A Broken Blade for Hire

Mission:

Rin entered the village, still skittish and just a little traumatized from the scare she had getting into the village, all the same she steeled herself, doing her best not to give away her strained mental state as she looked around, she was still accompanied by the guard who had granted her entrance and she was still unsure if that was a good thing or not. Certainly it was a good sign that this village wasn't foolish enough to allow un-vetted shinobi into their town unescorted, but at the same time she didn't like having a baby sitter, it wasn't a good look and if she was going to pick up any jobs it wouldn't exactly make for the best look. As Rin wandered through the streets of the city, snow pouring down around her, the woman, heavily wrapped in a thick woollen cloak, a pair of thick fur boots covering her feet and a heavy infinity scarf patterned in pink and blue covering her neck, a matching thick woolen sweater covered her body, keeping the heat in and sheltering her from the harsh bite of the wind that swirled around her, blowing off the white flakes. She could have sworn it was warm a few hours ago, but this blizzard had blown in from nowhere, there were few people outside during this time of year, and those who did brave the cold had their own business to attend to rather than being out on the street so it was just her and her escort that were within easy view. Although easy view was really only a few meters with the thick wave of snow that obscured their vision so thoroughly, turning her head towards the man as they continued through the streets Rin did her best to start up a polite conversation "so the village looks..." Rin paused trying to think of a polite way to say what she was thinking, eventually giving up and providing a polite platitude. "like it has been developing well,  although i notice you seem a little short on staff" She said, studiously avoiding looking back towards the village gates, It didn't help that behind the two of them a few dozen meters trailed a pair of clones, mirror copies of her down to a tea, although those copies each were quite literally mirrors, the eye she was missing inverted, the missing arm on the other side, and her distinguishing streak of hair coloured on the other side rather than the side that hers normally sat on.

It was with a strange parcel that Emi approached Kuruoshiki. He had been a source of lots of information for her recently, and a trusted member of the village forces. More so than others on the roster, for certain.

She did notice that he was walking with an individual, but, having no idea who the individual was, simply continued on her way towards the pair. Kuruoshiki seemed slow to notice her approach. Which was not entirely unexpected, he seemed rather focused on the individual by his side.

He was beginning to say something, apparently prompted by a discussion from the other individual, when Emi sort of... very unceremoniously inserted herself into the conversation, breaking whatever conversation was being had moments ago.

"Hey, Kuruo, I got this... weird thing from a courier just a few minutes ago." It was a strange scroll looking item. The paper was red and cold stripped, while the bits at the end I forgot the name of were a brilliant green. "Dude delivered it through the window of a fourth story building directly to me, and by the time I realized how fucking WEIRD that was, he was completely gone?"

She held the scroll out towards Kuruoshiki. He was glad she had not opened it, as it certainly seemed to be a most weird item. He began to reach out, but there was a sudden flash and then...

Emi found herself in a place that was decidedly not her home.

Kuruoshiki was decidedly not there.

The weather, already bad at home, was now decidedly worse, with snow rising up to the middle of Emi's calves. This was not right. Something was very wrong.

Fuck, what had she done?

---

WC 282

Rin tensed up for a moment as she saw the girl approaching, the way the few villagers out and about gave her nods of acknowledgement, the faint respect and deference they all showed with their body language had Rin's senses on edge, she'd seen that sort of behavior before, usually only in response to village leaders or their right hands, It was subtle of course, but with the number of times Rin had been burned she was hyper aware of such things. Her spiritual senses shot out examining the girl in detail even as she continued asking her questions of the escort, at least until she got a sense for a girl, then she paused in genuine confusion mid conversation, She could have understood if the girl did not have a presence to her spiritual senses, skilled individuals could easily suppress their chakra, but this girl felt... well there was really only one way to describe it, she felt weak, much like the girl who had been watching the gates, and Rin was left wondering if it was common in this village for shinobi to be trained to mask their chakra signatures in such a way or if she had been wrong. Certainly this level of weakeness couldn't be the norm within this village, could it?

Rin was left pondering this as the girl ran up to the pair of them, mostly ignoring Rin and talking to her escort, Rin watched the girl closely, the girl hardely seemed to pay her any attention and spoke freely with the man who had been escorting her, that was even stranger; if the girl was that high up in this village as to be the right hand of its leader then she certainly should have had more political tact than to discuss something with one of the village guards in the middle of escorting an unknown visitor, but that was exactly what she did, bounding up to Rin's escort the girl pulled out an ornate scroll of Red Green and gold. If Rin's spiritual senses hadn't already been trained on the girl she likely wouldn't have noticed, If she wasn't so heavily specialised and experienced with the manipulation of Space Time she likely wouldn't have noticed, If she hadn't been burned, and truamatised so many times for letting small details slip by she likely wouldn't have noticed, but all of those things were true, which left Rin as one of the few people that was capable of noticing the danger of the scroll. It must have been made by a master for whilst the scroll warped the fabric of time and space around it, it did so in a way that was so innocuous and so subtle that it almost seemed a normal quirk of the fabric of reality.

