Starring:
Rockpath (emitter), Yori, Hisomu, Nozomi
Date: July 3, 2015
Summary:
A team has been sent to investigate an up and coming group that seems to be following the ideas that seem to have stemmed from the Recluse, Silence, and many other groups.
"CopyCat Silent Recluses - Looking in the Mirror"
Land of Lightning
Now a Chuunin, Yori would get to lead missions without any other folks looking over his shoulder. His first mission happens to be something he's good at: Investigation and information gathering. The boy would get a map with his mission assignment, and he would also get a list of who he'd be working with. Yamayuki Nozomi and Hebisuuhai Hisomu have been selected to assist, mostly to give them more experience in fields they may not know. The more you know, the more useful you are, after all! And maybe the Genin can make a career out of one of the skills they learn about.
Wherever they are, messenger Hawks would find both Genin, giving them each the small scroll with the orders to meet at the gates. Nozomi's orders would also have the instructions: 'if there is combat, don't fight'. They weren't going to end up fighting, of course… Hopefully… But it's best to cover all bases.
Yori had his mission information and was all packed and ready to go in no time! Investigation he could do without much problem really, although being in charge of others was something he still really wasn't all that used to. But he would do as told and so he made his way to the gates to await the arrival of the others, looking over the map while he does so just to make sure it's fully committed to memory.
Arriving at the gate, Hisomu stretches her arms above her head as she shows up. She looks over at Yori at her arrival and nods to him, "Hey." She states simply and then frowns as she looks out beyond the gate. She glances at the scroll before saying to Yori, "What is the mission?" She hmms as she looks at him before looking back at the scroll again.
Happy to have something to do, even if the note curtails some of her duties, Nozomi makes her way to the gates after getting dressed. Her normal ninja kimono is present, though this one is of a lightly paler blue than normal. The skin of her face looks pulled taut, and she wears a bandana that covers the rest of her head. There's no hair showing, however, and the pouch on her belt is significantly longer than before. "Hello," she says as she approaches the others.
Yori looks up as the other two arrive as he bows deeply to them both. "Hello," he says in greeting, folding up his map and putting it back in his pouch before he starts explaining what's going on. "There is a group that is forming that is starting to act a lot like the Recluse and Silence before them. We're being sent out to investigate their main camp area to ascertain how large they've grown and see what other information we can gather. We'll be attempting to remain out of sight howeverMAIL so hopefully we can get in and out without any trouble."
A nod and then she hmms, "I see." Hisomu states and frowns before crossing her arms with a grumble. She shifts some slightly, seeming…slightly bothered by something as she looks down at herself before looking across to Nozomi, "You seem, unwell." She states and nods her head, "Are you ok?" She glances at Nozomi before looking over toward Yori a moment. She nods slightly, "Information to gather then?" She then sighs, "Well, I will see what I can do to curtail myself and focus only on investigation then."
Nozomi nods slowly as she takes in the information. "Hopefully we won't be caught by their guards then," she says with a slight smile, then a frown. She's been ordered not to fight, but running while her comrades fight doesn't exactly sit well with her. She then looks over to Hisomu and says, "I'm fine, at least somewhat. I'm recovering from an acid incident that happened during the invasion, so I'm in recovery."
Yori was a bit worried about Nozomi too, but he'd been informed of her condition and was going to be watchful of her for the mission. "If we should be discovered I would like you both to try and stay out of it. If it looks bad then return to the village with what information we've gathered and I will hold off any pursuit, understood?" He asks, glancing between them as he waits for their agreement before he nods and turns towards the village exit. "Alright then, let's start." And with that he starts off in the direction the map showed, running at a moderate pace but not overly fast considering the recovering one.
A blink and she nods, "I'm sorry to hear that. I was able to be protected by my earth jutsu." She nods her head and looks over at Nozomi, "I apologize aobut your situation." Hisomu then looks to Yori and blinks, "I am no wilting flower." She states to Yori before nodding her head, "If a situation goes bad I will be able to handle myself." She nods again, "If your orders are to leave I will but do not think that you must protect me."
Nozomi sighs and shakes her head as she looks at Hisomu. "I don't think he's thinking of you as the person needing protection Hisomu. Rather, if there is combat, I'm under orders to retreat and to avoid it if at all possible. So if anything, you're not the delicate flower here, I am," she explains, not sounding inordinately thrilled about the idea. "If that happens, I'll do my best to not cause too much trouble for you." She'll follow the orders. She may not like them, but orders are orders, and she's thankful to even have some income right now.
