Ryokō Niken

---

^{TIME: Afternoon | LOCATION: Kumo | INTERACTION: @Ladyinink@Altered Tundra@BladeX@Eis@GlitchyBugger}

"I think it's best if I stay here and watch over the hostages." Ryoko said, responding to Kiku. "I have the best abilities to free them if necessary and they would probably be the calmest and most cooperative if someone from there own village that they recognize was there to save them just in case." Ryoko recognized some of the hostages. Most were people she helped out when she was genin doing D rank missions. She felt awful for them. Being held captive waiting for help to show up just for some of the help to leave to do another task while the rest just waited for something to happen. She didn't just choose to be the one to watch over the hostages because she had the best chance of saving them if something went wrong. Although that was the most prominent reason. If they should fail at saving the hostages, Ryko wanted to be the one to take the blame. Not some foreigner from another village. She didn't want the potential families of the victims to blame another village for their loss. All of her current team members were going to try their best, risking their lives to save them. People not even from their village, and she respected them for it. The least she could do is make sure they didn't get the blame for anything should anything go wrong.

Ryoko slowly started to draw her special kunai from her sheath and pouch respectively. She didn't want to be seen as being aggressive to rescuing the hostages, but at the same time wanted the hostages to see that she wasn't going to let them get hurt. Ryoko turned to the rest of her team with her weapons now drawn."Any Objections?"

---

---

Kamui couldn't help but flinch when Sakana suddenly grabbed his shoulder, instantly snapping out of his thoughtful state when faced by the other boy's unexpected action. "Seriously? Who the hell do you think I am?" The Uzumaki said with a grim expression, looking as if he was about to deliever bad news... For about a second, that is, just enough time for a surprisingly arrogant grin to form in his face - quite the sight when considering the normal character of the Uzumaki. "Who the fuck would need a pot? I can do it by myself." He uttered in a surprisingly confident tone, lacking any of the uncertainties felt up till now as he noticed how flawed his thought process was until then: He didn't need to fight the worm to start with, just get rid of it.

"I'll need you all to distract the worm thing while I position my clones. It may be a bit hard to make this work without all of them."He didn't even wait for his partners confirmation before executing his plan, forming four clones behind himself after a quick execution of the needed seals and quickly proceeded to direct each of them to circle the worm while the original body staid in the current position, ultimately making a pentagon shapped formation in conjunction with the clones. If successful in this attempt, he'd barely need a few seconds to start the sealing technique characteristic of his clan, and from there on, not even a minute would be needed for the worm to be out of the game.

---

---

Hikaru couldn't help but sigh loudly from his position over the rooftop of one of the relatively high buildings of Iwagakure, visibly deceptioned by the lack of movement around the area he was assigned to in despite of all the effort he had to position his explosive tags in a way that wouldn't cause many civil casualties - quite the inconsiderate act of the enemies, that decided to attack with a small elite force instead of making a large scale attack, leaving part of the village fairly isolated from the "fun" and ultimately boring Hikaru, who had been assigned to one of those areas, to death.

It didn't take that long for the situation to change though, for before he had the opportunity of complaining about his boredom, an unexpected voice ringed in his ears, triggering him into quicly brandishing his umbrella as a club towards the origin of the sound... Just to see his attack being quickly dodged by the foxy looking individual responsible for the unexpected comments, that continued to blabber without stopping, giving Hikaru more than enough time to get up and stretch himself.

"Is that all? Are you done trying to annoy me?" A surprisingly cold voice came out of the boy's mouth as the clone revealed the bloodstained scroll, offering it as a reward in case he won the fight. "If so, let me take the time to correct you." He said, stopping to stick his umbrella into the roof in a display of abnormal strength, since he didn't even have to take impulse to do so, and using the now free hand to push his messy hair back, stopping it from covering his forehead. "I actually do care for some people, just a selected few, sure,
but I do care a lot for those." His eyes showed a dangerous sharpness as soon as he finished to speak, giving a hint at what was happening next: A sudden charge towards the fox, powered solely by his strength to demonstrate abnormal speed as he impulsioned his open right palm towards the fox head - no need to point out that even minor contact between the two would be potentialy dangerous for the foxy guy, since the open palm had more than enough chakra to trigger an explosion at contact.

@ZeroXposure Sebun's Clone

There was a brief look of surprise on Koma's face as the man, who had now claimed himself to be Sebun Chimi-Teki Tsumi, appeared more or less right in front of her and suggested introductions be made now that they were face to face. His arrogance brought forth a sour scowl before Koma even said anything. "With what you've done today, I don't think you deserve that courtesy." She bluntly stated, maintaining her guard if only so she could try to protect herself and react to whatever his initial attack may be.

---

@LadyinInk Kiku @Eis Nadia @Altered Tundra Jaakuna @BladeX Kaba @Grey Sama Ryoko

Yui remained quiet, simply smiling at the group as they began to figure out what to do. The consensus seemed to be going along with the plan of the shinobi with similarly coloured hair to her own, meanwhile one of the group actually was from Kumogakure originally and she was offering herself up to "protect" the civilians and shinobi that Yui had captive.

"Oh, you're from here are you?" Yui's smile grew a touch wider at the revelation and she licked her lips. "Well if you wish to be so valiant to stay here with your own to reassure them then perhaps you'd like to take the civilian's places, only you enter my clutches and the civilians I've got here can be free to go, that sounds fair, right? You lot," She fixed her gaze on all the shinobi except for Ryoko. "You'd best get going, time is of the essence, I'm sure negotiations here will go without conflict so long as she behaves. I'll have clones tailing you so that you don't try and go after my partner instead of doing what I asked of you." Yui gestured to two growing masses of hair from everything in the room that soon took on Yui's appearance. "They wont do anything to hurt you, but they probably wont help either unless it's a dire situation. Do come back successful, civilian casualties are the worst."

