Welcome to Lost on the Road of Life, an AU Naruto-verse quest where you play as Kakashi Hatake and get into all sorts of exciting missing-nin adventures. See the infopost for more info.
The earth shook under Kakashi's feet. He shuffled a foot back and forth.
"Orders from the Jōnin Commander." Nara Shikaku said. "We're to be held in reserve here, in case we're needed. Mobilizing any more forces than necessary —"
Nara's spiel was interrupted by a series of ominous booms echoing in the distance.
"— would just lead to unnecessary casualties." The thirty year-old shinobi turned his gaze to the younger ninja in the clearing, locking eyes with each one of them. "Just to be clear, nobody is to leave this clearing yet. Nobody. That's an order. Am I understood?"
He was answered by a chorus of Aye's, Yessir's, a few solemn nods, and a single "Yosh!"
Kakashi's fingers twitched slightly.
Hatake Kakashi was no ordinary ninja, far from it. He was the best shinobi of his generation. A Jōnin at fifteen, an ANBU lieutenant at seventeen. He was the fastest, the strongest, the one with the most skill, the most jutsu, the most anything. He didn't just have raw power or skill, he had something else. He wouldn't have been able to tell you if his life depended on it.
"It was the Sharingan," some of the older veterans said. "It must be." But Kakashi knew that Obito's eye was only one piece of the puzzle. It made him more perceptive, it let him copy an enemy's ninjutsu on the fly, it even let him predict an opponent's movements a second or two in advance. It was incredible, and he silently thanked Obito everyday for his gift, but if it were that simple then any Uchiha could do it. No, he was just that good.
And right now he was standing here.
Doing nothing.
He was waiting for more orders while the Nine-Tailed Fox ran rampant in their village. While Minato-sensei and the Third Hokage and the clan heads and all the other senior ninja were off fighting it. While Aunt Kushina and her unborn child were… probably not doing that, since the fox being out here did not bode well for them. Not at all.
And so he stood here…
As he looked around impotently, he caught Gai's eye.
Maito Gai. The one who answered Nara earlier with a resounding "Yosh!". The person who probably best fit the description of "Kakashi's best friend". An up and coming taijutsu master that relied on jaw dropping amounts of hard work and grit (and the "Power of Youth", whatever that meant) to excel in his chosen specialization. Many looked down upon Gai for his eccentric personality, but Kakashi saw him differently. Gai was made of sterner stuff. The weirdness wasn't a downside, the weirdness made him stronger, it made the man who he was. He was a kindred soul, in a way.
The youthful titan in the lime-green outfit turned to him with a look in his eyes, bushy eyebrows raised, and shining white smile on his face. The expression was a message.
Want me to be the distraction?
Kakashi paused before replying with the slightest of slight nods. Gai's fist contorted into a thumbs up. Not a second later, and he was standing in front of Nara, gesticulating wildly and shouting like a madman.
"Why, Captain Nara, I've heard you're quite the philosopher but have you heard about the philosophy of YOUTH!? I'd be very interested to hear —"
One substitution later and there was a medium sized boulder in the spot where Kakashi was standing. By the time Nara noticed he'd be long gone.
o-o-o
This is what it is to be Hatake Kakashi, at this moment.
The Copy Ninja darted over the landscape. He moves so fast that the average ninja would have trouble seeing him. He was pure speed. Lightning itself. His movements were precise. Sharp. Practiced. Not a hint of wasted movement. The tremors and fidgeting from earlier were gone, replaced by an icy chill that washed through his body with every heartbeat.
What if it was already too late?
What if you weren't good enough? What if you failed them again?
Just like you failed them all last time. And the last time. And the last time...
What if…? What if? What if? What if—
As a thousand doubts sang like a thousand chirping birds from a thousand cracks in Kakashi's soul... he responded with a burst of speed. He accelerated by sending chakra throughout his body. It caused an intense burning sensation in his muscles as the energy pulsed through his limbs.
He didn't have time for doubts. He ignored those too.
Because there was a giant fox destroying his home.
Because Minato-sensei and Aunt Kushina and their child were in danger and he wouldn't let Team Seven down again.
Because those who broke the rules were scum, but the people who abandoned their comrades to die were even worse than that.
o-o-o
The killing intent of the fox permeated the village like a dense, cloying miasma. It was so strong it was almost physical. If Kakashi let his concentration slip, he could feel the phantom sensations of his airways tightening, his breath freezing inside him, his stomach dropping miles down to....
No.
Kakashi shook his head and kept moving.
He could feel the faintest glimmer of other ninja through the haze, flickering like birthday candles in a burning building some miles ahead of him. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, his usual grandfatherly expression flattened into a rictus of grim determination. Torifu Akimichi, the Akimichi Clan Head, his titanic personality roaring across the distance. Sensei's own aura, a bastion of indomitable will cloaked in a raging storm that was two miles to his left. A sinister void of purest terror dancing around —
Kakashi planted his feet and sent chakra bursting through to the ground, barely keeping himself from sliding through the dirt and tumbling over. Minato-sensei was away from the main battle, and for some reason he was near a powerful ninja that Kakashi had never heard of before.
He turned mid-stop and blasted away in that direction.
o-o-o
Kakashi stopped at the sound of fighting. Not "desperately trying to contain a giant monster" fighting either. This was more business as usual.
He heard the distinct sound of his teacher's signature melee ninjutsu sawing through a tree.
It took all the restraint he had to not immediately jump into the fray.
Minato Namikaze was fighting off a black cloaked figure and what looked to be… a horde of wooden plant monsters? They were a bunch of shambling, wooden caricatures of the human form, covered in roots and vines. The cloaked figure was also wearing a bizarre mask of polished metal, with some sort of opaque covering obscuring the face portion.
Aunt Kushina was lying half-upright in the dirt near the stream, holding a small newborn. Her Adamantine Sealing Chains floated above the pair, offering some protection. Minato-sensei didn't look particularly fatigued, but Kakashi's Sharingan could make out beads of sweat forming on his skin. The cloaked opponent rushed forward, and Minato-sensei vanished.
The Yellow Flash was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The Flying Thunder God technique allowed him to instantly teleport between any of his special kunai, a tactical advantage that the Fourth Hokage exploited ruthlessly. He drew the cloaked figure out before vanishing through a dozen spaces and hammering them with an erratic flurry of blows. Every strike passed right through the assailant. He danced through the crowd of wood monsters, leaving a pile of regenerating splinters in their wake. He teleported back to help Kushina protect herself and his child.
Kakashi frowned. Something was off there, sensei's strikes had passed straight through the mystery opponent, as if they were some sort of phantom. They had some sort of ghost technique that made them incorporeal?
No. The element of surprise could be what made the difference here. Kakashi clamped down on his own impatience and spent another couple seconds watching the fight from behind the overgrown foliage.
Ah, but there was nothing that said he couldn't do both.
His fingers formed a cross-shaped hand seal.
The Shadow Clone technique was a very powerful and versatile ninjutsu that allowed the user to create fully functional and intelligent copies of themselves. Shadow clones could perform techniques from the chakra given to them, and the memories of their experiences would even merge back into the technique user's own mind once the clones were dispelled. It also took a lot of chakra, so he had to be careful with it.
"Shadow Clone Technique." Kakashi muttered, and two identical copies of him appeared in puffs of smoke.
o-o-o
Kakashi rushed forward to join the fray, fingers flying through hand seals while the name of the technique ripped out of his throat.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
He blew and a jet of flames scorched through the air towards the wood monster things. While it was a very concentrated fire ninjutsu, it was also narrow. It probably wouldn't hit more than one or two of them. If he were alone then it would've been a poor choice and he would've been swarmed afterwards.
But he wasn't alone.
Minato Namikaze noticed his presence on the battlefield with a quick glance, before he paused where he was and began making his own hand seals.
"Wind Element: Emperor's Gale!"
A massive gust of dense, chakra-laden wind swung through the clearing before crashing into his fire jutsu. The two techniques flowed into one another and then half of the clearing was a blazing inferno filled with shrieking effigies made of burning vines. He turned to run to support sensei before noticing a blur in his peripheral vision.
Kakashi threw himself to the side, but he was too slow, and instead he found himself getting stabbed through the throat. For an instant he could feel a length of sharpened wood slicing through his neck and cutting through flesh and bone before punching through to the other side of him.
The clone popped.
o-o-o
Kakashi winced as the memories from his clone slammed into him. He shook his head to dispel any lingering tingling and the excruciatingly painful feelings of being stabbed through the neck with a huge splinter. Having your shadow clones die was never… pleasant.
Back to the task at hand. The masked ninja.
Selective intangibility. They seemed to be able to phase through any attacks that hit their body. But their footsteps still bent the blades of grass, even when sensei's attacks passed right through his torso. They probably wanted to maintain contact with the ground to move.
Hm. He could use that. He made more hand seals.
"Earth Element: Living Roots."
A decent portion of his chakra surged through his feet into the ground. He became acutely aware of any vibrations in the earth nearby. The Living Roots technique was an excellent sensory jutsu, and it was incredibly useful if you expected to be moving around underground without the aid of sight.
"Earth Element: Hiding Like a Mole."
Kakashi sunk into the ground like it was made out of water. He swam underneath the fight and waited, feeling out the vibrations from the clash above.
He adjusted his position a bit. And waited.
And waited.
And w— there! He quickly swam three meters to the right as a series of vibrations cascaded through that spot. He made a final set of hand seals.
"Earth Element: Antlion Strike.'
He shot upwards, exploding through the ground as it collapsed and felt something crunch in his grasp.
Gotcha.
He heard the telltale whirring screech of his signature jutsu above before he popped too.
o-o-o
Kakashi shot forward out of the bush the instant the ground shook and his clone made its move. His move. Bygones. Hand seals flashed in a familiar pattern.
"Lightning Element: Chidori."
A ball of violently spasming electricity gathered in his hand. He accelerated forward, putting what little chakra still remained in his body to work. His Sharingan tracked the enemy's movements. He would know. The assailant would have to dodge the shadow clone somehow. They hadn't been phasing through the ground to attack them unseen from below, so chances were they couldn't. They had to do something to move out of the grip his clone had on their feet, they had to.
The cloaked figure flicked their wrist and a spear of wood shot down through his clone's skull, turning the clone into a cloud of slowly dispersing smoke. The memories from the shadow clone rushed into his mind. He ignored them. He was so close.
Then the masked figure seemed to look at him, and his soul was hit with a hammer.
Time seemed to stop. He couldn't breathe. He was drowning in a sea of malevolence and spite and hate. He was being crushed by a mountain of will and purpose and pain.
Kakashi's legs wouldn't work. They wouldn't move like he wanted, wouldn't obey him, and he slowed to a stop. He was trapped in a vice grip of killing intent, stronger than any he'd ever felt before.
Sensei was fighting this?
Some part of him managed to stay lucid. So he remained upright, the ball of lightning chirping away in his hand. That part of him struggled with all of his might to move, to attack, to do something. Anything.
No. No. No no NO NO NO!
But it wasn't enough. He still couldn't move.
The figure flipped backwards, landing gingerly on one foot while taking care not to put too much weight on their mangled right foot— he'd managed something at least — before starting a jutsu.
flick
Kakashi couldn't make out the name or the hand seals, but the figure placed his hands to the ground and the telltale markings of the summoning technique spread out from his palm.
whirr
Not an instant later, the Fourth Hokage appeared behind them with the characteristic whirring sound of the Flying Thunder God technique. Minato stood there as if he was always supposed to be standing there, and the universe just momentarily forgot this fact. A whirling ball of light and chakra hummed in his hands. Kakashi looked, and with his Sharingan he saw his sensei strike before his sensei stuck.
This time, the Rasengan actually hits.
The killing intent vanished. He blinked.
Minato Namikaze shoved his technique right into the small of the shinobi's back just as the summoning technique completed. There were two explosions, one sending the masked assailant hurtling to the other side of the clearing. One was a gigantic cloud of smoke that filled the clearing as the summoning technique completed.
A blood chilling roar heralded the arrival of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox to their location.
Kakashi felt his legs give way. His Chidori fizzled out in his hands. He had nothing left. A massive clawed paw swiped downwards to crush him into bloody pieces.
whirr
Kakashi felt a familiar hand clasp down on his shoulder before he was whisked away to stand next to Kushina and their newborn. The fox led with a tail strike, but Aunt Kushina let out a roar and her sealing chains shot forward, wrapping around the tails in a deadly game of cat's cradle. She gasped and grit her teeth from the effort.
Minato-sensei paused, looking at his wife. Then at his newborn. Then he met Kakashi's eyes. His blue eyes had…
Was that doubt in his eyes? Uncertainty? Hesitation?
The Yellow Flash was hesitating?
"Just get it over with," Kushina said. Her smile was marred by signs of incredible pain. "Not everyday you give birth and have something the size of the Hokage Monument ripped out of your stomach. 'Sides, this bastard is damn heavy."
Minato considered the scene for a long moment.
"Alright."
The Fourth began a series of hand seals.
"Kakashi, you're lucid?" Minato asked, looking over to him.
Kakashi nodded.
"Good. Listen carefully. No one was supposed to know about the location beforehand. We went to the cave nearby when Kushina went into labor earlier. The ANBU present were taken there at that time. We were ambushed after the birth by this man and those things. Everyone else who was there tonight is dead. That man knew that the seal would be weakened tonight. Do you understand what that means?"
What. That couldn't happen.
Could it?
"Someone's been snooping around our black sites." Minato continued, a hard look in his eye. "Inside the village."
Kushina let out a pained gasp and fell to her knees as the Nine Tails thrashed against her. The sealing chains wavered, then held. Concern plastered over Minato's face, but he continued making hand seals at an even faster rate.
"Nobody should be able to do that here, Kakashi. Not with the ANBU, the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, the Inuzuka. Nobody."
Not unless they had someone on the inside.
If Kakashi's blood was merely frozen before, that thought turned his whole body into a glacier from the depths of northern Snow Country. Traitors? Here? Unthinkable.
Was it…?
Kakashi glanced uneasily at Minato. The Fourth Hokage nodded.
"You're going to need to get to the bottom of it. Tell Hiruzen."
"Tell Hiruzen? Sensei, what are you talking about?" Kakashi repeated.
"Yes," Sensei said, ignoring the question. His eyes were… was he crying? "Please, take Naruto here and give him to Jiraiya. He needs to man up and take care of his godson. Listen to me, Kakashi. Naruto goes to Jiraiya, and only Jiraiya. That's an order."
Obito's eye saw that Minato was about to say—
Wait, no!
"Sensei, wait!" he shouted. Ice gripped his heart.
"Goodbye, Kakashi. I'm proud of you."
Minato finished with an unfamiliar hand seal, his hands clapping together.
"Uzumaki Clan Sealing Technique: Shiki Fūjin!"
A bright light burned through the clearing. Kakashi gasped in pain, shielding his eyes. He heard a roar and a thumping sound.
He kept blinking, and the light faded.
The Nine Tails was gone.
Minato was on the ground, unmoving. He looked pale. Lifeless.
Dead.
Kakashi let out a choked sob.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Aunt Kushina wheezed. She was doubled over on the ground, curled up next to Naruto. The newborn had a smoking array of mystical runes on his stomach.
He was the new container for the Nine Tails, the village's new Jinchūriki.
Kakashi forced his body to move to the pair.
"It was a joke," Kushina chuckled. "Don't come thwack me, little Scarecrow. I'll see him soon enough. "
He had to do something. He wobbled, forcing some of his chakra to his hands. He had to draw on the portion of his chakra reserves that were normally spent keeping his body alive and his Sharingan activated. His vision swam. He wasn't a good med-nin by any means, but maybe if he…
Kushina swatted his hands away. Her violet eyes bore into his own.
"Don't. I'm dead anyway," she stated. "Can't fix this sort of seal once it's been broken anyway. Minato would've done it if you could..."
His hands were shaking.
"I suppose I wouldn't mind one dramatic last request," she spat out. " If you could kill… the bastard who made him an orphan… I'd like that."
"I'm.. I'm—" Kakashi choked back a sob. "I'm sorry, I couldn't... I wasn't—"
He felt a hand smack him upside the head.
"Don't you go blaming yourself for this, Kakashi," Kushina whispered. She turned her head to stare at Naruto. "Just get my son to that pervert to keep him safe. Here, take him."
She held out her son to him with trembling arms.
Kakashi quickly took the child. Kushina's arms fell into the dirt. She stared up at the sky.
"Take care of yourself too, kid."
The clearing went still. A child wailed. The world went wrong.
Just like you failed them all last time. And the last time. And the last time...
The last surviving member of Team 7 fell to his knees in the mud, cradling a newborn in his arms. The two cried together until the Third Hokage arrived.
Welcome to Lost on the Road of Life, an AU Naruto-verse quest!
You will follow the adventures of Hatake Kakashi as he leaves the Hidden Leaf village and embarks on daring adventures fraught with peril, subterfuge, and much ninja-ing. You will vote in action plans to control Kakashi, who will enact them to the best of his ability (or not, if he considers them unreasonable in part or in whole, in which case he'll either exercise his character agency to do something else, or will follow the spirit of the plan and adjust things accordingly). Perhaps (if you succeed), you will gain some other party members down the line as well.
It's to your benefit not to worry too much about the specific details of any given plan, though if you have a particularly clever idea or a particularly funny and/or daring method of executing some brilliant scheme, feel free to put those in too. This is supposed to be fun, after all!
The "winning plan' will not always be the one implemented. Thread discussion will be taken into account, meme votes will be cast aside, and things will pass through the Kakashi-filter for editing. Please try to keep the plans down to small lists of a few bulletpoints and subbulletpoints, and include actionable instructions. Keeping things relatively simple and straightforward (as much as can be done in a universe with ninja, action, and intrigue!) is important to make sure that everyone can participate.
A word of caution: This AU has truly significant changes from canon, so be careful relying on OOC knowledge in any way. Worldbuilding details will arise organically through the story updates, via Q&A in thread, or via interludes (which are not always necessarily going to be actionable information to the player characters!).
System rules: This quests runs on a somewhat modified version of the Dresden Files / FATE rules. There's also a list of jutsu known to the players. And a list of stunts:
The QMs for this quest will be: @MMKII, yours truly! @Paperclipped, who will be co-qming and co-authoring as time and schedule allows for the foreseeable future.
Special thanks to:
Everyone in the Marked for Death thread, y'all are awesome! With extra special thanks to authors @eaglejarl and @Velorien, for being superduperfriggin' mega awesome in more ways that I can list here.
Everyone in the Legacy of the Goddess thread (yes I am doublecounting by a lot ), especially co-qms @Vecht, @Kurkistan, and @Radvic. It's been a masterclass in evil-QMing and exciting storytelling, as well as [REDACTED].
No one was waiting for him. He had taken a solo mission to Snow Country, as far away from Konoha as he could possibly manage, specifically so that time wouldn't matter. He wasn't secretly dragging out the hours, waiting for the right moment to arrive to maximize someone's frustration without compromising the mission success. No, this time, he was actually, truly, late. The deadline that he had set himself had come and passed, and he still hadn't left the Village.
His winding, hours-long stroll took him from his apartment (cleared of anything sentimental, but left just as messy as always) down through half of the districts of the village. He visited the biggest bookstore in the village, and preordered a storage scroll worth of novels that he would never actually get to read. He stopped at the Academy, and filed the paperwork for a week-long instructional series that would take place months after he was long gone. He visited all twenty-three of his favorite restaurants, storing an ample amount of food for a mission to the frozen ass-end of nowhere— he would have to make it last. He walked through Gai's favorite training grounds: all of them.
He found himself on top of the Hokage monument for the latter half of the night, smelling the smoke from the hearths and stoves and forges of countless buildings below.
The Leaf would be the greatest place in the world if it weren't for the secret cabal of traitors trying to assassinate him.
