Right back to where we started

Ataku on his way back the walls of the village, Ataku is back to being visibly upset as he still cant catch up to Yuuka. Ataku had been trying since his release from the hospital, but it seems that he lost way too much time to the newly crowned chuunin. He feels that his pride has been damaged to levels he cannot comprehend and his resolve is being tested. Ataku feels a boiling in his blood as if they sparred again right now, that he still probably cant land a hit on Yuuka. Ataku isnt sure if he is losing his will to fight since that spar or if he is scared to fight after the injuries he sustained in the spar. Even though his lust for ranking up has multiplied ten fold, he has only taken missions that require no real fighting at all. Even with all of his training, is he still not confident in his own ability? These thoughts only depress Ataku and distract him from the mission at hand. Going into this mission it looks apparent that his morale is low as he makes it to the location. As he regains what focus he has going into this mission he is met by a swarm of panicking villagers. The first thing Ataku must do is retain order in the area. Ataku un-sheaths Tenro and sends a gust of wind at the panicking villagers. Ataku then slams Tenro against the ground and yells "I'm Ataku a Gennin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and im here to restore order in this area." The anger is apparent in Ataku's voice now as the villagers stop what they are doing and look towards the gennin. "Everything is fine, return to your regular activites a squad will be here shortly to protect the border. You will all be fine it was an earthquake." With the people calmed down for the second, Ataku waits at the border for the rest of his team to arrive.

(Got an essay to finish up, short post sorry)

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Aside from the rumbling of his stomach, Sepulcher was not so much disturbed by the earthquake as he was disturbed that he was not dressed in his formal village uniform attire, but found himself racing for the gate in his casual kimono+armor attire (Click for full-body image). It was a great day, not the best at heart, but nonetheless it was bearable. Being a new Tokubetsu Jōnin to Konohagakure no Sato was a fairly decent experience as far as he could tell, nothing immediately striking out as signs of being unwanted. Then again, being unwanted would not seem as a bad prospect. Then again, indifference permeated from the somewhat-young lad, leading him to strive on without much damage to his self esteem if he were to be accosted for being originally an Otogakure no Sato Tokubetsu Jōnin. The Hokage did not seem to mind much, as she herself had assigned him to oversee public security just in the situation that the seismic activity was anything but a natural occurrence. Two-day surveillance did not seem so bad as it sounded, many weeks Sepulcher went sleepless for rather trivial reasons. Hearing the commanding voice of someone not too far up ahead he makes quick use of the Body Flicker Technique with a measly Ram seal. As he approached he noticed it was one of the Genin assigned, although he didn't know this Genin's name. Citizens begin returning into the village as Sepulcher descends to the vicinity of the Genin."That is great effective crowd control you have there." He bowed, eyes still fixed on the Genin. "I am the Tokubetsu Jōnin assigned to help in the patrolling. Sepulcher Senju at your aid."

As Ataku attempts to settle down against the gate walls, while looking out to the land bordering Konoha and Suna as the supposed new special jounin arrives to meet him at the gate. Ataku sees him coming but pays little to no real attention to him as his attention is still scattered as those thoughts keep bouncing back to how he view himself in strength right now. When the jounin makes it to him, Ataku's head is still too clouded and distracted ot make out what the jounin is saying only seeing that he bowed infront of him. Ataku finds this wierd, as the man has no real reason for doing so. Was he thanking him? Was he greeting him? Ataku is not sure, as it feels that his mind is caught in a hurricane, as its clouded and swirling with a low visibility rate and no end in site. In the back of his mind, Ataku knows that he is at risk to compromising the mission if his mindset stays like this, but that promotion to chuunin is so close he can taste it. The only thing that is clear to Ataku in his mind right now is standing on Yuuka's level and being able to atleast trade damage with here. He has no intentions to kill or maim but only to leave Yuuka in the way she left him, resting in a hospital. This ambition and pride driven haze of terror in his head calms for a second as the Jounin says

Quote :

"I am the Tokubetsu Jōnin assigned to help in the patrolling. Sepulcher Senju at your aid."

Ataku free of the haze as of now responds with "Oh, hi im Ataku, i dont think that you are assigned to help, but more like lead this mission as you are the highest ranking ninja here. I'm at your aid, I got just here before you is all."

Returning from his previous mission, the black haired Kirishiki found himself reaching the gates of the village where he noticed quite an commotion. While he was on his way towards the village he did notice an earthquake occurring and it sorta felt weird as such events would rarely take place in this area. Right away he figured that the commotion that was caused here was due to the earthquake that occurred earlier and the people at the gates were the ones responsible for clearing up the confusion. Wishing to help, Cidolfus would perform a single hand seal and activate his Body Flicker technique. He noticed that the path between him and the gates was clear, there were no obstacles  that could get in his way while he was using this technique, hence why he was not hesitating to use it. With the Body Flicker technique his return to the village would be hastened and in a matter of moments he would cross the distance that separated him from the village. Luckily Cidolfus was not quite far away from the gates so he didn't have to waste time this way.

Once the black haired male appeared, he noticed a quite familiar face among the shinobi that were in charge, a young boy who he finished a mission with a while ago. Right away he would run up to the other youngster and utter: "Yo, whats the commotion about? I just came back, so mind filling me in on things?"

