Repentance and Justice (hunter)

So now it was time to hunt down a traitor within their ranks then. Madrigal was assigned to team up with two individuals and to meet them in the training grounds. It was believed the traitor would be leaving the village soon after killing their comrade for reasons unbeknownst to them. The Kaguya stood at 6’5 with a well muscled form. His tattoo stood out obviously given his choice of wearing a black muscle shirt. It was a depiction of a bird of prey, intricate in detail with the body and a wing taking up the entirety of his back, another wing moving down his right arm, and the neck and head of the avian wrapping around his left arm. The beak of the creature settled just over where Madrigal’s heart would be. His long black hair was kept in a messy ponytail and his amber eyes took in his surroundings casually and carefully as he stepped onto the training grounds. He was clad in the previously mentioned muscle shirt, black shinobi combat pants and boots. His belt pouch held his five kunai and that was all and that was all he really had at the moment. That did not really bother him however. The training ground had bushes and trees abound although the tree’s weren't particularly thick. Anything moving through their branches would displace the branch, causing leaves to rustle. A nearby pond, which Madrigal knew from experience training here, was about 3 meters deep and stretched out to be a 20 meter diameter at its widest edges.

The field's total area was 100m to work with which made it quite a respectable field indeed. From what he could gather, the traitor was getting ready to leave the village and was currently using the training grounds to hide out in. This was the likely area they were to be in at the moment and the trees and brush, as well as the water and the earth itself made for decent hiding places if one was quiet and very still. The air was quiet and still without a breeze to be found and the tall genin moved over toward the two individuals who he was supposed to work with. One was meditating, his eyes closed and calmly finding his inner peace or something. The other was standing nearby, clad in full armor and decked out in weapons. He would nod toward the man quietly, but not say a word. If the traitor was nearby then it was entirely possible that they couldn’t hear them. After all, how did one hear a conversation from beneath the earth itself? Or underwater? If they hid in the brush and trees it was possible to hear them but only if they were close enough. Madrigal would rather ere on the side of caution when dealing with someone who had already killed one comrade. The choice of them using a training ground to hide out in was useful to them as it meant people weren’t generally around at all hours of the day and it provided ample cover to hide out in until a guard rotation could potentially provide the escape opportunity they sought. However it was also a down side since that same decision had deprived them of innocents to utilize as collateral. For the most part any shinobi should be able to more or less go full bore here in the training grounds and that meant they would be cautious and maybe even a little desperate.

As such, Madrigal kept his senses open. He could not sense chakra like many other shinobi, at least not yet. However he very well could listen and see well and if there was anything that might give someone trying to hide away then it was the sound they would make and the sight of them displacing terrain in their passage. He scanned the area carefully, watching the brush, the trees, the water, and even the earth for displacement that would allow him to see or hear what was coming. He wasn’t as experienced as many other shinobi and that meant he had to be extra careful of what he did and how. He stood five meters from the meditating shinobi, on the other side of him from the armor clad man. It meant he was well clear of the weapon toting shinobi’s sword arm, no matter which one it was and if either needed to use a jutsu by him, well, Madrigal was a fairly quick man when he needed to be. The morning sun was bright and cheery and big fluffy clouds hung out in the sky, every once in a while shading the world from the light of the sun as they moved about their day, slowly puffing around as clouds did. Madrigal flexed his knuckles in preparation. He was as ready as he could be at the moment for what was coming and he kept a wary eye and ear out for any potential threats as his comrade meditated and the other watched as well.

WC: 841

OOC: Hello all, I will be npcing for you. Also Madrigal, I assume for the area of the training grounds, you meant a 100m diameter, as a 100m area would be a 10 x 10, which is a comparable size to some living rooms. 

Marato was currently sweating, but taking long, quiet, and even breaths. He was not quite trained enough to be able to blend in with his surroundings perfectly like he knew that some other ninjas could, but he was still fairly quiet. Marato had been hiding out in this arena type place that was a part of the training grounds for about an hour now, and soon a small group of shinobi came over. Marato was greatly worried about the first person, as they simply had a dangerous aura about them that Marato did not like at all. Luckily, the creepy guy just sort of sat there and started meditating. Soon, two other ninjas entered the field and met up with the creepy one, apparently that was their leader. They did not talk much, and it seemed that they were getting ready in case the vigilante, which was himself, was going to ambush them. Marato definitely was not going to do that, as there were three of them, and one of them looked especially dangerous. Besides, he was just a fairly skilled genin... well ex-genin, so he did not have the skills or the know how to take on a group of enemies by himself. Shit! Shit! Shit! Marato thought as he was sitting there controlling his breathing in a fairly large brush area hugging the east wall of the training area. It seemed like the ninjas were setting up in the center of the field, an obvious choice to be able to survey the surrounding area, and the only advantage that Marato had was that they were fairly far away from him. About ten meters to Marato's left was a fairly large archway that was one of the entrances or exits of the arena, one at each cardinal direction. 

