Protect the Magician! [Ruka's Travel Topic and Rookie's Mission]

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

This is my travel to Kirigakure topic, it's only a mission for Rookie

The day when Mana had planned to set out for Kirigakure finally came. Not that the girl would’ve been too hyped about the event or waited for it with much anticipation. It was just something that had to happen eventually, she had an assignment she needed to do and a World Magic Tour to start even though it already unofficially started in Konoha. The girl woke up in the morning and brushed her hair, had a shower and strong breakfast, her travelling backpack was already set and from what she saw on the clock the people that were supposed to accompany her to Kirigakure were already waiting for her at the gates. Quickly Mana finished her food, put all of the luggage on her back and kissed her mother on the cheek. This was one of those weird occasions that both women woke up at the same time.

Mother looked somewhat strange that morning, the woman looked like she didn’t really mind Mana leaving but the magician knew that it was nothing else but a fancy façade she put on. The woman was worried about Mana, she had to be. After Mana’s father was injured by the Kirigakure ninja the whole family was a little hesitant to talk about Kirigakure even after three years had passed since the event. Mana’s mission was important for the village, besides her World Magic Tour there was another reason she went for Kirigakure – she was on a top secret mission. A mission that only the cream of both villages and Mana knew about, so she needed to get to Kirigakure and go there as a magician and not a ninja. Kirigakure villagers shouldn’t have known about the existence of a Konoha jounin in the village solving their problems, whatever success Mana achieves will be attributed to Kirigakure ninja.

“You watch yourself out there…” Mana’s mother kissed the girl on the forehead and lead her out the door, Mana waved to her mother and ran off towards the village gate, she was already late plenty. The magician could never get too used to the work of a jounin, accepting missions was so much different, it wasn’t as much village giving her missions. The collection of missions was just given and Mana could choose what to take up on and what to sit out on, it was an amazing experience and most Jounin exploited it by only taking up smaller missions and getting full pay for them as if they were taking on A-ranks just because of their rank. The girl didn’t act that way, not entirely, she chose the missions that she liked, that looked interesting enough, that triggered her “This is so weird!” sense inside. The stranger the mission the more interested Mana would be in it.

The mission that the magician was leaving for secretly was really interesting – people were dying all over Kirigakure with no signs as to why. After the first moment of reading that Mana could not have been more interested, she took it up immediately. Of course with that came background check to see if the girl was fit to work with top secret information, seeing how she’s been masking the whole battle with Ayushi thing and hiding it from people while working on it with a top secret village organization, obviously the magician was. Thinking about her future experiences Mana was running through the village streets, they were all empty, not a footprint to be seen, not a single sign of life for one or two more hours. Then the village would start flourishing with all kinds of life: merchants, kids playing, random passers-by. Thinking about it the girl finally reached the village gate.

“Mana-san! You kept us waiting…” one of the two ninja waiting at the gate slapped his forehead after alerting the girl of where they were. “What does it matter? It actually fits in better this way, she’s a big celebrity after all, if we arrive later we can put it all on her diva-character…” the other one replied. Mana wasn’t sure if she liked being stood up for that way or not. Both ninja looked at least B-rank, they didn’t look like someone who should be entrusted securing an important personality to but then again it was likely that nothing would happen throughout the whole travel. Mana kept repeating to herself that she cannot reveal being a ninja, these guys have to function as her bodyguards, they have to send a message that she is just a helpless and spoiled magician for Kirigakure ninja to buy that she’s there only for her Magic Tour.

Both of the ninja wore Konoha vests and usual chuunin/jounin outfit, probably because they were supposed to not stand out of the ordinary. They were supposed to scream “bodyguard” and they probably did. One of them was slightly buffed, had rather crazy white hair and facial hair that’d make any gent jealous, he introduced himself as Masaki, he appeared to be the kind of “careless and cool” attitude having guy. The one that is constantly bothered by anything but eventually realizes he doesn’t really care about it anyway and acts cool. The other one was Shouta, he looked like the warm and nice but calculating type, the strategist who didn’t let one thing slide out of his mind but didn’t look too impressive up close. “Well, Mana-san, we should probably leave now, we’re already late according to the schedule.” Shouta suggested and the group moved out through the gate.

