Holy Crap what a mess (Mission, P, IO)

Satoru takes Miyamoto’s words into consideration. He knows of course that this mission is different from his previous ones. The main difference is that none of Satoru’s missions have ever been outside of the village until now. The rank of the operation is not known as Satoru has only known about it starting today. However, it can be confidently deduced that a rogue ninja situation such as this one on hand right now must be of a high rank, something above B-rank. When Satoru sees the target for himself and experiences a fight with him or them, their strength will determine the degree of difficulty that makes this mission’s rank. But until then, he must assume that the mission-givers were also uncertain of the potential of these rogue ninja. In reality, the four of them: Miyamoto, Tsume, Cole, and Satoru are all running into a fight they don’t have enough information on. That alone is distressing enough for Satoru, one who prefers controlling his battlefield.

“You’re right. I will keep that in mind.” Satoru responds to Miyamoto’s words of wisdom before he begins to move along with the rest of the team following him. He takes to the trees and leaps from branch to branch.

In mental preparation for the coming trials, Satoru acknowledges that events may call for drastic action. In past circumstances during his time as a Kumogakure ninja, certain missions had him face obstacles greater than his ability at the time. He was pushed past his limits and almost lost himself in the fight. It was against some ninja whom would be next to nothing against Satoru today. But at the time, the power was almost overwhelming to Satoru.

During this encounter between himself and the combatant, in the face of death, it is almost as though he flipped a switch within himself. His inhibition turned off, his fear turned off, his apprehension shut down. All that was left in his actions was what he knew he needed to do if he wanted to survive. With his kunai and his short sword in hand, he wiped all humanity from his emotions with a snap. Killing was then next to breathing, he was ready to strike this man down without thinking about it twice. The enemy would have died had another ninja intervened and awoken Satoru. He stated that the enemy had to be kept alive for interrogation, that Satoru would be killing a great asset to the village. With his concentration broken, Satoru snapped out of his trance and returned to normal. This is all there is to say on the subject, no more information is significant. In gist, Satoru has been able to on occasion shut off his emotions of empathy and remorse in order to do what must be done on a mission regardless of the task.

“Will I have to do that again? If Miyamoto is serious about this, may I be required to turn myself off and turn my instincts on? Can I do that if or when the time comes?” Satoru thinks to himself.

He hears Tsume ask his question but does not reply until he processes it for a bit longer. When he realizes that Tsume is indeed talking to him, he replies though he is slightly delayed.

“As long as he remains within sight. When we get close, we don’t know what kind of jutsu the enemy has. Since my task is to get everyone to the borders safely, Haku is included in that.” Satoru expliains. He takes his current job on this mission seriously though it is likely of less magnitude than some future task. “He can go out ahead as long as at least you can see him.”

The group continues to make its way towards the borders.


(630/1,586)

As they moved, the area was quiet, almost too much so. It made Miyamoto uneasy, but he trusted the members of his team to complete their tasks. His life was currently in the hands of the very capable Satoru. As they arrived past the border that helped create the scar that is the Dragon's Ravine it became like a desert, just as it should be. The eyes could scan for miles here without hindrance as long as someone was capable enough to do so. Satoru completed his leg of the mission.

"Satoru you pass your leg of the mission. Tsume, you and Haku are up next, our job is to find the missing ninja camp(s) and then we need to capture or eliminate them. How we do so is up to you, let us get to work the desert turns icy cold at night." Miyamoto would say as the day was already well into the afternoon...perhaps even the early evening.
"Stay alert everyone, this is a place that we are out of our element, no trees to hide us, and no rations unless you brought some with you. The quicker we are, the quicker we can return home heroes under the guise of Team Snow." He finished as he waited for Tsume to take over.

WC:215/1,360
Total WC As a Group: 4,514
WC remaining: 5,486

After a wait for Satoru's response, he agrees to Tsume offer as long as he was in sight. The Chokyoshi launch his buddy after transforming him into a normal looking hawk. Tsume would make sure to keep Haku safe. He was about to fail he's partner, that's the last person he would want to fail. 

Haku continued onward in the sky, keeping his keen eye on the path ahead. Something caught his eye though. Smoke rising in the distance. Haku hoped it wasn't the group of missing ninja camp site. It was about a mile away but that was enough for scouts of the missing ninja to look through. Suddenly, the group of three ninja stop, Miya was talking. Haku circled around and descended to the group. He landed on a branch above them, enough for him to hear the conversation. 

Miya was telling Tsume that it was now Haku and Tsume's turn to lead. The Chokyoshi was nervous but didn't let it show. He hadn't lead a S rank before, hell, he's never been in a S rank mission before. He shouldn't be complaining though. Once he becomes a chunin, their will be a lot more S rank missions. Tsume nodded though, taking on the responsibility.  

He turned to the group, going to explain his thinking. "Sadly we can't split up, it would be too risky and we'd have no way to communicate." Tsume continued, "I'll keep up Haku disguised as a normal hawk..." Just then Haku gave a small shriek. "You did? How far?" Tsume said, communicating with Haku. Haku replied. Tsume nodded, "Haku found some smoke in the distance, We'll investigate it..." Tsume said shaking his head, knowing it wasn't real, why would their be a campfire at this time of day, night fall wasn't for another couple hours. Tsume looked at Cole. "You're the fastest genin here, you're reaction will still be needed in the back," Then he turned to Satoru, "You stick close to my back in case of need to immobilize enemies. I'll lead." 

After explaining his plan, Tsume took lead from Satoru so Haku could take them to the "campsite." He really wanted to draw a group out so they could take them to their base. It was risky but so was going into the desert blind to enemies. That why he stationed everyone where they were. Tsume knew that he wouldn't draw the whole missing ninja group, they don't know what the group was capable of. 

WC:414
TWC: 1278

As the team searched for the rouge shinobi they seemed to all work very well together. As such it became apparent that whatever issue may present itself, they would find a way to take care of it. However, it was not long before their search delivered results in the form of movement four meters out to the east. Whatever was in the treeline was moving quickly away from them now towards the far side of the treeline as it goes to peak over a large hill some distance away. Miyamoto watched the movement and studied it, but said no word to his team yet, he was not the leader at this moment so he wanted to see the capabilities of young shinobi when it came to tracking.


If they find the thing making its way to the hill; It is a rouge Shinobi Rank D with 225 stats; jutsu loadout of 5 earth techniques, 4 wind techniques and a signal horn which he will blow the moment he reaches five meters out (on next post the group will hear it) that signals other enemies in the area.

Enemies in wait will be a group of 5; 1 C Rank Missing Nin, 3 D Rank Missing Nin, 1 E Rank Missing Nin


WC:130/1,490
Total Group WC: 5,341
Remaining WC: 4,659

The team was on the move still, heading towards the campsite Haku spotted. Tsume kept a keen eye out for an ambush, as he hoped the others were too. He knew that this was a risky plan but they still had no idea where the real campsite was and they couldn't just avoid it. At least Tsume knew it had to be some sort of trap and was basically prepared for anything. Suddenly, movement to the east of them. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly away from them, meaning they had seen them. Tsume assumed that the mystery movement could be a coincidence from a forest creature or a rouge ninja going to inform his operatives. And Tsume had all his money set on the latter.  He wondered if the rest of the team saw it. Tsume looked to his team. "Miya and Cole, follow that movement in the tree line." He ordered the two with a bit of a soft tone so he wasn't so loud. Cole and Miya were one of the fastest in the group, he could count on them to catch up to the movement. Tsume, Haku and Satoru would continue towards the campsite illusion, which was just over the hill. Tsume would put his left hand on his sheath, signalling Satoru to be on guard.  

WC: 221
TWC: 1499

Satoru is more so going with the flow rather than acting out of his way to do much. He follows Tsume’s directions as they are given, saving the greater amount of his thinking for when the confrontation begins. Until then, his actions follow instructions given by whomever is in charge of the mission at the time.

The team is notified by Tsume of movement off to the east of their current position. In an effort to apprehend the cause and confirm its correlation to the mission, Cole and Miyamoto are told to check it out. Cole’s speed is immense as he dashes out on this task. A watching Satoru then refocuses himself on Tsume as he is meant to stay close to the current mission leader.

The smoke rising into the sky is the current objective for Tsume and Satoru. They continue to run towards it and Tsume’s grip on the hilt of his blade signals Satoru to be on guard as well. His form of doing so is to remove a kunai from his ninja pouch and place his hands together in the snake hand seal. However, no chakra is being manipulated by the formation. Rather, the snake seal is simply the easiest hand seal from which to form most other hand seals for Satoru. Because of this, he has adopted the habit of performing a dud snake seal when he anticipates performing ninjutsu before entering a fight. A secondary effect of this is an enemy assuming an earth release technique when Satoru, in reality, does not possess the earth nature transformation.

“If I may?” Satoru asks in hushed voice. This is a request to speak on the current course of action. If Tsume allows it, Satoru will continue. “To be honest, Tsume, I’m not sure about this smoke. If the rogue ninja we’re after are capable enough to cause persistent trouble requiring a team of four genin and a chuunin to fix, why would they give away their position in such an obvious fashion?” Satoru says. He eyes the rising black cloud while thinking further on possibilities. “This may be a diversion or, worse, an ambush. Should the latter be true, my shadow possession jutsu along with my curse mark will be a formidable restriction upon the enemy’s movement. Even multiple targets can be held still by its power. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that they have the strength or speed great enough to overpower me.”

Satoru’s wariness is due to the fact that the team of four has not split into two groups of two. Miyamoto and Cole are both of the team’s heavy-hitting power houses. Tsume is swift with his blade along with Haku for effective aerial support. Satoru’s strength lies in his ability to immobilize enemies effectively along with powerful chakra through his curse seal. However, Satoru lacks energy efficiency. The main weakness of the Tsume and Satoru combination is that they would be less adept at sustaining a hard defense when being countered. Satoru’s personal feeling is that the situation would be much safer if one group had Cole and another had Miyamoto.

“It’s your call.” Satoru would finish, trusting Tsume judgement on his leadership of the current objective.

(537/2,402)
(2,402/5,000 to mission completion)