A Fated Hour

Mission Summary:

Stats:

Word of vandals within the graveyard had reached the HQ, and it was time to put an end to it. Nestled into the darkness, Yuuma waited on the outskirts of the graveyard located within the city limits and kept a careful watch, waiting to see just who it was that had taken it upon themselves to desecrate the dead and bring them to justice. His mind returned to a point when he had sought one of these bounties before- a mission designated as a Hunter. Someone both dangerous and criminally minded to the village. This time, there wasn't going to be any warning or request for surrender. On this clear night with the moon shining brightly overhead, he would unveil the perpetrator once and for all.

Hitomi Sarutobi:

Hitomi found herself back in one of Hoshi's prominent cemeteries for the third time in the last two weeks. It was another brisk night but she found that her leather jacket and cigarettes were doing an adequate job of staving off the cold. She was excited to be here again, in fact she found herself longing for the rush of ecstasy that she had experience on that first night. Hitomi was upset on that night after being kicked from her Genin team due to "unreconcilable issues with authority". I'm not the one with the problem. This village just has a problem with incompetent assholes being in charge. Having found herself in the cemetery, she let her emotions take control that night and the anger came out in the form of her vandalizing a number of different opulent looking graves.

When she returned to the area of number of nights later she found that most of her damage had been fixed and signs had been erected to ask people not to vandalize the area and made a note that the area was being monitored. Yeah sure, I fucking doubt it. That second night she limited her escapades to spray painting a few of the graves that had been repaired to leave a warning. "Fuck You! There's more where this came from." 

This third visit she had much bigger plans. The village leadership would see the full impact of her resolve and hopefully she would get to experience that rush one more time. Hitomi could see anyone around at the east entrance as she pulled out a can and began to write out a message for people to see the next day. "This is just the beginning." With that done she started walking with the paint can still in hand towards the middle of the cemetery where many of the memorials were located. The plan would be to blow up large sections of the cemetery and get out before anyone showed up to investigate. Then after that maybe pay a visit to the academy...

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WC: 342

Finally, the culprit had appeared. It hadn't felt like long, but Yuuma had been hard-focused the entire time. No one really came to the graveyard at night, so the chunin wasn't exactly expecting just anyone to waltz through the resting place of the dead. So when the young woman began to stride towards the center of the graves, Yuuma knew his quarry had arrived. His first instinct was to step out and say something. Offer some manner of confrontation and an opportunity to change their mind- change themselves. But images of the young, black-haired Emi burning away before him and the idea that the ashes of his own mentor lay in this cemetery stayed his feet and his tongue. But it would not stay his fury.

As the woman made her way to the mid of the graveyard, Yuuma would meld his hands together in a set of series slow enough to avoid drawing attention to his presence. Ram. Monkey. Hare. In front of him, a small bush that he had been stationed behind would fade into a larger form naturally, appearing as a larger fern that reached to just under the trees that surrounded the edge of the graveyard and concealing the chunin from the woman's view. Next was a quick set of seals. Ram. Monkey. Ram. Dragon. Boar. Appearing besides Yuuma was a clone covered in crystal- the means by which Yuuma would attempt to ensnare the woman should his plan fail. Nodding to the clone, it would slip beneath the surface of the ground, burying itself twenty-one meters before moving forward as Yuuma began his assault.

A brilliant flare of purple energy would likely give away that something was about to happen, but that didn't stop Yuuma from activating his Peacock spirit just as Hitomi reached the middle of the field. Two sets of seals formed, one on each hand. On the left: Tiger. Boar. Rat. Snake. Ox. Ram. Dragon. Tiger. Snake. On the right: Ram. Horse. Dragon. Hare. Snake. Horse. The seals having been paced to end at the same time, the jutsu would immediately spring forth. Five meters in front of Yuuma, a spring of mud would bubble and begin to rush forward, sweeping wide with the middle of the Earth Flow River aimed directly for Hitomi having spawned 30 meters away. Simultaneously, a two-meter tall dragon maw would open from a position five meters from Yuuma ahead and left in a diagonal position, opening to face the graveyard intruder and unleash three thunderous blasts that rocketed towards the woman alongside the rushing river of mud.

