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Kyu crossed the bar, dodging dirty looks and the excitement of drunken men. He sidled around tables and chairs, all the way across the bar, until he reached the far side of the room, next to the bar, and not far from where the restrooms were. Kyu stepped up to the bar, and pointed to the lumps on the side of his face, "Hey, bartender! Would it be okay if I had some ice? That Sango... She hits a lot harder than I expected, y'know?" The bartender shrugged, and got some ice together, and put it in a glass. When he handed it to Kyu, he said apologetically, "Sorry that I don't have any bags or even a face cloth to give you, but this'll have to do. Good luck with those bumps, boy."

Kyu took the glass, grinned, "Thanks, bro" He walked away from the bar, and towards the restrooms. He looked back, and a grin stretched across his face. Across the room, one of the two hooded bargoers got up, and began to gracefully move through the crowd. Since mentioning the swords, he was being tailed. Simultaneously, the second hoodlum was likely eavesdropping into Hibiki's conversation. Kyu entered the bathroom, and shut the door behind him. He stepped up to the mirror, and applied the ice to his face, waiting for any movement of the door. One hand was always at his side, ready for that single moment where he'd have to make a move.

A minute passed, then another thirty seconds after that, then the door squealed open. The hooded one walked in. When the door slammed shut behind him, Kyu went into action. His hand formed a quick handseal, and the ice from the glass turned to a pair of orbs of ice-cold water. The flew at the man's chest with incredible speed, and stunned him for a just a moment. In that moment of hesitation, Kyu lunged forward and wrapped his hand around the man's throat. The muscles in the fish-man's arm tensed up, and ice erupted from every pore. Kyu pushed forward, and slammed the man against the door. Shards of ice cropped up all around the hooded man's body, freezing him to the door. When Kyu removed his hand, all that was unfrozen on the hostage's body was his face.

The man stared at Kyu with blank, soulless eyes.Kyu bared his teeth, and formed a blade of ice, which he put right up against the man's neck, "You know about the swords. Talk."

* * *

Sango sat straight in her seat, and tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. Her eyes scanned the pile of money nearby, while Hibiki rattled off some information about the swords. A brief history. Foreign, ancient-sounding names...

Next to the table her customers were detaining her at, one of the pair of hooded ninjas got up, and began to walk across the bar. Sango began to talk casually, keeping an eye on the man as he glided through the pub like a ghost, "You're friend is a real ******** jerk, you know that? I'm never going to live this down around here... As if my life wasn't hard enough without some dumb-a** giving everyone another thing to pick on me about..."

The second hooded figure got up, and walked by Sango and out of the bar. As the door rang, and the hoodlum stepped outside, Sango said in a lowered tone, "You shouldn't talk so loud about stuff like that... I don't know a whole lot, kid. Travelers come in every so often, and chat about treasures and crap. They never have anything to back up their claims... but... If I had to peg down a country for swords, I'd say Earth. That sounds like the hot spot right now. However... Stay away from those hooded goons. There's three of them, I think. There could be four... It's hard to say. Two of them were here just now, sitting at the table next to us. Stay the hell away from them. Almost every time someone talks about swords... they're always around... somewhere. They don't talk, they don't even buy drinks half the time. We all get a bad vibe from them. You and your twin should stay away from them, at all costs."

Sango smiled devilishly, and her eyes sparkled with malice. She giggled, and added, "But tell your friend... the blue kid... to trail them all over town. He'll have a great time, I'm sure of it."

The man stared blankly into Kyu's eyes. Cold, lifeless, emotionless, and thoughtless they were, transfixed onto Kyuzaku's face. His face beneath the hood was the same. He wasn't pleased with the situation, nor was he displeased. Complete indifference was the only thing he seemed to be able to show.

Kyu pouted, then grinned evilly. He pressed his hand hard against the icy cocoon. The ice crunched in on itself, gripping the stranger to the door tightly. He did pull a reaction out of the man, but not the kind he expected. Instead of a scream, or a grunt of discomfort, the man grinned, and chuckled. Kyu condensed the ice straight-jacket further. He could hear bones craching, joints snapping, and blood soaked the ice beneath.

"Pathetic," the man said, without even so much as a whine in his voice, "If this is the best you can do... You'll die, just like the rest." Kyu grimaced, "What do you mean?" The hooded man chuckled evilly. For the first time since being held up, he showed a glint of emotion in those dark eyes. It was a mix of complex feelings: deadly determination, bitter hate, sadistic competitiveness. If Kyu could guess at what the man was thinking, he'd guess that the man wanted to spill his guts all over the floor.

