Event Mission Details:

Iwagakure. The difference with Kumogakure was tremendous. The dreary grey mountains of Kumo had changed into a warmer brown. Rain had yet to fall, giving the land a much more welcoming and warmer feel than what she was used to. Even though Mizuki felt out of her element here, in a land that was not as humid and noisy as back home, she admitted that she liked it nonetheless. The area here looked beautiful, in fact. Patches of green, a far more fertile looking land, and the sun outside... bright, not covered by clouds, felt warmer than most days she had known in Kumogakure. Mizuki smiled, feeling happy with the fact she had seized this opportunity. To leave Kumogakure on a mission. To see the world with her own eyes... It was a dream coming true.

She had no clue where exactly she was currently, but from the looks of it, she guessed this area had to be the Valley of Mountains. The path she had walked on had split for a seventh time now, each of them leading to a different place whereas others seemingly gathered together with the road she was on. The roads quickly disappeared behind the countless mountains as the wind whispered its disappointment about a road not taken. If she didn't have this mission to do, Mizuki might actually have attempted to try out the different roads, perhaps even map the whole area just to see what places there were to be seen. But that day was not now.

As she moved on, her dark grey robes still firmly pulled over her body to cover the flak jacket, her katana and her black flowing dress, the wind seemingly whipped up a dust cloud in the distance. A cloud that grew thicker and approached with every passing minute. It was too far to see what exactly it was, but she took her chances by guessing they were a bunch of galloping horses coursing the same road she did, and as such she already took the effort to step to the sides so as to leave plenty of room for them to pass.

As the road ahead narrowed to a possible bottle neck, the mountains started to rumble, an ear-shattering noise coming from above. Looking up, an avalanche of rocks rumbled downwards, coursing in her direction. Focusing chakra into her soils, she dashed towards the other side and ran up the walls, watching how the boulders quickly cover the ground. As she looked up to see the origin of the unfortunate event, a figure quickly disappeared from sight. Bandits?

Mizuki coughed as the created dust of the avalanche briefly swept over the road, and jumped back down. The cloud created by the stones wasn't the worst to suffer compared to Kirigakure no jutsu, but she couldn't prevent herself from resting a hand on her katana either way, ready to draw it from its scabbard at a moment's notice. Narrowing her eyes, she peered through the dust, cautiously passing the bottle neck that was formed by the mountains.

The moment she set foot out of the cloud, two arrows were fired into her direction. Sidestepping to dodge the first, she cut the second one in twain with a single slash of her katana. Immediately sheathing her blade again, she could see a small dozen of people grin at her as the dust settled. Their patched clothes, torn sleeves, boots along with the tattoos, piercings and the oddest assortment of makeshift weapons immediately betrayed the fact they were brigands at best. Looking up the mountains, she could see a couple more people standing there. While they were not holding weapons at first glance, their presence was enough to bolster their allies' morale and oblige Mizuki as to consider them a threat just as much. Mizuki knew this would be one tough battle if she couldn't talk herself out of it.

It reminded her of the time at the slums when she had been looking for her sister. A simple street gang that her caught off guard and outnumbered. Back then, she had only a tanto as she had reluctantly left her katana home. She had disabled one of them with a stab in his calf and kidney, but had otherwise done everything to escape the confrontation.

While she was, indeed, better trained now than she was more than a year ago, even these amount of numbers were not quite the odds she wanted to face on her own. Granted that her Bubblegum technique could possibly protect her against the ranged attackers up the mountains, but that still left her to deal with half a dozen of people up front. And that was not something she looked forward too.

"My apologies if I have disrupted your peace.", she began. "I merely seek to reach a nearby village."

The group grinned, one of them nudging another, but remained otherwise quiet, and as such Mizuki simply considered their silence a confirmation towards cooperation. Even though she felt they'd end up barring her way either way, she started moving again, further down the road, until she stood almost face to face with them. As expected, two men stepped to the side to block her direct passage.

"Sorry. We're ah... working there. You can't go there."
"How unfortunate. Would you be so kind as to provide me with an alternate route, instead?"
"No can do. We're working there as well."
"Iwagakure must be working hard."
"Yeah..."
"I'll be fine though. If you point me into the right direction, perhaps I could be of some assistance to them."

One of them pointed at the way where she had come from, as the others laughed.

"Should have stayed there. Under the rocks. That would have made things much easier."
"How so?"
"Dead people generally don't complain when we take their stuff."
"So you are telling me that you were the ones causing the avalance?"
"Nope... It obviously happened by accident. You see, Rolf over there sneezes a lot since he's allergic to dust, so it ca-"

Having heard enough about their killing intent and disgraceful ways, Mizuki slashed open the talking man's throat with a single draw of her katana and dashed away from them, back towards the bottleneck. As the man gurgled towards his death, his hands futility trying to stop the bleeding, suiton chakra flowed out of her mouth, shrouding the entire area in mist, allowing her to disappear from their sight.

She wondered how allergic the man would be to mist...

Inside the jutsu's mist, Mizuki thought about how to proceed with the situation. She was heavily outnumbered, had no idea of their combat prowess and had to deal with a disadvantage. One jutsu could temporarily render the rangers useless, but dealing with a handful other brigands was not the smartest tactics either way. Clones was what she'd need. Or some luck to have a hero save her day...

---

1172

Items:

Chakra 175/190:

Kodai ran through the Valley of Mountains, on his way home from Lavori Mountain he had hear loud crashing sounds like those of an avalanche, not that rare of an occurrence in the Land of Earth. He ran to check it out but as he got closer to the noise he began to hear noises like those of a battle. As he ran in much closer, he heard a woman talking followed by the voice of a man, bandits most likely bandits, this part of the Land of Earth was full of them, especially around these roads. Kodai hid on a small outcropping a good distance away, their were many things he was; strong for his age, stupid, a soon to be chunin, even the new Salamander Sage of Lavori Mountain; but one thing he wasn't was quite and stealthy.

As he looked towards the voices in the distance he say a woman in black dark gray robes standing in the middle of the road facing half a dozen men, bandits by the looks of it. After a few more seconds of talking the woman lunged towards the man in front. She moved like lightning, with her sword in hand she swiped the blade across the neck of the first bandit, a moment or two later he was on his knees gurgling on his own blood, his neck slit in the blink of an eye. Then mist blew around her, and she was gone like a leaf on a windy day.

She was good, great even, but even someone as skilled as her was gonna have trouble dealing with that many bandits. It's not like I can do anything about it, I'm just a genin; unarmed, unarmored. Although, without some help she's dead like a fish in a barrel. That's it I'm going in Kodai ran across the outcropping, then he lept down to the road behind the bandits, not even noticing the rangers up the mountainside. He ran at the back most bandit, just before he turned Kodai dropped into a handstand and performed a spinning kick right into the side of the bandit's head. The bandit fell to the ground, if Kodai was lucky he was out cold but more then likely he was just knocked over from the force and the surprise of the attack. After thinking about this a bit more it dawned on Kodai that attacking a group of at the least 6 armed bandits wasn't the smartest idea, but when did anyone say he was smart.

At least I have a plan Kodai thought as he used his jutsu "Fire Style: Misty Flame Dance!" nearly invisible yellow mist poured out of Kodai's mouth, surrounding the back three bandits "You better hope you're fire proof" Kodai slung his kunai from his belt pouch, sending it spinning around his finger, then he pulled his head protector off his head with his other hand. He struck his kunai on the head band protector causing sparks to fly and ignite the gas, creating a raging fireball. While it wasn't strong, causing only first degree burns on the three bandits, it did create a diversion to give the woman some time and space to breathe.