The girl moved to pass the scroll to her escort and Rin reacted on instinct, when asked later she would make up an excuse that she had intended to negate the threat of the scroll, that she had believed herself capable of neutralising it before it could activate, but in actual fact despite the many, many times she had been burned, the young girl before her sparked something inside of her, a faint desire to protect. She would never admit it of course but the girl reminded her of herself when she was her age, and that was most likely why she had jumped forwards to try and save her without any real thought.
Rin's two mirror images rushed forwards on her command as quickly as they possibly could, each one moving forward on instinct as Rin lunged forward for the scroll. The girl was speaking, but her words were lost on Rin in the moment, she began shaping her chakra on instinct, putting pressure on the space time around them all even as she felt the scroll begining to activate, a small infinitely small crack in the fabric of space starting to tear open in the center of the scroll. She could hear someone cry out, a warning.

"Watch Out!"

The voice echoed in her ears and it took her a moment to realise it was her that had spoken, and then there was a flash of briliant white light, she could feel her connection with her mirror images stretch to its limit, begining to crack before reality reasserted itself, Rin flying out of a crack in space and coming to land harshly in a thick pile of snow more than a few feet thick, the connection with her mirror images clicking back into place as the two copies were pulled through the same portal and a trio of thumps echoed through the drift of snow, no doubt their bodies landing next to her. Groaning and sitting up Rin found that where once a thick but tolerable blizzard had been raging now the wind was howling, snow was writhing with enough force that it stung her exposed skin and it was hard to see more than a foot past her outstretched hand. Indeed if it wasn't for her skill at navigating using only her spiritual senses she might not be able to sense anything at all.

Groaning and pulling herself up she stretched out her senses, finding Vis and Codex lying only a few feet away, the signature of the girl she had seen approaching them o few meters to her other side. Even wrapped in a thick coat and multiple layers as she was Rin could feel the biting chill of the cold seeping into her bones, and the girl hadn't been wearing anywhere as many layers as Rin was. Forcing herself to her feet she channeled her chakra into her soles as she moved forwards towards where she could sense the girl. She didn't move as quietly as she was able of course, hesitant to spook the girl, and once she was close enough that she though she would be heard over the wind and snow she called out. "Hello, Are you okay?" Careful not to spook the girl as she came into view.

The 'Watch Out!' screamed by the individual came too late, before the sudden bright flash consumed Emi and...

Apparently the newcomer.

And not Kuruoshiki.

Emi glanced to her outstretched hand, which had once held ...

Nothing. The scroll was gone. She glanced over to the new person, climbing out of the not insignificant snow pile.

Fear and panic clawed at her mind but, after the incident with the medical tent, she...

She could never be prepared for that.

But this? She was more prepared for this.

Fear? Panic?

Those were deadly.

She acknowledged them.

She would probably start bawling the instant she got to safety.

Right now, she had to look away from the direction of the wind, and focus.

Then the words, 'Hello, are you OK?'

"No fucking clue. Kind of." Emi began walking, scanning the horizon, hoping to find a light, or anything, despite the reduced visibility.

"Physically I'm fine. I doubt that will be the case for long. Thank you."

The words were kind and simple.

They were also shouted at the top of her lungs. Compensating for the storm, and the fact that she was regularly not looking at the person.

"Emi. You?"

She gestured to herself while saying her name, but... that might not have been all that clear in the storm. And after she finished, she started worming her arms through her sleeves to huddle around her body.

She would have to hope that light in the distance was something. And not just a street lamp or some shit.

