Starring:
Date: January 21, 2017
Summary:
An A-Rank mission to retrieve a stolen scroll from a sand ninja winds up thrusting two Uchiha into the middle of a different and even more worrying plot that spans many nations.
"Bring It Back Home"
Land of Fire
Flames are roaring in the forest. Huge firey beasts in the form of dragons battling in the woods, tearing through the trees, clashing and biting… But it is not with each other that they fight, and the mythical beasts do not act of their own accord, nor are they - in truth - the genuine article.
A figure moves swiftly in the shadows, never staying in one place for too long due to the imminent threat. Though sweating and gasping for breath, the ninja (for only a ninja moves with such speed and agility) can't afford to get caught. Not only due to what will come of their own life, but of what they have stolen.
They pause for just a few moments, or what is PLANNED to only be a few moments, ducking behind a tree and sliding down to the ground with their back against the trunk. A man with a head half-wrapped in bandages, and equipment that indicates a Sunagakure shinobi, though a scorched and smoldering winter forest camouflage mantle over top implies an attempt at concealing their identity and affiliations was in place before.
There's a large scroll under one arm that must be quite difficult to run with, but it hasn't been abandoned even with everything going on. As light flares in the darkness, accompanied by the rush of air being consumed producing a sound not unlike the roar of a true dragon, angry at hunting for its prey and not finding it, the ninja tenses up, holds his breath as best he can, and clenches his teeth as he looks out around the side of the tree just barely and tries not to betray his presence.
The seconds tic on, one after another, until no further roars are heard. After what must feel like a life time to the Sand ninja, he finally lets out a breath.
And then flaming shuriken come arcing around both sides of the tree, curving towards him despite having been thrown from the opposite side, and he startles even as he gets to his feet and MOVES.
The shuriken thunk into the tree without touching him thanks to him going vertical, running up its side and then leaping up into the treetops. It seems the chase is not over.
But then, after glimpsing two figures with glowing red eyes briefly in the shadows, one with a spikey mane and red armor, the snap-BOOM that leads into the amassing of compressed fire precedes the glaring light of a huge fire ball. Fangs and claws form, and the beast is on the move, shooting up at him. He leaps from the branch, up above the canopy, in a desperate attempt to escape.
The dragon roars again.
Even from a distance the size of a flaming dragon head shooting up out of the tree tops and into the night sky should be plainly visible.
The armored figure curses, breathing heavily, Sharingan glaring in the darkness. The amount of Chakra she has put into taking down this one guy without actually taking him down is disgusting. What's more frustrating than her failure is the fact that he seems to just barely be dodging each time. She KNOWS they're wearing him down, and yet he's still managing to react at the last possible second to avoid them. At this rate, even though he should be even more exhausted than they are, she is beginning to think he might outlast them.
"How can someone so stupidly agile exist in this world? He has to be nearly running on empty!" Uchiha Suzuha complains as she leaps up into the trees after her fleeing quarry, tracking his Chakra and his movements in the darkness as easily as though he were lit up with a neon sign. She has been using her strongest Fire Style over and over, and it's beginning to take its toll, but she has to ensure that when she hits him, it's enough to make him stop moving for good. That means hitting him as hard as she can.
She draws her gunbai from her back, a chain extending from her the base of the handle. She'll conserve Chakra a little bit until her ally can take him down. Maybe what raw fire power isn't accomplishing, a little bit of Genjutsu can manage.
"Try to keep up, Okaa-san." Suzuha snaps as she leaps up into the air, throws her war fan out with enough force to sever multiple tree branches in a row, and then forms hand seals quickly before unleashing a billowing ball of flame to try to set the tree tops ablaze. If he can't land again, that will keep him in the air, and his silhouette against the starry sky will be an easier target with less cover than if he gets back down on the forest floor.
It had been a long, long day for a certain pickler. Safe to say much was done, which resulted in the man now planted on the grass against a thick trunk of tree. Leaning up against the thing in near exhaustion, the man moves his elbows so that they rest on the tops of his crossed legs. Despite the cool nature of the evening, wweat appears to roll off his cheek, sliding over the various scratches that look to be raw and new. "Damn it… Where is she…" He mutters allowed, before the sounds of something epic catch his attention.
The flaming dragon lights up the night sky like fireworks. Forget trained shionbi-ness. That stuff was noticeable to even the most simple of simpletons!
With a heavy breath he squints, looking upwards as the fiery beast coils and writhes about before dissipating. For a long moment he sort of watches, perhaps entranced or hypnotised by the finesse of the technique. Then the man gets to his feet. With a grimace his eyes narrow, before he pushes off the ground and takes to the tree branches.
With a rush of movement he closes in, sturdy boots landing upon trees before pushing forward once more. His tattered cloak billows about him, the cool night air filled with the occasional breeze to blow it in a certain direction.
"Please don't die." He mutters under his breath.
«OOC» Goh says, "This is actually going to tie in very well with something else I had. :D"
The Sunagakure ninja can barely land without the very branches he lands on exploding into flames, the war fan sending said flaming branches flying at him like burning javelins, keeping him just barely angling his jumps to land on the edges of the fields of licking orange and yellow that send him so much heat is eyes water reflexively to protect themselves. Eventually, his leap carries him just a bit too far and he drops down right through an opening in the canopy and into a waiting mass of flaming branches on the way down. He curls himself into a ball to reduce how much of him gets burned, but his harsh landing doesn't do him any favors.
He staggers and stumbles, looking around in a panic for the scroll he was carrying, which slipped from his grasp as he 'cannonballed' out of the sky and directly into the ground, even before he inspects his own condition, and spots it partially unrolled, lying at the foot of a tree. He scrambles towards it, barely able to breathe, only for a sandalled foot to lash out at him.
Once again, just barely by the skin of his nose, he brings up his arms in time to absorb most of the blow, but it sends him hurtling back, rolling across the ground until he slams into a tree. The foot that kicked him lowers as its owner keeps her eyes on the subject. Taking the time out to examine the scroll would involve removing her attention from the spy.
She considers waiting until her daughter catches up, but this man has proven to be abnormally evasive and adept at escape. If she lets up for a moment, he'll probably improvise some method of escape. There's presently some thorny rose brushes off to the man's side, along the edge of a steep cliff, dropping off into the forest below. He's probably going to try to go over it if he feels he can't retrieve the scroll. And once he's out of line of sight, he'll probably try to lose them in the denser foliage.
Uchiha Tsugumi isn't sure she can prevent him from going over the edge one way or another, if she attacks him with one of her own strongest Ninjutsu, so she chooses the method that will hopefully just make him stop moving completely.
Her Sharingan flares bright red, and the ninja tenses up all over before slumping onto his side, looking like he's fighting just to remain conscious. Getting hit with a paralyzing Genjutsu with how low his stamina must be might very well be rendering him close to passing out.
"Over here!" Tsugumi calls out. She isn't going to use giant fireballs as a signal. Her voice should carry well enough on its own.
Suzuha is chasing down her prey, but she finds her own pursuit is thwarted by the same maze of flaming branches she created to trap him once he actually drops through it despite the injuries he'll suffer. She curses some more before using her fan to try to put out some of the flames with a mighty sweep of the weapon. Once she has reduced some of the blaze to just smoldering leaves and smoke she leaps down and starts trying to make up for lost time.
Thankfully, she hears the sound of her mother's voice and starts closing in on it, her lungs hurting from over-exertion and her lips slightly burnt from way too much fire in too short a time frame. Her long mane of hair trails out behind her like a rage black storm cloud on its way to rain devastation on someone unfortunate, but her eyes burn with the intensity, the predatory need, of someone who has been denied a clean victory over and over and now might have had that stolen from her by her own team mate.
He better still be alive, so she can make him pay for this gruelling chase.
Thk. Thk. Thk.
Those are the sounds of a shinobi pressing down on branches of oak, using them to springboard further towards the fray. Much to the chagrin of this ninja, the action appears to be settling down. The array of fire techniques are gone, as are the sounds of combat. But enough was made for him to get a lock in on the location.
It's difficult to sneak up on women with the qualities of Suzuha and Tsugumi. Truthfully, it's entirely likely that they could both hear him coming at great speed. A sort of 'presence'; a force in the darkness.
Then, his feet have touched the ground.
Entering the small clearing from the tops of a nearby tree, Goh carries with him a wind of momentum that sweeps across the two Uchiha females. His cloak billows at the sudden stopping power that he exudes, the figure bent slightly at the knees and elbows — fists clenched tightly. A few veins can be seen pulsing down his neck, his face painting an expression of deadly seriousness. Certainly a bit different than the travelling merchant.
Then, he blinks, perhaps recognising the two. "Huh?" His head tilts, as he moves to relax and stand up straight. "Tsugumi and Suzuha?" A a sigh of relief is made, his shoulders hunching a tad. "Thank heavens."
Then, he notices the Sunagakure shinobi stunned. "Er." He pauses. "Sorry if I'm interupting anything."
Tsugumi isn't a sensor, but with her vast amount of battle field experience, she has a sensitivity to some things. 'The feeling of being watched', 'killing intent', 'something being wrong', or even just 'attention' focused on her. Sixth, seventh, eighth, and more senses that are esoteric, abstract, and not really something one can consciously control. One can not 'scan' for killing intent. One either feels it or one doesn't, because it's either there or it's not.
Feeling a 'presence' approach, despite her ability to sense Chakra being rather unrefined due to relying more on her eyes for that sort of thing, she narrows her Sharingan-bearing eyes as she continues to keep her attention focused on the man lying against the tree, watching him struggle against his strengthless body, and hearing Suzuha approaching as well.
Once Suzuha has arrived, and then Goh shortly afterwards, only then does Tsugumi take her eyes off the Sand ninja and look at the new arrival. Her eyes widen mildly in surprise at seeing him, before furrowing her brow in confusion and maybe even a little bit of suspicion at finding him here. "Goh-san. What a surprise." She glances towards Suzu briefly, and then back to Goh. "I didn't think that you were in the area." According to her Sharingan, his Chakra looks the same, and his attire, but it's slightly… Different in its appearance and feel. It's still Goh's Chakra, but something subtle about it, at least for a few moments, distinguishes it from what she felt last time she saw him.
Maybe it's just her imagination though. It has been a long night.
The Sand ninja manages to just barely lift his head with an enormous effort to try to see who the new arrival is, straining and scarcely keeping his eyes open. Is this someone come to his rescue or reinforcements that will seal his fate? Can he use them to escape somehow?
