The Shadow Man [EVENT MISSION]

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A lone cloaked figure wandered the desolated wastelands of the Lightning Country. The man has not yet seen similar sites – deserts with no sand. Just the rock and the heat. The man hiding under the cloak has seen deserts and this wasteland felt quite similar to a desert, it definitely was as hot as one. Had the man‘s feet been bare they would‘ve gathered a multitude of burns in mere seconds.

„What was that thing people say about eggs and desert rocks?“

The man wondered to himself as he slightly chuckled, wearing such excessive layer of clothing pissed him off: he already had the latex underneath covering his immensely sensitive skin and above that he had to wear a goddamn cloak in order to not be recognized by any scouts. Of course, there was one person among the ranks of the enemy who had sensed his chakra and could‘ve recognized it anyway. Sometimes to the man under the cloak his own boss looked like an idiot but... He never dared question him.

His foolishness, his „honor“ let one person escape the Parabrahma‘s grasp, warn the Lightning Country of their immanent coming. Yet… The boss remained calm, as if nothing went wrong, as if he wasn’t to blame for one messenger surviving to tell the message. And who was the man who saved the asses of all of the Parabrahma’s ten that confronted said messenger? That was right! The man under the cloak was. Despite all of that, despite all of the boss’ failures the man under the cloak or the organization refused to question the boss.

Not for much longer, the man under the cloak was not called “the Shadow Man” for nothing. For years he has stood behind politicians, commanders of the most prominent battlefields and dictated the greatest meetings and battles to the Parabrahma’s favor. There were countless times where one side was supposed to win but the man under the cloak was ordered to make fortune favor the other. That was how the legend of the “Shadow Man” was born, only to be known to anyone who likes urban legends and believed only by those that believe in such chaff.

To be sent straight into the battle, spearheaded like a juggernaut was not the man’s style. It was boss’ orders however, while the man under the cloak intended to begin slowly taking over the boss’ mind, to play “the Shadow Man” just as he was doing for so many years, he could not openly question his judgment. Too much would have been at stake, too many things would have stacked up: boss behaving oddly, the man under the cloak standing from behind his back, lingering as a shadow right after disagreeing openly with the boss? That was too many coincidences for his colleagues to not catch up with him. While the man under the cloak was dangerous he was nowhere near as strong in actual combat, or stupid enough to face all of his peers.

“Juggernaut? No… That’s HIS forte, isn’t it?”

The man under the cloak looked to the east and smiled, Kijin, that idiot… Somehow he managed to get himself killed right before having to begin the plan. What stupidity, acting out of place, attacking not only the Genin Tournament, but Konohagakure by himself. Sure he had the guts to do something like that but… Surely he should’ve known what was coming his way, right? Because of that shithead and his theatrics the man under the hood had to go instead of Yoitoko. This was supposed to be Yoitoko’s mission, invasion from one front with his silly zombie puppets while the man under the hood sieged the Inari mountain range from the other with his Meat Puppets…

It will be quite the sight for those idiots guarding the Daimyo, seeing a giant’s head without a jaw, just a tongue flapping around peek at them from atop the mountain range. While the man under the hood was a subtle man who hated open conflict, who played from the back rows and always played the role of a manipulator he would have liked to see that sight. It would have been as if the God himself had decided to royally fuck those idiots, holed inside a mountain range over. And now, because Kijin couldn’t help himself and lost to some underage wench the man under the hood had to fulfill another man’s role, while said man was busy manipulating Kijin’s reanimated body from a safehouse far away.

They will try to stop the man under the hood, by now Niku would have slaughtered the guards inside the mountain passage tunnels leading to the barracks of Daimyo’s guards. The man’s goal was to rejoin her after setting up a minor distraction and head for the Daimyo’s estate, if opposition decides to interfere – take them all over while Niku slaughters them. That woman loves to draw blood… She gets quite pissy if she doesn’t get to do it and the man under the hood did not like pissy women.

It was quite the disappointment however that he could not control Niku, boss didn’t look favorably at him using his “charms” on the members. The man under the hood was not… The most… Charming looking. He had to use a little of his “personal magic” to make the women treat him as he wanted to be treated, it also helped when they were “pissy”, that was why the man under the hood did not wish to be around Niku when she was annoyed – he couldn’t change her mood as per boss’ orders which was a pain.

The man could feel his servants – hundreds of Meat Puppets moving in, that was why he and Niku were separated in the first place. He was supposed to set up a nice surprise for the defenders of the safe-house – an army of Meat Puppets to give them something else to worry about. Once he worked his magic and Niku worked hers slaughtering the men in the barracks and the workers in the tunnels leading through the Inari Mountain range, the man was to reconnect with her and they were supposed to make it abundantly clear for the opposing party that their role was that of pesky cockroaches under the boot. Once the bodies of Daimyo’s defenders are publically exposed no one will dare to oppose them, while it is gruesome, in a way, it will save lives. That boss… Always saving lives…

The man always kept his sensory open for any early indications of trouble, it worked quite well with his little tech gizmo on his head – a transceiver that worked similarly to a Yamanaka brain, except sent the jutsu by signals. He was able to use it to utmost efficiency but it would have all went to waste if the man under the hood wasn’t even able to sense anything at all and was killed stealthily, right? While the famous “Sorceress” had her butt royally handed to her and was shown her place by the Parabrahma Ten, she still managed to show them that a sneaky and inventive individual might be trouble even for the ten of them with those neat genjutsu tricks. Well, lessons were learnt, the Parabrahma were now more ready for what was to come, more careful.

Posts : 1729

Legend:

I can play nice.
For now.

Parabrahma. The name felt awkward and foreign, even inside his head. A whisper of a whisper of an organization, the most info that had ever existed about them was discounted as mere rumor or myth. And yet here the world was, roiling like an overturned anthill, because of an attack by the organization- one that had once worked towards piece, and now supposedly worked towards world domination.

An assault on Konohagakure during their chuunin exams had been the first blow, and from there, months of furious speculation and back and forth envoys had resulted in an unprecedented alliance of shinobi. Details were sketchy about the organization members, but what little there was had painted a terrifying enough picture to bind together both Konoha and Kumo in alliance- and even give both countries cause to overlook the transgressions of criminals, if they were willing to offer their aid.

So naturally, the powers that be had seen fit to pair together Jestre, one of the most viciously loyal Kumo KYOBU in recent history, with Uchiha Hiruzen, one of the few successful rogue Kumo nin in recent history. It didn't make much difference to Jestre that the man had not turned to a life of crime in leaving the village; what mattered was that he had left. Under normal circumstances, his first and immediate priority would have been subduing him. With lethal force.

There were several unfortunate factors halting that; for one, the mission briefing had made it quite clear, that whatever member of the organization they faced, they would be monstrously powerful; too powerful for any single individual to take down alone. For another, the traitor himself was likely too strong for Jestre to take alone; his skills had stagnated for lack of sincere effort or challenge for too long. Loathe as he was to admit it, the Uchiha traitor was on just a high enough level over Jestre to make a fight... Problematic.

He'd play nice, for now. For the sake of the mission. He'd already made his disdain for the Uchiha quite clear, in word ("Don't speak to me unless it's relevant to the mission, traitor.") and in action and demeanor; he had little to nothing to offer the Uchiha beyond mere cooperation. But one way or another, one day, he would hunt him down. Just like every other traitor.

Jestre shifted ever so slightly in his perch. Their mission was to intercept a target, making a beeline for the HQ through a mountain pass. They were only one of several teams, and all had had to scramble fast to counteract an equal number of assaults. Say what one will about the Parabrahma, they were masterfully organized, and had enough sheer, raw power behind their equally fearsome planning to have the villages scrambling to keep up.

Despite the high altitude, it was bitterly hot and dry from the pounding, baking sun overhead (enough so to make a small part of Jestre regret the flagrantly black uniform of his trade). Jestre did not appear to pay mind to it, laying flat along a small cliff-top, nestled in a crevice that just barely kept his body concealed, but gave him enough leeway to peer over the edge towards the path below, with both his eyes watching the approach and his sensory ability stretching out with a furrow of his mask-covered brow.

There was only one path their adversary could take, and it lead to what could tentatively be called a "choke point;" a pass between two solid, tall plateaus, fifteen meters high, between which the path passed, a wide, open, ten meter rocky expanse. They'd had to make a blistering pace in order to reach this point in time; time enough to prepare.

By the strictest definition of choke point, it was insufficient for holding off a single, lone enemy. As a matter of fact, it was better suited to holding off large armies. But, suffice to say, it would work; flanked by two thirty meter tall cliffs, it was the only path through the mountains without taking a long, wide, arduous detour, and any force positioned on the cliffs would have ample range of sight, and be.... Difficult to retaliate against, to say the least. A platoon of samurai and a squad of archers could hold this path from an army of thousands, if they had proper strategy and enough arrows. More, anyone passing through the mountains would eventually cross this precise point; their enemy would come to them, like it or not.