---

WC 254
TWC 536

Rin watched as the girl stood there, no doubt taking a minute to process her emotions, Rin certainly wasn't a mind reader, but play around with someone's senses often enough and you start to pick up on common tells, you tend to learn what minute changes in posture or facial expressions mean, and you can usually infer quite a bit from someone's breathing in a stressful situation. She recognized the brief moment of fear from the way her breath caught in her throat for a second, she saw the slight dilation of her pupils, a moment of panic, she recognised the girl's breath pause before returning to a familiar pattern, not quite a mantra but one that was regular enough Rin could guess it was a breathing pattern she was maintaining consciously. The slow regulation of her breath running in tandem with her puipls returning to normal. It all happened over only a few moments, and Rin had to admit she was impressed at the girl's mental fortitude. Rin waited until the girl had centered herself before asking her question, "Hello, are you okay?" She asked, checking the girl's breathing as she responded, her response was curt, straight, honest and too the point
"No fucking clue. Kind of." she said, her breathing still in that same controlled rhythm as she started to wander through the snowstorm. Rin nodded along, following her, under other circumstances she would have judged the girl poorly for revealing weakness with a stranger, even if Rin had come to her village with the intention of allying with the people there this girl had no way of knowing that, but given that the both of them had been whisked away to god knows where in the middle of a life threatening blizzard it wasn't unreasonable for the girl to consider them allies, at least for the foreseeable future.

The Girl's thoughts must have run along a similar path to her own for she continued, her words mirroring the direction Rin's own thoughts had headed in.

"Physically I'm fine. I doubt that will be the case for long. Thank you. " The girl called out over the wailing of the wind, Rin having to strain a little to hear her

Rin nodded along at the girl's words, considering. Rin wasn't the sort to offer assistance to others without some form of payment, and she certainly wasn't the type to give away her belongings, but this girl sparked something within her, a desire to protect her, as if doing so would make up for all the pain and suffering that Rin herself had experienced in her life, and so Rin reached out to the side, her hand trailing through the air and creating a ripple in the fabric of space as she fed chakra through her body to her fingertips. Rin frowned a little, sensing far more resistance than there should have been for a moment before the ripple opened up into a tear in space, a void space opening an allowing her to reach inside.

It was a realatively small space and one Rin hadn't bothered to expand or perform much maintenance upon, but it served its purpose well. Within the space was a small number of travel clothes for various occasions, Rin reached inside rifling through a rack of winter coats for one that would fit the girl without weighing her down. As she did so she heard the girl continue speaking, two words, but two words that Rin couldn't help but smile at, pulling out a thick white woollen coat that would keep the girl warm without restricting her movements much.

"Emi. You?" The girl said, simple, short and straight to the point, Rin could respect that. Passing the coat over to the girl Rin replied, having to call out louder than she would have liked to be heard over the wailing blizzard. "It's Rin" She said plainly not bothering with a family name; it wasn't like she had any family to care if she used their name or not anyway.

Once the girl was insulated enough from the elements to continue on without dying of frost within minutes Rin would continue on with her, the pair of Rin's mirror images following on a few meters behind them and bringing up the rear. Rin's eyes romed back and forth, searching for any sign of life throught the wall of white that seemed to surround them. It was her spiritual senses that noticed something first, a faint sense of life, a hint of chakra in the distance, though one weak enough that it was no doubt a commoner, Rin tapped the girl, Emi, on the shoulder, before gesturing in the direction. "I can sense something this way, its better than nothing but be on your guard, this realm is odd enough as it is that i dont want any more surprises." She said, waiting for a sign of assent from the girl before heading in the direction of the individual; as she lead them through the storm a faint light flickered into view in the distance, the wailing wall of snow obscuring most everything else from view still. She couldn't help but wonder what sort of commoner would be foolish enough to be out in this weather, she had hopped that who ever she had detected might have been sheltering inside, but the flickering of the light seemed indicative of a campfire.

Rin kept her guard up, leading them towards the light cautiously, her head subtly darting from side to side to check their blind spots, even if all she could see what white. When they eventually came close enough to the light to see something other than white she couldn't help but take in a slight intake of breath in surprise. A man lay huddled by the fire, a thick coat over him as he shivered horribly. She caught a glimpse of his face almost completely blue and rushed forward. Even huddled over the fire he had clearly been exposed to this cold for quite a long time, she was impressed he was even alive at this point. "Shh its okay, dont worry we're friends" she would say placatingly, pouring energy through her chakra pathways and cycling it until it was thrumming with the energy of her fire element. It hurt like hell, a little of the corruption within her veins starting to grow with the increased energy it was getting access too, and Rin couldn't help but let out a slight hiss of pain, but she pushed through allowing the energy to flow into the man and thaw out his body enough that he wouldn't be in immediate risk of death.
wc:1115
TWC: 2551

'Its FUCKING COLD, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-'

It was a lot easier to mentally repeat 'fuck' than to actually focus on how FUCKING COLD it was. Emi had been OK in the weather at home. She knew she was not going to be out too long. Well, she had known. She had just needed to go see if Kuruoshiki was at the front gate, and if he had not been, she was planning to run back and just wait.

As such, she was still wearing the garments she had earlier in the day.

