Starring:
Date: May 15, 2013
Summary:
Kasumi nearly assaulted her potential team leader. Truly recommended way of making friends!
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"An unexpected meeting"
Unknown location
Kasumi was idly training in the chuunin training area. She just sparred an Uchiha and her genjutsu did most of the work for her. So she was pretty much undamaged. While her sparring partner would be wise to at least get a checkup at the hospital. Kasumi is rushing through the area, firing her own custom made darts (which are laced with poison) at a self made course of opponents that pop up, while dodging kunai firing at her through simple spring mechanisms. Yep, she was taking training seriously, and sweating as well. Seems like she's been at it for a while. *THUD THUD THUD* Three darts dig deeply into a wooden target, one between the eyes, one in the throat, and one right on his solar plexus.
Speaking of getting a medical checkup, Taiki had been called to the training grounds for just such a reason. Luckily he was capable of dealing with adverse effects to the nervous system and poisons, which is why he was probably tapped for this in the first place. Still, he decided to track down the person the Uchiha was sparring with to see for himself what she was doing and what she was capable of. Being part of a three person team consisting of two ninken worked wonders for this, and Taiki arrives just as the darts strike their target. He slips up a tree as his ninken disappear, giving Taiki a good vantage point to watch this person train.
COMBAT: It is now Kasumi's turn.
RPCOMBAT: Kasumi defends against with a PERCEPTION…34
RP: Kasumi leaves the roleplay.
RP: Taiki joins the roleplay.
COMBAT: It is now Taiki's turn.
RPCOMBAT: Taiki attacks with STEALTH…31
Kasumi stops for a moment after she threw her darts, she seems distracted, when suddenly two targets pop up however she ducks down low, the kunai striking eachother in her location just above her head. A swift eye would see that she whipped out shuriken of her own, the shurikenjutsu-ist expertly moves her wrists which drill into her targets. She exhales, relaxing for a moment before making a set of seals, disappearing right where she was… using the genjutsu Fade to disappear and reappeared on a branch next to Taiki. "Can I help?" She asks, a little suspicous of this unknown person spying on her.
Taiki blinks as Kasumi disappears, only to start briefly when she reappears next to him. "That's fast…" he says, obviously not knowing this is a genjutsu. "Tell me, did you recently spar with a Uchiha?" he asks as he turns to look at her. "If so, can I ask what exactly you used on him? The pattern of damage was unusual, to say the least."
"Her… and it was a personal mixture. Black sesame from Suna, mixed in with nectar of the white lily from here in Toshiba and a secret extract of juju beans. The result is a mixture that causes mild hallucinations and muscle decay. Hurts like a clam, but not lethal. I gave her a note with instructions on how to get it out of the system. The antidote is fairly simple to make." She facepalms. "Don't tell me she lost the note…"
Taiki pulls out a piece of paper and holds it up, shaking his head. "No, I got the note and was capable of producing the antidote, that's not an issue. I noticed some indications of genjutsu in her chakra network though, and decided to look into the matter further…" He then tilts his head and thinks for a moment before asking, "Are you using a genjutsu now? If so, can you please stop? I must say I'm impressed as it is, but using one on me really isn't necessary. I'm Inuzuka Taiki, Jounin Med-nin of Konoha, by the way. You are?"
Kasumi nods her head, releasing the link while blinking for a moment. "Apologies inuzuka-sama. I wasn't aware of wh-.." She pauses for a moment. "Wait you're Taiki? Oh my oyster I'm so sorry!" She bows over and over and over again. "I am Tenjin Kasumi.." She says, bowing once again. "I thought you were some creep stalking me or something!" She blushes fifty shades of red.
What can only be described as dog-snickers comes from a couple of nearby trees, though Taiki doesn't seem to be laughing. He is rather amused, but he is managing to hide it well as he turns to where Kasumi actually is. "So you're Tenjin Kasumi-san," he says as he tilts his head to the side. "Well, as far as first introductions go, this one seems to be rather unique… And the commedians in the trees are my partners, Shinobu and Nozomi." After another moment he jumps down and lands softly on the ground. "Tell me, what would have done if I had been stalking you?"
Kasumi hops down with Taiki, blushing for a moment. "I … was planning to just fade away using my genjutsu. If it persisted I'd report it.." She chuckles. Showing her left hand to Taiki, which houses a smaller shuriken she had palmed, glistening with some liquid. "If you would be agressive you would have been enjoying a cocktail of three neurotoxins.." She quickly stows the shuriken away. "I'm sorry if I seem a little paranoid. Somehow…." She sighs. "Poisoners and genjutsu-ists seperatly are easy to blame. Combine them and you get some freak of nature everyone likes to scapegoat… even within my own village it's not uncommon to feel… unwelcome." She sighs, looking up at Taiki, hoping for at least a glimps of compassion. The same compassion she found with Hinotori.