Marato did not regret his actions, the bastard that he killed needed to die for what he had done, but he knew that he would not get let off with a slap on the wrist for this one, he was most likely dead. He was going to try his hardest to live, however, as most people would do. The ninjas had just met up with each other, so Marato figured that now was the best time to try and book it out of here, as they were just getting settled and most likely talking strategy or where Marato was last seen, something along those lines. It looked like they did not know where he was at the moment, so he quickly held up the ram hand seal, waiting for a couple of seconds, before he grit his teeth and activated Body Flicker, the destination he was choosing was a straight line eleven meters to his left, which would put him right in front of the exit of the arena. He did not want to tangle with these people anyway, let alone in a place that was actually easy to traverse and fight like an arena for training. The ninja would probably notice him by now, as he had suddenly been out in the open, but he was blazingly fast at this point, and so he stopped right at his destination. 

He then immediately started sprinting out of the five meter tall archway that led out of the arena, and as soon as he got a couple of steps passed the exit, which was only one meter, he performed a single hand seal, which was the Hare seal, and a large column of the stone flooring in front of the exit, suddenly jutted up, as he used Moving Earth Core to target a thirty meter by thirty meter area in front of the archway(the side the enemy ninja were on), which fairly quickly rose up to ten meters, covering the three meter tall archway and then some. He did not think this would stall them for long, but it would buy him precious moments as he sprinted down the hallway towards a bend in the hallway that went north, the hallway being about twenty meters of travel from Marato to the exit. There was another bend in the hallway, going south, that was the same length but led to a reception area before an exit was available Running through the streets with other people and using the various buildings for cover should make it so Marato could make it towards the village gates.
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WC: 731

NPC Stats:

AP, Jutsu, and Maths:

The moment Stein opened his eyes , his red iris's with the black Tomoe that shaped a pattern unique to himself, looking like stitches. The Eternal mangekyou Sharingan Showed Stein the movement leaving the bushes right when the young genin left. With Stein immediately Shooting up into a run, And bringing his hands together for the ram sign, Activating his own body flicker technique which made him just a bit faster then the genin. With them both having the same distance to the entrance. So By the time the Kid stopped just in front of the entrance, Stein himself had already been right there, just before the genin. Stein Was Standing in the Archway Preventing the escape. This was what Stein was Meditating for. his Aura suddenly flaring and becoming visable, As his scolera went black and markings spread across his face making him looked even more stitched than before. He tapped into his Sage powers and instantly the wood human technique which he had mastered would raise from the ground a meter behind the man. With the wood humans Arms outstretched to the walls. A Dragon wrapped around either shoulder would raise off and shoot to wrap around the boy, Pinning him in place, and each would Look towards the boy with mouths wide open. Immediately branches shot from their mouths using the Cutting techinque which Stein also had mastered.

Each Branch being about a meter wide, and five meters long, doubled due to being used by the dragons. Shooting down and across the shoulders and coming out towards the top of the hips. While Just In case, Stein activated His black threads technique to shoot threads out in each direction to block off the Archway, and more threads to fire forwards and around the sides in an attempt to completely cut off any conventional escape route. Stein was looking to end this quick and without talking. He knew that this was a simple test for him to prove his loyalty to the village. But he felt this was a little over kill in his opinion, he just hoped that the boy would die a quick death if he was to die at this time.

Fight stuff:

Given that Madrigal was actively searching for the target it would be no surprise to anyone when he spotted the target the moment he made his move. He was moving fast, very fast. The man that was meditating next to them though was already moving, and by Madrigal’s reckoning he was moving a bit faster. However he had a great deal more distance to cover then the target did to the exit. Madrigal frowned as he too began to run, only his speed was much lower, as he was not utilizing body flicker to do it. He couldn’t as he did not know the jutsu. However Stein was moving like a bolt of lightning to catch the man. The genin would reach the gate first, a one meter thick, three meter wide, and five meter tall archway that actually extended above the surrounding wall of the open sky arena. Given that it was a training ground and not a spectator battle location it would be no surprise to anyone that the ‘arena’ was simply an area that had a three meter tall wall around it, separating it off. The hallways outside of each of the doors was an open space concept that was ten meters wide and had no ceiling or roof. Leaving them open air as well. The reception area previously mentioned was a set up sign in station with a canopy to protect those working the counter from the rain and provide shade from the sun when necessary but it was really only there for check in and sign in. That was how they had known he would be in this area. One of the patrols had spotted someone sneaking around in the training area, chalked it up to someone training stealth, and moved on. Yet they still reported it, which tipped off the front desk clerk that someone had snuck in for some reason.

