Greed. Power. Fear. (Solo B-Rank)

[Mishiku]

What’s the endgame?



The city was bustling even during the late hours of the night, city lights illuminated the streets and music from nearby clubs filled the air, people hoping from bar to bar looking to get their fill of alcohol, drugs, and sex to escape the worries from their daily lives. Yakani was most active during the night, not only was the city a major trade hub in the outskirts of Kumo’s borders but it was famed for its entertainment,brothels, and gambling establishments. The city mayor was smart enough to recognize that in order to capitalize on the city’s reputation that it gave incentives to both merchants and foreigners that came frequently to the city to gamble and cheat on their spouses. Akira looked out of the hospital window and down below to watch the streets filled with tourists enjoying their fill of what Yakani had to offer. He frowned in disappointment, It had been a little over 24 hours since the bombing of Gaito’s villa and yet no one seemed to bat an eye or really care. It was because of Gaito that Yakani grew to be a bustling town and why it was one of the top towns in the country excluding the village. Yet everyone was too focused on fucking, getting drunk, and gambling their money away, the world kept turning regardless of who had died and it was a sobering realization to Akira.


After their battle with Freya, the cloud shinobi were brought back to the hospital to be treated for their wounds. Akira was reluctant to let Tetsu receive any medical treatment after what he had done to his mother but other units were on the scene and the situation grew far more complicated then what Akira had anticipated with Freya back in the picture and cloud shinobi involved. Whether he liked it or not Akira knew that his superiors would want the help of the shinobi to help stop Freya and put an end to her criminal organization, Akira walked back to the cloud shinobi’s hospital room to find Kaito and his team recovered from their wounds and looked as if they were about to check themselves out of the hospital. “How are you feeling?” Akira asked as he briefly shot a threatening glance towards Tetsu as he was getting himself ready.

“Good, we thank you for your help Lieutenant, we are grateful you came when you did.” Kaito said in appreciation.

“You are most welcome, although I am a bit surprised to find cloud shinobi in my city. May I ask who you all are and what your doing here.”

Kaito continued to equip his weapons while he was speaking to Akira as if answering the lieutenants questions was not a priority to him, “My name is Kaito, these two are Tetsu and Hisa, we were sent here to deliver an important trade agreement between the village and the land of tea with Gaito being the broker. Luckily, Tetsu was able to deliver the message to Gaito before the explosion….although I do not know if Gaito signed the document in time before the attack.” Kaito explained as he looked over to Tetsu and nodded his head in appreciation for letting him know of what he did while he was fighting Freya. The selfish boy had turned out to be creative and accomplish the mission, despite the overwhelming odds against them, even Kaito wasn’t prepared for facing an enemy of that caliber. The mission was intended to be a C-rank but wound up turning into an A rank, Kaito was honestly surprised that Tetsu and Hisa survived the whole ordeal by themselves, they had proven themselves far above any Genin that he had met.

“Now, that the introductions are out of the way. Who the hell was that Freya woman?” Kaito said as he finished equipping his gear and faced Akira.

“Her name is Freya…. She is a prominent figure of the Yazuka organization in Yakanai.” Akira answered.

“Yazuka!? I didn’t know they expanded into Kumo’s borders…..how long have they been here?” Kaito asked.

“Yakuza? I’ve never heard of them.” Hisa interrupted as she hopped out of the hospital bed.

“The Yakuza are a powerful international criminal organization. They have their hand in nearly every criminal capacity you think of, drug trafficking, human trafficking, black arms sales, and assassinations….although I thought cloud was successful in preventing them from establishing roots in the country.” Kaito quickly answered Hisa’s question yet was still contemplating the bombshell that Akira had laid on him.

“Maybe in Cloud village but here in Yakanai they rooted themselves deep into the city about 3 years ago, they allegedly own a brothel and casino here in town but we don’t exactly know for sure. I have been trying to slam their ass for years. About a year ago we were tipped off about a huge heroin deal that the Yakuza boss, Shirai, orchestrated with other black marketers and we luckily slammed them just in time. Many of my men died during the sting but we managed to win the small skirmish and apprehend Shirai in the process.” Akira took a cigarette out out of his pocket and began to light it before he took a relaxing puff of it. “Freya was new but she quickly rose in leadership before she became one of Shirai’s most effective and feared chiefs. After we apprehended Shirai, we started to become more successful in our stings to the point of us driving the entire gang from the city. We haven’t had a single incident from the Yakuza in over seven months.”


Kaito shook his head in disappointment, “Well we can almost certainly agree that the assassination of Gaito was intended to be a message… although it’s odd for Freya to make such a bold and public move and not just quietly slip back into the city and begin rebuilding the organization.” Kaito said trying to uncover the mystery to Freya’s actions.

“Indeed it is but we will figure it out, but for now my captain would like to have a word with you and your team back at HQ.” Akira said as if his statement was more of a polite command., he shot another glance at Tetsu to let him know that their business wasn’t finished, although it was odd to Tetsu that Akira had not said anything yet about their confrontation beforehand. Kaito nodded his head in agreement and motioned for his team to follow him. They departed the hospital and began to make their way through the bustling city streets, Hisa looked over to Tetsu and shoved him in his shoulder and spoke softly,

“Why the hell did you leave me!? I thought we had a plan and we were going to finish the mission together but I guess you wanted to take all the damn credit huh!?” She said in frustration. Although Tetsu completed the mission she felt he had caused more havoc than necessary,but then suddenly realized that if Tetsu had listened to Hisa’s plan and they made it to Gaito’s villa then they may have been caught up in the explosion as well and had been killed as well. Her mind flashed back to the screams of the samurai when she burned his face off, she could see the half melted face of the man in her mind’s eye then shook her head in a attempt to drive the image from her head.

“On second thought, maybe your selfish plan of action saved us from the explosion…” Hisa said in an attempt to say thank you but couldn’t admit it, “So who is this Freya that everyone is talking about? I saw Kaito sama’s wound and looked as if something pierced through his shoulder. Is she really as strong as what everyone is making her out to be.”

[MFT]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

What was this pain? Tetsu woke in a sterile white room, the air was warm, it tasted like copper in the sunlight. His ribs and arm felt better, which was to say that the edge was taken off of his injuries, but they were still tender to the touch. His head felt like it was filled with broken glass, shuffling and stabbing the fleshy insides of his skull each time he moved though. The pain of sobriety...

This was, to date, the hardest Tetsu had ever been hit, and he was ready to sleep for another week for it. He laid back and let the memories flow into his mind; from jumping off the cliff, to breaking into the old house in the forest, to the fight itself, the little flashes of all these memories each coming with waves of imagined physical sensations, from exaltation to a reliving of physical pains that would jolt him with a little pulse of adrenaline, and make him flinch. He waved a passing nurse over, wanting to know if he could have her send him a bit of food; he not only suddenly felt starving, but this would be the last time in a long time that he would be able to all on a free meal. "Oh." She started, "You're still here? We need that bed." The boy tried to protest, and began saying something about being a tax paying citizen, but was ushered out before he could even finish the thought.

He was hobbling along, trying to keep the compass in his head from spinning, and dreaming of the bed he didn't have, but he'd hug the leaves when he made his way back home. "How are you feeling?" Fuck... Well, that was suddenly the end of that pipe dream. As Kaito was praising the man, Tetsu found himself studying Akira's face, before the flicker of recognition flashed inside his distant memory. "Hey, aren't you that guy who still lives with his mom?" He tried to repress the question, but because of who Tetsu was as a person, it instead squeezed it's way out as a kind of mumble that would hopefully go unheard. It seemed like he might've been fortunate enough to avoid being heard - he didn't particularly want to inspire ire in the man who was now perched to bury him in paperwork. And without a house, he'd have to fill it in surrounded by his insufferable colleagues in the Torre Celeste. He also kind of wanted to punch the man in the face for stabbing him, but, all things considered, he supposed he might have to begrudgingly swallow the hatchet on that one.

The boy inched to leave, but there was just no inconspicuous way to do it. Why were they talking like the mission was beginning rather than ending? The thought left a slightly nauseating feeling in Tetsu's stomach that was immediately followed by a pinch of adrenaline mixed with dopamine. He would have to shelve the questions he had about that for the moment, but the whole thing left him with a feeling of existing in a kind of purgatory. He had abandoned Hisa and gotten lost, but also jumped off a cliff after her, even if he had ultimately failed on that one too. He had disobeyed Kaito, and even punched him in the face, on top of assaulting the mother of the man seemingly brokering a cooperative effort between the shinobi and this hick police force, yet not a single one of them had even a passingly negative thing to say to him. Could it be because he just slam dunked on all of them with actually completing the mission? Man, if being the best meant you could get away with being a selfish asshole without repercussions, Tetsu might have to reconsider this whole 'not having any goals' thing that he'd come to cherish so much as a staple of his identity.

Akira flashed a stern look in his general direction, demanding they visit his captain, presumably in the log cabin that functioned as their headquarters. His apparent anger was better than the most glowing praise to Tetsu, because it told the boy there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do about their team being there, presumably because he now knew how valuable Tetsu was as an ally. Or, more likely, someone above them saw the opportunity, crushing Akira's dreams of divine retribution. While he was soaking it in though, Hisa had a few choice words for him. She thinks I left her to take all the credit? Thank God, he would do well to make sure she didn't get the full story from either of the other two.

“On second thought, maybe your selfish plan of action saved us from the explosion…” She seemed to be slowly giving way to her truth-seeking need to give him his deserved recognition, but he wasn't going to let her off too, too easy. "Oh, you mean because you couldn't get in the villa before I finished the mission?" He couldn't help, however, but to give her a slightly friendly smile while busting her metaphorical balls. It might have just been because he was currently flying high on his seeming invulnerability, but he just couldn't seem to muster genuine annoyance on this otherwise perfect morning (present company notwithstanding). “So who is this Freya that everyone is talking about? I saw Kaito sama’s wound and looked as if something pierced through his shoulder. Is she really as strong as what everyone is making her out to be.” Tetsu rubbed his eyes a little at the thought of how quickly Hisa could prove him wrong when he had just felt himself absolutely immune to annoyance. He pulled her by her elbow slightly out of earshot from the others. "Listen," He started, trying to find the words to explain that wouldn't piss the girl off or otherwise put her on the defensive, "You've gotta stop with this 'Kaito-sama' shi-stuff. I know he's hot and you probably can't wait to- Listen, all I want to say is that when we're out there fighting, when you're out there fighting with him, it's not gonna do you any good to think anyone around you is infallible. You know what I'm saying?" He paused for a moment, considering the second part of her question. "Freya isn't someone to take lightly. We were handled." And finally, "So... You know, if you had to fight her..." When he was finally done patronizing her, he saw, for the first time, the lights from outside. Was this the siren's call of booze, gambling, and hookers? He went up to the window to look out. 'Have I died and gone to somewhere that wasn't actually lame?'

He shot Kaito a deadly serious glance, brimming with sober ferocity. "Kaito. Let's get to work investigating." Forgetting, conveniently, the demand to go visit the sheriff or whatever first.

 

[Mishiku]

Sin City



Tetsu pulled Hisa over somewhat forcefully, “You've gotta stop with this 'Kaito-sama' shi-stuff. I know he's hot and you probably can't wait to- Listen, all I want to say is that when we're out there fighting, when you're out there fighting with him, it's not gonna do you any good to think anyone around you is infallible. You know what I'm saying?" For a brief moment Hisa liked the control that Tetsu had over her, she hadn’t been laid in too long and her boyfriend had never been the one to be forceful. She quickly snapped out of her lustfulness to let Tetsu’s words sink in, did he really think she had a crush on Kaito? Tetsu was more dense than what she gave him credit for, “I don’t have a crush on Kaito, asshole! Don’t think just because you had a good idea for once in your life that you think you’ve become as great as the Raikage. While you were probably getting your ass kicked I had to handle the two samurai on my own, I’ve already proved my fighting capabilities and the last person I got to prove it too is you.” Hisa responded in a low voice so the others couldn’t overhear her while pulling her elbow away from his grip. Tetsu informed her of who this Freya woman was and that she was not to be trifled with. Her thoughts were interrupted when Tetsu ran over to the window of a gambling establishment and started drooling over the beautiful bartenders handing drinks out and flirtatious women that played horny men to get inside and bypass the cover charge. “Men are so predictable…..” Hisa thought to herself as she followed him.


