Who Took the Cookies out the Cookie Jar?

Naki would continue to walk falling behind the clerk who seems to be leading them further into the area. Naki was kind of fixated on the fox as he really wanted to draw it but it didn't take long for that to be broken by guren talking to him and asking him what was a ninsei. Naki eyes would widen briefly before going back to normal as he didn't realize that he called him ninsei it was kind of an inside joke of his own to call him that and he can't believe he let it slip so easily. "W-well um it's a combination of um Ninjutsu and sensei since you um taught me Ninjutsu a bit. I kind of just started thinking that in my head. Wasn't really trying to call you that I can stop if that's what you want." Naki told him as he looked down as heard Guren talk about the tension between the villages and Naki was confused as he doesn't know anything about the tension. The silence made Naki kind of tense up as he wasn't a fan of the tension that's going on currently. 

When kits finally responded to the question Naki would relax a bit as he was happy to know that there wasn't tension between the group right now it would be bad if they had in group fighting. When he asked Naki he would shrug his shoulders as he didn't really have a response to it. "I um don't know anything about why there would be tension between the villages. So I'm not really sure on what I should feel on it." he said honestly as he looked at everyone Naki saw the weird looking building as he tilted his head to the side a bit confused about the structure of the building before noticing everyone else was coughing. Naki didn't have that much trouble breathing since he has a bandana around his face making a mask and thank goodness he did hearing everyone coughing. "I um would say we should sneak in but with y'all coughing I don't think it's gonna be easy." he said looking at the two men coughing their lungs out currently before looking at Guren to see if he's coughing his lungs out too. 

WC 385 TWC 1112

"It's cool, Naki." Guren responded with a light smile on his face. It was a clever nickname.

Guren's demeanor remained calm as he listened to Kita's impression on the conflict between Kirigakure and Sunagakure. In summary, he didn't understand the reason behind the hostility. He proceeded to reference the name of someone Guren didn't know, but used him as a testament that the one man he knew from Suna was decent. Still he didn't seemed to have any feelings towards the conflict. And Naki would agree. When Guren was posed with a question regarding his feelings on Kirigakure, Guren just laughed lightly. "Kirigakure is a powerful village with a powerful kage. Our kage and yours disagree on numerous things, and they share different visions which don't align with each other. But just because they have their differences, doesn't mean I hold animosity towards Kirigakure. Truthfully I have respect for Kirigakure, and hardly see your village as an enemy of me."

The conversation was short lived, and the interruption from the wind carried voice would draw Guren's attention to the gingerbread looking factory producing waves of smog. It was heavy and polluted enough to spread towards the quartet's position and interfere with their breathing. Two of his teammates would begin coughing, while Naki was masked. In response, Guren would pace his breathing to only allow a small amount the polluted air in at one time so that it didn't overwhelm his lungs. He'd refrain from speaking, seeking to minimize his intake of the ridden air. But recognizing that Naki's light facial covering was enough to protect his breathing, Guren would lift the collar of his shirt over his mouth and nose and resume breathing as normal. Seemed like the smog struggled to permeate through basic cloth. 

"I guess I'll get their attention. Let's meet back up at the fountain." Guren said in a calm tone.

It was an interesting predicament the four were in, but above all else they needed to get those cookies. So acting out of instinct, Guren would rush forward. He'd formulate a series of handseals and inhale deeply. The guards would see him approach, and immediately begin drawing their weapons. Yet Guren would interrupt any potential attack they could release, with a deep exhale of a massive vortex of water. The vortex would begin small, but rapidly expand forward and in diameter until it was 20 meters in diameter. And it's path of trajectory would propel itself 50 meters forwards. The destructive nature of the water vortex was more than sufficient to incapacitate the guards, destroy the entrance to the factory, and rip a clear path of destruction into the depths of the factory. With the factory's size being about 25 x 25 x 50m, there was a clear rip through the entirety of the factory. Proceeding forward, Guren wouldn't wait for his teammates to join him, as his goal was just to complete this task as swiftly as possible. 

