to Akane.

From the sky, a brown haired kunoichi descended, a headband visible embedded in her hooded clothing. Though perhaps more striking were the six large great swords flying behind her in formation, three on one side, three on the other, forming a collection of what looked like wings. A new necklace hung on her neck.

Aito Ukita, proctor from the chunnin exams. Shrugging, she laid back floating in the air.

“We decided without the rain, we were going to take our village, and move it somewhere else. Now it’s a hidden village. Just, uh, not hidden by, uh, Lightning. So, Arashigakure*, * - name pending. Lord Jin’s, uh, not too happy, he’s considering naming a successor. Considering he’s only 17, uh… bit early for retirement though. We won’t let him. Anyways, ya’ll ain’t here to hear me jobber on. We’re still somewhere in the area, but, if you’ll look…”

Aito hung off Shio’s shoulder, while pointing in the distance. A dark cloud could still be seen, despite the clear skies. And this one was a dark purple. The longer one would look, the more unnatural it would become, becoming more and more grainy, and moving against the wind.

“I suppose the name hidden in the storm isn’t accurate enough anymore huh Auntie?” Waka opened up with a strong start, his smile shining through. “The cloud though… Do they have any idea whats in there? What we should expect?”

“Ahh, hello!” said Akane, bowing slightly when she was addressed by the floating jonin. “I am Akane Kabenari, I did not attend the chunin exams as my team was not considered ready for them at the time. Oh! But I am a chunin now so please do not be concerned regarding this current mission, although I don’t actually know much about akuma…” Akane trailed off and glanced plaintively at her teammates, deciding she would be better off if they just went ahead and took over the conversation.

Shio scratched her chin seemingly in though not at all seeming to mind at all of Aito’s presence. Her head tilting nonchalantly to the side, observing. Her words address Waka first. After all she had joined the mission to be around her teammate… at least so much as she might tease it being the purpose. She had other reasons naturally she wouldn’t say.

“The cloud… probably a rather painful poison of which will ensure maximum suffering should we breathe it in while entering inside awaiting a slow and painful death, at least we would if whatever is inside wouldn’t rip us apart as we are in pain suffering from the poison’s ill effects.” She spoke up prattling on a bit more than she should, being quite nonchalant as she spoke of such dire consequences.

“That there is Waka for an example of an Akuma, very fierce though quite cute.” She spoke addressing Akane looking towards her, putting on her bright smile as she teased Waka a bit with what could be considered both a compliment and a insult, though expecting him to take it as more the latter.

Several swords embedded in the ground around Waka, but Aito's face looked more panicked than angry.

"Do you know how many other jonin I got ribbing me with that! I can't even get into a bar without everyone calling me Auntie Aito! Those chunnin exams were live!" She complained, flailing her arms the entire time, looking more like a kid than a jonin with a moniker. The flailing arms did show a glimmer on one of her fingers, but fingerless gloves quickly covered it again.

At Akane, Aito smiled pleasantly, drifting more towards her, resting against her back, though she was near weightless, a small hum of air under her at all times. It felt like a moving AC unit.

"See, be more like Akane here. Akane's cool. Right, Akane? You're cool, right? I trust you not to get ripped apart terribly. Afterall, your village keeps being pretty reliable. Pretty reliable indeed. Man, I'm just sad that you DIDN'T attend. Think it woulda been fun. First time proctoring. Tried getting everyone lost. Real lost. Afterall, I AM a ranger. Of course, a couple of Hayate's brats caused a fight that made some kids actually do some thinking. Pretty sure could have hit 90% otherwise."

At Shio's comment, Aito just blinked. "Well... duh? I mean, kinda why I'm calling the village that specializing in this. Far as what's in there... Kiiiiinda why I'm calling the village that specializes in it. You should expect whatever it is your wasteland specializes in. That miasma's thick. Thicker than any I've seen, 'cept for center of Tsumi. Just being near there makes most people sick. Worst date of my lif- Anyways, so probably some Akuma."

She glanced at the cloud moving against the wind, the billows falling like snow.

"Probably a lot of Akuma. Mission isn't to fight them all. It's to find out why. Scouting. I’d come, but, I have other fun things to do that don’t involve being ‘painful poisoned of which will ensure maximum suffering should I breathe it in while entering inside awaiting a slow and painful death.’”

Waka leaned back at the blades… Though stood back straight once Aito start waggling about. "Ah sorry to hear auntie I guess I caused you some trouble, hope you will forgive me~!" He had the smile of an angel, eyes half closed, head tilted, horn kinda… Well… Ruining it, but hey.

"Well, guess nothing for it but to go in and deal with the issue."

Akane’s eyes flitted back and forth between the others, feeling out of the loop, and very slightly envious. It sort of felt like the exams were this grand rite of passage everyone went through and looked back on fondly. Akane’s own promotion had felt distinctly anticlimactic by comparison a few kind words from the Tsumikage and some troubling memories were all she really had by way of souvenirs. This was a rather petty complaint though Akane reminded herself. After all the chunin exam had ended badly, Akane still wasn’t totally clear on the details, but it sounded disastrous and traumatic in its own right. Perhaps violent and unexpected ordeals were the real right of passage all along?

As the conversation veered back towards the matter at hand Akane dismissed her philosophical musings and joined back in with her full attention.

“I think Wakanaka is correct, unless either of you two have any kind of sensory jutsu or something similar then there probably isn’t much more we can glean from out here than our allies will already have learned. I propose we cut directly through the center of the cloud. If there is a physical culprit for the phenomenon it seems likely it would reside right in the middle and if there isn’t we can at least experience a cross section of the whole cloud and plan our next move from there,”

Shio nodded slightly in agreement, seeming to ponder a bit as if thinking if she should interject anything else. The girl finally seemed to nod as if coming to some conclusion.

“It isn’t a bad place to start to search for the cause… though it’s also a rather predictable place to search as well if whatever is creating the Miasma isn’t fond of guests coming to visit. Not a bad place to avoid and prepare some sort of ambush. Only way to find out though is to dive right in.” She spoke with a light carefree nod.

At Waka's antics, Aito's hands began to move towards a ram seal, but she just sighed, and let it die, slumping over midair, like some alcoholic pixie. She slowly floated away, leaving the group to start their search. She did, however, call back.

