Of Loyalty, Fear and Trust

Spoiler:

Ren stood in the street, the collar of his long coat up to help shelter him from the rain as he stood under the shelter provided by a building doing his best to keep an 'eye' on the surroundings with his sensory abilities as he waited for his contact. His... 'friend' in the Anbu had contacted him earlier that day and told him that he had arranged for him to be placed on a mission with a potential ally; A Jinchuriki... Ren had read the word once before but had no idea what it meant until Altar gave him a brief explanation. Ren still didn't really understand it but someone who was as strong as Altar had said this person was... that would be a valuable ally indeed. All the same Ren still needed to gain this man's trust, and doing that was not going to be easy; which is why, he guessed, he was standing here in the rain waiting to perform a mission with the man.

A it had been said before Ren was waiting for his contact to show up, but he wasn't sitting around doing nothing. Ren was tracking the movements of their targets in an apartment building half a block down; his sensory skills still weren't perfected but he counted 20 Men, all trained in the use of chakra if their chakra networks were anything too go by and he was keeping track of all of them. One, it seemed like the strongest of them was un-guarded in the top of the three story apartment with only two chakra lacking individuals, meanwhile on the next floor down were the two next strongest individuals, each of them seemed about the same strength although Ren couldn't be certain what their specific skills were, each of these two seemed too be on opposite sides of the building, likely in an office or room of their own, and these two seemed too each have a pair of weaker guards standing by their doors. Finally the thirteen remaining men seemed too be in some sort of common room on the ground floor. Ren went over the blueprints of the building he'd memorised earlier that day, double checking that he was right about all of their targets locations before nodding quietly to himself.

Rakka was having just the greatest day. She’d expected to have yet another quiet patrol or easy assignment, but it seemed she was mistaken. At the last second, she was assigned to a mission with two strangers, with next to no information on her allies. Two chunin were assigned to work with her, both of whom she’d never met. She wondered who on earth authorized this, for it was quite well known that she did not work well with others. Still, it was of little importance. At the end of the day, she needed the money that the mission paid. A lot.

Sighing with contempt, she sipped her whiskey sour from the comfort of her home, which was looking a lot more lived in these days. She didn’t much care for her new home, which probably wasn’t considered new anymore. She probably shouldn’t be drinking before a mission, but the soothing burn of the stuff took the edge off.

Packing her equipment and donning her gear, Rakka suppressed her chakra before exiting her house. The nice thing about this mission was that it was close to home. She rounded the corner and crept through the alley, making her way quickly through the streets. Upon arriving at the scene of their mission, Rakka sensed the area for threats. In the building, she counted roughly twenty chakra sources, and also one that was quite high, not hidden at all, out on the streets. She looked at the figure, hidden from the rain, and knew that this was one of the two she was to be working with.

Approaching silently, she tapped the figure softly on the shoulder.
”The fat man flies at midnight.” She whispered, an air of sarcasm clear. ”I’m Rakka. You must be… Ren, right? I’ll be working with you today.” She explained.

All days were fine and dandy in the life of the laziest jinchuriki on this side of hell. Woken with a start, the turning of him jumping from his bed startled the poor bird that just found its respite on his window sill to fly off. No rest for the weary, or some shit. As he observed the room he made his way over to the door, finding a single envelope which held a letter that read something along the lines of, "Missions, hop to it." Of course there were a few details, who he'd be working with, where to meet, etc. The only thing of importance was the objective, and the 

Brushing his hand through his hair, he tossed the letter to the side and made off to the corner of the room. Reaching into a small pile, he pulled out his flak jacket, and began to secure it to his waist, nothing on underneath. He grabbed both of his swords which were already sheathed, slung them over his shoulder, and fastened the straps so they clung to his back. One last chunk of metal remained, and he stared into the reflection being cast from its side, contemplating if he should bother carrying it around with him. 

In the end, he left his door with two swords on his back, and a chunk of metal dragging along the ground behind him. Making his way to the destination, once he neared he began to scan the area for chakra signatures. Of course there were the two off to the side, which he had assumed was the back up. He'd keep them in mind just in case, however. 

Strutting up to the door of the building, he leaned into it with his shoulder and rammed through the door. Roughly thirteen or so men were in front of him, scattered around the room in various spots. Nearly all of them turned their attention to him, some even vocalized their surprise with protests of "what the fuck."

From his right, some dude began to move at Mitako with the intent of pushing him back outside. Reaching his hand out, the middle aged man protested his entry with an attempted shove. 

Grabbing his hand, Mitako kicked the man's feet out from underneath him. Gravity would take effect, and the man would fall on his ass. Before he could attempt to get back to his feet, the chunk of metal was brought into the air overhead. It felt natural almost, as his grip tightened on the handle. Unable to differentiate the feeling from gravity, his mental instability, or maybe the sword itself, he took a step back and swung the sword into the man's gut. Due to it's size, it did more smashing than it did any cutting. Nonetheless, his torso was still split nearly in two. Incapacitated, he moved on to the next man, who was fumbling to remove his own weapon from its sheathe. 

