Starring:
Kurome (emitter), Heero, Tatsuo, Zori
Date: July 11, 2015
Summary:
A team investigates more murders in smaller villages.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"A Mighty Sword - Nothing Gained"
Border of Land of Fire and Lightning
A while back, there were a few murders between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire. Not much was found, though there were a few things that were suspicious. It's been a few months, though, so perhaps folks have started to forget the incident. Eventually, though, another victim appeared, this time in a village between Fire and Lightning. A team made of both Kumogakure and Konohagakure shinobi have been sent to this small village to investigate and perhaps find the culprit.
Heero travelled as the mission directed. There was an incident in a small village and they needed to find not only who did it, but capture them if possible. He eyed the mission report. This was a joint interaction with Konoha. At least it wasn't someone from Kiri coming. Heero put the thoughts out of his mind as he'd slow his run, coming towards the edge of that village. They were to meet there, then head in, he presumed. So hopefully the konoha nin wouldn't leaving him hanging.
Tatsuo is actually in Kumogakure for a while more, having traveled there with his team from Konoha to visit their allies. So he actually takes his mission and goes with Heero though he's so silent and hangs back a bit it might very well seem to the other that he's alone. Regardless, he arrives with the Kumo nin and looks around the meeting place, wondering who Konoha would be sending to help out. Surely it would be someone smart, wise, and patient.
Zori had received message to meet up for a mission. Traveling to the mission meet up point he would wait for instructions from the higher up, if there is one. Zori has a grin on his face while he waits not looking at the others but hes more so staring out in space.
Got too lost in his thoughts and totally missed being followed. By a genin. Well he's off to a good start. Heero looked between Tatsuo and Zori, finally sighing softly. "I see. Alright. So the mission is straight forward. Gather information on the victim. Find who would seek to take them down, track it back to the killer and detain them." Heero eyed the two genin again. "Any questions? Any special abilities either of you wish to indulge in that can make this easier?"
They sent Zori? Alone? Konoha is really tempting fate these days aren't they. Tatsuo watches the other Leaf shinobi warily before looking to Heero and listening to their instructions, in the end shaking his head. "No…I don't…sorry…" he says softly before starting to chew his lower lip worriedly.
Zori looks between Tatsuo and Heero. When Zori looks at Tatsuo he starts to remember who he was. Tatsuo…. wait a minute thats the guy that got me in trouble. Hehe maybe i can have my revenge after all. Zoris eyes dart over to Heero. I never seen this guy before, i wonder who he is, he might get in my way of what i want to do. Zori responds to Heeros question "Not at all" in a calm tone. His grin still on his face.
Heero studied Zori and Tatsuo for a moment. Finally he'd sigh. Great. There was something going to happen there.. wasn't there? "Alright. Let's go. Please try to stay out of trouble?" He'd glance at Zori for a long moment with that last comment then would head for the village itself. Entering the village he'd start looking the people over, looking to see if anyone was nervous.. more so than normal for when he shows up.. and who might be a person in charge to try and get information. He'd wait for the genin to offer something, but he wouldn't stop them from doing actions that might help the mission.
Tatsuo wasn't going to do anything besides try and avoid Zori, that was about it. He stays with Heero as they head into the village, dark eyes finally leaving Zori to start scanning the village and it's inhabitants silently. What with Heero being in charge and all he doesn't have anything to offer, he's just…watching. If he sees anything odd he'll mention it but other than that he's just kind of there.
Zori could feel that Heero had looked him over hard. Zori was surprised of what Heero had said to him. Grr he must know about me already, that must be the reason he said for me to stay out of trouble. Zori stares at Heero and gives him a look "Heh, im always staying out of trouble" Zori shrugs his shoulders "But if you say so" Zori's eyes dart back to Tatsuo for a quick moment then back to Heero. He then begins to follow the rest of the group tagging behind them. As they walk through the village Zori keeps he head down with a grin to avoid altercations if he could. His grin would more the likely scare the people of the village.
The group won't see all that much initially. That may be strange in and of itself, though, as there was little to no activity within. Children aren't outside playing, and folks don't seem to be relaxed at all. In fact, one man carrying a pitchfork seems extra cautious, bumbling over to the group of shinobi with a wary look in his eyes. "Yer the ninja that're helpin' us? Y' don't look like much…" he mutters, eyes glancing to the genin before they rest on Heero and his own giant figure. "What d'you want?" He doesn't look like he's going to spike 'em with that pitchfork yet, at least!
That grin was starting to scare him. Definitely a scary genin. Maybe off balanced mentally. Thought they were from Konoha? Heero would glance over Tatsuo and Zori again, before his musing got interrupted by a man with a pitchfork. Raising a brow, Heero would slowly cross his arms over his chest, flexing the muscles to show that slight bulking up as they'd all grow slightly in size. "Hai. We are here to assist with the issue that was reported. We want to know who was the vicitim and where did it start at? We will do what we can to track down the culprit and put an end to this issue."
Tatsuo stops just a little behind Heero when the man approaches, eyes continuing to scan the surroundings before eventually settling on the man that approaches, a slight frown showing at the aggression of the man. Whatever he sees in any instance he doesn't say anything for the time being, just continuing to watch and being as observant as possible as he tries to piece things together.
Zori notices that the other two have stopped. So Zori stops as well maintaining distance from the other two. He still stands behind them arms crossed over his shoulders glaring at the pitch fork man. His grin widens a bit as he does no talking but instead waits for Heero to finish talking with the pitch fork man.
The man's eyes narrow a bit, but he nods slightly. "An entire family, the local blacksmiths. They didn't all live together, though, since the sons didn't wanna crowd their pa." He gestures to a few empty houses on the edge, each one of them hosting an anvil in the front yard. "I'm Barudo… Second in command, I suppose? Our village leader's gone off to try and find the culprits himself, that baka.." He glares a bit at the genin, feeling something… different. People focusing chakra is semi noticeable sometimes? Or maybe this guy is a bit more sensitive to chakra than most? Either way, his eyes are on Zori and suspicion is painted on his face. "It happened four days ago," he then says. "First victim, I mean. We filed a report, but then two others were killed the next day. Sorry, but this might be a bit more than what you found out. That report is probably a bit old."
Heero tenses slightly further at feeling the large spike of chakra that Zori just pulled up. Good thing he was on the same team, right? Rolling his shoulder, Heero would nod to the man. "Alright. If he's going to find who did it, then he has a lead. If you give that to us, we can catch up to him, help to detain the culprit and make sure he doesn't get hurt. While the information is old that we had, we still need to track down the one who did it. Any information you provide will assist this."
"Are…they all the empty houses…? The ones you mentioned" Tatsuo asks softly and kind of randomly as he looks from the empty buildings back to the men while worrying his lower lip. There's a lot of empty houses, that doesn't seem good at all. Hopefully the three of them would be enough to handle…whatever this was. When the man pauses to look at Zori, Tatsuo glances over at him curiously, but doesn't say anything. Still…if others were already worried about him…that couldn't be good.
Zori could feel the pitch forks mans eyes on him. As both of there eyes meet up for a moment Zori says "Got a problem?" Zori grins evily as he glares at the pitched fork man with the look of a madman. Zori could sense that the pitch fork man was already on edge with Zori.
As the pitchfork would go up past Heero to come to aim at Zori, Heero would snap his hand out, the massive fist wrapping about that end of the pitchfork and with a squeeze, crush it. Heero stared at the guy. Yes, Zori was creepy. Asking for it too, but he was under Heero's command. "Thanks." Letting go of the pitchfork, or what remains at least, Heero would glance at Zori. "Knock it off." Then look to both genin. "Missing nin. We will need to be prepared. Let's go." With that, he'd walk off, heading in the direction that the man had pointed. Heero expected the others to follow, but was listening for potential of a scuffle. Just in case Zori lashed out.
Tatsuo watches all the action as the pitch fork goes towards Zori, then is intercepted and broken. Wow…he wouldn't want to make this shinobi mad. The dark eyed boy glances over at Zori to see his reaction to it all, then makes a mental note to tell Kaido about how Zori is acting and let him figure out what to do with it. Might not be his team person but Kaido was a Jounin…When Heero turns to walk off Tatsuo is right behind him, glancing back to Zori to see if he follows or causes more trouble.
Zori doesnt move not a inch when the pitchfork comes at his neck. Zori was getting ready to attack the man, not showing any action on doing so. But he was thinking about doing it. Zori watched as the pitchfork is crushed. Zori glances over at Heero with a smirk. Wow Heero is stronger then Zori had thought. Following behind the other two, he starts to lash out but he figured Heero was going to try to stop him. He just waits for there movement.
The pitchfork comes away broken, and Heero might have a few bits of metal in his hands. But the pitchfork wielded didn't seem too impressed or happy. "Just go," he grumps again, storming away to let the Shinobi do as they please. He'd rather Zori was left behind so he could deal with the venture himself, but there were other matters to deal with. Like making sure houses were secure and the like.
Absently, Heero would pull bits of metal from his hand, flexing it to make sure there were none left. Once done, he'd give a nod to Zori and Tatsuo, then take off at his distance eating pace. He wasn't going to go too fast, but he also didn't really tire, nor slow down, simply going in the direction pointed out while doing his best to watch for signs of the leader, or the one the leader followed. They needed to find the culprit and end this, quickly.
Tatsuo can only watch in silence as the scene plays out in front of him. He does nothing to interfere himself and he says nothing further at this point, instead just waiting until they leave, then making sure to hurry his steps to keep up with the much taller person.
As the group makes its way after the village leader, they would notice signs of the pursuit. But the tracks were that of a single person. Hmm… If the pace increased, they would eventually catch up to a man who looks to be in his early thirties. Right now he has a scowl on his face as he looks around a clearing. Not lost, but he doesn't seem to be finding what he's looking for.
