Not Everything is What it Seems (P, Damon)

Valen moves through the sewers beneath the city like a wraith as he stepped lightly to try and avoid any noise he could accidentally make. The smell of the sewer that had forced him close to the point of gagging earlier now no longer affected him. His eyes easily picked up the trace amounts of light throughout the sewer to allow him to see just fine. He moved like a wraith beneath the streets of his beloved village, listening intently for any noise that might direct him to his target. Was he on a mission? No, he was simply trying to track down a certain red haired priestess he had seen before. On his last mission with Damon Uchiha, they had been tasked with stopping a group of the devout, and a group of shinobi from getting violent with one another. They had completed the task by tracking down a brooch, which had deep symbolism to the church the Red haired woman, Lady Morgan was in charge of. The church was called “The Church of The Eternal Flame” and they worshipped a god known only as ‘The Lord of Light’ a few things intrigued him about the way she was acting though. As well as the woman who had the brooch. When they confronted her and asked her to return the expensive piece of jewelry there was no argument. No question at all. It was as if she wore it out for fun and merely wanted some people to see it. Which Valen didn’t understand, it wasn’t like she would get it back. Also, she said a suitor gave her the brooch as a gift. The problem with that is that the brooch had been taken that same morning. The final thing that piqued our crimson garbed hero’s interest is the fact that when it was returned Lady Morgan did not hold the item reverently, say a prayer, or anything of the sort like most of the devout might. Instead she put it on. As if it were hers all along. The didn’t sit well with Valen and he decided to investigate the church.



This of course wasn’t a sanctioned mission, and if he didn’t find anything he could be in serious trouble for trying. But when he went to do so he saw the lady that had been wearing the brooch, and lady Morgan entering a long stairwell. At first he thought it might be Sepulchre. But then why would they both go into what was little more than a graveyard? He waited about ten minutes and check himself and found that it indeed led to such a place, but that there was another door in the back of it. When he investigated that one he found himself in the sewers. This is where we find our young hero. Trying to track down two suspicious characters, one of which was a known religious figure, through the sewers of Hoshigakure No Sato.

WC: 492

Damon quickly sat up in his bed, breathing quicker than usual. I need to see her again… He had had the dream again. Some time had passed between his last mission with Valen, and every night, he had dreamed of the beautiful woman with stone grey eyes that had been wearing the brooch. He had to see her again. Maybe even getting a glimpse at her from a distance would be something that could quell his subconscious desire to witness her beauty once more. He could not shake the feeling that she somehow possessed a hold on him… like she was drawing him to her still. He held his hand up to his chest to feel the pulsing bum bum of his rapid heartbeat. This had never happened to him before. Damon slid hands up the side of his face until they met at the back of his head. The fingers interlocked themselves together at the base of where his skull met his spine. His body slumped as he leaned forwards, still sitting up in bed. What’s happening to me… Damon had never experienced love… if this could even be called love. There was something so, surreal, about this surge of emotions that had been acquiescing over the past few days. It was almost as though it was slowly driving him mad. Damon swung his legs over the side of his makeshift bed as it swayed back to and fro between its two mounts. In reality, he had been sleeping in a rather comfortable hammock that he had set up for himself in the stead of sleeping on the floor, set up between two rather large stacks of storage chests, barrels, and other things that he could find a use for. The beds provided here themselves were not that comfortable, so Damon had been experimenting. Leaving once again to start his day, the Uchiha headed back towards the marketplace in pursuit of those grey eyes that matched his own.

 

It was rather foggy when he had first arisen, as it had been much sooner than he was used to experiencing. The streets were lonely and quiet this early in the morning, all but empty in the middle of the week. It was not time for early shopping, as some eager customers tried to get the early bird specials. Although it occurred to him that he might be up before the birds themselves. He listened to hear if they were chirping, but alas, much to someone’s preferences, they were not. Yet. Instead, Damon would stay in the marketplace for an extended period of time, pretty much until something happened to call him elsewhere, or the woman came back. He had arrived this early in the event that she would somehow visit and escape his presence, only for him to dream once more. Come on… The boy looked around eagerly in pursuit of someone who may not even remember his own existence. And then Valen was off doing his own thing.

 

WC: 499

While Damon was having wet dreams and going to the market at night to wait for the woman who gave them to him. Valen would be moving silently through the sewers. He wasn’t quite sure, but he would be willing to guess that he was actually near the market district. He continued moving through the sewers, staying to the sides to prevent the sludge in the middle. Mainly because it would cause undue noise. Partially because he didn’t wanna slog through people’s shit, literally. As he moved throughout the sewers he would continuously look for signs of people moving through them. With his eyes he was able to find the trace signs of people moving through, a hand to steady themselves on the wall, footprints in the muck. It was all rather easy for him as he could see in the dark as if it was a normal day. He slowly moved his way through the sewers, getting closer and closer to his targets. What he’d find when he found them he did not know, but he knew he was soon to find them.

TWC: 676

Damon sent a pulse out of his own chakra. For the life of him, he could not remember whether or not the woman had had a chakra signature. Why is that? His face contorted to one of confusion as he tried to remember. But he could not. However, he did feel the familiar sensation of the chakra nature which belonged to his buddy Valen Akari. He looked around the plethora of diverse faces in the rather crowded marketplace, but could not manage to recognize the scarlet robed genin… Wait there! Damon began driving himself through the crowd, attempting his best to get by without shoving people too roughly as he barraged them with an unlimited supply of “excuse me”s, “pardon me”s, and lastly “I’m sorry”s. He eventually made his way to the boy, and placed his arm on his shoulder. “Hey, Valen, how’s it-” Damon said as he spun the boy around. Or uh… girl. She looked at him confusedly through her green eyes, her red hair hidden under her read headscarf. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought you were someone else.” Damon then quickly bowed and walked away. Ugh. Fashion. This just goes to show that Valen has the same taste in clothing as a woman does.

He refocused his chakra sensory abilities. Now where could you be? He thought as he looked in the direction that Valen was truly residing in. If I was a Valen, I would be- He did not have a chance to finish his thought, as he was suddenly interrupted by his own confusion. He looked towards the ground. What in the world. Damon looked up and around at everyone else. Nobody seemed to be giving him any attention as they went about their day, bargain hunting or selling their wares. Damon took the stealthy approach as he walked up to a “genuine ninja tools” vendor stall. In a city that hated shinobi, it was odd as to why this person would sell such things. They also seemed to have employed a teenager in order to save money. Said teenager was too busy reading magazines to notice Damon grabbing one of their makeshift smoke pellets and slipping it into his pocket unnoticed. He would then walk around the back and peek around the corner, eyeing his target: a manhole cover. It was off to the side, but he would need some sort of distraction to avoid such a thing. A teenager entering the sewers in the middle of the day from a crowded area certainly would arouse suspicion, and he thought that if Valen was underground, then perhaps he was attempting to be stealthy. It was time to get some answers and find out what was going on in the underbelly of the city.

Damon backed away from the back of the stall and chucked the smoke pellet. Sorry, folks. Once the small ball hit the ground, its fragile casing cracked, releasing an explosion of harmless purple powder. There were some coughs, but it had the desired effect. Drawing attention. With all heads turned towards the newfound stimulus, Damon quietly crouched down and removed the manhole cover before slipping it back on as he held onto the rings of the ladder. His hands and feet spread out to touch the poles as he slid down as quickly as possible. Plopping down on the ground, he landed in a croched position, bending his knees and using his feet to break his slight fall. He did not use his hands, since that would be absolutely disgusting if he touched… excrement. The smell hit him like a freight train as he tried his best to ignore his sense of smell and continue into the tunnels, in pursuit of Valen’s chakra signature. In addition, Damon would want to avoid being sensed by perhaps whatever Valen was tracking, so he would try to begin the act of chakra suppression: minimizing his chakra output aside from sensory. Except the ground was frickin gross and instead of risking that, he channeled chakra to the bottom of his feet and ran up the circular sides and on top of the ceiling. After a bit of believable time, he should have managed to catch up, as Damon happened to be faster than Valen, in addition to the tracking aspect. He would whisper a quick psst to get his attention. “Valen. What’re you doing down here?” If he chose to respond, the two would probably continue the conversation while running, staying as silent as possible.

