- Pronouns
- He/Him
Isn't that just oaths you make with other summoners?
Lost on the Road of Life (An AU Naruto Quest)
- Thread starter MMKII
- Start date
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
...ah, you're right. Though... the 'other abilities' may include the ability to make contracts with those that do not know summoning.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'm also down for TH-ing. Substitution and the other low-hanging AB-boosters seem like a good idea. Regarding socials, empathy and intimidation seen like solid picks. Sugiyama has Deceit covered for social combat.
I'm also not very firm on these opinions, and could easily be swayed to something else/something more specific.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Possible, but I don't really want to bank on that when we could instead bump up like TH and Substitution or something, which could be make or break for survival....
It is kinda funny though, I wonder how Kakashi *could* train Summoning to 20 without a Scroll... meditate really hard on the power of friendship?
Sugiyama has all the socials covered already, this is more for if Kakashi needs to act on his own, such as he did on this mission
Plus, if someone asks him a question Sugiyama may not be able to answer for him
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
With Gai as his best friend, that might unironically be a method...
Now we just need to make a stunt called "Student of the Springtime of Youth" and convince the QMs to let us buy it!
Power level Intimidation, really lean in in the whole "copycat ninja with 1000 jutsu and bloodstained hands." Someone doesn't want to tell Kakashi something, Intimidate. Kakashi thinks that someone's lying? Intimidate. Someone's trying to get Kakashi to give away information? Intimidate. Someone gave Sugiyama pickles when they asked for none? Intimidate.
Kakashi will be the scariest friend in the world.
Chapter 40: The Battle for Everyones' Souls
MMKII
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Kakashi Alpha popped into existence, and he glanced over at Shizuka, absentmindedly tossing a wave at Kakashi Prime as he did so. There was very little reason for them to communicate, since Kakashi Prime had created him about three seconds ago with the plan already fully formed. Prime began fishing around inside his flak jacket for seals.
"Alright," Kakashi Prime said in a hushed whisper. "So you and I will skedaddle out the window and make our way to Jinraku's office. My Shadow Clone will attend the meeting, and he will offer up a flimsy excuse for you not being present."
Prime thumbed out a handful of seals, handed them over to Shizuka, and then did the same for Kakashi Alpha.
"These seals hold a volume of air and release it in bursts," Prime said. Prime reached up and slid one underneath his mask, and Kakashi Alpha did the same. "They're useful for breathing through, and we should use them in case this memory effect is spread by the pollen in the area. Each one should last about ten minutes, maybe a little less than that. Sealing was never my strong suit."
Kakashi Alpha ignored the rest of the conversation, as Shizuka and Kakashi Prime had a lightning round consisting of a few quick back and forth questions and answers. The two of them promptly vanished out the window, leaving Kakashi Alpha to do the dirty work.
Kakashi Alpha walked over to the door and opened it, looking at both of the Sasu clan chuunin for a moment, before speaking.
"Yeah, so I'm ready to go, but there's a slight problem," Kakashi Alpha said. He lifted his hand to scratch at his hair. "I don't really know where my companion is."
"What."
"Yeah, see," Kakashi Alpha said, nodding and opening the door wider. He gestured at the empty room. "Look for yourself. She vanished. Must have left to go somewhere."
The two chuunin looked at each other in confusion, before stepping forward to peer at the empty room.
"Alright then," Sasu Komako said. She looked remarkably upbeat for someone that Kakashi and Shizuka had beaten half to Naraka just a few days ago. Maybe she just had one of those personalities. "Well… let's take you down and see what Lord Jinraku wants."
"Cool. Actually, could you hold on a second?"
Kakashi Alpha went back in the room and picked up one of the two heavy wooden chairs that were by the desks in the room. He hefted it over his back, and turned to leave.
The two chuunin were peering at him.
"Y'know, just in case it takes you folks a long time to find my companion and I end up waiting down there for a while."
The two chuunin continued to stare at him.
"Look, I'm a very lazy person. It's what happens when you reach jounin, trust me. I've seen your clan head's comfy chair."
They seemed to take that remark in stride, or if they didn't at least they gave up on being overly suspicious. The chuunin duo left the room, and wandered off down the honeycomb shaped hallway.
Kakashi Alpha followed right behind them, furniture and all.
o-o-o
Kakashi and Shizuka made it to the doors of Jinraku's office without too much trouble. They had to duck into some flower bushes to evade a grumpy clan elder that was hobbling about with a cane, but barring that, their route was pretty uneventful.
Kakashi pulled out some lit torches from a storage seal that he had prepared earlier (prepared was a strong word, really he had just taken a moment to yoink them out of Storage Seal 83: Misc. Fire Starting Implements and Fuel). He offered one to Shizuka, who looked at the implement sourly for a bit before shaking her head.
"No thanks," Shizuka said, her voice barely a whisper. "I'd like to keep my hands free. Have to quickly toss a kunai to take out that monkey if it's in there too."
"Alright. I'm opening the door in three…"
Two.
One.
Kakashi swiftly cracked one of the double doors open and the two slipped in. Kakashi closed the door behind him. He kept Obito's eye covered, but his own eye quickly scanned the room. The monkey was indeed in one of the room's corners, hanging onto some sort of bookshelf, but--
Shizuka's arm blurred and a kunai penetrated the animal's skull with a small spray of gore. It fell forward onto the floor with a muffled thud.
"Alright," Kakashi said, voice still hushed. "You search the desk, I'm going to look around the room."
Kakashi reached up to uncover the Sharingan eye. His vision deepened, colors deepening and the shadows in the room becoming less of a problem. The Uchiha Clan's signature bloodline limit fed him a wealth of information that no regular human eye would detect. He tracked his gaze around the room in a counterclockwise pattern, and the eye picked up a bunch of tiny details, scuffs, smudges, the figure shaped absence of space, some footprints in the dust, a smudge where—
Kakashi froze. He quickly swiveled his head to stare at the middle bookshelf. It was still there, an empty bit of space in the shape of a long human-like figure, one that was absurdly tall with oddly disproportionate limbs. Its hands look like they reached down below the knees.
Its outline stepped forward with a long lunging stride, but the hazy patch of empty-space lingered behind for a moment. That's when Kakashi put it together.
Sage. The only reason I can see this thing is because Obito's eye can track the pre-images of where it's going to be.
Kakashi dropped the torch with a clatter and started making hand seals. Pressure began building in his head as he tracked the… the whatever-the-hell as it walked towards him.
"Hatake," Shizuka called, looking over to him sharply. "Is something wrong?"
"Now, why would you do that?" a voice whispered to him, as if the thing was right behind him. "We're just starting!"
Kakashi whirled around, but there was nothing there.
Shit, where did it go? Is it making words appear in my head? Is it--
Kakashi turned around sharply. He realized the ploy a bit too late, as the creature was within arms reach. It wasn't fast, but he found himself struggling to move, almost as if he was suspended in a vat of quicksilver.
"Let's play for keeps this time, you disgusting little monkey."
The malice in the words made Kakashi's skin crawl. Whatever this thing was, it was…
The pressure in his head mounted, and Kakashi's vision blacked out.
o-o-o
Kakashi was running through the streets of Leaf and he didn't know why.
How did I get here? Why am I back in Leaf? Why am I running around?
Kakashi stopped and looked around.
The street was empty. He was standing in between a dango shop (the one that Orochimaru of the Sannin sometimes frequented with one of his many apprentices when he thought that no one was looking, not that anyone would ever bring it up to the man) and Ichiraku Ramen. His gaze lingered on the ramen shop's signage for a moment, and memories bubbled up to the surface.
"You pig, there's no way you're going to eat all of that without puking. Sensei, can you-- wait, you too!? That's not healthy!"
"Now, Rin, just because you're a rising star at the hospital doesn't mean you can give everyone a diet plan."
Kakashi blinked and looked away from the store. That memory was a bit too vivid...
Kakashi looked around for signs of life, a tumbleweed, anything, but it didn't seem like anybody was in the village.
Kakashi caught movement from the corner of his eye and whirled around. A massive arm tore through the flaps covering the ramen stall and lanced towards him with inhuman speed. Kakashi burned chakra reflexively to heighten his reflexes, but the familiar warmth of chakra boosted strength and speed didn't happen.
SHIT SHIT SHIT, Kakashi thought.
He settled for hurling himself to the side like a civilian. He tumbled a few times in the dirt street, and he felt the air whistle over his head as the speed of the strike caused a slight draft. There was a strange coppery taste in his mouth, and the air smelled like a sickening mixture of rotting meat and old bread yeast.
Kakashi bolted up to his feet and continued running down the Leaf Village's main avenue.
Kakashi tried to dispel, but nothing happened.
"Right, terrifying humanoid chakra beast," he said. Was he moving slower? Was this some sort of dream? Was he being possessed, like with some sort of Yamanaka technique? "Let's keep runni—hrk!"
A massive furred claw came out of nowhere and swatted him in the side. Kakashi felt the wind leave his lungs, and he spent a terrifying second tumbling through the air before he crashed through the front door of some building. Kakashi got up and looked around. It was the first floor of his old apartment. He had crashed right through the hanging cookware in the kitchen.
"Now you need to stir the sugar in slowly, and not all at once! Bit by bit, it needs time to settle. That's it, good!"
Kakashi flinched.
That was Granny Mitsui teaching me how to make bread, Kakashi thought. That was years ago, but her voice was loud as a bell and clear as a summer day.
Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted as he heard the monster clawing outside the entrance way. Was it too big to come in?
"A beast?" the voice spat. "No, no, you foolish little mortal, I'm just a humble spirit of this world. One of the noble beings that your kind has forgotten over the years. I've been here long before you, and I'll still be here long after your kind has been ground back into the dirt."
The door frame and part of the front wall buckled inwards with a sickening crunch. Kakashi bolted upwards and hissed as his body screamed at him. Kakashi ignored it, gritting his teeth as he threw open the back door and hurried out into the tiny yard. He crossed it in a heartbeat and dove through the neighbor's open window.
Okay, let's think. Kakashi thought. Weird spirit thingy. No Sugiyama around to consult on what to do. I think fire was supposed to do something? But I don't seem to be able to use chakra, so trying to use jutsu is probably out. Every second counts, so I can't waste any time. Think, think, think.
Kakashi ran through the pseudo-familiar rooms, coming out the front door that led out to Cedar Street. He had only been in that home twice, but it seemed to be just as he vaguely remembered it. He ran down the street, heading towards the distant Hokage Tower. He readied himself and gave into his instincts.