In a hoarse, low tone, he gets out, "Tsu… gumi? Suzu… ha?" He looks to the red-armored kunoichi. "You mean that's not… Uchiha… Madara…?" Seems he mistook the one who wishes to follow in the man's footsteps for the genuine article. In this dark, and as panicked as he must have been, and the resemblance between the two, and even the similar armament, jutsu, and Chakra feel… It's hard to blame him.
Tsugumi looks back at the ninja but continues to address Goh. "A spy attempted to steal information from the Hidden Leaf. He's proven very difficult to pin down. But don't worry, everything is under control now." She then turns her back on Goh and focuses on the prone shinobi.
"I intend no offense, Goh-san, but it might be better if you didn't get involved and forgot you saw any of this. And it would be best if you didn't see anything else that might happen."
Suzuha arrives to find the man still alive, but incapacitated. It looks like he fell to Tsugumi's Genjutsu after all. Angrily, she feels the urge to go over and kick the guts out of the man, but suppresses it. She is not a cruel person. At least not right now. As much hate as she has, as much desire for retribution she may possess, she still has values, morals, and people who anchor her in love and forgiveness. But increasingly, her tolerance for outsiders who disrupt and destroy her home wears thin.
Then Goh suddenly arrived, his cloak billowing, exuding power, and Suzuha falls into a fighting stance despite her fatigue, war fan turned so that it can act as shield or weapon at a moment's notice. When she recognizes Goh, it is not until he stands upright, identifies Suzuha and Tsugumi correctly, and acts bewildered by the circumstances he finds himself in now.
His 'serious mode' is so different from her one-time encounter with this person that it's like it's two separate shinobi. Where Tsugumi may have had a brief moment of suspicion about Goh being present, perhaps an ally of the spy, someone who was to receive that scroll, Suzu's eyes are narrowed with suspicion of Goh as a person. His motives, his true identity, who he really is. She does not relax just because she sees who he is now. If the Chakra wasn't the same, she might have suspected a henge of some kind first, but she's already discarded that.
"What are you doing out here?" she asks pointedly, perhaps stepping beyond her bounds as a Genin who is much younger than Goh, but having little patience for subterfuge after a night like this.
The mis-identification by the Sand ninja has her cast a cold look towards him, before remarking airily, "Aa. I follow in his foot steps, but you should be glad I'm not him. If I was, you'd have been dead hours ago." Not that she knows exactly how strong Madara is, but she has a very high opinion of his capabilities, and no one has thus far been able or willing to put forth a counter-argument for them.
She looks down at the big scroll at her mother's feet, half-unrolled, and strides towards it, reaching out a hand before pausing and looking it over. Feigning being under the influence of Genjutsu, or trapping the scroll somehow to make recovering it destroy it or provide a distraction or something like that would be just the kind of sneaky tactic she'd expect from this spy.
She is careful to search for any signs of foreign Chakra in or on the scroll itself, including paper tags, seal formulas, or the like, before messing with it further. She wonders what's on the scroll that was so important and starts to unroll it slowly and carefully. Is it a map of their fortifications or something?
Breathing heavily, Goh's muscles loosen and relax from their tensed state. The suspicion of Suzu is warranted, so he doesn't dare put a foot out of line. Though the Madara comment earns a wry smile, followed by a nod by the Genin's reply. Pursing his lips, his eyes glance to to the Sunagakure shinobi who repeats the names of the Uchiha.
Lifting up his hands to Tsugumi, the man nods cleanly. "I understand." Goh was good friends with the Kazekage. That much was known. Thus it wouldn't surprise him if Tsugumi knew that and was wary of his own interference. "I don't mean to press in on your mission. I saw the fire techniques from a far way away and…" He stops, lifting a hand to rub his head in exasperation. "It's been a long day." That sort of answers Suzu's question, but not really. With a huff, Goh takes a couple of steps away. Not willing to get involved in ANY Village agenda.
But then, he stops. Turning attention back to Tsugumi and Suzu, he points his finger to the north. "On second thought. You should both meet with me as soon as you're done here. Five clicks that way. There's something you both need to know. I'll be waiting." And with that, he's gone. It's done so with a flicker of movement, the most-of-the-time merchant fleeing from the clearing to venture northward.
The scroll indeed has some paper tags plastered onto it as a precaution. Removing them safely will take time, and in the meanwhile the scroll itself can't be unrolled all the way. But from what Suzuha can see of it, it has some sort of jutsu inside of it. This isn't something the Sand ninja recorded, it's something he stole. And it seems it's a very valuable set of information.
Tsugumi looks to Suzu, and then to Goh as the latter makes the request to join him. She waits until Goh is gone before saying anything else, then says, "…Go after him now. I'll be along shortly." Expecting some kind of protest, she turns her fierce gaze on her daughter to pre-empt it and says, "That is an order." She waits until she receives acknowledgement and gives Suzu some time to put some distance between them.
Then she says to the spy, aware that her Genjutsu may wear off or be broken out of if the enemy is given enough time, "You should be glad that he showed up. As a favor to an old friend, you'll be returning to your own Village."
Surprise, disbelief, confusion, anger, and hope all flash across the man's face in rapid succession, every emotion he's feeling evident. In his weary state, even someone trained to be a tool, a living weapon, might expose what is in his heart for a moment. "…Really? You'll really let a spy go free?" He doubts it's as simple as that. He tilts his chin to his chest to look up at Tsugumi more easily, regaining more of his motor controls over time, just as Tsugumi feared. "…But not before you get… Information… Is that right?"
The man barks out a hoarse laugh that turns into a coughing fit. "You'll get nothing from me… Even with your cursed Sharingan… You might as well kill me now. Or else…" Then he suddenly leaps up, surging towards Tsugumi, three finges on his right hand having broken underneath him by pressing them the wrong way into the ground while he lay there.
He pulls open his cloak and reveals explosive tags all over his vest. "…I'll take you with me!"
It's half distraction, half desperation move. Because as Tsugumi moves to respond to the sudden attack, she hears the sizzling of the paper tags on the jutsu scroll activating as well. She can't both preserve the scroll and preserve herself as the same time can she!?
There's the sound of multiple explosions that might be heard in the distance by Suzu and Goh both, and smoke rising towards the sky from the edge of the cliff where Tsugumi and the spy were last seen.
…A jutsu? Some secret technique? Suzuha can't see all of it, but from what she can see, she recognizes some things about it… She thinks to herself, '…This is…?' Then she notices the paper tags. Trapped after all. "Tch." When Goh says he has stuff to tell them when they're done here, and to join him north, she has to wonder if it's a trap of some kind. If he's willing to sacrifice this one ninja to lure the two of them into a larger group, or something, then there might be a chance at recovering the scroll for whatever diabolical ends he has. Or maybe he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's a friend of her mom's right? And her dad's? If Ken trusted Goh…
Suzu's suspicion wavers. Maybe she doesn't know Goh well, but if he's an ally, and a friend of the family, she may be judging him too harshly. He's not an outsider, right? Before she consider the possibility of apologizing to Goh, he has departed, and moments later, Tsugumi is telling her to go after him.
She snaps her head up, eyes questioning, mouth ready to protest but the look in her mother's eye tells her this isn't the time to second-guess the team leader. She closes her mouth, a bit annoyed at being given an 'order', but that's just latent resentment over it being her mother. She knows that intellectually, no matter what her emotions are telling her.
So she leaves the scroll where it lies and takes off after Goh, headed north. She races along until she catches some kind of sight of him, if any, but before she's able to call out to him either due to not being near enough yet to see him, or because she doesn't have the chance before Things happen, the sound of explosions from back where she just was fill the air.
She turns suddenly, knee-length hair whipping around like a black cape following the movement of her head and peers off in the distance. She looks very HARD in that direction, and debates whether to go back or not. Even a powerful shinobi can be taken down if caught off guard, right? And that spy repeatedly surprised them, over and over, with his ignenuity.
She tightens her grip on the handle of her gunbai, paralyzed by indecision. The fear of potentially losing another person important to her almost overpowering all other possible decisions and responses she could make.
Joining Goh is barely on her thoughts, but she remembers the order she was given.
For now though… She just waits, each moment creeping by making the fear within her grow.
The night air is cool on Goh's skin as he traverses across the branches. The sweat that rolled down his skin before has started to evaporate, his body now much more relaxed and cool than it was only fifteen minutes ago. He's calmed right down. That is, until…
KABOOOM!
While Goh had barely noticed Suzu on his tail until the last minute, the colossal explosion that rocks the ground and shakes the trees can be felt to his very bones. While his eyes widen a smidge in reaction, the pickler continues to move with pace. He does grant himself a look over his shoulder though, spotting Suzuha stopping in her pursuit. Just beyond her the large cloud of smoke and debris caused from the suicidal attack can be seen filling the night sky. Normally it wouldn't be too visible, but the moon is near full tonight. It provided just enough light to see what was happening.
Unlike Suzu, Goh doesn't stop. Through the corner of his eye he watches the explosion dissipiate, before turning back around to face forwards and continue. Damn! Looks like he has a cold heart after all.
The smoke clears gradually, spilling upwards from a point about… A dozen feet in the air? A stationary one as well. The Sand ninja is grappling with the arm holding him up off the ground by the front of his shirt, wincing as he struggles to break free but lacking the strength after his lengthy flight through the woods and his various injuries that have accumulated to become debilitating.
Tsugumi is standing before him, her eyes closed. "You're only making this harder on yourself. You're just lucky it's me you're dealing with. If you'd destroyed that scroll, I would have had to take back my word to return you to your Village." Blood is dripping down the mature kunoichi's face.
The Sand ninja widens his eyes slightly in surprise. Then they widen even more when he sees the state of his captor.
Her eyes are blazing a molten crimson, and within each is a design different from a standard Sharingan. Instead of three tomoe arranged in a circle, there are a pair of black lotus-like markings within each.
The ninja notices a strange blue glow emanating from Tsugumi, and follows it back from its origin point, the aura engulfing Tsugumi, to see that his paper bombs that were on the scroll have been nailed to trees and the ground by Chakra constructs of some kind, akin to shuriken, destroying the seals emblazoned on each to keep them from activating. What appears to be a huge skeletal hand made of the same dark blue Chakra lies over the scroll, shielding it. His eyes continue to work their way along the aura of visible Chakra, up and up, and up and up and up, along the full length of a long boney arm, that ends in a fist of Chakra above both ninja, with smoke spilling from within its closed palm.
The Sand ninja sees though in his mind's eye what happened. Somehow, this jutsu, whatever it is… Tsugumi used it to shoot the paper tags off the jutsu scroll and then cover it to make sure no damage came to it, and with her other hand she cut off his vest right up the center with the kunai she holds in her hand. Then a second Chakra construct grabbed him by the back of his vest and pulled it off of him, before raising the paper bomb-covered garment up into the air and closing around it to muffle the explosions.
