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Naruto Saga » Mizu no Kuni » Mizu no Kuni Wilderness » Mizu no Kuni Border » In search of a sign.. [Private | Mission | NK | Ayakashi]

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Nora

Nora


D-rank
Urgent! Save the Ninja!:

During the busiest hours at the gates was when he made his move. Taka had long ago observed the tendency for the smaller traffic gates to get jammed by masses of people on foot, or traveling in various other mundane ways and often in larger caravans necessitated by the security one can find in numbers. Donning his mother’s old forehead protector, he strutted proudly by the on duty chuunin who in facing a herd of incoming migrants thought only to congratulate him briefly.

“A little later than your old lady aye kid?” one chided

“Takagi probably held the boy back on purpose. For a shinobi your mom always has spoken out about rushing you kids into the field,” in noticing that the first gaurds words lingered with Taka he laced playful praise with an earnest warning, “uh, you should be proud Little Taka just don’t go burning things down to soon, aye?”

His final comment left Takahiro smiling, amused by the undeserved guidance and even further by his accomplishment. Anticipating seeing some random returning shinobi could throw a wrench in his plan, he traversed the wooded region beyond the beaten path until his familiarity with the terrain faded. The first physical indicator that Hiro was making headway was in the air itself, no longer heavy with moisture and an unusually fresh scent.

The journey had been kind to a boy who despite not being naive in nature was unknowingly naive to the dangers that existed beyond the safely guarded gates of the hidden villages. It was obvious plastered across his face; His countenance would have been easily read as 'elated'. Never before had he tasted such freedom or moved with complete autonomy such as this.

And to think, all it took was me finally 'embracing my duties' to get away.

To think that he had gotten away with relative ease, little resistance even, reassured him to cease the opportunity all the while seeming rather surreal. Takahiro reasoned his demeanor and sneakiness had been the culprit of such a clean gets away and it was not like he never planned to return. What he sought in 'impersonating a genin' was of no threat to anyone but himself and that's the way he liked things.

Although he could only imagine the anger and vehemence behind whatever berating words his mother and fated superior might be spewing at whoever happened to break her the vexing news of her only child. He liked to think it would be all anger, but to think of her in despair, distraught or otherwise saddened by his disappearance only ensured feelings of guilt too.

"Oh Mother, I promise I'll be home soon.. I hope you're not worrying; you've raised me well. I just can't keep serving a purpose that I don't understand the meaning of." He vented, with arms bent and entwined above his head, the full length of his body resting in relative comfort atop a bed of grass. With both hands he then consoled his countenance, wiping from it the tiny beads of liquid that once pooled in the corners of his eyes. The newfound moisture would rejuvenate his eyes, the glossy sapphire portals seemed to coax in the stars upon which they gazed at up above, trapping them in all their wonder, in all their uncertainty.

The sky was unlike anything he’d seen growing up in Konoha. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was not quite that anymore; Ingenuity and progress that it’s ninja brought also brought change. In Taka’s own short fifteen years of living he’d seen the village grow twice over and not just out but vertically as if reaching for the heavens. New technology he surmised brought with it a greater impact on nature, and perhaps the night sky was merely one victim. This natural progression of thought would come full circle back to the topic of shinobi.

“Our technologies aren’t the only thing growing and changing… Mom said the shinobi of old hail in comparison to some of the monsters that are to come and may already exist. It kind of sounds like progress, but at what cost?” the verbal query sought no answer, satisfied by the accompanying sigh. “Were the fruits of that mission worth the loss of his life? How can I even justify one life as being more worthy than another? How can shinobi slaying each other in times of war ever be considered righteous?"

A gentle breeze caressed the flesh of his hand and cheeks, pervading his entire person it seemed to carry away with it the excess warmth of frustration and the angst of impotence. He knew deep down that his mutterings were merely talk and he could not enact any real change even if he wanted. Takahiro’s eyes briefly shuttered as he embraced nature’s kiss and the boy took it as a good omen of sorts.

Both oculi would transfix themselves on the moon as its amicable light left him in a bit of a daze, not before long after two shadowy appendages would break the heavenly bodies form before swiftly incapacitating the near defenseless child. A pressure point ensured that Takahiro would swiftly fall into darkness..


..877..



Last edited by Nora on Sun Mar 18, 2018 2:04 am; edited 1 time in total

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'It was becoing all too common.‘


"Ayakashi, men in red have been sighted! They've ta-" Ayakashi would interrupt them, ordering for the location, and demanding that the group of ANBU stay behind. Each of them almost stared in disbelief for a moment as Ayakashi would simply vanish after she was given coordinates to the location of the enemy. The Mizukage was a fierce woman, one whom could not be easily underestimated, but these attacks on those younger and weaker than her in an attempt to wear her down, strike at her weaknesses and mental and emotional strength were getting old. Ayakashi would not have time to don her usual armor and weapons assortment, instead, leaving with the equipment that was on her person more or less all of the time. Placing her nightmarish steel mask across her face and raising the hood of the Mizukage shroud, she would run to the center of the stairwell in the Mizukage building, and with a single bound leap to the top floor, kicking off the banister and with a second tap of her foot on the windowsill, she would bullet out of the seventh story window, high above the village and onto rooftops that were almost a city block away.

Running unhindered she would jump from rooftop to rooftop until in under a minute she had cleared the wall of the city and entered the surrounding forest. The men had been sighted at a post near the border to the north, that much was certain. Assuming the men that made the attack were not fools, they would move closer to the source of their reinforcements... the Daimyo estate. It was a clear path through the Kirigakure rainforest, taking a route through the forest of suicides, also known as the Nukenin graveyard. Ayakashi couldn't help that it was fitting, there were going to be a couple more unmarked graves there shortly, that much was certain.

The zigzagging blur of light that was the mizukage shot through the forest only increasing in speed as she passed border walls one after the other, meaning that she was moving at over one hundred miles per hour without slowing her forward momentum in the slightest as she weaved in and out of the obstacles in her path until she came across a thick grove. Jumping towards it with a spin as she would draw the fuuma shuriken on her back and hurl it while it was still collapsed. The force of her throw and the spin on the blade would cause the blades to unfurl until the weapon span into a disc of raw destruction. The force of the projectile blowing the trees away and carving a path for the Mizukage as she would follow it up as she bounded off the falling trees and plant matter, catching up with her spinning glaive, jumping over and retrieving it before continuing her mad dash. Never tiring, never faltering... this was what it meant to be a Kage...

'This is what it was to be Ayakashi.'

It didn't take much longer before she picked up a trail, eighteen men in total made a bit of a mess when they moved through a rainforest. It was difficult to hide your tracks, and these were fresh. Moving to catch up, Ayakashi would now finally sprint headfirst towards the enemies before her, the could hear them on the wind, their march and the clamoring of steel on steel. Drawing her own blade changeling in one hand, and the wedding band in the other she would only redouble her efforts and increase her speed even more. Activating the motion detection in her mask to better see everything in her surrounds as her approach from upwind would only serve to better her angle.

There was no roar, no feeling of foreboding, no warning on the approach. Simply a black shadow and a silver streak charged through the group in a straight line. The Genin that had been captured would drop to the ground, the arms that had been attached to the men that had been carrying them had been detached at such speed that it had taken the gravity of their weight to disconnect them. Following many of them would come to a stop and fall. Gravity and impact with the ground once again being the only deciding factor in causing their heads to roll from strikes to the neck faster than their eyes could see. Ayakashi, the black shadow of the hidden mist in her silver mask, taken from a long-dead serial killer and reclaimed as a symbol of a nation that slays monsters would have her weapon sheathed, rising to face the twelve remaining that had, had their numbers cut by a third.

"No Prisoners..."

The haunting, the metallic and emotionless voice would speak aloud as the men would go for their weapons. Ayakashi would position herself to draw her mechanical blade and rush towards them in a blast that would send the earth behind her exploding upwards due to the force of the kick in which she accelerated off of. Reaching the first man she would angle herself low, drawing her blade in a single strike as she stepped past him, the world itself moving in slow motion as she did so coming to the next. Following through with the strike and switching the blade to her other side she would zigzag through the two, passing by him and gliding her blade through wth a strike from ribs to hip. Pulling the catch on Changeling the telescopic hilt would expand into the length of a spear, the swords' blade at the top making it more of a glaive as she would spin the weapon behind her back, dashing forward and sliding with a spin, blade parallel to the earth as she would pass by two more... the weapon gliding through at knee height as she would rise up with an uppercut like slash for a third.

Only now could the sound of weapons unsheathing even begin to be heard by another being. Spinning past the fifth with the upward strike, Ayakashi would bring it back down for the sixth, flowing through with the momentum of the spinning Nagamaki. Keeping it in an angled downward and pulling the string along it, retracting the blade and turning the weapon into a bow. Her spare hand already drawing arrows to the string as two would fly. Slamming into the throats of yet another two aggressors. Leaving four... Ayakashi would lower the bow, as once again time seemed to return to its natural pace, and the wounds of the dead and wounded would immediately catch up to them as eight men would just drop to the earth simultaneously as the Mizukage continued her slow and calculated advance.