Compassion isn't quite the right word for what she gets from Taiki. A brief look in his eyes shows he knows /exactly/ what she's talking about, from first-hand experience. Likely even worse… The look quickly disappears however, instead it is replaced by a veil of understanding. "I believe I know how that feels," Taiki says honestly, commiserating with her. "Thing is, you might want to be careful who you jump at, for they may be stronger than you. It's often hard enough when you don't exactly fit in as it is…"
Kasumi nods, taking the advice to heart. "Thank you for the advice, Inuzuka-sama." She says quietly, flopping down and looking at Taiki. "I guess I blew my chance for team six?" She says, already drawing conclusions out of her own gloomy imaginations. An annoying tendency she has… scars from being an outsider. Always picked last, that sort of thing. She's clearly shy at heart.
Taiki smiles, shakes his head and chuckles. "Oh, I wouldn't necessarily say that…" he replies. In fact, I'd have to say you rather impressed me today, all things considered. I still want you to meet with Nara Usagi, but I dare say you're definitely a candidate. To be honest, you compliment my weaknesses quite well. I've never been strong against genjutsu, and you seem to be able to pull it off rather well. Poison-based techniques, along with weapon skill, is a definite plus, especially in ranged weapons. Usagi uses a scythe, Hinotori and I generally let our fists and elements do the talking, and the rare times I use a weapon, it is normaly a Kusari-gama or chakram. So your skills would supplant us rather well…"
Kasumi smiles at Taiki, seeming to find her courage back with his comforting words. "Thank you!" She says, nodding while he tells her about Usagi. "Usagi, oh the Nara mednin?" She asks, tapping her lips a few times. "I passed her once by the ramen shop, but never got to say hello." She nods solemnly once. "I'll look foreward to meeting her then." Kasumi says, smiling yet again while she realizes how well she would fit in that team. "Segoi!" She says, already excited. "I can't wait!" She grins now. Suddenly remembering something. "Oh and.." She reaches into her pouch and takes out one of her signature darts. "I make these myself… sort of my signature weapons." She hands one without poison coating on it to Taiki for him to try out. "They're made for precision. While they can leave nasty wounds in the right places, I use them to administer poison to specific muscle groups and locations…. Senbon often stay to close to the skin. Get a clean hit with these and poison moves three times as fast."
Taiki can't help but to smile as he takes the dagger and looks at it. "I was wondering why you didn't use senbon, that's normally the preferred method of poison transmittal," he muses as he holds up the dagger to inspect closely. He then whips his hand out, sending the blade hurtling into one of the practice posts. "Interesting penetration… I can see what you mean." He goes over to the post, pulls it out, then hands it back to Kasumi. "Less time traveling through the blood stream, that much is for sure…"
Kasumi nods, looking at him using her darts. "I'm glad you like them. I have used senbon for a while… I prefer them made of glass." She nods. "Mainly because they tend to break and leave shrapnel, and are perfect for stealthy situations." She chuckles. "But these darts are my favorite. Imagine getting one of those into your spleen or liver… With a toxin that kills nerves. You'll be dead within seconds, remove the dart and a day later the cause of death will be a complete mystery to anyone but the most experienced mednin." She smiles… getting far more confident now they're talking poisons. "Anyways, what focus will the team have?" She asks, opening up her jacket and taking out a scroll. "By the way, did you also receive one of these? At first I thought it was a prank.." She shows Taiki her draft call.
Taiki nods slowly and shivers. "You're right, that would be best in a stealth-sitation," he agrees. "As far as what our team focus is, that's currently in consideration. We used to be a front-line unit, but that changed with the loss of one team-member, the disappearance of another, and two of us becoming Med-nins. We may turn into search and rescue, or prisoner recovery, or something similar. I'm not exactly sure yet." When he sees Kasumi's scroll he frowns and nods. "Yes, I did. And it is no prank. But I find it… unusual that the Daimyo is circumventing the Hokage and drafting us directly. Furthermore, to order kill on sight orders for such a large population on the tail end of the Festival of Light ceremony… I question what the Daimyo is thinking."
