[Minami Sora]

Sora entered the town without fanfare or obstruction, one hand on her blade as she followed what little sounds she could make out through the eerie silence. The streets were empty, the houses darkened and seemingly empty, though obviously there were people still in some of them; evacuations rarely got everyone out of the danger zone, and even the most thorough sweep could miss people. She wasn’t here to kill civilians though, so any of the ones left alive and in hiding were safe… well. As safe as they could be in a situation like this.

So it was that the black-haired woman kept moving, heading towards the only source of noise she could find, her breathing slow and steady. Until, that is, she hit a wall, her progress stopped by a literal wall that had simply appeared down a path she had already taken, her sense of direction seemingly twisted up in knots. Tch. The genjutsu user… again.

The Kiri Jounin stopped in front of the wall, her face twisting in an annoyed grimace as she reached into her flak jacket and quickly pulled out a single chakra pill, chewing on the supplement. She turned away from the obstacle, putting her back to it as she swallowed the pill, feeling the rush of foreign chakra hit her body all at once- she was going to need it in a moment. Gripping the hilt of her blade again, Sora drew Samidare, holding it by her left hip in a two-handed grip, closing her eyes for a moment as she flooded the weapon with Raiton chakra once more, focusing it into a tight, compacted mass of raw energy.

After a moment, the black-haired woman opened her eyes, swinging her blade up and to the right without a word, unleashing the torrent of Raiton within in a searing arc of crackling chakra that would cut and burn anything it came across in a wide arc. Everything in its path for some fifteen meters would, for the most part, be utterly destroyed, the sheer destructive power of her jutsu enough that it should, in theory anyway, draw out whoever was nearby and force them to either drop the genjutsu to avoid being killed or reveal themself, thus letting her retaliate.

In theory, anyway.

Shouki Kumori Sourei Kobashi Kaguya Toru

Jutsu/SA's/Equipment Used

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsu:
NAME: Ittoryu: Samidaregiri [One Sword Style: Spring Rain Cutter]
RANK: A
CHAKRA USAGE: High
CLASSIFICATION: Kenjutsu
ELEMENT: Raiton
HANDSEALS: N/a
RESTRICTIONS: Must know Saber Jutsu; Must have Chakra Conductive/Raiton Reactive Blade
DESCRIPTION: A unique variant of the Sabre Jutsu developed by a past user of Samidare Samidaregiri works by flooding Samidare with Raiton-nature chakra, which is then unleashed when the user swings the blade, exploding out it in a "cut” that follows the arc of her slash, but with vastly increased range and intense destructive power, as the "cut” is made of pure Raiton chakra and not only cut, but burns and shocks as well. Destructively speaking, Samidaregiri is capable of carving a large, scorched gouge in thick plates of steel.

This is not to say Samidaregiri is a perfect jutsu; it takes a good few seconds to charge the blade with sufficient chakra and, should the user somehow fail to unleash the cut after charging the blade to full, it will erupt upon them instead of their enemy, essentially making this technique almost as dangerous for the user as it is for their enemy. These cuts have an effective range of roughly 15m.
Special Abilities:
The Kunoichi That Goes On And On And On… [Endurance SA]
Perhaps part of her genetics or simply a random quirk of fate, Sora is unnaturally resilient, be it to physical pain or the toils of extended combat. While most Shinobi would collapse in exhaustion at having used all but the smallest sliver of their chakra reserves, she pushes on; while most Shinobi would wilt beneath the weight of sleepless night after sleepless night, she keeps going. This does not mean she does not feel pain/the strain of extended combat, but rather that her threshold for shutting down because of it is far higher than others. To give an example, if she were to be stabbed through her abdomen, she would still feel the pain of the injury, and it would hinder her ability to move/act, but it wouldn’t stop her, whereas a normal ninja might freeze up or shut down from the pain.

Bet You Didn’t See That Coming [Speed SA]
A byproduct of her enhanced endurance, Sora (despite what many would think) dislikes being injured- and with that dislike comes the intense desire to avoid getting hurt, a desire that has pushed her to hone her body until it could move faster than most others of her rank. In short, Sora is fast- very, very fast.

