Kisei groaned as he tried to separate from the clingy warm body spooning him right now. “You know I actually have a mission today, like an important one this time right?” The Ushinatta glared at the strong arms holding him in place. “I don’t think ‘doing and ditching’ was is a good habit to harvest, Kisei. Come on, why not spend five more minutes here? I think round-” Alrighty that was enough. “-Pause.” Kisei interrupted. Immedietly the program dissolved around him, leaving only the bed and the other person on it looking back at him with a less than pleased face. “Look, I’m going to be back soon, so please. Just hold out till tonight, alright?” The black haired smither winked a smile at the pouting white haired wonder lounging on his bed before reaching for his clothes. As he got dressed he placed a quick kiss on their forehead, waving goodbye as he left the massive machine.  

---

Kisei twirled his open umbrella in his hands, spinning the machine with precise movements. It might be the tiniest, little bit, conspicuous having his umbrella out. Certainly felt like it at least. Parading a very lethal weapon out in public had both a weird twist in his heart and a faint bit of amusement in his gut. Though both were more reasonably explained by his being amongst massive groups of people now. Kisei had been fully committed to hiding out all the drama and festivities of the Chuunin exams. Not keen on having to deal with the noisy crowds, the politics, all the other foreigners. He’d rather not deal with all of that. Especially since the influx of nobles and social elite flocking to the hidden leaf village had his shop at least twice as busy as usual. Honestly he didn’t have the patience or motivation to deal with so many customers. So Shouto took over the official shop stuff in Kisei’s stead while the Ushinatta stayed in the basement working on personal projects. Both of them stuck to that paridim for a while and Kisei was about to ignore the festivities for a good week or two but of course Rippa decided to send his lazy bones a mission. Of course, a mission handed personally form Rippa didn’t really mean much during this season. He probably had the higher jounin and such working multiple missions in other places of the village, keeping defenses up, protecting the relative peace, etc. That and his hinted interest in joining the hidden village in the future was being taken seriously. “Well, at least he’s upholding his promises.” The Umbrella master mentally shrugged.

Early yesterday Kisei recieved notice of the mission he was undertaking. There was suspect of unfair matches, he didn’t know the real term for it here, but essentially influential people were bribing contestants to lose their matches against a specific line of examinees. Kisei didn’t really understand why people would take the offer but if he had to choose between having all his item expenses paid and winning a fight the context wasn’t so hard to understand. “Though that doesn’t make their choices any more justifiable.” Kisei mumbled. He himself trained for the last chuunin exams, and even though he lost horribly he did so with the knowledge that he had done what he could to prepare. Even as strange as the entire event is, upon later reflection. The air around him was hot, disturbing the local atmosphere with thrashing heat waves, it was the afternoon sun of a particularly hot week. He didn’t like it but didn’t mind, not like he was going to stay for long. His only working violet eye looked out around him for his target location. His eyes settled on a plain looking inn. “Ah, there you are.” That’s the inn the supposed ring leaders of this entire operation are. With that settled now all he had too to was wait for his supposed partners in the selected location. The bar right opposite of the inn. So sheathing his umbrella he headed into the small hub and proceeded to get intoxicated on the best drink around; iced water.

704

The village was alive with activity. With the Exams being hosted there were people from all villages filling Konoha streets, not to mention the street vendors. The shear volume of people in the streets allowed Kennosuke to follow his target with relative ease. The man he stalked was a middle aged Kimura, one of the names on his list in his search to find the Traitor. He had tailed the man for a few days and found nothing suspicious and today would likely be the same, as the man had just returned to the Kimura Compound. With a sigh, Kennosuke stops in the street. He would find out who the Traitor was, no matter how long it took him.

But for now, not only did his target appear to be just going home, Kennosuke also had a mission to get. He shakes his head and moves into the Compound himself and into his room to change his clothes and retrieve his sword. After a few minutes he is back out on the street, wearing a black hooded sleeveless shirt, white bandages wrapped around both arms up to the elbow, with his normal black ninja pants and sandals. His sword was hung over his right shoulder instead of on his left hip and his forehead protector and anything relating to his clan had been left in his room. Now that he was ready, he pulled his hood up and began making his way through the Village toward the meeting spot.

Not satisfied with just moving with the pace of the crowds, Kennosuke Bobs and weaves through the crowd, dives through the random street vendor and swings from the odd street light. This allowed him move fairly quick through the crowded streets at the expense of angering many street vendors. Before long he made near enough to his destination that he would slow down. They were to go after some people supposedly rigging matches during the Exams, so they more than likely had look out and him free running would do nothing but draw attention.