He doesn't understand why it seems that Tsugumi is injured or what the nature of this jutsu is, but his attention is drawn back to the present quickly enough as the Chakra constructs begin to errode and disappear in wisping blue flames after the Uchiha Jounin flinched a little bit.
She raised her other hand to grab him by the throat and pull his face down so that he's looking directly into her eyes.
The world goes blank for the Sunagakure spy. Whenever he awakens, it will be alone, with no sign of enemies or his mission objective… Or any memory of what exactly happened here, beyond a vague impression of being attacked, and a compulsion to go home.
Right as Suzu is about to head back, she sees the incredibly dense Chakra with her Sharingan. She does not recognize the jutsu, but she recognizes the Chakra as being the same coloration of Chakra as when her mother used her Mangekyou Sharingan. She didn't know Tsugumi could do something like this. She thought it was only Genjutsu… Despite her decision not to seek that power, her resolve that it wasn't worth it if it meant losing the ones she wanted to protect with it, for a brief moment she wishes she could wield a tool that great. It would make saving everyone a lot easier, she's sure.
Convinced that her mother will be okay, she turns back around, putting her gunbai into place on her back, and resumes following after Goh, hurrying to catch up with him. Hopefully she'll be able to close the distance quickly, and find out what exactly he wants. But a wriggling concern in her mind is gaining traction.
That ninja, skilled as he was, was still just one spy. Why would the Hidden Sand have sent a single ninja for a task like this? The answer is they probably didn't. So where was the rest of his team? Who else was helping him, and why hadn't they made themselves known?
The answer is maybe they already have. As Goh's broad back comes into view, her decision to give him a chance and not assume the worst of him seems more and more foolish. Until she has reason to trust him, she can't afford to give him the benefit of the doubt in this situation. If he's innocent, she'll apologize to him herself. But right now, to assume he's NOT an enemy just because of a past friendship with Suzuha's parents would be to invite him to stab her in the back.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" she says when she's within speaking range. "My team leader will be joining us shortly."
"Don't fret, kid." Goh replies cheekily to the question from Suzu, turning his head a bit when he notices her resume the chase. "You'll find out soon enough."
The rest of the trip is made without much conversation from Goh. He remains in near silence, hair and clothes flapping in the wind as he leads the way to their destination. After a few minutes of travelling, the pickler lands with a soft thud on grass. A small clearing had opened up before he and Suzu, providing enough room for a small team to meet and gather. With a huff as he collects his breath, Goh leans back — hands gripped on his hips with face pointed towards the sky. "Pheewww! I don't think I've had to travel like this for months! I forgot how much it kills your back. All that jumping from branch to branch. Ugh." Rubbing the knots of muscle on the back of his hip, the pickler moves to sit down.
"You were really worried about your Mum, huh?" He asks, leaning back casually. Propping himself up on his palm, his spare hand lifts to dig a pinky finger into his ear. It wiggles around, the man appearing quite nonchalant as he waits. "Well, don't worry. For a mug like that, she won't have any issues. No matter what the surprise is, she'll be able to handle it." As he moves to stretch his neck, the man takes this opportunity to look the young Uchiha female up and down.
"You really do look a lot like Madara, don't you?" The way he says it sounds as if it's coming from someone who has actually /seen/ him before. And not just through pictures. The hand that was wiggling around his ear moves to rub his chin. "I'm sure the Senju clan just /love/ that. Heh." His mouth coils up into a wry smirk.
Tsugumi is worn out after all that. Even trying to restrain her usage of that power, her Chakra levels are low. Her whole body is sore too. Like she was drawing power from every cell. She wipes her eyes and face to clear the blood from them, using the reflection of the moonlight off her kunai to see herself and make sure she's presentable. Stopping alongside a chilly stream momentarily to wash away any trace of her using her Susano'o adds a little bit more time before she catches up with Goh and Suzu, but eventually, having more trouble finding her way in the dark than she's used to (though perhaps the fact her Sharingan is no longer active is a factor), she should come close enough to hear voices at least.
From there it's just a matter of orienting on them and heading towards them.
Suzu tilts her head forward a bit, looking at Goh carefully. The dismissal of her as 'kid' doesn't get an annoyed response as one might expect from her. Perhaps she's not as short-tempered as she appears to be. That would be good, if so. It means perhaps she's more level headed, which could aid her in not making… Unfortunate decisions out of passion.
Or maybe she just doesn't see being called 'kid' as an insult by someone much older than her.
"Who cares if it bothers them? If they don't like being reminded of their failure to work together, then maybe they should have tried harder. Or maybe they could start trying to include the Uchiha in the governing process instead of excluding us. We're fellow citizens of the Land of Fire, and residents of the Hidden Leaf." She flips her hair over one shoulder off-handedly and dismissively. "Besides, I have a tiny little Senju bedbug who keeps following me around trying to learn from me. So they aren't all close-minded. I may not like their Clan much, but I haven't had any problems with their individual members so far. They knew my father and Uchiha Madara came from the same bloodline. If I take after my relative in my appearance, that can't be helped, can it?"
Suzuha is quiet for a moment, looking off into the darkness, then says, "More importantly…" Her eyes still bearing that black-on-crimson design, swivel towards Goh. "…I don't think the Hidden Leaf as a whole would be too happy to find out a former ally has been collaborating with an enemy. You see, we just had an advisor to the Hokage involved in that sort of thing. My father lost his life as a result of that ridiculous conspiracy, and many other shinobi of the Leaf as well." She turns her face and gaze fully on Goh, the hair over her right eye parting under an unfelt updraft. Chakra flows up from her feet, all the way to her head, a body-tight current that seems to lend motion to the motionless.
"So… Tolerance for traitors is at an all time low. With that in mind, I'll ask again." She narrows her eyes, and that Chakra that's been held so close to her suddenly radiates outwards like a wave of freezing needles. Icy rain drops that sting when they hit. "What do you have to say?"
Her attempt at intimidation might not be effective. She is likely weaker than Goh despite her rapid growth. But the intensity of her spirit is there. Though her loyalty seems to be with the Leaf instead of just her own Clan. And that is at least, even if not much, a modicum better than the motivations of the man she emulates.
"You're preaching to the choir." He replies to Suzuha regarding her comments about the various interactions between clans. "I think you'll find that the younger generation is much more tolerant as a whole towards each other." The show of strength from Suzuha is appreciated for what it is, at the very least. Though Goh doesn't quite freeze in fright at the display, he doesn't quite brush it off as nothing either. In fact, he looks back to Suzu dead on, eyes of blue steel staring right back into the Uchiha's own. A small smile comes across his face, where his eyes close. "You don't have to be worried about me." He says simply. "I admire your guts, kid. And your passion. But save it for someone who deserves it. I haven't wronged you, your clan, or the Village."
When Tsugumi arrives in her weary state, Goh stands back up. Pretending as if he saw nothing regarding this secret scroll OR the Sunagakure shinobi, he nods a head in greeting at her arrival. "Welcome back, Tsugumi. Suzu and I were having a nice little chat. She's pretty keen to know what's going on." He pauses, looking her the Uchiha Mum in an assessing way. "You alright?" A hand goes to his hip, where he frowns mildly. Maybe he didn't give this Sunagakure shinobi enough credit!
Tsugumi catches the tail end of the conversation as she walks into the area. She uses Goh's earlier words in response to his question. "It's been a long night." Then she looks towards Suzu and says, "Suzuha, I understand your feelings. And it's reasonable to be suspicious after everything that's happened. But if Goh-san says he wasn't involved…" She turns her attention on him. And it's a different sort of intensity. The kind of look only a mother can give, that can make someone feel guilty even if they haven't done anything, and if they HAVE done something, it's the kind of look that can make someone squirm. "…Then I'll believe him."
She folds her arms under her chest and leans against a tree, taking the opportunity to seem nonchalant and relaxed to actually catch her breath. "And I heard you mention back pain from leaping through the trees. Perhaps you should invest in some armored support." She hefts her bust with her forearms to show how little it moves, and casts a glance at Suzu's own armor designed with similar purposes in mind. "For your back, I mean."
At least someone other than Goh can joke a little bit in a situation like this. Perhaps her extreme seriousness has worn away a bit with age. When she was younger, she was much like Suzu is now. Always fixated on the mission, and rarely able to crack a genuine smile except for certain people who could draw it out of her. People like Goh and Ken.
Putting the thought aside, she says, "I'd like to say you can take your time, but I think we could all use some sleep, and I'll need to file a report when I get back. So, WITHIN REASONABLE LIMITS, take your time." She gives Goh a small, friendly smile, and waits for him to be ready to talk.
Suzu's expression is cold rather than angry at Goh's response, though when her mother joins them that intensity wanes, eventually coiling back inside of her like tendrils slipping back into some deep sea cave after stretching out towards a swimmer who had strayed too far from shore. At the admonishment, she just calmly says, "I had to test him. It was a bit too coincidental that someone else would be out here at this exact moment, when we haven't seen any trace of the spy's team or any allies, and on top of that, someone WAS just trying to frame him recently. Akuu Goh being here right now could have meant a lot of things." She looks back to Goh. "Including an imposter." Even though she'd already mentally dismissed that as a likelihood after comparing the man's Chakra to what she saw before.
But she has only met him once, that she can recall. It's possible she missed something, and it's not like there aren't people who can alter their Chakra. Saori is working on something just like that, infact. Chakra decoys to lead enemies astray or some such.
Even so, her story isn't quite the truth, and she looks away as Goh and her mother exchange pleasantries, waiting for whatever this is about to finally be discussed.
"You want me to wear boob armour?" Goh replies, deadpanning a bit. "I'd be the butt of all the jokes, Tsugumi. It's not that bad. I'm just an old man." Chuckling in amusement, he nods. "Alright. Obviously I can't tell you much because of… er, secretness. But I'll tell you as much as I can." Glancing up to the sky for thoughts on how to explain, he looks to both Suzuha and Tsugumi.
"Today I ran an op that involved taking down a group that had kidnapped shinobi that possessed various blood line limits. I'm not talking just about Konohagakure clans, either. I'm talking clans from Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure and Iwagakure. A fair few prisoners in total, all kept deep undeground." The gravity of what he speaks is intense, of that there is little doubt. Kidnapping clansmen was a serious crime. Enough to ruffle the feathers of many and destabilize relationships. "I'm currently on my way back to Konoha. Where this all happened isn't far from where you were conducting your own mission. They're not related."
