When the comforts of civilization begin to dull our senses, we must never forget that in the beginning, there was war. And war. And more war. Long before there were empires, there were humans consumed with greed and the hunger for power. Resources, territories, information—these were the forms of sustenance upon which we preyed. Today, we call such habits vices. Oh, how arrogant we have become! Are we not still impelled by those primordial emotions? Is the advent of war so far-fetched? But alas, for you to truly understand, we must dive deeper into this land’s half-forgotten past.
There was a time when might was the only law that humankind knew. Fearsome clans roamed throughout the land, seeking amenable grounds within which they could take root and opposing forces against whom they could test their mettle. Given the irregularity of nature’s bounty, certain regions appealed more than others, and dominion over such coveted territories became the spark that ignited the earliest inter-clan wars. These fierce, internecine affairs tended to conclude only when one side had decimated their competition into oblivion, and many clans of story were rendered extinct during this period.
The victors of war, having claimed their territories, often made truces with surrounding locals, offering protection in exchange for access to the yields of agriculture. Over time, certain communities emerged as more dominant than others, either due to numbers or sheer talent, and their rapid expansion would force smaller, neighboring communities to either collapse into their fold or be devastated. When the dust settled, humankind found itself divided into the five major territories that we are familiar with today. And was the bloodshed over? With our lands obtained and our bellies filled, were we finally content?
06/01/2023 June is for Juggin
We made it y’all, another month of OTA, and fresh off the press we have another promotion ready. Leaving behind the opening bonus sadly, we welcome the jugggggg! June is for juggin AKA working hard, so we are making it a double rewards month for every mission completed! Yes we said it's double rewards, now you all can really get into the thick of those builds if you work hard enough. And who knows what you might uncover in the process. AND all jobs are free to enroll no quest EXCEPT ANBU(Black Ops) roles.
☆ Name: Interrogation Rank: B Repeatable: Yes Description: After some reinforcement of strength was implicated the capture of a deadly Shinobi was completed. As a highly revered member of the Kumogakure Shinobi force, you’ve been tasked with interrogating this suspect and gaining any and all information that will prove beneficial to the village. Methods of execution are entirely up to your own creativity and while death is frowned upon, it isn’t prohibited unless stated otherwise. Have fun.
Reward: 300 EXP and 50,000 Ryo
‘this should be a very interesting day.’ Xio sat outside the intelligence building dressed in his usual attire, black cargo-like pants with multiple pockets on them, and a black shirt with the Kami symbol on his back. He also wore his Scythe clipped to his back and a small ninja bag with all his tools on his left hip. Shortly after apprehending the grey serpent, he received an order for immediate interrogation of the captive from the kages office. The note was refreshing because all of the talks of knowing how much a man can handle before they died were bluff, he was overtly excessive from his own perspective but he was kind right.
“I Wonder if she’ll just appear like the last time.”
The bench he sat on was beside the entrance to the building, the Genin knew he wouldn’t miss Hyoka in a crowd of people.
Hyouka showed up later, carrying a scroll she had been reading from earlier. The conversation she had earlier at the Kage's compound was like this:
“You want him to learn how to do an interrogation.”
"Yes."
“That makes sense, considering he is a genjutsu specialist. What I don't understand is, why are you asking me, who only knows how to do it the physical way?”
"Because you're the only one available."
Bang! The table rattled from the force applied to it.
“Do our Intelligence department lack people?!? We all know how important he is to the village. You know damn well there's at least twenty others in this village who can teach him genjutsu interrogation methods. Hell, if no one else agrees just let the ANBU teach him! He's bound to see them protecting him sooner or later. What's wrong with getting them acquainted sooner?”
"Because we need you to freeze that untameable beast if he comes out while his spirit is occupied."
“If that's all you needed, you'd have fuckmothering sent me along with someone who can do the job.”
The scroll flew at Hyouka, who caught it out of instinct.
"Too bad, Kage's orders."
Hyouka gave the middle finger right before she body-flickered out.
“One day I'm gonna fucking douse you and the Kage in thunderberry juice and freeze you into an ice lolly for the kids to lick.”
Due to her argument, she ended up appearing after Xio had already arrived. Today, Hyouka wore a white coat over her usual black attire. Her sword was still on her back as usual.
For them both, finding each other wasn't hard; the place was not crowded by any means and they've seen each other before. Hyouka approached quickly once she saw Xio.
“Hi Kami, today you're going to learn interrogation. I believe you've already been informed about who you're interrogating, so you have had experience in playing with his mind. Unfortunately, I don't use genjutsu and cannot guide you aside from basic mind games you can apply with or without genjutsu. For reasons unknown, you will not be receiving help from an actual genjutsu specialist or even an interrogation specialist for the time being.
Fortunately, responsibility for failure will not fall on either of our heads in the chance you do, so treat it as a learning experience and try to get as much out of it as you can.”
Actually, it would, but Hyouka already knew how to write the report so it wouldn't. She wasn't going to admit defeat in front of conniving bitches like them.
[attr="class","itsover"] In Hyouka’s usual manner, she appeared in a misty fashion before her full figure appeared approaching Xio from a short distance greeting him. The Jounin gave the white-haired shinobi a quick summary of their objectives for the day’s mission while lacing in some of her own grievances about it. while she rounded off her statement the Genin stood from the bench, stretching a little before he looked back to his lead.
“That’s interesting, to say the least. But what type of information are we trying to gather?”
Despite all the suggestive messages that she wouldn’t be much assistance to Xio, he didn’t feel that way in the least bit. ‘Maybe there’s another reason.’ The Kami clansmen always appreciated consistency in situations like these, and always tried to look for patterns to find the meaning behind why things happened. As the thoughts perplexed his mind he would follow his mentor's lead into the building, it wasn’t as busy as usual because it was morning.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of styles do you specialize in?”
Xio spoke passively as they made their way to the main desk to receive their interrogation room where the grey serpent would be restrained. the young lady behind the desk was dressed in yellow, and she had straight hair that had a glowing black color to it she would greet the duo warmly as she passed them their room numbers with the keys.
“That depends on how much you're able to get from him. In his case, we don't know if there's anyone behind him, or if he's part of an organization. We can't figure out where his loyalties lie, if any, nor do we know how loyal he is. So, for your interrogation, the most effective information you can get out of him is to ask for an 'action backlog'. Don't ask for the identity of anyone. Just ask for hard objective stuff and actions: where he gets his contraband, when he goes and how much stuff.
This will net you the least resistance, no matter how you're interrogating him. Once you get that out of him, you're free to try anything else you'd like to know.”
Once that was done, she was free to answer his questions.
“I have a sword on my back and am best known for using the water and wind nature transformations. This isn't a secret by any means since I'm not ANBU.”
After picking up the keys, Hyouka led the way to the corresponding room. She placed the main key in Xio's hand and moved to the door next to it.
“I will observe you through a one-way mirror in the room next door. There should be a transceiver in the room which will be connected to the room I'm in. I'll be able to hear you regardless if you just talk, but if you need to say or ask something in secret just whisper into it. We can talk through that.”
Hyouka inserted the key to the side room into the lock in front of her.
[attr="class","itsover"] Listening attentively as Hyouka spoke, Xio took mental notes of the objectives she laid out for him as a guide for his part in the interrogation. ‘Water and wind?’ a few moments later the duo arrived at the entrance to the room where the grey serpent was confined.
“Alright, I think I got an idea of what to do here.”
Inhaling sharply as Hyouka placed the key in the door too their room Xio did his best to mentally put himself in a state of intense focus, exhaling Hyouka would let him know that she wouldn’t actually be in the room with him during this mission.
“Alright cool.”
The Jounin walked away leaving the Kami clansmen alone for a moment before he entered the room. ‘Alright, how am I going to do this? I guess they don’t want me to use any physical jutsu on him, I wonder why? Isn’t pain the best way to force information out of someone.’ Xio contemplated for a moment outside before he arrived at an epiphany, grabbing the handle to the door he let himself into the room.
“Shit it’s bright.”
As entered his figure was illuminated by the singular lamp that lit the cube-like room, the grey serpent was placed in a contraption where only his head was left free.
“Damn I’ve never seen one of these things in person.”
Crossing the room slowly Xio’s eyes would remain locked on the main as he waited on any sudden move, as the genin arrived about 5 meters away from the man he seemed to wake up.
“Oh fuck, a kid? Or a grown man? I can’t tell now a days.”
The grey serpent’s head sprung up full of life, shocked a little xio would stop dead in his tracks.
“So y’all caught me with some fancy surprise attack, do you really think I have anything to lose, or anything to fear? I’m a criminal boy, so you mind as well hang your objectives on the door and tell them you failed.”
The Grey Serpent Spoke bodly to the young Kami clansmen causing the boy to smirk a little, he would walk a few steps closer to man.
“Big bad man.”
Xio would say as he approached the metal box the criminal was restrained in; his hands would join together in front of him for a moment dancing through a few seals. Unlike most the Genin wasn’t really a fan of shit-talking when he was focused at work, at the heel of his seals the Genin would place his right hand on the center of the Grey Serpents forehead.
“Sleep”
Xio poured his chakra into the man causing the man to start to fade.
“What the fuck are you doing? Why am I, I can’t you sunofabi…”
The man fell asleep, he wouldn’t able to wake up for a moment while Xio collected his thoughts on where he could go with this interrogation. This man probably would fall for the same Jutus twice so he had to come up with something, new or at least something innovative to do. After a few moments passed he was stomped, he couldn’t think of an angle to approach from so he turned to the glass wall in the room.
“Ok now I’m not sure what to do. Right now his mind is gone, I’m not even sure if he’s breathing I’ve shut down his entire brain. I can hold him like this for about 2 minutes before he starts dying, how long do you think we need to hold him like this so it will be the most effective?"
Hyouka entered the observation room, picked up the clipboard and pen prepared for her, then started writing down notes as they spoke.
Xio didn't speak much and just shut the man's brain off. Hyouka... could not say she was expecting him to do so.
As expected, Xio didn't seem to have planned ahead. Hyouka spoke quickly through the comms, which would project her voice from a transceiver on the small table behind Xio.
“If he isn't breathing, give him between 30 to a minute then bring him back. Slap him awake or something similar. His body will only remind him of his near-death afterwards. Then, you can start asking. If it doesn't work, do it again. He shouldn't be able to control his chakra well as he is now, so it should work. Try to keep to 30.
Wear the transceiver on the desk behind you if you intend to ask me anything while he's awake. We don't want him to be too aware that he's being dealt with by an amateur.”
Hyouka's pen moved while she spoke. If Xio were to wear the transceiver, she'd lower her voice to speak:
“Remember, interrogation is a contest of mental endurance. Prove you are more resilient than he.”
Right after she said that, she smacked her forehead in realization, hopefully not loud enough for Xio to hear. Oh fuck, interrogation is a contest of mental endurance. No wonder they want him to do it! It's about his tailed beast!
[attr="class","itsover"] Hearing his mentor’s voices echo through the room as looked at the man’s lifeless head for a moment, Xio removed his hand from the man’s hand freeing him of the mental shutdown. slowly but surely each organ started to reactivate but he hadn’t regained consciousness yet, the genin took the time to go and get the earpiece off the table behind him before returning to the serpent’s side. ‘This is different.’. Despite using this jutsu before the potency was a lot different this time around, ‘ I guess he can’t get up on his own.’ Without a word the genin would begin to move through another short set of seals, this time at his end he would hold final seal before his chakra invade the serpents once more.
“Joku no Kamira.”
As he spoke nothing would change in the room for the people watching, but for the serpent, he would start to feel the warmth of an opening to a volcano. Not long after he would smell burning flesh, clothes, and hair all at once causing him to wake up. Dangling by his feet the man swung over the mouth of an active volcano all fabricated in his mind by Xio, melding into the landscape the criminal would seemed to be alone as he regained conciseness.
“OH my god, did he really kill me this time?”
He would start to struggle to cause the robe to sway, and crackle under the intense heat caused by the volcano.
“Help me! Please somebody help me! What did I do to deserve this?”
The man screamed at the top of his lungs the roped burned away over time, his skin and clothes and continued sizzling away while the intense heat made it hard for him to breathe. Appearing at the side of the volcano Xio would appear with a rope in hand, and a mask resembling the face of the Yonbi.
“Where did you come from? Why are you tainting our people? Who is the leader?”
His voice echoed as he pulled the man further away from the intense heat so he had room to speak.
“I was sent by a man Kusuri Puragu, it was a way for me to feed my family, I had no other choice, I have no other choice! Wouldn’t you do anything to feed your family?”
As the man spoke Xio let go of the rope causing the man to go into a frantic scream as he fell into the volcano’s mouth, as his body would start to go into a convulsive state as he felt himself being burned alive by lava.
“Should I wake him up, or let him burn until he passes out again?”
At this point Xio was noticing just how much different his ability to control chakra was becoming, this jutsu combined with base enlightenment would usually kill his chakra but it hadn’t. ‘I guess, I really have to get outside and test out my limits now.’ He thought idly while he continued to watch the man suffer, despite being a kind-natured person Xio always felt a job was a job and this was no different. This man’s pain would directly result in the benefit of this village in his eyes, so it was needed.
Hyouka wasn't expecting Xio to just ask for names and actually get one. Since she couldn't analyze a mental battle through genjutsu, she could only rely on the victim.
She couldn't tell what exactly was happening to the victim in the illusions Xio made, but she had a rough idea once she observed the grey serpent.
When a regular human believed he was being burnt badly, their skin would actually develop burns as a result. This didn't happen to shinobi, because chakra protected them from this result. When Xio overpowered the grey serpent so thoroughly, burn marks started appearing on his skin, despite the fact he wasn't actually being subject to heat. His chakra couldn't stop his body from believing it was being burnt.
That's when she knew he had to let up.
“Wake him up. Get him to spit out the location where he trades with his suppliers. Once that's done, you can do whatever you want to him.”
As long as they could find that out, Hyouka could just let Intelligence do the rest of the investigations. Hyouka knew that she had to serve the village as a shinobi, but she really couldn't agree with how they were handling the Jinchuriki today.
I got buckets, but I might have to borrow a cart from somebody...
At Hyouka’s command Xio would form the Kai sign, the man was violently shaking inside of his holder at this point with foam starting to appear at his mouth. The Genin placed his hand on the man's forehead to try to release him from the Genjutsu, but it didn’t work. ‘fuck.’ The boy's eyes widen as he watched the man convulse, it was the most pleasant sight to watch but it seemed Xio had overdone. In a second effort, Xio would place his other hand on the hand on serpent’s forehead and apply even more of his chakra, slowly the man stopped shaking, but he wasn’t breathing either.
“Holy shit.”
Xio backed up a little as the man sat there lifeless for a moment, ‘oh man this isn’t good.’ The Genin hadn’t planned to kill the man, but it seemed like his Genjutsu was a little too hot to handle. ‘I can’t fail like this.’ This had been his first interrogation, and he might’ve overshot his target without a way for reconciliation. Stepping forward Xio would place his hand under the man's nose and he could feel a little air, ‘okay he’s not dead.’ Xio would step back and cock his hand back slightly before slapping the piss out of the man, as his hand connected a loud sound echoed throughout the room. But the man didn’t wake up.
“Alright let me try one more time.”
Xio would cock his hand back and slap the man repeatedly before he finally accepted that he wasn’t going to wake up.
“Uhhhh, I’m not sure what’s going on, but he’s breathing, but won’t regain conciseness.”
The genin took a step back from the man as he wasn’t sure how to proceed at this point.
“I don’t think he’s going to wake up right now Hyouka, I might’ve overdone it a little bit. I’m still getting used to the new stuff I have going on.”
Speaking confidently he would back up a little further from the man before looking back to the glass window.
“I guess I fucked this one up for us since I didn’t get the location, but maybe I can do some extra scouting on the name Kusuri Puragu in the village slums. Someone has to know something.”
With those words Xio made his way to the exit hoping he would still get a passing grade on this mission, he wasn’t experienced in this type of thing. But it was definitely a learning lesson for him.
Hyouka watched calmly as Xio ended up leaving the man in a vegetative state. As expected, he more or less ended up killing the man. Her pen wrote down what happened on the paper in some very biased words to deflect any blame here and there.
“That's fine. We got a name at least, so I can weasel out some pay for us.” She replied once Xio finally gave up on saving him. “As I said before, responsibility for failure will not fall on your head. What's more important is: what did you learn today? What can you do different if you were in this situation tomorrow? How about a month later?
Go home and reflect on that. That's what I want you to do.”
After saying that, Hyouka finally disconnected the transceiver in the room, scribbling the last of the report before going to get people to clean up while she handed what she just wrote.
