the Kage's Summons [PLOT]

SOME MAY CHOOSE TO DESTROY WHAT OTHERS MAY CHOOSE TO PROTECT

He closed his eyes, all but the third, for several long moments as he rested there with his back against the gate and his arms folded across his chest. With the occasional breeze that danced past the small group of four, soon to be five, his ebony tresses seemed to dance along with its partner. As long moments passed the group soon feel into an uneasy silence. All but one of the genin had, at this point, fallen into boredom and resolved it by staring at the Tsuchikage. Meanwhile the Tsuchikage remained there, motionless, almost as though he were a wild cat lying in wait for its prey to lower its guard. Then the moments passed and finally he moved.

He opened his eyes as he knew the clock struck noon. Almost as if on cue, he could see the familiar figure of the chuunin that he had summoned here today. He watched her as she descended down the path towards the large gates that loomed between the village and training grounds fifty-seven. By the time she had fully approached the group, all three of the genin were eyeing her with curiosity. They were wondering just what she was doing here at this location, not only that but what they themselves were doing here. Hiryuu had left them just as much in the dark as her.

As she addressed him he held up a hand as if to stop all pardons and politeness right there, then with the flick of his wrist, drew and kunai from his pouch and quickly closed the gap between her and himself getting close to her and holding the kunai at her throat as if he were going to kill her then and there. "From now on I am your enemy. Do not address me as Tsuchikage but rather your target." The genin were all baffled as to their leader's actions, however before any of them could react the Tsuchikage leaped back and high into the air landing upon the gate. "You have until dusk to find and defeat me," he addressed the group as a whole. Then with that, he vanished beyond the gate into the heavily forested and highly dangerous training grounds beyond. Having been in this area himself hundreds of times before, Hiryuu knew well he could survive in this forest until the allotted time, however he could only worry about the genin he had chosen the throw into this frey. Of course they were all exceptional, possible candidates for chuunin, and of course only this little 'test' could really tell Hiryuu whether or not any of them were up for the task.

Still shocked by what just happened, two of the genin seemed to be frozen in their places, however Takakana by this point stood and approached Masumi. "He isn't really our enemy, is he?" She seemed to be looking for insight as to what the heck just happened. The Tsuchikage couldn't have really gone rogue on them, could he have? If so, should they go get help? Takakana didn't know what to do and the other two genin were too much like statues to be of any help.

REMAIN DEFIANT UNTIL THE END, AND WE'LL BRING CHANGE

SOME MAY CHOOSE TO DESTROY WHAT OTHERS MAY CHOOSE TO PROTECT

Hiryuu leaped through the trees careful to avoid any of the areas where extremely dangerous and sensitive creatures were known to live. He had already had a destination in mind for where he wanted to go, all that mattered now was getting to the mother tree without getting eaten alive first.

Falling down towards the ground, Hiryuu grappled his arms around a tree branch and used it to swin himself upwards again performing a flip in the air as he did so. Once he was right side up again, he landed for a moment on a large tree branch before kicking off again using enough force to leave a sizable mark on the branch, purposely leaving a clue behind for his pursuers. After all, he didn't want it to be impossible for them to find him, just difficult.

---

Takakana nodded her head the expression on her face becoming much more serious. "Right, so then we need to take him down just like any enemy." Her crimson gaze shifted over towards the forest a small look of worry on her face, "Hiryuu-nii won't be an easy opponent to win over. Which means we need to exploit his weaknesses..." As she noticed Masumi move on ahead she jumped to and dragged the other two genin with her into the forested training grounds.

"Oi Takakana, you certain we can take down your cousin," ask Moriyama as he pulled his hand away from her grip and proceeded to follow of his own accord. Takakana laughed weakly at this, "Actually I have no clue, but if we work together we can at least manage to catch him. At least that's what I hope, hehe. Hiryuu-nii out classes me so bad, I'm actually not that sure." Looking over her shoulder a moment she casted a glance to Tori whom continued to follow silently with one hand on the hilt of his katana as he readied himself to jump into action at any given moment. "There are four of us and one of him. One of us is a chuunin, one is a genjutsu and clay user, one is a swordsman, and one specializes in ninjutsu. We're certain to be able to at least pull something off, right?" By her voice Takakana absolutely did not sound confident that they would succeed, but she was at least trying to think of something.

Moriyama, meanwhile, looked to Masumi, "Yeah, Takakana is good with traps. Her clay abilities make for natural traps and plus she can use genjutsu. I'm really only good for attack straight on and Tori, well he slices and dices."

REMAIN DEFIANT UNTIL THE END, AND WE'LL BRING CHANGE

SOME MAY CHOOSE TO DESTROY WHAT OTHERS MAY CHOOSE TO PROTECT

Takakana nodded her ivory haired head, "Clay techniques are basically refined earth techniques. However they are malleable, so say i throw a clay shuriken and manage to hit his leg or something, it wouldn't cut him but rather splatter on impact and attach to him." Takakana quickly pulled a kunai out of her pouch, "As such Tsubasa are often called in for tasks such as subduing beasts." She threw the kunai nailing a giant serpent in its weak spot and felling it.

Moriyama then took this moment to speak, "That's all great and everything, but how will that help us capture someone like Lord Tsuchikage whom likely knows all of this?"

Takakana smirked, "Because every shinobi has a weakness and Hiryuu-nii's weakness is his fatal flaw." She slashed at a smaller snake that had crept up behind Moriyama, "Think about it, he has a strong sixth sense, what else does that make him vulnerable to?" Moriyama remained silent for a while and when he didn't respond Takakana sighed, "Illusions." Takakana jumped when she heard something go splat right behind her. When she turned on the ball of her foot the sight of what was so close to her disgusted her. Tori had drawn his katana and sliced right through a poisonous centipede's dead pinning it to a tree and killing it. He then proceeded to remove his katana and clean off any blood and poison. "Uhhh, thanks Tori." The boy nodded his head and moved onward into the forest. It would not take Takakana and Moriyama long to follow.

Meanwhile, deeper in the forest Hiryuu continued to bound from tree to tree. As he got farther into the forest he started to make more and more signs of passage that would likely throw the team tracking him off of his trail if they were not careful. Stopping for a moment as he landed on a rather large branch high up in the tree tops he placed his hand on the trunk as he surveyed the area. "I don't want to make the task too difficult for them, which is why I've determined that I'm going to hold back to perhaps jounin maybe chuunin level on my part, but...." He looked down towards the forest floor as he watched a large lizard crawl among the brush, "I just hope this isn't too much for the genin. A lot of dangerous animals live here." Focusing his chakra now to his third eye Hiryuu opened his sixth sense and searched back to the forest entrance to see how close they might be to his trail. Well well, seems like they were on the right path.

Good.

REMAIN DEFIANT UNTIL THE END, AND WE'LL BRING CHANGE