Blood's Honor [Private, IO]

Still groggy from sleep, Hiroshi approached the Water Gardens of the Village Hidden in the Stars with a scroll bearing a critical seal. "From Deputy Kage," he informed the lone watchman at the entrance. "They've summoned me for some emergency. I'm to check it out." The guard took the parchment and examined the signature. He nodded in understanding and handed it right back to the Mercenary. "Good luck. Although why Lord Yasaki would need the likes of you, Grimma, is beyond my imagination."

"Yeah, mine too." 

The former raider entered the long, narrowing pathway that was the entrance into the Gardens. Inside the gardens, and Griff could almost taste the salt from the northern sea on his lips. The makeshift ninja wore a simple set of black clothing with his jacket opened to cool off, showing a muscular chest. His red mane of hair blew in the summer breeze.

Yasaki kept Hiroshi in the dark about what was going on. The only thing was just that there was some immediate threat. These sorts of off-book requests for Hoshi were not uncommon, and they were usually were sent to him by Shina or Akaboshi.

The concerning name in those letters had a habit of being found face down in a ditch a day, a night, or a week later. Many considered that to be an assassination, but Griff viewed it more as putting his talents to good use and one day earning his freedom from this stinking shitpile of a city. It was just like removing a bottle cap or lint. But not always, Hiroshi reminded himself. Getting comfortable makes you vulnerable. He did not have any intention of being found with a kunai buried in his back.

"Grandfather." The Griffin called out, his eyes narrowing down as he caught the image of the immense older shinobi. "I heard you were looking for me. Who is the target?" Even though he was well past his sixtieth name day, the man who locals celebrated as Yasaki of the Sharingan looked ferocious.

WC: 335

OOC:
+2 Nature Stacks, from Sage of the Purest Path 2/10

Yasaki activated his eye mind of the Kagura, and when he sensed the alien presence entering the gardens, he started performing the seals for the Ninjutsu amplifier. Yasaki was always a kind older man who liked to read books and cook with a warm smile on his face for the shinobi of Hoshi. But when the former Kage turned around to look at the bandit, he had no smiles to give.

“I am the target.” The veteran answered the rogue’s question strictly. That booming voice muffled every other sound. “The Rinnegan, the eye power that a thousand years ago my ancestor Uchiha Madara used to conquer the world. I mean to do the same, starting from the village hidden in the stars." The man widened his stance, and chakra began surging through him, his eyes shifting from blue to red and then to something else entirely—a purple look with spirals. “You can join me and affirm everything the faithful in this city say about you, Grimma. But you'll at least have your revenge. Then again, can try and stop me and prove you as moronic as they paint you to be," 

If the Griffin refused, a shroud of chakra would engulf Yasaki, covering his face and lower jaw and then the rest of his body. The armor of Susanoo that only true-born Uchiha could access. Its compressed state resembled every bit of its titanic version that towered over buildings, down to the Tengu mask and the wings. The said wings elevated Yasaki, the soles of his shinobi sandals 5cm above the ground of the water gardens. A phantom blade was conjured in his hand and a shield in the other. He would then fly in a straight line directly towards the Griffin at the increased speed that the Nin amplifier provided his armament.

WC:335

AP Cost: -150 Susanoo [130 Power/180 speed], -50 Ninjutsu Amp, - 40 Eye Mind of the Kagura, - 10 AP Rinne

Yasaki's AP 1640 - 250 = 1390 AP remaining

When he first stepped inside the walls, the cold dead eyes of the garrison were staring at Griff under iron half-helmets. They watched, and they hated him. Not that he blamed them; the feeling was mutual. The Grimma Warriors and Hoshi Shinobi had been at war for years, Griff had lost kin to them, and they had lost kin to him. But the look that the former Hogokage gave him was full of poison.

"I am the target." Uchiha Yasaki said, hitting Griffin the face like a gust of wind.  The grizzled vet spoke names Uchiha Madara and Rinnengan. Those were unknown to him. But the talk of world conquest that Hiroshi knew all too well. Yasaki would carve his way towards that, starting from his village of service. Griff was to join him or try and stop him in this crusade.

"The fuck are you on about, old man?" Griff yelled, who did not share Yasaki's excitement for elaborate japes. "I ain't doing shit." 

