[IC] NARUTO: Road to Ninja [ARC 3] Buy it now and get a second punt free!

[j8cob]

Shin Maru, Topaz

The suggestions to handle the matter seemed mostly unnecessary. Shin figured that they could get all the information they'd need to come to an accurate conclusion from Yamato himself. But that was provided that Yamato was going to cooperate. The assumption that his classmate would be willing to go along with the idea was soon squashed as the man himself practically exploded in rage, taking it out on the people around him. Shin's eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest, saying nothing as Yamato unwound on Paneru and then Daiki. His facial expression, however, grew to one of anger.

Then Yamato began cursing at him. When he began to approach Shin, the crystal user notably stood up straight and tensed his body. He wasn't about to let Yamato touch him with his flaming hands, but it never came down to that. He was distracted by his phone, taking the call and seemingly forgetting that everyone around him existed. "You go too far, Yamato," Shin stated, surprisingly calmly. His eyes drifted to Paneru and Daiki, who received the brunt of the verbal abuse, before his gaze went back to the departing Yamato. "I won't let you do that again."

While his voice was calm, the meaning was clearly a warning. Shin wasn't going to give his classmate the benefit of the doubt any longer. The next time he took it upon himself to assault the others, Shin was going to step in. I don't want to fight him, but he's so hard-headed. Hurting him a little is a small price to pay to stop him from hurting others, Shin reaffirmed in his mind. He remained still as several others took off after Yamato, showing no sign of desire to follow him. While they all wanted to take off into action, Shin knew this was still the time to think.

He turned his attention to the remaining few, as Sentou already made sure they weren't going anywhere. "If what Takeshi is saying is true, and Daiki wasn't lying either..." Shin began thinking aloud, bringing a hand to his chin. "Then the Yakuza and Jashin are connected in some way right now. Something must've happened, because these murders are new. Yamato wouldn't tell us anything, but it seems to me that his family is also involved, personally." He hummed to himself for a moment, reviewing what he heard in his head. "Jashinists killed several of our classmates seemingly randomly. But... they were perhaps trying to kill someone specific. For an ancient cult to come out after all this time, they must have a reason."

---

Tsukiko Umene, Honeybadger

Unceremoniously and without warning, Tsukiko opened the door to Fujitora's office and casually walked in. Her hands and most of her forearms were stained with blood, but it seemed mostly dry. "I examined the body," she began, sitting down in one of the chairs along the wall of the room. She was clearly unclean, but Tsukiko didn't seem to care if Fujitora was bothered by the possibility of cleaning up blood. "Lab says nothing unusual in the blood, besides the drug you gave him. Stomach contents had nothing suspicious, seems that he ate mostly rice. Probably explains why he was so weak. But the death seal he had was placed on his lungs."

Tsukiko paused for a moment, to let the strangeness of the idea sink in. "Most people would put the death seal on the heart, to instantly kill when triggered. Placing it on the lungs will kill quickly, but it is also more painful. Probably a lot more painful. So whoever did it didn't just want to keep the guy quiet, but to also punish him in case he revealed information." Tsukiko let out a sigh. "It's a pain in the ass. The seal was generic as far as I can tell, no real calling card. His organs haven't been discarded yet if you want to see for yourself... Oh, damnit." The woman had crossed her legs when she sat down, and only now noticed that there was some blood on her right boot. "I just bought these this week."

[Angel Eyes]

-

[Akashi Mayhiro]

Takeshi R. Hanami

'There is a reason to my madness~'

Takeshi felt like a complete idiot as Yamoto insulted him....and the cola. As Daiki, Aoi, Jaakuna and even Paneru followed after him to a abandoned warehouse. Not wanted to talking to anyone else, takeshi reverted back into his silent mode, hooding himself as he stuck his hands into his pockets and followed everyone. He was the one behind them.

A female figure appeared out of nowhere as she told the tale of Yamoto's sister's death. before leaving them. which was now filled with thugs....mainly of Jashin followers. The green haired man watched his 'comrades' fought them off by themselves, Meanwhile he was drink his cola that Yamoto had declined. "Eh...that can fend them of without me...."

That was Karma for you. Suddenly the remaining foot soldiers turn their attention towards him before running at him with their weapons in hand. Sighing to himself, Takeshi fished the last of his cola before taking out his Balisong knives ans walked calmly towards them. yellow eyes seemed to pierce theme as the first thug took a shot at him with his Knuckle duster. Takeshi, still in silent mood duck underneath him before driving his right knife into his gut and slicing him upwards. his internal organs spilled out as the man cried in pain. Takeshi with a emotionless mask took the man's head and kneed it savagely, he he fell his skull cracking and eventually caving it, killing him instantaneously. Takeshi licked his lips as he cut cleanly thorugh the mans neck beheading him before ripping out his spine from his body. Blood splattered everywhere as the green haired man held the dead man spine in his hands before looking at the others. His knives still out to play.

With a battle cry the other with hate in their eye as they set out to avenge their comrade. Takeshi threw the spine away (Without knowing: to Aoi's direction). Takeshi walked towards the second victim as he hacked and slashed at him, the hooded ninja calmly side stepped and backed of before a flash of silver was seen.

the second second the Man's head fell from his body, a fountain of blood spew upwards as Takeshi was coated in Jashin blood. Without wasting a second Takeshi appeared in front of his 3rd kill. this time he drove both knives into the eye sockets as he twisted them around as he withdrew this left knife and stabbed him straight into the heart as he channeled his Chakra into his hand set it on fire. Roasting the followers body from the inside. Time stayed still as Takeshi took a small breathing before hearing most men charing from behind him. He smirked and cleanred his mind.....using the voices he wait...

They Screamed.

he waited....

They screamed.

he waited......until the voice were in sync. WIthout a moment's hesitation he whirred around letting the charred mans body slump to the floor as he threw his chakra infused at the voices.

They when silent. Takeshi smiled as he saw his handiwork. All the followers head were pierced in line..they all at one point made a impromptu line. using the string attached he pulled back his weapon dripping with blood before driving his knife through another Jashin attacker underneath his jaw as he cut his face in half. most blood sprayed across his face.

It was clear that the rest of theme were trying to kill him...all takeshi was doing.


Was making it rain crimson everywhere.

.........after all the thugs were killed..........

Takeshi panted as he used another man's intestines as a rope to choke another man with it. He felt the body go limp as Takeshi let him go and looked around and admire his handiwork....it was blood everyone....his little fight area with decorated in blood, he would even see blood dripping from the roof. he couldn't help but to laugh lightly as he wiped the blood from his knives into his red stained coat and walked over to the others. the sound to organs under his feet was delightful and body breaking underneath him was all to do....

As he got to the others...he looked at them.

Not a square inch was untouched....he was literally...covered in Jashin blood.

He guessed the decapitation and sever of ligaments rubbed of on him during his youth.

"......"

[Angel Eyes]

-

[Masaki Haruna]

Sentou Uchiha

"Shin. If that is true then let's get moving." Cautious and hyper alert as ever. She told Shin, at the same time she is pissed off upon seeing Takeshi kill via her laptop; she is disgusted. Afterwards she opened the door and hacked Haruka's phone and downloaded notes. The notes Sentou downloaded are pretty much all of her learning modules about chakra training, and countless how to do things like hacking machines. She also downloaded the same module on Shin and Fubuki's phone.

"Shin. We'll head to where Aoi and Paneru are. Don't kill anyone unless necessary, we need information to know what is really going on and what are they up to." She uses summoning technique and threw each of them chakra restraining handcuffs. These handcuffs are Uchiha property. The chakra restraining handcuffs neutralizes the flow of chakra in the body.

"I'll go on ahead." Sentou chakra dashes and uses body flicker to reach the warehouse.

[Partisan]

Yamato Minamoru, “Young Master”

---

Just warming up, boys..

As Yamato approached the group of friendlies in the warehouse he noticed that Daiki had killed some as well, without as much as a scratch. Takeshi was having fun on his own it seemed and Aoi was taking her time dealing with her opponents. It seemed even Paneru was doing something. He wasn't particularily effective, taking just as long as Aoi to deal with a single guy who had a mallet. But.. it was more than Yamato expected from him. And when he started playing his music, Yamato felt somewhat stronger. Hell, Jaakuna was doing good as well, taking down a small group of his own.

His realization that Paneru might not be as useless as he thought was interrupted by a band of yelling mercenaries. They had their swords held high, coming from the left from a lane of boxes. Yamato clenched his teeth as he turned to face them, running at them head on. “RRAAAAA!” he yelled as he reached the first of them, who swung his sword down at Yamato. Sadly for him, Yamato was too fast and sent his fist to the mans face, who now had a burnt face. The impact was so hard he was sent flying back towards his comrades, who dodged him barely. The man ended up crashing into some empty boxes, splintering them in a mess of wood flying around.

By then the next man had appeared already, running at Yamato with his sword held high, just like the other. In spirit of true idiots, the men didn't seem to have had much training in fighting so they all ran at him one by one. Rather than punching him Yamato grabbed the man by the right shoulder, and sent his left fist into the mans side, punching him and scorching him heavily there, before grabbing remnants of the mans shirt on his left side. In the process the man had managed to swing his sword down into Yamato's shoulder, giving him a slightly deep cut. It didn't seem to bother Yamato much. Using the momentum the man had from running at him, Yamato turned a full circle, dragging the man around a full three hundred and sixty degrees, before tossing him into some crates. Not wasting anymore time, Yamato dashed forwards into the remaining 3 enemies. The first received a punch in the face, leaving scorch marks and heavy burns. Before the man could even attack back Yamato was already right in his face, clotheslining him while he continued on his way to number 2. When the first man had hit the ground with the back of his head, splitting it open, Yamato had already punched number 2 in the stomach.

Pulling his right fist back he swung at the man with his left fist, aiming at the chin. With that singe hit he dislocated the mans jaw, making the mans' mouth fall open. If that wasn't enough, Yamato pulled up his leg and kicked the man with such force that he, too, was sent flying back into a set of boxes. Luckily for that man the boxes were already destroyed due to the very first target landing on them. There was only one thug left, who held out his sword in a horizontal manner while running at Yamato, attempting to slash him from the side. “DIE!” Yamato yelled as he ran at the man as well, without any attempt to block the sword. The mans sword came from the left, clashing with Yamato's side and slashing it, lodging the sword inside. Yamato clenched his teeth more. The sword didn't seem to bother him as much, since he was so in mental focus on his to take down every single last human being in this building.

With a quick jab Yamato punched the man in the face, leaving scorch marks on his cheeks and having the man scream in agony as he suffered from 3rd degree burns. The screams went around the entire hall, echoing off of the walls numerous times. And since this was the last thug around, it was very clear that he was hurting a lot. Yamato grabbed the mans left arm, which was the arm he used to hold the sword. His hands still aflame, Yamato simply held onto the mans arm while he scorched the entire area around his hand. The man was quick to let go of the sword, causing Yamato to pull the mans arm up into the air. The sword was still lodged in Yamato's sides, though, a somewhat gruesome sight to behold.

His knee raised into the air and his leg extended, kicking the man away from him backwards into the main lanes of the warehouse, in front of the entire group, sliding across the ground while screaming as he held onto his arm with his still 'good' arm. Yamato followed the mans traces and walked at him, using his right arm to pull the sword out of his side. As he reached the main lane of boxes, he looked to his left to see the entire group. He didn't pause walking at the man, but instead simply threw the sword that had been lodged in his side at the ground in front of Daiki. It was somewhat aggressive, the way he did it. It was almost like it said 'still think I'm involved?' The man tried to craw away but wasn't quick enough, as Yamato approached and grabbed the mans shoulder. He turned him over so he could face his death like a man.

