A Night at the "Inn of Twilight"

Halloween Mission #1:

(TLDR At the end)

It was a quite night as the deputy Kage of Hoshigakure was sitting at Hogokage Akari’s desk, filling out a large number of mission orders. It was a very stressful day for the village hidden among the stars, with Valen’s team being away from the village, a small full of shinobi taking time off to recuperate from the death of Kyousuke Snow, and many of the Jounin were out of the village preforming missions, Hoshigakure’s defensive force was essentially just down to Hikari, Shina, and a small number of Chunin. It wasn’t a good time to be in charge of Hoshigakure, even worst when the Fuinjutsu mistress of light was now being forced to send more shinobi out of the village to wipe of the remerging Jaws of Grima bandit group. The maiden had wished she could just teleport out of the village and clean up the jobs quickly and just be done with it, but alas, she needed to stay inside the village at this time in the off chance that an emergency came up, so as such, she was now stuck at the Kage desk, making decisions that could easily make the difference between life and death for Haven Country. Does Hikari send a Chunnin on their own to clear out a small group of bandits? Or does she send a team of 3 Chunnin and a gennin? On one hand, if the Chunnin gets sent out on his own, his odds for mission completion and survival are lowered significantly. That being said, this was still a trained Journeyman level ninja against a group of commoners with swords and spears. So it should be fine…. But if it isn’t, what would happen? Either the Chunnin would take much longer than what was needed to complete the task, or worst, the chunnin may even parish during their missions, and the fault would fall straight on Hikari for understaffing the mission.

On the other hand….. what if Namikaze did send an entire squad to clean up a small group of Jaw members? While that would pretty much guarantee a fast mission success, it wouldn’t be instant. And while the shinobi were out of the village, what if the village hidden among the Stars was attacked during this time? The Village would be down even more shinobi, and as much as Hikari wished she could feel confident that she could defend Hoshigakure by herself, the bottom line is that, Hikari was a backline support ninja. Had the maiden developed various offensive and defensive jutsu that could be used to defend the village? Yes. However…. in the end Hikari had always focused more on back line support rather than offensive jutsu. So keeping numbers in the village was a priority, however…..


The Kunochi was snapped out of her trance as a loud knock rang from her door.

“Come in.”


Hikari would look up in order to see a tall dark skin chunnin by the name of Zane Imani make his way into the room. The was a shinobi that Hikari had kept behind in order to use as a secretary. The Chunnin was powerful and well known throughout village for holding an impressive mission record. The Deputy had gotten some flak from this from various shinobi (Most notably the always pleasant Shina.) about not putting such a powerful shinobi out on the front line. Normally, the Kunochi would agree with them and place the man on the active mission rooster. However, the curly haired had come to Hikari shortly after the Valen had left and asked to be taken off the mission rooster so he could remain in the village and stay close to his newborn child. Prehaps the Jounin should of pushed the man to defend his family by fighting on the borders of the village rather than staying behind the walls of Hoshigakure’s gates….. that being said though… Hikari also understood the desire to be close to one’s family, and the feeling of wanting to be close to the human being you brought into the world. Namikaze had never had a child before, but ever since she had been a child, she had always wanted to be a mother. Unfortunately, that day would probably never come due to the responsibilities that came with her new title.

“Yes? Zane?”

“Hey, everything going ok in here Hikari?” The man would ask, addressing Hikari informally as she had requested of him.  Good. Zane had been brought up with a very militaristic family and struggled to talk to superiors in such a way, which was probably a good thing for his carrer in the long turn. That being said, Hikari hated to be talked up to as a commanding military general, so she had asked the chunin to refrain from it. It took him some time, but it looked like he had finally broken his habit when it came to Hikari.

“Not really….” The Jounin would respond, not attempting to lie. “Another dozen or so jaws of grima camps have been reported. With Valen and his guards out of the village, we still don’t have the numbers to deal with all of these.”

“I… I’m sorry… maybe I should of taken Lady Shina’s advice… maybe I should be out of the village dealing with these….” Zane started to explain before Hikari quickly cut him off. “Enough.” the girl would say. “We are a powerful shinobi village filled with many skilled Shinobi. How would it look if we couldn’t give a father time to spend with his child so shortly after he came into the world? You are already doing more than enough working nights as my secretary, we will not ask any more of you.” The Jounin would say firmly. She was not about to separate a newborn form his father, no matter what the cost was. “I presume though that you had a reason to come see me at this hour?”
“Yes Hikari.” the shinobi would explain. “Do you recall a few weeks ago when there were a few bodies found on the 13th training ground?”