After his hearty chortle, the hooded man spat some blood onto the floor, and continued, "Don't you know, fool? People who look for the swords... They always, without fail, meet bloody ends. Would you like to know why? They aren't ready, they aren't strong enough. If you cant even make me wince... How do you expect to survive against real ninja?"

Kyu ripped his arm out of the ice, and put his hand over the man's forehead, "How about this. You stop spouting crap to me, and I won't freeze over your face with four to six inches of ice. Tell me: Where do I find the swords?"

"It's amusing how you think you're in charge, fool." The hooded man said, "My master... and my mistress... They're the ones pulling the strings. You're nothing compared to them, nothing." Kyu sneered, and tensed the muscles in his arms. Ice began to collect on the man's forehead. The summoned water and ice formed icicles on his forehead. The man grinned, "If you want to know so bad that you'll try and kill me, then fine. I'll talk. Go to Earth Country, Kuchiake Town. Find a man named Hideki. He'll be your guide."

Kyu retracted the ice around the man's head, "Now that's what I'm talking about. I knew we could work something out." Kyu removed his hand from the man's forehead, and put his hands underneath the faucet of the sink. He turned on the hot water, and steaming liquid rolled all over his blue hands, removing excess ice and frost. Kyu approached the door, and pulled it open slightly. He gave the man on the door a side glance. With a cocky grin, he gave the man his insincere farewell, "Thanks for the help, bro. Don't worry about the ice, you should defrost in about three hours. Meanwhile... I suppose you can just chill here." Kyu pulled open the door, knocking the iceberg into the wall behind the door with a loud thud. He stepped through, and the door slammed shut behind him.

Kyu shook out his dripping hands as he walked across the bar, and leisurely approached the table with the identical fox twins and the frustrated barmaid. Casually, he took a seat between Kuro and Sango, and kicked his feet up onto the table, "Did I miss anything?"

A month or so had passed since Zeru and Takera had made their way into the border of Wind Country and Rain Country. Takera was now back in Rain Country and making his way back towards the borders that the group had travelled through to reach snow a month prior. A lot had happened over the course of time between their arrival and Takera's departure from Wind to Rain.

Takera watched the muddy ground. Each step made a sloshing noise as he made his way through the path. After a while he reached the town where Zeru and himself had stayed prior. He looked up slowly from the ground to see the few people moving through the streets in the town. Nothing seemed to really stand out among the people and scenery. Takera was in a haze of a sort. Everything he had scene before he now viewed in such an incredibly different light. He found himself left with nothing, but an empty feeling inside.

As Takera moved past the merchant stands he gathered up different fruits and assorted goods to take with him to his destination. He paid for the items and moved down the path towards the opposite side of town. He was planning to leave the city and keep travelling without stop. He had things he had to do and the Exams he was told to enter were soon to start. He had but less than a week to get prepared and arrive there. Making haste he quickened his walk to a run and began to exit Rain towards the Fire Country. As Takera ran, he began to pick up the sound of another person close by. Takera slowed down to a walk once more to see if the figure behind him was really following him. The figure slowed down and stopped a short-ways down the path behind Takera. He turned to confront the figure, his eyes changed to form his Sharingan. Takera could now see the figure's location half-behind a tree a little ways down the path. "Reveal yourself!" Takera said as he raised his voice to be heard over the noise of the rain and surrounding area. The figure seemed almost startled and moved out from behind the tree making their way closer to Takera. The figure was adorned in a cloak and kept quiet.

Takera stood there in the rain for a while just staring at the cloaked figure who stood quiet and didn't move. Something seemed off about the figure. Takera couldn't put his finger on it, but the figure was human-like, but not at the same time. Then it hit him from out of no where. Takera's eyes widened as he noticed the glare of chakra from over the head of the cloaked figure. He instantly whipped around creating a spinning blade from thin air with his Wind Element. He swung with incredible speed destroying a set of Kunai that had showered down towards him from an angle. At the last second at the kunai all split and fell to pieces, he realized that a few of them had been tagged with explosive tags. In a sudden flash, an explosion burst forth from the spot Takera was standing. The cloaked figure stayed un-moving as another Ninja in the tree above had made his presence known. "What a fool. That Wind Ninja had no chance. Now we can take what's salvagable from his corpse and turn a profit."

