---

With Shin's comment, all Aoi would give in response was one of those uncomfortable stares, the types that literally translate to 'Your point?'. Her mind was set and his insecurities regarding his gender was not going to impede on her fun. The gameboy's sound roared ever after the testers made sure the mic worked, proof of how shameless Aoi could be in public places. She did get distracted from her game, once more, when Akio responded with a more nervous body language in reaction to Rei's comment. It was clear Aoi wasn't entirely careless about everything and one of these exceptions would of course be Akio. No way in heck was she going to share her. Luckily Giichi busted a move on the young Minamoru, which would maybe prompt a funny fit of rage from Yamato. Either way, the speech was going to start and the youngest Jonin of the batch didn't seem anymore invested than she was before waking up this morning.

'Blah blah blah Sunagakure blah blah blah hunter-nin ...' Aoi's mind heard the speech as it was, a bunch of talking that barely concerned her to begin with. Her mind was captured by her game console and she'd likely be one of the last to notice what happened with that ANBU up at the building. When people started to question what was going on with Zeno's health and the strange circumstances of the shinobi's condition, Aoi suddenly panicked as she had no idea why people were so on edge all of a sudden. Flailing her head from left to right, she was worried that she had missed some special surprised like a giant balloon passing by. Eventually, she'd see it for herself.

"Wait wait what happened?! Whaaa whaaaaa?! Who?!"

She questioned rather loudly, but everyone else was so caught up with their own questions and the events that she was left unanswered until things took a turn for the worst. People actually started panicking now and the Hokage started to run away for some reason. Considering Aoi was a Jonin, the instant her instincts took control she easily discerned the problem in the whole scenario. The was a very strange individual doing some rather shady things, and was probably the wrongdoer here. Her little brain couldn't process more than that, but as she tried to associate some ideas together, she'd be shaken by Yamato's 'motivational' orders. Added to that would be Akio's kick in the clown's butt which somewhat stung the little girl from the inside from sheer surprise.

"Erm, uhm uhm, yeah okay!"

She swiftly jumped to follow Akio with the Gameboy now pocketed, the harlequin's confirmed superior speed in movement and agility made it easy for her to catch up to her partner and maintain the speed from there. Aoi still didn't quite capture the whole idea of this attack nor did she really care at this point, cloaked person was bad guy, Hokage was the hurt little girl she'd have to protect during a mission. Yeah, that's about the right way to see it for now.

"Going in on your mark Kiki!"

She'd warn her partner as she fired arrows. Aoi was not going to charge in just yet, the opportunity wasn't fit yet. She was going to seize the initiative when the assailant would make a specific move to react to the arrows. Though the reactions were potentially infinite, hence her lack of active reaction just yet. Added to that was the fact that Captain Tsukiko had used her own initiative, which could fare relatively well if Aoi were to jump in during that assault to seal the deal. She just had to be perfect in her time.

---

The cloaked figure dashed from roof to roof, noticing a figure slightly ahead of herself on the roofs too. It seemed a young chunin, judging from his flak jacket, was attempting to help the Hokage. How futile. If the mask wasn't blocking her face, you'd have been able to see the serious expression that was on her face, regardless of the fact that these attempts at stopping her were futile and frankly, quite humorous. She noticed something on her left at the same time, as well as something at her back, a new squad of ANBU having caught up to her after she escaped their former escape, while an attack was launched by a chunin behind her. She simply ducked underneath the hail of kunai, as well as the arrows shot at her, before she body flickered away again. It was relatively easy to avoid these ANBU. They were skilled in what they did but that didn't quite measure up against a specialized shinobi. The attack launched by the chunin was easy enough to avoid, but atleast it was a bit more skilled compared to the ANBU. It was a bit too flashy to actually act like a stealthy attack, however.

However this time she didn't flicker out of sight, simply appearing right behind Shouken as he trailed behind the Hokage. With a single jump she jumped above him, and past him, landing about ten meters in front of him. One of her hands went into her pouch and pulled out a set of five kunai with explosive tags attached. Twisting her body backwards she simply threw them back, into the ground in front of Shouken. She didn't offer him much time to react, immediately forming the tiger seal. Within an instant the explosive tags exploded, caving in the building below and sending bricks and roof tilings all over the place. The accuracy of her throwing skills was quite amazing, as she threw them in a perfect straight line in front of shouken, horizontally so that his escape towards the Hokage was cut off. At the same time, the maximum damage was cut back, and there was no way Shouken would experience lasting damage from this attack given the distance between him and the tags.

She didn't pay much more mind to Shouken after that. She only wanted to deter him from following, or atleast give him something to think about. Her path continued alongside the street that the hokage was following, and although the attack on Shouken had given the Hokage a little time to gather more distance, it was soon made up for. And he was beginning to reach a dead end. His plan had failed.

Zeno noticed this too, as the explosion right behind him was rather hard to miss. He kept running however, and slowly felt atleast some of his powers returning to him. It was pretty obvious that the entire village was gearing up to come to his aid, too. He just.. needed a bit more time. Behind him he could already hear the orders of jonin being shouted, as well as larger amounts of shinobi moving around. It was clear they were coming, but the question was whether they'd be on time.

In front of Zeno the mountain doomed up, and he found himself cornered now. As soon as he reached the mountain he turned around for that reason. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and readied himself. Meanwhile the cloaked figure noticed he'd stopped, and thus slowed down her pace. No need to keep up with him, and it was unlikely the ANBU would try to engage her again since it'd become clear that it was pretty useless to do so. Finally, she arrived at the small opening in housing at the foot of the mountain. With a light tap she landed on the ground, looking at the hokage and placing one foot in front of the other, ready to take off if the need for it arrived. “You will never take me down! The Will of Fire burns within me.. and the rest of my village!” the Hokage blurted out, whilst placing one hand at his back and reaching for a weapon of sorts. “And even when I am weakened by whatever you put in my body.. I will take you down! So tell me, what is your name, so we can fight as equals!” He didn't receive an answer in any way and only received a cold look as the woman stood perfectly still.



“Hmph. If you're not gonna answer my questions, answer my steel!” the Hokage said, pulling out a set of ten shuriken, throwing them at the cloaked figure. Rather than dodge, like she'd done before, she formed several handseals, seemingly not even in time to pull off the jutsu she wanted to use. The shuriken seemed to strike her and for a moment it looked like it did, as blood seeped out through her cloak. But right when the Hokage got a small smile on his face, the figure dissapeared in a cloud of smoke. After the smoke cleared a log was revealed. “Doushita?! Kawarimi no jutsu? Too basic for me.. And that means..” The Hokage suddenly dropped onto one knee whilst forming handseals, and as soon as he was done he punched his hands into the ground. Dirt and rocks started flowing onto his skin, before finally enclosing his fists with rock as solid as steel. “That means you are above me.. Take this!” It was only now that he looked up, raising himself up on his feet again and raising his fists to counter the attack he thought was coming from above.

It seemed he was right, as the cloaked figure descended upon him, spinning her body at the last moment for a spinning dropkick. The kick connected with the rock fists, producing a cracking sound as the kick broke off minor parts of the rock. But the rock held fast, never breaking, meaning Zeno could simply lift his fists even more and throw back the lady. As soon as he did that, however, a poof of smoke appeared and the woman dissapeared. “A clone?” he said to himself as his eyes wandered around, looking for any indication of the target. By now many of the ANBU and shinobi were getting closer, and if they arrived it'd be certain that the force amassed at the location would be too big for anyone to take on. The silence that followed the attack was deafening, however, as nothing seemed to happen for seconds on end. Finally, footsteps came from behind the Hokage, at a high speed. The robed figure had seemingly appeared from nowhere and was now rushing at the Hokage holding the tiger seal. Without seemingly anything happening to the Hokage, he keeled over, grabbing his stomach as something seemed to have happened when the robed figure used the tiger seal. But it wasn't clear what exactly had happened. This was the perfect opening for the robed figure and it would be hard to dodge for the Hokage if nobody interfered. Likely, given the fact that the chunins had not stayed behind too long to deal with the aftermath of the chaos in the plaza, they'd arrive on site together. And likely.. that would lead to all of them attacking her at once, creating a clusterfuck of attacks on the figure. She'd have to make sure to finish this in time.

---

---

Yamato only gave Daiki an annoyed look, before answering him with an equally annoyed answer. “Just like you, all bark, no bite.” he said, as the medical nin approached. He didn't greet her, or even give her any orders, he simply took off with Daiki, expecting her to follow. They both outranked her and as such, she'd just have to listen to orders. As long as nobody superior came along, such as an ANBU shinobi. Yamato grinned to himself as he thought about it. The ANBU is likely much too busy getting their faces kicked in to worry about medical nin at the moment.

As they jumped from roof to roof, at a blinding speed given the fact that this was a high alert situation, and also because of the adrenaline, Yamato and company managed to quickly catch up to Aoi's little squadron. Yamato shot them a short glance as they trailed alongside them on the other side of the street, noticing as he looked at them that Akio was launching attacks. “Baka!” he cursed, not loud enough for it to be heard on the other side. “Daiki, we need to stay ready. We can't tell if she's simply after the Hokage and only the Hokage, or if she's willing to kill us too. If Akio keeps going like this, this person that's attacking the Hokage might change their minds and go after us instead. We need to wait for an opening instead of attacking recklessly.. we don't even know what this person is capable of. Baka..” he said again, visibly annoyed with Akio's decision.



