Defend the Bathhouse

Defend the Bathhouse:

Relaxing at a popular bathhouse Kizmaru was planning on submerging himself into the warm waters of a VIP hot spring that he had reserved for himself and a couple of friends if they had decided to join him. As he prepared to sit in the bath with his companion Ram, he only had a towel draped around his lower body as well as a miniature towel on his head. He figured it was customary to bathe or shower firsh in order to clean himself up before stepping in and dirtying the waters he had reserved. Even if he was the Mizukage, nobody knew that and would have treated him like a nuisance who doesn't bathe before jumping in. Groaning a bit, he headed over to the men's shower area, carrying his companion as well. He wasn't the only one that needed a path too. Normally, there was a no pets allowed policy going on but he decided to slip some cash under the table. He decided he would wash himself before he attempted to wash his partner. Getting a nearby stool and sitting down on it, Kizmaru began to wash up with some soap and warm water before rising off with a nearby bucket of water. 

After he was done washing himself, he looked around for his companion but they were currently no where to be found.  This always happens when it was bath time and he wasn't sure what to do when situations like this arise. He was always under the impression armadillos loved water but he assumed it wasn't the same when it comes to keeping themselves clean through human methods  Giving an irritated sigh, he got up from his stool in order to look for Ram.

W.C: 289

Yosei arrived at the bath house in his best clothes and took in the sight of the building. Tastefully decorated, he noted with a sigh of relief. Finally, this was an assignment that spoke to him. Luxury bathing in a refined environment? Nothing could be closer to his wheelhouse. He was wearing his royal blue kimono gold embroidery at the edges, a large Hisori clan peacock feather symbol on it's back, and a tail styled like peacock feathers that fell down to his calves. It was tied to give him a plunging neck-line and his bare chest was adorned with multiple leather necklaces, each adorned with a few green, purple and blue crystals. He had spent hours on his hair that morning, ensuring it was looking as full in volume and radiantly gold as possible. His finger nails were painted a dark jade colour to bring out his eyes. Though he loathed to weigh down such an iconic outfit with the utilitarian, he had his ninja tool pack tied to the back of his left leg where it wouldn't be noticed, feeling it was best to be prepared even when relaxing somewhere like this. Altogether, he was quite proud of how he looked today, and he was certain that at long last, for the first time, one of his fellow shinobi would be stunned into commenting positively on his appearance. It had to happen eventually, didn't it?

He walked inside and waved to the man at the front desk, giving his name and asking for the VIP room reserved by Kizmaru. The attendant was polite and handed him a key before wishing him a pleasant visit. Now this was a civilized way to live. The man told him where to find the changing rooms, but Yosei wanted to bask in the glory of his attire for a little longer and maybe get the chance to show it off. He made his way down the hall to the VIP room when he heard horrified shrieking come from his left. He dashed towards it's source and found himself face to face with a small crowd of naked women. It appeared that he had dashed into the showers that had been designated for an entirely different gender to the one that he was. How inconvenient. He politely put a hand over his eyes.

"I assure you I have no interest whatsoever in looking at any of you." He said blankly, to the surprise of some and the chagrin of others. "I just heard screams and wanted to-"

"There's some kind of freaky rat thing in here! Kill it for us!"

An armadillo skittered out from one of the stalls and ran out of the room. Yosei dashed after it and swiftly picked the little creature up just as it tried to make a break for the men's showers.

"Were you running back to your friend, little one?" Yosei asked. "Perhaps we can find him together."

Sure enough, he saw Kizmaru in the showers looking around for something.

"There you are. Thank you for the invitation. Is this yours?" He asked, bemusedly holding up the squirming critter. "I think you have something of a peeping tom on your hands.

WC: 535

Looking around the his private bath, Kizmaru was a bit befuddled at where his companion could have gone. He search high and low in the bathhouse but couldn't get an accurate read of where his buddy might be. It them occuredto him that he might have just left the room entirely to do his own thing and that would not bode well. After all, he first met Ram, stealing people's food and garbage most of the time when he was on his way to the Military Training Facility. Placing his left hand onto his forward, Kizmaru let out an aggravated sigh as he retied the towel around his waist as it had become loose over the course of him running round all over the room. Once he was done with that, he had made his way towards the exit in order to put back on his clothes. Before he stepped out, somebody had been stepping in, carry his missing friend. Kizmaru was a it overjoyed that somebody had found him and knew where to bring him but was surprised they didn't try to harm him in any capacity as most people would have considered him vermin. Either way, he was grateful. 

