Witch Hunt (solo, done)

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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: 300 EXP and 5000 Ryo

It was much too early in the day for the bustle and chatter that was assaulting Suzuka’s ears as she rolled out of bed that morning. She didn’t live in a particularly overpopulated area, honestly, but between her energy level and general grumpiness, it was enough to have her grumbling to thin air as she trudged to her bathroom, bare feet trudging flatly on her hardwood floor with a plaintive “plop… plop… plop” sound.

She’d planned on sleeping in today, but she hadn’t had the best night’s rest—nightmares and shallow sleep. She couldn’t find her earplugs for the life of her (so, maybe a career tracking people was out, she figured) and had to leave the windows open lest she fall victim to fits of stuffiness. And no one wants to be the victim of stuffiness.

Fumbling for the light in the bathroom, Suzu managed to very gracefully stub her toe, to which she responded with a string of decidedly ungraceful and colorful words. She washed up and sat in her bed dry and undressed, enjoying her bed maybe a bit too much. She’d been doing well lately, but it was far too easy for her to get stuck in that spot, maybe thinking, maybe resting, maybe drifting. Suzuka covered her body and face with her blanket, letting the darkness lull her back to sleep amidst the soft echoes of motivational mantras in her mind.

One day, life will stop feeling like a routine and mean something.

This was what her life was now. Mundane, yet moving—everything, at its worst, a souci. Nothing to make her feel, really. Alive was dull. Half awake, Suzuka let herself melt into her sheets before finally moving, more out of habit than actual desire. Eyes still closed, she moved her blanket back. A bloom of fuchsia colored her vision as the sunlight hit her eyelids, and she squinted as she stepped out of bed and let the cool air from an open window hit her. She looked through the blinds, realizing that it was still morning, almost midday. She might as well get something done.

Having chosen a simple bra and panty set, Suzuka slid on a pair of black tights, and over them, short, loose-fitting red shorts. She wore a form-fitting white shirt with long sleeves which went just a little bit past her wrist—simple, practical. She threw her flak jacket on top, grabbing both her swords, her projectiles and wire, and her tracker and cards—maybe a bit much, but she had the room at this point, and she’d been practicing her swordplay enough to feel more than comfortable with the both of them on her hips. Plus, it added kind of a cool sway to her walk that she liked. Right, so maybe practical wasn’t the word of the day—she’d make do regardless, as she tended to. Her eyelids drooped, not out of real fatigue, but an entirely unreachable empty feeling she’d been fighting lately, especially when alone. This was the way that she felt alive. This was the only thing.

One day, life will stop feeling like a routine and mean something.

She stepped out the door and headed to the Hokage’s Tower to receive her mission.

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The Hokage’s Residence was a grand building, at the head of which the Hokage herself watched over Konohagakure and its people—below her, a majestic and honorable trail of paperwork that could probably crush an elephant. Near the very bottom of this great palace of bureaucracy and improperly formatted TPS reports sat the Hokage’s henchmen, those with the gumption and great courage to print, file, refile, and otherwise do a load of bitchwork. Of course, Suzuka respected this job, to a degree—after all, attention to detail was one of the things she valued most. That said, she found that some of the people there were a little too familiar for her taste.

“Suzukaaaaaa yo! I got something for you here. You like the fun ones, right?” Though the office was busy and there were plenty of other people to fill the space with noise, Suzuka found his volume on the whole entirely too much. It wasn’t likely that anyone was paying attention to her, really, but still—for some reason, she connected an office like this with at least some sense of decorum. Then again, she didn’t entirely mind genuinely connecting with someone, even on a casual level, so she simply smiled and rolled her eyes.

“I’m already awake, Kazuo. Either you went deaf or you’re doing waaaay too much right now, kid.” Suzuka sat down in front of him—while there tended to be a quick in and out for a lot of people coming in, Kazuo tended to like chatting. She crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair. “Fun, though? Somehow this sounds a little off to me.”

“Well yeah, fun… I know you. Bedhead by day, crazy ass thrill-seeker by night. And you like that, like, weird puzzling shit… You think a lot, right?” Kazuo flashed a toothy grin, revealing a couple chipped teeth and a silver crown toward the back. It only gave him a little bit of charm, though, if anything. Suzuka wasn’t the only thrill-seeker here, she could tell. “Oh, and speaking of bedhead…” He gestured to Suzuka’s head not-so-subtly. Apparently, she hadn’t quite finished grooming herself, though it didn’t look particularly terrible—just messy. It was so easy for things to slip through the cracks these days.

