Mission:

Tenjin was called up and ordered to wait in the lobby by the Iwagakure no sato ANBU division, alone in a black cloak with the white and red mask Tenjin awaited further instructions. His feet firmly on the ground as he patiently stood with his arms crossed behind him. He was awaiting his first mission in Kirigakure border camp. He will not have a team so he doubted they would assign him something dangerous, but considering that he will have a partner, Tenjin deduced that there must still be some risk involved. He heard rumors about Kirigakure as the bloody mist, so Tenjins expectations were opened as to what kind of mission they will assign him. He wondered if he should have spoken to the ANBU who ordered him into this mission, but knowing the black ops division, they don’t tend to speak too much to the unaffiliated. In the end, it would not matter. A mission was a mission and every little bit of action helped Iwagakure no sato and its new Tsuchikage.

"You there, let’s go.!" a man said peering out of a room in the Kirigakure Border Camp Headquarter.

Finally it was his turn. He slid one step at a time, picking up his stride as he walked into the room. Atmosphere was dry and heavy as 2 secretaries stared at the masked shinobi. They were not pleased in the slightest. The room in the tent was filled with mountains of scrolls, books, and papers on everything about the village of Sunagakure and the policies created to make their mark in the disorder. Between the two secretaries was a sheet with a name that surely wasn’t Tenjins name on it. Tenjin could only assume that he was given a fake identity by the Iwa special division to honor his want to stay anonymous throughout the relief effort, not that he was known by the villages to begin with, but Tenjin doesn’t want to do things for reputations sake. He was an outsider in these villages after all. His eyes finally locked onto the secretaries.

One of them was a medium size man with grey hair that came down to his shoulders. It appeared to be smooth and neatly combed. The othis secretary was as an even older and taller looking female who was missing a few teeth but could easy hide the fact with his lack of smiling. Wrinkles invaded both their faces, through and through, and their eyes struggled to find an opening in their sagging skin. Tenjin personally was impressed with the synchronicity in their speech as they finished each other sentences in a more than fascinating way. The pair shuffled threw papers gathering mission intel to determine a best fit.

"You're the kid thats not” said the man as he riffled through papers, while the women finished,  “of this village. Nice cloak,” ended the women, while the man continued “by the way, are you even" and the women once again finished, “a Chunin dear.” “Yeah. You don’t look it” mocked the man. Of course teasing the fact that the young shinobis stature is nothing to fear or be intimidated by, but Tenjin didnt entertain their notion as he stood quite waiting for his order.

Tenjin remained silent and still. He is clearly aware of his youth as he maneuvers through the ranks, but he cant let his generational gap hinder his development. It was then that Tenjin became curious on who his partner will be for this mission. The woman elbowed the man despite not having a high opinion of the young shinobi herself. To Tenjin, this situation was not normal and it was enough to get on his bad side. Lucky for Tenjin, he rarely pointed spoke up against the status quo, which saved the young shinobi many pointless lectures.

"Anyway, you are here for a mission, correct?"

Tenjin nodded his head.

"Lets see... I don't think we have anything fitting for an alien shinobi."

The woman started whispering to the man, soon after starting a full conversation of tiny breezes and harsh sounds. Tenjin started looking around again, wondering if the man was insulting him or actually trying to get Tenjin a productive mission.

"Yes, At the moment, our current missions require chunin with more... tactical skills." added the woman.

Tenjin took a deep breath, he was not knew to this aspect of his character. Still, he needed to become a better ninja and so he took a step forward.
"I will do it."

The two frowned, not expecting or enjoying his determination.

"Very well, we will start you off with something easy... How well do you know about the current arms trade problem in Sunagakure no sato?" They both asked as if they were twins or creepy psychics. Tenjin could already tell, it was going to be a long day. They proceeded to explain mission details, “The Sunagakure no sato arms trade has boomed in the Desert in recent years, and with battlefields on the rise, convoys have been detected moving in the cover of nightfall to recover and transport weapons caches. That may not be all they’re carrying however, be careful.” The women explained, “Or don’t…” proclaimed the man as he continued, “You can meet this partner of yours at what used to be the village gates.”

