Having slipped onto the road to Fire country, Isuko ran as fast as he dared given the limitations of his Echo Locate jutsu, since he was passing through territory that Isuko had not operated in before and was thus only vaguely familiar with. ”I know that there are some brigands and rogues who make their bases nearby and might confront me. I need to make myself seem less opportune to anyone who might be watching. With that thought, Isuko collapsed his cane and stored it in his pack. Making a couple of hand seals, Isuko molded his chakra to activate his Kaguya bloodline and use his Bone Sword jutsu. The feel of a blade in his hand was comforting to Isuko. ”I need to conserve my chakra in the event I do get ambushed. However, I could activate my skating jutsu to allow me to move faster. The storm will help cover my passage, but I don’t want to overexert myself just in case. How much can I afford to use?
Isuko turned part of his focus inward, probing the depth of his chakra reserves, trying to feel out the borders of his chakra reserve. ”I think I do have enough chakra to afford activiating my skating jutsu without too much danger.” Isuko tucked his sword under his arm and began making some hand seals, ending with the tiger seal. Isuko summoned up his chakra and used it to create and layer ice on the bottom of his boots as per the jutsu he created. The reduced friction allowed Isuko to move faster along the ground. ”Wait a moment. Since I have to keep my chakra in the ice, I’m freezing the rain on the ground behind me. That’s kind of really awesome. I wonder if I can control that.”
Isuko began experimenting with various amounts of chakra on his feet, seeing how large he could cause the rain puddles to freeze while he skated across them. With his attention distracted, Isuko failed to notice the 5 men approaching from the North. Suddenly, there were men blocking his way across the road.
Brandishing a pair of wicked axes, one of the men, obviously the brigand’s leader, spoke up. ”Hand over your money and any other valuables you have and we’ll let you go unharmed. Resist, and we’ll be forced to rough you up a bit.” The man grinned .
”Sigh… I really don’t want to deal with this. I just wanted an easy languorous journey to Fire country.” Isuko made a disarming gesture before speaking. ”Look gentlemen. I don’t want any trouble. Just let me be on my way and we’ll all come out of this ok.” The brigands all laughed at Isuko’s statement.
”Sorry kid. You brought this on yourself. Take ‘im boys.” The five men charged towards Isuko. Isuko pulled the bone sword he’d been concealing out and rushed to meet them. The bandits were surprised when Isuko didn’t try to run, but instead moved to engage them. The hesitation caused by that surprise was all Isuko needed.
The first man didn’t even notice Isuko pass him until his hamstring parted under the blade of Isuko’s sword. The second one also took the edge of Isuko’s bone sword to the supporting ligaments in his leg. The first two men collapsed as Isuko moved to face off with the last three outlaws. The boss of the group pulled back as the next two moved to fight Isuko. Isuko adopted a guarded pose. The men had obviously fought together before and their movements were designed to not get in the other’s way, but they were predictable. After a few attack routines, Isuko was able to predict their movements and successfully disarmed them. Unfortunately for the bandits, the easiest way to do this resulted in them losing their weapon hands.
The leader’s face turned pale. ”Oh god oh god oh god… He dropped his weapons and took off running back towards the forest. Isuko let him go and gave no chase.
Isuko turned back to the men he had crippled. ”You should find a new line of work. You never know when you’ll accidentally attack a shinobi. One of the Rain shinobi patrols should be along be for too long and they’ll pick you up. They might even be able to fix you. Good luck.” Isuko cleaned his blade on the bandits’ clothes and continued moving on towards Fire Country.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:30 pm
The boat ride was fairly long but pleasant for that matter. The last few days he'd been awfully busy with missions, meeting his new teammates and their families, and traveling back from the leaf village. Thus Kaito would spend all of his downtime relaxing while he could on this ship. The trip was roughly ten to twelve hours long and Kaito would sleep for more than half of those hours, as he would be found napping along the side of the ship. As the ferry drew closer towards the shore of the fire country, Kaito would awaken just in time for the docking. Slowly he would get on his feet, scanning the boat for his teammates. "Arina, Hanako... I'm awake!..." Yawning, he would locate both of those lovely ladies and walk over to them. "Looks like we're finally here. Can't be doing any sight seeing though, we got places to be!" The Akimichi was feeling slightly groggy still but they were on a tight schedule so he couldn't waste any extra time to waiting for himself to wake up.
