Starring:
Rockpath (emitter), Zankuro, Daichi, Ikari
Date: November 4, 2015
Summary:
A small team has been sent out to investigate the disappearance of a local post-master
"The Missing Postmaster"
Land of Fire
With Zankuro a Chuunin, he'd be expected to take genin on missions, right? The Sarutobi would find a note in his belongings that told him to take Satonezu Daichi and Akimichi Ikari on a rather simple, straightforward D rank mission. He was to watch, but not interfere unless needed. Or he could help nudge them along the correct path. Regardless, this was more of a teaching mission, so hopefully he only needed to guide.
The problem had stemmed in a small village not too far from Konoha. No, not Kadomai. It was in the opposite direction of that village. This one was a bit more secure, which is why it was a bit strange that they were having so many issues with their mail. Nothing had appeared within, and nothing had been escaping. The post office was, to put it simply, locked. And the post master was gone!
While Zankuro had to admit the placement of the latest mission assignment was disturbing to say the least, the undaunted Chuunin made the necessary preparations before heading out. Introductions are kept brief for the sake of reaching their destination sooner rather than later. After all, one cannot underestimate the need for communication between villages going unhindered for the sake of all! Even if perhaps most of those missives were just the mundane sort. c.c
"Look alive younglings and behold! We. Have. Arrived!" Zankuro exclaims the moment they reached this not-Kadomai-village gate with arms open wide. "And now that we are here, can anyone guess where we gonna start?" He asks, turning about to face the contrasting duo.
Daichi stands behind Zankuro stretching. He tries to speak some while yawning. "Well probably asking the head of the village, or asking around abot what people know… If not, or afterwards we go check the spot that seems to be of problem here. Something to do with mail?" He looks to Ikari to see if she says the same thing, or something different. Whether she does, or not he waits for Zankuro to say what they should do.
Ikari was more than ecstatic when she finally recognized the young man that was to be in charge of them. She even greeted with a giant, squeezing hug, "Zankuro! It's been forever!" She takes a step back and squints at him curiously. "You look…different. Where's your awesome shirts? Did you lose weight?" She would reach out to poke the young man's stomach before likely being ushered off to begin the mission. She huffs out a sigh and looks up to the sky in thought as she considers the solutions. "Well…we know that the building is locked…but even if we got it unlocked straight away, then it'd still be an issue that the post master was missing. I guess intel gatherin' would be the best step to actually start with…if we can't figure nothing out, then I say we rip that lock off and see what's going on inside…I mean, if it isn't booby trapped or somethin'."
Zankuro folds his arms across his chest and nods curts to Daichi. "Right on all fronts number one! Now—" The rest of Zankuro's words die in his throat as Ikari squeezes the mess out of him. "Uhm… they are around, and yes, I did?" He grins in mild bemusement. THen, it finally clicks to him. Just as Zankuro opens his mouth to speak however, Ikari gives him pause. "Ahem! That's also the way to go, though less try to save breaking an entering as the last resorts of last resorts, alright?" He asks, chuckling weakly.
"Well, what are you two waiting for? Hop to it!" Zankuro claps his hands sharply.
Daichi nods slowly at Zankuro before moving into the village. "Alright so we split up to find people to speak with Ikari?" He would head off and he would take her either leaving, or following him as her answer. As he walked to find people he would look around the area to see if anyone either looked like they were in a position to know something, or if anything looked suspicious around the area.
Ikari watches Daichi wander off and shrugs her shoulder as she wanders off to begin her own search. She skims over the people and hmms as she closes her eyes to think. "Who would know the guy…if he's the post master he might not be delivering anything…that'd be a delivery boy or girl's job…or a hawk's. Maybe they have one of those places where they tend to the hawks…they might see him around some of the time." She opens her eyes and huffs quietly, "Maybe…could be too small to have one of those. I guess if not, then the stalls might be a good place to check…they probably gotta send in their business reports through the posts." She bobs her head to herself and starts to wander around the village, asking passerbys about whether or not they have a place for hawks or a main marketplace she could explore."
