Investigation extraordinaire [invites only, NDE].

[Deleted]

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[OOC: Sorry for the late reply.]

It was a pretty standard conversation as far as Shinobi went, Katsu thought. Naming the goal, setting up the mission, hammering out the details, looking for any information that could aid them, protecting against what could harm the goal. It was... good. It's what Shinobi were supposed to do. Katsu felt a little happy inside, even though the topic was over the assassinations of Raikage. Katsu turned to Marii as he continued the conversation, speaking in a more businesslike tone than before, “Marii-sama. I vote we let Tieren handle the search of the Tower. With the Kage Bunshin he can search the entire place in a fraction of the time it'd take the rest of us combined. As for the idea of education...

“Well. Kumogakure is supposed to be a military settlement. Us Shinobi are housed here as well as the people needed to keep us in top shape so that we can fulfill our duties to the country. I'm not sure how the Daimyos would take it, but if I were a Daimyo and I heard that an autonomous military settlement was seeking to make itself completely self-sufficient... Well I'd think they were trying to prepare to revolt. I personally feel at this point that if we started such processes before we assured the Daimyos of our loyalty that we might ourselves get on the wrong side of an investigation, which would surely halt our own, and might even give the current Council the fuel they need to dispose of Marii as Raikage.” Katsu carefully scratched his head with a clawed hand to show he was thinking, while his brows were knit together in concentration and he was looking towards the photos on the table.

“The one good thing I can give towards Marii's goal of increased education is this, and it's striking two birds with one stone. We know the technology of the Gale Empire is much greater than our own, and I know that during the original skirmish we were more focused on survival than appropriating their technology, not to mention the Gale made sure to destroy any damaged transports...” Katsu paused for a moment, thinking of the lost chance they had during their initial confrontation with the Gale, “But! I really think we should look into getting our hands on their technology. Surely there's got to be at least some of their ships still in the country. Maybe an escape vehicle for a high ranking officer sent to foment chaos, or some such. I think if we can root out the leader of the Gale soldiers still in Kaminari we might be able to find ourselves one of their ships. If we can manage to get it back in one piece then it's merely a matter of reverse engineering.” With that Katsu began to look over the pictures of the Daimyo once more, trying to figure out if there was any information there that could help him figure out where their loyalties were. After a long moment Katsu had to give up. There just wasn't enough information here for him to make a proper judgment and a bad judgment could cost them more than their lives.

”I suppose I'm asking permission to form a mission to do what I suggested. If I set out now I might be able to find and bring something back by the time the Council heads out for their funding meeting with the farmers. At that point we could see if Shuichi changes his opinion of us when he learns we're bringing back technology that might help his own businesses. If he's not a traitor then he should be delighted, but if he's still staunchly against us I think that's a big hint towards him being in league with the Kumogakure Council.” Katsu finally wound down into silence, having exhausted all the thoughts he had on the conversation at this point. Katsu just didn't have any better to give to the conversation.

[Tieren]

[Sorry for the delay. Life has been quite difficult lately and I haven't even wanted to think about NFRP much less actually get a post thing. Things are starting to turn around, but I'm still kinda... meh about posting. So bear with me if this isn't my best.]

"Once again, I agree with Katsu on all points. I feel focusing on furthering our education would be a little tricky with the current issues. After the Daimyos are on our side and the council is working for the betterment of the village, then working on furthering our education could be something we work toward."

I said, thinking for a moment about all the current prospects. Katsu gave an interesting mission idea, one that Okuda could definitely work toward helping. But it had to be done just right in order for it to show we were working not just to better our village, but the Land of Thunder as a whole.

"Okuda, I feel you would do well on the mission Katsu proposed. With any technology you all could bring back, along with perhaps any captured members of the Gale Empire, we could not only prove to the Daimyos we are working toward helping out Kumogakure as well as the Land itself, but we could also make sure this whole Gale Empire thing isn't tied into all of our current internal issues. Meanwhile, I could be focusing my efforts on the tower and the council itself. As I said in our last meeting, they appointed me as your assistant. There are only two reasons they would have done that. They wanted to use me to spy on you or to get rid of me alongside you. Either way, they needed me for something. While combing through the tower, I could meet with the council to discuss what is on their agenda for the village."