The ferry would dock and all it's inhabitants would exit the ship soon after. "We got a few more hours ahead of us and we'll be at our destination, lets just try and not get err... Killed and stuff alright?" Kaito scratched his head while letting out a brief chuckle. It was almost hard for him to be serious about anything without sounding cringy and he new that, even if the situation called for it. "Yeah so errr. Follow me, I know my way around here pretty well.." And with that the Akimichi would turn away from the group and begin heading down the path. This trip would be a pretty miserable one walking, and unfortunately for them they hadn't any other options besides moving on foot.
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318/800 travel words. Total words: 7,028 total.
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:47 am
INDENT‘Play nice?’ Arina recalled the event from before boarding the ship. ‘Infatuation?! No, no, no. I think you are very mistaken,’ the girl would raise her voice in a tone of almost… disgust? Everyone seemed to laugh off the comment but for some reason, it bothered Arina to think that Hanako would say something like that. The girl would pout until they boarded the ferry and then in order to pass the time, as well as preoccupy her mind, she would pull out one of her favorite tomes to read in the meantime. It had been awhile since that had occurred and they should have been quickly approaching their destination. The event almost seemed like a distant memory and the feelings associated with it had dissipated at least for the time being. Arina quietly enjoyed the ferry to their destination while continuing to read the book she had packed away into her shoulder bag. While the current mission seemed a little more serious than having the time to read, the girl assumed there would be down time like this where she would need to occupy her time in order to keep her mind from wandering to the more negative consequences of failure. She had almost died during the alloy mission and the only thing that kept her alive was Aka’Parth and his last minute spell which immobilized those undead soldiers. “How do I keep finding myself assigned to these kinds of missions,” Arina growled to herself quietly before noticing that they were quickly approaching the docking station. She closed her book but not before slipping the cover to her current page; that was how she marked the page for further reading at a later date. Kaito had been sleeping peacefully and finally awoke to approach his teammates. He appeared to be taking charge because he claimed to be more familiar with the area; though he had not really explained why he was more familiar with the area. Kaito was becoming quite a suspicious character if you asked Arina; however, he was on her team and she would do her best to support him until she had a reason otherwise. It was at that moment that the girl recalled what Hanako had said earlier about infatuation… She found herself gagging for a moment and covered her mouth with both her hands in a panic. The girl quickly recovered and was not too worried because it could have easily been mistaken for motion sickness or the abrupt stop of the ship just confusing her body enough to be sick.
INDENT“I have no intention of dying. My mother would bring me back to life and have my hide,” Arina smirked while crossing the narrow bridge that led from the ferry to the dock. “I DO intend to take my time after the mission is complete on our way home to more thoroughly enjoy this little adventure. A moving target is moving but once he is taken care of, I intend to enjoy myself and relax a little,” the young girl declared finally taking her first steps on Fire Country ground. The scenery was already a great deal different from their homeland without the rising mists or unsettling atmosphere. She nodded in approval to herself only half listening to her comrades while they spoke about the trip. Finally coming to her senses, she decided that there was not very much to debate because Arina had never been to this area whatsoever. “Lead the way,” the girl gritted her teeth avoiding eye contact while ushering Kaito ahead. She kept a fairly comfortable distance from behind trying to avoid him mostly. Her demeanor had changed quite a bit, since Hanako had been teasing earlier. It was interesting because Arina knew that there had been no merit to what Hanako had said or any ill-intention for that matter. She knew all of that but still; she could not help but want to avoid any further interaction for the time being. Maybe it was because Hanako and Arina had just talked about this the previous day? Maybe it was because she had already declared how his behavior was intolerable? Maybe Hanako had just opened her eyes too how openly she was accepting her team, despite obvious faults… Either way, Arina would have to work through this rut eventually but for the time being, she chose to avoid her problems. It was easy enough to do with the change of scenery and the bounty mission ahead of them.
318 +749 =1067/800 Travel to Rain Country ---> Fire Country Travel Thread Travel Words:2706 Team Words: 3795
Following Arina and Kaito through Fire Country along their path toward Rain Country was a bit of a travel, but the three had come this far from the beachhead landing on the dock there in the port that it would be a shame to stop. They were, after all, on a mission to hunt down some wanted criminal of sorts and cash in on his head. It seemed like the perfect bit of work, though this guy was classified as a B-Ranked threat. "I have the utmost faith in both of you, and I am certain we will have plenty of time to relax and enjoy ourselves once we brave this storm before us. I have a slightly ominous feeling about all of this.", she admitted as she folded her arms while continuing their journey. It was not an admission of fear, but an acknowledgment that the threat before them would not be something as simple as capturing a cat. This was going to be a full on fight, and on a level that Hanako had yet to test herself to this point, so the idea of jumping right in was a little bit on the unsettling side. This was the path she must walk if she was to ever accomplish her goal of being one of Mist's strongest, though, and to back down from a proper challenge would be an insult to the Kaguya blood pulsing through her veins.
There was only a few that seemed to rank into the category as the gap between each shinobi rank was certainly a wide one. This was a situation were Hanako decided she would need all of her wits and cunning to even survive. Kaito and Arina had their own skills that would likely make the two more of a front line threat, were as Hanako was more the type to rush in after sneaking around for the perfect opportunity to land a vital strike, though she was durable enough to withstand hand to hand combat in her own right, she was more suited for landing those lethal hits and attempting to end all confrontations in as little time as possible. It seemed that the longer things drug on, that the more dangerous capable opponents tended to get. If it was either by combination of adrenal glands working at maximum force or chakra and techniques being employed to make them more formidable, the result was still the same in how it influenced her way of fighting. She had been developing the Anasatsuken, or Killing Arts, for the sole purpose of making fights shorter by delivering highly accurate attacks that packed a punch to try and crush a target quickly. She only hoped that the fight before them with Michio would present the opportunity to test them out.
It had been hours since the last time anyone had spoken and it looked as though the man that Sai had brought with them still was still unconscious. Earlier on in the trip, Sai had dressed the man and gotten rid of the medical gown. The man would be dressed in a dark blue and grey kimono that had a black slash that tied at the waist, it's flowing sleeves and gown covering most of his body. Sai had noticed that while the body had been well maintained, the definition in muscles showed minor signs of atrophy, the man had likely not moved much in a long time. He began to worry if his blow might have been too much...
Sighing, he continued to watch the slumbering man with careful eyes, a pinch in his heart telling him it was a mistake to have dressed him a kimono. Now he looked exactly like Sorain. "Alright Juugo, I need you to run some tests on this man. Check his vitals and ensure that he is healthy. Beyond basic medicine, how well trained are you?" He asked, his heart clenching as he remembered the sight of the black disk on the man's back. He needed answers.
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:08 pm
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ssAntonio
After a few hours of silence had passed. In that time Sai had chosen to dress the unconscious man in the kimono due to the simplicity of it. It was large and thick enough that one wouldn't be able to tell he was naked underneath unless a powerful enough updraft pushed the robe up past his waist. Juugou had noticed what appeared to be a disk-shaped birthmark on the man's back when Sai removed the hospital gown which piqued the Aburame's interest.