With the long view, Gouka could just about ascertain a large, cloaked figure, making their way up the path, shimmering in a heat haze from the sun pounding brutally down overhead. Undoubtedly one of the organization members; the only question left to be answered, precisely who, it was. His mind skimming over the what he could recall, he knew that whatever member of the organization it was, it would not be an easy fight.

'No matter.' His thoughts quietly intoned, his hand flexing slightly. He had a few new jutsu in his arsenal, ones he'd feverishly and relentlessly trained for in the coming preparation for this mission. It had nearly broken him, but he'd mastered the jutsu he would need. Whomever their opponent might be, be they god or man, demon or angel, or anything in between; whether it be by blade or jutsu, if Jestre could get close to them, if he could touch them, they would die. One way or another, the Reaper would gather a harvest tonight.

He raised his voice somewhat, quietly but firmly calling to his, by the loosest of definitions, partner. "Saddle up Traitor. We've got company coming down the road."

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Sitting on his ass on top of the cliff, the Uchiha had his eyes closed while he focused on what was around him. His supposed partner for the mission had already perched himself on a spot that allowed him to see anyone that might enter his field of vision. While it was a smart thing to do, Hiruzen did not even need his eyes to know that a man was coming that possessed a most interesting chakra signature. For some time now, Hiruzen had been looking for people that were at least near his level of strength. Needless to say, this man had managed to place himself in that category. Looking at his partner, he knew that he did not want to be spoken to, so he did not need to be warned either. It would only be a matter of time before the man entered a visual range, in which case the fun would finally start. In his mind, he recalled the things Mana and Meiko had told him when they last met. He knew that there was a Yamanaka with a sort of apparatus that greatly amplified his clan abilities, an Aburame with flesh eating insects, a Hozuki that controlled blood to some extent, an armored lady with currently unknown abilities, a man that manipulated zombies, another man with flamethrowers and incineration tools and finally the leader, an Uzumaki that controlled chakra chains and powerful Genjutsu.

All of it was very exciting for him, after all, any of those people would be strong in their own right, making them into worthy adversaries. Speaking of possible adversaries, the man Hiruzen had been sent in with had a decent amount of chakra and seemed fairly calm, though Hiruzen could sense that he was not exactly happy about being here with him. It went without saying that this feeling was mutual as Hiruzen had no love for the village he originally hailed from, not anymore. For him, everything had changed when the way the world worked became more clear to him. People like his partner were weapons to be used for the safety of the village, but once they needed something or had thoughts that might not mix with the way things had always gone, they would be dropped in an instant. After all, in a village like Kumogakure, if one weapon got broken, they would simply forge two or three to replace it. Hiruzen had been such a weapon, so much even that the Raikage praised him as the most promising of Kumogakure's shinobi when he was still a Chuunin that managed to wound him several times in a spar. That however was behind him now. He no longer needed anyone else to praise him as long as he was happy with himself and his progress.

Life outside of the village was really that simple. No rules or moral codes of conduct, just the right of the strongest and the freedom to go where he wanted, when he wanted. Even though he was no longer a shinobi from the Hidden Cloud, he still had relatives that he had not entirely given up on. Though he had no ties to them other than the ties of blood, he still kept them in the back of his mind. Keeping most of the criminals that lived close to his new home in check, he often made examples out of those that were stupid enough to stand against Hiruzen's laws or made plans to attack civilians. The man that was hiding behind the mask would not know about things like these, because to him, Hiruzen was just another runaway shinobi that knew too much about the village to leave by himself. While he wondered if this was the same KYOBU member the nameless woman spoke of that was after Nukenin or not, he had no real intention of making any conversation with the guy aside from that which was absolutely necessary. Judging that it would be about ten seconds until their target got into visual range, he activated his Sharingan and walked towards the edge of the cliff. When the signal came from his "partner", it was time for him to let his presence be known. With a grin on his face, he looked at the KYOBU for no longer than a few seconds.

"Feel free to take a nap or something, I don't need help from the village when dealing with someone like this.".

With that, the Uchiha dropped down the cliff, using several slightly protruding rocks as steps to rapidly make his way down. Activating his Sharingan, he unbuttoned his cloak and took it off moments before he tossed it against the cliff wall. Showing off his black slacks that were tied together at the shins with bandages that ran into a pair of black boots, a black shirt with a high collar and short sleeves and the Uchiha crest on his back, a pair of fingerless black gloves and a green sash around his waist with the Uchiha crest, his appearance did not leave much to the imagination. The fact that he was proud of his heritage was clear to those that had never seen him before, the crests and the crimson red Sharingan giving away which clan he hailed from. With his weaponry pouches hanging on his right, his Katana was tied to his sash with a yellow sageo on his left, allowing the right handed shinobi quick access to his blade for his Iaido techniques. In the years that Hiruzen spent as a wanderer, he had been given the time to create and master a wide array of Ninjutsu techniques that he had never really been able to use. For him, this fight was more than just a fight to protect a man or woman he did not care about at all. Above all else, this fight was a test, a test to see just how much his abilities had grown as a shinobi. Standing roughly thirty meters away from him, he started talking while he still had the chance.

"Welcome to the land of lightning. The name is Hiruzen, i've been told to come here to greet a guest of the Daimyou. As you might know, you've been invited to this ball because I heard of your skills. If you wouldn't mind showing me what you can do, I would love to be your partner today. Now, lets dance...".

With that, his violet chakra started flaring up, proving to all those who had the ability to do more than just see the chakra that was visible to the naked eye through means of sensory that he had a chakra signature that was just as high as the one of the man that was now well within earshot. Given the amount of space still between them, he was certain that he would be able to respond to anything in time. After all, his evasive skills mixed with his normal means of sensory and perception were not to be trifled with. When mixed with the Sharingan's ocular prowess, the young Uchiha was truly a force to be reckoned with. Being as ready as he'd ever be, his fingers were starting to get twitchy as he prepared for the enemy to make his first move against him, signalling the official start of the fight. While it might have sounded like him taking all the credit for everything, which was also mostly what he was doing, the Uchiha was far from stupid. He knew that if he could get the man to fight him, the KYOBU could go in for the kill. That said, Hiruzen would only allow it if he was no longer having fun. As such, only time could tell what would happen next.

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Posts : 257

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One thing troubled the man under the hood – he did not spot any attempts to intercept him. The efforts of the Parabrahma spies and agents were muffled and impeded in every step, however from what they had gathered the village has gathered an impressive roster of ninja. Then there were some rumors among the spies of a large party of Konohagakure ninja arriving a week earlier, did they still wish to aid Lightning Country? Were the Parabrahma unsuccessful at making a schism of distrust and hatred between the nations? Was someone coordinating this effort?

By now the hooded man had expected to be confronted by a party of children, knowing the little magician girl coordinating the defense, perhaps even lead by her. The spies spoke quite a lot of her active role in busting their efforts. The agents also spoke quite actively of large influx of nukenin flooding to the Lightning Country too. Has the country grown so desperate as to accept the aid of those it once rejected? Wasn’t that the whole point of the Parabrahma, was it all now rendered redundant? What a pitiful effort this country made, allying themselves with the scum of their own making.

It was then that a rather curious but also strange event happened – the opposing party had revealed themselves by simply jumping off a cliff. It all happened right in front of the hooden man’s eyes, his head cocked sideways curiously as he could have never imagined such arrogance to come from his opponent. Had the Parabrahma no credibility anymore? First that girl chose to fight all ten of them alone, now this cocky bastard just leapt off the cliff, revealing himself just so he gets “a fair fight” against him. The hooded man’s head returned back to its original state and then his nose lifted up slightly, the rays of the Sun playfully played off his mask in a red shine of light.

“Yes, I’ve heard of you, Hiruzen the Strider… You’ve been spotted conversing with the Sorceress some time before, we have researched you a little bit. Let us not fool ourselves, you do not care if the Daimyo lives or dies, if the Kage live or die, if we control the world or not. All you want is battle. Truth be told… I can give you that if you’re interested, I cannot imagine you having come here alone… What will you say? Do you want to try it? Fight your comrades? I can give you that. I’d imagine someone of your skill and your volatile personality must’ve been paired up with another S rank ninja or so just to balance the scales…”

The man said as he continued to slowly walk towards Hiruzen, also known as Strider. It was true – the Parabrahma’s agents reported him being involved, they knew quite a lot about him, researched his past, analyzed his mission records. Any technique he has used in the past was known to the Parabrahma’s analysts and he alone posed a mediocre threat against the hooded man. Still, the man wasn’t as dumb as to assume that the Strider was sent here alone. The man knew that what he deduced to be true, someone of average intellect would’ve deduced as well.

“There are two possibilities why you did not approach me with your ally.” The man continued to speak with his artificially enhanced by his mask, nearly cybernetic voice as he reached for the neck of his hood revealing his black leather glove. The man then pulled strong, removing the cloak and revealing himself in his full glory – Yamanaka Tenma, a fusion of the most cutting edge technology known in the world and ninja fueled by brilliant rage and impossible to bear pain. The man’s skin was the first thing that would’ve come in mind – it was of a creepy shade of pink, as if it was burnt or something. Instead of hair blood vessels covered his hair with only his mask concealing his disfigured face.