Kakashi knew he had to leave for the good of Konoha. He had to grow stronger, smarter, wiser. He had to piece together the hints that had been left behind -- the plant creatures, the Demon Fox, the masked man, Minato's last technique. He had to find a way to root out the evil within Leaf that grew undetected, and do it all without putting any more people in danger. No, he couldn't risk it all being for nothing...
He uncovered his right eye and stared at the quiet movement of tiny specks below, attempting to burn the image into his mind forever with his borrowed Sharingan.
It didn't work like that, but he tried anyway. Eventually though, he had to walk down from the village's iconic landmark and start walking away. Start leaving.
He had long since come to terms with the facts, of course, but he still felt his heart tearing apart in his chest with every step he took towards the Leaf's Great Northern Gate. He would step out of those gates in thirty-five, now thirty-four steps, and he would never return.
The gate was staffed by some green-eared genin — the village was that pressed for manpower. Kakashi hesitated for a moment at the threshold, a minuscule balance in his step that none but a jounin could have noticed.
He took his last step as a ninja of Leaf, and his first as a missing-nin.
Hatake Kakashi would keep Konoha waiting for a long, long time after this mission. But no matter how late Kakashi was, he always arrived in the end. One day, he would find his way back to his home.
o-o-o
"Hey, are you alright in there? You haven't left the room since we boarded in Iron, sir."
Second mate Shinohara Shiro knocked on the door again. He heard some movement behind the door, a frustrated muffled yell, and a sound that sounded like a mountain of falling papers and luggage crashing about.
"I'm fine, just a minute," a voice said. "Just busy with work."
Shiro paused. It wasn't unusual for some of the higher class passengers to keep to themselves for long periods of time, but four days was excessive. That was half the entire journey. Still, rich merchants were eccentric at the best of times, and this fellow was from Wind country. Maybe he just wasn't dealing well with the cold?
"The captain sent me to check up on you. If you could open the door, please."
The door creaked open at the third round of impatient knocking. Shiro blinked as the glare from the candlelight...
He rubbed his eyes. He was tired and his eyes were sore, it happens from time to time when you have the midnight shift.
The passenger, Mr. Tominaga Toru, stood next to a mountain of loose paperwork propped up on his trunk. He was bundled up in what looked to be half of all the clothes he owned. The man was shivering like a bilge rat in the ice box.
"Sorry, sorry," Mr. Tominaga said. He gestured to the pile of papers with ink-stained hands. "I just need to get all of these ledgers sorted before arriving in Snow country. Big opportunity for my business, can't be slacking off. Hmm."
The bundle of clothes in the shape of a man stroked the bit of scarf where his chin would be, before diving into a pouch and producing a jingling handful of coins. He unceremoniously thrust the sum into Shiro's hands.
"Would you mind grabbing me a few meals worth of bread and something nice to drink? Maybe some dry rations or something smoked if the kitchen has any. Set it down outside the door, and I'll pick it up when I'm done for the night."
Shiro gaped at the sum of money. It was more than he'd earn on this whole journey. He tucked it into his trousers hastily.
Tominaga waved absentmindedly, already sitting back down and peering over an inscrutable pile of accounting work and maps.
"Let me know if that doesn't cover it. Oh, close the door on the way out? Thank you."
Shiro almost skipped down the hall on the way to the galley.
o-o-o
Kakashi sipped a bottle of wine and reread his favorite part of Icha Icha: Star Crossed Lovers.
Tominaga wasn't his favorite disguise, but it certainly was the easiest one to pull off with the right demeanor and by flashing some ryō around. It worked wonders in cold climates too. The sailor hadn't noticed the Shadow Clone that he had ready to kill any potential assassins coming through the door. Note to self: train that technique so he could keep it up longer in situations like this, would certainly come in handy.
Kakashi turned the page and silently giggled.
Oh,Yūta, you tricky devil, you.
o-o-o
The gambling den was a high class establishment, but it was far from the fanciest establishment Kakashi had ever been in. It was located in the largest room in the basement of the only noteworthy hotel in the port city of Kushiro. The floors of the room were a polished blue wood (some sort of local pine, if he had to guess) and they were dotted with all manner of rugs and animal furs, the largest of which was the pelt of a great horned chakra rhinoceros that spanned the empty space in the room's center.
"Are you betting, sir?"
Kakashi turned to the well-dressed gangster running the table, and gave him the eager nod of a rich man willing to part with his wealth for no good reason at all. It was a funny question, since he was the only person at the table. Besides the staff, and the man with the bloodshot eyes nursing a hangover at the dice table plus his three lady companions, he was the only person in the place. The winter solstice was a big deal in the Land of Snow, and everyone would be passing right through the port instead of stopping to smell the roses. They probably made most of their money off of merchants passing through, or rich and important travellers stopping here for a quick vacation while on the way to a warmer piece of hell to stay.
Kakashi eyed the rhinoceros pelt, signature twin horns still attached to its forehead. Such things weren't cheap, so that meant that this gambling hall did fairly well for itself, and had enough connections to outsource dangerous hunting missions for mere decorations.
Which meant that he was in the right place, and hadn't spent all morning losing money for nothing.
"I'll put fifty thousand on 9."
The man paused, before turning the roulette wheel and flicking his wrist. A smooth metal ball shot out of his hand and began spinning around the perimeter. "Mr. Tominaga" watched on. He would change into proper ninja attire after arriving at the capital and assessing the situation. Until then, it still had many uses if he wanted to find out some information.
The ball clicked and clattered to a stop on a 27. The pit boss leaned to peer at the table from over Kakashi's shoulder, and frowned at the result. The younger one in charge of running the roulette table itself turned to face the disguised shinobi.
"I'm sorry Mr. Tominaga, that's another loss for you." he said politely.
Kakashi gave an exaggerated cough that morphed into a nervous laughter.
"Yes, yes," Kakashi said, "Quite the run of bad luck. Still, here's what I owe."
Kakashi pushed a bag of gold across the table, which the young gangster began counting patiently. A hand clamped onto his shoulder, and Kakashi would've had to clamp down on the instinct to break it in half if he hadn't already seen it coming.
"Sir, you have spent a significant amount of time at our lovely establishment today," the bald pit boss drawled. "You seem to have hit a serious streak of misfortune this afternoon as well. Please, join us in the back for sake and refreshments. It is the least we can do to balance out your luck today."
Kakashi nodded and was quickly led to the back of the gambling den. It was a common tactic used to manage rich or well-connected patrons who seemed to be losing a bit more money than they should be. It wouldn't be good for some rich daimyo's jilted son to feel cheated and spread accusations along the rumor mill. Bad business. Far better to invite him to the back and hand half of what he's gambled away back to him, while raising a few cups of sake in the name of friendship and luckier days.
The small back room was filled with a simple desk and two fancy cushioned chairs. The chair opposite him had a black haired man with a medium build in an absurdly gaudy purple coat. The shelves along the walls were dotted with expensive bottles of liquor, and a fireplace crackled steadily behind the desk.
"Ah, Mr. Tominaga. I'm Tanaka Shinji, the overseer of my organization's operations in this city. Please, take a seat."
Tanaka extended his hand, and Kakashi shook it. "It's come to my attention that you've lost a… considerable sum of money at our establishment today. Unfortunate. Perhaps there is something we could do about that? We wouldn't want you to feel cheated, after all." The yakuza lieutenant leaned forward with a wry grin, and lowered his voice to a downright conspiratorial whisper. ''Between you and me, I might even be able to refund you a large portion of your losses…"
"Ah, I couldn't possibly accept that." Kakashi raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.
"Oh?" Tanaka's eyebrows raised a bit. "Forgive me for being forward, but why not?"
Because I'm bribing you to get an introduction to your boss, so that I can exploit your entire organization without having to deal with two bit-thugs all afternoon.
"You see, I'm headed to the capital city, Shibetsu, later today." Kakashi said. "I have some business there at Daimyo Kazahana's solstice celebrations. I deal in bulk quantities of certain exotic spices as well as… well, let's call them 'spices' too, if you catch my meaning. I would appreciate a letter of introduction to certain officials in your organization there that could discuss some propositions with me."
Tanaka's expression shifted into a thin smile.
"Such things do not come cheaply, I am afraid, Mr. Tominaga."
Kakashi lifted an index finger.
"Ah, but I have been paying you all afternoon for the privilege of asking!"
Tanaka snorted. Kakashi slowly and clumsily dug out another satchel of money from underneath his coat and Wind country garb. One thing about this disguise that he liked was the thick wool cloak; it concealed things really well. Warm too.
He placed the money down on the table with a thunk.
"Five hundred thousand more. For your trouble."
Kakashi inherited enough from his father to buy half of the port city they were standing in, and the average jounin salaries could be called moderately extravagant. The money didn't matter, but the contacts it might buy him could be priceless. Especially once he officially went on the run.
A couple more minutes of pretending to be some socialite merchant, a few cups of strong liquor and toasts to friendship, and Kakashi left the place with a letter of introduction to Goda Jin, Oyabun of the Chivalrous Organization of the Land of Snow.
o-o-o
They arrived at their destination early in the morning.
The snow leopard sled stopped at an animal pen not far from Shibetsu's gates. Kakashi paid the handler and threw a few buckets of honeyed pork shanks at the four felines. Apparently, you had to feed them heavily after embarking and disembarking, otherwise they would stalk you through the tundra for dozens of miles and rip your throat out in your sleep after you passed out from exhaustion.
He wasn't worried too much about that, but fighting a bunch of cats would be a complete waste of a morning. He would miss out on so much reading, and his disguise would be ruined.
Shibetsu was built into the side of a mountain range, adjacent to a river and a small lake that were both currently frozen. Castle Kazahana towered over the city from the closest mountain peak, its towers and walls highlighted by the ethereal glow of an aurora painting the sky.
Kakashi paid the requisite fees at the city gates before touring the city. They were three days away from the winter solstice, and every district was bustling with people preparing for the holiday. He found a high-class inn to rent a room in, and after thoroughly casing the place unsealed his orders from the tiny green mission scroll he had been carrying in his breast pocket. A formal piece of paper came out, as well as a second note that was written on a napkin dusted with crumbs.
Kakashi,
You are to report to the daimyo, Sōsetsu Kazahana, upon arrival in Shibetsu on the 20th. You will be guarding him and his family for the duration of the winter solstice celebrations. The daimyo suspects some group or another will attempt hostile action towards his family around the solstice. He has bought the right to extend your stay there for up to six weeks should he deem it necessary. This was extremely costly, but you have the authority to deny him this option should you deem it sufficiently superfluous.
Standard protocols otherwise.
The Third Hokage
Sarutobi Hiruzen
He threw the orders into the fireplace and watched as they turned to ash, before turning his attention to the napkin.
P.S. You might have noticed that you have arrived two days ahead of schedule. Joke's on you boy. Enjoy the sights, and don't hesitate to abuse the rich noble's paranoia for a small vacation. The mammoth steaks up in that country are excellent.
-Hiruzen
Excellent. Pretty thoughtful of his great-grand sensei as well. He could probably leverage this somehow, and the Leaf village wouldn't figure it out for months—
Wait.
...
...he was early!?
Voting time!
We use approval voting, so vote for whichever options or write-in plans posted in thread that you prefer, as much as you'd like.
What does Kakashi do now? Some options to get things started:
[] Stealthily survey the castle for potential vulnerabilities and threats. Do the same for the city.
[] Meet with the Snow Oyabun in disguise. Attempt to establish some sort of working relationship in advance.
[] Take a hot bath, you reek. Afterwards, take a nap. After that, go present yourself to the daimyo.
[] (Write in)
(Feel free to ping me, @MMKII, or @Paperclipped with any questions a la "Does Kakashi know this?" etc.)
Additionally, please vote for the following flashback options. These scenes will include Kakashi interacting with the named individual(s) and will have occurred in the times period between the prologue and the first chapter. In addition to informing characterization and relationships,these are potentially very important for you to get enough information to begin making progress on the plot! (Yes, we have a plot. You can find it if you want, but it'll find you if you don't!) The top 3 options will be chosen and turned into interludes or scenes. For every ten unique voters, you will get an additional flashback (up to a limit of 7 in total). In addition to information given to the players, Kakashi's presence may or may not change if and how these events unfold, as well as any impacts they might have in the future...
[]Flashback: Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage
[]Flashback: Jiraiya, of the Legendary Three
[]Flashback: Shimura Danzō, Jounin Commander
[]Flashback: Maito Gai, the Green Beast of Leaf
[]Flashback: Orochimaru, of the Legendary Three
[]Flashback: Uchiha Fugaku, Captain of the Police Force
[]Flashback: Ichiraku Ramen, Sensei's Favorite Restaurant
[]Flashback: Senju Tsunade, of the Legendary Three
[]Flashback: Nara Shikaku, Newly Risen Clan Head
[]Flashback: ANBU Chief Dragon, International Man of Mystery
[]Flashback: Hatake Kakashi, One Conflicted Guy
[]Flashback: Granny Mitsui Emu, Technically Your Landlord
[]Flashback: Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki
Choose wisely.
Voting will close Saturday, Jan. 2nd, at 9am Pacific time.
Kakashi twisted the panels of the inn's windows. The stretched animal skins came loose of the frame of bundled twigs as the bindings lost tension. They flapped for a moment, then fell to the side of the frame, letting in the cold winter air. Kakashi suppressed a shiver. Would it be more comfortable to unwind in a hot bath with hot and wet air or cold and dry air? Kakashi gave an afterthought for the idea that opening the window would give enemies sightlines into his room, but quickly dismissed it. He had scouted the inn carefully and approached it only after taking a four-hour meandering tour of the city and changing his disguise twice.
Compromise. He left the windows half open as he moved over to the bathtub. He giggled for a moment at the inn's staff. After he had removed all his "possessions" from the bathtub, they thankfully had been competent enough to drag it upstairs for him after filling it with snow. He had watched them carefully to detect any subterfuge, but thankfully there was none. It was one of the pleasures of being in a land with no flowing water in the winter: no one tried to assassinate you by smearing poison on the inside of the well's buckets. A quick fire ninjutsu heated the snow up to a nice steaming bath, and now the steam gently filtered out the windows, pale and hazy in the midday light. Hmm, perhaps he should close it before the staff started asking him interesting questions. Nah, too much trouble.
He had long since slipped off his heavy clothing and mask, and now his underclothes followed as he stepped into the warm bath. He felt his muscles relax, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh. Kakashi had never been anywhere quite so cold as Snow in winter, and he half-believed that the frozen air in Snow was causing his blood to freeze in his veins. That would explain why he felt so stiff. Minato-sensei would probably have said something about how the adverse temperatures gave him a rare opportunity to explore a new mode of movement, but there was something to be said for actually feeling comfortable.
Minato-sensei…
Kakashi settled back in the bathtub, feeling the edges of the rim dig into the muscles of his back like some sort of Lightning-country massage. The journey north to the city in the snow leopard sleigh had been less than comfortable. He really needed to steal some techniques from Hidden Glacier. Faster snow-walking and stealthy clothing would be a good start...
Scanning the city for safehouses should take "a day", but Kakashi was hurrying, so he decided to do it in "a few hours", while he was getting the lay of the city. He takes -2 AB.
Kakashi (Alertness): 31
On the other hand, the yakuza's people have as much time as they need to make their safehouses hidden. They're going to get 3 time-ladder bonuses.
Various Yakuza Lieutenants trying to hide their safehouses (Deceit): 18
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): 22
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): 30
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): 31
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ??
VYLTtHtS (Deceit): ?? [NB: I added some fake entries to make it unclear how many there actually are. Kakashi could have found all of them or missed most of them]
Goda Jin trying to hide his private residence (Deceit): lol, nice try Kakashi
Attackers win ties, so Kakashi finds 4 safehouse locations.
They get a chance to notice him.
Kakashi (Stealth): 32
Various Yakuza (Alertness): lol, nice try yaks
Separately to his search, Kakashi also gets a passive roll to notice anything off about the city:
Kakashi (Alertness): 37
Unknown number of adversaries (???): ??
He relaxed and thought. He had spent an awful lot of time convincing Takana to introduce him to the Oyabun, so he was hesitant to waste the opportunity. Though, if he decided he didn't want to be introduced to the Oyabun as "Mr. Tominaga", he had taken the liberty of scouting the city for yakuza safehouses. Breaking in and rearranging their furniture would at least give him something to do while waiting for Daimyo Kazahana to finish oiling his hair.
Sadly, though he had dug up all their hidey-holes and hidden bases, he hadn't quite found out where the Oyabun had holed up. It might take slightly more effort than a casual stroll through the city to prank the godfather of a country-wide major criminal syndicate. Kakashi sighed. Life sometimes just wasn't fair.
He had uncovered something intriguing in his search. Among the hideouts he had scouted, one was noticeably different. The people going in and out didn't bear the normal pointed-mountain crest that Tanaka has so proudly displayed in his casino. Rather, they entered by flashing a smaller, more discreet emblem of a flower. The underworld in Shibetsu clearly had some tension. The presence of a new, smaller gang could provide Kakashi with opportunities to exploit. At the very least, he would have an easier time turning them into his patsies.
Apart from that, the city had seemed fairly mild. No missing-nin starting rooftop ninjutsu fights, no Hidden Glacier ninja chasing him down with power armor, only one Tailed Beast rampaging in the south end of the city… No, he had miscounted. No Tailed Beasts either.
He had done a cursory scout of Castle Kazahana too, at least as best as he could from the base of the mountain looking up. The beauty of the walls had been somewhat soured by the archers and spearmen patrolling atop it. Daimyo Kazahana clearly saw trouble in his near future. No surprise there, as he must surely have spent a tremendous amount to hire a jōnin from Leaf to protect him. Still, confirming one question raised several more. Why did the Daimyo send a message to Leaf for a mission, when the messenger and the down payment might well not have arrived through the winter waters of the Shattered Isles? Why didn't he hire ninja from his own country for such a simple bodyguarding mission? Why break from Snow's notoriously isolationist policies?
Kakashi relaxed slightly further into his bath, and formed a hand seal to stoke the flame that burned gently at the underside of the cauldron. Yet another benefit of being so far away from the heart of the Elemental Nations. He hardly had to worry about walking right into a trap.
o-o-o-o
Midday had come and gone by the time that Kakashi finished his light jog up the side of the mountain. The guards on the castle's walls had noticed him on his way up, but they had thankfully held themselves back from letting loose a wave of arrows. Roasting most of the Daimyo's castle guard would do little to endear Kakashi to him. Kakashi grimaced. He had made worse introductions…
As he approached the gate, Kakashi had to hold in his breath. Castle Kazahana was truly a beautiful thing. The walls were tall and alabaster-white, engrained with horizontal lines stretching the wall's entire width as if the rock had simply been painted into existence here by the Sage's brush. The towers had clearly been constructed afterwards, and though they lacked that effortless natural elegance, they instead wove beauty with practicality as their roofed enclosures and arrow slits made of the same beautiful stone would surely have been a deterrent to ordinary armies. It hadn't snowed the morning before, but the sun's rays had melted the morning frost that had once clung to the walls, and the castle itself shone as ten thousand rays of sun from ten thousand dewdrops of water refracted across its white surface.
Smart. Get the sun in the enemy's eyes to keep them from seeing the arrow-fire. Kakashi could appreciate the elegance of the combination. Hyena would have appreciated it more...
Kakashi strode up to the gate, a tall, ugly wooden thing, supported by a portcullis made of the same ugly iron that tipped their spears and arrows. He could almost smell their fear as a guardswoman approached him.
"I'm the ninja your Daimyo hired. You're the captain here?" said Kakashi.
She nodded. "We've been expecting you. You have the letter he sent?"
Kakashi held it up, and she looked at the seal on it for a moment before he said, "I'm quite busy, as ninja often are. Will there be a problem? I am eager to meet Daimyo Kazahana."
