Molten Earth Has No Name

[Kanade]

OOC informationShow

Mission 1: Investigate the cultist activity deep within Rock Country, near the northern border leading to the wastes.

A rank mission number 1 for Spirit Invasion.

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Kanade shouldered her pack and cracked her neck. She had packed light, opting to put the bulk of her supplies into her personal realm. It was certainly not the day she would have picked to go to the north, but the mission seemed urgent. She took out a mission scroll, whose twin would be arriving at Youji's house soon. It was a lead, the first of many that she had for a good month or so. She had left little Akiyo at Cherisa's house, kissing her small hands and then her face. She seemed big for only 8 months, but it seemed as if time flew for Kanade anyhow. She had been around precious little actual children, and kids who had run around the streets of Kumogakure no Sato had grown up before her eyes there, taking husbands and making a living any way they could. "They just keep getting younger." She blew into her hands to warm them up, her hot breath eking out between her fingers in the cold morning air. Kanade stomped her feet and looked up at the sky, it would just be a light dusting all day, nothing really to speak of, but gloomy. The perfect weather for working in the forge.

Rolling her shoulders, she stomped her feet to shake the cold from her legs. She had packed well for cold weather, but knew that the walk would warm her up, and she didn't want to undress on the way there, stopping every little bit to pack up a discarded coat. She had opted for a hand knitted gray woolen sweater, her hair had been bound up so that she didn't have to bother maintaining the jutsu, not that she couldn't almost in her sleep at this point, but better to not have to worry about burning the lovely sweater she had received from Cherisa as a birthday present. She was celebrating her 35th birthday, which was to say that she was celebrating a twenty second birthday for Kanade. She shivered and gave an irritated look toward where Youji should be headed out of any moment.

She rolled her neck and whispered impatiently, "Come on, Youji, I am freezing." Her orange eyes were the same hue as the overcast clouds of the early morning, the sun had just painted the sky a dark incendiary orange. She blew on her hands again before rubbing them together and sticking them under her armpits. The green mittens she wore weren't keeping her fingers from the cold all that well, and she wished that she had put on the larger and warmer black pair that were in her pack.

She ran over the mission once more in her head, closing her eyes and murmuring the words to herself to keep her mind off of the cold.

Urgent A rank mission: Investigate the cultist activity deep within Rock country, near the northern border, leading to wastes. The last cultist captured gave a location that is right on the border, ten miles south of the northern outpost is where the cultists are holed up. There could be up to fifty members of the cult in this particular encampment. Approach with extreme caution. At the mission's participant's discretion, cull the camp. Requirements for successful completion: bring back one cultist, name: Brand, One of the circle of 12, for interrogation. Notable features: Scar over left eye, Enkouten, Orange hair, missing top of left ear, usually wearing red garb. All other cultists should be wearing varying shades of gray to black.

Kanade's eyes opened at the sound of approaching footsteps and eagerly looked at the owner of said footsteps.

[Izanagi]

This was a momentous occasion for the 25-year-old Chunin. For the first time in nearly a year he would set foot outside of Iwagakure. Since his mission with Fukusha Reina the young man was beginning to feel more confident, more like himself. And it seemed he had gained some semblance of trust from Kotaru and the other higher-ups of the village. From what he had heard Enkouten Kanade was a rather big name in the village, someone else who was at least equally rumoured about as himself, perhaps more so. But none could deny her skill, it seemed they too had that in common. Youji was in fact rather looking forward to working alongside her.

He had dressed simply, a brown tunic lined with black wolfs fur and a heavy brown overcoat. At his hip he carried a pair of Katana and across his back was a well stocked pack. The snow fell upon ruddy brown locks, dyed from his natural auburn. Ruffling his hair, he pulled his hood up and rubbed his hands together for warmth. The cloth gloves he wore did little to insulate heat once they started to get wet. Absentmindedly he conjured a small sphere of flames as he hurried towards the gate at a brisk run. Getting his blood pumping and his flames radiating heat helped to warm him quickly and as he arrived his ordinarily pale cheeks would be flushed pink. “Sorry, I’m not late am I?” he stated sheepishly as he slowed to a halt a few meters away from his companion. Smirking, he noted her shivering despite being an Enkouten and having magma for hair. It was quite an amusing image. “Cold?” he noted quite astutely. “Allow me” he offered, flicking his wrist flamboyantly as the flames leaped from his hands, expanding and circling around the woman from a comfortable distance. They would flare white-hot for a moment, bathing her in an aura of warmth that would slowly begin to fade. And then with another flick of his hands the flames would disperse, hopefully without startling the woman too much.

[Kanade]

Kanade had never had problems with the cold when she was Chiaki, nor when she was a silicone person, though those people were in her past, and a part of who she was now, but not in the matter that she didn't get cold now. She blew on her hands, causing her breath to rise up from between her fingers into the chill air, and then smiled at the flames, "These are nice, where did you learn to control flames like this?" A couple of minutes of small talk would help to bolster both of them, and make them both more comfortable with working together.

She looked him up and down, "You seem familiar." Perhaps she had seen him somewhere before, but where she would have didn't matter at this point. "Have we seen each other somewhere before?" It could have been at the compound, or somewhere completely different, but Kanade couldn't quite put her finger on it. Still, no point in hashing it out. She smiled and extended her hand, "If not, I am Enkouten, Kanade, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am to be your escort on this mission, we're apparently going to be hunting someone down and bringing them in." She took out the scroll and handed it over, "I figured that my hair would be able to keep me warm, but apparently not on the colder days." She set down her pack and opened it, rummaging through she threw on the coat she had inside.

"Any questions before we start?" She asked, watching him as he watched her.

[Izanagi]

Youji smiled softly as his talents were praised. After the invasion of Sunagakure he had been told a promotion was in order, and soon he would be named Special Jounin. “My par-“ he started before remembering that he was supposed to be an orphan that Kotaru took in and trained. “Kotaru-sama taught me everything I know” he corrected. He had in fact trained Katon with his rival when they were both Genin so it wasn’t a complete lie. But his first introduction to Katon came from his father and then his step-mother and later his Aunt Ayame. Each of them helped to shape the skills he honed until he eventually surpassed them all, using his skills to fight on par with 4 separate Kage.

The war-torn veteran’s pale blue eyes took in Kanade. She was quite memorable, beautiful and unique with her glowing hair. It was no surprise that in comparison he made a less lasting impression. “We met briefly a few months back, at an Enkouten dinner party” he reminded her. “Haziwara Youji” he reintroduced, shaking the woman’s hand. The thin man smiled wryly, “Torch and burn ops are my specialty but I’m also skilled with Doton kinesis. We capture the high priority target and kill the rest, simple enough” he stated coldly. He had performed many such missions as a part of Konoha’s Vanguard squad and led several campaigns throughout the war. He would have been tried for war crimes including but not limited to genocide if his actions had been discovered before his capture and integration to Iwagakure under a new identity. Here, they seemed to embrace the tactics that had once filled him with shame and regret.

Exhaling slowly, the man’s breath bellowed out against the frigid air. “Well, we’re not getting any warmer standing around. Let’s get a move on, shall we?” he said, with a slight bite to his tone and a sharpness to his gaze. He was still getting used to working with others, especially in a subservient role. Formally a Jounin, a Prince, and a General of the Fire country army, it was humbling to be reduced to the role of a simple soldier. Even during the Invasion of Sunagakure he had fallen into old habits and couldn’t help himself from barking out orders to his comrades; a Jounin and an esteemed Bannin. But at the end of the day they were the one’s who would receive the credit for their successes. Youji was meant to be just a faceless pawn to be used in Iwagakure’s grand campaign. Only Tatsuo and Kotaru knew his true identity and he was meant to fall in line and keep himself in check, less others discover his true value.

[Kanade]

Kanade nodded and started to narrow her eyes, recalling the party and smiling, "Oh yeah, you sat with me when all the other Enkouten were rude to me." She barked out a short, sharp guffaw that cut through the early morning cold like a knife. The introduction was met with a hand-shake, he was stronger than he looked. Perhaps it wouldn't be much of an escort mission after all. Perhaps she could let him do some of the heavy lifting.

"Doton kinesis is probably our strongest suit for getting him out alive, as for the others." She shrugged, "We only need one person to talk. The others could become a nuisance." She agreed with his assessment of the high priority capture and kill. She had to harden her heart, had to show that she was the Kunoichi that Tatsuo believed her to be.

"Let's." She agreed to his 'lets get a move on' and started to walk toward the gate. Once they were comfortably outside and far enough that the great wall had sunk below the gentle rise of a hill Kanade pulled up short, "I am going to cheat a little. I already have an anchor that will take us at least part of the way. I ventured up north in one of my other missions, and I think that this should save us-" She stopped and thought about how long it had taken her to get to where she had been, "About three days travel. I have an anchor for home when we need to use it too, but no need to collect road dirt if we don't need to." She started to weave an elaborate set of hand seals, her movements precise, each time her hands came together sounded like the ringing of hammer against forge, crafting her jutsu before she dropped the anchor and a gateway opened in front of her, "I'll hold it open, you go through."

The scene through the tear in reality itself showed another scene, though this one was a lake-front view of the rolling countryside. The rocks were more jagged, the more felsic rocks giving way to the basalt of the north, and the evidence of ice-split boulders a striking contrast to the wind and water-worn gravel where they were.