"Hey lady, I know it's looking pretty good for me right now, but I could use some help, the first few attacks had the element of surprise going for them." Kodai said as he lept backwards sticking a senbon in his mouth. He spat the senbon at one of the bandits in the back, but it didn't even hit him. As he landed a few feet back, he heard the twang of a bowstring and looked back to see an arrow connect with his left shoulder. The arrow pierced his skin and muscle leaving his left arm near useless Now I definitely need some help, with a near useless arm most of my capoeira is useless. besides I thought this would be a hard fight when it was a six versus two brawl, but now its a two versus six bandits and however many archers there are up the mountain side plus I'm wounded and I have no idea what condition the woman is, this fight just got a whole lot harder.

Kodai ran back into the fray, hopefully the rangers wouldn't shoot there own allies, and if that is true being around the bandits would keep Kodai safe from the rangers. He fell into a handstand again, forgetting about his injured arm, as his left hand touched the ground a spike of pain ran up his arm, he fell to the ground, only saving himself by spinning a kicking towards the legs of one of the bandits, the bandit lept over the kick but the momentum allowed Kodai to come up to a knee and then stand "Stupid arm" Kodai stuck a senbon in his mouth and punched towards the bandit. After the bandit dodged the attack Kodai spat the senbon at the bandit, hitting him in the throat Direct hit, he's going down the bandit grabbed at the needle sticking out of his throat, Kodai spun and kicked the bandit square in the head, the bandit fell to the ground, out cold.

One down, many more to go

Lets try this again! "Fire Style: Misty Flame Dance!" again the yellow near invisible smoke poured out of Kodai's mouth, he pulled out two senbon striking them together to make a spark which lit the gas, creating another bomb like fireball, however two of the three bandits dodged the fireball, one of them wasn't fast enough and was caught in the explosion of fire, heavily wounded from taking two fireballs. The two that lept were caught by the thrown senbon, hitting their torsos causing light wounds.

Kodai ran towards the cloud of mist the girl was hiding in, dodging past the bandits and a few arrows. He ducked behind the mist, giving himself some cover. "You got any aces up you sleeves because my jutsu is about useless now that they know how it works, plus with a wounded arm my taijutsu isn't gonna be much of a help. It's not looking very good"

Chakra 150/170
Word Count: 1030
(OOC: what can the EP be used for?)

Lurking in the front of the mist, Mizuki formulated a plan in her mind. With a few water clones, she could create a diversion as they blasted some shock bullets. While they'd attract the attention, she could shoot her Laser Circus or dash in with a Starlight Extinction while paralysing one of them if the need arose to do so. However, rather than to be able to start her offensive, she noticed a young man jump into the battle like it was some playground. Making use of the advantage of surprise he threw in a katon technique that formed a yellow smoke before he made it explode with two senbon. The explosion roared in the air, inflicting a few minor wounds towards the bandits - A D rank technique, by the looks of it.

Mizuki couldn't say if she could trust the young boy, but seeing him getting hit by an arrow he had not anticipated, she could only get worried. How reckless was he, to not have noticed the archers? Feeling a need to change her plan in favour of the protection of the young boy, Mizuki first created a clone from the mist as an assisting, hidden ally, then proceeded to mold the chakra for her Bubblegum. Considering its range was a 3 meter radius, as long as the boy remained next to her, he too would benefit from the barrier protecting against ranged attacks.

Against all expectations, the young boy decided to run back into the fray despite just having been shot by an arrow. The wound, while not lethal, seemed to hamper his taijutsu techniques enough for him to suffer difficulties in its execution. He failed the repetition of his first attack, yet succeeded at saving himself despite everything. His only benefit in the situation was that, indeed, the archers didn't shoot yet, keeping track of his actions and simply waiting for him to be in the open.

That opportunity didn't take long to wait. As he retreated, arrows were loosened. At that moment, Mizuki ran out of the mist, standing there where the arrows were supposed to hit Kodai. As he passed her by a hair, the arrows that should have hit him bounced of her unseen suiton barrier, briefly revealing the flow of water there where they hit. Out of danger's harm, he continued his escape into the mist she had created. She wondered if he'd remain there, shrouded.

"Please, remain close", the clone told Kodai the moment he had found his peace within the mist, even though it doubted he'd stay there. Nonetheless, even if the genin's jutsu were not the most lethal, he had granted Mizuki an advantage. One seriously burned man, another knocked out flat, and a group that had finally decided not to remain passive any longer.

Another volley of arrows came down, an interlude to the charging mass before her, and once more they merely bounced of the shield she maintained. While facing four of them were slightly better odds than what she had been facing before, they hadn't exactly looked like push-overs. These men remained unafraid despite the explosions and the jutsu being used, meaning they had seen their fair share of battle and would most likely be as experienced, if not more, than herself.

As the troupe charged, weapons in hand, Mizuki decided she'd have to play it on the defensive. Focusing on parrying and avoidance, she parried the first while dodging the second attack, the third one deflected against her armour, but the forth one grazed her arm. It was clear that the men were trained enough to fight with each other, and with two of theirs down, they were not exactly happy. At this point, with the four of them going at her together, Mizuki's Starlight Extinction would have been a marvel, but their movements were too fluid for her to find the time to actually load the jutsu. Instead, she opted to draw them into the mist step by step as they kept the offence, so that her clone had the advantage of surprise instead.

Parrying as best as she could, handling four of them was by far not as easy. Even if most of their attacks were avoided, grazing cuts here and there didn't falter to hit. In the meantime, Mizuki's clone prepared to jump in with a B rank technique.

"Please stay back", the clone warned Kodai. "This will hurt if you don't."

Eventually, they reached within two meters of the mist. At that point, the clone jumped out, unleashing the power of the Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death. It's range and speed, combined with the surprise and the bandits' focus on the offence, left little of the usual timeframe for them to make use of it in a proper way. In a sudden torrent of spikes, the clone and the bandits found themselves thoroughly pierced.

Now was the moment though. Caught off-guard and in severe pain, Kodai could finish the work. Mizuki, suffering from several cuts, needed a breather from the intense defensive focus. But even then, should Kodai decide to join the counter-offensive, she'd mostly make sure he remained within the 3 meter radius of her projectile barrier

---

887
Total: 2059


OOC: Please keep track of chakra, used jutsu and cooldowns o /
And unfortunately, jutsu have cooldowns, so you can only use them once per post unless the jutsu states otherwise (like Raiton: Javelin somewhat does).

As for EP, those are Event Points. Anytime there is an event, you can collect them to buy unique prices in the long term, but I'm afraid you'll have to ask an admin what those prices are exactly as I'm not sure about that.