For the moment, Yuuma stood his ground, waiting to see how the woman would respond. The clone, however, was quickly closing the distance maintaining its depth for the time being.

Combat Information:

(Note: From my reading of False Surroundings Technique it is only able to change the appearance of an object but not actually increase the size of said object. I don't think it really affects my post mechanically, but I am proceeding with the idea that the fern is still around the same mass as a small bush as indicated in your post.)

Hitomi was beat boxing to herself inadvertently as she sauntered through the cemetery. There had been the warning on the signs, but she hadn't encountered anyone during her previous visit so took it to just be a bluff of some kind. As such she was caught off guard when she perceived a concentration of purple energy to her left emanating from a bush or fern of some kind out in the tree line at the southern edge of the graveyard. Now on alert, she dropped the paint can she was holding and went to reach for a kunai from her pouch using her left hand. However, before she could secure a weapon, a puddle of mud began to bubble up 30 meters away at the same time as a large dragon head formed from the ground a short distance from the mud. Then the mud began rushing fast as the construct launched large projectiles.

Luckily Hitomi recognized the mud technique as it was one she was quite fond of and seeing it tipped her off that she was actually under attack. She shifted her weight to the left and accelerated quickly to dodge both the river of mud and the boulders being launched at her. By her estimation and familiarity with the technique it should just barely reach her but she opted to dodge to the side rather than move backwards in a gamble. After running 5 meters to the left she realized that this version of the technique was more advanced that what she knew, not only was it traveling faster but it was also much wider than what she was capable of. This is a dangerous opponent... fucking scum. Before the river of mud reached her, she leapt off of the ground to clear the next 20 meters putting her clear of the river and getting her further away from the projectile spewing monstrosity.

After landing on the ground 5 meters from the edge of the flowing river she started to run south along it towards the purple aura she had seen earlier. If she stayed mobile it should be difficult for the rock spewer to hit her and based on her understanding of the Earth Flow River technique she surmised that the aura correlated directly with where a user of that technique could or should be located. She didn't expect the stuffy Hoshi elite to take her threats seriously but she wouldn't run from a fight. In fact, this was what she hard really wanted the whole time; an opportunity to prove that the village had grown weak with complacency.

She now grabbed a kunai with an attached flash paper with her left hand and a smoke bomb with her right hand as she performed a series of beats corresponding to hand seals. Rat. Tiger. Dog. Ox. Once she was within 15 meters of the purple aura Hitomi would inhale and spit out 6 fireballs that would travel above any headstone and would seek to pepper the area in a 2 meter diameter circle around the aura to control as much area as possible. After releasing the fireballs she would perform beats for another set of seals. Ram. Horse. Snake. Dragon. This time ash would stream from Hitomi's wrist and begin to take shape in the form of 5 separate ashen birds. Hitomi's mastery of the technique would allow her to manipulate the birds freely as they would spread out and approach from above waiting until Hitomi had a clear visual but with 2 of the birds beginning to circle around above the aura.

Hitomi would hold her attacks if the aura moved away from her in a way that it would not be within 15 meters of her instead opting to continue south along the mud river with kunai and bomb in hand. If there was instead no movement or interruptions, she would wait for the ash vortex to form around the assailant before taking further action.

---

WC: 661
TWC: 1003

Combat Info:

Things began to unfold slower than Yuuma had expected. Taking stealth seemed to have been a good approach; a lack of proclamation allowed the shinobi to put some jutsu on the field before his opponent had begun to act. He could recognize that the woman must have had some sort of training as she seemed to acknowledge readily just the kind of fate that the rushing mud had put her towards and had taken to leaping to get away from it. There was a moment where Yuuma saw a vision from his past, standing atop a tower of dirt, watching in the distance as a blue-skinned genin leaped towards him. He felt then as he did now.

