OOC Details:

As fate would have it, Kashizudoto and Hina had been assigned to complete another A-rank mission together. They had already once worked together to escort the daimyo's daughter on a trip across the Land of Fire, and Kashizudoto still felt quite guilty about having left Hina all alone to fend for herself out there against the assassins. Of course, he and Hawky had come to kick butt just in the nick of time, but that didn't mean that it was excusable for them to have caused extra inconvenience by dipping out on a personal errand in the middle of the mission. Of course, it was something important to Kashizudoto to catch up with the villagers who he had befriended over the years, but, looking back at what had happened, perhaps it was best that he leave that kind of stuff to do on his own time rather than in the middle of an important mission.

This mission was one of high importance and demanded the assassination of a political figure, Sasori Masaru, who reportedly was carrying falsified documents across the border to stir up political mayhem in the Land of Fire. Considering the current situation regarding the fate of the minor nations, it was of the utmost importance, now more than ever, to ensure that there was no unnecessary political tension brewing in their land. It was a matter of curiosity that they didn't dispatch an ANBU agent or team to go after him; after all, assassination was a matter of secrecy and precision, and it seemed to him that it was a job best suited for the ANBU. Kashizudoto was an ANBU Captain himself, and, thus, he knew for sure that it wasn't a matter of having not enough ANBU agents. Perhaps the administration had eard about how, on their last mission, Kashizudoto and Hina had together beaten the legendary Daifuku Momochi of the Mist, a master of the Silent Killing technique and a swordsman so fiercesome he was deemed too dangerous even for the Seven Swordsmen of the Blood Mist, and figured that they made a good enough team to send them together in lieu of the ANBU. He didn't think it was particularly responsible to allow such a politically sensitive mission to be open to public record, but who was he to judge after how he dipped on his last mission?

He embarked along with Hina in his usual attire, with his hawk perched upon his shoulder. Anything Hina might have had to say to him on his last mission, he would listen to without much comment and would apologize when necessary about his oversight on the last mission.

---

Hina took a little time to yell at him but then backed off after a while and calmed down after he apologized. He couldn't blame her, not even for calling him a "swine," because frankly he'd caused quite a mess earlier and should have at least left his hawk behind before going off on his own little errand. If the village were to hear about that, he'd at least get a scolding, so he was actually quite indebted to Hina - and to the daimyo's daughter - for having kept that a secret so far.

Hina then began to ask questions about his Monkey Sage Mode and the giant summon that he had called forth earlier against Daifuku of the Mist, to which he responded, "What you saw was my Monkey Sage Mode. It's a state that you can enter after having studied senjutsu, or the sage arts. It's a practice that involves gathering the natural chakra that surrounds you through meditation and using it to empower your jutsu. Five years ago, back when tensions weren't so bad between our village and Kumogakure, I had a chance encounter with the former Raikage Sanosuke Flynt, the Wasp Sage. After seeing him demonstrate immense sage powers during his meditation practice, I wanted to learn the sage arts and convinced him to teach me."

He continued, "Ironically, I was on a bit of an intelligence-gathering mission at the time, and I think he knew something of my intentions." It was still perplexing to him; in the midst of the Kumo-Kiri war, the Raikage was willing to teach someone who could have very easily been - and in fact, was - a spy from Konohagakure. But, as the Raikage had explained, a sage was one who could look past national borders and see things not through the lens of elements but through that of the neutral nature chakra flowing all around. He finished his last thought, "But he still taught me."

"I became the Monkey Sage, and I spent the majority of the next five years of my life reading, studying, and meditating. I learned how to enter Monkey Sage Mode, a state that makes me more flexible and mobile and allows me to amplify my jutsu with the nature chakra around me, and the Divine Lord of Monkeys himself, Lord Hanuman, was so impressed by my penance that he granted me a summoning contract with the Monkeys. He was the one, the giant monkey, who I had summoned in my fight against Daifuku."

