Pipe fitters

[The Dude]

NAME; SEWER CRAWL
RANK; B
DESCRIPTION; SOMETIMES THE ELABORATE SYSTEMS WE SET UP DON’T EXACTLY WORK LIKE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TOO, THIS JUST HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THOSE CASES. ONE OF THE SEWER SYSTEMS UNDERGROUND RECENTLY GET EPIC JAMMED. WE NEED A NINJA TO GO DOWN THERE AND FIGURE OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AND HOW TO FIX IT. THE HARD PART ISN’T THAT THOUGH, THAT’S NOT GETTING HOPELESSLY LOST IN THE ELABORATE MAZE OF TUNNELS OR SWEPT UP IN THE DISGUSTING SEWER WATER.
REWARD; 100 EXPERIENCE, 2,500 RYO
MINIMUM SHINOBI; ONE
MISSION STATUS; INTERMINABLE

Takumi walked along the moonlit streets quietly by himself looking down at a scroll in his hands. On the scrolls were the details to the mission he had accepted to fix the sewer pipes. He scanned some of the maps of the pipes and descriptions quietly looking for a better approach to the labyrinth below. Unable to find one he rolled up the scroll and tucked it inside his vest as he neared the manhole in the street.

Takumi sighed as he came to a stop. This job didn't sound like the cleanest and he was about to be jumping straight down into the mess of it all. Bugs crawled down his legs onto the ground and began swarming under the manhole out of sight. A moment of silence followed and suddenly the manhole cap seemed possessed as it began to rotate in place before levitating off the street and into the air before being set back down on the street beside the questionable entrance. The small swarm of bugs that had amassed under the lid now swarmed down into the sewers.

SPOILER: Click to show

Kikaichuu no Jutsu (Destruction Bug Technique)
Rank: D, C, B, A [325]
Type: Supplementary / Ninjutsu / Secret Technique
Range: 0 - 50 meters
Handseals: No.
Chakra: Mid
Special: Allows the user to control, without the need of seals, the bugs residing within. Highest rank determines strength and ability of bugs, amount of chakra that can be absorbed per turn, distance the user can control them away from their body, and finally, readiness (speed) at which they react to command). By default, it takes a full turn of exposure to the full swarm of kikaichuu, in which constant contact is created, in order for chakra leeching to occur; it takes the same amount of exposure for the user to absorb leeched chakra.

D: 10 meters // 1 meter per second
C: 20 meters // 2 meters per second
B: 30 meters // 3 meters per second
A: 40 meters // 4 meters per second
S: 50 meters // 5 meters per second

Description: Kikaichuu no Jutsu is a core ninjutsu technique central to all Aburame clan jutsu. After being born, the clan member forms a pact with the kikai, allowing them to serve as the host nest for the bugs. In return for feeding on the chakra the hosts' body provides, the insects will do the bidding of the clan member. The host can use the bugs to seek out the chakra of the opponent and attack them, allowing them to leech victim's energies and even create large figures. As a bonus, because the bug makes a bond with the user, they adopt all of their innate traites, including speed!
Domain: Aburame.

[Raglao]

"That's quite the trick you got there bug man. hehehe."

From a thick sheet of darkness that swallowed an alleyway to the Aburame's righter most flank, Kiijin stepped forth, steps mute in every way possible. His blue, scaley skin beamed brightly beneath the moonlight, but only his pants and feet had been visible, his upper-body, covered in darkness had been unable to be looked upon clearly. But his eyes, they opened widely, which created a two twins of lingering light, the signs of death's incarnate. A couple more steps carried him forward and unveiled his entire six foot form, covered in knotted muscles and gruesome scars that told countless warnings to his lethality. He stood some 2 meters from the Aburame's right flank before he walked around to his immediate front with a few curved steps.

Malicious eyes cut the Aburame a quick glance before they focused upon the sewer top which began to spin around clockwise, unfastening it with great ease. Kirigakure sure had some odd shinobi under their belt. But they were damn good ones. Nevertheless Kiijin truly had no idea what the objective had been for that specific mission, but he was determined to find out. His arm stretched out, index finger unfolded to point at the scroll before bending it inwardly repeatedly, motioning that he desired the scroll in his very own hands.

"Lemme see that thing, I was told to meet you here but that bastard Jack didn't tell me what the hell we'd be doing."

[The Dude]

Kiijin. You'd have to have spent your entire life in Kirigakure under a rock to avoid having heard about him at least a few times. His skin was shark like and intimidating to go with every other visible feature of himself he exposed. His eyes bore into the Aburame ninja who stared back with apathetic eyes of his own. Reaching his hand back into his vest he handed over the mission scroll for Kiijin to review it for himself.

"This is the closest entrance to the obstruction in the pipes from what I've seen sir. I am ready to go as soon as you're ready." He kept his voice quiet and emotionless with respect.

While Takumi waited quietly his bugs scoured the pipes beneath. As the swarm would come to a new turn the main group would proceed along the main pipe towards the obstruction but a small collection of bugs would disperse on a reconnaissance mission of their own. When the bugs returned they would be able to map out the entire system and reveal any oddities.

[Raglao]

"This is the closest entrance to the obstruction in the pipes from what I've seen sir. I am ready to go as soon as you're ready."

Kiijin heeded the words that expelled from the Aburame's mouth while his eyes went over the contents of the missions scroll. From what he read, intelligence suggested that the intricate pipe system that had originally been installed beneath kirigakure had been acting up, and seemed to function opposite to what was expected, namely due to a severe jam within the pipes themselves. And as always, they needed the flexible prowess of Kirigakure's military force to fix the problem and put every one else at peace. Nothing wrong with that is it? Finished reading, a quick snap of his wrist sent the scroll flying back towards its original holder. That same hand, bent at an angle and cupped his hip as the sewer top began to levitate as if it were some street magic trick.

"If those bugs work the way I think they do, I'm pretty damn sure they'll make for good scouts in this here mission, hehe and so will I"

With his kikai moving beneath Kirigakure itself, Kiijin jumped into the manhole himself, landing some 10 meters below without the need of a ladder in a skillful crouch. His eyes whipped back and forth, noticing the place had been somewhat dark and smelly, Kiijin saw and smelt things far, far worse. The water within hadn't been quite clean, but nor had it been overly dirty as Kirigakure's overflow of water often cleaned itself with new bodies. Nevertheless he leapt into the sewer waters that had been a few feet away from the dry walkways, his eyes just at the surface, truly within his element.

[The Dude]

Takumi caught the scroll firmly in the air before casually slipping it back into the inside of his vest. Kiijin seemed a little enthused for the mission as he plunged into the sewers feet first landing skillfully. His ally's enthusiasm perplexed Takumi, but he would not risk his life questioning it.

With a slight sigh Takumi stepped forward into the man hole free falling downwards momentarily before catching the lip of the hole with his hand and swinging over to one of the walls in the sewer. Grabbing hold of a pipe on the wall he slid down smoothly onto one of the walkways as his partner maneuvered into the water.

A few of the bugs that had not gone out quite as far came retreating down the pipes to assemble at the feet of Takumi. Takumi in turn looked down at them in what little light came through the manhole above before giving them an approval nod of his head. The small gathering suddenly marched into positions making a small map of 100 meters in every direction from the shinobi. Takumi pointed down the main pipe, "Yep, this is the way sir."

[Raglao]

The very tip of Kiijin's head poked out of the sewer water's surface, creeping through its malleable essence like a prowling shark who just caught a whiff of its prey's blood. His eyes snapped left and right, using his heightened sense of sight to closely examine the structure of the myriad of pipes that surrounded them. Judging from what Kiijin initially saw, nothing really seemed to have been wrong with the pipes system, but the higher ups knew when something was wrong, so the only conclusion that Kiijin decided to go with was that he and his partner hadn't even reached the specific area yet. It seemed as though they had a ways to go.

Truthfully, Kiijin had never stepped foot beneath Kirigakure, that was, all until now. Slowly creeping through the waters, he allowed the Aburame to take point and noticed he referred to Kiijin as 'sir' - unacceptable. Trailing behind him, his head moved up out the surface just a few inches, enough to where speak had been possible.

"Sir? No no no, Call me Kii, we're Kirigakure allies, Brothers In Arms."

[The Dude]

Hollow footsteps echoed down the tunnels as Takumi paced forwards along the trail through the sewers. As he made his way through the dark, small groups of kikai would fly back from almost every direction to rejoin with their host.

"My apologies, it won't happen again, Sir Kii," Takumi spoke over his shoulder calmly and quietly as he made his way through the dark with nothing but a constantly growing map composed of bugs to guide him. "You can call me Takumi, though I've also been called 'Tak' before by teachers and students I graduated with. You can call me whichever you prefer, I have no real preference."

Coming to a fork in the road Takumi studied the map for a moment in silence. The buzzing map hung in the air just before the aburame ninja as his crossed his arms and stared in silence. Parts of the map that had some measure of importance were marked with Kikai that buzzed abnormally louder than the rest. According to the bugs the most buzz worthy news was to down the left pipe but they still had a way to go until they got there. It was beginning to seem more and more like they would be spending most of this mission by finding it.

[Raglao]

Again? Even after having the Aburame who Kiijin came to know as Takumi, still referred to him as 'sir' implying that he was above him in some way. Kiijin never really liked honorifics that seemed to place him above others even if he actually had been said persons superior. He was merely one who believed strongly in equality when it came to his comrades who all put their life, souls, and sanity on the line for Kirigakure's sake, and for that along Kiri-ninja were considered his brothers and sisters.

As the duo continued forward, they eventually came to a fork like road, that single path branched off into three separate tunnels. Confused on which tunnel to take, he looked upon his partner, who, well, already made his way down the tunnel farthest to the left, and with that he followed suit. Kiijin was grateful, the boy's insects proved to be more than useful as it allowed this mission to progress rather smoothly, at least more than what he anticipated.

"I gotta say, those goddamn bugs are sumthin' else, I could use some of those if I could but hey, aint my style. So 'Tak', whats your story?"

[The Dude]

"My story?" There followed a moment of silence apart from the footsteps and rippling water as Takumi considered the question. "I suppose my story's nothing really special or unique in Kirigakure. My father raised me to be a ninja, which in kiri is to be a killing machine. He hopes that I will have my mother's skills as a ninja and his drive and determination to climb up the ladder as high as I can. He liked to contradict my teachers at the academy and tell me the other ninja weren't my allies, just liabilities and competition. Of course, that's always when my mom showed up to remind me he's a little insane."

A buzzing cloud of bugs interrupted him as they rejoined with their host and filled in the map completing the giant labyrinth with clear and vivid directions and instruction to get to the block. "Right, but what is the obstruction?" he asked quietly with a hint of frustration. The kikai replied with an angrier buzzing as the obstruction on the map began to teem and blur with constantly shifting bugs. "What do you mean you don't know!?"

[Raglao]

This Takumi, his story had been quite simple and lacked hardship, or at least he left it out on purpose, but if he had who could have blamed him for having not shared. He only met Kiijin personally several minutes ago, he hadn't fully expected him to go into full detail about his life story, and Kiijin respected that. It'd been quite common for Kiijin to ask his comrades such a question, as it -to him- seemed to be a constructive way to dig deeper into minds of his comrades, even if they hadn't quite trusted Kiijin.

Kiijin's body continued to swing seamlessly through the sewer waters, justaposed to his mission partner as his insects came back and appeared to have conveyed some sort of information to their master. Where Kiijin would actually have eyebrows, that area furrowed in confusion as he watched his partner exchange words with his insects? Whatever they had been saying didn't really seem to be anything good, in fact he noticed the quick second spike of frustration which indicated that something either went wrong, or had not been expected.

"What seems to be the matter?"

[The Dude]

Takumi continued to stare at the map at the obstruction where the bugs quivered and teemed. He knew he must have betrayed some of his feelings or emotions when Kijii asked what was wrong. He gave a passive wave of his hand and all his kikai swarmed to his ankles returning home through his pores. The kikai that had marked the obstruction however, remained hovering as a sphere of insects to lead the way.


"The kikai don't know what's obstructing the flow. They know where it is, and judging from this movement they're doing I'd guess it's under the water. So... it's your show when we get there most likely."

The last of the kikai finally returned to the host, crawling up the leggings of his pants and in through his skin. The kikai sphere however began to move forward again through the sewers with Takumi following a few paces and stretching his arms out lazily. There was a bit of a walk left still before they could get down to the business they had come to do and this had proved to be a lot more walking... or swimming than Takumi had previously thought.

"But, it's a little ways further though and we've got time for another story. How about yours?"

[Raglao]

"The kikai don't know what's obstructing the flow. They know where it is, and judging from this movement they're doing I'd guess it's under the water. So... it's your show when we get there most likely."

Kiijin's eyes remained forward, intensely piercing the light shades of darkness that spread throughout the entire sewer system. His eyes jumped from corner to corner, fixating itself on any object that seemed to move, as a soldier of Kirigakure's brutal military force, ones own guard can never afford to fall, not even for a split second. It had been that mentality that Kept Kiijin alive for twenty-four years, and would continue to do so as long as he kept his senses sharp and his mind even sharper. He noticed the darkened constructs seep back into the clothing of the Aburame, heading home for a little resting time?


Kiijin had his hardships in his story, but nothing cliche like having his parents killed or being betrayed by a close friend, probably because he had never known them to begin with nor ever had a 'true' friend. Truthfully Kiijin knew that there had to have been more to this aburame's story, a shinobi of Kirigakure who is expected to be more brutal than the last having a simply life style seemed far fetched. No matter what it had been Kiijin had been in no right to question such a thing, but, he did have a right to speak once Takumi gave him the floor and inquired about his own story.

"Simple really. Little fish boy growing up in the slums of Kirigakure, physically strong than most, feared by everyone, shunned by everyone. Lets just say at one point in time I had to kill me a meat-sack tasted blood for the first time, and boy was it addicting. Since then -aside from getting stronger- I had this unfulfilled desire to taste the blood of at least a single ninja from each village while enforcing the power of Hoshigake upon the world. So I joined up with Kiri's military, and here I am."

[The Dude]

"Lonely leads to violence leads to military leads to goals. Goals are a great motivator to have. Tasting the blood of each of the ninja villages is quite... tasteful, I'm sure. I'm not too picky on variety myself, my goals is just to kill one kage and I don't exactly care which one yet. The way I see it, if you kill any kage you become a shoo in as the next mizukage in line."

Takumi smiled at the thought under his mask so gleefully as he turned right following his kikai through a small arch with a water way running through it that had gone dry. On the other side of the small arch the room became suddenly much more spacious as ceiling appeared to be 25 meters higher in a round room that was 35 meters wall to wall in any direction. In the middle of the room was a giant stone basin 20 meters high and 10 meters across on either side. Pipes and tunnels drilled through the ceiling came down pouring water into the giant basin that was washing and splashing about out of the basin now as the water level was clearly higher than it was meant to be.

"We're here. My kikai wouldn't have know what this was so they could only imitate it as waves. Show's all yours now Kiijin sir. I can try and keep an eye out and watch your back from here where it's dry, but water is your playground not mine."

Kikai swarmed out of his clothes into the air flying around the room inspecting it. His small orb of kikai lead him to a hidden ladder on the side of the basin that Takumi decided felt more like rock climbing as he began to climb up.

[Raglao]

Beneath the tainted waters, Kiijin smiled, his grin stretched from ear to ear as he heard Takumi's response regarding Kiijin's insatiable desire to takes the blood of his enemies. Tasting the blood of a kage had never crossed his mind, and as those words graced his ears, his tongue slid across his serrated teeth, motioning towards the increase of his carnal hunger. Fighting back from going into a full on frenzy, it appeared that they have reached their destination, and apparent by the steep drop into the fairly small basin, it looked like this was left up to Kiijin.

"Hehe, lets go see whats jamming this damn thing up."

Slowly moving through the sewer waters, when it was his time to take over, his entire being submerged itself, and took only a couple of seconds for his gills to open along the sides of his neck. Breathing correctly, he sped down into into the basin with speeds that greatly exceeded what an average human or even shinobi would hope to achieve. The waters were Kiijin's home, none could surpass his strength within it. Nevertheless, in seconds he reached the bottom of the basin, only to find a broken valve, and a pipe that seemed to have been vertically cut in some way.

"Wonder what the helf coulda' done something like this, almost looks like someone meant ta' do this. Tch, I'll kill the bastard that's makin' me clean up his leftovers."

[The Dude]

The kikai crawled and flew all over the room probing the deepest recesses and watching the entrance way while Takumi waited above the the waters at the edge of the basin patiently. The buzzing of the kikai would get louder everyone once in a while but apart from that the room remained silent. After what felt like moments his partner had reached the bottom of the basin.

"Wonder what the helf coulda' done something like this, almost looks like someone meant ta' do this. Tch, I'll kill the bastard that's makin' me clean up his leftovers."

"You say someone meant to do this? I can reinforce that theory Kiijin. There are two men in this room I'm having difficulty tracking. More are out in the pipes coming here now, if they get here soon they'll have us trapped in and we'll have to fight our way out."

Takumi quickly forming a simple string of hand seals spun on his heel and spat out a jettison of fluid that covered the entrance pipe they had taken. Anyone who stepped on the glue coming in from behind them would at least be slowed down now with any luck. Unbeknownst to Takumi, his hoard of bugs found the two men and swarmed around them drawing attention to them as the leaped to the ground quietly.

The two men appeared to be nuke-shinobi from kirigakure no sato itself. They still wore their heard guards but now a gouge has been run through their symbols. The first drew a kunai as he crept in closer behind Takumi preparing to strike.