A brief shopping trip.

Wandering through the village Ren came to the local markets area, he needed to keep his cover and at least spend some time here he, and it would be a good way to do some reconnaissance he thought as he rounded the corner to find a bare handful of stalls in the village market, with even fewer people moving about the stalls. Clearly, the change in leadership of the village was having some dire effects on its people. Ren stood there for a moment before walking over to one of the empty area's where a stall could be set up and, focusing his chakra pulled out a little stall with the words "Fuinjutsu Master Extraordinaire, High quality seals, Low cost prices" Emblazoned in a glowing blue font as he began to unpack and see if anyone passed by.

Ryu watched as someone set up a stall and wrote something on it, but paid no interest. Not like he could read what was on the sign. Luckily, some kid read the sign giving Ryu a clue as to what the girl/boy was selling. Fuinjutsu? 


The short blonde haired boy would approach the ten year old that was barely shorter than someone fourteen years older. "Hello, here this seal will protect you." He would weave a few seals and place his palm onto the boys arm where a shield would appear where the ninja touched.  The boys mother would soon walk over and thrust a piece of paper at Ryu. "We saw you in the jounin exams, congratulations on your promotion master Ryu could you autograph this for my son?" 


Ryu would scratch his head for a second. He thought about writing his name, but it seemed too easy. Instead he would make a seal and the air beneath the boy's palm became hot. As the palm hovered over the paper, it began to shrivel in the center as if the water had been leaving it and it formed into a small seal. "There thats probably a lot cooler than just my name right!" He would say patting the kid on the head while giving the paper to the boy's mother. "Well, bye." He would say moving over to the stall. 

"So, how does a fuinjutsu master find himself in Suna?" The jounin would ask seeing as there weren't many people who could make seals in the village. Let alone someone who sold them in the market so casually.

WC: 269

Ren watched as the young boy handed out a seal to one of the few people that were in the market, a young boy no doubt too young to understand exactly what it meant for this village to be taken over by the kumogakure empire. He smiled as he placed the seal on the boy's arm, it was a simple seal, one of the first ones that Ren had ever mastered, of course, it was what the boy did after that that caught Ren's eye... A seal burned itself into the paper that he handed back to the boy, one very similar to the searing seals that Ren had developed... This boy, no this shinobi was a lot more skilled than he looked. On guard as the boy came over to him Ren smiled and was about to see if the boy was interested in any of his seals when the boy asked him a question instead.

"Well it's a bit of a sad tale actually, my own village was destroyed many years ago, after that, I traveled and taught myself the arts before settling in a small village on the outskirts of the snow country. Perhaps fate willing I would have stayed there for the rest of my life, but it was destroyed when the Kumogakure army invaded, so now I'm simply another traveling merchant looking to make a living." Ren said, for the most part sticking to the story of Kenji Kotomine, although the setting in a village in the Snow country was, of course, a white lie designed to test the boy's feelings on the villages recent takeover. "What about yourself, You obviously have some skill in the art to do something like this," Ren said, placing a finger on the wood of his stall and allowing a simple locking formulae to burn itself into the wood.

“I am sorry to hear that, those bastards took over here too. Though, they left the people alive.” He would say normally not really caring who around heard it. I shouldn’t even say took over, more like Kyson simply let them walk all over him and he agreed. But that kage from the leaf Kurisu he was here why didn’t he try to help? So, many people just need punched in the face.


Well, I guess that’s one way of going about things after your home is destroyed. But my home is here, but it is different. Its my home, but it doesn’t feel like my home. Ryu would watch as Ren burnt some markings into the wood. “Oh, you are burning the marks in I see. That’s quite a skill you have there. With mine I am just super heating the water with my scorch element.” He would make a few seals and place his palm to his left arm. The spike in chakra was evident, but no seal was placed on the boy even though the super hot air touching his skin should have left some sort of mark. “It would leave a mark, but I can’t be hurt by scorch.” He would make the same seals again and this time wouldn’t add the scorch element. A simple array using the standard markings would appear on the boy’s arm. It was clearly the chakra storage seal. Well, that should be useful later.