Regardless, the entire stretch of hallway to the reception area, down both forty meter long hallways was completely open to the sky. Not only that but the archway was five meters tall to make the gates aesthetically larger than its surrounding walls. Which only served as an area to cordon off the training grounds. Stein had fifty meters to cover before reaching the gate whereas the target only had ten. That was fortunate for the kid as it meant that he could get there first and did so. Reaching the gate while Stein was about thirty seven meters away. However then the kid turned and ran out of the gate. An obvious turn of events if any. The gate itself was one meter thick and so he moved through it fairly quickly at a much slower speed. When he reached the other side he moved his hands from his side, where they would be after performing Body Flicker, and form another hand seal, that Madrigal could not see since his body would be blocking his view. In the time it took for him to turn, run out of the gate, and form that seal, Stein would cover at least another seven meters, putting him thirty meters from the gates when the ground beneath Stein’s feet began to rise as the ground did. The moving column of earth taking Stein up with it up to ten meters. This allowed him to continue his body flicker unimpeded since he could still move in a straight line, an outside force simply moved him as he traveled.

That meant that Stein would drop five meters at the end of the flicker, as he would end it where the archway was, as he had previously targeted. The downside to that was that he probably did not have the space to perform the jutsu he tried to use. The upside to that was that he was now standing at the top of what was effectively a shooting gallery, with only one target. As this all occurred, Marato, now moving at purely physical speed and not aided by that of body flicker, would only be ten meters down the forty meter long and ten meter wide hallway. This was in accordance with Stein traveling over three times his speed with his body flicker and now being atop the archway behind him. Madrigal himself would be running toward the situation before Tsunayoshi even spoke, his body increasing in speed severely as he activated his first gate as his first step hit the ground. He would be weary later, but ensuring the target did not move into the crowded streets was important. However Madrigal did not run for the gate and the conflict occurring there, no, there was no point in that. He ran at his best possible speed to the wall and leapt it. This would not put him in the same corridor as their target. No, the column of earth had blocked the ability to jump over the wall and into the same one unless he wanted to hop over the adjacent wall too.

That was not Madrigal’s plan either. The tall genin would run, keeping out of Stein’s line of fire, as he ran to the wall that led to the second hallway. It was the same height as the wall around the arena, all of the walls were, with the exception of the archway itself and the final outer wall that led to the public. That wall was ten meters tall. Once he was at the wall in the second hallway he would hop it too, putting himself three quarters of the way down the second forty meter long, ten meter wide hallway. There he would move to the exact middle of the ten meter wide space, and not moving any closer to either end of the hall. He had moved slower than their target had initially, however at the moment he was much faster than the target was. The target was also running down the hallways while Madrigal cut across the total distance, effectively splitting the difference and putting him in between the target and the exit. If the target made it out of the effective shooting gallery, he would turn the corner to find himself face to face with Madrigal, only with a thirty meter distance between them. Behind Madrigal would be the reception area he had previously mentioned, with the desk clerks looking on in curiosity as Madrigal moved into position to block the exit. As he did he would shoo them to the side, and  out of the area that the archway faced. Prompting them to get out of any possible line of fire. The archways had no doors, so he could not seal the exit. When he shooed the reception clerks, he would not take his eyes off the other end of the hallway, and he would keep his eyes and ears open for the target so that he could act as quickly as he needed to.

WC: 1,147
TWC: 1,988

370 starting AP
-40 AP Eight Inner Gates (First Gate)
330 AP Remaining
Speed = 125
Strength = 150
+1 Damage Marker
1 Damage Marker Total.