TPH! was the sound that came from the man as Yamato stepped on his right shoulder. Several seals were formed rapidly, much faster than a normal shinobi, as Yamato inhaled. By now the fire fists had been canceled so he could finish the man off. “Katon! Great Fire Destruction!” Exhaling, Yamato spewed out a great amount of fire straight onto the man, whose screams were loud and painful to listen to until they died down as the man drew his last breaths and died. Yamato kept up the jutsu for a few seconds more, causing a gross smell of burnt flesh. As he stopped the jutsu he pulled back his foot from the man, whose face was now a burnt mess of charred flesh. He turned left to Daiki, and everyone else and approached them. Blood seeped from his left side, soaking Yamato's t-shirt. There were more cuts than that one, however, so it didn't make much difference. By now Yamato was covered in both his own blood and that of the enemies.

“Stop yelling, idiot.” he said, looking at Daiki. “She's gone already.” He decided to ignore what other idiotic stuff Daiki had spewed, and turned to Paneru. Something about the boy had impressed him somewhat. Still, he wasn't a great fighter, and was too slow in taking down even a thug. What would happen if he'd face a shinobi of equal or greater power? Would he run? Probably. He gave Paneru a short nod, but was cut short by maniacal laughter behind him. Turned around rapidly he flicked his wrists back, lighting his hands on fire once more. The emanating heat would, once again, reach his allies, who would feel the burning sensation of the heat. In front of them stood a trio of shinobi. All of them had fire red hair and similar facial structures. Although one was short, the middle one was medium sized and the last in row was the tallest one. “This one uses fire as well, hehhhhh? Funnnnn! HAHAHAHAHA!” The middle one yelled, while the other two laughed. “How do you go up against us, though, little kids? Time to cook!” he said while the three of them formed the same five seals seals. They didn't yell out their jutsu name, though, but Yamato had seen this jutsu before during his training sessions. He quickly turned to his allies before the trio could use their jutsu. “It's Great Fire Annihilation. Get behind me.” He had a plan but that plan had to encompass helping his comrades as well. He might not like them, heck, he would rather shove Daiki into the fire at this moment due to the boys annoying habit of always yelling at people, blaming the Minamoru for all his misfortunes and trying to implicate them in stuff that they didn't have a thing to do with to begin with.

But he didn't push him in front.

As soon as his comrades got behind him, Yamato would cross his arms with the fires of the fire-trio already coming close. The Great Fire Annihilation was a tough one, and Yamato's fire fists wouldn't be able to cancel it out completely. But it was fire against fire, and that was Yamato's favorite way to fight. He grunted slightly as he took the brunt of the attack, sweat forming on his face from the heat that came from the enemy jutsu. His feet began to move back, as if he wasn't going to be able to take the jutsu any longer, but then the jutsu ended and the fire-trio laughed again, thinking that they must've killed the band of chunin. Sadly, they were dissapointed when Yamato jumped through the smoldering remains, smoke and left over fire from the jutsu, bleeding and cut open everywhere but still breathing, and still fighting. “IDIOTS!” he yelled as he crashed his fist into the middle one with full force, right in the center of his body. He'd leave the other two to his comrades. He was sure they'd have the strength to deal with them. But not this one, he's mine. This wasn't bloodlust, quite frankly, Yamato could care less if they bled, died, or lived. He just wanted to hurt them like they hurted his sister.

His punch had shoved the man back several meters, and left a nasty burn mark on the man's face. But it didn't end there. Yamato's characteristic combat style came into play now, as he was relentless and would never back away from the man unless Yamato was dead, or the man was defeated. His attack flurry went on, striking hard every time. He punched again, landing a hit against the mans arm. He seemed to be blocking Yamato's strikes, although that wasn't neccesarily smart. The catch about Yamato's attacks was that you can't block them normally. Any hit does damage. As such, the man noticed quickly the 3rd degree, painful burn on his arm where Yamato had hit. “OI! NOT HOT!” Yamato couldn't help but feel annoyed at this man. He seemed to be completely insane, or at the very least, very fucking annoying.. He threw another punch at the man and hit his arm again, burning it heavily too this time.

Yamato then threw his knee up and kicked the man back, sending his sliding over the floor on his feet, still standing up. These weren't the mercenaries who would die after a papercut, or who would run away after you say boo. These were trained shinobi, easily chunin level. And they seemed to be properly trained in teamwork.. that meant that they had to divide and conquer, something Yamato had already realized but something the others would have to understand as well.

The distance created by the kick gave Yamato time to execute his killing move. Rapid seals were made and it was clear the man was attempting to follow which seals it were, but it was virtually impossible for him given how fast Yamato did it. “NANI? Oi little BOY! WHAT JUTSU IS THAT?! EH?” the man yelled with a confused look, but a gigantic grin on his face. “Baka, shut up already.. you're more annoying than Takeshi.” Yamato said with a serious look as the fire arms came from his back. They quickly raced for the man, who seemed to think this was an attack of sorts. This prompted the fire-red haired man to jump back, expecting to have dodged it, only to be met by the same hands grabbing him by the shoulders. “Now you die.” Yamato said as the arms dragged the red haired man closer, who was struggling every inch of the way. It was futile. Yamato would finish the man off... if his comrades could keep the other two guys off his back.

[AlteredTundra]

Jaakuna Sawada, The Sundance Kid

---

When Jaakuna had got done with his own little group of thugs, he couldn’t help but hear the wild screams come from a little distance away. It was all of Takeshi’s doing. It was a lot of bodies surrounding him. He overshadowed Paneru who really was trying his best. Jaakuna just stared at Takeshi as he violently killed some of the thugs. Heads were coming off their heads, spines ripped from the bodies, guts hanging out like a cape on a man.

Jaakuna was all about killing the enemy. That part of these situations never bothered him, but he would be lying if he wasn’t getting sick to his stomach as he heard all of the screams from Takeshi’s victims. That guy overdid it and then some. It was like he even enjoyed it by the time that he was done. Each dismembered body laid in front of him and when he got to them, the blood that rained beforehand was soaked into the fibers of Takeshi’s clothing. Jaakuna said nothing to his demented friend. He had no words that would be positive.
Jaakuna didn’t have time to converse with any one of this friends as there came a few more mercenaries from a left lane of boxes. Jaakuna was just about to take a fighting stance, but that’s when Yamato took charge. He didn’t know exactly what got into the Young Master, but there was obviously a fire in his body unlike anything before. Jaakuna still took his stance just in case there were some that would come after him or anybody else nearby him.

Jaakuna, along with everyone else, just watched Yamato show exactly why he was dubbed one of the three prodigies of their group. His flawless technique of dealing with multiple opponents showed just that. Though Jaakuna was amazed, he kept his fighting stance up.
By the time Yamato had finished doing what he did, he ordered the others to get behind them. He said something about Great Fire Annihilation. Jaakuna knew that jutsu. It was one he was working on mastering, but to no avail. He could never get the blast range of the jutsu down. Hideyoshi even has said that Jaak needed to concentrate more. Yeah, he’s still going to work on that. In any case, Jaakuna got behind Yamato as he used his Fire Fists technique to guard everyone against the Great Fire Annihilation technique. It was working at first, but even standing behind Yamato, Jaakuna could feel the heat essence from the fire. It was something he was used to, but it still wasn’t a feeling he liked all that much.

By the time their jutsu had ended, Yamato had pushed forward through the smoke and ashes like a dragon of legend. Jaakuna saw Yamato go for one of them all by himself while the other two looked at the group of five.

Jaakuna didn’t wait for his comrades to even suggest a plan of attack. He leapt into action. His hands were forming a cross-like hand seal. Anyone who knew anything knew that was the Shadow Clone seal. “Fire Release,” Jaakuna said as he ran towards one of the men, “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Jaakuna shouted, his voice reverberating through the walls of the warehouse. A second later, one clone appeared beside him, running in sync with him. Jaakuna and his clone jumped into the air, and they each formed hand seals, “Fire Release,” They said, their right arm coming to their faces, “Great Fireball Jutsu,” They both said, releasing a flamethrower-like stream of fire chakra at one of the two thugs.

"Really?" The thug said, a smirk of smugness appearing on his face.

The Thug didn't even attempt to dodge Jaakuna's attack. He went forward to Jaakuna and his clone. Fire Chakra flowed out from his sword and with a series of five swings, the he had sliced through the flamethrower and Jaakuna's Clone. And that was just in a matter of five seconds. Even if it exploded, the thug was unfazed by it. In the next three, he threw his free arm forward, pressing his large hand against Jaakuna's head, stopping the Sundance Kid midflight.

Just then, a tree stump appeared. Jaakuna had used the substitution technique. The thug smirked. He wasn't expecting that, but he was impressed. He didn't want the fight to be over already. Though, he wondered where exactly where Jaakuna was. When all of this happened, he landed on the ground. Jaakuna still wasn't in sight.

The thug looked around, hoping to at least see where he would be coming from.

"Meteor!"

The thug heard it, but before he even had a chance to react, A series of punches and kicks were landed on his back, each of them hurting like a mother. Jaakuna was wailing at him. After the seventh set of kicks and punches, Jaakuna punched upwards, knocking the thug into the air. About halfway in the air, the thug switched his momentum in the air as he flipped down and landed five feet away from Jaakuna.

"That hurt you know." He said stretching his back, "I hope you're not done." He smiled. Jaakuna groaned.

[Crimmy]

"She is incredibly tense," noted Haruka matter-of-factly as he watched the younger chunin flicker away, his eyes glancing down towards his newly-hacked phone. "While I would refrain from saying that the situation has had its toll on her, she is far more affected than we are."

Jittery, paranoid and overly active were all be words that the green-haired ninja could use to describe his compatriot, but he did not do so out-loud, for it would be impolite and unnecessary, especially as the possibility of these murders having been conducted by revived Jashinists served as a strong justification for Sentou's current state. He was, of course, slightly miffed that she had downloaded something onto his phone without asking for permission, as his current plan ... well, his current credit plan didn't support constant data usage, so that was probably another sixty mon down the drain for something that he had no idea how to use. Haruka didn't know if it would come in handy one day or not, but for now, it seemed be really just a waste of space on his old-fashioned phone.

He was drifting away again. Jashin. That was the current issue at hand. If they actually were Jashinists (he had yet to see key evidence, and would be working off the belief that it was likely, but not absolutely certain, that the cult was involved), then how had such a trained group escaped the notice of Konohagakure for so long, especially if they had harboured hostile intentions towards the village (the attacks on Konoha chunin could be construed as such). It was troubling, knowing that the entity he served had not known of a possible threat. And how, exactly, could Takeshi and Yamato be involved? He was unsure.

These were questions that plagued his mind.

Questions that he wanted solved yesterday.

"I suppose it would be best if we followed," he added dryly, pocketing the handcuffs that Uchiha Sentou had given them.

Though the mysteries surrounding the case irked him, there was no point in dwelling too long on something that he had no control over. If he wanted to even get anywhere, then he would best follow the others and learn why exactly all of this had occurred.

[Savato]

Aoi Don Maquia

---

Everyone except for Yamato seemed to be doing fairly well, and by fairly well she meant not being beaten up in every existing angle in your body, but unlike the others he could do that kind of stuff. Aoi kept a pose next to Daiki, just noticing now he was talking to an empty void of nothingness, the woman was gone and Aoi was starting to doubt the boy's sanity. She didn't express it however as this moment seemed way too badass for it to be broken by lame comments. Paneru had handled his business at just about the same speed as Aoi, the same applying for Jaakuna, making things somewhat easier to track from that point forward. Except...

"Huh? What's th-... KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GET IT OFF!"

She wailed in absolute fear and disgust over the spine that had landed on her shoulder. It was all bloody and full of weird and stinky fluids, typical of the insides of someone. It was a gross, stretchy and hard spine just hanging on her. She bounced and stumbled on her behind all the while Takeshi was rampaging on the others. The more she struggled, the more the spine got tangled around her, just everywhere it went and she was simply hysterical. She didn't fear creepy people and dangerous fights, but this was just beyond gross, even for her mucus. Finally grabbing it entirely, she tossed it just as the redhead trio launched a fire attack. The spine would be caught in the crossfire between Yamato and them, disintegrating the whole bone. It would only be now that she'd notice high ranked people attacked, and she had captured identical looking people at the corner for her eye during her little scene, the scene that spared her the viewing of Takeshi's session of massacres.

Yamato charged in and Jaakuna didn't take long to do the same. She got back on her two feet quite easily, doing a hand stance in the process, and noticed the shadow clone technique being used by the dancing devil of the group. A Shadow clone... So many great ideas flooded the clown's head when that technique was mentioned. Would it have been thanks to Paneru's song that increased her chakra's capabilities, or was it a simple ray of genius? Either way, she felt stronger and confident to do what she was planning, her body felt refreshed by the musical notes played in order to amplify her chakra capacity. With the two knuckleheads charging up front, Aoi had a much better idea: She used her bungee placed earlier to quick ascend and drop on one of the giant steel bars of the foundation linking two edges of the roof. She now had a good vintage point allowing her to acknowledge her new participants and which ones were being played with by the rest.

One was alone after the great fire attack, and he'd so happen to be her target. Being amplified with the the chakra song Paneru was playing, she easily formed a clone while remaining discreet on the ceiling level, the clone just barely forming from her hand as it immediately used the Gooey Surprise transformation move. It took the form of a card, the ace of spade, and become one of many cards she'd wield. Before the Shinobi menace could charge in as well, she'd hurl three cards that would land a couple of meters before him, as if she'd form a kind of perimeter as a warning he was being targeted. One of the three would be the clone transformed into a card, but it remained passive as its only goal was just that. As she got the guy's attention, she'd be holding multiple other cards in a fan-like fashion.

"Looks like we have another volunteer! Now for my next trick... I'll defeat you without even touching the ground~"

She taunted him, either by motivating him to focus on her while her clone would sweep in for a quick kill, or have him ignore and one of her allies would keep him busy enough so her clone could either kill or trap the guy, leaving him in a very tough position. She could also snipe him if he were to be trapped or put into pressure by one of her allies, but that would make things risky. She'd have to seize any opportunity given, which was her thing, grabbing any form of initiative possible. As long as he didn't suspect a random set of cards that simply stabbed the floor to be overwhelmingly dangerous as she planned, things should go smoothly.

At least this guy wouldn't bother Yamato as he finished the first one.

---

Fujitora Choko ; The Overseer

---

Having sent the name of the supposed corporation the suspected had given to the research team and many of his snitches in the underground, notably in the Yakuza domain, Fujitora anticipated the possible outcomes that could ensue such a threat. The fact that they had no idea where they were going, or what they were facing, irked him heavily. He wasn't used to walking in the dark like this, technology had offered a luxury of having access to information that he got too comfortable with, and now all he could do is conduct research on the little bit of elements he had presented. He could at least tell this was a religious tattoo, but which one? There were many fanatics in the world, and this could just be a new group hidden from society until now. Nonetheless, he conducted his own research in his office while his team was working on the case.

It'd be when he had dug up a little bit of information regarding similar patterns and dogmatic activities that he'd consider it appropriate to summon specialized strength. He had called for Megumi, a specialized Jonin who had a knack for finding more or less anything and getting around impossibly frustrating dilemmas. She was also his protege, being his youngest in the specialized forces and a promising potential in at least that domain. And then, Tsukiko happened. She opened the door without warning, okay that was normal, but she was covered in blood. Dry or not, she left prints all over the place and stains were still around. Fujitora could only widen his eyes in the absolute lack of manners she bluntly displayed at times. Sure, he fully accepted the risks, but it was entirely different when she brought this shit to HIS office.

He closed his eyes as she rambled on about information he proceeded. His index and major fingers both massaging his temples as his head already ached from the foul smell of blood coupled with her little hygiene and general lack of professionalism that easily got Fujitora's temper. There was a seal in his lungs and he couldn't talk or he'd die, great, nothing else was noteworthy other than her shoes...

"God damnit..."

He'd mumble as Megumi entered the scene commenting on probably the least important thing she had mentioned in this painful session. To top it off, she thought it would be a good idea to fly around and comment on God knows what anymore. Something about dying and birds, as if that was of any form of professionalism either. There were good things about having social baskets like them, but the commander had a hard time keeping up with the cons at times. When they were finished, his head was a little red, and he was just out of fuel...

... So he'd get more fuel. Without adding anything else his body had a strange current of electricity as his little clock screeched a sound as it hit 1 PM. He'd suddenly opened his desk's drawer and pulled out a steel cutting board with a small vial filled with a powder. He'd quickly open it and let the powder drop in a perfect rail, yes he mastered this after a while, only to have him snort it all in one go. There wasn't time for joint making, he needed a very quick and powerful dose of something not even his wild colleagues before him could guess what it was. No, it wasn't cocaine. Sniffling a couple of times, he had quickly gotten high, and the pain had went away along with any desire to get pissed off. He'd look at the two, his expression a lot more in tune with the general lack of worry expressed by the women.

"Ahhh... So much better. Want some? Oh wait, you can't, you're working. AND I'M YOUR BOSS! Haha! Can't be caught doing weird things huh?"

He'd mock them in a rather strange and hyperactive way. It was technically 1 PM, and so he was on his break at that very minute, justifying his sudden outburst, at least to himself.

"So, Megumi, yeah you're Megumi." he pointed at her, a little tipsy from what he had just absorbed in his body. "Okay okay. You're going with Tsukiko here to uh... The old Cathedral thing at Bukane station. OH! Hey hey, wait hear this:

A Sunday School teacher asked her children on the way to service 'And why is it necessary to keep quiet?', and one of the girls replied 'Because some people are sleeping.' Pahahahahahahahahahaha!"

He burst into laughter at one of his own, corny jokes. Of course, he wasn't expecting the others to laugh, as per usual, but this lasted for about ten longing seconds of their boss relentlessly laughing at his own crap. But he'd brutally hit them hard with a harsh tone when this period of joy was done.

"No seriously, get the hell out of my office and search for possible leads regarding the data I've sent to your phones. You'll have all the information we've gathered thus far."

He ordered before spinning on his chair so he didn't have to see them anymore, or more like they couldn't see him giggle at the thousands of extremely retarded jokes that streamed through his mind as he remained in his non-working mode. Until it was 2 pm, he could stay in this state for all he cared.

[Renny]

Daiki Naito

Between Takeshi's manic killings--his seemingly enjoyment over it--and Yamato's berserk attack, Daiki had but a moment to actually get himself back together. That woman, she had obviously been there, lurking on the Yamato's rooftop. She held an authoritative nature then, she was definitely high-up in whatever alliance or group she was part of. He'd bet his life she was with the Jashin's though, she didn't give off a Yakuza feel. Her's were more, grisly, primal. As if she enjoyed the thrill.

His thoughts were interrupted when metal clambered against the floor near his feet. The sound ran in his ear alongside the fearful breaths of the man Yamato was stalking. With a slight glance, Daiki met the meaning behind the Prodigy's eyes. But all together ignored it. Just because he took a few blades, a few hits ... That didn't mean he was innocent. The guy still had hard facts that placed his father in the middle of all this. And the unknown of him being involved, well that darkness was still a cruel possibility. He wasn't going to throw all that out, put his comrades and village in danger, just because the guy seemed livid.

Hell, I can barely tell the difference between his normal face ... and ... well this

If the others had winced or veered from the rancid smell of burnt flesh or Takeshi's gruesome scene, then they were unlike Daiki. He instead accepted the gross reality that was being a ninja, even though he still hadn't come to terms with its purpose. Seeing such things were common, or had become common with the risks he had taken during missions. Like all Naito's he had become infamous for sacrificing those that endangered the mission at hand. It bothered him but he could not deny that it took a certain uniqueness to do it. As the smell filled the room, Yamato strolled over with a few choice words. Ones that were met with a stoic calm.

" Yea I can see that," he responded with a small pause. " Didn't look to me like you did much to keep her here."

He place himself near Yamato as a precaution when they all gathered around. Though he hated to say it, he noticed the small, if not approving, gesture the Young Master gave to Paneru. One that he deserved, for his very voice had bolstered their chakras. If he could, he would have hugged the guy but of course, the situation didn't actually allow it. Daiki was checking his surroundings when maniacal laughter pulled his attention. He turned his body to face them but was quickly told by Yamato to get behind him. The last thing he actually wanted to do was be protected by a Minamoru. But he wasn't so dense to not heed a fellow ninja's warning.

Fire licked his shoulder, not all of them could fit behind one person. Though Yamato had protected them from the bulk of the attack, the flames and heat were enough to singe his shirt clean off, leaving a horrible burn upon his shoulder and middle-back. He gazed the injury with disdain, for it hampered his swordplay. With a tsk he switched Anemone over to his off hand, pulled out thin-wire and tied it around the hilt with a mighty knot.

This will have to do, he figured. I have no other choice.

When the fire finally died down, Daiki leapt from behind Yamato, slid over in the path of the tallest and behind the smoke, threw Anemone. It pierced through and with the sound of clothes rippling, he heard his opponent cackle.

"Nice try," The impossibly deep voice answered. " But your knife won't reach me."

Daiki let the wire pull from his hand as he sprinted from the smoke, catching sight of Aoi climbing onto the metal beams supporting the roof. " For all your talk, you're really blind aren't you?" he asked, pulling the string and maneuvering his blade back towards the man. The broadsword sliced his arm but only sparingly, for the tallest katon-ninja had bounded out the way.

Reeling in Anemone, he noticed his opponent looking over at Yamato, looking to charge into the one on one bout, but he was met by Aoi's cards. He backed away, perhaps from caution but probably off of instinct. Daiki leapt over to the battlefield, Aoi and the tallest brother inhabited. His sword at his side, his position directly beneath Aoi. He looked up at the girl and chuckled. " Even in battle you're entertaining. Sorry to butt in, but how about we make this a duo act. I'm sure, it'll be ... spectacular!" he shouted, chucking Anemone with all his strength towards the taller man in surprise.

As was predicted, he was listening pretty hard, sizing his two opponents up with the little time they allowed in conversation. It was almost a guaranteed fact that ninjas wouldn't jump into a outnumbered situation. But, just as Daiki had been right about the surprise attack, so was he right about the ninja's ability to dodge it. Like a cocky bastard, the man moved with slightest bit of effort, his large shoulder swaying as he pulled a kunai from his back-pouch and sliced the wire connected to Anemone's hilt.

"Come on now, you didn't think I had forgotten about the wire did ya?" he mocked, voice on the edge of laughing.

Daiki only crossed his arms over his chest. " She may be in sight but Aoi is known for magic tricks. I wouldn't trust my eyes if I was you?"

[Partisan]

Yamato Minamoru, “Young Master”

---

Both of the two brothers that weren't fighting Yamato paused their fight momentarily, jumping back from their fights landing on top of several crates. Before any of the two groups would be able to give chase they had already formed several seals and formed a fire shadow clone each. Rather than using these to fight their own opponents, the clones, which were easily discerned from the others due to the fact that, well, they were made of fire, started the same jutsu as they had done earlier with all three of the trio focussing on the party of shinobi. “KATON! Great Fire Annihilation!” Inhaling and exhaling very deeply, the two fire clones spewed fire at an alarming rate at the chunins that were in the building. Without Yamato to defend them by canceling out the technique, the chunin were left to their own devices to dodge these attacks.

Meanwhile the two 'real' brothers had gone ahead and retreated from the chunins towards Yamato, where they were now rushing him with drawn kunai. Yamato turned his body, trying to see what all the commotion was about, only to be met by two crazy looking brothers with fiery red hair. “Oi, I knew y'all would come save me from this crazy kid. We brothers afta' all!” the man who was still trapped in the fiery bind jutsu yelled out. Yamato ignored him best he could, and flicked his wrists back. He didn't feel tired whatsoever, a trait that he was lucky to have - he'd never give up in a fight, even if he had no chakra left, his heart had been punctured a hundred times and his face was blue and purple - he'd still get up and try to fight on even if it was futile. But even this trait doesn't mean you have unlimited chakra. Maintaining the fiery bind for much longer would likely give him troubles. Despite that he kept the jutsu activated, keeping the 2nd man trapped.