"Amoung them, I have found three Uchiha." To demonstrate, he lifts up three fingers. His thumb, index and middle finger. "Tsugumi, given your position in the Uchiha clan, I'd like to return them to you. Normally I'd return them to the Hokage, but…" A hand rubs the back of his neck. "Well. That's another story. I'd prefer to bring them back to the clan leaders and tell the Hokage separately."
Letting all that sink in, he folds arms across his chest. "If you don't want to involve yourself with this, I understand. I can continue on my original goal to just deliver them straight back into the Village."
Tsugumi's expression darkens a bit, and her Sharingan rekindles to life like a pair of embers burning in the dark. "Goh-san… I'm nine years older than you. Who exactly do you think you're calling old when you call yourself an 'old man'?" Ah, that's where Suzu gets the menacing aura from. Though Tsugumi is a little bit… Scarier somehow. In a very different way. When Goh changes subjects to the matter of why he's out here and what he's been doing, Tsugumi focuses on that, moving to take a seat on any boulder or stump or log available so she consider the implications.
"The Bombers," she begins. "Were also an organization that used ninja from many countries, including Kekkei Genkai shinobi. And they seemed interested in obtaining Uchiha as well. Or at least usable Sharingan." She looks up as she folds her hands together, fingers up in front of her mouth, and rests her lips against their tips. "They were the terrorist organization that was attacking us, and got their name from using rogue Toujitakumi initially. But they proved to have more diverse assets than Explosion Style. A collaboratoe within the Hidden Leaf was getting them access to things they shouldn't have been able to access. We had no idea what their motivations were for their attacks, and we thought we'd disassembled the leftovers months ago, at a certain cave."
She closes her eyes as she thinks. 'Could they have been pawns of some other organization? Was their true intent the collection of Kekkei Genkai shinobi the entire time?' She is quiet for awhile, not answering Goh's inquiry about what to do. Eventually, she says, "These Uchiha you rescued are somewhere nearby? Are they in condition to talk? Do you have any information about who might have been behind this? How did you find out about all this? Who has been helping you? Who else have you told? And most crucially…" Her eyes snap open, just basic black again, but no less serious. "…Are you sure they were actually kidnapped?"
Suzu remains silent this time. She intends to listen and learn. That someone is taking people from her Village REALLY enrages her, makes her want to go off on a path of destruction until she takes down those responsible and saves everyone, but this isn't the time for that kind of thing. She needs to know the situation, who they're up against, how widespread they are, and so on. And there's what her mother has said too.
Though that final thing makes her lower her eyebrows sharply. "What do you mean?" She doesn't wait long for a clarification before pressing for more information. "Are you saying these Uchiha could have been complicit? Rogues or something?" She puts one hand on her hip and raises her thumb to her mouth. "It's true that it would be hard to keep trained Uchiha shinobi under lock and key if they have any access to their Sharingan. You'd need drugs or a sealing jutsu or brain washing of some kind. And if they've been subjected to any of that, then bringing them back to the Village could mean bringing sleeper agents right into our midst."
She chews her thumb a bit more harshly, a bad habit of hers when she's thinking, and says, "And I haven't heard anything about any missing Uchiha. That's the sort of thing that would have caused an uproar within the Clan. So either we didn't know they were gone, or they weren't part of the Village to begin with. …And Goh-san said there were other shinobi with other Kekkei Genkai? Using the Sharingan to keep other 'abductees' under control would be useful for people trying to control ninja with lots of strange abilities. Definitely more useful than trying to keep everyone sealed or drugged constantly."
She drops her hand from her mouth and looks to Goh. "I suppose we should hear your answers first before leaping to conclusions, but I'd want to make sure to talk to these kidnap victims first before bringing them anywhere. If necessary, asking the Uchiha Clan Head to come out here with some back-up might be an option. There's too much to leave to chance. We don't even know yet whether you actually rescued them or whether you were 'allowed' to rescue them after all."
Goh doesn't answer the questions until Tsugumi has finished asking all of them. He remains tight lipped about the organization in detail. In fact, he says nothing about any group by name or structure. "Yes, they're nearby. They're physically fine. A few scrapes and wounds from skin samples taken from them. Mentally they're a bit shot, as you'd expect any prisoner to be. Confused. Frightened." He pauses at that, glancing to Suzuha.
"They did not allow me to escape. Half of the group I managed to wipe out. The other half managed to get away through the cracks like a pack of slimey snakes." Goh scowls.
"I found out about all this because they tried to take /me/. I'm the last of the Akuu, and they wanted my clan genes as well. When I turned them down, they tried to take me by force. It wasn't tricky from there to find out where the main hideout was." His brow furros in thought. "I'm assuming they were kidnapped, yes. Because they tried the same on me. These aren't mature adults they're taking." He claifies, mostly to Suzuha. "We're talking young shinobi. Weaker members of the clan. Just enough to not cause a ripple. I doubt these guys can barely utilize their sharingan. Heck, they may not even be ninja." He shrugs. "If they decided to leave on their own accord, it was likely because they were brainwashed or fooled into it. But I echo with your question. So does the Kazekage. She is currently looking into why she was not informed, or how she and the clan did not know that people of the Miira clan were gone."
"Mushi was with me." He confirms. "And they're not in a condition to talk at the moment. She gave them some medicine to put them to sleep while I got them back. Ideally they should be waking up in a couple of hours. Safe and sound back in Konoha." Adjusting in his stance a little, Goh bites on the end of his thumb.
Flying through a series of hand seals in utter moments, the pickler slams his hand down into the ground. POOF! A cloud of white smoke erupts into the air. When it dissolves, the figures of three large salamander can be seen standing upon each other. And then Goh on the very top.
Each salamander is about the size of a horse. They all have their thick trunks and slimey looking skin. The one on the bottom is clearly the heaviest, while the one on the top is the smallest. Given they were standing atop each other, that made sense!
Without an order said, each salamander opens its mouth and outstretches a long tongue. These tongues are thick and wide, stretching all the way down to the ground. The salamanders proceed to open their mouths even wider and proceed to spit out people. These people, each with black hair, slide down the tongues like a slippery dip and come to a gentle rest upon the ground. Funnily enough, they didn't look 'wet' or 'slimey'. Just normal.
The three Uchiha range in age from about twelve to fourteen. Two males and one female. None of them are dressed in shinobi attire. Two are wearing pyjamas. The other, the female, is wearing just normal civilian clothes. The pickler leaps off the top salamander to get back onto the ground.
"This enemy group weren't after the ninja as individuals. They were after their DNA. Their genes."
So this is different. Or at least appears to be on the surface. Even so, maybe she rushed to form connections where there weren't any. "Missing children, not causing any major ripples?" Tsugumi asks incredulously. She'll have to talk to Tatara about this. She doesn't think non-shinobi Uchiha children would be kidnapped without anyone being aware of it. And it sounds like the Hidden Sand has similar problems. 'The Hidden Sand…'
"…I wonder now, who the recent visitor we just had to deal with from the Land of Wind was acting upon orders from. It may be completely unrelated. But agents within the Hidden Sand facilitating and covering up these abductions makes more sense than the entire Miira Clan just being ignorant of what was happening." With some difficulty, Tsugumi pushes herself up onto her feet, the added weight she has to carry around becoming increasingly difficult to manage as she gets older. The fact Goh was complaining about HIS back still mildly annoys her, but compared to the problem they're facing, she is willing to put it aside.
Rubbing her lower back with one hand, the mature kunoichi says, "I'll signal ahead and begin making our way back to Konohagakure. Hopefully we'll have ANBU and someone from the Uchiha to meet us half-way to handle any examinations and inspections." Seeing these kids like this definitely bothers Tsugumi, but she's trying to keep her mind focused on business. "Even if the children aren't spies, witting or otherwise, there may be some method of tracking placed upon them. I don't want them getting abducted a second time, and there are those more qualified than me to identify something like that."
Tsugumi forces a smile and says, "Thank you for the information and your efforts to rescue everyone. I promise I'll make the most of it."
It seems they jumped to conclusions after all. Or Suzu did. Her mother was just asking questions. Maybe Suzu just wanted another chance to take a shot at the Bombers. Maybe she just wanted to believe it was them behind it, a single monolithic enemy that she could punish and punish for what they'd done to her, and what they'd taken from her. But there are lots of bad people in the world, it seems. They aren't all working together just because they're bad.
She has nothing further to say at this point. They'll wait until ANBU and Tatara have been filled in and looked the children over, but no reason not to begin the trip back with them. She looks at the unconscious figures, trying to figure out who is going to transport whom and how, without causing further injury.
But eventually, she pulls herself from the mire of her thoughts and says, "Thank you, Goh-san. And sorry for suspecting you." She's capable of showing humility. One more trait that separates her from her role model. One that she will hopefully retain.
"It wasn't just the Miira clan. Most clans from all the Villages have had people taken. No, I don't think this is from a Village…" He quietens down a little, rubbing his nose his thought. "…but the resources to pull this off are no doubt impressive. Clans don't just ignore missing people, like you guys said. The Kaguya had people taken too. They would never just let a rogue clansmen wander around. Ugh… the earful I'm going to get from Tsiro when I take them back…" He frowns, rubbing his face in mild anxiety. "I reckon there have been some clever substitutions going on. Or something like that." Shoulders roll into a shrug. "But I'm still piecing that all together. Tsugumi and Suzuha, both of you cannot breathe a word of this to anyone outside of your clan head. Alright? I'm probably going to get into trouble telling you all this instead of Daisuke, but…" He frowns. "Well. We're old buds, right Tsugumi? And I don't know or trust the Hokage enough with Uchiha younglings. You I know. You I trust." That's said as the Uchiha Mum begins to stand, eyes locking upon her form. Poor dear with all that baggage.
"The only other people who know about this are the Kage and respective heads of clan. That /cannot/ change. Can you imagine if the common villager knew about their clansmen going missing? It'd be total anarchy. They're going to start blaming old enemies. Other Villages. When in reality, that's probably not the case. Heck, for all we know that could have been one of the original objectives from this group when they started to do all this. To de-structure the Village system and spark another War."
Looking to Suzuha with some surprise at her apology, he waves a hand to dismiss the apology with a chuckle. "Eh eh, don't worry about it. I don't blame ya."
With tremendous THUMPS into the ground, the salamander break from their 'stack' formation. "These guys will help you bring the Uchiha kids back. They will go as far as to the Gates, but no further. I don't really want it out yet that I'm back in the ninja game." If he wasn't already.
"I might see you back at Konoha. I need to drop off the other Konoha shinobi that have taken to Daisuke. First though… I need to take a little detour." With a quick wave, Goh pushes into the ground and leaps away once more. The three salamander are left standing there, each one moving forward to grasp the unconscious Uchiha kids in their mouth. It looks a bit gross, but they are no doubt sturdy.