The enemy had their weapons drawn, one had a jutsu prepared... it seemed that for a moment it looked like there was going to be a fight. Ayakashi would remain still in that instant, as her chakra radiated, plumes of vapour coursing off her body like she was smoking, but in reality, the mist was a signal of how truly frigid she really was. Just as the group of men looked as though they were about to attack, Ayakashi was gone. Appearing behind them with a chakra enhanced speed none of them could possibly hope to comprehend as she was now behind the one with the jutsu, landing a stunning blow to his solar plexus from behind through his spine and sending him to the ground as the other two would turn in shock only at the sharp sound of his cry. Desperation, hate and anger on their faces as Ayakashi would raise a hand, two fingers pinched together with enough force to crush a diamond and chakra flowing into their tips as she would allow them to snap. The pulse from the impact would expand, washing over the remaining non-ninja leaving them as little more than statues of ice.

Letting out a sigh, as the field went quiet save for the cries of the wounded she had not killed. Ayakashi would move to tend to the safety of the children, approaching and sheathing her blade while revealing her mask and attaching it to her belt. A precaution to appear more human and less like a nightmare. Her long sapphire hair and radiating blue eye would fall over her porcelain features as she would smile.

"Are you all ok?"

[1415 / 7500]

Spoiler:

Nora

Nora


D-rank
Even with both azure eyes of his agape in an effort to absorb any and all available light, Takahiro's world was in complete darkness. It was as if the boy had been wrapped in pure, suffocating shadow as he rested beneath the layers of obsidian cloth and poorly crafted twine. He showed his usual resilience, coming to quit some time prior but admittedly feigning ‘sleep’ out of fear for what his captors might do to him. Immobile. Impotent. Reduced to dangling from a crude brute's shoulder like baggage. He could hear the criminal’s breathing growing more and more laborious as he trudged grudgingly in tow with his consorts. Merely inches away from one of the ogre’s putrid orifices Taka heard every muffled lamentation and after being on the losing end of recent events, the child took satisfaction in his foul whining. It was all he could do to keep from considering the reality of his situation.

In an era where ‘peace and order’ seemed to punctuate the present, the evils that still existed did so due to having the ability to adapt and change with the times. The criminal organizations of today were far more sophisticated and detailed in their approach than those of Old. Taka in his moment of ineptitude would ponder just what kind of monsters were behind this operation. He considered it an operation because by now he’d distinguished multiple voices, at least ten. Cleverly he paid due notice to the clamor of metal that hounded each soldier’s as he powered through the thick, rainforest flora. Takahiro used this, his reasoning and intuition as a semi-accurate, secondary method of gauging their numbers. His heart ached, and tears wallowed the first time he was met with familiarity in the form of youthful cries for mercy, for a savior even.

“Momma!” an infantile voice called out

“Quiet you little piece of shit!” immediately a man berated the child, his position was unknown but surely close in distance to him.

With his eyesight hindered, Taka could almost swear his hearing had improved over the course of his capture. “Hey you can’t talk to him like that! You big bak-“ another child screamed following sounds of light tussling, his insult cut short by a merciless strike. A thud, the sound of a body hitting the ground was the end of all outbursts. Takahiro knew what had taken place, the owner of the voice he felt so strongly moved by had been snuffed out in an instant.

‘He sounded like a child, it was probably his older brother..’ visions of Takao an older brother like figure of his own surfaced internally before his thoughts regained precedent, ‘He only wanted to protect him! He wasn’t even a shinobi. Youth is nothing to be wasted and one of these men stole that, stole it from a child! Who would do that? Are they even human? How much of an animal do you have to be, how much of a-‘

“MONSTER!” his voice sounded deeper though only slightly and more venomous than it ever had. Never before had Taka been witness to such a transgression, such an act of inhumanity. Immediately after his outburst gravity would have its way with his body, firmly planting him into the mossy, soft earth below. It wasn’t the result he’d anticipated and he’d been met with no violent response yet then was not the time to think. Wriggling and flailing about would do enough to loosen binds that were admittedly never tight. The confidence his human pack-mule of an oppressor had in maintaining control of the young Kimura provided an easier time escaping in that end.

As soon as he managed to clamor into a quadruped forme, atop his hands and knees, he tried to assess what had happened. With his own two his eyes he witnessed a figure dispatch men with God-like physicality at a seemingly invisible pace. One of many heads rolled within a couple feet of him while the burly lump of flesh to which it was once attach toppled just beyond that.

‘The ogre?’

More heads were severed and sprawled about beyond that, blood splattered onto the trees engendering them with elements of horror and gore foreign to the bright-eyed Kimura. Those men that survived the initial onslaught foolishly ran towards the murderous blurs; They were lambs to the slaughter. More bodies. Then his sapphire hues finally locked onto the figure obscured in shadow. Taka likened it to a shade, a bringer of death.

‘Shinigami..’ the word was judging yet fearful.

In that moment surrounded by death, he could only think of his mother Takagi. Deep within he felt that in a moment such this she would look to preserve life and aid the weak. No matter how weak in that moment he knew he couldn’t look her in the eyes if didn’t act. Mustering strength and resolve, he raised slowly gazing out with real clarity for the first time. It was disgusting. Children of many flesh tones, the more malnourished of which likely had been captive longer, were of different builds and heights but alike in their lifeless facial expressions. As he hobbled forward, still weak somehow from being off his feet so long, Taka noticed a cluster of children huddled beneath one of the forest’s sprawling trees. Motioning closer to them, one of the children took notice and immediately grew frantic, frantic with hope even.

“Please he-elp!” this simple yet broken request carried with it raw emotion that called to the empath in Taka, he wanted to understand the small child’s tears as much as he wanted to dry them. In examining the distraught group further, they all seemed moved by a similar sadness and a familiar sadness he’d felt before. As he reached them, his eyes grew wide as an older child with his torso covered in blood came into view. For a split second, Taka hadn’t noticed the sizeable laceration responsible. For a split second, he struggled to get to his side thinking there was something he do.

"Don’t let them hurt hi-him, Don’t let them hurt my brotherr.” the boy who couldn’t have been much younger than Takao struggled through his words as his blood right hand gripped Takahiro’s shirt in an effort to fight, to hold on. In his last moments there eyes were locked. It pained Taka to be helpless but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to look away. He couldn’t allow himself to be naïve any longer. The boy in Taka’s arms breathing grew heavier and then more rapid, as he lost strength they became shallower until finally ceasing. The last thing that seemed to fade right before Takahiro’s eyes was the twinkle in the child’s.

“Are you all ok?”

The voice didn’t register and at first his vision was hindered by a steady flow of tears. Out of pride he fought it all back, in an effort to address what he assumed was responsible for slaughtering all those men and for saving them. In that moment Taka didn’t think of himself, he thought only of a child robbed of his life and more than anything, more than ever before he wanted retribution.

“Is he still alive? The man who did this? Can you f-find him?” subconsciously he kept his head bowed in appealing to what he only knew as a death dealer, out of both respect and embarrassment for his teary appearance.  

..2147/7500



Last edited by Nora on Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'What does fear smell like?‘

Ayakashi had flown through her foes like a Valkyrie on laughter-silvered wings, her blade singing the sirens' song as she deftly danced across the battlefields stage. The beauty of her artwork betrayed only by the cut-short cries and the copper smell that filled the air with each and every strike of the changing blade she gripped tightly in her platinum digits. Ayakashi replayed these actions in her mind repeatedly, thinking about how better she could have dealt with each of them, courses of action branching outwards like blood-drenched branches of an ever-expanding oak as it clawed desperately towards the heavens. Ayakashi could not have risked the fighter casting his jutsu, meanwhile, she could not allow them to push her on the defensive. She could have continued to fire her bow, though, after the first two shots, there was a heightened chance her enemies would be able to evade the ebony bolts. If Ayakashi had have loaded the third arrow with the pulse of her demonic ice corruption, she could have launched it at their feet, rather than using her chakra to close the gap in melee combat...

'I made a mistake...'

She must have been angry to make a misstep like that, something within her had wanted her to dominate her opponents in a manner that she knew she could at her level. She wanted them crushed under her heel and torn to pieces, though her better nature combined with the presence of the very likely conscious hostages had tempered her approached into a cold, calculated extermination. While there were a number of them still alive, as she asked the child if they were fine, the response she got was an understandable one from a civilian. As it stood, the Mizukage was unable to discern if any of those taken had been ninja, she hadn't cared to wait and be told the information before jumping out of her building. Smiling softly, and looking back over the brutal landscape she couldn't help but broaden her smile a little. The mind control serum that the Daimyo's advisor used on their captured mercenaries was something that nullified pain, while also coercing their absolute and unwavering loyalty.

"You know, I think they're gonna be just fine, but what I need you to do, is not worry about that, and focus on me. My name's Ayakashi, I'm the Mizukage of this place. It's really nice to meet you. Now, what I need you to do, is be really brave for me. You're super brave I can tell! So, you need to move them all just over there and get them to check each other for any cuts or bleeding or anything that looks even a little strange, lift up their shirts, leggings, anything like that. You need to check yourself too, okay? It's really important. Once they're all clear, come see me and we'll get you home. Think you can do that for me? "

Ayakashi would speak calmly, her smile ever present as she would give her instructions to the child, making sure she would have his full and undivided attention. The goal of the inspection was two fold, the first, to keep the child who was no doubt experiencing the trauma of a sort occupied with something she was sure he would be able to accomplish. The second was checking to see if there had been any shrapnel from the battle or severe damage done to them during transport. They were no doubt covered with enough bruises to last a lifetime, but Ayakashi didn't want to bother activating her sage mode right now to scan all of their well beings with the sensory, activating another technique might have them begin to think that the battle was still going. Creating stress and panic that was not needed at the moment. Hopefully, the boy would begin to comply, as Ayakashi would move to the injured men and women that she had dealt with during the battle, crouching down while she still maintained her demonic ice corruption technique.