"Y'know, for something that calls itself a spirit," Kakashi yelled back, as insultingly as he could manage. "You sure do look like an ugly son of a bitch. When's the last time you took a bath? Can you even remember?"
Yeah, let's try to get whatever it is nice and angry. Good idea, Kakashi.
Kakashi looked around frantically, trying to catch any signs of motion that would telegraph the next strike.
Finally, it came. There was some movement on the rooftops above, and Kakashi slid under a market stall as the monster crashed down onto the street with a booming thud.
"Coward," the voice purred. "Come, face me. It is your mind and soul we are fighting for, the least you could manage is a meaningful effort."
Kakashi quickened his pace and ignored the pang in his side. Even without chakra, shinobi were physically capable of things that were simply beyond even the most athletic civilian. So when Kakashi broke into a dead sprint, he hoped that that fact meant that he'd be able to ignore the various signals that his mental body seemed to be screaming at him for the half-mile that it would take to get to the Tower.
"How about I just keep leading you around my head?" Kakashi quipped. "I'm sure we could do this all day, but eventually Shizuka is going to cotton on to the fact that I'm stuck out there staring at your ugly ass, and then she's going to kill you."
At least, I hope that's true.
The spirit roared. Kakashi looked back. It was charging right through the market stalls in a line drive at him, and seemed to be gaining on him.
Shit shit shit.
"We are engaging at the speed of thought, shinobi, though for you that must be rather slow. There is no chance that this scuffle will not be done within the time it takes one of your kind to blink."
Kakashi quickly looked back with Obito's eye at the beast, and gasped as he realized that the Sharingan was somehow still giving him some precognitive vision of the being's movements. The thing would be on him in moments. He had to think of something…
"You are a thief of power, filthy little shinobi. You possess the ability to bring form to the formless, to breathe life into the world itself, and you squander it on parlor tricks? When the spirit that is masquerading as the insect Lord and I are done with you and your companion, your lifeforce will be fed to our own, and your hot blood will be another piece of kindling in your civilization's downfall! And with my workings done, every shade of you shall pass from memory evermore!"
That doesn't sound good.
But Kakashi started putting two and two together as he ran.
"Yeah, well get on with it then," Kakashi spat back in between labored breaths. "You fight like an old nanny. I don't even have chakra or jutsu and I'm still dealing with you just fine. You and Jinraku are going to sacrifice me in some ritual sealing bullshit to power this antimemetic crap you have going on? Is that the idea? Because I'm sorry to say that you two aren't very bright. I managed to get around it with a healthy love of literature and some basic fucking storage seals."
"Yes! And I will finally be rid of your annoyance! How is it possible that a single human could be so infuriating? It is as if every time I need to use my power against you, you drink my strength away twice over. But now you've walked into my clutches, and I'll soon be wearing your skin as a cloak to walk you to your own demise, just as I suggested to the honey-tongued shapeshifter days ago!"
Somewhere in the back of Kakashi's mind, he jotted that information down.
Alright, you know what? Fuck this.
Kakashi kept sprinting forward. They were coming up on the Tower's outer walls now, and Kakashi swerved and ran to the left, turning wide so that the outer walls were on his right. He glanced over his shoulder, and studied the spirit's pre-images…
…
Now.
The pre-image lunged forward, telegraphing the upcoming strike. Kakashi jumped on the wall and somersaulted backwards with as much force as he could manage. He stretched his left leg painfully far out as he did so. Chakra or not, the motion was as familiar as breathing to him. A memory flashed to the forefront of his awareness.
"Gai, how in Hashirama's enormous wood do you manage to train this hard, all damn day, every single day?"
"It's simple, Kakashi! Anything is possible with the power of Youth on your side!"
It was there and gone in an instant, but it gave him some inspiration. Kakashi grit his teeth harder and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Dynamic Entry!"
Kakashi brought the axekick down right on top of the thing's face as it was at the apex of its leaping strike. He felt a satisfying crunching sound as the heel of his sandals dug into its brow. Blood sprayed into the air, and the thing tumbled over, howling and clutching its face.
Huh. It can be hurt after all.
Kakashi landed and dashed back the way he came, deciding that he was better off going along with whatever momentum he had than change directions again. Distance from the spirit was probably important.
Kakashi's feet thundered rhythmically on the paved cobblestone of the Tower's outer courtyard. He slammed open the massive oak doors, noting that the demon-spirit-monster had righted itself and was making its way into the courtyard. Kakashi slammed the doors shut behind him and he launched himself up the Tower's interior stairs with great bouncing leaps, clearing three or four of the large wooden steps at a time.
Alright, Kakashi thought. It said something about powers and abilities earlier. I don't know what the fuck it's talking about by 'breathing life' or 'form to the formless'. It said something about wasting power twice-over on me. Is it because my Shadow Clone is out right now? That could just be a weird jutsu interaction. But no, it said something about that going on earlier… did I make a Shadow Clone before the meeting that I apparently can't remember?
Kakashi glanced down as the spirit crashed through the Tower's front doors, it had too much momentum, and barely skidded to a stop in time to avoid slamming into the far wall of the first floor. It howled in frustration.
Kakashi shot up past the door to the Hokage's office and kept going upwards. He hurtled up the last dozen steps and shot out the door to the roof, slamming it closed behind him and locking it shut with the great steel bar that was on the exterior.
Village looks the same, he noted. It looked… blurry, actually. The view was a bit hazy, and patches of it were missing, as if he was looking at a picture that he was struggling to recall all the details of. Kakashi quickly strode forward and looked down from the top of the Tower's roof. It was a good four story drop to the street. He waited patiently, his mind going into overdrive even as he tried to position himself by the edge and appear calm. The only plan he thought of was to goad the thing off of the edge and have it fall to its death.
BANG!
The door crumpled inwards. It was only held up by the metal lock bar now.
BANG!
And now that's gone too.
The creature crouched down and crawled over the shattered doorway, and Kakashi managed to finally get a good look at the thing in-between frantic life-or-death combat.
It had to be about seven feet tall when standing. It had dark fur, matted down with sweat and filth, with bits of gray and green moss everywhere. Its eyes were brown and beady and there was a look in them that promised pain and suffering. Its jaw was slightly distended, with sharp canines that jutted forward.
It looks like some type of freakish chakra monkey, Kakashi thought.
"So, you wanted a fight?" Kakashi said. "Let's fight."
The spirit roared at him and charged. Kakashi ducked under one massive overhand swing that split some of the roofing clean in two, and gave the thing a close fisted uppercut to the chin. He rolled underneath it and came up behind it, near the door.
"Not so talkative anymore, huh?" Kakashi said. He had to make the thing lose its cool. "Why not? Afraid you won't win? In that case you should probably start begging for mercy. I'm pretty reasonable about taking hostages. Maybe I can cut you a deal."
The monster stopped and grinned at that, exhaling a wave of putrid breath from its mouth. "You would like to make a contract? Excellent! That simplifies things greatly. I know much of the old lore that is lost to your people. Knowledge. Power. It can all be yours for the price. Isn't that exactly what you want? What you left your festering cesspit of ninja monkeys to search for? What could be more important than that? Go on, barter with me."
Kakashi's blood boiled at that. He reached down and grabbed the metal bar of the door.
Maybe because it struck a bit too close to home.
"You know on second thought," Kakashi said. "I'll pass. I have enough shit to deal with without magical contracts with horrifying monkey spirits."
Contracts….
Wait, maybe the thing that this thing finds weird about me is the summoners' contract that I made with Kagato! Of course, that would explain it. Kagato said 'soul-bonds' when referring to them too.
Monkeys. Summoners.
Kakashi glanced down at the metal bar in his hands. He had watched the Third practice his bojutsu maybe a handful of times at most, but he didn't need to be good, just good enough.
"Now Kakashi, I don't have the time to give you a thorough lesson, but just look at the angle of your fingers on that custom-made hand seal of yours. Adjust them slightly, or the feedback will singe the hair right off of your knuckles. Good. Well, good enough at any rate."
The monster charged at him as soon as he looked away from it. The being was on top of him in a split second. If Kakashi had blinked then the spirit would be ripping him in two.
But he was ready for it.
Kakashi swung the metal lock bar upwards and smashed the spirit in the face. It lashed out at him with a foot, but he caught the limb's gnarled yellow claws with the metal of the bar. The creature pushed, and he pushed back. Kakashi jerked the metal bar to the right and dropped it, moving to the left and jumping at the monster, hands clasped together to deliver a big overhand strike.
It lashed out with a paw and batted him halfway across the roof. Kakashi hit the rooftop and tumbled towards the edge. He managed to turn the tumble into a roll and get back to a crouch. He tasted blood in his mouth...
Wait. Summoning. Kakashi thought. Could it be that easy? If the soul-bond meant that Kagato was a part of him then maybe, just maybe…
Kakashi spat a mixture of blood and saliva into his hands and went through the hand seals for the technique, before placing his palm on to the cold stone of the roof.
"Summoning Technique!"
There was no smoke.
No pseudo-fuinjutsu lines tracing out a dimensional aperture.
Nothing happened.
Kakashi's spirits fell.
The lanky monkey-spirit looked at him quizzically, before letting out a shrill, cackling laugh.
"What did you expect?" the spirit howled in between bursts of laughter. "This is not the Human Path, little ninja boy. We are alone here, just you and one of the Murakumo spawn. Perhaps if you knew how to use that stolen eye of yours properly you would put up a better fight against me."
Kakashi almost bit his tongue.
"Shut your fucking mouth," Kakashi growled. He felt himself leaking killing intent. "This eye belongs to a good friend of mine, Uchiha Obito. The last thing he ever did was lend it to me. I won't let you disgrace that gift by calling it stolen. I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands if you say that again, even if it kills me in the process."
The monster took a step back. It regarded him silently for a moment.
Thud thud thud
Are those footsteps? Kakashi thought. He looked to the Tower's interior, as did the monkey spirit. It looked…
Troubled.
Good. Kakashi grinned. Looks like the summoning technique worked after all, just not exactly as I expected it to.
The footsteps increased in volume and Kakashi could make out a figure on the tower interior. It was hazy, as if it wasn't entirely solid.
The monstrous spirit took a step back.
"Kagato, I appreciate your flair for the dramatic, but--"
Kakashi's words died in his throat as the person stepped onto the rooftop and he could actually see the man.
That's… not Kagato.
It was a man, half-starved to death, almost as thin as a skeleton. He was wearing the tattered remains of a black cloak, and had a long length of shaggy black hair that looked like it hadn't been cut or washed in months, if not longer. The man's face was covered in a scraggly, unkempt beard. He looked like he was Kakashi's age, maybe a bit older. The man took a step forward, his mane of greasy hair parting slightly. The man's left eye was closed, scarred, but his right eye…
His right eye was a single, burning red coal. Empty of a proper pupil, it instead had black markings on it in some sort of shuriken shape.
And, though the man's eye didn't resemble any Sharingan that Kakashi had ever seen or heard of, the man was unquestionably an Uchiha.
…
…
…
Kakashi just stared.
There's something about him… something that's…
The Uchiha's gaze turned to the monkey spirit and the strange Sharingan eye narrowed. The man's mouth twisted up into a sneer. The Uchiha raised his right hand.
"Begone."
DIE HATE DIE.
And a blast of killing intent ripped through the rooftop of the Hokage Tower in Kakashi's mind, blowing bits of stone and shingling sky-high. It was unlike anything Kakashi had ever seen or felt before. It was so strongly concentrated that it was a physical force.
Is this what strong killing intent looks like from inside the mind? Kakashi thought, as the backsplash of the blast washed over him and sent a shiver down his spine. This definitely shouldn't be possible in the real world.
The blast slammed into the malevolent spirit like the fist of the kami themselves. There was a sickening squelching sound as the blast of killing intent hit the being, almost like… like a jounin punching into a rabid chakra squirrel.
And then it was just the two of them.
Kakashi and this strange Uchiha stood on the roof.
...familiar.
Kakashi found his voice.
"… Obito?" he whispered.
The Uchiha was looking at him with a mix of… consideration… and something that looked like confusion.
"You said that name earlier," the Uchiha said. The words came out sounding like metal on a whetstone. The man sounded like he hadn't used his voice in quite some time. "That name… it's familiar…"
Kakashi stepped forward. "Obito, is that really you? How? Wait nevermind, that's not important, just wait, there's so much I have to--"
"Huh," the man said. His voice sounded strangely subdued. Like he was sounding out each word slowly. "It's… now I remember. Uchiha Obito, huh?"
"Wait, Obito, please let me speak!" Kakashi shouted, his voice cracking slightly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was supposed to save you, but I didn't. I'm sorry. And Rin. Oh Sage, Rin, I'm so sorry. Please let her know that I'm sorry. And, and Owl, can you let Owl know that I'm sorry? And Rat. Tell Rat too! Can you do that?"
The ghost, or shade, or memory of Uchiha Obito grew hazier.
The Leaf Village below started blurring.
Was whatever that spirit was up to in my head about to end?
"No, no!" Kakashi screamed. "Don't go yet, please don't go! Dad! Can you tell Dad that I ended up okay, that I made it out fine? And sensei and Aunt Kushina, let them know that their son is safe, but that I'm sure as hell going to avenge them. I'm going to track down the bastard that killed them and feed him his entrails. I'm going to track down whatever fucking traitor in Leaf helped him, and feed them each others' entrails. But look at me babble on, it's just... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that I got you killed. I just, I just..."
Obito looked at him like he was a gibbering madman.
"Kakashi," Obito said. The words were slow, and sounded like they were far away. "That's… that's you right? You're Kakashi? You've got it..."
Kakashi tried to grab on to the hazy figure of his long dead friend, but his fingers passed right through him. He tried to read Obito's lips to understand what he was saying, but it was impossible with all of the warping that was happening. He tried to speak, to say something, but the words just didn't come out.
And then he was gone.
Kakashi crumpled to his knees.
"Not again, not like this," he said. He felt something wet slide down his face. Blood? Was he bleeding too? It was hot and wet so it must be blood. "Why did I have to go through this again?"
Kakashi blinked and the Leaf Village disappeared as his vision blacked out, to be replaced by another scene.
Mental Combat time. I'm not entirely too sure we've codified the best way to model this or what minutiae is going to count where, but I'm going to abstract some things away (so a discrete Round is not going to necessarily map to scene by scene action one-to-one, or represent some sort of sensible chunk of time). I'm also going to apply Kakashi's TYS to his Resolve rolls in this instance, but note that this is not necessarily going to apply in any future Mental Combats (EX: say you fight a Yamanaka).
Round 1:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 45
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 9 (dice) = 51
Axe kick to the face.
Kakashi: Full Defense.
Round 2:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 42
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 4 + 0 (dice) =46
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 6(dice) = 48
Murakumo,???: 28
-1 FP reroll: 46
Kakashi deals a tiny bit of stress.
Round 3:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 37
Kakashi, Resolve; 35 + 7 -3 (dice) = 39
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 +7 -3 (dice) = 39
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 40
Mostly a stalemate, but I think Kakashi gave more than he got. It's not decisive enough either way, but we've gone long enough that according to the very interesting things I'm staring at under the system hood, a couple things are going to happen.
Round 1:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 45
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 9 (dice) = 51
Axe kick to the face.
Kakashi: Full Defense.
Round 2:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 42
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 4 + 0 (dice) =46
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 + 7 + 6(dice) = 48
Murakumo,???: 28
-1 FP reroll: 46
Kakashi deals a tiny bit of stress.
Round 3:
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 37
Kakashi, Resolve; 35 + 7 -3 (dice) = 39
Kakashi, Resolve: 35 +7 -3 (dice) = 39
Murakumo Spirit, ???: 40
Mostly a stalemate, but I think Kakashi gave more than he got. It's not decisive enough either way, but we've gone long enough that according to the very interesting things I'm staring at under the system hood, a couple things are going to happen.
o-o-o
The man blinked his eye and looked around. He was tied to a chair. There were seals all over the room.
…
…
...
Those are complicated seals.
There was a bit of rubber tubing connected to some sort of glass vial. He looked down and saw that it was stuck in his right arm. The man looked to his left arm.
He doesn't have a left arm.
Who is this? Where is this? I'm not here, so what's going on?
He looked back at the vial and the tubing. They were out of reach, so long as he was inside the metal chains that bound him to the steel chair and the stone floor beneath.
What's the liquid for?
A voice said something incoherent. The man blinked.
The voice asked something incoherent once again.
"No, I don't… hmmm. Used to be, maybe."
The man looked at the vial and tubing for a while. Eventually he seemed to conclude that whatever was going on with them, he wanted no part of it.
"Knockout juice."
The man flared his chakra reserves. He seemed surprised that they were what they were. The man burned a considerable amount of chakra and shattered his restraints, though it twisted some ligaments and probably broke his right arm to do so.
"Oh well," the man said. His voice was cold and dispassionate.
The man moved forward and stared down at the… seals…
He scratched away at them with a piece of metal shrapnel, a curved chunk of steel maybe six inches across in length. It took a dozen seconds with chakra enhanced strength to shred some of the array into meaningless gibberish, and the rest failed with some sparks.
The door opened and a ninja ran inside, a pair of seals palmed in both upraised hands.
This guy couldn't be more than twenty-five years old. A sealmaster? Was he responsible for those seals on the floor?
"Note to self: kill Cloud's senior sealmasters. Actually, just kill all of them."
Are we in Cloud? Who is this man?
"Listen here, you—"
The man's vision blurred and when it stopped the hunk of steel was buried deep in the young sealmaster's carotid artery. He snapped one of the sealmaster's arms in half for good measure.
"Name?" the man asked, indifferently.
The sealmaster choked out a response that was mostly blood.
"Huh. No, I don't think so. Too girly."
The man dropped the sealmaster's dead body and stared up into space.
Suddenly his vision sharpened into Sharingan-like quality.
WHAT!?
Then his vision heightened even further. The man could count the hairs on the young sealmaster's neatly trimmed beard. The man turned to the door, and noticed that a tiger made of black lightning was going to be charging directly through it in a few seconds, so he calmly stepped to the side.
"Kamui."
The tiger made of black lightning crashed through the door.
"Don't let him escape! Don't—"
The man's vision shattered into a whirling kaleidoscope and—
o-o-o
Kakashi blinked. His vision was blurry.
What the hell was that? What in the name of all of Sugiyama's fucking bullshit gods was that vision?
Kakashi wiped his eyes. He stared at the ground in front of him. There was a pile of bubbling tar that was rapidly dissolving.
The monkey spirit? Demon? Murakumo thingy?
"Hatake!"
A hand slapped him in the face. Hard.
Kakashi looked over. "What?"
It was Shizuka.
"What the fuck is that?" Shizuka asked. Her voice was shrill. Why did she have to yell so loud? "I look away for two seconds, and then I look back and you're having a staring contest with a dissolving body made out of sizzling black bullshit that smells like death itself."
Kakashi looked back at the remains.
They were indeed sizzling.
"Hatake!?"
Kakashi caught the hand this time. "I think it was whatever was behind the memory erasing effect. At least partly. Now can you stop hitting me?"
He looked over at Shizuka. She nodded and so he let her hand go.
"Now, I have to process some shit and figure out a plan," Kakashi said. It was a lie, of course. "I need you to dig through the desk and check around for a journal or a dairy or any sort of paperwork mentioning this shitshow. That thing mentioned some sort of ritual sacrificing, and I think that this Jinraku guy is in on it. Oh, he might actually be a spirit that's possessing the old guy's body, or some sort of shapeshifting doppelganger or something. I'm unclear on that bit."
Shizuka gave Kakashi a long and hard look. Eventually she seemed to decide that he wasn't bullshitting her.
Good, because I don't feel like explaining at the moment.
"A shapeshifter? But anyone with a technique like that would—"
Kakashi turned to glare at her. "Look, can you shut up and do what I asked? I'm trying to figure out how to get us both out of here alive without half of this clan hunting us down in minutes. By my estimates we have about five minutes tops before some shit is due to slam into the proverbial folding screen, so please let me think."
Shizuka stopped talking and went back to searching through the desk with a look of grim determination.
Kakashi stared into space.
…
…
…
Hatake Kakashi sat there in complete silence as his soul was torn into bits and pieces by grief, and loss, and confusion. He sat there in complete silence, not moments after he was forced to fight for his life in the blurry confines of his own mind. He sat there in complete silence, though the storm of emotions and stress and feelings and pain and anguish and memories and relief and hate and love and desperation and and and raged on inside the depths of his soul like a spear of lightning tearing its way through the heavens above the cloud cover.
Hatake Kakashi did what he always did in moments like these.
He picked all of it up. All the grief, memories, old scars, new wounds, and all of the things that were weighing him down, both body and soul.
He picked all of it up, and he put it in a box and closed the lid. Firmly.
And the raging lightning dimmed down, at least enough that he could bear it.
Then Kakashi locked that box tight.
Maybe one day he would open that box and sort through what was inside.
But not now.
Now was time to do something else, anything else, because…
…
…
…
"Hatake?"
"Hmm?" Kakashi turned to Shizuka, who was holding up a book of some sort. "You got something?"
"Yeah, journal. It seems to be a list of names. And dates. There are… there are a lot of names. Dozens. Maybe hundreds."
Kakashi nodded. "Anything other than that?"
"There's a diary entry or two mixed in with them. Talking about how it's exactly what the 'late Jinraku' would have wanted…"
"Bingo," Kakashi said. "Looks like he's—or whatever the fuck calls itself Jinraku now, I guess, is a complete piece of shit then. Alright, factoring that in."
…
…
…
"Hatake?"
"Hmm?"
Shizuka was looking at him, eyebrows knitted together in concern. He couldn't see her lips since she was wearing her mask, but he would bet all the ryo in his storage seals that they were twisted into a small frown.
"Are you alright? You seem a bit spacey, and now is not the time for us to be dawdling."
"Oh?" Kakashi said. "Yeah, I'm totally fine."
Because that's what the mission calls for.
"Look," Kakashi continued, waving a hand dismissively. He unsealed a few towels from a storage seal and tossed them on top of the eerie firefly lamps, dimming the room considerably. "You'll get it once you become a proper jounin. I'm just waiting for it to start. We should stealth up and hide somewhere in here. They'll probably send a few ninja this way to secure the office. I don't think they have jounin besides the clan head, but they probably have a couple chuunin, some of which might be halfway threatening, so we should expect the worst. Focus fire anyone you think you can hit and I'll handle the rest. You have those explosive tags I gave you a while back?"
"Yes, I do," Shizuka nodded. She adopted a considerate expression, as if she was chewing on what Kakashi had just said. She leapt gracefully onto the top of one of the far bookshelves, and crouched in the corner of her perch while eyeing the double doors of the office room. "What do you mean exactly when you say you're waiting for it to start?"
Kakashi ducked underneath the desk in the room and shuffled around a bit. "Oh, I'm just waiting on myself to do something loud, flashy, and hopefully clever. Betting on it, actually."
There was a very slight tremor in the room that shook the bookshelves and rattled the lamps. There was a slight whooshing sound and a tiny breeze as air was gently sucked underneath the door.
"There it is! Isn't my timing just perfect? Get ready to fight."
Kakashi had about a quarter of his total chakra reserves. Which was enough to maybe get them through this, assuming there weren't any surprises and that Shizuka managed a consistent combat output.
Note to self: head back to Snow at some point to check out the Nadare shrine and see whether that chakra sharing artifact was bullshit or not.
Kakashi has gained a Thousand Yard Stare point from the events in this chapter, as well as another Fate Point. You won't see these updated until the next chapter. Speaking of which…
This is Part One. Expect Part Two (probably not as long though, this one got away from me a bit) within ~24 hours or so, give or take some.
Voting will remain closed 'til its posted.
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Dissonance
Luna's Luna
- Location
- Ginnungagap.
- Pronouns
- S/H/T
One of our leading Wild Mass Guess theories is that our friendly Ghost was once By Demons Be Driven.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Idea: if chakra is soulstuff, and chakra is produced by the body (we don't know if chakra gates are a thing in LotRoL)... And Rin created a chakra construct to mediate between Kakashi's body and Obito's eye, then maybe Obito's eye is still producing Obito's chakra/soulstuff, and Rin's construct keeps Kakashi's body and soul from recognizing the eye as a foreign object, even as it keeps the eye from realizing it's been placed in a foreign body.
If we take the premise that the eye can produce chakra (and if we presume that chakra had a metaphysical link to a ninja's soul), then it could be that Obito's soul is still around Kakashi. That Obito has been, in some way or form, with Kakashi ever since his death.
And Obito's killing intent? That could be the result of someone messing with his friend, Kakashi. Or it could be that, since Kakashi only ever uncovers the Sharingan for combat, Obito's been experiencing nonstop combat for several years (guestimate ~5ish, depending on when he died). That sort of existence (even if Obito only has the smallest of consciousnesses) would lend itself to an insanely high TYS count. And TYS is added to soul combat (as seen by this event).
If we allow ourselves to indulge in some Soft Magic Shenanigans, then we might even be able to say that eyes, as the Windows of the Soul (and the vector through which genjutsu is received, implying certain things about the role of eyes in the magic system), then maybe Obito's eye becomes even more likely to retain a fragment of his soul. Obito's eye, window to the soul, nurtured in the body of a beloved teammate and fed his teammate's chakra (unless the chakra construct works as a filter, changing Kakashi's chakra into Obito's), then it becomes increasingly likely that was really Obito.
- Location
- Mooselandia
It's a hidden stunt you can only unlock with a high level in Craftsmanship: Landscaping, I think.
Chapter 41: The Very Tip of the Swallow’s Wing Slicing Through the Air
MMKII
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Chapter 41: The Very Tip of the Swallow's Wing Slicing Through the Air
The hive was apparently built into the side of the valley, and probably had a few entrances and exits scattered throughout the tiny village, and probably some branch tunnels through the clan's lands as well. Kakashi Alpha and the two chuunin escorts entered from within the Sasu compound, taking a few stairwells down. He let them lead the way, of course. They took some confusing twists and turns on the way down, likely done on purpose to confuse him and prevent him from memorizing enough of the tunnel layout to reliably leave, or to return. They were probably avoiding some dummy corridors that were intentionally trapped, though with what, he didn't really want to think about.
Which is a totally meaningless effort, considering that if I wanted to leave or come back I would just use Earth Tunneling to carve a way in or out, or just swim through the ground with Hiding Like a Mole. Any ninja worth their flak jacket wouldn't be stumped by this regardless.
Amateurs.
Kakashi Alpha went along with it anyway. He needed to waste some time to give Prime and Shizuka a decent shot at ransacking Jinraku's office anyway. Just not too much.
Shadow Clones last about half an hour at our current skill level, Kakashi Alpha thought. The journey so far had taken about fifteen minutes, so he had some time to spare.
Kakashi Alpha grunted as he lugged the heavy wooden chair through the tunnel. "Hey, is it going to be much farther down?"
"We are almost there."
Kakashi Alpha looked at the tunnel walls. They'd transitioned from gray stone to a slightly waxy, almost papery looking substance that was absolutely covered with green-yellow dust. Small honeybees and several wasps flitted back and forth. The buzzing sound was getting louder and louder with every step. The substance covering the tunnel transitioned to a hexagonal pattern, and was definitely some type of beeswax.
The cells looked to be getting larger and larger as they further down.
Kakashi Alpha suppressed a shudder. That didn't bode well for the size of the buzzing bastards in the main hive.
Is that what that note was describing? Kakashi Alpha thought. The note inside the storage seal had described using Shadow Clones to try to scout the region out, and reported some sort of giant bug thing underground somewhere. Did one of the clones run into the Sasu hive?
Five minutes of walking later and the tunnel widened to a massive central corridor. There was a large cliff of rock that jutted into the hive's central shaft. There were three people standing on the other end of the stone outcropping, some that Kakashi Alpha didn't recognize, but one was definitely Jinraku.
They all seemed to be waiting patiently for him.
Ten minutes left.
Kakashi Alpha did his best to observe the scene as he walked forwards.
The ceiling of the hive was maybe forty or fifty feet above the rock outcropping, and had some waxy stalactites hanging down from it. The distance was such that any ninja (well, any ninja that wasn't named Sugiyama, maybe) would be able to cover it a few seconds worth of movement. He stepped forward to peer down off the side of the cliff.
Damn, far drop.
Kakashi Alpha gave an exaggerated whistle.
Down below was a massive sinkhole. Kakashi couldn't necessarily see the end of it, but he could just barely make out a swarming pile of yellow and black a few hundred feet beneath the ledge that he was standing on. He squinted and looked for a moment longer.
Big bugs, Kakashi Alpha thought. What is that shape that they were all crawling over, some sort of mound? There's so many bees flying around that I can barely see fifty feet down with any detail.
Kakashi Alpha couldn't make anything else out. He tried to inspect the walls of the hive a bit more, but his vision was obscured by thick clouds of pollen and flying bugs. He stepped away from the edge and walked towards the Sasu ninja. They were still waiting, though they were probably waiting impatiently at this point.
"Hatake, good to see that you've made it down," Sasu Jinraku said. The clan head's face was neutral, a mask meant to conceal any thoughts the man was having within. "Where is your companion?"
"No idea," Kakashi Alpha lied as he put the wooden chair down with a loud banging sound. He readjusted it several times, but the thing was still slightly wobbly. He stepped back from it and gave it a bit of a look. "I think she might've left to go get some more shopping done, but I'm not really sure. You know how fickle we ninja can be when we get in a mood, and we've been traipsing around the woods here for… some time. Would you like to wait for her, or can we get started? Your lackeys said something about a problem down here that was related to what we discussed earlier?"
That got him four impassive looks and a nervous glance from one of the two ninja that was standing at Jinraku's side. That ninja, a kid that looked no older than sixteen was fidgeting slightly. The other was a man that looked to be in his early twenties, and he looked as cool and calm as a Snow Country breeze.
Chuunin, Kakashi Alpha thought, glancing at the fidgety ninja. The other is an elite chuunin, or jounin. Special jounin? Could go either way. Add the two that escorted me in, and that makes three chuunin, a jounin, and the clan head in the worst case scenario.
"If you want to wait, we can do that too," Kakashi Alpha said. "I brought card games and a chair just in case. Sorry, but I didn't think to bring more seats for the rest of you."
"That will not be necessary," Jinraku said, after a moment's silence. "I think that we should just begin. I'll send Komako out to look for your companion after we are finished. The hive can get rather restless when outsiders are present, and the more of the clan around to contain them, the better.
"First, we will need to clear the air a bit so that we can actually look at the problem region. There is a patch of honeycomb cells on the far wall below that is producing an incredibly strange phenomenon when it's visually observed. This will take but a moment." The clan head turned to the maybe-jounin. "If you would be so kind?"
I see we're skipping the introductions.
The maybe-jounin made a series of hand seals. "Wind Element: Blustery Whirlwind."
Wind natured chakra came together and produced a strong current of wind. The air spun around and around, forming a strong cyclone that picked up the literal tons of pollen and tens of thousands of smaller bees in its wake. The buzzing intensified by an order of magnitude, going from a calm droning sound to an angry rushing roar.
The visibility also dropped to zero. Kakashi Alpha could barely make out the other figures on the ledge. His eye caught some movement and—
Kakashi Alpha vanished into a puff of smoke.
o-o-o
A few minutes earlier…
Kakashi quietly fished through Jinraku's large desk drawer. Most of the odds and ends were either bureaucratic garbage or completely unrecognizable to him.