Flames are roaring in the forest. Huge firey beasts in the form of dragons battling in the woods, tearing through the trees, clashing and biting… But it is not with each other that they fight, and the mythical beasts do not act of their own accord, nor are they - in truth - the genuine article.
A figure moves swiftly in the shadows, never staying in one place for too long due to the imminent threat. Though sweating and gasping for breath, the ninja (for only a ninja moves with such speed and agility) can't afford to get caught. Not only due to what will come of their own life, but of what they have stolen.
They pause for just a few moments, or what is PLANNED to only be a few moments, ducking behind a tree and sliding down to the ground with their back against the trunk. A man with a head half-wrapped in bandages, and equipment that indicates a Sunagakure shinobi, though a scorched and smoldering winter forest camouflage mantle over top implies an attempt at concealing their identity and affiliations was in place before.
There's a large scroll under one arm that must be quite difficult to run with, but it hasn't been abandoned even with everything going on. As light flares in the darkness, accompanied by the rush of air being consumed producing a sound not unlike the roar of a true dragon, angry at hunting for its prey and not finding it, the ninja tenses up, holds his breath as best he can, and clenches his teeth as he looks out around the side of the tree just barely and tries not to betray his presence.
The seconds tic on, one after another, until no further roars are heard. After what must feel like a life time to the Sand ninja, he finally lets out a breath.
And then flaming shuriken come arcing around both sides of the tree, curving towards him despite having been thrown from the opposite side, and he startles even as he gets to his feet and MOVES.
The shuriken thunk into the tree without touching him thanks to him going vertical, running up its side and then leaping up into the treetops. It seems the chase is not over.
But then, after glimpsing two figures with glowing red eyes briefly in the shadows, one with a spikey mane and red armor, the snap-BOOM that leads into the amassing of compressed fire precedes the glaring light of a huge fire ball. Fangs and claws form, and the beast is on the move, shooting up at him. He leaps from the branch, up above the canopy, in a desperate attempt to escape.
The dragon roars again.
Even from a distance the size of a flaming dragon head shooting up out of the tree tops and into the night sky should be plainly visible.
The armored figure curses, breathing heavily, Sharingan glaring in the darkness. The amount of Chakra she has put into taking down this one guy without actually taking him down is disgusting. What's more frustrating than her failure is the fact that he seems to just barely be dodging each time. She KNOWS they're wearing him down, and yet he's still managing to react at the last possible second to avoid them. At this rate, even though he should be even more exhausted than they are, she is beginning to think he might outlast them.
"How can someone so stupidly agile exist in this world? He has to be nearly running on empty!" Uchiha Suzuha complains as she leaps up into the trees after her fleeing quarry, tracking his Chakra and his movements in the darkness as easily as though he were lit up with a neon sign. She has been using her strongest Fire Style over and over, and it's beginning to take its toll, but she has to ensure that when she hits him, it's enough to make him stop moving for good. That means hitting him as hard as she can.
She draws her gunbai from her back, a chain extending from her the base of the handle. She'll conserve Chakra a little bit until her ally can take him down. Maybe what raw fire power isn't accomplishing, a little bit of Genjutsu can manage.
"Try to keep up, Okaa-san." Suzuha snaps as she leaps up into the air, throws her war fan out with enough force to sever multiple tree branches in a row, and then forms hand seals quickly before unleashing a billowing ball of flame to try to set the tree tops ablaze. If he can't land again, that will keep him in the air, and his silhouette against the starry sky will be an easier target with less cover than if he gets back down on the forest floor.
It had been a long, long day for a certain pickler. Safe to say much was done, which resulted in the man now planted on the grass against a thick trunk of tree. Leaning up against the thing in near exhaustion, the man moves his elbows so that they rest on the tops of his crossed legs. Despite the cool nature of the evening, wweat appears to roll off his cheek, sliding over the various scratches that look to be raw and new. "**** it… Where is she…" He mutters allowed, before the sounds of something epic catch his attention.
The flaming dragon lights up the night sky like fireworks. Forget trained shionbi-ness. That stuff was noticeable to even the most simple of simpletons!
With a heavy breath he squints, looking upwards as the fiery beast coils and writhes about before dissipating. For a long moment he sort of watches, perhaps entranced or hypnotised by the finesse of the technique. Then the man gets to his feet. With a grimace his eyes narrow, before he pushes off the ground and takes to the tree branches.
With a rush of movement he closes in, sturdy boots landing upon trees before pushing forward once more. His tattered cloak billows about him, the cool night air filled with the occasional breeze to blow it in a certain direction.
"Please don't die." He mutters under his breath.
«OOC» Goh says, "This is actually going to tie in very well with something else I had. :D"
The Sunagakure ninja can barely land without the very branches he lands on exploding into flames, the war fan sending said flaming branches flying at him like burning javelins, keeping him just barely angling his jumps to land on the edges of the fields of licking orange and yellow that send him so much heat is eyes water reflexively to protect themselves. Eventually, his leap carries him just a bit too far and he drops down right through an opening in the canopy and into a waiting mass of flaming branches on the way down. He curls himself into a ball to reduce how much of him gets burned, but his harsh landing doesn't do him any favors.
He staggers and stumbles, looking around in a panic for the scroll he was carrying, which slipped from his grasp as he 'cannonballed' out of the sky and directly into the ground, even before he inspects his own condition, and spots it partially unrolled, lying at the foot of a tree. He scrambles towards it, barely able to breathe, only for a sandalled foot to lash out at him.
Once again, just barely by the skin of his nose, he brings up his arms in time to absorb most of the blow, but it sends him hurtling back, rolling across the ground until he slams into a tree. The foot that kicked him lowers as its owner keeps her eyes on the subject. Taking the time out to examine the scroll would involve removing her attention from the spy.
She considers waiting until her daughter catches up, but this man has proven to be abnormally evasive and adept at escape. If she lets up for a moment, he'll probably improvise some method of escape. There's presently some thorny rose brushes off to the man's side, along the edge of a steep cliff, dropping off into the forest below. He's probably going to try to go over it if he feels he can't retrieve the scroll. And once he's out of line of sight, he'll probably try to lose them in the denser foliage.
Uchiha Tsugumi isn't sure she can prevent him from going over the edge one way or another, if she attacks him with one of her own strongest Ninjutsu, so she chooses the method that will hopefully just make him stop moving completely.
Her Sharingan flares bright red, and the ninja tenses up all over before slumping onto his side, looking like he's fighting just to remain conscious. Getting hit with a paralyzing Genjutsu with how low his stamina must be might very well be rendering him close to passing out.
"Over here!" Tsugumi calls out. She isn't going to use giant fireballs as a signal. Her voice should carry well enough on its own.
Suzuha is chasing down her prey, but she finds her own pursuit is thwarted by the same maze of flaming branches she created to trap him once he actually drops through it despite the injuries he'll suffer. She curses some more before using her fan to try to put out some of the flames with a mighty sweep of the weapon. Once she has reduced some of the blaze to just smoldering leaves and smoke she leaps down and starts trying to make up for lost time.
Thankfully, she hears the sound of her mother's voice and starts closing in on it, her lungs hurting from over-exertion and her lips slightly burnt from way too much fire in too short a time frame. Her long mane of hair trails out behind her like a rage black storm cloud on its way to rain devastation on someone unfortunate, but her eyes burn with the intensity, the predatory need, of someone who has been denied a clean victory over and over and now might have had that stolen from her by her own team mate.
He better still be alive, so she can make him pay for this gruelling chase.
Thk. Thk. Thk.
Those are the sounds of a shinobi pressing down on branches of oak, using them to springboard further towards the fray. Much to the chagrin of this ninja, the action appears to be settling down. The array of fire techniques are gone, as are the sounds of combat. But enough was made for him to get a lock in on the location.
It's difficult to sneak up on women with the qualities of Suzuha and Tsugumi. Truthfully, it's entirely likely that they could both hear him coming at great speed. A sort of 'presence'; a force in the darkness.
Then, his feet have touched the ground.
Entering the small clearing from the tops of a nearby tree, Goh carries with him a wind of momentum that sweeps across the two Uchiha females. His cloak billows at the sudden stopping power that he exudes, the figure bent slightly at the knees and elbows — fists clenched tightly. A few veins can be seen pulsing down his neck, his face painting an expression of deadly seriousness. Certainly a bit different than the travelling merchant.
Then, he blinks, perhaps recognising the two. "Huh?" His head tilts, as he moves to relax and stand up straight. "Tsugumi and Suzuha?" A a sigh of relief is made, his shoulders hunching a tad. "Thank heavens."
Then, he notices the Sunagakure shinobi stunned. "Er." He pauses. "Sorry if I'm interupting anything."
Tsugumi isn't a sensor, but with her vast amount of battle field experience, she has a sensitivity to some things. 'The feeling of being watched', 'killing intent', 'something being wrong', or even just 'attention' focused on her. Sixth, seventh, eighth, and more senses that are esoteric, abstract, and not really something one can consciously control. One can not 'scan' for killing intent. One either feels it or one doesn't, because it's either there or it's not.
Feeling a 'presence' approach, despite her ability to sense Chakra being rather unrefined due to relying more on her eyes for that sort of thing, she narrows her Sharingan-bearing eyes as she continues to keep her attention focused on the man lying against the tree, watching him struggle against his strengthless body, and hearing Suzuha approaching as well.
Once Suzuha has arrived, and then Goh shortly afterwards, only then does Tsugumi take her eyes off the Sand ninja and look at the new arrival. Her eyes widen mildly in surprise at seeing him, before furrowing her brow in confusion and maybe even a little bit of suspicion at finding him here. "Goh-san. What a surprise." She glances towards Suzu briefly, and then back to Goh. "I didn't think that you were in the area." According to her Sharingan, his Chakra looks the same, and his attire, but it's slightly… Different in its appearance and feel. It's still Goh's Chakra, but something subtle about it, at least for a few moments, distinguishes it from what she felt last time she saw him.
Maybe it's just her imagination though. It has been a long night.
The Sand ninja manages to just barely lift his head with an enormous effort to try to see who the new arrival is, straining and scarcely keeping his eyes open. Is this someone come to his rescue or reinforcements that will seal his fate? Can he use them to escape somehow?
In a hoarse, low tone, he gets out, "Tsu… gumi? Suzu… ha?" He looks to the red-armored kunoichi. "You mean that's not… Uchiha… Madara…?" Seems he mistook the one who wishes to follow in the man's footsteps for the genuine article. In this dark, and as panicked as he must have been, and the resemblance between the two, and even the similar armament, jutsu, and Chakra feel… It's hard to blame him.