She looked up for a moment, and he tensed momentarily, a slight motion just enough to hint at the power behind the slouched stance and the sagging headband. Her eyes widened slightly as she took a step back and turned the motion into a gesture at the door. "Right this way, sir," she said with a bow, before turning and yelling to raise the gates.
Kakashi waited just long enough to stoop under the rising portcullis before continuing his quick stride towards the castle. Ahead of him, he saw the tracks of messengers hastily sent to the Daimyo from when they noticed his arrival. If there was a trap waiting here for him to spring face-first, they would have had at least a minute to prepare. More than enough for any ninja. He itched to pull down his mask and analyze the castle with Obito's eye, but he held himself back. Not now. Not yet.
The interior of the castle lacked some of the grandeur of the outside. Coming from the Land of Fire, Kakashi could have expected that. For all its glory, Castle Kazahana could not hold a candle to the monument of crass avarice that was the Fire Daimyo's palace in Keishi. Castle Kazahana's grand sweeping arches and periodic braziers created a perfectly nice atmosphere that almost staved off the ever-present cold, but it wasn't the lacquered wood and silver trim and beautiful, enameled mosaics that Kakashi associated with the truly wealthy (or at least, the ways that those few wealthy civilians chose to spend their ryō).
Kakashi continued in a straight line, head swivelling to take in every crevice and entryway. There were servants in the reception hall making dignified exits. It took a simple glare to convince them to exit faster. He didn't let his eyes linger on the grand mural to the right, which seemed to depict some scene of the Sage and an ancient dragon. He could always return here once any adversaries had been removed.
A set of double doors marked the entrance to the Daimyo's chamber; too heavy for a normal push to open them quickly and he didn't want to burn chakra to kick them off their hinges. Instead, he tossed a low-power explosive tag at the door as he walked without breaking his stride. The blast of explosive force slammed the door open and sent a rush of wind through his hair. He didn't pause as he scanned the room. Whether by accident or by design, the Daimyo had left no polished surfaces facing the entrance with which to check for traps or assailants around the doorway. Kakashi cursed silently, but he continued forward.
He entered the throne room, a circular room smaller than the reception hall but noticeably warmer, and carved from the same smooth white stone that everything else in this castle was made of. The stone was still unmarred, Kakashi noted. Most likely, Castle Kazahana had never seen serious combat.
A moment's glance around the room revealed no attackers. The austere room left few places to hide, and Kakashi could detect nothing wrong with the pair of braziers, the rug, or the simple throne. There would have been no better place to do it, as Kakashi had no intention of probing deeper into the castle on this journey. Not a trap.
Kakashi didn't relax just yet as he turned his focus to the Daimyo. The man sat upon a throne made out of some sort of dull gray metal, and wore a multi-layered kimono of red and white. He was flanked by more pike-wielding guards, and they seemed to be quickly pulling themselves together after the shock of Kakashi blasting their doors open. They all held their nerves as Kakashi allowed his stride to become a little less predatory before he came to a stop.
"Hatake Kakashi. You hired a Leaf jōnin to protect you during the solstice festival," he said, producing the Daimyo's letter once more, "Leaf chose to send me."
The Daimyo slowly leaned forward in his throne. The man seemed to be in his mid-thirties, yet his hair already held bundles of gray amidst the dark brown. "Do my eyes deceive me, or is it the Copy Ninja, Kakashi of the Sharingan, that stands before me?"
Kakashi silently nodded.
The Daimyo's lined face seemed to split into a glowing smile. "Well, that is excellent news! I am certain that one as skilled as you will have no difficulty protecting me and my family through the solstice festival."
Translation, Kakashi thought, your reputation will scare off anyone who even thinks about it. Efficient.
"Apart from the incredible pleasure that having you by my side for the celebration will bring, I am incredibly gladdened to see that the ninja of Hidden Leaf hold the Sage's Six Virtues so dear to their hearts. Your punctuality, no, your willingness to go beyond punctuality and spend extra time on this mission by arriving early shows me that your conscientiousness is well worth every ryō I spent to hire you."
Thankfully, Kakashi would never directly harm a client.
"I am grateful that you honor me as such, Hatake," said Daimyo Kazahana. He gestured around the room, "I would have you take up residence in this castle as soon as you can. I have arranged a room for you near mine. Come the 21st, Shibetsu will begin its solstice festival, which will last six days. For the duration, I ask that you provide me and my family with protection on the way up and down the mountainside, as well as during the festival itself, which will happen within the town and consequently may have many more people potentially moving about."
"Describe the threat profile," Kakashi said, noticing the brief confusion on their faces before rephrasing, "I mean, what sort of dangers to your safety do you expect?"
The Daimyo nodded, last traces of his smile fading away. "Many warlords have sought to take my castle and my holdings in the past. Beyond that, I am told that certain gang members in the city have some animosity towards my eldest daughter."
Kakashi let his words hang in the air for a moment. "That explains why you might want guards, but even these," he said, gesturing dismissively at the men at the Daimyo's side, "would suffice for that. Hiring a genin team from Glacier would be overkill for your needs. Explain to me why you didn't do that."
The Daimyo bristled, clearly unused to being given an order such as this. He opened his mouth as if to correct Kakashi, but caught himself. "Hidden Glacier… has been unstable, recently. I am not the best informed of the events in the lives of ninja, and Glacier has always been loath to allow non-ninja to leave, for the fear of losing their veil of secrecy. Nonetheless, from the few ninja that have communicated with the ordinary citizens of Snow near Shibetsu, I am taken to believe that their hierarchy has changed substantially in recent months. Their ability to fulfill requested missions has been erratic, to say the least, so I consequently believed Leaf's ninja able to provide a surer way to protect myself and my family in such a time."
That doesn't answer why you needed a jōnin, thought Kakashi. Wait, I don't respect him enough to be polite.
"That doesn't answer why you needed a jōnin."
"Well, on the one hand, I had money to spare from a profitable trading year. On the other, I have only heard tales of what life is like in the Land of Fire, and the countries that adjoin it. I am unaware of the true skill level of ninja that hail from those lands, and, with all respect, the ninja who I am most familiar with from Hidden Glacier would have led me to believe that you were less competent than they, rank for rank." He leaned forward, curiosity playing in his eyes. "Perhaps sometime while you are here, you could provide a demonstration of your skills?"
For a second, Kakashi imagined what could have happened if he had instead scorched the walls with his Fire Dragon Bullet and torn down the legions of soldiers. A moment later, his mind flicked through the seals for Volt Whip. Twitch the wrist to lash through the spear and belly of the guard on the left, and before the right can react, stomp to break his foot and root him in place for the elbow under the jaw.
The Daimyo seemed to realize how Kakashi had started thinking about his suggestion, because he raised his hands as he said, "I meant at the festival, not here. A show of your abilities could prove an easy way to dissuade potential attackers, as well as spread the legend of the Copy Ninja even in as remote a place as this one."
You're pushing awfully hard for me to be flashy. What's the angle? Why not ask outright? thought Kakashi. This time, he didn't speak his concerns aloud. Better to find out the hidden motives behind the Daimyo's words on his own time. People rarely appreciated being directly asked about their secrets.
Kakashi nodded. "I see. I don't think that would be a good idea. The spectacle might prove an opportunity for someone to make an attack while I'm distracted."
"Then perhaps you would prefer to keep a low profile?" Daimyo Kazahana seemed genuinely concerned, yet Kakashi could detect a sly insincerity in his voice. "While I understand you might prefer to use your reputation as part of your means of protection, I could also keep it quiet from others that the ninja guarding me was so talented and famed."
Kakashi didn't respond immediately, so the Daimyo continued, "I shall leave the choice to you. In the end, what I care about most is that you see your mission through to its end; that my family and I are unharmed and that my town has a celebration that uplifts their spirits and prepares them for the coming year.
"So, shall I instruct the servants to prepare your room for you?"
Kakashi shook his head. "I'm going to prepare for the solstice, and I can't do it from in here. I'll contact you."
In a sudden flash of motion, he thrust his hand at the floor as if throwing a smoke bomb. He held the position for an instant, then dispelled himself.
Kakashi tries to create the Aspect, "Power is Rank"
Kakashi (Presence): 33
Daimyo Kazahana (Presence): ??
Kakashi wins and gets the Aspect. Kazahana acknowledges the importance of his power and won't complain about not getting "appropriate respect".
Kazahana attempts to learn his Aspects around punctuality/mission ethic.
Daimyo Kazahana (Empathy): ??
Kakashi (Deceit): 29
Kazahana does not learn any of Kakashi's Aspects.
Kazahana is hiding some things, how well can Kakashi ferret them out?
Daimyo Kazahana (Deceit): ??
Kakashi (Deceit + "Power is Rank"): 35
Kakashi thinks he pieced together most of what he missed, but can't quite figure it all out.
Kazahana wants Kakashi to show off his abilities.
Daimyo Kazahana (Presence): ??
Kakashi (Resolve): 32
Kakashi decides not to.
o-o-o-o
Kakashi folded up his copy of Icha Icha: The Passion of the Ice Queen (for research purposes only!) when he felt the Shadow Clone dispel itself. He slipped further into the hot tub and closed his eyes. The memories streamed in, and he allowed his nose and mouth to dip beneath the surface, only to inhale water when the floor shook. In an instant, he was out of the tub, lightning speed thrumming in his veins. The floor shook again. No, it was just the sound of a broom hitting the floor. Through it, he could hear the innkeeper's muffled voice.
"You lit up a fire there to warm up your water, bathtub guy?"
Kakashi looked at the fire that he had lit underneath the bathtub to warm up his water.
"Noooo, I would never."
"Then tell me why the ceiling's hot!"
What do you do now?
Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Also, feel free to ping @Paperclipped or @MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know.
Voting is open, and closes at 9am London Time, Wednesday January 06.
Here are some options to get you started, though write-ins are encouraged:
[] Contact the Snow Oyabun as Mr. Tominaga. Try to determine if the yakuza are planning something for the solstice.
[] Confess to the innkeeper about making a fire in the room. Offer a penance, and work in the inn for a month.
[] Contact the smaller yakuza group, offering to help them take over the city in exchange for their help investigating Daimyo Kazahana's recent past.
[] Leave the city for a couple days and hunt down a Hidden Glacier ninja to capture and interrogate. You don't have to worry about political fallout anymore, right?
[] Relax and read some well-earned Icha Icha. Try to salvage some reputation by doing an awful, lazy job of guarding the Daimyo.
[] {write-in}
The Daimyo's family includes his father, who abdicated the throne four years ago, and his mother. He has three children, 19, 13, and 12, respectively female, female, and male. The castle is basically unassailable to civilian troops, and it is positioned in such a way that even ninja would struggle to approach it discreetly (though Kakashi expects that Hidden Glacier ninja have mastered ways to move around on snowy or icy terrain undetected). The inside of the castle is probably also defensible, and Kakashi is better than many at fighting in close-quarters. However, a ninja fight so close to his protectees would probably be lethal.
The journey down to the town is a ~1 mile trek down switchbacks on the mountainside. It took Kakashi seconds to go up the mountain directly to the castle. The switchbacks themselves are fairly safe, patrolled and kept free of chakra beasts. The castle area and the areas beneath it seem to be in some sort of natural shelter, where avalanches are mostly diverted before they reach.
Daimyo Kazahana will be taking the winter solstice mostly from the town's square, where a number of performers and artisans will be doing performances. He will also meet with merchants and his subordinate Daimyo in the area for trading, setting policy, and the like. The square itself will be dedicated to performers some times, but otherwise will be filled with merchant stalls. Many goods will be sold, but by the evenings, people will be selling cheap food and drink, and there will be some amount of revelry.
Shibetsu itself is around 5000 people. Its main industry seems to be farming livestock and hunting. They don't seem to have food production this time of year, they are probably living entirely off of stores. Apart from Daimyo Kazahana, there are about a dozen major merchants who are also quite wealthy.
Kakashi waited for the thumping and muffled yelling from below to stop. He looked at the splinter-y remnants of the extremely tacky dresser that he chopped to bits to warm up the bathwater, and shook his head ruefully. Really, they should be paying him for disposing of it properly. Ingrates. He sighed and got up out of the bath, grabbing a few spans of linen and furs from a stool nearby to methodically dry off with. He sat down on the stool next to the embers of the fire —it was safely cooling on the ceramic sheet he had put out under the tub, really, did these people think he was a crazy barbarian from Fang? —and consulted his internal clock. It'd only been about ten minutes since the clone had popped.
Mm-mmm. Too soon.
Kakashi moved to the windows, placing some of the (now wet) animal skins back on the one frame, which consisted of a mix of hand-carved branches and lacquered wood that had been cut into a window shape. It was almost as awful as the dresser. Hmmm, maybe he would take a second bath later as well… Bah. He left the other frame bare, the window still wide open.
The midday sun was waning and the sky was looking cloudy, probably foreshadowing a small evening snowstorm. They got a lot of snow here apparently. Perfect either way. He pulled out his bandelier of storage seals meant for worn equipment and outfits and started to rifle through them. After a minute of searching, he finally decided that the standard gear with a few modifications for the weather would suffice. He pulled out a white cotton cloak, as well as a brown one that had a pile of pine needles sewn into it.
Kakashi took his storage seal filled with storage seal blanks and unsealed the box of storage seal blanks. He paused for a moment and contemplated how it was possible that you could store boxes of uninfused storage seal blanks in a storage seal, and yet you couldn't store infused storage seals inside each other. Sealing was a strange and temperamental art, indeed.
He took one blank out, hastily updated the paperwork on the inside of the box's lid, touched his finger to the seal blank and ran chakra along the brushwork design to infuse it and allow the piece of palm-sized paper to wield powers from beyond time and space, before scrawling "Shitty Pine Tree Camo." on the back of the new storage seal.
He put the messy pine needle cloak on top of the storage seal before poking the paper with a finger and nudging the seal a bit with his chakra.
The mess of pine needles and fabric vanished with a poof. The box of storage seal blanks went back into the storage seal blank storage seal as well.
Y'know, Minato-sensei always did hate that naming convention. Heh. Aunt Kushina and Jiraiya thought it was hilarious though...
He zoned out for a bit.
…
…
…
Kakashi stopped zoning out for a bit. He consulted his internal clock again. It'd been about forty to forty-five (?) minutes since his clone dispelled.
Perfect.
He reached over and grabbed a bucket of water, before upending it on the embers of the fire. The charcoal hissed and steamed before going out.
He double checked his gear before jumping out the open window.
o-o-o
He was one with the pine tree, his shitty cloak blending in perfectly against the tree trunk. He was a fixture of the environment, just another background object in the light snow and densely forested mountain pass. He was stillness itself, the motions of his chest breathing and muscles clenching and unclenching would be unnoticeable to almost all observers, completely non differentiable from the pine needles rustling in the wind or the snow swirling back and forth, or the branches swaying, ever so slightly.
Kakashi felt a small bit of fur twitch under his nose as a bushy tail swiped back and forth.
There was a fucking squirrel in his hair, too.
After about fifteen minutes of doing things by the book, Kakashi decided to hell with it. He batted the squirrel away. It retreated to a smaller branch overhead, hissing angrily at him. He wiped equal parts venom and spittle off of his face, and returned his attention to the surroundings below.
A lone, almost blocky figure hurriedly trudged through the forest path, moving with a purpose from the direction of Kazahana castle. It was hard to make them out through the weather and branches from this far away without his Sharingan. Still, they looked like they were late to some appointment or another, or were heading quickly to grab something at the last minute from the city proper.
They had a nice and heavy fur coat on, so they certainly weren't some manservant out to run an errand. Probably some important somebody-or-other from the daimyo's court. They were stout, so likely male. The master of the hunt or... whatever the flaming shit these nobles randomly entitled themselves with up here.
A few minutes later they passed out of sight of the castle and started jogging. Decently fast, towards the city. The man passed right by his position without even bothering to look up. Terrible spatial awareness, even for a civilian. You just had to keep these things in mind if you were doing something nefarious.
Kakashi allowed himself a small smile. He had been fifty-fifty on whether whatever intelligence source Glacier had almost certainly placed at the castle was going to be a civilian informant or an actual infiltration spec ninja. Guess it was the former, which made the next part fun.
He disappeared from his position on the tree.
Yes, go be a good little informant, he thought. Go let whoever your contact is know that the infamous Copy Ninja showed up at the castle with a bang, not even two hours ago. Please, go straight to wherever they are with great haste to tell them the news...
Trees shook and white powder gently sprayed into the air, as he darted across the landscape.
o-o-o
The man ended in front of a market stall, speaking to a woman that looked to be about a year older than Kakashi was. She had bright blond hair, was slightly shorter than he was, and was wearing... what was probably standard commoner attire for the area, underneath a patchwork cloak. She was selling a variety of smoked fish. The two finished their conversation, and the man bought the rest of her wares. The woman had a very poorly done (well, from his point of view) non-reaction to whatever was said to her.
You must be our Glacier ninja.
She very inconspicuously went to the back of the storefront before vanishing out the back.
Kakashi was already moving, ghosting across the rooftops in pursuit. It would be nice if he could remain undetected on the approach, but keeping up with the Glacier ninja was more important than the style points now.
Kakashi,Stealth: 35
Mieko, Alertness: ???
Kakashi squeaks by undetected.
Still, she seemed to be a little preoccupied. Or maybe he was just lucky for once.
The two left the city limits and in a few minutes were closing in on what looked like a campground half-hidden in the surrounding forest amidst a pile of snow drifts. Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan, but kept his right eyelid tightly closed.
Hmmm.
"Earth Element: Living Roots Technique!" he said, feeling his awareness expand as a net of earth element chakra shaped itself outwards from his feat, waxing and waning chaotically with each step.
It was always good to get a few quick jutsu in, if you knew you were about to be kicking some ass in the next minute.
o-o-o
The two ninja entered the base camp area at approximately the same time. Kakashi had overtaken the Glacier ninja slightly. He opened his right eye, did some quick mental calculations, and then suddenly changed direction to crash directly into her. He shifted his mass and used chakra to adhere his feet to the ground, before capturing the ninja in a harmless grapple and throwing her about ten feet back.
The Glacier ninja looked at him warily. It could have just as easily been a debilitating strike to the neck, or a crushing kick to the ribs, and they both knew it.
He shrugged, and spread his arms slightly, almost beckoning her forward to fight him. He stood his ground.
The woman paused, surprised for a moment, before flashing through hand seals.
"Wind Element: Dustoff!"
A blast of wind crashed into the ground between them, shooting dirt, debris, and a hell of a lot of snow in his general direction. The wind didn't stop there, it swirled and surged, turning the blast of debris into a hazy cloud. Kakashi quickly put up an arm to stop any from getting in his eyes. The wind chakra pushing the particles clung to his outstretched arm for a moment, and ground the snow and dirt back and forth into his cloak, before dissipating.
Hmmm. Would have hurt to get hit with that in the eyes. Smart woman. Kakashi dropped his arm back into a more suitable position, brushing it off idly with his other hand.
"Fire Element: Blazing Fists!"
The Glacier ninja flashed through a quick series of hand seals. Her hands ignited into twin balls of shining flames. She shifted into a taijutsu stance.
Kakashi stared her down for a moment. He shrugged, and reached into his vest pocket to pull out his secret weapon.
He flipped his copy of Icha Icha: The Passion of the Ice Queen back to where he'd left off, and started reading.
"You know, I'll give you a freebie," he said, "I'm going to stand here and read the rest of this page. Get a good hit in—"
His opponent rocketed forward right after he said the word 'page'. He had the Living Roots technique active, so he could feel it the instant she moved. His Sharingan, though not focused directly on the woman, still could see the ghostly images of movements that it predicted she would make an instant later. Kakashi didn't end up needing either of those though, because…
Kakashi pivoted widely to the side, avoiding the flaming uppercut that would have struck right through the back of his book, before bouncing off his pivot step with a bit of chakra repulsion and kicking her in the solar plexus. She quickly rolled to the side and jumped back up on her feat.