No one would be saying she was a well dressed Kage, and after the fiasco with the 'tailored' Kage outfit? She did not rightly care.

This, however, meant she was incredibly unprepared for the sudden and extreme change in weather.

Far stronger winds. Far more snow.

And the temperature itself was colder.

She was wearing CARGO PANTS AND A TANK TOP.

Ok, that is somewhat untrue. Yes, those were her actual clothes. But, at the least, she had thrown on a black denim jacket.

It was not exactly an insulator.

Especially since Emi was fighting to button it whereas she had left it open while walking around the village.

It functioned mainly as a windbreaker like this.

Which, admittedly, was very useful.

But in the face of these temperatures? AND these winds?

'Windbreaker' was far from enough. Far, far too little.

She was not joking when she said she had maybe a few minutes.

Which is why it was EXTREMELY helpful when Rin, which is apparently what the individual was named, procured a coat.

Emi did not put much effort into thinking where the coat had come from. She was pretty sure Rin had not had it a moment ago but, well, what were the options?

Not putting it on likely meant death in short order.

Even if it were somehow trapped, well.

It was not even worth a CONSIDERATION.

She threw the coat on, zipped it up, and...

It was still cold as fuck. These things worked by capturing body heat to provide some warmth.

She would probably feel cold as shit until they managed to find a way out of this storm.

But importantly, she would just FEEL cold as shit, rather than actually getting cold as shit. At least, not quickly. She doubted her clothing would provide long term warmth, even with the addition of Rin's coat (which... she was pretty sure this was probably an extra long coat, but it was definitely a bit too short for Emi. Just a bit, though.)

At Rin's mention of noticing someone, however... that was big. Even more important was finding someone. More scary, on the other hand, was said someone being on death's door. Emi had no significant way to help as Rin dove in, but she could focus on the fire for a moment. It was clearly starting to fade, the wind and snow smothering it.

In the conditions, there was no hope of finding where this man had come from, unless he came to. But... Maybe...

Emi tried to feel out for...

For something.

For now? There was nothing. Perhaps that was something to ask Rin about... She had tried to warn about the scroll. Something had to have tipped her off.

There was, however, a calming of the storm. Not significantly, but enough for Emi to see further into the distance.

"Over there, lights. Steady, not like the fire." She pointed off in a direction, then waited for Rin and the man to be ready to move.

"Any long term solution needs better protection than a fire. We should check it out."

---

The building was quaint. A log house, with what looked to be a wood burning heater Emi could make out through the window.

That, however, was not of a significant concern at the moment. What was a significant concern was running to the building as someone appeared to be actively stealing from the inside.

In this weather she dared not break a window to enter, but was pleasantly surprised to find the front door unlocked. Why exactly it was? She was not frankly sure. Many possible explanations existed for why the front door might be unlocked.

But what mattered was, that it was, and Emi could get inside without forcing her way in.

Just in time to see someone stuffing an ACTUAL TREE into a bag. Who does that!?

Upon her entering, he seemed to get scared. A deer caught in headlights. Then, his attitude changed. He had chosen 'fight'.

A mistake.

This was not a particularly powerful individual. He tried to throw a punch, and Emi easily caught it. She twisted around him to get a choke hold going, and stood there until he fell.

She looked around, but did not see any other thieves around.

Looking to where Rin probably would be, as Rin had probably come along and/or led the way, Emi would ask "How'd you know the scroll was bad?"

---

---

WC 840
TWC 1376

Rin glanced up from the man, barely breathing though now stable, She had heard Emi speak for a moment, but over the howling of the wind she hadn't quite heard her. She opened her mouth, about to ask her to repeat herself when she saw her gesturing off into the distance; inclining her head slightly in the direction the girl pointed. It took Rin a moment to register what she saw, at first it was just a faint glimmer in the distance, possibly just a trick of the eyes, but as the wind began to calm, the raging blizzard starting to fade back to normal, the faint almost imperceptible flicker resolved into a steady light in the distance, one that could still be easily missed or ignored, but one that spoke of a steady source of light, a lamp or some sort of source of warmth and safety that could only be cast by a sheltered source of light.

As Rin turned back to the girl about to give the girl a stern but greatful nod, the girl spoke again "Any long term solution needs better protection than a fire. We should check it out." she said, and Rin for the first time saw some of the girl's competence, her opinion of the girl improving ten fold as the girl showed both competence and forethought. Rin nodded to the girl, "You're right, we should find shelter and get this one out of the cold before we worry about anything else." She said standing and gesturing towards one of the two mirror images of herself that had been following the pair of them.