There was one good find.
Huh, he thought, as he fished out a small sealed clay jar. It was familiar. He cracked the seal and looked inside.
Another jar of that chakra exhaustion medicine. Sweet. Is that made by the Sasu Clan?
Kakashi hoped that he wouldn't have to actually use it after the inevitable fight that would be happening, but given his history…
Well, I wish future me a speedy recovery.
o-o-o
Kakashi Alpha vanished into a puff of smoke as he Substituted out of the way of the attack.
The kunai went right through the chair that he brought with him, penetrating out the back of the seat with a spray of splintery wood bits. He was already moving, rolling up off of the ground and moving to the near wall at a dead sprint. His hands blurred through a series of hand seals as his powerful leaping strides propelled him up to the hive's ceiling.
I can't believe they're using a wind jutsu, Kakashi Alpha exclaimed mentally. And it looks like it covers most of the central shaft! I'm going to save so much chakra on this, they really made it easy.
At the apex of his ascent, Kakashi Alpha turned and faced straight down, towards the rock ledge and the hive filled with angry buzzing insects and clouds of dusty pollen that were being churned about with wind chakra.
Flammable clouds of pollen.
Insects that didn't take too well to fire and smoke.
Walls covered in waxy, papery substances that didn't look like they'd fair much better.
Very flammable wind chakra.
…
…
…
I could almost cry.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
The place lit up like an explosive tag and the hive became a roiling inferno.
He could see the whole hive clearly in the flash. There was indeed a very large shape in the center of the hive's bottom well. It too was now on fire, writhing painfully, and whatever it was it looked pissed.
Is that the queen, or something?
Kakashi Alpha jumped from stalactite to stalactite amidst the clouds of smoke that were suddenly everywhere. He jumped in time to dodge a hail of shuriken, a poorly aimed jet of pressurized water, but in the middle of one jump he saw the kunai coming at him from Jinraku's position.
Guess the guy has a good arm. Kakashi Alpha thought. Well, I was hoping to get another shot off before popping, but this definitely—
Alright! Combat time! For simplicity's sake I'm modeling the terrain as a vertical cylinder as follows:
Zone 1
Zone 2 → The ninja are here.
Zone 3
Zone 4 → The Hive Queen is here.
Surfaces are covered with bees and pollen. If you aren't of the Sasu bloodline this is going to debuff you some.
Intiative time, going down the list:
Sasu Special Jounin
Jinraku
Kakashi Alpha
Hive Queen (sleeping for Round 1)
Komako
Danjuro
Nameless Sasu Chuunin
Round 1:
SSJ:
The Sasu Special Jounin is going to use his Standard to cast a wind ninjutsu that's going to blow bees and pollen everywhere throughout the Hive. Thats unfortunate for Kakashi Alpha, or so the Special Jounin believes.
Jinraku:
Jinraku, Ranged Weapons attack on Kakashi Alpha: 64
Kakashi Alpha, Athletics to dodge (Substitution): 50 + 7(chakra boost) + 6 ('The Clan That Everyone Forgot' since he knows its coming) + 12 (dice!!!) + 9 (substitution) = 84
Kakashi Alpha flawlessly dodges. He makes it look easy.
Kakashi Alpha:
He's going to take a Supplemental to move up a zone to Zone 1. He's going to use his Standard to Fire Dragon Bullet the wind jutsu (thus lighting the whole place on fire).
KA, FDB: 37 + 4 (+AB) + 4 (tag 'The Pollen is Actually Flammable lol') -9 (dice) = 36
It's not clear whether or not Shadow Clones can spend FP, but I'm going to say that he can spend one of Kakashi's to reroll that.
KA, FDB: 37 + 4 (+AB) + 4 (tag 'The Pollen is Actually Flammable lol') +3 (dice) = 48
I'm not going to bother transcribing the rest of the rolls here, but the gist is that the chuunin (save Komako, who actually rolled well) spend chakra to boost and burn their FP to dodge it. The special jounin and Jinraku manage to get out unscathed (modulo some chakra lost from boosting), and the Hive Queen will actually get a pile of stress and take a Moderate Physical Consequence 'Burned, Blistered, and Badly Singed'.
The four zones in the Hive are now on fire, gaining the aspect 'Everything Is On Fire and It's Totally My Fault', which Kakashi Alpha will get tags on.
KA will use two of those to dodge some attack from Komako and the nameless chuunin in the hopes of being able to maybe toss down another FDB or Radiant Bolt some of the chuunin to death or something, but the special jounin manages to hit him with a ranged weapons strike. Shadow Clones can't take conseqeunces and only have 1 stress track, so Kakashi Alpha pops and sends Prime about 56 chakra to spare.
Jinraku sends the special jounin and Danjuro to go secure his office while the rest of them attempt to put out the fire in the hive or look for wherever the hell Kakashi went.
Zone 1
Zone 2 → The ninja are here.
Zone 3
Zone 4 → The Hive Queen is here.
Surfaces are covered with bees and pollen. If you aren't of the Sasu bloodline this is going to debuff you some.
Intiative time, going down the list:
Sasu Special Jounin
Jinraku
Kakashi Alpha
Hive Queen (sleeping for Round 1)
Komako
Danjuro
Nameless Sasu Chuunin
Round 1:
SSJ:
The Sasu Special Jounin is going to use his Standard to cast a wind ninjutsu that's going to blow bees and pollen everywhere throughout the Hive. Thats unfortunate for Kakashi Alpha, or so the Special Jounin believes.
Jinraku:
Jinraku, Ranged Weapons attack on Kakashi Alpha: 64
Kakashi Alpha, Athletics to dodge (Substitution): 50 + 7(chakra boost) + 6 ('The Clan That Everyone Forgot' since he knows its coming) + 12 (dice!!!) + 9 (substitution) = 84
Kakashi Alpha flawlessly dodges. He makes it look easy.
Kakashi Alpha:
He's going to take a Supplemental to move up a zone to Zone 1. He's going to use his Standard to Fire Dragon Bullet the wind jutsu (thus lighting the whole place on fire).
KA, FDB: 37 + 4 (+AB) + 4 (tag 'The Pollen is Actually Flammable lol') -9 (dice) = 36
It's not clear whether or not Shadow Clones can spend FP, but I'm going to say that he can spend one of Kakashi's to reroll that.
KA, FDB: 37 + 4 (+AB) + 4 (tag 'The Pollen is Actually Flammable lol') +3 (dice) = 48
I'm not going to bother transcribing the rest of the rolls here, but the gist is that the chuunin (save Komako, who actually rolled well) spend chakra to boost and burn their FP to dodge it. The special jounin and Jinraku manage to get out unscathed (modulo some chakra lost from boosting), and the Hive Queen will actually get a pile of stress and take a Moderate Physical Consequence 'Burned, Blistered, and Badly Singed'.
The four zones in the Hive are now on fire, gaining the aspect 'Everything Is On Fire and It's Totally My Fault', which Kakashi Alpha will get tags on.
KA will use two of those to dodge some attack from Komako and the nameless chuunin in the hopes of being able to maybe toss down another FDB or Radiant Bolt some of the chuunin to death or something, but the special jounin manages to hit him with a ranged weapons strike. Shadow Clones can't take conseqeunces and only have 1 stress track, so Kakashi Alpha pops and sends Prime about 56 chakra to spare.
Jinraku sends the special jounin and Danjuro to go secure his office while the rest of them attempt to put out the fire in the hive or look for wherever the hell Kakashi went.
o-o-o
Kakashi winced as he felt the telltale mental reeling that came with one of his Shadow Clones violently popping. It was unpleasant, but he had long ago gotten his mental fortitude to the point where it didn't bother him much anymore. At least with the duration that he could use with his current level of aptitude with shadow clones. He knew that it became progressively more painful and dangerous the larger the mass of memories you had to integrate became, but very few people trained with the technique to get to that point. It took too much chakra and was too much of a headache. Literally.
"Alright," he whispered. Kakashi would have to lie lightly to cover up Shadow Clone's memory transference, that was top secret, but he was experienced and eccentric like any other jounin, so he could probably get away with some vague bullshit. "I'll bet we have incoming any second now. Experience and some scouting around town says that in the worst case scenario, three chuunin and two jounin to deal with immediately. I'm betting we don't get more than two or three of that though. I think that breeze and rumble was my Shadow Clone blowing their hive to high heaven, so the bulk of their ninja forces are probably going to be busy with that. We're ambushing anyone that gets sent here while they're divided, and then we're bashing our way out. Any ninja that spots us before we exit the compound is kay-oh-ess, understood?"
"Understood," Shizuka replied. The chuunin (or so Kakashi guessed) from Rain seemed to slip into mission mode, and didn't question his statements.
Kakashi had a bad feeling about the size of the bugs in the hive. There was literally zero available intel on the Sasu clan, so he had nothing to base his concerns off of, but a ninja clan with giant flying insects could mean a ninja clan with giant flying mounts. Dealing with any ninja capable of flight in even the loosest definition of the word was a living fucking nightmare.
Best to try to cut them down inside while they're panicking over me torching their hive. Kakashi thought grimly. If we end up getting a handful of them chasing us on giant flying bees like that one massive one in the center of the hive, we're dead three fights out of five.
They waited silently for twenty seconds.
The door slammed open and ninja strode in the door.
Two pairs of footsteps.
"Wait, shit, why are the lights--"
BOOM! Thrk, CLACK clatter clatter clatter
Kakashi heard the telltale meaty thwacking sound of a ninja being thrown violently into a wall. The doors were probably blown right off their hinges too, and debris and a decent amount of smoke scattered throughout the office. Lord Jinraku's fancy office chair disappeared the instant the explosive went off, to be replaced by a frantic ninja, the maybe-jounin from the hive.
Hey, that's my trick! Kakashi thought, somewhat indignantly. Hey, stealing people's tricks is my schtick too!
Some ninja had no shame.
Kakashi used the power of the explosion to his advantage and hurled the desk upwards right as the aftershock of the close-range explosive tag washed over where he was. The desk tumbled tail over teakettle and smashed into the wall in a shower of tacky overpriced wood.
Kakashi shot to his feet and he was on the maybe-jounin like flour on wet hands. He opened Obito's eye and soared forward in a burst of chakra enhanced speed. His hand shot forward, and Kakashi delivered an absolutely vicious Strong Fist strike to the ninja's center of mass. The maybe-jounin realized what was happening too late, and Kakashi's fist connected, tossing the guy back a foot or two, before the ninja vanished in another puff of smoke, to be replaced with the battered remains of half of one of the double doors.