"Be careful! We don't know what's in there."

As the group began to close into the cloud, dark flakes of chakra fell from the sky like snow around them. The air had a harsh, burning feeling, their crystals immediately turning hot. Two of the three were monstrous enough that it probably was even comfortable. But to even most Tsumi nin, the miasma was harsh. A 'snowflake' landed in Akane's hand. If she looked, it seemed to be a scale covered in a burning aura. A bit of blood splashed over it. The burning aura, however, ate at it, until it disintegrated to dust in her hand.

Other raining snowflakes likewise dissipated. A few of them looked bone like, a bit of offal here and there. A large fang fell from the sky, threatening to pierce Shio if she didn’t move. It would shatter into burning enamel if it hit the ground.

The group would come to the same pillars from the chunnin exams. The ones that prevent tree climbing, and were near unclimbable. However, the mist below them was now a dark fog, the dark snow floating upwards from it. It seemed the center of the cloud was at the bottom, if they could figure a way down.

"...Great… Who would have imagined the weather to include gore rain…" Waka noted, the all but horrid display of vittles and gore a simple tick to the unpleasant nature of it all…

"All the way down there huh…? Alright… You two follow, don't make me wait too long." His horn glowed like a red hot iron, going from red to a pure white point at the top.

With a crack of his neck, he eyed the pillars, and hopped down into the abyss, planting a hand on a pillar and causing a rain of debris as his hand carved a long cut down its side, using the pillar to slow the fall.

Akane clicked her tongue, making a gentle tutting noise. “Boys, they’re all the same,” Akane stepped off the edge of the pillar, unfolding all four of her arms and extending her claw-like nails as she did so.

“What makes you think you’ll be the one waiting?” Akane called to Waka as she plummeted past him, only digging her claws into the rock wall to slow her fall after she gained a suitable lead on him.

Shio glanced back over where she had been impaled, glancing back over as Waka was quick to react. The girl shaking her head and sighing lightly despite it being practically an inevitability he would. She reached into her pack putting on a mask ensuring it was snuggly fit over and mouth and nose. A precaution given her lungs already had enough trouble as it was without trying to add some more poisonous smog to the mix. She was a bit more surprised to see Akane moving to follow quickly behind. Seeming to upstage him.

“Looks like I will have plenty of decoys if I don’t die from this.” She spoke with a light smile more so to herself. She made the leap down, lacking the ability to grab on her hands lifting up as she created chakra strings quickly attaching them onto Waka as she began to fall using them to hold onto dear life to him to grasp the side for her if she wouldn’t manage to find her grip anywhere else. Worst came to worst she could bring her great teammate down with her!

As both Waka and Akane shredded their way down, bits of loose rock fell away, warding away the gore rain momentarily as it repulsed the chakra which composed the material. Everything that fell seemed to be made purely of chakra. Everything that fell continued to decompose.

Painfully, that included the fang now embedded in Shio’s shoulder. Upon impact, it had shattered, shrapnel raining into it. Slowly, it began to decompose, but left burns of chakra exposure behind. The mask, however, proved to be a great idea, as suddenly the air became much easier to breath, without the burning that dissipating scales gave as they burned away into the air.

At the bottom of the chasm, the sound of rushing water could be heard. A stream of black, gas filled water rushed by them. Lying on the shore, a fish as large as an elephant lay, looking almost draconic in its appearance, with fins almost looking like wings, and a long elongated neck leading to a fang filled face. A tail fin, and short stubby legs underneath showed it’s full feature. However, a large bit could be seen taken out of its stomach, where it leaked dark miasma. An Akuma. A dead akuma decomposing back into pure chakra, but an akuma. (There’s your plesioth, Ori).

Dozens of foot prints could be seen in the ground below the fish dragon.

Hard to notice, but most suspicious, a set of foot prints could be seen, and a few knife marks across the stomach as well, though it paled in comparison to the giant bite mark that took out most of the tail and hind legs. It likely hadn’t killed it.

The human foot prints travelled off to the right.

However, a second set of foot prints also smashed into the ground nearby. They looked vaguely humanoid, but were… much… much bigger. They led off to the left.

And straight down the center was the stampede of various monster shapes and sizes. The raining of offal and bone became much more intense towards the center.

"...If you told me at the start of my genin life I'd end up in a gore pit, I'd believe you were crazy.

But here we are.

Knee deep in decomposing akuma." Wakanaka kicked a stray bone away, it shattered upon a stone.

"Right, So, I feel like going left." He pauses. "Right, I think I've seen footprints like that before. Might help shed some light on stuff.

But the smaller prints, well, folks our size down here are two things, trouble and likely part of the problem."

“Yes this is thoroughly disagreeable,” Akane said mildly, brushing a burning flake of offal from her shoulder with an expression of distaste. “I’ve lost track of whether you’re talking about right or left, but I agree the human tracks are quite suspicious. Anyone down here without a crystal should be in tremendous pain not walking around. And of course anyone with a crystal is equally suspicious considering the Village sent no one ahead of us as far as we know. I’m concerned we might lose the trail of whoever they are if we pursue the other leads but if you have some particular expertise about these...larger tracks maybe it’s worth you splitting off and investigating them separately? How dangerous are they likely to be?”

"Human-like feet… Means likely an oni, so, like me, but bigger. Dealt with one in the past, if they're from the same family I think I got an idea or two… If anything, might get a word out between punches." He rose a foot out of the muck, wet sticky sounds abound. "...New boots it is…"

Shio let out a painful breath of relief… more so directly into the mask as she rubbed at her shoulder still burning a bit from the toothy shrapnel from before. Not likely to leave a pretty mark on her already quite fragile body though perhaps its dissipating might have helped. She looked at the two and glanced at the two paths, tapping her chin.

“Though that center path is quite interesting.” She spoke her voice partially distorted speaking through the mask as she tapped her chin. The girl turned to her allies smiling, not that such a gesture was visible with the mask still on.
“It seems quite likely the more… human sized individual would have created the knife wounds. It’s possible they might have tried defending themselves against it… or perhaps were simply slicing the creature out of curiosity. Clearly if any of the ones creating tracks were responsible for the bite it would naturally be the larger one.”

She spoke, tapping her chin looking in thought.

“Though… given where the bite is… the creature seems more likely it would have taken such a wound if it was running away… or after the fact it was killed. Would have been far more likely if the bite is what had been the fatal wound it would have been on its long neck? Though I suppose another option would be if it was an ambush somehow… maybe with some smaller fellow drawing its attention away that the larger might get a bite.”

She tossed out some conjecture before shrugging a bit. Looking over to Waka once more and then Akane. Her head tilting to the side as if realizing she was practically acting as the tie breaker to their choices in this rotting den of flesh.

“I would put my bets on the smaller one having a higher probability of leading us to where we need to go, or more in particular some answers. There is more to this whole thing besides rotting flesh and kaiju battles.”

“Alright, you two do that, if there's trouble I'll double back.” Says the young man who obviously never suffered due to splitting away from the group, ever, in all his years.

“If you hear screaming and yelling it means I found it.” Waka stated as he started to trot off in the left… Turned to go back right, stopped, looked to the ground, eyed, the straight path, then turned around to go down the left path.

“Gore no matter where we go.” he sighs.

“We should plan to rendezvous back here in an hour!” Akane called after Waka’s retreating form. “It’s as good a landmark as any in this mess!” With that Akane turned back to Shioreta, making a vague gesture in the direction of the human footprints. “Well then, shall we?”

Shioreta shook her head as Waka decided to wander off hearing Akane call out to him. The girl shrugged in response to her wise suggestion.

“Eh.. I’m sure his body will find us one way or another . bereft of life or just hanging upon by a thread. Let’s move forward. I have a feeling we will find out what we are looking for much quicker… and likely the greater threat despite the path appearing far less opposing.”

Shio spoke with a nod giving a thumbs up to make up for the lack of an ability to show off her smile with the mask.

==========================
Akane & Shio
==========================

As the two continued tracking the human footprints, additional signs could be seen across the valley of various struggles. Claw marks across rock, dissolving corpses, burn marks. One, corpse, however, did not look torn up by another akuma. A fist sized imprint ran deep into a large ape like creature, running through several ribs. The fist was from a right hand.

The akuma’s hair was golden, and sparking with electricity, two horns on its head, though one was completely shattered. The back side of the creature was completely exploded out, burn marks and blast debris looking like it had literally exploded, as if a tag had detonated inside of it. {Explosion release}

A strange humming could be heard deeper in. Not anything melodic, but a busy sort of humming like a man at work. A hooded figure crouched in front of another corpse, a massive snake, scraping scales, fangs, and flesh into a test tube.

The words ‘Bishamonten’ could be seen running down the cape of their hood, and slightly below the permanent smile on the man’s face, a headband was worn like a scarf, the symbol for Tsumi scratched out across it. Below that, a dark crystal hung, purple with age and use.

He didn’t seem to notice the two as of yet, busy still with gathering samples as he hummed the same tune for the third time. Dark, dissipating gore dripped from one of his hands, his right.

Shio glanced towards the man keeping quiet. Her eyes observing the scene, it being quite clear the work on that ape like creature had been caused by the man. The mark of Tsumi being scratched out only likely to symbolize it was a missing-nin… one who had the audacity to prevently show it off. LIkely someone who was quite strong or confident in themselves, or perhaps crazy. Chances were a mix of all three.

She turned to Akane taking hold of one of her puppet scrolls holding it out ready for quick use, not wanting to use it quite yet though having it on the ready. She felt quite sure even if they tried to approach them diplomatically it wouldn't last very long. Her eyes focused partially towards Akane to see her reaction.

Well, this just became extremely complicated Akane thought to herself, her expression becoming grim as she watched the stranger go about their mysterious work. A missing nin from Tsumi, that would explain how they got in here and a member of the Bishamonten group we were warned about as well no less. For a brief, mad moment Akane wondered how strong the man was, whether she could win if they attacked him now, then her sense of restrain won out. This was a scouting mission first and foremost and this man, whoever he was likely above their paygrade, they didn’t even have a three man team here with Waka off investigating the other tracks.

Akane turned slightly to Shio and held up an open hand, signalling for her to wait, then pointed with two fingers to her eyes, then to the man. The best they could probably do now was to silently watch and report back what they say.

The man hummed happily as he continued his samples, turning as he stowed them into his cape. His hair was a dyed blue, running from black roots. As he saw the two, he suddenly gasped, flailing his arms as he fell backwards.

“Wh-wha-whatta what? What are ninja doing in a miasma? Wait, Tsumi headbands… What are Tsumi nin doing in Lightning Territory?!” He held up his hands if surrendering.

“What ever it is, didn’t do it! I’m an innocent bystander! Inaba, a rabbit! Rabbits don’t hurt no one!
Also, hi Shioreta. Your side killing you any? Also, hi… yoooou…?” He held up his fingers like finger guns at Akane, but it was obvious he had no idea who she was. Which was pretty equal as the stranger wasn’t anyone either of the two would know either.


Aaaaaand it just got even more extremely complicated Akane thought, shooting Shioreta a slightly miffed expression. “Is this a umm, friend of yours?” Akane asked with faux patience. “Perhaps you’d like to introduce us?”

Shioreta looked a bit puzzled by him speaking up tilting her head to the side. Her eyes fixating on him as he mentioned her side. Her mind quickly put two and two together. It didn’t really change the fact though she didn’t actually introduce herself to him or even speak to him.

“So you are the one that… delivered us.” She spoke, seeming to be quite careful about her words, clearly not feeling the need to invoke any sort of lingering curse on herself. Not likely that helpful for explaining things for her current teammate perhaps though she didn’t have much choice in what she could say either. She turned her head to Akane.

“No clue who he is, I was a bit unconscious and dying at the time.” She spoke quite matter of fact, shrugging a bit in response. Her eyes focused on him still holding her scroll though not going so far as to make a gesture she might open it. No reason to be hostile after all quite yet, and hopefully not at all.

“She is a friend, no need to kill her yet.” She spoke quite offhandedly as if taking his gesture to mean such. “So… what is your name… and… what exactly are you doing here if you don’t mind me asking?” She questioned him feigning a bit of cluelessness to at least some of his actions.

The man seemed very attentive, before panicking once more at Shio’s last comment. “Yet?! That makes me seem like I’m complicit in murder! And I deeeefinitely not that chummy with you to share a jail cell.”

He whispered over to Akane with a handblocking his lips to Shio, but was so loud it might as well not have mattered. “Doesn’t she seem sus?”

He then shrugged. “And you already know who I am! I said I’m Inaba! And me? J-just taking a walk…? Totes not collecting samples of dying akuma to see how long the tissue can be put into stasis and analyzed, to see if they all share a common ancestry. I’m just an idiot rabbit. What are yooou doing here? By the way, Shioreta, uh, you’re keeping an eye out behind you, right?”

He motioned with his eyes to Akane.

Alright now I’m really lost[ Akane thought, her eyes darting between Shioreta and this “Inaba” What’s this guy’s game and why is he playing it instead of just killing us...or me at least.

Akane held up her hands in a mollifying gesture, deciding her priority should be to get out of this situation and sort out the complicated details later. “Look as far as I know our standing orders for people like you is to fall back and report so we really don’t have to get in each other's way here. It sounds like you aren’t even directly related to our mission so perhaps you can just collect your samples and we can just go do our thing?”

Shioreta shook her head a little bit looking towards Akane. Perhaps a bit more info then what was needed to say. Oh well not like it could be taken back at this point anyways. She had a feeling he was just playing games with them anyways. Not likely one to spill anything else out so carefree given how he seemed to be acting.

“I assume you have nothing to do with this Miasma then, correct? Just sneaking in to collect some samples for some fun experiments? Nothing devious outside of that, maybe getting some things to pull a prank on someone? Hopefully nothing that might upset them.” Shioreta asked, being a bit more playful in her own response, seeming to slightly embrace his little game herself and being very careful as to not say the wrong thing for unnecessary pain.

Inaba’s shoulders slumped at the two.

“Seriously… Not even going to be a liiiil suspicious of eachother?” He pinched his fingers together for emphasis. He then sighed and hung his head. “Gee willikers, you two are no fun to bully. No, Bishamonten doesn’t know what’s going on either. We have a few guesses though. All these akuma are lightning beasts. They all seem to be related.” His voice dropped, and his voice became serious for a moment. [black]“Akuma don’t age, though. If they’re all related… where do they all come from? If you are snooping around too much, an older one here will answer, and silence, your questions.” [/black]

He’s shoulders loosened up again, and the strange man stretched. “Glad neither of you two is feeling particular punchy. I got a mean right hook, but man, I hate doing my job. I suppose asking not to report wouldn’t be out the question…? Even if ask I ask super nice, with sprinkles and a cherry on top? No? Oh well. I’ll pretend the samples I’m carrying are super important and that I don’t want to break the expensive 15 Ryo glass vials.

See ya around, Shioreta, and, uh… Kabenari chick…? Think that was the clan with all the fun bodies…? Been a while. But man, there was this one chick I once dated from the clan, and she- Oh, wait, you two are too young for that story. Peaaaace!”

The man punched the ground, a debris cloud hiding a body flicker away, leaving the two unharmed.

Akane was silent for a few moments after Inaba left, thoughtful. Then she turned to Shioreta again. “Well I don’t know what the hell you got yourself into but I want nothing to do with it. Let’s find Wakanaka and move onto that third path so I can stop thinking about how the only woman in our clan who’s been single long enough to be the one who he dated is my grandmother.”

“I mean to defend myself a little, it was more Waka’s doing. He was the one dead set on breaking into the place and then chasing down the ANBU with the sword. I was just being a teamplayer as they call it.” She spoke with a nonchalant shrug.in response. Shio looking towards Akane at her last comment as if curious tapping the bottom of the mask.

“Oh? Your Grandmother must be quite nice!” She spoke, tilting her head to the side to give her stereotypical though still hidden smile in response. She was still quite curious about the man and just what it was he was doing there. He seemed far from the type to be very upfront and honest though at the same time the type to be up to his own mischief. Just what did he have to do with her though exactly?

“Oh yeah, Waka… right. I guess we should go find him.”











==========================
Waka & Waka
==========================

A rumbling echoed down the path where Waka walked, shaking rock and debris falling. An injured, red, scaled dog, with muscle crackling with power limped past, stopping to stare at Waka before roaring at him… and then continued to limp. Not everything was dead it seemed.

Another large quake rocked the area, before a plateau above Waka gave way, the entire rock structure threatening to topple on top of him as he walked. Immediately, a dozen fanged lizards leapt from it, scattering as falling rock smooshed several.

The rumbling continued, before a feminine cackle could be heard.

Standing against the wall, an older oni could be seen. Red skin, and huge muscles, easily dwarfing most humans. However… it was most definitely a ‘she’, and from how her… ‘assets’ sagged’, it was an older woman. Wrinkled eyes laughed with delight as wiry white hair danced around her face. Another thud could be heard as a giant metal club fell next to Waka. It seemed the Oni was now disarmed.

A lumbering beast eyed her from across the valley, prowling on four muscled legs. White hair, crackling with lightning, raised briskly around it. Two massive horns buzzed with even more energy between them. And a regal, wide, furry tail, hung straight behind it.

It was just one of many fights going on in the valley. A few beasts in the distance had already won, and were onto the grizzly task of a meal. In every one of their eyes, a frenzied look could be seen. {And most common element is lightning}

Wakanaka took in the world around him, saw the old lady currently going toe to toe with…

Everything under the sun really.

So he figured it might behoof him to….

….

Oh, the oni club.

The one from before mentioned it, maybe the old woman didn't want it anymore? Well… Guess he could...Do as Oni do.

He grasped the club in hand, eyeing up at the scene above and hoisted it up. "Maybe I should try talking to her….? She… Does look in the fighting mood… Actually everything is in one. Was the chakra doing this…?"

The old woman cackled like a witch motioning at the beast to attack her. It was all too happy too, snorting, then galloping forward, horns at the ready. The old Oni grabbed both as the beast slammed into her full force, pushing her back against the wall of the chasm, it’s horns barely poking her shoulders. The old woman’s eyes lit up. “Good… good…”

With a kick, sent the creature flying backwards… minus two horns, which were still in the woman's grip. She dropped both of them to the ground, and cracked her neck, before making some very ninja like handsigns.