Tenjin disappeared in an instant utilizing the body flicker, this flicker left absolutely no trace of his disappearance as not even a cloud of smoke was formed. Standing at the gate, Tenjin watched as people trickled in and out the village in waves from foreign villages for the relief efforts. It was noisy and every so often the sound of a unruly and malnutritioned child broke through the ambient noise of commotion, the cry led to nothing more but the sense of pitty for the state of this once major village. It was scene Tenjin despited. It took so much effort to hear himself think and everyone struggling in this village makes Tenjin feel like they are isolated from the world, seeing how in Iwagakure, the people live ignorant of the circumstances that Sunagakure really does experience under such a toxic environment.

He watched as other genin and even some chunin effortlessly picked apart the crowd for the people that are the most in need, and guided them to their overall goal. They showed smiles, personality, and a warmth that he could not replicate, be it fake or real. Even though his face was hidden behind his mask, he felt as if he was useless for the world for his inability to help the weak. While waiting for his partner, Tenjin thought about what the secretaries offered, as they offered Tenjin a chance to back down should he feel overwhelmed with the task asked of them, but what would that say about his dedication then. If he wanted to rank up and protect the village, he would have to overcome any and all fears one way or another. With a deep breath, he stepped forward. His mission was simple, and he waited now for his partner to arrive.

WC 1,185

As if she wasn't busy enough with training and pushing the expansion of the Ryujin forward, the invasion of all these Villages and the build up of their bases forced her to take actions against them. The Dragon Empress was not of a mind to keep friends, so neither would Laïs have to. All of these bases would be her little playground to test her own shinobi talents. Stealth, infiltration, espionage. Abilities that she wasn't as familiar with as those who were trained to do so. Any information that could be of use to reinforce the Ryujiin would be taken back home so Lamya could put them to good use. Busy days, but not the worst to suffer for a young woman that already had difficulties sleeping.

At this moment, she was somewhat in a pinch. Rebels were about to transport a weapon cache. Stolen from the Ryujin here and there as they took down guards, and now being smuggled out of the area to a better place. Mostly out of the Ryujin's grasp. Getting those back wouldn't be easy. Currently wandering in Kirigakure's camp as a refugee, using the plaguing nightmares to good use to get inside. Without her cape revealing her Ryujin affiliation, she was just another woman in the masses, generally ignored by those on duty. Excellent. Her amethyst eyes slowly but steadily took in all the information she could. They general lay-out, the discipline, positions of guards and patrols, which ranks gathered where and which ones took what jobs. The lessons offered by Tenjin on the shinobi ranks now actually seen being used here in a practical way. She had to admit it, it was fascinating.

There was also a downside to it. Human weakness. In a camp such as this, surrounded by allies and higher ranked shinobi, most people were lax in their preservation for discretion. Missions of higher ranks were openly debated in lesser crowd areas, assuming no one would or could come here with the high level of security. Their mistake. Feigning being lost was not the hardest for someone who looked sleep deprived, backed by natural senjutsu and shinobi training, it was not all that hard to catch pieces of mission information or sensitive knowledge. Incomplete, sure, but with patience and a little puzzling it could still reveal quite interesting information.

One of those concerned a mission to retrieve the transport she needed to get her hands on. How Kirigakure was in possession of such information she couldn't say, but them planning to steal the weapons that were not the Rebels' but the Ryujin's to begin with drove her to find a means to intervene. She needed those back. Taking out the appointed Kirigakure shinobi might not be the easiest, but neither would taking out the escort. She couldn't call in the Ryujin as that would only complicate things, so she had to find a means to have the escort and shinobi knock out each other. Knowing that the basic escort would be child's play for trained men, all she could do was inform them of Kirigakure's future appearance in hopes it would bolster their own defences. Whoever would remain would be weakened enough to be dealt with by her or the Ryujin. So in the dead of night, a black bird would do the necessary to inform the Rebels and the Ryujin.