"Kaito. Let's get to work investigating." Tetsu said with a stern look. Kaito ignored Tetsu’s demand to sate his alcoholic needs, “I can promise you we will have plenty of time to get our needs satisfied. I have a feeling we are going to be here for awhile.” Kaito responded as he started to reminiscence about the bartender with the big breasts. Once he had some free time he knew what he was going to do. Hisa grabbed Tetsu’s arm and pulled him to keep up with Akira and Kaito. The streets were littered with people from all walks of life enjoying what Yakanai’s nightlife had to offer. A young woman with long brunette hair dressed in an all black dress with heels on winked at Tetsu as she walked past him. Hisa rolled her eyes and slipped her foot out in front of the woman’s path, the woman tripped over and fell to the ground. “Fucking bitch!” The woman yelled out. Hisa only grinned as she continued to walk away with the group. Akira pointed to the building to the left of them, “This is the station. We’ll be meeting with Captain Himura.” Akira said as they made their way inside the police station. It looked as if it was a madhouse once they got inside, officers shoving low level gangsters and criminals to be processed into jail while other officers were in conference rooms writing on whiteboards and giving debriefs. Some of the officers noticed them walking inside and began whispering among themselves, no doubt probably trying to figure out why cloud shinobi were in the city.

“This way.” Akira said as he motioned for them inside a large office that was straight ahead. Inside sat a middle aged man filling out a police report, he looked up and sat up from his chair and welcomed the shinobi.

“Ahh, it is always a pleasure to have cloud shinobi in my city. I am the commander of the Yakanai police force, Captain Himura at your service.” The man said as he extended his hand to shake Kaito’s.

“Kaito. These are the Genin of my squad, Tetsu and Hisa.” Kaito responded while shaking Himura’s hand.

“Nice to meet the two of you, please sit down.” Himura said as he motioned for them to sit down. Himura looked at Akira and Akira responded with closing the door so that their conversation would be private. “Now, I am sure you all are wondering why I want to speak with you. The assassination of Gaito was a tragedy and rest assured that we are using all of our resources to find out who the culprit is.”

“Sir, I don’t know if you had time to read my report but the culprit was Freya.” Akira interjected.

“I read your report Lieutenant but I am hesitant to believe that Freya has returned. We have underagents placed within the remnants of the Yakuza and there was been no mention of Freya returning.” Himura responded with a chuckle of the mention that Freya returning to Yakanai.

"Sir, I fought her myself I know for a fact that it was Freya.” Akira said, his frustration grew at the fact that the Captain would ignore such a realization of this magnitude.

“Enough Lieutenant!” Himura shouted with a raise of his hand, “Now, if Freya has truly returned then it doesn’t change a thing. Shirai is locked up in a maximum prison and his other chiefs are either in prison with him or scattered into the wind. The few chiefs that remained here in the city are fighting amongst themselves and if Freya returns she will be in control of nothing.” Himura explained. Kaito ignored the squabble between the lieutenant and the captain, he really didn’t care about the city’s criminal problems, he was only here to fulfill a mission and that mission was completed.

“Well, it looks like you guys have a lot on your plate so we will be on our-” Kaito said before the captain interrupted him,

“Actually Kaito, I received word from your superiors that the trade document has been signed and delivered to the Raikage.”

“Great, all the more reason for us to make our way back to the village.” Kaito said with a fake smile as he sat up.

“And…...due to the assassination of Gaito, who was supposed to be the broker between the Land of Tea and Kumo. KSIS has ordered your team to assist us in anyway during our investigation of who is responsible.” Himura said with a sly smile emerging on his face.

“I don’t report to the KSIS I am with infantry, they have no jurisdiction over me.” Kaito responded now showing his frustration towards the captain. Kaito wasn’t opposed to helping the captain, quite the opposite actually, but he knew that this was far above what Tetsu and Hisa got themselves into. Besides, Kaito was growing quite fond of Hisa and Tetsu and he didn’t want to fail protecting them like he did with his last squad. This Freya woman was an enemy of immeasurable strength and Kaito didn’t even know if he could beat her let alone protect Tetsu and Hisa.

Himura picked up a document on his desk and handed it to Kaito, “Your superiors in infantry have agreed to let KSIS be your squad’s handler for the next 60 days during your stay here in Yakani. KSIS has already paid for your lodging in one of the best hotels in the city, Katon, so your stay here won’t be as bad as you think. Kaito, you are going to be in charge of our security on the train to the city of Kurosawa in Tea country in order to make sure that our trade goods are safely transferred into the city. Tetsu and Hisa are to work with Lieutenant Akira in helping with the investigation of Gaito’s assassination and apprehend any suspects.” Kaito snatched the document from Himura’s hand and began to read over the document then cursed out loud. KSIS never gave a damn about infantry, they always used them as accessories and canon fodder for their missions without telling the whole story. Kaito wouldn’t be surprised if KSIS had an agent or two here in the city without Kaito’s knowledge.

“What!?” Akira shouted in defiance of what he just heard.

“You heard me Lieutenant! Your to report to Gaito’s villa and uncover anything that forensics have found from the explosion. That will be all.” Himura said as he motioned his hand towards the door. Akira stormed out of the office muttering something inaudible while he was heading towards the station’s exit. Kaito and his team followed behind, once they were outside of the station and Akira was too far ahead to hear them Kaito stopped turned around to face Hisa and Tetsu.

“Looks like we’re going to be in the city for a while unfortunately. I should be back in about 2 weeks but you two need to have each other’s back while staying here in the city, there’s more to this mission then what they are letting on especially if KSIS is involved.” Kaito explained. It was obvious that they split Kaito and them up for a reason but he couldn’t figure out why. KSIS always had their reasons and they never did anything just because, they didn’t make the same foolish mistakes just because like Infantry does.

“Yeah, and it seems like the lieutenant wants to beat the shit out of Tetsu as well although Tetsu has that effect on everyone I'm sure…... Do you think he just hates shinobi in general?” Hisa asked.


“No, I doubt he hates all shinobi…... just Tetsu for some reason. Care to share why and if he is going to be a problem during our stay here?” Kaito said as he looked at Tetsu waiting to hear the truth.

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

There was just so much that Tetsu would do without on a regular basis. He had found himself bathing in the river for so long now that he barely even thought of the gulf in comforts that existed between him and what might pass for a normal person. And yet, he would struggle not to give it all up on any given day just to be able to frustrate someone enough that they called him an asshole. Moreso too when that person so clearly did everything they could to avoid swearing, to avoid talking down to anyone else, or to otherwise step outside of their polite little box. It was the thrill, he supposed, of making someone betray themselves, to become someone they didn't want to be, all for you. He smiled like a shark at the girl as she went on complaining.

As his eyes were being pulled along the flashing lights and spectacles that the glowing outside world had to offer, he found his generous offer to work diligently was being scorned by Kaito with a dismissive, “I can promise you we will have plenty of time to get our needs satisfied.” To which Tetsu simply cast him a look that articulated, clearer than words ever could, 'Who said anything about you?' Still, working with someone who was, at a bare minimum, willing to play ball, had it's perks; namely that this work would then cross that oh-so-important threshold of tolerability. He was wandering out now into the streets of Yakanai, watching the women walk around with exotic fur coats, some seemingly taken from the animals he'd seen from time to time running around his forest domain. Wealth, when it had accumulated enough of itself, it seemed, always attempted to stretch it's tendrils down to the very depths of poverty. Probably, he thought, it had something to do with an obsession with death, but the thought was only partially formed. He felt Hisa's arm sweep under him, ushering him on to keep up with the pace the rest of the group. He couldn't exactly blame the girl for wanting to get her hands all over him, and it would be a remarkably short period of time before he had another woman hitting on him too. She was a real beauty, with a smile that illuminated her whole face, the kind of simple elegance that's only ever partially naturally cultivated, and pronounced with a dress that hugged her slim curves in all the right spots while advertising itself for it's fine craftsmanship and materials. Sex mixed with culture; and what was culture, after all, outside of sex?

She fell flat on her face, and Tetsu wasted no time bursting out in laughter at the poor woman, the fact of her being very likely more humiliated by his laughter only making the whole scene even funnier, and he left the loser in the gutter, where she had demonstrated she belonged.

He had almost forgotten where he was going; the siren's call of the city having successfully lured him away from his present reality. When he walked into the police station, he saw dozens of poor souls just like him being trotted around for the innocent crime, he was pretty sure, of simply being degenerates. What a grim place this was as a follow up to the free for all outside. He didn't know who this Captain Himura person was, but he immediately had an instinctive dislike for him.

“Ahh, it is always a pleasure to have cloud shinobi in my city. I am the commander of the Yakanai police force, Captain Himura at your service.” Yeah, this guy wasn't someone to be trusted, as he fell along multiple intersecting metrics of people you should never trust: authority figures, people who didn't know how to do their jobs, anyone telling you that they lived to serve you, captains of police forces in cities where mobsters have gained a decisive foothold, those eager to work with superior organizations that made them look bad, those who have nothing to say about the breaking of home invasion laws under their jurisdiction; the list really had no end.

Mom's basement and Himura were saying a bunch of stuff that was boring, but his ears perked up at the mention of KSIS. He supposed it made some sense that this was the avenue that he was first hearing about this. For a spy network, they really didn't have much in the way of communications networks set up, but at least he could be grateful that his side income was now conglomerated with his main job, which... Either meant he was going to be doing half the work for twice the pay, or twice the work for half the pay. It was confusions like that that really made self-sabotage just needlessly difficult.

Something was definitely wrong with Tetsu, he was so intoxicated from throwing slam dunk after slam dunk that he mostly just forgot to publicly embarrass Himura in front of his colleagues, and only conjured up the very obvious idea after he was outside and beyond the reach of anyone in the police station. He looked back longingly, it would have to wait. “Looks like we’re going to be in the city for a while unfortunately. I should be back in about 2 weeks but you two need to have each other’s back while staying here in the city, there’s more to this mission then what they are letting on especially if KSIS is involved.” Some people are just born haters, what did Kaito have against KSIS anyway? In any event, he'd be sure not to mention his... recent allegiances for drama purposes. "Kaito, what? How long are you planning on banging that barmaid for?" That was a weak guess, but if this was the last time he'd see him in two weeks, he wanted to at least try to make him look bad in front of Hisa before he left. "More importantly, since we're doing this one on our own, I guess you're upgrading us to Chuunin, right?" With all the associated pay hikes, he would also presume.

“Yeah, and it seems like the lieutenant wants to beat the shit out of Tetsu as well although Tetsu has that effect on everyone I'm sure…... Do you think he just hates shinobi in general?” Hisa followed up with, suddenly becoming annoyingly astute.

“No, I doubt he hates all shinobi…... just Tetsu for some reason. Care to share why and if he is going to be a problem during our stay here?” Kaito followed the thought up with, unable to come up with his own ideas. "Uhh, yeah, it's obviously because Captain Himura is working with Freya, or do you think he's unintentionally this incompetent at keeping a stranglehold on crime here?" There was no way this was going to work, but hell, Tetsu was hitting so much out of the park lately that they were probably both well under his spell right now anyway, "And, you know, why, would you, like, want the people who were investigating you to be working with any kind of synergy? He probably... wanted you to suspect me of something." My god, did he ever need a drink.