“One is that you cannot stand the man or men and don’t want to work together with them, I can assist you in killing them in that case. Other is – they are hiding to take me out which means that your approach is a sham, if he does that, you would have never gotten to show off your power. If you accept my offer – to be controlled by me for just a moment, I can give you two battles for the price of one: one against your allies, second against me, all just like you like them, all with full killing intent, both while retaining your consciousness and somewhat free will. I am on a bit of a schedule but for a special man like you I will make a special offer.”

The man kept walking on, shortening the distance to about ten meters as he wasn’t really intimidated by the Uchiha. Skills that Tenma had to offer were useful to the Parabrahma, even if Hiruzen turned out to be a proper scum, something that his profile contradicts, he and his pals would only stop Tenma for as long as the organization wanted him to be stopped. However if he turned out to be just like his profile claimed him to be – he wanted it, he wanted to fight both his allies and the man because he didn’t want to settle for just one battle. It would have been even better if he was paired up with Konoha’s Sorceress, that way the Parabrahma could pick off both rabbits with one stone by having Hiruzen kill the girl and then die due to overestimating his own abilities fighting Tenma one on one.

Had the answer not been given by the time Tenma reached his ten meters, he’d have tuned his transceiver’s wavelength to the frequency of the Shinranshin Technique, if Hiruzen tried to play smart and attack him while closing in the range of 5m, he’d have fallen for Tenma’s jutsu and would have attacked his ally. This displacement would have granted proper opening to apply “Meat Puppet” technique on Hiruzen, a much more permanent mean of controlling him, beaten only upon the user’s death, which was borderline impossible.

Spoiler:

Posts : 1729

Legend:

Men who fight alone,
Die alone.

It riled Jestre more than he cared to admit, the way Hiruzen so... Casually, disregarded him. As if he was even less than a threat; as if he couldn't even hope to aid the traitor either. It appeared that in Hiruzen's eyes, Jestre was entirely irrelevant to the proceedings, and Jestre hated that with a passion that had long escaped him. Were it not for his mission, he'd likely have turned on the man then and there; it would not be the first time a traitor had so casually dismissed him, and died for it.

Before he could give a scathing comment on the matter, Hiruzen took off, darting down the cliff-side to meet the approaching foe. Gouka rolled his eyes behind his mask. Would have been easy enough to remain in hiding and simply drop the cliff on top of his head as their target passed, but he supposed that was too much to ask for. Inching along the ground, he took a moment to scoop up a handful of dirt, rubbing it into his hair to better hide the stark blackness as he peered out over the ledge.

Focusing his senses carefully, he could detect both men had, frankly, massive chakra supplies. In all his career, the only thing else he'd ever sensed that was close to what he was feeling right now, was when he detected Kirima's chakra signature. He could also sense, in an indefinable way only sensors knew, that each of these men, too, could detect chakra. Taking a moment to reassure himself that his own signature was suppressed, courtesy of his KYOBU stealth training, he observed carefully.

Yamanaka Tenma. There were a hundred and one rumors about the unsightly, bald Yamanaka clansman, and if even half of them were true, getting into close range would be... Problematic, to say the least. It reinforced Jestre's unfortunate conclusion that accepting Hiruzen's help was the only way to defeat him; as a pronounced stealth and close-range specialist, Jestre had few at-range options. As the Parabrahma member spoke, his brow furrowed behind his mask.

If nothing else, the man was smart; he quickly laid out all the options for why Hiruzen would approach alone. All of them had some fragment of truth to him- and when the Yamanaka offered alliance to Hiruzen, alarm bells immediately began ringing in his head. Still just out of sight, his eyes were unfocused on the men down far below, relying instead on his Sensory skill to alert him of anything going amiss, as he processed. If Hiruzen took the man up on his offer, even if not so far as to allow him to use his Yamanaka clan abilities to control him, the prospect of being forced to face down two S-rank shinobi simultaneously was... Daunting, to say the least.

He shuffled slowly back from the ledge, sitting upright once he was out of danger of being visually spotted. Right out the gate, there were numerous ways this battle could go wrong; worst case scenario, the traitor Hiruzen betrayed again, and joined the Parabrahma in their cause. Slightly less worse, Tenma took direct control of Hiruzen, bringing him against Jestre. Potentially, Hiruzen could take the man down by himself, but Jestre wouldn't hold his breath. There was not a large wealth of ways he could prepare, not without casting a jutsu and breaking his stealth, but that did not mean he was completely without options.

He slid off his coat, working quickly, both his finely attuned Sensory Skill and his ears piqued up, alert for the faintest sign that shit was hitting the fan. He bundled up the jacket, stuffing it into a pouch as he removed the explosive tags from it. Wire holders clinking in a noise that died mere feet away from him, he gathered every available explosive tag, pouch, wrapped kunai and wrapped senbon he had, pooling the explosive resource together into a single bag. His "suicide kit," as it were.

Jestre was a pragmatic fighter. There were plenty of ways to take down an enemy quickly and efficiently- such as using the Replacement tech with a large pouch of explosives, and setting them off. The combined yield equally to setting of sixty explosive tags at once; sufficient yield to blow a hole in the side of a mountain, or else render any living being caught within the five meter wide initial blast into a fine, charred ash. Quick, brutal, and efficient; it would not be the first time he had prepared, or actually used, such means to take down an enemy.

There we additional layers of security he could add to the package; a clone, a summon, a smokescreen- but for the moment, all such things would reveal his presence, if he was not careful. For the moment, the explosive Replacement target would suffice; further action could await and see how badly Hiruzen screwed the pooch in his full-frontal assault... Or betrayal.

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

To Hiruzen, the simple fact of the man being a Yamanaka was more than enough to put him on his toes. Yamanaka were not the kind of people that were known to be honorable combatants, relying mainly on clever tricks and their most well known ability, mind control. Going against all of the things Hiruzen knew about the generic Yamanaka, the man was not being as sneaky as he could have been in this situation. In fact, the man started slowly walking over to him while talking about all of the things he knew about Hiruzen. Talking about how Hiruzen would not care about the Daimyou or the Kage dying as well as them taking over the world, he was actually right about most of it. He really did not care much for the Kage or the Daimyou, he did not even care about most of the civilians in the village either. What he did care for were the children that were still growing up and had no idea about how the world worked. They were truly innocent in all of this, so he could not allow the Parabrahma go through with their plans to kill those that had no access to chakra.

Reading everything about the man with his Sharingan, he could clearly tell whenever the man was readying his chakra for any offensive moves. Answering the man with nothing more than a slight smile, he let the disfigured being say what he had left to say before he would reply to him. He wondered if the KYOBU could hear them speak and if he was already shitting himself over the concept of having to fight against Hiruzen. Chuckling a bit over it while the man was still speaking to him, the Uchiha had truly heard all that he needed to know. In a way, he appreciated the gesture, though Hiruzen was far too strong for someone like the Yamanaka to just control. It was no secret that Hiruzen enjoyed fighting people, but he really did not need the incentive offered by Tenma to make it happen. After all, if Hiruzen truly wanted to fight the KYOBU, he could do so whenever he wanted. Hell, he could even attack him the moment Tenma was pacified if he really wanted to make it happen. As things were now, he did not need to fight the KYOBU, not if the Parabrahma member was truly as formidable as he was supposed to be.

"I appreciate the flattery and the offer to let me fight against those that stand against your organization, but I am just not feeling it. I am not some village lapdog that needs a reason to fight someone. If there were people around, I would be able to engage them once i'm done with you. It'll be a cold day in hell when I need someone to control my mind.".

As soon as he was talking, the distance between them was slowly shrinking, and it did not take a genius to figure out that Tenma had already taken steps to see to his victory. It went without saying that Hiruzen had done just that when he activated his Sharingan. He knew how hard it could be to fight a Yamanaka in a place where he could hide himself, though that would not be the case here. Everything he did, he had to do in plain sight. Noticing a spike in Tenma's chakra when he was little more than eleven meters away from him, Hiruzen showed exactly how fast he could weave his seals. Weaving through several seals so fast that the blur made it seem like he formed only one or two, Hiruzen exhaled after molding fire chakra in his gullet. Using a technique of his own creation, an enhanced version of the grand fireball technique was sent forward. Knowing that the range of his technique would only manage to harm the man where he stood once it exploded or if he kept walking forward, the attack was used primarily to create a bit of distance between them. As soon as the fireball was sent forward, he dashed back a couple of meters, just to be sure that he would not get hit.

His fireball jutsu was fairly powerful, though it was the explosion that really dealt the damage. Capable of blowing off chunks of flesh, fingers and toes, a direct hit would likely mess with Tenma's equipment. Once the sphere of flame exploded, it would no doubt cause the landscape to be slightly reshaped along with a cloud of dust rising in it's wake. As he stood prepared to continue fighting if the man went without taking damage, he thought of some different strategies that he could apply to the fight itself. It was too bad that he was fighting against an enhanced version of a Yamanaka, seeing as it made all close ranged combat next to impossible. Being limited to long and mid ranged combat, it was obvious that he was going to have to fight using primarily Ninjutsu as his Genjutsu would most likely not have the desired effect against someone from the clan known as the masters of the mind. Knowing that his blade was not going to be of any help to him in this fight, he could only hope that Tenma was capable of more than just mind control. If not, the fight would get incredibly dull in no time at all. Noticing that the KYOBU was not doing all that much, he was not keeping him out of the equation in case he suddenly popped up with an attack.

