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.
[attr="class","itsover"] ‘Sheesh. I wonder if they were ever able to wake the serpent up, I can’t believe I actually put him into a comma this time.’ Xio sat on a bench just outside the village gates, yesterday he got a note to meet Hyouka here for another mission. Xio was dressed in his usual mission attire sporting an all black short sleeve shirt, and a pair of black cargo-type pants with multiple pockets on them. But of course, he came dressed in his preferred mission gear with his scythe attached to a loop on the back of his shirt, and his ninja bag on his left hip. ‘I think it may have something to do with the superfluous flow of chakra, prior to the beast I only had the ability to barely incapacitate someone. This process will be interesting.’ He thought while leaning back on the wall.
☆ Name: Contraband - Part II Rank: B Repeatable: Yes
Description: So it seems that the Hidden Cloud scandal wasn’t some haphazard incident meant to profit minute amounts of ryo. No, this little endeavor was only a small fragment of a national crime syndicate. The goons you had captured previously had revealed after intense cross-examination that they were working for a higher party—they were comparatively minuscule on the chain of hierarchy. With this information, you’ve been tasked and displayed into Land Of Lightning; your objective is to find any clues that will lead you towards the location of the base of operations for the illegal imports lair. Proceed with caution for it WILL be highly safeguarded. If the head of operations can’t be detained, report back with as much Intel as possible.
True to her word, Xio had faced no punishment for permanently crippling a man. Hyouka simply put some pressure on their Intelligence department and they finally got their asses moving. In fact, once the investigations started for real, they finally realized they were in for something bigger than originally expected.
However, as expected, they ended up sending the same duo to get the job done. Hyouka was back at the office again having another argument.
“A year ago you'd only call me if you wanted me to run in and cut off some heads. Now you want me to bring this guy around to put some achievements under his belt. You know damn well what my specialty is... And that if Son Goku-sama actually broke out, I'd be helpless against him. My techniques are anti-human, not anti-tailed beast. If you wanted me to train in that direction, I wouldn't have enough time for this.”
"And a year ago, you'd have never spoken this much."
“Because you deployed me properly. I'll ask you again: Does our village lack people?”
"We lack people like him."
“No we fucking don't. Don't think I don't know there's another one in here just because I've never read the reports on him.”
"That one's not mature, either."
“If you cared at all about their growth, I wouldn't be here arguing with you, because you wouldn't assign me to do this shit.”
Hyouka still begrudgingly accepted the scroll with a scowl on her face. “You all better start finding your fucking missing personnel if you don't want to see my resignation letter on your desk.” Hyouka would eventually appear on time, wearing the exact same attire Xio first saw her in.
“Hello, Xio.” She'd greet him like nothing happened.
“I got good news, bad news and the mission briefing. Which would you like to hear first?”
[attr="class","itsover"] Hyouka made her presence known once she arrived, sharply calling to the genin she grasped his full attention. ‘Damn.’ Without many words the jounin offered an ultimatum for the lad, and she seemed a little more tense than usual. Xio would stand from his seated position to grab his scythe before placing it through the loop on his back.
“Lets start with the bad news? Whats the word about the serpent?”
Xio didn’t feel too much remorse for the situation outside of his clear inability to control his own power which he expected at this point.
“Can we walk and talk?”
Xio would ask as he gestured towards the main path that lead to the village gates.
Hyouka obliged easily and began walking towards the village gates to greet the guards.
“Bad news is, both the Grey Serpent AND the 'Kusuri Puragu' name you got out from interrogation are dead.”
Hyouka let that sink in while she told the guards about them leaving for a mission, which they easily agreed to. It was common for shinobi to head out for missions. Thanking them for their work, she walked out with Xio.
“The good news is, our Intelligence department managed to learn a bit more before their deaths. Also, you won't be facing punishment if that didn't make itself clear to you already.”
Pulling out the mission scroll she received, she handed it over for Xio to read.
“As for the mission briefing... We found out there are multiple 'Grey Serpents'. Turns out, they're literally everywhere big enough to have a back street. So now we're going to go looking for their main hideout... The one that's in this country, I mean. We aren't the only one with a 'Grey Serpent' problem.
The clues we have are written here in this scroll. As it is near or in one of our country's towns, we're going to disguise it as me taking you on a trip out for sightseeing and training.”
Hyouka would let Xio read the scroll before taking it back.
“Remember that we're only here to find the base and not infiltrate it. While I believe you are perfectly capable of handling bloodshed, I generally don't pull my sword until the Kage is sure she wants them dead.”
[attr="class","itsover"] Xio accepted the letter from Hyouka while she explained the news, ‘damn that’s crazy. That’s the second time I’ve killed someone unintentionally.’ Despite that being the case he didn’t feel terrible about it because the man was considered a menace to society. ‘I need more training.’ He thought as he needed to get a better grasp on handling situations without actually killing someone. Continue to read off the scroll while she explained the new circumstances that were created, instead of brute force they’d be working to gather information silently. Nodding his head he would roll the scroll back into it’s closed form.