POWAH! UNLIMITED POWAH!! [Chakra Reserves SA]
After a lifetime of utilizing nearly every ounce of chakra in her body just to survive, Sora’s chakra reserves have expanded a considerable amount to compensate- while she’s no Jinchuuriki, her ability to toss out jutsu after jutsu and still have enough chakra to keep going is quite remarkable, a testament to just how much of the stuff she actually has.

I Am Not Left-Handed [Kenjutsu Mastery SA]
Sora is not merely a Kenjutsu specialist- she is a master when it comes to the art of the sword; after over two decades of training, her skills are unrivaled within Kirigakure, falling short only to the Seven Swordsman themselves… some of them, anyway. This mastery allows her a distinct advantage when fighting other Bukijutsu specialists of similar or lesser rank.

If You Try For Speed, You Do Not Achieve Speed [Bukijutsu Speed SA]
Beyond being a master of Kenjutsu, Sora has practiced for decades to become the faster swordswoman she can be. As such, her Kenjutsu techniques come out faster and move quicker than those performed by others of her rank.

Equipment: Samidare | Spring Rain Blade (Drawn)
SA’s
Unbreakable
Whatever metal and forging process was used in the creation of Samidare, it worked; Samidare is utterly unbreakable by most any means, capable of being engulfed in an S-Rank Jutsu and remaining unscathed. Though it is possible that the blade could potentially be broken by a sufficiently powerful attack (such as, say, a Bijuu-dama), this has never been tested, so it is not known if it would survive.

Sharper Than Your Average Blade
Due to its nature as an unbreakable blade, Samidare bears a cutting edge that is of particular note, which allows it to slice through even steel with little in the way of resistance, so long as the proper force is applied. Additionally, this edge never needs to be resharpened, as it never grows dull or rolls, thus making it perfect for frontline combat.

Light as Spring Rain
Perhaps a quirk of its forging (or perhaps an intentional feature), Samidare is considerably lighter than a blade its size and length ought to be; while this would normally result in a less effective weapon, Samidare loses none of its integrity or cutting power, as it is somehow able to leverage the same amount of force through less mass. This lightness allows the user to swing the weapon about with much greater speed for the same amount of physical exertion.

Chakra Conduction
Being Chakra Conductive, Samidare is capable of channeling all types of Chakra for use in Bukijustu, and, more particularly, it has a slight affinity for Raiton chakra thanks to Sora’s constant use of the blade for that purpose. This affinity does not do anything of real note, but it does feel as if the blade were more eager to drink in Raiton Chakra than other types.

[Shouki Kumori]

… Strange. Not the unguarded gate, but… upon entering, Kumori relied on both eyes and ears for pathfinding, but after all the audial errors he’d made under the effects of a certain someone’s previous illusory effects, the reality of him butting into walls that weren’t there before… and going in circles though he followed an advancing path…

But upon turning around and leaving, Kumori realized that the path out didn’t get him lost – in reality, he’d escaped the radius after a bit, but… yeah, his gut feeling told him: Genjutsu.

They’d gotten lost before… but upon entering again, Kumori remembered the path he’d taken before suddenly meeting obstacles… and all of a sudden, new obstacles appeared where he’d been a moment before! Some sort of mismatching Genjutsu… but it’s clear to see that there’s a boundary to its range of effects. The caster’s nearby.

Even from his position, he could feel the wave of electric energy expand in all directions – Sora must’ve decided to take a violent approach to drawing the Genjutsu caster out. Now, Kumori couldn’t really tell the exact range of effect of this Genjutsu – he just knew that reaching the gate he entered through meant it let go of its hold on him. A clearly more short-range versi-

Wait… why’d he think it was short-range? Well, it was likely the same Genjutsu caster as before, right? The one who had messed their sense of direction earlier, correct? How’d they do that? A Genjutsu couldn’t reach that far from a single position, so unless… and the sounds underground…

The moments of combat in the woods… as if someone had been right by their side all along. A Genjutsu like this, which held a clear range of effect, was likely different, but… if someone wanted to keep a shinobi under a Genjutsu like this while staying undetected, then where could they hide?

