[Shitai Maimomu]

It's the same old story - the patrol has notified the Raikage of a suspicious group of strange individuals in the mountain range surrounding Sancho, and they want a couple of skilled shinobi to give them a beat down. Umechika had seen it all before, but this time there's something that bothers her about these individuals. They seem to be of a cultist origin, appearing in black robes and masks made of the bleached skulls of carcassed animals. Its leader is noted to wear a headdress fitted with giant antlers splaying out from their crown. It gives her an unnerved feeling when she reads about it in her notes. 

Ah well.

Not too long after their initial meeting, though her leg was mostly healed by now, Ume had found Sho with some ease and plucked him from the village, recruiting him for the mission. She'd thought about asking Hayato to join her, or them, but... Well, she wouldn't indulge the thought. 

For now they're camped out at the base of the mountain range somewhere off of Sancho's west, not too close but not ridiculously far from where the cultists' unholy grounds are claimed to be. It's the second night tucked into the same cave, but it's protected from the cold nights and raging storm. Lightning cracks outside and Ume yawns from the bedroll she's sitting on top of. Though they'd discussed much about the mission at hand already, Ume finally brings up something that's been bugging her.

"Doesn't this all seem a little... cliché spooky?" 

---

Yamamoto Shosuke - 255
Post 1/20

SPOILER: Click to show

MISSION TAKEN: 


BLOODY SERVICE
MISSION RANK: B
NPC REQUIREMENT: Optional
PARTICIPANTS: 1-4
DESCRIPTION:

A small group of suspicious individuals have been identified by scouts in the mountain range surrounding Sancho. A team of shinobi is being dispatched to track down and eliminate these individuals, a mission which may take several days due to a persistent lightning storm in the region, and the mission objective’s proclivity for stealth. In your iteration of the mission, the individuals may be rogue bandits planning a raid on the capital; thieves scoping out a noble’s vacation home; cultists conducting strange rituals and sacrifices within their unholy sanctums. The group should have some access to chakra usage and will be a significant threat to even a small group of chuunin if caution is not heeded.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Well, this was new....

Religion had never been part of Shosuke's upbringing. There were some almost religious tendencies within the Yamamoto, talking about things like sacrifice for the greater whole and living a virtuous life, but it was grounded in secular logic and reasoning. Even the stuff that did seem religious, like dealing with and bonding with spirits, had been backed up by the existence of the Soul of the Mountain as a provable, extant being.

Even so, the idea of dealing with a cult wasn't something that Shosuke seemed to have much of a problem with. It might have been new to him, but many of the people that he fought on a day-to-day basis had some pretty screwed up mentalities and worldview, the only difference here was that it was written down, a shared delusion amongst a group. When thought of like that, it was little more than a bunch of bandits, nothing that Shosuke hadn't dealt with before.

More concerning, however, was the person that he was paired with. If he had to put money on it, he was far more likely to have a restless night after dealing with Umechika than some group of fanatics. He was no chicken, she didn't scare him, but there was definitely something about her that disquieted him, especially now that he lacked the adrenaline that he had had in their previous fight.

"... Says the vampire." Shosuke pointed out, his tone flat as a paving slab.

"Look, everything we acknowledge as a cliche has some origin point, and many of those origins comes from real life. In this case, there's been spooky religious nutters since the concept of religion was birthed. As far as I see it, it's no different than having to kill a camp full of rogue bandits. You black ops types should be good at this, yeah?

Don't tell me little miss Insanity is scared of a couple of idiots in robes?"

329 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

B-Rank Mission: 2/20
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

He goes on some spiel about clichés and Umechika rolls her eyes, throws herself sideways onto her bedroll and flips to her back to stare at the cave ceiling until he's finished. She does not question his knowledge of her position in black ops, though it does pique her; what had he learned since they'd last seen each other? She doesn't shift so much when he calls her a somewhat insulting if not silly name, but she closes her eyes when he suggests they're only idiots in robes.

The truth was that she was not so much afraid of the robes and the skull masks or the sacrificing - she was scared of the mentality, the people beneath the robes. Was she not just a step away from being one of these cultists? The thought of sacrifice, of relishing in blood - it was all a little... close to home.

What if this group was Lost Children of the Shitai clan? What if she was connected to something like this?

Not that she would divulge any of this to her comrade.

Instead she laces her fingers over her stomach and parts her eyelashes just a bit, enough to study the ripples of pock and indentation across their abode's rocky ceiling. She traces shapes. She says, flatly, "You could say that."

Come slumber, Umechika has unsettling dreams.

In the morning, she wakes via a crash of lightning outside sometime before the birds would normally start singing. Without dawn's chorus, instead forced to listen to the storm raging persistently outside, Ume quietly sits in her bedroll and goes over a map, her notes, and a page she'd taken from the file on this particular mission until Sho wakes.

---

Yamamoto Shosuke  | 282
Post 3/20

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho could see it out of the corner of his eye, the way that she rolled her eyes. For some reason, he couldn't help but feel a smile spread across his face as she showed that passive aggressive gesture of his.

Of course, Sho was a scholar and was known to over-intellectualize things like this so it was unsurprising that she would find his opinion so clearly annoying, but if she was going to ask questions like this in the first place she might as well expect an answer. Even if it wasn't one quite as in touch with her concerns about the Shitai as she would like.

Whatever the case, it seemed sleep came to Sho far easier than his companion.

Though Ume might have an iron stomach, she had likely never had the experiences that Sho had had whilst working in the hospital. Being on your feet for days at a time before collapsing and sleeping for an hour or two before being pulled onto your next shift? Go through a few incidents like that and you'll never have difficulty getting to sleep again.

However, equally, Sho is an incredibly light sleeper, his eyes cracking open at a particularly loud sound of thunder during the night. One would imagine, living where they did, that he would have learned to drone it out like background noise, like the noise of a particularly noisy fan in an old apartment building, but it seemed that wasn't the case. After all, being a heavy sleeper made missions like this a dangerous one.

By the time that he was fully conscious and awake, Sho's morning was far more practical than hers was. Taking advantage of some of the training that he had undergone alongside his friends back in Azakaya, he started the morning by doing some basic stretches, almost appearing as if he was miming some form of calisthenics sans the radio participation part.

Halfway through stretching his hips out, Sho's gaze turned to Ume as she seemed to be studying some sort of file. Probably about this mission, though he wasn't entirely sure what it was that had captivated her attention so much. For someone who apparently reveled in chaos and unpredictability, she sure seemed to be taking her job awfully seriously.

"Something catch your eye?" Sho asked, his voice muffled somewhat by the ongoing cacophony outside their cave. "You seem to be studying that thing pretty aggressively - Or is that just your default expression?"

413 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

The morning is slow, and Sho makes use of his waking hours to put a few stretches in - Ume pays him no mind, but does somewhat admire the effort. She flips back and forth between the few sheets of paper she's looking over, scanning the map and then rereading passages about them. She almost misses Sho addressing her, so her response is a little delayed.

"...hm? Oh." Thunder claps outside, but Ume is steady. Her face, admittedly twisted, pinches before softening. "We've covered a lot of the south and east. North from us is Sancho, and there's nothing but ocean to the west. I'm trying to figure out what we're missing."

Leaning back a bit, settling her paperwork on the bedroll in front of her crossed legs, Ume considers the cave's ceiling again. It's begun to comfort her, help her navigate her thoughts in time with the navigation of the craggy surface. Like there are secrets up there and she just can't quite read them. "We could talk to the locals again, but I don't think there's much more they can tell us. I don't want to just chase these losers around endlessly though. They must have some sort of base."

Ume looks sideways to Sho, clearly working through things in her mind still. Calculating. "Are they under our noses? Or are they, like, in the fucking ocean or something? It's been two days of nothing."

Giving a frustrated noise from her chest, like a little aggravated growl, she shoves her nose back into the paperwork. "And the notes only detail one uncovered sacrificial area. Or whatever. Y'know, where they like, killed a goat or whatever. But there was nothing there when we checked before."

Finally done, Ume blinks, looks to Sho, then back to her files. She hadn't meant to go on a tangent. She folds up the paperwork and tucks it away into the oversized coat she hadn't even taken off to sleep. "You're a smarty pants. What'd we oughta do?" Looking to him had some level of ulterior motive - she still needed to feel him out, get an idea of how he might lead. It was important outside of the mission, even given her current frustrations with their work.

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 372
Post 5/20

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Other than continuing his stretches, Sho's body language and expression changes little as he listens to her. She was right of course, they had done a lot of hunting in the last few days and yet they had come up with nothing - not a shred of evidence to suggest that there was even a cult in the first place, beyond the sacrificial grounds.

However, where this had clearly stressed Umechika out, it did quite the opposite for Shosuke. The fact that there was one sacrificial site and nothing else let them know just how small this operation actually was. If there was evidence everywhere and people lurking in every shadow, this cult might have been something to actually worry about.

The fact of the matter was, the sacrificial grounds had been a pretty grisly sight. A large amount of blood, probably everything in that poor goat's system, carved into some sort of ancient rune. However, it showed that they weren't particularly concerned with being stealthy and secretive, they were a loud and bombastic bunch of nutjobs. Or, in other words, the lack of presence elsewhere wasn't because they were doing a good job at remaining quiet.

To invoke Occam's Razor, they weren't there because they weren't there. Their influence hadn't spread yet, they were still spreading their tendrils among the local area, they still had time to cut them off at the pass.

"Trust me, if they were beneath us, I'd know." Sho said, gesturing with a hand to the sunglasses that he had already placed on his face so early in the morning.

"I might have been missing a few minor details recently, but something big like tunnels or spying cultists? I'd notice. Plus, with how bad they were at covering their trails back at the sacrificial site? We'd have noticed them by now if they were hiding in plain sight back in the village.

If I had to put money on it? I'd say they're probably hanging around the coast. Coastal regions are peppered with hundreds of caves and tunnels, natural erosion and all that. If we trawl the beach for a few hours, we'll probably stumble upon something useful. At least, that's my best guess."

Finishing his stretches up, Sho went to retrieve his cloak and the sword that he had started using in recent days, slinging it over his shoulder until it rested comfortably.

"You know, for someone who claimed to be all crazy and delusional back when we first sparred? You're actually taking this shit pretty seriously. It's... cute?" he said, although the tone seemed to suggest he wasn't sure it was the right word to use.

"No, not cute. Cute sounds patronizing. It's... nice? Pleasant? Makes me feel like I can actually follow your lead and study under you."

465 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

It's just a small gesture to his sunglasses, but it reminds her that he was indeed right - if they were anywhere close, he would know. Which was useful. But also very frustrating considering if he didn't see them, that means they were way off the mark. Annoying, but useful.

As he draws attention to the coast, Ume perks up with consideration. Hooking her finger over her chin, considering her lip with her pearly canine, the pinkette is inclined to agree with her comrade. Up until now, they had mostly avoided risking the ocean because of the storm; it called upon one of the Gods' wraths and tore the sea into a frenzy, violent winds caressing the crack of lightning over the beach's horizon. It was a perfect place for a bunch of cultists to hide in though.

With Sho's move toward his gear, Ume rises and begins rolling her bed mat up tightly. Her face is fairly unmoving for a moment, until he drops the c word. "It's... cute?" Her head snaps sideways, a sheepish grin stretched over her fangs. She wags her eyebrows, even as he quickly corrects himself. She cackles to herself, finishes packing away her bed, then hums a little. "Hmmhmm~ Well. I'll take that as a compliment." Then she is standing with her hands on her hips before him on the other side of the coals of their once-fire. "Y'ready for the beach episode?"

Into the storm they would head west, through the mountain side's rocky edge paved to the lip of the shore. It's littered in rocks, ranging from tiny to boulder, with formations hugging a cliff up to the north. Even though it's low tide, the sea rages over the sand and mud and seaweed far out in the distance.

It would be sort of beautiful, if not ravished by weather. Ume's cloak won't stay still in the wind, even with her arms in the sleeves for once.

"Not the greatest conditions for a mission like this," she chimes to Sho from a distance, having to raise her voice to make the gap.

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 349
Post 7/20

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Honestly, the comparison to god's wrath was not that much of an exaggeration right now. Every few moments, another boom of thunder seemed to shatter across the horizon, like some sort of ancestral war-drum. The Land of Lightning was of course well known for its storms, these weren't that rare, but even for this nation it seemed a little excessive. He had to wonder if there was some sort of additional cause that they were missing.

Were he a paranoid man, Sho might have wondered whether this itself was some form of jutsu. But if it was, it was a particularly long-lasting and powerful one, given that the storm hadn't died down even slightly despite having been going on for hours at this point. Even the most powerful raiton jutsu Sho had experienced lasted for minutes at most, so hours upon hours like this? Well, it was a scary consideration.

"Well, it definitely wasn't an insult." Sho said, shrugging his shoulders idly as the two cleared up their camp (or as much as they could, knowing they may need to return to it at the end of the day) before heading out once more into the storm.

It was hard to tell what the worst part of it was - the frigid cold rain that pattered against any bared inch, seeming to sap and consume any and all body heat one had managed to hold onto, or the wind that blew their cloaks around, almost risking launching them off their feet at points.

No, perhaps the worst part was the combination of the two, as it made sure that they could never guarantee where would be bared next, ensuring one could never be comfortable no matter how well covered they tried to make themselves.

The seafront, such as it was, was a stormy and blustery thing. Comprised mostly of rocks and pebbles rather than the soft smooth sand of more southernly inclines, the idea that someone might consider an area like this for a vacation at other times of the year seemed laughable at the moment.

Those few bare silvery patches of sand seemed to sink and bubble beneath their feet as they walked across it, sending dampness into the very cores of their shoes. Considering the amount of knives and sharp implements his daily work included, Sho had long since learned to wear close-toed boots, but even he couldn't help but feel exposed and naked before these miserable conditions.

"If its any consolation," Sho said, having to pause suddenly as a blizzard of sand was kicked up by a sudden breeze, leaving him to cover his mouth with his arm to prevent any of the content getting near his mouth.

", their hideout will probably be in one of the nearby caves, meaning we'll have at least some cover from this weather. Just keep your eyes out and keep moving. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can get out of this rain."

493 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

Sho's company isn't frowned upon, and as he offers insightful reassurance Ume is forced to nod in agreement with him. Her arms are raised over her head in a similar fashion, cloak billowing off her shoulders to reveal the black catsuit she's wearing - complete with a fitted chest window sat beneath her turtleneck, hitai-ate tied loosely across her collarbones. In times like these, when the weather was bitter and conditions are low, she was thankful for the corpse of a body she operated. Her taut skin did not feel the chill, and though her cheeks and nose turn pink she does not feel congested or hard of breath. What does prove detrimental, however, is the lashing of wind against thin skin, the brittleness in her bones, the creek in her knees with each step. Like she might freeze solid - like she hadn't enough body heat or heartbeats to continue mocking live flesh.

Heading northbound, coming against the side of the cliff, Ume takes to the wall of rock to keep from the wind. Even just the small coverage offers a breath. When Sho is with her, she doesn't have to yell quite as loud - "Stop me if you see anything," taking a step then halting, turning back to him she quickly adds- "Er. You know what I mean."

Round the corner, nothing's there but a gaping mouth of stone in the side of the formation. Boulders tower against each other, forming a sort of jagged entrance to a small cave nearly identical to the one they've been camping in. Peering in, squinting into its darkness, Ume turns to Sho as lightning touches the sea miles out. She waits for the thunderclap to boom before speaking over the wind. "Y'see- er- Y'feel anything in here?"

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 294
Post 9/20

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho shot a playful "annoyed" face towards his companion as she unintentionally mentioned his blindness, though in truth the comment meant very little to him. He had indeed known what she meant and he was also aware that it was a genuine mistake rather than callously bringing it up unnecessarily, so he had no problem letting it bounce off of him like the rain off of his bared skin.

Still, beyond the sound of heavy-hitting rain and the tumultuous ocean roaring in the background, silence seemed to fall between the pair of them as they wandered down the beach. Sho, for his part, was focused almost entirely on looking for any signs of life, anything that might give away the location of his hypothesized cave.

The problem, though Sho would not admit it, was that this terrain was not particularly conducive to his abilities - though it was mostly stolid and sturdy, the sand particles were an ever-shifting and moldable surface that changed with each footfall, akin to ever-changing static on a television screen. He could just about get an image of his immediate surroundings, but it heavily limited the range and efficacy of his abilities.

Fortunately, it was Ume's own desire to stay out of the rain that was actually helping the most in this case. Though his feet were of little use, he was able to press his hand against the rain-slicked stone surface of the cliff-face, making up for the rest of the interference. With it, he paused for a moment, allowing his chakra to flow through him actively and massively boosting his range.

After a few moments of scouting, Sho turned his head towards Ume, his face having hardened into a confident smile. "Found it."

---

It took about fifteen to twenty minutes of walking through the miserable weather on the beach, but soon enough they would find themselves standing in front of a rather small and otherwise innocuous looking cave-mouth, the entrance so small that one would have to crouch to get inside. Once inside, the space widened considerably, though Sho couldn't help but feel concerned about the apparent lack of alternate access methods.

Should something happen, that dark and insidious voice whispered in his head, not only would they not have a way out, but they would lose their source of oxygen. One would have to hope there was something beyond his current range that would keep the place safe should the worst happen.

Crouching under the low-hanging entranceway's ceiling and clambering into the cave proper, Sho stood in the mouth of the cave, as confident in the lack of ambient lighting as he was in the outside world. Should Ume follow him into the cave, however, he was all but certain that she wouldn't be able to claim the same advantages - As far as he was aware, despite their vampiric comparisons, the Shitai weren't especially gifted in darkvision or the like.

"Need a light?" Sho asked, attempting to keep his voice quiet just in case anyone could hear him. He could feel their presence, but a few hundred meters ahead, though it seemed their entrance had been concealed within the raging storm.

527 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

Storms like these tend to keep someone sane inside, but here these shinobi were trekking the beach as wind gusts threatened to whisk them and boulders or trees away. Lightning flashes behind them, followed shortly by another thunderclap. He had smiled confidently at her and claimed to have found their destination, but did not describe what he saw. Her imagination grows wild, and for a moment she feels as though they are being watched.

The mouth of the small cave is daunting, and as Sho disappears into it Ume looks up and down the beach, squinting against the harsh wind and rain. It's dark out here, but it's even darker as she follows her comrade into the rocky abode. Still squinting, Ume tries to allow her eyes to adjust to the lowlight. "Need a light?" "I'll suffer."

After a few minutes her eyes would adjust, pitch black replaced with faint outlines.

Despite this, she was functionally blind. She could not see far beyond the outline of Sho the deeper they venture. As such, she'd allowed him to take the lead - after all, he was the one who could see. Not even one hundred meters into the dungeon crawl, Ume's ears perk at the faint sound of something distant - drawn out, foreboding, cast by something deep...

Was it music?

Ume pulls at Sho's sleeve like a small child might do, and once his attention is on her she has a concentrated look on her face as she listens for more. "Y'hear that?" Ume's voice is a hiss whisper. Eyes wander blindly in the dark, looking toward the destination laid out by the cave's growing depth. "They're singing."

In the moment they take to listen to the singing, Sho would feel them before they approach; but it makes a noise in the distance. Foot on stone. Ume's ears perk as she hones in on its location. Before her comrade can say anything, she slips ahead of him and stands protectively between he and the approaching patrol - a firelight comes into view, steady and easy like they were unawares of anyone's intrusion. Ume had been expecting some omnipotent knowledge of their presence, afraid they were walking into an ambush. But here came a lone cultist patrolling the caves, walking leisurely into two powerful shinobi.

Knowing it would only see them and turn back to run to the rest of its people, Ume launches into action immediately before the cultist even rounds the corner, casting a single handseal to disappear beneath a flush of chakra. The cultist stops when it sees Sho, opens its mouth beneath the wolf skull headdress. Ume reappears in front of him, startling him backwards, and grapples him to the ground with a bite to the neck. As the torch clatters and rolls to the edge of the cave's narrow trail, Ume's already torn out the cultist's throat with her teeth.

Blood soaking her maw, Ume stands and plucks the torch up before walking back to Sho. A tongue pokes out to taste the iron red smeared over her lips. She smiles a little at her comrade, then presses against the cave's flank to allow him passage ahead of her. "Lead the way."

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 533
Post 11/20

SPOILER: Click to show

TECHNIQUES USED

NAME: Shunshin no Jutsu [Body Flicker Technique]

RANK: D

CHAKRA USAGE: Low

CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]

ELEMENT: None

HANDSEALS: 1

DESCRIPTION:

By invigorating one's entire body with chakra, a shinobi can seemingly disappear and reappear in another location faster than most people can see. Often times one's movements are disguised with the use of an extra element, be it a smoke bomb, leaves, water, sand, etc. in order to hide the user's trajectory from those with skilled eyes. Though it mimics teleportation, it is important to remember this jutsu merely boosts the agility of its user. As useful as this technique is, it can only be used 4 times in a battle thread, compounding in exertion and difficulty each time. with any more usages beyond that result in muscle tears in the legs from overexertion. The hand seal for this technique must be held until the shinobi reaches their destination, making it impossible to utilize other techniques regardless of any preparation.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho wasn't entirely sure that Ume's idea was going to work - after all, night-vision wasn't something that one just developed. Though it was indeed true that people's eyes adjusted to darkness when given enough time, that only worked when one had even a fragment of light to work with - whether that came from rays of moonlight or a flickering candle, even basic night-vision required something. Anything.

Well, he supposed he would trust in Ume, at least for now - this wasn't her first rodeo, surely she wouldn't let her own bravado get her killed.

Right?

Either way, the two continued their travels through the cave, each step bringing them closer to their targets. From what Sho was able to tell, there was about ten of them, each one draped in full-body robes and ornate finery that bore the symbols of their religion. The iconography of blood and bone, one might almost mistake them for Shitai were it not for Ume's clear unfamiliarity with their presence.

As Ume reached out for him, Sho paused, listening as instructed. They were singing indeed, but it wasn't any words that he understood. It wasn't like they were throat-singing like some of the people in the mountains did either, no they were clearly speaking words just not words that he knew. Perhaps some sort of ancient language? It certainly had that sort of import to it, the archaic reverence that such old words bore. Though Sho could not tell what they meant literally, even he was able to tell just how ominous they were - they could mean nothing good.

Speaking of meaning nothing good, Sho's attention had been distracted by the singing for long enough for him to almost seemingly forget about the incoming patrol. One of the ten had come wandering off, and had apparently had the misfortune to stumble upon them. Before Sho was even able to act, Ume had already shot forwards, pouncing on the opponent and sending them down to the ground with a simple bite into the neck. It was powerfully feral to watch, like an animal taking down their prey rather than a ninja taking out a target. He almost found it hard to look away, but look away he did as he instead moved over the fallen body of the opponent, ignoring the way the man's heartbeat seemed to ebb away and instead focusing solely on the cave in front of him.

"Alright, so, " Sho began, letting Ume follow behind him as they walked. In order to avoid them being detected he kept his voice down as he spoke, though there was a certain urgency in it. Fortunately, the continuation of the singing without missing a beat let Sho know that nobody had been able to tell anything. Or, perhaps and significantly more worryingly, they simply had not cared.

", there's about nine more of the guys down here. We're walking in on what appears to be another one of their prayer circles, so expect to be surrounded by blood and bone. More importantly..." Sho paused for a second as a violently unpleasant sensation hit him like a slap across the face, a sudden burst of wind from further within the cave carrying with it a vile smell.

