Border Lurkers [Flashback/Mission/Darkkon]

Spoiler:

The community that was Kirigakure no Sato certainly lived up to its name. Thick sheets of mist rolled in from the sea, washing back and worth with the tide of the wind, like the waves upon the tides of the sea. "Oh, bother," Akasha thought as the wind shifted and she once again reapplied the chakra charge to the Kusege Fūin, protecting her hair from the winds and mists around. She was sitting on a tall building overlooking one of the more troubled districts of Kirigakure no Sato, returning to her activity of pondering the fate of those below. One would think that there would be little to no criminal activity inside a hidden village, but given how the Yakuza were an integral part in civilian society it was t a thought that required a few deeper steps to reach. And even then the crime networks were usually under control of or at least in cooperation and understanding with the current kage regime.

Akasha's orphanage had not been involved with the Yakuza, unlike many others that served as the dumping grounds for illegitimate children of all varieties, most with parents that could not care for them yet. As such she had been spared from much of the brutality that came with life as an orphan, and had not faced them until her later years. It still saddened her that symbiosis between yakuza and shinobi were the only way to have the two peacefully coexist and thus have the shinobi villages as they were. In this mission the shinobi performing it might as well be working for the yakuza, cleaning up their mess with foreign elements. But then again, this is a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of world.

The young woman stood, facing still watching the village from the top of this highrise. Her mission partner should arrive any moment, and thus she secured the straps that attached her two sheathes to her body, the Hakkō Chakura Tō resting securely in its adjustable cradle at the small of her back, the much larger KTNA carried in a larger sling that was easier to discard should it come to such. Akasha had not worked with Erwin before and hoped that the two of them could get along during this mission, as well as any occasion afterwards too.

Once again the topic of the day was crime, something Erwin had become accustomed to after getting to know the true Kirigakure. It seemed that a foreign crime syndicate was trying to finesse its way into the Hidden Mist’s underground, and one of the major local organizations didn’t like that. Erwin’s personal choice of action in a situation like this would’ve been to use a war between the two syndicates to wipe them both out after acquiring as much information and resources from them as possible, but sadly the local syndicate had a give and take treaty with Kirigakure’s military forces where both sides were treated with leniency and mutual information trading as long as neither acted against the other. This would be all fine and dandy if everyone within the local syndicate held up their side of the bargain and stuck to activity outside Kirigakure’s jurisdiction, but that was hardly the case. Regardless of whether or not Erwin completely agreed with the way the situation was being handled he did agree with preventing a foreign syndicate from taking root in the Mist, and hopefully they’d gain some resources along the way.

Considering this mission relied on both effective intelligence gathering and the successful neutralization of the foreign syndicate’s leader, by capture or otherwise, the middle-aged samurai outfitted himself for shadow warfare. Erwin donned his standard stealth attire consisting of a black skintight short sleeved undershirt tucked into a pair of black slacks, which in turn were tucked into a pair of black combat boots, and a simple black eye patch concealing a hollow false eye with a collapsible lock pick inside. Over his black undershirt he wore his jounin flak jacket equipped with two five piece kunai holsters at mid abdomen level, with one in each attached to an explosive tag, and four waist pouches positioned above the front and back of each leg. Each pouch held a relatively even amount of smoke bombs and explosive tags, totaling fifteen and six respectively, as well as separate empty pockets should he need to retrieve something from the field. In addition to the armaments on his flak jacket Erwin was also equipped with a third five piece kunai holster on his left thigh with two kunai being attached to an explosive tag, as well as his two trusty blades of course, with his saber hanging from his left hip and his wakizashi from his right.

For this mission he would be working alongside a somewhat freshly appointed Jounin, a young woman by the name of Akasha, whom he was to meet atop a designated highrise within a district where this foreign syndicate was rumored to be developing their presence. Erwin was curious to see how this Jounin handled herself, she may have proven herself to the village but he always reserved judgement for himself. At a steady pace Erwin crossed the city towards their designated meeting location, silently skimming the faintly visible rooftops through the thick Kirigakure mist. It didn’t take long for Erwin to reach his destination, putting him on time for their rendezvous as he quietly landed atop the designated building about ten feet behind and to the left of his partner. It appeared that she was a weapons expert as well, that much was apparent by the equipment she carried. Erwin allowed a faint amount of sound to resonate from his steps as he approached Akasha, giving her a forewarning of his arrival instead of simply speaking from utter silence. People tend not to like it when you sneak up on them. ”Greetings Akasha...” Erwin started in a polite but professional tone, making sure to keep quiet enough to maintain their cover as he stopped a couple feet to her left. ”... have you had any luck spotting a potential lead?”

[Word Count: 631/1000]

The nervousness was mounting as Akasha went through her pre-mission check. ”Kunai pouches, both thighs, check.” She had already done this five times, two of those being at home while collecting her gear, ”Shuriken pouch, above my right buttock, check,” the next two being done at home to make sure she had not forgotten anything and the final one being just after she arrived here. ”Explosive tags and ninja wire, right and left breast pockets, check.” This would be her sixth check. ”Senbon, right sleeve, makibishi, left front pocket, check. Yes, that should be all of it.” giving herself a skight shake to make sure everything was tightened properly, a few straps decided that they could stand to be tightened just a little bit more.

Thus Akasha was tightening the final strap when Erwin arrived, absolute silence giving way to quiet footsteps approaching from behind and to her left, ten feet or so. "Erwin-san," the rather green jōnin greeted quietly and politely in return, turning towards her more experienced senpai with a nod. She was slightly nervous, this would only be her third mission as a jōnin and she was already placed with such a veteran as Erwin the Ronin. Either they had high hopes on her performance or they were really anxious about her lack of quality, Akasha sincerely hoped it was the former reason. She gazed out over the district once again upon Erwin's question. "The mists make it diffucult to determine much detail from this altitude but," and at this time she extended her right arm, pointing at a distinct building not too far off, perhaps a hundred meters or so over land, "that gaudy highrise over there, it's not a hotel and despite this I have seen numerous people coming and going," and the highrise was gaudy indeed, a pair of decorative dragons curling their way down the structure's facade to rest their heads by the grand entrance, seemingly watching all who entered, "numerous people who have clearly not adjusted to the mists." Trained in the delicate arts of weapon based combat Akasha was able to pick out the posture and movement of someone not adjusted to moving about in conditions with such limited sight. "I believe it should be a good place to start due to the high concentration of foreigners."

The gaudy dragon highrise would be easy to reach over the rooftops, but if this was a foreign syndicate they would likely have guards stationed on the roof. Not that they could not be snuck up upon by jōnin, it would nearly be child's play. "I defer to your experience on this matter, Erwin-san, how do you want to approach this?"

[Word Count: 832/1,000]

”Erwin-san,” A polite individual was always a refreshing sight and it seemed Akasha fell under that description, at least towards her fellow Jounin. Erwin cared not if she was genuine in her politeness, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but he did respect those wise enough to use it. Akasha seemed a bit nervous, about what Erwin could only speculate. She was a Jounin so it wasn’t like she hadn’t been on missions of this sort before, well it wasn’t likely at least, so he doubted that had much if anything to do with it. Could she possibly be nervous about meeting him? He had acquired a name for himself in the past seven or so years he had been with the Hidden Mist, and his assignment to this mission alongside a fresh Jounin could be viewed as a sort of examination, so it was quite possible that was the reason. Technically every mission with another was an examination in Erwin’s eye, but they usually weren’t official, he simply liked to understand his comrades. ”The mists make it difficult to determine much detail from this altitude but,” Erwin’s gaze shifted in the direction Akasha pointed, he could see the outline of a rather elaborately designed building in the distance. Whoever the owner was certainly had a thing for dragons.

”that gaudy highrise over there, it’s not a hotel and despite this I have seen numerous people coming and going, numerous people who have clearly not adjusted to the mists. I believe it should be a good place to start due to the high concentration of foreigners.” Erwin observed the building Akasha pointed out as she spoke, her assessment was accurate. He could see the faint forms of people stumbling through the mist she was referencing, which could have been passed off as tourists seeing the sights if it weren’t for the building in question being both new and privately funded. Erwin was familiar with Kirigakure’s attractions, they were prime targets for acts against the city, and this building certainly wasn’t one. ”I defer to your experience on this matter, Erwin-san, how do you want to approach this?” Erwin took a moment to think things over before responding to his counterpart. There were dozens ways they could approach the situation, disguise themselves like patrons, use shock and awe to force out the information they needed, but the most efficient courses of action required a better view of the building and it’s defenses before anything further could be determined.

”We’ll need to get a closer view of the building, observe its patrons, locate its entrances and exits, asses its defenses. There…” Erwin extended his left arm and pointed towards another highrise located diagonally across an alleyway running opposite the main entrance of the target building. ”If we stick to the roofs and swing around the front of the building before we take our position there we can plan our course of action. If it is owned by our target both the roof and any secondary entrance will likely be under heavy watch. Given their lack of sense concerning subtlety I also suspect most criminal traffic will be centered around a secondary entrance in the rear, by observing that entrance we should be able to determine whether or not those within are giving or receiving orders. Once we determine that we can formulate a plan for infiltration or shadow one of their runners to find their base of operation.” Erwin spoke in a clear, decisive, and professional tone as he explained his plan of action to the young Jounin. This was far from his first rodeo, as one might say. ”Although I am hardly the only experienced member of this team, if there is anything you would like to suggest I would love to hear it.” He finished in a friendly but still professional tone as he shifted his gaze back towards the young woman. Whether or not she thought so Akasha was every bit his equal, she had earned the rank of Jounin after all, the additional experience that came with time was the only thing separating them.

[Word Count: 611]
[Total: 1242/1000]

Akasha smiled slightly at the vote of confidence from Erwin, the man was well known and she knew that to impress him was to better her standing and chances later on in her career. Yet the smile had a certain hint of bitterness for she could not help the doubts forming, insisting that she was obviously a nervous wreck in the eyes of one so seasoned as Erwin. Was all this a test of her capacity or simly an insurance to prevent the mission from failig? She kept her face schooled after the minor slip-up and thoughtfully gazed towards the monstrosity of foul 'money-is-all' architecture. "Yes, finding the secondary entrance would be perfect," she thought. There was something in her mind nagging on about how disgraced samurai that fled seppuku tended to end up as bodyguards for the Yakuza, especially if these were a clan of criminals from Kaminari no Kuni, but without further, careful, inspection that could be unnecessary information.

"I agree, they'll likely have closed or removed any rooftop access in order to complicate things for curious shinobi, so finding a secondary entrance or follow a runner would be our best bet." Thus, in agreement on the requirement of further knowledge, Akasha would silently move towards the second and smalller highrise, the one pointed out by Erwin, via leaps through mist and shadow, taking care to keep the subtle technique actig on her hair from dispelling; the moisture from all the mist had an extreme tendency to ruin any good hairstyle. The fact that seals were the basis for the technique made it easier to keep concealed, merely a small burst of chakra, nearly less than required to begin a rudimetary transformation, being its only indicator. That and Akasha's unusually stylish hair.

After stealthily reaching the building from which to watch, Akasha, and Erwin if he came along as she assumed he would due to his attention on this building in the first instance, would begin the stake out. It would only be about fifteen minutes before one of the guards by the main entrance took off and entered an alleyway just to the side of this draconic building. Akasha silently called upon Erwin's attention indicating the stroller so that the two shinobi were both in sync prior to following this promisin lead, once again with much care to remain undetected.

Yep, definitely a faint bit nervousness behind Akasha’s smile. It wasn’t obvious, or at least it wouldn’t have been to the average individual, but it was there. Second guessing one’s own value and ability wasn’t uncommon in newly promoted individuals, it was something Erwin had seen many times before, the real issue was how much Akasha would let this self doubt affect her performance. Even if he wasn’t there to officially observe his new Jounin counterpart he would make sure to do just that, more so than before at least. If she rose above this sense of self doubt then she deserved her position, but if she didn’t then it could consume her from the inside and lead to failure further down the line and Erwin wouldn’t have that. ”I agree, they’ll likely have closed or removed any rooftop access in order to complicate things for curious shinobi, so finding a secondary entrance or following a runner would be our best bet.”

With the two in agreement they moved ahead with the plan proposed by Erwin, Akasha being the first to leave their staging point while the middle aged samurai left just afterwards. Erwin took a slight detour from a direct path to the designated highrise, moving from wall to wall in utter silence rather than leaping from rooftop to rooftop as he quickly circled the target building. From his vantage points along the sides of the surrounding buildings Erwin spotted three alternate entrances, all of which were guarded but only one had the distinct lack of trash bins near the door. If these thugs were relatively smart the ‘criminal’ entrance would be one of the doors with trash by them while the clean entrance would be a decoy, although with their lack of sense concerning other subjects Erwin doubted that was the case.

It wouldn’t be long before Erwin joined Akasha on the roof of the building he had pointed out moments ago, taking a moment to sweep the surrounding buildings to make sure they weren’t visible from their position before silently climbing over the ledge next to his Jounin counterpart. They had a few sentries positioned on key rooftops around the rear of the building but the buildings out in front were rather lax on security as expected. They would only need to sit and observe for roughly fifteen minutes before a guard from the front slipped around back via the alleyway right of the buildings entrance. Erwin noded as Akasha pointed out the individual before slipping back over the edge and taking up position, shadowing the lone guard from the upper walls of the surrounding buildings to avoid the scouts on the rooftops.

[Word Count: 412]
[Total: 1654]

Styles/Techniques Used:

Moving from shadow to shadow, Akasha and Erwin had followed the guard made unintentional trailblazer, quietly observing as the man stopped first at the clean entrance, exchanging a few words with the guards before moving on. For Akasha this posed a problem, The illumination from the highrise whose entry they perhaps sought made the next section of walls and buildings decidedly lacking in the department of shadows. Lacking in cover too, at least the kind which could allow a shinobi to sneak past a sentry without too much trouble. Speeding up to gain some ground on the guard they were following, Akasha ducked beneath an overhang to shield herself from detection. There was a sentry on the roof above her, one she needed to get past before she could move any further. Thankfully she had not been noticed on her journey to this point. Giving a quick signal to Erwin, a hand gesture that the man would definitely notice if he was even one third as good as the rumours told explicitly (and even more so if you included their implications), so that the mark would be watched constantly Akasha prepared what was required to move on.

Drawing a kunai from the pouch on her right thigh, She slowly waved the blade through the moist air, collecting water of its surface, before rubbing the flats of the knife against the cloth of her pants, turning the surface polished and very much mirror-like. Akasha knew roughly where the sentry stood and she slowly raised it beyond the edge of the overhang, angling the blade so that stray lightbeams would not reveal her position, allowing her to catch the semi-clear reflection of the sentry. It was only a matter of seven seconds before the sentry's sweeping pattern had been grasped in Akasha's mind, allowing her to make use of the three second gap that was about to come up and quietly dash across the roof before the guard could detect her.

A thought struck her as she silently dashed into hiding, "Hmm, a seal that allows silent short range communication would be a good thing, eliminating the need for line of sight when radios can't be used." Making sure that she could move further from this position if need be, Akasha checked to make sure that the mark had not stopped at any other points and then signalled Erwin again once she had verified where the guard was, letting him know that she had eyes on the yakuza once more. "The seal would require a sensor member on the teams using it so as to not make them target beacons should there be enemy sensors in the area, but that could also be fixed by radios."

[Word Count: 452]
[Total: 1675]

[Techniques/Styles used: Tree Climbing, "Being a sneaky ninja in general"]