Chakra 125/190, Clone 0/20 (Poofed):

(OOC: Forgot completely about cooldowns, sorry)

Just as more arrows left their bows, content on ending Kodai, the lady in the mist moved, or atleast a clone of her; and not a moment to soon. The arrows were deflected by an unseen force, like a bubble, when the arrows struck it it seemed like a flow of water met them and knocked them out of the air. "Thanks, I would be happy to catch my breath" Kodai stated wearily, at the very least he wasn't fighting alone, more arrows struck the protective dome as Kodai looked at the really woman, at least he thought she was the real one, fighting the four remaining bandits. She was skilled at sword fighting, blocking all but one of the four bandits' attacks. When the clone told Kodai to stay back as to not be harmed by whatever it was planning, he almost protested, but just before the words came to his mouth he remembered he was playing with the big dogs, one stray jutsu and he was out of the fight, maybe even for good. Kodai ducked back, and watched the clone as she performed the jutsu, watery needles flew into the bandits, making them look like pincushions. I'm definitely out of my league here, but I know an opening when I see one, the bandits were caught off guard by the clone's jutsu, plus there injured now. However, I'm also injured and these guys seem tougher than most of the thugs I've seen or fought. The girl is hurt, and this mist and the girl's intervening have given me back a small advantage so I might as well take it before they come for me. Kodai spun out of the mist, kicking one of the bandits and sending him stumbling backwards a couple feet but the bandit kept his balance. Kodai felt to his right arm, letting gravity aid his next kick on another bandit, this bandit barely stumbled from the kick, but it let Kodai move in closer to him and follow up with three punches, one to the bandit's left shoulder, one to the bandit's chest which was blocked by his armor, and another to the side of the bandit's face; the first and last of the punches left light bruising on the bandit's body. Kodai's strikes coupled with the heavy damage from the water needles left two of the bandits near their ends. Two more remained in fighting condition. The more wounded two of the four swung their blades at Kodai slicing up his arms, while the other two struck from the side slashing a gash across the left of Kodai's chest while the other swung for Kodai's head, barely missing due to Kodai falling and rolling back into the mist.

"You think you could do that needle jutsu again, or something else to finish these guys off?" Kodai asked the lady as he sat in mist and caught his breath, He needed a little while before he could perform his Fire Style: Misty Flame Dance and he didn't want to get hurt anymore than he had to. If only I could perform Salamander Sage Mode outside of Lavori Mountain, this fight would be a lot easier Kodai jumped into the air from the mist, looking like he was going to strike at a bandit on the ground with a falling axe kick, however just before he struck the bandit he kicked his other foot down on the front of the bandit's shoulder pushing down and knocking the bandit falling to the ground. As the bandit hit the ground Kodai stomped his other foot down on the bandit's face with full force, aiming to crush the bandit's skull and more than likely the stike killed him I liked that move! gotta remember it for later Kodai chuckled in his head as he turned to look at the other bandits, three more ruffians, two of which have only been wounded by the fire and needles, the other one had also taken a beating from Kodai. This fight is starting to look good for us.

More arrows whizzed through the air bouncing off the protective jutsu just as they got close. As the arrows hit he remembered the lady again, she had fallen back to catch her breath from the defensive flurry and jutsu she was wounded, he knew that for sure, but he couldn't do anything about it because he knew no medical jutsu or arts. The least he could do was keep he safe, he fell back to the edge of the mist, the arrows couldn't hit him due to her protective jutsu, he had to make sure they couldn't hit her while she recovered either. He entered a defensive stance; right leg back unbent, left leg forwards and bent in a ninety degree angle, hands high in a protective stance. One of the bandits swung their blade at Kodai, Kodai met the attack with a striking grab, latching a hold of the attacker's forearm and squeezing to get the bandit to drop the blade which Kodai picked up. It was small, a tanto most likely Kodai took the blade and stabbed it into the attacker's shoulder, then while the attacker wasn't ready Kodai pushed him sending him stumbling back into the other bandits, which bought him and the lady some well needed time.

The bandits' numbers were whittled down and each one had been injured a good deal, one had been burnt, pierced by needles and had a sword sticking from his shoulder, the others had been burnt and pierced by needles. These three wounded bandits shouldn't be much trouble for the two of them.

"Your move lady"

Chakra: 150/170

Chakra 150/170:

WC: 968
WC Total: 1998

Harichimo had been hard at work preparing himself for a scheduled training drill that all ANBU agents were required to take part in at the least once a month to keep themselves in the top shape. Harichimo was sure to wrap his arms in bandages in much the same way he had done for years now but made sure to leave a little less on his wrists to ease the flow if he had to grab for his knuckle dusters from his coat pocket. He wasn't really supposed to wear his Monolith coat over his armor but he felt it necessary to present himself in the manner that showed he was a Monolith. He had only worn his ANBU issue armor once before and it still felt weird for him to be covered up behind all the gear but he understood since being an ANBU agent was the most dangerous position for most shinobi. Once his bandages were done he would walk over to the locker he had left open and inside his mask would be staring back at him. The mask shined in the light as the pronounced nose protruded through the dark. He took the mask off of the hook and turned it over to observe the the inner lining and all the wires that ran through it to control the voice of the wearer. He slowly raised it to his face, letting the black consume his face before he heard a knock on the locker room door.

"Harichimo sir, are you at least decent?" Harichimo would shake his head as he knew it was a younger ANBU agent that would frequent the area around his apartment. "Yes Jabo, I am all suited up what do you need now?" Harichimo would double check the laces on his boots as the other agent entered the room and close the door behind them. "Well Harichimo, we know you are getting ready to head out for the exercises but something seems to be going down in the bottleneck canyon a couple miles away. Seems really odd for a rock avalanche at this time of year and instead of sending agents already in training the higher ups would like to ask if you can go and check out if it was just an out of season rock fall or if someone s messing around out there." Harichimo would roll his eyes knowing if he went all the way out to the canyon Jabo was talking about then he would for sure miss the exercises. But he understood fully just like when he worked in the clinic, it was better to get those who weren't busy to work then bother those already working. He would nod to Jabo and grab his mask once more. "Yeah just give me a couple minutes and I can start out that way and tell the higher ups they owe me a solo session then." Jabo would chuckle and he would nod back and leave the locker room. Harichimo would hurriedly put the mask to his face and click the side straps to lock it in place. He would throw his coat into the locker and hear a clink. He stepped back and took his knuckle duster from the pocket of the coat and slid it into the front pocket of his armor.


He would be quick to then leave the ANBU headquarters and start his trek towards the canyon Jabo was talking about. It was a bit of a hike but he had the speed to make it there in record time. With a leap and a bound he would clear the village outer walls after vaulting from the top of the headquarters. The open terrain would give him all the shortcuts he needed to reach the canyons that bordered the village territories. At a fast pace he observed how quickly the terrain turned from fertile green grass to dusty brown dirt road and eventually smooth gray stone of the canyons. He would stop to obersve the terrain and see if he could spot where exactly the land slide had occurred. He couldn't see any dust settling in the air nor could he see any sign of explosions. He would have to manually traverse the miles of canyon until he say anything out of the ordinary. After a few steps he would hear a loud explosion something was definitely out of the ordinary. Harichimo would be quick to climb an outcropping and sure enough a few jagged paths over was a yellow and black cloud. He would track out the best possible path to get there from where he was. Once he has committed the path to mind it was time to dash. With incredible dexterity he would jump along paths that even the mountain goats would be wary to take. He would soon come to a plateu overlooking the smoke. He arrived in time to catch bandits flying everywhere with needles and fire spewing from the center of the cloud.


Soon the smoke cleared and revealed a very injured bunch of bandits and two younger shinobi by their looks. It made his heart race at the thought of the battle that would have taken place and he needed to act fast.With a leap he would descend down the sloped rock face and land to the side of the two parties. With a low breath he turned the voice changer in his mask to a more threatening tone. "Everyone lay down your weapons and get on your knees before I make things escalate." Harichimo would take the time to walk in between the two parties and stare down the bandits before looking back to the two younger shinobi. He would point to them. "You two sit right there and I will deal with you in a second. Take a minute to check yourselves over." Harichimo would look to the bandits and get in his fighting stance. "You three are all that is left? Pity I was expecting an actual fight. Now one last time throw down your weapons. You are now charged with attempted murder of two shinobi and judgement has fallen to me. If you surrender you may live but in a cell and if you choose to resist then I'll just have to finish this." The threatening tone would be enhanced as he reached into his armor's pocket to slide his Monoliyh Knuckle Dusters onto his left hand. He would let them make the choice of how they wanted to proceed. Either way he had to make sure they were taken care of before he tended to the civilian shinobi.