 

[Mishiku]

Schemers


It was another day of bureaucratic bullshit that stopped Houji from enjoying himself at one of the casinos in town. Houji had just been promoted to the division head of Finance & Trade due to the assassination of Gaito, although Houji welcomed the salary increase and political power it granted him he did not welcome the amount of time he had to spend with other administrators of the city that he did not care for. Gaito may have been a stubborn old fool but he made Yanakai what it was today, a trade hub that dwarfed any surrounding town and attracted thousands of tourist per year to experience what this sin city had to offer. Houji continued his walk home as he reminisced on the many projects he worked with Gaito on, the man was a genius in his own right and took Houji under his wing on occasions to teach him ways to get around the city laws to build your wealth and play the system. The old man wasn’t a saint but he was one of the best businessmen in the whole damn country.


Houji was so entranced in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the attendant in the condo lobby greet him as he walked in the building. Houji entered the elevator and waited impatiently as the elevator rose to the 10th floor. The man appreciated the finer things in life and loved living in luxury, making it a point to let others know of the wealth he had. He arrived on his floor to see two of his bodyguards guarding the entrance to his condo, it had been three months ago that he was nearly assassinated by some punk kid who wanted to make a name for himself but ultimately failed miraculously due to a cop standing on the other side of the street, ever since then Houji hired bodyguards to be with him at all times when he wasn’t in the capitol building. He nodded to them without saying a word as he unlocked his door and shut it behind him, Houji rushed over to his bedroom and turned on the lights, he had to get ready quickly he had a date that didn’t tolerate tardiness but rewarded him if he was punctual, which Houji did his best to do.

“Where’s that damn envelope?” Houji said as he searched his bedroom in a frantic, worried that he would be late. “Has to be in the dining room.” Houji quickened his pace to the dining room and turned on the light so that he could see, his heart nearly jumped out of his body when he saw a man in a tailored suit sitting comfortably on the couch with an envelope in his hand.

“Good evening Houji.” The intruder said as he reached towards a glass of alcohol that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. Houji nearly had to remember how to breath again due to him nearly having a heart attack.

“Who….who are you? What are you doing in my home?” Houji stammered, wondering if those would be his last words.

“My name is not important but I am here because the Yakuza have further use of you. I suggest you take a seat.” The stranger pointed to the chair near Houji.

“Yakuza?....... That….that’s a joke right? Shirai is in prison and the whole organization is nothing more than a group of imbeciles who think they are gangsters. The chiefs are either in prison, dead, or ran off. I don’t work for Shirai anymore.” Houji said trying to sound confident towards the end but could still feel his legs wobbling. The intruder stared at Houji with an empty expression on his face as he took in Houji’s pathetic attempt of being brave.


“You’ll stop working for the boss when he tells you that your done. Shirai will always remain the head boss but for the interim he has directed Freya to be his standin for the time being.” The intruder said as he continued to sip his drink.

“Freya? Now that’s a joke. That bitch is either dead or in exile. The police have been actively searching for her and the word would be out already if she turned up.” Houji said as he slowly took a step back, he knew he had to run and warn his bodyguards he just hoped that he was fast enough to get to the door to warn his bodyguards. Suddenly a voice spoke in the room behind him.

“Houji, when did you learn to grow a pair? I am happy to see that during my absence you grew a spine.” A cold chill ran down Houji’s spin, he recognized that voice, he turned his head to see Freya emerge from the kitchen eating an apple.

“Freya…....It can’t be.....” Houji gasped as he could now feel that his hands were shaking once he saw that it was indeed Shirai’s most feared chief, Freya. “Guards! Guards! Come help me!” Houji yelled at the top of his lungs, he expected the man or Freya to lunge at him for doing such an idiotic move but they didn’t do anything and worst of all there was no response from his guards.


Freya shook her head, “Houji you must have really forgotten who the Yakuza are. Allow me to remind you. Those guards work for us, the failed assassination attempt on your life was us as well. The only reason why the city thinks we are all but gone is because we wanted them to believe it, Shirai has big plans for Yanakai and you are going to be instrumental in making it happen, just like old times!” Freya said with a mouthful as she slapped Houji’s arm in a friendly gesture.


“Now, let’s talk about your luxurious and lucrative future that your going to have after everything in mind comes to past.” Freya said as she put her hand around him and brought him to the couch for him to sit down. Houji then realized that he was merely a fly caught in the web of two spiders.




Detective work



"Uhh, yeah, it's obviously because Captain Himura is working with Freya, or do you think he's unintentionally this incompetent at keeping a stranglehold on crime here? And, you know, why, would you, like, want the people who were investigating you to be working with any kind of synergy? He probably... wanted you to suspect me of something."


Kaito brought his hand to his temples and tried to rub away the idioticness he just heard. Was the boy drunk or was he just this stupid. He had completely avoided the point blank question that Kaito asked him with absolute zero grace.

“You’re such a dumbass Tetsu! Himura doesn’t even know you and Lieutenant Akira has been nice to both myself and Kaito. His problem is with you and only you.” Hisa interrupted before Kaito could respond to Tetsu’s pathetic attempt of deflecting the question. “Come to think of it…… I don’t remember you telling us what you actually did when you left me to try to finish the mission on your own last night. Where did you go?” Hisa inquired as she crossed her arms.

“Alright enough!” Kaito said as he started to become annoyed by Hisa’s bickering and Tetsu’s foolishness. “Whatever you did Tetsu and I know you did something, you have to deal with it, I’m not cleaning up after your ass. You both are going to need Akira’s help at some point due to him having all the resources.” Kaito looked behind him to see Akira waiting for them.

“Alright good luck to you both….oh I almost forgot.” Kaito said as he snapped his fingers. He dug inside his left pants pocket to take out two small headsets and handed to the two Genin. “I stole this while we were on our way out the department. They are miniaturized headsets and will help us communicate to each other while we’re separated. I have an old secure frequency that I use while I am on missions with other shinobi from the village. Remember the code: 6497331. Good luck.” Kaito made his way to the train system, leaving the two genin which he hoped they would still be alive by the time he came back. Akira motioned for the two Genin to hurry up and follow him to the villa, he was patient long enough.


They arrived at Gaito’s villa to find a forensic team searching picking apart the crime scene and putting any evidence into plastic bags. “I have to talk to the forensic lead to see if anything substantial has come up, I won’t be too long. Do not touch anything! I don’t want either of you contaminating any evidence.” Akira said as he jogged over to the over side of a collapsed building to speak with the man in charge.

“He’s treating us like we’re children and not shinobi.” Hisa said with an irritated tone, she was here to help with the investigation not sit out in the side lines. “He’s gonna get our help whether he likes it or not.” Hisa activated her Byakugon and began scouting the area, trying to find anything that the police missed. If anyone was going to find anything it would be her due to her Byakugon then she noticed something under some rubble.

“Tetsu, follow me I found something.” Hisa whispered to Tetsu so that the officers around them couldn’t hear.




OCC: I’m giving you the option of finding one of these items in the rubble.

Severed Arm
Piece of clothing
A unique Kunai

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Cause and effect had a nasty little habit of getting backlogged. It wasn't as if you'd do something and, in some kind of linear and immediate way, see the results of those actions. It was more like a person would keep pushing out causes, oblivious to their consequences, and those causes would project outward, like ripples, being reflected off of the people and scenery all around them until a few of those ripples made their way back to you. And you'd see, only then, whether they carried with them the drifting waves that would carry you off to sea, or the stench of sewage churned up by all of that person's careless flailing about. It was for that reason that when Tetsu was given the radio frequency for staying in contact with Kaito, he would prove that his failures had been properly absorbed when he swiftly threw together some handseals to transform one of his arms into, well, an arm with a notepad emerging from it, while the other had a pencil that was seeping out of his skin. He hadn't really clearly envisioned it when he formed the transformation, and, as a result, his own skin was melding with the leather that formed the back of the notebook. It felt gross; he could his hand stuck to the back of his paper, the leather getting moistened with sweat as it was trapped in that small pocket. He wrote down the number, but he could feel the nerve endings that extended to the end of his pencil send little shudders of pain up his wrist as the lead crumbled. In other words, he had allowed himself to get a little sloppy with the low level techniques. He made a mental note of that.

While he was making mental notes, he ticked off a little box in his head that would remind him that Hisa and Kaito were pissed at him for nothing at all (he conveniently connected the fact that they didn't actually know what he had done wrong with a justification that they had no good reason to rely on their intuitions). He reminded himself, too, that after this was over, he could return to the forest and not have to think of either of them again. That most people desperately needed the affection and recognition from others, but not Tetsu. He didn't really need anyone or anything.

Scrap that, he did need a notepad, but the lesson he had learned did not carry with it the appropriate shopping time he'd need to fulfill that particular bit of wisdom. He dialed the stolen headset into the given frequency and tapped the device further into his ear. "Kaito, you hear me buddy?" They were now approaching the decimated villa, splinters of broken wood lining the property like they were part of the foliage, with a gaping hole in the house that let any filthy onlooker see into it's previous glory, the bells and whistles now blowing in the wind.

“He’s treating us like we’re children and not shinobi. He’s gonna get our help whether he likes it or not.” They weren't wrong, Kaito and the girl. He didn't trust Akira, because he knew that if he were in the cop's position, he'd probably find a way to finish his job by putting Tetsu in the ground. Killing two shinobi with one stone, so to speak. It was, nonetheless, within the realm of reason that he could remedy the problem, supposing Akira was a sort of straight shooting law man, which Tetsu wasn't so sure he was, but wasn't so sure he wasn't, either. He made sure to turn off his headset before approaching the man, putting his arm over the cop's shoulder like a greasy salesman, not really being able to contain his desire to make the man shudder a little before offering an olive branch. "Listen, Akira." He began, trying to forcibly squeeze the words out, "I know I grabbed your mom in the middle of the night, but you should know by now that I was only asking her for directions." He then moved out to stand in front of the man, keeping his hand on Akira's shoulder, "It was improper, no doubt, but you did" He lifted up his shirt to show the fresh scar, "gut me in my side with that big knife of yours. So I would think we're kind of even." He paused for a moment, realizing the inherent difficulty in making someone believe, through some rationale, that they oughtn't to hold onto a grudge. He tried again. "I'm not exactly trying to convince you of that, but we're not your employees, we're your friends, and our village isn't being overrun by the mafia, so maybe you need more friends like us than you think you do." He looked away momentarily, trying to find the words to really drive the point home before finally patting the man on the shoulder, "What I'm trying to say is, you seem to have this misconception that you're the one working with some hick-ass police force that doesn't know how to investigate a crime. We'll let you know when we're finished here." He smiled and walked away. It was possible that he was not very good at apologizing.

As he was leaving, Hisa came out to whisper in his ear that she had found something. Both of them were doing great work there so far, it seemed. He brushed away some of the rubble that the girl had brought him to. First the fingers showed through the dust of exploded concrete and wood, then the forearm, and then, nothing. Tetsu listened for people watching them, and when the coast seemed clear, punched into a nearby wall as he coughed to try to mask the sound. A couple of annoyed glances looked over, but he just assured them of nothing in particular with a polite wave. He pulled out some of the plastic sheet containing the insulation from inside the wall and tore it with a kunai, wrapping the arm up before trying to discreetly tuck it into his belt behind him, covered by his jacket. "This is evidence." He assured Hisa, before casually making his way out of the area. As he was walking away, he started to explain to the girl that "This Gaito character was obviously brokering some deals with the wrong type of people to end up like this. And if I know anything about those discreet sorts of dealings," He said, beginning up the stairs, "They usually happen over drinks. We need to find his bar here, look for more clues."