The pink-haired man let out a sigh as he watched over the sleeping man then addressed Juugou, telling him to run a medical diagnostic on their 'guest'. He then asked how well-trained the Aburame how well-trained in the medical arts he was. The young medic nodded shifting to kneel over the slumbering stranger. "My family runs several clinics across Fire Country. I am well versed in first aid and medical ninjutsu through the use of my insects." As he spoke Juugou began to check the man's pulse at his wrist, then his neck. "However instead of settling with being in a clinic i began to study in order to be a medic in the field, incorporating search and rescue as well as treatment from long range." He rolled up one of the kimono sleeves and studied the revealed forearm and bicep. "This man is healthy, but seems to have been inactive for quite some time. His muscles show signs of mild atrophy. I can reinvigorate them, but it will take some time and may cause him slight discomfort." Juugou exposed is right hand and five small insects crawled up through his skin. They bit down and began to ingest the medical chakra the Aburame was sending to his hand. Once they had their fill and were glowing with a soft green light they split up, one taking each limb and the torso, then burrowed in with barely a mark to tell where they entered. The insects in the limbs would start from the extremities and work their way up slowly to the core while distributing the healing chakra to the weakened muscles. The one in the torso would start above the heart and work its way around in an outward spiral.
Juugou sat back weighing his next words carefully. "Say Sai, what's your connection to this man?"
At this point Sorain has still not yet regained consciousness though he has regained himself enough to at least make out images in the darkness. Where before there was nothing but blackness, now he could once again see faces and places that he didn't recognize yet were none the less impossible to forget. A woman with beautiful brown hair and fierce white eyes. He didn't know her, but he was content to remain here in a place of sunken dreams.
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:46 pm
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DenShazo
Sai nodded, resting his arms on his knees with his head on top of his folded hands, "But how versed are you. How extensive is your knowledge on the body, bloodlines, advanced medicine, perhaps even forbidden medicine? What do you know." He questioned further, his blue eyes startling cold as he watched the young boy before him. After a moment he sighed and reached for his dagger before beginning to shear off his own hair. "Do it. If it'll make it faster I don't care if it hurts him. Just make sure his body or mind is unharmed and that he is back to full form by the time you're done." Long strands of pink hair fell to the ground, littering around the man's feet as he continued to work.
A half hour later Sai set the dagger down on his lap. The long pink hair that had once hung to his shoulders was now a short, spiky mess that stuck out in matted clumps of blood and hair. "At this moment? Someone who's welfare is currently my number one concern, my number two concern being killing whoever jeopardizes my number one concern."
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 4:19 pm
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As Juugou waited for the bugs to do their work Sai drilled him further, inquiring how much he knew about more advance medicine, bloodlines, and even forbidden medical arts. The coldness in the man's eyes unsettled the young medic, causing him a shiver to run down his spine. However he answered the question. "I know much about the body, only lacking in knowledge of the nervous system. As far as bloodlines go, i am well-versed in most bloodlines that originate from Fire Country such as my own, Nara, Akimichi, Uchiha, Hyuuga and Inuzuka. Since we don't tend to many others from outside countries my knowledge of those is subpar at best." Juugou paused for a while before answering the last question. "I have no knowledge of forbidden practices, however i would learn as many as i can if it meant i would be able to save the lives of my comrades."
The half hour passed by slowly. While Juugou looked over the man's body, Sai was shearing his hair with his dagger. By the end his hair was short and spiky in a messy way and was surrounded in a ring of pink strands. Sai answered the question, stating that the unconscious stranger was currently his number one concern and his second being to kill whoever jeopardized that. The young medic nodded. "The reason i ask is because i've noticed a common denominator between Haikyo, this man, and yourself. And i've also noticed how close you became to Haikyo over the last few months." Juugou sighed. "When i met Haikyo, he was basically a foreigner in Fire. Then the next time i see him he's with you and has a dagger identical to the one you're holding. My thoughts are incoherent at the moment because they're conflicted. On one hand i'm feeling over-protective of my only friend. On the other i feel like i'm clueless about him, and it makes me feel bad."
Word Count
Tanzaku City: 13,198 Words Fire Country: 179 Words Fire -> Rain: 1189 Total Words
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:09 pm
As the two continue their conversation Sorain begins to stir, not that he had any real desire to. He was finally in a world of his own imagination that didn't immediately start to spiral into a nightmare, unfortunately however there were no drugs in his system to keep him under, only the stinging pains of being slugged over the head which mean that despite his best efforts his consciousness began to reemerge until eventually he had no choice but to recognize the fact that he was once again about to wake up in a strange place with no clue how he got here.