"Vis will carry him so we can move faster" she said as the figure she had indicated strolled forward and picked the man up in one arm, gently slinging him over her shoulder without any sign of effort. The clone, whilst a perfect replica of Rin physically had been designed to embody raw power, her very soul, an artificial construct Rin had designed and created to compensate for her own physical weakness, had been constructed around the very concept of strength, she... or rather it, had a small sliver of the universes own conceptualization of the very meaning of physical might imbued within, to lift something like this, even an unconsious person was hardly a challenge.

Rin started to stride towards the light Emi had pointed out, her spiritual senses stretching out towards it as she did so. It was still far enough away that her senses had to strain to reach that far, but as she focussed in that direction she could pick up faint hints of chakra, tiny insignificant wisps that were easy to overlook, 'no doubt the signatures of simple townsfolk' Rin thought to herself, 'though there is something slightly off about them as well' It wasn't anything tangible of course, nothing she could easily point to or describe to another, but all the same something about the faint chakra signatures she could sense put her on edge. They spoke to some small primal part of her mind honed from years of living on edge that had her ready to bolt at even the slightest hint of danger, and indeed it was quite possible, likely even, that the trauma she had experienced, and the isolation she had imposed upon herself for years, had left her jumping at shadows; either way as she strode through the thick snow covered tundra, the wind lapping at her back and whistling around her and her party, Rin's guard was up, she let tendrils of chakra leak out of her, wrapping around her and coating her in an invisible layer of contingencies; at the same time her spiritual senses drew back in, focussing on the space around her, cautious of an ambush or trickery.

With her senses on such high alert it wasn't even hard to notice the group of wolves that had started to circle them. The creatures were odd, seemingly having adapted to become capable of suppressing their chakra signatures they may very well have snuck up on her party if she hadn't been on high alert, sending a mental command to Codex she had her other clone get to work. Codex, The embodiment of knowledge, a counterbalance and foil of Vis in every way that mattered, was an encyclopedia of much of the knowledge within the world. Rin had consumed thousands of tomes of research during her creation, and after her creation codex had continued to consume knowledge of its own accord; the Artificial soul within driven to persue its purpose. It was simple enough to send codex a quick relay of what she was sensing and have it sift through the vast array of knowledge it had accumulated in order to identify the beasts.

It was simple enough for codex to transmit the results to her mentally but Rin had her convey the results aloud out of courtesy to her companion.

"We appear to be surrounded by a pack of 5 doto wolf-hounds, known for their innate ability to suppress their chakra and their pure white pelts, these creatures are native to the fringes of the snow country and named after a former ruler of the country. These hounds are known to be just as vicious as their namesake. The bites of these creatures have been recorded capable of exerting up to 3000 pounds of force and are recommended to be treated with extreme caution."

Rin was busy readying herself as the clone continued talking, a little iritated that it had not gotten straight to the creatures weak points, it wasn't much of an issue when they were communicating at the speed of thought but here when codex was constrained by the speed it was capable of speaking it cost precious seconds. Thankfully for Rin codex had transmitted the content of it's report to her before it had begun speaking, and so Rin knew what the creatures weaknesses were as the four of them struck, each one pouncing out of the snow where they were hiding, each one aiming for a different member of the group.

Even as codex continued it's explanation Rin sprung into action, she had been cycling chakra through her meridians since she had first sensed the wolves and had had plenty of time to prepare herself. Pushing her chakra to pool in her feet Rin ignored the sharp spike of pain that sprung up, the black veins of corruption within her chakra system lapping up the energy and using it to dig it's roots even further into her spirit, instead activating the body flicker technique as she darted back a few feet, out of reach of the pouncing wolf hound to stand at the center of the rest of her party, each wolf within a few meters of her as they pounced. Gritting her teeth again even as the use of her chakra continued to wrack her body with pain, Rin released a burst of chakra within her mouth, catalysing a reaction that spewed out a gout of flame at the beast that had leaped at her. It was a fairly weak flame all things considered, Rin not one to waste energy in her current state, and it certainly wouldn't harm the wolf even if it did look impressive, but that wasn't the purpose of the flame, for it gave of a flash of bright light that was visible to everyone present, which was just what she needed to trap the four wolves within a genjutsu.

