Desert Justice [Mission]

[Icarus]

Another odyssey was to take place, his self proclaimed favorite method of training his skills both in battle and in survival. He was again on the task of hunting down another nuke-nin, a criminal who had broken the rules of his village in some way. He saw the temptation to commit such petty crimes as perhaps minor theft or other crimes that could be solved with a simple berating or perhaps just some verbal punishment, but this man was wanted for all counts of the most heinous deeds that most people heard of in their lives, murder, rape, kidnapping, it was terrible and it tugged on his morale fiercely. There should not be in his village a man who could get away with breaking the laws that made life so peaceful for him and his friends, so it was up to him to maintain the peace, even if it had to be through violence. And that is how he found himself on a gondola of all places, he wasn’t really sure of how he kept needing to find water transport in the land of wind, but he wasn’t complaining the shinobi back at sunagakure kept pointing him in the direction of the ones that he needed to take.

The plank of wood rocked gently across the lake, higan stared forward with lazy eyes, he had been on this thing for much longer than he had wanted too. But today it was slightly different, he had a partner with him, which was something that wasn’t usually true of most of his missions, in fact it was his first team mission ever, at least when not considering the team exercises conducted as an academy student. Nonetheless he turned to him, he would or should at the very least introduce himself to him, as a fellow shinobi and inhabitant of the same village, it was the least of the courteous things he could offer before risking his new acquaintance’s life with a mission involving a blood thirsty cut throat. So he extended his hand with all the kindness he could muster and spoke proudly. Well, if it didn’t already appear on the roster for this mission my name is Higan, Higan Hyuuga for what it is worth. And I am hoping we will get along well for this mission and hopefully for the future as well. It was a little over friendly or perhaps nerdy but well, it was a new thing to him.

[Hiroki]

“Well, if it didn’t already appear on the roster for this mission my name is Higan, Higan Hyuuga for what it is worth. And I am hoping we will get along well for this mission and hopefully for the future as well.”

Hiroki forced a smiled at the friendly gesture, or at least he tried. It had been a while since he could last remember giving a genuine smile. “My name is Hiroki Tamashii, I’ll be in your care,” he began to bow before pulling back. He quickly became aware of how formal he was being and laughed nervously. “I know I’m registered as a medical but I’m still a trainee, so you’ll have to forgive me. I know the bare basics but anything more than a first aid and I’ll be pretty useless...so...try not to get too banged up this mission.” He smiled again, this time more relaxed. “But I do have several techniques that will be useful for this mission. I’m quite versed in tracking and capturing things with my sand,” he pointed to the gourd on his back with his thumb.

To be honest he wasn’t quite looking forward to this mission. It was a last minute assignment and since the rest of the medical-nin were busy, the job was up to the trainees. Hiroki had just wished he had more iryo arts at his disposal or even one at the very least. He sighed in his mind. He had only skimmed at the file but he had gotten the jist: a violent criminal with a murder record was on the loose. He also saw why they wanted a medical-nin, even a trainee, on this mission with a genin. Though Higan didn’t strike him as an average shinobi, in fact, he was only slightly taller than the genin but his frame was more toned than his. ‘He must be well-versed in taijutsu with that muscle tone...’ This was to Hiroki’s relief as he preferred mid- to long-ranged combat. He had very few tricks up his sleeve in close-range combat and they were mostly defensive.

“I’m still relatively new to the village, so I’ll leave the logistics to you,” Hiroki looked at Higan with a friendly-face, “I hope that’s all right with you.”

[Icarus]

He persisted his smile and raised an arm up, toned, long, covered in a cloak and let it rest on his new companions shoulder, he hoped he wasn't being too invasive but he was a bit new to this teamwork thing and he felt like he owed it to his first teammate to go down on the record as a novel shinobi even when it came to such a trivial thing as a C ranked mission. Ah, well I trust you completely as the more experienced shinobi. But! don't cast me off as someone who won't be able to protect himself, I do this sorta thing for a living at the moment. He was telling the truth, he had done perhaps one mission that was not indirectly combat related, all the other had pretty much been ones with the pretext that he would need to subdue an enemy. He felt that perhaps he came off as boasting, which wasn’t quite what he was trying to go for with a new ally, he was aiming for the reliable sort of impression that would put his new acquaintance at ease with himself, perhaps even foster trust if he spoke friendly enough.

