Mission: Town of The Dead [Private]

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

• Town of The Dead •

Mission: Town of The Dead [Private] Burned11

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“Well, long time no see, Masquerade! I didn’t expect to run into - what the hell is going on here?”

The blue-haired man, who was clad in a green shirt with a black jacket above, and a pair of black trousers and boots, came to a sudden stop. His yellow eyes were rounded in surprise, his astonishment the result of seeing Masquerade being pinned down to the ground by a large, furred animal – more specifically, a hyena. The Nukenin’s hands were clasped tensely across the hyena’s face, arduously trying to keep its drooling mouth of sharp teeth away from his own face. At the bearded man’s words, however, the Nukenin’s look of concentration dissipated, and his head turned to the side to take note of the man’s arrival. The hyena, as well, shifted its yellow eyes in the same direction, though its head did not follow its gaze. A moment of silence passed between the perplexed the newcomer, and the pinned Masquerade, before the latter deadpanned the word “training”. With that, the hold on the hyena’s face was removed, and the mammal stepped back as the Nukenin rose to his feet, dusting his clothes and wiping off the trickles of saliva that had stained his mask’s visor. He then directed his attention to the goatee-bearing male, who retained the same puzzled expression on his gray-skinned face as he moved closer; the blue-haired man’s eyes remained fixed uncertainly on the grinning hyena standing unassumingly beside Masquerade.

“What are you doing here, Yuuji Subaru?” Masquerade inquired of the man, brow furrowed in wonder. Subaru lived all the way back in Hi no Kuni, many miles away from this country, so it was quite the unexpected occurrence to see him here.

Subaru did not reply to Masquerade’s query, instead too occupied with staring at the gray hyena, who was grinning back unpleasantly at the human. “Uh, who’s this guy here?” Subaru asked Masquerade, gesturing to the animal. “And, uh, why was he trying to eat you?”

Masquerade felt the urge to sigh audibly at the man’s question. Well, not so much at the question than at the fact that he seemed more fixated on the scene he had just witnessed rather than Masquerade’s words. The Nukenin did not give any such indication of his exasperation, mostly because he was used to Subaru being easily side-tracked by these kinds of things. After all, the Jinchuuriki had spent about a month at the blue-haired man’s residence, when he had been training to communicate with the Shichibi. He had picked up a good many things about this man’s personality quirks during that time, and a habit of shifting focus between topics due to curiosity was one of them.

As he was used to such acts by now, Masquerade was able to evenly answer, “This is Chuckles; he is my Summon, whom I made a pact with less than a week ago.” Upon being introduced, a grinning Chuckles wiggled his brow a few times at Subaru, as if to say “hey, what’s up?”. Ignoring the clearly bewildered expression on Subaru’s face, Masquerade then continued with a casual wave of his hand, “Furthermore, he was not attempting to eat me; rather, he and I were in the middle of training. His preference for close-range combat makes him a helpful training partner for me. Now, before you ask anything else -,” Masquerade raised a single hand to forestall Subaru, who had indeed opened his mouth to pose another question to the blonde, “- answer my question from before. What brings you all the way here from Hi no Kuni?”

“Oh, right; that.” The bearded male blinked, as if remembering why he was here, and proceeded to reach into one of his jacket’s pockets, out of which he lifted a bound scroll. “Here, read this.” With a flick of his hand, the scroll was tossed to Masquerade, the Nukenin catching it easily with one hand. Looking down at the red-rimmed, tan scroll, he undid the string securing it in place and then unfurled the cylinder of paper horizontally. His eyes then lowered as he read the words inked onto the parchment’s surface, and from beside him, the hyena also leaned forward slightly to read it from under the blonde’s arm. The script was small and neat, and clearly of a feminine style. The color of the ink used, as well, could be indication of the writer’s gender: men would rarely use such a horrendously bright shade of pink for writing. Of course, these were just pointless observations, for the inscribed message mattered more than the handwriting.

To start, this was a letter to Subaru from someone who preferred to remain anonymous (though one sentence mentioned, and Masquerade quoted, that Subaru “should be able to guess who had written this letter”). In any case, the sender had asked Subaru to investigate the disappearance of her associate. Well, “disappearance” was not really the correct word. Apparently, the writer’s associate had been visiting a town near the border of Kaminari no Kuni, but word on the street was that the very same town had been attacked by someone unknown, and the partner had since then fallen out of contact with the anonymous writer. Subaru had been asked to head to the town and learn the fate of the associate, as well as recover any information that he may have gathered. Haste was urged as well, since Kumogakure no Sato was likely to send someone to investigate the crime scene before long. That last comment made it clear to Masquerade, above anything else, that whatever reasons the writer and her compatriot had for focusing on the town in question, it was not anything legal.

Once the Jinchuuriki’s insect eyes had reached the end of the note, he slowly rolled up the scroll, directing his attention to the man standing in front of him. “Should this be of some significance to me?” he asked bemusedly, refastening the string that had been holding the scroll shut as he spoke. The questioning manner in which he held the item out to Subaru made it clear that he did not understand the situation at hand. This letter was addressed to Subaru, and its sender had asked this of him. Why, then, was Subaru showing this to Masquerade? Did the blue-haired individual expect the Jinchuuriki to wish him good luck or something?

Subaru was aware of Masquerade’s befuddlement, for he answered the boy’s implied question. “Well, I figured you could take a crack at this job,” he responded, placing one hand on his hip and holding the other out of to his side, palm-up. “I’m not in the mood to go play detective – err, I mean – I’ve got other things on my plate at the moment. You could probably use the money, as well.”

Masquerade’s eyes narrowed behind his visors at the man’s words, but returned to their normal width a moment later as he smirked amusingly. “Perhaps,” he agreed, in response to Subaru’s comment about his financial needs. It was not that Masquerade was broke at the moment; rather, he had sufficient funds to last him for a month, maybe less. However, in this line of work, it was not very often that a job came up that paid adequately, so one had to take what they could get, whenever they could. As a Nukenin, Masquerade could not just walk into an office and request a mission from his superiors. Nukenin did not have that sort of luxury that Village Ninja did. The limited amount of job requests for criminals (particularly lower-ranked ones such as he) meant that the masked shinobi was often willing to accept whatever job request was offered to him. Assuming that it was offered to him to begin with.

“The client is specifically asking you to complete this task, Yuuji Subaru,” Masquerade pointed out, holding out the scroll at the man once more in a confused manner. He wanted to make sure that he was not going to go through all the effort of completing a mission, only to not get paid for it because he had not been the one originally assigned to it. Even someone as level-headed as Masquerade would throw a fit over something like that. However, for all of Subaru's displays of childishness and foolishness, Masquerade knew that the blue-haired man had to have taken into consideration that such a complication could arise.

“Don’t worry about that, kid! The client only asked me to find out what happened to her partner; she didn’t say that I couldn’t get someone else to do the dirty work for me! I’ll make sure she knows that you played a part as well!” Subaru grinned widely and flashed Masquerade a thumbs-up, his yellow eyes glowing as he beamed at the masked latter. Masquerade did not appear to be radiating with the same energy that Subaru was, probably because he knew that the goatee-bearing man was pretty much shifting all the work onto Masquerade’s plate, while believing that both of them would be doing the mission. If it had been anyone other than Subaru who was doing this, then Masquerade would have either declined the mission or punched the offender in the face. However, as stated before, the Jinchuuriki had become extremely tolerant of his blue-haired associate’s antics, and did not feel the need to perform either action.

Pocketing the scroll and smirking, Masquerade gave a nod of his head. “Very well. I accept the mission, Yuuji Subaru. Simply inform me where I have to go, and I shall be on my way." He then paused, as if thinking. At a moment later, the Nukenin turned to face the hyena at his left, who had remained silent the whole time. Aside from his persistent, unpleasant grins and unblinking stares, Chuckles’ presence had otherwise been unnoticeable; to Masquerade, anyway. Now, however, the Teinei directed his focus to the hyena as he addressed him. “This is the end of our training session, Chuckles. You may head back home now.”

Having dismissed the creature, Masquerade was about to turn back to Subaru, when his attention was arrested by the mammal speaking up in his high-pitched, guttural voice. “Actually, I think I’ll stay, Master. I’m quite interested in going to this “Town of The Dead”, you see. Plus, I’d like to see how you go about your jobs, too. So I’m tagging along for now.” The hyena gave a soft chuckle, which still managed to sound chilling and eerie. Before either human could say anything further, he raised a forepaw in the air, with one toe extended and the others curled. “But first!” His neck then snapped to his left, his yellow eyes locked on the trees in that direction; an excited grin had adorned his features. “I smell a deer nearby! Good thing, too. I’m starving!”

With that, the gleeful hyena dashed off into the woods, leaving the two humans standing speechlessly as they watched his departure. After a second or two, Subaru remarked uncertainly, “Well. He’s, uh, really -.”

“No, he’ s not,” Masquerade answered grimly, frowning.

