End of Hidden Autumn IC, Episode 2: The Elite Council

[Princess Tracy]

OMNES

Its another bright day in the village hidden in the leaves. Except for Senjou of course. The sun is high, the people are bustling about, and one would hardly suppose that the country was just a few days removed from war or that the Hokage was missing. Yes, war had torn the village apart once more, thinning out what was already perhaps the least of the remaining great villages. It needed new leadership. Today's Jounin exams would make eligible all those that were thought capable of joining Konoha's Elite Council, its ruling class of Jounin, and bring flesh blood that it was hoped would revitalise the village. Do your best, everyone...

Senju Kyoji

Fuuhana makes no secret of her presence when Kyoji meets her prior in the morning, standing tall and proud among the streets of Konoha outside the Senju compound where Kyoji had spent the night. Though with Kirimaru missing and Domo out on some kind of mission, things were kind of quiet - coming in at the end of the day, only a few from the branch family of Senju Tobirama who greeted him with surprise more than anything. An aunt and a few cousins treat him to a dinner and ask him a little of his travels, an uneasiness around some of the males in particular around the Living Disaster who they had not seen since even before puberty a few of them, but everyone just seems to quietly agree to not bring up the conditions under which he left the village for now. Perhaps the absence of Kirimaru was making them yearn for the comforts of family, of course if Kyoji were to bring up his status as Kirimaru's replacement in village affairs, that might only dredge up the spectre of him being the heir - an heir who had been absent from their lives for some time no less no matter how you look at it. Probably best to avoid that on the first night back if you hope to enjoy the comforts of a warm bed for once. Ayashi, Kirimaru's wife from outside the clan and your Aunt, eventually orders one of the Genin boys to give up his bed for you for the night - whether out of fear for you or respect (also fear) for his mother, he eventually sighs and agrees, showing you to his room after supper.

Spoiler: Listen DC 15 (-10 to check for sleeping, I think is the penalty)

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Kyoji's sleep is disturbed by the sound of whispers, a woman... saying his name? As he stirs however, the whispers turn to shuffling and by the time he opens his eyes he finds himself quite alone. Was it just a dream?

Spoiler: Spot DC 20

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If he inspects, Kyoji finds a single red hair caught in his window.

It's the next morning and Fuuhana stands at the boundary of the Senju compound, making the ANBU beside her shift a little uncomfortably behind his bear mask. "Kyoji, I heard from Hoshi-hime that you intend to stay in this village. She's already left - apparently her friend Himeko is not present. She claims she'll see you on the road sometime, or come visit before the end of Autumn." Knowing Hoshi, there may have been an added note of 'if he's too shy to come looking for me, I'll come to him', but of course it was all in jest. Dragons have pride in individual might and trust each other to go their own way. It wasn't uncommon for Hoshi to just vanish for weeks at a time if either she or you had business to tend to, though of course she didn't make such a habit of that when you were still a 'hatchling' summoner in need of more supervision. Nowadays your chakra was in that sort of ridiculously strong tier as her's, the great prerequisite for being a dragon summoner that she drilled into you, and it seemed to be enough for her to act aloof with even her apprentice. "What have we in store today then?" your familiar asks, pulling you back to earth.

The dragon princess accompanies you unless told otherwise, as you presumably eventually head over to where Kurama had told you to meet at dawn. At the village gates, you find them opened rather wide for a country just a few days removed from war, though of course not unguarded. And a familiar face is there, too. Uzumaki Kurama stands with her hands on her knees, bent over a little as she talks to a little dark-skinned girl of maybe 15 years old, her forehead protector holding back her sleek black hair, and a dopey look on her face of one not really following what was being said to them. Kurama talks to her accordingly as one would address a 6 year old. "Mhm, remember its an important mission. But like I said, the Living Disaster has been seen in town so..." Kurama turns her head towards you and smirks from the side of her face away from the girl. The girl looks towards you too, blinking in confusion. "Oh no, he's here, the bad man is here!" Kurama explains in a scream, clasping her hands to her cheeks in shock. The girl gasps, striking a defensive stance. "No, Kiba-chan, you must complete your mission, here, I'll hold him off." She tosses the girl some sort of scroll underarm before turning to face you head on.

"B-but Uzumaki-san..." the girl starts to object, apparently trying to be brave.

"Just go, or it will all be in vain, he'll kill you if need be!" Kurama shouts and soon enough, tears in her eyes, the girl turns tail and sprints away at a surprising speed for one so young.

Kurama relaxes her stance, staning tall as she clears her throat and dusts off her collar. She waves before addressing you like nothing just happened. "Yo, Kyoji," she says, dropping suffixes in calling his name. "Sorry about that, just setting another ball in motion for my ever perpetuating schemes, y'know. Ready to start your Jounin exam?" So lighthearted for one that was acting just moments ago like Kyoji would strike her down. Was this part of the test or did she have nothing better to do?

Uchiha Senjou

Senjou is greeted at home with a bit of a party, Noma and Mamoru and their many seperate children (and ninja cats) coming together for a celebration - apparently assuming you'd received the go-ahead to take the Jounin exams. With the way they acted one would think you'd already been accepted to the Elite Council and working on his platform to campaign for Hokage! Of course that didn't necessarily mean cheeriness all around. Uncle Okumura was absent as was often the case, though Mamoru shrugs it off with something about duty and medicine, two mutually exclusive explanations that indicate a lie in there; Okumura could charitably be described as a grump, though who wouldn't be if they had to chug pills like no one's business just to stand under their own power. And a few of the youngsters seem a bit bratty and resentful that you're the bigshot heir now - perhaps after being away so long they'd hoped Mamoru wouldn't favour you as much, but it seems your adoptive father's enthusiasm had only grown. Poor dears were craving such attention, and shot him the glares only bitter rivals could.

Following the Eighth's directions, sure enough you find yourself in the old part of town, in what could charitably be described as ruins. A great stream is followed down the valley of the mountains beside Konoha to reach the original buildings - were you better equipped for city planning you might see the patterns of the emerging townscape over the past few decades on the ten minute or so walk that few ninja had to make these days. From down here you can better see the Hokage Mountain, for the faces were originally angled towards here; Lord Hokage 1 through 5 originally stood here, above the leaf headquarters, though from here you can see that the tradition continued right through to the Ninth even though the monuments are too far to the East not to be seen from most people's homes. Even Seno's dad, the Sixth Hokage is up there, though it seems the bottom half of his face has been chipped and fell away from the nose down, leaving his full appearance something of a mystery. A huge crater is at the foot of the village - its common knowledge that a single shinobi laid waste to the town, and that his defeat at the hands of Uzumaki Naruto is what gave him the confidence of the people to become the Seventh Hokage. The town was never fully rebuilt down there, though you see a lot of the preliminary wooden structures are still standing. These days the numbers of the village had dwindled significantly, and the smaller land of the higher ground that the majority of the village now inhabited suited it better.

It's a chilly evening, only the light of a near-full waxing moon, the stars and the active village to guide your way, the sun thankfully having only just set and still the darkest part of the night had yet to come. You're able to make your way down to the crater and keep gong, right to the oldest part of town at least in terms of abandonment; from the Clan symbol at the gates, you can recognise it as the old Uchiha quarters, where your clan had lived before the Slaughter of Itachi. You're greeted by a pair of ANBU, cloaked to hide their form and wearing each a frog and fox mask when they seem to appear from nowhere. "Uchiha Senjou. Your trial for the role of Jounin is to be conducted under private conditions this evening as detailed in this scroll. Speak of it to no one," the frog mask says, holding out a scroll with a gloved hand. When Senjou takes it, the ANBU nod. The second he starts to read the scroll, they seem to take the opportunity to slip away, as they seem to be quite gone.

Spoiler: Mission Scroll: Trial of Jouninship (Uchiha Senjou)

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The Uchiha ruins have long held a treasure even your clan is unaware of; a scroll containing the forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha clan. Before he vanished, Uchiha Sasuke seemed to cast a series of jutsu and traps over the area of the compound making it inaccessible for our agents to retrieve. As a bearer of the Sharingan you may possess a better chance than most of penetrating these defences that ward off non-Uchiha, and it should otherwise be 'trivial' for the leader of the Jutsu Theft Squad. Find the scroll, bring it to the Elite Council building by sunrise, and tell no one of what transpires this evening and you shall be appointed rightfully to the Elite Council.

- She of The Foundation

Even out here, the shockwave of the Dread of Old Konoha's attack had been felt and many of the buildings had collapsed or looked quite dilapidated; the Uchiha had become near extinct before the attack of Old Konoha, so its no surprise that no one had much interest in restoring this part of town. Perhaps recalling the tales of Mamoru of this place might help you locate possible places for such a scroll, otherwise you'll have to use your own initiative and ingenuity to start scanning the compound. You have total run of the place and are free to explore as you desire.

Spoiler

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Make a Ninja Lore check to see how much relevant info you have on this place. Feel free to make any other checks you feel are relevant to start your investigation.

Ogami Hanako

Getting up bright and early the next day, Hanako has a few hours to herself before her test starts at noon. However, she can't seem to find her sensei anywhere so has to find other company or spend her time alone as she gets ready. When she arrives, she finds herself on the outside of the forest of death as instructed; beyond a flimsy chainlink fence lies a stretch of miles and miles of incredibly dense forest that you can only see a few trees into from here. Three ninja stand around in flak jackets in a way that marks them as obvious Chuunin like herself, and Rock Lee, the old man with incredibly jet black bowlcut hair and bushy eyebrows stands around in tights and a flak jacket of his own, saluting as he greets you all. He bows deeply. "Hello everyone, just wait patiently while I await the actual overseer of this test. Everyone's quite busy today, so I'm just here to guard the gate and make sure no one cheats apparently. I'll just be doing some warm ups, feel free to join me, uwooooh!" With that he drops down and... starts doing push ups? The other chuunin rightfully look at him like he's insane.

One girl in particular speaks up, with short black locks of hair that would mark her as... you're not entirely sure what ninja clan actually. "Are you serious. I'm ready to become a Jounin already, lets get the show on the road - what do we need to do?" Rock Lee doesn't respond and the black haired girl just looks rather cross. The rest of the Chuunin talk among themselves to kill time for a bit but sooner or later all attention turns to Hanako. The girl from before speaks up, "What's this little girl doing here? ...Those rumours aren't true are they?" she questions. By her side is a boy in sunglasses and another girl with honest-seeming eyes and a curly smile, neither of them doing much to draw attention to themselves but all three seeming at least passingly familiar with each other.

Spoiler

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I was going to offer you a chance to make ninja lore checks on your opponents, but it seems you don't have any ninja lore training. Feel free to introduce yourself and have a chat before the exam. :P

An ANBU eventually appears, wearing a frog mask and hands Lee a package before running off again, always secretive with such black ops. "Oh, okay..." Lee mumbles, opening the package and reading a note apparently addressed to him inside. "Hmm... okay then. Apparently I am manning this after all, someone else's test is stretching on further than we thought. Here, there's four scrolls in here, they'll explain the test but you're not to open them until you're a few hundred yards from the entrance apparently. Head in when you're ready, but only one at a time."