Looking at Ram squirm in the hands of 'saviour', Kizmaru chuckled a bit before looked at the person holding him. It was Yosei, one of the people he had invited to join him in the pubic bathhouse. Kizmaru continued to smirk as Yosei ask if this was his to which he had responded, "Yup, he sure is. My little troublemaker."  Reaching over to Yosei, he took the squirming Ram from his hands and now he began to squirm in Kizmaru's hands, knowing what was next to come. "You know what's coming next now don't you, Ram," Kizmaru said a bit menacingly.  With that Ram, curled into a call and began to shiver a bit. Afterwards, Yoseu had thanked him for the invitation and Kizmaru responded with, "No problem" before walking off to the shower area in order to properly bathe Ram before he could get into the large tub filled with warm water.  Yosei had remarked that Ram was somewhat of a peeping tom which made Kizmaru giggle a bit. He honestly couldn't blame the little guy knowing there was copious amounts of nude women nearby taking baths of their own. "Yeah, well, can't say I blame him. I kind of wish he'd stop being all bashful when its bath time. I don't understand why he does this, they little guy loves playing around in water but not bathing in it." 

Kizmaru would take an extendable shower head and began to spray warm water upon the little armadillo. He wouldn't budge so Kizmaru turned the water into freezing cold water. This got a reaction out of him, making him attempt to roll away which Kizmaru then caught him with ease and put him back in place, continuing to spray him with cold water. "Come on, let me wash you and I won't have to torture you like this." This only made Ram try and roll away again. Which made Kizmaru sighed and turn off the water. He decided to clean what he could, which was mainly the shell since he was curled up and the little tail poking out. He then turned to Yosei with a frown. "Hey, you think you can get him out and have him sit still for a couple of minutes while I was him properly? I would like to go into the nice, warm tub and soak a little bit since now I'm getting a little bit chilly just standing around and doing nothing." 


W.C: 610

Kizmaru handed the creature over and Yosei held it awkwardly. He wasn't exactly accustomed to handling pets, certainly not ones that shared the breed of this thing. A little befuddled, he shook it gently to try and encourage the creature to loosen up. When that failed, he shook it harder. Ram didn't open up but he did make some kind of disapproving noise from inside his shell. Yosei set him down a bit more gently onto the ground and frowned. Getting a flash of inspiration, he took one of the peacock feathers he had in his hair and removed, rolled Ram around so his little tail was sticking up, and began tickling him with the feather right at the tail bone. Gradually the armadillo opened up a little bit more, and Yosei was able to tickle him more.
Soon Ram was totally out of his shell, squirming around beneath the feather as Yosei began to take a devious pleasure in putting the familiar under this kind of light duress. He quickly wove hand signs while Ram was out of his shell and created a few dazzling butterflies out of light with colourful wings. The minor genjutsu took effect right away, with Ram entranced by the butterflies. The creature had the urge to chase them, but as Yosei kept them hovering above the cute little critter he simply rolled on his back and grabbed at them playfully with his paws.
"There you go," Yosei said, sweating a little bit from the effort of all the different methods he'd tried. "I hope you don't object to me using this jutsu. Animals tend to love it so I often use it to keep them from bothering me. It should be easy for you to wash him now, so I'm going to go get changed into the appropriate attire."
Stepping into the changing room, Yosei carefully removed his clothes and accessories, folding them immaculately as he did so and placing them in his bag. He retrieved two senbon from his weapons pouch, tying one into his hair and disguising it as a hair pin. The other he kept in a secret location on his body, a natural hiding place that required a certain amount of sustained clenching which he had fortunately mastered. One could never know when they would be caught unawares, and Yosei preferred to always be prepared. Once he was done, he brushed his hair as it had gotten a little messy as he changed clothes. Sweeping the long locks around his neck and over his right shoulder so it covered his chest, Yosei wrapped a towel around his waist and went to check on Kizmaru to see if he'd gotten Ram clean yet.

WC: 452

Picking up and handing Ram over to Yosei, Kizmaru observed quietly as he worked his magic on Ram. Yosei decided to gently rock Ram which made Kizmaru chuckle a little bit. He tried that a few times in the past but for some reason, he wouldn't let up. He then watched as Yosei shook Ram a bit harder which only got a louder chuckle when Ram started to grunt in disapproval. Well, this wasn't going anywhere, he thought to himself as he watched the events unfold in real time. Thinking Yosei would give up, Kizmaru began to think of other ways he could get Ram to take a bath. Before he came up with an idea, Yosei had already come up with one of his own as he reached for a feather that he keeps in his hair. Watching closely, Kizmaru saw as Yosei began to tickle the tip of Ram's exposed tail. This caused Ram to come out of his shell, squirming while under the assault and mercy of the feather. Yosei then made hand signs putting Ram in some sort of unknown Genjutsu that made him chase flying critters of some sort. Yosei apologized and then told Kizmaru that it would be easier to wash him in this state which Kizmaru didn't have any objections to. 