Coming up on the spot that the leader was at, Heero would slow down. Glancing back to the genin, he'd nod slightly and motion them on as Heero would land surprisingly lightly for how big he is, stand up and walk over to the leader. "Hello. I'm Heero with Kumogakure. I'm guessing you lost the trail of the culprit that is causing the problem? Is there any information you can give us to help us in finding where this person went? We'll do our best to quickly detain them."
Tatsuo manages to keep up with the pace without too much effort, moving after the much bigger man until they come upon the older guy with the scowl. Tatsuo stops there and starts to look around again while the big man talks ot the old man. Let him figure that part out while Tatsuo starts examining the ground to see if he can find any tracks or hints as to where the bad types might have gone.
The man whirls in his spot, looking like he might attack with,.. what, his fists? He relaxes, though, when he hears Heero. "He has a large sword. And he's got some height. But that's all I was able to make out during the chase." Tatsuo wouldn't be able to find much of anything in his search the first glance around. But if he ever passes his gaze across a certain speckled stone, he might realize there's something on it. Blood. And it probably wasn't the village leader's, since there was no wound on him.
Heero would give a nod in response. "Alright. Good to know." Heero glanced to the genin again, to see if they found anything, before looking around himself. "Do you have any fighting capability? Or should you hang back and allow us to detain the culprit? I'm sure they're around here somewhere, they would of moved before now if they weren't trying to hide.."
Tatsuo doesn't give up in his searching while Heero talks with the man from the village, the Konoha nin walking around and examining the ground until he comes upon the rock. "Um…Heero-san…" he says softly, glancing back towards the Kumo Chuunin before motioning for him to come over and pointing down at the rock with the blood on it. Then he starts searching for additional spots or some kind of blood trail.
As much as the two search around the clearing, there doesn't seem to be any signs of … well… anything. The village leader huffs. "I've got some fight in me. But I've been standing here for two hours now and I ain't seen-" he breaks off when Tatsuo says something, and he wonders how he missed something. A closer inspection of the rock shows that the blood isn't terribly old, but it also isn't fresh. It's probably been there for half the time the man was standing around. "Hmmph… Right under my nose.." the man mutters.
Heero would look about, not finding anything in the end, so he'd shake his head and give up on that route. Looking at what Tatsuo pointed out, a nod was given. "Good job on the find." Heero would check the rock itself, just in case the enemy was trying to use that as a hiding point, before straightening up to look around with a frown. "Alright! So you're good at hiding! We're not going anywhere, so come out and deal with this, or we'll hunt you down!" Heero would grab the handle of the hammer from his back, pulling it free of the holster and allowing it to casually drop with a heavy thud on the rock, shattering it.
Tatsuo continues to keep a look out in case he can spot anyone, but at this point he sees nothing and just takes a few steps back so he's not close to anything. More room to give him time to move should he need it. Or at least time to make seals. While Heero tries to call someone out Tatsuo's eye's jump from spot to spot, looking for the slightest bit of movement.
Instead of Zori following behind the others he had taken off his backpack. He searched through the pack for his weapons. Scrambling through it he shouts "Where is it! Im pretty sure Hige gave it to me for this mission." After looking for a bit longer he finds the wires. Zori equips them on both of his wrist. Slinging the backpack on himself. He had caught up to the rest of the group following behind. "Heh, Im back.”
Heero would like give Zori a look before something catches his attention. It's likely he'd tell the two Genin to keep looking around and gather information while he went to chase down this new suspect… Too bad his suspect is just a frightened rabbit that is gonna give him a run for his money. The village leader gives Zori and Tatsuo a look before saying, "Well, did ye find anything else?" Unfortunately, probably not.
Tatsuo looks over at Zori when the Genin returns and he frowns a little, but then returns to looking for anything else that might help them out. At this point he doesn't seem to find much however and so he just kind of waits for Heero to return, eyes just kind of cast about to look around for any random thing.
Zori notices the look Heero gave him, glaring at him with a -WhatYouLookingAt- Face. He would glare at Tatsuo when he gave him a frown. "What? You guys looking at me like someone died." When Heero and Tatsuo begin to look around, Zori figured he would do so as well. For what hes suppose to be looking for? He dont know but finding anything suspicous or out of place would help.
It must not be the team's day. They find nothing new, either with wires or eyes. It seems that the enemy, whoever it is, was able to slip away again. It's close to sunset now, and the village leader and Heero decide that they should go back to their respective homes. "I'm sorry to call you three out for nothing," the leader says with a heavy sigh.
Well it sucks that they lost the trail but they did get to the party a little late and there was only so much one could do without a true tracker on the team. Tatsuo turns to the man, chewing his lower lip nervously before he gives a small bow, "Um…sorry we couldn't do more…" What else can he say really?
Although he was late in arriving back over to the others to try to help them look around for clues and whatnot, he just couldnt help them truely with his wires. It seems that the wires didnt pick up anything at all, which is unusual for Zori to not hear atleast some tight of movement. Zori walks over to Tatsuo and look over to the man. He doenst apologize for not finding anything he just stares at the man.