He elaborated, "But the most surprising part of all was the effects that my meditation had on my body." He gestured down to their feet; while Hina was leaving footprints in the ground, Kashizudoto left no footprints in the mud as he walked, "You see the footprints? It's like the nature around me is supporting me wherever I go."

"But that's not it," he said before assuming his invisible and silent form. Hawky, perched on his shoulder, did not turn invisible along with him, so it would look to someone who did know better that the hawk was literally levitating in the air, as it was in a resting, perched state yet still moving forward as the invisible, silent Kashizudoto walked.

He revealed himself to sight and sound once more, "So I'm naturally invisible, silent, and, if you want to check my armpits, odorless." He chuckled at his last joke, but it was true: even the strongest of noses couldn't sniff him out without some sort of chakra enhancement. He reminded her, "And then there's the whole thing with me leaving no tracks behind."

"It's not a perfect cover though," he admitted with the wave of a hand, "I'm sure something like your Byakugan, at an advanced enough stage, could see through my invisibility. After all, my chakra signature is still in plain sight."

She asked about whether he had a plan. He had been thinking of one on the way here and decided to brief her on what he had so far, "Alright, so our objective is to incapacitate the politician Sasori Masuru. You can see what he looks like in the mission description, but I wouldn't put it past him to try some sort of disguise, so you should be prepared."

"The stealth capability I just showed you will come in handy for my plan," he continued, "However, it all rests on you putting up a good distraction, Hina." In reality, he could have probably executed the plan on his own. However, he wanted to see how capable Hina was as a shinobi, and he felt that this would be the perfect chance for her to prove herself. It wasn't too long ago that he was a chuunin, eager to show the world that he could be a powerful ninja.

"I'll give you Hawky for the time being." he told Hina. He gestured Hawky off his shoulder with the wave of his hand, and the bird perched onto Hina's shoulder, "More than likely he'll have some bodyguards, so should things get out of hand, he'll protect you. Meanwhile, I'll get into my stealth cover and attack from behind while they're distracted." He rolled down his sleeve to reveal the Dansuburedo, a mechanism that could launch a kunai attached to a chain, "As this is all attached to my body, the attack will be undetectable to the natural senses. One hit from this to the nape of the neck should finish him. Remember, I'll be right by you if you need me."

He assumed invisibility and silence and then sneaked off into the trees, going at the same pace as Hina. Within about half an hour, they encountered a group: one old man who fit the description, accompanied by two big bodyguards in suits and a slender woman with long white hair wearing a feather dress.

Abilities/Items Used:

Hina seemed to be quite interested in all he had to say about his experience with senjutsu, and after he was finished talking, she asked him if he could give her some pointers on it. He chuckled, as this was almost the exact same manner in which he had asked Sensei Sanosuke to teach him the sage arts five years earlier, and after having become quite an experienced sage himself, he was now probably thinking exactly as Sanosuke must have thought years ago: that the sage arts, unlike more accessible fields like ninjutsu or fuuinjutsu, were not simply something that you could study out of a book give "pointers" on but rather a lifelong pursuit that involved deep study and meditation, as well as guidance from some sage, whether it was human or animal, and such guidance was notoriously hard to find in a world where senjutsu was thought to be merely a myth, as Hina had aptly pointed out. Kashizudoto had been blessed with the guidance of both a human mentor and a monkey mentor and had thus become very proficient at senjutsu, with skills in natural chakra acquisition that perhaps rivaled even that of his teachers, and he figured that it wouldn't hurt for him to pass on the torch as his teachers had done, so he told her that if she ever wanted to get a start learning senjutsu, she could go talk to him anytime at the Sarutobi Clan Compound, and he could get a start with training her. Otherwise, the wisest course of action would be to seek out a group of summon animals out in the wilderness and convince them to teach her, although he doubted that it would be an easy task given how prideful they were. He would know, as he was the holder of a Monkey Contract, and, with the exception of the Lord of Monkeys himself, Kashizudoto found that most of the monkeys were rather disrespectful of humans and their property and, as one would guess, had no qualms about flinging poo at either.

