NationStates Jolt Archive

Max watched the battles with interest, evaluating the various competitors, those vanquished, those battling and those still to come. It would be most enjoyable to test himself against them. While most commonly used tactic was quite effective, he wasn't a measly one trick pony and enjoyed seeing how the genin from other villages fought.

Wooshaba']Lialai smiled and said, "Fire? Is that all you got?" Lialai called on the wind and used it to knock the fireballs away from her. As the powerful blasts of air hit them they simply dismembered. Lialai then said, "Lightning should be interesting right about now." Lialai began snapping her fingers. At each snap lightning came down and struck at Kagome. Some of them were bound to hit. The faster she snapped the more thunderbolts came down.

Gordunt thought to himself, She can do that all day. It is useful because she doesn't have to use chakra to call on her lightning. Everyone sat back and watched the lightning strikes that Lialai had called.
"Crap!" Lightning struck all around Kagome and then a particularly large bolt struck where she landed. However, a log took the blow and split in half.

"Damn. That was close." A voice and the smell of ozone appeared behind Lialai. Kagome's hair and flesh was singed, but otherwise, she Kawarmied quickly. "Now's my turn!"

Instead of fire, iceballs rained upon Lialai. Each one of the balls, if struck, could freeze anyone solid, even a Jedi.

Lialai dodged around as iceballs rained down from the sky. One small ball hit her in her left leg. Damn. A ball about the size of a basketball headed straight at Lialai. At the last minute she snapped her fingers and caused lightning bolt to strike the ball causing it to explode everywhere. Lialai teleported her body out of the ice block. A mist appeared and with a lightning strike, Lialai lept through with her yellow lightsaber drawn. She was ready to fight hand-to-hand combat. She yelled to the girl, "Pull out your weapon. Let's see what you can do with it." As she neared her she blasted Kagome with the wind.

"Ugh! Too windy for me!" Kagome groused. But she jumped backwards, rolling on her back and righted herself. In her hands were a pair of lightsabers, both violet. "Let's go!"

Lialai thought to herself, This is what I am talking about. Lialai took up a classic Makashi stance. She walked towards her opponent slowly. Over the years she had mastered four disciplines. She was very proud of herself. When she got close she slashed the lightsaber at her opponent.

OOC: Makashi.

IC:

With one blade, Kagome blocked and the other, she attacked. It is a variant of Ataro called Jar'Kai, the two-handed saber style. While not an expert yet, Kagome's pretty good in her own right.

Masato folded his arms as he leaned against the wall. Hmph... everyone is using lightsabers, how cheap. His eyes moved across to his two team-mates, both Shun and Sayuri had yet to fight. They would both lose their respective matches, he felt.

Daniel was watching the fight with interest, he was particularly interested in the fact that Kagome was weilding two lightsabers.

Jar'kai, huh? It is really no good if you don't know how to use it. Lialai stepped back and waited for an oppurtunity to open up. When she saw one she slashed at Kagome's upper thigh.

OOC: Posting on behalf of CW.

Close, but not close enough! Kagome smirked as she sensed the slash and connected her two blades with the other one in an X-block. Next, she used her strength to get inside the sword guard and shoulder-throw her opponent, using the blades as leverage...

Lialai used her left hand to create a force wind to knock her back. She thought to herself, She's better than I thought. Lialai took up an Ataru stance and began leaping all around her. Slashing at her from all directions.

Kagome blocked several of the strikes, but soon enough, the blows took their toll as she weakened from the numerous wounds recieved in the fight. To was to the point where she couldn't move well and she was forced to yield. "I yield."

"Lialai wins!" Shikamaru announced.

Medic-nin streamed out to treat Kagome and take her away while the last few contestants, Reika, Janus, Shamman, Max, Sayuri and Shun anticipated the next battle...

The scoreboard reported...

Reika vs Max!

"Heh. My turn." Reika said, bouncing down to the arena just before a presence was felt behind Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura smiled.

"Sakura." Sasuke smiled back. "She's up."

"Then I made it just in time. Crazy kids..." Sakura grumbled.

"Heh. Hard class?" Naruto asked.

"You have no idea..." Sakura sighed. She's training students in the way of the Medic at the academy, so her job is tougher than most B-level missions.

Barak walked out Lialai and said, "Congratulations. You did very well." Lialai smiled and said, "Thank you, Barak Sensei. Kagome fought very well. I am going to have to visit her in the hospital." Gordunt and Shaoel ran over and said, "Good job Lialai!" Gordunt beaming said, "I knew you would win." Shaoel nodded in agreement. Barak looked at her and said, "After these prelims are over I have a very special training assignment for you three. The Raikage is coming so Lialai you need to be at peak condition." Lialai nodded and smiled. She looked at a scar that she had gotten while at the Jedi Academy and smiled. She had come a long way. She went with Gordunt and Shaoel back to their seats. Barak went back over with the Jounin.

Max grinned, thought it was imperceptible behind his hair, as he walked down to the arena. "Good luck there." He commented, his voice sounding like it was coming from someone standing slightly behind her.

As Max awaited the start of the match, he began stretching.

Reika pulled on black gloves, the same gloves her mother uses in combat.

"Ready?" Shikamaru asked the contestants. Reika nodded and so did Max. "Begin!"

The Uchiha girl waited for her opponent to make the first move...

"Hello there." He commented as he watcher her, "May I ask why you chose to take the test, why you didn't take the easy way out at the beginning, and what you're here for?"

His stance was loose and relaxed as he asked.

"Heh. I'm here to keep up the family trade." Reika smirked, glancing at her father from the corner of her eye. "As for your second question, that's for me to know and you to find out."

"Ah, family reasons, and do you mean I'll find out in the match, or you'll tell me after the match?" He asked, "Also do you want to begin or shall I?"

"After. Now, I'll let you do the honors." Reika said, and prepared.

"As you wish." He replied as he noticed her lightsaber with a faint scowl, thought it was hidden by the hair that covered his face. He decided to start with a bit of physical fighting simply for the novelty of it.

Quickly running forward, he dropped down, caught himself on a hand and launched a kick at Reika's stomach.

Reika saw the move, she didn't even need her Sharingan to swiftly grab the foot aiming at her stomach. Now normally, tossing somone after that will leave a bruise or the person would even recover and counterattack. Not so with Reika. She has trained with her mother, the Haruno Sakura since she was able to walk. That means she has obscene physical strength, the same kind of strength the Godaime Tsunade was famous for.

With that in mind, Reika whirled the boy around and around and then let go with a smirk. He aimed towards the giant statue of a pair of hands doing the Ram seal, and when he slammed into them, he would actually break the bronze objects in half...

Max twisted to minimize the impact, thought he still hit hard. With a grunt he stood, "You're stronger than I expected." He commented as he rubbed his side, knowing either way he'd probably have a very unpleasent bruise soon.

"But that won't clinch you victory." He added with a grin as he took a defensive stance, with one hand in front, the other behind his back. His hidden hand happened to be holding a special surprise for her.

"You're tougher than I expected." Reika smirked. Time for ninjutsu!

Reika formed the needed handseals and then put her fingers to her mouth. "Katon: Housenka no jutsu!"

Several fireballs shot out at Max...

He just chuckled at her comment as he activated his bloodline technique. As his shadow eye came into effect, she began firing off fireballs. Utilizing the shunshin jutsu to dodge her attacks.

Since she'd been the one to start the utilization of ninjutsu, he felt no compunction against returning the favour. Forming the seals for Kiri Gakure jutsu, a smile gracing his face as the thick mist rolled in.

**********

Rafael looked over at the newly arrived Sakura, "I take it that she's you daughter?" He asked as he watched Reika attempt to fireball Max. "If so she may have just made a slight mistake."

"You think?" Sakura smirked as she saw the mist roll in.

Soon, the arena was completely filled with mist, which would freak out anyone...but not Reika. She noted the activation of her opponent's bloodline -Looks a little like the Byakugan- and decided it was time for hers.

She closed her eyes, and when they opened again, they were blood-red and a single tomoe swirled around the red. Her perception of time slowed down and although she isn't capable of using it to dispell genjutsu yet, the fact remains that she could quickly react to Max's actions, even through the mist.

Next, she unhooked the lightsaber from her belt and pulled out a kunai and waited for Max' next move...

"Actually I do." He replied, "If your daughter hadn't utilized a jutsu, then I can say with a good deal of certainty she'd have won hands down, based on what I've seen of her fighting style, as it stands now..."


Max watched Rieko's actions through his active eye, his head turned slightly to bring it's field of vision more fully foreward. He smiled as this looked like it'd actually be an interesting match. He decided to test her hearing and reaction speed. Pulling the string he utilized to bind the flap on his kunai sheath closed, he drew two.

With a flick of his wrist*, he tossed both at her, one aimed at her shoulder, the other at her thigh, with one on each side of her body. Neither would be lethal, but she'd definately know she'd been hit and depending on her mindset, might even be even be enought for a yeild.

ooc: * Similar to Orochimaru(in grass nin guise) during the forest of death/selection exam

How dare you go against my little girl! Sakura screamed inwardly. Outwardly, it was a cold smile to the Jounin. "You'll find that she's full of surprises."

Reika sensed the incoming kunai and then played her next move. First, her kunai blocked one incoming knife, then her lightsaber slagged the other one, the two pieces flying safely away from her. Then she stomped the floor, hard enough to cause an earthquake that will knock Max off his feet. And finally, she breathed out another fine mist that would cover the general area Max was in. But this time, it was Katon: Kasumi Engo no Jutsu, a setup technique...

"If I could see what was going on, I might." He replied with a grin, but we'll see what happens."

"Interesting." He projected his voice to her ears as she defended herself. As she raised her foot to smash the ground he leapt up and forward, flipping himself so he was standing upside down on the ceiling. As he noticed her preforming the jutsu, sending the mist up to where he was, he dropped down so he was behind her.

Landing lightly, with a faint 'thud' he hurled two of his special 'smoke' bombs. Each one was loaded with a mix of very potent itching, and sneezing powder.

The smoke bombs exploded and Reika, though she missed the itching powder, suddenly felt like sneezing alot!

"Aaaa-choo!" Reika sneezed. "Damn..."

Between sneezes, she began her next assault, super-powerful punches and kicks raining upon the opponent behind her!

As she was sneezing and attacking, her vision still inhibited by the mist, he did the hand seals for Kiri-Shunshin. Once he'd put enought distance from the sneezing Reika and himself, he began the Suiryudan no Jutsu to knock the Kunoichi for a whirl.

OOC: Inner Sakura returned?

IC: Barak looked back at Sakura with interest. She seemed to be very proud of her daughter. He looked at Sasuke. He wasn't saying much. Just letting Sakura do all of the talking. He remembered hearing of Sasuke and Sakura. There was another one on their team name Naruto. He looked around until he saw someone with an orange jumpsuit on. The one who had yelled at Gordunt during his battle.

Interesting. Barak thought to himself. He then turned and looked at the match. Mist was everywhere. Barak thought to himself, I wonder who is going to win this one.

As she was sneezing and attacking, her vision still inhibited by the mist, he did the hand seals for Kiri-Shunshin. Once he'd put enought distance from the sneezing Reika and himself, he began the Suiryudan no Jutsu to knock the Kunoichi for a whirl.
OOC: Only when necessary, Woo.

IC:
Reika performed the Chakra Heal technique to get rid of the sneezing, but as soon as her sneezing fit cleared, her senses told her that the mist was forming into a large and powerful Water Dragon, the same technique Haruka used.

"Crap!" Reika cursed, she collected as much chakra as possible, then used Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu on the mist she had created earlier. Suddenly, a massive explosion ripped through the arena, sure to destroy the dragon and badly hurt the Mist-nin as well!

Fire crackled through the entire arena, and the Konoha jounin were lucky to form shields quickly enough to keep the explosion from harming the students. The suspense built up as the kids peered through the light and heat for the contestants...

The four Cloud ninjas quickly formed force shields to protect themselves. Barak spoke to them telekinetically, You guys okay?

Gordunt replied, Yep. That girl Reika is a fiesty one. Shaoel replied, Yeah, she is. Reminds me of you Lialai when we first met. Lialai smiled and voiced, She is interesting. Her Sharingan is very interesting. Gordunt and Shaoel nodded.

The combination of the water dragon and the misted oil assisted fireball generated a concussive shockwave and a vast amount of steam heated beyond the necessary temperature for steam to form.

Max had recieved a minute warning, causing him to spin and jump into the air to catch the shockwave and minimize the concussive impact. Smacking into the ground with a thud, he winced as the steam washed over him.

Getting mildly scalded and bashed by the shockwave hurt a great deal, but he wouldn't yield because of pain alone. Standing up with a mild grunt he looked over to where Reika had been, wondering what condition she was in as she was closer to the blast's ground-zero and it would have taken a Jounin to come out unscathed after the chakra expenditure she must have used.

Barak thought to himself, That girl Reika is in serious trouble now. That was a lot of chakra she just used and that move could have backfired onto her. I wonder how she is going to get out of this. She is a youngster. Maybe she should stop and come back again next year.

Lialai, Gordunt and Shaoel sat behind their force shields looking at the match. They had seen how the force of the shockwave had thrown both of the fighters for a loop. Shaoel thought to himself, I thought that girl Reika had it in the bag, but now I can see that this kid Max had an upperhand all along. I have no idea who is going to win. They all sat there and watched their match.

The combination of the water dragon and the misted oil assisted fireball generated a concussive shockwave and a vast amount of steam heated beyond the necessary temperature for steam to form.

Max had recieved a minute warning, causing him to spin and jump into the air to catch the shockwave and minimize the concussive impact. Smacking into the ground with a thud, he winced as the steam washed over him.

Getting mildly scalded and bashed by the shockwave hurt a great deal, but he wouldn't yield because of pain alone. Standing up with a mild grunt he looked over to where Reika had been, wondering what condition she was in as she was closer to the blast's ground-zero and it would have taken a Jounin to come out unscathed after the chakra expenditure she must have used.
The steam cleared, but Reika was nowhere to be found. It appeared that she was obliterated by her own blast, as there was nothing but a scorch mark where she once stood.

Should I call it? Looks like... Shikamaru thought.

"Oh, man. Where's Reika?" Travis cried.

"Hmm. I'm not sure..." Naruto said. He looked around the arena, then up at the ceiling. Not here...

Sasuke and Sakura were concerned about their daughter, and they too scanned the area. But, unbeknownst to them, there was one place where Reika has escaped. And that last-second avoidance is about to be revealed.

Right...about...

Now!

Right under Max's feet, the ground shook and crumbled and suddenly, a punch came flying out of the ground like a missile, aiming for his face, followed by a grinning Uchiha, eyes spinning like mad.

Even Naruto was surprised. "Heh. Brings back memories."

Max looked at the scorch mark for a second before realizing that the blast wasn't close enought to completely destroy a human body, damageit beyond recognition, but not destroy it so completely.

Bracing himself he began looking around, including up and down, for where Reika would be. Realizing there was one place he hadn't checked and alternately couldn't check was below the ground, he jumped at the same time Reika burst out of the ground.

With his minute advanced warning, her blow that was obviously intended to cold-cock him cleanly was turned into a glancing blow. Even still it split his lip, and as he landed and rolled back to his feet, he spit out some blood.

"You're very good." He commented as he brushed his hand against his jaw, "Better even than some Chunnin I've faced, but unless you're even stronger than I thought," He paused to spit out another glob of bloody saliva, "You're just about out of chakra." He gave her a grin, "And while I'd be happy if we could both pass, I'm not about to yield just yet."

Takin a stance he waited for her attack, knowing he was likewise starting to run low on chakra, but almost positive he had more remaining than she did, even if he was in somewhat worse shape than she was.

Reika merely grinned. It was true she was winded, but it was not true that her chakra was almost gone. Not by a long shot. After all, she's the daughter of an Uchiha and a Haruno, and that means a massive amount of chakra plus the ability to keep it all in check. As such, her chakra reserves have only drained by about half.

"Heh. I could do this all day." Reika smirked, rubbing sweat from her brows. "Well, time to finish this!"

Gathering her second wind, Reika attacked, lashing out with punches and kicks calculated to smash cliff walls with ease...

At the same time Reika was rubbing the sweat from her brow Max was doing the seals for a defensive jutsu that combined aspects of the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu, a modified version of Suijinheki and a faint amount of Kiri-Shunshin. As he finished the difficult jutsu he smiled, as even if she could read it, she'd never be able to copy the jutsu as it required the Shadow Eye for proper use.

Stepping back the three dopplegangers, each with a watery shield on each arm. Each strike was tap deflected which effectively forced the blows to go wide, leaving Reika open. During one such opening, Max threw two kunai and a shuriken, aiming for disabilitating locals.

Lialai looked at Gordunt and said, "It looks like the end is near for these guys. Very interesting technique. This has been the longest fight so far."

At the same time Reika was rubbing the sweat from her brow Max was doing the seals for a defensive jutsu that combined aspects of the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu, a modified version of Suijinheki and a faint amount of Kiri-Shunshin. As he finished the difficult jutsu he smiled, as even if she could read it, she'd never be able to copy the jutsu as it required the Shadow Eye for proper use.

Stepping back the three dopplegangers, each with a watery shield on each arm. Each strike was tap deflected which effectively forced the blows to go wide, leaving Reika open. During one such opening, Max threw two kunai and a shuriken, aiming for disabilitating locals.
Reika was surprised at such a technique and being tap-deflected like that, an Aikido technique similar to what the Hyuugas use, she found her going wide...and the next thing she knew, her chest were hit by the sharp implements, spilling blood and forcing her to yield so she could heal. It was a major blow for her, and the parents knew it.

"Rika yields! Maxwell wins the match!" Shikamaru announced.

"Shit." Sasuke cursed. Sakura was screaming inwardly about how she'd like to kill Max with her bare hands for doing that to her daughter, but she held a cold gaze instead.

"Kuso." Naruto agreed with his old friend, a rarity indeed. And of course, the kids were throwing verbal rotten tomatoes at Max (in other words, the insults were not fit for a child's ears).

As medics took Reika away for treatrment, followed by an wrathful mother, the scoreboard spun once again, comind down to four oppnents left...

Shun vs Tetsuo (Janus)!

Janus grinned. "Well, looks like I'm up."

"Just don't spill too much blood, brother." Jesse sighed. However this ends, the other one will probably be hospitalized in the process...

Janus pretended not to hear as blackness swirled around him and he reappeared on the arena. He waited for his victim...

Shun looked over at his opponent.

"Good luck," Sayuri said.

In a blur, Shun moved to the arena floor, he was ready for anything that Janus would throw at him.

As soon as Shikamaru declared the match ended, Max had been about to head over to help Reika, rather than correcting the Jonin about his name. As it was, with the able handling of the medical nin, the glare by Rieka's mother, and the verbal barrage, he simply bowed to Reika, before returning to the stands.

Taking a seat, Tori leaned over, "I don't care what they say, but I think you did good."
"Thank's." He replied as he got ready to watch the next match, "Do you have an aloe salve?"
Getting the salve, he began applying it to the scalded sections of skin as he relaxed his Shadow Eye.

Hmm. A quick one. Janus noted. No matter.

"Ready? Begin!" Shikamaru ordered.

A faint blackness surrounded Janus' hands and then the gravitic pull around Shun was suddenly reversed, flinging him towards the ceiling.

Shun hit the ceiling hard, but was still able to focus his chakra to his feet enabling him to stand there. That was something he hadn't been expecting, an ability he had never seen before. This was going to be difficult.

Shun looked down at his opponent, awaiting his next move.

Janus smirked and the next thing Shun knew, he was assaulted by a bunch of rocks being thrown by Janus' gravitic powers.

"Fuck," Shun swore, leaping away from the incoming rocks.

He landed some way behind Janus. The young ninja realised he had a very tough battle on his hand, one that he may very well lose. But he was going to go down fighting. Bringing out a kunai, he ran past Janus in a blur attempting to slash him as he did so.

"I see you..." Janus looked out from his prepherial vision. He stepped aside and landed a backhanded punch in Shun's face.

Shun slid to a halt, blood coming from his nose.

"Bastard," he cursed.

A tricky opponent for sure, pure speed wasn't going to defeat him. Not unless he could make him dizzy, a trick he had used on others. Wiping the blood from his nose, he began to run in a circle around Janus. It was a blur to everyone on the outside, as he ran he made some hand seals.

Janus smirked as his hair and clothes were snagged by the wind of Shun's passing. "I wonder what you're going to do with this little trick..."

He stuck chakra to his feet and continued to grin darkly.

"That one's pretty fast. I could barely see him." Travis said.

"Yeah. Reminds me of Rock Lee." Naruto chuckled.

"Let's hope it doesn't end that way." Sasuke said.

"Ugh. Don't remind me." Naruto winced.

After a few moments, Shun leapt up. From the four corners of the arena, four clones rushed Janus, a kunai in each hand. From the four different directions, they attacked him.

"He's going to lose," Masato coldly said.

"Not bad...for a fool." Janus said as the clones rushed at him. Suddenly, the clones seemed to hit an invisible wall and their bodies began to constrict from an unseen pressure. Janus grinned as his powers squeezed Shun to the breaking point and beyond...

Shun yelled in pain as his bones began to break. His clones exploded into clouds of smoke and disappeared.

"Stop the match!" Kimiko yelled.

Janus didn't heed the words and continued to squeeze the life out of Shun. Suddenly, he found shadows crawling all over him, stopping him from killing Shun.

"That will be enough." Shikamaru ordered, using Kagemane no Jutsu. "You have won the match. Killing him will be a waste of time."

"Hmph. Very well." Janus said and let go of Shun, who dropped to the floor. He removed himself from the arena while medics crawled out to diagnose Shun. One shook his head and they rushed him to the Intensive Ward of the hospital.

Obviously, the final fight will be Sayuri vs Warrior Yantka (Shamman).

Masato's eyes followed Janus, he didn't care for his team-mates condition.

Sayuri was nervous, she was also worried about Shun as she leapt down to the arena to face her opponent.

orried about Shun as she leapt down to the arena to face her opponent.

Shamman eyed his opponent as she left the stadium and got onto the arena floor. He closed his eyes and a puff of black and red smoke remained in the spot where he was previously sitting. Another puff of black and red smoke appeared on the arena floor, and Shamman had his lightsabers activated. He used the force to twirl one of the unactivated light shuriken's in his pockets, waiting for his opponent to make the first move.

"Come on at me... Bitch," He spat at her. He spread his arms wide, like an eagle would spread its wings, and two black blades appeared upon the set. It was an old technique first adapted by old sith lords. Throwing insults at their opponents to throw them off focus. Make them do something... Incredibly... Stupid.

Sayuri just laughed and stood there, waiting. Obviously he was just trying to wind her up and she found it rather funny. That lightened up her mood and thus would allow her to fight better.

Sayuri just laughed and stood there, waiting. Obviously he was just trying to wind her up and she found it rather funny. That lightened up her mood and thus would allow her to fight better.

"So, you're familiar with those techniques? Good, you're better than most of the lot who've fought so far... But can you resist a... Peircing noise?"

Shamman then opened his mouth wide and menacingly, and a loud sharp peircing screatch of an evil beast filled the entire stadium (OOC: Figure something along the lines of a Nazgul's fellbeast cry, remember how the soldiers grimminced at the noice?). It usually causes a normal, common soldier to become deaf. Force wielders are less likely to do so, but it's a damn loud aching neusance. All he needs is for her to grab her ears, just like half of the stadium was already doing.

OOC: It's also kinda my own version of "force scream" which you use in KOTOR II.

Sayuri covered her ears but did nothing more.

"What a horrible scream!" Travis groaned, clutching his ears.

"You got that right!" Keith answered.

Eamonn stepped forward, holding his hands against his ears. "Shikamaru hasn't started the match," he yelled down at them. "This kid has broken the rules and should therefore forfit the match."

Eamonn stepped forward, holding his hands against his ears. "Shikamaru hasn't started the match," he yelled down at them. "This kid has broken the rules and should therefore forfit the match."

OOC: Umm... wait a min... I thought that when CW sated that


Obviously, the final fight will be Sayuri vs Warrior Yantka (Shamman).

That was indicating the beginning of the match. Is there an announcer or something which we're suppose to hear? 'Cause all I have to do is just delete the previous stuff, use them later on once it actually began.

OOC: Yeah, of course. Otherwise it's illegal. Shikamaru has to start the fight and as such....

IC:
"He's right." Sasuke said, looking at Shikamaru.

"Yantka. You forfeit the match for starting when I did not say so." Shikamaru said. "Victory goes to Sayuri."

OOC: Yeah, of course. Otherwise it's illegal. Shikamaru has to start the fight and as such....


OOC: You mean I can't even delete my posts? That's a simple solution. Nothing would've happened.

OOC: You mean I can't even delete my posts? That's a simple solution. Nothing would've happened.
OOC; Not now. I've got things to do with the RP. It will just slow it down.

Sayuri breathed a sigh of relief. Instead of going back to the others, she made her way to the hospital to find out how Shun was. Kimiko was already on her way leaving Masato by himself.

"Huh, and I thought my match was over quickly," Daniel remarked, looking rather confused at the outcome.

OOC; Not now. I've got things to do with the RP. It will just slow it down.

OOC: Saw your comment on the other thread.

Now to think of a good responce other than "I yeild"

Janus wasn't happy. "Damn. I wanted to see some blood."

Jesse sighed. "You're too much, brother. Still, I too wanted to see a conclusion. But what's done is done."

"Congratulations are in order for all those who pass. Better luck next time for those who haven't." Tsunade smiled. "And now, if you'll come closer, winners."

Travis, Haruka, Janus, Jesse, Lialai, Masato, Daniel, Katsuo, and Max all edged closer to the Hokage. Next to her was a ninja with a box.

"Each one of you will pick a number out of this box. The reason is this: The third and final exam will be a Tournament like this one, only it is open to all spectators and participants and televised galaxywide. You know of course that ninjas are mercenaries of sorts, providing a service (some conditions apply) to people all over the galaxy to ensure a vibrant economy. The Tournament of the Third Exam...well, I wouldn't be lying if I said it was advertisment for your hidden villages to get the best customers possible. And the best customers require the best services." Tsunade said. Some nin, especially the older ones, nodded. Business sense, of course.

"Anyway, the numbers will tell you the opponent you will have in the starting round, so you can use the month between now and the Tournament to devise strategies or perhaps learn new techniques against them, as well as rest up." Tsunade said. "So hurry up and get your number."

"Right. I'm up first." Travis said, poking a hand inside the hole in the box. "3!"

Janus was 1. Jesse, 6 and Haruka, 7. That leaves, 2, 5, 8, 9, and 10.

Janus wasn't happy. "Damn. I wanted to see some blood."

Jesse sighed. "You're too much, brother. Still, I too wanted to see a conclusion. But what's done is done."

"Congratulations are in order for all those who pass. Better luck next time for those who haven't." Tsunade smiled. "And now, if you'll come closer, winners."


"I'm dissapointed as well... There is, however, an advantage to this. Oh yeah... I think it's time my master and your mother had a meeting about our situation. Opinions?"



"Each one of you will pick a number out of this box. The reason is this: The third and final exam will be a Tournament like this one, only it is open to all spectators and participants and televised galaxywide. You know of course that ninjas are mercenaries of sorts, providing a service (some conditions apply) to people all over the galaxy to ensure a vibrant economy. The Tournament of the Third Exam...well, I wouldn't be lying if I said it was advertisment for your hidden villages to get the best customers possible. And the best customers require the best services." Tsunade said. Some nin, especially the older ones, nodded. Business sense, of course.


"What happens to the rest of us? Do we get a break and watch the others go on, or do we help them as a team and we just don't gain any indavidual points or whatever?"

"I'm dissapointed as well... There is, however, an advantage to this. Oh yeah... I think it's time my master and your mother had a meeting about our situation. Opinions?"
"Good idea." Jesse said quietly, glancing at Kabuto, who remained the quiet jounin throughout the prelims.

"What happens to the rest of us? Do we get a break and watch the others go on, or do we help them as a team and we just don't gain any individual points or whatever?"
"Good question. It's pretty much a 'do as you will' situation from now on." Tsunade said.

Lialai drew out a number. "4 . . . excellent. She looked towards her sensei and teammates." Barak voiced to her, You have some training to do. Gordunt butted in, We are helping you get ready. We are going to make you the top ninja, female or male in this whole tournament. Shaoel nodded in agreement and said, So you get ready.

Lialai smiled. She knew she was up for some major fighting now.

Max walked up to the box, behind another competitor, and pulled out the card marked with an eight. Walking over to the Hokage, he paused before her and asked what may have been a strange question. "Would it be permitted for me to visit Merry and Reika or would you advise against such?"

He was asking permission as he didn't know the traditions of the Leaf Villiage regarding his request, and he was asking if she thought it was a bad idea as he'd noticed that one of the Jonin who'd escorted Reika to the medical center was most definately not happy with hi,

************

"He's in for hell, isn't he sensai?" Tori asked Rafael as she watched Max get his number and talk to the Hokage.
"And then some, but he'll be the better for it." He commented with a chuckle as he had planned out a training regime since before they'd even arrived at the Leaf Villiage.

"Hmm. Who's going to train Haruka? Obviously, it's either me or Daniel for Travis." Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Oh, I was planning on one of the master alchemists. Jacob, probably." Sasuke shrugged. "You going to teach him that technique?"

"Good choice." Naruto nodded. Then smirked. "Probably. Knowing him, he'll learn it in a week."

"Heh. I learned Chidori in a day." Sasuke smirked, needling his friend.

"Well, yeah, you have the Sharingan. We have good ol' sweat and blood to counter." Naruto shot back.

"Hmph. We'll see." Sasuke smirked as he teleported away to the hospital.

"Grrr...that Sasuke. Gets on my nerves." Naruto growled.

-----

"Certainly you can visit. Although my former apprentice may not be happy about seeing you there." Tsunade inwardly smirked. "Tip: be very respectful around them. Otherwise you'll be in the next available hospital bed."

