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[Terence_Teddy]

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The feeling of being tired had become so natural to Orion that being awake and bright wasn't something that he was even used to anymore. He wasn't sure he even understood what the feeling itself meant anymore. Orion meditated on his own in training field in Konohagakure, a place that he had taken to teaching many Genin to and training himself there. He had decided to use this place as his training grounds because it was quiet here. He was not disturbed by outside forces and since Hensou had taken over the village as their own, his skills increased a great deal here. Orion had periods of time where the only way he was able to keep alive was by eating and energizing himself. He slept maybe... twice during those periods mainly because he believed that getting stronger was more important than his overall health.

Whatever you sliced it, Orion was sleep deprived. His training had given force of will to overcome any hallucinations and such that were displayed because of his over-exhaustion but really nothing he could handle. There were times that he didn't sleep because he was troubled with things. Of course, at this point, these things should not have disturbed him but because they did, sometimes his own fright got the better of him. People wondered how a man could survive this long without any sleep but, in the past, that's almost how the Yuanjia worked. He remembered his mother and father having severe bags under their eyes before he started being trained mercilessly. He never thought for himself to go through the same thing but look at him now... He knew this was pointless to think of. He had done this to himself, and if he wasn't born into such a family... No, wait, this was of consequence either! His family had given him strength and strength that the Hensou prided him on. He couldn't let anybody down, including himself!

Orion stood to his feet, and made a hand seal, that being of the tiger, quietly saying to himself, "Katon: Kage Bushin!" Before him appeared just a single other clone, as Orion felt the heat from the clone. These clones were hot even for him but he could normally clash with it without feeling too much pain from it. Still, as an extra precation, Orion made a series of hand seals, ending with the tiger once more, "Fenghuang Kangle Jutsu..." A burst of flames suddenly surrounded Orion in the shape of a phoenix, this being enough to combat the one clone he had summoned. The flames flowed around him, as the clone dashed at him as quickly as it could have, jumping into the air, turning itself down towards Orion, pointing its foot down at him. Orion caught his foot and threw him away, as the clone quickly slid across the ground, rushing back at Orion. Orion took a stance, not taking his eyes off the clone. He struck at the clone, not taking any chances to miss, the clone dodging his palm attack, and sliding underneath Orion.

The clone started to send a blow to Orion's back, but Orion quickly turned around and ducked, quickly sweeping the clone off its feet. Before it could fall back down, Orion spun his leg around, slamming it in the stomach, following up with another kick that made it fly backwards against a fence that was put up around the training grounds, as it disappeared into a burst of fire sparks. Orion calmed down, and sighed, realizing that it took much longer to defeat that Fire Clone than usual. He sat back down and crossed his legs, figuring that something about his attack was off. Was he holding back? No, no... There must have been something else. Oh well, only time would tell. Even though he only used three techniques to defeat it, it should have been much quicker than that. He even thought he didn't use enough strength with his last attack, Huǒyàn Xuànfēng. Regardless, he'd just need to work harder on this and then he'd reach a brand new limit! His strikes were quick but his speed itself was not... Could he become faster and stronger at the same time? No, this was impossible. If you wanted to land a decent hit, you had to be aggressive and hit them as hard as you could. His power was enough to make two strikes from his legs, throw a clone off their feet and smash them into a fence... but he needed to take all the variables. Anything and everything could be one's own detriment when it came to things like this.

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× The Training Grounds tab × No one tab × Confident, tired tab × Hope this was good!

[Hesinde]

Rolling over in bed, a groan issued from the exposed woman that was slowly starting to wake up. Eyes opened to reveal still clouded grey eyes. Saki blinked a few times, eyes clearing up. She sat up and shivered. During the night she had kicked her blanket off the bed. She ran a hand over her mane of unruly curls, before stretching her arms over her head. She groaned as she heard hear back pop. Letting her arms fall back to her side, she looked around the sparsely furnished room. It was a guest bedroom at the Hanatsuki compound. She wasn't here often enough to warrent her own bedroom and that suited her just fine. As a merchant and as an information gatherer for Hensou, she was on the road more than she was in any one village. Currently she found herself in Konoha. It had been the first requisition of Hensou, and it would not be the last. Hensou will not stop until all of the hidden villages had been shown the error of their ways.