Grabbing the back of the blade, which was flat and dull, the jinchuriki gave it a quick yank to remove the sword from the floor and began to stride toward the next man at a polite pace.

Ren had altar contact him again rather abruptly to inform him that he'd managed to secure a second potential ally, that being said all Ren managed to hear from altar was her name and a vague warning to "be careful" before Ren felt a person tap him on the shoulder. Ren blinked, stunned for a moment, and rather confused by the woman's words before his mind clicked and he got the sarchasm. "You, uh, you're a rather interesting woman." Ren said before allowing himself a faint smile. "Ren, Ren Tsubasa. Its a pleasure to meet you Rakka Yuki" Ren said with an air of casualty despite his formal wording. Ren was just about to start some pleasantries when he sensed what could only be their other contact coming towards them considering the strength of the chakra signature... "Ah, and I'm guessing that this would be our other cont...act?" Ren said, pausing in confusion as the figure walked straight past them and straight into the entrance of the building, dragging a lump of metal, to call it a sword would be too much, after him. "I.. did not expect that" Ren said, still genuinely confused as to what had just happened. 

If he wasn't interrupted Ren would take a second to collect himself before speaking, "Okay well I guess he'll serve as a distraction at the very least; lets get to the top of this building and attack from above." Ren said as he turned and channeled chakra to his feet as he ran up the building he was standing behind, reaching the top and jumping across to land on their target building, careful to not make a sound as always before turning to wait and see if Rakka to followed him.

As her new comrade turned to face her, Rakka impulsively cocked an eyebrow.
”Well, hello…” She said with a smirk. What she could only assume was a botched attempt at a pickup line was sent back her way, at which Rakka grinned. Before she could say anything more, another large chakra signature passed by them. The owner of the signature, whom she could only assume was the one called Mitako, strutted right past them and into the building.

”...Kids these days.” Rakka muttered, shaking her head in annoyance. ”So much for the tactical option. He’ll serve as bait, at the very least.” Rakka agree as Ren began his advance. Rather than creeping behind him, she decided to capitalise on their distraction. Grinning deviously, she inhaled deeply, making a tiger seal as she did so, before spitting out a huge fireball, which would fly past Ren and into the building, creating a huge hole large enough to cast jutsu from, and incinerating two unlucky guards who weren’t fast enough to evade the attack. The fireball erupted into flames and the room was set ablaze, with minor damage being done to quite a few of their targets via residual fire.

”I suppose we’ll just do things the conventional way, then.”


Stepping forwards now, she advanced towards the crater in the building she'd just created. She wondered idly if she had been allowed to do that, but honestly, if they asked her to come along, they probably weren't too concerned with collateral damage. Rakka's style of fighting was anything but subtle.

Holding the blade horizontally, one hand along the flat back of the blade, his golden orbs met those brown eyes of the man fumbling to draw his sword. His heart rate quickened and his palms began to sweat profusely as the intruder picked up his pace to that of a soccer mom's power walk. Once the intruder was within range, he'd swing the sword by the blade, butting our hero's nose with the tip of the handle. Dazed, the man would fall over as a sharp pain in his abdomen caused him to stumble backwards and lose his breath. The last thing he saw was a chuunin preparing to sling a slab of steel in the motions of an executioner's axe, as if it were a toy.

Little flecks of sand were now trailing behind Mitako. For the moment the sword was stuck into the wall, along with the man's upper torso. He averted his eyes since a portion of the corpse's face was collapsed into the shoulder under the weight of steel.

With a heave, an attempt to remove the sword from the wall was made. Just as it came loose, there was a sudden grasp on his shoulder. Dropping the blade, almost as soon as he had felt the touch, his body would blob into copious amounts of sand. The blob would suck this new opponent's hand within, until he was up to the shoulder.

Screams followed crunching as the blob put enough pressure on the arm to break the bone in several places. It continued travelling until it found its way inside the body through the mouth. The man, now dead, would begin to bloat and contort until he looked to be swollen in several areas. The few men that remained, those who hadn't retreated to the second floor, watched on in horror as his eyes popped out of his head, followed by blood and sand.

Mitako slowly began controlling the body to walk towards one of the remaining men, who immediately attempted to remove himself from the vicinity. As he ran upstairs, a blast would knock him back to the bottom just in time for the monstrosity to reach him. Pinning him down by his arms, sand began to swell within the corpse's chest, until his ribs began protruding from the body. Grasping a rib, the sand acted as as sentient being and cracked it away from the spine, stabbing the jagged edge into the man that was pinned, time and time again until he began to bleed out.

Collapsing onto the dying man, the sand would leave the corpse atop him to start it's drift up stairs. As it climbed, it reformed into the shape of Mitako. He was going to see what the others were up to, as his opponents had either left the building entirely or fled upstairs. He wasn't sure how many were going to be alive however, given the blast had knocked the one back downstairs.