That woman… she’s not the only one using the Underground Submarine Voyage!

He’d willingly enter its range once again. His bet was that the caster was underground – therefore, he’d actually put less attention to the Genjutsu-imposed objects in his way, and more attention to his feet… if a crack was caught by his ears from below, he’d leap and be ready to counter-attack with his sword. The fact that the caster was this secretive meant that their capabilities in open combat must’ve been lacking.

But the Jutsu affecting his path-crossing meant that it was also a bit annoying to reach out to Sora again. He just hoped he could make it in time to share his inkling.

[Sourei Kobashi]

Peeking out through the slowly clearing smoke a mist that was no longer maintained, Kobashi saw now sign of a true body and quickly realized he was still trapped within the confines of the illusion. His brain went into overdrive trying to figure some way out of the situation, but was coming up short on ideas. He had been unable to break the illusions of the younger man earlier, he had taken a painkiller which meant trying to break the illusion with pain would require such grievous injuries as to make him useless going forward and his failed attempt at attacking without need for his normal senses had proven ineffective.

Kobashi retreated into the house once more and crouched down while unsealing one of the replacement scrolls for the Shibuki. It was a massive gamble, but it was the only path he could see forward. Before he could detonate the scroll of explosive notes however a massive arc of electricity blew through the buildings around him and the one he was in causing splinters of wood to rain around him. He had seen the technique before and while there was a chance it was more enemies, it at least made Kobashi click the radio on him to whisper out a warning to the others in case it truly was Sora nearby.

"If that was your attack now, fall back as far as you can and as fast as you can."

It was a bit vague on what exactly he was going to do in case the genjutsu was near enough to listen in, but given the other two knew his capabilities and his tendency towards explosions it should have been easy enough for them to piece together what was about to occur. Kobashi planned to wait only thirty seconds, hopefully they'd have enough time to make distance through use of body flicker or some such to get away. At the end of the waiting period Kobashi intended to detonate the entirety of the scroll with the roll position slightly in front and under himself. Naturally Kobashi also intended to increase his density to survive the blast. Ideally the subsequent blast would take out the genjutsu user, produce more destruction to the town and launch Kobashi further into the town where he at the very least could position the final scroll and potentially still make good on the information gathering secondary objective.

Made by Riley at THQ!

[Kaguya Toru]

I would know him in death At the end of the world Minami Sora Shouki Kumori Sourei Kobashi

Two things happened within a rather short span of time. Sora ran into a wall and immediately got annoyed with this and unleashed a large arc of electricity. The arc broke buildings and sent debris into the air. It also ripped into the soil and ground beneath. The genjutsu did not end, which meant the target was not dead. However Kumori would hear some coughing... Whether it was a civilian or not that would be difficult to determine but soon after their radios would spark to life, a voice low and deep telling them to get out of radius immediately.

The coughing wouldn't stop... But presuming the other two shinobi got out of the way immediately with thirty seconds and the explosion going off well there wouldn't be a need to address the coughing because it along with everyone else in the area would be absolutely obliterated. Kobashi only surviving because of his own density, however the entire genjutsu radius would really go up into flames.

The only way the trio had to determine if the genjutsu user was dead or not was the genjutsu itself. But now the entire area was gone up in flames...

Kobashi would be landing somewhere not in the village.

Now they could decide if they wanted to collect anymore intel or call it a day. There was no way that whoever was pursuing them would have survived the blast regardless.

SPOILER: Click to show

3/3 enemies down

collect intel or run away?

ooc note: apologies for this nonsense post

OWL

[Minami Sora]

Sora was getting really damn tired of this shit.

Her attack slammed into the ground with a roar of thunder and the crackles of lighting, blasting through buildings and anything in its way… and yet, she felt no change in her senses. The imaginary wall behind her was still there, the genjutsu still in effect, as if she hadn’t even been aiming in the right place. Her temper flared, breathing growing heavy as she slid Samidare back into her sheath, determined to find the little bastard behind it and end him- only for her radio to crackle to life, Kobashi’s voice ringing out a warning to get clear while he handled their sole remaining enemy. It was a warning the black-haired woman heeded, pushing herself through the false wall and out of the genjutsu while she still had a chance, her body moving up onto the rooftops while she still could, utilizing the thirty seconds she had to make it to the edge of the village once more.

