Illusion of Freedom [GORE WARNING]

The missions:

After her last massacre, Isomo laid low for a while, taking only to the roads after a few days. Hungry again, she decided to set her eyes onto another prize, this time consisting of money, and a rich citizen owning it. After all, her plan was to make her way to Hoshi and get recruited there as a village ninja, so she would need some money as offering to get accepted. Or at least thats what she planned. First of all, she would need to find a rich man. In order to do so, she visited the outskirts of the Vale of Heaven, particularly a place where it was known to be quite beautifull and where rich noblemans and businessman of the heaven country and of the hidden village resided. As she saw a small community of manor houses and gardens perched on an artificial hill with canals and a temple at the center of it, she knew this was the place for what she was looking for. Conveniently, as Isomo got close following the paved road toward the hamlet, a wooden post could be seen, with a large plank fixed to it, on wich multiples scrolls could be seen with a lot of requests, missions, and informations on it. Being smart, she tought maybe one of the rich man needed help, and this could either prove a good way for her to earn that money, or to at least provide information on the man whereabouts and how she could get the fortune of the poor fool who would be her victim. As she searched trough the scrolls, she noticed a particular recent one. On it, it could be read with a nice and fancy cursive text, written in dark blue ink:


As Isomo took the letter to read it, she smiled creepily, happy to find exactly what she was looking for: an opportunity. She waited in the middle of the night, as to be covered in her tracks by the darkness of the late night, with only the light of the moon paling over the houses. She also wanted her presence here to be unknown and to keep it a secret, to keep her plans on the hush hush. As she snuck behind the manor to see if there was any guards, she only saw that 2 guards were around the house, one in the front at the stone Tori gate leading to the courtyard, and another one in the back of the house patrolling the gardens. Swiftly, being already at the back of the house, Isomo dispatched of the first guard and broke his neck from behind with a single snaping motion, swfitly done and in silence, while taking care to catch the corpse and drop it slowly to not make a sound. to make sure he didnt wake up, Isomo bit his neck and trashed away his throat and lower jaw, spiting it in the gardens. After wipping her mouth to be normal, or at least, appear normal, she got to the front guard, and hid on the corner of the house to see him. As Isomo was a master of deception and manipulation, she fainted and faked a deep and gutural hurting sound, almost a moan, and tried to lure the guard. As the guard attention was directed towards the weird sound in the middle of a calm summer night, the Tau shinobi jumped him, bitting down into his face, tearing appart his flesh, ripping off his nose and taking out and popping both of his eyes. As he screamed, the sound of his voice was muffled inside the gigantic monstrous mouth of Isomo eating his whole face and front of the head, until he was only a disfigured and unrecognisable cadaver. Rapidly dragging it away towards the bushes, Isomo hid him, or what was left of him, away, and after the body was out of eye sight, she slowly and steadily got towards the gate, and then to the door. She, again wipped her mouth of the blood, this time rinsing in the fountain in the yard, before knocking on the door. As the lady inside the house answered, Isomo did her best to appear as a respectable missing ninja, trying to look more like a mercenary than a criminal. She put on her missing Amegakure headband on her forehead, tied it, showing the 4 bars striken by a kunai chop, a common sign of a ninja who resigned from their village and were now wandering the roads for a living. The common sign of someone who, like the lady was looking for, was not affraid to break the law and do what needed to be done to get her husband out of jail. The lady, looking like she cried all day, was suprised to see someone at her door this late into the night. She seemed also uneasy with the presence and appearance of Isomo, seemingly backing off a little when she saw the ninja, unsettled by the Tau appearance.

''Oh! hello. I didnt expect someone to knock this late. I was fast asleep, so sorry if someone didnt open to you before. Shouldnt the guards be there ? oh nevermind, those useless drunks are always gone at these calm and late hours, drinking away their paychecks'' said the lady, her voice grainy as she had been asleep.