He spots the bar that was supposed to be the meeting spot and he moved to enter the hub of activity. Once inside his emerald eyes scan place for members of the team he was to be on, or any potential threats. He spots one of the team, a black haired guy a few years older than himself with violet colored eyes. While He had never met the Shinobi personally he had seen him around the Village. Joining Kisei at the table he sat at, Kennosuke pushes back his hood and leans back in his chair.

"Kisei, right? I'm Kennosuke. Are we the first to make it?" He asks, waving the waitress away as she comes to ask him if he would like anything. He would study the other Shinobi for a moment and then his eyes would go back to looking at the crowd in the bar. While he didn't expect any trouble yet, he would rather be prepared for it just in case.

WC:510

The wheat field swayed in the wind, the golden stalks swaying in the golden streams of sunlight. A breeze blew, cooling it down to that perfect temperature where it's not to hot nor cold. A young boy lay in the fields of gold, relishing in the warm glow of the sun and the cool breeze. Dreams are quite a magical thing, aren't they, Shizuka wanted nothing more then to just live in this perfect moment for the rest of his uninterrupted slumb...

“Shizuka get your lazy ass up already! I don’t care how late you stayed up drawing new blueprints, we were supposed to have arrived four hours ago!”

Shizuka nodded in his sleep before waking grogily, rubbing his eyes as if in an attempt to rub the tiredness out of them. Blueprints lay strewn across his bed and scattered on the floor of his room making a mismatch of blue paper. A small stripped brown cat lay atop a stack of the blue paper, purring softly. Shizuka yawned and stretched, knocking a few of the blueprints off of his bed 'What had Teiho said?' the boy wondered as he wiped a bit of drool off the corner of his mouth. Something about being there four hours ago, four hours ago? Four hours ago!?  Shizuka bolted upright, making a mad rush to get ready. Instead of his typical casual attire he opted for a green shirt under his labcoat and a pair of black leggings. Unlike most days today he would be tagging along on a mission with Teiho, his first to be exact and casual wear wouldn't cut it for top secret ninja missions. He rushed out of his room, making a mad dash down the hall to the sight off... nothing, no angry Teiho standing by the door which honestly was as much of a bad thing as it was a good thing, he was cute when he was mad. Shizuka turned around, trudging back the way he came to Teiho's room. Empty. Well if there was no rush then he might as well freshen up a bit, the bags under his eyes were bound to be hideous. Shizuka made his way to the bathroom, opening the door to see Teiho prettying himself up in the mirror.

"I thought we were suppose to be there four hours ago?" Shizuka asked with a smirk. "Also I though this was some super important ninja mission not a date" Shizuka would continue before moving towards the sink.

After waiting for Teiho to finish up he'd take his turn, brushing his teeth, brushing his hair, and finishing up with just a bit of makeup to cover up the horrendous bags under his eyes. After finishing getting ready he'd go back to his room to fetch the gear Teiho had gotten for him as well as Mokusei. The lumbering automaton trudged along behind Shizuka, controlled by the chakra strings sprouting from his fingers. If Teiho made coffee he'd have a cup, not like he needed the caffeine though, the thought of going on a mission with Teiho had enough energy pumping through the boy as is.

WC: 523

A loud yawn was heard as Kizmaru awoken from his slumber. Today was the day he would venture out into Konoha and do a pretty dangerous mission. Too many events had went by where he felt particularly helpless. Sure, there was some instances where he actually did something with his fire jutsu but when it came to going toe-to-toe with his enemies or sticky situations, Kizmaru had always dropped the ball. Well, no more. he wasn't physically adept as he thought he was. His scrawny frame, lanky arms and chicken legs weren't going to cut it. Sitting up in his bed, Kizmaru had gotten out and wearily walked over to the bathroom to wash his face.

Still, a real shinobi mission. He was feeling elated today. He was about to go on a real mission. A mission that could potentially end up pushing him to his limits or maybe even killing him. He was excited and anxious at the same time. Today, he would be going on a mission with a group he's never met before. Come to think of it, he's only ever interacted with two other shinobi which is strange in itself. He likes to avoid people but he didn't think it was that drastic it. Well, he'd eventually come out of his shell or so he planned out. Kizmaru decided it was time for him to get ready to go. He didn't wanna be late and wanted to leave a good impression. He got out of room into the bathroom to quickly shower, get dressed in his usual attire and left his room in a hurry. On his way to the mission site, he was reading the briefing he had received a little while ago.

"The initial matches have been so uninteresting as to arouse suspicion - a few exceptionally skilled or lucky combatants are cleaning house with almost no resistance. The average audience member might see a real fight, but more experienced eyes know that the participants are successively holding back against a single opponent. The payouts are less than conspicuous, and sources have traced the group to a specific inn that they’ve completely booked." Excellent, this just the kind of thrill he's been seeking for awhile. Reading the mission description had only made him hasten his pace. He wanted to hurry up and start the mission as soon as possible. Arriving at the meeting place of interest, Kizmaru had immediately noticed how many shinobi there were excluding himself partaking in this mission. He took a seat near-by, not saying a word and just waited for them to begin. He was feeling a bit anxious but he thought to himself this is always how he felt in the beginning.

