Kumo Escape Room

Hopefully, the plan had been agreed with, though he would be open to anyone’s opinion or adaptations. He wanted to get to the bottom of this situation, but he also wanted to afford everyone here an opportunity to shine, even if it might not be remembered. The discussion could go either way, but Ichigo agreed with infiltrating alongside Noboru, and as such the two went through the process of stripping the poor sods watching the door and wearing any necessary garments. Noboru put the parts of his armor that wouldn’t suit the occasion; greaves and gauntlets, as well as the balaclava and respirator. He bore the cloak and cowl of the cultists, as well as a medallion with Jashin’s symbol which would allow them to blend on the inside, as well as the boots of the man on the floor. With any luck, no one would come across the bare feet sleeping beauties at the door.

Ichigo, already prepared, gave some final encouragement to the two others. The redheaded Kage nodded in agreement as he strapped the boots on firmly, before rising from his knees and adjusting the cowl and robes. “Operation Whatever The Hell Is Going On Here is a go.” Guards dragged out of sight, Ichigo went ahead and knocked at the great oak doors, the sound resounding within, and before long a metallic click gave way to the parting door, from where another cloak and hooded figure stared at the duo before them that they could see. Hopefully the two besides them would take this opportunity to enter, so as to attract as little attention as possible and avoid getting the door closed in on them. Yet, Ichigo showed a bit of a dramatic entrance, making his entrance slow so as to allow for the others to walk in between them. Noboru followed the lead, and took slow steps with enough of a gap to allow others in.

Ichigo spoke up with a flair for the dramatics, one which Noboru joined. “Hail Jashin”, he proclaimed at the end of Ichigo’s speech, something the other cultists replicated in disconnected tones. As Kaito looked around, there was one individual who stood out from among the rest. They wore the robes, but their face was uncovered, revealing pale golden locks of hair and ivory skin from where two purple eyes faced some robbed person they were chatting with. Yet, Noboru couldn’t help but feel apprehensive as his eyes went down and then back up this individual. There was something unnaturally dangerous about them, as if their very presence invoked a sensation of surrender from the murderer-in-chief. His eyes went to dart back and forward the rooms and halls in eyesight as some other cultist informed Ichigo of a ceremony taking place in the building, and how to reach it. There was another individual who did not wear a hood. While their hair was dark as the moonless night, the skin was pale, and though they leaned against a wall alone with a glass of wine in hand from one of the tables around, they took appeared so confident in their position in the world, one couldn’t help but hesitate in looking into their eyes even with a hood on. When the cultist distanced themselves from Ichigo, Kaito turned around and whispered “beware the ones without hood”, before following Ichigo’s lead.

The plan had gone off without issue so far; although Meika had to switch her plan from becoming invisible to simply become an acceptable visage, taking on the appearance of a cultist just as Noboru and Ichigo had done. Although he could see through the Genjutsu if he chose to with the help of his Sharingan, it was enough that his Hiyu cells buzzed around to inform him that the world around him was not as it seemed. He also decided to conserve his chakra and he didn’t enable the Byakugan, as both Ichigo and Ryuuzaki were equipped with one from his own stock, and the Raikage trusted that at the very least Ryuuzaki would take advantage of his camouflage to operate the eye without revealing the ninja art. Moreover, he had taken perfect advantage of the opening created by the trio and was able to slip inside the compound without alerting the guards by the door. It was good to see his ninja, famous around the world as brutes and drunks, take such sophisticated steps in completing key points of the mission, in this case, infiltration.

One of the unhooded figures seemed to have taken interest in the group, taking a sip of their drink before approaching. Enabling his Byakugan in a flash to see what might be going on, he noticed both Meika and Ryuuzaki taking divergent steps: Meika to an empty room, Ryuuzaki up a wall. Quick, a distraction! Nobo cleared his throat, trying to distract the possible displaced steps of Ryuuzaki with the rumble from his throat, yet by the time Meika arrived, glass in hand, the cultist that had taken charge of leading them seemed distracted by her and her glass of wine, commenting on her impatience. The blond unhooded cultist seemed to be appeased by this, and took another sip, before flashing a disturbing smile at the group and going back to the lass he had been speaking with. Hooded or not, her frame wouldn’t lie. However, something troubling was now dancing before Kaito’s eyes.