His fists covered in fire, again, and he got ready to fight the two approaching men, going 2 on 1. A problem for anyone, and a wise shinobi would've retreated, but Yamato was headstrong and didn't think it through too much. He rushed in, clashing with the two. He grabbed both their arms which were wielding kunai, causing him to stand in a rather.. heroic pose, with his fists wrapped around their arms stopping them from attacking him. But in reality he did it to hurt them. The fire fists technique was burning hot, and was roasting their skin harshly. Another dose of burnt skin smell went through the warehouse. But the two men didn't even flinch, as they both lifted their legs at the same time and skillfuly kicked Yamato in the sides. Yamato felt the air being kicked out of him, and he released the fiery bind jutsu by accident, freeing the second man from captivity.. a bad thing, since that man was standing behind him now, and could easily knock him away from a blind spot. And that's just what the man was going to do. He rushed forwards, but in the timeperiod between him taking off and actually reaching Yamato the fight between the two men and Yamato himself continued.

Yamato released the two men from his grip and cocked back his right fist, sending his fiery fist into the face of the right, tall man. In return he got jabbed in the left side by the smaller, left side man. Yamato didn't respond to it very much, besides clenching his teeth a little bit, showing them to all that would look at them for whatever reason. He was starting to feel the pain slowly echoing into his body, from the pounding, cutting and stabbing that he had received. But he kept going. TFK! His left fist found it's target, hitting the right man in the jaw, and then his right hand hit the man's jaw again. He noticed a kunai flash in some obscure warehouse lighting as it was slashed towards Yamato, but he ignored it and made a circular motion with his arms, going from outside to inside. They connected with the right, taller man's arms rather hard, and the added burning was even more hurting. This freed up his body, and Yamato threw up his knee and quickly augmented similar chakra that he used for his Fists of the Fire Tiger technique, using both fuuton and katon. His foot lit up in a raging fire, and it extended quickly for the mans opened up torso. GFKKK! Once the foot connected the man was shoved back a meter or so, a burn mark marking his torso now burning straight through his clothes.

But his attack meant that the kunai that he saw flashing earlier would not be dodgeable, or even deflectable now. “Hngg.” was the only sound you'd be able to hear from Yamato as he clenched his teeth and kept the pain contained. The kunai had stabbed him in his left upper arm, an area that hadn't been previously hit. Blood trickled down from the wound as Yamato spun his body towards the man, sending his right fist up into the air and then slamming it into the mans cheek, pushing him away. He was getting ready for a follow up attack but got interrupted when the medium sized man, who was previously stuck in his fiery bind, jumped into the air and dropkicked him in the chest. By now, the fire shadow clones had dissapeared too, and all that would be left of their technique was smoke and ashes, and hopefully a group of chunin that had survived the jutsu without too much trouble.

As Yamato got kicked he felt the impact and got pushed back, sending him tumbling over the floor, rolling as if it were before he managed to steady himself. He tumbled through the smoke before his feet caught hold of the ground again, stopping him from rolling any further. He slid on for a short length before stopping, landing more or less right in front of the group in a sort of crouched position, if they'd remain in the same positions. Without giving them as much as a glance worth of time, he unleashed a battlecry. “RRRRAAAAAA!” He took off again, running at the band of the three shinobi who looked at the group of chunin with a bored look.

“Bwah, I figured out why he's called a genius. He's pretty strong for such a young lad.” the tall man said, rubbing his burned face and burned chest. The other two looked at him and nodded. The small man spun a kunai around his finger and then grabbed it and pointed it at Jaakuna. “Yo, that guy, Jaakuna his name is I believe. He's related to Hideyoshi-sama, which explains them dumb powers he's got. Hit me good with it once, but won't happen again brother, promise.” It was strange, how much info they had on these people. Just how long had they been in Konoha? The medium sized one rubbed his shoulders, which had burn marks from the fiery bind technique. He nodded at Aoi. “Eyo, hehehe, that don Maquie.. Mageruie? I dunno, dem' dumb clown people at the opera! She lived with them! HAHAHA! What a dumbass. But she seems more innocent than she is, perverted one she is, really.”

And how exactly did they know that? Had they been spying on everyone or something? Or perhaps stolen info from the shinobi files? If so, that would be impressive considering they're guarded around the clock. The small man with the kunai pointed his kunai right at Daiki afterwards. “Mhmm! That one! I think he doesn't like our big friend Yamato. He's constantly nagging him. Oh, Yamato, you are with the people that attacked us, I know it, you must've murdered those poor poor chunin in the woods!” the tall man said mimicking Daiki's voince in an almost childish way.

“But he's a Naito. Or atleast, so they say.” he grinned as he looked at Daiki, winking at him at the same time. “The Naito's don't like the Minamoru's very much. Seems like jealousy to me, but they both say it's some ancient feud. Whateva! We would burn both your houses to the ground, haha!” The small one seemed too busy to respond, eyeing Paneru in a crazy looking way. “Oi, big bro, what do you think that one is, eh? Girl, boy? Both?!” He seemed entranced with Paneru for a moment before bursting into a laughter again. “Same with da' Takeshi fellow! Says he's 1 person, but he ain't! Wonder if his counter personality got a wee wee, or a vee vee!” This only furthered his laughter and then his two brothers joined in too. But then the medium sized brother slapped his two brothers over the head and said, with a stern voice.. “Oi! We here to deal with our number 2 visitor, Yamato 'n his sister. Although I think his sister arrived early, so she's been given a VIP seat, ya hear me!” The two of them nodded and answered in unison, almost as if practiced. “Yes big bro!” After that they got ready to fight again.

Meanwhile Yamato was getting very close, clenching his teeth as he closed the distance rapidly now. “Shut up, you baka's..” was all he managed to push out between his teeth at the trio of red haired shinobi. It's like talking to Takeshi or Sentou for prolonged periods of time.. he thought, as the trio had a rare case of annoying small talk syndrome. But it seemed like the tactics that the group of chunin had attempted earlier was now something the trio wanted to try. Without even speaking a word the small and tall guy rushed forwards, passing Yamato who seemed deadset on continueing the fight with the medium sized man.

The tall and small man jumped in between the entire group of chunin, in an attempt to divide and conquer them. The small man jumped amidst the group, forcing Jaakuna and Daiki to take a step back towards the outside, away from the group. “Screw your duo act, Daiki! Let's have a dance, the three of us!” he laughed out, before engaging with them. He formed several seals, inhaled and exhaled a large cloud of fire. Daiki and Jaakuna would no doubt see this as an attack, but it was meant as a distraction while the small man jumped over the fire, threw several kunai with explosive tags attached to them into the fire and landed on the other side of the fire, forming the tiger seal. “Kai, bitches! HAHAHAHAHA!” he laughed as he exploded all the seals.

Meanwhile, the tall man had formed the same seals he had used before when he made his fire shadow clone, creating another clone made up out of fire. While the real tall man went after Paneru and Takeshi, herding them off into a far away corner, the fire clone went after Aoi, who would most likely still be perched atop the metal beam on the higher areas of the building.

The real man herded the two off, Paneru in specific. He drew a kunai quickly, and threw it away to the left at a seemingly random position. Instead of this being a very well aimed kunai, it was merely a distraction as his right arm went inside of the pouch on his back and pulled out four shuriken, one between each set of fingers. He quickly flung them towards Paneru, intending to deal with him first. But instead of standing around, doing nothing waiting to see if his shuriken would hit like a generic bad guy, he wasn't stupid enough to do that. He drew a kunai and rotated it around his finger, before gripping it tightly and jumping towards Takeshi. He swung his kunai at him, but this was also a distraction. If Takeshi wasn't paying attention to it, he'd fail to notice the left free hand coming from below with an uppercut, aimed at Takeshi's chin.

The fire shadow clone would quickly target Aoi and chase her where ever she'd go. Although Aoi was quite strong, her mucus bungee technique would be hard to pull off effectively against the fire clone. Why? Well, for starters she would have to get a bungee on to him to begin with. Touching hot flames wasn't a good idea no matter who you were. And second.. well, the flames the clone emitted would likely roast the mucus away anyway. This meant that, without even realizing it, the tall man had probably made a wise decision. The fire clone braced a kunai and got ready to strike at Aoi as soon as he'd be close enough, while keeping his other hand in a tiger seal, ready to use a great fireball jutsu if she was in range but was too fast for him to hit her with the kunai.

Yamato was, by now, caught up with the medium sized man. His fist clashed with the fist of the other man, sending a shockwave through both parties' arms. Yamato, not wanting to risk it too much now, quickly grabbed a hold of the mans arm with the very same hand he had just used to punch the mans' fist, and raised his other arm in the sky, ready to send his elbow down onto the mans elbow, which was outstretched and was a vulnerable spot at the moment.

[Angel Eyes]

-

[Masaki Haruna]

Sentou Uchiha ; Haruka Ueno

- Warehouse

Prior to the arrival in the warehouse, Sentou gave her three friends a wireless earpiece and stated that this will help them communicate accordingly. She also explained her plan to the three of them. Now, Sentou and Haruka arrives at the warehouse with an electrifying entrance. Whatever the plan was, Sentou is confident enough that it will work.

The warehouse was larger than the green-haired chunin had expected. He had assumed that due to its status as a possession of the Minamoru family (though located in a more obscure location), its size could not have rivalled that of the mighty buildings that served as the storehouses for the large intracontinential industries that had sprung up in the last several decades. This assumption was in the process of being disproven, as while their newest destination was still smaller than the warehouses of certain zaibatsu, it was still strangely large, though for what reason Haruka did not know.

He made a mental note to ask around on what exactly the Minamoru dealt in, beyond possible Yakuza connections. What was it that required such a large warehouse to hold?

"What exactly is the plan, Uchiha-san?" he asked politely. His eyes however, were not focused on his younger companion, but instead surveying the floor for possible danger. Sounds of combat echoed in the distance. He could feel the rumblings of battle somewhere. Steel was echoing against steel.

The others had evidently gotten started.

He cringed slightly. The smell of smoke was strong here. Normal fire didn't bother him, but something had been burning intensely recently. It was like ... burning flesh. It was not a pleasant scent, Haruka knew, but it did mean one thing: the fire-specialists of their group were definitely still alive (though he didn't doubt the ability of the others to fight with competence), which was relieving.

"I told you before but for now I have a plan. Attack!" The moment she said attack, enemies spawned and they are in fashionably high numbers. Sentou felt an electrifying stimuli from their nerves. Her concern right now is getting the team back together and get the culprit asap. In her battle stance, she puts her right hand over her left, emitting a visible amount of chakra and electricity and that technique is none other than the Chidori.

Sentou quickly dashes to their enemies and her speed is those of Gate Users with high agility levels; specifically the first gate. "Chidori......." She calls out her technique as appearing mid-air. "HAMMER!" Sentou strikes down her enemies with a lightning hammer which releases a shockwave of lightning through the metallic floor, dazing her enemies. Then followed by another attack; "Chidori..." She breathes and yells her variation. "Gungnir!" A large gungnir erupted from the ground which impaled her enemies up mid air.

"Behind you!" Warning him of the enemy behind, for some reason, Sentou threw a coin above. The coin is written with a seal.

One of the enemies mentioned that they are facing an Uchiha as based on Sentou's clothing and the crest behind her back and the technique Chidori as demonstrated that their comrades were electrocuted and shocked. "Fear not. Don't let your guard down! AHHHH!" They come charging to Sentou and Haruka.

The charge was sloppy. Haruka stepped in, allowing his instincts to take control. His body leans forward, feet moving him into the thug's attack. His right elbow rattled as they made contact, his arm having shifted upwards in order to stall his foe. Ten opponents in total. Six currently seeking to horribly maim (and likely murder) him.

He needed to finish them off quickly.

The chunin didn't waste a second, capitalising on the thug's loss of momentum to launch a quick jab with his left fist. It struck true for a single instance just under his opponent's ribcage, but it was all that was needed for the thug to cry out in pain ... and provide him with an opening.

The panicked breath of his opponent rushed over him. Haruka didn't hesitate. His right arm pulled back, allowing the thug to double over.

He struck.

The orders were of a non-lethal nature.

The sound of bones snapping resonated through the building. Clenched tightly in Haruka's right hand was his opponent's mangled fist. It was deformed, knuckles crushed under the strength in the chunin's fingers.

It wasn't an optimal course of action for him, but it was the best he had on short-notice. A broken hand likely meant no hand seals, unless the thug was capable of performing techniques with half-seals.

Haruka moved once again, kneeing his opponent in the chest. He stepped back, letting the other man collapse to the ground in intense agony. The pain of broken fingers coupled with being winded was definitely not a wondrous feeling, he knew.

His foot lashed out. Bones crack once again. The thug screamed in pain.

Sometimes Haruka feels as if he overdid things. But it was the most efficient.

Five more left. Or were there?

Inwardly, he had hoped that the display of ... well, brutality, could have intimidated the remaining targets into surrendering. However, they were still coming at him.

Temporary Paralysis Technique

He focused on the technique's name. Energy flowed through him, the chakra responding to the mental activation. Unlike others, he had never been one to call the names out. Hearing it in his mind was all that he found necessary.

The lead thug stopped mid-step. Haruka watched as the man struggled to move, only to realise that something had tied him to the ground. He didn't let them respond any further.

It was draining, to be honest, utilising the technique so many times in quick succession. But its utility could not be doubted. The green-haired chunin had made use of the Temporary Paralysis Technique ever since he had been a genin, when many D-ranks had seemed difficult and awe-inspiring.

Even now he held a soft spot in his heart for it. There were few techniques as useful as one that could physically restrain an enemy for a short period of time. And speaking of said enemies, Haruka allowed his eyes to linger upon their struggles.

It was ... honestly amusing in a way.

There was no time, however. He had vowed to finish his fight quickly, after all.

Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique

His hands quickly went through the necessary handseals.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."

Haruka ignored the screams of his opponents as they were suddenly pulled straight down into the floor of the warehouse. Of all the earth techniques he had mastered, this was also one that he quite cherished. Though its name suggested a certain sinister flair to it, Haruka much preferred utilising it to simply trap the bodies of his foes in the earth (or in this case, the ... concrete of the warehouse). It was useful, especially as it prevented both the movements of limbs and use of hand-seals.

Quite fortunate that he had time to prepare his techniques against this group of five instead of engaging in pure melee like with the first. The choice to break his first opponent's hands had been one born partly from necessity (due to the lack of time in launching any of his techniques) and partly out of an attempt to intimidate his foes. It had been a failure, but no matter. All of his foes were incapacitated.

"They will not be able to dig themselves out," Haruka explained with a brief gesture to the gibbering group of heads before him, breathing slightly ragged. While his chakra levels weren't low, using techniques in rapid succession was not something he had a proper grip on as of yet. "And he -"

He nodded his head towards the crying thug with the two broken hands.

"- has been effectively neutralized."

Hopefully there would be no further obstacles in their way to regroup with the others. Haruka thought.

"I wouldn't say, there's about 30 coming in, look at this." She shows her phone to Haruka. "Remember when I threw my coin to one of the platforms up? " She asks Haruka. Then flashbacks to why she did it.

Sentou Flashback

"We don't know how many enemies are waiting on us; we need to finish this fast, I can use my railgun but assuming this is Yamato's property then I'm screwed. Tch.. whatever it is. We'll make it to where Aoi and Yamato are. Till then, we'll capture them and leave it to the police. Mari-senpai will come here soon enough. For now..." She thought to herself.

Flashback End

Sentou's coin on the platform, it is not just a coin but a coin that have a seal attached to it which summoned the remote phone which directly acted as CCTV Surveillance to check for incoming enemies.

"That's why." She said and then she tosses another coin with a seal attached to it on the entrance and another which slipped below the doorway.

"Thirty," he echoed blandly.

"That would be an issue."

With a sigh, the nineteen year old unlimbered his naginata. At a length of two metres twenty, it stood several heads above him. Some people wondered why a ninja of all people would use a weapon that seemed so large and unwieldy, and if he was honest with himself, Haruka actually had no idea why. It was an affectation of his, but even so, he had gotten enough missions done with it to find that despite its towering length, it was definitely a useful part of his arsenal.

Especially when dealing with large groups of foes. The extra range afforded to him was immensely beneficial.

"I suppose there is little we can do but face them head on," he said with a shrug, feeling the cold nagaye of his weapon beneath his fingers. "Avoiding confrontation with a group of thirty in these conditions would be quite difficult."

He didn't actually quite know if he could deal with thirty either. Even with the assistance of Sentou, thirty possible ninja was a large force to deal with. Haruka was beginning to think that whatever situation they had found themselves in, it could not possibly be a just a simple Jashinist murder.

"Where were all these forces coming from?"

It was as if they were dealing with some sort of insurrection.

The door opens. "HAHA! We got em'! and n---."

Sentou grins. "Stay back, Haruka. Wait for it."

"For what?"

Sentou Battle Theme

Coins started raining from top and every direction, it is like raining cats and dogs but in this scenario, raining coins with electricity. All of a sudden, Sentou moves extremely fast, her movements appeared as if she's everywhere but those were afterimages projected from the side effects of her speed.

"Where is she? We need to stop this!" One of them yelled. "She's right there, she---." Sentou stabs one of them with Chidori, of course avoiding vital parts. She does the same to the some, avoiding their vital parts and shocking them.

It was like a hurricane, Sentou moving too fast that she can't be seen by the naked eye unless one uses eye techniques or have a totally good eyesight.

Their enemies were fighting blindly as they fall prey to Sentou's speed. They begin to use their weapons against them. In fact this was grand, instead of hurting them directly, Sentou makes her opponents hurt themselves as she runs like a Tasmanian devil rather speed of lightning.

Finally, it stopped; leaving only one.

"Difficult? You were saying..." She stretches and yawns. "Do the honors. That made me hungry, let's catch a meal afterwards, it's on me!" Sentou shows the childish side from the looks of her body language and expressions, jumping with a hooray.

"Understood."

Haruka shook his head lightly. It was incredible what his fellow chunin could do sometimes; compared to them, he was rather low-key and underwhelming.

With an apologetic look at the final, remaining thug, whose face displayed nothing but shock at the suddenness of Sentou's wild attacks, the chunin allowed chakra to flow through his body once again. His mind snapped into action.

Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique

Another one to bite the dust.
"Let us simply proceed onwards." he stated matter-of-factly.

"R.... right. I know where Aoi and the rest are. Grab on me." Sentou uses body flicker and proceed to go where Aoi and her friends are.

Few minutes later.

"Yo. Are we too late to have fun?"

[Savato]

Aoi Don Maquia

---

At least Daiki was playing along in her little game, but it would soon come to be vain as Aoi's little, or rather tall target had retreated with the others to perform certain jutsu and evidently put their assault on pause. Because of this and their obvious endeavor to reproduce an Area of Effect approach, Aoi quickly released three small bungees from her finger to capture the pinned cards and retract them to her hand before the giant wave of fire could be made. She would have liked to help, but her position not only got her out of the fire's range but also kept her in a strategic position they could need in the future. So much for the duo.

While her colleagues handled the giant wave of flames, she carefully peered down at the action, noticing Yamato taking the trio while apparently some clone was acting as caretaker for the distraction of her friends. Considering the flames were dangerous and she at least had tactical advantage, she prepared a new surprise. Forming a large amount of mucus that balled on her hand, she'd toss it on the ceiling a few meters above her, determined to use it as a substitution if need be. The mucus would use its surprise side effect to make itself transparent. After all a little switcheroo would make a great effect for a show.

As the three finished their act, enumerating every single teammate including Aoi with a relatively lame comment on them. They seemed skilled but not particularly intelligent. Aoi wasn't either, but she was ridiculously crafty and good at getting around things. And so they divided the team into groups, and as much as Aoi wanted to offer support, she'd be confronted with one of the clones. Cocking an eyebrow, she quickly noticed how they were underestimating the group thinking going two on one when one almost got immediately owned was a good idea. Sending in a basic clone made Aoi feel a bit insulted, but nonetheless at least she could test her skills.

"Hmph, a fake volunteer is no more than target practice! But I guess I won't have to touch you once!"

She arrogantly claim as the clone readied itself with a kunai as it attacked her. Although Gooey Bungee was rather resilient to elements, it'd have a hard time sticking on constant flames without vanishing instantly, something she knew better than anyone considering it was her own unique ability. She could still try it, but it wasn't really worth the experimentation on a clone. Instead, she'd stick to her old plan, but with an added twist. Since they were opting for the option of attacking her up above, her previous action would serve quite well. She simply charged toward him, two cards in one hand, one card on the other, but she was forming rapid and strange hand seals as she charged, the cards seemingly glued on her wrists, explaining why they didn't actually move. The hand seals were strange because she made each one on a different angle, make it exceptionally difficult to discern certain signs from up front. This was her talent, as a clone, she had the obligation to make optical illusions to make her card plays efficient and hard to identify. Nonetheless, the action happened fast enough for her to have formed five hand seals before appearing to strike the fire clone with her wielded cards. However he body didn't do any extra movement as it seemingly just dived into the attack, feinting the whole thing and being cut down.

The lifeless eyes of the body being cut or stabbed made it very apparent to the clone that, even if he'd try to form a hand seal, he had hit something different than his target. She had used body replacement, the thing that he had cut up would reveal itself to be the big mass of mucus she had formed earlier during the fire raid. The structure broke down from the stab and glued itself all over his weapon, hand, arm and adjacent leg while having some of it splash on his face as well. The heat made it melt slowly, revealing its water-like attributes of the mucus, slowly weakening the clone a the fire reacted really poorly to the water element (being its ultimate weakness).

But it didn't stop there, the cards the replaced Aoi was holding flung as the clone's attack was successful, causing the card that was initially the transformed clone to revert in its non-transformed state. The clone was in the air, both of the remaining cards in its hands as the weakened clone noticed it. Arms spread and outstretched to perform an X shape slice on his torso, encompassing of course his arms which he'd attempt to gather in order to form a seal or counter attack despite being strongly limited in movement by the melting mucus gluing half his body to either itself or to the floor. Whether the clone would be successful or not, the real Aoi could just descend as he'd receive another mass of mucus at the face (the clone) and perform a quick assassination as he succumbed to the trap she had prepared.

"As I said, not once~"

She'd act cocky, but at the same time the enemy was cocky enough to send a simple clone to a Chuunin level shinobi. The result would inevitably be like this in most scenarios. Aoi, now standing on the ceiling, glanced at the battlefield, having a hard time to distinguish what as actually going on due to the high amount of activity. Paneru was missing, but his body was nowhere to be seen, reassuring her in some way. Her interference may be of a nuisance at the moment, since an encumbered fight was evidently a dangerous one. And suddenly, the rest of her friends showed up at the nick of time. She casually waved, like the crazy clown she was known to be.

[Empath]

Ice cold eyes gazed down upon the chaos of the fight: the bodies were slowly soaking the ground with their blood and the air with the odour of their burning flesh as the Konoha ninjas were carving a bloody path through the warehouse. Naomi stood upon one of the many wooden beams high above the fighting: they were made out of heavy industrial material that played a key role in the structural integrity of the whole warehouse - and furthermore as they were positioned high above the ground they proved to be the perfect hiding spot for those that did not want to be noticed, but at the same time proved to be an excellent view-point to observe what happened below.
Hiding in the shadows Naomi kept a keen eye on on her fellow Chuunin below as Daiki, Yamato, Ao, Jaakuna, takeshi and even Paneru dispatched of hordes after hordes of what could best be described as low-life thugs.
As she sat upon one of the beams she reminisced of what had occurred since the meeting: as the tension had soured greatly with Yamato’s outburst of anger and killing intend the party had quickly broken up - most of the Chuunin had followed in his footsteps, but a few, including Naomi herself, Sentou, Haruka and others she couldn’t care less about had stayed behind. As far as Naomi went she hadn’t cared much for what happened, instead of participating she had rested her back and looked upon the blue sky that hid behind the green leaves that danced in the wind - lost in her own thoughts at the depth of her mind. It wasn’t until Sentou suddenly erupted from her otherwise calm behaviour that Naomi suddenly zoomed back into the real world - her eyes sharpened as she quickly located the sudden burst of chakra, sound and lightning.

