Starring:
Date: May 15th, 2010
Summary:
The situation becomes progressively darker and more dangerous for Team Ruri, when the second criminal is located.
"Scars - Sheex Appears!"
Land of Waves
Ruri, if she weren't so busy trying to fake being a shy young woman, would probably find this whole situation absurd too. But she IS busy acting. So she just focuses on the job at hand. And soon…
"Oof!" Garand or Garland or whatever his name is is tied up, and probably punched or kicked a few times. "Hey, I don't mind bondage, but I'm not into the rough stuff!" he protests as he sits on the ground in the alleyway, back against the wall. Ruri just stares blankly at him for a moment, and then says completely without any emotion, "That's not what we heard from Oshido-san." Garand just looks confused, perhaps trying to remember any women he's slept with named 'Oshido'. Ruri shrugs, and turns to the rest of the group. "Okay, good work all. Next is this 'Ranken' guy. We should probably find some place to store this goon too, but no ideas are coming to mind."
Garand pipes up with, "I don't like sharing! Can't you all just take turns with me?" Ruri tries to ignore him. "Now to use Pharaoh to find the guy's Chakra—…." Ruri looks around the area. Some Kumogakure ninja are across the street outside the alleyway. The hotel is also apparently full of them from what the desk guy said. "…Uhh. I guess I kind of assumed that there wouldn't be a bunch of ninja around other than ourselves. I mean… I thought most of the forces would be normal soldiers. We need to find Ranken, but with all these other ninja around, I don't know how. Any ideas?"
Kick. Kick. KICK. Kick. Kick. KICK.
Oh yes, the lardful oaf /does/ get his fair share of abuse as he's being trussed up. And then some. Rinako makes sure of that point. Even after he's tied, she gives him a few more, including one in the kidney, just for good measure. Then he just /HAS/ to earn himself another one with that taking turns comment.
She resists the urge to plant her foot in his teeth, kicking him in the chest, instead, hoping to knock the wind out of him and still that large mouth for at least a little while.
"Don't look at me, I just hit big things until they become little things, and tan really great."
Rinako searches for something with which to gag the man, hopefully before he could figure out that his menage-a-five was going horribly, horribly wrong and start shouting for help at the top of his lungs. If there's any rope left over, she'd use that on his mouth, tying it painfully tight. If not… she'd just raid her sister's bag for spare underwear or something.
With that done, the elder Rurohashi twins points up at the hotel resort. "Why don't we just walk up the wall and put him in his room, then hang the 'do not disturb' sign? That should buy us an hour or two to find his friend, at least."
Kara frowns at the guy and assists in holding him while he's tied up. She feels like her hands got dirty just from touching him. "Ugh." She then nods to Rinako's idea. "Yeah, we can store him in his bedroom." Then she eyes the elder of the twins. "Though maybe Rinako should stay with him to make sure he doesn't escape. I'm sure she can find some way to keep him entertained…" Spiteful and vindictive? Why, yes she is!
"And yes, I don't think Pharaoh-kun can find a particular Chakra unless I know what it looks like in advance. Do we have a physical description?"
Shemri refrains from participating too vehemently in the kicking. This guy deserves more punishment than they could dish out, but a ninja has to keep the mission objective foremost. Still, he does get a couple sandal marks in Shemri's size on his body. >)
Shemri folds her arms and bows her head thoughtfully. "In hunting, there are two basic paths," she says. "You may search for your prey, or you may create a reason for your prey to come to the place you desire. Generally it is easier to do the second. Have we any means of making our target come to us? Do we know anything of his desires, his tastes?"
Ruri nods to Rinako's idea. "Okay, good. Get his room number and dump him there, then—HEY! Those are MY panties! Use your own!" she stops to yell at Rinako as she gags the jerk with Ruri's underwear. "You're paying for replacements!" she tells her sister warningly. "And I think Kara-chan's ideas has merit too. You can stay with him in his room." Man, Rinako is racking up all kinds of aggro today.
"Like I said, I don't know much about him other than his name and his general level of power. It's actually kind of odd that they wouldn't tell me the details of what he is wanted for and such… He must have done something major, or at least majorly secret." She shrugs.
"I do have a vague description of him. Apparently he is average height for a male, and is dark-skinned. He also wears a blindfold with a hole in it for his left eye. No idea why. Maybe he thinks it makes him look cool. Anyway, let's spread out and ask questions. If Garand here didn't want to join the Kumogakure forces, then Ranken is probably the one who DOES. Kara-chan, you look at the Kumogakure basecamp. See if they have a recruitment office or something. Shemri-san, you and Shiikaa stick with me. We'll look around town. Rin-chan, you already have your assignment. Everyone ready?"
"Ew, no! He smells bad. Besides, uh, what if you guys need me against the other one? He's supposed to be Chuunin-level, at least." Anything to get out of having to spend 'quality' time with the nasty oaf! If she was left alone with him, they might just come back to a corpse.