Hina was being quite creative with her distraction, and that gave Kashizudoto the perfect opportunity to size up the group and position himself for his attack. Being unseen to the naked eye, Kashizudoto could afford not to be very subtle in where he stood upon the tree, as no one could see him, hear him, or smell him either way. It was quite convenient, and he silently acknowledged this as he kneeled down on one foot and pointed his left arm, with the kunai in the Dansuburedo loaded, at the nape of the politician's neck; just one shot, and it would be an instant kill, at least for any normal human being, and Kashizudoto didn't read anywhere about the politician having any special powers, so he was fairly sure this would be a quick and easy job considering that the group's backs were turned to him entirely and that they were too occupied with Hina to deal with a surprise attack. He figured that the politician would die, and the bodyguards would try to attack Hina and Hawky; before they could do any damage, Kashizudoto would take them out one by one with his Dansuburedo, and then the mission would be over. That was the plan, at least, but after he fired his Dansuburedo, the girl with silver hair simply deflected it with the flick of her hand, despite the fact that her back was turned and the blade was invisible, silent, odorless, and did not even disturb the air itself; obviously, she had some sort of sensory capabilities - powerful ones at that.

---

---

"Looks like we have company," she chuckled and turned around, "He's invisible, but he's right there, kneeling down on the branch of that tree." She pointed to the invisible shinobi and the politician quivered in fear, knowing what she was saying was likely true. She was a quite beautiful woman who obviously took great pride in her looks, as she was wearing a feather bikini that left little to the imagination and had a bit of a vain smirk on her face when she turned to face her invisible opponent. "Take her out," she commanded the bodyguards in suits, and they proceeded to attack Hina. Kashizudoto had prepared for this contingency by sending her along with Hawky, who could protect her; however, Hawky simply sat there perched on her shoulder, shivering, drooling, and staring into space. He figured it was an internal paralysis genjutsu, no doubt placed on him by the woman at some point, and it would render Hawky essentially useless until Kashizudoto or Hina could snap him out of it.

But Kashizudoto had his own problems. The woman took out a scroll from her purse and rolled it out, unsealing three puppets with an array of different weaponry mechanisms. "I'm a sensory type, stupid," she giggled, "I could see bunny girl's Byakugan from a mile away, and I could see you the whole time too, honey." She attached chakra strings to her puppets. "Is she your girlfriend?" she teased him and stuck her tongue out, "It's a shame, but I'll have to take you both out." It was in this moment that he noticed a tattoo on the upper right portion of her chest: the emblem of Black Dawn, the same as the ones that Zuko Uchiha and Daifuku Momochi had. He would have inquired more of it, but this was a particularly time-sensitive matter as Hawky was completely paralyzed and Sasori was escaping with one of his bodyguards while the other fought Hina.

Controlling them with only one hand, she sent her three puppets to attack Kashizudoto. He activated his Monkey Sage Mode, and, with his katana, the Tentetsutou, his Dansuburedo launcher system, and his heightened reflexes in Sage Mode, roughly equivalent to that of an experienced Kage, he was able to stay on par with the attacks of the three puppets. After she toyed with him for a little bit, she stuck her tongue out, held up two of her fingers, and shouted, "I'd love to stay and play a little more with you, but I've got a job to do. She turned her back to him and started walking down the path to the Land of Fire to catch up with her employer Sasori, waving her free hand as if to say goodbye to Kashizudoto. All the while the puppets were still attacking him, and he realized that because of her sensory, she could still control her puppets from potentially kilometers away depending on how powerful her sensory was. He or Hina couldn't do anything about this, however, because they were both occupied with their respective opponents - for him, it was the puppets, and, for her, it was the bodyguard, whose skills were roughly on the level of a weak chuunin-level ninja. If she could find a way to break Hawky out of the genjutsu, however, he would rush to her aid and then Kashizudoto's, and, from there, they could catch up with their enemies.