With a path cleared, he'd end the the water vortex and leap through the destroyed entrance to the factory. Alarms would ring, and employees would begin to storm towards the entrance. Luckily for the quartet of shinobi, these individuals were not trained in any shinobi arts. So Guren would proceed uninterrupted, aside from the curses and swears of the employees. As he'd run through the factory, the employees would chase after him. Nevertheless, Guren would immediately begin gathering all the cookies he could find, stuffing them into his pockets, pouches, and elsewhere. Ultimately he nabbed about 60% of the baked cookies before he was unable to carry anymore. He'd leave it to his teammates to infiltrate the building now that he successfully distracted the bulk of the staff. His teammates should easily be able to track down the remainder of the cookies and the ingredients without being pursued. 

Guren would then depart from the building and travel back towards the fountain the quartet had originally rendezvoused at. He'd take a route that prevent the employees from being able to detect Kita's, Naki's or the clerk's presence. Once a good distance away from the fountain, Guren would turn in place and form several more handseals. Again, he'd erupt a wave of water from his mouth. This time however, upon contacting his pursuants, the water would ensnare them and stick them to their current position. Thus they were unable to continue after him. Guren would easily escape back to the fountain, and while he waited for the trio of his teammates to meet up with him, he'd simply start gathering all of the captured cookies onto a pile on the floor. It was ridiculous to think that all of these sugar cookies were poisonous. But nevertheless, his portion of the deed was done. 

WC = 794. TWC = 2811

Next Mission!:

Seems as though they were choosing the violent approach. Kita followed Guren's lead, wrapping some bandages he kept within his tool bag around his face. Kita only had time to give a small, cursory nod before Guren took off in a dead sprint towards the factory entrance, claiming that he would distract the guards. Kita looked at the other two and gave a shrug, before beginning to weave some hand seals for his Hiding With Camoflage jutsu. Combining that with his Silent Killing, and he was almost undetectable to any who weren't a shinobi.

Kita took care to go around towards the back of the factory, avoiding the massive entrance that Guren was making. After all, that was the point of a diversion, wasn't it? It didn't take the young shinobi long before he reached their unguarded rear entrance, a door whose guards abandoned it the moment they heard the blaring alarms to the front Kita reckoned. Kita withdrew his sword and delivered a powerful metal crusher to the back door, transforming the thing into little more than metal shrapnel. As Kita stepped inside, it became clear that this was the break room, clearly empty at the time. Perfect. The young shinobi began slinking through, making his way past the shoddy leather furniture and crappy office food (though he took care to swipe one of their bagels on his way out) and making his way through another door, towards the back hallways of the facility. Kita could see metal double doors off to his left, and the sounds of angrily screaming factory workers could be heard on the other side. Not that way then. Though Kita's right side was quiet... Kita looked to that side, seeing a small hallway with a door stating "electrical" at the end. Bingo. If there was anything he could do to mess up their operations, it would be messing with whatever they had in there. Plus, a bit of darkness wouldn't hurt his allies chances of swiping the cookies...

The young boy crept forward towards the thing, pulling the door silently open and slipping inside. The sounds of numerous generators began to fill the air with an electric hum, and the boy grinned slightly. Oh yeah, this was the place. Kita weaved a small number of hand seals, and several orbs of rotating wind filled the room. Kita snapped his fingers for dramatic effect, causing the orbs to expand to full size, cutting through the power and killing the lights. Even from here Kita could hear the confused cries of the factory workers. Looks like his job was completed then. Kita turned around and pressed his hand against the door to leave, though his fingers collided with some paper substance or another. How curious... it was too dark to see, though he didn't have time to try to find a light and read it. Kita quickly snatched it up and threw it into his bag before darting back out into the snowy night, hoping that his companions had finished their part of the mission.

Kita arrived back at the fountain a few minutes after Guren dispatched the final guards, popping back into existence a couple meters beside him.

"I'm back."