Presuming the group had decided it was a good idea to leave Ryoko alone with Yui and her hostages, the woman began to show a bit of boredom. "Whilst you're here to reassure your people that they'll be fine, why don't you and I have a little heart to heart, some girl-talk maybe? It'd be awfully boring if we just stood here and waited for them to come back successful or we begin to hear explosions in your lovely little village. Have you ever tried the coffee here? It's got a lovely flavour to it." In all honesty Yui didn't expect much of a conversation from Ryoko, but she'd at least see if she was malleable enough to try and say something.

---

As Yui stated, the two clones she created from the sprawling mess of hair in the cafe would indeed follow the group from a distance as they ventured out to locate and eliminate any of the fakes they could find.

Their first port of call would be a sparsely populated marketplace, it seemed to be fairly normal at the moment, people were walking around and looking at stalls and into shop windows. There were some who were conversing with others and here and there it seemed like a couple of individuals around the market didn't seem to be having any kind of fun whatsoever, they were just ambling about as if they were trying to walk properly, but not quite getting it right.

Date chuckled at Sakana's response, at least he had a sense of humor right, no point in being shitty about an already shitty situation. Date hen listened and watched as he began to take on the worm, the animal he summoned was cool and caught Date's attention for a moment but his technique was even more of a sight. Date had a habit of admiring other techniques and fighting styles, not to compare just to help him set a goal to reach. Date understood his orders and stepped a few feet away Sakana, making note of the areas he aimed for with his technique and re-strapped his sword on his back so he could control this jutsu better. Date always worried when he used this technique, make to many beans, you waste chakra and its harder to control,don't make enough and it does not have the added effect.

Date quickly formed the 5 hand seals necessary then faced his open palms towards the creature. "Ranton: Reizā Sākasu!" A bright halo formed in front his hands and then it encircles his hands, growing much larger and moving further out. Seconds later the halo was a circle bigger then Date's head and six beams of energy shot out towards the creature. 6 was a good number, good amount of chakra used and allowed him to use great control, Date aimed the beams at the head and mouth as well hoping to do some kind of damage and give the Uzumaki the distraction he needed.

Kids... They really are something. In Jaakuna's day they where all wildcards. Tricky, fighting to get ahead. It was a genuine free for all, despite all the adults now pretending there was such a thing as comrades. But that doesn't exist in war. Never did. It was all about one ninja shining above the rest to become the god of the era. Jaakuna Aka was that god. Or at a time he was. Now, he was a devil, pulled up from hell and given life once more to cause the end of days. The 'End of Days' didn't lose to some kid who thought he could throw a punch. And no speed, no matter how much could outrace Jaakuna Aka on a good day. And despite how bad things where going, this? Even for a clone was a good day. Hikaru's open palm hit thin air, and there to his right, on the side he had outstretched for an attack, was the fox shinobi who conquerored the Five Gates of Shin Lo. Who brought the great host of the Five Tails down in a single blow. Jaakuna hit the ground, hard as he moved into a sweeping kick. Contact alone would be more than enough to knock Hikaru off his game, but Jaakuna didn't stop there.

His second move was a single serious of rapid fire handseals. A dark smoke cloud poured out, billowing over Hikaru before he struck again.

Dark smoke, and unless Hikaru was stupid he'd smell the gunpowder that filled the air. A single spark would take out the fox, but the explosion would be lethal to himself. A smart move, in many ways than one, since it was doubtful the iwa chunnin could sense emotions in the same way Jaakuna could. Jaakuna next move was to throw a punch, forcing Hikaru into a devestating choice. Hand to hand combat in the smoke, or a double suicide. It was a close range punch up he couldn't win, versus a suicide he couldn't afford.
"Kid, I don't want to bore you! In truth, I want to push you! I want you to realize that in my world, you need to fight to survive! Everybody you care about will die if you slip up! The name of the game was sacrifice with honor!" Jaakuna would keep up his relentless assault as long as viable. He wasn't stupid, just aggressive. "A true shinobi realizes that in the end, they're nothing but meat for the front lines. That's why I transcended Shinobi. That's why I was reborn! That's why, in the end, nothing will stop me from becoming who I was! That's why I'm going to win here! Because at the end of the day, what defines me, is ambition! A drive that goes beyond sacrifice!" Jaakuna flashed a wicked smile. "And I'm going to drive you insane!"




"Well captain, I appreciate the offer, but you have a boat to sail, and I have a great deal of work to do keeping you two alive." Nousagi grinned, and replied to Tashiro's blatant threats with a flick on the nose. "Promise me you'll do a good job? I promise to follow orders, but when it comes down to it, you're in charge because Kurin felt sorry for you. A chance to prove yourself. Be better than my expectation, okay?" Nousagi turned, now officially, in his mind done with this verbal bout. After all, they had a cave to search, and Kai was keeping an eye on the members of that terrorist cell. "I'll lead, you follow. I know where we're going." The Hyuuga leapt ahead, sandals splashing in a puddle of water as he ran ahead.

Ahead of the three, was a cave. Old, tired, and worn away. Wooden boards where placed over it, but from gapes it was clear even a full grown man could crawl right through. The air was thick with mist, and the cave itself seemed to breath. A low ancient sigh, cruel and unwavered by time. "Down below..." Nousagi began rubbing his eye. "It's hard to tell. The entire structure seems to be constructed of some kind of stone that my eyes can't pierce past." Admitting that wasn't easy for the Hyuuga. "You want to lead? Or change plan?" Nousagi asked, giving Tashiro the chance to be a leader.