Mission: Wanted: Bandit Chief - dead [Private unless PM]

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

Thread Music: Saboeurs
Note: If you're curious, read up on the Grouse and Gunnerside operations by the British SOE.

Mission Title: Wanted: Bandit Chief
Mission Type: Generic
Mission Location: The Rice Field Country
Shinobi Requirement: Chuunin+
Mission Rank: B
Mission Objective: A bandit clan has taken up residence in the rice field country and is raiding villages and robbing trade caravans, Sound seem not to care so your village has been approached with dealing with them. The Bandits while individually weak are very numerous and are based in a mighty stronghold and would be difficult to dislodge by anything other then substantial force. The bandits are a very unstable bunch and if the leader was to die it might well lead to internal conflict that could very well destroy the bandit threat from the inside. It is important the death look like an accident to avoid the bandit army taking revenge on the local population.
Min Post Count: 6.

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

'Two days. Two damn days and still no closer.' Putting down the field glasses he had bought especially for this mission, Toshiro's glare was a match for his thoughts as he sat on a rock that overlooked the bandits stronghold. This was supposed to have been a relatively simply mission: find whatever crumbling ruin the bandits had claimed as a stronghold, infiltrate it, arrange a deniable accident for the leader of the rabble, then get out with no one being the wiser. So far though almost nothing had been as it was supposed to be. His first day of reconnoitering the stronghold with field glasses had established that instead of a crumbling ruin with more holes than walls, the gaps had been sealed with an earth & timber palisade fronted by rubble that ran around the entire camp to tie in the lone intact square tower and the gatehouse. Combined with the frequent changes in the sentries who were stationed every ten to fifteen meters along the wall with more in the tower and gatehouse and getting unnoticed was going to be... difficult. What really had Toshiro wondering if this was more than a handful of bandits was that someone had taken the time to clear away every scrap of underbrush from around the fort for a hundred meters in all directions. That more than anything else had given him pause. It was the sort of thing that someone with a military background would do to deny hostile scouts and attackers cover. If there was someone like in the camp, and they had enough control to make a group of bandits take such measures in the absence of an immediate threat, things were going to become a whole lot more complicated.

Giving the fort a final glare that by all rights should have flattened it and dismembered anyone inside with its intensity, Toshiro set down his field glasses and pulled out the small-scale map he had been sketching the fortifications on. He knew that somewhere there had to be a weakness, some over-looked feature that could be used to get inside without being detected. He had ruled out the water supply (the pipes were too small to crawl through) and digging under the wall was out (not enough time and he didn't know any earth-based ninjutsu to make it faster). Going over the wall would require a distraction that didn't say "hey, there is a ninja walking around", and Toshiro had yet to see any indication that someone other than large groups of bandits came or went from the camp so sneaking in under disguise was out. Other ideas came and went, each discarded as carrying too much risk of detection or outright impossible given the attention to detail whoever had organized this particular group had put into securing their base of operations. Toshiro had almost been ready to call this another day wasted on the impossible (finding a quiet way in) when the rising sun caused the shadow cast by a rock to shift. A shift that through the field glasses revealed that what had looked to be just shadow was in a fact an opening at the base of the hillside that the fort squatted on. An opening that was showed indications of being man-made and was hidden from the guard's vision by a bend in the creek that provided the bandits with water.

That opening brought a wolfish grin to Toshiro's face - apparently someone had wanted a bolt-hole in case of attack and hadn't bothered to post guards at it. To a remotely competent ninja, such a thing was practically a welcome mat asking to be used. Putting aside his field glasses, the chuunin checked his watch and the position of the sun before giving the fort and his way in a look. At a rough estimate he had twelve hours to prepare before the setting sun would cast the side of the valley he was facing into shadow. With a last glance at the valley, Toshiro slipped back behind the rock he had perched on and spoke to no one in particular. "Well, looks like someone will be keeping his appointment with the shinigami after all."

