Til Death Do Us Part

So recruiting help at the Black Market hadn’t gone exactly how she had hoped. She did make out fairly well though with Setsuna’s body. She even happened across some information on the strange silver-eyed man. ’Kenshin Uzumaki. I’ll have to make a trip back to Hoshigakure and have a word with their Hogokage. Hopefully they don’t know it was me that robbed that Genin. I suppose I could always use a different persona though. Hmmm’

There was still the issue of getting Taishi and R out of what was presumably a Konohagkure jail cell. She had hoped she could infiltrate the village using Setsuna’s shadow but obviously that was no longer an option. Maybe she didn’t actually have to go into the village to get them out. She understood fuinjutsu fairly well now, and with it the hidden secrets of fuinjutsu style techniques. Like summoning for example. She was fairly certain that with her new understanding of sealing jutsu alongside her proclivity for space-time ninjutsu that she could surpass her previously limits with the technique, but she hadn’t put it to the test yet.

Now was as good a time as ever. Besides, what was the worst that could happen? Still, it had been some time since she had seen the two and if they actually had been captured because of her they might not react so pleasantly to being summoned by her. She thought it was probably best to take some precautions then. Her left hand formed a single seal and a shadow clone appeared in a cloud of smoke beside her. She then made a few more hand seals and actually stepped into the clone’s shadow.

”You know what to do if things don’t go our way. Get ready,” the clone said to Ikki who was standing nearby. The clone of Alice activated another technique, Shadow Imitation Field. Then, the clone drew a small amount of blood from her left thumb, quickly formed a few more seals, and slammed her hand into the ground in front of her. There would be a cloud of white smoke and there standing about 1 meter in front of her, within the range of the shadow style technique, stood Taishi and someone she assumed must be R although they appeared very different from how she remembered them.

”So,” she began to say to the two summoned rogues with a mischievous smile plastered on her face, ”How long was I gone?”

[Forcibly summoning Taishi and Ryalt’abi due to their chakra being less than Alice’s. Any threads they are currently in will show them just proofing out in a cloud of white smoke.

Used: shadow clone, Shadow imitation field, and summoning jutsu, and Hiding in shadow. Clone has 185ap remaining. Original has 195 remaining. Imitation field needs 40 strength to break free. Will add links later]

Oddly as he had been leaving the ramen shop to follow the one eyed twerp to his leader Ryal was suddenly back in the Land of Iron. As far as he knew Taishi didn't possess the ability to teleport himself or others yet here they both were. There were only two people he knew that were capable of such a feat, fortunately or unfortunately it happened to be the second one. The short young girl who also liked to run around like a cyclops, she'd finally resurfaced. And with a friend though not the tree boy Roku they'd all met before deciding to head to Konoha. This boy was taller and possibly older, normal eyes, and white hair he wasn't as unique as Roku but that didn't matter. The little bitch had already possed her question before the Shinkou was done comparing the boys, she was missing time yet found enough to acquire a new minion. If he could move Ryal would run his hand through his hair the way Rui did but she'd used that annoying jutsu to keep them in place.

Guess she doesn't believe in sending letters. The blond thought to himself. Did she really want to piss them off the second they reunited? The successful summoning should've been proof enough that neither of them had become strong enough to harm her. Still, there was no use leaving her in suspense, "One month." The Shinkou would reply. Hopefully, she didn't have any foolish plans to go back to the Land of Fire, he'd just gotten used to this appearance and it would no longer be good there.

WC: 270

Food was still settling in the stomach of the brute, his strides quick to get the whole ordeal with the Konoha Hokage over with as quickly as possible. In but a moment he went from following Ney Mi Aey to standing frozen in place in a simple *poof*, the girl that had decided to work with the duo standing there with a newfound ally. Taishi was honestly surprised, as he expected the worst when Roku and Alice hadn’t shown up for their expedition to Konoha. “This is how you greet an ally? You know that trust is a two way street, right? I have no intention of any aggression towards you, though each moment I’m stuck in this little shadow trap of yours makes me reconsider my stance on the matter.” Taishi would state, his body unable to move beyond simple speech. He wouldn’t add anything about how long it had been. In reality he wasn’t completely sure. Time seemed to pass quickly at times, and drag on out at others.
 
“I see you found another accomplice. This little gang is growing, though Roku is still missing. I figured he might have been with you, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A pity, really.” Taishi’s body being stuck in place was grating at him, and hopefully Alice would drop this silly precaution as the grey warrior didn’t wish her any harm. “Now, would you please release this damned jutsu? I’m getting an awful cramp in my leg.”

Only a month? Well, it was significantly more than the couple days she had been stuck in The Void, but less than what she had expected after seeing the deserted campsite on her return. Still, it seemed that much had changed. Even more suspicious, or perhaps deserving of more credit being given to the two rogues in front of her, was the fact that they surely didn’t appear to have been summoned from a jail cell. In fact, they both looked pretty well off considering how they had left each other.