Saki stood and padded over to her suitcase. She pulled out a sports bra in a dark red and a pair of loose pants that shinobi favored in black. It didn't take long for her to slip into the clothes and fix her hair, so that it wasn't just a wild mess. She would head out for a bit of training before getting breakfast and starting work for the day. She had already delivered the information that she could on Akabeko Ringo, the so-called "princess" of the Iwagakure army, the day before. She had been in Iwagakure on some merchant business. A frown marred her delicate features. It had gotten difficult and very dangerous to travel between villages these days. It was all thanks to the war, but at least merchants could still pass with the proper documentation and extensive searches. The villages still needed to be supplied with food and clothing and weapons and other miscellanous items. But now she would head to the training grounds and see if there was anyone there that could show her something useful. She may be a civilian, but, since become a part of Hensou, she had been taught how to harness her chakra and how to defend herself. She slung a backpack over her shoulder that contained a water bottle, a towel, some bandages, and a snack. The woman exited the compound and headed towards the training ground. As she walked she concentrated in trying to pin point chakra signatures around her. Sensing chakra had been one of the things that she had been adamant about learning. If she could detect shinobi in advance, then she could avoid them better. For the moment avoidance was better than confrontation.

A smile lifted her lips as she sensed a familiar chakra signature just up ahead. It belonged to the extremely disciplined Orion. The two were friends, with Saki dragging him off to be social at times and him training her when she asked and was in the neighborhood. She increased her pace, grinning. The woman stopped at the edge of the training grounds to take in the sight of the male fighting himself. She watched his controlled movements as he quickly took care of his--what she assumed to be--clone. She didn't start towards the male until he was seated.

"Good morning, Orion." she called out still some way from him. He had probably heard her walking towards him, but she knew that it was no good surprising shinobi. Surprising a shinobi could get you killed. She slung her backpack from her back and carried it in one hand as she stopped a few feet away from him. "Want to help me with a morning workout?" Her tone was light. She knew that training with him was going to make her sore tomorrow, but he was patient in teaching her. It was difficult to grasp everything when one had not had any previous shinobi training. Her gaze swept over his figure. It was obvious that he had trained much of his life. Honestly he had an incredible body but that would not distract her.

[Terence_Teddy]

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Orion sat with his back turned to the voice that he suddenly heard come from behind him. He did not fall in his stance, his meditation continuing on, even when she continued to speak to him. He had heard her footsteps shortly before that so he wasn't all surprised when she spoke up. "Good morning, Saki." Orion said, despite his meditation not being broken from what he said. He just focusing on two things at once, something he had become quite good at ever since he met Saki. Initially after she spoke, he wasn't sure why she was here. It soon came to him right before she spoke up, and he would have nodded, if he wanted to at least keep his posture correct. She stopped walking soon after she started speaking to him. She respected the fact that she would wait until he stood up to her address her. He almost started to feel her eyes on him, but he ignored it, wanting to complete his meditation. He could have asked Saki to join him since this would probably help her Sensing grow, and help her focus on many things while finding exactly what she wanted. No matter though, the time had already passed, focusing his chakra around his body in a violent burst of energy. He was close to reaching exactly what he needed, and soon, the chakra dissipated from his body. He did have a super large amount of chakra but he had enough willpower to make it look like he did. He stood up after this happened, brushing his pants off.

He did his best to smile at her weakly, the times when he wasn't fighting or training, the moments he could be seen at his weakest. Orion stretched and did a half yawn, and said, "Sure. Did you want to start off with a sparring match or something else?" Orion did feel a little bad for letting her stand there for as long as she was, but it wasn't that long to him. He probably would have meditated more if she hadn't been around. Regardless though, she was here now. It didn't matter in terms of what he was going to do, he should focus on the here and now. "How did you sleep?" Orion wasn't very good at conversation but he tried to make some, as he took a stance of the Northern Shaolin. If she wanted to do a little bit of sparring, that was fine, since that's what's they had been focusing on lately. He saw himself as someone that was friends with Saki, yes, but he also thought of her as his student. It made him happy whenever she came around because it was because they were gonna hang out or train. He wouldn't even use his full strength against her because if he did, he would actually hurt her. So, he was going to use regular Taijutsu for the moment. As Orion looked at her, he could admit something to himself. He did enjoy seeing her around for another reason. Her body was near perfect, and it surprised him because she clearly hadn't trained that much. Her fighting style was more or less undisciplined but... for whatever reason, that didn't make her body lose anything. He had times when he stared at Saki to try and figure this out, like he was doing now, but he soon broke from it, and focused on what she wanted to do.