 

[Mishiku]

Collaborate


“Fair enough, I guess we are even.” Akira said, still surprised at Tetsu coming forward to defuse the tension between them. However, as soon as those words escaped Akira’s mouth, Tetsu immediately began bashing the Yanakai police force as a whole and how incompetent they were at their job. “How ignorant can this kid be? He’s only been in Yanakai for a day and all of a sudden he thinks he can solve this case all by himself?” Akira thought to himself while his fist slowly began to clench due to the frustration boiling within him that Tetsu seemed to ignite so easily. He took a deep breath in and exhaled, relieving his frustration and shifting his focus to the task at hand. “If he really thinks he can solve this case on his own, we’ll see how far he gets.” Akira said before he made his way over to the lead investigator, Hakaru.

“So you’re babysitting cloud shinobi now?” Hakaru jokingly said as he began to place pieces of evidence in plastic bags for further analysis.

“Hmph….hardly. What do you got for me this time Hakaru?”

“Fortunately a lead but a small one.” Hakaru threw a plastic bag to Akira that contained a bloody kunai inside. Akira snatched the bag out of the air and examined the weapon, upon further inspection he noticed a small marking near the handle. “A black smith's signature?" Akira asked inquisitively. Hakaru nodded his head, "Not just any signature, That is "Sand Man's" signature, all of his products have his signature on them. He is the city's most renown black arms dealer, he is known for selling unique weapons to bandits, gangs, and rogue shinobi. However, he has been off the grid for sometime ever since he opened his own casino in the city and allegedly has retired from his illegal dealings, though clearly that might not be the case."

"Which Casino?" Akira immediately asked.

"The Bloody Palace."

You would have thought Akira suffered whiplash from how fast his head spun around to face Hakaru. "He's the owner of one of the most famous casinos in all of Yanakai!? You got to be shitting me Hakaru!" Akira shouted at the revelation of finding out that one of the best known places for criminal head bosses to gather at regularly for entertainment was also owned by none other than their weapons dealer.

Hakaru shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "Afraid not. That's the next best place to check out on finding out who ordered the assassination of Gaito." Akira exhaled another breath of frustration. This day was just getting better and better, not only was Freya back into the fold but now he just found out that the underworld's most famous weapon's dealer was also in charge of one of the underworld leadership's most notorious casino in the entire city. "Thanks for the info, I'm going to take a look around the crime scene to see if I can uncover any other revelations you have hidden away out here for me." Akira said as he left Hakaru to talk with the other officers in the area. A part of him knew that the reemergence of Freya and the death of Gaito was no coincidence but to think that it could possibly make him an enemy of the entire criminal underworld was another thing entirely.





Hisa attempted to position her body to block any outside view of Tetsu pulling the severed arm out of the rubble. Tetsu immediately covered the arm with some plastic sheet that he gathered from not so subtlely pulling it out of a wall that he had punched in. Hisa facepalmed herself by the sheer disregard of stealth that Tetsu demonstrated, she could only laugh when he tried to mask the sound of him punching a hole in the wall with him coughing. "Raiden......please don't let this dumbass be the death of me." Hisa muttered as she looked up to see that surprisingly no one paid attention to them or said anything. Tetsu placed the severed arm in the waist of his pants under his jacket. Hisa frowned in disgust, "You're a fucking sicko Tetsu." as she followed him inside the building. "This Gaito character was obviously brokering some deals with the wrong type of people to end up like this. And if I know anything about those discreet sorts of dealings," Tetsu said, beginning up the stairs, "They usually happen over drinks. We need to find his bar here, look for more clues."

"So, all of a sudden you're an expert in investigations and criminal minds? We don't know anything about this city or it's underworld Tetsu." Hisa said, stopping midway up the stairs, "We have no idea if whether Gaito was dirty or not, and we shouldn't waste valuable time on following your supposed knowledge of criminal dealings. We found the evidence we need on our own now let's bring it back to Akira and have his team point us in the right direction. Just because we don't agree with them doesn't mean we abandon the resources and intel that they have on this case and the players involved." Hisa explained, hoping that her partner would finally let go of his ego of thinking he has all the answers and actually be logical about their next steps

[MFT]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Tetsu couldn't help but smile when Hisa called him a fucking sicko. Actually, he had given her an unfair pass originally, and to be fair now, she was a little bit hot. Just slightly, nothing to write home about, but she wasn't bad. What followed next was seriously undercutting that glowing new perspective he had only just now begun forming about her, however. She started by telling him that he had no good reason to be confident in his own insights. Shit, the jig was up; usually people either ignore what Tetsu claims or dismiss his opinions out of hand as being unfounded by virtue of the fact that they were obnoxiously presented. Either way, the end result is that he ends up being able to do and say whatever he wanted. Hisa, though, was like the suicidal loner who had just gotten enough hope and motivation to finally get out of their bed so they could kill themselves. She seemed to now respect Tetsu just enough to actually listen to the boy's opinions, but not so much that she didn't realize the bullshit that a lot of them were predicated on. The realization was like the first dull pain that preceded a long and tedious migraine.

She started by saying a lot of useless stuff that just amounted to nagging. We don't know what we're doing, we don't have enough information, all of those things that basically amounted to a diagnosis that the investigation had just begun. Each new complaint began legitimizing the whole of her argument though, and the boy wasn't immediately sure if what he should say next should be aimed at convincing Hisa how wrong she was, or whether he ought to take her concerns seriously. Certainly, beginning with an honest response and seeing where it took them both was a fool's way to enter into a discussion, especially one that might turn into a negotiation, but he had to stop and seriously meditate on the question of whether they were on the same side or not.

"Look," he began, deciding eventually something that was basically unprecedented in the whole of his dealings with other people (at least since he began living in the forest). He found himself in this strange predicament where the most tactical advantage he could imagine actually did come from being honest with another person, up to and including exposing some amount of weakness in his current position. He went on, uncomfortably, "It doesn't matter if the best possible way to approach this case is to join forces with Akira and the Yaka-whatever police force. That isn't an option. I only just barely got away with telling Akira off sufficiently to get him off our backs and to maybe stop him from impeding our investigation here, and I did that because I was opting for the best-case scenario we can currently imagine as an attainable goal. That is, to be granted maybe a little freedom." He paused for a moment, trying to get Hisa to understand the political position they were currently in, "Not only is that little success I had going to directly prevent Akira from wanting to work with us, but even if it hadn't, the police force here has no interest in seeking out our help. I don't know yet why they want us here, but it it isn't to help them solve this case. I don't trust them, and you shouldn't either." As soon as the words left his lips, he felt a pang of regret. He didn't actually know why he didn't trust the Yakanai police; it was a prematurely formed thought that he was waiting to find evidence for to support. It might even be incorrect, and in either case, there was just no benefit in sharing it with someone who has literally just questioned your expertise on the empty claims you had previously made. Why did he ever think working with Hisa was going to make his job easier? He had been punished by his first mission, and it may have led him to falsely make some assumptions about mistaken ways of thinking that he was internalizing. He was letting fear tell him that it was a bad idea to work alone.

 

[Mishiku]

"It doesn't matter if the best possible way to approach this case is to join forces with Akira and the Yaka-whatever police force. That isn't an option. I only just barely got away with telling Akira off sufficiently to get him off our backs and to maybe stop him from impeding our investigation here, and I did that because I was opting for the best-case scenario we can currently imagine as an attainable goal. That is, to be granted maybe a little freedom. Not only is that little success I had going to directly prevent Akira from wanting to work with us, but even if it hadn't, the police force here has no interest in seeking out our help. I don't know yet why they want us here, but it it isn't to help them solve this case. I don't trust them, and you shouldn't either." Tetsu explained to Hisa. She didn’t know why Tetsu had an issue with the police, she still didn’t even know why Akira wanted to beat the shit out of Tetsu but it was obvious that Tetsu kept whatever happened between them hidden. She could simply go down to Akira and straight up ask him what problem he had with Tetsu but it was a moot point now that Tetsu “straightened” everything out. Hisa knew there was more to it then what Tetsu let on but she simply ignored the urge to find out the truth for herself, she would appease Tetsu for the time being.

“Fine Tetsu. We will do it your way for the time being.” She paused and stepped up one of the stairs and get in Tetsu’s face to make her next statement crystal clear. “I’m giving you to the end of the night for us to go completely solo without Akira’s help but if we don’t find shit or you make a mess then I am going directly to Akira with our evidence so we can be pointed in the right direction. You still haven’t told me the truth on why Akira had a problem with you but I really stopped caring a few moments ago. As long as you don’t fuck this up, I’ll have your back. ” She brushed past Tetsu, not caring what his response was and headed up to Gaito’s office, surprisingly the office was still in relatively good condition compared to the rest of the villa, however, they were not the only ones there, two Yanakai detectives were sweeping the area and talking amongst themselves.

“Man she was something else, she did things my wife would only dream of doing. As soon as we're done here I’m heading there.” One of the detectives said while he searched the Gaito’s office desk. Hisa’s face frowned in disgust with the detective’s unfaithfulness and sheer disregard for his marriage. “Fucking Pig,” Hisa thought to herself as she continued to listen to the conversation.

“It’s been a while since I been to the “Red Velvet Room” but given with Gaito’s assassination you can bet we're not getting out of here any time soon. Especially with the lieutenant taking command of the investigation. You better tell your wife and mistress you won’t be seeing them for the next two days.” The other detective responded with a slight chuckle.

“Complete bullshit if you ask me. I say we just go bashing into one of the Yakuza’s establishments with a warrant and get someone to start snitching. We’re tiptoeing instead of slamming our foot, the city is ours again ever Shirai was imprisoned.” The detective said proudly, now pulling out the office drawers and dropping them to the floor to see if there was anything being hidden.

“And that’s why you’re not in charge because doing that type of shit is gonna get you shanked on your way home.” The other detective jabbed.

Hisa figured that it was time to make her presence known if they were ever going to figure out where they should go next to figure out who paid Gaito to be assassinated. It would be so simple to give the detached arm to one of the investigators and have them do an analysis of it and let that guide them to the next stage but Tetsu apparently thought he had all the answers. she would only play his game for so long until she got tired of the unnecessary goose chase and take matters into her own hands to complete the investigation. She stepped from out of the staircase and began to investigate the room as well by using her Byakugon, ignoring the other detectives as if they weren’t even there. The two men were surprised at the sight of the two Genin due to not hearing them come up the staircase.

“Hey, who the hell are you two!?” The unfaithful detective said in a tone that was more angry with a hint of nervousness if one could detect it. Hisa picked up on it but did Tetsu? She continued to search the area, ignoring the man’s questions and let Tetsu do the talking. The man’s patience was wearing thin when he didn’t get a response, he raised his voice and stepped forward with his partner closely behind, “I said who the hell are you? You are not part of the Yanakai police force so you will answer my question before I throw both of your asses in jail!” Hisa laughed at the man’s threat and continued to ignore him while she surveyed the room, looking for any hidden clues. Then finally she found something, "Tetsu." she said as she looked over to Tetsu letting him know by her look alone that she found something but didn't want or care to inform the two police officers. Honestly, she was curious to see what Tetsu would say to the officers to get them off their back. He only had to say one wrong thing until the detectives became hostile.

[MFT]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Who knew that getting your own way could be just as stressful as having to do as you were told? Well, Hisa must have, but that was okay; Tetsu thrived under pressure. It was one of the principal reasons that he had become an alcoholic. Wait, no, disregard that connection. Her ultimatum did, however, help to sharpen his focus enough to just barely scrape aside his nagging desire to have a few drinks before they really started working. It was a painful resolution, but one forged from the slightly more powerful resolve he had within him to prove to everyone that he was the best and could do anything anyone else could do better than they could do it. Not always while drunk, maybe, though. He wasn't totally sure, but this was as good a time as any to do some A/B testing. God, the more he thought about his determination to not drink, the more he wanted one though.