----

"Looks like we might duel soon." Travis said to Haruka. "Who did train you, anyway?"

"Heh. That's a secret. But I tell you this, it's someone you know." Haruka said slyly.

"What? That's a whole bunch of people. C'mon. Another hint!" Travis whined.

"A good ninja never reveals his secrets." Haruka grinned.

"Isn't that a good magician?"

"That's besides the point. Still not telling you."

"Aww man!"

Daniel placed his hand in and drew the number ten, Katsuo nine, and Masato two. Sayuri was of course not there.

"I wonder who'll I get," Daniel wondered looking down at the number in his hand.

Masato silently stood against a wall watching the others, as he had been throughout the tornament.

So Sayuri gest number 5. Someone needs to tell her. Tsunade thought. "Right then. You've all got your numbers. Here are your Tournament assignments."

A scroll rolled out for people to view.

First fight: Janus vs Masato.

Second fight: Travis vs Lialai.

Third fight: Sayuri vs Jesse.

Fourth fight: Haruka vs Max.

Fifth fight: Gabriel vs Katsuo.

Hmm. So I'll fight the Cloud nin. This will be a shocking match. Travis smirked at his own pun.

Another Mist nin? Geez. Haruka frowned.

Hmm. Better stay on my toes. Don't know anything about that girl. Janus thought.

Hmm. He has a killer eye as well. Interesting. Janus noted Masato.

"Now. Go and rest up. Learn something new. Train hard and good luck!" Tsunade said. "Dismissed!"

That was that for today.

Daniel twitched as the name Gabriel was mentioned once again. "Looks like it's me against you Kat," he remarked looking over at Katsuo.

Katsuo just smirked back at him. "I'll look forward to kicking your arse."

"You wish."

"Wishes do come true."

Masato looked towards Janus. I wonder, he thought.

Daniel and Katsuo were still arguing as they left the arena.

Lialai looked at the match line-ups. A Masaki, huh? A battle of the elements should be very nice. Lialai teleported next to her team. Barak looked at her and said, "I have a surprise for you."

They walked out of the arena and they saw a tall man in a long brown robe. Lialai's face lit up as she saw the man's face. "Master Wescolum!!"

She ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Den looked down at his former student. He smiled and said, "You knew that I would come and see my first padawan at her first chuunin exams. I came as soon as Barak told me you made it to the third exam. I am very proud of you."

She bowed and said, "Thank you, master." She then stated, "Don't you think it is a little early to be here?" Den shook his head and said, "Of course not. I am here to help you train. We are going to speed you up. I hear you are fighting a Masaki boy. You know how they fight. The elements are completely natural to them. You are going to have to release your true potential."

Den touched her head and broke the barriers he had put on her mind when she was younger. Lialai looked at Den and the group and said, "This is going to be fun." Barak and the others nodded and they began walking off.

"Alright, I will be, and thank you." He replied as he gave her a slight bow and headed to visit Merry, and after her Reika, her mother permitting of course.

"Hey kids." Naruto said to Travis and Nick, grinning like mad as he thought about what insane lessons he's going to teach his team. After all, it's not just Travis that needs training.

"What's up, Sensei?" Nick asked. He didn't like the sly-fox look of the orange-and-black clad Jounin.

"Heh. Nothing for now. Why don't you visit Kagome and Reika in the hospital? Travis, I want you to be at the Three-Posts Field tomorrow morning. You know which one I'm talking about." Naruto said.

Travis nodded. "Right. Training, eh?"

"Hehehehe! I promise you nothing but hell for the next thirty days. Or at least until your father gets here." Naruto grinned.

How can he be so cheerful when he's about to kill me? Travis grumbled in his mind. "Yes, sir. What's up with Dad, anyway?"

That's when Naruto grew serious. "Ears only, kids."

"Right." Travis looked around, and the two moved to a more private area. "What's up?"

"Jurai's under seige by the Empire. I don't know what's happening over there myself, but from what I hear, it's a big one. You'll hear it on the Holonews later." Naruto said. "The refugees have already started to arrive, so this is to let you know what's up. Though, it's going to be a while before we hear from Daniel. But don't worry, whatever happens, he'll get out of it."

"Heh. Yeah. He's a Masaki and Masakis don't know the meaning of 'trap'." Travis grinned, although a bit of doubt was seeded in his mind, a little nagging voice that won't go away until his familily's safe and sound. "So that's why the ANBU and those dragons were out in front."

"Yeah." Naruto said. "Now, remember where you need to be tomorrow. See ya!" With that, Naruto teleported away.

"Well, that was interesting. Whatever's happening over there, I swear that I'll train my best to help stop the Empire." Travis said, a fist clenched. With that, he, Nick and Team 9 (Sasuke's Team) teleported as well, heading to the hospital to meet up with Reika and Kagome.

Daniel felt a hand placed upon his shoulder and looked behind to see Eamonn stood there.

“Since Katsuo will be trained by his father and Katana is out already, that leaves me free to train you alone,” he said.

Daniel nodded.

“Meet me here at eight tonight,” Eamonn then said. “You will need to learn new tricks to catch Katsuo and others out.”

“Yes Sensei.”

But before he could ask anything more, Eamonn had seemingly vanished into thin air. Feeling his stomach rumble, the blue elf made his way to a certain ramen noodles place.

Masato had gone to a quiet place away from other signs of life. His mind was on Shun’s fight, his opponent Tetsuo there was something familiar about him. It was the same with Kaneda, but not that weakling whom had lost so pathetically to Daniel. The black-haired teen was stood on a high tree branch looking down at the ground.

"Good idea." Jesse said quietly, glancing at Kabuto, who remained the quiet jounin throughout the prelims.

"Good. I'll try and set up arangements with my master. Any secure transmissions you'd recomend?"



"Good question. It's pretty much a 'do as you will' situation from now on." Tsunade said.

"Huh..."

"Good. I'll try and set up arangements with my master. Any secure transmissions you'd recomend?"
"Really secure. Mother says the ANBU monitors transmissions in and out of Konoha." Janus said. "I have an idea. Meet us again tonight. You know how to find us."

After gaining admittence from the medical nin to visit Tori, he went into her room. "So how's the leg?" He asked as he took a seat on a chair.
"It's been better." She commented with a wry smile, "So how'd we do?"
"Well Tori got knocked out, but I'm going on. I fear what Sensai has in mind for me though."
"Congrats, you always were the best on the team, be sure to show the other villiages what it means to face the Hidden mist."
"I will, and I'm sure Tori and Sensai will be along shortly before they begin my additional training."
"Alright, see you later, and I'll be sure to suggest some additional training."
With a groan at the prospect, Max got up and headed to Reika's room.

"Really secure. Mother says the ANBU monitors transmissions in and out of Konoha." Janus said. "I have an idea. Meet us again tonight. You know how to find us."


"I will," Shamman bowed, and walked off to his dormintory. There, he will wait for the arrangement to begin, and to send out a transmission to his master.

"Hey, Kagome. How are ya?" Nick beamed as he entered the room where she's staying for a while. He and Travis were carrying marigolds, her favorite flowers.

"Fine. The docs say I should be out in a day or so." Kagome chatted. "Good thing medical jutsus don't leave much in the way of scars. Too ugly--and are those marigolds! Thanks!"

"Heh. They're your favorites, after all.' Travis grinned. The marigolds were placed in a jar filled with water. "By the way how's Reika doing?"

"The blows missed the vitals, thank goodness, but she won't be coming out for a few days. Her mom's pretty steamed." Kagome said.

"Yeah, we can imagine." Nick sighed. For as long as they knew, Sakura-sensei has always been a bit high-strung when it comes to her kids. Not that anyone could blame her, as the Uchiha bloodline is prized among rival nations and kidnapping attempts were common. Not to mention Orochimaru's legacy was still hanging around...

"Well, Keith's seeing her and everything should be all right. By the way, Naruto-sensei's gonna start the training tomorrow." Travis chuckled nervously. "I've got a lot ahead of me."

"You sure do. Once I'm out of here, I'm gonna whip you into shape too." Kagome then cackled like an evil witch.

Travis merely scratched the back of his head and chuckled. Man, she gets scary when she's like that.

=====

"Really, Mom. It's not as bad as you think." Reika managed to croak out as her overbearing mother clucked over her like a hen.

"You're lucky you were taught to concentrate chakra around vitals to stave off that bleeding. Now sit still and let me deal with the wound." Sakura barked back, clutching a bacta salve. "Honestly, you're too reckless."

"Heh. Where do you think that came from?" Reika shot back with a smirk.

"Oh, wipe that Uchiha smirk off your face!" Sakura roared. "Geez, why couldn't you have gotten the sweet side of the family like your brother?"

A knock on the door announced Keith, Haruka and Sasuke. "Is it safe?"

"NO!" The ladies howled. Having three males in the same room as a partially-covered Reika will spell a quick doom for said males.

"All right, all right. Sheesh." Sasuke said, sighing. I love them, but they're troublesome...

"So we wait?" Keith asked.

"We wait." Sasuke confimed. The guys sat down on chairs in front of the door and waited...

Maxamillion had arrived at Reika's room, only to spot the three males. "I do not mean to intrude, but this is Reika's room?" He asked, "I wish to apologise for injuring her in such a manner."

Sasuke eyed him with a curious eye. "Hm. You'll have to wait. Her mother's inside and she's healing her. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Thank you." He replied as he sat cross-legged on the floor. "You are Reika's father are you not?" He asked, and then continued before recieving the answer, "Your daughter is one of the most skilled nin I've ever faced and deserved a place in the third round."

"Hn. I guess it can't happen to every generation..." Sasuke said, a bit wistfully. He did make it to the third test in his days, after all. Though...could I have beat Gaara? Nah. Would have been crushed by Shukaku...probably.

It turned out that it didn't take a few minutes, but an hour, with familiar music (Konohamaru's Theme) piping through the hospital's speakers to while away the time. Haruka and Keith played Go and Sasuke seemed asleep, but just relaxing on the wall.

Then Sakura came out, wiping her hands with a cloth. "All right, you got five minutes. And what's he doing here?"

"Apologizing to Reika." Sasuke said, defending Max. "He's at least polite enough to do that, right?" A glance that would wither flowers merely infuriated the Jounin medic-nin, then she relented.

"Oh, all right. But make it snappy." Sakura sighed.

"Heh." Sasuke smirked, feeling victorious this time. Gonna cost me later, but now it's worth it.

"Hey, Daddy, guys." Reika smiled as they came in. "Mom says I'll be out in a few days, just needs to make sure the wounds are cleaned and everything."

"That's good. Got some flowers for you." Keith said. Violets this time.

"Not bad, but I like fire flowers better." Reika smiled. "The thought counts, though."

"No prob." Haruka smiled. "By the way, someone's here to talk a bit."

"Oh." Reika eyed Max, her face a mixed bag of emotions. "All right. Say your piece."

"I came to apologise for injuring you." He replied looking at her, "You were at least as, if not more so, deserving of victory as I and as I mentioned to your father, you are one of the most skilled ninja I have ever faced."

He was also grateful that Reika's father had defended him, considering what he'd done to his daughter.

"Heh. That's fine. The risks of being a ninja and all that." Reika waved away the apology. "Mom's just overbearing at times. Still, it's nice of you to come. Not many nin would do so, especially to a bested opponent."

"Thank you. Since you have other guests who have more of a claim to your time, I shall depart. I wish you a speedy recovery." He replied with a bow as he headed out.

Lialai looked at them and said, "Oh yeah I need to do something." She quickly gathered the force and teleported outside of Kagome's room. She knocked on her door and said, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." Travis said, allowing Lialai in.

Lialai glanced at Travis and walked in. She then looked at Kagome and said, "How are you?"

"Heh. I'm alright. Just a few scars here and there that's going away." Kagome smiled.

Lialai smiled and said, "Your dexterity in battle was very impressive. I was surprised when you began using Jar'kai. I haven't seen anyone use it in a long time.

"Mmm. I plan to make it my personal style. Someday, I'll master it!" How the flames of youth flow around Kagome!

"Heh. That's our girl." Travis grinned. "She's definitely got what it takes."

OOC: CW, will the meeting take place here or on another thread?

Waiting for you to start.

OOC: Here.

IC:
That evening, three shapes jumped the rooftops of Konoha to a darkened home near the walls of the city. Janus, Jesse and Kabuto sat on the rooftop of that house, waiting for the fourth member of their little insidious group, and it wasn't Gareth...

OOC: Here.

IC:
That evening, three shapes jumped the rooftops of Konoha to a darkened home near the walls of the city. Janus, Jesse and Kabuto sat on the rooftop of that house, waiting for the fourth member of their little insidious group, and it wasn't Gareth...

Shamman walked up to the three, his cloak flowed with the wind as he walked up to the group, Huntarian eyes glowed brighter at night than in the day, either dark side or light. Shamman's gave off a Redish glow, "Great. We're all here. Now, onto buisness. Janus, you said you can set up a transmission?"

"Yes." Janus said, pulling out a small yet powerful transmitter with an empty message waiting to be sent. "Jesse and I can keep the signal down to a minimum with our abilities. It may alert someone, but by the time anyone investigates, we'll be done."

The sound of someone humming Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 9' drifted through the air. In a nearby tree a figure appeared, watching the four.

Masato smirked to himself. "Thought so."

"Yes." Janus said, pulling out a small yet powerful transmitter with an empty message waiting to be sent. "Jesse and I can keep the signal down to a minimum with our abilities. It may alert someone, but by the time anyone investigates, we'll be done."

"Good. I'm ready to begin the message. Master may not be too happy to hear I technically failed the trials, but he will need to hear the updates. What about your mother? Is she already here?"

The sound of someone humming Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 9' drifted through the air. In a nearby tree a figure appeared, watching the four.

Masato smirked to himself. "Thought so."
"Quite a nerve coming up to us." Jesse coolly said. "You're close to death."

Hmm. A Sand nin. Brings back memories. Kabuto smirked. "State your piece Suna-nin."

"Good. I'm ready to begin the message. Master may not be too happy to hear I technically failed the trials, but he will need to hear the updates. What about your mother? Is she already here?"
"If she is, she's well hidden. But not likely. Too early." Janus said. "Right, begin the message."

Masato chuckled, his red eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness. "Not really," he said, placing a hand upon the hilt of his blade. "Now I thought there was an air of familiarity from two of you at the arena." His voice had taken a cold tone and in a quieter voice he said. "Now I know, sons of Nightshade. I could recognise you by your thirst to kill Shun."

Masato chuckled, his red eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness. "Not really," he said, placing a hand upon the hilt of his blade. "Now I thought there was an air of familiarity from two of you at the arena." His voice had taken a cold tone and in a quieter voice he said. "Now I know, sons of Nightshade. I could recognise you by your thirst to kill Shun."
"So what of it? Leave now or die!" Janus hissed.

"Hold it, Janus." Kabuto warned him. "Now, I'll say it again. State your intentions with us."

"Quite a nerve coming up to us." Jesse coolly said. "You're close to death."

Hmm. A Sand nin. Brings back memories. Kabuto smirked. "State your piece Suna-nin."

"Quickly now."


"If she is, she's well hidden. But not likely. Too early." Janus said. "Right, begin the message."

OOC: Assume this takes place after he leaves, or joins.

"Good."

Shamman stood in front of the transmitter and began to contact his master upon Coruscant.

"Who's this? This message appears to be on secure channels. Shamman that you?" The dark voice of Aelikes came and his holographic figure appeared.

"It is indeed master."

"Who's that with you? Just barely make out the other figures"

"Janus and Jesse, you've met them before."

"Yes... The ones who controle metal and other fairly odd powers. Why'd you call me?" Aelikes folded his arms across his chest, and his brown eyes glared at him. Aelikes already senced that something not good had happened.

Shamman quickly gulped for a few seconds, "We've completed the first part of the Chuunin Exames."

Aelikes nodded his head, "Go on."

"Well... After we completed the second stage (OOC: the combat was second part, correct?), a situation has arisen. We need you to come over quickly as possible. We're trying to contact Nightshade if she's not already here."

"I'll arive upon a cloaked Hornet Shuttle. Less than a day."

"We'll be waiting. Wait, Janus, where should my master meet us?"

"There are villages outside the gates of Konoha. We could meet at one of them." Janus suggested.

"Well now I know who you are, I expect we have similar plans for two entirely different people," Masato then said, he kept his hand where it was just in case they weren't to believe him. "You're after that Travis brat, am I correct? My mother wants to get Gabriel out of the way, you can help me with that."

"There are villages outside the gates of Konoha. We could meet at one of them." Janus suggested.

Shamman quickly glanced back at Aelikes, "Master?"

"They would know the place better than we do. I'd listen to him. We'll meet in one of the villages. Which one would you reccomend, Janus?" Aelikes was now stairing at Janus, eyes glaring (OOC: an old habbit of his).

"Well now I know who you are, I expect we have similar plans for two entirely different people," Masato then said, he kept his hand where it was just in case they weren't to believe him. "You're after that Travis brat, am I correct? My mother wants to get Gabriel out of the way, you can help me with that."
Kabuto remained calm, and snickered. "Ku ku ku! An astute observation. What, specifically, do you have in mind for the blue-furred one?"

Shamman quickly glanced back at Aelikes, "Master?"

"They would know the place better than we do. I'd listen to him. We'll meet in one of the villages. Which one would you reccomend, Janus?" Aelikes was now stairing at Janus, eyes glaring (OOC: an old habbit of his).
"Hmm. I'd say Watabe. It's 20 km from Konoha itself. You'll know how to find us at any rate." Janus said.

"Well my mother said to get him out of the way to push my uncle towards darkness," Masato said. "I'm thinking that should be done to Gabriel, to force darkness upon him. Death would be too easy for him." A cruel smirk crossed Masato's face. "Imprisonment would be much better."

"Hmm. I'd say Watabe. It's 20 km from Konoha itself. You'll know how to find us at any rate." Janus said.

Aelikes waved his hands, dismissing the last comment, "Kid, I have ways of finding people you don't even want to know," he hissed through his breath mask, "All right, Watabe. I'll be there. Aelikes out."

Shamman backed off from the transmitter, "Well... That went well."

"Well my mother said to get him out of the way to push my uncle towards darkness," Masato said. "I'm thinking that should be done to Gabriel, to force darkness upon him. Death would be too easy for him." A cruel smirk crossed Masato's face. "Imprisonment would be much better."
"Hmm. I say you have a point there." Kabuto smirked. "Very well, Gabriel will be captured, too. But to ensure the capture goes well, you should help us."

Masato smirked. "Of course you'll have my help," he said.

"Hmm. I say you have a point there." Kabuto smirked. "Very well, Gabriel will be captured, too. But to ensure the capture goes well, you should help us."

Shamman turned to Kabuto after the transmission had ended, "Agreed. We don't need any further screw ups from anyone. Myself included."

Wonder what Aelikes will say about me no longer participating in the Chuunin Exames? Doesn't matter much...

"Right, then. Now that that's finished..." Kabuto said. "Let's go get some shuteye."

With that, Kabuto disappeared into the night. Janus and Jesse followed as well.

"Hmph," Masato muttered.

No asking who he really was, a rather quick meeting too. The young black-haired teen wandered through Kohona to see what there was to do at night.

After saying good-bye to Reika, Max headed to where the rest of the Kiriga nin were to get a last decent rest till a couple days before the stage three of the exam. He knew that Merry and Rafael would be drilling him exceptionally hard, and as soon as Victoria got out, she'd join in pushing him past his limits.

"Right, then. Now that that's finished..." Kabuto said. "Let's go get some shuteye."

With that, Kabuto disappeared into the night. Janus and Jesse followed as well.

"Nighty night. Don't let the Dark Side bite," With that, a puff of black and red smoke apeared where shamman stood and he was in his room once more.

I could use some proper shuteye after the friggin' Jigglypuff.... No need to worry about markings on my face.

The next morning, Travis woke up in his bed, stretching his arms and legs. He washed up, brushed his teeth and put on his clothes. After breakfast, he headed out. "All right. time for training! 1. 2. 3. Let's goo!"

Travis sped on down to the Three-Posts Field, the very field where the original Team Seven learned the ninja trade under Kakashi-sensei. Suddenly, kunai and shuriken whipped out at the boy and he barely dodged them. "Damn! What was that?"

"Heh. Gotta do better than that, kid." Orange and black, the jumpsuit of Naruto actually blends in with the background pretty well, like a tiger. "Now, let's begin! Fifty laps around the field, then when you're done, fifty pushups and situps! Go!"

"Yes, sir!" Travis yelled and started running. The intensive training of Travis Masaki has begun!

All night, Eamonn had forced him to be up all night for training. The sun had long since risen and Daniel was completely knackered. Eamonn’s reasoning was that the prince needed to push his stamina, it was high but Eamonn felt he should push it higher level. Only then would he teach the blue elf new jutsus.

“Can I please go get some sleep,” Daniel pleaded with a yawn.

Eamonn nodded. “Fine,” he said and seemingly vanished into thin air.

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief and teleported back to his hotel room.

Oh this is too easy, Masato said to himself. He had been watching his cousins training seemingly undetected. Somehow with Eamonn around that should have been hard to do but the young teen had managed to blend himself into the shadows. He would continue to watch his cousins progress.

OOC: BTW, how's Shun? How badly his bones are broken determines how much effort Tsunade and Sakura must exert to heal him.

IC:
After all the warm-up exercise, Travis felt like he was going to drop, but alas, the training of a Masaki does not end now! No way!

"Review time!" Naruto went into a stance, grinning. "Hit me with every jutsu you've got!"

"What? That'll deplete all my reserves!" Travis groaned.

"That's the point, kid. I need to know how much you can handle. After all, there's nothing like going all the way!" Naruto lectured his student.

"All the way, Sensei? You'll be wishing you didn't ask for that!" Travis promised. The next thing Naruto knew, he was blasted by a White Windblast technique and blown off his feet. The Jounin landed on his feet, smirking.

"That all you got, brat? You'll excuse me if I---yeow!" A Grand Fireball nearly incinerated him on the spot, followed by a small squad of screaming Kage Bunshins. "Not bad! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto's clones wasted Travis' clones, but the Jounin became deluged by a water cyclone from a nearby stream and used his Rasengan to blow away the waterspout. "Heh. That's four. I wonder when he would..."

"Raikurai no Jutsu!" Travis yelled from above. Lightning slashed for Naruto, who simply used Kawarmi no Jutsu to dodge the raw electricity. "Damn!"

"Number five..." Naruto spoke tauntingly from a secret hiding spot. Travis landed on the ground and searched for signs of Naruto-sensei. Then he noticed something, or more correctly, someone from behind.

"Heh. A little something I learned when I was your age. Konoha Supreme Technique: One Thousand Years of Pain!" Naruto shouted, jamming his index fingers up Travis' ass.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Travis screamed at the top of his lungs, and splashed into the aforementioned stream, rubbing his sore behind. "Damn it!"

Shuriken whipped out at Naruto, who simply snatched them out of the air with his fingers while reading a dirty manga, courtesy of you-know-who. "Teeheehee! I never realized ero-sennin was this funny before! Same ol' super-pervert, though..."

Travis gasped as he crawled out of the river and up to the bank. He seemed about to collapse as Naruto glanced over in his direction. "Over already, kid? How disappointing. I guess it's back to the drawing---what?!"

Caught off-guard while lecturing Travis, Naruto suddenly found a clone clinging to his back, with two others grabbing his legs. "Heh. What was that you said? It's not over 'til the fat Hutt sings!" Travis grinned as he suddenly stood up and snatched his sensei's book. "I'll take that, pervert-sensei."

"Noooo!" Naruto cried as the book was thrown haphazardly into the stream. "That was a platinium-edition personally-autographed Icha Icha Blast volume! The nerve of the little bastard..."

Travis grinned, reared back and punched Naruto in the face...bbut an instant later, he realized he just punched his own clone. "What?!"

"Hey! What'd you do that for? Sensei either Henged or Kawarmied!" "You're Naruto!" "No you are!" "You got sensei written all over you!" The clones began fighting amongs themselves, believing that Naruto had Henged into one of them. After a short while, though...

"Hey, quit it." Travis said, bruises visible on his face. "Disappear, guys. We'll see who's the real deal."

The clones poofed away, leaving Travis alone, only to heard a snicker somewhere amongst the trees. "Sure brings back memories of Team Kakashi. The very first day after we graduated, he gave us a bell test. I tried to fight him and get a bell, but ended up the same way you are now."

"Well, that's all well and good with the trip down memory lane..." Travis concentrated, energy gathering into his hands. "But it's time to end this! Psybolt..."

Crap! That's his signature technique! Naruto's eyes widened.

"Beta!" A massive blast of multicolored energy tore through the forest like a fire, uprooting trees and tearing rocks apart. Travis kept up the blast, doing a 360 degree rotation in hopes that he gets Naruto. When he was done, the whole forest within a quarter-mile of him was leveled and he panted heavily while placing his hands on his knees. That's almost all of my reserves.

A surprised whistle sounded behind Travis and the boy groaned as he turned around to see Naruto standing there, brushing off a yellow glow. "If I didn't have Hirashin, you would've gotten me."

"Hirashin?" Travis asked, then it clicked. "Oh yeah. The Yondaime's technique."

"Yep." Naruto grinned. "When you grabbed me, I tagged you, so when you blew the whole forest down, I teleported behind ya so I wouldn't get hit. But I must say, you had almost as much stamina as I did way back when, even without Kyuubi. A Katon, a Suiton, a Fuuton, a Raiton, two Kage Bunshins and your Psybolt. Not many ninjas, or even Jedi, could handle all those and still have enough chakra to stay standing."

"Heehee! Like Master, like apprentice, eh?" Travis chuckled.

"No doubt." Naruto grinned. "Well, I decided. I'm going to teach you a new jutsu."

"Awesome!" Travis exclaimed. "What'cha gonna teach me? Rasengan?"

"Hehe. Well...maybe." Naruto said. "That's later. Right now. Your'e going to have to refine that Psybolt technique of yours. It's powerful, but not very controllable."

"How is that a new jutsu?" Travis asked.

"Heh. Collect what energy you have on the tip of your index finger." Naruto suggested.

Something about that triggered a familiar memory in Travis, but he couldn't quite place it yet. "Ok..."

Travis collected, or tried to, as much remaining chakra on the tip. He found it a lot harder than just letting loose from the palms, but after a few minutes, he managed it while sweat soaked his T-shirt. "Ok...now what?'

"Release it. Preferably in the air." Naruto pointed upwards with a grin. Heh. I wonder how long it would take for him to realise what this technique is, and who uses it...

"Alright...point..." Travis pointed his finger like a gun into the air. "and release!"

A bolt of energy, similar to the Psybolt, but much smaller and more like a blaster bolt lanced out into the air and narrowly missed a plane. The refined power knocked Travis down. "Ow! Whoa! I felt a lot of power from that!"

"Heh. Figured it out yet?" Naruto asked.

"Huh? This gun-thing? You mean...gun? As in Reigun? The technique Yusuke-sama is known for?!" Travis exclaimed again. "You're teaching me that?! Hell yeah!!!"

"Heh." Naruto smirked as his apprentice seemed to have redoubled energy and jumped up in glee at being able to learn a new technique. I wonder, Yusuke. Where the hell are ya?

Shun's legs and arms had been badly broken in several places. His other injuries were several broken ribs and light damage to several organs. He was in badshape.

"Will he be alright?" Kimiko asked.

"Hmm. This is going to take a while." The doctor frowned. "Yes, he'll be fine, once the Hokage gets here..."

Quickly enough, the Hokage entered the room, reading the prognosis, muttering. "Compound fractures in the limbs, ribs shattered...he's going to need the whole month, if not longer to recover and undergo therapy. At least his spine is still intact, but a few moments longer...Doctor, is a calcium solution injected into the IV along with nutrients every day?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The doctor bowed.

"Very well. Let us begin the healing process." Tsunade sighed and her hand tirned green as medical ninjutsu began to be applied. She placed the hand on her patient's limbs, keeping them straight fof her procedure. "Starting with the legs..."

The Hokage began to knit the bones back together, but only to a point as she prefers to let the body heal itself, as forcibly dividing cells to heal someone can shorten a lifespan, as she well knows.

Kimiko nodded, she knew this was going to be tough for Shun. She wondered how the injuries would effect him in future. The sand nin waited outside for news about Shun, she had told Sayuri to return to her hotel room to rest. She had no idea where Masato had gone to, he was always disappearing.

"By the way, your apprentice Sayuri will face Kaneda in the Third exam. You tell her yet?" The Hokage said before Kimiko left.

"No, I shall tell her when I go and see her," Kimiko replied.

Lialai smiled and said, "Well I need to get some rest and training. Glad that you are okay."

She turned around and looked at Travis. "I'll see you in a month." She snapped her fingers and teleported to her team.

Barak and Den were currently talking about Lialai's match. Shaoel and Gordunt were currently sleeping. They would need all the rest they could get if they were going to help train Lialai.

Den smiled at his old apprentice. He then said, "Lialai I have some serious training for you. Very intense training. Do you think that you can handle it?"

Lialai smirked and said, "Of course I can Master. I have trained with you for years. And you haven't trained until you have trained with Barak-sensei." Den nodded in agreement.

Den nodded and said, "Okay then it is settle. Tomorrow I will be taking you back to your battle with Kagome. We are going to examine your mistakes. Then our true training will commence." Den's eyes sparkled. Barak smirked.

Barak then hinted, "You might want to get your Shock Clones ready. Go get some rest." Lialai nodded and ran down the hallway towards her team's room. Shaoel and Gordunt were already asleep."

"Now, you'll be practicing the Reigun technique until you master it. Not only that, your taijutsu needs work." Naruto said. "By the end of the week, I expect 100% improvement!"

"What?! That's crazy!" Travis groaned. "How am I gonna do that?!"

"Heh. With this." Naruto grinned. A chakra-weighted jumpsuit was thrown at Travis, who was knocked down by the fifty-pound weights. "Put that on and wear it all day, every day."

"Aww man!" Travis groaned as he struggled to put on the jumpsuit, which was an ugly maroon color. Humiliation! "Why must I be tortured so?"

"One more thing, if I see improvement, I will teach you Rasengan." Naruto chuckled. 3...2...1...

"Yes!" Travis yelled. And so, training continued....

------

Meanwhile, Jesse in the guise of Kaneda browsed a weapons store (Temple One Stop Weapon Shop, for all your martial needs!) for one that would compliment his magnetic abilities (shuriken and kunai notwithstanding). Janus simply waited outside the door, counting down to the time they need to do the rendzevous. It took about an hour, but Jesse believed he found the perfect weapon.

"A chain?" Janus asked.

"Yep." The white-haired boy replied. The chain in question curled around him like a snake. "I'll need to master this weapon, but it definitely can give me an edge in combat. Watch."

Jesse's powers manifested and the chain straighted out into a three-foot long club. He slashed it at a tree, which developed a deep cut. Then he focused it into its snake-like form and it wound around the tree, further damaging it as it squeezed. When Jesse was done, the tree fell into pieces.

"A good choice, then." Janus nodded. "C'mon. We have a person to see. Sensei's already at Watabe, I wager."

"Right." The Evil Twins jumped away, heading to Watabe, and an unholy rendzevous...

Lialai awoke the next morning to Shaoel shaking her awake.

"Hey!" she yelled at the boy.

He replied, "Wake up princess. Gordunt this going to be so fun." Gordunt who was sitting on his bed nodded in agreement. He was focusing a small amount of chakra on the tip of fingers.

Lialai sat up and sat, "Where are the masters?" Gordunt replied waiting for you outside of the village walls. Lialai quickly jumped up and ran into the bathroom. Within minutes she was out in fresh new clothes. She then said, "I wonder how fast you guys are with your Shunshin. I bet I can beat you with natural teleportation. Shaoel smirked and said, "Its a bet then." Shaoel and Gordunt formed the hand signs and yelled, "Shunshin no Jutsu!" They both disappeared from the room. Lialai shook her head and snapped her fingers. She was gone.

===========================================================

A quarter of a second later all three students were in front of the two masters. Gordunt had got there a tenth of a second before Lialai and Shaoel a tenth of a second after Lialai. Gordunt whispered to them, "Slowpokes." Lialai and Shaoel rolled there eyes. Then Den spoke.

"Today Lialai I will be taking a clone of yourself back into the past to show it your past mistakes. The other one of you will be staying here and training as hard as possible with Barak, Gordunt, and Shaoel."

Lialai grimaced and Barak said, "Let's see one of those Shock Clones." A quiet poof sounded and a clone of Lialai appeared. Den pointed at the clone and said, "Come on." Lialai looked at Barak. Barak mentally told her, You are all mine. She gulped.

Den pulled out his legendary purple lightsaber. He then touched the clone's arm. He looked at the group and said, "We will see you in a little while." His eyes and and his blade glowed as a timewarp opened. A brilliant white light appeared. When it disappeared Den and Lialai-clone had disappeared.

Barak said, "Now we begin!"

After the breif transmission, Aelikes strolled out of his chamber. He soon found himself climbing onboard a newly refitted Hornet Class Lambda Shuttle. it resembled a similar design to the older Lambda Shuttles which most of the empires out there used. This design, however, contains a specially installed cloaking device. One which will easily bypass many secure areas, especially since Aelikes can make it look like there's nothing there with the force.

He piloted the shuttle out of Coruscant, and headed for Konoha where he knows his apprentice is waiting. Technically, he should go in with the fleet cloaked but he thought it would be more ideal if he went and lead the main assault on ground. It was about time, he thought, that the Empire would cast it's ghostly flag spell over another CoreWorld founding planet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OOC: Assuming that since Shamman and the Nightshade twins are allies, Shamman can see through Janus's desguise.

IC
Shamman walked amungst the buisy streets of Konoha. Suddenly, he felt a cold chill up his spine. A feeling he hasn't felt in a while. It was a dark presence. A dark one which he's felt before. It took him some time to realise it, but it was that of his master's. He closed his eyes, as he was walking, bumping into Jesse and Janus after they walked out of the weapon store. Something he didn't intend to happen, but it did.

Shamman was startled for a moment and quickly grabbed and activated his lightsaber, "Oh... It's only you." He quickly shut it off and put it way. "Sorry about that. My master is in orbit, cloaked. I can feel his presence grow closer. I dunno about you."

Shamman shivered again, he could feel his master's feelings grow very very dark. Something was sturring in his master's mind, and he didn't like it. However, there was another presence onboard the shuttle. One which Shamman wasn't familiar with. It... He couldn't exactly tell what type of feeling he was getting from it. It was neither light nor dark. It did, however, seem to bring a dark presence around him. So far as he could tell that is.

"What's in that store? Any good assassin weapons?"

Max woke from a good, full nights sleep with a bit of a rueful smile. It would likely be one of the last ones he got till the day or two before the third stage of the exam. He stretched as he looked around for the note he knew Sensai Rafael would have left. Finding it, he smiled as it appeared he got breakfast before decending into the hells of training.

As he headed off to a ramen stand to get an order of breakfast noodles, he gave a mental sigh of relief at the fact that Tori was temporarily out of commission. Her father was one of the most notable marquis de sade of the Mist Village and from all indications she'd be at least as nasty on the training field at least.

Arriving at the indicated locale he found his sensai waiting, perched upon a tree branch reading a fashion magazine. "Merry will be putting you through some cross-training to build up your reactions, stamina and charkra control."
"Yes sir." He replied before looking over at his present drill instructor. "So what do you have planned?"

"Oh, a game of tag." She replied sweetly, "And no jutsu allowed, at least for you."
Max just groaned as he and Mer were about equal in speed, with him having a bit of an edge, but without jutsu he was looking at a very long, grueling and challenging test.

“This, Katsuo is a new kind of poison,” Kankurou said, holding up a small vial. “A little help from Yoshikuni Kazuma and Daniel Black.”

Katsuo looked at the vial his father held in his hand. “A new kind, what’s it made up of?”

“One tiny drop will render you’re opponent unconscious, it’s chief ingredient is the blood of a black dragon,” Kankurou explained. He reached into his pocket and brought out a second vial, this one was blue instead of red. Both had runic inscriptions on them. “This is the antidote and will be needed so they don’t sleep for a few days. Like the poison, the antidote contains the blood of a black dragon.”

Katsuo looked at the two vials as he took them from his father. “This poison should be useful against Daniel,” he smirked.

Kankurou shook his head. “You’ll have a tough fight ahead of you, the Prince and Ddauchlorsson are a pretty formidable pair,” he warned. That is why I have going to train you in fighting from as many angles as possible, remember you only need to poison him with one drop.”

OOC: Assuming that since Shamman and the Nightshade twins are allies, Shamman can see through Janus's desguise.
OOC: Technically, it's a false passport and a simple Henge (Transform) technique. He could see through it, but not the Good Guys, at least not yet. ;)

IC
Shamman walked amungst the buisy streets of Konoha. Suddenly, he felt a cold chill up his spine. A feeling he hasn't felt in a while. It was a dark presence. A dark one which he's felt before. It took him some time to realise it, but it was that of his master's. He closed his eyes, as he was walking, bumping into Jesse and Janus after they walked out of the weapon store. Something he didn't intend to happen, but it did.

Shamman was startled for a moment and quickly grabbed and activated his lightsaber, "Oh... It's only you." He quickly shut it off and put it way. "Sorry about that. My master is in orbit, cloaked. I can feel his presence grow closer. I dunno about you."

Shamman shivered again, he could feel his master's feelings grow very very dark. Something was sturring in his master's mind, and he didn't like it. However, there was another presence onboard the shuttle. One which Shamman wasn't familiar with. It... He couldn't exactly tell what type of feeling he was getting from it. It was neither light nor dark. It did, however, seem to bring a dark presence around him. So far as he could tell that is.

"What's in that store? Any good assassin weapons?"
"Only the best. The One Stop Weapons company sells to everyone, no questions asked, so they make a good profit." Janus said. "If you don't find it in the shop, you most likely won't find it anywhere else."

With that, the two brothers jumped up to a large tree branch and headed for the Konoha Gate, a hundred foot tall city wall of duracrete with durasteel bracings for support. It's meant to stop small-scale invasions like roving bandits and pirates, but a major one will only be slowed down as they break through the advanced materials. There are guard stations posted every hundred meters of the wall, manned by ninjas and normal troopers toting blaster rifles acting as trip wires. They passed through the gate without incident and headed east towards Watabe.

Meanwhile, a woman browses the marketplace of that village. She chats with a tall man sporting a cloak and a cone-shaped villager-style hat (dunno what's that called) who appears to be her husband or consort. But a side glance at some rowdy children revealed that at least one eye of the consort was a blood-red shade...

=======

Back to Travis....

Travis panted as he completed the last leg of the training session for the day. His mastery of the Reigun technique is getting stronger and slowly but surely, his speed and power are increasing thanks to the weighted suit, but there's still a long way to go. As it is, his clothes and face show a lot of sweat-clinging dirt that will have to be washed out tonight.

"All right." Naruto said, keeping an eye on his apprentice as he reads his book. "Lesson over! Cool down and let me tell you your progress."

"Ok!" Travis plopped onto the grass, out of breath.

"You've done well with the technique, better than I expected." Naruto smirked. "As a treat, ramen at Ichiraku's on me!"

"Yay!" Travis' arms shot up in glee.

"Heh. There's more work to do tomorrow." Naruto said. "So lets eat so we can rest up!"

"All right." Travis grinned, getting back up as if he was on full. "Let's go!"

OOC: Technically, it's a false passport and a simple Henge (Transform) technique. He could see through it, but not the Good Guys, at least not yet. ;)

OOC: Oh I knew the passport was faulty, and so was the disguise. I just didn't know if he could actually see through for some odd reason.

Oi, CW there's something I need ta talk to you about. It regards the one who neither read as light or dark.


"Only the best. The One Stop Weapons company sells to everyone, no questions asked, so they make a good profit." Janus said. "If you don't find it in the shop, you most likely won't find it anywhere else."


IC:

"Good. I'll get some supplies while I'm here. I think my master is about to land. Might as well stock up on supplies."

As the two brothers left, shamman walked into the store.

"Greetings. I wonder, do you have any good assassin weapons? Specifically for one who wields the force?"

Den and the Lialai clone had been gone for hours now. Den and the clone sat amongst the clouds so that no one would see them. Den had pointed out everything that she had done wrong, everything she could've done quicker. Den had decided to also take the clone to when her future opponent, Travis, used his psybolt technique.

"That technique is different. His psybolt is something that you should worry about. It fires out in a straight line however so you can easily dodge it if you use the right amount of speed."

Lialai nodded in agreement. Den then said, "If he was ever able to launch that technique from a different area you would definitely have to move a lot faster."

Lialai smiled and said, "That will make the fight even better." Den smiled and said, "Well I think it is time that we head back." He touched her head and a bright light appeared in the clouds. They warped back to the future.


=============================================================

Lialai fell to the ground. She was soaked. Barak, Gordunt, and Shaoel all stood over her. While maintaining a clone in the past she had trained for three hours straight.

Shaoel nudged her and said, "Come on now Lialai. I know you can move faster than that." An intense bolt of electricity ran throughout Shaoel's body as the shock clone he had just touched disappeared.

Five shruiken aimed at the trio flew by. Barak smiled and said, "Is that all you got?" He disappeared underneath the ground. There was a scream and Barak appeared with a very tired Lialai riding on his back. He then looked at the boys and said, "I do believe that Lialai is done for the day."

A bright white light appeared and there stood Den and the clone. Lialai looked up and the clone disappeared. All of the knowledge that the clone had gained suddenly appeared in Lialai's mind. She smiled and said, "Thank you master." Den nodded.

Lialaid got down from Barak's back and walked over to Den. Den then said, "You should get some rest. Tomorrow it is you vs. Barak and I. You are going to have to step it up a notch." Lialai smiled and said, "Yes master." They all headed towards their rooms.

OOC: Oh I knew the passport was faulty, and so was the disguise. I just didn't know if he could actually see through for some odd reason.

Oi, CW there's something I need ta talk to you about. It regards the one who neither read as light or dark.
As always, use the OOC thread, heh.


IC:

"Good. I'll get some supplies while I'm here. I think my master is about to land. Might as well stock up on supplies."

As the two brothers left, shamman walked into the store.

"Greetings. I wonder, do you have any good assassin weapons? Specifically for one who wields the force?"
"Hmm." The store owner said. "Quiet and deadly, yes? I might have something."

After a short time, the store owner came back with a box. "Needles. Dip the sharp ends in the most powerful poisons you know and your enemies will be no more. And with the Force involved, you can even snipe someone from far away without the hassle of a gunshot. Or so I hear. A hundred credits a box."

-----

A short while later, Janus and Jesse arrived at the village of Watabe for a meeting that would soon change the course of Konoha history. Or destroy it. The twins moved into the marketplace, glancing around and turning down the merchants hawking wares. Then a quiet whisper upon the wind reached their ears.

"I have arrived, my sons. Report in the next alleyway you see." The voice, that of Lady Nightshade said.

Soon enough, the twins casually turned a corner and walked straight through a Genjutsu of an empty alleyway, coming face-to-face with not only their mother the Empress Nightshade, but her consort Uchiha Itachi, with his cruel red eyes spinning.

Janus and Jesse bowed and gave their report, everything that occurred including the latest promises to the one called Masato.

"Hmm. Capturing the son of King Wagner will ensure that he will join the war on my brother's side, if he hasn't already." Nightshade mused. Then a mad grin crossed her face. "But as a bargaining chip, he will be useful. Now, let us wait, for my good friend will soon arrive, and then...I will lay out my plan."

Daniel sighed and rolled his head back to look up at the sky. “Sensei is late again.”

“And you’re surprised?” came Katana’s voice.

That was true, Eamonn had been late the previous night as well. Kept him training longer as a result. The prince hadn’t liked that at all, he was left completely knackerd and still could remember going back to the hotel that morning, only waking up with Katana yelling at Katsuo for getting oil everywhere.

“I need mead,” he sighed.

“Well you can’t, you’re a Genin and drunk Genins are a no-no,” Katana told him. “And besides they have strict drinking laws here, you’re also too young you’d have to wait six years anyway.”

Daniel folded his arms and scowled at her. “Why are you here anyway?” he replied. “Shouldn’t you be with your cousin helping him beat me… wait you’re spying for him aren’t you?”

Katana rolled her eyes at him. “I want you to beat my cousin, idiot,” she told him, giving him a cold stare. “That’s why I’m here.”

Ok so the young prince wasn’t expecting that, but maybe she really was spying for Katsuo. If only he had a cousin of his own whom could spy on the puppeteer.

In another part of Konoha, Masato was watching Katsuo. He had decided that Katsuo must lose if the match managed to get that far, he would have to find a way to sabotage Katsuo’s puppet.

“Katana I will not have you spying for your cousin,” Eamonn said, announcing that he had finally arrived.

Now that set Katana off. “I am not spying for Katsuo!” she yelled.

Out of the shadows, Eamonn stepped. “But what I have to teach Daniel is for his eyes only, you must leave Katana,” he told her.

Katana fumed, but left anyway. Making Eamonn mad wasn’t a good idea anyway and so she decided to see if she could head to the hospital and see how Shun was.

Daniel was certainly interested in his training now with the promise of something for his eyes only. “What is it?” he asked.

Eamonn calmly removed his sunglasses and placed them in a pocket. “This,” he said holding out his arms. Two blue blades made od chakra appeared.

“Awesome, your chakra katanas,” Daniel said, his blue eyes lighting up.

OOC: Waiting for Huntaer. *whistles a tune*

Max had finally caught up with Mer after an extensive and tiring chase. "Very good, but don't think you get to relax now." Rafael commented from his spot in a tree as he took a bite of a powerbar. "Now I think it might be interesting for Merry to chase you, same rules and another condition." He tossed a pair of earplugs and a scarf. "You'll have to do this mostly blind and deaf."

"Crap." Max cursed as he was nearly screwed as he put the scarf to cover his eyes. The only things Sensai could do to make it worse would be weights, fortunately Tori wasn't there to suggest it.

"If you can avoid getting tagged for an hour, you get food and a chance to rest, oh and Merry, if you get exhausted, I'll take over. Now begin."

Max inserted the plugs and took off, with his vision that of legally blind, and his hearing close to nil, he sought to avoid his team-mate, and should it happen, his Sensai.

**************

The exhaustive and ever increasing in difficulty, stamina, chakra control and tai-jutsu training continued in earnest for close to a week as Max was pushed beyond his limits time and time again. After the extensive training in the physical arts, the training switched to the secret arts of the ninja, including the jutsu unique to, and usable only by, the Oroach bloodline.

Sweat and fur were not something that went well together but here Daniel was, sweating like a pig. His fur was drenched as he wiped his forehead with his forearm. He wasn’t happy that Eamonn had yet to begin teaching his chakra katana technique. Quite frankly it was beginning to annoy him, his sensei had after all told him he would be learning it but running around Konoha and doing two hundred pushups wasn’t his idea of learning a chakra katana technique.

He was also close to completely passing out and dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. “Fuck,” he cursed. “I can’t take this anymore.”

Eamonn came and stood in front of him. “Your enemies will always fight you hard, to the point of exhaustion,” he told the young ninja. “You must be able to overcome that, use Ddauchlorsson, he’ll help you.”

Daniel looked up at him, his eyes flashing green.

“Like that,” Eamonn said. “It is his duty to protect you, to help you. Use his power.”

For a few moments Daniel stayed where he was. He was knackered and didn’t feel that he could stand up. But Eamonn was watching him, he could see that his sensei was disappointed in him.

Let me, said Dauchlorsson.

Daniel rose to his feet at long last. As he looked at Eamonn his eyes were still green. But that was what the Jounin had wanted to happen, to allow Dauchlorsson to give him strength.

“Good, good,” Eamonn said. “Now hold out your arms like this.”

Daniel watched his sensei before mimicking his move. Not entirely sure why he needed to hold his arms outstretched like that, but if his sensei had told him to do it he would do it. That said if Eamonn told him to jump off a cliff, Daniel would refuse he wouldn’t do everything Eamonn told him to do.

“Concentrate your chakra to your hands,” Eamonn then told him.

Daniel nodded, he knew exactly how to do that as it was like when he’d learnt Kinobori no Waza for the first time. Hopefully with Dauchlorsson active, it would be easier for him to gain chakra for the katana’s. he could feel the chakra build in his arms.

“Feels like I have pins and needles,” he said.

Eamonn nodded. “That is a good thing,” he said. “It means your chakra is flowing to where you want it but I warn you, you will not show much progress tonight.”

Daniel looked towards his hands, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do the chakra katana’s right away. Still he was going to concentrate and at least he had help from Ddauchlorsson. His hands still tingled.

“Good,” Eamonn said. “By the time of your match against Katsuo you will be able to use chakra katana’s.”

From the shadows, the dark figure of Masato shifted. Ddauchlorsson, not good, he thought to himself. They should know about this.

Quietly Masato slipped away. Though Eamonn did have the feeling of being watched, he didn’t know by whom.

“Be careful when training Daniel,” he warned. “You never know whom might be watching.”

"Hmm. Aelikes is not available today. We'll have to start without him." Nightshade said as Kabuto arrived. "Well...you know the mission. Capture Travis Masaki."

They nodded in reply.

"Of course, you'll need a diversion if you are to survive. That is where I come in." Nightshade said, pulling out a scroll, handing it to Kabuto. "This details the plan, but suffice is to say that I have allied the Rock and Sound nin under the banner of the Imperials' Shadow nin. Also, as soon as I leave, I will be releasing a few "political" prisoners to assist."

Sound nin. Perhaps Orochimaru will be involved this one last time. Kabuto thought, a glare on his glasses. He smirked. I dearly hope so.

"Will there be a signal?" Janus asked.

"You'll know it." A fierce grin appeared on the Empress' face.

"Very good." Jesse replied with a smile. "Will there be anything else?"

"Just be prepared. Dismissed." That said, the boys left, leaving Kabuto alone with the two S-level criminals.

"Allying with the Rock nin is a stroke of genius." Kabuto commented.

"We only had to remind them of their traditonal enemies." Itachi said. "The Mist and Cloud nin would not answer our calls."

"So it would be three nations against two. Iwaga, Otoga and Kage against Konoha and Suna." Kabuto smirked. "Quite a mess you'll make, my lady."

"Of course. After all, the destruction of this nation would be a far more severe blow than any Palpatine could do against the Jedi. Konoha is the backbone of Coreworlds. Break it, and my brother will be finished once and for all." Nightshade clenched a fist.

"Speaking of Daniel, you've heard the rumors, I trust?" Kabuto asked.

"I have. I will make sure he never announces it." Nightshade said. "Coreworlds is mine by right of conquest. And I will ensure that stays true!"

The next several days went by fast. Travis mastered the Reigun technique by Saturday, and his other ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques has doubled in speed and ability. Even his ability to detect Genjutsu has been increased, even if he is still lacking in casting them.

Now, the day has come. The time to learn Rasengan is now.

"All right! Time to learn the one technique that could kick the asses of everyone in the arena!" Travis exulted, momentarily forgetting that he has a multitude of techniques to kick ass with. Besides the master and apprentice, a number of water balloons bobbed up and down a basket.

"Heh. Now look closely. To perfect Rasengan, you need to see how it's created." Naruto said, holding out his hand, palm up. Travis looked closely, staring until his eyes crossed. A bluish energy began flowing, a small breeze, then growing stronger and stronger until it swirls into a ball of writhing energy as powerful as a hurricane. Then it dissipated. "What did you see?"

"Hmm." Travis tapped his chin. "At first, I saw that the blue chakra started swirling around a central area. Then it got stronger and stronger before being encased in something that holds it all together."

Naruto grinned, impressed. "You've got sharp eyes. You just gave me the three steps to learning Rasengan. The first step is Spin."

He held up a water balloon. "Your first task is to pop the water balloon with nothing but your chakra. Like so." The water balloon began to move, and then spiked out as the water inside sloshed around by the force of his chakra and burst, showering the two.

"Heh. This will be fun!" Travis grinned, taking another balloon. He began focusing on it, using all the chakra control he has learned up to now. The balloon began to wobble slightly, but nothing else happened. "Aww!"

"Keep trying. I'll just sit up in that tree reading my oh-so-great book." Naruto laughed and hopped onto the branches of a tree, avoiding all the thrown water balloons with ease.

"Rrrr. Damned perverted-senseis and their perverted books." Travis grumbled, but he got to work, doing everything he can to pop the balloon with nothing but the spin of the water...

Meanwhile, a small shuttle erupts from hyperspace and descends into orbit over Konoha. A patrol craft went to challenge it, but backed off when it recieved the appropriate call-sign.

Taylor Masaki's callsign, that is. He has returned from a long-term trip to White Diamond near Earth and he's not alone. Aboard the ship with him is his adopted son John Watsen Masaki, the EWT Prime Minister James Whitfield, and his military aide, Colonel Keith Alliares.

As they descended, a massive number of hyperspace reversions revealed the remnants of the 1st and 2nd Fleets as well as the still-powerful Sixth Fleet. Immediately, the most heavily-damaged ships were taken away by fleet tenders to Konoha's shipyards for repairs while other fleet tenders moved to heal the less-damaged ships, ordering an increase in durasteel, turbolaser battery and other-important-parts production from the mines and processing factories in the process.

Among the fleet was the battered, but alive Chimera, flagship of Coreworlds. From that ship, a shuttle flew from the hangar bay as the crews worked on minor repairs inside the ship. The shuttle was flown by Daniel Masaki, the Lightning Master and contained, among other people, Admiral Pellaeon and the 'captured' Darth Plageuis, who hovered around Daniel like an irritating spector.

"That's not far from the truth." I muttered, glacing over at the currently-beign Sith Lord, who smiled back at me. Rogue Squadron flew around me in a protective formation as we descended, relieved that we're finally safe from the Empire...for now.

For the next month, I will have much to do. Among them is overseeing the Chuunin Exams and seeing to it that Travis learns the Kuchiyose technique before he fights in the third test. When I heard he made it through the first two tests, I was so proud!

But first, is a meeting with the Hokage, Tsunade. We swiftly landed at the Konohagekure and I noticed that Taylor has arrived as well. It's been a while since I saw him last. I'd say it was six months or so.

"Hey. How has it been?" I said as the Hokage was notified.

"Good. White Diamind is recovering nicely, but Whitfield here can tell you the details." Taylor said, then sensed my next question. "I don't know what to do with John. He hasn't changed much from before."

I shrugged. "I guess you can get him to meet the kids. Who knows? Maybe something good may come of it."

"Yeah." Taylor said, looking at the quiet boy clinging to his legs. A Genin led the boy away to the Academy, where he would meet his cousins, among other children. "By the way, what's this about the Empire beseiging Jurai, and who's the Dark-side fella hanging around you?"

I sighed "I'll tell you later when what's left of the Council meets today."

The Hokage then arrived and as we moved to a private location to talk, news of my safety gave hope to all good and honest people of Coreworlds, and then the rumors started up again...

Master Wescolum and Barak clapped as Lialai displayed her newly mastered move. Lialai landed and bowed to her two masters. Den smiled. Lialai was nearly ready for the next part of the chuunin exams. Her Vaapad was flawless along with her control of the wind and lightning. Her new jutsu was amazing. Den nodded and said, "Lialai you have come a long way. You don't have much more time until the next part of the exams start."

Barak sent an electric charge throughout his hair and smiled. He then said, "I have still have a little more to teach you however." Lialai smiled and said, "Of course." They began training more.

OOC: I was on a trip at Cape Cod CW for two weeks. Plus I had Freshman orientation at LIU too.

Also...

As always, use the OOC thread, heh.

I vill.


"Hmm." The store owner said. "Quiet and deadly, yes? I might have something."

After a short time, the store owner came back with a box. "Needles. Dip the sharp ends in the most powerful poisons you know and your enemies will be no more. And with the Force involved, you can even snipe someone from far away without the hassle of a gunshot. Or so I hear. A hundred credits a box."

"Done. I'll take 50 boxes. I suppose that will add up to... 5000 credits."
Shamman held up his data pad and handed it to the store head. Figure a form of an Imperial "Credit Card."

OOC:
I'll get to the shuttle in ~20 minutes as well as my question about the mystery figure. Need to unpack.

OOC: Heh. You just missed the evil mission statement. Oh well, Aelikes will get the memo. :p

IC:
"Done. I'll take 50 boxes. I suppose that will add up to... 5000 credits."
Shamman held up his data pad and handed it to the store head. Figure a form of an Imperial "Credit Card."
"Very well." The store owner swiped the pad through a scanner. "Done! Have a nice day!"

Shamman grabbed the boxes, and then spotted an odd little ball. It had spikes all over it, and it was attatched to a chain. A very long one at that.
"How much for that?" Shamman points to the old ball n' chain (OOC: If you've seen Kill Bill vol. 1, you'd know what I'm trying to describe).

::Meet me on the outskirts of the main city of. Look for the Hornet::

::I will master.... In 30 minutes.::

:: Don't be late.::

----------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the Hornet crused through Konoha's atmosphere and encountered one very biglightning storm. He and Deshoonde were having a difficult time trying to pilot through the rough lightning storms of Konoha.

"Complaint: MASTER! YOUR HORRIBLE FLYING IS MAKING MY GEARS AND OIL SWISH AROUND VERY UNCOMFORTABLY!"

"SHUT UP '59! We're doing the best we can!" Shouted Aelikes through his enviornmental mask. He wheezed and coughed a bit after shouting at his droid, the newer version of the older HK-47 droids.

"DAMN.... Being away from the Empire sure has made my piloting skills for these newer shuttles down.." Deshoonde grumbled aloud.

"Unessissary comment: Then why don't you use that old force power and recall some piloting skills meatbag? That'll make piloting through these storms easier..."

Deshoonde shot a glare at HK-59 through his white mask, and hissed at the droid. "Did you have to bring that dreaded droid along? I thought this Nightshade didn't want him to come along."

"So far as I know cousin, just for the chuunin exames. She never said anything about durring the raid and capture."

"Ah... Still, I think it'd have been better if we took another Kirtir Lord, or Master."

"It was suppose to be just me and Shamman. I'm taking a risk bringing you along."

"That so cousin?" Deshoonde asked Aelikes, "Why are you bringing me along then, if it's such a big risk?"

"Trilkan," Aelikes grumbled.

"Ah... Well then-- *Alarms sound* WE GOT INCOMMING LIGHTINING!"

"SHIELDS!"

"Shout: WE'RE DOOMED!"

"Too late... Brace for impact," at that, Deshoonde grabbed onto the seat and locked the seatbelts, "just make sure your seats are in their up and locked positions and your tray tables are up. We should be fine."

The shuttle's plating groaned, and creaked. Then, there was a burst of lightning.

Shamman grabbed the boxes, and then spotted an odd little ball. It had spikes all over it, and it was attatched to a chain. A very long one at that.
"How much for that?" Shamman points to the old ball n' chain (OOC: If you've seen Kill Bill vol. 1, you'd know what I'm trying to describe).

::Meet me on the outskirts of the main city of. Look for the Hornet::

::I will master.... In 30 minutes.::

:: Don't be late.::
OOC: Yeah, I know the type of weapon you seek.

IC:
"Oh, this kusarigama flail?" The vendor asked. "1500 credits."

A kusarigama is basically the same weapon, but with a sickle instead of a spiked ball. It's also known more simply as a chain mace.

----------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the Hornet crused through Konoha's atmosphere and encountered one very biglightning storm. He and Deshoonde were having a difficult time trying to pilot through the rough lightning storms of Konoha.

"Complaint: MASTER! YOUR HORRIBLE FLYING IS MAKING MY GEARS AND OIL SWISH AROUND VERY UNCOMFORTABLY!"

