[Mibōjin Kiho 昆™]

Interestingly enough, there were things about Akihiko's eye that she did not know about. In her defense, she was too busy scolding him for how careless he acted on their last mission. The only thing she knew was that he was about to see chakra, and that he could see further than most people. At least that's what she remembered hearing from him, but this? What he was saying now was well above what she could have ever imagined.

The power to seal jutsu in their eyes, and then use it back against them as an attack? That was something that could be deadly if used correctly in combat. It was hard to believe someone as hyper as him had the ability to do such a powerful thing. Well, discipline might actually be the better word to use because she actually believed in his combat prowess.

Nevertheless, Shodaime seemed to be rather impressed with his eyes, and so was she. Hey Seven, is there anything we can do with these orange optics of mine? Kiho questioned curiously to her Bijuu to see what kind of response she would get. Yes. Kiho was surprised to hear that they actually could, but what. What exactly can it do?! Kiho asked even more excited. Glow, now pay attention to what's being said.

The girls jaw dropped in disappointment before focusing her attention over to Shodaime who was now given the boy a peace of her mind. Not in the fashion she would have, but in classy fashion like the Jounin that she was. She hated that Shodaime even had to resort to such a conversation, but she understood at some point she had to look out for herself as well too.

Hopefully hearing it from a Jounin would finally get him to ease up a little. It wasn't a bad thing to be himself, but there needed to be some on and off switch. "Mhm, I agree.. We appreciate your advise and concern." Kiho stated while waiting to see what Akihiko would say in response to everything she said.

[Omori Akihiko]

 i am a red fire quickly rising 

Akihiko looked at Shodaime and pouted a little bit, she was being kind of a party pooper. Plus, it had been Kiho who had definitely told him to dump his chakra as much as possible so that he could get more and more into his reservoir! It made sense of course, but perhaps not for a mission. Not that Aki cared, he seemed to be quite carefree in this situation and almost all situations. It was probably a good thing, at the smallest extent or amount.

"Aw but Kiho-chan told me that I should dump my chakra so I can learn to increase my chakra reserves," He announced. It wasn't so much that he was telling on her as much as he was just stating point-blank what had been told to him.

Either way, after some time of moving and going they would arrive within the vicinity of where they were supposed to be. Shodaime would be able to tell what was going on about five miles out which meant she was definitely within the zone of figuring out where they should go or what they should do next, meanwhile, Aki was attempting to contain his energy by looking every which way possible his head moving all around in a super aggressively playful manner. He could see a bunch, including through the trees.. Though it was the birds that were taking up the majority of his attention span currently.

239 | Hyūga Shodaime Mibōjin Kiho 昆™ | 17/15

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[Hyūga Shodaime]

The three would arrive within 5 miles of where the Blood Heralds would be. She knew that they would set up along the main roads, waiting to strike at unsuspecting passersby and traders and draining their blood before stringing them up from trees. She would note the corpses hanging from the trees noticing that they were noticeable thinner than most of those that died out here in the wooded areas. Shodaime would stop along the side of the road out of the way of the main road and activate her Byakugan to beginning to track where the Blood Heralds were hiding. She would note that there were 4 people posted further up, noting their chakra signatures.

"There's about four of them up ahead, shouldn't be too difficult to deal with." Shodaime would explain to the two with her. She knew they could probably handle it on their own. "You two could take care of one the blood heralds each, while I take out the remaining two. If these are the only ones here then this mission should be over in no time." Shodaime would say to them trying to formulate some form of plan. "We can take the stealthy approach or the direct approach. Whichever we all need to decide together and put it to a vote. Personally I believe the stealthy approach would work better as to not alert anyone else that maybe nearby." She was fine with whatever the two others decided to do with the enemies.