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For a moment Tenma actually wondered about just how will Hiruzen react. His forte was manipulation after all – he wasn’t a straight out fighter and his words were almost as dangerous as his techniques. There were times when Tenma has talked people into helping him, only making them believe they were controlled when in fact it was all Placebo and Tenma hadn’t spent an ounce of chakra. He really did expect some sort of reaction from Hiruzen, there was no way that this Uchiha will just let him strut away but Tenma was prepared for something as simple as sword swipe or a simple technique. All he needed was a couple of seconds, couple of sentences to work his manipulative magic on the man and make him into an ally…

There it was, Tenma’s superhuman perception allowed him to pick up Hiruzen’s actions and respond accordingly. Hiruzen’s speed was superhuman. No. Superninja even. He managed to weave a multitude of hand seals during the time it’d have taken a person to only weave a single one. It was quite fortunate that one hand seal was all it’d have taken for Tenma to escape an extremely painful and unpleasant defeat. Tenma has removed his coat and tossed it away for a reason, he approached so simply and easily for a reason, he did not just assume that his manipulative nature will be allowed to work and that was why he was so dangerous. With a single flip of a hand seal Tenma replaced his body with his coat, moving him way back, not only that but the man also did a wild dash backwards to increase the distance even more. Needless to say, his super awesome coat was incinerated in an instant.

Once the fireballs just reached their maximum distance they started coming off track and exploding with an impressive amount of force. Had they hit Tenma he’d have truly been in trouble. Still, Hiruzen’s reply confused Tenma, it seemed that this man was quite easy to manipulate, else why would Kumogakure and Sorceress have been so successful in having this man play their games? Tenma didn’t want Hiruzen to do anything, he didn’t want him to do anything for him, no games to be played, all he wanted was for the brawler to get out of his way. Him and his stupid comrades who had chosen to stay hidden, Tenma’s eye slipped up, looking at the top of the hill that Hiruzen had jumped off of, did his allies still stay there? Had they changed locations? Were they circling around him? He had to set up another signal around him soon in case they tried to sneak up on him…

“You’re not a village lapdog, you say?” Tenma started talking, he made several handseals and slammed his hand into the hard rocky surface of the ground making test tubes erupt from the ground with wires on them. They were relatively light, each weighed about 30 kilos but each hosted a disfigured and rotten human inside of them, curled into a fetus pose and being fed mush and puss of some sort by the machinery. They could’ve awakened and burst out of the tubes at any time but with the way they were they were a solid cover from any other attacks of similar caliber so Tenma kept them around without waking them up.

“And yet you’re here, forsaking your principles to fight FOR the village… I don’t know how this looks to you, but to me it looks like you’re being played, just like Kumogakure played you back then… Used you as an Uchiha, as a disposable weapon just because you’re an Uchiha. Trust me, I’m not a fighter, I’m a manipulator and I can see when someone is being played like a chess piece and you, my friend, are in it deep. Did the Sorceress recruit you? I know she did… What did she say? That we strangle puppies as a pastime? That we burn down orphanages? I’m not even a fighter, I am in no way going to satisfy your fighter’s pride and yet you choose to fight me instead of the actual fighters you’ve been paired up with.” Tenma started his speech nodding at the top of the hill, where he assumed Hiruzen’s back-up was.

“Talking of Sorceress, did you know we offered her a spot in the Parabrahma? We even asked her if she wanted us to stop, she could’ve just joined us and stopped our plans at any time, one member veto is all it would've taken, when she played a little princess and refused to join us we told her she could still stop our plans, all she had to do was to die for the people she “loved”” Tenma said that last word with as much mockery as possible, using enough irony and sarcasm and dirt for a horse to pick up. “Guess what her choice was? She said no… She even tried to kill all ten of us, would’ve done it too. She is just a toy of the Kages, since you’re listening to whatever bullshit she’s feeding you, you’re no different. You think you’re here by your free choice? That’s what they always make you think, that’s what tells you they’re good… Who have you been teamed up with? Let me guess, a high ranking guy, maybe a Jounin or a KYOBU or several even to keep you in check, to use you and play you like a card owned by the village.”

Tenma shrugged it off, “I mean sure, we can just fight it out, you can play a village dog again, kill for them and do favors for the people who hate you and abuse you, who have pretty much ruined your life or you can actually do what you want… I told you already, I’m a manipulator, a politician of sorts, not a fighter, I probably won’t be a challenge to you like the Big Guy or that Woman would have been...” Tenma said nodding at the different directions where his comrades were attacking the Inari Mountain as well. “If you kill me here it’ll be no different from a political assassination, contrary to what you’ve been fed by those dogs, they are our only target, we take them out, period. So I will ask you one last time, before giving up on trying to keep you from becoming the Kumogakure dog again, what will it be? Let me pass, fight whoever you want while I kill the Daimyo and you never hear of us again, you may even go as far as to take over Kumogakure once we’re through, make a village where young children and innocents aren’t played and used as tools like you were.”

The man twisted his neck around and cracked some tired bones, stretching his long and slim body out, his skin wrinkled and rubbed together like a leather suit as he moved. “You need a final proof you’re being played? Kumogakure used you and threw you away, right? They treated you as “just an Uchiha”, just a tool in their arsenal. What exactly were Sorceress’ first words to you when you two met? Look me in the eyes… In my visor, at least… And tell me that they weren’t the same, that she didn’t say the same words that those political dogs fed you your entire life. You’re still being played, just the level of people in charge of you had gone down from the Raikage to just some wench, that’s it. If anything, your progress from being free is reversed…”

Tenma stretched his head as he changed the signal to his receiver on his head, by doing that he disabled the meat puppets in the tubes, they stopped being fed chakra and lost the ability to wake up, soon they’d die because their tubes were removed from the laboratory environment they used to be in. He wondered if his intel on Hiruzen was even right at this point because so far this man either had that girl indoctrinate him so deep or he simply made no logical sense. He was much harder than others to manipulate without jutsu, usually Tenma only needed several words to have people under his influence but this person behaved completely opposite to his own principles, he was hard to predict so Tenma stayed observant, not only of Hiruzen standing right in front, but also of his controllers on the top of the hill, or wherever they may have relocated.

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Posts : 1729

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Let's send you out with a bang.

While he did not have a direct view of the battle as he prepared his package, his concentrated Sensory Skill was more than enough to give the KYOBU a general sense of the ruckus going on down the cliffside. He could all but feel and hear the explosion from whatever jutsu Hiruzen vented at their foe- the sound suggesting a destructive force far beyond the apparent chakra expenditure (Jestre would take note of that, filing it away as apparent high chakra efficiency control on the part of Hiruzen).

Tenma, for his part, radiated several curious flares of chakra. His senses were not fine-tuned enough to be certain, but it was almost as it there was a... field, surrounding the Parabrahma member. Working his way back up to the edge of the cliff, he peaked over just in time to witness the summoning of several large caskets. These, too, held a weak, but neverthless present, chakra signature, which died out as the seemingly chatterbox Yamanaka droned on. Jestre would admit, the man did certainly seem to know what buttons to press, where to ease and squeeze.

It concerned Jestre, to say the least. While the man had thus far failed to sway the Kumo traitor to his side, it was a distinct possibility that it was only a matter of time. Yamanaka Tenma was, after all, a reputed master manipulator. Furthermore, if he could manage to catch the Uchiha in one of his clans signature jutsu, the fight was sure to go south, and fast. It was at that moment that the KYOBU resolved not to let it get that far... And that enough time had been spent hiding and waiting. Hiruzen would likely drag it on forever having his "Warriors" fight, Jestre would should the traitor Uchiha how to fight like an assassin.

Between the distance and the two combatants focus on each other, Jestre deemed that too little of their attention would be focused on their respective Sensory skills to fail to notice a short flare of chakra or two. Flashing through the seals, he quietly intoned what had become one of his signature jutsu. "Kage Bunshin." Springing to life beside him, the clone, a perfect replica in every sense, the clone was well and aware of what its creator had in mind; without a word, it took the explosive package, strapping it to its waist. Package secure, the clone stood up, and took a flying leap off the cliffside.

Bouncing down the cliff-side with a show of speed and agility that would turn a snake green with envy, the packaged clone reach the ground in a few fractions of a second, barely breaking stride as it hit the 90 degree turn from a vertical to horizontal run. Daggers flashed into each hand as it made its headlong rush, but these were purely for show; the clone had one goal, and one goal alone, and that was to get as close to Yamanaka Tenma as possible.

