Starring:
Rockpath (emitter), Hige, Zori
Date: May 8, 2015
Summary:
Shinobi have been reported to murder innocents in their homes, resulting in poor relations between the smaller villages and Konoha. A team has been sent to investigate.
"Sword Shinobi - Words’ Blades"
Land of Fire
Rumors have started running through the Land of Fire. Tales of abusive shinobi, rumors of evil ones… All of them not shining any good light on the Hidden Village in the Leaf. Murders by the Leaf, secrets covered, more people getting killed… Where have these rumors spread? What effect do they have in the country? A team, newly created was sent out to investigate one village that has been known for believing these falsehoods. It has, of course, been having a major effect, as well. Trade between small and large village has completely stopped, and there are even hostile actions again ninja.
Hige had accepted this mission for his new team, deciding that it would be good for Zori to deal with something besides combat once in a while. Especially since he really needed him to work on his control. If Hige can do it anyone can, right? Still, he'd be keeping an eye on the other boy. He could actually make things worse. Hige waited for Zori at the gate and once he arrived he would've explained this very thing. "Be on your best behaviour. Don't hurt anyone even if they attack you. We need to let these people know that we aren't there to hurt them and try to find out where the rumours are coming from." With that they would've headed off to the village itself.
Zori got a message from Hige to meet him at the Konoha Gates for a mission. Zori equips his wires and packs food, water and medical supplies in his backpack. Slinging the backpack on his shoulders, he heads out towards the meeting place. Once he arrives he greets Hige with a simple wave "Dont hurt anyone if they attack me? Grr. Ok ill wont" Zori nods to Hige with disapointment.
"If worse comes to worse you can knock them out but still don't actually injure them." Hige says as he leads Zori through the trees in the direction of the village. "When we get there I'm going to seek out the village head and try to find out what kind of rumors they've heard and where they've been coming from. We need to pinpoint where they're starting and see if there's any possible truth to it." Maybe that was part of the reason of sending younger types. Especially since Hige is especially short and doesn't seem dangerous or anything. Until he is.
Zori walks alongside Hige listening to his instructions "Alright now that sounds much better hehe" Zori cracks his knuckles "If they start to get too crazy theyre getting knocked out." Zori stops cracking his knuckles. Following Hige through the trees in the direction of the village he responds to Hige "Alright then you do that, but what do you want me to do exactly?" Zori crosses his arms over his shoulders awaiting Hige's response.
The two would be able to travel to the village without any hindrance, the pair able to plan what they will. The village would eventually appear before them, gates completely closed to those who wish to enter. Until they made their presence known, they likely wouldn't be noticed. Or, if they have been noticed, there was a reason the gates were shut.
"Keep your eyes and ears open for anything you might hear about the rumours that are going on. And for any danger we might be putting ourselves in. If it starts to look bad we'll retreat and have to come up with another plan of attack." Hige looks to Zori to make sure he's understood before picking up the pace, moving swiftly in the direction of the aforementioned village. He drops to the ground with Konsho, motioning Zori down as well, before they come within sight of the village. From there they calmly walk forward, letting it be seen that they aren't actively carrying any weapons in their hands by the way he walks. He stops a short distance from the gate with a faint frown and looks up, trying to find some kind of guard or scout.
Zori nods his head at Hige showing that he understood. "Alright got it" Moving forward in the direction of the village, he comes a sudden stop as they arrive dropping to the ground. Walking closer to the gate Zori holds up both hands so that the guard or scout above the gate wont think of him as a threat, just by his looks.
As the two approach, they would be able to do so. Again, nothing but the gates stopped them. Perhaps the inhabitants were hoping the shinobi would leave? Hige would sense two guards behind the gate, their scent clear. But Zori's wires are only just getting set up, and the town is as quiet as a ghost town.
Hige glances at Zori with a faint frown when no one calls out to them or greets them in any way. He wonders if that's good or bad. At least they weren't greeted with arrows or anything. He turns back to the gate and says clearly and loudly, a sound belying his size and stature. "I am Inuzuka Hige from Konohagakure, companion to Inuzuka Konsho. This is my team member Zori. We have come in peace and just wish to speak with the village elders in order to find out if there's any truth to the rumours of rogue shinobi." Yeah he'll go with that. Rogue shinobi.
