Wayward Wood

A Disgruntled Few:

"There's no time for sleep, friend."

The voice came to Yasahiro in a dream, or at least he thought it a dream. Consumed by darkness, the exile's vision revealed nothing save for the fickle tricks one's eyes play on them in the absence of light. Ephemeral figures dancing at the edges of his gaze, phantom footsteps that tapped this way and that only to silence themselves as he squinted to find their source, and a childlike laugh that, much like the voice, had no source—yes, it had to be a dream of some kind.

"Come on sleepyhead", the voice heckled, sounding as if it were coming from inside Yasahiro's own head. "I have a job for you."

Whipping his head around in a vain attempt to catch the melodic voice's owner, Yasahiro was met with more darkness. He did, however, catch a strange scent that caused his nose to wrinkle and head swim. It was an overwhelming scent which, at first blush, smelled like a freshly felled evergreen tree that, the longer he contemplated it, evolved into a strange amalgam of pine and pastries, not unlike the ones his mother used to bake this time of year a lifetime ago.

"BOO!"

In a heartbeat, the inky blackness pulled away from his vision to reveal a boreal forest blanketed in a fine veneer of pristine snow. This was certainly not the bug-filled swamp he fell asleep in, but where was it then exactly, and how had he gotten here? Was it all still a dream? The lonesome hoot of an owl somewhere in the distance punctuated the snow-padded silence that otherwise reigned across the night-clad landscape. No, it felt far too real to be a dream. After all, he had never felt this cold in a dream before—his black tattered kosode and hakama did not quite cut it in whatever strange dreamscape he now found himself in.

"Where am I—"the exile began, snow crunching beneath his feet as he turned about on the spot.

"No, no, no," the still sourceless voice chided. "Now isn't the time or place for such silly questions. Like I said before, I have a job for you. It's really quite easy, a person of your...talents shouldn't have much of an issue completing it—"

"Who—" Yasahiro tried to speak once more only to find his voice no longer cooperating after the first word.

"Please, it's rude to interrupt. You'll be joined by another shortly, I trust you two will be fast friends. Once they arrive you will go five hundred paces to the North where you will find a workshop with a set of tracks leading away from it. Follow these tracks and retrieve the goods from the owners of those tracks, simplicity itself."

A brief pause as the wind blew swirls of snow from the trees above and down onto the exile shock of unruly, black hair.

"Well, I'll be going; I have much to prepare for. Complete this task and you will be rewarded, best of luck, friend!"

Whatever force once held back Yasahiro's voice loosened and disappeared along with the scent of pine and pastries, he was alone once more. Pulling his clothes around him more tightly, he remained rooted to the spot. Someone was meant to be joining him? Typically, such words would have worried the fugitive, but something about the voice from before calmed whatever fears he might have had. It was as if it had been the voice of a long lost friend, someone he once knew well in his childhood only to have drifted away from them more and more as the years passed and he became older. Maybe, just maybe, if he played along he might very well learn who or what that voice reminded him of, time would tell.

For now, he would wait, shivering slightly in the winter wonderland around him.
---
TWC: 656

Snoring in blissful harmony, as he laid against a rock overshadowed by shade just outside the sand village. It was such a bustling place that Raian didnt really like staying confined within the village walls all day, not exactly a people person after all. Thus he would find elsewhere for his, meditation, as he would call it. Meditation that really just amounted to him finding some shade and going to sleep. As his snoring grew in intensity it was suddenly silence by something large and.. cold.. landing on top of Raians head. This caused him to spring suddenly awake and immediately throw as strong a punch as he could muster on his dazed state directly forward. The reaction of being startled to wake had caused Raian to strike a small tree, the tree fell over from his accidentally unrestrained strength. He stirred himself awake the rest of the way and finally had a chance to look around. Snow, in every direction, confirmed what he has already guessed.

"Oh no... Ooooooh no. We are not doing this again old man." Raian hollered into the wind, the sight of such would have made any onlookers question Raians mental stability if they were present. However, a voice did reply to him. "Silence Raian, I don't want to hear any complaining this time. Your task is simple and youll have help this time. Just go west until you exit the tree line onto a small trail and follow the tracks in the snow they will lead you to your companion and your destination." The unknown voice boomed on the distance.