"You know," Kakashi said, chuckling ever so slightly. "Would you believe me if I told you that every single time I've done that, the other person always takes the same angle of attack? I was really hoping you would have done something different, but..."
The ninja dashed into the woods on the left.
"Tch. Rude!"
He stowed his book away and followed.
"You know, maybe something like this?"
Kakashi ran right past her guard, dancing through some seriously impressive strikes, screwed her positioning up with a pinch of Gai's Fancy Footwork Routine, and then finally smashed the back of her head forward with his fist.
The woman stood there, stunned for a second, before the aura of flame around her fists blinked out, and she was replaced by a small person-sized log.
Kakashi Substituted with a boulder.
Okay, this is starting to get a bit annoying.
o-o-o
The ninja darted off, leaving a trail of Substitution targets behind. Her Substitution technique didn't seem particularly well developed (to be fair, neither was his, but his was still passable, at least) so he could just match her on every Substitution.
They both landed at the clearing at the same time. The woman's eyes darted back and forth across the landscape, looking for more things to substitute with, but it was completely empty.
"Nice of you to fetch all those logs for me, " Kakashi quipped, "It would have been a real pain to spot them all myself. Eyes get tired with all this snow around, you know? It's boring to look at."
The ninja flashed a few quick hand seals.
"Fire Element: Blazing Fists!"
She reignited her hands. She brought her fists up in a taijutsu stance and looked at him with apprehension.
"You know what?" Kakashi asked, "That looks like a fun jutsu. Let me try it out." His hands flashed the same hand seals, and his chakra coils pulsed and he instinctively manipulated the turbulent elemental energies in the exact same way that his Sharingan eye had just observed.
"Fire Element: Blazing Fists."
Kakashi flew forward in a burst of speed. He saw the obvious flurry of quick blows coming, it was clear as day where they would hit, even a few instants before his opponent had been halfway through the motions. He sidestepped them, gave her a quick kick in the ribs, before ducking down under her guard and driving one of his burning fists partway into her thigh as she — too slow, of course — tried to smash him in the face with her own fiery punches.
Huh, think she singed a few of the longer hairs though. Not bad.
She collapsed to the ground screaming as her leg gave way. He leveled a kunai at her throat and looked her in the eyes. Her own azure eyes widened, she visibly grit her teeth to try to block out the agony, and she tried very, very hard to not move.
"You know who I am, and you know what I can do, and you know that you're royally fucked right now unless you do exactly what I say, right?" Kakashi asked. He projected a little bit of killing intent outwards to underscore his point.
The temperature in the clearing seemed to dip a bit. The Glacier ninja twitched, and almost seemed to swallow her own tongue for a second, before giving a quick nod.
"Plot to assassinate the daimyo. Your people are in on it. Talk."
"There's going to be a rendezvous on the night of the 20th with a few of the remaining Glacier chūnin and Dotō Kazahana,the daimyo's younger brother. It's going to be held in the function room of the Woolly Yak Inn."
The wind howled through the clearing and the snowfall picked up.
"Shit, really?" Kakashi asked. "I have a room there."
Wow. That would have been inconvenient.
"Do I look like I'm lying?"
"No." Kakashi said. Huh, well this was a pleasant surprise. Maybe more like an unpleasant surprise that's been averted. "Alright. Good. What's your name?"
"Ichihara Mieko..." she managed to choke out.
"Alright. Don't move a muscle," Kakashi said. He left the kunai on the ground right next to him, and reached for the storage seal that held his medical equipment. With his right hand, he started channeling medical chakra through his fingertips into Ichihara's thigh.
"So," Kakashi said, while unrolling some cloth bandages, "I'm going to fix you up a bit. After that, you're going to show me all of the ninjutsu you know. I mean literally all of them. And after that we're going to have a long conversation about your boss."
"Ah. Alright, but…" Ichihara said, before coughing up a storm. "Grkkf!" Her eyes fluttered and her head drooped. The rest of her body rag-dolled awkwardly to the side. Kakashi checked her vitals quickly. Stable.
thunk
He tapped her head with the flat of his kunai.
"Did you just pass out?"
thunk thunk
"Oi, hostage. Wake up."
thunk
"Alright, fine. I think I need a second bath anyway."
Since Kakashi cast Shadow Clone earlier today, he'll be starting at ~300 CP, since he hasn't actually been doing anything super active since casting the technique, and I don't feel like mathing out chakra regen rates. This is less than an ideal amount but he reckons it's more than enough to screw around.
Initiative goes to Kakashi, he has the higher Alertness.
ROUND 1:
Kakashi had his Sharingan eye uncovered but closed on the approach. He's going to open it now. -10 CP for this round. He's also going to Chakra Boost to full for a +6 to physical stats. That's going to be another -30 CP.
He's going to use his Standard action to set up a Taijutsu Block: "Keep this person from leaving the zone."
Her Wind jutsu fails at obscuring Kakashi's vision enough to matter.Whelp.
Supplemental: Fire Element: Blazing Fists: 30
Her fists are now on fire, and she's done.
Kakashi copies both of these techniques, since he can see her just fine.
ROUND 2:
Kakashi burns another 40 CP to keep his Sharingan running and buffs up.He stops the taijutsu block, and spends a Supplemental to take out a spare copy of one of his porn romance novels, and attempts a Deceit maneuver to taunt.
Kakashi, Deceit: 29 + 0 (dice)
Mieko, Deceit: 20
If this were Social Combat, it would be enough to cause Mieko to take a consequence. I'm ruling that Kakashi's Maneuver is successful. He creates the Aspect 'What, He's Reading???', and calls the round there.
Mieko's turn. She's just going to take a shot at him with her flaming hands and spend some FP.
Kakashi wins, counterattacks for 2 stress. He notes that the fire hands jutsu seems to be pretty useful at first glance but not anything super duper special.
She's not having this, and spends a Supplemental to move to the next zone.
ROUND 3:
Kakashi burns another 40 CP to keep his buffs up.
If she had something really awesome, she would have tried to hit him with it by now. He spends a Supplemental to stow his book, another to Sprint to her Zone, and a Standard to attack with Taijutsu. He isn't going to get fancy yet, so he isn't going to bother using his Taijutsu style.
A valiant effort, but with a difference of 4 in the rolls, she takes a total of 2 + 1 = 3 stress. Her Physical Stress Track now has all 3 blocks full. She needs to take a Mild Consequence ('Ouch, My Everything'), leaving her with 1 block of her stress track filled. Kakashi gets a free tag on this Aspect, but at least her stress track is clear. For now.
Mieko's turn: She's hauling her butt out of here. She'll take the Sprint action as a standard,a Sprint as a Supplemental, and uses her last Supplemental to cast Substitution to swap with a log. So she'll get three zones away.
ROUND 4:
Narratively, Kakashi is going to give chase for a bit.
Now, mechanically speaking, the two characters can keep up the chase here for quite a while. The number of mass-convenient substitution targets for Mieko is going to run out almost immediately once they get into the snow covered wilderness, and fleeing this way will just leave a trail of similar targets for Kakashi to follow anyway. Neither of their current buffs require action economy to keep up or toggle on this timescale. So I am going to skip the cat and mouse game in favor of an Athletics roll off, giving the fleeing party some bonuses, allowing them to recast their fire hands thing after landing if they fail, and not fiddling with any maluses from the Sprint actions...
Kakashi, Athletics: 59 total.
Mieko, Athletics: 52 total.
… which Kakashi still crushes, so we'll start Round 4 with them in the same zone.
Kakashi burns another 40 CP to throw all his buffs on.
Mieko burns another 25 CP to keep hers.
Kakashi's turn:
Supplemental: That was a nice Fire jutsu, let's use it. -45 CP. Bleh, too much chakra, but his hands are now on fire.
Standard: Nonlethally disable her.
Rolling for Strong Fist (Athletics vs Athletics)
Kakashi: 44
Mieko: 37
(Adding their respective buffs won't change the result).
So Kakashi creates the fragile Aspect 'Look, the Leaf is Burning Red!' and so:
Kakashi, Taijutsu: 55 +12 (Buffs) +4 (BH) + 6 (Aspect Tag 'Ouch, My Everything') +6 ( Aspect Tag 'Look, the Leaf is Burning Red!' ) -3 (dice) = 76.
Mieko, Taijutsu: 54
She's Taken Out, after taking the Moderate Consequence 'Bruised Ribs' and the Severe Consequence 'Horribly Burned Leg'.
Kakashi ends the battle with about 50 CP left remaining. He's going to move on to doing some social combat. This person is literally at his mercy at this point. I'm going to be really really really nice to the Glacier Ninja who just had her day and probably her career ruined, and I'm not going to apply the Physical consequence maluses to her Resolve roll.
Mieko takes a Mild Consequence 'Shit, He's Scary.'
She folds like wet cardboard.
o-o-o
Kakashi woke up from his nap and peered outside. Hmmm. It was early, probably the morning of the 20th. He had slept a few more hours than he had intended. He got up from his bedroll, and peered across the room at his slumbering hostage/patient/prisoner/accomplice(?), Ichihara Mieko.
He had tied her securely to the bed with ropes, obviously. Ninja wire too. And also rigged the underside of the mattress with explosives. Quite a lot of explosives. The corners of the sheets were also soaked with oil, in case of any fire ninjutsu related accidents.
He channeled some medical chakra into his hand and placed it on the bandages he applied.
Nope, nothing, Kakashi thought. She is probably really hungry though, after being tied to that bed for a while.
Easy fix. He made a few hand seals.
"Earth Element: Earth Clone."
Kakashi rifled through his ever expanding array of storage seals (food and furniture editions), before handing a few to the newly created clone. Elemental clones were not like Shadow Clones. While shadow clones had all the skills and intelligence of the original, elemental clones had a fraction of the caster's expertise in any given area, and had almost no intelligence beyond following simple orders.
He always found it amusing that an earth clone was literally as dumb as a rock.
"Set the tables in here up around the bed." Kakashi commanded.
The clone complied.
Kakashi and his earth clone started unsealing full course meal after full course meal around the bed. Ichihara stirred at the commotion.
"Oi, wake up."
The woman opened her eyes and looked around nervously for a couple minutes.
Kakashi let the silence drag.
…
…
...
"Food?" she asked.
"Help yourself, " he replied. "The clone can get you and feed you whatever you'd like. Clone, make sure to do that stuff if she asks.The food is obviously not poisoned, because why would I kill you?"
The earth clone nodded. Creepy.
The two ate in silence for a while. Kakashi had some barbecued pork from one of the Akimichi restaurants. Ichihara tried a smorgasbord of the available food.
"So," Kakashi said, breaking the tension. "Let me preface this conversation by pointing out a couple things. One: you currently live and die at my mercy. You are alive and being fed nice food, so I must not be such a bad guy. As you've seen, I can be much worse."
Ichihara froze in the middle of a bite of some gyoza. The earth clone picked up another piece with some chopsticks and prodded her mouth with it ineffectually.
"Clone, stop that. Two: I've already figured out about your village's nefarious plans to assassinate the daimyo, so there's really no point in secrecy there."
"Three: I am going to stop them with or without your help, so you might as well help me for the time being. At least for a little while, so you have a chance of altering the outcome to your best interests and/or betraying me later. Also I am very obviously helping you at this point in time, in a very visible fashion, so you already look like a traitor.
"The daimyo has made it known to me that your village's command structure has changed recently, and that its ability to fulfill mission orders has been drastically hampered. Now, to me, this screams 'coup' or 'civil war' along with the associated loss of manpower that comes as fallout.
"You also seem to be clanless, since I don't recognize you as being one of the four Glacier clans from my intel. They probably treat you like complete garbage in your village because of that. I doubt you were even on any particular side during whatever happened. In fact, I bet it generally hurt a lot of people you care about, so you probably have no love lost for whoever the fuck is currently in charge. Am I on the right track?"
The Glacier ninja had adopted a neutral, pensive expression and was currently staring out the window quietly.
"More or less," Ichihara said, pursing her lips. The Glacier ninja frowned, and shook her head, as if trying to clear some brain fog.
"What do you want?" she asked, an undercurrent of fear still present in her voice.
"All of your techniques, for a start." Kakashi said.
Ichihara looked at him and swallowed nervously.
"And if I say no?"
Kakashi smiled and uncovered his Sharingan.
o-o-o
"And the other Yakuza faction are from Frost and they want to muscle in on Goda Jin's turf. You can find him by heading to the mansion in the northeast section of the city, the one with the mammoth statues by the front gates. The daimyo's daughter owes both of them money, she has a gambling problem by the way, and has been struggling to pay them back."
"Mmmm. We're getting a little bit off-topic here. Why don't you tell me about the coup in your village?"
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry. So, it all started with this complete asshole named Nadare Rōga, who was the heir to the Nadare clan, wielders of the Snow Element bloodline…"
"Go on."
o-o-o
"And really, you were super right about that, and I would really love to see these assholes get their comeuppance, and I have no idea why I was being such a bitch about it, really, you don't have to…"
Ichihara kept talking.
Ah, damn, the images of Orochimaru's Freaky Snake Pit Experiment was probably a bit too far... I should do something to make her feel better.
"Oh, um and point four: I brought cookies."
Ichihara stopped spilling every secret short of those written in her childhood diary and cocked her head sideways.
The room was silent save for the crackling of the fireplace.
"Come again?" she asked lamely, noticeably confused.
"...they're fresh?"
Kakashi, Presence: 30 -3(dice) + =27 total.
Mieko, Resolve: 28
Oh, so very close.
Kakashi, Intimidate: 33 + 3(dice) + 7 (-1 FP, Invoke 'The Copy Ninja`, using Copycat on Orochimaru's Intimidation score)= 43
Mieko, Resolve: 28
Oh yeah. They'll talk.
Kakashi, Baking: 36 total.
Mieko, Resolve: (too debuffed and too whiplashed to resist TEH COOKIES)
She's still physically and mentally put through the ringer to a ridiculous degree, but at least she's getting a lot of sweets out of your guilt about that.
o-o-o
Kazuma the innkeeper grumbled as he came up the stairs. There were more complaints about the bathtub guy. Folks across the hall heard weird noises, thumping, and some muffled yelling or crying or something.
Damn rich customers. They were always the ones with the special requests and the freaky habits and property-destroying weird quirks and the… Well, they were generally pretty crappy. Still, a fire in the room wasn't half as bad as that mishap with that minor hill daimyo from Noodle a few years back.
The innkeeper reached out to bang on the door for the fifth time that morning.
"Oi, bathtub guy, are you going to keep yourself locked in there all day or I am going to see what the hell you did with my wonderful —"
"—Oh, that's an interesting taste, I didn't expect it to melt in my mouth like that."
His hand froze at the door.
"Yummy," the woman's voice continued, "If I wasn't drop-dead exhausted from earlier or if my arms weren't tied up like this, I…"
Kazuma quickly but quietly backed away from the door, his face redder than a Vegetable country lobsterturnip. He'd have to come back later, or maybe he'd just charge the guy extra when he checked out.
COMPEL: Man on a Mission +1 FP: [] Accept Compel
Yes: You rest up and then crash the Glacier-nin rendezvous, with some preparations. It's time to get to the bottom of this with a healthy dose of blood and thunder. -1 FP: [] Refuse Compel
No: Actually there are things we should do first.
Vote for one of these options.
AN:
Kakashi has gained 1 Fate Point from starting a conflict with stakes, and another 1 FP for winning it decisively. He spent 1 FP doing the interrogation so you get a net gain of +1FP.
Larger info post incoming in a couple hours or so. In summary: You have located both factions of yakuza (Snow, and the other faction which turns out to be Frost yakuza), and have some more information about the goings on in Hidden Glacier that are not immediately relevant to the situation at hand.
You picked a pretty solid time to go hunt down enemy ninja, since Kakashi reasoned within about a minute of thinking about it that he could use the thing he just did at the daimyos to massive effect, assuming Glacier was being intelligent about things this was totally Kakashi's intended plan from the start.
You have skipped some number of chapters of tedious court politics and city-level intrigue, and have also prevented your evil QMs from dispensing a suspenseful cliffhanger in one of those to the tune of "There are a pile of enemy ninja downstairs." Congratulations on that!
The three Glacier chūnin who are supposed to be coming to the very inn you're staying at are likely going to be from the Nadare clan (wielders of the Snow Element) or the Koyasu clan (wielders of the Frozen Flesh bloodline). They are exceedingly unlikely to have more than a genin or two as backup entourage (if at all) and at least one of the senior ninja present is likely to be more of a social spec than a pure combat specialization.
Capturing any one of them would be ideal.
Do you?
[]Accept Compel
[]Refuse Compel
What do you do now? It is early morning on December 20th. You have about 16 hours until the meeting. Accepting the compel means you will be doing the first choice in some flavor or another (though feel free to do it differently in a write-in).
[] Crash the Glacier-nin and Dotō Kazahana rendezvous, start kicking ass and taking names.
[] Go find the Snow oyabun, Goda Jin. Pump him for information on this front, and give him the heads of those trying to muscle in on his turf as a way to secure a future working relationship.
[] Go find the Frost yakuza. Pump them for information. Try to find an angle of this where they stand to benefit and try to set up some relationships for the future.
[] Go stick to the daimyo like glue. You still want those six weeks of plausible deniability, and any vague and unspecified danger that might hurt him could get in the way of that.
[] (Write-in)
Voting will close on Saturday, Jan. 10th, at 9am Pacific Time.
Larger info post incoming in a couple hours or so. In summary: You have located both factions of yakuza (Snow, and the other faction which turns out to be Frost yakuza), and have some more information about the goings on in Hidden Glacier that are not immediately relevant to the situation at hand.
Kakashi has managed to acquire the following techniques from a cooperative Mieko via his Sharingan, which will be added to his sheet and (in the case of the Fire element techniques) the jutsu doc when we get around to it.
Fire Element: Blazing Fists (lvl 30)
Fire Element: Hot N' Cold (lvl 1)
Fire Element: Sozin's Comet (lvl 39)
(KAKASHI: Blah, another way to throw fireballs. Fantastic.)
There is another technique (Snow Rabbit Leaping Technique) that Mieko knows for stepping through snow, sand, and similar terrain stealthily without leaving tracks, but it is non-elemental and so you can't copy it directly with your Sharingan. She is willing to teach you this the hard way when you have the spare time to learn.
Kakashi has managed to acquire the following misc. intel:
-The new,smaller yakuza group is a splinter group from the Frost yakuza organization, looking to muscle in on the Snow yakuza turf. They seem to be interested in the shipping lanes running through Snow. The daimyo's eldest daughter has significant gambling debts with both groups.
-You have an address that will be helpful in contacting the Snow oyabun directly, this is apparently their main headquarters.
-You have the full map of pretty much all the yakuza hideouts in the city (of both factions).
-As per the compel,you have the location and time of a staging area where some of the Glacier ninja will be meeting with Dotō Kazahana, the daimyo's younger brother. He seems to be a major culprit in this affair, unsurprisingly.
Hidden Glacier stuff:
The Nadare Clan and the Koyasu Clan and a handful of hangers on have successfully taken over Hidden Glacier after a brief but bloody civil war, which culminated years of internal philosophical conflict (Expansionist vs. Isolationists. Expansionists won).They've all but massacred the Yukimuro Clan (who specialized in the taming and combat utilization of the various chakra beasts in the area) and there is only a chunin and a few genin left. They have basically enslaved the smaller Kamino (who specialize in custom made ninjutsu built for arctic warfare) clan to work on creating techniques for the village constantly. The Hidden Village that previously had close to 80-90 standing ninja now has about 50, with about 35 of them being Genin, 12 Chunin, and 3 Jonin, with the Jonin being Nadare Roga and the other two surviving clan heads.
Nadare is working with Dotō Kazahana (instead of just taking everything over by force) for reasons that aren't quite clear to Ichihara. Might be related to manpower issues? Shrug.