When the cultist smiled, his tongue and teeth were stained red.

Noboru didn’t know of any wine which would stain one’s teeth and tongue so vividly, as if it were thick as blood. Yet, the smell triggered something in him.

He was back at the hospital, Ghost SinnSage Hyuuga’s face mere centimeters away from his as blood filled his mouth from the brutality of the wound the then Jonin inflicted upon his criminally charged student. The sight, the smell, they were the same. The blond cultist wasn’t enjoying a glass of red wine as Meika did, he was enjoying a glass of blood. Taking advantage of his low hanging hands, Kaito executed four hand gestures that any Kumogakure ninja trained in the battle sign language of the Kumogakure would be able to observe and understand.

Night. Crawler. Blood. Drinker.

Meika might have difficulties in seeing it in this setting, however if Ichigo and Ryuuzaki had their Byakugan enabled -- which Noboru did not know only Ryuuzaki had at the time -- they may have been able to identify the message of the Raikage.

Escorted by the cultist through corridors of old stone and rotting wood, the smell of blood was apparent in this as well, yet, unlike the fresh blood of the vampire’s glass, rich and vivid as if on one’s hands as they lean over the sink to wash what won’t come off of their souls, the blood in these halls and walls was old and dried, and save for the difference of the cold and dark night, it almost brought back memories of the Warmonger’s Arena, whose grounds drank blood thirstily and allowed it to cake the earth and dirt that needed raking to prevent lumps and rot. So that was the feeling Noboru felt before. Not fear or paralysis at the sight of the dangerous creatures he now assumed were vampires: he felt ecstatic, yet his body was forced to hold still, hold back the violence he nurtured and adored. He yearned for the chance to face the creatures in bloody combat, but the mission required him to stifle his emotion and lay low. As it turns out, the distance between fear and courage was a short one, vaulted only by action.

They were led through a door, and from there, another corridor to a final door. Troubling, he thought. Ensuring he held the door long enough under the guise of allowing Meika to pass, he allowed entrance to Ryuuzaki as well, who may need to keep his cover for a while longer given their lack of knowledge of what was to happen beyond the door at the end of the corridor. Ichigo mentioned going in guns blazing may not cut it, and it confused Noboru as he had no clue what a gun was, but he nodded anyway. As Ichigo looked through the door, Noboru took a few steps back behind his team and weaved a few handseals, and kneaded chakra in his stomach, turning the acid within into mud, which he then expelled and vomited it onto the middle of the corridor: from the mud, a wall of earth rose and blocked off the entrance onto the corridor, slowly but surely taking form so as to not create a disturbance. “That should buy us some time”, he announced in a hushed tone.

When Ichigo was done investigating, he relayed there were a couple troublemakers similar to the ones they had seen earlier. “They might not be regular people. Do not take them lightly, separate them from the group, and don’t hold back if you have an opening.” Ichigo seemed to ponder further on how to proceed. He then laid out his game plan: Noboru and Ichigo would go in and blend in with the rest while assessing the situation, and if they could ascertain that something evil was taking place, they would be allowed to engage. It was as sensible a plan as Noboru himself could come up with, so he nodded along to the instruction, as well as when Ichigo performed the call sign he would use to indicate the mission was going to start.

They went into the room calmly, all four of them now able to mingle and investigate. Ichigo circled the chamber towards the right, while Noboru went towards the left. At the center, four vampires kneeled as if each was at a cardinal position around one elder who appeared to be focusing chakra. Aided by the shade that covered his features, Noboru enabled his Byakugan, and the sensation of dread that tried to creep upon his senses finally was explained. A massive amount of foul chakra seemed to be funneled through a hole in the canopy on the ceiling, centered on the individual at the center, who must be focusing it for some sordid purpose. The four vampires appeared to be forming a rectangle shield around the man, each with their backs to a wall of their creation, which intersected with the others to seal them away.