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Jutsu Used:

Summon:

Name: Chuckles
Rank: B
Appearance:

Mission: Town of The Dead [Private] Chuckl11

Measuring slightly over six feet in length and exactly four feet in shoulder height, Chuckles is noticeably larger than regular hyenas. His black-spotted fur is mostly a deep gray pigmentation, with the less-coarse fur on his underbelly being a much lighter shade. A long, healthy mane of gray hair runs along the male hyena’s spine, starting from the top of his scalp and ending at his rear. Chuckles’ bushy tail, which is as short as is characteristic of all spotted hyena, is covered in much darker fur than the rest of his body; here, the fur is almost as black as his spots. His build is lean and streamlined, allowing him to function as the deadly predator that he is. He wears no accessories on his person; neither clothes nor equipment. Chuckles’ face is long and narrow, featuring powerful jaws and teeth that grant him a deadly, bone-crushing bite. Several whiskers line the edges of his face, hanging in a haphazard and messy fashion. As is the case with most of his clan, Chuckles is always seen sporting a malicious and psychotic grin on his face, and it is not uncommon to see trails of saliva dripping out of his mouth. With his crazed grin and messy whiskers, he appears almost deranged. His cold, yellow eyes, which gleam sinisterly in the dark, further add to the chilling aura that surrounds this creature; these eyes are not the eyes of a mindless beast, but of a cunning and calculating monster.
Personality: Those of the Hyena Clan have just one major thought occupying their minds: eating. They rarely spend their days doing anything other than hunting and eating, and Chuckles is no exception. He sees every living being around him as a potential meal, regardless of size or species; even his own master is a prospective dinner. Should he get the chance, he will very well attempt to sink his teeth into anything that he deems worth consuming. An unspoken fact between Masquerade and Chuckles is that, should the hyena ever find his master in a helpless state, Masquerade can expect the predator to feast on his flesh without hesitation. Literally, the most important thing to Chuckles is satisfying his hunger, and when he is summoned, he expects Masquerade to provide him with something to eat, even if it is not a battle situation.

That being said, though, Chuckles is not a ravenous beast without any rational thought. Rather, he is very sharp and quick-witted, perfectly capable of thinking and acting in a sentient manner. His cunning mind makes him all the more deadly, since he makes use of it to efficiently “hunt down his prey”, as he says. As such, he has enough common sense and reasoning to know how to react to the situations he is exposed to. As one might expect, Chuckles is a cold-hearted animal, looking out only for himself and those beneficial to him. While he does follow most of the commands that Masquerade gives him, Chuckles does not help his owner out of any sense of loyalty or gratitude; instead, he is only in it for fun. When he obeys his master's orders, he does so for entertainment, because as much as he enjoys food, Chuckles enjoys entertainment even more; eating is, after all, entertaining. In fact, he is more than likely to leave a battle if it gets to boring, regardless of whether his owner winning or losing.

Overall, Chuckles is a vicious and despicable individual, not above fighting dirty or using cheap trick, and excepts others to do the same; particularly his master. He is notably cool-headed, rarely getting angry or worked up; indeed, he is almost always in a mood that appears jovial, laughing and grinning continuously. However, it takes less than a minute for someone to realize that his sense of humor is nothing but dark and cruel. He enjoys inflicting pain, laughing psychotically when he does so. In fact, he is almost always laughing: while fighting, while eating, even while being wounded. He seems to find everything funny, and subsequently treats it as a joke, which can get on anyone’s nerves - even Masquerade’s. Every now and then, he will crack a joke or toss a sarcastic remark, and these can range anywhere from being genuinely humorous to sickeningly sadistic.

While his deceptive and dishonorable nature is often mistaken for cowardice, Chuckles is no gutless coward. Being hyena, he and his species are commonly assumed to be cowardly scavengers, which is a huge misconception. A vicious predator at heart, Chuckles is not afraid to fight, as he sees battle as another form of hunting; and seeing as how much he enjoys to hunt, it is unsurprising to learn how much of a kick he gets out of fighting. He is certainly more of a combat enthusiast than his master, that is for sure. Since he maintains the same “affable” nature no matter how the battle is going, one can say that he does not care whether he is winning or losing. As he puts it, “the harder the prey is to kill, the more delicious it tastes”.
Contract Type: Personal
Species: Hyena
Specialty: Taijutsu
Elemental Affinity: Doton

Jutsu:

Chakra Remaining:

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

“So, who was the dude with the goat’s beard, eh? A friend?”

“No, not exactly. He was friends with my father, and has helped me a good deal in mastering… certain skills I possess.”

Chuckles looked up at Masquerade, as if expecting him to elaborate some more, but the briskly-stepping Nukenin did not indulge any further information to the hyena. Seeing that the human was not in the talkative mood, the hyena returned his attention to the path. A couple of feet ahead, Masquerade walked at the same pace, leading the way as he kept his own gaze fixed firmly in front of him, keeping his mind on the mission and not the hyena’s query. Really, Masquerade did not feel as if there was anything else to be said in regards to Chuckles’ question. Chuckles need not know that Subaru had been the one to help Masquerade’s father, Senju Yashin, seal the Shichibi into the blonde’s body; he also did not need to know how Masquerade met the blue-haired man while searching for information about his father, whom the Jinchuuriki had murdered in a fit of “Bijuu rage”, and had then helped the Jinchuuriki learn to communicate with his Bijuu. In fact, the Nukenin was not going to mention anything concerning his Bijuu to the hyena. Masquerade had yet to inform his Summon of the fact that he was a Jinchuuriki, as he was loath to disclosing that sensitive piece of information to anyone – even his allies. The hyena did not appear to have any inkling as to the kind of entity that resided within his master’s body, and Masquerade preferred to keep it that. Discussions about his Bijuu were always a touchy topic when it came to Masquerade, as they could easily give rise to an undesirable situation.

Speaking of an undesirable situation: it had been a good portion of an hour since Masquerade and Chuckles had departed for the “Town of The Dead” (as Chuckles had so aptly dubbed it), and it was clear that the human was not all that thrilled to have the hyena in his company. Displeasure was not brought about by any annoying antics that the mammal may be performing at the moment; rather, it was due to the fact that the animal’s hunger had made them tardier than Masquerade would have liked. It had been almost ten minutes before Chuckles had returned from his hunt to an impatiently waiting Masquerade. Subaru had already left by then, after clarifying to the masked shinobi where the town was, and the best route to take to get there in a timely manner. He had wished Masquerade good luck and departed a full six minutes before Chuckles arrived. The hyena’s complacent mood was a sharp contrast to the silently-fuming demeanor of the Nukenin, who had brusquely turned and begun marching in the direction of their destination as soon as the hyena had returned. No information had been shared with the quadruped at first, and only after the first quarter of an hour had Masquerade finally been willing to divulge the information that Subaru had shared in the hyena’s absence. It had been several minutes after that when Chuckles had attempted to strike up a conversation once again by asking about Subaru. Needless to say, Masquerade’s curt reply indicated that he was still a little annoyed at the hyena.

Focusing on the mission at hand was more important than the antics of his Summon, however; particularly when the mission was brought to him under such strange circumstances. After receiving all the information he had needed about the mission from Subaru, Masquerade had questioned the man further about some issues that had been puzzling him. Namely, how Subaru had managed to find Masquerade when neither of the two males had been in contact with each other since their last encounter at Hi no Kuni. How Masquerade must have felt when he learned that pure chance had brought Subaru to the Nukenin’s location, and that it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision on the blue-haired man’s part to offer the job to Masquerade… The Teinei had been even more astonished when Subaru mentioned that he had originally come to Kaminari no Kuni for some other business, and not this specific task. It had been as much a surprise to Subaru as anyone else when he had received the letter at his temporary Kaminari no Kuni residence, asking him to perform this favor. The ridiculous amount of coincidences in this entire situation made Masquerade wonder once again if he was not in a story of some kind – one with an unbelievable plot augmented by poor planning.

But back to the mission: soon enough, the duo was within sighting distance of their destination. Stopping at the peak of a grassy hill, they were able to spot the shape of the town in the distance, still about half a mile away. Nonetheless, their higher footing granted them a clear view of the location, and it was not a very pleasing view. Voluminous trails of smoke were rising up from the town, and an unnatural stillness seemed to hang in the air around it. Masked eyes shifted from the town to the Sun, which was beginning to approach the horizon; sunset was almost upon them, and night was on its way. The sky was already saturated with the red and gold glow of the setting celestial body, making it harder to see by the second. By now, the inhabitants of the town should have begun to ignite their artificial lights, but in spite of the approaching darkness, not a single speck of light could be seen emanating from the town. Just like the surrounding grassland, the settlement was rapidly fading into the shadows. It seemed that something had indeed happened to the townsfolk; that, or they did not have any means of artificial lighting, which would be odd in itself. Throwing Chuckles a meaningful nod, Masquerade bent his body forward and took off forwards in a sprint, shooting down the hill quickly and making a beeline for the town; beside him, the gray hyena kept at his heels, trudging over the grass and floral life as they headed for the targeted settlement.

In about a minute, the duo was decreasing their speed to come to a halt at the outskirts of the town - or what remained of it. The settlement was shaped in a circular arrangement, encircled by a low stone wall on the outside; behind this waist-high barrier were the buildings and structures that constituted the settlement. From their position outside its boundary, the human and hyena could not see much of the inside of the town, their vision being obstructed by all the buildings in the way. Without a word or glance to each other, Masquerade and Chuckles walked past the boundary and into the town, making use of a broken wooden gate in the stone wall as their entry point. As he passed through the gate and “into” the town, Masquerade arched his eyebrows up upon surveying the scene before him. From their position, he and his Summon could not see much of the town aside from the outermost buildings, which were blocking most of their view. However, the condition of these buildings gave the human and the hyena a clear idea of what they could expect to find the further they went. As they advanced into the settlement and set foot on what was probably the main street, it was no mystery what disaster had befallen this area.