"Up, easy does it. Yep, come on. Good, that's fine. Set it down."
Hayazaki Kazuma, innkeeper of the Woolly Yak, put down the new dresser and stood up, hand instinctively going to his lower back. The young man from Kenzo's who had helped him carry the dresser set it down much more gently.
"Ah, what I wouldn't give to be as young as you are. To have the body of a twenty-year old man…" Kazuma trailed off.
The young man — Yasuo? — looked up the stairs of the inn. The steep, narrow stairs had seen better days. Some of the boards were visibly out of place, popping up as their nails failed them in old age. "I don't think I can take it up those stairs, sir."
Kazuma sputtered, "What do you mean? Kenzo told me you'd do a full delivery!"
Yasuo put his hands up. "I'm sorry sir, it's for your safety. I can come back tomorrow with someone else to try to carry it up, but I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt."
Kazuma deflated. "Fine, fine... You know, I could bribe Bathtub Guy with a bit of his security deposit to help drag it up. I think he's up there right now."
"It's fine, sir. We can handle it tomorrow. Besides, you wouldn't want this 'Bathtub Guy' to damage your dresser again, would you?" said Yasuo, gently pushing the heavy, embossed dresser against the wall. "We'll come by in the morning to get it up."
Yasuo adjusted his cap, then he was out the door. Kazuma waited for a second, then sank into his favorite fluffy chair. Did Bathtub Guy know just how hard it was to get Kenzo to do custom jobs these days? What a pain, and what a waste of a morning. At least he would be gone in a couple days. Kazuma chuckled to himself as he let his head lean back against the wall. Yeah, he had seen much, much worse clients. Like the old lady from Rice who stayed for months and left the entire upper story with the musty and dry smell of carnivorous blue morphos. Or like the father and his three children from last year, who somehow left some dried fish in the bedding. Or like...
"Ahem."
Kazuma jolted out of his half-drowsy stupor. A customer!
"Hello, yes! Welcome to the Woolly-"
"We know. You heard from us yesterday, right?"
Kazuma blinked to get the gritty feeling out of his eyes. "Yes, I was told that a small party would be booking out our… function…. room…."
He felt his skin crawl as he surveyed the new guests. Three towering men, one who was almost as broad as he was tall. They wore an eclectic mix of outdoors clothes, farmer's gear, and silks fit for a Daimyo. They could only be ninja. Worse, the door was closed, meaning the sudden chill in the room was from one of them. A Koyasu. A demon from the cold hells, right in his inn!
One of them, clean-shaven, put his hands down gently on the counter, but Kazuma could only imagine the fractional effort he would need to break it in half. "Whatever you think, old man, now would be a good time to stop thinking it. Take a walk. Clear your mind."
Kazuma pushed himself to his feet, wincing as his knees and back complained. "I'm sorry for any inconvenience sirs, I can-"
"Get out of here."
Suddenly, Kazuma's pain seemed a lot less important. He hadn't even taken off his coat yet, so he kept his head down as he quickly walked around the counter to get to the door.
The biggest one, the mountain of a man, put his hand on Kazuma's shoulder. It took all his willpower not to yelp. He spoke, his voice deep and gravelly, "My compatriot here is crude in his speech. Let me clarify." He dug around for a moment within his light overcoat, and Kazuma started to feel the sensation in his shoulder start to fade as ice took it. "Here is eight thousand ryo. Why don't you take a nice, long walk around the city, Innkeeper Hayazaki? Let's say two, no, three hours. Maybe you can find a market stall selling fried octopus balls to warm you up."
Kazumi gripped at the pouch with his working hand as he hurried away from the ninja. He stepped out the door and glanced at the shoulder of his thick fur coat. It was stiff and brittle with ice, and as he tried moving that arm experimentally, he thought he could feel cracking as the frozen skin underneath broke.
Maybe his first stop should be a healer. They had to have something on hand for frostbite in this season, right?
o-o-o-o
"-and with that, Yūta proclaimed, 'Never again shall you return to plague the lands of mankind!'. With a single stroke of his ōdachi, he took the head of Demon Viper King, and it tumbled to the floor, motionless. At last, silence rang through the Great Hall of Ten Thousand Mirrors, as Evil was vanquished yet again."
"Lame," said Mieko.
"What!? How can you say that? The last three books have been building up to this moment!"
"I haven't read the last three books. Also, it just isn't very cool. Also, it's not very good writing. Like seriously, 'never again shall you'?"
Kakashi frowned. "It's artistic. Also, it foreshadows something in a later book that I can't say."
Mieko's lips were pursed to a side, "bad grammar is foreshadowing?"
"Alright, that's enough sass out of you. The Great Jiraiya wouldn't be taking this from you, and neither will I."
As Kakashi stepped over to her bed, he could see the panic in her eyes for a moment before she quickly tried to tamp it down. "What are you-"
She cut off as Kakashi fit the gag around her mouth. "Take a guess. I think your 'friends'", he made air-quotes, "are here, and we've burned enough time to get them comfortable. May as well get started with the head-cracking."
Mieko made an "mmmpph" against the gag, but a stern look from Kakashi was enough to quiet her. He quickly stepped through his new disguise. Swap out the ninja gear for a loose fitting formal uniform, drag the hair down over the eyes, splash of water over the head so I look like I just came out of the snow. He unsealed a platter of fresh croissants, gestured to the Earth Clone at the side to follow him after a couple of minutes, then went out into the hallway.
Room 203's resident was a middle aged man from a nearby town who had come to sponsor a trade caravan in the northeast at the festival. Kakashi knocked on his door, holding out the tray of croissants in front of him and letting his voice slip up a register as he slouched down.
"Hi I'm sorry I don't know you at all but-" he said as he opened the door, then pretended to get caught up nervously as he saw the man. "Hi, I'm sorry. I just- I-"
"What do you want, kid?"
"I'm working for Machida Hirokazu, he's a merchant, he's downstairs, I'm sorry, but I think I really annoyed him this morning when I tripped and sprayed snow all over his robes so he told me to go away and get him some croissants so I got this from a bakery two blocks over and I wanted to come in here and leave it for him but I think he's still mad at me so do you think you could just go in there and leave him the food and tell him that it's from me and I'm very sorry for spilling snow on his nice robes?"
The man seemed taken aback, but after a second, he nodded.
"Oh thank you so much! Hirokazu will be so grateful to you and hopefully he doesn't feel too bad about me and fire me or anything!" Kakashi thrust the plate into the man's hands. "He's just in the function room downstairs, thank you so much again!"
"What's your name, kid?" the man seemed confused, and he wasn't moving yet.
"Juro. Thanks!" Get going now, before the Earth Clone comes out of my room and I have to kill you.
He got the message and started down the stairs just as the Earth Clone came out of the room with a bundle of storage seals.
Kakashi slipped into 203 and closed the door behind the Earth Clone. Carefully, they set down explosive tags on opposite corners of the room, positioned above structural cross beams holding up the floor, but just right so they wouldn't take down the walls too. By the low end of the floor, the Clone unsealed a number of cauldrons filled with scalding oil, and Kakashi unsealed several heavy boulders just above where the chairs in the function room downstairs should have been.
"Three, two, one…" Kakashi whispered as he heard the man finish his walk down the steps. He quickly activated the timers on both explosive seals on the floor, then retreated to the far corner ceiling, out of reach of the scalding oil.
Downstairs, he heard a knock.
"Hi, is there a Mr. Hirokazu in here?"
The door swung open as the man let himself in.
"What are you doing?" A gruff, male voice. The Koyasu? Kakashi's hands flickered through handseals.
"I, well, let me start at the beginning. Your apprentice-"
With an ear-splitting crack, the explosives tore through the floor of the building. The heavy wooden floor and all its furniture fell, trapping the ninja beneath in a rapidly closing deathtrap, and if they tried the holes that the explosive tags left behind, they would be getting a facefull of sloshing hot oil.
Mieko's intelligence did not fail him. The Glacier ninja downstairs were well seasoned and in an instant, one of them called out a fireball ninjutsu, turning a chunk of the falling floor to ash as it ignited the oil in a massive cloud. Another called out in pain, the suddenly ignited oil burning him as he ran.
"Chidori." Kakashi said. He opened his left eye, and his whole body suddenly filled with the force of a raging storm.
Targets. They'll all die, but one dies first. There, the jōnin Mieko had pointed out, the biggest one. He had rolled under the table and kicked it up through the collapsing floor, but his vision was obscured by the sudden blossom of flame in the air. The Sharingan was not so easily fooled. Kakashi pushed off from the ceiling and rocketed down with an axe kick that cleanly broke the man's clavicle. Years of his training let the man keep his grit and lash out with a dizzyingly fast strike for the back of Kakashi's skull, but Kakashi danced around the jab and responded with a side kick that knocked Koyasu's back to the wall. Before he could stand, Kakashi followed through with the razor's edge of lightning in his hand, cutting through his belly and up, reaching for the heart-
A frigid palm thrust to his center of mass pushed Kakashi away before he could finish the kill. As Kakashi slid back to the center of the room, he spun around, the storm in his veins settling as the calm of battle slipped over him. The collapsing ceiling had been ineffective. Only one of them had been slightly burned, but the Earth Clone was dropping down for support. The other two would not pose a problem.
"Break and run!" yelled the leader, somehow still standing despite the arm-sized cone of flesh Kakashi had carved out of him. In a flash of speed, he barrelled through the back wall of the inn and jumped onto a nearby rooftop, holding a hand to the gaping wound in his stomach the whole time.
The other chūnin jumped onto rooftops, and Kakashi followed after as Obito's Sharingan traced the paths their movements would take them on. One wove handseals which Kakashi instinctively memorized. "Snow Release: Penguin Golems!" he called out, as the snow on the rooftop quickly coalesced into a group of five giant creatures. Stupid looking things with fat bellies and squat legs, they proved their merit as they immediately jumped into formation around the Nadare. He clearly felt confident in his guards, as casting the technique gave Kakashi the time he needed to close the distance.
With the jōnin neutralized, the Nadare was the next biggest threat. Though if those summons are Nadare's best, then taking over Glacier will be easier than I thought. He considered giving himself up to the exhilaration of lightning again, but decided against it. He didn't need Chidori to kill a chūnin.
Kakashi started with a kick aimed squarely at the back of his head, an attack the Sharingan told him the man couldn't dodge, but a snow golem dived in the way. The construct was surprisingly solid, and it exploded into a giant puff of powdery snow as his foot broke the surface. Two of the golems tried to tackle him, and Kakashi instinctively stuck his hand through the head of one before grabbing the other by the neck and swung it around to face the obscuring cloud. The chūnin exploded out of it a moment later, flurry of blows destroying his own construct. Kakashi lanced forward with a spinning kick, and felt his foot crush through yet another bodyguard. It took a moment for Kakashi to get out of the snow cloud, and he only saw the chūnin's fleeing back with his last bodyguard waddling after him. Fine, I'll kill your friends first.
The jōnin was limping away down a side street, leaving a generous trail of blood. Alligator's grandma could probably have finished him off at this point. Kakashi turned to the last possible target, the chūnin Koyasu.
To his credit, the man didn't even yelp in fear as Kakashi Substituted in front of him. Instead, he just dug his feet into the ground and changed direction. Kakashi followed after. Do these Snow ninja not know about Substitution…? The chūnin dropped into an alleyway and started to attack the crate in the corner a moment before Kakashi Substituted with it. Momentarily disoriented, only the Sharingan showed him the warning of a spine-shattering blow.
Kakashi jumped over a hook kick and gently pushed away a punch, ignoring the sudden freezing sensation in his fingers. The Koyasu spun through his move for a side kick, but Kakashi timed his jump so that he landed on the chūnin's outstretched leg like a perched crow. As the chūnin pulled his leg back, Kakashi dropped to the ground and spun with legs outstretched, sweeping the Koyasu off his feet and giving Kakashi the time to knee him squarely in the groin.
Koyasu hit the ground hard, and Kakashi pinned him to the ground with one knee. Don't let them get you into a grapple, Mieko had said, but this ninja wasn't even a threat. Kakashi looked down into his eyes, black and red meeting brown as the chūnin cast around for escapes.
"You don't seriously think you can escape me, do you? Give up n-"
The Koyasu pulled the same move as his senior, a simple icy palm thrust to Kakashi's center of mass that left Kakashi feeling like the reaper given his ribcage a firm squeeze. Kakashi slid away down the alleyway and up the side of the wall, rolling up against gravity with careful use of chakra adhesion. Koyasu was running again. Ah well, they never make it easy, do they? One day, I'll be like Orochimaru and they'll just give up when they see me.
Koyasu had picked another direction to flee in, but with a step, a leap, and a Substitution, he stumbled back as Kakashi readied a front kick to cave in his head. Please don't kill them, said Mieko. He snapped the kick down and broke Koyasu's ankle.
"There. No more running."
The Koyasu looked up at him with pain and hate clear in his eyes, "how- how can you-"
Kakashi silenced him with a chop to the throat. "That was a rhetorical question. I didn't even ask a question, actually. Do you want to stay right there while I hunt down your friends?"
He seemed unconscious.
"Now that's a rhetorical question."
o-o-o-o
Again, the Nadare posed the main problem. Kakashi hadn't managed to injure him, so he wasn't leaving behind a convenient breadcrumb trail of viscera like with the other Koyasu. With his bloodline out on the open tundra, he might become a problem, especially given that Kakashi was running out of chakra. Worse, he would be nearly impossible to find if he chose to hide. If Nadare were even halfway competent, Kakashi would be dogpiled by all of Hidden Glacier before the week was out.
Luckily, this was Snow country. The idiot's big, lumbering golem had left a nice trail to Nadare's location. Kakashi followed it until it ended in a large pile of snow, where its master's patience ran out. If Mieko was right and Nadare liked "thinking like he's tricky but he's actually not", he would probably take a hairpin turn here…
The wind rushed in Kakashi's hair as he spotted Nadare fleeing over rooftops. Without chakra to boost his speed, Kakashi would catch up eventually, and it looked like that would be before they reached the city limits. Kakashi opened the Sharingan as he closed in.
Nadare turned around and threw a fast and sloppy punch. Kakashi almost laughed at how easy it was to grab his arm, pull him off balance, spin behind him, yank the arm up and out of its socket, and shove him to his knees facing away from Kakashi.
"Any last words?"
"I don't-"
Kakashi slammed his knee into the back of Nadare's head, and he dropped.
"Two is technically plural. Not the best choice in my opinion. Well, maybe you'll get another go."
o-o-o-o
Kakashi turned a page as he strolled down the trail of blood. He looked up briefly as the trail stumbled into an alleyway. The scene there was horrific. Blood sprays covered the floor around a cleared area, and little chunks of flesh and innards decorated the splashes like some sort of morbid painting. It looked like the site of a makeshift self-surgery. He settled himself back into the page.
It was mid-afternoon, but this part of the city was dead quiet. Ninja fighting did tend to clear out the streets pretty quickly, one way or another. After another couple minutes, Kakashi tucked the book away and started whistling a tune. In the corners of his eyes, he spotted bystanders in their homes bravely approaching their windows and shying away as they saw the Leaf ninja. Kakashi waved to a couple of them before realizing that the blood reaching three-quarters of the way up to his shoulder probably scared them more than it reassured them. Ah well, more room for him. Kakashi appreciated a nice and calm evening.
The trail took a stuttering turn onto a different main street. Kakashi followed it and found the jōnin Koyasu waiting there for him.
"Who are you, and what do you want?"
The man clearly struggled to stay upright. He held pressure to his wound with one hand, yet blood, wet and dark, still visibly flowed out of it and over his fingers.
Kakashi did his best to imitate Nara Shikaku's best slump. He frowned, as if thinking.
"Well, that's a very deep question, and we hardly know each other. What does it mean, for someone to know who they are? What defines them? Is it what they want, like you say? Their preferences? Their dreams? Their desires?"
Midway through the sentence, the jōnin had lunged forward to catch him in a bear hug, but Kakashi calmly sidestepped and kicked him in his exposed guts. That had been enough to leave the mountain of a man as a bloody, crying mess on the floor.
"But I can try for you, since I feel like we've got off on the wrong foot."
He took the man's groan as an invitation to continue.
"My name is Hatake Kakashi. I guess I've never really thought about dreams for the future. I like to do lots of different things. And I don't really feel like telling you all about what I want right now. Does that make things clear?"
o-o-o-o
The loose change clinked through Kazuma's loose fingertips and rolled to a stop on the newly cleaned streets as the innkeeper looked at the Woolly Yak. A massive chunk of the left side of the building had collapsed inwards, and though the left wall was still standing, a circular hole poked through the side, removing enough of the structure that the wall swayed uneasily in the evening breeze.
"I'm sorry Kazuma, but you should leave here. Sage only knows if the ninja will be returning, and if they will lash out at you for whatever reason."
Kazuma didn't listen to her. He felt his knees go weak as he collapsed to the ground. The inn, built in the heart of Shibetsu by his grandfather's grandfather, as integral a part of the town's history as any other building, the inn the Daimyo once stayed in… it was destroyed. The work of his line for generations had been to care for this inn, and it hadn't always been perfect, but it had been meaningful. And now, little embers burning against the beautiful white-and-brown front facade now marred with black showed that it would never be the same again.
"Ninja!" Kumiyo quickly ran back into her house.
Kazuma had spent his life maintaining the Woolly Yak. He had to know why it had been destroyed. Why did those demons from Glacier take it from him, when he had accommodated them in all the ways that an innkeeper should?
Kazuma turned.
"Bathtub guy!?"
Kakashi turned around and saw the innkeeper standing there staring at him, mouth agape.
"Hey."
Kakashi turned back to the bathtub. Moving the chūnin inside had been easy, but the Koyasu jōnin's blood was starting to freeze against the walls of the tub, and that seemed like it would be tough to scrub out. Hm. Maybe I could pay the innkeeper to do it?
He kept on dragging the bathtub past the open-mouthed innkeeper and into the Woolly Yak. What's his issue? The right half of the building is perfectly serviceable, and that's where my room is.
"Don't leave your mouth open like that unless you're trying to catch flies. That's what my cousin's aunt's brother-in-law's daughter's cousin's mom used to tell me. Oh hey, is that frostbite medicine?"
Before Kazuma could blink, Kakashi had snatched the little tub of salve the apothecary had given him and had eaten a little dollop of it. He wiped his lips. "Wow, that tasted awful. What is it? Frostburn salve," he said reading the label. He reached in, scraped the sides of the jar, and applied it to his chest. "Ahh, that feels good. You really read my mind there. Good work, Mr. Innkeeper." His mask completely obscured his smile at the man.
The innkeeper chased after him as he entered the front door of the Woolly Yak, and the petty tyrant didn't even complain about the scrape marks from the bathtub bumping against the front step! That seemed like good character growth. Kakashi knew a little bit of demolition always helped him put things in perspective.
"What- How- Who-"
"Oh, this guy? He damaged your inn. With ninja magic, I think. He's a Glacier ninja. Is that all your questions?"
"How did you-"
"Actually, that was a rhetorical question. Here's a real one though," Kakashi said as he re-entered the main lobby of the Woolly Yak. He gestured at the steep, narrow stairs leading to the second floor. "Could you help me get this bathtub up to my room?"
o-o-o-o
Kakashi rinsed the scalpel and tucked it away in his side pouch. He really would be a much better doctor if he knew how to use a scalpel. He had poked inside the jōnin's guts with the scalpel here and there to see if it would fix anything, but honestly? He had probably made things worse. Still, Kakashi knew to always look on the bright side of life. Maybe really bad medicine was actually really good torture. Speaking of which…
Kakashi ungagged the jōnin. Koyasu Asato, if Mieko's memory for names could be trusted, had long since been conscious, which was good, since that meant that the torture helped soften him up. Now he had to get the information out of him.
"Where's Glacier?"
