Starring:
Date: July 26, 2012
Summary:
C-rank Mission: Asao is assigned to gather more information on an unknown Shinobi level person. While the scenario is set, Asao unlocks his sensory potential
"Information gathering and final training"
Sunagakure, Council member Kuoroke's office, fades to old house outside of Kadomai, Land of Fire.
Asao had been summoned to Kuoroke's office to be briefed, and Kuoroke wasted no time explaining the plan. "Good afternoon. This regards your recent training. I've taken a hand in it myself, and you've made some notable, both with me and by yourself, progress. However, outside of a controlled environment, I don't think your skills are quite developped. That's why we're going to put them into a the outside world and let you do something useful for it afterwards."
"If your original evaluation was correct, you've met an otherwise unidentified individual with the abilities of a shinobi, and we don't know who she's affiliated with. That makes her a risk. So, you will go, verify your initial findings, and see what else you can dig up. If you can flex your new muscle in the process, that's all the better." Kuoroke looked at the boy for a few moments. "I'll give you the liberty to make your own cover story, and the resources to do so, and you will observe this individual." He slid a sketch across the table, offering to Asao. "The best of luck with it."
Tsumi had been a little disappointed since her trip to the Land of Lightning… for some reason, she hadn't been getting any requests for flowers outside of the Land of Fire for some time, and she wasn't entirely sure of the reasons… she had assumed that it had something to do with how she always seemed to drop the flowers and have to go back and get more, but with no set deadline on delivery, how was she supposed to know? But luckily… she had a lucky break! She had recieved a letter just hours ago asking for a collection of flowers to be delivered to a place outside of Kadomai… Which meant she was back in business! Even if the directions did lead to a creepy, overgrown part of the woods where nobody should ever travel, let alone live… But here she was, stepping out into the clearing that she had been told would be here…
"U-um… hello? Is anyone here? I was told to bring flowers here…" She looked around for a moment at the shadowy clearing… Nobody was in sight… and she was at a loss… had she been fooled? Was this someone's idea of a practical joke? and worst of all… Was she going to be able to find her way BACK?!
Asao would take the sketch, a small nod given as it was studied then stored away on his person. Musing for a moment, he'd finally bow to Kuoroke. "I will do my best to use all of my capabilities to figure out who she is and what she knows, Kuroki-san." Turning away, he'd head out.
Using the knowledge that she delivered flowers, he made up a location for them to meet at. From there he gathered enough resources to pay for the flowers. His plan set, the puppet was henged to be an old man. It would give him the 'sensory' focus close to what he had planned. Asao was up in a tree, a blind set up to completely avoid contact with those below, Tokkan was there to take his place. Tokkan of course, was hidden in the house, so that the bandits he hired to rough Tsumi up could do their business while he was watching the whole thing from above. Now, as long as all the parts of his plan worked, he would get to know what is happening without ever betraying the fact he was around.
Tsumi took a few steps further into the clearing… before noticing the house, "Oh! That must be it~" her eyes light up as she starts moving toward the house where the old man supposedly lived, paying little attention, or perhaps simply not noticing that there were others… watching her as she came closer to the door. Once she had arrived, she raised a hand to knock quickly, humming to herself the whole while, expecting that this sale would be able to feed her for at least another couple weeks~ "Tsumi's flowers! Anyone home?"
Obviously, men who were willing to 'rough up' a teenage flower girl for payment were no morally high-standing individuals. In fact, these were some of the lowest-grade individuals available in a very large area. After she knocked, inside, three unsavoury men sitting at a table grinned unpleasantly at each other and put down their cards, one of them getting up to open the door. Save for his hasty, careless shave and his rather shabby attire, this man was not the most scary-looking. "C'mon, boys. Showtime." He pronounced hoarsely, and the 'boys' scattered to the nearby room while he opened the door.
The door opened and that man stood in the opening, scratching a small patch of stubble on his chin. "Heya, there. Yeah, we're home, don't worry. You're here with the flowers, right?"
