Suspicious Activity I [P, Mission]

Age : 30 Posts : 1637

MISSION BRIEFING:

"I think that's everything."

It seemed that things were starting to look up. This would be Kyousuu's first mission that actually seemed somewhat important. He was beginning to feel more like a Chuunin than he did when he was told to his faced that he was being promoted. Granted, the mission was still marked as C-Rank, but the chances of things becoming more dangerous than anticipated were rather high, so they opted to send a chuunin rather than a genin, just to be on the safe side. Not to mention they wanted to keep him busy so he didn't start causing trouble, because he'd started picking up a new hobby, one that Kanako had introduced him to - cross-dressing. Though he wasn't really sure how to feel about it at first when she put him in one of the most feminine kimonos he'd ever laid eyes on, he found that it didn't take much effort to achieve a convincingly female appearance. He'd only played dress-up with Kanako a few times, as he was sure he'd be much too nervous to show his face in public, not to mention his parents would likely have an aneurysm if they ever saw him dress more effeminately than he already did. Crop tops and tight, above the knee shorts were far from masculine, but he had filled out since he was 16, giving him a slightly broader upper body. Though not the epitome of "manliness" figure-wise, he was mistaken for a woman far less often. Besides, his attire was just a lot more practical for his style of combat, even if he didn't like getting covered in dirt. Ensuring all of his tools and weapons were placed in their holsters and secured somewhere on his body one last time, he headed out the door.

The moon was already out in full glow, and most, if not all, civilians found themselves in the comfort of their homes, either asleep or about to reach that point. It was a rather calm night, even for Kyousuu's standards, which made him feel a bit more at ease about doing this mission alone. He'd hardly ever stepped foot outside of the village gates, and even though he would simply be investigating immediately outside of them, it felt like he was separating himself from Konoha a bit. That was likely also due to the fact that the moonlight gave everything a much more cold, lifeless feel. Since his mission revolved around locating some potentially suspicious characters, he decided that it was best to travel around at night, seeing as anybody that wanted to infiltrate Konoha would likely do so under the cover of night. Even if they didn't intend to do something like that, and were simply here sight-seeing, they'd likely be much easier to find when they weren't mixed in with everybody else that came in and out of the village during the day.

Mentally preparing himself for the worst, he made his way to the village gates. He decided to check in with whatever guards were there before moving about, partially because they might have a bit mroe information, but also because he didn't want them to think he was just waltzing out of the village without a reason. Most guards always seemed to tense up when they saw him near the gates, most likely because they were worried that he was just running off, and didn't know how they'd fight him. Although he was gaining confidence in his combat ability, he doubted he'd really be able to handle fighting two people at once, so the idea that they weren't so sure meant that they either lacked combat ability, or just thought way too highly of the chuunin's ability to draw on his bijuu's power.

Looking up as he reached the gate, he briefly examined the two guards. One was leaning back in his chair as though asleep, with a book on his face, and the other looked like he was simply bored. It was refreshing to see people that wasn't 200% serious about their jobs for a change since most shinobi Kyousuu met were very serious about it all. Sure, it was more of a lifestyle than a career choice once you became a chuunin, even for some genin, but taking things too seriously made you get old faster. At least, that's what Kanako's mother always said when the three of them had their weekly shared hot-pot dinner.

"Yo," the brunet called out as he walked up to the guards, pulling out the scroll with his mission brief neatly written upon it, "I'm here to investigate the... 'activity' outside the gates. I just thought I'd check in with you both before I head out, ki. But before I leave, can you tell me anything about it? I want to be sure I know what's going on and what I'm looking out for, so I'll take whatever information you can give me."

The guard looked up at him suspiciously before skimming over the mission brief. 'It never fails, does it?' Kyousuu silently quipped as he waited for a verbal acknowledgement of everything he'd just said. He thought he might have gotten a pair that weren't so uptight about the jinchuuriki thing, but it seemed he hadn't quite met any that mattered. Not as far as gate guards go, at least.

COMBAT LOG:

Age : 30 Posts : 1637

"Oi, Banba. You know more about this than I do, so spill it."

Without missing a beat, the man that had originally appeared to be asleep began to speak, not even bothering to move the book off of his face. It seemed rude, but Kyousuu wasn't new to others being rude to him for no particular reason. Shrugging it off, he decided to focus on learning whatever he could about the situation rather than getting stuck on the trivial things.

"Apparently there're a couple o' folks runnin' around outside the village. All the sensors figure they can't be up to too much trouble for the most part because they don't have super huge chakras, but then there was a larger one that came through a a couple of days ago. The weird thing is that whoever it was left only a few hours later and hasn't really come back yet. So it's pretty likely that the others are waiting for them to come back or somethin', I dunno. Either way, nobody else wanted to bother finding them, but if we let them sit there for too long, who knows what they'll do?"

"Well, there you have it, monkey man," the man confidently stated, the bitterness at the end of his sentence rather clear. Banba, or so he was called, didn't seem phased at all, but there was really no way to tell. Of course, Kyousuu would rather have somebody like Banba, who didn't make a big deal out of it, than somebody like... whoever this guy was. It was almost aggravating that those posted as gate guards always had to know who he was. True, it was important to know for those keeping an eye on people travelling in and out of Konoha, but with attitudes like that, he was surprised some of them didn't just ask him to leave so they didn't have to see his face again. With a sigh, Kyousuu mumbled his thanks before heading out the gate.