Yamato glanced behind him at the medical nin, who didn't look to be all that useful. “Stay behind the frontlines, you're the only medical nin on site at the moment so you need to stay alive. If you risk your life, it won't be that person ending it, it'll be me. Understood? Don't go close until we tell you to.” The words were rather harsh, but it was relatively calm even for Yamato. It seemed like Yamato too was a bit on edge, perhaps even excited to see what was going on. Looking around again he noticed that other teams were also converging on the position. It almost looked like the tales of old when Konoha was under attack and the people were now rushing to defend valuable positions. This gave Yamato a strengthened feeling. His expression changed from serious and angry, to an angry expression that also shone out bravery. He seemed determined, and despite his lack of respect for the Hokage, he'd do anything to take down this robed figure. They were still slightly behind Aoi's squad, given that they had a headstart on Yamato and the rest. “Slow down. We need to see what's going on before we can make any calls.” Yamato grumbled to the rest, as he slowed down somewhat and finally stopped at the edge of the buildings. It was only then that he saw what the others probably also saw at the same time. The figure had appeared from nowhere and was now rushing towards the Hokage, forming a seal and sending the Hokage down without even touching him. “DAIKI!” Yamato yelled, alerting Daiki that Yamato was moving in. If anything, Daiki would do the same, as well as the other teams.

Without thinking of what could happen if this went wrong, Yamato charged in, brave as always. In his head he rehearsed to himself. No fear. No pain. Just death. Kill or be killed. Remain as we are. In his mind he was fully prepared to use his suicidal self destruction technique to take this person down if it came down to it. As he rushed down to the ground in his mad dash, he formed the several seals before flicking back his wrists and engulfing them in flames. His feet touched the ground and in an instance he was already rushing towards the cloaked figure. “HRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” His battlecry sounded through the area, an indicator that a battle for the ages was about to commence.

---

---

Rei stood by the group, until Aoi said something about her gameboy. Rei covered her mouth and giggled, not because of what the clown girl said, but because she was about 3 generations of handheld devices behind the rest of the world. “Aoi-sama, you know that the Naruboy is already out right?” she said, still a bit gigglish as she said so. As Akio also answered her she smiled at her and bowed her head slightly. “Thank you Akio-sama.. admirer? What are you ta-HAAAAAAAA!” she suddenly yelled out as she felt a strangers' hand on her eyes. Without listening to the words this stranger, that was actually Giichi, spoke, she grabbed the hands and bent her body forwards, causing a leverage effect to occur as she swung Giichi over her body into the ground. “Let go of me you pervert!!” she yelled with her eyes closed and her face red in anger. Without looking she pulled her arm back and then sent it forwards, stomping Giichi in the face.

As she opened her eyes again to take a look at the damage she'd done, she realized now that it wasn't a stranger who was being pervy, it was actually Giichi-kun. She immediately started apologizing, since when it came to Giichi she could handle fun 'jokes' like that. Her face was still red, but this time more because of emberassment. Rei extended her arm now and helped Giichi get back up, before her face turned back to normal. Her white hair waved slightly in the breeze as she grabbed her arm with her other hand, looking at the ground because of the comment Akio made. “Y-yes, you're right. He is very protective of me, and of the entire family. It's the reason that he and Daiki don't get along, since our clans are not exactly best friends.. but I promise, Yamato means the best. He is just.. he can be a bit mean in his words. I promise he is actually kind of nice.”

The speech then commenced, while Rei tried to make small talk with Giichi to confirm that they were still friends atleast. As soon as the Hokage started naming names however she paid more attention, and clapped when Akio and Aoi were named as candidates. “Congratulations guys! I'm so happy for you!” she proclaimed, and when Yamato was named she couldn't help but feel a bit happy for him too. It was a case of mixed feelings, because since he got chosen, he had to leave Konoha for quite some time she imagined. But then stuff went wrong - very quickly. The Hokage suddenly became ill, and then a robed, masked figure appeared. It.. was this like Pain's invasion? Please, no. Without being given much time to think Yamato appeared while the crowd tumbled into chaos. He seemed to confirm Akio's suspicions that she had had about him, despite Rei saying that he was actually quite nice. But because of Rei's friendly nature she couldn't say anything about Akio calling her brother a prick.. she could argue with her but Akio was actually sort of right. All she could do was ignore it for now. It wasn't the most important thing at this point in time either.

“Giichi-kun, let's go!” Rei yelled as she quickly followed Aoi and Akio. She wasn't as fast as them but she was fast enough to atleast keep up and keep them in sight. She would follow them for now, since Yamato wasn't around and neither was Daiki. That made Aoi the highest ranking shinobi around at this moment.

---

---

Yopparai slowly followed Tsukiya, not really on edge, simply walking as he normally would. It was pretty clear there was a difference in strength, especially since one of their team was slightly incapacitated. When Tsukiya used his bloodlens lemmet thingie to spot the enemy, it was all rather easy for him to fix. Added to that that Tsukiya prevented the escape of this person constantly carrying the Hyuga.. well, it'd be like dogs in a barrel. That was how the saying went, right?

Just as he was about to walk even closer and swing his sword at the manhole cover, he noticed.. something. What was that sound? It sounded like the whizzing of projectiles. Very small ones.. like raindrops. A look upwards revealed that there were.. watery senbon? It was something like that anyway. They were headed straight for Yopparai, but he dodged it with a simple sidestep. It would take a bit more than just some senbon to get rid of him. But now, now Yopparai was angry. “Fucking mist.. I never thought I'd see mist like this again when I left Kirigakure.. guess I was wrong.” With a quick motion he put the lip of his flask of alcohol at his mouth, before gushing it around inside his mouth to knead chakra into it. As soon as that was done, he would face towards where he thought the majority of the mist was, before spewing it out. The fine mist of alcohol spewed straight into the mist, causing the alcohol to get mixed in with the alcohol due to the molecular interaction that happened between the two.

Not that Yopparai understood any of that molecular bullshit - he just wanted to light shit on fire. With a quick movement he pulled out his flint and steel, before smashing the two together and creating a spark. That spark was enough to kickstart the fire that now occured as the mist with alcohol in it burned up. Essentially, this meant that indirectly Yopparai had gotten rid of the mist atleast partially. It also meant that Yopparai would unknowingly most likely burn up the water clone that was sent out by Gin unless measures were taken. The real question would be if Gin could see this coming, and whether or not he'd get out of the mist in time to avoid getting burnt too badly.

As soon as Yopparai had dealt with the annoyance that was the mist, he noticed that he could see a lot more clear without that annoying mist. He didn't waste any more time and swung his sword around towards the manhole cover. “BOOM BABY!” he yelled as the sword connected, after which he made the explosive tags explode. The sheer force of the explosion would lead to a loud bang, as well as cause the manhole cover to dent so badly that it fit through the hole, likely hitting whoever was still below it in the head. As if being hit with an explosion wasn't bad enough, they'd also get hit with a manhole cover.. that would hurt. “Tsukiya-chaaan, do you want me to blow some fire down into that hole?!” he yelled, looking back at Tsukiya. He wasn't sure what was down the hole and he didn't want to risk losing out on some much needed alcohol.

---

A blur to the ordinary below him, Daiki flashed from rooftop to rooftop. Without him realizing when, Yamato had closed the distance, a medical ninja in tow. Daiki glanced at her before returning back forwards. She was the one that had helped that small kid out at the assembly. From what he had seen she good, special even. It was smart on Yamato's part to bring her along.

Once they caught up with Aoi's squadron, Daiki looked ahead, beyond the streaming attacks and exploding chaos that followed the hooded figure. He couldn't quite make out what was going on but it looked to him that she was after the Hokage. If not him, then something he had. Information perhaps? Either way, he wouldn't sully the loyalty forged by the Naito by allowing Zeno to die.

Reaching into his flak jacket, he pulled out Anemone's scroll and summoned the sharp broadsword to his hand. Yamato's voice reached through the sound of space and time warping to summon the blade. Daiki took a moment to think before responding.

“It doesn't seem that way. The culprit attacks the Hokage during the assembly … where all the ninja are present?” He lowered his eyes and tensed his jaw, wondering if he should reveal his own thoughts. “This doesn't add up. The cloak could be stupid and have a vendetta against the Hokage but I doubt it. I think this is more likely, he's risking a fatal situation to provide cover. Yea, that seems possible to me.” He lept harshly from the ground, flowing through the air before landing into a dash again. “Doesn't really matter though. As ninja, we protect our Hokage.”

He landed with a muted thump, silently halting. The air was clear, the area tense. Daiki had a shaky feeling in his gut; something was odd, not quite right. His golden eyes grew dark before swirling with the sharingan. Chakra became clear, things that was once hidden became possible to track. When he caught the slightest clue of the cloak attacking from behind the Kage, he dashed off to meet it. A second, if not more before Yamato barked his name.