Kita reached into his bag as well, pulling out the papery substance he had found within the factory earlier. Kita scoffed at it, realizing very quickly that it was a remarkably similar letter to the one that had brought him here.

"And I found this. If I had to guess, it's our next mission directive."

Kita held it out to Guren, or whoever else might be in the area. Reading it wasn't something he was particularly interested in, considering he still had yet to meet their employer in person. Quite rude to just teleport someone out to a foreign land and not even greet them in Kita's mind. As the boy handed the letter off to whoever would take it, Kita asked the group a question.

"So, how'd you guys make out? I can see from Guren's pile that he had a good haul."

Word Count - 679

Total Word Count - 3299

Naki would blink as he watched Guren just rush in as Naki was taken back. Then everyone else seemed to follow suit as the genin threw his arms up out of pure shock and awe as they just rushed in with no plan. Guren might be as well screamed out his name and rank when he ran in. "So no plan just dive in? Cool?" Naki said to himself as he rolled his eyes before rushing in himself. The young boy would make his way in the opposite direction of kita as he snuck around the building heading towards a window on the ground floor. He would slowly push on the window as it opened gently before proceeding inside. The young man would look around to see that he has found a sizable amount of cookies. He'd grabbed a bag and started to slip the cookies inside as he looked around. It would hear footsteps as he grabbed the bag and tied it up and focused chakra on his feet and started to walk up the wall of the factory. 


As he got up there a few security guards came in panting tired from running. They would look around to see that the cookies in there was gone as well. Naki was nervous about everything as he hung there looking around until he noticed another window before looking back at the men as he slowly made his way towards it matching his steps with theirs to avoid detection until he got to the window. He would slip out of the room and made his way towards the others where he smiled as he dropped the cookie bag with the others. 

 "Luckily getting these were easier than..... Why are you carrying someone on your shoulders? Did they have her hostage?" Naki asked the man who was carrying someone as he was a bit late to the explanation of why he has her before turning to kita as they were already handing the information out about the next mission they are to do. He'd look back at the moaning woman who was just seemed to be going through it right now. "Can we at least put her somewhere safe to avoid getting pelted or worse I don't know. I just don't think we should leave her out here....in the cold." Naki said as he looked at Guren for confirmation here. 

WC 403 TWC 1515

As Guren would count the cookies in his pile, he’d note the approaching steps of Kita. Guren would glance quickly at him, breaking his concentration of counting and note that the Kirigakure shinobi would be bearing a letter in hand. Its resemblance to the one that brought Guren here was uncanny. He’d cease his counting, approach Kita, and grab ahold of the letter. Reading over its contents, Guren would quickly assess that there were more tasks for the group to complete. This time, it would be focused on retrieving presents from a workshop. However it was indicated that the workshop would not be guarded tonight, so ideally this would be a quick and easy mission. Shortly after, the clerk would be approaching.

The clerk mentioned how crazy it was at the factory, to which Guren nodded in agreement. But what really struck Guren off guard was the fact that the clerk had brought with him a hostage. How unfortunate. Naki would comment on the situation, stating that the team should drop her off somewhere. Guren, recognizing the opportunity, would quickly interject.

“We should interrogate her.” Guren would state calmly before continuing. “This letter Kita found states that there’s a workshop we need to infiltrate, and steal presents from. These presents are supposedly bombs. So we’ve got to get rid of those.”

Guren would extend the letter out for anyone else to read. Should no one take it from him, he’d drop it and it would gracefully glide down onto the pile of cookies that Guren had began. “If any of you grabbed ingredients and cookies, please toss them in this pile.” Guren would wait for the team to do so. Following that, he’d take a few steps back and perform a series of handseals which would result in a hole in the ground opening up just beneath the piles of cookies. They’d get sunken down into the earthern swamp, where they could effectively be considered destroyed. When they were all gone, Guren would release the swamp and the ground it began on would revert back to its previous nature having swallowed the poisonous cookies.
Guren would then walk over to the subdued woman and take a knee. He’d raise his hand up to her cheek and give it a soft slap, waking her up. With his other hand, he’d raise his free hand up to his lips with only his pointer finger extended up and towards the sky. “Shhh.” Guren would usher.