Sho had spent years working at the hospital, he had been around people as they died, he was no stranger to foulness. Whether it be the astringent smell of bleach, the noxious smell of someone's voided bowels, or simply the lingering stench of death, he had smelled it all. Or so he had thought until this new smell hit him. It was like rot and putrescence manifested into a single smell, like a living plague communicated solely through scent.

It was said that deep within the Land of Forests there was a plant that had evolved to smell like rotting flesh to lure in carnivorous insects to devour and was so powerful one could smell it for miles around. Even so, compared to this, that sounded almost like the finest perfume. He couldn't even understand how something could be made to smell this bad, let alone know what was causing it.

"... I'm really hoping that whatever they think they're summoning is just more of their insane ramblings." Sho murmured, having to take a moment not to physically retch.

716 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

Ume listens quietly to Sho, her face a bit twisted beneath the blood dripping from her chin. Now that she's holding the patrolman's discarded torch, she can see just fine as she plods along behind her comrade. Blood and bone she could deal with; but it was that fact alone which scared her. Now was not a good time to be thinking about her ethical and spiritual connection to these freaks, but it was pressing at her mind; the remnants of her dreams from the night before clung to the corners of her vision in the dark.

Then there is a stench, one that Ume can barely withstand. Umechika had smelled many things; as a medical specialist, one who has dealt primarily with death her whole life, there is very little that can upset Ume's stomach. Rot, iron, guts - some of it even smelled good to her - but this was foul. Ume crinkles her nose, but pushes onward.

"They summon a demon, I'm going to hell. I just know it."

(Poor) jokes aside, the cave winds ahead; a little further into its depths, they would find a new incline to the trail. The cave narrows. Ume holds the wall at her side, elbow to her hip and torch over her head, and follows Sho deeper and deeper.

The singing grows louder. The awful smell grows stronger.

A light glows in the distance. So far, this seems to be the only way in and out - there had been no detours except for short deadends before this, and before that was the cavemouth, and beyond that was only a raging storm they could no longer hear save for the distant thrum of thunder, sounding more like drums against the haunting orchestra they were approaching. Ume does not snuff the torch, instead dropping it there in the middle of the caveroad, following Sho into the coming light. "Careful," she breathes. "We can't draw their attention."

Counterintuitive to say out loud, but the singing does not cease.

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 333
Post 13/20

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

It was obviously a joke, but there was something about the way that she said those words that struck Sho.

Perhaps it was the confidence with which she said it, as if it wasn't just a joke but with a kernel of truth. A certainty that she was inevitably going to get punished for her actions. Or maybe it was that she referenced something as esoteric and distant from every-day life as hell itself... well, whether or not he recognised it as a joke, there was something about it that made Sho sure he wouldn't forget about it any time soon.

"I'm pretty sure demons are pretty low down on our list of concerns." Sho said, with a hint in his tone that suggested that there was something much, much worse that he was concerned about, whether or not he was willingly going to discuss it out loud.

Regardless, the pair continued their sojourn into the cave, the singing growing louder with each passing second. It was hard to tell whether that was because of the acoustics of the cave or if the source of the singing was just allowing themselves to get louder and louder as they got more and more carried away with their ministrations. At this point, one might even begin to wonder why Sho was going first, considering she could see just about as well as he could.

Then, finally, there was a light. A light that hang beyond the doorway, as if at once beckoning them into its embrace and warning them away from what was unignorably on the other side. They were here to take care of monsters, whether they be human or whatever abomination they were trying to summon, and in this case light meant activity and activity was their enemy.

Nonetheless, the pair walked into the light, making sure to keep quiet as they went. On the other side, about 100 meters in front of him, stood the chamber the nine were standing in. They were on a lower dias, leaving the upper floors of the cave to them, though it was clear that this was no longer the rough-hewn natural craggy surfaces of a cave and now more something constructed, something deliberately designed with a purpose in mind.

The black mass stood each on different points within a larger constructed circle. The construction, a nine-pointed star, bore each of them to their own separate but apparently equal points, as if attempting to attune themselves to something larger. There was no priest, no defined sense of command structure, each man equal before their "lord".