He was slightly relieved that the girl had brushed past him without seeming to want an answer to her demands too. It seemed that more and more she was catching on to some method for making her interrogative questions and accusations particularly stressful. It was as if Tetsu was getting predictable. No, that couldn't be it, the girl was probably just generally stressful to be around; you could practically hear the galloping of her high horse whenever she approached; he'd have to remember to pull her off her saddle before the day was up. For the moment though, he would have to take advantage of anything he could find, pulling leads from thin air as quickly as he could. He was in luck too, as he'd soon find out that the cops working upstairs, or at least one of them, seemed a bit upset that they had been eavesdropped on. “I said who the hell are you? You are not part of the Yanakai police force so you will answer my question before I throw both of your asses in jail!” The man finally lashed out with. It was as if heaven had just anointed Tetsu with the divine privilege, nay, responsibility of being an unrepentant asshole to get his own way here. Complete permission. He would have to reveal a little more to Hisa in order to get the full effect he wanted, and it wasn't exactly as if he felt he could trust her, but the urge to say what would upset someone the most he could possibly upset them would always overpower his inclination towards self-preservation. "You do realize you have to overpower someone to arrest them, right?" He began, the shit-eating grin already creeping up his face, "As cloud shinobi, you'll have to forgive us if we're not immediately afraid of some dumpling-eating pigs. As shinobi called in to work on this case by your boss, we're not quite afraid of any backup you might call either." Tetsu noted Hisa's call to come investigate something; probably another arm, but these types of speeches didn't quite work as well when the momentum was broken. She would just have to wait for the moment. "Most importantly though," He went on, "Since I'm an officer in the Shinobi Intelligence Services, maybe you ought to be more worried about me telling your wife who you're sleeping around with from the Red Velvet Room. Or do you think that there's no connection between that position and my ability to gather intel on low level filth like you? Not that I'd really need it after what you've blurted out to us, but maybe once I start digging, I'll find even more. This is a gambling city, what do you think your odds are?" He wasn't an officer in KSIS, but the best lies have some relationship with the truth. "So, why don't you tell me what you know about this case, and if it makes my job easier, I'll be inclined not to get distracted from my work for long enough to investigate you." Really, Tetsu should have been a lawyer, he was much better at building a case than he was at investigating one, but it was possible to live in the overlap of that abstract Venn diagram to get some of the information you needed.

The boy was not someone that anyone immediately liked, so being persuasive by appeal was not typically a tactic he felt particularly inclined to pursue. There was generally, however, an upper limit to how much a person would be willing to express their dislike of him when they realized that there were real consequences for them for doing so, at least above a certain point. Of course, those with integrity would sometimes rather die than have their arm twisted enough to simply be forced to do what they were told, and Tetsu was fortunate to come across this type pretty infrequently. Hisa might have been an exception, and it was amazing that she had survived this long despite that fact. It wouldn't be long before she realized that she couldn't roll around in filth forever and stay clean, and Tetsu was inclined to even feel something approximating pity for her for this, but it wasn't his job to accelerate the process. At this point, he considered it more of a hobby. 'Watch,' He was thinking, looking at her in a sidelong glance, 'How easily men upholding justice compromise their integrity in the name of self-preservation and self-interest.' How easily she throws out her trust to anyone eager to take it.

 

[Mishiku]

"You do realize you have to overpower someone to arrest them, right? As cloud shinobi, you'll have to forgive us if we're not immediately afraid of some dumpling-eating pigs. As shinobi called into work on this case by your boss, we're not quite afraid of any backup you might call either. Most importantly though," Tetsu went on, "Since I'm an officer in the Shinobi Intelligence Services, maybe you ought to be more worried about me telling your wife who you're sleeping around with from the Red Velvet Room. Or do you think that there's no connection between that position and my ability to gather intel on low-level filth like you? Not that I'd really need it after what you've blurted out to us, but maybe once I start digging, I'll find even more. This is a gambling city, what do you think your odds are? So, why don't you tell me what you know about this case, and if it makes my job easier, I'll be inclined not to get distracted from my work for long enough to investigate you." Tetsu explained.

The detective’s blood began to boil, who the hell did this kid think he was? He came out of nowhere talking big and now he’s threatening police officers. The heated officer pulled out his steel baton and was about to strike the young shinobi before his partner raised his arm and blocked him from advancing. “We don’t want any trouble. We’ll be happy to assist Kumo shinobi in any way that we can.” The calm officer explained.

“What!? What in the hell are you doing Shinji?” The loud detective yelled out. Shinji ignored his partner’s interruption and continued, “We believe that one of the Yakuza’s rival gangs, The Triads, assassinated Gaito in an attempt to send a message to the Mayor, who has been cracking down heavily in their operations and territory within the city lately. Although we don’t know for sure who exactly gave the order, we are pretty sure it is the Triads.” Shinji’s partner was at a loss for words, how could he give up all the information about the case on a whim like that, hell Shinji gave out information that he didn’t even know of. He wanted to punch Shinji right in his face for giving out such classified information to these arrogant Kumo Shinobi but he had to keep his composure, besides, assaulting a fellow officer results in being placed on administrative duty and he would immediately be taken off the case. Hisa was surprised that Tetsu’s tactic had worked, she was honestly expecting a brawl would ensue but to her genuine surprise the opposite happened and one of the officers gave out everything he knew about the case. Hisa turned around, “Where can we find more information on who exactly ordered the assassination?” Hisa chimed in, she hated to admit it but it looked like Tetsu’s reckless strategy turned out to be effective in producing a qualifiable lead.

“The best place would be “Truth” nightclub downtown. It is one of the hottest nightclubs in the city and is owned by the Triads but I wouldn’t go poking around and start asking random people questions, that can get you stabbed in the back really easily, regardless if you’re Kumo shinobi.” Shinji responded, “Fortunately I have a C.I. that works in the club and is bound to know some information that could be worthwhile to the investigation.”

“What’s their name?”

“Everybody calls him Rocky, he’s a bartender. Pretty Boy, around the age of 22, 5’10 in height, and has a tattoo of blue flames on his neck.” Shinji answered. Satisfied, Hisa walked towards the stairway but not before Shinji spoke up, “Rocky, won’t answer any questions to someone he doesn’t know. Let him know Shinji sent you and give him this.” Shinji pulled a silver business card from his pocket and handed it to Hisa. She examined it thoroughly but the card was completely blank.

“What is this?” She asked inquisitively.

“Something that I give to my C.Is, if you focus chakra into it, instructions will begin to appear on the card but in this case, the card you have is completely blank. Showing it to Rocky will indeed prove that I sent you and that he can trust you.” Hisa looked over the silver card again and focused chakra into it, nothing happened. Looked like Shinji was telling the truth. Hisa thanked the detectives before signaling Tetsu to follow her to their next lead. The two shinobi walked down the staircase and left the building making their way towards the city.

“What the hell was that, Shinji!? You just give all of the case’s information to the fuckin Kumo Shinobi!?” Shinji’s partnered yelled and aggressively pushed Shinji to express the anger boiling within him.

“Look, if these shinobi can help make our job a lot easier then why stop them? And personally, I’m not trying to get killed by going down the underworld rabbit hole and if these shinobi want to put themselves in danger and do all the work while we get paid then I’m all for it.” Shinji responded calmly, explaining the reasoning for his actions. His partner shook his head in disbelief, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He wanted the accomplishment of finding who the culprit was and putting them behind bars, these shinobi had no business of taking the credit of possibly bringing down the Triad organization.

“I need to tell Lieutenant Akira of what’s going on. I’d be damned if I’m gonna let these shinobi take the credit for our investigation.”

“What’s the point of telling him? He’ll probably send us after them, do you really want to be in uniform and walk into Truth at 2 AM? We’d have a big target on our backs for even setting foot in there. Remember that the Captain told us to never set foot in Triad establishments while on duty unless we have a lieutenant or the captain with us.”

“I joined the force to make a difference and I’m not going to let my moment be taken away by some random shinobi.” Shinji’s partner turned his back to Shinji and began to walk down the staircase before he suddenly felt an wrap around his neck and place him in a tight chokehold. He struggled to get away, scratching and trying to pull the arm off around his neck in a desperate attempt to get air. His vision began to fade and his body became numb due to the lack of oxygen to his brain, he summoned the rest of his strength in a last ditch effort to escape the chokehold before feeling a loud pop in his neck and as if someone threw a curtain over a window, his world went black and his body went limp.




Hisa and Tetsu arrived at the Truth nightclub in the southern part of the city, Hisa was blown away by how elegant the club was and of how crowded it was but then again it was one of the top clubs in the city so she should have expected it to be crowded. “Let’s enjoy a drink before we get to work,” Hisa said before heading over to the bar and ordering two drinks. She immediately recognized that the bartender Shinji had described to her was the one getting her drinks. Hisa paid for the drinks and thanked the bartender before handing Tetsu one of the drinks and sitting down at a nearby table.

“Well, it wasn’t hard to find Rocky. After we relax and enjoy our drink we can get back to the mission but right now I want to take a break and enjoy the club.” Hisa paused and took a sip of our drink and began to relax her body before speaking again, “So Tetsu, what do you plan on doing once we’re done with the mission here?”

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

’That’s the spirit.’ A shark-like smile bloomed on Tetsu’s face as the man began drawing his metal baton. Forgetting, as he was prone to do, his recent failures in this particular arena of competence, the same ones that would see him waking from the hospital that very morning. Well, the boy was nothing if not incorrigible.

When the other cop raised his arm to preemptively stop the fight, announcing that they didn’t want any trouble, Tetsu wasn’t quite so bloodthirsty that he didn’t see this as the beginning of another win he could notch his metaphorical belt with. He listened carefully instead, keeping his peripheral tightly locked on the speaker’s enraged partner, just in case there were any outbursts. Minding himself too, and keeping his mouth shut as the man spoke. The first rule of sales was to never oversell once you actually convinced someone to buy what you were peddling. Taking note of what Shinji was telling them, it seemed like this mayor was a person of interest if the questioning at the nightclub didn’t work out. God help them if that was the case though, as Tetsu was susceptible to violent fits of laziness when it came to prolonged bouts of focus and dedication to any given task. The second thing to note was that the cops, who were perhaps and likely crooked, and who Tetsu had just pissed off, were sending them to an admittedly dangerous nightclub. Were they being set up? Well, here’s the thing. If you can’t tell the difference between what the truth and a lie might be, it’s best to simply wait until you have more information. The other possibility to consider was that the man was just fucking with them, handing them a blank business cards and telling them to look for clues in a nightclub called ’The Truth’. They’d have to swallow their own fucking stupidity if that was the case and, we’ll, if it was, all he could do was give them their due respect.

”You guys seem pretty competent, actually. We’ll check it out.” Never punish someone for doing what you ask of them. Also, if you think someone might be setting you up, never let on that you might be onto the trap.

What could he do though? He didn’t want to waste too much time on his worry if it turned out to be nothing, so he simply turned back on his headset, checking to make sure it was set to the right frequency. ”Yo.” He said to their absentee father on the way to the nightclub. ”We’re heading out to some place called The Truth nightclub, looking for a ‘Rocky’ on the advice of some crooked cops. If we end up in the ground tonight, one of the two introduced themselves as Shinji, the other was cheating on his wife with a girl from The Red Velvet Room. They were snooping around in Gaito’s bar. Return the favour if it comes to it, wouldja?”<i></i> A rhetorical question; he shut the headset off again.

It was probably nothing anyway; Tetsu was not so paranoid that he didn’t realize he maybe had some issues trusting people, but now he could retire the worry with a sigh and focus on what was ahead of them. Namely, drinking. He was dry as a bone.