Abilities/Items Used:

Kashizudoto Jutsu:

Kashizudoto wished he could help Hina out, but he had his own problem to deal with. Three puppets: one holding two swords, another holding a giant shield, and another who had a variety of ranged weapons attached. The one with the ranged weapons opened its mouth to reveal a large speaker within. The voice of the grey-haired girl boomed from the speaker, "Hello there, sneaky boy. These are my puppets: the Sword, the Shield, and the Bow." Kashizudoto could guess which one was which. She continued, "You're going to have a lot of fun playing with these boys." Suddenly, a variety of weapons mechanisms emerged from all of them, shooting fire, water, and the like at him. He was able to dodge all of their attacks save a few, but the more pressing concern was that with all this dodging, he had no time for a meaningful set of counterattacks to assure a quick victory so that he and Hina could catch up to the politician in time. This woman might have been acting playfully with Kashi, but she definitely wasn't playing games. And if she wasn't going to play games, then neither was he.

He deflected a few attacks with his katana and Dansuburedo before jumping back to a nearby tree and pulling out a summoning scroll. He bit his finger and drew blood over the summoning scroll. A giant puff of smoke appeared in the sky, dispersing out to reveal a giant monkey standing one hundred meters tall - Hanuman, the Lord of Monkeys. Although he regretted how often he had to call upon Hanuman in battle, there was no way he would be able to reach the politician in time without the help of his giant summon.

"My apologies, Lord Hanuman," Kashizudoto said from within the giant monkey's half-open mouth, "The girl over there is my partner. There's something we need to do urgently, and these enemies are just a distraction. I would be very grateful if you could help us." Truthfully, Kashizudoto was feeling quite guilty about having to call on Hanuman not once or twice but several times after having returned to shinobi life for only a month or two. Being able to call upon the Lord of Monkeys himself was a great privilege that Kashizudoto did not want to abuse, but, being at a level like his, Kashizudoto had been put in a lot of life-or-death situations where he simply could not worry about the possibility of disrespecting the Monkey Lord who had been so kind as to forge a contract with him.

"Say no more, Kashi," the Lord of Monkeys uttered, and he proceeded to stomp upon the puppets, crushing them all under his sheer weight. Kashizudoto could count on Hanuman to make quick work of enemies that it would take him a long, drawn-out battle to defeat. Hanuman, with a half-open mouth, pointed towards the bodyguard fighting Hina and asked, "Should I take him out too?"

"Yea," Kashizudoto affirmed, "Squash him." And with one finger, that's exactly what Hanuman did. The giant monkey proceeded to lay his palm on the ground in front of Hina so that he could lift her up and put her inside his mouth along with Kashizudoto. Sitting within Hanuman's half-open mouth already, Kashizudoto motioned for Hina to stand on the monkey's palm and told her to grab the hawk and take it with her. He imagined that Hina would be scared, especially to enter the mouth of such a powerful giant, but he figured that Hina would feel safer knowing that Kashizudoto felt comfortable sitting within his mouth. He waved at her, "Come on, he doesn't bite!" They needed to get going soon, and the sooner he got Hina into this big monkey's mouth, the sooner they could finish off the politician. If Hina was to fuss around, he would try a few times to convince her to get in or at least sit in the palm of the monkey's hand for the journey, but if she wouldn't even have that, then he wouldn't push it further and would tell Hanuman that he, Hanuman, and Hawky would go off without her.