Zori had set up his wires nearby for safety measure. Hopefully to detect some sort of vibration other then him and Hige's. Zori whispers to Hige "I dont feel anything, no movement no nothing, they must be quiet as a mouse." As Hige introduces Zori, he grins staring at the top of the gate. "Im tempted to just jump across this gate and see whats really going on." Zori doesnt say anything else after that he just remains quiet listening to Hige explain himself to whoever is up there at the top of the gate.
"We don't want any business with you," comes a gruff voice. "Regardless if you ninja are rogue or true. We're done dealing with the Leaf after the amount of wrongs you've committed!" There's a murmur of agreement from the other guard, but he doesn't speak. As Zori's wires begin to settle, some of them begin to make their way into the village, if desired. When that happens, a few tremors would show that the town is not as lifeless as it seemed. But there was little activity.. Interesting. Was an alarm raised earlier or something?
Hige frowns a bit as he hears the voice coming from the other side of the wall. Something is wrong here and he can't quite put a finger on it. "You getting anything?" He murmurs to Zori without taking his eyes off the gate. He waits a moment before calling out again. "We mean you no harm and have come only to help. Please let us speak with your elders, if even at the gate here."
Zori picks up small amounts of vibrations from certain parts of the village. "Somewhat, it seems whatever they are doing they are being quiet with it" Zori listens to Hige as he tries to call out again. Remaining quiet while Hige does what he wants.
There's silence. For a long moment, even. Eventually, though, there's a gruff, "Fine." There's more silence, but those sensitive enough would be able to know there was movement; the guards were going to get the elder. They don't seem to be in any hurry, though, even dragging their feet as they got closer and closer to their leader's home.
Well it was better than nothing, even if it did mean they would have to wait a little longer for it. His backup plan wasn't all that spectacular in the building trust department, after all. "This is not going quite how I expected. I wonder what the hell has happened to have these people so one edge and against Konoha nin." He says to Zori and Konsho. After a moment he steps forward to the gate, first resting a hand on it, then finally putting his ear to the crack between doors to try and see if he can catch what they're talking about on the other side.
Zori smirks as he stares at Hige "I can sense a bit more movement, we might just get some action after all hehe." Zori walks over to Hige as he puts his ears to the gate. "You hear anything? all i can sense is vibrations im not really useful as far as that."
It takes even longer, but eventually someone comes to the gate to talk. No, it does not open… But at least someone is there. They would be able to tell that much. "Well? Why are you here?" asks a young voice; a woman's voice. It's hard to tell if that's truly the village elder, since the voice is so young… Why is that? "Shinobi aren't welcome here. Please leave. If you don't, we will not hesitate to use force." … 'we can't do that! they're stronger than ten of us!' come the quiet voices an Inuzuka would likely hear.
"We have no intention of causing any harm or posing any danger. We simply want to speak with the village elder and try to solve whatever problems have been going on." Hige steps back as he speaks, again loudly, trying to sound calm at the same time despite the annoyance he feels at the hostile greeting. "We've only received basic information that people are saying Leaf shinobi are causing harm. I assure you it's not truly Leaf shinobi. I'm hoping we might be able to find out who it really is."
Zori smirks when he hears "Dont make us use force" He leans back on the gate to try to listen in on what the suppose-to-be elder was saying to Hige. Zori doesnt add anything to what Hige said simply because everything he says tends to be rude or out of the way. Zori just keeps quiet awaiting Hige's next move if he has one.
"They left a headband…" hisses the woman. "How are we to believe that it is not a Leaf Shinobi. They killed four of our villagers. We can't trust the Leaf anymore. Shinobi anymore… If we must, we'll survive on our own without your help." There a few murmurs of agreement from the two guards that are with her, but no other movement. "And if you can't keep track of your own forces, then you're even worse."