Chuckles whistled in surprise, an entertained look on his face. “Well! I wasn’t expecting this big of a mess… This is worse than a regular massacre!”

A “regular” massacre? the Nukenin repeated disbelievingly in his mind, though a little absent-mindedly, as he was more occupied with examining the environment. Looking at the smoldering, charred remains of the various structures that they passed, Masquerade knew without a doubt that a fire had been the cause of this carnage. Not a single thing in the town, be it buildings, signs, or plants, seemed to have survived the blaze. Houses and shops had collapsed onto themselves, and those that still stood had portions that had weakened and crumbled, leaving gaping holes and the like in their place. The possibility of an inferno explained the trails of smoke that Masquerade had seen earlier; indeed, Masquerade could still smell the stench of smoke in the air. Whoever was responsible for this, he, she, or they had started a fire and burnt the whole town to the ground. Nothing of the town of the remained, and this fate appeared to have extended to the inhabitants. The Nukenin’s eyes narrowed distastefully behind his mask as he began noticing the multitude of corpses littering the area. Charred, blackened skin, lifeless eyes, immobile figures; it was quite chilling to see so many dead bodies in such a place. The bodies were everywhere: crushed under fallen rubble, hanging limply out of windows or doorways, or sprawled out on the roads for the Nukenin and hyena to tentatively step over. Masquerade even spotted a limb or two hanging over the edge of a roof, as if there were corpses on top of the still-standing buildings as well. The Nukenin felt his stomach constrict in disgust; even for him, this was all a horrible sight, and the straight line that was his mouth and the clenching of his fists signified the distaste he felt.

Stopping by one body, Masquerade knelt down and ran a green-eyed gaze over it, inspecting the injuries. It was a male’s body, and a young one at that (judging by the height and build). The face was completing burnt beyond recognition, and the grotesque expression it bore was one of fear and pain, the mouth stretched wide open in what was no doubt a bone-chilling scream of agony. The garments were burnt as well, and the exposed skin underneath was revealed to have shared a similar fate as that of the victim’s face. The lifeless, bulging eyes were staring blankly at the Nukenin and the hyena hovering over his shoulder. Grimacing, Masquerade straightened up and moved to another corpse, stooping down to examine it as well; and then another, and then another. Each time, he found the same kinds of burns, further confirming that these people had perished in what he presumed to be a fire; though, that much was pretty obvious by now. However, there was another interesting feature that he had found: several of the bodies possessed large cuts and lacerations, and some had even suffered dismemberment. In other words, the perpetrators had not only set the townsfolk on fire, but they had also attacked them with bladed weapons of some sort; which came first did not matter, really. In either case, this was a despicable act, and one that put a grimace of displeasure on Masquerade’s masked face. He may be a Nukenin, but he was not one to revel at the thought of so many people suffering or dying. He could not fathom why anyone would want to slaughter an entire town of people; he could not come up with any reason that seemed, well, reasonable.

Sickening, the Nukenin thought as he rose to his feet and took a step back from the collection of bodies. Absolutely sickening. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Chuckles lowering his head to a corpse and sniffing it. When Masquerade turned his head to watch the animal, it gave a loud snort and shook its head fiercely, grimacing in discontent.

“Disgusting,” Chuckles remarked in an upset tone. He looked over at Masquerade pointedly. “This is why I like my food to be fresh and alive. It’s not delicious when it’s not moving.”

Masquerade frowned visibly at his Summon, shaking his head as he turned away. Like I said: absolutely sickening.

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

Fire, raging and burning. People, screaming and crying. Metal, swinging and slicing. Blood, gushing and spilling. Running, frightened and helpless, smoke and fire everywhere –.

“Hey! Boss man! Are you listening to me? Hey! Earth to Masky!”

Like someone that had just been zapped by an electric socket, the blonde jerked significantly when Chuckles prodded him in the hip with a paw. Blinking and looking down at the hyena, it was apparent that the Nukenin had abruptly returned to reality from whatever daydream he had been engrossed in. He gave a grim look at his surroundings once more, his mouth still upturned in a frown. Chuckles watched his Summoner with an interested tilt of his head, wondering if there was something wrong with the human. For over a minute, Masquerade had done nothing but stand there, his gaze fixed on the pile of corpses ahead of him, not uttering a single word. He had seemed detached from his surroundings, as if he had been immersed in his thoughts. This was proven to be a fact as the male had not given any response to when the hyena had spoken up, or even any indication that he had heard him. Chuckles had posed a question to his master, and the latter had continued to stare wordlessly at the spot in front of him. Even after repeating the question a second time and calling out Masquerade’s name to draw his attention, the Nukenin had not reacted to the hyena.

“Did you say something, Chuckles?”

Having seized his human’s full attention, Chuckles repeated his inquiry to the shinobi. “I said: what’s the plan now, Master? How do we go about searching for our man? I’d be surprised if he was even alive after all this... mayhem.” With those words, the smirking Chuckles moved his head to look at the pile of burnt, maimed, and cut-up bodies all around them, clearly entertained by the sight. Masquerade, too, mimicked the animal, looking around, though with a far less cheerful attitude. The man was also dubious as to whether they would even find the partner alive, or even if they could find him at all. It was very hard to believe that anyone could have survived, looking at the chaos that had ensued here. However, it was too early to jump to conclusions: they had not even begun searching, after all. Placing a hand on his hip and lifting the other to his jaw to stroke an index finger against his chin, the Jinchuuriki narrowed his eyes and stood thinking for a second or two, before facing the awaiting Chuckles.

“For now, we shall split up, Chuckles. You head west, and I will go down that street towards east. Hopefully, one of us will be able to come across our target before long.” Green eyes shifted towards the horizon, whereupon their owner was able to notice that sunset would be upon them in around five minutes. They may not have a set time limit for completing this mission, but dawdling was ill-advised. Who knew when the Kumogakure forces would arrive here (and arrive here they would, of that Masquerade was certain) to inspect the crime scene? Unless Masquerade wanted to get tangled in a mess with the lawful investigators in the darkness of the night, he had best hurry up and complete his mission. The more time they wasted, the harder it would be to find what they were looking for, or any clues pertaining to it.

Reaching into a pouch hanging from his belt, Masquerade pulled out the letter that had the mission details in it. “Time is a luxury we do not have much of, Chuckles; therefore, we must be swift,” Masquerade informed authoritatively, to which the grin-bearing mammal nodded wordlessly in understanding. Untying the string and opening the scroll, Masquerade glanced at the note below the actual letter, which described the man they were looking for. No name had been given, most likely for security reasons, but some physical traits had been disclosed; traits that were both vague and distinguishing at the same time. “Now remember: our unnamed target is a tall individual, close to seven feet, with tanned skin, shoulder-length sandy-colored hair, and hazel eyes,” Masquerade declared to the hyena, summarizing the text that he was reading. “He should be in possession of a large, black leather bag, reportedly five feet in length.”

He rolled up the scroll and secured it with the string prior to returning it to its storage area, clarifying as he did so, “The fate of the man comes second to our finding and securing the bag, though, so maintain a more vigilant lookout for the item than for the man. However, both should be in close proximity to each other, I would say, considering how important the bag must be.” This assertion would hopefully prove to be accurate, for the way things were looking right now, Masquerade highly doubted whether he or Chuckles would be able to find the missing partner based on his appearance. More of the victims had suffered grievous burn injuries than other wounds, so it would not be unwise to presume that the two searchers’ target was also burnt or maimed beyond recognition. At the very least, they could find the bag, and if they did not find the carrier, well, it would be no mystery as to what fate must have befallen him.

At the conclusion of the Nukenin’s speech, pointed teeth gleamed as Chuckles grinned widely at Masquerade. “Aye, sir. The bag takes priority. Got it. And… how do we let each other know if we’ve found something?”

The question had been anticipated, seeing as the reply came confidently and without hesitation. “If you find anything, seek me out; you should be able to do so with your sense of smell. If I come across an object of importance, then I shall locate you by pinpointing your chakra signature’s positioning, or through some other method.” Having clarified that, Masquerade gestured to the hyena to get going, which he did with an obedient nod of his head. Turning on his heels, Chuckles trotted off into a gap between two buildings. As the quadruped vanished from sight, the biped faced the opposite direction and advanced east, eyes swooping over the area in search of his objective.

The carnage and destruction was present wherever he went. Bodies lay prone on the ground, debris and rubble scattered everywhere. There was not that much blood on the ground, probably because most of it had been absorbed into the earth by now; that, and being burnt alive did not result in blood spill. What little blood traces did remain could be seen in the form of small puddles, just inches deep, or stains splattered across various surfaces like walls, benches, or fallen debris. At times, Masquerade would spot or step over corpses holding tools in their hands, from shovels to swords to domestic items like lamps or vases; sometimes these items would be by themselves, with no owner in sight. And all of them were either singed from heat or coated in dried, flaking blood. Masquerade had taken notice of a shovel that had its whole head stained in the dull red substance, and had momentarily paused to wonder just what it could have been used for to have caught so much.

