Starring:
Joker (emitter), Kiku, Sei, Kiyoshi
Date: March 31, 2014
Summary:
A team of Kirigakure shinobi are dispatched to investigate and settle a graverobbing issue involving by what appears to be Shinegakuran forces. At the behest of team leader, Kaguya Kiku, the team exchange a potential victorious battle for what may end a war before it can truly begin.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"What Makes Us Human - Loss for Gain"
Unnamed Graveyard in the Land of Water
The Mizukage's office called a team to the dome to have them meet the next client for today. The grave keeper of the largest graveyard OUTSIDE of Kirigakure in the land of water. Which is quite lucerative but hard business considering how cold and moist it tends to get. Right now however, due to summertime the ground is easily plowed, and a group of nin with skulls on their headbands have been trying to shamelessly dig out a few seemingly random corpses… Namely a miner, a fisher and a nameless Shinobi who died in the wars prior to the formation, who expressed his desire to be buried there. Though the village's accounts show the corpse has no value KG-wise.
The gravekeeper confronted the group of three nin wearing skull headbands. Upon which they apologized, but continued their business without directly threatening the man. The grave keeper however is old and was scared to force them off his graveyard. And he feared they would return for more corpses… That's where you come in! The poor old guy is seated on a chair in the hallway, pale and tired it seems. He has been up all night seeing his pride and glory be defiled like this.. Too slow and old to immediately respond.
Kiku gets called in. She's the Jounin on duty at the moment, and well, they don't know anything about this group of supposed Shinobi. And in the fact that they were wearing skull headbands…Lets get the girl who wears actual bones to come great them…The woman sighs as she walks in. All those bones making up her armor seem to rattle a little bit before she sits on the desk, and crosses a leg.
"..So, you just want us to run off a bunch of kids who are playing at grave robbing?", she asks, making sure she understands things. "And you're sure that they're shinobi? Probably a prank, but I'll go look into it. And maybe plant them into the ground next to the graves they broke open.", the woman says. "Maybe dead even. I like the idea of scaring them until they're paralyzed, and then burying them into the graveyard dirt while they're still alive though…", she tells.
Sei follows in after Kiku, quietly and on time. he'd bow to the one that gave the mission details, then would bow to Kiku. He'd watch her intently for a moment, before shifting on his feet. Looking about, Sei made sure there wasn't anything else he'd need immediately in there. Yeah, the Okumo traveled light and fast.
"So the stories are true." The words came out muffled by the mask, but nevertheless, Kiyoshi >did< slip up and say them relatively out loud after observing Kiku's interaction with the grave keeper. A few moments later, the brain catches up to the slip. The youth would try to play it cool and trust that any signs of nervousness or the like were properly covered up by the respirator and clothing. He didn't hold out much faith of the act not falling apart; especially with Sei around. The same said boy that the second eldest of the team pointedly kept from looking at barring the brief, 'mandatory' feeling greeting at the start of the mission. In any case, Kiyoshi at that point also tried quite desperately to make himself less known. Even if he was curious to dig up more about the grave robers than what was on the surface, there was just no telling how their leader might've taken any more potentially slip ups.
Not that he was scared or anything. Mostly…
With a word of caution that they're dealing with Shinobi. Likely of higher rank then genin here. From an actual village, the team is dispatched to head out to the graveyard. When they arrive the large, barren, gloomy yard actually doesn't look all that bad. It's mid-summer and here, outside of the mist the sun is shining and the birds are singing… Though signs of the disturbed graves hurt the zen this placed must have carried.. "Such a disgrace.." The saddened grave keeper says, shaking his head and heading back to his shack. He truely did live modestly for someone who must have made a fortune. Truely devout to his profession.
Kiku sighs as she arrives at the place. She does glare at Kiyoshi. There's not a word spoken, but Kiyoshi would get a very clear message. AKA, you've used up your one slip. Next one is the cliff. The woman looks at Sei a bit. "Sei, can you create a web around the graveyard, and place yourself in the center. After that, we'll stage near you, and your spiders will alert us to where to go. Try to make the webbing as thin as possible to make sure its not seen.", she tells. The woman stretches out a little bit. "Kiyoshi, you will check the graves. Check for anything out of the ordinary, as well as for footprints. While its summertime, the ground does get moist at night. It'll clue us in to the height and weight of our opponents, and give us a rough guess at their age.", she tells. Its pretty…sensible orders. Orders you'd expect to be given…
Mutely nodding, Sei would walk forward into the graveyard. The black swarm would appear as Sei did walk, scattering from him. It wasn't as much as expected.. but Sei's brood generally traveled ahead of him anyways, so they were there. The webbing would have to be subtle, but enough to warn him. Thin strands, careful work of the spiders. Sei came to a stop in the center of the graveyard, standing still as his brood did the job assigned quickly. Outside of the graveyard, across those highest points to give a weave overhead, Sei did his best to make it thin, but coverage of the place as assigned.
Try as he might, Kiyoshi cannot suppress the shudder that went down his spine when Kiku turned her eyes upon him. A silent prayer goes out that Yuriko didn't turn out like Kiku. Although doing so was a costly distraction. He manages to make good time in catching up with the group, though evading Sei's dispersing brood did pose a trip hazard by the end. "Ah… Mmmn… Hai." Kiyoshi grudgingly murmurs before carrying out his assigned task. For the sake of safety, Kiyoshi temporarily removes the mask to bring to the fornt all of his senses for the investigation. Forgotten items, foot prints, drag marks — whatever there is to learn from the graves, he would find it. Only belatedly would he wonder what Kiku intended to do beyond give orders.
Right as everything is set up the sun begins to set. It soon got chilly, and there wouldn't be any activity for the following few hours… Right until midnight, where one of Sei's webs are disturbed. Kiyoshi also found out they were indeed dealing with three people. One's about Kiku's size. The other two are a little smaller. And it appears they used shovels for their dirty work! The ages must be mid to late teens. If they're observant enough to read that from the prints.
Kiku also heads over. She looks over the footprints and everything. She told them what to roughly expect. And she was able to gauge roughly at a few other things. Such as these shinobi didn't use chakra walking to hide their footprints. Either they havn't picked up that ability yet, or they didn't figure on any real threat to be guarding the graveyard. Shovels instead of using an earth jutsu to just bring the coffins up. Kiku still warns of elemental jutsus, she tells the two that she doesn't believe that it is unlikely that they'll use an earth based jutsu. In Kiri, that could be very dangerous, going against a Earth user. Lack of caution, and even being seen, and warned…they made no attempts to silence the old man. Confident. Egotistical. They didn't think that they would be stopped, so young and cocky. The woman goes over these details with Sei and Kiyoshi, and gives her reasons as to why she believes these things. Hopefully the two Genin will pick up on those types of details.
So when the webbing gets tripped, Kiku removes her armor, leaving her in a Tank top, and some black leather like pants, the woman pulls out a piece of gum. She pops it into her mouth, and starts to chew it a little bit. "Sei, keep your brood ready for my signal. Kiyoshi, cover, but do not engage. I'm going to go talk to them first.", she tells. The woman starts to head over to where the alarm was trigger.
Sei nods and works with the others to identify the people. When the alarm is tripped, he'd flick a spider over to Kiku after she stripped off the armor. It'd lead the way to where they were before hiding in her hair to nest in secret. A pre-warning for the Okumo of what might be coming, as he saw what they did. The brood was alert. A slightly elevated grouping near the alarm, but he didn't reduce the rest of the area.. Just in case it was a fake.
Kiyoshi would relay what he could, but the finer details are covered by Kiku. Her assessment was sound, though he suspected that she would not believe either them (namely himself though) would catch on all that quickly. His instincts said otherwise. And while he was still learning to trust them more (and failing already given the slip up earlier), the boy kept a tenuous hold on paranoia.
All of that aside, he listened, absorbed, and digested without a word before beginning to return to his work. Sei's early warning signal dismisses any such luck in taking it easy for a little while longer. With a dreary sigh, Kiyoshi began to get himself prepared, only to lock up for a second before covering his eyes. Kiku was only removing her armor, but without any warnings, well…
"Ha-ha-hai," He stutters quietly, peeking warily out between his fingers. Once assured everything was right in the world, Kiyoshi would follow after Kiku while maintaining a good distance from the girl.
The three nin clad in black, bearing their skull headbands proudly are chit-chatting as they walz onto the graveyard quite confidently. No, they were not worried about traps or Shinobi or anything like that it seems. And even if they're about to be confronted they just keep going like they just don't care…. "Can we help you, chick?" One guy asks, the smallest of the three. Clearly compensating for something as he struts himself around like a peacock looking for his mate. And it seems he has set his eyes on Kiku. The other two grin at his advances and shake their heads. "He's trying to ask if we're bothering anyone, miss?"
Kiku blows out a bubble with the gum, and looks at the group. She pulls out a notebook. Its her practice book, but she doesn't say anything about it yet. She looks at the three. "Like totally cool! Are you guys like real ninjas? Hey, you sneaking around this graveyard for like other ninjas or something?", she asks. The woman looks at the three, and watches them. "I mean, I was out here, with my book. Was totally going to try this magic stuff, you know, talk to the dead and whatnot. Well, try it anyways.", she says. The woman walks with something a late teen bounce, mixed with some gothy slow walk. "Whats with the skulls on the headbands? You the skull ninjas?", she asks. "Or are you goth ninjas? So cool! Can't wait to tell my friends about this!"
Sei would sneak. While the others walked up tot he three, he hid behind a gravestone. His spiders were still out, in force, the brood looming, lurking. Indeed the hole those three made in his web was removed, leaving a full seal once more. Sei didn't attack. He didn't strike as he listened and watched. Lurking like a spider in his nest, watching for that moment that Kiku said to remove them.
Then? Then Sei would consume them whole.
A tree makes a decent place to observe from behind for awhile at least. One that was just close enough to hear everything perfectly. Kiyoshi would soon wish he had not chosen such a spot on account of what was to follow. The 'skull' shinobi, in particular, their leader was marked as the one who was going to die in the next five seconds for treating their team leader the way he did. However, Kiku suprises him… and disturbs him a great deal. Overall, he was strangely… captivated by it all.
Shaking of the peculiar feeling takes time, but eventually Kiyoshi manages as much and can properly set his hand at the ready on the double bladed axe at his back.
The three nin look at Kiku and chuckle. The oldest one walks past her though… "That's a no. If you'll excuse us. We have work to do. Any inquiries can be passed to the Shinekage." The other two, noticing the shift in attitude also nod once and get to work. The oldest one weaves a set of seals, before pressing a green glowing hand into the ground, sending a small resonating shock wave (that's visible) over the graveyard. "It's the one we thought.." He says, as the two nin nod and move a bit closer to Sei. Though they stop suddenly, pressing shovels into the moist dirt. The oldest one leans back on a gravestone. Unmoving, mysterious… Clearly running the show.
Sei shifted as they walked, a moment's pause and he'd hop a little. The brood having worked at the same time to suspend him with that silk. He still hid there, swaying slightly like a spider on a web as he'd watch them dig. Silent as always, his attention was split between the three and Kiku. How far was she going to go before she'd finally say it was time to stop them? It was an interesting concept, using a fake ruse of how one acts, for something else.
The actions are given no less an inspection then their words. Thus, when one of the younger nin releases some sort of shock wave of energy, Kiyoshi was prepared to clamor up the side of the tree and adhere himself to its side well after being secure in the knowledge that the jutsu's effect had ended. Better to be safe then sorry after all. Almost contrary to that very same ideology, the genin peeked around the corner to see if Kiku had decided to spring into action or placed matters into her subordinates hands. Once more, Kiku surprises him by not only continuing the charade, but managing to maintain it for this long. He had to grudgingly respect her ranking as Jounin now, if only a little more now.
The oldest nin looks at Kiku and chuckles. "The old man is not mission critical. Something the locals should be able to respect, yes?" The man says, pulling his bandana up just slightly. The digging is progressing nicely, and they seem unaware of a looming threat. Though wisely, the oldest of the Shinobi keeps a safe distance from Kiku. "We're here to complete the mission. And then we'll be out of everyone's hair." The Shinobi says calmly. "Now, give us some space, would you?"
"Man, you guys are just completely creeeeepah. Talking to the dead is one thing, but digging them up, and call it a mission? Thats just out there.", the woman says. Kiku steps away, and then starts to walk off. Balance that's just disturbing.", she says. The woman takes a few moments to walk off, and heads off towards a local village. After she's out of sight of the trio of bad ninjas, she flicks one of Sei's webbing lines. Hopefully he can move over to her without letting the trio know his presence. "I want you to place spiders on all three of them, and the corpse. And when we get back to the village, I'm going to ask for a guard detail around the graveyard. We're letting them go tonight. They're on guard, and already on to me. We're pulling away until they go, and then I'll speak to the old man. Let Kiyoshi know to hold his ground. They'll get away with it tonight, but tomorrow, when they come, they'll be staring at a full kiri detail.", she tells Sei.
The spider on Kiku's head told Sei what he needed to know. As she went seeking a thread, the brood was already moving him. Slowly sliding down on the threads, he suspended there in the air, upside down as Kiku talked to him. A nod was given, he skipped the whistle so as to not give himself away. Near Kiyoshi, spiders would form a quick canvas of silk, the message Kiku said to give already threaded into it. Once Kiyoshi showed some sign of acknowledgement, those spiders would take the web apart. No trace. At the same time this was happening, others would move, seeking to get close to the shinobi to hide within clothing, going dormant, waiting and watching. Each one got a spider, although Sei could see from any one spider. Just in case. Same with the casket, although that spider dug into the ground ahead of them to get in and hide before they could see.