Raian sighed before waving into the wind, "Yeah yeah I'm going I'm going." Raian said as he defiantly began to follow the voices directions first existing the tree line and then heading in the directions of the tracks he found along the trail. After what was only a few moments of travel Raian finally came across another person, and even from a far he could tell they were someone different than your average person much like Raian himself. For one the man was quite large, almost as large as Raian himself with hurt black covering his body from head to toe, his hair and all. "Interesting." Raian though as he approached the man slowly as to not startle him. Once within a few meters he let out a "Yo" before introducing himself.

"So.. dragged you along for the ride too huh? Oh well, names Raian." Raian stated thrusting a hand forward for a shake and letting a smile filled with sharpened teeth show through.

[Nature Energy Stacks 0 -> 1]
[WC: 433]

The fresh snow did not lend itself naturally to stealth; Yasahiro heard his new companion before he saw them. The crunch of new-fallen snow underfoot was not an alien sound to the Land of Iron native and one that he recognized in an instant. The sound itself, despite half expecting it given the disembodied voice's instructions, sent a warm rush of adrenaline through the exile's veins. The past couple of months on the road had long since conditioned his body to expect the worst and it had served him well in more than a few situations, but it was quite unnecessary on this particular evening as the approaching figure made no attempts to mask their presence and even went so far as to announce his arrival.

"It would seem that way," he confirmed the man's question with a nod before returning the courtesy of an introduction. "Call me Yasahiro."

He paused, gave a half nod to the north, and then began moving at a slow pace in that direction, hopefully with his new acquaintance in tow.

"The job itself seems pretty straightforward," he said, each breath turning into a cloud as it left his mouth. "There should be a building of some sort up to the north, from there our mutual employer needs a group of ne'er-do-wells tracked down and dealt with. With the recent snowfall tracking them shouldn't be much of a chore, though we may want to take precautions ourselves or we'll be alerting the whole forest to our movements.

The sound of crunching snow disappeared from beneath the samurai's feet as he activated the water walking technique. Where once one would have likely heard him from a good 100 meters away, they would now be hard-pressed to detect his movements until it was too late.

"So," the exile spoke slowly, picking each word carefully. "How do you propose we deal with these thieves once we find them?"

Casting a sidelong glance at his new companion, Yasahiro hoped to get a better look at, and better understand, who he would be working with for the foreseeable future. As far as initial impressions go, Raian appeared to be more than a bit intimidating; where Yasahiro was tall and slim, Raian was tall and bulky. The man did not appear to be anyone that the samurai wanted to wrangle with at close range. That said, appearances could often be deceiving, the man's proposed approach to taking on the thieves would reveal his true character.

In the distance, the warm glow of the Hollykage's workshop lit up the fresh snow; the pair was getting close to the scene of the crime. It would soon be time to get to work for real.
---
TWC: 1112
-5 ap for Surface Walking

"It would seem that way." The man would reply, he didn't sound too enthusiastic about the mission they had been given to undertake. That was to be expected though, from his past dealings with these sort of things they did always turn out to be menial and quite uninteresting. Still they had a job to do and that was that. The man would then go on to indroduce himself as Yasahiro, Raian took head to remember it, at least for the length of the mission anyway. Yasahiro then gave a slight nod and began to travel towards their destination, Raian followed behind keeping pace with the man.

The man would go on to say that the job itself seemed pretty straight forward to him, before he continued however Raian would mutter under his breath, "Always is.". He then began to describe how they would undertake their mission, speaking of the building, the targets and how they would go about hunting their prey. "Quite a methodical one aren't you?" Raian thought to himself as he simply nodded in response to his partner.

The man had apparently focused his chakra to his feet to produce a sort of barrier between him and the snow as when he walked thereafter he made no tracks. Raian copied his little maneuver and did the same to conceal his movements as well. As they traveled along the man then asked him how Raian had planned to deal with the thrives once caught, to which Raian smiled a very evil looking smile. "Well normally, I'd just start cracking skulls til there was no one left. But my normal methods tend to get.. bloody.. so I suppose we'll stick to non-lethal for this one. Though it's quite a shame."

