Banditry Afoot

Mission:

Anzo takes a moment to rest right at the fork in the road he's come to, balancing his thighs atop the crossroads marker, and with the four foot high marker underneath him, Anzo is now sitting quite tall, his eyes nearly eight feet above the ground, thanks to his surprisingly tall body. His long red jacket with its long tail would normally hide his body from his boots to just underneath his sunglasses, but at the moment the tail of his jacket was behind him, revealing the black pants he wears on his legs, leading down to his black leather boots, which ran up his ankles a good distance, but were mostly hidden under his pants themselves. The jacket's collar is lifted all the way up and buttoned fully, hiding the entire bottom half of his face, with his sunglasses with their golden zig-zagging frame and bright yellow lenses doing a fine job of hiding his eyes through the glare of the sun reflected in the glass. His spiky blonde hair acts almost like a signal flare, which was just fine because despite going for quite a distance, he still has seen neither hide nor hair of one Hanabi Uchiha, whom he'd been paired up with in order for him to help watch her back while they take care of the bandits.

Anzo himself had asked that his last name remain anonymous when she receives her briefing for the mission; he was at least smart enough to recognize that most people would be grossed out by the bugs of the Aburame clan, much less bugs in general, so he'd decided that keeping them hidden from her would be an interesting challenge, at least for the next few missions they would be doing together.

Just then, he thinks he sees a figure in the distance, and he hops down from the signpost, standing at his usual nearly six-and-a-half foot size with his hands in his red jacket pockets. Anzo didn't even have any ninja tools on him; he was, at least for the moment, focused on ninjutsu up to that point. He hoped that wouldn't mean that he and the Uchiha he was participating in this mission with wouldn't be unprepared, but more importantly, he hoped he could prove to this, probably self-righteous, Uchiha that other people were capable of some real power. Anzo waits for her to reach him before he lifts one hand in a nonchalant wave for her, his words were straight to business, and it seemed he was ready to get this show on the road; by outward appearances, he was calm, maybe even a little aloof, but inside, he was antsy, ready to prove himself.

"Hey hey. It's Anzo. You ready to take down some bandits?"

Waking up to an empty bed was much less enjoyable now that some things had happened in the past few weeks. Her hair seemed to be more shiny and well taken care of now with a braid that traveled down the side of her head. Moving her hand across what seemed to be a side someone slept in, she gave a soft smile and stood up from her position. The sun seemed bright but the colors around her were more vibrant. Getting dressed into a more regal outfit yet casual, she moved her hair from under the clothing and made herself some breakfast. Her eyes travelled to the living room where her mother stayed asleep. She chose not to sleep in the guest bedroom, let alone in a compound that she did not take kindly to. Right, she had resided in the hyuuga compound for a while since that night her mother came back. She glanced at her left hand, a silver ring with a deep blue stone in the middle shimmered as light reflected on it. Indeed.


Hanabi glanced to the window that remained opened, a bird coming through and giving Hanabi a mission. “Hmm.. I see.” She crumbled the paper up and tossed it at her moms head before cleaning her mess up and leaving with her gear. Her hair smoothly following behind, she remained lost in thought, her amber eyes shimmering with hope. While walking towards the mission area, her head looked up and she saw what seemed to be a giant of a human, was actually the Shinobi she was paired up with. Anzo, was it? He seemed to have waved to her and called out, introducing himself and asking if she was ready. “Yo. I am. Let’s get this started, yeah?” She gave a soft smile, her features now a bit more mature. She had changed a lot within the past week or two. She seemed to have her glow back.

The sunlight seems to flash over Anzo's sunglasses when Hanabi suggests getting it started, and so he turns towards the side road that leads deeper into a forest, the kind of road where the trees have connected with one another over the road to turn their leaves and branches into a canopy that mostly blocks the sunlight, providing protection from the sun while also turning the path dark. Anzo gestures towards the road to show her where they were headed.

"I managed to track their activity this far, but merchants have since stopped going this way. That's a serious problem; the town past this road doesn't have access to our industrial tech, which they need in order to continue their effective hunting. And their hunting provides our village with some highly prized wild meat. I'm pretty sure we're close to where the bandits have set up an ambush point; the plan is to pretend to be a defenseless couple out on a stroll in order to lure them out into a reverse ambush."

Despite his hands mostly staying in the pockets of his flashy red jacket, he extends his elbow out towards her, offering her an arm to hold as he begins to walk towards the path with the overhanging branches, then looks at her through the side of his sunglasses. His eyes are dark and harshly serious, though his words are simply matter-of-fact and lacking in any abnormal amount of anger.

"While I don't think their crimes are punishable by death, they're not likely to simply give up, even if we reveal ourselves to be ninja. I'm expecting them to fight all the harder once we spring our own trap on them. But, what they don't know is that we outnumber them, a dozen to a man. Good that you brought your jewelry; it will play into the disguise even more."

These words are said in a whisper, and then he suddenly laughs uproariously, as though Hanabi had made some fine jest as they soon came upon a barricade in the road, extending just far enough to either side that although a wagon could go around, it would almost definitely need to stop in order to reposition. Posted on either end of the barricade are 3 burly men, totaling a half-dozen. Anzo stops his walking when the bandits demand that they stop and pay the toll for the road, and the ninja tries out a cheerful tone.

