As they drew closer still, the sounds of voices from further within the tunnel became audible. Bokuden immediately scanned the surrounding area once more for signs of traps or hidden enemies, his hand firmly gripping his weapon. It was likely an unnecessary precaution as both Bokuden and Satomi would have been aware of the presence of anyone else in the tunnel with their heightened sensory abilities. It seemed strange that anyone who had gone to the great lengths of hiding themselves and their work in the mine would not at least attempt to set up traps as a precaution against unwanted guests. Either way, the time for speculation was over. It was time for Bokuden to introduce himself to the mine’s excavators.

Bokuden made his way down the darkened tunnel, Satomi following just a few feet behind him, until an opening leading to a seemingly illuminated area came into his line of sight. He stopped for the briefest of moments as he turned his head back to face Satomi and gave her a silent nod before making his way for the opening. Upon stepping into the illuminated chamber, Bokuden stopped in his tracks once again and narrowed his eyes as the figures of five people stood off in the distance of the large chamber. Quickly shifting his eyes to the left and right to perform a quick visual scan of the room, Bokuden saw large piles of dirt and rubble scattered all over the cavernous room along with mining equipment lined up semi-neatly against the wall on the far left, next to what appeared to be a new tunnel that was being dug out. “It looks like these are our guys,” Bokuden thought to himself as he took another step towards the five figures on the other side of the room.

“You lost, kid? This ain’t a playground,” a loud, goofy sounding voice boomed, to which Bokuden replied by remaining silent and continuing his trek towards the group. “Hey! I’m talkin’ to you,” the man continued in an annoyed tone, stomping his foot in an attempt to intimidate Bokuden. Once again Bokuden did not react, only continuing forward with an emotionless expression on his face.

“You deaf?” another man called, in a higher pitched, raspy voice. By this point Bokuden stood about twenty meters from the group, now able to see them clearly. Uninterested in conversation with the obvious underlings of the group, Bokuden merely threw a quick glare over in the man’s direction, cocking an eyebrow before turning away to face forward once again. Infuriated by Bokuden’s open apathy for his presence, the man yelled out once again, “Oh, so you think you’re a tough guy? It’s rude not to answer when your superiors ask you a question. I’ll teach you some manners.”

The man drew a dagger from his side and pointed it in Bokuden’s direction before taking a step forward. Before the man could take another step, a woman’s voice called out from the group, “That’s enough! The boy has obviously has some guts to come all the way down here. Let’s hear what he has to say before we take care of him.”

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 748/9000

The woman’s pleasantly smooth voice seemed out of place amongst the vulgar and gruff grunts of the four men she was with. Bokuden examined the group as a whole and found her appearance to be just as out of place as her voice. On the far right of the group stood the first man to speak. He was a large man, both in height and in weight, his bare stomach protruding out over her pants. He must have been at least seven feet tall from his bald head to his feet and his arms were large and muscular, unlike his flabby abdomen. On the far left stood the second man to have spoken to Bokuden, seemingly the opposite of the first in every way. He was short and looked almost emaciated, his boney body covered in scars. His hair was spiked up into a large Mohawk and he seemed to be very jumpy, constanty fidgeting with the knife he drew previously while trying to restrain himself. The other two men were twins, both around Bokuden’s height with large hulking frames. In Bokuden’s opinion they looked so much like stereotypical comic book thugs that it was almost laughable. Bokuden however, did not break the cold and emotionless expression on his face as he examined the group.

As he directed his gaze towards the woman seated in what appeared to be a doton throne in the center of the group, he was taken aback for a moment by her appearance. She was extremely beautiful, too much so to be spending time in this abandoned mine with these ugly goons. Her raven colored hair flowed down the length of her back, her bangs perfectly framing her large green eyes. She wore a long purple dress with a slit up the side of the leg and the low cut of the gown revealed a large amount of cleavage. “Perhaps this will be more fun than I anticipated,” Bokuden thought to himself, unable to hide the smirk growing on his face. “I came here to investigate reports of a possible bandit hideout located within the Abandoned Mine,” Bokuden explained in a haughty manner, “Honestly I didn’t expect to find anything more than a couple of squatters, but to find a hidden mining operation… this is far more interesting. I figured I would have to rough up a couple of nobodies like your little attack dogs here, but I wouldn’t have guessed I’d run into a beauty like you here. Maybe this won’t be such a dull trip after all.”