All in all, he was enjoying the scenery less and less the longer he stayed, and it was not made any better by the time of the day: the setting Sun behind him was painting everything in a deep, crimson light, making the scene appear even gorier and grislier than it actually was. The shriveled, indistinguishable state of the corpses was bad enough without all these added features. Even someone of Masquerade’s normally-composed disposition was feeling nauseated and disgusted by this sight. However, his discomfort was not because he could not stand the thought of so many people dying horrifically – it was because he had already seen something like this happen before. In fact, it was the very memory of the similar incident that had been occupying his thoughts since his arrival here, and the recollections were fighting to resurface once again, despite his attempts to focus on the mission and not on them. But as was the case with haunting memories, they always managed to rise up and run their course through one’s mind.

The Nukenin’s expression darkened further as he recalled the time when he had what he might call a “home”. Truthfully, it had been an impecunious orphanage in an indigent village, which Masquerade believed to have been the worst place on Earth for anyone to grow up in. “Have been” being the operative words, for that little God-forsaken settlement was no longer in existence: for one day, Masquerade’s “hometown” had been raided by a crew of shrouded bandits. The attackers had pillaged the entire town, stealing the few possessions and goods that the hapless inhabitants had had. After that, in what had most likely been pure spite (or fury that their ransacking had yielded very few valuable items), the bandits had proceeded to set the town on fire, and massacre the whole town; so basically, the same fate that this town’s people had been subjected to. History was said to repeat itself, after all.

However, Masquerade could not conjure up the sardonic tone he would normally adopt when saying making an observation like that. No. Not now. As he walked through the ruined settlement and amongst the corpses, he was reliving that day again in his mind. He could remember, with vivid accuracy, the terror he had felt on that day, the fear he had experienced as he had run through a town of filled with fire, blood, and screaming. Presently, he felt like he was once again inhaling the clouds of toxic, choking smoke from the burning buildings; he could feel the suffocating heat of the flames, see them expanding before his eyes as they consumed everything and everyone. But the worst part of all was the screams of the villagers as they were struck down or burnt alive. If not cries of pain or terror, they had been calling out for help; and Masquerade, terrified for his life, had done nothing but run, leaving them to their grueling fate. The Nukenin curled his hands into tight fists, knuckles turning white and fingernails digging into his palm as the screams echoed hauntingly in his ears. He had left them to all to die, and he had been the only one to survive. Yes, he had disliked everything about that village, and everyone in it. Yes, he had been so young that he could not even remember his exact age at that time. Yes, he had been only been a little child that was frightened for his life. But even so: he had thought of nothing but his own survival at the time. Nothing had mattered to him more than staying alive. He had taken advantage of the fact that the raiders were too busy looting the village and slaughtering the citizens to notice him flee for his life. Even if he did not like any of the villagers, even if he had been very young, even if he had been frightened out off his mind, it did not excuse the fact that he had done something so heartless and selfish. Sure, he could not have saved all of those in danger, but he may have been able help at least one person. But no: he had cared more for his own safety than anyone else’s.

Initially, the nightmares that had haunted his sleep had comprised only of reliving the incident repeatedly. As he had grown older, and as he had learned about morals and ethics, the guilt behind his actions had finally caught up to him and decided to join in on the party of tormenting him in his dreams. How many nights had he spent repeatedly experiencing that day in his dreams? He had lost count. All he knew was that they had been the most miserable nights of his life, even more than the ones at the orphanage. Even now, he would still have those nightmares, but not so frequently. Only when he spent his time brooding over that day did he face that nighttime torment, which was why he made a habit of no longer focusing on it. He still had other unpleasant dreams to deal with, ones which came to be after he did something “criminal” enough to evoke guilt – in other words, anything that caused another person pain or misfortune. At least he could cope with those dreams and shrug them off every now and then. But not the ones about his burning hometown; his heart had not hardened enough to close itself off to so much fear and guilt. And walking through this town, looking at the state it was in, Masquerade knew that he could expect several grueling nights in the very near future.

“I look forward to the day when I meet a shinobi who hasn’t had a traumatizing life,” Masquerade remarked grimly, stepping over what was undoubtedly the remains of a mother holding her infant child in her arms. He did not look down for even a second.

“Yo! Master!”

At the sound of high-pitched, guttural voice, Masquerade stopped and checked over his shoulder to see the hyena jogging over to him with a quickened pace. The Nukenin turned around fully to face Chuckles as he came to a halt a few feet from the human. Looking up at Masquerade, Chuckles smirked smugly, and his subsequent words were no surprise to the Nukenin. “We’re in luck, Master. I think I’ve found our guy, and the bag he was carrying. Aren’t I awesome?”

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

“Here we are! This is the place,” Chuckles chirped at Masquerade, actually skipping over jovially to the charred remains of a large house. As Masquerade climbed over a fallen roof and stepped down to where the hyena stood waiting, he looked down at what Chuckles was gesturing to with his paw. It was a large, leather bag, covered in soot and torn in certain places, but otherwise appearing undamaged. Masquerade titled his head thoughtfully at this turn of events. Truly, they were lucky – just as Chuckles had said earlier. They – or rather, Chuckles – had found Objective # 1 in a less than a quarter of an hour, and now all they had to do was ensure that the person Chuckles had located was indeed the man they sought. Masquerade glanced around for the man in question, but could not see anyone around them – dead or alive. He turned to Chuckles questioningly, the frown on his masked face discernible only by the downward curve of his mouth. The unasked question reached the hyena’s ears, and with a highly-amused smirk, he raised his head up and pointed in the direction he was looking.

“Up there.”

Masquerade followed his point, and raised his eyebrows surprisingly at the sight. A body was suspended high above them, its abdomen pierced through by a spire projecting diagonally upwards from the intact roof of the house. There was really no other explanation than the fact that this particular victim must have been dropped onto the spire, the sharp protrusion indubitably perforating his body without difficulty. Death must have painful, undoubtedly made even more unbearable by the fact that the raging fire had reached the victim as well. Like so many others, this corpse was also burnt to a crisp, and this was apparently the man they sought. Grimacing, Masquerade moved forward and began to scale the structure, climbing the twenty feet in a matter of seconds. Pulling himself up onto the triangular rooftop, the Nukenin advanced to the spire where the corpse lay in wait. Standing in front of the mess while he pondered how to remove the corpse from its predicament, the Jinchuuriki waited several seconds before simply shrugging before executing a simple sequence of handseals. A spray of purple acid was ejected out from the palm of his hand, splattering over the base of the spire and eating through its weakened base. With a loud creak and snapping sound, the destabilized structure caved to gravity and went crashing down to the earth. Surprisingly, the spire landed pointed-edge-first on the ground, securely digging into the soft earth.

Masquerade returned to ground level as Chuckles approached the fallen spire and the corpse pinned to the ground by it. As the human neared, the animal stepped back to allow him some room to work. The Nukenin kneeled down before the body and ran a scrutinizing eye over it, but there was no much to see. The face was scorched completely, without any remaining traces of hair to identify; the blackened skin left no hint as to what the corpse’s original skin tone may have been. However, the figure did fit the height requirement, and after lifting an eyelid, Masquerade was able to confirm that the victim’s eyes were indeed a hazel pigmentation. Rising to his feet, Masquerade rested a hand on his waist whilst the other went up to scratch the back of his head pensively. “Well, Chuckles. I’m not fully certain, but I believe we can assuredly say that this corpse belongs to the man we have been sent to find. He has the same height and eye color, and while we cannot confirm his hair or skin coloration…” The blonde looked back at the leather bag lying a couple of feet away from them. “... the bag over there is certainly this man’s, and the one we’ve been looking for.”

With those words, he turned away from the corpse and moved to the case, bending down and opening it to examine its contents. The client had asked them to bring whatever was in this case, and it would be best to make sure that its contents were indeed in a movable condition. However, there did not seem to be anything in the bag to begin wi – oh wait, never mind. Upon digging a hand into the case, the Nukenin had felt his groping hand close around what was clearly a test tube. Lifting the item out, he raised it to eye-level, but found that it was empty; there was no stopper either. Setting the tube back in the bag, he searched it further, and made note of the shattered remains of other test tubes and glass containers. Whatever these containers had been holding, they had been lost when the containers had broken. No doubt this had happened due to the bag falling out of the carrier’s hand and falling a full twenty feet before hitting the ground. It seemed that they would have to return empty-handed - ah, wait a second! Perhaps not. Masquerade’s hand had closed around another test tube, and as he lifted it out of the bag, he was treated to the reassuring sight of a level of translucent, sky blue liquid contained within the instrument. The blonde raised the tube to eye level, examining the solution within, but could not guess correctly as to what it might be or constitute of. Maybe copper? Shrugging, he pocketed the tube in his ninja pouch and resumed his search of the bag’s contents. Sadly, there was nothing else to find except ash, dirt, and broken glass.

Sighing, the blonde rose to his feet and dusted his hands clean, looking down contemplatively at the bag. “It seems that this container is all that remains of this bag’s contents,” he announced to his Summon, gently patting the pouch holding the test tube. “I believe it would be best to take this test tube back to the client. It would probably be a waste to take the bag or the corpse, though. I doubt they will be of any value to her in their current state. And there does not seem to be anything else of importance in this town to worry our employer abut…” His voice trailed off as his gaze was removed from the bag and the corpse, and instead to the overall surrounding area.