I proposed, hoping that it would satisfy all who were there. Things were getting tricky at this point, but we had to do our best. Anything less and we'd be in quite the predicament.

[Marii K. Kazeraikou]

((OOC: Let's get this rolling!!!))

A number of good suggestions were made among the male trio at the table. The female listened to them while her chakra fuelled eyes studied them. She could not help but to feel proud of the three shinobis.
Okuda remained rather quiet after the statement about killing them. Politics or academic subjects were not his strongest side, which was not good.

Marii looked up at the mention of using the kage bunshin jutsu of searching through the material. She was about to interfere when Katsugan made his statement. Reverse engineering was something the young woman had thought of, but mechanics were not her strong suit.
The Raikage sipped some green tea while she through about a reply. They had to put their plans to action.

"I have thought about what you said. I do think it's a good plan to use the shadow clones to look through the tower. If possible, I could use my kage bunshins as well.
This will give me just as much insight in the information that concerns the council. Which is important since I can't just fire them without a just cause" started the female.

"Furthermore, I am willing to send the two of you on a mission to do research on the vehicles. But I would like you to be EXTREMELY cautious. I'm going to send out some scouts to find out where they are.
I'm not sure how many that may be left since it's two years since the invasion. We need to see what the scouts finds first before I send you off" continued the brunette.

"Kumogakure no Sato IS a military force - there's no doubt about that. But changing the 40% exam rate is not done overnight. Turning the tide will take at least five years even if we have a solid plan.
I think perhaps we should start encouraging shinobis to take further studies in their field. For example that people can get a money refund if they pass a certain number of exams" suggested the young woman.

"I would like you to start talking with the council in two days Tieren-kun. We'll start the investigation right after the council leaves. We have a lot of material to go through, but it will definitely pay off.
I'm going to dispatch my scouts in five days. This should give them some time to search through the nation without the council finding out" told Marii.

"You two are going to be sent off when the scouts can locate the culprits or their vehicles. It'll seem sensible considering your ranks as well as your specialities. As for me...I'll start to look at how we can improve the education laws.
I won't do anything too drastic since that will alert the council. But I am definitely going to do some subtle changes" finished the female while glancing at the trio.

[奥田 (Okuda)]

By Naota Okuda sat at the table, now sipping some tea that had been placed in front of him some time earlier. He listened to the suggestions of Katsu and Tieren, both had valid points and ideas for what to do next though for some strange reason, Katsu had felt that bringing Okuda along on a mission to recover technology for reverse engineering would be a smart plan. He wasn’t much of a boon when it came to intellectual paths, sure he wasn’t an idiot by any stretch of the imagination however when it came to these more specific things, he lagged behind others. Okuda was a swordsman, he spent his whole life training himself in the use of the sword and planned to continue it, perhaps stretch out into other martial fields, but stay mostly with the sword. Okuda placed his cup down and spoke softly “Whilst I understand why you would choose to take a mission to recover technology from our foes and reverse engineer it, I cannot wrap my mind around why you would choose me, I am not exactly an intellectual that would understand much of the value behind whatever technology we uncover. Now, I will go if it is your command Raikage-sama, however I’m sure there are other shinobi more suited to looking through any material we find in the field…Unless of course you’re choosing me solely to act as a guardian for Katsu on this mission.” Okuda would take another sip of his tea before continuing. “If it is that you wish for me to act as his bodyguard on said mission, I will do so to the best of my abilities, though as I said in any other aspect of the mission I fear I would be subpar and thus another could be better suited to it than I am, though again this is just my own opinion in my own estimation of my abilities.” Okuda then placed his cup of tea down in front of him and looked at the other three slowly, his sapphire blue eyes their usual unemotional selves.