The Jounin would take a moment to think back. “I believe so…. The bodies were drained of blood in a strange manner, correct? I know that there were a few more bodies discovered since then that were killed in a similar manner, but weren’t we asked by the Captian of the Queensmen to not get involved with the investigation due to the fact that there was a strong possibility that a shinobi was involved?” Hikari had recalled that the shinobi force decided to respect the guard’s request. (Which Hikari had decided to support seeing how the Jounin had expected Kenshin to be involved in it and didn’t want to have to deal with that.)

“That was the case until about two hours ago. A patrol of guards came upon a group hostiles which we believe were the perpetrators of the crime. The party was found standing over a group of bodies that were killed of the same manner that the others were. When the guards attempted to bring the group in for questioning, the group started to get violent and slaughtered the guards before fleeing. At about this time, a young student was on a nearby hill watching stars through a telescope, and was attracted by the noise and saw this and reported it to us. He says that the unknown hostiles moved with speed beyond that of a normal human, so right now we believe that they are shinobi or chakra enhanced individuals. We have sent a message to the queensmen, asking if we could aid them, but we have yet to receive a response back from them.”
Hikari would lean back in her chair, taking a moment to think, biting her lip as she did. “This group of unknown attackers… did the student see where they went?”
“Yes, Hikari, he followed them with his telescope and saw them entering in an old abandoned motel on the east side of Hoshigakure. ‘Inn of the Twilight’ I think its name was.”

The girl would think about this for a second, Chakra enhanced individuals, they appear to be extremely hostile, and they had a location…..

“The Guard Captian get on my case later for this.” The Jounin would say and sit up out of her desk. “There is no guarantee that those unknowns will remain there while we await his permission to go in. I’ll take care of this personally.” This shouldn’t of been unexpected of Zane. Hikari was a kunochi after all that had obtained the rank of Jounin after fighting the 3rd Hogokage to a draw in a sparing match. She didn’t want this case to get to out of hand, and hopefully she could finish this mission before the night is over.
Zane would nod as if understanding “Yes, M’la…..”
Hikari would look over at Zane, a slight annoyed look on the Kunochi’s face. “GGGGGGGGRRRRR” the girl would make a noise coming out of her throught…. similar to that of a growl, but a little less hostile.

“Um……… Yes…. Hikari….” the girl would stop with her annoyed look and allow her face to show a little bit of Joy, it had been some time since she had been allowed to leave the office, even if it was to go out on a mission, the ability to stretch her legs and get a little bit of a work out in seemed to be a life savior to the Blonde Kunochi. “I presume you would like me to accompany you to the in?”

“On the contrary,” The deputy Kage of Hoshigakure would explain, “I have another mission for you that I need you to attend to, one that is just as important to this one.” The dark skinned Chunin would look at Hikari curiously as she said this. “You said that a young student witnessed this murder and was the one that reported it to us? I would like you to see to it personally that he is being looked after and being well treated. Since he wasn’t involved I will presume he is physical fine, but to witness such violent acts at such a young age? I fear for this boy’s physiological wellbeing.  Make sure he is fine, also, while you head over there, would you mind sending out some carrier pigeons to any shinobi that you think may be up at this late hour? Ask them to meet me on the cross roads of Sato Road and Remington Way with a basic summary of the mission, and to come as soon as possible. I would like to be inside the Inn in about 30 minutes.”
Zane would nod and make his way toward the mail room, while Hikari Namikaze made her way toward the meet up point.

WC: 1845

TLDR: Sorry, went way to long on this, and I don’t have time to double check my writing! Basicly, those who wish to join in will recive a letter with the basic mission details, (See above) and orders to meet up at a crossroad near a motel called ‘Inn of the Twilight’.

Tonight was pretty much like any other night for the weird shinobi. With hair similar to a cerulean ocean and eyes just the same with a black dot in the center of them, Mo-ri had been practicing on the roof of the abandoned building that he had called his home in silence. That was a bit of a lie honestly. The only sounds accompanying him had been the sound of the wind that came with each movement he had made in his kata. His arms had been outstretched and fingers perfectly flexed outward as if he was grabbing for something. Without a moments notice his left hand slid backwards as his right readjusted to the right and into the form of a stiff palm as he began to thrust into the cold night air. With each small breath he began to make small movements, his fingers curling only slightly as he chopped the air, his left hand mirroring the right as he circled the small area he was in. His footwork caused him to make small circles resembling the ying and yang symbol as he moved.