Narrowing his eyes in obvious disappointment, Chuckles stepped forward to look down at the bag with a scowl. “Tch, how boring,” he bemoaned at the result. Yellow eyes were then aimed to the taller human. “So, what? Mission accomplished?”

Despite not saying it outright, one could tell that Chuckles was irked by this outcome. Obviously, he did not like the fact that they had found their objectives so quickly; he no doubt wanted to the mission to go on for longer, and thought this was too easy and unentertaining of an ending. The grim pout on his face implied as much, along with the tone of his voice. And really, there was nothing else they could do, or had to do. As Masquerade had said, there was no need to bring back either the bag or the corpse to the client. Neither would be of any use to her. Sure, they were not one-hundred percent sure that this corpse belonged to the missing partner, but they had located the higher priority bag. Even if this was not the man they were looking for, Masquerade would be extremely surprised if the man was even alive. After all he and Chuckles had seen so far in this Town of The Dead, neither of them had been expecting to find the partner alive. So as Chuckles had stated: mission accomplished.

“No, not yet,” Masquerade piped up, still looking around at the area. “I’m not done searching this town yet. I want to stay and keep looking, and if possible, find out what happened here. I would like to find out for myself who would want to kill an entire town of people, and how they could have managed to do so.”

Chuckles stared wordlessly at his Summoner upon hearing his words. A moment later, he grinned happily and clapped his forepaws together. “Alright! Now that’s more like it! Here I thought you might be a spineless wimp like my previous owner. He used to blow chunks at the sight of dead bodies, you know. What a wuss!” Cackling at his former owner “weakness”, the hyena trotted happily to stand in front of Masquerade. He then craned his neck backwards to look over at the human, smiling pointedly at him. “Let’s get going then, shall we? I’m pretty eager to find out who would want to murder so many people, too. I’m sure that our employer would like to know that as well.”

Another laugh issued from the mammal’s snout before it bounded forward, scaling the rubble around them. His master smirked amusingly at the carnivore’s words. Hmph. He just wants to see more destruction, he thought to himself, before following suit.

And see more destruction, they did. By now, Masquerade would have assumed that he would be used to seeing bodies littering the area around demolished buildings. But no: no matter how many times he looked around at all the carnage, he could not help but feel even the tiniest amount of sympathy for all these townsfolk. As a Nukenin, he needed to harden his heart a multitude of times “to get the job done”, but that did not mean that he was beyond emotion. No, not yet. He could still feel pain for others, could still sympathize with them. He was not a cold-hearted criminal yet, and that proved a problem when he looked back on all the crimes he had committed. Guilt, grief, and regret always accompanied these reminiscences. One’s conscience was sadistic like that. Ignore the words of your inner goodness, and it would offer payback in the form of plaguing one’s mind with culpable thoughts. How ironic, that one’s own mind would be sadistic to its own body.

The Sun has almost set, Masquerade noted to himself, lifting his head up to the black-blue that was spreading across the sky. To be more accurate, the celestial orb had vanished behind the horizon by now, and only the remnants of its light remained to illuminate the area. The wrecked town was no longer coated in colors of red and orange, but soft blue light and deepening shadows. Soon enough, it would become nigh impossible to see, given how there would only be the light from the stars and the moon to illuminate Masquerade and Chuckles’ path. Staying here for too long after sunset would be more problematic than beneficial, since they would not be able to see all that well. Masquerade had also not forgotten the possibility that Kumogakure officials might arrive at any time to investigate the town. He had to be gone by then, or at least remain undetected long enough to escape without issues. He was confident that he would be able to get away before he was detected, as his ability to sense chakra would alert him if there was any chakra signature approaching the town. Should he detect any such disturbance, then he would hightail it out of the town, even if they had yet to find any useful information yet. Well, unless you counted discovery that the perpetrators did not appear to have relieved the inhabitants of their valuables, as numerous goods had been found left untouched. But aside from that, Masquerade and Chuckles had not come across any illuminating clues, with the aforementioned find only increasing their confusion.

Honestly, what on Earth is going -?

“Master!”

Masquerade started at the cry from behind him, and as he turned around he heard a growl from the hyena. The Nukenin was greeted with the sight of Chuckles standing right behind him on his hind legs, jaws clamped tightly around the arm of a human-sized figure. Rapidly moving back a few paces, Masquerade had barely registered the scene when Chuckles gave another growl and released the limb in his mouth, pushing the figure away and quickly stepping back to stand beside his master. A quick glance between the Summon and the Summoner, and the Nukenin was able to correctly deduce that this figure had been attempting to attack the shinobi from behind; the hyena must have noticed the assailant behind them just in time to intercept the sneak attack. Masquerade furrowed his brow behind his mask, clearly caught off-guard by the fact that Chuckles had even bothered to protect his Summoner. He was about to consider the possibility that Chuckles may be a tad bit trustworthy, when a more pressing matter took hold of his thoughts. Snapping his head in the direction of the stranger that had assaulted them, Masquerade narrowed his eyes as he examined it closely through the gloom of the night. Whoever this person was, Masquerade had not been able to detect his or her chakra signature, even though he or she had been a mere few inches behind the Nukenin prior to be detected. That in itself was far more perplexing than anything that Masquerade had come across today. Even if a person was not a ninja, they still had chakra within their body; latent, untouched chakra, but chakra nonetheless. It was not possible for someone to not have detectable chakra, not unless they were concealing it through jutsu. Yes, that was probably the explanation. Or rather, that was the explanation that Masquerade would have settled on, if he had not gotten a good look at his attacker.

The figure had charred, blackened skin covered in flaking, crusted blood. Its mouth was hanging open as a wide, gaping hole, as if it was giving out a long, voiceless screech. The clothes hanging from its body were ragged and burnt. Its body was swaying slightly like a drunkard, shoulders slumped and arms hanging limply in front of it. The bald, skeletal head was titled slightly as it faced the human and the hyena, its wide, popping eyes glazed over and watching aimlessly. The stench of rotting and burnt skin was oozing from the figure, and as it took a barefooted step forward, a low, gurgling sound issued from its gaping mouth.

“Son of a lion,” Chuckles murmured from beside Masquerade. Both he and Masquerade met each other’s gaze for a moment. “It’s a walking corpse.”

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Age : 31 Posts : 1836

A wet, growling bellow erupted from the corpse’s throat, and with a sudden backwards jerk of its head, it launched itself at Masquerade and Chuckles. Both of targets scattered, edging out of the way of the attack in opposing directions, whilst keeping their sights on the corpse. Lifeless eyes were turned to look at Masquerade, and an ear-splitting screech emanated from the gaping hole of a mouth. The sound was cut short when Chuckles lunged at the screamer from behind and clamped his jaws around its arm once again. As the hyena tugged at the arm to hold the creature at bay with a vicious snarl, the corpse in question screeched again and tried to pull its arm out of the mammal’s jaws. A brief tug-of-war ensued, where Chuckles refused to let go of the corpse’s arm, instead pulling it harder, and the corpse doing the same. The next second, the arm was gorily torn off the dead body’s shoulder, still clutched in Chuckles’ mouth. The corpse gave a dull grunt of acknowledgement, examining its stumped arm, before giving a roar of anger and pouncing at the hyena. Chuckles spat the limb out of his mouth and reared up to meet his opponent; his jaws opened wide, and before the corpse had even laid a hand on him, the hyena was already out of its reach. A sizeable chunk of burnt flesh was now in Chuckles’ mouth, the piece having come from the corpse’s throat. Chuckles would look back at the still-standing corpse behind him, which was drunkenly advancing towards him despite having a torn arm and neck. The corpse would only take two steps before a blast of purple liquid would douse its body. A hiss of rage sounded could be heard over the sizzling of the acid as the corpse was literally dissolved out of existence.

Spitting the chunk of meat out of his mouth with a disgusted look, Chuckles joined his Summoner in front of the corpse’s remains, though there was nothing there except for a patch of corroded earth. Both shared a confused glance with each other, not sure what to make of what they had just encountered. As Masquerade fell into brief thought, Chuckles kept repeating out loud that “that dead guy was alive”. Masquerade did not respond to the hyena’s mumbles, instead turning on his heel and walking away from the corroded corpse; his partner followed moments later, still disbelievingly muttering to himself about the encounter. Even Masquerade was busy going over the whole issue in his mind. They had just seen a charred body walking around as if it had been alive, when it had clearly been deceased; if it had not been dead, then it should have died after Chuckles had ripped its throat out, but it had not. Even tearing off a limb had not had any effect. Seeing that, Masquerade had suspected that obliterated its form beyond repair would be the best way to stop it, and he seemed to have been right. But the more pressing matter was: what was that thing? The Nukenin had never seen anything like it before, and neither had the hyena beside him. Though, ignorance did not stop Chuckles from rambling on about “zombies” and “the Undead”, and how all the facts suggested that the thing they had just faced was one of them. Masquerade merely scoffed at the suggestions, refusing to accept Chuckles’ explanation. There had to be a more realistic explanation than that, and he told the hyena as much.

“There are no such things as “zombies”, Chuckles,” Masquerade stated firmly as he walked through the dark town. “They are nothing more than the ramblings of a madman.” His tone was crisp and stubborn, indicating the little tolerance he had for such tales. Behind him, Chuckles suddenly stopped, sniffing the air, before looking back in the direction they had come from.