"Oh-hoh! I wasn't aware of the toll! I haven't much money on me, you see...! But, you're welcome to what I have, let me just pull out my wallet!"

Immediately after this response to the bandits, he whispers back down to Hanabi so only she can hear. The bandits themselves seem too distracted to interfere much while Anzo pulls both hands out of his jacket pockets, gently removing his arm from Hanabi's own to make it look like he's getting out his ryo pouch.

"You take the ones on the right, I'll get rid of the ones on the left. On my mark."

Hanabi nodded while listening to Anzo, honestly praising the fact that he had done all of this despite him being only a Genin like her. Though she would be considered a Chuunin, she still respected him as an equal. She continues walking, down the path with Anzo, her ring slightly shining, her thoughts somewhere else for a moment. When Anzo put his elbow out, hearing him explain the situation and beginning plan, she chose to play along, simply grabbing on to the elbow/forearm of Anzo. Of course she was only engaged just recently, she still felt to be polite and respect her complicated relationship. Her amber eyes gazed up at Anzo, only able to see some color of his eyes from her angle but not a whole lot. Where they green? No… That wasn’t right…


As Anzo began laughing, it started Hanabi for a few before looking at the three men, in which her laugh started out fake for a moment until she began playing her part. “Oh honey, silly you. I’m sure they won’t mind waiting, will they?” Her amber eyes blinked slowly, her eyelashes fluttering just enough to flirt with the men, her eyes trailing to her pretend sweetheart. Her ears somewhat perked to the whisper and she gave a small chuckle, using this time to really try out her new eyes. If we rewind a bit back, when Hanabi glanced at the three men, her golden three tomoe sharingan had been active, giving off a Genjutsu that hadn’t taken effect yet. In only a matter of seconds, she had activated and deactivated her Sharingan, before really looking at Anzo. “No need for that.” Hanabi would stand up and glance at the three men who would then start to scream and back up from Hanabi, herself getting closer to them. “Which one of you will tell us where the others are, hmm?” They would all continuously scream until they admitted that it was only the 6 of them. That’s when Hanabi would wack all of them with the cover of her sword, knocking them unconscious. “Let’s go.” She would give a smile to Anzo and performed a string of handseals to summon a Ember wolf. At this point, they were well within the 50m radius between the other three, leaving Hanabi to summon said ember wolf right next to the bandits from her mouth. This wolf would lunge at one while the other two would go after Anzo, waving their weapons and attempting to hit him.

---

Due to a change in Hanabi’s Update, she now gains +5 exp from being in threads with more than one person. I also don’t care for chakra drain since it’s not a serious mission.

Social Butterfly (Custom UA):

(Universal claim of all gen)

Jutsu Used:

Anzo is taken aback when Hanabi suddenly turns to look at her three bandits, causing them to scream in fear. The other three bandits on the opposite side of the barricade are apparently surprised by their comrades' apparent and very real terror just from what appeared to be Hanabi's gaze. With the admission that it was only those six bandits in their entire group, Anzo figures this will likely be an easy match, as he's already beginning to perform handseals while Hanabi is busy knocking her three bandits out with the scabbard of her blade. With the two remaining bandits approaching him while his third bandit is being kept busy with the wolf made of flame, Anzo completes the last handseal as his right fist becomes surrounded by stones.

He takes on the Strong Fist stance, then strikes the first approaching bandit on his right with that fist, breaking his nose and smashing him down to the ground with the weight of the stones covering his fist up to his elbow. While this might seem to provide a very wide opening for the other bandit, this couldn't be further from the truth. Even as he raises a sword above his head to attack Anzo, the genin is already coating his left arm in Doton chakra, pressing his fingers together before thrusting his left arm straight through the other attacker's chest, piercing directly through his torso and ending his life almost instantly.

Anzo then rises and pushes the bandit off of his arm as stones drop from his right arm so he can lift his hand to push the yellow sunglasses back up his nose, firmly pressing the sunglasses back in place before staring at Hanabi and the other unconscious bandits that the woman had somehow struck fear into without so much as a word; Anzo's expression is unreadable, not least of which is because almost the entire bottom half of his face is covered by the high collar of his jacket.

"Well, that job's done. I'll see you in the next one, yeah?"

He turns from the two bandits he'd almost instantly destroyed, walking back towards Konoha by following the trail. He was glad he'd been able to get through the entire mission without revealing his insects, but the other woman's abilities were... odd, to say the least. If this was the power of the Uchiha, he'd have to be careful about letting his parents' background be known for them.

(THREAD EXIT)

Hana I would glance to Anzo, watching him take out the rest, her wolf diminishing into the air, blue flakes of flames flowing through the wind. “That’s a job well done.” She would say in agreement, while flipping her hair from over her should and give Anzo a nod, seeing him walk away and say his goodbye. She would wave to him and follow behind him, taking in the scenery. It was quite nice out actually and she had only needed to do a few more missions before reaching Chunin. Hanabi rolled her neck and began sprinting to Konoha, passing Anzo and leaving to go find other missions. Anzo.. he was a particular person and he did seem off. Maybe she’d get to know him more….


[exit thread. Total exp gain: 45]