[S.T.R.A.T.O.S x Yaseyama] Enter Shadow Moses

[Trusted Grader]

Gearing the Solid Metal
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Cold, desolate, and deserted, the fortress of which Patch had informed her was located on the same continent the Raikage had chosen to expand to, a nod was shared from the black ops agent, and the white-clad spy checked Kirie and her gear, hoping that her new weapon would come to aid, but also that they wouldn't even need to use it. Hotaru was sure which option the operator was looking forward to, she watched Kirie smear black paint under her eyes as she pulled down her white mask, Agents B and C stared forward, and D, E, F, and G appeared to all seem prepped for the mission, except perhaps for Hanako, the newest member, the one she was the least sure about, her eyes darted up and down before they landed on her eyes again.

This is the one that got kidnapped, she already has outside experience and she is absurdly strong, and fast too, so that's something. Hotaru crossed her arms, she heard that she was a bit special, but if she proved to be trouble then maybe she would get unlucky and perish during the mission, she shook her head from those nasty thoughts. Everyone comes home. She thought back to Soul Country before she cleared her throat.

"All right everyone, we have reports that there is an abandoned fortress somewhere in Yaseyama, our recon reported that they saw a suspended platform half a mile offshore, so there's minor activity around the area. We believe that this fortress belonged to none other than Hiraku, Kenji, and his partner Kijo, Nehan. We are only here to gather information so if you enter the fortress it's at your own risk. So, be weary, anything can go!" She knocked on the roof, the pelican summon opened its mouth, letting in the blistering cold, fortunately, their white stealth suits would protect them from the weather, and their mask would cover their faces so the exterior world wouldn't be able to identify them, they were ready.

"We land in 5 minutes." The pelican closed its mouth as it continued to fly towards their landing point.

[HotelBravo]

Why didn’t you take the chuunin exams? You would have crushed everyone there with this kind of performance! She had been told this again and again. It was the people. The amount of people had given her anxiety and so she had backed out of the whole ordeal, and missed an opportunity to make a name for herself. Then again, perhaps it was a good thing? Now a new opportunity was revealed. It was a dangerous operation that had a high level of danger. Hanako recalled the moments where she had been in the briefing room before all this had gotten to such a point. She recalled the arguing - she wasn’t ready, one had said. Stop coddling her, another said. Hanako had asked, that if she completed a dangerous mission could she be ranked up from genin? It wasn’t any matter of ambition. It was simply that Hanako was tired of being treated like an infant and baby. She wanted respect. Once she had felt safe by everyone treating her like a child because she was inexperienced, but surviving in the land of Stars and hunting dinosaurs had taught her to be resourceful and strong. Anything less would have gotten her killed.

Thus, Hanako had followed suit. She dressed in a slim white stealth suit and put a mask on. Her hair was tied back into a tight bun. Hanako’s hair was usually not overly long, so to her she wasn’t concerned if it did end up coming loose. She normally used storage seals on her skin, but given the weather she had instead wrapped scrolls around her forearms in lieu of writing storage seals on her skin. Looking like so many other of the operatives here Hanako felt it was easy to become faceless and be forgotten. It felt like she was drowning in a way.

Hanako had never traveled by Pelican before.

She listened to Hotaru’s explanation of the finer details of the operation. All of this was some kind of journey to a territory that Kumogakure no Sato had been interested in. Supposedly an abandoned fortress was now being occupied, and squatter was someone that Hanako had not ever heard of. It was supposed to be a stealth mission. Hanako knew the basic stealth but no higher level techniques. She had become over reliant on her own strength and speed, and sincerely wondered if Hotaru had allowed her to come on this mission despite knowing this. Hanako would try to follow her instructions as best as she could - but inside her own mind she knew that she was much better suited as a hammer than a delicate instrument. The Pelican had briefly opened its mouth allowing a blast of the cold air to test the warmth of the suit. It took the edge off, is what Hanako thought.

”Is there anything specific we should be looking for?” Hanako asked, after Hotaru had finished speaking. ”What are Hiraku and Kijo’s known specialties?” She followed up. She wanted to know what her enemies would be capable of, and what she was supposed to be looking for. Certainly she could snoop around the outside of a castle, but things rarely stayed simple on a mission with such a high rating of danger.

[hobnob]

Noeru was clad in his ANBU outfit. His name was no longer Noeru, from now it was Kitsune. He had been assigned on a mission alongside Kumogakures Black Ops division. Something he was not expecting, but very much looked forward to. It would be interesting to see how Konohas allies operated, he hoped he could learn a thing or two for the leader of their organisation. He had met her before. A brief encounter in the forests outside of Konoha, where she wanted to meet with the leader of ANBU. A successful encounter. Hopefully this mission would work to improve the relation between organisations and their villages. Afterall, the tensions in the world were rising, co-operation was more important than ever.

He knew where he was to meet them, and he had a long day to go. Under the cover of night he darted out of the ANBU hideout, moving through one of their specifically designed passage ways out of the village to minimise exposure and speed up the journey as much as possible. Once he was outside the village, Kitsune focussed on moving to the meeting location as fast as he could. Being late to a meeting like this would probably sour their relations, and this was not something Kitsune wanted to do. The place was called Yaseyama, he had the location of the island and their meeting place notched into his mind. He had to be careful though, there was very little information provided on what he could expect to come across when actually on the island. He grit his teeth as he moved towards the meeting location.

A few hours went by, and Kitsune after moving at maximum speed finally made it to the landing point, only to hear something large descending from the sky. He peered through the black ANBU mask as the giant bird came to a stop. Not sure what to expect Kitsune was on guard, ready to react accordingly.

[Trusted Grader]

Hotaru continued to inspect Hanako, she wasn't exactly sure if she could contain this beast but if things went their way then she was certain that the report she would return to Hayate would please him, that is, if things went correctly. The spy's eyes landed on Kirie and shared a nod with her before she turned to face the maw. "We are going to make sure that their offshore location shuts down before we go after the base. Reports claim that they are connected somehow, so we are going to split the team up in two. The recon team and the assault squad took down the platform. Hanako will be part of the assault team with Kirie, while I'll lead the recon team with a special ANBU member who has been sent ahead of time."

Hotaru looked at her wrist, then inspected her weapons as the pelican landed, the beast opened his mouth and let the ice-cold air kick their ass for a second before Hotaru signaled them to move out. Hotaru zoomed next to Anbu members with B, C, and D while Kirie led the second team with Hanako and E, F, and G, ready to take down anyone the recon team left behind. The spy would rush up to the ANBU member and continue to rush towards the large mountain that revealed itself behind the dead forest.

It would take the recon team about 20 minutes to reach the edges of the forest, from their location they would be able to spot the outskirts of the sea platform, "The first recon team believes that the platform is connected with the base, so we need to sneak in and try to find out as much as we can before we let the backup team take them out." Hotaru told Noeru, who had missed their briefing, she handed him a file as well for him to read up on it. The spy had requested the help of Anbu because she wanted them to assist Kumo before S.T.R.A.T.O.S would extend their help, because as far as she knew ANBU severely lacked knowledge on what was going on outside their borders, that was pretty apparent when she had contacted Tenzin.

Her spies were everywhere and nowhere at the same time, she had the hottest intel on the newest missing nin's, trade routes and what have you, heck, the fact that they even knew about this base was due to one of her agents 'Patch'.

The backup team would have to try to move as quietly as possible for there were still wolves around, the recon team was the ones who had mastered the art of stealth while the backup team was going to be their muscles. "Stay frosty, there are still wolves and bears around." Kirie pulled up her sniper from her resting position once Hotaru and they had dashed out of her view, she turned to face Hanako and then nodded towards the forest where Hotaru had led her team.

[hobnob]

Kitsune watched as the group emerged from the pelicans mouth. It was a rather impressive feat. The Senju never really thought about how many people could fit into a pelicans mouth, but seeing this amount of people emerge really did leave him in awe. Unfortunately, there was no time for awe. The ghost of Kumogakure dashed towards him and passed him at high speeds. He had to get himself in head if he wanted to be a part of this mission. Kitsune received a quick run down of the mission verbally, and was handed the file to familiarise himself the mission more when he had the chance. But for now, he had to make sure he would keep the mission moving, and offering all the assistance he could to the squad.

Allowing the Ghost to lead the way, Kitsuno kept himself close, but not too close. A few meter gap would allow all of them the manoeuvrability they needed in case things went tits up. Fingers-crossed they would not, but there was never an issue with being a little too careful. His senses were on high alert, listening for anything abnormal, getting an idea of how everyone in the team moved to allow him to differentiate in the future, if they were to get separated. 'What is our overall objective?' Kitsune said just loud enough for Hotaru to pick up.

[556]

JutsuShow

Improved Hearing (Pre-approval) Perception S-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
The user has honed their sense of hearing to a degree that their hearing has become sonar-like. By using the vibrations in the air he is able to pin-point the location of objects that emit even the slightest of noises, such as a heart beat. [This has already been trained in a previous thread]

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Improved Sight Pre-approval) Perception S-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
The user has managed to improve their vision to the point where nothing goes unnoticed by him. He is able to see the slightest movements, whether that being a leaf, a single strand of grass, or an opponent hiding with a [Stealth] technique of equal or lower rank.