Starring:
Date: December 1, 2015
Summary:
While investigating a strange occurrence at the hospital, Shinta has gone missing and with a little help from a lizard, it's up to Jiro to save him before it's too late.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Drug Operation - The Abduction"
Tenrai Hospital
A strange sight to be seen in the evening hours of Suna.. A small purple and gold lizard squeaking loudly before a young boy wearing a sash. Already the lizard had grown from roughly ten centimeters (Four inches) to double that size, it's squeaking even had an undertone of a hiss along with its serpent-like head and beaded scales that glistened in the moon light. The issue however was something simple. The creature was alone and not spewing poison at the sight of the boy, it was instead, hissing and then swiftly running along the sandstone road before pausing and looking back at the boy. It would sway its tail in the air like it had when trying to make itself look bigger not a week ago but rather than standing its ground, it continued running off toward Nanpuu street and from there, to the hospital grounds. At the very least it showed how careless Shinta was being with the deadly beast.
Laying before the hospital grounds was little more than a few specks of red smeared into the ground, fresh crimson life wasted on the ground. No body was there however it was where the lizard stopped briefly. Tonight was the night for some criminal bands, one in particular that worked in smuggling was whispered in the streets to be based in the hospital, they weren't the type to let some student of the academy get away if he were to have found anything out.. If they had discovered him, there was no doubt they'd not have let the boy go without a fight,. If they had discovered him, there was no way they'd not be on high alert tonight. If Shinta was lucky, they'd have just killed him.
Jiro's hands are flopped lazily on his head as he follows after the stupid lizard. Could he catch it? Sure, he's faster than it is, but he figures it'll lead him to Shinta so he can catch it /and/ smack the other boy around for letting it loose. At least he makes sure that no one else runs into the creature to make them sick or anything. Still doesn't explain why it's loose. Once they reach the hospital grounds and it stops he glares at it. Then he notes the red smears and he frowns before he moves to crouch down next to it, touching the smears with a finger. "Wha's this…"
Blood, obviously, and it was fresh as the scent of such a small amount of blood was still clear. It had happened within the hour based on the fact that the blood would still be somewhat sticky though where the boy had been taken was anyone's guess. The lizard was far less patient than Jiro however, as it rushed toward the hospital and scaled the door, sticking to it and hissing at the boy as if to try rushing Jiro. Perhaps it only needed Jiro to open the door for it on the account of it having no apposable thumbs. Of course, from there the lizard could take over the mission and save the day. *-* Most likely though, whoever beat or slashed Shinta to spill that blood was more than a match for an eight inch lizard even if it was poisonous.
While the blood had been smeared under a boot from the look of the pattern, that boot proved to be useful when the smears made a faint trail. The trail was just barely visible and leading toward the doors of the hospital. At the door was a bit of blood but it seemed to have been wiped away for the most part, only a small amount of blood still staining under the handle of the door. That lead to the second clue… the door was unlocked which wasn't unusual for the hospital at the exception that the ground floor also seemed to be deserted tonight. Not a single nurse or doctor in sight.
Jiro frowns as he follows the trail, then looks to the lizard when he reaches the door. He stares at it for a few moments before he points to his shoulder. "You stay righ' 'ere. IF ya move off'r try'n breath yer pois'n gunk a' me then yer gonna be my dinner fer the nigh'. Go' it?" He would wait for the lizard to move, or otherwise he would leave it outside while he went in! Hmph.
The lizard shifted its head almost completely sideways in comparison to its body but it seemed to understand the boy's body language as it lunged from the door and then skittered up Jiro's arm to stand on his shoulder and dig its claws into his shirt a bit for a better grip. True to its no-word, it stayed on Jiro's shoulder as they entered the building and wouldn't move or make a sound, trying to stay as silent as it often would with Shinta so that no attention was drawn to its small form if there was any danger soon to be presented to it. Instead, it would look around to try scanning the hospital.
There was little to be seen in the hospital however, almost all of the lights were out besides the usual lighting for the halls and the rooms were mostly empty with a dip in mission-based casualties. There was something that was off however, there was a light on down the hall that showed below the door of a room with the plaque above it which read 'Supply Closet'. Strange that it would be on when no one was working the desk.