Hanako is free to volunteer at any position she wants out of the four as Lee holds up 4 tied-shut scrolls. If she doesn't insist on being first, then the noisy girl from before steps up to go first. She's free to talk before heading in, but once she's in she's able to open the scroll at her leisure. Inside it tells her her mission.

Spoiler: Ogami Hanako Scroll

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You hold in your hands one of the five scrolls involved in this test. Your opponents hold three, and the Jounin opponent holds one. To find the Jounin, go to the control tower at the centre of the forest of death, dead ahead of where you entered. This will take several hours to reach at a walking pace due to the density and hazards of the forest. To pass this test, you must gather at least two scrolls from the other competing Chuunin or one from the Jounin. Full promotion to Elite Council offered immediately on return with all five scrolls, otherwise promotion scaled accordingly with a judge deliberating on circumstances.

The Chuunin all have skills designed to hit your weak points, Schoolgirl-chan, but the Jounin is in your wheelhouse and will give a straight up fight that better suits you. I would recommend avoiding them, doing what stealth you can and heading to the Jounin - its your best bet, really. Stealth and Genjutsu are problematic, after all~

(The last section is scratched in with a pen until the rest of the scroll. Is... Is Taro helping you cheat?)

You are free to explore the forest at your own pace and in your own way. Great trees maybe hundreds of feet tall and in places a dozen or more feet in diameter surround you, great branches overhead. If you did as instructed then you see no sign of your opponents by the time you've cut into the forest and read your scroll. Not yet anyway.

Hyuuga Jin

Jin's test invites him to the Hokage's office - his own mother's office overlooked by the monuments to herself and the other Kage past. You find it rather empty bizarrely, you've never seen it so still, so quiet. Perhaps everyone was busy - your mother wasn't around, god knows why, and perhaps her servants were busy volunteering to help with the Jounin exams. You knew they needed to be held quickly after all, to fill out the new council as quickly as possible... and it seems you'd been invited along too. Was it about damn time?

Arriving at your mother's office, you find she isn't there, of course. No one's seen her since her fight with the Tsuchikage, at least no one you've talked to. But you do certainly find a woman, a woman whose face you don't recognise. A red skirtsuit, short red hair, a confident smile. "Hello, dear. Your Jounin exam is quite simple. All the wartime-emergency exams tend to be, not following regular procedure," she says, looking at a space just above your shoulder. She holds out a piece of paper and beckons you forward with a wiggle of her finger. It's folded over simply saying 'instructions'.

Spoiler: Instructions

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Hello, Jin-kun, sorry I couldn't greet you in person, and sorry you didn't find your darling mother here. Anyway, as your mother's son I imagine your skills lie in the Byakugan perception and the Jyuken combat. As such I found a suitable test; my assassins will attack you, subdue them and leave this building alive to become a Jounin. Simple, no?

-Uzumaki Kurama, your New Worst Nightmare <3

When the woman thinks you're done reading, she smirks. "Last chance to activate your Byakugan. And... begin!" She claps her hands and suddenly she disappears in a cloud of smoke. A Kage Bunshin? Suddenly you appear to be alone in the room... or are you? There's a chill in the air that you recognise as intent to kill...

Spoiler: OOC Instructions

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Give me two spot (and listen) checks. The first set of checks is made when you first walked in the room, the second is made after reading the note. And naturally make an initiative check, if you please.

Mibu Kazuhiro

Ryuji doesn't come home that night. Creepy bastard was no doubt on the prowl. As for your father Chiraruzu he pays your cousin no mind when he goes about ordering the maids to prepare you a feat of celebration. "Heh, you say that buzzard, did you? Well I hope you gave him what-for. That bastard is on his way out. I might even take up my old seat on the council when he croaks it or everyone realises he's a hack and has him exterminated from the force." Your father long held to the belief that his rival really had no talent as a strategist, and was just the master of flukes when it came to crazy off-the wall situations. The tension in the household is unexceptional - it is every bit normal for a standard of good manners to be upheld in the prestigious Mibu clan. "I've taught you my techniques, now you need only put them to use."

Arriving at the training grounds the next day, you find a substantial crowd of young-looking ninja of all shapes and sizes - though you would safely guess all genin from the way they gossip and lounge around. They don't even immediately bow to your presence so you have to give them the benefit of just not knowing who you are. At the centre of the crowd of maybe two dozen genin, you find two flags, a red and a gray, and sitting down with his back to him is that man - Nara Shikamaru, the dusty old strategist, the Genin around him loudly whispering their thoughts on such a washed up looking man. "Oh good, you're here, we can get this over with," Shikamaru declares, yawning as he rises to his feet. "Here's the thing, your test is two part. The first part is simple: beat me in a game of capture the flag to attain Special Jounin status as a battlefield tactician. Part two determines full Jounin-ship, but we'll get to that in a bit... anyway, here's the deal. Before the game of capture the flag starts, you and I can convince as many of these Genin as we like to be on our team, and once we're happy with our teams, we'll take a 5 minute break to fan out from each other and plan our moves. After that, we'll take as much time as we like until someone can hold both flags. Simple, right?" he says, covering his mouth as he yawns again. "You take the red flag and go ahead to start gathering your team now. As for me... Heh. Everyone that goes on my team will be put forward for the next Chuunin exams if we win," he declares. All of a sudden the talk of how bumbling the old bastard is gets two sided for once, as the more ambitious students edge towards being on his team. You may want to make a counter offer if you want to beat Shikamaru's ploy here.

Spoiler

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Make Ninja Lore check to see if you're able to pick out the cream of the crop, and at least one Diplomacy check to rally for the general crowd to come to you. From there you can try additional Diplomacy checks to take specific people if you don't screw up enough or Shikamaru doesn't get bored waiting.

[ZeroNumerous]

Senju Kyoji

Kyoji treats his distant family carefully. Fortunately Domo wasn't there, because the news of Kirimaru's disappearance still caused trouble with the young man. He would need to address and assuage the family's concerns that he would be returning soon. Domo was their leader, even if the clan's traditions dictated that the eldest would take the title. He sees no reason to agitate his aunt, but he does ask about his mother on the off chance that she was still willing to talk to her son. Perhaps she had already disowned him? Regardless the young man does not intrude upon Aunt Ayashi's company, and tells her that he'll find his own place to sleep. After all, it would make the family feel a bit more comfortable knowing he wasn't around. When his aunt presses the matter, and even forces one of her children to give up a room, Kyoji relents in order to cause as little turmoil as possible.

When the redhead wakes Kyoji he retrieves the lost piece of hair. He sighs, disappointed that Kurama would watch him, then sticks the hair into a rolled up piece of paper. He'll talk to Kurama about it later.

Fuuhana's appearance comes as no surprise, and Kyoji just calmly shrugs when she talks about his master. "Yes, we'll be staying for awhile. Unfortunately I won't be able meet her later, so she'll likely show up sometime soon." Kyoji shrugs and sighs. "So if you want to leave, then who am I to stop you?" When she talks about going with him though, Kyoji smiles and rubs the back of his neck. "I'm being coerced to help the city, or else my morals will cause me a whole mess of problems." He laughs at his own joke, but leaves Fuuhana the opportunity to choose to follow or do whatever she'd like. Just as his master left him to his own devices, he too left his summons to do as they pleased.

He happily leads Fuuhana through Konohagakure, and stops when he spots Kurama off in the distance. He sighs, and heads toward the redhead and her little genin. When Kurama launches into her bluff about the evils of the Living Disaster Kyoji gives a half-hearted cat-like swipe of his hand. "Rawr." When the girl strikes a defensive stance Kyoji raises an eyebrow. "Huh, brave." But when Kurama orders the girl to run away he shrugs, then looks to Fuuhana. "Do you get what's going on, or am I the only one who's lost?"

When Kurama finally drops the act and approaches the young man he waves. "Yo Kurama." He motions to the dark-haired human beside him. "This is my ball-and-chain, Wind Flower Dancing Among Sword Strokes", Kyoji opens with her full title, "but Fuu or Fuuhana to us lazy mortals." A playful remark on the dragon's mentality of humans brings a smile to Kyoji's face, and then he motions toward Kurama and looks at Fuuhana. "Uzumaki Kurama, a woman who is also named after natural disasters. Oh, by the way, did you leave me a present last night?" He fetches the hair folded in paper and holds it up for Kurama's inspection. "I'm hurt that you would spy on me, but if I'm gonna have a regular visitor at nights I'll need to set up away from the Senju compound." He seems content to ignore the situation at hand, apparently taking the test as seriously as Shikamaru would. "It'll be easier for you to sneak around that way, since you won't have to be quiet. After all, if you wanted to stop in for drinks or something then it'd help if I knew you were there."

[Cespenar]

Kazuhiro responds to his father with a calm voice between bites.

"I did rattle him a little bit, but as you know, I stopped playing shogi in my childhood. Obviously he won at the end. Also, father, we talked about this before. You know that he's not a hack. He's irresponsible, that's what he is. If he'd put his full effort, you and him could carry Konoha to such heights."

He adds after a while, as if remembering something.

"By the way, can you tell Ryuji to back off from Senju-san, father? It's wasteful and ungentlemanly for him to bear him a grudge like that. It reflects bad on us, as the Mibu."

He continues on to eat, mumbling under his breath.

"It's just inefficient, this whole village."

***

Kazuhiro walks to the scene as if he owns the village, and stands facing the old genius with an implacable look. He listens to his explanation, and then raises an interrupting hand.

"Wait, so what are the rules? Nonlethal combat? I assume damaging jutsu aren't allowed either. Is it required from only us (the team leaders) to hold the flags together to win, or would any team member do? Does two different team members holding the flags count as a win? How is the "battlefield" defined? Is it the whole village?"

As Shikamaru makes his first move, Kazuhiro simply shakes his head. "Cheap."

Still, his mouth moves quick to form a rebuttal, and only then he builds his own proposal.

"People, he's just playing you. He can't promise that, you'd still need to qualify for the exams. And besides, the more of you gets in, the harder it becomes, as they will put you against each other to thin the ranks.

"Anyway, first things first. As some of you may know, I'm Mibu Kazuhiro, son of the councilmember and strategist Mibu Chiraruzu."

"I can't and won't make you empty promises like a Chuunin spot or anything. It's just this." He opens his arms before continuing.

"Do you want to be on the winning side?"

Spoiler: OOC stuff

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Introducing himself maybe would "aid" the guys in their rolls to recognize him? His reputation in the village is +6. Recognizing his reputation would end up in a +4 boost with his other rolls, as per Reputation rules.

Anyway. Taking 10 with stuff, without any rep bonus or stuff.

Ninja Lore: 21
Diplo: 27
If the last line counts as an intimidation, maybe? Because I don't know what "inspiring awe" counts as.
Intimidate: 30, just in case.

[Princess Tracy]

Kyoji

Aunt Ayashi explains that your mother's busy for the evening - it seems she's on call at the hospital. She happily tells you all about how in the time you've been gone Kirimaru has taught her basic medical jutsu, apparently the old woman was not content to sit on her laurels as a widow so she's been rather busy finding a peaceful niche for her duties since you've been gone. And she's been raising that wild Domo on top of it, what a woman.