Tsugumi looks back at the ninja but continues to address Goh. "A spy attempted to steal information from the Hidden Leaf. He's proven very difficult to pin down. But don't worry, everything is under control now." She then turns her back on Goh and focuses on the prone shinobi.
"I intend no offense, Goh-san, but it might be better if you didn't get involved and forgot you saw any of this. And it would be best if you didn't see anything else that might happen."
Suzuha arrives to find the man still alive, but incapacitated. It looks like he fell to Tsugumi's Genjutsu after all. Angrily, she feels the urge to go over and kick the guts out of the man, but suppresses it. She is not a cruel person. At least not right now. As much hate as she has, as much desire for retribution she may possess, she still has values, morals, and people who anchor her in love and forgiveness. But increasingly, her tolerance for outsiders who disrupt and destroy her home wears thin.
Then Goh suddenly arrived, his cloak billowing, exuding power, and Suzuha falls into a fighting stance despite her fatigue, war fan turned so that it can act as shield or weapon at a moment's notice. When she recognizes Goh, it is not until he stands upright, identifies Suzuha and Tsugumi correctly, and acts bewildered by the circumstances he finds himself in now.
His 'serious mode' is so different from her one-time encounter with this person that it's like it's two separate shinobi. Where Tsugumi may have had a brief moment of suspicion about Goh being present, perhaps an ally of the spy, someone who was to receive that scroll, Suzu's eyes are narrowed with suspicion of Goh as a person. His motives, his true identity, who he really is. She does not relax just because she sees who he is now. If the Chakra wasn't the same, she might have suspected a henge of some kind first, but she's already discarded that.
"What are you doing out here?" she asks pointedly, perhaps stepping beyond her bounds as a Genin who is much younger than Goh, but having little patience for subterfuge after a night like this.
The mis-identification by the Sand ninja has her cast a cold look towards him, before remarking airily, "Aa. I follow in his foot steps, but you should be glad I'm not him. If I was, you'd have been dead hours ago." Not that she knows exactly how strong Madara is, but she has a very high opinion of his capabilities, and no one has thus far been able or willing to put forth a counter-argument for them.
She looks down at the big scroll at her mother's feet, half-unrolled, and strides towards it, reaching out a hand before pausing and looking it over. Feigning being under the influence of Genjutsu, or trapping the scroll somehow to make recovering it destroy it or provide a distraction or something like that would be just the kind of sneaky tactic she'd expect from this spy.
She is careful to search for any signs of foreign Chakra in or on the scroll itself, including paper tags, seal formulas, or the like, before messing with it further. She wonders what's on the scroll that was so important and starts to unroll it slowly and carefully. Is it a map of their fortifications or something?
Breathing heavily, Goh's muscles loosen and relax from their tensed state. The suspicion of Suzu is warranted, so he doesn't dare put a foot out of line. Though the Madara comment earns a wry smile, followed by a nod by the Genin's reply. Pursing his lips, his eyes glance to to the Sunagakure shinobi who repeats the names of the Uchiha.
Lifting up his hands to Tsugumi, the man nods cleanly. "I understand." Goh was good friends with the Kazekage. That much was known. Thus it wouldn't surprise him if Tsugumi knew that and was wary of his own interference. "I don't mean to press in on your mission. I saw the fire techniques from a far way away and…" He stops, lifting a hand to rub his head in exasperation. "It's been a long day." That sort of answers Suzu's question, but not really. With a huff, Goh takes a couple of steps away. Not willing to get involved in ANY Village agenda.
But then, he stops. Turning attention back to Tsugumi and Suzu, he points his finger to the north. "On second thought. You should both meet with me as soon as you're done here. Five clicks that way. There's something you both need to know. I'll be waiting." And with that, he's gone. It's done so with a flicker of movement, the most-of-the-time merchant fleeing from the clearing to venture northward.
The scroll indeed has some paper tags plastered onto it as a precaution. Removing them safely will take time, and in the meanwhile the scroll itself can't be unrolled all the way. But from what Suzuha can see of it, it has some sort of jutsu inside of it. This isn't something the Sand ninja recorded, it's something he stole. And it seems it's a very valuable set of information.
Tsugumi looks to Suzu, and then to Goh as the latter makes the request to join him. She waits until Goh is gone before saying anything else, then says, "…Go after him now. I'll be along shortly." Expecting some kind of protest, she turns her fierce gaze on her daughter to pre-empt it and says, "That is an order." She waits until she receives acknowledgement and gives Suzu some time to put some distance between them.
Then she says to the spy, aware that her Genjutsu may wear off or be broken out of if the enemy is given enough time, "You should be glad that he showed up. As a favor to an old friend, you'll be returning to your own Village."
Surprise, disbelief, confusion, anger, and hope all flash across the man's face in rapid succession, every emotion he's feeling evident. In his weary state, even someone trained to be a tool, a living weapon, might expose what is in his heart for a moment. "…Really? You'll really let a spy go free?" He doubts it's as simple as that. He tilts his chin to his chest to look up at Tsugumi more easily, regaining more of his motor controls over time, just as Tsugumi feared. "…But not before you get… Information… Is that right?"
The man barks out a hoarse laugh that turns into a coughing fit. "You'll get nothing from me… Even with your cursed Sharingan… You might as well kill me now. Or else…" Then he suddenly leaps up, surging towards Tsugumi, three finges on his right hand having broken underneath him by pressing them the wrong way into the ground while he lay there.
He pulls open his cloak and reveals explosive tags all over his vest. "…I'll take you with me!"
It's half distraction, half desperation move. Because as Tsugumi moves to respond to the sudden attack, she hears the sizzling of the paper tags on the jutsu scroll activating as well. She can't both preserve the scroll and preserve herself as the same time can she!?
There's the sound of multiple explosions that might be heard in the distance by Suzu and Goh both, and smoke rising towards the sky from the edge of the cliff where Tsugumi and the spy were last seen.
…A jutsu? Some secret technique? Suzuha can't see all of it, but from what she can see, she recognizes some things about it… She thinks to herself, '…This is…?' Then she notices the paper tags. Trapped after all. "Tch." When Goh says he has stuff to tell them when they're done here, and to join him north, she has to wonder if it's a trap of some kind. If he's willing to sacrifice this one ninja to lure the two of them into a larger group, or something, then there might be a chance at recovering the scroll for whatever diabolical ends he has. Or maybe he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's a friend of her mom's right? And her dad's? If Ken trusted Goh…
Suzu's suspicion wavers. Maybe she doesn't know Goh well, but if he's an ally, and a friend of the family, she may be judging him too harshly. He's not an outsider, right? Before she consider the possibility of apologizing to Goh, he has departed, and moments later, Tsugumi is telling her to go after him.
She snaps her head up, eyes questioning, mouth ready to protest but the look in her mother's eye tells her this isn't the time to second-guess the team leader. She closes her mouth, a bit annoyed at being given an 'order', but that's just latent resentment over it being her mother. She knows that intellectually, no matter what her emotions are telling her.
So she leaves the scroll where it lies and takes off after Goh, headed north. She races along until she catches some kind of sight of him, if any, but before she's able to call out to him either due to not being near enough yet to see him, or because she doesn't have the chance before Things happen, the sound of explosions from back where she just was fill the air.
She turns suddenly, knee-length hair whipping around like a black cape following the movement of her head and peers off in the distance. She looks very HARD in that direction, and debates whether to go back or not. Even a powerful shinobi can be taken down if caught off guard, right? And that spy repeatedly surprised them, over and over, with his ignenuity.
She tightens her grip on the handle of her gunbai, paralyzed by indecision. The fear of potentially losing another person important to her almost overpowering all other possible decisions and responses she could make.
Joining Goh is barely on her thoughts, but she remembers the order she was given.
For now though… She just waits, each moment creeping by making the fear within her grow.
The night air is cool on Goh's skin as he traverses across the branches. The sweat that rolled down his skin before has started to evaporate, his body now much more relaxed and cool than it was only fifteen minutes ago. He's calmed right down. That is, until…
KABOOOM!
While Goh had barely noticed Suzu on his tail until the last minute, the colossal explosion that rocks the ground and shakes the trees can be felt to his very bones. While his eyes widen a smidge in reaction, the pickler continues to move with pace. He does grant himself a look over his shoulder though, spotting Suzuha stopping in her pursuit. Just beyond her the large cloud of smoke and debris caused from the suicidal attack can be seen filling the night sky. Normally it wouldn't be too visible, but the moon is near full tonight. It provided just enough light to see what was happening.
Unlike Suzu, Goh doesn't stop. Through the corner of his eye he watches the explosion dissipiate, before turning back around to face forwards and continue. ****! Looks like he has a cold heart after all.
The smoke clears gradually, spilling upwards from a point about… A dozen feet in the air? A stationary one as well. The Sand ninja is grappling with the arm holding him up off the ground by the front of his shirt, wincing as he struggles to break free but lacking the strength after his lengthy flight through the woods and his various injuries that have accumulated to become debilitating.
Tsugumi is standing before him, her eyes closed. "You're only making this harder on yourself. You're just lucky it's me you're dealing with. If you'd destroyed that scroll, I would have had to take back my word to return you to your Village." Blood is dripping down the mature kunoichi's face.
The Sand ninja widens his eyes slightly in surprise. Then they widen even more when he sees the state of his captor.
Her eyes are blazing a molten crimson, and within each is a design different from a standard Sharingan. Instead of three tomoe arranged in a circle, there are a pair of black lotus-like markings within each.
The ninja notices a strange blue glow emanating from Tsugumi, and follows it back from its origin point, the aura engulfing Tsugumi, to see that his paper bombs that were on the scroll have been nailed to trees and the ground by Chakra constructs of some kind, akin to shuriken, destroying the seals emblazoned on each to keep them from activating. What appears to be a huge skeletal hand made of the same dark blue Chakra lies over the scroll, shielding it. His eyes continue to work their way along the aura of visible Chakra, up and up, and up and up and up, along the full length of a long boney arm, that ends in a fist of Chakra above both ninja, with smoke spilling from within its closed palm.
The Sand ninja sees though in his mind's eye what happened. Somehow, this jutsu, whatever it is… Tsugumi used it to shoot the paper tags off the jutsu scroll and then cover it to make sure no damage came to it, and with her other hand she cut off his vest right up the center with the kunai she holds in her hand. Then a second Chakra construct grabbed him by the back of his vest and pulled it off of him, before raising the paper bomb-covered garment up into the air and closing around it to muffle the explosions.