Jiro looks around the hospital when he goes in, frown deepening as he notices no one working the front desk. He steps forward, then narrows his eyes as he sees the light on down the hall. He starts to focus his chakra as he tugs the sash from his waist, holding it in both hands in front of him as he prepares to use it. At this point in he isn't sure what's going on, but he moves quickly down the hall.
The hospital was so vacant and so silent, even Jiro's footsteps would be clearly audible but more than that, there was the audible breathing of those in the rooms even the ones that appeared to be empty. It would be while Jiro was closing in on that storage closet that it happened. From one of the vacant hospital rooms a thug with a knife rushed from behind the door with a knife and thrust it out toward Jiro quickly, not even waiting to see if it had made its mark the man would whip his arm back and forth to try slicing the young boy open. It wasn't a matter of skill, it was quite the opposite actually; it was the mad flailing of the undisciplined kind of thug. An underling no doubt.
The sash flashes in front of him just as quickly as the man had attacked. After the final block he kicks out at the knife wielding man, teeth grit angrily as he glares at him. "Where's Shinta a'!" he yells angrily, blue eyes flashing with rage before he lashes out with the cloth, letting the tip harden as it nears to try and cut the man some. Maybe not a lot, but some!
The man wouldn't fall for that kick so easily, he could at the least guard against it with his forearm while letting out a mocking laugh. "So this kid thinks he can fight too?!" The grunt questioned aloud in a teasing tone before that lash of the cloth slashed into him twice and caused the grunt to check himself and show an expression of fear mixed with something else… disgust perhaps. "You little kidnaps are all the same! This place is full of nothing but freaks!" The grunt cried out while he threw his knife at Jiro and tried to begin backing away from the boy and that strange cloth of his. Reaching behind himself, the man pulled free a second knife, having used that tossed one as a diversion to try giving himself a better chance at stabbing into Jiro's ribs.
Jiro just uses the cloth to knock away the thrown blade as well as the next attack. "I'm no' jus' some kid! 'm Amaro Jiro, Genin of Suna, friend ta Arika'n Ping, Master Thief of the Stree's!" With that he lashes out with the cloth to try and wrap up the arm of the grunt before he pulls out a /second/ cloth from a pouch, seemingly from nowhere, using it to last out once again.
The grunt would try lunging out of the way of that cloth but his arm was snared tightly and he could do little but try and curl his free arm around himself to try fending off that blow which nearly knocked the life out of him when it hit. Almost. The man was still breathing but he wasn't moving much at all for a moment before he'd cough hoarsely and curl in on himself. "I give up..! I'll tell you what you want to know, just stop!" The man would call out, almost like a child now that his confidence was gone and the difference in power was so clearly shown. Some two-bit runt of a kid could kill him. "Absconded freaks.. You want the other kid.. You better hurry then. Boss said he had something special planned for the little freak… Took him to the basement.."
Jiro's eye twitches a bit at the grunts words before he walks up to him and kicks him in the chin. Hard. Trying ot knock him out and all that. Then he turns with both pieces of cloth in either hand and runs towards the stairs to the basement. "You shoul' go'n make sure he doesn' ge' back up," he tells the lizard. Really he doesn't want to take the thing downstairs. Who knows what might be down there!
The grunt would make a loud thud, that unexpected kick causing his head to bounce off of the wall before his eyes drifted backwards and he fell over in a heap to lay on the ground unconscious. The little monster on Jiro's shoulder however would be having none of the mess that Jiro had said and would hiss of its displeasure at such a horrible idea. As if it would allow Jiro to be the star of this scene!
The basement was almost as much of a basement as one would expect of a hospital… It was part storage, part morgue, one more hall. The only door of that hall which was open was to the right and inside that room, where the morgue was, was also where Shinta would be. Crates were lined up in the center of the room, lids removed so those wooden crates could be filled with more and more drugs that had been stashed in the many cold storage slots built into the walls. Rather than bodies awaiting cremation or examination, bag after bag was tossed into one of the crates. Each bag contained powders, leaves, at times even processed bottles of medicine that had been taken directly from the hospital. Leaning on one of those crates was an almost familiar sight, white hair was colored like Jiro's own red locks in some places while the boy leaned against one of the boxes and faced the door. He looked dead to the world besides the small trickle of laughter that would leave from Shinta's lips while his glazed eyes watched the door. The reason for his strange behavior laid on his arm, or rather, in it; three injection sites were red and bruised in the bend of his left arm.
