Dion

Odin's 1x1 Walhalla (18+).

Naruto: Black Sun

---

---

^{Location: Uragiri Clan Compound [Koi Breeding Pond] | Time: 9AM [9:12] | Interaction: Team 7 [Sakamoto Isami -- @Shizuochan, Shinjo Tsubasa -- @McHaggis, Kajiya Tatsuya -- @Raijinslayer}

Sakana's black eyes shifted left to right across the faces of his new students as they answered his questions, one by one. He grinned at Tsubasa's answer, the corners of his lips curving upwards as if he was amused by her answer. “So someone putting you here isn't fate? Hmmm. I think it was fate. The Sage wills it.” He was going to say more, but he paused long enough to give the impression that the next person should speak, which caused the Kajiya boy to pipe up about his weapons. The upward curve on his lip curved up even more, his grin now beginning to show his teeth -- the corner teeth were particularly sharp and seemed to have been filed to this state, which was a trick usually reserved for Kirigakure swordsmen of the mist, but had seemingly been adopted in part by Sakana. It seemed that he intended to embrace the scary looks his clan had in full and utilize them as best as he could.

When the boy spoke of smithing him two weapons, Sakana rapidly pulled out the two knives that were slung across his shoulder, spinning them in his hands, before holding them out in front of him. “Like these? Good choice. Even if it's a bit standard. I suppose that's what I should expect from you -- standard, no innovation, just another Kajiya. Right?” His grin seemed to disappear momentarily and the enjoyment in his eyes made way for something a bit more sinister, something more serious. Was he trying to harp on the Kajiya's feelings? To hit the snares that would sollicit a response from the boy? Maybe he was, but before anyone could even think of that let alone question him about it, he sheathed the knives again, turning to the last student.

Sakamoto Isami. Just like Tatsuya, he gave a standard answer, something that seemed to irk Sakana, a corner of his eye twitching slightly as the boy spoke. Was this the caliber of students they had nowadays -- pansies that just said whatever they thought the teacher wanted to hear? He gave no response at all to Isami, ignoring his answer in favor of pondering the quality of shinobi nowadays.

The awkwardness made way for the spectacle of watching Tatsuya run into the koi pond, as if on purpose, and though it might've been humourous to his peers, as a laugh erupted from the clan compound just a few meters away from an on-looker who happened to catch the scenario, Sakana just peered over at Tatsuya with a disapproving glare. “I see,” he just said. They can't even augment chakra to stand on water yet, he thought to himself. This would make the upcoming mission harder than it should be.

“Okay, listen up. We're leaving in five minutes, so I hope you all brought everything you need. You can read the scroll, but it's not that interesting. You'll be paid a thousand ryo, and our mission is to go to the border and just observe what is happening. Basically, we're running an errant to collect information.”

He'd raise his hand and scratch the back of his head a little bit, seemingly bored with the prospect of the mission. It was simple, and even though it would be considered slightly too politically charged for genin in most cases, it wasn't like they would be able to fuck this up unless something really went wrong. “As we may deal with foreign shinobi I suggest you stay close to me. Neither side will be allowed to engage the other -- atleast, unless Kusagakure has decided we are enemies now -- so it's not like they'll kill you. But I don't want you kids starting a war just because you got provoked.”

And though that concept seemed exaggerated, it was certainly in the realm of possibilities.

“Let's go.” Sakana departed almost immediately, leaving the genin behind to follow him. The traveling must've been an arduous task for them, especially for Tatsuya, who was now forced to work in wet clothing. Thankfully, in Amegakure, almost everyone was always wet. Perhaps he'd gotten used to it by now.

---

Within an hour they had reached the border, jumping from tree branch to tree branch before Sakana would land on the ground, placing them on top of a hill that overlooked a nearby valley, and with that, the road that was the primary entryway in and out of Kusagakure no Sato. Where there had previously been a steady stream of traders there was now an empty road with a set of two jonin standing near a border house. While team 7 was still out of sight, Sakana pondered the situation at hand momentarily. “Set up in this area. They probably know we're here, but try to be somewhat hidden. We have to wait for a trader to try and go into Kusagakure to see what is going on.”