Asato spat blood. He spat blood again. He coughed up blood. Kakashi stepped back for a second and pulled up the rug from the floor to shield himself. Asato was having a really long, really messy coughing fit, and Kakashi wanted it to be squarely the innkeeper's problem, not his.
"Let's try that again. Where's Glacier?"
He spoke, hoarse and deep, "In the hearts of its loyal ninja, and poised behind the spines of those who would oppose it."
"Well, that's not really what I meant when I asked, you know? Am I going to have to-"
He laughed, but it turned into another fit of coughing up blood. "There's nothing you can scare me with now. I welcome the death you've brought me."
Kakashi channeled what little of his energy remained to his hands to let them light up with the green glow of medical chakra. He looked at the man and raised an eyebrow. "Now now, I don't want to cause you any pain. I just want to show you your options. First, look at Mieko over there."
"Hi!" said Mieko from her tied up position on the bed.
"She's doing pretty well because she cooperated with me."
"He beat me up first, but since then he's been seeing to my wounds and otherwise treating me well! Lots of painkillers at least! I don't think he wants to kill us? It's confusing," she said, somehow chipper and expressive despite the fact that she could only move her head.
"On the other hand, we've got these two lucky fellows over here," Kakashi said, gesturing at Koyasu Shizuru and the Nadare. They were tied up and gagged, papered in explosives, and wore heavy-duty earmuffs to boot. "I know you can probably stand up to whatever I can throw at you, but can they? Will they once I use the powers of the Sharingan?" Mieko shuddered in her bed.
Asato seemed to be doing the calculations in his poor, hollow little head, "I see…"
"And I'm not asking for secret information about your bloodline or Clan. Just for things that your goons will tell me anyway. In fact, you're strong enough that you might well be the Clan Head, so maybe for the future generations, you should consider taking my offer so you survive to teach them how to use your Frosty Flab bloodline.
"So, last chance," Kakashi said, lighting up his hands with green chakra once more, "Glacier. Where is it? Why do you have a hit on the Daimyo Kazahana?"
Asato looked like he was swallowing a venomous lemon whole, but he started to speak. "It's about sixty miles north of here. It's hidden between the sheets of ice of a glacier, and the only way in is through a network of tunnels in the ice. You'll never be able to get in. We have sensory abilities that will detect as soon as you step foot in them.
"As to Daimyo Kazahana, Nadare Rōga wants to put his brother, Dotō Kazahana in charge, as Dotō will support the conquest of Iron. We were going to spend a few years recruiting heavily and training new ninja to prepare for taking land on the south continent. The Daimyo would support conquest too if Nadare asked hard enough. However, Dotō knows how to get a Kazahana family artifact that Nadare thinks is a key. To what, I don't know, but I believe Nadare expects some hidden vault about the secrets of the Snow Release. Nadare involved Dotō to get the heirloom."
"Beautiful, that's all I needed," Kakashi said as he leaned down to apply the medical chakra to Asato's abused body. "Isn't it great how cooperation makes us all happy?"
Koyasu Asato passed away from blood loss shortly thereafter.
Prelude:
Kakashi has the Aspect "OPSEC? Cookies!" from getting Mieko to tell him about her allies' abilities. He gets a tag on each of them, and can invoke once more per fight.
Yutaka wants to do something nice for a stranger. He decides to take Kakashi's explanation at face value and deliver the baked goods downstairs for him.
Kakashi attempts to distract them with his baked goods via his patsy! On a success, he gets +1 in the first round (this really isn't substantial enough to count as a full Aspect).
Glacier Resolve vs Kakashi's Baking Block:
Kakashi (Baking): 30 - 6 (dice) = 24
Koyasu Asato (Resolve): ??
Koyasu Shizuru (Resolve): ??
Nadare Shigeru (Resolve): ?? No luck, the croissants do not even tempt them.
Kakashi made an Earth Clone earlier (52 CP, 348 CP remaining)
Kakashi's Earth Clone sets off a series of explosions and simultaneously unseals heavy boulders and cauldrons of boiling oil! The entire room below has to make an Athletics check vs 40 to dodge. As Kakashi is attacking with boiling oil, the attack is Weapons:1
Koyasu Asato (Athletics):??
Koyasu Shizuru (Athletics): ??
Nadare Shigeru (Athletics): ?? Fail! Nadare Shigeru takes 2 stress!
Kunieda Yutaka (Athletics): 4 + 10 (technically not inside the room) + 0 (dice) = 14 Yutaka takes 10 stress! That's a Mild, Medium, Severe, and 1 in the stress track! He's going to be Taken Out, dropping the Severe, and instead be traumatized by the event for years to come!
Kakashi
Normally Kakashi would target the strongest-seeming one, who dodged the collapsing ceiling the best. However, since he has Mieko's information, he knows that Asato is actually stronger than Shizuru, so he targets Asato first. He uses Chidori (Effect:6, 72 CP, 226 remaining) because he wants this to be over quickly, and he is going to tag/invoke what he can to boost that up further:
Koyasu Asato tries to use Frozen Soul: (per the narrative constraints, this is used in an exchange, which Kakashi is not engaging in because he's just using Chidori really fast. Kakashi is going to accept 1 physical stress in exchange for skipping this roll)
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 + 6 (Sharingan) + 6 (boost) + 6 (tag "Iconic Ninja Tactics") + 6 (tag "OPSEC? Cookies!") + 6 (Strong Fist) + 6 (Chidori) + 6 (invoke "Man on a Mission", -1 FP, 5 remaining) - 3 (dice) = 94 Kakashi rerolls (-1 FP, 4 remaining)
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 + 6 (Sharingan) + 6 (boost) + 6 (tag "Iconic Ninja Tactics") + 6 (tag "OPSEC? Cookies!") + 6 (Strong Fist) + 6 (Chidori) + 6 (invoke "Man on a Mission") + 3 (dice) = 100
Koyasu Asato (Taijutsu): 62 + 7 (boost) + 7 (invoke "Lord of the Koyasu", -1 FP, 3 remaining) + 7 (invoke "The Mountain, Unmoving", -1 FP, 2 remaining) + 7 (invoke "Always Expect the Worst", -1 FP, 1 remaining) - 6 (dice) = 84 Koyasu Asato rerolls (-1 FP, 0 remaining)
Koyasu Asato (Taijutsu): 62 + 7 (boost) + 7 (invoke "Lord of the Koyasu") + 7 (invoke "The Mountain, Unmoving") + 7 (invoke "Always Expect the Worst") - 9 (dice) = 81 Direct hit! Kakashi deals 7 stress, plus 4 from Chidori, for a total of 11! Asato takes a Mild, Medium, and Severe Physical Consequence, removing 9 stress. He puts the remaining 2 in his physical stress track!
Kakashi also takes 1 physical stress from hitting a Koyasu, as per his deal from earlier.
Koyasu Asato
Well, this Leaf guy is terrifying. No chance of winning, so order everyone to flee for their lives, and then do the same. Sadly, he's the first to act, and Kakashi had the chance to study the inn, and so the ceiling collapsed without giving him an easy way out. He uses his Standard to take the Maneuver "I Make my own Exits", crashing through the wall of an inn.
Koyasu Asato (Athletics): 50 - 21 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") + 7 (boost) + 0 (dice) = 36
Kakashi (Alertness): 40 + 5 (Sharingan) + 3 (dice) = 48
No luck getting a tag on Kakashi.
He then uses a Supplemental to move a Zone away, while also trying to use the collapsing sides of the building. The only way he can get any farther is if he Substitutes. The environment has some targets,so if he makes a TN 20 Substitution check, I'll say he can find one and move another Zone away.
Koyasu Asato (Substitution): ?? Guess someone didn't train Substitution, huh? He can't flee any more.
He ends on an adjacent rooftop, one Zone away.
Koyasu Shizuru
Wow, none of these Koyasu guys trained their Substitution. Guess they're not running away from Kakashi today.
Standard: Run one Zone away
Supplemental: Run one more Zone away.
Ends two Zones away from Kakashi
Nadare Shigeru
He's dedicated to the mission so:
Supplemental: Move to Zone with Koyasu Asato
Standard: Cast Snow Release: Penguin Golem at Effect: 5 (80 + 28*5 CP, 95 remaining). Creates 5 golems, who will, on their turn, try to bodyguard him as he leaves
Earth Clone
Is really stupid, just throwing around smoke bombs in the collapsed side of the inn
Nadare Shigeru's Golems
Make an Athletics Block on Nadare Shigeru with +4 AB (each clone after the first). He knows he can't survive this if it comes to actually being attacked, so he'll put his all into this Block.
Kakashi
Kakashi thinks that Asato isn't a threat anymore. He wants to stop the other two from running away now. First is the Nadare, whose bodyguards can't be that tough, right?
Supplemental: Move into that Zone.
Standard: Taijutsu attack Shigeru
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 + 6 (Sharingan) + 6 (boost) + 6 (tag "OPSEC? Cookies!") + 6 (Strong Fist) + 3 (dice) = 76 Doesn't quite beat the Block! The Penguins absorb the blow, with one remaining.
Kakashi then tries to catch up with the other Koyasu, who might actually get away if he doesn't. To get another move in, he has to use Substitution. Same difficulty:
But the conflict is not. Kakashi still needs to track down the other two before they can make it back to Glacier. He's not worried about tracking the other Koyasu since he's leaving a massive trail of blood, but the Nadare will be hard to catch over a long distance of snowy terrain, given their bloodline, so he wants to catch him within the city.
Kakashi can use two Substitutions at his leisure to catch up a little once he's close, and as luck would have it, Nadare's Snow Golem followed him for a bit before he commanded it to stop, as it was making the trail he took super obvious. Kakashi also has Mieko's intel on Nadare, so he'll use a FP to invoke that, and I'll say he knows roughly how he thinks.
Kakashi (Athletics): 50 + 10 (arbitrary bonus: 2 Substitutions to close distance, 28 CP, 56 remaining) + 6 (invoke "OPSEC? Cookies!" -1 FP, 2 remaining) - 3 (dice) = 63
Nadare (Athletics): 46 + 10 (time ladder bonus: he had ~half a minute to run away when the default time for Athletics checks is "an Instant") + 3 = 59
Yowch, not quite enough. Kakashi closes in. If he can get a solid hit, he can basically chase him down at his leisure. He uses boost and Sharingan for this one hit (50 CP, 6 remaining).
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 + 6 (Sharingan) + 6 (boost) + 6 (Strong Fist) + 6 (dice) = 79
Nadare Shigeru (Taijutsu): 49 + 5 (boost) - 3 (dice) = 51 Nadare takes 10 + 1 stress! He's not getting away from Kakashi today. With a Severe, Kakashi easily follows up and knocks him out.
Lastly, can Kakashi find the missing jounin? He's dead out of chakra, but he's "A Man on a Mission", so he's not going to give up until this is done. He can follow the trail of blood almost trivially. However, the jounin realizes that he can't escape without fixing that, so he'll try to patch himself up. If he fails, he might just bleed out on a bad Physique check. A Severe Consequence is default TN 30, so let's say it's a TN 30 Knowledge (Medical) check.
So, he didn't pass, but he did get +12 on the dice. I'll say he doesn't bleed out, just that Kakashi can follow his trail.
Strong Fist:
Kakashi (Athletics): 50 + 6 (Strong Fist) + 0 (dice) = 56
Koyasu Asato (Athletics): 50 - 21 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") + 7 (boost) - 9 (dice) = 27
Frozen Soul:
(Kakashi will take a Mild. He seriously doesn't think Asato can take him.)
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 + 6 (Strong Fist) + 12 (dice) = 73
Koyasu Asato (Taijutsu): 62 - 25 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") + 7 (boost) + 3 (dice) = 47 Not a chance.
Kakashi will take him back to the Woolly Yak and try to stabilize him. He'll take "half an hour" to do so in order to get a full 3 time-ladder bonuses.
Failure to stabilize! Kakashi can't keep him alive. Oh well, may as well interrogate him while he's in pain. First, show that you have medical ninjutsu to hint that you can save him, then show your other hostages and say that one of them will talk. Mieko will mention that he actually does do medical care, and seems to want them alive (Kakashi put her up to this):
Kakashi (Deceit): 29 - 2 (Consequence: "I'm Cool Enough") + 3 (dice) = 30
Koyasu Asato (Deceit): 24 - 11 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") + 3 (dice) = 16
Kakashi (Presence): 30 - 2 (Consequence: "I'm Cool Enough") + 0 (dice) = 28
Koyasu Asato (Resolve): 40 - 18 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") - 9 (dice) = 13
Mieko (Deceit): 23 - 9 (Combined Consequence Penalty) + 6 (dice) = 20
Koyasu Asato (Deceit): 24 - 11 (Combined Consequence Penalty; "Holding in my Guts with One Hand") + 6 (dice) = 19
Kakashi (Intimidation): 26 + 7 (Thousand-Yard Stare) - 2 (Consequence: "I'm Cool Enough") + 3 (tag "Your Life is in my Hands") + 3 (tag "One of You Will Break") +3 (tag Mieko's "He's Not That Bad…") + 0 = 40
Koyasu Asato (Resolve): 40 + ?? (Jounin-tier interrogation resistance training, TYS, dice) = ??
Asato just barely breaks before dying, but doesn't give Kakashi anything he couldn't have gotten from the others. Other two chuunin (from Mieko's squad) are fine. Kakashi dislocated their shoulders and broke their fingers and ankles to make sure they wouldn't be making any escape attempts, so they're probably not going to be terribly happy about that.
Kakashi gained 1 FP for accepting the Compel, 1 FP for winning a Conflict, 1 FP for taking a Mild Consequence. He spent 4 FP on the fight, so he's down 1 FP total.
In accordance with the choice to make a risky move that I enjoyed writing, which was dramatic and stylish, and which succeeded quite well, I am awarding a 50 XP bonus. Since this isn't the end of an arc, I can't award more, sadly, but this success will still be factored in to that award.
After interrogating the other two chūnin, Kakashi knows the location of Hidden Glacier more precisely. It's somewhere in the middle of the "O" in "S N O W" on the map. That's still quite a big area of inhospitable terrain. Koyasu Shizuru seems to hate you for being responsible for his Clan Head's death, but luckily, Shizuru doesn't know Glacier's true location either. Nadare Shigeru knows, and this is all the information you were able to get out of him with your coercive powers. If you want him to guide you to the precise location, you might need to find another tack to take with him.
Given that news is rapidly spreading through the city that there was a ninja fight, you haven't seen head nor tail of Dotō Kazahana anywhere near the Woolly Yak. You might be able to dig him up with some searching.
Hidden Glacier is about 50 strong these days. Well, 45 strong now. There are 3 other jōnin and maybe 10 chūnin. Nadare Rōga is apparently a freakishly powerful ninjutsu master, but the other two jōnin [(1) Rōga's younger sister, a recently promoted ranged weapons specialist & (2) clanless Earth/Water/Wind element ninjutsu/kenjutsu specialist] seem to be closer to Asato's power level. Kakashi thinks that standards are just lower in Snow, since Asato didn't put up half the fight a full Leaf jōnin would have, but he still probably wants to gather information on Rōga's capabilities before picking a fight in the same way as he did this time.
Kazuma the Innkeeper has decided not to ask why you have a woman tied to your bed, a corpse in your bathtub, and two men in your closet. He is drinking heavily.
Per the vote, Kakashi has decided he's going to take over Glacier, put a patsy in charge, take their best Clan secrets, copy all the existing techniques, and leave for the Eastern Continent once he's pumped them for what they're worth. Current obstacles:
Where is Glacier and how do I get in without being murdered in the tunnels, which is presumably their forte?
How strong is Rōga? How strong are the other jōnin? Could the remaining chūnin work together to be a threat?
How loyal is Mieko? The other captives? Are they problems that need to be… dealt with?
Voting Time! What do you do now?
Here are some options to get you started.
[] Chill out for a couple days and escort the Daimyo around, you earned a little break. Wait for news of your fight to reach Glacier, and let them make the first move.
[] Construct a scenario where Nadare Shigeru thinks he's been set free, and follow him back to the Hidden Village.
[] Try to frame the assassination of the Hidden Glacier ninja on Kazuma.
[] Hunt down Dotō Kazahana and figure out where the heirloom is. Use possession of the object to open contact with Rōga.
[] Hijack the Yakuza and organize them into an expedition into the wilderness to find Glacier by brute force.
[] Hijack both groups of Yakuza anyway. Why not?
[] Write-in.
Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Also, feel free to ping @Paperclipped or @MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know.
Voting is open, and closes at 9am London Time, Wednesday January 13.
Kakashi directed the guardsmen up the stairs of the half-ruined inn with an exaggerated wave. The dozen or so individuals stepped carefully through the debris and pieces of ruined furniture. The innkeeper was still off somewhere drinking himself to sleep.
The response time was piss poor. He had waited an hour after the jōnin died, before sticking his head out the window and noticing that half the town guardsmen were standing in front of the partly-demolished(but partly un-demolished!) building, shuffling their feet nervously instead of doing their jobs. He would have given them a lecture about the pros and cons of hesitation, but that would require him to care.
Kakashi pointed at the makeshift litters carrying Ichihara and the unconscious Koyasu. The former was trying her hardest to not move a muscle whatsoever (not that she could, being bound up in enough rope to haul a megalodon) while the latter was covered in twenty layers of animal skins and furs. The bloody mess of a bathtub was already stored away in a seal in his pocket, while the corpse inside it was chopped up to fit inside two small black storage seals. The jōnin was one big motherfucker. The Nadare was similarly bound, but not strapped to anything, instead just wrapped in a couple old burlap sacks that Kakashi had found out back.
"Yeah, these two, carry them back," Kakashi said. "Throw the blonde one in a room somewhere, but the other one gets a cell. Just dump the litters wholesale, don't fuss with their bindings or anything."
The guards nodded. Good, they wouldn't argue. Although, it was a mystery whether they were listening because he was the ninja assigned to guard the daimyo, or simply because he was a ninja that happened to be telling them to do something authoritatively. On the other hand, their internal motivations didn't matter so long as they did what he said.
"But you need to keep someone ready to poke them with something sharp if they look to be trying any funny business. Not before then though, since I need them for something."
The guards nodded again.
"Right, ah," Kakashi shrugged, "Time to get going. Chop chop?"
The guards scrambled into action. Kakashi tossed the Nadare onto his shoulder and jumped out the window. As every ANBU cadet learned, jumping in and out of windows mysteriously was just how you had to do things. If you couldn't even make good entrances and exits, then what was the point?
Kakashi darted quickly over the rooftops. The weather had worked itself up to a heavier blizzard, and the wind and snow had picked up a fair bit even as visibility in the city dropped like a stone. It was perfect. Perfect weather for moving about the city undetected, and perfect weather for hunting important noblemen who were already in the city. He arrived at the back of what was supposed to be the Frost yakuza headquarters.
Kakashi knocked on the heavy wooden door. After a few minutes, he heard someone fumbling with the latch. The viewing window slid open. The man on the other side peered back at him for a moment, before Kakashi heard a sharp intake of breath.
Kakashi waved. Flecks of dried blood flew off of his fingers. Huh? Oh, right. He was still half-soaked in blood and gore. Whoops. Hopefully they wouldn't be too offended by that.
Kakashi pointed a thumb back to the unconscious Glacier ninja slung across his shoulder.
"Can you let me inside before he dies of hypothermia or something?"
o-o-o
The Frost yakuza scored style points as far as Kakashi was concerned.
The room was less gaudy then the room back in Kushiro. Different organization, different tastes. Maybe they just didn't have the budget to spend on luxuries and baubles that were only useful for laying around. That's what happens when you're an up and coming group of lawful (lawless?) criminals, maybe. They had a nice room to store his prisoner though, and some hot tea. Not his favorite, but it was fruity and pleasantly spicy.