Ataku still leaning against the village walls sees cid body flicker his way up to him. Ataku raises his hand in a slight greeting as Cid steps up to him. Cid apparently took his time coming back to the village from the direction he came in, as Ataku had already made it back, grabbed the mission info and returned to the walls by the time it took Cid to just get back to the walls themself. Cid asks about what he missed and Ataku responds with " Theres been a Quake in the area, its source is unknown. Not sure if its natural or set up by either sand or Iwa. The Queen assigned squads of gennin and jounin to check that everything is alright in the village. Our job here is to keep the people, the gates and the border secure. This guy here is a new special jounin whos been put in charge of us, and by us i mean you, shika, and me. I've calmed the people for now and if you didnt see anybody on your way back that means that for the borders are clear for now." Ataku sighs as he doesnt know when this third member will show up. Ataku expects little from him since the gennin was practically a no show on filling the holes. The three of them should be able ot handle a small force if it came their way or atleast buy enough time for reinforcements to show up, but for the time being he will just wait here leaning on the wall checking the borders for activity.

Sharp eyes were keeping watchful of the entire vicinity, Sepulcher's eyes. Taking the careful time given to him during the wait for the soon-to-arrive approaching Genin the Senju looked around in the hopes of discovering anything relating to that of the occurrence of the sudden seismic activity felt in the village not too long ago. Times like this he had wished that he had taken more Sensory-like abilities that could intertwine with Earth Release to search for the origin. As far as he could remember, Konohagakure no Sato was not sitting atop of a fault line, nor was there any such significant fault line as hypothesized in the immediate area (with such a closeness to still shake up the ground in the area and village). It would not have been a stretch to say Sepulcher was indefinitely baffled on that portion of the whole situation given at hand, but he had his mind still focused on looking out for physical signs and the other Genin that were to arrive themselves. Just then actually, a new Genin made his way to the area, a dark-haired fellow to whom Ataku seemed to know already. Sepulcher was not surprised that the new Genin did not inquire of him of the nature of the situation. Hopefully, they would get to know each other more, just enough to get along at the least. Noting that two of the proposed Genin had made their way, the third one's presence was expected to show up rather soon, hopefully. Turning to the two Genin while his eyes kept watch on the immediate landscape Sepulcher would speak with resoundingly calmness:

"Do any of you two know whom the third Genin in this party is supposed to be, or his current whereabouts?"

Ataku turns back to Seplcher as he asks if we know who the third gennin is and where he is. Ataku Shrugs his shoulders as he doesnt know even know this third gennin actually looks like. "I have no idea what our third member is or what he looks like, or even know if hes in the village right now. I dont think we really even need him to help us on this mission." Ataku points back to the villagers along the walls. "The villagers are already calmed down, the only thing really left for us to do here is to watch the walls and village borders for a little while longer and then we should be able to report back to Queen-sama with our report. Ataku scans back outward pass the gates and too the border and thinks to himself "isnt really a squad building exercise, was there even an order we were put into squads in? Ataku had never seen or heard of even half of these ninja that were called off to do missions." Ataku passes this thought by as the group continues to wait at the gates not letting anyone in or out as instructed. Ataku yawns as no one in the group makes any small talk during the 48 hours of waiting that the squad has to stay at the gates for.

[Yay, we be done.]

"Yeah, I didn't see anybody from where I came from. I did notice the earthquake and it seemed odd how one would occur in this area. I mean, such a possibility always existed, but natural earthquakes occur rarely in our country. There is a rather possibility of an Earth Release user causing it. However, considering I did not see anyone, I sorta doubt it." With those words the black haired male would simply reply to his fellow Genin and the other person who was there would probably hear his reply as well so all of them had shared the information that they had on the situation. After waiting for quite a while, the black haired Kirishiki would simply turn around to his teammates and simply add: "Well, I doubt our last member is showing up. Same with any enemy shinobi. So, I am gonna go do the wall patrolling mission. If you want, you can come with me Ataku-kun." With those words said, Cidolfus would turn around and head to the guard post of the gates.

Exit

Ataku nods as it is unlikely that it to be an earth release user as there was no invasion behind said earthquake and it did not look like it did any substantial damage to the village at all, just cracks and some uneven ground scattered across at places. "So it must be a natural occurrence then, but out of security reasons we were all dispatched to make sure it was just that, a natural occurrence." After saying this Cid preps to head off, the black haired gennin asks Ataku if he wants to go do another mission with him. "Hey we need to catch up anyway, we cant let Yuuka sit on her thrown and look down on us" A semi-devilish smile comes across Ataku's face as he removes his scythe fromt he earth and and re-holsters it. "It was nice meeting you Sepulcher, I hope we can get a more formal meeting done later. Ataku waves goodbye to the Jounin and heads off with Cid.

exit>>

Watching the two depart on their own excursions Sepulcher did hope that, eventually, he would greet them under more formal and calmer circumstances. No where in sight was the supposed third Genin of the incomplete trio, and everything seemingly turned back to normal within the general vicinity. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the meanwhile, however, Sepulcher did not have complete assurance in the fact that it was just an earthquake. He felt something else going on behind the scenes, but given the time he had now, that event would be settled when it arose. Turning to the village he would use the Body Flicker Technique and seemingly disappear from sight, appearing well into the village in the direction of the Administrative Buildings or somewhere else that would capture his attention.

[EXIT]