The trip itself is rather quiet. At least while they leave Kumo's vicinity. Not many people like to mess with the Five Great Villages, after all. Eventually they are far enough away from Kumo that they begin to see wildlife. Most notably, a hungry mountain lion! It hasn't spotted them yet, as the wind is blowing the group's scent away from the cat. And it's facing away from them all…
Hungry mountain lions are something best worth avoiding. Not because they're all that scary to Shinobi, but it's better to not have to injure some of the Land of Lightning's wildlife. Yori motions for them to go wide around the creature before continuing on towards the designated area, making sure they all get out of the way of the mountainlion before continuing.
For her part, Hisomu listens. She could probably scare the living *&$& out of the creature but she doesn't htink that would work with them trying to be stealthy. She for her part is fine with Yori's plan and starts around it. She glances to Nozomi carefully before looking forward and moving along quietly.
Nozomi follows along, taking a cue from Yori when he diverts their path. Seeing the hungry mountain lion, she makes note and starts to pull out her temporary flute. At least the vendor had one that was not shiny. NO, a shiny flute would only attract attention, especially when she's trying to sneak aorund. It's times like these she particularly misses her bone flute…
Lucky for the team, they don't attract attention. Yay, Yori's plan worked! Now on with the mission! The hideout is actually in the spot where most of the escaped prisoners had hidden: the abandoned Windmill.
Yori notices the change in flutes once they start travelling again and he frowns a little, "What happened to your normal flute Nozomi-san?" He asks, more out of curiosity than any concern or anything. He just finds it a bit odd that she doesn't have it or anything! Once they near the location on the map Yori looks over his shoulders at the others briefly before waving them down into a crouch and then moving up to a large boulder that could easily hide all three of them. Not only that but it gives at least a partial view of the area where they're going so they can see what they can see. The boy peeks around the boulder, eyes scanning the area quickly.
Following after Yori, she peers back at Nozomi, examining her flute. She then looks back at the area ahead. She isn't so aware of Nozomi's flutes so she doesn't have much to say on the subject. She comes to a halt where Yori tells her to, stopping and then peering around at the place below. She squints at various spots, peering at the windmill wiht careful consideration.
Nozomi looks at the new flute and frowns slightly as her eyes appear to droop, though she's still keeping a good lookout for their surroundings. "It was destroyed by the wave of acid that hospitalized me," she says quietly. As they finally make thier way to their location, Nozomi appears to think things through for a moment, then settles on looking about. She keeps her new flute in her hand as she does. If this were her old flute, she'd be somewhat confident in using one of her new skills. As it is, she opts for not giving their position away.
Everyone's eyes gives them a decent view of the hideout. Two men are stationed out of the hideout, parts of it barely kept in place by stacked boulders. Two other men are walking around the compound, just chatting. All of them have swords with them, but Yori would be able to note that they seemed more decorative than anything. The men walking with them seemed to fumble a bit with them on.
Yori scans the men and the compound as well as he can from where they are before ducking back behind the boulder to look at the other two. Sure, he can see what he can see, but that doesn't help with the other two who may want to learn from this. "What do you both see?" He asks in a quiet tone, though at this distance he'd probably have to yell and scream to actually be heard by anyone.
Leaning forward a little, Hisomu peers at the various things she can see before she frowns and shakes her head, "Disorganized." She nods he rhead, "No discipline." She frowns and looks to Nozomi before looking over at Yori, "Who are these people?"
"Judging by the way they're just patrolling the clearing, and the fact the only noticeable patrol is just blithely chatting along, and not particularly paying attention, I'd say we have a group of rank ameteurs here," Nozomi comments quietly. "If I were in fighting prime, I would say we would have little problem taking them out. I'm tempted to fade back a little and try to see if they have anyone further patrolling anywhere near us, but I'm unsure of my equipment, and mindfult that this sight could be a trap."
"The information we had said they were a new orginazation, so it's possible they don't have much. Yet, even for a new orginazation they do seem a little lax. Either it's a trick of some sort or they have no real leadership," Yori agrees with the assessments that the other two give before he looks around the boulder again. "We need to find a way to get a little further in and see what else they might have on the inside. Any ideas?"
A hmmm and then she thumbs toward Nozomi, "I say we do a little time watching. See if there's a patrol that comes out of the area. We take them down and then henge." She nods her head, "WE could slip in closer as a patrol?" She then looks at the place and then back at Hige, "Given what they look like it might not be so hard."
"I'm hesitant to use echolocation here due to their proximity, and my non-familiarity with present equipment. I would concur with some time-watching to judge their abilities further. I feel by observing for a while longer we can come up with better strategies."
Yori considers the thoughts before he nods, "Alright, that sounds like a good idea. If no one else comes back I want to take that chatty patrol and knock them out, then we'll find a way inside past the others and see what information we can gather." He looks to Nozomi and chews his cheek thoughtfully before he nods again, "That's probably smart. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."