The first part of the trip was getting out of the Fire Country, that was a tough and boring part, nothing but forests and bugs all the eye could see. Not that the magician was too bothered by that kind of environment, she traveled to Shukuba town so often last year that it seemed like she knew ever tree and every twist and turn by heart. Every pebble and every hole in the road, everything. The travel was obviously long and was supposed to take days, too bad that just two hours in Masaki was starting to get bored and started whining for a rest. “Masaki-san, I wonder which one of us is the real diva…” Mana told him with a smile, she and Shouta shared a small laugh and it seemed like the group finally started to bond. Mana decided to let the two sing songs as long as it doesn’t get too loud, they were obviously terrible but at least they weren’t too loud, at times their steps through the mushy mess that was Fire Country dirt after the rain was worse. “You’re wearing heels, aren’t you, Mana-san? Let me carry you until the ground gets solid again…” Masaki offered.

Being carried through the dirt like a child felt great, Masaki seemed to enjoy it as well, said it reminded him of the times he spent with his daughter. “My daughter loves ya, Mana-san, when the whole Ayushi thing happened, she defended you so hard that our whole family started hating the bloke…” the man laughed, luckily enough both of these men weren’t people who despised Mana for her deed of defeating Guru Ayushi. “I don’t understand how you tolerate all the people that hate you, Mana-san.” Shouta mumbled “ You’re a damned hero, I have no idea how you beat that giant statue thing or Ayushi… Wasn’t he like an S-ranked ninja or something?” “I lucked out…” Mana replied, indeed talking someone into surrendering was not the most honorable way of winning.

This was looking to be a very long trip.

Posts : 677

The sun was started to make it's ascend into the grand sky of the Water Country. This was truly a time that all Naras loved because this is when the shadows start to appear. Sun rise was always beautiful in any geographical landscape, but the way the sun reflected on the vast sea was genuinely stunning. Shikari had been given orders to relocate to the Water Country. He hadn't been given specific instructions as to why he would be needed to go to the Water Country but he was informed that he would soon find out. His eyes peered out as the sun started to shine light through his room. He stayed at a small inn on the seaside. The window was slightly open letting in the gentle breeze and relaxing aroma of sea salt. The Nara always had an attraction to the water, perhaps it was the fact that he is a suiton user. There was never a moment where he couldn't appreciate the beauty of a natural landscape, especially a body of water. He quickly got up from his bed and shuffled over to the window to open the window even more. The beautiful sunrise, a natural wonder. The thoughts of owning a small private home where would be fantastic but the island can get quite lonesome. He wouldn't want to live alone by himself, he still needs to seek out his shinobi partner.

.............

The day had started to drag on, many people were busy doing many things. Productivity was very people to the hard working members of the country. It was obvious that many of them were passionate about their jobs and cherished each other. Shikari could see all of these things as he walked through the village. He was never one to stay in a room all day and await orders. He has always traveled very lightly and is prepared to hear about this mission immediately. Being a former courier shinobi, he has a natural drive to explore the world around him. The tall shinobi walked down the streets with a dango skewer, chomping down each delicious ball of sweetness. Suddenly out of the sky came a bird with an arrangement of brown, white and black feathers. The bird landed on the right shoulder of the tall shinobi. Shikari would give the bird a few bites of his delicious snack. The duo managed to find a nice quiet table to sit that was under a tree. Shikari unlatched a few straps from the harness that was on Soge and pulled out a note.

'The increasing crime rate of the Water Country is alarming and has become a problem for many. One of the gangs that has been terrorizing the Water Country is called Kurentai. They are a small group with big ambitions and have struck large plunder. They plan on kidnapping a magician whom is about to go on her world tour. Her name is Nakotsumi Mana and her first location is Kirigakure. Your assignment is to prevent Kurentai from kidnapping Mana. '