''Hey! Hello. Sorry to bother you at such an hour. I was passing trough the place, as travelling the night is safer as the dark cover me and hides me up, and I saw on the signpost your scroll, asking for help. I tought I could be of help, since im a wandering shinobi working for the most bidding, and I am also looking for a place to stay the night... Im wondering if i helped you and listened to what needed to be done, if you could lodge and feed me for the night, and tomorrow i'll be gone to look for your husband ?''  said in a calm and reasurring voice Isomo, yet while still looking stoic and firm, professionnal. She didnt want to appear too scary, as her appearance already did the job for that, but she didnt want to appear to smooth and soft either, as this would raise suspission, and she would look like a bad mercenary choice to organise a jail break.

As soon as she suggested it, the woman eyes lit up, tears in the corners, as she finnaly had found the help she needed. Without much hesitation, she gestured toward Isomo to get inside, with a newfound smile of hope. ''Oh yes! thank the gods someone finally came to help my husband in this god forsaken country! come in, i will tell you everything my dear!'' said the lady. As Isomo followed, the empty sound of the outside an indicator of what just happened, with only the cricket sounds, yet the lady of the house didnt pick up on it, unaware of just who she invited into her stead, of the monster she just brought into her home. Isomo closely followed the lady, exploring the house and noticing every detail, in case something happened. She noticed the objects she could use as a weapon, the places she could hide a body, everything. Her mind and way of thinking was methodical, calculated, cold, cruel, impartial. She was like a machine more than a person, built to destroy and kill, to murder and maim, to mutilate and cause pain, more than anything else. Yet, she had a mind of her own, a twisted mind at that. As the lady sat towards the dining room, a place adorned with lots of memoralia and details reminiscning of the missing man, Isomo kept her calm, the only darkness and carnage inside her head, contained.... for now.

The lady served tea, and as quickly as they were both seated, started to talk to Isomo about the situation, in the middle of the night. ''Welcome welcome! what is your name dear? oh well met Isomo-san. I trully hope you are the one who will have enough resolve and determination to free my husband. You see, he is a wealthy merchant, and was recently framed by the Hoshigakure prefecture of Haven country without proof! He was accused of bribery, fraud, and larceny, stealing from the coffers of the city and rerouting funds and taxes from the merchant chamber of commerce, as well as the bank itself! He could never have done such a thing... He is a generous man, giving away to the poor, and always talking about how a duty and loyalty to one's country is paramount! He is in the high security penitentiary of Haven country now, closely guarded by samurai of the Daimyo, as his so-called immaginary crimes have been commited more into the country prefecture and juridiction than the secret village's. They watch him day and night, and are planning to hang him in a 6 days by midnight. So here is what i'm hiring you for: You need to get him free, by all mean necessary! Our family is wealthy, and I and my husband will reward you a ton of ryo if you can make him escape the rope! He had told me of a secret stash, a place where he put money for our retirement and for us to live off when we would be old, money he said he amassed with his savings. Once the mission is done and he is free and safe from his captors, we will change his name, and he will live quietly inside here, hidden aways from autorities. You'll then get to keep this secret stash! As a safegard and garantee, only he know of its emplacement. Im sorry if this sounds like I dont trust you. In this world, you cant trust anyone!''  Said the lady, oversharing and afraid at the same time, as this whole situation with Isomo made her nervous, and Isomo presence and eerie nature made her even more unconfortable. Isomo, in her turn, answered the lady: ''Well my name is Isomo, and it is exactly why I am here ! I saw and read your post out there, and since I am desperate and in need of both money and a purpose, I will happily save your husband from this jail. You have my word.'' said Isomo in a deep and creepy voice.

But, the more and more the lady talked, the more and more Isomo grew suspicious, and annoyed. The lady kept talking, and talking, and talking, almost yapping, and it was really annoying. Isomo also tought it was suspicious, that her husband wasnt a fraudster, but still had a hidden stash ? something didnt checked out. And the missing ninja from Amegakure was getting pissed. As the lady continued, Isomo barely contained herself, but the lady kept talking, saying how the money was payed by her husband only after he was saved, and only he knew the stash. As the creepy girl conected dots into her heads, she finaly came to a conclusion; the lady in the house, wasnt essential to her mission, nor was it her who would pay. Even more, the man was planning on giving the stash as a payment, meaning he had something in the house already there, as he wouldnt relinquish his lavished lifestyle of a nobleman merchant would he? Isomo started to grin, her new objective and mindset finaly done. She could let loose of that anger, that murderous rage inside of her, boiling, flashing in her mind as savage and goe imagery of cruel intrusives toughts, torturing and tearing appart the lady....