It was a form of fighting that he had without a doubt enjoyed using, as it was used for relaxing and yet could easily be used to fight due to his flow of movement. He had been at this for a few hours at best, his body loosening up from the warm-ups and the kata's themselves allowing him to engrave each movement into his body. After a few more motions he began to bring his hands down and together in the center of his body before sitting down and meditating. With everything that had been going on for him at least it was a little needed and the clarity he had obtained through training made it easier to see his path. Though his eyes were closed he could hear it distinctly though faintly. The beating of a birds wings though the specific bird type was unknown to him. His eyes slowly began to open as he felt the touch of talons upon his shoulder to which he lifted his index finger to it and moved the bird in front of him.

Taking hold of the note attached on its leg, Mo-ri slowly opened his eyes and begun to read it silently to himself. The black dot following the words with a certain type of quickness that caused him to stop for a moment to take it all in only to continue and nod. Clenching the paper into his hands, the spiky blue haired male stood up and let the bird take flight once more before walking over to his staff and clutching it into his hands. With a deep breath he took a jump from the tall building using one of his armor's abilities to glide down until he had reached a certain rooftop and grabbed onto it. From there the male would flip upwards and begin his way toward the meeting point. From where he had been to the crossroads would take him probably twenty minutes at best so he made he pushed with his full speed until he had made it to the rendezvous point, where he would wait for any of the others to show up.

[545]

The deputy Kage of Hoshigakure wouldn't have to wait to long before two chunin arrived to her aid. She knew both of them slightly, the first person being Mo-ri, the chunin that won the Genin tournament a few months back, and the first man that volunteered to join her on her suicide mission to fight the 4 tails.

The other was the priestess Geneviene Oasis, the girl that had summoned a dragon and a freaking tentacle monster on her during her chunin exams. Fun times. It had been a while since they had met.... actually, if memory served the Kunochi correctly, it was that said chunin exam. Time flies, huh?

As the two approached Hikari, the Jounin would put her finger over her lips as if to make a shushing noise.  The meet up location was at least a good 20 meters away from inn. This combined with the fact that the location was out of sight from the abandoned travelers nest made it unlikely that if any normal person could detect the group. That being said though, if the group that were hold up inside the tavern ended up being trained shinobi, it was likely that they could hear the group if they didn't go out of their way to be extremely quite.

Presuming the pair made their way toward Hikari the girl would await for them to get close enough to her that she could whisper without much fear of anyone outside the group to hear them.

"Hello, thank you for coming so quickly."  The Kunochi would whisper, her voice barely escaping the sound of her own nearly silent breath. "It has been a while, and just in case you didn't recognize me, I am Hikari Namikaze, the one who called you here." If neither of the two recognized her, it would be understandable. After all, the girl's physical apperance had changed greatly since in the last month or so. "I presume the letter that Zane sent gave you enough details to understand the mission?"

If the two said no, Hikari would take a quick second to go over a recap of the mission as so far. That being said, if the two did show an understanding of the mission, the Akari would then just continue.

"Ok, so, we believe the culprits are hiding inside the Inn of Twilight, before you arrived, I noticed something that sounded like someone moving around in there. That being said, I normally would be able to hear someone breathing at that far of distance, but I can't, so something must be off about them.

If you two are agreeable to it, here is my plan, I think there are two people on the bottom floor, one person in the top floor more toward the north side, and one on the top floor toward the south side. I would like both of you to capture one of these unknown people from the top floor for questioning. I'll be doing the same as you two, but my mission will be to capture the two on the bottom floor. Any objections?"

If the two had nothing, Hikari would send them off before silently and stealthily making her way through a set of allies that would hide her approach as much as possible to the front door area.

WC: 560
TWC: 2,405

Mid thread claims:

Putting 2,341 words towards Hikariton: The 7 Chains of Virture, completing it. (25% Max stat discount used.)

First thread this was trained in.
Second Thread this was Trained in.

TWC Remaining: 64

(Also, to whoever wants to approve this, confirm my numbers on this, I am pretty much typing while I am asleep right now, so I could easily of made a mistake with my numbers.)

quick mafs checks out

Approved.