With the seal of confrontation made, the dragon maw had to turn only slightly before it fired off a series of three blasts- each a meter in diameter- once Hitomi had left the ground. Being over three times as fast, the shots would collide with Hitomi just after her leap reached the eight-meter mark, slamming into her mid-air if she had no other means to maneuver and sending her crashing down into the river of mud beneath her, sweeping her along the ground out another thirty meters.

As the shots were fired, Yuuma would take to the air thanks to the collection of violet chakra that gathered at his back like a set of wings, lifting him off and into the air while careful to avoid any terrain that might snag his ascent. Moving to his own left, he'd put the river of mud between himself and the intended landing spot of Hitomi, the vastly superior speed seeing him move into position before his own shots had even landed. A speed that was almost comically fast compared to the typically slow-moving monk who was known around the village for his particularly sluggish mobility. Yuuma never took it to heart; he was very well and capable of being where he needed to be when he needed to be.

Aligning himself with Hitomi, he'd keep a thirty-meter distance no matter her ultimate position in the face of a barrage of mud missile fire, the moon tracing him perfectly as his silhouette dropped against the shining surface in the sky, giving Hitomi every chance in the world to recognize his position. "This is your one and only opportunity. Surrender. Or die." A cold and ominous warning that didn't particularly fit the usually stoic medic who was often quick to smile and was considered a calming presence in the small district his medical shop resided in.

The clone, having been moving swiftly in the direction of the opponent, momentarily lost sense of where she was when she lept into the air only to pick her up when she landed one way or another. With the steadily evolving situation, the clone would take its time with its movements now being unsure if it had been detected. A test was in order, and thus the clone would move to position themselves only ten meters beneath Hitomi and tracked their movements with ease as the earth glide speed was twice that of the opponent's movements thus far. One way or another, it would be in a position to strike within moments.

Combat info:

(For Hiding Like a Mole the detection is proximity based, but I am assuming you are using constant telepathy between the two to give the clone approximate location information and directions when out of detection range. Just something to keep in mind when writing your posts)

Hitomi had made an error. A forced error, but an error nonetheless. It wasn't long after her feet had left the ground that she heard the triple cannon blast of that dragon head again and this time she was a sitting duck with no way to dodge the incoming projectiles. She needed to get control of her body again and reacted by instinct and fear next, forming the next handseal with her hands. Ram. She vanished in a blur as her body accelerated suddenly. She had already cleared 1 meter with her jump before this and aimed for her new trajectory to clear the 15 meters to land adjacent to the river, the quickest path for her to reach the ground.

Hitomi immediately start spitting some phat beats for her next technique upon landing, running ahead while tossing a smoke bomb right under feet and another 2 meters to the right, stopping her movement after 3 meters so that she was not actually within the smoke clouds but with the goal of creating a visual barrier between her and that person with the glowing aura. Ram. Horse. Snake. Dragon. Ash would stream from Hitomi's wrists and begin to take the form of 5 ashen birds. She would keep the birds hidden within the smoke bombs for now anticipating what the next move of her assailant would be.


Following that she would form another set of beats. Tiger. Rat. Dog. After the third beat she would slam her hands on the ground, burrowing a web of fire chakra into the ground ahead of her south along the mud river. The smoke bombs would mean she would not necessarily be able to see the enemy if they approached but hopefully the birds and webs would offer her some measure of protection until she would close the distance with her adversary.

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WC: 308
TWC: 1311

Combat Info:

The woman landed on her feet after some quick thinking and cleared the shots and his river. A part of Yuuma lamented- this woman could have been a valuable force to Hoshigakure with her clever and careful moving; someone who could have made a difference saving lives instead of running around a graveyard at night in some ill-conceived attempt at what, sending a message? It made what he had to do next all that more painful. "Have it your way," he thought to himself.