“Thrill-seeker?” Her voice jumped up an octave, from exhausted to mildly unstimulated. “Do you hear me? Even the way I talk most of the time sounds like yawns and defeat.” She smiled despite the truth she felt in her words. If she couldn’t be honest with herself, though, she’d lose it. Her fingers ran through her hair and caught in a couple tangles, which she ripped through roughly. Loose ends, oh well—maybe a wild look would be good for her. “But I’m interested… What’s weird and puzzling about this?”

“You’ll see when you take a look at the file. It’s kind of funny, really. Well, not really, because this is probably some dangerous shit, but still. The way it was reported… A little sad, you know?” Kazuo was still grinning, and Suzuka cocked an eyebrow at him, grabbing the file he’d placed on the table. She flipped through a couple pages, snorted, and laughed out loud. However, she did realize that this would take real ninja work. It had been a while since she’d been on a real mission, and she could already feel a slight buzz from anticipation. Maybe this would knock the lead out.

“ANBU busy, huh… I’d have questions about why just any old body could do this, but… I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Suzuka closed the file and got out of her chair, nodding politely to Kazuo.

“Hey,” Kazuo called as she stood and turned, “let me know if you want me to find backup for you, okay? This seemed a little sketchy. I know you like a challenge, but don’t overdo it.”

Suzuka had heard a lot of that lately. Don’t overdo it. But she knew Kazuo meant well, and she would try to be reasonable—that said, she had some research to do first. If she was gonna do this, she was gonna do it right. She nodded in his direction again and set out.

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The salty smell of broth and freshly cooked meats filled the space around Suzuka, and though she tried to concentrate on the file in front of her, it made her painfully aware that she had skipped breakfast that morning. It had become too easy to do—her appetite had been on the fritz lately, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t end up eating at home and then going right back to sleep. Finally, her order of beef udon came, and she was so eager to eat that she nearly burnt her tongue. Small droplets of broth were splashing about, and a few nearly got onto her mission folder—she closed it, then dug back in. If there was anything she still found great pleasure in, it was good food. After she finished, she found her concentration returning over a couple glasses of water, and finally, she returned to the file with fresh eyes.

She’d looked it over several times already. There was someone using some technique—earth-related, most likely—to make clones of people. That wasn’t anything terribly special. What worried Suzuka in particular was the fact that the first ninja that was sent to investigate never returned. They seemed to think it was mainly a prank and sent a somewhat inexperienced Chuunin out to take care of it. Things had been a little tight, in terms of available manpower, but her skills had been promising. The fact that she never returned was troubling, but more troubling was the fact that no trace of her had been found—no blood, no hair, no nothing. That wasn’t as abnormal as the fact that, when trackers found her approximate location, there had been no sign of a battle—had she met a clone of herself and been defeated, or had something else happened?

This, in particular, seemed extremely important. Something gave Suzu the oddest feeling that the girl hadn’t been killed. She decided that this would be her starting point—finding out about her fellow shinobi’s disappearance. She leafed through the pages contained in the folder and found the estimated coordinates of the girl’s disappearance—that would be destination number two. First stop, though, was to return to Paperwork Mountain and get this girl’s mission history. Suzuka was nothing if not thorough.

Hyuuga Hitomi, eh…? Let’s see what your life was all about. Time to do some red tape jump roping… Suzuka prepared to deliver her proposal in order to try and get that information.

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The trip to the Hokage’s residence went much more quickly than Suzu would have liked, but she was prepared. She walked in, folder under her arm, and looked around for Kazuo. It seemed, though, that he had either been relieved or left for a break. In his stead, an older man sat at the desk, his papers stacked neatly under a paperweight in the shape of the village insignia. Though he was the only person free at the moment, Suzuka hesitated—would he give her the information she needed? He saw her, however, and waved her over. She walked over slowly, steadily, taking a deep breath in and clearing her head.

“Business?” the man spoke up politely, looking at Suzuka over his thin frameless glasses. Suzuka cleared her throat, folded her hands neatly, and placed them on the desk in front of her. Suzuka wondered if the rumors were true—many of the supervisors here were former ANBU members. It would make sense, given the amount and nature of the information they had to handle—bureaucracy was one thing, as was administrative experience, but the sheer amount of national intel inside this building was astounding.

“I’m here to request supplementary information for my mission, please.” She spoke confidently, cordially, keeping eye contact. The man looked at her thoughtfully for a moment.