What a pair of assholes. Well, the one guy at least, ki."

"What, did you expect them to greet you with smiles and offer you a hug?"

"Oh, shut up, Son."

The bijuu laughed, clearly amused. It was a fairly normal exchange for the two of them; these types of conversations were quite common now that Kyousuu had to meet with and speak to more shinobi than he'd ever met before being promoted, and it hadn't even been very long since the change.

"They can act like they hate me all the want, I know for a fact that they'll miss me when I'm gone. They'll wish they'd have done a better job keeping me here. Just watch."

Tying his hair into a ponytail as he walked, he began to plan his route for finding these "suspicious characters". Perhaps it would have helped to ask where their chakra signatures had been detected the most, but he couldn't let the others do all the work for him. This was his mission after all, and though it was purely reconnaissance, it felt more... official. It felt like he was truly behaving like a shinobi rather than a fighting machine. Sure, combat was part of the work, but sneaking about and gathering information without making oneself known was a part of being a shinobi that was largely ignored in recent times. It was all about spars and combat training or face-to-face diplomacy and oratory skills. That was rather boring, and even though Kyousuu hadn't trained to be an expert at keeping himself hidden, he was still a chuunin and had a few opportunities to practice. Regardless, moving through the trees would be fairly easy for him, and due to the light breeze, all he had to do was time his leaps properly, and he'd be able to move through the trees without drawing too much attention.

Just to reduce his chances of being found out, he decided to move against the wind. If they had animals with them to detect others by scent, he'd be found out before getting a good look at the suspects, for one, not to mention he'd have no time to really assess the situation, which would make his report back to the brass a bit... empty. SHaking his head at the thought, he continued moving through the trees as quietly as possible, all the while scanning for out of place chakra signatures. Although it took a little while, he did pick up on some that were located outside of the village, a little further out than he was, so he decided to move in closer to them, making sure to be careful about the noise levels. Although the breeze would help to cover up some of the sound from moving across branches, there were some sounds that only footsteps could produce.

A small, warm glow began to show through the trees. The color of the light and the slight flickering indicated that it was coming from a campfire. For non-Konoha shinobi, they certainly didn't have any idea of how to be subtle. Despite their awkward location, far off from most roads, there was still a chance they'd be found by somebody more politically important or higher up on the food chain than Kyou.

COMBAT LOG:

Age : 30 Posts : 1637

Kyousuu moved in just close enough to see the figures sitting by the fire, but it wasn't quite close enough to pick up on any details. With a mental grumbling, the brunet began to inch closer, avoiding their direct line of sight. They seemed rather busy with their conversation, so he didn't stress over it too much. It didn't take long for him to move in close enough to hear their conversation.

"It's been a while since we heard from Yuuto-nii-san...you don't think something happened to him, do you, Ichirou-kun?"

"WHAAAAAAT? Something happen to THAT GUY? He can handle himself, Airi-chan. I mean, he IS the guy in charge. If he couldn't look out for his own dang self, how would he be able to keep the rest of us safe. huh?"

"Well... I guess you're right, but... I don't know, being so close to a shinobi village makes me kind of uneasy... I knew we're not from here, but I know that at least Izumi-chan is, and if she were here... I'm sure she'd be kind of uncomfortable too."

"Izumi-chan isn't here though, and that's probably why. I mean, what if they find us? They'd have more reason to try and take us in if they found us with an ex-Konoha person, even if she was just a genin."

It seemed things were going to get interesting, and very quickly at that. Judging by their choice of words, he could only assume these two were missing-nin. Those that captured criminals were typically rewarded fairly well, plus it would relive him of some of the pressure on him with regards to convincing them he was loyal to the Konoha. After all, what ninja with a reason for disliking the village would turn missing ninja in to his superiors, making it look better? Yeah. Not many. There would be less reason for them to be suspicious of the jinchuuriki, and though he knew they were more or less right for not blindly trusting him, it would make things easier in the long run if he got on their good side. For now, at least.

Before he'd leave or make any sort of move, he decided to continue listening in for a while in case they gave him any more information. Based on their chakra signatures, he doubted they'd be able to beat him in a fight. He not only had an exponentially larger chakra reserve to pull from, he also had a nice repertoire of jutsu he'd recently improved on, which would likely give him the upper hand.

Although...

They didn't seem dangerous at all. The more he thought about it, the less this seemed like busting criminals to him. Of course, they did mention somebody else, and if that Yuuto guy was as strong as they made him out to be, there could potentially be a much nicer reward in it for Kyousuu if he remained patient for a little while longer.