Using the flat of her blade she would freeze over the open wounds, at least that way, these men would be taken in for questioning once the drugs in their system wore out. Though their destination would be far from hospitable. Sero knew of Ayakashi's predicament, so she would leave the interrogation to him for the most part, and the fates of the mercenaries afterward to him, no doubt there would be some trial or another that could see them released under his watchful eye, regardless of how difficult it may be. Many of the mercenaries that were under the seemingly omnipotent thumb of the Daimyo were prisoners taken from the seven bells war seven years ago... Meaning they were hardly innocent men. The thought of the war, thousands of men crashing together on the shores of Kirigakure, soot and cinder lingering as the sky burned with the fires of hundreds of ships across the waves. Aya remembered the cold embrace of death as she had fought Gan Ning atop a cliff, wounded, as her hubris cost her greatly, plummeting from the clifftop into the icy grasp of the river below, only to be revived by a wandering ninja not long after.

Once she was done stabilizing the few that were not killed, and disposed of the few that were or were on their way, she would move back to the children, looking to them all, her weapons placed away and none of her techniques active. Ayakashi would look over the group with eager eyes, attuned to read their faces and hope that the group of them were little more than shaken by the event. It seemed that these assassins were getting a little more brazen, whoever they were. Ayakashi had struck the group fast enough to prevent any of them being taken actively hostage, which was the primary goal of her initial assault. She'd targetted those who had held children first, before moving on to those nearest them from the front backward.

"So... how is everyone? What says the group of us begin making our way back to the border? Ayakashi would usher in soft tones once again, assuming there was no emergency to speak of. The woman in the group, although she wore black, carrying a sword at her side and a folded up fan like instrument on her back seemed tall, strong, but had the face of a mother that had found a long-lost child, a glimmer of thanks in her eye like a shining star that could have just as easily fallen from the skies with what could have been. "I'm really sorry that the group of you had to go through that, sometimes even we have a couple of problems that we don't see coming sometimes. "


[1201]

Nora

Nora


D-rank
It was rare to see a child in the day and age of shinobi retain their innocence as long as Takahiro had desperately clung to the ideals and ignorance, that privilege and antebellum nourished in his open mind. The confidence that training under the supervision of his Uncle and guidance of his had given him was all but erased in an instant. Being captured and held captive served as a harsh reality check to burgeoning hubris and arrogance. He never even saw it coming, and to think his dilemma was once whether he would accept the duties he was destined for and now he was haunted by thoughts of whether he was even qualified.  

A memory of Takagi interrupted his pity fest as an old warning proven true grew meaningful roots at the forefront of his mind. Time seemed to pause…

--

“Every moment in a ninja’s life isn’t grand and exhilarating, or even dangerous for that matter. Never the less you have to be meticulous in your approach, use that penchant for details to never let one slip by, or it can cost you your life! If you’ll approach an act of survival half-assed then son you’ll see half-assed outcomes start to plague all facets of your life.. And combat Takahiro, combat isn’t always pleasing to the eye. The best ninja learn to do more with less.. ”

The boy’s memory didn’t quit do the woman’s musculature and stature justice, but Taka could still feel the way anticipation consumed in that moment as her posture grew ready and she moved with precision and controlled aggression. With the spear to which she was accustomed Taka watch his ‘Okaa-san’ confront the dummy attacker. He was filled with shock and awe for what was merely a fleeting moment. Her body rotated with power and grace fitting the Toukubetsu Jounin as she pivoted on one foot and then switched aerially to the other, all while gaining ground on her target and keeping the spear close to ribcage. With a lunge into a tight roll and then swift one-handed striking motion that escaped Taka’s own realm of perception her dance came to an end. As he ran closer to his mother’s side, with wide-eyes he inspected the whicker stand-in for whatever irreparable damage he could find only to notice a simple gash at an upward incline across it’s right ‘cheek.’ A face that once read of killer intent regained his familiar disposition.

“Hey what’s the big deal mom! All that for a little scratch?” his tone was laced by childish fantasy and preconceived notion but he still sought to understand so he approached with kitten-like curiosity. Seconds passed and the gash glowed red-hot before webbed flames crawled forth and incinerated what, Taka couldn’t help but reiterate to himself, was in essence someone’s face on a different occasion. By that point her child was brimming with pride, he felt confused by the ‘sleight of hand’ never the less and tried to comprehend it all while inspecting as if, at that young age, he could even fathom what had occurred. And where usually a mental recurrence such as this would serve as inspirational it only proved damning to him in those moments.

--

Then a sultry voice of a matured, fervent woman surprised Takahiro enough to tear him away from his musing..

"You know, I think they're gonna be just fine, but what I need you to do, is not worry about that, and focus on me. My name's Ayakashi, I'm the Mizukage of this place. It's really nice to meet you. Now, what I need you to do, is be really brave for me. You're super brave I can tell! So, you need to move them all just over there and get them to check each other for any cuts or bleeding or anything that looks even a little strange, lift up their shirts, leggings, anything like that. You need to check yourself too, okay? It's really important. Once they're all clear, come see me and we'll get you home. Think you can do that for me? "

No longer in her grim metallic guise the woman’s words were more easily received by Takahiro who felt that the woman stood much taller and prouder than him in spite of the mere inch difference in height. Her frosty blue eyes only filled him with warmth and a sense of security he hadn’t felt since the light of the moon was first stolen from him that night. The words themselves were concise and confident as if she knew he was up to the task and capable.  Determination adorned him, absolving him of the aches and pains of his own body in “bravely” carrying out this godly person’s bidding.

He performed what she asked of him to the minute detail and in doing so Taka couldn’t help but be moved by set after set of wary eyes and questions. The children in realizing that it was his job to gauge their condition began to amass before him with little need for verbal communication en masse. With every minute that passed the youth grew more accustomed to their newfound freedom and while most had little energy to spare, managing feint smiles and trusting looks as they allowed the Kimura to guide them towards the Mizukage, towards a brighter future.

"So... how is everyone? What says the group of us begin making our way back to the border?  

Takahiro shook his head vertically to agree on both counts before answering, “It looks like the kids are tough ma’am. They have a few knicks and scratches, some bruising from what I’ve seen. It seems like they all… most of them made it.” The child was racked by guilt as he laid out his failures on the table, “Mizukage-sama.. I would like to ask for your forgiveness. I was there, I could’ve used my training and instincts but I let myself fall victim too. I was a-afraid they would kill me so I played unconscious and when he stood up for his brother I still couldn’t move. If I acted I could’ve saved him.. I could’ve bought you more time.”


..3215/7500

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'Too many tears often fell on stone hearts.‘

“It looks like the kids are tough ma’am. They have a few knicks and scratches, some bruising from what I’ve seen. It seems like they all… most of them made it... Mizukage-sama... I would like to ask for your forgiveness. I was there, I could’ve used my training and instincts but I let myself fall victim too. I was a-afraid they would kill me so I played unconscious and when he stood up for his brother I still couldn’t move. If I acted I could’ve saved him.. I could’ve bought you more time.”

The focus of the exercise seemed to have done the boy well. His trauma seemed to be behind him for the most part, though the insidious nature of the beast was something of a creeping darkness... The minds shadow was not so easily beaten, though eidolonic forces often rallied to defend against it, one could never be too certain from which vent, corridor, grate or crack int he wall the corrupting fear would slip through into your waking thoughts or deepest nightmares. Ayakashi was no different, for years now, no matter how she prepared herself for it, no matter how she steeled herself, confided in others, surrounded herself with friends or isolated herself completely. Fear seemed to be a governing factor of her life now, enemies were always lurking just around the next corner, and eyes seemed to always be watching her from the bleachers waiting for the opportune moment to become new enemies stronger than the last. The life of a ninja was cyclical, and the life of a Kage seemed to be no different.

The boy seemed to be apologetic for not being able to do anything more, it seemed that one of the kids that had been taken, or one of their brothers when they had been taken had been killed in a struggle of some kind. While the boy's bravery and grief were well founded, most Kirigakure Genin would have likely foolhardily thrown themselves into the blender in hopes of upholding the militaristic ideal of the nation... A truth that Ayakashi found devastatingly sorrowful. The fact of the matter was, while there was a chance that this boy very well could have perhaps stalled some time with charm, wit, skill or sheer hardiness. The grim likeliness was that the mercenaries could have simply cut their losses and slain him, leaving the child discarded on a lonely mountainside to rot in the humid air. A fate like that wasn't deserved by anybody save for the worst of the worst, not to mention the potential chain reaction that losses like that could inflict upon a community. Ayakashi had seen it happen in her own family. The death of her father, the toll on her mother, the destruction of her business and thats effect on her. The businesses fall effecting surrounding ninja, those ninjas attempting to save others... expanding in a web of influence like a ripple that could potentially never end.