They also had the foresight to keep some missing-nin around. He found that one out after they let him in the room. Not super surprising, since the yakuza tended to outsource protection to wandering ninja, missing-nin, and similar miscellaneous groups. These two must have been laying low in this building for quite a while though. They tensed up noticeably at first glance, but calmed down after he had sit down and accepted the tea that their third partner had offered him.
They were nontraditional, as far as Kakashi's expectations for standard yakuza organizational structure were concerned. Their organization had three leaders. Partners, of a sort.
Ryūzaki Kinzo, the brains and face of the operation, wasn't at all what he had expected. The man from Frost Country looked like some senior bookkeeper or archivist from the Leaf village library. Wouldn't peg him as a criminal at all if you looked at him from across the street. Kakashi figured that meant he must be really good at his job.
The first missing-nin was from Frost as well. Watari Sadatake. Kakashi vaguely remembered his entry from the bingo book. Ranged weapons, some jutsu, nothing too special. His face was heavily scarred, probably by some chakra beast attack by the looks of it. The chūnin had been missing-nin for a few years, he had left before the war broke out. He'd probably picked up some tricks on the road. Best to factor that in.
The second one, Yanagita Seiichi, was from Hidden Claw. Guy looked like he could throw a mean right hook. Kakashi had no idea who he was, which was a double-edged kunai as far as signals went. Either he wasn't anyone of import, or he was one of those ninja you just didn't hear about until your blood was pouring out on the floor and their hands were playing cat's cradle with your intestines. Kakashi had been that second type for a little while, not too long ago.
"So, Mr. Hatake," Ryūzaki said, "you come here with rather interesting cargo. What's the occasion, that you'd delight to involve our organization in your ongoing affairs in such a matter?"
Translation: Why the fuck are you here, what's with the unconscious Glacier ninja, and what the fuck do you want with us?
The two ninja in the group looked on with patient expressions. Watari was bouncing a small knife in between his knuckles, while Yanagita was rubbing his chin in a motion that signaled thoughtful attentiveness. They seemed content to let Ryūzaki do the talking, and both looked pretty comfortable with this meeting so far.
They've been around the oak tree a couple times then. Good.
"Well," Kakashi said, "I needed to find a place to store my, ah, cargo, as you called it. For a few days. Some place where it wouldn't obviously be tracked down immediately. Just in case, you know?"
Ryūzaki smiled politely and gave him a gesture that —together with the microexpressions in his face and the stiffness of his posture— roughly translated to 'go on, I'm willing to hear what else you have to say, also I am trying very hard to not offend you', or something similar enough to that.
Kakashi leaned forwards slightly.
"I'd be willing to compensate you monetarily, of course," Kakashi said. "If that doesn't suffice, then I'm sure we can work something else out. I figure an organization of your size and apparent ambitions might have a use for some discretionary applications of my talents."
I'll owe you a favor and maybe work with you on some other stuff and I'm saying it this way to make you more comfortable.
Ryūzaki's eyebrows almost leapt off of his face. He glanced at the other two for a split second. The two ninja looked at each other for a moment, something passing unsaid between them, before turning back to the civilian. Watari nodded at him and Yanagita's fingers twitched an affirmative. Ryūzaki turned back to meet his eyes and gave a slight nod.
"Mr. Hatake, we would be glad to safely store your valuables for as long as they're needed. Please, get in touch with us when you need them, or if you'd like to discuss any other matters."
Kakashi gave them a thumbs up.
"I'll be in touch."
He sipped his tea some more.
"Also, do you have any more of this tea? It's nice."
"Taiga, if you wouldn't mind fetching Mr. Hatake a container of it before he departs?"
Finally, reasonable people in this country. Thank the blazing Will of Fire itself.
o-o-o
"My brother is doing WHAT!?"
"Ichihara, from the top."
"Uh, right, so we were first approached by him…"
o-o-o
The northern wall of the lakeside cottage exploded.
Kakashi walked through the hole, accompanied by a howling torrent of wind and snow from the blizzard outside. Everyone else in the room was coughing from the smoke.
"Huh, hope that didn't kill anyone important."
He waited for the dust to settle. There were a few people who looked like nobles or high-society folks, and a bunch of civilian thugs carrying all sorts of makeshift weapons. The biggest one came at him with a cudgel. Kakashi dropped to his knees and used the man's momentum against him, tripping him up before extending his body like a spring, throwing the man clear through the wall.
Kakashi paused dramatically.
You were supposed to pause dramatically before calmly delivering badass threats. Everybody knew it was half the delivery.
"Anybody else?" he quipped.
Silence.
"Didn't think so," Kakashi said. He strode into the room and yanked up the man that matched the description of one Dotō Kazahana. The man was shaking and looked at him with terror in his eyes. The younger Kazahana swallowed before contorting his face into what was probably his business face, or something like that. Not like it mattered.
"Ah, Hatake Kakashi," Kazahana said, "we heard you were in town, hired by my brother. Now, let's not be hasty, we can still have a rather promising relationship even —"
Kakashi broke his arm.
"You know," Kakashi said, "I have a policy against letting smart, socially adept politicians try to coerce me into being their lap dogs. If I get the sense they're not saying anything immediately useful to me, I start breaking limbs. Hasn't failed me yet."
Kazahana howled in pain, shock plastered on his face even as tears formed.
"Huh. That wasn't anything useful. Alright then, you asked for it." Kakashi said. He grasped the man's left hand, gripping the index finger and pulling it back.
"Wait! Wait, just a minute!" Dotō yelled.
"I'm not hearing anything useful…"
"Okay! Okay! What do you want to know?"
"Let's start with Nadare and this heirloom. You can save explaining the treason for when I drag you back to your brother. If you explain well enough, he might even let you live."
o-o-o
Kakashi fiddled with the box of thin stones next to him, grabbing one and brushing off some of the white powder that was quickly accumulating. The lake was frozen over, and it was difficult to discern anything through the storm. He had found a faint trail that led to one side of the lake, but any hint of it vanished a couple dozen meters after crossing over to the icy surface. He drew his arm back and tossed the rock at the lake.
thunk pat skrtt
The stone bounced off and slid across the snow on top of the lake. Nope, not there. Ice was too thick.
thunk pat skrtt
Nothing. Another?
thunk patapat skrtt
thunk pat
thunk pat pat patter
What a waste of time, he was almost out of rocks.
…
thunk pat pat patter
Kakashi 's eye twitched. This was just getting ridiculous. Fuck this. He went through a series of hand seals before cupping his hands to his mouth.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet."
The familiar dragon-shaped torrent of flame roared out of his mouth and melted a decent sized patch of ice in front of him. He unsealed some metal spikes and drove them through the ice with his hand, before tying off the rope ends.
"Earth Element: Earth Clone."
One massive surge of chakra later, and there were three earth clones standing next to him.
"Earth Element: Living Roots!"
The trio of clones cast the technique in unison, their eerily empty voices echoing across the terrain. They started tying the free ends of the ropes to themselves.
"Jump in there," Kakashi said, pointing to the hole, "to go look for this damned box."
There was a trio of splashes. Kakashi unsealed a towel to dry his sopping wet hair.
Kakashi manages to find the rough location where the ice was split to throw the box down.
TN???
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 9(dice)=34
Nope.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 3(dice)=28
Nope.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Try again.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Nada.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Didn't hit it.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 6(dice)=31
Nice try but no.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ -6(dice)=19
Wow, no.
(This continues).
Alright, its burninating time.
TN :???
Fire Dragon Bullet: 30 -3 =27
You hit this one!
He sends three earth clones to plumb the depths with Living Roots. They find the box.
o-o-o
"Dear readers,
Wow, what a bunch of write-in letters we got for this one! Thank you so much for buying the anniversary edition. Your patronage brings tears to my eyes! Me, the Gallant Jiraiya himself!
Now, reader mail response time!
This first response goes to Ikeda, who is wondering how the dashing samurai managed to use a saw to get through the ice on the frozen river to get to the Vermilion Carp. Well, it turns out that this is a thing you can do! In my travels up in northern Lightning country, I passed through a fishing village whose fishermen actually went fishing on the lake in the dead of winter. They used a bunch of specially made tools, including a big hacksaw, a hammer and chisel, and a —"
Ah, right. Kakashi paused, looking over the landscape. Dotō's lackey probably had some experience in ice fishing. A pity that he saved reading the author's notes in the special anniversary edition for this trip.
Oh well.
Moments later, there was a tugging on the rope, and soon after a pair of hands reached up and tossed a metal box over the rim of the ice. It skid through the snow a few feet before stopping in a pile of accumulated white powder. Kakashi walked over to it, absentmindedly giving his clones the thumbs up to dispel on the way. He heard a few splashes as their chakra construct bodies slumped into a pile of mud and clay before dissolving. He fiddled with the lock for a second before ripping it off with a burst of chakra enhanced strength.
Kakashi reached inside and grabbed a small cloth bundle. He unwrapped it, revealing a cylindrical gemstone. Emerald? What little light there was was reflected down the surface and rainbow patterns danced across its many tiny facets.
"Bingo."
AN:
Needs another editing pass, but eh, good enough for now.
You have stowed the Nadare away with the Frost yakuza as an insurance policy. They have two chūnin missing-nin. The organization might be amicable towards working with you on some dangerous plots, but they would expect some give and take (probably along the lines of "Help us take over this country's criminal underworld by murdering the other chaps." but thats just a guess) afterwards.
Kakashi did his best Kool-aid Man impression to the cottage that Dotō was hiding away in nearby. Luckily, he wasn't hiding anywhere complex and figured one of the Kazahana properties would do. Dice came out in your favor on that one.
The rest of the captured ninja are secure in Castle Kazahana. Ichihara is in a secure room, while the Koyasu and Dotō are in separate cells in the dungeon. They won't be escaping anytime soon, as best as you can tell.
Kakashi has spent the rest of the 20th with this chapter, and has spent the 21st shadowing the daimyo and his family off screen. His Mild consequence has now healed. This country has excellent medicine for frostbite, who woulda thunk?
You've weaseled some information out of Dotō. He knows a dead drop location to get in contact with Rōga. Through this interrogation you have discovered one of Nadare Rōga's Aspects, 'Searching for Hidden Secrets'. You also have the heirloom that he is supposedly searching for. You will get 3 tags on this Aspect that can be used so long as you maintain possession of it, and the situation allows for it.
There may or may not be a bonus scene occurring during the 21st, pending me able to scrounge up the spoons for it. Mostly exposition and characterization, not anything actionable happening that you'd need.
What do you do now?
[] Leave a message at the dead drop location, arrange a meeting, let Rōga know you have the object he's looking for, and you're willing to make a deal.
[] Approach the Frost yakuza, offer to nuke their opposition in exchange for helping you take out some of the other Glacier jonin.
[] Make a public announcement in the middle of the city: You'll be publicly executing the Glacier ninja you've captured one by one until Rōga shows up to fight you man to man. He has three days to get his ass over here.
[] Hang tight and wait for them to make the first move. They'll have to do something eventually.
[] (write in)
Voting will close Saturday, January 16th, at 9am Pacific Time.
Kakashi stepped through the creaking heavy door of the Yakuza's hideout and dusted off his jacket as the thug hastily closed the door behind him. Within, he could hear the sound of a blazing fireplace keeping the half-underground bunker warm, a warm and familiar crackling that reminded him of Sensei's home in Leaf, where he and his team would gather around the fireplace and eat Sensei's delicately made snacks while Aunt Kushina told tale after tall tale…
Underneath the sound of the fireplace, quiet footsteps were moving through the room as the Yakuza leader and his missing-nin compatriots moved into place to receive him. Kakashi didn't think they'd try to attack him at this juncture. They were cautious people, living in fear of the Snow Oyabun finally deciding to commit the resources to wiping them out. In fact, now that Kakashi thought about it, the main reason they were still around might have been the civil war in Glacier. Without the ability to hire Glacier ninja to solve his problems, the Snow Oyabun might not have had the resources to confidently remove the Frost invaders.
The thug was looking anxiously at him, having gestured at the door a minute ago. Kakashi nodded back at him and stepped through, seeing the leadership trio waiting to greet him, the civilian sitting down and the two missing-nin flanking the fireplace. He crossed the room and settled down into the chair opposite the leader. When he reached into his shuriken pouch, the two ninja tensed, but they relaxed as he pulled out a handful of walnuts and started popping them down the front of his mask.
"So, Hatake, what brings you back to our organization? Would you like to retrieve the valuables you left with us?" said Ryūzaki.
Kakashi waited a moment before answering. "No, I think he is fine with you for now. You've been dripping water into his gag like I said?" he waited for a nod, "then he'll keep a while longer. No, I come to you with a proposition.
"You're weak, Ryūzaki." The man frowned slightly at the accusation, and his expression briefly revealed an inner anger before he hid it under his surprise. "You're what, a minor lieutenant from the Frost Yakuza, chosen to champion a long-shot idea to take fruit from the barren fields of Snow? Whatever plan your Oyabun has you working under, it's high risk, high reward, but you aren't playing it right. You're playing like you've already captured your opponent's generals, and you're waiting for them to blunder into defeat."
Kakashi gestured around the room, "You've got what, maybe ten people between your enforcers and cons? Maybe closer to eight, if my guesses about the size of your territory are right. That's not a way to own a city. And you don't strike at Goda Jin -- why? You've got ninja. Maybe he has some on permanent retainer too, but if you wait, he'll only hire more from Glacier as they stabilize. You're trying to win on time, but you're going to be the one that's behind when the clock runs out."
"I see," said Ryūzaki, nodding in agreement. "While I assure you that we have thought about our strategy, it appears that you have a proposal which is superior. We would hear it, and perhaps we could work it into a… feasible line of action."
Kakashi fake-laughed, and said, "No action for you of course, I wouldn't want to harm your precious manpower. No, the task is easy enough. I meet with Goda Jin and kill him, scaring off any ninja he might have in his employ. I know," he let his lips draw apart in a wicked smile under his mask, "there are no Glacier ninja in the town right now, so he only has missing-nin, people whose loyalties are to their lives and their wallets than to a petty crime lord." Watari and Yaganita looked at each other for a moment before turning back to him, blank-faced.
"I don't mean you. I mean enforcer types who kill who they're told to, not, not full partners who are invested in the success of the operation. Regardless of their level of loyalty, once they see the Copy Ninja, they're not going to want to push the fight. They'll run, leaving the Snow Yakuza headless. From there, all you have to do is subjugate the other lieutenants or kill them and make the street-level members understand that you're in charge."
Ryūzaki turned to look into the fireplace as Kakashi ended his proposal. After a moment, he spoke. "This… would accelerate our plans quite quickly. Everything has a price. What's yours?"
"First, the honorable Watari and Yaganita will have to demonstrate their techniques to me. All of them. Second, you'll have to help me arrange a trap against the Hidden Glacier ninja when they come looking for their missing compatriots. This is in your favor, of course, since they aim to acquire much more direct control over the country anyway, and won't take organized crime lightly."
Ryūzaki considered for a moment before responding. "If it is as you say, then we would do better to lay low, and let the Snow Yakuza draw Glacier's attention."
Kakashi shrugged. "Let's just say that if you hold out long enough, they won't be a problem for you eventually. And if you're worried about me reneging, don't be. I'll do the mission first. We can settle any debts afterwards. I always settle mine."
To his credit, Ryūzaki held his gaze the entire time. "So be it. If you're so confident you can worm your way through Goda's defenses and kill him without repercussion, then we'll gladly work with you on your plans. I warn you, he's more wily than meets the eye." He gestured to the side, where his assistant stood. "Taiga, bring in all the information we've collected about Goda Jin's headquarters. We will give our friend Hatake here everything we have, to ensure his success in the mission.
o-o-o-o
The giant wandering pile of furs that was Mr. Tominaga hurried up to the door of the jeweler's building. He looked around both ways, then knocked on the door.
"Hello there, is Goda Jin in? I need to speak with you!" he yelled through the visible "CLOSED" sign on the door. He saw a couple of civilians looking his way. After a moment, the door opened and a skinny young man with a ratlike face tried to grab him by the hand and pull him in. Kakashi stumbled through the door frame, nearly bowling the man over as the door was shut quickly behind him. He fell to the floor as the man managed to stay upright.
"What was that?" he hissed, "The Oyabun is laying low while the Daimyo's special ninja escort is in town. Who are you, and why don't you know how to keep your mouth shut?"
Kakashi held his hands up, laughing nervously. "Oh, I'm sorry sir, I wasn't aware of what's happening in your, ah, lovely little city here. I'm just a merchant who is passing through Shibetsu for business, and I had a, ah, lovely proposition for your Oyabun."
"He won't be willing to work with you with the level of discretion you've shown here." The man had a contemptuous look on his face. He clearly enjoyed lording what little power he had over newcomers.
"Now now, Mr. Umazi, I'm sure we can work something out. I spent some time in Kushiro with a certain Mr. Tanaka, who runs a rather fun gambling operation there. He offered me this," Kakashi reached into his furs and pulled out a letter sealed with the wax twin-mountain logo of the Snow Yakuza. "There you go. He and I talked business for a bit, and he suggested that I should get in contact with your Oyabun to see if we could find, ah, something a little profitable for both of us when I go back to the Land of Fire in the spring, or back to Wind by summer. I also have some, ah, exotic spices, that I think you might be interested in selling"
The man scrutinized him for a moment, puffing out his chest slightly as if to seem intimidating, then nodded. "I'll take it to him, and we'll see if he decides that you're worth his time." He thrust his hand out expectantly.
Kakashi handed the note over and slowly got to his feet, dusting the snow off of his back and rear. After a moment, he made a show of looking around for the pompous thug, and followed after his retreating footsteps.
Soon, Kakashi took a seat in a surprisingly nice waiting room. A vase with elaborately arranged red and purple flowers sat on a small table off to the side, and one of the walls was completely covered in a tapestry that seemed to depict a young woman, clutching a child to her chest as she climbed a mountain while two great serpents swam in a spiral overhead. Kakashi absently wondered if the Yakuza had commissioned the piece or stole it. Probably the latter, since there wasn't too much money to be spent on frivolities up here. For a piece this size, it has probably been stolen from one of the Daimyo. No wonder they weren't able to find any buyers.
The ratlike man opened the door again and called in, "the Oyabun thinks you're worth his time. Up, and make yourself presentable, Tominaga"
Kakashi pulled himself to his feet. "Oh, I'm quite cold, I don't think-"
"Fine, your loss. Piss him off and you won't get your deal. Worse and we'll be snapping your neck before long."
Kakashi followed after him, close on his heels, and his tour guide led him up the set of stairs to a thick wooden office door. As they approached it, Kakashi asked, "Oh by the way, how much does Mr. Goda pay you?"
He scowled. "That's none of your business, and I can't be bought like that." The scrawny man stepped between the two burly men flanking the door to knock on it. After a moment, a voice within called him to enter. "Now, Tominaga, make sure you're on your best behavior. The Oyabun has had to deal with some complicated situations in the past couple of days, and I'm sure he won't have much patience for antics."
With that, he opened the door, and gestured Kakashi in. Kakashi walked through, and stood in front of Goda Jin.
The infamously ruthless Oyabun of the Land of Snow leaned forwards in his chair as he spoke. "Welcome, Mr. Tominaga, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please, take a seat."
Kakashi stepped forwards, around the chair to look at Goda Jin from across his small, minimalist desk. He said nothing.
Goda's eyes darted around Kakashi's disguise, and his eyes widened in surprise. He started to exclaim "you're-"
In a burst of motion, Kakashi shrugged off the heavy furs and thrust a spearhand strike through the man's mouth and out the back of his head, cleaving through his brainstem. He spotted sudden movement on the roof outside as Goda's guard started to flee, and he turned to see his escort with the door half-open, mouth agape.
"Well, if you need a new employer, look for someone named Ryūzaki. I hear he should be hiring soon, given the time of year," Kakashi pulled his hand out of Goda's head, letting the man's face thump forwards onto the desk, "and there are new opportunities that will soon be opening up in this town."