WC: 1253
AP: 221 - 1 Surface Walking = 220

Valen would hear Damon coming down the tunnel and turn in an instant to jump to the ceiling, sticking his own chakra to it. The dark sharingan wielder would get out the ‘Pssst’ but at that moment the crimson garbed boy would turn on the Uchiha and cover his mouth with his hand. He would wonder why and how Damon found him later. The hand was clean of course. He would then bring his finger to his lips with a stern gaze to signify to be quiet. After that he would point up toward the ceiling of the sewer and then to his ear. Trying to portray the fact that the acoustics of the place would carry his whispers for miles and they needed to be quiet. He would then nod his head toward the tunnel he had just decided his targets had gone down and continued. Damon would have to be patient to see what he was doing but he knew his fellow shinobi, that happened to look like he got his hairstyle inspiration from a chicken’s ass would understand and follow him quietly.
 

After that he would continue to move through the sewers at a slow pace, following the signs that the women left behind toward their destination. He was moving at a pretty sedated pace for a shinobi as he wanted to make sure the women got to their destination before he got to close. If Damon followed him he’d hope his fellow Hoshi shinobi would figure out that they needed to move slowly for some reason. They couldn’t afford to move quickly anyway, as the stone of the sewer would make it nearly impossible for one to hide the noise of their steps from echoing across the tunnels without special training. At this point he was close enough that he could make out the footfalls of the women. This meant that they were only a tunnel or two away. They weren’t talking, probably to avoid the echo as well.


TWC: 984

Damon focused on minimizing his chakra output, just in case whoever they must have been pursuing knew chakra sensory techniques as well. Instead of exerting his chakra, he decided to do the opposite. The Uchiha looked inwards instead, focusing on dropping his chakra levels to be lower. As though his chakra levels were shrinking and collapsing on itself until it had shrunk into a ball. And then the ball caved in on itself and disappeared, aside from the minute exertion on his feet as he continued to silently run on the ceiling, now with a lot less chakra that he already had. Now would be a good time for telepathic communication, he would think to himself as they proceeded slowly and with caution. Now this was the part that sucked about being a shinobi. The stealth. Damon preferred to act directly and perhaps even theatrically. After all, how was he supposed to become a legend if he did everything in secret? Besides, it is like how, in a video game or something, when the mission says that stealth is strongly recommended and you just barge in guns blazing. But that was not how real life worked in events such as these. There are no checkpoints, no respawns. If you make a mistake, it is over. Even the strongest shinobi alive can fall victim to a single mistake on their part. And that is what made combat so exciting. Especially when it was unpredictable. While Damon was having this inner monologue running through his head, his pace would have fallen slightly behind that of which belonged to Valen, therefore letting him take the lead as they continued to traverse through the sewers of Hoshigakure.

 

WC: 1536

AP: 220 - 1 Surface Walking = 219

Valen would continue on, getting closer and closer to the edge of the next tunnel. He could hear the voices of the two women. “Soon we’ll be able to ignite the civil war that’s been brewing.” He would hear the voice of Lady Morgan. Valen’s eyes would narrow at this as he heard some kind of door open and the voice got too far away to make out anything more. He did however hear the beginning of the reply. “Indeed, the Civ~” and then it cut off by the distance, but he could definitely recognize the voice of the woman in the market that had the brooch that Morgan had said was stolen. This confused Valen, why would they be working together? Something big was happening here. Well that much was obvious considering they were talking about civil war. He moved around the corner slowly and could see a heavy metal door had been put in place. This confused him more, why would this be down here? They’d have to get inside to find out what was going on. Luckily however, they left the door open. Valen moved to the door and peered inside and could see and hear the two women moving down the corridor thanks to his eyes. “All those damn fool civilians need to go to war with the ninja is a little push. One more good push, and your speeches will be perfect for that.” He’d hear the woman from the market say.
 

‘They’re planning to incite a civil war? Speech?’ He would think as he waited a bit longer and mulled everything over in his mind. If civilians were being coerced into inciting a civil war then this had to be stopped. He would think as he slowly moved into the new corridor, being extremely careful to not be noticed.


TWC: 1289

Valen would match the grim expression with Damon. They both knew the gravity of the situation, which was in essence a good thing. It meant games were not going to be played today. He nodded his head at the Uchiha before something the two women said clicked. ‘They were on their way?...Here?..And we’re in the open.’ His eyes widened considerably before he swiftly, and silently backtracked down the tunnel as fast as he could manage. They needed to get into an ambush position. They would have to infiltrate the meeting and that would require them to either find disguises, be last inside, or the more preferable option, both. Valen himself would clear out of the heavy door and back track into a side tunnel, his eyes helping him keep perfect site on anyone that might be coming. If Damon followed there would easily be enough room for both of the young shinobi. He steadied his breathing, quietly, trying to not let the gravity of the situation overtake him. This was serious business. The lives of countless people hinged on them not screwing this up. Were they ready for this? Could they handle it?
 
‘Shut the fuck up you pussy!’ His sword would yell gruffly through his mind. Obviously silent through the sewers. Valen would blink a couple of times in surprise before taking in a deep, silent breath. His sword was right, he needed to calm the hell down. His village needed him to be at 100% hell it needed him and Damon both to be at 100%. As he successfully calmed himself down the first of the people coming to the meeting began to arrive. They all appeared to be wearing large brown cloaks, probably to hide their identity from each other so none of them can rat the others out. It made sense in this case. This way if one fell, the plan wouldn’t be ruined. It would be easy for Lady Morgan and Emi to wipe their minds of the two women themselves. Valen would settle in for a good long wait. They wouldn’t have to ambush the last two, hopefully they had a cloak large enough for Valen to hide his own under.
 
About an hour would pass and Valen would finally see the end of the line and smirk. Two larger gentlemen were taking up the rear. Easily both enough for their cloaks to fit over all of their gear and weaponry and easily able to hide their features. Valen would slip out behind the two men, moving as silent as a snake. The two men were walking single file, he hoped Damon had moved with him to the one in front when he took out the one in back. Valen would move behind the man in the back before reaching up quick as lightning and knocking him out cold. A civilian really couldn’t hold up to a trained ninja. But there were thousands of civilians in Hoshi, and no where near that many shinobi. It’d be a slaughter. If Damon did move to get the man in front Valen would simply take the cloak off the one he had knocked out and put it on before dragging the man into the side tunnel, knocking him harder to make sure he stayed out like a light.
 
If Damon did not get the second man then Vale would simply move up behind him as well, as he would of course have been sure to not let the first man’s unconscious body make any noise, and knock him out as well. Valen would then hide one of the men’s body’s while Damon hopefully got the other and then put on the cloak Either way he’d look at Damon and speak seriously, no longer worried about their voice carrying. “When shit goes down I want you to jump onto Lady Morgan and Emi, try to take them alive but don’t let either of them  escape if it comes down to it. I’ll handle keeping the civilians at bay. If they are under genjutsu then we can’t kill them and I’m better suited to knocking them out with the reverse side of my blade.”. He’d then move into the meeting hall, moving down the same hallway before with much less stealth as since they were disguised it would no longer be necessary.
 
The meeting hall was now lit up with braziers along the sides of the room, the flames of which easily illuminated the room. Lady Morgan and Emi stood at the forefront, Morgan’s brooch displayed prominently on her throat.
 
“Soon it will be time to rise up and remove the plague of shinobi from our fair city!” She would begin, to the cheering of the entire room, Valen would join in as well to sell the act. He couldn’t appear to be anything more than one of them until it was time. “Before the shinobi came a year and half ago and established that blasphemous academy did we have any real problems?!” She’s yell out to the masses. “Before they came with their sacrilege did we need their help in dealing with our problems?” She would yell out as her genjutsu began to take ahold of the masses. Valen would instantly release the powerful genjutsu, but keep the act up. He’d hope Damon would be able to do the same. “Have we not dealt with them long enough? Should we not rise up and remove the stain that dares to threaten our way of life?!” She would yell out as the masses began to cheer more and more. Getting more and more excited. Valen  could feel the excitement in the air and he became tense as the situation became worse and worse. He noticed a small room in the back and thought that it could be a study. It might have detailed plans. If this situation went well they could use those plans to show the palace and shinobi higher ups what was going on.
 

“Shall we sit by and let them have their way? Or shall we fight and take back our village from the menace?!” She would yell, a commanding tone coming into her voice as the crowds roaring reached a zenith. Valen drew his hands into his cloak where his sword was well hidden under the cloak. He couldn’t have the women recognize his unique blade after all. “I propose we strike at them! I propose we attack them! If we start, the rest of the oppressed people will do so as well! I know it! We might even get support from the queen herself toward driving this menace from her lands!” She would continue, using the power of her genjutsu to great effect. At this rate things would get violent and fast. He’d wait for Damon to make his move here though, the moment he started knocking out civilians the two masterminds would make a run for it. So he needed his partner to be ready.


TWC: 2435