Tapestry(mission)

mission details:

Another day another mission, but this one was a bit on the questionable side. The scroll came quietly, appreaing on her bedside table in the scant few hours that the puppet princess was asleep. She knew that the Anbu were incredible at stealth and espionage, but it was a feat in Saya's eyes for them to have found the three hour block of time she was actually asleep, find a way into a mansion that was underground, and slip out with no one noticing. More interesting, her bedroom window as open with a soft breeze flowing through when the morning brought her eyes open for the day. While that would generally simply suggest that they'd found an open window with which to slip in and drop off the mission details there was a bit of uniqueness in this situation. First, as said before, Her room was quite a distance underneath the ground. Second, she didn't originally have a bedroom window. 

"Huh. I uh. I guess no one can say that the Kiri Anbu aren't thorough in their tasks..." She glanced between her two sisters, Ai who had found the scroll with Saya's name on it initially and woken her, and PupAIt who was already looking worried about what was about to happen next. 

The mission details were....Unideal generally. There were some reeeming qualities though. A clan whose keki genkai dealt with clothing or fabric manipulation was absolutely the best case scenario for the puppet princess. Just the fact that she could get a bit of information about how this works and maybe learn some cloth release techniques sent her blood running. Downside though: The expectations were quite clear. 

(TWC 278)

"Do you nee--" Ai, the real Ai not the puppet Ai, was cut off almost immediately. Saya wouldn't be taking anyone else on this mission. She needed to actually try to show Murata that she could at least do a little of what was asked of her. While she wouldn't stop her performances, and as long as she was still hanging out with Dana chaos was an inevitability, She would take this mission given to her in secret, and not tell a soul. 

"The mission details are pretty specific. I can't tell anyone what's going on. I'm afraid this will have to be the first time that the Ais have different information. You should go get some training in, prepare for your next task. " Ai nodded, heading up the elevator and out into the world to leave the girl and her team of puppets to their own devices. 

"So. We have to take care of the targets. If possible... Lets see if we can take them alive. Not only will that allow us to not have to take any lives, but hopefully that'll also let the sensory corps get some information that will be vital in stopping any further issues." Freyja and PupAIt sat on the bed, listening intently. They knew this mission would be one of their biggest challenges since the day at the bar so they would need to be prepared. Thankfully our dear protagonist had taken some time recently to upgrade their mechanisms, giving them quite a bit more strength than usual. 

(TWC 533)

"Coach will be excelent for that I suppose. We can both use wood style to incapacitate instead of killing the targets. Will you  be--" Once again Ai was cut off. Generally this would end with a lecture on why it's rude to interupt people, but this was a side of Saya she'd not seen since the days she was sparring against Freyja to prove her own strength in Mokuton. This was the Saya that Pinochio wished for every night as a puppet. For once, the puppet princess was focused on the objective, and ready to take the steps needed to succeed. 

"Probably not. I'll only use THAT ability if it really comes down to it. I want to keep us all mobile and silent so this will be a floating in secret mission. " Could they really pull it off? The queen of massive effect techniques was sitting here telling them all that the goal was to get in and get out quietly. That meant a large portion of her techniques would be less than effective. No giant fields of trees. No huge spiraling water meat grinder jutsus. even coach's damaging effects would be lowered significantly without the use of his fireworks launcher, which was quite loud when all is said and done. In emphasis, the threads connected to all three of Saya's puppets semed to almost disintegrate, starting from Saya's fingertips and pullsing down the legnth until it would seem that the puppets were being controled of their own volition. 

(TWC 783)

Instead of the over the top outfits the cosplay queen was usually seen in, as the doors to the elevator opened to offer entrance to her third closet floor, there was one look on her mind. There would be no bright colors. There would be no earth tones and vibrant leathers. It felt wierd having made the choice to not suit up in either something impossible to move effectively in or the vestige crafted in the likeness of the otterbrook clan. A black tunic was sinched at the chest by the black outter corset. THin, breathable material clung tightly to her legs as she slid them up her claves, held tightly by a set of four belts holding various pouches and other tools. As she continued to piece together her look, sitting down on a long bench in the center of the room, THe clinking of animal ones being threaded into her hair was the only sound above the steady pulse of her breath. 

Once finished she shook her head to test tight braids, giving Freyja a nod. She'd done good. The black top flared out at the wrist, cloth allowing her free movement of her limbs. As she stood, taking one final look at herself in one of the many mirrors, she flicked the attached black hood up over her hair, the edge hanging just far enough past her forhead to frame her face in a deep shadow. 

"Are we ready?" There was no vocal response. Only a nod between the three on team puppet.

(TWC 1039)

IT came as no surprise to anyone on the team that there were people who saught to overthrow the Mizukage. She'd taken two missions so far that saught to deal with a group whose sole purpose was to spread misinformation and gather forces to start a coup. One was burried in the borders after having attacked herself and Daiko during a meetup at the place where they'd first met. The second got away. She'd taken the time to destroy the underground hideout of the man she'd found in a random bar in the village. Asa she headed through the village to the first place she hoped fro find information on the group she wondered if that was the right call. Had she not destroyed the entire area in rage pointed towards the place where she'd failed her first mission it could have been an excelent place to try and gain some information on what must be the same group she was seeking now. 

She knew the thought was silly before it even fully fleshed. It was clear once they attacked the man behind the bar that he was made. Realistically he was probably killed for being found out. Expectantly there was no chance that they would use that safe house a second time after someone showed up knowing what they were doing there--or at least seeming to know what they were doing there. Daiko and Saya hadn't actually known anything except that it was a hideout connected to the girl who gave her life that day in the borders. 