Kakashi somersaulted to the nearby wall. The maybe-jounin was on his feet outside of the room, and he looked like he would be running away at any moment. There was another hostile ninja in the room, the chuunin Danjuro, and he was busy making hand seals and molding earth element chakra as he ran to the doorway. The Sharingan dutifully copied the ninjutsu down as Danjuro dove through the doorway and slammed one of his hands on the stone floor.
"Earth Element: Stonewall!"
Kakashi rocketed forward. He was busy making hand seals of his own. Lightning natured chakra collected in his hand, as he shaped it into a penetrating shell of energy, wreathed his right hand in that shell, and readjusted the balance of lightning element chakra and neutral chakra to hold the jutsu steady. All within the span of a second or two.
First time you're seeing a real fight with real stakes, Kakashi thought. I hope that repeating the stabilization hand seal pattern twice at the end and adjusting things continuously is enough for you to not fall apart.
"Lightning Element: Chidori!"
As Kakashi flew forward, he closed Obito's eye and stopped burning chakra. It was risky, but he was already running dangerously low on chakra, and every spare Substitution could count in a life or death fight.
Hopefully the two shinobi that were outside were wounded enough that this wouldn't be much of one.
"Shizuka," Kakashi yelled. "I'll get the door! Go!"
Kakashi slammed his Chidori-enhanced fist into the conjured barrier. The lightning chakra around his hand amplified his strike, and he tore through the stone wall like it was made out of rice paper. Kakashi hurtled through the wall, his footwork wavering just a bit as he concentrated on keeping the ninjutsu matrix on his new Chidori variant active and steady.
The two ninja were halfway down the hall, and Kakashi sprinted after them with the tiniest burst of chakra enhanced speed. Shizuka rounded the corner a few feet behind him, and a kunai whistled over his shoulder, sticking into the probably-not-actually-a-jounin's shoulder like a porcupine quill.
BOOM
And he exploded into bits and pieces. Kakashi and Shizuka quickly passed over the body.
The remaining ninja, Sasu Danjuro, quickened his pace.
"Earth Element: Stonewall!"
Kakashi growled and sped up, slamming through this wall as well. He tumbled a bit as he burst through it, fist first, but his feet kept on moving even as debris washed over him. The largest chunk vanished as Shizuka Substituted herself with it.
"Help! Intruders behind me! Help!"
Danjuro rounded the corner ahead of them, Kakashi hot on his heels.
Kakashi turned the corner and time slowed to an absolute crawl.
Fucking. Shit.
There was a ninja standing at the far end of the hallway, about 60 paces away. It was the clan elder from earlier, the one that they dodged by hiding in the bushes. The elder dropped his cane on the floor and took a stance in the middle of the hallway.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck, Kakashi thought. That guy looks fucking ancient. Ancient! This isn't good.
It was a well known proverb throughout the shinobi world: Ninja didn't grow old enough to retire, they bought and paid for their retirement. If you were a ninja that was old enough to have gray hairs, then you were probably downright nasty in a fight, or too clever by half to tangle with, or both.
This guy doesn't have gray hair, Kakashi screamed internally. He has liver spots instead of hair!
Kakashi opened the Sharingan eye and sent the last dregs of his chakra reserves through his body. His reflexes sped up in response, and the scene slowed down even further. Kakashi didn't bother trying to correct his momentum, choosing instead to widen out the turn even more and adhere his feet to the tunnel wall with chakra adhesion. The wonky hexagonal structure made that a tiny bit more challenging, but each face was large enough to fit three people standing side to side, so he managed just fine.
The Sharingan showed him the image of Danjuro's contorted face as a kunai lanced through his throat and exploded.
Forty paces to liver-spots.
Kakashi watched the bald and bearded old man jump into motion, his slightly-wobbly hands making hand seals at a breakneck speed. The general pattern of the hand seals was…
… familiar somehow?
Oh no, Kakashi thought.
"Lightning Element—"
Lightning chakra started to pool and saturate and mold together around clan elder as he started vocalizing.
A lot of lighting chakra.
Probably a ranged technique. It's got a lot of hand seals so this is going to be a big one. Not sure I can dodge, but Flow Redirection might not work either. Genjutsu? No, too slow.
Wait.
Shit.
Kakashi was twenty-five paces away. Come on, come on.
He kept his concentration up on maintaining Chidori for now.
Shizuka rounded the corner and actually threw the kunai that the Sharingan predicted was going to hit Danjuro.
BOOM.
The elder's eyes darted behind Kakashi's shoulder for an instant as the man took in Shizuka's presence.
Shizuka.
If I'm not confident I can dodge, she's dead.
Dead. She just doesn't know it yet.
What do you do, Kakashi? What do you do!?
The Sharingan read the third syllable of the jutsu's name from the man's lips before the elder actually verbalized it. Kakashi's heart rate doubled and his mind went into overdrive. He knew of this jutsu, he just didn't know it.
The elderly Sasu ninja was twenty paces away. The elder was a second or two away from being done with his hand seals. He'd splay his hands forward at Kakashi.
Something twisted inside him.
"LIGHTNING—"
Am I going to fuck up here too? All of those people I told Obito's ghost about, all of the people at the memorial stone.
Is there going to be another name added to the list today?
"No," he heard himself say quietly, sharply.
Kakashi thought of himself standing there, alone after Obito's ghost departed, as the memories of the Leaf Village dissolved around him.
Kakashi thought of himself kneeling with baby Naruto in the dirt. Crying.
Then he thought of himself racing down a castle wall to shove his fist through Nadare Rouga's chest and carve out his lungs.
Because I told that person that I'd handle it, he thought. That I wouldn't leave comrades behind. I told Shizuka that I'd handle the rest. I talked with her a while ago about whether or not we could team up and accomplish each other's objectives.
Does that make us teammates? Are we comrades?
"—DRAGON—"
Kakashi was fifteen steps away.
The jutsu was almost finished, and he couldn't possibly make it to the guy in time.
The Sharingan dutifully informed him that a dragon-shaped construct made of lightning chakra was about to lance out of the man's hands and take a direct path forward to—
THATS IT!
Kakashi pushed chakra into his legs and he jumped directly at the man, precisely along the trajectory the Sharingan had shown him. He redoubled the amount of focus he was spending to maintain the chakra manipulations that were keeping his Chidori up.
"—BULLET!"
Kakashi thrust his arm forward into a jab. It was as fast as he could possibly move, but it still seemed so slow, as if he was moving through tree sap. The dragon-shaped chakra construct materialized and lanced forward, quicker than any normal human could perceive. Almost quicker than any normal ninja could react.
Lucky for me that I get to cheat.
Kakashi had Obito's eye locked onto the outermost edge of his Chidori as it cut through the air. The ninjutsu whined and whirred and shrieked, like a thousand different birds screeching all at once, a cacophony of noise. Kakashi focused intently on the very tip of the shroud, the portion just beyond his fingers that did all of the cutting work.
And for the span of a heartbeat, that tiny portion of the jutsu's effect was perfect.
The tip of his outstretched hand reached the apex of its thrust just as the dragon of lightning slammed into it.
The shell of lightning chakra around his hand wobbled and bent, and Kakashi thought for a moment that it would shatter.
zbztnm!
But it held fast, and Kakashi could feel his hand cut…
The construct that formed the skeleton and backbone of the Lightning Dragon Bullet ninjutsu sliced itself neatly in half, the dragon rending itself in two under the weight of its own velocity. Tendrils of electricity exploded outwards at the boundary and ripped into his body, forcibly tightening his muscles, and Kakashi felt himself stiffen up. It was painful, but it was nothing special, so he endured it. Kakashi had shocked himself dozens of times while experimenting with lightning ninjutsu.
Kakashi sailed through the air towards the elder, arm outstretched, immobile.
The man tried to dodge, but he hadn't kept up with his calisthenics in his old age. Kakashi's hand, still ramrod-straight and covered in a quickly-disintegrating Chidori-effect, slammed into the old man's shoulder.
Sparks blew apart and the two hit the ground of the tunnel. Kakashi managed to roll away from the old geezer, but his head was swimming and it was hard to see straight. Kakashi stood up, closing Obito's eye, and he staunched the flow of chakra throughout his system down to the thinnest trickle.
The bald, liver-spotted elder stared at him with wide eyes, his gummy toothless mouth slightly ajar.
"That's not, you shouldn't, how—"
The elder's eyes darted back down the hallway and then over to his cane.
A kunai whistled through the air and lodged itself firmly in his thigh before he could Substitute away.
Kakashi felt someone tackle him and hoist him into an over-the-shoulder carry, like a sack of potatoes.
"Towards Yahashibetsu?" Shizuka asked.
"Yeah," Kakashi said. He felt himself get hit with a tsunami of exhaustion. "That sounds good to me."
Alright, combat two! Let's go.
Stealth Rolls:
Shizuka: 49
Kakashi, 35 + 4(Being careful) + 3(dice) = 42
SSJ and Danjuro are going to roll Alertness coming into the room:
SSJ: 40
Dan: 37
Nope. Shizuka and Kakashi get to go first, and they'll each get a tag on 'Ambush!'
Round 1:
Shizuka:
She's going to try to hit Danjuro (who she correctly believes is a chuunin) with a kunai loaded with an explosive tag.
Shizuka, RW: 55
Dan, Athletics: 49
SSJ, Athletics: 56
Dan takes 6/3 + 4 =6 stress. He takes a Moderate ('My Bones Are Kersploded!') and Shizuka gets a tag on it.
SSJ needs to roll to dodge the explosion as well, since they're standing right next to each other. He ends up dodging it with a Substition, substituting with the office chair directly in front of the desk under which Kakashi is hiding.
Kakashi:
Kakashi is going to uncover the Sharingan and Chakra Boost, bringing him down to 104 Chakra Points. He's going to forego casting a ninjutsu right now in lieu of Taijutsuing this dude into the ground with some good 'ol Strong Fist action.
Kakashi, Strong First Athletics Roll: 50+ 6('Strong Fist') + 7(CB) + 9(dice)= 72
SSJ, Athletics: 51
Kakashi gets the tag.
Kakashi, Taijutsu: 60 + 6(Sharingan) + 7 (CB) + 7 ('Strong Fist') + 7 ('Ambush!') -3 (Dice) =84
SSJ, Dodge (with Subs): 66
Kakashi deals 18/3 + 1 = 7 stress. This dude takes a Moderate and a Mild and Kakashi gets tags on them. This guys out in the hallway.
SSJ:
He casts Wind Element: Knife Barrage at Shizuka and Kakashi.