The ninja descended to the ground where the cloaked figure had stood throughout the battle. The ninja made his way to the spot of the explosion where smoke was still pouring up into the sky. The smoke lessened as the rain doused the area. The ninja moved closer to the spot. Watching as the smoke dwindled he looked towards where he thought the body would've been, only to see a charred Puppet resembling his own. His eyes widened as the feeling of terror enveloped him. He turned his head to look back, only to find the cloaked figure face-to-face with him. Lightning struck and for a split second the face inside the cloak was revealed. A mask and 2 blood-red eyes staring back at the ninja who had so confidently tried to strike Takera down. The man's eyes began to shake and his body followed suit shortly after. "It's not possible! You should be dead! Why is my puppet laying there and not you!?" the ninja screamed at Takera in his frightened and frustrated state of mind. Takera remained quiet for a minute before answering. "...At the moment of the explosion, I substituted your doll by switching places with it."

The ninja's confusion showed upon his face as he tried to comprehend how Takera had done it. "You used a jutsu?! I never saw you make a single hand-seal! There's no way!" the man said in a panic. Takera's hand pressed against the man's back flat. "A jutsu? I had no need. My sharingan let me see the explosive tags before it was too late. I'm not to blame if you were too slow to keep up. Now die." The man stumbled forward trying to get away from Takera. He fell into the muddy path and began to scramble. Rising to his feet, he managed to make it 10 feet away. As he turned back to look towards Takera, his eyes widened even more in terror. Takera was gone. He turned forward, his eyes locking to the figure infront of him, but before his head could turn fully or his body could react, Takera's arm came down in a slashing motion from the top of his left shoulder and down across his body. The bandit's body convulsed as it collapsed in a heep of blood.

Takera looked down one last time at the bandit's body. He despelled the spinning blade of wind before turning to run away. Takera made his way towards the borders of Rain and Fire.


[Current Lines: 62]
[Total Lines: 62]

[Exitting to Fire/Rain]

Noriko's form flowed across the practices grounds as one trap after another went off with lethal precision. Kunai and shuriken flew at her small frame with enough force to do serious internal damage if she slipped and improperly dodge. The exercise was made all the more dangerous by the rain that had been reliably and unfailingly turning the training grounds into a mud pit of potential slipping hazards. At her request on the the Chuunin teachers always had some hidden traps set before her arrival each morning so she wouldn't be able to predict every attack and would have to work on her feet. After a great deal of arguing on the matter it had been settled that these at least, would be on a none life threatening nature. Noriko had hardly been pleased, but the ink traps that were set up had a far broader area of attack and ink couldn't be deflected like metal weapons could. Eiji's own furry orange figure was a blur as he streaked across the steel beneath his paws. Like his partner no weapon marred his flesh, though twice a shuriken kissed the black of his tail and left little bits of sheared fur on the ground.

The cool air rasped in and out of Noriko's lungs as she started to push past her normal trap count. She had trained in a variety of martial art styles and spiced their aspects with her natural agility. What she lacked for in strength she made up for in speed and grace, she had to or her parents would have never given her peace. As it stood her parental units had prohibited her to pass to the Genin level because of her weakness. Despite the fact that most ninja from the Rain Country mastered in genjutsu and not taijutsu her mother hadn't considered her worthy of advancement. She could understand that part of their reluctance was because they cared for her. They wanted their daughter to serve the Rain Country, but they didn’t want to lose their only child. Some part of her was glad they felt strongly enough about her to worry over her fate, but they picked worst possible way to show it. Even with the insistence of several Chuunin that she was ready, her parents had prohibited her to take the test. Until today. Today she would graduate, at long last. That's why she was pushing herself harder today. She had to be ready for whatever was required of her. Part of Noriko knew that she was ready; she trained at every opportunity and worked constantly at improving what she'd already learned. She already knew she held an affinity with wind, a fact she knew many didn't discovered until further into their genin training.

Her mind, distracted by worries and hopes of her near future, the soft almost indiscernible hiss of a shuriken from behind her head nearly escaped her notice. With her advanced senses, it shouldn’t have been an issue but it was only thanks to Eiji’s bark of warning that she dropped in time to see the small deadly weapon fly passed to clatter harmlessly to the ground once it hit the metal wall of the training ground. Her dodge had been unplanned, and subsequently, ungraceful. Noriko was on her hands and knees with the rain pelting her back. She didn’t notice the rain, to accustom to it to give it a pacing though, until it dripped from her bangs into her eyes as she looked back towards Eiji. Brushing the irritating liquid from her optics she gave a grateful smile. “Thanks, pup. That could have ended unpleasant-“

Her words cut off as she heard a slow but powerful and continuous clap from the direction of the training building. She fluidly rose to her feet, embarrassed to have been caught making such a pathetic mistake on such an important day. She instantly studied his face for looks of disapproval but she found nothing. The Chuunin Sensei didn’t seem to be anything but honest in his claps of approval. “Very good Noriko, Eiji.”

