Who Took the Cookies out the Cookie Jar?

Kita’s realization fell just a bit too late on Guren’s ears. By the time that the Kirigakure shinobi would comment on the possibility of this woman sharing the same goals as them, Guren would have already placed her under a simple sleep genjutsu. He’d stand overtop of her and take a moment to take a closer look at her clothing. The red robes, long dark hair…she definitely didn’t seem like just an average Joe. But nevertheless, the actions taken by Guren were justified. He’d need to ensure that this woman would not thwart the quartet’s fulfillment of the mission. Little did he know though, this woman would be the one that had assigned them the mission in the first place. Things were starting to feel sloppy. Not at all how Guren would prefer. He was one of precision, detail, and strategy. But being in this…foreign village seemed to bring out the worst in people. He sighed, anxiously hoping that he would leave this place when the mission was completed.
 
Following this, Kita and Naki would agree on being the ones to storm the toy shop. Although Naki was just a genin, Guren was more than confident in his pupil’s ability to execute this task. Especially alongside the decorated shinobi from Kirigakure. He would watch Kita proceed towards the shop, leap upwards, and enter the facility from the top. Seemed as if Naki would be awaiting Kita to open the main door. And when that would happen, the plan would fully commence. Kita and Naki’s teamwork was as efficient as an assembly line. Smiling to himself, Guren would continuously monitor the woman who was now the team’s hostage. She seemed to be sound asleep, resting quite peacefully. The Chinoike would continue to monitor the situation at hand while his clone was out surveying the village.
 
Beginning by ascending a nearby building, Guren’s clone would waste no time in its stride to start its surveillance. With an advantageous bird’s eye perspective of the village, the clone would easily be able to see all of the events occurring. Yet at this time of the night, most of the village was quiet and inactive. The most notable happenings in the clone’s immediate line of vision were stray dogs and cats running through the streets, drunken pedestrians stumbling their way from the bar, and patrolmen walking through the village. The clone would continue leaping from building to building, searching for any signs of either a massive tree or a gathering. It was times like these that Guren wished the Byakugan within his eye would just awaken already. Nevertheless after some moments of continuing through the village, the clone would spot a small group of people huddled up and walking in a direction away from the clone. Potentially this way a sign of the festivities.
 
Trailing just behind them, the clone would stalk the group of people as they continued making their way towards the destination. And ironically enough, none of them seemed concerned with the possibility of being followed or tracked. Upon studying their mannerisms more closely, it was evident that they were indeed drunk. By attire alone, it was impossible to distinguish if they belonged to a certain faction or not. The only remarkable feature was that all of them wore white robes. But as far as Guren knew, there seemed to be followers of two people; Itazura presumably being one of those people. And the missions she assigned him to were intended to fulfill her will.
 
As the clone followed them, he would take a moment to look straight ahead and what lied in front of him was unbelievable. A massive, 200 foot tall pine tree, decorated with ornaments and other things of that nature. And as the group neared the plaza the tree stood with, Guren’s clone would peer over a building and immediately see a sea of white cloaks. It had to have been dozens, maybe a couple hundred shinobi gathered in this small area. All of which seemed to be standing motionless…almost lifelessly starting at the pinnacle of the tree. The clone would take a moment to activate its Ketsuryugan, and analyze the chakra signatures within the crowd. All of them seemed disturbed, and heavily influenced by an outside presence. It was similar to the workings of Genjutsu. The clone would refrain from looking at the star itself, but instead would perform a handseal of its own and instantly dispel itself.
 
The time it took for the clone to complete this analysis and dispel itself matched up perfectly with when Naki and Kita would be concluding their business in the toy shop. Guren’s ears would perk up in response to his clone dissipating, and would instantly be aware of the events the clone saw.
 
“Great work Naki and Kita. I’m not sure the best way to dispose of those presents…especially knowing they’re filled with bombs. Kita, clerk…any ideas?”
 
Guren would leave it to either of them to discern the best way to deal with the bomb filled presents. Whatever they’d decide, he would agree with and watch them carry that plan out. Yet once that was finished, he would brief them on his findings.
 