The look on the clones face went from mischievous pleasure to a playful pout as she put her hands on her hips and released the jutsu keeping her two minions in place. ”You guys are as fun as always I see.” she said in response. Then her playful demeanor returned as the clone threw her hands up in defeat. ”I’m confused though. I did just summon you from Komohagakure, didn’t I? Since you two were there I thought for sure you’d been captured after I was trapped in the other dimension. If you weren’t caught, what exactly were you doing there?”

The clone might have relaxed, but the real Alice stayed in her hiding place for now. Taishi and R might have insisted they meant her no harm, but there was still some suspicion surrounding the pair in the Nara’s mind. It wasn’t likely the pair could do much damage to her even if they wanted to, but until that suspicion was cleared she had no intention of revealing herself.

[-15ap for hiding in shadow. Original has 180ap remaining. Clone still has 185]

Ryal rolled his eyes at Alice's response to Taishi, for all that heat in his words he was rather composed. Luckily she listened and ended the jutsu, perhaps the girl had some respect for her elders. She sure didn't seem to care about anyone younger since she didn't flinch when the grey-ish man mentioned Roku still being lost. Yet it would be out of character for her to suddenly change her tune thus the disrespect continued when she asked why they weren't relived she "saved" them. "If you had sent a fucking message you would've known that we were on our way to meet the Hokage." Rui said releasing that venom someone had to be Yuumei's victims before it was pushed away again. Neither of them cared how she would reply they just shared an equal want for her to feel the stupidity of her actions. If it led to a fight, physical or verbal, Yuumei would accept that as a consultation before going dormant.

WC: 165

Once the shadow jutsu locking him in place was released, Taishi would take a knee and begin to message his cramping leg muscle. He made sure to do it slowly, as to not give off the wrong impression, or anything of the sort. He simply was relieved to no longer be locked in place against his will. A short, “Thanks” would escape his lips as he listened to Ryal explain the situation.
 
The grey brute would nod as his partner spoke. “Indeed, we were on our way to see the Hokage. They didn’t trust us, despite having the needed paperwork. Perhaps if we were more intimidating they would have let us through without a second thought?” Taishi would just shrug, wondering if everybody that walked through those gates were put through the wringer like they had been. He doubted it, but nobody can say for certain.
 
“As for why we were there…” Taishi would give a mischievous smirk, “Well we thought we saw an opportunity to make some quick cash and seized the moment.” Taishi wouldn’t explain the whole plan in detail, as young Alice hadn’t asked.
 
“So, you were trapped in another dimension?” the warrior would ask, his mind having difficulty wrapping around what exactly that meant. Are using this girls ‘gates’ safe enough to not worry the same might happen to him? Is it possible that Roku might have been trapped in this odd dimensional space as well? Too many questions.
 
“Well, it is good that you managed to escape your own private hell to return to the lands of the living. So, any game plans going forward? Konoha is probably a lost cause, as our sudden departure will have no doubt caused them to lose all trust in us.” While it was true that they can always try to craft a disguise or such, Taishi wasn’t the best at creating characters or new persona’s. He could spin some bullshit, but that’s about it. He’s still new to this whole ‘infiltration’ and ‘espionage’ type stuff. He typically preferred the ‘direct approach’.

It seemed that ‘R’ was going to need to be taught a lesson sooner rather than later. Being angry was acceptable. Not knowing his place was something else entirely. If the pair had been paying close enough attention then they would have noticed something interesting in response to the man’s answer. For the briefest of instanced the childish looks on Alice’s face would be replaced by one of absolute fury at the disrespect she had just been shown. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. In fact it would have been such a quick change that the pair would probably question whether they had seen her face actually change at all or if they had imagined it. That is, if they were actually paying attention. Because something else would have happened at the same time, most likely distracting them from the crack in the rogue kunoichi’s facade.

Before the rude male could even finish his sentence, Ikki had apparently decided to make his own move. Standing just over a meter away from the one known as ‘R’ and just to the left of the Alice clone, the white haired male had been holding onto the sheathe of one of the katanas strapped to the left side of his waist the entire time, his right hand gripped the jolt of it firmly. It seemed that the Nara’s newest underling hadn’t appreciated the blatant disrespect shown to his master. In buy an instant he would cross the distance between him and R, the blade of his katana pressed against his throat.

”Ikki,” Alice would begin to say, causing her underling to stop short instead of continuing his attempt to behead the man. ”Don’t let him get to you. He’s always irritable” she would say, walking closer to R and leaning forward toward him with her hands behind her back. Ikki would take one last look at the disrespectful male before re-sheathing his sword and stepping back as the Alice clone seemed to inspect R. One of her hands, hidden from view at this angle, would make the Rat seal to activate a technique and then Rat -> Bird. Alice would be about a foot away from the man at this point, though their shadows had long since been overlapping in the light of the sun. They had actually been overlapping since the man had been summoned.