Unfortunately, this also left her with the rather unpleasant task of rifling through the miscreant's pockets for his room key in order to decipher which room he might be in. Once that's done, nothing for it except to, ugh, /touch/ the slob again, hefting him up over her shoulder as she braces a foot against the wall.
"Fine. Fine! But if you guys get into trouble, I'm not coming back down. I'm going to stay up there and play Uno with my /new/ friend."
With that, the elder of the pair of twins begins to spider-climb up the wall, using both feet and one hand, clinging to the solid, sheer surface with her chakra, while the other one made sure Johnny Eats-Too-Much didn't slip off and fall to his death. Though now that she thought about it… that'd be a good was to get out of her 'assignment'. She growls under her breath at the gagged male as she nears what she figured was probably the appropriate window. Or else she'd have some 'splainin' to doooooooo.
"I swear to god, if your oder gets on my clothes, I'm going to remove any appendage on your body that's more than three inches long."
Kara nods grimly at the information. "I wonder if he's the Uchiha that the insane Hyuuga lady got her right eye from! He does wear a blindfold that doesn't cover his left eye, after all. It would totally fit!" Looking around as though expecting to see a Sharingan staring at her out of the darkness, Kara hefts her bag of clothes and things, and the giant scroll under her left arm, and says, "Good luck, all of you! I'll go check out the base and see if they recruited anyone like this 'Ranken' dude." Then she pauses and calls up to Rinako just before she ducks into the appropriate window, "Have fun~!"
Shemri nods thoughtfully. "Hmmm…well, we at least know he is from Sunagakure…setting up a stall to sell Land of Wind delicacies might draw him. A long shot, though. And anyway, with a description like that, he would not be too hard to pick out of a crowd. Perhaps tracking our prey shall be easier in this case." Oh, and then, if Kara's right, he'd be more attracted by Land of Fire treats, which they wouldn't know how to make. c.c Oh well, moot point. Shemri glances over at Shiikaa. "You heard, Shiikaa? A dark man with a weird blindfold. He should not be difficult to spot, if only we are lucky enough."
Ruri stares at Kara. "No, he's definitely from the Land of Wind. …I think." Now she has to worry about an Uchiha possibly being their target. Great. She wished Kara would just keep her thoughts to herself sometimes. Sighing, she rezips her bag so that no more of her unmentionables can be pilfered, and goes for a stroll around town. A stroll that involves looking out for a guy with a blindfold or one eye or anything else like that.
Meanwhile, Garland has become quite distressed with the discovery that one of his captors (as far as he knows) is a ninja. He looks awfully concerned, though he doesn't thrash around or anything. Instead he just leers at Rinako with a mix of perversion and hostility, until they make it to the right window and enter his hotel bedroom.
Inside is, perhaps, not quite what Rinako may have expected to find. Or probably anyone, for that matter. A woman in her late 20s or early thirties, and what appears to be her daughter, around the same age as Rinako herself, are tied up in a pair of rather obscene positions on the bed, naked. Scattered around the floor of the room are shreds of women's clothing, and a lot of other things that are far too unpleasant to mention in mixed company but are definitely geared towards sex.
The mother appears to be asleep, but the daughter's eyes dart towards the window when she hears someone entering. She begins trying to yell around a gag in her mouth. "Heeehhhhp! Heeeeehp!" she manages to get out. Seems that Garand has not changed his habits since he fled the Land of Wind. If anything, he seems to have gotten worse. A bottle of pills lies on the nightstand next to the bed. Possibly the cause of the mother being asleep. She's been drugged. Well, seems like Rinako may have something to do after all!
As Kara sets off to find the base camp, asking directions from Kumogakure ninja would probably provide the best results. If she does ask directions, she'd be directed to the correct location, and from there find that there are a number of men and boys of various ages waiting to be processed in a huge line. Looks like recruitment efforts are going strong. But is Ranken among these people?
"…Swell."
Naturally, this left Rinako with a bit of a conundrum! She couldn't very well just let the mother and daughter pair /go/, since they'd likely run to the authorities and bring them running. Which would then begin to make Rinako's life particularly difficult with such questions as /why/ she was there, and /what/ she doing with their criminal all trussed up like that. And could even be compounded by an attempted Kumogakure ninja rescue squad!
As she slides the window open, Rinako looks in at the two naked woman. Then at Garland. Women. Garland. Women. Garland. Clearly there was only one choice here, as far as she was concerned, and they'd already established that this mook didn't need to be brought in alive.
"Whoopsie."
And Garland begins to fall as Rinako shrugs him off of her shoulder, letting him take the plunge back down the alleyway and onto the unforgiving concrete below… however many stories below. Slinking into the window, Rinako takes stock of what was on the floor, giving an involuntary shudder of revulsion. Who knew how long he'd had these two up here!
The elder Rurohashi twin moves to the daughter's side of the bed, putting a finger to her lips as she reaches for the younger of the trussed up pair's gagging, tugging it off.
"I need you to calm down, okay? Do you know what's in this bottle?" She lifts the little bottle of pills and gives it a tiny shake. "Did he give any of it to you?" Provided the girl isn't spazzing out and screaming for help at the top of her lungs, Rinako begins to untie her hands.
