Ninja Monk Quest #16

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>Your name is Amon Shuu, a humble monk of the Water Temple.
>You have no family to speak of. You are just another one of the many orphans of the 2nd Shinobi World War. However, your luck pulled through when a wandering monk, Myatsuu, snatched you from the debris of a border skirmish between Konohagakure and Kirigakure, as your village had been reduced to rubble in the midst of battle. You were 4 years old then. Now, at 18 years old, you are the last surviving monk of the Water Temple, with one crippled exception.

>You left to honor your duties and deliver the merchant, Yoru, safely home. However, goals rapidly changed when you accidentally discovered an artifact, The Red Beads, containing the spirit of an ancient, powerful spirit and fragments of the Tailed Beasts. Your task became twofold: bring your friends to safety first, then bring safety to the greater world in stopping the plots of the spirit, Bishamon.

>Perhaps due to a twist of fickle fate, or the throe of inexperience, or to cruel conspiracies...you've now lost everything.
>This is where our story resumes.


Character pastebin: http://pastebin.com/3vzHnmkj
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Ninja%20Monk
Thread 7: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/748165/
Thread 15: http://pastebin.com/fBWp8Apu
QM Twitter: @TheRedL4dy


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Amid the mixed ash and snow around the cliffside, a single, silent mound dusted with blood suddenly bursts open. The layers of grey and white fall off with your heaving, fevered breaths as you struggle to rise from nature’s grave- eventually settling to rest on your hands and knees for a moment. Your breaths turn to rasping coughs as the soot is expelled from your lungs. A small, fluttering warmth in your chest is all that is managing to keep your heart pulsing. That…dream couldn’t be real after all, hunh?

You were stripped of the Tailed Beasts…of Bishamon…of your own chakra…
You should be dead.

Head and muscles twitching, you shiver in the cold as you try to read the world around you. The ground is painted in wet-looking fresco of white snow and grey ash, intermittently broken by chunks of charcoal-like material. Wasn’t there a forest around here? There had been a fire, hadn’t there? There had been men with masks, assassins, in the trees…

You only see shattered stumps and black, charred corpses of vegetation lining the land other the rocky cliff behind you. What catches your attention, however, is not the remnants of a fire…but the smoke rising from the wreckage of the town in the distance. Yet, something else catches your eye just barely…

A tuft of white hair and a porcelain mask half-buried in the snow, next to the armored body of a young man, your assailant and the killer of Rin Nohara. His body barely shudders with breath; he is still alive.

(Pick one)
>Kill him, he’s the reason this all went wrong.
>Leave him. You won’t kill him, but you won’t save him, either. Let the cold take him.
>Dig him out of the surrounding snow and ash. He likely won’t last long enough out here to wake up, otherwise.

(Pick two)
>Return to town
>Is Rin’s body around here? Was it taken? Try to find traces of where it went.
>Search the remnants of the forest for clues of your attackers
>Assess the damage you’ve taken. How are you still functioning?
>Try not to cry. Cry a lot.
>Make a shelter, and nurse the enemy shinobi back to health.
>Use an item/technique (Write ins)

>>1261214
>Leave him. You won’t kill him, but you won’t save him, either. Let the cold take him.

>Search the remnants of the forest for clues of your attackers
>Assess the damage you’ve taken. How are you still functioning?
Also take off the assailants mask, 8 wanna know who killed Rin. No more crying, we've shed too many tears it's time to fix mistakes.

>>1261214
>(Pick one)
>>Leave him. You won’t kill him, but you won’t save him, either. Let the cold take him.

>(Pick two)
>>Is Rin’s body around here? Was it taken? Try to find traces of where it went.
>>Try not to cry. Cry a lot.

>>1261214
>Dig him out

>Search for Rin's body
>Nurse him back to health

Why let him suffer? It gains us nothing, and loses us answers.

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>>1261459
>>1261454
>>1261324

>Leave him.
&
>Search for Rin's body
>Try not to cry. Cry a lot.

writing!

>>1261610
I still wanna take his mask off. See who done it.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBzUfjkdPq4
After what he did, you’d be well justified to take revenge of any length or extreme. But, you remember the look of horror, shock, and despair as the boy, no older than you, had cried tears of blood on killing Rin. When his mask had fallen off in the skirmish, you saw he looked like a miniature Sakumo Hatake…and even said Rin’s name. He had known her, maybe even was her friend at some point if you had to bet.
Wouldn’t that make his act all-the-more egregious? You can already imagine your hands reaching down to the Wen Qu by your feet…the feeling of taking out all your justified anger and pain in a single outburst of karmic retribution as the feelings of control and moral superiority ooze through your body. Before you notice it, the Wen Qu is already grasped in your hands and you stand poised over the young man’s limp body in the snow.

