The Reforging

[[Due to the size of this thread i've compiled the missions intended to be completed here into an external document found here, in short hand it covers every single mission that could be completed by the parties involved]]

The wind howled harshly on the outskirts of the rice country, Rin's tour of the countries outposts and defenses had shown her how utterly lacking the entirety of the country's military was, there was still potential here of course, there was still a myriad of reasons why this place was not a waste of her time... at least that was what she told herself as she sat within the office this outpost's commander had vacated for her. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, certainly when she had agreed to assist the young kage in rebuilding her village Rin had expected more to work with than this... but at the same time there was potential in the lack of any existing structure, the young girl, bright eyed and well meaning, had no idea how to run an army, and as such Rin was free to do effectively whatever she wanted... still the first step was to introduce herself to what forces the village had at it's disposal. She had a wealth of experience that could only serve to help the villages forces, and there were many morals in her history to be learnt.

The commanding officer had of course reported to her of a number of the villages shinobi who would be returning to the outpost shortly, each of them assigned to patrol, had been sent messages by runner; each of them assigned to work on various missions for the village, diverting them from their standard routes. Rin was no fool of course, she wasn't leaving the country undefended. Just as she had diverted those shinobi already on patrol to various high profile and valuable targets she had also sent out some of the villages lower ranked fighters to maintain the villages presence within those empty lands. She didn't expect much trouble of course, each of those lower ranked shinobi had been given a myriad of ways to signal her or the higher ranked shinobi, and at any hint of trouble she would lead a full contingent of the villages, admittedly poorly trained, military to their aid. That was the next topic on her list of course, training and restructuring the army into a well oiled machine, but for now she simply picked up her pen and began writing, reliving the events that had first brought her to the village in her mind as she wrote... her mind reliving those moments as if she was there.

***

Rin wandered down the path; her empty eye socket itching not just physically but spiritually; her body ached and her remaining arm trembled, but none of that bothered her as much as the tangled mess that was her chakra pathways; every time she turned her mind's eye inward she felt like she was going to vomit; even after all these years the sight reminded her of that day, of the monster who had scared her, not just physically or mentaly but spiritually. That creature had stunted her growth and weekend her beyond compare; and now the once proud bandit queen was reduced to nothing but a collections officer for criminals. It was humiliating, but even in her weakened state; barely able to force a fraction of her chakra through her channels and struggling to perform even the most basic of techniques, she was more skilled in combat than any of these fools that had hired her.

The fools couldn't even manage to pin down a simple civilian; according to the report they had given her the man was capable of disappearing without a trace any time he spotted one of their men; and try as they might every time they tried to sneak up on him he managed to spot them. Rin had kept a straight face when she was told this but inwardly she had scoffed; even broken as she was her finely honed spiritual senses could tell that not a single person within the gang had any skill with their chakra and no doubt none of them had the control to even try tracking the man’s chakra. As she stepped into the marketplace it was simple enough to spot the man, standing at a gambling stall as he was known to do, her eyes flashed across the crowd; not even pausing for a moment on the man, outwardly she gave no indication that she had even noticed the man, but she fixed the feel of his chakra within her mind. Not black and corrosive like the mess that lined her own chakra channels, nor did it give off that burning sense of a fire practitioner like herself… rin paused for a moment covering her discomfort by browsing a nearby stall of scarves as she mentaly amended her thoughts; nor did it give off that burning sense of a fire practitioner like she had once been.

Rin picked a scarf from the stall and paid the woman, the coins were fake of course, no need to waste her precious resources on something so superfluous when they were so limited, and continued on her way; ambling from one stall to another, slowly circling towards the man as she continued analyzing his chakra, fixing it in her mind and ensuring there was very little chance that he might escape. The odd thing was that, from what she could tell his chakra didn’t actually feel like anything. It was almost as if his chakra was pure… empty… and yet, it wasn’t yin or yang chakra, it was like he hadn’t developed it at all but with some training it could be a unique resource, most people even without realizing it cultivated some element or another within their body from birth, even if it was as simple as yin and yang chakra from their body and mind… this at least explained a little why he so consistently managed to slip through the net his creditors laid for him. Even the untrained had some ability to sense the spiritual pressure of those around them, even if it often manifested as something simple like their hair standing on end, but this man would no doubt elicit no such reaction, it would be child's play for him to avoid the notice of any of them if they weren't looking directly at him.

Rin smiled to herself as she finally came to stand at the stall; watching the game of dice play out, undetected as she had planned. It really was a shame, with some training the man might have made a decent ninja, or at least a passable spy; instead he was wasting his talents on fooling loan sharks and gambling den’s; and no doubt he wouldn't have another chance to develop his skills after this. In a flash she whipped the scarf around his neck and with a flash of chakra forced through her weeping and aching chakra channels, threw the two of them into a nearby alley where she quickly spun him against a wall.
“W-wha w-who are y-you, wha w-what do you want, i don't have any money, i-its all at the g-gambling stall?” He said in a panic, and Rin allowed a small amount of the tortured sadism that she had developed to deal with the pain radiating from her spirit of all times to bleed through. It wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism she knew, and it didn’t really even help, but even if only for a brief second she could have someone share her pain, it made her soul weep just a little less. Let her distract herself from the mess that was her inner world. With a crack the man’s arm snapped, as he was forced into the ground; his screams muffled as his face was driven into the ground. She gave no explanation; no rationale or logic that he might use to distract him from his pain. No, she was here for a job and her job had been completed; the two thugs that her contractors had left to collect the man were rounding the corner as the man lay there, but this pain and damage she had done to him was pure pleasure.

With a nod at the two men who had both gone a little pale as they saw the unprovoked and excessive violence she strolled past; a smile gleaming on her face despite her missing eye she almost looked the picture of innocence… except for the flecks of blood on her coat sleeve of course. “Enjoy boys, let your bosses know i’ll expect payment in the usual spot in the morning. Oh and don't think of trying anything funny; your friend there will let you know exactly what happens to those that try to screw me.” She said with a wink.

As she strolled out of the alleyway Rin was just about to pull her senses back in around her; the damage to her own chakra pathways certainly made even the simple act of sensing the chakra around her painful; but as she did so her senses noticed something strange the man who had been running the gambling stall she had just stood at had entirely disappeared. Not physically of course; that was well without the bounds of any common civilian or indeed even most trained and expert shinobi; and yet to her spiritual sense he was just gone. With a quick heel turn Rin circled around to the other side of the market; careful not to be seen as she swapped out her straw hat and cloak with a worn travel cloak and wide brim farmers hat. No need to be seen wearing the same outfit when returning to the scene after all, though she had to admit missing an arm and an eye made such changes rather pointless. All the same she kept up the habit, there was no reason to let her skills get rusty even if they weren't all that helpful at this point.

As she poked her head around the corner Rin scanned the marketplace with her eyes, searching for any hint of the man, or perhaps any evidence of how exactly he had disappeared so thoroughly. At first she couldn’t see anything; his stall was still there albeit empty now and the crowd was too thick for him to have easily made his way out of the square entirely in the time she had been gone. She scanned the marketplace again; more carefully this time. Taking note of each signature that came in and out of the square and where they were when they did so. It took some time, and hurt worse than having a thousand tiny blades stabbed into her veins, she would know, but eventually she figured it out.
A small door sat on the corner of the marketplace that looked like the entrance to a small apartment. It had taken more than a few people entering before she had realized their chakra signatures disappeared as soon as the door closed… interesting and rather unique she had to admit, it wasn’t common for civilians to have access to such materials and certainly not in quantities great enough to insulate an entire building. She made her way through the marketplace again; keeping her attention on the door as best she could without attracting attention; slowly moving towards it in the hopes of getting a glimpse at the next person to enter. It certainly took a few more minutes than she would have liked, but she was in no hurry. After all, where did she have to be, it wasn’t like she had any pressing business anymore. Seeing a gentleman in a simple gray kimono knocking at the door Rin’s eyes honed in and her senses sharpened… ‘Three knocks all in quick succession, no noticeable pause or discernable pattern so it's unlikely that their is a password…’ Rin paused her thoughts being interrupted as the man rather suspiciously coughed muttering the word rosebud under his breath. ‘Seriously? rosebud? ‘ she thought to herself ‘of all the things you could use as a code word you chose rosebud?’ The fools running whatever criminal front this was obviously weren't all that bright; good codewords were things that could be slipped into regular sentences. It should have taken her observing at least a few people entering before she had an inkling of the passphrase and instead here was this fool just using it like it was some sort of key.

Despite his ineptitude the door swung open for the man with little fanfare; a large hulking behemoth of a man stood behind the door in an undersized suit and tie, the buttons bulging as his muscles flexed against them. The man looked like he’d been born taking steroids, testosterone and a whole cocktail of other performance enhancing drugs… which to Rin’s trained eyes… eye told her that he was there merely for show. His muscles were so large and ridgid she could tell at a glance there was no way he could handle himself against a trained fighter, they would outmaneuver him with barely a thought and even if he could crush them with a single fist, there was no way he would be able to catch them like that in the first place. As the door swung shut Rin smiled, this was the first bit of true fun and intrigue that she’d been exposed to in quite a while.

Making her way towards the door Rin knocked three times in quick succession. No need to be careless even if it did seem this password was mostly for show she didn't need to be getting herself into trouble just yet, and then with a small feminine cough that could have potentially just been a result of the pollen in the air muttered the passphrase “Rosebud.” With a click the door swung open and the giant loomed before her. “Thanks big guy” she said with a toothy smile as she stepped in; patting the figure on the shoulder with her good hand as she gave him a toothy smile and let some of the corruption in her chakra seep out. She might hate it but when it came to intimidating civilians it certainly helped. Anyone that knew what they were sensing wouldn’t be phased in the least but this figure turned pale with fear and almost looked like he was going to be sick.

As she walked past the man she looked around; she stood in a small stairwell, one that went down under the ground; that was interesting; so whatever they were using to block everyone’s chakra signal it wasn’t just enough to cover this small room. Stepping down the stairwell, Rin found herself with a rather miraculous sight. A tavern, and quite a large one at that; hundreds of bottles of high grade liquor covered the back wall, with barrels and barrels of tapped ales; ciders and spirits built into the Bar. On her left a whole slew of tables with all sorts of illicit gambling rings running; everything from devils dice; to Nine Dead men and even a classic poker table, which Rin noted was being run by the gentleman that was running the gambling stall out in the market earlier. This got more and more interesting as time went on, and whilst she wasn’t much of a gambler she found herself curious to find out more about this place, and what better way to do that than crossing wits with some no doubt rigged games.

Sidling up to the bar Rin leaned over, resting her weight on her one good arm and doing her best to catch the bartender’s eye. She already knew what she wanted of course but it couldn’t hurt to flirt a little. The man’s voice was smooth and actually quite charming; something she hadn’t expected from the bartender of such a snake's den, but she wasn’t complaining. He was easy on the eyes as well, dressed in a sleek waist coat and… something was wrong, turning her spiritual sense inward Rin examined herself; even if it did burn her to do so. She could see thin streams of foreign chakra crawling through her channels, altering… her emotions, just subtly and not in any significant way. Hell if it wasn’t for the absolute mess that were her chakra pathways then she likely wouldn’t have noticed the change at all, but as it was she had, and that realization brought a pang of… excitement to her.

With a smile Rin Subtly Flushed her chakra pathways full of chakra, doing her best to cleanse it of the foreign chakra within… It burned, not in the simple dull ache that she had grown used to but like her very soul was being hollowed out with a hot iron and then filled with poison ivy. It was like being maimed and tortured all over again; but she had grown used to this pain, even if only enough to hide it with a smile. Flushing the foreign chakra from her system she hid her distaste and anger with a smile. The man was still attractive enough, objectively, but he was very much not her type; far too masculine for one. That was what had tipped her off in the first place, it was rare that she found a guy attractive and even rarer one that wasn’t almost universally describable as ‘cute.’

She was getting off track of course, smiling at the bartender. She ordered a simple gin, plain with some citrus in it before sidling over to the poker table. “So Ladies and Gentlemen do you have room for one more?” She said, taking one of the spare seats and letting a stack of Ryo drop from her sleeve onto the table.

There were five of them in all, counting herself, four players and the dealer from the marketplace, Rin gave them all a quick once over with her spiritual senses but none of them were ninja or even remotely trained in the use of chakra… So slight of hand and traditional forms of cheating would be the main name of the game then. Easy enough; it would be good practice for her given that she only had the one hand now. With a flourish the cards were dealt and the blinds were paid, small, large, check, check, and then on to her. With a smile she doubled the pot without even checking her cards, a risky play, and one she knew she would lose. No doubt one the dealer knew she would lose as well but that wasn’t what she was looking for. No she watched everyone’s reactions, cataloging and evaluating them, there the faintest hint of a smile on the woman in the white kimono. So she was either taking her for easy prey or she knew what the cards were, on its own that would just be a minor tell, but the others all seemed surprised more than pleased with her actions. The woman matched her bet and the others all folded in quick succession; and with that the trap was set, the bait laid and even though she didn’t realize it yet, the prey was well and truly marked. The cards came up on the river; one after the other as they both continued watching intently, until the last card was revealed and they both turned up their hands. Rin’s was a two of clubs and a seven of diamonds, one of the worst hands possible, she didn’t have a chance from the start, but she looked up and smiled innocently at the dealer, a look that was again somewhat ruined by her missing eye but nonetheless it would be effective enough when paired with her next words. “You’ll have to forgive me, I haven’t actually played this before, what do i win?” she said, her face a mask of innocent excitement.

Her opponent coughed awkwardly, all except for the woman whose faint smile turned almost into the grin of a hungry wolf. What she didn’t know of course was that wolves; of course what she now doubted didn’t realize was that the greatest predator of wolves were in fact humans. The next few games went much the same, with Rin betting without looking at her cards and losing almost across the board. What they didn’t realize of course was that Rin was watching carefully, at first the dealer was cautious, making sure to keep track of all the cards he dealt, but as the game went on he stopped keeping track of the cards he was dealing out to her; after all if she was bidding without even looking at her cards what did it matter. Then when she was almost out of coins and it was down to just the players, herself and the woman, Rin’s trap snapped shut. With a flick of her wrist she tossed the last of her coins in the pot, before putting on a worried look. The coin at the bottom had been a one hundred thousand ryo coin, just as she’d planned of course the dealer snatched up the coin into the pot and just as she had opened her mouth to claim the bid was a mistake he spoke over her. “Miss I remind you that all bids are final, we have a raise of one hundred and five thousand ryo, does the madam wish to match it?” He said turning to the woman and giving her a quick glance. Conveniently the total pot she had collected was just enough to match the bet, which she did so happily, after all she had just doubled her winnings for the night, hadn't she?

The cards were dealt and then revealed and something miraculous happened… as the woman’s cards were flipped up, two of clubs and a seven of diamonds were revealed. Both the woman and the dealer blinked in surprise, though they masked it well. Rin’s cards on the other hand came next. A pair of kings, nothing too impressive, but she’d made sure as the hands went on to remove any cards that would let a two and a seven beat the pair of kings. A dirty trick perhaps, and one that would normally be easy enough to prove, but since she had no connection to the dealer the blame would fall solely on him, especially once they checked him for the card sling she knew he wore on his right arm. When the last card was revealed to show she had four of a kind she smiled. “This means i win right?” she said, her innocent look plastered across her face again.

The man and woman were trapped and they knew it, now it was simply a case of seeing how they reacted; and it was at that moment that something unexpected happened, the man glanced up to an individual behind her that “tripped” and spilled his drink on another patron. Within a few seconds the bar was in chaos with fists being thrown in every direction and the woman quickly making an effort to scoop up the pot. Rin let her; She’d already memorized the chakra signature of the two of them and more importantly left a tracker on the fake hundred thousand ryo coin she’d ‘accidentally’ added to the pot.


Rin stood, dusting herself down before calmly moving through the crowd; it wasn’t hard; even with her body heavily maimed and her powers heavily restricted she was still far better at combat than any of these civilians and her finely honed spiritual senses gave her plenty of warning of any incoming threats. She could have taken this entire brawl on with her eyes closed and her hands… ‘Oh right, one hand, one eye’ she thought again, despite herself it was so hard to drill that thought into her conscious head. *Crack* a chair leg slammed into her side and threw her back into a table. That had hurt… and if she was being honest with herself it would have been the death of her if it had been anyone but a civilian. Letting her mask of pleasant cluelessness fade she stood up from the table, pulling a sharpened hairpin from her hair with her hand and walking through the crowd with more focus stabbed it into his neck, not a fatal blow of course, nor one that would hit an artery and cover the place in blood, but it certainly should leave him paralyzed. As the man fell with a loud crash there was a moment of silence from those around her. Letting her chakra leak out again she glared at them all. “Does anyone else want to try their hand or would you all rather sit down, pay your tabs and not piss me off anymore than you already have.” she said with an intimidating scowl. The one man that took a step towards her very quickly back pedaled when she looked him dead in the eye and forced her aching chakra pathways to eke out a weak genjutsu. It was pitiful and something most shinobi would have been ashamed of; hell she could have done a better job as a child, but it was enough and there was no point dwelling on the past. With that and an appreciative nod from the bartender, who she had noticed never seemed all that concerned with the fight in the first place, no doubt he was more than skilled enough to handle anything getting out of hand from these fools; She turned back to the table,where the two foolish gamblers who had tried to scam her were last, they weren't there of course, but she had already known that, in fact she was well aware exactly where the pair of them were at this very moment.

Striding towards the bathrooms, Rin stepped into a long hallway that broke off into a number of different storage rooms, the third one of which she knew hid the pair within. “Well well well, what do we have here” she said swinging the door open and glowering at the two of them”

A few minutes later Rin was striding out of the bathrooms and back into the tavern with a smile on her face and her purse flush with coin, and it was just about to get flusher. The Bartender waved her over; a broad smile on his face and a small pouch that clinked with the recognisable sound of coin. “You did a decent job of breaking up that fight lass, consider this payment for the help” He said, tossing her the pouch with one hand. Rin didn’t miss the way his eyes followed the pouch and more importantly how they narrowed when she caught it, no doubt confirming her skills and reaction speed once again. Rin Pocketed the coins all the same and moved to leave, a faint hint of a true smile creeping up the edges of her face as the man spoke again. “Of course if your looking for work I know a few people that would be more than happy to higher you.” He said, another bag of coins already jingling in his hand. Rin turned, letting her mask re-assert itself as she sat down ready for business; she had once been a bandit lord after all, she could read the man well; tell that these ‘people’ that he spoke of were really himself. She had picked how all the guards and most of the staff glanced to him for orders when the fight broke out. She also knew if she played her cards right here she might be able to turn enough of a profit to keep her going for another year or so. Certainly if she had any hope of recovering her former glory it would require expensive medical treatment; elixirs, research funding, and materials; and hey, if she ingratiated herself with him enough she might even get enough trust to just be able to rob him outright.

“I might be interested, but that depends; what sort of jobs did you have in mind; and more importantly what sort of pay?” She said nonchalantly, they were both professionals here, even if she was the more experienced of the two of them there was no reason to drag this out.

“Well something simple for now, follow me out back” He said, turning and waving one of the other staff members over to cover the bar as he led her around the side of the bar and into a smaller sub-cellar, one that she could tell was sound proofed. “Nice place you’ve got here, hope you're not getting any ideas, I don't swing that way hon '' she said with only half the self assured confidence she wished she could muster… Thankfully the man just chuckled; “No no nothing like that, but no need to have anyone overhear the job either, There's a wedding the next town over; and it's a bit of a complicated situation.” Rin inclined her head curiously indicating for the man to continue.

“Well this is actually a few requests at once but we will start with the easiest part, I need someone from out of town to ingratiate themselves with the bride; they’ll be wanting help with shopping and outfitting herself and her bridal party before the event and after that no doubt be hiring an escort for the trip to the venue after that.” he said simply, turning and rifling through a desk to his side. With his back turned Rin took the opportunity to survey the room; she might be working for the man now but she could just as easily turn this to her advantage when she left town; perhaps she could rob the man or usurp whatever burgeoning criminal organization he was running here… Rin caught herself at that point, no that was what got her almost killed and horribly maimed in the first place, taking over another organization was a terrible idea. Stealing some funds and treasures on the other hand… that might be something worth keeping the option open for.


