Apprehend the Looters [M] [with Kasui]

[Kariya]

SPOILER: Click to show

Client's Name: Shodaime Tsuchikage Kaguya Kira
Client's Occupation: Shinobi
Mission Rank: C
Payment for completion: 1,000 Ryo + 50 EXP
Mission Subject: Using intel from the Genin I have sent on the previous mission, you must stop the looters at their next heist. We have received intelligence that at least one of them is armed with a katana and has moderate to advanced skill in using it. So be careful out there.
Special Requests: None. Genin teams that are doing the previous mission must meet with participant(s) of this mission and agree a place to meet afterwards.
Notes: None

When Izou had exited the room, he had barely given notice to the gold-haired Genin who had walked past him into the Tsuchikage's office. However, minutes before he had just exited the room, the Tsuchikage's assistant went to the door of the office and looked left and right for Izou. Spotting him in the hallway, the assistant called out for him.

"What is it?" Izou asked as he turned around to look at the assistant, who only had her head poking out of the doorway.

"Your partner for the mission is in here," was her reply as she withdrew her head and went back to her desk. When Izou entered the room again, there was only the assistant and the Genin he had seen earlier. This was probably his partner. Walking up to the desk, Izou then turned his head sideways to look at his partner.

"You're my partner? I'm Izou," were his words as he just looked at the golden-haired youth.

[l]

Several distinctive seconds cruised leisurely along the tracks of time as the Tsuchikage's assistant seemingly took an eternity to since and confirm his mission along side Izou. He was sure that he had held him up, even if it was for a few seconds seeing as how he was quickly called back into the Tsuchikage's office. Hopefully this had not proved itself to be a burden for Izou, but even if it had it was a burden he would surely love once he'd catch sight of the superior survival skills he held over his fellow genin and even superiors. His hands buried themselves listlessly into the confines of his pockets as his head snapped to the side from having caught Izou lurking into peripheral line of sight. The thread of wheat within his mouth slowly twitched, foreshadowing the impending words of Kasui.

"Heh You actually look pretty strong. Lets just hope I'm right because I don't plan on failing a mission anytime soon, especially on a measly C-rank mission."

The threaded wheat glided smoothly within his mouth, twitching two and fro as the assistant finished and handed over Kasui's mission scroll.

"Thanks for the mission babe. Well....Izou? looks like its time to go hunting my friend."

Yes, hunting he called it. Shinobi were machines built to destroy. The soldiers of an army honed to kill merciless, though spoiled by the lies that they were anything else than tools to destroy. One cannot destroy a target unless hunted. Nevertheless a job needed to be fulfilled and Kasui would do just that at all cost, not only to further him but his comrades as well. Quickly his feet carried him to do the with swift gaits of speed heading down a spiraling set of stairs before leaving the compound itself heading towards the genin Izou and Kasui had to meed up with to extract information.

[Kariya]

The first impression that Izou had of Kasui was quick-mouthed and arrogant. From those he had seen, such characteristics normally belonged to people who were eager to hide their flaws and weaknesses. However, a more detailed sweep of Kasui's body showed his partner's tough body which was obviously the result of ardous training and battles.

"Thanks for the mission babe. Well....Izou? looks like its time to go hunting my friend."

Friend. That word had always failed to take hold in Izou's mind, for friend were not made through words. Friends were made through trust, and to him, trust was earned through actions. But Kasui did get something right. It was time to hunt. Those who had broken the law, had no right to any semblance of protection, and it was their duty, the shinobi of Iwagakure to enforce this. They were the hunters.

Nodding as a gesture of thanks to the assistant, Izou followed nimbly behind Kasui, matching step by step as he maintained the distance between the two. They zipped down the set of spiral staircase without even slowing down, and suddenly Kasui just stopped abruptly.

He opened the scroll in his hands. Izou had the same one with him, given to them by the Tsuchikage himself. Kasui had went through his quickly, and before Izou could even reply, his partner had ran off.

"You're not doing this without me," Izou shouted as soon as he finished reading the scroll, running full speed to catch up with Kasui.

[exit]

[l]

As he neared the end of the spiraling stairs it clicked in his mind. Excited about hunting Iwagakure's criminal he'd nearly lost focus to the Tsuchikage's request. With a sleight of hand he opened the scroll that'd been given to him, Izou had his own but that wasn't Kasui's responsibility. Nevertheless his calculative eyes keenly ran over its text, absorbing the information as a wry grind peaked itself at the corners of his mouth

"Hmm an intruder eh? Sounds like something right up my alley. Guess I'll go handle this idiot. Not sure about you Izou but Kage's orders are top priority, imma make this guy wish he wasn't alive Hehe."

[Exit]

[Kariya]

Choosing to go back to the current mission he had left earlier for the Kiri-nin's hunt, Izou pulled out the mission scroll and looked at it. His next destination was a teahouse. It was where the genin, which would provide them with intel vital to the mission, would be meeting them. Plenty of reasons went through his mind as to why a teahouse would be selected as a meeting place and the reason was apparent when the duo finally arrived.

