Starring:
Michiko (emitter), Tatsuo, Kyuketsuki, Eiji
Date: May 9, 2017
Summary:
Some thieves need to be taken care of, so a small team of ninja are sent to do this.
"Joint Yakuza Extermination - Find the Hidey Hole"
Land of Fire-Earth Border
There has been some odd and very suspicious activity near the border between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. Honestly, the Land of Lightning probably wouldn't even be involved if it weren't for the fact that the target had also tried to go for some Kumo-secrets as well. To make a long story short, some weirdos are trying to pull a long con and supply information on the Hidden Villages to the black market, and a team is gonna be sent to stop it.
That team happens to be relatively strong Shinobi since this mission is dangerous at all. Tatsuo, as the highest ranking, was in charge, but Eiji was also given some power in the decision making as the sole representative of Kumo. Right now, they're near the border section of where the suspicious activity seems to be. Gotta find the baddies and all, right? The place is just a bunch of boring rocks and some sparse trees, since it's at the foot of a mountainous area.
Tatsuo hadn't really thought he'd be in charge, especially on a joint mission between two villages! Shouldn't there be a Jounin in the mix somewhere? Oh well, it is what it is…
The young Nara would lead the small team towards wherever it was the mission specs were sending them to start their investigation into what was going on. One of the team he knew fairly well, but the other one was a bit of a mystery for the moment. Time would tell how things would work out. "Any questions?" Tatsuo would ask as they traveled, glancing to the other two to see.
Michiko, in the past, had said that a test would come to verify he was ready to move forward in rank. Was this it? A joint mission with another village? Eiji was quite contemplative of such as he'd move after the others he was assigned to. Relatively quiet the whole time, he'd not even walk too fast, to make sure they weren't pressed on speed. Glancing to Tatsuo, he'd simply shake his head. "Find the target. Remove the target. Pretty straight forward."
Kyuketsuki had once again been terribly uninformed about the situation in the first place, first time hearing about this. Kyu was wearing a plain black hooded cloak with the Uchiha symbol on the back. He looks at Tatsuo as he asks if he has any questions, and shakes his head. "I do not, Tatsuo-san." He says. And looks to the new Eiji. Nodding. "Very straight forward. Though do you think it would be possible to take them alive? If we can capture them we could interrogate them."
Tatsuo nods an affirmative to Kyu's quasi-question. "Hai Kyu-san, if we can take the offender alive that would be the best option. No unnecessary death if it can be helped." Tatsuo looks to Eiji to make sure that he understood that, though he won't know if the Kumo shinobi will actually follow his instructions at this point. They'll find out and he'll write his report afterwards. That's all there was to it, really. "Mmm, okay, if there's no other questions we should be there shortly."
Eiji hesitates, then nods slightly. "Hai. No unnecessary death. I'll attempt capture first. I promise." Eiji glances between Tatsuo and Kyu, shrugging slightly. "Oh.. I'm Reizei Eiji. I know that I was assigned to work with you two, but I'm not sure how much information was shared."
Kyu takes note. Non-lethal was his specialty. His eyes light up with the pale red Sharingan, and it's very clear if having the Sharingan active was any kind of 'draining', it isn't enough for Kyu to care about it. "Right, Tatsuo-san." Kyu then looks at Eiji, and nods with a friendly smile, "I didn't know who you were, but it's a pleasure to meet you, Reizei-san, I am Uchiha Kyuketsuki." Kyu introduces, before taking a look around with his Sharingan-eyes, not that he expected anything to happen, he just figures he should probably not be totally unaware of his surroundings… There used to be rare jokes about Kyu being blind, until he started using the Sharingan more…
They reach their destination and Tatsuo motions for the trio to stop. "Well, this is it," he says, leaving it at that for the moment. 'this' is obviously not very spectacular at the moment, but perhaps there's more than meets the eye. Instead of invoking of his mist, however, he turns to the other two. "We've reached our destination. Do either of you notice anything we should look into?" Is this a test? Or is Tatsuo being lazy?
Eiji would focus himself a moment, gathering that chakra as he'd look around along with the others. One hand absently settles on the hilt of that katana at his waist, a small gesture that seemed more habitual to him than anything. Frowning, he'd finally look around, then to Tatsuo. "Doesn't seem like much."
Kyu takes a careful look around, Sharingan scanning carefully, but quite quickly. He would say nothing, unless he spots something, red eyes seeming to skim across the land, watching for chakra signatures, signs of someone having been here recently, footprints, left behind Kunai from a recent fight, anything Kyu could catch. "Hmm…"
Lazy Tatsuo's don't get to see anything, and apparently the Reizei didn't see much either. Honestly, Kyu might not have even seen anything if it weren't for his Sharingan. The unique eyes of his allowed him to notice the smallest hint of movement near a rock that looked completely and utterly normal. But y'know, it may or may not be worth investigating, right?
