Starring:
Date: Month Day, Year
Summary:
A small intelligence team is gathered to work on breaking a code that might help lead to who had managed to capture Enbu.
"Solving the Cipher"
Kirigakure Library
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This large and some what old looking building actually predates the true foundation date of Kirigakure. It looks like it was once an old shrine or temple of some sort. The building has many of the attributes of a temple, with Tori Gates around the main building. The stone walls often have worn carvings of some kind that are usually unreadable. However the main purpose of this building is now knowledge and once past the rather impressive metal bound wooden doors covered in protective seals, and past the guards and even more scary looking librarians the building is mostly empty of anything but rows and rows and rows of bookshelves stacked full of books and scrolls with long wooden tables and benches every so often to allow reading of the material.
A second area of information is stored in a even more secure basement of the building were restricted materials and lore are kept. This is not the location of forbidden techniques, which are stored elsewhere, but more of items of importance to the village. Documents such as the original treaty signed by the Mizukage and the village's clans and historical artifacts are on protected display here. Under no circumstances are materials allowed out of the building without the Mizukage's written permission. Although researchers are allowed to make personal copies and notes of material if they take the time. People leaving are searched, no matter what rank, to ensure that materials do not leave the premises.
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Before the tourney. Before the past two months… Kaguya Enbu had fallen to mysterious figures while Tsubaki and Reppu delivered and received an important message. However, this scroll was encrypted! How would they ever be able to decode the scroll???
Those who knew a bit about encryption, whether it be local or foreign codes, were asked to study the scroll in the Kirigakure Library, a place that tended to go unused once one was out of the Academy. Tsubaki sat at one of the tables, the scroll wide open and looking like a jumbled mess of characters that just don't make sense no matter how you read it.
So, a call went out to find Kaguya Kiku. The woman mutters a few times as another jounin walks with her. "Better be important to bug me. Finals are coming up for the students.", she says. The jounin looks at her. "And what of your loyality to your clan head?", he asks. Kiku just looks at him. "Last time I check, he was buried in the Bone Gardens. He may have been a pervert, but…", she tells. The woman stretches out a bit.
"Alright what do we have to deal with here? And do I have to have Meruin approve of it first?", she asks.
Akane was on Kiku's heels. "Take it easy Kiku-san." She had been called because she had a range of knowledge about various codes and such and was well versed in undercover operations. She sent a look at he Jounin.. Was she in a bad mood? perhaps. But ignoreing them both she leaned over Tsubaki's shoulder. "Any hints he gave you?"GAME: Save complete.Byouki arrives from Enmu Lane.
Tsubaki falters a bit when she sees who was called in. She knew she'd be working with higher-ranked nin, but it was still odd to be doing so. The girl takes a moment to collect herself and says, "You should … Be fine, Kiku-sensei…" the girl shows the scroll to the pair, allowing them to look over it. "The only clue… 'Don't Underestimate Strangling Kelp'."
Kiku blinks a little bit, and snickers. "Sounds like Blood Marsh or the Bay.", she says. The woman stretches a little bit, and waves the other jounin that escorted her away. "Intelligence is needed, not you.", she says to him. The jounin gives her a look. Kiku returns it. Everyone knows of Kiku's reputation. She's not friendly, nor tries to be, and extremely violent. Yet why would she be called in for a cipher…
"Hello Akane. Nice to see an old friendly face. Hows the kid? And Ishino?", she asks. Yes, Kiku just said that ICly…She gives a slight smile. "It all just depends though on the message and the cipher used to decrypt it."
Akane frowned… strangle kelp.. She reached out and lifted a bit of the paper feeling for any strange textures or films on it's surface while at the same time she looked at the top of the kanji, looking to see if there were hidden words or perhaps a book key indicated….
The scroll was quite normal in appearance, excepting the extremely odd letters that seemed so out of order. A few of the kanji combinations even looked like they were made up by some random drunk person. Sometimes a word looked like one thing, but there was something odd tacked onto it. …
Tsubaki really can't offer much of anything in this instance. Her brain is juggling that phrase, though. 'Don't underestimate strangling kelp'. What did an underwater plant have to do with anything? Was it more dangerous than they thought? Was that plant the key to solving this?