Woah, she thought to herself, someone clearly needs to relax a bit more…

Though she didn’t appear to be much more shocked than a brief expression of alertness - instead she used the sudden disturbance to listen to what was going on around her: as most of the other Chuunin at the meeting had disappeared, the only few left seemed to coordinate some form of plan - though it wasn’t something that Naomi cared much for: she was better alone than in teams as they usually just slowed her down and became a burden.

“Oh well, might as well see what’s going on - can’t be much more boring than this…” she mumbled to herself before she closed her eyes for a brief moment and when she opened them again the vessels around her and inside of her eyes had drastically more noticeable than before - it wouldn’t take long for someone like her who possessed the powers of the Byakugan to track down the other Chuunin.

Without a word she disappeared into the thin air, using her prowess in the Body Flicker-technique to quickly escape and move great distances. Using the abilities of her white opaque eyes and her great speed it didn’t take her long to find the tracks of the other Chuuning and she quickly made her way to the warehouse where the fight had already started. Instead of joining in she decided to instead follow the events from the shadows, stalking the bloody fight high above the chaos below as her Byakugan captured every detail of what happened around her. She was silent and part of the shadows, a skill that most ninjas had learned, but something she had honed to a great extent during her years in the ANBU. As she followed the fight below it became clear to her that the thugs didn’t stand a chance, but it wasn’t as if they were completely helpless, no the sheer amount of warriors that the Chuunin faced had clearly worn down her fellow ninjas.

It was at this point that Naomi noticed Paneru who had suddenly changed her movements drastically: becoming much slower and seemingly worn down from the exhaustion of the battle - though as she focused her gaze upon him she saw the real cause of the problems: she appeared to suddenly have been wounded from the enemy’s kunais, her cloth already starting to soak up the blood from her wounds.

“Tch”, Naomi exhaled. Perhaps she couldn’t keep herself out of this - and as much as she couldn’t be bothered jumping into the battle, she felt enough responsibility to her fellow ninjas not to let them die if she could protect them. As she slowly got up from the crouched position she had been in since she arrived - but before she could join the battle a sudden burst of the signature noise of Chidori echoed through the air.
A small smile appeared on Naomi’s lips. It would appear that Sentou had appeared with her signature moves - and as she focused her vision towards the loud bursts of electricity she spotted Haruka as well.

Well, I guess I am not needed anyway she concluded and instead shifted her gaze towards the direction she had located the wounded Paneru escaping. Without a second thought she once again disappeared with little trace as she made her way out of one of the windows in the warehouse. It didn’t take long to locate her target: the blood had left tracks on the ground and even though her chakra was weak it was still visible to those with blessed eyes.

As she landed on the tree branch in front of the collapsed Paneru that had lost her consciousness due to the wounds shr had sustained in the battle. As she gazed down upon her unconscious body Naomi couldn’t help but shake her head and let out a sigh.
“I guess I better save his sorry life…” she mumbled as she reached for the medical kit she always wore on her and bent down to attend Paneru’s wounds.

[Akashi Mayhiro]

Takeshi R. Hanami Vs Some Tall bloke

It seemed like the fight was far from over, it was very evident as the Blood coated man uppercut-ted him under his chin, grunt in pain Takeshi yellow eyes flashed dangerously as he back flipped a few times gaining a bit of distance. Bringing out both his Balisong knives again, he showed the blades towards his occupants. Takesi felt a proud and yet dangerous aura coming from the tall man, he knew this wasn't his average kill.

'Katon: Hi Shinten no Jutsu (Fire Release: Flame Spread Technique)' Take murummered to himself as he flicked his wrists downwards. As if one due the knives caught fire before manipulating themselves into bigger blades. The man only smirked as he motion the green haired man to come at him.

Takeshi only smirked again as the body flicked in front of the tall man, aside from his Kunai and clothes...he was....normal....strong, but normal. Looking to end it quickly he attempted to drive his blade into his heart, only to be picked up from his head and the big hands of the Jashin follower threw him up into the air before catching him and body slamming into the unforgiving concrete floor, causing Takeshi to rive in pain before getting pick up again and punched in the stomach. Winding him instantly as the tall follower put his two hands together and hammered Takeshi across the room, causing him to crash into a pile of steel beams.

"HAHAHA, you is tiny baby man! I crush you!" With his broken English, he laughed heartily at the hooded ninja demise. He laughed even harder when he saw Takeshi stumble out of the pile, only to fall face first into the floor again "This is be easy yes? I snap neck, No Big problem." He smiled. Takeshi on the other hand felt like his body was ready to rip itself into pieces and just leave him. Retracted his knives back into his hands and slowly got up with much pain and stress. He knew exactly want he signed up for.

'......' he closed his eye and breathed in and out, calm his mind and heart. Clearing himself of all thoughts he had only one objective: Take the Man down, Killing him would be impossible. having no choice he placed his knives at the palm of his hand and slid the blade between his middle and index finger respectively. His hand formed into fist and a tickle of blood from his hand- dropped steadily to the ground." Shaking of his hood and looked at the man once more and nodded.

"Ah so you decided to play, like the doggy you are? I play with you bone little puppy!" the tall man got into a brawler like stance as he eye were hungry for more. Take and the Jashin looked at each other once more, waiting for anything to set them of. "I am Kenta, you don't need last name, you die soon!"

"As I said, not once~" That was the voice of Aoi finishing of her opponent, it was the start for another.

The Tall Jashin appeared in front of Takeshi, despite his lank appearance, the former Jashin member smirked before blocking a incoming leg kick to his sides, gripping Kenta’s leg tightly Before taking a deep cut into his leg before he sweep his remaining one Kenta knowing his next move applied more force into his captured leg, sending Takeshi flying. Takeshi shook his head as he jumped off the ground and skidded to a smooth stop. Wasting no time Takeshi ran after Kenta. “A full force attack!"

‘Not yet.’

Kenta ran towards Hanami both cocking their fists ready for the impact. Soon as their fists collided a slight shockwave coursed through the ground, It seemed like Kenta didn’t mind getting stab by Takeshi knives, like he was used to it. The two combatants smirked before executing fast moving punches and kicks, the tall and lanky Jashin follower delivered an upwards kick with His knees against Takeshi catching him off guard. The ninja from the hidden leaf swore he heard his jaw crack, biting though the pain Takeshi sheathed his knives and placed his palms on Kenta’s vest pushing His back slight. Not holding back Takeshi jumped to perform a quick roundhouse kick to Kenta’s face that was supposed to send His flying into the wall of the warehouse.

“…” Takeshi grimaced as he fell into his fighting stance and touched his hurting jaw before getting his knives out again. His eyes widened as he saw the man he kicked barely being pushed into the wall. His feet were grounded into the concrete so strongly that he had left holes in it.

Kenta left the wall and dusted His shoulders off, giving a ‘not bad’ nod. He returned to his stance.

“Interesting, very good fight!” Kenta rubbed His head before shaking it slightly. “But your jaw…is it fracture yes?”

Takeshi grunted running towards Kenta.

“Let us continue then!” Kenta smirked as he waited for His time. Takeshi grinned as he leaped off the ground cocking his leg for another assault, but Kenta just smiled before stepping back, creating a small distance from him.

“This is where our differences come into play!” Kenta delivered a brutal right knee to his gut, then followed with another kick sending Takeshi high into the air. The fighter kept going with His onslaught, making Takeshi go on the defensive trying to protect himself, but to no avail. Kenta disappeared before showing Himself on Takeshi’s left side. “Too easy!” Kenta yelled as he sent Takeshi crashing into the ground creating another shaking in the earth. Kenta landed a good distance taking a quick breater.

Takeshi coughed out the dirt that enter though his mouth, stirring in the ground he jumped back to his feet the ninja stretched out his pain. “….That…realllyyy hurt!” Spitting out a small amount of blood Takeshi nodded before emerging from the dust.

‘This feeling behind your movements...You make yourself lighter to heighten speed and then you send your Chakra to multiple strong points behind your punches for stronger impacts.’ Kenta easily analysed his fighting style. “But is that all you got? I expect more from your punches.” The black cloaked Ninja adjusted His white glove while seemingly staring into his soul.

This Ninja….even for a person as big and tall as they came. He was extremely fast and strong. Almost superhuman. And it didn’t look like he was using His full power at all! “Maybe this one fight…I will regret.”

The short-haired man nodded before jumping into the air with one leg outstretched. Takeshi protected his chest with his arms, and the two soon began another intense close combat exchange.

Kick, right punch, uppercut, leg sweep, back of the head, chest.

“Hidden leaf Villagers are best fighter, I is glad to come and kill them: Worthy opponents!.” Kenta used his forearm to block Takeshi’s kick to the head. ”But I can say that I is best my team has to offer.” Takeshi jumped to avoid a leg sweep using the momentum of his spin he channeled the Chakra straight into his right leg. Kenta simply ducked under it.

“Now!” Takeshi grinned as his stopped his movement. Using the remaining force he had, the Ninja changed directions. His heel connected with Kenta’s back creating a web-like crack underneath him on the ground. Kenta mouth opened a little as the air escaped her, but he didn’t budge. Takeshi admiring his work jumped back giving Kenta time to recuperate. ‘There’s something off about him...’ Takeshi saw Kenta rising and straightening his back.

“HAHAHAHAH! Come! Come little tiny baby man! I’ve still got more reserves!” Kenta flicked her thumb at himself. “Fight me!”

Yellow, black and Green collided all around the field, Takeshi’s fist connected with Kenta’s face while Kenta right heel connected with Takeshi ribs, neither of them giving in, passing the pain the two continued to strike one another until an opening was found. Takeshi squinted his eye for a second before seeing an opening on Kenta chest, taking a chance the young ninja planted his fist (with the help of his knife) into the Jashin follower. It was his best stab punch. He had laid into everything he got. And with the help of his Chakra force was increased a lot.

Kenta was hit against the ground and a crater appeared around her from the force of the impact.

“GHH!” Takeshi cried out in pain as the pain and exhaustion caught up to him, there it was. His limit. All he had to do, was break past it now. If we could surpass it.

From the smoke his opponent rose and now finally he revealed a smile. “That last one was not half bad. You made the trip worth it.” he wasn’t even breathing heavily!

“Seriously?” The green-haired teen rubbed his bleeding fist. ‘Already ate the poison, might as well take the rest of it too!’ He prepared himself for another round.

Blood and spit when everywhere, while it wasn’t his cup of tea. He found it difficult to fight, even his Fire style wouldn’t cut it, sooner than he expected…he found himself being pushed back.

Takeshi groaned as he sat on the ground his body was giving out on him. ‘I guess you were holding back all this time, you son of bitch’ Takeshi exhaled before looking at his hand again. The blood was everywhere and cuts that leaked crimson, he was surprised he was still awake.

“I still have ways to go.” The Ninja in yellow got up again despite the protest.

Takeshi’s eyes widened as Kenta took advantage of his rest and appeared behind Takeshi’s back, leaving him barely enough reaction time. His forearm blocked Kenta’s spin kick, but the reinforced power of Kenta no longer holding back made the attack more painful. Pushing off the attack, Takeshi glared at him. Kenta again showed the faint smile as he beckoned him over.

If he was going to lose, at least take him down! He declared. This time he was putting some strength into it.

Their punches and kicks met in a flashes, exchanging fierce strikes to the others body, only to be blocked or dodged. Takeshi aimed a strike to Kenta's face, but she ducked down, countering it with a sharp uppercut, sending Takeshi into the air. As Takeshi flew a few feet off the ground, Kenta chased after him, cutting him off mid-flight to strike his back with a raise of the knee, and then send him crashing into the ground below with a punch to the stomach.

