Recon Failed [Riyota]

[Samejima]

It was a rather dark night, and no one was really around to see her. She thought it would be safe to return to the insurgent headquarters. She was wrong.

In some pretty eye-catching getup, the girl who called herself Lize snuck into a trap door concealed under an abandoned shop front. She was to sneak outside daily to bring information back to the Cabal stragglers hiding out in the last place anyone would ever suspect: in an unused block within the first floor of the Obsidian Palace itself! It was genius! The leader had managed to amass a good number of explosives in the area, attempting to find the right time to have everyone sneak out and plant them all in the most damaging area in regards to the village itself and not the people, but haven't been able to grasp the right timing for it. As leader, she needed to be sure that her group's actions were precisely correct - there was no room for mistakes when you have the lives of friends at stake.

Going back to Naoki, she had apparently spotted someone disappearing into an old shop that she knew was no longer in business, since that place used to sell a bunch of toys she liked a few years back, but they were all expendable so she's missed messing about with the pop-resistant bubble things that no one else had. Why was someone in a big poofy dress in there, and where'd she go? She was supposed to be meeting with a certain ex-axe wielder for Kyrinchor watching outside, but she was sure Riyota would understand if he'd been in the position of seeing a possible rebirth of his favorite shop! She tiptoed in closer to the shop, very light finger snaps telling her there were no longer any signs of life in the area. A closer inspection of the shop showed that there was a single rug that seemed to be quite well-maintained, with a lack of dust that should have accumulated. Furthermore, it was quite the rug. Fluffy~ She leapt over the shop counter and lifted the rug, finding the latch of said trap door. It wasn't very well hidden. Now to descend... But she would've liked it if someone was around with her. An unknown trap door was not good for her heart at this time.

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota made his way to the meeting point Naoki had organised with him, it was quite dark out and his eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the light yet. They were supposed to be investigating possible Cabal activity, and therefore Riyota had decided to...ahem...'borrow' a Scythe from a weapon shop. He did intend to give it back...eventually. He took a moment to give it a few test swings. In it's normal state it looked like nothing more than a pole, but a push of a small button flicked out the large blade which made the weapon what it was. After a practice with it he flicked the blade back in and sheathed it on his back. He planned to continue heading to the meeting place, but he was quickly sidetracked by the sight of toys. Despite himself, the young shinobi ran to the window. I'm sure she won't mind if I'm a little late...Right? Riyota thought to himself as he headed inside the shop.

It only took a few moments after examining the toys for him to notice another presence kneeling down and looking at something. He moved in closer as silently as he could, trying to sneak up on the potential foe. After he crept up close enough, he gave the figure a quick tap on the shoulder.

 

[Samejima]

...Someone's behind me. She couldn't tell who or why, but there was someone trying to sneak up on her. Naturally, due to the nature of her Hashigaki hearing, which was given to her in place of her eyesight and rendered her incapable of seeing anything without some very concentrated effort, she was able to detect their heartbeat as they got closer but not much more. The tap intended for her shoulder would not manage to touch her, if indeed the young man decided to try doing so after her body visibly tensed up, and if he was able to see that in the light of the streetlights alone. Naoki had shot out from her kneeling posture, spinning to face the unknown sneaker and stomping hard on the ground as she stood up about two feet away from her original position, fists at the ready. The stomp on the floorboards was enough to show her a basic silhouette of the young man she'd called out that day after the battle, and she relaxed her stance once she realized this. "Geez, don't scare me like that!" she whispered, sighing. "Do you mind if we head down there? I have a feeling..." she paused, trying to remember exactly what it was she saw, or rather, sensed. "It seemed like someone with a big dress went down here. It was a dress, so I'm not really sure if it might be Cabal, but... why else would there be a trapdoor here right?"

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota jumped back slightly as the other figure moved, but the boy swiftly dropped his guard as he realised it was only Naoki. "Well sorry, I didn't expect anyone else to be in here." the boy started giggling slightly at the slightly startled look on the girls face. "Besides, you're older than me, I wouldn't think you'd get distracted by a toy shop." he stopped after a few moments and peered down at what she was directing his attention to..."Hmm...certainly is an odd spot for a trap door." He commented. "Someone in a dress?" he confirmed. "The Cabal are just getting stranger and stranger..." He tapped his foot on the floor a few times.

"Well, there's no point hanging around when there might be something fun beneath us!" He grinned, and before the girl could open her mouth to argue. He threw the trapdoor open, and began to climb down. Only...there wasn't any ladder. The boy soon found this out the hard way, as he went tumbling down the entrance. He landed with a heavy thud and called up to Naoki "Ok...so...there's no ladder, so watch out for that. It's going to take me a few seconds to get up, so whatever you do, don't come down now...got that? Do not, come down now." as the boy tried slowly lifted himself off the ground. His words rang up the passageway, but they were distorted in a way that made them sound more like. "No ladder...Watch out..Come down now...Do come down." Riyota was still winded and it would likely take him another few seconds to get standing.

 

[Samejima]

Realizing it and getting somewhat self-conscious, Naoki tried to defend her preferences with a nervous laugh and scratched her head. "W-well, just because I'm older doesn't mean I have to lose interest in stuff I like! Just, uh... Well, it's still fun. Who'd think this place would still have some toys though..." Now that there was conversation, she noticed the toys on the shelf and took a few moments to decide between taking any of them. She put it off for now, and did indeed try to stop the boy from going down the rabbit hole for poofy dresses, but he ended up falling all the way down. "Riyotaaaaa!" A heavy thud was heard, then a voice, so it seems he's okay at least. No ladder? Hmm... Well I guess we can just climb out on our own later, shouldn't be too hard, and Riyota must've learned how to do so anyways from his time here... Worse comes to worst I can always climb out and try to find a ladder or something to help him out with. Or I could probably carry him myself, in a pinch... After having rationalized her next actions, Naoki attempted to slide carefully down the side of the hole.

Landing as quietly as possible, she tried to help Riyota get his bearings back, if he hadn't already within the minute or so that it took for her to get down there. "Have you learned how to scale walls? Using chakra on the soles of your feet and getting a running start... If you haven't, I can get back up to get something for you anyway, so let's keep going." If it splits up into a fork or something...

It was a dark passageway, and she would likely be more useful in the front... But it was still scary. "Um... I'll t-take the lead then." The fear may or may not have been apparent in her voice. She stepped forward anyway, snapping her fingers with somewhat long time intervals between them. Looks like there's nothing up ahead for a while... Which way is this... Where would we end up? "It's in the direction of the Palace... or is it the Palais?" she muttered to herself.

-----​

"Ahh Lize, you're back! How's it looking?" A middle-aged man called out to the poofy dress, holding up a bag of chips. "One of the boys found this, and said you should have it." "Whom?" "Eh? Ahh, it was little Hiroshi." "Hmm." Lize walked around the man after accepting the bag of chips, and started talking as she crunched loudly. "It's looking good. They're mostly distracted by the rebuilding, so we can do our work here in peace. When people move out of the more crowded sections, we'll start bombing. But first..." she paused to stuff a few more chips into her mouth, crunching loudly still, "We take the Palais. It's too dirty, too polluted to move on to the new Sunagakure. It must be destroyed, along with the rest of the scum living there."

The middle-aged man frowned, before fixing his face into a reluctant grin. "Lize-chan, let's just lay low for now, they'll take a long time before they rebuild anyway, and we can bomb after everything's done with, no need to take lives-" "NO!" The poofy dress stomped her ridiculously high platform heels, making a loud echo through the block. "The Palais is where most crimes happen. They have illegal establishments paying people off to keep them from snitching, the highest rate of theft and the lowest employment rate. They need to go!" She steeled herself, and stomped off to talk to the ones handling the explosives. "We move to bomb the Grand Palais tonight!"

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota heard very faint sounds furhter up the tunnel as his companion took the smarter path. When she reached the floor he accepted her aid in getting up. The boy would've probably been able to accomplish the task himself if his arm wasn't still recovering from their fight with the Cabal group. He looked at Naoki as she turned away and he could almost feel a metaphorical sword through his chest, he knew her perspective on him must've changed. He assumed for the worst, he didn't know exacly what happened when he lost control, but he coud see the girl wasn't looking at him in the same way. "Well...I've...uh, learned how to do it, but...I...nevermind." he responded to her question coyly. The truth he was keeping from her was that he knew how to channel chakra into areas of his body, such as his feet, but he just couldn't control his flow well enough to keep it up, and attempting it always left him feeling dried up chakra wise. He didn't want to seem uncool in front of Naoki however, and so he did not finish answering.

Riyota had grown older as she had in the while they had not seen each other, and now that they were not in the heat of battle. He admired her looks a little bit more. Riyota blushed slightly and although the girl was blind he was glad she was looking away from him. The boy was swiftly learning the ways of the Shinobi, but the ways of Women were far too complex for him at the moment.

He was happy to let her take the lead...after all, surely she was more experienced than him. "Palais" he confirmed for her, Riyota knew the name well, as he had had to spend most of his time in that area. The two had taken a couple of steps when Riyota noticed something that felt...off. He put an ear to the wall and knocked on it to confirm his suspicions. "The walls...are hollow. Naoki, I've got a bad feeling about this." the boy knew that the hollow walls definitely were not a good sign. He pressed his ear closer to the wall and he heard some voices suddenly go silent. Which was soon followed by the sound of paper igniting. "Naoki! the boy exclaimed, as he tackled his comrade out of the way as the paper bombs detonated, burning off an entire sleeve off the boy's white robes and burning holes in the rest of it. Singing his skin quite badly. As he and Naoki hit the ground he let out a slight "Oof" he hoped the girl was ok.

 

[Samejima]

The sounds of both heartbeats were rather loud in her ears with the silence as they traveled down the path, with the girl's pace quickening from being up in front. I wonder how Riyota knows this place leads to the Palais. Maybe he's been through here before and ended up there or something? Well, if he's this confident about it then we'll probably end up someplace familiar... Next course of action would probably be to figure out- Thoughts were cut short as Naoki was tackled to the ground, and there was the smell of burnt skin after she regained her bearings. Problem is, she felt nothing out of the ordinary, which meant, "Riyota, we're getting out of here!" Provided she had room for it, she'd try to grab the boy and run back the way they came, towards the trap door. If he didn't resist, they'd likely be out of the way of the rest of the traps, or at the very least they'd reach some semblance of safety where Naoki set up a Distorted Aura, their backs facing the wall with the trap door above them. "Are you okay? Here," she tried a Mystical Hand on his singed arm, after which she would ask to go by herself back down there to check on the area and proceed (with the actions below after passing the Health Pills) with her try at busting the wall open. Had Riyota wished to join her, she would be somewhat worried but agree on that as well.

If he did, she would have no choice but to try and provide backup, or what little she really could provide, setting up a barrier of sound and trying to ward off any attackers or traps after that last one. "Here, take some," she said, passing a bottle of health pills to Riyota before taking a deep breath and visualizing (or her equivalent of it in any case) going through the wall. Currently, she was focusing on a singular blow at the weakest spot she could sense with the barrier in place, her hearing picking up on the faint changes in the structure at each portion of the wall. She formed several handseals for the most powerful water jutsu she could pull off, thinking the rocks would be loosened some from the water. "Hrrm!"

-----​

"Lize-san! There's a breach in the entrance!"
"What?!"
"Two kids got in and set off a trap ma'am!"
"Tsk, was I seen...? Put up the barricades!"
"Yes ma'am!"

The barricades really were just barricades, but they serve one more purpose: To fool any intruders into thinking that was the end of the line, with edges merging seamlessly into the walls of the passageway. At the very least, two kids shouldn't be so curious they'd want to deal with adults to get through. And them getting in on their own was out of the question anyway, they'll leave soon enough.

 

[Miroku Riyota]

"We can't leave Naoki, we've just found a lead." He coughed slightly. "Damn, they singed my hair off." He laughed, glancing at a small tuft of hair that was still smoking. "Thanks...I should be fine from here." he said, in response to her healing his arm. He knew eventually either his Solar Seal or healing factor would kick in and he'd be fine, but they didn't really have time to hang around. "I think we can still recover from this, I reckon I can get them away from that area long enough for you to grab any useful information." He smiled. "No point both of us throwing ourselves out there." His reasons for volunteering himself wasn't even just out of protective instinct over the girl, it was also that he knew she had more chance of taking stuff quietly than he did. "And before you say anything, we don't have time to argue, so let's just get on with it."

As he said that, he drew the pole on his back and went charging out of hiding, only to see nothing around them. The hollow wall was completely intact...or was it. Riyota wasn't sure whether the wall was real or not, even if it was a magic self-repairing wall, throwing a stone at it would at least confirm their suspicions. So he picked up a small chunk of debris and hurled it at the wall. Watching as it bounced off the wall...but it made a different noise this time, which made Riyota even more suspicous. "Naoki, try and find a way around if you can...me and this wall need to have a little chat."

 

[Samejima]

I guess he's not going to let up... It'd be more dangerous if he were to come across someone while he was getting through the tunnel after all. Okay, so I should go on ahead? Assuming that was the stance she was supposed to take, she gave him a nod (which would probably seem completely off-point should she have gotten the meaning wrong) and proceeded down the tunnel. It wasn't likely that anyone would be able to catch her by surprise, given her highly developed sense of hearing which gave her abilities comparable to sonar sensing, but if anyone were to happen upon her she would reflexively be able to counter most any sort of taijutsu. However, she would have more of a weakness towards genjutsu, and this was unfortunately something she couldn't fix on her own.

And something that the leader of the forces against them now knew how to employ. The barricade was not only physically disguised, but had effects of genjutsu fortifying it, making Naoki believe it was indeed a dead end and causing her to frown in disbelief. What now... I guess there's not much left to do but turn back? She considered no alternatives, no new plans, no inconsistencies... The genjutsu had filled her mind with nothing more than thoughts of turning back. And so she did, stumbling back over to Riyota and standing close by if he'd been attempting a particularly violent conversation with the wall. Otherwise, or after he noticed her, she would inform him of the nature of the rest of the tunnel.

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota noticed that Naoki had come back, and he was about to open his mouth to protest when she explained that the tunnel was a dead end. He frowned and looked back at the wall again. "Naoki-san...How much force do you think it would take to break this?" he asked her, an idea forming in his head. If she answered he would then ask. "And how much force do you think we can put forward if we were to both punch it with all our might at the same time?" He also asked her. Beginning to pace back and forth. "Because I have a very small suspicion that one of these walls..." he indicated to the wall in front of him and the wall further down the tunnel. "Is lying to us..." He turned to her and smirked. Feeling like a detective in his own mind.

 

[Samejima]

"I can try... Hmm..." And so the chakra building began, though she felt it would be more effective to use some kind of ninjutsu to try and get past a wall. And it wasn't like she felt like her punches wouldn't have been able to bust through it if Riyota really did have the confidence that the wall was a false one, so she went along with it anyway. After a few seconds of focus, she felt like she would have exerted enough force to at the very least punch a hole in it, and re-wrapped part of her bandages to better cushion her knuckles, remembering not to use her knuckles themselves to try and penetrate the wall lest she break some of them. "Okay, ready when you are!" She started bouncing a little in place, excited to be trying to intentionally punch out a wall for the first time.

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota saw his companion readying herself for the breach and so he did the same, attempting to flow Chakra into his fists, however his control was not up to scratch and his internal energy began sparking everywhere. Plan B then...I guess. he closed his eyes and allowed his Gaia seal to work it's way up his body. Alright...focus...focus. he felt extra strength flowing through him. "NOW!" he shouted. Punching the wall simultaneously with Naoki, as their fists hit the wall it made a very strange noise and dented before eventually crumbling away. Panting lightly as his seal retreated, a large grin spread across his face. "I was right!"

 

[Samejima]

"Tch, they caught onto us?! Retreat!" The people behind the wall scattered, and there wasn't nearly enough time to try and catch where they went, as they worked in the dark and were gone in less time than any of the two kids could strike a match... Though this wasn't necessary for Naoki of course. In a bit of a daze, Naoki dashed forwards and shouted, "Go downwards from back here, there's a few unarmed guys but they might be carrying kunai, be careful!" She pointed down in the direction where the path was going, behind the wall that the two had managed to break open. Stopping short and fumbling for a few seconds, she tossed a signal flare at him as well as a matchbox. "That's a signal flare, it'll give you light for a couple seconds, remember to toss it at them once those two seconds are up!" If he received them and went in said direction, Naoki would try and catch the ones that went the other way, confident for some reason that the direction Riyota would be going down if he complied was going to end in a dead end anyway despite not having information telling her so. However, this direction was where the actual HQ was, and should he follow there was a high chance that he would happen upon the base first... Provided he was careful enough to avoid the spring loaded traps laid out on the ground. Naturally, the people he'd be following knew about them and would stay out of the way, but his perception of where the two were would be the ticket to avoiding said traps and a net to the face. If he successfully avoided the traps, the two would stop him there and engage in two-to-one combat.

Naoki was now up against a group of four, depending on her Sound jutsu and hearing in general to keep track of where the escapees were, before feeling like she had a grasp of how they decided to attack, defending and using low-cost jutsu to scope out their moves before she made any serious ones herself. It was more of a waiting game now, for who would show their weakness first, but without identifying traits like voices or differentiating clothes, she found it hard to pin down any of their patterns. How do I do this? Should I just attack 'em all at once? Try to single one out? Just take shots in the dark?

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota fumbled with the flare that had been tossed to him and almost dropped it, but eventually he managed to grab hold of it as he gave a lighthearted "Aye aye Captain!" and took off in the direction he had been pointed to. He ran quickly and followed whatever noises he could make out, the enemy were being stealthy. He was not. As the area got darker and darker he used what little chakra control he had to create a spark to light the flare, slowing down slightly he surveyed the area around himself before tossing the flare further into the darkness. He took a few deep breaths and continued down the tunnel at a walking pace.

One uneventful minute later and he found himself at a dead end of a giant wall. However he was determined not to go back empty handed to Naoki he paced back and forth in front of the wall, before he began carefully knocking on each one. Brick...Brick...Brick...Brick...That doesn't sound like the others." he said as he reached the fifth wall from the left. Stepping back he looked at all of them "One of these things just doesn't belong here..." as he stepped forward again he began to feel extremely dizzy, very similar to how he had felt after the battle at the academy. "W-wha-...n-not now..." he mumbled, shaking his head, dazed. His knees gave out under him as he began feeling extremely sick once again. He drew quickly drew out a Kunai knife a scratched a marking into what he presumed to be the false wall. "Naoki...l-let's hope...you know...wha- tha- mean-..." the boy slumped to the ground, unconscious, and unbeknownst to him, was dragged way further into the tunnels. When he awoke, he would be tied. Hopefully his marking would be enough.

 

[Samejima]

After a few unsuccessful larger attacks, most of which seemed to just pass through the attacking figures, the girl got frustrated and started firing at all cylinders, not caring much about whether or not she got hit as long as she herself could land a hit... But found that the figures merely avoided her as much as they could, continuing their confusion tactics but not attacking outright. What...? She stood still, and the rest of them followed, stopping and just standing there facing her. Rrgh! Are they taking it easy? On me?! Understandably angry about being looked down upon, she launched into a flurry of attacks, mixing kunai into her usual kicks and punches, dashing from one target to the next in a blind (both literally and figuratively) rage. "Haaaaaaaaaaa!" The split second she started however, so did they. But this did not deter her fists from seeking blind justice (only literally this time).

The punches and kicks continued, and she was slowly running out of stamina, but she had her little secret weapon to act as a buffer if nothing else, and continued the assault. Whenever it seemed like one had stopped in his tracks, she spotted the opportunity immediately and practically leaped at then, launching into a signature one-two combo, and just carrying on until she finally realized that while the bodies were indeed still in front of her... she wasn't feeling any of the hits connect. "Wha..." Her relentless attack ceased, her breaths heavy and muscles relaxed for the time being. What was that? She hadn't yet realized it, but her mind was starting to put the pieces together... Something she sensed, but did not feel. It definitely wasn't some kind of dense gas either, she would've been able to tell. So why...

---

Meanwhile, hiding in a little nook he'd sealed up using his specialty, he was getting tired. "The blue blazes is that little girl? I'm tired out already, geez." The little one seemed to be much more powerful than he'd initially anticipated. But at that rate, she was neither going to figure out his plan nor require him to start attacking her at full force.