Truth Part 1[P]

Halloween Event 2021  - Doing the Truth Part 1

Zaibatsu was currently on a mission that sought to take matters into his own hands. He was currently dreaming, or rather it could be said that he was having a nightmare, as that would have been more accurate to say. He was in the strange world of Yugakure no Sato, a strange land that had somehow appeared here and blanketed their realm, pulling the ninja that were sleeping into it. Right now, however, he was of course not aware that he was inside a world of dreams, and was simply carrying out a mission that he thought he had in the dream world. The mission was pretty straightforward, there was some sort of cultist activity happening in the village, and he would have to infiltrate the cultist’s hideout and go and find what they were up to, or something of the sort. He knew that he had some sort of contact inside of the base of operations the cultists were using, so he would be able to get further instructions from them when he had completed the first part, which was getting in. Zaibatsu was not one for stealth, so he frowned quite heavily when he read on his mission slip that he had to go unnoticed as a top priority, as it was really hard for him to do so. He thought about how he was going to hide his massive frame from the people that sought to figure out it was him, when he remembered that he had the ninja techniques that he learned from one of his mates back in the mercenary group. 

Zaibatsu had not been able to learn the academy techniques from the ninja academy as a young man like most other people that would call themselves ninja, but he did learn everything he needed to so that he would be able to pass the test when it came to the academy anyways. He remembered that one of the basic techniques of the academy was the ability to transform yourself, which was good, and would come in handy here. He had no idea what he was supposed to do once he disguised himself, as there was no way that he would be able to pass whatever identity check that they were doing at the door. For now, however, he remembered that one could use the technique to transform into animals, which would be 0perfect for some sort of reconnaissance mission, and so he decided to do that./ He had gotten to the location a bit before this, and had been scoping it out for quite some time, watching all of the cultists go inside, and only a couple came out, and it was only for a few minutes it seemed, to use the restroom. Zaibatsu was paying close attention to this previously, and now he was going to go and get a bit closer so that he would be able to listen in to what the people said or see what they did close up to verify their identities as cultists. There were quite a few bits of foliage and some tree in the area that was perfect for him to transform into some sort of squirrel or other woodland creature, and so he would do that. 

If there was something else that needed to be done, he would also be able to see that as well, so he decided to transform into a small red squirrel, which he had seen around here for a while. The place that the cultists were going was already in a heavily wooded area, it seemed to be some sort of building that was underground, a situation in the forest. It was pretty obvious that it was in a place that allowed them to hide it, and if there was not a ninja specifically coming here to investigate, it would be really hidden. They were in the middle of a pretty dense forest, and soon it would be nightfall, but the steady flow of cultists entering the area did not slow, in fact, it increased as the afternoon turned towards the night time. Zaibatsu had transformed into a squirrel, and made his way to a tree that was situated about twenty feet away from the entrance of the cultist building, Zaibatsu making sure that he did not choose the tree that was right next to it, as that would be a bit too suspicious. They would probably find a random animal getting that close to them to be suspicious, and it was not like the academy technique that allowed one to transform was some sort of secret, everyone knew about it, and even some people who were not ninja would be able to use it. There was nothing wrong about his spot, or at least Zaibatsu thought so, so he continued to climb the tree before perching himself on the branch and looking around at the cultists that were walking in and out of the building. Soon, a couple of cultists came to the building again while he was perched on the tree, letting him catch a glimpse at what the people were saying and doing for the first time. 

As he was watching this unfold, the two men that came up to the door were stopped by the guard at the door, and were told to produce some sort of slip of paper. The people produced one of these slips of paper, and the guard looked at it for a moment, before looking back at the man and handing the paper back. The cultist that wanted in also did some sort of gesture with his hands in front of his chest, before being let in. So some sort of invitation and a secret gesture to make sure. There seemed to be no words that were uttered between the people, just the guard at the door telling the man to hand over the slip of paper, and then some nodding as the entire deed was done. The door opened, and the two men were let in, the door being quickly closed behind them and the guard not responsible for closing the door looking around to make sure that no one saw that and the people were not being followed. Zaibatsu was unsure if that was the only thing they needed to do to get in, and so he made sure to be patient and look at a couple of other people that entered, and it seemed that the procedure was the same for everyone, which gave Zaibatsu a sense of relief when it came to infiltrating the place. It seemed that these people were really unprepared for a transformation technique to be used against them, as they simply needed to show the verification, which appeared to be some sort of id card, and then do a simple to recreate gesture to get in. The transformation technique would solve the first one, and a bit of practice would solve the second issue. It was about time Zaibatsu attempted to get in there, and so he was about to hop down when something strange caught his eye. Every single person that entered this building was accompanied by someone else. 

This was pretty bad news for Zaibatsu, as it meant that all of the cultists traveled in pairs, and it would be a lot harder to get past these people and infiltrate the facility, a lot harder than he initially thought. Now he had to stop and think about how he was going to get into this place, as it was getting a lot darker outside, which would make it easier, but he was unsure if the people there would simply stay there all night and accept people into the building. There had to be some sort of reason that the people were meeting here, and they were going to do some sort of ritual or something, Zaibatsu guessed, so he needed to get in there before whatever they were going to do happened, so that he could stop it if need be. This meant he would either have to find some sort of partner, which would be impossible for him right now, or he would have to figure out a way around what was essentially a rule at this point, which was to enter the area with some sort of partner. Zaibatsu stayed for a bit longer atop the tree, before realizing that he had learned everything that he could currently, and it was time to formulate a strategy on how to get in there. He assumed that he could not just go up to one of the cultists and ask to be let in, he had to stay discreet, afterall. It was good news for him once he had learned everything though, as the people did not say anything to each other, and barely spoke at all. This meant that Zaibatsu could easily pose for one of the cultists and simply walk in the front door, but this would require him to have a partner. 

As he thought about it, he wandered over to the side of the small building that led to the underground passage that the cultists were using, making sure that he stayed out of sight, but he simply wanted to take a long once over of the surrounding area. He wondered if that door was truly the only way into the underground building, as there should have been some sort of air vent or sewage outlet somewhere around here that Zaibatsu could exploit, so he decided to go around and check it out. As he wandered around the forest making sure that he never really got too close to the initial building that the cultists were in, but sadly could not find the things that he was looking for. There was no other sort of sewage system or drain or anything of the sort. If they did actually exist, they were very well hidden, and only some sort of sensory ninja coming here would be able to find out where it was, at least that’s what Zaibatsu thought at least. There was no way that he could potentially do it himself, so he gave up that particular line of how to get in there. He came to the conclusion that he would have to either get a partner or something, or he would have to do what he normally did, and just blast his way into the building with no concern for himself or the mission parameters. 

As he was thinking about this and headed back towards the area, he noticed that there was a man outside, walking towards one of the bushes. Zaibatsu quickly knelt down and leaned towards the left, where a rather large tree was, just barely shielding his large body from sight, should the person look his way. Zaibatsu was not built for stealth, and he really needed to be able to complete this mission, but he was not entirely sure why he needed to. It was some sort of compulsion, and sadly Zaibatsu did not care about thinking about it enough to delve deeper into the subject, and so he was just going to muddle through, like he usually did. As he did so, he watched the man look around himself, before he started to urinate on a nearby bush. Zaibatsu figured that this was as good a chance as any, as the person was alone, and there was nothing stopping him from getting ganked right now, and so he decided to try his luck. The only reason that people came out of the underground building was the fact that they had to pee, and it seemed that there were not any bathrooms or anything down there, which gave validity to there not being any sewage drains in the nearby areas. The man did not know what hit him, as he was suddenly grabbed and squeezed, quickly passing out from oxygen deprivation. Zaibatsu wasted no time, quickly transforming into the man and hiding him out in the forest by simply throwing his body as far as he could.

