A punch on the Jaw(s) (IO, NK)

Mission: Follow up on a Lead

Masashi's Stats at the time:

The day had only barely started in Hoshigakure; the sun wasn’t even out yet and Masashi was already out of bed. He was not normally an early riser like this, but he had a mission that he needed to head out on. The mission required as few people to see him leave as possible, so early morning before the village was really awake was key.

He’d gotten the mission request the day before when he’d checked in to see if his squad had anything that needed to be done. They didn’t, but he did. The mission was fairly simple and fairly straightforward; the interrogation of the member of the Jaws of Grima that attacked the Academy and had taken hostages went well and the information they’d gotten from the interrogee had provided them with a potential hideout in Haven. Not in the village itself, but in a smaller population center a day’s travel to the west of Hoshigakure. The mission was to find the hideout’s location, and learn all he could about it; how many were there, the purpose of the hideout, the usual intelligence gathering. There was a secondary objective as well, should the opportunity arise, infiltrate the hideout itself and attempt to acquire any intel on other hideouts, bandit cells, anything that his superiors could use to strike a solid blow to the Jaws of Grima.

Masashi prepared in his usual fashion; he got cleaned up, ate breakfast, and got dressed. The main differences were that he was doing this significantly earlier in the day, and that he was not wearing his normal attire. He was forgoing the flak vest that denoted him as a Chuunin and he was hiding his Hitai-Ate under his Manipulated Fabric to hide the fact that he was a Shinobi, or at least he would be once he and the other member of the team left the village. Oh, that’s right, he wasn’t going alone on this; there was going to be one other person joining him on this mission as a smaller team would likely be more successful. It was not someone Masashi had ever worked with before, so this was sure to be an interesting situation. Anyways, his outfit today was also going to be different due to the fact that he was fairly well known, what with him being the son of Countess Himari Akari. He’d decided to have his Manipulated Fabric grow into a set of light brown robes, belted at the waist, and a wide-brimmed hat with a loose fabric mask that went all the way around the hat, to shield from the sun and the wind. The mask was left undone at the front for now. The robes also had pockets, which were really just holes that he could reach his hands into to better access the 3 different weapon pouches he wore. Satisfied with his appearance, Masashi made his way out of the manor and made his way to the West gate, where he was to meet up with the other member of the team.

WC: 509

The sun wouldn't rise for hours. The night sky was still shining brightly down on the world; the moon was shown fully and the stars twinkled in comparison to the sky entity. However, the cover of darkness was abused for the criminals that frequented the Hoshigakure area. Shinobi of Hoshi didn't have time to rest under the gentle moonlight, they had to work. 

Tsubaki had gotten word the day before that the Jaws of Grim where spotted near the village borders. Their mission: find out a way to infiltrate and gather intel. Tsubaki was fine with not fighting the criminals, but getting them right under their nose always made her feel gitty. 

For the mission, the shinobi would have to be going in the dark. So, for her outfit, she chose her dark chunin flak with long black sleeves and tight fit soft fabric pants with her weapon pouch attached to her hip. She didn't need to pack much for any mission because most of her badassery came from within with her immense chakra and knowledge of jutsu. With nothing more, she would go out to meet her accomplice on this mission. 

According to the intel from the day before, Tsubaki knew that she would be working with Masashi Uzumaki. It was a name she hadn't heard before but the family name Uzumaki did make her curious as that was something more passed around in the shinobi world. 

She arrives at the gate entrance for her partner to arrive. All she could see was the ground being lit by the moon and the faint figures of the buildings of shinobi. The lights of the village shown like the celestial stars. 

WC: 280

Masashi liked to arrive early for the start of a mission, which was a habit of his for just about every mission he’d been on to date. It would seem though, that the other person on the mission with him, Tsubaki Senju, liked to arrive earlier than he did. She was waiting for him at the gates, at least, she thought it was her. Masashi had never met her before, so the Uzumaki Chuunin was not familiar with her appearance. He walked up to her slowly, so that she knew he was not a threat to her, times were dangerous after all. When he was within two meters of her, he would say “Tsubaki Senju I presume? I am Masashi Uzumaki-Akari. It’s nice to meet you. I think we don’t need to wait for the designated meeting time to head out. If you’re ready now we should simply get moving.” Should she agree, Masashi would quickly kneel down, pick up some dirt along the path, and infuse his chakra into it, turning it into three small balls of a putty-like substance, before placing them inside one of his hidden pouches. The process complete, Masashi would lead the way out of the gate towards their current destination.


WC: 206
TWC: 715


-15AP (creating 3 batches of explosive clay)

Current Stats:

Not long after Tsubaki got there, Masashi arrived. He confirmed that it was indeed her and getting the mission on their way. Tsubaki respected the quick nature of Masashi, not wasting small talk. She'll have to leave the small talk for tea. Tsu would wait for Masashi to finish...collecting dirt? before allowing him to lead the mission to the location. However, the two shinobi would need to converse to get to know each other techniques "We need to think of some sort of idea before we get to the campsite. Let me know what you're thinking. I'm a medical ninja with grand ninjutsu techniques. One of my best intel techniques is my wood clone technique."

The camp was in the forest area outside the village borders. The area they set up was filled with crates, with what one could assume was loot and tents. Outside the tents, there were guards posted. Other guards were wandering around the camp, armed with swords and knives would have to stop a good 10 meters from the camp location to avoid detection. They would also have to watch out for some scouts. 

Assuming Masashi would not charge into the middle of the camp, Tsubaki would stop the 10 meters on the branch of a tree. The Senju would use the leaves and the bark to blend in. She would focus her chakra sensory to check the nearby area for any strong chakra. Nothing too big close by, but there were scouts on the ground about 5 meters. She couldn't verbally explain that to Masashi, so she had to assume that he also knew about the scouts close by. 

The next actions of Masashi and Tsubaki were important because they weren't allowed to be seen but they need to get as much information as they need. Perhaps, Tsubaki could make a distraction with one of her clones, allowing for Masashi to get intel. She would just have to play by ear at this point. 

WC: 329
TWC:609

As they walked, Tsubaki gave the Uzumaki Chuunin a quick rundown of her abilities. Turned out their base skillset was very similar. The main divergence is that she focused on Ninjutsu after her medical training, where he worked on sealing techniques. As this was an infiltration mission, they would need to be stealthy and think smart about what they were going to do about getting into the encampment. “What a coincidence,” Masashi would say to his counterpart. “I also happen to be a medical shinobi, with some fuinjutsu and basic ninjutsu thrown into the mix.” Speaking of fuinjutsu, that did give him an idea. He would work on it a little bit while they made their way to the Jaws of Grima’s camp.

They’d arrived at the outskirts of the camp, about 10 meters away from the sentries as they patrolled. Masashi would kneel down and gather more dirt in his hand, converting it into explosive clay for later use and placing the balls of clay in the same weapon pouch as before. While he did this, he would go over his idea with Tsubaki.

“As the primary objective of this mission is simply infiltration and information gathering, I’d say the less they know we’re here, the better. What we should do, is lure one or two of the sentries away from their post. We then knock them out and I can place paralysis seals on them to keep them out of the way until we leave. Once we have them dealt with, we transform into them and resume their patrol or one of us do that while the other continues to infiltrate further.”

He would wait for Tsubaki to give her feedback before moving forward.

-15AP (3x Explosive clay creation)

WC: 286
TWC: 1001

Masashi would explain that he too was a medical ninja. Two medical ninjas had been put on the same mission without any weapon specialists or many a stealth expert. Tsubaki assumed that the village must be running out of shinobi to send on large scale missions. Hopefully the two of them can figure the mission out without getting caught. 