“Well, miss…”

“Hyoujikaze Suzuka.”

“Miss Hyoujikaze.” As the words left his lips, Suzuka could swear they pursed for just a split second. He paused for a moment. “We very carefully prepare the intel that is given to our shinobi for these missions. We generally expect them to be accepted and carried out, to the best of the shinobi’s ability, without further information. We have our very specific reasons for choosing the information to include—if you feel that the information you have does not accommodate the way that you are carrying out your mission, it is likely the case that you are attempting to move beyond the scope of your duties.”

Suzuka’s jaw clenched ever so slightly. Somehow, she was sure the man noticed, but he declined to change the benign facial expression he wore. The politeness was becoming more than grating. What bothered her more, though, that he was right—usually, a shinobi would go right into this, do the bare minimum, get paid, and then someone else would get sent out. Swapping control for efficiency, that’s what they were doing, and everyone just went with it, even when it wasn’t necessary. She hated it. Suzuka liked to know things. She’d been through enough in life to question everything. Fucking politics… Fine. I’ll play his game. “Well, sir…” Suzuka began slowly, calmly. “I’m sure you know that Hyuuga Hitomi’s disappearance was sort of an anomaly. That much is clear from the file.”

The man cocked an eyebrow, but was not shaken. “From the file, which contains all the information about her disappearance, it is not possible to conclude that her disappearance was strange. As her disappearance happened first, it is not possible to conclude whether or not the entity’s strategy changed as a result of her showing up. Further—”

“Forgive my naïveté, but I don’t see why that matters. Patterns are easy enough to find. Surely we have the manpower for that—and surely, my time and skills won’t be wasted for the sake of procuring one test case. I plan to see this through—you want a clue to his existence, you got that already. Something is out there. While I don’t plan to engage, I plan to get intel the proper way.” Suzuka’s hands unfolded, and she put her fingertips together, tapping them thoughtfully. “Of course, you not wanting to reveal clearly relevant information does raise some suspicion… While I’m sure this is all on the level, your reaction to this makes one think there’s something else at play. For example, I’ve noticed this level of secrecy only around missing ninja…” Here, the man’s eyebrows folded downward, but Suzuka pressed on. “In which case I’m led to believe you do, in fact, agree with my assessment that she is not, in fact, dead. In which case I’d like to know what I might be up against—unless I’m some sort of unknowing guinea pig for a suicide mission.” Her volume raised sharply on these last two words. While ninja were expected to give their lives, people being tricked into doing so would not be good for a village whose morale was already plummeting. A few people turned to look at the scene, but Suzuka’s eyes remained steadily, sharply on the man in front of her. He returned her gaze with a glare of his own, and Suzuka felt her insides freeze for a moment. Suddenly, she was more than a little bit sure about the ex-ANBU rumor. Maybe she’d pressed the wrong button?

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Before she could say anything to fix the situation, though, he stood and turned, his suddenly cruel eyes trained on her as long as possible. Maybe she’d hit a lucky break—some order from a higher-up about preventing any further negative change in the village’s general disposition. Luckily, while the people working had their hands full, it wasn’t quite as busy as it had been that morning, so Suzuka didn’t cause too much of a scene. He opened a file drawer and walked his index and middle fingers back through the contents, not even looking as he did so. He seemed to be thinking about something. He found Suzuka’s file, to her surprise—maybe they were filed with chakra somehow?—and opened it up. Suzuka shuffled her feet quietly under the counter, but waited patiently in her seat.

The man eyed Suzuka’s file wearily and hesitated, and Suzuka could feel a lump rising in her throat. She was afraid of this. Her mother hadn’t exactly been a model ninja for Konohagakure, as far as she knew, but she hoped that wouldn’t reflect on her. Then again, this needed solving, and Suzuka’s own mission record spoke for itself. This was her modus operandi. This is what she always did—pick up all the pieces, all the shards, top to bottom.

But then, she’d seen people reassigned for much, much less. Hopefully, her luck would be good today. The man closed the file and paused for what seemed like forever. His face seeming somewhat pained, he walked to the other side of the office and opened another drawer. Another attendant took his attention away from the shinobi he’d been working with and looked on quizzically, but he was ignored. The man returned with a file, which he opened in front of Suzuka and pored through thoughtfully. She noticed that it wasn’t marked at all, and though she couldn’t tell what it was, she looked on hopefully.