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

True to Toshiro's estimate, after a little more than twelve hours now-setting sun had caused the opposite side of the valley and the fort itself to cast shadows that made the side he was on darker than nightfall. Looking down at the camp in which he had to kill a specific individual, the chuunin did one final check on his equipment. While he supposed to make the bandit-chie'fs death look like an accident to prevent reprisals against the neighboring village Toshiro had unsealed nearly every piece of his kit for this particular mission. His premise being that if things went to hell he would just have to slaughter the entire bunch of them and make it look like a seriously irate S-ranked missing-nin had gone berserk. To that end Toshiro had also made sure to smear ashes from his campfire over his face and exposed fingers along with hiding his hair and face with the old-fashioned "ninja mask" and stashing his forehead protector in a scroll. Assured that he hadn't forgotten anything, and confident that no one in the camp would be able to connect him to Konoha (assuming he left them alive), he gave the dark area below one final look before descending down the slope. From the point on he was committed to seeing this mission through to the end.

It would take him the better part of an hour to cautiously make the descent into the valley, in part due to frequent stops to see if anyone in the camp might have noticed him and sounded the alarm. Something that, so far, hadn’t happened as the the occasional sounds from the camp didn’t change. Still the chuunin kept to his “low and slow” approach on his way to what he hoped was an unguarded entrance - at some points crawling on his belly to stay under cover. Once he reached the boulder whose shadow had previously concealed his intended avenue of infiltration, the chuunin grinned wolfishly as he saw the trickle of water that had formed a small pool several inches deep behind the boulder. The presence of water was a boon for many reasons - it hinted that this might just be the entrance to a well inside the camp (always a good route of infiltration), it indicated that he would be able to use some of his strong suiton ninjutsu if things got dicey, and best of all it let him use one of the few purpose-made spying jutsu in his arsenal. Three hand seals and a small amount of chakra later, and a small snake had formed that gave its maker a look before slithering into the pond. That done, the Konoha chuunin hunkered down on the opposite side of the boulder to wait for the construct to discover what was going to be mission-critical information.

Information that, after nearly an hour of sitting with his eyes closed and using the snakes vision to gather it, proved that so far things had really started looking up. At a guess Toshiro would say the tunnel had been dug out by locals at some time in the past to provide a source of drinking water for livestock pastured in the valley, because it did in deed run right into a well and was reasonable clear expect for a few low-hanging areas. A well that was still in use, a happy turn of events that allowed the construct to hitch a ride in the bucket out and gather some much-needed information on the parts of the camp that had been hidden behind the palisade. Key among that information was that the well was next to a half-ruined stable and several shacks that had been piled with very suspicious barrels. Barrels that, assuming the handful of visible letters on them were accurate were full of black powder and pitch - the former no doubt originally destined for use in fireworks and the later for a shipyard. Right now though they would provide an excellent distraction should such a thing be necessary. Even better was that between the well and the building that probably housed the bandit leader were only tents - not one campfire with bandits gathered around it.

Toshiro had his infiltration route, it came out in a spot that was far better than he hoped for, and he had a ready-made means of covering his escape available. Sporting the wolfs-grin under his mask, the chuunin cut the connection to his watery spy and entered the tunnel with as much care as he could muster. Things truly were looking up after two days of frustration.

Toshiro: 115-7 = 108 CP

Spoiler:

