Naruto SoundITP IC 1: A Melancholy Song of Hope To Come

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
She regards this solution. Her first thought was:
But I already came up with a better solution in theory with using mathematics to make balloons, the pot would at best serve as an alternate rubber ball, in which the point would BE to break it. Since apart of it would in theory be accomplishing enough force to break it.
But her second thought is:
He isn't wrong, just inexact and its not as if I have any balloons with me at the moment, I only came up with earlier on this journey and hadn't had time to stock up in the village.
So she just says
"....Thanks. Thats a good idea, Odayama-taichou"
She tries to do both rotation and force but is having trouble.....well of course. Its a jar, its harder than a rubber ball. So she thinks
One hand isn't getting me anywhere. But what if I try....
She uses her left hand pressed up against the side of the glass to supply the power and the her right hand to do the rotation, putting more chakra into it and- it shatters, hitting against the scarf he placed over it.
"Yes! It worked! Don't worry, that was supposed to happen. thanks again, technically you've just proven that I've skipped ahead to step two in a manner of speaking....but the third, the hardest step is going to have to wait until I get fragile balloons to attempt to NOT break. A jar is too hard for that."
Perhaps Odayama's ideas have merit, even if they need some polishing now and then.

[Rater202]

"...I was going to suggest practicing a basic chakra flow technique in order to get more experience manipulating raw chakra, but whatever works I suppose."

Tomoe holds up her own hand and enshrouds it in a thin layer of visible chakra. "Every technique that a samurai knows is the result of chakra flow and shape transformation, and this basic technique with limited applications is the start of this. For a samurai, mastering chakra flow is the first step toward being able to turn a wakizashi into a shield, a naginata, or a zanbato. For you? A spinning ball of death."

"Actually, all of you could benefit from this to some degree. Manipulating the flow of chakra within your body to augment one's martial arts or channeling chakra into your tools to increase their performance is a useful and relatively basic skill but as far as I know, most shinobi don't bother learning it until they are approaching more advanced shinobi tricks, and even then only as a stepping stone."

"...You know, in a pinch the chakra scalpel technique could be used to really mess someone up."

Ichika checks and looks down on Kimiko's head, examining her scalp. "Your chakra spins counter-clockwise."

Yeah, turns out it's as simple as figuring out what direction your hair grows.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
"Thanks, Ichika-san."
Then she is instantly in front of Tomoe smiling and interested.
"I want to learn it anyways! My goal is to learn all jutsu! I would be foolish not to take this opportunity to learn chakra flow!...Tomoe-sensei!"
She says animated at the prospect of it.
"As to answer why you wonder that, most shinobi don't bother learning chakra flow until later is because statistically most shinobi learning more basic things are genin or recently made Chuunin and thus either kids or teenagers easily impressed by flashy visually impressive jutsu and thus go for them over what is practical, we don't have statistics of any other village, but its pretty consistently true in our own and what we've gleaned from the 24 Chuunin Exams that have been held since the Third Shinobi War. Such chakra flow tricks are typically start being learned later because they either start going into ANBU or realize the nature of their job requires effectiveness no matter how seemingly basic the trick is."
"Yeah I've heard tales that some ANBU are good enough to take down other shinobi with nothing but a kunai, some wire tricks, a replacement jutsu and their brain."
Also Kimiko won't be able to practice the third step properly until later so she might as well learn it.

[igordragonian]

Odayama rub the back of his head.
"Ah! Balloons! I never thought. Anwyay, I am happy I was of use, for once'

"Usagi, I think Earth Release might suit y-"
But the girls sarounded Tomoe and Ichika.

Usagi, her face still blackened and her hair spiked up like an angry sayian hedghog.
"I bet I can master the chakra flow first!!"


Odayama shake his head with a smile, and seal the jars back in the scroll.
"Maybe other time.' he say to himself.
He isnt in hurry. He never is. If you wait long enough opurtinities will present themselves.

[Lord Raziere]

Yuyuyu:
Yuyuyu says
"I mean it is a good idea for some like her to learn Earth Release Odayama-taichou, but maybe test her chakra affinity with the chakra paper we have first? See if she even can learn Earth Release well? Its why I haven't learned any elemental jutsu, I haven't been tested on what my element is. It will inform you how she should be taught in the future and by whom, and who knows? she might be one of those rare dual-affinity but not advanced nature transformation types. "
Kimiko says to Usagi
"Oh, you want to learn as well? Hyu, I'm not afraid, I'll gladly see what you can do with chakra flow, I'll learn it better and outclass it, just you watch, Usagi!"
Yuyuyu considers Tomoe's offer.
"Y'know what I should learn chakra flow, I wield an iron umbrella and I'm a genjutsu specialist something like chakra flow would compliment my fighting style very well."

[igordragonian]

Odayama sigh.
'I never had a proper Sensei. No one did for me the paper thing. I CAN do it, but only because I have read about it. But that correct. I just assumed, the way Usagi borrowed herself in the battle against Kimiko- it took her the whole night. I just assumed because of that, and her headstrong attitude- but you are correct. There is a proffesional way to do this.'


Meanwhile Usagi is pumped up.
'My arrows will be unstopable! I'll shred your paper like.... paper!' getting firing up

[Rater202]

Tomoe... Actually seems a little off-put by how eager everyone is, but quickly snaps out of it.

"Alright, the first step is to be well, aware of your chakra. I assume that you have at least some basic ability in this regard, if you can use your chakra at all. Once you are aware of it, you focus it and channel it."

"In the land of iron, we start with using chakra flow in our own bodies. Technically there is nothing stopping you from going straight to channeling it into a weapon or tool, but we find that starting with your own body is somewhat easier while learning, and well, if you can get it right faster you can get good at it faster."

"Start with your dominant hand. Clear your mind of stray thoughts, focus on your hand, meditate on it if you have to, and try to be aware of your chakra as it flows through it... Then, direct the chakra in your body into your hand and keep it there."

"..Senko-sama? Would you also like to learn?"

Senko, without even standing from where she's sitting or turning to face the rest of the group, holds up a hand and... Yeah, she's already got it. The aura of chakra around her hand is more intense than Tomoe's, and it flickers somewhat, but...

"Sage Mode and, by extension, my clan's transformations, are a form of, or incorporate, chakra flow. I have been able to do the basic most applications of it for quite a while. Training in more advanced applications of it would be nice, but... Well, I experimented with combining chakra flow with water release and crushed the bones in my hand. For now, I intend to focus on nature transformation and basic chakra control."

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
She will hold her right arm up and focus her chakra into her hand. She will simply keep the chakra there, blinking a couple times as she does so.
".....How do we know if we're doing it right?"
Between her use of the Origami-No-Tsurugi operating on similar principles, Kirigakure culture emphasizing kenjutsu, constantly practicing on a more advanced method of chakra control for at least the past few days, on top of her natural talent this might be effortless for her to do and thus not feel the difference unless a tangible result is produced.

Yuyuyu meanwhile holds up her right hand as well and start focus intently on channeling her chakra into it, with a serious expression on her face. She is not as talented as Kimiko and needs to put more effort into learning it.

[Rater202]

"You'll know that you're doing it correctly when your hand starts glowing with an aura of concentrated chakra. If your hand starts to hurt... You need to stop."

"...There's some sort of advice for what to do if you're doing it wrong, but... This sort of thing always came easily to me so I never got that remedial lesson. In hindsight, I might not be the best person to explain this... But I'm also the only person here who can explain this."

[igordragonian]

Odayama has listened even if from afar.
I Must level up my game. If I want to stay relevant, I must become a Jounin. I never was a geniouse, or even hardworking one...
To be a jounin, it means to break the mold. Somehow. Maybe... if I am patient enough, something will inspire me"
he think. Also training this relativly basic technique, but trying to be subtle about it- using his foot instead.



Usagi raise her hand, but very quickly become frusrated as she doesnt see results.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
Kimiko on the other hand while not getting it immediately like hand sign stuff does it within the first few tries, Her palm glowing with energy. She will then slowly start shifting the chakra around so she can do with her left hand as well, then shift it to her left foot, then her right foot, experimenting where she can focus the glowing chakra.
"Ah yes. I see now. Took a little adjustment and mental translation from how I'd think you could do this with hand signs, but I've got it."

Yuyuyu however, it takes a few minutes and few false starts and brief sparks before she gets what she is doing wrong and manages to only do it on one hand. She begins trying to replicate it on her other hand. That takes just as long, but when tests doing so with her umbrella she manages to enhance that with chakra as well while Kimiko is still experimenting with the basic application, just trying to make it go faster and smoother.

Spoiler: OOC: Learned New Skill:

Show

Kimiko's Chakra Flow Basics: C-rank
Due to her genius Kimiko can enhance any part of her body with chakra to enhance its performance, such as her punches can hit harder, or legs can make her run faster, her arms block punches or even blades by being as hard as steel, able to fight taijutsu users higher ranked than herself. Over time this may evolve into applications such as enhancing her senses as well.

Yuyuyu's Chakra Flow Strikes: C-rank
Yuyuyu can enhance her strikes and weaponry with chakra to enhance their striking power. Over time this may evolve to Kimiko's level.

[Rater202]

"Impressive... It normally takes at least a couple of days to get it right."

If there's nothing else, you can turn in for the night and continue to the border in the morning.

[igordragonian]

Usagi will keep training, but it will probably take her at least few days, maybe weeks to get the hang of it.

Odayama lead the way, and here and there make the needed vocal reports-
As one of Ottokagure's strenghes was their communication system, so they were aware of who is going where.

Beside the super secret missions of course, who probably work with their own channels if at all

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
Kimiko will continue to grow more refined her in control of the chakra flow over the few days.

Meanwhile Yuyuyu's initial attempt seems to have been a fluke, and she has to spend the normal few days to truly get it down.

Jirou while reading or listening over the reports to continue his learning about the aspects of being Otokage will jot down notes about offering Tomoe an opportunity to teach more shinobi in their village chakra flow- emphasizing early teaching about it in their shinobi may give them Otogakure an unexpected advantage in combat. Perhaps he will even ask kimiko to teach it him herself....

[Rater202]

The rest of the trip to the border is uneventful.

You arrive at a specific checkpoint that's rather similar to the one you passed through when traveling to the Land of Fire, save that instead of Fire Country soldiers guarding the entrance to the other country on its Hot Water country soldiers.

A rice country soldier meets you on the road as you approach. One of the hot water soldiers grumbles something which you don't catch but the rice soldier briefly turns back "They're in Rice Country, that makes it a Rice Country case. Deal with it, Toshi."

The soldier... Briefly looks at Senko before turning to Odayama, who he assumes is in charge because he's the only adult present.

"Uh, not exactly happy you sent mostly kids and teenagers but you're the ninjas."

The soldier then goes on to state the details of the incident, which are mostly as you've been told, with the caveat that it's the border to Hot Water rather than Lightning.

The new details are as follows: There is reason to beleive that the border crossers are held up in a small forest nearby, you could probably make it there in an hour if you travel at a brisk pace.

More rice country soldiers have been monitoring the forest and no one has come in or out since then, so that's the first pace you'll be looking at. The soldier provides you with a map.

There has been no sign of the Cloud Ninja since... But Ninja are really good at sneaking past borders.

He then askes if any of you have any questions.

"Uh, yes. The man who transformed into an Oni... did his transformation look like... This?" Senko rolls up her sleeve and transforms her arm, going from the patterns of diamonds spreading across it to it being solid black to it being the ruddy orange-brown of her transformed form with scalpel like claws at the ends of lengthened fingers.

"...A little." The soldier honestly seems a little uncomfortable.

A little bit back, a Hot Water country soldier is looking back and forth from your group to... What looks like a Bingo book.

[Lord Raziere]

On the Bingo Book:
The Bingo Book probably only has a entry for Odayama with a low payout on his bounty given the fact that he has a title attached to his name, and given his laid-back family man nature, its probably outdated as these bingo book entries go by the last time he has been seen doing anything of note or what other shinobi have observed of him. Since he hasn't done much, there is not much reason to update the information on his abilities, even if he has been training. His wife is a better target than him for bounties. Furthermore bingo books are produced by the nations and distributed to their ninja, so they don't always show the same information, as no nation has all the same information. There is a small payout for reporting new information on a ninja so as to add it to the bingo book, and ninja have known been to informally barter such information with each other across nations in return for something else.

Tomoe would not be found in the bingo book, even if she was a real criminal, the bingo book is for shinobi bounties only. This is to focus the subject matter, save on paper printing costs- the books need to be on some level small and portable- and because shinobi are the more dangerous of the two. There might be a ronin equivalent book available, but considering her circumstances it is questionable if she'd even have an entry there either and isn't really relevant to us at this time, if ever.

The rest are either genin or teenage Chuunin and thus do not have entries in the Bingo Book. This is not because they are children or young in general, but simply because they probably haven't had time to earn any notoriety among the elemental nations. No village would add an entry about a loyal shinobi of their own, and while its not impossible for some young upstart to earn their place in this....illustrious? book of threat assessment and reward promises, it is considered improbable for that to happen. Most shinobi go their entire lives without ever being listed on it. Kages and the most legendary of shinobi on the other hand know their entries are some of the most studied and highly sought for updates and thus are careful about what abilities they show....and who they let live after showing them.

As for the people from the land of lightning- well three of them are kids, one of them is like a hermit/not an actual shinobi and the actual kumo-nin might be one of those jounin who are competent but hasn't earned a name for themselves so, probably nothing there.

Kimiko:
She will grin with shark teeth.
"Hyuhyu, clearly you haven't met me: Kimiko Ishikawa, Genius of Otogakure! Soon I shall get to the bottom of this. I don't think there is anything more to learn here. I say we go forth and be ready for anything. I doubt we'll get much more useful intel questioning them."
That and if a shinobi isn't brave enough to acquire the information themselves, they are not a very good shinobi.
"...Yeah. We should move quickly anyways if we want to do anything about this situation. the Kumo-Nin sounds like they could take care of or capture their targets and sneak past all of these guards without them knowing and longer we stay here, the more time we give them to do that. the best information we can get is from the source."
They will ask permission to go on ahead to investigate if Odayama wants to question the guards more and head out if its given.

[igordragonian]

Odayama also trained in secret during the journey.


When arrving there, he try to calm them down with his chill attitude.
'Great job friends, Thank you.' he say humbly.

'As you can see, the village take this situation seriously. I am sure, that in a short time it all will be solved' Odayama want to let the Ashigarus to feel as comrades, rather then lessers- so he doesn't go with it in 'WE NINJAS' got it.
'Mochi balls?' he offer a box.
'There is enough, for you too, Hot Water soldiers. It must have been stressful.'
After few pleasantries, he ask if they have noticed something of note, either way he go back to his team.


'Well. I dont want us to split up, but there is no reason to be glued together- it could be an easy target for certain techniques. 20 meters between each of us. Also, remember your iron numbers- when I call for Iron numbers you answer me- if not I'll assume something has happened.'
Odayama preffer order and group harmony over speed, and making sure everyone understand.
'I am number 1,
Yuyuyu Number 2
Ichika number 3
Senko number 4
Menko number 5
Tomoe number 6
Kimiko Number 7
Usagi number 8

Usagi bark angerly. 'Why I am number 8!? Let Kimiko to be number 8!"

'Oi... it isn't a big deal.'

Usagi a bit flustered.
'Fine! The bigger the number is, it's the better! And that means you are the worst Odayama-Sensei!'

Odayama sigh.

Usagi do two summons- one of Yojimbo.
The second summon seemed to fail, until they have started to move- all of the sudden another rabbit, almost natural sized appearSiju
'Usagi-san? Why do I smell snakes?"

Yojimbo sigh.
'Ally of Usagi-san has contract with the snakes.'

Siju twitch her muzzle. 'I dont like it.'

Usagi yell. 'You dont have to like it! I didn't summoned you in ages! You are my ranger! Go ahead and scout for me!' and quickly expain him the situation.

Odayama want Yuyuyu to be on his right, and Senko on his left. (Mostly to keep an eye, in case she need help)
the rest he allow to be where ever they want in the structure, he just making sure he is aware where everybody is, and lead the way.

Siju is a bit a head, very fast and sneaky.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
"hyuhyu Looks I'm lucky number seven, Usagi."
She replies smugly while putting on her chakra goggles and walking somewhere along the outer part of the group so that her chakra vision isn't blocked by the other members of the group while she looks for anything out of the ordinary.
"Wait why hasn't Hot Water sent any shinobi over here?"
She wonders.

Meanwhile in Yugakure, a few days ago:
A Chuunin comes in with a report
"Hey a Kumo ninja came across the border and was after some kids and an adult that went into Land of Rice, what should we do about it?"
The Mission assessors- chuunin who look over missions to assess them in place of the head ninja so to as lighten the workload- looked it over and said
"While its certainly strange, I don't think the village will get much of a payout from this. We got to think about keeping this village afloat, we got enough problems as it is without meddling with whatever Kumo is doing, or those reckless Oto nin"
"But what if the guy has a get rich quick method that involves all three kids working together with some jutsu to do something that prints money?"
They all seriously consider this for a moment, turning it over in their minds. They did need the money after all.
"....Nah thats stupid. Give me that scroll over there, it has the seal of a company that'll probably be profitable."

Back to Kimiko, Now:
Then she says
"On second nevermind, lets just be thankful we don't have an additional complication to this mission."

[Rater202]

"It's so sad that the rabbit kingdom can't keep politics out of their professional life."

The walk to the forest i more or less uneventful.

"What I don't understand is... Why a Cloud Ninja? What could these four individuals have that would be worth tracking them across so many sovereign nations."

"Why would a village known to steal kekkei genkai be persuing a group that has someone with a bloodline that turns the user into a rampaging berserker with many times the power of a traditional ninja? If this is Daichi... Which based on how the soldiers looked at me and reacted to my question, seems likely, then they could clone him and in a single generation raise up hundreds of soldiers who could each function in a role not unlike a miniature jinchuriki. It would completely destroy the balance of power and not in a good way. And that is assuming that the children accompanying him don't possess bloodline powers of their own."

"...If we encounter the cloud ninja, it may be in our best interest to make sure that they do not become aware of either myself or Kimiko. I would be an easier target than a fully grown member of my clan, and an elemental bloodline user would be a good consolation prize."

Approaching the forest, Kimiko can see some low-level chakra signatures. People who are well trained and disciplined but lack the skill to use chakra directly. Most likely more soldiers.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
"...Without becoming aware of my elemental- you mean not use most if not my entire fighting style, Senko? Sounds like a challenge, but if I need to bust out my full capabilities, I'm willing to take the risk."
She had chakra flow, taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, a couple genjutsu, hidden mist jutsu, and whatever she had in her storage scrolls. Maybe if she got out some razor wire, she could probably pull off a few tricks. She takes her Origami-No-Tsurugi and seals it in a storage tag that she wraps it around her wrist in case she needs to bring it out. She then spots the chakra signatures
"Found more chakra signatures. Low level, most likely just the soldiers guarding the edge of the forest. Yuyuyu, I leave them to you."
When she comes in sight of them, Yuyuyu will say while doing a shallow bow.
"Hello soldier-sans! I'm Yuyuyu, thats Odayama-taichou who is in command, and we're the shinobi here to help. Have you seen anything of note that we should know about before going in?"

[igordragonian]

Yojimbo "We most certainly can. The problem is we cant be sure about you."

--

Odayama:"Then maybe it would be better if you two take a backseat, and join only as a last resolve."

Usagi:"Heh. One note princess. You sit comfy, I'll do this fight for you."
-

Odayama wave.
"Hey. Sups?" he ask casually.
"Yep. Thank you for your work. Can you share what ever you know please?" and offer kibidangos


Does Siju find anything?

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
"One note? Hyu, thats rich coming from a girl who needs a rabbit to get around everywhere, my dream is to learn all jutsu Usagi. If I couldn't get around a little thing like not be able to Paper Release, I'd be pathetic. Just watch how many notes I can really play."
She says punching her fist into her palm with a wide shark grin, then takes out a storage scroll, unrolls it a bit, unseals a normal katana out from it and affixes it to her belt, like samurai often do. Then unseals a normal shortbow and arrows and slings both on her back. Yuyuyu tilts her head in confusion.
"Wait- you can use a bow?"
"Yeah, Kyujutsu is a jutsu as well, much taijutsu or bukijutsu. I want to learn all jutsu, and even someone as powerful as Madara used normal weapons- a lot of them actually. Its not my specialty but I shot a few bullseyes when academy was out for the day a couple years ago to try it out when I saw Usagi do it, felt like I got a handle on it after a couple days."
"Why?"
"I was bored and didn't want to go over all the stuff I knew by heart for the millionth time."
She says it casually, like its no big deal.

[Rater202]

Menko eyes Yojimbo. "Excuse me, but every time Bunny-chan summons one of you, it's the rabbit who makes some comment about working with snakes. I try to be civil. But if that's what you want to do, we only have to look at our relationships with our summoners: I am Senko-Sama's most humble servant... Which reminds me, still gotta haze the ronin..."

"What?"

"Nothing! Anyway, my summoner comes first. I pledged my loyalty to her and guided her. Her contract with the White Snake Sage was a mutually beneficial contract that Senko-sama entered of her own free will. As opposed to Bunny-chan who... How did it go again? She somehow reversed summoned herself to the rabbit Kingdom, assumed some vaguely determined 'responsibilities,' and had her memories tampered with. Everything about your relationship is suspect."

"I might be a predator, but you all are acting predatory. All these comments about working with a damned snake, you sound just like my 'sempais' back at the cave. Acting all holy than thou and self-righteous oh so superior when really they're just a bunch of toxic bitches."

"Menko, that's enough."

"Yes, Senko-sama"

---

Siju finds what appears to be powdered ruby under a tree with cuts on it less than a day old. The ruby is dissolving quickly, however, and interacting with it makes it break down faster.

"I didn't mean that... entirely go without, I meant if we encounter the cloud ninja it might be..."

"Senko-sama, are you alright? You're talking a little funny."

"Ah'm fine, Menko. I am just a little... Can you feel that?"

"Feel what... Oh... Wow. That's... A lot of natural energy."

The soldiers are somewhat weirded out by that exchange.

"We haven't seen any sign of the border crossers, but we did find this." The soldier holds up what looks like a switch cut from a tree. "Look at the stump here. It's cut too cleanly to be from a knife or a hand saw, but there's no sign of burning so it can't be a mechanical saw or cutting torch."

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
At Senko's comments, Kimiko's mind starts kicking itself into high gear as she falls silent, thinking: they all know that a member of Senko's family is here, which means they might experience the same rages. Furthermore if they're older its probably that they might be stronger using it. The other possibility is that the guy has more mastery of it somehow that Senko never learned because she didn't have a teacher for it. Might be both. Something must be happening to trigger the rage or for him to activate it of his own volition, and given Senko's difficulty of controlling the form she doubted any combat use even by someone who can control it would be casual. The stump was clearly that work of some shinobi-related attack, one can probably rule out fire or lightning jutsu even at their most focused cutting power they'd leave scorches, nor is it water or earth as those would leave physical evidence like a rock blade or a big wet splash behind somewher- the ruby. Its breaking down, normal rubies don't do that, thats ninjutsu much like how a ninjutsu-made rock would break down. The ruby might be what cut the tree- or it might be wind release, pure chakra or good kenjutsu. But from whom or how didn't much matter at this current moment, what matters is that a fight had already taken place here. Probably between the kumo ninja and those they're pursuing. If the Kumo ninja found them once, its likely they can find them again knowing their appearance and probably being a tracker to pursue them so far. There was only one logical conclusion. She will look through her chakra goggles to try and pinpoint the exact direction of the natural energy while speaking in a more serious tone:
"Senko. Can you pinpoint where the energy is coming from? We need to move, now. A fight is happening."
She will take off as soon as she has her answer, running with her arms spread out like wings towards the fight.

[igordragonian]

Yojimbo just smiled slightly.
"I'll just say, that out contracts work diffrently" he answer shortly.
Usagi smile somberly.

Usagi growl. "I can walk on my hands! I can DIG with my bare hands! Can YOU do that?!"
Usagi is shocked to see Kimiko use a bow.
"Y-you copycat! A bow?! But you'l never be equal to ME!' she barked at her.


Odayama scratch his beard. "Hmm. Yes. Lets be on high alert. I am tempted to split our unit, but I am not aware enough of what we are dealing with. It is worrisome. Keep watch" he tell the soldiers.
He kneel just to report in the radio.
"Squad 3... we are likely to get into an encounter."
He wait for the direction of Senko.
"Remember your iron numbers. Let's move!"






Siju check is there are more signs for activity of chakra users. He has a bad feeling about this.

[Rater202]

"Uh... The exact center of the forest but"

And then everyone runs off before Senko can remind them that passively absorbing natural energy is a natural effect of her bloodline power and a large quantity of it is not necessarily an indicator that someone is currently in a fight.

Oh well, hopefully rushing in ready for a fight won't give the wrong idea.

Once in the forest proper, the fastest way to move forward is by climbing the trees and leaping from branch to branch. It's not a particularly large forest but these are old trees and there's a lot of underbrush that would make ground travel difficult.

About twenty minutes in, you come to a clearing near a stream. There're are signs that there was a camp set up here, but that it was broken down and vacated in a hurry. Notably, there are still smolders where they had their campfire.

Ichika jumps to the ground and closes her eyes.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
She looks around. Looks like she jumped to conclusions. But this was probably a better clue than standing around talking to some soldiers anyways, so all in all she considered it progress.
"....I'll admit, I jumped the bow on this one, but...if we can find some tracks around here, I'd say we're closer to finding them than we started."
She will search for any footprints or signs of disturbed grass, or disturbed bushes to indicate their direction, as will Yuyuyu.
"Though at this point, we might have to split if we can't find any scent or trail. We got enough people to cover about, what at least eight directions? more? with the iron numbers, even if one of us is ambushed a report can be made."

[Rater202]

You can make out three sets of footprints, none of which are large enough to be a grown man.

Of note, only one of the three seems to have been wearing footwear of any kind, and this is the only one with a significant number of tracks.

The other two, leaving barefoot marks, seem mostly incidental.

The tracks stop at the stream, however. The stream has an... Unusually fast current for a body of water so small.

Searching a bush, one of you finds a discarded robe very similar to the ones that Senko wears save that it doesn't have any internal pockets or loops to hold tools.

Senko starts clutching her head and seems to stumble around almost blindly.

"Are you alright?"

"Ah'll be fine," Senko says.

"Senko-sama don't lie."

"Ah... I just need to acclimate. This... This is a higher concentration of natural energy than I'm used to... The only time I've ever felt even close to this much was when I took the WHite Snake sage's test, but... He was here. Daichi was here..."

Senko walks up to the stream... Just in time for Ichika to shout ""Get down!""

Seconds later, a huge burst of water erupts out of the stream from a short way up and hits Senko dead on, knocking her, and Menko who is hiding in her robes at the time, into the water.

A somewhat inhuman figure rises from the water. Vaguely resembling a teenage boy, his skin is a mixture of dark green and pale-offwhite scales. A toothy grin full of needly like fangs, a fin on his hair, clawed hands with webbed fingers, and a somewhat reptilian tail are all visible. He is dressed in what appear to be swimming trunks.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
"No! Senko!"
She calls and throws a bunch of shuriken at the boy- which actually are just projectiles to carry the near-invisible wire strings common to all shinobi to try and bind him, the angles of the shuriken throw precisely calculated so that they spreading in a cone so the shuriken themselves will actually MISS if he stays in one place, but the because the wire strings are between them will wrap around the boy if he is within said cone.

Yuyuyu meanwhile will open her umbrella to shield her from the boy while running to try and help Senko or Menko- between Kimiko, Usagi and Odayama the boy is outnumbered anyways, and considering Senko grew up in a landlocked village, Yuyuyu isn't sure whether she ever learned how to swim. Academy training however ensures one knows how to swim as apart of stealth operations. While water-walking is a common and vital jutsu everyone learned, its meant more for speed and there are times when swimming is beneficial for remaining undetected.

[Rater202]

The boy responds by sinking back into the stream. A few seconds later, a pulse of thin white beams erupt out of the forest and take out Kimiko's shuriken.

Then the boy himself emerges from the river right in front of Kimiko.

"I'm gonna tell you one last time: She doesn't want anything to do with you!"

Yuyuyu meanwhile, finds Menko struggling in the stream... And Senko's robe.