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>>6126605
You can’t help but laugh out loud, drawing some stares from the shinobi around her who have been helping process the former employees of Victor’s company… how long has it been since you’ve been on an adventure like this with Fū? Too long, too long. “Yeah, that was definitely part of the plan. I need people I can count on for this one, and I can’t think of many people I’d rather leave my back to.”

Fū doesn’t really answer you so much as she does that wordless excited squee thing she does.

“Keep this in mind though,” you continue, “one of the possible members we’d be trapping has a weird ability. You’ll need to use Chōmei’s chakra cloak to protect yourself.”

“Yeah?” she asks curiously. “What is it?”

“Some kind of viral cloud apparently,” you explain. “Think of it like a poison cloud.”

“Hmmm,” she replies, stroking her chin for emphasis. “I see, I see. Can you protect yourself?”

“Pretty sure ‘Storm Sage’ mode will do the trick,” you answer. “I can probably extend it to protect one more person in close range.”

“Which with your hiraishin can mean anything,” she guesses your own thoughts.

“Pretty much. See that’s what I’m going for – you’re not a clone of me so you think differently and have different abilities, but we can anticipate each other. Not quite like we’re sharing the same set of braincells, but as close as two people can get to it.”

“So who’s our third?” Fū asks. “I’m assuming we’re taking a third?”

… the one person you immediately rule out is, sadly, Yugito. Seeing as you can’t say for certain what your enemy’s long term plan is you might be walking into a trap if you take two jinchuriki along for this particular ride.

>I was thinking Sasuke. His abilities may be very useful, especially the partial susanō’ō which can seal out poisons and gasses.
>Probably going to go with Karin. Same trust as with you, but with Uzumaki fūinjutsu capabilities that could come in handy.
>I was thinking about bringing Ryūzetsu. She’s one of the VERY few people who can synchronize with my senjutsu chakra.
>Other?

>>6126607
>>I was thinking Sasuke. His abilities may be very useful, especially the partial susanō’ō which can seal out poisons and gasses.
cool guy

>>6126607
>>Other?
How about a really unexpected person, someone no one would actually think about:
Our old partner, Sasori of the red sand.

>>6126622
would he even agree to it, he's kinda retired

>>6126624
I can't say for certain, but i bet he would like to get rid of any underground organizations with a size like Kara that could get in his way.
And since their long term goals are uncertain being proactive makes sense.
Another point is that it could provide him some leeway with the shinobi alliance or just Naori, a favor he can cash in when necessary.

>>6126624
Or one could appeal to his more traditional sensibilites, proving without a shadow of a doubt that technological ninja tools can't hold a candle to the 'proper arts. It also gives him a chance to test any recent inventions he is proud of.

>>6126607
>I was thinking about bringing Ryūzetsu. She’s one of the VERY few people who can synchronize with my senjutsu chakra.

>>6126622
>>6126607

supporting

>>6126607
>>I was thinking Sasuke. His abilities may be very useful, especially the partial susanō’ō which can seal out poisons and gasses.

>>6126607
alright, give me a roll here
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6127122

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6127122

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6127122

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6127122

>>6127122
Your first thought is, quite honestly, Sasuke. His skillset is extraordinary and includes the susanō’ō which serves to filter poisons and should work the same against viruses. But then another thought hits your brain, much like a pigeon hitting a closed window. The thought?

Puppets can’t get sick.

Normally that realization might not help you. In fact, had you made that observation to most people they would look at you as if you had suddenly turned into an idiot. Everyone knows that any ‘puppet’ must by commonly-accepted definitions have a ‘puppet-master’, who is typically vulnerable to many of the things to which a puppet is not. Fortunately, Akatsuki never did adhere to conventional definitions.

…

“You look the same as ever,” you greet your host cheerfully. “Sasori-senpai.”

“Naori-san,” he replies in a calm tone, almost to the point of being mechanical. “How is the family?”

“Bout the same,” you reply. “Wife’s fine. Kids finding their way in the world.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah, so I thought you didn’t like kids?”

“I don’t,” Sasori admits. “I tolerate yours.”

“That’s as close to a compliment as you ever give.”

“So what brings the two of you here?” he asks, eyeing Fū warily. He doesn’t ever hide inside the bigger puppet that Sakura broke into a million pieces all those years ago anymore – not like Fū would recognize him anyway.

“I have a mission in mind,” you tell him. “To take out a member of Kara or two.”

Sasori-han’s workshop is small and isolated, in a small clearing deep in a rather large forest, though it’s not difficult to find if you know what to look for and who to ask. It’s little more than a small barn, with doors that slide on a metal track outside the main workshop and a smaller room with a slightly lower roof ridge where you gather Sasori rests when he’s not working. Outside are several kilns and wood piles, while inside there is a forge, along with various shop machinery with cutting edges, belts, and so on. For guests at least, there seems to be nowhere to sit.

His eyes betray no emotion as he questions you from his own chair, which appears to be hand-carved. “And why would you imagine that I would be interested in playing along?”
>1/2

>>6128281
“Because I know you,” you reply, allowing yourself a little bit of a smirk. “You know, we’ve captured two of them so far.”

“I’ve heard,” Sasori counters, not even hiding the fact that he apparently still has contacts among the five great nations.

“So yeah, one of them is Ōga-han,” you continue. “A puppeteer.”

“You don’t say.”

You nod. “Apparently they thought of her as ‘weak’ for using such ‘antiquated’ techniques.”

“… you don’t say.”

That got him.

“Yeah, they only really seem to put much stock in scientific tools.”

Sasori-han’s expression actually betrays a real emotion – annoyance, unless you’re terribly mistaken.

“I assume you have a plan that involves something only I can do?”

>One of them uses viruses, which is why your skills are helpful.
>We need bodies. How many puppets can you transform at once?
>Lay out your whole plan, see if Sasori has any insight.
>Other?

>>6128996
>>Lay out your whole plan, see if Sasori has any insight.
We ask for his help and he has informants that could eventually get him the whole truth anyway, might as well make use of his experience.

>>6128996
>>Lay out your whole plan, see if Sasori has any insight.

>>6128996
>Lay out your whole plan, see if Sasori has any insight.

>>6128996
>>Lay out your whole plan, see if Sasori has any insight.

>>6128996
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6129350

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6129350

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6129350

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6129350

>>6128996
You lay out your plan, in as much detail as you have to offer, and for his part Sasori-han listens patiently with no snarky commentary. When you finish your explanation, he seems to take a moment to think.

“I will need twelve uniforms for the regular Konoha forces,” he eventually decides, “particularly the modern flak jackets.”

“Why though?”

Fū’s question comes from a place of curiosity, and so Sasori-han exercises an unusual degree of patience in his answer. “Twelve could be either three teams of four or four of three – neither would attract any attention. As for the uniforms, it is simpler to disguise a human puppet as ‘alive’ if you need not add details such as appropriate uniforms.”

“Yeah, so that’s pretty doable,” you shrug. “Anything else?”

“No,” Sasori replies. “I think you’ve got a solid plan and the right team to carry it off.”

“Okay,” you nod once. “Then I’ll let Naruto know that we’ve got this all ready to go. But just so you know, Sasori-han, he may not be ready on his end yet.”

Sasori shakes his head. “To think, the Seventh Hokage is the kind of man to waste my time…”

…

“So I’ve got Fū and Sasori-senpai on board with this plan,” you inform Naruto a few moments later, having used your hiraishin to go straight back to his office and nearly scaring a new assistant of his to death in the process. “Fū and I will disguise ourselves as Ōga and Delta, while for the low low price of twelve flak jackets Sasori will disguise himself as twelve jōnin and chūnin from Konoha assigned to escort us.”

Naruto considers these amendments for a few moments. “We don’t have the train ready just yet.”

“Not surprising,” you shrug. “Most people don’t move as quick as you or I do.”

“And the elders are gonna have a fit over the flak jackets,” he sighs.

“What, why?” Fū asks. “It’s such a great plan!”

You hold your hand up to stop Fū from saying anything else, before taking the conversation over. “May we hear their likely reasoning?”

“They’d probably say that giving out genuine equipment to a known terrorist would be asking for a problem later,” Naruto shrugs.

>Here’s the thing though – he already has informants in your village.
>There’d be no point if he can just walk into the village anyway.
>I’ll tell him to rely on genjutsu instead. No stepping on any toes here.
>Other?

>>6130605
>We're not asking for anything forbidden, how many flak jackets do you lose in a month normally? They're cheap cut rate armor, and frankly he needs them about as much as I need a giant sword. When all this is done I'll even ask for him to give them back and he'll likely agree. You can tell them he's only motivated by his craft, and the only reason he's working with us is because they insulted Puppeteering as an art and science. As long as the Elders don't do something stupid like hanging up a sign that says puppets suck in the village he's not going to be an issue.

>>6130605
>Don't ask them then. Just "lose" a few vests.

>>6130605
>>6130614
I support this. Like ooooh flak jackets, truly something that will lead to the village's downfall.

No wait he will create an acid that will melt through specifically Konoha flak jackets only /s

>>6130605
>>6130614
Support.

Honestly have flak jackets ever actually done anything?

>>6130605
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6132342

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6132342

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6132342

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6132342

>>6132342
“Naruto,” you sigh, “you and I both know that if Sasori-han wanted to attack your village he’d have done it already, flak jackets or no. And he and I both know if he tried you’d have killed him, which you and I both know is one among many reasons he hasn’t done it.”

“Hidden villages go through these things like candy. Why don’t you just ‘lose’ a few and leave it at that?”

After a few moments, Naruto heaves a weary sigh. “I’ll have Sasuke ‘appropriate’ a few.”

You reply with a curt nod. “Thanks, Naruto.”

…

That afternoon information was released into the media about a high-level prisoner transfer by armored train, which makes the ‘bait’ in your scheme obvious. The next day, Sasuke furnishes you with a dozen complete uniforms which you pass along to Sasori-han for his use. Sasori, in the mean time, selects from his collection the eleven puppets he feels are best suited to the task at hand. These include the Third Kazekage, a member of the former Iburi clan (known for turning their bodies into smoke), and one puppet who if you remember correctly was a member of the Uchiha clan, among others.

“I don’t recognize this,” you tell him the morning of the ‘transfer’, indicating the body of a man with spiky brown hair. “You haven’t been making new ones, have you?”

Sasori rolls his eyes. “This one was a special occasion – a former member of Iwagakure’s Explosion Corps who went rogue a few years back. He came to me with a proposal.”

“What was the proposal?” Fū asks curiously.

“I’m not sure,” Sasori admits thoughtfully. “I didn’t let him finish his explanation.”
>1/2

>>6132625
“That tracks,” you shrug.

At the moment you’re wearing Delta’s face, seated in a rear-facing seat across from Fū who is wearing Ōga’s face – you literally drew the short straw on this one, which is why you’re the one going backwards today. The train itself is no more than the one engine and a single car, with metal slats running horizontally across the outsides of the windows and panels hanging down from the lower edge of the car to cover the metal wheels. All in all, not a bad design for the purpose.

“There is one piece of data you have yet to share, you know,” Sasori-han, looking rather surreal in a Konoha uniform, observes from the seat on the other side of the car from Fū – no way would he ever be obliged to face the wrong way. “A rather critical one.”

“Oh?” you muse. “And what might that be?”

“Your own opinions on Kara, of course.”

“Oh my, is senpai finally trying to figure out how to make small talk?” you taunt him.

“I knew it was gonna have to happen sooner or later!” Fū chimes in excitedly.

“Not at all,” Sasori-han shrugs. “I simply figured that it must have slipped your mind. You tend to avoid ‘over-sharing’ your thoughts, and so the first thing you would likely parse away would be personal opinions.”

“In reality, your perspective is unique. That makes even personal thoughts shaped by that perspective into valuable data.”

Hm…

“Well then,” you reply after a moment, “yeah. The biggest thing I noticed is that for an organization that’s done so well in some ways, they’re actually completely dysfunctional. I pin that on their leader – even at his worst, Pain put in the effort to understand the other members of Akatsuki. I get the impression that Jigen doesn’t.”

“I see. And your overall view?”

>Thoroughly disappointing. They’re obsessed with individual strength but many of them lack it.
>The ones I’ve fought have all been ALMOST impressive. Too much reliance on technology though.
>I’m wary of their leader, Jigen. It’s hard to know how much stronger than his underlings he may be.
>Other?

>>6133201
>>The ones I’ve fought have all been ALMOST impressive. Too much reliance on technology though.
>Don't wanna come across as a nostalgic warmonger but I'm this close- Actually thinking about it, there were a lot of guys like these back in the day. You know the type, right? Talentless megalomaniacs playing with superweapons or whatever stolen powers, kill them in an afternoon and forget it for fifteen years...

>>6133201
>>The ones I’ve fought have all been ALMOST impressive. Too much reliance on technology though.
>>I’m wary of their leader, Jigen. It’s hard to know how much stronger than his underlings he may be.

>>6133201
>Have you ever had the misfortune of trying some sort of diet soda or health food that promises to be just as good as what it was imitating but just doesn’t quite meet the mark? That’s Kara. They try so hard to be us but they’re not as good. I just hope Jigen their leader isn’t pulling what happened with Pain or having it done to him.”

>>6133201
>>6133419
I support this, it's hilarious.

>>6133419
yeah this basically

>>6133419
“So yeah, you don’t eat or drink so I know you’re not really gonna get this,” you muse, “but the best way I can describe it is that it’s like drinking an off-brand soda. They try and make it taste the same as the ‘real’ thing, but they never quite get it right and when you can tell you can tell.”

“Did you just call Kara out as being a ‘store-brand’ Akatsuki?” Fū realizes, seemingly delighted at the insult. “I love it!”

“In a sense that’s what they are,” you shrug. “Like a lot of the maniacs we used to take on they’re not exactly ‘weak’, but they realize they’ve plateaued. So they end up relying on outside strengths – back in the day it was superweapons from the days of the Sage of Six Paths. Now it’s ‘scientific’ shinobi tools.”

“Times may change but people do not,” Sasori-han grumbles, somewhat pensively. “What have you gleaned regarding their leader… Jigen, was it?”

“That’s the only one who gives me any pause,” you admit. “There’s something there that reminds me of the Ōtsutsuki. A certain disregard for his own subordinates that, for his many other flaws, Pain never really showed.”

“The only ones who can get away with that for long are those who are significantly stronger than those that they are disregarding,” Sasori-han nods in understanding.

“Which means this Jigen guy is probably way stronger than the rest of Kara?” Fū muses.

“Potentially combined,” you observe.

…

Fifteen years ago, a team of ordinary jōnin transporting prisoners internationally would need to travel largely overland. Often the tactics employed revolved around heavily restraining the prisoner within a palanquin locked from the outside, or else by using a fūinjutsu like that of Ryūzetsu’s clan to render the prisoner largely toothless. Measures were taken against more commonly-known tricks that jōnin were trained to employ in escape attempts, and guards were deployed to scout for traps and defend against ambushes. Early detection, accurate threat assessment, and response through correct tactics were the three keys of such missions, and a single point of failure by either guard or ambusher could make the mission outcome determinate.

This isn’t that sort of situation.
>1/2

>>6135170
For one thing, even jōnin these days aren’t really trained to those same standards – you’re pretty sure that most of Konoha’s active regular forces wouldn’t even be useful here. Instead you’ll be relying on Fū and Sasori-han – the former is now around the level Kakashi-sensei was at when he squared up with Zabuza, even without considering the techniques and chakra boost she gets from having teamed up with Chōmei. Sasori-han’s still the puppetized madman you knew back in the day, although he’s had fifteen years to refine his craftsmanship and to develop newer, more frightening poisons.

While your trio are all more or less considered ‘demons of the old world’ by shinobi forged after the Fourth World War, Kara are more like the ‘demons of the new world’. Speaking honestly? Ōga-han, Delta-kun, Victor, and Deepa wouldn’t be half bad even without their invasive scientific upgrades. If one or the other of them had something that you couldn’t flatly ignore using more traditional techniques they might even have given you some trouble. So while you did just insult them pretty harshly, you’re still wary when one of them bursts in through one of the armored windows.

The man is rather large, rotund even, dressed in a dark cloak over a dark waistcoat and pants. He’s also got some sort of plates on the sides of his heads, framing his face along with a goofy white beard and a hairstyle vaguely reminiscent of a turnip’s leaves. The most notable thing about him however is the fact that he has a biological clone of Jiraiya-sensei hiding in his shadow.

The shuriken that the large man produces from fūinjutsu markings on his armbands are laced with blasting powder, and swiftly take down Sasori’s puppets as they pretend to scramble to react. They’re not even really ‘disabled’, but Sasori-han plays along for now so as to use the fallen puppets as a surprise later.

“Took you long enough, fatass!” you complain at the large man.

But as the shadow nears Fū, something starts to bother you. To your mind, it telegraphs an intention to attack.

>Tell Fū that you’re going to launch a pre-emptive attack. You’ll cover for her.
>Tell Fū that you’ll protect her when they attack her, so she’ll need to be ready.
>Tell Sasori to launch his own attack using the puppets, see what happens.
>Other?

>>6135205
>>Tell Fū that you’ll protect her when they attack her, so she’ll need to be ready.
show me what you got

>>6135205
>>Tell Fū that you’ll protect her when they attack her, so she’ll need to be ready.

>>6135205
>>>Tell Fū that you’ll protect her when they attack her, so she’ll need to be ready.

>>6135205
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6135862

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6135862

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6135862

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6135862

>>6135862
[Be ready,] you tell Fū using the wave transmission method. Even such a short message tells her everything she needs to know.

The large man, who you’ve gathered is Boro, lashes out with his right arm as if to grab Ōga by the neck and choke-slam her through the nearest wall. Instead he finds Fū twisting in place and raising her wrists to defend herself and his own hand hitting the seat behind her, completely crushing it. That’s when the second stage of the attack is launched from Boro’s shadow, with Kashin Koji emerging already mid-attack aimed at Fū’s ribs.

Kashin Koji finds your hand stopping his own thrust, though in the instant where the four of you are all stopped, testing one another for openings, he draws in enough natural energy to escalate the situation. Then he turns, sweeping his hair towards Fū.

“Needle Jizō.”

Your own hiraishin changes your positions together, for no other reason than that it means the hardened hair spikes are no longer aimed at Fū. That having been said, leaving a shadow clone behind was an unexpectedly well-timed trick which only your own sage mode allowed you to detect and counteract. Despite the speed of the attack Fū is able to dodge it while staying away from Boro, though it grazes her shoulder. The blow rips off her sleeve, cancels her disguise, and even draws blood.

In response, the entire train car explodes.
>1/2

>>6136469
“… so yeah, sorry about the mess,” you muse as your body crackles with power. “I didn’t intend to use this technique just yet. But I saw Fū bleed, so… yeah. This is what happens when someone makes Fū bleed.”

“Kashin Koji,” Koji introduces himself, removing the porcelain mask. “I assume since you felt my chakra you know already what I am?”

“Yup.”

“Then I’ll refrain from explaining it to you,” he nods.

“What the hell?” Boro demands, lifting a piece of train off himself. “What kind of attack was that?”

“That wasn’t an attack,” Koji answers. “Was it, Uzumaki Naori-dono?”

The disguise is gone now, replaced by a set of armor in the rusty red lacquered finish once common to your clan. Four bands and three hinges, with armored shoulder straps and banded kusazuri hanging below the bottom of the cuirass to protect the outside of your hips. The sole long sleeve on your left side, of an older style falling between the dangling furisode worn today by younger women and the more conservative style favored by married women, is a dark blue-green traced with black stems and leaves, punctuated by fiery dyed hōzuki flowers.

“I’m glad you recognized me so quickly,” you reply. “I wore my finest armor for the occasion.”

Fū is safe at your side, and Sasori and his puppets are scattered, some half-buried, amid the wreckage. The former acted quickly to rally once she saw the opportunity to join you in the chaos caused by your usage of the Storm Sage mode, while Sasori is honestly in exactly the sort of position he’d want to strike from as a surprise.

“What you you mean, it wasn’t an attack?” Boro demands.

“That was simply the result of her entering her sage mode,” Koji clarifies.

“That doesn’t happen when you do it!”

“That is because I have bridged the gap using technology,” Koji admits, before turning back to face you. “Whereas the young woman before us has come as close as any human to the realm of the Ōtsutsuki.”

Fū clears her throat.

“And of course, Fū of Takigakure,” Koji adds. “Partner to Chōmei the Seven-Tailed beast. I’ve heard the two of you were closer even than most siblings.”
>2/3

>>6136984
Fū seems to puff up a little with pride in… some aspect of this exchange. Whether it’s the fact that Kara evidently seems to consider her significant enough to keep a dossier on her, or whether it’s because that dossier considers her to be closer than a sibling to you, it’s not immediately clear. You’d hazard a guess it’s the latter though.

Boro, for his part, simply guffaws for a moment. “The realm of the Ōtsutsuki, you say? What a load of garbage.”

“I have a proposal for you,” Koji offers, seemingly content to ignore Boro for now. “The two of us will fight. In the mean time, Boro will keep your companions occupied.”

He’s a sage. Of course he realizes that Boro only ‘defeated’ a number of puppets, and that the puppeteer must still be here. He may even realize by now who he’s dealing with. And yet… ‘companions’. He chose to mention that there is more than one opponent here for Boro, and chose not to mention who he thinks that person may be or what they may be up to.

Interesting. You can’t say that instances where you’ve missed something are common, in fact they’re incredibly rare these days. But you get the nagging feeling that this may just happen to be one such instance.

>Deny his suggestion. You will fight as a team. If they can’t do the same that’s entirely their problem.
>Accept his suggestion. Fū alone should be sufficient to take on Boro, and she won’t be alone.
>Deny his suggestion. Fū will act as insurance that you get to fight Koji and Boro alone, in turn.
>Other?

>>6138351
>>Deny his suggestion. Fū will act as insurance that you get to fight Koji and Boro alone, in turn.

>>6138351
>>Accept his suggestion. Fū alone should be sufficient to take on Boro, and she won’t be alone.
the big prize for me

>>6138351
>Deny his suggestion. Summon Sasuke.

>>6138351
>Accept his suggestion. Fū alone should be sufficient to take on Boro, and she won’t be alone.

>>6138351
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6139030

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6139030

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6139030

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6139030

>>6139030
“I agree,” you nod curtly, before turning your head towards Fū – but speaking both to her and to Sasori. “Yours isn’t friend material, so take no chances.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Boro demands angrily.

“Yeah no,” you clarify for a moment, “I’m suggesting that my friend here kill you.”

“Goodbye, Boro. We won’t have a chance to speak again.”

…

You create some distance from the thunder rail engine and what’s left of the car, pulling Koji along like a kite on a string.

“Do you disagree?” you muse in Koji’s general direction.

His expression is carefully-controlled and, from where you stand, neutral. “I do not.”

You take a moment to unseal Umekiri along with her saya, sliding her into the himo cord wrapped around the outside of your armor.

“You aren’t using the raikō kenka technique?” Koji frowns, despite making no effort to interrupt you. “You must be confident in your iaijutsu.”

“Do you understand why?”

He nods. “A skilled samurai’s draw-cut is typically just a bit faster even than a skilled fūinjutsu user due to the explosiveness of the technique. When properly executed, one also reveals their intended target only at the last instant.”

“Which enhances the perception of its speed, yes,” you agree.

In an instant Kasshin Koji takes the initiative and unseals a fūma shuriken, throwing it in the same smooth motion. “Shuriken shadow clone!”

You can see even now that he’s weaving another set of hand seals, using the numerous spinning blades coming your way as a defense in the mean time.

“Suiton: Suishōha.”
>1/2

>>6139792
With a clap your chakra whips up a fearsome surge of water, a technique once favored by Tobirama-han, which not only stops the shuriken but rapidly bears down on Koji himself. He leaps high into the air in his best attempt to avoid being caught and ground down into a bloody pulp, and completes his own next technique.

“Senpō: Gokashin’ensen!”

Finally, you think to yourself as you find the ground below your feet turning to mud, you’ve found a technical fighter worthy of your efforts.

“Senpō: Rekuyemu.”

The collision of storm-release chakra and fire release, with both having been amplified to unreasonable levels of raw power by senjutsu chakra, results in the complete negation of the latter and the further amplification of the former. The ungodly mass of chakra rises into the low afternoon clouds before dissipating, leaving the sky itself roiling in agitation at its passage.

Meanwhile, having let his shadow clone take the brunt of the attack, emerges from the mud he created beneath you – having tunneled underneath your own wall of water after sinking into the ground in the equally massive blind spot it created. Had you not countered the fire-based attack entirely it would have probably instantly baked the mud and partially trapped you in it, but even as things are the fire made for a fine distraction.

“Rasengan!”

Koji’s attack pierces through its target, though the body of the earth-release shadow clone you left behind the instant you realized what he had done swiftly reseals itself around his wrist to firmly trap him instead. From your new hiding place you can see his expression shift – to one which, for just a moment, betrays something an awful lot like fear.

There’s a blast where he stood, and while the mud is splashing back down all around him he takes a moment to catch his breath. Noticing something off, he reaches up to touch his left shoulder and finds it bleeding from a deep cut. And a moment later, it begins to rain.
>2/3

>>6139795
Would have laughed my ass off if naori's clone just grabbed his rasengan and dissipated it with the opposite spin

>>6139795
“Advancing a strategy along multiple axes,” Koji realizes as he holds his hand out to feel the first droplets. “Impressive.”

After considering your approach for a moment, you use a genjutsu through the sound of the rainfall to carry your message as though you were speaking directly to him. “You did the same. If I weren’t thinking a move or two ahead I’m certain you would be six or seven ahead.”

“It makes little sense to do that in this sort of fight,” Koji admits. “It sounds as if you’ve come to the same conclusion?”

“Yup.”

Of course even now he’s stalling for time while he tries to come up with a plan to locate you – in life Jiraiya had little aptitude for sensing techniques, and your understanding is that even in his sage transformation he relied on the Elder Toads for such needs. So how will Koji proceed?

After a moment he claps his hands together twice, turning his head in a slow circle and spreading a barrier ninjutsu – a jutsu which, for the moment, you ignore as it washes past you.

“Kekkai: Tengai Hōjin.”

“I see,” you acknowledge his move, realizing that he probably should have detected you if it was your chakra he was seeking out. “A barrier ninjutsu…”

… one meant to detect movement. But will it be as effective under the influence of the rain? Or is this simply one part of a more elaborate plan that Koji has cooked up?

>There are a few techniques you can use without moving, and you can aim them by sensing Koji through the rain.
>You wonder if his sensing technique extends below the ground – often barriers like this can’t see through solid objects.
>Just because he can sense you coming doesn’t mean he can do anything about it. Speed is on your side, not his.
>Other?

>>6140405
>>There are a few techniques you can use without moving, and you can aim them by sensing Koji through the rain.

>>6140405
>He wants to limit your movement. Deny him that by ignoring his barrier and fighting up close with kenjutsu and genjutsu.
>If he keeps the barrier up, use it to confuse him using shadow clones and hiraishin, masked by genjutsu
>take advantage of the rain, create a heavy fog to block his vision further

>>6140405
>>There are a few techniques you can use without moving, and you can aim them by sensing Koji through the rain.

Having to move in a fight is just a skill issue lol

>>6140405
>>There are a few techniques you can use without moving, and you can aim them by sensing Koji through the rain.

>>6140405
>>Just because he can sense you coming doesn’t mean he can do anything about it. Speed is on your side, not his.

>>6140405
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6140998

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6140998

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6140998

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6140998
50% chance to do better

>>6140998
If you’re being completely honest needing to move in order to fight is what kids Shiki and Makoto’s age would call a “skill issue” – because with sufficient skill you simply don’t need to. Plenty of people can make clones without using any hand seals, especially in villages that place strong emphasis on kenjutsu, and you’re even aware of a jōnin from one of the smaller villages who learned to weave hand seals with her eye movements.

That’s the trick you use now.

First you employ one of Nagato-han’s techniques that you’ve been improving on over the years: during his rule as Pain, he used the Ukojizai no jutsu to sense intruders who were anywhere under the rains of Amegakure. Using this technique requires no hand seals in the first place, so it’s not a surprise when Koji fails to react to it. Next, you close your right eye and weave the seals for the Amefuribari technique with the precisely-coordinated movements of your left eye.

“What is it you’re planning?” Koji ponders aloud even as you’re completing your setup. “I can tell that you haven’t simply fled.”

“No yeah, thanks for waiting so patiently,” you reply via genjutsu. “I think you’ll like this.”

You form the first set of senbon and propel them down towards Koji. He manages to dodge most of them but you feel that one connects – you think it hits him in one of his arms. To his credit he clearly sensed them coming, which means that his ability to detect movement is refined enough to catch even something as small as senbon hidden in a heavy rain squall. He’s actually pretty good.

He dodges the second set of rain senbon as well a few seconds later, and then the third volley a few seconds after that. But when he dodges the fourth volley he finds a rude surprise waiting underfoot – a set of senbon you dropped behind him at the same speed as the surrounding rain immediately after your third attack. Those you left embedded into the ground behind him right about at the distance he moved to evade the first three sets, before aiming the fourth ‘attack’ to force him to dodge towards your trap.
>1/2

>>6142140
With one of his feet wounded, and temporarily pinned as he grunts in surprise and pain, you finish your assault on Kasshin Koji with a much larger downpour of rain needles. This many might have been something he could have dodged if he was in perfect health, but with a wound to one foot that’s aggravated by having to pry himself free from where you’d had him pinned it becomes impossible.

“Of course it can’t be that simple,” you muse, half to yourself, as you realize that your attack didn’t kill Koji on the spot. “If you can’t dodge, defend.”

He must have used his hair to protect himself, though you know that such a measure won’t have been perfect. A few of your needles made it through, inflicting several shallow wounds all over Koji’s body, but particularly with senjutsu chakra behind any of these attacks would have killed any ‘normal jōnin’ on the spot.

To his further credit, Kashin Koji is far from finished.

“Kuchiyose: Kaenzan no Shinka!”

The flames Koji summons have no chakra in them – these are all naturally-generated, and since he’s in sage mode he can summon a LOT of them. They may have come from the legendary ‘Flaming Mountain’, or else from a place very much like it. If you take a moment to think about it you know Kaguya had a dimension that was basically just one big volcano, so you know that places like the legendary mountain can exist.

A more immediate problem is that the tree you’ve been hiding in on the edge of the clearing Koji selected for your fight is well within the area of the flames.

“Suiton: Suiten Hōfutsu!”

Extending your control as far as you can into the sky you grab hold of the rain – ALL of the rain – and bring it down all in one rapid deluge. This cloudburst not only drowns all of the fire around the clearing and surrounding forest, but actually rips a circular hole in the clouds above it.

Koji has prepared a massive attack for you as you dealt with his flames, probably in the hope that you would reveal your exact location to do so. This attack comes with a familiar howl.

“Chōōdama Rasengan!”

… too early.

“Chōōdama Rasengan.”

The collision of two closely-matched rasengans of opposite spin doesn’t normally produce such a powerful burst of wind, but these are anything but normal rasengans. Through the sudden void between you, you can see Koji’s unmistakable alarm at having been countered so swiftly. You can see exhaustion setting in as well. It’s written on the man’s face.
>2/3

>>6142255
“Senpō: Ranton Kōga!”

A needle-like streak of blindingly white chakra connects with Koji’s right shoulder, a technique nearly impossible to aim with any reliability and which moves far too quickly over far too short a duration to produce the sort of sweeping motion Tobirama-han could produce with his Suidanha technique. But despite those flaws, the single shot rips the four necessary inches upward to slice out through Koji’s shoulder, to the effect of very nearly severing his arm.

Koji is now out of senjutsu chakra, badly maimed and on the ground, while you’ve used a reasonable amount of your senjutsu chakra but have suffered no wounds worth noting.

>Leave him. You’re not into executions, and you want to go watch Fū’s fight.
>Put a water gun shot through his head. One less Kara inner to concern yourself with.
>Demand to know what the hell he’s even doing here. He HAS to understand his situation.
>Other?

>>6142278
>kill him as quickly and thoroughly as possible
>you've lived too long and through too many battles to make a mistake as dumb as giving a dying enemy time to suicide bomb you or teleport away out of mere curiosity

>>6142278
>>Demand to know what the hell he’s even doing here. He HAS to understand his situation.

>>6142278
>>Demand to know what the hell he’s even doing here. He HAS to understand his situation.
might be sentimental but i don't want this guy to die

>>6142278
>>Demand to know what the hell he’s even doing here. He HAS to understand his situation.

>>6142278
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6142883

>>6142883

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6142883

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6142883

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6142883

>>6142883
“So yeah, I have to ask,” you admit with a slight frown as you ever-so-tenderly bend one of your own usual rules. “What were you even hoping to accomplish by fighting me?”

“… this wasn’t my idea,” he admits in a low grumble.

“Then whose was it?” you press.

“You’re asking me to sell out a comrade?”

You muse over that for a moment before replying. “I’m telling you to identify an enemy – because make no mistake, whoever sent you here isn’t your comrade.”

Koji slowly reaches for a pouch at his waist, retrieving a small sealed packet. He bites one end off this packet and pours its contents, a coarse white powder, onto the significant wound you left in his shoulder where it starts hissing slightly. It also releases a little trail of steam as it evidently starts to close that wound.

“Then listen closely,” he replies.

…

You are Fū – no family name, because so far as you know no blood relatives. But that’s fine. There are bonds that go beyond blood anyway, and you’ve got plenty those.

One of them just dragged a sage off to beat the crap out of him.

“Well it’s nice to see her having fun,” you shrug.

“… fun?” the big guy Nakkun left you wonders. Apparently his name is Boro.

People fall into three categories for you. There are your friends, and there are people who are not your friends – for now the one called Kashin Koji is simply not your friend, although if he actually manages to hurt Nakkun that might change. You’d be willing to guess Boro however is one of a rare handful of people who fall into the third category: enemies.

Sasori is another guy who’s confusing enough, on top of being weird in general, that you simply consider him ‘not your friend’. But even if you get that he’s not Nakkun’s friend either, you know she trusts him at least enough to leave him to fight alongside you, and that counts for something.

>Well, there’s not much else you can do but start off with a Chōmei Chakra Cloak!
>Wait for a good moment to spit scale powder in his eyes. That’s always a good start.
>You know you’ve gotten stronger over the years – Sasori's backup will let you see how much.
>Other?

>>6143920
>>Wait for a good moment to spit scale powder in his eyes. That’s always a good start.
Kinda mean, it's how i like it

>>6143920
>>Wait for a good moment to spit scale powder in his eyes. That’s always a good start.

>>6143920
>>Wait for a good moment to spit scale powder in his eyes. That’s always a good start.

>>6143920
>1d6 best of three
>DC: 10
>SP: 3/3

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6144535

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6144535

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6144535

>>6144535
And by best of three that means first three. I'd initially considered a best three of four.

>>6144741
Would you like to use 2SP to hit the target DC of 10?
>Yes
>No

>>6144744
>Fuu says 'Yes'.
Well, you heard the lady.

>>6144744
>>Yes

>>6144744
>Yes

>>6144744
>>Yes

>>6144744
>SP: 1/3
>will recharge on doubles vs a DC

You’re feeling pretty cute in the moment, so you decide that since Naori seems like shes’ going to be having fun you should get that chance too. And for you, that means punching.

Compared to going into sage mode it’s easier for you to build your physical power. In fact, it’s almost instant. You simply clench your fists at your sides and the ground cracks in a circular web at your feet even before you kick off. The first punch meets Boro’s arms raised in a tight guard, followed by your second and third punches, totally disconnected and spontaneous. Somehow Boro only manages to take one hit to his ribs as he abandons his guard and swings for your head.

Instead of standing there and getting hit you lean away and to the side – much further than you need to, until you can touch the ground – and shift your weight to hold yourself up on your hands. From here you continue the assault with a stream of rapid-fire kicks that force Boro right back onto the offensive, giving you an opportunity to swing your leg in a wide kick that has the effect of turning you back onto your feet.

Boro takes a long leap backwards past several of Sasori-san’s fallen puppets and weaves a single seal, releasing a strange black mist in your direction.

“That’s not chakra-based!” you hear Chōmei-ossan warn you in your head. So this must be the trick you were warned to avoid?

That’s… disappointing.

Before the mist can reach you, Chōmei-ossan’s chakra starts to well up inside you.

“Rinpun Seisei!”

Your own startlingly white mouth-mist collides with the black mist, and in a chaotic swirl both mists disappear.

Boro stares at you for a moment, before his eyes narrow. “… what?”

You can’t help but smile. “Y’know, Nakkun always says you really know you’ve ‘mastered’ something when you can use it to make stuff up on the spot – guess that means I’ve finally ‘mastered’ my partner’s techniques!”

Boro releases the black mist a second time, only for you to counter it a second time the exact same way.

“Can’t figure it out?” you hear Sasori-san’s voice. “I can’t blame you. It’s a rather smart idea, and you appear to be quite, quite stupid.”

“I thought you were waiting to strike?”

“I already got what I need. Any further delay is simply a waste of time.”
>1/2

>>6145981
“Who are you?” Boro demands. “The escorts should all be dead!”

“What a fool,” Sasori-san sighs, his ‘main’ body sitting up rather abruptly. His head is on backwards when he does, so he needs to take a moment to correct that. “She combined that powder produced by her tailed beast with the sōshūjin – using chakra to draw in your virus cloud and bind it to the powder, where the tailed beast’s chakra broke it down.”

“Using the tailed beast cloak hurts,” you admit with a shrug. “This way doesn’t.”

Boro tries a third time to use his gimmicky tool against you, and this time you simply swirl the powder around your body with a slow breath that creates a little sphere of invulnerability.

>Ask Boro if he’s really done. It’d be super boring if all he has is his weird virus tool thingy.
>Show him the technique you’ve worked on with Nakkun and Yuginee – the Tailed Beast Gun.
>Partially manifest some super-cool Chōmei bits, use them to squash Boro… well, ‘like a bug’.
>Other?

>>6145986
>>Show him the technique you’ve worked on with Nakkun and Yuginee – the Tailed Beast Gun.

>>6145986
>>Show him the technique you’ve worked on with Nakkun and Yuginee – the Tailed Beast Gun.

Getting flashbacks to Yusuke Urameshi's Spirit Gun. I need to see this.

>>6145986
Ask him if he's done, cause now you're gonna show what you can do!
>>Show him the technique you’ve worked on with Nakkun and Yuginee – the Tailed Beast Gun.

>>6145986
>1d6 first three
>DC: 8
>SP: 1/3

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6146760

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6146760

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6146760

>>6146760
“… is that really it?” you ask, admitting by your tone that you’re actually pretty disappointed. “A bit of nature manipulation and a slightly spicy case of bad breath?”

“How dare you speak to me like that!?” Boro demands. “You, the mere vessel of an incomplete God Tree, speaking down to the right hand of a God!? It’s practically blasphemy!”

“Oh?” you reply with a smirk. “Then you’re gonna love this technique I’ve been working on...”

You reach out with your right hand, extending one finger and swiftly gathering chakra – eight parts ‘black’, two parts ‘white’ – and swiftly forming it into a crackling sphere of the deepest purple. It may have the size of a largeish marble, but you can tell that it has the weight of a small single-family house.

“… the Bijūdan.”

The shot is fast, doubly so when you consider use Nakkun and Ryū-kyun’s idea for bullet-type ninjutsu. Any fighter knows to anticipate the ‘flight time’, so unexpectedly cutting the distance with even just the regular old shunshin technique pulls the proverbial rug out from under your opponent by messing with that flight time. If you do it right, you can even launch the attack from just inside the range at which that opponent could dodge.

In Boro’s case it hits the man’s torso like a slightly off-centered cookie cutter, leaving a perfectly circular hole where his left collarbone once was that you could probably fit your whole head through. In the distance behind him, an uninhabited mountainside now sports a drifting cloud of dust and splinters – you know from previous experience that the impact crater beneath that cloud is probably about two hundred meters across and twenty deep.

His eyes go wild in something that looks an awful lot like rage, and the remaining flesh of his torso quivers and writhes before he coughs out part of a weird ‘core’ like some kind of fruit pit which comes up with no small amount of blood.

With red froth bubbling at the corners of his mouth Boro looses an inhuman howl, and the writhing of his body grows more intense, almost frantic. His wound starts to rapidly regenerate… but it’s wrong, like his body is automatically restoring itself with no idea what the things it’s restoring are supposed to look like.

“Is that what I think it is?” Sasori wonders aloud, having caught a glimpse of the thing that came out of Boro’s mouth.

“I have no idea?” you admit. “What do you think…”

Your question is cut short as Boro lashes out with an arm… or at least you’re fairly confident that’s what the limb used to be. A mutated fist crashes into the ground near where you were standing.

“If he was given a healing ability,” Sasori explains, having also dodged while leaving a different puppet to be smashed, “he would need a device to control it.”
>1/2

>>6147576
So now that you’ve destroyed that device… ah.

“So he can’t control it anymore is what you’re saying,” you realize. “Ah.”

That means the mutations you’re watching in real time are completely out of Boro’s control – he may have gone completely insane, or his mind may be gone altogether. Either way, it seems like you’re not going to have an option to spare this guy now.

>Sasori! You’ve got something to deal with this guy, right? Like a poison or something?
>Well… you guess you can put a little bit more ‘oomph’ behind your technique this time.
>Easiest way to do it might be wrapping him up under some silk threads. Keep it tidy.
>Other?

>>6148105
>>Sasori! You’ve got something to deal with this guy, right? Like a poison or something?

>>6148105

>Sasori should have a poison for this situation, right?
>Something that's more effective the faster your metabolism runs would probably be effective, since he's regenerating cells rapidly

>>6148105
>>Sasori! You’ve got something to deal with this guy, right? Like a poison or something?