Bokuden could see the faces of the thugs contort in anger with every word he spoke causing him to make each utterance sound more cocky than the last, purposefully trying to infuriate the men. “Ume, let us gut this arrogant little prick,” the short man on the left exclaimed, gripping his dagger tightly. The woman smiled as she listened to Bokuden’s words as she got into a staring contest of sorts with him. Upon hearing her subordinates request she paused for a moment before nodding her head, never averting her stare from Bokuden.

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 1273/9000

The man charged at Bokuden, his dagger drawn and arms flailing about carelessly while yelling out an unintimidating yell. “Please,” Bokuden said under his breath as the man attempted a straight stab with the dagger in his right hand aimed at Bokuden’s head. Aside from the fact that his attack was sloppy and predictable, his movements were slow and full of openings. Deciding against drawing his sword against an opponent as unworthy as the man before him, Bokuden resorted to using his hand to hand skills. He would be the first to admit that his hand to hand combat skills were limited, but against an enemy of this caliber his reaction speed alone would win him the fight. Bokuden dodged the dagger thrust by sidestepping to the right. As the dagger flew past him right before his eyes, Bokuden delivered a swift strike with his right elbow into the man’s gut. He followed the elbow up by swinging his arm up and delivering a palm thrust uppercut right under the man’s chin, sending him falling to the ground, dazed and unable to recover for the moment.

The other three men stood in silence for a moment after the first was dispatched, in awe of Bokuden’s speed and the fluidity of his movements. Their admiration however, was short lived as they quickly grew enraged at the sight of their fallen comrade and all charged towards Bokuden at once. Amused by the display of foolish courage, Bokuden decided to toy with his prey a bit before finishing them off. He immediately weaved a sequence of hand seals and began expelling a large amount of chakra infused mist form his mouth which clouded the area. As if visibility wasn’t low enough within the dim lit chamber, it would now be nigh impossible to see the battle or each other. It was Bokuden’s way of making the men feel that they had an actual fighting chance, even though it was clear that they did not.

As the mist began to engulf the area the men brought their charge to a screeching halt, unwilling to venture in further deprived of their sense of sight. They frantically swung their heads back and forth, searching for the slightest cue that might exist to reveal  Bokuden’s position within the mist. Thinking that it was the safest way to defend themselves against an enemy they could not see, the three men turned their backs to each other, each facing a different direction and covering each other’s blind spots. “Why do they always think that doing that is going to help them?” Bokuden mused to himself before making his move.

“Show yourself, you coward!” the first man yelled, the tinge of fear in his voice like a beautiful melody brining a smile to Bokuden’s face. Bokuden drew his sword and silently leapt over the men and into the space between their turned backs, facing the man who just spoke.

Bokuden proceeded to thrust his sword through the man’s stomach and turn the blade once it was fully impaled within the man’s gut. “Now you are just being rude,” Bokuden said in a snarky tone before pulling his katana out from the man.

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 1816/9000

Chakra 130/150:

As the blade of Bokuden’s katana slid slowly out of the man’s abdomen, blood dripping in fine beads from the edge, the man collapsed to the floor with a loud thud. Having noticed Bokuden’s position between them, the two remaining twins swung their large scimitars at him with their full might. Fully aware of the incoming attack, Bokuden simply dropped into a crouching position, allowing the blades to swing right over him, before darting back into the mist and once again out of sight. The two men’s blades collided with each other as Bokuden made his escape, breaking each of the swords due to the power of the opposing attacks. “What the hell? It broke!” the brother on the right said, raising what was left of the sword up to his face and pointing it towards him to examine the damage through the mist, “This was a brand new sword!”