Marato had succeeded in getting into the archway before the creepy ninja could grab him, but he kept glancing back every second or so, just to make sure, because the ninjas could have any number of movement skills available to them currently, so he was still sure to be on his guard. As he was running through the hallway and looked back, he noticed the creepy ninja about five meters above him suddenly, on top of the archway. It seemed like he used a movement ability like Marato dreaded, and the earth core only managed to lift him up in the air, so the movement ability must have been fast, which was still bad news to Marato. Thinking quickly because he thought for sure he was going to die, so the fight or flight response kicked in quite heavily, Murato thought of something as Stein had just completed his body flicker. Marato started forming hand seals quickly with one hand while grabbing a smoke bomb and dropping it with the othe. At the exact same time, he used a jutsu with no hand seals on Stein, targeting Stein's left foot. Stein was still in a standing position when he was suddenly on top of the arch, so Marato utilized Mass Shift to send Stein's foot up towards the sky, and forty five degrees to the north, the way Stein was currently facing. This sudden change in his orientation would put his body facing straight up, unless of course the man had some sort of in air mobility, but it would still buy him a few precious moments to complete his hand seals, and hide an action from the man.

Marato had finished his three hand seals as the smoke was expanding around him and then used the clone seal, forming two shadow clones of himself. The clones would form one meter behind and in front of him, respectfully. The clone behind him immediately used the Cutting technique, which was also no hand seals, as soon as it poofed into existence towards Stein and the arch. Two of the three spikes made from Cutting targeted the general area Stein was in, and the third one was formed in the clone's left hand, and he started sprinting down the hallway, grabbing onto the original as he was running. The original quickly grabbed the clone's right hand once they touched each other in the smoke, and with the other hand forming a single hand seal, dog. He would then suddenly look exactly like the branch spike in the clone's left hand, but he was in the clone's right hand, as the clone was getting ready to throw him. The clone would then throw both of the projectiles towards Stein, the real one aiming at wherever Stein was before the smoke bomb happened, and the real Marato would be thrown through the smoke about a meter away from Stein's left, soaring over him and landing on the Earth Core that was made previously.

While those actions were going on, the second clone in front would be sprinting as if his life depended on it down the hallway, heading in the original direction that he had planned. If he got to the end of the hall, the clone would come face to face with Madrigal, and attempt to quickly pull out and throw his explosive tags towards the walls on either side of him and then detonate them. If it looked like Madrigal was too fast for him, he would simply detonate the explosive tags on him, attempting to wait until Madrigal was about to touch him to do so.

OOC:

Jutsu, AP, and Maths:

Stein was suddenly atop the archway, The raising wall behind him had made it so when he ran across the top of it when it began to raise. Now he was above the boy and he watched as each had of the boys did a seperate action. Meanwhile Stein felt a tug on his foot, this was odd so instead of allowing himself to be tripped by this, Stein would make the Threads that held that particular foot on release. so while the toes of that foot was suddenly altered by ninety degrees, a Smoke bomb dropped from the boys hand, blinding himself, but Stein could still see into the smoke, and within that very Instant Stein's Sage mode flared, and black threads shot out from Stein's body, Being like a set of tentacles on a man who created robot arms. The Threads aimed for something very specific the Heart of the boy. With Their increadible speed and small size of each thread, it would be unlikely to Disturb the smoke, so the boy was unlikely to see the Threads till it was too late, Two of which went to a foot each, to pin the boy down, another two went for his Brain, and his heart, another two went for the boys hands to lock them away from each other, while another four followed the same trajectory as the ones for the feet, Heart and head, but higher placed, calculating for the boy to step back the moment he could see any of them. The final Five had wrapped around the smokes outer layer to cut off a possible retreat before firing inside of the smoke for an attack from behind.

If this was to be successful the boy would no longer be alive and his following actions would all be dispersed before they could even come to fruition. No time had been bought for the boy, the smoke had little time to expand. The clones would disappear as soon as they were made, which would create more smoke, the moment any threads pierced them, the boy was likely a pincushion before he knew it. Lets break it down, The moment the boy tripped Stein , and dropped the smoke bomb, he did not know that Stein was still standing, let alone able to see the boy had not moved location and immediately fired his threads which was bolstered by his Sage mode activating Simultanously. With a distance of only, six meters total to travel, the clone in front May be summoned and fire off its cutting technique, however since the boy was only a meter out from the Archway himself The clone was summoned under the archway and as such The cutting technique would hit the bottom of the Archway, leaving Stein unaffected, in the time for the cutting to travel, since the boys clone threw it and not fired it off directly, The threads would reach their mark. The Clone behind him would get riddled with Threads from the five that wrapped around, causing the explosive tags to go off Harmlessly at that point. And at time of death, the clone stuck under the archway would vanish.

Thread Stats 240 Speed, Power, Sharpness