It wasn’t long before Ichigo threw his sleeves up and his hood away, exclaiming NOW to the rest of the group. It was as much as Noboru needed. Grabbing the fabric of the cloak over his left shoulder with his right hand, he forcefully pulled away at the fabric which ripped at the seams whenever pulled between the strength of his arm and the immovable body, a rag within seconds to be tossed aside by the Raikage. “Worshippers of Jashin”, he called out, now two sources of distraction would further divide attention and cause the element of surprise to have greater effect, “the Worshippers of Raijin and Fuijin are here to deliver you to your master.”

The team came into action in tandem with Ichigo and the Raikage, and for a beautiful moment, his swirling sharingan was able to take in the action as it took place, as if in slow motion, beautiful displays of strength and speed, of violence and an alienation towards human life that only a seasoned veteran could display with such ease. Yet, these Jashin Cultists had brought this upon themselves; to ritualistically occupy a place where so much blood had been drawn, and associating themselves with creatures as vile as vampires, their lives had been forfeited, and the Kumogakure force was here to collect.

Expanding his life force within, the Gate of Pain opened and the Raikage shot forwards towards the barrier. The Vampires within, startled alongside the cultists, saw how the three other members handled the baser ranks, but their eyes soon locked on the redheaded menace charging towards them, the gap closing before their eyes could even process the totality of their newfound reality. Standing up, they all came together to create a barrier between themselves and Noboru, who threw a punch as brutal as he could. The effect was lackluster, yet, a singular crack spread across the barrier as the four vampires held their hands forward. They grinned. Noboru grinned. They grimaced. One, two, three, a flurry of punches grew in number and speed, until it became a blur of strikes against the barrier they held up. The cracks became more prominent, shatterpoints that the vampire’s technique could not mend fast enough. With a visceral scream, Noboru’s rage was imparted onto the barrier, and just as the vampires realized it was no use to keep it up anymore, it exploded in a thousand shards of red energy.

Grabbing daggers at their waist, the vampires shot forward through the dispelled barrier to aim at Noboru’s vital organs. The first stab was aimed at his midsection, but Noboru took a short back step and grabbed at the right wrist of the vampire holding the knife, pushing it backwards with with before he spread the arm across his chest and pulling between shoulder and wrist, cracking the arm at the elbow. With the Vampire’s body to his left, two of the other vampires were no issue, but the third towards his right aimed at him a stab; using the wrist still on his right hand while his left arm circled and jerked the neck of the vampire on his hold, Noboru allowed the dagger to pierce the hand of the broken neck vampire before taking another step forwards towards this striking vampire and sinking a knee onto his stomach, releasing one vampire to grab the other by the neck and waistband, lifting him off the ground and driving him back down with all this might head first to create a reverse vampire plant; the wood shook as the vampire’s head sunk through it, and he awkwardly stood there for a hot second before becoming limp. The two vampires circled their downed friend with daggers aimed at Noboru, chest height, but Noboru simply uncorked the sake bottle at his own waist and allowed the fire chakra to shoot forwards; the surprise attack worked and one of the vampires was impaled through their chest, becoming a ragdoll as the sake retreated and falling to the ground. The last vampire now stood between Noboru and the cultist.

Noboru’s Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan looked deep into the scarlet eyes of the vampire. He made a grabbing motion towards the vampire, one that would fail due to their distance, however, what the vampire did not anticipate was a ghostly three meter arm grabbing their head. Noboru squeezed his hand, and blood splattered onto his dark armor.

The last man in the middle remained, drawing foul chakra onto themselves. How to contain it… perhaps…

Uncorking his Sakegari no Tachi once more, Noboru stabbed the man in the heart, and once impaled by the fiery chakra blade, his eyes opened with a drawing last breath as he gazed into his murderer’s eyes. Their soul and chakra now seeped onto the Sakegari no Tachi, and the foul chakra, now dwindling without a vessel, was absorbed with it, and the ritual stopped. Drawing in the blade once more, he took the gourd to his nose and smelled. The liquid within was foul. With the nightmare resolved, he looked around at the massacre his ninja brought forward, and the nightmare became blurry as they sunk into a regular sleep.