“I miss the old days, when I could crack the neck of a whippersnapper like you with a kick like that. Now these pathetic fights are the closest I get to a real challenge, curse my old bones. But you made me bleed… you oughtn’t of done that, young thing.”

The creature roared again, electricity crackling down it’s claws. The oni started a series of handsigns as it dove at her again, it’s claws plunging straight at her chest… and smashing into a full suit of armor as the woman held her ground.

“Mercurial Veins: Blood Iron Forge…”

The blood formed a full breast plate, expanding as it flowed down her wrist as well. The blood in her wrist began to expand and drip into a solid form of a club. With one good whack, the creature’s head exploded into a fine red mist.

“Still got it!” She laughed, before walking towards Waka. “What’s a human doing in a feeding frenzy like this…?”

She squatted down on her knees to get face to face, and flicked his horn with a simple smile.

"Ah!? Oww!" Waka held his horn with a whimper, she was strong! And he felt that all through his damn skull!

"I… Ugh… My body shivered. I'm here to figure out what's going on...And… ugh…" got he felt horrid just from that, gotta be more protective of his horn.

"I… got a job to figure out what's going on with this massive cloud of akuma chakra. What is this Obaa-san? Why is this place a nest of gore?" He asked his question, his hand rubbing the sore horn but legs ready to jump away like a spooked cricket.

The old lady shrugged, poking her own horn, before realizing Waka only had one. She blinked in surprise.

“What happened to your other horn, little one?” She asked with real concern. “Did it break in a fight…? That’s alright. T-there are plenty of male Oni with conditions like yours. It doesn’t make you any less for having one. Think of it like a battle scar! Think of massive damage you did to your opponent. You did win, right? Otherwise, it’s embarrassing, but you're still young. Maybe it’ll grow back. Maybe you can beat other Oni to death and glue his horn on yours.”

Standing up, the woman began to unload firewood and a skewer as she sat under the dead beast she had just beat to death with a club. Breathing over the wood, embers travelled from her mouth, and lit it ablaze.

“And that is dumb question. Nest of gore because everything’s fighting. Is nest of fun. Dinner escaped, but I found it. Dinner ran from clear across the continent. Was in Land of Fire. Lots of akuma running here. All of them sparky. Seem like dinner time for all. Everyone fighting.”

She ripped off one of the legs with little more effort than picking a fruit from a tree, and began to turn it over the flames. Half of it was dissipating, but the old oni was determined to cook it. She was no barbarian!

“What is mini oni doing here? Fighting? Want fight me?”

She seemed excited. “I’m looking for good death!”

Waka felt a series of emotions, confusion, worry, embarrassment, discomfort, inadequacy and now just confusion!

"I-I was born with just one!" He lied, but given the transformation could be considered a second, why not consider it a white lie. "I didn't even know I was supposed to have two. Err… Okay… Uhh…

Wait you rushed across the continent because your dinner ran all the way 9here!? Thats…" he looks at the leg cooking on the fire. "Admirable." He states with no fear of this giant at all, no sir. Crazy is what he'd like to say, but…

"What causes all these akuma to pop up? Their all just killing each other and eating a corpse that wont be there in a minute."

“If quick to eat, corpse no go.” The grandma took a bite. The meat was still blue rare, but effort to cook it had been there.

“Turn to chakra. Chakra good for belly. Pure Oni once human. ‘Jinchuuriki’. Then seal break in belly. Belly really full. Chakra good for belly. What is good for belly is good for blood. But lots at once painful. Drove most Oni mad. Called Awakening. Go into Frenzy, come out taller, stronger, better. So, for special occasion, we eat Akuma, but limited amount. Today is Granny’s birthday. 245. Granny Oni live good life.”

She took another bite.

A look of realization hit her as she looked at Waka more closely, still squatting. “Grandson talked of you. Said he have fun tackling mini oni. More fun than cow. Said has one horn. Is so sad. Won’t think less of mini oni. Certainly not judgements about fertility. Granny wish to celebrate birthday with mini oni. Granny called “Oni, the Forge.” Pick weapon, while belly is full. When belly is no full, I can’t make.”

She tapped her head at his question about why there were so many akuma here.. “Didn’t think about before. Maybe all Akuma hungry too. But most Akuma don’t care ‘bout other akuma. No, Akuma only fight as a sometimes treat. Not like Oni. We love fight. Maybe someone call. If Granny Oni call her family, they come. Maybe there’s a Granny Akuma here…?”

“The forge… you make weapons from your chakra..? That's amazing Granny!” Wakanaka had to admit, it was pretty cool… Wait… So… “...So I had an awakening too I guess? I took a lot of akuma chakra way back when, it saved my life but drove me mad…

...Eating Akuma…

And being 245…

...How did you learn to make weapons and armor like that?”

“I’m old. I’m real old. Got thick blood. Blood’s full of chakra… blood’s full of life. Draw chakra from blood, shape iron as it flows. Use chakra to make more iron. Poof, weapons. More chakra, more blood, better weapons. Base weapons only good for one swing. Full as I am now, I can make leeeegendary weapons!”

The old woman took a swig out of a jar. “And only slightly drunk. Wheee!”

Laughing madly, she grabbed Waka’s hands.

“Tatsu, Tora, U, Tatsu, aaaand bleed.”

The woman’s fingernails ran down Waka’s forearm painfully, sharp nails drawing from a shallow cut.

“Now focus on what you want. Keep chakra flowin’ in direction want more steel. Let it cool before releasing chakra. Aaaand forge is in body. Or just bleed. Young’en’s do what want…”

The old granny shrugged, taking another bite of her food, only to find the leg had dissipated. She looked disappointed, turning back, to find half the creature already gone. She shrugged and took another swig of her jar.

“Ah-ah oww Shi- Ah.. What!? A weapon? Gimmie a… Fuuma shurikeeeeeeeeeee Oowwwwwwwwwww!!!!” he whined as the blood began to form into the image made into his mind.

The fuuma shuriken fit into his palm, the blades swinging lightly from the handle.