As Raian spoke the bloodlust in his voice was most likely very clear and very real. It had been a long time since he has has the opportunity to rip something or someone to shreds. The tedious boredom of the sand village was ecrutiating. Forcing to be on his best behavior at all times thus he face off against that monster he met at the gates, still though his upcoming battle with Aiokadanza was something to look forward to at least.

[Nature Energy Stacks 1 -> 2]
[WC: 374]
[TWC: 807]

jutsu used:

Yasahiro's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the man's preferred approach to the task at hand. Wanton bloodlust had no place in combat; it blurred the mind and dulled the senses to the smaller details that could mean the difference between life and death. No, the exile much preferred a more pragmatic approach to combat and, indeed, life in general. In fact, in his mind, combat was something to be avoided if at all possible. So, suffice to say that he found himself rather relieved when his companion elected to take a less-lethal path on this particular mission.

"Yes, quite the shame," he agreed, the samurai's tone not betraying his thoughts to the contrary. "It will probably be for the best, however. I suspect our employer will have questions for this group, and in my experience speaking to the dead is, well, difficult to say the least."

The forest soon opened up around the pair into a large clearing. In the center stood a building of questionable architectural integrity. Multiple chimmnies stuck out of the roof at odd angles belching out a rainbow of different colored smoke into the sky and the windows, from which a warm glow emanated, were cobbled around the building in impossible shapes and strange configurations. Frankly, the place looked like a chaotic mess and yet retained a certain childlike charm—once more the exile found himself reminded of a far simpler time when one could spend countless hours playing around with building blocks. His childhood felt ages away, but the sight of the eclectic building brought such gentle memories back as if they had happened yesterday.

"Hmm, I suppose this is the place," he glanced over at Raian. "Perhaps we split up and search the perimeter to start?"

He gestured over to the left.

"You take that side, and I'll take the other," Yasahiro said, his gaze already cheating over to the right. "We'll meet back up on the opposite side; keep your eyes open and holler if you run into trouble."

Without another word, the exile began his route hugging close to the building and maintaining his surface walking all the while so as to continue to conceal his movements. There had to be something that the pair could use to point them in the right direction, so he kept a careful eye on the snow around the building. A large amount of freshly trampled snow would be indicative of their target; they were moving a large load, stealth probably wasn't much of an option for them which worked in the pair's favor. All they would need was a direction and then the chase would be on—with any luck the thieves wouldn't even see them coming and they could tie up any loose ends relatively quickly.

Unfortunately, however, Yasahiro's route did not reveal anything of note. He saw a few animal prints, but they meandered this way and that no doubt attracted to the strange structure and the warmth it provided. Rounding the corner of the complex on the opposite side from where he started, he came to a stop and waited—hopefully Raian had better luck than him or they would need to rethink their strategy and fast.
---
TWC: 1653
-5 ap for Surface Walking

The devil and the samurai had traveled for a little while before the trees broke way into a clearing. At the center of the clearing was a strange building, it's architecture foreign even to Raian whom had traveled to many different places over the course of his life. To some, such a cute little lodge would provide thoughts of warmth, and childlike happiness. Raian had none of that running through his mind however as his childhood had been anything but "happy". A few moments later his partner would comment that this looked like their destination and that they should split up. Not a bad move considering it powers their chances of being seen whole increasing the amount of ground covered. "Sounds good to me, I'll meet ya around the other side." Raian would say with a nod before going the direction the samurai had instructed. He wasn't normally one for listening to others so blindly but this guy seemed like he knew what he was doing at least, calm and tactically sound.

As Raian crept around the side of the building he couldn't help but think to himself, "holler if I run into trouble he says. Does he take me for a child, look at me I'm the on you holler if you run into not the other way around. Oh lord of all that is holy please let one of these thieves attack me.. please.." Raian had been so lost in thought that he had nearly glanced over an important detail. A shattered window, the glimmer from one of the shards of glass in the snow catching his eye. Dropping low to the ground he made his way towards the window, chakra still muffling the sound of the snow beneath his feet.