So, they had to wait. It'd take well over another hour, meaning they'd have to sit around doing nothing for at least that duration of time. The realities of being a shinobi weren't as exciting as they might've been lead to believe in the academy, though Sakana seemed largely unphased, his eyes constantly scanning the area. Finally, a trader appeared on the horizon on a horse-drawn carriage full of barrels with weapons in them. Probably one of Amegakure's exporting traders, and lacking any indication of clans on the barrels or carriage, it seemed he was just transporting 'regular' weapons. “Psh,” Sakana hissed to his students. “Pay attention.”

As the carriage pulled up to the border checkpoint, the two jonin stopped the cart and made the man get down from it, glancing over the cart and the weapons. The watchful eye would notice that one of the jonin was grabbing a few of the wares and pocketing them, and at one point even the untrained eye would've noticed that he grabbed a batch of at least five swords and pulled them away, turning his body slightly and throwing them into a nearby ditch before continuing.

The other jonin, meanwhile, kept the man occupied by going through his papers and talking to him, which at some points almost seemed like an interrogation. Clearly the man wasn't being treated as nicely as he should've been treated, though that on it's own wasn't worthy of intervening for. Admittedly, the act of theft wasn't exactly something Sakana would go to war for either.

It seemed like the two jonin were done, as the man was pointed back and told to leave. At that point Sakana was satisfied with the info they had obtained so far - namely that the Kusagakure shinobi were just stealing the wares instead of paying for them - and he moved to turn around and leave the area to report back. As the trader threw up his arms in anger and turned around, though, the nearby jonin kicked him in the leg, causing the man to kneel forward, at which point the jonin pulled out a sword and made ready to decapitate the man. It seemed they intended to steal the entire cart full of wares.

“Team,” Sakana piped up, his voice now louder and more commanding than before. “I'm going to go in. Technically our mission is done, but letting our traders be killed will weaken the village. Wait for the right moment and then move in to help me, so stay hidden for now. Tsubasa, since you gave the least stupid answer to my questions, you'll be in charge of the other two while I'm down there. Understood?”

They couldn't even answer, as Sakana used the shunshin no jutsu to body-flicker down into the valley, appearing between the jonin and the trader precisely when the man brought down his sword. With a rapid movement Sakana pulled out one of his two knives, holding it diagonally to the right, up into the air, and blocking the strike with relative ease. “Atsui!” Sakana promptly yelled, and inside of his mouth a seal unfurled, before Sakana blew out air forwards, shooting a big fire ball out towards the jonin.

Despite catching him off guard, it seemed Sakana's attack paired with the blocking of the sword was slightly too predictable. The jonin jumped backwards, evading the fireball with some ease, while his buddy jumped back to stand behind his comapanion. “That's Amegakure no Sato property,” Sakana told them, his eyes scanning the two of them. While he knew the first one of the two was watching him, he also noticed that the second jonin was eyeing the hill they had been positioned on. “Bodagado,” Sakana quickly clarified -- it was a lie, because if he was bodagado, then the team on the hill would be a squad of three chunin at the least, if not jonin. In reality, it was a team of freshly graduated genin.

Never the less, the man bought into the bluff, and shifted his eyes to the jonin in front of him, namely Sakana. “I'm the only one authorized to cross the border. The rest are here to observe. I'm afraid I'm alone.” Yet another lie, meant to draw the men into the trap that Sakana had set -- although perhaps the genin didn't even realize that this was a trap. If the two jonin could be convinced that Sakana would have to fight alone, then it would confuse them even more when a squad of three genin appeared suddenly.

Expecting to win this fight would be foolish -- but saving the trader and his wares, while fighting off the two jonin would be sufficient enough. The two Kusagakure shinobi seemed to realize that they'd be better off killing Sakana quickly, and although that'd be an act of war -- killing every witness would remove that problem. “You made a mistake coming here if you're the only one allowed to fight. I never understood the weird Amegakure authorizations and border-guard, but I don't think I care. It's what's gonna get you killed today. Temei, lets go!”

Without warning the two shinobi rushed forward, one of them drawing a katana from his back while the other weaved handseals, for a technique Sakana didn't even recognize. In response, Sakana moved forward too, raising his blade to counter the man's katana - relying on his genin to see that now would be the right time to move forward and engage the other jonin. One genin versus a jonin was not even close to an even fight, and even two genin together would be useless, but three of them might be just enough to overwhelm him and force him onto the defense.

