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Posts : 132

The smell of a freshly lit cigarette in the humid air warmed Hiryuu. Sounds of rain sizzled the ground in the back alley, dim lights from apartments above made his target barely visible. Dressed in a black raincoat that covered his entire body, Makoto was well protected from the elements. His raincoat covered all but the tip of his chin and the orange glow of his cigarette. Each drag light up his nostrils under his hood as he started the flame of his homemade cigarette. Hiryuu stood underneath an umbrella slowly drying from the rain. He stood as still as possible to keep safe from the water.

"What do you know about the hospital?"

A swirl of smoke struggled against the heavy humid winds, and Makoto's croaking voice leaked out.

"A fine ninja like yourself should be able find it just easy."

Lightning struck the skies, rumbling thunder followed and shook the lids of trashcans near them.

"Hey, aint you one of them seein' eye ninjas?"

"That doesn't matter. I need to find out where the bodies are going to. I've heard the large majority of bodies aren't even burned. It costs too much for the hospital so they dump them somewhere in massive graveyards off site."

Makoto's posture grew defensive, his cigarette left his mouth through half drag and the lines that Hiryuu could see in his face wrinkled terribly.

"Where'd you hear that from?!"

"Never mind where I heard that from. I can't go scouring the city with ninja like rats on every corner. Like I said I'm not supposed to be here."

Makoto's groan was harsh and short. He shuffled his hands around in his pockets and brought out a piece of paper dry from the rain. Stuffing the crinkled paper out, Hiryuu gripped it in his hands and placed it in his pockets without reading it. Makoto's hand was still left out in the open, his fingers beckoning payment. Making sure to leave no traces, Hiryuu palmed him almost all the money he had left. Being down to fifty bucks would make things hard in this strange land. But he had to find Yusuke.

Posts : 132

Once their deal was finished, Hiryuu vanished from the corners of the alleyway leaving a smoldering cloud of smoke. Makoto was left coughing among his cigarette smoke and a pellet, while Hiryuu moved deftly to the rooftops. Bounding between the constrained alley wall to wall, Hiryuu topped the roof of the building alone, high winds and needle rain pelted his body. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the location of the burial site, reading the contents.

Lot Five, District A, SHELL.

Even if for a few days, Hiryuu spent his time here training in order to gain ground on burial locations. The disposal of bodies in the Rain Country mirrored its mechanical and industrial appearance, humans weren't given much room to be buried. Most of the general populace that had no money or not enough power for actual graves were said to be shipped around. Either they went to a hospital facility where their bodies would be used for medical research or they were simply cremated.

Yet those were half truths.

Yusuke's body -if it was still there- was no doubt buried somewhere in a massive grave where hundreds of dead lie. To make matters worse, these bodies were shipped off to warehouses where they were loaded into bins and moved using complicated jutsu and man power. The Rain Country shipped off their bodies to other locations around its borders and buried them deep under the soil.

Hiryuu bounded with Byakugan in tact across the Lots in District Five, making good pace. Being able to see 150 meters away from his position made scouting extremely easy, of course... He was a Hyuuga. For a few seconds, Hiryuu doubled back, finding a few lots where people were rummaging inside. A couple of ninja sat around a fire, a few homeless people in another lot broke in for shelter from the rain.

Yet, out of all the lots that showed activity, Lot Five SHELL was the one that showed none. Inside he could see signs of people there before. There were coffee cups on the grounds and wrappers from food, there were even a few sleeping bags inside in the corners, yet no one was inside. His first thought was that Makoto had pulled the wool over his eyes. Deep down he knew how unlikely that was. A day spent spying on Makoto showed he was in it for the money. Lying would only make matters worse for any information broker. Being killed or defamed made no money.

So why wasn't there any activity? He was two buildings across from his target location, at this range he saw everything inside. The evidence of people visiting on the regular was there. The absence of pests inside the building, the door wasn't bolted shut or locked with any type of security measure. Whoever ran security around here simply twisted the lock knob shut and left it at that. Hiryuu had to have a closer look.

Posts : 132

Down below his feet, a team of ninjas 100 yards away were on scout duty walking across the street. Two of them were kicking cans while one looked rather serious. Hands held inside of his pockets gave a comfortable appearance. But Hiryuu could see his fingers gripped around needles, the rest of his body armed to the teeth. He even had a few choice senbon under his tongue. There was definitely something worth protecting.

When he was clear, Hiryuu jumped across the roof and landed noiselessly on top of Lot Five SHELL. Once he focused his Byakugan beyond his initial fifty meter range, Hiryuu's face clenched tight. Jackpot. Beneath the first floor of the building was an underground room full of busy workers. Large canisters about three meters high and five meters wide were being pushed by laborers containing nothing but the naked dead.

Each body went through a simple process. First, the bodies were sorted through a sort of check point. Each body seemed to be checked to ensure that they were dead, and then pierced in the side by a knife to make sure survivors weren't hiding with the dead. This process forced the blood out of each of them until they were dried. Next they were tossed into a scalding hot shower and dumped into a canister. There they awaited company until the canisters were filled up with dead and then moved.

The entire operation moved seamlessly, without flaw. Each dead body held no life, and as Hiryuu scanned through all of the canisters using his vision he spotted several that looked like Yusuke and several that looked nothing like him. Women, small children, and the elderly were among the dead. Though none that resembled Yusuke's face. After an hour of watching bodies being prepared for transport, Hiryuu had enough.

There was no way Yusuke had been moved so fast. His scan of the hospital building turned up negative. Bakuho had either sealed off the room with a barrier or he'd moved locations. By now he was familiar with all of the public access locations in the rain country.

But where was Yusuke if he wasn't here?

"I know where he is."

EXIT