'It was a heavy burden to stitch such grand tapestries.'

Ayakashi would place a hand on the boys' shoulder, her platinum gauntlet still chilled from the chakra that had been flown through it mere minutes before. The steel with frost still attempting to cling to it as she would look him in the eye. Ayakashi would no longer speak in a hushed low tone so not to surprise them, but rather in a regretful, thoughtful one. Looking back over at the death that she was leaving behind for the ANBU cleaners that would no doubt be allong shortly to pick at the remains like crows before dismantling the evidence of their having ever been a battle at this specific spot.

"You know, while you may be right, there's a much higher chance that they would have decided you were too much trouble, killed you and taken another child. If innocent people were going to die, I'm glad there was one less among them because he was too scared at the time... rather than one more brave ninja that we were burying tomorrow... ... ... But, I understand the need to rationalize things when something like this happens. So, I'm going to give you this little piece of advice; Sounds to me like that boys' brother was very brave too, sounds like he may have saved you by buying me a little time to get here, at any moment these men could have vanished to their base and I could have lost the trail. Let that debt, and his memory, burn into your soul. Let it make you hot, make you mad and drive you to be stronger so that next time, you won't be the one who was captured, you'll be like me... the person who saves them all. That way, one day, you'll look back to this moment and smile knowing that you paid that debt, honored his memory and made your world a safer place."

Ayakashi would hope to inspire as she would ferry the small congregation back towards the borderpost, the mist breaking around them as they would follow the tracks of the mercenaries back to civilization in exactly the same track that they had come. Many of the children were silent, Ayakashi would be alert, keeping her wits on her surroundings but also on the children themselves as they would move in a central unit. It made sense they would keep together to feel safer, it also made keeping an eye on them a lot easier for the Mizukage rather than chasing down half a dozen children hoping to keep them all together... As they continued to treck down the winding mossridden pathway, Aya would take special heed to keep an eye on the foreign genin that confided his woes with her. Hoping that his mental health kept above a certain level...

If there was nothing more to say, it would take a couple of hours before the group would make it back to the borderpost, skimming shadows of fast Moving men in black with white masks would move by without so much as a word as the ANBU would move to secure the site. Each of them moving at such a speed that those without any training at all would barely notice them as anything more than a gust of wind. Jonin would be waiting for them as they came out, a couple of parents of some of the children had been gathered, which Ayakashi's wards would charge to with open arms. A child could not fake such a reaction, so, looking over their safe return she would smile as she would approach the Jonin for a report.

"Managed to catch them about twenty miles out, ANBU are dealing with the mess and the survivors will be taken in for questioning first to make sure that they're working alone. Should be Sero's men handling it. I'll leave it to you to identify all these kids and make sure that they get to where they were meant to be going?" The Jounin agreed, but, moments afterwards Ayakashi would turn her attention down to the boy who she had kept at her side as much as possible. "Though, I know you're not from around here, so, where are you heading? If you're coming back to the city you could happily come with me."

Nora

Nora


D-rank
Tsukyomi’s asperity swayed the night’s events as he gloated ostentatiously from his dark perch. Underneath the surface Taka persisted in trying to rationalize the new depth and breadth of human immorality his virgin eyes had been exposed to. The ‘empath’ in him tried to, in blindly visualizing the final moments of the child, understand the apathy and detachment from one’s own ‘super-ego’ necessary to murder the innocent. The experience and after-thought propagated the innocence in his heart with an icy blight.

Takahiro found solace in his powerful savior, the mist’s magnanimous shadow as she shone ever more brightly in the iridescence of moonlight. Her crystalline blue strands of hair added a visually pleasing refractive effect to the Kimura teen’s awe and delight. The dialogue between the two hadn’t yet revealed much to his adolescent scrutiny and a certain level of ambiguity still surrounded this agent of death, embodiment of Jizo.




‘How did she know to help us?’

‘How did she become so strong?’



These questions floated about in the sponge that was Taka’s brain, like tidbits of delectable knowledge ready for consumption and awaiting an expectedly complex answer. A hand firm with practice gripped his shoulder, the beautiful, robust platinum gauntlet encapsulating it provided an immediate numbing relief that the woman would drive deeper into the inaccessible reaches of his mind with her words. As she began to speak Taka initiated eye contact; only his pupils shuttered taking in all the light necessary to capture the moment in which she would free him of his burdens with forgiving, reasonable words of encouragement and direction,

“I'm going to give you this little piece of advice; Sounds to me like that boys' brother was very brave too, sounds like he may have saved you by buying me a little time to get here, at any moment these men could have vanished to their base and
I could have lost the trail. Let that debt, and his memory, burn into your soul. Let it make you hot, make you mad and drive you to be stronger so that next time, you won't be the one who was captured, you'll be like me... the person who saves them all. That way, one day, you'll look back to this moment and smile knowing that you paid that debt, honored his memory and made your world a safer place."

A guilt-ridden look flashed across Takahiro’s face in realizing he only ever considered the value of the lost child’s actions as they pertained to his sibling, but failed to acknowledge the way they impacted all the other lives present including his own. The woman’s passionate challenge left him no time sulk, renewing him with newfound perspective and purpose. He could not recall the name of the child he yearned to thank and repay. Fate had saw fit to leave him only with a defining act, its underlying virtue, to find form. Nameless and stripped of an identity, absolved of previous sin and further wrongdoing, the brave boy would one day grow to embody a standard of ‘sacrifice’  and ‘selflessness’ Takahiro would perpetually honor and strive for. In the moment, with his mind fragmented by thoughts in different realms of thinking and principle, Takahiro could not find adequate words nor control the impulse of lacrimation, and with a pensieve look and nod he proceeded to follow a half-step behind the person he now wondered most about.

A light mist permeated the areas nearing their destination, some of the children of smaller stature barely escaped obscurity as the group journeyed unabated back civilization. The process of returning was smooth and as peaceful as one could expect in traveling through taboo lands. The suicide forest would surely prove unsettling to a boy of fifteen in a lone endeavor, but the presence of their powerful envoy was as comforting as it was critical to their safe return. Unbeknownst to all but her the Ravens of Kirigakure soared above them, gossamer air and hardy tree-limb would yield to their conspiracy. The only telling sign of the warding figures above being stray, pleasant winds that seemed eerily contrived to Taka, though he only notioned.

When they reached the encampment, a group of people had already assembled and were waiting, frantic with anticipation, some praying to see their leader returned unscathed with few doubts and other’s distraught with worry over the safety of their children. There were ninja that greeted them, they looked formidable and vigilant, who wasted no time acting in accordance with the tasks now delegated to them. Taka began to wonder what would become of him as he watched families reunite and ninjas disperse, in that moment he began to wonder if he was the only one still without purpose, without a place to go. Surely it wasn’t truly fair of him to think in this way, as he had a rather lavish compound to return to if that day were to come. It simply did not feel like home as his Uncle had long since moved out and his Mother’s life was her work and in recent years it required more and more of her focus.

"Though, I know you're not from around here, so, where are you heading? If you're coming back to the city you could happily come with me."

Her question and offer came as a huge relief to Takahiro, his face would grow less visibly worried. He moved to join her at her side, using the brief moment to mull it over, and by then he’d finally found the words,

“I ran from home, from my responsibilities. I just wanted to feel like I could create my own path, brave my own journey. Being a ninja one day is all anyone’s ever expected of me and I resented that fate because of it. I came here looking for a sign, a sense of direction and for once.. After tonight, that obligation to my family, to the citizens, to that child has never felt more a part of my being..  I would like to come with you miss. I have many questions about this place, these people, and you as its leader. It’s just that I’ve done something I can’t quite say I’m proud of anymore. My mother never wears it anymore and so I used it to lead the shinobi on-guard at the gates back home that I’d finally graduated and joined the exchange program… I don’t want to run anymore. I overheard some of the men talking as if what they were apart of was beyond their control, as if they were only pawns. Now more than I ever I want to be a help to you, I’ll share everything I know! Please let me help as much as I can! You won’t regret it. I want to learn more about this place and its people before I return to receive whatever punishment I’m do! My mom will probably kill me shortly after, given this opportunity it might not be a life wasted.”

By now he had already presented the stolen and misused head-protector of his mother’s to the Kage as proof of his transgressions. Admittedly ashamed in recanting his story to such a virtuous woman, Takahiro’s head would gradually drop more and more. His emotions swelled as he spoke honestly. He was proud of himself, but disappointed in how he got to that point, sad from the loss he felt just moments prior and confused with what would become of him after his admission of guilt. If he had his way now, with guidance, he would become a monster in his own right. He would seek to one day herald a new era and order through his actions and repay his debt.

..4542/7500

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'Was kirigakure doing something wrong?‘

Ayakashi could simply not believe the words that strung like guilt-ridden riddles from the boy's lips. Cascading across the airwaves to Ayakashi's own ears, and yet, even as she heard them she could not believe them. While the tale was not one she hadn't heard before, a tale of woe, not finding one's purpose and seeking it out on one's own, it was a noble endeavor if there ever was one. However, in this cruel and callous world that they lived in, those who held the mantle of ninja had taken solemn oaths to their nations, each of those oaths involving the terms loyalty and until death. Neither of them in uncertain terms to say the last. These men and woman who would break these oaths were called 'Missing ninja,' 'Nukenin,' or simply Missing. It was a term that brought thoughts of dangerous renegades to those who would hear the term, spreading fear, immediate mistrust and the scent of copper tinged blood on the winds in the wake of those who would self proclaim themselves as such.

