End of an Era (Naruto AU)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
[X] Offer to help resolve the puzzle for them. We have a couple of fuinjutsu experts on hand here.
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
This for now. Maybe work the Sign language in to plan with Sanosuke?
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
This for now. Maybe work the Sign language in to plan with Sanosuke?
Well we don't know the sign language. Which is why I'm beaming the message to someone who DOES have a secret sign language.
Bakkasama
There is always a greater fool
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/his
Ok, so question. They have five dudes. Why didn't they just add a bit of blood each instead of kidnapping someone? Are they sure they fill the Wisdom requirement?
Seriously now. Our chakra strings are invisible and whispering is sealess, right? So we could pretend to comply and when the guy who has the knife moves it away from Sanosuke's neck to cut his arm use chakra strings to try to pull it away and throw the fire pot to cut down the lights while Ginchiyo charges in since she trained to fight in the darkness and notice things according to Ginjiro.
Putting our hands behind our heads shouldn't impar either our chakra strings (as showed when we held the roof and controled our puppets) or our whispering the plan to the others. Actually, we can use the moment we are putting our puppets away and they can't see our mouth to whisper the words so that they don't notice and we can relay the plan to the others.
That said, it is still dangerous since they could try to kill us before they lower their guard, in which case it might be better to distract them by bullshiting them with something of the sort of "You do realise the pedestal is a trap, right?" or something like that (like helping with the puzzle as some suggested). Alternatively, we have high chakra control and we are in the middle of our growth spurt so we could try to replace with the guy holding the knife. We probably fill the +/- 50% size requirement and we have 48 Chakra Molding which is kind of high... though at least one of them can break through powerful genjutsu.
Edit: Actually, how far away is Sanosuke? Can we include him in the Whispering so that he tries to break free if we pull the knife away?
Edit: @The Laurent is Sanosuke even tied?
Seriously now. Our chakra strings are invisible and whispering is sealess, right? So we could pretend to comply and when the guy who has the knife moves it away from Sanosuke's neck to cut his arm use chakra strings to try to pull it away and throw the fire pot to cut down the lights while Ginchiyo charges in since she trained to fight in the darkness and notice things according to Ginjiro.
Putting our hands behind our heads shouldn't impar either our chakra strings (as showed when we held the roof and controled our puppets) or our whispering the plan to the others. Actually, we can use the moment we are putting our puppets away and they can't see our mouth to whisper the words so that they don't notice and we can relay the plan to the others.
That said, it is still dangerous since they could try to kill us before they lower their guard, in which case it might be better to distract them by bullshiting them with something of the sort of "You do realise the pedestal is a trap, right?" or something like that (like helping with the puzzle as some suggested). Alternatively, we have high chakra control and we are in the middle of our growth spurt so we could try to replace with the guy holding the knife. We probably fill the +/- 50% size requirement and we have 48 Chakra Molding which is kind of high... though at least one of them can break through powerful genjutsu.
Edit: Actually, how far away is Sanosuke? Can we include him in the Whispering so that he tries to break free if we pull the knife away?
Edit: @The Laurent is Sanosuke even tied?
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Nope. He's far enough away to just barely be included in the whispering... the difficulty WRT whispering that you need to watch for is that it *does* require you to speak. Even if it's in a silent whisper. So find a way to have your lips not be seen. It's not hard to do, but just to keep it in mind.
And, no, he isn't tied up... or at least, he doesn't appear to be.
Bakkasama
There is always a greater fool
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/his
What about our chakra strings? Could they pull away the arm with the knife so that Sanosuke breaks free?
Bakkasama
There is always a greater fool
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/his
Pretend we are putting away our puppets, kneel as we open the scroll to hide our mouth, use Whispering to tell them (Sanosuke included) "I am pulling the knife away and cutting off the lights in Three. Two. One."
The Chakra strings-arm bit is the most effy aspect, which is why I am asking @The Laurent if it is actually possible to pull the arm with the knife away with chakra strings.
So to be clear:
1. Not agreeing to put down our weapons or put away the puppets.
2. Sanosuke remains a hostage while the puzzle is resolved.
Is that it? I think you could be clearer about #1.
EDIT: Is there a way to avoid a fight here? Why are we solving the puzzle if there's no agreement to free Sanosuke at the end of it? Or is the assumption that they're not going to release him no matter what?
