A Park Somewhere

After her failure in the Chuunin Exams she had spent the time recovering in the hospital before being released just today. She needed to meet the leader of Mocking Bird, an organization she learn her friend Kureji was apart of. Taiga was interested in joining, having no real ties with Konoha. Her options were exhausted in that village after hearing the political instability it had suffered becoming a husk of its former self. The village would never recover. Not with the superpowers and highly competitive political landscape surrounding the continent. Sooner or later the village would face more tragedy For her it was time to move on and find opportunity elsewhere. And that's where Mocking Bird came into the picture.

Taiga waited at a public park where she was told to meet the leader of the organization. She was healed mostly, with a few faded bruises on her body. Her bones managed to be fully healed, so she was functional at least. She did not dwell on the defeat, knowing full well she wasn't at her maximum potential. Taiga waited on a park bench early in the morning. There was nobody in the park but her, and she stayed vigilant to ensure it stayed that way. She wore her standard combat gear, the same set she had during the exams.

Akihiro didn't make an effort to hide his presence while he approached the park where he had set up a meeting with Taiga. He felt relatively safe in Kirigakure no Sato given his positive relation and interactions with the Mizukage in the past few days. Sneaking around would also have been rather suspicious. So he walked through the park as usual wearing his every day combat attire. He was wearing light armor with a touch of green where the jade made itself visible. Above it tho he was wearing a cloak, the same cloak that accompanied him everywhere and whose seemingly unlimited numbe of pockets always came in handy. He would wave at Taiga as he approached the girl and would then take a seat on the bench next to her.

"Good morning, Taiga. I'm Akihiro, the leader of Mockingbird." He trusted she would know who he was, since she was quite knowledgeable. But the two of them hadn't ever really interacted much except for the one time when they crossed each other's paths in a visit to Kureji who had been at the hospital recently. Introductions were important. Akihiro also knew a tad bit about Taiga, from Konahagakure no Sato's records. He had been keeping an eye on her and a select few other ninjas from very early stages of their ninja careers but not all of them grew to live up to their potential. Taiga Amari was one of the few instances in which the person Akihiro saw potential in actually comitted and developed to reach that potential. And these were precisely the kinds of people Akihiro wanted to surround himself with.

"I'm sorry to hear about your results during the exams. But I imagine you can do better...perhaps you were rather unlucky in your partnership." Akihiro couldn't help but think of Shinsui's body, sealed in a scroll and hidden right there within one of the cloak's pockets. "But perhaps I can help you find new, better partners." Akihiro would smile.

It seemed Akihiro had the exams on his mind as well, her performance being lackluster as to what she expected. She didn't let her failure control her life, however. If given the chance she would be more than willing to fight her opponents again. Her exam partner's fate was unknown to her, the boy being taken off by the other party after she was defeated.

"Shinsui was...unique. I would not mind his company. But that is done and over with. I have a feeling he didn't make it far after I fell in battle." Taiga shifted her head over Akihiro. "The opposing team had a Jinchuriki. Shukaku, hosted by a girl named Yui. I can assume they're from Kumogakure. Yui and her partner, Miyu, had ties with someone named Shimiko. And they mentioned something about a church."

Taiga recalled the information the best she could. Her memory was a bit fuzzy after that, from her initiating the attack to blacking out before she was beaten by her opponents. She was just glad she didn't have to experience the pain directly, though the recovery process was suffering for her.

"But that is another topic. What did you have in mind?" Taiga said a bit curious by what Akihiro meant by finding better partners. She didn't mind teamwork, but she knew well that wasn't her flaw. She needed to strengthen herself.

Akihiro paid close attention to Taiga's words. He had already heard from Ikomiki that there had been a Jinchuuriki in the exams, but Taiga's information not only corroborated Iko's, it completed it. Akihiro had once failed a Genin from Kumogakure in the Chuunin exams... and her name had definitely been Yui. Shimiko had lost her shit at the time and had aggressively attempted to make Akihiro change his mind. But the kid's incompetence was so flagrant that he really had nothing to fear and Shimiko was left without decent or even valid arguments. In the end, she had left in frustration and that had been their interaction. Akihiro hadn't been too worried at the time because he knew that even tho Shimiko would have never voiced it, she absolutely saw the reason why Akihiro had failed the twins.

