Nagare had taken his first serious mission, yet another milestone just after reaching Chuunin. He was very excited for this particular mission because he had a chance to kill someone. Oh, how the thought was pleasing. He brought Jishin along, just to see her skills in battle.

The task was simple enough; they were to find the escaped prisoner and take him in. Nagare wasn't exactly planning to do that, it really depended on the prisoner. The mission only showed the prisoner's appearance. Horui was using Heat Mapping Technique to search the general area near the Tree of Demonic Knowledge, and finally picked up a heat signature around 48 or so meters to the south east. He told Naga telepathically, who in turn called out Jishin's name.

Word Count: 130/1,500

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Horui's Chakra:85/100:

Her predatory instinct were set on high alert, Nagare had contacted her earlier stating that he had a mission which she could be of use in. Apparently some prisoner had escaped the local penitentiary, some dumb ass guard had made a mistake of some sort or another that lead to a threat to be released into the public. Her thoughts on the matter being that the one responsible for the escape should get a punishment far worse than the one the prisoner should receive. Then again she was socially backward, so yeah, that probably wasn't going to happen.

Jishin's eyes glistened toward Nagare as he called her name, quickly she closed the distance between the two "Do we have something?" she asked with her usual striking gaze.

129/1,500

Kharis quickly made his way towards the Tree of Demonic Knowledge. Apparently one of the prisoners had escaped, and it was up to their team to find and recapture him. Kharis told Ayarin that they were going in to begin a mission so, he needed to be as silent as possible. Ayarin whistled his assent and tucked himself into as aerodynamic of a shape as possible staying completely silent. Kharis quickly made his way to where his other two teammates had already met up. As he neared, Kharis said a quick hello to them both and waited for Nagare to answer Jishin's question.

"Horui just picked up a heated body, at human body temperature. We're assuming it's him, and he's just southeast of here. Let's not waste time." He changed his stance and started running toward Horui, who had already taken chase of the prisoner.

The prisoner, according to the mission details, was short and spry, and only about age 20. His name was Araiguma Gifu. He had long brown hair and amber colored eyes. His skillset was described as heavily reliant on puppetry, fuuinjutsu, and ninjutsu (a specific barrier ninjutsu that blocked projectiles using Raiton vibrations was mentioned as well, and described in detail). He was an ex-Special Jounin, so this would be a bit of a challenge. Of course, maybe not for a squad of three, but still, they couldn't let themselves be too confident and reckless.

The distance between the squad and Araiguma was cut, and Horui was the first to come upon him. He was moving at an extremely fast speed, so the squad struggled to catch up, but Horui managed to do so, ending the sensory ninjutsu and blasting a fireball at him. He couldn't dodge it if he continued forward, so he jumped to the left and turned, taking out a scroll.

"I'm surprised you caught up to me, or even found me, for that matter. Ah well, I'll just kill the three of you, no problem." said Araiguma arrogantly.

The rest of the squad finally arrived and all gathered behind Horui, and Araiguma didn't break eye contact as the scroll plumed into a cloud of smoke, revealing a puppet that looked like an angel with blonde hair, blue eyes, and masses of white needles that resembled wings. Its robes were torn and weathered, but still majestic and elegant in a way. The chakra strings in its back hung still in the air connecting to Arai's fingertips. A smile spread across his face as his finger twitched, and the puppet's geometric mouth opened in response, a similar crooked smile of its own.

Word Count: 480/1,500

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Horui's Chakra:60/100:

"Let's." She replied in simplicity, looking back at Kharis to give a quick nod. It had been fairly obvious since the two had first met that she didn't exactly care for his personality, it seemed to her that he was far too sensitive. Such a thing of course wouldn't effect her work ethic, she was there to catch some moronic criminal and personal feelings about her squad mate wouldn't influence her actions.

With practiced efficiency she followed behind Nagare, her foot steps making the softest 'pitter patter' upon the ground beneath her, mind already set upon the fight that would most likely ensue. The prisoner, whose name was Araiguma Gifu, a former Special Jounin who liked to play with large dolls and some silly seals in an effect at dispatching the enemy, it was also apparent he knew a bit about defensive Ninjutsu. She was not impressed. The plan, in her mind, was that of the usual: close the distance and then pound the man into a fine dust. The best laid plans were the simple ones, after all.

Soon they had closed the majority of the distance, Jishin's blue eyes sparkled with the reflection of the blast of fire Horui had let out but moments before. The mark in view out of the corner of her eye; apparently he had managed to dodge the blast, and was now speaking in the most pompous of way. Standing in momentary silence she scanned his figure, watching as he tossed up a scroll which then became a large puppet.