She turned around just in time to watch the explosion engulf a huge section of the village, the shockwave almost knocking her off her feet and off the wall entirely. Almost. It took only a few moments for the Kiri Jounin to regain her senses, sky-blue gaze focusing on the huge, smoking craterKobashi had left in his wake; if that hadn’t killed their foe, nothing would.

"I’m going to get what intel I can. You should go collect our exploding friend; I’ll meet you at what’s left of the gate." Sora said, forming a single hand seal as she uses her own radio to call out to Kumori who, hopefully, was far enough outside the blast radius to still be in fighting shape. Two shadow clones form around her, one heading left, the other right, while she herself moves forward, scouring the remaining buildings for anything that might be useful. They don’t have much time, but there should be enough for her and her clones to be fairly thorough- after all, most everyone in the town ought to either be dead or incapacitated by now.

And if they weren’t… well. She still had plenty of chakra to burn.

Shouki Kumori Sourei Kobashi Kaguya Toru

[Shouki Kumori]

Kumori knew to heed the warning of a man who wielded the Shibuki, and it immediately made the elder shinobi turn 180 and perform the Body Flicker Technique. If Kobashi was planning to unleash Shibuki now, then he wouldn’t leave anything behind – no witnesses allowed. Shibuki’s area of effect was huge, and wielded by a Sourei only made it even more terrifying.

Reaching the other gate to the village in time, Kumori awaited the inevitable- ah, there it was! The explosion sent out a huge shockwave outside of the direct rapture of fire and heat, which was powerful enough for the old man to need an arm over his face, lest he got slapped by the wave and lost his foothold. Shibuki’s just as destructive as I remember… he admired the lightshow a few moments after, watching a shadowy form fly away from the village, Is that him?

He caught the subsequent call from Sora and the command to go pick up Kobashi. He’d definitely densified his form to survive the explosion, but that must’ve been his form that he spotted earlier. "Roger,” he replied back through the radio before going off at the direction of Kobashi’s fall, taking the time to confirm no surviving resistance left in the decimated town. The fires rampaging near the center meant he was forced to arc around the danger zone, but he continued to make his way towards wherever Kobashi had landed.

…

"We’re going to rendezvous back at the gate. No corpse is found yet, but the Genjutsu’s worn off… can you still move?” Kumori would ask the man who took flight after finding his landing, offering an arm to rest on should Kobashi’s reserves have reached their limit after that show. The man had already taken a painkiller, tanked the most damage, and his patience was likely running thin as paper.

Jutsu Used:

SPOILER: Click to show

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.

[Sourei Kobashi]

Kobashi's plan seemed to have worked out... mostly. The large explosion had definitely leveled a decent amount of buildings around him, the genjutsu seemed to be broken and it had launched him in the general direction he had wanted to go. Unfortunately it had launched Kobashi too well it seemed. Rather than landing back in a different section of the city, Kobashi could see the city and its walls go from being all around him to eventually being under and eventually in front of him as he was ejected entirely from the city.

As Kobashi continued to spin, but did not shift beyond that spinning he probably would look quite comical and strange to the casual observer. Kobashi could not think of that himself at the moment though, all he could focus on was the worry of whether he'd land before the time of the enduring state ran out. Ground and sky, the two repeated like a night and day cycle rapidly changing until suddenly there was nothing, but darkness as Kobashi was driven into the ground by gravity like a meteorite striking the earth.

It was, but a few seconds later that the bonds of his body snapped back to what they were supposed to be and he ran out of time in the enduring state. Immediately Kobashi pushed his body up and outwards as much as he could, his muscles straining against the massive weight of dirt and stone he was pushing himself against. While the soil might have been stable enough to not need pushing against, Kobashi and many of his clan had learned at a young age to never trust the terrain. For instance, rematerializing within sand; the grains of sand might get enjected, but the sand as a whole would lock your body in place and possibly kill you if you were not careful.