Eyes finally open, Sorain for the first time is able to assign a face to the voices he had been hearing inside his head. Before he could suppress it, a defensive reaction kicks in and he immediately fights to put distance between himself and the two guys lingering around him but his muscles soon after begin to fail him.
It seemed as though without the panic and adrenaline rushing through him, his muscles were just plain not strong enough to even support his body at this point. All he could do was lay there incapacitated. "What.....what did you do to me?" he demands.
The man raised an eyebrow towards the young genin, "Hum.." For a moment, he contemplated what he would say in response to Juugou but as Sorain began to awaken his attention was stolen.
Sighing, Sai lifted the dagger from his lap and gestured the point towards Sorain, "I knocked you out." He answered flatly as though the question was so obvious it didn't need answering. With a small shrug, he returned the dagger to it's sheath behind his back as he regarded Sorain with a cold stare. "You see you were running around half naked and it was surely moments before you landed yourself in jail, so I figured I'd make you calm down first. Now that you're calm, I have a few questions for you." With a glance at Juugou, he nodded for him to continue his rejuvenation of Sorain's body. "Before that I suggest you allow Juugou here to finish his treatment of your body, it might hurt a bit but you'll be all the better for it.
So, who are you and what were you doing running around in nothing but a medical gown in the middle of the street?"
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:36 pm
Even in this physical and mental state Sorain didn't appreciate how casually this guy admitted to knocking him out. Even if it was for the sake of 'calming him down' how was he to know that this guy didn't show up specifically because he had managed to break out of there. Considering the lengths someone must have gone through to get him down there in the first place and erase his memories, he simply refused to believe that he could escape that easily without anyone coming after him, the fact that there weren't even any Shinobi stationed in that facility to guard him made him paranoid to say the least.
"You!? You have questions for me!?" the notion itself was outrageous. He was the one who had been kidnapped and imprisoned in a sedative coma for god knows how long and now that he had finally broken free some strange clocks him. Within tweenty four hours he finds himself waking up in a daze, not knowing where he is nor exactly how he got there and now he was being interrogated as if he was supposed to know something more than which way was up,"Who the ******** are you and why are you doing this to me?"
He had no information to give the man, and so he had no interest in being questioned. He was the one who demanded answers.
Sai let out a heavy sigh, leaning back into his seat and crossed his arms, as he waited for the man to calm down again. He had almost forgotten how stubborn Sorain was. They had done a good job. "Ok, how about a trade? One question for one question. I'll even go first, you asked me who I am? I am Sai Orasakai. Who are you?"
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:47 pm
Not fully expecting to actually receive an answer, Sorain hadn't even considered how he would respond. "Sai" the name was familiar. Sorain squinted his eyes as the man, straining himself to recall who this person was. It was as if the memory existed just slightly beyond a translucent veil, allowing him an image that was just close enough and just clear enough for him to be certain that the memory was there, somewhere. But not enough to come to any certain conclusion and after a few moments passed the memory eventually receded back into the depth of his subconscious yet again. Try as he might, he just couldn't bring even a trace of the memory back to the front of his thoughts. Just as before, the harder he tried to remember, the most the past bucked back and retreated. "I'm...not sure" he said, his voice deflating and defeated. Anger and rage was finally starting to subside, making room for concern and sadness. He really didn't know who he was, and if even this guy didn't it made him wonder, did anyone? Hoping that his uncertain answer was good enough to allow him to ask another question he went out on a limb and asked the most important one, "Who am I?"
"Hum..." Sai frowned. Resting his elbow onto his knee, he leaned forward so he could lay his check into his palm. "I suppose you never were good at twenty questions..." Remarked with another sigh, "Who are you... well I have a few theories and I'm currently trying to figure out which one is the correct one. The only one that is one hundred percent correct is: you have the appearance, demeanor and personality of my brother, Sorain." He said simply as though he was remarking on what the weather was today or if he planned going out later, however his eyes had grown hard and distant, "He died over twenty years ago.
My turn. Why were you outside that facility, half naked with the alarms blaring?"
