Ogo

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

Chaos begets order.

As contradictory as it may seem, Kimiko believed in that wholeheartedly. It was her experience that despite how unorganized and wild a battlefield may appear at times, there was a certain rhythm that chaos often followed. It was unpleasant and harsh, but Kimiko could feel the twisted harmony hidden beneath the discordance. Her body was powerless to resist moving to the beat of that vile song whenever it began to play. Anything could happen, there was no reason for anything...but in that moment of confusion, everything just sort of clicked. In that chaos, any decision that did not result in her death was the correct one. That made everything simple.

While Kimiko had been attempting to rile her companions, she had little intentions of actually hanging back. Well, at least at first. Her original plan was to just rush down Team Nine’s flag. With her natural speed and smart use of the Gale Palm technique, she could likely cross the field far quicker than any of the others. Unless any of those dorks on the other side had any tricks up their sleeves, she couldn’t really think of a way they could stop her. She could just grab the flag and be done with it. Then maybe her WHOLE day wouldn’t be wasted.

Kimiko had barely noticed the subtle sign that Emi-sensei had given before the bellowing came from the Team Nine leader. The game was on.

Fuck.

She was just about to take off when Ruru began to speak. If it had been just about anyone else, she likely would have blown them off and went to do Kimiko things. After all, her song was playing: she needed to dance. But, the kunoichi held herself, her right hand tightening around the sheath of her katana. She would give him a moment of consideration. Nothing more. And if he bored her, she was out.

His plan caught her off-guard. She had been joking about actually hanging back. That just wasn’t in her blood. Surely he knew that, right? But...she couldn’t deny that he made a decent point. This wasn’t like their normal mission. If she were to rush in and somehow be stalled, they could potentially lose, even if she did get the flag. Especially if Ruru was rushed down while alone. If their normal formation was flipped, then Kuku and Ruru could keep throwing themselves at the Team Nine defense as much as they needed to. After all, nobody was getting through Kimiko. Of that, the young woman was certain.

Hah! She had to give the little guy credit where it was due - he knew how to play her. Clever brat.

“Wooow. That was almost kind of cool, Ruru. Consider me impressed.” Kimiko teased as she walked by the team’s strategist, bending over as she passed to ruffle the boy’s snow-white hair while he was busy attaching a seal to Kushizu’s shoes. She walked towards their flag, lacing her hands behind her head and arching her back in an unsuccessful attempt to pop it.

“I suppose I could let you boys take center stage this time. Just don’t take too long. If I get bored, I’m ending this myself, got it?” she continued, another yawn dividing her last two sentences.

It was about that time that Kimiko heard Kushizu mutter something before taking off. The girl spun around just in time to see a blast of fire crashing towards her, engulfing the flowers as it went.

The song crept its way into Kimiko’s head, and she could feel each thunderous, crashing note collide with the next, the introduction to the chaotic concert. Her body moved in time, dropping into position, breath slowing and steadying. Right leg planted firmly. Right hand gripping the katana’s sheath. Left hand tight around the hilt. As the song climbed in step with the approach of the flame, Kimiko’s body jerked. Her left leg shot back, as did her right hand with sheath in tow. With the left hand, she pulled the katana from its sheath with frightening speed, slicing upwards in a vertical slash.

A solid blue light traced the path of her blade, and upon the completion of the strike, was propelled forward. The bottom of the blue crescent cut into the ground, tearing a path ever forward through dirt, flower, and flame as it sailed forward on a collision course with not only the bolt of fire, but the one who conjured it as well. It narrowly passed by Kushizu as he armed himself with his water blade.

This was Flash - the samurai’s answer to the more mid-to-long ranged shinobi. As it cut through the air towards the fire, Kimiko flipped her sword and slid the blade between her thumb and forefinger before returning it to the sheath, a ritual ingrained deeply within the girl. She hadn’t even given thought to the possibility that the attack might land. The blades formed by Flash could move quickly, but given the distance it would have to travel in the clear, open field, it was unlikely to actually land true.

That was fine. She didn’t need to actually hit anybody - just make them aware that she COULD.

The girl dropped back into her stance and prepared to draw again.

Flag duty or not, Kimiko fully intended to be a threat.

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

<Snipped quote by Ogobrogo>

I have posted so feel free to now

@Theyra

Much love, my dude. Working on something now.

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

Oop. Just checking in. I'm gonna give Theyra a chance to post before I go again.

Here's hoping everybody's had a good weekend!

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

@Blizz

Ye. I'd say that if Kimiko noticed what Mizo was doing, she'd probably try to counter it with her own. It's kind of an unstoppable force meets an immovable object situation then, I'd think.

Although, the thought of her NOT noticing and just full-on breaking one of her precious swords right before the exam makes me giggle, not gonna lie. Oh the absolute rage this woman would feel...

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

@Ogobrogo

Earth style chakra is rigid and stiff. It’s not a good idea to swing a sword at a rock.

@Blizz

I mean, Asuma threw his Wind-infused Chakra Blade through a tree and pierced into a sizeable rock. The tool was just fine afterwards.

Considering that Wind and Earth elements in the series don't directly interact with one another, ninja tools - including swords - have displayed incredible feats of durability, and Mizo and Kimiko are both only Genin/Chunin level kunoichi, I don't really think either of them have an inherent advantage over the other.

Maybe if it was Kimiko's wind-infused sword on a normal rock or a normal sword on Mizo's Earth-infused bracers then it would be a bit more one-sided. But the two clashing? I dunno. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

L o l little does Kimiko know that if she swings a blade at those guards it’ll probably snap like a twig 🤣

@Blizz

Is the sword broke or just invisible?!!
Find out next time on...!

I kinda just want to bring out my popcorn and sit and watch the cat fight lol. This will probably turn more into that than capture the flag. All the boys will probably end up going for some BBQ.

@Omni5876

Capture the Flag is
S E R I O U S
B U S I N E S S
don'tcha know?

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

Seven letter word for tiresome because of length or dullness.

As Daichi-sensei of Team 9 outlined the rules of the joint training exercise, Kimiko’s mind wandered. She thought of all the other possible things she could be doing with her time. Lounging about back home. Eating some of Masahiko’s homemade udon. Taking a nap. Finishing up that crossword she was working on. Maybe even ‘borrow’ another one of Takehiko’s smutty romance novels?

Nope! No time for any of that. Rather than relaxing and enjoying one final day off before showtime, she was stuck here. In the middle of a field. Being briefed on how to play capture the flag. It was all just so very…

Tedious.

Needless to say, Kimiko wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. All of her plans of vegging out were ruined, and for what? What could a last-minute game of capture the flag possibly do to help prepare literally any of them for the Chuunin exams? Surely if they weren’t ready by now, then they were hopeless, right?

The young Uesugi girl narrowed her eyes at the rival team captain. It didn’t take a Byakugan to see through his bullshit. This whole dog and pony show was just an excuse for the spineless little shit to get to spend time with Emi-sensei, wasn’t it? Pathetic. Despicable. If he wanted to ask her out, then he should have grown a spine, done so, and left the rest of them out of it.

Whatever.

The girl took a moment during Spineless-sensei’s super stupid speech to take in her surroundings. The training area was actually rather beautiful all things considered. The plateau was engulfed in a sea of gold surrounding a lone tree. Marigolds reached up and tickled her exposed calves as the girl shifted her weight from one leg to the other. She mindlessly tugged at the band above her left bicep, tightening the knot holding the Leaf’s metal protector in place before returning her right hand to the top of the twin hilts of the swords that sat against her hip. If she drowned out the droning, then the training grounds became a rather peaceful place.

She let out a quiet yawn as she glanced over towards the Team 9 trio. Emi-sensei and the invertebrate posing as a man were teammates back in the day, and as such, Kimiko ended up spending more time around them then she might have done so otherwise.

The girl’s eyes landed on Hoseki first. To be fair, he wasn’t that hard on the eyes. Shitty personality aside, the guy was hot. A little on the short side, but still hot. Kimiko even had a little crush on him back in her academy days...but then this weird phenomenon occurred in which every time he opened that fat mouth of his, he somehow became less and less attractive. Totally weird. Anyway, Kimiko didn’t see him as much of a threat. He seemed...sloppy. He had stamina for days but...he primarily relied on taijutsu, and rather unrefined taijutsu at that. Getting in close enough to punch her would mean getting within range of her extremely sharp swords. Which would be, to put it quite frankly, stupid. Though to be fair, she wasn’t completely convinced that the guy was capable of thoughts more complex than ‘durr, Hoseki smash.’

Still hot though.

Next, her gaze passed over a truly revolting sight. Aberashi Mizo. That disgusting little toad.

Stupid. Fake. Weak. Pathetic. Loser. Nerd. _cute.

She wasn’t worth Kimiko wasting precious energy over. She might have had everybody else fooled, but Kimiko could see right through the phony bitch. When Mizo questioned Daichi-sensei on the purpose of the exercise, Kimiko couldn’t help but roll her eyes. So intense was her dislike of her Team 9 counterpart, that Kimiko silently rallied to the defense of Konoha’s resident Man-Slug hybrid. How stupid did you have to be to not get the point of an exercise like this? Dummy.

Kimiko would place Mizo about the same as Hoseki as far as threats went. Maybe slightly higher? She shared the whole “punch first, think later” philosophy when it came to fighting, so Kimiko welcomed yet another idiot running into her range. But hey, at least she had the mental capacity to know that going into battle completely unarmed was maybe not the best idea. Those arm guards of hers would make her a bit more durable. Still, fist versus blade didn’t often turn out well for fist.

Finally, Kimiko glared over at the remaining Team 9 member. Uh…

…

Fuck. What was his name again? Hana? Lana? Vamana? Banana? Whatever it was, he hadn’t left much of an impact on Kimiko. He was small and quiet. She often saw him reading on those rare occasions that she actually made note of his presence, so unlike his knucklehead teammates, he was at least literate. A slight breeze might knock him over, but at least he could probably read a map, so, y’know Team 9 MVP right there.

He was probably the biggest enigma to Kimiko on Team 9, to be honest. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember what the little guy could do. Oh well. It probably didn’t matter.

As she finished her initial assessment of her enemies, Emi-sensei called for the teams to get in place. That worked for her. All she had to do was beat the shit out of the Toad, cut out Hoseki’s tongue, glance menacingly at What’s-his-name, and hope that her own teammates could manage to not lose the flag.

Speaking of which…

Kimiko approached her team, consisting of two little boys picking flowers. The girl could feel a vein throbbing in her forehead, the harbinger of a massive migraine in the very near future. Konoha’s best and brightest right here, folks.

The boy actively picking flowers was Kanman Ataru. Like Team 9’s Hana Banana, Ataru was also a small, quiet boy. To put it bluntly, he was weak. There really wasn’t much debating that. Still, despite his frailty, Kimiko had some respect for the boy. Well, as much as she was capable of mustering. See, while he was physically weak, Ataru was smart. Way smart. To be a little guy and excel in their line of work, he had to be. She could still whoop his ass - of that she had no doubt - but that didn’t mean that she would want to be on the opposite side of him. Smart, supportive types like him could be a nuisance to go against and a godsend to fight alongside. As long as he stayed out of her way and put that big brain to good work, they were shoo-ins for the exam.

Also, she just liked the little guy. He was a good dude. Weird, but you got used to it.

And beside little Ataru, there was Kushizu. Despite being teammates, Kimiko didn’t know a lot about the guy. He was kind of a clam. Which was fine by her - he didn’t want to talk about it and she, quite frankly, didn’t care to know. He did his job well enough. He was also fairly smart, although he could handle himself a bit better in a fight than Ataru. More of an all-arounder, really, and a bit more mid-ranged than she was. The way Kimiko saw it, as long as Kushizu could protect Ataru and also stay the fuck out of her way, they would get along just fine.

“You’re worrying too much, Kuku.” Kimiko cooed as she approached her boys. “We’re up against a couple knuckleheads and a bookworm.” she continued, a smug smile spreading across her face as she jabbed a thumb back over her shoulder towards Team 9.

“Honestly, I’m pretty sure that you and Ruru can handle this just fine without me.” she added, crossing her arms in a little self-hug before letting out a drawn-out yawn.

“I might even just hang back and take a nap by the flag if that’s cool with you two.”

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

I'll have a post up sometime after work in the morning. Didn't get a chance to work on one yesterday.

Tales from the Land of Fire | A Naruto AU Roleplay

Psst...keep these on the DL.

Top Secret Photos

_{pictured above: Hoseki and Mizo making their entrance at the Chuunin Exams}

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_{Kinoshi Kana, age 14}

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_{Teambuilding activity with Team 5, colorized}

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_{Kimiko's foolproof pitch}

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What Are You Listening To?

Yo, if anybody around is into groups like MGMT or Joywave, give this a try. Guy's got some bops.