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Posted from phone so didn't want to make a mass of conditionals, but disarming ourselves is on the menu since the big thing is the distraction(not that disarming is really that big a deal for most shinobi)
[X] Offer to help resolve the puzzle for them. We have a couple of fuinjutsu experts on hand here.
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
Something that was mentioned a long time ago as an advanced technique was learning how to Body Substitue someone else with one of our puppets. As hostage taking continues to be an effective tactic against Shizue, maxing out/mastering Body Replacement to possibly unlock that technique might be a good idea.
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
Something that was mentioned a long time ago as an advanced technique was learning how to Body Substitue someone else with one of our puppets. As hostage taking continues to be an effective tactic against Shizue, maxing out/mastering Body Replacement to possibly unlock that technique might be a good idea.
Bakkasama
There is always a greater fool
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/his
[x] Pretend to put down the puppets, use the motions so that they can't see your face and use whispering to relay the plan.
-[x] Shizue uses replacement with the guy holding the knife and they stab him to death. Shizue frees Sanosuke if he is in a genjutsu or something like that, then the fight is on.
Edit: Actually, it is kind of suspicious that Sanosuke didn't say anything. Think he might be in a genjutsu?
-[x] Shizue uses replacement with the guy holding the knife and they stab him to death. Shizue frees Sanosuke if he is in a genjutsu or something like that, then the fight is on.
Edit: Actually, it is kind of suspicious that Sanosuke didn't say anything. Think he might be in a genjutsu?
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Vote closes tonight!
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Offer to help resolve the puzzle for them. We have a couple of fuinjutsu experts on hand here.
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
Sigh, I got nothing better. These open-ended "figure out a plan" votes in Quests always make me feel like none of my ideas could possibly be good enough.
-[X] Covertly pass a message to Ginchiyo with sound projection to find an opportunity to liberate the hostage while you talk/work
Sigh, I got nothing better. These open-ended "figure out a plan" votes in Quests always make me feel like none of my ideas could possibly be good enough.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...I mean, I included base plans? Nobody voted for them.
Bakkasama
There is always a greater fool
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Pronouns
- He/his
Why would they accept our help though? They said they needed a few minutes to figure it out.
It probably would have been more effective to warn our teammates and attempt a replacement with the guy with the knife. Our chakra molding is somewhat highish so we probably could pass the opposed check.
Then our companions, knowing what we would do, could kill him before he reacts and we free Sanosuke leaving us as 5 vs 4 in our favor not counting the puppets. We could then aim for the brazier and book it as soon as things go dark.
It probably would have been more effective to warn our teammates and attempt a replacement with the guy with the knife. Our chakra molding is somewhat highish so we probably could pass the opposed check.
Then our companions, knowing what we would do, could kill him before he reacts and we free Sanosuke leaving us as 5 vs 4 in our favor not counting the puppets. We could then aim for the brazier and book it as soon as things go dark.
Act 4, Scene 39 (Cont, Again)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Act 4, Scene 39 (Cont again)
For a long moment, Shizue had no idea what to do. Her mind was blank, her hands shaking. Again and again and again. She ran through it. Again: someone she cared about--less than Seiichiro, or Okiie, but that didn't matter--was being threatened.
There wasn't such a thing as safety, Shizue realized. Realized again, because every time it hit her, it crashed into her that one day something would go wrong and she'd die, that every single mission she'd been on had had tangles and snarls, it felt different. There was a different flavor, those moments on the way back.
Maki broken. Herself broken. A coming war broken. A monster unbroken, Akachi torn to pieces inside by what he'd had to do.
It wasn't going to stop. Ever. Shizue was going to be hearing the scrape of knives and the threat in the voice of others, threats not just towards her, as long as she was a shinobi.
She knew that there were villages where at her age she'd barely be a genin, she'd have at most met a few bandits, or been threatened by a missing-nin who wouldn't dare to hurt someone from her village unless they had an angle.
All of this pulsed through her, washed away her fear and doubt and replaced it with something almost cold.
Emiko had survived this for around six years. Shizue could too.
"You're threatening to kill him," Shizue said, quietly. "Why any of this? We have fuinjutsu experts, we can help you."