Hige quirks a curious brow at the words, looking from the gates to Zori and shaking his head a bit. "People…" he mutters softly before speaking up again. "A true Konoha shinobi would not have left a headband as evidence. This was a set up by an enemy of the village, I assure you. I'm sorry for your losses, but it was not one of ours. If you'll just let us in then we can speak about it. I would like to get a description of the person and maybe see the headband." He'll give them this last chance to nicely let them in before he moves on to more drastic measures. "Be ready to move." He says softly so that only Zori and Konsho can hear.
Zori nods grining at Hige from his orders. Zori is more then ready for this plan then Hige thinks, knocking people out? Sure Zori is gonna enjoy this but not as much as he would to just downright kill them. Zori focuses his chakra into his body after that he responds back "Im Ready" in a quiet tone only Hige and Konsho could hear eyes flicking from Hige to Konsho then back to the Gates.
The woman shakes her head, despite the fact that Hige and Zori can't see it. "This was definitely one of your shinobi…" She moves, which Zori's wires would sense, back towards her home. "You can let them in. Be on your guard." She gives them a small signal, as well, to which they nod and wait for her to disappear before opening the gates for the Konoha Trio.
Hige looks back to Zori and nods to the wires, signalling for him to put them away for the time being. Hige and Konsho themselves still don't have any visible weapons on them though the semi-feral look might not inspires the highest of hopes either. He waits as the gates open, keeping on his guard but making sure his hands can be seen as a precaution. It's not like he actually /needs/ a weapon to defend himself. He offers a bow when the gate opens to whoever is waiting before stepping forward and through it without any hesitation. He stops after coming through, however, waiting for whoever is assigned it to speak to him.
Zori nods to Hige in understandment. His wires are safely tucked under his sleeves out of eye view. Zori grin might not seem very welcoming either. "Hige..i sense more movement going on, whoever it is might just open the gate" Whenever the gates open Zori would not bow but instead just stare at the whoever is waiting, walking forward following behind Hige.
The guards at the gate are the ones that greet the pair. Two men with spears and a bit of armor to their person. They look distrustful of the shinobi, but lead them around town due to orders. "The four victims' houses. We can show you them, if you like." Hige wouldn't smell anything immediately suspicious for the time being, though there was an air of unease about the whole village ever since he and Zori entered. Not many people were outside their homes.
"Please, if that's okay. Can you tell me exactly what happened as well? What did this shinobi look like? And I really would like a look at the forehead protector if I can." Hige sounds surprisingly respectful but then you have to be when it comes to being diplomatic. If he can pretend to not want to rip peoples heads off all the time he can pretend to be friendly too. Doesn't mean it's true, just means he's good at hiding the bad. Konsho follows behind looking as cute as ever, wide puppy eyes looking around and tail wagging. Resist that!
Once they met up with the guards, Zori "hmms" to himself maintaining his grin. Zori looks the guards with the big spears over one good time, listening to Hige ask questions. Zori adds to the Inuzukas questions as he directs it towards the guards "Quick question..Are you people scared of us?" is said as he crosses his arms over his chest with his grin.
"Some of us. Those that cannot protect themselves are," one says to Zori. The other works on answering Hige. "Heads… Sliced clean off. Only someone with a lot of skill could have pulled it off. The hitai-ate sealed the deal." Minimal explanation, but they are at the first home. "Nothin was even touched. Look around. Don't touch anything… Just look." Hopefully they got the message after a billion repeats…
Hige doesn't even flinch when Zori asks his question though his first instinct is to turn around and deck the other teen. But then not everyone can smell fear like he can so maybe it was a valid question. "We won't touch anything." Hige agrees before stepping into the house and looking around. He sorts through what he can visually as well as the scents, picking out each distinct one. With five houses and five deaths, if the same person did them all, he'll be able to identify their scent in the end. "Zori look further back in the other rooms, see if you find anything out of place. But…don't touch." Already on thin ice after all.
