Which Side of the Coin? [Force Entry]

[Sekuro]

His trip overseas was a tiresome one but he'd made it quick enough to take a short break at an inn on his way back to the stone village. He wasn't in any particular hurry, but he didn't want his comrades to miss his wonderfully annoying semi-omniscient presence so he would make this quick. He was only here to make his move on a vastly over complicated game of chess. The gates were the same as they were when he left. Seemingly no changes to their defenses or alerts since last he left. This was a sign that nothing severe had gone down since he'd left. Or possibly they didn't know anything severe had gone down. However for now, Kagemaru would be making his way into the village the same way he'd come and gone the last few times with the exception of the very last one. Which was odd considering he'd been stopped by the Tsuchikage himself only to be let go without being checked all the same.

It was only a matter of time now...

[S Rank: 30 Minutes to enter village + Rank 2 Alert Level = 1.5 hours to enter village.]

 

[Tao]

Tao didn't know how or why but he found himself wondering around the village gates, he often avoided doing so because he was afraid that someone would kick him out of the village, but nevertheless he decided that he must make a change of pace and go to places he would usually wouldn't, despite his fear of being casted out. The day was clear and nothing was different about today in comparison to any different days. He was still somewhat unstable ever since he gained his new powers, something about it just urged him to go and try new things, maybe his mind was slipping and his logic became twisted to some point, but overall he felt healthy enough, that odd disturbance he felt a couple of days ago was gone and replaced with a brand new one, something from within that made him feel something creeping from inside of his body and taking over his very essence, slowly but surely. He had to learn how to take control of it before it'd be too late and he would lose himself to that... Thing. His appearance haven't shifted or altered ever since Nao implanted his chakra into him, he hoped that it wont happen again in public, like it did last time, he would surely be casted out or hunted down if it would. "Monster" that word still echoed in his head, the same word he was using in his mind to describe the word "Shinobi", something that one day he will have to stop, even if he had to become one himself.

It didn't seem like the guards noticed him, he didn't look particularly suspicious either way, heck, he took upon himself to learn how to dress and act like a villager of Iwagakure and even began to understand the principle of their mannerisms, hopefully correctly at least. But then he saw a man passing the gates, none of the guards were approaching him, so Tao assumed he was a well known villager or maybe even a shinobi of the village, but he didn't seem to be dressed like them nor was he wearing that metal plate thing with the village's symbol implanted on it. He felt the sudden need to talk to the man, he wanted to communicate even if it was just for a little bit... What was happening to him, this urge to communicate with people wasn't something new, but not to that extent, after all, that person was just any other human being, so why? Maybe because he was different.

"Excuse me sir!"

Tao shouted while raising his hand to grab that man's attention.

"Are you by any chance a shinobi?"

Tao didn't know why he asked that, he have been asking this very question a lot of people recently, that's true, but that felt all too random, even for him.

"Ohh, excuse me, I meant, pleasure to meet you, where are you coming from?"

He genuanly wanted to know, he was so fancinated over this person's very existence within these rocky lands that it made him want to explore his very being, with one question after another, knowing himself, he might end up stopping this person for a conversation that would last all day.

[Caught!]
[S rank - 30 minutes + Alart level 2 + 60 minutes, overall 1.5 hours]
[MFT]​

 

[Ko]

Spoiler

Picture of Sashou for reference

Maybe it wasn’t the right place for a genin to be, looking at the gates and marching along them like some Guardian or Anbu. But he had been a shinobi for a long time now so he figured he knew as much as a Chuunin if not even the higher ups in the shinobi ladder. They certainly thought they knew a lot but everyone had their blips in their memory but Sashou knew he was much better than that. He made sure that every piece of relevant information was kept and the useless stuff chucked away like names. Names were not important to remember. He couldn’t even remember his own sensei’s name!

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with… a bunch of rocks," he said grimly while patrolling along the cliff face looking for boats and business, or maybe a bottle of parchment looking for help. ”Nothing but stones the same colour as the sick I think I’m going to give way to unless I turn away from all of this."

Maybe not five minutes later of sitting along the top of the Keep he noticed a little bit of movement down the bottom. Another who went to go check soon greeted the person. From his eyes though he wasn’t sure if he was stopping the figure or having chitchat about the weekend. This was something for Sashou to investigate for sure.

Running down the side of the cliff towards the gates of the keep he grinned a little as he finally found something to do with his day. Maybe he was being a little nosey, or maybe he was just trying to look for some more fun it didn’t really matter to him. He just wanted to stop counting the rocks for the fifth or sixth time that day. Stone was as dull as the colour so you had to make do with what imagination and ideas you had in your mind.

He approached the two, noticing that the guards hadn’t really seen anything apparently. Were all gate guards that blind and dumb, or were his eyes just do great and amazing. Probably the latter in his opinion.

”Yo sorry boss you gotta turn back the way you came. Tsuchikage’s orders are to keep the gates locked for the time being. “ He paused for a second, looking for reassurance from the other figure. ”Not sure what I can tell you but unless he arrives and says otherwise we cannot let you in. Thems the rules!” He waited to see how the other person would react to this as Sashou looked around for all the ways to escape. Back up the cliff would be the best possible one if not heading into the water would be his second option. Hiding in the towers would protect him and alert the guards if there was a threat however.

”We just can’t let you in today, sorry.”


[S rank- 30 minutes- Catch!]

[MFT 488]

 

[Rounin Nao]

As of late Nao often stood on a rock observing the gates of the stone village. He looked out to the distance, to the horizon.
The only thing that prevented Nao from breaking free from the walls of this wretched city was his young brother Satsu, he wouldn't leave him after the much sought after reuniune and not when his brother needed his aid most at these delicate times. He pretended to be the good soldier for the village on his brothers behalf and no other reason but that.

It was a great surprise when he saw his house mate and comrade in arms Tao wonder to this location today, he had never seen him here before, and he never expected to see him here ether. Nao jumped off his watch and down to the road leading to the gates, he lit up a cigarette and walked casually towards the gate entrance.

"fancy seeing you here dear Tao..."

He said, his expression stoic and emotionless.

"you never came here before my friend so I was a bit surprised to see you arrive..."

He continued, then his eyes travelled to the man standing before Tao. He took a long drag out of his smoke and exhaled the mist slowly.

who's your friend Tao?, he dose not seem to be from these parts

He said partially to Tao and partially to the stranger, Nao played the role he should play in this village, a watchmen and a guard for the fools who run the tainted halls of the city.

"well met upon thee man of provinces afar, might I ask for your purpose here today and if it dose not trouble you papers of passage if any you posses"

He asked the man, quite board and uninterested in the predicament, if the papers would check out he would leave the man be and send him on his way.




[Caught]
[S rank - 30 minutes + Alart level 2 + 60 minutes + ANBU Sentinel 45 minutes, overall 2.25 hours]

 

[Sekuro]

OOC: To note, this thread continuing is dependent on if the other thread being voided or not. But lets continue for now.

Oh this was a much better improvement then the last time. In no time at all not one but two strangers stopped him at the gates. That was more like it. Or so he thought. The first man was odd, asking if he was a shinobi. Kage, never missing a beat took the time to reply.

Not really no. This answer held both truth and lies. He was of course born and raised in the now defunct Leaf village but the term shinobi could also be interpreted as a profession which Kagemaru was currently not employed as. He was technically unemployed at the moment but offering his services to those who paid him. So technically his profession was mercenary since more often then not, the jobs he was hired to do involved killing people. So his answer held truth but Kage was smart enough to know what the man asking the question probably meant and Kagemaru didn't want to completely answer the question. It was his nature to hide lies within his truth and truth within his lies. He'd been doing it for almost two decades. Not long after that, another more official person showed up to outright deny his entry into the village. This was annoying but not unexpected. Situations like this tended to devolve into violence so Kage would keep it verbal for the time being. He knew what it was like to defend a village and he couldn't fault the guard for doing what Kage assumed was his job. It wasn't entirely THAT long ago when he was a guardian of his own village so to speak. He really did miss the Leaf village from time to time.

Calm down. He's the one I'm here to see anyway. If I can't go see him then can you get him here? Tell him Kuromaru is here to finish that conversation we had not too long ago. As he was speaking another individual popped up. This was becoming annoying by the second.

What makes you think I'm not from here? I've seen enough of Arcadia to last several lifetimes. Cryptic as it may have been, this much was true. The blindfolded mans words may have confused the would be trio of would be gate guards but such was Kagemaru's personality and verbiage.

Prayed in the Temple of Five, and strolled down Aventurine Street a number of times. Who's to say I'm not more familiar with whats here then you are? It was at this point that his eyes were beginning to strain. The intense glowing coming from the first person to speak to him was bothering Kage's eyes. It was like staring into a light bulb at close range but in Kage's case it was a lot worse since he could also see the sun and literally everything else around him as well. The blind folded Hyuuga would rub the area where his eyes were and wave his hand for Tao to take a few paces back.

