The youth sat on the wagon uneasily, the silence between him and the "driver" having persisted for the best part of the last hour. He sneaked a side glance at his companion: a blonde kunoichi, whom he had the displeasure of meeting once briefly on the most random of days and during a most unusual incident. They had not learned each other's names then, hence why he didn't know that she was the one he would be performing this task with. Blonde-brat and Inzeipoop. What a team.

The youth had met her by chance. While travelling down the main road from Kumogakure to the Snow country, she had originally raced past him in a wagon, and neither thought nothing of it. But then she stopped and asked him if he had seen what seemed all to well to describe the golden freak. It didn't take a difficult mental leap from her line of questioning to the conclusion, that they might be in the same team. A name exchange followed briefly and... well here they were.

The two spoke about their mission at length, discussing how they would approach the task ahead of them. Originally it's all they talked about and theories flew around left and right, but as the topic ran its course, they had nothing left to talk about. For the greater part of the journey, they sat in silence, as the sound of the cart moving across the road and the clip-clapping of the horses' hooves, filled the audial void. Even with the help of the two powerful animals, the journey was long and tedious. The boy tried to read and focus on his book, but he couldn't help but occupy his thoughts with what was to come.

But eventually they arrived in the Rain Country and it was time, yet again, to break that awkward silence and discuss what was to come. The next few hours would be crucial. Rain welcomed them almost the very moment they had ridden past the border. It was late afternoon, so the sun was nearly ready to set, yet it lingered on the skyline for the moment, lighting their way. The roads were empty, and minus the sounds of the cart and horses and the pitter-patter of the rain, they were alone.

"So to refresh our memories, Bakuho is a former Ame medical-nin, who was run out because he spent too much time with corpses. We can definitely rule out Amegakure itself as his possible location. It's also unlikely that he would have stayed in the towns close to it. Which only leaves a few settlements for us to check out" they had already discussed this, but the journey had been long and hard, and he needed both his own brain and the girl up to speed as quickly as possible.

"This guy likes his corpses, so a place with a big hospital or graveyard is where he's going to want to be. Maybe we should ask around if there have been cases of corpses going missing. If we're lucky, it will be that simple. If not it might be worthwhile to find out if there have been any odd accidents or if a town is plagued by an unusually high death rate. If he can't find readily available corpses, he might be providing them himself." It felt good to talk again.  

Having agreed on a course of action, the due set off. They sought out graveyards, the youth using his Byakugan to look for any oddities that may alert them to the nearby presence of their target. Freshly dug out graves or recently filled out holes was the main point of interest, but his all seeing eyes could not find anything conclusive.

When it was time to mingle with the people and ask about directions and strange happenings, the youth would use a simple henge transformation to masquerade as an old man, seeking to open a funeral home. This was a solid enough cover to allow the two to pose question relating to deaths, graveyards, missing corpses, weird accidents and anything else that could point towards Bakuho. Of course, though the boy physically appeared as an old man, something was inherently off about the duo. The girl was rather unable to stay low, and though she played the part of being his daughter and sold the same story he peddled, people were wary of her. As for Norio, he tried his best to mask his voice, but it was hard to do so. Fortunately, an old man's voice could be paraded as frail and quiet, so he whispered hoarsely and forced his vocal chords as much as he could, to imitate a convincing enough sound.

However effective his disguise, the duo learned little. They attracted a lot of attention however, for good or for worse. It wasn't completely unlikely that they could draw Bakuho out... or maybe more realistically, someone connected to him. Maybe Norio was being far too hopeful, but then again, their cover was so unlikely that while it might just trick the innocent bystander, a guilty party could grow suspicious. Two strangers asking questions about corpses and death. Might be worth investigating.

The two stopped by yet another graveyard. Norio remained seated on the wagon. He was donning his henge, having not released the jutsu for the entirety of the last two hours. His Byakugan had been on and off, and yet still, the combined strain of using the two jutsu for such a long period of time was beginning to show. There were beads of sweat on his forehead, his eyes were hurting and he felt more tired than he should have. He reached to his backpack for a soldier pill, but even that didn't bring as much vigour back to him, as he hoped. And it tasted awful.

With the girl focused on the horses, the youth once again activated his doujutsu, granting him a far reaching vision. His eyes looked around the graveyard, noting like the girl had, that there was a lot of dug out graves. But no bodies in them. His vision searched further, hoping to see some clues as to why these holes were here. He found nothing, except for some tools and a still burning lantern. "No sign of anyone, tools near the graves, lit lantern by a hole" he reported dully. The day was wearing on him. Had this been two hours ago, he would have inferred from this information that the hole diggers should be somewhat nearby.

All of the sudden, his ears were alerted to a sound of footsteps coming from nearby. Crap! His tiredness had led him to be sloppy. Though the Bykaguan saw far and practically everywhere around the user, if the user wasn't paying attention or if he was focused specifically on one area, it was possibly even for him, to miss something rather obvious and close. It was easy to become complacent when one had such a powerful ability on hand.

"On your guard" he whispered as loudly as he dared, though he himself continued to sit on his wagon looking in a different direction, as if unaware of the five men walking quite determinedly towards him. And why should he be aware of a possible danger? He was an old man with poor hearing and poorer sight. Easy pickings for entrepreneurial bandits.

Combat Log:

The men approached the wagon fearlessly - confidently. They looked rough and mean, your usual somewhat-cliché no-good delinquents, most often found knocking two heads in a bar. The Byakugan saw through their ragged outfits and past their dirt stained hands (most of which, were cockily placed in their pockets), to see concealed weapons. Daggers for the most part, though one man had a spoon for a... weapon? There was surely an interesting story behind that.

The leader of this tough band stopped a few steps ahead of the rest, addressing the old man and his "daughter" with a kind question. Or maybe it would have been if not for the rather unpleasant intonation and the malicious laugh that sounded from his lackeys. The girl answered before Norio could. The men gave her a look that made even the cold-hearted boy want to snap their necks.

"I'm looking to open a funeral home, young sirs" the old-man Norio replied, keeping up with his story, his old-man voice nailed at this point. It's the only voice he had been using for the last two hours. But regardless of its validity, the head-honcho didn't seem to buy his lie.

"Yes I heard this bullshit story of yours? It smells mighty fishy don't it boys?" the man spout out the words, his companions nodding their heads and whooping like a crowd at a show.  
"I just want to say a respectful farewell to those who have passed and provide comfort for their families, before I myself join them in the ground" he replied sombrely. Already the boy was growing tired of keeping up appearences, and he knew the girl had a short fuse. The clock was ticking.

"Tell me" he said, before the bandit could speak up again and say something pointless, wasting everyone's time. "You wouldn't know anything about this graveyards, hospitals and such business would you?" The man had a good poker face, but there was no doubt that the question startled him and had hit far too close to home.

"Those hands are dirt-stained, as are your clothes. Been doing much digging lately?" the boy put forward his accusation. It was the reaction of one of the lackeys that told him that he had hit the nail on the head. "Grave robbing then?" the old man affirmed his suspicious loudly. The boss grimaced in response, his face crunching up as if he had been stung by a wasp. "What we do ain't no business of yo-" his sentence was cut off as the blonde-brat sprung into action. This was Norio's cue too.

Leaping from the wagon, the form of the old man vanished in a blink, replaced by the lithe, tiny figure of the white-haired boy. His body flew into his first target like a bullet, his legs extended, delivering a powerful kick to the head that threw the unsuspecting man down to the ground immediately. Grabbing his concealed dagger, the boy rushed forward, throwing it at the leg of his second opponent. The blade lodged painfully in the flesh, causing him to crouch down. Before he could look up or position himself to block the incoming attack, Norio planted a fist to the side of his face. The third opponent tried to be smart and attempted to flee, but the youth's hand fired off chakra strings that attached themselves to the coward's legs and pulled him to the ground. The sound of his face smashing into the earth was deeply satisfying.  

"Why are you robbing the graves?" the boy shouted towards the leader, though the question was open to all of the group. "Is someone paying you?" he asked, this time more forcefully, his foot stepping painfully on the fingers of one of the henchmen. The sound of the yelping kunai-crotched leader ruined the tense mood. That's it. Time to for the girl to do some of the heavy lifting in this mission.

"Make him talk" the thirteen year boy ordered the sixteen year old girl. What a serious duo.

Combat Log:

The boy watched as the girl got to work. Wow was she a sadistic little bitch. Norio was not sure what to expect when he had given the order, and half-assumed that he would have to get the job done himself, but boy was he wrong. This noble-brat was full of surprises it seemed. Her choice of attacking the leader's crotch had given him a clue that she might lean a little on the vicious side, but heck, she really outdid herself. Who would have thought that torture was her "thing".

Norio got to work himself. The girl had already killed one of the men he had taken down, so that only left two. His puppet strings retained a strong grip on one of them; he was trying to get up but something (the strings) held him pinned down to the ground, causing him to panic more and more. He whimpered like a scared animal. He must have heard some of the things the girl had said, and tried desperately to avoid the horrible things he imagined his friends were undergoing.

The second man was crouched on the floor, one hand trying to wrestle out the blade stuck in his leg, while the other checked for a broken nose. This was Norio's target. He walked briskly over to him from behind, kunai in hand, placing the cold blade to the side of his throat. "Better be still now" he told the man calmly. Fortunately for the bandit, he listened, his body freezing on command.

"Now look, that girl and me, well, I don't even know her" Norio began to speak, all the while the knife forced his captive to listen. "I had no idea she was capable of this. I mean look at her go" the boy said, almost with admiration, before he shook his head and added, perhaps for the sake of the bandit "Disgusting". In fact, the boy had no opinion on the matter. He didn't think much of death. He understood that these bandits had to die for the mission's sake - there was no way around that, and anyway, their line of work would bring them death sooner or later. Whether he was the Agent of that Death himself or someone else was, well, it just had to be done.

"I'm your only friend left" the boy lied to the man. "I'll let you live, I swear, but you have to out-do your boss over there" Norio promised falsely. "If you don't, well, I'll let that crazy bitch handle you and trust me, after what she did to your boss, I wouldn't wish that to my worst enemy" the boy could be very convincing if he wanted to, his vocal cords played perfectly to imitate sympathy and sincerity. "Speak" he ordered.

"Wel-l-l, like the boss, uh, said, we go to this hospita-" the knife scratched the surface of his throat, making him gulp and speed up "-but the guy we meet, some doctor freak, he wasn't always alone" the knife relaxed. "Oh?" the boy let out. "Yes yes! He had this man with him on a few occasions. Big fellow, with a nasty scar on his cheek. Me and the boys call him Slither, cuz it slith-" the knife pressed in again, causing the man to stop before he could chuckle. "-right well, he was there a few times. Asked us few things, like, how many bodies and how heavy. From the size of him, he probably had to carry the damn things-" the knife rested, but the boy spoke angrily "This doesn't tell me much" Quite on the contrary. The things the henchmen was saying were very interesting.

"Wait wait, this guy, Slither, he mentioned once that we aren't working just for the doc. He said he works for Mr B and we do too now, and that if there is something wrong with the shipment, oh we better run, cuz Mr B is gonna get us." "What else?" "The boss asked if we could meet Mr B, work for him directly, cut out the middle man, you know? But Slither said no, Mr B likes his privacy, but maaaybe if we do good work, Mr B would have more for us."

"I see. Thank you" and with that said, the boy jabbed hard with his kunai, piercing through flesh and vein.  Blood. So much blood.

