Overcome the Illusions

[Kayori]

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Master of Illusions Part I
Rank: B
Repeatable: Yes
Description: Reports of some sort of wizard have been coming in from civilians, about a man whom appears to be performing some form of magic, deep in the forests of Hi no Kuni. Obviously this may just be some shinobi using techniques. However our ANBU have reported the man to be using some forbidden techniques that allows him to make clay replicas of people. When a shinobi was sent to investigate, he disappeared and cannot be found. A letter was then later sent to the communication tower. It requested shinobi, be it one or many, to meet at the waterfall. When a shinobi was sent, he returned claiming that there was a replica of himself there and that he had to defeat himself to leave alive. Once the clay clone was defeated it left behind a small piece of paper, with a number on it.
Obective: Go face the replica and return with the clue to the man's existence.
Reward: 100 EXP and 2,500 Ryo

Kayori stood beside the village gates, on the inside, waiting for his partner to arrive. He had no idea who had taken up the job along with him, and he was hoping that the person could be quick. It wasn't his style to dawdle on a job, especially when time was wasted waiting for someone. Before, when he had his own squad, the first thing that was beat into their minds were that they had to be more punctual than punctual.

If the mission was to commence at 11.00am, they would have to be ready and prepared by 10.30am. It had always been his way of doing things, and members of his squad who had failed to do so were surely penalized for it. This normally involved strenous exercises that would leave his Genin members dropping down to the ground from exhaution upon completion of their tasks.

The blonde shinobi eventually leaned on the wall behind him, folding his arms across his chest as he let out a sigh. It didn't take long for him to start tapping his forefinger on his other arm, going into an impatient rhythm as his eyes looked lazily around.

"This guy better be worth the wait."

[Kayori]

Half an hour went by without as much as a single person appearing, and already the Uchiha was ready to snap. What was an upbeat mood to start the mission had already turned sour, his gaze deadly at he took in his surroundings around him. There were people in sight, but none walked in his direction or approached him.

Until a shinobi suddenly appeared and came rushing to him before stopping dead in his tracks. Kayori's eyes narrowed as he eyed the approaching shinobi. This one didn't look like he was here to meet Kayori for the mission.

"Kayori-san, I have a message for you from the Hokage's office," the shinobi said as he handed a folded note to the Uchiha with both hands. Once Kayori had taken the note from the messenger shinobi, he quickly took his leave and headed back to where he had came from, the Hokage's office.

A frown on his face as he opened up the note, his face contorted even further as he tried to control his anger. The note was from the Hokage's receptionist, passing on a message from the one who was supposed to be Kayori's partner in the mission announcing that something held him up and he was unable to perform this mission together with the Jounin.

Channeling his anger into his forefinger and middle finger in which the note was held in between, the note burst into flames and was released for the fire to slowly consume it and turn it to ashes. With a final gaze at his village, the shinobi turned towards the gate and walked out of the looming stone doors that had been opened for him.

[Kayori]

"Search for a waterfall hidden from view by the thick underlying foliage and tall trees south of Konoha," the Uchiha read from the piece of paper in his hand, his left eyebrow slightly raised and mouth slightly open after he finished his sentence. Blinking a few times, Kayori turned the note around multiple times just to be sure that he hadn't missed anything.

"Do they even know how many waterfalls there are in Hi no Kuni?" Kayori asked aloud in his frustration, despite being alone. Unlike the piece of note earlier that had brought about his anger, this note dumbfounded him, leaving him without a clue as to what he was supposed to do except to just make south.

As he walked on southwards, the Uchiha could only mumble to himself, "I guess that's a plan..."

Three hours had passed since the blonde shinobi continued on his southbound path, expecting to hear either the telltale gurgle of a small waterfall or the roaring gush of a tall one. And yet, so far the only noises that had been welcomed by his ears were the normal rustling of the leaves in the wind and the disturbance in the bushes caused by small animals.

"This mission sucks."

[Kayori]

Another two hours passed before Kayori finally hit jackpot. The thunderous roar of a torrent of water crashing down into a large pool of water. There were still some distance between him and the waterfall, but the noise was deafening enough that the other sounds of the forest had been completely covered.

Allowing his ears to take in the mightiness of the waterfall, his eyes eventually got a treat as he pushed through the bushes to stand in front of the waterfall. Standing by the pool with his eyes wide, Kayori could only watch in awe as he beheld the majesty before him, the raw power of nature in action.

This rivalled the waterfall at the Valley of the End, allowing one to imagine just how great this waterfall was. And as he stepped forward to get a nearer look, even the roar of the curtain of water could not stop the sound of the breaking bones from reaching his ears. Looking down at this feet, Kayori couldn't help but frown when he looked at the broken pieces of bone under his right feet.

He had hit jackpot indeed..

[Kayori]

Distracted by the sight before him as he entered the area earlier, Kayori couldn't believe how inept he had been. Around his feet were the scattered and broken remains of a skeleton. Judging by the length of the bones and the skull by the edge of the pool, it seemed obvious to the Jounin that it was a human's. Every morsel of flesh, muscle, sinew had been completely removed from the bones, the dead person having served as a meal to a hungry animal as evident from the teeth marks on the surface of the bones.

A katana laid on the ground just a few feet away, half of it's blade peeking out from underneath a bush. Just what sort of fight had the owner of the sword been involved? The blade of the katana was terribly damaged. Cracks appeared all over the blade, and the edge was jagged the entire length of the weapon, as if it had been continuously smashed again and again at a hard object. A normal katana, through normal wear and tear, would only reach such a state after several years of battle.

Kayori observed the blade some more, realizing the crusted blood on the weapon's hilt. A katana with a blade that had been so terribly damaged it was beyond repair and a hilt that had been so tightly held it had drawn blood from the user's hands. The Uchiha couldn't even begin imagine what situation could have made something like that happen.

A rustling in the grass and leaves behind him roused Kayori from his deep thoughts, his sharp ears slightly twitching as he sought to utilize his ears in deciding what was approaching him and to give a false sense of surprise to his potential assailant rather than just turning around quickly.

[Kayori]

The blade of a large sword cut deeply into the grass and the ground beneath it, striking where Kayori had been crouching and would have cleaved cleanly through the Uchiha's skull had he not avoided it at the last minute with a push from his instinct. The attack had been sudden, without any warning at all aside from the sound of the rustling grass.

Kayori had lunged forward the moment he felt something was wrong, putting some distance between the assailant and himself to which the assailant countered by charging forward. His grip on the hilt of his sword had tightened and his arm tensed as he prepared to strike the moment Kayori was within range.

When he had lunged forward, the blonde Jounin had did it in a crouched fashion, his body low to the ground and when he had turned around to face his attacker, his expression was aghast. Eyes wide, the Uchiha quickly pulled on his short sword that was slung across his back and held it up hastily to take the full brunt of the downward swing.

As the blades connected, Kayori was jolted from his partially dumbfouded state as the impact of the clashing blades travelled up his arm. Almost releasing his short sword, the Uchiha gathered his wits and leapt back, once more putting a distance between the two.

Standing directly across him was... himself. A replica, to be exact. The other Kayori was holding the Souten Ginrou in both hands, the tip of the blade facing the right as the sword began to glow. Seeing what was going to happen, the real Kayori dashed forward, edging to his left and right rather moving in a linear direction. He knew what was coming, and before his replica could release the Kousen, the Jounin swiftly smashed the hilt's end of his short sword into his replica's face without any hesitation.

[Kayori]

The moment he had smashed his replica's face, Kayori had retreated once more as he planned his next move. He hadn't bothered with trying to disarm his replica, knowing full well that when he held the blade, his attacks were only limited to the techniques of the Ju Kenshi arsenal. However, Kayori had underestimated his replica.

With the same speed, his replica came at Kayori, attacking swiftly and bringing forth a storm of attacks, to which the original desperately evaded. Their speed were exactly the same, and the Uchiha allowed himself one more option to break the balance. His Sharingan. His pupils were flooded crimson as a single Tomoe appeared in the ring around his pupils, and for a short moment, Kayori gained the upper hand.

That short moment was enough as the Uchiha crouched as his replica swung his sword in a horizontal slash aimed at his head, having seen it coming with the clairvoyance-like ability of the Sharingan. Fingers rapidly taking different forms as he crouched, Kayori brought his palm up to the fake's chest as the momentum of the swing forced him forward, Kayori unleashed one of his strongest Katon jutsu.

Flames exploded forth from his palm, the force of the impact immediately separating the two of them as the replica Uchiha as the replica was thrown off his feet and onto the ground several feet away. Smoke rising his right palm, Kayori could feel the exhaustion of using that technique. He was better suited for Taijutsu after all.

Before his replica could get to his feet, the Uchiha was prepared to destroy the fake but something was going wrong. The replica was healing at an incredible rate, the charred flesh and broken ribs from the point-blank explosion slowly disappearing as new skin grew over it.

SPOILER: Click to show

Shinkou Sakuretsu - B-rank

[Kayori]

Stunned, Kayori created an opening for his fake which thrust his sword forward with a sudden surge of speed, nearly ramming the large blade through the original's chest had he not once more relied on his battle-honed senses for a close escape. Nonetheless, the Stinger by the fake had still done its damage as the sword's blade drew a bleeding gash across Kayori's left side.

Once more back in battle, Kayori danced back and forth as he evaded the path of the sword's many advances, his Sharingan greatly aiding in his maneuverability. His wound bled freely as he moved about, every single moving muscle contributing to making it continue to bleed.

"This is it," Kayori said out loud as his left hand formed a single seal and held it. It was easy. The Kanashibari no Jutsu required a single moment of eye contact and it would hold. And with the replica charging directly at the real Uchiha, it didn't take long for Kayori to stop his opponent in his tracks, freezing him in mid-swing of his sword.

"It's over," the Uchiha muttered as he grabbed his short sword from its sheath and jammed it without any pause into the paralyzed replica's heart. There wasn't even any cry of pain or any sign that the replica understood the pain.

SPOILER: Click to show

Kanashibari no Jutsu - D-rank

[Kayori]

Approximately one second after he had plunged the ice-cold sword through the replica's heart, the replica's body began to darken in color, making a transition from Kayori's tanned skin color to dark brown, the color of soil. Cracks began to appear all over, adding a new dimension of grotesque to the whole ordeal and without warning, the entire body of clay crumbled to the ground in chunks of varied sizes.

Kayori was left standing there with his short sword thrust in mid-air, and the pile of broken clay by his feet. Remembering the other part of his mission, where he was supposed to find out the culprit behind all this, the Uchiha quickly scanned his surroundings with his crimson-tinted oculars.

It wasn't the Byakugan and there was no point in using it for such purposes, but all the same, Kayori wanted it activated the whole time. He wasn't going to take any more chances. Standing atop the waterfall, just beside the rushing torrent of water, was a man dressed in a black cloak mixed in with some patterns that Kayori couldn't make out.

With the difference in height too great, Kayori was unable to make out the features of the man. He was definitely tall and lean, even through his cloak, and he was pointing in Kayori's direction. No, he's pointing at the clay,Kayori thought as he swept a quick glance at the pile of clay behind him. A white piece of paper that had never been there earlier caught his attention.

As quickly as he had turned back, the Uchiha switched his view to the top of the waterfall again but this time the man was gone. With no clue whatsoever to the identity of the perpetrator, the Jounin crouched down and grabbed at the piece of paper, with only a number written on it in a cursive script.

[Messatsu!]

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