Takeshi was helpless to the strike, groaning in pain as his body struck the ground. Kenta was not far behind the descent, free-falling towards Takeshi's body in an attempt to smash into him. Takeshi waited until his opponent got close enough, then he lifted his body with his hands, spinning his body along the ground to kick Kenta as hard as he could while she was falling. The kick connected.

“TAKE THIS!” A scream escaped his lungs.

The blue-haired Ninja had blocked the attack with crossed arms in front of his chest, but he was sent flying a few meters before regaining he balance.

"Good… but this way you are not going to defeat me. It’s way too early for a wet ears ninja like you, will die here" Kenta inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly once. After that he looked fine again. How was he able to switch from Broken happy English to Calm and actually well spoken English in a flash!?

Takeshi coughed and even that hurt his lungs. Seeing Kenta shrugging off his attacks like that hurt his pride more than his body ever could.

He got up forcing his shaking body to straighten. His mind forced the shaking hands to calm down and they formed fists. There was one more move he could try. One more chance to prove his worth...

While wiping the sweat and blood from his face Takeshi started walking towards the huntress.

“Then come at me!” Kenta ran towards Takeshi at a high pace. The young Hanami was doing the same. Colliding into each other, the two skidded to a hold throwing their best fist/kick each other.

“GAHHHHH!!!!!” Takeshi yelled and suddenly the earth around them was pushed deeply under. A field of forced gravity hit both of them full force. The sudden change slowed down Kenta’s punch, but Takeshi had shifted his own body weight beforehand. With his superior speed he spun past Kenta’s fist and kicked her into the side. The impact was strong, but due to the intense gravity she couldn’t fly away.

For a second the young Ninja could have sworn to see a painful reaction on his face.

‘It... worked..!’

Takeshi eyes widened as blood cells ruptured in his lungs and he coughed out a mouthful onto the ground. His vision faded as he lost all feeling and slumped into the ground. So this was the price for going past one’s limit.

“No! I can….lose…..here…” The teen fell to the ground and closed his eyes. The world was turning dark fast. ‘Shit….i’m still weak….for fucks sakes…’ Were his last thoughts before fainting. That was his answer.

‘I need more power…..” His body was still.

Kenta laughed again as he walked towards his fallen enemy "You are good, great potential: Could be even more powerful if given the chance..." He sighed "But not today Comrade: today you die: but first: Some compensation."

Grabbing Takeshi but the body, he took his right arm and started pulling it in the opposite direction, applying more pressure he could heard flesh ripping apart and then finally.

Takeshi's right arm was completely removed from his body, the blood flying everywhere, it was lucky that the hooded man was awake to witness it own dismemberment. "Finally!" he took his left arm and broke it in several placed before laying him down on the ground. "Farewell Hidden baby Leaf man."

The took his Kunai from his holster.

The stabbed the green haired man.

Right in the heart.

[Renny]

Daiki Naito

Clones and more clones, ninjas had really become adept as using the tactic. If not for his own quick thinking, he wouldn't have escaped the wave of fire that was released from the three clones. He emboldened Anemone with chakra and from behind the red-hot beam, waited out the assault. When he it finally ceased, he looked up to check on Aoi, who was still hanging from above.

That's good. I shouldn't worry as much as I do about her, he told himself, turning his eyes towards the grunts and tumbles of Yamato Minamoru. The Prodigy came to a halt near his feet, garnering his stoic gaze. It wasn't even a second later that Yamato raised back up and charged into the battle. If the snob didn't have anything else, he had moxie. From their thrones of rubble, the three brothers went to ramble about the chunins. His calm was maintained on the surface but greatly chipped on the inside.

Do they know about ... my eyes, he wondered, suppressing the urge to cover it in his time of uncertainty. Impossible, only on the compound have I- Daiki was frozen as a grim possibility ushered itself inside of him. Was it possible that the Jashin's infiltration into the leaf was grander than they expected? Just how many covert operates did they have lurking around? His eyes glanced around for enemies in the building before darting back to meet his opponents.

The smaller one and taller one leapt into the fray of the chunins; Daiki retreated in a blur of motion a few meters away. The smaller one followed after him, spouting on about a three-way dance. He could only smile at the comment before witnessing the veil of fire rush from the small-brother's lips. Mentor's permission to use his Sharingan echoed in his mind. But did he absolutely need it, was it worth the exposure?

He decided if it meant he'd live, that it was worth the risk. With a swirl of movement, his eyes gained the two tome seals and faded into a deep crimson.

Beyond the flames he saw the shadow of a full thrust launching his opponent over head and the glinting kunais that traveled with explosive tags planted on them from below. Everything around him was exceptionally slower, if not easier to pick apart. The charka of his friends and his opponents were lit up in the chaotic building. His mind was a cruel and cold calculator, it once offered up the lives of his comrades in order to come out victorious. But now, Daiki could see other possibilities.

With a flicker of movement, he transcended normal speed. And burst forwards with Anemone spearheading his path for grounded brother. The katon-man may have thought that he hid his attack well, that he would have the time to detonate, or speak. But in a battleground, where a life was the bet, Daiki would never lose.

[AlteredTundra]

Jaakuna Sawada, The Sundance Kid

---

Before Jaakuna had time to even get accustomed to the fact that the brothers somehow knew about Jaakuna’s brother and the Sawada Kekkei Genkai, they split up. Yamato took one, and the other two -- the tall and short one -- went after Paneru(who had fled due to the injuries sustained) and Takeshi and Daki and Jaakuna respectively. When the latter came towards them, Jaakuna only saw a cloud of ignited fire. Just as the fire was released, Jaakuna heard the small brother laugh as if something else happened. And it did. Exploding tags added to the fire.

“Shit,” Jaakuna briefly said as he dashed three meters away, out of the hazardous blast range.

When the fire dimmed down a minute or so later, Jaakuna saw something that he found a little odd. If he wasn’t mistaken, he saw crimson eyes in Daiki’s own. Weird, he thought the Uchiha were the only ones who had those same kind of eyes. Maybe the fumes of the smoke were playing with his head, Regardless, Jaakuna, just like Daiki had with his sword, took to action. Though the latter would be able to land a hit much sooner than the former.

Jaakuna’s hands took to a Tiger Hand Seal, “Fire Release:,” He said, his chakra building up inside his body, “Higaitou no Jutsu(Flame Cloak Technique),” Once those words were spoken, Jaakuna fire chakra expelled outward into the form of a thinly-layered fire chakra aura that enhanced his strength and speed slightly and the same for his Katon techniques.

Rushing past the smoke, Jaakuna appeared behind the small brother who attacked, his right arm, fist formed, going into the back of the brother. However, it would seem that not only did he see Jaakuna’s attack coming from behind him, but he also saw Daiki’s attack come in front of him as he gripped both of their attacking arms tightly and spun them around and threw them in opposite directions to the ground.

When that happened, Jaakuna was sent thrown into a pile of iron poles. One of the poles was dug deeply into Jaakuna’s ribs, possibly fracturing or even breaking a few of them. Jaakuna met that with a noticeable grunt of pain and agony.

[Partisan]

Yamato Minamoru, “Young Master”

---

Yamato seemingly found new energy in his most recent charge - his fight had turned from dull fist-to-face with added burn marks to a spectacle to behold. If this weren't a life or death situation, it'd probably be very nice to look at. With every strike, he pushed his chakra to the maximum, causing his fire to lash out, causing slight trails of fire to shoot off from the fists every strike. His face had contorted itself into a stereotypical Yamato-look, frowning, burning up with anger. The two turned around eachother, and the medium sized red haired shinobi seemed to be too busy defending himself, dodging left and right, blocking punches and getting hit to actually do anything remotely resemblant of a counterattack.

When Yamato turned around his axis to follow the man with his fists, he noticed a time to strike. “HHNRAAAAAAAAAAAA!” he yelled, his battlecry giving him extra strength as he hurled his right fist into the mans chest which sent the man tumbling back, seemingly knocked out. This gave Yamato some time to look around. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Paneru fleeing the building. He shook his head while he contemplated following the girl and kill her. Nobody would suspect a thing if he did it while there was a big fight going on, and even if they did suspect it.. she was a person that left his comrades alone as soon as she herself was in danger. She was expendable now.. and Yamato wouldn't forget that.

But there was little time to do any of that. Any good ideas Yamato got about Paneru during that very first time he saw the girl fighting thugs, it all went out the window. But if Paneru was fleeing, that meant.. his eyes flashed to Takeshi, almost making him look crazed due to the speed at which he switched his gaze to him. The boy was laying there.. with an arm ripped off? Psh. For some reason Yamato felt indifferent about it. Takeshi was sorta annoying at times.. but for some reason Yamato felt like he'd have liked to ask the boy a question or two. Takeshi better stay alive.. or else Yamato would revive him, just to kill him again.

Daiki seemed to be doing okay, sadly enough. Jaakuna, well, he was being Jaakuna. They were getting thrown around a bit. If this had been a chunin exam, it might've been funny to look at. Aoi and Yamato were the only ones that seemed to have made any progress in their fights. And Aoi was, well, fighting a clone. That wouldn't be too hard. Yamato turned around to face his opponent again and finish him off, thinking he had the time since he had knocked out his enemy. This turned out to be untrue as the man raised himself back onto his feet. “Hnggg.. why do they always pick the strong ones for us to deal with.. Bro's! Let's meet up and get out of here! We're not paid enough to deal with this kind of shit.. HAHAHA! Jashin can suck a fat one! Ahoouieeee!” He howled randomly, before jumping back onto a crate and crossing his arms, no doubt to look cool. His brothers answered his call and jumped back from their respective fights, landing on the same crate as they also crossed their arms. Yamato couldn't help but look at them in a bored manner. It seemed like these enemies jumped straight out of the kids tv-show Naruto-time, that's how stereotypically bad-guy they were.

With the same speed at which they had appeared into the warehouse, they dissapeared again. Yamato would've chased them down but currently he had more worries on his mind. Namely the laboratory beneath the warehouse. He approached the manhole and opened it up by grabbing the two rods on the side of it and lifting it, clunking it down right next to it. Slowly he inched himself over the hatch, looking down. Seemed clear.. His face would turn to look at the group that had gathered, noticing that Sentou and Haruka had arrived. “Great.. more dead weight.” he said about the two new arrivals as he looked down the manhole again. Without wasting more words he formed several handseals, inhaled deeply and then jumped down the manhole. It was a somewhat long fall, aproximately fifteen meters, but any decent shinobi should be able to handle that.

As he reached the bottom he exhaled, performing a great fireball jutsu just in case anyone was lurking down there. The fire filled the small laboratory entirely, and would likely incinerate anyone caught in it. As the fires died down Yamato looked at the end of the large hallway laboratory. She was standing there, grinning, holding out her left hand, with a water shield coming from it, guarding her from the fire. “Ah, Yamato.. since you survived, I assume the Fiery Trio was unsuccesful in their attempts to capture you, like this girl..?” Her right hand was dipped into some.. kind of water ball. And inside of that ball was Rei.. Yamato's sister.

Yamato clenched his teeth, as by now no doubt his comrades had dropped down the manhole as well. They'd be able to follow the entire conversation as Rumiko stood there, kimono worn as a sash. Her tanto was strapped into her kimono, and she had numerous other blades and weaponry attached to her back. To the sides of her there were lots of laboratory equipment sets, such as microscopes, samples of senju DNA, failed experiments conducted on eyes and all other kinds of crazy stuff. There were also marks on the walls of a White Lily, the insignia of the Minamoru yakuza group. Anyone familiar with underworld information would, no doubt, know that this yakuza group is led by Mr. White Lily, although not many would know this to be Yamato's dad. If anything, the sign outside and the white lily signs would link the family to the yakuza group. All that was required for anyone to know this link was for them to connect the dots. Not that Yamato thought anyone in this group was smart enough for that.