The town is, as mentioned, a bit small. Ikari would learn that the place for a market would essentially be the town square, and they would have a few local merchants and the occasional traveler pass through with wares. Not many out-of-town had been here recently, though. As for hawks, the villagers would point to the empty postmaster's building. "They all go in and out the roof. The post master delivers the messages through errand-boys. And any other child who wants to help. They usually get candy if they're not on payroll, so he has a lot of little helpers."
Daichi would see nothing suspicious, and if he was looking for someone that might know something… Well, the villagers might know things! It just depends on what he asks and the like. There is one guard at the gate, a number of villagers hustling and bustling through their daily lives, some kids playing in the center of the town, and a lot of men tending to small gardens behind their homes.
Zankuro grins and waves the duo off. As soon as he is certain the duo wouldn't be turning around any time soon, the Sarutobi wipes at an eye and says, "Kids these days grow up so fast." With a final sniffle, he leaps to the nearest roof, scans his surroundings one last time, then moves on to the highest perch available to keep an eye on the duo as much as possible. After a few minutes however, the no-longer-rotund-chuunin found himself wishing he had invested some time into learn some sort of advance clone jutsu, what with him having to squint so dang hard sometimes!
Daichi decides to walk up to some villagers, and start asking questions. The nearest person is the first person who would talk to whoever it was. Turned out the nearest one would probably just be a random villager either in the gardens or on the streets. "Hey may I ask a question. I wanted to know when the post master dissapeared exactly. How long he has been one, and if anything strange has happened since then?"
Ikari smiles brightly and offers her thanks to the people she talks to before diverting her course to the town square. "Huh…errand boys hm? I guess the other kids are more people I can ask about the post master…at least for his name maybe…then we could go and see if they got records about where he lives in the village, find out about what family he's got…maybe his home will have some clues…" She bobs her head and looks up at the sky, "At least that's what I think Kenta-sama would go and do…still would like to break that lock and see inside for myself…but like Zank said. Last resort. Gotta put -some- effort in before smashin' stuff." She pauses in the square to look over what local stalls there are. She leaves them be for now and runs over to where the children play. She waves at them happily as she introduces herself, "Hiya! My name Ikari! Do you guys know much about the postman?" She gestures vaguely to where she recalls the postmaster's building is. "I heard you can help him out and get paid! Or even better, get candy! But…he's not there anymore. So I thought maybe he had a house or somewhere else I could find him."
Daichi's contact would just stare at him for a second. "Beat it, kid, I'm busy," the villager would grumble as he made his way back to his small shop. It was a shop full of pasta, interestingly enough.
Ikari would be received a bit better. The girl would get to play with some of the children as they tugged her into their game of hopscotch and/or skip-rope. "Yashi-jii? He bin gone for the whooooole week!" says one little girl. Another boy pipes up. "He usually stayed in his tower. I dunno where he lives." "Cuz you dun pay 'ttention," drawls a different, slightly older, boy. "'Member that he lived in that rackety building? Two houses down from Muro's shop."
Daichi stares at the man for a moment before saying one thing. "Okay fine then. When it turns out that the man was kidnapped, and they come back to kidnap more, I will remember this moment and not help you." He slowly walks away to see if it made any effect. Probably not, so he would take a moment to examine his surroundings to see if anything looks off. Hopefully Ikari found something by chatting.
RPCOMBAT: Daichi defends against with a PERCEPTION…21
Ikari does not mind being dragged over to play some skip rope with them while they talk at all! Though it is a bit jiggly and silly looking, Ikari is thankfully spry enough to hop over the rope as it comes down with ease. "Wow! A week" Ikari blinks at this news before looking between the two boys. "That's a really long time! Did he ever talk about anything that was botherin' him that'd make him go away without tellin' anybody like that?" She huffs with a pout, "Probably not…grown ups never really tell me about problems…I guess it'd just be embarrassing to them trying to get help from us…" She then looks over the shops and asks the older boy on her way to toss a stone for some hopscotch, "Which one of these is Muro's?" Once it lans on the spot, she carefully hops and jumps in the blocks until she reaches the stone to pick up and go back to repeat.
RPCOMBAT: Ikari defends against with a PERCEPTION…16
The old grumpy man would throw a bowl at Daichi for the attitude.
Ikari would get a nicer approach, still. Well, technically. "Yer not from 'round here…" said the older boy. He shakes his head a bit and points. "That one," he says, then, indicating a brightly-painted building. "All sorts of candy there." Two houses up from it was a creaky-looking old building. Two houses in the opposite direction would be the post building. "Pritty ovious, I thought. But guess not." He shrugs, even as some of the other kids switch from jump rope to a red rover-esque game.
COMBAT: Daichi defends against PHYSICAL(20) attack from Rockpath with a DODGE…16
COMBAT: Daichi loses the roll and sustains 294 damage.
Daichi was not expecting the bowl so gets hit before he could move. He looks back behind him at the mand and shrugs. Then as he moves to find Ikari, he at least wraps up the place the bowl hit. At the least it would be a bruise. Of course if he saw anything along the way he would decidely investigate it.
COMBAT: Daichi heals Daichi for 139 with FIRST AID.
"Yeah, my papa and I are staying for a little while." Ikari confirms with a bob of her head. She looks in the direction the boy points and her eyes widen. There was a whole store for candy and Ikari couldn't go to it! There a quiet groan whimpered beneath her breath, but she breaks away from the kids to head over to the rickety building. She waves at the kids over her shoulder, "Thank you very much for the help! I'll see you guys later maybe before we leave! I'll treat you guys with candy, my treat!" Once she gets to the creaky building, she squints up at it in inspection. "Huh…looks like a pretty sad place…well, maybe it looks nicer on the inside." She reaches up to knock on the door and calls out, "Yashi? Are you in there? Is anybody in there?" She tries to wait patiently at the door.
Daichi would spot nothing. And Ikari would be knocking on a devastatingly empty house. Well, there was no sounds but perhaps creaking as she stepped up to the door, and despite however long she waited, there would be no response from within.
Daichi walks now until he spots Ikari so he can see what she found. "Ikari. Found anything useful yet? I sadly haven't." He was trying to finish up patching up his bruise. "All I got was a bowl thrown at my back." He chuckles some, but otherwise waits for a reply.
COMBAT: Daichi heals Daichi for 160 with FIRST AID.
"Huh…hmm…" Ikari hmms under her breath as she waits by the door. She furrows her brow quietly to herself in thought when there is no sign of an answer. "Is this an emergency?…It could be. A week is a real long time for a local." She reaches up to jiggle the handle around and test whether or not it is locked. If it wasn't, then there would be nothing to stop her from trying to slip in and look around. If it was though, she would look around and try to wait for a moment where it didn't look like she was being observed. She jumps, startled from Daichi and reaches up to put her finger to her lip and shush him. "You're blowin' my cover. And some stuff…his name is Yoshi, or at least it's a nickname the kids around here call him. He usually hires them out on the pay roll or gives them candy…they say he's been gone a week and lives here but he mostly stayed over at the poster master's buildin'. If we can't find nothin' here, might be best to go check it out before talkin' to more of the locals since he might kinda like keeping to himself. Now shh and let me try to focus." She gives another glance around her to make sure people's attention aren't on them, before she tries to return to inspecting the door. "Maybe we can go around if we gotta…maybe he's gotta key hidden here somewhere…"
The door is open! Err… Unlocked. When the two genin feel like stepping inside, they would get to see a sparsely decorated inside. The house had a comfortable-looking chair, a tall table, and a kitchen area. There wasn't much by way of personal belongings. There were stairs that led to the second floor.
Daichi steps in after Ikari and starts looking around. "Okay I can check upstairs and you check downstairs?" Again he would say it like he was asking, but right before charging up to the second floor. Upon getting up there he would look in the immediate area before checking in any doors without walking into the rooms.
