Today was the day. Whatever this mysterious training exercise was, Kennosuke was as ready as he could be for it. He had trained and learned a few new Jutsu. The coming hours would determine if it was enough or not. Given the instructions of wearing a mask the entire time they were at the training exercise, Kennosuke had taken further steps to conceal his identity. He wore his hair down, a shaggy mane that framed the mask he wore, instead of partially pulled back In a pony tail. Instead of his normal clothing, he wore a long sleeve, form fitting black shirt and his hands were wrapped in white cloth. Rekka, his sword was tightly wrapped in black cloth wrappings to conceal the dragon scale pattern and instead of being worn on his waist, it was slung over his right shoulder. He wore his normal black shinobi pants and sandals, with his pouch of ninja tools on his right thigh.

The mask that he was given, he modified slightly to allow his breath jutsu to be used without interference and he took the liberty to paint a basic black design on it. He leaves the Kimura compound and slips out of Konoha undetected before moving through the trees toward the point marked on the map. He arrived with the others that were summoned to the training exercise, all of whom wore masks same as he. A tall man dressed in black appeared, explained the rules of the day. The masks were not only to conceal their identities, but also acted as points. The Shinobi who gathered the most masks, would win the day. What prize would be won, wasn’t stated, but Kennosuke was well prepared for the realities of war and looked forward to the coming battle with his fellow shinobi.

The proctor wished them all good luck and the shinobi scattered to the respective battlegrounds. Kennosuke lingered a moment, studying the man before him before shimmering and disappearing into the forest. He heads northwest, seeking to stay inside the dense forest. His talents would be best suited in the forest itself as it could help cover him while giving him many things to set ablaze to better control the battlefield.

WC:373

Here she was, Fang Cheng'e, currently known as Ess, standing among a bunch of humans in preparation for some big training exercise. She had filed her antlers down to little stumps for this. She guessed it was something to do with Black Ops, judging from the letter she got and thought it best to seem as human as possible for whatever she was being invited to participate in. Couldn't exactly get by unnoticed with antlers sticking out of her hair, never mind the green hair. She had spend the last afternoon making both as subtle as she could. Now, her antlers were but little stumps hidden in between strands of hair dyed black. In her opinion, it looked good. It was a stark contrast to her pale skin and emerald colored eyes.

No one really had a view of that, though. her face was currently covered by a mask. The hood of a black cloak was pulled up to cover her hair, pulled up into a bun. The dragon princess half listened to what the proctor was saying. She paid enough attention to get the gist of things while she in and out. At the moment, she was regretting letting her rabbits convince her not to draw all over her mask. They were right that it would have defeated the entire purpose of making her features more subtle. Speaking of them, she had left her servants at home and given them a bit of vacation time until this whole thing was over. Hopefully, it would last a couple of days.

One phrase brought her back to attention, though.

Preparing the youth for the realities of warfare.

Ess nearly burst out laughing. Sure, she looked young, but she was much older than all of the people here combined and then doubled. "Ha, youth," she said to no one in particular, shaking her head. If the people around her sent sideways glances, she would ignore them completely. "This dude, amiright?" She added, pointing at the proctor with her thumb.

The main takeaway from his words was simple enough, though. The goal was to keep her identity hidden while uncovering that of everyone else. It was simple enough. Even so, it put her at a significant disadvantage. She wouldn't be able to transform into her original form if she wanted to remain in the game, which meant her she was going to have to get creative with her strategy. "What to do, what to do..." she wondered out loud. Is this what it felt to be limited to being a human? It would be interesting to fight this way.

After the proctor wished them all good luck, he gave the final instructions - to choose where to go. The area was wide and offered a variety of options, but before that, Ess needed to call in a small favor. After she had what she needed, she would decide where to head out to. Hopefully, this would be as fun as she was imagining it would be.

[505]

He was tired, so very tired. The young male had been power chaining missions for several days at this point; as soon as one was done, he would pick up another at the administration building and go from there. It was something to keep himself distracted; these nightmares that he had began suffering from as of late were starting to get the better of him. Keeping on task and distracted with a mission to occupy his time and thoughts seemed like the best way to keep them at bay, and it was proving to be very useful to the young man. But unfortunately, Shikei was very much human -- his status as a shinobi notwithstanding -- and there was still a time limit as to how long the young man could go without sleep. When the male decided that he was finally done with his mission chaining and needed to rest, he had attempted to stop, only to find himself lost in the grip of the beast that was the administration building. This beast was not one to trifle with; once it had you, it was reluctant to release you. Despite him no longer showing up to volunteer and take missions, he was continuously being assigned to them, even though he was still simply a hired sword, and only being notified that he had a new mission once he reported back with the old one. It went on for days, the better part of two weeks really, until he somehow convinced a random recently graduated genin to assume his appearance via the Transformation Technique and turn in his latest mission just so Shikei could slip away to get some respite.