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

For almost an hour Toshiro had stooped, crawled on his hands and knees, and slithered on his belly through water, mud, and stone made slick with... something he didn't want to think about. All in the name of making as inconspicuous an entrance into the bandit-infested ruin above him as possible. Now the end was finally in sight as he could see the slight increase in light that announced he was nearing the vertical portion of the well. Moving on his hands and knees for the last half dozen meters, the Konoha chuunin was more than ready to do anything as long at it didn't involve going back into that tunnel for another lifetime. Sitting on his haunches once again, he closed his eyes and sought the connection with his "spy" in the camp above for a last-minute check before ascending. Finding that familiar "thread" he followed it and when he reached its end opened his "eyes". This time though was he was "seeing" through the senses of the small watery construct at least ten meters above him as he commanded it to raise its head out of the watering trough it had been dumped into for a better view. A view that confirmed that except for the well and stable area was filled with a motley assortment of tents and other shelters behind which could be seen the tops of several bonfires. Since his construct couldn't hear he could only assume that around those bonfires would be gathered the majority of the awake bandits, busy indulging their vices. The important information was that, so far, no bonfire illuminated the path he intended to take between the well and the building where he hoped to find his target.

Confident that at the least he wasn't walking into an ambush, Toshiro dispersed the water snake and bent over just briefly to remove his sandals which were stowed his pouch. For what he had planned they wouldn't be of any serious help and the tracks they left would be problematic. Instead he put one foot that was wrapped in the rough cloth "bandage tape" that many ninja used against the wall along with one hand, with the other hand then foot going on the opposite side. So braced he began the work of climbing up the wall using raw muscle power. Sure he could have just used the tree climbing exercise and walked out but there was still the possibility, no matter how remote, that someone in the camp was capable of sensing the chakra use. One of the cardinal rules of infiltration he had learned was clear on what to do - if the old-fashioned way works and has less chance to give you away... use it! Which was why he would spend the next fifteen minutes moving at what seemed like a snails pace up the well until he was just able to grab the lip of the well with his fingers and pull himself up with just them then his arms until he was able to roll over the side of the well closest to the stables. Lying flat for several second while his lungs greedily but quietly filled themselves with air as he checked for anyone heading his way, he silently congratulated himself on a so-far successful infiltration. Now he just had to figure what was going to go wrong to screw him over and work around it.

Waiting another thirty seconds until he was sure no one was coming to investigate (and thanking whichever kami had invented them that horses could be very deep sleepers when content), Toshiro pulled himself into a crouch against the intact wall of the stable. Hidden by the shadows that matched the dark-colored clothing he had donned for this particular assignment, his hands ran through several seals to go with his silent naming of the technique 'Hane Suteppu'. Feeling the now-familiar sensation of being lifted an inch off the ground as the technique formed the two "pontoons" of water under his feet, he began to creep towards the sheds holding the potential bombs. While the technique wouldn't help against any tripwires in his way and would alert any chakra-sensor to his presence, it would prevent him from snapping any small breakable objects. Since using a light to see among the mix of heavy shadows cast by the bonfires behind the tents and regular darkness would be certain to alert someone, this was his only other way to avoid that clichéd but serious risk.

Sticking as much to the shadows as possible and paying particular attention to avoid any lines attached to the tents, Toshiro was only able to put explosive tags on two of the sheds instead of all four as he had originally intended before reaching the shadow of the large stone "house". He wasn't too disappointed in that though since, as attractive as the thought of killing a good number of bandits with their own ill-gotten loot was, it wasn't his primary purpose. That purpose was in one of the rooms in the building in whose shadow the chuunin was hiding as he listened to the footsteps of the sentry above him. If this had been a "normal" assassination mission the guard would have already been dead but because everything had to look like an accident, Toshiro had to let the man (at least he thought it was a man based on the heavy treads on the rough planks above his head). Instead he waited until he was confident he had the timing of the sentries path down and when the guard was half-way towards one end of his patrol the chuunin put one foot against the wall and with as little sound as possible while keeping to the shadows dashed up the wall and onto the side of the roof facing the palisade. When, after five minutes of pretending to be just another lump of thatching, he didn't hear any sounds of alarm he allowed himself to smile just slightly under his mask. So far so good - now to get access to the building itself.