'Yet again, Aykashi found herself in this position.'

A child, an exception to the rule seemed to have run from his country is hoping to seek his calling elsewhere. Probably too young to understand the complex natures and implications of the deed that he had committed, that usually, the punishment for abandoning a nation that you were a ninja of was death as you were hunted by ninja from your home or those hired to do so on their behalf. Kirigakure to that extent was an entire nation, famed for creating the worlds' greatest ninja hunters. The Hunter Ninja of kirigakure no Sato was sold for hire worldwide, as an elite fighting mercenary force that would hunt down the criminals of other nations for a modest fee considering the professionalism that a person was buying when they hired ninja from the village of the mist. Yet, the face that Ayakashi made while she was hearing the clear-cut facts of this boys' clever defection, wasn't that of a hardened ninja about to execute a rogue element from a foreign nation.

It was that of a caring woman, who empathized with the child.

"Do you have any idea the nation that you decided to run to? What could possibly have possessed you, of all places, to run away to the one nation who expressly trains an entire small army of ninja to hunt down defecting and runaway ninja? We advertise what our ninja do here... you know that right!? If I had half a mind I would have you arrested and shipped back to Konohagakure in chains to await your punishment and pray that they go easy on you because you're a child... But... god I must be insane... come with me...

As long as you're here officially under the exchange, I guess I can keep you here and help you, but, you owe me alright? Not a peep about this to anyone else, I'll inform our hunter ninja and local ANBU that you're a person of interest and a personal request into the exchange program from me, which should stop them from sniffing around for the most part. You'l be able to train and work with other kirigakure Genin and chuunin as you will and I may even place you into a squad... Preferably not with Sero or anyone from that island... there's no telling what might happen there if they found out your past.

I can't believe i'm doing this again...
"

Ayakashi would laugh in disbelief as she would begin to walk along the road back towards the village, it was a long walk, she had effectively run here at sub-sonic speeds and it had taken her minutes, though the walk to Kirigakure no Sato from where they were now could even take a day or so if they made good ground and didn't get lost. Which, even the great Mizukage was capable of in her darker hours where the days and nights blended together in a sleepless haze of ever-increasing stream of conscious thought. Maybe the migration to Kirigakure was some form of double negative reverse psychology? She couldn't help but assume it was some manner of logic along the lines of hiding in plain sight that would lure ninja like him to the cold embrace of the Bloody Mist. However, as the Mizukage walked away from the fort, the boy in towe, she could not help but move her eyes to the surrounding rainforest... The fort had fallen away into silence, and yet there was not the sound of a bird, or even an insect to be heard of coming from any direction...

It was as if they had been frightened away, by something, someone... Plaving her immediately on edge as she would activate her sage mode mind, the blue symbols covering her body as her cloak altered in colour, adopting the symbols in turn as the butterfly sage would look like she was almost made of sapphire for a moment, her form letting off a soft glow, that in the right light could be made to believe that she had wings. In this mode, Ayakashi's senses expanded out into every direction as far as their eyes could hope to see... and her fear was confirmed... other than the trees that surrounded them, there was no life within the radii of her jutsu.

"Careful... something's wrong."

Nora

Nora


D-rank
"Do you have any idea the nation that you decided to run to? What could possibly have possessed you, of all places, to run away to the one nation who expressly trains an entire small army of ninja to hunt down defecting and runaway ninja? We advertise what our ninja do here... you know that right!? If I had half a mind I would have you arrested and shipped back to Konohagakure in chains to await your punishment and pray that they go easy on you because you're a child... But... god I must be insane... come with me...”

Ayakashi’sscolding initially struck fear deeply into the wary heart of the doe-eyed teenager, his azure hues grew wider just thinking about how foolish he’d been in coming here of all places. Admittedly, Takahiro hadn’t given it that much thought or perhaps, no matter how much thought he’d given his scheme, he was fated to make this foolish mistake out of ignorance. Perhaps he’d made the mistake of not truly understanding the nature of the very beast whose maw he’d unknowingly worked so hard to climb into with his frivolous undertaking.  He wondered whether his actions had far more severe consequences than previously reasoned, inaudibly chastising himself for minimalizing the weight of brandishing a marked Hitai-Ate to better serve his antics. Thought just as the prospects of grimmer punishments or a criminal death began to weigh on the child’s psyche his newfound guardian relented.

Obediently he followed in tow, listening further he took heed of her message listening closely to her tone for a clue as to how she felt towards him. By nature the boy came to interact with many people and through these experiences he developed what he would call a ‘knack’ for vocal prosody, a hidden language of patterns and intonation. A firm, relaxed voice at a steady pace and unhesitant in delivery easily read assertive and not aggressive to Takahiro to his surprise. For now perhaps it seemed he’d dodged the worse of outcomes, but the boy made sure to hearken her instructions as visuals of his captors’ bloody demises haunted him, and thinking of that child’s ineffable sacrifice compelled him to give effort unlike he’d ever before. His subconscious still stained with the guilt and burden of failure and haunted by mortality, unfamiliar as it was.

“As long as you're here officially under the exchange, I guess I can keep you here and help you, but, you owe me alright?”

“I'll inform our hunter ninja and local ANBU that you're a person of interest and a personal request into the exchange program from me,”

“You'll be able to train and work with other Kirigakure Genin and Chuunin as you will and I may even place you into a squad...”

Despite being tinged with a sense of direness that served to reiterate the severity of his delinquent actions, Ayakashi’s words still left the Kimura teen with an enamored smile as wanderlust took root once more. Takahiro could feel himself growing eager to explore the furthest reaches of the isles and for the first time he was hopeful that this luxury would not be squandered by would be required of him in repaying his debt to her… and to him. As the hours had passed, and the obscurity of night deepened, in a betrayal of Kirigakure’s natural beauty, a silence slowly took grip.

Unaware of this change's peculiarity and having grown a bit more comfortable in the midst of the powerful woman, Takahiro spoke to give thanks but in an attempt to seek the full understanding of his champion it became the sort of rant a child would busy himself with out of spite for being ignored and left to their own devices,

"Ayakashi-sama... I would've died or worse if you hadn't saved us, I'll do whatever I have to help you. Tonight showed me that there is far more to being a shinobi than practicing jutsu and honing the body. But don't take that as an insult I'm sure you've done your fair share of both... Earlier you seemed to be in so many places at once when you cut down those men. It took me a moment to realize I'm so weak I couldn't even see you moving at those speeds. It sounds depressing, I know, but seeing what you did to them. I can't help but think there are other powerful and experienced ninja in your village I can shake down for knowledge and wisdom. I can't help but think that maybe somewhere in all the mystery ahead I'll find my role in this shinobi world...

Heheh.. listen to me, I've never sounded like this before... I mean in all honesty I've never been a big proponent of the ninja way, I blame my mother, its just with a blade in my hand I feel this sense of comfort and purpose that draws me to pick it up again and again. It's always felt like my calling; I just never had the chance to choose it for myself. But I think in coming here in search of a sign I've finally done that. I'm going to devote everything to it now. Would you be willing to teach m-"


“Careful…something’s wrong.”

In an instant his long-winded ramblings came to an end, Takahiro thought he had angered her or perhaps gotten ahead of himself in trying to ask that question. Then soon he realized that something indeed was off. This notion too gave way, but this time to the awe inspiring sight of excess energy permeating off of his mentor’s armor. Symbols danced into formation across her body, onto all extremities, like riddles sprawled on parchment that Takahiro couldn’t dare to comprehend in that moment.

‘Are those wings? Of an Angel…No, a butterfly?! And what is this power, how much does she possess? I won’t let her save me this time. I will serve a purpose or die trying!’

A spark lit a flame inside his soul in that moment…

Stepping forward just beyond Aya, he breathed in while slowly closing his eyes to focus. His mind drifted briefly back to the one Kimura whose words he trusted most: his Mother’s. He could remember it like the moment had just taken place, as if the eloquent words had just left her lips, ‘The Kimura are respected amongst the other clans more than anything for their loyalty. We show and uphold our loyalty passionately, at any cost. Loyalty to your village, your clan, your family, and the friends you’ll one day cherish. Whatever it is your passionate about, never betray or abandon that. In this way hopefully you’ll find clarity and purpose. Hopefully… you’ll learn to see things differently.’

As the words resonated with his soul, they emboldened that flame and it spread. The flow of his chakra and rate of production began to increase, coursing throughout his body before surging to his eyes, as he subconsciously guided this process, ignoring all inanition and fueled by a need to prove something to him and her. When his eyes broke open, they were a beautiful yet foreign heterochromatic red, orange hue with narrow, reptilian pupils that punctuated perhaps the fiercest gaze Takahiro had ever managed to muster. As much as he wanted to ponder what he’d just managed to accomplish, he reasoned quickly that whatever this ability was it had surfaced to help him better serve a purpose. In the void of darker shades of blue, black and purple, obscured by his infantile doujutsu, seemed endless as he scanned from one side to the next. Until, near the very extent of his range the Kimura pegged a blur of warmer hues.