Briefly glancing at the criminal's toy she immediately associated the look with what others might consider a fallen angel or something of that sort, it having a sort of disheveled beauty and grace to it. Her gaze then made their way back to the criminal, "You're going to kill us? No, no you're not," she felt a little psychological warfare was in order, hoping one of her team mates would catch her drift and fire something up while she was speaking. Continuing up again her gaze meandered back to the puppet "I'm going to tell you what's going to happen: we're going to put you down, real hard, and then I'm going to personally break your little doll..." a momentary toothy smile forced it's way onto her face, highlighting the differences in her teeth and that of a normal persons', they were quite sharp. Chances were her attempt to goad the man into doing something stupid would work, leaving an opening for her or another squad member. If not, she would just have to get in close and whoop some ass.

[593/1,500]

Kharis ran quickly to catch up to his squad mates as they chased after the escaped prisoner. Apparently the prisoner was a special Jounin who had been able to escape. As Kharis caught up, he realized that their opponent was a puppetry master, and quickly fell to the side as out of obvious sight as possible and began motioned for Ayarin to take off into the air. Ayarin flew up into the sky waiting for Kharis's command to attack. While Ayarin wasn't necessarily the most heavily combat oriented pet, he could provide a key distraction in a time of need. As Jishin began her psychological portion of the warfare, Kharis pulled his flute out of his carrying case and began playing a tune meant to inspire dread. He knew that the enemy was most likely going to release out of his genjutsu, but it would blind him for a few seconds at the very least hopefully just enough for another of his teammates to either subdue the bastard or kill him. As Kharis began weaving the Genjutsu, he focused the technique onto his target. He saw as the technique affected the fool. His eyes turned a dark black as his sight was stolen away from him.

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Jutsu Used

Spoiler:

Araiguma had already been hit by a genjutsu, quite quickly in fact. Kharis executed the jutsu with finesse, earning the respect of both Horui and Nagare in response. Nagare wasn't too sure of the effects as of now, but based on the change in the man's eyes, it was some sort of blinding technique. Nagare took out the Yami no Ikimono Scroll and summoned Takeshi, who flew directly at Arai. He impacted Arai's stomach, before flying around his back and clawing his upper neck. Blood dripped from the fresh wound, and Takeshi flew up into the sky alongside Ayarin. Araiguma turned around instinctively, assuming another opponent was behind him. "Nagare, go now!" Takeshi called out from the air.

Nagare nodded and ran forward, clenching his fist and preparing to strike. Araiguma must've heard the footsteps, because he stopped immediately and turned in Nagare's direction. With an intricate formation of his fingers, his puppet advanced, set on a crash course with Naga. Horui ran around the left in an attempt to distract the puppet or Arai, but the puppet halted suddenly and it's wings contracted.

"Puppet Technique: Heaven's Rain!"

The wings flapped forward and exploded into a giant wave of needles, all moving at extremely fast speeds. Nagare and Horui both took plenty of needles, but luckily they had put their arms in front of them, so the puncture wounds were all focused on their forearms and no where else. The pain was excruciating, so Horui assumed that it was some sort of Katon-infused technique. Nagare and Horui both ran back and covered Jishin and Kharis respectively, so that they wouldn't get hit by the needles as well.

During this time, Arai smiled in a psychotic way and his black eyes flared with excitement. He made a dragon hand seal and vibrations ran through the air loudly as a transparent wall was created in front of him, an attempt at defense while he waited for the technique to wear off. He didn't seem to get that it was a genjutsu yet.

Word Count:833/1,500

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Nagare's Chakra: 85/100:

Jishin stared as her comrades initiated the battle, first Kharis with his flutist Genjutsu which seemed to distract Araiguma. Almost immediately Nagare sprung into action summoning an animal which promptly charged at the man hitting him in the chest before beginning to scratch about him. During this time Jishin had silently moved off toward the right side allowing the others to work, slowly moving to flank the man. Peering back toward the fight, seeing the criminal's puppet in action as it sprayed a plethora of needles, the majority of which hitting Nagare and Horui directly, somehow the two managed to cover their respective distances and hinder the remainder of the attack sparing them from the needles.

A brief look of annoyance passed through her eyes as it became apparent that he had attempted to save her from the attack, something which was quite unnecessary. As the thought subsided another formed in its place someone had just attempted to spare her pain, while unneeded, the sentiment was quite nice. Her expression hadn't changed as she continued in her movement to the side. She would have time to give him a prompt, back-handed thank you after they got the man back into custody.