1111/1111

Sayuri had spent many days wandering around the area outside of Iwagakure. While the village itself was nice enough, she had always preferred to be outdoors and the rocks and cliffs gave her plenty of climbing to amuse herself with. There were birds and goats that climbed along with her. When she had first arrived in the village of rocks the local wildlife had been timid of her, but she had spent long enough lying quietly nearby where they were that they seemed a bit more used to her presence. She still couldn’t approach them too quickly, or very much at all, but at least they didn’t panic as she moved through the rocky terrain.
Before she had gone climbing today she had made a somewhat responsible decision; wearing pants. The last time she had been climbing in a skirt she’d skinned both her knees and probably looked fairly indecent while doing it. So she’d put on her pale blue pants that she wore for training, paired with some soft leather boots and a plain blue short sleeved shirt. Only as she was well on her way towards the canyon outside the village did it occur to her that lighter colours was probably not the best choice of attire, since she was going to end up getting dirt and dust all over her clothing as she climbed. Deciding, rather impulsively, that it was too late to turn back she ran and skipped her way towards the dangerous terrain. The sun was shining brightly that morning, it perhaps would have been a bit better to have a bit of cloud cover. She had found that the glaring sun sometimes obfuscated handholds along the rock, but she had still yet to fall very far.

As she made her way through the canyon she played a game with herself, as she often did. She imagined that the base of the canyon was filled with lava, and that she was on a quest to rescue a princess and the only way to do that was to navigate the pools of hot liquid rock and metal. It was pretty fun, more so since there wasn’t any real danger involved. She was making great progress and nearing an outcropping that she had designated as ‘the tower’ where the princess was held when she was startled by the sounds of fighting and a sudden explosion from up ahead. Gripping the edge of the rock she was crouched on she tried to still her frantically beating heart. She had been out here dozens of times and not once had there been any real danger, now that there might be she was actually afraid.

She considered briefly the idea of simply turning and heading back to the relative safety of the University, but the idea was quickly discarded. If there was one thing Sayuri wasn’t, it was a coward. So with palms sweating slightly and a lump of fear in her throat she would climb towards the sound of the explosion. She was hoping that there was not an actual fight going on, perhaps there were a bunch of kids playing with fireworks, or maybe there were workers making the canyon bigger for some reason. However as much as she tried to ease her trepidation with hopeful musings she knew that all of her farfetched ideas were incredibly unlikely. She couldn’t think of a good reason to want to make the canyon bigger, and it was awfully far out for kids, even very determined ones, to be causing trouble.

As she climbed over a rock, her fear was realized as she observed the scene below her perch. Beneath her were a bunch of people she didn’t recognize, some of them injured and clearly there was some sort of combat going on. There was a man in the center of it all with a strange bird mask on, which she found intriguing and terrifying all at the same time. Sayuri would jump down to a lower rock so she could hear what was going on and was taken aback by the man’s words.

"You three are all that is left? Pity I was expecting an actual fight. Now one last time throw down your weapons. You are now charged with attempted murder of two shinobi and judgement has fallen to me. If you surrender you may live but in a cell and if you choose to resist then I'll just have to finish this."

She didn’t have all the information as to what was going on, or what had started any of this, but she could not abide the killing of anyone. With a look of grim determination she would leap down so she was standing directly between the man with the mask and his intended victims. Drawing herself up to her full height she would look straight at the towering man clad in black clothing and speak words full of all the confidence of a person not the least bit afraid of death or pain. “No one is going to die here today.” Just as soon as the words left her lips she would feel a hand clamp around her neck quick as lightning and a small squeak would sound from her as the grip began to cut off her airway. A gravelly voice spoke in her ear, although she could not see the man it came from she could hear the smirk in his voice. “Well we’re not going to die today, thanks to you.” He would raise his voice and call out to the other three; the man in the mask, the young woman with the sword and the young man with the fiery hair. “Come any closer and I’ll kill her.”

968

In perfect tandem, Kodai hopped in to pick up where Mizuki's clone had left. The clone had turned into a puddle of water by now since its chakra had been depleted through the user of the Thousand Water Needles technique. Despite its power, the four of them had not been knocked out just yet. Severely weakened by the build up of jutsu damage, Kodai quickly handled a few of them, dispatching one more until three of them remained. Pushing one of them into the two others, some mote of distance was created between the two groups, and Kodai hinted it was her turn to take care of things. Instead, the chuunin waited. Even if she was a shinobi and the next in line as executioner, she hated to take a life just for the sake of killing. These men, even though bandits, were lives.

The three of them stumbled and stood up. While still ready for a fight, it seemed most of their desire to assault had been diminished. They had lost half their men on the ground, and were quite well wounded themselves. The arrows that usually granted them the advantage had failed to do any decent damage. It looked like their morale started to falter. However, Mizuki noticed one of the archers had made himself scarce. Whether or not he was ditching his friends or going to get reinforcements, she couldn't say. She certainly hoped there wouldn't be more of them joining into the fray. She was already feeling the strain of her chakra use, and the slow uprise of her sickness. While the wounds she hadn't weren't the worst, the cheer amount of small cuts and jabs on her arms, the one or two on her left leg and even the serrated cut on her cheek from the dented combat knife still stung like a thousand bees, yet she praised herself for her ability to avoid any serious damage.

Things suddenly took a turn for the worse when a man jumped into the fray, somewhat in the middle of the two camps on the side. The speed with which he had run and jumped from the rocks, down the slope and right there where now stood, made Mizuki weary. This man was way faster than her. She couldn't say if he'd reach her father's speed, but even if he didn't, he couldn't be too far off. On top of that, the mask he wore made the hairs on her arms raise up. ANBU. She gritted her teeth, hoping he hadn't come here to stop her in her tracks. When he spoke, demanding everyone dropped their weapons, she decided it was better to cooperate and as such, she wiped the small strand of blood at the tip of her katana from her blade in one swift movement before she sheathed her blade. The mist and her barrier, however, would remain as she still didn't trust the archers up above and didn't want to put the young man near her in danger. Hurt and feeling exhaustion come up or not, she'd just have to endure until she knew what was up.

Then one more person joined in. No mask no headband. Another bandit? The young woman, slightly taller than Mizuki, stepped in between the two camps and opposed the ANBU by stating no one would die. While her intentions were good, the bandits had another thing in mind. One of them snuck up from behind, grabbing her. It surprised Mizuki, who just a second ago considered her in liege with the bandits only to see her being grabbed as hostage without the slightest hint of remorse. Was it an act? No. The squeak that escaped her couldn't be faked and the way he had her by the throat looked very much like he was about to strangle her if none cooperated.

Mizuki took a deep breath. She had the perfect jutsu for a situation as this. Heck, if one clan was fit to deal with a situation as this, it were the Raiu. The trouble was, Mizuki had never used the technique in an actual situation. While she was confident about her control and precision of the technique, she was mostly worried about the speed of her execution in a situation as this where even a single second of retardation could be fatal for the woman...

"Forgive me my rudeness, but wisdom dictates you do not anger the masked man. Be so kind as to comply with his request and release your hostage."

Considering the ANBU to be part of Iwa's shinobi forces, Mizuki delegated the responsibility of the situation to him but even then, she readied her mind, focused and eased her body in preparation for the Raiu's signature jutsu - Laser Circus. If the moment would present itself through a proper distraction and if the ANBU would not be able to deal with the situation properly, she would unleash her Storm Release technique upon the bandit with pinpoint precision, splitting the original beam in a dozen smaller ones to bypass any and all attempted obstacles. She'd avoid killing him so that the ANBU could deal with the bandit, but there would be no disputing the pain he'd suffer and the efficiency with which she disabled him.

