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What an interesting turn of events. In exchange for me sparing his life, this kid would be willing to completely betray his village and commit treason in the process? What a scumbag. I hated people like this, but even I could not lie his idea had sparked my curiosity, despite knowing even with his help, such actions would be difficult. Even with their Hokage not in the village, there were still many qualified shinobi to whom could each put a damper on any sort of assault. Not to mention the abundance of ANBU still residing amongst the village's grounds - it was a death mission, from any side.

"Beat me in a fight?" I scoffed, deep - mechanic, even - laughter erupting from my inner chest. Yes, he was definitely oblivious to who I really was. "Don't even bother. The chances of you beating me in a fight is slim to none-- you'd have a easier chance trying to pull a Houdini from those chains." Though this was true, I still went ahead and undid the chains binding Asato to the ground. Once he was completely free - aside from the metal that remained to keep his hand locked together - I grabbed him by the shoulder and brought him to his feet.

Pushing forward I directed him towards the door, and once we had both exited through it and had made it outside, I threw him onto the ground. "I'll tell you what, kid. If you can land a single hit on me, I'll consider letting you live. Aim to kill, your life depends on it." Forging a distance of about 30 feet from Asato, I readied myself for combat; my stance remaining just like my demeanor -- stoic, almost uncaring. I was waiting for Asato to make the first move, knowing full well that--

"You are free to begin whenever you want."

It would be his only move as well.

Drunk couldn't describe Asato completely, he was beyond wasted now. If anything, he was completely lethargic-- no, comatose. In all honesty, it wasn't a matter if he was going to pass out, it was when he was going to. Even without consuming anymore alcohol, he was still progressively getting worse with every passing moment; even his speech was no longer completely comprehendable. I had gotten what I had been looking forward to since the beginning: entertainment. Nevertheless, I was starting to feel bad, especially considering the kid was no longer in any state of mind to fully delve into my deal.

"Konoha, eh?" I breathed a sigh of disappointment, his words doing more to annoy than benefit me. Honestly, I had hoped he was from any other nation besides that one - I needed intel on every village besides that one. Frankly, I wouldn't even doubt it if I knew more about his home village than he even did; several months of undercover work granted me such cognition. "Take it easy there, kid. You'll get us both kicked out if you keep it up." I knew my words were going to fall on deaf ears, but I still attempted to get through the incoherent adolescent. It was a futile attempt though, he had already slipped into a realm of unconsciousness.

At first I made no attempt to move and help - let alone address - him, however, at the idea of being held responsible for his inebriated actions, I quickly allowed my better judgement to take control of my body. Firstly, with but a simple and courteous tap, I motioned for both women propped upon my body to move off me and to the side. "Sorry about that." With my body free to move now I gave them both their full payment - as promised - before turning on my heels and once again facing Asato. He was still on the ground motionless, most likely unaware of where he currently was or even for the matter, who I was.

Thinking something had happened, the same guards from every niche and cranny of the brothel made an attempt to remove his prescience, but I, as bold and uninterested as I was, quickly ushered them away. Even as I picked Asato off of the ground and held him tightly over my shoulder I did not bother taking note of the many various glances lingering over us - they were curious, but I knew no one would openly question my eccentric actions in such a place. Thus, with sheer quickness and utmost haste, I found both myself and the unconscious Asato exiting the large brothel and heading back into the wilderness of Tetsu no Kuni.

timeskip: next morning.

"Wake up sleeping beauty." I spoke, my words reverberating through the room and producing an echo loud enough to wake even the deepest of sleepers. Hours had passed since we had departed from the brothel, and though it was nearly noon it was still relatively dark inside the room we currently resided in. Having just arrived in this country I did not know where exactly I could find a place to rest, so, lacking any sort of idea where I was, I found the closest place around - an abandoned house. It wasn't bad, especially due to the circumstances. However, it was far from homey; the lack of a comfortable bed and the countless amount of dust proved such.

"I couldn't take any chances, you know." With my words - should Asato have woken up - my focus would shift to the abundance of chains wrapped around both his arms and his legs, binding him tightly to the ground. I, on the otherhand, remained perched on an old wooden box infront of him. Twirling a mere senbon within my digits I laughed, the irony of this situation just dawning on me.

"Do you even remember anything from last night?"

This kid was stupid. He wasn't imbecilic in the sense that he wasn't intelligent, it was the fact that he was chugging pure untainted vodka straight out of the bottle - it was the equivalent as funneling pure poison, honestly. Just one or two shots was enough to potentially cause a person to become belligerently intoxicated, just imagine how bad five or six would have on such a petite youth. No doubt it was all end badly if I didn't stop it now, but, at the idea of further stopping potential entertainment, I allowed him to continue his reckless ways.

