Stakeout! [Hunter]

Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:44 pm

Mission wrote:Mission Name: The Arsonist
Rank: D
Mission Location: Any village

Challenges: Hunter
Task: A string of buildings have been burnt down in town recently, and it is suspected that the fires are being set intentionally. Your task is to track down this arsonist and take care of them.

Word Count Requirement: --
Reward: 4,000 Ryo / 20 AP / D-Rank Bounty

Character Requirements: --
Character Exclusive: --

Week after week, the same story - another historical building in the village's heart, mysteriously razed to the ground. Only a small handful of neighborhoods have survived the transformation from Shimagakure, their legal protection negotiated by the clans. Afterwards, developers close in on the freed-up land in the heart of the village, eager to continue the project of building the gleaming new Kirigakure. It has come to a point where missions have been posted by the clans to keep an eye on certain properties.

Murata is one of several shinobi out tonight. Her charge is a small cluster of housing not far from the Itoshi estate - old buildings, their dense wooden architecture stark contrast to the gleam of tall buildings in the distance. Silently moving through an empty apartment, Murata forms the five seals to activate Hiding With Camouflage, rendering her invisible, and she steps through the open door out to the balcony. She leans on the railing, watching the twisting streets in the quiet of night, and they do not watch her in turn.

It is an environment where fire is easy to spark and spread quickly. Perhaps it really has been a string of accidents. There has been little direct evidence of foul play, only suspicious circumstances. Distant noise of the last bars letting out for the night reaches this street, the conversation of amicable drinkers and tired barkeeps. The night is clear and the moon is bright, bathing the streets in pale silver.

Calcs:

Stats:

Murata

Affiliation: Kirigakure
Title: Chuunin
Power Rank: C

Clan: --

Base Stat Total: 300
Health Bar: 300

Vigor: 50
Chakra: 100
Speed: 100
Strength: 50

Base AP: 500
Bonus AP: 260

Specialties: Space-Time [M], Weaponry, Sensory
Element(s): Lightning, Wind, Water

Appearance:

Techniques, Skills, & Arsenal

S [1/1]

Dustless Bewildering Cover [Slotless]
Ten Thousand Cold Nights [Slotless VE]
Vanish

A [10/10]

Sacred Spear
Mind's Eye of the Kagura
Psycho Mind Transmission
Space-Time Amplifier
Blood Tastes Like Iron
Sword Storm
Space-Time Art: Devouring Sphere
Rupture
Sensory Art: Distant Reflection
Ninshu: Songbird

B [15/15]

Temple Style: Bark
Block
Shadow Clone
False Darkness
Thunderclap Arrow
Hiding With Camouflage
Summon Shop Technique [Slotless Collab]
Verdant Mountain Gale
Wind Pressure Damage
Summoning Art: Instant Armoire
Space-Time Art: Mass Pull
Manipulated Tools: Binding Meteor
Hidden Mist Technique
River Cutter
Temple Style: Discovery of an Incomplete Truth
Psychic Weapon Manipulation

C

Bullseye
Mark Tracking [M, reduced handseals]
Gigavolt
Flying Swallow
Fuinjutsu Breaking
Summoning Technique [M, can summon in and out of combat situations]
Prepared Needle Shot
Water Cutting Sword

D

Body Flicker
Throat Chop
Temporary Paralysis
Storage Displacement
Chakra Flare
Spine Chill
Water Replacement
Basic Sealing Technique

E

Substitution Technique
Clone Technique
Tree Climbing/Surface Walking Technique
Transformation Technique [M]
Genjutsu Release [M, Reduced Handseals]
Mark Seal
Storm Veil

Skills [5/6]
Ninshū
Chakra Infusion
One-Handed Seals
Blacksmithing
Sensory Bloodhound

Slotless/Free Skills
Chakra Sensory [C-Rank]
Chakra Suppression [C-Rank]
Silent Killing [Village Exclusive]