..5872/7500

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'if only the two had more time.‘

"Ayakashi-sama... I would've died or worse if you hadn't saved us, I'll do whatever I have to help you. Tonight showed me that there is far more to being a shinobi than practicing jutsu and honing the body. But don't take that as an insult I'm sure you've done your fair share of both... Earlier you seemed to be in so many places at once when you cut down those men. It took me a moment to realize I'm so weak I couldn't even see you moving at those speeds. It sounds depressing, I know, but seeing what you did to them. I can't help but think there are other powerful and experienced ninja in your village I can shake down for knowledge and wisdom. I can't help but think that maybe somewhere in all the mystery ahead I'll find my role in this shinobi world...

Heheh.. listen to me, I've never sounded like this before... I mean in all honesty I've never been a big proponent of the ninja way, I blame my mother, its just with a blade in my hand I feel this sense of comfort and purpose that draws me to pick it up again and again. It's always felt like my calling; I just never had the chance to choose it for myself. But I think in coming here in search of a sign I've finally done that. I'm going to devote everything to it now. Would you be willing to teach m-"

Ayakashi, should she have had the moments to spare, would have leveled with the boy, told him that strength, no matter how great or powerful can be achieved by anyone with enough training, her face would have softened to a genuine and remorseful stare that would have no doubt lingered on his mind for years. She'd tell him that the comfort felt by holding a blade tightly in ones' grasp quickly becomes a burn that threatens to incinerate you from the inside out after you've taken a life. It was a cruel and callous lesson many Ninja had to undergo while they were little more than fledglings who'd barely spread their wings and realized the great potential that flowed through their veins so thickly. Ayakashi's speech would have been long, exhausting, likely taking him on an enigmatic journey through her own experiences before returning to a final piece of advice. That fear was what honed ninja most of all, fear of dying keeps ninja alive, fear of loss keeps them determined, fear of greater consequences pushes them to action...

'The trick was to keep fear as a motivator...'

But for all her intentions, her lips never quivered for a moment, moving her blade into her hand she would continue slowly down the trail, keeping to the cover of the trees as they would step out into what would look like a glade. Char lingered on the air here, burns could be seen on the edges of the trees and the plants here, smoldering as it seemed the moist climate of Kirigakure made it hard for forest fires to spark to life and seed across the land. But the feeling of a strange chakra lingered in the center of it all, oddly familiar and dangerous. Once a few more trees passed by, the center of the glade would come into view, the scorched earth would not be even, it tracked off in paths that were cut short, curving into lanes with small patches of greenery within the area, like it had been cut out with precision. Yet in the center of it all, lingered something akin to a pilot light. A flame flickering upon now long hardened clay, emerald green as nephrite jade and burning strong in the open air, without fuel to maintain it.

The sight of the Jade fire put Ayakashi more on edge than she had been in a long time. It seemed the next of her battles was to begin soon, the hounds were closing in while their barks could be heard across the night. The shadows around the pair began to stretch as the evening had fallen upon them. Yet, within the range of her sensory, Aya couldn't feel a soul within it, meaning wherever the Jade speared assassin happened to be hiding, it was not nearby... There was nothing she was able to do with the flame, nothing would be able to erase it save for another jutsu of equal power. So, stepping forward she warned her Genin charge to stay back, Aya would begin to flow chakra into the gauntlets she wore on her hands, reaching down to make contact with the flame as something began to shift as chakra filled the atmosphere. Lightning up the evening sky like a beacon as the glade lit up, revealing itself as a single expansive Kanji... like it had been painted with the buddhas brush.

Aya would let out a cry of pain and surprise as her chakra became bound, scorching threads of Katon would lash out from the Kanji and wrap around her arms and legs at staggering speeds, binding her, proving that, even the Mizukage could be taken by surprise if need be, however, Ayakashi was not entirely undefended. Wind whipped around her form, crafting an aura as a barrier faster than even she was able to forge chakra... a skill drilled into her mind so quickly, its activation was little more than muscle memory as the flaming whips licked the air and would slowly sink their way closer and closer to Ayakashi... Only with the trap triggered, would Ayakashi notice the paper seals on the reverse faces of the trees in a barrier formation facing inward like a grid... The green flame was little more than a distraction... it was then, and only then that a voice pierced through the crackling flames and the struggling grunts of the trapped woman.

"Well, well... It seems brute force wasn't needed after all to end the 'strongest one there is.' I'm disappointed in you Ayakashi." The voice spoke with a calm, haughty tone, as a man in the finest of silks would almost apparate from the shadows. Long rich weaved embossed with gold and a fan of feathers that seemed not of this world. His face, like marble with a perfectly trimmed, pointed beard and foreign features. "So it seems a little childlike trickery was all that was needed to overcome you... Well, now that I have you hear, I think it's about time we ended all of this, don't you think? Hmm?" The man would raise his fan, crafting what appeared to be a spear of iridescent lightning that ripped open the sky as if God had crafted a jutsu to smite the devil himself... Ayakashi grit her teeth as she looked upon the advisor of the Daimyo, or at least some form of reflection of him. She could see the smaller burnt Kanji where he seemed to be standing... projected, like a shadow clone that had been sealed within the kanji... A clone, a projection, at this distance would no doubt not be able to be controlled or reasoned with... it would be pre-programmed with a set of instructions that it had to follow unless its wielder was nearby...

Looking back to Taka, using all of her strength to point him in the direction of the talisman circle that had her bound... There was no telling how many might need to be destroyed before the jutsu binding her faded... or if it would at all... Ignoring the mans' continuing speech, for the most part, flowing as much chakra she could spare into her defense she would build it up enough that she could spare but a few words to convey information to him, or attempt a stringer defense against the trap before them... there were twelve seals in total around them all, as well as the lit up symbol in the center and the platform on which the clone had spawned as it continued to monologue... But it drove to a close, as the spectral assassin said his final goodbyes... "Well, Mizukage... I've enjoyed the game... goodbye."

"Taka... quick! "

Aya blurted out, as something in the lightning bolt engaged, the raw power of the raiton seemed almost mystical for a moment as her eyes would widen...


Nora

Nora


D-rank
Still ignorant of the limitless possibilities that, with greater understanding, one could achieve through the manipulation of chakra, the fruit manifested through synergy of one’s spiritual and physical energies. He was astute but unlearned and therefore incapable of fathoming the extent of his own abilities let alone his superiors. Natural energy was a foreign concept and Takahiro had a hard time comprehending the iridescent aura and heavy spiritual presence he felt exuding from her the instant she had saw fit to warn him of potential dangers lurking.

The draconic pupils and fiery hue of his eyes, that almost betrayed the boy’s indulgent temperament, shimmered for only a few moments longer as Ayakashi’s lithe steps saw to her passing the teen. As his oculi regained their pensive, blue humanity and his tentative focus drifted back to the ‘Butterfly Sage’ who appeared already aware, or otherwise not discouraged by what lie ahead. As he followed obediently in tow, Takahiro recanted his observations of her as he pushed forward…

Her face was surprisingly still, not a single muscle dared tremble nor did her featureless, icy irides wane from their point of focus. As those features drew nigh enough to decipher a cold, numbing entity gripped him firmly. The warmth of his exposed flesh had been encumbered in her midst, choosing to flee, hoarding away in only the more vital regions in a spiteful betrayal of his heart’s impassioned drumming. Mindfully he noted the short-lived vapors that rose timidly from his lips before surrendering to his enigmatic mistress’s own wintery breath. The flora, in its many forms, surrounding them were a necessary casualty that gave way in a fashion that added to her glorious aesthetic. As leaf and limb graced her person, an eager frost formed to the residual sound of feint cracking before shattering entirely and flittering about like snowflakes.

‘What a beautiful power..’

As they freed themselves of the cumbersome forest terrain, what awaited them appeared to Takahiro to be peaceful, refreshing even despite the warding smell of charred wood that offended his nose. It was a sign ambiguous sign to him and thus Aya’s words were not lost on the youth who wanted nothing more than to prove himself when the moment should arise. The severity in her voice, as she reiterated the reality of their situation in commanding him to remain, was sufficient to firmly root the Kimura where he stood in an act of subservience he hoped would be noticed, albeit it unrequited in nature. As distance grew between them, his skin pricked and grew more sanguine with the in flux of fresh blood. Her figure grew smaller and revealed the source of the eerie, green glow that pervaded the area and illuminated the incoherent earthen grooves beneath and sprawled before him like a network of veins.  


‘She said to stay back, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be of use still.’


Deeming himself to weak to pose much of threat to whatever the brave woman felt threatened him, Takahiro would shift his gait downward adjusting his direction slightly as his muscles grew tense before he surged towards a tree that would provide a better vestige. Chakra coursed threw him and gathered in the soles of his feet as he flitted up the arborial giant, using the strength of his arms and legs both to propel himself off and onto a burly limb that he was confident would hold under his meager weight. From then his next instinct was figure out exactly what was going on and the subsequent activation of the Aibaningu was much faster, less hesitant; reflexive.