'...Mana' A smiled appeared upon the face of Shikari as he continued to read the rest of the assignment. It was very clear to him and he had no questions, even if he did, he wouldn't have time for them to be answered. The intelligence was vague, there wasn't much other than a solid objective. He had no idea where she was, who she was with, who Kurentai really is and where they are. He had never even heard of the gang before reading his top secret document. There wasn't much to go off of but he knew that he was going to have to use all the intelligence he has. With this new intelligence, he asked Soge to go find Mana. She vaulted from his shoulder and started to fly in the distance. Her best bet would be to follow the highway towards the main port, Shikari would do his best to follow Soge. There were already many plans that were starting to formulate into his mind but he needed more information on the best one to choose. It was a necessity to reach Mana as soon as possible so he could share the intelligence he received and protect Mana to the best of his abilities. Once under his care, Mana will not have to worry about any bandits of any rank coming for her. Though, he wondered how strong Kurentai must be since he knows that Mana is an exceptional shinobi. She must also have some sort of bodyguards, so he would like to amused that she will be alright. Every shinobi knows that they should never assume because assumptions can cause lives. It is always difficult to kill someone but it is even worse to lose somebody. Shikari is on a mission to prevent that from happening, to prevent the world from losing somebody that could bring smiles to many faces. 'Please...Mana'

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

It has been two days since the group consisting of Mana and her bodyguards left Konohagakure. It wouldn’t have taken the group that long to travel to Kirigakure had they not been traveling on foot like ordinary travelers, such means were needed to convince anyone who were passing by that the magician traveling to Kirigakure was not a ninja but in fact just an entertainer. Kirigakure was very touchy about Konoha ninja walking around their village as the relationship between the villages was not exactly perfect, they tolerated each other but there were always things to hide. It wasn’t hard to understand why Kirigakure would not want Mana to openly walking around in the village, there were things she may not have been supposed to see. The magician’s bodyguards were supposed to just see her settle in and leave immediately. There was still this veil of secrecy for some reason, mostly for the contents of Mana's mission obviously, not every village would be thrilled in sharing something like that.

The trio was supposed to be in Water Country territory already, there were many small settlements that the group had already passed on the way, some of them had people who were paid to allow the group to stay over for a night. It looked like the journey and Mana’s arrival was pretty important to both villages, this operation was proof that the villages can trust each other and work together it was also a proof of the fact that helping other villages was in Konoha’s best interests. After a short while of travelling over a countryside area filled with rice fields and small settlements, farms and cabins, the group once again entered a deep forest area. From what Mana gathered it was supposed to be the last such great forest area and almost matching the thickness of Konoha forests.

“Why aren’t you guys singing anymore?” Mana asked her bodyguards with a ironic tone, she really only liked their singing over how bad and unsynchronized it was. “This is Water Country territory… There could be bandits around.” Masaki answered, “Isn’t it a bit mental to expect to be attacked by a country that is doing everything in their power to have you there?” the girl returned another question, “You have to understand, Mana-san, people are unpredictable, not all people of Water Country are loyal to Kirigakure, not all people are fans of your history with Ayushi-san.” To Mana it just didn’t make sense, from what she heard Kirigakure’s reception of the entire controversy was mixed, maybe even more so than Konoha’s but as soon as they heard the news of the famous Konoha Sorceress coming to perform pretty much everyone became a fan. She was told that her performances were the most anticipated thing…

“Shit!” Masaki yelled as he threw Mana into a bunch of bushes away from the territory they were in. A combination of loud explosions went off, the girl grabbed hold of her ears trying to regain her ability to hear a thing. “These weren’t lethal, they were more for bark than bite… Whoever set those up wants us alive.” First conscious thought came to the girl’s head forcing her to crawl out of the bush. She heard voices in the distance, the forest had a very good echo and no barriers for the sounds to come from every direction. The magician looked over her bodyguards. “Masaki, report” she mumbled silently not to have their exchange heard by the men that were closing in “I’m hurt, multiple shrapnel wounds, Shouta’s passed out, his legs look super nasty, he’s not going anywhere…” Mana grunted, this was an ambush, a planned ambush, someone in Kirigakure could have leaked information.