Summons

Pact of the Mountain God

Tadasada [Contract holder, no combat role]
Kazane

Inventory

On Hand
Mountain Hare Armor
Salamander Kusarigama
Shinobi Headband [Kirigakure]
Chuunin Flak Vest
Samehada [Paired with Remora Scabbard]
2x Remora Scabbard
Fuma Shuriken
3x Military Rations Pills
5x Enhanced Soldier Pill
25x Legacy Kunai
20x Legacy Shuriken
3x Explosive Tag Ball
3x Basic Scroll
2x Corpse Storage Scroll
10m Bandages
Starting Ninja Bundle - 5 Shuriken, 5 Kunai, 2 smoke bombs, 2 explosive tags, and two weapon pouches.

At Home
1x High-Grade Steel
1x Mercury
1x Refined Jade
1x Chameleon Scales
2x Hemlock
Jutsu Encyclopedia
Kusarigama
High-Quality Kanabō
Crystal Singing Blade
Haven Poleaxe
Kirigakure R&D Modular Armor [Physical, Enhanced Storage, augmented with 2x Meteoric Iron]
The God of Shinobi
Echo's Ninja Handbook
How To Be A Ninja Vol. 2
Giant Beasts
The Future Divination

Kirigakure Naval Port
Snow Squall [Junk-Rigged Schooner]

Storage Displacement [0/30]

OOC Rewards
1x C-Rank Hunter Skip
2x B-Rank Hunter Skip
3x Travel Tickets
1x 50% Discount Coupon
1x Rank Retention Ticket
1x Get Out of Jail Free Card

Pay Stubs:

Misc:

Total Thread Wordcount: 27,681

Mission Log

My icon's art is by @ask07m on twitter!

Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:21 am

A well dressed man walked down the mostly empty streets of kirigakure with his head down and a cigarette in his mouth. He wore a red vest, with a white shirt underneath and a black coat covering him down below his knees. The only things that could be seen underneath it were the bottoms of his black pants and the top of his vest. Resting upon his head was a black hat with a black bandana that covered one of his eyes. This man was Hinote Meijin, though he never knew his last name. As he moved through the old section of the village he subtly shifted his striking purple eyes from left to right, both looking for anybody watching him and for the building he was supposed to burn down. He had been getting a lot of those contracts lately, though he wasn’t sure why. He knew why he was the one getting them however. Out of all the rookies, he was the most adept fire release user, and the higher-ups sure as hell weren’t going to be bothered with burning down some old buildings themselves. The real question was who wanted all of the buildings burnt down and why. Hinote wasn’t foolish enough to ask these questions when he received his contracts, but he still wondered.

“There’s a few possibilities as for who’s hiring the organization to burn all these buildings,” Hinote thought as he took a drag of his cigarette. “First is it could be someone who wants to develop the land for cheap. When they’re just buying a plot of burnt ground it’s a lot cheaper than buying it with the building then having to demolish the building. Not to mention people are a lot more likely to sell after a fire.”
Just in case someone was watching him, Hinote pulled off in front of a random building and watched it as he smoked. He looked at it for a few minutes before walking off again. The purpose of this was so when he went over to the house he actually had to burn, it would look a lot less suspicious if someone had been watching him the whole time. Crossing a street, Hinote’s thoughts returned to his question.
“Option two is that the leaders of the organization want these buildings destroyed for some reason.” The leaders were known to sometimes hire members of their own organization to do their dirty work, either for the organization or something personal. The operatives are never told who it is they’re working for unless it’s essentially for the task, so they don’t even know when it is they’re working for the leaders. But one way or another the information that it happens leaked it’s way through the ranks and it became common knowledge

Hinote stopped in front of a wood building once more, but this time walked over to the building and ran his hand along the smooth surface of the wood. After a minute, he moved on, a cloud of cigarette smoke trailing behind him. He was now nearing the address so he was onl extra high alert. He stopped once more before he got to the building, once again going all the way up to the base of the structure then returning to the street after a minute or two. Deciding that he had done this enough, Hinote walked the last stretch to the building without stopping.
When the smoking man reached the target building he subtly glanced around, checking for anybody watching. Seeing nobody on any of the balconies or around the area, Hinote walked over to the building, using his chakra sensory just in case. Murata was on the tenth and top floor of the apartment building, putting her 31 meters off of the ground. So even if she weren’t undetectable due to her hiding in camouflage, she was much out of Hinote’s five meter range.

