Trouble was afoot in a nearby village. People were disappearing randomly in the night, and anyone who the village sent out for aid had not reached Konohagakure, with the exception of one straggler who had informed the administration of what was going. Kashizudoto was to be sent along with a genin medic by the name of Chiaki Guanyin to investigate the situation in the Land of Fire and provide whatever aid they could to the villagers. The clan name "Guanyin" sounded familiar; in Iwagakure, when he once fell ill during a diplomatic mission, Kashizudoto was treated by an apparently famous medic named Nanashi Guanyin. She was quite good at her job, and, although Kashizudoto was a little fidgety back when she was treating him, she handled him very well despite all of that. Thus, if only out of familiarity, he trusted this new medic for her name alone. Kashizudoto brought along his pet messenger hawk, Hawky, and then the three embarked at dawn along with the lone villager who had escaped and informed Konoha's administration about the threat.

---

---

And so, they set about on their journey. If Chiaki was willing, Kashizudoto would engage in conversation with her at various points throughout the journey. He would tell her that he was a jonin of the Hidden Leaf named Kashizudoto Sarutobi and that among his skills were ninjutsu, swordplay, and sealing (though he did not mention senjutsu). If she volunteered any information about herself as a shinobi, he would proceed to inquire about her Guanyin heritage and then tell her the story of how he was healed by a medic named Nanashi Guanyin in Iwagakure. If Chiaki was willing, Kashizudoto would also make small talk with her and the villager traveling along with them, although he would encourage them to make haste, as his friends' lives were at stake. He told them that his wife and children disappeared a few days ago, and that was why he went to seek help despite all the risks. Kashizudoto wanted to help this villager, but, although he didn't say so out loud, he was almost sure by now that his wife and children were dead.

WC: 362

Chiaki dressed for her mission as she always did, by rising two hours earlier than she expected needing to go out. Can't rush perfection, after all, was what she thought as she looked at herself in the mirror, frowning at what the night had done to her hair and eyes. She had to get rid of the bags under them somehow. A yawn stretched not only her mouth, but seemed to migrate throughout her body in a serpentine manner, making her flex and strain in the early wee hours of the morning, where the world is at its coldest and most still. Even the chirping of the crickets ceased at this hour.

Chiaki didn't need to check the clock again as she made for the bathroom, letting the hot water wash away all of yesterday's worries, cares, and responsibilities. As it should, she was going on her first mission where life and death were involved. She didn't know how much of a help she would be to the ninja called... what was his name again. She squinted in the shower, looking up to the ceiling, letting the cascades of hot water roll down her front for a while, Kashi.... something? She would have to look at the scroll again once she wasn't covered in suds and rinsing.

She stepped out of the shower and instead of blow drying her hair as she sometimes did, she decided to braid the still wet fibres attached to her head into a tightly wound braid. Then she wound this atop her head and stuck a decorative pin in it, along with two senbon. Looking at her figure in the mirror, she pinched and prodded the parts of her that she wanted to work on, making mental note of them before drying off completely.

After taking care of the morning's ritual, she clothed herself in a tight fitting Chinese styled dress. It was dark blue, distinctly the same color as her hair, and accentuated by a dark yellow trim. She lifted her left leg onto the nearby desk and wound her senbon to her upper left thigh, just in range of her being able to easily access them, and then did the same with her one kunai she used defensively, tying this to her upper right thigh. Lastly she put on her sandals, the noise dampening ones, and looked at herself in the mirror.

The clock reflected there told her she only had an hour left after all of this to get breakfast and meet with- a frown marred her face as she looked for the scroll. It was going to kill her if she wasn't able to remember his name. Ah, yes, Kashizudoto.

She sat herself down for some cold noodles in miso soup and cleaned up after herself. By the time all of the morning chores had been done, she looked around the room triumphantly, then the clock glared back at her. She was five minutes late.

Grabbing her keys, she sped around the door, locked it tight and flew across the rooftops. Stupid stupid stupid!

----

As she jumped off of the last rooftop and landed in front of the two that were waiting for her. She was blinded by the sun coming up over the great konoha wall. Shielding her eyes she apologized for her tardiness.

Indeed she would like to talk with them both along the way, and would offer up tales of her previous missions that she had done with the Hokage, with Fuyuko, and by herself besides. She would offer up that she was a genin, and that she was aiming for the top medical ninja in all of the villages, whatever that should mean. She also would say that she was going to open up a hospital where all ninja of all nations could come and be healed, no matter their stigma, nor how they got their wounds. Where people could get a second chance.