The Manaka teahouse, was a family-operated business and it was bustling with customers. Every member of the small Manaka family were inside, helping out as cooks, waiters and cashier. Looking through the noisy sea of people for the genin they were supposed to meet, it was the genin who had spotted Izou first.

He was serving a table, bringing food to the customers and when he saw them, he waved his hand to capture their attention before showing them to a table. When they finally sat down, Manaka Kida was all business. He took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it and laid it out on the table for Izou to see.

It was a map of Iwagakure. Kida's finger first pointed to a spot on the map where the granaries were. "This was where their base was when we first encountered them. Since then, they have moved." His finger slided across the map, going south. "This is the entertainment district. From what we got, they have made a new base here. Since the war, only a handful has the money to waste on such luxury, and it is here where they plan to strike. We have received rumors that tonight, they will carry out their operation.. to rob a brothel. We aren't sure which, but that will for you to find out."

[Enter]

[Kariya]

Once he had concluded his discussions with Kasui, Izou left the teahouse and then looked up at the blue sky overhead as he pondered his next move. A shinobi moving in and out of the redlight district would be so out of place that it would immediately deter the looters from trying to do anything.

Plans whirred through the boy's mind as he stood in the same spot, stationary. Passerbys gave him odd glances as they walked by, and the number were overwhelming, considering that the Genin was standing in front of a popular teahouse in Iwagakure.

With night quickly falling, Izou rushed back for a few preparations. He lived alone in a room in an apartment building, and he took the stairs three steps at a time, reaching the fifth floor in considerable time. Upon reaching his room, the Genin thrashed through his wardrobe, pulling and tossing clothes to one side.

After about fifteen minutes of searching, and a bed full of strewn clothes, Izou finally found what he was looking for. A vibrantly colored kimono shirt, it was yellow with red floral patterns on it. What type of flowers were they, Izou had no interest in finding out, but when he looked at this kimono shirt, he couldn't imagine how he had something like this still in his wardrobe and why he had even put it on in the past.

"This better work," was all the Genin said before removing the plain kimono shirt that he had on, and put the new one on. He tied it at his waist with an accompanying sash, a yellow one similar to the color of the kimono shirt. He then walked over to a small mirror, the only one he owned and held it as far as he could with his arm stretched to look at himself.

A few strokes with his hands over his hair later, Izou decided that he looked fine and was ready to proceed.

[Kariya]

The redlight district astounded Izou the moment he took his first step in. It was just a street, but it was amazing. The entire street was alive. Ropes stretched above the shops and across the street, with red lanterns hanging upon them, shining brightly in the night. Music and the sound of laughter filled the air, flooding out all other sounds. Women, dressed boldly but beautifully, were standing outside their shops approaching men who walked past.

It didn't take long for such approaches to usually end up with the men and women locked by their arms to enter the shops or inns. To some it might have been heaven on earth, but for Izou, this was where men succumbed to their demons. Alcohol, sex, drugs.. This wasn't heaven, it was hell.

Izou looked at the note in his hand. He had gotten it from Kida just before he had left his house. Kida had ran all the way to pass him that bit of information, which made the operation so much more easier. On the note was the name of the brothel that the looters had planned to strike. All Izou had to do now was to go to the same brothel and made sure no one got hurt. Well, except the looters.

The Genin, in his colorful outfit, quickly found the brothel he was supposed to enter. The Blue Melody. The name sounded pleasant enough, better than the one opposite definitely. Kimiko-san's Pleasure Haven. Escorted by one of the girls, Izou entered the brothel/inn. The girl who escorted him into the brothel was barely seventeen, but such issues were no concern of his.

He quickly got a room, and sat inside. Quietly. The same girl who had brought him in was supposed to accompany him, drink with him and sang for him, but she just sat there as Izou had ordered. The two of them sat in silence, with the shinobi sitting cross legged and just staring at the girl. An observant person, would however, notice that his gaze was blank, his mind distant.

[Kariya]

After an hour of waiting, with the courtesan meant to wait on Izou asleep from boredom, Izou finally got what he wanted. Several screams shook the entire brothel from its lazy, slow demeanor. Women were stunned in the midst of pouring sake, dancing, singing whereas men stopped their conversations and courting the moment they heard the screams.

There was immediate flurry of activity from a room two doors left from Izou's. There were shouts from men, fierce and angry from their tone. He could doors being slammed open, and people were shouting all over until something shut all of them up. THe courtesan that was asleep in Izou's room had stirred from her slumber, and the look on her face was one of pure terror.

She looked in Izou's direction, who had just drawn his combat knife which had been hidden in his loose kimono shirt and lost all semblance of logic. She half-crawled, half tried to get up to her feet as she reached for the door but before she could even come close to it, Izou had pounced on her, his right hand cupped over her mouth.

"I'm the good guy," the Genin whispered, hoping that the simple sentence would be enough to convince her. "There are looters here in the Blue Melody and they are here for money. I don't think they will kill anyone, but if someone puts up resistance, I'm quite sure they will be hurt in one way or another."

The girl paused for a few seconds, her eyes connecting with Izou's glance as they looked at each other. Young and unexperienced as she was in judging character, she could see in Izou's eyes that he was sincerely concerned for her safety. It was a simple decision from there on.