”Let’s enjoy a drink before we get to work.” Hisa suggested after ordering a couple in the luxurious bar they had found themselves in. And they said the perfect woman didn’t exist. He hadn’t even noticed that the bartender matched the description Shinji gave them until Hisa pointed it out, and he looked over absent-mindlessly as he chewed on her question a little. ’What was he going to do after work?’ It kind of caught him off guard when she asked it. Well, probably return to the forest he called home, drink himself into a stupor, then figure out which vices to spend his mission pay on. ”Well, probably return to the forest I live in, drink myself into a stupor, then decide which vices to spend my mission pay on once I wake up.” He tried to smile, but as soon as the words escaped his lips, he felt embarrassed by them. Uncharacteristic, he knew. What the hell was he doing drinking with this girl suddenly in a place like this though? He felt out of place, consoled only by the knowledge that he was probably surrounded by scum, despite their appearances. ”What about you?” He asked dryly, staring straight ahead at the shelved bottles as he asked her.

 

[Mishiku]

”Well, probably return to the forest I live in, drink myself into a stupor, then decide which vices to spend my mission pay on once I wake up.” Tetsu responded, he asked Hisa what she had planned afterward but she could tell from the dry tone that he was uninterested in hearing what she had to say. His plans for what he would do after the mission did take Hisa back for a moment, it wasn't that much of a surprise that her teammate was practically a loser in the eyes of the world but she could sense that there was something more to Tetsu, there was a reason why he acted the way he did and his response only confirmed her suspicions. She didn't know why fate would put these two together but Hisa never believed in coincidences and she knew that everything happened for a reason. Hisa knew that they weren't a good team, not even close to being even somewhat effective but if they were going to complete this mission then they had to at least give it a proper shot.

"Not sure yet. Probably be granted Chuunin rank once this mission is over..." Hisa said with a shrug of her shoulders as she then paused to take a moment to sip her drink before she continued, "My family has planned on setting up an arranged marriage between my boyfriend and I within the next year in an attempt to solidify our clan's alliance with one another." She put the drink back to her lips and instead of sipping it moderately she gulped it down as if to drink away her distaste for what she said. "Until then, I will continue to take more missions that require travel so I can see the country and the people in it." Hisa looked back at their bartender target to see him doing his job diligently. She began to look at the club more closely and with further inspection realized just how big the nightclub was. There were three more stories above the main floor from where they were standing with the third floor looking to be the VIP section with nothing but old men in expensive suits with beautiful women by their side that were more than half their age, laughing and feeling up on them. Hisa was about to shift her gaze to look at the rest of the audience on the main floor but before she did someone caught her eye inside the VIP section, it was the captain of the city's police force himself, Captain Himura.

"Looks like Captain Himura has friends in high places." Hisa said as she watched the Captain begin to smoke a cigar and converse with the older men in suits. She turned her head over to Tetsu, "Which means we can't make a scene or make our presence known to him without Akira or else he will probably make sure we are constantly supervised. So, with that said how do you want to move forward on this? You got us this far so it's only fair that you lead the way." Although it was by the luck of the draw that the policemen didn't wind up attacking Tetsu, Hisa knew that Tetsu was a wildcard and he could make things far worse with his arrogant thinking of him always being right in every situation.

"But......If you screw us over in any way then I will take the lead in this investigation and If I fuck up then you will take the reigns again. It'll be a fun game to see how much of a screw up we can be in leading a mission." Hisa said with a coy grin on her face.

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Coincidence was one of the most commonly misunderstood phenomenon that people encounter. Of the cause and effect relationships that people only momentarily interacted with, and therefore appeared to them to be random developments in their lives, the vast majority would escape any special attention. The few that remained, the ones frequently titled as coincidences, were usually nothing more than statistical probabilities in a large enough data set. No less likely than rolling a four three times in a row over a hundred dice rolls, when three fours were never expected at the outset anyway.

There was, however, a special category that existed within that tiny subset of occurrences we call coincidences, that was something different entirely. This was the ’reverse coincidence’. That is to say, it’s an occurrence that seems random, when in actuality, if you scrutinized the event under the light of a scientific analysis, you would immediately realize it’s causal relationship within the context it emerged from. Please allow for an example to help demonstrate the phenomenon. If, for example, a man tells a woman he is having drinks with that he is homeless and may have a mild alcohol dependency, and if she then responds in a manner that allows her to reference her boyfriend, it may seem like a strange and unrelated tangent, but don’t be fooled. She is actually subconsciously tapping into her jealousy over the man’s freedom and lack of responsibilities. More likely than not, anyway.

”Well,” he started, ”It doesn’t sound at all like you’re trying to run around the country like a convict escaping from the prison of marriage.” He slapped the girl’s shoulder while letting out a hearty chuckle. Human contact. The trick to getting on the right side of a woman, he knew, was to keep touching her in increasing intensities, while being as grossly yourself as you could, with the abandon of a naked man walking along the edge of a cliff. Not that the boy was an expert, of course. Or that he was trying to impress the girl. Baka...

In any event, it was time to change gears. The girl started talking about someone named Himura with the weight and seriousness that indicated that this was someone relevant to the course of the investigation. Oh yeah, the asshole, how could he forget? It didn’t matter though, the man was brought up merely as a segue to introduce Tetsu, once more, as the center of attention. He was once again thrust into his element, the universe perpetually reminding the boy that everything was about him, him, him. ”Watch this.”

No doubt, what the girl was demanding was a tall order, but she had yet to witness the full power of his most sophisticated and powerful ninjutsu techniques. Stringing a quick slew of hand seals together, hidden by the ledge of the counter, he would call forward his most powerful technique. The ancient Crystal Eye no Jutsu! gathering the debri of broken glass and dust from around the bar into a small ocular device, he’d send the thing under every door he could to try to map out the place. Really, he just wanted to take every opportunity he could to experience life with renewed vision, poor blind boy that he was.

In any case, the room the eye was discovered and forcibly extinguished in was probably their best bet for further investigation. ”Keep your eyes peeled for disgruntled faces popping up in this crowd of degenerates.”

 

[Mishiku]

Smart move. Hisa was rather impressed that Tetsu had come up with such a subtle way of gathering information. Hisa had never seen a jutsu quite like it before but then again her knowledge of ninjutsu was rather limited when it came to missions that required a more subtle approach. Tetsu was certainly an asshole and nothing was going to change her mind about that but over the course of their missions together, Tetsu has shown that he can come up with unorthodox ways of accomplishing the mission. She had to give credit where credit was due but she was reluctant to tell him that due to him probably holding it over her head and she would never hear the end of it. The crystal eye of debris moved through the crevices of VIP rooms to only find people either doing drugs, getting a lap dance from one of the dancers, or fucking one of the club girls. The eye continued to scan the premise of the club desperately looking to find something that was worth listening in on rather than seeing people getting high and having sex. The dark atmosphere of the club helped keep the eye from being spotted by any wandering eyes as it began to rise to the second floor of the club and made its way towards the group that Captain Himura was part of sticking close to the shadows to avoid detection. Suddenly a familiar voice spoke in Hisa’s ear,

“Hisa, Tetsu. Do you copy?”

Hisa slightly jumped by the sudden voice in her ear and her initial reaction was to look around to see if someone entered her personal space but there was no one in sight, before she realized that she still had the communication device in her ear that Kaito gave to them before departing on his mission.

“I Copy. Tetsu is here with me as well. How goes the train ride to Tea country?”

“Pretty uneventful, which is the way I like it. What about you? Did you find anything in your search for who is responsible for Gaito’s assassination?” Kaito asked.

“Yeah, we do have a lead. We’re here at a nightclub called “Truth” one of the officers has a CI here and we are about to question him.”

“You got an officer to give up their CI? That’s…..quite surprising due to these officers not really liking cloud shinobi interfering in their affairs.”

“Well…...Tetsu was able to negotiate it out of him.” There was a slight pause in Kaito’s response, he didn’t know if Tetsu’s methods made their relationship with the police even worse or not but he chose to be ignorant of what exactly happened.

“I don’t even want to know what that exactly means but I will assume everything is still going well there.” Kaito said rubbing his temples hoping that their relationship with the city hadn’t been tarnished. “Well, I am checking up just to get a status on how the investigation is going. Contact me when you get an update.”

“Copy that. We’ll update you after we’re finished questioning the CI. Hisa out.”

Hisa looked back at where Himura was to see him continuing his conversation with his associates in the VIP section before glancing at Rocky who was ingrained in serving drinks. “Too bad we can’t hear Himura’s conversation with your stalker eye jutsu. So we might as well get started with questioning Rocky.” Hisa stood up and adjusted her outfit so more of her cleavage would show, “Besides I think a woman’s touch is more appropriate for a guy like him. I’ll get him away from the bar and into somewhere more private just make sure that you’re there for us to question him.” With that Hisa grabbed her drink and walked towards the bar continuing to adjust her outfit to make it more appealing, she could tell it was already working due to the surrounding men staring at her breasts. She walked up to the bar and leaned over the counter showing off her entire cleavage to the bartender, changing her entire attitude into a slightly tipsy groupie.

“Hey bartender, you mind filling up my drink.” Hisa said as she started to shake her empty glass to get his attention. Rocky was fully into the motions of his job but as soon as he turned his head towards Hisa he was taken back by her exposed cleavage.

“Yeah, sure.” Rocky said as he acted as if he hadn’t seen anything and began pouring her another round, taking subtle glances from the corner of his eye to get a better look at Hisa’s cleavage.

“You know you’re a pretty cute bartender. I’m sure you got a girlfriend.”

Rocky smiled, “No, working at a high end club makes it impossible to stay with just one girl. Plus I like staying single.” He said as he finished making her drink and handing it to her. Hisa took the drink and drank it all as if it was shot of vodka.

“Well in that case, why don't you take a break from working so hard and let's go somewhere quiet.” Hisa said with a seductive tone. Rocky knew exactly what the girl wanted and he wasn’t about to let this opportunity slide past him, besides, the night was insane and still hadn’t taken his lunch break. He whistled over another bartender to take his spot and grabbed Hisa’s hand leading her over towards the back of the club in where the private rooms were. Once they were inside Hisa immediately began to kiss Rocky and push against the opposite to where the door was so that he wouldn’t see Tetsu coming inside. She hoped that Tetsu would come quickly because she wasn’t going to continue to kiss the punk for much longer.

“Then again, I am looking forward to what his face is going to look like once Tetsu bust in here.” Hisa thought to herself.

[OCC: You have all the freedom in the world and you can do whatever you feel is necessary on how to get the information from Rocky.]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

There was certainly such a thing as having too many options at your disposal; opportunities all arising at once can weigh you down, make you too slow to capitalize on any of them. When Tetsu spotted Captain Himura in the club, his eyes immediately lit up with the greedy thought that he could force himself into being right about the man. It was a fantasy, to be sure, but one where the opportunity had presented itself to indulge in it. Now, either Captain Himura was in on some of the filth permeating the city, and on his way to a meeting to that effect, which was the less likely option, or he had headed out to the bar on a similar premise that sent Tetsu and Hisa there, and to crack some criminal skulls. The first option wouldn’t explain why he was skulking around in the shadows, unless that, too, was a ruse put on for knowledge that he was possibly being watched, if someone told him that the two shinobi would be attending, also unlikely, or if he was there to crack some skulls, but as a fellow criminal rather than a cop, and possibly because shinobi getting involved would predictably put too much pressure on certain weaker elements he was worried about spilling the beans. Even with all of these competing possibilities, it was important to consider that each interpretation probably ought not be weighed equally. There was only one option that painted Himura as being there on regular police work, but that one was, nonetheless, the most likely possibility, even if it was suspicious for a captain to be out doing grunt’s work. There was another possibility that Himura was simply there to relax, but Tetsu wasn’t really willing to entertain that one for the time being.

Now, with all that in mind, the question remains; how best to act on it? While the boy sat there contemplating it, he noticed Hisa slightly perk up and involve herself in a private conversation. Tetsu could have turned his headset back on to listen in, but he was sure that if there was anything interesting coming down the airwaves, Hisa would have passed it on to him. In any event, it culminated in the girl deciding it would probably be best to beat the bartender into a snitch as their next plan of action. Testing wasn’t so sure, but he did like how direct the approach was. He watched her puff up her breasts in preparation for the schmoozing, privately noting that she never did that for him when she was considering beating him up. Women...