“Okay. So, would you mind telling them that?” he remarked casually, pointing in the direction he was looking. Masquerade stopped at the hyena’s words and looked back over his shoulder, and was met with the sight of a horde of aggressive dead ones rushing at them. Now, Masquerade was not the bravest of people, but he was no coward either; that being said, he felt his stomach drop at the almost nightmarish sight. Eyes widening and mouth swearing loudly, the human bolted in the opposite direction along with a laughing hyena in tow. He did not look back, but he could tell from the quickened padding of feet that the group behind was increasing their pace; the chilling shrieks were getting louder by the second. Needless to say, Masquerade felt his own pace quickening as a rush of adrenaline pumped through his body, giving him the boost he needed to keep moving. That, and the horrendous screams were incentive enough to make him not want to be caught by those things.

They ran and ran, turning corners and leaping over fallen debris. Eventually, the Nukenin noticed an oddity: he could not see any bodies on the ground anymore. In fact, the two could not spot any corpse lying on the ground or amongst the wreckage. It was as if they had all simply gotten up and walked away… “Ohhh… shit,” Masquerade groaned, both because of the epiphany he had just had, and for what waited for the two as they turned a corner. Lurching forwards, essentially blocking their path, this second group of corpses spotted the duo of living ones and froze in place; this preceded the challenging roar that accompanied their charge.

“Woops! Not that way!” the hyena called out with a faint giggle, before darting into an alley between two wrecked houses. Masquerade ducked into the gap right after him, stopping only briefly to see that the new group and previous group of “zombies” (he clenched his teeth at as he acquiesced to calling the corpses that) were both closing in on him and his partner. As he followed his Summon, Masquerade could not help but bite his teeth together, both from fear and annoyance at what was happening. The mission had so abruptly gone from good to bad, and it seemed likely to get worse the longer it went on.

Run, run, run; all they could do was run. The only plan that either could come up with was to run. They could not stop and fight, for only Masquerade could actually stop the creatures quickly enough. The brief moments of remaining stationary was only when they would find their paths blocked, at which point the two sought out another route. Chuckles led the way, his nose tirelessly sniffing the air in order to catch the decaying, burnt scent of the corpses before he or Masquerade actually ran into them. Since the shinobi had no way to detecting their presence (their bodies did not give off any heat to detect using jutsu, or have any chakra to track), he had to trust his Summon’s superior senses to guide them out of harm’s way. Thankfully, Chuckles did seem to be doing his best to avoid the zombies, despite the fact that he kept snickering every time he detected a nearby group. But, he would always lead the way away from any potential threat, even if the living unintentionally ran into one. At the very least, Masquerade felt that the hyena could be trusted to get them out of here alive.

Assuming the accursed zombies would even let them leave. Unspoken though it may have been, the obvious plan was to escape the town immediately. This feat was proving to be quite the challenging one, for wherever the pair went, they would be sidetracked by throngs of bad guys. Undead obstacles popped up everywhere they went, as if the human and hyena’s movements were being predicted; or maybe there were just a lot of zombies. Indeed, Masquerade was not all that surprised that they kept running into walking corpses; he had seen more corpses than he could remember lying immobile on the ground several minutes ago. Unfortunately, the baddies were not the only predicament that the shinobi and his animal associate were dealing with. The night was dark, visibility was poor, and the town was almost like a labyrinth. In short, Masquerade had no idea where they were, in which direction their freedom was, or how far away they were from it. Against his better judgment, he was putting all of his trust in Chuckles. And honestly, the blonde thought that was even more frightening than being in a town overrun with murderous zombies. At least the zombies weren’t grinning ecstatically, like they were having the time of their lives.

“Quick, in here!” The hyena dashed into an empty house (well, they were all empty) with Masquerade in tow. The Nukenin closed the front door behind him and took cover underneath a window, crouched beside Chuckles. For the moment, they should be safe, as Chuckles had mentioned that he could not smell any zombies nearby; good fortune, as this may allow them a chance to catch their breath. Masquerade wiped the beads of sweat flowing down his forehead with a gloved hand, further wetting the hand wear after using it dry his several times prior. His lungs were on fire, his throat felt like it was going to tear open, his muscles ached like they’d been pierced all over with red-hot pins, and his heart was pounding so fast that he was sure that a heart failure was imminent. Chuckles looked to be in no better condition physically, sprawled tiredly on the floor with his tongue lolling out of his open mouth, eyelids lowered and gasping for breath; not even the faintest trace of a smile could be detected on his face. Masquerade rose up slightly to peer out of the window, and saw the same darkness that he had been seeing for the last hour (had it been an hour? Probably less). In any case, things were no looking so good for them.

Masquerade did not know about the hyena, but he for one was scared. He was not going to deny it: he was scared. The whole thing was something out of his worst nightmares. Anyone who had been involved in or caused the death of another would be haunted by the dead one’s ghost in their dreams; it was the dreamer’s way of feeling guilt. This, however, was worse than anything Masquerade’s conscience had ever dreamt up for him. This night would be haunting him for the rest of his life. Assuming he lived through this ordeal in the first place. Was he ready to die? No, he was not. He was not in a hurry to die. He would prefer to live a little longer, if it was possible.

A cough sounded beside Masquerade, and the hyena opened a yellow eye to look up woozily at Masquerade’s profile. “So, Boss, got a plan? Things aren’t looking too great at the moment.” Nodding his head in agreement, Masquerade looked over at the slumped hyena, thinking. Wordlessly, he reached into his pouch and lifted out a test tube, the one he had gotten from the leather bag that had belonged to the client’s missing associate. Fortunately, it had not shattered despite all the heavy action its carrier had gone through lately. Looking down at the sky blue liquid in the tube, Masquerade gripped the container tightly before holding it out to Chuckles. The hyena looked at it with a raised brow.

“It’s time for you to head back home, Chuckles,” Masquerade declared serenely, “and you’re to take this test tube with you. Return to the safety of your homeland, and keep the tube safe. If I make it out of here alive, I will call for you and the test tube. If, on the other hand, you do not hear from me, well then… You may do with the tube and its contents as you place. In the latter case, do know that I enjoyed this little “adventure” of ours.” Though the last comment was made in a sarcastic tone, the words before were impassive and serious. Indeed, the brief smirk that had adorned the male’s face upon making his sardonic statement was quickly dropped in favor of a more grim expression. Masquerade was not being heroic. He simply did not see any reason why Chuckles need remain in his company any longer. Really, the hyena could have “poofed” back to his homeland the moment things had gone south. He did not have to escape the town to survive this situation. All Chuckles had to do was cancel the Summoning, and he would be out of harm’s way. Masquerade did not fully understand why the hyena had not done so yet. Making the argument that the thought had simply not occurred to him would be erroneous, as Masquerade was certain that his Summon was intelligent enough to be aware of this basic skill. The only reason the Nukenin could come up with was that the hyena had been having far too much fun to want to leave, as perilous as the circumstances may be. Normally, Masquerade would be inclined to think poorly of anyone who would have such an insane mindset, but the fact remained that Chuckles had been around to assist Masquerade so far. He supposed he should be grateful to the animal for that. “This is not a request, Chuckles. This is an order from your Master. Take the test tube and leave.”

The hyena opened both eyes and looked thoughtfully at the human, before proceeding to chuckle softly. “As you wish, Master. But before I go, let me say something.” Pushing himself to his feet, Chuckles looked Masquerade dead in the eye, a wide grin plastered across his face. “Like I said earlier, my previous master was a gutless coward. In fact, none of my owners so far would have lasted here for as long as you have. You’re by far the bravest of the lots, Masky.” He leaned in closer, his foul, animalistic breath wafting all over Masquerade’s face. He raised a paw to his face, lifting up one digit while curling the others in a very human gesture. “But that’s not necessarily a good thing! Remember our deal: I want you to stay alive and get stronger, so that we can have lots of fun times together. And that can’t happen if you go get yourself killed.” The quadruped wagged his raised digit in front of Masquerade’s emotionless visage. “Remember: self-preservation is key! Do whatever it takes to survive! Whatever it takes!”

Grin widening, Chuckles lowered his paw and picked the test tube up with is mouth. “Best of luck, Masky! I’ll be eagerly waiting for the results!” With a salute and an engulfing cloud of smoke, the Summon vanished from sight, leaving Masquerade alone in the Town of The Dead.

Self-preservation is key, eh?

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Age : 31 Posts : 1836

Pause. Scan the area. Exit the building. Duck into an alley. Pause. Scan the area. Climb onto an overhanging ledge. Jump onto another rooftop. Continue moving, hunched and silently. Pause. Scan the area. Wait with bathed breath as a group of dead ones slowly march by underneath. Exhale. Move to another building. Secure a hiding spot in an alcove on the roof. Wait. Examine surroundings. Pinpoint target. Resume movement.

It was challenging now. Tricky. Without the assistance of Chuckles’ superior sense of smell, safe navigation was a far more trying task than before. Now, Masquerade had to rely on his own senses to keep himself out of harm’s way – or more accurately, the zombies’ way. And as every human had to admit every now and then, human beings had pathetic senses when compared to other animals’. Even with the light from the luminous orbs in the sky falling down to the Earth, visibility was very poor. It was not pitch-black, but it was still dark. He could see well enough to spot danger (i.e. a vicious corpse) from a considerable distance, but that was not very useful when his pursuers were blocked from sight by the various buildings and walls situated all over the area. If he wanted to stay out of sight, strutting down an empty street was not the wise choice; he had to stick to the alleys and gaps between the town’s buildings. Navigating through them would be much easier if it was not for the potential threat of turning a corner and running into a group of corpses. To avoid any such unwanted occurrences, the shinobi was travelling slowly and methodically, constantly checking his surroundings, alert for anything troubling. His ears were perked up and trying their best to hear the enemy before either side saw each other, but that was predictably proving to be harder than trying to see. He literally could not hear them approaching until they were feet away.

So, hearing was not yielding many benefits in terms of reducing risk. Sense of smell? Well, that would naturally be the most useless sense to rely on (after touch, perhaps). It would be the most useless, if the Nukenin had not taken special measures to ensure that he could rely on his nose; these “special measures” being a jutsu that served to heighten his sense of smell to above-human levels. Before leaving the house he had been hiding in, Masquerade had initiated the jutsu in question, and was using it to the best of his abilities to ensure he did not make a “wrong turn”. However, it was not a perfect advantage. While he could use the technique to detect the scents around him more clearly, distinguishing them was not as easy. Each corpse carried an individual scent each along with the shared stench of burned and/or decaying flesh. He could pinpoint the smell of death, but that smell was all over the town. Singling a corpse from just its stench was not easy, particularly from a distance. Quite literally, he could not notice an approaching zombie until it was within meters of his vicinity, and he could only do so because the odor it gave off would strengthen enough to be noticeable. At which point, he would seek cover and use other means to determine whether he had really detected corpse, or if it had been his mind playing tricks on him. Needless to say, even with that advantage, progress was slow and frustrating. At the rate he was moving, Masquerade had no clear idea as to how long it would take him to reach his goal.

What was his goal? To escape the town. How did he plan to do that? By making his way to the town borders and hightailing it out of there. If the zombies gave pursuit even after he left the town, then it would be easier to lose them in the environs. If they did not follow, well then, Masquerade did not care if he left behind a town full of murderous zombies that might be unleashed upon the world. The country’s official forces could handle that mess. Right now, all that mattered to Masquerade was his survival. He had to get out of here alive, and he had to do it quickly. The mission was nowhere near as important to him right now as surviving. Whether he had taken the hyena’s words about self-preservation to heart was anyone’s guess; all the Teinei knew was that he agreed with his Summon one-hundred-percent at the moment. Do whatever it took to survive? Considering how grim his predicament was, and how much harder it was becoming to suppress the fear welling up inside him, Masquerade felt that he was indeed willing to do anything it took to survive. But there was no need to be so hasty. Not just yet.

Balancing himself on the top of a chimney, Masquerade surveyed the distance he had left to travel, reminding himself that staying up here made him very easy to spot from below. However, he needed an elevated view of his surroundings to help plot a path to travel. But as he swept a scrutinizing eye over the landscape, a more appealing idea came to mind. The edge of the town was less than eighty meters away in a straight line; not a very long distance. He reckoned that he could risk it. He could risk flying the rest of the way. Yes, he could. Mind made up, the Jinchuuriki deactivated his sense-enhancing jutsu and summoned his wings. The ghostly insect wings were soon protruding out of his back. Spreading them wide, he kicked off from the chimney, his motionless wings creating no sound as he soared over the low rooftops. Unless the zombies looked up, they should not be able to spot him. And really, why would they look up for a flying ninja? Humans, ninja or not, did not usually have the ability to fly. Besides, these zombies did not seem intelligent enough to think about scanning the skies for him. Not to mention, if they did spot him, then Masquerade would notice that soon enough. After all, the corpses were bound to make a ruckus trying to reach him all the way up here.

No sooner had he come to that conclusion, when he felt something slam into him from behind without warning, its momentum knocking him off course and sending him plummeting down towards a rooftop. The high-pitched shriek in his ear, along with the vice-like grip of the skeletal limbs binding his body, told the Nukenin that his surprise attacker was one of the walking corpses. The Nukenin did not have any time to rage mentally about his bad luck, or how the creature had managed to hit him with the force of speeding car. He did not have any time to do this, because the building rising up rapidly to meet them left little of his mind free for contemplation. The Nukenin could do nothing but brace himself as he and his captor smashed into the surprisingly sturdy roof. He hit the surface on his front, sprawling against it flatly; his captor’s hold loosened and it rolled off him, shakily pushing itself to its feet. Fortunately, the fall had not been a long one, leaving the Nukenin alive but dazed and with a spinning head. Rising to his feet alerted the shinobi of the pain coursing through his body. He did not know the extent of his injuries, but he guessed (more like hoped) that it was only minor. The pain was mild enough that he could ignore it, fortunately.

An unexpected stinging sensation shot up his arm, causing a hiss of pain to escape from his mouth. Glancing back, Masquerade saw that his attacker had bitten down on his lower arm - the result of Masquerade lowering his guard. The creature’s blackened teeth had managed to sink deeply into his forearm, causing blood to seep out of the blonde’s skin. With a growl of anger, Masquerade smashed his other fist into the corpse’s face, probably bruising his own hand with the action. Fortunately, the force of the punch proved strong enough to knock the corpse back. Unfortunately, the corpse tore off a chunk of Masquerade’s skin with its teeth as it was thrown back. A yell of pain sounded from the Nukenin as the injury was inflicted, and without thought, his hands flew in a sequence of handseals, and a blast of acid was launched at the corpse. Growling in pain and ignoring the cries of the “dying” corpse, Masquerade hurriedly tore off a piece of cloth from the hem of his coat and wrapped it around the bleeding wound on his arm.

He had just tied the makeshift bandage securely when he was alerted to the sound of another approaching threat. A scowl appeared on his masked visage as he spotted more corpses climbing up onto the rooftop, no doubt having been drawn to Masquerade’s scream from earlier. Or, they may have seen him fall down here from the sky. The Nukenin leaped to his feet instantly as the charred figures reached the top, slowly advancing towards him. Pain still plagued his mind, but his fear and anger were proving to be the stronger feelings. As his targets gathered in front of him in a thick group, the snarling male turned and ran for the edge of the rooftop. The zombies gave chase with a chorus of hellish howls. Their howls and motion ceased the moment the Nukenin leaped off the edge of the building they were on, instead of jumping across the gap to the roof ahead. Masquerade dropped to the ground below, executing a few simple handseals as he fell. The result was that the Nukenin sank through and into the ground instead of crumbling against it. That did not go the same way for the zombies that mimicked Masquerade and jumped off the building after him.

Now underground, Masquerade felt he was at least a little safer than he had been before. He was not going to rule out the possibility that the annoying corpses would find a way to reach him all the way down here; after all, one of them had just defied the laws of physics and jumped far higher than any normal human, dead or alive, should be able to. Whatever surprises the creatures had in store for the Nukenin, he was not going to stay still and wait for them. Instead, he began to make his way in the direction where he deduced the town border to be, this time staying below ground.

A couple of minutes later, the blonde was cautiously raising his head out from under the ground to determine where he was. With a wave of relief washing over him, he spotted the border wall just a few feet ahead; and best of all, there were no bad guys in sight. That was a good. Twice, he had accidently surfaced right in front of an unsuspecting group of zombies, and both occasions the creatures had almost seized him before he had dropped back underground. But no shocks like that awaited him here. Even as Masquerade emerged completely out of the earth and cautiously rose to his feet, a glance around assured him that none of his pursuers were nearby. They probably still thought he was still back somewhere in the inner town area; a preferable misconception. Not wasting any further time, Masquerade dashed towards the low stone wall, and unhesitatingly jumped over it towards freedom.

Or tried to. As soon as he reached the wall, the blonde ran into something – something invisible and hard. Blinking in confusion, the Nukenin stretched his hand forward and found it unable to extend past a certain point. The same was true for every other part of his body. Startled, he moved to another spot and tried to move forward from there, but the same result occurred at this point; and the next. It was like there was a wall blocking his path, a wall he could touch but not see. Frowning, the male performed a sequence of handseals once more, and fired a sphere of purple acid at the spot ahead. The sphere erupted the moment it hit the imaginary wall, and a further examination showed that the obstruction was still there, and nothing seemed to have happened to it.

No, wait. Something was happening. As Masquerade watched perplexedly, the air in front of him rippled and began to glow with a light green aura. This rippling effect and glow spread out, covering the area ahead of Masquerade and more. Speechless, Masquerade looked around wildly as he realized what he was witnessing. Fear and panic began to bubble up within him. The Nukenin’s green eyes followed the similarly-colored light as it continued to spread, curving along the shape of the stone wall and out of his sight. At the same time, it was rising up as well, and in a few seconds, a domed ceiling of green light had appeared far above Masquerade’s head, with what looked like a large, complex Fuuinjutsu mark in the center. Soon, the rippling effect ceased, but the color remained, covering the town like a roof.

Like a barrier.

He was trapped in a barrier with a small army of ravenous, walking corpses.