Peering inside from the corner of the window he initially noticed a ransacked room, but no signs of any life were inside at the moment from what Raian could tell upon first viewing. "Well guess that explains how they got inside." He thought to himself as he slowly crept the rest of the way around the building meeting up with the samurai on the other side. As he walked towards the samurai, he shrugged his shoulders and pointed with his thumb back towards the direction of the window. "Well didn't find any thieves but figured out how they got inside, broken window, not very classy or subtly if you ask me. Still I didn't hear anything inside, so in my opinion that either means they know we are here and they are being quiet about it or they already got whatever they wanted out of this building. Still, the broken glass was still right beneath the window, with the heavy snow storms in this area to cause this thick of a blanket on the ground they couldn't have gotten far before that glass would have been either swept away or covered." Raian said, his own tactical mind showing through.

[Nature Energy stacks 2->3]
[WC: 494]
[TWC: 1301]

jutsu used:

"That makes sense to me," Yasahiro said, affirming his companion's conclusions. "If I were pulling a heist, however, I wouldn't stick around to see who showed up; I'd get a move on as quickly as possible, no sense in waiting around to get caught."

The samurai paused as a gust of wind raked its fangs across the land and through his relatively thin attire. In the distance, snow fell from the trees as readily as it once did from the sky. One could say many things about the two Yagami cousin's choice of swamp-bound hideout, but at least it wasn't cold—this snow was getting intolerable without the right clothing.

"Let's take a closer look at the area around that broken window," he continued, shrugging off the instinct to shiver uncontrollably. "I suspect we'll find what we're looking for there."

Not waiting for a response, Yasahiro made his way to the far side of the building that Raian had come from. Just as his companion had done, he stooped low to the ground looking for anything that may serve as a lead. Along with the shattered glass and gaping hole in the window, there was some torn fabric on the sill. Of course, it wasn't much to go on and didn't really help at the moment beyond giving a single insight to their quarry: they were careless or in hurry, probably both.

Then there were the footprints, a whole mess of them of varying sizes. From what the exile could tell, not counting his tracks or Raian's, there were about eight people moving through this particular area relatively recently. Untangling the direction of footprints, however, proved a bit more difficult because they overlapped and seemed to go every which way. Perhaps trying to unravel the trail so close to the window was a fool's errand; he took a step back and traced the prints to where they disappeared into the snow-laden wilderness that encircled the building going in both directions—the thieves were already in the wind, they had to hurry.

"Raian," he called out already disappearing back into the forest in pursuit of his prey. "They went this way, eight of them."

The next few minutes were a blur of movement and occasional backtracking as the samurai followed the tracks through the woods. The prints seemed to indicate that as the group of thieves got further away from the building their pace fell. Perhaps they thought that they had made it out without issue and could take a break in peace? Whatever the reason it was a fatal mistake that would cost them their freedom and allowed Yasahiro to catch up with them, hopefully with Raian hot on his tail.

The woods opened up into another clearing to reveal the resting bandits. At the center of the clearing stood one of the largest sleighs the samurai had ever seen. It seemed to float above the snow with ease, which explained why he hadn't seen its tracks in the snow too. Regardless, the thieves had not yet recognized their mistake so the man took refugee behind one of the larger trees that ringed the clearing. He would have to wait for Raian to catch up; no matter how skilled he was taking down eight people non-lethally was not something he intended to do alone—his companion could take the lead from here.

They were so close.
---
TWC: 2223
-5 ap for Surface Walking
Total ap: 485

"Hmm.. I see your point. They are probably gone by now but still. Windows fresh couldn't have gotten far." Raian said on response to his samurai partner. He followed his partner around the edge of the building back to the broken window he had seen before. It was still dark and motionless inside, further affirming to the idea that the perps had already made their getaway. Looking back and towards some trees following his partners eyes, Raian noticed some footprints he had missed last time. They were numerous, yet small, and it was no wonder Raian had easily missed them once his attention had been focused on the broken window.

Raian allowed his partner to do a bit of investigating, he seemed to be more adept at tracking than Raian himself was. Not surprising, Raian had never really focused on tracking skills, he had just enough to successfully hunt for his own food should he ever need to but most of his skills were centered around combat instead. "Raian they went this way. Eight of them." His samurai companion would call out to him. Raian followed behind the samurai, still upholding the chakra focused to his feet to counteract the sounds of trampled snow. They moved forward, and backtracked then forward again, following the footprints until they began to slow. Perhaps their little criminals had gotten tired. Raian rushed forward attempting to keep pace with his samurai friend