Looking at the girl she blinks, "Echolocation?" She then considers that before her gaze goes back to Yori. She nods to him and then she settles into a spot and nods her head, "I'm prepared." She nods her head and then states, "I'll wait here." She then settles into her spot, "I think if we just wait we'll be fine."
Nozomi moves over a little and finds a spot to monitor from. "Echolocation, the art of using sound to sense things by the echoes and how long those echoes take to reach me. Bats use it a lot," She says with slight smile. As she settles in she says, "Okay, I'm set."
The team would wait and watch the men walk and chat. There didn't seem to be any incoming patrol for now. And unless they stuck around for an hour, they wouldn't see any but the four already there. Two would return from one of the closer towns, each of them with food and supplies.
Yori is patient and they would wait for quite some time, likely until the others returned. "Supply run. From the looks of it not that much for not many people. I'm starting to think this group isn't as big as the Village assumed. Still, better to check on it all than take a chance." He looks to Nozomi and nods slightly, "Use your echolocation. Should be able to draw some of them over. When they come I'm going to knock them out, then we'll go from there."
A nod to Yori and then Hisomu looks to Nozomi, "That sounds like a good plan." She nods her head, "Do not worry, I can bring them down fast." She nods also to Yori, "I can use my venom to drain them of their stamina to knock them out though I'll probably only be able to successfully get one at a time depending on how tough they are."
Nozomi nods slowly and puts her temporary flute to her lips. After running down the length of the flute a couple of times with hand seals, she forms a short, loud note that echoes through the area. Her eyes close as she waits to interpret the information she's getting. She really ought to practice tis more so she can do this with her eyes open. No use in getting into bad habits now, after all.
Nozomi wouldn't be able to sense much from that sound, probably because the technique is new and the flute is, too. But the baddies certainly hear it. They drop their things and make their way over to the sound, not even alerting the men who're at the compound. Clearly these guys are complete noobs.
Yori is peeking around the edge of the giant boulder when Nozomi uses the flute and is quite pleased with the outcome. They only come to check by themselves without informing anyone else. That would be their downfall. Yori motions for the other two to stay low and out of sight while he waits for the men to come over. Once they're out of sight of the other groups he drives a knee into the chin of one and comes down on the others head with his vambrace to put them out.
Hearing the noise, Hisomu peers at Nozomi carefully before moving up to her position. SHe focuses her chakra as she prepares to unleash her poisonous spit upon the enemy in order ot make them pass out and possibly just that instead of, well, kill them.
Nozomi takes a few steps back and tries to crouch down in the foliage, then pauses and changes her mind. Instead, she sits down on the ground and arranges herself to look like she's paused for a moment's rest. With her injuries, it definitely looks like she's a traveler who's seen her better days. In fact, she starts acting like she's trying to fiddle with her flute slightly so as to portray a clearer image.
The poor suckers don't even know what hit them! Down they go, though one of them looks like he's about to cry out when his head is smashed by Yori's vambrace. Thud… No one even realized they were back, so the team was free to do what they will with these two men. Naturally, if too much time passes, the 'guards' might get suspicious.
Yori drags the men to sit them up against the boulder, looking them over carefully to try and get their images firmly in his mind. "Okay. Hisomu-san and I will henge into these two. Nozomi-san, if you can henge into an animal…a dog, maybe…that will be easy enough to explain off and gain all three of us access to the building. We don't want to stay too long, however, as these two will likely wake up within an hour or so." With that said he makes the handseals and henge's into one of the two men.
Frowning, Hisomu looks at the other man and then makes the seal before henging into the other. She looks to Nozomi and waits as she states, "I believe this will be the easiest way to get into the place." She then prepares herself ot follow Yori back into the place, only awaiting Nozomi's choice.
Nozomi sits there and thinks for a minute before putting her flute away. She then runs through the brief handseals needed to henge into a kind of wolf hound that is sometimes found in these parts, but is much more prevalent in the northern areas. It's times like this her upbringing shows through as she henges into the type of dog she's most familiar with.
Yori watches as the other two henge, looking them over carefully to make sure everything looks right before he nods. "Let me do the talking. Once we're inside we'll see what we can gather quickly. Stick together, be observant, and we'll be in and out before they even realize what happened." With that Yori goes to heft the bags of supplies and food over his shoulder before starting to walk towards the entrance to the compound and the guards stationed there, glancing back only once to make sure the others are following.
The guards that are keeping watch give a wave. "Hey, nice to see you back! Those things go in the upper place, remember? The whole bottom floors are completely wrecked," he mutters. They let the group through pretty easily, though one eyes the dog. "You know the boss isn't gonna like that. She's allergic to dogs."
"Eh, it followed us home," the henge'd Yori says as he walks past the guards and shrugs. "I'll feed it and kick it back out again later. Thing looks like it could use at least one good meal." He doesn't stop but just keeps going as he talks, past the guards and further into the building. He waits until the guards are out of sight before he looks back to check on the others. "Let's try to remain unseen for now if we can," he says quietly.
A shrug and Hisomu looks back at the dog before looking forward, "I told him it'd be a bad idea." The henged guy nods and then follows inward before saying, "Of course, not like I wanted to just kill a dog to stop it." He then follows inward and looks around as they go inside, following Yori up to the upper floor but keeping her eyes open.
'Nozomi-dog' looks up at the the two and whimpers once, but tries to do so quietly. She continues to look around as she does, but also tries to keep her ears open for anything. She even thinks for a moment of using her echolocation technique to get a map of the area, but decides that even using sound from a dog's barking would be bad at the moment. After all, if the leader is allergic to dogs, then doing so would invite trouble.
The hideout was lit up by the lanterns much like Yori and Hisomu had seen last. It's turned into more like a hangout place, and the group itself… Well, it's probably made of the seven people that have been seen/mentioned.
Yori wanders the area, sticking mostly to the shadows and not making any contact at all if it could be helped. He keeps an eye out for any kind of maps or directions for what people are supposed to be doing and instructs the other two to do so as well. If they can find some plans from this sad group then it will make things even easier.
As 'he' looks around, the henged shinobi formerly known as Hisomu, glances around before finally slipping up close to Yori to whisper, "Umm, we could take this group down right now and not break a sweat." She states and then shrugs at his instructions as she moves over to look for some kind of plan or paperwork as she walks over. She then looks over at the 'dog' and then looks back at her work.
Nozomi-dog simply slinks through the structure, counting the number of people. She avoids the better area, where the leader should be, primarily because if she goes up there, and the leader sees her, the lack of allergic reaction would give her away. Still, she keeps an ear out in case someone stirs up above, so she can give warning if needs be. She looks over to Hisomu and nods once, as if agreeing with her.
In terms of plans that are visible, there is quite a bit. Of course, the first step of it (Recruit!!) has many giant stars around it, implying that that is .. going fairly terribly. The leader of the group comes down, an older woman in her late thirties by the looks of it, and spots the 'dog'. "Koro! Kenpa! You better get that beast out of here!" she shouts at them, glaring daggers at the two.
Yori drops off the supplies while he investigates and only stops when the leader comes down. "Sorry boss," Yori says quickly before turning and pointing back the way they came to the other two, hopefully signalling for them to start out again. Yeah they could probably take down the group but that's not their job right now. Gather information and that was it. He wasn't going to risk it, especially with someone still recovering on the team.
A sigh and HIsomu looks to Yori before saying, "Told you." She then starts off with pushing the dog out of here, "Out mutt.' She states and nods her head and then shrugs as she pushes it back out of the place.
Nozomi whines a couple of times, then leaves as she is pushed out of the place. Once she is out of the building, she turns around, barks, then runs off toward the wilderness again. There, she'll wait for the rest of her team.
The woman nods in approval, then asks, "I don't suppose you were able to recruit anyone? Tell me about it after that mutt's left." Then she makes a beeline back to the main section of bedrooms. Yep! The guards outside heard the commotion and snicker. "Told ya. At least she didn't claw your head off, though!"
"Yeah yeah, I heard ya," Yori mutters to the guards as they follow the mutt out. "We're going to finish feeding it before it leaves and we'll be back to report." Yori gives Hisomu a friendly pat on the back before heading back the way they'd came to where the still knocked unconscious men reside and, hopefully, where Nozomi went to. Once there he drops the henge and checks on the men briefly.
Dropping her own henge after they have escaped the area, Hisomu looks back before looking to Yori, "Umm, they might actually get themselves beat up with the Recluse out and about." She nods her head, "That group could be taken down by me alone." She nods her head before looking over to Nozomi, "I don't know why we were worried."
Nozomi did indeed make her way to that point, and as soon as she's there she drops her henge and then breaths a sigh of relief. "I agree, this group might give trouble to civilians… maybe. But such an action could get people hurt if for no other reason than the civilians would overestimate them. I think we have enough information and should return to Kumo with a recommendation to send a genin team to clean them out. And even that would be overkill.”
Yori listens to the thoughts of the others then…he actually smiles before he nods his agreement. "I agree. A small force will be more than enough to take care of this group and likely will be better than if they get caught sleeping by someone else. Well done both of you. Let's return to the village then and make our report."