Her slow deliberate movements turned into a sprint at the man he had just commanded a jutsu, a wall presumably meant to block other ninjutsu. She gathered this from the look of the said wall, it appeared almost transparent and seemed more ethereal than anything else. Probably wouldn't put up much resistance against her fists...

The distance closed she cocked her shoulder back only a couple yards away from the man, about to knock Araiguma into next Tuesday something rather unexpected happened to her his puppet seemed to come to his defense popping up feet away from her still hovering slightly, it became quite apparent that she would simply have to go through it. Without further thought she hopped off the balls of her feet, fist crashing into the head of the puppet shattering the material it was made of, and her fist. The puppet seemed to fall to the ground, she gathered that some vital component in it had been damaged by the residual impact.

The impact from the blow had sent her flying off toward the side with a presumably fractured right hand, hopefully the other two could take care of him now that her favored hand was out of order, an immediate pain jolting through it confirming her suspicion that it was fractured; although, it was a bit strange that she hadn't gone into shock. Without word she stood grasping at her hand, ready to move if necessary, Son of a bitch that hurt. she thought to herself waiting to see her comrades' next moves.


[1,055/1,500]

Kharis was amazed by how quickly his teammates reacted to their opponent's movements. Kharis was almost surprised out of holding onto the jutsu as he prepared to dodge the many senbon that were flying in his direction, but both Horui and Nagare threw themselves in front of him to ensure that seonbon went no further. Kharis quickly clamped down on his instinctive fear and kept weaving the Genjutsu. Jishin quickly ran at the enemy and proceeded to break his puppet. The pieces fell apart and Jishin had obviously injured her hand fairly severely. Kharis noticed that while the outside portion of the puppet's head had been shattered, the rest of the puppet was still fairly intact. Kharis quickly signaled to Ayarin to fly in and rake the Special Jounin across his face.
Ayarin had been flying in the air observing the action the entire time listening for a signal from Kharis. As Kharis played a quick series of ascending notes, Ayarin realized what his master wanted. He moved into a kill spiral and flew down to rake the bastard in the face.

Jishin and Kharis reacted well. Jishin ran forward and punched the puppet's face in, a blow so hard that it probably fractured her hand. Kharis maintained the Genjutsu and had his bird scratch Arai across the face. Arai stood in place, seemingly defeated, when he revealed his technique. He smiled his unchanged, arrogant smile and took out a smaller scroll, tossing it at the ground.
"Puppet Sealing Technique: Fall from Grace."

Tremors shook through the ground as the scroll and the puppet both sank into the ground. Fuuinjutsu seals scattered over the area began to glow, apparently left by Arai while the squad was chasing him. He was definitely cunning; he was planning on fighting all along, and only intended to give the illusion of retreat. Arms began to emerge from the seals, followed by heads and full torsos. They all resembled the first angel puppet, but with a few key differences. Their skins were all pitch black, and their eyes were deep white. Their once-blonde hair was now as black as their skin, and finally, the needles that formed wings on their backs were now made entirely of paper bombs. Chakra strings extended to each puppet, all of which were in a different spot in the area. They surrounded the squad, menacingly. There was a total of 11. With another skilled twist of the wrist and twitch of the fingers, the 11th puppet raised from the ground and stood tall. "Puppet Ascension!" called out Arai, and the puppet, with a puff of smoke, returned to it's original angelic state. Its tattered robes hung idle in the air around its synthesized body. Following this transition, the other 10 demonic puppets rose from the ground as well, one by one, but stayed in their current form.

"Puppet Technique: Immortal Warground!"

Giant weapons came forth from all 11 of the puppets, who all took flight forward to Nagare, who quickly decided what to do. He jumped in the air, getting about 20 or so meters high. Horui realized what Nagare was planning, and launched a fireball at the cluster of demonic puppets. Upon contact with their paper bomb wings, there was a massive explosion, that rang through the area. Neither Nagare nor Horui could hear anything afterwards, but Arai had used Kai to escape from Kharis' genjutsu, and saw the fireball headed toward the puppets. He made a specific move before impact so that all of the demon puppets held most of the explosion while the angel puppet had time to fly out of the way. The result was one puppet left, and a sea of puppet pieces strewn across the grassy plain. The giant tree stood overhead, ominous and evil. A branch or two fell from the explosion, as if in mourning of the "demons" being killed.