With no warning, the man slammed the file down on the counter and glared straight at Suzuka over his glasses, his lips visibly pursed this time. Despite herself, she jumped slightly. It took quite a bit to shake her up, but this man was proving particularly good at it. She gulped and maintained eye contact—this time because she felt like he might strangle her if she looked away for a moment. Again, she could feel eyes burning into her.

“Miss Hyoujikaze…” He resumed, the edge in his voice mixing in with a politeness that just made things all the more tense. “I trust you realize that the village is currently in a delicate state. For you to say such things…” His gaze broke, and then returned, his eyes unnervingly wide. “Could be considered treasonous.” Suzuka attempted to control her breathing. Given her family’s history… She chewed at her lips nervously, tasting just the slightest bit of blood. “That said, we would never want one of our own to go out on a mission feeling unprepared. So here is a copy of the information you requested… We expect you to treat it with the utmost care, and then destroy it. Good day.”

The finality with which he spoke caused Suzuka to nearly dart out of her chair. She left without another word. She’d toyed with someone who knew how to find the most sensitive heartstrings and pull. He had her entire life on file and wasn’t ashamed to use it as a weapon. She’d pushed and succeeded, but she would clearly have to be more careful in the future. Between her success and that scene, her adrenaline was pumping. She zipped straight back toward her home to assess the information she’d gotten, halfway forgetting the train of thought she’d had. There, though, she would refocus and calm herself. When she got home and opened her folder, however, a nasty surprise awaited her.

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The first thing Suzuka saw when she opened the folder was a tiny white piece of paper on which one word was neatly written, dead center. Watching. Suzuka’s heart rate accelerated. This wouldn’t be the first time she was watched without her consent. But then, she thought after she’d reached Chuunin rank that she was trusted now. There was a lot she didn’t know now, but one thing she did know was that she herself had done nothing wrong. And she would continue to do nothing wrong, out of pride and spite and the will to keep going.

She picked up the note, set it down gingerly on her bed, and opened the folder that had been placed in front of her. Hyuuga Hitomi… Let’s see. Suzuka leafed through the pages thoughtfully, somewhat surprised that her mission record wasn’t terribly long. Well, it looks like what she did do, she did thoroughly… Though her methods aren’t what I would expect from a Hyuuga clanswoman… Ah! Maybe that’s why… No taijutsu skill at all. Suzuka was puzzled by this. She thought that, for the most part, all Hyuuga learned their taijutsu through rigorous training—not necessarily natural skill. Then again, there were some people who couldn’t learn certain things to save their lives. Maybe she was one of them?

But it doesn’t seem like she had to do much before she was promoted to Chuunin… Ah! Here’s something interesting. Showed a highly abnormal chakra reserve at Chuunin examinations… Was able to far outperform even Chuunin-level execution of techniques. Huh… So she was basically a chakra tank. Well, work with what you’ve got, I guess… So we have a competent, if not odd, Hyuuga shinobi with massive amounts of chakra. Hmm. Okay… Suzuka continued to read, familiarizing herself with the girl’s abilities and history. Honestly, this girl might have outdone her in a fight—she would probably outlast her chakra-wise, that was for sure. Even more confused at this point, Suzuka set out for an initial assessment. Finally, she would be heading out to the approximate area of Hyuuga Hitomi’s disappearance.

Suzuka picked up the note, placed it back into the folder, and headed to her kitchen. She turned on her stove, lit the entire thing on fire, and let it burn in the sink. Watching. Well now, so was she. Watching closely. Suzuka double checked to make sure she had all her things, and after turning the water on in her sink to clear all the ashes away, she set out for the outskirts of Konoha.

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It wasn’t terribly long before she reached the coordinates of Hyuuga Hitomi’s disappearance. This was just an approximation she’d gotten, so she’d have to do some searching and investigation herself. She walked slowly—very, very slowly—around the perimeter where she’d arrived, and indeed saw no signs of struggle. She decided she would follow the most logical path given the intel Hyuuga Hitomi had originally gotten—it wasn’t terribly far off from what she herself had, so it wasn’t hard to figure out the path she probably took. Suzuka continued to comb the forest, fanning for about twenty meters to her left and right for every few meters she traveled forward. Several hours passed, and eventually, evening fell, and turned into night. While Suzuka expected not to find any evidence of struggle, she was hoping she would find some other kind of clue about the woman’s whereabouts. No dice.

Suzuka kept going, however, boredom and fatigue beginning to set in. A thin layer of sweat covered her skin, and her concentration was wearing thinner and thinner. She saw why they normally sent teams out for this type of detail. Every tree started to look the same now, every step she took blending in with the next one. She almost decided she would turn back and continue the next day when she took one jarring step. Her eyes shot open as a tingling sensation ran through her entire body, and she froze in place—she couldn’t tell whether she reacted this way naturally or if she’d been stopped in place by the field she’d wandered into.

A simple sensing jutsu wouldn’t be this easy to feel, but then, it somehow felt far more powerful than a normal sensing technique. Suzu felt like her entire body, down to her chakra channels, was being examined cell by cell. This did not feel right. After the bodily shock subsided, Suzuka jumped straight back out, not feeling any harm to herself, but particularly shaken. What could do this? She initially suspected some sort of sensing technique, but it felt more intrusive—maybe a medical technique. For it to be so easily tangible to anyone within its grasp, it had to work quickly—exactly what had happened? Suzuka couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she felt violated.

After the initial shock, which lasted maybe a moment, Suzuka jumped back immediately in the direction she came from. Upon exiting the field, she didn’t notice any damage. No change in her chakra reserves—not much of anything, really. Just an odd feeling like her whole body had lost and regained circulation, but even that faded after about a minute or so. She looked ahead of her—there was no visible sign of the field’s presence. She drew her katana and stuck the blade in. No distortion—nothing. She stuck her hand back in—it was still there. This was odd.

Suzuka put her katana back in its sheath and stood there for a moment, lost in thought. She turned on her tracker—nothing strange through its lens, either. Luckily, with it (and the fact that she’d been keeping careful track), she was easily able to mark the coordinates of this spot. A sensor or some other type of expert would be useful here. Now, she decided, she would go ahead over to the waterfall where the shinobi were called. She was prepared to give whoever had called for ninja much more than he’d bargained for.

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It wasn’t long before she got to the site—it had seemed like ages, but she’d covered the ground pretty efficiently that day. Once she exited the thick cover of trees she had been walking through for most of the last several hours, a beautiful scene awaited her. There was a small rock formation coming down from a low cliff, and in the bit of moonlight that managed to peek through the clouds, Suzuka could see the shimmer of a steady flow of water running down the rocks and into the small pond below, tinted silver under the starry sky. The water looked unbelievably clean and clear, and honestly, Suzu sort of wished she could just dip her feet in for a bit and relax. Of course, what she actually came here to do was pretty much the exact opposite of relaxing.

She was excited, though, that the boring part of her mission was over. Or so she thought. She approached the waterfall, eyes scanning the area, ears alert, but she was not engaged. Don’t tell me nothing is even gonna happen now… Suzuka wasn’t entirely upset—she had collected some information and would likely still be paid for her mission—but this was the entire point. She wanted something fun to happen. She was too old to throw a tantrum at this point, but she damn sure didn’t feel ashamed about getting a little huffy.

She decided she would scope things out, though, in case she did end up in combat; she turned her tracker on, satisfied that the amount of light, though it wasn’t ideal, was sufficient. The actual pond—which was, honestly, pretty small—was about twenty meters ahead of her, and a thick carpet of grass turned into more swampy, slippery ground about halfway there. Of that, she would have to be careful. The pond itself was roughly circular and about twenty-five meters in diameter. There was a pretty steep grade inside the pond—about a foot in, it went from walkable to about three feet deep, and by the time you were a meter in, it was about six feet. At its deepest, near the center, it was about 10 meters deep—pretty shallow, but still worth noting. The small cliff face behind was about twenty feet high and only as wide as the pond, and next to its edges were steep hills that flattened out around its peak. What fed the waterfall was a small stream about five meters wide, around which there was more swampy land. About ten meters past the waterfall in that direction, the trees resumed, with a clear space of about ten meters between the trees and the stream.

Nearer to Suzuka, there was a small stream running away from the pond and through the thick cover of forest that was at the edge of the clearing, at about 3:00 looking at the cliff face as 12. Well… That would do as an initial assessment. She didn’t want to be running around scanning everything and get caught unawares. She approached the pond, standing at its edge, and held her position. Ready to engage, she looked around for a potential foe, eyes and ears alert.

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Suzuka didn’t have to wait long. Atop the waterfall, a silhouette appeared—tall, thin, with a large plume of hair atop its head flowing in the breeze. It was a striking sight—Suzuka, while she’d paid more attention to her body recently, hadn’t realized quite how different she had begun to look. She didn’t have a whole lot of time to admire herself, though—in a moment, the doppelganger jumped from the cliff face, her hair flying wildly as she descended. Suzuka saw the clone’s hand reach for its sword. So that was how it was gonna play things, huh…?

Suzuka reached for her own katana as the clone’s feet touched down on the water’s surface; a small ripple which spread out from around its identical boots was the only physical indication that it wasn’t on solid ground. Suzuka unsheathed her sword, moving into a closed stance but not bothering to channel any chakra through her body. If this clone was anything like her, defense was its forte with the sword, not offense—and yet here it was charging her aggressively. Sure enough, it unsheathed its blade and slashed at Suzuka, and while the slash certainly had a level of ferocity to it, it wasn’t anything Suzuka wasn’t prepared for.

She unsheathed her own blade and blocked the blow, the sound of their swords grinding against each other muffling the loud clang which echoed into the night sky. During this moment, Suzuka took a good look at the clone in front of her. It didn’t have her flak jacket, her bokken, or most of the materials she had with her. It did have a small equipment pouch for accessories like her—she wondered what it had. She also noticed that the clone's eyes—while similar to hers—had no pupil. There were just brown, empty irises. Creepy… Suzuka quickly turned her blade so that it was flat against her doppelganger’s, put her other hand on the flat, and pushed away, knocking her clone back a few steps. This time, unprepared, its feet sank into the water slightly.

While it still didn’t have footing, Suzuka delivered a quick strike downward, severing one of its arms. It fell into the water, discoloring the clear liquid with a muddy brown tint. Well, looks like it is indeed earth based… Suzuka didn’t have much time to enjoy her initial success, though—almost as immediately as she’d lopped the arm off, the clone bent down into the water, touched the muddy swampy earth below it, and regenerated its arm with a small shower of muck. Well, shit. Okay. Its katana had fallen into the earth, and it bent down to pick it up—it seemed that the katana was actually real, and not just generated the same way its body was. It could regenerate… Well, that would explain the reckless charge. It certainly didn’t know how to fight like Suzuka did, despite other clear advantages.

Okay… Looks like I’ll have to set my dial to obliterate.

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Suzuka resheathed her sword. Lopping things off wasn’t going to help, it seemed. Now, though, the clone changed its stance. It was open, and more aggressive—it was the exact stance Suzuka assumed whenever she used offensive kenjutsu. So maybe this clone did know a little something… Suzuka moved her left foot back, channeling chakra through her body. She felt more ready to react, and her body was generally more ready to move. The clone advanced, and in one swoop, it removed its sword from the sheath and slashed at Suzuka. Dorokendageki… Hmph. Again, though, Suzuka was a defensive swordswoman more than anything—she drew her own blade just as quickly, deflecting the blow, resheathing it more out of habit than anything.

As her clone staggered slightly, Suzuka brought her left foot forward, her stance becoming more open and aggressive. Since you want to test this style so badly, though… Suzuka’s sword flew straight out of its sheath, and without even bothering to turn it, she sent it flying toward the clone’s face. The hilt smashed into its nose, breaking it clear off. Not the best built thing, are you… Where this would have knocked out any regular human, though, it only served to send the clone backward a few more steps. A small jolt of surprise ran up Suzuka’s spine as she saw it regaining its footing so quickly, but then, it was a clone. Probably running more on chakra than anything—a blow to the head wasn’t going to affect a brain that wasn’t really there.

That said, though, Suzuka didn’t need much in the way of time. She resheathed her sword and immediately began forming handseals. For this, she would just be testing. Four small fireballs exited her mouth and headed straight for her clone. One hit its sword, which melted from about the middle, the tip falling into the ground with a small thud. Two the clone managed to dodge, but the last one hit home, a plume of fire expanding slightly and fizzling out at the clone’s left shoulder. The shoulder lost color and dried into a gross brown, and more do to its movement than the actual fire. The clone immediately reached down and regenerated its arm, though this one seemed drier than the last—likely, it would be more fragile.

Again, though, the clone was on the attack. It planted its feet and began to form its own handseals. So it knows my techniques, too…? Suzuka smiled. Little does it know it’s giving me the perfect setup right now…

SPOILER: Click to show

4 low, one mid
Iaijutsu, Kawasu, Battojutsu, Tsuka Dageki, Housenka no Jutsu

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There wasn’t much distance between them now, so Suzuka went into her hand seals immediately, the moment the clone finished its two. As the wind around the clone picked up, Suzuka finished hers—this wasn’t a technique she would use like this normally, but between the short distance and the hair wind the clone just made, she was pretty much positive it would hit. Sure enough, as flames erupted from her mouth somewhat wildly, a bit of the fire faded away into the night sky, but a good amount of it erupted around the clone and sucked all of the oxygen out of the hair wind it had created. Suzuka was relieved she’d caught it—who knows which other techniques it might have combined?

Then again, it didn’t seem terribly smart, which, essentially, was Suzu’s biggest strength. As the clone—dry and missing both its limbs and half of its face, continued to crumble in front of her, Suzuka approached it. Her steps were careful and tentative, but it seemed her precaution was for nothing—a small breeze swept away what was now dust, and the clone finally ended up in one small pile of dried earth at Suzuka’s feet. She leaned down, carefully brushing away layer by layer of it, until she found what she’d expected—a small piece of paper with a number. Six… Hmm. Thoughtfully, Suzuka stood straight and made to walk away, but she decided she would grab just a bit of the crumbled clone and take it with her. She put it in a free pocket—maybe not the best way to handle things, but it was something. She tucked the paper into another pocket, surveyed the area one last time; she did notice a few scorch marks here and there on a few of the trees that she certainly hadn't made. She took mental note, and she left when she found nothing further. Now, she would prepare her report.

[/blockquote]

SPOILER: Click to show

Used one mid; ryuuka no jutsu

[purple]

Suzuka returned to Konohagakure with no real issues. Making her way back to her home, Suzuka replayed the information in her mind. Tonight, she would write down the few key things she didn’t want to forget, make a small outline of her report, and resume the next day. She had a couple more things she wanted to check out before she submitted a full report—like she said, she planned to check this all out thoroughly. She jotted down the coordinates of the weird field she’d run into, some details about the clone and how it had fought, and some other thoughts about the encounter. She set her pen and paper down, deciding she would shower and strip herself of her day’s work.

As the warm water rolled down her skin, Suzuka realized that she’d been tense. Her muscles relaxed under the droplets collecting on her body, and her brows—which she hadn’t even realized she’d been furrowing, relaxed into the calm, vacant look she often wore while thinking. Well, that would explain the headache… Suzuka sighed aloud. There was definitely something about being hyperalert about your surroundings that made it unbelievably difficult to take care of yourself properly. But then, this was something every ninja likely had to deal with. Pockets of real safety were few, and even the safest places could turn into danger zones in the blink of an eye. Suzu was thankful for the calm she was able to experience, even if it was only fleeting.

After she finished washing, Suzuka dried herself off and went straight to bed. Luckily, she’d remembered to close her blinds—this wouldn’t have been the first time some poor (or lucky?) schlub had seen her entirely nude after a careless walk from her bathroom. Suzuka got under her covers, still kept wired by the thoughts spinning around in her head. There was so much she didn’t know… So much she wanted to know. And if anything, she wanted to become privy to that information. Suddenly, in a way they hadn’t in a long time, Suzuka’s gears were turning. She had a goal: find out this village’s secrets. And her means would be to climb up the ladder, starting at ANBU. Feeling motivated—genuinely motivated—Suzuka tossed and turned in her bed, restless with nervous energy. She wouldn’t delay in pursuing her new goal—tomorrow would be the start of a new era in her life.

[/blockquote]

[purple]

Suzuka had no idea when she’d fallen asleep, but she felt well-rested when she stirred. She pulled her covers back, dressed, and immediately went to work on her report. There were a few things she wanted to make sure to emphasize, which she added to the notes she’d written the night before. She made a careful outline of the things she would say:

• A full description of the chakra field
  
  
• Implications—did not seem to cover a large area. Either it had just been put up or it was set up much earlier and left to chance for someone to hit; likely the latter
  
  
• Clone—seemed to have Suzuka’s abilities, but not fighting style. “AI” wasn’t very smart. Also had real equipment—whoever is making these has real weapons, likely of limited stock—to equip clones with
  
  
• Number—six. Maybe a ranking, but of what? Also seemed that the clone already had the number in it. Number likely already set, unless it was meant to judge chakra quality or something of the like
  
  
• Nothing strange about area upon initial check, but could easily be hiding something—perhaps in the cliff face?

After she finished the quick and dirty list of her main points, Suzuka set out, leaving her flak jacket behind. She headed straight for her next destination—the home of the ninja who had most recently engaged. Luckily, he was there—she kept her questions terse, and luckily, he was both cooperative and to the point himself. Suzuka didn’t want to return this information too late. The ninja had engaged only a few days prior. He informed her that he, too, had to wait a bit before the clone came out. He didn’t tend to carry much on him in terms of weapons, so he had nothing to report on the clone’s armaments—as far as he could tell, it didn’t have any. That made things difficult for him, though, because the clone went directly into destructive jutsu, which made the fight a little bit difficult from the start. It was using all the fire and lightning jutsu he knew, and he had a rough time neutralizing it. He finally took it out with a fire technique, though, and retrieved his paper—the number had been five.

Suzuka couldn’t help noticing the sequence, but didn’t want to jump to conclusions—unless the ones before him got 4, 3, 2, and 1, this meant nothing. And Suzuka was pretty sure Konoha had only sent three ninja before her for this in the first place, including Hyuuga Hitomi. So she’d have just a little more snooping to do. She thanked the shinobi for his information and headed out, straight to the home of the other ninja who had managed to return successfully.

[/blockquote]

[purple]

Suzuka arrived at his house, somewhat annoyed that he was less polite than the last person. While he gave her the information she sought, he made it no small secret that her presence was not welcome. Well, she was in a hurry, too. She’d just collect the information and leave. The air was tense in his small, unkempt house, and he made no offer of refreshments like the last guy had. He stared her down, clearly not about to speak up on his own, so Suzuka began asking questions—again, terse and to the point.

He had engaged a few weeks prior. Unlike Suzuka and the other Chuunin who had set out, he was solely a user of taijutsu, and only hand to hand combat at that. While he had some difficulty with the clone’s regeneration, he managed to eventually destroy it with speed and brute strength. Of note, though, was the fact that he had punched right through the clone’s stomach and actually grabbed the sheet of paper before it had been downed—before Suzuka could even ask, though, he explained that the paper immediately shredded itself when he opened his hand—it split down the middle once, and then cut itself into tiny pieces which were impossible to read or reassemble. Suzuka was disappointed that she couldn’t test her number theory, but intrigued nonetheless. So, the papers were supposed to self-destruct… Why hadn’t they, for Suzu and the other boy?

Suzuka thanked this ninja and made to leave, but she hadn’t taken two steps out of his door before he called after her. “Smartass… Stop sticking your nose into things that don’t concern you! We’re soldiers. Remember that!” The door slammed behind her. Suzuka was dumbfounded. What the hell was wrong with this kid? Of course, she was being a little nosy, but this is what shinobi did—get intel. If he thought shinobi were just soldiers, he’d be stuck at the bottom of the ladder forever.

“Well… Sounds like you’ve got some shit to work out, buddy,” Suzuka murmured at the closed door. She headed to a small restaurant nearby to complete her report.

[purple]

Suzuka barely touched the food she’d ordered despite her growling stomach. She was too wrapped up in what she was writing, barely even noticing that she held the pen so tightly her fingers were beginning to cramp. Before beginning her report, she added a couple more notes to her outline.

• Notes were meant to self-destruct—mine and number 5’s didn’t—elemental tag?
  
  
• Fire may have neutralized wind chakra that would cause destruction—can likely be tested in a lab setting by a ninja with wind affinity
  
  
• Are Konoha ninja the only ninja being copied? Possibly not, if numbers are in sequence
  
  
• Delay between arrival and battle—likely to create copy. So what was field for, then? Does this have to do with Hitomi’s unique disappearance?
  
  
• How many clones are there of each person? Is the number connected to this?
  
  
• More shinobi will need to engage to collect more information

Suzuka couldn’t help feeling a slight pang of annoyance as she wrote the last note. As much as she hated to admit it, she saw the value in repeating any experiment, even if she was essentially being used as a meat shield in this case. That said, she wanted to be the one calling the shots on how information was collected and used, especially if she was the one getting it. Suzuka wrote furiously, not leaving a single detail out about possible causes and her theories about the clones. Hopefully, if this was written with enough skill, she would be able to pursue further. And maybe if she was able to successfully join the ANBU ranks, she would be able to examine it from that point of view.

She left out no small detail, and by the time she finally finished, her food had long since gotten cold. But that didn’t matter. She gulped it down all the same, took one of the smaller plastic containers her food had been in, and headed home. She washed the container out thoroughly—several times just for good measure—and put in the dirt she’d collected from the clone. It didn’t necessarily look like a food cup, and it was better than walking up with a pocket full of dirt. She’d have to buy something better for that in the future, though. She thoroughly cleaned the rest of the dirt out of her jacket—more out of paranoia than anything—grabbed the piece of paper, with her number, and headed back to mission headquarters.