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Chakra Remaining:

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

For a full minute, Masquerade did not move, stupidly staring up at the barrier. Nothing came to mind. He could not come up with any plausible solution. He could not see any way to pass through the barrier without somehow undoing the Fuuinjutsu. Problem was, he had next to no skill with Fuuinjutsu. He could try destroying the seal, but as his earlier jutsu had just proved, he did not have the destructive force required to do so. Hell, if the barrier could withstand the corrosive powers of the Shichibi’s acid, then it must be extremely resilient; certainly too strong to be destroyed by anything in Masquerade’s arsenal. He could not even attack the giant mark far above, simply because it was too high for him or any of his jutsu to reach.

With no epiphany hitting him, the blonde did the first thing he could think of: he swung around and slammed a fist into the green wall behind him, followed by another, and then another. As expected, the action yielded no result other than a smarting hand. The futility of his actions all too apparent to him, the trapped Nukenin stepped back a few steps. Frustrated, he clamped his hands on his head, eyes bulging and teeth grinding. His arms trembled, his legs threatening to buckle and drop him onto his knees. Was he panicking? Oh, yes. How else was he to react in this situation? How else was he supposed to act when he was imprisoned in a town overrun with savage corpses, with no one to help him, and with no plan to fall back on? It was a scenario that Masquerade would never have been able to imagine happening; not to him, or anyone else. Not even his pessimistic side could have ever predicted that he would end up in this kind of mess. But now, his pessimistic self could imagine, subconsciously, how this situation could get worse.

And it was about to get worse. Any dread that the male felt intensified as a soft chorus of growling, gurgling sounds began to issue from behind him. A sight of two dozen, hunching corpses met the Nukenin’s shifting gaze. For a moment, Masquerade did not move. He looked silently at the corpses. Then, he leapt to his feet and bolted in the opposite direction. The corpses gave chase immediately.

Run. Run. Run. He just kept running. He did not try to hide from them. He did not try to lose them. He did not stop to fight them. He did not look back at them. He just kept running from them. Turn left, turn right, jump up, jump down. He just kept going - kept running. He did not know where he was going. He did not care where he was going. He was not trying to execute a plan. He was not trying to formulate a plan. He was just running. Shrill, soulless shrieks cutting through the night. His pursuers. Behind him, above him, beside him, and sometimes in front of him; there were more than he could bother to count, and more than he could have thought there to be. They were popping up all around him, eagerly joining the chase. Chasing him, like a pack of wolves chasing its prey. Yes. Prey. He was the prey, and they were the hunters. There was no other analogy, trite or unique, that described the scene more perfectly than that.

How long he ran, he had no idea. He was not even aware of his body giving in to the exhaustion. His pace slowed, his legs buckled, and he came to a panting stop in the town square. Dazed, mindlessly, the blonde saw nothing but hordes of burned corpses stepping out from between the surrounding buildings. The creatures slowly and confidently surrounded the shinobi. He gave no indication that he was aware of their presence. His head was hanging slightly to one side, his eyes wide and staring unblinkingly ahead from under his mask. His shoulders were slumped, and his arms hung limply by his sides. His drooping stance and floppiness was mirrored by the corpses around him, only they seemed to be aware of his presence. He made no move to prevent the zombies from enclosing him in a tight circle, and he made no move to escape either. The blonde was just staring blankly ahead of himself, above the heads of the corpses. The lights were on, but there was no one home.

The foremost corpse gave a savage hiss and took a step forward… and promptly collapsed face-first onto the ground. His brothers and sisters did the same, dropping to the dirt like sacks of potatoes. Once they hit the ground, they did not get back up. They just lay there, unmoving. At the same time, a large crack appeared in the ceiling of the domed barrier, right where the Fuuinjutsu mark was situated. The crack expanded, and with a sound reminiscent of shattering glass, broke into a plethora of pieces like the aforementioned glass. The pieces faded out of existence long before they could reach the ground. But Masquerade remained in his zombie-like state, unaware of what had just transpired - for a few seconds, at least. One, two, three, blink. Slowly, green eyes lowered to take note of the multitude of prone, lifeless corpses lying around him, motionless like regular dead bodies. Sights were then locked onto the sky above, which was now visible due to the absence of the green-hued barrier dome. Masquerade slowly lowered his gaze back down to earth, and even more slowly, he realized what had just happened. The barrier had been broken, and the corpses had been (for lack of a better term) “killed”.

Fatigued legs buckled and gave way, causing their owner to drop to the ground. Landing on his rear painfully (but more importantly, in relief), Masquerade leaned back with his arms supporting him, breathing heavily and rapidly. He felt as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber. It was as if his brain had been on shutdown for the past… however many minutes it had been. Now, it was back on and processing again. He had not been thinking or focusing consciously since learning about the barrier. Fear and panic had been guiding him, fueling him as he had run around blindly without a plan. Strange as it was, it had been his terror that had caused him to give up once he had reached this town square. Fear had been the reason why he had more or less stopped running, and resigned himself to whatever fate the corpses had in store for him. Fear had first given him the drive he needed to ensure his survival, and it had suddenly caused him to abandon any hope of survival. How ironic.

Looking around at all the dead people, Masquerade knew that he ought to get out of here, now that the barrier had been lifted. Who knew if this outcome was a permanent one, or just a temporary occurrence? The barrier might be put back up at any moment, and the corpses might rise up again to hunt him. He had to get out of here now, while he had the chance. However, he could not muster the strength to stand up, or even move; not only because of exhaustion, but from fear as well. The terror still had a hold of his mind. The emotions he had been feeling earlier, but not fully registering, were flowing through him unhindered. Now that he could think clearly, he could recall the terror he had been experiencing in its fullest. At that time, being chased by the corpses, he had been more frightened than he had ever been in his entire life. He could still feel that terror, just like how one could still feel the remnants of a nightmares even after they woke up. It was that very echo of fear that made him want to just close his eyes, bury his head in hands, and try to reassure himself that he was, indeed, safe now. He was not in danger him right now.

Except that he was. As if an alarm had gone off in the male’s head, his eyelids flew open and his head shot up abruptly. Masquerade’s eyes widened as he sensed an approaching chakra signature - a large one. No, wait. A more focused scan revealed that the large quantity of chakra was not emanating from one person, but from a group; and this group of ninja was slowly moving in Masquerade’s direction. Why was this revelation a cause for concern? Well, Masquerade had a very good inkling that these newly-arrived shinobi were Kumogakure officials. Quickly, unstably, he leaped to his feet. He could sense a few Chuunin-level chakra signatures, as well as one that was clearly above Jounin-level. There was no way he was going to sit here and wait for such powerful ninja to show up and find him in such a weakened state. He was already scared enough by the memory of being chased by zombies. The thought of being chased by several Chuunin and a Jounin-plus… Well, it made it very likely that Masquerade would soil himself then and there.

Just as the rogue shinobi had turned around and was about to head off in the opposite direction from the chakra signatures, his body froze up as he sensed the strongest of the chakra signatures heading straight for him - very quickly. The fear returned, and he made to dash out of there as quickly as possible, but his haste resulted in clumsiness: he tripped over a dead body and landed face-first on the dirt. By the time he got to his feet, the chakra was far too close for comfort, and without thinking, the Nukenin stopped to look back at the newcomer… and felt his jaw drop open in surprise. Sprinting right towards him, with a grim look on his face, was Yuuji Subaru.

“Move! Run for it!” the bearded man shouted at the dumbstruck Nukenin, waving an arm at him hurriedly. Masquerade did not heed the man’s words at first, still trying to process what he was seeing. As Subaru neared the blonde, he guessed correctly that Masquerade was currently not as receptive as he normally was, so he grabbed the masked male by the arm and dragged him along, away from the other chakra signatures. The blue-haired man could apparently read the masked look of confusion on Masquerade’s face, because he quickly murmured to him: “I’ll explain later. Right now, let’s get out of here!”

Finally coming back to his senses, Masquerade nodded and followed the older man. The two ran for the edge of the town, quickly increasing the distance between them and the Chuunin-level shinobi. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Masquerade guessed that the latter group was too busy examining the carnage in the town to care about giving chase to Masquerade and Subaru; that, or they had no idea that the two had even been in the settlement to begin with. The latter seemed more probable. But now was not the time to be hypothesizing. Now was the time for escaping. And mercifully, much to Masquerade’s relief, he and Subaru managed to successfully accomplish that. More than ten minutes of running later, the two males had stopped at a hill overlooking the town, the darkness of the night providing them with the cover they needed while they rested (or rather, Masquerade rested). The moonlight was just bright enough to allow Masquerade a vague view of the town’s outline, and he thought he spotted the faint specks of light that had no doubt been lit by the shinobi still down there. While Masquerade was looking down at the town, Subaru’s gaze was fixed to a spot on their left. Whatever the blue-haired man was looking at, it caused a scowl to form on his features. Masquerade, however, did not see the man’s expression, or how it vanished a few seconds later.

Subaru took a step forward and placed a hand on Masquerade’s shoulder, obtaining his attention to tell him that they had to get going. Masquerade nodded, rising to his feet. Although the bearded male began walking further away from the town, the blonde did not immediately follow him. Instead, he paused to throw one last glance at the town below. A grimace of disgust appeared on his shadowed face before he spun on his heels and strode off after Subaru.

And here I thought I would never find a place I hated more than my hometown.

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~ Mission Complete ~

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