Gambling is for the Strong-Willed [Travel from Tea to Fire]

Age : 30 Posts : 1637

After showing his brother the piece of paper he'd found while performing his mission, Kyousuu made his way to the northern-most part of the strip. A carriage waited for him there, with thugs in tow, now tied up with ropes. That way, even if the unconscious ones awoke during travel, they wouldn't post much of a threat.

Situating himself at the edge of the carriage bed, Kyousuu read over the paper once more. According to this, there was a bandit called Eiji threatening villages in the Land of Fire. Normally, Kyousuu would only concern himself with such things if a mission were assigned to him, but the lack of clarity regarding the bandit's abilities made things interesting. Daitarou didn't want him to go by himself, but the jinchuuriki assured him that he wouldn't be alone. Truthfully, he wasn't sure how much he could trust Nori when it came to a fight, but at least summoning him meant he was telling Taro the truth.

The carriage began to make its way up through the Land of Tea, but it wouldn't take long for them to reach the neighboring country. At the first village they reached, Kyousuu would be breaking away to begin his search. Odds were that he'd be able to use numbers to find this foe as quickly as possible - if even a single shadow clone got a good lead, it would disperse, bringing its knowledge back to the original. Once that was done, all he had to do was make his way to the appropriate destination carefully.

The carriage hit a bump in the road, and Kyousuu was shaken out of his thoughts momentarily. Behind him, the thugs groaned in pain, their injuries still quite fresh.

The idea of hunting bandits endlessly was far from attractive, now that he thought about it. If all he could do was beat up thugs, then he was simply hired muscle. While being able to do such things was more or less a staple for a shinobi, he wanted more out of life. He wanted to be able to act free from the constraints of the village. And now that there was a new Hokage, he couldn't be sure how life would be once he returned to the Hidden Leaf. What kind of man was he? Was he strict? Kind? Tyrannical?

Kyousuu was almost afraid to find out.

"This is the first time you're doing something really interesting, HOO HA HA!"

"I don't know, Son Goku. Maybe Taro is right, and I shouldn't just jump into this thing, ki. I mean, I don't really know anything about this."

"Well, if you found some random thugs with this information, you might not be the only one looking into this guy."

Son Goku had a point. If Eiji was threatening villages in Hi no Kuni, chances were that Ryoma and his crew weren't the only ones that knew about it. Kyousuu had just been cooped up in Kirigakure for so long that he didn't know about the new Hokage until somebody on the streets mentioned it in conversation. It was difficult to keep up with things so far from home, but information travelled fast when things were interesting or important. Perhaps he just wasn't good at the whole gathering info thing. That was a job best left to others.

"Either way, it's time I try to do things by myself, ki. I mean, I sort of have you around, but you won't really help me. I already know that for a fact. You're just along for the ride at this point."

"I don't know of anybody that would want to help a guy like you," the bijuu scoffed. "But hey, it'll be fun to finally watch you get into a situation where your life is on the line. Maybe you'll show me something interesting for once, HOO HA HA!"

Kyousuu groaned and rubbed his temples. He and the bijuu were no longer at each other's throats, which was good. He'd also lost that initial level of fear he harbored when he first attempted to communicate with the beast. Even so, the thought of being pushed so far that he felt he had no other option but to let the bijuu grant him power was horrifying. Consequently, if he was going to be fighting anybody, he'd at least make sure he had a way out if things got too hairy. Even though he would be in his home country, the chances of anybody coming to back him up were slim, and with something so interesting that even other bandits wanted to get information about it, there was a very strong chance that ninja from other villages would be trying to find out more about the situation.

The carriage took a sharp turn, and Kyou furrowed his brow. Despite his interest, he was worried. He'd refused to take anybody from Hanketsu with him, even his own brother, yet he was regretting the decision now that they'd been traveling for some time already. He was the rabbit going into the lion's den. What would he find when he got there? Would he be overwhelmed by everything? Would he be able to do something notable? Nothing was certain about the task ahead of him. This was turning into a gamble.

Stuffing the paper back into his pouch, the jinchuuriki watched the scenery. They would be reaching a village fairly soon.

[TOPIC END]

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