Among the men - about two working to move the drugs, and two closing the crates once they were filled - only one stood out. A man with a long scar over his right eye that reached down to his neck was sitting on the crate Shinta was leaning on and idly patting his head while talking to the boy as if he could hear him. "Well aren't you a nice find? I hear that people that can actually make medicine like yours are hard to come by in some nations. I bet you'll go for even more than the drugs."
Jiro moves silently down the stairs until he reaches the basement and sees what's going on. In the end his eyes settle on Shinta and his teeth grind loudly while his blue eyes show a pure hatred. "Try'n sneak 'round'n do some good," he tells the lizard as he glares ahead. He waits a few moments before he walks right into the middle of the room. "Yer all gonna pay fer wha' yer doin'." Simple as that. He doesn't even wait as he lashes out at the one closest to Shinta, trying to make him back up if nothing else.
The man would look up as Jiro announced himself but those swift three slashes were almost too much for him. He'd block with his bare arms and even as those slashes cut into him, he was laughing at the pitiful attempts to strike him. Indeed, the man would dance backward along the crates while looking at Jiro and then throwing syringes not at the boy, but at the men surrounding him. Each syringe not only met its mark, but depressed to send whatever drug he had in them into the men. "It looks like we've got us anotha' freak to sell boys! Go get 'em!" The man shouted while he laughed a bit and raised his right arm to lick at the blood running along it.
Three of the four men would begin panting, the muscles in their bodies swelling and building rapidly from their thin frames to the massive builds of body builders as they started rushing Jiro with not but their bare hands to try punching and their booted feet to try kicking at the boy. The fourth of those grunts however, was on the ground, grinning and strangling himself. The reason was clear as its bright colors made it stand out against the uniform room. Latched onto the man's leg was the little lizard, thrashing about as much as it could until the man it had bitten into had fallen still with that grin locked onto his face. It seemed that while the lizard had little poison to work with, what it had was just as potent as an adult's would be. The leader on the other hand, seemed content in watching and mostly ignoring his own wounded arms as though the bleeding gashes didn't matter to him.
Jiro just stares at the leader even while the other three come at him. It was good to see the little lizard was able to do some good…maybe it could sneak up on the leader too. Still, until then, he had to worry about these others. As they come at him they simply hit an afterimage as he vanishes in a burst of speed. Once the three were gathered where he'd been both of his steel cloths lash out towards all three. "Yer gonna regre' it all!"
Those grunts, or what was left of them, fell to the ground almost too easily, and with good reason. Even slashed across the abdomen with their legs not responding in the slightest, those men were still trying to reach out for Jiro. Out of the trio, only one remained standing with severe wounds being mostly ignored. Smirking, the grunt would slam his fists together and rush toward Jiro to try throwing a few quick jabs at Jiro. "Come on! Show me your moves!" The man would shout out while he punched. He was growing faster the longer he had those drugs in his system and even as blood ran from his ears and nose, the man continued trying to slam his fists into Jiro's smaller form.
The man that lead them was watching and laughing before he'd walk around the crates and grab hold of Shinta by the head before lifting the small boy off the ground. "This is what you want, righ' boy?! Best hurry and show me you can take him from me then!" The man would call out with a laugh in his voice, beginning to tighten his grip on Shinta's head which only made the small boy laugh a bit louder as he wiggled his fingers in the air and in his drug induced daze, watched Jiro fighting.
Jiro moves around the attacking grunt in another burst of speed as the boy instead reappears behind the man holding Shinta up. "You should'a jus' gave up. Wouldn'a 'urt as ba'," he says in a low, angry voice from behind the leader before he lashes out quickly, trying to wrap his cloth around the arm connected to the offending hand before he lashes with the other cloth to try and perhaps give a deep cut into the arm. Or just take it right off.