Noriko frowned at the praise, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “I let my guard down and my last minute avoidance was a mess, Sensei. How is that good?” Her voice held frustration directed inward at her own inadequacies, but he only smiled patiently. “You and Eiji are working more fluidly as a team. Over the last few months your partnership has grown in leaps and bounds. That’s extremely important in any fight.” It was obvious by her expression that she hadn’t realized her and Eiji’s relationship had been anything but close, but she did have to allow for the fact that she and him had been catching more of each other’s mistakes of late. Last week while they were jumping buildings she’d realized he favored his left side to much while moving, a flaw that could have easily been used against him in battle. She was still considering her teacher’s words when he snapped his fingers in front of her face and made a small whistle noise. “Clean up here. When you’re done come inside, the exam will be starting in ten minutes.” With the news delivered he walked back to the dry interior of the building. The training field had never been put to order so quickly.


{(Lines:: Post:51 Total:10 cool }

Isuko reported to the assignment office, and waited his turn in line. When the chuunin on duty called him forward, he approached the desk with some small amount of trepidation.

”State your name and rank.”

”Isuko Riwomu, Genin”

The chuunin flipped through some pages in his log book until he came to Isuko’s entry. ”Ah. Headed to Earth Country looking for the Mist Swords. Since you’re back and I don’t see any of them, I’m assuming you failed.”

Isuko tried not to flinch. The reminder of his failure still stung a bit. ”That is correct. I spent just over a year searching with no luck. I have returned home to sharpen my skills and serve the village.”

The chuunin nodded and made some marks in his ledger. ”Very good. There is nothing here that requires you to be debriefed. You may go.”

Isuko left the assignment office. ”I should head to the training grounds and continue experimenting with my various new jutsu. And I must remember the sting of the desk attendant's non-judging words of failure. It should serve as a lesson to me so I try harder.” Isuko grinned as he stepped out from under the building's awning into the ever present rain, realizing just how much he'd missed it, annoying as it was sometimes, and headed for the training fields.

Isuko quickly traversed the Village, only stumbling once or twice over obstacles that had been added to his familiar routes since he had been home. Isuko arrived to find the training ground with the pendulum targets occupied. He could hear a rythmic thump in the mud, but couldn’t quite make out what it was, as well as a low voice. Normally, he wouldn’t have been able to pick out any of the words, but there was a slight lull in the rain at just the right moment. ”Hmm... Meat? Must be an Inuzuka. That would explain the thumping sound if the dog has a tail.”

Isuko made sure to approach from upwind and make a decent amount of noise, knowing some Inuzuka were uncomfortable in the rain as it dulled scents and he didn’t want to startle her. H also made sure his blindfold was in place so as not to unnerve the girl. Once he had approached to speaking distance, Isuko greeted the other shinobi. ”Greetings. I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Isuko Riwomu.” Isuko held out his hand to shake the other shinobi’s.

Isuko nodded. ”I see. I’ve also been away from the village for just over a year. Isuko knelt down and reached out to Eiji, intending to scratch behind the canine’s ears. ”I’ve always loved animals, and, to be honest, I’ve been a little jealous of you Inuzuka. If you don’t mind, would you describe what kind of canine he is? In the event you didn’t notice, I cannot see, and a companion would be useful for someone in my situation.” He said this last with a chuckle, trying to make sure Noriko knew he wasn’t sensitive about it.

As he did so, he reached back into his pack as if looking for something. He carefully focused just enough chakra to make a bone dog treat. He pulled it from his pack as if he had found it. He turned to Noriko with a questioning expression. ”If you don’t mind?

((Just a note, since we're RPing together, you get to add my lines to your count too. I'm keeping track of our combined count in the "Total Lines" Section below. Keep your previous solo RP separate.))

Isuko slightly jumped as the canine darted forward and snatched the proffered bone. He chuckled and began idly scratching behind Eiji’s ears as he turned back to Noriko. ”I didn’t mean to intrude if you need to get back to whatever. If you don’t, do you mind training with me? I’ve been a genin for about a year, but I’ve been away in Earth country. And you said you’re fairly new, which means you probably haven’t had much in the way of missions. I figure we can help each other out, steel sharpens steel and all that. Get stronger and get chosen for missions and the like.”

((Sorry for the short/delayed response. School and the holidays got the better of me for a bit. I don't have anything particular in mind for our RP, we can pretty much do whatever we want.))