This left only one man to be dealt with. The boy had no desire to play any more games. He walked over, placing his kunai to the back of the bandit's head. "Where can I find Slither?" he shouted, the words powerful despite the childish voice that wielded them. "I dunno anything man I swear!" the boy landed a quick hit to the side of his head, silencing him. "Give me something! Anything in exchange for your life" he shouted, as the poor bandit reared from the shock of the hit. "We use a back door! To the hospital I mean. Knock four times. They check us through the peep hole. Please that's all I know. I'm new to the group, I ain't heard of-" thankfully he was of some use; the boy retracted the kunai from him, as if to honour his promise... but not a second after it was removed, the blade came crashing down, stabbed into the back of the bandit's head with a single, swift motion. Dead. The kunai took a second life that night.

The boy got back on the wagon. His cloak was stained by mud and blood. He placed his murderous weapon back into the pouch; his eyes released the technique that seemed to cause him much strain. "Transform to look like one of the henchmen" the boy commanded, while he himself performed the technique (Henge) to take on the appearance of the boss bandit. He wasn't sure when he had taken the lead on this mission, but there was little time to worry about that. Eyes on the prize!

"Let's hope we can find the doctor or this Slither" he told the girl, as she drove the horses on towards their final location. The back entrance of a nearby hospital.

Combat Log:

For the second time today, the boy found himself watching as the girl tapped into a darker, crueller, more sadistic side of herself. If she could only see what he did from his perspective - his eyes witnessed not a young girl, but a monster, so in tune with her dark actions, that it made him wonder if this simply wasn't her true self, unhindered by social stigma, her darkness lavishing in the freedoms found in a foreign country that did not know her. She put a mask on her face, which the boy noted, seemed to act as some medium through which she could more easily express herself in this feral, fierce fashion; acting more brutal than before, if such was possible. It was a wonder to watch her go - he felt like he had unleashed a vicious rottweiler on this poor man, who looked to him, of all people, as the person who held the power and who had the capacity for mercy. Sorry man, she's going off on her own, don't lump me in with her.

The boy had been quiet as the duo followed Slither to the morgue. He focused on the mess that had been caused by some previous intruders, who had taken away the good doctor's life and scattered papers all over the floor. Interesting that they would do that. It suggested to him, that there was something worth looking for in them.

As the girl got to work, without warning - practically snapping - just like before, he concentrated himself on the papers, his eyes rushing from left to right, down, left to right, down, looking for particular words of interest. "B" came up a lot, which he imagined stood for Bakuho. There were prices listed, various measurements regarding the bodies, but not the thing he wanted - a drop off point or a way to contact the criminal.

With the girl asking him to watch the door, the youth once again put his tired, albeit supernatural eyes to work. Veins popped out, his irises turned purely white, his vision changed - yada yada yada. He used the "corner" of his eyes to watch the door, but no one came. It seemed the hospital was torn between running like normal and addressing the situation of the dead doctor. It seemed some law-enforcers were upstairs asking questions, but thankfully, the hospital-staff kept them at bay while the crazy-girl did her dirty work.

More looking through papers. The dark sounds subsided now, and the girl asked Norio if he had anything to add, before there was a second death in the hospital tonight. "I have just one" the boy said, turning from the papers. He had found little of help; everything they needed, Slither had supplied. "What do you know of the people who preceded us tonight?" he asked simply, expecting full well that the man could offer him little.

"I dunno kid, but they got to be pretty good cuz the doctor, well, he ain't just some slouch. He can cut a living man as well as a dead one" well that didn't help at all. "Thanks" the boy said, not meaning it. The girl dealt with the man as soon as it was clear that Norio had no more to ask but didn't kill him... which was odd. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked, teasingly, proceeding to walk out. Though he did not linger in the room in person, his eyes were all-seeing after all, and they couldn't help but witness Slither's last gasp, before she brought him cold comfort at last.

Smiling mysteriously to himself, the boy waited for her outside. "This is it" he announced flatly, as they began to hurriedly make their way towards their final destination.

[Topic End]

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