Viridian Dreams Forum

"This right here is our destination." The first says with a sigh.

"It's a lovely piece of the trail, if I do say so myself."

Itsuki scratches his chin absently as he looks over the area with a lazy gaze. "Don't look like nothin special ta me. Not even a hut ta keep ya outta the elements, if yer gettin put here fer the duration."

"We don't know why we're here either, but it's less buggy then some stretches, which is a godsend, I say. Now ya'll had best hurry. The guards at Sodegaura's main entrance get testy around lunch time. Best get there before then. Don't want em strip searching you because their tumblies got the rumblies, eh?"

"Aye, that'd make fer poor interaction I'd say. Let's move on then partner." Itsuki moves on down the road.

"You're very well informed." Was all Kojira said as he passed the travellers on the road.

As he caught up with Itsuki, he hissed in frustration. "They know we're coming. Somehow."

"Agreed," itsuki mutters out of the side of his mouth, "which is why we're going off-road as soon as we get out of sight, and find an alternative entrance. They've gotta have something, even if it's a sewer pipe, that's not under constant guard."

"I'd rather just find an entrance and make it unguarded. This isn't a mission performed on the hush hush, stealth is an optional extra." Kojira smiled, "Bloodletting is a preferential, at least in my case."

"The only problem with that is that I don't want to get civilians involved." Itsuki suddenly snaps his fingers as his eyes light up. "You know, i just realized something. The more bloodshed we create, the less likely it is that people would think that this is a Konoha-sanctioned operation. And so long as we scare away any women or children, I'm pretty sure that any men walking free aren't exactly innocent..." He looks over at Kojira meaningfully.

"You only just figured that out? Oh well. At least you figured it out in the end, I'll make a Kuroda of you yet." Kojira grinned, "First, scare tactics. A big enough Genjutsu ought to scare away the civs, but where would be the most..."

He paused, "Doe the place have a tower or something? Higher is better."

OOG: Does it? This would have been one of the things we would have been debriefed about.

[eheh, Akita's got the map. But Yuki did mention that there are at least eight floors to the mansion or something, and the place is walled off. Does that help?]

(Works for me)

(Off you go then. Are you guys staying on the path straight to the checkpoint, or are you sneaking away?)

(Depends on what Kojira's plan is)

"Well, the mansion the target lives in is supposedly eight stories. Will that work for whatever twisted plan you've got cooking?"

"Just release enough Wanderers to pull a Genjutsu of a huge effigy of some kind of monster on the roof, throw a few people off the building, chuck their limbs after them... I'm thinking that'll creep off anyone who has nothing better to do."

Kojira's augments flared, a plume of black ichor curled out of each joint. "Who knows? I might even release a few of my seals, make it a little more than a genjutsu."

Kojira's smile was passing from 'pleasantly distracted' into 'enjoying his imagination far too much' at this point.

Itsuki slaps him upside the back of the head. "Focus man. And would your little show be able to possibly take out our target in the process, or do you need line-of-sight to control it or see through it's eyes, or whatever the hell method you use?"

"If I throw enough wanderers in, I can get it to function within parametres. Perfectly safe... ish." Kojira admitted with a shrug.

"Gimme a better definition of "safe-ish" here..."

"The usual dangers of a wanderer construct, slight chance one of them will gain proper self-awareness of its previous humanity and cause a ruckus. The danger's if it's a sneaky soul and sneaks out of the construct first before I can get to the bugger." Kojira waved his hand in the manner of one making an informed guess, "Once it's loose, chances are it'll go berserk and carve a path in my direction. I estimate about five or six casualties."

"The tough part will be insuring that one of those casualties is the target."

The two hear a metallic clank behind them.

"Hmm, you know, I don't particularly like that plan. Too many chances for unnecessary casualties, you know?"

Itsuki spins around, hands already full of kunai that fell out of his sleeves.

It's a tall man, probably in his late forties or early fifties with smile lines around his eyes and snow white hair held up in a pony-tail.

He's also obviously a veteran fighter too, because he's wearing heavy armor with ease, and he's got a large sword strapped to his back.

"Ah, calm down 'Sarge'" he says this with a wink, "I just wanted to thank you for helping my niece. She apologizes for sneaking out, but she really missed home. Honestly, I'm considering putting a bell around that girl's neck." He hasn't reached for his blade. "So I'm going to tell you to leave, and you are going to ignore me, but at least I will have tried to warn you about what you're getting yourselves into, Itsuki-san and Kojira-san of Konoha.

Of course, you could just turn around and none of this would ever be mentioned again. Which would be vastly more pleasant for everyone here."

Itsuki slowly lowers his arms, concealing the kunai within his sleeves with a simple twist of his fingers as he pastes a friendly smile on his face. "You know our names, bu we don't know yours. Are you part of the contingent protecting our target?" As he speaks he channels a small amount of chakra to his nose and ears, searching for any hint of others hiding nearby.

"Ah, forgive my bad manners. I am Akihito Shirotori. Not that really answers much, now does it? As for the rest, I wouldn't say 'protect', but allowing Itakura to be killed at this point is unacceptable, no matter how distasteful his existence is to me. I do have a family to think about. So I suppose yes, I am 'protecting' him. At least so far as you are concerned."

You can't smell or hear anything indicating another presence.

[If you like, I can give you a little bit of information about the Shirotori clan. Your characters may have heard of them at some point. It's up to you if you want to know about them.]