But, im getting ahead of myself. And no need to be so formal with me, I’m just a uppity teenager haha. Anyway, what I guess I’ll sum up with is, good luck, may the least of misfortune come to either of us now that we have become a team. He retracted his hand, perhaps having let it lay on his companion’s shoulders for a bit too long. At the same time and point of his release the boat made a soft knock as it reached the wooden jutting bridge that stepped out from a rather shallow pond. Higan made a motion for them to get going as he stepped onto the bridge and then made his way to a sun parched oak ahead, leaning against it for a bit as he drew a makeshift map from the inner lining of his cloak. We have a short trek to the murderer’s last known position, but it is not that long, and at that point I’ll use my byakugan to start scouting He started walking forward, hoping his friend would strike up a time chewing conversation of some sort.

[Hiroki]

“I guess it’s as they say, a criminal always returns to the scene of the crime...” Hiroki trailed off as he followed his companion. ‘Though I think only rookies would make a mistake like that,’ he thought to himself, ruffling the back of his hair as he mindlessly followed. It was only after a few minutes did he realize that he had either (a) not paid attention to anything Higan has said or (b) neither of them had spoken. ‘I should say something before this awkward spiral continues...’

“So I’m curious, are you native to Kaze? It’s unusual to see a Hyuuga living in this part of the world,” Hiroki asked in an attempt to strike up a conversation. “Not to say that you’re unusual or something like that.” He hit himself in the head mentally realizing he shouldn’t have said that. ‘Ugh...was I always this awkward with people?’ he wondered. He listened to Higan’s response while taking glimpses around his surroundings. He wasn’t sure what district of the village they were in and to be honest he hadn’t explored much other than his apartment and the path to the hospital. He started to take mental notes whenever he could in-between Higan’s speech.

When they entered the crime scene it was sectioned off to keep civilians from entering. The furniture was in disarray showing signs of a struggle, or at least the victim running away before being caught in the living room. The floor was stained in blood which gave the room a familiar odor to the chuunin. ‘Hasn’t been too long since this murder,’ he thought to himself, re-enacting the crime scene in his head. “I’d say the victim was taken by surprise,” pointing at the broken window across the dining table, “as the murderer jumped through the window, and, seeing the danger they were in the victim jumped up and made a run for the living room...but it was futile and they wound up dead right there...sorry if that seemed like common sense, I dictate my thoughts when it comes to missions like this...force of habit.”

“Do your eyes see anything?” Hiroki asked, waiting patiently for an answer.

[Icarus]

He didn’t need byakugan eyes to see what had occurred in front of him, it was a blatant middle finger to everything he had ever stood for. The blood in front of him showed that murder had been committed here and he didn’t need a dojutsu, he didn’t need glasses, he could tell deep in his thought process and in his heart that a crime had been committed here, a life that could have been a parent, an inventor, even a murderer itself but it didn’t matter someone’s life was taken and wasted and he couldn’t stand or something so very very horrendous. This is why he did these missions because people could think they could get away with playing god, stealing life from the innocents and thinking they were untouchable afterward. It sickened him also that he would have to kill the killer of this innocent but at least he was justified.

He turned to his counterpart and wondered of what his mental state was in this, did he feel the same way he did? Surely he did, of course they both needed the mission to become stronger, to experience more parts of the ninja world but surely he also now had an emotional sort of rage a desire of vengeance against the assailant whose crime that they were currently investigating. Or perhaps he didn’t feel the same attachment that he was feeling to this mission perhaps he only had one thing in mind the completion of the specified rules and then the collection of the reward at the end, which he saw nothing wrong with but he wished he would feel the same way as him, just to make everything nice and even , for the sake of satiating his need for there to be justice prevailing in the end.

Well, I really don’t need a dojutsu to see the disgusting deed that has been done in this crime scene. At this point I even wish I was color blind simply so I could think that the blood was simply a stain of a different fluid, but the truth can’t really be dodged. He sighed, their weren’t too many obvious clues and with his dojutsu he just wanted to scout outside, he knew if they looked long enough they would find out where he was because they had his last position. I would say our best bet as it stands is to move in the direction that he was last seen heading, I figure if we take in consideration where the official border checkups are we can sort of eliminate where he will not be going, he probably wants tot in fact be as far as possible from the check ups since I assume they have sensor ninja monitoring them. He gave him a questioning look. What are your thoughts then partner? A little more investigation in the crime scene or should we head out while the trail is still a bit warm He earnestly hoped he would choose the latter.

[♠Solo♠]

Higan: +28

Hiroki: +19

[Icarus]

Higan suddenly realized he had urgent matters elsewhere! he swore and apologized quickly knowing that this was a mistake of grave nature.

Higan exits the thread in a breakneck rush.