Kadoria Senju is a poor MOFO... so he gotta do missions [P]

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Kadoria moved quickly through the clan, hoping to get his mission over with as fast as possible. Why am I doing this? he thought to himself, still grumpy from being woken up so early. The sun had barely risen over the mountain when he had received a scroll telling him that he had to scout the bottom of the mountain to check for any intruders. This hadn't pleased Kadoria, being woken up so early that is. He had planned on relaxing that entire day, but instead he was sent on a mission. Normally, Kadoria wouldn't complain, but this was his day off. Why should he have to do a mission today. But, Kadoria, faithful to his clan, dragged his sorry ass out of bed and suited up for the scouting mission. This was going to be a long day Kadoria had thought. He hoped he was wrong. Kadoria quickly swerved through the clan, making good time too. Kadoria went through the gates of the clan, making sure sure that he told the guard that he was on a mission from the Tsuchikage. The guard just shrugged, and wished him luck as he sat back down and closed his eyes. Pitiful. Kadoria thought as he raced towards the mountain. Guards like him made the entire clan look bad. Kadoria raced to the bottom of the mountain, making sure not to trip and fall. Hey, it had happened before. As Kadoria thought of the incident, he suddenly stopped to a halt. He thought he heard a noise. Kadoria listened very closely for the sound. Kadoria waited and waited and finally, after about a minute, his luck had payed off and he heard the noise again. There was no mistaking it this time. Pebbles were being knocked down from the mountain. Not very stealthy, are you? thought Kadoria, now thinking on what hell they taught in the Academy now. Kadoria focused back on the noise, and jumped towards it. It was coming from higher up, so he jumped across onto some rocks, and jumped up onto the higher path. As he came up on the path, he saw a boy, no older than 14, right in front of him. The boy had his backed turned to Kadoria, so he decided to speak up to let the boy know of his presence. "Hey, who are you? Kadoria said, waiting for an answer. The kid jumped at the sound of Kadoria's voice. He whirled around to face Kadoria, a look of fright in his eyes. Kadoria thought inwardly that this kid was most unfortunate, because the kid had to deal with him. "I'm...I'm..." the kid tried to stammer out, not being very effective at it. Kadoria rolled his eyes, then said,"Hey kid, I don't want to hurt you. Just tell me who you are." The kid sat there, wide-eyed, not saying anything. Kadoria sighed, and released his puppet. The kid's eyes went wider, wondering what jutsu Kadoria was doing, and the kid started to run. The jutsu finished, and Kadoria and the puppet ran after the kid. It was obvious to Kadoria that the kid was not particularly good at much, since he caught up with him very quickly. As the kid turned his head to look at Kadoria, Kadoria used his chakra strings to trip up the kid, he fell flat on his face. Kadoria looked at the kid, disgust starting to show on his face. This kid was knocked out after that? Pfft. Weakness is a cancer. Kadoria thought, showing no remorse towards what he did. He was simply doing his job. But maybe, if my superiors don't kill him, we can make him stronger. Kadoria picked up the kid and put him on his shoulders, carrying him back to the clan. He left his clone their to keep watch.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Total: 626

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

*Knock knock* "Come in." The door to the small mansion (in this case, "small" being comparative to a typical mansion and an ironic description for a home otherwise typically classed) opens tentatively. The person on the outside, Kadoria, is obviously unfamiliar with the area, the home, and the host, making his accepting of being accepted into the mansion unnotably but noticeably delayed. Even the the opening itself, passed the timing, is careful and contempt, too careful to offend for someone capable of taking a knife to someone's throat without a sound. But the door opens politely, and as delayed as the response is the poking out of the introduced Genin's head. It's as if he doesn't mean to impose on where he is called: the rich woman's mansion: the most high-profile mission he's attempted yet. "Hello? Misses Mallworth?" he dares to let his voice enter, vibrating the spacious entry hall occupied of little more than statues and the deafened smell of cleaning products. "Yes, do come in." Obviously Kadoria has waited too long, and Misses Mallworth is disrupted by his hesitation to enter such a grand estate, so he decides it best to either run awkwardly the other way in a non-sequitur dash or to abandon his lack of pride, pretend pretentious, and enter with his chin high and chest out, as if he were three years older. He chooses to enter. "You must be the shinobi they sent....... I was rather hoping for someone older." That's understandable. A woman of this kind of esteem (in wealth) must assume she deserves more, and Kadoria isn't in the business of measuring himself. He just wants to get the job done, and doesn't really care about the manner in which he is addressed-- just how he's de-briefed. "Yes ma'am," the boy answers, hoping apathetically that his northern english accent somehow disguised his lower class, though only to please his client,"about the pickpocketing?" "Yes," Miss Mallsworth answers in an irritated tone. Kadoria wonders whether she is annoyed because of the embarrassing predicament she's in, her husband's money the only thing worth consulting the miniature ninja system of Takigakure for, or because the lowly Genin shouldn't have to confirm his reason for being called for such an embarrassing predicament. It's not his place though, nor is he given time before he is shuffled into a briefing. "It occurred around Heroic Street. Start your search there, and do be careful--" not to get hurt? not to get lost?-- "not to muck it up." Fair enough. Shinobi don't deserve sympathy, or care. Kadoria is strong enough to give it, though. So it is several minutes later that Kadoria is sent to the streets with Barnard: a butler disguised now as an over-dressed middle-classman in a trench-coat. "The misses instructed me to start you on your way, pointing to the general area she thinks the wallet was stolen." He sounds much more condescending and much nicer than his mistress, and Kadoria silently remarks how typical of a name "Barnard" is for a butler. "Thanks, but that won't be necessary," Kadoria says with more assurance than before; this is his realm. These are the streets with people and places and unpredictability: the opposite of the restrictive lifestyle of wealth. The butler Barnard raises an eyebrow. "A pickpocket with the balls to steal from the Mallworth Family doesn't slouch behind the same alley-way every day. He's constantly on the move, always unpredictable. Taking high-profile cash like that and still not being caught means this guy knows what he's doing." It is at this point that Barnard notices his wallet has already been taken and discarded into Kadoria's pocket. "Hey!" he comments in vain. Kadoria starts walking down the street with the rest of the crowd (Takigakure's a small town, but, during the prime hours of a business-day afternoon, a nice crowd buzzes the street with their babble), turning around to toss a peace-sign to the butler. "What can I say: I need enough money to draw this guy's attention!" He jollily makes his way into the crowd, bills and bills of ryo hanging out of his back-pocket. The sound of footsteps hitting the stone road echoed through the area between buildings as Nobu ran down the road. I can't believe I was late... he thought to himself in between breaths. Soon after that thought he found it weird that he was thinking as if he were speaking aloud. His breathing was deep and steady as he turned left down the road next to the sushi shop. There he is, Nobu thought as he gained sight of the butler that he was sent to find. He had previously gone to Misses Mallworth's house to gather information about the mission that he was to begin his genin service with. It was there that she had informed him that another shinobi had already gone out with Barnard to find the pickpocket. This Barnard fellow was standing at the end of Heroic Street shouting about how someone had taken his wallet. ... Isn't this the point of the mission? Nobu asked himself as he approached the butler. "Hey, Misses Mallworth sent me to meet you. Where..." Nobu began, trying to ask where he was wanted to begin his search. "No time! Someone has just stolen my wallet!" Bernard started shouting at the little genin. He pointed down the road, jumping up and down. Nobu craned his neck looking for any sign of someone who might have done it. Looking slightly to the right, he noticed a small boy walking down the street, partially obstructed by the crowd, a pile of bills hanging out of his back pocket. "Got him," Nobu said, and took off running through the crowd. It was a couple seconds before he caught up with the boy. Nobu quickly ran up behind him, and reached his hand out to grab him by the shoulder. "Got you!" The second Nobu touches Kadoria's shoulder is the same second the Senju’s puppet reacts, grabbing the ninja and flipping him around .  Kadoria has been anticipating the pickpocket to make some subtle physical contact with him and has been ready to apprehend him in the same fashion.  However, turning to see the victim of his puppets manhandling, the under-cover ninja sees who his victim actually is. "Oh, it's you," Kadoria speaks passively, recognizing his fellow Genin from the days at the Academy.  He offers a friendly wink, though somewhat disappointed with the broken context.  "The butler should've told you that I was merely baiting the pickpocket with his wad of cash.  I'm not sure why he'd warn you that someone stole his wallet, seeing as I informed him of my intentions and that he knew *I* stole it.  Maybe the butler's just *that* stupid.  Or maybe the topic wasn't written clearly.  Either way, I guess my cover's blown..."  Kadoria's eyes shift to an alleyway on the other side of the street.  His eyes meet that of another's: the dark figure of a hoodlum hooded in a blue hoodie.  Upon making eye-contact, the hoodlum sprints for the fire-escape of a nearby building.  "But so is his," the shinobi deduces with a small smile. "Shall we?" he suggests, nodding to the pickpocket climbing up the clanging steel construct of the building over yonder. His hand barely touched the boy with a wad of cash in his pocket before a large force knocked him back and off his feet. He landed hard on his back, knocking some of the wind out of his lungs. Nobody said that the pickpocket was a jutsu user... he thought to himself just before the boy turned around. It was then that Nobu noticed that the boy wasn't a pickppocket; he was a fellow genin. The other genin that was assigned to the mission, if Nobu had to guess. Maybe the butler did say something about the other boy taking his wallet, or that the boy was using it for bait. All Nobu really heard was that someone had taken his wallet. In times like this, Nobu was kinda short to jump to conclusions. He slowly stood to his feet, regaining his breathing. He was just about to apologize to the boy, whom he still did not know, when Kadoria pointed out the guy who was beginning to climb the fire escape of a nearby building. Nobu looked over and saw their suspect climbing the ladder to the fire escape of a three story building. He was wearing a blue hoodie with the hood pulled above his head, masking him in shadow. "Of course," Nobu said as he turned and began to run after the suspect. The building was somewhat close. Close being two blocks down and across the street from where the two genin were standing. It was only a matter of seconds before Nobu was climbing the ladder, hopefully with Kadoria backing him up. The hooded figure was two floors above the boys before he darted into an open window. Once Nobu reached the top of the ladder, he pulled himself through the hole in the floor and began to run up the stairs. After two half-flights, Nobu looked through the window. "In here," he said to Kadoria, pointing through the window. He moved out of the way, allowing the boy who could knock a man off his feet to go through the window first. Luckily for them, the building appeared to be empty. An old unused factory that was shut down and stripped from its appliances. All that remained in the building now were its walls, some mice, their suspect and soon to be; them. Kadoria dives head-first into the window. Inside, he catches himself with his hands as he rolls to a stand. For a moment, the room is quiet, save for the chirping of the rodents far distinguished from the rustling of a guilty human. The Senju soundlessly activates his puppet, The pickpocket is seen hiding in a neighboring room, keeping quiet as if to throw his pursuers off his track. However, Kadoria knows it would be simple for Nobu to jump into the neighboring room with the element of surprise and apprehend the thief. Without a word, Kadoria motions his finger to the exact location of the pickpocket. With a non-lethal jutsu, Nobu can hop into the next room and end this now. Catching the slight gesture of Kadoria's motion, Nobu realizes that the other genin is trying to tell him that the pickpocket is in the next room. Nobu gave a slight nod, but instead of walking through the other window, he climbed through the window that Kadoria had gone through. How did he know that this guy is over here? Nobu asked himself as he walked into the room. Nobu stood next to the spot where Kadoria had indicated the pickpocket was standing. Just on the other side of the wall, the suspect should be standing. With a quick hand seal, Nobu's right arm turned into a square tree branch. The branch quickly began to extend towards the wall. Just before the wall, the branch split into two branches with a three foot gap in between the two. The branches pierced through the wall, wrapping around the suspect a few times, pinning him to the wall against which he was leaning. The branch broke off of Nobu's arm, leaving his outstretched arm looking normal as ever. Nobu looked over to Kadoria. "Got him," he said, giving a thumbs up. Seeing the success of the captivating capture, Kadoria looks pleased and happy.  He returns the thumbs-up with great approval.  "Nice job, Nobu!" he comments, happy the vandal is caught and surprised he remembers Nobu's name. Later, the pair will confirm that they caught the right person with the proper authorities and will make their way to receive their thanks from Miss Mallsworth.  Hooray!