The male had looked at the blonde haired female quizzically before realizing where he had seen her before. Of course memories such as this escaped him, but when he could put a face to a memory? It became clear who the person had been. Giving a rather small bow he stood back up and looked over to the purple haired female, offering her a two finger salute before showing off a goofy grin and then responding to Hikari," I was just meditating so it was easy to read and get here in a decent time. I'm assuming we are on a search and rescue mission?," of course as soon as he had asked this question she had given him just enough information to go off of and then make a rational plan of attack. Given that he and the other whom of which he did not know the name of, would be going for the ones on the top floor it was easy to know what he would do.

There had been a swift, but rather audible pop of his joints as he stretched and smiled, giving the same two finger salute he gave to Geni to Hikari before nodding," Leave it to us. Now if you don't mind..," and he paused as he crouched down and leveled his staff onto his shoulders," I'll be off," and with a silent 'pop' his body was propelled into the air thanks to the boots he had been wearing. Once a stationary object, the boy would appear like a blue projectile as he moved through the air the same way he had pushed himself into it, a smile on his face as he used his chakra to slide onto the roof silently before taking off into a silent sprint with a mission in mind. Using his own chakra perception he headed toward the one on the northern side, taking in any weaknesses in the roof itself. 

Assuming Geni had moved at the same time as him, he would close the distance just above where the person he was going to nab had been, walking along the edge to see a single window that would lead just behind the male...the question was how to do it properly. Well he could time to the cadence of his two teammates or he could be a distraction, grabbing the male and throwing the other on the top in a fit of turmoil wondering if he was next...but then that made no sense. So he simply pushed against the window and opened it since from his observance it had no locks. Silently he slipped in and past some furniture before stepping behind the male and tapping him on the shoulder. All he would see is blue hair and a very strange set of eyes looking at him...and then he struck.

A well timed strike to the back of the neck would knock him and his body caught. Now...how to get him out. His answer? He threw the body out of the window and caught him on the edge of his staff before climbing out and onto the roof, carrying the body on his shoulder and back to where he had met up with Hikari and the others...now time to wait.

[542]

(Sorry, with everything going on I don’t want to hold you guys up any more, I know we wanted to do all the missions in this thread, but I don’t see that happening, so I figured I would just let you guys go to see if you wanted to do that.)

When the victor of Hoshigakure’s Genin tournament would ask about the mission, the Jounin would confirm with a nod, activating her golden eyes as she did, saying “Not quite, we have already recovered the bodies of the poor souls that fell to these men. So no one to save, just capture the targets.”
Giving the two enough time to give the Chunin a head start, Hoshigakure’s Guardian Angel of Light would make her way to the front door, moving with the stealth of that of the first Hogokage. The Blonde Deputy kage would move to the front door, listening in to see if she could hear something inside.

*THUD THUD THUD THUD*

The sound of footsteps rung through the Maiden’s ear, two sets were moving on the ground floor of the tavern, but still no breaths or heartbeats, strange…. What was with these guys? If they were trained in the arts of moving silently, then their footsteps would be silent as well. That being said, if they weren’t trained in that art, then there was no reason why Hikari would be hearing their heartbeats and breaths. Something was definitely wrong here…. Very wrong.
Taking a few seconds to confirm the two hostile’s locations, Hikari Namikaze would put her hand on the door knob, preparing herself for what she was about to do, and swiftly open the door.

The Jounin would immediately cast her gaze toward where she heard the movements, two frail pale bodies came into view of the woman. The bodies…. they were standing and moving, were… were they alive? Hikari had seen corpses that looked healthier than these…. Things…. Could they possibly be puppets? No, Hikari had her golden eyes activated and there were no chakra threads. No way for that to be the case…. What are these things?

Suddenly, the creatures would look toward the Deputy kage and lash out at them, but before they even took a step, Hoshigakure’s Garudian Angel was already striking out. The girl would reach out both of her hands, standing still so that her movement wouldn’t mess up her attack, and two chains of light would erupt from her hands and go sailing toward the two corpse like creatures. The holy chains would connect to their target, the metallic chains catching in the pale creature’s flesh around the stomach section, before pulling them back at a speed of 150 toward Hikari. (However, the girl would allow the two chains to slow down so that the bodies wouldn’t hurt her as they went flying toward her.) At this point, the Jounin would focus chakra into her arms, through her hands and her fingers would light up with purple flames as the girl would activate the 5 elemental symbol seal on both hands. As the bodies came flying toward her, she would reach out and place a single seal on both target’s midsection, which would force them to pass out.

