River's Gate is a small town located east of what was formerly known as Gimangakure. Relatively unassuming, the town is protected by guardsmen that seem to be equipped with higher level gear than a town of this size should be able to afford. As every town has their secrets, and this one is no exception.
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 9:37 am
xxxx company Xifeng, Rabu, Mana xxxx location River's Gate; Flowing Square xxxx mood Excited
“Looks like we’re here.” Ito stretched with a groan as she took a step on the ground. She’d accosted a traveler with a cart to transport her and her group, so they wouldn’t need to walk. She’d tossed him some Ryo before she’d stretch her legs. “Alright kiddos, welcome to River’s Gate.” The pink haired woman gestured grandly as she turned to face her companions. Ito was grinning and she had a spark in her eye. She was excited, that much was certain. “River’s Gate is probably the epicenter of the happenings in the Land of Rivers.” She explained as she led everyone into the small town. “Anyone who’s anyone comes here, and it’s filled with movers and shakers so powerful that not even Tanigakure knows how to handle them. It’s a mercenary’s dream town ‘cause there’s always work to be done.” Ito sighed wistfully as she stared into the distance with longing eyes. As if to accentuate her point, a gust of wind blew through the empty streets, carrying with it dust and leaves.
There was an awkward silence as River’s Gate seemed determined to make a liar out of Ito. However, she just coughed and returned to her business-like demeanor. “Trust me, you’ll see.” She promised to the TORNA group, albeit a little less than convincingly. Contrary to the hype that Ito was creating, the relative smallness of River’s Gate was readily apparent. One could almost see from one end of the town to the other. And, as the pink haired Uchiha walked by market stalls, they were notably scarce with very few wares and even fewer people working them. Still, the overall quality of the town was high. And the guards stationed around were suspiciously high and extremely well equipped. Even more so than the pesky guards at the Konoha gates. “So I imagine we have some time before that asshat with the briefcase saunters up to us again. What a weirdo…” Ito stopped walking once they reached the center of town: a small square with a large fountain and a small handful of people. “Anything you guys wanna do to kill some time?”
Now wearing a large hooded cloak that hid most of her form besides her face and feet when not using her arms. She avoided wearing her skull half mask as she wasn’t actually working and is gave off an ominous vibe she didn’t intend for the now. She was only slightly familiar with the located as she did pass through it on her route to joining TORNA, though she neglected to checking it out or spending any significant amount of time there. ”I heard you could get work in the place but I wanted a group not a gig at that time.” Mana chose to share in a quiet voice with her new partners, looking around with a semi cautious sweep of the visible people not with them. She then put a finger to her chin while thinking about what she wanted to do, looking to Ito and asking with a bit of hesitation. ”Is there a place with drinks and, maybe… some.. good.. looking… guys?” The strange request came from her inability to practice her skills on teammates and allies, as that could result in bad results. She then looked to Rabu and Xi Feng and then gave an almost guilty expression and added on after in a slightly submissive manner ”of coarse if that’s not ok I don’t mind doing something else…”
x tab TORNA Camp x tab Boss, Rabu, Mana x tab 【RANK: B】▰【STRENGTH: 01】▰【SPEED: 00】▰【AGILITY: 00】▰【ENDURANCE: 01】▰【CHAKRA: 1,920 || 1,920】▰【STAMINA: 1,160 || 1,160】
x
What a pretty long hike to get here. Xifeng had been with the group for a little while, but now it was her first ever mission! She had been a bit worried about her explosion problem while on the road, but as long as nothing would come at them, she would be alright. Ito would manage to convince a traveler to allow everyone passage in his cart and the trip was smooth sailing ever since. The girl had kept warm in her usual garb, which was more or less a body suit with her bare arms and legs standing out. It was a side effect from her troublesome heritage, with her body constantly producing heat and no proper way for herself to vent it without being in such a revealing outfit. Of course, for an Okashimi like her, it didn't faze her too much.
The cart had carried everyone to the River's Gate, with the group stepping out of their ride and back onto solid ground. Xi hit the ground before Ito and would follow her to the small town. "Wow, it's...really rural." the naive recruit said, flashing a look to their leader. "Are we at the right place? Even the Okashimi Grounds were more "secretive" than this." Her lips pursed together while the ever excited Ito would be about promising them that they just needed to wiat. Like the good explosive bean she was, Xifeng would nod her head and continue along. The guards of the village were strange, bearing more heavy armor and weapons than what even most villages offered. All this for a small town as well.
"Maybe there's food or something I could cook around. That trip here really made me crave something edible." Xifeng said, althought, she did have one stray thought. Mana, the newest member of TORNA after her, would throw out a questionable suggestion. One that made Xifeng arch an eyebrow. "To, uh, fight with, right? So we can establish ourselves as tough to the people here so they know we mean business, r-right Boss?" she turned back to Ito with the eyes of an understudy trying for the recognition of her superior, although just waited for her turn.
"If it's a small town, maybe somebody needs some help or something? There's really not much to do other the wait in the market. Although I don't wanna accidentally blow it up or anything..."
Passives: ▱▰▱ Nin-Bloodline: May combine one bloodline technique and one ninjutsu technique for a single action once every three posts by paying the resource cost for both. Bloodline techniques that share the user's elements gain the overwhelming property if not already applied. ▱▰▱ Infernal Body [ Jigoku no Karada ] | Rank C | Training The user heats their muscles with their burning hot flame chakra at a constant rate, increasing their muscular performance and granting a one point increase in their strength at C Rank body and another 1 point increase at S Rank for a total of 2 points. Additionally, physical contact with the user's body causes tier one burns to the contact point.
PAs ▱▰▱ Volatile Arsonist | The user has mastered their explosive flames, causing tiered trauma to their fire based techniques. Additionally, their katon techniques now create thunderous booms, causing deafness for two posts. ▱▰▱ Armor Penetrating Shot | The user's fire based techniques ( including clan techniques ) have a volatile force behind them. Any katon technique with a single target has the ability to shatter armor medium tier and below on contact while heavy armor takes two instances of contact. Additionally, they are able to puncture shield techniques and barriers with equal chakra to the parent technique as though they were one rank lower. ▱▰▱ Signature Explosion Style | The user gains access to one additional taijutsu slot and may choose one Taijutsu style as their signature style as though they were Taijutsu class. The custom techniques gained in this way must be used in conjunction with that style and the Ignition Release. If the user is already Taijutsu class they recieve the additional custom slots for their current signature style and those must be used for the combination of bloodline and style.
▱▰▱ Art is an Explosion! | The user is able to use A Grand Display twice per battle rather than once. Additionally, the user's clay gains an elemental advantage to water like all doton but without the lightning weakness. ▱▰▱ Ephemeral Arts | The clansman receives the Artistic Creativity ability to apply exploding clay to their shinobi class's aesthetic without puppeteer, performer, and scholar classes. However, if the clansman is of those classes but has this PA then they receive [2] custom techniques per body rank (12 at S+) rather than [1]. This only applies to one class so if you have multiple creative classes then you must choose one of them. ▱▰▱ Grand Illumination | The explosive radius of any exploding clay technique is doubled and explosive techniques apply tiered burning status by rank. Additionally, the user receives [5] ninjutsu per body rank dedicated to doton and an additional 200 chakra.
tab Rabu was bundled up in their cloak, that bone mask sealed to their face. They wouldn't be taking it off, unless they needed to run some covert mission as Maeko while they were here. They'd been napping as they pulled into the town of River's gate. They had Samehada wrapped in bandages, their arms wrapped around the blade, holding it close to their chest. Ito's words roused her in moments, blinking the sleep from their eyes they'd rise and hop out of the cart, slinging samehada across her back in one swift motion. The blade's hilt jutted downward resting back behind her left hip, the tall blade protruding over her right shoulder. Too say that Rabu was menacing would be an understatement. The skull that adorned the hilt of Samehada paired all too well with the one Rabu kept on that pretty face of theirs.
tab Rabu found a spot right next to the Boss, they'd listen close to the info dump on the new place they'd be working in for the next while. "Hmmmm, its quaint. I dunno about movers and shakers, its pretty dead Boss." They'd interject as the dust and leaves where carried off to wherever their destination would be. Those green eyes would gaze at what guards there were, none of the equipment was cheap. They'd feel bad for them if they had to go up against their Bone.
tab When asked what they wanted to do, while they waited, they'd listen to the new girl and Kizuri's little sis, Xifeng. Mana's words peaked her interest, not the boy's part. They'd c**k their head toward the Boss, only to shake it and speak up. "Iunno much about guys, but I could definitely go for some Sake myself, Boss! Iunno if fighting is the best play right now, Xifeng, but I do like where your head is at!" They'd wait with baited breath as to what Ito decided their next move would be.
Over the course of the last few weeks, he had spent quite a bit of time interacting with and sort of even training with that kid from Konoha. For the most part, they seemed at least a little interested in him, however of course nothing was ever solid or set in stone. It had been a while since his home country had sent anyone after him as well. Perhaps sending that guy's body back really did send the message he needed it to send. Others he had been involved with seemed to have disappear completely randomly. The jashin girl and the fake feeble guy he had met with the Konoha boy had suddenly stopped coming to the small group meetings they held. Which also led to himself and the boy to temporarily part ways. Of course, Hitotsu had a thought in mind already though. He needed new people to surround himself with for the time being. Working in a group would be helpful, and the best way to do that was probably to either join some mercenaries or happen by them. Of course, he intended on leaving nothing to chance. He made plans with someone else he met rather quickly, another Uchiha of course. He swore, it was like they were cockroaches. Those ******** Uchiha were literally everywhere. It was kind of crazy. Although, that probably made trying to get things from them or find information about them a little bit easier than most.
He had been told to come to River's Gate. A bit of a meeting planned for the most part. Hitotsu had made it clear to the person he met with that he was looking for a group activity of sorts. It seemed that hadn't dissuaded that person from enlisting his help. Which meant there was probably already a group or something that was planned to be part of this mission or whatever. Of course though, Hitotsu had managed to get lost trying to find his way to River's Gate. Perhaps just outright bad with directions or something of the sort? So when he finally arrived in the small town he was in a bit of a rush....well actually a lot of a rush. His sense of time was all messed up at this point, he wasn't sure if he was going to be late for his meeting or what. Then of course, within the small town...with rather small streets and the like there was a small group of people crowding it. "Ugh," He vocalized first to himself, but as he got closer to the group spoke words. "In the way." He said, in a manner which the small group would definitely be able to hear come from him. Moving around them in order to pass them and hurriedly head to his destination.
However as he passed them a minor temptation struck his form. The temptation to pause, look back for a moment. Two of them didn't seem to be anything special of course, however the other two had something about them. Having rushed by them so quickly he wasn't sure who was who and which was which in terms of being special. One was a familiar kind of special so to speak, something that he's experienced before but couldn't quite put his finger on where or why. Even if he could, it probably felt different enough that he wouldn't have managed to truly tell in such a rush anyways. The other was something he hadn't experienced before, yet was still obvious. Someone who had something special perhaps? A connection to something they owned that was rather unique. That small group of people had become more interesting suddenly. However he had a job to do, and he was still unsure if he was even late or not. His temptation to stop his rushing and actually interact with them passed. Perhaps another time, another place. For now...he had to go.
xxxx Team TORNA, Hitotsu xxxx River's Gate xxxx Feeling superior
“Bah, you’ll see,” Ito rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively at her group. “You’ll all see. Watch, something interesting is gonna happen any second now.” The town seemed to grow more quiet just to spite her. “Guess you really won’t believe me until you see it,” she sighed with a dejected look on her face. She had an idea of why their new employer sent them here. But she wondered why he hadn’t met them yet. Or what they were supposed to do in the meantime. "You can go do your things, just don’t get too plastered. We’re still working.” She ordered, her disappointed demeanor quickly replaced with her usual bossiness. She herself made no motion to move, as Ito had planned on just sitting and reading a book at the fountain. However, someone came up to them that piqued her interest.
Ito didn’t bother to move out of the man’s way. Instead, she seemingly “accidentally” kept moving forward or backward into his way without so much as turning to him. It wasn’t until the two of them did this awkward dance a few times that Ito finally turned to him. Her mouth was turned up into her cat-like smirk as she tilted her head so as to look down at the man. The woman held a hand up, flourishing her fingers so that her pink Mangekyo Sharingan was framed by her index and middle fingers. “Oh, my bad. I don’t think I heard a ‘please.’” She said in a playful yet sarcastic manner. “You’re more than welcome to try again, with some manners this time.” The mercenary leader nonchalantly turned to the man, purposely obstructing his path further. He didn’t feel like some run of the mill villager. But the Uchiha’s experience about River’s Gate that no-one normal ever rolled through here. The people that moved through the small town like a breeze were more like Ito’s ilk, people with gray to black morals. Because of that, she didn’t want to seem like a push over to anyone that happened to be watching. Sharks could smell blood, and hers wasn’t about to spill at all. “We got some time left before our meeting, and I don’t mind spending it making an example out of you.”
x tab TORNA Camp x tab Boss, Rabu, Mana x tab 【RANK: B】▰【STRENGTH: 01】▰【SPEED: 00】▰【AGILITY: 00】▰【ENDURANCE: 01】▰【CHAKRA: 1,920 || 1,920】▰【STAMINA: 1,160 || 1,160】
x
At least Rabu appeared pretty supportive of her plan. Xifeng honestly was pretty lost on what was happening, with Ito being pretty snappy about their first impressions with the town. Xi at least would be open minded all things considered, gazing about while she'd be busy deciding on what to do. While her first instinct was to stick close to the boss during things, she'd just sigh and go walk through the market while Ito would send everyone off. The tanned TORNA member roamed off with a hungering in her stomach while exploring the many crowds of the town. Her scrawl through town took her through a few people standing nearby shooting the girl some looks while they'd eye her up and down. Xifeng managed to find a tavern of sorts, a bit hidden inside one of the burrows in this shanty little town. The interior was alight with some few patrons drinking the day away and others busy talking amongst themselves, maybe a chance of a fight breaking out or two. Xi walked along the pathway to the bar and sat down. Hopefully she'd be blending in better than usual here. There wasn't any odd greeting for her when entering the venue and as such, Xifeng sat down and gave an order. It wasn't anything that would mess her up too bad, a mug of beer and maybe some kind of full course meal. The rogue bit into all she could chew, her stomach ravenous after that little spar she had been through had put quite the impact on her stomach. It was a side effect of her bloodlines forced together with one another. Her body required a massive amount of energy to let energy be used for techniques, and even the warm touch her body gave off wasn't enough to ward off all that extra heat and energy.
She'd continued her meal while listening in one some of the conversation. "I'm telling you, I seen't 'em! There was this 'lil freak of nature dressed like Kagami! 'Cept she was short as hell." One older man with a salt and paper speckled hairstyle would talk to a few of his friends. They'd laugh and slam their mugs on the table. "You're as nutty as a munchkin in the Leaf Village! The whore's been dead for years now. Next, you'll be tellin' me about some haunted doll or something!" Xifeng didn't seem to find much in terms of conversation at the moment.
Passives: ▱▰▱ Nin-Bloodline: May combine one bloodline technique and one ninjutsu technique for a single action once every three posts by paying the resource cost for both. Bloodline techniques that share the user's elements gain the overwhelming property if not already applied. ▱▰▱ Infernal Body [ Jigoku no Karada ] | Rank C | Training The user heats their muscles with their burning hot flame chakra at a constant rate, increasing their muscular performance and granting a one point increase in their strength at C Rank body and another 1 point increase at S Rank for a total of 2 points. Additionally, physical contact with the user's body causes tier one burns to the contact point.
PAs ▱▰▱ Volatile Arsonist | The user has mastered their explosive flames, causing tiered trauma to their fire based techniques. Additionally, their katon techniques now create thunderous booms, causing deafness for two posts. ▱▰▱ Armor Penetrating Shot | The user's fire based techniques ( including clan techniques ) have a volatile force behind them. Any katon technique with a single target has the ability to shatter armor medium tier and below on contact while heavy armor takes two instances of contact. Additionally, they are able to puncture shield techniques and barriers with equal chakra to the parent technique as though they were one rank lower. ▱▰▱ Signature Explosion Style | The user gains access to one additional taijutsu slot and may choose one Taijutsu style as their signature style as though they were Taijutsu class. The custom techniques gained in this way must be used in conjunction with that style and the Ignition Release. If the user is already Taijutsu class they recieve the additional custom slots for their current signature style and those must be used for the combination of bloodline and style.
▱▰▱ Art is an Explosion! | The user is able to use A Grand Display twice per battle rather than once. Additionally, the user's clay gains an elemental advantage to water like all doton but without the lightning weakness. ▱▰▱ Ephemeral Arts | The clansman receives the Artistic Creativity ability to apply exploding clay to their shinobi class's aesthetic without puppeteer, performer, and scholar classes. However, if the clansman is of those classes but has this PA then they receive [2] custom techniques per body rank (12 at S+) rather than [1]. This only applies to one class so if you have multiple creative classes then you must choose one of them. ▱▰▱ Grand Illumination | The explosive radius of any exploding clay technique is doubled and explosive techniques apply tiered burning status by rank. Additionally, the user receives [5] ninjutsu per body rank dedicated to doton and an additional 200 chakra.
Her expression slowly became slightly crestfallen as Xi Feng seemed to miss the point of Mana’s goal, which was simply to attract guys to get them free drinks and possibly pick out a cute one for things. No one else bit so she would simply drop the matter and go along with one of the other suggestions, food and alcohol. ”Something to eat would be good, though I don’t know if you’ll personally need to cook, there might be a nice place to eat and drink around.” She said in a sweet tone, trying to eye out a suitable looking place among the gentle humdrum of the town, unwilling to guarantee or deny the possibilities of the area’s culinary culture. She paced a half circle around the group as some light haired lad made his approach up to them, complaining about their presence preventing him walking in a straight line. As he shifted his weight to the side and go around them, Mana was now at the opposite side, standing just to Ito’s Left and looking over her shoulder back at him for a few seconds of the little “blocking dance” that ensued.
”Well, I’ll see you later then leader, Rabu!” She chimed up to inform the pair as Xi Feng had already left, offering a glance to both of the pair and a bow of her head before turning and striding off at a brisk pace. Keeping her cloak hiding most of her form the bare footed assassin lightly perused a few of the towns streets, gaining little looks more than expected of someone shrouding the majority of their form. Due to her intentions being mostly mild Mana quickly found herself an establishment that offered a semi rowdy din within its confines, the signage giving away the locations pub like nature. With a quick turn of her heel the dark skinned girl marched her way into the establishment, pushing open the door with a hand sneaking out her cloak before removing her hood as she entered. Her head turned from left to right, violent eyes taking in the layout of the room, the people drinking and talking at various tables, the sounds and smells of the establishment assaulting her senses in comparison to lesser din on its street. Spotting the main bar station had a few unoccupied stools Mana would glide across the room with both speed and enough care to avoid bumping anything, hopping up onto and seating herself down before ordering herself a flask of Sake and a few choko in case any of her partner arrived at this location. She didn’t immediately receive her order as a man two stools down from her had managed to reach such a state that his ability to stay conscious had left him, face quite suddenly smacking into the bartop and giving little to no reaction to any stimuli.
Finally the man behind the bar gave up poking and loudly badgering him to wake up, walking around from behind the bar and grabbing the scruff of the passed out mans collar, cleaning yanking him from the stool and onto the floor with a thumb that caught a good deal of looks from other patrons that started to jeer as they watched them be dragged to and tossed out the door. ”Its nae th’ evenin’ an he’s already this sauced, bleedin lowlife makin my job harder, if ya cannie handle yer drinks then ******** off!” The person who threw the other declared loudly to the other patrons, patting off his hands and showing a stellar amount of the establishments customer service as he did, finally returning to a mildly bemused Mana’s order. ”Ye pay before ya drink Lass, I haven’t seen ya before so I dinneh wanna hear any sass about our alcohol, it’s gets ya drunk and that’s the point, don’t like the quality o’ my products I’ll boot ya out, X Ryo for your order.” He gruffly said at her, holding out a meaty hand expectantly until the c***k of Mana’s coin found it’s way to his palm, Mana nodding along as she did so. ”I’ll be fine and don’t worry, I didn’t come in with huge expectations, sir.” She responded both in a sweet tone whilst being totally blunt, ignoring his scowl and hesitance before finally handing over what she had paid for, Mana thanking him before removing the stopper and pouring herself a serving of the rice wine and sipped on it while starting to relax.
And of course, the group of people who he needed to walk by had someone in it intent on being difficult. It seemed the others had begun to scatter and go to do their own things anyways though. This girl however was just getting in his way. He had no reason to believe it wasn't intentional, but of course when she began to speak about the situation it became even more clear just how intentional it was. Of course it was the girl with the weird, but familiar chakra signature as well. One he couldn't quite place a reason as to why it was familiar to him just yet. Of the rest of her little group, it seemed the other person of interest to him had also stayed behind a bit instead of scattering to do their own thing. One who had two distinctly different, but yet linked chakra signatures somehow it was weird. None-the-less the small pink haired figure speaking to him was the primary issue. He was sure he was late, and she was in the way. Catching a glance of her eye it was like puzzle pieces began to snap together in his head. It was definitely different, colors were much different. However, "Are you a damned Uchiha?" He verbally questioned aloud with a sigh. "What is up with you Uchiha and having these literal monsters inside of you?" He said, thinking back to another Uchiha he knows, which let him place the girl's odd chakra immediately when he thought about it as the one he knew also was a demon host.
"Whatever, if you're gonna trap me in a genjutsu so your whatever the ******** that is over there with two chakra signatures, and enormous murderous intent for seemingly no reason," He spoke, gesturing towards the grim reaper looking person, making sure certain points of his words were made clear. "hurry up and do it if you haven't already. You might have time to play around, little girl, but I do not. I want to keep moving." Hitotsu fairly...not really angrily more like annoyed said. Perhaps even intentionally instigating the girl and her leftover companion even more. Another part of it was just that he really didn't think he had the time to deal with trying to fight these people. He already was pretty sure it'd be a losing fight in the first place. The white haired man showed no signs of caring for what their decision would be so long as they made that decision quickly.
Ito blinked. That wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. She usually was met with some form of indignation. Like how dare she look down on the person she was taunting, type stuff. But this dude seemed used to it, for some reason. And did he know about Kokuo? Man, Ito was getting really tired of people knowing about her ace in the hole. “Alright, whatever.” She sighed, closing her eyes and waving her hand. “It’s not fun when you just roll over and play dead like that.” She peeked her eyes open to look at the new stranger, her Sharingan fading to her regular eyes. Even if he was in a rush, that wasn’t gonna stop her from prying. “Just who are you, anyway?” Ito placed her hands on her hips and gave the man a quick once over. “We’re from TORNA, by the way. We run the camp over yonder; we’re here for a meeting too. But our contact didn’t give us a time or meeting spot.” She grumbled. “My name’s Ito, by the way. And this is Rabu, and that creepy thing on their back is Samehada. I heard it’ll let you pat it if you bring it a snack. I’ve never risked it, though. I wonder where our guy is?” Ito scanned the rooftops, like he was more likely to be there. In this world of shinobi, it wouldn’t be too unheard of, she supposed. “So what kinda work are you doing?” Ito would wait patiently for Hitotsu to answer, if he did. She wouldn’t get too comfortable before a voice caught her attention.
“So you showed up.” Obi Yori managed to sneak past Ito’s senses, walking up to the trio like he’d been there the whole time. It sent a shiver down the woman’s spine but she did her best not to show it. “I’m surprised TORNA only sent… two people. But Hitotsu, it’s nice to see you considering our offer. Thank you both for coming to see us. I will explain as we get going, so if you’ll follow me.”
“Hold up.” Ito replied, forming a sign. In a small cloud of smoke, a crow appeared to perch on her arm. She’d nod at it and it would fly off after Xifeng and Mana, to gather them. “I have others, but they’re getting a bite to eat. Give ‘em a second.” Once the rest of TORNA would arrive, Obi would lead them through the small town. The more they walked, the more apparent the emptiness of the town would become. There wasn’t much conversation coming from the man in glasses, and it just gave Ito a perfect chance to give him a good look up and down. Something was off about him, but she couldn’t figure it out.
Another turn led the ground into a back alley. Obi stopped before a literal hole in the wall. It had an open wooden frame, blocked off by chains and a link fence. “I’ll tell you more once we get inside. This is your last chance to back out,” he would say in a matter of fact tone, giving the group a level tone.
“Cut the theatrics and let’s get a move on.” Ito mumbled, pushing past Obi and behind the fencing. He would sigh and shake his head, motion for everyone else to follow him, and walk in behind Ito. Inside the mineshaft was a dark corridor that stretched for about half of a mile before reaching a single crossbuck that blocked a platform large enough to fit everyone. Obi would lift the bar up and let the group onto the lift before going on himself and pressing some buttons on a panel. The lift rumbled before delving into the dark abyss below. Ito looked unphased as she leaned against a corner with her arms crossed.
“My benefactor runs a lab that houses several experiments.” Obi said, his voice soft but still heard over the rumbling of the elevator. “They’re extremely… delicate and the materials extremely valuable. It’s possible that someone, if they found out about them, would try to reclaim them for themselves, without caring that the value of our work is exponentially greater than the sum of its parts.” He turned to look over his shoulder at TORNA and Hitotsu, a quick glare from his glasses covering a stone cold stare to the group. “If you have any questions, now is the time to ask. But be warned, there are some things that I am not permitted to tell ‘the help.’”
x tab TORNA Camp x tab Boss, Rabu, Mana x tab 【RANK: B】▰【STRENGTH: 01】▰【SPEED: 00】▰【AGILITY: 00】▰【ENDURANCE: 01】▰【CHAKRA: 1,920 || 1,920】▰【STAMINA: 1,160 || 1,160】
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The meal that Xifeng partook in was a little burnt, maybe some signs of not handling the meat in just the right way to bring out the flavor, but it was serviceable. Plus, food was way better when you hadn't had any for most of the day. She'd finish her meal as quick as can be in the fear that the group would leave without her. A bit of a rush all things considered, but Xi didn't want to disappoint the boss on her first assignment out. The tanned ninja would shove the last roll into her mouth and wash everything down with a mug of ale before dropping her money on the table and rushing out to the jeers of the staff behind her. The woman's journey was cut short as the cook would wrap his fat arms around her "The money's on the table! I gotta go, sorry!" The woman squirmed her way out of his grasp, her warm skin searing against his plain ones while she'd run back towards the group where they had likely gathered. Just as she turned the corner, Xifeng could make out the group of ninja that was gathered around. "H-Hey! Wait up!" Her legs beat the ground while she'd catch up with everyone and let out a huff of relief. She wasn't late! "Sorry that I'm late, boss. But I'm ready to go." she gave a nod and would follow Ito and the group alongside their guide towards...wherever that they were going. The person introduced himself as Obi and would guide everyone into an alley where Ito took lead. Xifeng rubbed her arm while glancing around everywhere, curious as to where this was going. They went through a mineshaft and soon enough, an elevator. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." Xifeng said to herself, standing among the group while Obi would explain about what it was that they were going down to. She'd stay by the boss thick and thin, but would lie in wait and wonder just what they were getting themselves into.
Passives: ▱▰▱ Nin-Bloodline: May combine one bloodline technique and one ninjutsu technique for a single action once every three posts by paying the resource cost for both. Bloodline techniques that share the user's elements gain the overwhelming property if not already applied. ▱▰▱ Infernal Body [ Jigoku no Karada ] | Rank C | Training The user heats their muscles with their burning hot flame chakra at a constant rate, increasing their muscular performance and granting a one point increase in their strength at C Rank body and another 1 point increase at S Rank for a total of 2 points. Additionally, physical contact with the user's body causes tier one burns to the contact point.
PAs ▱▰▱ Volatile Arsonist | The user has mastered their explosive flames, causing tiered trauma to their fire based techniques. Additionally, their katon techniques now create thunderous booms, causing deafness for two posts. ▱▰▱ Armor Penetrating Shot | The user's fire based techniques ( including clan techniques ) have a volatile force behind them. Any katon technique with a single target has the ability to shatter armor medium tier and below on contact while heavy armor takes two instances of contact. Additionally, they are able to puncture shield techniques and barriers with equal chakra to the parent technique as though they were one rank lower. ▱▰▱ Signature Explosion Style | The user gains access to one additional taijutsu slot and may choose one Taijutsu style as their signature style as though they were Taijutsu class. The custom techniques gained in this way must be used in conjunction with that style and the Ignition Release. If the user is already Taijutsu class they recieve the additional custom slots for their current signature style and those must be used for the combination of bloodline and style.
▱▰▱ Art is an Explosion! | The user is able to use A Grand Display twice per battle rather than once. Additionally, the user's clay gains an elemental advantage to water like all doton but without the lightning weakness. ▱▰▱ Ephemeral Arts | The clansman receives the Artistic Creativity ability to apply exploding clay to their shinobi class's aesthetic without puppeteer, performer, and scholar classes. However, if the clansman is of those classes but has this PA then they receive [2] custom techniques per body rank (12 at S+) rather than [1]. This only applies to one class so if you have multiple creative classes then you must choose one of them. ▱▰▱ Grand Illumination | The explosive radius of any exploding clay technique is doubled and explosive techniques apply tiered burning status by rank. Additionally, the user receives [5] ninjutsu per body rank dedicated to doton and an additional 200 chakra.
tab The damned Uchiha remark already had the vein on Rabu's forehead to pumping with angry blood. Everything that came out of Hitotsu's mouth after that, left a permanent red 'X' on his back. "You hear that 'Hada? The boy can sense us." The blade that jutted over their left shoulder flexed and loosened its bandages just a bit. Samehada's scales peeked out. They'd visibly stretch then relax back into their blade position. When properly introduced by Ito, they'd lift a hand in a somber hello. Samehada would even make a wet growling noise as he was introduced.
tab They'd almost jump, when Obi Yori made his presence known, their skin crawled. There was something about the man the chaotic being didn't like. Then, as if divine intervention, it'd be revealed that Hitotsu would be working with them as well. "Interesting..." They'd speak up as they slipped into the alleyway, then the hole in the wall, dutifully staying by Ito's side. "Very interesting..." They'd whisper under their breath as they made their way into the earth, then to that elevator. They'd eye the Boss, as they proceeded downwards, then to the other Torna Members, wondering just what kind of job awaited below them. Listening to Obi's words definitely didn't make Rabu feel any better. "I'd personally like to know just what we'll be guarding, and just who might be looking for it, if we're all asking questions here." They'd say all this with their arms crossed, glaring daggers into the cold stare of the man.
Mana took remained to herself as she sipped away at the vaguely sweet liquor, managing to get a small amount of private time to herself despite the other patrons presence. The discordant flutter from the beating of wings caught her attention before the messenger crow, her thin arm extended gracefully to allow the bird a perch to land upon, violet eyes meeting the creatures own dark ones. She listened to its message and gave an understanding nod, dismissing the bird with a wave of the hand and finishing the saucer of sake she had been sipping on with a slip purse of the lips after from its bite. Lid place back on the Sake bottle Mana grabbed it by a handle cord, stepping off of the stool and flickering away after her first step.
A few seconds after Xi Feng arrived with the rest of the group a small buffet of wind that disrupted dirt and dust from the ground heralded her arrival. Mana appeared from epicentre of the disturbance, one hand holding the sake by the cord over her shoulder and the other finishing placing her skull face mask on, hiding the majority of her face down to her mouth giving which with her cloak Gave her a very similar air and visual to Rabu. Her frown of distrust was most obscured as she noticed Obi was present, the man just as guarded yet in control as in his previous meeting…. the rude pale haired lad was present as well, another employee per chance or maybe he stuck around for another reason? Well it wasn’t for her to care why he was here more just to figure if he was a danger to them or not, entertaining these thought in the back of her mind as she focus most of her attention toward Ito and Obi. Hidden by the lenses in her mask a brief flash from her eyes gave her the opportunity to give him a one over, though to her chagrin this attempt at information gathering was met with negative result, though that inability to scan him was still a good piece of information.
With the secret attempt to scan him over she followed along without any comment, glancing about as if she was a nervous and fidgety individual to search out for any potential unwanted followers as a distance. Finally reaching a stopping point Obi turned and questioned their resolve only to have Ito deny any intended suspense the man may have sought to bring about, Mana also had the feeling he was putting on a show of sort and wordlessly followed onto the elevator before it set off down into the deep. Facing forward she listened to the man when he began to speak, loosely telling them aspects of what it was they would be watching over and indicating that there were multiple valuables items or materials being used in the case of the man and his benefactors machinations.
When the Q&A moment had come round Mana maintained silence as she considered their employers wording, Rabu taking the initiative with a couple prudent questions, though the suspicion that the first one would get a limited answer at best considering the withholding nature of Obi. ”Also you said people might try to “reclaim” these important materials, what did you mean by that? Do you have them without consent and how many different and how much danger might these people hold. Finally, you said these items might be delicate but you never specified if they could pose a danger to us directly or if mishandled?” The basically mini Rabu questioned Obi in a more direct and confident tone than she usually showed, clear and not carrying her usual quiet softness as she was now in work mode. She asked these questions mainly because she now had the beginning of a new family after the start of this whole “persecute the Jashinists” fiasco had caused hers to scatter, she wanted to keep this potential new family safe and make use of the skills she offered TORNA to forge trust and her connections with them by showing her worth. Her concerns were less over her own safety and a lot more toward knowing of any risks to the others, Mana having a unique angle that caused her to see the rest of them at a much higher risk that herself, knowing they didn’t share her unrevealed blessings. This man who hired them was more unreasonable and so much less direct than more she worked for, she was used to comprehensive information and explanations rife with detail being as she dealt mainly in larceny, infiltration and kill contracts in her experiences, escorting for shady people was the work of others in her tribe. Ooc: ) Stamina 1525/1525 | Chakra 1850/1850
Hitotsu sighed, shaking his head. It wasn't as if the girl's response to his action against her taunt was surprising. "I've learned the best way to aggravate the confident is to affirm them in the worst way possible." Hitotsu responded to Ito's comment of it not being fun...and yet even so she continued to talk and make conversation taking up more of his precious time. Although hearing the name Samehada in reference to a sword was interesting. Hitotsu knew a little about the demons, but not much about the legendary swords outside of their names really. Something about a contact who hadn't given any real meet up place or time or anything like that. Come to think of it though, sounded very similar to the situation he was in too. he was rushing a bit cause he wasn't exactly sure what time or where aside from generally....this place....they were suppose to meet. "Sounds similar to-" Then as a person appeared from...who knows where Hitotsu realized what was going on. The people he had just ran into were the mentioned group that he might be working with.
"Ah, It all makes sense now. Looks like we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other later." He said. Then they seemed to move on as the others from their group had showed up. The words that came from their employer's mouth went about something along the lines of 'blah blah lab, blah blah experiment, blah blah taking material, blah blah important work.' As far as Hitotsu was concerned at least. The responses from the others seemed to just about match up with what might be expected after hearing such a vague explanation in general. Questions of what they would be guarding and what dangers the people and so called cargo might pose. He himself figured the answer to the one question of if they had these materials without consent was either a yes or something their employer 'can't tell the help' or whatever they had said. One of the others had simply responded with words, likely meant for herself yet audible, of uncertainty so to speak. Probably the statement Hitotsu most agreed with yet. "You got that right, jobs from shady people often are. But a job is a job after all."