Fuuhana shrugs her shoulders and stares at your back as she walks behind you, following. "Where else am I to go? The dragon realm is barred to me and the mortal realm is... well, mortal watching just isn't as fun without someone to pester with questions to have things explained to me, no?" she points out, smiling. "I could just ask the mortal eating the processed cow product what the appeal of this 'cheese' is, but I prefer having a dedicated man around to ask such things." Apparently that was her way of playfully saying she'd be by your side, and sure enough she follows you to meet Kurama, shrugging her shoulders at the Uzumaki's strange greeting, shaking her head when you poll her for any insights as to what on earth that was all about.

When you reveal your familiar's name, Kurama's eyebrow shoots up again. "Huh, so this is your humanshaped companion. I hope she has a nickname," she comments, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief when you explain she could simply be addressed as Fuu. Her reaction is one of a much more genuine surprise however when you pull out the hair and make accusations at her of sneaking into your room. She puts out her hand to the hair. "May I?" she asks to take it. If you allow her, she puts the hair to her head, stretching it out from her roots. It reaches a fair bit past her shoulders, but the rest of her hair is relatively short and trendy, as it was yesterday, so it hardly seems to fit. "My, you do jump to conclusions. But its good to know that if there's an assassin sneaking into your room, you don't mind so long as its me. I would suggest having that looked into," she says, handing you back the hair, assuming her innocence... at least in this case, is clear. "I could have a couple of ANBU stake out your place if you like."

"Ahem, anyway, your test for the day is so very simple I didn't even write it down. That girl that just left; she's on a mission to deliver a message in a scroll to the nearby town of Hainoyama, and is deathly afraid of you. Your test is one of restraining your collateral damage. Simply bring her back here, alive, before she can complete her mission," she says, beaming. "You can handle that without such crass tactics as burning down Hainoyama so there's no town for her to deliver it to, right?" she teases with a smirk. "Oh, technically I'm not the one in charge of this test - they wouldn't let me man your test after I was so insistent on putting you forward due to my obvious bias, so there may be other complications... but that's all you're supposed to know I suppose," she says, shrugging.

Kazuhiro

The night before, your father tells you he doesn't think so highly of Shikamaru. "Heh, only good when I feel like applying myself indeed. That's the talk of highschool dropouts, not a great general. It doesn't matter what kind of 'smarts' he has, he doesn't have the temperament, not like you or me." He sighs when you mention Ryuji. "There's not much to be done for him, he doesn't care who he disappoints much in this clan. Generally he keeps himself to the darkness anyway... I suppose I may have a word with him anyway when next I see him though. I don't want any bad relations with the Senju."

"Huh? Of course nonlethal, I won't be happy if you go killing any of the genin, in fact Okusen will probably try to get you forced off the council candidates if you do," Shikamaru says, highlighting that one couldn't rely on him to simply overlook such brutality. "Like I said, or maybe I just thought it, we can set up base wherever we want, just lay down the flags and activate the seal on them; that will designate an area as your base even if the flag is moved from there. Get both flags in your base and you win. The base can be anywhere that you feel like setting it up, though if you run into town I imagine we'll end up causing collateral damage, so maybe just stick to the forest unless you feel you can afford to buy whatever you break." When you call him cheap he actually smiles a bit. "Oh no? It is perfectly within my power to recommend people for the chuunin exams next time it comes up, it would basically ensure someone's candidacy," he explains. He didn't seem to be lying, or at the very least the genin still gathering to him don't seem to think so.

Kazuhiro is able to identify some noteables among the genin. Not all of the genin are at this weird challenge it seems as you don't see any sign of a puppeteer or an Aburame, but you do see two junior Uchiha, an Akimichi, a Yamanaka and... is that Shikamaru's granddaughter? The pigtailed girl in the vibrant pink dress and eyes glowing with a determination and life barely looks anything like her grandfather, and is staring at you in place of him, her eyes locking with yours through the crowds. It seems she's interested after all.

Nara Arisenka steps forward. "Here, I'll help you out. I want to pit myself against gramps too," she whispers, trying to not let her betrayal of the old man be known just yet. "Try playing up that he's a lazy bastard who won't support his troops. I know I can get my team on your side - the Akimichi and the Yamanaka - without much trouble."

You note the presence of at least one of the sand's transfers students, a wild eyed girl with a warfan on her back that you know to be her implement of choice for fuuton destruction. Bakuhatsu, you believe was her name? The rest of the Genin look fresh out of the academy, likely with just standard skillset. Though one girl with white hair does carry a very nice looking katana that she might know how to use. Shikamaru doesn't seem to be paying much attention to the women, for some reason, leaving them more open for you to scoop them up. "Gramps isn't good at talking to girls, that will be his downfall. With the exception of the Uchiha boys, the girls have all the best fighters here," Arisenka observes shrewdly. Sure enough he only nets one or two females of interest with his promise of Chuunin candidacy since he doesn't follow it up. So far you have Arisenka, about 4 of the faceless goons strongly on your side, while Shikamaru has about 8 tentatively interested in his side including one of the Uchiha boys. Bakuhatsu is looking between the two candidates unable to make up her mind, and indeed there's about dozen people yet undecided.

Spoiler

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Make another check?

[Eurus]

Hanako moves robotically through her morning routine, rising, bathing, stretching, eating. She finds it easy to shut off distractions, focusing on the motions of her own body, the taste of her simple breakfast. Today's outfit is much simpler, a plain shirt and knee-length skirt in identical shades of dark brown. Forearm and shin guards made from overlapping plates of hard leather add a little more protection, but she's still almost disturbingly unarmed; her outfit has none of the pockets and belt pouches that would house a normal shinobi's tools. The only weapon she takes is a pair of what almost resemble half-built iron gauntlets, covering the back of her hand and knuckles while leaving most of her fingers free for grappling.

She arrives at the meeting point thirty minutes early, and bows politely to Rock Lee when she spots him. Her mouth twitches up in a momentary smile at the sight of what she's coming to recognize as Lee-sama's tireless enthusiasm. Exhausting herself with push-ups before a fight didn't seem particularly prudent, but after a moment, she removes her weapons and starts to slowly go through the motions of a kata.

Her breathing and movements hitch slightly when the more talkative girl makes a crack about Hanako's presence here. She almost doesn't respond, until she realizes that her pause has gone on too long for her to believably feign indifference, and rises before giving a short bow of introduction to the girl and the other Chuunin.

"My name is Ogami Hanako, and I will be participating in this examination with you. Please be kind to me."

She doesn't make any move to be the first one in, calmly allowing the other girl to go first while she goes back to her kata. This time, her movements slowly accelerate until she's moving through forms at almost full speed, focusing on placing each blow and step crisply and precisely rather than throwing her full weight behind it.

When she does get in -- as soon as nobody else is actively volunteering to be the next one in line -- she wastes no time in putting some distance between her and the entrance and opening and reading her scroll. Taro's scrawled comment takes her by surprise, and she wonders at his motivations, caught between feeling grateful and nervous. A more urgent priority, however, is figuring out how to approach the test.

As she'd expected, they wanted to see if she was capable of more than just fighting an obvious foe. The smart thing to do would be to play it safely. But then, that would prove that she was an inferior shinobi, wouldn't it? One who could only handle the most basic of engagements. An immature girl, even.

If the other Chuunin's comment from before hadn't still been itching at her, Hanako might have decided differently. But she was filled with the desire to prove herself, now. Contemplatively, she peers ahead into the woods and wonders how good the others were at running...

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Hanako will start Land Hopping her way through the woods toward the tower in an attempt to beat everyone else there, raising the DC of the jump check by 5 to completely ignore terrain penalties to movement. That requires a DC 25 check, which is well within range of her taking 10.

Result is, if I'm figuring this right, moving at 70*3 feet per round, or about 23 miles per hour, at a cost of 1 chakra per hour. Slower than shunpo, but cheap enough to use for long distance, heh.

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

The Senju shakes his head when Kurama offers to watch him with ANBU. "The Hokage already has ANBU making sure I don't destroy the village. If you dispatch your own, then they might get irate at one another. Or worse: The assassin may just kill them." Kyoji shrugs. "I'll just move outside the village. My assassin will likely follow me, so no one will be in danger."

When Kurama talks about his mission Kyoji just smiles. "So I have to stop a young girl who is deathly afraid of me while anything from a squad of chuunin to a squad of jounin try to stop me instead." Kyoji shrugs. "I still can't refuse, can I? Well, I'll stop her now then." He looks to Fuuhana. "You might have to fly to keep up. Sorry, I'd take you along, but it'll be troublesome to catch her otherwise. If you see her and I don't, then could you be nice? She's just a kid caught up in stuff she doesn't understand."

Kyoji looks to the direction she had gone, then thinks to himself. A genin is, at most, probably a fifth as fast as himself. It's been about twelve seconds since he had talked to Kurama, and that would mean she'd be able to cross about a hundred to a hundred-and-twenty meters. He'd aim for a hundred and fifty meters. That'd be easy enough. "I'll go about a hundred and fifty meters ahead. You can catch up in a few seconds, right miss Wind Dragon?" And then he was gone in an explosion of smoke. Kyoji's Dimension Shift technique could cover the distance between himself and the genin easily without bothering with all the nonsense that's likely between himself and his target.

The leaf-nin looks around for the little girl, but if he doesn't find her then he'll go to a nearby tree to wait beside. He leans against it then fishes out his Konohagakure headband. It'd been a long time since he wore one, but once the band is around his head he wears it as if he'd never taken it off.

Spoiler

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Kyoji uses Dimension Shift Technique to jump 500 feet ahead. Assuming she's been running away since two turns ago, then Kyoji should be 100 feet ahead of her at this point if she's using Speed Rank 1.

Fuuhana in dragon form can fly up to 160ft/round or "run" at 320ft/round. Either way she'll be able to catch up to the girl no matter how fast she is, which means eventually either Kyoji or Fuuhana will run into her.

[Cespenar]

Kazuhiro almost palms his face as the young genin are drawn by Shikamaru's empty promise, but he regains his focus as his apparent granddaughter comes forward.

"Oh, you'd like to face against your grandfather, huh?" He examines the girl's features for a moment. This could very well be a ploy, create a veil of desperation, and try to plant an agent in the opponent's very team by using that desperation. Still, was that realistic, or was it his paranoia speaking? For what he knew of Shikamaru, he seemed more specialized on convoluted tactics and long-term plays instead.

He nods once and chooses to believe her for the moment. "Very well. You seem to have the flame that the old man lacks. Just what I need."

He turns again to the crowd, trying to come in eye contact with the girls in particular when speaking. He even puts a little disappointment into his voice, just enough to initiate second-guessing.

"I expected more of you people. You are the future of this village, and you side with the man that denies his calling, who only steps up when there's a situation big enough to hold his attention? A fine role model to look up to. Will you be the same, I wonder? Will you stay at home as well, fighting not when the people around would need you, but only if fame, curiosity or boredom urges you to?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Another diplo take 10 for 27. Unless you'd want me to roll for some reason.

[Princess Tracy]

Kyoji

"You presume a lot of the ANBU movements. If you'll recall, people are quite busy, reeling from war, and the current Hokage is away from her office so its quite possible no such order has been given to watch you closely." Kurama shrugs at that. "But perhaps you're right. I wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing after all, would I?" she remarks, giving a smirk that all but says outright that she has her insider info on the ANBU even now.