SSJ, Knife Barrage: 46
Shizuka, Dodge: 60
Kakashi, Athletics: 50 + 7 (CB) + 6(Sharingan) + 3 (dice) = 66
But it was not effective.
Danjuro:
He's going to head out into the hallway with a Supplemental and use a Standard to cast Earth Element: Stone Wall to create a barrier.
Round 2:
Shizuka is going to hold until Kakashi is done once he yells that he's taking the wall down. I'm going to allow this initiative switcheroo without much hassle.
Kakashi:
He's going to close Obito's Eye and stop chakra boosting.
Standard: Extended Chidori, bringing him down to 68 CP. As a part of this, he's going to run up to the stone barrier and smash it.
Kakashi, Taijutsu: 60 – 6 (dice) + 7 (Elemental Bonus) = 61
Which is more than enough to shatter it into pieces. He's going to move in there with a Supplemental and pass Shizuka his two tags.
Shizuka
Shizuka is going to try to cut the SpecJo down.
Shizuka, RW: 58
SJ, Dodge: 50
Chunky salsa.
Danjuro:
He's going to toss down another Stone Wall and run down the hallway screaming for help. He knows that one of the more capable clan elders is usually chilling out in this wing. Kakashi and Shizuka don't know that, but can only guess that axing this guy soon is a priority.
Round 3:
Hearing the explosives, screaming, and Chidori noises, Sasu Clan Elder comes quickly hobbling down the hall. He'll go after everyone else.
Kakashi:
Kakashi is going to smash the wall down to clear the way for Shizuka and spend a Supplemental to move to catch up. He's going to maintain a healthy distance from the guy but stay in the zone, since he's aware of how explosives work in melee. He rounds the corner of the hallway to the next zone and notices that theres another ninja in the hall now. "Oh shit" indeed. He's going to open the Sharingan and chakra boost. Kakashi will call out to Shizuka for good measure, but the Extended Chidori is way too damn loud.
Shizuka:
Shizuka is going to attempt to reduce Danjuro to chunky salsa.
Shizuka, RW: 53
Danjuro, Dodge: 39
He ded.
She's going to rocket down the hall and Substitute with this guy's body to catch up to Kakashi.
Sasu Clan Elder:
He's not in the best physical shape, but this guy is going to take a look at the two ninja in front of him and cast a ninjutsu thats hopefully going to take them out.
Sasu Clan Elder, Lightning Dragon Bullet: 76
Alright. So this is going to smash into Kakashi and then Shizuka.
And then Kakashi and then Shizuka.
And then--
(For those readers who are mechanically minded, the 'Dragon Bullet' jutsus are supposed to be real good showstoppers when used at a high level. Kakashi used Fire Dragon Bullet and a pile of bonuses and Fate Points to absolutely nuke the Glacier Ninja back in Chapter 10, killing most of the ones on the ground and heavily debuffing Nadare Rouga and Nadare Kimiko.
So that roll up there should be pretty scary, and I'm definitely sweating some Water Dragon Bullets right now.)
Kakashi is going to recognize what sort of jutsu this is, since he's heard of it before and some of the hand seal patterns are familiar to him (he compares it to Fire Dragon Bullet mentally). The wheels are spinning in his head. He can't use Flow Redirection without dropping the Chidori first, which might not help him later. This is a biggun too, so Flow Redirection might not even work ("Note to self: Git gud scrub"), He could Substitute, but that doesn't help Shizuka. Kakashi has a rough idea of how good Shizuka is at this point, and if she doesn't really perform well on the dodge then this thing.
Now, I have some tough judgment calls to make. Technically speaking, you can(!) use Taijutsu to attempt to counterattack while within the same zone. It's in the rules. However, I feel strange about allowing that in general for some reason or another, and counterattacking in this case doesn't really help given the nature of the jutsu. On the other hand, its in the rules, its cool, and as far as Kakashi knows, he might have a shot of axing the jutsu if he slices through it with the Chidori.
So I'm gonna let him roll. No Strong Fist, but one invoke. No rerolls, since he might have to use the FP if the thing comes back to slam him, or Sage forbid if more ninja show up before he has a chance to rest. Tough call, but I'm making it now.
Kakashi, Taijutsi Counterattack with Extended Chidori: 60 + 6 (Sharingan) + 7(CB) + 7 (-1 FP Invoke 'He Who Breaks the Rules' - 3 (dice) =…
77.
Whew. I was sweating on that one.
Kakashi slices through the jutsu as its coming at him, slams into the guy, dealing 4 stress on the counterattack (1 + Weapon Rating, its in da rules), taking a Mild Physical Consequence ('Sliced Shoulder') and reducing the stress on his track to 2. Kakashi is going to pass the tag to Shizuka. I'm going to rule that the feedback of doing this stunt is going to cause Kakashi a Mild Physical Consequence 'Shocked and In Awe', and give a tag to the elder. Balance in all things.
Round 4:
Kakashi is at 13 Chakra as of this round, and he's going to close Obito's eye and stop chakra boosting. He's going to decide to drop in the initiative slightly as a result, going after Shizuka. If she doesn't get a decisive hit in, he's going to Overdraw and use the normal Chidori to slam this guy through the chest.
Shizuka:
Shizuka is going to Ranged Weapons this guy. She's going to give it her all and spend a pile of FP.
Shizuka, RW: 43 + 5 (CB) + 5 ('Sliced Shoulder') + 5 (-1 FP 'Survived the Bloody Rebellion') + 5 (-1 FP 'The Bastard Heir') + 5 ('Whatever it Takes to Find Her') -6 (dice)= 62
-1 FP, reroll:
Shizuka, RW: 43 + 5 (CB) + 5 ('Sliced Shoulder') + 5 (-1 FP 'Survived the Bloody Rebellion') + 5 (-1 FP 'The Bastard Heir') + 5 ('Whatever it Takes to Find Her') +6 (dice) = 74
Sasu Clan Elder, Dodge: 63 (subtotal) – 6 (dice) = 57
He takes 6 (roll delta divided by 3, rounded up) + 4 (from the kaboom)= 10 stress.
This kills the Sasu Elder.
Cue victory fanfare.
Stealth Rolls:
Shizuka: 49
Kakashi, 35 + 4(Being careful) + 3(dice) = 42
SSJ and Danjuro are going to roll Alertness coming into the room:
SSJ: 40
Dan: 37
Nope. Shizuka and Kakashi get to go first, and they'll each get a tag on 'Ambush!'
Round 1:
Shizuka:
She's going to try to hit Danjuro (who she correctly believes is a chuunin) with a kunai loaded with an explosive tag.
Shizuka, RW: 55
Dan, Athletics: 49
SSJ, Athletics: 56
Dan takes 6/3 + 4 =6 stress. He takes a Moderate ('My Bones Are Kersploded!') and Shizuka gets a tag on it.
SSJ needs to roll to dodge the explosion as well, since they're standing right next to each other. He ends up dodging it with a Substition, substituting with the office chair directly in front of the desk under which Kakashi is hiding.
Kakashi:
Kakashi is going to uncover the Sharingan and Chakra Boost, bringing him down to 104 Chakra Points. He's going to forego casting a ninjutsu right now in lieu of Taijutsuing this dude into the ground with some good 'ol Strong Fist action.
Kakashi, Strong First Athletics Roll: 50+ 6('Strong Fist') + 7(CB) + 9(dice)= 72
SSJ, Athletics: 51
Kakashi gets the tag.
Kakashi, Taijutsu: 60 + 6(Sharingan) + 7 (CB) + 7 ('Strong Fist') + 7 ('Ambush!') -3 (Dice) =84
SSJ, Dodge (with Subs): 66
Kakashi deals 18/3 + 1 = 7 stress. This dude takes a Moderate and a Mild and Kakashi gets tags on them. This guys out in the hallway.
SSJ:
He casts Wind Element: Knife Barrage at Shizuka and Kakashi.
SSJ, Knife Barrage: 46
Shizuka, Dodge: 60
Kakashi, Athletics: 50 + 7 (CB) + 6(Sharingan) + 3 (dice) = 66
But it was not effective.
Danjuro:
He's going to head out into the hallway with a Supplemental and use a Standard to cast Earth Element: Stone Wall to create a barrier.
Round 2:
Shizuka is going to hold until Kakashi is done once he yells that he's taking the wall down. I'm going to allow this initiative switcheroo without much hassle.
Kakashi:
He's going to close Obito's Eye and stop chakra boosting.
Standard: Extended Chidori, bringing him down to 68 CP. As a part of this, he's going to run up to the stone barrier and smash it.
Kakashi, Taijutsu: 60 – 6 (dice) + 7 (Elemental Bonus) = 61
Which is more than enough to shatter it into pieces. He's going to move in there with a Supplemental and pass Shizuka his two tags.
Shizuka
Shizuka is going to try to cut the SpecJo down.
Shizuka, RW: 58
SJ, Dodge: 50
Chunky salsa.
Danjuro:
He's going to toss down another Stone Wall and run down the hallway screaming for help. He knows that one of the more capable clan elders is usually chilling out in this wing. Kakashi and Shizuka don't know that, but can only guess that axing this guy soon is a priority.
Round 3:
Hearing the explosives, screaming, and Chidori noises, Sasu Clan Elder comes quickly hobbling down the hall. He'll go after everyone else.
Kakashi:
Kakashi is going to smash the wall down to clear the way for Shizuka and spend a Supplemental to move to catch up. He's going to maintain a healthy distance from the guy but stay in the zone, since he's aware of how explosives work in melee. He rounds the corner of the hallway to the next zone and notices that theres another ninja in the hall now. "Oh shit" indeed. He's going to open the Sharingan and chakra boost. Kakashi will call out to Shizuka for good measure, but the Extended Chidori is way too damn loud.
Shizuka:
Shizuka is going to attempt to reduce Danjuro to chunky salsa.
Shizuka, RW: 53
Danjuro, Dodge: 39
He ded.
She's going to rocket down the hall and Substitute with this guy's body to catch up to Kakashi.
Sasu Clan Elder:
He's not in the best physical shape, but this guy is going to take a look at the two ninja in front of him and cast a ninjutsu thats hopefully going to take them out.
Sasu Clan Elder, Lightning Dragon Bullet: 76
Alright. So this is going to smash into Kakashi and then Shizuka.
And then Kakashi and then Shizuka.
And then--
(For those readers who are mechanically minded, the 'Dragon Bullet' jutsus are supposed to be real good showstoppers when used at a high level. Kakashi used Fire Dragon Bullet and a pile of bonuses and Fate Points to absolutely nuke the Glacier Ninja back in Chapter 10, killing most of the ones on the ground and heavily debuffing Nadare Rouga and Nadare Kimiko.