The angel returned to the ground and dashed at Kharis. Horui stopped it with a kick in the stomach, and Nagare approached from behind and released a Raiton shockwave to launch it into the air. Araiguma struggled for control of the puppet, but the shockwave had disabled his chakra strings for a moment. Takeshi, who was still in the air, took this opportunity to use a Wind Vacuum Wave. The wave impacted hard on the angel, and its right arm and wing were cut off. Araiguma responded fast and raised the puppet's left arm.
"Purgatory Bomb!" he yelled. A hole in the puppet's arm launched a blast of white needles immersed in similarly white flames. It moved very fast at Takeshi, and exploded into on impact, engulfing him in a white blaze and stabbing him. The remaining needles were launched in all directions, but none made contact with the rest of the squad. A pained look grew on Nagare's face, and he reversed the summoning jutsu to prevent further harm to Takeshi.

Within the same moment, Nagare ran back to Araiguma and tackled him to the ground. The two men struggled aimlessly both equally matched in strength.

Word Count:1,514/1,500

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Horui's Chakra:

Naga's Chakra:

Takeshi's Chakra:

Over the course of a few seconds the pain in her hand had increased substantially, nothing to put her out of the fight but it was certainly a painful inconvenience, moving backward from the man she watched as Kharis's falcon scratched at the man to little effect. Looking at the strange criminal quizzically she wondered how he was barely phased by the fact that a bird was sitting there scratching the shit out of him, she would have at least been annoyed by such a thing. He certainly seemed to be able to take one hell of a beating. Still meandering backward a look of mild surprise made its way upon her face as the man unrolled another scroll, she had assumed he was about done, the effects of which would be quite grand.

Watching in silence Jishin marveled at what had come to pass, within a matter of seconds the criminal had summoned up eleven puppets. Each with their own little coating of explosive tags, one didn't have to be a genius to figure what he was going to do with the puppets, and the fact that it was most likely a last resort. He was getting desperate, even if his smile didn't allude to it. Her eyes locked upon the puppet that she had just smashed, it had been reformed leaving a sense of aggravation.

Soon another fight ensued between the puppets and her comrades, watching as Horui shot a fire ball toward the puppets that held mass amounts of explosives. Without thought she jumped backward attempting to avoid getting caught in the immediate vicinity of the blast, managing to do so successfully. Covering her ears and turning from the blast did little to dull the blast, the explosion causing the ground to rock beneath her losing her footing for a moment Jishin swiveled, somehow managing to stay upon her feet...

Her ears rang violently, no other sounds managing to enter her head. The blast had for the moment deafened her, a small amount of blood oozed from her left ear the drum had obviously been ruptured from the blast. Sharp pangs echoed throughout her head as she turned to further observe the action, she'd have time to worry about her injuries at a later time.

It seemed in her brief moments of mental absence that the puppet, the one left that is, had unleashed some type of crazy ass attack, spewing a plethora of needles from it's arms. The attack seemed to primarily effect the Bat Nagare had summoned, ending with him returning to his plain of existence.

Unexpectedly Nagare tackled Araiguma, leading for the two wrestling on the ground moving to and fro. Their technique was disgraceful, obvious that neither had ever train in the art of Taijutsu a day in their life. Quickly she moved toward the two, one hand cupped over her bleeding ear the other dangling at waist level. With one swift movement she delivered a kick to the criminal with the bottom of her boot, knocking several of his teeth out of place and causing him to roll away several feet. Capitalizing on the moment she pressed on, pushing her foot against his windpipe. Pressing down harder with each passing moment, constricting his ability to breath. The thought of killing him passed her mind, letting off a bit from the man. They were getting paid to bring the man back, not to kill him.


[1,637/1,500 Time to go to the hospital.]

At this point, the criminal was unconscious. His puppet fell to the ground, without anyone to control it. Horui approached the unconscious Araiguma and hoisted him over his shoulder. Nagare stood for a moment. He figured the mission was complete now. He went over to the puppet with one arm and one wing, and picked up the arm that had been sliced clean off, which was sitting a meter or two to the left of the full body. He looked at it excitedly before sliding it into the strap that held his scroll. He looked back to Kharis, Jishin, and Horui. "Okay, Mission Complete."

{Exit}

Staring down at the man it was obvious he had been incapacitated, entirely removing her boot from the man's throat. Slowly walking away from the man she grasped her right hand, it had obviously been fractured. Looking over toward Nagare it seemed the mission was complete with the exception of carrying the man to the prison, which she assumed the other two could manage. Releasing her hand and wiping the congealed blood from her left cheek she sighed, "Yeah, I'll leave you to bring him to the jail; I need to go get my hand checked out." and with that she left the other two heading toward the hospital.

[Exit]