“So my clone was about to scout the village out. About 200 meters from us, there’s a large ceremony going down. With a bunch of white robed people staring aimlessly at some…star atop of a tree in the center of the plaza. Their blind focus reminds me of something a genjutsu would do, so I suppose they may be under some type of illusory trance. I thi-“ Guren would continue before being interrupted by the woman.
 
She’d be fully awake and standing, having seized the opportunity to free herself from the genjutsu while the team was focused on the mission. “The star is the source of the Genjutsu. And I would have told you that and helped you all had you not kidnaped me and put me under a genjutsu. And if you lot try to subdue me again, I’ll finish you all…” the woman would say with piercing intent and a degree of chill in her voice. To Guren, it was oddly reminiscent of the Kazekage’s voice. And though he wasn’t one to be scared, her voice was admittedly chilling…much more different than it had been before.
 
The woman would dust her cloak off and look upon the four shinobi of various backgrounds standing before her. “I gathered you all here to help me thwart this festival of Yoi. He intends to perform a dark and dangerous ceremony which will hurt a number of his followers and my own. By brainwashing his people, he’ll use them to attack my followers and a civil war will erupt in the village. We must not allow that to happen.” As she finished her concise summary, she’d bring her hands together and instantly the four shinobi before her would be cloaked with long robes. They’d extend all the way down to their feet, almost capable of dragging on the ground behind them. 

“These cloaks are capable of augmenting your appearances, forcing them to take on the look of your surroundings. Essentially it is camouflage. Guren, I’m sure you saw the number of shinobi in that plaza. It’s in the hundreds, and there’s no way you four can take them all on. So for now on, we do this my way. Discretely. We will go to the plaza, near invisible, ascend the tree, and steal the star. From there, we will escape. However once this star is stolen, I promise to transport you each back to your respective lands…I would ask if everyone agreed with the plan, but you simply have no choice but to do exactly what I said. Now, shall we? Oh, and when we get there please do not use any high level jutsu. We cannot be detected…”
 
When she would finish her instructions, she’d levitate off the ground and begin flying off towards the direction of the plaza. Who was Guren to argue with a woman of such ability, let alone with a plan that was so eloquent and well thought out? He’d look down at the cloak that draped and camouflaged him, and would shrug towards the rest of the group. “Let’s go, I guess.” With that, Guren would take off after the woman. He’d ascend the nearby, 30m / 100 ft tall building using his surface walking technique and from there he would proceed to make his way down a similar pathway as to what his clone had done just moments ago. Soon, he would arrive at the outskirts of the plaza and have his own look at the masses gathered to stare at the star. With his Ketsuryugan activated, he’d scan the crowd. It was in fact a genjutsu imparted on all of those standing in front of the tree. The woman’s intel was right, so her identity and intentions checked out. Guren sighed in relief, it was nice to know there weren’t being played.
 
When everyone was gathered on the rooftop, 30 meters / 100 ft tall and 15 meters / 50 ft away from the tree, Itazura would look at them. “Well…here we are. I cannot go any further, as my presence will likely be detected. So it is up to the four of you to get that star. Oh, and to retrieve it, all four of you must grasp your hands upon it and lift in unison.”
 
Frowning in response, Guren was half tempted to question why she wouldn’t be able to fly to the top of the tree and get it herself. Guren would do so himself using sage mode or a vulture, yet that would compromise their stealth and instantly sick the hundreds of shinobi on the group of four. “If we’re disguised by these cloaks, to me the best option would be to ascend it…climb it, I mean. Any objections?”
 
After Guren’s proposal, assuming everyone was on board. Guren would leap the 15 meters / 50 feet to the tree, and gracefully catch his footing upon the tree’s surface. Of course he would be using the tree climbing technique when doing this. And cautiously, he would walk up the tree. He’d take particular care to ensure he was avoiding any ornaments dropping, or offsetting the weight of the tree and potentially causing it to collapse. When his teammates would land on the tree, he would hope that they would do the same. Within some minutes, Guren would find himself at the peak of the tree. Now up here, he would continue to make sure that his gaze never met the sparkle of the star. Still though, his spatial awareness was adequate enough to know the star was just over top of him. When his team got to the top, he’d make sure they were all free of the genjutsu. If any had been, he’d take the time to release them from it.