While he waited for them to say something else that was interesting, Kyousuu looked them over thoroughly. The smaller of the two was a shy girl. She would likely be the least dangerous of the two of them, if only because of her lack of confidence. Hesitating during battle could cost you your life, and if it came down to a fight, he'd likely easily land a killing blow on her without even intending to, simply because she'd hesitate to act. The other was a seemingly older male, but he was the complete opposite. He was definitely much more outgoing and his confidence was fairly clear with the way he carried himself. He kept his chin up and his chest out, whereas "Airi" was hunched over, gaze cast downward. It was interesting how much a person's stature could indicate what kind of personality they had.

"Say, Airi-chan, why don't we try getting a closer look at Konoha while we're here? I mean, Yuuto-san will show up sooner or later and he said we'd be leaving pretty soon, so why not try and at least enjoy ourselves a bit? It'll be fun!"

There was a fine line between bravery and recklessness, and Kyousuu was sure this kid was getting ready to leap over it. If they did try to sneak in, he'd definitely have to intercept... his job was simply to gather information to bring back, but the brunet highly doubted they'd hold it against him if he stopped some rogue ninja from just waltzing into the village. They'd have to get past the guards, but those two oafs probably weren't very useful for anything remotely important, like that. If anything, they'd be more concerned about their jinchuuriki staying out for too long.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Ichirou-kun... I mean, what if we get caught?"

"Caught? I didn't say we have to run around inside the village... besides, even if we DO get caught, Yuuto-san could bust us out easy. I haven't seen him lose a single fight, you know."

"Well... I guess you're right, he hasn't, but there are probably some strong ninja in the village. There might be one stronger than Yuuto-nii-san."

"Nahhhh, nobody's stronger than him! Come on now, have some faith!"

COMBAT LOG:

Age : 30 Posts : 1637

Kyousuu highly doubted that just any shinobi could break into Konoha to rescue a couple of C-Ranks, even if this guy was pretty skilled. Konoha's shinobi seemed incapable, generally speaking, but aside from the fact that it was mostly all appearances, there were some that were highly skilled among their ranks. He wasn't counting himself when making that assessment, mostly because he never really lumped himself in with them out of habit, but if it came down to it, especially since he was the one that had went on this particular mission, they would have him assist in some way. The thought of being forced to participate in defending the village from some enraged rogue ninja was not an appealing one. Even so, it was a point he'd probably have to bring up with whoever he had to report to once the mission was completed.

Though he didn't think that Ichirou and Airi would have anything else to say that he might be able to bring back with him, he opted to stay a little while longer, enjoying the atmosphere. He'd never sat around a campfire in general, let alone with somebody special, so he was a little jealous of them. Jealousy was no reason for him to stray from his plan and defy his superiors, of course, but it's not like he'd ever planned to act on it. Really.

The two rogue ninja began to wind down, and when they began to lie down as the fire waned, it was his cue to leave. He'd gotten as much information as he could during that time, and it would just have to do since he didn't have some magical mind-reading ability. He'd heard that the Yamanaka were good at that kind of stuff, particularly the higher ranked, extremely skilled ones, but it was an interesting concept, being able to read minds.

Kyousuu made his way up to the roof of the administration building after borrowing some paper and a brush with ink from Banba at the gate (his snarky partner wasn't there, probably taking a bathroom break). Although he would explain everything in detail after he got some sleep and once everybody else was awake, Kyousuu decided to leave a short memo regarding the information he'd gathered. He very briefly explained that the two people he found were, by assumption, C-rank, and didn't seem to have any intention of infiltrating the village or any such dangerous acts. However, they were waiting for somebody they described as being incredibly strong to find them and then they would leave - since they are rogue ninja, perhaps it would be benefit the village if they captured the two in order to lure the third member, the one that they called Yuuto, into the village to rescue them. At that point they will have captured three rogue ninja, with one of them having the potential to bring in quite a reward depending on where he came from and what he's done. After signing the memo, he folded it up and slid it through the window of the Hokage's office - while she was out, whoever was there keeping tabs on everything would pick it up, read it, and inform whoever Kyousuu needed to talk to once he got to the building later in the day.

Not intending to stay awake until then, the jinchuuriki sped on his way back home. He'd been awake for quite a while as he didn't take a nap before heading out for the mission, and it was starting to get to him a bit. Anybody that knew him well enough was certainly aware of the fact that he was extremely cranky when tired, and most didn't want to deal with him when he was in that state. He already had enough of an attitude, and not even Kanako could deal with a sleep-deprived Kyousuu. The last time that happened, she had him go back to sleep until he was well-rested, after which she made sure not to let it happen again. In fact, she once told him that she felt bad for anybody that had to go on missions with him that required they stay awake for extended periods of time. It was an obstacle he'd deal with when it came, and felt no reason to worry about it until then. After all, he had a nice, soft bed to sleep in once he got home.

Even though he was tired, however, his mind was racing with the possibilities ahead. Maybe they would send him to apprehend the two rogues. Once he got his hands on the two of them, what would he do? Would he ask them some questions before bringing them in? Maybe they'd have him stick around to fight the more experienced criminal if he showed up. Not alone, of course, but that could be interesting. Well, assuming the guy wasn't some super strong psychopath. That was a scary thought. At some point he began to drift off to sleep, the thoughts of rogue shinobi and a brief moment in the spotlight circling in his mind.

[MISSION END]

COMBAT LOG: