Organisation Intel {A-Ranked Mission - C}

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

| Pre-mission brief... |

Spoiler:

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| Mission NPCs... |

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Name: Ookami (Real name unknown)
Letter Rank: B
Specialty: Fuuinjutsu, Ninjutsu
Elemental Affinities: Doton, Katon
Combat Style: Ookami is a mid-range fighter who is often forced into close combat by his lazy 'leader' Issen. His wolf-like appearance intimidates many, and the teeth he has aren't just for show. He fights dirty, and will sink to any means in order to win a fight no matter how shameless it may be. His specialisation in Fuuinjutsu makes him the group's sealing expert, and for this reason alone he is a valued member for their 'bigger picture' plan involves this directly. He has little to no comprehension or care for chakra he is using, and thus spams many techniques at once to try and overwhelm an opponent.
Special Characteristics:
Name: Improved Endurance
Rank: C
Type: Physical
Physical Requirements: N/A
Training Requirements: A 600 word training post is required to gain this special characteristic.
Description: The first level in the art of endurance accessible to those who have undergone intensive training. The possessor of this talent has an increased endurance of 20% which makes them slightly tougher. They can withstand greater damage that could otherwise stun them in pain, and continue fighting.
Name: Doton Prodigy
Rank: C
Type: Chakra Based
Physical Requirements: Must have Earth Affinity
Training Requirements: A 200 word training post is required to gain this special characteristic.
Description: A trait given to ninja who posses a natural talent for earth manipulation and has trained thoroughly to improve their skill. Their power over the earth element becomes so talented that the ninja is now considered a young prodigy in the wind element. Because of this, the user's earth techniques are 20% stronger with an increase in strength, durability and power.
Name: Large Chakra Capacity
Rank: B
Type: Chakra Based
Physical Requirements: Must have Increased Chakra Capacity
Training Requirements: A 1200 word training post is required to gain this special characteristic.
Description: The ninja continues their mediation and physical training which further increases their chakra capacity. Ninja with large chakra capacities have an increased chakra of 35CP
Description: Perhaps the one who looks the most intimidating of the group, Ookami is very loud and openly threatening to everyone he meets. He also has great perversions in regard to most things female. He is subservient only to Issen, but is otherwise really unruly and comes over as a monster.
Jutsu:

Spoiler:

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Name: Takai (Real name unknown)
Letter Rank: B
Specialty: Genjutsu, Eijutsu
Elemental Affinities: Fuuton, Suiton
Combat Style: Takai is a long-range fighter who supports his partner Ookami in battle. He is proficient in Genjutsu that he takes great pride in, and his Medical Ninjutsu is invaluable to the team. He will avoid hand-to-hand combat at all costs, and as such his evasion is overall quite good. He also has the ability of a Sensory Ninja which only aids him in avoiding all forms of physical fighting.
Special Characteristics:
Name: Sensor Ninja
Rank: B
Type: Chakra Based
Physical Requirements: N/A
Training Requirements: A 1200 word training post is required to gain this special characteristic.
Description: The ninja awakens a dormant talent they've possessed and develops a new type of sensory. Now being classified as a "Sensor Ninja" the ninja is capable of detecting the presence of other people through their chakra. A sensor can detect their targets from a great distance which can extend 100m, as well as differentiate the characters by their signature chakra alone. They can pin-point any individual within their sensory limit even if they are surrounded in a crowd and even locate other sensor ninja. A sensor can determine a persons location, chakra capacity, chakra type, and even emotions when in a locating position.
Name: Evasiveness
Rank: C
Type: Physical
Physical Requirements: None.
Training Requirements: A 600 word training post is required to gain this special characteristic.
Description: The ninja trains their ability in more advanced evasive maneuvers which serves the purpose of avoiding enemy attacks. The survivability of the ninja increases as they are now capable of executing quicker flips and dodging basic forms of physical attacks by reading an enemies movement.
Name: Yin Release.
Rank: D-S.
Type: Chakra Based.
Physical Requirements: Must have Genjutsu specialty.
Training Requirements: 700.
Description: Genjutsu is a notably skillful specialization that requires great intelligence and chakra control in order to perform. Those who have attained this special characteristic have met those criteria which has allowed them to take their illusions to the next plane. Genjutsu fittingly falls under the broad category of Yin Release and it has been revealed that those with superior talent in Genjutsu likewise have greater mastery in Yin Release. This type of mastery allows them to more accurately manipulate the victim's chakra flow to their brain and stimulate more powerful illusions, making you're illusions more realistic and bypassing a persons perception. Because of your more powerful illusions, it now takes double the chakra cost to perform a Kai Release than it normally would for targets.
Description: Takai, although extremely sadistic, is the quieter, less willing one of the group. He doesn't openly speak very much, and if he does it is mainly to cause pain to others rather to make an actual input. He takes delight in seeing others experiencing great pain, and as a huge contrast to this he is a Medical Ninja, the only one within the group's organisation.
Jutsu:

Spoiler:

Mission... START!

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

When she had been told that the Mountain Country was deserted and barren, Kimiko didn’t really expect this. It really was… devoid of life. After she crossed the border into the desolate place, the comforting sound of trees swaying ever so slightly in the wind stopped. There were no trees here to sway or otherwise. Nature seemed to have been left in the lands that had been passed in order to get here; no birds chirped or flew, there wasn’t the occasional croak of a far-off frog, no scampering of rabbits. The sky up above had clouded over the sun, leaving it almost black the further she climbed up the mountain road. Deep grey mountains rose up and down as far as the eye could see, of varying heights, but all of which worthy of their status of being called ‘mountains’. There weren’t any grassy hills or slight slopes, it was all harsh, grey rock or brown dirt. ‘What on earth happened here?’ She thought to herself while walking onwards, feeling a chill start to creep up her spine the further she climbed. The temperature was rapidly beginning to drop, and even though she was fairly well covered, she was still starting to feel the cold. And that was a contradiction in terms, because Katsumi Kimiko never felt the cold. She wasn’t sure whether it was the foreboding chill she had from knowing she would soon be face-to-face with the dangerous men of her memories, or an actual harsh drop in temperature that made goose pumps prickle at her skin. The hairs on her arms stood on end, and the fine hairs at the back of her neck too. Not being entirely certain of what kind of chill she suffered from, she pulled out a long black cloak from her rucksack just in case. She clasped it about her shoulders and pulled the hood up over her head, grateful of the familiar warmth and scent that was on this garment of clothing. She wasn’t the stealthy type, of course, and didn’t actually own any cloaks or the like, so this had to be borrowed from somebody. It was, as a matter of fact, made for a male of a taller, stockier build than her, but it fitted her fine to say it was of course a loose garment. It belonged to Toshiro.

Thoughts of her beloved had soothed her on the journey here, and these self same thoughts soothed her now as well. If only for a little while, but it was better than feeling on edge and overly cautious like a closely coiled spring. She realised that she couldn’t lull too far into a sense of security, especially not now she was moving off the main road (if it could be called as such) onto a mountain pass. It was narrow and precarious at best, paved with loose gravel probably chipped off the mountain at its side. She felt her ears pop to adjust to the altitude while she continued her climb, focusing straight ahead and not looking down. She wasn’t even scared of heights, but just the thought of realising how high up she was made her stomach churn dangerously. Especially since uncharacteristically she hadn’t eaten much since the beginning of her journey four days past. She ate only when she knew it was necessary, and had barely touched her rations. She had felt too uneasy to even think about eating, let alone gorging on the food she had brought with her. Her throat suddenly felt rather dry, so she swallowed a mouthful of water from one of her numerous water bottles and returned it to her rucksack.

‘How far in this hell hole have they come?’ She thought to herself, looking around and still not glancing down at even her own feet, let alone the sheer drop on her right-hand-side. She followed the mountain pass around the mountain, making a mental note to look out for shady-looking caves and the like. Such places would provide likely hiding places for the two men she was looking for, and whatever others they had managed to gather for an all-out war against Konohagakure. She reassured herself that not many people could be here, for even though it was vast, sustaining them all for such a long amount of time would be a huge drain of money and what little resources this place offered. She had seen a couple of makeshift wells on her climb, but nothing much else. As she realised previously, there were no wild animals around here, for they had no forests to hide and hunt in, or be hunted, so not much of an ecosystem was happening around these parts. Whatever wars had been waged here had truly savaged what harsh land there had been in the first place to the point of it being inhospitable, alright. Yama no Kuni had never been known for its wonderful fertile lands, but at least there had been woodland here at some point. She started to curse when the realisation dawned on her that she would have an increasing lack of hiding places with no trees to blend in with. ‘Looks like rocks will have to do.’ She thought, glancing at the towering mountain on her left that she was currently ascending. At least there was indeed plenty of rocks and mountains at her disposal. And with her inconspicuous garb, she wouldn’t draw much attention beyond a second-glance. All identification of herself had been removed; she took off her Konohagakure headband further back down the trail, and had stuffed it inside her rucksack. With this cloak, she would look like a male as opposed to a female as well.

So with some luck, she would manage to hide and be sneaky as much as she pleased. She was too apprehensive to even think about how much she hated partaking in these kinds of missions, and that was saying something. Usually she managed to whine and complain about being chosen for missions that didn’t suit her type of combat until the cows came home and left again, but at present she just wasn’t in that mindset. Instead, she was debating as to whether she felt determined, or scared out of her wits… only in a calm way as opposed to the raving mad way.

She rounded the mountain on the left side, and looked ahead on the track to find that she was of course alone. She hadn’t seen any caves or hidey holes yet either, so she only had to assume that her targets of observation were further in the country. Something about having to venture much further into what seemed like the deepest darkest pits of hell made Kimiko feel even more uncomfortable than she already was. Now, who knows why that could be? That aside, she sucked it up and continued on the path she was already walking on, starting to realise the magnitude of her situation at present. She was many miles away from Konoha, having left her Weapons there due to the nature of this mission, and if she got lost she would most likely die. If she was found out by Ookami and Takai, she would most likely die. So far, things weren’t shaping up to be tickety-boo, exactly, and rather the opposite. But she couldn’t let that dissuade her from her goal. She had waited too long to reprimand those two, and to give them the same fate as their old leader, which was what they deserved. She resented the fact now that this mission was one of surveillance than one of action; she would prefer to run in all guns blazing and kill all that she could without dying herself. That would be more fun and exciting than watching the scary brutes from miles away in order to not get caught.

That being said, she sighed silently to herself and pressed onwards, keeping a keen ear out for anybody or anything that she might come across. And with that she pressed on, keeping close to the side of the mountain for fear of toppling over the edge on the other side, and so that she would remain hidden from oncoming hostiles should there be any. Subconsciously she slipped a kunai into her hand, hidden underneath her cloak perfectly. With that… she felt somewhat ready, at least.

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

Having continued her hike up into the mountains, Kimiko had stopped at a levelled out rocky ‘plate’ of sorts about three-quarters up the mountain she had been climbing until this point. A few boulders and scattered rocks were the only cover offered here, but she hadn’t found any hollowed out caves or anything else that was more promising than making camp in the open air, so this place would have to do. She treaded carefully on the brittle rock, expecting it to crack and crumble beneath her light footsteps. Needless to say, she was relieved when she learnt that it was sturdy and more than capable of holding her weight. She settled on the far side of the plate of rock, behind the largest boulder so that if anybody did walk this way, they wouldn’t see her from either side. It was confusing with the lack of sunlight what time of day it was, but she assumed that it must be nearing the day’s end because the skies had darkened even further, should that have been possible. She laid out the sleeping mat that she had brought in order to protect her from the harsh surface she had chosen to sleep on, sitting on it and gazing ahead at the large, grey shapes looming up ahead that reminded her of a long, long trek that she still had to face. Considering the fact that she had barely scratched the surface of this barren land, she still had a fair way to walk in order to try and get to the mid-way point of the country at least. She had no idea how far Ookami and Takai had settled in the country, or where, so she had to search and try her best to anticipate from what she knew about the two men, although that knowledge in itself was shaky at best.

From her rucksack, she pulled out two pale brown files with shoddy pictures attached in the top corners; profiles of the men she was to be tracking. The pair looked so different to when she had seen them in the forests of the Fire Country, and it became obvious that these pictures had been taken while they were still village shinobi. Ookami’s teeth hadn’t always been sharpened to the point of them appearing to be taken straight from a shark’s mouth, and it became obvious that they had been sharpened as such through artificial means for one reason or another. Here he had the same colour dark brown hair, and almost forgiving onyx-coloured eyes. The transformation of what he had become was… scary to say the least. Takai was still gaunt of face and his eyes still held that eerily vacant look, but he too didn’t look like a deadly criminal. His hair was of a lighter brown than his partner’s, and his eyes were a pale green in colour. Both of them wore Konoha headbands in their respective photos around their foreheads, and they both seemed… happy. What on earth had gone wrong? She had already read both profiles to death, if the well-thumbed pieces of paper gave anything away, but skimmed through them now to refresh her memory. Ookami, whose real name was actually Uramani Eisho, was aged thirty four now, and thirty two when he had first appeared to terrorise Kimiko. Takai’s real name was Naisada Reishi, and he was five years junior to his partner in crime, being twenty nine years old now, and twenty seven when he nearly killed the ebony-haired Jounin now hot on their tail. There was no other information about the organisation that was dug up, and nothing about possible followers. The only mental pointers there were, was the fact that so far, the three members that she knew about, had hated Konoha for something. The key was probably during their past, and whether there had been ‘wrong-doings’ in their eyes of how Konoha conducted itself with them as individuals. Kimiko knew from Komo’s knowledge of why Issen wished to get revenge on his own home village, and that was because his parents had been murdered by the village. As it turned out, Issen’s parents had been spies for many different countries at once, and committed numerous atrocities in their time as Konoha shinobi; and thus their murders were justified to anyone from the outside looking in. But from that point onwards, it threw Issen off the rails, and that was when his journey to get revenge on Konoha began.

Komo had been Issen’s sensei, and after the death of the boy’s parents, there was an apparent change. The main question Kimiko had asked of her companion at the time was why he had defected from the village, and his answer related to the death of his wife. Said woman was the thing keeping him anchored to sanity at the time, and with her untimely death at the hands of an undiagnosed disease, Komo felt that he was unable to see the good in his own village anymore and left. It seemed that through his sensei’s defection from the village, Issen took that example and followed in Komo’s footsteps. Looking back on it, the now-Sand Nin under a new identity said that he would never have left Konoha, and it was a stupid mistake he made out of grief. Kimiko could identify with doing stupid things out of grief; she had considered taking her own life to join her mother wherever she had come to rest, and many others did similar things, or actually followed their morbid plans through. In Issen’s case, however, it seemed to be more of a mental health issue as opposed to anything about grief. By all accounts, his parents had been abusive towards him and beat him on a daily basis, being ultimately extremely harsh to the boy. So he would have nothing to grieve about. Perhaps he was looking for something to blame for his unhappiness at the village, at the world and all the rest of it, and he rolled with it and his madness. It was impossible to ask the man himself, for he had been dead for two years now since Kimiko and Komo put him in the shallow grave that he deserved.

The ebony-haired girl had already read through Ookami and Takai’s respective histories as detailed on paper, but couldn’t find anything that would give them reason to hate Konoha. Both of them had good lives as shinobi; graduating aged ten for Ookami, and eleven for Takai, becoming a Chuunin aged nineteen for Ookami, twenty three for Takai. In all fairness, shinobi profiles were never in depth about the life stories of individuals, which might explain why there wasn’t any enlightening material within them about why the two men might have wanted to defect from Konoha and plot its demise. Such a thought made the Katsumi almost seethe with rage, and she had to put the profiles away again to calm down. With a heavy sigh, she leant back against the boulder keeping her hidden, tilting her head back and looking at the now pitch black sky up above. ‘Now it really must be night time for the darkness to be made clear through this thick cloud…’ She thought to herself, squinting hard to try and find any stars up there that she could pinpoint. There were none. She didn’t know why she even tried to see if she could find any stars in amongst all of the dark cloud that had been present all day; perhaps a vain hope to find comfort in a regular activity she found herself doing while away from the village. Knowing that no matter where she was in the world, she was never overly far from home gave her hope for returning back to Konoha alive. As of late, the missions she had been sent out to complete had scared her more and more, not in terms of objectives, but in terms of not being able to complete them. In A-Rank missions, the shinobi’s life was the price. There just seemed to be such a huge jump from B-Rank to A-Rank, and it was hard to explain. All of a sudden things became very complex, full of even more underlying threats, and harder to complete than the world’s trickiest Rubix cube.

She reached into her rucksack and brought out a ration bar, peach flavoured it said, but when she opened it and took a bite, it didn’t taste of much, if anything at all. A mixture of cereal… with a bit of smoky meat flavouring… and the tiniest hints of peach. Usually she would make a joke to herself about how she despised ration bars ever since hearing about what happened to her boyfriend and his summon, Tonbi, while they were in Amegakure training. But not tonight. She found herself wanting to get up and go home; something that she had never even considered before on a mission. Not this early into it, for sure. If the mission was dragging on and she was away from home, she would be glad to get home, but not so fast as to jeopardise the outcome of her mission objective. Right now she wanted nothing more to be held in Hinamori Toshiro’s arms, to jest about ration bars, and fall asleep alongside him. Instead she was out in freezing conditions, up on a mountainside with no stars to light the night, and not another soul in sight. She could honestly say that she had never felt so lonely before.

She was about to lay down her head on her sleeping mat to try and drift off to sleep before she heard hushed whispering sounds. At first she assumed that she was imagining things, but when she really listened hard, she knew that those were the voices of people. Human beings. Her heart started to hammer hard inside her chest, and she subconsciously placed a hand over where the organ was pumping as if to cease its rapid movement, scared that it would draw attention to her. “… but it’s dark, how are we meant to find the hide-out like this?” She heard a hushed male voice, not one she recognised. It was faint, and even if he had been speaking normally, she imagined he wouldn’t talk much louder. “Stop your complaining, Kaeru. If you’d stop being so pathetic and just let me light a torch…” The voice that responded was gruffer, much more agitated and gravelly in its pitch and tone. Whoever it was sounded like they belonged in such a place as Yama no Kuni with all the mountains, rock and gravel. “No, Tsuyoi! No Tsuyoi, no! We cannot light a fire! We’ll draw attention to ourselves!” The soft voice that belonged to the man named Kaeru sounded adamant and extremely desperate, almost begging. A snort of laughter was heard from the man named Tsuyoi, and a slight cracking was heard. A flint striking a stone, perhaps? “And who might we draw attention to, Kaeru? The rocks?” A fire flickered into life wherever the two men were walking; Kimiko could see the burning orange glow flickering on the rocks around where she was sat behind a large boulder, out of sight. The rest of the men’s conversation drowned out with their voices as they walked away into the distance, and even now the young woman’s heart wouldn’t stop beating as if it were trying to escape from her chest.

‘You’ve alerted more than rocks, you careless pair…’

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

With such a quickness that could have been described as a careless haste, Kimiko had packed up all of her belongings once more and was on the move. She kept a keen ear out for the familiar voices of the two men who had been talking before, moving quietly through the shadows as not to draw any attention to herself. She pressed her back flat to the harsh rock of the mountain beside her, looking around the side to have a gander at who might be present ahead, if anybody. Luckily for her, the two men with their glowing beacon of a small torch were still in front, and moving at a leisurely pace. She could easily catch up with them and follow where they were headed. And she did just that, keeping close to the mountain and still refusing to look down at the sheer drop on the other side. Distracting herself now could mean death, and it would be very distracting indeed if she happened to look down and freeze up with fear at how high above ground level she was. She had never been scared of heights or had vertigo or any sort, but something about being high up on a rocky mountain ridge where avalanches were commonplace was just a little bit un-nerving… Moving quickly, silently and with a sure-footed nature, she soon managed to catch up to the two men in front. Now she could take in small details about their appearances, even if she was keeping a fair distance away. Her feline-adjusted eyes worked well in gloomy conditions, and she could pick out key features about both men from here. One was small for a male, standing shy of 5’2” by her estimate. He had long hair of an unknown colour, tied at the bottom in twin tails. He wore a long blood red cloak, trimmed with what appeared to be green. The other was a direct contrast, standing anywhere between 6’1” and 6’5”; he really did seem to rival the mountain he was walking beside. His limbs looked muscled even from here and underneath the blood red cloak he also sported. His hair was practically non-existent, being cut so short it was hard to tell where his hair stopped and the skull began. The two men really were the complete opposites of one another, and the Konoha Jounin had no doubt that they would have specialities that complimented each other to boot. If she knew this mystery organisation well enough, that would indeed be the case. They teamed members together who made up for the other’s lack in skill in a particular area, such was the case with Ookami and Takai.

Even though she knew the real names of both men who were still alive, she refused to call them as such. To her, they didn’t deserve real identities and their codenames worked much better to detach herself emotionally from them. As if she could ever truly empathise with the men in the first place, of course… and no matter how hard she may try, she just couldn’t bring herself to do so. They had committed to many atrocities to be forgiven. The moment they revealed their intentions of destroying Konoha, they were black-listed in Kimiko’s eyes. She continued to follow the two men named Kaeru and Tsuyoi, keeping a safe distance from them so that they wouldn’t hear or sense her. Although she wasn’t a Sensory Ninja, she was aware that her opponents might be. Without really comprehending it in her mind, she hid her chakra signature by repressing her chakra. This would be an issue if she was aiming to do combat with these strangers, but because she was instead following them to gather information, there was no need to expend chakra.

She managed to get close enough to hear the two speak, and this way she was able to put names to the people. As she had expected, Kaeru was the small, slight one of the pair with long hair (she saw that it was green in the light of the torch). Tsuyoi was the walking mountain with such short hair that it was impossible to tell the difference between his head and locks. He did actually have hair, something that she noticed as she drew closer, and it was white-blonde in colour. She could only see their backs and not what they looked like from the front, but that was enough for now. She wasn’t about to blow her cover for this mission on two grunts from the organisation. Well, at least she assumed they were grunts because otherwise, how would they not be able to find their way back to their own hideout in the dark? It was really hard to tell, and all Kimiko had to go by were her own assumptions after all. “How long did Ouja-sama say we would remain in this god-forsaken country, Kaeru?p” Tsuyoi grunted, not at all worried about anybody overhearing him and his partner. Well, Yama no Kuni wasn’t the kind of place one would expect somebody to be. So this was justified, albeit brash and rather stupid. What surprised the ebony-haired girl was the mention of a new person, called ‘Ouja’. It was one of the many translations for ‘King’. So, was this their new leader? Had Ookami and Takai been booted out of the picture for being too weak in order to lead the organisation? She couldn’t be too sure, but listened intently for any answers given by the much more careful Kaeru. “Shush, Tsuyoi, be quiet.” The green-haired shinobi said in a voice barely above a whisper. He spoke with no sense of urgency, and his movements were much more fluid than those of his big clumsy partner. The pair of them often seemed to fight for dominance over one another, and at present Kaeru had that power. “You never know who might be lurking in the shadows…” He mused aloud, but didn’t even bother to look behind him. If he had done, he would find a kunoichi garbed all in black posing to be a man in this hostile country, aiming to follow him and his partner back to their hide-out. “Ouja-sama has said that we must remain here for another month. His plans have been pushed back by yet more new members joining our cause… so they must be trained and briefed before we even think about embarking on our mission.”

Hearing such a thing was… worrying to say the least. How many people were already part of the ‘cause’ that was this un-named organisation? How strong were they? And what was perhaps even more worrying was how little time they needed to prepare with new members joining. A month in the scheme of things was no time at all to govern an organisation and its members. The rest of the journey taken by the two organisation partners was silent, and their pursuer was just as quiet while following them. They walked for what could have been less than a few metres of a few dozen miles; it made no difference to Kimiko whose heart was currently in her mouth. She wasn’t particularly scared, but instead was more… apprehensive. She wanted to make it to this hide-out, make all the observations necessary and leave this god-forsaken country again as fast as possible. Kaeru and Tsuyoi suddenly stopped when they reached the top of the mountain where a dead-end was the only route. No other path continued to another mountaintop, or down the side of the rocky mass. There was literally nothing. The pair stood silently for the good parts of a minute or more, and just before the ebony-haired Jounin was going to give up on valuable information being given, a thick plate of rock started growing to bridge the gap between this mountain and the one next to it. Without hesitation, Kaeru and Tsuyoi started crossing the bridge. ‘What the...?’ She thought, utterly bewildered about where the bridge had sprung up from. Neither shinobi ahead of her had expended any chakra nor used hand seals, they had simply stood still in one spot. Was it a kind of jutsu that activated when it sensed familiar chakra? It was rare, but Kimiko had seen such techniques utilised before. Not wasting any time in case the bridge withdrew as soon as the pair had crossed, she followed, feeling wary because there was nowhere for her to hide now.

She ran to catch up, her footfalls making not a sound as she kept her body streamlined while she ran. When she reached the other side, she immediately hid in the shadows of the new mountain. What surprised her was that Kaeru and Tsuyoi did not even check behind them to see if they were being followed, or whether the bridge had been withdrawn at all. ‘They’re very confident that nobody else is around.’ She thought to herself, beginning to move after them once more, keeping to the shadows. She wondered how far the hide-out would be within the mountainous country, and hoped that it wouldn’t be much further. There was only so much of being secretive that she could stand for one day, and she was very much feeling the effects of being tired beyond words. She had barely slept since the day before travelling for this mission, and it was now three days after that time. Her eyes felt heavy and it was taking most of her effort to stay awake at present. Just when would they stop walking?...

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

After what seemed like an eternity, the pair stopped in front of a gaping cave mouth, whose entrance was black as pitch. Kimiko stopped abruptly behind them, hiding herself in a crevice in the cliff face and peering round the edge, chocolate eyes ever-vigilant even if they’d rather be closed in a peaceful slumber at present. Tsuyoi grunted in a way that could be described as a non-verbal greeting of sorts, and stepped forwards into the cave, his much smaller companion trailing after him. As they entered, the entrance way lit up with torches placed on either side of the cave’s mouth, as if by magic, or by Katon jutsu. One of the two for certain.

As quickly as they had walked into the cave, they soon disappeared within its depths and the torches went out. Kimiko realised that she had been holding in a deep breath that she quickly exhaled, feeling panicked now more than ever. She had no idea where she was, and no light to see anything. It was still too dark for her to be able to see with natural light, and using her Katon jutsu to light the way was too risky. Whoever was inside the cave would be alerted to her presence, and that would defeat the object of her whole mission; to observe, and remain undetected. That was the key. So she couldn’t make them aware that she was here whatsoever, which meant no light, no sudden movements, and no speaking. She slid down the cliff face, sitting with her head lolling back against the cool, hard surface. It was strange how she suddenly felt so tired, especially after not sleeping for so long and continuing on adrenaline alone. It was just inconsiderate for her body to decide that the most pivotal moment of the mission would be the time that she wanted to sleep. Plain inconsiderate of her body, how dare it do such a thing! Her thoughts on the matter almost made her chuckle, but she managed to hold her tongue. Her eyes kept falling shut without her even realising it, and after a few starts that woke her every time, she didn’t wake up again…

~~~

At least not until daylight broke in the Mountain Country. The sun crept its way over one of the huge mountains opposite the one that the Katsumi found herself sitting on top of, and shone on her eyes to wake her up rather nicely. She cracked open one eyelid and realised the magnitude of her mistake; she had literally slept on the job. What if she had been found? Luckily, she hadn’t been disturbed from the place she had fallen asleep, but it was a scary thought that she had lost control just like that. She could have groaned and smacked her forehead for being so stupid, but because one made noise and the other didn’t, she could only smack a palm to her forehead and be done with it. There was no way she’ll make that mistake again, not if she could help it, that is. She scrambled to her feet in the most dignified manner and without making a sound, and peered around the side of the crevice she had wormed her way into last night (or earlier this morning, depending on how one looked at it). Having to restrain a giggle at the way her mind processed that information in such a… mature manner, she slapped a hand across her mouth as she spotted movement near the cave. A woman of middling height walked outside into the sunlight, wearing a long cloak fashioned in red material, like those who called themselves Kaeru and Tsuyoi. In the day time, it was better to see what the cloak looked like. It wasn’t a very flattering piece of garb, it had to be said, sitting shapeless and straight on the figure of a woman. It very nearly touched the floor, only just exposing the feet of the wearer. The sleeves were long enough to completely hide the hands too, save for the fingertips. It sported a high collar trimmed with a darker red, almost like spilled blood. The woman who had chosen to venture out into the sun was smiling softly, looking at the burning orb in the sky as if she was seeing a long-lost family member, a favoured pet, or something else of high value to somebody’s heart. She then sunk to her knees and began to… pray? She murmured words like incantations, all in an alien tongue that Kimiko couldn’t understand.

“Seinaru… Seinaru… Seinaru…” An echoed voice called from the depths of the cave, and the woman looked up as if she had heard or seen a ghost. “Y-Yes?” She replied, her voice soft and high-pitched. Fear touched her onyx-coloured orbs, it was clear to see even from a distance. “Come back inside, child…” The voice spoke again, and the woman named Seinaru (another alias by the sounds of things, due to the name meaning ‘Holy’) started to her feet and turned to the cave, her face mirroring one of shock and hurt. “But… my commandments…” She started to say, but was cut off abruptly when the strange, distorted voice spoke again. “You follow me now… or did you forget that vow?” After those words, Seinaru hung her head and stole one last glance at the sun at her back before entering the cave once more. In what appeared to be a sudden, startling change, as soon as Seinaru stepped back into the darkness, her form changed to that of a hideous old woman. Kimiko’s eyes widened, and when she blinked for only half a second or less, the woman was gone again. She must have imagined such a thing; there was way that would be possible otherwise. Yes. It was her lack of sleep playing tricks on her, even in spite of her sleeping on the job.

She shrugged off the rucksack that sat on her back, and pulled out a notepad along with a pencil, prepared to write things down. She was to give a report on things to do with the organisation, after all, not come back empty handed. She tapped the pencil against her chin a couple of times while gathering her thoughts, and then started to scrawl in her ridiculously hard-to-read handwriting;

‘Day One of Observations.

Thus far, I have encountered two males that are not the original two who escaped justice four years ago. Their aliases are Kaeru and Tsuyoi, meaning ‘Frog’ and ‘Strong’ respectively. Much like Ookami and Takai, however, they are the exact opposites of one another, pointing towards the fact that they work as a two-man battle cell able to cover each other’s weaknesses in combat. By my guess, Tsuyoi is a close-range fighter with Kaeru as his support. They both wear the same cloaks; crimson overall with a dark red trim. I retained those details from seeing a woman, another member of the organisation that has not yet been named. Her alias is Seinaru, which translates to ‘Holy’, and leads me to believe through her use of prayer that she may utilise this in combat.

Note to self; research cults/ religions that may have the sun as a focal point of worship, and form changes granted by that worship.

I have learnt through tailing Kaeru and Tsuyoi that the new leader of the organisation is nicknamed ‘Ouja’, literally meaning ‘King’. And thus, Ookami and Takai may have been ousted from a position of power, meaning that this Ouja is more powerful yet again.

They will indeed prove to be powerful foes.’

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

It was hard to tell how time passed in this alien, harsh land of the Mountains. The sun rose and fell, but there was no real way to keep track of how many sunrises and sunsets happened and when. Kimiko had tried keeping count after three days, but gave up after she realised that it only distracted from her job at hand. Since witnessing the strange woman whose alias was Seinaru, she had seen few sporadic activities of the numerous members of the organisation. The only ones she knew the names of were the currently faceless leader, Ouja, the strange duo of Kaeru and Tsuyoi, and the sun worshipper Seinaru. By what she could see, the holy woman was the only female in the organisation. She tried to keep count of the members she saw as each day passed, but it was difficult to keep track at the best of times when a lot of them looked very similar. She started to guess that those with unique appearances were the focal members, and the rest who donned the red cloak were generic expendables. Of the focal members, including the leader, she counted six if she included Ookami and Takai in the numbers. What she found quite odd was the fact that she hadn’t yet seen them yet, and it made her wonder whether they were actually here or not. Maybe they were away recruiting, or maybe the new leader had disposed of them after some kind of disagreement. But the pair had definitely been sighted in this area, so she guessed that they were spending all of their time holed in the cave. It was quite fascinating that such a great volume of people managed to live in close proximity for so long without food foraging. She had seen a lot of members milling about, going on patrols to investigate the surroundings, but none of them brought back any form of sustenance. It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything to eat; the lower mountains had beasts that could be slain and cooked, there were sparse amounts of bushes with berries and other such treats of the wilderness. They just didn’t seem to need any of that. The Katsumi got through the rations she had brought for the mission and had to start living like a barbarian, a woman of the wilderness. It was a good thing that during her training away from the village with her father that she learnt how to forage properly, otherwise she could have eaten a wrong berry or mushroom and she would be history.

Some days, she would see many diverse ranges of people flooding down to do something or other, and on other days she would see one or two members at best. Kaeru and Tsuyoi seemed to be on constant patrol duties alongside a few other groups of generic members. Whereas the green-haired man accepted this duty and performed it without so much as a bad word, the bulky Tsuyoi complained loudly and slandered their leader to high heaven. From the brief words shared between Ouja and Seinaru on the first night of her observations, it was obvious that the leader wasn’t the type to take such things lightly. But Tsuyoi always managed to get away with murder, so to speak. The ebony-haired Jounin assumed that it was because he was powerful, and so was Kaeru. She was amazed that she had not yet been found, but it was probably because she kept shifting her observation locations. No matter how close she managed to get, at whatever angle, she could never see inside the mysterious cave. Torches were lit at the mouth of the cave when members returned at night time, but even then it was impossible to see any more than a foot inside the great abyss. Even during the daytime when the sun filtered its rays down on the cave directly, it remained cloaked in an eternal blackness that didn’t seem… natural. Kimiko had no idea how this could be possible, or whether she was simply imagining the sinister feeling that leaked from the cave 24/7, but it was a mystery all its own. Whereas before her observation papers had been dated as ‘Day One’, ‘Day Two’, ‘Day Three’ and so on, she had given up doing that by now. Having long since lost track of the days, and witnessing so much that she barely had enough time to write it all down meant that she had quite a few untitled reports by now. Should she care to stop and count them all, she would find that she had eleven; eleven days’ worth of reports all written by her own hand containing information that she deemed to be vital. At first, the reports were sketchy at best with guesses and estimates about the activities of the members, what their motives were, why they were gathered here of all places. As time went by, however, the reports became much more detailed.

They contained rough patterns of operation and who conducted what duties outside the cave. Seinaru, the religious woman, exited the cave every morning when the sun rose and conducted half an hour’s worth of prayer before she was reminded by the strange entity that she worked for him now. And every time she turned her back to enter the darkness of the cave, the woman seemed to shift and age into an old woman. When Kaeru emerged in the daylight for the first time, Kimiko had been shocked to her very core. She had assumed that his alias was for his long green hair, but his face… he actually resembled a frog. His eyes were large and protruded from his face by a couple of inches at least, big and black with stripes of yellow. His nose was no more than two small holes where the nostrils should be, and his mouth covered the rest of his face. At least one of his eyes was focusing in the opposite direction of where he was focusing his attention, and it rolled about like it wasn’t connected to the eye socket. It was quite un-nerving to say the least. She made due note of this strange physical appearance, and requested a search to be carried out when it came to retrieving profiles on each of these notable criminals. She would have to wait until she returned to the village for this request to be carried out, of course, but she didn’t want to forget such an important thing. Kaeru’s partner was wonderfully human, which was a relief in itself. Tsuyoi still stood above the average height for a male, no, scratch that, he was way too tall full stop. She guessed that he stood taller than her original guess, somewhere above 6’6” at the least. He had a thick-set face with a constant scowl on his lips, thin, narrowed eyes and a large nose that appeared to have been broken numerous times. It was easier to see these things in the light, and she preferred to tail certain members in order to find out as much as possible. Not many of the generic members actually spoke, however. It was only the overtly confident Tsuyoi and ignorant Kaeru that chose to speak about plans that transpired within the cave.

“Bah, I hate this stupid place. When did Ouja-sama say we were leaving? I hate it. There’s no good food, everywhere is covered in fucking rocks… all of the weak idiots do nothing but complain about everything. They’ll bail on our first mission. I know it. All of them. They’re too pathetic to do ANYTHING, let alone carry out our plan!” Tsuyoi raged one day, somewhere in between the last numbered report of Day Seven and the rest of the un-numbered ones. Every time the walking mountain complained about anything, his partner remained subdued and didn’t speak for a long time, allowing Tsuyoi to let off a sufficient amount of steam before choosing to comment. It was probably a wise move. “Now, now, Tsuyoi. You must be patient. Remember what we promised Ouja-sama? We all have to make sacrifices in order to achieve our purpose. Even if it means staying a little longer than planned in this death trap, we have to do anything and everything to make Ouja-sama’s dream come true.” The Katsumi could never bring herself to look at Kaeru’s face since she first saw it near the mouth of the cave/ base of operations for the strange organisation. Instead, she always stayed behind the pair and kept close enough to hear their speech, since they always gave so much away. And yet, they still managed to leave questions in her mind. What was this great dream that they kept talking about? When she thought about it, Issen’s dream had been to wipe Konoha off the map for all it had done to him. Did the organisation follow that prophecy?

On the morning of the eleventh day, she awoke crouched in the middle of three tall, jagged rocks situated just to the east of the cave’s mouth, in front and dangerously close to the cliff’s edge. This place had been Kimiko’s ‘base’ since arriving here on the first day, and it proved to be rather useful. None of the organisation members ventured in this direction due to the dead-end of the mountain track, and the rocks were inconspicuous enough for somebody to hide in them without being detected. At first she had been uncomfortable with being so close to the cliff’s edge, but she had long since gotten over that fear when tiredness hit her as it always did. She had been living off three or four hours sleep a night, making sure to stay awake until she was sure that all operations had ceased from the organisation for that day. Dawn was still breaking, with sunlight creeping out behind the dark clouds that always hung over Yama no Kuni. Right on cue, Seinaru emerged from the cave slowly, her eyes focused up towards the sky as they fixated on the sun. The strange holy woman didn’t seem to be aware of the dangers of such an action, and it never affected her to look directly into the sun’s glare. She sunk to her knees and began her prayers, lifting her head to the sun and then bowing her head down to the ground. She repeated this action fourteen times, Kimiko counted, all while murmuring sacred commandments for her religion. The Katsumi never heard these commandments, and they were all a jumble. She caught onto some words, like ‘light’, ‘flame’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘control’ at times, but never heard any more. Today, however, she picked up on another word, one that Seinaru practically yelled to the heavens above. “Divine!” The sun’s rays hit the woman’s pale skin, and she seemed to light on fire where she knelt. Her voice echoed throughout the mountainous region, reverberating until it faded back to nothing. A great silence followed where not even the wind howled around the jagged points and rocks formed in the land. Seinaru held her prayer pose, head thrown back with her hands clasped together in front of her chest. Her fingers were intertwined in a strange manner with the middle and ring fingers locking around each other with the rest of the appendages pressed together so tightly that the skin was white.

After taking due note of the events that had just transpired, the ebony-haired young woman watched as Seinaru got to her feet and faded back into the cave’s mouth, leaving the same impression that she was transforming into a hideous old crone. Kaeru and Tsuyoi exited soon after, mumbling among themselves with their eyes darting this way and that as if they were looking for something. They paused outside the cave, both searching with their bodies tense before they relaxed and took off on their usual morning patrol. Kimiko watched them depart, and after checking that nobody else was around to see her, she darted out of her hiding place and into the cover of more jagged rocks beside the mountain. She kept this pattern going all the way down, following close behind the strange duo up ahead. They weren’t talking as much today, which struck her as being odd. If Tsuyoi wasn’t complaining about how they had to stay in this place, he was rambling on about something else. Even Kaeru wasn’t this quiet usually. They walked in silence, both keeping their eyes on the road ahead. They crossed the strange disappearing bridge with Kimiko discretely following behind them, all without a backwards glance. They traversed down the other mountain that ‘adjoined’ to the base of operations, all the way down to the bottom and into the rocky pass that they always paused for a break in. Today, they paused only for a few moments before glancing back and beginning to make their way back up the mountain again.

As they ascended again, strange laughter echoed from a small cavern mid-way up the mountain. “Kehekehekehe…” It sounded like a wolf trying to howl through broken teeth, and it sounded terrible when it echoed back from the rocks. Both Kaeru and Tsuyoi froze in their tracks upon hearing the laugher, and after glancing at one another, they turned their attention to the small cavern. From the black hole emerged a tall, lanky figure dressed all in black. Beside him, a smaller figure much thicker set than his partner also emerged. It was from this smaller figure that the laughter was grating. “Well well, if it isn’t Froggy and Mr Rock Head.” That voice… it made the blood in Kimiko’s body run cold, and her heart began involuntarily beating ten times faster than it should. She could hear the blood pumping in her ears, and it was making her feel queasy while she remembered… the memories of that terrible face lifting, with all its filed teeth and wolfish eyes. A deadly predator. One of the men who nearly took her life four years ago. Ookami raised his face from the shadow cast about him and smirked, all of those terrible teeth on show. Blood oozed from his lips down his chin and dripped onto his black clothing. A weak, feeble moan came from the cave that he had left, sounding like the cry of a human dying. Suddenly the blood seemed much more sinister and sadistic. Beside Ookami, the black-clad figure of Takai became clear in the light too. Neither of them had changed much in terms of appearance, but they didn’t wear the crimson cloaks of their strange organisation. What did that mean? “You both have some explaining to do.” The tall man spoke in his clipped, callous tone, looking down his nose at both Kaeru and Tsuyoi.

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

Scattered Reports…

‘Day Thee of Observations.

Today I have come to realise a rough pattern for the movements of the organisation. Every morning, the team of Kaeru and Tsuyoi will depart the ‘hideout’ and walk down the two mountains, seeming to search for somebody or something. They are never alerted to my presence, which considering the fact that they are supposed to be high-ranking shinobi, is something I find very odd indeed. Maybe they were on the lookout for something specific. Both of these men are never concerned for privacy, and I have learnt a lot from them about the plans of Ouja, the currently faceless leader figure of this operation. The ‘patrols’ that these two men take roughly last for about three hours a piece, and they are sent out three times a day. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening as darkness is starting to fall. This is a rough estimate, as I have not yet been observing their movements for long enough for precise states of affairs, but since watching all of yesterday and today, it seems to be pretty frequent and true to form.

I have been racking my knowledge for any cults or religions with the sun as a focal point of worship, and cannot think of any. Seinaru, thus far the only female member that I have seen, proceeds every morning with her strange prayers, each time being interrupted with the strange entity of who I imagine to be ‘Ouja’. The female in question has never addressed the man as ‘Ouja’, or ‘leader’, but I get the impression that he holds authority in some form. My eyes do not seem to deceive me, for every time she departs back inside the blackness of the cave, her form does physically change. At first I assumed that my eyes were being unkind to me due to my lack of sleep, but now that I am more alert it becomes more and more apparent.

There is a lot that I have seen that remains unexplained. I am yet to see the earlier suspects, codenamed Ookami and Takai. They are either confined to operations inside the cave, or away from this location for an undisclosed amount of time. It is not possible that they have escaped my attention, for I have barely been sleeping to make sure all movements of the organisation are tracked without fail.

I have begun to notice that there are more members than originally expected. Typical men of middling height, all with non-descript facial features that could almost be considered identical leave the cave at sporadic timings throughout the day, all wearing the red cloaks characteristic to the other more focal members. It leads me to believe that the organisation is gathering sheer numbers as well as skilled shinobi for their cause, which still remains unknown.’

~~~

‘Day Six of Observations.

I am beginning to have trouble tracking the number of days that have gone by in this strange environment. My rations are beginning to run low, but I am otherwise in good health albeit feeling tired with the lack of sleep. There have been no developments on extra focal members aside from the ones known as Kaeru, Tsuyoi, Seinaru, Ouja, possibly Ookami and Takai.

Having relocated myself to a better spot to make observations, I have witnessed an interesting fact. Kaeru, the male whose name translates to ‘frog’, has facial deformities that live up to this alias. He has large circular eyes that protrude from his face by at least an inch or more, completely black save for a few yellow stripes in the irises. His skin appears slimy from a distance, let alone up close. Where his nose should be, two small holes replace nostrils, and his mouth stretches from ear to ear. When he talks, the mouth opens un-naturally wide as if the jaw has been unhinged. I am unsure as to whether this is a birth defect, experimentation done to himself or the effects of a jutsu of sorts. It is most possibly the latter. I am led to believe that his power comes from this strange form.

Tsuyoi, the strange frog man’s partner, is much taller than originally estimated. He stands near 7ft, an un-natural height and probably a birth defect, or physical enhancement. He is extremely muscular and in spite of the cloak, this fact is very clear. His features are all very angular, and he possesses a nose that is large and possibly broken at least four times by my guess. Everything about him screams an affinity towards close combat, and with his earth-shattering strength, demonstrated numerous times when shifting boulders almost three times his size while out on patrols, he will be a very tough opponent. Kaeru’s abilities are yet to be seen, and he is very subdued with his partner in general. He seems to be disinterested in combat and actually scolds Tsuyoi for being so violent all of the time. I can only assume that these kinds of pairings are apparent throughout the organisation for better strength in all round combat, to have a supporting and offensive type. '

~~~

‘N/A

The inevitable has happened. In a rush to avoid being spotted, I have mixed up a lot of my observation notes and have lost track of the days that have gone by. Some pages may or may not have gone missing, and I fear for my discovery at any time soon. They may not choose to notice my presence, or they may not know, but staying in such a close proximity with high-ranking shinobi out for blood is not particularly a good mix.

A lot has happened since my last reports. Today I saw at least three dozen men all being escorted to the organisation’s base of operations. They were all garbed in the crimson cloak, all of them were devoid of expression and they all lacked major special characteristics. Many had brown hair, some had black hair, but the colours weren’t too important. I am beginning to think that some kind of brainwashing is taking place. I cannot even begin to think, however, where the organisation is finding so many people to join their cause, especially when they seem to follow a special set of characteristics, or lack thereof. Kaeru and Tsuyoi bring the new recruits up from the bottom of the first mountain before the one adjoined by the strange disappearing bridge, and usually there are no more than five men at a time. But now… at least thirty six paraded up into the cave.

I am beginning to think that the possibility of me venturing inside the cave is looking ever more likely. It may be dangerous, but I will find answers there. Answers to questions that I have, and no doubt it will prove fruitful for Konoha if they were answered…’

~~~

‘N/A

I sighted Ookami and Takai for the first time today in the long time I have been stationed in the Mountain Country to observe the organisation’s movements. They seemed to recognise Kaeru and Tsuyoi as they were about to make their venture back up the mountain to the hideout. A disturbing factor I discovered while observing was the fact that the man codenamed as Ookami has resorted to cannibalism of some kind. After the four disappeared, I explored the cave that the two known men came from and found a dead woman covered in bite marks of varying depth. She was eaten alive by the looks of things. I have taken refuge now in a cave not far from the deceased woman, and am left questioning so many things.

How is it that Ookami and Takai were booted from the organisation?

Why were Kaeru and Tsuyoi so obviously intimidated by them? I have gotten the impression that the organisation members are stronger than the ex-members.

Where do all these humans keep coming from? On my travels, I have not come across a single settlement that has not been ravaged and/ or deserted.

Things here in Yama no Kuni are so more complex than they seem…’

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

Why had Kimiko originally accepted this mission? She had assumed that answers would come with the job, and that was why she was here. But nothing had been revealed apart from too many things that needed more answers. She had observed the interaction between Ookami, Takai, Kaeru and Tsuyoi and was been completely amazed. In spite of being more powerful than their predecessors, Kaeru and Tsuyoi had been completely immobilised by fear just by being in their presence. They spoke of how the plans were under way, and how they were being able to feed ideas to Ouja just as they had been ordered to do. Were the pair working as double agents? Was the leader aware of this? Just when she thought that answers would be revealed, they were placed under tight lock and key and left once more unanswered. She couldn’t quite get her head around the fact that Ookami and Takai had left the organisation. They had seemed so dedicated to get back at Konoha when they had been fighting under Issen. Maybe that was the problem. Since Issen had died, it was possible that Ookami and Takai had tried taking over the organisation only to be ousted by one much more powerful. They could have resented that fact, and left soon afterwards. But they didn’t quite want their clutch in the organisation to be purged just yet. They could be controlling Kaeru and Tsuyoi to act as their own personal puppets to pull the strings and find out more about what the new leader was doing. All of these were guesses that the Katsumi was frantically trying to make sense of, but she was failing. Dismally. Worse than that. She had been unable to move from the cave near the point that she had first sighted Ookami and Takai again, and had remained there trying to piece together all of her reports to find answers.

The cave was small, but was able to accommodate for a single person more than comfortably. She kept to the back in amongst the shadows just in case somebody paused to take a look inside and saw her there, and thus it was rather hard to concentrate on her work during the night time. Days mingled together in her growing madness, and she couldn’t even begin to understand what had made her like this. This organisation could either make or break her, she knew that much just from analysing her reports. She was so determined to bring them down, and being here, so close and yet so far from them, she could do much more than just write petty reports on the lot of them. She could actually cause damage. Sabotage. Killings. Goodness knows that was needed with all of their numbers. A battle was won by skill, that much was well-known, but numbers could cause casualties if they were overwhelming, which the numbers of this organisation most certainly were. Scarily so. She knelt over the rock that had become her desk, head in her hands while she began to arrange the reports once more in chronological order, or as close to chronological order she could get with the latter reports. It all dissolved into chaos after Day Eleven, with at least twelve more reports un-named. She couldn’t remember whether she had written more than one report on one day, or whether she had actually been here for this length of time. Twenty three days… that was nearly a month. She had been in this place for nearly a month, and she had long since been at her wit’s end with questions that couldn’t be answered. She had observed everything, absolutely everything and she was still unable to figure it all out.

What was wrong with her? This organisation would be the death of her in one way or the other, she knew it. Either they would kill her in battle, or they would kill her through this mental torture. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, closing her eyes and placing her hands atop the latest report she had written yesterday containing details about Ookami and Takai’s first sighting. Maybe she should go back to Konoha. She had tried her best here and gathered a lot of information. The Intelligence Corps could probably puzzle a lot more out than she could, so it would be worthwhile for her to go back and let them do their job. Yes. That would be what she would do. She started to stack the reports neatly, carefully and precisely, matching the edges of paper and folding them neatly to fit in her practically empty rucksack. Since she had eaten her rations, she had no food to carry around and she only kept spare changes of clothes, along with the notepad she had been scribbling in and a pen which was beginning to run out of ink. The pages she began to pack away rustled loudly, and she cursed herself for the noise. If she was quick, however, they would be packed away quicker and she wouldn’t have anything to worry about anymore. Yes. That would have to do. Her nerves were frayed and she seemed to have developed some kind of strange twitch that only happened when she was thinking too hard, or she was extremely nervous about being spotted. ‘Never again… never again… these bastards need to be killed, and I’ll happily do that. None of this though… it’s… too stressful and the responsibility… the danger… I can’t cope…’ She thought desperately, slipping while packing away one of the earlier reports and letting it slip out of her grasp. She cursed herself quietly and crawled after it to pick it up, and, much to her dismay, she seemed to have alerted the presence of someone. Footsteps that had been in motion stopped, and she heard the sound of a human nose sniffing unbelievably loudly. “What is it, Tsuyoi?” The soft voice of Kaeru broke through the deadly silence. They were close. Too close for comfort. If they walked past this cave and happened to look inside, they would see her sprawled out trying to grab a piece of paper.

She moved quickly, grabbing the paper as silently as she could and shrinking back behind a boulder, curling her body up tightly to a level that shouldn’t be deemed possible by the normal human body. Her breathing came short and shallow as she tried to calm herself down, to no avail. “Nothing. Thought I heard paper or something.” The gruff Tsuyoi grunted. The footsteps started walking again, past the cave and down the mountain again. Kimiko let out the breath she had been holding in for far too long, clutching her body with her own hands and feeling far too shaky for it to be natural. She knew that living the life of a shinobi was inherently dangerous, and she revelled in that fact. She had a reason to stay alive, and that reason was what motivated her now. Back in Konoha, she had a whole family who looked to her for guidance, and another one unbound by blood born of a bond she made with her boyfriend Toshiro. So many people gave her hope to fight, so many people made her wish to keep true to her dream and become the Hokage after finishing all the bloodshed in their land once and for all. Slowly, her shakes began to subside, and she got to her feet again with a new steadiness that she hadn’t had for the whole time she spent on this mission. She packed away her reports soundlessly and moved to the front of the cave, checking both ways to make sure it was clear. She would have to be quick and silent, for she knew Kaeru and Tsuyoi would be making their way back up the mountain too. Probably with new recruits, more of them. With every day that passed, more and more men were brought up to join this cause of theirs.

She thought about what the motive had been for this operation, something that Kaeru had voiced yesterday in his run-in with Ookami and Takai. ‘To eradicate boundaries, stop segregation and slaughter all humankind aside from the chosen. To create the perfect world from the sheer strength of our organisation.’ It had sounded good until the ‘killing of everybody’ part. She was aware that the reason of having Seinaru would be for the impregnating, she was sure of that fact. It was a… grim ideology if ever she heard one. And the gene pool was far from desirable. It seemed like this change of ideology was what had driven Ookami and Takai away, because of the fact that they were arranging for their double agents to whisper new thoughts and ideas about the destruction of Konoha to the leader. The Fire Country would be the first target for the organisation’s wrath because of the great nobility that dwelt there. Such segregation between the nobility and the rest of the normal folk was frowned upon, apparently. That meant Konoha was still on the destruction agenda, and that still meant that Kimiko was the arch-enemy of this organisation.

She watched and waited patiently for Kaeru and Tsuyoi to travel back up the mountain, and when they did, she was surprised to see only one person with them. A person, presumably a man, completely veiled in white and being led in chains. Who was this person? Kanji were written up and down his veiled outfit, but they were unreadable at this distance. Even when they walked past the cave, the kanji were too small to put together. How strange… having no time to really dwell on the fact, Kimiko made a break for it down the mountain when she was sure her foes were well out of sight and earshot. She sprinted so fast that she felt like her legs were flying. Her chest heaved painfully and her body was aching, but she didn’t stop. She skidded to a brief halt at the bottom of the mountain, pausing to look back where she had come from with a look that screamed ‘good riddance’. Just as she was about to set off once more, she heard deranged chanting, all the way up in the heavens. It couldn’t be the heavens, of course, but it seemed like it. The voices… must be coming from the highest point. The top of the mountain that the strange organisation had been situated at.

“Rengokuriso! Regokuriso! Rengokuriso!”

It was repeated, over and over, constantly in a manner that made it seem like it would never end. Rengokuriso… that… it translated to…

Ideal purgatory.

It suddenly made sense. Everything clicked together harshly inside Kimiko’s head. That was its name, the organisation’s name. It had to be. It summed up everything they fought for, and in spite of it being a real mouthful, it sounded so… hypnotic. She looked up in horror and started to walk backwards, shaking her head slowly to herself in disbelief. A reckoning was coming, gathering momentum and approaching with such a vengeance that rocked her to the very core.

Age : 28 Posts : 3640

‘The last day.

I have finally learned a name to give this organisation, one they cited themselves. Rengokuriso, literally translating to Ideal Purgatory. Their intentions are now clear. They wish to ‘cleanse’ the world of inequalities by killing every human being, aside from themselves, in order to rebuild a perfect world in their image. They are a force that cannot be reckoned with, and their first target is the Fire Country. We need to be ready for them when they arrive on our borders. Their skill level and numbers are unprecedented. If we underestimate them, we will become part of their purge, numbers and statistics of those that perished.

When I arrive back and hand these reports to be read, they cannot wait on a pile. They must be given full attention immediately, and I will endure as much questioning as is necessary to cleanse my mind and provide as much help as possible. Physical descriptions of members, more missions to find information, full-on combat assignments; I will do anything and everything to see them fall.

I did not realise at the time, but the person that Kaeru and Tsuyoi were leading up the mountain was a human sacrifice for some unknown reason. That sacrifice will probably give birth to some cult or immense power, something that we need to be able to combat.

This is not a drill. This is reality, and this reality must be stopped if we do not want it to envelope our world in darkness. My eyes have been opened to the true evils of this world from this one assignment alone, and I will stop at nothing until these individuals have found their shallow graves.

Kaeru.

Tsuyoi.

Seinaru.

Ookami.

Takai.

And Ouja.

All of them and more shall fall by our hands. Konoha must remain strong against any enemy, and most certainly this one. Solidarity will be our companion here. No other nation can be trusted. A free for all will ensue, and nations will do anything to fight and survive against the purge of the Rengokuriso.

The countdown… begins now.’