(TWC 1298)

If she'd known that the note written frantically on the back of the girl's id would lead to all of this, lead to a mission to stop a group seeking to destroy the village, Would lead to her first failure ever achieved, Would bring her to a seedy warehouse with no lights where her skills would be tested in ways she'd never expected, She would have chucked the stupid thing into the sea. Yet, here she was testing the lock on an old metal door in complete silence. 

Her feet hovered barelly an inch from the ground through the power of her pefected performance with a human body. All of the team moved silently through her chakra threads. It was only through this that she was able to ensure she had the advantage against however many were within this building. Allowing her chakra to pulse, she felt the tell tale signs of one of her signature jutsus spreading across specific spaces on her body quickly. A small flower across each wrist. One spinning itself open across each of he ankles on the inside, right at the circular bone. One on each of her collar bones. A thin wire like strand of wood style shaped like a soft brown colored vine slid across her palm, the sharpened tip slipping easily into the lock to search for the pin combination that would grant her entrance. 

It was convenient that Her mother had taken to locking her away so often when important people were around. Armed with nothing but a hair pin she'd learned quickly how to deal with locked doors so that she could get to and from the places she needed to be. She'd never been the type to allow control to be exerted upon herself, whether by her mom or otherwise, so she saw it as a challenge solved within minutes of realizing it was a problem to begin with. 

(TWC 1618)

With ninjutsu the problem was far less than that. With regular tools found around a seven year old girl's room and no experience, figuring out the complex patern required to coax a lock into opening was a challege taking hours of guess and check. Now that she was older, she had a bit more experience. She knew how locks work. She'd taken one apart the same day, opting to just remove the entire thing with a screwdriver after two hours of trying to mimic what she'd seen in spy movies and finding that they probably didn't accurately perform the techniques. Studying the tumblers gave her insight into HOW to do what she needed, and the years leading up to her trip to Kiri to die or make herself useful had given her far more experience than she actually needed. The pins sang a tune of freedom as her great grasping fine poked and prodded them into place. A second vine held the ground at the base of the lock, pushing it just tight enough that any pins she'd gotten into place wouldn't fall and force her to start over. It was more intricate than her usual raking method for sure, but silence was key, and as the door handle turned to grant her entrance, only the soft scrapping of metal on metal as the door open rang out in the alleyway that hid her form. 

~Got it. Do you want to go first Ai?~ The puppet shook her head. While being of the same mind meant that they could easily talk to one another in their heads, Saya had once again forgotten one very specific fact about the puppets. They still didn't have eyes, and as such couldn't actually check the room to see if there was any danger. Right. That meant they would have to stick close, but not be used to put distance between any enemies and herself until fighting actually broke out. 

(TWC

The first room was a store room. Compared to the full size of the structure, it was quite small, with shelving in rows across the fifteen meter wide area that allowed for any who might be inside to have a hard time seeing her as she inched above the ground to peek her head in. Thankfully, even if she hadn't been hidden by the various shelves, there was no one actually inside the room. Small windows high above them, connecting to the roof of this room, sunken down to let her know there were at least two floors, let in just enough light that she could see stacks of files on each of the shelves. There were lockers all along the walls of the building, with various weapon hanging on slings, their leather straps wedged into the closed lockers to keep them from falling. Was this some sort of break room? 

She checked the first box. Bingpot. Inside were personnel files. It didn't look like the few she looked through were intel on kiri ninja. That led her to the conclusion that these might actually be information on the people in the organization. At the top of each file was the Kiri crest with a red crossed circle overtop of it, clearly denoting they were against the current regime. That made this a bit more simple. Saya motioned to her puppets towards another set of boxes. Instead of floating over to check and see what all these boxes had in them, Ai simply gave her the look.

(TWC 2200)

She knew this look quite well. It asked her wordlessly what she was mising, and then she realized. They still still don't have eyes. Right. Instead of arguing, she motioned towards Coach. Thankfully he was quite a bit more cooperative. As saya headed towards the far doorway, The coach puppet opened the hatch on his back. Team puppet took turns loading box after box of sensitive information into the hollow inside of his body, making sure they were stacked to get the maximum ammount as quickly as possible. As she checked the second lock to see if she would need to finesse it open too, The team moved all of the boxes outside and around the corner where they were unloaded for pickup later. Perfect. 

THe door leading into this place was not quite as easy to pick as the first one. There was a key lock in the handle, but four thick dead bolts also made a line up the side of the door, each locking on Saya's side with a keyhole. She wondered if the other side offered a simple turn latch. It wouldn't make sense to. Most likely these were only openable with a key regardless of which side the user was on, providing extra protection for the contents inside, which could so easily be used to incriminate the entire group and lead to their arrest. No way to hide in a village with the spy network Kiri had if the powers that be knew your names. Saya had just found every one of their names. 

(TWC 2459)

The top and bottom dead bolt came open quite easily. They seemed to be a hardware store special bought without much thought to just add a cheap barrier of entry. That made the third lock's difficulty quite confusing. VInes twisted and contorted within the lock, testing and retesting pins, but there was something odd about it. Every time she got to the last pin, either another would have fallen or the last pin would just refuse to move one way or the other. 

She cursed her ability to be great at everything. She rarely had to actually put effort into anything. Any time she'd trie dto pick a lock, it just kind of worked, so the oddity in this specific one was confusing beyond belief. A soft hand was placed on her shoulder. She twitched the moment she felt it, turning to find that it was only Ai. Her heart pounded more quickly for a moment before she let out a deep breath, shaking her head at her sister. She apreciated the support, but she was doing her job of being silent a bit too well, and it was only Saya's lips pursed tightly for fear of even a breath giving their position away that had stopped her from crying out in surprise. They shared a glance for a moment, Ai saying everything that was needed to give her the calm needed to continue with her task without fear that she would fail. She'd done that once. She wouldn't do it again. 


(TWC 2711)