The man would be laughing at Jiro's words before that arm was lobbed off and Shinta dropped to the ground. The man would stagger and narrow his eyes before his good arm slapped at one of the crates and he could shout out loudly. "Order up!" The man would call out loudly, the crates getting sucked in, all four of those crates getting drawn into a scroll that was swiftly poofed out of existence.. summoned away from the look of it. That left the man standing there with a grin on his lips while clutching at that missing arm tightly. "You think you've won, don't you, you little freak? I'll be sure to give you a surprise soon enough. Just you wait." The man answered while beginning to back away from Jiro and leave Shinta laying on the ground for Jiro to recover. "I gave that little runt three times the overdose I gave those men and he'd not even twitching, he's just sitting there like the crazy freak he is, and laughing about it!" The man called out with a grin on his lips.
Medical items, especially herbs, can be hard to get in the middle of the desert. "You trie' ta overdose'a medic. Shows jus' 'ow stupid ya are," Jiro says to the man, reaching down to pick up the arm and fling it at the leader as a distraction before following behind it to lash out yet again with the cloth. It may be similar attacks over and over again, but it never really seems to come from the same direction.
The man wasn't just going to get hit, it seemed as though he was enjoying it. He stood there and simply took the hits while tensing and grinning through each of the powerful strikes that slashed and cut into the man so badly that he looked as though he should have been long past dead. Instead, he looked at Jiro and waved with his severed arm that was held in his left hand mockingly. It was as though he was waiting for something, along with those drugs in his system making him just laugh off everything. As for his last grunt, the man was twitching on the ground from the injection's after effects and a angry lizard latched onto his side. The reason for that man's confidence would soon be shown as he too, poofed from existence, a reverse summoning making the man vanish from sight to leave Jiro, the bodies of his drugged men, and Shinta's laughing form on the ground beginning to quiet down as his body processed more of that drug from his system. The drugs, herbs, and medicine were almost completely gone, a small portion still left on the ground and in the crates that hadn't been stolen but nowhere near even half of what was now missing. At the least, Shinta wasn't gone and the face of that man was rather unique so it would be easily described for the officials. The man was even kind enough to leave blood behind to be analyzed too.
Jiro blinks when the man disappears, taking the scrolls and medicines with him. Dammit. He would definitely be doing a little hunting later! After a few beats he turns back to Shinta, putting away and tying his various cloth. When he reaches Shinta he reaches forward to yank the vials out all at once, frowning at the other boy before he smacks him. Hard "Snap outta i'." Of course that'll work right? He needs to find a medic…
Shinta was still laughing a bit when Jiro smacked him, laughing harder after that slap while reaching for his head and beginning to curl in on himself. The boy was starting to cry even as he laughed but the laughing was dying down on its own until Shinta shook slightly from the effort to purge himself and his eyes began to clear. Indeed, Shinta was coming around and snapping out of it but was was a long way off from perfect. No doubt, a medic indeed would be needed if the boy was to be healed from whatever damage would come about for him with those drugs in his system, whatever they were. Even as the boy shook and trembled, he'd glance at Jiro and laugh a bit more, this time in relief. "J-jir-ro.. I Caugh'… thieves.." Jiro stammered out, looking at the older boy but not seeing him where they were. He was lost in a delusion of his mind's own making.. It would be a few days before Shinta would even be close to recovering.
Having him purge himself would go a long way in helping him heal at least. Jiro nods to Shinta a bit in understanding. "Yea', I know. Ya did goo'," he says before reaching around to support the younger kid. "C'mon, we gotta ge' you upstairs." Where were all the doctors anyways? He'd get Shinta to a room first and then go and search for the medics. It was strange that they were absent. Had the thieves managed to lock them away somewhere? "Le's go…" With that he'd try and steer Shinta towards the stairs.
Shinta would work to move though he could really only wiggle his fingers smoothly as he moved with wobbly steps and for the most part relied on Jiro's support. As they made it from inside the room the little lizard raced up Shinta's leg, along his back, and into the boy's hair where the headband usually would be wound about his head. It left the boy's white hair hanging down more than standing up like it usually did with the band constricting his head and all the same, made it harder for the lizard to hide in his hair. Halfway along the hall however, the door at the top of those steps would open and reveal a man in a lab coat and strange hat looking down the stairwell on the two children from behind his glasses.
"I had thought I heard a racket down here…" The man stated, his tone that of someone from the upper class, the son of someone sitting on the council no doubt. The critical gaze being cast on the pair made it all the more clear he didn't come to help before he spoke. "You do understand that coming and playing with corpses from the morgue without permission is frowned upon, do you not, child?" The man questioned while watching Jiro closely and beginning to descend the stairs.
"I wasn' down 'ere playin' ya idiot," Jiro replies a bit nastily towards the man. "Shinta 'ere was given some kind'a strange drug…an' lots of i'. So do yer job an 'elp me!" Yep, Jiro is in a complete 'anti-playing' mood at this point as he glares at the man. If the man was smart he might leave with all his items and teeth. If not…well…
The man was fairly silent for a long moment while glaring down at the pair of boys before he would motion to the doorway behind himself and begin walking toward the odd pair of children. "I see… I will trust you for now since the boy truly is not dead, yet." The man explained though he didn't seem to show much care as he walked stiffly down the stairs to reach out and try testing Shinta's pulse. It wouldn't take long before the man's hands began releasing a pale green glow with the medical chakra beginning to flow into the weakened Shinta. "Once I have finished you can bring him to a room on the second floor. We are having a staff meeting so I request that you be silent while we discuss the goings on of the hospital and once he has been settled into place you can leave for the night." The doctor would spell out during the healing process, moving his hand up toward the injection sites of Shinta's arm and drawing his hand away. Trapped in the green glow and floating just beyond the man's hand was a yellowish glob of viscous liquid being drained from within Shinta's body with relative ease. "This should be enough to bring him out of any danger.. I'll store this for examination while you place him in a bed."
Jiro waits for the man to work on Shinta at least semi-patiently. When he finally finishes Jiro nods slightly. "'m not goin' an'where till 'e's back ta normal. You'n yer stupi' meetin' c'n wai'. If ya dun like i' then I c'n go'n ge' Ping ta talk to ya instea'. Or maybe Itami if tha's wha' it takes." Jiro may be small and a thief, but he's got connections! Heck, he planned the Kazekage's wedding!
Somewhere along in the process Shinta had stopped his crying and twitching, his wiggling fingers calming and simply hanging limply as he slowly began walking with Jiro. Being let go would still surely markt he boy's falling to the ground but he was giving the best he could considering his condition. The little lizard would walk down on the dark skinned boy's face a bit, standing on the bridge of his nose and tilting its head as though to try peering into the weakened student's eyes. It earned a saner laugh from the boy than before if nothing else. "Why is… Gojira here..?" Shinta asked as he tried feeling at his pouch where the little lizard had been released from inside of.
The man would stay silent at the comments of who Jiro's friends might be, not even giving so much as a twitch of the corner of his mouth before he began moving back toward the stairs. So the boy had connections then.. He'd have to make note of that and to find out who the other boy was. "I'll need his name for the documentation, what is his name and what was he doing here?" The man would soon question while he climbed the stairs from the basement and lead Jiro along the way to the stairs for the second level so he could pick a vacant room and walk Jiro to the bed where Shinta could be rested down on the sheets. "Stay if you like, but it will take some time to analyze this drug so we can find out what it is. And what can be done for your little friend."
"'e's the one tha' brough' me 'ere," Jiro mutters to Shinta in answer to his question while continuing to lead the boy up the stairs slowly and after the medic. He was holding him up as best he could. Might not be perfect but hey as long as it works! "'is name's Shinta, an' he was 'ere ta try'n stop people from stealin' from ya, bu' they di' an'ways. There's some'a the dead ones lef' in the basemen' for ya. Now's no' the bes' time ta be havin' a meetin'." Once they're in the room he moves Shinta to the cot and helps him onto it, ignoring little ol' Gojira for now.