“Alright I’ll do my better, I’m sorry about adding that extra pressure too our mission. I hadn’t thought he would actually die, I’ve practiced that technique millions of times with my father and it’s never had that potent effect.”
Despite not being asked to Xio thought he might shed a little light on the situation, he didn’t want her to think he was just lusting for blood it would be against his clans Morales. Sighing lightly he would hand her back the scrolls before tucking his hands into his pockets while they followed the dirt trail away from the village, the path they took was well traveled so although there wasn’t pavement or many signs the path to the neighboring village was clear.
“I’ve been going through a bunch of changes lately, and it seems they’ve been compounding on top of each other.”
removing his right hand from his pocket he would place it over his heart.
“Recently, I’ve been able to access the other half of my families genes, and because it is so rare that both genes become dominate I haven’t had a lot of teachers to help me balance things out.”
His heart pounded as he went on, outside of Fuma-Sama, and Hitora the lad hadn’t spoken about the changes he’s felt since the sealing.
“Then there’s another matter where I’m technically two people, so I can’t tell if it’s me losing control or it's just all in my head.”
Speaking confidently while they walked Xio hoped that Hyouka would have some understand or his actions from this point outside of people dying.
“But Alright, are we going to do a hinge jutsu or just dress the part and tried to blend in with the surroundings.”
Hyouka listened to Xio talk about his troubles. She couldn't identify with the troubles, because she never had a sudden spike in her power output.
“Well, it's a little bit of both. You've lost control because back then you could barely control one person's worth of power as a growing teenager, and then suddenly a completely foreign thing dropped in and now even just using simple taijutsu will have a little bit of Son Goku-sama's chakra mixed into it. Not enough to produce the properties of his chakra, but you're still controlling more than just your own self.”
As for how she knew all this, she read the relevant material.
“Anything I know about how to overcome it are written as documents, secret or otherwise, from all of your predecessors. I could apply for permission to let you view them, but no promises, even if you should be allowed to see them to begin with.”
Keeping the scroll away, Hyouka shifted the conversation back to the mission.
“That would be a good idea if we were going to go in and do some things. From what you've read, you should understand that they're rather large. A bit too large. That's what we're going to exploit. We will very, very blatantly enter the villages and walk around with our identities as Shinobi to put them on edge, though we will probably use a transformation when we go to survey the hideout itself.”
Hyouka raised a finger.
“Here's a quick quiz: Why are we going to do that?”
[attr="class","itsover"] Xio listened attentively as Hyouka gave her best response to his line of questions before she reverted their conversation back to the mission. While the duo continued to make their way down the lengthy dirt road, he took a moment to think about his response. ‘……..Alright.’
“Well if we’re not going to use any disguise maybe it’s to actually raise an alarm or at least create some motion for us to follow. Because if people are made aware shinobi are in town, they might try to scramble to hide their main operation from us. Or maybe it’s to start off with a bit of misdirection so we can take on false identities while they actually look for us?”
even though not being a seasoned Shinobi, the gennin showed a little wit he gained from working closely with his father. From this point, they were starting to see the village and he could see the forest starting to open a little. ‘Maybe I need to meditate more, maybe they’ll help me understand, or more missions.’ While he waited on his response, he thought back to what Hyouka was saying about those papers, he didn’t really want to see anything because Fuma said most of those people died.
“And I don’t think I want to see any papers, I think I’ll just thug it out. I know I can get this under control it’s only been a couple of months.”
Speaking confidently the Kami boy couldn’t hope but to touch back on the topic before they arrived at their destination.
Hyouka lowered her finger and nodded in approval of Xio's answer.
“You've... got about two-thirds of that right. A passing grade at least. What we want is information about their hideout and not their operations. Whether they hide it or not is none of our concern. However, when they see a Jounin waltz right into their vicinity they're going to kick security into overdrive. That's how we learn how strong their security is. The rest is correct, though we will be showing up in some places in our shinobi identities so they have a bit of something to track.”
Xio's confidence in getting himself under control didn't mean much to Hyouka. She didn't want to doubt him, but she also had to admit that she knew too little about the Kami boy to draw a conclusion.
“Just remember the option's open. While people pave new paths for themselves all the time, you can always reference the past. Especially when it comes to not repeating the same mistakes.”
Whether he'll actually need it or not was something Hyouka could determine at a later date. That is, if she was still in charge of him then.
As they walked, they passed a few who were going towards Kumogakure. Quite common, considering they were on a well-used road.
One carriage passed by. As soon as Hyouka saw it, she stepped aside, motioning Xio to follow and shoving him forcefully if he refused. She made a slight bow as it passed, refusing to speak until it had left. That carriage bore the symbol of the Daimyo.
“...Must be one of the Daimyo's men.”
If the Daimyo was really coming, Hyouka would've been dispatched long ago to raze the hideout to the ground. Or the task might have even been given to Kumogakure's ANBU. Anyway, whatever they're going to Kumogakure for was none of Hyouka's business.
They would eventually walk into the village, where Hyouka would bring Xio over to an inn and book a room.
“It's on the cheaper end, but it's secure and has sufficient privacy.”
Hostels would never grant them enough privacy for any sneaky operations and boarding with the locals might bring disaster upon those innocent locals, especially when they came to paint a target on their backs.
Once they had entered the room and was left alone, Hyouka finally said:
“Alright, now that we're here, what do you think is our first course of action and did you notice anyone paying particular attention to us?”
[attr="class","itsover"] ‘Woah. Who is that?’ Once Hyouka pushed him aside the young Kami moved with her gesture quickly finding refuge beside her while bowing accordingly. ‘The Daimyo?’ As the carriage passed by Hyouka regained her composure while they continued towards the small town, exiting the forestry they arrived at one of many entrances to the village provided there were no gates. The town was decorated with all types of people; surprisingly, not everyone looked as shady as Xio thought from their mission briefing. But taking notes from what his leader said earlier he remained vigilant taking in all of his surroundings while they moved through crowds of people.
“They look so happy?”
Xio would say sarcastically as they got all types of different looks from the locals, it must’ve been a while since they saw a shinobi walk these streets. Some people smiled and bowed, and others gave off smug looks while whispering to neighbors. ‘This is interesting.’ He thought as he hadn’t expected to get such a spectrum of reactions, he expected everyone to be on edge but they weren’t. It wouldn’t be long before the duo reached a destination, it seemed Hyouka decided they’d set up camp at this local hotel, while she checked in the genin did his best to gain a vantage point at the top of the hotel. Arriving on the roof Xio scoped out his surroundings from there.
“Looks like, they are moving around but not in any direction that’s notable. I wonder how long they’ve been setting up this operation because it seems like they’ve got the whole town trained for these types of situations.”
Xio continued to look around for a minute before he noticed a slightly large building off in the distance, it was like a medium-sized dome. From his position it looked as if it was in the back of the village, Xio smiled a little as he would hop from the top of the building falling back in front of the door Hyouka went to check-in. Once she emerged from the door they made their way to their room where they would plot out their next moves.
“Well two things, First while we walked through the village we got a range of different looks from the locals. Some looked happy, some looked disgusting, but it was really hit or miss with them. But there was no one of particular interest that’d I seen while we walked. Second, while you checked in I did some recon from the roof. I located a medium-sized dome that looks specious we could possibly check it out if that helps."
Xio hoped he gave her information to formulate their next move.
Hyouka knew what kinds of things to look for, but this time she had to let Xio do it so that she could give him the credits the Kage seemed so eager to bestow upon him. Thankfully, he didn't disappoint.
“A spacious, medium-sized dome? That sounds good. We'll need to walk around the place anyway, so we'll make it one of our stops.
We'll also need to take a stroll around the shadier streets, but we should hit up the local pharmacy first.”
Hyouka didn't talk for long or do much planning before setting off.
The streets of the town looked not too far off from those of the Hidden Cloud, which was quite understandable considering their distance was not even half a day's travel for a shinobi. Hyouka looked around as they walked and saw that despite being so close to Kumogakure, there was only one shinobi other than Xio and herself on the streets. At least, one that was wearing his forehead protector in the open.
The pharmacy appeared quite small due to the lack of walking space, a stark contrast to Hyouka's own popsicle store. Instead, the shelves were quite packed with medical supplies, appearing well-stocked. For a pharmacy, it was sufficient.
Walking up to the counter, she simply asked for the same thing she purchased back then. Unfortunately, she hadn't considered the implications of walking in with a male and asking for such a product.
"Ah, well, it's right there on that shelf." The clerk pointed with his eyes darting between the two.
Thanking him, she walked over to inspect the products. Turning the bottles of supplements around, she read the dates stamped on the bottles. She produced the bottle she had purchased from the Hidden Cloud's Gray Serpent and compared them. Same shape, weight and color. The difference was that one was missing it's labels, showing signs of having the paper labels torn off.
Hyouka wanted to open the bottles and look at the pills inside, but she didn't feel like doing so in the store with the guy watching. Taking a bottle, she walked over and placed it in front of the clerk.
“Can I ask when you get shipments of these?”
"Oh, we get shipments every month in general. If it's urgent we can get it within a week. We're close after all."
“Makes sense. I'll take this.”
Paying, she walked out before passing both the bottle she purchased and the illegally sold bottle to Xio.
“See for yourself. Your eyes are better than mine even without Dojutsu.”