He then went over to get loofah and soap, coming back to hold down Ram in order to clean him while Yosei went out to make preparations of his own. It only took a few moments to get Ram cleaned up in order to get into the tub but he had to dry him off first. Kizmaru wasn't about to use his own towel and there weren't any spares currently in the bath so Kizmaru had to get up and search for one in the changing room since that was the ony viable option given to him at the moment. Getting up from where he was, let Ram continue to play with whatever visions he was currently seeing and went into the changing room. As he was walking out, Yosei was walking in to check on him and Kizmaru had apologized while moving past him, saying he needed to find a spare towel for Ram. He didn't want to take one of the bigger ones, just a small one that people normally put on their heads for whatever reason. He couldn't find any in the changing room, so he had asked Yosei to accompany him to get some more from storage.

Kizmaru then walked out of the changing room in just a towel in order to go and see if there was anybody that could possibly service him since he didn't know exactly where he was going to get said towels. Walking down the corridor, Kizmaru decided it was in his best interest not to yell and disturb other potential customers. As he walked, he peered into what seemed to be a staff room. Before he entered Kizmaru had over the words 'takeover'. Listening closely, Kizmaru tried to make sense of what they were talking about.

W.C: 515

Yosei felt nice and refreshed after helping Kizmaru with his familiar and getting changed into the appropriate attire for a bathhouse. At his colleague's word, he accompanied him to go find a fresh towel for the critter. Something caught his superior's attention as they passed what looked like a break room or staff office. Yosei thought, but couldn't be sure, that he had heard the word "Takeover", but whatever it was it seemed to have given Kizmaru pause as he stopped to try and listen in. Closing his eyes to try and hone his sensory abilities, Yosei attempteed to eavesdrop as well, and he heard little fleeting pieces of information. It all indicated that something was happening today, some kind of takeover. Did Kizmaru know about this before hand? Was this getaway really a mission in disguise?

One thing he did catch was something about the front desk, and he thought of the man he had seen on his way into the bathhouse earlier. Catching the appearance of the staff member who'd spoken this word through the door, Yosei got an idea. He signalled to Kizmaru that he was going to leave and would meet back soon.

Turning the corner, Yosei activated Mind's Eye of the Kagura and transformed himself into a duplicate of the man he had overheard while he was in the blind spot of anyone who might see him, and walked up to the front desk where the polite gentleman from earlier had welcomed him to the establishment. In the guise of a co-worker, Yosei walked towards him and leaned up against the desk.
"Hey man," Yosei said gruffly in his best approximation of a regular person. "I must be losing it. Don't be mad or anything, but I forgot what time today everything is supposed to -"
The front desk attendant's eyes widened.
"Don't talk about it out here, how many times do I have to tell you?" He interrupted. "Did you talk to Mister Sekuzo?"
Yosei blinked. "Ah, I didn't get a chance yet."
The attendant narrowed his eyes and for a moment, you could cut the tension with a kunai.
"I see. No problem. Come with me and let's talk about this in private."

He led Yosei to a small supplies closet and opened the door to let him inside. The man feigned a casual conversation for a second, and then in a flash there was a kunai at Yosei's throat.
"Who sent you?" The man snarled.
"What a strange question." Yosei remarked calmly. "I came here on an invitation from a friend. I knew you were lying to try and lure me in here, so you must be up to something. I assume that reference to "Mister Sekuzo" was the first half of some kind of password I didn't have the correct response for, yes? Unfortunately, while you may think I am at your mercy, the situation is quite reversed."
The disguise disappeared in a puff of smoke to reveal Yosei pressing one of his concealed senbon against the man's stomach. The surprise of it caught his opponent off guard just long enough for Yosei to wrap a hand around the arm that held a knife to his throat. He kicked the back of the man's legs so that he buckled, and twisted the arm tightly as he pressed him up against the wall.
"Now then, we are going to have that chat I was promised. And don't forget, I can tell if you're lying."
"That needle - where you hiding it? You're practically naked -"
Yosei chuckled. "I'll ask the questions here."
After an educational chat, Yosei learned about a jealous brother trying to take over the family business and the front desk man's role in getting his men inside. Yosei put him under the ephemeral genjutsu so he would sleep deeply, then transformed into him and left the closet, making sure no one was watching as he went to find Kizmaru and relay this information.