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

1977 Words

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Just once did Kadoria wish his life was something more, something beyond the normal everyday call of the typical ninja in Land of Fire. Waking up morning, after morning, after morning and seeing the dull grey skies that forever lingered over the top of the clan was becoming an eyesore. Sure he was the kind of kid who loved his leader, his land, his family and his country, but at times it would the boredom that has burrowed deep inside his heart would sometimes rise up and explode. Today was exactly like one of those days and Kadoria could feel it. Lying about his home like a lazy sack of potatoes was going to get him no-where in life and in this case it did not take his father constantly yelling at him to get him out of the house. Without a word to the household he slipped his sandals on and slithered through the front door without even a sound. For Kadoria, the Senju’s family estate was not far from the main government buildings of Land of Fire, a simple two minute walk and he would find himself inside of the room that gave missions out for whoever asked for them. While browsing the faces of passersby while soaking in the rain he could tell that at least the day was just a good one. Everyone seemed to be happy, at least, and that meant that most would leave him alone which in the end was all he wanted. Kadoria always did enjoy his solitude. Inside of the main building people were lined up almost throughout the door waiting for missions to be assigned. Some were complete teams, others were single Shinobi looking for money to feed their families, and whoever were not singled shouldn’t have even bothered in showing up. At times it bugged Kadoria that people lesser than him could even be considered for missions…other ninja that never showed promise during the Academy. Well, whatever, as long as I get the good missions I don’t care! These no-bodies can rot in their hunts for wild animals and lost pets… His thoughts were not exactly the kindness while passing the line and going right through the doors. People who had been waiting for longer periods of time of course gave sour looks but they kept their mouths shut, they knew he was a child of the legendary Senju family, and even a mutter could get them executed on the spot. Kadoria, cutting ahead of everyone, approached the stand where a grown man with a broad structure, jagged face, and rough voice acknowledged that the young boy had arrived. ”You know Senju-kun, it is not a good look to just cut ahead of everyone else…” Kadoria retorted with a scoff, obviously not in one bit sorry that he did. ”The same rotten attitude still there, eh? I thought after the Academy you would straighten up…here, take a mission.” The man handed him a scroll with the appropriated color of a D-Rank which caught the ninja’s attention. ”You must be mistaken Sensei, this is a D-Rank mission…the pay is horrible and they aren’t even hard! You can at LEAST give me a C-Rank!” ”Sorry Senju-kun, it’s the best I can do. Most of the higher ranked Shinobi have been snatching all the good ones. Besides…I hardly think you’re ready.”Responded the man, without even giving Kadoria a second glance. He immediately went on to the next person in line and continued handing out missions while at the same time conversing with the various Shinobi. Kadoria was more-or-less ushered out of the room by the raving crowds of people attempting to get a job. Once again he found himself standing in the halls, a bad expression on his face about what had just occurred back there. ”All you can do my ass… How does anyone expect me to further my grade as a Shinobi if I don’t get any decent jobs that actually require me to try?” With another scoff he ripped the scroll open and began reading the exact details of what was to be done around town before heading out into the streets. In one hand Kadoria carried the incredibly hard tar that would serve as the adhesive for the shingles that would cover the holes. Three houses across the entire clan had the unfortunate chance to lose their roof through unknown means, maybe because of Shinobi always running across the tops or the heavy rainfall constantly pouring down on the poorly constructed buildings. At least some were made out of metal…though if any of the houses WERE metal then fixing it could be a little harder than previously thought. The first house, a small one crowded by taller buildings, was simple enough to fix. Even with the rain the tar seemed to go on fine and remained both on the surface of the roof and sticky, so placing down the rest of the pieces was almost like finishing a puzzle. Moving onto the next one the rain seemed to begin coming down even harder, it was almost hard to see just a couple feet ahead of Kadoria. This wasn’t going to stop him of course. Once given a mission he would climb the highest mountain just to complete it. He was just that kind of Shinobi, one who did anything for his clan at any cost, even if it meant killing innocents and animals. So with a quick jump off the edge of the building he quickly kneaded the chakra into the bottom of his feet and started running up the side of one of the towers. Heading towards the next house, Kadoria was determined to be quick about the whole mission. The next house was only three or four blocks from the first one. Travelling across the rooftops made it an even shorter trip, though it was slowly becoming more dangerous with the heavier rainfall. Kadoria, not paying much attention, arrived at the next building and saw something that was unbelievable. A young girl was on the rooftop attempting to fix the holes by herself. She looked young than Kadoria, no way was she even a Shinobi, and somehow she was standing on the slanted roof with nothing preventing her fall. ”What are you doing!?” Kadoria yelled in hopes to gain her attention over the roaring rain. In a surprising manner her body jolted, as if caught off-guard, and the perfect balance she had faltered the slightest. The weight of her body sent her sliding down the slick shingles and down the rooftops. Nothing was stopping the future accident from happening and even Kadoria, shocked that it was happening so fast, did not make an attempt to catch her. Her small body went over the side and began freefalling down the side of the building, the screams muffled by the rain. ”SHIT!” Kadoria dropped the bucket of tar and threw his hands into a simple hand-seal. The Body Flicker Technique was normally used for short distance travel but this time, for once, it would be used to save a young girls life. He used the technique to teleport behind the girl, wrapping one arm around her waist and using his other hand to grab onto something, anything that was hanging off the edge of the building. He felt his fingertips touch something like a pipe and knew it was now or never, life or death, all depending on this one moment. ”Hold onto me tightly unless you want to die!” He yelled hoping that she would receive the message through the loud rain. She did and he felt her arms a wrap around him tightly, her head resting in the crook of his neck and he could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks. Using the pipe as a tool he gripped it tightly with his hand and arced his body in a sort of swinging motion hoping that the momentum would fling him around. He felt the strain begin tearing at his shoulder, the weight of two humans at such a force of falling would be quite the toll on his body. However his idea succeeded, he swung around and swung full circle around the protruding pipe, landing on the top of it with as much chakra as he could muster into his feet so he’ll stick. The girl, crying loudly now, didn’t even bother to check what had just happened. Kadoria could not believe that this had even occurred in the first place, this sniffling girl that was holding onto his torso for dear life should not have been outside in this weather anyways. Nor on the roof attempting to fix the patches that he was on his way to fix himself. What in the world would drive such a young individual to such extremes? He seemed to just shrug off the whole ordeal without a second thought and jumped up towards the roof of the building while making sure the girl was secured in his arms. Before letting her go he made sure the both of them were on a flat surface so it wouldn’t happen again. He released her tiny body, her feet slumping to the ground as she attempted to gather her emotions. ”What the heck were you doing up here girl? You are far too young to be attempting something as dangerous as this. Damn…now I lost my bucket of tar.”Kadoria said in a scolding tone of voice, hoping the girl would get his message and never attempt something as crazy as that. But when Kadoria looked at her he felt a bit of guilt for not being here sooner. ”I am sorry…” She said, her voice battered by fear from the earlier situation, ”…it’s just my grandpa is sick and the hole is right above his bed. I don’t have parents and he’s the only one who takes care of me now…” The remark made Kadoria wince a little bit, now feeling terrible about what he had said earlier though he still meant it. He turned his gaze towards the tar that she was using on the patch job and knew that he needed to get this done now. ”Sorry…guess I should have been a little faster.” Without another word he grabbed the remaining shingles and quickly went to work fixing the openings on the roof. The girl watched, a bit obsessed by the stranger who had just saved her life and how quickly he finished job. ”There you go. It’s all fixed but the water damage will probably still be there. I need to run though, I have one more house to finish before I am totally done. Again I’m- ”Thank you Shinobi-san! Kadoria was a bit taken back that the girl had so simply interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. However, just looking at the young girl’s face he could see such an expression of gratitude and happiness it made him feel something like a warmth down in his heart. She turned and ran down the stairs to, what Kadoria could assume, was check if the leaks actually stopped and tell her grandpa all about what had happened. Ever since Kadoria had entered the Academy he didn’t smile much, was generally an unhappy and unpleasant child but for the first time in ages he can say that he glad. A smile even stretched across his face before he jumped off the edge of the building and headed to the last house. Far out on the outskirts of the clan is where the third and final house is located and at first Kadoria, the kid on the job, just did not care now. Night was slowly beginning to crawl over the sleepy clanrs that rested below the towering skyscrapers of metal. Even the Moon and stars seemed to fall under the clouds above, like it provided shelter, a blanket of dreams that laid you too sleep at night. The constant downpour was like a beautiful melody that would drift you off to sleep, the allure just too great to simply ignore. As Kadoria stood over the city with a watchful eye as it began dulling it’s senses and begin its journey into night he realized that if he did not hurry his father would end up punishing him for being out late. Why should I care anyways? Were the only words that came to mind as he folded his arms across his chest and began freefalling towards the outskirts of the clan. Landing on the top of the final building he realized that this was the worst of all of them with several holes scattered across the wooden top. Even while he took a single step any remaining shingles seemed too ‘crunch’ underneath the weight of his body, a sign that meant that they were going to break soon, that the whole roof was unstable. Now that Kadoria got a bit of a closer look he could see that the house was abandoned to begin with. Did the people just get so fed up with how at any moment they could all die? Or that the rain bugged them enough to force them to move? There were not many places across Land of Fire that a whole family could move into. Most were already taken up by other, homeless individuals who were just on the edge of life. In all honesty it was a bit sad when seeing the conditions of some of the people in Land of Fire…once a place of its prime and now it’s been reduced to a constant state of poverty. Even when Kadoria thought about it he could hardly believe that the leader cared one bit about the clan. ”We all deserve better…we deserve more.” Deep down Kadoria wanted to run from this place, escape to something out there that would provide a decent living, but he knew he could never just abandon his clan like that. It was precious to him like a gem. A gem out in the desert…a light of hope that gave some people the encouragement they needed. Kadoria knew that if people were going to begin living better, everyone would need to forge a new path together instead of trying to forge their own. However in this world people were selfish, could only think about themselves. Even to a point Kadoria was that way. Throughout the entire career in the Academy he only cared about the advancement of his own and no-one else. Gripping whatever pieces of the roof that seemed battered, bruised, and abused Kadoria went to work tearing the entire place apart. If no-one else would rebuild a better home for a family he would. He would use his own blood and sweat to make a future for at least one family better. Throughout the entire night, before the rain stopped and even after the Sun rose above, Kadoria worked on the roof of the final building in hopes to creating something stronger. He wanted to show the people of Land of Fire that even if he was a spoiled brat he still cared. That unlike everyone else in the world, he was there for them. It wasn’t until after a couple buckets of tar, plenty of wood, shingles and time that the house was complete for a new family to live in. It didn’t exactly look nice but it would keep strong even in the harshest weather. Kadoria soon found himself on the top of the tallest building once again watching the Sun through the abundance of rainclouds. At least for the time being he found himself not in the constant rainfall but the rays of Sun, something that felt warm and pleasant. ”I state here and now…I promise to make Land of Fire a better place. I swear it on my life, my blood as a Senju, and my pride as a Shinobi. Land of Fire will be changed!” The promise was made to no-one in particular but more like a promise to just himself. Afterwards, he rested his head and closed his eyes, and soon drifted off to sleep after the hard day of work. [Mission Finished]

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count 2696

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Kazama intent to help his clan was, well a little lack luster. Several of the missions on the board, were rather drab and boring. He decided the best job would be, ironically guard duty. He had hoped he could slip away and possibly take a nap somewhere, or doze off in a tree. Except, well Land of Fire was hot, being in the summer and all, but the heat was almost unbearable at times. People here drank tea during the day to keep cool. Guard duty in the middle of the day, no thank you. But a job was a job, no matter what, even one such as this. Approaching the guard house, Kazama introduced himself to the Guard Captain, a gruff man, who really was more ninja than anything. He used words like “jib” and “yall” perhaps he was from another part of Land of Fire. Being a Samurai, Kazama was however, at a disadvantage, since he couldn’t use or utilize Ninjutsu in such a way, he was given the gate guard duty. Standing in front of the entrance to Land of Fire, trying to look like well, trying to look menacing, however he was failing. It was the middle of the day, hot as all hell; well hell might be a relief from this unrelenting heat. The ground was white and cracked; all the water has evaporated leaving just salt and some sand. No one was coming during this time, an hour or two passed and Kazama was already dopey eyed. He tried leaning against the wall, but it burned him something fierce. How the heck did Ninja stand for this? Kazama must have nodded off at least 3 times during the next few hours, not a single person, his face sunburned, his hands and arms, sunburned, but the worst of all was the back of his neck. As he stood, it felt like the sun hadn’t even moved. When suddenly someone tapped him on his shoulder, he jumped, startled by it all. Turning around, he saw another pair of guards, ready to take his position. They chuckled a bit, making some references to pathetic Samurai and their ilk. Kazama’s next assignment was to patrol Land of Fire. Patrol, in the middle of the day, which would be so brazen enough as to steal in the middle of the day. In fact, who would be so brazen enough to do anything in the middle of the day? His head hung low, he was mentally tired, from the sun beating down on him, unrelenting for around 6 hours or so, now he was going to walk around. There was no hustle or bustle of Land of Fire, just dead, a few people sitting in some small shops drinking tea, freaking hot tea in the middle of the day, at 500 degrees or whatever bloody temperature was reasonable for Land of Fire during this time of year. His footsteps became dogged; there was a group in front of him, a total of 6 of them walked around the streets. The 5 kept talking, laughing and generally just not paying attention. Not that Kazama paid much attention; he mainly looked at the ground and tried to count the blisters on his feet. The sun had started to go down, he was almost begging for the sweet relief of nightfall. The streets grew busier, shops opened back up, people began their nightly routines. It was an interesting sight all in all; they each had their own ritual. Some put the canvas up first, others wash the stands first, some even prayed first. Kazama tried to find it interesting, but his eyes kept darting to chairs, benches and even some old couches people left out. The sun reached the horizon, and it was time to say goodbye, and good night. The little patrol made its way back to the barracks; Kazama gave a small report, to which the guard captain just laughed. Calling him lazy good for nothing, but he got paid, and being paid was quite nice. Kazama took a quick shower in the barracks and then left for the leaving. A fist full of cash, he somehow felt more energized. Returning home for the night tomorrow was a new day.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count ~709