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× Training Grounds tab × Saki tab × Happy, Tired

[The Steelback]

✵ Rioreia ✴ Yotsuki ✵

A refined woman walked along the road with a few other ninja following close behind her. They were all sent from Kumogakure, the Village hidden in the clouds. Currently, they found themselves in the Land of Grass.

It was dangerous for someone to be travelling alone these days, especially someone as high-profile as the woman, but she knew that able-bodied shinobi could be put to better use fighting on the warfront or defending key locations. Instead she opted to go with only a few chunin and jounin from her clan. After all, if there's one thing the Yotsuki clan has been known for, it's their unwavering dependability.

The woman herself, clad in an extravagant red kimono in great contrast to the military uniforms of those around her and with an air of absolute authority and grace was known as Hiro Yotsuki, one of the entire Land of Lightning's strongest shinobi and the vessel of the 2-tailed beast Matatabi. She had traveled all the way from Kumogakure through unsafe territory to meet with another important general.

Sure enough and precisely on time, Hiro and her group began approaching their agreed upon meeting point: Tenchi bridge. Hiro made her way across it, immediately attracting the attention of the sea of soldiers that always accompanied this particular general. They were high spirited and protective and the sheer number of them might intimidate some people in certain situations, but they were already familiar with Hiro who had visited and worked with their leader several times before. The soldiers respectfully greeted her and her companions and let her into the camp.

Although it was on official business regarding the ongoing war, Hiro was eager to see the little general again. Akebeko Ringo. She was loud, rowdy, contemptuous, and impulsive. At times she was hard to handle, but the two had worked together and fought for their lives in battle together. As Hiro grew to know her more, she found that the younger girl very much reminded her of herself. Although on the surface their demeanor couldn't seem to be more different, they were actually much more similar than one would expect.

Hiro found herself very attached to her. She both criticized and envied her wild spirit and only hoped for the best for her friend. Just seeing the white-haired girl's obnoxiously loud face put a small smile on Hiros lips that she just couldn't wipe away.

[The Steelback]

✵ Rioreia ✴ Yotsuki ✵

Hiro smiled pleasantly as her smaller entourage began to relax, two choosing to look at the map curiously and the other beginning to converse with some of Ringo's soldiers.

"This whole war is troublesome. My only goal is to try to end it as quickly as efficiently as possible for the sake of everyone. " Hiro replied in a smooth, soothing voice. She listened to the young general talk about her plight in the Land of Rain and allowed a sympathetic frown on her face.

"I'm sorry to hear about your challenges, Ringy. I had to deal with a similar hardship on the islands off the coast of the Haran Bay. As predicted, the forces from the Water Country attempted to set up bases there, but thanks to the Earth Release specialists your country loaned mine, we were able to not only hold them off, but capture a large number of them as well. Although the victory was of paramount success, even I couldn't avoid being splashed with water" she explained to her, mixing in important news with the casual attitude meetings with Ringo always seemed to take.

"Since then, we've spread out your country's Earth Release specialists across the coast of the Land of Lightning to defend against future attacks and have ceased offensive measures against Kirigakure. Unfortunately, it would be extremely difficult to stage any kind of attack on Kirigakure itself due to the vast amount of water surrounding them and the close proximity to enemy territory" Hiro knew that Ringo, being as impulsive as ever, would be wondering why her country's troops didn't pursue the enemy when they had them on the run so she quickly offered an explanation as well, moving the pieces on the board and highlighting and circling the areas she was talking about with a beautifully adorned hand fan.

"I believe it would be the best decision to halt all further offensive attacks on the Suna-Kiri alliance. Although all of our attempted negotiations of peace have failed, we can still force their hand to work for us. Simply put, up until now this war has been a 3-way free-for-all between the Iwa-Kumo alliance, the Suna-Kira alliance and the Hensou faction. We have been able to push back both of our enemies on all major fronts - however at the cost of many of our soldiers' lives. My recommendation is that we pull back our forces and set up strategic defensive bases along the perimeters of Earth Country Territory and wind Country territory and halt all offensive movements against the Suna-Kiri alliance for the time being. Eliminate and discourage all incentive to attack us, and they will focus on Hensou from the south. Like-wise, we will also be able to focus our forces on Hensou from the north as well and it will inevitably fall"

Hiro momentarily leaned back from the military map and examined her changes to it as if she was studying her own plan. In reality however, she was merely allowing Ringo time to process the information already given to her. After a moment Hiro leaned in to finish her strategy.