Shemri walks along with Ruri in their search for the target. Every so often, Shiikaa glances up at Shemri and gives a little mrowr, and Shemri changes her posture and expression back from huntress to tourist. c.c; Of course, tourists look around a lot too, but generally more at the environment than the people, and without such…focus in their eyes. Makes it tough.
After a little while, Shiikaa stops and stiffens. Shemri glances back at him. "Hoi, is something the matter?" Shiikaa twitches his whiskers, then darts off down a side alley. Shemri follows after him, bewildered. He couldn't have the target's scent, unless one-eyed men give off a distinctive smell? c.c After a couple of twists and turns, they find something…well, probably not related to their mission, but attention-grabbing nonetheless. A big hole in the ground on some unused property, with a pile of dead bodies dumped within. Shemri covers her mouth and nose with her hand, then leans over the edge to peer at the insignia on one of the more visible forehead protectors…Kirigakure. Figures. "Such is the results of war," Shemri mumbles. Kinda sad, but what ya gonna do? c.c
Kara does indeed ask for directions and refrains from flirting, because she doesn't want to get these ninja too interested in her or why she's asking for the base location in a couple pieces of string. Once she finds the base with the tents and things for the soldiers and ninja who aren't lucky enough to be staying in the hotel, she hmmmms. Probably would be too attention-getting to go into a place full of males dressed like this. She should totally change first and then approach the line when she's more presentable.
"This is dumb. I WANTED to be noticed and flirt and stuff. Now I have to hide my goddess-like body! Dumb missions!" she huffs and then henges into her normal ninja clothing, minus the ninja gear. Maybe she's actually still wearing her string bikini underneath but no one will know that, even if they were to touch her. Then she slings her bag over one shoulder, and unrolls her scroll.
A poof of smoke later, and Pharaoh is standing there! "Okay, Pharaoh-kun! I need some back-up here! So… Time to use… THAT JUTSU!" She plants a hand on Pharaoh and focuses her Chakra. A little while later, Kara is walking along the side of the line, with a Kumogakure Chuunin escorting her directly into the recruitment tent. Pharaoh is mysteriously absent!
Garand is dropped. He falls and hits the ground with a crunch. The daughter in the room is ungagged and works her mouth a bit, breathing coming fast, tears starting to well up in her eyes. She didn't see what happened to her attacker, but there's a ninja or something here to help her now, so she tries to do as told and keep calm. "Th-It's some kind of… I don't know. It…" She is starting to get very agitated, "Oh god, he might come back anytimeplease, you have to" then she is being unbound. So she focuses on watching the door and says, "I don't know what the pills are. They made my mom… Do things." Her eyes go down to the floor, as she is quickly untied. She manages to get to her feet, arms and legs having been in an odd position for a long time. Rubbing her wrists she stands back and watches her rescuer, while trying to gather up her clothes.
"Is my mom going to be okay?" she asks as she tries to gather up her clothes.
When Shiikaa starts leading the way to the mass grave, Ruri follows the cat and his owner. They arrive and the stench is pretty bad, but there's people at work burying the bodies. Shovels send huge piles of dirt onto the corpses, and Ruri is left to stand there and frown. "Meh. This isn't what we're looking for." She starts to turn around to head away, but then she feels a tingling on the back of her neck. 'Killing intent!' she thinks and then quickly tries to dodge to the side. Someone comes charging through with a kunai, misses Ruri by scant inches, but then turns and slashes at her a couple more times, cutting her in the right arm and the collarbone before she can get out of range. Then he throws the blade at Shemri's back!
"LOOK OUT!" Ruri yells, hoping her warning comes fast enough. Their attacker is an average-height man, with dark skin and a blindfold over his eyes. Except for the left one, which has a hole over it. "Suna-scum!" he hisses out as the grave diggers begin to flee from an impending ninja battle. Then he tenses the fingers on his hand, still outstretched from hurling the kunai.
The blade swings around on an arc, towards Ruri's throat. Wires are barely discernible linking the kunai to Ranken's fingers. So the attack wasn't aimed at Shemri at all!
When Kara and her 'escort' enter the tent, a few people look up. One of the Kumo ninja says, "Hey, wait in line—" before spotting the Chuunin behind Kara. Then one of the rcruiters glances over. "What's going on?" he asks. "We're not accepting female conscripts at this time," he adds on. Conscripts? Wait. So the Kumogakure forces here are CONSCRIPTING all these people? They aren't here voluntarily!? Well… That's interesting, but not quite what the mission is about. Something else IS what the mission is about however. A dark-skinned older man with a blindfold over his eyes — except for the left one — stands near the back of the tent, with a Kumogakure flak vest, hitai-ite, and the bearing of a Jounin. He just smirks at Kara.
And outside the hotel, in the alleyway, the crumpled, blood-oozing form of Garand on the concrete ground… Begins to stand back up. When he is back on his feet, his entire appearance has changed. He is average-height, with dark skin… And a blindfold with a hole to see through on his face. Guess which eye is uncovered.