“I… I...Feel a bit woozy…” he swayed a bit but shook his head to focus. “Thank you…? I.. didn’t expect this..” Did he just get an oni version of a surprise gift from grandma?

Weird.

“Umm.. I should go find my friends… But thank you, I think you may be right… If a big lightning akuma is here and bringing all of these, it may be near…

For what it’s worth, I think you have a lot ahead of you Granny. Thank you!”

The old lady took another swig, then just passed out on a rock, gore still raining down around them. It seemed to be getting more chunky, but rarer. It seemed to be in the final stages, but the final stages probably involved bigger Akuma….

 

[KageYuuki]

Hayate Yamamoto
Confused Sensei
Hayate hummed at Akane's question on what kind of people her teammates were like. "Aya's the quiet sort, but there's a lot of energy in there. She usually keeps to herself between missions-- hm?" He glanced over as the door slide open and Fubuki made her way inside. He offered his niece a smile as she sat beside him, "It's good to see you up and about, Fubuki." Hayate chuckled at her quick offer to share embarrassing stories about her little brother. Not that he was ever better towards his own brother, clan head or not.

The jounin didn't get to listen in on much of the story as his shadow changed, the dark shape now bubbling beneath him. What's he doing here? True to form, Isamu didn't waste any time depositing the abducted chuunin and handing him a file. "Another change?" Hayate raised an eyebrow, opening the folder to skim the new orders. "Ah..." He probably should have seen this coming, given her aptitudes. Wonder if this is how Ichiro feels? Granted Hayate felt less angry at the situation and more confused by the sudden change.

"What... What the hell just happened? I, uh-"

"Must've been your first time running into Isamu," Hayate offered Eizo a sympathetic smile. "Sometimes I wonder if he likes leaving people confused with his appearances. You get used to it. Uh, kinda." He sheepishly scratched his cheek, giving the trio a chance to introduce themselves and try to process the strangeness the last several minutes had no doubt been.

Fubuki was quick to try and take advantage of the confusion, much to her brother's dismay. Hayate laughed, "Someone forgets she's not the only one with embarrassing stories. Like when Fubuki thought she could copy my warp strike and crashed into a wall instead." Leaning back, he folded his arms in front of his chest. Sharp eyes studied the three chuunin in turn for a moment before he nodded. "Well, I suppose since we're an entirely new team, more than just introductions are in order." Hayate stood, motioning for them to follow. Whether or not Fubuki trailed along would be her decision.

Leading them through the halls, they stepped out into a courtyard that served as a training field for the clan. "Names and files are all well and good, but if you're going to be a team you'll need to know what your teammates are capable of." A short series of handsigns and a sheet of blue crystal formed in front of Hayate. He placed his hand against the reflective surface, three clones emerging. The clones spread out across the courtyard and stood, waiting. "So, some demonstrations are in order."

IG42 RoninN7 AtlannianSpy

 

[KageYuuki]

Kurio Shimizu
Squad Ichiro
"Kid, look into your clan sometime. It's actually something."

Kurio raised an eyebrow as Ichiro paused in his pacing to mention that. Huh, he seemed reckless enough to jump in . . . Dark eyes glanced at the sphere of dangerous chakra, that. The jounin stopped again, this time at his mention of wanting to be able to surpass him. As used to Ichiro's . . . mannerisms as he may have been, suddenly being nose to nose with him was still slightly unnerving. Then the jounin laughed. A mad howl that filled the cavern around them.

"Good!"

It was hard to miss the seemingly pleased smirk as Ichiro resumed his pacing. What was easy to miss, however, had been the cat lurking nearby that the jounin called out to. In the heart of so much akuma chakra, what should've been a familiar presence went completely unnoticed by Kurio.

Finished mulling things over, Ichiro started going over what the plan would be for their training. To become jounin, they couldn't afford to just be adequate. The words reminded him of his clash in the Well of Absolutes. He knew he wasn't anywhere near the level he needed to be at to even be considered for jounin, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. The gap between himself and Ichiro became even more apparent as his sensei explained what his strongest jutsu was capable of. To say nothing of the chasm between Ema and himself.

Only 7 shinobi in the village had jutsu considered S Rank.

Kurio blinked, snapping out of his thoughts when Ichiro suddenly grabbed him. He tensed, half expecting to get thrown or something before his hair was ruffled instead. Ichiro stalked away towards Aragi, mentioning the difficulty with seals and what he was going to need to focus on to improve them. Then it was Kurio's turn on what he needed to work on. "You can study med shit in your own time. Your problem right now is you hesitate, bitch. We're going to beat that out of you. You want your beast under control? That's the damn wrong way to think about it. You're going to get to know him better first.

Ah . . . yeah, he should have seen that one coming. As if Junpei's surprise visits weren't bad enough. But if he wanted to get stronger, he was going to have to figure out how to deal with Raiko sooner or later. He just quietly nodded, watching Ichiro move over to Okimi. A shadow leaping down drew Kurio's attention. He blinked. What had once been a small cat was now big enough he could probably ride on its back. The crackle of lightning was new too. "What . . . happened to you?" It couldn't have been the cave. Otherwise, it would have been massive with as many times as Ichiro had thrown it into the Well of Corruption.

The cat set out items before returning to Ichiro and giving him a sake jar. Ichiro tossed it to him instead. He nodded at the call to help get Okimi set up with her own training. He had knowledge of acupuncture, so it was manageable. Assuming Okimi cooperated. But first . . . Kurio opened the jar, giving the contents a tentative sniff. He coughed, turning away. "Thought the stuff mom likes was strong."

Spoiler: Acupuncture from Kurio's PoV

“You really expect me to put a bunch of needles in me? You’re dumber than I thought sensei! I don’t need little pokers to help me get stronger! Get me something better or nothing at all!” Okimi demanded, slowly distancing herself.

He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. So much for cooperating... Setting down the jar, he let a slight, teasing smile cross his lips. “Come now, don’t tell me our little dragon is afraid of needles.” Kurio shuffled over to where the case had been set out. Flipping it open to reveal it was absolutely bristling with hundreds of tiny glass needles. He looked them over for a moment before nodding and clipping the case to his belt. Chances were good he was going to need his hands free.

