Daraku sat atop the village gate, looking off at the moonlit sky. It was dark, but with just enough visibility to outline the features of the rocky plains, the Aoi Bara mansion to the east, and the stars sparkling, individually bright but absolutely stunning as a unit. He sat here and waited, not for Tsuyo, but rather for the other members who would take Tsuyo's place. Tsuyo had gotten caught up with something and wasn't going to be able to make it, but this retrieval needed to be immediate. So, it would be up to the three of them: a masked woman named Shinobu, a broad swordswoman named Hoshi, and himself, the warrior aligned to the darkness. They would do their best to make it through this task efficiently and unscathed...but the pressing issue at the moment was waiting for them to show up.

The ninja was nearly unrecognizable, as the task had called for. His eyes were brown, thanks to a pair of nifty contacts, and he wore a finely-tailored black and white pinstripe suit with a small blue rose in its breast pocket. Fake tattoos  resembling blue-black flames were painted in semi-permanent ink from his upper chest all the way up his neck and onto his chinline. He'd also dyed his hair black for the occasion. Sure, he wasn't particularly a fan of this wardrobe, as he always cared for comfort over style, but the excitement of battle ahead was enough to outshine this feeling in the back of his mind. All he could think of was the blood his sword would spill in the coming hours...and it brought a sickly grin to his face. He then heard footsteps approaching, finally, and turned to see if it was one of his squad members for the retrieval...

Shinobu made her way calmly through the village. She had never really liked Iwagakure, not even when she as a mere merchant and visited the place selling weapons and other odds and ends that the shinobi there could put to good use. She had always found the village, well… dull. But maybe her memories were affected by the fact that she had reigned as Kazekage – one of the top enemies of the Hidden Rock – for about ten years. In any case, she had managed to get over her hatred and discomfort in under a week. Now, she just couldn’t care less about the village. Maybe the week after that she would actually be fond of Iwagakure no Sato. She let out a chuckle. It was strange to see how things changed over the years. Here she was – a former leader of the shinobi world, serving under a village that she had hated for so long under the affiliation of a criminal group. Maybe in a few years from then, she would see herself become a noble daimyo of the Water Country. Of course, the ludicrous idea could only come about if she survived long enough to see herself go through yet another crazy transition.

The young woman looked around her, searching for the people that she was supposed to meet. The people that were meant to be there were other two members of the Blue Rose – Aoi Bara, or whatever they called themselves. This was supposed to be a simple mission: Get into Konoha, get this Tame person, and then get the hell out. It was fairly low risk, seeing as the group had little notoriety. She just hoped that their illustrious leader, Tsuyo, hadn’t been dumb enough to send a missing nin from Konoha with the group. She knew one of them, though. He was a former member of the Hidden Sand. His name was Daraku, a swordsman and a medic. It was a strange combination in the eyes of a Kuroka. Then again, people within her clan were usually very skeptical of medics.

In the silence of the night, the young woman leaped atop the gate so that she could stand next to the obscured figure that she only guessed would be Daraku. She inspected him briefly. She could see little of him in the dim lighting, but she saw enough to know that his appearance had been altered. She wasn’t sure if it was permanent or for the sake of the mission. All she knew was that it suited their current purpose for him to be as unrecognizable as possible. Shinobu didn’t go through the same lengths. Her masked face and aesthetic surgeries were enough to keep her true identity hidden. “So you’re the idiot they paired me up with for this mission,” she said in her quiet and gruff voice. She was just testing the waters, seeing how short his temper was and how he reacted when being teased or goaded. “This organization has shown me one letdown after another. I hope you’ll be the first to prove my judgments wrong.” She didn’t look at him. Instead, she looked at the horizon before her as they waited for the third member in their party.

If her eyes were daggers, everyone in her sight would be dead. Her face showed nothing but disgust behind the intricate mask that covered it. A black robe covered her person, shrouding her in darkness that made it easy to move in the night. She simply walked towards the meeting place with no intentions of hurrying for the people that waited on her. She was always the last person to get somewhere, but that was on purpose. She wanted everyone to know when she entered the room. A great sword sat on her shoulder as she walked down an abandoned path, kicking up dirt as she slowly approached her destination. In the distance she could see two figures standing side by side in the shadows. That was either them or someone was just really creepy. She walked a few more minutes and jumped to land beside the one on the right. "Let's just get this over with." She scoffed to her fellow Aoi Barba members.

She would look each of them over, looking for anything she could use against them in the future. Of course they were missing ninja like her, so they couldn't be trusted. She wouldn't trust herself if she didn't know her own thoughts. Each of them looked to be generic and uninteresting people though. It seemed that the only interesting information that she knew of them is that they all had a way with blades. The leader had spoken about that before letting her know the purpose of this meeting. Regardless, it was time get going and bring this 'Tame' person back. He better be fucking worth all the hassle.

