The Village Hidden in the Marsh, Episode 1: Fresh Blood

[Princess Tracy]

Minami

Grandpa looks sternly at her from under his veil, his own kikkaichu crawling over to her meet her own. He had a habit for this sort of technique, making the other Aburame's kikkaichu communicate with his own for quick information exchange. "Ronin?" He mouths each word, silently repeating her own words, mulling them over with his visible mouth. Releasing the girl's shoulder, he looks to his attending ANBU. "You, find the other members of her task force. See to it that they weren't attacked, take no risks, and find what this 'black iron' is," he instructs, his order met immediately with a nod and obedience as they dash off. Looking back to Minami, he shakes his head. "Did you see them? Did you see the mask?" he couldn't avoid asking, really. He stutters a moment, gripping his disabled arm as he paces away a moment, thinking you hadn't noticed his pain.

"Sir, we should go now..." points out the female ANBU with him whose voice Minami recognises as a cousin of hers. "Before..."

"Yamanaka isn't here anyway," Juukuzu remarks, shooting her down. "Though she knew our appointment, I suppose she may have made arrangements for treatment while away." He sighs as he recalls the bugs he left among his grandaughter's horde. "Are you alright, Minami-chan?"

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

Sana stumbles back, her attention becoming solely concentrated on Hisashi. Just moving a foot makes her scramble back, and she desperately avoids his eyes. Her shaking knees and cringing reach their peak as he threatens his genjutsu again, to rob her of the control of her own mind. "No, I... I'm a chuunin... stop it, stop looking at meeee!" she screams, falling and slipping into her discarded wax. She fumbles to form a hand seal. Suddenly, her wax flows around her, enveloping her in something like an egg before rapidly hardening, similar to the coccoon around Yamanaka, leaving her to shiver in her own self-made prison.

Rikku watches the display of the incredibly terrifying genin as she plants her feet and smashes her forearm into the tree, hard shaking off the wax before it can ignite her clothes. She takes a breath, observing the damage and sees her entire arm is scorched red. "Ow, this'll nip for a while," she remarks, knocking the wax prison before her with her foot to make sure Sana had sealed herself in there good. Sighing, she turns her attention to the real battle.

The clone remains in position, slowly stabbing into the shell, going faster and faster - one can't see Yamanaka's figure, but one can imagine she intends the strike to be lethal. The clone acts independently of the currently panic-attacking Sana, and keeps up her threat as Rikku stares her down. Kaza spins around, intending to run and save Sana as soon as she hears her crying out, but is grabbed from behind by the resilient Tsume, once again dropping her guard to try and help her friend. She struggles as she's grabbed, the boy seeming to have about equal strength and technique but greater leverage as he holds her in place. A pleading enters her voice. "Okay, you win... you're my better," she says, flailing, trying to escape as her arm is almost twisted. "Just please, we can't go back there, they'll kill us, torture us... She'll really kill your teacher if you don't let us go. You're just out the academy, right? I can tell... you're happy and green. Can you really deal with that responsibility on your record?"

The clone suddenly pipes up, looking into the trees above her with surprising perception as Kamatari prepares his technique. "My blade is at her throat right now, I can feel its squishy resistance. If you make even one hand seal..." She makes a gesture with her off-hand of cut-throat motion 'sllrrrk'. Rikku seems confused for a moment, eyeing the trees, but figures that he's up there somewhere - one of Yamanaka's kids. She wondered where they were. "Tsume, be careful," Rikku advises, trying to be the leader from her rank, but honestly having no insight what to do, squirming through the issue. She steps forward and closes her eyes, focussing as she heads towards the clone. "That's close enough," says the clone, sticking out her free hand. "Tell your boyfriend to unhand my assistant. Now, here's the way i see it, we're going to run away and you're going to wait here until my clone runs out. Got it?"

Rikku grimaces, cradling her temples, looking quite lost, before closing her eyes, trying to focus. She suddenly looks puzzled, her eyes flickering at the cocoon. Despite teh clone's warnings, the original doesn't seem keen on coming out of her shell, even to run, while Hisashi stands above her

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Sorry, Karrth, she spotted you fair and square...

Ninja Lore DC 15 check to read below

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You recognise that Rikku is Sensing Chakra.

Reina

You find two slashed sets of Ash Village headbands (with the distinctive cross-through village symbol that marks a missing-nin) under the bridge as you approach it, and the beginning of a set of tracks. As you travel, you see three settlements in various directions, at least two of which these roads lead fairly directly to. From the looks of the lights and smoke, it seems the settlement to the western road (having followed the river north) is the most active, some sort of town.

You can try to follow the tracks of the missing ash-nin, or pick a path to take to any of the settlements and hope for the best. You're able to use some materials around the bank to partly erase your tracks, but doing so entirely would require you to backtrack up to your entire journey, for proportionally for the entire (2d10+10)[19] minutes it would take to do the whole trail and return to this point. However, if they don't discover this area until the late morning, it could well add hours.

[HanaRei]

Reina grasped onto the headbands, observing them closely. There was no doubt they were from her village. Still, it wouldn't be enough to really tell if one might of been her friends. She let out a sigh, placing down the headbands. Her eyes traced back noticing the footprints. "Reina you idiot!" She called out softly to herself realizing her stupid mistake. She just felt like she was a bumbling idiot as of late, making so many mistakes at once. Nothing that new though for the rather brash girl.

She stood still briefly, thinking for a moment. While there was a possibility her escape might be tracked, it was likely she did have time to get away. As close watch she did seem to have, she expected her little escape would of been foiled way before if someone had kept tabs on it. She worked her way back, doing the best she could to disguise her tracks. Given any luck, it might cause them to not notice them at all, possibly giving her a free break for it, though perhaps that was far too hopeful. She knew there were plenty of skilled trackers in the village, something her efforts wouldn't likely be able to completely hide away the evidence.

She worked to finish off covering the tracks all the way down from where she started before heading up. It was a bit risky going to the nearest place though it seemed her best option for trying to find clues about Kaza. She had already lost one person she felt close to, she didn't want to so easily give up on another if there was a chance to find them.

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Covering tracks all the way up and heading to Western Village to ask around about anyone seeing Kaza, try for a meal and head out quickly.

[Nyan]

Hisashi would stare Sana down until she would encase herself in her wax cocoon, sighing slightly as he closed his eyes. "Heh...Fear is a useful tool indeed." He said to himself with a smirk, glancing over to Rikku as she smashed her arm on a tree to get the wax away. He would then look over his own wounds to see that part of his arms had also been badly burned as he tried to shield his face from the blast and he could not help but crinch slightly from the pain as it was clear he was not all to used with all of this. With a light groan he tried to move his arms around a bit and it would hurt quite a bit tho the rest of his body seemed quite alright considering what had just happened. Glaring at the cocoon coldly he would walk up to it to inspect it closer before giving a quick glance at Rikku again.

As then Rikku would turn to leave Hisashi would take the opportunity to place an explosive tag on the cocoon but making sure that he would not be spotted doing so. Having a hostage of his own would be good thing in this situation after all.

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Chakra control check for charging explosive tag with 2 charges (DC 12)
Automatic success with an +11 mod
Spends 2 chakra in the proses.
Does now deal 4d6 damage when detonated

Stealth check
(1d20+7)[13]

After he would be done he would stand by the cocoon and look towards the clone and yamanaka's prison and would simply wait silently, looking over to Rikku as she walks closer and starts to what he would judge as trying to sense chakra.