Sweeping her eyes over the room Rin cataloged the contents and layout of the room. A number of wine bottles sat along the assorted racks throughout the room; and a number of barrels obscured the back wall of the room, there was a possibility that it could be hiding another room. Rin opened her spiritual senses and honed them towards the wall before pausing. Now that was odd, when she turned her senses to that spot it was as if the world just… ended. She could feel nothing there, not even the faint sense of earth chakra that she should be feeling from the ground. Come to think of it now that she was paying attention to it her senses couldn’t feel anything outside of the room either. Could it be that whatever was obscuring her senses earlier was also lining the walls of this room? Such an expense would imply there was at least something of significant value worth hiding within… at any rate it bore consideration for the future. “Ah, here we go” he said, turning around and handing her a sealed dossier. Rin quickly broke the seal and scanned the documents, nodding along with the man’s words as she read, taking regular mental notes, as well as asking the occasional clarifying question as needed. Her mind was already ticking over; organizing a plan, turning the circumstances over and seeing how she could best turn the situation to her advantage. She could leverage the situation quite well actually, the groom was no doubt the man paying for the job and he could certainly afford to it the woman in question had enough of a family fortune to go through all this trouble for her, of course if she played her cards right she could escort the bride and other attendees; ingratiate herself with them and ensure a reasonable portion of their wealth was… ‘donated’ to her, no doubt the other attendees would be equally wealthy.

Rin nodded to the man again “I can handle this easily enough; anything else i should know that's not in here?” she asked, taking a moment to lift up the now unsealed dossier as she did so.

“Well if your heading out of town anyway you might try to see if you can find any courier jobs to handle at the same time; if you have a good enough cover I may just have another job for you as well.” He said with a faint incline of his head.

Rin nodded curtly and turned to the door; “Understood; as long as the pay’s good i don't have any issues handling either Mr…” She paused again, letting the pregnant silence hang in the air, waiting to see if the man would respond. She got one word in response “Aurelius” Rin paused in her tracks, if only for a fraction of a second before continuing. “Well then Mr Aurelius, you can consider these jobs already handled” she said, pulling open the door in front of her with her good hand and striding out into the tavern again with her back straight. No need to let him know she recognised the name after all, that might just get her killed if he was connected to the family she thought he might be.

A Few minutes later Rin found herself back in the marketplace, a completely new outfit on, though once again it was hard to muster any sort of disguise that would stand up to serious scrutiny when she cut such an obvious figure, missing an arm and an eye. Certainly she could try using a technique to minimize those differences, but wasting her drastically limited reserves of chakra on something that can be handled almost as well with mundane skills. Of course times gone by she would have used such techniques with barely a second thought; her reserves of chakra had rivaled that of all but the mythical legends of the world and given time to grow she would have been a prodigy… but those times were long gone now and there was no point brooding on them.

Rin moved forward, gracefully flowing through the marketplace in her brilliant kimono, nothing truly irreplaceable of course, but she had kept it in good condition; a relic of a former time when such expenses were negligible for her. But perhaps more importantly a relic that allowed her to blend in with high society; She’d managed to scrape by on meager earnings for the most part but the occasional large payday certainly didn’t hurt. As she moved from stall to stall, spending much of her winnings from the day's earlier gambling session to pick up an assortment of objects that would help her blend in with the demographic of her target as she made her way to the place her target would no doubt be waiting.

Fillonies fabulous fanciful floral fashion emporium was not the sort of place Rin would normally be caught dead in, even when she had funds for days the idea of wasting them in a place as tacky as this was abhorrent; and as soon as she had stepped through the door she could already tell everything was overpriced and intended to be worn only for a few days; certainly nothing that would last, and yet the garish and overwhelming colors were certainly in fashion in this part of the world; The proprietress was much like her store, coated in an assortment of garish bright colors and lathered in so much makeup that she looked more like a canvas painted by some abstract artist than a real person; nevertheless Rin strolled forward, her inquiries had told her this woman would be the one most likely to trust a traveling mercenary to transport her goods and the one with goods of a suitable enough quality that they could be sold during the wedding at the next town over, if the two of them struck a suitable enough contract then there would be quite a decent chunk of money to make, and not that rin would tell the woman but it would fulfil whatever needs ‘Mr Aurelius’ needed, no doubt the man intended for her to smuggle some goods either into or out of the city and this would be a perfect cover for that.

It was a surprisingly quick conversation to get what she wanted; certainly she had to entertain the woman. Assured her that they had similar tastes, that they were both ‘Paragon’s of fashion’ , that she could ensure the goods wouldn’t be stolen, and that they shared the same taste in tea. All in all Fillonie was quite the odd woman, but simple enough once you got her on side, from there it was easy enough to arrange for a host of clothing, goods and materials for a stall to be ready for transport tomorrow, on the condition that any leftover stock would be returned to her. All Rin had to do was provide safe transportation and find someone to handle the stall. No doubt with the wedding happening there would be plenty of wealthy individuals in town and that was just the sort of demographic that Fillonies merchandise would appeal to.

Once the contracts had been finalized and the plans well laid Rin stepped out of Fillonies store, a colorful, if surprisingly tasteful, bonnet sitting on her head; and she of course by pure coincidence found herself stepping out into the path of the Bridal party of a soon to be popular wedding. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry” She said, catching the girl she had almost collided with as the girl stumbled back. “Are you okay?” she said with a smile and making eye contact with the girl. It was at that moment that she activated a technique; it hurt certainly, and almost completely exhausted her spiritual reserves but she needed a way to ingratiate herself with this party and having her fall for her, even if only a little would be a good step towards that goal.


“I- I y- yes i’m fine, j just a little shaken, t thank you” She said, still staring into Rin’s one good eye as she stuttered a reply. The other one had been covered with an eye patch and her hair of course, no need to make anyone look into that horrid mess; she honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if the sight was enough to break whatever genjutsu she placed on the girl. Lifting the girl back up to her feet and stepping back to an appropriate distance Rin bowed formally to the girl. “Rin Togakawa at your service my lady” She said formally, “no thanks are needed in the slightest, the mistake after all was all mine. Though if you still wish to thank me perhaps you could grace me with your name?” She said with a smile and a wink… well it probably looked like a blink to the girl now that she thought about it, but that was not a thought to dwell on in the middle of a mission like this.

The Girl’s face went bright red of course, even maimed Rin looked after herself and her charm was one of the few things that was dependent more on her personality than her previous talents… though certainly being able to use her chakra to have everyone around her fawn over her like love sick puppies had been much easier than this. “I, i its s Sarah,” she said, her face turning from a soft strawberry red to almost the color of beetroot as she spoke. Rin had to stifle a giggle at the sight, this may just be a job but the girl was certainly adorable.

“Well then Sarah it is a pleasure to meet you, what brings you and…” Rin paused, turning her gaze to take in the cluster of giggling women around them “So many esteemed young women to this place” She asked, taking a second to give a few of the other women just a small hint of the charming technique that she had used on the girl. It wouldn’t last long, and it drained her already dwindling reserves more than she would have thought possible, but at the end of the day it got the job done, and a small nudge here with her first impression would make a much more dramatic effect even when it wore off than twice the power would if set to work at a later point.

Sarah as it turns out, was the younger sister of the bride, another fortunate turn of luck, moreover she was the one in charge of planning the bridal parties, shopping trips, Bachelorette party and arranging travel for them all. It was simple enough for Rin to leverage her new connection with Fillonie to sell a few of the bridesmaids a set of dresses for the event and she just so happened to be heading in the same direction as they left. By the time the sun was setting and the party was preparing to separate Rin had managed to have herself hired as a bodyguard for the trip, been given an invitation to set up Fillonies stall at the celebratory party, and gotten herself an invitation to help Sarah with her own shopping. That last one had come as a bit of a surprise since the request hadn’t come from Sarah herself but instead her older sister who had practically thrown money at the two of them to go shopping together. Though as sisters were want to do, she hadn’t done it in the nicest of ways; telling Sarah that her current attire was no where near suitable and that she should take advantage of the skilled eye for fashion that Rin obviously possessed. Rin had to force down a chuckle at that, she had barely any interest in fashion, least of all the fashion that was being displayed in small towns such as these. Never the less Rin leapt at the opportunity, if she could pocket some left over change or turn a profit in some other way from such a shopping trip all the better, and she still needed an invite to the wedding itself, that would be where there was room for some true profit to be made.

The two of them agreed to meet the next morning out the front of Fillonies and go get breakfast together before starting their shopping trip. The two of them went their separate ways for the night, though Rin caught the girl looking longingly at her as she left. A faint smile crossed Rin’s lips at that; who knows perhaps she could have a little fun with the girl if time permitted, she certainly seemed interested enough. But that was a thought for tomorrow; for now she needed to make some plans for the night.

Strolling through the village of a night was an entirely different experience from the day; the town was still bustling of course, there were stalls in all the major squares and it almost looked like this was where the wedding was happening; it was like a festival was going on and now Rin was starting to understand the town’s preoccupation with color; if they were throwing a festival every night, no wonder there was so much garish color in the towns fashion. Someone had even decided to string paper lanterns all throughout the streets in the short few hours she had spent with the bridal party. Rin glanced around taking in the sights; it was something she hadn’t experienced in quite a while.


“Hey there Lass, you wouldn’t happen to be looking for some work would you?” A voice called out from a stall as she passed. Turning to the side she saw a tall lithe young man, holding a hammer who looked to be assembling some sort of large podium, as she turned her loose sleeve came into view and the man’s face dropped to that of one of both disappointment and sympathy. “Ah my apologies, I didn't realize your condition.” He said, no doubt attempting to sound genuine, but all Rin heard was another person pitying her, seeing nothing but the ruined mess of her body. But she had not fallen so far as to need pity from this man. Allowing a look of fury to cross her face, Rin strode forward, letting a little of her aura leak out as she snatched the hammer from the man with a scowl. “You can apologize by paying me” she said curtly as she slipped one foot out of her sandals, gripping the hammer in her teeth for a moment and dexterously placing a nail in place with her good hand before using her toes to keep it in place. With hardly any fanfare she took the hammer and slammed the nail into place with two sharp and precise taps, one to lodge the nail in the wood and withdraw her toes, and the other to sink the nail to its head. The whole process took less than a second, and it took the man more than a few moments to register the skill with which she had done so. Shinobi were not uncommon in these lands, certainly the man would no doubt suspect that was her profession now, but that was no skin off her back.

Leaning over and picking up another nail rin once again placed it upon a plank of wood that had been lined up for assembly and swiftly took it between her toes. A swift, tap tap and the nail had been sunk into place, fixing the board to another one and starting to form what was a basic foundation. “I’m surprised you expected to be able to assemble something this large on your own.” Rin commented absentmindedly as she grabbed another nail and with a quick tap tap, hammered it into place, she was getting into a rhythm now and it didn't take much attention for her to continue that rhythm.

“Ah, yes well you see I actually had the rest of my troupe coming shortly but they appear to have been delayed” The man said, shifting awkwardly from toe to toe. Rin nodded along, filing that little tidbit of information away for future, it wasn’t likely to be all that relevant but it certainly couldn’t hurt to be informed. Many traveling circuses and troupes served as covers for groups of shinobi, both missing ninja, paid assassins, spies and even some official shinobi of the larger villages. Of course some were simply what they appeared, traveling groups of clowns, tumblers, comedians, dancers, and other assorted entertainers; either way they were useful, the could serve as both a cover and a way to gather information on the surrounding lands, hardly anyone at a tavern or party would pay much attention to the staff so they were often privy to conversations that would otherwise be hard to overhear, moreover traveling as they did it was a necessity for them to stay up to date on the politics and events of the lands they traveled which left them as a prime source of information both private and public.

“Oh your a part of a troupe, what do you do?” She asked, turning on a fraction of the charm, she was still pissed of course, having someone so rapidly turn from asking for help and offering a job to showing pity was something she should have been used to by this point, but never the less it still irked her immensely.

“Oh I dance, we all do actually, though i’m the newest of the troupe, most of the others have far more experience than me but my passion has always been dancing and so when they came through town i practically begged them to let me audition, it wasn’t the best performance of my life but the others all seemed to agree i had talent so they took me on as something of an apprentice, it's not been much of an apprenticeship through, mostly i've just been going ahead of them, setting up their stalls and preparing for the show, they let me still dance with them sometimes of course, it's not like their taking advantage of me or anything but i do wish i could dance more than i do right now. What about you, do you dance? You seem like you have the dexterity for it, you're well balanced on your feet and you move with the same sort of grace that most of the others do, even if you look a little off balance on one side from time to time. I mean umm that's not to say that your umm are not… as balanced as them or like that you don't have…”

The man trailed off as Rin turned her gaze upon him. Looking closer now she noticed the lack of age around his eyes, he was barely an adult, which explained the over exuberant attitude that he had displayed, not to mention the complete lack of tact he had shown commenting on her arm again. Her tone turned just a tad more icy. “Well I'll be interested to see what you can do, perhaps I'll hang around for the show,” she said, hammering another nail into place as she did so.

The boy smiled, completely oblivious to the icy change in her tone, going back to rambling on in excitement, obviously he didn’t understand the difference between polite pleasantries and an actual expression of interest; never the less she supposed she had nothing better to do with her night, perhaps a little entertainment wouldn’t hurt, especially if the rest of the boys troupe had information worth gathering, as time wore on and they finished assembling the stage and a small booth next to it Rin sensed a faint wisp of chakra behind her, stronger than most civilians, though not strong enough to indicate anyone of particular skill with the spiritual arts… unless of course they were suppressing their power, something that would be indicative of someone with at least more skill than she would expect from a traveling troubadour.

Standing and turning to face the newcomer a series of claps rung out in the air, followed by a smooth voice “Well well, you do have some talent after all Tobias” the voice said, a smooth eloquence and self assured confidence setting Rin’s senses on edge. It felt like a wolf sizing up prey; as she finished turning the figure before her struck her as simply odd; a one eyed woman, dressed in an outfit garishly colorful enough to make even the people of this down question the sanity of its wearer, an absurdly oversized hat made to look like an oversized flower with petals that seemed to move in the wind with a mind all of their own, and a pair of mismatched shoes one comically oversized whilst the other seemed almost too small by comparison, its point curling up into a spiral with a bell sitting on the end. That in particular struck Rin as odd, she had heard no bells as the woman approached, certainly the bell could have been designed simply for show with no ability to make a sound, but that would be odd even in and of itself.

“And I see you managed to find some help as well” the woman continued, looking Rin up and down with those cold calculating eyes. Rin had to suppress a shiver as she did so, this woman projected far more competence than many bandits and even shinobi she had encountered in the past, that more than anything else told Rin that this woman was dangerous, far more so than she would expect even of a traveling assassin or missing ninja.

Rin bowed to the woman respectfully as her mind began whirling through her options and trying to identify the most likely situation. What was this woman’s purpose, no one with the level of skill that she was projecting would waste their time as a simple troubadour, she could be a traveling assassin, but again that seemed unlikely, she was dressed too colorfully for that, she drew too much attention, her absence would be too easy to notice, so not an assassin then. A crime lord? That was more plausible, or perhaps a spy, did she have a connection with the so-called Mr Aurelius she had spoken too earlier that day; or was she a rival? Were the two connected or was this woman here for the wedding, certainly it was possible that the event had given off the scent of blood to larger fish than just herself, from what Rin had observed of the wedding party so far they were at the very least minor nobility and had quite a bit of wealthy backing. The possibilities kept spiraling through her mind, ideas being considered, evaluated and then discarded in an instant. There were just too many unknowns for her to be sure of anything at this point; she needed more information, and that left her with two choices, to run away like a scared pup with her tail between her legs or to walk that razors edge of danger that she had once thrived on, to see if she could ingratiate herself with this woman and gather more information from her. Rin felt the faintest flicker of excitement at that thought before the fear and terror came back again; could she really do anything like that again? After the last time. After… No, no she couldn’t not really, she wasn’t the woman she once was and she couldn’t lie to herself and pretend she was… but she was also desperately in need of coin, her funds were depleted beyond belief and while she might be able to sustain herself by moving from town to town, scavenging and scrounging from simple commoners that would no doubt end with her being tracked down and killed anyway. Rin felt that same overwhelming sense of pointlessness that so often settled around her shoulders, with a mental sigh she looked up at the woman, making sure to avoid eye contact whilst remaining respectful, no need to draw the ire of her betters after all. “Rin Togakawa, at your service miss” she said plainly, waiting for the woman to take the lead in the conversation. At the very least the people moving through the streets would make summary execution less likely, not that she expected any of them or any of the city guards to be able to do much if this woman really wanted to just kill her outright.
The woman smirked, obviously taking in her quick change in demeanor as if a suspicion had been confirmed. Rin paled a little internally, had she been too quick to show subservience there, her own spiritual pressure no doubt felt no stronger than a commoners, perhaps she could have passed herself off as one, this woman might have let her go; did she just give away too much? “Well then if your at my service, Miss Togakawa then perhaps you might be free tonight to assist us, it would seem two of our troupe have taken ill and whilst Tobias can fill one of their roles for us we could certainly use the support of an additional individual for our performance.” It was said more with the tone of a statement of fact rather than a request, Rin gritted her teeth, of course she would be roped into covering for this woman; no doubt the two members that had fallen ‘Ill’ were in fact off doing something shady, whether that would be an assassination, robbery or something else entirely. Meanwhile no one would notice a change in the staff with the woman drawing the eye of every one with that garish outfit; that made a lot more sense, but Rin was no doubt over analyzing, there wasn’t much she could do about it and even if she could her focus should be more on ensuring that she didn’t get blamed for whatever plot this woman was working.

“I would certainly be honored to assist, however I'm afraid I'm not much of a dancer and I would no doubt struggle to assist you with any acrobatics,” she said, gesturing to the empty sleeve that hung by her side.

“That will be no trouble at all, Tobias will teach you what little you’ll need to know, you’ll mostly be in the background anyway and we’ve had those that have been with the troupe longer step up to cover the more complicated roles.” She said with a dismissive wave. “Tobias, the caravan has arrived at the square around the corner, if you could take the young miss togakawa there then you can both pick out some outfits for the night and you can show her the ropes'' The woman said with what may have just been the slightest hint of a smirk. Rin wasn’t sure how to take that one, or how to interpret it; but the boy, Tobias certainly seemed to jump at the woman’s words. Grabbing rin in an excited hand he practically dragged her along. Times gone by there was no way he would have been able to drag her anywhere, but now her frail body was barely able to stay upright as he pulled her along, she had maintained her dexterity, her many years of muscle memory and skill, even if the use of them pained her deeply, but it was the extreme weakness and strain on her body that made living her life so difficult. Even now she could feel that bone deep weariness weighing down on her, but even after all this time, even after giving in to that emptiness that whispered to her of her own worthlessness there was still a fragment of her soul, a spark that refused to give in, to give up entirely and allow herself to truly become the frail mess that she was on the outside.

It was a short journey to the collection of assorted jumbles of colorful caravans that formed Tobias' troupe, a few individuals here and there waved hello to the two of them as they passed, a few nodding to Tobias or giving her a smile. The boy, for that is what he was in her mind now, even if he was past the age of maturity, the more she got to know him the more it was clear from his mannerisms, attitude, experiences and a whole host of other little quirks of his personality that he was little more than a child, sheltered from the realities of this world and left to, mostly, grow free of the fear and terror that many within this world were forced to live with; not something entirely unexpected, they were in a town not far from a hidden village after all, these people were always sheltered from the brutalities of day to day life… at least until their villages fall, thats when they start to understand the true brutalities of the world.

As Rin stepped inside of the caravan and looked around at the piles upon piles of colorful outfits she couldn’t help but scowl a little, “do you not have anything even a little less… overtly garish?” She asked the boy, even something with more muted colors, browns or even some deep reds would be appropriate but to be seen wearing something like the brilliantly bright purples, blues pinks and yellows of these outfits… “Well color is something the troupe tries to encourage, but if you can find anything in here that suits you then i don't think it should be an issue.” the boy said, tilting his head curiously. “I don't know why you have an issue with these though, they’re beautiful!” He said picking out a horrid purple and green patchwork kimono that looked more like it was some sort of bizarre prison garb than a piece of clothing intended to actually be worn by a person in public. Rin Sighed as she stepped forward looking through the assortments of clothing that had been stuffed into the room, this was going to take a while, that much was self evident.