When he reached the base of the building Hinote stopped and leaned up against it, taking several drags of his cigarette. When he deemed that the time was right he dropped the lit cigarette onto the grass in front of the building and tapped a new one out of his pack. Sticking it into his mouth, Hinote cupped one hand around the other, then ignited his pointer finger, lighting the new cigarette. First he took a step away from the building and turned to face it. Next, he took a draw of the cigarette, but when he exhaled, instead of a plume of smoke leaking from between his lips, a small stream of flames erupted from his mouth, traveling the distance to the building, then quickling growing in size until it was a large fireball, five meters in diameter as soon as it hit the wood.To any observer it would look like after Hinote tossed the lit cigarette on the ground, a stream of fire somehow escaped his lips, then the whole building started going up in flames. With any luck the onlooker would chalk the stream of fire up to a trick of the light or something similar and instead assume the lit cigarette caused the fire.

“Help, fire!” Hinote cried out as he dashed away from the building, where the flames were now spreading upwards and outwards at a speed equal to the power of his fireball. The first five meters of the bottom of the building was completely incinerated, with the fireball continuing to destroy more even without the fire spreading of its own accord. This caused the entire thing to be precarious. Additionally wherever the flames spread the wood was disintegrating, leaving nothing behind but ash. It wouldn’t be long before the building collapsed, causing anyone inside to be seriously hurt or even die due to the fall and fire. As soon as Hinote reached the street he turned back the way he came and continued to run, periodically glancing back to see how the fire was progressing and if he was being pursued.
[WC=1000]

stats:

jutsu/ap used:

Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:18 pm

Murata observes the black-clad smoker as they meander the street. The manner of dress is slightly odd for this part of the village, though not for Kirigakure as a whole. They do not appear to be carrying any kind of obvious fuel. What is the purpose of stopping in front of these buildings? Are they having difficulty finding a specific location, or simply enjoying the neighborhood in the dead of night?

The figure draws near, then stops to lean against the building.

Murata stealthily makes her way down to the balcony above the figure's head, allowing her camouflage to slip away before she enters the presumed five-meter range of an average opponent's sensory. Fully unnecessary if this is a simple resident, of course, but it pays to be cautious. On her way down (before she lets down her camouflage), she forms the seal of confrontation, activating Mind's Eye of the Kagura.

Utterly silent, she drops down two meters beside him, a shadow in the night save for the gleam of her Kirigakure-emblazoned faceplate. With the balcony obscuring her form from below, he will have the time she begins dropping from that three meter height to react to her appearance - assuming he is even looking that way, given there is nothing to betray her arrival. This takes place during the time Hinote is smoking at the side of the building, biding his time, before he has decided to step back and unleash his fireball.

"Good evening," she says to him. Her pleasant, if slightly sleepy voice given a slight low echo by her faceplate. It is convenient for her that they are within a shinobi village, where such a sudden appearance is not wholly unusual to the residents. As of now, she has little reason to suspect him, save for his smoking and the fact that he is the only person to show up so far. His reactions will be key to see how long she will be bothering him on this pleasant night. "So sorry to bother you... could I borrow a smoke, by any chance? I have to be out here all night, and of course I forgot mine at home. It is lucky for me somebody is out here so late."