Toshiro: 108 CP - 6 = 102 CP, 13/15 Explosive tags

Spoiler:

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

So far having circumvented all the security measures in around his target, Toshiro found himself faced with another obstacle. Namely getting discrete and untraceable access to the building whose thatched roof he was currently pretending to be a part of. He had ruled out simply climbing through one of the areas where thatch had replaced missing tiles due to the high chance of the mass breaking and dumping him on the floor with a very loud noise. The windows had long been ruled out as well - the top ones he had seen were either barred or kept shuttered at night. While he had brought tools that would have let him pass get through those barriers relatively quickly, doing so without leaving a trail was nearly impossible. The ground-floor had been ruled out as well - it seemed that the bandits were using that as their primary kitchen/ mess area which was currently in full-swing. Staying out of site in that sort of situation was nearly impossible. It wasn't until he tried the chimneys, but not expecting any luck in that area, that he found his route.

Toshiro had expected the chimney's to be the "modern" type - narrow and subdivided into many tubes far too small to ever admit a human. Instead they must have been part of the original building, being easily wide enough to admit a thin person (probably to allow for regular cleaning). Even better was that while two of them were in obvious use the third had been as cold as a Hyuuga's personality, indicating it hadn't been used in a quite some time. Waiting until the sentry would be facing away, a quick series of hand seals and the only thing that indicated someone had been there was a puff of smoke that was carried away by the wind. Where had once been a Konoha chuunin on a mission of assassination was now a very large rat sniffing the breeze. A rat that when no alarm was raised for several minutes scrambled up the chimney and into the ready-made tunnel using what ninja would recognize as a basic chakra-control exercise. Twisting around so that it could put first it's hind legs then the front pair on the flagstones at the bottom of the fireplace, the nightmare-sized bane of all housewives took a quick look around with it's beady teal eyes to check for any guards, cats, or dogs whose curiosity (or hunger) had been aroused by any sounds it might have made.

When no one (human or otherwise) came to investigate, the rat scurried from the fireplace into a dark corner to assess its surroundings in relative peace. Based on the odors its nose picked up, the creature had no doubt that this part of the building was being used as storage. Something which explained the lack of a fire in the fireplace - why waste heat on things that wouldn't care if they got cold. Immediately to one side of the fireplace was a flight of stairs from which its ears picked up the distinctive sounds of humans consuming food and beverage. Leading directly away from the fireplace was a hallway that ended in a rather sturdy-looking stone wall that on each side had a half-dozen doors behind which were the source of the smells. Putting the incredible instrument that was a rat's brain to work, the creature deduced that: A) this building must have been an inn or tavern originally, B) the owner and any family had lived in the area beyond the stone wall which had a separate entrance from below, and C) its target would be occupying the old family quarters. Ergo the rat needed to find a way into and through the human-infested room below without arousing suspicion or alarm, locate the means of access the area behind that wall, then verify that it's target was indeed behind it. Had it been a normal rat, such would be no problem, but considering it was a gargantuan example of rattus rattus at almost three feet long and nearly a foot high "normal" didn't begin to describe the creature. Fortunately the creature had patience in abundance.

It was that patience that served the creature in its game of cat-and-mouse with its unwitting adversaries. Concealed by deep shadows, black fur, and eyes opened only as slits it had avoided the notice of the occasional human who trudged up and down the steps, sometimes carrying a container or sack as it went into or left one of the rooms. For reasons the rat didn't know (but strongly suspected were connected to nearly-overpowering smell of strong drink the disreputable human emitted) when it came out of one of the rooms it sat down the barrel it was holding and opened the top before heading back into the room. Never one to look a gift-rat in the snout, the giant rat scampered across the floor as silently as a giant rat could then up the side (near-prehensile paws being kami's gift to rats) and into the barrel. Just in time too as it heard the heavy thumps that announced the human was coming back. Sparing a prayer it wouldn't regret this, the rat did a passable imitation of an otter or beaver as it enter the barrels liquid contents (which smelled very peculiar - some sort of beer perhaps) until just the tip of its nose was above the surface. Just in time too as a cup was dipped into the two-thirds full barrel and then removed and the lid was put back in place but no sounds of hammering were heard. Then came the sensation of being lifted and moved which sparked hope that this ratty trick would work. Putting its head above the liquid (yes, it definitely smelled like beer and a very inferior type at that) the rat could vaguely hear sounds coming from outside. Distorted by the wooden walls and the contents the rat couldn't be sure but it thought it heard someone comment about how so little booze could weigh so much before the noise of a room full of the rowdiest of crowds drowned out any individual sound. Soon that noise passed and there was the resounding thump and sense of the barrel being dropped followed by a curse and the sound of a heavy door slamming shut then darkness and silence.