But…you won’t do it. Or rather, you simply can’t. The golden staff slowly lowers from the air until it hangs despondently by your side. The crushing bitterness lingering, gnawing in your heart stays there fully restrained. Such an act of violence…of hatred, is not your way. You simply can’t do it.

You turn and walk away, leaving the snowy air to deal whatever justice it sees fit. Whether or not nature disposes of him, you will remember this crime for an eternity.

(1/2)

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Each crunch of the snow underfoot reminds you of…no, you’d rather not think about it. Where is Rin’s body, though? Last you remember, she’d died protecting you. Then…her eyes…
…Bishamon.

Reality hits you like a train, and you weakly drop to your knees once more. Eyes stream unbidden from your eyes as the failures run themselves through your mind, along with the mental images of Rin’s last smile. Along with her last words to you.

Everything, lost in an instant. You’d failed not only your mission, but you’d failed the world in letting the demon go. Recovery from this….is a fool’s dream.

You’d released the ancient spirit of the Red Beads in a desperate plight to save Rin. To save…your first and only love. But, it couldn’t have happened, truly? You’re still alive, aren’t you? There’s no chance you, or anyone for that matter, could survive being stripped of their internal tailed beasts and chakra. It simply must have been a figment of your fevered dreams. Maybe she’s still…

You hold onto this hope tightly, clutching onto it in your heart for support. With a few steady breaths and one last sob, you push forward.

You track along the outskirts of the area in a wide circle, not finding anything. With a sigh, you return to where you collapsed onto the ground and try to dust away the layers of snow and ash around it. Rin was right around you when it happened, so sh-

You abruptly reach numerous red stains in the ground underneath and…the remnants of a blackened footprint burned in the mud. It openly steams as it is exposed to the open air. Wordlessly, you uncover the brush of the Wen Qu and continue to sweep away at the ground. You uncover another footprint less than a yard away, this time point towards where the woods had once been. The snow is notably indented in a straight trail in this direction, as though something-or someone- had burned away several of the lower, white layers earlier.

As you trudge through the nearly knee-deep snow, the trail leads on into the charred stumps of the forest. There, it ends abruptly. You look around at the wide, empty circle of land around you. Piles of black charcoal are embedded in the wall-like ring of snow around the outskirts of the circle, as though a sudden force had suddenly and violently blown back everything within several meters. Moving forward, your foot crunches on something stuck into the ground. You crouch to pick up the odd single-eyed, plate-like object…and think recognize the design from somewhere.

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The trail, however, is gone. It is as if Rin, or likely whoever took her body, simply disappeared into thin air. You look across to the smoldering town through the flurries of snow in the air. It is straight ahead from here. Asa, Yoru, Tai, Shizune, and Tsunade…where are you?

>Search for your companions in the debris of the town streets
>Head towards the source of smoke in the ruined buildings
>Go towards where the hotel was. You need to retrieve your personal belongings. Someone may still be there?
>Go to the medical tents where Tai had been. They came here for all of you.
>Search the forest for any clues to who your attackers were, or where your friends went
>Write in

>>1261969
>>Head towards the source of smoke in the ruined buildings

After watching the new episode of Samurai Jack, I'm actually kinda stoked about playing a character desperately trying to reverse the apocalypse. Still kinda salty though.

>>1261969
>Go to the medical tents where Tai had been. They came here for all of you.

>>1261969
On the other hand,
>See if the man you left behind is still alive, dig him out if so.
Since it seems like Rin's body isn't quite dead yet, and the world might need as many able hands as possible?

>>1261969
>Head towards the source of smoke in the ruined buildings

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>>1262080
>>1262001

Writing!

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Well, it’s your only lead. You head back to town in the direction of wherever that smoke is coming from. Hopefully you could make sense of what’s happened, and where everyone went.

Looking back…you sincerely regret that curiosity. What you saw there, that day, destroyed what chances of hope you had mustered.

Several minutes pass as you enter the confines of the city, finding your bearings amidst the maze of buildings and rubble. Your footsteps tap audibly and echo as dirt turns to stonework underfoot, the air increasingly becoming murky as you clatter towards your beacon, the guiding, jagged column of smoke. It was around noon now…and you were attacked last night. Your companions couldn’t have gone too far, and there doesn’t seem to be too much activity or chaos in the streets to obstruct your search, except for the rubble. They need to know. You need to find Rin with them. Something isn’t settling right though…

You finally catch the thought as you turn the corner at a broken shop, it’s jagged concrete edges laid bare.