---

896
Total: 2955

OOC: Harichimo, I'll leave it to you to decide if Mizuki makes use of Laser Circus. It's a B rank jutsu specifically meant to deal with a situation as this. She'll only use it if it's obvious you have no means to deal with the situation.

Chakra 120/190:

Everything seemed to come to halt as soon as he had entered the fray. No one seemed to want to go against the words of an ANBU agent out where no one would know about it. The two injured shinboi behind him seemed to obey his commands at an instance the girl seemed mildly scraped up but the boy seemed to be more grievously injured. Harichimo would have to resolve this fast to tend to their injuries. The bandits seemed to have been slowly complying until the unexpected Sayuri happened. Without warning Sayuri had appeared from the other side of the canyon and placed herself in between him and the bandits to try and stop further violence that she thought was coming. And that was the chance the middle bandit was hoping for. With a swift movement he had his arm and a kunai around the throat of the little girl and thought he had enough leverage to make demands against an ANBU agent.

Harichimo had to hold fast in order to not give the bandits any sort of ground. They had a hostage but seemed to have let a small detail slip past them. For they were average sized men and Sayuri was quite smaller almost a head and a half shorter. More inexperienced agents would have let their guard down to negotiate for the release of the hostage but not ANBU when a clear opening presents itself. Harichimo could feel the girl channeling some sort of jutsu but Harichimo would speak up in the same tone his mask had been in. "Conserve your chakra civilian. These three obviously didn't hear me loud and clearly enough the first time. And now you want to add attempted kidnapping and taking a hostage to their lists of offenses." With that Harichimo would take his left arm and line up his knuckle dusters with the face of the bandit holding Sayuri. It was a good gap between them and he had one trick to defuse the situation fast.



With a few breaths he gathered the chakra at his back and with the menacing tone once more addressed the bandits. "Now courtesy of the Iwagakure ANBU Division. Take a seat." With a burst that seemed almost supernatural Harichimo would launch himself forward it would be like a blink of an eye to everyone else as the middle bandit would end up five meters behind everyone else and sprawled on his back as Harichimo stood holding onto the scared form of Sayuri with a trail of dirt following where he had dug his heels into the ground. It was difficult for stop when the jutsu was used and even harder on the body with a target or in this case stopping with a civilian in tow. Harichimo would only imagine the feeling for someone not having used his jutsu to just jump around that quickly. But it wasn't time to stop yet as he turned around. The other bandits now seeing their companion missing from between them. They would turn to see the ANBU agent running back towards them a they drew their weapons again. The left most one would lead with a stab but Harichimo had the speed advantage to slap down the mans hand and windmill and hard blow to their face with the knuckle dusters possibly resulting in a broken jaw as they fell hard. With quick foot work Harichimo would stop and duck down as they other bandit took a stab at his mask. Harichimo would grab the mans arm for balance and bring the knuckle dusters up for one more solid punch to the dome of the last bandits head possibly cracking their skull as they fell face first into the dirt.



With a motion Harichimo would stand back up and brush the dust from his mask and armor and look back at the three civilians and the bandits on the ground before turning the tone of his mask to a lighter less threatening one. "Now that they riff raff is taken care of, you three have my full attention. One, you girl why in the heck would you run into a fray between an ANBU agent and possible hostiles. They could have killed you just as easily as they took you hostage. Then you two, what were you thinking engaging this group of bandits out here on their turf. You two should consider yourselves beyond lucky to have survived and even taken out the lesser bandits of the group." Harichimo would wait for everyone to get out their responses so he could figure out the best way to move forward with them.



776/1887

Chakra 235/250

Jutsu Used:

Sayuri had made a mistake. A fairly large one as far as mistakes went, and now with a hand around her throat and a kunai poised to finish the job she was frightened. She now had a much clearer picture of what was going on, and had she for once not been impulsive she might have spared herself her current predicament. But no silly duck, you just had to go and try to save people. When are you going to learn? If she had the breath to do so she might have yelled at the bandit who considered her a bargaining chip, but as it was all she could do was try to gasp for air. She figured that if she could get a hold of her tanto she could manage to get away - a quick stab into the bandits side and he would probably release his grip long enough for her to escape. Though that presented its own problems. She had no way of knowing whether a blow like that would end up killing the man and on top of that, what if he managed to stab her with his weapon before releasing her?

As fortune would have it Sayuri never had the chance to enact her most likely lethal plan, as quick as lightning the masked man launched himself forward towards her and her captor, his metal enhanced hand making full contact with the man's face as she was swept off her feet and deposited some meters back from where she stood originally. Her stomach lurched as it seemed to catch up with the rest of her body, a most unpleasant sensation. As she stood trying to catch her breath and keep her footing she felt a stinging along her neck. The kunai must have got me after all. Her hand would go up quickly to the source of the pain, and pulling it back to check for blood she was happy that it seemed little more than a scratch. Turning her attention back to the newly ignited battle before her, she was more than a little impressed with the swift resolution brought about by the masked man. She truly hoped that the man with the bird mask had good intentions, for as she observed him she doubted whether she could beat him if he didn’t. It wouldn’t stop her from trying of course, she’d fought against worse odds before, but all the same she hoped desperately that she wouldn’t have to step in. She would pull out her tanto and stand ready, still a bit shaky from the sudden acceleration, and listen as the masked man chided everyone.

"Now that the riff raff is taken care of, you three have my full attention. One, you girl why in the heck would you run into a fray between an ANBU agent and possible hostiles. They could have killed you just as easily as they took you hostage. Then you two, what were you thinking engaging this group of bandits out here on their turf. You two should consider yourselves beyond lucky to have survived and even taken out the lesser bandits of the group."

She was aware that her decision had been reckless, and she certainly did not need some man in a mask to tell her so. Perhaps it was the adrenaline from nearly being killed, or the hot sun, or maybe she just hadn’t eaten enough that day but Sayuri’s eyes would narrow as she felt her cheeks sting with the scarlet hue that matched her rage. Her voice shook with fury as she clenched her fists, one hand securely wrapped around the hilt of her tanto.

“First off, I have no idea what an ANBU is. And second; of course they could have killed me! You think I don’t know that? I wasn’t worried about that, I simply could not abide the thought of anyone here dying. And now look!” She would gesture to the bandits lying crumpled on the ground as she continued ranting. “Did you kill them? That was the one thing I didn’t want to happen!”

Tears of anger streamed down her face as she stood glaring at the masked man. She had not realized how difficult the promise she had made to Shiro would turn out to be. It broke her heart to think that those men lying on the ground might be dead now, and she hadn’t stopped it. As the sorrow of her failure slowly washed away her anger she realized that she had been ungrateful. It was true that the man who had grabbed her could have killed her, and this man in a mask had effectively saved her life. A blush of shame spread across her cheeks as Sayuri would sheathe her tanto and push a few stray bits of her hair behind her ears. When she spoke again her voice was much quieter and her gaze downcast. “I’m sorry, uh, that wasn’t very kind of me. You saved my life after all, and uh. . . well, thank you. I shouldn’t have yelled, I’m. . . I’m really sorry. What happened out here anyway, who were those guys?”

874/1842

Ready to form the hand seals of her ranton technique, she was caught slightly off-guard when she heard the ANBU tell her that she had to conserve her chakra. Did he... detect her chakra somehow? She narrowed her eyes slightly, cautious at the idea that someone could read such signatures. What abilities did ANBU even have, and what sort of training did they undergo to achieve those? Still, as she let go the thought of piercing the captor with lasers, the fist suddenly hit the man with such speed Mizuki was more than surprised. Her eyes briefly wide open at the display of brutal power, she soon frowned them at the undiplomatic approach of it all. Did he even had the slightest intention of capturing these brigands, or was he just out to break bones because he could?