Once that was settled, Hanuman began running at speeds that not even Hawky could match, tearing up the surrounding landscape with his sheer mass. Oh, Kashi was going to get a real scolding from the village once this was all over. On the way, Kashizudoto used Genjutsu Release to free Hawky from the genjutsu and described the politicians appearance to the monkey. He warned the group that the woman knew they were coming and would set up some kind of trap for them. He activated his ANBU Sensory Jutsu to look across the surroundings for traps, and although he told the group that he was activating a long-range sensory jutsu, he did not mention it was technique of the ANBU.

As he expected, there were some traps laid out for the group, and Kashizudoto was able to coordinate with Hanuman and Hawky to avoid or disable these traps as Hanuman charged forward along the path. They eventually caught up with the politician and the silver-haired girl, who both turned around after hearing the stampede of Hanuman's footsteps. She motioned to the politician to move along, and she stood to face the giant monkey all on her own. When he reached close quarters distance, Hanuman threw a punch at her, but just as the punch was about to land, Hanuman stopped, completely paralyzed and began frothing at the mouth, which sucked for the group that was inside of it. He had been hit by a genjutsu, no doubt, and the woman had triggered it just in the nick of time.

"Genjutsu can be dispelled with enough pain," he turned to Hina, with his hawk perched on his shoulder, "Do what you have to do and figure this out." He jumped out to confront the woman, who had meanwhile summoned quite a massive array of puppets: dozens by his count. The majority of puppets went for Kashizudoto and Hawky; however, one or two would fly over to Hina and confront her within the mouth of the monkey, if she had decided to come along for the ride, that is. Kashizudoto was trusting Hina to handle her own defense and hopefully figure out how to get rid of the genjutsu afflicting Hanuman.

---

Lord Hanuman was out of commission for the time being, and dozens of puppets were swarming around Kashizudoto and Hawky, with their numerous blades. Hawky grabbed onto Kashizudoto with his talons and lifted him up in the skies, and, together, the two friends battled the puppets. This reminded Kashizudoto of how he and Hawky had fought Zuko Uchiha's ghouls at Buma's Manor years back, and, although Kashizudoto could fly alone using the Lightened Boulder Jutsu now, he figured they made a better team this way, with Hawky handling the dodging and Kashizudoto handling the attacking. Thinking back to Zuko Uchiha's attack on Buma's Manor could only remind him of one thing, and that was the Black Dawn emblem tattoed to the upper right of the woman's chest. She was sitting on top of a flying puppet, watching the battle with her tongue stuck out at Kashizudoto.

"Enjoying?" she asked.

"Yea," he said, still focusing most of his energy on fighting the puppets, "Mind telling me a little bit about that Black Dawn emblem you've got tattoed on your chest?" The last enemy that he had encountered with this emblem was Daifuku Momochi of the Mist, who didn't tell him much when he asked. This enemy, however, was considerably more talkative, so it was at least worth a try. The more he could learn about Black Dawn and Zuko Uchiha, the better.

"Oh, you know about Black Dawn?" she exclaimed, "That's so great!" She crossed her legs, stilling sitting on top of her flying puppet. It was quite impressive to Kashizudoto that she was controlling dozens of puppets all while talking to Kashizudoto, but he, too, was fighting these puppets while talking to her.

"So what can you tell me?" he asked.

"My name's Angel Yukino of the Sand," she told him. She winked and stuck out her tongue, "But I can't tell you anything about Black Dawn, sorry sweetheart." Well, it was worth a try. At least now he had three names of people affiliated with Black Dawn: Daifuku Momochi of the Mist, Angel Yukino of the Sand, and, of course, Zuko Uchiha of the Sharingan. Perhaps once he got back home, he could backtrack these names and figure out what Black Dawn actually was, if only for his the sake of his own safety and sanity.

By now, Lord Hanuman had been freed of the genjutsu, probably by Hina and, with one swoop of his arm,  crushed at least two dozen puppets, leaving only about ten remaining. Next, he moved to punch Angel, who deflected his punch with a defensive barrier that she had to hold in place. Kashizudoto took this opportunity to go after the politician, directing his hawk to fly him forward towards the politician while Lord Hanuman dealt with Angel Yukino, the politician's last remaining bodyguard.