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

The clang of metal on metal rang through the night air, as Kazamai was slowly pounding on and on his anvil. It was hard, being out in in foreign lands, desperate to make ends meet. Long nights, and cool mornings make it extremely difficult. He wasn't crafting anything in particular, just making sure his tools were as straight as possible. It helped him relax and get a good night sleep. His eyes grew a bit heavy and he stepped back, leaving down on the warm bench, warmed from the last lingers of the furnace. His breath grew slower, he started nodding off, and it must have been around 11 pm, as the sounds of the city had all but faded. At first the neighbors complained about his clanging and banging around at night. They had eventually grown used to it, and some even complimented him and said it helped them fall asleep. It must have been roughly 1 am when the last embers were dying out, with a sudden clash. It sounded exactly like metal pipes and pieces falling to the floor from his shelf. With a sudden jump, Kazamai reached for a sword that wasn't by his side. He never had his swords by his side when he was working the forge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw what appeared to be someone no older than him, snatch something from the middle shelf, tanto's and butcher knives, also bolts and some left over scrapes. Fumbling, still half asleep, Kazamai nearly tripped over his apron, he was using it as a blanket. Grabbing his trusty weapons, he fumbled once again, kicking the apron to the side. The little thief, noticing at the weary shop-keep was up and at-um, started to move out from the shelves and did a small dance around the anvil. Kazamai, coming up to the anvil, also did that little dance, trying to keep the theif in the shop. "Hey, what are you doing. Get the heck out of here. AND PUT THAT BACK" Kazamai wasn't really thinking clearly, this was the first time he's ever been robbed. The thief took off down the street, Kazamai barely made it out of the shop, before the boy was half way down the street. "WHY YOU LITTLE BASTARD", he yelled, taking off after him. It wasn't so much being robbed, but that little prick was so dam fast. Kazamai wasn't going to let this punk beat him, Kazamai was out in a flash, his sort sword like lightning as he was in stride with the thief, slashing out at that stupid punk. Catching both the thief off guard, cutting the cloak around their face, as he slashed away at it. Tumbling backwards, the thief's cloak feel, and it was a that of a woman. Her hair was light brown, her eyes piercing green, as she had a darker features. Kazamai was stunned for a moment, he wasn't expecting to catch like he did, and was even more surprised too see a girl his age, quite a looker as well. Sensing his hesitation, her leg swiped out, and Kazamai landed with a thud. Taking off running again, Kazamai shock quickly wore off, as the thief was ahead of him. Whipping out his scabbard, he caught her legs as she tripped and fell. The small tanto went spiraling into the ground ahead of her. Kazamai was up and snatched it up, as the girl bit the dust. He could hear the guards huffing towards him, yelling stop, thief, hold it right there, it was all mainly just for show. Grabbing the girl up, she looked at Kazamai, her eyes wide and almost tearful. Kazamai just stared at her, as they took her away. A large man came over to check on Kazamai, muttering about no good foreigners, causing all sorts of ruckus in the wee hours.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

~658 Words

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Kazama was walking along the roads of Land of Fire. If he had not lived there, he could have probably got lost on his way to the shucho's office a while ago. Catching an elephant and a rhino will surely be the easiest part! And of course, that was an exaggeration. Who in their right minds would do it anyways? Kazamai knew that he was in his right mind or so he thought he was. Why was he doing this again? Oh right. For a sword that has a titanium blade. Surely, this mission will not be as bloody as B-rank mission since it's a C rank mission anyways and the shucho would not surely wanted to kill him... maybe he'd like to though. Kazamai shook his head at the thought of the shucho wanting to kill him. He cannot die in this mission! He needs to be the strongest samurai ever! But before that... a lot of training must be held by him and also a lot of missions to be a C-Rank. His dark brown orbs suddenly spotted a sudden ruckus going on from... somewhere that he really didn't go at since people are making fun of him on that area. Then he heard a roar... a really loud roar. Kazamai had immediately guessed on what was making all the ruckus and was having second thoughts whether if he should capture it right now or wait until it leaves the area. Another roar, and everyone on the area that was neither too far nor too near from Kazamai had started run away while others are on high places. He heaved a heavy sigh and walked casually to that area as his right hand was tucked inside the pocket of his pants, holding on something. When he was on the place from where the lion was running... in circles. He wondered why and when it immediately saw him, it ran from him and the young Genin swiftly pulled out the yarn of ball from his pocket and threw it to the lion. Lions are cats but bigger. He hoped that the trick will work or else... His soul were lifted high when it worked on the lion, it played on the yarn for a few moments then turned its attention towards Kazamai again. And now... he only have one idea on his mind. Run! And so he did ran away from the lion as fast as he could. He grabbed a raw meat on a grill and was lucky enough that the chef wasn't facing him or he'll get into more trouble. Then as he was still running, he grabbed a fishing rod from a sushi place that was placed outside the sushi stand and hooked the raw meat on the fishing rod. The raven haired genin stopped in his tracks and hoped that his plan will work as he had expected the outcome will be. As the lion was already one meter from him, he jumped on its back and sets himself comfortably on the lion. But the animal was kind of out of control and ran from places to places randomly, trying to get rid off Kazamai from its back but he wouldn't let himself fall down. He used the fishing rod and stirred the pedal so that the raw meat was on the lion's eye level. It started to run to the meat and was attempting to take a bite on it but was actually failing. Kazamai moved the wooden rod to the direction of the zoo until they've reached the place Kazamai lets himself fall sideways on the ground and run away with the raw meat as the lion chased him for the meat. When he had reached its cage, he threw the raw meat, along with the fishing rod, inside the lion's cage then it was locked by some zoo keeper. "That was a lot of effort." He said and was kind of disappointed that he didn't see anyone get eaten, then again that would be pretty gruesome to behold.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

~676 Words

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Exiting the bathroom for the second time today Kazama was ready for another mission, especially one that seemed so easy. All he had to do was find Lady Sanda's wolf puppy and return it to her. Easy as pie, right? Or So Kazama thought. He quickly made his way across the village to Lady Sanda's house and knocked on the door. A bawling lady opened the door, a handkerchief in each hand. "Are you here to help me find my baby?" She sniffled. Kazama nodded in confirmation. "My name is Kazama Ikazuchi and I'm here to help you find your dog." Dropping her snot holsters, she grabbed Kazama by the collar. "HE ISN'T A DOG." She roared, fire in her eyes, then immediately went back to crying. "Just help me find him, please?" Kazama nodded. "Of course. Where did you see him last?" He asked, crossing his arms. "We were down by the market when a man wanted to see him. I let him look at him for a moment, and when I turned around, they were both gone! I think he might be kidnapped but.." She began to bawl again. "Don't worry, I'll find your dog." "HE'S NOT A DOG". Making his way to the market, he began to look around for clues. The Wolf pup had to be close. Whoever took him didn't go very far, they couldn't have, she was there just this morning. Kazama began to ask around, showing a picture of the dog/wolf. Apparently who ever took him didn't try to be stealthy about it, seeing as how just about every shop keep had seen a man with a dog running through the streets. It wasn't hard to find out his location, and evenutally, Kazama tracked the man to a house towards the edge of the village. Knocking on the door, there was no reply. "Anybody home? This is.. err.. The mail man." Geez that was lame "GO AWAY." He heard from the otherside, and shortly after, a yelp. That was all the proof Kazama needed. "And I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll KICK YOUR DAMN DOOR DOWN" Kazama yelled. He really had to stop hanging out around the Nobu. Bringing his leg up, he kicked the door, which was less of a door and more of just a lot of splinters held together by duct tape. It exploded and the man screamed like a little girl, cowering against the rain of splinters to come. The dog was in a cage, behind a corner near the door. "Now, why did you take this dog?" "IT'S A WOLF". the man yelled. Shrugging, Kazama quickly sped towards the man, jumping and roundhouse kicking him, sending him through the wall behind him, which just happened to be covered in animal activist posters. Kazama knew that where there was one of these loonies, there was many. Picking the dog up, he held it in his arms. The dog licked his face and barked. Kazama guessed that it liked him. "Sansaro?!" He heard a voice from upstairs yell, followed by what sounded like many, many foot steps. "Welp, time to get out of here buddy." Kazama said into the dog's ear, met with more slobber and a bark. Kazama exited through the door, taking a quick left and sprinting down the street. There was no way that those fools would know which direction he went and he was too fast for them to catch up. The dog seemed to enjoy the running though, barking almost every damned step of the way. How could that lady deal with this? He figured it was a blessing he was taken by those crazies. But, he had a mission to complete and complete it he would do. They made their way to her home, together. The rest of the trip went rather easily and the duo avoided more animal activists pretty easily, seeing as the only thing they were armed with was farming equipment and pointy vegetables. Idiots. But, they two made their way back to the Lady's house, and once there, Kazama let the dog down, where it began to run circles around him and bark. Kazama knocked on her door, and she opened it almost instantaneously. "YOU FOUND MY LITTLE BABY." She yelled, throwing her arms up in glee, then picking the dog up and kissing it. Smiling, Kazama did enjoy seeing people happy, even if it was creepy dog kissing ladies. "Yeah, you might want to give him a little bit more protection, seems there some crazy guys out there who don't want you to have him. But no worries, I dispersed them pretty easily, so they shouldn't bother you for a while. I'm glad your dog is safe." "HE ISN'T A DOG HE'S A WOLF". Okay.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count ~799

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

Kazama sat in the shadow of Land of Fire's market street, wrapped in his cloak as he cradled an acoustic guitar in his lap. His deft fingers danced across the neck of the instrument as he plucked away a flamenco-style melody. It was around mid day and his notes were permeating through the small crowd that moved up and down the street. Every now and then someone would pass close by and toss a few coins his way, forming a scattered pile at his side. At first he'd been a bit surprised by the gesture, he didn't have anything set out to make it look like he was begging but people just kinda assumed it when they saw him sitting on the curb. Having been sitting out for over an hour now, he didn't pay them any mind though, just letting the money accumulate around him without a thought. In this case, the charity of Compound's people was still helping him though, it made him seem less out of place. He wasn't there for money, he was there for a job. The merchants of the city had submitted some complaints about a small band of people that were trying to extort money from them. To his understanding they weren't exactly very good at it, but it was probably for the best to take care of them before they figured out how the game worked. His job here was simple, he just had to... convince them to give it up. And that brought him to his current situation. Even as he continued to play, his cold gaze kept shifting around, looking for any sign of his targets. The reports said that they never tried anything when they saw a shinobi nearby, so he had decided to try to hide in plain sight. No one ever paid beggars any mind if they didn't have coin to give. As time went on, the crowds began to thin out and Kazama shifted into a more sombre tune that Ivan had taught him back at the Sandpit. Apparently it was a song about a man who returned home after a war to find it destroyed, a sad story that tended to evoke powerful imagery when performed properly. There were lyrics that went with it, but the boy had a hard enough time finding his voice for normal conversation, singing was a bit beyond him for now. Besides, he liked the guitar melody just fine on its own. Nearing the end of the song, he noticed a group of four people turn onto the market street, glancing about suspiciously as they walked down towards one of the stalls. As he hoped, they passed him right by, not even offering a second glance as he kept playing. His cold blue eyes leveled on the group, letting his fingers keep working purely on muscle memory through the last few phrases. They approached a stall a little ways down the street, a merchant that was busy starting to pack some of his goods away for the day. Kazama had gathered that the man was selling some metal crafts; bracelets, chains, and such. The merchant was in the middle of hefting a box onto the top of a cart when the youths sidled up to his stall. When the man turned around and saw them his expression immediately changed to one of exasperation. "Oh great, not you lot again. Can't you see I'm busy here? Go bugger off will you?" The apparent leader of the group slipped behind the counter and stared the man down. "Oh I don't think so, we're serious this time. You made us look like fools last time, but now we're going to get what's owed to us." The merchant didn't seem at all phased by the threat, turning away to load another box into his cart. "Last time you brats ran off with your tails tucked between your legs as soon as a chuunin came 'round the corner. Why should I think this time will be any different?" "Because, like I said, this time we're serious." The leader made a gesture with his head towards one of the others. The man in question reached out for one of the merchant's displays and gave a forceful tug, ripping it from its stand and throwing the goods out across the sand. Kazama plucked his final note just after the clash rang out down the street, drawing it out for a moment before setting his guitar aside. There was no longer any shadow of a doubt that these were his targets, which meant it was time to get to work. The merchant's expression shifted more towards anger than any sort of fear. "Well great, I hope you know you'll be paying for all of those now." One of the three on the other side of the stall chuckled at his response. "No, you'll be paying us. Don't you get it? Look around, do you see anyone coming to help this time? You're going to give us what we came for." Kazama chose that moment to tap on the kid's shoulder, amused slightly at his poor choice of words. "Huh?" He spun around to see the boys emotionless visage gazing up at him, pausing in confusion just long enough for Kazama to throw a kick into the side of the man's head. The hard impact sent him spinning back through the air, landing face down in the sand a few feet away. The other three all turned to face him, just as surprised as the other had been about his sudden appearance. The leader stepped back around the cart, an indignant look in his eyes. "Who the hell are you?" Kazama just shrugged, gazing out from beneath his hood. His headband was hidden beneath the thick fabric, so there was nothing to immediately identify him as a shinobi. The kid continued to approach until he was just a foot or two away, looking down at Kazama's blank face with fire in his eyes. The man he'd hit was already scrambling to his feet, his cheek slightly swollen. "You know what? I don't care. Do you really think you can just walk over here and hit one of my friends? Allow me to return the favor." The leader reared back and threw a punch at him, but to Kazama's eyes it was so horribly telegraphed that it could barely be called a threat. He shifted to the side just enough to clear the boy's fist then threw a jab into the center of his face before grabbing his extended arm and throwing him into the center of the street. The boy managed to stop himself from falling, but as he spun around he revealed a fresh stream of blood that was trickling down his face from his nose. "What the hell are you lot doing? Get him!" Kazama's nearest foe made a rush at him, but the shinobi diverted the strike in a similar fashion to the previous one, throwing the boy into his leader with little difficulty. As the two tumbled to the ground in a heap, his two remaining foes drew knives from their pockets and advanced at the same time. Though they were armed, they seemed to air much more on the side of caution than their comrades. After they closed the distance, they struck out one at a time with their weapons in an attempt to keep the genin on the defensive. It was a perfectly fine tactic, but they still didn't really have much training. Kazama danced around their blades, purposefully leading them away from the merchant's stall while he bought some time until one of them made a mistake. One of the pair hesitated for a moment after the other finished a strike, leaving his friend open just long enough for him to take advantage of. Kazama ripped off his cloak and threw it at the boy who had hesitated before shifting to the other. He grabbed the boy by the wrist and twisted violently as he stepped in closer. He hyper-extended the boy's arm before dropping an elbow directly onto the joint. A sickening crack filled the air as the arm bent back at an unnatural angle, the boy collapsing to the ground as he let out a pained scream. Kazama kicked the knife he dropped to the other side of the street then moved in on the kid who was struggling to get free of his cloak. He grabbed hold of the fabric and pulled it away, coming face to face with the boy with the swollen cheek. He locked eyes for just a moment before swinging forward and headbutting him directly in the face. As he stumbled back, clutching at his head, Kazama had a brief moment of rest. Without his cloak on, his pale, scarred skin was exposed to the harsh sunlight. He immediately noted how uncomfortable it felt, but hoped that this wouldn't last long enough for it to be an issue. As the first two untangled from each other and climbed back to their feet, the leader took note of the headband that Kazama had tied around his arm. He could see the conflict in the boy's eyes, weighing his own safety with that of his pride. As he looked to the whimpering boy at Kazama's side, it seemed his self preservation was winning out. "Shit, run!" A thin smile cracked through Kazama's usual mask as the three that were still standing started to run. His job wasn't to chase them off, it was to make sure they gave up, so he wasn't allowed to just let them run off. Before they made it ten feet, he'd channeled a mass of chakra to his sword and swung. Unaccustomed to such a swift attack and running as fast as he could, the leader of the group lost his legs and fell face-first onto the ground. Another soon joined him, but the third had managed to stay upright by slowing to a crawl. The shinobi wasted no time in putting the implement to work, lashing out at the last man standing. The chain tore through the air before it found the boy's leg, wrapping his foot in its cold embrace. Kazama delivered a kick against his target's momentum, striking him hard in the face for the third and final time. The impact spun him about on the frictionless surface, eventually bringing him to rest against the wall of a building, out cold. They were just starting to regain their balance when he reached them, the sun casting his shadow over the pair despite his small stature. With panic in his eyes, the leader of the group did the only thing he could think of and rushed him. Though it was just as obvious as before, the genin didn't try to dodge this time, his smile widening just before the boy's fist made contact. He was engulfed in a cloud of smoke at the moment of impact, the attack striking a form in the center of the smokescreen. It took a moment for the dust to clear, but when it did Kazama was still standing there, or at least he appeared to be. The leader of the kids bit into his lip, tears forming at the edges of his eyes at the pain that shot through his arm. He imagined the boy felt like he'd just punched a concrete wall right about now, recalling how much it hurt when the clone had punched him during his training. The boy stood frozen in place for a few more seconds until his resolve finally gave out, crumpling back to the ground as he clutched at his hand. The kid beside him decided to try to make a break for it again, but Kazama would have none of that. He lashed out with his chain from the rooftops, rebounding it against the ground so that it wrapped around his target's torso and pinned down his arms. After using his chakra to direct it around several times, he hopped over the edge of the building and hooked the chain over a flagpole on his way down. Using the pole as a fulcrum, his momentum lifted the boy into the air, dangling him several feet above the ground. The bound youth continued to shout and struggle, but he ignored it, turning instead to the one that had been leading the band. He knelt down to eye level, the boy still cradling his injured hand. Kazama doubted that it was broken, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. His spirit broken, the kid just stared at him, a mixture of anger, fear, and indignation in his eyes. The genin answered back with his normal hard gaze. "Done?" "What the hell does it look like?" The boy spit back, gesturing to his injuries. Kazama shook his head. "Not that. Done bothering people?" "Why the hell does it even matter? Even if I did its not like anyone takes me seriously." "It's dangerous." "Like you even care! Look what you did to us, why should I think you're the least bit concerned?" Kazama's eyes hardened. He made sure he had the boy's undivided attention, a pulse of chakra producing a gust of wind from his wrist that he put to the kid's neck. He stared directly into his eyes, almost as if daring him to try to look away. "I could kill you." He let the words hang in the air for what felt like a short eternity before the blade withdrew back into his arm. "I didn't, You're lucky. Understand?" The boy didn't respond, simply nodding his head up and down several times. Kazama stood back up and turned away, walking back towards the merchant that the boys had accosted. "Good. Go to sleep." "...but-" He went over to retrieve his guitar and strapped it to his back before gathering up all the coins that were laying around. After stopping to throw his cloak back on, he returned to the metal merchant, who looked on with a slightly concerned expression. "All done." "Yes, I can see that... you might have overdone it a little, but I guess the message is more likely to stick this way... so... good work?" Kazama shrugged then tossed the man the sack of coins he had collected. "Cover losses, right?" The man didn't seem to understand his meaning, so he made a gesture towards the crafts that had been scattered across the sands. "Oh, right. Why thank you, that's rather generous. Feel free to take anything you like." He cocked his head to the side for a moment then nodded, turning to the displays that were still left out. His eyes scanned across them until he found something he liked, a round pendant stylized with a drawing of a white wolf. "That one." He pointed it out to the merchant, who opened up the case and retrieved it for him. "Ah yes, a fine pick. Here you are." Kazama took the pendant and immediately put it on before giving the man a quick bow and starting down the street. The post wasn't far so his clone was on its third trip. He figured he might as well help out, grabbing the last unconscious kid and dragging him down to the guard post to report a job done.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count 2566