All living things produced heat to some degree so he was confident he might discover the position of whatever creepy, criminal was hiding in wait. Only what his infantile dragon eyes saw wasn’t a human or a group of conspirators concealing themselves, but rather the nonsensical lines in the ground from before appeared to him now in some form of a pattern rendered a varying mix of red and yellow against a darker backdrop.

‘What sort of pattern is this.. no it’s more refined, even as hazy as these eyes of mine are seeing it. It’s more of a symbol. A kanji?’

The young shinobi was surprised, shocked even, as his mental deliberation ceased in the wake of witnessing lecherous tentacles sprout from the familiar kanji and clasp onto his beautiful champion, the leader of the mist, whose cries were a sobering sign that he may be needed in the coming moments. The apparition that appeared before her from his distance was inaudible but peculiar in that, despite his relative inexperience, the individual appeared feint and uniform in temperature unlike any living thing he’d rested eyes on prior. Soon after an exchange of words no doubt, it would fade into nothingness after setting in motion what Takahiro could only assume implied terrible tidings for someone he owed a great debt to.

In mustering the strength to point and speak, if only two words, it provided her unhindered teen companion with what he needed to figure out a solution. In scanning the surrounding area to a wider extent he noticed warm colors emanating from trees surrounding the expanse. The spacing seemed uniform, and given the kanji, he assumed perhaps the formation had been intentional and was somehow aiding in keeping her trapped considering the presence of heat energy similar to what was surging from the ground and unknowingly building in the sky above.  

"Taka... Quick!"

The call to action was punctuated by a sense of urgency that moved him internally. To feel needed was exhilarating, it was energizing, and it was scary. Yet in those moment that fear drove Takahiro to push, to fight, to move faster than he ever had before, to dart through trees more skillfully than he ever imagined he could and all in an effort to save the one thing that in that moment gave him hope: Ayakashi. With a quick slash and a push off the trunk of the tree, the first of what he saw now as defined, rectangular seals, of likely paper, was destroyed in a delayed explosion of heat and errant electricity lashing out.

He repeated this action once more, twice more,  but now with his regular sight restored he realize that time was running out far more quickly than he’d hoped. When Takahiro finally made out the bright, surging object of energy that parted the heavens in search of deliverance from his ever-changing, and visually obscuring position amidst the foliage, he immediately began to believe perhaps too much time had already been wasted. Desperately he reached into the recesses of his mind, drawing on whatever genius he could muster in a moment of such heightened emotion, and then acted swiftly. Leaves would and debris from his subsequent launch drifted upwards in pursuit of the now airborne ninja. He would twist to face from whence he came while engorging himself on the surrounding air. Chakra would rapidly mix with the trapped gas, which he then expelled with enough force to reach new heights and bring him to a more central location and nearly directly over her in relation to the remaining seals.

"Katon: Endan!"

With another giant breath, the boy in true dragon-like fashion would unleash the largest mass of flame he could muster. The release had a blowback effect in mid-air that would alter the course of his fall but not enough to allow him to escape a similar fate as the woman he was trying to aid should the trap ensnare him soon after. His descent having begun, the boy waited until the fire ball was closer to the extent of his next jutsu’s range to ensure the best possibility for success.

‘Ox. Futon Honō o Chōkoku’

Vagrant winds stirred up suddenly, coaxing the spherical flames to diverge out into more slender, concentrated forms intended for as many of the remaining seals as he could manage. The impacts were meager in comparison to the effect of the whole jutsu but from his studies he knew that his chakra would sustain the flame. Hopefully in spreading and taking hold of the trees, they would also prove exploitive of the incendiary nature of the paper seals. Takahiro felt helpless in that moment, the languor of chakra fatigue setting in, as a single tear welled in the corner of his right eye preceding a rush of emotion and the only words he could manage quick enough

"Show them, Aya!

..1434/7306


Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'Ayakashi strained against her bonds with all her strength, but to no avail...‘

Takahiro however, was astounding, with the deftness of a hummingbird he leaped into action, swiftly skimming from one tree to another, Ayakashi could hear the solemn singing of a solitary blade soaring through the air and slicing through the slick paper seals with a hiss as they were divided into two. With the lettering written on the bisected seals split, the seals themselves would break as the chakra within them would be released in harmless sparks enveloping the remainder of the seals in a pathetic display as simultaneously parts of the Jutsu Ayakashi was trapped in would begin to weaken and decay. But even with two or three broken, it readily seemed to be that a mere few were not enough. The chords that clung to Ayakashi's skin, threatening to dig into her and drag her into place had not weakened to the point that she was able to break them with physical strength, but, the ingenuity of the childlike mind never ceased to surprise, as with a leap the Genin would set upon the world a bastion of flame, claiming no victims until it was hit by a stream of wind, carrying the flames to their destinations and striking as many as could be struck without colliding the sweeping stream of fuuton and flame through Ayakashi herself.

The cables on several of her digits vanished in an instant, fracturing and crumbling under Ayakashi's strength as only those on her arms and neck remained. Without her legs tied, however, the force of the release would allow Ayakashi to somersault over her bonds, slipping her arms behind her back and gripping tightly the Fuuma Shuriken that Lay there. Aya would be unable to activate the vortex effect with the Genin so close, but using the momentum of the roll and flowing Fuuton chakra and a little extra into the blade she would rise to her feet with the momentum as the lightning javelin would be hurled to intercept. Fuuton empowered the Shuriken as Ayakashi would have her weapon and the bolt collide mid-air with devastating results just outside of the Kanji that bound her. Activating her substitution soon after she would appear just outside of the area, coiling her fist and with immense strength, she would strike the earth between the two Kanji.

The force of the blow would literally carry a magnitude with it, splitting the earth from the strike and creating a crater Around her damaging the two major Kanji beyond the point of activation... Looking back to her Fuuma shuriken, she could tell immediately that it had been damaged. She had substituted the weapon back into the heart of the binding jutsu that had held her, the coils around it had easily ripped into the weapon and delivered crucial structural damage to even the S rank edge... Whomever this man was, he was powerful, there was no denying that now...

'Though, now was hardly the time to deliberate'

Shifting her gradually calming perspective to Taka, Ayakashi would give off a tired smile, having been using every ounce of strength in her disposal to attempt to break the chakra wires her fatigue was worn openly on her face. Ayakashi was disappointed that even with her maximum strength, she was unable to break the surly bonds of the magus that had appeared momentarily before them... But such was life... the man named Zhuge had failed in an assassination attempt of the Mizukage, due to the help of the boy at her disposal, although, Ayakashi had prepared a rotation in order to defend herself should the flame be a trap, the fact that, with a pre-recorded trap, Zhuge was able to create a technique that would restrain Ayakashi's ability to spin in order to protect herself was a devastating tactic when truly realized. It stood to reason that, without knowledge of the more intimate details of Ayakashi, he was able to read her reaction...

"Am I that readable?" Aya would mutter to herself as she thought about the implications... "Or perhaps he's that brilliant..." The mutterings would be audible by Taka at his distance, though whether or not he would be listening intently to Ayakashi's mild ramblings would be entirely another.

Standing up straight and dusting herself off, Ayakashi would signal for Taka to collect her almost broken weapon upon his approach, holding out a hand and taking it from him as he would reach her. The weapon had cooled to the point it could be touched, which was a testament to the steel that had been used to make it seeing that the weapon had been red hot when gripped by the jutsu coils that enraptured it and the Mizukage moments beforehand. Extending her hand and clasping it tightly, Ayakashi would collapse all of the blades together and return it to its rightful place behind her arrow quiver. "You know Taka, you did really well there... without you I dont know if i could have gotten out of that alive, or at least without some form of serious injury. You may have saved my life, in one way or another. Seems like you repaid your debt to me faster than even I thought you might of... It's funny how life can come at you hard and fast like that huh? Quick thinking with the fuuton though! Im just glad you didn't jump in front of it like som fool. haha."

While the joke at the end was meant in jest, there was a level of sincerety to it, Aya knew several of her ninja who, in an impossible scenario would have done exactly that, and she hated the thought as well as the knowledge that, that was exactly what they would do, and without hesitation. Aya didn't want anyone to die in her place, or die protecting her... on the contrary, that was her position.

[+7224]

Nora

Nora


D-rank
Until that point everything Takahiro had done to prepare himself, was done in order to honor the wishes of his relatives and to meet, or fall intentionally shy at times, of his instructors’ fluctuating expectations. He exercised, trained and grew exponentially in a few years of commitment, out of necessity he felt, because he feared being less than exceptional in areas of study and training would’ve allowed his mother to see right through his controlled efforts. Thus his life for sometime was a wary dance, a sewamono to the tune of societal pressure and personal desire clashing. Takahiro grew adept at balancing the regimented and spontaneous aspects of his life, but in proving to be a rather clever teenage rebel the Kimura would never personally grow attached to his own work, he never garnered satisfaction from his own efforts that often, almost inevitably felt obligatory in nature.

It was the resulting feeling of resentment in collusion with his own impulsivity that conspired to spring Hiro from the safety of his limitations only for new found autonomy to lead him down a tragic, jaded path to internal growth. The events of the past day clawed at his conscience, from the alcoves of his mind, all simultaneously vying for permanence. His descent from the above felt unnaturally slow, as wayward thoughts, racing behind fluttering eyelids, distorted his perception of time. As the winds rushed past, a mere moment felt like an eternity and silence befell him.

‘Is this what it feels like to be needed? What it’s like to be a shinobi? Somehow things have come full circle’

The thought was comforting, but did little to stifle the force of the impact that suddenly robbed him of breath and focus. The dulling nature of fatigue and feint feeling of respite that overcame him, as control slipped from his hands into more capable talons, allowed the thought of making landfall to escape him. A cloud of debris celebrated his arrival, bathing him in a layer of dirt and soiling his clothing. Yet all worry over his physical appearance was nonexistent when his vision returned and he struggled while rolling over, a deep pain throbbing in his side, to see what had become of his senpai.

A brilliant light saturated the area more and more as raw energy born ill with murderous intent on serving its purpose surged towards the trap kanji and its ‘prey’.  The sight was overwhelming as it drew fear and worry out of Takahiro, who after having clamored to his hands and knees, helplessly bore witness to what would become of Ayakashi, Mizukage of Kiri and ‘Saviour of Many’, himself included. Undaunted the enigmatic figure danced about her weakened constraints and hurtled a dark, blurred mass towards the furious bolt of energy. Then only as it drew near, in a brief instant, did he notice the glint of her bastard shuriken’s fine, cold steel in the iridescent light of it’s foe. Thunder roared, reverberating throughout his entire person as he stood dazed from the light of the violent clash.

As soon as he could clearly see where Aya stood, he stumbled into a jog in her direction while coughing miserably, from restless particulate in the air, only for her to vanish and reappear meters away to finish what she had started. Her striking the ground sent tremors through hthe ground and a tingle up his spine, as the excess energy from her punch reduced the land beneath her into a crater.

‘This kanji, this trap has to be the work of someone powerful, someone brilliant even. But why would a mind so capable wish to harm someone who can do so much good. What wrong has she done? Is power and position like hers alone enough to warrant such an elaborate assassination attempt?’

More questions donned on the Kimura with a penchant for fixating on the unknown. Yet Ayakashi’s weary smile warmed the child with a sense of security in assuming they had finally made it through the stormy turmoil the night held. A peaceful calm encompassed him, and things suddenly seemed oddly mundane as his preening superior required him to do the simple task of retrieving her sleek weapon of choice. He couldn’t help but gander at it’s design and wonder of its ingenuity while proceeding, only to then wonder what kind of skill-level and power it would take to reduce such an inherently lethal weapon to such a broken form.  

Then with a grateful smile Takahiro handed her the weapon and after she had secured it properly, she proceeded to address the child, who wouldn’t dare ask more of her in that moment, by praising him so, "You know Taka, you did really well there... without you I don’t know if I could have gotten out of that alive, or at least without some form of serious injury. You may have saved my life, in one way or another. Seems like you repaid your debt to me faster than even I thought you might of... It's funny how life can come at you hard and fast like that huh? Quick thinking with the fuuton though! I’m just glad you didn't jump in front of it like some fool. Haha."

Takahiro was reluctant to admit to himself the feeling that welled inside him, the pride the bolstered his stature and elevated his chin ever slightly. To feel pride in his work, in his use of ninja tool and jutsu to, it might only serve to validate the notion that he was fated to be a shinobi, and somehow Taka was fine with that. He couldn’t help but believe that the formidable woman before him had seen and many things in nurturing her power to such heights, in becoming so potent and effective.

“Thank you Aya-sama. I’m just glad your okay, I wasn’t sure in that moment that what I’d done was enough. In all honesty I would’ve been really scared, but I’ve seen you in action one to many times now. Haha I was sure you’d come up with something if I could only help. So yeah if that was hard, then tell me how you made it look so easy? I’m also glad you like my jutsu, I came up with it on my own.. Just never had the chance to use it. You know – Not a lot of baddies running around Konoha’s academy these days. Haha”

By the time he finished, Takahiro had a hand nervously scratching the back of his head. He felt relaxed when he spoke just then and it felt candid, almost too candid, and her position and abilities left him fearing he might’ve been to lax with his joke. A slightly blush of red would tinge his cheeks at the thought, while he simultaneously grew more frantic in searching the surrounding area for his ribbon. Only then, after things settled had he realized that his unkempt and flowing, raven hair had come completely undone. He could still here the voices of his male peers, teasing him for its feminine appeal and naively thought Aya might think him ‘girly’ also.

..1210/8516

[Exit]

3.5k for A-rank Mission

1175 for Perception D0 to D3
725 for Speed D0 to D2
1175 for Strength D0 to D3
1700 for Endurance E2 to D-3
200 for 50 Extra Ryo

+1.05k Ryo

Words Used: 8275
Words Wasted: 41
Ryo Owed: 525



Last edited by Nora on Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:09 pm; edited 2 times in total

Ayakashi

Ayakashi


S-rank
'The Mizukage couldn't help but chuckle at the awkwardness of it all.‘

The boy, after Ayakashi's praise he lit up like a veritable furnace, blood flowing to his cheeks en masse as the cold world of Kirigakure and his pallid fair skin and dark hair had the pink contrast stick out on his face like a brandy marinated priest. His response to her, was casual and awkward; speaking with all the hesitation of the adrenaline that was likely draining from his system as he responded; “Thank you Aya-sama. I’m just glad your okay, I wasn’t sure in that moment that what I’d done was enough. In all honesty I would’ve been really scared, but I’ve seen you in action one to many times now. Haha I was sure you’d come up with something if I could only help. So yeah if that was hard, then tell me how you made it look so easy? I’m also glad you like my jutsu, I came up with it on my own.. Just never had the chance to use it. You know – Not a lot of baddies running around Konoha’s academy these days. Haha”

Aya laughed in time with his jokes, inspecting her own body as she listened, but it seemed that her Senjutsu chakra flow had saved herself from injury. Taking her blade back and binding it tightly in its place, she would think about the next move for the two of them as she began her reply. Looking at him, but always keeping one eye on the area around them just in case, flowing an amount of chakra into her Byakugan as the world would expand in every direction... being able to see in three hundred and sixty degrees was an odd experience, this much was absolutely certain, however the chakra cost of the implanted eye was more of a crutch than a boon. The Mizukage's response would be a little more calculated, though not entirely without a degree of humanity as she was sure the child would have some questions to be answered about the whole ordeal... although... It would be better for him, her, and everyone else if he would simply forget that this incident ever came to pass.

Shadows played their silent play around them, paranoia casting their patterns into an abyssal phantasmagoria before them as threats lurked within. However, the truth of the all-seeing white eye that Ayakashi possessed revealed them to be nothing more than what they seemed, shadows, preying on the fear of silence that came after a struggle.


"As for how i make it look easy, I've had a lot of practice... as bad as it is to say. Enough situations like this and honestly, you stop thinking so much and simply act. Thought and panic as a pair are a crippling combination, it's best to remove both and submerge yourself into any given moment. But, I must admit, the only other thing I could have thought of without you freeing some of my bonds would involve leveling this entire area... which wasn't exactly an option with you in range. Aha. Oh well... at least we've dealt with the issue at hand and now are more than capable of moving back to the village, this kind of trap it only bound to fool me once... even though it seemed to have been meant as a message more than an actual threat on my life... i was careless.

Just uhh, promise me you wont tell anyone."


Aya would chuckle again as she asked, even though she did so with a light heart, she didn't want to worry her villagers that their Kage was being targetted by the Daimyo of their country. The Daimyo was likely the only player in Kirigakure that stood on an even ground with the Mizukage, and if the people saw that kind of civil war, it would likely shatter their volatile spirits... These people were so easily consumed by rage, vengeance and zeal were almost a worse cacophony of thought than thought and panic.

However, it was time for the two of them to leave, so, without waiting any longer, Ayakashi would begin making her way down the road once more in the direction of the Capital... they had some time to travel and the daylight was beginning to fade to the late afternoon by the time they had gone well on their way. Ayakashi wasn't much to talk at the best of times, yet, she could not help to shake a thought, the phantasmal query writhed in the back of her mind like an all devouring wyrm with no end to its hunger. Not really expecting an answer so much, simply wanting to have her question spoken. While the child was obviously a trained ninja from the academy, and had a couple powerful jutsu at their disposal...

"So, what do you hope to learn in Kirigakure? We seem to be known for our swordsmanship... was that one of the things that gravitated you towards us... If you want to become a stronger ninja, you'll need to have a reason. I'm curious as to what that reason might be..."

The boy did not need to answer, simply stating the question aloud and hearing it on the ever rhythmic breeze that swirled the mist around them in patterns only her byakugan could see. But the fact of the matter was, you could tell a lot about a ninja from the choices they made. If he wanted to become one of the Famous Seven Swordsmen, his ambition would be supreme. ANBU would be a statement of duty, Hunter Ninjas often wanted to prove themselves while Jounin were more likely to want to protect those closest to them. It was a psychological trick, that much was certain... Though there was no wrong answer to the question. Training needed to be tailored, there was no doubting this for the best students, Aya thought that getting a bead on his needs would reveal some insight on the real reason for his departure...

Simply put, she didn't believe him.

[exit]7.5k / 7.5k mission completed.

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