A few hours later Rin was still looking, she hadn’t found a single outfit that was even close to what she would consider acceptable and Tobias was clearly getting antsy, dancing from foot to foot and darting back and forth with suggestions that Rin had already discarded, she was in fact getting close to the bottom of the piles and had managed to reorganize or rather just organize considering the state the room had been in before, the garments into a decent system. It was at this point in fact that she found the piles upon piles of clothes had been hiding, if you could call it that; a worn old chest. Flipping the lid open Rin sighed in relief, “finally” she exclaimed, pulling out a crimson red kimono with a matching Red fan and ensemble of shoes, wrap, pins and many other items. This was much more her style, the deep blood red of the robe wasn’t anywhere near as bright as the others and that alone would have been more than enough, but this robe almost sung to her, it was as if she could feel the faintest hint of something calling her from the robe, more like a memory than anything, not a fond memory of course, she had few if any of those left to her, but a comforting one at the very least. Waving the boy out so she could change in some degree of privacy Rin shut the door and stripped herself down to her undergarments, there was thankfully a small albeit suitable mirror set into the back wall of the caravan that let her look upon herself as she did so. Looking in the mirror was always a chore, even more so when she was left without anything to cover her scars. Certainly many shinobi wore their scars as a badge of pride, but for her it was different, her body had been ravaged by the poison within her, black veins throbbed along her limbs, twisting towards her heart and warping the flesh and spirit within. Her missing arm, once simply a worn stump and withered and blackened, the flesh flaking off and looking more like the stump of some infected tree than something that should be seen on a human body, her eye was the worst of it, she kept it covered much of the time to hide the mangled mess and horrific wound but she found herself compelled here to remove that last layer of protection and look upon herself. The hole that remained there was a deep and horrific mess, the mere sight of which seemed to scratch at the walls of her sanity, but that was not what the worst part was, there right at the back of the socket, if you looked deeply enough and at just the right angle she could see a beating heart of blackness, the seed looked to her spiritual senses like it wasn't just some malignant growth but like it glowered upon her with the mind of the monster who had inflicted it upon her. She stood there for some time staring into it, and in that time it stared back into her, taking its chance to whisper in her mind, of her own hideousness, of her own weakness, of her uselessness, her foolishness, to remind her of every single mistake she had ever made, and of of every success that had turned to ash in her mouth, every happy moment that was blackened and corrupted by the future. It took a knock at the door to snap her out of it, a quick call of “Just a minute” as she covered the eye patch and scrambled to return to dressing herself in this outfit, first she threw on the kimono, and tied the wrap around her waist in a bow, it felt right, like she had worn it many times before, and like it was… part of her. Rin shook off the feeling, her spirit was in a fragile state now, even more so than normal and she no doubt couldn’t trust her senses. Even missing an arm it didn’t take her long to wrap her hair in a neat bun and pin her hair in place. Looking back in the mirror she saw a completely different look to what she had worn before, one that she had thought long lost to the ravages of time, she looked like a demon, wreathed in a robe of blood and painted in the histories as some creature to be feared. It was strange how much a change of outfit could bring out things long forgotten, but this too like all things was an illusion.With a sigh she turned to the door and stepped outside.

As she stepped through the door outside she heard a gasp from tobias as he stepped back in what seemed like not just shock but also some small degree of terror. “I- I I’m N- not sure that is w- what th the mistress had in mind” he muttered quietly as he attempted to suppress a shudder, but they had spent more than enough time looking and this was the only thing that was even remotely acceptable attire. “Come show me what we need to do '' she said gesturing back to where they could already see people gathering around the platform they had assembled earlier” the boy, hurrying to catch up and give her a rundown of exactly what they would be doing at the same time. Never the less by the time they had arrived Rin had a fair idea of the planned performances that the troupe had in mind as well as her involvement in them. Stepping behind the various stalls and displays that had sprung up throughout the towns square the two of them took the makeshift back entrance to the stage that the troupe was preparing their performance on, the imposing figure of the one eyed woman ordering them about and ensuring an orderly and tidy preparation that could be completed in a timely manner, it was when the woman turned to her that Rin saw something entirely unexpected from the woman, shock. With a bow at the waist Rin addressed the woman, her face politely impassive as she spoke. “As you requested, the two of us have found suitable garments for the performance and tobias has instructed me as best he can in what is expected of me.” Rin said politely, waiting bent at the waist until instructed to rise. The woman on the other hand didn’t indicate for her to rise, instead she almost took a step back, the surprise hardly hidden on her face. “Well now girl, you’ve managed to truly impress me, I hadn't expected you to dig deep enough through the costumes to find that garment, nor did I expect it to find you, it has been quite some time since i’ve seen it wearing someone.” The woman said trailing off slightly as she spoke.

Rin’s mind on the other hand had alarm bells ringing; someone less experienced than her might have taken the woman’s words as a simple quirk, but the surprise, the phrasing, it all pointed to there being something special about this outfit, and to refer to it as someone being worn by the garment rather than the other way around… that thought chilled her to the bone… or at least it would have if she’d still had more than an ounce of self respect and desire for self preservation, instead she simply tilted her head to the side, a look of curiosity on her face as she spoke. “Then I am glad to have pleased you, miss, although I must confess I am curious as to how I could have done so with such a simple act as to choose one outfit out of hundreds.”

The woman waved her off quickly, her mask returning rapidly as Rin spoke. “Never mind that, we have a change of plans for the night, tell me girl you have some experience fighting; correct? No need to reply of course you do, if the arm wasn’t a dead give away the way you hold yourself makes that more than clear. Here, take this' ' she said, tossing a prop sword to rin… or at least rin thought it was a prop sword; as she caught it in her good hand she felt the weight of solid steel in her hand. It took a slightly awkward flourish of her wrist to unsheath a fraction of the blade and examine it. Indeed the blade was solid steel… though it had been tempered to a deep crimson red almost deeper than that of the kimono she wore. Rin tilted her head curiously, “This doesn’t seem like a prop” she said looking at the woman with even more curiosity. It seemed that every time she spoke the mysteries with this woman and this troupe got deeper and deeper.

“It’s not a prop in the traditional sense, but you needn't worry that it will cut or harm anyone on stage. The town is in for a treat tonight, it is tradition that all who wear that robe play the role of the crimson shadow in our troupe’s traditional story. We hadn’t planned on performing it here tonight but if this wasn’t a sign ordained by fate herself then I don't know what is. You wont have many lines in the performance itself, that shouldn’t take long for tobias to show you, but you’ll have to come up with your own choreography to suit the performance, especially missing an arm as you are; none of the choreographed duels that we have done in the past are even remotely suitable for you.” As the woman opened her mouth to continue she was interrupted by a quiet awkward cough before tobias managed to interject. “U- umm m- miss i hate to contradict you but i’m not sure what performance your talking about, I’ve not seen it since i joined the troupe..” the boy said awkwardly receiving a curt nod from the woman as she continued on “Ah yes of course you wouldn’t have seen it having only joined us not that long ago, no trouble, i will have one of the others instruct the two of you each in it before we begin, in the meantime perhaps you can both come up with some form of entertainment to keep the crowd’s happy while we finish preparations'' she said with a wave at the now curtained off entrance to the stage.

The two of them wandered out on to the stage to a smattering of weak claps and cheers, there weren't many people out yet and the preparations hadn’t finished for many of the other squares in the stall either. Tobias leaned over to her before quietly whispering “so what's the plan”
Rin felt like she could punch the boy, this was his job not her’s, moreover he was the one that had dragged her into all this in the first place, she could be out there relaxing enjoying this impromptu festival, eating some lovely food or even planning for tomorrow, but she sighed never the less, turning to the boy and pulling out a knife from her sleeve. The boy paled instantly and Rin was already regretting the next part “Do you know how to throw?” She asked, a faint nod from the boy, the only response she got. With another sigh rin tossed the blade to him, gently so that the hilt was nice and easy for him to catch before reaching into her arm and pulling out a band wrapping a small collection of the knives and tossing those over as well. “Well then here, try to hit me, I’ll catch them and toss them back to you, shouldn’t be too hard for you.” Rin said with a smirk.


The boy looked like he was about to pass out. “b - b but what if i hit you?” He asked, already backing away whilst simultaneously trying to pass the blades back to her. The sight would have been comical if it wasn’t so pitiful. Rin sighed, waving her hand dismissively. “If you can do that then i will be more impressed than angry” she said plainly. She might be incredibly weakened, reduced to a shadow of herself and barely able to resist the force of a child, but her senses were still honed to a razor’s edge, she could handle catching a few blades form an untrained child, and really if she died this way it would just end up being a fitting end for the tale of comedic relief that her life had become. Rin almost chuckled at the thought, though that chuckle would have been to hold back tears more than anything else. Never the less Rin stepped back with a flourish, whipping her blood red kimono’s sleeve up in the air to create a trailing ribbon of blood before bowing to him and subtly gesturing for him to begin. The first few throws were pitiful, tentative and hesitant strikes with no real intention of hitting any target, it took her starting to throw out insults at him before he started to take it more seriously, and the crowd certainly seemed to like it too. More than a few of the men and not too few of the women had chuckled at the one about his mother and the baker's dozen.

Each blade was thrown with just a little more determination than the last, just a little more anger, rage and bloodlust than the last. It actually made Rin smile with surprise, the boy had more skill than she’d thought and though she still found herself plucking the knives from the air as they flew towards her she still couldn’t help but admire the potential in the boy, perhaps he would learn something from this experience and develop further, or perhaps he would die horribly from overconfidence on the road from it. Either way it did make her smile a little at the distant fantasy of this boy one day growing to surpass her, being accosted on the road by that monster that had maimed her and slaying him for his hubris… It was just a day dream of course, or as it would happen in this case a night dream, but Rin still paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, and it was this moment that the crowd saw her take a hit, a blade flashing for her shoulder and crimson ribbons of blood flying around her as she reeled back, a half form summersault in the air being used to recover from the fall as she landed twisted on her feet and looking at the boy… a knife gripped in her teeth and her one good arm twisted over her body in a bow.

The crowd erupted in cheers at the sight and Tobias looked like he was about to faint. It had to their eyes of course looked like she had really been hit, had really taken the knife to her side and fallen to it. It was of course subterfuge; a little bit of trickery and slight of hand, she certainly had to admit that this crimson red kimono made it oh so much easier to leave behind the illusion of blood in the air, a few quiet tweaks with her chakra, an it looked oh so real; but even without that the robe itself seemed almost alive, almost like it knew exactly what she had intended, she’d hardly needed to adjust it in the air at all, it had fluttered true and perfectly obscured her actions as she caught the blade. Tobias looked almost as shocked as the crowd, even if he had been positioned better to see her actions it would seem she had managed to fool even him into thinking that he had managed to actually hurt her, and Rin had to admit he’d shown more skill than she’d expected once he started getting warmed up.
Rin raised herself up, coming out of the bow with a flourish as she addressed the crowd with a false smile. “I Hope that didn’t scare you all too much, rest assured we are consummate professionals and are more than capable of handling ourselves, never the less we hope you all enjoyed this small taste of the show to come!” she said with another bow as she gestured to tobias to mimic her movement. “Come back in a few hours and you may just witness a show rarely performed even by our skilled troupe!” she said, allowing the robes to flutter forwards, covering her feet as she flowed back behind the curtain, no doubt creating the illusion of her floating to the crowd. The movement actually had her wondering for a moment whether there was any way to develop such a thing into a full blown technique… before she reminded herself that that was no longer her purview, she might still possess the knowledge of how to develop techniques, but she certainly lacked the capacity to actually do so. With a sigh Rin let go of the small echo of the self confidence she had once possessed as she faded back behind the curtain, the cheers of the crowd turning to dust in her ears as she remembered her place in this world.

“Well I must say that was quite impressive” a voice rang out from behind her, the one eyed woman again, Rin forced herself into a quick bow as soon as she realized. “ I am simply glad to have impressed you” she said as sincerely as she could manage. The woman inclined her head to the side curiously, as if staring at Rin from a new angle would help her solve some strange puzzle. Rin wasn’t sure how long she stood there like that for, it could have been mere moments and yet it seemed to drag on for hours, it wasn’t until the woman raised her head back to a normal angle and began to speak again that Rin’s spiritual senses seemed to catch up with reality; that had felt like some sort of technique, she couldn’t be sure what it was, indeed she hadn’t even realized it was a technique at the time until after it had finished, even now she couldn’t help but second guess herself, she could just be imagining it, as her thoughts started to spiral the woman’s voice brought her back to reality. “No in all, honestly i didn’t expect such a skillful performance from you, and the way you handled the crowd’s reactions was simply masterful” she said, her voice seeming to radiate genuine praise. Rin shrugged it off of course, there wasn’t much special she had done but it did still help shake her out of the funk she had felt herself starting to sink into.

“Now then, the rest of the troupe will begin the proper show shortly, I had one of the girls transcribe your lines and cues” she said, pulling out a small folder of paper from her sleeve and passing it to Rin. “Make sure to read it and be prepared as best you can, the rest of the troupe can handle some basic combat choreography so you’ll just need to fight them as if fighting real opponents, the blade won't cut them and the crowd will love it if your earlier performance was anything to go by” the woman said with a smile. “Oh and one last thing…” she said, pausing as she reached into a small satchel that was neatly hidden amongst the wrap keeping her own kimono in place, pulling out a solid red mask, seemingly made from solid ivory and entirely devoid of any distinguishing features, not even holes for eyes were visible along the smooth ivory. “This is for you”

Rin took the mask cautiously, turning it over in her hands as she did so. “Gratitude but… how am I supposed to see with this on?” she asked, examining the material closely for some sort of hidden catch or trick.

The woman smiled as she turned back to one of the other performers, “just try it on, you’ll see” she said, with what could have been the faintest hint of a smile showing through her voice. With a shrug Rin placed the mask over her face, feeling the faintest hint of a sting around where the edges met her face as the mask seemed to affix itself by some unknown means; and to rin’s surprise as it did so she found she could see, her vision was tinged with the slightest hint of Red and yet that was hardly an issue for her. Taking a quick wander backstage she managed to find an unused mirror no doubt intended for the performers to use in the preparation of their makeup and costumes. What she saw sent a shiver down her spine. Her hair had been tinged a crimson Red like a wild beasts, hair almost standing on end as if she constantly had her hackles raised, the mask had molded to her face, covering it completely in that dark bloody red, and yet it was not her face, it held the same shape, but it was still solid ivory. Rin felt a faint hint of concern at this, it was rare to find something like this in the hands of a traveling troupe, and even rarer for it to be something that could just be handed off to a random visitor.

A short while later, one of the girls working back stage ushered her forward, it was her turn to step onstage, and somewhat hesitant she stepped forward, doing her best to play the role that had so quickly been thrust upon her, opposite her on stage stood a young girl, dressed in an ostentatious kimono, one that though it looked cheep up close was very clearly intended to denote the girl as royalty; to her left stood a burly older man, in a suit of heavy ‘armor’ that looked a size too small for him, the gilded emblem of a swan, matching that of the swan on the girls robes, no doubt they had selected him to play the role of the girl’s captain of the guard. The girl shrieked a shrill call echoing out over the square “It is the Crimson shadow, she has come to wreak vengeance upon me and my family for my fathers treachery!” she wailed, falling to her knees and weeping as the burly man drew his sword; pointing it at her and gesturing the men to his side forward to attack. Rin saw them rush forward and though she knew it was merely a performance felt the urge to treat it as a real combat, a sense of bloodlust that she hadn't truly experienced in years before today welled up in her again and time seemed to slow down a fraction as she analyzed the situation; five opponents; not counting the captain or his ward, two approaching her on each side with one coming at her front on. She couldn’t slip past the one on her front and present her back to the captain without being open for a lethal blow, but her senses seemed sharp, her will well honed and she could see the weaknesses in her opponent's movements, each of them moved with far more skill than she would expect of common performers but that was unimportant right now, she unsheathed her sword, took a fraction of a step to the right, angling her sword towards those approaching on the left, turning her head in that direction to give the illusion that her focus was being directed at her left flank, then just as the first one dashing at her on the right stepped in for a swing she let her leg fall, throwing her into a roll as she did so. Her blade caught the man’s leg along the back of his hamstring as she did so, darting up and turning to face the group; the were all on the one side of her now, as she stood with her back to the crowd, it wasn’t the done thing in theater certainly, but she hoped her back would strike an imposing figure to the audience; just to be sure she flicked her blade out to her side, the flourish giving them all something to cheer for as the five men made a move to swarm her again. They were more clumsy this time, their formation broken from what they had been expecting. She sidestepped the first blade, swung her pommel into the gut of her second assailant whilst twisting her foot out to catch a third as she sidestepped their stab. A swift boot to the back and he went flying off the stage and into a small section of the audience that had been wearing the colors of the troupe, no doubt there just in case the fight spilled over into the crowd. That would give them something to do. Twisting on her feet she caught the fourth and fifth men circling her, trying to flank her and take her from either side, a smart play, but also a dangerous one when fighting an opponent that outskilled you so thoroughly, she felt sharper than she had in years, and even found moves she hadn’t practiced before springing to the of her mind as she fought. The two rushed her at once, no doubt trying to catch her of guard, but that was hardly an issue for her with only the two of them, she swiped her blade to the left, knocking one of the men’s blades out of alignment as she danced backwards from number fives own blade, leading it towards number four. Perhaps number four had been expecting this for he moved to grab her as she did so, letting his blade clatter to the floor, but that too was easy to account for, as his arms moved to wrap around her she let herself move into a spin, cracking him in the stomach and bending under his arms as she ducked the stunned man’s grapple. Number five, who had been trying to keep his thrust in line with her found himself having to twist awkwardly to avoid impaling his own friend, and leaving him open for a follow up attack, a swift cut to the throat was more than enough to end him… or it would have been if the staggered man she had struck in the gut with her pommel from earlier had not stepped in to block her strike. Rin let a grin form under the mask, that had almost been impressive and so she let her bloodlust loose, the image of a wounded and blackened silver fox, its fangs dripping with blood and eyes burning with black flames flickering behind her for a fraction of a second as their blades rung with the impact. Number two being thrown back off of the stage with the force of the strike and Rin surprising herself in the process. But he had managed to save number four and five from her follow up so no doubt he considered it a win. Rin wondered if he would be thinking that in the morning of course, that blow had a lot of force behind it, likely more than enough to leave a bruise, especially if he hit the cobblestones below.

Number one four and five all took advantage of the moment to regroup and steel themselves, each of them showing far more caution than before. Rin found it odd, she should have been feeling exhausted by now, her body wasn’t cut out for this kind of prolonged conflict anymore and this was without a doubt the longest she had spent fighting since… well likely before she had her accident in sunagakure. Rin’s body must have looked like it lost focus for a moment as her three remaining opponents darted towards her, blades each pointed at her heart as if by some sort of mutual agreement, and yet it felt strange, Rin felt time slow, and then stop as the group of them came within striking range, her mind felt the duality of combat, both perfectly calm, ready for anything, ready to accept death or dole it out, and yet at the same time she felt that instinct of a wounded, cornered animal, the urge to rip and tear, to rend flesh from bone and leave nothing but a bloody mess around her. In that moment, as those two mentalities blended together, she struck out on instinct,slipping through the tiniest gap in her opponent's blades as her own sword trailed behind her in a neat arc, clipping each of them across the throat. A wealth of blood sprayed out for a moment before the three men all disappeared in a puff of red mist, no doubt whatever mechanism the troupe had to handle otherwise lethal blows.

The armored man watched the display impassively, protecting the noble woman behind him with a grim expression on his face. Rin took the moment to bow to him, the crowd would love it after all, before flourishing her blade again, the blood on her sword from his disciples splattering to the ground at his feet. Rin could feel herself getting into this now.