RPCOMBAT: Daichi defends against with a PERCEPTION…17
"Ha!" Ikari whispers under her breath in success as she quickly steps inside and makes sure Daichi is in before she closes the door behind them. "Ok. Now we can look around in here and see if there's any clues to why he'd be gone for a week…I guess maybe you could get…" She pauses and shrugs when Daichi picks. "Alright I guess." She then wanders over to the kitchen area to start with. "Momma always leaves notes for everybody in the kitchen…maybe he left notes there." The logic seemed sound enough for Ikari as she begins to snoop around the man's kitchen. "No eating anything…no eating anything." Ikari murmers to herself as a manta, "Here to search and find clues, not here to eat."
RPCOMBAT: Ikari defends against with a PERCEPTION…23
There's nothing really of interest downstairs. Daichi would see nothing if he stayed outside the rooms. The upstairs has a bathroom and a bedroom, maybe even a guest room by the looks of it. Which may be strange since… Well, who would want to be a guest in this creepy house?
"Dang girl!~ You so fine, you so fine you blow my mind hey chicky! hey, hey! Hey chi—"
WHACK!
Zankuro nearly falls from his perch, but manages to hold on somehow. "Oww! Note to self… Don't lose focus, and don't slap self so hard." He murmured, rubbing his chin absently. As soon as the pain ebbed away enough to focus past it, Zankuro's gaze turns from a passing a particular beautiful village teenager towards the search for his team. He just barely catches a glimpse of the pair slipping into some random building.
"Didn't I say… *sighs*… Fudge Monocles." And with that, Zankuro is on the move towards the building. Seeing as how he isn't the fastest of shinobi however, it may be awhile before he finally lands on a house just opposite of the one the rest of the team slipped into some time ago. So until then, they are definitely on their own.
Daichi decides to head into the Guest Room. He tries to be a little stealthy with it even though he doesn't expect anything. Although maybe it was booby trapped. He makes a face at that before walking into the room. Once inside he would check in every possible place for hidden things that could possibly show some secret, or tell them something new they don't know.
RPCOMBAT: Daichi defends against with a PERCEPTION…14
Ikari huffs downstairs once she's done searching, "Well that was a lot of nothin'…figured as much…guess I gotta wait and see if Daichi finds anything juicy." She grumbles on her way over to lean by the front door. After this they would probably be back on their way to the post office, then perhaps poke around some more if nothing came up from it. "We know who he is at least…know partly about him…least we aren't completely clueless." She shrugs to herself as she thinks out loud. She eventually looks over and calls up the stairs, "Find anything yet Daichi?"
Daichi continues looking, and finding nothing there he moves on the main bedroom up here. Then as he steps into the hall he hears Ikari. "Nothing yet. You?" He continues on though moving into the next room to begin more searching. He follows the same thing as before. Which is being stealthy and making sure there is no booby trap to explode him.
RPCOMBAT: Daichi defends against with a PERCEPTION…15
"If there's nothing here…let's just get moving…we got one more place to check at least" Ikari calls up impatiently, huffing a stray piece of frizz out from her face. She opens the door and starts out of the house to wait outside on the front step. She crosses her arms back behind her head and looks up at the sky as she waits on her teammate to come out of the house. If she notices Zankuro, she just waves at him with a warm smile. "The investigation is going well. Before you ask, that door was unlocked and it's where the person we're lookin' for live…but we do -really- want to see what's up with the post office…"
Daichi walks into the room and sees a body. Oh wow this is… He steps back into the hall, and calls to Ikari. "Ikari… Come here. I found something…. And it isn't pleasant." Of course then he walks back into the room to look closer. He wasn't sure of what to do… Maybe they should get Zankuro to help us with this part. "Ikari is Zankuro there… Could youmaybe get him for help?" Then he waits there where he is.
Ikari looks over her shoulder into the doorway. "Huh…" She looks around and frowns a little to herself, "I don't…think so…I thought maybe…" She shrugs and turns to head back inside and up the stairs as she follows the sound of Daichi's voice to the room. "What's up?" She looks down at the body and frowns deeply to herself. She does appear to be unsettled, but it would be a rather numb reaction from a seven year old. She sighs and shakes her head, before squinting at the man to try to figure out how they might have died. She wasn't a medic nin by any means, but it's worth figuring out at least. "Do you think that's the guy we're looking for?.."