W.C:464

After a few sips of his drink Kisei noticed the arrival of one of his mission partners, when the started talking to him. Opening his left eye, Kisei made eye contact with the surprisingly well updated Kennosuke. “It’s rare to be recognized, Kennosuke.” Kisei placed his drink down on the coster. “But yes, it seems that we’re the first to get here.” The Ushinatta replied casually. Returning to thinking about what kinds of things he should get back to building after this, and possibly throughout some of the advertising he’s be putting up around town. A few minutes later and a few more sips of his basically frozen drink until he came across a beautiful familiar face. He quirked a smile at the Aburame, who took a seat next to him, “Glad to hear they’ve done you well so far.” Kisei said simply. “Maybe I’ll introduce you to some of my more exotic items sometime.”

The young ninja blacksmith would watch as people came and went and when more people of Konoha’s ninja started to pile in. I hope to heaven that Rippa is alright with a technical refugee undertaking so many young people. It was rather more offputting, the young ages of all these genin. I hope they don’t end up dead. Kisei mentally shrugged before counting off each one. Accouting for the two that just walked in, Teiho and Shizuka, it seems that every was present.

Talking low so that only the people around him could listen, Kisei began to explain the parameters of the mission. “Now, I know we’ve all got places to be after this, so I’ll try and keep this as  brief as I can. Straight to the point a number of people have been bribing people in the exams to lose against a single contestant. Illegal for a number of reasons but I won’t bore you with them. This mission is to apprehend the people behind this. Now we can do this a number of ways, gather evidence of their activities or go in and arrest the people directly. With no information on specific identities, the second option will be a bit harder but not impossible. As they are known to have a couple of strong guards on them within the building. While I’m capable of either, I don’t know all of your capabilities so if you have any objections to this being a stealth mission please speak up. I’d rather have this mission end with zero injuries or deaths if I can help it.” He was brutally honest with that last part. Because realistically if this was going to be a stealth mission they would have only have allowed at most four ninja to take this mission. It’s a delicate balance and the efficiency of a well coordinated squad was handy with the kinds of missions expected of ninja, even young ones. However they didn’t have manageable numbers or a reliable mission leader to actively do a stealth mission without one or two of them staying outside as back up while the rest went in. All in all he wouldn’t fault them for taking the less subtle path, it made sense with their numbers, but perhaps not all of them were straight combatant types, and he couldn’t be every where to help them if needed.


569

Kennosuke leans back in his chair and continues his observation of the room. From what he knew of the mission at hand, it was gonna be a tough day. But they were sending a fairly large team for it so he doubted there would be any trouble. Kisei would awnser him just moments before N'Jobu entered the bar and came to the table. At the very least there was one Shinobi on the team that Kennosuke had worked with before and knew he could trust to have his back if things went south.

"Hey N'Jobu. Glad you're here." He would say to his fellow Leaf Nin. It wasn't long before the rest of the team arrived. He recognized two of them being competitors of the Exams from Iwagakure and assumed the third was also an Iwagakure Nin. Two Leaf Shinobi, three Iwagakure Shinobi, led by a Suna refugee made for a truely diverse team. It would make combat either a walk in the park or a total nightmare as the differences in training and fighting styles were so greatly varied.

He would turn his full attention to the team leader as he began to lay out what was expected and possible tactics they could use use to complete the mission. A stealth approach or a frontal assault. Kennosuke truely didn't mind either one, but leaned toward a frontal attack with a slight twist.

"If we go the direct route, we could try and draw the guards out one or two at a time so we can put them down easier. It would be smarter for us to try and single out targets versus taking a chance of being over whelmed by them all. The issue would be that once the fighting started the people we were ment to apprehend may try and run for it. As many of us as there are, one of us could be on containment for the runners, one could distract the guards while the other four draw out and take down one guard at a time. But, that's just my thoughts. I'll do whatever you need." He says. He may not be the most experienced Shinobi but it was a solid plan. If they liked it he would likely volunteer to take the distraction, as he could take the hits from the guards and keep fighting.