Thankfully the soil here was solid enough that a city had been constructed near and they were not directly on a coast where water might have easily filled this hole. For now Kobashi's plan was to just keep pressure on the earthen walls around him while breathing slowly so as to not outpace the fresh air coming from the tunnel his impact had made. The seconds ticked by like molasses dripping from a crack in glass or at least felt that way to Kobashi. Eventually however Kobashi was able to send chakra through his body once more, this time taking the intangible state and rising up through the soil. Emerging Kobashi gave a quick look around himself and seeing no threat allowed his body to return to normal before letting himself drop down and sit for a moment.

He was in a great deal of pain, even with the painkiller still flowing through his system. Adrenaline was starting to wear off at this point and he was becoming more and more conscious of the torrent of pain emanating from his dirt covered hand. Given the chakra costs of trying to hide his presence numerous times, the usage of his clan bloodline on top of the other jutsu he had used and Kobashi realized he was getting to the point of being more a hindrance than helpful. Just as he was beginning to consider whether he should fallback or just shift to more of a support role, one his his compatriots arrived on the scene.

The arrival was met with an uncharacteristic smile from Kobashi. His eyes seemed warm while his mind tried to discern if this truly was his comrade. The enemies here had already shown capability with genjutsu, but Kobashi as always felt caution was a good default approach to any situation. Kobashi stood up finally, waving away the offered arm and bending down slightly to pat dirt away from his legs while also asking a question.

"Who was last to arrive?"

The words were not even a true whisper, more so formed while his soft and slow breath escaped his body. The test was two fold, difficult for most to hear other than someone like Kumori who had keen ears while also being a question that no one here should have been able to answer. Kobashi could have asked it more openly, but by keeping the question quiet he maintained the presumption that he was not suspicious.


OOC: I know it's a bit long Han, I'm sorry.

Made by Riley at THQ!

[Sprinkles]

    What intel there was to find wasn't in any state to read, and in the best case, if Sora managed to try grabbing any scrolls, they'd not be worth bringing back. What none of the three would immediately realize was all the scrolls and paper left didn't have anything worth reading, but it was other things they grabbed they did, and then some. Every body she passed that would bother to put up resistance wasn't in any shape to put up a fight, or was already dead, and that unfortunately went double for anyone worth talking to or bringing back with them. As far as it immediately looked like, they were the few left alive, and this was a bust, though they'd realize how wrong they were once they were ready to head home.

    Sora specifically would know better than to stay too long searching around, as fire was spreading and spreading quickly, but if she noticed quick enough she'd see what looked like a few incredibly ornate katana, and one even more extravagant sheathe with no weapon holstered, that could be grabbed with little more than outstretched arms running past.

    As far as Kumori and Kobashi were aware, the Genjutsu user was incapacitated if not dead, as any remnants of Genjutsu were long gone, and as no one had come to attack them or Sora, it was becoming unlikely they would. With the fire spreading, they were either caught in the flames, or down before the fire spread to them, but either way there was no more fight to be had here. If Sora had grabbed the empty sheathe, she'd find it was barely one at all, certainly not meant for proper combat situations anyways, but made for someone more wealthy than whoever likely lived here. What was more worth noticing however wouldn't be apparent until she was somewhere safe enough to give it a look for more than a few seconds, realizing that it could be easily pulled apart, and the insides weren't hollow or even made to hold a katana at all, but inside was a scroll wrapped in on itself. 

    On the scroll was some type of information on defense, more so how they were built, strengths weaknesses, all related to Sea country. Multiple forts that were otherwise unknown or unmarked and hidden defensive areas that would have been near impossible to find easily otherwise. One of the two swords seemed significantly lighter than the other, and upon inspection the weapon itself was a fake, with a second sheath able to pull apart much like the first, and oddly near identical information but in regards to Reef country. Along with names of those in charge of each secure position, and various other names along with writing that strangely turned into another language. It would have to be translated back in the village, but no doubt more interesting information.