But now the Uchiha was a bit more worried. So Shimiko's answer to the twin's problems had been to find them a bijuu. Akihiro couldn't help but release a loud sigh. He would have considered this to be the epitome of stupidity had he not witnessed the decisions made by Tats in the last few months. "And what good did a bijuu do for them? I saw the list of names released for the final tournaments...Yui was not on that list and neither was Miyu. Shimiko should consider training and actually coaching her twins instead of handing them extremely dangerous weapons and hope for the best." Akihiro would shook his head. "Still, that information is very important. Thank you for finding that out and sharing it. That kind of atittude is precisely why I would like you to work directly with me and my organization, the Mockingbird. So I'd like to make you an official offer: Work with us, and you'll find a place to grow and develop your skills. Both as a ninja, and as the brilliant chemist I know you are. Although I would like you to find in us not just a means to an end, but friendship and perhaps a family as well." Akihiro would smile again, hopefully. "But all in due time, of course."

There were those words again. Friendship. Family. Something she did not particularly invest in. Although, an ally she would consider. Akihiro shared the mind thoughts she did. Raw power was almost useless in the wrong hands. The only reason that power was unleashed was due to the foolishness that put them in harm's way. Against more unforgiving opponents their fate would be sealed. But that was merely just her analysis. She had no ill intentions towards her former opponents in the Chuunin Exams. It would be petty to pick at her old wounds.

"I would love to. I don't see any stable future for Konoha after its most recent ordeal. How large is your organization? Who else will I be meeting? And what would be my next step?" Taiga said, perhaps a bit too persistent with her questions. But she was eager to learn as much as she could with her new organization, and possibly get to work. After two weeks of recovery she was itching to get back into some action. She didn't like to admit it, but deep down she enjoyed the thrill of combat.

Akihiro's hopefulness turned to satisfaction once he realized Taiga was on board with his idea. Truth to be told things were going rather well- not a single soul had refused to join Mockingbird's ranks once an invite had been issued. Akihiro could only assume that went to show just in how much of a poor state Konohagakure was in at the moment.

Alas, the young Sparrow was glad to have Taiga on his side. While he excelled at some things, it was simply impossible for a single person to be a master of every style. And Taiga had the potential to be a master of styles neither Akihiro nor any other Mockingbird could hope to learn in useful time. He would then pull out two small scrolls from within a cloak pocket. "Well in that case, let me be the first to welcome you into Mockingbird. These are your welcome gifts- your first step is to learn these two jutsu. The second one is to contact me as soon as you have. There is work that needs to be done, and the sooner we get started on it the better."

Akihiro would give her the scrolls. One had the instructions to master the Hiding in Camouflage Iwagakure technique while the other had the Silent Killing jutsu from Kirigakure. He couldn't stay there for long unfortunately, so after this was done he waved Taiga goodbye and left. There were still preparations to be done.

[exit]

"Very well. I will get to it."

In that brief interaction, Akihiro left after giving Taiga two of the special jutsu scrolls. She immediately got to work with learning them. Hopping off the bench she stashed one in her hip pouch before opening the first one. It was the Hiding with Camouflage technique. Just reading the details of the technique gave everything she needed to know about how it functions and how effective it was. She was surprised Akihiro had such a powerful technique in his arsenal. The technique worked by refracting light around the user. Like an ultimate stealth cloak to conceal all of their body. Better yet, it somehow removed the user's scent and foot prints. It was the ultimate technique for infiltration and assassination. Especially for Taiga, who was admittedly frail and not designed for direct combat. Avoiding direct combat was ideal for the girl.

But for now she rolled up that scroll and stashed it in her hip pouch. She was interested what the second technique was all about. Opening that scroll and reading its contents she read about the Silent Killing Technique. And it was at that moment she knew exactly what Akihiro had planned. Those two technique would make any frail Genin a master assassin. Given her specialty in poison there was no doubt Akihiro intended on making her an indirect fighter and infiltrator. It was for the best after all. Reading the Silent Killing technique over it was nothing more than basic stealth practices with a few traditional secrets by Kirigakure. They were clever remedies for sure. Nothing Taiga would've even thought of. Despite being a very simple technique she could see its effectiveness in her arsenal.

She practiced around the park a few time and figured she got it down. She couldn't even hear her own footsteps. She was confident that's all she needed for this technique so she moved onto the Camo technique. This one was a bit trickier but with enough practice she learned that one as well. Trying them both at once was natural. Once she finished learning those technique technique she decided to rest for the day. Tomorrow she would seek out Akihiro, as instructed.

---

Learned:

Silent Killing for 100 words
Hiding with Camouflage for 250 words

[Exit]