[Mibōjin Kiho 昆™]

Kiho scratched her head briefly in embarrassment after remembering that she told him that in their first mission together. She had no idea that Akihiko was going to take her words so literal, but at least that would explain why he was using so much of his chakra on their last mission and on this one. The Chuunin knew that afterward she would need to explain herself properly to the Genin so that she would make anymore mistakes going forward.

Nonetheless, the three of them continued to travel in the direction of where the Blood heralds were expected to be causing trouble. She wondered if any of the people they would be up against were formidable, or if they were just weirdos who just happen to possess an ability that was not common amongst others. When Shodaime came to a stop, so did Kiho, and in case Akihiko didn't she'd make sure to signal him to stop.

It looked as if she has spotted some activity going on ahead. The Jounin noted that it was only four of them up ahead, which was surprising as she expect there to be more. She wondered if the village might have been wrong about their intel, and if so, if there was more to their whole operation than issues like the one they were trying to handle. She'd have to think of that after the mission was over.

"I'm for the stealth approach. I got a feeling this organization is bigger than we expect.. If we are loud, we can bring more attention to ourselves than we'd like.. I think taking them out quietly would be better, that way, if anything else goes down in the future our respective villages can track them without them knowing we are on to them."

Her answer would definitely put them at a 2/3, so that meant she would need to rely on the answer of her partner in case he wanted to go in like some action hero. No offense to the boy, but she had a hunch their was something else going on behind the scenes, and whenever they got there she was sure they'd get some proof of that.

[Omori Akihiko]

 i am a red fire quickly rising 

Akihiko would only have his attention grabbed about the method of attack, of course, he wanted to simply run in and do his thing. But, the other two seemed to want to be stealthy. Which was kind of dumb, especially since there were obviously only four of them so it was unlikely to be an issue. In fact, Aki was for some reason certain he could take them all on, on his own time.

"Aren't we supposed to take them all out? If we just kill four and there are more the mission isn't finished." He piped up, clearly not particularly worried about speaking out against his superiors. As if that were a concern at any point. He had his opinions, and he would voice them. Finally, though he would notice some of the dead bodies strewn up in trees. Apparently, one could have dojutsu and be totally unobservant at the same time.

"Eww, what are those?" He whisper-shouted, pointing and flailing at one of the flayed individuals. Definitely disgusting, was this what they were dealing with? There was no way that it was just four people that they had to take out... Four people couldn't do this sort of thing, all by themselves... Right?

"Wait... Four people without any shinobi training can do this sort of thing? How?" Something didn't add up, and if Kiho was right about it being a whole organization then... There were probably more. Which meant this mission was way above that of a C-Rank!

250 | Mibōjin Kiho 昆™ Hyūga Shodaime | 20/15

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[Hyūga Shodaime]

"That settles that then, we'll take the stealthy approach." Shodaime would as she would pull a kunai out of her right thigh pouch. As she was about to make her move over towards the Blood Heralds, Akihiko would point out the flayed bodies hanging from the trees. She figured that he had read the mission briefing before coming to Konoha, and hoped he would've at least noticed why exactly they were here taking out the blood heralds. These bandits were getting more and more bold as time went on. When she was younger, they mostly just stole goods or money from traders and travelers. But now, they were killing more and more people as the months went on.

"Those are dead bodies, corpses of their victims. Didn't used to be this bad, but now bandit groups are killing more and more people. I miss the days where they just stole money or goods." Shodaime would explain to the two. "It's pretty hard to believe that four people could do this. Makes me believe there's more to this than it seemed at first. Anyway, let's get back to work shall we."

Finally she would go back to doing what she was going to before. She would grab her kunai again and take off towards the four blood heralds, keep to the trees to continue being stealthy. The Four members would be split up, luckily two of them were close enough together for her to take down. Shodaime would wait up in the tree for Kiho and Akihiko to be ready to take them down.

[Mibōjin Kiho 昆™]

Kiho figured that Akihiko would be against the stealthy approach, the last mission they were on he opted out of that too. It was easy to think, 'oh there's four people who are regular bandits, therefore I can take them out alone,' but that wasn't always the case. You needed to be careful because you never know if the intel was wrong. There was no telling if these same group of people might have been swap out for more advance members.

After all, organizations like this one also had their own spies. They could have easily found out that they were coming and put in stronger players. Fortunately, because of Shodaime's Byakugan and Akihiko's Tennogan, it would be impossible to pull off an ambush so at least for now they could just focus on the four people ahead. On the way there they'd come across a few strung up bodies attached to trees. They were covered in puss and looked absolutely lifeless.

It was a shame to see how things had changed over the years, but this group was definitely different than any of the others she'd ever come across. The proof was in both her comrades reaction to what they were seeing, as it was hard for all of them to process how four people could have done all of this. "Well, that's the thing Akihiko, we don't exactly know if they do or don't. Maybe not at this level, but there's no telling what we'd find with the higher parts of the organization."

Kiho stated just before Shodaime talked of the days were bandits were nothing more than people who were after money and goods. Her father used to talk about them in the same way, but these days they weren't even worth keeping alive like they use to back in the day. You had to take them out permanently, or otherwise you were stuck with having to deal with the consequences later. Kiho's mother blamed this change on politics.

Citing that these once small time organizations had come into more power because of the relationships they were building with other underground organizations. "Understood." Kiho responded after Shodaime told the two of them it was time to get back to work. Kiho went in the direction of her target while Akihiko and Shodaime would go in another.

Once she got to her spot, Kiho looked toward Shodaime for the signal to go out and make a move. Eight handseals were formed so that she could finally put her newly acquired jutsu to work. It was perfect for assassination's like the one they were trying to pull out. When the signal was given Kiho would jump from the trees aiming to come from behind her target.

Before she would even land and hit the ground she'd make sure to thrust her lightning imbued right hand into the back of her enemy, straight through the heart. No sounds, no screams, and no warning that she or anyone else was coming would be heard from anyone as she took out her target in silence.

SPOILER: Click to show

SA ACTIVE:

• NANABI JINCHUURIKI - As the current Jinchuuriki of the Nananbi, Kiho now has more stamina and access to a reserve of chakra that only a Shinobi in her position could have. As the new host, Kiho has the potential to use a number of new skills. The first being flight via use of the Nanabi's wings, another being the ability to knead Chitin. The latter is a biopolymer with healing capabilities. It can also be used to create number of minor weaponry, and even surgical threads. Kiho also sees a major increase in durability because of the Nanabi's exoskeletal structure. Last, but not least Kiho also has the capability to molt, which in the future would enable her to heal herself in ways that only the Nanabi could.
  
• EXTREME SPEED E.P.T - After becoming the new Jinchuuriki of the Cloud village, Kiho has since put a great deal of effort into improving her athletic capabilities. Fueled by her increased chakra supply, Kiho decided to up her physical training regiments to a new level. Climbing mountain, and running up them were some of the things she did to improve her speed while also doubling the efforts in her Taijutsu training. As a result of her training she now stands out in comparison with her peers when it comes to raw speed in combat and running ability.
  
• DEPTH PERCEPTION E.P.T - Kiho has put an considerable amount of effort into improving her depth perception ability. This way she'll be able to handle the maneuverability of her own body at higher speeds. At the lowest level it makes keeping up with all of her combat actions easier. The feeling of being overwhelmed when performing multiple actions wont be as bad. At the highest level Kiho's eyesight is better trained to control any lack of focus that may occur as a result of a multitude of speed related actions. In other words things like tunnel vision clarity aren't much of an issue when moving fast.
  