A audible growl ripped from his throat as he pulled back Anemone and chucked it to meet the assailant's next steps. The sharingan in his eyes glowed crimson, flaring to life like neon lights when paired with his speed.

---

---

Giichi's world was flipped before he could get most of his sentence out. The pain of his back hitting the floor was only visible through obviously shocked eyes, and though perfectly fine, it was fear and instinct that took over a second later. Quicker than he could imagine, his hands came up to his face, palm upwards as he wailed out.

“W-Wait … Reiha- Rei-chan!” His hand clenched around whatever limb she threw towards him, blocking it. Even still, the strength she threw into it sent his hand into his nose. He staid on the ground, dazed by her blow and sudden change. It appeared often over the years but only once or twice on him. He smiled to himself, seeing her porcelain hand reach out towards him.

Giichi dusted off the back of his flak-jacket, feeling the sting in his palms each time. “Impressive as always, I see.” he complimented before joining Reihana. He took small glances at her when they weren't conversing and stared, somewhat lost, when they were. Not even the list of names were a quiet zone to him. He was sure he wouldn't be apart of it, that he'd stay in the village. So when the beginnings of his name echoed, no, stuttered in the Hokage's voice; Giichi straightened in surprise, inching forward with utter stupor.

But then things turned sour, really sour. Giichi's brows furrowed as the crowd grew wild. He looked for Reihana and staid close to her, more for her safety than his own. It wasn't hard with her snow white hair fluttering about to keep gravitated to her.

“Right behind you, Rei-chan.” He said, overtaking her shortly before syncing his dash with hers. The older ninjas were concerned with the Hokage but honestly, all he wanted to do was protect who he could.

Yuna followed Daiki and Yamato(though she didn't know their names) quietly as they made their way towards the direction of where the Hokage and his pursuing assailant ran off to. She kept a watchful eye at everything that was occurring around her. Some first day of work this was. A the sudden thought of her daughter made her heart melt. She was thankful that her daughter was back at the bathhouse and out of harms way. There was no way in hell she'd let her daughter become a ninja when she became of age.

Over my dead body.

But alas they continued on further, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as the other ninja around them had the same destination in mind as well.

"Stay behind the frontlines, you're the only medical nin on site at the moment so you need to stay alive. If you risk your life, it won't be that person ending it, it'll be me. Understood? Don't go close until we tell you to", the dark-haired one commanded.

His threat did little to deter her mature spirit, though she understood what he meant. Without giving him a verbal response, she simply nodded in affirmation to his "request". Stay alert, be responsible, play it smart. When they had finally reached a group of other ninja who looked to be around their same age group, she stood visibly distanced behind them, though glanced at each them equally with an somewhat cold and serious expression that would most definitely make her seem unapproachable or smug. She certainly wasn't trying to appear smug, but her extremely feminine and comely face often looked blank, cold, and distant. But it equally made her seem mysterious and alluring. Though it didn't help that her countenance and personality somewhat matched. It wasn't her place to intervene in their comradeship. That was their "social circle", she assumed. But she couldn't help but notice as the red-headed jonin pulled out his sword.

She eyed it keenly before they finally moved on. When they had arrived at the scene of the ensuing fight, she stood behind them as they charged in, her keen perception watching like a hawk to every movement that was made. When it was time for her to be of use, she'd jump into action.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shouken observed the acrobatic ninja as she made haste of ruining his plan. The cloaked figure landed in front of Shouken a few meters and drew some kunai and released them with great speed, giving the chunin no time to react. Knowing his lack of time, Shouken shield his eyes and most of his face as he saw the tags light up.

Shit...

With a great explosion, the ninja flew back several feet and eventually fell through the roof that gave way. He landed inside the middle of the living room of a random household. They were packed on one couch, the father and mother along with two kids. Shouken rose to his feet, brushed off his pants and gave his smile and chuckle, leaping back to the top of the roof in hopes of tracking down the cloaked figure.

After hopping a few roofs, he heard the noise of what sounded like thunder crackling within the city. The direction of the clash was easily located due to the somewhat loud noise and Shouken wasn't too far away.

Upon reaching the Kage, Shouken had paused on a rooftop just only a hundred feet away and not too tall. He took his chance and brought his hands together. The cloaked figure had not heard him yet but he knew it wouldn't take too long. Channeling his chakra, he began performing his hand seals. He was going to try his new technique for the first time in combat. He had almost perfected it with practice and was eager to try it.

His body was aching, however, and he wasn't sure if he could even escape if the need be...Not like he would anyways, just the thought of it worried him slightly. He casts his thoughts aside, yet again and performed his jutsu.

"Water Technique: Twin Wolf Collision!"

His jutsu erupted from his mouth and zoomed towards the robed foe. The watery wolves took off in different directions, pursuing their target. It was a matter of seconds before they clashed to meet again.

Akio cursed slightly as her arrows did nothing to even slow down the assailant, much less hit land a hit on them. With Aoi coming to back her up, however, she was confident in their ability to protect the Hokage. As Yamato, Daiki, and Shouken engaged the enemy, Akio had an idea of how to assist her comrades in taking down the cloaked figure.

"Aoi, use that new technique of your's, the 'Mister something or other' one, to try and hold her down. I'll try and hit her with my own technique afterwards. Sound good to you?" Akio asked, watching the fight taking place with gritted teeth. She wanted to hurry up and pin the assailant with a hail of arrows, but that'd be more likely to put her comrades in danger as they all converged on the opponent. Instead, she's run through a series of handseals, before running a high discharge through. She'd hold it steady though, waiting until the perfect moment.

"Raiton: Thunderbolt Jutsu!"

Once the moment presented itself, either with Aoi's jutsu succeeding to hold the assailant down or the assailant somehow making it past everyone else in her charge towards the Hokage, she'd unleash the Jutsu, sending forth a hail of lightning bolts towards the cloaked figure. While the jutsu was madeto target multiple targets , she focused all of them on the one target, making them rain down from multiple directions at high speed, making the attack harder to dodge.

@Savato

@Partisan

Chen watched the battle that was going on and grinned. This is what he had been waiting for. A chance to kill without being held back by any bureaucratic tape and paperwork. It was time to get bloody. Chen jumped into the mix and threw several shuriken at the person everyone was attacking. He then formed some quick handseals. "Wind Style: Gale Palm!" Chen shot a strong gust of wind at the shuriken speeding them up exponentially. It also had the added effect of kicking up some stray dust which somewhat obscured his location.

@Raijinslayer

@Partisan

@Savato

---

While the majority of shinobi that came to the Hokage's aid were overt in their approach, Tsukiko maintained her stealthy approach. If anything the clumsy and obvious assault provided by her comrades would serve to her advantage in accomplishing her goal. The assassin was intent on killing Zeno, but on top of the focus required for such a feat she would also have to be wary of the incoming reinforcements. All of this would serve as a distraction to keep the hooded assassin from realizing the true danger. While Tsukiko was still invisible thanks to Hiding with Camouflage she would be the greatest threat to the mystery woman.

As Zeno keeled over again and the assassin dashed in to capitalize on his moment of weakness, Tsukiko also dashed in to capitalize on the situation. Other shinobi were also moving in to attack, but they were much further back than Konoha's resident wild woman. While they prepared or had already launched ranged techniques in order to hit the assassin before she could reach Zeno, Tsukiko approached quickly and silently at a perpendicular angle to the woman to intercept her on her path to Zeno. Holding her spear in one hand, Tsukiko passed close behind the woman. With a swipe of her left arm she brought the spearhead across in an invisible attack to the woman's left calf.

A simple but effective attack that Tsukiko was known for performing. Severing the tendon in the lower leg created a significant hamper to the target's movement, and thus their ability to fight or run away. In some cases that strike alone could be enough to end a fight. Whether Tsukiko's ambush succeeded in inflicting severe damage to the assassin or not didn't matter too much to the woman. Her proximity had already done enough. The assassin's scent was now fresh in her mind, and her chakra signature was etched into her memory. If the woman avoided the crippling attack, if she killed Zeno, if she fled the village, there would be no salvation. The hunt begins.

---

"No, Oichi. We have to hear the Hokage's speech."

Nobunaga smiled at his animal companion who seemed a bit worried about today. Oichi had been far more irritable lately then in the recent days making Nobu wonder if it was him that was causing Oichi to act out of character. Nobunaga began adjusting his tie till it was loose, letting out a sigh of relief. He was a little worried about Oichi but for now they had bigger things to see about. The Hokage's speech was always an important one and it could shape Konoha further into an age of greatness. The last two years had been tame and Zeno hadn't truly shown a great change to the village in a long time. Nobunaga hoped the Hokage had something to show for the past few years.

Once reaching the area that the Hokage would be speaking from, Nobunaga and Oichi opted for a more advantageous position. The young Inuzuka and pet climbed to the top of a nearby house overlooking the area. There were a quite the group of people crowded around the Hokage so it felt needed for Nobu to take the high ground. He ran his fingers through his newly cut hair, something Nobu did out of the pure need for change. A more adult look for a more adult ninja which didn't come with the title of jounin. Nobu stared onward as the Hokage began to speak. It felt like the normal speech and wasn't very inspiring. Time passed and the two companions were ever so intent in wondering what he'd be doing later. That was a mental question that would soon answer itself as a set of event took place that began with Zeno coughing up blood and a mysterious hooded woman going on the attack.