"There are more things to do in this world aside from getting into different women's pants." Though it sounded like a joke, especially due to the woman still currently doing very explicit and sexual things to me, my face lacked any sort of humor. Instead, watching the youth both with curiosity and almost pity, I grabbed the bottle and heeded his words. Bringing the top of it to my lips I made it look like I was completely finishing it, when in reality I wasn't taking any of it in; once 'done' I placed the bottle on the other side of both me and the prostitute, hiding it from Asato in case he tried to reach for it.

Regardless, a deal was a deal. "You mind doing me a favor?" I spoke, though looking at Asato my words were directed towards the prostitute. "Get the best girl you have back there to come over here and give my buddy here the best time of his life. If you guys do a good job, I'll pay you double." With my words the woman jumped off my lap, moving - albeit hesitantly at first - tpwards the bar before disappearing behind the shadows. When she returned she was followed by another girl, her clothes, very much like the prostitute I was previously with, almost non-existent and leaving nothing to Asato's imagination.

She didn't try making any moves towards him, however, almost as if she was waiting for my permission to begin. Taking the opportunity, I brought my hand up in the air to continually halt her, the thin line that represented my lips slowly but surely morphing into that of a grin. "You can do anything you want to her, if--" I paused, pointing to his forehead with my longest finger. "You tell what village you hail from exactly. I hope you realize, I can tell if you lie." It wasn't the far fetched truth, he was easily able to be read.

"You can choose."

Well, that was a good thing. My somewhat blunt words hadn't even pierced him, despite my intention being such. Instead of any words of retaliation or even anything else to fuel my judging of him, he simply brushed off everything as if it didn't faze him - a good thing only in the sense that it prevented me from continuing with my insults; he was still a horrible shinobi, even if he tried hidding it. Afterall, it was but common knowledge of the Chunnin Exams currently happening in the nation. Even without a headband, it wasn't far off to assume a foreigner - let alone a child - was here to participate.

"My name? Sora. Just call me Sora." As far as Etsuko went, that was no longer my last name. I was the last remaining male member left in my family, and with my sister Youka marrying out there was no one left to carry the name - it would soon die out, just like all of it's members. Though I knew this kid not to be anyone of ANBU-nature, I was carefull not to divulge anything important about myself. "Chocolate milk? You should at least try and act over the age of twelve." This time I actually laughed at my words, causing the harshness of my words to dissipate as quickly as it had manifested.

I was still laughing as he continued to bombard me with questions of different kinds, my eyes, though previously unmovable from Asato's frame, falling back casually on my surroundings. I didn't bother to answer his question out of the sheer idiocy of it, and instead meagerly remained quiet until the arrival of another waitress. In her hand was the drink I had ordered, a large bottle of pure unaltered vodka, and the glass of chocolate milk Asato had ordered. Though it was quite generous of them to give me such an expensive bottle, they surely had turned a deaf ear to my request of a light drink.

By the time I had poured myself a shot's worth of liquor the same waitress had returned, and although she had only been gone for what seemed like a minute or two, her attire had changed from decently respectable to slutty in a matter of moments. Without waiting for my go-ahead she forged her way onto my lap, remaining there silently and without any following movement. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to knock all my stress away." It was the truth, honestly. Lifting up the shot of vodka I took one careful sip before downing it all, turning to my new 'acquaintance' not long after.

"You want to try it?"

To be perfectly honest, I had never been in such an eccentric place. Sunagakure, being simple and untainted by slums, did not have any sort of place like this - at least, not to my knowledge. It wouldn't have surprised me either way, I was usually far more focused in dealings with members of opposing nations to have noticed such petty crimes. Prostitution was in fact wrong both lawfully and humanely, but each of the workers - prostitutes even - needed some way to make money. So what if such money was rewarded doing work of deviants? A job was a job.

I didn't judge them in any aspect, even as they performed their various amounts of jobs of men from the highest of positions, to even men who were without homes -- to me, I almost envied their determination. What I didn't envy, however, was people stepping on me. "uh." Was that supposed to be an apology? My eyes narrowed at the sight of what appeared to be a child; one that, obviously without the business' consent, had entered blindly into an area he did not belong in.

I almost felt sorry for him as everyone gathered around him, most likely to escort him out. Various guards arrived out of every shadow, each focused on escorting the unwanted guest from the premises. Luckily for him, I was feeling quite generous tonight. "Easy up, fellas. We're all trying to just relax and have fun." I spoke, calmness and pure suave oozing from my tongue with sheer determination. Standing up from my chair assertively, I allowed my fingers to reach and grasp the collar of the youth's collar, pulling him closer to me should they have made contact.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for him. Besides--" I paused, laughing slightly to myself at the attention such a small commotion was garnering. "The police force of this land are a little occupied right now to care about a little kid." Following suit, I returned back to my seat. Should the kid know what was good for him, he'd follow in my footsteps. "Baka." Luckily for him, the guards were still lingering around. Otherwise, I would have surely given him my mind.