“I am not sure how my team managed to.. slip up.. the first time we went after you and your sister. We accidentally killed some other fat idiot and a couple. None of them matched your description, Yamato.. I can ensure the rest of you, we didn't mean to kill those guys, and we dealt with the shinobi that messed up adequately. My sincere apologies for your losses.” She lowered her left hand, which had been used to shield her from Yamato's fiery breath, and in tandem she also lowered her head slightly, as if to pay respect to Shogo and the dead couple. She seemed strangely sincere about all of this, as if she actually mourned them. She raised her her head again and continued what she was saying.

“But their blood wasn't good enough for lord Jashin. We need the best blood to complete our ritual, and our targets just so happened to be Yamato and his dad. When we learned that Yamato's father went out of town to Sunagakure to discuss a.. secretive deal about stolen shinobi puppets.. we decided to settle for Rei instead. She might not be that powerful, but she has potential. Her blood would be.. enough.” Rei, who was stuck inside the water prison, looked at Yamato with wide eyes. It was obvious she was scared, and you couldn't exactly blame her. Her eyes shot from Yamato to everyone in the group, looking at them with scared eyes, but masterfully containing her tears. She was a shinobi, and Yamato had told her many times that situations like these could, no, would happen. Violence was their profession, after all.

---

“Hit me. HARDER!” Yamato's voice echoed through the forest, followed by a loud TMPH! Yamato was barely nine, and he already had a voice that accounted for more authority and strength than he truthfully had. The girl across from him, who was punching him, resembled a younger version of Rei. She pulled her fist back and slung it forwards at Yamato's chest again. Fsshh.. TMPH! Rei was trying her best, but wasn't doing an exceptionally good job. Yamato looked unimpressed. “Again, Rei!” he yelled at her, right in her face. She swung her fist back and forth towards his chest again. Fshhh.. but there was no sound that proved she had hit him. Instead, he had gripped her fist and twisted her wrist upwards, forcing her to the ground. She let out a small yelp and quickly admitted defeat.

“Alright, let's take a break.” he said as the two of them sat down on a rock in an open grassfield. The wind was heavy today, causing ripples in the tall grass as they looked over it. Yamato pulled out a small wrapped lunchpack, which had riceballs and other goods in them. It was simple food, meant to keep you going during a session of practice. He looked at Rei, who seemed to be eyeing his food. “I told you to bring a lunchpack. It's your own fault, idiot.” he said with a stern voice as he stuck a riceball in his mouth and continued looking at the ripples in the tall grass. Rei looked somewhat dissapointed but kept her mouth shut and followed the trail of Yamato's eyes.

But Yamato wasn't able to deal with it. He sighed and handed over his lunchpack to her, before placing his hand on her head and giving it a small push as a means of pestering her. “I'm not hungry.” he said, but he knew that he truthfully was rather hungry. Rei didn't even thank him and happily ate the entire lunchbox empty in mere minutes. “Idiot..”

---

Yamato eyed Rumiko as she spoke about him, still thinking about the memory he just seemed to.. relive, more or less. When he was still a more happy and somewhat more friendly boy. If any of the group with him knew about these moments he shared with Rei, they'd definetely have a different view of him. He couldn't help but feel angry, but not at her, not this lady in front of him. More so at himself for allowing Rei to be captured.. and angry at Daiki for suspecting him, when really he had been the target all along. The Naito would pay for that, some day. Always complaining about the Minamoru.. but always being wrong. “But it cannot be helped. They must've been burdens anyway, one was drunk, and the others were almost undressing themselves in the bushes. I think the fat, drunk guy was even spying on the couple. I'm not sure, it wasn't me that killed them.” Rumiko continued, still maintaining the prison of water. She seemed.. relaxed, somewhat. And awfully casual about the entire situation.

“Either way, if the Fiery Trio had been successful in capturing you, you'd be becoming a Jashin ritual sacrifice soon, Yamato. I suppose you did a good job at securing yourself, and not letting that happen.. as for your father, I have no doubts he knew what was going to happen. Maybe it's time to rethink your allegiance to your family, since he never warned you. Oh, and Rei.. well, she never even mentioned you, she just kept talking about her hero and best friend coming to save her. I don't even know who that is, but he's not here and you are. Maybe your family isn't as close as you want them to be? Doesn't matter, really.. I mean, we're taking Rei after this.”

Yamato couldn't respond, even if he wanted to yell at her that he was Rei's hero, he was her best friend, but instead he clenched his teeth harder and harder, revealing them to anyone that saw this, showing his boiling anger and rising killing intent that slowly filled the room. Slowly he would inch backwards, and it would seem almost like he was going to run away from the situation. And to his group of classmates, some of which whom barely knew him, they would indeed believe that he was going to run away. But Aoi would probably realize.. Yamato never runs away, he always runs to the front.

By now all the shinobi that were capable of doing so, would've found their way into the laboratory. Yamato found his position next to Daiki, who was on his right, and Sentou, who would be to his left, with finally Jaakuna right behind him. In a split second moment, Yamato did something very unexpected. He moved his left hand to Daiki's right hand, which would've been holding Anemone in normal circumstances. He would grab a hold of the hilt, quickly taking it from Daiki who likely wouldn't have the time to react.

When he'd retrieve it, he'd begin his assault, running very quickly, as if struck by the act of suddenly realizing you have an errant you forgot, towards the lady. She only grinned and moved her left hand to her tanto, poised to strike. As Yamato closed in he released another battlecry, “RRRAAAA!” His left hand drew back and then swung forwards, aimed at Rumiko's head. But it was futile, and Yamato knew it. With a swift draw of the blade Rumiko blocked his strike, while maintaining the water prison. It seemed that she was both fast and strong, as she held back Anemone without any serious trouble. Stuck in this clash of blades, all she could do was grin, while Yamato stared at the ground. But her grin slowly dissapeared when Yamato looked up at her, teeth showing as he clenched them as if there was an enemy limb stuck between them. Rumiko's eyes filled with fear as she noticed his right fist, which was now on fire, closing in on her stomach.

It was clever if you thought about it, Yamato might not be the smartest, and he was certainly hot headed and stubborn, but the boy had a sense of fighting-smarts that outmatched many that were ranked above him. She was now forced to choose between being hit or releasing Rei from the prison. And not wanting to sacrifice herself, unlike Yamato would've done, she pulled her hand back from the water ball, causing it to dissipate and splash on the ground, with Rei falling amidst the puddle. Her hand was swift in the attempt to block Yamato's fist, just as swift as her right hand had been when blocking the strike Yamato had made with Anemone, the weapon he stole from Daiki just seconds ago.

But her hand never met Yamato's fist, as he stopped the Fists of the Tiger technique right when she pulled her hand back from the water ball. Instead, it reached for Rei, grabbing a hold of her arm as she sat on the floor, trying to recuperate from the sensation of being stuck in a water prison, with nowhere to go. He pulled her back and slung her towards Daiki, who she'd more or less fall into. After getting her out of the way, Yamato just had to deal with this lady herself. Yamato pivoted on his feet in a three hundred and sixty degree circle, swinging the sword at Rumiko from the other side than which she had just blocked. Realizing her error, Rumiko's eyes grew big and shook as they saw her impending doom. Without thinking, she dropped her tanto and rapidly formed seals, just in time. When the sword hit her, she poofed into a cloud of smoke.

After the smoke settled, all that remained was a block of wood left on the ground. Replacement technique.. how basic. Yamato couldn't help but feel agitated, since the woman escaped using such a cheap trick. She was nowhere to be found in the laboratory.. she'd die another day. He looked at the tanto on the floor and picked it up, sticking it into his waistband before turning around and slowly inching closer to the group. He looked.. awfully tired, his eyes were bloodshot and he was bleeding all over the place. He had atleast 3 stab wounds in his abdomen, three cuts on his right arm, four cuts on his left, and he had a large amount of bruisings all over his body. Besides that, his face was beat up and he had numerous cuts from kunai on his cheek that he was bleeding from. It was understandable that he looked tired, and it was also understandable that he couldn't walk to his sister at a normal pace, taking almost half a minute to even get close. Rei had sat down on her knees after being more or less thrown into Daiki and had started crying. Yamato was about to cave, and would fall on his knees like his sister, and throw Anemone in front of Daiki with a casual and uncaring mannerism. Clunk.. He looked at Rei, trying to speak to her. The only words he managed to utter were “I will kill them all.”

---

Two weeks would pass, and Yamato and the others were all individually 'questioned' by several jonin on what had happened. The one that got the most flak for rushing off and doing all this on his own was Yamato, since he'd more or less lied about what he knew of the location Fujitora mentioned and had somewhat led a team of chunin into a combat situation, without even notifying anyone. Regardless, he was let off the hook, since he did ultimately save a shinobi from being captured, and took out atleast three dozen would-be thugs. Everyone else was simply questioned for information and then escorted home, after which they were free to do as they pleased again.

These two weeks were pretty simple, and the amount of jobs was surprisingly low. All that had happened was that a few chunin were selected to take genin on low ranked missions, to show them the ropes and help them where they could. It seemed like the jonin were too lazy to do that now. Thankfully these weren't permanent leadership positions or they'd be stuck doing 'save the cat' type missions all their lifes.

But now there was talk of a larger stream of missions pouring in suddenly. It seemed like there were several appropiate missions for the chunin, and that meant one thing. They got to try out the newly introduced decentralized team method. This method was meant to hand pick individual shinobi to cater to specific needs a mission might have, rather than sending a random team, or trying to match a team that might not be properly outfitted to deal with this mission. But there had been no tests as of yet that involved the chunin, so it'd be exciting to see what teams were made. A disadvantage was that most of the involved people would, likely, not be able to work together well with the people they hadn't been with in a team before. But that was a small side issue. The real issue was.. would you get matched with your high school crush? Or your worst enemy? And who would be the jonin accompanying you for your mission?

For now, the chunin were left to do as they pleased, to visit restaurants together, to play a game together or to do something on your own. It seemed like the perfect time to talk to your crush, or spar with your rival, or even to simply train. Especially now that you'd have to get ready for any possible mission to be slung your way. And everyone knew the Hokage was ruthless with his working pace, especially since Ayame Choko was involved, and she made sure to speed up the process even more. Let alone Fujitora..

[Masaki Haruna]

Chapter 2

Two weeks would pass, and Yamato and the others were all individually 'questioned' by several jonin on what had happened. The one that got the most flak for rushing off and doing all this on his own was Yamato, since he'd more or less lied about what he knew of the location Fujitora mentioned and had somewhat led a team of chunin into a combat situation, without even notifying anyone. Regardless, he was let off the hook, since he did ultimately save a shinobi from being captured, and took out atleast three dozen would-be thugs. Everyone else was simply questioned for information and then escorted home, after which they were free to do as they pleased again.

These two weeks were pretty simple, and the amount of jobs was surprisingly low. All that had happened was that a few chunin were selected to take genin on low ranked missions, to show them the ropes and help them where they could. It seemed like the jonin were too lazy to do that now. Thankfully these weren't permanent leadership positions or they'd be stuck doing 'save the cat' type missions all their lifes.

But now there was talk of a larger stream of missions pouring in suddenly. It seemed like there were several appropiate missions for the chunin, and that meant one thing. They got to try out the newly introduced decentralized team method. This method was meant to hand pick individual shinobi to cater to specific needs a mission might have, rather than sending a random team, or trying to match a team that might not be properly outfitted to deal with this mission. But there had been no tests as of yet that involved the chunin, so it'd be exciting to see what teams were made. A disadvantage was that most of the involved people would, likely, not be able to work together well with the people they hadn't been with in a team before. But that was a small side issue. The real issue was.. would you get matched with your high school crush? Or your worst enemy? And who would be the jonin accompanying you for your mission?

For now, the chunin were left to do as they pleased, to visit restaurants together, to play a game together or to do something on your own. It seemed like the perfect time to talk to your crush, or spar with your rival, or even to simply train. Especially now that you'd have to get ready for any possible mission to be slung your way. And everyone knew the Hokage was ruthless with his working pace, especially since Ayame Choko was involved, and she made sure to speed up the process even more. Let alone Fujitora..