---

The room was suddently quiet, it was as if no one ever lived here. The light of the house would slowly extinguish, leaving only darkness, abyss and void. The red paste plastered the walls, sprayed without much care everywhere. The floors were covered in guts, torn appart and spread far away from each others, in an offal painting of monstrous property. The bones, bloody and pink from the residue of their owners littered the place, amongst broken furniture and glass, loose, full of bite marks. There was more than one who joined the world beyond. The family, the home, all joined into the red painting that took place, and in the end, were reunited into the next life.

Isomo woke up the next day, with the sun slowly getting up, revealing into the daylight the horrors of the night. The house was covered in blood, body parts of the lady and her 4 childrens, all massacred and strewn into the place, blood spilled as well as guts, in a ravage and savagery without precedent. The childrens were mostly chewed up, their little bones torn and broken, forming gloopy messes in their beds or onto the floor. The lady was split in 3, the legs torn away from the torso, splited in half by tearing appart her stomach. The legs had bend the other way, bones poking trough the flesh, as they were thrown away appart from the rest of the body, down the stairs. The body was absolutely ravaged, eaten trough almost totaly, the torso open like an oyster. The head was missing, half split into a broken glass shard, mandible hanging from a bloody ripped mouth, eyes removed only to expose fleshy holes, crying blood on the frozen horrified expression of the mutilated face of the head.

Isomo stood tall above the massacre, covered head to toe in blood, the most wide smile ever engraved into her monstrous face. As she looted the place for information, she found a letter meant for the jailed husband, a letter proving that he WAS in fact, responsible for the crimes he was framed for. Futher down the house, Isomo found a basement, hidden behind a paper wall, with a old wooden door, creeking and not oppened since a long time. As she carefully wiped herself 'clean' to remove most of the blood, she sneakilly got downstairs, to look what was so carefully hidden. There, she found a dark corridor, leading into a cellar, full of spider webs, sake and wine bottles, and a desk full of old scrolls, proving the mascarade and underground clandestine life the husband was doing, with papers of briberies, tax evasions and banditry payments. The man was a crook. Under the desk, the tau girl found a chest, all rectangular and made of metal. Fortunately, she had found prior to it a key on the corpse of the wife, and it fitted perfectly into the socket of the chest. With a mechanical sound, the chest seemed to activate something, and Isomo instantly caugh what was happening. As such, she threw the chest on the opposite wall, before the mechanism would finally activate. From it, 5 large senbons would shoot upwards into the ceiling, in a shotgun maner from the key hole, blasting away the key. Had Isomo not dodge, or understood the trap, her face would have been akin to a porcupine. Getting carefully back towards the chest, Isomo found it now open, with the trap being disarmed by activation. She immediately oppened it, discovering a large sum of Ryo, the amount the man put on the side for his old days, probably. Isomo carefully took it, stashed away into her leg pouch, and left the house in a hurry, before anyone in the village could wake up and see the massacre. She walked out of the village under the rising sun, in the early morning, only the birds chirping to cover her footsteps, accompagnied by the chants and cawking of the crows and ravens getting to the bloody house, ready to feast on the remains. 


On the plans and with the description given by the lady, Isomo now knew where the prison was, but didnt know how and where to infiltrate it, and even less a way to make the man get out of it. The only thing she was sure, was that once she had her teeths and claws onto this man, and out of the jail, she would make him squeal, and no one would be able to save him, nor to hear his screams in the depths of the wood, and the dead of the night. As she got there, she moved in a hurry, to get away as fast as possible from the massacre she just did. She knew she wasnt gonna be welcome in Hoshigakure after this, having already been rejected from the village. She needed however some money to get away as fast as possible from there, and these people and their stashes would help her to take the express ticket to where she wanted and also needed to be. 