Toshiro: 102 CP - 2 = 100 CP

Spoiler:

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

In a corner of Rice Country near the mountains the indicated the border with Iron Country there is an ruined fort, recently taken over by a large group of bandits. In one corner of that ruin was a building which, in days gone past, was once a tavern that provided for the merchants and their guards who stopped at the fort on their way to or from business in Iron Country. It was in a storeroom of that former inn, now servicing the forts new owners as a mess and recreation facility as well as the home of the bands leader that in the back one could find an unremarkable storage room which was filled with barrels, bottles, and casks holding alcoholic drinks of all types and qualities. It was one of those barrels, a recent addition to the lot destined to slack some scumbag’s thirst, that suddenly came alive with movement. After rocking a few times a much muffled “poof” could be heard and the lid to the barrel was lifted free and pushed aside by a very human hand. A hand that was followed by a very wet “ninja mask” then teal eyes that searched the entire room for any sign of another person. A search that proved that it was alone in the room. Rising like Neptune from the sea came one very irate and soaked chuunin whose expression was a mix between disgust, indignity, and murderous fury. Clear of the barrel the figure spared a second to remove its mask and wring it out, exposing a shock of white hair while muttering in a very low voice. “Ugh. They are so lucky this has to look like an accident. How people can drink that stuff I have no idea and I don‘t want to know.”

Once the mask was as dry as it was going to get and the same attention had been paid to his clothes (a trail of puddles of beer being as easy to follow to puddles of water) the mask was donned and Toshiro again could focus on getting this mission done. Moving as silently as possible across the dirt floor of the storeroom (thank kami for small mercies - stone would have made not leaving a trail impossible), he was soon peering through the keyhole that was almost large enough to leg a kunai pass through. With a good view of the room on the other side, which seemed to be a large kitchen with two exits aside from the storeroom door. One was a curtain that in all likelihood lead to the area where the bandits were carousing from the sounds that seemed to be coming from behind it, and the other a shadowed staircase directly opposite from which came relatively little noise beyond an occasional thump and what might be a muffled scream or squeal. So far it seemed like “Operation: Ratty Trick” had worked and the bandits had literally carried Toshiro (in the form of a giant rat) past the single greatest obstacle to date. Now he just needed a way to get out of this storeroom, the half-dozen steps in the well-lit kitchen and up the stairs without being seen.

As he sat on his haunches pondering that a commotion from beyond the door caught his attention. Could it be... yes, that was definitely the sound of something crashing into a table followed by what could only be a fight involving quite a few people. From the kitchen came the cry of “brawl” and a number of heavy footsteps along with the sounds of various blunt instruments being taken up. Grinning at the luck that had the bandits own fractious nature and lack of discipline provide the very thing he needed, Toshiro didn’t hesitate to open the door (apparently it wasn’t locked when the room was in use) then step out into the room and carefully shut it behind him. Not that he really needed to be so quite - clear of the muffling walls it would have been apparent to a deaf man that there was a brawl going on in the room next door from the sheer volume of noise. Sparring a silent ’thank you to the luck that had given him such perfect cover, the chuunin crossed the kitchen in just a few steps before being again engulfed in the shadows. Out of sight of anyone coming back into the kitchen, his fingers again went through the seals to active his press-reducing jutsu - if there was any place where a “nightingale floor” would be it was on these steps or what was above them.

So insulated against making more than the absolute smallest noise, Toshiro climbed the steps until he could just see over the top of the stairs through the open door. A precaution that proved unneeded as instead of the sentry or sentires he had expected to find there was just a short hall and three doors (two on his left and one on the right) leading off it. Then again the sounds coming from the lone door on the right might explain that lack of a guard. A quick search of the other rooms showed the near one to be just be a very basic bathroom (lacking even a flush toilet) while the other was locked with a very primitive lock that quickly gave way before some lock picks. After that it was easy enough to establish this as where the bandit leader kept the choicest of the loot - a few bags of various coins and a single small chest holding a number of pieces of jewelry. Since these were obviously stole goods, he felt justified in doing what came next - not only would it be returning valuables to their owners but by making what was probably single greatest concentration of money in the camp vanish he would sow additional doubt and dissent among the bandits who would almost certainly blame each other for stealing the goods. That done he once more crept up to the single door and put his eye to the keyhole. Something that would haunt his nights for a number of days.

Toshiro: 100 CP - 8 = 92 CP

Spoiler:

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

When Toshiro had put his eye to the keyhole he had expected to see a number of different things. A bandit chieftain sleeping in a bed with a bound girl at his side, a brutal "interrogation" of some helpless prisoner, or some other activity that he had come to associate with those who were less than rabid animals in the chuunin's view. What he saw through that keyhole had him blushing like a school boy even if it did explain the rather feminine squeals and screams he had heard coming up the stairs. The sight also had him reeling back from the keyhole hard enough that he almost toppled over - something prevented by one hand hitting the floor with a sharp smack. Thankfully the occupants of the room were too "involved" with each other to pay any notice to what would have been an unmistakable sound. For his part the ninja put a great deal of effort into clearing his mind of what he had just seen. Until that happened coherent thought would be... difficult.

Once clear of those thoughts (a process that took several minutes), Toshiro found himself facing what he had expected - the thing that would most likely cause him to screw up the entire mission. He really didn't want to kill the women even if they were obviously not being coerced and not just because having to stage three believable accidental deaths was much harder than one. Apparently his relationship with one Katsumi Kimiko had affected him in more ways than he expected and part of that change was being just a tad more reluctant to kill without serious provocation. Such thoughts were put on hold when a particularly loud pair of screams and deeper groan came from the room. Fighting down the blush that again surged up his cheeks, the chuunin silently cursed that some times his couldn't forget things no matter how much he wished he could before some instinct had him almost teleporting to the ceiling. There he clung to the main support beam, giving silent thanks that he hadn't ignored that impulse as the door to the room he had been crouched outside of opened.

Watching the person who was in all probability the leader of these bandits step out of the room while wearing a gaudy bathrobe (almost certainly stolen), Toshiro had already come up with several scenarios and ranked them in likelihood. The most dangerous of those was that the bandit leader was going to collect whatever payment he had promised to his bedmates from the room that the ninja had pillaged. If that happened and the room was found empty a bloodbath was inevitable. That thought had Toshiro ready to drop on the man with kunai in hand to kill him before he could raise the alarm. Unaware that his life depended on his next step, at what was nearly the last second the man moved past the door and headed to the bathroom. Exhaling a silent sigh of relief at not having to take the extreme option, the Leaf-nin tried to ponder a solution to his problem. It was when he heard water running in the bathroom that inspiration, or in this case a memory, struck - a memory of the time he had broken his arm due slipping on some water while leaving the bathroom and the gentle ribbing of his sisters that he had been lucky he hadn't broken his neck.