"Our countries' closer proximity to the Fire Country give us the clear advantage in taking control of it after the fall of Hensou. Our troops will travel down to the most southern parts of Fire Country territory and set up defensive perimeters, effectively splitting up Kirigakure and Sunagakure. At that point their loss will be all but inevitable and if we're fortunate enough, we may even be able to talk them into surrender to put an end to this war."

[blau kri]

MURASAKI KYOUKA

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✲ • [mood: thoughtful] [location: near Konoha training grounds] [with: no one] • ✲

⇢ " There you go. See? All better. " Murasaki gently murmured as his deft, slender fingers swiftly tied the knot on a cloth bandage that had been carefully tied about the leg of a small child. His patient, just a few minutes ago whimpering and crying, now quietly watched with only the softest of occasional little sniffles as the nin gingerly tended to her wound - a small but nasty cut. And when the jounin drew back, placing his hands on his bended knees, her face immediately broke into a wide, toothy grin with a note of giddy laughter.

" Now that cut shouldn't give you any more trouble. Just please-- " He began, but no sooner had he started did his little patient spring up from the bench they had stopped at with a tremendous leap, and started at a run down the road - a small pack of children about her age who had warily eyed Murasaki throughout the 'procedure' quick at her heels.

" Thank you! Mister Ninja! " The little girl called down the road back the shinobi, waving over her shoulder and never breaking her stride as she bounded out of his view.

"...be more careful.." Murasaki softly sighed then chuckled, rising from the path and wiping a bit of dust from his blue kimono before hefting a large woven basket - filled with various plants he had collected just earlier that morning - onto his head, holding it in place with one hand and starting off down the road. It was a bright, sunny morning in Konoha which seemed to promise another hot, brilliant day in the village, and the calm atmosphere seemed to Murasaki to belie the tension that he always felt was bubbling just beneath the surface of this place. It was a feeling that made him not nervous, but very wary. He moved through his life here in Konohagakure constantly gauging the way the villagers reacted and responded to him. And whether he was spat upon or smiled at seemed to matter very little, as besides those who had aligned themselves directly with Hensou there always seemed to be an air of resentment - or worse yet, fear - in his interactions with the locals. Not that you could really blame them...

And now, as he moved silently through the village, he could feel the many countless eyes of Hensou's unwilling hosts upon him; some nodding in greetings, others hurriedly averting their gaze and attentions, and Murasaki all the while trying to push to the back of his mind the sad realities of the situation here. It was simply unavoidable, and it would all soon prove to be of the best, right? Right. But soon enough, Murasaki's walk brought him to a place where the skyline of interesting, modern buildings began melting into trees and expanses of sun-lit training fields - there were still a few plants on his list to gather this morning, and his search would carry him right past a popular training ground where two of his comrades seemed to have already gathered.

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✲ • ooc -

[Hesinde]

Saki watched Orion meditate. She shifted from one foot to the other, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn't want to bug him too much, but she wasn't the most patient; just standing around wasn't one of her strengths. Her gaze traveled from the male to her surroundings. The area was pretty flat with trees lining the main training area. She was looking around the area when Orion stood. Her gaze snapped back to him. A small smile tugged at her lips at his question. A sparring match would definitly leave her sore and bruised, but it would be a interesting workout. Hmm, something else? She needed to improve in so many different areas. She pursed her lips as she considered his question; her gaze sank. After a moment she looked up at Orion. She had decided.

"Let's spar." She chuckled at his second question, "I slept fine. Did you sleep?" she asked giving him a knowing smile. The woman knew that he rarely slept. Even she noticed when he had not slept in awhile. There had been occasions where she had drugged his drink to make him sleep. She wasn't too proud of drugging a friend, but sleep was essential--even for a shinobi. Usually she only did it when they were hanging out at the Hanatsuki compound. She picked up her backpack and moved it to the edge of the training area before returning to where she stood moments ago. She began to stretch. There was no sense in pulling something just because she didn't warm up.

"Rules?" Saki glanced up at Orion as she bent to touch her toes.