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

The trees around Kazama shifted as he crawled forward, his body half covered by the loose leaves.. He held his breath, not daring to make a sound as a group of six or so men came around a large outcropping of rock and into view. They had appeared so suddenly, barely giving the boy enough time to hit the dirt before they were upon him. As stealthily as he could, he shifted into the shadow of a nearby rock and adjusted his hood to hide his face. He couldn't afford to be spotted, not now. So he lay completely still in the trees, wrapped in a cloak different than his usual attire. This one was designed as camouflage, colored the same as the dunes around him with the outside covered by a thin layer of trees. Sure it was heavier than normal, but its effectiveness could not be questioned. He peered out of a tiny gap between the fabric of his hood and the trees, vision slightly warped by a pair of goggles that he wore to protect his eyes in the forest. He counted six men, all armed with various forms of weaponry: some had swords, one had an axe, one was completely covered with knives, and another just had a pair of bulky gauntlets covering his fists. The most important detail to him however, was the red bandannas that they all wore somewhere on there bodies. He watched as the dawdled about for a minute or two, a seventh man joining the rest. He had messy black hair and a pike strapped to his back, the others seemed to greet him with disdain. "What are you doing here? " As the man turned Kazama could see his eyes were sharp, brown orbs that seemed to have constant motion. He could tell from a glance that the man was schemer, the fact that he couldn't hide it a testament to either inexperience or ego. He reminded Kazama of a snake. When he responded to the man, his voice held a higher mocking tone to it. "Me? Why I'm here to make sure you lot don't make a disgrace of us. I happened to be nearby when you made a visit into the village back there." The man shook his head and clicked his tongue. "I must say, sloppy job. You left a few alive." The rest of the men visibly tensed as he spoke. "Its a good thing I was there to clean up after you, isn't it? You should be praising me honestly, but luckily I'm above all that. You're gratitude is enough for me." The man who had spoken up first just shook his head and started walking again/ "You still talk too much, Nas, and I still don't like you." Kazama tensed slightly as the group moved towards him, Nas standing in place for a moment with his arms out before following. "Oh, you wound me Gregor. What would Cleaver say if he knew you were treating the man that fixed your mistakes with such disdain." The lead man kept moving, passing within a few feet of where the genin lay. "He'd tell me to deal with our 'work place disturbances' in the normal fashion. Is that a place you want to go Nas?" There was no answer from the other man. "...Yeah, I didn't think so. Lets get moving, we've got alot of ground to cover to get back to base by nightfall." Lucky for Kazama, it seemed that the exchange had distracted them enough that they hadn't noticed him. The group kept moving past him and along the edge of the great rock plateau that rose out of the forest to his side. The boy lay motionless until they had disappeared around the edge of the rock face, finally letting himself breath normally as he climbed back to his feet. The bandannas identified the group as members of the Chimeras, a group of raiders that had been becoming more active as of late: his targets. The village council had retrieved a tip that the Chimeras were gearing up for some sort of large scale operation, one that might even target Land of Fire itself. His job wasn't to deal with them, just to act as a scout and learn whatever he could about their movements, to confirm or disprove the information that was given to the village. Kazama had been combing the forest for three days before he finally happened upon them, as close of a call as it might have been. He was told that stealth was paramount in this mission. If the group had spotted him, he would have had to try to kill them all and start over from scratch, which was easier said than done because of the fairly large number of missing-nin the Chimeras had among their ranks. Still, it seemed luck was on his side, not only had he avoided detection, but had also found a party that was heading back to their headquarters. All he had to do was follow them back and report what he saw. Once again, it was easier said than done, but it was better than another few days of searching by himself. Deciding the best plan was to follow them from the high ground, Kazama immediately went to work scaling the cliff face of the plateau. He was traveling very light, just enough rations for a week of bare bones subsistence, and a handful of shinobi tools. He didn't even have his scythe with him since it would have been too hard to keep concealed as he moved around. The metal was just as likely to catch the sun and alert someone to his presence, so he just left it behind: if everything went south he could always just run away and try again the next night. After reaching the top of the cliff, Kazama raced after his targets, footsteps light and silent against the flat rocky surface. It didn't take long for him to catch up,the band was moving at a fairly slow pace. He peeked over the edge once to confirm their location, then ducked back over the rock. If he just had to track these people, he could do it by sound. And so the boy crept along the cliff above his targets, tracking their movement through the sound of footsteps of their idly conversation. It was a slow process to be sure, but it wasn't like there was a way to speed things up. Minutes soon turned to hours, the group passing the time by talking about this or that. From what he could gather, they had just finished raiding an outlying settlement a few hours before. They had seized as many supplies as they could, transferred them to another unit, and were currently on their way back. If the man named Naz was telling the truth, not a single soul had been left alive at the village. Occasionally they would let slip some information about their recent movements and Kazama would take notes on his pad. As it was his primary job here, he also kept a tally of how many combatants the group had, the count currently holding at seven. Eventually the group came to an opening in the rock face, the plateau opening up into a maze of canyons. They hung around the opening for a moment or two before turning into the labyrinth. Kazama noted the location on a map he had with him and waited until it was clear to jump the gap to the other side of the canyon. He took note of each path they took, charting out the maze as he went. At one point the group crossed paths with another that was on their way out before stopping in a sizable chamber to take a break. Kazama noted the ten people in the second group before taking up a position over looking their resting spot. After about ten minutes, he had started to get bored of just waiting, so he flipped to another page in his sketchpad and started to draw what he could see. The leader of the company, the one named Gregor, looked like a viking of old, long red hair that streamed into a lengthy beard that was well kept despite the harsh environment of the forest. He even had a battle axe lashed to his back to complete the image. Kazama wondered if he did it on purpose, or if that's just how things turned out. Though he wasn't great at portraits, he did his best to capture the man's likeness, sketching out the make-shift camp around them too. They had quite a decent haul for the size of their company, each man carrying a sizable satchel that were all currently stacked in a pile. He could see a bunch of provisions in one, another completely full of water stocks, and another stuffed full of various weaponry and ammunition. He could only assume these were left over from the village raid, whatever they couldn't pass off to the other group they'd met with. As he paused to take a drink from his canteen, Kazama noticed that one of the members was missing, he was only coming up with a count of six. As first he wondered if they were just standing under him, his perch was quite high up after all, or maybe they had gone off with the second group, though he hadn't noticed such a thing. As he pondered the situation, he suddenly became aware of someone's breathing behind him. "Why, what have we hear? I thought I smelled a rat, the guys will get a real kick out of this." His muscles tensed, frozen in spot for a moment before slowly turning around. Nas' lean figure loomed over him, his eyes full of glee as he raised a finger to his mouth, signaling the boy to keep quiet. He slinked closer, pike pointed at Kazama's chest. The genin mentally cursed his carelessness, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. Nas snickered under his breath, reaching out to pluck the sketchpad from the boy's hand. "How long have you been trailing us, little rat?" He just gave the man an icy stare, one eye peering out from beneath his bangs. Nas shrugged, flipping through the pad with an amused smile on his face. "Quite the artist aren't you? I can understand wanting to draw someone as glorious as myself, but you could have just asked you know. Either way, I think I'll be keeping this." He snapped it shut and made a gesture with his weapon. "Get up." Kazama did as instructed, slowly rising and taking a step forward so that he wouldn't be visible from below. "Move, you're going to get me a pretty penny when I give you to cleaver." He swept sideways with the point of the pike to punctuate his words. The boy just stared back, unmoving. Nas scowled. "I said move, we're going to go meet some new people." He held his ground, tilting his head to the side as if asking a question. Nas cocked an eyebrow at the gesture. "What, are you shy or something? I guess I can understand, I am quite the-" Kazama took advantage of his hot air to suddenly strike out, one hand grabbing the haft of the man's spear as he stepped into his guard. He planted his elbow squarely on the man's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him before shifting to an uppercut. As his fist connected with the man's chin, he sent a pulse of chakra through his arm, the force in his skin expanding out into a small gust of wind from his wrist. The wind expanded up through his skull, a bit of grey matter escaping as it cleared the cranium. Kazama held it there for a brief moment, lowering Nas to the ground before ripping his arm back violently. He glared down at the corpse, the blood stained blade had broken off and was lodged in place, freezing any blood in place before it could drain out. "Talk too much." Within the span of two seconds, the man's world had completely turned on him. Kazama wondered if he had even seen it coming, though his attitude seemed to suggest the thought of failure had never even occurred to him. Regardless, Kazama take his sketchbook back, setting it off to the side before he went to work stripping the man's cloak and bandanna. Whether he knew it or not, the snake had helped the shinobi out. He switched out his cloak for the one Nas had been wearing, cutting a bit off the bottom with a kunai to make sure it wouldn't trail along the ground. After tying the bandanna around his neck, he returned to his perch above the Chimera's camp and removed a tally from his notes. At least from a distance, he could pass as one of their number, something that would come in handy once they actually reached the camp. As the group packed up and got ready to start moving again, Kazama heard one of them ask about Nas. Gregor just kinda grumbled. "Probably slunk off somewhere, Honestly I couldn't care less. Come on, lets go." Kazama sprinted from cover, a glint of steel appearing in his hand an instant before he lashed out. This was his best chance, he had to take it. The kunai in his hand found its mark, digging into the flesh of his target's neck before the boy rolled backwards, carrying the fresh corpse with him to the ground. He pressed himself down flat as a bright light washed over him, continuing to pass by without incident. He let out a breath that he had been holding in, shifting the body behind the nearest rock before finally climbing back to his feet. The sky was dark, night having come just before the band he was tracking arrived at their main camp: a mass of tents and wagons set up in a great bowl shaped chamber in the center of the plateau. The security had gotten much tighter as he made the final approach: guards stationed atop the cliff, regular patrols, and search lights that constantly scanned over the camp perimeter. Kazama had been in hiding for nearly an hour, just waiting for a chance to take up a position. The timing was incredibly narrow, having to make it between all of the different moving parts. He eventually decided he wouldn't be able to get by without taking one of the guards out. So he waited until a shift change the timed his strike between the spotlight's search pattern. It had been a bit of a gamble, but it seemed to have paid off. He stood up straight as the spotlight washed past again, its path still uninterrupted. Because he'd stolen the bandit's clothes earlier, he could simply take the place of the guard he killed and no one would give him a second glance as long as he didn't make a scene. Kazama stood in place, waiting for the next searchlight pass before getting to work. He flipped out his book and immediately started taking down notes of what he saw. The camp was actually quite massive, much larger than originally estimated at least. Luckily for him, it was quite well lit even in the darkness, torches and other light sources scattered about. He counted 31 guards in total patrolling the outer wall and 10 more operating the lights. The camp itself consisted of upwards of thirty large tents and as many as seventy smaller ones. His eyes scanned back and forth over the tents, trying to take measure of how many people he could see. It was hard for him to keep track of all the movement, but he counted over a hundred, a bit worrying considering how many were probably out of sight. He made a quick sketch of the camp layout, noting which tents the Chimeras were busy loading supplies and cargo inside of. The mess tent was easy to identify, but the weapon and ammunition stores took a bit longer. He traced patrol routes he could see, marking the light patterns as well. Soon enough his map was a cluttered mass of annotations and dotted lines, the boy trying to economize on his space as much as possible. As he was marking what he deduced to be the main sleeping quarters, he caught sight of something that seemed a bit out of place. While bandits had a tendency to kind of shamble about and generally act like commoners, Kazama saw a very different sort of man. He carried himself like nobility, an almost regal air about him. He did not mingle with the others, but walk through them, everyone parting from his path the instant they noticed him. Even from as far away as he was, Kazama could hear the man's voice, hard like steel and commanding in tone as he addressed those around him. If ever there were to exist a king of bandits, the man was him. As the thought occurred to Kazama, he flipped to the next page of his notebook and started drawing the man, sharp eyes trying to catch as much detail as possible. He was a man of stature, tall with a cleaned shaved head that had a pair of scars wrapping down from the top of his head to his right cheek. His features were hard, as if sculpted, including an rather impressive jawline. He wore light metal armor, plain in design but clearly well made. A broadsword was strapped to his back, the blade about three inches wide. Most importantly though, was the shinobi headband that was hung loosely around his neck. Kazama couldn't make out what symbol was on it from where he stood, but the light that reflected off it revealed a deep groove down the center; the mark of a missing-nin. He might not of known wear the man was from, but someone at the village would. He flipped back through his notes before turning back to picture just after he finished, labeling it with the name he heard Nas use earlier. Cleaver. Kazama took another few minutes to grab whatever other information he could manage, his sketchbook more full of words than pictures at this point. As he closed the pad and slipped it into his vest, his gaze lingered on Cleaver for a bit longer. Something about the man seemed familiar to him, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. As the searchlight passed over him, he could have sworn the man's eyes found him, staring into his own for that briefest of moments. Cleaver lingered on the spot but by the next time the light came around, Kazama was already gone. He had all the information he was going to get, and he didn't like what he had seen at all. Whoever the missing-nin was, he had gathered quite the host behind him, and the arsenal made it look like they were gearing up for war. Kazama dashed across the top of the plateau, slipping his camouflaged cloak on as he moved. He'd stopped by Nas' corpse on the way to swap out his disguise for the thing's he'd stashed away on the trip in. Since he had been studying the patrol paths for so long, slipping through the line on his way out was much easier than the infiltration had been. Now that he was out, there was no one to get in his way, just a shadow passing through the night. As he moved along, he wondered just how the village was going to deal with the veritable army he stumbled across. He guessed the best way to deal with it would probably be to try to assassinate the leader, this Cleaver. Bandits were bandits, and if no one was there to hold them together they'd likely just fall to pieces bickering with each other. There would probably be a new mission when posted after he made his report, though he definitely want to be the one to do it. Who ever tried to take down that man would likely have a hell of a fight on their hands. As Kazama reached the end of the plateau, he launched himself over the edge and into the treess below. A cloud of dust rose up around him, but he didn't stop moving, still going at full speed in an attempt to clear the area as fast as possible. After a few minutes of running, he began to slow down considerably, the exertion of trudging through the trees finally catching up with him. He slowed to a walk and used the stars above to adjust his path towards Land of Fire. As much as he would have liked to just go to bed, duty demanded he get back to the village with his information as soon as he could. Even still, the cold winds of the forest tore at him almost as if to deter his course. It was going to be a long walk home.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count 3532

Spoiler:

Forest Demon

"Damn kids," the black haired Samurai would utter as he noticed some of the graffiti that the local kids have been spraying all over the place. These things were all over the place and his mission was to clean them up. With haste Kazama completed his other assignment and then he headed out to get paint, brushes and cleaning tools so that he could clean up this mess. Since he started the last mission first, he was also able to finish it first and thus it was up to him to prepare the stuff that was needed for the mission. Luckily his parents renovated recently and thus they had some paint left from that time. Getting cleaning products was not so hard either, his mother was willing to share some as she knew that he could not afford buying any. Kazama was basically doing this mission alone while his partner did the delivery, they would go onto the next mission right afterwards. Anyways, with his cleaning products and paint ready for action, the young black haired Samurai known as Kazama would start his assignment. Since he found himself coming right next to a graffiti, he decided to take care of that one first and then go look for some more. It was a simple yet hard one to clean. Based on what he could observe, the black haired young male realized that this was not something he could clean with simple cleaning products. Nope, only white paint could help him with something like this. The walls on which these things were painted on were white so it was only natural for him to simply paint them with white color. Then again, the only kind of color that Cid had was white so that was the only thing he could do about it. Buying paint was not an expense covered by the mission so he had to obtain it on his own. Since all he was given was this damn white stuff, that was all he could use. Up and down, up and down, the brush would move. The young black haired Samurai male known as Cid would move that brush and with each stroke he would get closer and closer to the goal at had. The bucket which contained the paint would get emptier with each passing moment as the young black haired male would as quickly as possible cover the graffiti with it. It would not take him too long before he was done with the first one, the one that made him put quite the effort into it. The other ones were not so large as this first one and with each passing one he would need less and less effort to completely cover them with white paint. Soon enough the bucket that was once rather heavy would feel so light and he would no longer need much effort to carry it around. After a couple more of them it was completely emptied and the young black haired male was sorta confused as to how he managed to spend it up so quickly. The black haired Samurai was in luck, even though he had spent the whole bucket of paint, there were still some nice people who lived in the area that offered him their own paint. These older folks also invited him to their house, which he had to refuse since he was in a rush to complete this mission. They were rather sad about it, but they understood how important was this to the young samurai. He was still a rookie who needed to prove himself by completing such boring tasks. Either way, after he had finally gotten some more paint he would go back to using it in order to cover the graffiti. The young black haired male noticed that there were only a few left and he realized that this would all be over soon. That actually gave him more motivation and once more the brush moved, covering more and more graffiti with each stroke. Eventually they were all gone and the Samurai boy was able to return the stuff he borrowed and head to the meeting place.

Clan Senju Strength: 75 Speed: 443 Endurance: 138 Chakra: 569 Life Force: 150

Word Count 694

Spoiler:

After spending some time in the hospital due to a disease that was discovered while doing a simple check up, Kazama was finally back in action. Since it's been so long since he last did something as a shinobi, the young gold-eyed boy decided that he should do a couple of easy missions first and then start doing the more interesting and deadlier stuff. The set of missions which he had in mind were all C-Ranked and quite simple to do. The amount of money which he got from doing them was quite low and he didn't like it, but he currently wasn't in the condition to do missions that were a bit dangerous since his body was still adapting after going through a serious disease.

"Catching owls, this should be simple enough." the boy would utter as he looked around the streets in the hopes of finding at least one of the owls that escaped. Since owls weren't a common thing in his clan he easily spotted three that were standing on the branches of a tree. Quickly he would reach him by sprinting and then he would attempt to capture them by simply jumping towards them. However, the moment they noticed them, all three of them flew into the air and he ended up hitting the tree branch with his middle torso. With anger the boy would utter: "Come back here you silly birds."

Naturally, they wouldn't do so. But, this little stunt was not something the young Kazama liked so he would place his hand into the pouch that held his iron sand and then he would magnetize it. Out of a sudden a stream of iron sand would be released and it would be used to swirl around the three owls and grab them with ease. The boy would grin as he moved the sand with the owls towards himself. "Well, that takes care of that. I still gotta catch quite a few of them, but with this method it should be easy."

Once again he would look around and then he would find a tree with seven more owls that did not spot him doing mean things to the other three. The three that he caught before, he would leave them next to the tree where he found them, surrounded in iron sand that made it impossible for them to even move. They were bound by the sand that came from one of the pouches that he had which contained the iron sand. After he caught them, he would take a portion of the sand that he did not need to use to bind them and then he would return it to the pouch since he needed it to catch the other owls. "Lets do this just like before."

With that said he wold use the remaining sand from before and add in the sand from one of the other pouches, thus having a large amount of sand gathered in one place. He would then send all that sand towards the owls that were resting in the tree. Unlike before, when he just recklessly attacked, this time he would lift the sand into the air and then he would just make it fall onto them. While falling, strands of it would be gathered on the bodies of the owls which were annoyed as they had no idea what was going on. However, then he would just use it to form wire that would wrap around them. With that done he would gather them together with the two that he caught before and then he would take them to one of the people from the hospital so that they would be taken away.

"Well, that takes care of that, I still need to do some more easy missions." Now that his mission was done he would return all the sand to his pouches and then he would leave.

650

Spoiler:

Sweet morning in Land of Fire, a nice day to walk in peace be with friends and do some training. Kazama walked around the clan in this beautiful morning as he looked at the sky and smiled to himself. "What a beautiful day, look at the sky so blue and white it's just so delightful" Kazama talked to himself as he kept walking down to the Hospital to look for medicines. Kazama gets to the hospital and enters the hospital talking to the lady in the counter about his description, as the lady calls the nurse. "Yes can assist you young ninja" the nurse says to Kazama "yes I need some medicines and they told me to go to the hospital and get them" Kazama says as he feels in a good mood as he felt like doing a mission that for some reason that the medicines wasn't there so he can get them. Kazama was day dreaming as the nurse ran back and told him that someone stole the medicines, Kazama looked at her and grind "can you tell me how he looked like?" Kazama asked to the nurse "he was tall and had a black and red mask withs a black cloak that covered him completely" the nurse said as she told him if he finds the guy to stop him and get the medicines back and he'll get a gift for that.

Kazama gladly accepted that mission as he was so happy from the inside but serious from the outside. Kazama left the hospital as he looked up at the hospital and saw a black shadow look down on him then ran, Kazama when ran right after him as Kazama jumped from window and the edges o the buildings to catch up to him. Kazama finally got there as the masked man stand there waiting for him to arrive, "hey you can't take what's not yours I need does medicines" Kazama told the masked man. The masked man took out his cloak off and he was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with a black vest and some black soldier pants and boots with the black and red mask. His light grey hair was spiky up and side ways, he put the medicines down and did a fight stance as said "you want them come and get them" as he new that would get Kazama mad. Kazama got serious and got in a fighting stance as well Kazama wasn't good at Taijutsu so if it was going to be hand to hand combat Kazama would have lost he new that but he didn't want to felt weak, the masked man ran to Kazama as he jumped and on his way down he dropped kick Kazama as Kazama felt to the ground as few inches away from the masked man Kazama quickly got up and got punches in the gut then kick in the left arm then the masked man grabbed Kazama from the floor and did a few combos on Kazama making bleed from his mouth. Kazama hasn't touched the masked man at all, Kazama felt weak as he threw four Shuriken at the masked man then ran right behind then and jumped throwing four more from above. The masked man saw every movement that Kazama made as the dodge all of them with his small black katana then ran up to Kazama and wanted to stab him with the katana as Kazama dodge the katana and grabbed him by the left arm and pulled him to Kazama as Kazama head butted the masked man making him jump back a and Kazama had a slightly pain as the mask was hard. Kazama looked at him an thought to himself "dam this guy is good at Taijutsu I need to get him off guard."

The masked man laughs a little bit "not bad I see your good at kenjutsu to dodge that so easily" the masked man tells Kazama. Kazama gets up from his knee and thinks for a split second as he looks at him and takes to Kunai's out from his ninja tool box and rans up to the masked man and fights him katana against Kunai's. he quickly dodges a vertical and horizontal slash from the katana stabbing the masked man in the shoulder and in the left leg as the masked man falls to his knee and takes the Kunai's out then looks at Kazama and forms a hand seal "Earth Release: Crumbling earth gates" as the ground starts to shake as the hospital starts to crumble prices by prices as Kazama loses balance and falls the mask man jumps and comes down with the katana as Kazama looks at him and gets slightly cut and dodges the blade as Kazama kicks him in the ribs then forms as hand seal "Water Release: Tearing torrent" as water starts to form in Kazama's palm as it spins in a rotation from at high speed, Kazama runs and connects with the mask man sending him falling form the top of the hospital into a a few trees and bushes. Kazama looks down on him as he was dead, Kazama walked back and took the medicine and talk to the nurse then left with his medicine back home.
881

[spoiler]Kazama ~Nin-catrosphy[spoiler]
Kazama wakes up after a long day almost got In A fight with a owl finished a cat hunting mission and got paid well not a bad day after all. Kazama looked out the window at the sky as its still early to go to sleep "dam what a day ... What a long day" Kazama thoughts to himself as he gets up from his bed and finds something to eat makes himself some ramen with milk "yum time to eat" Kazama says with a smile on his face as soon as he picks up his chop sticks the there knocking on the door, "hmm what the again" Kazama thinks as he gets up and opens the door as the light of the out side shines brightly still the door fully opens and Riku was standing in front of the door. " You again" Kazama says with a stubborn attitude riku looks at Kazama "we need you again Kazama" riku says Kazama looks down again "seriously what they need now help them mix the ingredients" Kazama thinks as he looks at riku which it's not there no more just a note on the floor, Kazama looks at the note and picks it up and closes the door situ g down back to his launch time as he reads the note he eats the note just said to go back to the hospital there trouble and need to be fix, Kazama finishes his food and gets dressed differently this time Kazama puts on a black v neck shirt with a white and silver line cloak the lines go down horizontally threw the cloak he also where's a black loss skinny jean with some black ninja shoes with his ninja tool box on his right leg and a black ring on his left pointing finger.

His long black hair covers his right face and half of his left side his grey eyes are mostly cover by the hair, he has a black & silver neckless. Kazama gets ready and leaves back to the hospital as he gets to the front door he sees riku comes out, "I'm here riku what you need" Kazama asked as looks at riku, "go inside doctor Hanzo want to speak to you" riku says as he leaves, Kazama goes in the hospital "we're can he be in this giant hospital" Kazama thoughts to himself as he looks to the left and and the doctor it's looking right at him. "..." Kazama opens his eyes as he saw a ghost his face becomes Pail "your here Kazama again were really getting along" Hanzo says as Kazama looks at him "what's your problem doctor why you always asking for help you got riku" Kazama says as he looks around the place "anyways why did riku left?" Kazama asked as he looks back at Hanzo " we'll riku when to do me a arrend so he won't be here at the moment so I need you to help me with a problem" Hanzo paused then continue "there's a ninja cat in the building and he's becoming a pest and I need you to make him go away and not come back but remember he's a trouble to catch" Kazama looked confuse as he hear the first thing hanzo said then everything became noises, Kazama giggled a little "come on a ninja cat seriously ill catch that cat in no time" Kazama said as he had courage, Kazama charged deeper into the hospital.

"We're are you, you stupid cat" Kazama says in the down low as he looks under tables and under chairs "here kitty kitty" Kazama says as looks behind him as sees a black cat with white stripes and grey eyes "hmmm there you are kitty come over here kitty I won't harm you" Kazama says as he think "ima grab you and throw you down the window you stupid cat" tha little cat walked slowly to Kazama as he moved his tail back and forth then got in Kazama's face and took out its tongue then jumped on Kazama's head then ran Kazama looked back then chase it down and up the hallway then cornered it "got you kitty you ain't getting away from me this time" Kazama tells the cat "meww" the kitty says to Kazama as Kazama looks at it and jumps to get it the kitty jumps on top of Kazama's head an stand behind him as Kazama his his face on the wall. "Stupid cat" Kazama says as he sits down and looks at the cat your a smart cat you know pretty smart" Kazama says as he takes out a snack the kitty smells the snack and approaches Kazama as the kitty Stand right in front of him, "meww" the kitty says as he looks at Kazama's candy bar Kazama looks at the kitty "so this is my you here the food but this is a hospital kitty not a stores" Kazama tells the kitty as he know that he's talking to an animal well here take a piece as Kazama breaks a small piece of the snack and gives it to the cat as the hats eats it Kazama pets the cat then grabs him "haha got you kitty" shaking the cat left and right then the cat got aggressive and took out its claws the tried to cut Kazama Kazama threw kitty up into the air and caught him in a bag the kitty twist and turned. Kazama walked right to Hanzo "well doctor don't worry I'll take the kitty out of there he won't bother gain" Kazama says as he left the hospital than open the gate the release the kitty and threw another candy bar which the kitty followed.

955

Spoiler:

Kazama woke up to the morning sun glistening off of the dew that had gathered during the night. The sounds of insects were fading as the signs of a new day lit up the sky, setting it ablaze. Kazama would like to sit around and watch as the sun made its way higher in the sky but he had another mission today. The new hokage was sending some of the shinobi around the compound to help with repairs. It might not be the most exciting mission, but Kazama understood the need for it. There were a couple of jobs that needed completing so Kazama had no time to waste. The first job that needed doing was at old granny Suzuki’s house. Her door had started to come off its hinges and was in terrible need of replacing. When Kazama arrived Suzuki had already left to go do some shopping in the market in town leaving a note for Kazama stating to go ahead and fix the door while she was gone. The first thing he had to do was remove the old door. Kazama took a hammer out of his tool bag and got to work. He took the nails from the hinges that held the door in the door frame. One by one, slowly twisting and pulling them out so not to damage the frame or the hinge itself. Eventually the door came free from the frame allowing Kazama to get it out of the way. Taking a brand new door he got to work towards putting it in the frame. Taking a new set of nails and hinges Kazama made quick work hammering the new door in place. It did not even take a whole hour to replace the door. Kazama was feeling pretty good about what he had accomplished. The next job was not far from the first one. One of the weapon shops was in need of some help with repairs after a genin accidently set of one of the paper bombs that were on sale causing extensive damage to the display cases at the shop. When Kazama first heard the story he thought it was a joke but as it turned out it did actually happen. There are just some very stupid people out there. Once arriving at the shop Kazama could see that the damage was beyond the point of repair. The display cases would need to be rebuilt. First he would have to clear out the debris. This did not take long because it was basically a charred mess of tiny bits and pieces of what used to be display cases. With a little sweeping and mopping it was all gone. The hard part would be making the new display case. To make his life a little easier Kazama set out to look for a Senju family member. A wood style user could make the framework and pieces in a blink of an eye no problem. Kazama first just looked around the area to see if he could find any Senju. Kazama quickly discovered that there were none in the area, so he decided to make a quick trip to the jonin compound. After arriving there it took no time finding a Senju willing to help him. Taking the pieces back to the shop Kazama got to work on putting them together. Hammering the pieces together was easy and quite quickly there were new displays cases ready to be used, sitting in the shop. Kazama had completed all of the jobs he needed to do to complete this mission, however in a shinobi compound there is always something in need of repair.

Spoiler:

The sunlight shine down today on the senju. Kazama woke up this day to a knock in the door as he tried to get up and fell of his bed. As he gets up and walks to the door and opens it "Kazama Senju we need you today" a tall medical ninja stand in front of Kazama "what is this all about anyways" Kazama says with a sleepy voice "no need for details I need you to go to the kumo hospital they told me you're the only ninja in the clan at the moment doing no mission so please help us" the medic ninja said.

Kazama looked at him as looked down "darn why do I have to help this early in the day" Kazama thought to himself as he looked back at the medic ninja " Alright ill do it just give me a sec I need to get dress first" Kazama said the medic ninja gave him a card "here this is the location of the hospital" as the medic ninja leaves. Kazama closes his front door then looks back at the bed "really" he thought, Kazama walks to the bathroom and brushes his teeth then gets dress and run out the door. Kazama jumps threw houses to get to the hospital then spots it and land in front of the entrance door as he opens the front door the same medic ninja is their with a doctor a two nurses, they look back at Kazama "there you are Kazama your right in time that's good we send riku to look for you I need your help" the doctor paused then continue "we'll we ran out of herbs and we need some one to find some for use we were going to send riku but we were informed that there was a D-Rank inactive so I thought that you how help us I'm doctor Hanzo Kazumi" Hanzo stop speaking giving time to let Kazama speak "..." Kazama stood quite and gave the doctor a stare. "Anyways will you do us the favor Kazama" Hanzo asked Kazama walked up to the Hanzo and put his hand up " Tell what to do and ill do it" Hanzo smiled " Great lets get started" Hanzo said in a joyfull tone.

Hanzo gave Kazama a bag "here pleas full this bag of herbs at least 15 herbs would be good enough" Hanzo said, Kazama looked at Hanzo as he thought to himself "15 fcking herbs what !!!" Kazama took the bag and looked at him with a bored face "we're can I find the herbs at?" Kazama said. "Ohh how can I forget well you going o have to leave the gates of the senju to the grassland near kumo and there will be a garden of herbs... Remember to pick the light green herbs to the dark ones" Hanzo said with a serious face. Kazama left the hospital " what's up with that" Kazama says with a low voice, as he looks around and spots the gates he walks right to them as he gets to the gates two A-Rank stop Kazama, "we're you going Kazama you look in a rush" A-Rank says "herb hunting" Kazama says as he looked at both A-Ranks. "Herb hunting? Did the hospital ran out of herbs again?" A-Rank said "yes and I'm there pick up boy" Kazama said with a crown on his face " don't worry that's light work just pick up some herbs that's all" A-Rank 2 said. Kazama kept walking out the gates and then down a road, kumo grassland was inhabited by criminals and hunters so Kazama had to watch himself picking herbs to to run into one. He finally got to the garden and found the spot where the herds were a mix of light and dark herbs clashed as he had to be carefully in not picking the wrong ones the color were similar but you could told the difference between them.

Kazama looked carefully at them and started picking them as he forgot to pay attention in his surroundings, "stupid dark plants stop getting in the way" he yelled as we quickly looked around and hide himself from anything or anyone he looked around as no movement was made he then continue his mission after a few minutes of arguing with plants Kazama got all 15 herbs. " aww about time ... im done thank god" Kazama said as a Shuriken quickly passed by Kazama cutting a small piece of hair Kazama dropped the bag of hers and looked around the trees and bushes as he paid attention, Kazama doesn't have sensory so even if a ninja hide his chakra or leave it normal Kazama wouldn't notice Kazama looks back that the back and grabs it slowly and stands up then runs as he notice that the opponent it's behind him he tried to run faster but loses track of the enemy as just concentrates on leaving alive. The enemy jumps over Kazama and stand in front of him covered with a black and white masked the drawing of a rabbit in anbu cloths Kazama new that he was out matched so he stood still as he looked at him quietly "what brings you here young D-Rank" the anbu ninja says " ... I'm in a mission to find herbs I mean no trouble" Kazama says "We'll you're taking our resources you know that right" the anbu ninja says as he takes out a Kunai out, Kazama looks at the Kunai "we'll kumo needs it more than you guys anyways so I took a few" Kazama says as he puts his hands on his ninja tool box and waiting for any movement. " what happen scared kid even if you try to fight me you know your out matched I'm too strong for you" the anbu ninja says Kazama was going to fight him he just needed to for a distraction to leave Kazama pulled his ham out making it look like he took out a weapon the anbu ninja jumped to Kazama going for the kill quickly a black shadow takes down the anbu ninja Kazama jumps to the other side the medic ninja riku was fighting the anbu ninja "just take the herbs to the clan ill finish this fight for you" riku said as he fought his opponent Kazama ran back to the gates of the senju and stop " I should have help him fight why did I leave" Kazama said as he turn back he saw riku walk right to him " I told you ill take care of him here give me this and ill send them to the hospital no worries your mission is done thanks for the help" riku said as Kazama walked back home as felt asleep.

Spoiler:

Kadoria was breathing heavily as he stopped in front of a big building what was known as the puppet archive. All the puppets that had been made through history were stored in there and he was glad in some kind of way that Ryo had wanted him to go there to get some inspiration for a new puppet. However he wanted to get used to Sarso first before he would make a new one. He was still not good enough at puppetry but he already new a bit how he was going to make it. He would keep making snakes as he liked the animals he did not know why but he had the urge to go to Ryo and ask him if he wanted to learn him the summoning jutsu, but he shook his head. Ryo had wanted him to do this mission and he had promised himself that he would succeed and make Ryo proud of him. He looked up to the building. It looked very old and when he opened the door and walked inside he could almost smell the ancient puppets. Ah man walked towards him telling him how glad he was that Kadoria had come.

Kadoria nodded and followed him when he showed him where he needed to be. It felt like the man lived here. He knew all the ways between the archives and he looked a bit ancient himself. They arrived very soon and Kadoria saw all kinds of scrolls lying on the ground, on a big pile or on the table. As of instinct he put his hand on his own scroll. He did not know if one of the scroll had been opened and if one of the puppets had come out of it. He would not have looked up if that had happened and he would have fought to the best of his abilities if it did. He listened to the instructions the man gave him and nodded as he walked towards one of the small piles to start putting them in the right order but he would have a a feeling this would go on forever if he did not hurry a bit.

His feeling from earlier was right. He had come here early in the noon and he was still busy. He had finished one of the smallest piles and that had even taken him a lot of time. He sat down from a minute and wiped the sweat from his face. It was quite warm in the archive and he was getting very tired. The sun was already setting outside and he felt like he had been here for ages. Seeing the bigger piles made that feeling even worse as he sighed. He kept taking a break for a little while he was sure that it was ok. Ryo was probably home already and if he wanted to get all this work done he had to work through the night and maybe through the whole morning. He could already feel some tiredness creep up on him but he could still shake it of and go through. However all these dusty old scrolls weren't so much fun to look at. He could not fall asleep even if he was tired he had to do this for Ryo and for himself. He wanted to show that he was at least useful for something. His father already thought about him as a tool that wasn't good enough for anything and he did not want the only person he cared about here also thinking like that. If that would happen he would feel sadder than ever. Ryo was kind of his only friend and he had to make him proud. He kept placing the scrolls where they belonged sometimes blowing at them to get some dust away to read.

He was just busy with the second pile when he heard a sound. He had ticked against a pile and a scroll had fallen down from the pile. The seal on it had already cracked and when it hit the ground, you could first hear the echo as Kadoria reached to his own puppet before there was a smoke cloud where the scroll had been. "Please let this not be a very strong puppet'' He whispered as he put down his own scroll, bit on his thumb and placed the blood on his scroll and sarson appeared awaiting what puppet would appear when the mist and dust would clear.