After 4 days of walking, Isomo finally reached the jail complex. It was in a valley, circled by small hills, and covered in the deep forest, only the jail terrain being devoid of trees. The central tower was tall and wide, with a main gate and fences circling the building, with barbed wires atop the fences, wich from the distance Isomo stood on a hill, looked about 10 meters in height. It was a well guarded place, but not impossible to break someone out of. Isomo had the advantage of time on her side, but this time not so much, as the man only had a few days left before his execution. She would need to move swiftly, and to not alarm the guards, she would need to have a plan. As a few hours passed, Isomo finaly had an idea, and with a large bloody grin, looked as the day ended, and the sun started to set, towards a guard leaving his post as he ended his shift, and left the place to go back home. This would be the perfect opportunity, she could snatch the guard uniform, or even better, make him talk about the layout of the prison, or how to make a inmate escape. Maybe he even had the keys still on himself! As soon as she started to think about all thoses precious details, Isomo started to crawl toward the unsuspecting guard, stalking him in the night until he was far enough to intercept. 

The creepy Tau girl jumped onto the guard without hesitation, furiously biting into his legs in a bear trap maner, injuring his foot and ankle enough so that he couldnt run or walk away. At the same time, she placed her hand on top of his mouth to prevent him from screaming, and with her deadly murderous gaze, told him to shut up or die. The man stoped screaming, and she let go of his leg, leaving it pierced and punctured with teeths marks, blood oozing out of the nasty wound. Still holding him by the head, but her hands now placed on his neck, Isomo started to interogate him. ''Shhh shhhh pretty boy! You wouldnt want to attract attention would you? What a sad thing it would be to break that soft neck of yours, hmmm?  Now now, if you answer my questions and cooperate, I will let you crawl and slime away from here, alive, like the good little worm you are, alright? good. I want your uniform, and the keys to the prisons, all of them. I also want you to bring me a college of yours.'' said isomo as she searched the guardian. Into his vest, she would find a picture of his family, with his wife and kids. Isomo looked at him, and then back at the picture, with the large smile showing the large and numerous rows of sharp razor-like teeths. ''now if you dont do it, I will have to find that pretty family of yours, and I am quite hungry. Go now little worm, go fetch! AHAHAHAH'' said maniacaly the monstrous woman, as the terrified man ran away to complete the tasks. 

After a full day of waiting, the man came back, at the same hours, with this time a college he lured into the trap, saying to him that he invited him to drink beer after their shift. Little did he know, as soon as he arrived to the meeting spot, nothing could be seen. Isomo was not there, and only the blood from the previous day leg injury remained, tainting the ground a dark red. The man complice with the plan of isomo gulped, nervous of what was happening. The other college, a man small and tall, seemed confused as to why they stopped in the middle of the forest, on the side of the road. Before he could process anything, Isomo head arrived from upwards in the trees, attached by large black threads, and droped on the unsuspecting man, jaw so wide open it looked dislocated. Her teeths sunk into the skull of the man, biting so hard that his eyes started twitching, blood running down from his eyes and ears as his brain and head was getting crushed by the powerfull jaw and mandible of the girl, pressing on the head like on a watermelon. The head rapidly ruptured, exploding with too much pressure and breaking like a coconut, making the man instantly fall onto the ground, lifeless and his head bursted like a bubble. The complice would immediately be shocked, started to shiver and was white as snow, paralyzed and terrified of the horrifying thing that just happened without warning nor logic. As Isomo droped down from the trees, she looked at the surviving man, hushing him with a finger before her mouth like an adult would do to a child. ''There, tomorrow I will come inside with you, wearing his uniform and his skin, both of wich he dont have a use of anymore. With your help, you will lead me to the jail of a particular inmate, and make me and him evade. If you so much as whisper, scream, or make anything go not as planed, I will devour your earth and chew out your eyes while you are still alive, and behead all of your family. Now sleep, tomorrow is a big day for the prison, and you NEED to be on point.'' said Isomo in a calm but menacing voice, her head tilted to the side, grining uncontrolably.