[Terence_Teddy]

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"Excellent." Orion said to her, a small smile crossing his face for about a second. He was impressed at the progress that Saki was making and even more impressed that she was the one who chose sparring today. Orion was usually in favor of more hands on action but he did whatever he could to help out his friend. "Oh, that's good to hear. I--" He stopped himself, as he realized that Saki smiled in a way that made it seem like she knew that he didn't get any sleep. They were friends but there were his own reasons for him not sleeping. Although, he would feel like he did his friend a disservice by not answering her, so he stood up straight and looked at the ground, crossing his arms, trying to think of a perfect response to her question. Orion titled his head for a second, and finally he came to a perfect response for her. "Sleep is the cousin of death." With that, he had perfectly answered his question. At least, he thought he had anyway. He supposed that it wasn't completely accurate given that he did sometimes go to sleep but whenever he could help it, he wouldn't. The nightmares were the worst part of it all, truly. He would never probably know that Saki had been drugging to see him go to sleep, and even if he did know, he would not fault her for it. He would have simply understood it as her helping out a friend.

As soon as Saki started stretching, Orion continued his stance from his Northern Shaolin as he so normally used, and he was glad to hear this question. They normally made rules so Orion would not use his full power against her. It made sense because, if he did, he would probably harm her. After a few seconds of thinking, Orion responded with, "No Ninjutsu from either of us besides the basics. Meaning we can only use Kawarimi no Jutsu, nothing else. Since I do believe you need to focus more on your Taijutsu and detecting how quickly an opponent can get you, we'll focus on Taijutsu today. It is my speciality after all. This also means I will not use my clan's Nintaijutsu to fight you and only Taijutsu." Orion cleared his throat and quickly continued, "My style is very unique to my relatively extinct Yuanjia clan and so, I obviously don't want you to copy my style. Develop your own, as I always say. You're very unique, so please remember that... Anyway, are you ready?" Orion closed his eyes, as he breathed out a little bit. He was excited and despite the fact that he always gave such a explanation to Saki, he figured he'd say it all the time to remind her that she was unique. Since he truly believed that she was, he sounded more sincere than normally when he spoke. Once his breathing was done, he stared her down as he would a normal opponent. "On top of this, I don't want you to hold back when attacking me today. Just for today, I think you should go all out." This was new from Orion, however, because normally they just did routine sparring and things like this. Orion, was, of course, going to hold back. He didn't think it was right to use full strength against an untrained shinobi. Shortly after Orion said, he raised one leg and started charging forward. He wasn't that fast, of course, but he was taught to put a lot of strength and power behind every strike even if you weren't that far away from them.

Making a palm with one of his hands, he sped up a little bit, focusing on Saki. Despite feeling some type of way about using this accursed style, he would use it now. It was all he knew! Getting these bad thoughts out of his head, he raised his first palm to strike Saki's stomach. This was going to be his only primary Taijutsu he knew. There was no fire behind it so that was good, but however, it did seem like it was going to hurt if she didn't dodge this. He was ready to sweep her off her feet if she wasn't quick enough but he wasn't sure if he was going to continue it. He'd make that clear later, he guessed, hoping that Saki was quick enough to either dodge or block this. "Let us begin!"

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× Training grounds tab × Saki tab × Teacherly, tired tab × Hey, berri, Murasaki should totally come and bug Orion and Saki!! c: Also, Hesinde, I'm not sure if you wanted to actually fight it out between Orion and Saki so I just started it. You can do whatever you want in terms of the sparring match and stuff!

[The Steelback]

✵ Rioreia ✴ Yotsuki ✵

Hiro was slightly taken aback, but a pleasant smile immediately returned to her face. What else could she have expected from her, after all? The taller woman stood back, looking at the map with a silent gaze for a moment as she thought. Being unable to immediately come up with an answer to any problem was rare for the Yotsuki clan head, but she needed to find a good middle ground between her perceived optimal strategy and Ringo's preferred strategy.

"Right, right...Alright" Hiro said, gathering her thoughts.

"As of now, there's not much to be done about Kirigakure. Our best bet is to separate them from Sunagakure and force surrender from them. Which makes Sunagakure and Hensou the targets of top priority"

She thought a bit more, standing perfectly still with the closed hand-fan held gently to her temple.

"You said that the Kazekage has been causing problems? If my country sets up defensive blockades in the Land of Frost, Kumogakure will be sufficiently defended on all fronts. I may be able to talk the Raikage into sending a good number of Kumogakure troops to assist in your fight. As adamant as the Kazekage and his fighters are, a little bit of back up might be just the little nudge that your army needs to finally push through. Other than that...I can only imagine that Kirigakure will quickly get tired of throwing their soldiers at the Lightning Country coast and the Haran Bay islands and will instead start to focus on Hensou, being the next closest target"

Hiro stopped talking once more, taking in everything on the board and trying to consider everything.

