Starring:
Date: September 16, 2016
Summary:
Tsugumi and Hinotori get called upon to take care of a clumsy book thief.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Clumsy Thievery"
Konohagakure
Tsugumi and Hinotori have sparred together. They have planned together for a proposal for a promotion competition for Konohagakure ninja. But their research at Konohagakure's library has led to something else. An impromptu mission. It appears that someone unrecognized was asking around about any books on ninjutsu in the library, and was informed that aside from history books and scrolls, sensitive materials like that were not kept at the public library. They asked some suspicious questions about where they could find such texts and were told by library staff they didn't know repeatedly until the stranger went away.
While the person hunting for ninjutsu texts was extremely clumsy in their asking, the fact someone was asking around about that sort of thing at all was troubling. So the two Jounin have been asked to look into it, leading to them checking places where someone might go looking for easily-accessible instruction guides on how to perform ninjutsu…
The first one that came to mind was the Hidden Leaf's ninja academy. Sure, it won't have much of anything that isn't basic ninja knowledge, like Clone Technique and Replacement Technique, but someone this unsubtle, with this degree of reasoning that they'd just go to the library and think they'd get 'The Secrets of Ninjutsu: Volumes I through Bajillionty'… They might not have thought that far ahead. Or maybe that's acceptable to them.
Tsugumi and Hinotori are thus now on the academy grounds. It's late, there are no students around, and most instructors are probably gone too. There might be maintenance staff or something, but not much else. But from the sounds of clattering they can hear coming from the main building, it seems Tsugumi's hunch was correct. She starts stealthing her way towards the window of the classroom, indicating silently for Hinotori to go inside and cover the class room's door when he reaches it.
Finding it pretty odd that someone would come into the village and go through all of this to just learn ninjutsu. Still someone has encroached within his home, he will take the necessary steps to make sure that doesn't continue. Going with Tsugumi's hunch he followed her lead, granted he was actually enjoying the planning of the Konoha promotion competition. There have been some good ideas being exchanged and well a lot of writing. Still though once this is done they would be able to get back to work, granted it was good to be moving around a bit.
Hinotori splits off when Tsugumi indicates where for him to go. He was going to let her lead this, because at this point she is still new to being a Jounin, and he wanted to see how she would be able to command a team of Jounin even if it's only the two of them. Still Hinotori is moving fast, his steps are light and soft. His training in ANBU having taking over as he moves, as he gets to the door. Opening it and not making no unnecessary movements, he edges to one of the classrooms. Crouching down and peeking in, he sees someone crouched and going over books. Hinotori goes in, still keeping quiet, and using the darkness to mask his precede as he moves inside, for now he was going to observe and do that from behind the teachers desk.
Tsugumi, meanwhile, moves to the class room's windows, hiding just out of sight from inside the room. She has to have her back to the wall for that, however, so, standing in profile, she'd be visible from Hinotori's position, because… She sticks out quite aways. Either way, until Hinotori confronts the clumsy thief, she can't take action. If he's going to question the subject, he should do so.
Speaking of the thief, he (and from the deep grumbling of his voice, it's apparently a man) just keeps rooting through books, opening them briefly to scan them in a cursory manner, and then discarding them. It's unclear what he's looking for precisely, or why he thought he'd find it here, but he's totally abusing school property.
Looking out towards the window, he gives a slight nod if Tsugumi is able to see him. He stands up and walks quietly over to where the man is, his right hand comes out of his hoodie and as Hinotori approaches the man, though if the man turns around to see, he would only see shadows as Hinotori would just casually walk past another bookshelf. He isn't moving fast at all, just using the shadows, darkness and the other book cases to keep himself hidden. Still he keeps himself visible to Tsugumi.
Once he is where he wants to be, he grins, "So what'cha reading?" knowing this will probably terrify the man as he continues to discard books, "Haven't anyone told you that mistreating books is a bad thing. I mean if my one friend was here, I'm pretty sure even I wouldn't be able to stop her." he laughs as he leans against the shelf. "So what are you doing here?" he asks. Hinotori could've been subtle, but he wanted to see what would happen or if this guy was any threat to anyone or just a villager wanting to learn to be a ninja the quick and easy way.
The man whirls around, dropping the book he was about the discard when he hears a voice behind him. He is not pretty. He has a massive overbite, a protruding forehead that gives him a kind of caveman appearance, and is hair is long and stringy. As Hinotori keeps talking to him, he scrambles around in his clothes, possibly searching for a weapon. If he manages to extract it, it's just a kunai, but he despite his clumsiness, ugliness, and incompetence, it doesn't look like a weapon he's just carrying around for no reason. He is at least able to use it. Maybe.
He's holding it like a pocket knife, anyway. At least unless Hinotori takes it away from him or takes him out or stops him from drawing it in the first place. "I'm looking for a book! Get out of my face!" he retorts while looking towards the door. If Hinotori has moved away from the door that Tsugumi told him to stand at, as it appears he has, then the exit is no longer blocked. It's fortunate he's telegraphing where he wants to go so obviously.
Hinotori looks to the man, his right hand casually at his side, upon seeing the man looking startled at him, he grins. "Oh nice." he says at the kunai. Shaking his head, "Yeah, a lot of people are looking for books, but you went about this all the wrong way." he says to him. Hinotori didn't mind the guys looks, granted he did look like one of those cavemen, Rinoko showed him one of the funnier novels, he couldn't help but think about it now. Still, as the man holds the kunai awkwardly, the Jounin, seems to flicker forward. There is no chakra being used, just him being fast and attempting to disarm the man. "How about you pick the books up stack's up properly, and maybe you get out of here safely." he says to him. **** happens to people, but HInotori was going to take the man to the Uchiha Police, let him sit there for a few days. Still there are things to do, and Hinotori didn't want to be out here much longer. He moves up to the man and punches him in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. "Come on, lets go." he says knowing the man can't fight.
When Hinotori flickers towards the thief and yanks his kunai out of his hand, he only has a moment to be surprised before trying to punch Hinotori in the stomach when told to put the books back. Thankfully, Hinotori is much, much faster, and does the same thing to him instead. He slumps to the ground, knocked out from the shock of the blow.
Tsugumi hears all the commotion and peeks inside, seeing that Hinotori took him out without too much trouble. Looks her plan to force the thief to go out the window is unnecessary. Hinotori handled everything and she never got involved. Oh, well. Looks like he wasn't smart enough or skilled enough to be worth the trouble.
She raps her knuckles on the window to get Hinotori's attention, and indicates she'll meet him around front with the prisoner. They'll find out what's what at the station.
A strange night, but at least not a deadly one.