WC: 661

As he attempted to listen to the conversation in question, he had noticed Yosei giving him a singal that he would meet up with him later and Kizmaru nodded. A bit curious, Kizmaru had followed and watch him use the transformation technique in order to turn into one of the men that had been conversing with each other before. Giving a little smirk Kizmaru figured he would let Yosei handle this part of the mission and he would go back to the bath room in order to await what would happen. Getting back to the bathing room, Kizmaru ploped down on a stool and began to clean himself once more, he had already forgotten he was suppose to get a towel in order to dry Ram off as well as wipe the gunk off of his body. Well, if he was successful in his mission, he wouldn't have to worry about that. He was sure the owner would let him off the hook for dirtying the bathwater if he lived to tell the tale. And if he didn't, it wouldn't matter anyway. This wasn't a simple bathing getaway after all, no, it was a mission that he had taken at the behest of the owner who had a hunch that his brother was trying to murder him in order to inherit his successful bathhouse. Well, he had invited Yosei under the guise of a friendly male bonding trip but in reality, the situation was like this after all. If all went well, maybe he'd just invite Yosei out to a normal trip.

W.C: 264

A group of seven large men, all wearing grey kimonos approached Yosei while he was still disguised as the clerk. They had just entered through the front doors and their clothes did a very poor job of hiding conspicuous lumps and bulges around their bodies. Hidden weapons, any amateur could tell. The man at the front gruffly requested a room, emphasizing the word room with a wink. Yosei rolled his eyes. Didn't they know anything about criminal conspiracies? Continuing his act, he politely obliged and lead them to a sauna room where they could sweat it out for a bit. He knew from interrogating the person he was disguised at that they would wait for a signal to be brought to the office of the owner and his staff so they could off him.

Such a shame, Yosei thought. He had been quite excited to learn that Kizmaru invited him on such a luxurious trip and now it was going to be interrupted by some kind of takeover on the very day that they had - Oh. Of course. Yosei slapped his own head. This was no coincidence, was it?

He found Kizmaru in the bathing room where they'd been earlier, still cleaning himself. Typical of him to be so casual.

"You know, Kizmaru," He said teasingly, "When I arrived here to find that it was just the two of us, a more optimistic man might have gotten the wrong impression. The next time you want to help on a discreet mission, think about whose feelings you might hurt along the way, eh?"

He stood opposite to Kizmaru, hoping the Jounin wouldn't be one of those people who could never tell when Yosei was joking. His dry delivery did sometimes leave people uncomfortable.

"Anyway, I believe that the muscle have arrived, they're waiting to be lead upstairs to the offices. I assume we're here to stop them, and not help them? I've had enough fun already anyway so don't let me hog all the glory. I'll await your orders for how we are to proceed."

WC: 344

It had been a long month- Momochi was past the point of giving a shit, so she'd checked in at the nearest bath house she could find. She'd just barely managed to get in to the damn place, and had been shunted off to the last available sauna she had. She threw as many hot stones into the water as she could humanly handle. The shinobi was wrapped up in only a towel, and the thick steam and fine layering of sweat made it nearly impossible to make out any scars or marks that could mark her as a member of Kirigakure's special forces. She'd managed to smuggle in a few senbon into the place through her bra, just for her own comfort more than anything else. The young adult was left to her own devices for a nondescript amount of time, content to relax in the absence of human company before the door opened. Her eyes glanced up- seven men and women who were wrapped in simple clothes with obviously bulging pockets entered the room, sitting and settling down and being conscientious enough to leave her her space. They seemed miffed that she was in the room- which wasn't her problem.

Judging by the glances they sent each other when they thought she was oblivious, they were obviously planning something. She, however, didn't recognize them from her time on duty. Either they were ANBU, which was unlikely, or they were part of one of numerous thug militia that had scattered across the islands since Xyxer's fall. Whatever they had planned was likely none of her business, but... A heavy sigh left her lips. She'd probably be expected to handle it either way. First, she had to subtly sus out their intentions, careful to be as delicate as possible.