At the camp borders, the two shinobi would devise a plan. After counting the area in the treetops, she would join Masashi on the ground where he was collecting dirt again and mixing it with clay. She would have to ask about that when the mission was over or see it when it gets used. 

Masashi proposed a plan. He had paralysis seals that he could use on the border patrol to keep them out of their hair just long enough while they investigate disguised as the two patrol guards. Tsubaki nodded, agreeing with the plan. "They'll know afterwards what hit them but it'll be too far too late." She would rise weaving some hand signs. "We'll have to gather the guards first. Let me take care of that. Once they are gathered in one spot, you'll need to put the seal on them quickly." Suddenly, a clone of Tsubaki appeared. Both her and the clone with disperse. 

The scout was walking back and forth between two tree line openings. He was fairly confident in his visual prowess, so nothing was getting passed him. As he was scanning the area, he noticed a little girl running across the treeline. Thinking this was a confused little girl, he pushed off the notation that an enemy was in the area. He was going to let her find her way out until he realized that it could be an enemy spy. That would cause him to draw his blade and run after the little girl. 

He was getting close to her, hearing her soft giggles get louder and louder. As soon as he thought he caught her, he jumped passed the tree line in an attempt to catch her off her feet. To his surprise, it was just the other scout on duty. They looked just as confused as he did. Before he could report back to the group that there could be an intruder, both of the scouts were slammed into a tree by a large branch. The tree that the two got trapped against would then get wrap around them, sticking them in place and gagging their mouth. Tsubaki would emerge, releasing the jutsu that shaped the trees and desummoned her clone, which was the little girl the scouts were following. This was her signal to put the seal on the guards. 

WC: 450
TWC: 1059

It would seem that Tsubaki was in agreement that they could pose as guards. She had own own plan for getting a pair of guards to switch with though. Before Masashi could say anything, she created a clone made entirely out of wood and ran off into the woods with it. Naturally it would not be a smart idea to call after her so Masashi simply sat there and waited for either the stealth plan to go up in smoke, or for her to return with a couple bodies for them to replace.

It wasn’t long before he heard some rustling in the distance, followed by some giggling and the sounds of a couple men chasing something. Masashi would move closer to get a better eye on what’s going on.

He arrived just in time to see two guards get knocked out by a tree, from which Tsubaki emerged. The Uzumaki Chuunin immediately walked over and knelt down beside each of the downed guards. He made a series of hand seals and touched the neck of one guard, leaving a small mark which immediately spread out in the form of chains, binding them in place. As it was a total paralysis, with the body completely unable to move, they would also be unable to speak. Masashi would then repeat the process on the other guard, so that they could assume their identities to infiltrate the camp.
With the guards out of commission, Masashi would nod to Tsubaki and then made a single hand seal, becoming a copy of one of the downed guards, minus the chains of course. He would wait until Tsubaki had done the same before dragging the bodies into the bushes where they would not be easily found. They were now ready to begin their infiltration mission properly.

As they made their way back, they could hear someone calling out, likely for the two guards that they’d just incapacitated. Unfortunately, the Transformation Technique didn’t cover voice transformation, so they would have to wing it. Masashi took on a raspy tone to his voice, almost as if someone had been smacked in the throat. “We’re here,” he said as they emerged from the forest. “Thought I saw something so we went to check it out. Turned out to be nothing.” With a shrug he returned to the regular patrol route. As he moved away, he would murmur to Tsubaki, “we’ll meet up when we get relieved and try to figure out where the intel we need is located.”

He ended up walking that path for a good two hours before he was relieved. In that time, absolutely nothing happened, and Masashi was totally fine with that. He didn’t really want to play guard for a bunch of his village’s enemies, but the name of the mission was infiltrate, so he had to play along for now. At the very least, walking around the camp gave him a rough idea of where everything was located; the camp was mainly a number of tents spread throughout a clearing with a couple semi-permanent cabins. More likely than not, one of the cabins was going to be where the intel they needed would be located, it was just a matter of figuring out which one, getting inside, grabbing or copying the intel, and leaving with no one the wiser.

WC: 557
TWC: 1558

After capturing the guards within the tree, Masashi would place his paralyzing seals on them. He would then take the form of one the guard with the Transformation technique. Tsubaki would do the same with the other guard. Now the two of them would blend in with the rest of the guard in the base. From here on, it was all acting and no fighting.

Tsubaki and Masashi would enter the base at the same time in their disguised form. Masashi would inform the group that there was nothing to worry about. The guards seemed to buy into it, for now. They would still need to keep their guard up because the transformation technique is very common and could easily be found out by anyone. Tsubaki would need to keep confronting with other guards to a low.

Both Masashi and Tsubaki had wondered around the camp for about 2 hours. They had to get the layout of the area before they can infiltrate. The camp had a bunch of tents with come small cottage that wasn't made for long term usage. They were more heavily guarded, revealing to both Tsubaki and Masashi that the information was inside those cabins. They would need to get in there. 

Tsubaki watched the activity for some good amount of time scouting the guard patterns. She noticed after some time that the guard would change out every hour. She heard it was because they needed to keep eyes fresh. It gave her an idea, but it would be risky. 

the sun was peaking out the sky at this time, creating a bright sky of orange and pink. Tsu would approach Masashi in disguise. "Hey, break time. Let's get some food." She knew that only two people ate at a time in a close-by tent, it would be the perfect place for a secret meeting. 


After they entered the tent and checking their surroundings, Tsu would close the flap. "I don't know if you noticed but they change the guards outside every hour. I was thinking if we replaced them the next hour, we would be able to have one person go in and then one person stay on guard. What do you say?"

WC: 368
TWC: 1427

Eventually Tsubaki and him sat down to grab a meal in the camp as well as confer and share information and hunches about the camp and where the intel they’re looking for could be. They both had come to the conclusion that the intel would be in one of the temporary huts which made the most sense as they’re the most easily defensible of the structures. One structure in particular was guarded round the clock. Tsubaki also brought up a good point about the guards switching up every hour or so. “I agree,” he said to her as they ate. “I’ll stand guard by the door while you go inside and look around. Hopefully the information we need will be inside.” With the plan sorted out, all they could really do was wait.

When the hour was completed, Masashi and Tsubaki made their way over to the cabin to replace the guards currently on duty. They waited a few minutes for the other guards to leave before Masashi nodded to her. “Alright, get inside and start looking around. Try to be quick though, we don’t want to attract too much attention.” Masashi would then keep an eye out while Tsubaki went inside and started looking for the intel they were there for. The entire time, Masashi couldn’t help but be concerned they would get found out, not because of the danger. Most Jaws of Grima thugs had little actual ability as shinobi so they likely would have been able to take out the entire camp with barely any effort. The concern was having them discover that their intel had been compromised. It would force them to go to ground, and the progress they’d made to this point would be all for naught.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Tsubaki slipping back out. It hadn’t taken too long, longer than Masashi would have liked, but it didn’t seem like anyone had really noticed. They would simply have to stand guard for the rest of the hour and then they would be able find a way to leave. They were eventually relieved and were sent back on patrol, which worked out as they could enter the forest again where they’d left the actual guards.

Luckily for them, when they arrived back in the forest, the two guards were still unconscious. Masashi would put them back in plain view, but made it look like they tripped over something before removing the Paralysis seals from them. “Lets head back.” Masashi would say and head off back towards the village. Looks like they were able to keep the Jaws of Grima from finding out their security had been compromised.

[EXIT]

WC: 450
TWC: 2008

Claiming:

Mission Rewards
4250 Ryo (4000 base, 250 Chuunin bonus)

Thread rewards:
-40AP
-1198 WC towards Lord Sho (4000/4000) Proof of progress  here
-810 WC towards Tsutomu (810/2500)
-6 Batches of Explosive Clay

Approved for Masashi's exit and mission claims!