"We'll find them." Chiaki promised the man, "Don't worry, we'll find your wife and child." She smiled, "I promise on my title as genin of the hidden leaf."

Chiaki seemed to be quite experienced for a genin given her impressive track record of going on missions, having even taken one with the Hokage himself, and he found that she showed quite a bit of compassion towards the suffering villager. Kashizudoto indeed felt very bad for the villager, but he had seen this situation arise all too many times, and there was little that could be done about it; it would be fair to say that Kashizudoto was compassionate, but that the will to go out of his way and do anything about it had been beaten out of him at the hilt of a katana.


It wasn't before long that the group was confronted by ten large, muscular men with big sticks. They didn't look like shinobi, but Kashizudoto wouldn't have been surprised if they were skilled enough to take on an entire small village alone simply with their strength and skill in bojutsu. One of the men, a grizzly man standing at nearly six and a half feet tall, pointed at the villager.

"Back for more, I see," he shouted, "You might have escaped capture last time, but you're an idiot for trying your luck once more!" The men charged at them, and while Kashizudoto was confident that he could take them on even without the help of Hawky and Chiaki, he had a different plan in mind. From what the man had just said, he just surmised that the goal of these men was to capture people, not kill them or rob them; he did not know the purpose, and it was obvious that the villagers did not either, but he was determined to find out. For that reason, Kashizudoto decided to play the fool and lose on purpose, so that he and the rest of his squad could be captured and led to their base of operations, so that they could find out what was really going on.

He scratched his hawk on the head, a gesture that between Kashizudoto and Hawky meant to "stand down." In this case, he did not want Hawky revealing his true strength to the men. Kashizudoto pulled out his katana and charged at the men at barely a quarter of his normal speed before going through a somewhat believable-looking fight sequence wherein he took a punch from the men and dropped his sword, falling to the ground. He looked at Chiaki, "These are not men you want to mess with. Stand down." For this plan to work, he needed Chiaki and the villager to believe that he had truly been beaten, and for that to happen, he needed to act like it, too. If Chiaki would not stand down, the men would attack her; given that they were quite strong, it was unlikely that a genin would be able to beat them. The villager, whether or not Chiaki would fight, would give resistance, but would easily be captured by the men.

The group was forced to surrender their weapons: Kashizudoto gave them his shuriken, kunai, wire, and katana but not his Dansuburedo kunai launcher, which was hidden under the sleeve of his arm. He also had an array of other abilities he could use to escape whenever he wanted, and even though the men tied everyone's arms behind their backs with rope (for Hawky it was his wings), Kashizudoto still had plenty of options for escape. The captured group followed the men quite far into the forest, where they entered a cave.

A blood circle had already been drawn in the middle, and bodies were strewn all over. There were ten other men waiting there. It was readily apparent that there was some sort of sacrifice going on right now, and now that he had found the location, it was time to escape. Kashizudoto was quite a strong ninja despite his modest appearance, and with the flick of a wrist, he was able to snap in half the rope that was being used to bind his hands together and simultaneously kick the man in front of him.

Kashizudoto then revealed his natural form, one that was invisible, silent, odorless, and did not leave a trace on the natural environment as he moved. With the men unable to perceive him without the use of a sensory jutsu, he was able to grab Hawky, Chiaki, and the villager and make a run for it to a corner that was near the entrance of the cave, where he revealed himself to sight temporarily to assure the group that they were safe with him as he untied the ropes binding them. It seemed that in all the confusion and panic that resulted when Kashizudoto started his escape, one of the men punched the villager, giving him major bruises. It seemed like a job for a medic, Kashizudoto figured, and that was why they brought that Chiaki girl after all.

By then, the panicking men had regrouped and chased them to their section of the cave, surrounding them. "Hawky, you ready?" he said before he turned to Chiaki and pointed to the villager, "Make sure he doesn't get hurt." He turned invisible and silent once more, and, along with Hawky fought the men. A foe they couldn't see and was too fast to dodge their blows was, after all, a foe that they couldn't hurt, and, in no time, he and Hawky had taken out twelve of the men.

It was then that two kunai emerged from the entrance of the cave and headed straight toward Hawky and Kashizudoto. While Kashizudoto was able to push Hawky out of the way in time, he was not able to dodge his own, and, the next thing he knew, it was lodged in its shoulder. All the surrounding people would see was blood spurting out of seemingly nowhere onto Hawky, as Kashizudoto's body was invisible but his blood would become visible once leaving it, and the kunai disappearing into thin air, as when it hit him, it lodged itself in his body and thus became invisible along with him. Kashizudoto had the liberty to shriek, as nobody could hear him, and he backed off for a moment, looking towards the figure at the entrance of the cave along with all the other men. They, too, seemed to be afraid of the woman standing before them, but obviously she was no friend of Kashizudoto's, as she had just thrown a kunai at him and his hawk.

"I can sense blood, honey," the black-haired woman said. She was holding a large scythe and walked forward to face her men, "You've brought some good sacrifices." It was then that he noticed the emblem on the upper right hand portion of her chest, the symbol for Black Dawn. He would have inquired for more details, but he didn't want to give away his position in case her claim about blood sensory was a ploy. It was quite possible that she had simply tracked the way her men were getting attacked and from that had deduced his position in order to fire her kunai. It was also possible, however, that she did indeed have this blood sensory, and if she was as strong as he was guessing, then he and his group were in for some trouble.

"I'll take the invisible boy and the bird," she told her henchmen, "You go for the girl and the villager. And with that, the matchup had been decided: Kashizudoto and Hawky versus the lady with the scythe and Chiaki and the villager versus the eight men. Kashizudoto would try to help Chiaki if he could, but he was sure that this lady was going to keep him occupied.

Abilities/Items Used:

WC: 1660

Before long, there was a group of ten men that were wielding what seemed to be some sort of crude club each. They didn’t have much in the way of other weapons, but the way that they held them, the ease of their grips and the calluses on their palms and fingers told her that they knew how to swing them. She knew that these weren’t just makeshift clubs, they knew how to handle much heavier weaponry, and that perhaps due to the times, or due to keeping up appearances, she thought, they were separated temporarily from their weapons.

One of the larger men stepped forward and confronted the man that they were to be protecting. A kunai lept into her right hand and she put it defensively in front of her, looking to Kashi for his lead. Perhaps he would- Her thoughts were cut off by them all rushing towards the three with their clubs held at the ready, not in a stance that was reckless, but meted and actually left little in the way of openings. Just who were these men?

Kashi just casually scratched his hawk on the head, and that puzzled her even more, was this such a small challenge that he was going to fight them lazily with that bird on his arm? Then Kashi pulled out his sword in one fluid motion, almost like a trail of water more, than a sword. She watched as he moved through the motions of his sword, clearly trained far more than the men, parrying blows like they were nothing, but something was wrong. Wasn’t he a Jounin? She shouldn’t be able to keep up with his blows at all. A man swung his club, knocking Kashi’s sword down and punched him hard in the mouth.

Kashi dropped his sword, either it was a reverberation or he dropped it deliberately and fell to the ground where he told her to stand down. She gave him a confused, and almost betrayed look as she dropped her kunai. From a higher ranking shinobi, this was an order she couldn’t refuse, but she had no idea what he was doing. Kashi’s hawk was as useless as a turtle dove, and she could almost hear it making the dumb cooing noises that those flying rats did.

She kneeled on the ground, the slits in her chinese dress allowing her to do so without hindrance, a look of betrayal in her gaze as she put her hands to the back of her head, and slipped a couple of senbon into her hair, they were not long enough to be noticed unless they searched through her hair and found them hidden there, and she thought she did it surruptitiously enough. She left enough of them to be believable in her pouch that they confiscated, along with the one kunai she had.

They tied her hands behind her back, but she could still weave hand seals with one hand, a trait that she loved about herself, and knew that she could escape her bonds, but with someone like Kashi at the reins, she wanted to see this through, and see what he was up to besides. She had no idea, but wanted to know why he had betrayed her and the towns person.

A red circle that smelled oddly of iron was drawn rather crudely in the center of the cave, which was lit by torches. A ritual of some sort. Right, these were cultists. Chiaki wove a couple of hand seals, her chakra burning down her left hand as she manifested a blade on her two front fingers at the same time that Kashi snapped his own restraints. Alright, well, then he was going to be led to the cave the entire time? Maybe he wasn’t so incompetent at all. Kashi then vanished and she was swept to the corner of the room along with the hawk and the villager. She blinked and Kashi seemed to try to undo her already undone bindings, they slipped over her wrists at the same time as he tried to slip the ropes off.

Keeping the blade up, she looked to the villager, he was bruised, but not badly, she would have to heal that later. Right now, priority took precedence to protect his life, rather than heal his minor wounds. Kashi gave another command, though she didn’t know if it was to the bird or to someone else. The bird flew towards a couple of the men, but one managed to get through. Chiaki tore into his upper abdomen with her scalpel as it grew to about a meter long and pierced and raked along his side. It immediately became necrotic, turning black and festering before he had a chance to get to them, and Hawky took care of the rest for that one. She looked around, seeing no other harm coming their way she started to weave hand signs before she heard a dull thump and a clattering of kunai to the ground. The kunai in question slid all the way to her. Good, she could use this as a defense for more of the men.

Chiaki looked up to see the woman that Kashi and Hawky had been assailed by looking out over the terrain with a chip on her shoulder, and a scythe besides. She proclaimed that she could sense blood, and that wasn’t good, as Chiaki thought that Kashi must have at least gotten some blood on him from the fighting that he and his hawk had been doing. Chiaki, at least, hadn’t because she had used her chakra scalpel to attack. Now, however, she didn’t know what to do. This woman meant business and oozed both confidence and danger.

Chiaki didn’t quite know what to do about the eight men assigned to her, but she put up the kunai defensively in her non-dominant hand and said to the villager, “Stay back, it’s the duty of a hidden leaf kunoichi to protect you, and if you get hurt any more, it’s going to take a lot to patch you back up.” She stood her ground, grit her teeth and as the first one came in, she wove hand seals with her left hand, parrying a blow with a stick with her right and slammed her palm into his abdomen, “Heavy water jutsu!” she shouted as his legs went limp, he stumbled and hit his head on a rock. Unconscious but not dead.

She faced her next attacker, who was more hesitant than his friend allowed for her to weave more hand seals, she threw a caltrop at him and his two closest friends, who looked at them, and then the blood-red chakra of the polarization jutsu of her guanyin caltrops exploded into threads, winding their way into the victim’s shoes and lacerated the bottoms of all three men’s feet. They dropped to the ground and howled in agony. After all, they had just walked on her caltrops.

The next four were a bit harder for her to dispatch than these. One ran around her right side, while another ran to her left. She wove some more hand seals, and lightning arced from her chest, down her arm, and exploded in the left man’s shoulder, rendering his arm that he was carrying the club with useless while the other ran at her with a surprising speed. The other two waited for this opportunity to jump at her as well. She parried the first blow, but caught a stick to the head and the cave reeled. She decided to roll out of the way of another two blows that would have rained down on her as she wove another couple of hand seals and threw two more caltrops.
They both went to one man, and then she polarized one of them and threw it at the villager. The villager shrieked in fear as the teal caltrop zipped through the air and hit him in the chest. He was expecting pain, but instead all of his bruises healed and he was able to stand on his own two feet. The villager grabbed one of the sticks that the other man had and tried to stave off an attack while Chiaki kicked at the leg of the other man. He batted her leg away with his branch and she winced in pain. She was weaving another hand sign though, and burning her chakra like there was no tomorrow. Another scalpel manifested in her hand and she grit her teeth as she sunk it deep into his upper thigh. This time, she kept the scalpel to use, since she wasn’t surprised by Kashi and trying to heal the villager any more.

The villager took a blow to the arm which sent the club out of his hand and as the thug raised the club over his head with two hands, no doubt intending to brain the villager, she stabbed both of his shoulder blades with her scalpel before letting the jutsu go. She had burned through a considerable amount of her chakra, but she could still heal the villager, if need be. A bruise was blossoming on her right shin where she had been hit with the stick and she stood her ground, putting herself between the villager and the woman with the scythe.

WC: 2278

110 chakra spent.
Jutsu used:

jutsu:

Kashi sent me this DM:

Mission is a failure, going to return home OOC


ArjunToday at 1:12 PM
my bad for not letting you know chiaki, but I'm going on an indefinite hiatus for personal reasons
you can just end the thread whenever and rp us as having finished the fight

|Exit thread|

Using 1500 to get to Fuuinjutsu to D rank.