“I’m not afraid of needles! You sound stupid! I just… don’t need them!” Okimi shot back, before pointing a finger at Kurio. “Don’t come over here with those!”

“Uh-huh,” Kurio remained where he was, his usual placid smile on his face. So she was afraid... He idly wondered if that their sparring match before the exams had anything to do with it. “Sensei’s training methods are . . . strange, but it’s hard to deny their effectiveness.” He folded his arms in front of his chest, “You’re hardly the first difficult patient I’ve had to deal with. But let’s be honest, it’ll be much better if I do this than Sensei. Chakra points are about the size of a pinhead. He would likely need several attempts just to hit one.”

Okimi visibly flinched at these words. “You’re so annoying… if you think I’m gonna let anyone here stick a single needle in me, then we’re gonna have problems!” Okimi said, her voice getting louder with every word. Her muscles had begun to tense and she alternated her glare between Kurio, sensei, and Aragi.

Kurio sighed and shrugged, hard way it was then. Flying through a short series of handsigns, he held out his palm and released a blinding flash of lightning. When the light faded, he was gone. The purple haired chuunin reappeared behind Okimi, a kunai slashing at her throat. “You know I can heal anything I do to you, right?”

Lightning Release: Reap

He watched Okimi quickly spin to try and strike at the illusion before it faded. Given that the illusion couldn't actually cause any harm, it faded as suddenly as it appeared. But it was plenty of time for Kurio’s next move, allowing him time for another set of handsigns. Electricity crackled in his palm as he closed the gap with a body flicker, aiming a palm strike at her lower back.

Spasm Strike

It was too late for Okimi, as the strike hit its target, sending her sprawling to the ground in a heap. She managed to gasp out one last sentence. “Fuck… you…”

Kurio caught her, lowering her to the ground instead of letting her slam into it. “Sorry,” he sat beside her, “but like I said, it’ll be much better and faster if I do this.” He withdrew a small glass needle, “and he said all of your chakra points, so the sooner we get started the better.”

Seeing Okimi settle with a grumble, Kurio nodded and set to work. Mercifully, the spasms in her back would settle after a few seconds, leaving a dull ache in its wake. It took time, Kurio carefully studying a spot before pushing in one of the small needles. The chakra network was a vast and delicate system, and Kurio hadn't been joking about the size of each point. Each needle seemed to fuse in place as it met her chakra point, refusing to budge. He could feel them warming up. Wonder what she's gonna have to do with these. 361 chakra points, 359 needles…. Her eyes were the only spot on her body spared.

“This is worse than I expected,” Okimi grumbled to herself. Her eyes were closed as she focused, trying to ignore the fact she was practically a porcupine. Okimi couldn't help but ask, “Do people actually do this to relax?”

“Yes, actually.” Kurio rubbed the back of his neck. “Though it’s not really as . . . thorough as this. Typically just a few key areas around the body.” He'd performed it a few times during his rounds in the hospital to help treat injuries.

Okimi rolled her eyes. “Great… what did sensei say I was supposed to do? Suffer for his amusement?”

He chuckled, “I’m not sure. He did say this was going to help you learn to use all the chakra points in your body.”

“Sure sure… sounds easy enough. I’ll do this fast so I can get all these out of me sooner.” Okimi flinched. “Shit! I didn’t think they’d hurt this much! I knew this was gonna suck! Training my ass...” she let out an annoyed groan, staring up at the cave roof. “This might take awhile.”

"Sorry," Kurio tried to offer a sympathetic smile before moving back over to where he'd placed the jar of sake. It was a small jar, all things considered. Though the smell alone made it seem that much bigger. He sighed, removing the cork before downing the contents with a cough and grimace. "Still don't get what people like about..." He didn't get to finish the thought as the world began to spin. And then it went dark.

The chuunin collapsed to the cave floor, the jar shattering against the hard stone. He wasn't out for long, sitting up with a low groan. He swayed slightly, crimson eyes taking in his surroundings before settling on the cat near Ichiro. "Kyubei . . . this one of your tricks?"

Ganryu InsaneAsylum Spiderverse

 

[Ganryu]

Ichiro, the Feral.​

Ichiro paced between the students, watching their progress. At the brawl betwene Okimi and Kurio, he just rolled his eyes, turned back to them, to squat and watch Aragi.

Zap, zap, zap

Ichiro simply nodded, a neutral expression on his face. "Took me months to get the damn thing working. You should be able to get it faster, you're probably smarter than a random street rat."

Ichiro watched for a few more minutes, observing. "Problem is your being reactive. Ain't nobody in the world can mold chakra that fast, let alone a complex amount of yin and yang. There's a pattern here, and you need to start molding your chakra BEFORE it hits the sides. Play any instruments? This IS a metronome."


He stood back up, and made his way to Okimi, who was starting to feel the burn.

"Those needles are heating up because your chakra's heating up. It hurts, because it's not even. Your training sucks, girl. Get used to it. I could do nice gentle chakra gathering exercises. I could teach you to slowly pressurize your chakra points into jets. But that takes time, and I don't think that's your style. This is the highway to it.

You've got to figure out how to fire chakra points you've never used in your life, make it the same as your other points, and use resistance to fire to not burn yourself, AND increase the temperture until they melt.

The needles are there to help you. If it hurts, add more chakra to that area. Don't back down. Imagine your facing down Feurey, and something hurts. If you flinch, that lizard of yours is on you. Map out in your head where it's hurting. You're going to need to memorize these points. Needles are just for the first session. Bright side, imagine you're a loaded gunpowder bomb. Then, like, imagine leaving fuckin' blast shadows. That's the type of power we're going for."

Ichiro then walked to Kurio, and his eyes narrowed, tensing up. If anyone wasn't busy training for a second and was looking at Ichiro, his nails were sharpening like claws in anticipation. He relaxed as 'Kurio' seemed calm.

The panther sized cat spoke up. "Greetings, Raiko. It's a pleasure to see-"

"No, Kyubei's not that smart. Little bugger was trying to kill me, and that sake's only thing he has strong enough to do it. But stretch your legs. Til Kurio's back, you're in charge. Figure this type of atmosphere is more 'pleasant' for you. This is the Rhythm of Rage. Still same as before you got sealed, beast. Not that I care if your human, beast, or summon. This is your host's squad. I'm Ichiro, the shishkabob is Okimi Bajirisuku. The nerd's Aragi Onigake.

