Tsubame watched Dragon stare at the wall, reading the strange symbols and markings upon it, without much awareness to what was going on around him. The stone tablet was his priority above all, apparently. The news of another member of his group having some relation to the Iron Country was interesting. "Really? I hope I can meet Tiger soon." It was a little exciting for her, to be able to meet with someone from her homeland. There could be a possibility they could know each other, and if not, it would be nice to have someone to relate to, in a way. Her eyes continued to scan the area around them in search of potential dangers, making up for the focus that Dragon was putting into finding the stone tablet. Whatever he was reading, she only hoped it would help him find all that he needed. She listened to him as he spoke, however, admiring how much he considered the Shishin his closest family. "They must be very close to you..." She smiled. It was a good trait for a leader to have. Though, the partial background of his family's dark past when it came to the powers of his eyes was enough to cause the smile to fade. It was outrageous, the things people would do for power. Even the most honorable of motives could slowly turn into grabs for power--if they weren't already intended to be so, which was something Tsu had witnessed a few times among other noble families in the Iron Country. Why would anyone even think about poisoning their own country's soldiers? Tsu thought to herself, remembering a dispute between her father and one of the heads of another noble family, who attempted to wipe out the Ashikaga's upcoming generation of Samurai. Two of them, would have been her older brothers, which caused her to clench her teeth behind calm, closed lips.
Dragon's voice snapped her out of her partial daydream, and she felt a little embarrassed for not keeping her mind centered on the task at hand. He wanted to know her full name. "It is rare. I go by Tsu, because I prefer it, and it is a little more common. My full name is Tsubame." She felt she could trust him with that, generally because she didn't have a real reason to hide it. Although, it did strike up the question of Dragon's real name. "What about yours? Dragon makes for a fearsome code name, I'll admit." She'd glance over at him, his focus centered solely on the wall in front of him. His crimson eyes scanning each symbol and marking as if he were studying intensely from a book. However, his facial expression of slight irritation did not go unnoticed. After a little while of following him around, she'd ask curiously, "Is the text helping you at all?"
●Samurai Discipline: Gains a moderate resistance to Touch-based Genjutsu; suffers no drawbacks from wearing armor. ●Weapon Specialist Discipline: Weapon skill increases at every rank, allowing weapons to cut through defensive Bukijutsu techniques of the same rank. ●Onna-bugeisha Spirit PA: The Naginata can be wielded with other weapons styles learned; treated as that particular weapon. ●Smooth as Water: As per the training, the user is now able to move their feet independently while performing strikes. (-15 stamina for Soft Physical formless evasion.)
◆￤ Other Additives
●Stats: Strength (Slightly); Speed (Heavily); Reflex (Moderate) ●Iaidō: Due to Stage Three mastery, is treated as C-rank. ● ●
◆￤ Jutsu Used / Learned
● ● ●
Odoeb
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Barry_VII generated a random number between
1 and 20 ...
10!
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:55 pm
Atsuko wasn't really getting anywhere with the last two riddles. It was more of very vague directions, something that could be interpreted in many different ways. Typical uchiha right.
He made a mental note of her preference as the pair went down another stray hallway. The compound was built like a maze, which didn't help the fact that much of the insides had been tossed around by the wind. Even worse it seemed that it wasn't used to frequently, dust was all to frequent.
Her question seemed to yield no response at first. As if he was considering whether or not he wanted to respond, an internal deliberation if you will. "Atsuko. Consider that your first step to full-fledge membership. Not that my name is known across the lands, but typically I will always avoid telling someone my first name. It's more of a sign of trust and respect to give it out then paranoia.
As for these scribblings not so much. I believe they are pointers to the tablets location but they are very vague. On purpose of course, as the uchiha are, it just means we could be here a while"
He wished there was more he could add but it was pretty simple when it all boiled down. "Do you have any other questions for me? We could probably be down here for a while. Doesn't seem like the village is to occupied with stopping us either" Atsuko noted, the semi silence still pounding his eardrums. ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
Atsuko continued his search and deliberation as he tried to decode the wall in front of him. The scribbles slowly came into focus. Each of these clues were a riddle, of sorts.
In a sense they all alluded to either some sort of history of the uchiha or one of those brain teasers. Things that could be interpreted as directions only really if you knew what they were talking about. This was rather unfortunate for Atsuko as he didn't have much contact with his clan prior to this.
Pressing his finger to the coms he opened up the air waves. "This is dragon reporting in. Currently me and Tsu are in the uchiha compound within konoha. The guards let us in once we stated we weren't a threat. Turtle if you are avaliable at anytime in the future I might need some help on tracking down this tablet" Atsuko stated as he stood in front of a wall.