Home was quiet as he slipped in through his window; he did not want to wake Granny with his tired feet trudging through the hallways at this time of the day. After undressing himself and throwing his gear onto the floor, Shikei dropped himself on top of his bed, vowing to shower when he woke up. He was tired as all hell, and as far as he knew, there was nothing that he was required to do at the moment. It would be best to get some rest…

~~Several hours later~~

“ShiKEI! WAKE UP!”

A grunt was released from the bed, followed by the shuffling of linen and flesh. Blue eyes slowly opened to being assaulted by the sunlight filtering through the curtains. Pain assaulted his head as he tried to sit up. For a brief moment, the male wondered why was it so important that he remained alive if this was what waking up was going to feel like everyday.

“SHIKEI! GET OUT OF BED! YOU HAVE THAT THING THIS AFTERNOON!”

What thing was she talking abou-- Oh.

Yea.

A mad scramble ensued; the sudden energy influx was almost enough to scare him somewhat. It would seem that he had been noticed some what by someone higher up on the chain. He recalled the letter he had received and how he needed to wear his particular mask during the exercise. He also recalled wondering if this ‘covert, experimental training regimine’, as the letter stated, had something to do with ANBU.

Very well then.

After a quick shower, the male would gather up his gear and mask before heading out to the meeting place. He would slip his mask on along the way, allowing the strange material to settle on his face. It felt a bit weird, but he was willing to go along with it for the moment. As he arrived, the male would take note of several others who were there before him, most notably the one whom decided to mark his mask…


Well, just paint a target on yourself…

Those blue eyes, hidden behind the featureless mask, would carefully look about again. The young male would keep to himself, not bothering to speak to the other participants for the moment. There had to be a reason as to why they were given masks, after all. If one’s face was to be hidden, then perhaps it was to be expected that he was to not let on whom he was by any means?

As the last of the participants would arrive, something began to stir in the canopy. Shikei would turn his head heavenward to catch sight of Takao standing up within the canopy.

His eyes would look upon the figure of Takao, listening to him speak and taking careful note what was expected of him for this place. So, the masks were important in the exercise; they were to protect the identity of those who wore them, as well as acting as a point system for those who were participating. At those word, Shikei could not help but allow his gave to drift over to the one that he noticed had painted his mask.

Bullseye.

While he himself was not planning to go and remove the mask of that particular persona, he would not pass up the chance should it present itself. This was a competition, after all...

---

844

Thread Exit

844/450 [750 x 40%] = 1 D Rank Jutsu learned [Sei-shō: Wraith Form]

394/228 [325 x 30%] = STR D to D-1

Kisei wasn't exactly sure what to expect on something like this. Well, one could expect everything, but that was a little over the top for an experimental training exercise, but eh, who knows what was going to happen other than the one who brought us here. The Ushinatta blacksmith looked down on the mask he was assigned, it was a simple porcelain mask with no colors. 'That was probably a good thing, less to look at I suppose.' Kisei put it on with a sense of, strangeness. For his two or so years of serving as a ninja, it never occurred to him to hide his identity. Despite understanding the power one's identity had in a world of espionage and danger like this one. Carelessness or over-confidence on his part he guessed. Whatever the reason, perhaps it was time he started to take all this ninja stuff seriously. "No more smoke and umbrella tricks?" That ever lovely voice asked innocently. Kisei chuckled.

"Always umbrella tricks, my dear Ai." He smiled, picking up his newly improved weapon.

“But let’s save that as a surprise for them.”

-

When he arrived he was surprised that there were other people there, but why? It wasn’t like there were going to have a solo practice regime, just for one person, no, it was a much smarter idea to have more people to test. Though Kisei would find out just then why there was quite a number of people here.

The cloaked masked figure would go on to explain the exercise they were going to do. By their attire and the identifying logo of the black ops division on them, this would appear to be a recruitment practice of some kind. Welp, then that meant this wouldn’t be as easy as Kisei would have liked. Good then, a challenge. He hadn’t been as active as he would have liked recently and something like this sounds like it’s just what he needs. The objective of the game was to prevent your mask from getting stolen as well as hide your own identity. Though these seem like separate goals even if they are connected. ‘This is going to be a bit difficult for me, since nothing in my kit is meant for stealth, save for one.. I’ll have to take this carefully.’ Thankfully with the recent updates to my weapons I did have plenty of killing power to spare, as well as a good number of defensive abilities, so combat wouldn’t be too much of an issue unless he was an idiot. (History was not on his side in this regard.) However maybe this time will be different.

After they were dismissed, Kisei would immediately jump into the forest scene, but try and stay away from the noisy one screaming about. Confident ninja often had good reason to be, at least in his experience, so it was better to leave them be for now. The Ushinatta would jump up into the tree branches, looking around to make sure no one saw him or was chasing him right now. When he was certain that no one was around he pulled out his scroll and immediately unsealed the puppet hiding inside. The smoke cover providing the perfect opportunity to activate the stealth feature of the puppet. Giving the appearance he disappeared completely in the smoke as he hid within the skeletal puppet frame. As he looked around for his prey Kisei gently stroked the side of his mask, making sure it was still in place. As he felt the porcelain under his fingers he breathed with relief. Determination filled his very being. It was time to get serious.


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