“Alright, let’s all reach out to it now. And lift on three” he’d pause and wait for the group to be ready. Additionally he’d outstretch his hands to the star, while maintaining eye contact with that of his teammates. “One…two…three!”

And as the group grabbed ahold of the star, its shine would darken and all those staring at it would be freed from the genjutsu. From there, Itazura would fly towards the group and snatch the star from their grasp.

“It’s mine! Finally! Excellent! Thank you…and ta-ta!”
 
Upon hearing her abrupt goodbye, Guren would blink and his presence would instantly be back into the confines of his office in Sunagakure. What just happened? Everything was so sudden, he would have no clue of the aftermath of their actions. His mouth had a slight stream of drool from his lip. Had he been dreaming? Was this all his subconscious acting up in his sleep? He had to lay off all the msg…But Guren would rise from his desk, and immediately seek to reach out to either the clerk or Naki. Perhaps one of them would also remember what happened…

-Exit-


WC = 2013. TWC = 5580

Claiming:
Mission Rewards for all three holiday missions
4000 + 7500 + 10000 Ryo = 21500 Ryo
20 + 40 + 50 AP Converted to Ryo due to max AP -> 50*(110) = 5500 Ryo
1 Omnistone
1 Tinkerer's Toolkit
1 Material Demagnetizer
1 Extra Entry into Christmas Lottery
1500 Ryo for A Rank, Deputy Kage Mission Completion

25% Max Stat Discount:
- 1500 WC to awaken Byakugan
- 1500 WC to awaken Shikotsumyaku BL
- 2580 WC towards Blood Dragon: Invasion (2580/3750) - Claiming B and A rank

approved

Kita watched through the security cameras as his partner Naki proceeded through the main doors. The Sunagakure shinobi quickly made their way through the facility, finding a particularly large storeroom of presents, which the boy conjured some clones to help him cart out. Kita nodded to himself as he overlooked the security monitors. A good idea. Kita could see that there were a few rooms in this facility that had a couple extra presents, so Kita figured it would be a good idea to chip in. The boy dropped his invisibility technique and weaved a couple of hand signs, conjuring a set of clones himself. They quickly made their way through the facility, picking up gifts in the more remote rooms that Naki had missed, before all of the Kita's made their way outside with packages in hand, dropping them in a pile Naki had made earlier.

"That should be the last. I didn't see any more over the security cameras."

Guren asked how they should dispose of the presents. Kita took a good look over at them. There were quite a few of them, though based off of the ones he had gathered they were relatively light. Theoretically someone could throw them a pretty good distance... Kita began weaving the hand seals for his new technique, only needing to make a half as many as he once did since his training with it. Full power wasn't needed. Kita conjured a low powered Razor Wind Concurrence orb 15 meters away from the group. To the rest of them, it would seem as though a 1 meter in diameter white orb of wind had appear in the air, violently spinning in place. Kita would snap his fingers for dramatic effect, rapidly growing the orb to reach its full proportion of 10 meters in diameter. Kita would then grab a box and throw it into the now massive orb, which promptly ripped the little thing to absolute shreds, bomb and all. So thorough was its destruction that on a few minuscule paper punch sized bits of cardboard were left. Kita gave a grin to the rest of the group.

"Throw the boxes in here. It'll rip them up so small that we won't need to worry about it anymore. It's wind too, so now risk of the bombs going off due to combustion like fire or lightning would cause."

Guren quickly explained how he had seen the festival in question, though Kita was surprised by the woman's awakening. He had figured something was up with her, though he hadn't realized she was their employer. He had so many questions, but by this point the boy was getting very tired, and he simply wished to return home.

"I'll find answers later..."

Kita threw on the cloak and followed Guren's lead, following him towards the tree he had scoped out. They couldn't use high level ninjutsu apparently, so Kita simply had to make do with the cloak and his silent killing. Kita would follow behind the group, all the way up until they had gotten to the star. He would help lift it, and heard their mysterious employer gave a cheer of joy. He saw Guren vanish, and waited for the same to happen to him. Yet... it didn't. As Kita looked down, his cloak was gone from his body, but he was still there.