Spoiler:

Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:25 pm

Things were going well for Hinote, right up until they weren’t. He continued to smoke as Murata made her way down the building and was about to take a step away from the building to begin the burning process, when suddenly he sensed something… someone.
“Why is someone on the balcony at this late of an hour,” Hinote wondered, his actions not betraying that he noticed anything. “Could it just be someone who can’t sleep or is it a shinobi?”
Suddenly Hinote sensed them falling down beside him. It took all his willpower not to turn around or flich. He instead kept a straight face and continued to inhale the smoke from his cigarette, not changing his behavior in the slightest.
When he heard the voice of the person, he feigned surprise, spinning around and giving a slight start.
“My word, you surprised me!” Hinote told her with a slight smile. His words weren’t strictly lies, as her appearance on the balcony and her noiselessness had certainly surprised him.

“Judging from their voice this person is a woman, and their armor clearly shows that they’re a ninja of Kirigakure. The question is, how big of a threat are they?”
Upon first glance the armor the kunoichi wore appeared to be that of an Anbu, but upon closer examination Hinote noticed a few differences. Most notably being the chunin flak jacket worn over the rest of the armor. “So she appears to be a chuunin, possibly one who specializes in sensory, as she clearly was aware of me before I was aware of her. She has the silent killing ability and I would assume she can probably use the various weapons on her” Upon first glance Hinote wasn’t liking his chances of success.

When he heard the ninja’s requests he gave a smile.
“Of course,” he said, pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket, along with a lighter. He would often light his cigarettes using basic fire ninjutsu but he always carried a lighter with him just in case. “Here, help yourself,” he said, holding out the open box in one hand and the lighter in another. Once Murata was finished with these, Hinote returned the items to his coat pocket and continued to smoke, the cigarette calming his nerves.
“So may I ask why you're assigned out here?” Hinote asked casually. “Seems pretty peaceful if you ask me. Or is there something I don’t know about? Is it unsafe?” Hinote let just enough concern into his last two questions to make it sound convincing without being obvious he was faking.

“Hopefully this ninja leaves,” Hinote thought as he continued to inhale the smoke of his cigarette. “Although she’s probably gotten a good enough look at me to identify me as the perpetrator if she leaves and I burn this building down.” Hinote continued to rapidly brainstorm. “I’m supposed to burn the building down tonight, what are the leaders going to do if I don’t? It’s not like I’m indispensable to them or anything. I would be severely punished if not killed. If this ninja doesn’t leave soon I might have to burn this place down and dash.”
Hinote casually glanced around the surroundings, looking for an escape route. “Shit I should have done this earlier,” he thought as he saw nothing but large open roads. Then he noticed it. “Aha, a sewer entrance!” He thought as he looked at the pothole out of the side of his eye. “This should work if I need it.”

“Oh I don’t think I ever caught your name,” Hinote said as he turned his attention back to the kirigakure shinobi. “If you can’t tell me because you’re on duty or you just don’t want to, I get it, it’s fine. My name’s Hinote by the way.”
As Hinote waited for a response he planned out how he would be able to burn down the building and escape at the same time, not liking how few solutions he came up with.
[WC=669]
[TWC=1669]

Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:00 am

Murata takes the lit cigarette, lifting the faceplate of her helm to tuck it between her lips and take a drag. The fluctuations of his chakra are within a normal range, indicating no outright lies.

There is no harm in keeping an eye on him until her sensory technique begins to strain her. It will alert her if any other suspicious figures appear, keeping her conversation with Hinote from being a distraction. While his eyes wander about their surroundings, Murata's stay amicably glued to his face, and she notes his glance at the manhole five meters to his left. Murata reviews what she knows about Kirigakure's sewers - it isn't much, but it'd be at least a few meters' trip down before he would reach the main sewer tunnel, if he's going to make a break for it...

"My name is Murata," she says, smiling. "I am on the lookout for a serial arsonist. You have not come here to burn down any buildings, have you?"

Her tone is not accusatory - in fact, it is positively pleasant, nothing to her tone seriously indicating she suspects him.