As the next day arrived, Isomo undressed herself in the morning, putting on the uniform of the dead guardian, and with the transformation jutsu, changed into him. Having eaten his body to make the proof disapear, she woke up with a scary smile the other guard, standing over him and saying ''hello there friend, its wake up time, we have a job to do.'' with lifeless and fixed eyes. As soon as the morning rose, they both got towards the jail, passing towards the gate without issues. As they arrived to the gate, the collegue talked, and the giants metal doors oppened, letting the duo enter without anyone noticing a difference or anything suspicious. There it was, she had made it into the jail complex. Now to only free the man and make him talk. As the day advanced, the duo now had reached the cells, and for the first time, Isomo could see the man she needed to free and had heard so much about: he was a tall man, slender and old, with a kimono of rich cloths, adorned with embroidery and gold paterns, showing his status and wealth. Isomo grinned in her guard appearance toward the inmate, who seemed uneasy with such a creepy face and expression, giving only a hint of the true nature of who was in his presence. Making sure no other guards where there, the transformed ninja and her complice oppened the cell of the man, who in his confusion, asked what was happening. ''Humm what is happening gentlemans? Are you the ones my wife hired to make me escape? I knew it! Hun thanks you!''  said the man, looking at the sky, unknowingly that his wife had, indeed, reached the world of beyond. Without a word, isomo acknoledged and shook her head in approval, the guard quickly following the motion. As they got out of the cells, Isomo put a bag on top of the head of the man they were making escape, as to make it appear as they were only transfering him into another jail. 

While getting out slowly and inconspicuously, Isomo noticed a reserve of processed fuel or oil, surelly the byproduct of something the prisoner worked on, as the jail was devoid of a quarry, so clearly the prisoner where working on something else. Isomo quickly asked, with the voice of the man she slew, what was that. ''Hey, since im new here, mind telling me what they make you work here ? whats theses barrels over there in the reserve?'' 

The man, quickly turned around to point out and inform her, not wanting to break the guise of their complicity, terrified for the safety of his family. '' this is processed oil for the whole region of Hoshigakure. Its used mainly in lamps for light and in winter to warm up houses with a heated oil system.''  said the guardian to Isomo, who now hearing that, started to grin again. Now she had another plan in mind. To erase her tracks, the prison had to go. As she realised that, she quickly turned around, and snaped the neck of the complice guard, gripping his head, and pulling until the head would dislodge, taking with it a part of the spine. The now free inmate would scream, mortified of the sudden and mortal gesture, shaking and tripping on his own foot, falling onto the floor. As soon as the deceased body fell, isomo threw it towards the oil barrels, and reached for a lamp on the wall with one hand, grabbing strongly with the other hand the man by the kimono, telling him ''Shut up and follow. NOW.'' in a menacing voice, her face as the guardian now unhinged, revealing clearly that this wasnt a normal guardian of the jail. As she got out of the building, isomo threw the oil lantern into the stockpile of barrels, setting fire to it and the dead body,who, after burning a while, would explode once the flames would make the barrels full of oil heat up enough to burst. This leaved Isomo a few minutes before the chaos and flames would engulf the complex, along with all its inmates and guards. Now walking holding by the neck the man with the hood on his head, Isomo left the place walking, while other guards panicked and tried to stop to no avail the fire inside, unnatentive to the guard escaping with a convict outside of the perimeter and into the depths of the forest. 

---

The flash was immense, radiating like a sun in the darkness of the night, illuminating the light of a thousands fires, probably a sight to see as far as Hoshi itself, where it would appear as a small flash into the distance. The building was on fire, with towering flames so high they even danced and burned higher than the fences themselves, the cackling noise of burning acompanied only by the countless screams of hundred of men burning alive in the infernal pyre, guardian and prisonner alike, united in the roaring hellfire and in pain. As the unconscious man woke up in the arms of a now back to her normal apparance Isomo, only lit up in the darkness of the forrest by the inferno, a red glow showing her horribly monstrous appearance, stood up before the man, her smile all open up in the face of the man, rows of sharp teeths oozing saliva down onto the man, slowly opening in a grin wider and wider, unnaturaly wide for a human normal face. He was mortified, as the monster dragged him deep into the abyss of the night in the forest, far away from the pyre, far away from possible help, far away from anyone attention.