Fuuhana nods at the instructions. "Very well, she is but a hatchling, I'll be nice. Mortals chew their young to determine their wartime worth too, right?" she questions, though somehow you know enough of the dragon's ways to guess it was a bluff at her misunderstandings. As you cast your own technique, her wings manifest, kicking up a great storm of wind, the air around her shimmering as her form quickly changes into that of a great wind dragon, Kurama giving a nonchalant whistle at the display. She takes to the sky quick enough, though once you teleport ahead you see the pace of her flight is quite leisurely as she doesn't consider the girl a challenge.

Getting in front of the girl, she seems quite oblivious to your presence, still looking over her shoulder back to the village as if wondering she should turn back. "Huh?" She looks a little higher as the wind from Fuuhana's wingbeats hit her and squeals in fright at the sight of a - "Dragon! A real dragon! Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Understandably terrified and sustaining a scream, she puts her head forward and sprints through the thicker trees for cover, before suddenly grinding to a halt as she sees Kyoji, gasping as she falls to her knees. "You... you already caught up with me, then.. Uzumaki-san is..." She bites her lips and puts her hands out in front of her as if bowing. "Please spare me, Mister Living Disaster, sir...!"

Spoiler: Taijutsu DC20

Show

She's actually getting into a stance to perform the Shissou (Dash) technique, her leg out behind her as if ready to sprint the hundred metre dash as she moulds chakra in her physical form for an increase in mid-range sprinting power.

Kazuhiro

Arisenka blushes a little when you talk of her flame, like a schoolgirl being called pretty by senpai. "Th-thanks, I like to think so anyway." The Red Prince's words seem to have a bit more effect the second time, pulling on his analysis of the situation. He's able to bring what looks like over half of the students interested to his side as opposed to Shikamaru. In fact doing a quick head count including the Akimichi and Yamanaka that his granddaughter brings over, it seems you've got... 15 to his 11. Shikamaru's reputation alone wins him some favours, both from some ambitiuous students seeking Chuunin candidacy, and some less dedicated genin who want to be on the winning side. In the end even the straggler genin pick a side, the Red Prince's charisma forcing the issue until people just feel left out by not participating. For now it seemed he had the raw numbers and even the talent advantage, but... Shikamaru's side has Shikamaru and a couple of Uchiha. And that Bakuhatsu girl with the war fan, whatever that was worth - apparently hearing his grand daughter talk of his lack of understanding of women had convinced him to prove her wrong and nab at least one of the girls.

In the end your team has a Yamanaka, an Akimichi, Shikamaru's granddaughter, a white haired girl with a sword (Konpaku?) and 11 mooks to his air elementalist, 2 Uchiha and 8 mooks. "Yeah yeah, let's get started then, eh?" Shikamaru declares, yawning, apparently not minding being at a disadvantage. He hadn't exactly put his heart into team negotiations, either that or perhaps in the vector of awe inspiring leadership the Mibu's prowess genuinely surpassed him. "Set up your flag wherever so we can get this over with." He turns to his team and starts evaluating their strengths for a strategy, but doesn't pick up his flag. "I don't really feel like moving my flag so you're going to have to be the one to go away to plant yours, I think," he says over his shoulder.

Arisenka nods for you to get closer for conference once you're out of earshot of Shikamaru. "My team knows the basic techniques of our clans plus a bit extra. Onko-chan is particularly good with taijutsu and Inomusha-chan has some skill with genjutsu. Also Konpaku-san over there should be good at kenjutsu if she hails from that clan, but like everyone not from my team she's just graduated recently so hasn't much battle experience. That and she doesn't talk much so I don't know much about her." Sure enough if you look to the kimono-clad Konpaku with a sword over her shoulder she just nods in silent greeting. "On their side Bakuhatsu is powerful but reckless, her propensity for friendly fire could be exploited. The Uchiha brothers are jerks, they've both unlocked the Sharingan and like supporting people by using their mimicry to counter and deflect enemy attacks to leave them open; besides my grandpa they might be our biggest challenge since it took all three on my team just to fight the two of them evenly before, and after the last time Inomusha and I caught them in our techniques they'll be very focussed on not letting us run amok."

Spoiler

Show

Arisenka, of course, has the Plan ability and will roll it when you're ready to go.

Hanako

The black-curly haired girl sizes you up more but shrugs once you introduce yourself. "Yeah whatever, you look pretty ripped and I guess as our gracious host shows, there's apparently a demand for that in the leaf ninja ranks." All the same she quite literally turns your nose up at you as you start to work out. "You'll burn yourself out before the test."

"It is good to warm up. Kindle the flame of youth!" Rock Lee compliments you while proceeding with his own routine. The other competitors don't seem that interested, just kind of gawking at the display. But then, maybe they weren't the type for physical ability? As if to confirm, you hear the curly haired girl whispering to the guy in the sunglasses "I think there's a fundamental difference in philosophy here..."

Only the black curly haired girl steps up first, the other two don't seem so enthusiastic, letting Hanako be the second one in. Once you're done reading the scroll and start to move off however, you only get your first leg of landhopping in before you hear the black curly-haired girl. "Hey, musclehead, get back here!" she shouts, sounding a little panicked. Looking around for her, all you see if a huge ball of flame heading your way.

Spoiler

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Make a DC24 Reflex save to halve (10d6)[31] fire damage. DC25 Ninjutsu check identifies the technique as Elemental Destruction Rank One (fire). Make an initiative check if you intend to stay and fight.

Spoiler: Sense Motive DC 20 or Knowledge (tactics) DC 15

Show

She's opening with a big attack to make herself seem like a threat that can't be ignored, but in reality she saw the rate at which you were passing her by the forest and realised you would be out of her range if she didn't take a shot to do what damage she can; you are faster than her and are free to run away out of her ability to engage you in combat. In reality that kind of blast will attract the attention of the other ninja and draw them into the fight shortly if she can draw the fight out.

[Eurus]

Bouncing from branch to branch, Hanako doesn't even notice the girl until she hears the shout, and barely has time to turn her head before a ball of fire is roaring toward her. Caught in mid-jump, all she can do is raise her hands in an attempt to shield her eyes and face from the flames. Her clothes blacken and char in the blaze, and a layer of shining blisters and burns forms across most of her arms and chest.

Conscious thought temporarily overruled by adrenaline and diligently honed reflex -- if she was thinking clearly, she might have thought better of getting in a fight right here, of letting herself accumulate injuries and burn chakra when there were other opponents unaccounted for -- Hanako reaches down and grabs the nearest tree limb hard enough to crack bark and arrest her movement. Shifting into a defensive crouch on the branch, she scans her surroundings for her opponent, gritting her teeth as the pain of the burns starts to catch up to her in a dizzying wave. Fire hurt, there was no getting used to that, but she'd been burned enough to work through it for a while. She blocks it out and silently tries to spot her opponent, instinctively planning to take her down as quickly as possible.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

HP: 144/175
Chakra: 96/98
Effects: None

[Princess Tracy]

Hanako

The black-curly-haired girl from before is standing in plain sight on the great root of one of the vast trees, while yourself had been landhopping past her clearing, Hanako about 15 feet up from her and 40 feet away with no trees between you; it was the clearest, most desperate shot she could take at you but has left her totally exposed to a counter attack. "Ha! Take that!" she gloats for a moment as her flames successfully engulf you, though she pauses to look again and sees she hadn't done quite so much damage as she'd hoped. "Hah..." It was your turn now.

Spoiler: Spot DC 15

Show

Her eyes are red with a strange pattern in them, that anyone in Konoha would recognise as the Sharingan from the Sixth Hokage's statue. The girl is obviously an Uchiha, then.

[Eurus]

Hanako doesn't stop to overthink things, and she's not in a conversational state right now. Her enemy is within sight, she's in quite a bit of pain from these burns, and she has a scroll to grab anyway. These things all add up to one obvious course of action.

Veins in Hanako's arms and legs suddenly stand out as the strength she'd suppressed floods into them. With a tremendous bellow, she kicks off from the branch that she's perched on hard enough to shatter it off entirely, skipping almost thirty feet across the ground before bouncing off the dirt and flying on legs-first toward her opponent. Rather than going for a kick with possibly decapitating, she simply attempts to collide into the other girl with a flying scissor lock to bear her to the ground.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

HP: 144/175
Chakra: 96/98
Effects: Speed Rank 5, Strength Rank 5

Free action: Activate Str/Spd rank 5
Move action: Jump down and move adjacent to the girl, auto-passing the DC 15 check to reduce falling damage by 10 feet.
Standard action: Touch attack to start a grapple.

Touch Attack - (1d20+32)[39]
Grapple - (1d20+30)[32]

I believe she's entitled to an attack of opportunity, if she's holding a weapon or has combat martial arts. Current defense is 38. If the girl kawarimis away from the attack but is still within sight, Hanako may have further actions. If she doesn't kawarimi or kawarimis out of sight, that should be all.

[Princess Tracy]

Hanako

"Uh oh, Seikei-" she tries performing some kind of technique, probably a genjutsu from the way a cloned double of herself starts to manifest, but you collide before you're ensnared by her defensive jutsu. The Uchiha girl flails uselessly at you as you descend upon her, her fist bouncing rather harmlessly off your mighty bicep just as you ensnare her in a simple enough grapple that seems to utterly ensnare her. "Oh no oh no oh no..." She seems pretty regretful now a the prospect of having the stuffing torn out of her. "Listen, I'm sorry, how about we team up to fight those two, then we both get a scroll, yeah?" She isn't the master of the silver tongue; you were required to get two scrolls so such a thing would be ridiculous as you would need to get one of her scrolls anyway. In the end only one person could pass this test... well, two if the second fought the opponent in the centre of the woods, perhaps such a thing was designed to ensure no cooperation.

"C'mon, let's just be - AHA!" she suddenly twists her neck rather desperately to make eye contact with you, her reason becoming clear quickly as you see her Sharingan, and with that moment of meeting her gaze suddenly find yourself being drawn into an illusion; stakes seem to manifest to pierce your body, and bind you in place.

Spoiler

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Will save DC23 to avoid the effects of Shackling Stakes, being paralyzed for 10 rounds. Interesting because this paralysis holds your body exactly in place and explicitly says you don't drop what you're holding unlike a normal paralysis... I wonder if there's precedent to say you therefore can't let go of her now even if you wanted? XD

[Eurus]

Even a kunoichi as unstudious as Hanako has no trouble recognizing the infamous Sharingan when she sees it. For a moment, her vision is filled with swirling red and black, and illusory spikes pierce her body so realistically that she gasps in shock and pain for a moment. Her body reflexively jerks, and the stakes shatter and fade before she's even quite realized what happened. Her vision is hazed with red, and she comes very close for a moment to trying to snap the older girl's neck before she shakes it off; Hanako didn't consider herself a bloodthirsty person, but the pain and adrenaline had her pulse pounding with battle, and it took conscious effort to remind herself that she wasn't fighting to kill here. She takes one deep breath and assesses herself, confirming that the wounds from the stakes were entirely illusory, and grunts.

"...Ah. Genjutsu. Better make this quick, then. Better luck next year."