"SHUT UP '59! We're doing the best we can!" Shouted Aelikes through his enviornmental mask. He wheezed and coughed a bit after shouting at his droid, the newer version of the older HK-47 droids.

"DAMN.... Being away from the Empire sure has made my piloting skills for these newer shuttles down.." Deshoonde grumbled aloud.

"Unessissary comment: Then why don't you use that old force power and recall some piloting skills meatbag? That'll make piloting through these storms easier..."

Deshoonde shot a glare at HK-59 through his white mask, and hissed at the droid. "Did you have to bring that dreaded droid along? I thought this Nightshade didn't want him to come along."

"So far as I know cousin, just for the chuunin exames. She never said anything about durring the raid and capture."

"Ah... Still, I think it'd have been better if we took another Kirtir Lord, or Master."

"It was suppose to be just me and Shamman. I'm taking a risk bringing you along."

"That so cousin?" Deshoonde asked Aelikes, "Why are you bringing me along then, if it's such a big risk?"

"Trilkan," Aelikes grumbled.

"Ah... Well then-- *Alarms sound* WE GOT INCOMMING LIGHTINING!"

"SHIELDS!"

"Shout: WE'RE DOOMED!"

"Too late... Brace for impact," at that, Deshoonde grabbed onto the seat and locked the seatbelts, "just make sure your seats are in their up and locked positions and your tray tables are up. We should be fine."

The shuttle's plating groaned, and creaked. Then, there was a burst of lightning.
A slight spike in the lightning storm let Darth Nightshade know of someone coming in rather quickly. And she had a pretty good idea of who it is as she neared the soon-to-be crash site...

Meanwhile, young Travis was still hard at work fighting to gain the first stage of Rasengan amist the wind and rain and random lightning. Naruto worried slightly that his apprentice would get a cold, but the boy refused to stop even as exhaustion showed all over his body. Many, many times he tried to achieve the Spin of Rasengan, but he failed to pop the balloon. The last attempt, he slumped to the ground nearly defeated. Naruto wanted to give the boy a tip, but he waited. It's at these times, he knew, that insight comes like a bolt of lightning.

Breathing hard, Travis tried to remember how Naruto achieved the first step. The wind kicked up a notch and he noticed a dust devil appearing, hissing like a snake before evaporating. The boy noticed how the dust and leaves blew around this way and that. There was something about the way the wind blew...something familiar...

Travis went back to the technique, replaying it in slow motion in his mind. He remembered that the chakra spun blue one way, then another, then yet another until it seemed to be blowing randomly. A thought occurred to Travis. The spin of Rasengan...I've been doing it wrong! It's random, not linear! So that means...

Travis got up and then passed his hand over the water balloon, passing it over this way and that. That way and this. Faster and faster until he could feel the water sloshing everywhere. "Here...we...go! Haah!"

Travis soon felt the powerful burst of water and air in his face and looked down at his hand at the broken balloon. "I...did it? I did it! Sensei! I got it!"

"Good job!" Naruto grinned. Whoa. It took me a full week to figure that one out, and he did it in only two days! This kid is something special! "By the way..."

CRASH! BOOM! A violent burst of lightning struck near master and apprentice, shocking them in more ways than one. A thirtysomething man chuckled as he stood in the crater, unharmed. "Yo."

Recovering from the shock, Naruto groused. "Don't do stupid pranks, Daniel-teme!"

"Live a little, Naruto-kun." I grinned. "I seem to remember a little prankster who painted the Hokage's face once upon a time. Hey Travis! I hear you're training in new things."

"I'll do it again in a second! Just...not right now!" Naruto yelled. I rolled my eyes. He's gotten more responsible than last I checked, but I knew he could still do it.

"Hehe. Yeah! I learn Reigun and now I'm learning Rasengan!" Travis grinned, idly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Rasengan?" I raised an eyebrow. Naruto and Travis nodded enthusiastically. "Good idea. But then, I was of a mind to teach him Kuchiyose. You sure he can manage Rasengan in only a month?"

"Heh. I know he can.

The prospect of one more new technique to his arsenal before teh Chuunin Exam's Third Test gave Travis some new strength, from where, I don't know. He pointed straight at the two of us. "I will master Rasengan in only one week! This I swear! After all, I don't go back on my word, 'cause that's my way of the ninja!"

I chuckled, then laughed. "The more I think about it, the more you two are the same. Alright! One week to master the Rasengan and you'll learn how to summon dragons."

"All right!" Travis jumped high, then collapsed. "Ow."

"Chakra exhaustion. He used it all up today." Naruto smiled and picked up the kid. "You're right. He's a lot like me. How's the meeting with Tsunade-baba?"

"She'll kill you for that." I warned him, then sighed. "Awful. She's pissed at losing Jurai, not that I don't feel the same, and the Senate want answers. I feel horrible. Lost, even."

"Aah. I told you so. You have to declare yourself Emperor." Naruto said, ready to take the boy home. He turned serious at my "I don't want to!" look. "Now you have a choice. You can keep your wishy-washy feelings and let all of Coreworlds slide into darkness, or you can stop it, consolidate your power and use your clout to raise the biggest, baddest army the galaxy's ever seen and kick Palpatine in the nuts. You are the rightful Emperor. No one can or should ever take that away from you. Now I'm going home to eat. Think on that."

I sighed as he left, leaving me in the storm. Why the hell did he have to be so right?

OOC: Yeah, I know the type of weapon you seek.

IC:
"Oh, this kusarigama flail?" The vendor asked. "1500 credits."

A kusarigama is basically the same weapon, but with a sickle instead of a spiked ball. It's also known more simply as a chain mace.


"Done," Shamman allowed the man to swipe his card through one more time, and quickly grabbed the Kusarigama fail (or Chain mace). He then quickly ran out of the store, and searched for his master. He looked up in the sky, and saw something which was caught on fire. Damn it... That'll alert something, even if the shuttle is cloaked and the authorities can only find a hole in the ground with flames around it.

Shamman then broke into a running pace.
-------------------------------------

"Angry shout: MASTER! Please fly this shuttle more smoothly!!!"

"We're doing the best we can '59! It's hard to pilot a shuttle with only one wing" Aelikes's breathing grew heavier as things became rougher. That was about the time when the shuttle landed into the ground, causing a massive creator. The impact caused the two Kirtir Lords to be rendered unconcious. Aelikes's last known thoughts were I pray that the first people to discover us are Shamman and Nightshade...

HK-59 was "knocked out" as well, as his torso was severed from his legs from the crash resulting in a overload in his sytem... Not destroying him however....

-------------------------------------------

Shamman ran up to the crash site of the Hornet just after it had landed. He walked up to where the shuttle should be, but he couldn't see it. Of course... Shamman over came his curent eye site and used the force to see. Now, he could see the shuttle in clear view as a white and blue image. He could see his master's body as it layed on the ground, nocked out. He opened the hatch to the shuttle and averted his eyes as sparks flew in his face. He could see his droid scattered on the ground, disabled. And he also saw the third figure. This one, he assumed must be Deshoonde. He quickly and quietly pulled his master and Deshoonde out of the crash, and layed their bodies a hundred yards away from the crash site.
He finnaly managed to pull HK-59 severed torso and legs out of the shuttle

Not that badly damaged. I could easily fix this. He heard a gasp.

His master finnaly awoke, and Shamman quickly lept towards him to help him up, and they both happened to look in the same direction. Shamman and Aelikes could just make out a shadowy figure approach the site. Shamman guessed that it could easily be Nightshade, but he chould be wrong.

"Looks like we got company, " Shamman said.

OOC: Your cue, CW.

Nightshade arrived right after Shamman did. A wry smile was on her face. Nightshade spoke, noting the unconsious Kirtir Lords. "Well, a fine mess you made here."

"Come, they will investigate soon." She said, her eyes viewing the distant gates of Konoha. She eye the still-unconsious Deshoonde. "Is this one with you?"

Indeed, her senses perked up as two Genin who noticed the crash were coming soon to investigate.

Nightshade arrived right after Shamman did. A wry smile was on her face. Nightshade spoke, noting the unconsious Kirtir Lords. "Well, a fine mess you made here."

"Come, they will investigate soon." She said, her eyes viewing the distant gates of Konoha. She eye the still-unconsious Deshoonde. "Is this one with you?"

"I assume so, he weares the robes of a Kirtir Lord," Shamman stated.

"No assumption, apprentice. He is with us. He's my cousin, Lord (or Lady) Shelintiave's brother," Aelikes stated, "we don't need to carry him. I'll just levitate him. We will, however, need to carry the droid."

HK's eye's soon turned onto it's usual yellow glow, "Rebouting: Finding an alternative energy rought. Commencing sup-routein protocals.
Concerned Statement: It appears my tourso has been severed from my legs! I'm disgusted," HK-59 turns his head towards Shamman, "Querry: Any chance you'd beable to repair me master?"

"As soon as we arrive at our destination with Nightshade here."


Indeed, her senses perked up as two Genin who noticed the crash were coming soon to investigate.

"I sense it also... We must hurry if we're to avoid our enemies. They are, after all, relentless," with that, Aelikes and Shamman scurried off with HK-59 on Shamman's back and the still unconcious Deshoonde hovering in front of Aelikes.

"I assume so, he weares the robes of a Kirtir Lord," Shamman stated.

"No assumption, apprentice. He is with us. He's my cousin, Lord (or Lady) Shelintiave's brother," Aelikes stated, "we don't need to carry him. I'll just levitate him. We will, however, need to carry the droid."

HK's eye's soon turned onto it's usual yellow glow, "Rebouting: Finding an alternative energy rought. Commencing sup-routein protocals.
Concerned Statement: It appears my tourso has been severed from my legs! I'm disgusted," HK-59 turns his head towards Shamman, "Querry: Any chance you'd beable to repair me master?"

"As soon as we arrive at our destination with Nightshade here."

"I sense it also... We must hurry if we're to avoid our enemies. They are, after all, relentless," with that, Aelikes and Shamman scurried off with HK-59 on Shamman's back and the still unconcious Deshoonde hovering in front of Aelikes.
Nightshade swiftly led the Kirtir Lords to the hotel where she's staying so they could recuperate. None too quickly, the two Genin arrived at the crash site and investigated for the survivors. They found none, of course, but it doesn't hurt to try.

When they arrived, Deshoonde began to come around, "Ugh..."

"Statement: If you are truely the Darth Deshoonde as you were before I was activated you shouldn't be in as much pain as you are now."

"Shut it droid," Deshoonde mumbled, "Things had happened since the Phanom Wars."

"Querry: Like what?"

"Like no god damn annoying droids," Deshoonde shot back at '59.

"Enough bickering ladies," Aelikes scouled, "lets get onto some unfinnished buisness. Nightshade, I have to humbly appologize for our late arrival due to the terrible weather this planet seems to be having. I understand from my apprentice that we missed a meeting."

"Indeed, you missed it, but I shall summarize it." Nightshade said. "The primary mission is to capture my brother's son, Travis Masaki so he can be used either against the Jedi or as a hostage. The secondary mission is to destroy this place, Konoha and all within. To that end, I have gathered additional allies, the Rock and Sound nin to act as cannon fodder while our main forces do what they must." Then she explained the reasoning. "They are traditional enemies of Konoha and would jump at a chance to finally destroy it."

"Indeed, you missed it, but I shall summarize it." Nightshade said. "The primary mission is to capture my brother's son, Travis Masaki so he can be used either against the Jedi or as a hostage. The secondary mission is to destroy this place, Konoha and all within. To that end, I have gathered additional allies, the Rock and Sound nin to act as cannon fodder while our main forces do what they must." Then she explained the reasoning. "They are traditional enemies of Konoha and would jump at a chance to finally destroy it."


"Ah... It all makes sense," Deshoonde stroked the chin part of his white mask, thinking in approval, "do we have any other abilities?"

"Querry: My dear female meatbag, it seems like you have it all under controle however, there is one thing which has risen a concern to me. What guarintee do you have that the natives won't side with the Jedi Scum if they were offered a better deal? They may hate them, but greed is something I have discovered in my research of meatbag-like behavior which I have found to be suseptable to most meatbags.

Aelikes and Deshoonde shot glares at '59 at calling Nightshade a "meat bag".

::I really ought to change that droids programming:: Aelikes said to Deshoonde.

::Concured.::

OOC: CW, check TG's please? I have something which can't be mentioned on the Jolt forums. I want this subject to be strickly known to a few people. It could be our LS selves best shot against other forces.

Nightshade felt like seeing how well this droid would stand up to a blade made of wind, but she stayed her hand.

"Two reasons. One. The Hokage runs a tight ship and any attempt to stir rebellion will inevitably be pointed to us." Nightshade said. "Secondly, there is one good reason why Konoha and the Jedi are naturally allied with each other and that is because they harbor the same basic ideology of 'Good Trumps Evil'. It would be futile to try and pry them apart psychologically. Destruction is the only recourse."

"Two reasons. One. The Hokage runs a tight ship and any attempt to stir rebellion will inevitably be pointed to us." Nightshade said. "Secondly, there is one good reason why Konoha and the Jedi are naturally allied with each other and that is because they harbor the same basic ideology of 'Good Trumps Evil'. It would be futile to try and pry them apart psychologically. Destruction is the only recourse."

"Reply: Ah, well then mistriss, no worries then."

"It seems," Deshoonde glared at the droid, "we have an accord."

"There is, however, one more thing I'd like to offer to aid in this battle," Aelikes offered.

"Warning: Master, do you have the Emperor's permission to give them this aid? Assuming that it's the aid I'm thinking about."

"More than likely."

"What kind of aid?" Nightshade inquired. In the shadows, a pair of blood-red eyes peeked out, silently taking in the guests.

"What kind of aid?" Nightshade inquired. In the shadows, a pair of blood-red eyes peeked out, silently taking in the guests.

Deshoonde faded out time to time durring the conversations, and began to nodd a couple of times before he woke himself up. He stared out into the shadows of the area and sworn he saw a pair of red eyes, but when he turned to look again he saw nothing. He shook it off as a form of side effect from his recent blow to the head.

"What we have to offer, many have managed to fail," Aelikes reached into his pockets and pulled out a 3D holographic data pad. What appeared was a monster of a creature. It's sholder's were large and bulky, skin darkish grey and brown which looked like it was cut up a thousand times over. It's face looked like it was taken from a Picasso painting and slapped on very badly.

"If my memory serves correctly your master, Emperor Palpatine, created beasts perverted by the dark side of the force quite some time ago. A rather large beast at that. However, if memory serves, it lacked controle of the force. Then about 4000 years ago, an exiled Jedi (OOC: KOTOR II) created a race of sith perverted from the force due to his actions from a war at that time. They however lacked strength and didn't survive.

Now, nearly 400 years later the sith perversions and almost 100 years after your master's creation (OOC: however many number of years this takes place after the Dark Empire series), the Kirtir have nearly perfected a new being. A new perversion of the Dark Side of the Force."

It was at this moment Deshoonde swerved his head at Aelikes's direction, Jorrus isn't going to like this at all... None of the Alliance, or their allies will. And Daniel Masaki most of all. If there was only a way I could contact him without being noticed...

"Darth Nightshade, I present to you the Necroman race. A perversion of the dark side, as I previously stated, created by my master and his Kirtir followers. They master in the art of brutality, and they are resistant to the petty Jedi Mind Tricks and to mind readers all around. The only way to read them would be to Torture them. They also have an unusual capability to use the same exact lightning ability we, you and I, use. A perfect damnation for the operation we're about to commence."

I don't like this at all... Deshoonde nodded his head in approval, however. "You guys have been quite busy while I've been gone havent you?"

OOC: Torture, not tourcher.

IC:
"Excellent." Nightshade grinned. That gave her a thought. "I too have some notes of darkness to compare."

She pulled out a holopic of two men, one with a black-haired ponytail and the other wearing glasses. "The one with the ponytail is ex-Major Zolf J. Kimblee. He was sentenced to death by the Order's military dogs for murdering a superior officer. The thing is, he didn't do it with any normal way. He killed the officer by transmuting the body into a mess of violate chemicals then watched him blow up with uncanny ruthlessness. The other man would be right up your alley. He is Shou Tucker, noted for being capable of fusing two or more creatures together into chimeras. He too was sentenced to a maximum security prison for using his own wife and daughter as experiments."

"I intend to release these two men (they rot in the same prison, incidently) and watch the carnage grow." The Dark Lady chuckled. She has an even darker motive for releasing the two men, but she's not about to reveal that secret just yet.

OOC: Torture, not tourcher.

OOC: Whistles an innocent tune...


IC:
"Excellent." Nightshade grinned. That gave her a thought. "I too have some notes of darkness to compare."


Aelikes nodded, "Please,"


She pulled out a holopic of two men, one with a black-haired ponytail and the other wearing glasses. "The one with the ponytail is ex-Major Zolf J. Kimblee. He was sentenced to death by the Order's military dogs for murdering a superior officer. The thing is, he didn't do it with any normal way. He killed the officer by transmuting the body into a mess of violate chemicals then watched him blow up with uncanny ruthlessness. The other man would be right up your alley. He is Shou Tucker, noted for being capable of fusing two or more creatures together into chimeras. He too was sentenced to a maximum security prison for using his own wife and daughter as experiments."

Deshoonde watched the holograms in alarm, though his eye expresion gave nothing away. Bitch... If she is thinking of doing what I think she's going to do...


"I intend to release these two men (they rot in the same prison, incidently) and watch the carnage grow." The Dark Lady chuckled. She has an even darker motive for releasing the two men, but she's not about to reveal that secret just yet.

"They sound like valuable assets for this operation. Very valuable," Deshoonde acted as though he approved.

"Yes, Deshoonde of course they are," Aelikes thought for a few moments, "How about your two renegade men lead a squad or two of our Necromen? They'll cause even more chaos combined than they would if they were apart. In my humble opinion, of course."

"That would be an excellent idea." Nightshade nodded. The pair of eyes stared out again, revealing a man with raven-black hair and a black cloak with red lining. "Oh, have you met my husband Itachi Uchiha yet? While I go to free these men from their prison, he will be here to coordinate efforts up to the day when we attack. Will there be anything else before I go?"

The piercing red eyes have three comma-like shapes called tomoe. Itachi seemed able to pierce their innermost souls and look over them, but alas, he could not...or could he? One never could tell with Uchihas...

"That would be an excellent idea." Nightshade nodded. The pair of eyes stared out again, revealing a man with raven-black hair and a black cloak with red lining. "Oh, have you met my husband Itachi Uchiha yet? While I go to free these men from their prison, he will be here to coordinate efforts up to the day when we attack. Will there be anything else before I go?"

"Neither of the four of us have met your husband, but you've mentioned him to me and my master quite some time ago," Aelikes respectfully bowed to Itachi, and nudged Deshoonde's side to make him do the same.



The piercing red eyes have three comma-like shapes called tomoe. Itachi seemed able to pierce their innermost souls and look over them, but alas, he could not...or could he? One never could tell with Uchihas...

He could not with neither of the Lords (especially Deshoonde), but if he tried, he could get at Shamman easily due to his lesser experience with the force. Deshoonde was famous within the Huntarian Empire for having a significant ability to block other people from reading his thoughts if he didn't want them to.

"As to whether or not we have any further questions, I don't think so."

"interjection: Master, there is one other matter which does concern me. She hasn't fully described just HOW she plans to capture the notorious Travis Masaki. If the dark lady would allow, I would like to be apart of that opperation due to my brief experience with the Masaki bloodine and my superior assassin skills."

Shamman spoke up for the first time durring this strainge meeting, "HK, I thought she said no droids for this mission."

"Reply: Hmph. Well, it doesn't hurt to ask.
Angry Shout: AAAA!!! Master, whateverareyoudoingtome!?!?!"

"Putting your legs back on, now hold... HOLD STILL DAMN IT!"

Itachi bowed his head in reply.

"I left that question up to my sons. After all, to catch a brat, you have to think like a brat." Nightshade said, frowning. She growled. "And someone shut that droid up before I do. He'll ruin the mission with his mouth."

"Well, if there's nothing left, I leave Itachi here to continue the coordination. I have a prison break to conduct." Nightshade smirked before disappearing in a black cloud. Moments later, a stealth shuttle rose into space and disappeared into hyperspace.

=====

Day 3 of Rasengan Training!

"All right! What's the next stage in Rasengan training?" Travis yelled.

"Heh. Hold on and I'll show you." Naruto smirked. This time, he held up a rubber ball. "You have to pop this rubber ball by initiating Stage 2: Power. You've got the spin down. Now you have to infuse the Spin with so much power that the rubber ball can't help but pop. It's said to be 100 times harder than the first stage."

With that, Naruto concentrated on the palm of his hand once more and the rubber ball shook and burst into pieces.

"So I'll simply put 100 times the effort!" Travis boasted. "Gimme the ball!"

"Here you go!" Naruto grinned, waving his hand over a basket of rubber balls. Travis grabbed one then began to charge up the rubber in hopes of popping it. Gathering energy, he poured as much as he could into the spin and then watched the ball rumble...rumble...rumble...

only to see air lightly burst out the side.

"Crap! This is hard!" Travis griped. Yet he tried another...after all, this kid hardly gives up!

Naruto watched his apprentice once more from a tree, eating ramen without a care in the world.

Calgulia. A planet situated near a binary black hole system, it was only the ability of humanity to produce theater shields that protect the inhabitants from the searing radiation of hot gasses being drawn into oblivion. And it was a great site for a prison. The Maximum Security prison for the worst offenders, that is.

Ex-Major Zolf. J. Kimblee had a simple schedule. Every day at 6 am, he gets up and trudges to the mess hall to eat grit and water, then goes out with the other prisoners to exercise for one hour under the watchful eye of the guards. Then he is escorted back to his cell. Rinse and repeat for the rest of his life. It's enough to make a man go mad, but then the Crimson Alchemist, as he was once called, was already half-crazy.

Today, however, would be different.

The Major and a few other prisoners noted a sudden rumbling. The guards started shouting orders and beat the prisoners back to their cells. But alas, while prisons were good for keeping their charges from escaping, they were not so good at defending against assaults from outside.

Especially if it's conducted by a crack regiment of the 120th Legion, stationed on Tenetia, commanded by a Dark Lady of the Sith! The stormtroopers laid waste to every poor guard defending the prison with minimal losses and then 'freed' the prisoners for a purpose far more dire than they think.

The Dark Lady herself strode down the hallways, searching for the two men she mentioned to Aelikes. She found them in their cells and to their glee, ripped the doors off with the power of the Dark Side.

"I have heard of you. You are the Masaki daughter turned to the Empire." Kimblee smirked, his cheekbones showing from a forced diet.

"Even the ears of murderers have heard of my exploits." Lady Nightshade replied, head held high. "I have need of your services and that of Shou Tucker."

Zolf kneeled, eternally grateful to her. "I shall serve you, my Lady. Ask of me whatever you wish."

Shou merely bowed deeply, being a quiet man even in jail.

"Very well. Rise, Colonel Kimblee and Lieutenant Colonel Tucker. Your lives are mine to do as I will, and your abilities will need dusting off. But come! Let us get away from this prison!" Nightshade said formally. To the stormtrooper captain, she ordered. "Take those prisoners who wish to serve the Empire. Kill the ones who refuse."

"Aye, my Lady." The captain replied and send squads to carry out her orders. Lady Nightshade then deliberately left one guard alive to tell the story of woe and Imperial terror to the High Council...

Calgulia. Several hours later...

I pitied the ragged man who sent word to the High Council of the prison breakout. Not only did he live when all his fellow guards died, he was the only one left in the jail when General Mustang, Master Lowbacca and I personally arrived at the prison planet to get a full report. We no longer trusted Holonet transmissions thanks to the Empire.

After finishing up the interview and assuring compensation for his lost job, we headed back to Konoha.

"[What is the Dark Lady planning now? She releases all these prisoners and then leaves only one person alive to tell the tale.]" The Coredian defense minister growled.

"Among the prisoner manifests are Kimblee and Tucker, both sentenced to death for mass murder. Their date was next week." Mustang said.

Two alchemists...hold on. "What were they working on before imprisonment?" I asked the General.

"Well, Tucker was the Sewing-Life Alchemist. He created chimeras for the Alchemy Division of the Order. Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist...his expertise is in the...oh, hell no." Mustang groaned.

"What?"

"The Philosopher's Stone." He smacked his head. "We destroyed the documents to create them, but Kimblee's an expert in building them, since he can manipulate organic atoms to create bombs."

I nodded. Little did people know that most explosives used in the military has the four major elements in the human body: Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Hydrogen. Kimblee's ability is to effectively transmute the four elements in such a way that they would form deadly explosives whenever he wants. He killed many people in his career and has been said to love the screams of his victims as they blew up. I shuddered at the memory of his trial.

The Philosopher's Stone nowadays is classified as a catalyst/amplifier in alchemist circles. It is capable of granting a normal person the ability to use powers, and it can amplify the powers of a gifted person many times. For example, if I used a Stone back during my EMP Explosion on Coruscant, I would most likely have fried every electrical component on the planet, completely shutting it down. Mass disruption by a Force-sensitive had never been so easy.

But it wasn't the horror of using it that shut down all production methods of the Stone. It was the horror of creating it. In effect, the Stone is a concentration of sentient life-forces, souls if you will. And the only way to gather that much life force into one red stone is...you guessed it...to take lives. To murder.

That was the reason for the shutdown. That was the reason many an alchemist went mad when they realized the truth. That was the reason my brother Jacob banned all further research as the chairman of the alchemy divison. The Stone was a tool of death. Created by death, used for death.

And now...we have a serious problem. Kimblee will most likely be put in charge of making new Stones by Nightshade. And Sith Lords (and Ladies) aren't known for morality prizes either. But the big question remains.

"What the hell are you planning, Fiona?" I whispered, watching hyperspace fly by...

The Fleet dropped out of the Necrominus on the far side of Konoha's system, cloaked. These ships were of the Demolisher Class Battleship lines. Rather odd for the Huntarian Empire to stray away from the Towerless Star Destroyer ship line, but they were very effective. The Admiral of this small fleet new her fleet's capabilities.

This fleet was called Phantom Fleet, the new home to the Huntarian Empire's notorious stealth fighter squadron: Specter Squadron. This fleet was based on stealth, and heavy devestating attacks.

With the recent production of the stealth shuttle transports, the Hornet Class Lambda Shuttle (the one Aelikes and Deshoonde arrived in), transporting the new Necromen beasts to the planet might have been too easy if the recent comm scanns didn't reveal what they were about to reveal:

"Rear Admiral? *silence for twenty seconds* Ma'am?"

"Yes Comm, what is it?"

"Scanns have shown an enemy fleet is in orbit of the planet on the far side. It appears to be enemy lines," the comm officer reported.

"Masaki?"

"Quite possibly considering how the target is on the planet below. You'd think that his father would want to see his son.... 'Successfuly' pass the Chuunin Exames."

"Damn it. That means they might've noticed us," while the Necrominus Drives enable the Huntarian Empire's (and the Alliance for that matter) to slip in close enough to an enemy planet without being detected in advanced, they are easily noticed by an experienced Force user, "all right. Time for plan 'B.' We'll have one shuttle go in every five hours escorted by 3 Tie Phantom Mk II's and 3 Tie Spectors. And make sure that the number of Necromen inside each shuttle is down to five minimum (10 max). We don't want the Jedi to take notice of our transports too easily."

"Aye ma'am."

Something in the Force disturbed the balance surrounding the system of Konoha. Most youngsters dismissed it as a hiccup of sorts, but we elders (by "we" I mean the elder Team Seven, me, the Godaime and other Jounin) knew that something was up. As such, I, with the advice of the Godaime, began stepping up patrols for the next few weeks as we get closer to the Chuunin Exams. After all, the last time my first Chuunin Exams occured (I failed then) Konoha was invaded by Orochimaru and the Sandaime and a lot of good people were killed. I didn't want a repeat, especially with my son around...

Meanwhile, the boy in question was huffing and puffing and a bunch of broken but not popped rubber balls were strewn around the ground. "Damn. Sensei wasn't kidding when he said this was tough..."

He only had three rubber balls in the basket left. Sweat stained his shirt and his blue hair was soaked as well. Not to mention that he was low on chakra. Brushing salty water from his eyes, Travis took out another ball and this time, he stared at it, trying to think.

What am I doing wrong? I'm spinning as fast as I could, putting in as much power as I could handle? Maybe I'm not putting enough? Perhaps...

A memory came to him. A memory of one of his boasts.

"I'm no different from any of you, Dad, Master Naruto! Whatever I do, whereever I go, I will never give up my oath to protect Coreworlds and all the precious people within, even if I die! That is my nindo, my ninja way!"

Then reality returned, and Travis looked down at his ball. Heh. If I'm going to do anything, I'm going to have to go all the way! All right. Here we go!

Swiping his hand around the ball, Travis gathered the remaining reserves of his deep chakra well and forced them into the rubber ball. The ball started violently shaking...shaking...shaking...until...

BOOM! The rubber ball exploded, slamming Travis and his hundred-pound weighted suit into a tree and blowing away the basket with the other balls. "Aaah! Ow!"

Naruto too was blown off his perch. "Whoa! Don't tell me a bomb went off!?"

"It's...just me...Sensei!" Travis groaned before being rendered unconscious again.

"Heh. At this rate, he'll definitely pass Daniel's test. Maybe I should ask the Emperor-to-be to teach him how to summon the Dragons anyway...right after I teach him the third step." Naruto chuckled. After all, battle conditions are the best way a Rasengan can be perfected. I speak from experience, though.

After that, Naruto took him to the hospital where he can be healed again.

OOC: My long-awaited IC arrival in the thread. CW, after reading the siege of Jurai, I completely rewrote what I had in mind, and you're probably in for additional shell shock.

Meanwhile, a small shuttle erupts from hyperspace and descends into orbit over Konoha. A patrol craft went to challenge it, but backed off when it recieved the appropriate call-sign.

Taylor Masaki's callsign, that is. He has returned from a long-term trip to White Diamond near Earth and he's not alone. Aboard the ship with him is his adopted son John Watsen Masaki, the EWT Prime Minister James Whitfield, and his military aide, Colonel Keith Alliares.

As they descended, a massive number of hyperspace reversions revealed the remnants of the 1st and 2nd Fleets as well as the still-powerful Sixth Fleet. Immediately, the most heavily-damaged ships were taken away by fleet tenders to Konoha's shipyards for repairs while other fleet tenders moved to heal the less-damaged ships, ordering an increase in durasteel, turbolaser battery and other-important-parts production from the mines and processing factories in the process.

Among the fleet was the battered, but alive Chimera, flagship of Coreworlds. From that ship, a shuttle flew from the hangar bay as the crews worked on minor repairs inside the ship. The shuttle was flown by Daniel Masaki, the Lightning Master and contained, among other people, Admiral Pellaeon and the 'captured' Darth Plageuis, who hovered around Daniel like an irritating spector.

"That's not far from the truth." I muttered, glacing over at the currently-beign Sith Lord, who smiled back at me. Rogue Squadron flew around me in a protective formation as we descended, relieved that we're finally safe from the Empire...for now.

For the next month, I will have much to do. Among them is overseeing the Chuunin Exams and seeing to it that Travis learns the Kuchiyose technique before he fights in the third test. When I heard he made it through the first two tests, I was so proud!

But first, is a meeting with the Hokage, Tsunade. We swiftly landed at the Konohagekure and I noticed that Taylor has arrived as well. It's been a while since I saw him last. I'd say it was six months or so.

"Hey. How has it been?" I said as the Hokage was notified.

"Good. White Diamind is recovering nicely, but Whitfield here can tell you the details." Taylor said, then sensed my next question. "I don't know what to do with John. He hasn't changed much from before."

I shrugged. "I guess you can get him to meet the kids. Who knows? Maybe something good may come of it."

"Yeah." Taylor said, looking at the quiet boy clinging to his legs. A Genin led the boy away to the Academy, where he would meet his cousins, among other children. "By the way, what's this about the Empire beseiging Jurai, and who's the Dark-side fella hanging around you?"

I sighed "I'll tell you later when what's left of the Council meets today."

The Hokage then arrived and as we moved to a private location to talk, news of my safety gave hope to all good and honest people of Coreworlds, and then the rumors started up again...

"By the way, what's this about the Empire beseiging Jurai, and who's the Dark-side fella hanging around you?" Taylor's seemingly innocent question caused all three Woodians present to not want to be here...

Master Whitfield, as Prime Minister of Evil Woody Thoughts, knew. His military adjutant (and padawan), Colonel Keith Allaire knew. And John Masaki Watsen, the five-year-old clinging to Taylor's leg, had damn near committed suicide the night before...it was only Whitfield's telepathic pleas that had finally dissuaded him. After three long hours.

For that matter, the thought of ritual suicide had crossed Keith's mind too, but he had discarded it before it got to the point of tugging on the Force and alerting other Jedi to such thoughts.

Major Walter Ryle, one of the former Sith Wraiths of EWT who, like Colonel Allaire, had joined the Academy as a padawan, had committed ritual suicide the night before; other Jedi were unable to intervene in time.

The nation of Evil Woody Thoughts fell into dezgra, or dishonor. Shame. Disgrace. For the Woodian Navy, still suffering from the aftereffects of ruinous civil war, was unable to deploy to Jurai to assist in the system's defense, to repay what amounted to something like a national life debt, initiated in gratitude for CoreWorlds' involvement in said war.

To a Woodian, it was as if the Empire had sieged White Diamond instead, and there had been no one to defend the system...

As for John, not only had he nearly committed suicide the night before, but he had also refused to eat anything other than ration bars since the civil war had ended...fortunately, those ration bars still provided enough nutrition for him to grow as a normal child (well, physically, anyway)...

EWT had been recovering, at least, until the Empire pulled this stunt and EWT had been unable to do anything about it. What Taylor didn't realize was that the cultural implications of said ineptness could turn out to be as destructive for the rebuilding as another war.

None of the Woodians said anything, but Colonel Allaire, dressed in military uniform instead of Jedi robes, looked down slightly at Daniel. His eyes, normally resembling twin PPC bolts for their color, intensity, and intimidation value, instead looked more like a dimmed bluish-hazel.

None of the three needed to say anything. Daniel could sense what they would have said anyway.

*Flashback*

I glanced at the down faces of the three Woodian citizens and saw and felt their self-disgrace at being unable to help us when the Empire came. Even the Colonel's eyes were dull. I sighed. Just another issue on my growing plate of problems, which happens to include a supposedly-dead Sith hanging around. Problem was, he's so powerful that when I swiped him with my lightsaber, he healed up right away. Until I find a way to get rid of him, I'm stuck with Darth Plagueis making snide comments and so on and so forth.

We arrived at the Office of the Hokage, where the secretary (and trained apprentice) Shizune sat at her desk and looked up. "Oh, Commander Masaki, Mr. Prime Minister. Go right in. Her schedule is clear today."

"Thank you." I said and the Prime Minister and I headed into the office of Tsunade.

"Daniel, Mr. Prime Minister. How do you do?" Tsunade asked, looking up from her own paperwork.

Meanwhile, John Watsen was ushered by his adoptive father to the Academy, where a few kids were running around as school was let out. A couple of kids stopped playing and noticed Taylor. "Hey, Uncle Taylor! What's new!"

The boy barely glanced at the child clinging to his legs as Taylor spoke and ruffled his brown hair. "Everything's good, Anakin. And your sister?"

"Right here!" A pair of pigtails, cute blue eyes and a jumper made Nina Masaki the undisputed cutest member of the Clan. "Hehe! So what did you do when you were away! Where's Mommy and Daddy and why does that boy look so sad?"

"Heh. Slow down. Um. Let's see. I'll tell you later. Your mom and dad are away and should be back soon." I hope they escapes that seige... "And the little boy is your new cousin, John Watsen. His parents are gone so I'm taking care of him."

"Oh." Anakin thought it weird that Taylor would suddenly have an adopted son and Nina began to think of ways to cheer up John.

"Um. Do you like to play anything?" Nina asked John, trying to make friends while Anakin saw his other friends and decided to play with them.

*Flashback*

I glanced at the down faces of the three Woodian citizens and saw and felt their self-disgrace at being unable to help us when the Empire came. Even the Colonel's eyes were dull. I sighed. Just another issue on my growing plate of problems, which happens to include a supposedly-dead Sith hanging around. Problem was, he's so powerful that when I swiped him with my lightsaber, he healed up right away. Until I find a way to get rid of him, I'm stuck with Darth Plagueis making snide comments and so on and so forth.

We arrived at the Office of the Hokage, where the secretary (and trained apprentice) Shizune sat at her desk and looked up. "Oh, Commander Masaki, Mr. Prime Minister. Go right in. Her schedule is clear today."

"Thank you." I said and the Prime Minister and I headed into the office of Tsunade.

"Daniel, Mr. Prime Minister. How do you do?" Tsunade asked, looking up from her own paperwork.

Whitfield entered the room, followed closely by his adjutant...

"I suppose I could give you the standard diplomatic niceties, Master Tsunade, but to be perfectly honest, you're probably able to tell that we're not doing so well..."

Colonel Allaire found the nearest chair and simply sat down, and as to emphasize Whitfield's point, his posture carried a slight slouch...something that the old Jedi Master had never seen in his apprentice before...

Meanwhile, John Watsen was ushered by his adoptive father to the Academy, where a few kids were running around as school was let out. A couple of kids stopped playing and noticed Taylor. "Hey, Uncle Taylor! What's new!"

The boy barely glanced at the child clinging to his legs as Taylor spoke and ruffled his brown hair. "Everything's good, Anakin. And your sister?"

"Right here!" A pair of pigtails, cute blue eyes and a jumper made Nina Masaki the undisputed cutest member of the Clan. "Hehe! So what did you do when you were away! Where's Mommy and Daddy and why does that boy look so sad?"

"Heh. Slow down. Um. Let's see. I'll tell you later. Your mom and dad are away and should be back soon." I hope they escapes that seige... "And the little boy is your new cousin, John Watsen. His parents are gone so I'm taking care of him."

"Oh." Anakin thought it weird that Taylor would suddenly have an adopted son and Nina began to think of ways to cheer up John.

"Um. Do you like to play anything?" Nina asked John, trying to make friends while Anakin saw his other friends and decided to play with them.

The boy failed to acknowledge Anakin, in much the same way as Anakin had failed to acknowledge him. As for Nina, young John simply gave her a blank stare...

It took about ten seconds for him just to shake his head no.

OOC: Yea! EWT is back online.

And notes on the troops that have landed:

60 Huntarian Clone Troopers (looks like this (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/Huntaer/Huntaer/huntarianclonetroopercopy.jpg) and they have huntarian TFA (http://studiocreations.com/images/2005c3_d1thru4/2005c3-Images/61.jpg). While

24 Space Marines (all have Mk II Power Armor)

10 Space Marine Terminators (all have MK II Tactical Dreadnaught Armor)

26 Necromen

20 Speeder Bikes

If you have questions about the newer armor styles, just view my tech thread linky in my sig.

IC:

It would take about two days before a decent sized amount of troops would reach the outskirts of the main city and set up camp (poor HK-59 would have to wait for a long time before he could get any major repairs done). Aelikes, Deshoonde, and Shamman broke up and were in charge of the three camps which were set up. No more troops would land until Nightshade came back with the two nutcases. Then the killings amungst the outskirts would begin.

However, durring the night one the second day of troop arrival Deshoonde snuck off into the main city of Konoha where training for the Chuunin Exams took place. Deshoonde quickly hid his dark robes and his mask and put on his Malkir robes, resumed his role as Magriel, and went off searching for the training center where Travis was being kept.

Due to his training from both Emperor Trilkan and Supreme Councilor Jorrus, it didn't take him long before he found the boy...

Whitfield entered the room, followed closely by his adjutant...

"I suppose I could give you the standard diplomatic niceties, Master Tsunade, but to be perfectly honest, you're probably able to tell that we're not doing so well..."

Colonel Allaire found the nearest chair and simply sat down, and as to emphasize Whitfield's point, his posture carried a slight slouch...something that the old Jedi Master had never seen in his apprentice before...
"I noticed." Tsunade said sympathically. "As you probably know, we have been struck by the Empire and Daniel here would tell you the full story. Daniel?"

I nodded. "It first came along when I was invited to Coruscant to watch what amounted to a show of power by Palpatine. The sun turned black, followed by the other stars in the Empire. Then something alerted me to head back to Jurai and before I knew it, the Empire has struck with Thrawn's Hellfire and a fleet of about 450 or so ships. Would have beaten them with the arrival of GFFA forces and the 1st and 2nd Fleets, but then came the weirdest and most unsettling thing."

Tsunade nodded. "The Sith Lords returned. I felt that."

"Yeah." I sighed. "They took a quarter of the fleet. And then the Executor and its Death Squadron arrived to pour salt into our wounds. With two Super Star Destroyers (although Hellfire was beaten badly by the Lightside and the fleet) and a whole shitload of enemies surrounding us, I was forced to retreat here."

I punted a fist into a hand. "I swore I would get Jurai back, and I will..."

The boy failed to acknowledge Anakin, in much the same way as Anakin had failed to acknowledge him. As for Nina, young John simply gave her a blank stare...

It took about ten seconds for him just to shake his head no.
Hmm. Nina has her work cut out for her. Taylor thought as he saw John's few movements.

"Um. Ok. I like playing sand castle. Can I show you?" Nina asked.

It would take about two days before a decent sized amount of troops would reach the outskirts of the main city and set up camp (poor HK-59 would have to wait for a long time before he could get any major repairs done). Aelikes, Deshoonde, and Shamman broke up and were in charge of the three camps which were set up. No more troops would land until Nightshade came back with the two nutcases. Then the killings amungst the outskirts would begin.

However, durring the night one the second day of troop arrival Deshoonde snuck off into the main city of Konoha where training for the Chuunin Exams took place. Deshoonde quickly hid his dark robes and his mask and put on his Malkir robes, resumed his role as Magriel, and went off searching for the training center where Travis was being kept.

Due to his training from both Emperor Trilkan and Supreme Councilor Jorrus, it didn't take him long before he found the boy...
By the time Deshoonde found Travis, he was currently training on the third and final step of Rasengan: Control.

Naruto once again showed him a balloon, air instead of water inside. "Now look closely."

"Uh huh." The boy saw the balloon...do nothing. "Uh, is something supposed to happen?"

Naruto snickered. "No. This is the third and final step. Control. You need to combine the Spin and Power into a ball of chakra with the power of a hurricane."

"You mean I got to make the spin powerful and then control all that power?" Travis groaned.

"Yup." Naruto said, clearly amused at his apprentice's disapproval. "Begin, and remember, you have two more days to complete the full Rasengan before your father checks you again."

"Alright, alright. I know." Taylor grumbled. Then he began the last step, each balloon popping with much violence in the process. He was too busy to notice the newcomer, but the next thing Magriel knew, a lightsaber hilt was placed at his neck by Naruto, who appeared behind him as if by teleport. A speed even a Master Jedi could hardly achieve.

"You're no ordinary person to get past the seals I placed to keep prying eyes away from this training area." Naruto said nonchalantly. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I noticed." Tsunade said sympathically. "As you probably know, we have been struck by the Empire and Daniel here would tell you the full story. Daniel?"

I nodded. "It first came along when I was invited to Coruscant to watch what amounted to a show of power by Palpatine. The sun turned black, followed by the other stars in the Empire. Then something alerted me to head back to Jurai and before I knew it, the Empire has struck with Thrawn's Hellfire and a fleet of about 450 or so ships. Would have beaten them with the arrival of GFFA forces and the 1st and 2nd Fleets, but then came the weirdest and most unsettling thing."

Tsunade nodded. "The Sith Lords returned. I felt that."

"Yeah." I sighed. "They took a quarter of the fleet. And then the Executor and its Death Squadron arrived to pour salt into our wounds. With two Super Star Destroyers (although Hellfire was beaten badly by the Lightside and the fleet) and a whole shitload of enemies surrounding us, I was forced to retreat here."

I punted a fist into a hand. "I swore I would get Jurai back, and I will..."

"We all sensed it, even from White Diamond," Whitfield replied. "Yet, there was little we could do unless Coredia was attacked instead. Jurai is simply too far away to deploy any fleet of consequence when our navy is as small as it is. Had it been Sol...different story. Even John Masaki sensed it--and I spent three hours begging him not to kill himself last night."

"Yeah," Colonel Allaire replied, his language slipping away from the perfection usually associated with one who normally conducted himself in a manner that would make Otto von Bismarck seem like a lazy slug by comparison. "Major Walter Ryle, who you treated for mindrape about six months ago, committed seppuku by lightsaber last night, as he was unable to bear the shame of a nation under dezgra." The emphasis and tone of voice on that last word provided Tsunade with all the definition she needed to know.

However, as Daniel's last comment registered in Keith's brain, he sat up in his chair, and his eyes flashed a dark, deep, intimidating blue...in other words, somewhat back to normal. He looked straight into the eyes of Daniel. "I sense a problem. You bought a whole lot of technology and equipment from us at the beginning of the war. Yet it is not yet integrated effectively into your military. Well, I know four other padawans who can help change that in a hurry...and the faster that gets changed, the faster Evil Woody Thoughts can blot out the stain of dishonor."

Hmm. Nina has her work cut out for her. Taylor thought as he saw John's few movements.

"Um. Ok. I like playing sand castle. Can I show you?" Nina asked.

John still did not speak...Nina had her work cut out for her, all right.

Ten seconds, without even a nod from the head.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty...

No response was forthcoming...

"Alright, alright. I know." Taylor grumbled. Then he began the last step, each balloon popping with much violence in the process. He was too busy to notice the newcomer, but the next thing Magriel knew, a lightsaber hilt was placed at his neck by Naruto, who appeared behind him as if by teleport. A speed even a Master Jedi could hardly achieve.

"You're no ordinary person to get past the seals I placed to keep prying eyes away from this training area." Naruto said nonchalantly. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I've had my training, about 6000 years of it. My name is Councilor Magriel, Travis, your father (daniel I presume) should recognise my name since we had a breif meeting together regarding my people's civil war. For now, I assume my former role as the Kirtir Dark Lord Deshoonde. Yes, yes I was trained in the dark arts (and was quite good at it too) by my former master Emperor Trilkan.

Now, as to what I want, for one you can put that sword away for I'm not here to harm you. Even if you would fight me you'd be no match," Magriel neeled down to Travis's eye level (which was difficult for his height of 6'5"), and his face turned serious,"Your life is in danger young one. Your dark aunt plans to do something to you durring your finnal stages in the Chuunin Exams. And I also know that your cousins are involved as well. What they have planed for you, or when, I can't say. I haven't been told everything."

"We all sensed it, even from White Diamond," Whitfield replied. "Yet, there was little we could do unless Coredia was attacked instead. Jurai is simply too far away to deploy any fleet of consequence when our navy is as small as it is. Had it been Sol...different story. Even John Masaki sensed it--and I spent three hours begging him not to kill himself last night."

"Yeah," Colonel Allaire replied, his language slipping away from the perfection usually associated with one who normally conducted himself in a manner that would make Otto von Bismarck seem like a lazy slug by comparison. "Major Walter Ryle, who you treated for mindrape about six months ago, committed seppuku by lightsaber last night, as he was unable to bear the shame of a nation under dezgra." The emphasis and tone of voice on that last word provided Tsunade with all the definition she needed to know.

However, as Daniel's last comment registered in Keith's brain, he sat up in his chair, and his eyes flashed a dark, deep, intimidating blue...in other words, somewhat back to normal. He looked straight into the eyes of Daniel. "I sense a problem. You bought a whole lot of technology and equipment from us at the beginning of the war. Yet it is not yet integrated effectively into your military. Well, I know four other padawans who can help change that in a hurry...and the faster that gets changed, the faster Evil Woody Thoughts can blot out the stain of dishonor."
Man oh man. The fact that even little John almost committed suicide and the blood that did flow from some people means that I would definitely have to include EWT in the liberation campaign, if only to assauge their feelings of guilt, percieved or not.

I nodded. "I understand. Honor is of utmost importance even in Coreworlds. Have the padawans come here to help with the integration as soon as possible. Plus, there's still a few Force training classes going on at the Academy so we can do their training as well."

John still did not speak...Nina had her work cut out for her, all right.

Ten seconds, without even a nod from the head.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty...

No response was forthcoming...
Patient was Nina as she waited for an answer. "You sure are quiet. Let me show you how to play sandbox."

With that, she lightly grasped John's hand and led him to a nearby sandbox. Taylor sat on a bench to watch them. "Here. You do it like this."

Nina picked up sand with a little shovel and then poured the sand into a bucket. Then she packed down the sand and turned it upside down into a little castle. "See? It's not hard. If we work together, we can make a big castle!" She beamed.

Man oh man. The fact that even little John almost committed suicide and the blood that did flow from some people means that I would definitely have to include EWT in the liberation campaign, if only to assauge their feelings of guilt, percieved or not.

I nodded. "I understand. Honor is of utmost importance even in Coreworlds. Have the padawans come here to help with the integration as soon as possible. Plus, there's still a few Force training classes going on at the Academy so we can do their training as well."

"Well, Master, one of them is right here. I do believe I said four other padawans, as I could probably use an Introduction to Geology course myself...if one is still offered." Keith wondered if he'd be able to be trained as a geokinetic after all...if the Academy didn't have the expertise to train him as such before, he would probably not be spending enough time at the University of White Diamond studying from the Archives to make up for it now. "But teaching your people how to pilot DropShips and how to do payload configurations on BattleMechs would take priority at this point. I'll contact the other four as soon as this meeting is over, as I have more direct access to them than nearly anyone except their masters."

Of course, the Colonel meant the four surviving former Sith Wraiths, all Lieutenant Colonels in the EWT military now (two of them had been promoted from majors since the war ended). As he knew all four personally and had their private, highest-priority commlink channels, contacting them in haste would not pose problems...

Whitfield noted the time. "Oh, Daniel, the suicides are not over. There will be more when the daily national newscast comes on in...four minutes."

Patient was Nina as she waited for an answer. "You sure are quiet. Let me show you how to play sandbox."

With that, she lightly grasped John's hand and led him to a nearby sandbox. Taylor sat on a bench to watch them. "Here. You do it like this."

Nina picked up sand with a little shovel and then poured the sand into a bucket. Then she packed down the sand and turned it upside down into a little castle. "See? It's not hard. If we work together, we can make a big castle!" She beamed.

John followed Nina only because she incessantly tugged at his hand...he wasn't sure he had a choice. He would have preferred to be alone, however...

He contemplated the sand castle that Nina was building for a few seconds, then shook his head as if to say no...

"I've had my training, about 6000 years of it. My name is Councilor Magriel, Travis, your father (daniel I presume) should recognise my name since we had a breif meeting together regarding my people's civil war. For now, I assume my former role as the Kirtir Dark Lord Deshoonde. Yes, yes I was trained in the dark arts (and was quite good at it too) by my former master Emperor Trilkan.

Now, as to what I want, for one you can put that sword away for I'm not here to harm you. Even if you would fight me you'd be no match," Magriel neeled down to Travis's eye level (which was difficult for his height of 6'5"), and his face turned serious,"Your life is in danger young one. Your dark aunt plans to do something to you durring your finnal stages in the Chuunin Exams. And I also know that your cousins are involved as well. What they have planed for you, or when, I can't say. I haven't been told everything."
"I am Travis' Master, Mr. Double-Agent..." Naruto said as he put away his lightsaber. "So Nightshade's planning evil against him. Not surprisingly."

"Eeergh. Yeah. My cousins have been trying to kill me since we met six months ago." Travis said, rolling his eyes and popping yet another balloon. "Dammit!"

"Well, thanks for the warning." Naruto said.

"Well, Master, one of them is right here. I do believe I said four other padawans, as I could probably use an Introduction to Geology course myself...if one is still offered." Keith wondered if he'd be able to be trained as a geokinetic after all...if the Academy didn't have the expertise to train him as such before, he would probably not be spending enough time at the University of White Diamond studying from the Archives to make up for it now. "But teaching your people how to pilot DropShips and how to do payload configurations on BattleMechs would take priority at this point. I'll contact the other four as soon as this meeting is over, as I have more direct access to them than nearly anyone except their masters."

Of course, the Colonel meant the four surviving former Sith Wraiths, all Lieutenant Colonels in the EWT military now (two of them had been promoted from majors since the war ended). As he knew all four personally and had their private, highest-priority commlink channels, contacting them in haste would not pose problems...

Whitfield noted the time. "Oh, Daniel, the suicides are not over. There will be more when the daily national newscast comes on in...four minutes."
"Oh." I said. Not over yet...

"Well, as soon as you talk it over with your people, we can start setting up a training regimen for our people. The sooner the better, of course." Tsunade said. Great. More paperwork.

John followed Nina only because she incessantly tugged at his hand...he wasn't sure he had a choice. He would have preferred to be alone, however...

He contemplated the sand castle that Nina was building for a few seconds, then shook his head as if to say no...
Nina stopped playing when she noticed that John wasn't doing anything. Displaying wisdom beyond her years, she said. "If you never learn how to play and have fun, you'll never be a better person. That's what Mommy always says."

"I am Travis' Master, Mr. Double-Agent..." Naruto said as he put away his lightsaber. "So Nightshade's planning evil against him. Not surprisingly."

"Eeergh. Yeah. My cousins have been trying to kill me since we met six months ago." Travis said, rolling his eyes and popping yet another balloon. "Dammit!"

"Well, thanks for the warning." Naruto said.

"One other thing, she's not alone. She has my cousin, Darth Aelikes, on her side once more and my cousin's apprentice. He has a fleet coming in from somewhere within the Huntarian Empire, cloaked mind you. I'll try my best to buy you as much time as possible before the two kiddies plan strikes, and if they succeeds (which will happen according to my gut) and her plan is fulfilled I'll watch over you as best as I can without revealing myself. Mind you though, expect me to be more.... Cruel, Travis."

Magriel turned as if to leave, but then he remembered something, "also give your father this," he reached into his pockets and pulled out an old white and red mask which was split in two, "tell him he has an ally within the empire. He'll understand.

*Sigh* I just hope Nightshade doesn't put me in charge of whatever is about to come," at that, Magriel disapeared in a puff of blue and green smoke and returned to the city where he resumed his role as Deshoonde.

"One other thing, she's not alone. She has my cousin, Darth Aelikes, on her side once more and my cousin's apprentice. He has a fleet coming in from somewhere within the Huntarian Empire, cloaked mind you. I'll try my best to buy you as much time as possible before the two kiddies plan strikes, and if they succeeds (which will happen according to my gut) and her plan is fulfilled I'll watch over you as best as I can without revealing myself. Mind you though, expect me to be more.... Cruel, Travis."

Magriel turned as if to leave, but then he remembered something, "also give your father this," he reached into his pockets and pulled out an old white and red mask which was split in two, "tell him he has an ally within the empire. He'll understand.

*Sigh* I just hope Nightshade doesn't put me in charge of whatever is about to come," at that, Magriel disapeared in a puff of blue and green smoke and returned to the city where he resumed his role as Deshoonde.
"Thank you." Travis put the mask in his own pocket and filed the words of the Councilor in his mind. Then he continued his training, which turned out to be the most intense he had up to now.

"Well, as soon as you talk it over with your people, we can start setting up a training regimen for our people. The sooner the better, of course." Tsunade said. Great. More paperwork.

"Yes, Master Tsunade. I will make contact as soon as this meeting concludes."

"Oh." I said. Not over yet...

Four minutes later

Sure enough, the news came on back in Evil Woody Thoughts, and the lead story was the siege and fall of Jurai. A small percentage of those watching, but enough to number a little over a million or so in total, and enough to create a mini-tremor in the Force (especially given White Diamond's tendency to amplify it further), decided the shame of living in a dezgra nation was too much.

Even though the news never actually used the slur. For that matter, the news anchors refrained from making any judgements on national honor...but people were left to form their own conclusions...

A million people plus dug around the house for suitably sharp implements. Not all at once, either--some found implements right away, some had to look harder for something judged sufficient, and some spent a significant time in meditation, or writing out wills, before even looking for such implements. But suffice it to say that the population of a small city committed ritual seppuku that evening, to salvage what honor the nation had left, if any. All this because Evil Woody Thoughts had been unable to honor what the collective consciousness of the nation considered more or less a national life debt...

To make things even worse for the Jedi whom Whitfield had warned, not everyone died immediately after sticking knives, or other sharp objects, or for the lucky ones, katanas, in their bellies. Master and apprentice both winced as they sensed the prolonged pain of those who would take an hour or more to die...

In feudal Japan, a defeated warrior would shove a tantō (small knife) up his belly, while the victorious warrior retained the option of a quick katana beheading to make the suicide ritual a bit more...humane. But there was no one ready to offer the citizens of Evil Woody Thoughts who had chosen death quick mercy deaths...so their pain lingered throughout the Force a bit longer...

Nina continued playing when she noticed that John wasn't doing anything. Displaying wisdom beyond her years, she said. "If you never learn how to play and have fun, you'll never be a better person. That's what Mommy always says."

John started looking for some paper to scribble on...anywhere, as if he had taken a vow of silence, but after a minute, he gave up and just started writing in the sand.

The five-year-old (almost six-year-old by now) youngling's writing indicated a cynicism, or perhaps a shell shock, well beyond his years.

MY PEOPLE SUFFER. THEN I SUFFER.

At least Nina had some idea of what bothered him now...

...Then John turned around and buried his face in the sand as the Force-tremor of suicides started.

"Yes, Master Tsunade. I will make contact as soon as this meeting concludes."

Four minutes later

Sure enough, the news came on back in Evil Woody Thoughts, and the lead story was the siege and fall of Jurai. A small percentage of those watching, but enough to number a little over a million or so in total, and enough to create a mini-tremor in the Force (especially given White Diamond's tendency to amplify it further), decided the shame of living in a dezgra nation was too much.

Even though the news never actually used the slur. For that matter, the news anchors refrained from making any judgements on national honor...but people were left to form their own conclusions...

A million people plus dug around the house for suitably sharp implements. Not all at once, either--some found implements right away, some had to look harder for something judged sufficient, and some spent a significant time in meditation, or writing out wills, before even looking for such implements. But suffice it to say that the population of a small city committed ritual seppuku that evening, to salvage what honor the nation had left, if any. All this because Evil Woody Thoughts had been unable to honor what the collective consciousness of the nation considered more or less a national life debt...

To make things even worse for the Jedi whom Whitfield had warned, not everyone died immediately after sticking knives, or other sharp objects, or for the lucky ones, katanas, in their bellies. Master and apprentice both winced as they sensed the prolonged pain of those who would take an hour or more to die...

In feudal Japan, a defeated warrior would shove a small knife (OOC: don't know the Japanese name for said instrument offhand) up his belly, while the victorious warrior retained the option of a quick katana beheading to make the suicide ritual a bit more...humane. But there was no one ready to offer the citizens of Evil Woody Thoughts who had chosen death quick mercy deaths...so their pain lingered throughout the Force a bit longer...
"Ugh. That's not a good feeling." I said, massaging my temples as a million people committed suicide in faraway Evil Woody Thoughts. I turned to the Prime Minister. "You do realize that it's most important to rebuild your own nation first. I appreciate your coming to assist, but I feel that you'd have to look out for your own interests first."

John started looking for some paper to scribble on...anywhere, as if he had taken a vow of silence, but after a minute, he gave up and just started writing in the sand.

The five-year-old (almost six-year-old by now) youngling's writing indicated a cynicism, or perhaps a shell shock, well beyond his years.

MY PEOPLE SUFFER. THEN I SUFFER.

At least Nina had some idea of what bothered him now...

...Then John turned around and buried his face in the sand as the Force-tremor of suicides started.
"Oh. That's so sad." Nina sighed and hugged poor John. Everyone needs a hug. She felt the tremor and teared up but refused to cry, and her Uncle Taylor rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"Ugh. That's not a good feeling." I said, massaging my temples as a million people committed suicide in faraway Evil Woody Thoughts. I turned to the Prime Minister. "You do realize that it's most important to rebuild your own nation first. I appreciate your coming to assist, but I feel that you'd have to look out for your own interests first."

"Such a policy wouldn't stop the suicides. And ultimately, an economy is driven by a citizenry, not a Prime Minister. If the citizenry is so glum that they all want to kill themselves, the only rebuilding taking place will be from Godulan construction ants."

As if to enunciate the point, the pain in the Force of those who had impaled themselves but who had not met their final fate flared up again, then stayed as a steady, uncomfortable pressure in the Force, ready to spike a little bit again each time a hundred or so people found something resembling a tantō at roughly the same time.

Colonel Allaire gazed into Whitfield's eyes for a moment. As his senses were obviously not as attuned as those of the Masters present, his headache was not *quite* as severe. However, his eyes burned the brightest, most pure azure Whitfield had ever seen, even purer than the hues from a lightsaber blade, which meant that Colonel Keith Allaire, simply put, wanted to pwn something. Darth Plagueis was obviously not a suitable target; even Keith knew that.

Nevertheless, he rose from his seat, and in a rough equivalent of Daniel smacking his fist into his palm while vowing to liberate Jurai, cast such gaze directly into the new Light-Side Emperor's eyes.

It would have been easy for another Woodian military officer, especially one not gifted in the Force, to misinterpret that glaring look as a challenge to an honor duel. Said officer would have ended up on the floor, clutching his stomach, and ceding defeat in less than a second. (Though Keith would never kill in an honor duel, especially after his own temporary experience as a Sith Lord's involuntary servant.) But fortunately the Jedi Masters present knew better, and Keith wasn't stupid enough to look at Darth Plagueis with that look in his eyes.

Yes, the Colonel was in the mood to crush something. But that something wasn't anyone in the room, not even the resident Sith Lord. Nay, he was in the mood to crush some poor cannon fodder troopers that wore white jackboots, plastoid armor, and identified themselves by serial number rather than name.

On Jurai.

Preferably with a cutdown ground force, if possible...more humiliation for the Empire that had wreaked so much evil that way.

"Oh. That's so sad." Nina sighed and hugged poor John. Everyone needs a hug. She felt the tremor and teared up but refused to cry, and her Uncle Taylor rubbed his forehead and sighed.

At first John pulled back from the hug, but realizing it was futile, simply gave up and let Nina hug him. He still didn't say anything, however. He figured he didn't want to get too close to Nina, lest she be stuck with dry ration bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next ten years. Or however long it was until even the Woodians left penniless by the war had access to a diet more satisfying then cheap, bulk, processed bread items and ration bars...

OOC: Where's Anakin in all of this?:D

"Such a policy wouldn't stop the suicides. And ultimately, an economy is driven by a citizenry, not a Prime Minister. If the citizenry is so glum that they all want to kill themselves, the only rebuilding taking place will be from Godulan construction ants."

As if to enunciate the point, the pain in the Force of those who had impaled themselves but who had not met their final fate flared up again, then stayed as a steady, uncomfortable pressure in the Force, ready to spike a little bit again each time a hundred or so people found something resembling a tantō at roughly the same time.

Colonel Allaire gazed into Whitfield's eyes for a moment. As his senses were obviously not as attuned as those of the Masters present, his headache was not *quite* as severe. However, his eyes burned the brightest, most pure azure Whitfield had ever seen, even purer than the hues from a lightsaber blade, which meant that Colonel Keith Allaire, simply put, wanted to pwn something. Darth Plagueis was obviously not a suitable target; even Keith knew that.

Nevertheless, he rose from his seat, and in a rough equivalent of Daniel smacking his fist into his palm while vowing to liberate Jurai, cast such gaze directly into the new Light-Side Emperor's eyes.

It would have been easy for another Woodian military officer, especially one not gifted in the Force, to misinterpret that glaring look as a challenge to an honor duel. Said officer would have ended up on the floor, clutching his stomach, and ceding defeat in less than a second. (Though Keith would never kill in an honor duel, especially after his own temporary experience as a Sith Lord's involuntary servant.) But fortunately the Jedi Masters present knew better, and Keith wasn't stupid enough to look at Darth Plagueis with that look in his eyes.

Yes, the Colonel was in the mood to crush something. But that something wasn't anyone in the room, not even the resident Sith Lord. Nay, he was in the mood to crush some poor cannon fodder troopers that wore white jackboots, plastoid armor, and identified themselves by serial number rather than name.

On Jurai.

Preferably with a cutdown ground force, if possible...more humiliation for the Empire that had wreaked so much evil that way.
The resident Sith Lord in question simply watched the proceedings with a level gaze, watched over in turn by two helpless ANBU guards. A sardonic grin appeared on his face. "Much anger I sense from all of you. For sure, the Jedi have changed since my passing."

Ignoring the Sith, I noted the gaze in the Colonel's eyes and I nodded. "You're ready to lead the Mechwarriors against the enemy on Jurai, I take it?"

At first John pulled back from the hug, but realizing it was futile, simply gave up and let Nina hug him. He still didn't say anything, however. He figured he didn't want to get too close to Nina, lest she be stuck with dry ration bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next ten years. Or however long it was until even the Woodians left penniless by the war had access to a diet more sastifying then cheap, bulk, processed bread items and ration bars...

OOC: Where's Anakin in all of this?:D
OOC: Just been concentrating on trying to cheer this kid up.

IC:
Nina let go of John and then continued to play with the sand. Meanwhile, Anakin came along with a few friends. He finally noted the quiet John. "So you're the new kid on the block. John, right? Where did you say you were from?"

The resident Sith Lord in question simply watched the proceedings with a level gaze, watched over in turn by two helpless ANBU guards. A sardonic grin appeared on his face. "Much anger I sense from all of you. For sure, the Jedi have changed since my passing."

Ignoring the Sith, I noted the gaze in the Colonel's eyes and I nodded. "You're ready to lead the Mechwarriors against the enemy on Jurai, I take it?"

The 6'2" padawan that, to the untrained eye, looked like he was going to kick someone's ass right then and there sat back down after a moment, much to the relief of Whitfield. "It is customary for commanders to bid for such an honor. Moreover, we'd need more information on the Empire's garrison before we could calculate the cutdown force, a prerequisite to such bidding."

OOC: Just been concentrating on trying to cheer this kid up.

IC:
Nina let go of John and then continued to play with the sand. Meanwhile, Anakin came along with a few friends. He finally noted the quiet John. "So you're the new kid on the block. John, right? Where did you say you were from?"

John simply nodded, keeping his silence in spite of Nina's hug.

The 6'2" padawan that, to the untrained eye, looked like he was going to kick someone's ass right then and there sat back down after a moment, much to the relief of Whitfield. "It is customary for commanders to bid for such an honor. Moreover, we'd need more information on the Empire's garrison before we could calculate the cutdown force, a prerequisite to such bidding."
"Last I checked, there's the high possibility of a full corps or two of infantry and mechanized forces. Plus, scattered reports indicate that the elite 501st Legion has entered the area." I said. "You can be sure the Empire is pulling out all the stops, including Darth Vader himself, to conquer Jurai. Yeah, you heard right, the Machine Man himself."

"Hold on. That reminds me." I pulled out a datapad, the most heavily encrypted I've ever seen. "I didn't play it yet, but Grandpa left me a message for when I got here."

John simply nodded, keeping his silence in spite of Nina's hug.
"Well, uh, speak up! Where did you come from?" Anakin asked.

Masato was done for taining for now. He put away his black flame sword and performed a few seals to put out the fires he'd started through training. The area he had been training in was deserted and out of the way. All the trees around him kept everyone else away it was the perfect place to keep his secrets from prying eyes.

The plans that the two sons of Nightshade still interested him, he had kept up his part by making sure to spy on Daniel as much as possible without giving himself away. Of course he'd had to sheadule that around his own training. He wondered what they were up to, how their side of the plan was holding up. He knew theres were bigger than his own, his was only to capture his cousin, Theirs? Theirs was bigger, much bigger but he didn't know much about it he was just tagging along.

As he headed back he kept a look out for them.

"Last I checked, there's the high possibility of a full corps or two of infantry and mechanized forces. Plus, scattered reports indicate that the elite 501st Legion has entered the area." I said. "You can be sure the Empire is pulling out all the stops, including Darth Vader himself, to conquer Jurai. Yeah, you heard right, the Machine Man himself."

"Hold on. That reminds me." I pulled out a datapad, the most heavily encrypted I've ever seen. "I didn't play it yet, but Grandpa left me a message for when I got here."

Keith grinned for the first time since he had sensed the siege of Jurai taking place. "We should be able to find ways to deal with the 501st. All of us former Sith Wraiths were some of the best MechWarriors to be found outside the Gaian Ascendancy; we basically formed a 501st of our own. Why we were targeted for mindrape. Our Prime Minister, if he is willing, knows how to pilot a 'Mech, and quite well, I might add. As does Taylor."

Still grinning, he added, "Moreover, if those two join our little raiding party, if the Empire ever figures out that a padawan is commanding a Jedi Master and a Masaki at the same time, they probably wouldn't know what to think. They probably would figure this out too, with Vader there. We might get the advantage of a few moments of the enemy writing us off as batshit insane if we're lucky. The Empire has never seen a BattleMech, has no idea what their capabilities or or how their weapons work. Even our assault 'Mechs are roughly twice as fast as an AT-AT, more manueverable, and you can swivel the torso as a partial turret, which standard Empire walkers can't do. Not to mention the differences in firepower and armor...and the fact that the Empire has not the slightest idea how we Woodians fight."

Whitfield spoke up. "With Vader there, I probably should go with my apprentice. By now, there is an order of succession established...there wasn't six months ago."

"Well, uh, speak up! Where did you come from?" Anakin asked.

John did not speak up, and seemed to make Anakin wait even longer for being so rude. Finally, he kneeled in the sand and used his finger to write "EWT."

Keith grinned for the first time since he had sensed the siege of Jurai taking place. "We should be able to find ways to deal with the 501st. All of us former Sith Wraiths were some of the best MechWarriors to be found outside the Gaian Ascendancy; we basically formed a 501st of our own. Why we were targeted for mindrape. Our Prime Minister, if he is willing, knows how to pilot a 'Mech, and quite well, I might add. As does Taylor."

Still grinning, he added, "Moreover, if those two join our little raiding party, if the Empire ever figures out that a padawan is commanding a Jedi Master and a Masaki at the same time, they probably wouldn't know what to think. They probably would figure this out too, with Vader there. We might get the advantage of a few moments of the enemy writing us off as batshit insane if we're lucky. The Empire has never seen a BattleMech, has no idea what their capabilities or or how their weapons work. Even our assault 'Mechs are roughly twice as fast as an AT-AT, more manueverable, and you can swivel the torso as a partial turret, which standard Empire walkers can't do. Not to mention the differences in firepower and armor...and the fact that the Empire has not the slightest idea how we Woodians fight."

Whitfield spoke up. "With Vader there, I probably should go with my apprentice. By now, there is an order of succession established...there wasn't six months ago."
I began to grin. "And that will be the major advantage we have over them. But first, we best get my troops trained in the Mechwarrior ways and form a 'warrior regiment. Or something like that."


John did not speak up, and seemed to make Anakin make even longer for being so rude. Finally, he kneeled in the sand and used his finger to write "EWT."
"EWT? That's all? Where's that?" Anakin asked rudely. Taylor began to scowl at his nephew's uncouthness.

I began to grin. "And that will be the major advantage we have over them. But first, we best get my troops trained in the Mechwarrior ways and form a 'warrior regiment. Or something like that."

"Yes, and the sooner this meeting adjourns, the sooner I can get that started," Keith replied, never being much a fan of layers and layers of bureaucracy. "Is there anything else?"

"EWT? That's all? Where's that?" Anakin asked rudely. Taylor began to scowl at his nephew's uncouthness.

John realized that Anakin wasn't familiar with the standard abbreviation for his nation, though Anakin's uncouthness made him just want to walk away. Nevertheless, spelling it out would no doubt spawn instant recognition, for John's native nation had been in the Coredian news quite frequently up until the siege, after all.

Therefore, he knelt down again and spelt it out in the sand, keeping what amounted to a vow of silence as far as oral communication was concerned. EVIL WOODY THOUGHTS.

Lialai fell from the sky at a quick rate with her leg extended. Her heel connected with the back of Gordunt's head. Gordunt quickly fell to the ground.

Barak began clapping. "I see you have perfected that technique. Good job, Lialai." Lialai smiled and went over to Gordunt. He had a huge knot on the back of his head. Within it was a cut.

"Ooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed. Blood rushed from his head down his back. Den quickly walked over and healed him. Lialai grimaced and said, "Sorry Gordunt." He began to mutter. Den then stated, "I am glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that kick. With that technique and the other one's you have been taught, you should progress quickly through the next round. Barak nodded in agreement. Gordunt stood up and rubbed the back of his head. He rolled his eyes and said, "It was okay." Lialai smirked and said, "I didn't even use a fourth of the full power of that attack. You'll be alright."

Gordunt scowled and said, "Duel me." He pulled out his red lightsaber." Lialai nodded and said, "Prepare to lose." They began to duel furiously. Den and Barak watched on from a distance.

"Yes, and the sooner this meeting adjourns, the sooner I can get that started," Keith replied, never being much a fan of layers and layers of bureaucracy. "Is there anything else?"
"Yeah. Might want to hear this message Gramps left me." I said. "Really important."

I turned on the message, and Gramps appeared on the hologram.

"Daniel. If you hear this, then you know that I have been slain by the Empire."At this, my chest tightened. "I have entrusted Jacob to escape with the Masaki Holocron and the family scrolls, both of which will contain secrets that will assist you in defeating the Sith Lords once and for all. I am certain that he will escape the seige, but if he somehow doesn't a copy of the documents will have been entrusted to the Hokage. Now that that's out of the way, hear my plea. Hear my final words. I know you dislike the title of Emperor because of the stigmata it brings, but I beseech you to take it. Declare yourself Emperor. The people of Coreworlds have waited too long for a Masaki to take the throne and will welcome it. Then, once you unite the people under your rule, drive the Empire back to the Core and end the reign of the Sith and the Moffs once and for all. You have the power to do it and the nation has the strength to succeed. All you need is the will."

Grandpa's words seemed to leave him drained, as if he poured all his strength into them. He finished off with those oh so familiar words. "May the Force be with You."

I hadn't realized that I had tears in my eyes until I felt the water ride down my cheeks when I closed down the hologram. Emotions boiled from me, enough that everyone in the room could feel it. I walked out of the room, full of thoughts and memories.

"Well. I suppose this meeting's over." Tsunade said to the others. "Colonel, let me know when your troops are ready to train ours."

John realized that Anakin wasn't familiar with the standard abbreviation for his nation, though Anakin's uncouthness made him just want to walk away. Nevertheless, spelling it out would no doubt spawn instant recognition, for John's native nation had been in the Coredian news quite frequently up until the siege, after all.

Therefore, he knelt down again and spelt it out in the sand, keeping what amounted to a vow of silence as far as oral communication was concerned. EVIL WOODY THOUGHTS.
"Oh. How come you don't just say it? Why so quiet?" Anakin wanted to know.

"All right. That's enough questions, Anakin." Taylor glared from his perch. "Leave John alone."

"But..." Anakin was stopped by the fierce hawklike gaze of his Uncle, the same gaze given to enemies. The boy glanced away, not exactly repentant. "Yes, sir."

The kid moved to give John some space and went to play elsewhere.

"There are a few more techniques I'd like for you to learn apprentice before you go onto capturing the little brat," Aelikes said while taking out an ancient Kirtir Holocron.

"We're about to begin the gruiling prowess of the Kirtir Lords of the Ancient Empire. Draw your light saber.... And which one doesn't matter,"

Shamman groaned, even Kirtir apprentices hate training exersises as much as Jedi or Malkir do, Shamman walked over to his weapon chest and opened it. Inside were all sorts of old Kirtir Holocrons, lightsabers, Katana Blades, Light Whips, one or two Light Battle Axes, various lightsaber focusing crystals (even a hot pink one could be found in there). He finnaly centered onto his older Yellow bladed lightsaber and pulled it out, "So, what do we start with."

Aelikes turned his head towards Shamman, "The first thing you are going to do, is hit me with that sword.... If you can. Don't worry about wounding me, I have activated a shield to block the saber. Sooo, what are you waiting for? ATTACK!" With those words, Aelikes jumped up into the air and twirled himself towards Shamman. Shamman managed to block Aelikes's blade, but not before stumbling downwards at the ground with a loud "OMPH!"

"HA HA HA. My dear apprentice, you have to be ready and expect the enemies every movement, you are too slow for the prowess of the Ancient Kirtir Lords of Old."

"Then I'm glad that there are none left," Shamman grumbled as he pulled himself up from the ground, "What the hell was that?"

"Aprisé, the old quick assault move which many of the old Kirtir Lords greeted Malkir Councilors as they entered their chambers. Many didn't make it out alive after that," Aelikes chuckled to himself at the thought, "Just as you experienced right now, the enemy usually staggers backward and falls. After that is usually followed by a quick thrust downwards at the fallen Malkir's chest from the Lord and it would be over in a matter of seconds. That is your lesson for today. Use the dummies as a part of your exersises, and avoid using the troops plese," Aelikes then walked away humming happly to himself at the thought of how frustrated Shammn will be at mastering this new move.

"Now, the next technique I'll be teaching you is to actually fight quickly and efficiently. Something which I've seen you lack. You fight like that Skywalker person did while he fought Lord Vader."

"What!?"

"I heard from Janus and Jessie that you took almost five minutes to defeat three nin," Aelikes scoffs, "Pathetic."

"I was using the force! Not lightsaber technique!"

Aelikes shook his finger at Shamman angirly, "Even more disgusting. I'd understand if you were fighting someone like the Masaki's. I wouldn't expect you to make record time against Janus or Jessie, but against regular nin. You use the force accordingly to your situation. I've seen ancient holocrons of Sith Lords using the Force Storm technique and use combat techniques against groups of fifteen, even twenty. I've seen my master manage it a long time ago. If you were to actually advance in the next level in the chuunin exams which, thank god, you did not, you wouldn't survive."

"Hmph."

Aelikes snarled suddenly and it made Shamman jump, "If you want to continue to be my apprentice and learn the proper ways of the Dark Side, you shall listen to my critiques. Now activate your shielding and draw your sword."

Shamman sighed heavily and activated his shield and drew his lightsaber, "Right. Now what?"

"Now, strike me," Aelikes raised his lightsaber, which had a black blade, and gestered to Shamman to attack. Which he did. Shamman struck at Aelikes left and right sides, however his master already had his sword ready to block before shamman could even strike. "Come on! Hit me! Strike me!" Shamman struck at Aelikes several more times, but each and every one were blocked. "You're still good with a blade, thats for sure. You need to not think. Just react. Just strike. Don't plan your moves otherwise if the enemy is good at mind reading (which I am) she/he will beable to already predict your moves.

What you want to do is feel your mussle tissue with the force, use the force to controle your moves not just yourself. And at the same time, use the force to feel the other person you're fighting against. Listen to their bones, their flesh as they move. Use the force to adjust to your enemies speed, then use it to your advantage and add it to your own speed. Got it? Good, hit me if you can."

Shamman sighed and let out a slow, long breath. Focusing on his stored anger and hatred he had for these types of moments and used it to fuel his focus on Aelike's movements. This time Shamman would be ready. He did exactly as his master discribed to him (but at a much faster pace) and used the force to accomidate his speed, and struck at his master. Aelikes managed to block all but one of Shamman's attacks and at that time, Shamman sped his pace up from understanding the speed his master was fighting at, enabling him to strike his master's shielding several times before Aelikes blocked Shamman's attacks and forced him backwards.

"Good! This technique we call is Velcoid Tecnita: Speed Technique. While not particularly a Dark Side power per-se, it is usefull to every person who wields a lightsaber. That's good enough for now. Lets call it a day."

The training was getting harsher, Eamonn was particularly harsh on Daniel. Every moment that wasn’t taken up by sleep or eating was taking up by training. It was paying off as Daniel could now create chakra katana’s. he still needed more training to perfect it however and he still needed to learn how to use them in battle. Eamonn was a master with the chakra katana’s and he knew he could make Daniel a somewhat excellent user in two weeks, no master but as near as can be in the limited amout of time.

“You have done well Daniel,” Eamonn said.

Daniel grinned.

“But you still have a long way to go, you still need to learn how to use the katana’s in battle much like you did with the sand.”

Daniel nodded with understanding.

Eamonn eyed him. “This will be harsh, you will feel as though you are dying,” he warned. “Your muscles will tense and feel like they are being torn from your body. You will feel a lot of pain.”

Daniel didn’t know if he was going to like the next part of training. Well looking at the vacant stare upon Eamonn’s face he realised it was certain that he was not going to like the next part of training. By the look of it Eamonn looked as if he was looking forward to torturing the young ninja,.

"Yeah. Might want to hear this message Gramps left me." I said. "Really important."

I turned on the message, and Gramps appeared on the hologram.

"Daniel. If you hear this, then you know that I have been slain by the Empire."At this, my chest tightened. "I have entrusted Jacob to escape with the Masaki Holocron and the family scrolls, both of which will contain secrets that will assist you in defeating the Sith Lords once and for all. I am certain that he will escape the seige, but if he somehow doesn't a copy of the documents will have been entrusted to the Hokage. Now that that's out of the way, hear my plea. Hear my final words. I know you dislike the title of Emperor because of the stigmata it brings, but I beseech you to take it. Declare yourself Emperor. The people of Coreworlds have waited too long for a Masaki to take the throne and will welcome it. Then, once you unite the people under your rule, drive the Empire back to the Core and end the reign of the Sith and the Moffs once and for all. You have the power to do it and the nation has the strength to succeed. All you need is the will."

Grandpa's words seemed to leave him drained, as if he poured all his strength into them. He finished off with those oh so familiar words. "May the Force be with You."

I hadn't realized that I had tears in my eyes until I felt the water ride down my cheeks when I closed down the hologram. Emotions boiled from me, enough that everyone in the room could feel it. I walked out of the room, full of thoughts and memories.

"Well. I suppose this meeting's over." Tsunade said to the others. "Colonel, let me know when your troops are ready to train ours."

So, CoreWorlds isn't too far from our position six months ago... The thought bounced through Whitfield's mind, similar thoughts Keith had as well. Maintaining a Prussian demeanor, the latter did not show emotion at all, except in his eyes, which continued to blaze with the desire to lift the stain of dezgra with the liberation of Jurai.

Master Whitfield said nothing, leaving Daniel alone with the philosophy that the burden was his to bear, but nevertheless, Whitfield committed himself to remain approachable should Daniel request advice that only an experienced statesman could give. After all, he hasn't had a lot of experience with legislative bodies, which will have to be reinstated sooner or later.

While Whitfield allowed his mind to drift if ever slightly, the Colonel wasted no time in gathering required information. "Yes, Master Tsunade. Would you mind if they came here, in an Immortal Star Destroyer? It would expedite the training."

"Oh. How come you don't just say it? Why so quiet?" Anakin wanted to know.

"All right. That's enough questions, Anakin." Taylor glared from his perch. "Leave John alone."

"But..." Anakin was stopped by the fierce hawklike gaze of his Uncle, the same gaze given to enemies. The boy glanced away, not exactly repentant. "Yes, sir."

The kid moved to give John some space and went to play elsewhere.

John just sat down in the sand for a minute before laying down, as if he were relaxing for a suntan. He tried to blank his mind to make such a "disguise" more effective against the Force senses of his adoptive family, but he lacked confidence in the chances of them not noticing that his mind was more active than his body indicated...

While Whitfield allowed his mind to drift if ever slightly, the Colonel wasted no time in gathering required information. "Yes, Master Tsunade. Would you mind if they came here, in an Immortal Star Destroyer? It would expedite the training."
"No problem. The faster the training begins, the faster we'll form that regiment we want." Tsunade said. "Now shoo, there's some paperwork I need to do."

And a bottle of sake to drown it all.

Meanwhile, in the darkest dungeons of Tenetia, horrible screams erupted from a room that could best be described as a torture chamber. But it was no ordinary chamber for there were alchemic designs painted all over the walls the ceiling and the floor, transmutation circles written in red ink.

Prisoners and civilians from the lowest castes were dragged weeping, cursing, fighting and silently into the middle of the largest circle, a behemoth big enough to hold the Millenium Falcon. Then alcolytes well versed in the darker methods of alchemy, commanded by Colonel Kimblee himself, pressed their hands against the edges of the circle and focused their energies.

Suddenly, horrendous screams erupted from men, women and children alike as their atomic structures were torn apart and their souls were transferred into cauldrons of toxic red water. The red water reacted with the life-force and then coalesed into the powerful Philosopher's Stones. Already, Kimblee oversaw the formation of ten stones, more than enough to fight the Jedi and their shinobi allies. He hoped by the time orders were cut to make way for the invasion of Konoha, he would have twenty more, but he'd settle for another ten...

"No problem. The faster the training begins, the faster we'll form that regiment we want." Tsunade said. "Now shoo, there's some paperwork I need to do."

And a bottle of sake to drown it all.

"Yes, Master Tsunade." Both apprentice and master shooed, walking out of the room. They noticed Daniel deep in thought down the hall a bit.

"Which Immortal do you wish to drag over here?" the Colonel asked the Prime Minister.

"Hmm. Send the Battlestar. Admiral Riordan is stationed on that ship; I think he'd be most interested in recent discussions."

"Aff." Colonel Allaire reached for his commlink, which actually looked something like a Palm Pilot. From it, he had multiple options of contacting people. Including leaving urgent messages that would cause recipients' commlinks to beep. This, he did.

Within moments, he had a response from all four, acknowledging the order for immediate deployment to the Battlestar.

They would be here in four hours.

"Yes, Master Tsunade." Both apprentice and master shooed, walking out of the room. They noticed Daniel deep in thought down the hall a bit.

"Which Immortal do you wish to drag over here?" the Colonel asked the Prime Minister.

"Hmm. Send the Battlestar. Admiral Riordan is stationed on that ship; I think he'd be most interested in recent discussions."

"Aff." Colonel Allaire reached for his commlink, which actually looked something like a Palm Pilot. From it, he had multiple options of contacting people. Including leaving urgent messages that would cause recipients' commlinks to beep. This, he did.

Within moments, he had a response from all four, acknowledging the order for immediate deployment to the Battlestar.

They would be here in four hours.
I was still mulling over the ramifications of Gramps' words when the Prime Minister and the Colonel walked past, talking about deploying an Immortal to bring the trainers-to-be here. I then remembered that they too were Force sensitive and perhaps we should begin to think of masters to train each of the soldiers. Battlestar? Wasn't that one of the ships that was present on the other side when we tried to help Free Woody Thoughts?

Speaking of training...

"Hey Master Whitfield. I'll be back in a little bit. When they arrive, call me." I said to the Prime Minister before I disappeared with a *pop*.

Seconds later, I found Travis training hard on Rasengan. Balloon pieces were strewn all over, and I figured he is on the third stage judging from the amount of training he's doing. I raised an eyebrow at that. Whoa. He made it to the third stage in less than a week? It took even Fiona two weeks to master Rasengan and she's the Wind Mistress...

I smirked as Naruto raised a thumbs up to me and disappeared. I guess it's time...

"Hey Travis." I called. The boy was in the midst of doing yet another spiral-ball and with a shout, the balloon popped again. Then he recognized my voice and turned around, wheezing.

"Hey Dad." He smirked. "I've almost got it! All I need is a little more time!"

"Yeah, I know. Want a tip?" I asked. He might very well figure it out, but maybe a little hint would help.

"No way! I'm going to master this technique and I don't want any help!" Travis yelped.

I shrugged. "Suit yourself. Hey, I've got an idea. How much reserve do you have left?"

Travis closed his eyes for a moment then opened them. "About a quarter. Why?"

I calculated the amount needed for the technique I will teach him. "Enough. Travis, do you know the seals for Kuchiyose?"

"Uh, yeah. Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. I thought you weren't going to teach me it until I mastered Rasengan?" The boy frowned.

"Since you exceeded my expectations, I decided to change my mind. Besides, it's less than two weeks before the Exams begin." I smirked. "Now let's review Kuchiyose. What do you need to do to access it?"

Travis rummaged through his mind, remembering what his cousin Keith did. "You need to make a blood contract with the animal you want to summon. Then when you need help, you spread blood on the palm of your hands, do the seals and then slap the bloodied hand on the ground. Depending on the amount of chakra you used, the animal could be either small for recon or big for battle."

"Very good." I said, biting my thumb and spreading the blood onto my other hand. "Now, I will give you the contract for the Dragons."

I ran through the seals and slammed my hand down. Lines suddenly sprouted from ground zero to create a Summoning Seal around the hand, and then...POOF! A large cloud of smoke rose from nowhere, revealing Ryujin, my best nonhuman friend and me on top of his head. Travis backpedaled a bit to get a good look. "Daniel? What's going on?"

I shrugged. "Nothing much. The kid's ready to summon you guys."

"Oh, is he?" The large silver dragon glanced down at the small boy and snorted. "I doubt it."

That caused a reaction. "What? You totally missed my training with Rasengan and everything! I'm ready for it!"

"Hmph! Ready? What know you of ready? Our counsel it is on who will summon the Dragons!" Ryujin drew up to his AT-AT sized height while I sweatdropped at the Yoda quote.

"Oh yeah! Then watch me! I'll master Kuchiyose and earn your respect!" Travis boasted, shaking a fist.

"Hah! A fine boast! Very well, here's the contract!" A smaller poof revealed a scroll. "Sign it!"