It mattered little, actually. She was in Iwagakure, far from her own domain of influence, and this was an ANBU. Brutal or not, it was not her place to judge the man's approach to things. And to be fair, most of Kumogakure's shinobi would be equally uncompromising. She certainly knew of one other jounin that wouldn't hesitate to shoot the legs of the man in one swift moment. Zetsume Zix. In her eyes, an archer without equal, but with just as little patience in dealing with riff raff. It was quite funny to see this ANBU having a similar streak.

His comment on her being lucky, however, was not something Mizuki could appreciate. She hadn't been lucky at all. She had measured every of her strikes so as not to kill them. Well, all but the first man, as she had expected them to panic at the sight of one swift execution. They hadn't. Every other action that had followed up was a calculated strategy to gain the advantage. While sure, she would not have been able to get out of it unscathed, 'luck' had hardly anything to do with her reasons for survival. Though offended, Mizuki rubbed the trickle of blood from the cut on her cheek without a single word. It seemed the other girl was of a different mind, venting her frustration, anger and perhaps even the stress of it all in a thoughtless outburst.

She had tried to prevent death.

Mizuki could sympathise with her, to some extend. She seemed to hold good intentions, but her execution seemed flawed. And to hear her reveal she had no idea what ANBU were, Mizuki carefully assumed she might not be member of a Village. If that assumption was correct, it would explain as to why she lacked certain strategic insight taught to shinobi. Unfortunately, she was correct about the one thing Mizuki would have preferred avoiding as well - the death count among the bandits was high. She had executed one of them with a swift cut, the young man next to her had taken out two of them with a senbon and his taijutsu, and the ANBU had taken out three of them in an equally deadly fashion. A harsh justice for mere civilians, even though they were bandits. Lives which would never be returned.

"Thank you for your timely intervention, ANBU. I will be sure to proceed with more caution from now on. As a last request, would you be so kind as to tend to this young man's wounds? Unlike myself, he suffers more than mere cuts."

With the situation seemingly cleared, Mizuki considered it a good moment to move on. Though their help was appreciated, Mizuki had no dealings with the other shinobi nearby. Her only goal was to unleash the rod's crackling power as a beacon revealing the presence of the Raikage. The battle standard of the 'storm god' that called upon all able bodied men to join him in his teachings of the black raiton's awe-inspiring power. She looked briefly to the flanks of the mountain's passage for the archers. There were none, meaning the three men too had either fled or were running to get reinforcements right now. She wondered what it would mean further down the road, but for now she dropped her concentration on her Bubblegum jutsu and moved forward.

Leaving the genin and walking passed the ANBU, she briefly halted next to Sayuri. She, too, felt the pain of needless killing, and as such didn't wish to leave this compassionate stranger with a word of hope. Mizuki herself had suffered loss in many ways, but every time her father had shared but one sentence. Today, for a first, she had found someone to pass on that hard, yet valuable insight.

"Fall down seven times, get up eight. Do not give up just yet."

Saying no more, Mizuki walked on. Her chakra use and her illness pressed upon her endurance, but the end of the road was not reached yet. There was no saying what the archers were up to, but Mizuki wasn't sure if she could carry the responsibility of watching over these unexpected allies and as such didn't request their help. If they'd continue along the road, she would consider it their desire to do so in a similar fashion as they had decided to join the fight. If they didn't, then such was the burden of her mission.

---

895
Total: 3850

OOC: Not exiting just yet.

120/190:

Kodai sat there, in a trance like state as the fight continued around him. He barely noticed the appearance of another ninja, caught by another bandit. He watched in awe as the masked ANBU agent seemed to teleport, moving in the blink of an eye to save the girl from the bandit. Kodai sat where he was, watching the fight continue on around him. He didn't know if the injuries his arm and cuts, the death of the bandits around him, or the horror of the girl being held hostage and the extremely powerful ninja that seemed to have the power to take Kodai out of the fight in the blink of an eye.

He stood to his feet but it was too late, the fight was over and he did nothing to help the other ninja and the ANBU agent. He walked towards the lady he had tried to help, but she was already walking away, only stopping to talk to the new ninja. She continued along the road, for a reason unknown to Kodai. Kodai walked after her, keeping his distance, not to hide from her but as a form of apology, he had helped but then he choked, sitting there like a frightened child unable to do anything.

“I'm sorry about my inaction. I don't know what came over me, terror or pain. If you forgive me I would like to make it up to you by helping to guide you on your journey. You were headed to Iwa right?” Kodai asked the lady from behind, keeping some distance but trying to move a little closer.

“If you don't mind me asking, why are you going to Iwa? Visiting friends or family, just checking out the land of earth and its hidden village, maybe you have a mission for your village? You don't have to tell me and you do not have any reason to after what I have done. If you want you can follow me there, it's where I live so I'm headed there anyways.” Kodai said as he caught up to the girl. He began to walk down the road, turning off of it to begin heading towards Iwa. He walked past Lavori Mountain, contemplating visiting the salamanders before remembering he needed to return to Iwa. He walked through the empty plains reaching a small hill. Across the plains stood Iwa, the Village Hidden in the Rocks.

(OOC: wow I feel horrible about not posting, I went camping with friends this weekend and it was kinda last minute. sorry again for my absence)

Chakra 150/170

WC: 403
WC Total: 2401

Harichimo would just shake his fist and look over the knuckle dusters to make sure they weren't to dinged up from knocking out the bandit leaders. He let Sayuri go on with her rambling as he thought to himself. Note to self make sure to sit down with her one of these days and explain this to her but out of the mask and secrecy. He would turn back to her and sort of give a head bob for a mix of yes and no to her question. "The one who held you hostage most likely, the other two on the other hand, a broken jaw and a concussion are just a slap on the wrist compared to what other agents would have done. My job is to make sure civilians stay safe and bandits don't walk away from crime without repercussions." He would look along the canyon walls and see a few of the remaining bandits seem to pack up their operation and leave. He doubted any of these lower ranking bandits would want to test their luck against an ANBU who easily took out their three best.


The younger girl then seemed to want to get up and go. Thanking him for the intervention and asking him to look over the young boy. She seemed genuine when talking to him and seemed to understand what he was. She then walked to Sayuri and gave her some advice even he could not have thought of. He was taught throughout that death was just something that would come up throughout his life. Ever since his learning with Akira he had the respect to his skills that he was a deadly shinobi with knowledge of the human body many didn't. And the mission where he watched genin like him succumb to the power of the old shinobi Nanashi. Death just didn't seem to phase him when it was deemed necessary and he deemed it so in order to protect these three random shinobi. He would let the young girl walk by and turn to the boy who did seem rather banged up.



But he seemed rather fixated on catching up with the younger girl and ignoring his own injuries. Harichimo would just shake his own head and stop by Sayuri. "We had better follow them to make sure they don't get in to more trouble. I am a friend of Harichimo's you can trust me to make sure you get back to Iwagakure with these two. Sound alright?" Harichimo would let her answer or move ahead of him if she was mad with him. Either way he had to catch up with a pace to be within a couple feet of them to catch the later end of Kodai's comments.



"Yeah do you plan on telling me why you two were randomly out here getting caught in a tussle with bandits before we reach the village? I will have to give some kind of report about all this when I get back to the headquarters. And if you are visiting from somewhere else we can make the necessary arrangements for you."