Anbu could barely handle the woman and it seemed as though she was toying with most of them from the way she fought. It all happened so fast and Nobunaga was currently not too far away from the woman who attempted to escape from the group of ninja that wanted to capture or end her life. "Come Oichi." Nobunaga yelled out, placing hand on hilt. From one roof top to another the two leaped and dashed toward the woman, slowing down only when they saw Yamato, and several others going on the offensive. Waiting for a few of the more area intensive jutsu to finish assaulting the woman who deemed herself worthy enough to attack the Hokage in front of everyone, Nobu prepared himself.

"How will this end?" Nobunaga asked, a question left floating in the air.

---

So many flashy jutsu were being used and it quickly overwhelmed Aoi's mind. She wasn't actually confused, the clown was very much aware of what was really going on and knew from whom most of the abilities came from, but they were so untidy like her house! How were they going to hit successfully if they would all end up hitting their own moves by lack of coordination? Aoi didn't think a lot, but she liked to organizing things nicely during her performances, and right now the execution didn't please her. Nonetheless, with Akio's plan and the harlequin's fighting style, this did give opportunity. As the assailant would either block or try to escape the wrath of the Konoha nin, she'd be greeted through the smoke by Aoi's new special attack!

All she did was pull out one of her usual cloths and swiftly twisted it in various ways, like a clown making an animal balloon, to make it take the form of a hollow octopus in less than a second. Now all she had to do was wait for the right moment. At the instant she'd estimate that most moves would have hit, she'd hurl the squid at the general direction of the whole melee. Once in the air, the light mass would suddenly inflate as if it had been stuffed with something in that instant. It was the Mister Spodes technique developed by Aoi, a new jutsu that made it so that her mucus would fill the insides of her little origami-like doll through the Ram hand seal, essentially making it 'come to life'.

"Boyoyoyo!"

"Here it is Kiki! Get ready!"

Aoi announced while the little creature cried that strange set of sounds as if it truly was alive. It really wasn't, but the unnerving side effect of that jutsu gave it, quite weirdly, that voice. The Spodes, now in the air, prepared to release a couple of its eight tentacles in order to capture the assailant during her defensive maneuver or escape. In either case, the tentacles could stretch up to twenty meters and weren't all that slow in terms of latching onto things. A great surprise approach if it's weren't for ...

A very unexpected event occurred. The assailant visibly had no such weapon, but a Ninjato appeared to have pierced Mister Spodes as it released its tentacles, piecing right through his octopus head with insane speed. It came from another direction that the assailant's position too. Aoi stopped on her tracks, grabbing Akio's sleeve in the process to stop her. There was at least another person around, but as Aoi turned her head, there was nothing. In the corner of her eye, she could see very swift movements occur going from building to building. Her Spodes died and now she was left with the information that they could very well be ambushed right now.

"Kiki ... Do you see them?!"

But Aoi's thought process would be complete interrupted when she noticed him.

---

---

Most of the upcoming techniques seemed to be disregarded by the next turn of events. Or at least, by the emergence of this new individual. A tall and evidently well built figure wearing possible the most mystifying attire in the whole village emerged at the side of the assailant. His movements seemed ungodly fast, likely due to the chaos overwhelming most of the attention of nearby shinobi, but also because he seemed to have unnatural movements and speed. As his feet touching the ground would be first heard by Tsukiko as she attempted to jab the assassin in the leg, the new hostile's leg would already be lifted in a position would translate it a swift kick to the torso. He was going for an obvious Kizaru style kick, something the Jonin could easily remark as being potential deadly given the size and speed of the individual. But she could also notice that it was more of a deterrent than an actually kill attempt. She could still go on with her attack, at the risk of having her rib cage completely fuse with her organs of course.

The next thing that would likely come into mind would be how he'd notice her. But then again, Dojutsu and sensory were things not so uncommon in the shinobi world, were they? Perhaps such confidence in the approach would leave some rather puzzled. Nonetheless, it wasn't going to be through stealth that victory would be achieved, and even less through random assaults from random directions. The mysterious figure didn't even pay attention to them, focusing his gaze toward the condemned Hokage as if nothing could stop them, not even the two recently promoted Jonin attacking head on.

Just suddenly, a massive structure of Earth, large enough to obstruct the way of almost every long range approach thrown at the assailant, would emerge, taking the shape of a gargantuan sitting Buddha and leaving nearby buildings barely any space to remain stable. Its formation was so fast and its sturdiness mighty enough to sponge all these attacks. It would also serve to disconnect the two shinobi and the Hokage from nearby onlookers. But the Buddha didn't stick around for long, as the mix of Shouken's water attack and Chen's wind jutsu did leave a small scratch, prompting the currently invisible summoner to dispose of it. After all, the current threat was gone.

More and more, the Konoha nin would notice figures randomly appearing in various nearby rooftops, some even on the Hokage monument, all wearing the same uniform with the traditional ANBU masks to conceal their identities. One of them was placing both his hands on a building's roof, likely to be the progenitor of the giant monument that stood before the shinobis' endeavor. They were about twenty visible, but any trained ninja could feel that more than these eyes were glaring directly at them. The most observant of the bunch would notice a white armband wrapped around their left arm, every single one of them, including the intimidating figure in the trench coat. However, only the most composed of the bunch would notice the fine symbol engraved in gold on the band.

'The 11th Corp'

---

The robed figure's eyes flashed back as she noticed a sudden surge in the air around her. She was going to be late to defend herself regardless, but she didn't seem worried and continued her attack on the Hokage. Her eyes flashed back forwards, knowing that an intervention was on the way to stop whomever was now behind her. Her steps now approached the Hokage who was still sitting on his knees, holding his stomach. With a simple motion the woman grabbed two kunai, one in each hand, and ignored the others that were attacking. They, too, would get an intervention. As the buddha appeared the woman got in range of the Hokage and sliced him across his back four times, not deep enough to be meaningful attacks but certainly harmful enough to impede him a little bit, as well as show off to Konoha shinobi that there Hokage was a mere mortal, too.

As the buddha dissapeared again, so did the robed figure, jumping back towards an open spot that she noticed. There she stood, a kunai in each hand, before putting them away. For the first time since arrival she spoke, though her voice was changed and sounded very deep, obviously changed using some sort of voice changer in the mask or a jutsu, perhaps. “Drop the Hokage hat.” the voice said, as the woman stood idly by waiting for an answer. The Hokage simply sighed as he got up again, slowly and somewhat failing powerwise. But he stood up, a remarkable feat on it's own. As he finally stood up completely, he simply smiled with a smug smile before pointing at the robed woman. “Never! It's a symbol of the Will of Fire! I'll never give it up for someone like you!” The woman didn't answer, but only rapidly went inside of her robes with her hands, before stretching her hands forwards. From her hand flew six shuriken, headed straight for the Hokage. But before they hit the robed woman quickly formed handseals, before forming shadow clones of the shuriken, multiplying them to atleast a hundred shuriken. “You will.” the voice said again as she looked at the hundred shuriken rain down upon the kage. With a last ditch effort he formed several seals, but was too late with his jutsu to avoid damage all together. He was hit by atleast ten shuriken before he poofed away, leaving behind only a tree stump that fell to the floor with a clunk. Yet again the Hokage chose to escape..

The robed figures eyes flashed side to side quickly, before spotting the Hokage upon a roof on one knee, picking the shuriken out of his body and throwing them down. Her eyes flashed towards that of her companion, not saying a word but transmitting an order clearly without a word. Keep them back while she gave chase again. This was the last time she was running after him too. Games were over. She took off again and left behind the crowd, moving rapidly to avoid being caught by anyone. She started jumping again from roof to roof, keeping up with the hokage rather easily. Although he had regained most of his strength, he wasn't particularily fit for battle at the moment. Granted, she could make him bend over in pain with just a simple handseal, so regardless of his strength, this was a lost battle for him.

As they moved the woman went into her robes again, this time not simply following him, but actually going after him. She threw some kunai at him with explosive tags, blowing them up when she figured they were close enough. Somehow the Hokage gathered enough strength to dodge it, jumping ahead slightly to get out of the main blast area. It wouldn't prove to be enough any longer. With the same trick she threw more kunai with explosive tags, this time exploding them a bit later as they were aimed directly in front of him. The explosion caused him to fall over, hit the roofing tiles and fall down into the street below. Wasting no time, the woman jumped down and grabbed the Hokage by his collar and dragged him with her as she jumped on, towards the town square again. As they arrived there, she dropped him down on the wooden platform again, in the now desolate square. It seemed most of the civilians had fled the direct area of confrontation between the woman and the Hokage, expecting things to progressively get worse.

This was not the case.