Shifting her weight, she calmly attempts to put the older girl in a chokehold, trying to knock her unconscious as quickly as possible without resorting to smacking her in the head.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

HP: 144/175
Chakra: 93/98
Effects: Speed Rank 5, Strength Rank 5

Full attacking, power attacking for -5, all nonlethal damage.

Attack 1 - (1d20+28)[46]; Damage 1 - (1d12+20)[25]
Attack 2 - (1d20+23)[42]; Damage 2 - (1d12+20)[32]
Attack 3 - (1d20+18)[35]; Damage 3 - (1d12+20)[22]

[Nyan]

Jin was rather tired by the time he arrived at his mothers office. Having just been dragged out from his bed and by force shoved outside by Akemi as she wished him good luck with the exam with a friendly yet sinister smirk on her face. Probably having something planned for him by the time he got back or simply out of amusement as Jin continued to protest about not going and weakly trying to get himself back in to bed. But neither the less he was clean, well groomed and wearing his finest equipment, the traditional hyuuga outfit with the clans crest on the back and the armor with the silvery gold sheen of thorium. The hyuuga clan's white knight in shining armor. His bright blonde hair was hanging lose down his back to about his waist much alike his mothers golden hair and the iconic white eyes of the byakugan only made him more alike his mother.

Rubbing his eyes lightly and letting out a short yawn he stepped inside his mothers office, not really paying attention to how quiet and silent everything was. Really he just wanted to get things over with so he could head home but what he did see walking through the door caught his attention at least a bit. He had not expected to see the red-headed woman but rather had hoped to see his mother again being as one could imagine, concerned about her well being after her battle with the other kage. A bit disheartened he does his best not to show it as he listens to what the woman has to say before he looks down at the note she is holding out. Scratching the back of his head lightly still seeming a bit distracted he then walks up to her and takes the note. He was not really sure about Jounin test to begin with, even less so about joining the elite-council but either way he was going to be thrown in to it one way or another. Reading the note shortly his expression stiffens for a moment before he lets out a deep sigh "Oh come on..." He utters to himself as she vanishes in a cloud of smoke as Jin lets the note fall to the ground.

In the short moment of silence Jin closes his eyes as the veins around them start to bulge out before he snaps them open again. The calm and tranquil aura he had before suddenly gone as one could feel his presence spread through the rather small room and he suddenly breaks the silence. "Five... One behind, two more of you beside him on either side and the last two behind the desk..." He said with a calm yet cold tone to his voice. Jin had not even turned his head as he had stood there in the middle of the room, his byakugan giving him the ability to spot them all and one could think he had eyes in the back of his head if they had no knowledge of this...Then his fighting spirit suddenly dropped again as his shoulders slumped and he let out another sigh. "...There I've spotted you. Cant we skip the whole you trying to kill me deal and let me leave? You can even tell her I beat you guys if you must but come on we are all buddies...Right?" He said with an awfully casual tone considering his situation as he made the probably unsuccessful attempt to avoid fighting, not really being in the mood to beat someone down, much less five trained assassins.

Spoiler: AC

Show

Activating byakugan and speed ranks.

AC:38, 34 If I cant activate speed ranks untill my turn.

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

Kyoji frowns as the girl prepares to run away from him. Just what had Kurama filled her head with? For a moment the Living Disaster simply stares at her as he considers what he would have done in the past, and then imagines the poor girl caught in an earthquake. He shudders, then sighs to dispel the imagery. With that image gone the Senju finally looks at her honestly. Wearing earrings in a fight was a good way to lose an ear, having such long hair and a ponytail is just another grapple point for your opponent in a dogfight, and the dashing technique took too long to use effectively in battle. But she had amazing stamina to run, scream, and still be willing to run some more; and she's a fast thinker. The Senju briefly considers who taught her before finally actually speaking to her. "Uzumaki Kurama is back at the village. Safe and sound. A battle between us wouldn't be over in a few seconds, and might flatten most of the village if I didn't draw her out of Konoha first." Did the Living Disaster just admit that someone else was more of a threat to Konohagakure's safety than himself? "You're a pawn in my test for jounin-ship, so I don't want to hurt you. However, I have a mission to bring you back to the village, and I'd like to do so without causing you any more trouble than I already have."

Then Kyoji makes one sign with his right hand, and teleports in front of the young genin without fanfare or the explosion of smoke. He then extends that same hand, specifically avoiding using the dragon seal covered hand, in a gesture of friendship. "So what do you say we go home? You can see for yourself that the village is still standing, Kurama is alright, and this whole thing was a ploy by a young redhead who doesn't get out enough to annoy the both of us." He smiles at the obvious joke, and tries to let his own good nature show through. "Then maybe you could teach me how you run so fast. That'd be really useful, and it's not a common thing for ninja to learn."

Spoiler: Combat Actions

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HP: 176/176
Chakra: 137/154(Reserve: 50/50); Spent this combat: 5 for Dimension Shift(1st round) 10 for Blink Gate(2nd round), 2 for Speed and Strength Rank 5(2nd round).
Defense: 26.

Kyoji IDs Shissou on a 1, so I won't bother to roll since he's unable to fail barring sudden Taijutsu penalties. If need be though: (1d20+19)[32].

Actions: Swift Action to use Blink Gate, teleporting up to 120ft to appear in a square beside the girl.

Full Round Action: Kyoji attempts to Channel Hashirama to explain that he's not a bad guy. Assuming neither bonuses nor penalties: (1d20+17)[30].

Spoiler: Potential AoO

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If she provokes an AoO, then his AoO will go for grappling her as gently as possible. He'll release his speed and strength ranks to make the attempt. Touch attack to start the grapple, she gets an AoO. Attack: (1d20+17)[23]+2 if Fuuhana is considered on the same battlefield due to Might of the Summoner; Grapple: (1d20+19)[35].

[Princess Tracy]

Seimeidorobo Miroko

It's a nice, quiet day... though, not at all, as you were invited to a Jounin test. It seemed in the end your antics won over your interviewer, that or they were too afraid or too desperate not to have you tried. The Hokage has kept you on private retainer as part of her Yonton division since you defected to join the Leaf, away from the prying questions of the other villagers. But it seems in Himeko-chan's absence you've been left to fend for yourself and must strive to pull your own way through the ranks; you had never ascended past Chuunin, after all, in any of the villages before this, perhaps that would involve sticking around too long. Most people in Konoha have no idea who you are, the name Seimeidorobo (Lifesnatcher) only being a nursery tale of terror back in the Water Country, and those that do know you trust you little.

You find yourself outside of town, in a clearing of the vast trees you'd come to recognise in this land, surrounded by some big name faces. Akimichi Daito and Hatake Seno greet each other readily enough as they converge around the same time as you to meet with Yamanaka Mao, flanked by a few ANBU.

The tall girl with white hair and elbow-reaching fingerless gloves opens up. "Hey Daito, how's the haps?" Seno asks, waving cheerfully to the Akimichi. As you recall, they were on the same genin team.

The Akimichi girl looks nothing much like her clan, handily fitting into a slimming black dress and even wearing heels - such a princess-like fashion hardly suited to a ninja nor a giant melee type. "Hm, rather well I would say. I lost 5 pounds this month, apparently warfare is good for burning calories," Daito responds, haughty as ever, tossing back her hair as she speaks.

"Heh, good job I guess? I dunno, is it healthy for an Akimichi to diet this hard?" Seno asks, the words seeming tired - such a conversation was routine, even.

"My techniques work just fine without being a ball of lard, thank you very much. In fact..."

"Right, that's enough, I have tests to run if you'll recall," Mao interrupts. Though his short hair was a pale blonde, the young Yamanaka clan head's appearance is rather average, right down to the flak jacket uniform. One would think he would have more style from his reputation for flair and disguise, but of course you know the value of 'averageness' when it comes to slipping by unnoticed. Average height and build, grey eyes, the man was just another face in the crowd, not seeming much interested in anything. He nods for you and the two other girls to approach as he hands you each a scroll explaining your test, and his voice is uninterested.

Spoiler: Scroll: Test Instructions - Miroko

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Akimichi Daito and Hatake Seno believe you're just another team mate for their test. Their goal is to simply pit themselves against Peinto no Ami and obtain a scroll. You must use your trickery to ensure they do not return with the correct scrolls, but instead slip them a pair of replacement scrolls and ensure the originals remain or are returned to Ami. Doing so would best be accomplished while they believe you are their ally; return with a scroll of your own to pass.

As you reflect on these instructions, Seno and Daito look to you expectantly, Daito scrutinising you while Seno just beams. "Hey girl, are you... 'Miroko', then?" she asks, checking her own mission scroll for your name. "Never heard of you before, pleased to meet you. Let's be a good team, huh? I'm Hatake Seno, I'm gonna be Hokage one day, like my dad," the words are very casual, apparently what she considers her canned introduction.

"Yeah... I've never heard of you before either. Isn't that weird?" Daito comments, scrutinising you much more closely than her counterpart.

Mao leans against a tree trunk, sighing as he listens to the chuunin girls gab away. "Okay, get a move on; Peinto no Ami's just at the end of this trail, I trust one of you knows basic tracking. I made her a bet that if you could take at least one of her scrolls she would have to return to active council duty for the next month, try not to disappoint me." Peinto no Ami, the absentee Elite Council member known for bringing portraits to life for her jutsu... or something like that, now living in the Fire Countryside.

Seno perks up. "I am so on this! Kuchiyose!" She slams her hand on the ground and a pug dog appears at her feet, and they shortly go about scanning the area together. "Whoo, Tracking. We can track like nobodies business. Just give us a minute to find this chick's scent." Akimichi Daito folds her arms, not hugely amused as she awaits the results of this exercise so she can get a move on.

While you wait, you're free to introduce your ever enigmatic self and make light conversation. The ANBU mill around in their dark uniforms and animal masks, though you perhaps you hear them talking with your trained ears.

Spoiler: Listen DC 20

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"Kurama-san wants our help." "What with?" "A test." "It beats helping with this test at least if its for her." "What does she want?" "Whoever can come at Hyuuga Jin with intent to kill, apparently." "Intent to assassinate the son of the Hokage?" "Such treason is hardly acceptable in this division." "Its a test of his abilities, we can't very well be expected to go easy on him." "Well I personally don't have a problem picking out the strong ones bloodily. If he can't repel assassin's with those eyes, he's unworthy of the Foundations standards." "Not that he's joining ROOT." "No one is, but the council should be above even our standards in strength if they dismantle us." "Where to?" "Hyuuga Himeko's office, in ten minutes." "I see. You two head off, I'll catch up shortly."

Two of the ANBU bow lightly then move away, leaving only one of the whispering crowd and a few who seemed uninterested in the conversation closer to Mao. The Yamanaka seems distracted with something, but its hard to say what, either way his mind was not on present matters.

[SaraChan]

Miroko

Miroko smiles at her team bowing "I'm Miroko, it's a pleasure to meet you all. I know we can get a scroll and all that fun stuff. I'll do some sneaky sneaky and snag it."

Miroko notices the anbu and takes 10 to listen to them. Oh no they were going to kill Jin, BFF would be so sad if her son died, no way she could let that happen. Miroko doesn't even hesitate she looks at her two partners "They are going to try and kill somebody, I gotta go make that not happen. Both of you are totally able to get that scroll, just remember to avoid getting caught, that sucks, so i've never done it, except when I have, or didn't."