But, would they realize?

Naruto: Black Sun

I have a person for that last slot -- but so far, I've not really heard much from all 3 applicants. Everyone else has thus far been doing a great job.

@Innue @Darth Shadow if I don't hear back from the applicants, I will put one of the GM's on your team. It works out because the sensei isn't a GM, so there's gonna be no conflict of someone being on the same team twice.

Thoughts on pre-made characters/roles?

I've done this for the first time (well, half-done this) where I basically made players follow a certain theme for the team they'd be on in the IC. I can tell from the lessons I learned from that that this is something I will do in the future as well (and possible double down, pre-selecting themes I want to see and/or character types).

One thing I worry about is that, with certain niché RP's, you might force people a certain way that they don't want to go in and thus diminish the already small playerbase. Could be (easily) offset by just having smaller invite-only RP's, but people don't seem to like those.

Naruto: Black Sun

---

---

^{TIME: Present Day - Early Morning | LOCATION: Ninja Academy, BBQ Restaurant | INTERACTION:@Schadenfreude@j8cob@Syn}

Sadako lacked the happy family to congratulate her during the period before the graduation ceremony and, although it was welcomed, the congratulations from her peers in the orphanage was hardly the same. Expecting any type of congratulations from her superiors was too much to ask for and she had not expected any, yet still felt dissatsfied and saddened when she didn't receive any, despite expecting it. "Becoming a genin is the bare minimum," they'd told her instead. They were right, every orphan was expected to pass the graduation exam with at least decent marks, and though she exceeded even that, it wasn't like they were going to treat her nicely just because she was a genin. It did mean they were going to say goodbye to her. She hadn't been adopted -- most orphans in the shinobi employment program were not even allowed to be adopted -- and could now provide herself with a living wage. The rent for her new apartment was paid before she even graduated and, before she knew it, she'd moved in.

This new routine of taking care of herself would get some getting used to and, during the period before her graduation, she'd often forget simple things like having dinner. It was this kind of freedom that was so hard fought for others but still felt strange to her. With nobody watching, she could do what she wanted, and nobody would chastise her for it. It was no surprise that she did pretty much whatever she wanted -- staying up late, eating bad food, and shirking off on her training.

Then came the graduation... The homeroom teacher made sure to drill into their heads the procedures for the ceremony. Stand up straight! Look at lady Kaguya-sama! Hold your head high, even if it rains! Do not put on the headband before you're allowed to! Then they went over the positions they'd be standing in at least a dozen times, with Sadako being stood between a random kid and Kasumi. Someone she'd barely known, outside of seeing him at the academy once or twice -- well, closer to 'every day,' but it felt like it was only once or twice. Unlike Sadako, who tried desperately to talk to people and become friends with them, only to retreat after making herself paranoid with the idea that her 'friends' didn't like her, Kasumi simply seemed to accept that he didn't belong and stayed on his own. That was her impression -- and damn, it was so cool. Secretly she wished she could be like him, someone who doesn't care and just does whatever he felt like.

When Yogensha appeared, Sadako swallowed some of her saliva, the presence of the leader suddenly seeming like a much bigger deal than she'd initially thought. Sure, she was not one of the five great kage but... surely, she was just as powerful. Right? Nobody really seemed to know, and those who did kept their mouths shut, mumbling something about 'great power' and 'awesome technique.' To Sadako, that seemed like things someone would say when they were just trying to shrug off a question, but still.. for them to say something like that, she must've been pretty powerful.

Yogensha's words seemed inspiring but took a rather drastic turn as she instilled in them the supposed wisdom that decisions they took, and mistakes they made, would now not impact their grade, but their life, or lack thereof. That was a prospect Sadako had often thought about but, in all honesty, it had never felt as serious as it did now. Never the less, Yogensha was right. She's.. right. Being a shinobi is about sacrifice. I'll sacrifice myself so the innocent don't have to! she thought to herself, her eyes lighting up temporarily as she was swooped up in an idealistic and perhaps slightly naïve way of thinking. But, for someone who had sought an identity for so long, who had sought for acceptance and to be acknowledged.. wasn't that the single goal worth striving for? To serve a greater goal to protect others, no matter the cost? Sacrifice?