527/2414

Sayuri was horribly ashamed. Of all the times to let her temper get the better of her, now was definitely not the best one. She still did not understand what was going on, but from what she could piece together now, she had very nearly caused a much bigger problem. As usual. AS the young woman with the sword passed her and spoke, she could not truly fathom what she meant. Perhaps it was the mention of numbers that had her confused, but she assumed that it was meant to be inspiring or something like that and so she merely nodded at the young woman while pulling her arms into herself to avoid any physical contact as the woman walked past. She had had quite enough physical interaction for the day, and the thought inspired a shiver to run down her spine as she observed the young man with the fiery hair move to catch up with the departing woman. In a lot of ways she was glad to not be a shinobi. Everything they did seemed very mysterious and nonsensical. The two that were leaving did not seem to place any importance on the questions that either she or the masked man had asked regarding what had gone on here. And while she did not have any type of authority to demand an answer, it looked to her as though the masked man did. They also did not even seem concerned that there were dead people lying on the canyon floor. Or that they themselves had very nearly just perished with them.  While she gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, she had no illusions about the strength of the bandits that had been defeated. She was fast and perceptive to the point of being paranoid, and they had easily overtaken her. She also had no doubt that the one who had grabbed her would have made good on his threat were the masked man not there. And as the masked man explained his position regarding what had happened she felt even worse.

This man seemed to have the same values and the same goals as she did. And she had dared to stand here and yell at him. He was there to protect them, to protect her and she must have seemed incredibly ungrateful afterwards. Which could not be further from the truth, however she knew that her actions spoke much louder than words so as she watched the masked man taking stock of the situation she would move up to him and bow her head gently. “Thank you again. I am so very sorry about my actions. And I really appreciate you saving my neck, literally. I was stupid to think that I could resolve whatever this was. . .” She would wave her hands around at the devastation around them both. “. . .without any sort of force involved. I really should know better by now than to go sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

And it was quite true, most of her worries and trouble came from her own doing. Not all of it of course, some was far outside her own power, but when she looked at the situations she had gotten herself into objectively, it was plain to see that most of her misery could have been avoided by just doing what was expected of her. Rather than any hair brained ideas that she came up with. At the mention of Harichimo she perked up, if this man in front of her was friends with Harichimo that changed things somewhat. Taking the back of her hand she would wipe the tears from her face and smile up at the much taller man. “Well yes, if you’re friends with Harichimo then of course I’ll trust you. And yes, I think we should probably make sure those two don’t get into any more trouble. And I promise not to yell at you anymore.”

She would move quickly to keep pace with the masked man, though he was much faster than she was. And it was with no small amount of effort that she was within earshot as he spoke to the two young shinobi. She wondered idly if they would answer him this time, as far as she could tell it was his job to take care of these things, at least from the way he spoke about headquarters and giving a report. Those were things she didn’t have to worry about. Although it occurred to her that she should probably tell Harichimo about this when it was all over, he was her teacher after all. Finally catching up to the masked man she would try to keep pace with him as she waited for an answer from either of the young people walking along towards her beloved Iwagakure.

806/2648

The boy ran up to her despite his wounds, seeking to guide her further to Iwagakure, and thus Mizuki halted. She could use a guide, but she wasn't sure if she had the rights to burden Kodai after what he had gone through. Did she owe him this, after all the pain he suffered in an attempt to help her out? Or would it be better if he stayed with the ANBU, an authority in Iwagakure and a much safer place to be than with herself. Even if she would have loved the company, Mizuki decided it was better for him to be in safer hands, especially since his wounds had yet to be taken care of. She wasn't exactly an Iryo-nin, and though Lin had told her about the basic principles of healing with chakra, Mizuki was reluctant to simply try it out based on a few explained theories. She could not afford to harm the boy, even if her actions were fuelled by good intent.

She wanted to tell Kodai this, but the ANBU requested his attention. He wanted an explanation as he had to write a report. So administration was a thing in Iwagakure too, huh? Mizuki smiled faintly as she recalled all the times she had written her patrol reports. It seemed some things didn't change, no matter where she'd go. Resting her hand upon Kodai's shoulder as a quiet request for patience, she turned around to face the ANBU and the young girl that had followed them.

"I had hoped to go about my way quietly but I understand the necessities of your report.", she replied to Harichimo, making it understood she was about to comply with his request. Since it seemed there would be no other option than to reveal everything in a gesture of good faith, she took out the scroll the Raikage had confided her and unsealed the black raiton rod within it. With the rod in her hand, she bowed before them.

"My name is Raiu Mizuki, a kunoichi of Kumogakure and representative of its new Raikage, Hastur Miyamoto.", she began, showing the forehead protector she had been hiding, as well as revealing the Village's flak jacket that her cloak had covered so far. "The Raikage has tasked me with visiting your Village so you would be aware of his rise to power. This rod is his way of making it understood that Kumogakure is open to all whom who would seek contact, and offers a a distinct reason to do so. Unfortunately, my carelessness caused me to run into this ambush. I would have sought out the Tsuchikage for a proper introduction first, if it weren't for these bandits urging you to intervene, but as it stands I'm certain the word of an ANBU is just as valuable. My apologies for inconveniencing you in this way."

She bowed towards the ANBU and the kunoichi next to him, lingering just a second longer than she'd usually do as a sign of sincere apology. Then, as she rose, she jumped away from Kodai to give herself some space. She knew the power the black rod would show and once more would hate for the genin to be unnecessarily wounded. Assuring safety, she then planted the rod in the ground, allowing the black raiton that coursed within it to shoot up into the sky and summon forth black thunder clouds. As the process proceeded, Mizuki walked over to Kodai again, placing herself partially between the rod and the child. Even if she knew that the rod would attract the black thunder that would strike down from the gathered clouds, she would not allow any risks.

"Please watch and do not approach. While the lightning is bound to strike the rod, the power of black raiton is not to be underestimated. This is but a figment of the power which the new Raikage wields. Please, remember this should you wish to seek him out."

And as if in cue, black lightning struck the rod with its fierceness, reminding its own presence not even a single second later by the boisterous thunder that followed in its wake. Then, slowly, the clouds grumpily dispersed again and Mizuki went to pick up the rod once more, sealing it back in the scroll she had pulled it out and tucking it away.

"If you would have other questions, ANBU, please do not hesitate to ask them. I will do my best to comply with your requests, but in all fairness, I wouldn't mind to rest my weary feet after coming all the way from the Land of Lightning.", and as such she turned her head towards Kodai, now giving im the answer she still owed him. "If after this display you would still like to be my guide, I'd gladly accept your offer."

All that was to be seen now was how they would react. This small display of power and violence... While shown with no hostile intentions, would it also be perceived as such?

---

849
Total: 4699

Chakra 90/190:

Kodai paused as the lady placed her hand on his shoulder, and when she turned to face the officer so did he. He listened to the lady's explanation about the recent battle. After she bowed and lept away, even though he really didn't want to give an explanation aside from seeing someone in need, Kodai began his.

"My name is Kōdai Hiryū, I'm a genin of Iwagakure and the new Salamander Sage of Mt Lavori. I was on my way back from training at Mount Lavori when I heard the fighting going on and jumped to help Raiu. I thank you for intervening and I am also sorry for any inconvenience we caused you." Kodai explained, then bowed to the Anbu like Raiu did. He then turned to look at what Raiu was doing, he watched as she planted a small black rod into the ground and nodded at her request to stay away from the lightning and only watch it due to it being extremely dangerous. "So there's a new Raikage, never seen the old one, maybe I should visit Kumogakure sometime. What do you think?" He asked Raiu as he watched the black lightning strike the rod. "If that's only a fraction of his power then I definitely don't want to see his full power." he exclaimed as the lightning struck.