Finally, the trees opened to a rather large clearing and at it's center was.. a floating sled? Well that explains why they saw no tracks from the sleigh itself. Still though, that was not something Raian had ever imagined he'd find out here in the middle of nowhere, and being stolen no less. Raian took cover behind a tree a few meters away from where his companion had some the same. They were close enough where Raian could whisper to him and the perps shouldn't be able to hear them just yet. "Alright, there's eight of them but this is what I'm made for so, here's what I'm thinking. I'll shower then with Chidori Senbon, I can hit all of them with that one jutsu, then it's as simple as moving in while they recover and giving them a good ole tap. That should be enough for them to take a nap." after Raian had whispered his plan he wasted no time in awaiting a response and quickly formed a succession of hand seals forming a ball of lightning in his hand. The sound of this jutsu would like that of a flock of a thousand birds and would definitely be heard by their captors but by the time they figured it out it would be too late as Raian quickly turned from the tree and scattered fifty needles of Lighting release chakra into the surrounding environment. Some were to hit their targets while others would miss, however the area covered would be massive.

[Nature energy stacks 3 -> 4]
[WC: 494]
[TWC: 1795]

jutsu used:

The miscreants were given little time to compose themselves, for in the wake of the shower of electric senbon Yasahiro fell upon their weakened ranks like a hot knife through butter. In a blur of movement, he moved from thief to thief incapacitating the ones that still stood after Raian's shocking onslaught. It was quick work and in a matter of moments, not a single one of the two hunter's prey remained conscious. Whatever goal the group of thieves had would never reach fruition. Now all that remained was to return the sleigh and figure out a way out of this strange snow-shrouded land. With any luck, the latter would not take all that much time, the cold was starting to get to the samurai.

Over the course of the next half an hour, he helped Raian to pile the thieves onto the strange floating sleigh. They then proceeded to ferry the strange vehicle back to the workshop they left previously. In doing this task, the exile remained silent preferring, as he so often did, to remain in his own head than in the company of others, especially one that so exuded bloodlust as his bulky companion seemed to.

"Well," the samurai said once both the thieves and the sleigh were secured within the workshop. "I suppose this is where we part ways, it's been a pleasure."

Without another word, Yasahiro returned to the frigid outdoors where the whole world began to spin as his sinuses filled with the scent of freshly hewn holly and something akin to warm cookies. Soon the white of the snowy landscape was wiped from his vision as consciousness slipped from his grasp and darkness closed in. In no time at all, he was asleep, and in a few hours, he would find himself waking back up in the swamp beside Asahi as if nothing had happened and, perhaps, it hadn't for all memory of it would fade in a matter of days.
---
Exit.

TWC: 2553/2500 for mission completion.
+ 65 ap (15 ap for S-rank mission completion | 50 ap from training)
+ 7000 ryo (holiday mission reward)
+ 1 Senju Wood (holiday mission reward)
+ 574 words towards B-rank Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique
+ 500 words towards learning and mastering Genjutsu Release
+ 500 words towards Storage Displacement
+ 979 words towards learning the Fuinjutsu specialty

Raians samurai companion easily cut through the theives like butter, his speed and ferocity were commendable as they both began an assault. After what was otherwise a quite easy battle, they began to pile the thieves in the center of the clearing. Raian had taken care just to hit most of them with a non lethal shot, after all this wasn't the kind of mission that really required him to kill anyone, as much as he wished he was able to. After finishing up piling up the little bandits, Raian and his samurai companion then began the task of returning the cargo back to where it belonged. Before doing so however, Raian had tied the bandits up with some wire just to make sure they didn't get any funny ideas about escape during the process of returning the sled.

"Well I suppose this is where we part ways, it's been a pleasure." Raians companion would say as they supposedly finished their task. Raian simply gave him a nod, not too big on friendship, and continued upon his way. As he traveled out in the snow he couldn't help but just feel irritated. The hollykage hadn't given him an actual challenging task yet and next time, he wasn't doing anything like this again unless it was really worth it.

[WC: 218]
[TWC: 2013]
[Exit | Mission Complete]

Claims:
- A-Rank jutsu ticket
- Senju Wood
- 10Ap (max stats)
- B-Rank Lariat (1125/1125) (25% max stat discount)
- Genjutsu Release (250/250)
- B-Rank Art of the lions maine (638/1500)