Kakashi (Deceit): 29 + 3 (tag "Introduction for Mr. Tominaga") + 3 (tag "Frost Scouting Intel") + 6 (dice) = 41
Enemies trying to see through his disguise (Alertness): ??
Enemies trying to see if he intends their employer any harm (Empathy): ??
Kakashi (Deceit): 29 + 6 (dice) = 35
Goda Jin (Deceit): 40 - 3 (dice) = 37
Kakashi starts combat:
He spends his Supplementals removing his disguise, revealing his Leaf ANBU attire underneath, Movements unrestricted, he attacks Goda.
Kakashi (Taijutsu): 55 - 3 (dice) = 52
Goda Jin (Athletics): 4 + 0 (dice) = 4
They get noticed, hat tip to Kakashi, and check out.
o-o-o-o
Kakashi didn't move as the clone's memories streamed in. Everything went off without a hitch over at the Yakuza hideout, but now Goda's crony would be coming directly for the Daimyo, intending to foil his mission in some strange tit-for-tat. Goda had clearly hired someone quite skilled given that Kakashi's scouting hadn't noticed them, but they hadn't been fast enough to stop Kakashi from killing the Oyabun.
This could get bad, Kakashi thought as he moved a hair closer to Daimyo Kazahana, who was nodding along pleasantly as fire-spinners threw torches in the air to the rhythm of pounding drums in the town square. The ninja overseeing Goda had clearly been well-trained, as they started moving an instant after seeing their employer die, recognizing him and moving to take action rather than sticking around in confusion or retaliating senselessly when Goda was already dead. That level of instant evaluation and action meant that Goda hadn't just been keeping a homegrown genin around. He needed Kazahana to stay alive for now, if only to cover for him for the eight weeks of unpursued time that Hiruzen had blessedly given him.
Kakashi kept his head on a swivel, watching the rooftops and alleyways for assailants while preparing to Substitute with the Daimyo on a moment's notice, all while the fire-spinners continued their admittedly mediocre act . While he didn't expect a Fire Release-specialist level of performance, even the civilian street entertainers in Leaf were better than these mediocre performers.
He just barely managed to spot a hint of movement near the upper edge of an alleyway, as a ninja crawling along the walls above head height poked her head out for a moment to spot the plaza. Kakashi tensed, expecting a thrown weapon, but a moment later, she jumped onto the roof of the building, a pair of watery claws rippling around either fist, and started running away.
He relaxed an inch. No fight. She must have been surprised to see him there already, perhaps not realizing that it had been a clone that had killed her employer. That, or she had been relying on the element of surprise. Either way, she didn't want to pick a fight, and now was making a hasty exit at a speed comparable to his own.
Hmm, concerning that Goda Jin had the assets to keep such a skilled missing-nin on retainer, when she clearly had no personal loyalty. Killing him hastily might be inviting retaliation, Kakashi mused as the evening wore on. Oh well, that's more techniques for me.
o-o-o-o
Ryūzaki steepled his fingers. "Well, Hatake, you've done well. The Snow Yakuza are in shambles, and Watari is busy sweeping them up into our clutches. If, as you suspect, retaliation from Glacier is imminent, then we would be glad to support you in whatever trap you wanted to set."
Kakashi nodded, and leaned back. "Though that's not the full deal, is it Ryūzaki? Or, should I be addressing you now, Yaganita?"
Yaganita eyed him back. "I don't think you'll be getting much use out of my techniques, ninja of the Leaf."
"Is that hesitancy I sense?" Kakashi put down his walnuts and tensed, preparing to stand. "Perhaps you should have mentioned this when we were striking the deal then."
Yaganita barked a rough laugh, then raised his hands with splayed fingers. "I mean no offense. I only have the Earth and Mud Release, however, and I understand the Sharingan does little to change your elemental affinity."
"The Sharingan has a number of capabilities, more than you could hope to understand. Show me all that you have, and don't worry about how I'm going to use it."
Yaganita smiled back. "No affordances for an ace in my back pocket?"
Kakashi turned back to Ryūzaki, who seemed to pale slightly, before looking to Yaganita. The ninja's smile slipped off his face and turned sour. "Fine. Follow me, let's do this sooner than later."
Another day has passed. The Daimyo is grateful that you've foiled the plot on his life and concerned that you've traced it back to his brother. He will interrogate his brother once the festival is done, but seems torn between giving him the benefit of the doubt, or taking the attack seriously and executing him.He does not know about the heirloom or Glacier's plot to acquire it. However, he does not seem very worried about the remaining duration of the festival.
The Snow Yakuza is being folded into Frost's operations. Kakashi expects a little bit of turf war as some old lieutenants get uppity, but with the ninja advantage, Frost should win. They've agreed to help you set whatever ambush you prefer, though Kakashi thinks they won't stick around if the plan is awful or the opposition is particularly strong, and things go south. Searching the city briefly has shown no sign of the Oyabun's hired ninja.
The Frost ninja have shown you their techniques. Watari knew a number of Fire Release techniques:
Generic Fireball (Level 40, Effect 5)
… (tbd, please offer suggestions!)
Yaganita knew a number of Mud Release techniques which the Sharingan dutifully copied but Kakashi cannot cast. He also knew Hiding Like a Mole (Level 20, Effect: 3) and a new Earth Release technique called Earth's Thunder (Level 1, Effect: 1), which he says is much less useful when you're not in the mountains. It shakes the ground near you, possibly causing rockfalls, upsetting people's footing, or even destroying buildings if it gets strong enough.
Voting Time! What do you do now?
Here are some options to get you started.
[] Set up a trap at the dead drop location where Rōga expects to get information from Kazahana Dotō.
[] Construct a scenario where Nadare Shigeru thinks he's been set free and follow him back to the Hidden Village.
[] Raid the Snow Yakuza's storehouses around the city for cash, and finance the rebuilding of the Woolly Yak.
[] Kill Watari and Yaganita, tell Ryūzaki that you're in charge now. Start making arrangements to overthrow the Snow Yakuza in Kushiro.
[] Hunt down anyone who has spoken with Glacier ninja in the past, or knows someone who has seen it or been there to try to determine its location by cross-examination.
[] Write-in.
Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Also, feel free to ping @Paperclipped or @MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know.
Voting is open, and closes at 9am London Time, Wednesday January 13.
Shinomori Soichiro, shinobi of the legendary Seven Swordsmen and master of the Kubikiribōchō, gulped down another mouthful of sake as he walked through the evening mists. The Village Hidden in the Mist was aptly named, the land surrounding the village was often shrouded with a dense, cloying fog. Foreigners and small children of the village often found the mists difficult to navigate, but traversing them was second nature to Soichiro. His mighty blade was a comfortable weight strapped to his equally titanic back, and it swung gently behind him with each step.
He stopped where he'd always stopped the last couple nights. Same training ground. Same tree to lean against.
There was a youth training there. A chūnin, maybe fourteen or fifteen, but massive for his age. He had to be to swing around the massive greatsword that he was using, even with chakra enhanced strength. The kid moved through a series of training forms, a few dozen, with a slow, methodical precision, counting out every single step with a gravelly grunt. Sweat was pouring off his body, just like it had been the previous nights.
Kid knew he was there. Didn't seem to give a fuck. Ignored him. Soichiro knew he knew, but then he didn't give much of a fuck about that shit either, so it evened out.
"One. Two. Three."
Fucked up your footing slightly on the third count, Soichiro thought.
The younger swordsman stopped, frowning for a second before repeating the motion. This time his right foot came back an inch farther as he brought the sword up in a sweeping block.
Hmm.
"Hey, kid," Soichiro called out.
The younger swordsman continued on through his current set of motions, and turned to his senior when he was done. Not a second before.
"Sir?" the kid barked out.
Kid's voice was hoarse, sounding like he swallowed a jug full of broken glass or something. Smoke inhalation from a Fire jutsu maybe. Or not. Soichiro had learned many times over the years that the shinobi world was filled with endless surprises. Could just be the kid sounded like a sawmill.
Soichiro took another swig of sake before answering.
"You think that inch is gonna matter?" Soichiro asked. "I see you practicing here the last couple nights til you look about ready to drop dead. Bad for your mission work if you fall asleep on the job. There's a war brewing too, so there ain't no time to be fucking around."
"Eh," The kid shrugged, looking uncomfortable and a bit guilty for a second. The guilt vanished as quickly as it came. "I can rest when I'm dead. 'Sides, it does matter. That inch is going to stop some cunt from slicing through my arm or knocking my ass to the ground if I try that block."
The kid went back to his forms.
"Heh. Good answer," Soichiro said, "Here, stop fucking around with those for a fucking minute."
Soichiroi unsealed the training sword from a storage seal he kept sewn onto his pants, right above his thigh. It was slightly smaller, and of lesser quality than he was used to. It wasn't hissword, not the same, not at all, but it would do. He gestured impatiently for the kid to square up on the opposite side of the training field from him. The kid complied, his eyes getting curious. Soichiro hefted his bulky training sword into a ready stance with a single arm. It only wobbled slightly.
Shit, I need to hit the training ground more. I'm getting soft.
"Get in a sparring stance, you low ranking little shit. What the fuck is your name, anyway?"
The youth shot forward and Soichiro blocked a blow. The kid grinned at that. First actual expression he'd seen the runt make all week.
The two stared at each other around fifty pounds of chakra forged steel.
"Momochi Zabuza. I'm going to be a member of your little club one day."
Heh. Soichiro snorted. Kid's muscles must have been screaming at him to go take a hot bath and a nap, but the squirt had come at him like a demon anyway. The clearing was soon filled with the thunderous sounds of blade clashing against blade.
Yeah. Yeah, I know exactly who you are.
o-o-o
Momochi Zabuza's jōnin promotion was relatively uneventful, as far as he was concerned.
His promotion was just another in a long series of accolades that came several months after the last war had ended. His teammates (those that survived, anyway) were very gung-ho about celebrating. Izumo even wanted the group of them to schedule some time off so that they could go to the Three Monkeys' Bar in Hot Springs. Zabuza didn't really see the point in making a big deal out of it.
So he managed to talk them down to a night of food and drinks at the Dancing Swordfish. Even the newly named "Demon of the Hidden Mist" had his limits, it seemed.
The party had been nice. It was good to unwind (though he would never admit it) and hang out with everyone. It's been so long since they had some time off together…
He wasn't looking forward to fishing his father out of whichever bar he'd crawled into, come morning. The old man always tended to get shit-faced after a week's worth of work in the logistics department, and it was about that time of week.
He dallied on the walk home, going to his favorite training spot. There were other areas that he had clearance to use, as both an apprentice to one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and now as a jōnin. This spot was his though, and he would damn well keep it that way.
He considered the clearing for a moment.
Hmm. Well, I'm here, right?
Zabuza stopped at the center of the clearing, his feet settling into a familiar stance, easy as breathing. His hand played idly with the hilt of the greatsword on his back, before tightening over the sharkskin leather grip on the hilt. His body and his sword started moving in a familiar dance.
One. Two. Three.
His feet pivoted and his muscles strained. He was "half-drunk as shit", as sensei would say. If it had been the first time he tried this form, he probably wouldn't have been able to manage a single bit.
It wasn't the first time, though. Wasn't even the thousandth time.
"Oi, kid. You can't take a single fucking day off in your life, can ya?"
What!? Zabuza tensed up. He was surprised to see Soichiro-sensei there, on the tree he usually propped himself against. I must be more out of it than I thought.
Zabuza smiled.
"Nah, just can't seem to manage time off." Zabuza said.
"Well, you're going to have to cut it short," Soichiro said. He was fiddling with something in his hand. "We have some places to be."
Ah, a mission or something. That wasn't that unusual.
"Ah. Alright, I'll go grab my mission gear." Zabuza said, nodding.
"No, you dumbass," Shinomori-sensei said. His sensei gave him a look that was equal parts amused and exasperated. Sensei held up a high-priority scroll from the Mizukage's office, and chucked it at his forehead. He snatched it out of the air and unfurled it.
Momochi Zabuza,
You are hereby promoted to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist as Shinomori Soichiro's successor. Pending your survival of the requisite training and trials, which you are to begin two weeks from today.
Congratulations.
Karatachi Yagura
The Fourth Mizukage
Hoshigake Sandayū
Leader of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist
Shinomori Soichiro
Sensei
Zabuza dropped his sword.
o-o-o
Zabuza managed to get through a small nap and a morning of meal preparation before a runner came knocking at the door. He calmly placed the sushi knife down with the rest of his set, before quickly sealing everything up in a storage seal. Wouldn't do to keep good quality fish out too long.
He walked over, fiddled with an excessive amount of locks,and finally opened the door, coming face to face with a tiny genin grunt that couldn't have been a day older than thirteen.
"Well, what is it?" Zabuza growled.
"Gathering in the square, sir," the boy answered, almost stammering. "Lord Mizukage wants every ninja to be present for it."
Zabuza grunted in affirmation. The kid gulped and pissed off at top speed.
Well, looks like I won't have time to fish the old man out of whatever ditch he slept in last night.
o-o-o
The grand square before the Mizukage's tower was filled with people. Zabuza was standing on the rooftop of an adjacent building with a few other ninja. A wooden platform had been raised up in the middle, towering over the gathered crowd. He could make out a few individuals in stockades that were lined up to face the rest of the square. Karatachi Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, stood at the edge of the platform, in his kage formal wear. The man had grown into them nicely over the last year—the first few months of the (at the time) late teenager's reign had been a bit awkward.
Zabuza noticed his sensei landing beside him. He turned to the older shinobi with a raised eyebrow. The question went unspoken, but Soichiro responded anyway. They knew each other well by now.
"No idea," Soichiro said, shrugging. "Probably just some speech or another, and a few nobodies to hang to make a point." The man took a drink from the ever present sake bottle from his hip. Zabuza had always considered it a small miracle that he hadn't drank himself into an early grave years ago.
Speech and an execution, huh? Zabuza thought. Such things were increasingly more common, ever since Yagura took control of Mist at the end of the war a year ago. The seventeen year old had been the youngest Mizukage in history, barely older than Zabuza himself at the time.
You had to give the guy some credit. His institutional reforms put Hidden Mist back on the map after a failure of a war. The T&I department were rooting out traitors and spies by the bucketload, and Yagura's training reforms made sure they had more combat capable jōnin now than ever. The man was a genius. Not to mention combat ability. Nobody was going to question a damn thing the man did.
Though, having a giant city-destroying demon stuck in your gut probably helps with that one.
"The world outside this marvelous village is not as it should be, my countrymen." Yagura said. The jinchūriki paused for effect, making a point to pan his vision across the square. "The people there are oppressed by all manners of strife and inequity. Instead of lives filled with purpose and dignity, there is only chaos, fear, and the ever-present threat of meaningless conflict. Chaos stands in the way of civilization and progress. Fear drowns the very fabric of society and rots the souls of those it takes root in. Conflicts without end, that plague the world beyond and threaten to end our way of life from the outside. There is no justice, there. No order, there. No peace."
The Mizukage glanced meaningfully at the three people in the stockades.
"And, if the traitors inside these walls would have their way, we would just have to lay down and accept this. I beg to differ."
The Mizukage walked up to the first prisoner and ripped off the sack from their head, revealing a middle-aged, brown-haired woman that Zabuza didn't recognize. Her hair was disheveled and her face was streaked with blood and dirt.
"Minami Sui, for crimes of perjury, murder, and high treason against the Village Hidden in the Mist, I hereby sentence you to death."
Yagura's fingers blurred through some hand seals and a blade of water cleanly decapitated the woman. Her head rolled slowly across the wooden platform, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Yagura turned back to address the crowd.
"Within these walls, we will have justice!" Yagura called out to the crowd. A chorus of cheers answered him. The Mizukage walked up to the second prisoner and ripped off the sack from their head, revealing a pale man that Zabuza didn't recognize. The man's face was heavily bruised, his mouth was dripping blood, and he looked like he'd been beaten to within an inch of his life.
"Kuramoto Naozane, for crimes of espionage, theft of clan secrets, and high treason against the Village Hidden in the Mist, I hereby sentence you to death."
Another blade of water came down.
"Within these walls, there will be order!" Yagura yelled. The response echoed across the square and rebounded across the many buildings.
Yagura walked to the third prisoner and revealed their —
Wait that's —
"Momochi Kaido, for the crimes of perjury, aiding the enemy, and high treason against the Village Hidden in the Mist, I hereby sentence you to death."
—Dad, Zabuza thought.
Yagura took his right hand and punched through Dad's head.
"Within this country, we shall make peace!" Yagura screamed, raising a bloody fist to the sky.
…
…
...
Zabuza didn't hear the yelling. He didn't hear anything, just blood rushing through his ears and a ringing noise. He stared at the execution platform. He could feel other people on the rooftop looking at him. Zabuza was vaguely aware of sensei's hand coming down over his shoulder. Soichiro-sensei was saying something in his ear, but he couldn't make out the words. His vision swam.
Blood dripped out of his father…
...
His father's…
...
Zabuza's eyes darted over to the Mizukage.
He just killed the old man, said some portion of him.
Yeah, he's gonna die for that, answered the rest.
He's the Mizukage, said one tiny voice in his head.
Fuck that, yelled the rest of him.
Zabuza took a shaky step forward, and another. He growled and before he knew it Soichiro-sensei picked him up like a newborn and dragged him to the usual training spot to cool off.
o-o-o
People asked him later, what it felt like, in that moment.
There was no answer that did the reality justice, but this is the answer he would give them.
This is what it was, to be Momochi Zabuza, on that evening, in that place, on that fateful day.
As Soichiro-sensei attempted to console him (or give him support? Offer him considerations? Point out his idiocy? It didn't matter) the storm raged inside him. As his sensei went through speech after speech and promise after promise, Momochi Zabuza was busy in another place, struggling to put together the words that he knew he must say next. Struggling, because he couldn't even remember his own name. Even as his killing intent sputtered and flared, turning the clearing into an icy nightmare of death and roving devils of hate and pain, his mind raced. Raced, because he needed thoughts to form to put all of the things he was feeling into action.
"Soichiro-sensei, would you just shut the fuck up for a minute?" another voice asked from what seemed like a world away.
The master stopped, and the two stood there in silence.
Silence, or so it appeared on the outside. Inside him a hurricane of emotion whirled, and raged, and howled, before flattening out into something else. Something entirely new yet as familiar as the mist that he stood in.
Through it all, he felt himself go still. Deathly still.
The words formed.
o-o-o
Shinomori Soichiro, shinobi of the legendary Seven Swordsmen and master of the Kubikiribōchō, watched on as his apprentice became a different person in front of his eyes.
One instant, the boy stood there in that clearing. The next instant, a demon stood in his place.
The man that used to be his apprentice raised his head and met his eyes, unflinching. His killing intent spread out and sharpened, becoming something that filled their surroundings with a dread pressure.
The demon raised his arm, hand outstretched, towards the massive blade on Soichiro's shoulder.
o-o-o
This is what it was, to be the Demon of the Hidden Mist, in that place, on that fateful morning.
"Give me my fucking sword so that I can murder that cunt."
Zabuza began the trials the next day.
AN:
As is tradition, could probably use another editing pass by me before posting for some copy edits or consistency things, but you have waited long enough! (Much kudos to @Paperclipped for helping edit some today, though. Certain bits would be much more awkward and inconsistency filled were it not for his mighty intellectual thews! )
Spoons are low, so take this interlude. NB: This was already (mostly) in the interlude bank, so I have been squeeing a lot every time someone mentions Mist or the Seven Swordsmen.
Kakashi has a factual understanding of the basic gist of the public events that happened here, which occurred about a month ago on November 13th and which mostly amounts to "There was a public execution that happened and the Seven Swordsman trainee Jōnin, Momochi Zabuza, had a family member involved." He doesn't know any further details.
), especially co-qms 