With that Miroko jumps away her friends son was in danger, who cared about an exam, who cared about some stupid rank, if her friend was sad she may as well not be alive. Miroko runs using her speedy boots and sits in some bushes outside the hokages base of operations. She activates her Impostor Technique transforming into the Hokage her self. She takes her Kunai giving her finger a small prick "Time for things to get foxy" she says aloud as she uses her summoning to bring out her weakest fox. Miroko had a plan, try and scare everyone away as the beloved Kage and if that fails go into the shadows and kill people.

[Princess Tracy]

Miroko

"What? No, its ANBU. If they're killing someone they probably have a reason," Akimichi Daito starts to explain, whipping her hair away out of her face as she turns to face you. "And besides this test is a three man team -"

"Three woman team," Seno corrects.

"Seno, can you just -not- do that thing right now -"

"Also, those guys might be some of the ROOT ninja that were discharged into ANBU when ROOT was disbanded a few months ago - some of the guys I've met still hold to that dangerous ideology so maybe -"

"Aaaand she'd gone, good job, you great big distraction." Daito comments, clicking her heel against the roots at her feet, Seno just giggling at her certainty of handling it herself, as Yamanaka and the gaggle of ANBU look on indifferently to your passing.

Well, except for the final whispering ANBU that is, who, seeing how quickly you move to catch up with his comrades, can waste no time by using his stealth technique and openly pursues you! It will take you about 3 minutes to reach the Hokage's place, and he doesn't seem like he can keep pace with you the whole way. He'll either have to use a technique for a short burst of distance or else not be able to confront you properly, and in the end seems to take a gample. He shifts his stance and suddenly seems to fade from step to step as he bounds about 6 yards at a time, finally managing to overtake you for just a moment just a short stretch in front of the town gate, 'catching' you before you get a chance to so much as summon your fox.

Spoiler

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Dudeman ANBU uses Shunpo, with hustling for 3 chakra to overtake you.

"Miroko-san, please return to your own test. There's no business of yours this way. I will have you brought into custody if you tamper with such village affairs as Jounin exams. An outsider like you has no business with such things." There it is again, outsider. Even if you pass your test, would you really be accepted so easily? Yesterday that girl at the hospital didn't even know you and even she seemed to trust you less when faced with the knowledge of your coming from outside town. No one seems to be watching you two for now,his buddies might not be as near as he's hoping.

Kyoji

"Gotta go fast. Gotta go fast, fast, faster, faster, faster..." the little girl sings in a sort of mantra under her voice as she performs her speed enhancing technique, only momentarily breaking from her focus to look up the reasoning Kyoji. "Uzumaki-san is okay? But... how did you - wah!" Your teleport seems to answer well her next question of how you caught up with her without fighting and such. "Wh-whoa. But wait, Uzumaki-san said you were the scourge of the village, whatever that means, you're... you're just trying to trick me, right?" She squints as she struggles to her feet, looking you in the eye, the conviction in her words versus yours such that even she wasn't sure if you were trying to trick her. The fact that she isn't running even when on her feet, at least not yet, betrays her doubts. "You are mister Living Disaster, right? The scroll Uzumaki-san gave me it... she gave it to me, the fastest deliverygirl in the Leaf, to give to the guy that can seal you with it. Oh no!" She clamps both hands over her mouth, the wrists facing each other in a bizarre gesture as if struggling to keep the words back. For a ninja delivery girl, she had some loose lips about her cargo.

Still as she scrutinizes you she doesn't seem to be finding much fault and stars to consider that Uzumaki was screwing with her. "You're really not a bad guy...?" she starts to consider. "Oh good, you caught the morsel already." But suddenly there's a crackling in the canopy and as you look up you see Fuuhana land in a branch above you, still in her mighty dragon form. The girl's eyes go wide as she turns to look over her shoulder, "OMIGOD ITS FRIGGIN DRAGON, FORGOT THAT, RUUUUUUUUN!" Suddenly her presence swells with speedy chakra and she slips away before you can even touch her, you swear you see a flash of lightning as she moves. A genin shouldn't really be able to move like that... is this a 'complication' that Uzumaki had alluded to? "OMIGOD IS THAT DRAGON WITH YOU!?" you hear a little muted in the distance.

Spoiler: Ninja Lore DC 30 (+2 synergy bonus from Ninjutsu)

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Some lines among the Hidden Cloud know how to use Raiton natured chakra to boost one's speed and reflexes by infusing their body with it. In this case though, the girl just seems to be abundantly fast, or at least... not deliberately performing such a technique. Perhaps her use of speed-boosting chakra was just that extreme that her lightning-natured chakra became visible to the naked eye.

Fuuhana raises her wings, suddenly looking much more invigorated. "Well, I say the hunt is on. She almost looks... faster than me, in short bursts," she says, scrutinising that idea with a haughty humph and blast of infused air from her fine nostrils. "But only when heading in a straight line, my ability to fly over this troublesome terrain will be her undoing," she says, taking off again to start pursuing the girl in earnest unless you object. Bringing a dragon to a meeting of the minds is considered a bit of a faux pas it seemed.

Spoiler: Spot DC 29

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You see someone slipping among the trees with quick instantaneous bursts, towards the girl as you pursue her; a blonde woman in a blue dress and a featureless ANBU-like mask, thick hair pleated and a western style sword at her side. It seems she may be moving to a defensive position to intervene on you taking the girl, though her movement is quite desperate. When next you catch up with her, she's doing her best to keep pace with the girl, readying herself to position herself between yourself and the girl

(1d20+21)[34] i think there's a -5 penalty in there for her hide check from movement, right?

Spoiler: Actions

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Unknown Woman uses (Mugen) Shunpo and hustles to keep up, then does her best just converting her move action so she can continually ready an action to use a technique when she sees you come up on the girl from behind as she expects of a non-teleporting opponent.

The girl unleashes speed rank ? and hurtles with a run speed multiplier of x7 ahead, a good 400 feet ahead until she runs straight into a tree

Fuuhana, unless instructed otherwise, runs to catch up, 360 feet ahead, almost completely catching the girl then and there.

Hanako

"No no no no no no blurghhle...." The Uchiha girl trails off into unconsciousness, eyes rolling back into blissful escape from the pain as you try and squash the melon on her shoulders between your thighs, and she shortly crumples to the ground, useless, her scroll at your mercy for the grabbing. Whether you grab it or not though, you hear a twig breaking as someone else comes into the clearing, seeing you fair too late. The quiet guy in sun glasses arrives just in time to see you finish off the last girl, and almost audibly gulps. 20 foot up and 60 foot away, with some light cover, he looks around, obviously weighing his chances of getting away if he runs. "Yeah, I'm not facing that head on... did you... You didn't kill Obiko-chan, did you?" he questions. He tries to seem cool, but some panic is obvious in his voice; he seems to be shaking in his boots, and a scroll seems to fall off his flak jacket and unfurl to open itself in front of him, and he looks down, just more quaking as he realises how badly he's been spooked...

Spoiler: Sense motive DC 13

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That scroll drop was no accident, but a rather deliberate thing. What is he scheming?

Dude's initiative (1d20+4)[5]

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

The Living Disaster sighs. It was times like this when he regretted being a ninja, but duty calls. "I don't want to waste anymore time, so I'll just put an end to things now Fuuhana. Be sure to catch the girl when I'm done talking. I'll probably throw her in the air."

The Senju leaps ahead, teleporting directly beside the girl this time, and instantly performs a technique to stop her from running again. He goes through the hand signs quickly, then claps his hands together. The ground beneath the two of them creaks and groans as trees and vines burst from the ground, coil together, and form... a house. Kyoji elects to shape the Four Pillar Home in the shape of a maze, using each of the rooms as another wall between the girl, Kyoji, and the outside. Eventually, a 50ft by 30ft two-story building stands where Kyoji and the girl were, hopefully with the two ninja in the center, and every room in the house arrayed in a pattern with sharp turns, doorways, and other obstacles to prevent the girl from running away. To put the finishing touch on it he elects to make the 10th room sealed shut, just in case she somehow got past the Living Disaster, through all nine rooms, and made it to the "exit" without listening to reason.

When it's all said and done Kyoji sighs, and picks up where the two left off without so much as a hitch. "Yes, I'm the Living Disaster. Yes, I'm with the dragon. No, she's not a bad person either, just a bit... weird. Yes, Kurama lied to you. I did explain that this was a ploy to annoy me, didn't I?" He looks at the girl, plainly a bit exasperated but still trying to be nice. "If you were really in danger, why would I try to trick you? Wouldn't it be a lot more sensible for me to just kill you, take your scroll, and destroy it?"

Spoiler

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HP: 176/176
Chakra: 100/154(Reserve: 50/50); Spent this combat: 5 for Dimension Shift(1st round) 10 for Blink Gate(2nd round), 2 for Speed and Strength Rank 5(2nd round),2 for Speed and Strength Rank 5(3rd round), 5 for Dimension Shift(3rd round), 30 for Four Pillar Home(3rd round).
Defense: 31(+5 from Speed Ranks).

Kyoji teleports to the girl with Dimension Shift, choosing to appear right beside her. He then uses Heroic Surge(2/day remaining) and performs Four Pillar Home as his attack action. Since he can control the appearance of the home, he elects to arrange the 10 rooms with each room inside the previous one, so that at the end of it all he's standing in a 10x10 space with the girl, and the only way out is a door behind him. Every room has an exit at a different angle, starting counterclockwise and rotating, then changing to a north-east-south-west orientation, before the final exit from the 9th room is on the roof. The 10th room, comprising the entire second floor, has no exits or windows and as a result the outside of the house has no entrance.

[SaraChan]

Miroko smiles kindly at the guy putting on a southern accent saying "Oh my, really that's against the rules, Why I never would have know. You know I'm a simple girl, I was raised on a farm you see. Hey you are looking really cute you don't happen to be single do you? I mean Sorry to do this at such a strange time but I have no idea what your name is and really it's rare to see someone so attractive." She moves in closer locking in eye contact before casting her evil eye genjutsu.

If the Jutsu succeeds the illusion places the Ninja and herself making out with one another. Miroko uses her minute to move into the shadow of the man able to hide inside of it preparing for a death attack.

[Bad Situation]

Senjou accepts the mission with a cocky smirk, winking at Frog as he plucks the scroll out of their hands and into his own. He unfurls the scroll without hesitation, breaking the seal and scanning through the mission statement and its objective with a trained ease. The former ANBU captain barely bats an eye at Fox and Frog's hasty retreat, apparently used to the masked operatives and their tendency to disappear at a moment's notice. They weren't gone, by any means. They, and likely a few other ANBU, were scurrying around the area now. Ostensibly to ensure that nobody interfered with his exam but then, it was just as likely that they had orders to ensure his loyalty for the duration. Who even commanded ANBU now that Taro was unmasked?