You haven’t seen a single person.

(1/2)

>>1262361
*its

>>1262001
It's too hopeless and depressing for me to work up the motivation to participate

>>1262383
You are a mean man

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zld8hL448nA

You find them quickly enough.

Scattered haphazardly like trash along the road ahead of you, leading directly to a walled cross-section, and source of the fire past that, are the desiccated bodies of dozens of men, women, and children. Your stomach loosens on the sight, and you close your eyes to gather yourself before continuing. It isn’t simply townsfolk, though. Amid the numbers of corpses there are those donning the armored vests and animal masks you’ve seen more than several times before, the Konoha Anbu.

The stone wall lining the street across the right is smashed entirely in places, forming large mounds of stone. However, the damage ahead is far, far greater. The ground and surrounding architecture is crushed in places, and the entire section of wall leading to the cross-section is flattened into the soil. As you inspect the damage, you step back and see it. The damage is one, long, deep gouge, easily the width of several houses, in the landscape. Structures around the area even seem to be melted.

It is almost as if a battle between creatures of titanic proportions took place here. But, the bodies on the other hand…what could cause something like that?

Stepping warily down the street and into the cross-section, you look around to see…silent carnage. The same destruction of the landscape you’d noted a minute earlier has ravaged this section of the city. The wall at the end of the street wasn’t even whole, just the other standing segment of the longer section not crushed to gravel.

You barely stand on your feet, eyes wide at the scene around you, when a single noise nearby breaks the silence.

Long, wheezing breaths from behind the wall in front of you where the fire is. You jump around the pitiful barrier…

Tsunade leans against the loose brickwork of the structure, distinctly unconscious. A strange, bright design stemming from her forehead is wormed around her body, which is decorated with many nasty, open wounds. As you watch, the injuries visibly steam and slowly stitch themselves together. She isn’t looking too good though, based on her pained grimace. Rubble covers her lower legs, pinning her. You doubt it would be necessarily safe to move her, as you aren’t in the best shape yourself and you aren’t sure how structurally stable the remnant of the wall is.

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As for the source of smoke…that is much more definite of an answer. Burning, and skewered on a jagged piece of metal in the middle of the flattened land, is the head of a massive snake. On it, you see a white-skinned, sickly colored body in the same anbu outfit as the others. It is completely immobile.

>Stay here, help Tsunade somehow
>Inspect the dead snake and the unfortunate shinobi on top of it for answers
>Wake Tsunade up and get out of here. This place doesn’t seem safe.
>Leave Tsunade for now, as she is healing. The desiccated, hollowed bodies…leave you with a bad feeling. Inspect them.
>Leave Tsunade to take care of herself and get out of here. She is comparably fine considering what may have happened to the others
>Write in

>>1262575
>Inspect the dead snake and the unfortunate shinobi on top of it for answers
At this point? Fuck it, let's see what's up with Dr. Snakes.

>>1262610
Maybe he can give us some op shit to help with this, sure ask him for help

>>1262575
*Skewered on it as well, you see a white-skinned, sickly colored body in the same anbu outfit as the others. It is completely immobile.*
My bad on that one

>>1262575
>>Wake Tsunade up and get out of here. This place doesn’t seem safe.
Hey, Red. Been a while.

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I'll leave this open for a vote. Feel free to contribute towards discussion and such! Red is hitting the bed for now and will tackle the next update tomorrow morning

>>1262757
Yola amigo

>>1262796
I'm pretty sure you broke the spirits of your players, Red. I'm just here partially out of morbid curiosity.

>>1262801
Hell, I decided to make another thread out of morbid curiousity. Join the club and see what happens next

>>1262575
>Realize that, in a single moment of passion, you've undone everything you ever hoped to be. Sit there and contemplate the full consequences of your actions and their impact on the world while you wait for the world to decide what to do with you.

>>1262575
>Wake Tsunade up and get out of here. This place doesn’t seem safe.

She'll have more answers than we do at the moment

>>1262892
>>1262801
>Call Ninja Monk quits here and get back to writing ORSQ?

>Yes
>No

>>1263594
>No

>>1263594
>>No
I'd miss this quest. It's been great fun.
But, it's your game. Do what you want.

>>1263568
>>1262757
Did you guys not read how it's not really safe for Tsunade to be moved in our current state?

This is what we might need Kakashi for.

>>1263594
Eh, if you're still running I feel like that means there's still something we can do.

Also, did Rin stop being a tailed beast at some point and I missed that thread? I'd think a proper tailed beast wouldn't really want to share a body with some cobbled-together ripoff like Bishamon