Kiku rolls her eyes a little bit, and then looks at the paper a bit more. She starts making a copy of the scroll herself, trying to make everything the same. Its rather odd, watching Kiku as she starts to turn serious as she copies everything exactly. She does it a few more times, before looking over everything, and then starts drawing squiggle lines on the first copy she made…
Akane watched and waited for Kiku to get her copies before she moved… then she tilted her head and moved over to the side of the table, withdrawing a scroll from her pack she laid it out on the table. it was thick and long and she rolled out quite a length before she paused and peered at the other scroll again.. Then she tapped the circle in front of her. Dried stranglekelp. There was another circle beside it and she tapped it too. A container poofed into existence, water and live stranglekelp inside it. Though well contained.
Kiku might notice a pattern in the odd 'typos' of the different characters since she's copying each one down individually. Tsubaki watches both nin work, tilting her head when Akane brings out actual strangle kelp. Oh… That's useful… The young Shirayuki has mostly just been watching this process, thinking that her contributions would probably be terrible or laughed at. Now if only she had some form of idea… 'Don't Underestimate Strangling Kelp'…
Kiku pauses a moment, and starts doing it again, copying the letter a few more times. "There's a pattern here.", she tells Akane, showing Akane the typos are. She takes a deep breath, and focuses on the typos, working on those a bit.
Akane leaned over and looked at Kiku's work. Apparently she was just all business today. But she furrowed her brow at what was displayed in front of her. "Excuse me.. can I see.." She took the paper for a moment and stared at it for a loooong moment… Mumbling to herself. She snapped her fingers and handed it back before resealing the strangle kelp and rerolling the scroll, puulling a smaller one from her pack. A vial of greenish oil appeared. She peered at Kiku's scratched out letters.. and then with her finger, applied just a little bit of stranglekelp oil to the same character ont he real scroll, rubbing lightly.
The strangle kelp doesn't really do much at first. If the trio are patient enough, they might notice that something about the scroll was changing. Starting to make sense, and still not much. Some of the unnecessary kanji have been erased by the bit of kelp, but the typos remained, making the message as confusing as ever. A pattern in the typos, though… If those typos were put together, they would form the kanji for 'dusk'
Kiku keeps working on the Typos, and then comes up with 'Dusk'. She tilts her head a little bit. "Dusk?", she asks outloud. "Anyone understand what Dusk means?", she asks.
Akane saw that the kelp oil was erasing some of he letters and leaving ogthers. well she had more at home. She continued working at it and a she pulled back to peer at the typos she pointed out the 'dusk'. haking her head to Kiku's question she just kept working, rubbing the kelp oil over the paper methodically, waiting for more to be exposed. it was too soon to just jump on 'dusk' and run.
"It's… When strangling kelp is the most active…" Tsubaki offers, this probably the only help she can provide. Hmm… dusk… As Akane continues to work, she would see that only a third of the message was erased by her methods. The rest were characters with the strange typos.
Kiku grabs some more blank paper, and goes to work on copying the letters left with strange typos. She then isolates the typos on another sheet of paper. She focuses on trying to get everything right as she writes just the typos on their own.
Akane remained silent as she watched Kiku go to town. Apparently she wasnt going to be much help here now. So she capped the vile of oil and resealed it into her scroll
Simply the typos don't get anywhere. But they spell out a message. Pulling the characters that were affected by the message also did something of note. But there were gaps in each individually that left information to be desired.
Kiku studies her two sheets of paper, and looks them over. She starts to translate them over to see what all both sheets say, and then she starts putting the two sheets together to see if they spell out a message.
Akane continued to wait. Kiku had the papers and the typos in front of her. Meanwhile Akane looked at the original and started writing down just the typos.
When Kiku start putting the two sheets of paper together, it would have been noticed that they spell something out. A bit of rearranging and…
The Syndicate, rumored to go by the name "Dusk" internally, has been operating out of the Land of Water for a very long time. Their interests are hard to pin down and their methods are practiced and patient. The only real information that is available on this group is that they seem to recruit from port villages along the coast of the Land of Water. This is likely due to the fact that the people they bring in to the country or take out of the country during this process won't be remembered or missed due to the traffic going in and out. It can be assumed however that they also do this because it is the primary way most criminls and fugitives will utilize in order to leave the country. But talent is not the only thing that they traffic in and out of the country. Because of their form of recruiting, many secrets have also come in to their posession and have for decades.
"Thank you for your assistance, Akane. Tsubaki. It seems I got a lot more work on my plate now. Any other information I should know about?", she asks. The woman takes a couple of deep breaths, and her eyes start to glitter a little evilly. Somebody's in their giggly mode now….Meaning there might be some dead bodies popping up somewhere soon…
