[Mission] The Lonely Mountain

[Tsedas]

A temple in the Sabishii mountain is home to a sect of monks. An order thought to be devout to their teachings and ways of peace, they would often send monks out in the countryside to act as spiritual guidance and helpers of communities. The monks went silent for some time and when they re-emerged they seemed sickly and aggressive, passing out odd candies to children and adults which seemed to make others sick in kind. These monks are spreading disease, it stems from their candies and their leader who is encouraging her monks to sew chaos.

You will meet your contact near the edge of a town only a short ride away. They will escort you by carriage and brief you on the details.

The Sabishii mountain rose up amidst a sea of shifting white as the afternoon sun had only just begun to traverse from the midday hours. The cotton fields were a surprising sight to any who had not visited them before within Fire Country. The forests abruptly breaking away to allow one the wonderous sight of the puffy white blanket across the land, the distance holding the imposing sight of Sabishii while much closer to the forest road was a farming village. It was this village that things were first noticed to have taken a turn. Usually their fields would be full of people harvesting the cotton, occasional the local monks would offer succor to those that required it.

But now? Now the village seemed listless, the fields still unattended. The closer one got, the more they would see lights were on, fires were warming hearths, and even the smell of food filled the air. It smelled like soup, something soothing and warming to ease the body and soul when sick or tired. But underlying throughout that pleasant smell? The stink of medicines and ointments. Despite the quiet, muffled coughs from inside the homes could be heard as one passed by. A sickness was falling upon the residents.

Passing through the streets would yield the sight of men dressed head to toe in white garb, their heads covered completely save their eyes. A method of local physics and chirugeons in these far flung reaches to keep themselves from spreading sickness to other patients or getting sick themselves. A number of them were hired it seems, this group of individuals moving in and out of huts, changing out bandages or taking in fresh medicine made on site to help ease the ailments of the villagers. But one of these people stood out, a lone figure near the edge of town who was sitting upon a carriage. Their hands were busy with something and they were engrossed in whatever they were doing, enough so that they wouldn't even notice if someone came up right behind them until it was too late.

[Throniv]

---

Kaito’s boots alighted upon a tree at the edge of the small copse that stood at the edge of the village--an orchard of apple trees, thankfully mature enough to bear his weight--and scanned over the target village that he and his squad had been sent to surveil. The air hung thick with contradictions--the homely scent of simmering broth clashing violently with the acrid tang of poultices and unwashed sickness. It was a dissonance that set his teeth on edge. Where there should have been the bustling rhythm of harvest--the calls of field hands, the rustle of cotton bolls--there was only stillness, broken by the occasional wet cough muffled behind closed doors. Windows glowed with lamplight, but no faces peered out of windows open to the cool night air, presumably to give those within some relief from the fevers that gripped them.

The function of his mask allowed him to sweep his eyes over the village carefully, zooming in and marking each active chakra signature--though many of them guttered like candles in the wind, clearly deathly ill despite the efforts of the medical workers that went door to door. No one was there that necessarily shouldn't be, though that didn't say much--he was new to the area, and he wasn't sure who the enemy actually was, only that there was an enemy.

Tora's dark grey cloak covered up the grey-scale uniform that he wore beneath it, and the tiger-like mask on his face concealed his identity from any onlookers--meaning that, at this moment, any of the distinguishing marks that marked him as Senju Kaito were nonexistent. At the moment he was just Tora, the fukutaicho of Katana Squad and an operative of the ANBU Black Ops, although the chances of anyone noticing him to make even that connection were slim to none whilst he hid in the trees, thanks to the training he'd undergone while part of the organization.

He saw the man in the carriage that was supposed to be their contact, his head bowed as he fiddled with something in his hands, and Kaito reached up to his ear and pressed the button on the comm unit that was part of the standard ANBU kit.

"Tengu, Shishi, coast is clear. Local contact at 3 o'clock, 30 meters out. We're clear to approach when you're ready, Taichou," the young man said in a low tone, making sure that his voice wouldn't carry beyond a few feet.

OOCShow

ANBU MaskShow

The Anbu mask is a quintessential trademark of the blackops organization. Although not all masks look the same, they all act the same. They have a standard white base with any kind of design that is suited to either match your character or simply something your character could like. The mask itself has the base strength and carrier a specialty fuuin on the top that allows the wearers of the masks to utilize different capabilities with the eye sockets. The mask can be activated to see forward as if it were binoculars, this can go up to 30 meters in distance. The mask can also activate Chakra Vision, where it can focus on living beings with chakra. This visual effect goes up to 30m as well.

Com-Link (23 Ryo)Show

A small ear piece that has a fuuinjutsu engraved on the inside. On one side, the com-link goes into the ear. The other side there is a smooth dark piece that stays covert within the ear. This allows communication with anyone else who carriers this com-link as well.

[Shadow Step • Hiding in the Trees]
C-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
This pseudo-camouflage technique allows the practitioner to blend in to any amount of foliage and move through the trees without disturbing the branches or causing noise. In order to visually detect the practitioner within foliage, the opponent must have a [Perception] or [Sensory] technique of equal or greater rank.

[Kaida]

The soft crunch under Akemi's combat boots shifted from rocky dirt road to stiff white powder within seconds. Nature took a drastic turn as the setting changed around them abruptly, the blanketed mountain before them standing out like a beautifully misplaced sore thumb. She had never been to Sabishii mountain before, staying firmly within the trees of Konoha whilst at home and taking more direct paths on missions. If it weren't for the visceral feeling of something amiss that ran through her body, this would have been a pleasant day trip under normal circumstances.

She stayed firmly hidden in the trees, having watched as Kaito took off for an aerial view. Her black-lined cloak swayed in the wind, blending with her black uniform as she looked just past the trunk of the red sequoia that acted as her shield from prying eyes. She scanned the borders of the village, looking for evidence of foul play, but what she saw seemed more ominous. Fields in need of tending, forgotten in the haze that fell over this small village; the noticeable lack of laughter and children playing in the overgrown harvests. A barely there scent of sickness being covered up by medicines. She felt her nose twitch, even at the distance with the burn it sent through her nostrils.

Her earpiece buzzed with static as Tora's voice rang through clearly, confirming what she herself had seen. There was no immediate trouble in sight, and their contact was waiting for them. She doubted these people could wait much longer to receive more than just ointments and broth as a chorus of coughing echoed out from house to house. "Affirmative. Perimetre is clear. Taicho what's our next step?" She crouched down low to the ground, waiting for further orders and keeping her weapons hidden beneath her cloak until it was time to move, just in case they were being watched.