"You do?" the smooth man said. But he sounded intrigued. "Is this boy with you, on your team?"
Shizue didn't answer. His words felt purposeful, and she knew that they meant something, in this strange-half dark room. The shadows seemed deeper here, and she could almost hear Ginchiyo's teeth grinding together.
If she used her jutsu, she probably could hear it, as clear as if she'd meant for Shizue to hear it. "Yes. Why?"
Ginchiyo didn't wince. Thankfully.
"We prefer not to murder people if we don't have to," the man said. "Additionally, right before we went off to do the mission, we had a visit from someone. The person who… someone."
The person who what?
Hired them?
Shizue tried to keep her face neutral, tried to not worry. Tried to act as if this was her every day, though perhaps it was going to be. "And?"
"It was this monster named Ken."
Shizue froze.
"Ah, you've heard of him. Met him, even? Well, he demanded that if we came across a certain group of people or their teammates that we were not to kill them under any circumstances. Handed us pictures and everything. Your picture was prominent," the man said. He seemed smooth, but Shizue could note the slight quiver in his voice. It was what she was feeling, deep beneath the failed attempts at coldness, at control.
Fear. And tiredness. Exhaustion at what you had to do to appease fear, how you had to enslave yourself to it.
If Shizue hadn't had an idea she'd have done anything to wipe it away. "Ah," Shizue said.
But…
There it was, wasn't it? Ken didn't want Shizue to die, but why? Was it because he was afraid too? Emiko-sensei would murder him if Shizue died and there was even the least, most circumstantial evidence of Ken's involvement. For all that she disapproved of the actions of Jitsuko, for the right reasons she'd do anything, anything at all. Shizue, Emiko, Ginchiyo: this was how they were the same.
Shizue felt sick, felt as if she needed to cut through it. "Then, let's solve this puzzle, and then you let him go and we'll leave. This isn't what we're here for."
It wasn't, there wasn't a camp here to protect, even if she was sure that the dig teams would be outraged if anything happened to the structure.
Shizue turned around to talk to Ichiman, her lips moving for one second. "Save him while distracted," she said. Her mouth didn't, in theory make any sound, but she needed to hurry, and hope nobody noticed the slight pause before she said, louder, "Hey, can you help?"
"I… can." Ichiman carefully moved his hand and set the spear to the side. Not that far away, but enough distance that it might take a precious moment to reach. Then he let out a breath and stepped towards the walls, looking at them.
Ginchiyo hadn't even tensed, but Shizue could feel something about her eyes, something that told her that this could end very badly. Ginchiyo's fingers nervously--or so it seemed--tapped against her wrist as she kept her hands carefully away from the sword.
Now all Shizue needed was the right moment. That's what they all needed, she thought, looking at the group of five, and at Sanosuke. "What? Is it going to be hard to figure out?" Sanosuke said. "You're probably smart and good at this stuff, I'm sure you'll find a way." He looked up at the man holding him, at the knife, and there wasn't fear there, not anymore at least. Instead he seemed almost wry.
Akachi, standing across from a future corpse, making jokes because he had to.
Something about this room wasn't healthy. She could feel it, it was like a Genjutsu but… she couldn't move to break it, because what if that was the one action that set them off? But she tried to breathe shallowly as she watched the five and tried to show nothing at all on her face.
"If we had someone with chakra sensing, this could go faster." Ichiman said it quietly, his voice stripped of emotion, but there was something about the stiffness of his movements as he walked closer to the wall that told of tension. If this came to a fight, who would be hurt this time?
Emiko, wounded and poisoned, the look on her face as she fought against betrayal. What had the camp--
It was like something was digging her up, laying her out on the ground. Note by note by note, piling up there as the others all looked equally tense. It was bizarre, it was a little terrifying, and yet she waited. Hoped that Ginchiyo would pick the right time.
"Drop the weapons," the man in charge said. "By the way. I'll kill him, this boy, if it's the only way. Even if I have to run from Ken-san for the rest of my life. The payout'll be worth it"
Ginchiyo, without even pausing, unhooked her sword and threw it to the ground, as if she didn't need it. Ginjiro started dumping shuriken, slowly but surely, and Shizue thought he was taking it slow, waiting for a cue from Ginchiyo.
"Do what he wants," Ginchiyo said.
He sped up, as Ichiman continued to read the walls. That's what it felt like. "This is forming a seal. A Kage-level seal if I were to guess." Ichiman said it in a crisp, almost emotionless way. As if he were retreating into himself. "I… I…"
He was almost stammering, but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. He was frozen in place as he said. "And it begins from the f-f-far l-left. It, the symbol that…"
"I know which one it is," the strange older man said, leaning over the symbols. "Don't be a fucking idiot, I figured that out first, but then from there, you stupid boy, there's--"
"Other side," Ichiman said. "M-mirrored and r-r-reversed." But when he stuttered, it didn't feel like shyness. No, it felt as if something was in the way, something coiled and dark. Ginchiyo looked like she wanted to pace, they were all coming apart.
The song was breaking down, and the team across from them started to do the same. The Fuinjutsu, Shizue thought.
"Oh," the trap man said, "That makes--"
Lightning flashed, not even taking a single moment to gather before it slammed into one of the shinobi as Sanosuke pitched himself forward, a cocky smile on his face. He wasn't at all nervous, not at all even though by now it was clear that something was being done by this room, something dangerous and personal.
Sanosuke ran forward, just barely ducking a kunai, and dodged around the pot in the center just in time as Shizue gathered her strength and screamed, as loud as she could, letting the sound, the frustration and fear, the knowledge of what would happen next--
They would fight. She would kill or die. All over some bizarre treasure that she hadn't even seen.
It tipped over, and darkness filled the room for a desperate, miserable moment as she fumbled with kunai, trying to figure out what to do.
Her heart was racing, and a part of her whispered that she was going to die here, going to die here and never seen Okiie again. That thought…
It wasn't hers, but it felt so much like hers.
When the door burst open, even without bloodshed, and filled the dark room with thin, wavery light, Shizue blinked at the light, as if she already couldn't remember a time before darkness. She'd felt it, the way she was slipping under some even more potent Genjutsu, the way something was coming to destroy her.
But what if it was just herself?
There was a man standing there, long-haired and wearing some sort of gi, his features hard to tell when he was shrouded in light. "This is a place of meditation and peace. Perhaps not this room specifically, but--ah."
One of the other shinobi turned to stab be newcomer and the man's fingers lanced out, almost too fast to see, and jabbed into his arm. At least, that's what Shizue thought happened, though in the darkness and the uncertain light it was hard to tell.
He blurred even more and the shinobi he'd been hitting fell down, as did the one next to him, and then he snapped a simple kick at the old expert's legs, bringing him down in one smooth motion before stepping back.
Three men were out of the fight in about three seconds, and he wasn't even breathing hard. "This is rather annoying," the figure said. His hair was dark, Shizue could now see, but the roots looked paler. And his eyes, they were pale white. Even Shizue knew what those were: a Hyuuga. Which meant that style, which had taken out three people without even trying, must have been some odd variation on their taijutsu style. Odd, because kicking someone in the chest didn't seem to fit it at all. "You're a Jonin, aren't you? Kobayakawa, something like that. I really don't know slimy criminals all that well. Well, that's a lie. But hey, I can pretend, can't I? But yeah, so could you leave before I have to hurt you?"
"What, some Hyuuga? Well, I have ways to deal with that." Kobayakawa shot forward, hands moving through seals, and the next second he was on the ground, unmoving.
"You know, I get the powerful shinobi who monologue about how outmatched the enemy is now, even more than ever," the Hyuuga said. "It helps fill in time, adds a little excitement. Not that I wanted this." He turned towards the last of them. "You're obviously here to send a message to me. That I can't hide, that he will find me. That he's not afraid to interfere. You wonder, sometimes, at the lengths a guy goes." He coughed.
"W-what?" the last one said.
"What is going on?" Ginchiyo asked, baffled and angry. Her hands were shaking now, and she was looking from Ginjiro to Sanosuke with something like hope, but she wasn't letting it stop her. "Who are you?"
"Uzumaki Hikaru, and you must… ah." He was staring right at her armband. He made a little sound. "And are you here from her to tell me the same, or something different?"
Uzumaki. Uzumaki.
"I don't think so. And… her?" Shizue asked.
"Emiko-san. If I'd known you were with her, I wouldn't have… I'm sorry for the traps, I didn't actually think…" Hikaru was flushing a little, rubbing at his long, dark hair. Which she could now see was definitely dyed, the roots shining blonde in the light. Behind him, in the room, what little she could see, there were crates and crates and crates. Piled on top of each other.
Meditation, huh?
Shizue felt as if all the pressure, all the stress, had left. But she knew it was no doubt still lurking.
Hikaru sighed. He moved over and in the span of a second, the last of the enemy was out. "Okay, this is a very clever plot, really. Not Emiko-san's. She's not that obtuse. Quite. I don't think. I'll need you to take these criminals with you on the way out."
"What?" Ginchiyo said. "No, what is going--"
"Well, there's a lot to explain, and I'm not sure how much time I actually have. If you have a few questions, I suppose I could answer them or not. But then we should go. This room's no longer working, but it's still rather creepy."
He said it leaning in, as if he were confiding some big secret. Playful, almost.
[Commercial Break]
What to ask him about? (Choose 3)
[] Uzumaki? As in… really?
[] What are those crates?
[] Who is sending the message? The one that involved tomb robbers
[] You know Emiko?!
[] What do you mean, sorry for the traps?
[] What is with this room? What did it do?
[] Is this place real, or is this some sort of… modern creation?
[] Do you know about the excavation?
******
A/N: So! Always Saturday... even if it's Saturday at 10:30 PM.
For a long moment, Shizue had no idea what to do. Her mind was blank, her hands shaking. Again and again and again. She ran through it. Again: someone she cared about--less than Seiichiro, or Okiie, but that didn't matter--was being threatened.
There wasn't such a thing as safety, Shizue realized. Realized again, because every time it hit her, it crashed into her that one day something would go wrong and she'd die, that every single mission she'd been on had had tangles and snarls, it felt different. There was a different flavor, those moments on the way back.
Maki broken. Herself broken. A coming war broken. A monster unbroken, Akachi torn to pieces inside by what he'd had to do.
It wasn't going to stop. Ever. Shizue was going to be hearing the scrape of knives and the threat in the voice of others, threats not just towards her, as long as she was a shinobi.
She knew that there were villages where at her age she'd barely be a genin, she'd have at most met a few bandits, or been threatened by a missing-nin who wouldn't dare to hurt someone from her village unless they had an angle.
All of this pulsed through her, washed away her fear and doubt and replaced it with something almost cold.
Emiko had survived this for around six years. Shizue could too.
"You're threatening to kill him," Shizue said, quietly. "Why any of this? We have fuinjutsu experts, we can help you."
"You do?" the smooth man said. But he sounded intrigued. "Is this boy with you, on your team?"
Shizue didn't answer. His words felt purposeful, and she knew that they meant something, in this strange-half dark room. The shadows seemed deeper here, and she could almost hear Ginchiyo's teeth grinding together.
If she used her jutsu, she probably could hear it, as clear as if she'd meant for Shizue to hear it. "Yes. Why?"
Ginchiyo didn't wince. Thankfully.
"We prefer not to murder people if we don't have to," the man said. "Additionally, right before we went off to do the mission, we had a visit from someone. The person who… someone."
The person who what?
Hired them?
Shizue tried to keep her face neutral, tried to not worry. Tried to act as if this was her every day, though perhaps it was going to be. "And?"
"It was this monster named Ken."
Shizue froze.
"Ah, you've heard of him. Met him, even? Well, he demanded that if we came across a certain group of people or their teammates that we were not to kill them under any circumstances. Handed us pictures and everything. Your picture was prominent," the man said. He seemed smooth, but Shizue could note the slight quiver in his voice. It was what she was feeling, deep beneath the failed attempts at coldness, at control.
Fear. And tiredness. Exhaustion at what you had to do to appease fear, how you had to enslave yourself to it.
If Shizue hadn't had an idea she'd have done anything to wipe it away. "Ah," Shizue said.
But…
There it was, wasn't it? Ken didn't want Shizue to die, but why? Was it because he was afraid too? Emiko-sensei would murder him if Shizue died and there was even the least, most circumstantial evidence of Ken's involvement. For all that she disapproved of the actions of Jitsuko, for the right reasons she'd do anything, anything at all. Shizue, Emiko, Ginchiyo: this was how they were the same.
Shizue felt sick, felt as if she needed to cut through it. "Then, let's solve this puzzle, and then you let him go and we'll leave. This isn't what we're here for."
It wasn't, there wasn't a camp here to protect, even if she was sure that the dig teams would be outraged if anything happened to the structure.
Shizue turned around to talk to Ichiman, her lips moving for one second. "Save him while distracted," she said. Her mouth didn't, in theory make any sound, but she needed to hurry, and hope nobody noticed the slight pause before she said, louder, "Hey, can you help?"
"I… can." Ichiman carefully moved his hand and set the spear to the side. Not that far away, but enough distance that it might take a precious moment to reach. Then he let out a breath and stepped towards the walls, looking at them.
Ginchiyo hadn't even tensed, but Shizue could feel something about her eyes, something that told her that this could end very badly. Ginchiyo's fingers nervously--or so it seemed--tapped against her wrist as she kept her hands carefully away from the sword.
Now all Shizue needed was the right moment. That's what they all needed, she thought, looking at the group of five, and at Sanosuke. "What? Is it going to be hard to figure out?" Sanosuke said. "You're probably smart and good at this stuff, I'm sure you'll find a way." He looked up at the man holding him, at the knife, and there wasn't fear there, not anymore at least. Instead he seemed almost wry.
Akachi, standing across from a future corpse, making jokes because he had to.
Something about this room wasn't healthy. She could feel it, it was like a Genjutsu but… she couldn't move to break it, because what if that was the one action that set them off? But she tried to breathe shallowly as she watched the five and tried to show nothing at all on her face.
"If we had someone with chakra sensing, this could go faster." Ichiman said it quietly, his voice stripped of emotion, but there was something about the stiffness of his movements as he walked closer to the wall that told of tension. If this came to a fight, who would be hurt this time?
Emiko, wounded and poisoned, the look on her face as she fought against betrayal. What had the camp--
It was like something was digging her up, laying her out on the ground. Note by note by note, piling up there as the others all looked equally tense. It was bizarre, it was a little terrifying, and yet she waited. Hoped that Ginchiyo would pick the right time.
"Drop the weapons," the man in charge said. "By the way. I'll kill him, this boy, if it's the only way. Even if I have to run from Ken-san for the rest of my life. The payout'll be worth it"
Ginchiyo, without even pausing, unhooked her sword and threw it to the ground, as if she didn't need it. Ginjiro started dumping shuriken, slowly but surely, and Shizue thought he was taking it slow, waiting for a cue from Ginchiyo.
"Do what he wants," Ginchiyo said.
He sped up, as Ichiman continued to read the walls. That's what it felt like. "This is forming a seal. A Kage-level seal if I were to guess." Ichiman said it in a crisp, almost emotionless way. As if he were retreating into himself. "I… I…"
He was almost stammering, but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. He was frozen in place as he said. "And it begins from the f-f-far l-left. It, the symbol that…"
"I know which one it is," the strange older man said, leaning over the symbols. "Don't be a fucking idiot, I figured that out first, but then from there, you stupid boy, there's--"
"Other side," Ichiman said. "M-mirrored and r-r-reversed." But when he stuttered, it didn't feel like shyness. No, it felt as if something was in the way, something coiled and dark. Ginchiyo looked like she wanted to pace, they were all coming apart.
The song was breaking down, and the team across from them started to do the same. The Fuinjutsu, Shizue thought.
"Oh," the trap man said, "That makes--"
Lightning flashed, not even taking a single moment to gather before it slammed into one of the shinobi as Sanosuke pitched himself forward, a cocky smile on his face. He wasn't at all nervous, not at all even though by now it was clear that something was being done by this room, something dangerous and personal.
Sanosuke ran forward, just barely ducking a kunai, and dodged around the pot in the center just in time as Shizue gathered her strength and screamed, as loud as she could, letting the sound, the frustration and fear, the knowledge of what would happen next--
They would fight. She would kill or die. All over some bizarre treasure that she hadn't even seen.
It tipped over, and darkness filled the room for a desperate, miserable moment as she fumbled with kunai, trying to figure out what to do.
Her heart was racing, and a part of her whispered that she was going to die here, going to die here and never seen Okiie again. That thought…
It wasn't hers, but it felt so much like hers.
When the door burst open, even without bloodshed, and filled the dark room with thin, wavery light, Shizue blinked at the light, as if she already couldn't remember a time before darkness. She'd felt it, the way she was slipping under some even more potent Genjutsu, the way something was coming to destroy her.
But what if it was just herself?
There was a man standing there, long-haired and wearing some sort of gi, his features hard to tell when he was shrouded in light. "This is a place of meditation and peace. Perhaps not this room specifically, but--ah."
One of the other shinobi turned to stab be newcomer and the man's fingers lanced out, almost too fast to see, and jabbed into his arm. At least, that's what Shizue thought happened, though in the darkness and the uncertain light it was hard to tell.
He blurred even more and the shinobi he'd been hitting fell down, as did the one next to him, and then he snapped a simple kick at the old expert's legs, bringing him down in one smooth motion before stepping back.
Three men were out of the fight in about three seconds, and he wasn't even breathing hard. "This is rather annoying," the figure said. His hair was dark, Shizue could now see, but the roots looked paler. And his eyes, they were pale white. Even Shizue knew what those were: a Hyuuga. Which meant that style, which had taken out three people without even trying, must have been some odd variation on their taijutsu style. Odd, because kicking someone in the chest didn't seem to fit it at all. "You're a Jonin, aren't you? Kobayakawa, something like that. I really don't know slimy criminals all that well. Well, that's a lie. But hey, I can pretend, can't I? But yeah, so could you leave before I have to hurt you?"
"What, some Hyuuga? Well, I have ways to deal with that." Kobayakawa shot forward, hands moving through seals, and the next second he was on the ground, unmoving.
"You know, I get the powerful shinobi who monologue about how outmatched the enemy is now, even more than ever," the Hyuuga said. "It helps fill in time, adds a little excitement. Not that I wanted this." He turned towards the last of them. "You're obviously here to send a message to me. That I can't hide, that he will find me. That he's not afraid to interfere. You wonder, sometimes, at the lengths a guy goes." He coughed.
"W-what?" the last one said.
"What is going on?" Ginchiyo asked, baffled and angry. Her hands were shaking now, and she was looking from Ginjiro to Sanosuke with something like hope, but she wasn't letting it stop her. "Who are you?"
"Uzumaki Hikaru, and you must… ah." He was staring right at her armband. He made a little sound. "And are you here from her to tell me the same, or something different?"
Uzumaki. Uzumaki.
"I don't think so. And… her?" Shizue asked.
"Emiko-san. If I'd known you were with her, I wouldn't have… I'm sorry for the traps, I didn't actually think…" Hikaru was flushing a little, rubbing at his long, dark hair. Which she could now see was definitely dyed, the roots shining blonde in the light. Behind him, in the room, what little she could see, there were crates and crates and crates. Piled on top of each other.
Meditation, huh?
Shizue felt as if all the pressure, all the stress, had left. But she knew it was no doubt still lurking.
Hikaru sighed. He moved over and in the span of a second, the last of the enemy was out. "Okay, this is a very clever plot, really. Not Emiko-san's. She's not that obtuse. Quite. I don't think. I'll need you to take these criminals with you on the way out."
"What?" Ginchiyo said. "No, what is going--"
"Well, there's a lot to explain, and I'm not sure how much time I actually have. If you have a few questions, I suppose I could answer them or not. But then we should go. This room's no longer working, but it's still rather creepy."
He said it leaning in, as if he were confiding some big secret. Playful, almost.
[Commercial Break]
What to ask him about? (Choose 3)
[] Uzumaki? As in… really?
[] What are those crates?
[] Who is sending the message? The one that involved tomb robbers
[] You know Emiko?!
[] What do you mean, sorry for the traps?
[] What is with this room? What did it do?
[] Is this place real, or is this some sort of… modern creation?
[] Do you know about the excavation?
******
A/N: So! Always Saturday... even if it's Saturday at 10:30 PM.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, if you think about it, there were honestly a lot of signs that something hinky was going on.
- Location
- Brazil
Shomeigan Terorrist?
First person.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Oh come on. Oh come on...
I'll fix that tomorrow, I'm about to collapse now.
- Location
- Hell
His voice
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Thank you. That, at least, is fixed.