WC:398
Total:908

“Shizuka I will actually turn you into stone, don’t test me.” Taiho snapped, Shizuka was use to it due to it being something Taiho just kinda did. “I don’t have time for your jokes right now, my hair is acting weird and I don’t know whyyyyyYyY”

"Geez, sorry 'mom' no need to yell at me, I’d give you a nasty look but you’ve already got one." Shizuka fired back with a smirk, leaning on the door frame until his caretaker was finished messing with his hair. It really was sad, why would someone dye the tips of their hair bright blue. After a while Taiho finally decided to call it quits, leaving his hair in a short, spiky look that honestly looked ok on him. After finalizing his style the older boy would throw the brush on the sink and storm out, nearly pushing Shizuka over as he pushed past. Shizuka sighed as he stepped into the bathroom. He grabbed his toothbrush from a small cup resting on the corner of the sink and a tube of toothpaste that was also sitting nearby. He squirted a hefty glob of the minty gel onto his brush and went to work, getting rid of the morning breath and taste. After washing the brush off and replacing it in the cup sitting on the sink he moved to his hair, not nearly spending as long as Taiho had, simply brushing out the tangles and knots that most people got just from sleeping. Next was makeup, unlike his perfect caretaker he had some trouble with his skin which mostly took the form of the black bags under his eyes. These bags were completely avoidable of course, coming almost entirely from self inflicted sleep deprivation, but that would be a waste of time which could be spent on so many more important things then sleeping. Plus, a minuscule amount of makeup fixed the problem plain and simple.

After finishing cleaning up in the bathroom, Shizuka would stroll out of the bathroom towards the kitchen and pour out a cup of coffee. The caffeine wasn't really needed, the boy wasn't even tired in the slightest, but coffee is coffee after all. After Taiho was ready Shizuka would use chakra threads to bring Mokusei out of his room, the lumbering brute of a puppet stomping down the halls and narrowly fitting through the door as Shizuka left following Taiho.

Th meeting location was a bar as Taiho informed Shizuka on the way, in the bar the pair of effeminate males would be meeting a team of shinobi who had been chosen for the mission as well as the hidden leaf village shinobi that would be leading the team on said mission. After about thirty minutes of dreadful walking the duo would reach the bar in which the team was suppose to meet up in. Standing outside Shizuka would use the academy Generic Sealing Technique, something Taiho had taught Shizuka during a lesson on basic chakra control, to seal Mokusei in a small tattoo on his arm and follow his caretaker inside.

Inside the bar was what appeared to be the entire team with which they were to meet up. The duo of Iwagakure shinobi seemed to be the last to arrive. Shizuka followed close behind Taiho, when his caretaker acknowledged two of the shinobi Shizuka would wave at them excitedly. He himself didn't know them, but Taiho did and he trusted Taiho in matters like this. When one of the shinobi addressed the team, Shizuka's focus directed to him.

Chakra: 240/250
Chakra Threads
Generic Sealing Technique

WC: +592, 1115 total

It wasn't long since Kizmaru had arrived at the bar. He assumed all of the team members for this mission wasn't present so that would give him time to do other things. He wasn't really sure what to do to kill time although, he did happen to notice he had entered a bar for a meeting place. He was a little young for the place but he could still enjoy some beverages the establishment had to offer.  He decided to look at the handwritten menu that was hung over the counter top for a drink that would suit his tastes. He wanted something sweet but not heavily sweetened. Skimming down the menu a few times, he finally found the beverage he desired.  A raspberry lemon ice tea. He had some change left over from a previous task and decided he'd reward himself with a drink although the money he had received was very generous on it's own.

He placed his order with the barkeeper serving drinks and waited for the drink to be constructed. It didn't take too long for him to served the beverage he ordered and it came out quite nicely as well. A dark, pink liquid  with a lemon and some raspberries attached to a large glass served to the boy as he sat at his seat. A straw was jutting out from the glass, indicating that he was suppose to drink from it instead of straight from the glass itself. He would have preferred to drink straight from the glass but he figured it would be rude and he doesn't know where or who drank from this glass before him. Placing his lips on the straw, he started with small sips of the beverage as a sort of taste test. To his surprise, it was surprisingly good but sweeter than he had initially wanted it. Still, it was cold and refreshing to have so Kizmaru didn't mind. He had started to take larger sips now as his mind wandered else where. Looking around at the current people here, he realized he didn't know anybody here. He figured he'd know at least one person here or recognize them from somewhere else but alas, he did not.

It was pretty unfortunate for him but he didn't mind. He assumed that the members here were discussing the mission, knew each other and were talking about the past or had just met and hit it off immediately. Kizmaru, on the other hand, wasn't fond of immediately trying to get along or befriend people so he decided it would be best for him to remain seated until the the other members arrived. Shortly after making that decision, two more figures had came through the entrance of the bar. Kizmaru immediately recognized one of them to be Taiho. The other, smaller figure, Kizmaru had never seen before. Either way, he decided he wouldn't address either of them until they directly approached him so when he received a nod, Kizmaru had also nodded in response. He then focused his attention back to his beverage until it was time for all of them to head out and begin their mission.

W.C: 539

T.W.C: 1003