While she was sunk in thought, the shinobi handing out headbands stepped by. Without realizing it, Sadako had forgotten to raise her hand for him to place the headband into, so with a strong and firm grip he reached forward, giving her a stern 'hmph' as he did so, grabbing her hand and pulling it forward. He pushed the headband into her hand, and only then did Sadako realize what happened. She felt like apologizing, but they'd been told specifically not to talk, so she just bowed her head ever so slightly.

The weight.. she thought, slowly moving the headband up and down, .. so incredible. Yogensha had continued, and finally gave them the order to put on the headband. And although there was nobody there to watch her, no clan members or other family, she felt a sense of pride surge through her. I'm a genin now, a real shinobi, she whispered to herself in her mind, her hands raising up and tying the headband behind her head. How cool!

With the teams being made known, she was slightly happy about the team composition -- that lasted about two seconds, before it dawned on her. Oh no, she thought, .. I'm in the team with Kasumi and Asashio! They're both so cool -- what if they think I'm some loser! I.. I bet I was placed on this team out of pity! As nobody around her could know what she was thinking, it just looked like she was having a slight existential crisis, which was strange given the otherwise joyous occasion.

Well, in truth, she was partially right -- Asashio and Kasumi both shared a trait, namely that they didn't seem to give a shit what anyone else thought and were both equally powerful in their own right. Besides that, whether it was true or not, they appeared like they had a certain degree of self-confidence, something that Sadako found incredibly cool. And, well, she was kind of the opposite of that.

---

The morning after the ceremony, Sadako rolled over, prepared to grab another four hours of sleep now that she didn't have some old-head instructor kicking her out of bed at 8AM sharp. But, rather than grabbing another four hours of sleep, she grabbed a mysterious scroll that had been placed there by a mysterious person. It took her a few seconds to open her eyes, desperately trying to ignore whatever was in bed with her, but when it started poking her in the face whenever she moved and prevented her from getting comfortable, she was kind of forced to deal with it.

When she did open her eyes, she'd have jumped backwards at least five meters, but because there was a wall on the other side of her bed, she backed up into the wall, bonking her head against it violently, letting out a yelp of pain. “Aiaiaiai...” she groaned, grabbing the back of her head. Who even placed that scroll there without her noticing? Who even got in like that! Was it a bomb?! Maybe when she opened it, a fire jutsu would come out and blow her up! Her mind went paranoid almost immediately, before she calmed herself. “Sadako!” she chastised herself, “you're a genin now! Act like a soldier!” And so, in true trooper spirit, she carefully lifted the scroll and slowly, very very slowly, opened the scroll. No fire jutsu came out, nothing happened, it was just a very sweetly worded note.

“My sweet genin...” she proclaimed to herself, reading the entire note out loud to herself while she sat up straight, crossing her legs. She gently rubbed her hurt head with one hand while holding the note with the other, and when she was done reading it, she stared at it in slight disbelief.

“Sensei...” she slowly said out loud, “why are you bothering us with this a week before the appointment... Why are you sneaking into our houses to scare us like that... Why don't you just come to our houses and knock on the door...” All of these things would've been better said when she actually, you know, visited her sensei, but it seemed she was sleep-deprived and once she'd tossed the scroll away into a corner, she let herself fall back into bed, pulling the sheets over her head and continuing her rest.

---

And because she'd thrown the scroll away, she'd completely forgotten about the meeting until she was already supposed to have left. Jumping out of bed, she grabbed whatever clothes were nearby and rushed into the bathroom, pulling her top over her head while furiously looking through her bathroom equipment looking for a toothbrush. “GOT IT!” she proclaimed, holding up a pink toothbrush before squirting at least half a tube onto the toothbrush, her other hand occupied with pulling on her pants. While furiously brushing her teeth, she used her other hand to comb her hair, and then finally jumped out of the bathroom, pulling on her sandals, and almost breaking the door open with sheer force as she rushed outside. Refusing to use the stairs in such a hurry, she jumped over the balcony rail and landed on her feet in the muddy patch of dirt in front of the appartments, splashing up mud on her just recently cleaned sandals. “Yatta! Let's go!” she yelled to herself, before taking off in a sprint, almost running over a nearby civilian.