"Put out the lights," the Genin ordered the moment he heard a few sets of footsteps coming down the hall. The girl did as she was told, and quickly, the room was plunged into darkness. The only light was from the lanterns outside, hanging level to the second floor.

[Kariya]

As he had expected, the looters weren't just planning to rob the brothel, they were going to do it to everyone present. And that meant a room-by-room extortion process. Izou once more ordered the girl, this time for her to hide, and he did the same. Standing behind the door, so that he wouldn't be immediately visible when the door was opened, the Genin waited for one of the looters to enter the room.

Having walked into a dark room, the looter thought that it was empty and was about to leave when Izou leapt out silently from behind the man and dragged him into the centre of the room. He had cupped his right hand around the man's mouth and his left arm was wrapped around his neck, forcing the man down to his knees.

It was easy. Releasing his right hand, the teenager brought his entire right arm and slammed it down onto the man's crown. The man's body relaxed and Izou slowly let him down on the floor, wary of making any unnecessary noises. The man's own garments were stripped and used to bind his limbs before he was put aside. When he had stripped the man, he had found a knife in his pockets and without consideration, tossed it to the hiding girl. She needed something to protect herself.

"Gan, what are you doing so long in the room? There's no one in there, get out!" another of the gang shouted, and like the first man, he entered without caution. Having hidden himself in the same spot as the first time, Izou repeated the same maneuver but this time, there were some difficulties.

Out of pure luck or instinct, the man had raised his left arm the moment Izou's left arm coiled around his neck, preventing the Genin from keeping a choking hold on him. He had also threw his right elbow backwards, hitting Izou squarely in the chest. Despite that, the silver-haired boy refused to let his left arm go and used it to close the distance between the two again, with Izou behind him.

Seeing no other way, the Iwa-nin drew the combat knife he had strapped around his waist and plunged it into the man's side, into his waist. It brought the man to his knees at once, but not before letting out a shout, alerting his friends to his condition.

[Kariya]

Two men who had barged into the room were treated to a single kunai each, thrown with precision to hit them in their thighs, aiming to immobilize them. As the kunai sunk into their thighs, Izou struck with a fierce swiftness, sending a double palm strike in the chest to one man while sending an open-palmed uppercut to the other.

There was no point in beating them unsconcious. He only needed them to be distracted by the pain so that he could fall them and tie them up. Dragging the two newcomers into the room, Izou repeated what he had did to the first one to the three. Five minutes later, there were four naked men with their hands and legs tired, guarded by a terrified girl with a knife in her hand.

Similarly, the other three had carried knives on them as well but this time Izou didn't pass them to the courtesan. He took them along with his combat knife and exited the room. It was time to bring the fight to the last man. When he was tying them up, he had interrogated them about their number, and they had told him that they only had five.

That means there was a last one left, and he was the most dangerous of them all. The mission had stated that one of them was skilled with a katana, and so far, Izou hadn't seen a katana on the four he had captured.

[Kariya]

He had barely made it to the end of the hallway, when Izou heard something and threw himself to the wall on his right. The blade of a katana passed beside him as it thrust forward into the air. It wasn't so simple. The katana stopped in midair and as fast as it had stabbed through the air earlier, it swept in an arc in Izou's direction. Once more forced to duck, the Iwa-nin dropped himself to his knees as the samurai sword sliced cleanly through the rice paper and bamboo walls.

Stunned, Izou failed to evade the next one as a kick to the side of his ribs sent him rolling on the ground. The kick was powerful and it left him winded as he tried to stand. With every breath came a slight pang of pain, and the Genin didn't even had to guess to know that he had a broken rib.

"A kid foiled us?" the last looter asked incredulously, unable to come to terms with the fact that they had been defeated by a 14-year-old teenager. Izou, taking insult at the remark, pulled out his Iwagakure forehead protector from his pants pocket and then held it out for the man to see.

"I'm not just any kid. I'm an Iwa-nin, and by the Tsuchikage's orders, there's no place in Iwa for scum like you," the Genin said spiritedly despite his broken rib. "Your friends have been tied down, so I will give you two choices. Surrender now, or I will do the same to you as what I did to your comrades."

The man with the katana stood still for a few seconds, which felt like hours, and finally, he dropped his weapon on the ground. He held out both arms, wrists together and then promptly dropped to the ground in a cross-legged sitting position.

"Shinobi or not, I don't kill kids," the man said staunchly and then kept his mouth zipped. Izou walked over to the man, kicking away the katana as he did so, and then used the man's kimono sash to tie up his hands tightly.

"Call the cops to handle this," Izou shouted to the men who had peeked out of their rooms to see what had happened.

[Kariya]

Izou watched as the law enforcers brought the five man away, and when he was sure that all was wrapped up, the shinobi left quietly without attracting much attention to himself. He had to go the Tsuchikage's office to hand in the mission, claim his rewards and then prepare for the journey to Sunagakure.

As he walked to the Tsuchikage's tower, Izou looked down at his kimono shirt and made a look of disgust. "There's not even a scratch?"

[done]

[Apple]

[/b][/color] +82
SPIKE: +13[/ul]