He doesn't understand why it seems that Tsugumi is injured or what the nature of this jutsu is, but his attention is drawn back to the present quickly enough as the Chakra constructs begin to errode and disappear in wisping blue flames after the Uchiha Jounin flinched a little bit.
She raised her other hand to grab him by the throat and pull his face down so that he's looking directly into her eyes.
The world goes blank for the Sunagakure spy. Whenever he awakens, it will be alone, with no sign of enemies or his mission objective… Or any memory of what exactly happened here, beyond a vague impression of being attacked, and a compulsion to go home.
Right as Suzu is about to head back, she sees the incredibly dense Chakra with her Sharingan. She does not recognize the jutsu, but she recognizes the Chakra as being the same coloration of Chakra as when her mother used her Mangekyou Sharingan. She didn't know Tsugumi could do something like this. She thought it was only Genjutsu… Despite her decision not to seek that power, her resolve that it wasn't worth it if it meant losing the ones she wanted to protect with it, for a brief moment she wishes she could wield a tool that great. It would make saving everyone a lot easier, she's sure.
Convinced that her mother will be okay, she turns back around, putting her gunbai into place on her back, and resumes following after Goh, hurrying to catch up with him. Hopefully she'll be able to close the distance quickly, and find out what exactly he wants. But a wriggling concern in her mind is gaining traction.
That ninja, skilled as he was, was still just one spy. Why would the Hidden Sand have sent a single ninja for a task like this? The answer is they probably didn't. So where was the rest of his team? Who else was helping him, and why hadn't they made themselves known?
The answer is maybe they already have. As Goh's broad back comes into view, her decision to give him a chance and not assume the worst of him seems more and more foolish. Until she has reason to trust him, she can't afford to give him the benefit of the doubt in this situation. If he's innocent, she'll apologize to him herself. But right now, to assume he's NOT an enemy just because of a past friendship with Suzuha's parents would be to invite him to stab her in the back.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" she says when she's within speaking range. "My team leader will be joining us shortly."
"Don't fret, kid." Goh replies cheekily to the question from Suzu, turning his head a bit when he notices her resume the chase. "You'll find out soon enough."
The rest of the trip is made without much conversation from Goh. He remains in near silence, hair and clothes flapping in the wind as he leads the way to their destination. After a few minutes of travelling, the pickler lands with a soft thud on grass. A small clearing had opened up before he and Suzu, providing enough room for a small team to meet and gather. With a huff as he collects his breath, Goh leans back — hands gripped on his hips with face pointed towards the sky. "Pheewww! I don't think I've had to travel like this for months! I forgot how much it kills your back. All that jumping from branch to branch. Ugh." Rubbing the knots of muscle on the back of his hip, the pickler moves to sit down.
"You were really worried about your Mum, huh?" He asks, leaning back casually. Propping himself up on his palm, his spare hand lifts to dig a pinky finger into his ear. It wiggles around, the man appearing quite nonchalant as he waits. "Well, don't worry. For a mug like that, she won't have any issues. No matter what the surprise is, she'll be able to handle it." As he moves to stretch his neck, the man takes this opportunity to look the young Uchiha female up and down.
"You really do look a lot like Madara, don't you?" The way he says it sounds as if it's coming from someone who has actually /seen/ him before. And not just through pictures. The hand that was wiggling around his ear moves to rub his chin. "I'm sure the Senju clan just /love/ that. Heh." His mouth coils up into a wry smirk.
Tsugumi is worn out after all that. Even trying to restrain her usage of that power, her Chakra levels are low. Her whole body is sore too. Like she was drawing power from every cell. She wipes her eyes and face to clear the blood from them, using the reflection of the moonlight off her kunai to see herself and make sure she's presentable. Stopping alongside a chilly stream momentarily to wash away any trace of her using her Susano'o adds a little bit more time before she catches up with Goh and Suzu, but eventually, having more trouble finding her way in the dark than she's used to (though perhaps the fact her Sharingan is no longer active is a factor), she should come close enough to hear voices at least.
From there it's just a matter of orienting on them and heading towards them.
Suzu tilts her head forward a bit, looking at Goh carefully. The dismissal of her as 'kid' doesn't get an annoyed response as one might expect from her. Perhaps she's not as short-tempered as she appears to be. That would be good, if so. It means perhaps she's more level headed, which could aid her in not making… Unfortunate decisions out of passion.
Or maybe she just doesn't see being called 'kid' as an insult by someone much older than her.
"Who cares if it bothers them? If they don't like being reminded of their failure to work together, then maybe they should have tried harder. Or maybe they could start trying to include the Uchiha in the governing process instead of excluding us. We're fellow citizens of the Land of Fire, and residents of the Hidden Leaf." She flips her hair over one shoulder off-handedly and dismissively. "Besides, I have a tiny little Senju bedbug who keeps following me around trying to learn from me. So they aren't all close-minded. I may not like their Clan much, but I haven't had any problems with their individual members so far. They knew my father and Uchiha Madara came from the same bloodline. If I take after my relative in my appearance, that can't be helped, can it?"
Suzuha is quiet for a moment, looking off into the darkness, then says, "More importantly…" Her eyes still bearing that black-on-crimson design, swivel towards Goh. "…I don't think the Hidden Leaf as a whole would be too happy to find out a former ally has been collaborating with an enemy. You see, we just had an advisor to the Hokage involved in that sort of thing. My father lost his life as a result of that ridiculous conspiracy, and many other shinobi of the Leaf as well." She turns her face and gaze fully on Goh, the hair over her right eye parting under an unfelt updraft. Chakra flows up from her feet, all the way to her head, a body-tight current that seems to lend motion to the motionless.
"So… Tolerance for traitors is at an all time low. With that in mind, I'll ask again." She narrows her eyes, and that Chakra that's been held so close to her suddenly radiates outwards like a wave of freezing needles. Icy rain drops that sting when they hit. "What do you have to say?"
Her attempt at intimidation might not be effective. She is likely weaker than Goh despite her rapid growth. But the intensity of her spirit is there. Though her loyalty seems to be with the Leaf instead of just her own Clan. And that is at least, even if not much, a modicum better than the motivations of the man she emulates.
"You're preaching to the choir." He replies to Suzuha regarding her comments about the various interactions between clans. "I think you'll find that the younger generation is much more tolerant as a whole towards each other." The show of strength from Suzuha is appreciated for what it is, at the very least. Though Goh doesn't quite freeze in fright at the display, he doesn't quite brush it off as nothing either. In fact, he looks back to Suzu dead on, eyes of blue steel staring right back into the Uchiha's own. A small smile comes across his face, where his eyes close. "You don't have to be worried about me." He says simply. "I admire your guts, kid. And your passion. But save it for someone who deserves it. I haven't wronged you, your clan, or the Village."
When Tsugumi arrives in her weary state, Goh stands back up. Pretending as if he saw nothing regarding this secret scroll OR the Sunagakure shinobi, he nods a head in greeting at her arrival. "Welcome back, Tsugumi. Suzu and I were having a nice little chat. She's pretty keen to know what's going on." He pauses, looking her the Uchiha Mum in an assessing way. "You alright?" A hand goes to his hip, where he frowns mildly. Maybe he didn't give this Sunagakure shinobi enough credit!
Tsugumi catches the tail end of the conversation as she walks into the area. She uses Goh's earlier words in response to his question. "It's been a long night." Then she looks towards Suzu and says, "Suzuha, I understand your feelings. And it's reasonable to be suspicious after everything that's happened. But if Goh-san says he wasn't involved…" She turns her attention on him. And it's a different sort of intensity. The kind of look only a mother can give, that can make someone feel guilty even if they haven't done anything, and if they HAVE done something, it's the kind of look that can make someone squirm. "…Then I'll believe him."
She folds her arms under her chest and leans against a tree, taking the opportunity to seem nonchalant and relaxed to actually catch her breath. "And I heard you mention back pain from leaping through the trees. Perhaps you should invest in some armored support." She hefts her bust with her forearms to show how little it moves, and casts a glance at Suzu's own armor designed with similar purposes in mind. "For your back, I mean."
At least someone other than Goh can joke a little bit in a situation like this. Perhaps her extreme seriousness has worn away a bit with age. When she was younger, she was much like Suzu is now. Always fixated on the mission, and rarely able to crack a genuine smile except for certain people who could draw it out of her. People like Goh and Ken.
Putting the thought aside, she says, "I'd like to say you can take your time, but I think we could all use some sleep, and I'll need to file a report when I get back. So, WITHIN REASONABLE LIMITS, take your time." She gives Goh a small, friendly smile, and waits for him to be ready to talk.
Suzu's expression is cold rather than angry at Goh's response, though when her mother joins them that intensity wanes, eventually coiling back inside of her like tendrils slipping back into some deep sea cave after stretching out towards a swimmer who had strayed too far from shore. At the admonishment, she just calmly says, "I had to test him. It was a bit too coincidental that someone else would be out here at this exact moment, when we haven't seen any trace of the spy's team or any allies, and on top of that, someone WAS just trying to frame him recently. Akuu Goh being here right now could have meant a lot of things." She looks back to Goh. "Including an imposter." Even though she'd already mentally dismissed that as a likelihood after comparing the man's Chakra to what she saw before.
But she has only met him once, that she can recall. It's possible she missed something, and it's not like there aren't people who can alter their Chakra. Saori is working on something just like that, infact. Chakra decoys to lead enemies astray or some such.
Even so, her story isn't quite the truth, and she looks away as Goh and her mother exchange pleasantries, waiting for whatever this is about to finally be discussed.
"You want me to wear boob armour?" Goh replies, deadpanning a bit. "I'd be the butt of all the jokes, Tsugumi. It's not that bad. I'm just an old man." Chuckling in amusement, he nods. "Alright. Obviously I can't tell you much because of… er, secretness. But I'll tell you as much as I can." Glancing up to the sky for thoughts on how to explain, he looks to both Suzuha and Tsugumi.
"Today I ran an op that involved taking down a group that had kidnapped shinobi that possessed various blood line limits. I'm not talking just about Konohagakure clans, either. I'm talking clans from Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure and Iwagakure. A fair few prisoners in total, all kept deep undeground." The gravity of what he speaks is intense, of that there is little doubt. Kidnapping clansmen was a serious crime. Enough to ruffle the feathers of many and destabilize relationships. "I'm currently on my way back to Konoha. Where this all happened isn't far from where you were conducting your own mission. They're not related."
"Amoung them, I have found three Uchiha." To demonstrate, he lifts up three fingers. His thumb, index and middle finger. "Tsugumi, given your position in the Uchiha clan, I'd like to return them to you. Normally I'd return them to the Hokage, but…" A hand rubs the back of his neck. "Well. That's another story. I'd prefer to bring them back to the clan leaders and tell the Hokage separately."