Tetsu wasn’t surprised at all to see that the girl made quick work of getting him out of his station and into the shadows. Ever the professional, as much as it seemed like the girl was born with a stick up her bottom, she was nothing if not methodical about getting the job done.

Tetsu wanted to follow her, partially out of paranoia that she was going to get beaten out there on her own. He knew that was an irrational fear, but it was fueled by having not yet seen her handle herself in battle, and by his only experience with her on that front was of her falling off a cliff in her first fight, and getting surrounded by thugs in her second. At least he thinks that’s what happened to her in the second fight; he was admittedly paying more attention to himself at the time.

Still, the bartender would be nothing, but when it came to pulling out information, Tetsu had a dirtiness about his tactics that made him pretty adept at it, and a beating alone wasn’t enough to do the trick. Not only that, but if the bartender did know a thing or two, his absence might elicit some unwanted attention from some unsavoury folks in the crowd here behind the boy. Still, if he perched himself on his stool for much longer, he stood the risk of having Himura slip through his grasp.

What to do, what to do?...

Only one option, act without thinking too much, and he’d have to act fast if he wanted to stand any chance at success here. He’d subtly approach the back of the club to where Hisa was, but as soon as he was in the private room, he’d burst in on Hisa’s little make out session, charging at the man as quickly as he could, attempting to press his hand firmly against the bartender’s mouth to muffle any yelling, before proceeding to beat the man wildly in his face. It felt oddly satisfying breaking the two up like that, he had to admit. After that, he turned to Hisa, grabbing her by her collar and angrily yelling at her in a hushed volume, ”I told you to kill him already, quit fucking around. He ain’t gonna spill any beans to us, and we have better things to do right now.” And with that, he handed her a kunai. ”Hey,” he was about to leave, but just remembered a brilliant little bit of theatre he could add to the mix to drive his point home, reaching behind him to pull out the bloody and severed arm he had collected earlier from his belt strap, throwing it on top of the man, ”Burn this when you get rid of the body too, wouldja?” And with that, he was gone. He paid Hisa one last glance, hoping she could handle it from there, but he couldn’t afford to stick around to see how it went.

Making his way back into the club, it was time for the second act. This is where things would get particularly sloppy. Testing would make his way into the washroom, transforming into the most typical conglomeration of all the generic club faces and outfits he could manage. Then, emerging with his hair slicked back, he’d make his way as close to Himura as he thought he reasonably could without drawing the man’s attention. Then, sitting down, he’d hide his hands and throw the hand seals together that he’d need to call forth one of his enormous Ghost Dancers in the club, which would immediately get to work wrecking the place.

Meanwhile Tetsu, sly dog that he was, would respond to this by throwing his hands up beside his face to try and protect it, fall off his stool and crawl pitifully to safety, which just so happened to be within earshot of Captain Himura’s booth.

Why did he do this, you may be pondering, and the reason is simple. So simple, in fact, that it may have been a dumb idea. In the absence of clever plots to gather intelligence, just destroy everything around a person and wait to see what they prioritize trying to save. Or, in lieu of that, if they behave in a way that was in accordance with their expected nature. Or, in lieu of that, we’ll, it was probably a bad plan spurred on by an inability to sit still and do careful detective work then, wasn’t it?

.
.
OOC: if I wasn’t able to punch the bartender or grab Hisa, then Tetsu will have just skipped those things and moved onto his next actions.

 

[Mishiku]

The door slammed open which startled Hisa as she saw Tetsu charging towards her and tackling Rocky to the ground, pressing one hand against the man’s mouth then beginning to beat him senseless with his fist. “What the fuck are you doing!?” Hisa yelled out. Their job was to question the man not beat him for no reason! Rocky tried to shield his face as best he could but with each strike that Tetsu made against the young man’s face it brought the poor bartender closer to unconsciousness. Tetsu’s fists were covered in Rocky’s blood as the blind shinobi continued to beat Rocky’s face in, blood was leaking from the bartender’s face and over the floor in where he was laying, his face swollen and bruised from the beating then suddenly Tetsu got off the boy and walked towards Hisa, grabbing her collar. ”I told you to kill him already, quit fucking around. He ain’t gonna spill any beans to us, and we have better things to do right now.” And with that, he handed her a kunai. So this was Tetsu’s approach? Put on a dramatic and violent act to scare the man in telling the truth. Although his entrance was quite effective but at the same time it gave off a vibe of unprofessionalism because if they truly wanted him dead then Tetsu would have continued to beat the life out of him, she only hoped that Rocky wasn’t a veteran in the underworld world or else his plan would shatter.

“Wait! Wait! I think you have the wrong guy here. I don’t know who the hell you guys are or want you with me!” Rocky yelled out in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence of whatever the hell was going on.

”Hey,” Tetsu said to get Hisa’s attention, before pulling the severed arm they had found at the crime scene from earlier out from his waist and threw it in Rocky’s direction. Rocky screamed out in terror after looking at the dismembered arm. ”Burn this when you get rid of the body too, wouldja?”. He shot Hisa one last glance before leaving the room leaving her to clean up his mess.

“Fuck you to hell Tetsu.” Hisa thought to herself before turning her attention back to the terrified young man and walking towards him with the kunai gripped tightly in her right hand then squatted down beside him, casually pointing the kunai at the boy’s battered and bloody face.

“Now, Rocky, I am going to ask you a few questions and I expect you to tell me if you ever hope to leave this room alive.” Her demeanor and tone had completely changed from the flirty club girl to an all too serious professional shinobi that had limited time. Hisa knew that she had to play this carefully, she wasn’t going to kill the innocent man and she couldn’t stay in the room long if she wanted to avoid detection. She reached into her pocket and threw out the blank calling card that the Yanaki police officer gave them earlier at the crime scene.

“Your cop friend thought I was playing games and he met an untimely end but not before giving you up in an attempt to save his own life. So we’re going to start this off with a simple question and do not play coy with me because I am not one to play games. Either you’re going to tell me everything I want to know or play the loyalty route and die a miserable death.” She was unused to saying such cruel words, especially to someone who didn’t deserve it but what choice did she have? She only hoped the boy wouldn’t call her bluff, she already had the awful image of literally burning a man’s face off, she didn’t want to add killing a beaten and terrified bartender to the list.

“Who ordered the assassination of Gaito? The Yakuza or Triads?”

“The Yakuza. I only know that the order was given out by the big boss, Shirai. I don’t know who carried out the order or if mercenaries were hired.” Rocky stammered.

“Shirai? He’s locked up in a maximum prison, how are his orders being received?”

“You’re joking, right? Everyone knows that Shirai is one of the richest and most powerful individuals in the city, he’s bought every guard in that sector of the prison. Just because he’s in prison doesn’t mean that his will isn’t felt in the city.” Rocky explained. The revelation that Shirai was indeed still the king of the underworld regardless of his imprisonment made this mission all the more difficult. Rocky spit out the blood leaking in his mouth and wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand. “If you don’t even know that then you must not be around here. So, either you’re a shinobi or a rookie in the police force and judging from the excessive force you’re partnered used on me then It’s safe to say you’re shinobi from Kumo.”

“Busted.” Hisa thought to herself, what the hell was she going to do now? Tetsu had thrown everything into complete chaos and now she would have to be creative if this wasn’t going to come back to haunt them in the future.

“Even if I am do you think I would let you leave this room alive?” Hisa responded as she pointed the kunai closer to his jugular vein. Rocky’s eyes got wider, realizing his mouth had made the situation all the worse for him.

“Wait! Wait! I won’t tell a soul I promise.”

“You don’t seem like the trustworthy type Rocky. Once I let you go you’ll go opening your mouth to all your little gangster friends.” Hisa said as her kunai made contact with the bartender’s neck. Rocky moved his head back in order to avoid the blade but Hisa grabbed the back of his head with her free hand and pushed him back into contact with the blade. “Just one quick flick of my wrist and you’ll be choking on your own blood and die in a pool of your own blood. A terrible way to go in my opinion.” Was this even her talking? She couldn’t believe the words coming out of her own mouth and she was feeling sick to her own stomach, would she really have the stomach to kill an innocent man? She already made her first kill but that was in self defense and even that still haunted her when she slept. Her thought process was broken when she saw the young man start to swell with tears.

“Please,...... I’m just a bartender I don’t deserve to die like this! I....I...I just have a lot of friends that are gangsters I’m not a part of that life I promise! Please, just let me go.” Rocky whimpered. That was that, Hisa couldn’t bring herself to do such a heinous crime, not like this.

Suddenly there was a loud commotion, Hisa could hear people screaming and glass breaking outside as she could hear the rumbling of what sounded like a stampede going. Hisa activated her Byakugan but before she could focus on seeing past the room, the door busted open as she saw a couple rush inside and quickly shut the door before turning around to see the scene of Hisa holding a blade to Rocky’s throat. It felt as if time itself had stopped for Hisa but Rocky immediately recognized the opportunity presented to him as he shoved Hisa’s arm away that held the kunai and punched her in the face before making a run for the door. Hisa shook off the hit and immediately chased Rocky. The young man exited the door and sprinted towards the main exit, Hisa was right behind him, completely focused on catching Rocky and tunnel visioned. She increased her speed and darted in front of Rocky, cutting him off. Hisa struck him twice with her Gentle Fist and Rocky collapsed to the ground. Hisa breathed out a sigh of relief only to notice that the club was completely trashed and empty with only a few bystanders hiding, she looked over to her left and saw a large ghostly apparition trashing the club.

“What the hell is that and where the hell is Tetsu!?” Hisa thought to herself.



Everything had happened so fast for Himura, the ghostly apparition tearing the club apart and everyone scrambling to escape the danger seemed like a blur for him. The men in suits that were sitting with him were startled by the apparition and some were genuinely frightened but they all remained within the VIP section. Himura then saw a man running out from the back of the club and towards the main exit before being intercepted by the young shinobi woman he had seen earlier that morning who with a few strikes knocked the man out. Himura stood up and looked over the balcony of the VIP section to get a better look at the woman to see if it really was her and indeed it was. Before Himura could say anything to Hisa, one of the men beside him, who was built like a mountain, stood up and walked towards the apparition calmly before quickly forming hand seals, summoning three boulder sized fists from the ground below the apparition [Earthen Fists- Earth Ninjutsu], punching straight through the apparition and in turn destroying it. The mountain man looked over to Hisa eyeing her up and down then looking over to Himura, reading the expression on his face.

“Do you know this girl, Himura?” The man said with a deep voice.

“Yeah, I do. She’s a Kumo shinobi. She had a partner as well but I don’t see him anywhere.” Himura responded before looking at Hisa.

“All I needed to hear.” The man said before he snapped his fingers. The men that were in the surrounding VIP sections and bodyguards that guarded Himura’s booth got up and jumped over the balcony and pulling out steel batons and kunai’s from their waist. They began to encircle Hisa like a pack of wolves.

“I want her alive and make sure you don’t mess up that pretty face of hers.” The mountain man said as the encircled men rushed towards their prey.

In the far shadowy corner of the VIP section was a man sitting down smoking a cigarette peacefully, watching the chaos unfold and unphased by the entire commotion. He took a puff of his cigarette before calmly taking a sip of sake and waiting for the impending fight to ensue.

[OCC: You and everyone else is completely unaware of the hit man in the shadows.]

[MFT]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Tetsu was hiding under one of the tables, listening in to read how their beloved police captain would react to the unfolding chaos when he began to consider that this may have been a reckless decision. Well, the two of them could just slip out and avoid any bad press so long as Himura didn’t do anything definitively incriminating during the catastrophe. He certainly didn’t want to be banned from a place like this if he could at all avoid it, but his clever disguise ought to serve him well on that front. If he were being totally honest with himself, he didn’t exactly expect anything useful from Himura here, but destruction is occasionally the only way forward when all other planning fails.