Seeing an opportunity to strike Bokuden made his way at full speed towards the man, using the mist to cover his movements making it seem as though he appeared out of nowhere. The man’s eyes widened at the sight of Bokuden’s sudden emergence in front of him, a seemingly innocent and friendly smile spread across his face. “Well, there is a price to be paid when you invest in cheaply made junk,” Bokuden said playfully before raising his arm and thrusting his palm into the handle of the blade, driving it forward and causing the sharp, damaged blade stub to pierce into the man’s forehead. The man’s scream was short lived as the blade pierced into his brain, killing him instantly.

Set into a blind rage by the sight of his twin brother’s lifeless body falling to the ground before Bokuden’s feet, the remaining twin begun wildly swinging what was left of his scimitar at Bokuden. Bokuden easily dodged the clumsy and amateurish sword swings, jumping back and vanishing once again in his jutsu. “You killed my brother, you son of a bitch!,” he yelled, frantically slashing away into the mist, “I’ll fucking murder you, you piece of shit!” After completing his flurry of slashes, the thug stopped and looked around for Bokuden, breathing heavily from his previous outburst. He slowly started walking backwards, still scanning the area, before yelling out, “If you’re such a tough guy then show yourself! Come out of the mist and face me yourself, coward!”

It was a poor attempt to prey on Bokuden’s pride in order to draw him out from his jutsu to be sure, one that Bokuden would not be falling for. Bokuden himself used similar tactics in his own battles to force his opponent to lose their cool, albeit far more sophisticated ones obviously. “Are you sure that is really what you want?” Bokuden answered with a sinisterly jocular manner, moving silently around in the fog to mask his whereabouts.

“Stop fucking around and get out here!” The man screamed in response. The man’s eyes were almost bulging out at this point as he could do nothing but continue to look back and forth.

“As you wish,” Bokuden replied, emerging from the mist from behind the man and holding a kunai to his throat, “Don’t be too upset, you’re on your way to a family reunion.” As the man took one last breath in an attempt to force out his last words, Bokuden slit his throat and released his hold on the man, allowing his body to fall to the ground.

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 2412/9000

Bokuden carefully wiped the blood from the blade of his kunai with a piece of cloth he had ripped off of the man whose throat he just slit before putting it away. Still hidden in the mist, Bokuden turned to face the direction where the woman was still seated and spoke. “For all of their muscles and tough talk, they sure weren’t that tough,” Bokuden said in a snarky tone, his voice echoing through the cavernous chamber.

The woman covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a giggle in response to Bokuden’s comment. She’s laughing at the deaths of her own men? That’s cold, Bokuden thought to himself as he awaited a proper response. “Now why don’t you come on out of that mist and let me get a good look at that handsome face of yours,” the woman called out, to which Bokuden complied by releasing his jutsu. Drawing Bokuden out into the open would obviously be beneficial for her, but the jutsu was going to dissipate soon anyway. Besides, Bokuden was never one to deny such a simple request to a beautiful woman and he would be lying if he said he didn’t want to get another look.

As the mist cleared and Bokuden’s sight was restored he saw the woman sitting in the same position on her doton throne with her legs crossed as she had been before the confrontation had begun. “Ah, there you are,” the woman said with a smile, “Why don’t you come a bit closer? I want to get a good look at you.” It was a bad idea, but there were forces beyond Bokuden’s control at work here (his lust) that bid him walk forward. That idiot, Satomi thought to herself as she watched Bokuden foolishly walk towards the woman whose associates had just attacked him a moment ago. She decided, however to remain hidden and wait until Bokuden actually needed her to reveal her presence.

The woman stood up from her seat as Bokuden drew closer to her, the doton throne sinking back into the ground as she stepped away. So she’s a shinobi after all, huh? A doton user by the looks of it as well, Bokuden thought to himself as she approached him, meeting him halfway. She threw herself into his arms and purposefully pressed her breasts up against him, causing her cleavage to pop out even more. “Good help is just so HARD to find these days,” the woman said, making herself sound aroused, obviously a ploy to force Bokuden to drop his guard with seduction.  It was a simple trick and something Bokuden could have seen through easily had he not been preoccupied by the breasts that were softly pressing against his body, going up and down with each deep breath she took. “But you,” the woman continued, placing her hand on the back of his neck and pulling him towards her face as if to go in for a kiss, “I think you can DEFINITELY help me with what I need.”

Suddenly the woman’s hair extended and wrapped around Bokuden’s body, restricting his limbs and tightening down on his neck to choke him. “I should have known you were too good to be true,” Bokuden said to the woman, struggling to project his voice as her hair began to strangle him.

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 2982/9000

Bokuden smirked as the woman’s hair coiled around his neck and began squeezing the life out of him, knowing that Satomi was roaming around freely while this woman was clueless to her existence. It was only a matter of time before Satomi would make herself known to Bokuden’s new lady friend… in as brutally painful a way as possible. Taking note of the smirk on Bokuden’s face the woman grinned sinisterly as she forcefully began tightening her grip on him. “I could tell you had a weakness for women, but to be smiling while one is killing you,” she said as she let out a cackle, “You really are quite the Masochist, huh? Don’t worry, if it’s pain that you want I will be sure to give you your fill and kill you slowly. It is the least I can do to repay you for all of your hard work in getting rid of those oafs for me before they began demanding a share of the spoils.”

Share of the spoils? Bokuden thought to himself as the ropes of hair began to constrict more slowly, What the hell could she possibly believe is down here that the investors would not have excavated? Bokuden would have asked her right then and there, but her jutsu was making it just a bit difficult to speak at the moment.

Satomi, who had been watching all of this unfold from the shadows, had slyly made her way around to the opposite side of the chamber, behind the woman who was strangling Bokuden. Using the Humanoid Beast Form transformation jutsu that she had already prepared while lurking in the shadows, Satomi took on her werebeast form. Wasting no time after the transformation jutsu had been completed, Satomi swiftly darted towards the woman from behind. Over her maniacal cackling, the woman had been unable to hear the stomping approach of an enraged Satomi until it was already too late. As she turned her head to look for the source of the sound once she picked it up, the woman was met by Satomi’s fist flying into her jaw, breaking it off one of its hinges. The force and resulting pain from the blow made the woman cancel her jutsu as Satomi’s strength sent her crashing into the dirt a few feet away.

The woman slowly raised herself to her knees using her arms to support her before raising her head to face Satomi. Her dislocated jaw hanged like deadweight and began her maniacal cackling once again, this time taking short pauses between outbursts of laughter in order to breathe heavily. She swung chin back and forth like a pendulum as her jaw began to correct itself back into place. “So I see that he didn’t come down here alone after all,” she noted while continuing to laugh, “I guess he was more intelligent than I gave him credit for. I’m happy, it always pains my heart to see a man with nothing to offer beyond a pretty face.” The woman’s hair once again began to spread out in all directions, this time making a beeline straight for Satomi. Satomi easily back flipped out of the way to avoid the first attack, but soon found herself staring down what appeared to be a mass of hair clustered together to form a drill. The woman’s deranged laughter echoed throughout the chamber, but would come to an abrupt halt as she felt a cold sensation kiss the back of her neck.

---

Ninjutsu C>B: 2000/2000
Ninjutsu B>A: 3000/3000
Ninjutsu A>S: 4000/4000
Ninjutsu S>SS: 3575/9000

(OOC: Suspending this thread indefinitely. It has derailed off of what I originally intended and since I got my SS ninjutsu from the time skip prize I no longer need to force this thread to exist. I may or may not continue this as a flashback once I get the urge to finish the story, but I don't like how it has turned out so meh.)