Kasumi nods. "I was just at the festival! Everyone seemed so happy." She sighs deeply. "The Daimyo isn't exactly known for making wise decisions. But this is …" She rubs the bridge of her nose. "I mean I don't want to be an enemy of the state! And I sure as shellfish don't want to be executed!" She sighs. "Has the Hokage brought any word out yet?" She seems to be troubled by this whole ordeal. "I doubt she would allow him to assume direct control over Konoha…"
"Therein lies the heart of the matter," Taiki says with a sigh. "If we don't obey, we're traitors and sentenced to death. If we do obey, we're monsters and murderers who have gone back on our word with the people of the Land of fire. We Shinobi are supposed to be under the command of the Hokage. We are, in fact, a military force in our own. The Daimyo is circumventing the agreement between the Land of Fire and Konoha. So the question becomes how do we show that we are loyal without breaking our word? That is going to be the telling factor in what happens." Taiki of course appears to have an idea of what should be done, but that's something he's not saying at this time.
Kasumi nods and seems torn. "I think I'm going to remain indecisive until the Hokage brings out word… worst come to worst I'll ask for permission to meet my father in Suna until this is over." She sighs. "I really don't knwo what to do about this." She puts the scroll back in her jacket and looks at Taiki. "You look really calm under it all. No wonder you're leading a team!"
Taiki shrugs and says, "Despite the life I had growing up, I grew up in the political arm of the Inuzuka. The old saw of receiving political lessons with my mother's milk isn't too far off the mark. In fact, my part of the Inuzuka Clan was the reason my clan joined Konoha in the first place. With an education like that, one could say I have practice understanding politics. The hardships I grew up facing and the war I fight today are largely responsible for my calmness, however. I learned that going off of pure rage or fear can be very detrimental to your health."
"I guess you're right.." Kasumi says, nodding while seeming satisfied with that answer. "I wish I had a background like that. My life was spent sniffing plants…" She stops there.. "And that was pretty much it.."
"I guess you're right.." Kasumi says, nodding while seeming satisfied with that answer. "I wish I had a background like that. My life was spent sniffing plants…" She stops there.. "And that was pretty much it.." She chuckles and reaches for a small field bottle of water, drinking some and offering it to Taiki, putting it back by her belt afterwards. "I'll just trust in the village's leadership to deal with it. They're smart people… or so I have been told." She chuckles. "Are you currently politically involved with your clan?"
Walking into the training area, he's heard about the announcement that has been made. His face solomn and his deamoner actually relaxed, Hinotori looks arounf for a moment and upon seeing Taiki and Kasumi, he walks over towards them. "Hey." he syas simply as he looks between the two, "I take it you've heard whats gonig on?" he asks.
Taiki chuckles ironically and smirks at Kasumi's last question. "You could say that. I've taken office as the lead Inuzuka ambassador. My father is the heir to the Founders Clan of the Inuzuka, and my grandfather is the head of that clan. I interact with the Alphas of our clan quite regularly, and now that the mess of my uncles' betrayal has been cleaned up, I work quite closely with the leaders of the Inuzuka and the Inuzuka Council. I just don't often mention that because I prefer people to judge me on my own merits."
As Hino walks in Taiki nods and sighs again. "Yes, I got a draft scroll myself. I find the entire thing questionable at best, but the response to it will have to be measured out carefully. I have an idea though that may work, and remain in the confines of our charter and the agreements made between Konoha and the Land of Fire…"
"I got one too…. but Taiki-san put me at ease." Kasumi smiles at Hinotori, but seems calm otherwise. "I was a little worried. But if there's more people like him around we should be fine!" She smiles, standing up while walking along her targets, starting to re-retrieve her weapons. "Phew.." She says.. "Thank you again for your kind words Inuzuka-sama."
Hinotori nods his head and stretches out a bit, his nerves are calm and honestly Hinotori doesn't look all taht worried at the moment. Listening to Taiki then to Kasumi, "Yeah, we will see what happens." Sighing a little bit, watching Kasumi as she moves to get her darts. "So is she on the team?" he asks Taiki gesturing to Kasumi.
Taiki shakes his head and says, "Taiki-san will do please. I look around for my dad whenever someone calls me Inuzuka-sama. Truth be told I'm much more laid back than that," he says before he turns to Hinotori. "Personally, I think she would make a great addition to our team, and supposing I hear nothing negative back from Usagi, I'd say yes. I'll give Usagi a bit more time, but with all that's going on, we may not have much time for me to give." He then shrugs and adds, "So right now, its a tentative yes."
Kasumi smiles at that tentative yes "Yosh!" She says quietly, looking around for those dogs Taiki mentioned. "So did you nap well Hinotori?" Kasumi asks, clearly trying to start some none execution related small talk.
"Well give it all the thought you need, but again like you said Taiki-san, we may not have that luxury." he tells his friend. Looking to Kasumi as she hears she is tentalively on the team. "Congrats and yes I did, only to wake up to the bs thats been started." he states. "Anyways, enough of that, I'm pretty sure we will be finding out more of whats going on and what is needed of us to do." And knowing his aunt, he will be called away.
Taiki shrugs and adds, "I've put myself at grandfather's disposal as well as the Hokage's, so we'll see." That's the last he'll say on that matter, really. The rest is, for the moment, out of his hands. "As for Kasumi, I know. I'm giving Usagi a couple of days, then I make it official. Not that I believe she'll have any objections." In the meantime a /huge/ white dog, about the size of a small horse, drops down out of the trees, followed by a smaller red dog about the size of a fully grown Alaskan Malamute, though she's a husky breed. The red-furred dog, who is sporting a vest with the medical insignia on top pads over and gives a howling bark toward Kasumi as she wags her tail. Shinobu, the white dog,sits down and looks amused. "Tenjin-san is good, she managed to spot me within a minute after me hiding in the trees to watch her practice…" he adds as an aside to relay what happened.
Kasumi smiles at the dogs. "Hello!" She says, sitting up on her knees while letting them approach her. Not entirely sure what to do with dogs. She never worked with ninken. So while she seems to find the dogs cute it's also soon apperant that she's slightly nervous and simply scared. When she gets the compliment from Taiki she blushes. "It was nothing, stroke of luck!"
Well, Nozomi is having none of that. The smaller ninken ducks her head and nudges the kunoichi's hand with her nose, giving the hand a lick. Shinobu lets out an 'ah woo woo woo,' that gets Taiki's attention. "Careful Shinobu, or I'll tell Usagi you're flirting with other girls," he quips before turning his attention to Kasumi. "Don't worry, they won't hurt you. They're just as smart as you an me. The only thing you really need to worry about is some… suggestive comments from Shinobu, though he sticks to dog language for those. Sometimes I think he does it just to get a rise out of me." The large white dog, obviously Shinobu, looks over at Taiki and says in human speech, "Hai." A rather blushing Taiki then turns to Hinotori and says, "As I said, he thinks he's a comedian… But you're right, we need to work on team dynamics soon, very soon."
Kasumi smiles, seeming more at ease now the ninken come to her and Taiki gave her permission. She softly pets Nozumi. "Hello.." She says again, smiling before looking at the bigger dog. Having no clue what he's aweoo-ing about, she also moves up to him to give him some scritchies. Not having caught what Taiki said… the dog going 'hai' freaks her out. She blinks a few times while looking at Shinobu. "I eh, might have cut myself with that shuriken I showed you earlier." Kasumi says with a genuine worried voice. "That thing just talked." She points at Shinobi, while one hand is already looking through her antidote vials. "Where did I put this…" She says, looking at the dog again. "Problem with poisons.. occasionally, dogs start talking. And I know I must have cut myself.."
Hinotori laughs at Kasumi's reaction to Shinobu talking, it was unnerving to him whenhe found out that the nin-kens could talk but it was also pretty cool honestly. But as he watches the interaction between Taiki and Kasumi, he looks up into the nights sky. Appearantly something is on his mind, but he is keeping it off his face for now.
"Excuse me," Shinobu interrupts, much to Taiki's amusement, "But it's not the poison, I did just talk." Shinobu's voice is a rough-but-easily understandable human speech that sounds even more amused than Taiki.
After a moment, Taiki then finally gets himself under control and looks at Kasumi. "Our ninken partners are, as I mentioned earlier, just as intelligent as we are. They can learn to talk human speech. It takes a lot of effort, but they can do it. Nozomi can as well, though she isn't nearly the talker that Shinobu is."
"He's right," Nozomi speaks up, her voice an octave or two higher than Shinobu's base voice. "Then again, Shinobu is ecchi…" There's a slight sound of disapproval there.
Taiki looks over toward Hinotori for a moment, then back at Kasumi. "Don't worry, he likes to joke around a lot, and likes to surprise people, especially those that don't know much about Inuzuka and our ways."
Kasumi looks at the dog while it keeps talking. Though when Taiki explains she sighs. "Oh phew, I thought I was hit by some neurotoxin or something!" She grins while the red ninken speaks. "Well I think you're both cute.." Kasumi says, giving them both some attention before getting up. "Well… slightly cruel, but forgiven." Kasumi says, winking at the bigger ninken. "Anyways, thank you Taiki-san." She bows at Taiki, and then the ninken. "It's been a pleasure meeting you two as well." She says, before walking up to Hinotori, giving him a hug. "And I'll see you soon too I hope." She then walks to the edge of the training area. "I'm going to get some more herbs before the dew is down…" She waves at the group. "I'll try to find Usagi, if I can't find her… let her know I'm looking for her. And.. well I'll hear from you then!" She waves and disappears.