After that Ryu would get back to what they had been talking about earlier. “Didn’t you ever want revenge?” The boy only asked, because it was something he wanted. He wasn’t going to oppose his uncle’s beliefs of no killing, but he did want to see the person who banished him rotting in a prison. So, the question was more of one searching to see if his thoughts were normal. 

WC: 314

Ren smiled to himself at the boy's words, 'Still young and certainly brash, but here's another one that's not happy with this new regime, if he's any good in a fight maybe he can help us get Ryou's aunt out of the village, after that I'll lend them a hand taking the village back if their so inclined... but for now' Ren though focusing back on his conversation with the boy who was now displaying his odd sealing technique again. "Oh I see, that's quite a neat trick, it has a similar effect to mine, from what I can tell its more easily controllable but lacks some of the raw power that imbuing fire chakra directly confers." Ren said, reaching out to where the boy had placed what was clearly a chakra storage seal. "May I?" He asked, assuming he got an affirmative Ren would place his hand on the boy, first breaking the storage seal before then flowing his chakra into the spot. "This may hurt for a moment but bear with it" He said as he burnt into the flesh there a far more powerful version of the chakra storage seal. As he said, the seal would briefly burn with an incredible intensity before disappearing from view completely, the seal integrating itself in the boys tenketsu whilst the scars remained deep under his skin.

 If you want I could show you a few tricks if you'd be willing to compare notes" Ren said glancing around the market for a moment. "There's really not anyone here that seems interested in making a purchase at the moment anyway," Ren said, assuming the boy stood up again Ren would fold the stall back into his little pocket of space before nodding to the boy "Do you have a workshop you use or shall we just go back to the Inn I'm staying at?" He asked the boy.

Ryu would nod letting Ren break his own seal, before allowing the person to place one of his own. He gritted his teeth as the ninja burnt the same array into his skin only to have it disappear moments later. He would move his sunglasses slightly to look over the area, he could see no mark yet his knowledge of fuinjutsu let him know it was there and what he was just branded with. Hurt? Why would it hurt, holy crap baskets! “I didn’t know you were gonna burn me, but I guess I was the guy who said it was okay.” This ladies seal seems a lot stronger than my own, maybe this person does know what they are doing.


“Sure, I’m always up to learning new tricks.” Ryu would say as the stall disappeared into another dimension. “Wow, I just got into learning about dimensions that’s pretty cool.” He would follow Ren,  but stop once asked if he had a workshop or wanted to go back to Ren’s hotel. I swear I saw this on How to Catch a Ninja Predator. Well then I should go, because the key to a ninja predator’s defeat is asking them to take a seat... Right over there.



“Well do you have chairs in your hotel room? If so, I guess I can go.” He would walk with Ren after that.

WC: 229

"Heheh sorry, that's the thing fire chakra makes the seal a lot more volatile during placement but once you finish cementing the seal it's significantly more powerful, making it invisible on the other hand is a different trick altogether" Ren would reply rubbing the back of his head as he apologised, it was often hard to remember that a lot of people weren't really willing to make the tradeoff of pain in exchange for the power that his seals offered, it was odd really, you'd expect more from those who called themselves shinobi.

Ren smiled when the boy signaled his approval to move their discussion to Ren's inn. "That works then, follow me," He said, leading the way. "I didn't catch your name, I'm Kenji." He said, offering his hand to the boy as he walked next to him." If the boy didn't give his name Ren would prompt him with a pleasant "And you are?" but would drop the issue after that if the boy didn't want to relinquish his name. Once the two of them Reached a small little Inn just off of the village's main street Ren would lead them inside, nodding to the owner who'd agreed to give him the back room to use as a workshop and meeting room whilst he was in the village, in exchange for a 'modest' fee of course. It wasn't as nice of a meeting room as the one he'd had constructed in the Kirigakure academy but it would do, for the time being, Ren having already placed a suppression seal and a few other defensive measures to ensure there weren't any pesky eavesdroppers around.