To pure Sensory skill, the clone would be indistinguishable from the real thing; failing that, either the Uchiha's sharingan or general apathy towards the KYOBU would hopefully prevent him from obstructing the clone's path. Just shy of ten meters away from Tenma, the clone would launch itself into the air, ensuring it would be directly over the heads of whatever other coffins the nuke-nin so chose to summon, putting the clone on a B-line with him. Even if one of his mind-controlling jutsu snagged the clone, pure momentum, and his air borne trajectory, would make it near impossible for the clone to stop; and even if it should be dispelled by some means in mid-air, the tangible, physical package would continue.

It would not take a very slim margin; if the clone got within five meters of Tenma, it would suffice. Packed within the package it carried were some 60 exploding notes. Jestre knew well, from first-hand experience, how such an explosion typically worked; within the first four meters, anything of flesh and blood was, strictly speaking, utterly ashed. From four to six meters, the sheer number of broken bones and ruptured organs would make death a prolonged and painful affair. Further than that, and at the very least, anything within ten meters but outside the "immediate, painful death" range would be knocked on its ass.

Watching from his cliff-side perch, Jestre would wait until the last possible moment before, with a flare of chakra, detonating the seals. Only the clone reaching the necessary range, or being dispelled, would give him cause to activate the tags. If the ensuing explosion did not immediately kill the target, then at the very least, it would throw up enough smoke and dust to give the KYOBU cover to make a speedy descent down the cliff-side, more directly joining the fight.

One way or another, he would take every stop possible to ensure Yamanaka Tenma did not survive his encounter.

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

It was flattering to know just how much information they had gathered on the Uchiha, it really was. Some might find it frightening when other people knew a lot about them, though Hiruzen just considered it a form of flattery. In many ways, the man was right about the things he brought up. Hiruzen had yet again found himself on the side of the Hidden Cloud, and while the KYOBU would not consider him as an ally or vice versa, that did not make it any less true. While his supposed partner remained hidden, Hiruzen waited for the dust to settle while continuing to hear the Yamanaka out. If nothing else, he was at least a very interesting man that knew how to get to people. In many ways, it was similar to what Hiruzen had been doing to keep most of the local criminals and Nukenin that hid close to his settlement from causing trouble to the nearby towns. The things he heard about Mana did not mean much to him as she had made it rather simply for Hiruzen to figure out that she did not like the person the world around him molded him into. What he did pay attention to was the fact that he looked into two specific directions when he brought up a "Big Guy" and a "Woman". Sparking up his interest, the next things that were brought up made Hiruzen all the more eager to end the fight and head towards the next.

Whether Tenma had missed it or not, Hiruzen's sensory was far too advanced for him not to notice the use of chakra on top of the cliff. Not being overly interested in Tenma from the moment he finished saying what he had left to say, he hoped the KYOBU had a half decent plan to get rid of the man as soon as possible. He said so because there were things about the man that were rubbing off on him. Whether it was something about him that had always been there and was being awakened by seeing it in action, it would please the Uchiha if the Yamanaka was taken down as soon as possible. When it seemed like the Kyobu started moving, Hiruzen saw it as the right moment to answer the man truthfully, probably distracting the man just long enough to take him out. He could care less if this was a political assassination or not, the fact that these men would purify the world of all those who possessed no chakra mixed with the fact that the man refused to fight him seriously was enough for the young shinobi to no longer care about what happened to the Yamanaka. Hiruzen had killed so many people in various manners for the sake of the Hidden Cloud, so whether this was a political assassination or not was not something he gave a shit about.

"I won't say that you are wrong, though there is one thing you failed to understand. The main reason why I am here is not even the fact that I hoped to find a half decent combatant, which you obviously are not. The reason for my being here is the fact that I had a debt that needed to be repaid. But do not fret, they will get what they deserve in due time. Until that time comes, I will settle with fighting people like you who believe information tells everything about a person. If you truly want to hurt these people, you should die just die already, I am sick of your face.".

Hearing from his own mouth that the man was not going to turn out to be the fight he had been promised, Hiruzen wanted to get this fight over with so he could hunt down the other Parabrahma. Mana had promised him a fight, so he would be quite upset if none of these people turned out to be a challenge and actually refused to put up a real fight. Tenma seemed so sure that his information gave him a clear enough understand on Hiruzen, though he had missed one thing. Hiruzen had a twisted sense of honor that told him to do things such as fighting and possibly killing someone just to repay a debt. He hated to be indebted to someone, so if taking care of this twisted cretin was going to get him out of his debt and get him closer to the next fight, that was exactly what he would be doing. When the Kyobu was within the visual range of his Sharingan, Hiruzen was sure that the one rushing at Tenma was nothing more than a shadow clone. While Hiruzen had no idea what he was planning to do, it seemed like the best thing to help the clone do whatever it had been sent in for. Racing through a string of hand seals, he dashed forward to decrease the distance between them just enough for his jutsu to be useful. While he dashed forward, he lowered himself while slamming the palm of his hand to the floor.

Watching as the clone jumped, he remembered a move he had once pulled with a clone of his own, a move he called the Suicide Clone tactic. As soon as he touched the ground, the ground between and several meters around Tenma would become far more liquid in nature while moving him towards the clone. By removing his footing, making the ground more susceptible to Hiruzen's control and sending him toward the clone, the fact that Tenma was going to get hit by it enough to deal a great amount of damage and probably even kill him increased greatly. As soon as the jutsu was executed, he formed yet another string of seals to protect him from the flying shrapnel that would no doubt be coming in his direction now that he was this close. Besides, it would also protect him from any last effort attacks the Yamanaka might aim towards him. As the earth rose up in a dome around him, he kept but a small slot open to allow him to see what was going out at Tenma's location. If things did not go as planned, he could just fire the next attack.

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Posts : 257

“Hmmm… So it is a Jounin or KYOBU…”

Tenma thought to himself as he scratched his cheek, sensing a large chakra signature for a mere moment uphill. Just as he has predicted a tough and powerful ninja was sent to intercept him together with Hiruzen. It must’ve been the will of a Kumogakure official to send a Kumogakure dog together with one of the greatest rebels of the village, someone who could indoctrinate the said rebel to become as much of a Kumogakure dog as he himself was. It now sort of made sense, knowing the exact composition of the opponents sent against him.

During this entire conversation Tenma was scanning the hill where Hiruzen descended from with his sensory, he stood still and focused trying desperately to pick up any sensations as he was a bit troubled by the lack of attempt in taking him down while he tried to verbally take over Hiruzen's mind. Surely whatever lapdogs of the Daimyo were sent with this renegade they couldn't have felt too well about it and would've craved to take Tenma down before his word took their intended effect. It would've been hard for anyone to tell just how incredibly focused Tenma was as his mask lenses would've somewhat obstructed the view of his closed eyes and his body sweated somewhat edifferently due to his unusual skin.

Tenma was not an idiot, he could sense the chakra signature splitting into two before one of them disappeared and the other one dashed forward with impressive speed right at him, he had begun his response to this assault before he noticed the man, right as the chakra signature fired up on top of the hill. Tenma simply dashed sideways from the hill, heading to the east, running further away from the chakra signature running at him. Tenma was well briefed on most dangerous shinobi of the both the world and Kumogakure, he knew just who that person was from the small glimpse of the mask he got.

Question was – if that was all. There was no way to be sure that there were only two of them, that would be made clear a little bit later. Tenma simply waited it out, he wondered just what sort of assault would be sent his way but he knew that his abilities were clear to the enemy. The magician brat must’ve spilled the intel on their abilities, having been nearly crushed by the collection of them herself. Tenma just had to wait it out. By now he had already gotten a bit further from the tubes making just leaping from the hill above the tubes impossible. The rushing man had only two options: keep running at him or simply miss his jump.

Had the rushing man kept chasing Tenma to realize his lethal suicidal tendencies a bit later than intended Tenma would have simply substituted once again with one of the tubes he had made. The disfigured man had both the perception and sensory abilities needed to sense the flare of chakra right above the hillside and replace himself with the tube at the last moment. He knew quite well that no one with the knowledge of Tenma’s abilities would be rushing at him, something had to be off about this approach. There were many cues to tell when to replace himself: the flare of chakra on top of the hill or a trigger of chakra signal inside somewhere where the clone had his explosives placed in, whenever the clone reached the five meter range which would’ve been visible using sensory or the perception.

The only thing that was still dangerous and quite unpredicted for Tenma was the assault of the Uchiha. Once the rushing clone was dealt with, it was most likely that Tenma would have been placed right back where he started – right on top of the liquefied dirt. By the time that the clone had detonated and Tenma was returned back to his original location the stream of dirt directing him towards the clone would’ve been completed and the liquid state of the ground would have been the only struggle, something that Tenma would have overcome by simply activating his Walking on Water technique and dashing backwards to where the liquid dirt was no longer a threat.

He had to hand it to those two, they were definitely just as dangerous as it was reported, he also had to admit that this Hiruzen guy was more unpredictable than he was told. From the briefing alone he’d have thought that he was a simple warrior-minded guy, someone who took no bullshit from anyone. Here he was proven that Hiruzen whom so many among his organization admired as a renegade danger was nothing more than a Kumogakure dog, talking of his hatred for the politicians of the country yet using his skills to protect them. Tenma noticed the ground that was liquefied slowly harden due to the second technique used by Hiruzen.

The first technique which was intended to push Tenma towards the suicidal clone was completely negated after the Uchiha used his protective technique, the only thing that remained was the initial stream of mud which confused Tenma previously causing him to back up. It was safe to say that this assault was over. The Shadow Man was very annoyed by the situation at hand, there seemed to be no way to acquire Hiruzen under his control due to how deeply he was indoctrinated, Tenma’s influence will just have to be forced, using chakra.

This was the time, unfortunately, for Tenma to fight back. He just barely managed to avoid death or lethal injury already and his hand was forced. The man went through hand seals slamming his hand into the ground making five more meat puppet tubes appear around the few remaining ones, Tenma then allowed the Meat Puppets to appear from their tubes and commanded for them to attack while making no other seals, using his tricky technique using the transmissions inside his mask, sending impulses that replaced one puppet’s mind with that of Tenma’s.

If Hiruzen decided to attack the Meat Puppets in any way, the Yamanaka technique would simply swap the minds again causing an even more confusing change – placing Tenma’s mind inside Hiruzen’s body and Hiruzen’s mind inside that of the Meat Puppet causing his attack to be likely to strike down himself. The fact that Tenma didn’t use any handseals for the technique, only his mental transmission would’ve made it just that much more confusing, it wasn’t like sensory could’ve tipped Hiruzen off too as chakra signals were shooting off his head the whole time, only the intensity would have changed but even if the Uchiha picked up on that he would’ve been unlikely to identify the exact manner of attack until it was too late.

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Posts : 1729

Fear the Reaper.

The sound of a five meter patch of earth vaporizing was deafening, even from up on top of the cliff face. A massive cloud of shattered stone and scattered dirt was sent up, smothering much of the area in a thick smoke-screen- ideal cover for a stealth orientated user, while it lasted. Suffice to say, that information was far from Jestre's mind as the chakra from his spent clone rushed back to him. His efforts were more directed on biting down on his tongue to keep from screaming as the... Intensity, of the clone's death bore down on him.

Shaking, clutching into the dirt, he collected himself as the memory faded away. It was fortunate he was so far from the battlefield, open as he was; he'd "died many deaths by his clones, and that had made him overestimate how inured he was to the effects. Apparently the phantom sensation of being immolated, pulverized, and vaporized all at once- however brief- was a screaming mountain of agony above his threshold. He would have to refrain from making a habit of exploding his clones.

Sucking in his teeth, he stood up, eyes closed behind his mask as he focused deeply. His Sensory Skill stretching out to its fullest, he sought after and sensed the various chakra signatures down in the canyon. Unfortunately, the Yamanaka was still amongst them. Further more, there were several new, though incredibly weak, chakra signatures in the mix as well; no doubt he "meat puppets" they'd been warned about. Sighing behind his mask, he cricked his neck as he started running, his Sensory skill "falling back" as he unfocused; seeing no point in hiding now, he formed a pair of set of seals in one hand, a dagger flashing into the other, a quick flick drawing blood from his seal-hand as it finished. "Kuchiyose no jutsu."

Appearing in a large plume of smoke, Yubo, white as snow and the size of a horse, hit the ground running. "Take it you didn't bring me out to chat, boss?" Restraining himself just enough not to completely outpace the summon, he spoke quickly, both of them going over the cliff edge, chakra-glueing their feet to the vertical cliff-face. "Yamanaka, S-rank, rogue. Can summon a lot of meat shields; zombies, essentially. Keep your distance, rumor says he doesn't need hand signs to perform his clan jutsu." Nodding confirmation, the summoned mongoose focused ahead as the duo hit the ground.

The explosion might have yielded some form of dust-cover, but JEstre wasn't taking any chances, having angle his descent to place him at least 20 meters from the dangerous Yamanaka; he wasn't keen to chance getting caught in one of the clan's pesky techniques. Relying on his summon to provide him support in case he was attacked, he slipped up the edge of his mask, uncovering his mouth before he flashed through a set of seals, attempting to line up one more jutsu before fully joining the fray. "Suiton: Baku Suishouha!" Provided he was not interrupted mid-technique, a significant portion of the battlefield would be smothered in water; ample ammunition for his repertoire of water jutsu.

That said, he would be vulnerable performing the technique; to that end, Yubo was quick to attempt his own jutsu, ready to throw himself in the way of any would-be attacks on his summoner. "Hari Jizou!" His fur all over his body would sprout outwards in needles as hard as steel, providing ample defensive capacity, and offensive as well. Whatever came their way, they would, hopefully, be ready.

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Not entirely against expectations, the Yamanaka managed to avoid taking damage by using a substitution technique. Looking on as the Yamanaka started getting on the offensive, there was yet another thing that piqued his interest. Noticing yet another burst of chakra on top of the cliff, it left a lasting chakra signature this time. From the feeling of it, it was different from the clone that had been used earlier. Wondering what the source of this chakra signature could be, his best bet was that it belonged to a combat summon of some sorts. Having seen them used in battle before, he had never gone through the trouble of personally acquiring one. All of the smoke and dust covering the battlefield made it hard for him to see any of the people he was dealing with, relying entirely on his sensory abilities to keep track of any changes that might take place. Moving back quite a bit so as to just watch things envelop as they would, the new chakra signature soon came into action. He had no intention of fighting a lifeless body or whatever it was that Tenma was controlling, choosing to use as much time as he could get just to overlook the battlefield for a bit.

As things were right now, he had no clear sight on any of the meatbags that were being used and had no knowledge on the abilities they possessed. As far as he knew, they might have retained all of the abilities and talents they had back when they were still alive, though they might also have been enhanced by the same kind of machinery and technology that had enhanced the combat capabilities of the Yamanaka. Deciding to leave things to the KYOBU for now, it would be best for him to figure out what he was dealing before doing anything that might mess up the upper hand they currently had over the Yamanaka. All he really thought about at the moment was the kind of enemies Tenma was pitting up against them. From the looks of them, they were all dead for some time, moved only by the will of the Yamanaka and his jutsu. As someone who valued his freedom, he did not enjoy what the Parabrahma was doing. Nobody should be forced to be a passenger in their own body while someone else was making all the decisions. Perhaps just as worse was the fact that he made the dead fight for him, showing that he had no respect for the deceased and had absolutely no skills as a warrior or a shinobi.

"Making the dead fight is just as low as controlling people into fighting for something they do not believe in and have no control over. Just for that, I am not going to attempt to capture you alive any longer. You deserve to be left alive just to be tortured and locked up, but the world deserves to see you erased from existence.".

Thinking to himself as he focused on the image of Tenma's chakra, his attention was called to the KYOBU that was now for the first time not making an attempt at hiding his presence by masking his chakra. Forming a jutsu that seemed to use quite a bit of chakra, he started gradually releasing large volumes of liquid onto the battlefield. While it proved one of his elemental natures to undoubtedly be water, it did not seem like the thing he was doing would straight up serve for the sake of dealing direct damage. Feeling as the earth itself started to become wet, it would most likely not be long before the area would be covered by it. Maintaining the focus on his sensory skill, the summoned beast along with the KYOBU that was working to turn the terrain into his advantage were undoubtedly planning to take down the Yamanaka with or without his help. He knew that much because he had shown his ability to use the fire style, something that would not exactly be getting any stronger if the ground was covered in water while the air would become richer in moisture.

Continuing to move even further back at a not exactly fast pace, the currently present cloud of dust and smoke would obscure the sight of the two shinobi while he knew exactly how far the average sensor would be able to reach. With that, Hiruzen sank into the ground and left into the direction Tenma had been looking into. If things turned out the way he hoped they would, he would find others of the Parabrahma. Hopefully, they would be the ones that were actually made for the sake of battle and not what Tenma was. Keeping his senses sharpened, he quickly left his clone to deal with what was left to be done. Hiruzen knew that he left the place in good hands by leaving a shadow clone, after all, it was a clone that possessed the same mental and physical prowess as the real deal. Feeling that this would be more than enough now that Tenma had used up such a good amount of his chakra while the KYOBU had finally stopped hiding, all he had to keep doing for now was watch for any openings while studying whatever his eyes could perceive. Whether the KYOBU or the Yamanaka managed to sense his switching game or not did not exactly matter as the deed had already been done.

Now, all he had to really do was keep an eye on things and step in when needed. His clone had only a fraction of the chakra the real Hiruzen had, though that would just make the fight more fun. At this point, Tenma had more chakra than he did, so that would at least even the playing field for a bit. From what he could tell, the KYOBU was set on making this his fight, leaving Hiruzen as a passenger that was going along for the ride just like the people that had their bodies controlled by the Yamanaka. If nothing else, it would give the KYOBU the chance to prove his worth. If this did not turn out the way he wanted it to go, he could always increase his chakra pool to benefit them. With what speed he had, he would now enclose the distance between himself and his temporary partner to make sure that whatever he was working on right now would turn out successful. Sooner rather than later, he was sure that they would sense that his chakra pool had been cut in half and that either he or the one that was nowhere to be found was a clone, though that would all be according to plan.