Angel had to stay in place to hold her defensive barrier, so she instead sent eight puppets towards Kashizudoto and Hawky and two puppets to attack the head of Lord Hanuman. It would be Hina's responsibility to deal with these puppets, who each double wielded swords and could fire kunai from their mouths. If she couldn't, then the puppets would launch a combined attack on Hanuman's head, and then it would be over for him. Hanuman was too busy fighting Angel to deal with these threats, so Hina was largely on her own in the matter of fighting these two puppets.

Kashizudoto and Hawky stayed true to the mission objective - killing the politician - and made sure to ignore the other distractions as much as possible as long as they didn't interfere with the aforementioned goal. To deal with the eight puppets, Hawky released Kashizudoto mid-air, turned around, and fired a giant ball of chakra, which would probably stall them for long enough, if not destroy a few of them. Kashizudoto, meanwhile, used the Dansuburedo's propulsion mechanism to shoot his kunai at the branch of a tree, propel himself, pull back the kunai, shoot his kunai at another tree, and repeat, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch. He eventually caught up with the politician, and, firing the Dansuburedo while invisible and silent, pierced right through the nape of his neck and killed him. The mission was over, but the lives of Hanuman, Hawky, and Hina were still in danger.

When he caught up with Hawky, who had been doing his best up until that point to stall the puppets, it seemed that the puppets were starting to retreat. Hawky and Kashizudoto followed in pursuit of the puppets. Meanwhile, Angel herself began to retreat and seal away her puppets, telling Hanuman and Hina that there was no point sticking around now that her employer was dead; after all, given her sensory capabilities, she must have felt when the politician died. By the time Kashizudoto and Hawky caught up to Hanuman and Hina, Angel had flickered off into the distance before Hanuman could catch her, and the mission was effectively over: a success despite the fact that Angel had run off. Kashizudoto had a feeling she might see her again, however, given how running into Black Dawn seemed to be a given nowadays on his missions.

Kashizudoto bore farewell to Lord Hanuman as he poofed off into a great big puff of smoke. While Lord Hanuman offered to take them back to the village and Kashizudoto knew that traveling by giant monkey would be much faster and easier than by foot, he didn't want to bother the Lord of Monkeys. There was also, his concern that Hina was going to gag if she entered the monkey's mouth again; he had noticed how queasy she had gotten within the mouth of his giant monkey. He and Hawky never really found the smell to be anything unbearable, but perhaps that's because Hawky was an animal and Kashizudoto had spent so much time with the monkeys that he had gotten used to it.

On the way, Kashizudoto fed Hawky some snacks; it had been so long since Kashizudoto and Hawky had gone about their fights with such closeness and coordination, and Hawky deserved a treat for doing a job well done. Kashizudoto, too, deserved a treat, and he figured he would treat himself to some ramen once this was over.

Kashizudoto told Hina that she did a good job on the mission and that she should be proud of her work; without her, it was very possible that the mission could have failed. He gave her the address to his home within the Sarutobi Clan Compound and told her to send him a message anytime if she needed help with training. It was quite possible that they would meet again for another mission, given that they had a solid track record so far as a team and that the village liked pairing up jonin with genin if given the opportunity. He gave Hina a fist bump as they parted ways, and he was sure it wouldn't be long before they were out fighting enemies together again.

He decided that he would consult Konohagakure's Bingo Book after grabbing the ramen, to see if he could draw any connections between Zuko Uchiha, Daifuku of the Mist, and this new girl, Angel Yukino. Perhaps then he figured, he could piece together what Black Dawn actually was. He contemplated meeting with Piandao once more to ask him what he might have known about it, but he figured that after having abandoned the Order for five years, it was best not to affiliate himself with that place again, and it was certainly possible that they didn't want him anymore either.