"Shit, I'm not hidden!"

Kita quickly jumped off the tree and away from his cackling employer, using his body flicker to flee somewhere into this strange landscape. He would have to find answers later. As well as a way home...

Word Count - 601

Total Word Count - 4753

Exit Claims:

Approved!

Naki would look towards kita as he told them what to do with the gifts. Naki didn't really wait as he started to launch them into the jutsu to get rid of the problem. One after another as Naki watched as this jutsu torn away at the gifts destroying them fairly quickly and easily. The young Genin was definitely impressed by it as he was wondering if kita would be willing to teach him anything. If guren was paying any attention to Naki he'd see that flair up of Naki about to ask something. "Hey kita would you be willing to...." he started to say as he was finishing up with the gift throwing before relax a bit until he was cut off as he heard a female voice as he turned around quickly to see the woman who was in a genjutsu waken up and started to speak once more. This was a pleasant surprise to Naki as it came to be that this woman who's just been put through hell thanks to Guren and the clerk turned out to be the one who brought them here. Naki didn't speak as she basically reamed everyone as she also introduced herself to them. When she told them that they were going to do the final mission her way and be discreet about it Naki kind of felt relieved he'd prefer it this way a bit especially when they're are a ton of Shinobi there among the crowd he may be young but Naki sure wasn't stupid. Naki would nod in agreement before they were told that they're gonna get going now as he didn't know exactly where to go. Naki had a few questions for the woman but they weren't gonna be answered anytime soon as she started to fly off which was mind boggling to Naki as this was the first time he's seen anything like this. The young man would dawn the cloak as he looked at himself a bit. Naki would follow behind the pack as they pressed on after the woman until they came across the building. Naki would watch as guren climbed the building when he got up there Naki would follow behind as he looked around at the many people who were standing in there as his eyes moved to the large tree. Naki was surprised that it was able to get there but then again at the amount of Shinobi there it's possible that they all just pitched in to get it. He'd see the people who were just standing there not really moving just standing there around the tree. For some reason he expected them to grab each other hand and start to sing as they swing back and forth like they're praising the tree. Naki would look around as the scenery was something to behold it wasn't cheerful but the feeling was making him itch for some paper.



Naki was starting to think about drawing again but he needs to focus on the mission at hand drawing would have to wait for later. Hearing the woman say she wasn't gonna be coming with them made sense. Her presence was familiar around the area unlike theirs so this wasn't gonna be a problem for them clearly. When guren said that the best plan was to just climb it Naki would think that would be the best option. He'd nod as Guren leapt to the tree as Naki would judge it's distance as he backed up and leapt as well joining guren on the tree. An ornament almost fell when he did as he held onto it with all of his might keeping it in place until it stopped shaking. Naki would breathe a soft sigh of relief before looking upwards towards the top unable to see the star but could hear everyone else moving still as he nods to himself then proceed to climb up the tree joining everyone at the top once they got there. The young man would look around as he wasn't expecting his day to go like this but he's glad to be doing something other than just sitting at home. He'd soon grabbed on the star along with the others and on Guren's count he'd lift in unison as they got the star off of the tree. 



Before he could even celebrate with everyone the star was taken out of their hands. Naki would stumbled because of the sudden snatch as he started to fall off the tree. Naki was kind of panicking now as he wasn't able to grab onto anything to save himself as he was crashing towards the ground. When she waved at them before flying off Naki would be flailing his arms before he finally blinked as he hit the ground in his apartment home as he looked around before sitting up. He'd looked outside to see that he was back in Sunagakure as this made him confused as was it all a dream? Naki would turn to look at the bag that he had and opened it up to see the picture he drew and nods hoping that everything that happened was real as he grabbed the paper and ran off to see Guren. This was to crazy Naki had just gotten to leave the village for the first time but he was doubting if he really did and he needed answers as he didn't know the clerk and kita was in Kiri if he remembers correctly. Naki had grabbed his monkey tea t-shirt from the mission involving the monkey's uncle and proceeded to spire in hopes that Guren was there and he also can vouch that they really just did all that.  



WC 952 TWC 3054

Exit claims:

Approved