The smoke filtered into the area, and the woman would make some manner of musical noise that he couldn't quite understand- something he had been too far away to hear before. Whatever it was, Yuuma wasn't sure what it did though it hardly mattered: she had betrayed that she wasn't moving in the smoke. Having maneuvered to put himself between the woman at his front and the moon at his back, it had allowed Yuuma to almost perfectly line up their shadows. There was no sound, no movement of the hand as his own shadow shot forward, now concealed by the smoke and aided by both the woman's strange noises and the positioning of his clone, the quick-moving shadow would snatch the ethereal image of the vandal, causing her body to seize up after she performed her second set of beats and slammed her hands into the ground.

Careful to keep his distance from the unseen foe, he wasn't sure what she had just done but that slap on the ground was very obvious some manner of jutsu, which meant that those noises likely allowed her to utilize jutsu in a way he had never seen before. Yuuma still had no idea what the woman used, but at least he had an inclination as to mindset: she intended to attack. Had she meant to run, she likely would have done so and used her smoke and jutsu to get away. Instead, she tried to put herself in an advantageous position.

Once the shadow latched onto its target, Yuuma would move closer to both the ground and the woman, careful to not stretch his shadow too thin on his descent, hovering just above the ground and allowing his shadow to stretch back into the fog until there were twenty meters of distance between them. His river having been left to dry, he observed the smoke for only a moment before his hands formed a set of seals. Boar. Tiger. Ox. Dragon. Monkey. Bird. Ten directly meters between them, a pool of mud sprang forth though instead of rushing towards its target, the mud would begin to widen and spread, easily clearing the distance between them as the swamp grew to a staggering radius that would threaten to encompass them both if Yuuma did not take to hovering, allowing the mud to sweep under his feet. Should the woman be caught, the shadow would remain attached as she sank into the mud.

Following the completion of the previous set of seats, Yuuma would initiate a second set. Boar. Tiger. Snake. Ox. Rat. Then a clap of the hands as his shadow expanded around him and out to twenty meters, attempting to wrap the unseen woman in another swathe of shadow that would sap at her strength, draining what capacity she had to fight the torrent of mud that was likely sucking her in. The woman had been creative in her denial of Yuuma's techniques thus far, which only added to the frustrating reality of having to fight to one another's neck.

The clone, having served its role as a beacon and backup, would dissipate itself once the Shadow Imitation had taken hold, returning its borrowed energy back to Yuuma.

Combat info:

Hitomi was feeling confident in her plan as her hands hit the ground. She hadn't actually gotten a solid look at her opponent but perhaps now they would be forced to reveal themselves instead of hiding in the trees like a coward. Thanks to the smoke she had no idea that her opponent had moved and certainly could not have anticipated the speed. She had barely any time to react, still crouched, as she caught sight of the shadow shooting towards her on the ground. She tried to brace herself to block the effects of the technique put it was too strong and she found herself unable to independently control her limbs.

How the fuck did they- She was pissed at the situation. She couldn't see her opponent but she knew the direction the shadow had come from and she could still move her mouth which was enough for her. Monkey. Dragon. Boar. Ox. Horse Performing the beats as soon as she was under the effects of the shadow jutsu and had realized she was unable to move she would exhale a large ever expanding cloud of ash through the smoke bomb in the direction the shadow had come from. Hopefully this surprise attack would catch her opponent off guard enough to free her of this shadow jutsu's effect. She waited for the release but once she began forming hand seals against her will she knew that she would have to act now or be done for. The attacker obviously knew her location as evidence by the shadow jutsu she was suffering from which meant she needed to relocate as soon as possible.