The girl wasn’t sure who was the target, was she the target? Obviously the men didn’t want her dead, the explosives were way too weak to kill anyone, do they want her for ransom? That’s more likely, she’s worth a lot of money as a world famous performer and Konoha and Kirigakure have their reasons to pay extra and pay fast with the girl’s assignment hanging on the balance… “Masaki-san, take Shouta and carry him to one of the cabins we slept over in, pay the men whatever and treat your wounds, after your lives are no longer in danger, proceed according to your gut, I trust you.” Mana whispered for the man, the voices were getting closer and they sounded happy. If those were simple bandits Mana could easily take them her high rank and village trust didn’t come from nothing, she wasn’t just a pretty face. “Mana-san, you’re obviously the target, you can’t confront them?” Masaki tried to argue, Mana closed her eyes “Go… Live, return to your daughter, carry her around on your shoulders like she loves. We weren’t prepared for something like this, it's not your fault. If I won’t return tell the Hokage such were my orders, Kimiko-san knows me, she’ll understand.” The man picked his comrade up and started slowly walking through the forest back to the countryside.

“What the fuck, Jurou, she’s not passed out!?” “We didn’t plan for this, I’m not fighting the fucking Sorceress!” “She filled half fucking Bachi prison, man” various voices of disappointment came as the men closed onto Mana, the girl ran her eyes over her body to see if she was injured. She forgot to do that before over the care about her bodyguards’ lives. There were some small pieces of wood lodged into her body, they were nuisances at worst, slightly larger than a splinter, some scrapes and bruises. Nothing that would make her unable to beat the crap out of every idiot who dared to threaten the lives of people she liked. “Calm yourselves down, men… I suggest you surrender and be a good girl, Sorceress, if you won’t we’ll chase down the two injured ninja you had with you, sure you’ll take us out eventually but are you willing to risk them getting killed?” the man that the bandits called Jurou spoke. He was obviously the brains, he did his homework and knew how Mana’s mind worked.

A loud clang echoed as the girl dropped her kunai down and put her hands down from fighting stance, standing tall and still instead with her head looking down – a sign of surrender. “I’m risking everything, my own life, a lot of Konoha money and my assignment for this… For the lives of Masaki and Shouta… It’s worth it.” Three men came up to Mana with two more still standing in the trees, the men pulled ropes out and tied Mana up and put some weird gloves on her arms, the gloves were so tough and tight that the girl couldn’t hope to move a finger let alone form a handseal. “Her mouth too, don’t be fucking stupid, haven’t you heard about that whistling thing she does?” Jurou yelled out, one guy pulled out a rag and stuffed it into Mana’s mouth and tied it up so that the girl could barely let out a single sound, it’d take a lot of effort to hum out anything that’d do to set off her Sweet Lullaby jutsu. Mana ran her eyes through the restraints, it’d take her hours to slip out of them even if she had her hands, without even the ability to move a finger it was very much pointless.

“At least they’re carrying me…” Mana thought as her legs were tied down so hard she could barely even move them, the bandits obviously had to carry her switching the responsibility around. The bandits were trading places in carrying their tied up kidnaped magician, not that it was needed as the girl was quite lightweight. “This is so degrading…” Mana thought to herself as she tried to move in the binds to let the blood flow out a little bit better as her body was starting to get numb in multiple places. Mana looked into the night's sky, the large kidnaper who was carrying her told her not to move around too much or he'd drop her. “I just hope Masaki and Shouta are alright, would be a bummer if they couldn’t reach the settlements after I’ve given up for them…” she thought.

Posts : 677

Nothing could be heard as Shikari was sprinting down the main highway. He needed to maintain a visual of the bird so he couldn't stay hidden in the trees. There also was a need for the beautiful snipe to be able to locate him to rely intelligence to him. Although Soge couldn't speak the genius could detect what the bird was seeing. The duo have also been together look enough that they could understand each other. The intelligence that would be gathered by Soge usually isn't very much unless by written massage and she isn't very useful during combat. However, he would never give up Soge for anything. The lasting companionship between the two had stood trials of the Allied Shinobi lifestyle. Shikari could say that he loves a female...but that female also happens to be a bird.