Hiroshi of the Griffin clan was born with a curse that turned him into an abomination; he carried the burdens of those he ruthlessly murdered throughout his life of raiding, weighing on his consciousness. There were no second chances in life except to feel remorse, and he fully accepted it. Griff carried the sins of his ancestors, as well as his own. But his word was his bond, and his bond was as strong as oak. 

In fight or flight situations, the griffin always knew the answer. There was a 50-meter distance between him and the old mercenary, who was charging at him at quite a high speed. The energy armor around had elevated him in the air, and energy katana of 60 cm in his hand. If he was moving at his pace or the armor's speed was irrelevant. 

Griff would use his bloodline to form an axe upon forearm at jutsu speed, cutting through the long sleeves of his jacket.  He cast the handseals for the Shadow Clone with one hand, his fingers forming into a fist at the end. An exact copycat of Griff popped 2 meters in front of him. With the other, the handseals for his ninjutsu amplifier, charging it for the next jutsu.  The clone tucked their chin underneath the shoulders and both arms crossed in front of his head. 

Yasaki's ran would stop 2,5 meters from the original and 50 cm away from the clone. The blade was slashing horizontally at the clone. The slash parted the arms and neck like silk, dispersing the copycat in a puff of smoke.  When the energy katana met the clone's block, The actual Griff let go of the charged ninjutsu amp and punched the ground with all his might placed in his right hand before getting back up to his posture. The resulting shockwave of nature chakra was expanding in all directions from him, including underground. Still mid-swing, the old warrior would meet it with the power of his magic armor, which would entirely break. And unless he got out of range, the shockwave would target Yasaki's body as well.

If the first shockwave had done its part, Griff would swing his free arm, twisting his waist with so much force that he felt it was going to snap. A 3-meter long blade of nature chakra taking flight from the axe on his forearm, flying diagonally and directly towards the older adult with its trajectory taking any necessary steps to land on its target. 

OOC:

Spoiler:

"I'll send you to meet the gods that you love so much," Griff said in response to Yasaki's insult. The battle finished, the former Kage on his knees, and he was still talking shit. The audacity of it hurt the most. These people saw his name, the color of his skin, and they labeled him a monster. They judged him guilty for everything that went wrong without ever giving him the platform to defend himself. 

"A decent man?" The word him like a gust of wind. He could tell he was being played. The former bandit felt the anger coiling around him like a snake. "What the fuck is this?" During combat, he could keep a clear head; outside of it was the opposite. The Jugo, distraught in self-hate, turned to see if there were any more ways to puzzle this out but the only thing he saw.

The grizzled vet was making for the katana. 

Hiroshi panicked and went for his battle stance, ready to block or dodge, and then - the earth rushed up to drink his blood and the acidizing fluids that were spilling from his guts. The smell was always the worst when someone committed seppuku. They never talked about that part in the stories. The part that disemboweling stinks of shit and worse. 

"May you find rest in the next life that you couldn't find in this one, old warrior." 

Some time passed, he could not tell how long. In the end, Griff did as his fallen enemy told him; he took the scroll from the pocket of the corpse's duster coat, unrolled it, and activated it. It was sealing the remains of Yasaki Uchiha. The remarkable sixth Hogokage put inside a piece of paper—these shinobi held traditions that wouldn't make sense to him in a thousand years.

"I should sell his body on the black market." He thought as he put the scroll in the pocket of his black jacket. "That will get me enough money to get out of this shit city." The Red Griffin was the most excellent Raider in all of Haven, once. There was no wall he couldn’t scale, no forest he couldn’t disappear in. And when people saw his group of marauders approaching their city, they prayed. 

"Enough money to buy me an army of sellswords, enough to.." Enough to what? The glory days were far behind him after the series of betrayals by those he had mistakenly thought of as friends. But he was Hiroshi, long before he became the Red Griffin. His father, Hagin, had taught him about his clan and, more importantly, the rules behind it. The regulations set him apart from those with the Jugo Curse so that he could become something more than a mindless creature. Yasaki Uchiha, too thought he was a better man.

 Maybe he could try to be. 

WC: 477
TWC: 1395

[OOC: Thanks for the memories, space cowboy, see you in another life.]

Claiming with 25% max stat discount: 1312/1312 Water Release: Starch Syrup Capturing Field
discarding 82 words

Corpse Storage Scroll - Body of Yasaki Uchiha and possessions

[Exit]

claims:
death

Approved D:, my condolences.