Zaibatsu also managed to grab whatever was in his pockets, which was simply some sort of dagger. There was nothing else, not even a scrap of paper or any identification on him, so he immediately used the transformation technique to become the man in appearance, which made it really easy to go and attempt to infiltrate the place. He had never seen any one of them smile or use any other particular gestures other than the gesture with their hands when they first showed up, but when he looked at the people that had to step out into the woods to relieve themselves, they simply came back in without much of an issue. The man’s body might be found later, but that was a problem for future Zaibatsu, so the current Zaibatsu did not care at all, and simply started walking over. He had to pretend that he was just coming back from some sort of relief, and this required confidence. Zaibatsu oozed confidence, and so it was pretty easy for him to simply put on a dead pan face and then started walking over to the guards at the door. He did not have a slip of paper on him, so he assumed that he did not need it for going in, and luckily that was correct. The men that were guarding the door just gave him a once over, looking at him and patting him down, making sure that nothing new was being added to the room, before they simply opened the door. This was the easy part, however, the hard part was about what was inside. 

Zaibatsu had just gotten into the building and immediately looked around without making it look too suspicious, and simply moved his eyes simply for a bit. He had no idea who was watching him, or if anyone was, but he knew that sensory ninja existed, and if they did, then these cultist type people could have similar abilities in their midst. He was glad that if they did have these kinds of abilities to look after people, that they did not scry on him when he was outside of the area choking out one of the cultists and simply throwing his body into the woods somewhere. He also was not sure if that guy had died, but he did not care, the guy would definitely be down for the count for several days, if he even woke up at all, as concussions coupled with passing out from a chokehold were not things that you could simply get up from right after, especially when you do not have your fight or flight response ready. As Zaibatsu walked in, he was met with darkness. The things that he saw were simple and crude. It was a simple long hallway that was made of some sort of concrete slabs that were piled up like bricks, making a fairly simple building. As Zaibatsu looked, he noticed that if he was a bit tough about it, he could probably knock down these walls with a couple of punches to the center. 

They looked flimsy for some sort of cult, but that was not the current mission he had to do, he needed to infiltrate this building and look around, making sure what he was supposed to do in here. He knew he was supposed to be meeting someone here, and he knew that he simply needed to draw some sort of symbol in one of the rooms. As he walked down the hallway, it was still really dark, and would be a problem for anyone that was not highly trained in the art of survival, or one that was not a ninja, but Zaibatsu was both, and so he could still clearly see everything, as his eyes adjusted quite quickly to the darkness. Soon, he found himself on a flight of stairs. He noted that he had walked for around four hundred or so feet, which was quite the walk, it did not look like that from the outside, and now he figured that it had to be some sort of space time art at play here, stretching the boundaries of what was possible for a normal building. Zaibatsu could not help but marvel at it, stretching what looked like a twenty foot long building into one that was a bit more than four hundred feet long was something that he would strive to emulate, if he had any interest in the art of space time. Instead, he headed down the stairs, which brought him down roughly another hundred or so feet, which was quite deep, and Zaibatsu was a bit worried if he needed to somehow make a quick and hasty getaway. 

Still, Zaibatsu was never one that would run away, so he headed straight down through an archway that was at the end of the flight of stairs, and was then greeted by the image of a large group of people that were wandering around in a large open room. It almost seemed like some sort of gala, as a large portion of the people were drinking wine out of glasses and chatting in very hushed voices, each speaking about something or other. Zaibatsu was unsure what to talk about, but luckily for him there were plenty of people that did not have wine and were not talking to anyone. Unluckily though, it seemed that someone recognized the person Zaibatsu was pretending to be and walked over to him. Zaibatsu made sure to carve the small symbol on the side wall that he was near, and it looked fairly natural, like normal wear and tear from the passing of time. Only people that were looking for it would be able to tell what it was and if it meant anything. As the person walked over towards him, Zaibatsu was really wondering how he was going to get out of this little predicament that he found himself in, and wondered if he was going to just have to start slaughtering these people.

EXIT 
WC: 3024/3000
Claiming 6100 ryo from mission and genin
Claiming 30 ap from mission
Claiming 30 strength
Claiming Eight Gates(Skill) with 2000 words
Putting 1024 words towards Gate of Opening - 1024/2500 words
Claiming 8 event tickets

Approved