Starring:
Tsiro (as Yari), Meruin (as Fukiya)
Date: July 2, 2013
Summary:
Two Hunter-Nin investigate a double murder and an assumed kidnapping looking for leads.
"Hunter Files: Finding their Target Part 1"
A hut in the Mist Village
There's been a kidnapping.
And further than that, there's been a pair of murders. It seems that someone was taking advantage of the Kaguya upheaval to acquire one for purposes of their own not entirely clear but speculated to be for experimentation on the bloodline limit. Kaguya Banion was assumed to be visiting a friend of his — a shinobi veteran who'd lost his leg in service — and his wife in the village proper. Sometime between the time he arrived around 4 in the afternoon and 10 at night when a fleeing figure was spotted by passerby, the home was trashed and the man and woman living there were killed. The escaping figure was noted to be carrying a body with them, and with the lack of Kaguya Banion's corpse among the mess, it was assumed that he was taken. Hunter-nin are sent to the building to process the home and learn whatever they can to aid in the investigation.
Yari appears at the back door of the home. He turns the handle and opens the door. He did not want anyone seeing him or Fukiya here. There is a single nod as he enters the residence. They were here to search for clues on where they might find the missing Kaguya. His eyes makes a quick scan of the trashed home. He is search for signs of how it became trashed. He was looking for signs of a fight or perhaps signs that someone trashed it afterwards to make it look like a fight. These things mattered when profiling someone. "Check for blood splatter. That will determine where wounds were inflicted. Make sure to check for it near where the bodies were found. If you do not find any, it is obvious that the killer does not prefer blades. If there is, the larger the splatter, the longer the weapon usually…."
Fukiya appeared just behind Yari at the same moment, the slits of his mask scanning the area surrounding them once more as the other hunter shinobi saw to the door opening. Hearing the quiet sound of it opening, he turns and receives his nod, following him inside. The instructions were clear, the reminders quite the same as his handler took this time to continue training and teaching. Silent, he took care as he entered and closed the door behind him, being sure not to disturb the scene in any way.
Yari looked down at the floor near the back door. Spots of blood. "These spots means that the wound was not inflicted here, but dropped out as someone was moving or being moved. This means the kidnapper could be wounded." He did not see much point in thinking the bodies were killed outside and dragged in. Yari then moves to the bodies. "These cuts are clean. These are from a blade. Probably a bit bigger than a kitchen knife. Maybe a tanto blade." The eye slits then turn towards the blade stuck in the wall. "That is possibly the blade. Match it up to the wound."
Then Yari's eyes fall on the man's body. Specifically the bone blade sticking out of it. "That is a dangerous piece of information. I want to believe that the bone belongs to Kaguya Banion. Otherwise the motive of this changes… What do you see?" Yari asks the student.
Fukiya's slitted gaze scanned the room before focusing on the area where the bodies were at Yari's words. The hunter mask adorning his face showed nothing of emotion as it examined the people slaughtered in their own home. Two bodies. One male, one female. Female's hand in the fireplace, burned to a stump. Gashes and abrasions on the neck. He looks to the blade stuck in the wall.
A gloved hand raises. The hilt of the weapon was bloody. With care, he removed it from the wall, two fingers gripping it by open blade before taking it out with a small amount of strain. He brought it to the bodies, kneeling. Carefully, he lowered it to the gashes in the neck, examining. "No match," he proclaimed, missing the gashes and abrasions on the wrist that matched those on the neck. He stood to his feet and went back to the hole in the wall, easeing the blade back in.
Then looked to the male's body once more. One leg gone at the knee, it's bottom an open cavity, it's blood interior open to see. Ligature marks on the neck, like he'd been strangled. The bone of a camellia blade resting in his chest. "The Camellia blade could be Kaguya Banion's. Either way, it is troubling to find. Either we'd need to figure out why he would kill his friends and vanish or assume another Kaguya was involved in some manner. The weapon in the wall, however, I cannot say is the killers. It may be from one of the victims."
