Ban: Spying Eyes - 11/00/17

== Participants ==
Nara Ban
== Spying Eyes ==
Kare: Jonin: “Thanks to your efforts out on the field, we were able to locate Kazama’s remains to match the DNA evidence you provided, but unfortunately for us, the death of Kazama has done little to minimize the presence of bandits outside the eastern border of the village.” Ban: “To be honest, I didn’t think his death would have much of an effect on the situation due to the small scale of his operation.” Jonin: “I see. Well we’ve recently received intel from one of patrolling squads with the location of a village hidden within the dense forest around the eastern border. We want you to infiltrate the village and gather intel on their intentions, got it?” Ban: “Understood.” - The jonin stood from her seat and handed Ban a scroll containing intel on the location of the village. Ban took hold of the scroll and nodded at the jonin before weaving the tiger hand seal and flickering out of the office without leaving behind a cloud of smoke. Within the blink of an eye Ban had exited the Academy and positioned himself on the roof of the building. He stood there with hood of his sage colored poncho covering his head from the downpour. The poncho effectively covered the entirety of his body with the exception of everything below his knees. Underneath the poncho, Ban wore a black short sleeved skintight thermal under a black long sleeved pullover sweatshirt, black tapered cargo pants, black standard issued shinobi sandals that exposed his toes and heels. Hidden under the shadow casted by his hood, Ban wore his tinted goggles, a compact metal rebreather with a matte finish and his forehead protector with Amegakure’s symbol engraved into the metal plate. Strapped around his chest was a patched up dark brown leather harness that contained a holster on his right shoulder for his tanto, which carried with him at all times; the harness is similar to the one Shisui wore, except it extends to cover the left side of his chest as well. The harness contains an elastic storage compartment fit for about two small scrolls over the left pectoral muscle, which Ban used to store one small scroll that he used to seal his replenished first-aid kit, along with the scroll the jonin had given him. Ban wore armored bracers that covered the full extent of his forearms to provide extra defense during hand-to-hand combat and projectiles. The right bracer was modified to be capable of holstering a kunaI with an explosive tag wrapped around its handle under his forearm. Around his waist rested a medium satchel made of the same leather used to make his harness, containing the rest of his tools, such as kunai, shuriken, wire string, flash and smoke bombs, and explosive tags. As the rain relentlessly poured down onto the village, Ban shifted his attention east and wove the tiger hand seal once more. With the completion of the hand seal, Ban flickered away from the rooftop of the Academy and reappeared crouched on a tree branch just outside of the village. He reached for the scroll the jonin had handed him earlier in the day and unraveled it to look at its contents. - ‘So it seems like the village is located by a river not too far from Kazama’s hideout.’ - Ban thought to himself as he began to maneuver through the trees, swiftly leaping from branch to the branch, heading towards the direction of the ruins of Kazama’s hideout. As Ban traversed through the forest, he noticed the markings he left behind the last time he was in the forest hunting down Kazama and utilized them to locate the hideout with ease. Soon after arriving to the scene of the hideout, Ban was a bit shocked to see that the ground where the well once laid had sunken several meters below the surface, creating a large hole with a layer of collapsed trees resting at the bottom. Ban cautiously made his way around the edge of the hole using the tree branches. Wandering deeper into the forest, further and further away from Amegakure, Ban eventually came across a small river and came to a stop to analyze the surroundings. As his eyes peered through his goggles and scanned the area, he noticed a trail of footprints along the riverbank. He extended both his index and middle finger upwards with his left hand and then with his right hand, used the same fingers and crossed them over the other to form the hand seal and concentrated his chakra outwards. A cloud of smoke erupted beside him on the tree branch and an identical shadow clone of himself appeared. Ban signaled the clone to go investigate and it leapt from the tree branch to further inspect the footprints. The clone kneeled down and closely looked over the footprints to identify a party of five individuals and based on the depth and freshness of the footprints, they were carry heavy baggage; probably loot from traveling merchants and recently passed through the area. The clone dispersed and all the information it had gathered was relayed back to Ban. - ‘Shouldn’t be surprised, the intel did state the village was located nearby a river.’ - He thought to himself as he followed the direction of the footprints while remaining hidden within the trees. As he continued to follow the footprints, he soon caught sight of a bridge and stopped in his tracks to take in the sight. Two men were posted up by the bridge, most likely guarding it,but they looked more like farmers than shinobi, Ban thought as he carefully watched them chitchat with one another. - ‘The village is probably just over the bridge.’ - Ban decided to use Dustless Bewildering Cover, pouring his chakra outwards in the area around him, mixing it with the water vapor already in the area to bend the light reflecting off of him to mask his physical presence and erase his chakra signature all together. As the two men entertained one another, Ban leapt off the tree branch and cautiously made his way towards the bridge while remaining hidden from the naked eye. Ban crept onto the bridge and slowly began carefully walking across it, trying not to alert the two men to his presence by disrupting the surroundings, but they were too distracted with themselves to even care to pay attention. As Ban made his way over to the other end of the bridge, the faint sound of a bustling village echoed throughout the forest and instantly caught his attention. Ban leapt back up into the trees and dispersed Dustless Bewildering Cover to reserve chakra. Now hidden within the trees, Ban began to follow the faint sound of the village and only after a few minutes of travelling through the trees he came to the sight of the village. Everyone Ban laid his eyes on was armed, but what stood out to him were the few individuals that were their forehead protectors, but they had defaced their village symbol by crossing it out. - ‘These men have deserted their village to live the life of a criminal, such a shame.’ - He thought to himself as he further analyzed the area. -
Kare: - It was obvious that these men and women were up to no good, but Ban had to figure out what exactly they were up to and he couldn’t do that from the safety of the trees. Ban leapt from the tree branch making sure to remain hidden from any onlookers and would kneel down beside the trunk while focusing on the image of a mouse and began to weave the following hand seals, dog, boar and finally ram. A cloud of smoke cloaked the entirety of his body and as it dispersed, in Ban’s place laid a small dark gray mouse, the Transformation Jutsu was a success. - ‘This is better than nothing.’ - He thought to himself as he maneuvered his way through the gap in the barbed wire wooden fence surrounding the village. Being in the form of a mouse was quite unfamiliar to Ban, so he was having a bit of trouble keeping the form up, but he took a moment to regain himself and proceeded onward further into the village using the network of cracks and tunnels left behind by other rodents to effectively make his way through the village while snooping on the conversations, listening in for anything useful that might help him figure out what exactly is going on in this village. Eventually he came up to something interesting, a group of women sitting together around a table, drinking tea in a small bakery. There was nothing special about these women except for the conversation they were having. - Woman #1: “I can’t believe these idiots think it’s a good idea to set up so close to Amegakure.” Woman #2: “I know! They’re putting us all at risk just by thinking about attacking Amegakure and they don’t even care.” Elderly Woman: “Will you two hush! You shouldn’t be talking so freely, someone might here you.” Woman #2: “Yeah, you’re right. It’s best not to talk about this.” Woman #1: “Any news on your son?” - As the conversation derailed from the topic of interest, Ban took a mental note of the village’s plan on attacking Amegakure, but hearing it from this particular group of individuals wasn’t going to suffice. Ban had to hear it from someone of importance to validate what he had just heard, so he pressed onward and made his way out of the bakery from the gap underneath the front door. He hid under a bench by the entrance and scanned the area, looking for people of interest. After a few minutes, he noticed a group of five shinobi all battered up as if they had just came from battle and beside them laid an awful lot of trade goods and basic shinobi weapons. - ‘This must be the group who left behind the trail of footprints.’ - He thought to himself and began to quickly, yet stealthly creep up on their camp. - Rogue #1: “So when do we head out?” Rogue #2: “As soon as we get a bit of rest. We just came from a run.” Rouge #1: “But I still got that itch!” Rogue #3: “Then why don’t you just go scratch it, you shit. I’m tired.” Rouge #1: “You’re always fucking tired.” Rogue #4: “Shut you two. I’ll head out tonight and scoop out the area just outside the eastern gate of Amegakure to make sure everything is clear for the attack.” - As they spoke among themselves, Ban had crept up alongside the tent behind them and wiggled under some of the fabric to hide himself. - ‘I can’t believe they’re really trying to attack Amegakure.’ - He thought to himself as he listened in on the conversation. - Rogue #5: “We’ll use the explosives we looted from those miners to blow up points of interest within the village, but we’ll talk about that later tonight.” Rogue #1: “Let’s blow shit up!” Rogue #3: “Where’d you get this fucking guy?” Rogue #4: “If you don't have any valuable input, don’t say it at all. That goes for the both of you.” - As they mentioned explosives it suddenly registered with Ban that among all the loot they brought in with them was a stockpile of gunpowder. -
== Summary ==
To be announced