Mind's Eye of the Kagura -20
AP: 650

Sat Aug 21, 2021 3:03 pm

A bit to Hinote’s surprise, his request for the ninja’s name was answered, but the follow up was less than ideal.
“There are a few ways I could go about this,” Hinote thought. “I could try to take her and the building down in one blow, but that armor she’s wearing looks pretty sturdy. I could try to prolong this conversation so she leaves, but how to answer this question?”
Before Hinote joined up with the organization, he was an ordinary kirigakure genin. During his service he had met a few ninja who specialized in sensory, like he suspected this ninja did, and so he knew just how far their powers could go. He had even met one who could read minds. It was clear that this shinobi wasn’t doing that, or else his head would be on the ground, but it wasn’t a stretch to assume they might have some other similar ability. Such as the ability to sense things like heart rate and breathing in order to detect lies. Afterall, the actions of the body are a window into the mind. With that in mind, Hinote decided to avoid blatantly lying if at all possible.

“The only way to get out of this is to avoid answering the question, but how could I do it in a way that would deflect suspicion?”
Then the idea came to him. This whole brainstorming process only took a few seconds, so he answered a moment after the question was answered.
“Well, truth be told, I actually came out here to burn down that building over there.” Hinote said with a sly grin and a little laugh, indicating he was joking. As he said this he pointed to a random building across the street with his cigarette. Hinote, of course, truly had no intention of burning that particular building down, so his statement would trigger to Murata as a lie, hopefully shifting any suspicion away from Hinote, if she truly had any to start with that is. Her tone when she asked the question was pleasant, but with that kind of question it never hurt to be safe.

Until Hinote saw Murata’s reaction, there was nothing he could do but make a backup plan should this one turn south.
[WC=377]
[TWC=2046]

Mon Sep 06, 2021 3:55 pm

Murata leans down to snuff out her cigarette, laughing brightly along with Hinote's joke as she places a palm on the ground. His evasiveness is irritating her - and something familiar about him has begun to bother her. It had taken a minute, but now she recognizes his name. Hinote. Singular, like hers. It would have certainly caught her attention as she'd gone through Kirigakure's genin and academy rosters for clues to the identity of the mysterious memorial on the beach. What is this retired shinobi doing lurking around these buildings at night?

"Well, I cannot go letting you do that," she says, with her other hand pulling down her visor. "I am afraid I am going to have to take you into custody. Please do not be alarmed by my companion - if you cooperate, you will not be hurt."

Fuinjutsu instantaneously crisscrosses the ground in the dark once she places her hand. With a great puff of smoke, the mighty wolf Kazane appears with heads above the sewer grate five meters to Hinote's left. Murata is already rising, watching Hinote closely, having been ready to react to any sudden movements from him from the moment she leant down. As she rises - a quick hand-communication with her summon in the dark. If the situation changes, her directions to Kazane will as well.

Kazane, two-headed and twenty-five meters in length, leers at Hinote with two pairs of hungry eyes and two sets of gleaming jaws. A low, whining noise builds in her throats, building to a powerful howl that will fill Hinote with a desperate sense of hopeless defeat if it reaches him.

271

Kazane:

Summoning -40AP
Murata AP: 610

Desolate Howl Speed 75
Kazane AP: 360
Mind's Eye of the Kagura dropped

Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:33 pm

Hinote started to get nervous when he saw Murata lean down to put out her cigarette, and when she spoke, only two words crossed his mind.
“Well shit,” he thought, about to make a break for the sewer entrance.
Then it appeared. It was two headed and absolutely massive. There was no way Hinote was charging at that thing. There was also no way he was going to turn himself in. Neither the organization or the village would look kindly upon him in that situation. So he would just have to find a new way to escape.
“There has to be another sewer entrance somewhere.” Hinote thought, desperately glancing around. “Maybe on that street over there, it would make sense for there to be one on every road.”