It was about to be ended, here and now, as long as there was no further interruptions. The Hokage attempted to get up, leaning on his arm, only to be met with a swift kick in the elbow, to keep him down. He groaned as he laid there, with a couple shuriken still stabbing out of him. Then, the robed woman dropped down through her knees and formed the Ram handseal. She stared deep into the Hokages eyes as she did so, looking at him. There was no emotion, no nothing. After the handseal the Hokage screamed in agony again as something inside his body curled up and hurt him very badly. After she persuaded him to stay down this way, letting him know she could do this at any time just by this demonstration, she stood straight up and waited for the inevitable backup to arrive yet again. “Keep the hat for now.” The Hokage groaned in pain as he slowly unfurled from his fetal position, looking up at this mysterious person who didn't even seem to grant him the respect of looking in his eyes. “W-who are you.. you vile beast.. destroying our nations' prosperity..” The woman responded softly, still looking at the streets that she expected the shinobi to pour out of. “No. I am saving it.”

---

---

Saburo had spent the entire day pretty much preparing for a large scale 11th corps operation. After some time in the 'normal shinobi lifestyle' he was recalled by his superiors, being written out of the normal forces without much interference from anyone within those forces. It seemed to be common place for ninja's to be placed in and out of there coming from the 11th, so no real questions were asked. In reality, he was just placed there to gather intel for the 11th corps leader at that time, Mikagura Shimura. However it'd been some time since he'd heard from him, so the recall was quite a surprise to Saburo. On the other hand, during his 2.5 years off, he had procured a rather valuable artifact. Madara's Gunbai was now in his possession after a rather influential interference from the 11th. He was handed it after lengthy discussions between Mikagura Shimuza and the current Uchiha clan leader.

However today something was going on - Saburo was sure of it. He was called in early, woken from his sleep by fellow 11th corps members, before being ordered to get ready in his uniform. For some reason they were also ordered to wear their, often ceremonial, white wrappings around the arm that said 'the 11th corp' on it. No questions were asked by anyone. That was the way they were taught. Within five minutes everyone was ready to leave. During the short travel towards the village center there was a small briefing, detailing mostly that they were being sent out to stop people from interfering. The reasoning behind this was left out but the 11th corps always acted in the favor of Konohagakure, so as such the orders were undoubtedly going to benefit the village.

As soon as they arrived, the 11th corps more or less sprung into action. A giant buddha was erected by a fellow corpsman, which stopped most of the attacks sent by his former friends, Aoi and Akio in particular. Shouken was also there, he noticed. He just hoped that Shouken didn't train on genjutsu interference as much ever since that one time.. not to say that Saburo hadn't gotten better. He also noticed something that needed to be stopped right away - Daiki and Yamato were both headed for the intended VIP. Without receiving the order, but mentally 100% sure on his duty, he jumped forwards taking the large gunbai with the tomoe on it from his back. He landed right in front of Daiki and Yamato and prepared himself to take the full blow.

“UCHIHA RETURN!” But that hit didn't happen. He quickly placed his gunbai in front of the two, completely shielding himself, as well as the robed figure from damage. Using the gunbai the way it was intended, the gunbai took the chakra from the Yamato's attack and blocked the sword, making it plunk right off and land in front of Saburo's feet. Both attacks were easily nullified, and then the Gunbai did exactly what it meant to - it transfered the fire chakra in Yamato's technique into wind chakra, sending back a gust of wind strong enough to blow both Yamato and Daiki packing, pushing them back in the dirt. With a quick move of his foot, Saburo placed his foot under Anemone and then whipped it up, catching it mid-air with his free hand after which he put the gunbai back on his back again. “Yamato-senpai, Daiki-kun. Please do not interfere. I will kill you.” he said with a noteable disregard for their former relationships as comrades, if not friends. Saburo quickly glanced around at the area, looking at all the 11th corps members he could see, before looking at those that were in the area whom were not 11th corps. The 11th was outnumbered in this case. But that would not matter, as long as the mission succeeded. He'd then look back at Daiki, closing his eyes briefly only to open them revealing his own sharingan, staring directly into that of Daiki, holding on to Anemone tightly. He knew that Anemone was summoned from a scroll but Saburo figured he might not be able to unsummon it as easy as that without touching the sword.

---

---

Yamato noticed while charging headlong, seemingly the only one willing to take on this person face-to-face after Daiki decided to throw his weapon, that all the ranged got blocked pretty much instantaneously by a giant Buddha appearing.. but he was sure he could make it. A sudden blur appeared in front of them, too, nothing visible but a man in a trench-coat kicking the air.. seemingly nothing there. But he likely wasn't there for a reason. Perhaps an ANBU was trying to sneak in a kill on the robed? No matter. Yamato and Daiki would finish it. As long as Daiki stayed with him.

Suddenly he noticed a blur passing him by as he extended his fist outwards to punch the woman. Was that a sword? Did Daiki just throw his sword? Looking back confirmed that Daiki did indeed throw his sword. “Idiot.. they never should've promoted you.” Yamato mumbled as he felt his fist connecting with something. Looking over, expecting to see the robed woman, he instead found himself staring at a white-wooden board. His fists were suddenly extinguished, too, and he felt that the chakra he put into his attack had seeped away. Almost immediately he heard a familiar voice. “UCHIHA RETURN!” “Nanda.. wh-” Suddenly the Gunbai unexpectedly sent out a gush of wind, and Yamato managed to cover his body and face just in time by crossing his arms in front of himself. Minor cuts appeared on his arms and hands as he dug his heels into the dirt, slowly being pushed away. There was approximately 30 meters between Daiki and Yamato, and Saburo, when the gush stopped. Slowly Yamato lowered his hands, clenching his teeth together as he realised who was in front of him. “.. sharingan.. ofcourse..” he slowly mumbled, before looking at Daiki. His eyes suddenly widened as he looked at Daiki's eyes. “Doushita.. so you are cursed too?” It was a surprise to Yamato, as he only knew now that Daiki actually had the sharingan. He would deal with that later.. however all respect that Daiki had earned in those two and a half years, it quickly dissipated in just this one instance.

But at that moment he also realized that the Hokage had dissapeared, and that the woman was now already jumping after him again. This was turning into a chase around Konoha rather quickly. Not wanting to waste time, but not wanting to risk being stabbed in the back either, he looked at Saburo with angry eyes. The anger from being interrupted, by a person he knew none the less, coupled with the idea that Daiki owned a kekkei genkai.. it fueled his rage. His eyes made that part clear too. “Screw this fool. He's below me. Besides, you have the Sharingan now don't you Daiki? You don't need me if you use that.” he said in an annoyed and mocking tone. Let these two duke it out, he thought. If only Daiki hadn't thrown his weapon like a fool, he would have something to fight Saburo with. If he wanted to, atleast..

Quickly Yamato dashed off again, past Yuna. “With me. Leave that idiot Daiki to his own devices. He doesn't need us.” he said as he passed by her, headed for the location that the Hokage and that weird robed person were headed in. He trailed behind them heavily, however, and if anything were to happen to the Hokage, Yamato and Yuna likely wouldn't be on time.

---

“Tsk! My blade would've made it quicker than me or you. How was I suppose to know ...” He look knowingly at Saburo's weapon, though the person behind it seemed to be irrelevant. Anemone caught his attention next. Though he didn't show it, he was particularly irked that another man's hand was wrapped around its hilt. “A trivial piece of shit would enter the stage.”

Daiki shot Yamto a glance, the cursed comment sticking him lightly. “Baka, I'm cursed in the same way you are. I didn't choose the blood in my veins. Get off your broken alter, we have better things to worry about.” His sharingan zoned in on Saburo's, the anticipation of the battle rousing his adrenaline. When he Mentor would practiced, the elder Uchiha always spoke of “Battling with the eyes.” Daiki wondered if his training had prepared him for it.

Even with Yamato's anger, Daiki felt a sense of trust between him. In some form, even through his hatred of the Naito and kekkai genkai, he trusted him to handle Saburo. A fierce, small, smile formed on his lips as he stepped over to where Yamato once was, announcing to the gunbai-wielder that he'd have to defeat him to follow.

“Your memory's screwy isn't it?” he asked calmly, his utmost confidence dancing in his crimson eyes. “Didn't I tell you I wouldn't lose to anyone. You were included in that statement. The 11th corps, their behind this huh? What is this some coup? Konoha … fuck that. I won't let you.”

Daiki formed the tiger seal, poofing two shadow clones into existence, one on each side of him. Clone A formed a string of seals before spewing a ball of fire out towards Saburo the size of a jeep. The flames roared, distorting his chakra-seeing vision. In the meantime, Daiki slid off to the side, just inside his jutsu vision-blocking path. Clone B fell in-line directly in front of him as they approached with speed.

Chen frowned as everyone's attacks did nothing. The assailants were clearly superior to them and he could do nothing to stop them. For now. He listened to their grandiose demands and laughed. What an idiot! The Hokage was really willing to risk his life over a stupid symbol like the Hat? How stupid could you get? He laughed even harder as the Hokage was seemingly tortured by this mystery woman. He then noticed two guys leading a charge at the assailants. He shook his head. How stupid were these two, these people just took down the Hokage and they seriously thought that they could fight them? Idiotic.