The body is quite old-looking and it's starting to smell. Ew! The man doesn't look like he got stabbed, though… Nor does it look like he was in pain or anything. In fact, it looks like he died quite peacefully! Maybe it was just his time? Or maybe he was poisoned? Regardless of what happened, they seemed to have found the missing post-master. Isn't it a bit odd that no one found him earlier, though?
RPCOMBAT: Zankuro defends against with a PERCEPTION-II…47
Unfortunately for Ikari, when last she spotted Zankuro, the chuunin wasn't exactly in much of a listening state. In fact, he seemed a little winded from his trek across the village, so much of her words were drowned out by heavy breathing and his shooing her away for the mission's sake. Heck, things reach the point he even disappears from sight for a moment after having fell back onto the roof from exhaustion. After awhile, the Sarutobi recovers enough to move and plop down on the edge of the roof to take it relax for a few moments more. Ultimately, it isn't his recovery that eventually leads to the young man entering the building himself, but concern gnawing at him to the point ignoring it is impossible.
"Yo! You two alright up in there?" He calls in from the doorway. Though no Inuzuka, Zankuro senses were pretty darn sharp! Something foul stunk up the joint, prompting another call for his subordinates.
Daichi wouldn't know what to do, and would step outside to see Zankuro. "Zankuro…. There is a body. I think it is our guy we were to find." He just slowly walks back into the room before standing there letting Zankuro decide what to do… Maybe he could deal with it… It could be much worse, but he didn't like the smell of it.
Ikari watches as Daichi starts to retreat from the room, then looks back at the body. She wanders over to one side of it and carefully holds the man's eyes open one by one, then tries to open his mouth to peek inside. "Eiko-chan sometimes talks about poison stuff. She says sometimes it makes these bubbles come out of your mouth and all kinds of weird stuff to your body…maybe it just happened though." She shrugs as she continues to talk to Zankuro and Daichi from outside the door as she starts to inspect his arms and neck for any visible wounds. "Kinda sad nobody else came lookin' for him sooner though…there's an extra bedroom up here and everything. Not like he never thought he'd have company or something…maybe he just put up with it cause it came with the house."
RPCOMBAT: Ikari defends against with a PERCEPTION…15
"Oh boy… Alright, lead the way," Zankuro said even as Daichi began the trek back to the crime scene. Every step kills a bit of the aloofness about the Chuunin, so by the time he reaches the top little remains of it. Seeing Ikari finish checking the arms for wounds startles Zankuro to the point it takes a moment or too longer than it should've for him to recover. He rushes to Ikari and the bodies side to study not it first, but the Akimichi instead. After a long hard look Zankuro brushes his hair back and sighs.
"Remind me to get you two—" He glances back over to Daichi's hands. "Well, just go over the basics with dealing with bodies. Especially you, Ikari-chan." He states calmly before shifting his focus to the body. "What have you two found out so far?"
Daichi looks between the two of them slowly as they arrive back at the body. "Me? I only found the body, and found Ikari sneaking in here. Everything else she found. I came to find you because I don't know what to do with dead bodies." He doesn't seem anything but slighty put off about it. He then walks around to look through the area hopefully finding things of importance.