Through the air came a flying snipe, one of the fastest species of bird in the world. The bird plunged down towards Shikari. The total time of the flight needs to be noted. Also, the distance that the bird went minus the distanced that he traveled will allow Shikari to approximately discover how far Mana would be. The genius knows the average speed of the snipe so he has all the information he needs to discover the whereabouts of Mana. A sigh of relief overcame his body but he could tell that the bird was alarmed and in a state of confusion. Shikari was grieved because he knew that he wouldn't be able to cover the distance between Mana and himself as promptly as he would be pleased with. He needed more time and this is where death usually occurs. When the backup is not able to relieve the crew swiftly, then the crew is in a lethal situation. The Nara never liked to point fingers at people unless the problem was definite. In this case, he was agitated that he was prepared early in the morning and couldn't be dispatched until hours later. Of course, he is assuming all of this by impressions left by his colleague but she usually doesn't disappoint. It would be shocking to him if there wasn't anything wrong to have troubled the snipe. He could complain and he'd like to, but he knows that complaining will not solve anything. The only thing to do is continuing trekking towards his destination.

The familiar charka was in sensory range, the sapphire blue charka was a sure indicator that Mana was still alive. A smile appeared on Shikari's frustrated face, at least he knew that she was still alive for the time being. The charka was also approaching him so he was glad to detect more positive news. He could indicate how long it would take for the two to meet. There still was no time to waste or to be relaxed because he knew that she still may be in danger. Information for this mission is a blur for Shikari, being a shinobi; he can only expect the worst. This mission is especially irritating because of the lack of intelligence. The genius is all for intelligence, he NEEDS it. This mission will prove how he can gather intelligence and how we will respond to the lack of intelligence. Luckily, Shikari is an intelligence gathering machine, the only thing that could have made him superior would being apart of the lovely Yamanaka clan and learning their clan techniques. After a short sprint, Shikari hid amongst the shadows and trees. Soge was further down the highway, standing in the middle of the road on a slight hill. The duo is always prepared and always use each other to complete minimization. Shikari had his eyes set on Soge and if the bird flew to the left side of the highway, then it meant that Mana is safe. If she blew towards the right side of the highway, then it means that the magician is in danger. His heart was beating fast, he was trying to control it but he knew that everything over the last day has been arbitrary. The charka was getting closer and closer, oh how he yearned for the snipe to fly to the left. With each heart beat, the charka came a foot closer and closer...and closer. His fierce eyes were settled on the snipe...waiting...to...fly.

Her wings flapped and she fluttered in the air. In the moment, she looked so pretty with her collage of various colors. The sight really calmed down Shikari as he knew what he had to do. He let out a chuckle and a smile as he watched the bird fly towards the left side of the highway. He caught himself smiling, which made him smile even more. It seems like Soge always knows what to do to make the jonin happy. He had sensed small amounts of charka around the Mana and he can now assume they are enemies. At this point, the small charka around Mana must have been Kurantai. They must have got to her before he did. Bandits are weak creatures, mentally and physically. There are only two things that ALL bandits want and that is ryo and women. The jonin got out of his shrub and took the center stage of the highway. He too had to mentally prepare himself for this jutsu for the effects can be devastating. He hoped that Mana wouldn't speak much of it. A simple hand seal and a cloud appeared in front of him....'Sexy no Jutsu!' He said in a questionably confident voice. He was already a sexy man, so his sexy no jutsu technique is quite impressive. The transformation had it all, the perfect sized breast, the nice ass, the beautiful eyes and smiles. Her naked skin, crashing against the wind and her hair dancing in the breeze. Even Shikari himself would have fallen in love with such a beauty. He would only need to wait a few seconds before the bandits ascended over the hill to be capable of laying their eyes on the wonderful nude Shikari. It might not have seemed like it, but Shikari was shivering from embarrassment in his own skin as a...sexy...nude...mistress.

War Locker

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

It would’ve been stupid to assume that Mana had given up at any point. While to her the situation where the bandits voice their demands and either get their money or piss the wrong people off and get taken out works out either way, the magician would waste a lot of time while doing that. Her secret assignment was to stop a ruthless and untrackable killer, which meant that every second wasted playing damsel in distress was also time wasted on the expense of innocent people lives. There was nothing that made Mana more troubled than a possibility that the killer was roaming the Kirigakure streets, looking for the next victim while she was tied up by the worst kind of scum. Even if she managed to slip out of the restraints at the moment the group was approaching another open area, possibly another small settlement which meant more innocent lives they could exploit…

“You thirsty?” the bandit that was carrying Mana asked, the girl nodded gently trying to see if her mouth rags would come off. If she found out that she gets the restraint taken off for water and manages to slip her hand out of the glove she can place all of the bandits into a genjutsu. Still she’d be tied up but it’d give her enough time to do something like use her free hand to slip a knife out of one of their pockets. “I have to give them credit though, I’m a magician, getting out of restraints is what I do for a living… This is tied pretty good…” the girl thought to herself as the man pulled out a flask from his pouch, the leader of the group jumped back “Are you fucking stupid? That mouth is tied shut for a reason. Unless you want to drown in your own slobber leave it as it is, the brat won’t die for a while, we’ll think of ways to keep her alive. After all our payment depends on it.”

The magician wondered if the group knew about Mana’s assignment, if they did then they would’ve been pretty smart to kidnap her, after all Konoha needed her in Kirigakure badly, they’d be willing to pay any sum of money for that. If they didn’t and just kidnapped her based on an instinct to kidnap any celebrities traveling around it’d have been a different matter entirely. Based on their chakra levels the second case was much more likely. “You just relax, girly. Treat it like a vacation, we’ll make it as comfortable as possible for you for the duration of our companionship…” the large sack of muscle and bones that was carrying the girl laughed out. Mana wanted to ask him to not to shake her so hard as he was walking but she couldn’t over the tied mouth. “This guy is going to mess my hair up…” the girl thought.

Mana tried to weaken the restraints of the glove around her fingers. It reminded a lot of having your hand dug up in sand, some sort of particles got in the way of moving her fingers but the girl guessed that if she kept working those fingers, moving them sideways left and right it’d eventually loosen up and maybe she’d even manage to slip it out. The advantage of this situation was that she was not drowning or in a wooden coffin which was set on fire or had swords stabbed in it every couple of seconds, the disadvantage were just the stupid bumps in the road because the bandit that was carrying her had quite large feet and was very tall so his walking was pretty rough and jumpy.

“I need to do this before we reach the settlement… I can’t let them have any more leverage on me, no more stupid games, I’ll take em out quick and hard… Stupid glove!!!” the magician tried to work her hands out of the glove but it just didn’t work that well. It almost felt like it was built for containing ninja and preventing them from doing handseals. However Mana’s struggle was not in vain – small spaces started forming around the fingers almost similarly to how twisting a finger in the sand leaves a wider hole. “As great as I’m doing I’m still not going to do it in time…” Mana thought and then to her surprise the glove slipped down completely and fell down on the ground with a thud. Her hands were still tied up with more knots than these bandits could probably count to but she at least had a small rise of morale.

Suddenly the bandit leading the group turned around and walked up to the large bandit, the whole group stopped in confusion looking over what their leader had decided to do now. The man walked some distance past the group and picked the construction up from the ground. He walked up to Mana and slapped her with a backhand slap. “I have no idea how did you get your hand out of something that was build specifically for containing ninja but I have to warn you, do not force us into a corner girl. I value my freedom and life far more than I value whatever amount of money I would get for you.” The man pulled out a knife and put it to the girl’s throat, “If you try something funny, I will simply wait for another big time celebrity passing through this road, a smarter one. And if I hear this glove falling off again, I’ll weld it to your flesh…” Jurou spoke.

“Hey, boss, what the Hell is that!” one of the bandits shouted as they pointed onto some figure just down the hill. Mana lifted her head up just to take a peek. She couldn’t believe it but it looked like… A nude woman? “Man, Water Country is so weird…” Mana thought to herself. “Kogou, hold onto the girl as if she was your life, this is not a metaphor…” the leader of the group pointed at the large bandit that was holding the girl. He commanded one of the bandits to stay with the man holding Mana and took the rest of the group to walk up to the woman “Let’s see if she wants company… I mean she’s clearly asking for it, isn’t she?” the man laughed out sarcastically as he rushed towards the nude lady with his men. “Shit… I need to help her, I can’t just let that woman get violated in front of my eyes…” Mana grunted to herself from inside her mouth rag, “Shush, don’t make boss angry, Sorceress, I love your shows, wouldn’t like to see you die…” the big guy whispered to her ear.