The street Hinote was thinking of branched off of the one they currently stood on at a 90 degree angle, 10 meters to his right. Both Murata and the wolf were on his left, two meters and five meters respectively, giving him a path clear of assailants. The only issue was his speed, which was sorely lacking. Luckily Hinote had learned a technique to solve just that problem.
At the same time the whine formed from the wolf’s two mouths, Hinote formed a hand seal then sped to the right in a puff of smoke, moving at a significantly faster pace than he would if he were just running. The plan was simple, body flicker away from his enemies in a straight line to the right, until he reached the intersection 10 meters ahead of him. From there hook a left and travel for five meters up the street then stop, and pray there is a sewer entrance somewhere near him.

So he did just that. With his new 165 speed, he easily outpaced the wolf’s howl, and since he was moving away from Murata, he hoped she wouldn’t be able to stop him with one of her weapons or a faster technique. If she could, well he was kind of screwed as he couldn’t stop now that he had chosen his trajectory.

Assuming he made it to his destination alive, Hinote would quickly look around his surroundings for an escape route. Luckily, fortune was favoring him that night and there was a sewer entrance five more meters ahead of him. As he started sprinting towards it, he wished he had set his body flicker trajectory just a bit farther, but it could have been worse. As he reached the sewer entrance, he grabbed the metal grate with both hands and lifted upwards, easily pulling it up and tossing it aside as it hadn’t been fastened in place. He then dropped down the 1 meter wide hole and fell three meters to the floor of the tunnel below. The water he now stood in smelled terrible, but he ignored it and started running through the tunnel in the same direction he had been traveling before he dropped down. There were no lights down in the tunnel, so Hinote pondered running in the dark to try and lose his pursuer, but then he remembered Murata’s sensory capabilities, so he formed a half-tiger hand seal, causing a small flame to ignite on his fingers and allowing him to see clearly five feet ahead of him and casting a dim light an additional five feet ahead of that. As he ran, he constantly glanced backwards, wanting to see if he was being followed.
[WC=578]
[TWC=2624]

jutsu/ap used:

Fri Sep 10, 2021 12:31 am

A silver cloak of chakra erupts around Kazane and she darts after Hinote, hot on his heels. With Mountain God Blessing bringing her speed to 160, Hinote's Body Flicker is barely able to put space between them. When Hinote exits his Flicker, Kazane is five and a half meters behind him - and as he runs, now again at his base speed of 45, Kazane is moving more than three times as fast. Additionally, she is still howling, meaning that when Hinote exits his flicker he is within range of the debuff, the howl chilling his bones and reducing his Vigor and Chakra by 50.

She easily catches up with him before he can reach the sewer entrance (or anywhere else, if he changes direction, unless he has some unexpected method of retreat) and grabs him in her jaws by the back of his clothes, lifting him easily into the air. The howl fades into the night, but its effects ring in Hinote's ears.

"One wrong move," the unoccupied head hisses, breath hot where her huge fangs threaten at his shoulder, "...and I take your arms as a snack." She means it. Any sign of Hinote using a technique (either now or while he is still running) and she will get her teeth around him with her superior speed and use Fatal Chomp, quite likely biting directly through any offense he can muster and then through his oh-so-fragile bones.

"Please come with us, Hinote," Murata says, catching up with them at a casual pace. "This won't take long."

Stuff:

Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:12 pm

The plan was a failure. As soon as he exited his body flicker, Hinote felt his chakra system being reduced, significantly lowering his ability to cast jutsu. This change was a shock to his system, and combined with the howling wolf coming at him, Hinote simply froze. When the previously howling wolf picked him up and spoke to him, Hinote knew it was over. He had lost. So he complied willingly with the wolf’s command, not wanting to lose one of his precious arms.
When Murata walked up to him and spoke, Hinote gave a shaking half grin.
“Not like I can really go anywhere,” he said, the joke an attempt to cover his fear.
Hinote would comply with any further orders given by Murata, figuring that since he had no chance of escape now, he might as well try to get off as easy as possible.
[WC=147]
[TWC=2771]
[Hunter win given to Murata for successfully apprehending the criminal. Congrats!]

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