POUCH ITEMS

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TRANSFORMATION

• NAME: Jigokuzuki |地獄突き| [Hell Stab]
  RANK: B.
  CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
  CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
  ELEMENT: Raiton
  HANDSEALS: 8
  DESCRIPTION:
  An extremely powerful technique of Tonoda, whereby he concentrates a considerable amount of lightning chakra into just the finger-tips of a single hand and then performs a thrusting motion, which together allows him to pierce a target to fatal effects. After performing the handseals Monkey → Dragon → Rat → Bird → Ox → Snake → Dog → Tiger, Tonoda then molds his fingers into a pointed tip, concentrating an immense amount of chakra into them. The intensity, size and strength of the technique can be proportionally increased by reducing the number of fingers involved. The normal variant of this technique uses four lighting imbued fingers that are made to thrust into a target. With four fingers [Yonhon Nukite | Four Finger Assault] Tonoda's thrust is strong enough to break through robust defences, such as the Earth Style Wall with relative ease.

[Omori Akihiko]

 i am a red fire quickly rising 

"D-D-Dead bodies?" Aki almost shouted, but he didn't. He managed to maintain his voice down to a slightly upset yet also excited whisper. How he managed to mix those two emotions together? The world would never know but he now stared at them in total awe and disgust. It was sad for the victims of course, but it was still kind of cool in a really disgusting and grotesque way. But, he was also a teenage boy who read too many comic books. His head was filled with dumb ideas and dumb things that made absolutely no sense, especially since that was primarily the only thing he actually read.

Shodaime and Kiho split up, without any real command on who he was supposed to go with. Well, not one that he heard at least. So, he decided to go with whoever he picked first. Which was Kiho, so into the trees he went. He wasn't quite as stealthy as Kiho but at least he knew at what point to be more quiet and silent since he could see them way ahead of time. He would pull out a kunai and lick his lips...

Wait... Was he supposed to stab one of them? That sounded awful! He had only kinda knocked out the bandits on the other mission! Suddenly Akihiko's brain turned on and he hesitated in the tree, looking at Kiho as she took action. He looked down at his kunai, his brows knitting together. How was he supposed to KILL this person? Like actually? Kill?

Aki started to sweat, and his palms turned quite clammy almost shaking, before he took a deep breath in and for some reason deciding to go in with his eyes closed he jumped from overhead to stab the man in his skull to make it fast. But, instead of stabbing him in the skull he just managed the shoulder which kind of meant that he noticed Aki's presence and this situation was no longer stealth. In fact, he let out a shout and whipped around to try and grab at Aki immediately.

348 | Mibōjin Kiho 昆™ Hyūga Shodaime | notes

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[Hyūga Shodaime]

Shodaime would drop down silently from the tree, right behind one of the blood heralds. With one quick swift movement, Shodaime would grab the blood herald covering his mouth before slitting his throat with the kunai. It was a bloody way to take someone out, but it was the quickest and quietest. After killing her first blood herald, she would sneak up on the other blood herald that was nearby and slit his throat as well. As she was finished with her kills she noticed that Akihiko was struggling with killing the person he was supposed to. Seeing this, Shodaime would throw a kunai at the blood herald, striking him in the back of his head using her Byakugan to accurately hit him.

The Blood herald would fall to the ground, dead in a pool of blood from the head wound. Shodaime would offer a hand Akihiko to pull him back up onto his feet. Though he didn't exactly kill him, she still smiled, It was a good attempt.

"You okay? Next time, sneak up behind your opponent and slit their throat, it's quicker and quieter." Shodaime would say to Akihiko, giving him advice for next time. She figured there would be a next time, considering the blood heralds are a big group of bandits. After helping Akihiko, Shodaime would wipe the blood of her kunai. Good weapon maintenance was always a priority for keeping equipment in tip top form for missions or anything that they would encounter in the shinobi world.

SPOILER: Click to show

SA Used:
Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan
Shodaime, being a member of the Side Branch was born with the milky white eyes her clan was famous for. Like others of her clan, the Byakugan granted her enhanced vision.