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About halfway through his assault Tenma realized that he had absolutely no grip on what Hiruzen Uchiha was doing. He said one thing, did the other, probably thought about the third. Sometimes he spoke of being free and independent of alien influences, sometimes he acted like a Kumogakure dog who licked the feet of Raikage and the Daimyo but when engaged he chose the cautionary approach. Tenma was briefed that Hiruzen Uchiha was supposed to be arrogant and full of himself, like all Uchiha. Strangely enough, that was not the case.

Tenma was not attacked which didn’t trigger his jutsu. Normally an opponent that wishes to kill him would’ve struck the puppets down to clear the path for a long range technique but this did not happen. Instead Hiruzen chose to retreat further into the cloud of smoke to avoid engaging the puppet and therefore triggering Tenma’s technique. Even worse – the ground was starting to get wet for some reason and water started to rush at quite alarming quantities, it was likely an effort made by that other high ranking Kumogakure fellow sent to keep Hiruzen from misbehaving.

Tenma was pissed for having to cancel his technique, his mind floated back to the original body which was knocked forward by the stream of water which hit the body as it was mindless during the first moments of water rushing through it. It was simply too much struggle to keep the body exposed so obviously while that Kumo ninja was doing whatever he was doing. It was a good thing that the Yamanaka started his walking on water technique before to deal with the mud so once he got back to his body he could adjust his body position accordingly to the increase of water. Tenma was slowly starting to realize just how grave this situation was. Death didn’t really mean anything to a Parabrahma member, it actually kind of was an upgrade – after one of their peers does his work with the corpse they become near invincible. The problem was that Tenma didn’t trust Niku alone to finish their task, he wanted to join her and see to it that the woman fulfills it. Tenma’s work in this battle was halfway done – his army was marching on, hopefully bashing the response squad’s brains in.

The man sighed as he looked around observing the dust settle down and seeing the high ranking ninja from before making water. Water techniques were odd, the user had to create their own water source for the techniques to work which must’ve been a pain in the ass, Tenma then glared at Hiruzen who was further away, sizing his reduced chakra up. What happened? The man didn’t see him use a jutsu or anything… Had he used something of such powerful degree as to suck out so much chakra it would have triggered his Yamanaka technique. What was going on here? The immediate danger in this situation was obviously the Kumo ninja but Hiruzen’s sudden loss of chakra without a known reason knocked Tenma out of his feet.

The Yamanaka had an easy way out of this with his silence seals, a way to kill him without any extractable information but he didn’t want to resort to that until it is really needed. Not because Tenma expected to win, because he saw Hiruzen and the Kumo fellow losing a lot of chakra and wasting ninja tools on him – little by little their combat strength would have diminished to the point where they would have posed no more threat to neither Niku nor Kijin. Tenma tried to weigh his options, he didn’t really have much to do in this case – Hiruzen was faster than he was and clearly able to keep his distance from him, the Kumo guy was also quite capable of protecting himself while using his flooding technique. Tenma decided – he can’t just try and aggresively kill his opponents. His entire combat skillset is made to deal with people who don’t know of his abilities and try to rush him down, there people know too much.

Tenma made the handseals and focused a large amount of chakra summoning as many Meat Puppets as he possibly could. The ground was already becoming far too damp and tough to move in and if the Kumo ninja is allowed to continue his flooding it will soon completely turn the ground into a lake, had this been an ordinary desert such technique wouldn’t have worked too well but on a rocky wasteland like this one it was incredibly dangerous. Tenma and all the Meat Puppets that he had summoned then started a wild dash towards the location he was moving towards, further away from this area which will soon start to be overflooded with water.

Tenma moved forward towards the Inari mountain, towards the large wall that separated the wild wasteland from the military camps of the Inari Range, they were at least 5km away but if Hiruzen decided to attack him Tenma had ways to deal with him, obviously his withdrawal from the battlefield would be a problem to the Kumo ninja who decided to modify it. Using crowd tactics and surrounding himself with puppets to defend him Tenma rushed forward. Seeing no way of engaging such a passive enemy with ability to avoid his movements the freak decided to take charge.

Spoiler:

Posts : 1729

Legend:

Light em up.

It was with a heavy breath that Jestre cancelled the jutsu; the vast majority of the area was covered in an, if not deep, at least wide-spread pool of water; more than sufficient for his jutsu needs. The cost of the technique, however, was taxing; while by no means in danger of running out of chakra just yet, he'd been forced to implement no small amount of high-level jutsu; sufficient to put a heavy hit on his reserves. Jestre was not orientated for heavy combat; his forte was quick, decisive strikes, usually from the shadow, ending his opponents before they had time to realize they were there. If this kept on for much longer, there was no telling how the battle might go.

There were, of course, more pressing reasons to end the jutsu; the smokescreen caused by his earlier explosion had cleared sufficiently that he could see that Tenma was, rather than turning to face the new threat, simply running away. Further, he now had a massive compliment of those rotting corpses surrounding him, making him no easy target to hit; not with that many meat shields covering all directions of assault. Hiruzen, for his part, seemed to be keeping his distance from the Yamanaka. Jestre, for his part, didn't care; the two were by no means on friendly, communicative terms, nor were the well-versed in each other's abilities. Lacking any teamwork dynamic, their best option was to simply stay out of each other's way, exploiting openings when and as they became available.

"Yubo, stick to the wall and hit-em hard." He ordered his summon before dashing off after the fleeing mob. "On it, boss." Though the water was shallow enough for the summon to simply stand in, he obeyed his summoner, sticking himself back to the wall with a leap, dashing forward and upward along the wall at his own pace as a rush of chakra was directed to his still steel-hard, needle-sharp hairs. "Hari Jigoku!" Conventionally a mid-range jutsu, the summoned mongoose would not doubt be able to close in on the fleeing target enough, and move himself high enough up the cliff-face, that the high vantage point and gravity would allow him to pick off at least one or two of the meat puppets.

Jestre, for his part, had his own plan in mind; some thought having a water affinity a curse, it being so necessary to waste chakra creating a water source before being able to go truly on the offensive. For Jestre however, it was nothing short of a blessing, as water did wonders for increasing the combative efficiency and lethality of most any old Raiton jutsu. Perhaps more importantly, given the wide area the water from his previous jutsu covered, it also gave him a significant measure of range. Speeding along the water with his own Water Walking, Jestre easily kept pace with the mob, closing to within fifteen meters of his fleeing targets as he performed the seals for his next jutsu.

Finishing the seals, he powered himself into a short leap into the air as he launched out the deadly attack. "Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder!" Launching out, the powerful, rock-destroying bolt would splash down just five meters shy of the mob. Missing by such a large margin was irrelevant, however; the ground was, and still is, covered by water. The water would then conduct the electrical attack over a wider area, hitting each and every target still touching the water. Even if this did lessen the overall power of the attack, the electrical shock that would afflict them might still be enough to wipe out the meat puppets- and potentially short out any fancy, electronic equipment Tenma might have in his possession.

The attack was instantaneous in nature, and by the time his feet hit the water again, he was already racing to complete the seals for his next jutsu. If he was quick enough and uninterrupted, his next attack would be more than sufficient to cause grievous harm to whatever survived the first assault. "Suiton: Ja no Kuchi!" Forming out of the surrounding water, a large, massive column would spiral out, forming briefly into the mouth of a serpent as he launched itself towards its intended prey.

Having much more refined control and longer range than the previous jutsu, Jestre would be able to actively hound and chase the Yamanaka with it, the watery serpent possessing sufficient force to bowl over any meat puppets thrown in its way, continuing until he was either forced to cancel the jutsu, or it had swallowed its intended target, going from there to direct itself forcefully into the nearest available wall, ideally slamming them into it with crushing force.

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

With the floor rapidly becoming wetter and actually reaching up into his boots, he figured that it would not be long before the KYOBU would make his move by using all of that accumulated water against the Parabrahma. While on the move to the KYOBU for a final confrontation, he stopped in his tracks when he witnessed the summoning of even more undead minions. Standing roughly fifteen meters away from Tenma and a solid twelve meters from the KYOBU, his Sharingan gave away the fact that Tenma was about to make a run for it. Knowing that the only way he could go was to follow the one way track towards the Inari mountain, Hiruzen devised a plan that would undoubtedly cut him off and keep him from escaping. As soon as Tenma started moving, so did Hiruzen. Moving towards the passage leading up to the Inari mountain with a head start of several meters, he had a plan to increase the distance between himself and the Yamanaka even further. While running, he formed a seal that instantly switched his position with the cloak he had discarded earlier. By the time Tenma and the KYOBU saw the cloak hit the water's surface, Hiruzen was already a mere five meters away from the choke point that Tenma had to pass through in order to successfully escape.