“If you want to live, then I need you to tell me where this bomb ridden factory is. And don’t play games, as none of us have any patience.”

The woman’s eyes would flicker between each man in a panic before returning back to Guren’s face. She’d hesitantly nod, understanding the situation that she was in. “I-It’s actually in this plaza. Right behind you. The plan was to hand out cookies and presents at the star topping ceremony. But the gifts would actually be various ways to draw out and kill Itazura’s followers. Don’t tell me you’re one of-“

“Shhhhhh, you’ve said enough” Guren would interrupt, now wearing a somewhat cynical smile. Only this time, his chakra was flaring as his hand up to his lips weaved into a confrontation seal. “Go back to sleep. “

The woman’s eyes would grow heavy, and she’d nod in understanding as she dozed off right there.

“Alright. So a workshop…” Guren said as he stood from his kneel and slowly turned in place to take in the surroundings of the plaza they stood with. Most of the buildings appeared as markets cafes, and retail venues. However one small one, with a store front no larger than 5 meters in width and 10 in height, seemed to be the point of interest. It bore a sign across the top, “Toy Shop”. All the lights were off, and it would appear as if it had been shut off for the day. “There” he said as he pointed his index finger towards the shop that was about 10 meters away. “How about one or two of you infiltrate it and recover all these…presents from within it? I’ll stay watch of our hostage here. And in the meantime I’ll send out a clone to scout the city and see where this star topping festival may be.” Guren would bring his hands together and form the seals required for a single blood clone. The clone would stand next to Guren, look at him, nod, then dart off towards the depth of the village.

WC = 756. TWC = 3567

Take the Star:

Guren took the letter from Kita's outstretched hand, just after the store clerk arrived with a woman slung over his shoulders, and Naki arrived with a sack of cookies as well, asking about the hostage in the clerk's arms. Kita's eyes widened for a moment, before the boy relaxed and crossed his arms over his shoulders. He had figured that there was more to this clerk than meets the eye, though he had imagined it would be something akin to being a proficient user of the shinobi arts. What he did not expect was that the man was downright insane. The woman gave a soft groan of pain, and Kita began tapping his index finger against his bicep.

"Really? Even if she had seen you, what on earth possessed you to drag her back here?"

Now that Kita looked at her though, she seemed... very poorly dressed for the weather they were in. A red robe? In this cold weather? Sure, the rest of them were relatively poorly dressed as well, but their excuse was that they were teleported here without knowledge of the weather conditions. Was it possible that...

"Wait... Do you think she might be another person on the mission?"

Naki asked if they could put her somewhere that wasn't cold, before Guren interjected, suggesting that they interrogate her first. Kita shrugged in response. Interrogation might yield them some useful results. At least assuming that she knew anything. Guren took the lead in the interrogation, and Kita did his best to look as intimidating as possible. A bit of a difficult feat for the boy, considering that he was both short and young, though he tried his best. As the woman's eyes fluttered open, panic shone through. Though Kita's eyes narrowed at something he saw. For the briefest moment, Kita could swear he saw her eyes harden. It wasn't terror in that moment. Instead it was sheer, unadulterated fury. Something about it chilled Kita to his core. In that brief instant she felt ancient, powerful, and seriously pissed off. Though it left as soon as it came, fading away back to the same panicked look Kita had seen before, making the boy wonder if it was even real at all.

Guren finished quickly, using a seal of some kind and lulling the woman to sleep. Kita still felt uneasy, though he pushed the feeling aside for now. Based off of what she said, looks like she was working for this... Yoi fellow. Kita had some doubts, though he shelved them for the time being. Life would be easier if that was the truth. Guren motioned to the... Toy Shop across the street, asking that two of them look into it and recover the presents. Another ridiculous mission it seemed. Guren on the other hand would send a scout into the city to find whatever ceremony these... people seemed to be having. Kita nodded slowly.