The four wolves fell limp mid pounce, each of them sailing past their targets as they landed in a heap to Rin's side just as codex finished it's explanation, each of them knocked out cold. "The recommended methods of dealing with wild doto hounds consist of tiring them out as the creatures are known to have low stamina, or overwhelming them with attacks designed to attack an individual's chakra system directly as the majority of these creatures are known to have lowered resistance to such techniques, this is hypothesized to be a side effect of the evolutionary adaptation process that these creatures have gone through to ensure their chakra signature is suppressed..." Rin cut in as she strode forward towards the creatures, her hand trailing through the air as chakra flowed through them again, the fabric of space seeming to fold and contort as it split open, a deep black void visible for a moment before with a deft manipulation of chakra a kunai came flickering out and dropped into her hand.

"Thats enough codex, the threat has been neutralised, you can stop now." She said, reaching down and slitting the throat of one of the unconscious wolves as she did so, moving her blade across its neck in one swift motion that spoke of years of practice, the blood of the beast welling up at the point and pouring out over the snow as the external carotid artery of the creature was cut on both sides. Rin took a quick step to the side, avoiding the spurts of blood staining her footwear even as she positioned herself to end the life of another of the beats, continuing her grim job.

Codex however chimed in again, expressing a rare moment of disagreement with its creator. "Actually there were five reported hounds, you have currently only dispatched four of the identified threats young miss" the mirror image of Rin spoke, even as a hulking form stepped out from the whistling blizzard of snow, the creature's pure white fur coat perfectly camouflaging it agains the white backdrop of the tundra it hunted upon.

The creature was a hulking brute of a beast, no doubt the alpha of the pack that had attempted to ambush them the behemoth of a creature loomed over nine feet tall and was composed almost entirely of muscle. The creature would be more than a match for an unprepared shinobi, the aura it exuded was enough to stifle that of some D-rank's and indeed Vis and Codex both locked up as the creature howled in challenge, its aura blanketing the area in the intimidating force of a creature used to hunting on the edge of life and death.

Rin however was unfazed, simply stepping to the side and continuing her grizly work as she finished of the rest of the beasts pack, even as the beast took a step towards the group.

"Oh i was more than aware of the fifth hound codex, which is why i had already prepared for it." she said, making a mental note to tinker with codex's predictive capabilities when she next got a chance even as she triggered her preperations; A shimmer surrounding the air around her for a moment as her own aura flared up, the image of a one eyed fox, utterly covered in veins of black corruption appearing behind her, its own oppressive aura encompasing that of the hound and grinding it out in the blink of an eye. At the same time Rin triggered the technique she had prepared earlier, the air shimmering around her resolving into a technique that ensnared everyone that perceived her; Rin's form twisting and warping within the minds of everyone there until she was the embodiment of terror. Nothing had changed about her physical appearance and yet in the minds of everyone there she had become the most intimidating figure they had ever witnessed.

Standing slowly and turning to face the now terrified creature she gave it a slow, smile, the smile of a predator who's prey had wandered into its lair willingly. The smile of a hunter. The beast, once confident of its place as the apex predator of these lands began to shake ever so slightly, its keen intelligent eyes widening in terror as it took in the demon before it and all it could sense was its own impending death, and yet the beast stood its ground, its tail low and cautious it took a tentative step forward...
Rin activated her technique and immediately all she could feel was pain, the display of power she was excercising required her to cycle her chakra to the fullest, and even if she didn't have to actively expend any of that chakra the precsence of such dense chakra passing through her chakra channels was more than enough to illicit a response from the thick cords of corruption that snaked throughout her spirit. The pain was excruciating and yet all Rin could do was grit her teeth and bare it, she might be able to defeat this beast in combat but unlike the rest of its pack it was strong enough to put up a fight, and stuck in this snow storm as they were, every second counted. Another spike of pain throbbed through her chest as the cords of corruption began to grow even further, branching out from her chakra channels and digging through her flesh as they fed and grew. Rin couldn't help but make a sound from the pain but, knowing that any sign of weakness could very well spell their deaths, Rin fed that pain into a low, deep and ominous growl, one that she could feed all her anger, frustration and hatred into.

The Alpha took its step forward, and immediately the demon it had stepped towards started to growl, a low rumbling that reminded it of the times the land itself had rumbled, of the times the sky itself had been displeased. It could feel the anger, hatred, and rage the growl and knew it had made a mistake. Lifting its paw again the creature slowly took one step backwards, cautious not to provoke a response from what it now saw as certain death; as the creatures paw trod down upon the snow it checked that it was not being attacked and took another step backwards, its tail snaking around its rear leg even as it let out a soft whine. First it took one step, then another until finally, when it thought it had created enough distance between itself and the being it had mistakenly took for prey the beast turned tail in one swift motion and fled, the shadow of its figure dissapearing into the distance.

