cry wolf part 3 (p mission)

mission details:

alright. Thankfully they'd gotten to the end of this little request. They'd figured out who was doing this and even went far enough to find the enemies hideout. More importantly, she'd finally found her scythe. Even with the weapon desummoned, she could feel the pulsing energy of her soul blade sitting in wait. The only thing left now was to report back to the merchant who'd asked her to check things out, let them know her findings, and then head home to take a nice, long, and well-deserved rest. As the duo walked into the shop, pride ressonating from the form of the demon of chance, the old woman greeter her kindly.

"We've finished. Kama and I infiltrated the headquarters and were able to find information about exactly how the thieves are getting through the city. Now, all you need to do is give this information to the village ninja and they should be able to...'

"Oh Goodness! You must have taken care of them then. Joy." The woman cut her off, and as soon as she spoke, Amber realized that this wasn't going to be quite as easy as she'd hoped.

"Wh... Um. No. We did exactly as you requested. The instructions were specifically to get information.... We werent asked to take care of the problem.... just to do... recon?" She posed the last statement as a question, and she expected that the woman had presumptions about what ninja did. To the untrained it would just make sense that a group of ninja would take care of the situation while they were there. To those within the village system, even someone as inexperienced as amber, it would be less obvious. They were taught to follow the parameters of the mission to a T, not engaging unless directly told to. The fight itself could be far too dangerous for the recon group.

"Oh. Well please. You must hurry while you have the element of surprise! The sooner all of this is over, the sooner we can go back to actually making money. " Of course. The fact that Amber hadn't immediately expected that this is where things would lead proved her ignorance and assumptions. She glanced back to Kama, wondering if she'd reached the same conclusion yet.

"I mean..... Don't you think it would be better to ask the village ninja to take care of things? I feel like this is now kind of their responsibility...." She was trying hopelessly. She knew the answer would be to go back and take care of the final group of thieves. At least she expected they'd get paid again. She could always use more cash.

"Sorry Kama. I know you didn't mean to work today, but do you mind one more trip to end this problem once and for all?" Part of her was excited. Even as annoying as this had turned out to be, she needed to test the limits of her blade in this world, and the idea of taking out a bit of city scum made her blood rush through her veins.

(511)

The two had done more then enough reconnaissance and had discovered where the bandits were hiding and how they were getting through the city. With this the shopkeeper should be able to avoid getting their stock stolen but kama doubted this would be the end of it. They had a unique opportunity to be able to continue the investigation hot on the heels of the perpetrators and Kama doubted the shopkeepers would want them to pass it up. No the girl expected it to continue which was why she still had her scalpels and new sword she had found. On their way back and she had inspected it a bit, the blade being quite beautiful. It seemed to shimmer in the light and was made of a rather odd, almost white metal. Kama was certainly no sword expert but she liked the blades look, and was thinking of naming it Glimmer, in relation to how it sparkled in the light.  As they entered the shop, the keeper seemed happy they had found the hideout and some of the bandits, and as Kama expected, urged them to keep going with their investigation. It wouldn’t be that hard, they already had found the hideout and knew where all the paths lead thanks to the map. Finding the real mastermind behind it all would likely be a simple process, if a bit annoying. They would likely run into more of a fight as they went though, which Kama was a bit apprehensive about. There wasn’t anything much she could do about it though, as she was the closest Hoshigakure ninja to the scene and was, at least somewhat, obligated to help complete this mission.

Kama would smile up at Amber, ready to continue. “Yea it's annoying but, technically, I am a Hoshigakure Ninja so I guess it's kind of my job...even on my day off. At least i’m armed now as well so if we run into any problems I can rely on more then just my ninjutsu.”
She couldn’t reiterate enough how much her most effective technique was probably fatal to anyone in the near vicinity so she was going to do her best not to use it in any close confined space. “I could use the money anyway, as well as the battle experience. You can only learn so much from a spar.”

She wasn’t interested in being a swordmaster, but learning the basics of this blade would likely be handy in any case. Amber clearly was much more into weapons if that large scythe was any indication, and would probably always outshine Kama in that respect. The redhead was much more focused on medical jutsu for now, and keeping herself and others in a fight with her natural abilities. She would wait for anymore information, or anything said by Amber before exiting the shop with her so they could focus on what to do next. “I suppose we could go through the hideout, but that map had all the ins and outs for the whole city so..it's just a matter of where we think the leader might be..”

"Ok good. Since we're on the same page I suppose we can get started." As she spoke she considered the tools at her disposal. She remembered the training she'd recieved years ago, and what little she'd learned about the arts of ninjutsu, and while she expected the only tool she truely needed was the scythe of sorrow, it couldn't hurt to test her ability to use the elemental power her chakra granted.

"We could go through the hidden doorway we initially found. Eventually the boss will probably head back to the central chamber. It may be useful however to take a side path. If we catch the boss with his allies he could be tough to fight. We still don't know how many of them there are. Taking a hidden passage could lead us to some of the lower strength enemies and allow us to challenge them in smaller groups. " As she spoke she drew the small notebook from her side bag. Within it was the explanation of the basics of a technique she'd been working on that could be incredibly useful. There was, of course, also the chance that it could end up drowning them both. Training in large scale suiton jutsu sort of always seems to come with that effect. Either way the end goal was finishing their targets, and that would probably happen. The only trick was figuring out how exactly to mold the chakra. She walked towards the exit to the shop, though she wanted to finish the planning stage of this new mission before they left the safety of this safe haven. As she gave Kama a moment to consider her suggestions and suggest discourse, She began to draw energy from her heart chakra point. The mass of powerful energy flowed through her chest, pooling and spreading out from the central point in her body. She expected her throat chakra point to be the best destination for molding her elemental chakra, but first she needed to season it. It felt like a wierd statment the moment it passed her thoughts. One does not season energy in the same way they would season chicken, but it kind of made sense.