Ren turned to look for Rakka following him only to feel the building shake a little as some sort of explosion rocked the building; from the flare of chakra he had felt from the woman it seemed like that was her doing. 'God damnit were ninja, have none of you ever heard of stealth!?' Ren thought to himself as he began to alter his plans. 'Okay that blast of power will have no doubt alerted everyone to the assault... The one up here is probably only a few moments from coming to see what happened... Ren thought as he leapt down off the roof and landed right outside the door to what he assumed was the man's bedroom; ren smirked a confident smile and placed a confinement seal on the ground by the entrance before darting off down the corridor and heading to the second floor just as he heard the man step out onto the balcony, grumbling about what all the noise was. 'We'll he's not getting out of there, one down... about 10 more to go' Ren thought giving the area a quick mental scan as he did so.

As the battle Raged below Ren had made it to the second floor, of the building; only to see a group of five men feeing up the cramped stairway towards him; no doubt making an attempt to escape from his... comrades. Reaching out his hand five well placed bolts of chakra into the first two men was enough to kill two of them and send their bodies flying back down the stairs; knocking the other three men back down into the frey where they were quickly torn apart by... what looked like sand; a few moments later Ren saw the figure of the one that had started all this. Ren would no doubt have a few choice words for the man after this but for now they were in the middle of a battle. With a curt nod to the man Ren rushed off down the left hall, heading towards where he could feel three of the six remaining men; at this point of course ren had disregarded any remaining signatures on the first floor as the dead and dying.

Having reached the center of her destruction in time to see Mitako rush away in a blur of sand, Rakka decided that she should probably engage the most powerful opponent, seeing as she was the senior in rank. Once again inhaling deeply, she spat a tight group of fireballs, smaller this time, at the ceiling above her. Leaping up, she would form an ice mirror at her feet at the apex of her jump, leaping once more through the newly exposed floor. She climbed this way with surprising speed, making her way straight up to the crater in the next floor

As she reached the apex of her jump through the last floor, a blast of fire was sent in her direction. Holding her hands out defensively, Rakka created yet another mirror, pushing herself off of it and twisting herself in the air, rolling and landing on her feet, using the mirror for cover. As the incoming fireball cascaded against it. With a snap of her fingers, she imbued the mirror with a genjutsu, freezing her opponent where he stood. Her momentum still pushing her backwards, Rakka hit the wall hard with her feet, pushing herself forwards, leaping up and over the mirror, before striking the man hard in the stomach, the Five Elements Seal being branded into him as he lost consciousness.  

Her opponent fell to the ground with a thud, and Rakka turned on her heels, walking calmly towards the door. As she did so, the door flew open, the sound of the commotion having startled the guards. One approached her with sword in hand, which Rakka sidestepped nonchalantly, sweeping his legs out from under him with her foot, before bringing her hand down hard on his chest, the Five Elements Seal imbued on him as well. The second attempted to attack her while she was preoccupied, but found his blade stuck inside the ice mirror that appeared almost instantly between them. Suddenly, Rakka’s image filled the mirror, and her arm reached out from the mirror itself, striking the man on the chest, and sending him too to the floor unconscious, the same seal inscribed into him.

Hopping out of the mirror, Rakka brushed imaginary dust from her shoulders, before huffing in relief. She’d used quite a lot of chakra in that display, much more than she needed to. Turning on her heels, she strutted towards her allies at a leisurely pace, waiting for the death of the last three remaining threats.

Converging with his allies, Mitako continued to drag his sword behind him. His vision had narrowed, and his mind guided him along a set path as if some imaginary line drew him to where he needed to be, subconsciously seeking out chakra signatures. If he met his allies before the remaining three, the boy would continue to press on to wherever they were. If he met the three before he met his allies, he'd not hesitate to jump in. Fairly confident in his hunk of steel, his mind was set that today was going to be a good day.

Ren felt the chakra signatures of three of their opponents fade behind him as him and the insane sword wielding ball of death advanced on what little remained on the resistance of this little criminal enterprise, Ren rounded the corner to come face to face with two pale faced guards, each one holding a katana, who looked scared to death. Ren made a face at them and jerked his head in the direction behind him before saying "If you, drop your weapons and leave now I'll look the other way." They looked at each other and in almost perfect unison dropped their weapons and started to run past them. Ren clapped one on the shoulder innocuously as he passed by, placing a mark seal on him just in case his companions didn't finish him off; Meanwhile he made a mental note of the others chakra signature in order to track him for the same reasons.

The two guards 'dealt with' Ren strode forward, throwing open the door to reveal a Grizzled older man in a suit sitting in a chair, before the man could even get out the words "Who the fuck are you?" Ren had thrown a kunai at the man which surprisingly impaled him in the eye. "Well that was surprisingly easy" Ren said aloud as he wandered over and sat down on one of the dead man's couches; waiting for his companions to catch up with him