Travis bit his own thumb as he opened the scroll. He noticed that a long line of Masaki members have signed contracts with the Dragons. He saw Keith's signature, mine, Dad's, Grandpa's, Grandfather Tenchi's, going all the way back to Master Yosho, the first Masaki Jedi. He saw a few other signatures going farther back in time, but ignored them. Signing his name on the latest empty block, he signifies that he is now a Dragon summoner, subject to all the privileges and responsibilities therein.

"Good! Now let's see if you're good enough for a summon!" Ryujin smirked.

"Right!" Travis went through the seals and then slammed his hand down to the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke surrounded my son, and a small, and I mean really small creature appeared. Ryujin had to crane his neck down to take a good look. I jumped down and stared.

"Yo." Came a small voice from a dragon about five inches long.

"It's a juvenile Bearded Dragon." I deadpanned. One of the smallest dragons known, and a baby at that. Ryujin suddenly threw back his head and howled in laughter.

"Wah hahahahaha! You have no talent, kid! Neither did Daniel, come to think of it! *chortle*"

"Hey! I resent that." I muttered.

"Shut up! This is my first time, you know!" Travis growled.

"Hah! I expected more from the heir of the "most powerful clan" in Coreworlds. More like chump!" Ryujin continued to laugh as he lifted off, heading towards some faraway mountains.

"Grrr...I'll show him..." Travis muttered as he dismissed the bearded dragon and tried again. This time it was a green anole, not much bigger. "Crap!"

Thus began Travis' training in the ways of the summoner...

I was still mulling over the ramifications of Gramps' words when the Prime Minister and the Colonel walked past, talking about deploying an Immortal to bring the trainers-to-be here. I then remembered that they too were Force sensitive and perhaps we should begin to think of masters to train each of the soldiers.

Speaking of training...

"Hey Master Whitfield. I'll be back in a little bit. When they arrive, call me." I said to the Prime Minister before I disappeared with a *pop*.

"Will do, Master Daniel."

Three hours, forty-six minutes later

Owing to typical Woodian military efficiency, the Battlestar dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the system nearly fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.

As Whitfield was deep in meditation, Keith himself ruminated on coordinating the invasion...at least until his commlink started blinking with a message that the others were here. The Colonel awoke Whitfield with a tap on the shoulder. "They are here, Master."

Whitfield said nothing in reply, instead seeking out Daniel (and Taylor) telepathically. Star Destroyer Battlestar is in system.

Meanwhile, abord said Star Destroyer, Admiral Riordan waited for further orders. While he knew he was to make personnel deliveries to train Coredians, he knew practically nothing of said personnel's destinations, nor which units required them.

"Will do, Master Daniel."

Three hours, forty-six minutes later

Owing to typical Woodian military efficiency, the Battlestar dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the system nearly fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.

As Whitfield was deep in meditation, Keith himself ruminated on coordinating the invasion...at least until his commlink started blinking with a message that the others were here. The Colonel awoke Whitfield with a tap on the shoulder. "They are here, Master."

Whitfield said nothing in reply, instead seeking out Daniel (and Taylor) telepathically. Star Destroyer Battlestar is in system.

Meanwhile, abord said Star Destroyer, Admiral Riordan waited for further orders. While he knew he was to make personnel deliveries to train Coredians, he knew practically nothing of said personnel's destinations, nor which units required them.
When the call came, I decided to take Travis (still grumbling about Ryujin's teasing) with me to meet the Prime Minister and his posse for the first time. He had exhausted his reserves about an hour ago, so I just took him to the apartment so he could eat to regain his strength, take a shower and put on clean clothes, which amounted to a red short-sleeve jacket over a white long sleeve T-shirt and khaki long shorts with numerous pockets, his favorite wardrobe.

I also met up with dear Katrina, who insisted on meeting the old man as well. She was also well-versed in political news, even the supposedly secret. "And we'll be having a long talk about certain neither confirmed nor denied rumors tonight, Sparky! I'm not the first, nor the last to wait over 12 years for you to grow a backbone!"

Oh boy. Nothing worse than having a potential Empress consort on your case.

The Masaki family met up with the Prime Minister in short time, followed by Taylor, after he dropped off his son in a guest room of the Academy to sleep.

"Prime Minister Whitfield?" I said when I arrived, hand over my son's shoulders. "I don't believe you've had the pleasure to meet my nuclear family, my wife Katrina and my son Travis."

"Charmed." Katrina bowed. She sported brown hair tied back (with a live rose neatly placed on her scalp) and fierce blue eyes and wore the uniform of a Jounin, which consisted of a green mythril vest (think Kevlar, only FT) and dark shirt and pants, as well as a black cloak, as opposed to brown for the Jedi. Truly a potent Ninja she was! But then again, that's only part of why I married her...

"Hi!" Travis said cheerfully, rubbing the back of his dark blue hair. "Pleased to meet you!"

"I'm pleased to meet you too, Travis and Katrina Masaki," Whitfield replied. "My, seems like we have a lot of introductions here. Let's start with Colonel Keith Allaire..." Whitfield gestured to him... "and we shall have plenty more introductions to do on the docking bay of the Immortal-class Star Destroyer Battlestar. Our, er, training staff is in system but needs to know who they will be training."

Keith, offering a handshake and a greeting to Travis and Katrina, added with a wry grin, "Would such training include teaching the Masakis how to pilot DropShips, being that we will probably be taking one back to the planetary surface anyway?"

"I'm pleased to meet you too, Travis and Katrina Masaki," Whitfield replied. "My, seems like we have a lot of introductions here. Let's start with Colonel Keith Allaire..." Whitfield gestured to him... "and we shall have plenty more introductions to do on the docking bay of the Immortal-class Star Destroyer Battlestar. Our, er, training staff is in system but needs to know who they will be training."
"We'll have to ask General Mustang to release his staff again." I smiled wryly. "After all, those people (under Hughes) were the ones that helped Taylor with the war. I suggest they form the core of the new regiment-to-be."

Keith, offering a handshake and a greeting to Travis and Katrina, added with a wry grin, "Would such training include teaching the Masakis how to pilot DropShips, being that we will probably be taking one back to the planetary surface anyway?"
"Possibly..." I glanced at Taylor, who whistled innocently as Travis and Katrina each shook his hand.

"We'll have to ask General Mustang to release his staff again." I smiled wryly. "After all, those people (under Hughes) were the ones that helped Taylor with the war. I suggest they form the core of the new regiment-to-be."

"Excellent. It will be an honor working with them again."

"Possibly..." I glanced at Taylor, who whistled innocently as Travis and Katrina each shook his hand.

The Colonel grinned at such reluctance, knowing that it'd take about three months in order to teach them the required math and physics. However, he also knew that Taylor, at least, would find the ride most fascinating--and Daniel probably would too, though he didn't know Daniel that well.

He also radioed up to the Battlestar to send a light, fast transport to retrieve them, and activated a homing beacon on his commlink. Even so, the transport would take a half hour to arrive because the Star Destroyer was at the outer edges of the system. Colonel Allaire told the Coredians as such.

Admiral Riordan, however, ordered his massive ship's engines to go to full burn so the trip back would be much shorter...

A small, sleek transport, not unlike the famous transport craft that Queen Amidala used to befuddle the Trade Federation when it tried to invade Naboo centuries ago, darted out of the Star Destroyer's docking bay and headed towards Konoha.

A half hour later, it had arrived, waiting for boarding.

"Nice. Looks like a Naboo royal skiff." Travis noted as he boarded the ship. Taylor agreed silently.

"I'd like one of those..." Katrina mused, looking at me as if asking the question.

"Not now, dear." Besides, they're rather extravagant for my tastes. Then again, it would make for a nice present on her birthday, if I had enough in the personal accounts that is.

"Our military, even the private citizenry of Evil Woody Thoughts used to be able to afford them with ease. If not to buy one outright, then to be the fractional owner of one, or to charter one. But that was, of course, before the war; the military is fortunate that quite a few of these transports survived. Because they're the fastest shuttles we have," Colonel Allaire sought to allay the judgements of extravagance. The war, after all, had taken a huge bite out of Evil Woody Thoughts' prosperity; surviving ships such as these were a relic of better times only a year ago.

The Colonel boarded along with the Prime Minister, and the skiff wasted no time in accellerating away from the planet. This particular skiff had had many of the creature comforts removed in exchange for bigger and faster engines; the interior wasn't too spartan but the Coredians would notice the modifications all right when full acceleration felt like riding an old Saturn V rocket...and they would also see why the Colonel had specifically singled these out as the Woodian military's fastest transport.

For that matter, the engines were such that the thing could outrun all but the absolute fastest starfighters. Nevertheless, due to the huge distances covered, it still took about twelve minutes to reach the Immortal Star Destroyer's docking bay.

Admiral Riordan, along with Lieutenant Colonels Raúl Vigil and Kevin Dmitruk and Majors Peter Sorensen and Chris Mrozik, awaited the transport's arrival. The latter four were to, along with Keith, form the backbone of the new training corps...

"Whoa. That was fast!" Travis noted loudly twelve minutes later. "So fast the acceleration compensators couldn't keep up. *wild grin*"

"You could say that again." I said more calmly. My experience with fighters agreed all the same however. Katrina was more wide-eyed at the speed, and brushed the frizz out of her hair. Taylor just grinned madly like his nephew.

In short time, we disembarked the ship to meet the Admiral...

"And that, my friends, is why we have these things," Colonel Allaire replied to the excited musings of the Coredians. "The DropShip ride back down won't be as fast but it'll still be quite fun, I assure you." He flashed a grin at Daniel and Taylor.

Prime Minister Whitfield, after everyone was off the ship, started the long, convoluted process of introductions. Introducing five people to four people all at the same time could get a little complicated. Nevertheless, as a politician, he knew how to get through these things with reasonable efficiency.

"I would like you all to meet several members of the Masaki family clan," he began, speaking to all of the Woodian commanders but motioning to the Masakis. "In order, we have Daniel Masaki, the Lightning Master and new Coredian head of state..." (Whitfield acknowledged the reality of the matter of the family will without attaching the stigma of "Emperor" to Daniel...he was quite good at this)... "over here, we have Katrina Masaki, his wife, Taylor Masaki, his brother, and Travis Masaki, his son." Whitfield motioned to all of them in order.

"Members of the Masaki family clan, I would like you to meet those who will be training your military to use the technology it acquired from us. In order we have Admiral Riordan, Major Peter Sorensen, Lieutenant Colonel Raúl Vigil, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Dmitruk, and Major Chris Mrozik." The five people being introduced offered handshakes to the Masakis.

Handshakes and "how do you dos" were passed around by everyone. Then the mention of the dropship perked my ears. Hmm. I wonder what flying one of those things would be like. From what I'm feeling from the others, it's not an easy task like with a standard shuttle...

After everyone exchanged greetings, Keith, wanting to get on with the training, urged, "Let's get on the DropShip, shall we?"

He led everyone to the DropShip's bridge, actually well inside of the seventy-thousand metric ton behemoth. It was easy to see from the sheer size of the thing why Immortal Star Destroyers had such huge docking bays...to be able to deploy these in number, up to six per ship to be exact.

Because the bridge was buried in the middle of the craft, it did not had a viewport to the outside, for such would compromise its absurdly thick armor, essential for surviving a deployment while a battle raged in orbit. Instead it contained a massive HUD. Also, it was hard to miss the presence of two command chairs surrounded by so many switches, buttons, and computer screens that they looked more like the Apollo 11 command module of early space exploration lore than they did the controls for a modern craft...

(OOC: Post was a lot shorter than I wanted it to be...but I had time constraints.)

"Well, this looks..." Taylor said, trying to think of the right word as he spied the cockpit.

"Ancient? So old it's barely mentioned in the history books?" Travis supplied.

"Yeah." The Fire Knight nodded. "Something like that. Ever thought of updating?"

Katrina and I sweatdropped as my brother and son commented on the not-so-modern look of the Dropship. True, it does appear to be something out of 1960s Earth, but the Woodians probably have a good reason for it. Then again, someone in the R&D department might want to come up with something that doesn't need so many switches and buttons...

"Yes, we got our DropShips as assistance in the original effort to colonize White Diamond. The ones we manufacture now have been upgraded to ion engines, and a few of the older ones have been upgraded. But the cockpit in the newer versions still looks much the same. Find a chair and strap yourselves in."

As Colonel Allaire sat with Major Sorensen in the two command chairs, Master Whitfield had something to add for Taylor. "We have two good reasons for it. One you will see the moment this thing leaves the docking bay and points itself in the right direction. The other is economics." Whitfield paused for a moment before adding, in a secure telepathic addendum to Taylor, Don't play with the combustible fuel. Yes, the DropShips given to us originally had liquid-fuel retrorockets. The ones that we haven't upgraded to ion propulsion still do.

After everyone was seated the two Woodian officers started the process of getting the ship, which carried nine hundred and sixty tons of 'Mechs in its 'Mech Bay, powered up for departure. Colonel Allaire and Major Sorensen filled the area with technical jargon as they powered up the various systems.

"APU 1 is online..." A slight hum and vibration permeated the ship.

"APUs 2 and 3 are online...running cross checks."

"Guidance is online..." Several of the computer monitors turned on, and started crunching numbers as they manipulated raw data from the navcomputer. This would help a lot with re-entry but still, a knowledge of orbital mechanics lost to the Jedi, who tended to take navcomputers for granted, was required to interpret the raw data.

"Thrusters control is online." More of the various lights blinked green...

"Weapons systems coming online...running cross checks." PPC and Gauss rifle indicators flashed green...DropShips could defend themselves, and after they landed on the ground, quite well.

"Comm online."

More jargon ensued until, a couple of minutes later, the Colonel radioed Docking Bay Control. "DropShip Alpha is go for launch."

"Aff," came the response, audible to all, as the controller acknowledged deployment-ready status.

Everyone heard a loud click as Control cut all electric current through the giant magnets that bolted the DropShip in place in the docking bay and cut the airlock. The massive vessel was now floating freely in space, away from the docking bay...

This was gonna be fun indeed.

"Yes, we got our DropShips as assistance in the original effort to colonize White Diamond. The ones we manufacture now have been upgraded to ion engines, and a few of the older ones have been upgraded. But the cockpit in the newer versions still looks much the same. Find a chair and strap yourselves in."

As Colonel Allaire sat with Major Sorensen in the two command chairs, Master Whitfield had something to add for Taylor. "We have two good reasons for it. One you will see the moment this thing leaves the docking bay and points itself in the right direction. The other is economics." Whitfield paused for a moment before adding, in a secure telepathic addendum to Taylor, Don't play with the combustible fuel. Yes, the DropShips given to us originally had liquid-fuel retrorockets. The ones that we haven't upgraded to ion propulsion still do.
What, you think I'm crazy? Kinda obscene to 'play' with fuel when you're inside the ship that needs the fuel. Taylor indigently leered at Whitfield as he listened to the jargon, not like he had much of a choice. By now, the family strapped ourselves in.

After everyone was seated the two Woodian officers started the process of getting the ship, which carried nine hundred and sixty tons of 'Mechs in its 'Mech Bay, powered up for departure. Colonel Allaire and Major Sorensen filled the area with technical jargon as they powered up the various systems.

"APU 1 is online..." A slight hum and vibration permeated the ship.

"APUs 2 and 3 are online...running cross checks."

"Guidance is online..." Several of the computer monitors turned on, and started crunching numbers as they manipulated raw data for the navcomputer. This would help a lot with re-entry but still, a knowledge of orbital mechanics lost to the Jedi, who tended to take navcomputers for granted, was required to interpret the raw data.

"Thrusters control is online." More of the various lights blinked green...

"Weapons systems coming online...running cross checks." PPC and Gauss rifle indicators flashed green...DropShips could defend themselves, and after they landed on the ground, quite well.

"Comm online."

More jargon ensued until, a couple of minutes later, the Colonel radioed Docking Bay Control. "DropShip Alpha is go for launch."

"Aff," came the response, audible to all, as the controller acknowledged deployment-ready status.

Everyone heard a loud click as Control cut all electric current through the giant magnets that bolted the DropShip in place in the docking bay and cut the airlock. The massive vessel was now floating freely in space, away from the docking bay...

This was gonna be fun indeed.
"For some odd reason, I find that long start-up process pretty cool." Travis mentioned to me.

"Yeah. It does seem to have a certain charm to it." I replied approvingly. Well, to repeat, this is going to be fun.

What, you think I'm crazy? Kinda obscene to 'play' with fuel when you're inside the ship that needs the fuel. Taylor indigently leered at Whitfield as he listened to the jargon, not like he had much of a choice. By now, the family strapped ourselves in.

Well, there were those coal power plants... Whitfield replied. He suppressed a grin.

"For some odd reason, I find that long start-up process pretty cool." Travis mentioned to me.

"Yeah. It does seem to have a certain charm to it." I replied approvingly. Well, to repeat, this is going to be fun.

As the massive DropShip *slowly* drifted away from the Star Destroyer that launched it, Colonel Allaire closed his hand around the joystick while Major Sorensen started doing some math equations that none of the Masakis would even *begin* to comprehend.

The Colonel looked up at the bridge's massive HUD that looked kind of like an IMAX theatre, with not only a panoramic camera view of what was outside, but also huge displays of pertinent navigational information, above the bridge to find the DropShip's current orientation. The HUD was one of the things that the Navy had upgraded on this particular DropShip...

"Rolling starboard, heading 070," the Colonel said to Major Sorensen.

"Aff." Major Sorensen didn't even look up from his paper and pencil.

Keith made a series of short, quick movements with the joystick, each twitch of his fist firing a single thruster, a process that was kind of like trying to lift a dumbell with a thumbtack. Nevertheless, the DropShip started to roll ever so slowly to the right, and the stars displayed in the HUD started moving like a timelapse recording of the night sky.

More pinprick tugs on the joystick to get the giant behometh on course. Major Mrozik, Major Dmitruk, and Lieutenant Colonel Vigil, the three Woodian officers present who weren't flying the thing at the moment, knew that getting a DropShip on the proper course from a deployment this far away from the landing zone required a seemingly endless degree of patience. Master Whitfield was more than happy to oblige, contemplating on the stars that swirled ever so slowly in the HUD that was above his head.

Finally, the Colonel let go of the joystick. "Major, you have those calculations done, quiaff?"

"Aff."

"Well, let us run them through the computer then..."

For the next few minutes the two punched quite a few of the many, many buttons that the Masakis were probably wondering about, feeding data into the ship's navsystem. The result was audible to all:

"Prepare for a sixteen minute, twenty second manual burn, fifteen percent thrust, ignition in sixty seconds on...mark."

In the intervening time, the two spilled out more jargon about things like opening bus breakers, opening fuel line valves, et cetera.

"We are go for manual burn in ten seconds..." Keith's hand gripped the joystick for the thrusters to make course corrections if necessary. "Sixteen minutes twenty seconds..."

The Major flipped the ignition switch. "Mark."

The ship's massive liquid-fuel engines ignited, and if the idea of fifteen-percent thrust had the Masakis complacent, they would be no more. The sound of huge quantities of liquid rocket fuel being burned filled the ship with not only noise but vibration and turbulence, and Keith found himself using that joystick, all right. The acceleration, even with dampers, thrust everyone back in their seat slightly. The DropShip lumbered forward with direction now, no longer drifting, gaining more and more momentum. But it couldn't gain too much momentum, lest slowing it down for re-entry become a major pain in the ass.

Whitfield, despite being the Flame Master and having a hell of a lot of flame to contemplate below him, said nothing.

"Thirty seconds till manual burn shutdown," Peter shouted over the engine noise, while putting his hands over the throttle to do it. Keith continued to fire the DropShip's thrusters in various directions to keep them going in a straight line.

"Shutdown!" The engines stopped rumbling and the DropShip suddenly became quiet. "Our cruising speed will be 161,500 meters per second. Enjoy the remaining hour and forty-six minutes of flight time, folks."

Keith and Peter stayed quiet for a little while, enjoying a few moments of rest before starting their atmospheric entry routines. It usually isn't a good idea to enter an atmosphere at 161,500 meters per second, especially when, for most of the ship, your heatshield is your armor. Therefore, after a few minutes, the two Woodian officers started doing more math problems with the help of, but not entirely relying on, the ship's computers.

The next hour and a bit was without major incident as the massive DropShip coasted on its earlier burn momentum towards its destination. When the time was right, Colonel Allaire closed his hand around the joystick and began pitching the behemoth around, so that the ship's massive engines, which had previously sped the ship towards the planet, could now act as retrorockets against it. For about five minutes, the Colonel patiently made individual tugs on the stick.

"Atmospheric entry in nine minutes, thirty-two seconds, Colonel."

"Aff." The duo started the preparations to fire the ship's massive propulsion system as retrorockets, and Whitfield prepared himself for more noise, knowing that because the planet's gravitational pull was stronger the closer the DropShip got and because of the ever-shortening distance to slow down and land the ship, the thrust this time was going to be a bit higher than fifteen percent.

Like, say, double that.

"Hope you're strapped in, fellas," the Colonel told his guests, "because atmospheric entry is going to be even more fun than that burn we executed earlier. Retrorockets fire in thirty seconds." He grinned. Yes, he was actually enjoying it. Including the math.

True to the Colonel's word, thirty-five seconds later, the DropShip began its deceleration. Noise and vibrations once again filled the DropShip as its huge retrorockets fired to slow it down. Not long after, flames started flickering across the huge HUD display, not because there was anything wrong with the display, but because the DropShip itself was dissipating the heat of entry. Keith had lots of fun with the joystick as he not only kept the course of the DropShip stable, but also gradually changed the entry angle as the ship slowed down more and more, so that eventually it would land perpendicular to the ground.

Meanwhile, the ship shook with atmospheric turbulence, in addition to the normal vibrations from burning the rockets. Master Whitfield knew that this vessel was definitely not designed for comfort, and even if Keith already had the senses and skills of a Jedi Master, he still wouldn't have been able to do a much better job ensuring a smooth ride than the job he was already doing.

At three thousand meters, Keith deployed the landing jacks, which caused several clicks to reverberate throughout the ship, in a manner similar to how one would hear landing gear deploying while flying on a MT aircraft. Meanwhile, the Major kept an eye on the Landing Zone, making sure it was clear of obstructions.

For landing a 70,000-metric ton behemoth, Keith and Peter managed quite a smooth landing; the thud against the ground was relatively minor. As the two started shutting down the systems that needed shutting down, Colonel Allaire said, "Well, welcome to Konoha." He turned around with a slight grin on his face.

Daniel lay on the ground grimacing, his muscles did feel as though they were being torn from his body. As much as he wanted to he wasn’t going to yell out in pain, he wouldn’t give his sensei that kind of satisfaction. The pain was unbearable.

“I said it would be a rather painful experience,” Eamonn said rather coldly, kneeling beside the young Genin.

“I… know,” Daniel said through gritted teeth.

“For your first time fighting that hard with the chakra swords you did well,” his sensei mentioned. “It took me a month before I could fight like that myself, you’ll no doubt beat Katsuo if you fight like that.”

Daniel groaned as he tried to move.

“So you didn’t kill him then,” came Katana’s unmistakable voice.

Eamonn helped Daniel up and stared at her. “So you were the one I felt watching us,” he then said.

“No that was Masato,” Katana replied. “He left as I came here, doubt he even noticed me.” She looked at Daniel. “I hope you don’t collapse like that when fighting my cousin, I’d hate for him to beat you.”

“Heh…” was the only thing that Daniel could say.

Eamonn looked at the pair of them before putting his sunglasses back on. “Come on, you need ninja food,” he suggested.

And so the three of them ended up at the Ichiraku Restaurant. Katana was still annoyed at loosing to Travis and because she hadn’t seen him since then she hadn’t been able to demand a rematch. While she ordered chicken ramen and water, Eamonn had gone for something much spicier something a diplomat from Godular had introduced them to. Daniel being Daniel ordered all-you-can-eat as hot as possible.

“This I never thought I’d see,” Katana said with a smirk.

Daniels hand was shaking badly as he slowly ate his ramen. His body still ached and he could hardly move, therefore he couldn’t shovel it down like he would usually do.

“Piss off,” he replied.

“Make me,” Katana told him.

Eamonn just ignored the pair as he ate his ramen. In his mind he was going over the plan for Daniels training for tomorrow.

Well, there were those coal power plants... Whitfield replied. He suppressed a grin.
Don't remind me... Taylor groused.


As the massive DropShip *slowly* drifted away from the Star Destroyer that launched it, Colonel Allaire closed his hand around the joystick while Major Sorensen started doing some math equations that none of the Masakis would even *begin* to comprehend.

The Colonel looked up at the bridge's massive HUD that looked kind of like an IMAX theatre, with not only a panoramic camera view of what was outside, but also huge displays of pertinent navigational information, above the bridge to find the DropShip's current orientation. The HUD was one of the things that the Navy had upgraded on this particular DropShip...

"Rolling starboard, heading 070," the Colonel said to Major Sorensen.

"Aff." Major Sorensen didn't even look up from his paper and pencil.

Keith made a series of short, quick movements with the joystick, each twitch of his fist firing a single thruster, a process that was kind of like trying to lift a dumbell with a thumbtack. Nevertheless, the DropShip started to roll ever so slowly to the right, and the stars displayed in the HUD started moving like a timelapse recording of the night sky.

More pinprick tugs on the joystick to get the giant behometh on course. Major Mrozik, Major Dmitruk, and Lieutenant Colonel Vigil, the three Woodian officers present who weren't flying the thing at the moment, knew that getting a DropShip on the proper course from a deployment this far away from the landing zone required a seemingly endless degree of patience. Master Whitfield was more than happy to oblige, contemplating on the stars that swirled ever so slowly in the HUD that was above his head.

Finally, the Colonel let go of the joystick. "Major, you have those calculations done, quiaff?"

"Aff."

"Well, let us run them through the computer then..."

For the next few minutes the two punched quite a few of the many, many buttons that the Masakis were probably wondering about, feeding data into the ship's navsystem. The result was audible to all:

"Prepare for a sixteen minute, twenty second manual burn, fifteen percent thrust, ignition in sixty seconds on...mark."

In the intervening time, the two spilled out more jargon about things like opening bus breakers, opening fuel line valves, et cetera.

"We are go for manual burn in ten seconds..." Keith's hand gripped the joystick for the thrusters to make course corrections if necessary. "Sixteen minutes twenty seconds..."

The Major flipped the ignition switch. "Mark."

The ship's massive liquid-fuel engines ignited, and if the idea of fifteen-percent thrust had the Masakis complacent, they would be no more. The sound of huge quantities of liquid rocket fuel being burned filled the ship with not only noise but vibration and turbulence, and Keith found himself using that joystick, all right. The acceleration, even with dampers, thrust everyone back in their seat slightly. The DropShip lumbered forward with direction now, no longer drifting, gaining more and more momentum. But it couldn't gain too much momentum, lest slowing it down for re-entry become a major pain in the ass.

Whitfield, despite being the Flame Master and having a hell of a lot of flame to contemplate below him, said nothing.
We were suddenly pushed back by the G-forces as the Dropship lept forward like a bull, shoving us into our seats. I heard a long shout of surprise from someone that sounded like it was coming from all of us...probably was, come to think of it.

"Waaaaaaaaaa!"

"Thirty seconds till manual burn shutdown," Peter shouted over the engine noise, while putting his hands over the throttle to do it. Keith continued to fire the DropShip's thrusters in various directions to keep them going in a straight line.

"Shutdown!" The engines stopped rumbling and the DropShip suddenly became quiet. "Our cruising speed will be 161,500 meters per second. Enjoy the remaining hour and forty-six minutes of flight time, folks."

Keith and Peter stayed quiet for a little while, enjoying a few moments of rest before starting their atmospheric entry routines. It usually isn't a good idea to enter an atmosphere at 161,500 meters per second, especially when, for most of the ship, your heatshield is your armor. Therefore, after a few minutes, the two Woodian officers started doing more math problems with the help of, but not entirely relying on, the ship's computers.

The next hour and a bit was without major incident as the massive DropShip coasted on its earlier burn momentum towards its destination. When the time was right, Colonel Allaire closed his hand around the joystick and began pitching the behemoth around, so that the ship's massive engines, which had previously sped the ship towards the planet, could now act as retrorockets against it. For about five minutes, the Colonel patiently made individual tugs on the stick.

"Atmospheric entry in nine minutes, thirty-two seconds, Colonel."

"Aff." The duo started the preparations to fire the ship's massive propulsion system as retrorockets, and Whitfield prepared himself for more noise, knowing that because the planet's gravitational pull was stronger the closer the DropShip got and because of the ever-shortening distance to slow down and land the ship, the thrust this time was going to be a bit higher than fifteen percent.

Like, say, double that.

"Hope you're strapped in, fellas," the Colonel told his guests, "because atmospheric entry is going to be even more fun than that burn we executed earlier. Retrorockets fire in thirty seconds." He grinned. Yes, he was actually enjoying it. Including the math.

True to the Colonel's word, thirty-five seconds later, the DropShip began its deceleration. Noise and vibrations once again filled the DropShip as its huge retrorockets fired to slow it down. Not long after, flames started flickering across the huge HUD display, not because there was anything wrong with the display, but because the DropShip itself was dissipating the heat of entry. Keith had lots of fun with the joystick as he not only kept the course of the DropShip stable, but also gradually changed the entry angle as the ship slowed down more and more, so that eventually it would land perpendicular to the ground.

Meanwhile, the ship shook with atmospheric turbulence, in addition to the normal vibrations from burning the rockets. Master Whitfield knew that this vessel was definitely not designed for comfort, and even if Keith already had the senses and skills of a Jedi Master, he still wouldn't have been able to do a much better job ensuring a smooth ride than the job he was already doing.
"Oh shit!" Taylor yelped, and the rest of us agreed vehemously. Our faces strained as the G-forces kept us in our seats for an eternity...