With both unknown’s taken care of, Namikaze would place the bodies on a nearby table. She wasn’t a medical ninja, but the girl felt like maybe just taking a quick second to search the bodies to see if she could find something that may help her figure out what was going on. She didn’t want to take too long, knowing that her team was probably waiting for her outside. Searching the bodies, the woman found something on the back of each of the creatures….. not a tattoo or a fuinjutsu seal…. A brand mark?

[spoile= What the mark looked like.] [img=https://previews.123rf.com/images/aliyevs002/aliyevs0021803/aliyevs002180301592/97363560-monster-icon-element-of-horror-stories-elements-illustration-premium-quality-graphic-design-icon-sig.jpg] [/spoiler]

Strange….. The woman had a very slight recollection of the symbol….. where had she seen it before? The deputy Kage would take a second, thinking about it, but would shake her head, she didn’t have time for this. She would just allow the chains to reach out and wrap around the two bodies, and toss them through a window and out onto the street, a little bit violent for her taste, but Hikari doubted that her physical strength would allow the maiden to be able to hold up the weight of one of the bodies, let alone two of them.

The girl would exit through the front door and make her way to the bodies, which had landed in the middle of the street, taking a quick look around, the girl would notice that no civilians had come out to watch what was going on. That made sense, seeing how late it was outside.

Presuming that Mo-Ri and Genevieve would come out with their respective bodies, Hikari would turn to them, offering a warm smile to the pair of Chunin, “Looks like you both took out your opponents, good job. I do really appreciate you guys coming out on such short notice.”
After thanking the two, Hikari’s face would turn back to the bodies, her face taking more of a serious tone. “These bodies…. they have no pulses…. they don’t need to breath…. They are more like that of dead bodies compared to anything among the living.” The Deputy Kage would turn back to Genvine Oasis. “Mr. Mo-ri, Lady Oasis, I would like it if the two of you could take these bodies to the prison for interrogation. That being said, I have a second mission for you. Lady Oasis, I would like you to figure out what is going on with these bodies…. make a report and show it to no one besides myself, Kenshin Uzumaki, and the Hogokage. Once we hand over the prisoners, there is no guarantee that the Queen’s Men will allow us to have access to those bodies again.”

Taking a second to see if the two had any questions, which she would answer, before the girl would continue. “I have very important business to attend to, so I cannot accompany you. The two bodies that I knocked out have seals placed on them and will not wake up before Dawn, so you have until then to finish your research.”

With one last glance at the two, the girl would once again give another warm smile to the pair. “Once again, thank you for your hard work.”

And with that, the girl’s form would dissolve into countless golden butterflies as the girl would teleport back to her office to do the research on the brand mark she had discovered.

Chakra Suppression used (Until turned off when she used the chains.)
-5 for Golden Eyes
-100 for Hikariton: 7 Chains of Purity (Power: 160, Speed 150)
-80 (2x 40) 5 Elemental Seal (Power 110)
-50 for telleport of Lux Athrena

1400- 230 = 1220 AP Remainng

[Possible Exit]

WC 1117
TWC: 3,522
Words Not used on training at this point: 1177
Will make mission claims later.

The male looked at the bodies and whistled for a moment almost ironically before shaking his head. He knew what it felt like to be a zombie- quite literally in most cases as he was...quite unique in many ways. His eyes soon went from the Jounin to the other female and then back to the bodies as he began to poke at the dead body in front of him almost comically before looking up to Hikari," Not a problem. Didn't have much to do tonight and this was over almost as easily as it began so..eh. Plus its good to see actual zombies for once...," he didn't even wait for anyone to respond to it before standing up straight and popping his back in several different places.

With their mission complete he picked up the body and threw it onto his shoulder and shrunk down Yeoui into a size where he could stuff it somewhere without a care...namely his ear. Tucking it snuggly just in between the bottom of his lobe and the hole he smiled as he prepared to take off," If that's all for me i'm gonna make a deposit into the prison and go back to my training I guess, Be safe," as he crouched he could feel the earth beneath him crumbling as he took to the sky, using the boots on his feet to propel him a bit before falling into a nearby tree...so much for being agile.

[Exit]

WC: 243
TWC: 1330

Claims:

C rank mission Ap rewards
499 words to finish off Eight Gates formation (Previously at 1,501)
Claiming Gate of opening (831/750) *using max stat -25% reduction

Rolling for prize