Standing in their current position, the two shinobi were able to look down over them, their bodies illuminated in flickering candle light. It was unclear at this point whether they had simply failed to notice them or if they had indeed noticed them and simply did not care, so deep were they in their ministrations.

Sho, for his part, moved his hand to his belt and drew a trio of kunai, ready to launch them the moment Umechika gave the order. She was, after all, his superior officer on this mission, what she said went.

528 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

He mentions a much more pertinent list of concerns and Umechika honestly feels a little sick - her immediate thought is self-deprecating; he means they might be Shitai, is all she can think. But she shakes her head of the notion, wondering instead what he truly meant.

Best to not get caught up on the what ifs.

The crafted area would be breathtaking handiwork if it were not for the cryptic sigils and runes carved into corners of the room, the ominous flickering of many a candlelight, the harsh smell. It was hard to see in the dark, but there was a red tinge that climbed the walls starting near the centerback - Ume squints in the lowlight and finds heaps of the same brownish red spilt almost neatly at the farthest edge of the circle. It does not take someone with years of medical training to know it is a great hoard of gore, possibly of all kinds. Ume sees a human's pelvis, a dog's skull, the pelt of something once large and ferocious.

Trained for horror, Ume only steels her expression. Still looking down, she makes her judgement; these were not Shitai. Her kind only wanted blood; they would have no need for such massacre, for this kind of satanic deliverance. Something clicks in the back of her head, and suddenly this is no longer personal to her.

Still, her hand comes up to wane off Sho as he raises three of his kunai. Her hooded eyes remain locked on the discarded, on the singing. "They're weak creeps, but they outnumber us." Her eyes slide over to her teammate, icy blue turned dark in the candlelight. Her voice is barely above a whisper. "Y'confident?"

Then she lowers her hand so that he may throw his kunai. Before the three projectiles have even disrupted the nine-point circle of antagonists, Ume has dropped down onto the lower level of the system; she was better fighting up close. She casts a series of ten handseals. Her right hand blazes with chakra - it sounds like rushing wind, emanating loudly now that the choir has turned into a mix of vocal reactions - she noted that some whimpered and cowered while others shot into action. What to do with those ones? she wondered, focusing on the first assailant to come at her. A burly thing, twice her size, wearing an admittedly beautiful headdress of an elk, its wide antlers impressive to carry atop one's head. She cannot see his face beneath the crown's hanging moss, but it doesn't take a genius to aim her blazing chakra scalpel at their neck. She severs the jugular without breaking skin, and uses her other hand to brandish a knife meant for his heart. Blood rushes out of his mouth, and she sidesteps so that he can fall and gasp on the ground. She wipes the blade off on her thigh beneath the large cloak she wears.

None of the attacking cast handseals, and cannot reach Sho from below; the last eight, minus the two cowering, split into two groups. Three for one ninja, two for the other. 

---

Yamamoto Shosuke | 518
Post 15/20

SPOILER: Click to show

TECHS USED


NAME: Chakura no Mesu - [Chakra Scalpel]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low [Continuous]
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [Medical]
REQUIREMENT: Enhanced Chakra Control
ELEMENT: N/a
HANDSEALS: 5
DESCRIPTION:

After forming the needed handseals, the ninja will focus chakra to his or her hands. When his or her charged hands reach the body of the target, the user can use it as a normal scalpel or even extend the chakra internally into the target's body to cut and neatly slice the target's muscles and blood vessels without harming the surface skin. This technique can be used in battle, but because of its hectic nature, the fine precision required for an instant kill is not feasible. Damage can still be done to the vital organs, but the technique should be used carefully in battle.


NAME: Fuuton no Mesu [Wind Scalpel]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Low (Drain)
CLASSIFICATION: Medical Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Fuuton
HANDSEALS: 5 - Bird, Dragon, Snake, Dog, Tiger
REQUIREMENT: Chakura no Mesu - [Chakra Scalpel]
DESCRIPTION:

This technique is functionally identical to its parent technique, though its cutting power is greatly increased, giving this technique the ability to cut through chakra reinforced armors of the same power or lower.