Once they entered the room Ren took a seat, gesturing for Ryu to do the same before he spoke, So lets see what you can do first off, he said sliding a folded piece of paper across the table as he examined the boy's chakra network with his minds eye; upon it was a locking seal designed to test three things, the boy's chakra control, his chakra reserves and his mental fortitude. Assuming the boy broke the seal, which of course he would if he used his full power Ren would whistle slightly impressed. "So I must confess I did have another reason for Inviting you here other than just teaching you some fuinjutsu, You don't like the Kumogakure takeover do you, Ryu?" He asked, carefully watching the boy's chakra for any signs of him lying with his reply.

He didn’t answer my question about the chair… I’ll get one. “I’m Ryu Reinhard.” He would say offering his hand to the other ninja. If the person needed more proof his last name was spray painted in scarlet across the back of his jounin jacket. But it wasn’t like Ren had seen his back yet, so he wouldn’t really know yet.

As they entered and Ren nodded to the owner, Ryu would do the same casually picking up a chair. “I need this, I’ll bring it back.” He would then follow Ren into his room. “There are already chairs in here!” He would set the chair down and sit on one that was offered to him.


After that it seemed that Ren had given the ninja a paper with a lock seal on it. He would use his fuinjutsu breaking to undo it as Ren studied him. It seemed the ninja was impressed, with the whistle he gave. He then told the jounin the real reason he had brought him here. “Oh, that’s what you wanted. I thought it was strange we had to find a secure place to practice fuinjutsu. To answer your question though who doesn’t love Kumo? They waltz in make your kage disappear, make you like their boots, who doesn’t love that kind of stuff. I certainly do.” No mind’s eye required to see through his sarcastic tone. “I’m gonna incinerate their arms off for ever entering my village.”  


WC: 243

Unlike the other girl Ren had (hopefully) recruited, this boy would require a different touch. "I mean sure, you could do that, go waltz up to the Raikage and cut his head off right now." Ren would say gesturing to the door as if to say 'show me' after a brief pause Ren would speak again, "But that would be foolhardy and suicidal, you're just one man, after all, I have a better idea. You're clearly skilled, let's you and me both work together, gather those who wish to prevent Kumogakure, and the tyrants like them from taking over this world. We rally those scattered people together and create a force capable of protecting this village and this world, not just from the threat that is Kumogakure, but also any other people who think themselves capable of ruling the world with an iron fist." Ren would say, holding out his hand to the boy.

“Sounds good to me.” He would say going from his threatening tone to his casual one, almost instantly. He would shake the hand and then stand. “So, I’m guessing you really came here to find people to join you?” He would look around the room a bit, maybe there were already people from the snow country in this group. They were likely waiting for someone else’s village to be taken over by kumo before making their move.

“At the moment we are serving Kumo to live and that’s no life at all. So, if joining you can put an end to that I’m in. Where do we start?” He would ask while turning his head to the piece of paper. Even though they were talking he would still try to get in some training.

He would place a scorch lock onto the paper and watch it shrivel a little as it began to look like jerky. “Sorry, I need some more practice with this. I removed too much of the water and destroyed your paper.” Even though the paper was whole, it was obvious it had become brittle. So, brittle that the slightest touch would cause it to crumble.


Touching the paper it made a crunch while breaking apart on the table. Ryu scooped it into his hands and placed the remnants into the trash. The jounin would continue creating scorch in his palm without touching any surfaces, the amount had to be perfect. Otherwise, he could cause serious injury to someone. Which would have the opposite effect of what he wanted. The ninja would touch his arm once again leaving no mark. Even though it didn’t have its intended effect, the ninja could still use this method to test the heat and from there adjust it accordingly. 

WC: 298