RPCOMBAT: Daichi defends against with a PERCEPTION…22
[NPC System]: Zankuro roll(s) Perception ii from 26 to 48 and get(s) a 44. - Rolled by: Zankuro
Ikari peeks up frm her inspection to look at Zankuro curiously. She huffs quietly and shrugs before she shakes her head, "You look way too worried Zankuro. I'm fine! I tried to punch dead guys that looked way worse than this before. Besides, you can tell HOW people die by lookin' at them sometime…even though there isn't much to see about this guy." She narrows her eyes at Daichi, shaking her head. "You don't have to put it like that. It's only sneaking because people here might not know that we're on a mission and it needs to stay classified. Besides, it found the guy idn't it?" She huffs and shakes her head before looking up at Zankuro, "I went to look around to find the guy's name…that way we can use records and stuff to find where he lived and if he had family to ask them about him. See if he had any enemies and stuff. Anyway, I found out he has kid helpers, so I talked to some at the square and they said his name's Yoshi and he was gone a whole week. They told me he lived here, and didn't leave his work much, so talking to more people probably wouldn't help nothin' more than what it already did…so I came here and Daichi found me…then Daichi found him up here and I was lookin' to see if there was any poison sign like Eiko-chan's told me about." She shrugs and looks back down at the body, "No pin-pricks or nothin', no foam in his mouth…no maggots or nothin' either."
Yeah, that body is … pretty dead. And it hasn't been exposed to the outside world. Daichi's little search would pull up nothing of interest, though there was a picture of what could be a younger version of Mr. Postman (Yoshi) and a little girl. This Picture is off to the side on a dresser thing.
"You did more then just look at 'em from what I caught." He deadpans. "And If you seen some of things I've seen… Oi…" Zankuro trails off there, shaking his head in mild exasperation. Aside from the shaking, Zankuro doesn't stop scanning the body with his eyes as Ikari explained things. Afterwards however, he took a closer look at their surroundings before his gaze falls on the picture. "Hmm… I'll take it back in to be more thoroughly examined and put the rest. With any luck, the next team assigned to this might have a bit more to work with. Before that-…"
Zankuro shifts about and frees up the scroll he typically carried on his back. Within a few moments, the chuunin is inscribing a new set of seals on a blank section of the scroll. "We dig just a little deeper, unless you two already have the answers for me. Like, if either of ya have already seen the girl in that picture over there while walking bout earlier. And if you two heard anything odd rumors… besides what got us dragged here in the first place o'course." He said. By which point, the project has reached the point that all it takes is a few hand seals for the jutsu begin its work. A cloud of smoke erupts from the center seal and makes its way over to the body, obscuring it completely. After a brief moment, the cloud returns the scroll leaving behind little evidence of the body.
Daichi watches with interest as Zankuro plans his seal stuff. Most other things he has ignored until now. "So are we going to leave now?" The smoke grabs up the body and pulls it into the scroll it seems. "There isn't much more we can do here right now….. and it really does smell in here. I don't have anything else I can do, and I don't have any useful information. Sorry."
"You was there, you -know- I saw parta what you saw." Ikari grumbles, folding her arms over her chest in a grumpy manner. "I remember you throwin' up your eggs after gettin' off of Xun at the capital. Don't talk down to me just cause you're bigger and…and older and stuff…I found out the house they were all by myself…that was the mission. Just cause I wanted to do more and -help- by trying to find out -more- stuff…" Her eyes soften a little as uncertainty creeps in but she still tries to maintain her firm, if not frustrated demeanor. She shakes her head once more and grumbles reluctantly, "I…don't think I saw her with the other kis…I don't remember. And I haven't heard no rumors…"
Well, that was a strange mission, no? Who would have know there'd be a death! Whatever the cause was, though, it seems the Shinobi would be handling it. With all that, they can head back to Konoha and Zankuro can get the body analyzed. So in a way, mission success? Or is it to be continued?! >:O
Zankuro winces, but refrains from retaliating right off the back. He could not even if he wanted to, because she /had/ endured an even that no person her age should've… from Konohagakure. Kirigakure and Sunagakure, or just heck, /any/ of the other villages on the other hand…
Zankuro finishes rolling up and donning the scroll again by the time Ikari has finished her tantrum. All without ever turning to meet her gaze. A moment of silence passes before the teenager lets out a huff before holding his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. My bad. You still got a ways to go, and I ain't budging on that fact. But you right. I should'a been more… tactful and whatnot. You and Daichi-kun have both handled this all pretty darn well… But NOW that all of THAT'S out of the way. Let's just get out of here."