Range. Flow. Stealth. The henge continued to work while Asao kept Tokkan hidden within the rafters of the building. He was quiet, still as only a machine could be. That link of chakra strings was faint, the furthest that Asao could be and still keep that contact with the puppet. As the door open and the shuffling around occurred, that gave him the briefest times to start the sensory, the clock ticking echoing for a moment in the building before going silent. The link set and he was starting to sense the chakra from the people down there. It flowed out from Tokkan, giving him where each bandit was, as well as that target, Tsumi being his main study as he'd watch her chakra flow closely. Time to see what the would be shinobi can do..
Tsumi nodded happily, apparently not in the least bit put off by the man's appearance, "I am, yeah~" She tilts her head, "You're younger than I expected…" She smiles sweetly then turns to grab the flowers, "They're all here… I didn't drop them this time, so if you could just pay for them, I'll be on my way back home, and you can go about doing whatever you wanted with the flowers~" She pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose as she turned back around with the flowers under one arm.
Tsumi's chakra flow was… incredibly low… Perhaps slightly higher than that of your average villager, but any efforts to look in any detail at how strong she might be would show basically… your average, if somewhat athletic villager girl… Not much better than the weakest of Genin even. No matter how you looked at it, Tsumi trying to be a killer was like a frog trying to be a crocodile…
A few chuckles escaped from the man's lips, and he stopped scratching his chin. "You're thinking of my dad, probably… He's not feeling too well today, so I didn't have the heart get him out of his chair, but he probably wants to say thanks, anyway, before you leave." The man fed her a line, holding the door open. "You know, for your coming all the way out here with your flowers. He really likes 'em. C'mon in." With that, he took a step in and waited for the girl to follow.
Low. Interesting. Pity he didn't have this capability earlier when they met. The studying of the situation continued from his point of stealth. If she choose to go inside, Asao could get closer potentially. That however would take some time. Either way, he continued to wait and watch. This report was going to be very little, unless he was able to figure out a way to push her into showing her capabilities. Then again, patience was required for any true plan. Let the gears turn, let the pattern unfold and see what he could get from the results of the interaction.
Tsumi blinks, "Mmn? Well… Alright, I guess." She smiles broadly before moving to step into the building, bringing her flowers with her as she does. "Well, where is he~? I really should be going soon so I can't stay long… I have other deliveries to make, and I need to get home and get something to eat…" She was entirely too trusting to simply enter a house with the man at the door. If she didn't start displaying some sort of fighting prowess soon, she was going to end up in all sorts of pain.
"Just through here." The criminal shepherded his victim through one of the doors. Suddenly, one of his hands went for the back of her throat, the other for her arm, trying to hold her securely. At the same time, he bellowed a loud "Boys!", which, unsurprisingly, brought out the 'boys'. In addition to the two with who he had been playing earlier, three more came out, one of them holding a chain, two wielding knuckledusters, one of them with spikes, and one particularly unpleasant-looking gentleman with a rather large meatcleaver. "Nothing personal, little girl…" the first bandit growled into Tsumi's ear. "But this is going to hurt."
Tsumi looks panicked for a moment, trying to pry the bandit's arm off of her for a moment… at first in only a mild panic to get out… but then the chains, and the spikes, and the meat cleaver come out, and her eyes widen with terror, "N-n-no! Please! Let me go!" She looks like she's about to cry, her eyes tearing up all of a sudden, "I didn't do anything wrong, why are you doing this?!" She struggles a little more against the arms, struggling to get away from the various weapons… She was surprisingly strong for someone her size, perhaps one of the few things she had going for her in her current state… Certainly stronger than the Bandit, which was surprising given their difference in size, but it doesn't seem to help her much.
Nothing. The threat wasn't going to be enough. Musing, he kept silent still, waiting as the cluster of chakra from the other bandits showing up would cause it to be a bit harder to keep a hold of Tsumi's profile. No matter, soon something was going to have to pop, the pressure of the gears demanded that reaction and once that happen, he was going to get a feed back, Asao was sure of it.
As the girl slipped out of his grasp, the head of the bandits merely blinked, surprised. The fastest was, probably, the man with the knife - but he had also been the furthest, and it wasn't from him that Tsumi had to expect the first threat. While, at the leader's angry bark, "Watch it, it's a tough one!" most of them simply gathered and the knife-wielder closed in, the man with the chain already swung towards her legs, trying to trip her -or break a leg, he didn't much care- and bring her to a stop.
The surrounding people were starting to get to her, sweat dripped from her forehead and the pressure in her head was starting to cause a massive migrane. She gave a short yelp as the chain slammed into her leg… to little effect, she barely budged from the effort… But it distracted her enough that the bandits would be able to easily close in… Which might have been a mistake. The stress of being pursued by so many, in these close quarters was too much. Especially when she was so HUNGRY…
Something finally snapped, and Asao would easily catch the sudden surge as the 'gears' went into overdrive, chakra flooding her body just as another weapon was swung Tsumi's way, prompting an immediate response as her fingers curled into something more like a claw and she swung for the swinging arm with enough speed to deflect it and quite possible break the arm… maybe even remove it given the power behind the strike. "…You…" Tsumi's voice had become husky, developing dark undertones as her body shook, her face twisting from fear to rage as she started to look up, her pupils dilated. Soon the rage shifted to absolute glee as she stared at the bandits, "You have just made my DAY! I have been SO hungry…" She giggled, "Sorry, but I really need to kill you all now… But I promise to make it fun~ I'm going to do it SLOWLY… because I really miss hearing the screams of the people I kill… especially the ones who think they're a bunch of badasses because they can gang up on one innocent little girl…" She giggles madly, "So c'mon… come at me~ Let's see how long it takes me to break my new toys…"
Asao gave a silent nod to himself. Finally, the trigger point reached, he was able to see that full flare of chakra. Indeed, it seems whatever clicked in Tsumi's gears to cause her to switch and unleash on the bandits also caused his own system to fully engage. Instead of it being a push to try and sense, he was able to passively watch, both from Tokkan and from his own point up in the tree. He would stare at the building and the chakra points within, especially as each bandit was taken out and that chakra would fade away. Interesting, very interesting. She was defenitely strong like a shinobi, however that tracking by Tokkan showed her to more be raw strength, instead of an actual shinobi. With that in mind, it was obvious now, who was the source of the animal attacks that have been reported. Useful information to say the least when dealing with further endevors. Indeed, she might even be useful to Suna in general as a free-lance fighter.
The owner of the arm yelped as the girl's response sent him flying, pain shooting up the injured arm. The others somewhat stopped their advance, but continued circling her, believing that, though this was a risky target, they could still take her down, with unified power. With a complete disregard for basic rules of mook chivalry, they all came at her at once: the end of the chain came for her knees again, while one metal-reinforced fist went for her ribs. In the meantime, their leader, behind her, had drawn out a weapon of his own -if you can use that term for picking up a table- and brought it down on top of her. The only one not involved, and stilly bodily whole, was the cleaver-wielder. He maneuvered around them, eying Tsumi, sizing her up, and changing the weapon from hand to hand a few times while waiting for an opening.
Tsumi laughed as the whole group came at her… and she moved fast. The chain missed her knee as she raised her leg and stomped down on it to pull the wielder off balance. She brought up a hand to catch the metal reinforced fist with a wicked smirk on her face as she twisted the arm and slammed her other palm into the man's shoulder with a sickening pop. The table slammed into her body and splintered without much of a reaction at all… her flesh was apparently extremelly tough… and the untrained bandits didn't stand a chance. She returned the favor anyway by tearing off one of the table's legs and throwing it through the bandit's stomach, "Hehehe… I'm gonna let you live for a second while I — " She kicked at the chaib wielder's knee and then swung her arm around to tear into his throat with her nails, spraying the area with his blood as he fell, " — Let you watch aaaal yoir friends DIE, to a freaking FLORIST!" she cackled, and her spree of torture and murder continued as she began separating limbs from a couple unlucky bandits, using their now broken, jagged bones to stab said limbs back into their chest.
Asao watched with a detatched interest. It was definitely unusual for someone to be dissecting living beings, however they did kind of ask for it. While the bandits were being demolished, Asao very carefully had Tokkan retreat from the house. The blood bath may continue, however his goal for the scenario was just information gathering. As soon as Tokkan was free from the house, he'd get the puppet packed away and head back for Suna. There was a lot to report, it'd be just a matter of time for him to get back to Suna, if she noticed him at all.
These bandits may have been untrained, but the speed and proficiency with which the knife-wielder moved did not lie: while the rest of them had been just lowlives who were in here for the money, this man could have gotten a far better payment, but he came here because he wanted him to. His smirk matching Tsumi's in challenge, he waited for her to be turned towards the leader of the men, throwing the leg, and then pounced, suddenly, an attack that showed a very qualified professional, the cleaver coming down in a diagonal, downward slash at the spot where her neck met her shoulders.
Tsumi hissed a little, swinging her arm around to slap the cleaver away, "Oh no you don't…" she growls, "I've killed TOO many people to waste one of those lives so soon…" She scowls and lunges at the man, her arm swinging in an arc to tear at the leader, much like she had with the rest. "Die DIE/DIE/!"
The leader was quicker than his subordinates, despite the leg to the gut he had just received. Or, maybe thanks to it, as it was his beginning motion away from the innocent little florist girl that allowed him to almost escape her reach, her clawed fingers only ripping off his ear. He spun around on his feet from the blow, in his fall hitting a wooden post in the wall hard enough to put a sizeable dent in it, then, with a thud, falling onto the ground. The man she had injured first, scrambled to his feet, nursing his broken and near-removed arm off, and began movig. The other one with knuckledusters began crawling away. In the meantime, the only credible threat was the professional hireling with the cleaver. "Well, babe, I've killed too many people to be cut down by some freak kid. Don't worry, though, I won't kill you, not for a while. This is just going to be too much -fun-." And again he came at her, this time with a low swing aimed at her stomach.
Tsumi snatches at the man's wrist before the cleaver can cut into her, "Freak kid?" She scowls, her eyes narrowing, "Oh, you poor… STUPID man… They didn't tell you what you were dealing with, did you?" She cackles a little, "I'm older than you could ever HOPE to be… I've been killed so many times that I've lost count… But you know what's funny…?" She leans in, whispering into the man's ear, "I don't stay dead… I keep coming back." She giggles a little, "Wanna see if you'll come back too?" She lunges forward, attempting to catch the man's neck in her hand, and lift him from the ground, "'cause I'm willing to bet… you wont."
The man let her grab him by the throat. When he was raised from the groun, he actually grinned when he was picked off the ground. "You look fresh enough to me, kid." He announced, clearly unaware of the gravity of his situation, with a severely stifled whisper. His other hand reached behind his back, bringing out a weapon that's the opposite of the cleaver: a long, pointy dagger, which he attempted to stab into the girl's temple.
Tsumi stares at the man as the blade stops upon hitting her head, the tip bending and flattening against her skin, leaving a scratch, but not penetrating very deeply at all, "You really are stupid aren't you…" She grunts once as she finally moves him and spins him around to effectively choke slam him into the sharp piece of the broken table leg she tore off before, hoping to impale him on it.
"The he-?!" Was all the stunned man could brought out, before the leg went through his body, causing a desperate gurgle to force itself through the mad girl's iron chokehold, the closest his scream could do to escaping his lungs before they started filling with blood. Somewhere underfoot, one of the bandits barely moved - he was alive, but clearly too stunned by pain and shock to be aware of what was happening, and the one survivor was running out of the house and into the forest, passing within line of sight of Asao, at the highest speed he could. The knife-wielder could, in his last moments, only muster one more blind wave of the cleaver at Tsumi. At its end, he was already dead, the weapon slipping out of his fingers and flying through the room.