Forming the seals, Hiruzen spat a line of mud onto the ground. As soon as the mud made contact with the ground, an earthen wall started rapidly rising from the ground. Jumping on top of it, the wall quickly rose to a height of five meters and connecting to the two cliff sides, fully closing in all the water that was being summoned while closing Tenma in along with his undead minions at the same time. Now that the Yamanaka had finally made a move that got him into the rat trap, Hiruzen could feel from a distance that the KYOBU had executed a jutsu that sent a powerful surge of lightning through the water he had spread over battlefield. With nowhere to go and still having a good fifteen meters of space to cross before they could make the five meter climb over Hiruzen's wall, the chance of him escaping the surge the Uchiha could clearly see was moving fast with his ocular power was close to zero. With the attack made and quickly closing in on the Parabrahma, a secondary jutsu was formed that created a serpent out of water that was now coming straight for the Yamanaka. Looking closely to see what the Yamanaka might try to do in order to escape the incoming attacks, he was prepared to make sure that escaping was no longer an option.

To someone that could observe as much in so little time as Hiruzen, it was clear that the Yamanaka lacked the physical speed to outrun the lightning traveling through the water while also lacking the physical strength and endurance required to take on a watery serpent. Placing one hand above the other in a peculiar stance, Hiruzen started radiating a golden light from his body as his chakra pool started growing in quantity. Hoping that it would keep the Yamanaka occupied by making him believe that an attack from the front was coming, the chances of the KYOBU hitting his mark would increase quite a bit. It was at times like these that Hiruzen was glad that he had left his village in order to train with Samurai and Monks. Had he not done the things he did by making the choices most people were too afraid to make, he would most likely not have had the tools he had right now that helped him deal with the Yamanaka. Right now, all Hiruzen could really do was wait while letting the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

OOC: Was not a lot for me to do, so I hope this short post will be fine.

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Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mod Post: Due to it being very clear that US Mod won’t make it in time for the 72 hour time restraint an auto-hit is declared:
*) Tenma gets cut off by the wall which helps Jestre’s summon pick off 4 Meat Puppets.

*) Both the Raiton technique and the Suiton technique hit Tenma with the Raiton technique disabling most Meat Puppets momentarily and the Suiton technique blowing Tenma off his feet into a rocky wall, any cybernetics in his body are screwed and Tenma is no longer in a fighting condition.

*) Due to extreme vitality of the Meat Puppets (extensive brain damage is required to take them down for good or killing the master). The remaining Meat Puppets provide enough cover for Tenma to trigger his silence seals and commit suicide.

*) Parabrahma silence seals asphyxiate the possessor after they declare information about what was sealed with the seal, the information needs to be previously unknown to the opponent for the seal to work properly. Before activating the seal Tenma lets out words “Red Scorpion”, due to extensive damage to his body by disabling the cybernetics holding him together it will take lip reading ability of some sort or great perception to properly distinguish the words.

*) If one possesses High IQ SC they can also be able to relate the words “Red Scorpion” with a desert in Kaze no Kuni.

*) After Tenma's death all of the summoned Meat Puppets die off.

Posts : 1729

Legend:

Well...that just happened.

Clear, direct hit; even as Tenma tried to escape, Hiruzen raised up an earthen wall in his path, blocking off further escape. This left the nuke nin nowhere to go as Jestre's lightning attack mass-electrocuted the entire lot, even as several fell to Yubo's own attack. That still left a large compliment of twitching, spasming corpses, but before he could react further, the water serpent was upon them; the jutsu bore through the crowd like a freight-train, slamming into Tenma and bringing him into the wall with a thunderous crack.

Daggers flashed to Jestre's hands as he dropped the jutsu, quickly considering his next course of action; most of the corpses, while stunned, were still standing, and fighting through them to get to Tenma would be no easy task. And then, abruptly, it didn't matter anymore; in unison, every single meat puppet dropped to the ground, and as close as he was, he could feel all their chakra signatures- and most importantly, Tenma's signature- vanish into thin air.

Jestre knew very well what this meant, but he had to make sure; water splashed beneath his feet as he moved cautiously towards the prone figure, wary of a ruse, and being snared by a Yamanaka clan technique. But his fears were ungrounded; Tenma was dead as a doornail, slumped against the wall, with his head hanging down. Jestre knew neither of his techniques were sufficient to kill, so it seemed obvious that the Parabrahma had some sort of silencing method; it wasn't far fetched, Jestre knew, given the fuin tattoo in his shoulder served similar purposes for KYOBU.

He cursed quietly behind his mask, reaching out to feel for a pulse he knew he wouldn't find. All that effort to take him alive, for naught. He turned himself to his... partner, for lack of better descriptor, too weary to maintain any overt animosity. "I don't suppose our target happened to give anything away before expiring?" He waited patiently for a response, his feet sinking down into the shallow water, as he chose to conserve what little chakra he had left. Meanwhile, his summon, recognizing combat was at an end, dropped down from the wall, splashing quietly through the water as he made his way to his summoner's side.

Nodding to his summon, Jestre put away his daggers before he grabbed the corpse by the shoulders, heaving it away from the wall. Yubo wordlessly crouched down as Jestre leaned what was once Yamanka Tenma on himself momentarily, before heaving the body across Yubo's back. Wire spooled out from his wrists, helping to tie down the body and keep it from flopping about as he spoke to Hiruzen. "HQ is going to need a report, and there's still yet a great deal of intel to be gained from a corpse. Do... Whatever the hell you want to do, I can't really say that I care." Honestly, unless Hiruzen outright attacked him, Jestre had little energy to spare on being concerned with the Kumo traitor. Even then, his significantly reduced reserves would force him to, at best, attempt an escape.

Pacing himself beside Yubo, Jestre would take the body with him for his report to HQ. One never knew what an autopsy could reveal.

[Exit]

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Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Once the walls had been set up in front of Tenma and effectively cut him and his undead minions, everything went exactly as Hiruzen had predicted. The lightning passed through the water, many of the minions got stunned and eventually the watery serpent surged in and swept the Yamanaka against a nearby wall. Prepared to take him down once and for all if he was to get back up again, his Sharingan registered a foreign chakra that he had not seen at the start of the fight. Believing that it might have been activated in the event of him being defeated, it did not take long for Tenma's body to shut down. Picking up as much as possible through the Sharingan, he managed to put together the words "Red Scorpion" only moments before the Yamanaka passed away. Not thinking too much of it, he just memorized the words before he leaped off of his stone wall. Wandering over to the body of the deceased, there was something that he had to do for someone. As a Ninja Monk, there were a couple of vows he had made to the various temples scattered across the lands of the shinobi. While he did not believe in any gods or an afterlife, he did believe in honor and in the worth of ones word. As such, he placed a hand on Tenma's head before he started mumbling quietly.

"Oh Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in all directions, endowed with great compassion, endowed with foreknowledge, endowed with divine eye, endowed with love, affording protection to sentient beings, please come forth through the power of your great compassion, please accept these offerings, both actually presented and mentally created. Oh Compassionate Ones, you who possess the wisdom of understanding, the love of compassion, the power of doing divine deeds and of protecting in incomprehensible measure. Tenma is passing from this world to the next. He is taking a great leap, the light of this world has faded for him. He has entered solitude with their karmic forces. he has gone into a vast silence. He is borne away by the great ocean of birth and death. Oh Compassionate Ones, protect Tenma who is defenseless. Be to him like a mother and father. Oh Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak, but aid them. Let Tenma not go into the miserable states of existence. Forget not your ancient vows.".

Once he was done, he opened his eyes and a faint golden light emanated from his body shortly before he removed his hands from the deceased Yamanaka. Not really believing in the things he said or believing that Tenma would go to a better place in the afterlife after all of the things he had done, he had made a sacred vow to a large group of people that had honored their agreement by giving him more power. As a man of his word, saying the prayer for the dead and the dying was the least he could do to return the favor. Shutting down his Sharingan, he let the KYOBU member take the body away. When he was asked if there was something he had picked up from the Parabrahma before he died, Hiruzen just raised his shoulders. There was nothing that could be shared that remotely made any sense or seemed worth discussing. Most likely just being the name of a member of their group, a nickname did as much for them as a skinny yak that provided no milk. Listening as the KYOBU told him that he would bring the body back to their headquarters to see if there was more intel to be gained from the corpse, he stated that Hiruzen could do what he wanted and that he did not care much about it.

Appreciating the gesture, it was not like Hiruzen did not already do what he wanted or that he needed the blessing of the KYOBU that did not nearly possess enough chakra to take down the clone. When he heard him speak, there was something the Jinchuuriki woman had told him a while ago about a member of the KYOBU that she had befriended. From what he could remember, they had been friends at some point and she had been let go because of that. While it interested him slightly as to whether that was the guy he was dealing with or not, it did not interest him enough to make him stay any longer. Not having anything left to say to the KYOBU as a means of answering the question he had been asked, he formed a seal with one hand. Followed up by a puff of smoke, the clone had let itself go, thus sending all gathered information and remaining energy back to the original that had no doubt already found another member of the Parabrahma to fight. Hopefully, the one he would end up fighting next would have more pride than the Yamanaka. If not, more boredom was inbound.

[Exit Thread]