So that roll up there should be pretty scary, and I'm definitely sweating some Water Dragon Bullets right now.)
Kakashi is going to recognize what sort of jutsu this is, since he's heard of it before and some of the hand seal patterns are familiar to him (he compares it to Fire Dragon Bullet mentally). The wheels are spinning in his head. He can't use Flow Redirection without dropping the Chidori first, which might not help him later. This is a biggun too, so Flow Redirection might not even work ("Note to self: Git gud scrub"), He could Substitute, but that doesn't help Shizuka. Kakashi has a rough idea of how good Shizuka is at this point, and if she doesn't really perform well on the dodge then this thing.
Now, I have some tough judgment calls to make. Technically speaking, you can(!) use Taijutsu to attempt to counterattack while within the same zone. It's in the rules. However, I feel strange about allowing that in general for some reason or another, and counterattacking in this case doesn't really help given the nature of the jutsu. On the other hand, its in the rules, its cool, and as far as Kakashi knows, he might have a shot of axing the jutsu if he slices through it with the Chidori.
So I'm gonna let him roll. No Strong Fist, but one invoke. No rerolls, since he might have to use the FP if the thing comes back to slam him, or Sage forbid if more ninja show up before he has a chance to rest. Tough call, but I'm making it now.
Kakashi, Taijutsi Counterattack with Extended Chidori: 60 + 6 (Sharingan) + 7(CB) + 7 (-1 FP Invoke 'He Who Breaks the Rules' - 3 (dice) =…
77.
Whew. I was sweating on that one.
Kakashi slices through the jutsu as its coming at him, slams into the guy, dealing 4 stress on the counterattack (1 + Weapon Rating, its in da rules), taking a Mild Physical Consequence ('Sliced Shoulder') and reducing the stress on his track to 2. Kakashi is going to pass the tag to Shizuka. I'm going to rule that the feedback of doing this stunt is going to cause Kakashi a Mild Physical Consequence 'Shocked and In Awe', and give a tag to the elder. Balance in all things.
Round 4:
Kakashi is at 13 Chakra as of this round, and he's going to close Obito's eye and stop chakra boosting. He's going to decide to drop in the initiative slightly as a result, going after Shizuka. If she doesn't get a decisive hit in, he's going to Overdraw and use the normal Chidori to slam this guy through the chest.
Shizuka:
Shizuka is going to Ranged Weapons this guy. She's going to give it her all and spend a pile of FP.
Shizuka, RW: 43 + 5 (CB) + 5 ('Sliced Shoulder') + 5 (-1 FP 'Survived the Bloody Rebellion') + 5 (-1 FP 'The Bastard Heir') + 5 ('Whatever it Takes to Find Her') -6 (dice)= 62
-1 FP, reroll:
Shizuka, RW: 43 + 5 (CB) + 5 ('Sliced Shoulder') + 5 (-1 FP 'Survived the Bloody Rebellion') + 5 (-1 FP 'The Bastard Heir') + 5 ('Whatever it Takes to Find Her') +6 (dice) = 74
Sasu Clan Elder, Dodge: 63 (subtotal) – 6 (dice) = 57
He takes 6 (roll delta divided by 3, rounded up) + 4 (from the kaboom)= 10 stress.
This kills the Sasu Elder.
Cue victory fanfare.
o-o-o
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
...
"What about now?" Kakashi asked.
"No!"
They were running through the forest, two miles away from the Sasu compound and surrounding village. More accurately, Shizuka was running, and Kakashi was being carried over her shoulder like a pile of vegetables.
Kakashi scanned around behind them for threats. He looked from tree to tree, and didn't find anything. He looked to the sky, and all that he could notice was a thick stream of black smoke coming from where he imagined the hive was probably located.
There was a flicker of movement, and something came out of the smoke.
Shit.
"Shizuka, keep running," Kakashi said. "But I don't think we're done yet."
"Do we have incoming?"
Kakashi tracked the shape in the air. It was a comparatively tiny egg-shaped mass, yellowish-black in color, and it seemed to be getting closer to them by the second.
That's the thing from the hive, Kakashi thought. It flew erratically, zipping back and forth, making it hard to be sure, but…
And that's definitely a person on its back.
"Yeah, I think so," Kakashi said. "Maybe. Giant bee, rider on its back. I'm not sure they noticed us yet, but they seem to be coming this way."
"What do we do? Can we outrun it?"
Kakashi looked at the bug. It was pretty fast, but it seemed to be swaying ever so slightly. Or was that the wind? "Not sure. It might be injured from the fire, but its still pretty fast. We could set up an ambush, but if the ninja on it is fresh then that might end up being a death sentence. We could hide underground, but it might be able to burrow…"
"Do you have a long range offensive technique?" Shizuka asked. "I don't possess any, so I'd be limited to thrown weapons."
Kakashi snorted. "Yeah, I do. It'll give me a hell of a case of chakra exhaustion though. If I'm going to shoot at the thing then I'm going to do it right."
The giant bug was closer now. It was performing sweeping movements across the terrain south of the compound.
"Y'know," Kakashi said. "I bet you that it's Jinraku that's on its back. He was in the best condition, and if I was him, I'd really want to kill us right about now. Ruining his plans and all. How many names did you say were on that list, dozens?"
"Dozens. Hundreds."
"Hmmm."
The two pondered their options in silence.
This needs a bit more editing, but I am pretty tired at the moment so I'll get it out the door and see to any additional typos later or tomorrow.
The giant insect and the rider are about 8 zones away, so they're within striking distance of your longest range ninjutsu. It's definitely a giant bee/wasp thing, probably the big one that Kakashi saw earlier (or so he reckons), so you'd know in character that it has a Moderate Consequence.
Kakashi has 13 Chakra Points left in the tank, one Mild Physical Consequence on his sheet, and 6 Fate Points in the pool. He can take a Severe and have just enough to shoot the thing with a Radiant Bolt + aim with the Sharingan.
Shizuka is exhausted but has no Consequences and some chakra to spare. She hasn't volunteered anything useful for the current situation, so you may presume that she has no techniques that really fit the bill.
You have copied LDB. It requires too much chakra for Kakashi to consider at the moment,enough that it'll probably kill him regardless of what combination of Overdraw consequences he takes at present. You have also copied the Earth jutsu that is more or less "MEW but slightly different." It is similarly useless in the current situation.
Voting time! What do you do now?
Here are some options to get you started.
[ ] Run! Run! Don't stop until you get away!
[ ] Hide somewhere and wait until you're in good enough shape to travel.
[ ] (+1 Fate Point) Take aim and Radiant Bolt! Kakashi will spend what FP he has and take a Severe to blast the insect down from range on a suitable perch.
[ ] (-1 Fate Point) Split up! It can't track the both of you.
[ ] (Write-in)
Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Feel free to ping @Paperclipped or @MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know.
Voting is open, and closes at 12pm London time, Saturday June 4.
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MMKII
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
PONWOG: No, but he can spend a Fate Point to invoke the aspect, since he knows it exists.
- Location
- Mooselandia
By the power of the Sharingan tag text in the rolls I have uncovered three of Shizuka's tags.
-Survived the Bloody Rebellion
-The Bastard Heir
-Whatever it Takes to Find Her
Very interesting implications here. Sounds like she's the heir of a Rain clan, perhaps only heir because the 'legitimate' heirs died in the rebellion, on a seemingly desperate mission to find someone. Interested in learning summoning, and theoretically? has her sights on Hanzo the Salamander's scroll, could she perhaps be Hanzo's daughter? I'm interested to see if we survive long enough to find out who she's looking for.
-Survived the Bloody Rebellion
-The Bastard Heir
-Whatever it Takes to Find Her
Very interesting implications here. Sounds like she's the heir of a Rain clan, perhaps only heir because the 'legitimate' heirs died in the rebellion, on a seemingly desperate mission to find someone. Interested in learning summoning, and theoretically? has her sights on Hanzo the Salamander's scroll, could she perhaps be Hanzo's daughter? I'm interested to see if we survive long enough to find out who she's looking for.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The more we learn about Shizuka, the more I hope that she's not allying with the Intangible Man. She's really interesting, and I enjoy her growing dynamic with Kakashi. Hopefully we can get her to join the party! ^.^
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not opposed to a write in, but it will need to be better than a free FP on the shot... in this case I think I'd rather have the FP
If she is a bastard heir (of Hanzo or whoever), I'd presume she is looking for her mother or siblings
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Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
How many FP will Kakashi be able to use, as it is? He's got... what, stealth tag + invoke (1), Moderate Consequence (2), He Who Breaks the Rules (3), Sometimes Dead Is Better (4), and Ex-ANBU, Ex-Jounin, Ex-Leaf Ninja (5). ...Right?
Has he seen anyone with higher AB use Radiant Bolt? We could bump all the AB up by however much that is with Copycat, if so.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
You know, maybe we should raise his CR...
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] (+1 Fate Point) Take aim and Radiant Bolt! Kakashi will spend what FP he has and take a Severe to blast the insect down from range on a suitable perch.
I think we can also overdraw to cast another RB, if we need to. Probably shouldn't (if we can avoid it), but on the other hand: we could do a lot of things during that forced downtime.
Convince Shizuka to join us, go grab Sugiyama, scold Sugiyama, buy some more of that chakra recovery medicine (maybe Sugiyama can reverse engineer a medical jutsu that does something similar?), Do some light TH-ing, hit up Sand, find a chemist to research oil for the Fire Duplication Jutsu, and maybe even find Sand's Sealmaster.
Really, when I lay it all out like that, it sounds like we're obligated to overdraw!
I suppose we could allow downtime without being forced into it by Consequences, but let's be honest: that's not very simulationist of ourselves or Kakashi!
I think we can also overdraw to cast another RB, if we need to. Probably shouldn't (if we can avoid it), but on the other hand: we could do a lot of things during that forced downtime.
Convince Shizuka to join us, go grab Sugiyama, scold Sugiyama, buy some more of that chakra recovery medicine (maybe Sugiyama can reverse engineer a medical jutsu that does something similar?), Do some light TH-ing, hit up Sand, find a chemist to research oil for the Fire Duplication Jutsu, and maybe even find Sand's Sealmaster.
Really, when I lay it all out like that, it sounds like we're obligated to overdraw!
thelordofmango
may be stupid
- Location
- under a rock
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZDwZbyDus
[X] (+1 Fate Point) Take aim and Radiant Bolt! Kakashi will spend what FP he has and take a Severe to blast the insect down from range on a suitable perch.