Yari notices that there was blood splatter on the back of the door. "Ok, so one died near the door. That splatter was enough to end someone." His eyes then focus on the stairs. There was blood drops on the steps going up. "It is possible there were Genjutsu involved here." Something about this did not seem right. Why was the owner of the home missing his prosthetic leg. "Lets go upstairs and see if that scorch mark is a burn from the top of if it is only on the bottom here. I am guessing someone might have known fire style jutsu. The limb may have actually been burned off elsewhere and then moved to hide it. As for the blade, it could be possible the killer disarmed Banion and then used it to make it look like it was him who attacked… actually if the body was dead before it was stabbed, the bleeding will be different. The body will not try to clot. Lets take a look."
Fukiya stepped up to the body, noting the truth of this. But he didn't have to bend down to check whether or not the wound showed signs of clotting. Classroom tests already? Here? "Someone stabbed in such a manner would not live long enough to clot. The difference between post or pre mortem stabbing would be whether or not the heart is still pumping, pushing blood through the wound. The large quantity of blood beneath them could be from either of them, or both. However…" He dips down, a gloved finger pulling aside the multiple layers of clothing near the wound just enough to see under it. "…The wound bled. There is blood on the skin beneath the clothing."
The hunter stood and walked into the rest of the room, the slitted gaze of his mask looking to the ceiling at the scorch mark over the couch that'd been noted by Yari. He turned then, looking to the blood on the door, visible now that the door was closed. He looked to the stairs, taking a step forward to mark the blood droplets on the steps. He is silent on the speculation for now, considering things too inconclusive to bother voicing things. For now, he simply moved up the stairs to investigate further.
Yari follows the blood trail up above. He nearly misses the burnt scrap of cloth infused with the wood. "Fukiya, tell me, how did that piece of cloth get there in its current state?" He then moves towards the window and looks at a piece of plant that was left behind. He was no expert on the plant, but he thought it might help. "Are you aware of what this is?" Hopefully Fukiya was. If not, they would need to take the evidence to another hunter to figure it out. He had guessed it was some kind of poison or paralytic. Luckily the husk did not appear to be crushed. It had just been balled up and wrinkled.
Fukiya steps up the stairs, following the blood trail into the upper room. It seems the whole space is a bedroom, and but for the blood trail to the open window, it's relatively untouched. The scrap of cloth did catch the hunter's attention. A tiny thing, barely noticable. He bends down to investigate. Slightly burnt edges. In the place where the fire damage would be if the flame had come from up here rather than below. And it seemed… His gloved fingers brushed over the scrap. It appeared to be fused to the wood.
"There is one shinobi who utilizes a ninjutsu allowing him to meld with and pass through whatever surface he pleases, it seems. It allows him a very high assassination rate. Were it Suterusu, he would have entered through the window, here. Then used his ninjutsu to pass through the floor. Recall the ligature marks? Perhaps from the ceiling, he'd have used his razor wire to try and suffocate the man. And that, perhaps, is why the scorch mark on the ceiling blow. He was caught, a katon ninjutsu used, perhaps."
The shinobi stood then, taking the plant piece from his fellow hunter. He examined it before unraveling it. "It is wrinkled and balled. But it doesn't appear to have been thoroughly crushed. It may've been forced into someone's mouth and later spat out before being chewed or swallowed." He looks over to Yari. "It is a leaf from a rare Kokozue plant. It is both paralytic and chakra suppresant. Toxic. It is known only to be grown in the Land of Rivers and it has a short period of time that it can be used after being picked…"
Yari pondered the information given to him by Fukiya. "Suterusu? Why would an assassin come in and kidnap one man but leave behind two bodies? Maybe it is someone from his clan…" Now Yari was speaking to himself. He looks around the room once more. They had two leads. An assassin and a paralytic plant. "Tell me about this assassin. As for the plant, I think we will find more use going to the land of rivers and trying to find the source. We may be able to find a merchant who picks the plants or grows them. Maybe they will know more."
"Suterusu is a shinobi from Sunagakure who is most often used for wetwork and holds a predilection for removing the eyes of his victims." Fukiya shakes his head, looking about the place. "This place does not have his signature. If an initial kill fails or there is cause for combat, his jutsu tends to lead to widespread destruction. There wouldn't have been a house left. Nor, likely, the victim's remains. You are correct. The plant is, in my estimation, our best lead."