[Regalus]

Minami simply shakes her head slowly when inquired if she saw the assailant; part of her quite certain that if she had they wouldn't be having this conversation right now. The young girl shuffles in place for a moment, kneading one palm with the other while her grandfather addressed the ANBU; doing her best not to dwell too long on the crack in her grandfather's mask, or on the fresh memories of the injuries inflicted upon her sempai.

"I, I am," she begins, forcing down a stutter by stomping down of the thread of anxiety that had begun to grow within her once more, "Still a bit jittery, but I think I'm okay. I-I can't say that I was...was expecting run into something that, bad this soo; but I think I'm okay," she elaborates, slowing her kneading slightly as a sigh escapes from her lips, "Yamanaka-sensei helped. I was afraid, I'd lock up; but I managed to pull through, and it seems like Sohaki-san might too," offers Minami with a nervous smile, doing her best to keep her gaze steady throughout the discourse, mentally reprimanding herself slightly; it had already been over an hour, and she believed that should have been more than enough time for her to settle down. The fact she hadn't yet bothered her slightly.

[Jacior]

Tsume grins. "And my first step to being the greatest taijutsu master is completed!" He looks over his shoulder at the clone. And then smirks. "You've forgotten who I am already!" He grabs on harder to Kaza. "Tsume Style: Meteor Drop!" He grunts and hurls Kaza up into the air. "And down crashes the meteor!" He jumps into the air and grabs the falling Uchiha. He swings her around and the pair start spinning before he launches Kaza at the clone.

[Princess Tracy]

Reina

The girl isn't able to get much of a useful lock on the tracks, except that she can find a couple of vague prints on the west bank. Going with her initial plan, she approaches the western settlement on foot, landhopping and arriving fairly quickly - taking just about a half hour to reach the town limits. There are chimneys a hundred feet tall and lights of windows gathered all around the rocks. This is some sort of steampunk mining town built into the rockface, iron struts, gouts of steam, walkways and huts with gas lanterns. On the ground level, there's a visitor's inn that's easily accessible. There's not that many other businesses still open, though she could seek them out.

Heading in there, she finds a bit of a party underway - apparently one of the miner's birthday, with the still grimy labourers hanging about the inn's bar area and being generally rowdy and rather drunk already. There's a pretty but unassuming girl behind the front desk that people keep buying drinks for. She eyes Reina as she approaches. "Anything I can help you with?" she asks, unsure. "We... offer a bath with every room," she remarks, unable to ignore the mud that coated the girl. On the wall behind her is a large food and bedding menu.

[Princess Tracy]

Minami

Grandpa nods, wrapping his robes around his unused arm. "I see... Yamanaka would be proud. You'll make a great medic, I'm sure." He stares out over the grounds, his eyes resting on the puddle of blood where Minami found her patient. He nods towards it and one of his ANBU quickly takes the hint, analysing the blood and quickly following the trail back to where Minami first saw her. "There it is then..." A second nod is all the approval they need, the ANBU performing a few hand seals, spawning a clone in a puff of smoke, and sending the clone on the path to track her back to the time of the attack, before the original returns to grandpa's side.

"Don't worry, you did more than was expected of you, and grandpa's handling this now," he reassures Minami, giving one of the rare smiles with his sour-wrinkled face. "I hear you showed the insight of a genius, and its out of your hands. I would tell you to retire for the day to recoup, but you are not my student. I leave you with your judgement. Try not to wander alone though..." He cringes again as his ANBU move to lead him into the hospital, but he suffers in silence. Yamanaka may be the only one that knows the nature of his injury and its treatment, and she hasn't said a word even when asked directly. He mutters something to his ANBU...

Perception check DC 15 to overhear

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The pain he feels keeps him from being nearly as quiet as a ninja should be when whispering, as he intones "I feel it in these old wounds... something has come to the village. Watch over Minami..."

The Aburame ANBU pauses at the hospital doors, turning back to the medic-in-training. "Minami-chan, do you have a key, even an emergency key, to Yamanaka's medicine stock? The policy among Jounin is to respect privacy of the other Jounin operations, but Yamanaka would understand, knowing her philosophy." It was a philosophy she would say often - 'to heal without prejudice, and above all do no harm among countrymen'. Despite her outward strictness, Minami had seen her occassional act of kindness, helping sick civilians lost in the swamp. However, she often seemed fairly need to know when it came to ninja operations. Interpreting Yamanaka was left in Minami's hands.

Whether she has access to share and whether she does or not, the ANBU and grandfather soon disappear into the hospital proper, leaving Minami to her own devices. She is free to shop, go home, train, study, or even return to the surgical theatre if she so chooses.

If Minami leaves the hospital

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Perception DC 25

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You're being tailed by one of grandfather's ANBU

[Princess Tracy]

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

Tsume creates an immense distraction with his antics as he tosses Kaza, catching the considerably taller girl off guard with a surge of strength that breaks Rikku's focus on whatever she was doing. "WHAT ARE YOU-" Kaza cries out, demanding explanation until the air whipping her face cuts her off. Tsume's plan seems immediately foolish, as the technique clearly requires some training to perfect, only by the purest fluke is it remotely battle ready as he tosses the poor girl, all the while giving Hisashi the distraction he needs to quietly place the tag without any obvious attention. The clone's eyes widen as she quickly spins, thrusting forward, desperate to make good on her threat as the foolishness of her opponent thoroughly catches her off-guard. "Tsume!" Rikku calls, entirely too late as Kaza hurtles through the air.

Kaza crashed headfirst into the clone, instantly reducing her to wax that oozes to the ground and coats the airborne Uchiha's head, with plenty of momentum to go as she, still spinning in midair, crashes back-first into the cocoon. It cracks, splintering down to the little rapier as it dissolves into wax with the clone, Kaza leaving an imprint on the now fragmented cocoon, a look of utter shock on her face, wax in her hairr, as she gasps for air, hair eyes' colour fading back to black, and passes out from the pounding Tsume just gave her. She flops lifelessly to the floor, crashing facefirst into the wax, leaving a silhouette where she crashed. Rikku stands staring in shock. The inactive Tozawa peers out from behind his terrified cover at the group, then retreats a gain.

The silence holds for a good few seconds before Rikku bounds forward, flexing her strength as she drives her fingers into the gap - the crack that Tsume made, quickly and carefully pulling it apart. She tosses several parts of the construct to the side, until she gets halfway down its height, but still there's to Yamanaka present. "If that's the case, then..." she nods to herself. "Alright... Yamanaka-san's fine. And this Uchiha's still breathing. Hisashi, keep an eye on that Sana while I figure out a way to arrest her without giving her any opportunities." She seems to be contemplating her options as she quickly approaches the big ball of wax that Sana sealed herself in... "Good job, Tsume. But you already knew that." She smiles brightly as she passes him by. "I would tell you to know your limits, but I've plenty of time to beat that knowledge into you when we get back," she remarks, winking at him.

((Everyone roll me 2 perception checks and... just for fun, 1 reflex and one 1 will save))

[HanaRei]

Reina arrived some time later after her initial delay. It had bothered her a bit how long it took, but she hoped that it would help give her more time. At the very least she hoped it might create enough time to find Kaza... given her friend had even escaped in the first place as she suspected. It didn't help at all she couldn't even follow the tracks for a sign that it was her friend to begin with.

Reaching the village, the girl couldn't help but gawk and awe at the place. It seemed so... strange... so new. It really did bring her a sense of excitement. The girl shook her head a bit, attempting to quell her emotions. Focusing on the task at hand was the most important. She didn't want to be taken back without knowing about Kaza first if it wasn't avoidable. At the very least she would accomplish that!