The Uchiha folds up the scroll and stuffs it into one of his many pockets and, perhaps to the surprise of any ANBU potentially watching, leisurely ambles into the compound. His eyes slowly bleed into the red of the Sharingan as he does so. For such a storied and historical location, the Uchiha District was surprisingly boring. Looking at it now, one wouldn't think a clan full of the strongest shinobi in Konoha had lived in such a modest place. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, by his estimation. Caught up in their simultaneous hatred and awe, people were inclined to forget that not every Uchiha was born a kunai in hand. That some, lacking the talent in the shinobi arts, were simply civilians who happened to live amongst their clansmen. Even now he could just imagine the sights and sounds of children and the elderly occupying the now empty shops and streets.

Empty. It was a reminder of what his clan had fought for in the past, and now continued to fight for.

When he finds himself at a sufficiently open location he strings together a series of seals and bites his thumb before slamming his palm into the ground and summons a pair of Ravens that flutter around his head before finally perching on his arm. He lays a kiss onto both of their heads before whispering his orders to them, "I need your help tonight, guys. We're looking a scroll or any location that might house said scroll. I figure six eyes are better than two, my Sharingan notwithstanding, so while I search the Naka Shrine, I need you two to fly over to the Police Headquarters (building with the giant shuriken on it). Come find me if you think you're on to something if not, I'll meet you two at the main Clan House (largest residential building) and we can work together there. There shouldn't be any danger tonight but I trust you two to use your discretion. Find me if something attempts to interfere with your search. If you do find a scroll, do not read it or otherwise tamper with it."

He smiles at the two, "We can negotiate payment if you'd like later. For now, can you do these things for me?"

Spoiler

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Summoning 2 Protector Ravens, Summon Level 3 each.
Chakra Cost: 18 total.
Spot +11, Search +5, Listen +6, Hide +4 (+8 at nighttime).

Whether the two accept his command or not, Senjou takes off to the Naka Shrine, using his Chakra enhanced speed to cover the distance in mere minutes.

Spoiler

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Shunpo Stance.
Chakra Cost: 2.

[Cespenar]

Kazuhiro listens as he walks away with Arisenka, a plan already beginning to form in his mind. The girl's knowledge seems like it will come in pretty handy, and seconds pass as he sifts through the information to come up with something.

"Okay. We'll be playing an aggressive game here, so listen up. You're my second in command for the time being. Get a couple of guys to screen you, and then you and Amanaka-san move on the sand-nin to capture her. When the Uchiha kids try to stop you, Akimichi- and Konpaku-san will enter the fray, and blindside them."

The "Red Prince" activates the flag some five hundred feet away, and wields it as if a spear. He turns to the nameless mooks next. He points to six of them in random order.

"You six are on scout duty. You, stay here in our base and hide up in a tree. You four, split into twos to cover our left and right flanks. You, transform into a small bird and scout from above. All scouts will try to avoid confrontation and only return to report if someone important, or a sizeable force is coming your way. Our password is 'duty'. Use it before giving reports, or you'll be struck down as the enemy. Easy enough? Duty."

He points to another mook.

The rest of you, conjure up a couple of Bunshin, and sic them on the old man. Anyone who gets their hand on a flag, hit it once to find out if they are a Bunshin, or someone transformed. If you get a genuine flag, call out my name, or if I'm not in sight, return to base.

"Any questions?"

[Eurus]

Hanako wastes no time in snagging the scroll and brushing herself off. She has just enough time to wonder if she'll be able to move before anyone else shows up when the arrival of the male with the dark glasses answers that question for her. She feels vaguely annoyed when he looks at her with terror -- and perhaps a little hurt? If so, she quashes it quickly.

"Of course not. I was careful not to do any permanent harm, which is more than I can say for her."

The Uchiha girl had thrown fire at her, and Hanako was the bad guy here. Naturally. It was enough to make her want to act rashly. But then he dropped the scroll, and her instincts spurred her into action without much in the way of conscious thought. If it was a trap, she was blundering right into it; but then, trapping a raging elephant was a dangerous game. She darts toward him, bending down to scoop the scroll off the ground and, hopefully, dash away without risk.

Spoiler: OOC

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Suppressing strength ranks for now, but maintaining speed ranks. Moving up to grab the scroll and, if nothing stops her, Soaring Dragon Flashing as far away as possible.

[Princess Tracy]

Senjou

If the ANBU are still around they make no obvious hinting of their presence, granted that was their job, though Senjou is free to look around for his own peace of mind if he wants. (Spot DC 30 to see one Frog-mask still lingering outside the compound, watching you) The Ravens pop out as expected of your loyal summons, ruffling their feathers as they quickly look around the area, before staring back at you; turning to the side to each stare at you with one eye. "Hmm, look for a scroll. Any specific scroll? This is your ninja village, I imagine there are lots of scrolls," says one crow. "As for payment, if you're offering, a little knowledge goes a long way. Any scrolls you're not using might be nice to bring home," suggests the other crow. That said, as lower ranking summons they're pretty easy going about it and don't demand payment from their summoner, though its always nice to tip your ravens. If you'd tip a waitress just for bringing over your drinks, you'd tip celestial animals from realms rarely seen by man that you dragged out to aid in menial tasks, right?

All the same once that exchange is done, they caw as they take off from their perch and fly into the night where you told them to go, leaving you with a clear shot to the Naka shrine. The building in question is on a little island in the middle of the naka river, a solid wood bridge with no railings connecting it to the main Uchiha compound; the all wood structure has just one stone monument out front beside the pathways, with the kanji 'Naka' and the three tomoe of the matured sharingan carved on top, all worn down and weathered after all these years of abandonment. The river is quiet tonight but big as ever, maybe a hundred feet from one bank to he other, and as the water trickles along underfoot, babbling under the bridge, you successfully find your way inside to the building that dominates almost all landmass of the island just with its foundations. A curved, hatched roof, tiles out of place... but you find the shelter quite functional as there appears to be complete darkness inside, no moonlight piercing through even when you push the great old doors apart. Its too dark to do much searching, though if you feel around there is some dried up old wood by your foot as you enter that may make a suitable torch. The inside of the shrine seems typical enough for a relatively modern place of worship, including its point of prayer, though its trinkets and texts are quite worn down and its hardly suited for much now.

As you peer inside however, you find something catches the moonlight that your sharingan can see - another pair of eyes staring right back at you, all too familiarly sinister even in the near complete darkness of the room.

Spoiler

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Make 2 will saves if you please.

Kyoji

"Gotta go fast, gotta go fast - oof," the girl bashes face first into a great tree and rolls back, balanced on her shoulders as she tumbles to the ground, her whole world upside down. The blonde ninja springs up behind her shortly about 15 feet away. "Oh! Saboru-neechan, can I hide in your shadow? There's a dragon following me! And a guy, but I don't know what to think of him."

"He's here to kill you, little one, or so Uzumaki-san tells me," the masked woman says. "Sukoshikiba-chan, please go on ahead, I'll deal with him."

"I dunno if that's true though, he didn't kill me when he got real close just a moment ago and from the way he's talkin' its like Uzumaki-san is just playing a joke," the girl argues back, such obvious things not flying over even her head.

The blonde woman shrugs her shoulders, not looking at her ward as she turns to face the oncoming dragon, Fuuhana coming over the treetops. "He's brought a dragon, I can't imagine what sort of joke that can be. He's free to explain himself to me in any case, rather than a defenceless girl. Now go ahead as fast as you can. I'll treat you to ramen later if you go now, okay?"

Fuuhana seems to be on board with your plan as you pop up ahead and perform your mokuton technique. As you weave the signs, and pop in, you catch the last part of that conversation. The blonde woman turns around quickly, her ponytail whipping almost violently as she realises you're behind her. Some sort of sword swing seems imminent even with you out of her reach, or appearing to be, but she manages to stop her violent reflexes just in time, fearful of hurting the little miss too as great slabs of wood weave around herself and you as you create a great block of a house. Now with her out of your vision, who knows what she might resort to out of desperation...

The girl squeals, finding herself in the dark of your four pillar home; after all you'd presumably made it without any flimsy windows for light to get into. She takes a deep breath though as you try and explain yourself. "You... I guess you're right, you aren't hurting me now even though Saboru wouldn't be able to save me... Okay then, I'll... I'll come back to the village and see that Uzumaki-san is okay, yeah? But... but only if you let Saboru-san come without fighting, okay? She'll be able to tell if you wanna kill anyone. She can tell those sorts of things by looking into your eyes."

You hear a beating and shaking in the wooden wall beside you. Is the blonde actually trying to force her way through? All of a sudden it seems to slow for a moment... "I think she can sense you're not hurting me. She's smart that way."

Fuuhana waits outside as instructed

Kazuhiro

500 feet away leaves you with plenty of space in the woodland to maneuver yourself. When you lay down your flag though, a seal appears on the ground, text and markings in ink appearing across the soft dirt and grass, spreading in a circle 5 feet wide, with a kanji in the middle 'Base'. The names of your team mates appear on the flag's fabric, including yourself. It is far too large too stuff under your shirt however, the flagpole being as tall as you are, and it seems the flag's fabric seems to be a part of its seal so its perhaps best to not mess with it.

The mooks fine young men and woman of konoha nod and follow orders, the four pairing off and going off to check out what's up with Shikamaru immediately if not stopped. Arisenka pipes up, "Excuse me, but there's a flaw with turning into a bird. You may not have had to rely on the transformation technique as your bread and butter for a while, but it -" Before she can finish explaining, the genin you ordered to transform seems to demonstrate her pont, though not intentionally, as she takes a merry jump into the air with all her might to get a start on it, in a puff of smoke turning into a magpie... then immediately divebombs beak-first into the ground, taking a nasty bump as she forcibly transforms back, rubbing her head. "The transformation technique doesn't change one's mass, so even if one did have the muscle memory to fly with wings or understand the fine composition of feathers and a bird's hollow skeletal structure to craft their form, few genin would be able to fly under their own power with wings of any sort of a bird they could take the form of," she elaborates.

The Yamanaka girl, Inomusha, looks wistfully off into the distance, to the West, lost in her thoughts, while Onko the Akimichi, wearing a distinctive gi and combat gloves, punches her palm confidently. "Yosh, seems simple enough. So when we're good to go, I rush the Uchiha. Seems good to me, like, I wanna punch their faces in after they used my team mate's techniques against me. Damn Copy Brothers." The Konpaku nods, forever silent as she swings her sword around, bringing it down to her side for more convenient drawing.

If you let the scouts run off and do a thing, a pair of them return within a minute, saluting enthusiastically. "Yo, 'duty'. We got a look from afar at what he's up to. He's made some sorta base with an earth technique I guess?"

Miroko

The ANBU suddenly stops moving as you catch him in your genjutsu. He doesn't seem to be able to shake it, and he's quite at your mercy, oblivious to the world outside of the illusion you set him in. Hiding in his shadow, you have plenty of time to lower your chakra signature to nothingness and hide. When he finally emerges from your technique, he gasps, before turning towards the village. "Did she already go on ahead?" He turns to the town gate and dashes ahead a little, though not so much that Miroko has to break cover with her own breezy speed, and questions the gatekeeper on having seen a girl matching your description. When he says no, he decides it best not to rush and attract attention as he heads over to the Hokage building.