Then she turned to him asking if he would still like to be her guide, He beamed. "Yeah that'd be great, I would be honored to. Lets just wait to see if they have any more questions for use he said motioning towards the ANBU."


Chakra 150/170

WC: 276
WC Total: 2677

Glad that Sayori wasn't completely upset with him, Harichimo had a burden off of his shoulders when he had asked the two younger shinobi about their doings in the outer reaches of the village. The first introduced herself and revealed she was an envoy of sorts from Kirigakure and represented the new Raikage. Harichimo didn't care for politics and didn't really follow influences outside of the village. She showed off her head band and the flak jacket to appease his curiosities and give him enough information. Then the young man would introduce himself as a fellow shinobi of Iwagakure that was training at a near mountain. He seemed to be quite a trooper to be standing and running around with how bad he was scraped up. But then when Raiu rolled out a scroll containing a singular black rod she would have his attention. It seemed harmless enough but it had to have some meaning to be stored inside of a scroll.

The girl would hop away from the group and place the black rod into the ground. Harichimo would keep his guard up for whatever tricks might arise in the situation. But it wasn't the kind of surprise he had prepared himself for. Once the girl was clear of the rod black energy seemed to jet up into the sky and drawn in clouds that would normally accompany storms of huge magnitudes. He watched in disbelief and awe at the sight this small rod had created. Then in a sudden burst a black lightning bolt would crash down next to them causing Harichimo to stand more in front of Sayuri and block his eyes from the energy. After a short time the clouds seemed to all but disappear. As if nothing had happened the sky returned to its normal calmness at this time of year. He would step to the side to let Sayuri see again and survey what had happened. The ground around the black rod seemed to be normal as if nothing would happen. He expected the ground to be charred black and burnt more so then if normal lightning had just struck. Then the girl would approach the rod and wrap it back in the scroll before addressing him.

"No, that is completely fine. You and these two can proceed to the village gates. I will need to press ahead and inform the approaching ANBU operatives of the situation. Your Raikage's little show will have attracted their attention. I will make sure that you will not be monitored during your stay in our village and you can rest up as long as you need. Now if you will young miss please make sure these two follow you closely I will have to make my way towards the village and inform the scouting party of what happened here."


Harichimo would point to Sayuri as he finished his sentence and begin to jog off in the direction everyone should be taking. He knew the scouting party would be on their way as soon as the clouds had gathered and the lightning was just more of a give away. What was it this new Raikage was trying to show off? It didn't matter to Harichimo as he was taught that actions speaked louder then words or in this case thunder. Harichimo would continue on the trail for a short while and soon spot the scouting party further up. They has made it further then he had expected. But that was good for him as to not waste more energy then he already had in the short fight.


Exit Thread



604/3018


3000/3000 Mission Completion

Sayuri listened as the two shinobi introduced themselves. She thought it a bit strange that there was a shinobi that had come all the way from Kumogakure to. . . something. She was a little lost on the girls purpose here in Iwa. She wasn’t exactly in full understanding of how the politics of the Villages worked, but since the man in the bird mask was here she wasn’t particularly worried. If there was a problem she was sure that someone Harichimo trusted would be able to solve it. Hearing Mizuki mention Kumogakure made her a tiny bit homesick as well, it had been well over a year since she had seen the cold mountains of Kumo. And in a way she missed it. Maybe one day she would go back and climb the mountains again, maybe she would go in the winter so she could see a blizzard one more time. The boy was from Iwagakure, and he mentioned studying on a mountain which she could only assume was reasonably nearby. She would have to ask him about it at some point, since climbing especially mountains, was sort of her favourite hobby.

As Mizuki pulled a scroll out and unfurled it, revealing a small black coloured rod, Sayuri watched with fascination. She wasn’t entirely listening to what Mizuki had to say about the rod, she was more intrigued by what it was. It wasn’t until the man in the mask jumped in front of her that she thought anything might be wrong, and with him blocking her view she saw only bits of the black coloured lightning as it struck down towards the ground. As it was her eyesight was a bit worse for wear after it stopped, with the ghosts of bright lightning strikes clouding her vision. “That was incredible! And so. . . pretty!” Her excited exclamation was all she could think to give as Mizuki picked up the black rod again and placed it safely away inside the scroll.

As the man in the mask gave her instructions to keep the other two close, she would nod seriously to him. She was rarely given any responsibilities, but when she was she took any instructions given to her to heart. No doubt this man would end up telling Harichimo what had gone on here today, since they were friends and all. And she didn’t want it to be a retelling of her letting the man in the bird mask down. So she would watch as he sped away and then turned back to the other two shinobi, a gracious smile on her face. “Well I guess I should make sure you two get back safely. Oh, and I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Sayuri, it’s nice to meet you both. If you want I can show you a good restaurant in the village, although it is the only restaurant I’ve been to in Iwa so far, it is my favourite. Um. . . sorry. I’m rambling. Shall we go?” She would turn to leave expecting the shinobi to follow her, and walked casually back to the village gates. If they wanted to she would take them to the Rock Pit to get a meal, and if they didn’t follow her that far she would get a meal on her own before returning to the University. She had plenty of exciting things to tell her teacher, Harichimo.

{Exit Thread}

576/3224

B-Rank Event Mission 3000/3000

224 words discarded

The sheer power, the darkness... it had her worried after she had seen it for the first time. But after everything was said and done about the black raiton rods, Mizuki felt a sense of relieve that they didn't see it as some act of war. It gave her some hope for the future, and she smiled at the comments that followed in the wake of the crackling show. The ANBU would have to deliver his report and warn the other ANBU of what occurred, and the two others would be joining her on her road to reach the Village safely. She liked the idea of having company.

"A pleasure to meet you all. The company is most appreciated.", she said with a bow. "I wouldn't mind a brief stop to eat something. I haven't had a good meal since I left Kumogakure, making use of nutritious rations for the most of the journey."

At this, Sayuri and Kodai led the way towards the Hidden Village, and she followed suit, seeing Harichimo get smaller and smaller as the distance between them grew taller by the moment.

---

EXIT

189
Total: 4510
Mission: 3000/3000
Remaining wc: 1510

Training:

Kodai listened to the Anbu explain why he could guide us back to the village, typical for high ranking ninja, always to busy to anything oh well. He really didn't want to be escorted by the girl that had been captured, but he couldn't really complain in his current state. He could walk just barely, but it was more of a focused stumble, as the girl turned to him and Raiu, most likely about to talk, he plopped down on a rock behind him to rest his legs. The girl introduced herself as Sayuri, and Kodai stood to his feet and held out out a palm to shake her hand, introducing himself to her. Kodai got annoyed by the girls rambling, most likely because he was so battered up. When the girl mentioned a restaurant and food, Kodai's eyes lit up a bit, and he noticed his hunger and that he hadn't eaten for the better part of the day, he was planning on going to the Rock Pit after his training with the salamanders on Mount Lavori was done but then he got side tracked with this.

The girl finished he introduction with an apology for rambling, and began to walk towards the village hidden in the rocks. Kodai stumbled after them, barely keeping up. As the three of them entered the town Kodai raised his pace eager to get a hot meal from the Rock Pit. He walked in ignoring the stares and a gasp or two and waited for someone to come around and take his order. He didn't even look to see if the two followed him in, instead he tried to flag down a waiter. When he finally got someone's attention he ordered the house special spicy ramen and dug in. After his meal he stumbled through the streets to get to his small house. He went inside and bandaged up his wounds, got a drink, and as per usual plopped onto the couch and went to bed.

-----------------------------------
WC: 333
WC Total: 3000

{exit thread}