Brats, say hi to Raiko, the beast of lightning, and the beast sealed in Kurio Shimizu. If it weren't for the drink he's under, he'd be trying to kill us all right now, and have a pretty damn good shot at doing so."

The cat shot Ichiro a death glare. Ichiro yawned, leaning against a nearby wall.

"By the way brats, Imma be out of the village for a little bit after this. Something about nectar, and the moon...? Dunno fully what that is, but know I've managed to piss off two villages, gehehehe. But these are the kind of trainings you'll be doing for a while. I went ahead and told the mission office to load you guys up. Take care of eachother. Sucks losing teammates. *yaaawn*

This is a good time to be going on missions. There's a calm before the storm. All the villages are paused, waiting on Bishamonten to make around. And that group's fucking around and recruiting, so, long as they're doing that, I don't expect any solid moves. So, we got some time to whip you into shape."

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Okimi Bajirisuku
Squad Ichiro​

Quietly, Okimi lie still, listening to her sensei speak to her. She knew he was right about everything he said, but that didn’t mean she’d admit it.

“Yea whatever old man, leave me alone to focus,” she replied with her usual attitude.

The feeling was what she was supposed to focus on. Okimi had never tried to feel chakra points before, save for when she first learned ninjutsu. She’d always just made it flow somewhere and everything worked out fine. But if sensei said this was the fastest way to help her, then she wouldn’t back out.

Okimi closed her eyes, ignoring all the sound in the room. She remembered back to when she climbed that mountain with Kurio. At the peak there was a shrine, and the maiden’s there taught Okimi how to properly meditate.

Spoiler: Flashback

”Wow, Kurio was right, you aren’t very good at relaxing,” one of the maiden’s said with a curious look.

Okimi grunted, sitting cross legged with her fingers intertwined in her lap. She felt stupid. How was sitting and closing her eyes going to help her with anything? If she wanted to relax she could just take a nap!

“Oh I can see it on your face. You don’t know how to relax... That’s ok. We’re here to fix that. Focus on your feet. Wiggle your toes and let them relax. Feel them loosen as they recover from all that walking you did to get here,” the maiden began speaking in a soft entrancing tone. Her eyes watched Okimi carefully, making note of her facial expressions and posture.

Okimi did as the maiden said, feeling her feet loosen a bit. They were in fact sore after the trek up the mountain.

“Let that relaxation spread up into your ankles and into your calves. Focus on them for a moment. Let them rest. Now move onto your knees, and let the feeling spread into your thighs. Relax them. You’re in no rush to do anything here.”

Okimi let out a deep breath as the maiden spoke, already feeling more relaxed than before.

“Good, you’re breathing better now. Inhale through your nose. Exhale through your mouth.” The maiden paused a few moments to let Okimi take a couple deep breaths. “Now relax your hips. Notice how relaxing your hips makes your entire back loosen up.”

Okimi did notice it, beginning to sway ever so slightly now that her back wasn’t tensed.

“Now your shoulders. Let them fall. I’m sure you can feel the relief that comes from relaxing your shoulders. Let this feeling continue up into your neck. Let your head move freely. Don’t worry, it won’t fall off!” she giggled as she said this, but quickly continued. “Feel this feeling for a couple moments.”

Okimi let out a sigh of relief as she relaxed her neck. It felt like she lifted several pounds off of it by doing so.

“Now relax your face. Start with your jaw. Let it drop down. Then cheeks, eyes, and forehead. Relax all of it. Good.” The shrine maiden could visibly see Okimi’s expression relax and soften. The once tense kunoichi had been transformed into a peaceful girl meditating on a mountain top. A feat not many could achieve.

Okimi would go on to stay like this for another half hour before she got bored. But the feeling was unlike anything else she had felt. It was like she had just gotten the best night’s sleep ever but without actually sleeping. Her mind felt clear and alert, all while being as calm as a lake on a windless morning. Meditation was something she’d remember.

Okimi began to relax, starting with her feet and working her way up. As she did so, she could feel the needles begin to heat up in the areas she relaxed. Since the burning points were where her chakra points were, she knew she’d have to focus her chakra there.

She let her chakra flow, visualizing it flowing through her body and collecting at the burning points throughout her body. Normally, it’d be hard for her to focus on so many small points at once. The pain made it easy though. She let her chakra flare at the points and the searing sensation spiked, throwing off her focus. Okimi cursed.

“Fuck... I guess this is what it takes to get ahead.”

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Akane Kabenari

Akane placidly followed Hayate out to to the training field her expression concealing a mild sense of unease growing within her stomach. It had all been going surprisingly well so far, but if they were to demonstrate their abilities then that that might change, Akane could no longer pretend to be normal.

You're being irrational Akane told herself. Isn't basically everyone in this village abnormal? So what if you have four arms and four eyes and blood that dissolves metal- Akane dismissed that line of thinking, deciding it wasn't going anywhere useful. Besides, Hayate Sensei was right, if they were to be an effective team than they needed to know each others capabilities, if she kept something hidden now than later on when she was forced to use it in combat it would only be even more unnerving and distracting. When no one else immediately made a move to go first Akane steeled herself and stepped forward.

"I don't have very many skills or refined techniques," Akane said apologetically. "But I have some inherited traits that can be leverage on the battlefield," Alane explained dispassionately as she withdrew a kunai knife from her pouch and slashed a shallow cut into the flesh of her forearm. Akane allowed the blood to drip down and pool in her hand and then flicked a handful of the blood towards one of Hayates clones. The blood splashed against the clone and immediately began hissing and steaming viciously as the liquid began to dissolve through the outer shell of chakra and reveal crystal beneath.

As her blood continued to slowly eat through the crystal Akane walked towards the clone, stretching out her arms and unfurling her hidden, secondary arms like a spider, the nails on all four arms growing into wickedly sharp claws. When Akane was within arms reach of the clone she sunk her claws deep into the weakened crystal and ripped it apart untiul she was left holding four large chunks of crystal in each hand, which she neatly deposited in a pile on the ground near her feet.

KageYuuki IG42 RoninN7