"But they're making me look bad." Chen muttered as he rushed to their side. He stopped by Daiki and smiled viciously. "Mind if I join in on your little pow wow?" He formed some quick hand seals and looked at the ball of fire heading towards Saburo. "Wind Style: Gale Palm Jutsu!" He pushed the wind out of his hands and towards the fireball, expanding its side and making its flame burn even hotter. "I don't actually care if you mind. I'm joining in either way." Chen said with a crazy look in his eyes.

Chihiro quickly made her way into the manhole and crouched for a second, using her Byakugan she began watching everything around her "Gi-" looking to her side she thought she heard something "Gin can you hear me? How you holden up?" she looked own the darkened sewer and then crouched again to take a break. She looked around in the dark of the tunnel and saw plenty of tunnels to go into, this was a good area to be for the time being, even a manhole to get out of if needed. Not hearing from Gin she looked around but had yet to see him, to many bodies in the area, she wasn't able to differentiate, her focus was split with trying to manage her wound, it hurt with all the motions that had been going on "Hey Jun, do you have an eye on Gi-" she looked up and saw that the enemies were around her, she lowered her voice "They're above me, do you have my location? I'm gunna need a little help."

She grabbed her blade out from it's holster and she got ready to attack. However what happened instead, she saw the stronger ninja shoot rocks towards her. Moving out of the way from the initial attack, she quickly stood up "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven" quickly forming the rotation, she used this to block and repel any rocks coming towards her. She stopped and quickly started running, holding her side, sure she was ripping stitches, hearing the sound of an explosion the other ninja was also there, as she looked back and saw them "Uh hey! Not to like alarm you fuckers, but I could use some help, that would be amazing" she stopped "Tenketsu Needle: Chiryou Sutairu No Ashi" she hit her leg and braced herself, before propelling twenty meters down the tunnel. Stopping she breathed for a second, looking down, her wound had reopened and it was hurting like a mother fucker. Quickly she pulled out a bandaged roll, then a she pulled out a cotton cloth and put it up against her wound, making her wince in pain, not wanting to stay in one spot, she started running again.

With one hand, she held the cloth against her body and then started rolling around her stomach until it was covered and she made sure it was secure. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath "I swear to fuck Gin and Jun, you two better be dead..." she used her byakugan again and looked, seeing that they seemed to have stop, however she wasn't sure why.

---

"And this guys is what hand si-?"

A boy ran into the classroom out of breath "Uncle Hyūga Sensei! You're needed outside, something has happened with the Hokage!"

Kids in the class room and started to get loud, before Katsu clapped "ALRIGHT! enough! let's go! We're evacuating the class now!" students got up and started out the door, Katsu helped a child shaking "Listen it'll be alright, I'm sure it will be fine, now come on" they left the room and started off through the halls towards where all the other students were being told what to do.

"Katsu-Kun! We have it here, they're gonna need you out there, don't worry, get a move on!" one of the teachers told him and Katsu nodded, before running through the hall and out from the school doors, using his Byakugan, he looked to see what was going on, jumping up onto the buildings, he saw Aoi and jumped down and stopped "Oi, what the hell is going on right now, there's so much panic in the cit-" He stopped as Aoi seemed to be with Akio and they both seemed to be looking up, reusing his byakugan, he looked up and he was confused, putting his back towards Aoi and Aiko "What...what is this?" he thought for a moment "That is the 11th Corps outfit, what the fuck is going on? When I was teaching, I wasn't even informed of the meeting, so what the hell is the meaning of this, why is there so many of them and why are they staring at us?"

As Mister Spodes went up, Akio prepped to unleash her electric payload, but the sudden death of the goo-filled construct instantly made her cancek the jutsu, looking around with her eyes to see where the attack had come from. Moments after Aoi had asked her question, Akio saw the culprit, a man in atrench cloak and gas mask who repelled all of the attacks on the cloaked assailant. At first Akio was going to atrack again, but then a group of shinobi apoeared, all dressed in the same uniform, and more importantly, all of them wearing the armband of the 11th corps. Is this a coup d'etat . . .shit, we don't have time for this, the Hokage in trouble and that takes priority When Katsu Hyuuga appeared, Akio was already moving past him, giving only the briefest of summaries.

"The Hokage is beimg targetted and the 11th corps is somehow involved, so stop standing around and lets get to the Hokage before it's too late."

Akio lept off after the assailant, sprinting as fast as she could towards the town square, all the while keeping an eye out for any movement from the 20 onlooking 11th corp members that she could see, as well as the unknown multitudes watching from the shadows. On the way she noticed Saburo facing off against Daiki and some other guy, clenching her teeth in anger but choosing not to dwell on it right now. At her current speed, she'd arrive at the square shortly before Yamato and Yuna, but just like them, she'd probably be too late to do anything.

@Savato

@AgentFallenSoul



After getting the his group to the safe zones, Tatsuya had gone back to the square to make sure tgat everyone had been evacuated from the area. Instead, however, he found himself in the last place he wanted to be, as he saw the Hokage being smashed into the platform, then tortured by the cloaked figure from before. When she turned her head towards the plaza, she'd see Tatsuya standing in the plaza, frozen in fear and shaking like a twig in a thunderstorm as he saw the Hokage brought down to duch a sorry state. Every fiber of his body was telling him to run, that this person was far beyond his ability to handle. I'm going to die he thought with a sobering finality, his heart besting at such a furious tempo in his chest, he was sure that it'd burst out if his chest.

But despite how afraid he was, he couldn't turn his back on the sight of his leader in trouble, couldn't just leave him in this time of need. So he drew Ketsui and took a stance, the blade shaking in his fearful hands as he stared down the cloaked figure, a cold sweat dripping down his back. If he was going to die today, he'd rather do so with his swordbin hand, facing the enemy instead of fleeing from them. That being said, he wasn't stupid enough to initiate any form of attack, he'd only react if the assailant made an action against him or the Hokage, and it'd probably be the last thing he ever did.

As he stood there, his thoughts turned to his family, to his father, his mother, even his bitch of a sister. The thought that he might never see them again sent a new kind of fear coursing through his veins. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to put his family through that kind of pain. His shaking reached a fever pitch as he almost gave into his baser instincts and ran away . . . but then his gaze fel. down on the Ketsui, the blade he'd forgrd with his own hands, the blade that had gotten him into this life in the first place. He rembered the years of blood, sweat and tears he'd shed to get here, the pride he'd felt for himself when he finally made it. He'd put his all into choosing this life, knowing the risks that came with it, and he wasn't about to shame himself or his family name by running away like a coward when those risk arose.

His breathing slowed, the shaking settled, and he looked back up at the cloaked figure with a fierce, look of determination. As long ad I have this blade, I will face anything that comes my way, even death, head-on. That is my ninja way, and it shall never be broken. He may have been so afraid for his life now that he could barely stand it, but he was going to face it like a true shinobi would, with honor and dignity. If death were to take him tonight, he'd try his damnedest not make it easy.

@Partisan

Such disorder didn't sit right with her as the ensuing battle went forth. The two who she followed had already dashed into the action as others assaulted the robed figure with various jutsu. It was so chaotic and stuffy down on the ground, she almost felt like she couldn't breath. Yuna watchfully looked around her for any anything she could do. As she turned around, a ball of fire whizzed over her head as she instinctively ducked under it. This was so uncoordinated and sloppy. And that damn fireball almost hit her. This was becoming increasingly bothersome and she knew for certain she didn't want to be the victim of friendly fire.

Leaping into the air as she watched everyone attempt to stop the robed figure from hurting the Hokage, she landed on a nearby rooftop. And looked around for anyone else that had been injured.

And then that's when she saw it. First a man in a strange trench coat appeared. He seemed to aiding the robed woman against the physical assault of Tsukiko, the wild jonin Yuna had certainly been told about. This act was quickly followed by the manifestation of a magnificent Buddhist structure made of earth. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was sturdy enough to shield against all the projectile jutsus that were attempting to pelt the robed assailant and her apparent trench coat wearing accomplice. Watchful and intuitive, Yuna immediately looked around, trying to identify the creator of the earth structure. Hmmm...I can't see very well from here. I need to get higher.

Hurriedly, she retrieved her bubble pipe from her pouch and immediately blew into it, creating a large bubble that encased her body. She scanned the surrounding landscape as it gently began to rise. Higher and higher it went. "There...", she mumbled as she spotted him. But other 11 corps members were appearing as well. Wait. Were these people really from the 11th corps? She recognized the uniform and the white armband. Why would the 11th corps be aiding the assailant? She looked down from her bubble in the sky to see that the Hokage had run off once more and the assailant once more giving chase to him. She descended back down to the ground as she witnessed Yamato and Daiki returning back from which they came, however, they were suddenly intercepted by another 11th corps member carrying a large fan. With a gust of wind, they were sent sliding back.

Yuna landed after this attack and released herself from her bubble with a soft *POP*. She kept her bubble-pipe at the ready in case she'd need to fight alongside them. But there was this weird familial tension amongst the three of them. And when the 11th corps guy and the red head both activated their dojutsus, that pretty much solidified her intuition. As they combated one another, Yuna stood back.

“With me. Leave that idiot Daiki to his own devices. He doesn't need us.”