Hitomi would immediately pull up the surrounding earth to her body once the hand seals began, the burst of strength providing her with freedom to move again and she wasted no time dashing away from the direction of the ash cloud she had expunged, directing the ash birds to travel above her as she went and wanting to put as much distance between her and the assailant as possible. She was angry and out for blood, but she was also clearly at a disadvantage and needed to reset the situation and reassess. As she retreated, she glanced back to see a swamp expanding and with a sense of deja vu she would leap once again to get off the ground in an attempt to avoid what appeared to be another mud trap, this time using the increased athletics to jump ahead a total of 45 meters, turning her body to face the smokey area she had abandoned as she leapt. If there was no sign of the assailant pursuing her she would allow the birds to dissipate and after landing would move to crouch and hide behind a nearby gravestone to catch her breath while keeping an eye out for any other signs of activity.

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WC: 478
TWC: 1789

Combat Info:

(( Because Shadow Imitation latches onto one's shadow, the jutsu would take hold of Hitomi without ever actually making physical contact with her, and thus Block would not be activated to debuff the jutsu. Though Block would likely still be active by the time Swamp hit, the fact that it and the Degradation field hit at practically the same time pretty much renders it moot, I'm afraid. Lastly, due to the positioning of Yuuma in the sky with the moon behind him, both his and Hitomi's shadow would have been behind her if she was facing Yuuma. An attempt to unleash Burning Ash would not be possible as she targets it "in the direction the shadow came from", which would be behind her. Even if she had turned to face that direction in the time it took the shadow to reach her, the ash would be blown harmlessly away from where Yuuma nearly landed. ))

With his jutsu set into place, Yuuma would feel the effective hold his shadow had over the woman, and with the mud and further shadow quickly sweeping over the woman's position, all that was left for Yuuma to do was to bring a hand up to her own mouth, placing the knuckle of his thumb between his teeth in the assumption that the woman would have to mimic the position while she was above the surface and sinking into the mud of the Swamp of the Underworld, disallowing her lips to meet and thus cutting her off from whatever odd form of jutsu creation she had access to. While he couldn't see into the smoke, Yuuma still wasn't exactly willing to take any chances with what was going on. He could feel the struggle against the grip of his shadow, but for the time being, it seemed as though she was unable to break free, and thus would certainly begin to sink into the swamp.

The violet chakra would flicker out and fade as Yuuma released his hold on the technique, drawing chakra to the bottom of his feet that would allow him to walk on the surface of the mud without fear of being affected by his own technique. Moving another five meters closer, Yuuma would continue to keep his mouth blocked in the hopes that the woman would quietly succumb to the mud that threatened to swallow her whole and keep her entombed beneath the earth. Focused as he was, Yuuma would only continue to wait until he felt the shadow of the woman cease her struggle and succumb to the swamp. But just for safe measure, Yuuma would use his free hand to utilize a set of seals for a medical jutsu, hoping that the woman didn't have something similar but knowing it wouldn't help her much even if she did. Monkey. Ox. Snake. Ram. Tiger. Dog. Boar. A gentle blue glow, less intense than the last aura he surrounded himself with would shimmer over the monk's form briefly as he prepared for this woman to find a way out of this mess.

Combat info:

(With Hitomi facing south the shadow would be to her left and not behind allowing the ash to still go through except in the complete wrong direction. kms)

After exhaling the ash to her left, even with her amplified strength Hitomi was unable to break free from the hold on her. Now stuck it she was soon felt her strength sapped as she started to be dragged down into a swamp of mud. Fuck you. She caught a glimpse of the bastard before she sank into the mud completely, noting that her previous ash attack had been aimed in the complete wrong direction, and she would direct her ashen birds to strike the man, 4 of them circling above to create a vortex holding the assailant in place while the last bird would dive down to strike at him.

She sank deeper and deeper, her hand forced over her mouth by some trick of the man, and as her form was completely enveloped by the swamp she felt control of her body return (submerged in the swamp with no shadow to hold) yet she had no strength to fight and free herself. She felt her consciousness fading, the birds above fading away as she lost the ability to maintain control, and lamented not that she was about to die but that she would die quietly in this swamp, joining the many other bodies buried here in this god forsaken cemetery.

{Conceding the fight}

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WC: 212
TWC: 2001

Claims: