The Silence of War

[Cyline]

Let me start off by saying that nothing had seemed wrong in Konohagakure for a very long time. In fact, it seemed oddly peaceful. Missions weren't even that big of a deal anymore. That all changed with time. After all, peace can't last forever...

The man glanced back before jumping to the next tree, his heart pounding in his chest. His head snapped to the side when he heard the leaves rustle next to him and sighed in relief when he saw that it was his partner. "We have to lose them," his partner panted.
"Tell me about it, Kyoko," he replied, his feet bouncing off another branch.
"It's too bad..."
"What?"
Kyoko faced him with dark red eyes, a malicious smile dancing on her face, "You would've been a fine little toy."
"W-wha-"
Then, he was falling through the trees, Kyoko latched onto him as her nails dug into his skin. He cried out in pain when she dug her nails in deeper. While he tried to push back the pain, he looked down at the approaching ground. He turned back to Kyoko, only to find someone else in her place. The woman stared at him with a sadistic gleam in her seemingly glowing eyes. "W-who are you?" he asked, his voice wavering in fear.
She laughed wickedly. "I'm your worst nightmare," she replied, her voice coming out like a low growl.
The impact came all at once, sending pain throughout his entire body. The woman seemed unharmed as she stood up. He knew that all of his bones were most likely broken and he felt helpless when she smirked down at him. "I heard people like you were supposed to be challenge," she told him, her voice betraying her disappointment.
He swallowed dryly when he felt bile rising in his throat."What did you do to Kyoko?" he asked, breaking off into a series of coughs.
"She should be sending a little message to your precious village," she replied as she examined her fingernails. "Blood," she muttered. "Disgusting."
Another violent cough escaped him, but he could taste the iron in this one. She glanced at him, "Oh yes. I nearly forgot."
As she stepped closer to him, moonlight filtered through the trees. He could now see her long black hair and pale skin, contrasting with her bloodred eyes. "Let's see..." she tapped her chin. "We could do this the painful way or the quick way. Pain is much more fun."
He braced himself for whatever she did, but a strange bird call echoed through the otherwise silent forest. The woman glanced around and sighed, "Looks like it's going to have to be the quick way."
He felt a sharp tug at his heart before the world went black.

The Seventh Hokage nodded solemnly as the messenger delivered the news. Yet another neighboring village had been attacked, presumably by the same person or organization. He faced his closest friends, his face displaying only concern for his village. "As of right now, we cannot take action against an unknown enemy. There has yet to be an attack in Fire Country and for now, we are safe."
"Shouldn't we at least add a bit more security?"
The Hokage shook his head, "No, that will only arouse suspicion within the village. For now, it is best to just keep an eye on the enemy's actions. Are we understood?"
"But-"
"Are we understood?"
"Yes, sir."
They all filtered out of the office except for one pink-haired woman. She looked at her best-friend in concern, "Are you sure that this is the best course of action, Naruto?"
"Yes," he turned away from the window to face her. "It is for now. We have been at peace for twenty two years- the twenty third is coming up in less than a week- and I don't want the villagers to start freaking out to have it turn out to be a small thing, Sakura."
She sighed, "What if it doesn't turn out to be a small thing?"
Naruto closed his eyes. He had seemed to age exponentially in the past years, both in mind and appearance. His hair had grayed slightly and wrinkles were starting to appear under his eyes along with bags. It was hard to believe he was only in his late thirties. He slowly slid his blue eyes open, "If it comes to that, I have faith that our Shinobi will be ready."​

 

[Cyline]

Nagisa Akimura
Nagisa tilted her head as she appraised the picture. It was a strange one to say the least. In fact, she couldn't even tell what it was. Why the heck did something like this need to be guarded? It was ugly. "What are you doing?"
Nagisa grimaced and faced her sensei along with her teammates, who were also looking at the picture. "Nothing," she responded automatically.
"It doesn't look like nothing," Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. We need to get this loaded up. Jin, Rentaro, bring it outside."
"What about me?" Nagisa questioned.
"Guard them..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. "What else would you do?"
"I don't know..." the young girl shrugged and followed her teammates out of the expensive house. As she walked, she played with her tessen fans, flipping them in and out. This was proving to be a very boring mission... "Why do you think this painting's so important?" she asked her teammates as they carried the picture.
It seemed like a reasonable question to her. After all, who'd want a painting this ugly? It looked like an animal vomited on the canvas. Not a pretty sight, by the way. She tilted her head, thinking that it might have been hanging upside down. Nope, still ugly. With a sigh, she looked around. Nothing. She wondered what the other teams were doing.

Minako Uzumaki
Minako sat in the tree, swinging her legs back and forth lazily. The breeze washed over her as she waited for the bandits... If they would show. She could see Shikamaru waiting for the opportune moment to attack. Her eyes scanned around for Itachi and she couldn't stop her giggle when she saw him dressed in his disguise. As a woman... God, she was glad she didn't have to do that. She grinned at Raido in the tree across from her.
There was a rustling and the bandits walked out. "Hey!" one of them called when they saw Itachi. "What's a pretty thing like you doing out here?"
Minako covered her mouth to stifle her laughing. She slowly walked down the tree until she was concealed by the bushes. One of them glanced over his shoulder, but he didn't really react much besides that. From his tree, Shikamaru nodded. Minako sprinted out, bringing her elbow down hard on the closest bandit's collarbone. He crumpled to the ground, but she didn't wait to pounce on the nearest person, slamming her foot into his face. She didn't bother looking for Raido or Itachi as she brought down as many bandits as possible.​

 

[Pyralithia]

Rentaro Hatake, #990303

Ren sighed as Sasuke ordered him and Jin to take the ugly painting outside. Pushing off the wall with his foot he slides his hands out of his pockets before grasping the 2 sides of the much too big painting. "Ready Jin? 1..2.." Instead of counting to 3 he just lifts the painting, hopefully Jin lifted at the same time or there would be one lopsided painting. Ren's voice is deep, almost ominous sounding, though his tone was indifferent.

Waiting for Jin to get his end before following Sasuke out, Ren rolls his scarlet eyes at Nagisa. "Who cares?" He mutters to himself. 'It is ugly but I wont try to understand the tastes of spoiled, rich folk' He thought to himself. As usual Rentaro had his mask pulled up covering the lower half of his face so it was hard to tell if he was frowning, smiling, or just neutral

Tsukiakari Akimichi, blue

Boom! A large cloud of dust rises into the air, below it a good sized portion of the ground is torn apart like a bomb exploded. Well it was close enough....Tsuki was training with Hissori, her lethal punch had just missed him, connecting with the ground instead.

Her head snaps up, her dark blue hair fluttering around her as her azure eyes gleam with excitement, a grin on her lips. "Careful now, I almost got you So-So, I think your losing your touch." She taunts playfully as she pulls her gloved fist from the large crevice she just created in the ground, before dashing forward with a scissor kick. Tsu and Hissori were at the Hidden Leaf training grounds, they'd been sparring for about 10 minutes now

​

 

[Firemind]

Hissori Inuzuka

"I can't believe we are doing this routine again." Hissori tried to hide the boredom as he dodged the powerful blows of his teammate. She was a stronger fighter than most, but Hissori couldn't help but feel that their Sensei's committal to Taijutsu training was a little wasted. After all, Hissori could have ended a fight like this already if he wasn't banned from using his weapons.

"Careful now, I almost got you So-So, I think your losing your touch." Hissori pouted lightly, as he stepped to the left of a scissor kick and leaped away from the sparring partner. "Don't be so sure." Hissori felt the familiar touch of chakra leaking into his finger tips as a small crackle of electricity sounded through the small arena. He didn't even need to make the hand-signs for his signature technique anymore. "Raiton: Teisū Nagare" He felt the energising current flow through his fingers, and he knew it was time for the counter attack. He had about thirty seconds before the jutsu would cause more harm than good, and he felt confident he could finish the sparring match up here and now. The ten minutes of bait-and-switch had been more than enough for his tastes.

With a sudden burst of energy, Hissori was quickly closing the gap on Tsukiakari until he was within striking distance. She was good at Taijutsu, there was no doubt about that, but he knew that he was better at it. He lashed out with a quick jab of his right hand, swinging in to clobber her from the side, but knowing that she'd probably dodge the wild blow, he then followed up with a spinning kick: using the momentum of the first blow to make the kick to lash out faster and harder than before. "I've got you know."

 

[Hillan]

Jiraiya Uzimaki​

Jin had been quiet during the entire mission, focusing on other things. Keeping himself alert, and making sure that everything was going off without a hitch, as always. Because of his personality, his teammates rarely had to worry about such things as preparation, as the Uzumaki always had those things under control. This mission was monotone, not particularly exciting, they were to watch a painting, but Jin knew full well that these missions had to be done, so unlike many others in his situation whom would have bitched and moaned about the mission, he carried on and did as he was told.

Sasuke told Jin and his teammate, Rentaro to lift the painting and follow him. Jin moved with Ren towards the painting, Ren asked him if he was ready and Jin nodded, and the two of them carried the painting out. Jin himself didn't really have any opinion of the painting itself, he wasn't one for art, it took up time and energy he didn't have. Instead, he cared for the frame, a pretty odd frame with leather accents instead of a solid either iron, or gold frame. How peculiar, he thought to himself.

It sure was an ugly frame, though.

 

[N/A]

M I E K O U C H I H A
' S H I R A N U I '​

@Soñar Gardián @Limeypanda

Mieko was late. What a terrible morning, she was never late. Dashing across rooftop to rooftop to where her teammates were probably waiting for her at, The girl eventually made it to the training grounds and panted as she watched from a slight distance at her older teammates. They seemed to be sparring against each other as training and she decided to observe. Should she jump in and interfere? No.. They were focused on each other and if she appeared to abruptly it would be rude to her comrades. Especially if her comrades were older than her.

So, Mieko body flickered and appeared over a large wooden post. She sat down in her pink outfit with the forehead protector tied around her left arm. This child was known as the prodigy amongst the other ninjas her age. She was above the level of a Chuunin, and was quite adept at certain things. It was surely not just because she was an Uchiha, Or child of Sasuke and Sakura. Even without the Sharingan or if she wasn't an uchiha she'd still be uniquely skillful. Being placed in squad two was nothing to her. But to her teammates, they were more... Reluctant to just accept Mieko. And Mieko understood that. Nonetheless she still respected them, she had too. Ever since she joined squad two, Hissori and Tsukiakari had learn to accept Mieko despite the kid-age. They had given her many chances when on missions and no longer treated her as some kid who was just a liability. Be it in a rude way or the most kindest way, Mieko earned their respect.

Feeling it was rude to watch in silence, Mieko slid off the post and cleared her throat."HEY!" She called then bowed."Sorry I was late.. I've been sick." Explained Mieko. Sasuke believed that perhaps the sickness was passed down from family genetics. Itachi -his older brother- in particular, but wasn't exactly sure and Mieko stood back up straight. A perfect posture."So... Do we have a mission yet?" She asked, head tilted.​