She arrived about ten minutes after Kasumi had -- but she was only at the academy grounds at that point. She didn't realize it yet, but she was pretty much guaranteed to be late, and to make matters worse, she'd not managed to avoid the rain. As the skies opened up and began unleashing their tears, Kasumi looked around the grounds for her team. They already left, didn't they? she told herself, slightly disappointed with herself. But, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw some of the academy students playing around with what appeared to be a tiny, tiny orange crane bird -- origami, not live. “Wait a minute...” she said, rushing over to the kids.

“Hey-hey! Did you guys see some other birds like that?” she asked them, but the kids all shook their head.

“No, but we did see some older kid walking around looking at the ground, as if he was following a trail! He went that way!” they all said in unison, pointing at a street.

“Thank youuuuuuu!” she yelled, already running off. Koko-sensei might've hidden the origami birds well to protect them against the rain, but even the hidden birds couldn't withstand ten minutes of downpour and so, Sadako basically had to trail around, looking for any hints as to where her team had gone. These would be either droopy half-unfurled orange papers or Kasumi's footprints. After a while of trailing around she was honestly about to give up, her trailing around only taking her past the BBQ place her team was sitting at a few times -- they must've watched her walk by at least twice, if not more. She'd been clearly to engrossed by looking for random footprints to look up, otherwise she would've easily spotted her team through the window, and instead, she only wasted about ten minutes of running through the rain before looking up and seeing them. But, when she finally did, she sheepishly waved at them through the window before going inside, her hair clinging to her face. This problem she amended easily by shaking her head a few times before dragging her hand through her hair.

Approaching the table her team was sitting at, she waved again, this time managing to utter out some form of greeting. “Hey-yo! Sorry for being late, sensei, I uhhh.. the rain, you see?” she said, offering some form of apology in the process, before placing herself down in the bench, taking up whatever space was left. Jeez, they probably already think I'm a loser.. she thought, glancing at Asashio and Kasumi, and though most genin would likely become friendly rivals with their teammates, Sadako would probably take more to them as her rival-idol.

After listening to Koko-sensei ramble on for a few seconds, she tossed a scroll, which Asashio promptly took a hold of, opening it. Sadako leaned in, perhaps slightly too close, leaning against Asashio's shoulder slightly with her own. “Ohh, cool. I've never been to an 'onsen.' Asashio-chan, have you been?” she asked, trying to make some sort of conversation but, in the process, likely sounding somewhat over-eager to become friends. Right, Kasumi and Asashio were both super-cool in her eyes, but they also both seemed like people who... didn't really care that much about making friends. Seems like Sadako had forgotten about that.

“O-oh, I'm Sakamachi Sadako, by the way. I hope we'll make a good team!” she then hurriedly continued, realizing she hadn't even introduced herself. While her introduction seemed over-eager once again, her smile seemed genuine, as she quite literally beamed at both Kasumi and Asashio. Although she'd introduced herself, Kasumi seemed more interested in interrogating their new sensei, and while she didn't really understand why he asked his specific question, Sadako did turn to Koko-sensei to hear her answer -- if she had one. If she'd take too long to answer, however, Sadako would simply laugh sheepishly, clearly not a genuine laugh, before asking her own question. “K-Kasumi is just joking, Iyokan-sensei. M-my question is... uhh.. n-nevermind!” She interrupted herself, smiling slightly as if there was nothing going on, but really, there were plenty of questions racing through her head.

My question is... can we do this? Are we good enough? Am I good enough?

Naruto: Black Sun

C'est ca, the team you're sensei-ing is lacking a 3rd genin so can't start at the moment anyway. I have an applicant, but that's about all I have to offer at the moment.

Naruto: Black Sun

@Odin Gotcha. I will think on some ways to expand his list of jutsu.

@Kheliop

Maybe some custom wind jutsu that he's known for -- otherwise, he's just ''guy that does standard wind jutsu''

Naruto: Black Sun

@Kheliop Accepted, but he's pretty weak for a jonin, especially given his background. Keep that in mind and feel free to add some more jutsu, if you'd like.

Post a random fact about yourself.

i like eating ass

Dia dhaoibh! Grüß euch!

@kalanggam Bitte, und danke . Sie sollten auch eine Unterschrift machen! Und ein Avatar.