Rin stood, watching as the creature fled into the distance, neither moving, nor releasing the technique, she could not afford to show even the slightest hint of weakness, even as the corruption raged inside of her, reaching out and burrowed deep within her body, coiling around any purchase it could find as it ate away at her. Throughout it all, she stood there motionless, giving not even the slightest indication of the excrutiating pain she was in, until finally the outline of the beast dissapeared into the distant tundra, no doubt covered from view by the snow storm and the large portion of landscape that now seperated them.

Rin let out a sigh of relief, releasing her chakra and starting to return it to its normal cycling pattern, although even that had been made all the more difficult by the growing amounts of corruption that had started to obstruct the pathways she had been using. Still in immense pain Rin turned back to the rest of her party, giving them a short smile as she took a step forward towards the remaining bodies of the wolf hounds, intending to finish off the grizzly work she had started. Unfortunately for Rin as soon as she took a step forward she felt a shift in her leg as the limb gave out underneath her. Dropping to one knee Rin stifled a grunt of pain before waving off any concern her companions might show. "I'll be fine, that just took more out of me than i expected, it's been a while since i've had to cycle that much chakra at once." She said, even as codex rushed forward to her side, the clone pushing its own chakra into her as it tried to administer some rudimentary first aid.

Rin begrudgingly allowed the clone to continue its work as she lifted her arm, flipping the kunai she held so that she gripped the blade firmly, the blood of her earlier kills dripping down her hand as she proffered the kunai, to Emi. "I'll be up in a few moments, can you finish off the last of the beasts for me?" She would ask her companion.

Once the last of the creatures had been slain, their life blood flowing out over the snow staining it crimson, Rin would stand, giving her companion a greatful nod before leading them onwards through the storm of white. They traveled a reasonable distance, but eventualy the faint glow of the light that had been barely visible resolved itself into a cast iron street lamp, one who's construction was clearly indicative of a nearby town of village. Rin breathed a sigh of relief, the heat from her breath causing a mist to float out around her for a moment, almost as if celebrating with her.

A few moments more and a house came into view, a simple construction the building was composed almost entirely of logs, and Rin could see the spout of an old iron chimney spout jutting out of the roof, no doubt the spout led right to a fireplace, and the small puffs of smoke that she glimpsed floating out of the towering edifice every now and then, before the wind whisked it away, told Rin that the construction would be warm enough for them all to wait out the storm.

Letting Emi take the lead now that there was a clear goal within view Rin slept back behind her, leaning on codex for some support, she had fought through the pain when it mattered, but now that they had found somewhere to shelter she needed to rest the limb while her leg recouperated.

Emi had shown the makings of a competent shinobi in the brief time she had known her and that shone through as she opened the door to the cabin, the fact that it was unlocked set them both on edge somewhat but Rin could tell Emi channeled that energy well. As the girl opened the door her back obstructed Rin's view of the entryway for a moment, her tall figure framed against the light from within the building as she stepped through.

Rin barely had time to register a blur of movement as she stepped forwards for her to find emi keeping an odd looking man, covered in what looked to be a cloth potato sack and wrapped in chains, in a choke hold. She almost froze up in surprise at the man's sudden appearance and even more sudden capture but her years of training took over. Looking the man in the eye she spoke one word. "Sleep" her power radiating out of her again as she locked the man in a genjutsu that would render him unconsious for at least the next few hours.

"Well that was unexpected, but i've got to say you can certainly handle yourself, maybe we could have finished off the last of those hounds rather than scaring him off after all" she said absentmindedly as she stepped inside, her mirror images stepping through behind her, vis lugging the unconsious figure in with her as it did so.

The room they had stepped into was a warm and cozy looking lounge room that had wonderful armchairs and an old cast iron stove that had been converted into a fireplace, leting herself sink back into the chair for a moment Rin let out a sigh of contentment as she rubbed her hands together, warming them up as best she could.Perhaps it was the relaxing enviroment, perhaps the many years without any real human interaction, or perhaps the girl simply asked her question at the right time but as Rin sat back relaxing, Emi spoke up.

"How'd you know the scroll was bad?" she asked simply, rin wasn't sure if it was an accusation at first before reassuring herself that this was just one of the girl's quirks; Regardless of the reason Rin brightened, leaning forward in her chair as she started to explain the basics of space time techniques.
wc: 3374
twc:5925

FLASHBACK TIME~~

Well, it is a pretty short flashback, only as far as the troupe making their way to the house.

Emi got the warning of the surrounding beings, apparently Doto wolf-hounds, from one of the individuals she knew was there but had not yet had a chance to closely examine, what with the storm making that difficult, and considering that 'staying alive' being a far more important priority than 'what do you look like?'