Going into the Inn, she was a bit taken back by the rather rowdy crowd. It was something she didn't see all that much in the village at all. She shook her head a little as she walked up a bit closer hearing what she assumed to be the inn keeper's remarks. "I'm fine, I was just hoping to see if perhaps you seen or heard word of a Uchiha passing through by the name of Kaza?" She questioned, mentally facepalming herself at her approach. It would be quite suspicious given people might know more about her. At the very least it wasn't too likely that anyone even knew she was missing, and her identity as far as she knew wasn't very well known outside of it.

Her head turned up to linger briefly at the food and bed being offered. As nice as it sounded she had to try and focus on the task on hand. Sleeping in the woods wouldn't be that bad of a thing. In a way, it was perhaps just as good as taking a room. She kept her eyes fixated on the woman though not at all sparing listening into the room if she might hear any lingering rumors from the loud drunks around.

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Perception: (1d20+6)[16]
Persuasion: (1d20-2)[3] (In Case to get details!)

[Jacior]

Tsume lands dramatically, on one knee punching his fist into the ground, before straightening up and watching Rikku pry the wax apart. He grins wildly, as he suppresses his strength and speed to normal levels. He throws his hands up in the air and then falls backwards onto the ground. "I'm tired." He announces looking up at the clouds.

He grins up at Rikku when she passes him by. "Not bad for my first mission huh? Found the targets, saved Yamanaka-sensei, beat a weird-eyed girl at taijutsu, and I stopped Sana and Kaza from getting away!" He gives her a look when she tells him to know his limits. "I have no limits Rikku-sensei. I will be the best. Even better than you." He's very intense about this, if the look in his eyes are anything to go by.

[Princess Tracy]

Reina

The girl's lips purse as she eyes up the obvious-looking professional soldier, trying to figure her out, all kinds of hearsay-based mental calculations in her head as her eyes drift to your swords, and search fruitlessly for your headband. "Uchiha? Like, from that hidden village?" she repeats, shaking her head slowly, obviously wanting bailed out. A gruffer man from yonder bar approaches in an apron, possibly the owner, taking the girl's place. "This town's loyal to the King, you won't find anyone who'd spill the beans if there was someone like that... I'm not gonna ask any questions, stranger, but please, we don't want no trouble," he suggests, his voice gruff but shaking with understanding, all sane citizens rightfully afraid of shinobi. "Please, we offer our services, but we don't know anything..." he says, shaking his head. If anyone knew, they weren't saying. Certainly not to such a direct question from such a suspicious individual. Listening in on the party, Reina isn't able to glean that much more useful info, just random gossip about loose ladies of the night and the difficulty of mining while drunk, the loudest voices in the room are the least useful. On the off-chance there were whispers of missing-nin, she can't hear them. Though more than a few people do seem to be confering among themselves and staring in Reina's direction, the more sobre seeming ones anyway. Though not the lipreader, she can only guess their tone is apprehensive

Reina knows the general location of the ninja villages; the closest from here, discounting the ash, is a toss-up of the Ridge to the West and the Marsh to the North. There's a number of civilian settlements between here and either of those places they could be, including a city that Aiko often talked about to the North. The conventional wisdom is that a ninja often stays a ninja with their focussed training, so missing-nin will often sign up with other villages to avoid going into business for themselves. Whatever the case, it's clear this town would take more than her less than silver tongue to work. She can either keep working the people around town with some other tactic, or return to putting some distance between herself and the village of ash, in which case she's free to decide what supplies to gleam from the inn and when to set up camp

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I feel so bad for giving you nothing to work with

Tsume

Rikku shakes her head. "Don't get so excited. It isn't over yet." She paces over to Hisashi's side, noticing the tag he left. "Huh." She strikes a stance. "Right, how's about we crack this open and I finish her off?" she proposes, setting herself into a stance, ready to lash out when Hisashi was, aiming to to coordinate well enough that Sana wouldn't get a chance to fight back.

She pauses a moment, breaking her focus at Tsume's last taunt, and looks over her shoulder at him. For just a moment, just the blink of an eye, he feels an incredibly heavy, hard presence against him, like a tonne of bricks being dropped to rest on his ribs, and a fighting intent so strong it bleeds into murderous - for just a moment, Rikku doesn't seem a little girl, but seems like a beast of strength and dignity, a dragon. The energy that licks at his very being is overwhelming, and for just a flash seems to remind him of his much he has left to grow. And then, like that, it's gone, and Rikku's standing there smirking innocently at him, no one else noticing the apparent hallucination for even a second. "Oh? Don't get ahead of yourself, Tsume. But we'll see, my dear student, we'll see..." she says with a giggle as she turns back to the cocoon, all innocent.

[HanaRei]

Reina watched her expression changing to a rather uneasy look. Hearing her voice she looked a bit surprised. She bit her bottom lip looking a bit frustrated as the man stepped up. She could tell they weren't at all anxious to answer in regards to her question. Perhaps changing her clothing would of been a better option given they assume she was some other ninja.

She let out a soft sigh, fighting back her frustration. Her eyes lingered briefly back at the crowd. She could hear a little of the background talk though not much of it being very useful. She sighed a bit fumbling through her wallet looking for what she might be able to use. It was a bit surprising when she was offered something to go, looking a bit puzzled by it. "Ah.. .th... thanks?" She spoke a bit taken back.

Heading out, Reina let out a soft sigh. It wasn't very likely she would be able to get much from the village. Considering the reaction they gave it was apparent she ended up leaving them feeling uneasy. She closed her eyes remember about a village to the north Aiko use to tell her about. Making up her mind, she headed forward, planning to travel for some time to create distance before resting for the night.

[Nyan]

Hisashi watches the display Tsume preforms with an unimpressed expression, paying more close attention to the clone and her actions, as well as keeping and eye on the cocoon that is placed beside him. He then saw to his supprise that Yamanaka was not inside the cocoon she had been incased in. "Wait...if she is not there then..." He thought before it suddenly hit him.

"Rikku...Yamanaka sensei used her space-time teleportation technique correct? I saw her use it once she had chosen us to graduate." He said with a collected tone when Rikku came back to him and stood by the cocoon. When she later asked if he would help her crack the cocoon open he looked at it and thought for a moment, pointing at the tag he had placed upon it. "That depends. If we are going to capture her then alright. Tho of what I can remember this is an assassination mission after all correct?...I could just detonate the tag, and since as we saw before the clay is flammable, she will probably not get out of it alive." He said being extra clear when making his point about the mission being an assassination.

[Jacior]

The blood drains out of Tsume's face at Rikku's demonstration. She really was strong. Stronger than even his imagination had led him to believe was possible. And she wasn't even a jounin. If a special jounin was that strong, how powerful was Yamanaka-san? Could Rikku-sensei beat Yamanaka? Was she that strong?

Looking down at the ground, Tsume clambers back to his feet. His arms and shoulders visibly shaking as his head hangs down. "There's that much of a difference between us?" He grips his hands into fists and looks up at Rikku. "That's the kind of strength I'm going to surpass one day?" He's not shaking out of fear, rather, he seems... eager. "I'm going to need to do a lot more training!" He walks over to where Kaza was passed out on the wax. "Where did Yamanaka-sensei go?" He pulls a band of wire from his pack and starts tying Kaza up.

[Karrth]

Kamatari froze when he realized he was spotted. He didn't want his new teacher to die on his first day on the job. For a moment he was paralyzed with indecision and in that time Tsume manages to react fast and destroy the clone and thus save the day.

And thats when he realized that this was what it all was about. That it was the ability to make this kind of hard decisions and follow up with swift action. He would need to be better at both if he wanted to be of use to the village.
Perception
(1d20+1)[2]
Perception
(1d20+1)[19]
Reflex save
(1d20+4)[19]
Will save
(1d20+2)[20]

[Princess Tracy]

Reina

The innkeepers are quick to give her whatever she wants to get her out of town quickly. Some bread and butter and local fruits, wrapped up in whatever paper is on hand. The road is calm for the most part, and she can comfortably get in about 4 hours of land hopping before needing to rest. She finds plains and forest on the way, the mountainous terrain gradually getting more flat and damp as she theoretically approaches the village in the marsh. As she makes herself comfortable for the night, making some bedding among the trees, she finds her eyes drawn to the moon. Aiko never liked her looking at the moon so much, but it was so pretty. It was scary, like looking over the ledge at a great sight, this landscape most fantastic, yet with no railing - she might fall off, plunge in, her feet at the ledge. She feels like she could just step forward, lose herself a little close to that wonder... it is a terrifying thing. Her dreams are filled with shadow and flame, Aiko and Kaza...

In the morning, she discovers writing on the paper that her meal to go was wrapped in, that she couldn't read in the night, whether because she tries to junk it or finds herself rationing the food. It's some sort of wanted list - according to a note at the top, it says the inn and 'all places of business' are to distrubute them, the latest rogue soldiers list. A bounty list more than anything, and dated 2 days ago. She finds another one from five days ago - the latter much thicker. According to the notice, there was a mass prison breakout and judging from the list they cleaned up well, the most recent list only contains two remaining names uncaught out of the initial two dozen. Uchiha Kaza (genin) and Sana Suri (chuunin). Citizens are said not to approach them, but to inform their local Shinobi Official, and descriptions are given of each of them. With her information gathering, Reina wasn't even aware Kaza had been jailed, much less that she had escaped. In that case, it seems all the more likely she'd seek out amnesty... it's been two days. She may have been caught already.

In total, Kaza's put nearly 40 miles between herself and her ninja village, heaving almost dead north. The surroundings of mud and vines as she heads further into what she passively knows was once the 'land of shadows' from Aiko's old stories seem all the more unfamiliar - 30 more miles was where Ash Village ninja were told teh Village in the Marsh was to be found, though she lacked an exact map. She's running low on food, and there are several villages around. With how quickly the prison breakers were found, it seems she'll have to tread carefully...

All ninja know of the treaty between villages. No ninja are to interfere with business in the other village's territory. If Kaza's outside the Ash's effective borders, basically a country in its own right with its size, then she would be their problem.

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

Rikku shrugs her shoulders. "Yamanaka always keeps her chakra invisible, but I could sense it inside her prison, faintly. I figured it was some sort of substitute technique. She'll probably be nearby." She ponders Hisashi's explanation a moment. "Possibly... I don't know, she keeps her abilities well hidden. But I know she's a master of avoiding combat. 'A medic's place is not on the front line', after all." She shoots Tsume one last smile as a reward for his determination before rounding towards the issue at hand.

"Hmm... are we supposed to kill her?" she asks, actually wondering. For the monster that Tsume just glimpsed her as, she seemed either too kind or too dim to recall that their goal was assassination. "Hmm... well, maybe she'll live through the explosion? The wax is all hard. Does hard wax burn? I don't know... Alright, get back, kiddo, I'll take care of this," she orders Hisashi, deciding she might as well take the burden off of the genin. "Guess I might as well cut loose. Sorry to snatch your mission from under you, but I think you lot have earned your stripes anyway."

Tsume

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Tsume only

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Tsume spots a shifting of the wax as Hisashi and Rikku talk; Sana performs some sort of technique to let herself out of her own prison, and sneaks around with it as cover, aiming to quickly find some cover and distance from her little wax bubble. She seems to be plotting something, and already forming hand seals as she moves

(roll an opposed initiative check to see if you can warn everyone before her attack lands.)

Kamatari

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Kamatari only

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As the others speak, and you ponder cautiously, you see a familiar form approach from the trees, pacing around the clearing and folding her arms as she observes everyone else intently. No one else seems to notice the unscathed Yamanaka, oddly, implying there's some sort of genjutsu at work. She looks over her shoulder at Kamatari as she feels herself being watched, and waves at him, before pressing a finger to her lips to signal for him to be quiet. She slowly heads over to the cocoon...

[Jacior]

Tsume nods as he finishes knotting Kaza into a hogtie. "Our mission was assassination Rikku-sensei." His eyes widen as he suddenly sees something behind the others. "HEY! YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION! WATCH OUT!"

[Princess Tracy]

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

Tsume shouting a warning alerts Rikku, and the Jounin spins around to see Sana - outside the cocoon trying to get in position. "DAMNIT, DIE!" Fearing Hisashi looking at her again, even though she's not clear of the battle site, she freaks out and goes for it, forming only a single hand sign. Suddenly the wax cocoon, large and empty, fractures and explodes out in a molten blaze of wax, aiming to cake everyone nearby. Tsume and Kamatari being near Kaza puts them entirely too far to get caught in the splash, but Hisashi isn't. His reflexes betray him, he's about to be blown away... Until a rather serious Rikku steps forth and pushes him to the side, taking almost the entire attack, wax overcoming her so all he receives is the superheated air of the explosion. As the genin watch, after that flash of activity, a large radius of the forest has quickly caught fire and Rikku's figure has crumpled into a pile of flaming wax.

Sana looks absolutely scorched and tumbles, struggling to stand from her own attack as she looks over her shoulder, grunting as she finds the genin still alive. "No... this pathetic piece can' be how my work ends. Art is not an explosion!" She gathers her strength, ready to run shortly

Damage

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Hisashi takes (2d6)[7] fire and force damage and must make a DC 10 Fort save or be knocked back 5 feet and prone.

Sana left a hole in the cocoon that means no wax heads her way. However, she makes a (1d20+9)[19] DC 15 Reflex save to half (4d6)[17] force and fire damage from the explosion

Rikku automatically fails her reflex save to give Hisashi his cover. She takes (4d6)[12] fire and force damage and is ignited violently and knocked to the ground

Positioning

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Kamatari and Tsume are 40 foot from the centre of the explosion, Hisashi is 15 feet before knocking. Within 10 feet of the explosion, everything is in flames, including Sana; she's 10 foot north of the explosion, putting Hisashi 25 foot away from her, and Kamatari and Tsume 50 feet. Rikku is adjacent and in front of Hisashi. The flames are spreading quickly.

The 'shadow' Kamatari sees is on the other side of the fire, having posotioned there quickly when Sana exited

Kamatari

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Kamatari only

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Yamanaka looks actually surprised when she sees Sana exit the cocoon, but keeps her wits, maneuvering around and avoiding the attack to move in for the kill, forming hand seals. Her plan seems to be to eliminate Sana before tending to RIkku, eyeing the downed and unseen Jounin for only a moment before coming to that decision

[Nyan]

Hearing Tsume shout he would quickly turn around to see Sana outside of the cocoon and being far to surprised to react at all he fails to dodge himself when the cocoon explodes in a fiery explosion. Not even having time to brace himself he gasps slightly when he is pushed away and by Rikku and tumbles to the ground still badly burned from the intense heat.

The pain makes him scream at first as he squirms on the ground for a few moments, cold sweat running down his face and his eyes dazed and confused. "I was...To careless...NGH!" He mumbles to himself as he tries his best to get up making a hand sign to bring forth some chakra despite his quite severe burns on his hands.

Looking up from the ground as he snapped out of his daze seeing Sana standing on the other side of the flames. He crinches a bit more from the pain and glares at her with murder in eyes. "YOU WILL NOT! GET! AWAY!" He screams at her as he pulls his burnt arm back, the wind starting to spin around his forearm before he screams and punches towards Sana, firing a sphere of wind through the fire and straight in to her, knocking her 5 feet back with the force of his jutsu.

Breathing heavily with sweat pouring down from his face, his clothes burnt badly even more so than his body he crinches and shouts from the pain as he falls to his knees. Closing his eyes and gritting his teeth he tries to do his best to suppress the pain from his badly schorched body, being far to weak to help Rikku even tho she is lying almost infront of him.

Actions.

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Swift: Tap from chakra reserves, 3 points, using hand seals. (DC: 15 + 3 - 5= 13)
(1d20+10)[12] ((Remove 2 if the thorium effect does not apply to this))

Move: Stand up

Standard: Gale crusher.
Ranged touch attack. Knocked back 5ft and prone if hit.
(1d20+2)[18] + (1d6)[3]

Damage.
(2d6)[12]

[HanaRei]

Having made her way out and safe, it felt so surreal. The very night just strange. Her eyes lingering upon the moon, gazing at its wonder as if in some strange daze she couldn't explain. So odd... so entrancing. It almost felt as if her mind was drifting from her body as she finally closed her eyes under the moonlight. Aiko... Kaza... Her voice softly called out. Watching as blue flames seemed to engulf her dream... and then the two being slowly swallowed...

She gasped out shaking her head a bit taken back by her odd dream... almost nightmare. A cold sweat on her frame. She shook her head a bit as if to straighten herself up. [COLOR="rgb(47, 79, 79)"]"Such weird dreams... why the hell do I dream such stuff."[/COLOR] She spoke under her breath in distaste for her own mind.

It didn't take her long waking up that she did notice the paper, much to her surprise. Her eyes glanced over it as if to double check it twice. So those headbands... it could of been them. She thought to herself, looking over the second individual, not quite as familiar with them. Her head turned up, recalling the village said to be up north. I have to try going there. If there was some place Kaza likely went, it has to be there. Fixing herself up only briefly, the girl began to move north, heaving quickly out to avoid both her own capture as well as to find her friend.

[Karrth]

In a mere few seconds the mission went to hell, The god damn Jounin from the other team got blasted to hell. Kamatari knew that the enemy would be dealt with by Yamanaka if not already dead by the jutsu that just hit her.

No, seeing to the safety of the wounded was more important, So he left his place in the tree and ran into the clearing, trying to avoid the flames, and then tried to pick up the badly wounded Rikku.

[Princess Tracy]

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

Sana barely turns, terrified as she finds Hisashi still standing. "No... die! Die! Die!" She forms hand seals, trying to finish him off, wax arcing up from her finger tips, but she's far too slow to the draw, and Hisashi's attackrips through the air towards her. Her eyes widen, her body freezing as she looks down, seeing the hole Hisashi just punched in her ribs, time standing still for a moment before she launches head over heels, falling bloodily among the flames.

Rikku's body is aflame and caked in wax, the very wax that would be burning into Hisashi's body right now if she didn't take the fall for him. She wriggles, struggling through her semi-solid constraints, obviously in pain and barely able to move. That she hadn't passed out was amazing. Smoke rises from the inferno Hisashi finds himself in, obscuring sight as delivering his attack causes him to stagger forward. The explosion racked the nearby trees, damaging them even more until the one behind Hisashi gives way. As Kamatari dashes forward, the tree splinters into two, the wax burning its branch till it gives way - a branch as big as the genin drops down, flaming and battering them.

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The branch falls in Kamatari's path. He must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be crushed underneath, taking (1d6)[6] fire and (1d6)[3] bludgeoning damage. He can free himself with a strength check vs. DC 10 on his turn as an attack action, and can perform as if prone and entangled. He gains a +2 to the reflex save if he stops running before the branch falls instead of gunning it. Even pinned, he'll still be able to perform techniques normally

Make a DC 15 Control Cursed Seal check to avoid activating the cursed seal from the extreme emotion of such conflict.

Just then, Hisashi finds his reflexes kicking in oddly, his hand drawing his sword behind his back, the blade shining white as it Torasi's weapon deflects some of the blow, enough for him to tumble forward in relative safety, though it flies from his hand, cracked and tumbling into the flames before him. he falls between the branch and Rikku, both quickly spreading flames all around - the fire having 'inhaled' his fuuton attack to be fanned horribly. Battered and choking through the heavy smoke and distorted air, Hisashi would be lonely in his death... In the flames, he swears he sees the flames burning the ninja-to that protected him up not into ash, but into beautiful, white feathers. Everything seems to slow as he feels himself ignite, too weakened to get away. He feels a tingling in his chakra pathways - everything seems to... slow down... He can see every frame of the flames, and there's a colour to Rikku.. straining, he can see i, a flame in its own right, dying to burst out but knowing it would hurt Hisashi to do it. In the end he lives only by the efforts of his allies.

Kamatari hears an order piercing through the inferno's ruckus deafens Hisashi inside. "KAMATARI. Perform a fuuton technique at the ground, hard as you can. Don't hit Hisashi!" Yamanaka orders him to help her with the flames, unseen through the flames now, but making herself known to everyone except Hisashi. There's a spray of water from the banks of the nearby river signalling a fuuton technique, and some other foam entirely is added to the cauldron of destruction. If Kamatari aids in time with them, then the flames are utterly extinguished to the last drop as his fuuton is just what Yamanaka's plan needed to distribute fluid. Otherwise, only some flame remains on the wax around Rikku

As the shroud of flame lifts, all eyes can now see Yamanaka clearly, standing beside what looks like a 20-foot long, white and blue slug. The wax is now covered in water and something stringy spewed from the slug's mouth. "I told you learning to expel fire extinguishing fluid wasn't a waste of my training," the voice apparently coming from the slug declares. "Not now, Princess," Yamanaka replies as she looks down at her students, successfully commanding silence from her summon. If Rikku's still flaming, Yamanaka thinks a moment before telling the slug to extinguish it, spraying whatever it was over the wax, leaving the special jounin in a wax coffin around her figure. "We'll pry her out in a moment."

She turns her attention back to Hisashi, her eyebrow raising at the state of him an Kamatari, but she remains silent a moment as she bends down to Hisashi, performing a technique to quickly start healing him. "Hold still..." She works impossibly fast, despite all his knowledge of how laborious and slow medical techniques were, she's able to quickly discharge a clearly high level technique to heal him for (4d8+15)[41] damage on the spot. "You should have ran."

Everyone has a chance to take stock, and Kamatari standing beside Hisashi might just get a look at his now red and odd, tomoe-patterned eyes like that Kaza girl. One tomoe in each eye. Across from them, Sana lies, her chest rising and falling, her wounds still bleeding and clothes scorched, forgotten till last. The slug starts to split, becoming four slugs about the size of each of the genin, and heads around like a set of crawling ambulance stretchers as they go and pick up Kaza and Sana.

As Yamanaka speaks Hisashi finds even healed he seems to be seeing everything with that same, odd dilation, his eyes cataloging everything. He can remember everything in the last few seconds like they were still happening, an odd feeling that's making him lose his sense of place. When he next blinks, he finds himself sitting on a slug as Yamanaka lays him on it like a hospital bed. "Try not to move much." She leans forward, patting his head. "Control the chakra, close your eyes. Concentrate on my voice. I'll explain when we return to the village." With that advice, she hopes to deactivate whatever effect has overcome the lad. If he follows it and focusses on what is her, his chakra will realign and his dojutsu end. With that, she turns her attentiob to Kamatari, patting his back. "You did a good job, now... relax... Wouldn't want that 'birthmark' out of control. You did well..." With her off-hand, she casually applies some sort of medicine to Sana to stop her bleeding her last.

With that done, the slugs get Kaza, Sana and Hisashi to ride on them, their bodies having enough stick to care for their passengers as they take them away from where Rikku is still stuck. Yamanaka tuts as she paces away. "Get up, 'Ryuuken Rikku'. We both know that's not enough to keep you down."

She turns to Tsume in particular as she paces away. "Status report," Yamanaka demands as she waits on Rikku. "What happened after 'I' got trapped?"

[Regalus]

Minami can't help but smile abashedly in response to her grandfather's comforting praise, "I just did what I should've done," she replies visibly calmer, her kneading coming to a halt, the implied 'thank you' showing in her reserved smile, "I'm going to stay a while longer grandfather, atleast until I've completed my shift," she replies politely as she joins the pair in their trek back to the hospital proper.

Upon receiving the ANBU's inquiery the young Aburame grimaces slightly, "I do..." she begins with slight trepidation, "But I'm not allowed to let it leave my person except in emergencies, if you find someone willing and capable of giving grandfather his treatment and require part of Yamanaka's share I'll retrieve it for you,", she adds in compromise; for while she did not wish for her grandfather to suffer more than necessary, neither could she betray Yamanaka's trust or place potent drugs in the hands of those who might not be able to properly administer them. Doing so would be a level of negligence neither she nor Yamanaka would likely abide by outside of the most dire of circumstances.

Upon entering the hospital once more, Minami gives her short farewells before going back to work; returning to her duties and keeping an eye on Sohaki's operation, rather than reentering the theater as a distraction. She could do more helping around the hospital then standing in the Theater twiddling her thumbs, and reminiscing on recent events.

[Jacior]

Tsume is completed overwhelmed by the sudden burst of activity. Sana blowing up the wax cocoon followed by the sudden fire and then Hisashi straight up brutalized that girl. And then the fire got worse and Hisashi collapsed alongside Rikku. Even Tsume wasn't fast enough to beat out Yamanaka's sudden appearance and expert fire extinguishing. At least they were safe.

Yamanaka was certainly more... efficient than Rikku was. She took over and did everything. And then she wanted him to report. This wasn't his thing. "After 'you' got captured, Rikku and I engaged Kaza and Hisashi engaged Sana. I have no idea where Tozawa went. From I can tell, Hisashi effectively took Sana down by himself, other than here blowing herself up I mean. 'You' nearly died in that cocoon, but I improvised a little and threw Kaza at the wax clone that nearly did 'you' in." Tsume, surprisingly, didn't talk himself up like one might expect.

[Karrth]

Kamatari sees the falling branch too late and even as he jumps forward he understands he made a mistake, he wasn't fast enough and in an instant his shoulder and back is burnt and he can't hold back a cry of pain.

Knowing time is of great importance to complete his technique he wastes no time getting free but he while he gets out he gets burns on both his hands as he removed the branch barehanded.

Just as he got out he felt it, the icy presence in his mark on his neck. He'd only once managed to unlock it but the after effects had taught him that the seal, or what ever it was, had a will of it's own. He fought the presence for only a moment and then it went back to it's usual dormant state. But then it returned in an until now unknown amount of strength.

Kamatari felt the ice in his veins, the feeling of the rush of power that was so great he felt like there was a thunderstorm inside him, power filling him up. But the pain was there was well, along with the feeling of the icy presence that took a hold in his body.

To the outside world the signs of his inner struggle took the shape if his "birth mark" expanding all over his body like a spiderweb. It was made up of small drop shaped dots connected by a small spiderweb like thread.

Gathering his chakra in the practiced fashion, and even while lying down he forms the seals and forms the techniques chakra pattern in his body and then adds more chakra to the mix, making the technique stronger and then lets out the attack against the flames, aiming at the area where he remembered Hisashi wasn't in.

The added power from his mark made it seem like child's play to perform the technique but as soon as the flames died out he concentrated and forced the mark back into it's dormant state.

[Nyan]

While Hisashi fell to his knees after his attack he was gasping for air as he felt the smoke made it harder for him to breathe. Just then he heard a loud sound of the branch giving way above him before starting to fall down towards him. But he then suddenly felt as if his body reacted on its own, his eyes glancing up towards the branch it looked as if it was falling is slow-motion.

As if he reacted on instinct he drew forth his sword and shielded himself giving him just enough time to tumble away even tho his body was wrecked with pain as he was still severely burnt all over. Now lying down on the ground inside the burning inferno he would look around to see everything moving slower than usual, every detail of the flames he could make out clearly as they came closer and closer, seeing his precious blade disappear in white feathers he would try reach out for it but he could not move another muscle. Would this be the end? Is this what you see before you die? These thoughts crossed his mind when he felt the flames starting to burn his body tho he would not even be able to utter a single scream as almost all the air in his lungs were gone.

Looking over to the side where Rikku was he could make out the strange color emitting from her and he wondered what it was "Why is she... Not saving herself?... What is she...Waiting for?..." He thought before looking up towards the sky, the pain of the fire burning his body almost forgotten as he was in some kind of trance. He felt as if he was going fade away at any moment and it terrified him, but he felt some sort of inner calm despite all of this. Perhaps he was just delusional, being so near death he that could feel it creeping closer and closer."...I'm sorry... Trace... I guess I will not be able to keep my promise... Please... Forgive me..."

With that last thought he would close his eyes and prepare to succumb to the darkness only to feel the fires around him and on his body extinguish with water. Opening his eyes when he saw Yamanaka come to his aid, telling him to hold still. He did not have much choice in that matter tho since he was in far to much pain to even move a muscle and his throat too dried up to even scream. Only breathing in ragged gasps every now and then as he tried to breathe in some fresh air. He felt how his pain started to disappear and his wounds would start to heal but even so he still had this strange delusions or whatever it was. Was he still in shock from the experience? Why did everything look so different from before? He thought while the horrible experience was so fresh in his mind it was terrifying him.

Before he knew it he was lying down on one of the slugs and he would look up at Yamanaka as she spoke, he could not really hear what she was saying as so much was going on in his head but he could somehow still understand her as if he was reading her lips. Closing his eyes and trying to focus his breathing would get slightly better. "...My... sword..." He said with a ragged and almost incoherent voice, pleading even, to get to know what happened with it as he wanted to have it back.

[Princess Tracy]

Tsume, Hisashi, Kamatari

"You seem rather stuck on that point," Yamanaka remarks around the third time he emphasizes 'you'. "Recall how you met me on the road - what would I be doing here alone when I have students to tend to? When you can answer that and learn more of ninjutsu, perhaps you can answer that by yourself. If you had all ran and left Rikku to fight at her fullest, the situation would have been handled without almost killing Hisashi." She pats the blonde genjutsu prodigy's head. I can't believe that woman let him fight the primary target alone - a fresh new chuunin no less. What does it take to demote someone these days," she bitterly remarks as she paces about. "No slitting their throats, by the way. As a marsh-nin I wouldn't normally have access to such a specimen for the Sana clan's bloodline." Her eyes scan over to Kaza, an odd flickering of sympathy about her, odd as it was. "Hmm... I wonder."

She pauses as she hears Hisashi asking for his sword. She looks around briefly, finding a cracked ninja-to. "What on earth did you block with this?" she comments as it nearly falls in to when she goes to pick it up. Finding the sheath on his person, she does him a favour and stores it away. "Whatever it was, I'm sure it would have finished you. Let your blacksmith worry about that, and just try and get some sleep. Your eyes will be fine."

Yamanaka winks at Kamatari. "And I hired you because of that birthmark. So don't worry, 'kay?" she reassures him, having glimpsed his transformation. "You'd only be 'undesirable' if you continued to go untrained. Breathe deep and calm down."

Once everyone's good and clear of the site, suddenly the wax explodes outwards - in a way that would have hurt Hisashi if he'd still been sitting next to the flaming Rikku. No wonder she'd been holding back doing that. As the dust clears, a girl stands there, but... she's not like Rikku. She looks about double her age, and far more toned in muscle, but she's wearing the same clothes as ever, the purpose of her ever-baggy clothing becoming apparent as she fills it out a lot better. Her chest rises and falls as she stumbles dizzily, staring our from behind her scorched fringe, her body covered in deep burn marks. Steam rises from her wounds, her flesh knitting itself back together rather miraculously. Yamanaka shrugs as she observes - "Hachimon Tonkou: Second Gate, I see. I suppose you had to earn your rank somehow."

Rikku keeps pumping chakra into healing herself, and as the group watch she rather elegantly recovers, her stance becoming normal as she walks over casually. "A second or two earlier might have helped," she remarks, her voice much more refined as she addresses Yamanaka. "How long were you there?" Her skin is far more tanned now than it was a little while ago, and she has trouble controlling her strength from the sudden change, her feet kicking hard against the ground to signal the difference in effort to move between this form and her usual one. Her apparent de-aging ends when she limbers up her stiffened muscles beside the group, leaving her in her late teens or older - though her foreign features make her hard to place in terms of age. She looks a little taller than Yamanaka, and still slim despite her muscles, though her figure does show her as a woman.

Yamanaka tuts as she starts performing medical techniques on Kamatari and Tsume. "If you'd fought in that form, you wouldn't have got hurt in the first place. If you need a handicap to train, I'd say safeguarding fresh new genin is more than enough. If you're not willing to fight or act like a jounin, why should you be any more than the genin you're content to fight on the level of?" She's actually furious with the grown up Rikku, who squirms uncomfortably, not too fond of such verbal conflict. In such an argument, the angriest party wins and Rikku simply isn't angry with Yamanaka. She hands her head a bit until Yamanaka loses interest.

"Come, children. We're done here." Yamanaka leads everyone north without so much as checking back in at town - the other genin somehow knowing to come there on Yamanaka's terms. Her slugs escort Kaza, Sana and Hisashi, them passively resting on 'Princess' as the splintered slug drifts across the marshland. Yamanaka is rather cautious in making sure they're well hidden, not wanting to be ambushed by swampfolk on the way back to the hidden village.

Tozawa's still shell shocked and not speaking much beyond when Yamanaka checked him for wounds. The same goes for the other genin of RIkku's team.

In the back row, Rikku hangs around with Tsume, casually in her new form. "Phew... I'd go back to my training form, but I'm pretty low on chakra," she explains with a smile. "It was good training though," she tries to make conversation far back enough Yamanaka won't deride her for it. She smiles, patting Tsume's head. "Take the rest of the day off, Tsume. We'll train more tomorrow. Probably the best first mission I've ever seen."

Yamanaka keeps Kamatari to herself up front, and is largely silent, in thought unless spoken to.

Once they're back in town, everyone can do as they wish to rest up for the day. Except Hisashi...

Quest Loot!

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Everyone gets fully healed.

Everyone gains 1025XP from the fight. And 500XP for the successful completion of a C-rank mission. And Tsume gains 200 XP for his improvised attack, Hisashi gains 200 XP for dominating someone about twice his level, and Kamatari earns 200 XP for being such a good sport. And you all gain 25 XP for boundless patience with this 6-month first mission -_-
TOTAL: You all gain 1750 XP. That's just 1250 from level up!

Everyone can make a profession check with a +2 bonus as if they leveled up to see how much wealth they earn from this mission. Even untrained, make check.

Everyone regains 1 extra action point for being rad

Hisashi gains access to his Sharingan. He may indulge in personal training to get used to the feeling, but mechanically can activate and use it as he pleases. It has a few interesting features I've added to that found in the book, to be discussed later

Everyone has the rest of the day to themselves, except Hisashi...

I'll decide on how to dish out training time in a bit

A headshot of the apparently normal aged Rikku

Hisashi

Yamanaka escorts Hisashi to the hospital when he wakes up. "How do you feel?" she asks. It's as good a time as any to ask any lingering questions he can think of. The fog's thicker this afternoon than it was in the morning, a dangerous air of mystery to the village as they head towards the hospital doors.

Kamatari (assuming Kamatari heads home)

Kamatari returns to the orphanage to find his caretaker sleeping. Such a nice old lady... he could wake her to tell her the story of his first mission. She did insist he'd tell her and let her know it was alright. There's no one breaking in to hold him at knife point at least. Before he split off from Yamanaka though, she told him to return that evening to the hospital, so she could make sure he was alright after his mild transformation

Tsume

Rikku walks Tsume all the way back to his house, though waivers on her feet. "Just low on chakra. It's fine, I'll be all better tomorrow." Yamanaka had kept offering her a trip on her last slug, but Rikku refused the charity. "Endurance is my forte in training."

Tsume finds the bakery's oven just shutting down for the day, and his parents inside, their last few customers getting their 'best in the village' specials before they officially closed shop. Rikku heads off to her own home unless he feels like introducing her to the family. He's free to ask her about her appearance at any point in the journey, or anything else for that matter

Minami

The ANBU nods uncertainly. As a clan ANBU, her loyalty was ultimately to grandpa, but she knew better really. "Very well... I wouldn't want to breech the confidence between teacher and student, and you are a clan heir. I'll trust you to it. I'll take care of Jounin-sama as best I can." True enough, Minami was of Juukuzu's direct line, he wouldn't spend time on arranging her training so much otherwise. The ANBU waves goodbye as she escorts her ward to someone capable of treatment.

When she gets off of her shift, she finds the operation for Sohaki has wound down a lit, peering into the room's showing she's looking stable, for now, and is just on life support until Yamanaka-sensei shows up. As she leaves the hospital to conclude her shift, however, as she's walking down the paved path out of the grounds, quickly she's rushed past, as three whole bodies in stretchers are rushed in, the medics bumping past her rudely though not without good cause, glimpsing at them. Their blood looked a rusted black now, as they barely gripped to life, their bodies destroyed by powerful slashes. It's incredibly familiar, and out of her hands. Among the three wounded, one wears a Relic Team headband, and another an ANBU mask, while the last is just a little girl...

There's 4 slugs in the distance bigger than Minami, so there's no mistaking it as Yamanaka-sensei's coming up the slight hill to the hospital, several patients in tow. She doesn't seem in much of a rush at present - she may be just getting back from her mission with her new team now. She has three people on those slugs that she can make out, and she had 3 genin. Oh dear...

Reina

Aiko told her all kinds of stories from her missions in the Marsh. Beware the Deepmarsh, and its natives. They are madmen all - cannibals and bloodlines are common among them, and you'll hit them before the village without a guide...