The two of them rushed forward to meet each other with some unspoken sense of agreement, their blades ringing out as they clashed together, the man taking the brunt of her strike with two hands before detaching one to take a swing at her over their locked weapons. Using her obvious disadvantage against her was smart, but many masters of the blade had lost and arm and learnt techniques to accommodate their new circumstances, not that rin had learned any, but again that strange state of battle meditation had over taken her and she felt ideas springing to her mind, twisting her blade slightly on her wrist she pulled back, giving him just enough room to throw off his balance as he was putting his weight forward. From there a swift kick with one foot would destabilize him enough to trip him; or at least that is what she had had planned, the man on the other hand must have realized this was coming, he pulled his punch back as she twisted her blade, dancing back as she lashed out, catching only air with her follow up attack. The two danced backwards a few steps before starting to circle each other.

Another exchange of blows between the two of them ended little better, her darting forward, trying to use her superior speed and agility against him whilst he seemed to anticipate her moves at the last possible moment, pulling back or blocking with only a hare's breath of room left between himself and defeat. If it wasn’t for the sweat pooling on his brow she would almost think the man was toying with her.

Another exchange of blows, a swipe for his neck, knocked out of line by a swipe from his bracer, a lethal blow turned to a superficial bruise, a kick to the thigh, twisted out of the way such that it just barely missed, A rising uppercut followed by a descending swipe of her sword, a step to the side and a panicked swipe of his own sword forcing her to pull the attack to the side. Again and again the two exchanged blows, each trying to eek out an advantage over the other, every time one or the other would seem to gain the upper hand only for the other to recover enough for a second wind, eventually the two of them had reached the point of exhaustion, she could see it in the other man’s eyes just as much as she could feel it in her own bones, it was at that point, as their eyes met that she saw the man wink at her, out of view of the crowd of course, and move to rush forward, his left leg seeming to give out at the last moment as he reared up for a massive overhead strike.

Rin seized the chance, even if it did feel like a hollow victory, thrusting her blade forward as the man fell, letting his own weight impale him upon her blade as his own sword fell to the ground beside them with a clatter. As the man disappeared in another spray of blood Rin panted, letting herself sink to her knees in exhaustion, that fight had pulled far more out of her than she had thought possible, and more over far more skill than she thought she had still even possessed. Pushing herself to her feet with her sword Rin staggered over to the girl playing the role of the noble, curled up in the corner of the stage, whimpering. Rin had studied her few lines well and knew how this story was supposed to end. Reaching out a dripping blood red hand to the girl she projected her voice outward so that the crowd could easily hear, even as she soft in as soft and gentle a tone as she could muster, “You needn't fear me child, I have extracted the blood price from those who have broken the pact, go now and tell the world of my mercy” She said, whipping the cloak around her in a flourish as the trap door they had built into the stage opened below her, allowing her to seemingly disappear like a ghost to the crowd.

Rin could barely hear herself think over the cheering of the crowd, the echoing construction of the stage certainly didn’t help either, their cheers almost seeming to funnel in under the stage and echo around over and over, feeding off of each other, it was likely because of this that she didn’t notice the figure stepping up behind her, and why she was so caught off guard when said figure clapped her on the back with almost enough force to knock her over. “Well done lass! I must say that was quite impressive! Of all those who’ve worn the mantle of the blood shadow I have to say you may just fit the role the best!” said the one eyed woman as she lent over, embracing her in a one armed hug as she continued to talk over the roar of the crowd, though talk was a bit of an understatement, even the woman needed to scream to be heard from only a few feet from Rin’s face. “Come, you simply must drink with us and celebrate! I’ve prepared a payment for all your help and you’ll be more than welcome with our troupe any time! In fact I couldn’t convince you to sign on with us for a more prolonged tour?” The woman asked, a sly glint in her eye, Rin was no fool and there were just simply far too many inconsistencies and curious occurrences for her to trust this woman, and joining her troupe would no doubt lead her into even more trouble than what she had already gotten herself into; certainly times gone by she might have lept at the opportunity to join a group like this and turn them to her own advantage from the inside, but that was a long time ago and these days she just simply didn’t have the self confidence to believe that she could win a battle of wits with this woman. “Thank you for the offer miss, i will certainly keep it in mind if we ever encounter each other in the future, but i am afraid for the time being i must regretfully decline, i find myself bound here for at least a few weeks with a host of assorted obligations and i most certainly couldn’t expect you or your people to wait on me without any promise of certainty on my part, though the offer alone is a great offer” she said with a formal bow, the woman giving her a look that may have been disappointment or simply dissatisfaction. Never the less Rin spent much of the rest of the night celebrating with the woman and her troupe, they had turned quite a profit from the night, selling merchandise emblazoned with the figure of the shadow and Rin’s presence wandering around in her costume only served to increase the fervor with which the towns people seemed to devour the troupes merchandise and stories.

Indeed Rin had made to get changed out of her costume a few times throughout the night, but the fervor was infectious and it took only a few of the troupe begging her to remain acting as their impromptu mascot for a few more minutes to keep her in her costume till the wee hours of the morning.

The fervor and excited atmosphere of the townsfolk and performers were infectious and whatever the reason for this impromptu festival Rin found herself being pulled in to enjoy the celebrations, wandering through the streets, enjoying the colors and lesser performances, and even trying her hand at a few games that had sprung up along the streets, one enterprising man had set up a half barrel of fish and was letting anyone that could scoop them out with a paper net the chance to keep their fish, another gentleman had set up a ring game that whilst it was quite obviously rigged when she examined it closely, the metal rings being slightly magnetic and thus likely to be repelled from the posts they were supposed to land on, was still quite fun and drawing a lot of attention and enjoyment from the crowd. The one that caught her eye the most however was a young boy barely into adulthood who radiated the arrogant confidence of youth, one who had not seen the real world and very clearly had no clue of the dangers that lay outside the walls of polite society, all that could have been forgiven however if it wasn’t for the arrogant and completely false way he proclaimed to the crowd his title as the greatest marksman in the world, taking any and all challengers for only a nominal fee. It was sheer idiocy, with a quick exertion of her spiritual senses she scanned the boy for any sign of his spiritual development, there was nothing, barely even a hint of any chakra within his system and what was there felt weak, diluted and barely noteworthy… Still that was likely enough to set him as a cut above that of the commoners that filled this village. Even then Rin likely would have let the boy have his fun and claim whatever winnings he might make from the night if he hadn’t called her out in particular. Of course the Blood shadow would make for an excellent demonstration of his skills, who could claim that he was not the greatest in all the land if even the one who had put on such a devastatingly beautiful display of skill and beauty earlier was unable to beat him, that was the last straw for Rin, striding up to the small platform and shooting range that had been set up Rin looked up at the boy, just under a foot taller than her he may have been intimidating if he didn’t so clearly feel like a child in her mind’s eye. With a sigh, just telegraphed enough for the crowd to see she spoke. “Very well, what are the terms of your competition child?” She said, an unimpressed look plastered across her face, though with the mask still on she was the only one that knew it was there. She was thankful for that, hiding her distaste for the arrogant boy before her would have been, not difficult exactly, but certainly irksome, and the boy’s next words made that point abundantly clear to herself as her scowl deepened. “Why the rules are simple oh most esteemed blood shadow” He said with an obviously over exaggerated flourish and bow for the crowd, of course he would be playing this up. Rin rolled her eyes, waiting for the boy to continue with an irritated tapping of her foot.

Waiting a moment longer the boy continued smugly, “pick your instrument, whatever you want, knives, bows, rocks, hell you can pick a cat if you want! I guarantee i’ll hit the target better than you can no matter what you choose…” The boy paused again before muttering a little quieter so it was harder for the crowd to hear. “Except me of course, no throwing me… or blindfolding me… or eating me… that was a weird day.” He muttered the last bit under his breath before brightening again. Rin simply rolled her eyes, so the game was to find something the boy couldn’t throw… or at least that was the intention, and Rin might have played along if the boy hadn’t shown such blatant disregard towards his betters. With a simple flourish she produced a blade from her sleeve, a simple unadorned blade designed to be thrown with a flick of the wrist. “Very well, then let's keep this quick, sharp, simple and to the point.” she said, throwing the blade without even looking at the target, feeling instead with her spiritual senses as she let her mind’s eye guide her movements. The blade of course sunk into the very center of the target perfectly “the first one to miss the dead center of the target loses' ' she said, flicking another blade out from her sleeve before flipping it over and proffering it to the boy. “You’re more than welcome to use your own blades if you’d prefer” she said with a slight smirk under her mask. She wouldn’t be surprised if he had some sort of trick or rigged knives here but that was hardly any concern of hers, the boy after all wouldn’t be able to out do her even with a rigged game. The boy to his credit however took the proffered knife and threw it himself, hitting the target perfectly dead center, the blade sinking into the target right next to her own blade. That, more than anything surprised her, she flicked another blade out again and allowed it to fly straight and true into the target, eying the boy more carefully this time as she flicked out another knife for him to use. This time, her spiritual senses tingled, it was subtle and minor but as he took the blade from her she could feel just the faintest hint of chakra passing from the boy to the knife and back again. His movements were somewhat clumsy, no doubt he hadn’t had the experience with a knife that he had with a bow but that didn’t seem to impact his abilities at all. With an awkward throw the blade flew out of the boy's hands, seeming almost to fly with a mind of its own before it came to sink in amongst the other blades, this one running along the top of the target's center, the rest of the small red dot having already been taken up by the earlier blades. This too, whilst mildly surprising in its own right was not what caught her attention, no the boy was actually doing something far more interesting when he let loose the blade from his hands, turning her senses to a much finer examination she found a thin string of chakra connecting the blade to the target, already starting to dissipate, the technique did not feel refined, or developed and she would in all honesty be surprised if the boy was doing it consciously, but it was still a sign of quite significant talent. The thread was too thin and too weak to be easily sensed or seen by those without the proper training and so to the crowd around them it looked like the boy was simply throwing each blade with the skill of a master; what was actually going on though seemed to be a creative use of chakra strings to guide the blades to their target.

Rin’s scowl faded as she tried to consider her next move, absentmindedly letting another blade fly into the target with a perfect thud. It was a unique enough skill she had to admit, and she might even have let the boy have the win out of some small show of respect for the ubiquity of his burgeoning technique, at least she might have in the past; now though she knew letting the boy continue to think of himself as infallible would no doubt be doing a disservice to him, certainly he might continue being a big fish in a small pond but if he didn’t realize how weak he was in the whole larger scheme of things then he would get himself killed. Flicking out the last of her knives and profering it to him she watched as his chakra began to attach itself to the blade and, with a quick exertion of her own will, interposed a small wall of her own chakra between the point the chakra was trying to attach too.

This time when the boy threw the knife it soared wide, his awkward movements and untrained stance doing nothing to help the blade even reach the target. The crowd gasped in surprise, but it was the boy more than anyone else who seemed the most shocked. Rin lent over and gave him a light pat on the shoulder. “You’ve got some skills kid but at the end of the day you need a lot more work before you can call yourself the best in the world. Come find me some time after the festival and I might be able to show you where to start” She said, sweeping up her winnings from a gentleman to the side who had been keeping them before wandering off.

She’d already turned a tidy profit from that challenge of course and the troupe had paid her well for her time, but she had found herself enjoying herself if only a little and so she figured there was no harm in continuing to explore the festival, It wasn’t just games and fun, there were a number of stalls and traders who had set up interspersed in amongst the celebrating townsfolk and assorted individuals trying their hand at turning a profit with rigged games and fun displays. One stall in particular caught her eye however, a simple little stall that looked like a discount blacksmith’s forge, assortments of blades, tools, plows, picks, and items both for use in farming and in combat. All in all it was rough work, but there were a few interesting things here and there, and it all seemed to be made of reasonably high quality steel. Striding up she looked over the more unique inventions as she eyed the vendor manning the stall. A gruff looking older man with a decent sized gut and even more decently sized muscles was working away at sharpening some of the blades that he had placed behind his stall, picking one of the finished blades up at random Rin hefted it in her hand, feeling the blade’s weight and its ballance. She actually had to struggle to lift it, it was an over sized hunk of metal more than a true sword and it showed in the over all weight of the construction, of course despite that she had to admit the balance was decent for such a large piece. Putting the hunk of metal down she moved along the rows of items before picking up something a little more interesting, a long thin slender blade sat half way down the table, sheathed in a clear tube of some kind. Picking up the blade and unsheathing it, Rin felt the heft and the weight again, noticing the gentleman starting to eye her as he put down the last of the weapons he was working on. The blade’s ballance was almost perfect, just a little bit weighted towards the front of the blade, but even that she couldn’t exactly criticize, it was something that whilst not the norm or the standard for blades, some masters preferred, allowing for quicker thrusts, parries and quick flowing strikes, though the draw back was that maintaining a guard with a blade balanced like that tended to put far more strain on the wielder’s wrist and exhaust them if the conflict drew out too long. Very much a weapon for aggressive and quick flowing styles that emphasized short arcing strikes and darting piercing blows to keep your opponent off balance. That wasn’t what had caught her attention however, it was a nice piece certainly, but she had seen decent blades before, no what had drawn her attention was the sheath, and why it was completely transparent.

Seeming to almost read her mind the vendor spoke up “The sheath’s just to display the blade, what you have there is a hidden blade, designed to be kept within a walking stick or parasole. He said, eyeing her with what could have been a knowing look before reaching under the table and rummaging around for something; what he pulled out was the frame of a parasole, composed of simple wood though it may be Rin found herself quite surprised at the design, rather than the designs she had seen in the past where the blade simply sat in the handle of the parasole, easy to draw quickly and simple to use but not actually able to stand up to close scrutiny, this parasole seemed perfectly normal; She couldn’t see any evidence that it might hide a blade at all and if the one she was holding was supposed to sit inside then she certainly couldn’t see any sort of hole or cavity that it might sit within. With a twist of his wrist the bottom of the parasole telescoped upwards, revealing the cavity that she had been looking for; profering the now open frame to her the older man leant forward, explaining some of the intricacies of the mechanism with a degree of passion that she wouldn’t expect of a simple trader or even a blacksmith following a template. That inkling was confirmed a few moments later as the man continued “Of course, the design is a little awkward at the moment, if i had some stronger materials i could improve what i have designed here to let the blade be drawn smoother and easier without compromising the secrecy of the compartment, but as it is that would put far too much tension on the telescopic mechanism” he said, starting to ramble off in the way that passionate inventors and innovators were want to do.

Rin Tuned him out as she continued to examine the device, the blade slotted in neatly, the telescopic base of the parasol rotating around the handle and disguising it as a decorative engraving that sat just above the grip of the parasole whilst keeping the weapon within easy reach. Once she felt the telescopic covering snap into place she tried to twist it back, surprised to find that it sat stiff and unmoving, she couldn’t see any sign that there was a blade or indeed anything at all hidden within, the weight was indistinguishable from a standard parasole everywhere but the base of the handle, and that handle had been gilded and designed to look like it was made from solid metal, there were no seams and try as she might she couldn’t figure out how to release the mechanism. After a few more tries the Man reached out across the table and held his hand out. Reluctantly Rin had to concede her defeat and passed the device to the man, who twisted it in one motion and let the blade slide out again.

Rin was impressed, even having watched him do it twice now she couldn’t figure out what the trigger mechanism was, his hands had been in different places each time from what she could tell and she hadn't felt any hint of chakra being used either. Eventually she simply uttered a single word, reluctantly conceding utter defeat “How?”

The man smiled, a joyous smile that looked out of place on such a big beefy man, and yet it felt so genuine she had to let a hint of a smile back form on her lips. “The trick is it’s a three part combination lock” he said excitedly as he turned the parasol down. The first is a gravity lock that means you can only enable the mechanism when it's positioned down like this” he said, tilting the parasole to the side in the way you would when attempting to smoothly draw from it before continuing, the second is an insulated mercury lock tuned to function off of the heat temperature of your hands, there’s a sequence of six locks that sit around the grip of the parasole, here, here, here, here, here and here” he said pointing out the locations. As long as any of the opposing locks are the only one’s being touched the heat from your hands should disturb the temperature of the mercury inside and unlock the secondary locking mechanism, if more than that is being touched the pressure gets too high and the locking mechanism re-enables itself so anyone examining the parasole without knowing what to look for is highly unlikely to co-incidentally discover both devices, and before you ask the insulation is there to ensure that ambient temperature changes are evenly distributed amongst the mercury so you don't have to worry about a snow storm or anything like that interfering with the mechanism. The last mechanism is the simplest but it's also quite effective, there's a small magnetic lock inside the shaft here that requires you to quickly twist the shaft in a specific pattern before the shaft will actually start to open. Once you know what your doing you can do the whole thing in a second or so but to anyone not knowing what they are looking for it's completely indistinguishable from a regular parasol even under heavy scrutiny.

Rin nodded along at the explanation, impressed at the design, and at the man’s thoroughness, “And you said you could improve on this with a stronger metal” She asked curiously, it was, in all honesty probably rather pointless to be thinking about hidden blades and the likes in her current state, she was after all never much of a close quarters fighter, but still the design was interesting and it certainly couldn’t hurt anything but her purse to have one.

The man nodded along excitedly, no doubt sensing the possibility for a sale “Oh yes, I had a small sample of star metal from a meteor that worked in my tests but i just didn’t have enough of it to use”

Rin nodded, scratching her head in as she did so, star metal wasn’t the strongest material in the world, or the most expensive, it had some handy unique properties and certainly was stronger than iron but it was in most cases out classed by other materials, that said it was rare, you could really only find it when a meteor fell to earth from the stars, hence the name no doubt. There were probably other materials that could work in the design but they would be far too expensive to justify the cost, of course she happened to know that there was a meteor that had fallen in the nearby mountains a few months ago, having been camping nearby at the time, perhaps if her travels took her in that direction again she might be able to pick some up for this man, if this was only one of his inventions it might be worth paying him some attention. Her decision made Rin nodded to the man. “I should be able to get my hands on some star metal for you. If you can produce something even better than this then i’ll be happy to buy one, and if you have the funds i can sell you the excess i have left over if there’s enough.” She said placing the parasole back in the man’s hands and smothering the urge to giggle at the excited squeak that came out of the man’s mouth at her words.

It took another quarter of an hour to disentangle herself from the man’s excited ramblings and expressions of gratitude, definitely an eccentric inventor type. Regardless after looking over a few of his other wears she continued on, extricating herself enough to wander over and look at some of the other festivities, there was a lovely scent coming from the square around the corner from the man’s stall and a conveniently timed grumbling of her stomach gave her exactly the excuse she needed to finally wander in that direction. The man likely would have followed her too if she hadn’t reminded him that he had an entire stall to look after, with a sad almost puppy like look the man returned to his stall with a nod. Rin almost felt bad, almost, he hadn’t meant any harm and was quite clearly just passionate and ecstatic that is project had gotten some attention, but never the less she had no interest in spending the night listening to him ramble, she would collect some star metal the next time she passed by the mountains and have it delivered to him, that was simply good business sense, profit was profit after all, but she wasn’t interested in pleasantries or entertaining his company as he rambled on all night.

The company she was interested in entertaining at this point however, whatever was producing the rich delicious scent that she could smell wafting towards her, it was rich, smelling like a cross between a light rich salt water fish and the scent of delicious slow caramelized meat.

Finally turning the corner Rin saw a whole slew of dishes being prepared, street foods of all kinds and styles, many that seem to have come from far and distant parts of the world, she certainly hadn’t seen anywhere serving White flower tea cakes since she had visited the land of tea, and there was a stall on the other side of the square that was selling a rich paella that seemed inspired by something she had once seen served in a small town on the edge of the land of iron. The thing that caught her eye the most however was a large fresh sushi stall situated in the center of the square, a crowd gathered around as a number of partygoers sat along a formal table, each looking like they were limbering themselves up for a competition. Wandering forward she grabbed the attention of one of the stall’s operators with a cough, inquiring as to what exactly was going on, receiving a surprising response. “It’s a puffer fish eating contest!” The woman said with a generous smile “Our experienced chefs have removed any serious poison from the fish but there are still enough trace amounts within the flesh to cause some minor psychedelic effects when ingested in a large enough quantity. The crowd loves seeing who’s nerve will break first whenever we have a contest like this” she said with a smile, and Rin couldn’t help but smirk a little at the thought, “and of course the winner doesn’t need to pay for what they eat” the woman finished, which sold Rin on the idea of joining in, she could get fed, and not have to spend a single coin doing it, odd’s were no one else here would have the tolerance for poison that she had trained in her body and even if they had the same sort of training one small advantage of the corruption flowing through both her physical and spiritual body was the incredible degree to which it was territorial, acting almost like a wild animal it fought off other poisons and infections, devouring them forcing anything it couldn’t devour out with great abandon. At first that quirk of her infection had left her worried that it was strengthening itself but thankfully it seemed that whilst it was slowly growing worse that was not a result of anything physical… pulling her thoughts back from a tangent that she certainly didn’t want to dive into right now Rin smiled at the woman as she went to speak… before realizing that as much as she might want to compete she had a problem… The mask, the woman no doubt couldn’t see her smile and how would she eat if she couldn’t take the mask off.

Reaching up to feel around at where the mask met her face Rin searched again for some sort of hidden release or method to remove it, she couldn’t find one of course, but as she searched growing frustrated and rather hungry as she dwelled on the situation, she felt a slight shudder in the mask, feeling around once again she found that a smooth crack had formed in the mask, a crack that looked almost like a smile, though one that carried no warmth, that was incredibly odd, but odd though it may be it also provided her with a hole to eat through, something that fixed her current problem, letting her hand fall down again she smiled at the woman, who this time could no doubt see it through the crack in her mask. “That sounds like a lovely bit of fun, sign me up!” she said excitedly, her grumbling stomach quivering a little at the prospect.

It didn’t take long for the woman to lead her up to the table and find her a seat, and just in time too as it happened; the announcer, riling up the crowd as the first batch of pufferfish came out, each contestant being provided with a plate. As rin looked down at the plain, white fish she did have to wonder what all the fuss was about, certainly it was considered a delicacy in much of the world, but the appearance was… not lacking exactly, even for an eating contest the chef’s had put an extraordinary amount of effort into the display and presentation of the dish’s, each piece of fish finely sliced, de boned and shaped into gorgeous little flowers of white flesh, and yet… it was just meat, there was very little smell coming from them and whilst they had been garnished with small fish eggs it was… relatively mundane. Still a contest was a contest and losing would be expensive at that. Picking up one of the flowers she popped it into her mouth and her eyes watered in surprise, the appearance may have been mundane, but the flavor… How something so simple could taste so rich and complex whilst simultaneously maintaining its simplicity was mind boggling. It tasted like a bite of perfectly fresh fish, mixed with a pleasant tingling on her tongue that reminded her of the pleasant buzz you got from drinking high grade spirits, and yet there was no burn accompanying it at all. Rin understood now a little of the hype and fanfare around the meat now, it wasn’t the greatest thing she had ever tasted, but for commoners a meal like this would be an exceptionally special thing… and she noted interestingly the trace amounts of poison in the meat actually seemed like they might be beneficial in small traces… if you ignored the hallucinogenic properties. Speaking of which, as she turned her spiritual senses inwards Rin examined the meat’s effects on her own body, forcing her chakra through her channels to help speed up the metabolism of the poison and keep her mind sharp and fresh.

The other contestants on the other hand had no such skills, it was subtle, but she could tell by the way their eyes started to loose focus, their pupils dilating and their gaze regularly wandering from place to place, for most of them it wouldn’t take long for them to drop out or drop unconscious, almost as if the heavens themselves were in on the joke one of the smaller looking contestants stood up and started declaring his love for a ‘beautiful woman’ in the crowd… the beautiful woman, was in fact a small water fountain, the crowd getting a good chuckle as the man dashed over to… ‘her’ and fell head over heels into the fountain.


That set the tone for the rest of the competition, with many of the contestants doing weirder and weirder things as their minds began to succumb to more and more of the hallucinogenic poison, Rin enjoyed a good chuckle herself as she sat back in her chair, picking up another flower and savoring its flavor as she watched. Eventually the competition began to deplete and before she knew it Rin found it was down to herself and the reigning champion of the competition, a stalwart burly man in his mid 30’s who looked like he had been preparing for eating competitions his whole life, and indeed if this had been a regular eating competition she might be out matched, but fortunately for Rin this was not a regular eating competition, and so, ever so slowly she began to pull ahead of the reigning champion, as his movements got more sluggish and his gaze grew more and more unfocussed Rin continued to cycle her chakra, purifying herself of any lingering poison as she allowed the man to continue his descent into the absurd. She had to admit it was impressive how long the man had managed to last as it was, his willpower and tolerance for the poison of the fish must both have been immense… for a commoner.

It took a few more minutes, but in the end the outcome of the competition was a foregone conclusion, her final opponent collapsed in a pile, his eyes darting about distantly flickering from one distant vision to another.

Raising her one arm in the air the judge called out, declaring the blood shadow the victor, and lauding her to the crowd, Rin of course let it pass, paying little heed to the cheers and adulations of the public. She wasn’t here for fame, or in this case really even for fortune though that didn't hurt either, no she had been here for a good meal, and in that respect she was utterly satisfied, and so she leaned back in her chair for a moment, letting out a contented sigh as she leaned back and relaxed.

The peace and relaxation however lasted only a moment before she was disturbed again by a polite but firm cough, the sort of cough that she had learnt to associate with those rich people who were used to having their own way at every turn and more often than not used to expecting everyone to obey their every whim at the flick of a wrist. Rin sighed as she opened her eyes and inclined her head to the side, just enough to comfortably look at the man. “Yes, how can I help you, good sir? She said, almost letting a scowl cross her face before remembering that the mask was no longer covering her mouth… then she scowled any way, she may not be the strongest or most competent person anymore but these commoners were no threat to her even in her diminished state, and she certainly had had enough of being hounded with requests and interruptions at every turn, was it so much to ask for just a few minutes to herself? Was it so wrong for her to want to savor a victory, even if that victory was hollow, achieved over a mere commoner who by all rights should have been so far below her that it would be absurd to even entertain the thought of them being a challenge?

Evidently the answer to that question was yes as the man continued unperturbed. “Ah yes well you see miss i am the proprietor of this establishment, and you have my congratulations on your victory, Harlfard the swole has been the reigning champion for years now and certainly no one was expecting such an upset, even from the blood shadow” he said, allowing a tinge of humor to seep into his voice at his last words. Rin sighed, they both know that she was just playing a role, but she nodded to the man to continue. “Ahm, yes well you see, whilst i am ecstatic for your success, it does present me with a slight problem” he said, his voice taking on the tinge of regret that she knew all too well. Rin waited a moment for the man to continue before sighing and turning to face him, looking him up and down as she did so. A short man, dressed in rich silks and fabrics that looked far too rich and opulent for such a small man, never the les she spoke “and what exactly does that have to do with me” she said reluctantly, her own mood souring further.

“Ah yes well you see Harlfard was the spokesperson and the face of the store, people came from all over because of his fame as the undefeated champion of this competition and, well with him being unseated…” the man paused again as if expecting Rin to finish the sentence. Rin sighed, almost tempted to play dumb and leave the man to squirm, but irked as she was that would just waste more of her time in the long run, and so she finished the man’s sentence “With him being unseated you find yourself in need of a new face to use in your campaigns.” she said simply.

The man paled at the blunt delivery but nodded, “y yes that’s exactly it” he stuttered before collecting himself and continuing “I can offer you a contract of course, for the use of your likeness, thought I would need you to make an appearance at the restaurant from time to time.” Rin sighed, again, it was such a pain dealing with this, she had no desire to be famous and she had no intention of staying in this town for any length of time so regular appearances were out of the question. Sighing reluctantly Rin stood up, dusting herself down as she spoke. “I’m sorry but no, I don't intend on passing through here with enough regularity to appropriate, I can model some photos and help while I'm here… for a price, but that is it, I can't offer any more than that.” She said, fully expecting the man to turn her down, to her surprise he almost seemed excited as he responded. “That will be more than enough! Come, my photographer is here now! We’ll have him take some photos of you and create some marketing material! Once that's done you can make some appearances whenever you do pass through town and we will call it even! He said excitedly.

Rin Sighed again, this really was getting to be a drag, all she had wanted was a nice dinner, and instead she had found herself dragged into… whatever this was, at least they had negotiated a somewhat decent pay for her but it was still incredibly irksome. The ‘photographer’ that the man had hired was… excentric to say the least, he stood in a small cordoned off section of the square out the front of what Rin assumed to be the actual store front for this man’s business; and was best described as a child's idea of a stereotypical photographer, a long trailing scarf wrapped around his neck as it it was an infinity scarf, yet it’s ends were clearly visible, tucked inside of it in a way that surely couldn’t be comfortable, a long trailing trench coat that just barely brushed the ground, over sized enough that the tail of the coat was stained and dirtied where it had picked up grime from misuse, his hair peaked out in messy strands from underneath a deep green beret; where in the world he had managed to find one of those she had no clue, and to top it all off a pair of undersized black tinted spectacles. The man looked like a joke in every sense of the word, but then again most artists did, this one was just a particularly egregious example. “Ah yes PERFECTION young lady, I assume this is my canvas of PERFECTION!” He said exclaiming the word aloud as he turned to the owner of the restaurant, before the man could even respond he had already turned back to her, ushering her to join him behind the cordon. “Yes yes I can absolutely work with this, come girl, come, we’ll have to tweak your hands, and you’ll need to lose some weight, or actually for the role we should have you put some on, that would be PERFECTION! The clothes need to go of course, but that's an easy fix, we can get you into something that really shows off your PERFECTION, and that mask, hideous, absolutely an atrocious IMPERFECTION, but no need to worry we’ll get a look at that pretty face under the mask and make sure everyone sees your PERFECTION!” He said, each word grating on Rin’s soul more and more as he spoke, she turned scowling at the owner of the restaurant and gave him a death glare. The man shrugged apologetically, leaning over the ropes and giving her a stage whisper. “Sorry, he’s eccentric and a bit irritating but he's one of the best in the town”

Rin was unconvinced, this entire interaction had already been a massive inconvenience to her before she’s met this fool of a photographer, this was just about the last straw, as the ‘Artist’ opened his mouth to continue his abhorrent tirade Rin cut him off, a little of her chakra unconsciously leaking out which was a sign just how much the man was getting on her nerves. “No, shut it, I’m not taking off any clothes, I’m not changing my weight, I'm not changing anything, that's not a part of a deal and I’m certainly not tolerating any more of you than necessary, so here’s the deal, your going to go stand over there and take your photos. I am going to stand here, I don't want to hear a word out of your mouth other than the bare minimum to take the photos; and if I do then you’ll regret having had the gall to disrespect me.” She said, unleashing her own tirade at the fool, and letting a fragment of the once proud ruler she had been leek into her voice, it would fade again in time, but right now she was far too infuriated to real back that part of her.

The man, to his credit, was unperturbed and impassive… for all of 10 seconds before he started to blanche and shift anxiously, the spiritual pressure of her aura pushing down on him as she continued to let loose her rage at the man, had it been anyone else she might have even been sorry for them in retrospect, this shining exemplar of politeness however deserved all this and more; by the time she had finished her tirade the man was a quivering mess, rushing to prepare his equipment for the photo shoot, and Rin had the crowd giving her a wide but respectful birth; a few of the woman even clapped, no doubt glad to see the man put in his place.

After that the process was a rather silent and simple affair, with the photographer silently taking photos of her as she posed, only occasionally opening his mouth to ask her to change her posture or to ask her to change positions; With that done Rin strolled up to the restaurant owner before opening her mouth.
“Well i think you’ll find i’ve held up my end of things here, you have your photos, I’ll make a point to stop by the restaurant from time to time when i’m in town, was that all?” she asked, eager to finish up her explorations of the festival and find herself somewhere comfortable to spend the night. “Yes that is pretty much everything; although we have also just finished renovations; if its not too much to ask, would you mind handing out some of these flyers while you're in town? Only if it’s convenient of course” the man said, his voice far less self assured than it had been earlier, no doubt he had been close enough to Rin’s earlier display of power that he felt an innate fear of her now.

Rin gave the man a sharp and simple nod, I can manage that, as long as our contract holds. She said, holding out her hand for her payment. The man, to his credit, didn’t blanche at handing over a not insignificant amount of funds to her as payment, giving her his thanks and regards as she left, she was feeling rather content at this point as she wandered towards the outskirts of the celebrations; it was getting late and she did have an appointment that she needed to make tomorrow, a nice relaxing bath, a quiet bit of relaxation time and a few hours rest would be a good way to finish off the night, and she still had just the tiniest bit of the fishes poison floating through her veins to keep her lightly buzzed. Which was why she found herself slipping back into an irked and grumpy demeanor as she rounded the corner to see a pair of village guards beating up what looked to be an irate, young boy. Rin almost turned away to leave at the sight before one of the guards turned to her and in a rather gruff tone told her to move on and mind her own business. Rin hadn’t even done anything, she hadn’t involved herself and she certainly hadn't had any intention of doing so… but now, with all the other interruptions, irritations, and irrationalities of the night this was enough to let her rage bubble up again. Striding forwards towards the pair of guards, keeping her eyes trained on the guard that had spoken to her she spoke in a voice thrumming with power. “And just who are you to command me; who are you to tell me where I can or cannot tread, who are you to threaten and abuse a mere child in my presence” she said, the power in her voice radiating the corruption in her veins as she continued on. The guard to his credit didn’t blanch or back down; though she could see the sweat starting to drip from his brow; this mask and outfit may be inconvenient at times but it certainly struck an intimidating image. “Well go on, you must have a good reason to believe you have any right to do so” she said, tapping her foot impatiently as she let her voice ring with power that would ensure they spoke nothing but the truth.

Whilst the guard that had spoken managed to just barely hold his ground in front of her the one behind him that up until this point had been busy holding the boy down spoke. “I in our defense m miss this boy was caught setting paper bombs throughout the city, we were simply interrogating him for the locations that the bombs had been placed.” He said, shifting anxiously from foot to foot as he spoke. The boy on the other hand, took that moment as a chance to try to escape; stamping down on the guard's foot hard before throwing his head back and into the nose of the guard who had just started reflexively doubling over in pain. There was a sickening crunch that loudly echoed off of the cobblestone streets as the man screamed a guttural cry of pain that turned even Rin's hardened stomach. That one would definitely have hurt like a real bitch, and the man’s nose likely wouldn’t heal right without skilled medical care that he wasn’t likely to receive in a backwater town like this, as the boy darted off down the street the other guard yelled in surprise; dashing off after him.

Rin on the other hand ignored the boy for the moment; instead striding up to the wounded guard who was doubled over in pain and knelt down. “I’m not much of a medic compared to others but i can at least help a little with this” she said, placing her hand on the wounded man’s forehead and letting her chakra flow into him, closing her eyes and focussing on sensing out the damage to his body; letting it flow through him, down through the veins and gaps in his head, checking for fractures, cracks, breaks and other damage.

She started by checking the localized area around the point of impact; the nasal bone was completely shattered and broken up into hundreds of tiny shards; that was something that would be difficult for her to easily fix, but she could at least pull them back into place and apply enough chakra to let them set into their proper place; he wouldn’t be able to breath through his nose for a while and it would take him at least a few months before he his nose wouldn’t hurt horribly, but it was better that what would happen if he was left untreated; but first she needed to check that there was a solid foundation to adhere the bone shards too. Extending her chakra deeper she felt out the sphenoid bone; thankfully there was only some minor superficial damage; if that had been broken there was a not insignificant risk that the man could have suffered permanent brain damage, and even specialized in manipulating the senses as she was her knowledge of the brain wouldn’t be even remotely close enough to what would be needed to repair that sort of damage. Moving her senses up she felt out the man’s frontal bone, again nothing to serious, he did have a hairline fracture starting to from and trace its way up through the dense bone, but she had caught it early enough that an application of some chakra would be enough to remedy any long term damage. Thankfully the orbital plate and much of the structure supporting the man’s eyes were also undamaged, that was again well outside of her skill to remedy. Making sure to be thorough she also moved her senses down, checking the man’s zygomatic bone and maxilla, ensuring there wasn’t any significant damage to the lower structure of his face. Thankfully that too was mostly intact, and Rin had to mentally thank herself for making a point of studying medical techniques back when she was running a group of bandits; it had helped immensely then, being the only one with any skill at healing their wounds certainly had helped keep them in line and keep her in power, but more importantly it helped immensely in situations like this. Sighing and bracing herself she began to gather her chakra more densely, pulling thick strands of it from her core and pushing it through her wounded channels. That same familiar burn radiated throughout her body as the corruption obstructed the flow, creating turbulence within her chakra channels and pushing the chakra out to diffuse through her body in borderline uncontrolled bursts of power; but rin gritted her teeth all the same, ignoring the damage that was racking her own body as she fed a trickle of power into the man, letting it fill in the gaps between the hairline fracture on his frontal plate; letting it pull the shards of his broken nasal bone back together slowly but surely, and anesthetizing the local area around the wound as best she could. It would still no doubt be incredibly painful for the man, but still far better than the alternative.

The man gritted his teeth at the pain and even moved to thrash a little, but a firm hand on his shoulder was more than enough to keep contact with him and minimize his movements enough to continue her work. She didn’t have much time yet, her body was becoming somewhat used to this abuse as time went on; it would recover given time and though it hurt it wouldn’t be as damaging as fractured bone shards floating freely through someone’s face. Which is why she felt relieved as she felt the last of the shards pull into place and adhere to the others. Rin slumped to the ground, one knee landing on the cobbles as she barely managed to keep herself upright, her own breath coming ragged as she pulled herself back together. The man on the other hand, collapsed backwards, thankfully not cracking his head on the cobbles with any significant degree of force, and groaned, obviously in an immense amount of pain.


Rin shuddered slightly as she pushed herself to her feet, glancing down to the man’s own foot and wincing, he wore an armored boot which thankfully seemed to have protected him from any serious injury from the boy, but even that metal boot looked quite reasonably dented from the impact; whether that was a result of poor quality boots or a surprising amount of strength on the boy’s part she wasn’t yet sure but either way it was probably worth following him at this point; she’d already involved herself and it would be a pretty horrid way to meet her end if she had gone through all the trouble of tonight only to die in her sleep from a collapsing building or some other bomb going off nearby.

Dusting herself off she closed her eyes, turning her senses outwards to sense those around her; she hadn’t had the time to memorize the feeling of the other guard’s chakra; nor that of the boy’s but the guard’s own chakra seemed at least strong enough to lightly differentiate from that of the regular old civilians here. Rin breathed in, and out, in, and out, letting her own chakra cycle through her before permeating out into the world, connecting her to the natural chakra of the world around her. Here it felt gritty, and rough, taking on the nature of the world around it, stone houses, excited people; it practically thrummed with the energy of the festival going on around her, and that made it all the more difficult to calm it, to turn it to her will and have it seek out those she was looking for. It took an exertion of will; pushing against the nature of the world around her, exerting herself mentaly, but all the same she pushed against the chakra around her, feeling it resist her for a moment before it clicked into place and obeyed her, feeding her the information about the world around her… letting her consciousness leave her body for a moment she felt those around her; the revelers behind her, enjoying themselves, those within the building around her, some asleep, some drunkenly enjoying themselves, others drunkenly enjoying each other, but there was one that she could feel stood out from all the others, a pair of tired individuals running through the streets; one radiating a sensation of anger into the world around him whilst the other… The other radiated a complex mix of emotions; fear, anger, hatred, worry, and a cocktail of other emotions that she couldn’t truly pin down; but pinning down those emotions wasn’t why she was exercising her senses outwards; instead it was simply a way to find her quarry. Pulling her senses back into herself she took one last deep breath in before opening her eyes and letting chakra flow to her feet as she took a leap towards the nearest building, darting up the side of it with light step after light step. Tonight had her use more chakra than she had used in the last three months combined, and it was starting to show; she had burned through much of her reserves and the chaotic damage caused to her body from uncontrolled chakra was starting to thrum, her muscles screeching in pain and her chakra channels protesting; but she pushed on all the same, she had been weak for so long, suppressed for so long, hiding and fearful for so long, it was as if something about tonight had finally snapped within her and the wild animal that had once kept her fighting through all manner of dangers had reared it head again… at least long enough for her to get to the top of the building. As she reached the peak of the dwelling she felt a horrible tearing sensation inside herself as if her core was tearing itself apart and she nearly fell off the side of the building; pulling together the last of her willpower Rin threw herself forwards as she collapsed and blacked out.

When she came too Rin wasn’t sure how much time had passed, it could have been mere seconds or it could have been hours; though glancing upwards the stars had not seemed to move all that much; that at least was a good sign. With a sigh of relief Rin closed her eyes and moved to cycle her chakra again, preparing to sense out where her quarries had moved off too, when she felt another overwhelming sense of pain; she felt her head throbbing and her ears ringing with screams of such intense pain that it took her a moment to realize the screams were coming from her. Turning her spiritual senses inwards she found her core had split and fractured, the spot where her chakra would normally sit nestled within her had broken like a damn untended for years; the chakra flowing out throughout her body and the fragments of the core itself being spread throughout her chakra channels where they had lodged in various parts of her channels. The pain was excruciating; as if someone had ripped apart her very soul and left her with nothing but the tiniest fragment of it left…
Closing her eyes again for a moment to steel herself Rin blacked out again, darting up as she came too again before the pain returned and she collapsed back to the ground, her mind reeling as she tried to focus enough to see the damage that had been done to her spirit. Taking another deep breath she turned her mind’s eye inwards as she examined herself; her body was in shambles, muscles were shredded, each one looking like it had torn itself apart from the inside; her internal organs didn’t look much better; her heart was sputtering and pumping erratically, barely able to keep her blood flowing in even a semblance of consistency, the muscles around her lungs were spasming rhythmically making it hard to breath, but all of that was minor compared to her chakra channels. Those disgusting black veins of corrupted chakra had grown massively, snaking their way throughout her body and obstructing some of her channels entirely whilst others had started to carve out their own paths throughout her spiritual body, even if she could fix this, the damage to her chakra channels would require her to completely rework how she used her chakra before she would be able to reliably perform all but the most basic of techniques; still she gritted her metaphorical teeth and continued her examination. The few places the corruption hadn’t completely eroded her channels seemed to be where the fragments of her shattered core had spread themselves throughout her body; in fact, looking closer the corruption seemed to almost shrink back from the shards; each fragment leaking out a burning power that seemed so similar to the chakra she was used to; and yet at the same time oh so different, what the shards seemed to be leaking felt more like what fire felt like when compared to a spark; like a raging river compared to a flood, like a tornado over a light breeze, it felt like a true bolt of lightning compared to a small burst of static… and yet with every moment, every fraction of a second that power seemed to be getting weaker, and the corruption could sense that too, ever so slowly she could see that corruption squirming inwards, tentatively at first but forward all the same, and as that energy weakened so too did she, not just physically or mentally, but spiritually. It was as if her very soul was leaking out of the fractured shards, Rin could feel herself starting to panic; she had no idea what was happening, she had no idea how it was happening, or how to stop it, but she couldn’t stop that overwhelming sense of dread building up inside of her; something was very, very wrong with her, even more so than it had been a moment ago, and in her mad panic she did the only thing that she could think of; she threw as much power at the problem as she could; Gritting her teeth she started to try cycling her chakra again, pushing it through her broken spirit towards those shards of herself, but the pain was too much, it was like a million voices were screaming inside her all at once, all in unison, each an individual scream of agony that together formed a chorus of pain and suffering that could not be ignored, stopping and breaking down in tears rin wept, letting out the tears that had been building up since that day in the land of wind, no before that, since she had first lost her mentor, since her family had died at the hands of bandits, it had been so long since she allowed herself to show weakness, and now, here, at the end of her life, at the death of her very soul, she wept; but even broken and battered her will was not to be underestimated, through it all one thing sustained her, one thought, the same dream deep down that had given her reason to keep pushing forwards even with all the damage that had been done to her. A dream that up until now she hadn’t even dared to consciously acknowledge. A dream of vengeance.

She was not a child, not anymore, she was not a fool, she had been once but she had grown beyond that, she would have her revenge on the source of the corruption that flowed through her veins, the shadow that loomed over her in the dark of night. She, Rin Togakawa, would purify the world of his tainted presence and cleanse every record of his achievements. As if resonating with her acknowledgement she felt the scattered fragments of her core, the flecks of burning power radiating throughout her flicker for a moment, searing her spiritually and causing more burning pain to flow through her; but in the whole scheme of things this pain was nothing, and more importantly that brief moment of burning power seemed to actually eat away at the strands of corruption creeping through her chakra pathways. If she wasn’t in such a dire situation she likely would have taken the chance to examine whatever this was in detail, but she had no where near enough time for that, and so she gritted her teeth and doubled down on what little she could do to help the situation.

Pushing through the pain and forcing her chakra to flow towards the fractured and scattered fragments of her core, focussing herself on one thought, one desire, one goal, focussing on the one thing that defined her and the one thing that could help her survive this. Focussing on the desire for vengeance, though desire was no longer the correct word as she continued cycling chakra, feeding it to the fractured pieces of her core, of her soul, she could feel it becoming more and more central to who she was, less a desire, less a dream, now it was a need, a goal, a subtle urge in the center of everything she was, a part of her nature, and one that could not be denied; and as she continued cycling, feeding herself to the broken fragments of her being, she felt the corruption receding as her soul began to burn, her body began to burn, her being began to burn.


She was fire, she was flame, she was the burning light of purity that would cleanse the world of all corruption, she screamed into the night as her body began to leak wisps of pure white fire. Her soul burned, not metaphorically but physically, each soul fragment acting as tinder for a purifying flame that swept through her body, eating away at its impurities, devouring the corruption within and tempering what remained in the fires of her soul.

The sight could be seen for miles and many of the town’s folk would talk about that night for many years to come; of the strange silver fire that shot up into the sky over the festival, and of the legend of the blood shadow, that strange tale that everyone had seen, that had supposedly existed for centuries, and yet no one could remember a time before that night where the legend had been told… but that is a story to explore another time.

When Rin finally came to the first thing she felt was pain… not the bone deep pain of rot and corruption that had followed her for so long, no this was the same sort of pain you felt after exercising long disused muscles. Every part of her ached, every fiber of her being ached, and even her soul ached, but as she turned her spiritual senses inwards all that was swept away in a tide of pure relief. Her chakra channels that were once choked and clogged with corruption now were clean and pure; more than that they were stronger than they had ever been, and tiny flecks of the fire that had cleansed her still floated through her channels, to her mind's eye it looked as if every fiber of her being held a small fragment of the fire. Her core was still shattered of course, the shards sitting throughout her spiritual body, but it hurt far less now than it did before, and a few had even begun to gather where her eye once sat, forming together into a broken shattered star of chakra.

Taking in a slow shuddering breath Rin forced herself up from where she was laying, wincing and rubbing the back of her head where she could feel a rough lump already starting to form, of course falling on her head wouldn’t do significant damage to her, even in her weakened state but it sure as hell hurt.

Glancing up at the sky Rin was surprised to find that despite how long it had seemed, only an hour or two had passed, the night sky was still dark, the revel’s were still loud and boisterous, and much to her surprise as she reached out with her spiritual senses she found the young man she had healed still laying below her, his chakra feeling weak but stable, no doubt someone as weak as him would be drained after such a healing technique was performed.

As surprising as the short period of time was, what surprised Rin even more as she stood was the ease with which she did so; though her spirit still felt shattered and damaged, her body, once wracked and weakened by the corruption of the monster who had taken her eye, now felt lithe and energetic again; she felt like she could run miles in mere minutes and her body obeyed her with merely a thought. Where once something as simple as a step forward would require immense mental focus and fortitude, now she found herself capable of feats of dexterity and speed that she hadn't even managed before the events of the accursed sand.

With a joyful laugh that felt slightly awkward coming from the throat of one who had barely spoken in years, and certainly not with any degree of mirth, Rin bounded off of the side of the building, enjoying the feel of the wind on her face as she landed on another rooftop, bounding vaguely in the direction she had last felt the guard and his quarry heading, no doubt they would have moved on to some other location by now but perhaps she could pick the trail before it went cold and follow up from there.

As Rin dashed across the rooftops she stretched out her spiritual senses again, trying to pick out the signatures of the guard or his quarry as she did so, to her surprise finding both the guard and the boy wasn’t that hard at all; a few hundred meters from where she had last sensed them Rin picked up the feeling of the boy’s chakra, not just that but the guard was nearby as well, though from what she could tell he must have lost the boy as his chakra seemed to be wandering back and forth aimlessly.



Turning in the middle of a jump she pivoted her force darting towards where she had sensed the boy, a small alleyway stuck between two oversized apartment buildings in what was no doubt the rough part of town, the cheer and boisterous celebrations of the festival echoed in the distance, but here she could feel the full chill of an area where no one wanted to be caught outside after nightfall. Something this boy was unfortunately going to experience.

Rin surveyed the alleyway as she stood atop the apartment roofs, looking down she could see little sign of the boy at first, a footprint in a pile of dirt and grime showed that someone of a similar build to him had passed through, but any sign of the boy still being here was notably lacking, which no doubt was the point, the boy had left just enough evidence that a pursuer would know he had passed by, but not enough that the pursuer would stick around and investigate more thoroughly. But unfortunately for the Child he had not yet learnt how to suppress his spirit, to hide from those around him that had honed their senses to find those that cannot be found through normal means.

Which was quite unfortunate given the trouble to which he had gone to hide himself, focusing her senses she could feel him clearly, squeezed into a crawl space under a pile of trash directly below her. Though perhaps it was more unfortunate for her, she certainly had no inclination to go hunting through a pile of trash to deal with someone else’s problems… but then again she hardly wanted to die here because she didn’t want to get her clothes dirty. Still, there was no harm in trying to get the boy out without dirtying her outfit, Taking a step forward off the edge of the building Rin let gravity assert control as she fell the few feet to the ground, cycling her chakra to her feet to minimize the impact as she hit the ground, dropping into a brief roll to avoid hurting herself before springing back to her feet a few meters from the pile of refuse and waste. She’d made a bit of noise with that landing, but then that was the point, clearing her throat with a cough she gave the boy one chance to make things easy for them both. “I Know you're there, you have a knack for hiding, i’ll give you that, but not everyone sees things with just their eyes, kid, come out from under that pile and perhaps we can work things out peacefully. I’m not with the guards after all.”

Rin paused, waiting for a reply. Nothing. No matter, it would have been nice to avoid sullying her clothes, but in the end it wasn’t really enough of an issue to warrant her attention, she would simply head to a bath house after this, enjoy a nice relaxing soak, and get some new clothes, technically these weren't even hers of course, but the troupe had made no effort to get them back off of her after the performance so she figured they were likely hers now. Rolling up her sleeves Rin braced herself to dive into the pile of filth and pull out the boy when a thought occurred to her, she’d been unable to use her chakra in any significant way for so long that it had taken her an age to remember that this was even an option. Closing her eyes and taking a moment to meditate Rin began picturing her spirit, breathing in and cycling her chakra in an old yet familiar pattern, letting it pass through her body and spirit, and savoring the sensation of being able to use her chakra without overwhelming pain, difficulty and terror, she was not back to her former power in any respect of course but even a small drop of power like this was like an ocean to one who had been stuck in the desert for so long.

Opening her eyes and extending her index finger towards the pile of refuse Rin exhaled, as she did so pushing her chakra through one last cycle, allowing her fire aspect to infuse it as it passed into her hand and out the tip of her finger. She had been intending to use a simple dragon’s breath technique, one regulated to a much lower output of power than what the technique was truly capable of, and what she produced was certainly the technique… but it was also different somehow, what would once have been brilliant Red flames with the faintest hint of black now came out a soft orange edged with white, where before the technique would have destroyed the refuse, the wall, and even the cobblestones below them this fire seemed to burn in an entirely different way, it still destroyed the refuse, but rather than simply destroying it seemed to almost devour it, the flames gave of an intense sense of hunger as they lapped at their surroundings, feeding on anything they could, even when they had devoured every scrap of waste and a small portion of the wall they did not fade. The flames sat there, illuminating the alleyway in a harsh white light; though even that was strange… It took a moment for her to work it out focusing on the flames as she was, but then it clicked, it was almost as if the light rather than radiating from the flames was being pulled into them. Like the fabric of reality itself was bending to the hunger of the flames, feeding them light. She could hear the boy whimpering fearfully in the crawlspace under the wall, but that could wait, this was far more interesting, and far more important. Rin felt a spark of something she hadn’t felt in years, no not just years, in over a decade, she felt passion, she felt excitement, and most of all she felt an endless hunger for knowledge and advancement. She had been a prodigy, surpassing even her master at a young age, the losses she faced, the prices she paid, they had never stopped her, but by the time she had reached the land of wind she had thought herself at the peak, knowing everything she could possibly learn of the nature of chakra. This was something entirely new, this was something she hadn’t even seen mention of in the most esoteric of texts. This was something that could even have her heralded as a sage.

Focusing on her spiritual senses Rin examined the flames in more detail, the chakra was… strange, similar, but also incredibly foreign almost as if it was composed of aspects she couldn’t put her finger on. There was fire aspects there certainly, though that was obvious just from looking at it, but there was more than that, Rin could feel the chakra of the natural world around her being pulled into the flames, being consumed by them to continue feeding the flames, she could feel the flames on her spirit like a weight, it wanted food, it wanted fuel, it wanted power, it wanted her… It wanted everything, it was like the concept of endless hunger made manifest. Rin felt something with that thought, a quivering in the air, and in her spirit, as if she had almost touched on something important. This fire had come from her, it should be hers to control, and command, and yet it felt like if she touched it then it would devour her just as easily as the world around it. Closing her eyes again Rin reached out with her spiritual sense, trying to feel for a connection to the flame, she felt something, not quite the connection one felt to their own chakra constructs, no this was… deeper?

The flame wasn’t just hungry… it was hunger, as she stared deeper into it she felt that inkling of insight start to grow, this flame did not destroy, it was the slow chewing of a soul that ate not for taste but for sustenance, it was the endless march of progress, the devouring force that consumed all in its search of meaning. It was the prey backed into a corner, fiercely fighting for survival, and it was the predator hunting its prey, not for food but for satisfaction, it was the man who sold his child for status, the king who could not be sated, a greed for all things, and there as she continued staring into the flame she came to sense an endless void of infinite hunger, one that would not be satisfied, one that could not be satisfied, for it was hunger, and whilst you could satiate a hunger, you could never satisfy all hunger

As she stared into the flame she reached out a thread of her chakra, tentatively, ready to cut off the connection at any moment, she could feel that faint connection to the flame, she could feel the bond between her and her creation, but she still didn’t truly understand it, she had touched on a fraction of its nature, but its reason for being, its origin was still an enigma to her. Still she couldn’t exactly get the boy through the flames. As her thread of chakra touched the flame she felt a sharp shock, not unpleasant exactly but sudden and forgeign, she felt a sucking sensation as her chakra was pulled into the flame, and as it tried to take more, pulling the chakra out of her. Rin gritted her teeth, focusing her will on the flame as she continued to train her spiritual sense upon it.

The flame was hungry, it wanted to devour, but she too was hungry, and her hunger had a purpose behind it, if the flame was a manifestation of unbridled hunger, then she would match it and surpass it, she hungered for safety, she hungered for vengeance, for knowledge, for power, for success, for wealth; she would carve out her mark on this world, she would grow and grow until she had the power to reap a terrible vengeance upon the shadow that had plagued her for so long, she would know all things, she would claim this world as her own, no not just the world, everything, she would have it all, even this flame would be hers. The thoughts came unbidden to her head as she pulled against the flame, a shard of its hunger becoming her own; a thickening thread of chakra flowing back and forth between the two, wisps of the flame beginning to lick their way along the thread towards her as she refused to yield.

With her eyes still closed and her senses so focussed on the core of the fire she didn’t even notice as the flames began to lap at her fingers, her mind so focussed upon the task at hand, as the flames began to leach her chakra from her, feeding it back into the endless hunger she too pulled chakra from the fire, the two balanced, opposing forces in perfect harmony, and then something gave, it was not the flame, nor was it the woman who stood against it, neither hunger would be satiated, and neither hunger would yield to the other; no what broke was the world, reality itself began to yield as the space between Rin and the flame began to fold, condensing down and being devoured by the twin hungers. At first only a minute fraction of a fraction of a millimeter, but as the two forces continued to strain against each other those millimeters grew and grew, until the space between them was non existent, the two sat atop each other, the chakra of the world funneling into the pair as they struggled against each other, the flames lapped at her body, devouring her chakra as it sought out her core, and she in turn devoured it’s chakra.

The two burned in perfect harmony, and as the flames grew up her body, pouring into her chakra pathways and searing through them, tempering them a second time as they sought out more and more power, Rin felt her understanding click into place, this fire was the same force that had reforged and purified her of the corruption within her, it was born not just of her chakra, but of the broken fragments of her core that still leaked their power within her; indeed now that she understood she saw how the flames flickered within her, dancing towards those shards lapping at them and breaking them down into pure power. If her mind was not so wholly focussed on the conflict now raging within her then Rin would no doubt be afraid now, even shattered those shards were the closest thing to a manifestation of the soul and this fire was consuming it, but focused as she was that seed of fear too was consumed, fuel for the fire of her own hunger, she pulled even harder as the flames continued to hunger, feeding the fire and feeding on the fire as it burned through shard after shard, until there was only one bastion left.

The fractured star nestled right below her ruined eye, the last fragments of her fractured soul, the fire hungered for them, and she two hungered, she would take this power for herself, there was no question of it within her mind, her iron clad will had already been tempered by the conflict between the two the fire rushed forwards, and she pulled in turn, not at the core of the flame as she had done before, but at the faint wisps that still lingered within the alley, at the trailing flames that rampaged through her pathways, the core of the flame reached her own core and began to feast, its own power growing and growing as it fed on her, but in its mindless hunger it did not understand the price it paid, for soon there was only that core of the flame left, feasting upon her soul, and as the last of her core melted into the fire Rin stopped pulling and pushed, more instinctual desperation than with any intelligence but she pushed all the same, condensing the flame down, hardening it and focussing it until it was but a single point of light, a star of endless hunger where once her soul had sat… and from that star she pulled power that dwarfed even the hights she had once reached as a youth. She felt the flames surge out from their prison at her command, and now without a core to command them, they obeyed her without question, lapping at her body like a faithful dog.

Rin opened her eyes to the alleyway, still flickering in the stark light of the white flames that now danced along the length of her arm, darting from fingertip to fingertip, looking down into a nearby puddle Rin saw her reflection, her clothes were pristine, as though cleaned of all impurities, the mask that still hid her face glowed in one eye, a flickering white that was no doubt the star of hunger that had become her core. Rin couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, with the mask glowing ominously she really did look like a demon, and as she turned her gaze towards the crawlspace she had bothered to expose she couldn’t help but smile, her idle thought confirmed as the boy let out a squeal of terror and darted out from his hiding hole, rushing towards the closest exit in sheer terror. Which unfortunately for him was probably a poor choice, pulling him out of the crawl space would have been a pain but it would have taken at least a bit of time, catching her fleeing prey, that was easy, with a flicker of renewed chakra rin appeared behind the boy, her good hand landing on his shoulder in an instant as she let her chakra flow into him, a simple tactile genjutsu that would leave him unable to move, Rin could feel the flames of her new… soul? Leaking into the technique, that same endless hunger leaching away the boy’s strength and feeding it back to her, she would certainly have to be careful with this one, even under her control the flames could easily leach a commoner dry even by accident.

“Now, now child, there's no need to run. I just have a few questions to ask you and then you can be on your way.” she said, releasing the boy from her genjutsu just as she could feel her technique about to suck him dry. The boy dropped to his knees exhausted and terrified, and Rin strode around to his front, a spring in her step as she fed on the energy that she had pulled out of him. Kneeling down she placed her hand upon the boy’s forehead, speaking as she did so. “Now then, we can do the easy way, or you can try and resist me, but you’ve already seen how that turns out haven’t you.” She said matter of factly as she began to cycle her chakra in a new pattern, pushing it into the child and along with it her will. It was trivial to overpower the boy’s own infantile defenses, and implant a compulsion to tell the truth within him, she considered making it an overwhelming urge at first but that would no doubt put him on guard, have him try to skirt around things he didn’t wish to disclose; it would be far more efficient to just guide the answers out of him. “Now then, if you lie, I will know, answer my questions honestly and perhaps we can both come out of this happy, but lie to me…” Rin paused for a moment, cycling chakra to her new… ‘eye’ and causing the eyes of her mask to once again glow ominously. “Well no need to elaborate, we both know lying to me would be a grave mistake.” She said, her tone brightening a little as she did so.

“Now then, let's start with something simple, why were the guards interrogating you? I've heard their rationale but you have a right to give me your side of the story.” she said, a hint of a polite smile visible around the sides of her mask.

“I… They thought i had something to do with a number of bombs they had found around the city..” the boy said, pausing hesitantly. Rin simply nodded for the boy to continue, when he didn’t elaborate further she sighed, “and did you?” she asked simply, there was after all no reason to beat around the bush. The boy hesitated again, opening his mouth to speak for a moment before closing it again, his mind slowly turning over whether or not he should answer the woman before him. Rin simply waited patiently, her technique was working its magic and even if he wanted to resist it wouldn’t take long for him to convince himself she was worth trusting with the truth; and indeed as if the universe was following along to her will the boy finally came to a decision, opening his mouth and speaking hesitantly. “I… I did have something to do with it, b- but it's not what you think, I didn't plant them or anything like that! I was just putting up some graffiti and posters and found them, I swear! The guards wouldn’t believe me but I really don't know anything more than that” the boy spoke frantically, almost tripping over his own words as he spoke. Rin just nodded again, “I thought as much, do you remember where the one’s you found were?” she asked, her tone turning serious although the harsh edge was gone now.

“I only found a few but i can point them out for you if you want” Rin sighed a little at that, it would be easier if she didn’t have to cart the boy around, he’d slow her down and time could be of the essence here. Perhaps sensing her irritation the boy spoke up again “o- or i could mark them on a map for you if you have one”

Rin smiled at that, it wasn’t ideal, and she didn’t have a proper map on her… but it would be faster, Rin nodded at the boy before taking a moment to focus her chakra, cycling it in a pattern she hadn’t used in a long long time, it wasn’t a technique that required much power, indeed with the right training and skill even this child could theoretically perform the technique, but it required something that up until her baptism in flame she would not have been able to muster. It required focus and willpower to a rather large extent. Training her spiritual senses around her she found a spot where the fabric of the world was weaker, and with a blade of chakra projected from her finger she sliced across it, a single thought echoing in her mind. A command upon the world itself. “Rend” she thought, pressing her will against that of the world, and the world pressed back, before the pain, the suffering and the trauma of the infection within her veins would have taxed her enough that she would not have been able to muster the force of will for this technique, but now, it was childsplay, her willpower had been honed fighting against the corruption for so long, her spirit had been tempered and purified in the flames of her burning soul, and so in an instant space tore open, just large enough for her to reach her hand inside, into the personal space within the void she once used to keep supplies, it was simple enough to command a piece of paper and a pencil to flow to her within the space, and pulling her hand out again, even simpler to allow the law’s of reality to re-assert themselves, sealing over the tear in reality and returning to normal.

Thankfully the cobblestones had been swept clean of any grime or dirt by her fire, and so it was simple enough to place the paper upon a larger than normal stone and sketch out a rough map of the city as she remembered it, it only took a minute between herself and the boy to correct any discrepancies and mark the locations he had found the bombs. There weren't a lot of them, but they were spread out throughout the city enough that they would deal a lot of damage if they were not removed, especially with the festival going on. Rin closed her eyes again, stretching out her spiritual sense around her, searching for the guard she had felt prowling for the boy earlier, he was only a few streets away, which suited Rin’s purposes perfectly. “Thanks kid, I’ll take care of this in a moment, but first let's get things sorted out with the city guards for you, she said, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder as she conjured up her will again, it felt good to be able to exercise her spirit like this once again after so long. Again she spoke a command within her mind “Rend” and space rippled before her, the world fighting harder against her this time as she pulled open a tear large enough for the two of them and connected it to where the guard was a few streets over.





Zach was tired, no he was more than tired, he was exhausted, he had spent hours chasing after that blasted saboteur and had nothing to show for it, the rest of the guard would be doing their best to find the bombs before they detonated but with such little manpower and so much ground to cover it would be almost impossible if they couldn’t get the locations out of that blasted fool that had planted them. Hell they had had him until that damn woman had interfered, if they survived this he would have her brought in for obstruction of justice and tried heavily, and if not… well the lives of anyone caught in the explosions would be on her hands, she certainly wouldn’t be welcome in the village anymore.

Zach let out a frustrated scream as he hammered his armored fist against the stone wall of a nearby building, or at least that's what he intended to do but instead of feeling his fist meat solid stone he felt it hit something softer, like he had struck flesh. Zach looked up, a small moment of irrational panic crossing his mind as he worried he had somehow accidentally struck someone, of course that was impossible he would have been aware of anyone passing by and there had very clearly been a wall there. Which was why Zach lept back in surprise as he saw a black void yawning in front of him, a slender hand glowing with wisps of silver white fire holding his own in place as it slowly emerged from the black void. The hand didn’t stop him from leaping back of course, but that only instilled more terror within him as he saw the blood red face of a demon starting to emerge with it, the creatures eyes glowing with a stark otherworldly light. The creature stepped forwards, the rest of its body coming into view; it wore the form of a person, a one armed woman wreathed in crimson, and beside it… stood his quarry. It took Zach’s mind a moment to catch up with his instincts; the figure before him was no demon, rather it was the woman who had allowed the blasted saboteur to escape, this was no doubt further proof that the two had been working together. Zach braced himself for a fight as the portal of nothing closed behind her, but rather than some ominous speech or threat the woman just shook her hand, the flames flickering out as she spoke.

Rin stepped into the portal, pulling the boy along with her, as the two stepped through the fabric of the world, reality folding to the superior force of will that she exerted upon it, she must have still been rather rusty however for just as they were about to step through to their destination her spiritual senses screamed danger, warning her of a coming attack, one who’s force was more than enough to pose a danger to her still weakened body, she couldn’t dodge it of course, not in this instant between worlds where she was both physical and immaterial, and though she might have been able to warp the fabric of reality or convince her assailant of a deceit powerful enough to render them immobile under normal circumstances, here she found herself with only one avenue of defense, an avenue that had always been her weakness. Raw power. Focussing herself again she dug through her memories of the various techniques she had learnt and developed over the years, there was not something simple she could use here, her focus had always been on the powers of will and reality, of confusing the mind, but she understood the theory of reinforcement techniques, it wouldn’t be as strong as a true technique, nor as stable as one, but perhaps she could apply enough of a reinforcement to her arm to block this attack.

Cycling her chakra through her pathways again, drawing it through the meridian she had attuned to fire long ago, as she did so, the fractured star of fire within her leaked its power into her chakra, further enhancing and altering the nature of fire that he chakra had taken on. Then once her chakra was aligned with the concept of fire, she pushed it into her arm, letting it flow into the muscles of her hand and reinforce them with the energy of an explosive force. She could feel the unrefined force crashing against her body, creating weaknesses within her muscles even as it swept into those weaknesses and reinforced them with raw power. Bringing her hand up in a flash of speed she caught the blow just as her hand started to protrude from the tear in space she had created, her eye flickering with irritation and rage at being attacked so soon after regaining a fragment of her former power, but as she strode out of the portal, her vision returning to reality her face softened a little, the terrified guard before her was no real threat after all, in any situation than this one he would never have been able to strike her and certainly the fear and confusion he radiated made it more than clear that he had no true intention to attack her, at worst he had struck out at her out of fear of whatever uncertain thing was emerging from the portal, and at worst he had struck out at her expecting a weakling, though what fool would expect a weakling to be folding space and time in such a manner.

Rtfin gave the man a faint smile, even hidden behind her mask it would bleed through in her tone as she spoke. “Ouch, you know that really could have hurt someone, you ought to be more careful where you throw punches.” She said talking over the man as he attempted to make his excuses. “Now now, no need to make up excuses, just be more careful in the future. Now I’m here because I believe this was the boy you were looking for.” She said, gesturing behind her to the boy that had been pulled through with her.

Zach squinted at the saboteur hiding behind this woman, he was hardly what zach would call a boy, old enough to hold a spear, and strong enough to be a threat with one, but whatever power this woman wielded obviously left him as a mere boy in her eyes, of course zach had to wonder if he was any different. A cold sweat ran down his back as he considered that, this woman had caught his punch head on with little effort, even if he had thrown it with little real intention he was still one of the strongest men in the town guard, and this small little slip of a woman had caught it like it was nothing… Zach hesitated, choosing his words carefully before he spoke. “Yes the… individual behind you is suspected to be responsible for planting a large number of paper bombs through out the city, with the festival going on that is a massive threat to public safety and more than enough legal justification for him to be detained and interrogated. If the circumstances were not so time sensitive then it would be enough to justify a bounty on his head if he did not turn himself in”

Rin’s eyes widened at the mention of a bounty, only ever so slightly and she hid it almost as soon as it appeared, but her mind started working overtime at how to best turn this to her advantage, If there was room for a bounty over this then she could likely negotiate a decent payday, especially since the boy didn’t actually have anything to do with the bombs. Spooling out the various possibilities and directions the conversation should go she did her best to calculate the best way to direct this to her benefit, in the end given the time pressure she decided on the direct route. Cutting the guard off as he continued to speak, Rin quickly outlined her proposal. “We don't have a lot of time so i’ll keep this brief, if there would normally on the boy then you can take him, consider it me claiming the bounty, and i’ll handle the interrogation for free since i’ve already gotten answers out of him deal?”


The man looked hesitant “I’m not sure I have the authority to guarantee that…” Rin waved her hand cutting him off “all i need is your word, if your higher ups have an issue with it then I’ll handle it from there, but i’ll tell you right now I learn’t enough to know that even if you interrogate him yourself your going to need my help to find and remove all the bombs, and thats something the city would certainly be paying for.” The man paled at that but nodded, “If it’s as dire as you say and you can prove that to my superiors then i can at least say I authorized you under the pressure of the situation, but i’ll need to know the full situation first.” he said, hesitating a little as he finished, that was to be expected, Rin didn’t need him to be confident in the decision, all she needed was enough of a facade of legitimacy to ensure she could put pressure on any higher ups that didn’t want to pay for her services, and hey, if they didn’t mind paying for her services then this was just another way she might turn a profit and pull in some extra jobs for the future.

Switching into a headspace and demenour that she hadn’t used since she was running operations with her band of bandits Rin started laying out the situation for the man. “Alright, we dont have a lot of time here since I dont know the exact number of bombs nore what they are all set to trigger from, so let me finish before asking any questions. Firstly, the boy you were chasing didn’t have anything to do with placing the explosives” Rin saw the guard’s hackles rise as he immediately started to try to disagree with her, but she unleashed her power and fed chakra to the star that sat within her eye, causing that ominous flicker to start up again. The guard shut his mouth and awkwardly let her continue. “What the boy did have to say however was that he found some of the explosives whilst placing graffiti and litter on some walls, you can charge him for that if you want but in light of the situation it hardly seems appropriate, he did tell me where the explosives he found were however so I can use that to find them and likely trace them back to any others that might be nearby, but that will cost me far more resources than you could understand and I will expect to be compensated accordingly. As for you, the boy has generously helped to draw a map of where the known explosives are so once i have the chance to examine one and make sure its suitable for you and any other men your able to recruit to do so i’ll have you handle removing them whilst i isolate any more that are within the city. Understood?” She asked, rattling off the situation as quickly as possible without leaving room for her words to be misunderstood. The guard gulped and nodded, the cold sweat that had once been running down the back of his neck had now spread to the rest of his body and she could even see the faint tremor in his hands that indicated a man under far more stress than he was used to, Rin took some small pity on the man, though she did so only to ensure he didn’t break before the job was done. “Look it’ll be okay, i’ve got experience with this sort of thing and i was planning on investigating the local area for my own safety even before i picked up on this, now since time is of the essence here i can strain myself enough for one more of these but brace yourself, i won't be able to use another for quite a while.” She said turning back to the wall she had stepped from and focussing her willpower once again; it was harder this time, rending space open once was not too troublesome, but with each successive iteration of a tear the fabric of reality fought harder and harder to reassert itself, especially when they occurred in such quick succession and from the same source, all the same she pitted her will against the world and spoke a command, aloud this time, lending the authority of her voice to the working of will that tore open the world, rending a whole through space that connected this alleyway to one nearby that housed one of the known locations of these bombs. As soon as the working of will snapped into place Rin had to fight back the urge to sag in exhaustion, even with all the practice she had strengthening her will against the corruption that had flowed throughout her body and spirit doing this in such quick succession drained her mentally, gesturing forwards to the guard and who strode forward through the portal hesitantly she turned to the boy and spoke quietly. “Looks like with everything going on they dont have the time to keep an eye on you kid, if i were you i would go find somewhere to lie low for a few days, maybe change your appearance a little too if you can manage that, as long as no harm is done with these explosives the guard should forget about you soon enough, they’ll have bigger things to worry about for a while no doubt.” She said before stepping through the portal.


Rin strode through the portal looking as composed as ever, she had learnt long ago that showing weakness would only ever lead to ruin… the Ragdoll had taught her that when he had taken her arm, and her eye… and much much more… Rin shook her head as she stepped out from the portal, that working had taken even more out of her than she had expected if her mind was wandering along such… unhelpful pathways, especially now when she had a job to do. Looking around she took in the situation, the guard who had stepped through before her had already found the bomb half hidden under a number of posters that should really have been removed months ago. It only took a moment for Rin to realise he was about to just try to pull off the paper bomb like some fool. Tonight had been taxing in more than a few ways, one crisis after another, constantly building up so that she had to push herself just a little more, over and over again, and this was just another crisis to add to the pile, Rin turned her attention inwards, cycling her chakra through her pathways, infusing it with the Yin aspect that permeated her network before channeling it into her voice.

“Stop”

She spoke a command and the man’s soul obeyed, even before his conscious mind could catch up he found himself paralyzed, hand poised mere inches from the bomb. Rin felt the weight of all the spiritual energy she had used up today wearing upon her, even if her pathways had been cleansed and reforged it had still been a long time since she was able to use this much chakra at once and they ached with overuse. Rin spoke sternly, the strain of the technique starting to show its evidence in her voice as she did so. “Don't - Touch - Anything.” She said, taking a deep breath to center herself before releasing the man. As soon as he was released from the technique he fell backwards, a terrified squeak coming from him. Rin simply ignored the man, stepping up to the trapped wall and putting her hand against it as if sensing for something. In actuality she was simply exhausted and needed something to lean against for a moment. Breathing in deeply Rin trained her senses upon the half hidden explosive, she had been right, the bomb was set to trigger if anyone removed the poster obscuring it, that could have been a deadly result and a horrible way to go. Rin focused back on the task at hand, there was more here, more triggers and no doubt more traps, but she couldn't work through them without seeing the full sealing technique upon the talisman first, and to do that she had to remove the poster obscuring it. It was funny really, rin mused as she puzzled over how to remove the poster without blowing them all to pieces. So many fuinjutsu specialists were far too proud of their work, you had to wonder why they put the seals somewhere they could be easily viewed so often when that just made it oh so much easier to discern their weaknesses. Certainly she was no expert with seals, she had dabbled certainly, and talented prodigy as she had been she had learnt the basics quickly whilst still quite young, but it had never been her passion and so despite the talent she had never found the time to devote to learning the more advanced aspects of the art. Thankfully whilst this was far more complicated than the basic seals she had worked with in her youth this still seemed to be based primarily off of those basic foundational concepts she had learnt, indeed perhaps she could even learn something here… at least if she had the time, still one step at a time rin reminded herself, moving her train of thought back to how best to remove the obscuring poster. The seal would trigger if the poster was moved, she could see that much from the way the chakra clung to the poster and the small fragment of a binding array that peaked out from the side of the seal that was not obscured.

Rin thought for a moment Seals were generally simple things, operating purely upon the parameters they were given. Tell a seal to explode when it was hit with force and it wouldn’t react in the slightest if you burnt it… well at least until the fire disrupted the stability of the sealing formation, then it was anyone’s guess what the seal would do. Here the seal only realy cared if the poster was moved, which raised the important question, how had movement been defined. Was it simply the removal of the poster? Unlikely, that would make it far too easy for someone to simply rotate the poster around or lift it up enough to view the seal. Something else then, whoever had placed this seal obviously wanted to prevent anyone from interfering and viewing the seal’s structure so they wouldn’t want someone to be able to burn away the poster. Could the seal be set to trigger when a portion of the poster ceased to be in contact with it? That was a possibility, and one that she could test without too much danger, though it would strain her even further; on the bright side if she was wrong the test would also protect them from the explosion, still better she be safe here. Without turning to face him she spoke to her companion, “best go wait by the entrance while i try this, it shouldn’t be too dangerous but best be safe” she said, waiting for her spiritual sense to tell her the man had moved to a safe distance before beginning. She pushed her chakra through her channels in a complex pattern, Allowing equal aspects of Yin and Yang to meld together in it as she began another spatial working, nothing so complicated as one that would strain her like her previous one had, this one fell well within the purview of most of the worlds natural laws, rather than rending space or connecting to spaces that were no where near each other she simply reached out to the fabric of the world and… encouraged it to expand, something few people realized was that space was always expanding, by its very nature reality grew and the space between reality grew with it. All it took was a deft touch at the right moment, a brief acceleration of time at the exact moment or a light push of encouragement and that space between reality would widen. All Rin did was encourage the universe to widen where she wanted it to… right between the poster and the seal, the two spaces would still be in contact, neither would have moved, there would just be… more space between them than there once was, and if she was wrong then that added space, that extra nothingness would cushion the explosion… Which was exactly what happened as she heard the faint hissing sound of a paper bomb igniting. In a flash she pushed her chakra through the gap in space, encouraging it to encompass the explosion, widening the nothing around it such that the explosion would not cause too much damage to the surrounding area. Thankfully it wasn’t all that powerful of an explosive in the end so it didn’t over tax her abilities too far but it was still more of a close call than she would have liked. On the bright side it also gave her a good idea of how powerful the explosives were and how they interacted with spatial disturbances, if she couldn’t find a way to separate the bombs from anything used to obstruct them from view she should still be able to isolate the explosives within a pocket dimension… the issue there was how to do that, standard storage scrolls wouldn’t work; they condensed down the objects to pure chakra and stored them that way, and she could likely tear apart any seals she encountered herself, but the guard and any of his men wouldn’t have that luxury.

Rin sighed and reached out with her will, forcing open the small fold in space that she used to keep her supplies within, pulling out a sheaf of chakra infused paper ready to have seals inscribed upon them. Rin waved the guard back to her as she started working furiously, inscribing a basic seal that should link to her personal storage space, it didnt take long thankfully, the seal itself was rather simple to apply and all she had to do was infuse the technique within, a drop of her blood and a willing infusion of her chakra set the technique to code to her own personal space and then they were ready.

Rin thrust the sheaf to the guard just as he got back to her, standing and striding back out the alleyway as she spoke. “Have your men place these on any bombs they find, directly atop them mind you; it’ll take a chunk of whatever masonry the bombs are attached to but its better than the alternative, if i had time i could work out a better way to shut them down but this will be the fastest and likely safest method for you and your people to remove them, I’m going to do my best to identify the locations of any more bombs we’re not aware of, i’ll alert you or one of your men if i find enough to pass the work off to the rest of you, now take those and hurry, I really cant tell how much time we have here.” she said, finishing her instructions and pushing chakra to her feet as she flickered off in the direction of one of the taller buildings in the town. It was no skyscraper and was really only a few stories high but the height would make it easier for her senses to reach out across the town and detect any abnormal fluctuations in the natural chakra of the world.