Posts : 677

The young jonin could see the bandits coming and they had Mana. From where he was standing he could see that she was already being subdued, though what confused Shikari was the fact that she seemed to have a large amount of charka. 'These bandits can't be like another bandits.' He thought to himself as he continued to watch the actions of the bandits. A smile appeared as he noticed the bandits begin their rushing down the hill. 'Am I not attractive enough to bring all of them?' He thought, how disappointing. Well, he got the one that he really wanted. The one who seemed to be the boss, the one who seemed to be calling the shots and the one who was the most nicely dressed. As the bandits started to get closer, he smiled at them. He didn't smile because he was welcoming them, but because they were about to become prey to his plan. They must have only been a couple meters away. His right hand at his chest, "Hidden Cloud No Jutsu" he said while forming handseals. Though many other shinobi wouldn't take this approach making Shikari unique. The clouds came and concealed the placement out Shikari...the true Nara. He was no longer a nude busty girl but a merciless shinobi. The confused bandits watched as their vision faded to the point where they couldn't see their own hands. The Nara knew that his clan technique would be weakened in a cloud, so he did two back hand springs to exit the cloud. Now standing outside the cloud, he was prepared to kill.

The silent shinobi did another set on headseals within a second, his hand speed was truly marvelous and impressive. He has always wanted to challenge a Uchiha to see if they would be able to follow his hands. He wouldn't be surprised if he had a pair of the fastest hands in his village. These daft hands were useful for these purposes, swift ambushes and cunning counter attacks. "Kageyose no Jutsu!" The thrill of a fight was coming back to him. The Water Country seems like a dangerous place and this might be the place for the young Shikari. Only months ago, he was contemplating being a shinobi because he had to take lives in the name of peace. All shinobi are hypocrites and he felt his heart darken. However, the purpose of the Allied Shinobi has really brought out chance for peace. He now feels nothing for the enemies of the Allied Shinobi and they too, will soon feel...nothing.

Countless tendrils appeared outside the cloud. The power was pumping through his veins, the ability to perform such a powerful jutsu was motivating Shikari. He was feeling the moment, the potential intensity of this situation. He was so prepared to take these lives in the name of peace. How far would he go in the name of peace? Several tendrils stood in front of him for his own protection but other tendrils went into his ninja pouch. It took a genius to be able to calculate and direct each tendril to a certain position and job. So much effort was put into this jutsu but Shikari could use it with ease but there are Nara masters who can perform these perfectly. The tendrils gathered shuriken that were hurled towards the bandits that Shikari could detect using his sensory abilities. The shurikens would literally be hurled twice as fast doing much more damage. The flying shurikens would cut through the cloud and land on their intended target. Shikari was generous enough to give each bandit three shuriken. He could hear the thuds of the shuriken landing on the bandits chest. "Hmmph"

Within seconds of the cloud appearing, the three bandits were hit by shuriken. There was no time for Shikari to waste. He focused on his targets, they may have been far away but he knew that he could do it. The tendrils started to equip themselves with kunai, a more accurate weapon. He took a deep breathe and focused. His hands were tense by his side and even his legs were flexed. He flung the kunais using the tendrils with the hope that the kunai could hide in the cloud then appear to late for the bandits to dodge. This was extremely risky but Shikari was really feeling the moment, he had his blood pumping and his confidence level was off the chart. Each bandit had three kunai going towards them but the one holding Mana had them more centralized towards his abdomen to prevent Mana from being hurt. He was certain that he was going to produce results.

Spoiler:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana knew that something had to be done, this poor woman could’ve been a survivor of a large fire or another accident. She played along with the bandit’s rules for long enough, had they not threatened another life she would’ve probably kept playing. The magician started to move her fingers again to slip out of the containment gloves, if she managed to slip out of them and remove the rag covering her mouth she’d be pretty much set for escape. As skilled as these bandits were in containing Mana for a while these bindings were not perfect, the girl would have no right to be a magician if she couldn’t break out of them. Now that the bandits were distracted by that busty naked lady there couldn’t have been a better opportunity to do so. The two bandits that stayed with her couldn’t have cared less about her delicate attempts to escape. All they cared about was that naked woman and jealousy of not being there with their comrades. “Men…” the girl thought to herself as the work on removing the containment glove was progressing.