Drawing in more of the potent energy she would concentrate on the elemental force of her suiton, and as she did a cool sensation flowed through her body. Changing the chakra from non elemental yin and yang was such a simple task, but it was still miraculous the way the shift caused her body to experience the energy.

"I think I might be able to employ the use of a new technique in order to assist.... but there may be some downsides. The important thing right now however is that we figure out what the best way to attack this problem is. " Her eyes shifted across the page once more, looking at the single hand seal needed. It didn't seem half as complex as her teacher had initially explained it to be. This could actually work.

(1011)

Kama checked over her stuff, making sure everything had a place. Unfortunately her scalpels she had planned to use as throwing knives could only really be held in her hands. She didn’t really have a belt or anything and they would probably be bad to keep in her leggings. She had her tied around her in a way that she could draw it from behind her. She supposed she could place the scalpels on part of the strap but she would probably just end up injuring herself while moving. Maybe she would come across a weapon pouch while they were exploring this hideout? The girl kind of doubted her luck on that. The bandits seemed to keep the most valuable things guarded and even then the most valuable things that Kama and Amber had come across, the pair were now armed with. Even just some strips of cloth and string would help but she’d have to consider that a bit later. At the moment it helped her to be armed enough for the coming fight and having her throwing knives in hand would definitely come in handy. The Uzumaki considered that she would have to learn either some accurate far range jutsu, or something short range that wasn’t so risky as chakra absorption. She had considered the rasengan technique but the process of learning it was a bit complicated and Kama knew she would need a lot more study before she would get the hang of ninjutsu like that. A greater version of chakra scalpel would be best, that could extend further then just her hand and with greater cutting power.


Kama returned to the task at hand as Amber explained the strategies that they could use. The skill of the bandits so far wasn’t promising, and the redhead was pretty confident they weren’t quite ready to fight ninja level enemies, but the Uzumaki didn’t want to rely on information that was incomplete. It was probably going to be a better path to scope the place out and fight their opponents in smaller groups, or at least find out where the majority of their enemies lie, and lure the boss out somehow without arousing the horde. The boss of this operation was the real outlier as someone who could set up this sort of scheme was either incredibly brilliant, not including the signs within the base, or at least had some sort of skill with planning and designing. “We should probably take them on in smaller groups. We don’t know who the strongest among them is, and the boss is either skilled on their own or smart enough to keep themselves surrounded by guards. The clear signs in the base weren't too bright but this scheme as a whole...is pretty clever. The less backup they have, or the less backup that can be called upon, is only good for us. So far the few we met didn’t seem exceptionally skilled either, so there's a chance they aren’t all that tough anyway.”




WC: 500

"I agree. OK. So, I think it would be best if we head through the secondary tunnels behind the ramen shop. There is supposed to be a hidden entrance through the back door. The wall down the corridor looked like it was false and the map had something about pressing a block to gain entrance I believe? Do you remember exactly?" As she talked she walked outward, into the rain that was still pouring down because I'm totally still carrying it over from the last topic. Don't judge me it makes sense. Anyway, she continued out into the rain that continued to pour down over the city, her sensory lighting up with the multitude of people rushing to and fro, searching out that special something that they just needed to buy, or deciding where to head to next to simply browse. She moved swiftly, keeping her mind mostly on the task at hand as she listened to Kama's response and headed to the small alleyway behind the ramen shop, but there was a slight break in her concentration that proved quite perilous. As she rushed through the streets to turn into the corridor, her mind shifting to the technique she'd been working on and debate going on about whether she would be able to successfully perform the jutsu in the event it were necessary, she failed to notice the three rather tough looking men standing in front of the doorway they were after. With eyes cast downward to scan the wet street before her, and her mind not catching the three forms due to a large awning hanging a several feet above the doorway, which blocked the rainfall from hitting their forms, she collided with the first before actually realizing what was going on.

"WH..." Her question was stopped immediately as the man took a swing at her, a haymaker that looked powerful enough to take her head off. Thankfully while it was quite strong, it was not actually very fast. Instinct took over, her days surviving in the Omega lands allowing her body to effortlessly duck under the clunky attack, and before he could pull back the fist, his eyes widened in pain. A horrific blood curdling cry echoed through the streets as a mass of dark energy formed into being in her hands, the solid snath of the scythe of sorrow shattering the void like energy into tiny stars that floated down towards the wet earth as she struck. Three quick jabs of the base of the weapon dropped the man to the ground, and in one great cleave of the heavy weapon the head of the man behind him landed atop the point where his own had been before both began to roll slowly to the ground. As her thoughts cleared, the first thing she noticed was there was blood. A lot of blood. Maybe she should have considered just knocking him out instead. Either way it was too late now, she thought, turning to the other two, assumably right at the moment when kama took care of them.

(512 TWc 1523)