Kadoria gulped when he saw the dust and mist cloud rise. There was a big puppet in front of him, it looked like a human puppet. It opens its mouth and nails were shot at Kadoria. One hit him in the arm as he let out a soft curse. He pulled it out and saw that a bit of his toxic blood was one it. 'This can work to my advantage' He thought as he let him arm swing so some of his blood would fall down in front of the puppet. The idea that he could beat it using his trusty sword filled his head. Kadoria quickly ran towards it and made the hand seals to restore the seal on the scroll as the puppet had gone back. He sighed and opened his own scroll, sending sarso back and cleaning his blood, up from the floor. This battle had been a disaster. He felt like he had to start over again. He got on his knees and with a heavy sigh he got back to work.

Kadoria could still not see any light through the tunnel. There were just too many piles of scrolls lying around and his fight with the puppet earlier had not made it less work. He could not stop sighing every time he was one with one pile and he had to start with the other one. Instead of the Piles getting smaller he had a feeling they were growing larger with every scroll he stored away. There were some scroll he was very carefull with. He could almost feel the strength of the puppet from the outside and sometimes he just wanted to be sure they would not come out so he redid the seal to make sure that nothing would happen,, and some he could almost threw away. They felt like they could just fall apart in dust when he touched the scroll and he thought that the puppet inside was the only thing that was keeping it together.

''They should really replace some puppets in new scrolls, some are just falling apart.'' Kadoria talked to himself while shaking his head. He really hated this mission, but he understood why Ryo had wanted him to take it. There wasn't much action though only when he had let the first scroll fall there had been a small fight that had been over quickly. He thought the puppet that had been inside the scroll was D-rank. It had been a big one but that had also worked against him cause the movements were slow. His puppet was C rank but in some way he was glad that a nail had been shot inside his shoulder. He would probably have never used the bloody nail jutsu if he had not shot it. He was thinking this all while placing the scrolls back. He just could not concentrate on the scroll this was the most boring mission he had ever done but it was important so he did it anyway.

Finally he got the feeling the Piles he was cleaning up were getting smaller. He looked outside while beginning with one of the last and biggest piles . He could finally see that it was almost over. He could not wait for it to be done. He was dead tired and felt like the his eyelids were of stone, but he could not fall asleep not yet. He first had to finish his mission then he could sleep. He was moving a lot slower then he had been when he first started his mission. Of course he was much sleepier and his stomach kept rumbling for food, he hadn't eaten anything since he had started his mission and the sun had come up hours ago. He predicted that it was probably far in the morning or maybe already noon seen to the stand of the sun in the sky. Ryo was so lucky he had taken the mission to help out in the hospital and Kadoria knew that he would be done by now. Unless there had been a massive town attack the hospital would be quite.

He yawned once as he felt almost too tired to go through. The only thing that had been driving him for now was the thought that he wanted to finish the first mission he would do alone instead of with someone else. He knew it wasn't about his father anymore but he wanted to do it for himself. It did not matter when he would finish it. It did not matter to him if this mission would take him another day, week, month, year he just wanted to finish it at all cost. He was finally done with one of the last piles and sighed when he began to work at the biggest pile of them all. Luckily this was the last and the archive looked a lot less chaotic then it had been before. It was now cleaner except for the dust that had been hovering around in the air but he did not care about that. His Mission was to place the scrolls back not to clean the archive. After a while he could finally see the bottom of the floor. Only a few scrolls left. He sighed heavily as he whiped the sweat from his forehead. ''Come on you can do it you are almost done'' He said to himself as he placed one of the last scrolls away.

''Finally'' Kadoria sighed as he walked to the counter where the man was sitting. He was done with his mission. It was in the afternoon and he was dead-tired. He had been here longer than twenty-four hours without food, water or sleep only a lot of scrolls. so many scrolls. It did not matter that he was done he could not get the image of all those scrolls out of his head but the puppets what were in the scrolls were amazing, but it a kind of way one part of the mission had been a failure. Ryp wanted him to do the mission so he could get ideas for his new puppet but he didn't got any ideas. Only some Idea's for better scrolls but that would not be of such a big help on his missions. He looked at the man thanking him as he would go to the office and get his rewards later for now he only wanted to quickly get something to eat, drink and then go to his comfy bed.

He looked around a bit and went back quickly to check if he had not forgotten any scroll. He really did not want to go back here and do all of this again. Luckily no scrolls were gone and they were all perfectly in the archive and that part of the mission had been done. He walked back towards the door and sighed in relief. ''I am finally done'' He said to himself as he walked towards the doors. He opened them and stepped back quickly protecting his eyes with his hands. The sun was hurting his eyes. There hadn't been so much light so the sun hurted. He walked through the streets slowly letting his hand go away so it would stop protecting his eyes and so his eyes could get used to all of it. He took a deep breath and was happy he was outside and that his mission was over.

WC 1988

Spoiler:

Kadoria smiled as he woke up on this particular day. It was the first mission he had as a Clan Leader, and what a mission it was. He woke up and dressed quickly leaving his coat off his harness exposed, not that he minded at all. With his scrolls in place and his scalpel’s in place he set out of his clan’s home and made his way deeper into Land of Fire. He was headed to the one place he wanted to actually visit, but never had the chance before today. His smile widened from ear to ear as he looked up at the Archive of Puppetry. He walked through the door and was greeted by the Jounin who acted as the guards. They both looked at him; the older one was a man with greying hair “What business do you have here?” He asked in a rather deep and gruff voice. Kadoria pulled out his mission scroll from one of the harnesses and handed it to the man “I’m here for this purpose.” The jounin looked over the mission and nodded his head lightly “That’s a relief we’ve needed to get this place to rights. Well then right this way.” With that he lead Kadoria down a flight of stairs to the basement where they kept the puppets in a gigantic room.

Kadoria’s eyes lit up with joy as he looked around at all the different scrolls, seals, and other such things. He was a kid in a candy store and with a mastery of his craft now he had nothing but admiration and respect for each and every puppet in the room. The Jounin looked at Kadoria with a stern gaze “If you take anything I’ll know, and I will bring you before the Kazekage.” Kadoria looked at the man greatly offended “No one who could dare call themselves a master at the art of Puppetry would ever steal another puppeteer’s work. Now leave me, you can’t appreciate what is here.” He walked forward and arrived at the first set of seals. Now it was time to have himself the time of his life. The seals despite what they held were all pretty basic, which would make sense seeing as how they were kept so secure. Kadoria smiled as he released the first seal and the puppet appeared over it. The puppet was simple in the design and shape. It was basic humanoid in shape, and the wood was basic cheap as well. Kadoria inhaled and performed the hand seal before attaching his chakra threads to it. He began to move the puppet testing it and checking it. He smiled wider as he felt the puppet connect to him after a few moments he twitched his fingers and blades came out of the puppet all along the torso. This puppet acted like a cutting top nothing of real significance. Kadoria released his threads and let the puppet fall into lifelessness again. This one would be moved towards the back of the room among the least dangerous. Oh sure every puppet in the room was dangerous, and extremely deadly, but this one was by far one of the weaker specimens.

Kadoria looked down at the seal and then at the puppet with a soft frown on his face. The seals weren’t made to be moved and this puppet was towards the front for the room. He looked back and there was quite a distance that needed to be crossed before he reached the very back of the room. He sighed and attached his chakra strings to the puppet once more. With that he turned and walked with the puppet to the other end of the room. When he arrived he searched for the very last seal which happened to be a seal that was written on the wall, he sighed as he looked at this and he quickly summoned the puppet that was inside; attaching chakra strings to it. With this one under his control he put the other much less impressive one into the seal in its place. With the lesser of the puppets dismissed he turned his attention to the one he newly summoned.

The puppet he was now controlling was amazing. It was made of amazing quality he couldn’t believe the care and work that had gone into making this puppet. The puppet had red hair, it was a bit short, but kept nicely. The puppet itself wasn’t all that tall, but on its back it had two metal rods that came out to either side of its arms these rods held a series of blades. Kadoria frowned and connected chakra strings from his now free hand to the puppet and tested it. The blades began to spin almost like a saw blade, and they were fast. He continued to test the puppet as he made his way towards the front of the room. As he moved his fingers and hands he set off the puppet’s next set of weapons two spouts came out from the palm of the puppet’s hands. Kadoria couldn’t help but continue to make the puppet react and soon two jets of flame shot one from each spout. They burned with great intensity, but with another twitch they stopped dead. Kadoria looked at the puppet in front of him his eyes a glow.

This was a master puppet, in fact Kadoria dared to say it was the first Human puppet that he had ever seen. He was amazed, bewitched, and downright stunned by the puppet that he was now controlling. Sadly he knew he couldn’t keep it, but that didn’t stop him from idolizing the maker. He quickly began to check the puppet over for a mark, an insignia, something, and anything to give away the maker. As he put the puppet over the seal at the front of the room he saw just what he wanted to find. There was a strange design, almost like a tattoo on the chest of the puppet. This was the mark, the mark that a master puppeteer can’t help but leave can’t help but sign his name on his work. It was the same as Kadoria’s own work. He left his distinct mark on all of the puppets he made if anyone cared to look. Still this mark was the mark of a master only master’s let their marks be seen so easily. He pulled out one of his scrolls and bit down on his thumb drawing an exact replicate on it before tucking it away back into the holster he kept it in.

With the replicant of the insignia down and on his person he didn’t need anything more from the puppet and he sealed it away into the seal that was in the front of the room. He was honored that he was able to see such an astounding work of art. He couldn’t help but wonder what other fascinating pieces there were that he could possibly uncover and even learn a thing or two from. With that he moved onto the next seal summoning the puppet within and placing it further to the middle, replacing one in the seal before moving the one he had just replaced to a new home. He continued in much the same fashion for the rest of the morning into the late afternoon only on occasion did he find a puppet that made him wonder just who the creator of it was. As soon as he saw one he copied down their mark on his scroll again. Finally, it was nearing night, and he had made a good dent in the floor he was on, but there was still a lot of work to be done. As he finished sealing the last puppet away the Jounin guard from earlier appeared “We need you to get out boy. We’re closing down for the night, I’m sure the Kazekage will understand. I’ve got your payment here, now hurry up and get out.” Kadoria sighed heavily as he walked over to the man taking a scroll the man held out for him “Yeah, yeah. Arigatoo, don’t expect me to pay you compliment to your sharp tone although I could hardly see why you have such a bad attitude being in a place as amazing as this. Good evening.” With that he walked up the stairs then left the building headed home. He would need to look through his family archives to find more information on the marks, but he was finally passionate about something.

WC 1425

[spoiler]~Nobu - Fortnite Event, Imposters[spoiler]
For all intensive purposes he was alone. Hot air blew through the streets of Land of Fire causing hanging fabrics and wisps of smoke with smells from the grills to be carried into the streets. The best of the textile merchants kept their wares held down by a myriad of weights and pins, paying little attention to the increasing wind. All the while the most inexperienced of them were forced to scramble and grab as their products fell to the ground under the force of the wind. It was next to one of these stalls that a small black haired girl huddled next to her mother, her face buried in the loose flapping garments against the wind. With small reassuring words from the mother the pair continued down the road never noticing the eyes that watched them from across the street.

The door was an odd amalgamation of wood and bamboo lattice work but the boy gave little thought to its aesthetic appeal as he hid from the wind. Standing there, leaning against the door, he quietly watched the mother whisper sweet words into her scared daughter’s ears before they continued to walk through the hot wind-filled streets. Seeing the pair brought many questions to the young boy’s mind, most of which he had no answers for. Yet this was not his purpose here, wandering through the streets of Land of Fire had brought him to this point in his search for the training grounds. But while he felt comfortable in a crowd he couldn’t remember a time when he had seen so many people at once. The barely filled streets had seemed like an endless wave slowly rising in its path to drown him.

Not long after he began his search the wind had picked up from the south and stranded him in the doorway of the shop where he now stood. His father had left him with a name, nothing else, and it wasn’t even his own. He had barely met the man who had so enthralled him, didn’t even know his name, and still he sought to earn his respect. “Can I help you?” The boy turned around to find the shop owner wiping his dirty hands on a clean towel. ”I just needed a respite from the wind, I am on my way to the training grounds.” The shop keeper eyed the man and his lack of a Land of Fire forehead protector before shrugging and turning around to head back into the shop. Before taking two steps, however, the owner turned to look at Nobu once more and called over his shoulder. “Keep going down the street till you hit the next intersection and then turn south.”

Without a word of reply Nobu moved out of the door’s cover and headed towards the next intersection. While trying to keep up his pace to make use of lost time he still tried to memorize as much of the village as possible. It was his first time here in a while and if he had anything to do with it he would not be lost again. Swerving side to side as he passed customers haggling with merchants Nobu made his way quickly to the next intersection and then paused to look towards the sky. South is that way he thought to himself, using the sun as a reference, as he turned left and continued along the paths. His path slowly changed from the ‘bustling’ village streets to the occasional shinobi returning from what he could only assume to be the training area. He attempted to make eye contact with nearly every shinobi he passed, but very few seemed to even notice his existence as he was still foreign to them.

When he found the sign marking the beginning of the training area he turned off the road and sat upon the ground, completely disregarding anyone who did not look like a capable Shinobi. Taking in a deep breath Nobu closed his eyes and opened his mind to a sensation somewhat akin to smell. A hidden world opened to him, the doors swinging wide to reveal a realm wholly indescribable. But it was through this that he knew there was only one person that he sought in the training ground and he shined as brightly as he did in person. The man reopened his eyes to the world he knew and stood from his spot upon the ground. Within moments he would find himself upon the same field as many other shinobi training to improve. The surprising powers of just an imagination and a field of knowledge can do for someone.

Nobu often retreated from the comforts of the lavish Land of Fire Fortress. Well if you could call it that. The Fortress was made more for war time defense than comfort. Yet he enjoyed walking through the area to think to himself. It was then that he saw a familiar face. "It couldn't be..." the scent was the same as before. He would simply smile......"I see you have the same balls as Ziga had I will give you that. To enter my lands wearing that face......" he laughed in that child like manner those wolf like canines showed. "You really could cause little strife....So perhaps you are harmless. Though someone has gone to great lengths to make sure you serve as a double for him. So perhaps if I get rid of the puppet it will force the puppeteer to take the stage. What do you think?" He stated as he loosely let his arms fall to his side.

"Ara?" Would be the first thing to escape the oppositions lips as Nobu appeared in front of him. He tilted his head with a quizzical look. "Puppet? Sir are you talking to yourself? Do I know you?" The young man placed a finger on his chin thinking of the situation. This being appeared in front of him and was obviously confused. "You must be lost or delusional. Perhaps you're hungry and looking for a meal! Then come on by my humble abode! I'll be sure to give you a warm cooked meal!" He walked towards Nobu with a sly smile on his face, and his arms extended out. "I'm not the best cook, but I'm pretty amazing either way. Heheh, though I guess I should be more modest! Sorry for the words!" The cloaked male would shrug his shoulders and give a nonchalant look upon his face.




The Nobu's eyes narrowed a bit quizzical himself. This was indeed that man. That he knew for sure. Now he was unsure whether the man's confusion was actually genuine or if this was some sort of trap. Either way it was better to play it safe than sorry. He could just kill the man and sort it all out later. Swift hands would take up two kunai before tossing them simultaneously taking a huge leap backwards to increase the space between them . It was not his fastest toss nor his most accurate. It was more of an inquisitive attack to see just how much this man remembered. As he landed two shurikan would then be tossed so that they had about a half second delay on the kunai that came beforehand. One shurikan and kunai would be aimed at the left pictorial while the other shurikan and kunai would be aimed in the femoral area within the inner thigh. "Well how about we see what exactly you can cook up. Who are you and why are you here?" He had an idea....not of who he was but of what he was. The question however was to see what exactly the man knew.

Two kunai were fired at him, and the Ziga look alike would sidestep to the right, clear out the way while grasping his fan for the next. Another two came towards him, and using the fan, he would deflect them to the side. "Woah woah! What was that for? Do you not like food or something? I know my prices may be kinda steep but I'm sure we can talk something out right?" He placed his fan back, while waving his hand infront of his body. "Who am I? My name..I tossed it away a long time ago. I'm a nobody now. I don't deserve to be anyone.." The man answered the question with an expressionless face, before suddenly smiling. "Why am I here? I kinda live here. Born and raised. I even own a restaurant out here!..Hehe, maybe you've heard of it? I mean, we're new but the food is good and served at fair prices! I promise!" Pushing his palms together, Ziga would bow his head with his smile. "You shouldn't be so hostile. I could give a job there if you're looking for work! We're definitively hiring!"

"I see...." Nobu stated as he saw the kunai swiped to the side. The reflexes and technique was still there. Yet that only scratched the surface. The response only made him more inquisitive. Nobus index and middle finger would come together as ripples would extend 7 feet from the strong digits. A cloudy like substance would then surround the rippling stream of chakra as Nobus legendary hand speed through swift release would now be applied to the swing. This would cause four cloudy like orbs to shoot from the streaming blade at the man. The orbs being able to be manipulated would not come at him in a straight path though. Two of them would begin to move in a circular pattern around the man closing in on the distance at a speedy yet steadfast rate while the other two would begin to race above the mans head.back and fourth. This acted to both confuse the man and blanket the area in a cloudy trail that would obscure his vision. If the man was anything like Ziga he was no stranger to burrowing in these types of situations. As soon as the orbs were released his foot would come down upon the grown in a discreet manner releasing a jutsu that would rapidly find it's way underneath the man. "I wonder....

The look alike would sense the ripples from the man's motion and would lose his smile. Apparently the opponent was going to attempt to force him into a fight he thought, and his guard would now be up. As the balls would be formed, the mans hands would move swiftly, releasing a flurry of enhanced projectiles to meet them on their way towards him while sending a scattered bunch towards Nobu [5 meters wide]. He attempted to use the slashing properties of the projectiles to slice through the balls, while keeping the distance he had, thanks to the man's large leap backwards. His motion sensing was still on blast, as he could sense two objects coming at him from beneath the ground. He'd wait until they were dangerously close before shooting off six meters to the side with his Raiton afterimage. If successful, it would take the brunt of the attack for him, as he'd be able to focus on Nobu himself. Meanwhile, his cloak would begin to form four hand signs behind his back and out of view, preparing for the next move, while Ziga would dash towards Nobu, pointing a finger towards him. A series of sparks would appear upon it, but he wouldn't fire..Not yet. Instead two clones, with a measly Genins worth of chakra in them, would appear by Ziga's side. They would run ahead of him and attempt to attack close up. One would slide in for a slide tackle on Nobu while the other would come in high and attempt to axe kick him in the head.

He had looked at the man's facial expression he knew the attack was coming. This is when he shifted his weight to the balls of his feet readying himself to whatever counter measures were to come. As the barrage of projectiles struck the orbs they would explode the concussive force would throw the objects that followed into one another and ricochet. Stumbling off their path causing many of them to come at Nobu inaccurately which cleared some space and time for him to form the next step. He was sure the man was more experienced than to launch a 1 phase attack so a few swift back peddling steps would bring him to where he was clear of the thrown projectiles and whatever debris they might have caused.For those that still managed to lag through a chakra powered force would repel them back, seeing as this required no movement reacting in time to the high speed objects would not be a problem. He saw the explosion from his burrowing jutsu but was quite sure they had missed there mark. This was confirmed when he saw the man charging at him and two clones appear. As the two clones jumped in to attack him they would indeed hit there mark Although it would not be the Nobu they expected. An explosion would go off as the actual Nobu had been ejected from his position and in his stead an explosive clone.
Ziga or the man who looked like Ziga's wired kunai plan had failed, and as his clones went in to attack, the Nobu clone would self destruct, and the real Nobu would shoot back. He was certainly resourceful. However, Ziga was aswell. The explosion occurred, yet he would brave the burns and debris to continue his advance, raising his finger and using the explosions own cover to shoot a bullet of raiton out towards the Nobu. It was aimed towards his right shoulder, and was hopefully strong enough to send him flying back into the ground. They were roughly 30 ft apart, if not alittle more. He was hoping the attack would take Nobu off guard with its speed and accuracy, and the fact it was used within the remains of his own explosion for cover. Ziga's cloak would already begin to form more hand signs as the boy wouldn't wait to shoot forward with his own version of a shunshin and appear on Nobu's side [roughly 6m]. His left hand would ignite into a fury of raiton rage, and the loud sound of thunder would erupt from it as he shot forward towards his opponent once more. Though..something about his current advance seemed feint.

Well the raiton Chidori was sent but it could not pinpoint his movement. Hell he could not even pinpoint his movement yet. He was ejected backwards but only at 30ft the clones explosion covered 30 yards so even though the fire would not burn him the concussive force swept him backward marginally in a unpredictable and rather aerial manner which was purposely done and allowed him to shoot past the bullet unscathed. However using his taijutsu maneuverability he was able to absorb and redirect a portion of the force to spring him upward as he was about to hit the ground sending him about 30 ft into the air. Seeing as the man would have to past where Nobu once was to shunshin and the cloudy trail that was once left behind he would activate phase 2 of his plan before airborne he noticed several of the seared projectiles scattered about in elevated areas some neck and torso high in fact. They were lodged or stuck into various trees. With a twist of the two bladed fingers the cloudy trail that was left behind from these weapons would become razor like wires. Concealed in the explosion as well if the man would continue dashing forward it would be his own undoing while he would begin to slowly descend to the ground.

As Ziga charged forward, he couldn't hear any signs of pain, signifying his attack either missed or he killed the attacker before he could welp in pain. A B ranked attack wasn't that strong, so his first deduction was his opponent somehow dodged the attack. He still shot through with the shunshin, seeing how he didn't wait, and as he made it to the last inches of the trail, he would feel a sharp tug at his torso and neck. Luckily his high collar cloak would take the brunt of the razors, and stop them from slicing him, but this still made him more than aware that everything this man did was a threat. His left arm would ignite into the Chidori, and the winds would blow the smoke away from his body. Tilting his head back, he would 'look', though blind folded, up towards the Nobu. The dark markings of the henge true form would spread half way across his face, to his nose, and he would suddenly burst up into the air and fly towards him. The young man's hair would begin to transform into its white counter, and his eyes beneath the blindfold would become slitted. Two wings created from webbed snakes would guide his path, as he would create a blade of raiton in his right hand. Using shape manipulation, he would extend it towards the Nobu in an attempt at stabbing him through the chest while flying to the left of the man swiftly.




Using my own comrades face against me I can't help but feel slightly insulted." He stated as he saw the transformation. "So we are going to get serious now huh?" With that said wings of flames would begin to sprout from his back. The wings would keep him aerial as the man would fly toward him. The crackling of raiton would make the attack obvious. as this was said when the lightning spear or blade or whatever came at him a massive paw would spring forth and smack the blade to the side and offer a retaliating backhand all in the same smooth motion. By now his Nobu clone had reformed himself and lucky for it when said paw had sprung forth so did a another. One that the clone would dart to and be happily scooped up. Given the distance and that the clone retained Nobu's physical prowess it took little time. The large paw would launch the clone upward towards his opponent it's desired destination dependent upon the man's position timing it next mark carefully. But given it's detonation radius it could afford to be off marginally. Of course once it got within close proximity it would again detonate.

"Your friends face? What are you talking about, Attacker-chan?" The young man's voice was like a hiss, resembling that of a snake's. As the man's massive..claw? As the man's massive claw came out to slap the blade, the raiton blade would suddenly bend in a 90 degree angle, and stab into the arm as it came its way. That was the benefits of using a blade with no definite shape, and being skilled in chakra shape transformation. With the blade stabbed in the arm, The Ziga Imposter would cause the end of the blade to split out into branches that would spread through the arm and lock the blade in place within it. With the power of the back hand, it would only press itself harder into the stab. Meanwhile another paw formed, and the blindfolded man would tilt his head down, as though he was looking towards what it was reaching for. Even his webbed snakes would turn to look, as they hissed in his ear. As the clone was lunched towards him, two puffs of smoke would form and dive bomb down to the clone to tackle it, and slam it back into the ground below. Just to make sure, the impostor would still shoot up to leave the trajectory the clone was headed.

The Imposter knew it was a rare opportunity to have a link to Nobu. So pulling his hand back, and causing the blade to pull in, he attempted to forcefully yank the fire lord towards him. With his other hand, still ignited with the chidori, he would grasp his blade and swing it towards the Nobu. Since his blade could conduct chakra, the stream of his raiton would also be circulated through it. The basic swing he performed also held its purpose, as 10 electrified chakra streaks would shoot towards the Nobu, as he was being forcefully pulled in, to slash his body into a bloody mess.

It was a claw but it was not a part of Nobus body it was a Raiton manifestation. He watched the raiton blade stab into it and thought to himself "clever boy". As the clones dove down to tackle his own they would indeed succeed but the paw that through him upward would still be down there to catch all three of the clones. Since the clones did no fatal damage only tackled the clone he would not detonate prematurely and realizing the target was not reaches did not do so on it's own. Thus the paw would now launch all three of the clones with force back at the man. Given the size and power of the pawed arm the speed would be of note. On that same note the man attempting to pull a 50 foot pawed arm his jutsu formed would be a feat. Though this was if the blade would have pierced the manifestation, the pawed arm was both an offensive and defensive technique meaning it had a density to it that had to be surpassed. Obviously the blade would fall short. Though as the man would attempt to pull he would find the arms quickly retracting covering Nobu defensively and the clones being at his location followed by a tag the Nobu tossed to greet his explosive clones radius with equal speed. The clone would again detonate whether it was stopped by the defensive or not because the target was not the man but the tag. Then Nobu had caused the tag to expand into a much larger size just as the clone detonated heightening its effects causing a massive boom that his opponent would have to try a bit harder to avoid this time around.

The heat sensing would warn the Imposter of the counter jutsu the Nobu would use vs his own technique. He could only expect it was a katon technique, and playing it safe, the boy would shoot up after his previous attack. With the man making a flame vortex and burning his own, Ziga imposter would activate his Lightning Armor and boost himself out of the vortex. The imposter, using the lightning armor that would keep the smoke away from him with the gust of wind that accompanied it, would dive bomb away from the massive vortex and to ground level. Landing 45 meters away, with his back facing the massive creation, he would be deactivate his armor and his wings would be pulled back within his shoulder blades. His left hand would still be ignited, yet his pale face would let on a smile. He was getting cocky, Nobu could see it, he thought to play with Nobu, like some sort of cat and mouse, how much underestimating would this guy do. Nobu needed to react, to counter this imposter with his high speed and lightning, the only tools he had to rely on were katon moves, and they were his best chance at countering all of it. However the counter was not some simple move, but a complex powerful katon jutsu that Nobu let loose. It roared like a dragon, its head taking shapes in the flame, launching him back down to earth and leaving a small crater in the ground. Nobu loved utilizing this technique, it was powerful, and flexible. Perhaps one might call it a signature move. Nobu was an expert at katon moves, he utilized the blood he possessed to power up the element to even stronger heights. Some might call it a legendary feat, but Nobu was nothing but impressed with the pinnacle of it all. The imposters body slammed against the ground, he was burnt, some might call it to a crisp, but it was really more of a full frontal crisp, the back was still very much rare, something Nobu would have to work on. At least those who would pay him would be sure that this was one of the imposters, no one would know this person among the senju. He’d have to take the body in, a task complete and a reward to foster. He hoped there would be those who were proud of him, but he knew that if someone could sneak into the village this easily, that it would raise more questions than answers. Imposters, what an imposition of it all.

WC 4,127 Complete