Reaching the foot of her chosen building Rin sighed, now that she was away from the guard and alone for a moment she could let her shoulders slump a little, let the weary bone deep exhaustion settle as she mustered her remaining chakra, she was starting to run dry and that worried her, it had been a long time since her chakra channels were clear, but it had been even longer since they had been drained enough to run dry and overexerting her spirit like this could cause lasting damage to the foundation of her spirit if she wasn’t careful… Though given everything that had already happened she wasn’t even sure if the standard rules applied to her now, she had, for all intents and purposes consumed her own soul, by standard convention she should be dead or at least completely incapable of using chakra. Channeling her chakra to her feet Rin strode up the side of the building, she could have gotten to the top in a number of ways, she could have stepped through space as before, she could have used the ambient wind chakra to lift her up, she could have just used raw force to propel her up to the top in an instant, but all of those options required energy, and walking even if it was a little slower allowed her to conserve her energy for what was to come whilst using the time ascending the building to prepare techniques she would have had to spend time preparing when she got to the top with any of the other methods anyway.

Rin needed a way to quickly survey the village for the explosives, and though she could certainly sense abnormalities to some degree she was no where near skilled or powerful enough to reach her senses out so far and so quickly… At least not naturally, as she strode up the side of the building Rin’s mind worked through what options she had, what tools she had at her disposal, there had to be a way to solve this with what she had on hand. Rin thought back on the books she had read on the basic theory of chakra, it was all connected, even separated from someone their chakra was still theirs, and just as a person’s chakra was theirs even when separated from their body all chakra was connected, chakra could influence chakra, albeit to varying degrees. That is one of the core theories upon which genjutsu was based, manipulate the chakra of an opponent using your own. Perhaps there was a way to use that theory, she could not be everywhere at once, she could not stretch her senses out far enough to sense what she was looking for… but perhaps her chakra could be where she was not.

Rin began to forge small thin threads of chakra, nothing like the threads puppeteers generally used although as she put the technique together she did suspect there was some fringe application of these threads within such a specialty. No, these threads were small invisible weaves that flowed through the natural chakra of the world, reaching out in an ever growing net of chakra, not unlike that of a spider’s web though much, much more intricate. Each thread was connected to its neighbors, and each thread quivered and thrumed from the ambient chakra it touched. It took a few minutes to fully expand, but as time wore on the threads of chakra stretched out to encompass more and more, first only a few buildings but soon it covered the whole town, and Rin could feel the flow of mana within the town clearly. She could feel the thrum of chakra where people trod, the cluster of chakra in the festival center as people danced and laughed and enjoyed the festivities. She could feel the specks of chakra, ever so slightly stronger than those of the civilians, darting about from alley to alley, no doubt the city guard rushing to find and neutralize as many explosives as possible, but most importantly she could feel the shift of ambient chakra flowing around a number of formations within the city. Seals whose own chakra pushed and pulled at the natural flow of the world, drawing chakra to sustain themselves or their effects, creating ebbs and flows that differed subtly from that of what they should be. Pinpointing the sources of abnormal chakra flows within her mind Rin released the technique, allowing the threads to fall loose and start to dissipate back into the chakra of the world, her impression was rough and the burgeoning technique was draining but with further development and research it might be something she could use in future. For now though Rin lept from the building in the direction of the nearest explosive, dropping to the ground in a roll and leaping up as she dashed forwards, there were more bombs than she had expected and without knowing when they would detonate time was absolutely of the essence.

Thankfully the Streets were mostly clear, the night had grown late and most were either at the festival or had retired inside for the night, as she rounded a corner and darted into a nearby alleyway she had identified as the location of the nearest explosive Rin’s eyes scanned the walls, searching for exactly where the explosive was hidden. Much like the first alleyway she had encountered, this one was completely covered in old posters, advertising everything from ‘new’ restaurants to a faded poster that proclaimed it offered ‘the cure for seventeen stab wounds in the back’ whatever that meant. Unlike the last alleyway this one’s explosive seemed to be completely obscured by the assorted posters and advertisements, she could vaguely sense the explosive’s location hidden behind a number of posters layered over the top of each other but that still meant she wasn’t going to be able to study this one easily either… Rin sighed, as helpful as examining the seal would have been, she couldn’t waste time here. Rin reached her hand out to where she suspected the seal sat and began to focus her chakra, if the seal was visible she might have been able to use a more conventional fuinjutsu breaking method but with the explosive obscured the way it was she would need a different method to remove it, in theory she could replicate what she had done with the paper talismans for the guards but she had used all of her chakra infused paper already and performing the technique without one would require her to remain immobile whilst the seal was moved into her private spacial fold, not to mention she would already be straining the space’s storage capacity with the seals the guards were using; no she needed something more efficient. Rin turned her attention inwards, focusing on the shattered star of living fire that formed her new core, using untested sources of power like this was dangerous, something that by all conventional wisdom would get you killed if you tried to do it in a combat situation and and it wasn’t that wasn’t much better when you tried using it in an uncontrolled environment like this. Of course that was based on conventional wisdom and Rin had strayed far from the path of conventional wisdom a long, long time ago, so at this point risky decisions were just par for the course.

Pulling a strand of soulfire from the core of her shattered star Rin started to weave it through her meridians, infusing it into a basic fire technique whose primary use was cleaning up trash and grime, and it was still technically going to be fulfilling that purpose, she was simply expanding the purview of trash to include unattended sources of chakra. Breathing in a deep breath Rin released the power that she had been preparing, allowing the soulfire infused technique to coat the wall. Silver white flames flowed out from her, coating the wall where she touched it and spreading out to cover more and more ground as she fed the technique. She could feel the flames lapping at the natural chakra of the world around her, feeding on it to strengthen itself, but it seemed calmer than before. When she fought these silvery white flames, pulling them inside of her they had thrashed and writhed, fighting to cleanse and devour everything around them. They left nothing behind, not even ash from the scraps of the trash they had fed on but this fire was purer that earlier fire, it was as if it had been tempered and refined to only feed on what was useful for its master, to absorb what she could use, and feed upon what she hungered for, such a change was intriguing and indeed under better circumstances she would have investigated more thoroughly, but right now she was just glad the flames would still serve her purpose, in fact they should serve her purpose better now.

Reaching out her spiritual sense and directing the flames towards the cluster of chakra that was the explosive seal Rin watched as the flames devoured the chakra that made up the explosive, eating away at the foundation that powered the defensive mechanisms that protected the seal from her interference in more direct ways. Once the seal had been entirely drained of chakra, something Rin was surprised to see only took a few seconds.

Once the last of the residual chakra had been leached from the area Rin tore down the posters that had been obscuring the paper seal. She had expected to set the seal off with a wave of fire and then disrupt the explosion with some carefully applied chakra, but this worked much better, it even gave her a chance to examine the formation that had been applied here. As Rin tore off the last poster she was pleased to see the seal completely intact albeit inert, perfect for her to examine and identify how best to disrupt it in future, certainly she could use this method again but a quick application of chakra in the right location would be much quicker, and although theoretically the white fire should be able to shut down any accumulations of chakra before they triggered an explosion it would be better to use a method that she knew would work rather than relying on an untested element now that she had the option.

Looking at the seal itself it initially looked rather basic, certainly not something made by a master, though if that was the case it would raise both the question of why a master would be here in the backwoods in the first place and also the question of why a master would resort to such a tactic when they could likely destroy the village with a stray thought. No this was work that had clearly been made by someone with only a passing knowledge of the fundamentals of the sealing arts. There were parts of the sealing arrays that were sloppy, not following standard practice, plenty of points where energy was wasted bleeding out into the surrounding environment, but despite that there was also points of brilliance, unique solutions to problems Rin hadn’t seen before, false arrays that obscure the actual function of the seal, hell even the trigger mechanism to check if the covering posters had been removed was a unique idea. If Rin had to guess whoever made this was self taught, but that simply made it all the more impressive that they had managed to create a functioning explosive of this level. Still it just raised even more questions when she thought about it more deeply. This town in the middle of nowhere of a country widely ignored by the wider world was being targeted for what amounted to a terrorist attack by someone who had enough tallent that they would likely be able to receive training and perhaps even a scholarship if they went to anyone with even a moderate eye for tallent within the major shinobi villages. Certainly they could be in the same boat that she was as a child, already marked as a criminal and forced to rely on methods outside of the legal world for survival…

Rin shook her head pulling her thoughts back to the problem at hand, there were too many unknowns and far too many questions for her to dive into right now, she would table the issue for later when there were not piles of explosives throughout the town. Tracing the paper bomb’s sealing circles she found it was composed of three main arrays with a number of off shoots for either redundant functions or perhaps to obfuscate the function of the seal. Regardless of the intended function those off shoots could be ignored since they didn’t feed into any of the seals functions that were relevant. The three arrays of relevance however each served a major function, one to coalesce and collect power from the natural world and store it within a cycling storage ring, one to detect tampering, and one that seemed to be designed to monitor for a specific fluctuation in the ambient chakra levels. The first one was standard for a paper bomb, although she had to admit the way it had been designed to detonate was rather… she wasn’t sure if to call it unique, ingenious, foolish or absurd. Standard Paper bombs are designed with the intention to simply store the coalessed chakra in a point that will de stabalize when the paper is burnt, this seal on the other hand had been designed so that the overlapping detection arrays would flow chakra into the storage array in the wrong direction disrupting the flow and causing a catastrophic backlash throughout the entire seal… It was a great example of how not to make seals normally but in this one instance it did serve a function… she just wasn’t sure if it was intentional or if someone had just messed up so badly that they managed to accidentally make something that worked in a completely different way from what they intended.

Regardless of whether the design was intentional it both made disrupting the seal incredibly easy and explained why messing with the seal in the way she had before had been so ineffective, any abnormal alteration in the localized ambient chakra of the world could easily set of any number of instabilities in the seal, again something that normally be incredibly ill advised and yet here Rin couldn’t tell if it was an intentional design feature or just sheer dumb luck, regardless a simple application of a spark of Yin chakra in the right location should be more than enough to break down the seal on any further explosives safely.

Rin tore the inert sheat off the wall, pocketing it before heading off to the next explosive’s location, the back wall of a nearby onsen. The same onsen she had been planning on relaxing in before this entire commotion in fact; sometimes it paid to be cautious. The onsen was only a few streets away so she was able to dash there in an instant, much like the previous two explosives. This one too had been obscured by old advertisements and Rin couldn’t help but think whoever was in charge of cleaning up such old posters was likely guilty of gross negligence at this point. All the same she could find the right spot with relative ease now, being able to isolate the location of the disturbance in the area’s ambient chakra. With a brief touch of her hand she inserted a thin stream of yin chakra into the weak point she had identified and felt the flow of chakra stop within the ring’s detonation array, then it was as simple as coating the wall in a brief burst of fire to clear out the seal and the piles of posters before continuing on to the next one. This went on for an hour, Rin sensing the flickering chakra signatures of what she could only assume to be the other guards darting from place to place removing their own explosive seals as she continued her work, it was as she was finishing up the last seal that she felt a pressure building in the back of her mind, not an attack but a tingling in her spiritual senses that told her the fold in space she had tied to herself was full.

Rin reached out to the side, opening the space as she stretched out her senses to the rest of the city; there were still a few explosives and guards heading to deal with them so she’d have to make room for them to activate the remaining sealing papers she had provided them with. There lay the problem though, checking the inventory of the space she found enough explosives to seriously damage the city, even if they were set off in the one place. she couldn’t exactly remove the seals here and try to disarm them, she needed somewhere that she could empty them all out and not have to worry about collateral damage if whoever was holding the trigger on these explosives decided to set them off. Rin stretched out her spiritual senses again, looking for a signature that was at least vaguely familiar to her at this point, thankfully the guard she had spoken with earlier wasn’t too far from her current location; only a few blocks away in fact.

Channeling her chakra to her feet again Rin lept up the nearest wall, flying a few meters up before her feet touched the wall and she was able to run the rest of the way. If it wasn’t for the dire situation she found herself in she might have even been enjoying herself at this point, but time was very much of the essence here. Leaping from building to building she made her way over the town’s rooftops before coming to a stop on the parapets of a building overlooking one of the town’s main walkways; a figure clad in full plate mail heading her way. Dropping to the ground in front of the man she no doubt cut a terrifying figure; she had not changed her clothes since she last saw him and a blood red shadow with a masked face as featureless as hers was, would no doubt strike fear in the hearts of even some hardened veterans.

The man took a step back as he saw her appear in front of him, his hand dropping to the hilt of a blade strapped to his waist. Rin simply stood, waving her hand placatingly as she spoke “There’s no time for pleasantries i’m afraid, I need a place i can safely try to diffuse the rest of these explosives without putting anyone in danger if anything goes wrong” she said, cutting right to the important part of the conversation. The man, to his credit, simply nodded his head, his guard relaxing as he recognised her. “The best place would be somewhere outside of the town entirely, but if that's going to take too long there's a derelict building nearby that’s slated for demolition that you could use; the area’s been abandoned and they were just waiting on the demolition team to be approved. Rin nodded “Perfect, show me where” she said, pulling out her copy of the town map they were using, the marked building was, as the guard had said, not far from where they both stood, so with a simple nod Rin darted off; her senses told her she only had a minute before another guard tried to use a storage paper and having it not work would be problematic; she should certainly try to find some way to communicate over long distances more reliably once this calamity was over.

Darting down the street once again Rin leapt up the side of a building, her chakra once again flowing to her heels as she made her way to the top; her reserves were getting lower and lower as the night went on and she would certainly have to take some time soon to regenerate the chakra in her system. Still as she reached the top of the building she could see the derelict building in the distance, a large looking old apartment building more akin to one of the major villages slums than something she would expect out here, the building was old though; she could see that from here, it’s construction was markedly different from that of the surrounding houses and there was a decently sized tree that had grown into the building, warping the brickwork as it did so, If these explosives did go off she really hoped that the tree wasn’t heritage listed or in anyway important to the town; it would certainly be a pain if it was; though how they would plan on demolishing the building without the tree would be beyond her, the two structures were so heavily intertwined that Rin was fairly sure the tree would collapse without the building’s support and in it’s decrepit state the building likely wouldn’t be standing either if it wasn’t for the structural support the tree offered its upper levels. As Rin drew closer she had to admire the building, it looked ancient, like something that had been here since long, long ago, but sadly she didn’t have the time to dawdle appreciating the history of the place. Reaching out her hand once again Rin rent open a tear in space, letting a pile of broken masonry and seals fall out as her personal storage dimension emptied. Unfortunately for her, as soon as the first seal left the storage space she could tell something was terribly wrong, she could feel chakra start to flow towards the masonry, the natural chakra of the world being drawn into the seal.

Rin leapt back in an instant; making as much distance as she could between herself and the highly volatile seals that were pouring into the demolition site, through the gap she had torn open in space time; chakra flowed towards them at such a rate that even the wind began to blow inwards, being pulled along on the tide of natural energy that coalesced around the explosives; at first she expected a quick explosion; perhaps one that might level the building, but as she felt the tide of chakra continuing to flow past her, she could tell something was horribly wrong, the power continued to coalesce around the collection of explosives which all seemed to have begun resonating with each other. This was not what Rin had expected at all and for a moment she was dumbfounded, this kind of interaction between so many seals was not something she would expect of an amateur, indeed despite the small innovations in the seals she had seen they had all seemed incredibly poorly created; could she have missed something; could this be some greater seal designed to only trigger when enough pieces were brought together? It seemed so far-fetched and yet she had little other options as far as explanations went; but regardless of the reason, regardless of the source, regardless of whether this was some sheer absurd stroke of luck on the creator’s part of a deliberately planned function of the seals her course of action was the same. Rin began weaving hand seals as quickly as she could. Rat, Ram, Tiger, Rat, Horse, Ram, Tiger, Horse, Dog, Ram, Rat, Ram, Tiger, Rat, Horse, Ram, Tiger, Horse, Dog, Ram, Rat, she placed her hand upon the ground, infusing it with a rushed seal as she simultaneously pushed her flagging chakra to her feet, blasting herself to the side with an explosion of her own chakra, she nearly passed out for a moment, her chakra levels depleting so rapidly causing her own mind to stutter and stop like an engine running on fumes but she continued forming hand seals, her mind whirring ahead as she tried to weave them together performing multiple techniques at once; overlapping the flows of her chakra to ensure that they seamlessly transitioned from one technique to the other. A puff of smoke as she flew, a second copy of herself dropping to the ground mid flight as it leapt off to one of the other cardinal points. Her mind strained as her vision split, this was not a technique she willingly made use of often; it was not a typical clone technique and rather than using elemental energies to create a temporary copy of her with its own motivations and decision making it created a synchronized body controlled directly by her, something that taxed the minds of even those trained specifically in its use. She had taken it from the corpse of a traveler long ago, and whilst at first she had expected great things from the technique it had swiftly shown that its use in drawn out combat was limited, but here it would serve her purposes well, though she would pay the price for it soon.

The two Rin’s continued weaving seals, each taking over a portion of the seals as they shaped their chakra in unison; Rin formed hand signs one after the other; Rat, Tiger, Horse, Tiger, Dog, Rat, Tiger, Horse, Tiger, Dog, Rat whilst Rin formed hand signs of her own Ram, Rat, Ram, Horse, Ram, Ram, Rat, Ram, Horse, Ram. Rin Placed her hand upon the ground as her chakra flowed into the worn and weathered cobblestones as a seal began to materialize; meanwhile Rin created another puff of smoke, a third Rin materializing, and Rin’s vision split again as Rin stepped out of the cloud; Rin channel’d chakra to her feet as Rin continued flowing her chakra to the seal on the ground, all the while the natural chakra around her swept inwards. Only a few moments had passed and already the spiritual weight of the combined energy coallessing within the explosives was reaching levels that would be dangerous even for her in her prime, but she pushed onwards, her mind burned under the strain of incoming sensory information; she screamed as her chakra pathways overflowed with energy she had intended for another body, her technique flickered and faltered for a moment as its flow was disrupted, but she acted in unison all the same, and though she was falling apart on all sides she continued with the desperate confidence of one who knew she had no choice but to do so. Three voices cried out in unison; one horse from screaming, one barely a whisper, and one a confident call. “Three corners dimensional barrier technique” She called out, her mind too stressed to register there was no need to call out the technique name with no one around she needed to communicate with.

As the barrier began to form, three things happened in unison; Rin’s mind finally reached its breaking point; the twin mind's technique shattering and the feedback nearly shattering her mind in the process. The entirety of the area around the demolition site was covered in chakra infused smoke as Rin’s technique collapsed; the duplicate Rin’s collapsing down into the chakra that formed them; Meanwhile the barrier technique finished activating; the last of the failing Rin’s chakras just enough to finish activating the prepared seals, what should have been a deep purple barrier, dark enough to block almost all but the most powerful of light from bleeding through, shot into the sky; but instead of the standard purple of the technique a shimmering blue white dome covered in silvery flames covered the site; in her haste and her distraction Rin had poured everything she had into the technique; and that everything had included the remaining fragments of the spiritual fire burning within her veins; Finally Rin herself fell forward, her mind drifting into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness; her body collapsing to its knees upon the cobblestones whilst she leant up against the barrier she had created, the last thing she felt was the warm comforting feeling of the flames lapping at her skin; as affectionate as a puppy.



The explosion was like a thunderbolt, tearing through the air with a deafening roar and a blinding flash of light. The force of the blast shook the ground powerful enough that it would have knocked even Rin off her feet if she was still standing. It sent debris flying in all directions, The remaining windows of the decrepit building shattered, its doors were ripped from their hinges, and walls crumbled as the shock wave radiated outward, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Fire, lightning, wind all crackled, burned, and wailed outwards from the site of the seal and thrashed against the silver barrier that stood in its way. With chakra this dense coalesced into a single point and imbued with a single purpose it was almost sentient, the energy thrashed, and raged against the power that kept it imprisoned as only one urge encompassed its infantile consciousness. It needed to destroy, it needed to devour, rend and rupture, to flow with the energy of lightning and fire, to rage against captivity with the energy of wind, it threw itself against the barrier with everything it had; the force enough to rend a mountain in twain; and the barrier began to crack; without someone to maintain it and feed it energy it wasn’t designed to withstand such force… but even as the force raged against the barrier whittling it down, the silver white fire that had been so thoroughly imbued into the technique feasted upon the energy of the explosion, and as it did so the excess energy of the explosion began to feed the barrier that kept it contained. Cracks began to heal, reknitting themselves together as the barrier began to thicken and shrink, gaining ground against the explosion; chasing its food as a lion hunts its prey until the two reached a tenuous equilibrium the explosion contained within a silver white barrier the size of a marble, floating above the ground.