[Deleted]

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It seemed Katsu was doing a lot better during this meeting than he had at the last one. His ideas at the least were being taken seriously and he was helping to shape up their actions in the coming days. Of course with the idea of a mission looming just up ahead Katsu was struck with the idea that he should do some preparatory training. For the moment though Katsu turned to Okuda. “Actually Okuda this should be the type of mission that you excel at. If we're lucky enough to find one of their ships and our mission is good to go, then what it's going to be is walking into a bunch of soldiers and killing everything that moves that isn't us as fast as we possibly can. Remember, back at the Skirmish the Gale soldiers seemed determined not to let any of their fancy transport ships fall into our hands. I personally had one pilot of a transport nosedive it straight at me, and subsequently straight into the ground hard enough to make the whole thing explode. Honestly it seems like the Gale Empire views their technological superiority to be more important than the lives of their own men.

“With that in mind I think we have two basic methods of attack we can try. Either Shock and Awe or Divide and Conquer.” Katsu said as he placed two fingers in the air on his left hand, using his right to tick off his two methods, ”With Shock and Awe we burst into the soldiers and put as many of them down as we can, keeping them from the transport ship and ensuring they can't activate any self-destruct method it might have. With Divide and Conquer we go in silently, cutting down the soldiers one by one while not alerting the others. Either way once everything is down we just call it in and have a method to transport the ship back to a lab.” Katsu looked over to Marii as he switched to the next part, “I'd suggest we have it transported to Enrai rather than here to Kumogakure, just to show we mean to use what we find for all of Kaminari, not just the military. Besides, the more people who know of the technology of the Gale Empire the better we can prepare to forward any future plans against them.”

Katsu clicked his clawed fingers together, trying to think if there was anything else he had to add to the conversation at this point, “If there's nothing else, I'd like to get to training. You said the scouts were going out in five days? Then I should have about a week to brush up on my engineering and programming skills.”

[Marii K. Kazeraikou]

((OOC: I'm going to continue since I know people are waiting. Sorry Tieren!))

"I agree with Katsu-kun. That's precisely why I want you to take this mission" told the female as she looked at the younger man.
"We need a silent shinobi who is as fast as possible to kill the soldiers. And both of you are some of the most competent Chuunins I have who I can trust" informed Marii.

She then turned her head towards the other male. "I agree. We could transport it to Enrai, but we need somewhere safe to hide whatever you got your hands on" replied the woman.
She put down her tea cup. "I'll start going through the information banks in the Raikage tower once that REPULSIVE council is gone" stated the Raikage with a particularly acid tone on 'repulsive'.

"I am going to use my kage bunshins to help out Tieren-kun at the tower task. We should hopefully be able to do that in two days or so since we know what we're looking for.
I think we should go home to get some rest. I'll see you all soon" finished the young woman, now with a smile at her face.

"Have a good night you three. I hope we can solve this" told the older man as he entered the kitchen. The male trio would maybe notice some physical similarities between the duo.
Tatsuya had nearly the same chin and eye shape even if it was more masculine. There was no doubt that the two were actually cousins...

[奥田 (Okuda)]

By Naota Okuda nodded his head towards the Raikage, his hair barely moving. The missions were set, plans made it was time now only to bring it all to fruition. He then stood up and grabbed the Katana he had leaned up against the table and started to walk out, on his way out he said in his usual cool tone “I’ll likely be training for a while, so when you’ve found our target come find me.” With that, Okuda left the building and disappeared into seemingly thin air to go do as he said he would. [EXIT]

[Deleted]

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Everything was shaping up nicely and it seemed that this conversation was done with. Katsu stood as both Okuda and Marii did, giving a polite nod to everyone in the room before reusing his Henge jutsu to assume the form of a dual sword wielding Bishounen. “Well then. I shall get on that training immediately then. Farewell for now!”

[EXIT]

[Marii K. Kazeraikou]

The female grinned once the group had exited. 'This is going to be so much FUN' thought Marii as both of the animals returned to their animal state.
"Thanks for letting us stay Tatsuya. I'll keep you updated" told the young woman. She exited the house with her animals a couple of minutes later.


[Exit Marii and animal companions]