Zori nods to the guard as he gives out his response to the young teen. With quick haste Zori turns his head over to Hige "Understood" Zori walks back into one of the rooms that he was suppose to look in. Zori starts searching for any visible clues with his eyes, putting his hands in his pockets to ensure that he doesnt touch anything.
When Hige steps into the house, he would be overwhelmed by … nothing. Traveling further into the now-empty home would reveal very little in terms of a struggle. However, on the second floor, Hige would get to see just where the victim fell judging by the large bloodstain in the wood in the master bedroom. Zori, as he waits, would find himself under attack by a mysterious masked figure that wielded a long sword, the mystery person attacking with two Arcing slashes at the genin.
Hige crouches next to where the blood stains the floor with a faint frown, giving a few sniffs. Hmm. His ears seem to twitch as something is…off. "Zori? Find anything?" He calls down as he stands and continues to scan the room with a faint frown, nose wrinkling at the mixture of blood of other scents in the room.
Zori continues to search for visual clues but not finding any Zori shouts "Im not finding anything." As he continues to walk around the room he notices there was someone other then him in the room. Zori calls out "Hello? whos there?" When the mystery masked figure went on the attack Zori's wires quickly lash out deflecting his first attack, but was not fast enough to deflect the next attack. The sword swings cutting Zori across his right arm. Zori shouts "Ow!" as he backflips some distances away from the masked figure. "So You Wanna Fight!?" he shouts. Zori knows Hige told him to not hurt anyone on this mission but this masked figure means bussiness. Zori looks down at his arm, as the blood oozes out from it. Zori reconciders what he was about to do and sways his arm diagonally as the wire lashes out towards the mysterious masked figure in a straight line, with a quick movement of his fingers the trailing wire branches out into a multitude of wires in pursuit of wrapping the masked figure up against the nearest object.
Whoever it is, they didn't expect Zori to be able to dodge the attacks. In fact, the person didn't even think that the wires would move that quickly. This misjudgment cost the figure considerably, as Zori's wires entangle the man so that he's stuck to the … sofa… Well, at least he'll be comfortable while he's stuck, right?
Hige gives up looking around after a time, committing instead the scents to memory for now so he can check them at the other houses. It's on his way out that he hears Zori talking to himself. Had he finally lost it? But no, there's sounds of fighting and the scent of fresh blood in the air. He and Konsho leap off the second floor and land near Zori, eyes following his wires to the captured figure with a faint frown. "You okay?" He asks Zori though he doesn't look at the other teen. His eyes remain on the person there…
With the Masked figure wrapped up, Zori focuses more chakra into his wires to give it a super glue effect to help keep the Masked Figure caught. When Hige landed near, Zori responded to Hige question "I am ok, he only cut me." Zori eyes flicker down to his wound of his arm then back over to the masked figure. Zori begins to interrogate "Hey you who are you?, and why did you attack me just now? Explain yourself!" Zori has a serious look on with a grin looking crazy faced.
While Zori and Hige start chatting, the man is busy attempting to escape. And somehow, he has a good enough grip on his sword that he's able to slash through the binding wires. Quickly, he attempts to slash at Zori and Hige, but this acts more as a distraction than anything, testing their strength, in a way, and toying with them.
Hige frowns a bit as he sees the cut on Zori. When the man breaks loose Hige is on the move immediately, pushing away before the sword can cut him. There's something there that's…familiar. "Take him alive, but do all the damage you want." Hige informs Zori before following his own advice. "Who are you and…why is your scent familiar?" He doesn't wait for an answer as Konsho moves forward, slashing the man quickly.
Zori could do nothing but watch as the man cuts loose out of his wires. Zori listens to Hige's words responding "Alright, Alive ill shall..try" Zori grins as the man makes his way towards him. Zori sways his left arm upwards as the wire strings follow the same motion and deflect the sword attack. Zori says "Gotcha" quietly to himself. He moves his fingers thats on his right arm, the cut wire laying on the ground slithers together bonding back together. The wire stands up like a snake lashing back at the man, Zori yet again moves his fingers causing the main wire to branch out into multitude of wires in another pursuit to bind the man to the ceiling.