Reina's able to quickly cut into the swamplands, ignoring the borders of the territory and 'no man's land'. There's some villages on the way for her to explore for supplies, though past the borders she can't find any more wanted posters. She runs into difficulty as she heads into the swamp though, as the extremely unfamiliar terrain makes picking landmarks to navigate almost impossible. Trusting her natural sense of direction and remembering some of the depressions on the map, Reina's able to take a rough stab at it all the same, figuring she's within at most, like, 5 miles of her target village when she gets there. She starts searching around, possibly in a grid pattern as she sticks mostly to the drier land, lacking a marsh ninja's ability to traverse the swamp easily. She doesn't find any sign of civilizatiion though, just tree after tree and pool after pool, al the way unsteady earth that her feet sink deeply into as bugs fly about her, swarming and nipping and going for her food. It's possible she won't be able to find it just by scanning areas of dry land though - no doubt marsh-nin can at least navigate the murky swamp water more safely than she

It's pretty late in the afternoon when she stumbles upon something... disheartening...

As the sun looks close to setting off in the distance, things getting ever more foggy, she looks around and could swear she's seen this clearing before. Looking down, she finds a set of tracks - two actually. A set of footprints matching her own footwear... and two more tracks, one human, one something else entirely. She's getting nowhere with this case from the angle of brute forcing her way to the village instead of contacting them somehow - she's come around in circles, and now... she's being hunted.

The further she progresses into the swamp, the clearer it is she's not alone, or at least it feels that way - the darker it gets, the more she feels like she's being watched. The moon will be full tonight. The moons light might keep back those shadows... the swamp isn't safe. Not at night. She can run and leave, or hide somewhere, or even wait and face them. All her choice. But who knew when she might be found now. And the moon rising over the mountains, the mountains of the village of ash that she hails from, it makes her blood boil....

"Let... me... out..." comes an order from her imagination. Surely her imagination...

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Survival check to gleam information from the tracks, including a guess of what the creature is. The human set of tracks is wearing even-heeled slippers, giving no useful info except for their evasion of information and their minimum shoe size

Whatever plans you set up for, roll me an initiative and a perception check. It's on now.

[Nyan]

Hisashi slowly opened his eyes to find with great relief that everything seemed to be back to normal. But despite this he was still feeling light-headed and a bit disoriented from the experience. He saw how Yamanaka came back with his half-broken sword and as she put it back in its sheath he would reach out and take it even tho he could barely move his arm. Looking at it for quite a while as if he was thinking about something he would then try to take a deep breath and close his eyes, trying to get some sleep as instructed. Not having the energy to even ask what had happened.

He would eventually fall asleep as they started moving but he was not sleeping peacefully. In his dreams he saw the horrible and terrifying scene with the flames surrounding him, slowly creeping closer to burn him and snuff out the last of the life he had in him. Igniting his body the pain would be almost frighteningly real as if he was experiencing it for a second time, remembering every detail of the event unnaturally clear and it was terrifying him. Outside of his nightmares he would be squirming a bit in his sleep, groaning every now and then while cold sweat would start to pour down from his forehead.

Seeing the flames engulf him one last time... Being left there to die over and over again... All alone within that burning inferno his eyes would snap open as he woke up. Barely keeping himself from screaming he would return to reality and would look around franticly. His breathing irregular and ragged as he would realize he was somehow back at the village. He would then notice Yamanaka watching him and he tried to hide his terrified expression from her by looking away as he closed his eyes tightly. Hearing her then ask how he was feeling he would remain quiet for some time before eventually responding. "I'm... Fine..." Seemed to be the only thing he could respond, even tho he was visibly trembling while his hand would clutch around his sword noisily.

"Kh!... D-Dammit! Stop shaking you coward!" He cringed when he would realize the sorry state he was in, drenched in cold-sweat and shaking uncontrollably and in front of the white captain none the less. "...I... Failed... Didn't I?..." He would suddenly ask Yamanaka with a low and disheartened tone, still turned away from her as he did not want to look in to her eyes. Gritting his teeth and grasping his sword tighter as they would walk through the hospital doors.

[Princess Tracy]

Hisashi

The slug feels like a beanbag chair as it moves along. Yamanaka eyes him occasionally, adjusting her glasses. When he tells her he's fine, she immediately shoots back with "Liar. A doctor doesn't need to hear their patient lie about their condition." She's a bit spiteful, but at least honest with the lad. "No one's 'fine' after unlocking a bloodline like that."

She adjusts her jacket for the breeze as they head along, looking down at him confused, ever so slightly. "Failed? No. You performed beautifully and defeated another genius years more experienced than you. When the second enemy showed up, I wasn't expecting you to even fight. The mission was a success, I don't know how you can think otherwise" She pats his shoulder as they draw up to the hospital. "Remember, Hisashi. You weren't going to burn. Because your allies didn't let you." Torasi was more than an ally, and her sword had pulled its weird, somehow. Perhaps his thoughts should rest more with the feathers than the fires. "Remember. It's possible to do everything right and still fail. You succeeded but almost died. As your protector, only I would be a failure in that case," she says slowly, feeling foolish herself.

"I'll explain everything to you when we have the privacy of my office."

Minami & Hisashi

As Yamanaka approaches the front gates of the hospital, Minami gets a look at her patients. A strawberry blonde in horribly burnt clothes, her side ruptured by a fuuton technique, a dark haired girl with the build of an Uchiha, and sure enough, that genjutsu prodigy from the Academy, Hisashi - now awake with a shaking grip on what sounds like a broken sword. Yamanaka herself is tall for a marsh-nin, even for a man, and has platinum blonde hair and thin-rimmed glasses. The White Captain as always bears her white jacket that drags to her knees, a rather baggy thing that hides her entire figure, and her equipment. There's that sharp look to her eyes as she's spotted her student from far off. She pats Hisashi's head, as she nods as her slugs draw up to Minami. "You seem shaken, dear. Could you get some nurses and stretchers and tell me all about it? These two are for the secure wing, and this one's for my private wing," she explains where to take them, indicating to Hisashi in the case of the latter. Hisashi looks badly scorched and fearful, though Yamanaka's already seen to his wounds for the most part. "Hisashi, this is Aburame Minami. Don't mind her - she's my assistant and pupil. There's nothing you can say around me that you can't say around her," she remarks, showing her trust in her fledgling medic

[Nyan]

Hisashis would quickly get quiet as he was scolded by Yamanaka, opening his mouth to respond but ending up not saying anything. But he would then finaly turn to look at her once she mentioned him unlocking a bloodline. "Bloodline?...What are you talking about?" He asked and it was clear he was not even aware of what had happend but with further pondering he cocluded it would have something to do with his eyes but no matter how much he thought about it he could not figure out what it was.

When she then told him that he had actually succeeded he would once again give yamanaka a suprised expression. After all he did not even see that he hit his last jutsu because of all the chaos, so he assumed that it had failed. Then as she patted his shoulder he would still stare at her an listen to her words as he would slowly move his eyes down at his sword. Holding it infront of him he would close his eyes and once again think back to what had happend, the event almost seemed recorded in to his brain as he recalled every detail. But this time focusing on what he saw the sword do inside the inferno, scattering in beautiful white feathers as if it was a guardian angel watching over him.

He was actually put at ease by this and he gradually stopped shaking, whiping of the sweat from his face with his arm he would nod slightly at yamanaka once she told him she would explain everything. Not minding the pat on the head as if it did not even happen.

Being then transported further and having Yamanaka's assistant Minami introduce to him he would look her over slightly with his clear blue eyes before nodding at her. Now sitting up on the slug rather than lying down, grasping his blade in his lap and looking down on it. His clothes schorched almost beyond recognition with his rather semi-long blond hair flowing behind him with a bit blowing in his face every now and then only to be readjusted behind his ear. "The name's Hisashi." He said breifly to introduce himself before then resuming to look at the blade grasped in his hands and waiting to be transported in to the hospital. "Wonder if Torasi will know I'm back..." He thought as he was thinking back on what he had said about visiting her as soon as he got back to the village.