If you follow him all the way there, you find four other similar ANBU gathered around a woman in red, with short hair and a cocky look on her face that you recognise as Uzumaki Kurama, sitting perched on Himeko's desk. "Five should do it. He should be able to handle five. His mother could easily handle all of ROOT sans perhaps an ambush by my 'special potential' ninja, not that one would ever get to ambush that woman." When you enter the room, she turns in your direction, but her eyes don't seem to be on the ANBU, but to his shadow - to you. She meets you gaze even, smiling. "Miss, Lifesnatcher overheard our plans and may try to interfere in this test," he tells her. "Really? Well, I'd sure you can handle it. I'm sure it will be fine - why would that scary woman want to mess up the test of the Hokage's son, after all?"

Kurama forms a hand seal that you easily recognise as that of the Kage Bunshin, and sure enough a clone pops into existence, her butt on the desk just as the original gets up. Kurama takes one of the pens on Himeko-chan's desk and scrawls down a note, handing it to her clone who accepts it with a nod. "I have to go see the Living Disaster now, gentleman, I'm sure you can handle it. Strike as soon as my clone fades, she knows her cue to undo herself." "Yes, ma'am," the men say, bowing as Kurama simply walks right past you out of the room. You're quite sure it isn't your imagination that she shoots you a 'if you don't say anything, I won't' smile, and heads off to brighter pastures away from this ambush.

Spoiler

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Roll initiative to compete in the Jin fight. 1d20+8 in the OOC before your next post, yo. I just assume you take 10 to hide in his shadow, and succeed.

Jin and Miroko

Miroko watches the scene play out as Himeko-chan's son enters the room, each of the ANBU having already slipped behind some shadow or cover. As Jin activates his Byakugan on cue from the clue, she deems him ready and claps her hands, puffing into smoke and nothingness. Jin can see not just assassins though, a girl is next to the guy by the door; bright hair, an unzipped hooded jumpsuit and a bikini top, she's a bit queer but hardly looks like an ANBU. Surely she couldn't have slipped in without them knowing of and coordinating with her though, right?

Spoiler: OOC

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I'll get to Hanako in a second, posting this for now before I have to deal with the jinxed internet again.

[Princess Tracy]

Hanako

The sunglasses ninja reaches up for his leaf-symbol bandanna, removing it to reveal some sandy blonde hair. As he opens his mouth to say something though, only a startled gasp escapes his lips as you suddenly slip up next to him and vanish just like that, leaving just him and the spreading flames of the Uchiha's fire attack on the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. You're able to get away with surprising ease, though when you look down at your hastily-grabbed scroll you find it isn't the same colour as yours or the one you found on the Uchiha, indeed lacking the Jounin Test marking. Looking at the half-opened scroll, you see it covered in seals and the kanji 'Puppet', a meaning you can't quite discern with your low knowledge of lore and tactics. Whether intentionally or not, it seems he didn't drop his own mission scroll that you need to capture. You're free to try and head back to him, or go ahead to the tower.

Spoiler

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It takes (1d10)[8] rounds of travel, minus your wisdom bonus (minimum 1), before you realise you picked the wrong scroll/

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

The Senju smiles, though the darkness makes it impossible for either of them to see one another, and briefly considers investing in the Cat's Eyes techniques. "Sorry about the surprise, but I needed to make sure you wouldn't run away again. And that your friend didn't get hurt trying to attack me. However, I'm glad you understand the situation. But, we're about to meet my dragon friend again. Don't be scared, because she's not a bad person." He moves toward where the girl was at. "Sorry, but I need to pick you up to teleport us both out. So, would you like a piggyback ride? I'm not as fast as you, but this way you don't have to walk." Kyoji kneels down beside the girl, reaching for her shoulder to show her that he's there, and carries her piggyback if Sukoshikiba consents. Otherwise, he carries her however she'd like to be carried.

"My name is Kyoji. Senju Kyoji. What's yours? And could you tell me more about this "Saboru-chan"?" Without waiting for her response Kyoji shifts the girl's weight to free one hand, then forms a seal. In an instant the duo disappear from the house, and teleport to the roof of the house. Once on the roof Kyoji allows the girl to climb down if she wishes, or carries her if she doesn't, and motions to Fuuhana. "Over here." Once the dragon arrives Kyoji motions toward her with his head.""This is Wind Flower Dancing Among Sword Strokes", Kyoji starts with her full title, "but humans can call her Fuu or Fuuhana." He motions to the little girl, and then introduces her to Fuuhana if she gave up her name. Otherwise, he simply says: "Fuu, this is a girl who would really like a ride back to Konoha. She likes to go fast too." He smiles, then lets Fuuhana take the girl if either the dragon or the mortal consent to being carried.

[Princess Tracy]

Kyoji

The girl nods, not that you can see it as she her feet shuffle around excitably, as one not content to stop moving. "Okay then, if you say so... I though dragons were monsters though, and monsters are scary, right?" she says obliviously. "I guess Saboru-neechan says I'm a brave girl though so I'll... I'll try not to be scared by anything!" she says, hopping forward and taking your hand. "Folks call me 'Little Fang' I guess, though some people just call me Kiba-chan." When you pop onto the roof, she seems kind of disoriented for a moment. "Saboru-neechan is the coolest, strongest lady ever! She can swing her sword so fast it makes wind that can cut through, like, anything, and she knows all kinds of stuff!" Before she can say much more though, she turns and catches sight of Fuuhana, shivering a bit as she slips behind your legs for cover while you introduce your summon. "H-hello misses Wind Flower. I'm Little Fang."

The dragon smiles a little. "I'm not some common horse to be used for transport, you should be mindful. But I suppose I'll make an exception for the hatchling here, to show her the true meaning of 'speed' that only a wind dragon knows." With some encouragement from you, Little Fang gets up on Fuu's back and grips as tight as she dares, before the wind dragon rises up and unleashes the full power of her speed ranks to hurtle through the air at top speed. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

Under your feet, the house shakes. It seems if you don't let her out shortly, 'Saboru' is perfectly willing to blast her way out. Its possible the dangers to herself of using such dangerous blasting techniques in close quarters is the only thing stopping her from going all out.

Senjou (accompanying music)

You hear clicking of feet in the darkness as the eyes seem to get closer, swaying from side to side as unseen legs carry the figure forward. You blink, shaking off something... something wasn't right. This wasn't real, somehow, your eyes could tell that. Yes your eyes... "Why are you here? Has my clan returned in good faith?" a voice says, younger than yours but spiteful to your very existence. Its hard to focus on discerning the meaning of this situation with that voice booming in your ears, making it seem all the more real. Over the shoulder of the emerging silhouette you see the moonlight reflected off the naka river, ever so slight... there's a grungy mirror before you, this is some sort of reflection, the mirror is the key. "Explain yourself, kin. Are you a puppet of Konoha?"

Just as you think you see through the illusion, you find meeting the figure's gaze brings about another as you feel stakes piercing your body, holding in space as they restrain your body. You're effectively paralysed and unable to move a muscle as you're held in a genjutsu that you recognise as the Shackling Stakes technique.

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I just assumed you take 10 on identifying the genjutsus at work.

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

The dragon summoner waves goodbye to the little girl and his unfortunate compatriot. He was sure they would get along. After all, Fuuhana wasn't a bad person. Proud, a little headstrong, and annoying to handle, but not bad. However, Kyoji put that out of his mind as he gets ready to confront the woman still trapped within his house. Technically his mission was complete, plus it's likely that Kurama gave her orders to fight him, or orders to test his combat prowess, and he truly wished to avoid such an event. But he'd feel bad leaving her there to get out on her own, and promised the girl known as Little Fang that he would allow the woman to come with him. He leaps off the side of the house, aiming to soften his landing as much as possible, before walking around to find the wall where the banging was coming from. He leans in closely and shouts. "Be ready to dodge. I'm going to release my technique, and that may cause the wood to fall on top of you!" He stepped back, waited a moment to allow for the woman to prepare herself, then performed the dismissal seals for the Four Pillar Home. Kyoji dismisses the technique, and then watches for the walls to finish falling apart. If she gets trapped, then he'll rush to her aid immediately, but otherwise he'll wait for the woman inside to be released.

Once she's free he makes a stiff bow as a plaintive gesture. "I apologize for the pain, Saboru. The little one asked me to accompany you back to the Leaf, so that we can start fresh."

Spoiler

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Kyoji opens his Speed Ranks, spending a point of chakra, and takes ten on his jump check to soften his landing. The speed rank bonus and his Strength put him at 18 when he takes ten to reduce his fall damage.

Dismissing Four Pillar Home while someone is still inside deals 3d8 crushing damage to them, and requires a DC 16 Reflex Save to not get pinned underground.

So crushing Damage: (3d8)[18].

[Princess Tracy]

Kyoji

As you approach the area of the banging, suddenly part of the wall gives way, a very thin gash appearing in it along with a flash of steel, and from it releases a great stream of high speed winds, as if an opening had been punched in some great machine letting off steam. As you make your case however it seems to stop as Saboru braces herself, sheathing her blade. Once the dust settles from the collapsing wooden building, the blonde in blue is left standing, clutching her arm. For all her speed to not be trapped underground, she couldn't avoid dislocating something it seemed, though she just grunts as she sets the shoulder joint herself for now. She turns to you, quite calmer now, her eyes peering out from behind her mask, seeming to pry deeper as you meet her gaze. "As I endured your collapsing structure, perhaps you'll consent to letting me know the truth. Is Little Fang safe?" she asks rather directly, hand resting on her sword but by no means rushing to draw it.

Spoiler

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Saboru uses detect emotions, DC 19, on Kyoji. He's free to voluntarily not make his save.

[ZeroNumerous]

Kyoji

While the leaf ninja known as Senju Kyoji did not suspect a fellow leaf-nin, the dragon he had become in the years did not like others poking around in its head. Where did humans get off doubting the word of a dragon? Where did monkeys fresh off their trees come to doubt the very embodiment of righteousness? Kyoji shoved that part of him away, and tried to think rationally about the situation. She is simply afraid for her friend's life, or perhaps the girl is her daughter? There would be no way to tell short of seeing her real parents. Either way, not resisting would be a courtesy easily extended, as gesture of good faith, and a salve for a worried heart. All things the good part of Kyoji would have happily done. Part of him tried to lower his defenses and willingly accept the leaf-nin's probing for answers, but as soon as the ANBU starts concentrating the dragon roars and Kyoji instinctively tries to resist. Immediately cursing himself in the process for denying someone such a meager kindness out of misplaced pride.

The Living Disaster shrugged as the only outward sign of his inner conflict between Dragon and Leaf. "As safe as any ninja is this shortly after a war. However, she is with a dragon and they are not a kind known for subterfuge or skulduggery. They are not snakes." Kyoji spits out that last word like it left a bad taste in his mouth, and it's plain that his time with the dragons affected him more deeply than he cared to admit. "I do not have any intention of harming a child. I am simply on a mission to appease Uzumaki Kurama so that I may move freely for a time." Kyoji moves his arms to his side and shows Saboru his palms, displaying that he neither wears nor carries any weapons, hoping to ease the tension a bit. "On my honor as a dragon she has not, nor will be, harmed. A bit scared, but safe and sound."

Spoiler

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Will Save: (1d20+12)[16]

EDIT: Saboru would likely see the internal argument of dragon vs will of fire vs good, and all that.