At three thousand meters, Keith deployed the landing jacks, which caused several clicks to reverberate throughout the ship, in a manner similar to how one would hear landing gear deploying while flying on a MT aircraft. Meanwhile, the Major kept an eye on the Landing Zone, making sure it was clear of obstructions.

For landing a 70,000-metric ton behemoth, Keith and Peter managed quite a smooth landing; the thud against the ground was relatively minor. As the two started shutting down the systems that needed shutting down, Colonel Allaire said, "Well, welcome to Konoha." He turned around with a slight grin on his face.
"Wicked." A lopsided grin sprouted on Travis as he stumbled out of his seat. "But next time, I'm taking the bus."

"No arguments there." Taylor nodded.

Katrina (she's still beautiful, even if frazzled) and I simply laughed. That reminds me. Sunday, time to do what my father did and give him a lesson in fighter combat. I called ahead to the General and had him send his staff to us, at least the ones who fought the Dark Lord's troops.

Don't remind me... Taylor groused.

Thankfully for Taylor, Whitfield had made his point and dropped it.

We were suddenly pushed back by the G-forces as the Dropship lept forward like a bull, shoving us into our seats. I heard a long shout of surprise from someone that sounded like it was coming from all of us...probably was, come to think of it.

"Waaaaaaaaaa!"

The three officers who didn't have to concern themselves with actually flying the thing smiled at the surprised reactions of the Coredians, being perfectly accustomed to the G-forces themselves.

"Oh shit!" Taylor yelped, and the rest of us agreed vehemously. Our faces strained as the G-forces kept us in our seats for an eternity...

"Wicked." A lopsided grin sprouted on Travis as he stumbled out of his seat. "But next time, I'm taking the bus."

"No arguments there." Taylor nodded.

Katrina (she's still beautiful, even if frazzled) and I simply laughed. That reminds me. Sunday, time to do what my father did and give him a lesson in fighter combat. I called ahead to the General and had him send his staff to us, at least the ones who fought the Dark Lord's troops.

LTC Raúl Vigil, a black-haired man who looked like he had spent his entire life at the beach (but hadn't), slightly taller than Colonel Allaire but slightly thinner, pulled Travis aside. "Remember that we went from our first hyperspace jump to building the Immortal Star Destroyer in eleven years. We just never felt a need to make 'the bus' particularly comfortable."

Meanwhile, the Colonel had questions of his own. "Master Daniel, about how many people will we be training in total? I need to know whether we need to get more people down here."

LTC Raúl Vigil, a black-haired man who looked like he had spent his entire life at the beach (but hadn't), slightly taller than Colonel Allaire but slightly thinner, pulled Travis aside. "Remember that we went from our first hyperspace jump to building the Immortal Star Destroyer in eleven years. We just never felt a need to make 'the bus' particularly comfortable."
"Uh, right." Travis said. Geez, that is fast.

Meanwhile, the Colonel had questions of his own. "Master Daniel, about how many people will we be training in total? I need to know whether we need to get more people down here."
"Hmm. Aside from the core group, which is about five people or so, I'd say another ten kids should learn the trade." I suggested. "Fifteen people will be enough to form a platoon. And with your people as trainers, they'll certainly be able to form the 1st Coredian Mechwarrior Squadron...or however you group them. And then those kids (once they are promoted for valor in combat and other things) can teach others until we've got forces enough to compliment the Zoid animal-like mecha that we have."

"So we need to bring another two DropShips' worth of training equipment," Colonel Allaire replied, adding the number of Coredians, plus Whitfield, plus the training officers to determine available forces. "Not a problem, that would make twenty-one total. That would make five lances and we'd have some poor random person left over. Find me another three people and we'd have two companies even..."

Then another consideration struck Keith. "Damn, with the forces you described, cutdown bid would be a Regimental Combat Team at least...and we'd only have two-thirds of a 'Mech battalion, much less all the support stuff that goes with an RCT. Might be able to get a few Soloma volunteers and fighter squadrons for air cover but damn, going in with only two-thirds of cutdown..."

It was obvious that the Colonel was expecting to train a bigger force.

The other four officers looked at the Colonel with surprise, their eyes getting really big. For a commander to bid cutdown, or the minimum required force considered to have a reasonable chance of victory, and win the engagement was considered a great honor. But when Keith mused at the possibility of only two-thirds of the cutdown force being available for command, the other officers wonder if there was ever a bid that low...

"Well, that's interesting." I said. But it was Taylor who answered most.

"Think of it as an exploratory option to the formulation of a Mechwarrior battalion." He said, surprisingly politic. "If we have to add another twelve to fill it up, we can, but let's see how it works out first."

"Are you sure? I wasn't sure if we had the troops to spare." I replied.

"We could if we initiate completely green recruits into the meat grinder." Katrina grinned deviously, her rose quivering as if cackling. Damn, she's not one of the Chuunin Exam proctors for nothing.

"That...is the most ruthless plan I've heard from you yet, dear..." I started, then smiled. "But it might just work..."

The Colonel listened to the Masakis debate the availability of forces, and it wasn't too encouraging.

Then again, after a few months of training under Woodian military officers, completely green recruits probably wouldn't be quite so green anymore...granted, they wouldn't exactly be elite pilots either, but they would at least be proficient. Nevertheless, Keith wondered if enough Woodian 'MechWarriors would be willing to volunteer for the mission...many of those forced into the Dark Lord Ebolus' service who had survived the war had considered themselves dezgra since the moment the war ended and they had regained the use of their own minds. This mission would provide them, too, with an oppurtunity to regain their honor back in combat against a now-despised foe...

It was a possibility that the Colonel had to consider. He knew that the fanatical defense of Woodyeen put on by the Dark Lord's brainwashed warriors could be replicated by a 'MechWarrior desperate to lift the stain of dezgra...

As these thoughts careened through Keith's mind, he said, "I might be able to find a few 'MechWarriors who, shamed by their circumstances in the civil war, are themselves looking to lift the stain of dezgra..."

What Keith hadn't expected was the four war cries of "Seyla!" immediately behind him, war cries that emanated from the deep voices of four men dressed in Woodian military uniforms standing right behind him...

It would be interesting to see who wanted to see Jurai freed of the Empire more...Woodians or Coredians. Things were looking fairly tight in that category.

(OOC: The word "seyla" is a ritual response loosely translated as "Yes!" or "Hail!" and is usually voiced in unison at only the most solemn ceremonies, such as a 'MechWarrior's Trial of Position.)

I nodded sharply. "Hai. I would say the more the merrier. Lifting this kegasu from your other 'warriors will only be a plus."

I noticed that I lapsed into partial Japanese. Fits, really. I wouldn't be surprised if the honor code was taken straight out of bushido.

"Masaki-sama." A voice said. I turned to see who it was:

"Lieutenant Ross." I replied, returning the salute she made. "Excuse me, I mean Captain. I forgot I signed the promotion order..."

"No problem, sir. You called for us?" Captain Maria Ross asked, glancing at old allies. With her were the other mechwarriors, including Specialist Burgen.

"Of course. You remember Colonel Allaire." I said, noticing the rest of the crew that survived the FWT Campaign.

"Of course. How do you do, Colonel?" She asked.

Captain Ross' question turned out to be not as casual as she had expected. Colonel Allaire stood there for a good while, contemplating on a response that would best reflect what he, and the others, truly felt...

"Imagine if your brother or sister was siezed and kidnapped while you were on another planet, unable to do anything to stop it. You did not find out about it until the deed was already done, and you start eyeing your tantō, wondering if you could salvage some of your honor by using it," Keith replied after much thought. "Many in our military, including one of the Force-sensitives identified as a result of the war, and even members of the civilian population, committed seppuku after news of the siege reached us."

Captain Ross' question turned out to be not as casual as she had expected. Colonel Allaire stood there for a good while, contemplating on a response that would best reflect what he, and the others, truly felt...

"Imagine if your brother or sister was siezed and kidnapped while you were on another planet, unable to do anything to stop it. You did not find out about it until the deed was already done, and you start eyeing your tantō, wondering if you could salvage some of your honor by using it," Keith replied after much thought. "Many in our military, including one of the Force-sensitives identified as a result of the war, and even members of the civilian population, committed seppuku after news of the siege reached us."
The Captain was taken aback by the response. "Well, I sympathize..."

"Don't think it's my place to say, sir, but I believe there's more honor in surviving and seeking every means possible to free your brother or sister on the other planet than in taking the knife and ending it all." Travis said after hearing the Colonel's words. "After all, if you're alive, you still have a chance to do something while if you're dead, you can't."

"Well put." I nodded.

Masato snuck quietly into his teams hotel room expecting to be alone, he wasn’t. Sayuri had been waiting for him.

“Where have you been?” she demanded to know.

“What do you care?” was Masato’s only reply. He walked right past her.

Sayuri was furious. “You have not even once been to see how Shun is.”

The red-eyed ninja just glared at her. “I have no concern for him, I have a fight to win,” he replied.

Not wanting to stick around he leapt out of the window. Sayuri ran over and watched him hop away over the rooftops. She wondered if he were up to something, he wasn’t usually this cold. Usually if one of them was injured he’d make a brief appearance in the hospital but this time nothing, no brief appearance. This was in fact the first time she had seen him in days.

Sayuri left their hotel room and went to see Shun.

The Captain was taken aback by the response. "Well, I sympathize..."

"Don't think it's my place to say, sir, but I believe there's more honor in surviving and seeking every means possible to free your brother or sister on the other planet than in taking the knife and ending it all." Travis said after hearing the Colonel's words. "After all, if you're alive, you still have a chance to do something while if you're dead, you can't."

"Well put." I nodded.

"Aff," the Colonel agreed. "Which is why I'm not dead. We are working out the details of what invasion force the Woodian officer corps will train to use 'Mechs. Cutdown bid for the operation is a Regimental Combat Team, or 36 'Mechs plus support, but at this point, we only have 21 souls, including us. However, I'm sure there are 15 'MechWarriors who involuntarily served under the Dark Lord who survived the civil war, who would be more than happy for this chance to regain their honor. I'm just going to have to find them."

"Aff," the Colonel agreed. "Which is why I'm not dead. We are working out the details of what invasion force the Woodian officer corps will train to use 'Mechs. Cutdown bid for the operation is a Regimental Combat Team, or 36 'Mechs plus support, but at this point, we only have 21 souls, including us. However, I'm sure there are 15 'MechWarriors who involuntarily served under the Dark Lord who survived the civil war, who would be more than happy for this chance to regain their honor. I'm just going to have to find them."
"Well, if you'll find them, that would be great." I said. "But right now, we'll do with what we have."

"Well, if you'll find them, that would be great." I said. "But right now, we'll do with what we have."

"I can work on finding such volunteers tonight. As for doing with what we have, let's get everyone together so we can start the process of calibrating neurohelments...it's something we never had time to do in the Free Woody Thoughts campaign, but will make a noticeable difference."

The Colonel paused for a few seconds before adding, "Captain Ross, I'm sure you remember 'Mech combat quite well, but taking on the Empire's 501st will require you to perform feats of maneuvering that were not required in the Free Woody Thoughts campaign...such as firing PPCs accurately, with your torso twisted ninety degrees, while you're moving at full throttle. These things can run circles around AT-ATs, and we need to take advantage of that for all its worth. So additional training will be required for even those who have already fought in 'Mechs."

"I can work on finding such volunteers tonight. As for doing with what we have, let's get everyone together so we can start the process of calibrating neurohelments...it's something we never had time to do in the Free Woody Thoughts campaign, but will make a noticeable difference."
"Alright." I nodded. Although from what I remember, everyone involved in that previous war is already here and just standing at attention.

The Colonel paused for a few seconds before adding, "Captain Ross, I'm sure you remember 'Mech combat quite well, but taking on the Empire's 501st will require you to perform feats of maneuvering that were not required in the Free Woody Thoughts campaign...such as firing PPCs accurately, with your torso twisted ninety degrees, while you're moving at full throttle. These things can run circles around AT-ATs, and we need to take advantage of that for all its worth. So additional training will be required for even those who have already fought in 'Mechs."
"I understand, sir. I had the feeling we haven't had the time to use the mechs to their fullest abilities." Maria said. "Now, I guess we can."

"Alright." I nodded. Although from what I remember, everyone involved in that previous war is already here and just standing at attention.

"Excellent, I'll call for two more DropShips to deliver presents. Majors Mrozik and Sorensen, Lieutenant Colonels Vigil and Dmitruk, go and take the first four volunteers for neurohelmet calibration."

Now he had a question for Taylor... "Taylor, as you're thermokinetic and not so prone to heat management issues if you use the Force to cool your reactor, would you be interested in piloting a 'Mech with quad PPCs? Because it can be done."

"I understand, sir. I had the feeling we haven't had the time to use the mechs to their fullest abilities." Maria said. "Now, I guess we can."

Keith smiled. "Yes you can."

"Excellent, I'll call for two more DropShips to deliver presents. Majors Mrozik and Sorensen, Lieutenant Colonels Vigil and Dmitruk, go and take the first four volunteers for neurohelmet calibration."
Specialists Burgen and Galvan, PFC Ender and Corporal Lancer were the ones chosen for the calibration. I saw them off, wishing them good luck on their training.

Now he had a question for Taylor... "Taylor, as you're thermokinetic and not so prone to heat management issues if you use the Force to cool your reactor, would you be interested in piloting a 'Mech with quad PPCs? Because it can be done."
Taylor's eyes widened. "Quad...as in four PPCs instead of two? Whoa. Count me in!"

Keith smiled. "Yes you can."
"Very good, sir." Captain Ross nodded.

"Well, what else for us?" Katrina asked.

"Eh, I'll go around and see what's up with the other guys." Travis shrugged. "I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Oh, that reminds me. Daniel, a word, if you please." Katrina said as Travis scampered off, smiling. Uh oh. Here comes that promise of hers. She spoke to Whitfield. "We'll be around. Right now, my husband and I would like to take a stroll..."

She took me by the arm in a light-yet-firm grip, enough to let me know she means business and led me off. Help...

OOC: I have CoreWorlds' permission to RP the neurohelmet configuration in its entirety in this post, as it will be quite timeconsuming to spread it out into multiple posts.

Specialists Burgen and Galvan, PFC Ender and Corporal Lancer were the ones chosen for the calibration. I saw them off, wishing them good luck on their training.

The Woodian officers led the specialists to the DropShip, but not directly to the 'Mechs, which was a source of some surprise. Specialist Burgen, who had fought in a BattleMech with distinction during the Free Woody Thoughts campaign, queried, "Wouldn't a recalibration of neurohelmets be done inside a 'Mech?"

Major Sorensen replied, "No, recalibration must be done in a controlled environment. If I did it while you were in the 'Mech, an adjustment to the neurohelmet's settings might make you too dizzy to keep the 'Mech upright. But the neurohelmet must be calibrated to your brainwave pattern to work most efficiently. With a well-calibrated helmet, man and machine become one; you do not have to tell the 'Mech to do what you need it to do, it will read your thoughts as you think them; just as you do not tell your hand to do something, your hand just does what you want it to do, so will it be with the controls of the 'Mech. Works wonders for reaction time."

Burgen simply nodded. Seems complicated...

The group of eight, four Woodian officers and four Coredian soldiers eager to liberate their homeland, went inside the DropShip to a room that looked like a science mini-research lab, near the ship's 'Mech Bay. In fact, the equipment was not there for research, but rather to do the neurohelmet recalibrations.

Whitfield was shortsighted in ordering the full destruction of the DropShips that landed on Free Woody Thoughts as he destroyed the equipment to do this for the rebellion in the process, the Major thought to himself. Oh well, now it was a completely historical criticism.

Each of the four Coredians was led into a seperate room with a neurohelmet hooked up to the ceiling, and the four officers went into four seperate rooms not too far away.

While each of the four Coredians had a somewhat different experience, the basic process was the same...

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(OOC: RPing this for all four of them would take way too long and I'm too tired to write that much, so I'm only going to RP one pairing as an example. Though I might be inclined to want to do this with Taylor later.:D )

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Major Sorensen watched Specialist Bergen pace about the cubicle where he was to get his neurohelmet fitted from the camera monitors from the cubicle that he was in. He picked up a microphone and started speaking into it.

Meanwhile, Spc. Bergen heard the Major's voice boom throughout the room. "Specialist Bergen, before you don your neurohelmet, you should know that traditional ways of deference are relaxed somewhat during this procedure. I only refer to you formally because I do not know your first name. You may call me Major or Peter for the duration of this procedure. I want you to be relaxed; do not worry about formality."

"Yes, Major."

"Please don your neurohelmet." Peter waited for the young soldier to do so. "Does it give you a bit of a headache?"

Spc. Bergen did feel a slight buzzing in his head, but because of his previous experience piloting a 'Mech, he had assumed that such was normal. "Not really, it's fine as it is."

"Bravado here will not help you in the field of battle. It is never quite right on the first try. I need to know what is in your mind so I can correct it, or, if you take this neurohelmet into battle as-is, you will suffer from reduced combat efficiency."

"Yes, Major. There is quite a bit of buzzing in my head."

"Now I want you to imagine a beautiful place, a place covered with a lush belt of green as far as the eye can see, right up to the foot of a snow-capped mountain range. The sunrise creates bright orange hues on the mountain glaciers and against the wisps of high clouds. Birds are singing morning songs throughout the forest..."

The young specialist relaxed a bit as Peter made some minor adjustments to his neurohelmet.

"Do you feel anything now?"

"Peter, for some reason, I think I smell sea brine."

"Ah, let me fix that." Peter began immersing the specialist's imagination in some other wonderful place while he made the adjustment. It took a couple more rounds of trial and error before everything was perfect, but finally, perfection was achieved...

"Congratulations, Specialist. Your neurohelmet has been successfully fitted to your brainwave pattern. Technicians will install the helmet you are wearing now in your 'Mech, and you will wear it into battle. Please remove the helmet and get some rest before training. You will need it."

And with that, Major Sorensen left the comm open but said nothing more.

Taylor's eyes widened. "Quad...as in four PPCs instead of two? Whoa. Count me in!"

"Yes, you heard right. Just make sure that if you perform an Alpha Strike, you do so from zero heat. Four PPCs firing at once alone will push your heat indicator just past the redlines; adding built-up heat from before to that will cause more problems. If you wish to ameliorate this consideration, I can group them into pairs to make staggering their fire, thereby dispersing heat generation over more time, easier; if you want all four in one weapons group you will have to watch the heat and cool down your reactor via the Force quite a bit."

"Very good, sir." Captain Ross nodded.

"Well, what else for us?" Katrina asked.

"Eh, I'll go around and see what's up with the other guys." Travis shrugged. "I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Oh, that reminds me. Daniel, a word, if you please." Katrina said as Travis scampered off, smiling. Uh oh. Here comes that promise of hers. She spoke to Whitfield. "We'll be around. Right now, my husband and I would like to take a stroll..."

She took me by the arm in a light-yet-firm grip, enough to let me know she means business and led me off. Help...

"Have fun." Master Whitfield waved at Daniel as he departed.

"Yes, you heard right. Just make sure that if you perform an Alpha Strike, you do so from zero heat. Four PPCs firing at once alone will push your heat indicator just past the redlines; adding built-up heat from before to that will cause more problems. If you wish to ameliorate this consideration, I can group them into pairs to make staggering their fire, thereby dispersing heat generation over more time, easier; if you want all four in one weapons group you will have to watch the heat and cool down your reactor via the Force quite a bit."
"I say grouping them in pairs is the better option." Taylor said. "Balancing the power of the four PPCs with the need to keep the heat down would be a good thing."

Meanwhile, Katrina hauled me to a private hot spring from where we could talk without prying ears listening. One of Konoha's tourist traps are the nice hotspring/massage combo you get from some of the richer places, but we had a place all to our own. Moments later, we undressed and slid into the 100+ degree heat which steamed away the knots and folds of achy muscles.

"Now that we're relaxing, let's talk." Katrina sighed. "So are the rumors true? You're planning to declare yourself Emperor?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I've been on the fence long enough. By taking the throne, I can consolidate enough power to keep Coreworlds going through the war. Besides, there's no one else who has the clout. Grandpa just got killed by the Empire."

Katrina gasped. "Oh no!"

I grimaced. "Yeah. So now the High Council is without someone to execute the decisions. It's time to step up to the plate. You ready for the title of Empress Consort?"

Katrina snuggled up to me. "You know I've been waiting twelve years for that title! Don't make me wait another decade, slowpoke!"

"I'm not slow!" I insisted. "I'm just...cautious about using my imperial powers!"

"Really? I wonder how cautious you really are..." Katrina said, pushing me into a compromising position. "My Lord."

I grinned foolishly. "I'll show you caution, Lady Masaki! C'mere!"

And so there was much merriment, laughing and shrieking in the private hot spring...

"I say grouping them in pairs is the better option." Taylor said. "Balancing the power of the four PPCs with the need to keep the heat down would be a good thing."

"OK, I'll have your 'Mech reconfigured in six hours, and I'll be ready to calibrate your neurohelmet then...unless you want someone else to do it."

"OK, I'll have your 'Mech reconfigured in six hours, and I'll be ready to calibrate your neurohelmet then...unless you want someone else to do it."
"No, I'd like to do it." Taylor shook his head.

"No, I'd like to do it." Taylor shook his head.

I can tell Taylor doesn't have a whole lot of technical training... Keith thought to himself.

"There are two problems with that. The first is you don't have the slightest idea of how to recalibrate a neurohelmet. The second is that recalibrating it takes two people, and one of them has to wear the neurohelmet while the other adjusts it until it is done correctly. And you would be the one wearing it. Now I can have one of the other officers do it, but it has to be someone that knows how to do it. Unfortunately, Master Whitfield knows only a little more about neurohelmets than you do, so he wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to do it either."

I can tell Taylor doesn't have a whole lot of technical training... Keith thought to himself.

"There are two problems with that. The first is you don't have the slightest idea of how to recalibrate a neurohelmet. The second is that recalibrating it takes two people, and one of them has to wear the neurohelmet while the other adjusts it until it is done correctly. And you would be the one wearing it. Now I can have one of the other officers do it, but it has to be someone that knows how to do it. Unfortunately, Master Whitfield knows only a little more about neurohelmets than you do, so he wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to do it either."
"Oh." Taylor said. "I'll wait until you're ready then."

Meanwhile, young Travis has gone to his apartment to pick up a very special green and blue hoverboard that he recieved for his tenth birthday. Kids everywhere are finding SpeederBoard® quite popular, mainly due to the fact that it is a cool challenge to ride a speeder-like vehicle without handles. It helps to have efficient advertising these days. Skyboarding, the kids call it these days and many consider it their favorite hobby, and Travis is no different.

Travis tested the wind as soon as he reached a meadow so as to prepare for a faster takeoff. With the wind at his back, the boy pulled on a pair of goggles, started running, threw the board in front of him where it began floating above the ground and jumped on it, turning the throttle up and shot into the sky, a faint blue line trailing behind him like a comet. "Yaaaahoooo!"

It was different from riding a dragon, far different from having a speeder bike in your hands. It was the thrill of fighting to keep your feet and your balance on the board while the wind pounds your face and whistles through your clothes. It was the coolness of flying over, under and through the puffy white clouds while the daytime sun expands your awareness until you can see everything for miles and miles around. It was simply...

"Wicked!" Travis grinned as he flew through the sky at triple-digit knots, held only by the grip of his chakra-enhanced feet. The experience of performing loops and tricks at ten thousand feet with nothing but fiberglass attached to antigravity holding you up...there was little that could be compared to it...

"Oh." Taylor said. "I'll wait until you're ready then."

"OK." Keith went off to configure the 'Mech, but he realized that he needed more of them down here. He could swipe one of the 'Mechs already here; the new trainees wouldn't need them for a couple hours yet, as they would get a couple of hours of R and R after their neurohelmet configurations before the real training began. That gave Keith a couple of hours to call for more DropShip deployments from the Star Destroyer, which he did.

He appropriated one of the 120-ton Timber Wolf IIIs for Taylor. As Whitfield had already taught him elementary thermokinesis, including basic cryokinesis, as part of his Jedi training, Keith would likely go into combat with a similar configuration himself. But as he did the preconfiguration weight-and-balance configurations, he ran into a slight problem as he accounted for the removal of the LRM racks...

Weapons/Equipment Pod Space Available: 40.5 tons


1) ER-II Heavy Pulse Laser 5.0 Tons Center Torso
1) ER-II Heavy Pulse Laser 5.0 Tons Center Torso
2) ER-III PPC 5.0 Tons Right Arm
2) ER-III PPC 5.0 Tons Left Arm
3) ER-III PPC 5.0 Tons Right Torso
3) ER-III PPC 5.0 Tons Left Torso

Laser Anti-Missile Defense 1.5 Tons Cockpit

Total: 31.5 Tons
Mech Underweight: 9.0 Tons

Normally, there would be some degree of filler: A Beagle Active Probe (which a Jedi most assuredly did not need) and either an Artemis Fire Control System (useless without missiles) or a Targeting Computer (which a Jedi most assuredly did not need). Even adding all three of these, the 'Mech would still be six tons underweight, and while Keith could simply put one of the standard long-range missile racks back in, it would introduce ammo resupply problems that he did not want to deal with.

Normally, he would have filled the gap with heat sinks, but as he was configuring Taylor's 'Mech, that would be just as much of a waste. Nor did he deign to put on even more energy weapons, as that would be pushing the heat balance too far in the other direction. Taylor had indicated, after all, that he didn't want to go spiking the 'Mech into the heat red lines. Moreover, the torso could only accomodate so much armor due to space restrictions...thirty tons, which meant Keith could slap on another four tons of that. He would have to ask Taylor in which direction he wanted to go...

He searched out Taylor Masaki using the Force...training under Master Whitfield had its advantages, to be sure. Hey, Taylor, we have your 'Mech nine tons underweight. I can either add jump jets and train you in their use, which will add even more to maneuverability, or I can slap on four extra tons of armor and give the engine a little upgrade. Which would you prefer?

He searched out Taylor Masaki using the Force...training under Master Whitfield had its advantages, to be sure. Hey, Taylor, we have your 'Mech nine tons underweight. I can either add jump jets and train you in their use, which will add even more to maneuverability, or I can slap on four extra tons of armor and give the engine a little upgrade. Which would you prefer?
Hmm. I like the jump jet option. Taylor replied. It would definitely be something new for him too.

Hmm. I like the jump jet option. Taylor replied. It would definitely be something new for him too.

Done. I will approach you concerning calibration and training once your 'Mech is refitted. With the jump jets, that will take six or seven hours.

Keith then went off to perform the modifications, nearly a full day's worth of exhausting labor ahead...even with the aid of the Force, it still wasn't exactly the easiest thing. Which is why most MechWarriors that weren't Woodians (i.e. Gaian Ascendancy, and before that, BT canon) insisted on having techs do this kind of work. However, all Woodian active-duty MechWarriors were crosstrained as techs, and Keith anticipated that this kind of flexibility would serve both Woodians and Coredians well in the upcoming invasion...

All right. Until then, see you around. Taylor said, heading off to eat a little lunch at the famous Ichiraku restaurant.

Meanwhile, Travis decided to stop over at the famous and slightly creepy Valley of the End. From what he's learned about it, this was the place where his Sensei Naruto and Sensei Sasuke had their Big Duel, fighting over Sasuke's own soul as the then-boy decided to go over to the dark side and train under Orochimaru. Now that was a Dark Lord to be feared!

Travis' growing powers were just sharp enough to pick out the residual chakra energies of the duel. Even after almost twenty years, the energy never really went away and it stank of disappointment, anger, sadness and then fury, a rolling ball of emotions that only a fight between best friends could bring. The boy sighed and hoped that he'd never have to fight a duel like that as he watched the beautiful waterfall splash into the pool below...

"If you keep that up you'll never make Chuunin," Katana remarked.

Daniels hand was still shaking badly as he tried to eat his ramen. Unlike him, she had already finished hers and was now on seconds.

"Don't be so harsh on him," Eamonn warned. "If you had one your match I would have pushed you just as hard in your further training."

Katana scowled at him. "Yeah right," she retorted. "I'm not as weak as he is."

Eamonn never replied, he'd felt a familiar pressence and had turned around to see who it was. His eyes fell upon Taylor.

Woodian military officer and Coredian trainee alike were quite surprised to find the Colonel had effectively decommissioned one of the available 'Mechs in order to refit it for Taylor. "Do not worry, I have called for bonus DropShips," Keith reassured all interested parties. "In the meantime, go find more Coredians to train."

"Aff," came the simple reply from the four other Woodians. They promptly disappeared, two of the Coredian trainees going with them and two watching Keith rip out pulse lasers from the right and left torso sections of a Timber Wolf III to remount them in the center torso section. He needed to make room for Taylor's quad PPCs, after all.

For that matter, Keith was considering a nearly identical configuration himself, perhaps stripping a single heat sink to keep the Beagle Active Probe. He, too, could use the Force to cool his own reactor, and while not as efficient as Whitfield or Taylor in doing so, he still had more heat management experience to begin with so he could make it work.

After he was done remounting the pulse lasers, and done mounting the extra PPCs in the weapons hardpoints where the pulse lasers had once been (a job that required a bit of heavy equipment), Keith began the arduous process of mounting Taylor's jump jets. Taylor's frequent complaints about silly antique Woodian technology had not completely fallen on deaf ears (though the Colonel would never tell Master Whitfield this), so instead of installing the usual old, liquid-fuel jumpjets, Keith installed newer ion jumpjets. He thought they were a bit safer, too, because it was harder for a missile to be fired right up them while in flight, due to differences in IR signature. For that matter, Keith would make sure that there wasn't a liquid-fuel jumpjet in the entire regimental combat team...all ion was the way to go. After mounting the jumpjets themselves, Keith mounted several vector thrusters around the torso sections...Taylor was going to have fun with those, of that, Keith was sure.

He sought out Taylor using the Force to sense him. Major Masaki, I am ready to configure your neurohelmet...and after that, you get a nice big 120-ton present.