Starring:
Date: June 7, 2016
Summary:
Hige, Sanda, and Seiko finally enter enemy territory…
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Storm Brigade - Into the Eye of the Storm"
Neutral Lands
The rather unorthodox group of Hige, Seiko, and Sanda has been on the road for while now, and at last they're approaching the Fuuma Basin. Somewhere along they way they'd have stopped to assume their disguises… Well, disguises for the others and an old uniform for Seiko.
It feels a little odd to wear this again, but it still fits at least. Seiko doesn't think he's worn this cloak since when he bought his new wardrobe when he was released from his prison cell in Kumogakure. Now that it's adorned again, he looks exactly like an enemy of the hidden villages once again, his entire formed shrouded by the hooded robe.
Rather than actually going into Fuuma Alley, the team is moving around it to go checck one of the places that the Storm Brigade is known to recruit members, an old abandoned temple. The place hasn't been officially in hundreds of years, but those who don't have homes often use it as a place to hole up and sleep.
Seiko is mostly silent as they move along, basically only speaking when he has information that needs sharing or when he is spoken to or asked a question. There is a look of focus on his face under the hood, the former Storm Brigade member probably psyching himself up for feigning at rejoining the organization under the pretense that he came up with that should at least keep them alive long enough to get to the hideout to see Kano and for backup to hopefully show up.
The change wasn't much for Hige. He hardly ever wore his hitai-ate anyways so that was already hidden away. The use of some makeup he kept with him hid his Inuzuka markings without the use of chakra. Konsho was the one who had to change and he had Henge'd into a normal sized dog, only about two feet tall and grey instead of blue furred. Other than that they traveled in silence for now, waiting for their arrival and instructions. He followed Seiko into Fuuma, doing his best to look a little nervous and not give off an overbearing presence.
Sanda didn't really do much except change clothes and hairstyles since her run-ins with the Storm Brigade have been far fewer than her travel companions. The girl was pretty quiet, but she still have off her usual annoyed aura. Don't think there's much going on changing that… At least she doesn't feel like she's going to kill someone.
As they approach the area, Seiko looks around silenty for a moment before turning an ear toward the temple itself. Hige would likely hear it first, but it seems like a speech of some sort is winding down about the corruption of the shinobi world and how the Hidden Villages are making it worse rather than better.
"That's him,"Seiko says, apparently quite certain. It's likely a voice he's very familiar with from his time in the Storm Brigade. He looks to them then, asking, "How do we want to do this then? The easiest method might be to say I'm coming back after gathering intel in Kumogakure and met you all along the way."
Hige pauses once he hears the voice denouncing the shinobi and the shinobi world, frowning faintly before he nods to Seiko. "You were gathering intel. I was an informant of yours from Kumo that wanted to join up and Sanda was recruited from Kumo as well as a new arrival that disliked how the shinobi worked." Hige looks to Kizoku and nods to the pup who takes to the rooftops, leaving the trio and a small sized Konsho behind. "If they ask for information give them something true, but not something they can really use against the Village. Tell them we'll only give the real information to whoever's in charge." He looks between the group then. "Questions?"
"If they ask, you can say that I was in a shipwreck," Sanda tells the other two. It was pretty close to the truth, even if it happened a while back… "Other than that, sounds fine with me." She would glance at Kizoku and tell the pup, "If we need any help, I'll let you know as soon as possible. But don't let any old Genjutsu into your system, got it?" Don't need him getting hurt because of their communication system… Then her attention is back to Hige. Yep, like she said, all sounded simple. Not. "None here."
After listening to each of their ideas, Seiko nods then looks to Hige. "No questions." He then starts to step toward the temple, entering right through the front door. The guy talking actually looks kinda like Seiko in some ways with jaw-length blue hair and the same face tattoo, though he's more scrawny and a bit more male-looking than Seiko. Most of the potential recruits have gone about their business or are talking to the man personally, so it seems the offical speech is over.
"I knew I heard the sound of hot air blowing," Seiko calls out as he lifts a hand to pull back his hood then steps over toward the Storm Brigade Recruiter. Seems trash-talking is a big part of their persona, which is rather syncronous with the agitating nature of the Brigade that Hige has seen in their battles.
Looking over to Seiko, the blue-haired man smirks and says, "Ah, if it isn't the stink of treachery. That Hidden Village you been playing pet to kick your sorry calm out already?"
"You wish, Taki-baka… But I did bring some newbies for you now that I finally got enough trust built to get away from that place without being followed."