Something about this made her hesitate. She couldn't help but feel that it would be wrong of them to leave him to fight by himself. But based off his uniform, he was a jonin, they both were, and she didn't want to disobey orders. "I see. Very well then.", she simply replied. Following behind him as they made their way back to the square.

The beautiful ginger increased her speed so she was running along side the rather aggressive jonin, sharing a quick glance at him coldly with her soul piercing emerald eyes as she eyed him up and down. She looked back forward unimpressed by his behavior and sighed. "You sure he will be alright? That was an 11th corps member back there. We shouldn't be fighting 11th corps members. Something very strange is going on here. You see it as well don't you?"

---

As Tsukiko moved in for the decisive blow, her senses alerted her to immediate danger. Almost as if he came out of nowhere, another robed figure had appeared in close proximity and delivered a kick towards the invisible woman. How did he detect me? Tsukiko wondered, twisting her body out of the way to avoid the incoming attack. Her effort to dodge and avoid damage reflected poorly on her own attack, causing her swing to miss the first assassin's leg. Instead the spearhead passed harmlessly behind her knee with plenty of space between the blade and her body. Fight this guy or keep after the woman...

The invisible woman slid to a halt, eliminating all the momentum she had from the speed she was moving at. Wielding her spear in both hands again, Tsukiko asserted a combat stance to prepare to fight this man. However she noticed something, prompting her to look up. Taking the high ground in various locations was a bunch of masked people, ANBU mask at that, wearing matching uniforms and a very familiar insignia. These were the guys who used to spy on me, Tsukiko realized, making sure to spot each and every 11th Corp member before returning her gaze to the second robed assassin that had interrupted her. This is all kinds of fishy. Why would our own organization try to kill the Hokage? Are these two people even actually a part of the 11th Corps? Do they all know I'm here!? How did this asshole find me!? And most importantly...

Who do I kill first!?

The Hiding with Camouflage technique masked it, but Tsukiko's expression contorted into one of rage. Her primal anger was starting to take control as she grew more frustrated with the situation she was in. I can track down the other bitch when I'm through with this piece of shit! Maintaining her invisibility, Tsukiko charged back towards the robed man, approaching him from behind. If he knows I'm coming, he's a sensor. The wild jonin hopped into the air, leaping at the man's back with her spear aimed to pierce his torso. She held her left leg out in a kicking pose, parallel to the spear, so that if she were to impale him as she intended she would be able to quickly yank the weapon back out by pressing against his back. That is if the attack worked in the first place. The spear was aimed to strike somewhere in the center of his chest, preferably through one of his lungs, but Tsukiko wasn't too picky and was ready to adjust her aim as needed.

---

Yamato left the scene, supposedly to go after the Kage. Saburo didn't move, as it was too late for Yamato to make a difference. Well, and besides that, there were several other 11th corps there to move onto him if he did arrive on time. Saburo's Sharingan stared into the sharingan of Daiki, and witnessed the chakra moulding inside of Daiki. Preparing himself for the strike Saburo quickly threw Anemone away, to his left, about half a meter away from Saburo. If he wanted to, he could grab the sword again rather easily. But the sword was more or less useless to Saburo. He didn't need it, he was just holding onto it to make sure Daiki didn't have a proper weapon. As soon as the fires fueled up, Saburo noticed that a second figure was approaching now too. He fueled the flames with his own wind, which ultimately would only quicken their deaths.

Since they were fighting back, Saburo had the right given to him by the 11th to counter attack and eliminate the threats. With a quick movement he grabbed a hold of the gunbai on his back and readied it, making it seem like he was going for another Uchiha Return. But that would be a bit of a waste given the opportunity that was presented to him by Daiki. “Daiki-kun, unknown-kun, please stop resisting, denoting I wish you to throw down your arms and surrender. That way, the 11th may spare your life.” he'd shout out over the sound of the roaring flames. With his gunbai now in hands and the flames roaring in, extra hot because of the added wind, Saburo waved the fan back and forth aiming it at the fire. “Gunbai fanned wind!” The motion of waving the gunbai, paired with moulding chakra into the fan, would start a strong gust of wind that was even stronger than the gust of wind done by the Uchiha Return.

The flames would prove, ultimately, to be Daiki's worst mistake he could make. With the wind now coming from the gunbai, and thus the other side, the flames would quickly be overturned and pushed back. Given the fact that the new ally Daiki had found had used wind to fuel the flames.. well, Daiki and Chen would quickly find themselves in a tough spot. Without giving them much chance to react the flames roared back into their faces, coming closer at an even higher speed due to the strength of the gust of wind from the Gunbai. There was barely any chance to dodge, and a hit was quite certain. Especially since the flames burned even warmer, the damage would be greater than normal.

Saburo thought about telling Daiki their goals, that he was just doing his job. But that would go against the code of the 11th, to never disclose any information. It was going to be punished by execution if he did tell Daiki. So.. he shut his mouth and let Daiki think what he wanted to think. As soon as the flames calmed down again, Saburo would hold Madara's Gunbai in one hand, planting it on the ground as he stood idly by, waiting for Daiki to speak again. His sharingan stared back at that of Daiki, and though it was not visible, Saburo was planning to use genjutsu on him if the need for it arose.

---

---

Yamato soared through the air, with Yuna following closely behind. That was, atleast until she moved up to go side to side with Yamato. She shot him a glance but Yamato ignored it, looking straight forward as he saw the plaza coming up quickly. Her words didn't bother Yamato, although he wished she'd keep her nose out of bussiness that it didn't belong in. “That wasn't just any member. That was Saburo Uchiha. He worked with us on several missions. Daiki and him both have ths Sharingan, and there are plenty of other shinobi around there. He'll survive..” The last words were said almost as if Yamato didn't wish it to be true. As if he wished Daiki would simply die in that fight. Daiki.. with his cursed eyes. It was people like him that once got Konoha destroyed. Itachi. Sasuke. They were all traitors to Konoha. Madara. Every Uchiha so far has considered in one way or another to kill off Konohagakure people.. Yamato was sure that Daiki was no different. And although Yamato didn't care about Konohagakure as much as he should, he cared about his family. And right now, Konohagakure was the home to the Minamoru clan.

“And yes, I'd be blind if I didn't see it. It doesn't matter. If they attack us, we kill them. Easy as that.” he said as he closed in on the plaza even more. Finally he reached the edge of the roofings, jumping down immediately and landing directly infront of Tatsuya. He would appear out of nowhere, arriving fast as he could, meaning that Tatsuya would barely see him coming until he had landed.

Yamato had stretched out one hand to cover Tatsuya's chest, to hold him back. As soon as he knew that Tatsuya wouldn't do anything rash, such as charge in on the woman, he'd lower his hand from his chest and put it on the sword, forcing Tatsuya to lower the sword. Let the Hokage rot. Yamato thought to himself, but he wouldn't say those words. Instead he simply looked forwards at the woman that was after the Hokage. “Hoy, genin.” Yamato said whilst looking at the woman, though his words were aimed directly at Tatsuya. “Don't you know playtime is over?” he said, looking back at Tatsuya only slightly out of the corners of his eyes. He grinned, but it wasn't a 'fun' type of grin. It was the type of grin you had when you were about to dive into something you know you shouldn't dive into. “Stay out of my way if it comes down to it.” he said, looking forwards again and making the grin fade from his face. But he wasn't about to charge in - he'd have done that if the woman had made attempts at hostility or aggressiveness. But instead she just stood there, looking at them. She wasn't doing anything. And.. from that Yamato concluded that she wanted to say something. The Hokage wasn't dead, so if she wanted to simply kill him and get out, then she could've done that by now. Instead he laid there like the pathetic man that he was. Tsk.

---

The chaos in the surface could be heard from down below, the flames caused by Yopparai's initiative would burst out of a couple of manholes nearby. They were close, and as such they would be more easily observed. Using the X-ray visor to capture the positions of each, the manhole selected was supposedly far enough away from at least Yopparai to avoid any serious problems, added to that would be Gin's mist that would still cover move of the area. What NC.4 didn't account for was the orb that had some how formed specifically in the 60 meter radius of a somewhat small village. Stunning but barely noticeable which led to the robot lowering its guard in a dire situation. Its visors were nonetheless alternating on its right eye, allowing it to perceive things as they went on.

It'd be when it climbed and noticed the manhole was abnormally stuck that it captured the robot's attention. Following that would be the echos of Tsukiya's voice both coming from the manhole's air holes and likely Gin's transmitter. This made it obvious that an explosive conclusion would follow. Especially with Yopparai's skeleton and weapon suddenly being focused toward N.C.4. But it only took that order for the robot to swiftly make five hand seals with the same dexterity it'd use to create its artwork in a blink of an eye. As the manhole exploded, N.C.4 switched itself with a random mass of sewage it crossed paths with, just as nin replaced themselves with random logs. The robot would end up in the murky waters of the sewers. Though concealed, the fact that one was more than likely a sensory type and that he could seal the manhole without touching it made the non-human being worry.