This vision is telescopic, allowing users to see through solid objects such as Smoke screens and walls. Arguably its greatest ability is to see chakra in all its nature, including its flow and the circulation system inside the body with great detail as well as the colour of chakra; giving them the ability to discern clones from the original. Like the Sharingan and Rinnegan, the Byakugan can detect chakra sealed barriers as well as determine when genjutsu is being used.

Having lived and trained most of her life, her byakugan allows her around 7-8 km range wise.

[Mibōjin Kiho 昆™]

After putting an end to her member of the blood Heralds, Kiho looked over to how things were going on Akihiko's end. She expected things to go much like it did on her end, but it did not. It looked as though somehow he ended up missing the killing blow, but how? Unfortunately, Kiho wouldn't have time to figure out why that might have happened and instead opted to finish the man herself.

Just when she got within range of the man a Kunai flung in from the direction that Shodaime was in, killing the man. "Whew.. You okay Akihiko?" Kiho questioned just as Shodaime came in and asked the same thing except her words were followed with what he should have done instead, but still, she couldn't figure out why he didn't do that to begin with.

In her mind she assumed that he'd already killed someone before, but after looking back in on the mission, Akihiko's plan actually failed to kill anyone. That's why she had to step in to do the work herself, so technically speaking, Akihiko was still a virgin when it came to taking out the opposition. How could she have missed that?

I can tell you're about to start being hard on yourself.. Don't. The Konoha lady appears to have everything under control, if anything, just take this as a learning moment and move on.

Kiho growled silently to herself as she didn't appreciate how Chomei already knew what was on her mind. Just because Arashi said we are roommates doesn't mean you get to look into my emotional diary! Despite her response she definitely appreciated where they were coming from. Lucky Seven was right, she was about to start beating herself up, but Shodaime had things under control.

"It sucks that we weren't able to get here sooner to save the others, but now it's up to us to report our findings to our village so they can dig more into this.. I got a bad feeling that there is more to this mission than these guys here."

[Omori Akihiko]

 i am a red fire quickly rising 

Akihiko looked at the dead man in front of him, he died very quickly for some reason. He wasn't even sure how he had gone from having a kunai in his shoulder to dead. Though he saw the kunai in his head he didn't quite process it. Then Shodaime came up and told him to slit the throat next time, and he looked at her with blackened eyes though there was clear distress in his gaze. He was supposed to kill people? That wasn't right... That wasn't right at all. His heart rate felt entirely abnormal too, as if his heart might burst from his chest. He was in a huge state of discomfort. Slowly he would pull the kunai out of the man's shoulder and tuck it back into its pouch. This wasn't what he had thought being a shinobi would be...

Aki looked at Kiho then, noticing that she did not have much to comment on aside from continuing on or at least recording their findings.

"A-Are we done?" He asked, whispering for once. There was clearly a disturbance in him and he was looking for a way out of this situation as quickly as possible. He wanted to go home, really, really bad.

206 | Hyūga Shodaime Mibōjin Kiho 昆™ | notes

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[Hyūga Shodaime]

Shodaime was happy that they had taken out the blood heralds along this route, if they had stopped them from attacking people even just for a few months it would have been worth it. She would look towards Akihiko's blackened eyes, there was a clear sign of distress in them, as if he was upset by something. Was it the killings these people did that disturbed him or was it killing the blood herald that disturbed him? Shodaime would place her hand on the kid's shoulder and try to comfort him.

"Is everything ok, Akihiko? What's wrong?" Shodaime would say a kind, soothing voice. She didn't want to frighten him even more than he already was. She knew that he was frightened. Maybe he wasn't used to killing anyone during missions, afterall the kid was only a genin. Sometimes a shinobi needed to kill their opponent in order to protect their loved ones or teammates. It was something she learned at a young age, when she went on her first mission as a genin.

"We should head back to Konoha and report our findings, like you said Kiho. Then I guess I owe you guys a tour of the village." Shodaime would say with a smile on her face.