Somehow, the man is able to avoid Hige and Konsho, stepping to the side so that he doesn't get hit. Sadly, something places him right in Zori's way, and the wires get him once again. "Tch…" He grumbles, once again stuck in place thanks to Zori. He needs to quit underestimating that kid!
"They were right i think. This smells like someone from the village. Just can't really pinpoint it." Hige muses, still eyeing the again captured man. "Who are you? Why are you killing people?" He asks again and, like before, moves in to try and bring him down for a time. Without any obvious signal he and Konsho charge in, destroying part of the house as they spin viciously towards the man once, then back again.
With the man pin'd to the ceiling, Zori smirks. "Hehe..you cant dodge for nothing" he teases at the man. Zori watches as Hige goes in for the attack. Zori deciedes to just feed chakra into the wire bind to try to prevent escape while Hige beat the man to the Inuzukas content. Zori stretches out his right and left arm feeding chakra through the wire to add a super glue effect to it for prevention of escape..
With the man pin'd to the ceiling, Zori smirks. "Hehe..you cant dodge for nothing" he teases at the man. Zori watches as Hige goes in for the attack. Zori deciedes to just feed chakra into the wire bind to try to prevent escape while Hige beat the man to the Inuzukas content. Zori stretches out his right and left arm feeding chakra through the wire to add a super glue effect to it for prevention of escape. "I would answer Hige's questions if i were you, you dont want to make this guy mad…hehe" Zori teases some more at the man.
The gatsuga the man has to endure leaves him with a serious wound (or two), though the second only grazed him since the wires released him. The next set of wires that come for him, he avoids like the plague, as he doesn't want to get wrapped up in them /again/. Dang, that's annoying… The man doesn't reply, preferring to keep his identity a secret. Then he dashes in, attempting to strike both members of the team with a knee-strike to the stomach that would paralyze them for the time being.
Hige is pretty much done with this person. He's ready to find out who the hell it is and get this issue solved. When the attack comes the pair move away before moving back together again and stating the man down. After a few moments they launch forward, circling the man and clawing him over and over again, trying to bring him down.
Of course, the man isn't having it. He'd really rather not get pwned by a kid that looked half his age. It takes only a small shift for him to jump away from the Inuzuka, then he attempts an attack.The man charges, sliding so that he could hopefully knock the boy off his feet (and his little dog, too!) for long enough that he could run away. He knows, given the clan markings, that he'd need to escape after disabling the pair.
Hige and Konsho might be young and quite small but they aren't pushovers. They avoid the knees for the moment before moving in again to attack. They spin at the man again as well as clawing at him towards the end. They aim though to at least knock the mask off and get a look at who it is. He has the scent, but that's not everything.
The man doesn't quite know their true intentions. He's focused purely on staying away from the attacks. Sadly, the Lightning claws strike his mask, shattering half of it. The right half cracks, but doesn't shatter yet. It was enough time for the man to try and fling Hige far away, grabbing the Inuzuka as he flew past him and just throwing him out the window. Who knows where his sword went… Hige would find it was a rather generic katana that could be found in any town, and the man had some sort of herbs on his hands that would hide his scent… So he didn't bother trying to pick up his weapon as he tried to flee.
The herbs do block some of the scent and would work better if Hige wasn't quite so close. As it is he'll have enough to recognize it again even if the herbs make it too hard to follow. Unfortunately that closeness gave him up to being open to attack. It was a risk. He flies out through the window and lands on his back, head ringing. Konsho follows to protect him, not following the man as Hige regains his senses.
Well, the man is long gone, and the house is a wreck… This doesn't exactly help with the relation with the village, considering Hige and Zori (in their eyes) ruined a beloved deceased villager's house… -.- But the damage is done, and the two are booted out with little care for their injuries … Dang. Mission: Partial Failure
On the contrary Hige considers it a success. They came to investigate and he's got more information than just the house alone would've given. He's seen half the face and has committed the scent to memory. He also leaves his money pouch with the village as way of apology and promises more to make up for the damages. With that the trio head back to Konoha with their information.