    The third blade was in fact just that, a very exotic blade, not a katana, but a strange curved sword with an equally strange hilt, sheathe, and design. It wasn't like anything any of the three had likely seen, even if similar to other weapons, but no one has to be a weapon-smith to know this thing was expensive. Jeweled, expensive metals, a weapon meant for combat not just display, so the craftsmanship was astonishing even among these three shinobi that had all wielded types of weapons. Whoever this sword belonged to would be very sore losing it, and the blunt truth was this weapon if sold to the right buyer could near pay for every defensive position and the land they were built on specified on either of these scrolls.

- Riches: Check

- Intel: Check

- Enemies left: None

    It was up to the three now to decide what to do with what they had found, and what to do in general with no more enemies to take out and with a raging fire, likely nothing else to salvage that was worth the risk.

[Minami Sora]

Sora and her clones moved swiftly, racing the raging fire and the chaos of the civilians still left in the city to find what they were looking for. She felt her clones disperse not long after she entered a large administrative building, the information of their unfruitful search creasing the black-ahired woman’s face with a frown as she hurried down the halls, sky-blue gaze flitting through room after room until, with a sigh, she came to one final place- a large office with several incredibly ornate looking weapons hanging on one of the walls.

Instinct told her to grab the weapons, if only for the worth of their furnishings, and in a flash of movement she did so, sealing the blades and the empty sheath into a storage scroll before she turned back and made her way towards Kumori and Kobashi’s last known location, utilizing her radio once more to relay that she was on the way. They could look through the spoils on the trip back- right now, all that mattered was regrouping and getting the hell out of here before more enemies arrived.

"I have the goods. On route to your location. Recommend we exfil immediately, using escape point Alpha."

Shouki Kumori Sourei Kobashi Sprinkles Han

[Shouki Kumori]

Kobashi did look like he needed a tea break with all the aching injuries he still endured. But Kumori took his hand back after Kobashi waved it away – he was still stronger than that. Much stronger than that. Although, this mission had also reminded Kumori that he really wouldn’t get much stronger from now on – not in his old age… if he didn’t watch out, it’d only be a downward spiral from here. And that’d lead to a future failure, one too grave to redeem… his age was catching up to him. He could feel that.

"…” Kumori heard his question loud and clear, but he could tell from the movement of his lips that Kobashi wasn’t intentionally being loud… a whisper. Regardless, Kumori’s ears wouldn’t miss those words, a question in need of an answer that he knew. Last to arrive… back at the cabin was…

"You. And from the looks of it, you were also the first to leave… this village, that is. And in quite a spectacular fashion too,” Kumori joked before receiving Sora’s message through the radio. She was in possession of goods, and it was about time they took their leave. Nodding to Kobashi, Kumori would wait for Sora’s arrival before they left for point Alpha alongside his worn companion, a bit worried about Kobashi’s state.

…

Something was aching in his chest… but it disappeared again. Due to prior chaos, he shrugged and ignored the growing pain that presented itself for a brief moment. Nothing to worry about…

[Sourei Kobashi]

For the singular moment that silence hung in the air as Kobashi awaited the answer to the question; Kobashi was ready to launch into a desperate attack. Thankfully though this action turned out to be an unnecessary one. Within a moment Kumori answered the question correctly and almost instantly after the answer was given a stifled sigh escaped Kobashi's lips. While the younger man tried to keep it quiet it was undoubtedly something that would be heard by the older man.

Kobashi was most definitely tired at his point. His chakra while not entirely exhausted had definitely been expended heavily, the medication he had been given to help with the pain while working did not remove the pain of severe burns on his hand nor the heavy coat of irritating water syrup and dirt that Kobashi had placed on it as a temporary fix. It was likely he would get an earful from his sister and Hisao about the injuries he had sustained, still; so long as he returned alive that was all that mattered to those two in the end.

"Yes, it was not exactly the most graceful of exits. Ideally we neutralized all the threats, fresh pursuers at this point would be... problematic to say the least."

Perhaps it was in bad taste, but it ultimately was in Kobashi's nature to be cautious and often to worry himself about the bad becoming worse. Hopefully though his concerns would prove to be unfounded and their extraction remain uneventful. If they were extracting with escape point Alpha it meant they would rendezvous at the coastline and from there hopefully make passage on a merchant vessel.

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