"I'll get the door open and take care of any opposition. Whoever's after me can help me cart out presents."

Kita weaved the earlier signs to turn invisible, and activated his silent killing once more. To anyone not experienced in the sensing of chakra, it would seem that the boy had all but vanished. No snowy footprints, no sound, no sight, nothing. Kita moved calmly towards the shop, and when he reached the halfway point he jumped. The boy soared through the air an impressive 25 meters, before landing perfectly and silently atop the roof. A nearby air duct had an attached grate, which Kita quickly made short work of with his sword. The boy crawled inside through the remains of the grate, and slipped inside, quickly maneuvering his way through the air vents like some kind of demented serpent. It took a while of trial and error, but eventually Kita found his way to the vent overhanging the security room. A pudgy security guard sat directly below, absentmindedly munching on a cookie. Looks like they had missed a couple. Still, based off of this guy's appearance, he was nothing to worry about. Kita brought himself into a tight crouch between the top of the air duct and the grate, channeling his chakra to his palms so he stuck to the top. With all the force his little body could muster, Kita kicked downwards with incredible might, sending the metal grate into the guards head with enough power to dent it, and sending him sprawling to the ground. Kita slipped out of the air duct, falling peacefully to the ground below. Seems as though that part was done.

Kita turned around to see a large number of computer screens with surveillance of the entire store. His head drifted down, and Kita saw a number of various buttons, switches, and levers that had been labelled, and seemed to control various parts of the store. Kita shrugged, and flicked the lever that said 'main door' to the on position. Kita looked back up at the screens to see what he had done, just in time to see the main door open slowly on mechanical hinges.

"Well... that was easy."

Word Count - 853

Total Word Count - 4152

Naki watched as Guren woken the woman before the interrogation started causing him to feel a bit upset that with himself for basically doubting the mission at hand. He thought they were doing the wrong things but hearing the woman admit that there were bombs in the gifts Naki wanted to make up for his doubts as he looked at her. Before he realized it Guren has already put her back to sleep and started to send his clone out to the ceremony to get the star. Naki was gonna stay behind with Guren to watch over the woman but katsugari basically just called dibs as he stood a meter from guren and just looked like he was just chillin there. Big chillin. Naki would look over to kita as it was gonna be just them then as Naki nods before kita started doing hand signs before disappearing with no trace of his presence. This made Naki crouch down and extend his arms as he was taken off guard by this movement as he looked around really quickly before coming back to the other two. 


 "Ok that was cool I wonder if he'll teach me that." Naki said before quickly heading over to the factory. Once there he would essentially hide himself nearby as he waited for the main door to open. Once it did Naki would proceed inside quietly as he looked around at the many presents that were there. The young man would have to do his absolute best at this and be careful not to cause the gifts to go off. He'd quickly weave hand signs as he created two clones as they all nodded to each other and started to move around the factory each one finding a cart that was used to transport gifts to one side to the other. They'd come back together and began gathering the gifts and placing them on the cart. The three young men would be careful when placing them to make sure that they were secure and safe. Once they gathered all the presents that they could fit in their carts before they would make their way out of the factory pushing the carts pretty easily through the snow. It would occur to them that they didn't exactly know where they were taking these but they figured it would be best to take them to Guren and the clerk. Naki would quickly bring the carts full of gifts and began to take them out with the clones stacking them in front of Guren. 

 "We still got more to grab." one of the clones said before they finished making a small mountain and returning back to the factory to do it all over again. This process only took a few trips with the help of the carts and his clones. They would clean through the factory taking out all the gifts out and bringing them back to Guren they left nothing behind. They only seem to leave crumbs that were much too small for the mouses. Naki and his clones left the presents to Guren as they didn't exactly know what to do with them now. Before Naki really spoke the clones would disperse after they all returned the carts. "These are all the ones that I saw in the factory. I pretty much sweep through it if kita finds extras that I missed that would be great." he said as he stood out the way of the gifts to see what would happen. 

WC 587 TWC 2102