In one of the rare moments when inspiration, or in this case a memory, came to him like a bolt of lightning, Toshiro seized on that idea. A broken neck due to a slip on a wet floor was exactly the sort of thing that would raise few eyebrows. Especially if the individual was drunk or walking slightly off-balance due to a recent "passionate" intimate encounter. With that the white-haired grim reaper clambered down the wall and prepared to administer a "fatal but unfortunate accident" to a deserving individual. The contents of a bottle of water that Toshiro habitually carried on missions as an "oh crud" supply of water set the stage along with a quick genjutsu to hide the "deadly" puddle as just another dark strain on the floor and everything was ready as the chuunin pressed his back against the wall with his right arm chambered across his chest. Just in time too as the door to the bathroom opened again and the bandit leader stepped out - right into the hard forearm that smashed into his windpipe. Robbed of his ability to breath, much less yell, by that sudden attack the self-styled "bandit king" was in a poor position to defend himself as his feet were kicked out from under him. The final and lethal blow came from the raised knee that smashed into the back of the neck and skull at an oblique angle - snapping the spinal cord and doing a massive amount of damage to the part of the brainstem that regulated such things as breathing and heart rate. Unless the bandits counted a highly skilled medic-nin among their ranks who could get to their leader in the next few minutes the man was dead.

Knowing that he was now on a timer before someone came to investigate either the sound or their bedmates tardiness, Toshiro worked quickly for the last part. Grabbing the soon-to-be lifeless sack of meat he again bashed its skull, this time making sure to hit the outer handle to the bathroom door to make the injuries more believable along with twisting the neck slightly to hide the bruise from the initial strike among several others. With that sort of racket it was only a matter of time until someone came looking, which suited Toshiro just fine. Slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door as the tread of boots could be heard starting to climb the stairs he moved to the corner and applied one of the most basic yet useful techniques in the ninja's arsenal yet again. 'Henge' and in place of an assassin was one of the most mundane things in the world - a mop in a bucket of water.

Toshiro: 92 CP - 6 = 86

Spoiler:

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

Nearly half a day after the death of the individual who had styled himself “King of the Bandits”, the person who was the death of said “king” was sitting on a rock watching the fortress below through field glasses. For one Hinamori Toshiro things had gone surprisingly well. After the inevitable furor after their leaders body was found the bandits had indeed believed it to be an accident. After all, what conclusion could the closest thing they had to a doctor reach given the evidence? No alarm had been raised, all the windows had remained shuttered and barred, and a complete headcount of their ranks showed no one missing or present who shouldn’t be so. Combined with the obvious bloodstains and the reason for the “fatal slip” in a place where puddles of water were a frequent occurrence and they had (as far as the chuunin could tell) not even considered the possibility of hostile action. Not once had they paid any attention to the mop and bucket in the bathroom. It had taken several more hours before the disguised assassin had felt safe enough to release his henge and exit the building through a window that had been opened in the initial “just in case” search for an assassin. Then it had been a simple matter to slip over the palisade and escape into the night as the rag-tag collection of people who had only been held together by fear and respect of their leader fell into infighting.

Infighting had been in part fueled when the dead leaders wealth had turned up missing - each faction blaming the others for its disappearance. That infighting had resulted in the general brawling that was visible (and occasionally audible) from Toshiro’s current position. If this kept up for several days he had no doubt that within a week the bandits would be reduced to just a handful that could be mopped up by the militia or the local lords soldiery. Such things were out of the chuunin’s hands though - he had done his part almost perfectly and soon he would be heading back to Konoha to deliver his report, hand over the stolen jewelry for return to it’s owners ( the coins being spoils of battle), collect his pay, and hopefully have a little time to spend with his girlfriend. It was, he would later say, a classic example of the lyric he had heard on a song “put their name on a wanted poster with a reward along with “dead or alive” and he’ll soon be dead.” Speaking of which, Toshiro removed a rolled-up wanted poster from his pouch and skimmed over it until he reached “Wanted: Akira Onbi, self-style “Bandit King of Ta no Kuni” - dead or alive” and crossed out the word alive.