Hige purposefully tamps down his generally fully self assured no tempest air a bit so that he doesn't seem too off putting. He does look around curiously as they enter, head held high as he considers the place and it's recruits. When Seiko calls out to someone he follows him to the recruiter, arms lazily folding over his chest as he looks around for a few more moments, then asks in a bit of a drawled, bored tone, "Is this where I sign up to kill shinobi?" Konsho just kind of wanders around, looking and acting for all intents and purpose like a pet dog. All the better, since he'll be able to hear what people are talking about and report it later.
Sanda … might be bad at going undercover. She still looks a bit irritated, after all, and her glaring is aimed at the one that Seiko is talking to. "We've traveled long enough that this better be the right place…" she mutters, crossing her arms over her chest. She takes a look around to see if anything catches her eye, obviously curious about the kind of place she'll be staying in if the Storm Brigade buys their story.
Taki looks over to Hige and Sanda as they walk over behind Seiko, canting his head slightly and chuckling a bit. "I see you brought the most charming people you could find to recruit," he says sarcastically as he looks back at Seiko. "If you're really not a traitor, what took you so long to get back here? It's been months."
"Well, you jerks left me to die, so I had to make sure to come back with some juicy intel. Plus I got a couple more people for you that are obviously ready to be groomed to take on the shinobi villages," Seiko answers with a grin.
"Oh yeah?" Taki asks curiously, his eyebrows raising like he's about to get some really good gossip.
"As if," Seiko says, snickering a bit. "You know Kano always wants to get the juicy stuff first and then he'll share. I can tell you one really good one, though." He looks around a moment then leans in really close…. and says plainly, "The Raikage's kind of a douche."
Taki snickers a bit and reaches up to flick Seiko's nose in response to that then looks at Hige and Sanda. "Alright. I guess you two are welcome to come along with Seiko. I'll be taking a round of recruits to the training hideout pretty soon. Maybe this lazy punk managed to learn something while she was gone so long that she can help teach some newbies."
Hige seems entirely unsurprised by any of what Taki says. In fact he doesn't seem to be caring very much about any of it at all. "Whatever, the sooner I can kill the better. Let's just get going already." He looks around lazily then and just waits, not even looking at Taki or Seiko for the moment, instead looking skyward as if he's just entirely too bored.
"At least we're more charming than you are…" Sanda would shoot back at Taki, falling silent and just glaring at something far off in the distance. She was waiting for Seiko to get them through at this point. "Great," she says, glancing back at Taki and Seiko and raising a brow. "So, let's get going," she says, echoing Hige's sentiment.
No reaction. Interesting. "You jackass," Seiko says, her voice now more relaxed than before with the disguise dropped. Her hand doesn't relax, though, as she reaches over and pops Taki in the back of the head. "Do you realize how much work it was to keep that a secret for all those months in Kumogakure?"
Taki ducks his head a bit after the pop, chuckling a bit. "My bad. I figured it didn't matter since they came along for the ride," he says, waving a hand at her. "Maybe I'll let you be the one to show the newbies how we disguise ourselves." He then looks over at Hige and Sanda, saying, "One of the first rules of the Brigade is you have to know how to take orders perfectly, and new recruits ain't the ones giving 'em. You can hang on for a bit and let the others get ready to go." With that he'd walk off to talk to some of the other recruits.
Turning to face Hige and Sanda, Seiko nods to them then looks around. "Might as well relax or mingle for a bit. I'm sure there are plenty of stories here."
Hige watches Taki leave with a rather uninterested gaze before he starts looking around again. Konsho has found a shadow to lay in and has rolled onto his back, pretending to sleep. "So you still have secrets hmm? Anything else I should know about? Should I be worried?" He speaks but doesn't lose any of his bored look. "Sanda, make sure you're careful with what you say to people. Don't give too much away. If you aren't sure or want me to come over then tug your ear. The sooner we get to the training headquarters the better."
Sanda would just give a mocking salute to Taki. "Hai, hai… I'll be sure to do that from now on." She would wait for Taki to leave before looking over to Hige and Seiko, though her question is more for Hige. "Are we actually going by our names?" Sanda would ask. "And yeah, I'll be careful…" She grumbles just a bit and looks around, wondering what group would look promising.
"Everyone has secrets, and look where we are. You probably should worry," Seiko answers Hige with a smirk. She then looks over at Sanda and shrugs her shoulders. "It's not like they have a roster, and names are owned by multiple people. We should get where we're going soon enough. Just relax and follow along." She then peers around the room, perhaps reminiscing about when she was once in the position these recruits are in, listening to the promises Taki offers and deciding how one's life will go from there.
"I only worry that I'll kill someone before we get where we need to go," Hige replies as he continues looking around. "No family name. Just your given name. That should be fine. And once we're at the training headquarters things will move quickly, so keep your eyes open." Hige turns then to start wandering the room, still looking entirely bored as he stares at various designs in the temple while listening in to conversations as he passes.