Letting all that sink in, he folds arms across his chest. "If you don't want to involve yourself with this, I understand. I can continue on my original goal to just deliver them straight back into the Village."
Tsugumi's expression darkens a bit, and her Sharingan rekindles to life like a pair of embers burning in the dark. "Goh-san… I'm nine years older than you. Who exactly do you think you're calling old when you call yourself an 'old man'?" Ah, that's where Suzu gets the menacing aura from. Though Tsugumi is a little bit… Scarier somehow. In a very different way. When Goh changes subjects to the matter of why he's out here and what he's been doing, Tsugumi focuses on that, moving to take a seat on any boulder or stump or log available so she consider the implications.
"The Bombers," she begins. "Were also an organization that used ninja from many countries, including Kekkei Genkai shinobi. And they seemed interested in obtaining Uchiha as well. Or at least usable Sharingan." She looks up as she folds her hands together, fingers up in front of her mouth, and rests her lips against their tips. "They were the terrorist organization that was attacking us, and got their name from using rogue Toujitakumi initially. But they proved to have more diverse assets than Explosion Style. A collaboratoe within the Hidden Leaf was getting them access to things they shouldn't have been able to access. We had no idea what their motivations were for their attacks, and we thought we'd disassembled the leftovers months ago, at a certain cave."
She closes her eyes as she thinks. 'Could they have been pawns of some other organization? Was their true intent the collection of Kekkei Genkai shinobi the entire time?' She is quiet for awhile, not answering Goh's inquiry about what to do. Eventually, she says, "These Uchiha you rescued are somewhere nearby? Are they in condition to talk? Do you have any information about who might have been behind this? How did you find out about all this? Who has been helping you? Who else have you told? And most crucially…" Her eyes snap open, just basic black again, but no less serious. "…Are you sure they were actually kidnapped?"
Suzu remains silent this time. She intends to listen and learn. That someone is taking people from her Village REALLY enrages her, makes her want to go off on a path of destruction until she takes down those responsible and saves everyone, but this isn't the time for that kind of thing. She needs to know the situation, who they're up against, how widespread they are, and so on. And there's what her mother has said too.
Though that final thing makes her lower her eyebrows sharply. "What do you mean?" She doesn't wait long for a clarification before pressing for more information. "Are you saying these Uchiha could have been complicit? Rogues or something?" She puts one hand on her hip and raises her thumb to her mouth. "It's true that it would be hard to keep trained Uchiha shinobi under lock and key if they have any access to their Sharingan. You'd need drugs or a sealing jutsu or brain washing of some kind. And if they've been subjected to any of that, then bringing them back to the Village could mean bringing sleeper agents right into our midst."
She chews her thumb a bit more harshly, a bad habit of hers when she's thinking, and says, "And I haven't heard anything about any missing Uchiha. That's the sort of thing that would have caused an uproar within the Clan. So either we didn't know they were gone, or they weren't part of the Village to begin with. …And Goh-san said there were other shinobi with other Kekkei Genkai? Using the Sharingan to keep other 'abductees' under control would be useful for people trying to control ninja with lots of strange abilities. Definitely more useful than trying to keep everyone sealed or drugged constantly."
She drops her hand from her mouth and looks to Goh. "I suppose we should hear your answers first before leaping to conclusions, but I'd want to make sure to talk to these kidnap victims first before bringing them anywhere. If necessary, asking the Uchiha Clan Head to come out here with some back-up might be an option. There's too much to leave to chance. We don't even know yet whether you actually rescued them or whether you were 'allowed' to rescue them after all."
Goh doesn't answer the questions until Tsugumi has finished asking all of them. He remains tight lipped about the organization in detail. In fact, he says nothing about any group by name or structure. "Yes, they're nearby. They're physically fine. A few scrapes and wounds from skin samples taken from them. Mentally they're a bit shot, as you'd expect any prisoner to be. Confused. Frightened." He pauses at that, glancing to Suzuha.
"They did not allow me to escape. Half of the group I managed to wipe out. The other half managed to get away through the cracks like a pack of slimey snakes." Goh scowls.
"I found out about all this because they tried to take /me/. I'm the last of the Akuu, and they wanted my clan genes as well. When I turned them down, they tried to take me by force. It wasn't tricky from there to find out where the main hideout was." His brow furros in thought. "I'm assuming they were kidnapped, yes. Because they tried the same on me. These aren't mature adults they're taking." He claifies, mostly to Suzuha. "We're talking young shinobi. Weaker members of the clan. Just enough to not cause a ripple. I doubt these guys can barely utilize their sharingan. Heck, they may not even be ninja." He shrugs. "If they decided to leave on their own accord, it was likely because they were brainwashed or fooled into it. But I echo with your question. So does the Kazekage. She is currently looking into why she was not informed, or how she and the clan did not know that people of the Miira clan were gone."
"Mushi was with me." He confirms. "And they're not in a condition to talk at the moment. She gave them some medicine to put them to sleep while I got them back. Ideally they should be waking up in a couple of hours. Safe and sound back in Konoha." Adjusting in his stance a little, Goh bites on the end of his thumb.
Flying through a series of hand seals in utter moments, the pickler slams his hand down into the ground. POOF! A cloud of white smoke erupts into the air. When it dissolves, the figures of three large salamander can be seen standing upon each other. And then Goh on the very top.
Each salamander is about the size of a horse. They all have their thick trunks and slimey looking skin. The one on the bottom is clearly the heaviest, while the one on the top is the smallest. Given they were standing atop each other, that made sense!
Without an order said, each salamander opens its mouth and outstretches a long tongue. These tongues are thick and wide, stretching all the way down to the ground. The salamanders proceed to open their mouths even wider and proceed to spit out people. These people, each with black hair, slide down the tongues like a slippery dip and come to a gentle rest upon the ground. Funnily enough, they didn't look 'wet' or 'slimey'. Just normal.
The three Uchiha range in age from about twelve to fourteen. Two males and one female. None of them are dressed in shinobi attire. Two are wearing pyjamas. The other, the female, is wearing just normal civilian clothes. The pickler leaps off the top salamander to get back onto the ground.
"This enemy group weren't after the ninja as individuals. They were after their DNA. Their genes."
So this is different. Or at least appears to be on the surface. Even so, maybe she rushed to form connections where there weren't any. "Missing children, not causing any major ripples?" Tsugumi asks incredulously. She'll have to talk to Tatara about this. She doesn't think non-shinobi Uchiha children would be kidnapped without anyone being aware of it. And it sounds like the Hidden Sand has similar problems. 'The Hidden Sand…'
"…I wonder now, who the recent visitor we just had to deal with from the Land of Wind was acting upon orders from. It may be completely unrelated. But agents within the Hidden Sand facilitating and covering up these abductions makes more sense than the entire Miira Clan just being ignorant of what was happening." With some difficulty, Tsugumi pushes herself up onto her feet, the added weight she has to carry around becoming increasingly difficult to manage as she gets older. The fact Goh was complaining about HIS back still mildly annoys her, but compared to the problem they're facing, she is willing to put it aside.
Rubbing her lower back with one hand, the mature kunoichi says, "I'll signal ahead and begin making our way back to Konohagakure. Hopefully we'll have ANBU and someone from the Uchiha to meet us half-way to handle any examinations and inspections." Seeing these kids like this definitely bothers Tsugumi, but she's trying to keep her mind focused on business. "Even if the children aren't spies, witting or otherwise, there may be some method of tracking placed upon them. I don't want them getting abducted a second time, and there are those more qualified than me to identify something like that."
Tsugumi forces a smile and says, "Thank you for the information and your efforts to rescue everyone. I promise I'll make the most of it."
It seems they jumped to conclusions after all. Or Suzu did. Her mother was just asking questions. Maybe Suzu just wanted another chance to take a shot at the Bombers. Maybe she just wanted to believe it was them behind it, a single monolithic enemy that she could punish and punish for what they'd done to her, and what they'd taken from her. But there are lots of bad people in the world, it seems. They aren't all working together just because they're bad.
She has nothing further to say at this point. They'll wait until ANBU and Tatara have been filled in and looked the children over, but no reason not to begin the trip back with them. She looks at the unconscious figures, trying to figure out who is going to transport whom and how, without causing further injury.
But eventually, she pulls herself from the mire of her thoughts and says, "Thank you, Goh-san. And sorry for suspecting you." She's capable of showing humility. One more trait that separates her from her role model. One that she will hopefully retain.
"It wasn't just the Miira clan. Most clans from all the Villages have had people taken. No, I don't think this is from a Village…" He quietens down a little, rubbing his nose his thought. "…but the resources to pull this off are no doubt impressive. Clans don't just ignore missing people, like you guys said. The Kaguya had people taken too. They would never just let a rogue clansmen wander around. Ugh… the earful I'm going to get from Tsiro when I take them back…" He frowns, rubbing his face in mild anxiety. "I reckon there have been some clever substitutions going on. Or something like that." Shoulders roll into a shrug. "But I'm still piecing that all together. Tsugumi and Suzuha, both of you cannot breathe a word of this to anyone outside of your clan head. Alright? I'm probably going to get into trouble telling you all this instead of Daisuke, but…" He frowns. "Well. We're old buds, right Tsugumi? And I don't know or trust the Hokage enough with Uchiha younglings. You I know. You I trust." That's said as the Uchiha Mum begins to stand, eyes locking upon her form. Poor dear with all that baggage.
"The only other people who know about this are the Kage and respective heads of clan. That /cannot/ change. Can you imagine if the common villager knew about their clansmen going missing? It'd be total anarchy. They're going to start blaming old enemies. Other Villages. When in reality, that's probably not the case. Heck, for all we know that could have been one of the original objectives from this group when they started to do all this. To de-structure the Village system and spark another War."
Looking to Suzuha with some surprise at her apology, he waves a hand to dismiss the apology with a chuckle. "Eh eh, don't worry about it. I don't blame ya."
With tremendous THUMPS into the ground, the salamander break from their 'stack' formation. "These guys will help you bring the Uchiha kids back. They will go as far as to the Gates, but no further. I don't really want it out yet that I'm back in the ninja game." If he wasn't already.
"I might see you back at Konoha. I need to drop off the other Konoha shinobi that have taken to Daisuke. First though… I need to take a little detour." With a quick wave, Goh pushes into the ground and leaps away once more. The three salamander are left standing there, each one moving forward to grasp the unconscious Uchiha kids in their mouth. It looks a bit gross, but they are no doubt sturdy.