"Hai, it doesn't seem like very much at all, but if this is where we were sent it's where we'll have to start. If we don't find anything we'll have to split up and start investigating," Tatsuo says, though he doesn't seem too keen on that idea just yet. If someone is hiding their tracks this well it could be bad. Or maybe they were just given a bad location? Tatsuo turns just to look around, but doesn't pull any of his chakra into the air just yet, letting his dark eyes roam.
Eiji nods slightly, shrugging as he'd look around a bit more, then back to Tatsuo. "How long would you like me to look around? I'm pretty fast on such, I can probably search a fairly wide area. We'll say.. 10 seconds?" Eiji shifts his hand on that hilt, frowning as he'd wait for Tatsuo's response. He was.. mostly in charge. Eiji wasn't going to act on his own yet. No need to.
Kyu narrows his eyes at something, staring for a brief moment, before raising a hand through the opening of his sleeveless cloak, pointing in the direction of the movement, and quietly speaking, "There, something moved. I don't see any signs of Chakra, but something definitely moved." After that, Kyu begins to move towards the movement, watching the area for traps, or for anyone somehow hiding their chakra signature suddenly leaping out. Kyu does not care whether they follow or not, and is focused on finding out what just moved.
Well, these bad guys don't seem to have laid any traps, thankfully. If this is really their hideout, then they Don't seem to be guarding it very well at all. Of course, the movement that Kyu noticed would flicker briefly before everything about the suspicious rock seemed completely normal. As for the other people… Well, the other two might realize now that things were pretty … off. It was hard to describe for most people, but there were definitely small details about this area that weren't quite right. This rock formation was too symmetrical, that tree is almost too perfectly placed… Stuff like that.
Tatsuo was about to respond to Eiji when Kyu mentions some movement. He turns to look towards the rock that Kyu is expertly stalking towards and he tilts his head slightly to look at it, waiting to see any movement. When nothing happens he opens his mouth to address Eiji again, then frowns slightly as he looks around. Things do seem a bit…off. Better to be safe and sorry. With a slight wince he prepares his chakra and then pinches his chakra system, checking to see if he might be under someone's spell…
Eiji hesitated as Kyu mentions something moving. His own look around and the place being a bit.. off.. was either well laid traps.. or illusion. That blade pulled slightly, he'd run it carefully against his arm, enough pain to try and snap whatever control might be on him, having him focus as the blade clicks back into place and with a breath, Eiji is gone. That speed such that it's virtually impossible to keep up as he'd literally search the entire area within those few seconds to find out what's going on.
Kyuketsuki continues to approach the rock but stops in his tracks as it flickers, pale red eyes narrowing, before suddenly brightening to a bright red Sharingan. Kyu does something that others may see as 'odd', looking down at his arms and torso, seeming to examine himself for a moment, before looking up and at the rock. Kyu does handseals and calls out to the others, from inside their heads, <"Don't bother hurting yourself again. This is not Genjutsu, it's just incredibly abnormal. This rock obscures chakra of those behind it."> Kyu informs, before moving foward quickly, around the rock in a sudden movement, quickly going through handseals and attempting to make the first move on whoever is on the other side of the rock.
None of the shinobi were under any particular genjutsu. At the very least, hurting and examining themselves did nothing to change the surrounding area. Kyu would find no real person to genjutsu, suggesting that whoever was behind it has quickly vacated his post. Likely to go warn his buddies about the goings on just entering their turf. The Reizei would find that their surroundings didn't match well with what was outside a certain radius… Hmm… Wonder why >.>
Tatsuo's small frown remains as the Reizei disappears, the Nara seeming unsurprised by the action. He was aware of their abilities in general, even if he'd only seen it a time or two himself. "Kyu-san, don't wander too far until we find out what is going on," he instructs. His eyes shift then, from black to a deep red. A small shift, really, but a telling one. Then a light mist forms in the air, covering a rather great expanse as he seeks out anything, from living to non, that might give a clue as to what's going on.
And just like that, the Reizei is back. It was only a mile out. At this speed? That's a few seconds. Panting softly as he'd release the speed and at the same time hook that genjutsu himself with a look towards Tatsuo, then Kyu, he'd do much the same as the other genjutsuist. «This area is this way for about a mile out. I didn't want to go too far out. They're doing something here. Potentially underground? I can say I didn't find anyone locally. So, plan, Nara-san?»
Kyu seems caught off guard by no one being there. He checks around and then looks back at the other two, quickly dashing over to the others, before turning back around and watching the area and speaking out loud but quietly. "I swear someone was behind that rock. Either someone is extremely good at using the Body Flicker Technique, to where even my Sharingan doesn't catch their movements, or I am starting to hallucinate. I'll stick close as you request Tatsuo-san, but if the former is true, we may have company shortly."
Tatsuo would discover that here and there and everywhere in the earth surrounding happened to be really small, yet refined, holes thanks to his mist. Eiji's guess apparently wasn't too far fetched with the underground thing. The problem now is just figuring out how to get into the hideout >.> Also, this seems a bit too advanced for your run of the mill bandits/Yakuza/what-have-you, so is there something even fishier about this group than originally thought?!