"So," she spoke up, voice absolutely not cracking from disuse whatsoever. "Any of you single?" a pause, as they looked to each other uncomfortably. "...Okay." even she could take a hint. "Mind explaining why you're carrying enough concealed weaponry to fund an Academy class?" It took a moment for the words to settle in, but once they did, they jolted up. Oh well, if they didn't recognize her as a ninja and behaved this unsubtly, they were likely not affiliated with Kirigakure in any way that mattered. She waited for them to be off balance in the halfway point between sitting down and standing up before launching forwards. She lifted the man closest to her with a yank of his arm before sending him careening into another with enough force to pulverize bones and leave hairline cracks in the floor below. The likely wouldn't be getting up any time before interrogation...

She pulled out a senbon from... Well. Somewhere, before launching it straight through the eye of number three of seven. It buried itself irretrievably deep into the woodwork behind, splattered with blood as it did so. The target collapsed to the floor, throat and spinal cord pierced entirely through. Momochi lunged towards her left, sweeping the ankles of the only woman of the group hard enough for them to snap cleanly to the sides, her sharp cry ringing out and then silencing as her head impacted the corner of the bench. The final three had finally reached their weapons- she just punched them repeatedly until their insides resembled mush more than anything. The remaining people'd probably be good enough to interrogate anyways.

Momochi sighed to herself as the energy left her, adjusting the towel which had fallen from her chest to her knees. Damn. She looked upwards as she cast the Mind's Eye of the Kagura technique- she had to make sure that nobody else was with these guys, and this was faster than anything else.

Naturally, she nearly bashed her head against the wall when she recognized the signatures of both the man who trained her in Taijutsu and Yosei Hisori, her mission partner of a few times. Of course she'd stumble into their mission ass first.

[WC: 668]
[Total WC: 668]

Taking a step into the large bath tub with his companion, Ram, he winced a bit with how hot it was before forcing himself to step in, relax as he submerged his body in the water up to his neck. Letting out a sigh of relaxation, Kizmaru closed his eyes briefly and put a towel on his head. Grinning from ear to ear, he wondered how his buddy Yosei was doing on the little assignment he had taken upon himself. Well, either way, he wasn't gonna wait idly for the news and decided to spend little time bathing. Just as he was about to unwind, Yosei had come in to inform him of the ongoing matter, or so he thought. Yosei had made a joke about the more optimistic man having the wrong impression which made Kizmaru chuckle a little bit. He then felt like he should apologize anyway. "My bad, maybe next time, it won't be all business. Heh." Despite being a married man, he thought it was okay to make jokes like that from time to time. Now as for the matter at hand, Yosei had informed Kizmaru that the muscle was here to do the job.

Kizmaru had sighed before thinking to himself, 'It's time to go to work' partially standing up before suddenly sensing a familiar chakra signature. It seems as if a familiar subordinate was present on the scene which made Kizmaru wonder if she was doing the same mission he was doing. Listening closely, he could hear a kind of ruckus beginning to stir and a bit of a scuffle had been taking place. As far as he knew, they weren't anywhere near the owner since the owner was just upstairs, holed up in their rooms waiting for it to be safe to come out or something. Giving a small shrug, he lowered himself back into the bath and began to lower his companion in the large tub. "I feel everything has been taken care of. You can rest easy, Yosei. Come join us in the water, it's a little hot but at least you can get used to it quickly." Chuckling a bit, Kizmaru began to crawl through the waters of the tub over to a little bar where there were refrigerated drinks right above the tub along with some cups. He poured himself a fruity, non-alcoholic drink and offered his guest some. He then offered Ram a piece of fruit that came with said drink to which Ram began to nibble on while floating on his back.

An hour or so had passed and Kizmaru decided it was time to stop relaxing and do his job of confirming what he thinks might have happened. Kizmaru stepped out of the large bath, wrapping a towel around himself and using another one to dry himself. He didn't really waste time putting on any clothes and stepped out into the hallway in order to confirm his suspicions. And sure enough, there she was, in all the bloody glory, Momochi had taken down some would be thugs that would have attempted to take the life of the owner of the bathhouse. Well, regardless of how it was done, the job was a job. Without saying a word, he turned around to go back to his private bath with a smirk. Of course, he might have to explain to the owner that his brother was potentially dead but he got to keep his business and that's all that mattered.

[Exit.]

W.C: 582
T.W.C: 1361 [x2 Event 1688*2 = 3,376 + 582 = 3,938]

Loot Claims
Claiming 3,000 [x2 Event = 6,000] Ryo and 7 AP.

Stat Claims
Claiming 78 AP.

Ability Claims
Using 1,000 to learn Sharingan Genjutsu
Using 2,500 to master no hand sign Earth Wall