As the first glove slipped off a lot faster than it did before, seeing how Mana had some additional motivation to remove it, the trickster noticed that something odd was going on with the party that went on to check the naked lady out. It was almost like some sort of fog was forming around the place it got thicker and thicker by the second to the point where the location was completely invisible due to the thickness of the fog. “Shit! What if these guys are getting ambushed… I don’t know if the ambushing party is friendly or not, they could be ANOTHER group trying to kidnap me… That makes me feel really wanted.” Mana thought to herself as the second glove slipped off. Her heart froze as the large bandit that held her turned at her to check what the sound was all about but then turned back at the scene downhill immediately.

The thing that made the large bandit focus his attention on the fog was the sound of fighting and grunts of pain. “Should we run to help them?” the other bandit asked, “I don’t know, the boss said to watch the Sorceress, I don’t want to piss him off.” To be honest the girl felt a little sad about the larger bandit, she kind of felt like he wasn’t that bad of a person just a very dumb one. The girl tried to shout for the two bandits to run, if they ran the opposite direction they’d be going towards the port that had the boat that was supposed to take her to Kirigakure and the magician could free herself in the meantime. From the sounds of it, it didn’t look like whoever was attacking the bandits cared much about if they lived or died.

It was so unfortunate that Mana’s shouts for the bandits to run were roughed out by the stupid gag she had, the trickster desperately wanted it gone. The girl put her tongue against the rug and pushed it at the mouth binding as hard as she could to loosen it up and leave one lighter loop on it, she them put her mouth at the handle of the larger bandit’s shoulder piece that protected his shoulders – the only piece of armor he wore. After pulling pretty hard the mouth bind went off and the girl spat out the gag. She tried to tell the bandits to run but it didn’t work, her mouth was just too dry and out of air, it took her several moments to catch enough breath and to get her mouth to speaking shape. The poor bastards didn’t really have those few moments.

Just as the magician took the air in to shout for the two idiots to run she saw kunai flying at them from the cloud of fog, they were incredibly fast but there was a little bit of distance between them, the girl swung her head to hit the large bandit that was holding her, the big guy probably wasn’t expecting it because he staggered sideways with the kunai scrapping his side instead of piercing his abdomen as intended. It was still a disabling and significant injury even for a fat and large bastard that this bandit was but at least he should’ve stayed alive. As Mana stood up and looked at the other one she realized that he may not have been that lucky. The poor guy had three kunai in his chest, abdomen and one cutting into an artery in his shoulder, if it was removed the guy would’ve died almost instantly. Whoever was doing this didn’t care much about the lives he took.

One kunai was still lodged into the large bandit’s side, “I’ll borrow this…” Mana mumbled for the big guy who was grunting in pain and removed it to cut her hands and then eventually all the other ropes that held her. She could’ve removed them more practically but she didn’t feel in an artistic mood right now. “Unless those guys get help right now they’re all dead.” Mana thought to herself as the big guy took the least damage and could’ve probably survived without any serious medical help, the other one was in critical condition and from what she heard the ones in the cloud of fog were most likely dead. The girl’s hands flashed through some handseals and shot out some bright sparks in the air, luckily they could’ve been seen in a settlement nearby because there was nothing she could’ve done to help any more, she was way too weak to carry everyone there and there was also that person who killed them whose intentions Mana was still not sure of. “Sorry, big guy, you weigh twice as much as I do, I can’t really move you to the settlement especially with that fog with that murderous psycho in our path.” Mana smiled to the man who was writhing in pain.

One second Mana wanted to just turn and leave for the port, it was only a one day walk from here and a lot of that distance was due to the bandits going the opposite direction. But then she felt sorry for the two injured bandits and decided to wait around to see if the help from the settlement reaches them before the ambushing party decides to come and finish up the job. If it did Mana would do her best to keep the two alive even if she’d be risking her secret mission in Kirigakure. If the ambushing party was willing to leave the two for the settlers to take care of she’d just be on her way to the port. It’s only a day or two of sailing to Kirigakure from where she was.

[EXIT]

I grant Rookie permission for slight godmodding towards my character such as claiming that she walked a certain direction (namely to the port), if Rookie chooses to interact with her and not let the bandits receive help she’ll also express gratitude. I’m making this post my exit post because I want to finish my damned traveling topic already, I also let him do obvious stuff like anything that is needed to advance the plot. Very Happy

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