"Just tell the guards that Ryu sent for you and state you aren't looking to cause trouble either. The village is in chaos right now but apparantly still good enough to let people in"
He had to add that last bit of a warning as all of the glass and blood might surprise Houou otherwise. He knew that more hands on deck would increase there chances slightly of finding this thing. At the very least it would also mean he was safe in the villagers didn't take to kindly to their snooping around. ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
◆￤ Other Additives
● ● ●
◆￤ Jutsu Used / Learned
● ● ● ●
Zak the Panduh
Shou Senju
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:12 pm
It is the heart, that defines a S A M U R A I...
After a brief moment of silence, Dragon finally spoke, revealing his name as Atsuko. It wasn't something he told everyone, and for the sheer fact that he trusted and respected her enough to reveal it was uplifting for Tsu. The tablet however, was still a mystery. At times it appeared Atsuko found a clue by the look on his face, or solved some puzzle within the symbols etched upon the wall, only to lead into another puzzle of sorts. While keeping watch around them, she halfway listened to Atsuko speak through his communicator, wanting Turtle to come meet with them. Tsu remembered that Phoenix and Turtle parted ways together, and would speak, slightly out of concern once Atsuko was finished. "What about Phoenix?The two left together when we headed to Giman. Shouldn't she come too?" She wasn't aware if she had other plans or not, but it felt safer to travel around in pairs at the very least... which made her wonder about Tiger.
●Samurai Discipline: Gains a moderate resistance to Touch-based Genjutsu; suffers no drawbacks from wearing armor. ●Weapon Specialist Discipline: Weapon skill increases at every rank, allowing weapons to cut through defensive Bukijutsu techniques of the same rank. ●Onna-bugeisha Spirit PA: The Naginata can be wielded with other weapons styles learned; treated as that particular weapon. ●Smooth as Water: As per the training, the user is now able to move their feet independently while performing strikes. (-15 stamina for Soft Physical formless evasion.)
◆￤ Other Additives
●Stats: Strength (Slightly); Speed (Heavily); Reflex (Moderate) ●Iaidō: Due to Stage Three mastery, is treated as C-rank. ● ●
As he worked on the next riddle Tsu seemed to voice her concern. Glancing back at the woman he gave her a rather convincing smile. Atsuko knew that he members would be safe regardless of the numbers, but she might have had a point.
"Perhaps. It is frequent that we have been working together, outside of tiger of course, but that doesn't always have to be the case. If you wanted to give her some company though I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Once turtle gets here you can decide if you want to stay or leave"
He knew that he himself had to stick to this to the end, no matter how annoying. Some time had already passed since he had gotten here and he was no closer to the answer. It was just deserving wrong answers from write at this point.
Like a riddle there sometimes were multiple answers that could fit the slot. Unfortunately even answers that could be right wouldn't matter. What he was looking for was the correct ones.
Ultimately what that all meant is he'd have to follow a lot of false leads. Eventually he'd be able to sort out what was right or wrong, but could take a very unknown amount of time. What did he expect though, it was already easy to get through the gates so this task couldn't have been a sinch. ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
Finally tracking down the building, Houou felt sic and he passed all of the injured civilians and shinobi alike. He medical just could be of immense help to these people, but his family came first and he still hadn’t had the time to make contact. Houou was constantly on guard for enemies and any signs of trouble. If he dropped his guard now it could prove fatal. Entering the compound Houou hugged the wall and checked his immediate surroundings. The entrance was empty and the so were the surrounding rooms. Taking advantage of this situation, Houou quickly jumped on his comm and radioed for Atsuko.
“Dragon....dragon, this is turtle. I’ve arrived at the compound but there is no sign of any life here. Is it safe to proceed further inside? Outside there is chaos. Bodies and glass everywhere!”
Houou released the communicator and returned to his vigilant state, awaiting the response of Atsuko.
Atsuko was busy deliberating a new riddle when Houou's voice chimed over the radio. Activating his comm again he'd speak in a rather calm tone "It is safe to proceed inside. I don't know what has happened in Konoha but it isn't our place to help right now. Head on inside I'll give you directions to our location". With the directions given he'd deactivate the radio and get back to work somewhat.
"You know Tsu if you were worried about her still you could go off and help her instead. I could get a location from Turtle. I'm sure she wouldn't mind the company" Atsuko stated to his partner for the time being. Those things being dealt with he'd refocuse his attention to the damn riddle.
So far there had been little progress and he was starting to go in circles. It wasn't surprising so much as it was infuriating to him. There wasn't much he could do though.
Outside of ripping down every wall in this building he had to find out where it had been stashed. That was what he was getting out of all of these at least. It had gone missing during some sort of war but there had been enough time to hide it.
In the back of his mind he wondered why it had been so hidden. He knew it held important secrets but apparently only sharingan could read it. Could it really hold information deemed so important that it was nearly destroyed and then hidden from the public eye? ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
Houou was extremely relived to hear Atsuko’s voice over the comm. as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders, he ralexed his body against the wall and let out a deep sigh of release. Momentarily forgetting his surroundings houou stepped back into focus and proceeded deeper into the compound, following Atsuko’s directions with extreme caution, leaving his clone lurking in the shadows of the compound entrance to keep watch. He was sure that Atsuko’s would check the surroundings in his way in, but even he wouldn’t notice if someone had followed them inside at a distance.
Finally coming up to a dead end houou could see the silhouette of two individuals just ahead of him.
“Ryu! It’s good to see your face again my friend. This village is in shambles but I’m glad to see you are safe. ”
Then houou shot a quick glance over to Tsu. If she had come all this way with Atsuko, she couldn’t be all to bad. Only houou was still quite weary of having her around. However, Houou trusted Atsuko’s decisions more than he trusted his house instincts.
“Tsu thank you for traveling with him and providing support. I believe Phoenix is awaiting your assistance with some missions right now. I’ve secured an exit for you as you will not be able to travel through the main gates the way you entered. Ive created a tunnel just to the left of the Konoha dojo. If you fallow these directions it will take you right there. That tunnel leads to the entrance of the village. I will inform Phoenix to meet you at the gates. Don’t worry I have a clone lurking around the area keeping lookout. It will keep watch on you just Incase trouble arises.”
Houou gave a short bow to the young girl, signaling his gratitude towards her. Then handed her a small piece of paper containing directions to his wooden tunnel that he created to enter the village. Houou may not have trusted Tsu yet but he would not have any harm come to her in the battlefield outside.
So far and so little. The very little he had managed to gather was that wherever it was it was in a hidden location. This meant they wouldn't just stumble across it.
Even worse it was not only hidden but the hidden wall was likely hidden to behind something just adding to the madness. All of the 'riddles' were more so directions. Some of them were likely false flags well a few select would be actually true.
Houou seemed to be quick to giving orders for Tsu which was fine if not direct, Atsuko didn't mind. Really he was just happy to see Houou again after they had been separated for so long. Last time he could remember was back at the base some time ago, outside of communications.
"Yes, don't really know what is happening. I hope that after I find this tablet I can talk to their kage. They seem rather friendly to strangers which is rather good, our timing is just rather awful it seems" Atsuko stated as he looked at another wall.
This entire thing was starting to give him a migraine but he wouldn't give up anytime soon. Unlike some things in life there was always things you'd face that were honestly up to chance, such as this. With so many leads and only one of them true he just had to sift out the false ones one at a time. ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
With his clone keeping lookout houou could rest easily knowing that they wouldn’t be ambushed without warning. Slightly relaxing himself, Houou began assisting Atsuko in his search for the Uchiha artifact. If even the famed sharingan couldn’t instantly find the artifact, then Houou knew his eyes would be utterly useless. However, this would not stop him from running his hands across the walls and examining every crack on the surface. The Uchiha clan were famous for their intellect and cunning. For all they knew, a puzzle needed to be solved before anything would be revealed.
“I agree that this is the perfect timing for us to form an alliance with this village and their Hokage. I feel as though I should be out their assisting them with my Eiseijutsu,but our task is of grave importance. That and I can’t afford to get caught In he crossfire... we are unfamiliar faces after all.”
Houou turned and looked to Atsuko’s feet, Pondering the possibility of a hidden space in the floor that could possibly be uncovered. Maybe this would warrant investigation, if all else failed.
Atsuko nodded to Houou's statement. It seemed that he to could realize what position they were in. Strangers helping may be nice but they were just that, strangers. Ultimately it might lead to more confusions or issues then help if they assisted the village. Perhaps once things settled down that would change.
"Let's just hope the hokage made it through. If this thing is so well hidden there's a chance that they might not even know about it. From what i've gathered it's been through a hell of a lot and was hidden with a great purpose. It's just a matter of sifting through these damned riddles"
It was about this time that Atsuko would realize something, a pattern of sorts. He had been over a lot of markings already and there were similarities with some and differences with others. Certain symbols always seemed to be a part of the scrawlings where as other symbols were almost always unique.
What this meant so far for him wasn't much but again he would take everything he could get. Perhaps it meant he had to try to read in between the lines. Like reading a riddle among riddles?
Hell he may have to even pick certain words and combine them. The possibilities from this small thing opened up a lot of doors and narrowed down his path. Of course he could just be chasing a false ghost, man oh man was he getting sick of this place already. ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
So after a few more walk around that lead in circles he was able to confirm it. Certain words were definitely false flags. This meant he had to read in between the lines.