Daraku now felt a presence next to him, and he calmly turned to face it; a woman wearing a mask standing there, staring back at him with a look of inspection. She scanned his figure for a moment, as if assessing him, but he didn't react, just let her think and process whatever she may. After a while, she spoke. “So you’re the idiot they paired me up with for this mission?" Idiot? Harsh judgment indeed, but Daraku half-listened. He never really paid insults much attention at all, and he certainly wasn't the kind of person to take them seriously. Just because someone didn't like him or had adopted a certain opinion on him didn't mean that they knew who he was as a person...and opinions formed over a short period of time were hardly ever correct or even worth noting, for that matter. If this woman thought he was an "idiot", why should he care? He had barely met her, and she did not know him. She continued to speak in a low tone, explaining how the members of the Aoi Bara had disappointed her in the past, and how she hoped he wouldn't be the next one. He only nodded. "We'll see. I hope for the same from you."

This woman was familiar, oddly enough, as if Daraku knew her from somewhere, but he was sure that he hadn't. Her face wasn't anything he'd seen before, and the air around her was menacing and dry; her cold stare was still locked on him from behind the mask she wore over the lower half of her face. Although he didn't receive physical descriptions of his fellow members before this, he did receive notice about their ranks; this woman had to be Shinobu, just because her chakra was so eminent in the scene, like a dense gas in the air or something. This meant that she was an S-Rank ninja, and would be a great help in the upcoming task. He nodded in approval quietly. "Now, we just need to wait for Hoshi..." and surely enough, within a few minutes of saying that, another figure came into view. Hoshi stood under the gate, looking up at the two of them standing on it for a moment, before jumping to their level. She was a tall and broad woman, for someone of Genin rank.

"Let's just get this over with." Daraku smiled. Hoshi wanted to cut to the chase, it seemed. He turned to face the border. "Yes, let's. He said, just audible enough so that the both of them could hear, before jumping off of the gate, and landing on the hard rock below. He took off running full speed towards the plains, in the direction of Konohagakure no Sato. And so it began...

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Soon enough, the third member of their party arrived. Gin was satisfied with Daraku’s response and simply smirked underneath her mask. She had a decent amount of faith in him. As for the other girl, she knew nothing besides her rank. She looked at her. She stood tall and broad, confident. She was covered by the standard issue cloak and mask that pertained to the Aoi Bara. Shinobu carried the same attire sealed within a scroll, seeing as she thought that it had no use within the Tsuchi no Kuni borders. She spoke before they moved out. “Alright, this mission is meant to be simple. By rule of rank, I’m taking over the mission’s leadership. If you doubt my experience, go ahead and disobey me. However, I do promise that doing so will get you killed,” she said. The young woman sounded cold and calculating. She knew that this would end badly if they stayed too long in Konoha. They would increase their notoriety by a substantial amount and possibly make several enemies in the process. This had to be handled with great care. That was why Gin spoke with authority and confidence. Her only visible eye was narrowed towards the other two in the group. The other lay dormant behind her bandages.

The young woman adjusted the several scrolls on her back, the ones that carried her blades and other assorted weapons, including a pair of combustible lemons that she had built during a drunken rage a few days back. She wondered how they would fare in battle. But that was hardly the point right now. She had to concentrate on the task at hand. “You, Hoshi, is it? You’ll get Tame out of there. Daraku and I will act as a distraction so take advantage of the few moments we give you to get him out of there. Daraku will follow you and I will act as a rear guard. Try to disappear as quickly as possible. I’ll give you a good enough diversion to do that. Understood?” She ordered firmly. She didn’t wait for a response before she set out towards Konoha. It had been quite a while since she had last been there. It was before the Chuunin exams that had happened in Konoha. In other words, it had been well over five years since she had last set foot in there. This would without a doubt prove to be an interesting mission.

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She stood there with a very bored expression on her face. The S-Rank woman, if she recalled the briefing correctly, started to speak with authority. She listened to her words a bit more carefully than usual. It's not that she feared the woman, as she fears no one, it was the fact that the leader expressed how important the mission was. Doing this mission correctly could put her in great standing in the group, despite her attitude. The more she was 'trusted', the easier it would be to leave down the road. As the woman explained the plan, Hoshi smirked at her role. So she had to convince an S-Rank criminal to return to his country of birth to join the Aoi Barba? Sounded like challenge, and she LOVED challenges. "Got it." were the only words that she spoke, though she wanted to say about a few hundred more. Once she became a bit stronger, she would speak her mind. As it is now, she didn't feel like dealing with this woman's anger problems.

All three of the took off within a few moments of each other. She wasn't as fast as either of them, but that didn't matter. She was an intricate part of the mission and therefore wouldn't be left behind. She loved times like this, when she had control without those around her knowing it. Who's to say that she didn't turn Tame against them? Not that she had any interest in such a move, she just liked to entertain the thought of it. The trio moved through the shadows with precision as they headed towards Konoha. Both of them were on the quiet side. It was most likely because they didn't trust each other, which was understandable, but it was just boring. In a way, this was similar to her days at Kumogakure. However, she now had much more control and freedom than she ever did at that hell hole of a village. She would make sure that it one day understood her power and potential.

The trip was rather boring and uneventful. They stuck to the shadows and showed haste in their movements. Even if they were detected, no one would dare to mess with them. Hoshi would have liked to stop a bit more, but asking for such would have showed weakness, and that was not going to happen. Eventually, Konohagakure was in their sites, which meant it was showtime.

- Exit Thread -

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