''WHAT IN HEAVEN ARE YOU?! WHAT IS HAPPENING? I NEED TO GET BACK TO MY WI-'' yelled the man in sheer panic discusted and scared to his bones of Isomo, who interupted him.

''Shhhhhh little man, or you will be reunited sooner with your wife than you think! I, am the Undying Demon of the hidden rain, and I killed and ate  your wife and childrens! Now, if you dont want to suffer the same fate, I suggest you give me the location of the treasure you burried, the one you hid away from the family when you were playing the rich merchant!'' said Isomo up in the face of the man in an intimidating way, showing all of her teeths in her demon like appearance. She held onto the man whit her black threads, getting out of under the sewing of her arms and hands, the thread finely sliding along her hands onto the man and twisting around him, ready to crush him and pierce him at any given moment. ''YOU KILLED MY FAMILLY YOU HORRIBLE MONSTER! *sobs* I dont care if you kill me anymore, but NEVER will I give the murderer of my kin the treasure I worked for! You will rot in hell before I will talk, you absolute shi- ARRGGHHHHH'' yelled the man, interupted by isomo ripping his left ear and side skin of his face with her teeths, gnawing horribly at his flesh and pulling it appart from his face. As a way to make him talk, she slowly raised her other free hand, as the other one was gripping the man so he could not escape. With the free hands, she reached onto the wound she just created, still dripping blood with the vivid and beating flesh exposed, and ran her nails trough it, scraping the wound and live nerves with her long and sharps nails, more akin to claws, making the man scream even more in pain, the sensation ripping and scratching into his very being. As he still didnt talk, Isomo knew this man would die in the end, so she would not torture him to make him spare his life, but most likely, she would make him suffer so much that he would succomb and say the information she so much desired just to end his misery and be granted a swift death. Knowing that in her mind, Isomo plunged her fingers into the left eye, still beating and pounding from the pain endured on the same side of his face, and with her nails, pierced and popped the eyeglobe slowly, making it burst and continuing to shove her finger deeper into the bloody socket of the eye, piercing the flesh and almost touching his brain. Isomo knew eyes were sensitives, and make use of it by scraping on the optical nerve, making sure to make him suffer as much as humanely possible.

After a brief silence and lack of moaning, crying and weezing from pain, the man confessed to Isomo, done with his life and incapable of suffering more to keep the location of the stash a secret. ''Urgghhh... please, mercy... please just kill me... the stash is along the road, underneath a pannel pointing to konoha... it... is burried under a triangle rock... killl meeeee-'' ushered in a massacred voice the man, before being shortly interupted by Isomo, who granted him his wish of a swift death, piercing his whole skull and heart at the same time with both her black threads and teeths, ending the life of the poor man. Isomo would then disappear in the abyss of the forest, vanishing in the night like only monster would do. 

---

After a few days of walking, now cleaned of all the mess and looking fresh once again, seeming like a inconspicuous traveller on the road, Isomo walked to the place, slowly and relax, humming along the road, until she arrived at a crossroads, where a sign pointing the way to Konoha was planted. Undeneath it, a big triangle rock. Isomo lifted the rock, and dug out a small chest, full of Ryo, looted it, placed back the rock, and continued her way, this time getting as far away of Hoshi as possible, deeper into the roads, into the unknown. Her path would lead her once again to travel, looking for a place to call home and to worship Jashin.

[EXIT]

reward: 10000 Ryo, 50 AP

TWC: 5500

stats: +55 stats points (51 going to strength: new strength=125   4 going to vigor: new vigor=52)

using 2850 WC to learn Locking Jaws A ranked, 1750 WC to learn Soft Physique modification  and 900 WC going towards Jotun Grip A ranked (900+previous 378 WC accumulated noted from there = 1278/2500 WC)

Approved