Even worse was the fact that he was starting to wonder if it wasn't so much of a riddle as the words were jumbled. Perhaps you even had to take words from multiple clues together. The snake nest had only just gotten started here.
The empty halls were starting to drive him mental but at least silence wasn't so much a bad thing. Outside of the occasional noises of mild movement from outside it showed that the chaos wasn't escalating. That was good.
As they moved through the building Atsuko did notice a few other things that were odd. It seemed like they hadn't been the last ones here. Well there were dust on some items he could spot signs of other areas that had been disturbed.
Perhaps whoever had caused damage to this city had came through this area as well. If they were still in the area however they had to have been silent. Atsuko was glad he had Houou around that was for sure.
Houou couldn’t imagine the frustration that Atsuko was facing. These dusty halls were so bare that one would wonder what this place was even used for. Houou was not very familiar with the Uchiha clan other than the stories his dad would tell him, nor did he understand what this artifact was that they were hunting down. However, Houou didn’t care about the details. The sooner he helped Atsuko reach his goal, the sooner they could get the heck out of this odd, empty building.
“Kinda strange being here isn’t it?”
Houou said, not really directing the question to Atsuko. He ran his hands across some strange markings on the floor. Staring blankly at them.
“my father would tell me tales of both our clans ancient history in this village.... however, it seems that my branch of the senju clan has steered far from the teachings of the legendary first kage”
Houou dropped his head in disappointment. He had always felt shame when thinking of his branch of the clan, who were now under the UHV’s thumb. He was determined to get his people back on track.... if they hadn’t strayed too far into darkness already.
Atsuko nodded to the statements that were made. All of it was rather surreal now that he thought about it. Neither of their families as far as he knew were to directly tied to konoha yet at the same time their roots definitely were.
The uchiha and senju clan went as far back as the beginning of time from what he could tell. His own father told him stories of wars that were had in the past. Long fought battles that lead to much blood shed.
Well decoding the latest clue, which he felt he was getting damn close to, he chuckled. "The irony. Senju and Uchiha have warred so many time in the past yet here we stand brother in arms and allies to the end. I believe that the only reason our clans fought was because of the power each side held. It's rare for people to work together as its much harder to do that over conquer one another"
"Yet I believe that together we can achieve anything. Let us work to rewrite the history books ay?" Atsuko stated with a smile back to his ally. It seemed he had gotten another step closer to finishing the puzzle. Certain words seemed to repeat themselves now that he paid close attention in the symbols that rang true. Well not so much words as letters. It was another pattern, similarity if you would.
"The good news is I'm much closer to finding the location here. Whoever hid this did a very good job but nothing that a bit of patience couldn't fix. Hopefully we can be on our way to a meeting with the kage or out of here entirely before others show up to question us. I don't think they'd have a problem with us but I want to keep our goal here a secret" ________________________________________________________________ ◆￤ CHAKRAx 230 / 410x◆￤ STAMINAx 105 / 180x◆￤ RYOx 2650x◆￤ ACx 7500 ◆￤ TAMER / NINJUTSU x◆￤ C-RANK ROGUEx◆￤ SHISHINx◆￤ UCHIHA x◆￤ DRAGONxxxxx
◆￤ Passives
● Flames of the Uchiha; Fire techniques are moderately increased in rank, flames have a blackish hue. Costs 10 Extra Chakra. ● Dragons Greed - 1.5x Ryo rewards from missions or jobs; With a love for wealth instilled by his chosen animal Saiji is particularly good and negotiating higher sums for missions or jobs. ● ●
Atsukos words hit houou to the core. Never before had he felt like he truly belonged to a family. How had he been so fortunate to find his place with such an amazing group of people? He had a gut feeling that it was for a reason, a reason for him being the only capable medic out of all their members. Houou knew that he had to protect them to his dying breath. Spending his entire life locked away by his clan made him appreciate the gift shishin had given him, that gift was freedom of choice, freedom to follow his own instincts. Houou had only heard terrible things about rogue ninja, that they were nothing but disloyal traitors, turning their backs on their villages... but there was more to it than that. Houou and Atsuko knew first hand that, loyalty is something to be earned and not blindly given.
“i agree, it’s Time we forge a new history, the days of cruelty and tyrant are over in my eyes. I refuse to see innocents suffer at the hands of corruption and cruelty.”
Houous hands clenched into fists as he thought of all the people that were wrongly tortured at the hands of his father. He needed more power if he was to return to Otogakure and face his corrupt clan and the UHV alike. but calming himself and glancing over at Atsuko’s smiling face, Houou remembered that he wasn’t in this fight alone. All the more reason to keep hunting for this artifact and move on from his place.