As Tetsu was pondering his poor life decisions, the bloody bartender bursted through the door, followed by Hisa. Not good. The damages for all of this were undoubtedly going to fall on the shoulders of the two shinobi, especially if there was anyone there who could connect the monster thrashing through the club and Tetsu with the name Hashigaki. His family name might throw them off the scent for a while, but someone was bound to blame Tetsu for this out of personal dislike alone, even if they didn’t have any proof. The bastards...

As he was now contemplating his dwindling mission rewards, he heard Himura speak. Nothing incriminating on it’s own, but it was quickly becoming apparent that the muscle in the club all revolved around him, and would shortly thereafter be revolving around Hisa. It was a bad situation, for sure, but Tetsu couldn’t help but internally fist pump as his suspicions about Himura were confirmed before his very eyes. Hisa had to survive this, he was trying to reach out to her with his heart to give her his silent support; otherwise no one would believe him. Well, Kaito probably would. He should probably think of a way to save the girl anyway though, he guessed.

Really, thinking of these things was just Tetsu mentally stalling though. He had an advantage since he was near to Himura and no one had spotted him yet. On top of that, the majority of aggro was being drawn by the girl, too. If he could just put a blade to Himura’s throat, this could all be over fairly quickly. Problem was that even if Himura wasn’t competent enough to avoid the initial attack, upon which time his forces would have a chance to regroup around Tetsu, that lumbering slab of muscle beside him was probably going to be an issue. How best to solve it...

Only one good option came to mind, and even this was a long shot, but at the very least it would probably scare the shit out of Hisa (a fact that would be funny if they survived, and if they didn’t, well, it would only be briefly unfunny). Huddling below the table, Tetsu would once again throw a few hand seals together and call forth an Non Elemental Clone that would poof into existence near the entrance of the club. ”I’ll get help, Hisa” The clone said, looking over to the girl, ”People need to know that Himura is a dirty cop.” And there, promptly fled the scene. Tetsu himself knew how to turn invisible, so he hoped this didn’t seem too out of the ordinary for a ninja to suddenly appear like that. The captain might figure out it’s a clone, but it wasn’t like a clone was incapable of spilling the beans anyway.

In any event, he hoped it was troublesome enough for the captain to send that tower of flesh beside him out to fetch the spy. Actually though, it wasn’t such a bad idea on it’s own, but he might save that little option for if things got really messy. For now, he’d have to wait and see if any opportunity presented itself.

 

[Mishiku]

It was the silence before the storm, Hisa waited for one of the men to make the first move but just as one was about too she heard a familiar voice from behind her and she saw Tetsu yell out to her, ”I’ll get help, Hisa. People need to know that Himura is a dirty cop.” With that the boy ran off into the street, probably hoping for someone to follow him. “Finally, you do something around here.” She muttered. Himura laughed out loud at the boy’s pathetic attempt to scare him.

“I see you don’t keep loyal company,” Himura yelled from the balcony, still chuckling from what the boy had said. “What is he going to say? He found me in one of the city’s most popular nightlife joints enjoying a drink before there was an attack? He has absolutely no proof on anything nor does he know a damn thing!” The mountain man pointed to the door, “Lock it.” One of the men surrounding Hisa immediately ran over to the front door and locked it to make sure there were no interruptions to their gathering. The mountain man folded his arms and spoke only one word, “Begin!”.

The men charged at Hisa, kunai’s drawn, filled with the intent to maim her to the brink of death’s door. Time seemed to have slowed down as the men rushed her and within that short window the situation had completely dawned on her; she was completely alone and in order for her to survive, let alone complete the mission, she would have to complete this all on her own. The first man ducked below her and then like a snake sprung his kunai forward towards her midsection. Hisa’s Byakugan activated on sheer instinct and spun around the man’s initial attack, she thrust her palm in an upward angle slamming her palm below the man’s chin while simultaneously sweeping him with her front leg. Hisa guided the man’s head straight into the floorboard, the floor cracked from the force of her blow and the weight of the man’s momentum and subsequently so did the back of the man’s skull. The man lay there motionless before Hisa as she rose to her feet, the other men watched utterly shocked at how fast everything had just transpired.

“This will be my one and only warning.” She paused as she snatched the kunai from the motionless corpse’s hand and readied herself in a traditional Hyuuga stance. “Leave now if you wish to live another day otherwise I’m killing every single one of you.” She said coldly as she fixed her gaze to the closest man to her. The men hesitated for a moment then one of the men let out a battle cry as he charged towards her which inspired the other men to do the same. She didn’t want to kill but it seemed like this mission had given her the reality of what a shinobi’s life was really about and she was merely sheltered this whole time. It was one thing to know you may be forced to kill but it was an entirely different thing when you had to watch the life leave out of someone’s eyes. This mission had become Hisa’s graduation into the life of a shinobi.

Hisa moved like a dancer, the men rushed her all together but their martial arts skills were mediocre at best. Her hands moved as fast as cobra strikes, slashing, slicing, and stabbing her opponents' vital points before moving on to her next victim. Blood splashed through the air and the club was filled with the sound of men screaming in agony and the gurgling of some choking on their own blood as they silently begged for the pain to stop. Three of the five men rushed Hisa in an attempt to gang up on her, Hisa charged forward, slapping the man ’s weapon out of his hand and shoving him away from his comrades and into a column near where Tetsu was hiding. She began shanking the man multiple times in his sternum, the man attempted to push her away but after the 7th consecutive stab his body twitched before crumbling to the ground. Hisa turned around but before she turned fully around, her body crashed against the column by a man that shoved her before lifting her up and slamming her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her. The man held her to the ground while his comrade rushed over and attempted to plant his kunai into Hisa’s chest, Hisa shifted her body out of the trajectory of the blade but not far enough as the blade tore through her shoulder. Hisa screamed out in agony before grabbing the man’s shirt and pulled him in as she headbutted his nose. She could feel the satisfying crunch of the man’s nose as he fell back, yelling out in pain. Hisa pulled the kunai out of her shoulder, screaming harder as she did before attempting to stab the man that was holding her down but the gangster grabbed her wrist, stopping the blade from reaching him. Hisa cursed out in frustration before sending her knee straight up the man’s groin, he yelled out profanity and mouthed off something else but Hisa pulled her hand away from his grip and buried her kunai in the side of his skull. The man’s eyes went into the back of his head and blood trickled down his head and unto Hisa’s face before he fell over to the side. Hisa pulled the kunai out of the man’s skull before stammering back up to her feet, blood oozing down from her wound in her shoulder.

One of the last gangsters lunged towards Hisa with his blade in hand, Hisa was about to dodge the attack and then finally finish off the last gangster. She dodged the attack easily and was on the brink of launching her counter-attack then suddenly the man whose nose was broke grabbed her foot, stopping her from completing her attack. Realizing his comrade saved his life the gangster took advantage of the situation and slashed his kunai across the side of Hisa’s body, his kunai finally tasting her blood. Hisa screamed in pain from stinging pain of the kunai tear through her flesh. She looked down to the man grabbing her foot and lifted her other leg and repeatedly stomped on his face, feeling another satisfying sound of bone cartilage crunching beneath her foot. The last gangster was in the midst of ramming his kunai into Hisa’s stomach, knowing it would be too late to dodge the attack Hisa threw the kunai directly into the man’s eye, killing him instantly.

Hisa breathed out a sigh of relief knowing that she got through the first wave of enemies without wasting any chakra on them, she knew she would have to save it for the big man and from the look of him, he didn’t look like a walk in the park. Himura couldn’t believe the ferocity that he witnessed from the shinobi, it looked as if she was a born killer by the way she handled those men. “What the fuck…..” He whispered looking at the carnage that was displayed on the dance floor. He couldn’t believe a young woman could be such a skilled killer. The mountain man walked down to the first floor clapping his hands, “Bravo, little one, bravo. You have shown true grit! You’d be a perfect candidate for the Yakuza, you have so much potential.”

Hisa scoffed at the man’s proposal, “Sorry, I ain’t about that life. Looks like the members have a short life span.”

The large man laughed as he took off his blazer and set it aside neatly on a nearby table and stepped closer to the Hyuuga. “That’s a shame, you leave me no choice but to break you. My name is Hilgo and I am the last face you will see.”

Hisa assumed her traditional Hyuuga stance and charged her chakra up to its maximum. Her blue chakra flared out of her body and the ground seemed to shake from the display of power that flowed out of her. Her gaze turned more intense as she stared at the large man, “You’ll soon find out that I am far more dangerous than you realize Hilgo!”


[MFT]

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were forced to realize it may have been a bit more grim than it originally appeared? Tetsu was nothing if not an optimist (when it came to his own ability), but things were looking a bit darker as Himura ordered everyone remaining in the club be locked in. He hid and watched as the cluster of thugs edged their way into a group attack on Hisa. He was going to have to sit there and watch her get beaten, perhaps badly, but the reality was this: if he jumped into the frey then, he’d be forfeiting the last card he had to play. With the mountain of muscles still at the side of his master, that card may end up being useless in the end, too. This was the life of a shinobi though; in the end, they weren’t soldiers, they were something else. Contrary to the tales of legendary ninja battles, going head to head with your opponent was always meant to be a last resort, which meant cunning, deception, and with those, gambling on a trick or two, was what you bet your life on, and the life of your comrades.

Was he really going to let Hisa die for the sake of the mission? ’Don’t be stupid’ he told himself. If he jumped into the battle then, they were as good as dead anyway.

Then it started.

Tetsu was, he had to admit to himself, a bit baffled when he saw Hisa move. It wasn’t perhaps so surprising to see the precision with which she executed her techniques. Hell, they practically looked like the whole style had been pristinely preserved straight from the dojo, rather than the usual inelegant movements you see when a person’s life was on the line. That was all still in line with her overall uptight character. What shocked him was the borderline murderous intent in the execution; he really didn’t think she had it in her.

As he stood there in slight shock, one of the cronies landed with a hard this, clipping the table beside him and sending cutlery flying.

He switched his attention over to Himura then, impressed as he reluctantly admittedly was, he knew that the reality was still that each swing of the knife from the mob was a roll of the dice. He had to quickly think of some way to get Himura on his own, or he had to think of another way to win that wouldn’t require a direct confrontation with that obviously unbeatable monster. Still, his ideas well was running a bit dry.

He was going to have to do something stupid here and risk sneaking up between them. Maybe he could get between the mountain in time to make a lunging threat on Himura’s life. It was unlikely, but what choice did he really have.

Tetsu got up to move, but as soon as he did, he watched as the bodyguard slowly made his way into the main room to challenge Hisa. Perfect! He’d only have one shot to make this count, so he was going to have to be uncharacteristically careful here. Alright, in all honesty here, Tetsu wasn’t entirely certain of his ability to meet too many head on in a fight either after that little bout with the body builder. Was he a coward? Well, let’s see, does anyone like rushing towards certain death? The boy wove a few handseals together, after making sure he was out of eyeshot of the bodyguard, and turned himself invisible.

He’d have to simply hope against hope that he was discreetly tucked away enough when he did so that no one would either know or care enough about it to make a stink, or if they did, hopefully they didn’t immediately know what he was up to, but he’d have to move quickly just in case.

Swiftly creeping up the stairs, he’d turn on his headset so that Kaito could hear him from this point on, and made his way over to where Himura was sitting. Carefully unsheathing a kunai, he’d lunge forward to wrap his arm around the man’s throat as tightly as he could and then lined the kunai up with the man’s jugular with his free hand. ”You’re right, you know.” He pressed the knife in enough to just barely break through the captain’s skin. ”Proof is a tough one, let’s just say you tragically died in the gang fight that broke out instead.”

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OOC: I just wanted the cool guy line at the end. If Tetsu is unable to get Himura in a headlock, he does not say the line.