Shinta would close his eyes and wince a bit in pain while lying on the cot, looking at the lizard as it stood atop his face but didn't move about from that spot as though to stand guard over the little medic…It didn't help that those little clawed feet were on his eyes and making them stay closed while Shinta shifted in the cot a little. As for the doctor, he was already on his way out of the room and making his way down the hall with that poison still trapped in medical chakra so it could be thoroughly examined. He'd alert the staff in the meeting room on the way and soon enough a nurse or two would indeed come into the room to check on Shinta's lesser needs. An IV would be pressed into the boy's arm to help with fluids while another monitored the boy's condition with a hand pressed to his forehead. It would be some time before the doctor returned with a syringe in hand, making sure no bubbles were left in the needle. "It is amazing what can happen during a single night's meeting.. Two children come into the hospital and discover criminals in the basement.. I inspected the basement and there were indeed bodies."
Once the doctor leaves Jiro reaches out to snag the lizard and move it down to Shinta's chest. "Dun stand on 'is face ya stupi' lizar'," he mutters. Then he sits to wait, watching Shinta carefully in case he looks like he might start to die or something. When the nurses and all them start coming in he eyes them carefully as if waiting for one to make a wrong move. When the doctor returns he rolls his eyes at him. "Really? Ya dun thin'? 'm gonna 'ave ta talk ta Itami 'bout yer security."
The doctor didn't seem interested in what Jiro had to say and focused on the IV, injecting the antidote into Shinta's IV. "You have a good plan, I'll be sure not to have meetings without attention being paid mind to the front doors in the future. The back as well." The man explained before he'd place a protective cover over the syringe and then store it in his coat while looking down on Shinta and Jiro. "You both were exploring the hospital… Why did you come in when you saw it was vacant on the first floor?" The man questioned with a raise of his brow while looking down on them. "While I am thankful you've brought this to our attention, we've only learned so far, that medicine has been stolen, drugs used, and culprits missing… I will also need to file a report about this."
"I came ta fin' out wha' 'appened ta Shinta. There was bloo' outside tha' I followed in. I still dunno why ya didn' 'ave someone a' the desk. Wha' if someone was 'urt really ba'? You wouldn' even know an' then they'd die in yer lobby." Jiro may not be that old, but he's also not stupid. Nor is he scared of the doctor at all. In fact he kind of looks like he wants to ream him for /not/ being more prepared.
The doctor's blank face didn't show a single emotion as he glared down on the boy and then began walking closer for a moment. "Because the dead man that strangled himself with a grin on his face, and the man knocked unconscious on the first floor that I discovered, were both men posted to work the front desk when the meeting began.. I find one dead in the basement and the other unconscious and missing his name tag which identified him. We had a minimal staff posted while the majority met to converse about the growing issue of misplaced supplies. I now find that they've been being stolen on a large scale and stored on these very grounds. Based on your word, it was those very men and perhaps more of my staff that were taking part in these thefts." The doctor spelled out before his eyes cut down to Shinta briefly as the boy began looking around with more clear eyes. "Your friend takes to medication like a fish to water. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing in this case."
Jiro just stares up at the doctor, arms folding over his chest as he doesn't back down from the adult at all. "Soun's like yer no' very good at hirin' people," he says after a moment before shrugging a bit before he looks over to Shinta. "Yea', 'e's from a family'a medics'r somethin'," he says with a shrug before he moves back to sit down in the chair again, apparently not planning on leaving any time soon.
The doctor would give a nod and for a moment, might even have smiled a bit at Jiro's attitude before his stony expression was placed on his face again and he'd start off. "I'm considering hiring more staff from the medical ninja force in time.. Perhaps that boy if he grows strong enough." The doctor would state with his back to Jiro while he walked from the room. The nurses would soon follow after to leave Jiro with the little lizard on Shinta's chest and Shinta himself as he raised his hands to rub at his face slowly. The needle in his arm made the left arm a literal pain to move and soon enough it was back against the bed while Shinta looked at Jiro with a moment's confusion. Then realization dawned on him and the boy frowned a bit while his hands bunched up the sheets.
"I got caught…" Was all the boy could say to Jiro with his head turned to the sheets in shame at that fact. How was he supposed to be a ninja if he could get caught by some simple trick like that?