”Still, I’ll have to teach you a lesson.” Her words came simultaneously as both jutsu she had just activated took effect. R would once again find her movements restrained, though it was the original shadow style technique this time and not the field that Alice had used earlier. On top of that, eight tendrils of shadow that were three meters long and three inches wide each would rise up and attempt to pierce through the man who had dared to disrespect Alice Nara. One each would attempt to pierce both kneecaps, elbows, and wrists. The remaining two would hang back in the air just waiting to strike their mark. ”You should really apologize for the way you spoke to me, you know. Before things get worse for you.” her smile had returned and she was once again standing up straight, acutely aware of Taishi standing nearby. If he was smart, though, he wouldn’t interfere.

[used Shadow imitation and Shadow sewing. Clone has 100ap remaining. -15ap for hiding in shadow. Original has 170ap remaining. Ikki used Dancing blade risk to move at 100speed. Both shadow style jutsu have 55 power/speed and need 56 strength to break free]

Levi had been running for as long as he could remember. He was used to being chased all the time but it didn't stop him from hoping that one day he would be able to find peace. Being on the run for the last couple of years it had also given him the opportunity to discover places he had never been before. And the location he was in today would be one of them. By the looks of it he figured he would probably be somewhere around the environment of the Land of Iron, but he wasn't sure. Although it wouldn't be the safest place for him to be in, so close to the Borders. But he had nowhere else to run.

As he had stopped to take a breather, he would suddenly notice the presence of a couple of other individuals. Not sure if he was just hallucinating due to a lack of water, he then decided to get a bit closer. Slowly getting to the spot he had seen the other people, trying not to attract any unnecessary attention since you can never be careful enough, he was able to confirm he indeed wasn't alone in this area.

At first glimpse he would notice that there were 4 of them. A woman and three odd looking people if he was honest. Not sure if they were a group of Missing Ninja or just a group of travelers who were lost. Observing the actions of the four in front of him it seemed that something had happened which resulted in a sudden change of mood. The white haired male was getting ready to slice one of the other's throat just before he was stopped by the young woman. As she was slowly walking up to one of the three, Levi could notice her activating something that looked like a Shadow Style jutsu. Of all the places he could run into one of his clan members, did it have to be this one?

(WC: 333)

Of course, her new minion would be a butt boy, the second the punk moved Rui's his eyes would glow. It would likely go more unnoticed than Alice's mask crack since it hadn't been fueled by emotion. The little puppy would've launched over here for nothing when his handler pulled his leash forcing him to heel. If he were smart he'd take note of the blond's unshaken status and learn that death isn't something the Shinkou fears. The bitch took steps toward him after calling off her pet while Ryal made the ram seal, she wasn't the only one who could make hand seals behind their back. He planned on creating an invisible whip but noticed the build up of chakra in the girl, fuck being trapped again. It wouldn't matter if the little girl used her full speed to weave the sign, his jutsu activates faster than what she was going to try. The blond kid flickered to an unfamiliar chakra signature, it was lower than his and Taishi's so there was no threat.

The last thing they would see was him rolling his eyes before reappearing four meters away from the male passerby. Sure he was fleeing but fighting smart is always better than fighting harder. The stranger had a youthful face that matched his height yet that didn't mean he was young. He could turn out to have Benjamin Button disease like the leaf mono eye midget. Regardless Rui would say, "Sup?" He could see that the individual was out of breath, running out here was impossible without the surface walking technique. Judging by the lack of depth in his footprints Ryal assumed he at least had that basic level of chakra control. There was no doubt in his mind that the bitch would follow him but at least he had a potential meat shield.

WC: 308

Well, it would seem as though there was a whole lot of aggression getting tossed around at each other. Taishi was fairly calm, especially now that he was released from his bindings. He wasn't a huge fan of people restraining him, or messing with his mind either. Luckily he didn't think that Alice could do that kind of stuff. At least he hoped not...

In a quick motion the new recruit would draw steel and make motion to cut Ryal. Taishi wasn't overly concerned, mostly because Ryal would probably wipe the floor with the greenhorn. Still, that was a bit of an overreaction to mere words, especially those not directed at the boy. Perhaps the boy was infatuated with the young shadow witch and could not sit idly by while his beloved is told off.

Ryal would use what seemed to be the Body Flicker technique, as he vanished in a blur almost impossible to see, though he was able to follow along. He would stop by another person, a nearly imperceptible blip on his chakra sensory. Hell he couldn't even feel the newcomer from here, so he probably wasn't too much a threat. Still, better safe than sorry so Taishi would stand. The brute would consider drawing his blade in case things turned ugly, but he also didn't want any more flaring tempers or to have to gut the love sick puppy for a misunderstanding. With this in mind he would simply ready his hands in case he needed to use a ninjutsu.