Was was truly interesting, though, was a comment about their chakra systems. Suppressed? Emi swore to herself. Even if she had not been... far behind on what she realistically should be able to do, that was still a concerning things to hear. Creatures adapted to counter something only a ninja really did, meant they likely were strong enough to prey directly upon ninja, at least some.

Emi was, however, slightly relieves when Rin was able to take care of them almost without a care in the world. This did, however, come after she noticed one of the doto wolf hounds pouncing after her, and started to prepare to...

Well, priority one was to defend herself.

But then Rin managed to deal with the four, and Emi was left there, in a fighting stance, trying to be aware.

She wanted to breathe, relax, and get back to walking but...

It was not long before Codex voiced what she was thinking: there were only four bodies. The fifth was...

Basically trying to step on Emi.

This was... not great. Emi did not even really think it was ATTACKING at the moment, just sort of... walking up to appear menacing. Perhaps the protect the part of its pack that was not yet dead.

But the fact stood that it was essentially about to step on Emi. She could have dodged easily enough, but...

But she was already prepared, and acted almost more out of instinct than active thought, but incorporating what Codex had said.

It was a small push, moving the leg just slightly as it came down, but... the interesting thing would be the blue light that filtered out of Emi's arms, at the point of contact. As if there was a powder covering her arms that was knocked loose by the beast.

This action, however, brought her to the center of its attention. Turning ever so slightly and growling, it started to swipe at Emi. But many things came together, all at once. Rin started her own assault on the thing's mental faculties, and, for the smallest bit, it wavered.

The attack still flew in, and Emi raised her arms to Block it, forming them into an X, catching the pad of the paw. Once again, if someone were to look closely, they would notice the blue run off. This time, far more aggressive, perhaps related to how strongly the wolf had been moving even after faltering.

Emi knew, without a doubt in her mind, that this thing SHOULD have been stronger. She was focused on it, standing in front of her, but something was going on behind her back. Right now? It was working in her favor.

Even more so as the beast went from 'losing confidence' to being straight up timid.

Perhaps it was a combination of Emi's wittling down of its energy and whatever Rin, or one of the other two, were doing.

Perhaps Emi was little more than a gnat compared to whatever hell Rin or someone had just put it through.

Either way, the important thing, really the important things, were two-fold.

One: there was no longer a wolf trying to kill her.
Two: the bit of activity was at least helpful in staying warm. Not by a lot, but... Not zero.

---

If Emi had had a notebook and pen, she would have literally been taking notes of what Rin was saying. As it stood, however, she just had the chance to listen, and try to take in as much of it as she could, at some point.. trying a bit harder to actually do something. Far from perfect, not even really a good outcome, but...

And such is how she was interrupted by someone practically crashing trhough a door, bat in hand, shouting at the collected individuals in the hut.

"GET OUT OF MY H-"

She stopped. She had been looking around the room, looking at all of them, but now her eyes focused solely in the direction of the unknown individual the group had discovered and brought with.

"Jean!"

She dropped the bat and ran to the man, shaking him, trying to get him to come through.

She looked scared. Horrified.

And that was all replaced by relief as the man came to. A groggily spoken name, too incomprehensivle for Emi, but apparently enough for the women, came out. And she hugged him, and began crying, as Emi sat back, letting the pair have their reunion.

Maybe this place could be OK.

Perhaps, however, that was spoken too quickly, as Emi heard a rather muffled sound from one of the rooms off the central living room in which she sat. Walking to the door, Emi opened it. It turned out to be a closet. Within the closet were two individuals who, very clearly, were scared out of their minds.

A quick scan showed that the sound Emi had heard was a fallen broom that one of the two had tried to catch.

"So. Easy way, or hard way?"

The two literally threw themselves to the ground.

They really wanted the easy way.

---

---

WC 926
TWC 2300



Mission Name: I'll Be Home For The Holidays
Reward: 6,000 Ryō / 30 AP / 1,500 Winter Equinox Tickets / 1x Full Dice (d10)

Mission Name: How The Grinch Stole Christmas x2
Reward: 4,000 Ryō / 20 AP / 1,000 Winter Equinox Tickets


1 B rank for rank up
1 C rank for rank up
1 C rank not for rank up

14,000 Ryo
3,500 Winter Equinox Tickets
1x Full Dice
70 AP

45,000 Ryo from Rank Stipend

This be my mid topic claim
Not claiming the 2300 words yet

2000 words to Space-Time Spec (taught by Rin for 1/2 wordcount)

300 words towards raising Block from C rank to B rank (300/500 required)

46 AP

Honestly forgot if I exited already or not