On the next morning, Laïs would wander towards the Mission Tent. She'd be shoo'd at first, until she grabbed the man's hand and forced him down his knees, pain shooting through his arm.

"Don't be rude?", she'd state with a frown. "I wanted to be informed about a mission."
She would let go off his hand, a scowl returned as he inclined her to continue.

"I'm sorry but I overheard you speaking about a weapon cache being transported by rebels soon. I know those people as they are the ones who gave me trouble. I'd like to join that mission."
"You're no shinobi."
"I have information Kirigakure doesn't have and I want to make them pay."

He'd rub his chin pensively. Letting go a civilian was not quite how Kirigakure did this, but she had him in a hold rather fast which showed she knew something about self-defence. The extend of her abilities probably didn't reach a well-trained Kiri-nin, but information was crucial.

"What information do you have?"
"Names, faces, strategies. Sufficient to make a difference in the success of your mission, not enough to give it all up just yet."
"That... is not a bad offer. Fine, you're in. We already got someone else from Iwagakure assisting us, a chuunin, so you should be fine if you're being careful. Don't get cocky."
"You're the best. Thanks", she'd say with a wink before she left the tent, leaving the man with a sheepish smile on his face. This mission not being a solo mission would not make it easier, but at least she was another step closer to reaching her objectives. The Rebels were informed, the Ryujin would be ready to jump in at her signal, it was just a matter of getting rid of the Iwa-nin.

So once she received the 'go' for the mission, Laïs made her way towards the meeting point. A former gate of Sunagakure.

---

Arriving at the rendez-vous point, a familiar face was waiting for her. Tenjin. Once again she met the boy that had taught her everything about the shinobi forces, a cruel play of fate. Was she really meant to strike down her own teacher now just to get this weapon cache back in the hands of the Ryujin? Maybe not. He was an Iwa-nin, not a Kiri-nin. What the relation between the two villages were, she couldn't say, but perhaps he would be open for negotiations when the  time came.

"Tenjin?", she'd call out as she arrived, waving a hand at him, the Kirigakure headband she had been given as a sign of recognition wrapped around her arm. "You're the Iwa-nin they sent?"

---

1043

OOC: Working against Kirigakure, in favour of Ryujin

As Tenjin was sitting where the front gates used to be, night began to fall, and Tenjin began watching as the stars and constellations formed with the disappearance of a blue sky. Tenjin then saw a falling star that he imagined to be able to move as fast as it did because it had chakra inside of it, and as it disappeared onto the other side of the hemisphere he heard his name being howled from behind. It was Lais, and Tenjin, wearing his mask and cloak to hide his identity surely doesn’t like the fact that his name was blatantly stated outright, maybe Tenjin should have been more covert in the sand when the pair completed their last mission, as that’s what a true ANBU would of done.  But what could he do? As he jumped to attention, he decided to go to the straight to the weapon cache to complete this mission. Tenjin then told Lais just that, “Let’s go, the weapons will be transported from the south.” Tenjin began the walk to the target zone which was somewhat far, but nothing to a shinobi. When the pair arrived to the transport location, the young shinobi noticed something wrong. There was nobody defending the weapons.

He then saw a kid run off with glowing blue eyes leaving behind in its wake, a blue fire-like essence like the shooting star, and most prominently showing from his forehead as if it were a mix between a man and a blue devil. The man then looked back as his eyes started to glow a darker hue of some sort of pearly blue aura that stood against the black of the night. As the blue eyed kid did this, he then vanished into the ether leaving behind not even a faint wind, but a blur of blue to replace where his eyes one stood like the disappearing shooting star.

Upon noticing a plethora of men appearing from under the sand, Tenjin did not fear the situation but instead, he tried to recall what the kid did before he vanished into the empty desert. Tenjin himself has a transparency technique, so Tenjin deduced that this kid must definitely be a shinobi of some kind. “For a second I seen a blue aura, but then it disappeared. Not because it was moving but for the fact that it vanished.” Tenjin said as he tried to analyze more details befitting of the situation he had just witnessed. Of course Tenjin tried this and wanted to see who this man was but was soon engulfed with enemy combatants. He quickly dismissed the thoughts, but still kept this stranger in the back of his mind because Tenjin knew he is able to disappear as well meaning that this kid is trained and he could be the reason why the transport team was well aware of the shinobis arrival. This cycle of men appearing from the depth of the desert began over and over and Tenjin faced the fact that he needed to battle. When this occurred it felt as though Tenjin was preparing for war. After noticing this feeling Tenjin decided to move through the trail which was now the battlefield. Tenjin took off, without saying a word to Lais as this situation called for precise and high evaluated maneuvering, his first steps leaving a footprint in the solid ground and the wind inverted it’s movement as Tenjin moved passed it as if he some sort of aerodynamic machine. Tenjin began by creating the Rasengan while running and attacking a target right on the chest, blowing him away while he plowed through some of the other enemies. This jutsu was very taxing for the body because Tenjin has been training and strictly focusing on this jutsu throughout this event in order to perfect it further, but nevertheless, he was very winded when he had finished.

As Tenjin looked up, he again saw a blue blur a few meters passed the weapons cache, this immediately put Tenjin on alert and he readied himself for anything. Tenjin then decided to chase this man although he was already worn out from utilizing the last rasengan. He waited to make sure of the location where he would see the blue blur once again.Tenjin then noticed the light, he then line up, and quickly thought of his objective, to catch this spy at full speed. Tenjin then said, “Lais, you can handle things here right?” Then all of a sudden, before an answer was given, Tenjin dashed off into the night, the spy caught off guard, released his stealth technique and made himself visible. Tenjin chased the guy for not even 5 sec before he decided to change direction in what seemed to be a quick jerky manner propelled by some type of jutsu. As Tenjin chased this spy all through the night both of them rushing the foliage and tall rocks, boulder and such they traveled a great distance in little time. Tenjin was pretty close to getting the spy until he utilized another stealth technique. This time, he disappeared for good as the young shinobi stood for a short period of time with his eyes wide opened waiting to see the flash of blue once again. It did not appear, and as Tenjin looked back, he noticed he was some distance away from his initial mission location. So the young shinobi utilized the body flicker technique to appear in an instance into the middle of the battlefield. Creating the ram hand seal, Tenjin was able to disappear in an instant without leaving a spec of dust out of place as he maneuvered out of the spot where he stood to head toward Lais and assist her, if needed in completing the mission.

WC 963
TWC 2,148

Perhaps it was just her imagination but Tenjin seemed annoyed at seeing her as he dropped the need for a proper greeting and went straight to the point about the transport. They'd come from the south. She nodded in confirmation. Where they'd come from was a triviality compared to how many men they'd be bringing along. The rebels were no idiots, better organised than one would credit them for but not quite good at preserving their information. Still, Laïs would tag along to where Tenjin would guide her and as the two moved into position, she would part him with some information.

"They'll come in from the south as you said but the convoy should be heavily guarded. They treasure these weapons."

Reaching their position, the two of them would hide from sight. Waiting. Soon enough, the cart with weapons would come into sight, pulled forward by a single horse and rider. Nothing else. For a moment Laïs was doubting the information she had received, but her sage senses told her that she couldn't trust her eyes. There were people around, motionless yet hidden from her eyes. Camouflaged, most likely, and waiting for Tenjin and herself to take action against the cart of weapons. As expected, even now the opponent was relying on its hit-and-run tactics, claiming the advantage of surprise for themselves in hopes to overwhelm whoever came to strike them down.

Tenjin would proceed to mention something that confirmed her suspicions. He had seen a blue aura. A person vanishing from sight, clouding the judgement of the naked eye. She'd grin and nod. Yes, that was perfectly possible. She hadn't seen what he had perceived but the crow sage had her own means to find someone. The advantage of being a sage mostly being only another sage could hide from her senses. No stealth technique lacking natural energy would ever fool a sage's senses.

"They are hidden. Jutsu or camouflage, I don't know, but don't trust your eyes too much. As soon as we attack the weapon cart, they'll jump in with hit-and-run tactics."

Her words were barely cold or the stealth units revealed themselves, running up to the two of them as they heard Laïs mention the attack. The girl would smirk at how easy it had been to have them reveal themselves, taunted, as they still believed to hold the advantage. The sheer amount of the opponents' forces did have her worried somewhat as she hadn't expected that many to show up, but knowing Tenjin and the Ryujin weren't far off she'd hold her ground. Channelling chakra through her body, her skin would turn a slate grey as claws and talons grew out of her fingers and elbows and razor-sharp feathers would sprout about her shoulders. The necrosis inherent to the Jugo would course through her veins and suffuse her fists and feet. It was time to dance.

Just at that point, Tenjin had his own goals and stormed off, using Rasengan to clear the path before him as he mentioned his expectations of her dealing with the incoming masses of shinobi. Shocked at him suddenly leaving her by herself, she swore softly but was left little time to do much more than that as new troops would run in to close the ranks of those that had been Rasengan'd out of the way. On her own. There was nothing she could do to change that as she was not a shinobi by training, but the Beast within was not of a mind to go down without a fight.

The first units would reach her, their own skill instantly revealed as their strikes were faster and preciser than she had seen so far. It wasn't Lamya level, but compared to the usual rabble she had to deal with they were wel-trained. In fact, they matched her attacks and speed blow for blow. Every strike would be dodged or parried by them, and the way around, but the advantage was still on her side. Every strike they blocked from her left their skin afflicted by necrosis, every strike she blocked did the same. In the long run, they would lose the duel.

Her current problem was such that they didn't fatigue fast enough. More were running in to overwhelm her, leaving her little time to signal the Ryujin to seize the cart. With her having to face multiple opponents, she was at a great disadvantage too, finding that her defences couldn't keep up fast enough with the multitude of blows. Eventually, she was forced to clear the area with a hurricane of blows from her end. As she twirled on her back, and swung her legs on a hand stand, sand would be thrown up by the speed of the technique's execution. Those who didn't get hit would end up pushed back to avoid blinding, those who didn't dodge would feel the major bruises leaving a sore discomfort behind, necrosis eating away at every beaten spot.

But Lais wouldn't stop there. Usually, a brief dance would suffice to clear the way but her enemies were too many this time. She would keep spinning and spinning, serving kicking feet to the fools that still didn't understand it was better to stay away. A few more would be hit but eventually the enemy wisely decided to stay away, leaving room to the occultist to sweep her feet and stand back up. The world kept spinning a little more as she found her balance again. Then Tenjin returned to crash into the troops from a different side, the distraction allowing Laïs to signal the Ryujin.

Soon enough the cart with stolen goods would be returned to the rightful owner.

---

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Thread Total: 4173

190/220, Rage 3/12:

As Tenjin crashed into the troops and drew attention away from the guards around Laïs to have them run up and deal with him, Laïs fired the signal flare to summon the Ryujin guard. Soon after, black outfits would swoop in, joining the shinobi to take out or chase away what little left of the defending troops and secure the cart of weapons for their faction. At this point, if Tenjin still wanted to secure the cargo he'd have to deal with Laïs and the Ryujin by himself. Maybe he'd be capable of doing so but rather than to allow a wound fester in such a way, the young woman promised him proper compensation in coin for the reward he would otherwise have missed. Whether or not he accepted it was up to him, but the Ryujin would not wait much longer since more of the rebels could show up.

---

[EXIT], due to inactivity (+1 month)

155
Total: 2180
-1500 Mission
- 600 Extra Pay: +150 ryo
Tread WC: 4328