Could you take a few steps back, your.... whatever it is inside of you is bothersome. On that note, he now realized that the newcomer had a strange chakra as well. He wouldn't say it out loud but it was annoying. For something as sacred and hard to learn as Senjutsu was, Kagemaru sure was running into a lot of sages. Akkuma, Koa, Kane, and now this Nao person (whom Kage didn't know the name of). He had the chakra similar to that of the three sages he'd already known so it was reasonable to assume that Nao had similar abilities.

Spoiler

[ooc: Pic of Kage (not colored) but his outfit is mostly white with black pants and the trim on his sleeve and collar is black.)

 

[Tao]

It didn't seem weird that the man answered that he wasn't a shinobi, but it seemed like his other question was cut off by a second person who joined into their conversation, it seemed that immediately the first thing he did was to tell the man to turn back and go out of the village, that seemed odd to Tao, well it did seem odd until the man also mentioned that a person named Tsuchikage ordered the gates to be closed and nobody was supposed to enter while the order is in effect. Tao looked at him for a second and then back at the man with the blindfold. He began to wonder, who was this Tsuchikage and why would he order such a thing, closing off an entire village seemed a bit extreme, maybe something important is happening. In which case it seemed sort of important to not let this man in. Nevertheless that was something that he didn't care about too much, all he wanted to do in the end was to converse, knowing that he decided to not react too much to that person's announcement, no specific need to act as if he is a guard or anything. Then suddenly Nao arrived, he first greeted Tao, then asked about the blindfolded man, seems like this man was more interesting than the bossy one that joined in earlier. Then Nao asked for identification and clearance from the visitor, though Tao wondered if they would really help in a situation like this. Tao just recalled that this man identified himself as Kuromaru and that he came to see someone, but never specified who, but it seemed like it wasn't his first time in the village, he mentioned the locations within the village so casually it was believable that he was there before.

"C-cant he stay for a short while? I still have so many questions..."

Tao spoke out towards the person who asked Kuromaru to leave. Then Kuromaru seemed to have some sort of irritation around the area of his eyes or maybe a migraine and asked Tao to step back mentioning that something within him was being bothersome.

"This person... Can he really tell...?"

Tao's fascination just rose up ten-folds. He had to get this man to stay and talk to him, he had to figure out how he knows about his secret, that couldn't possibly be a coincidence that he just happened to say that combination of words in that order, he somehow knew what was going on inside of him, or the general idea of it, what Tao couldn't understand is how.

"Kuromaru-sama, I believe that was your name, right? Is it possible... That you can..."

Tao hesitated to finish his sentence, he feared that somehow his true identity would be aired out and he would be cast out again, just like before.

"N-nevermind..."

His fear overwhelmed him and he decided to not ask him out front how he could tell that Tao was different and what he really is.

 

[Ko]

For someone who was blindfolded he sure seemed to act with an aura of importance. A conversation he had with the Tsuchikage before? Maybe it was better to bring Endo over here rather than let this guy through. At the same time it could be a trap. Ambushes at the gates seemed to happen more often than any other place in the world. It’s as if the gates themselves were a way to force people into killing on duty shinobi.

”Erm sure, I’ll see how that goes,’ he said before turning to the first person on the scene. He shook his head before grabbing his headset and stepping away a few feet to make the call. He brushed his hair from the side of his ear and put the headpiece over it.

”Yeah can I get the Tsuchikage over to the Titan’s Keep please? Some guy named ermm…” He looked back at Kuromaru trying to remember the name before turning back. ”Kuromaru-san I think, something finishing some conversation he had with Tsuchikage-sama. Otherwise please advise on the situation.”

He walked back with the headpiece on yet muted and smiled politely to the group of people who was becoming larger every time he turned away.

”I’ll be sure to let you know what headquarters says to whether escort you away or wait for him to arrive. He’s a very busy man you see, I’m sure you can understand seeing as you said you’ve… been here before?”

He looked around the area and inside himself he was feeling regret of being here. There were way too many people for comfort, and way too many opportunities for him to be shanked. His leg was starting to tap a little and maybe he was getting a little fidgety but didn’t notice it quite yet.

Come on Tsuchikage-sama please hurry up or at least give me the authority to do something instead of standing here. I’m making an exception for one person so you better not hang me from the gallows yet. His thoughts were rushing about what to do next and where to be next. His boredom obviously led him into more people than he expected so he would just wait patiently and feign the politeness.

 

[Seijin]

His name being called over the airwaves, Endo though quite busy quickly responded. It wasn't that he wasn't used to his name being called but in days like this, he was just all too wary of trying to do too many things at once. He sighed as he placed a finger above the button that would allow him to respond when something quite interesting grabbed his attention. Kuromaru, so much for that vacation at Moon. Answering the call, Endo gave his verdict. ~"Blind guy, talks a bit cryptic like he's hiding the fact that he can secretly wipe out an entire clan of ninja? Let him in, he's trusted. Thank you for guarding the gates good sir."~ With that, he prepared himself for what would amount to be a most interesting meeting.

OOC: Responding via headset reply.

 

[Rounin Nao]

Nao remained silent, the Tsuchikage was called upon on the head set of the third man guarding the gates.
Subject 46 had little interest in the situation, any way it seemed that the blindfolded man knew the village and had ether lived here or visited many times before, on any one of the occasions Nao assumed that there would be little problem for the man to enter this time as well.

It seemed that the situation was under control so Nao decided to take his leave.

"well gentlemen, if the Tsuchikage knows this man I have no problem with him entering..."

He said and then looked to the blind man.

"enjoy your stay sir, I hope we shall meet again under more accommodating circumstances but until then I fer thee well..."

He said to him, just before he left he looked at Tao with a small smile.

"and I will see you later my dear Tao"

And he then vanished into the distance.

[TLUS]

 

[Ko]

As soon as the Genin had made the call out to the Tsuchikage he was quickly responded to with a good definition of the man in question. Apparently even though he talks cryptically he was to be trusted and let in. Endo must really like the guy seeing as currently the gates are kill on site for those who try to force their ways through otherwise.

As Sashou was about to say about letting him in, the third man who arrived soon after him let Kuromaru into the village. This was a rather rude interruption, and not only that he did say it in a rather peculiar way. Did he somehow get on the same frequency? Did he read his mind? he felt a little wary of the man and decided to take note of him and his habits. Rude, smoked around people, didn’t acknowledge his presence. Yup, definitely a dislikeable character.

”Erm yeah what he said. Tsuchikage-sama will be expecting you soon, “ he said as he allowed Kuromaru access through to the village. A lucky man, seeing as most other people who tried to get in would’ve been added to the wall. It’s good to network with such high ranking officers of the village huh?

He would wait for everyone else to leave until then moving back towards patrolling for a bit. He can’t just leave the gate or else he wouldn’t look like a guard at all. He would just have to sneak off after a little while. Can’t be confused with an actual Anbu or something huh?

[Topic left after everyone else has gone, letting Kuromaru in]

 

[Sekuro]

He didn't know what was said, but it seemed as if his entry was granted. It was actually a long shot but it seemed that taking the time to speak with the Tsuchikage a while back paid off. Luck was on his side this time as these situation usually devolved into violence and Kage really wasn't up for killing anyone today. So he'd just give a somewhat confident smirk as he continued on his way.

No worries guys, you're just doing your jobs. Keep that up. As he made his way into the village, Kage would also make a note of Tao before he left.

You... uh... guy with the shiny thing... Never got your name. You're an interesting individual. I'll see you again I'm sure. He would then make his way to meet with the Tsuchikage. Time wasn't exactly his friend as it often wasn't so he would make this as quick as he could.

[ooc: Thanks for the rp guys.]​

 

[Tao]

Tao wondering in his own hesitations heard the guard transmit something through an object that apparently was lunged firmly into his ear. It was quite an odd spectacle, almost as if the guy was talking to himself or some invisible imaginary friend of sorts, but that seemed to bring in some results as Nao have declared that Kuromaru may enter the village and that he actually knew Kuromaru, yet he still had no idea who this Tsuchikage was, it seemed like an odd name as it is, 'rock shadow', very odd indeed. Then Kuromaru began to make his way into the village while the person who was speaking to himself earlier on confirmed that Kuromaru can enter the village, seems like the situation was resolved quite nicely. Then Nao left and said that he'd meet Tao again soon, that felt like something he shouldn't have heard, or rather didn't want to because a meeting with this guy on such short notice was never a good sign by far. Then as Kuromaru was leaving he asked Tao for his name by calling him 'the person with the shiny thing', obviously a shout out towards Tao as he is known to shine a lot by those who have already met him.

"M-my name... Is Tao."

He shouted back at him as a response of respect, he was quite disappointed that he couldn't stay to converse with this person longer, but it seemed quite unavoidable. He looked at the person who seemed to have some form of schizophrenia and nodded towards him politely before leaving as well, he already felt out of place in the gate sector already and the more he stayed there, the further his fear of being caught crept towards him, almost to the point where he'd flee in panic, but he managed to calm himself down without seeming odd in any way, and slowly paced back into the village, heading to Arcadia to clear his head, he somehow loved watching the people of Arcadia move around minding their own business from above, almost like an ever changing framed picture of many shapes and colors.

[MFT]
[TLUS]