"Ringy, I know it isn't your style to not fight everything and everyone at once, but please, for me - avoid engagements with Hensou as best you can right now. Hiro pleaded, her voice getting much softer than before. A look of genuine concern showed on her face for just a moment as she implored the younger general. "Just focus on taking the Land of Rain and suppressing Sunagakure. At least Suna is an enemy that we have sufficient information and experience with. The Hensou faction is still largely a mystery for us, and there's no telling what tricks they have hidden up their sleeves if we push deeper into Fire Country territory. It would be best to wait until our spies gather more information on their specialties and weaknesses, and to wait until we have a better control of the situation and can focus our forces on them"

Compared to Ringo, or mostly everyone, Hiro was a reserved and very defensive leader. She didn't like participating in any fight where her side didn't have clear advantages in both position, numbers, and strength. Ringo on the other hand commanded her army like that of a plague - mindlessly and relentlessly spreading out from their point of origin and fighting everything in their way. Teamwork was paramount in this war and the two almost never agreed with each other, but lately Hiro had been getting more used to finding common ground with Ringo. as long as she had something to attack, she usually didn't have a problem with not biting off more than she could chew. At least if it wasn't for too long.

Hiro knew that ultimately, she and her army would do exactly what she wanted. All she could do was help them and make things as easy as possible for them to do what they did best.

[Naikii]

xxxxxxxx☂ ＴＳＵＢＯＭＩ, ＩＳＡＭＵ ☂
xxxxxxxxxxxＴｈｅ Ｋａｍｅ ｏｆ Ｋｉｒｉ
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxｏｏｃ:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxＹｏｕｒ ｗｏｒｌｄ ｎｅｅｄｓ ａ ｇｒｅａｔ ｄｅfｅｎｄｅｒ
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSorry, bad opening post ono
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxｌｏｃａｔｉｏｎ:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxＹｏｕｒ ｗｏｒｌｄ'ｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｗａｙ ｏf ｈａｒｍ
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKirigakure; Streets
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxｃｏｍｐａｎｙ:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxＹｏｕ ｗａｎｔ ａ ｒｏｍａｎｔｉｃ ｌｉfｅ, ａ fａｉｒｙｔａｌｅ ｔｈａｔ'ｓ fｕｌｌ ｏf ｃｈａｒｍ
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It was another above average foggy day in the Kirigakure. The sun was barely making an appearance though sometimes managed to break away the fog for a second or two. None the less Isamu walked through town with her parasol shading her from any stray rays that might peek through the fog. The sun wasn't strong enough in the Kirigakure to actually hurt her, but it had become such a habit when she went on missions that it was actually weirder for her to case it rather than have it out. The parasol was what made her after all.

She had been summoned to the Mizukages office on business. Mostly an update as to what was happening and current objectives that the alliance had as well as putting a personal responsibility to make sure the Konoha refugees were settling in nice enough. Isamu wasn't like others in Kiri after all. She didn't have a bloodthirsty appetite as soon as you looked at her funny, and she had already met several of the warriors already. The renowned "Kame of Kiri" name that identified her made it difficult for people not to want to try and attack her. It was a nice to be recognized as well as a pain her butt all wrapped up into one. So needlessly said, most of the more strong personalities Konoha-nin had already made themselves known to her. One in particular Genin had been after her constantly trying to find a way around her defence. To no avail unfortunately, but each day he got smarter, and at this point they had been doing it for so long that Isamu kind of looked forward to what he would come up with every day.

She never fought back; that would just be unfair even though she had no doubt in her mind that he would able to handle himself. It was just funny to her to watch him struggle. It was admirable even though she wouldn't tell him that to his face.

Isamu was headed back to her home with her nose shoved into a military book for review. It would seem on the Kiri-Suna hit list was a girl who was seemingly in charge of the driving force for the Iwa-Kumo alliance. It made Isamu laugh a little that a girl no older than seventeen was giving her nation so much trouble. While Isamu herself had no skills as an assassin she was half tempted to go on the mission just to meet the little miss that literally had hundreds at her command. Isamu respected strong woman very highly after all.

Taking a break from walking she leaned her back up against a building her parasol covering her face from any onlookers as she read more about this "Ringo". Know thy enemy after all. The more she read the more she could be prepared for when they were ready to head out. Kiri had a tendency to send out people first and figure out a plan later. Thats where Isamu came in. Should they fail as they had before. Isamu was to get them back safely for the Kiri-Suna alliance didn't have the disposable manpower that they wished they had.