Did he use magnetism? Would it explain the rapid formation of rocks previously? These questions cried in the mind of the robot while it acknowledged the damage caused by Yopparai's approach. A sure death, the stroke of luck Tsukiya had of finding someone in the sewers with a 30 meters reach in an urban area would be counter balanced by his running mouth (and of course N.C.4's visor). In response, the robot aimed its fist upwards toward the location of Yopparai. As the man blurted out threats of burning the sewers down, the robot promptly fired its forearm at rocket speed toward the concrete under the drunk. The fist would crash into the concrete and perform the massive and mostly destructive explosion the iBomb was designed for. A lot of the heat would be sponged from the rock but the force was all the same, except it was indiscriminate. If Yopparai would have the ability to dodge, it'd be a perfect occasion for Gin to get in a strike silently, after all there was only mist in every direction.

Junshiro would have used the propelling force of the arm to let its body be pushed back, recovering fast so it could use the momentum to sprint toward Chihiro's last location. They had already found their location and now they were going to assault the operating team no matter they would go. Hiding didn't seem to be a valid option, "You can run but you can't hide" would be the best way to describe this ordeal. Of course, N.C.4's arm would fly back to its original body swiftly enough as it sprinted, being completely intact from all damage because of the jutsu's properties.

"Hiro. They have indeed found our location. Make an escape, I'll join you shortly."

The robot was of course expecting resistance from now on, especially with their wide range and accessibility to pretty much any location they could use that this point. These opponents were not going to be easy to handle, even for the 11th Corp's new weapon. It still had one hand ready to utilize the enhanced wires to bypass possible obstacles. Then again it took less than a few seconds for the average ninja to get through 30 meters, let alone a prodigy meant to be superior physically. Not that it actually knew of this characteristic of the sphere nor anything else about it. The risks were getting too high and they just had to escape. A full on fight would be too risky with the current condition of the players concerned.

---

---

Cracking his neck, the masked figure's lack of body language translated to the fleeting performance given by the shinobi nearby and the Hokage himself. He seemed to have lowered his guard, despite the fact that Tsukiko was still up and running with her invisibility jutsu, going as far as turning his back on her to witness the show made by the female figure. It really didn't stop him from being fully aware of her, or others for that matter. He'd actually look right up at one of the edge of a building to acknowledge someone for the first time: Katsu Hyuuga. A potential danger just like Hyuuga, but the lack of reaction other than a look translated to a somewhat lack of worry in that regard. She just kept a stare at the Hyuuga jonin, as if he was prodding the man to do something.

But his session of observation would end when Tsukiko manifesting herself once more to the man, attempting another strike from behind. Not only was it a trick she had displayed beforehand and was stopped by the very person she was attacking, but it didn't seem to even bother her that he could react to her despite her great stealth feats. He'd purposely shift his posture to stand sideways to the attacking woman, his chest still easily attainable via her position, but he didn't bother to actually dodge. He did however lift his gloved hand just a bit, letting the lance's jagged tip pass through his palm, seemingly cutting through, but he'd only clench his grasp when his hand would be capable of catching the shaft of the spear and locking it firmly. It'd be there that Tsukiko would feel the overwhelming physical power of this individual. All force applied on the spear and momentum she had gained through her technique and gravity, all gone by one catch.

By simply moving his hand, he'd bend the spear to make the tip perpendicular to the shaft before pushing the spear upwards using brute force. The goal was either to 'stab' the woman with the blunt end of the spear or force her to release it with such a brutal move. The fact that she still followed the laws of gravity didn't make the job any easier for her. If ripping it off her hands was the alternative, he'd swiftly deliver a couple of slaps across her face with her sturdy weapon, like a teacher spanking a naughty child. But no matter what happened, he didn't miss out on the option of using his free hand to grab her tactically positioned leg. Though she'd likely try to avoid having it captured, the man had the definite advantage at this point and had proven to be a lot faster than most would expect.

With her leg caught and the grip being ungodly tight enough to make it feel like her bone would snap, it seemed the huntress was in quite a pickle. Her weapon of choice was as good as gone and she was about to meet a new world of hurt. However, instead of finishing her, he'd use one swift and fluid movement to simply hurl her toward the building where Katsu was standing. The strength in the throw would be just as she'd expect from someone capable of what he just displayed, but he could have broken her leg or even put her in a position where killing her would be quite easy. It seemed maintaining Konoha's assets was something they considered, after all they did bring a hoard of them to the playing field.

In the meantime, the 11th Corp affiliates observed the entire scene in a stalker-like manner. They seemed so calm by their demeanor yet a wave of anxiety and stress breezed as one glanced at them. Saburo took quick care of the two ridiculous attackers at the front, leaving Akio to be targeted by one of the grunts. The same one who summoned the Buddha would now summon out of the remains of his last wall, a smaller figure. It took the exact form of a Maneki-Neko of rock, its arm pointed up. As it rapidly descended, it released a blast of air pressure right at the running female. As she didn't back off, the creature would continuously modify its angle like a defense sentry to mercilessly pummel the girl with a blast of pressure air the size of a car right at her face. It was harmless in theory, but it had a strong push back and cut one's ability to breath for a couple of seconds. After one or two seconds, the creature would wave, and a blast would go, making it a superb defensive tool. The same would apply on Shouken, blasts after blasts of air pressure, the cat shifting from direction to direction like a mad carousel going at Final Destination like speeds.

---

---

Everything got so crazy in one instant, every jutsu was block, even Tsukiko-sensei's approach was completely cockblocked by this strange man's presence. This situation was all to scary and confusing, but at the same time so exciting! Aoi wanted to jump in, but everyone kept on making the initiative too messy for her to play around on. As she looked around, she realized that Saburo was of course part of the whole fiasco, facing off the Sharingan using Daiki. What were the odds? Releasing a couple of bungee from her fingers, she'd have them ready whenever the opportunity would arise. Although before she could even commence anything of significance, a familiar figure showed up out of the blue to apparently assist them. It was Katsu Hyuuga, Aoi's personal teacher before becoming Jonin.

"Katsu! All this is happening and the Hokage is being attacked and people are using jutsu and 11th Corps is all and and and ... ! Wait Akio!"

As she blathered about her own misunderstanding of the entirety of the situation, despite knowing full well what everyone was doing, she suddenly got interrupted by Akio's bad choice of life by heading into the pile of messy approaches with little coordination. This made Aoi panic a bit, as she also could see from her vantage point the cat statue thing being birth from dirt and starting to do weird things directed toward Akio. Aoi formed a hand seal, but before she could use it to react to Akio's choice, Tsukiko would be seen hurled toward them. Without thinking or considering the fact that Tsukiko could just recuperate, Aoi used the justsu but on herself. The mucus on her body would accumulate on her abdomen, making it seem like she was becoming one obese mofo. It would serve to catch the woman if she were to crash on them while providing a wall for Katsu and Aoi.

Behind this wall, no one could technically see them. Of course, sensory nin or byakugan users would likely see around but there was no time to think, ever! Aoi swiftly made a mucus clone and immediately had it turn into a shuriken with the gooey surprise ability. Grabbing the morphed clone, she'd righteously give it to Katsu so he could work wonders with it. She herself equipped herself with a clone turned into a card so she could have the same trick to use on the nasties.

"Okay! You know what those do! Just do it so we can glue these weirdos and finish them faster than a quickie with your non-existent wife!"

She joked, in such a dire situation too. It was like her after all. But anyway, she'd leap to the side and hopped on another building. The 11th Corp didn't react as long as she kept her distances. All she did was fixate the cat thing, making sure Katsu wouldn't be bothered, same for Akio. If it were to start another assault on one of them, Aoi would promptly assault it with projectiles and eventually get creative with it, maybe even use it to her advantage. But for now, she was the scout allowing the commandos to exact their attack without hindrance.

---

Nobunaga had watched from afar, his senses picking up on everything. The attacks had been stopped by a huge buddha statue and what appeared to be the 11th Corp standing as the attackers of the Hokage. This couldn't be real in Nobunaga's eyes. Protectors of the Leaf were now attacking the very figure that guided us all. They were attempting to hurt the very shinobi that fought hard to keep it going. No this was treason at it's greatest degree and Nobunaga could not sit back to watch this continue. Due to being at a range where his animal senses could work for him and the advantageous position he held, the boy could see the Hokage being chased by the woman into the square. Instead of taking action toward the Buddha, Nobunaga instead followed the hooded figure in hopes of reaching the Hokage and saving him. He could make it before the others or he could be too late.

"Oichi. We have to move now."

Nobunaga ran as fast as he could with his feet barely touching the roofs before leaping to the next. Finally a thought crossed his mind. Taking to the sky, a platform of chakra formed under his feet giving him something to kick off of. The chakra in the platform was instantly absorbed back into his legs, vitalizing them and sending a far greater distance then he could normally jump from a platform. He soared the air at a much greater pace, eyes scanning the area as he moved. His eyes caught Yamato and a female arriving to the scene, talking to another Konoha-nin whilst the woman and the Hokage were not too far from them. From the sky Nobunaga landed within the same area as Yamato.

"Yamato." Nobunaga called out to Yamato, keeping his eyes on the target. He didn't want to act to impulsively and get himself or anyone else killed. "How shall we handle this?" Nobunaga asked the Jounin. Yamato and Nobunaga had barely ever worked together and it would make this a far more difficult situation fighting the woman together. Hopefully they could end this before it got worse.