[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

It had barely been a week since he injured his hand meeting his new squad leader, then subsequently got treated by that fishy man, when Shiu got news that he would be traveling out of his home country for a new mission. Evidently, Amegakure was short a few genin, and the client in question was one they couldn’t put off for much longer. Something about commerce. There was a degree of pride that he felt — him, being the one chosen of all the eligible Kirigakure genin to represent their hidden village to their allied nation, and this was evident in the erect posture he used to carry himself with. The timing, however, could not have been worse.

Shiu had been, and still was, distrustful that being helped by one of the Ama clan’s medics would not come with any unwanted side effects. When he pressed his fingertips together, the tactile sensation was duller, as if trying to feel through hard calluses that weren’t actually there, but that was to be expected. Nerves did not heal easily. What preoccupied his attention moreso was the thin white line that had appeared over his already-pale skin, where the chakra stitches had been ingested by his body.

Every morning, the first thing Shiu did was trace his finger over the scar, inspecting it for any fish scales that may have surfaced. Thus far, he had not found anything, nor did his hand smell particularly fishy when he sniffed it. It may have been something dormant though, and it needed just the right amount of water to soak in just the right way in order for it to activate. Thus, for the week that he had spent healing, Shiu avoided coming into contact with water as much as he could. His baths were kept brief, with his arm raised over his head until scrubbing it became necessary. When he was outdoors, he did his best to stick to lower grounds, where the humidity would be lesser in theory.

Then he gets the notice, that of all the places he could have been summoned to do a mission, he would be sent to Arashi no Kuni.

Since passing through Hi no Kuni was not an option, he had to take a connecting ship through the Land of Tea and into River Country before he arrived at his destination. There was a lot of saltwater that got sprayed at you while at sea, and as the name would suggest, there was no shortage of water to be found in the Land of Rivers. Shiu had heard before that in spite of its name, there were regions of Arashi no Kuni that were temperate in climate — places that were not constantly battered by storms. Hidaka, where they were to meet their client and soon after complete their mission, evidently, was not one of these places.

Rain poured down around him in sheets, and the overcast sky had been grumbling with thunder ever since he stepped foot in this country. He did not own anything with a hood, and he would not be seen dead wearing clothing manufactured from some other country, no matter how much his jounin escort made the idiotic suggestion for it. Instead, he let the rain drench him, soaking into his silk yukata and dampening the hair he’d pulled back, making his ponytail flat and wet against the nape of his neck. He looked, and felt, like a wet dog.

Once his escort had led him to the spot he was to meet his interim squad, the jounin had left, saying he would come by again in the evening to check on him. The spot he’d been left at was just outside the inn their employer was supposed to be having tea in. It was a second story entrance, keeping him out of the flash flood of water that was racing through the street below and under the wooden planks that made a pathway to the third floor above. Even with the makeshift veranda, rain found its way to him, seeping through the cracks between the planks and dribbling on his head. In spite of the distance between him and the street, his nose still wrinkled at the odor of wet, hot asphalt below. It was a stench he did not often have to smell. He did not like it.

Arashi no Kuni was supposed to be the wealthiest of nations, but no one would be able to guess that by looking at Hidaka. The place was a slum. Even though it was the middle of the day, the cloud cover made the city dim. The light that filtered out through the windows of bars and shops was almost essential to make the streets accessible to navigate. After all the walking he’d done, Shiu’s ankles ached to sit down and give his legs a break, but the thought of getting the city’s grime on his pants repulsed him, and he needed the other shinobi to be able to see him against the inn’s backlight every bit as much as he needed one of them to pass by one of the storefronts below so he could see them.

Each of them should have a general idea of what the other ones should look like. He had seen the portrait photographs that were used for their identification. He was on the lookout for two black-haired, plain-looking shinobi in unimpressive attire. Whatever their names were, he had already forgotten them.

Their employer, Hosono Gumi, seemed much more distinctive to him. In the magazine article he’d been shown featuring her, interviewing about her ambitions to bring some of Amegakure’s prosperity to Hidaka, she had a wavy bob, a mouth bold with lipstick, glasses, and a very expressive face. He knew they were being sent to whatever factory she had just recently purchased to clear out any bandits that must be there, but as for the personal favor that had been mentioned in the mission objective, she had apparently wanted to discuss those details in person.

And so, with ever waning patience, Shiu stood on the rotting boardwalk, torrents of rain beating down on his head, and every now and again, checking that his hand was, indeed, still a hand, and not some sort of waxy flipper.

SPOILER: Click to show

Mission Objective

coded by pinn @ thq

Ishikawa Ren takeda sadako

[Ishikawa Ren]

     It certainly wasn't on top of Ren's 'list of places to visit again.' Hidaka was, frankly, a dump - he hoped he'd never come here again, unless it were to improve the place. For the country boy, a city was already a downgrade - Amegakure was much better, of course, but Hidaka had nothing going for it whatsoever.

     Ren made his way through the torrential downpour, black coat covering himself. The thick raindrops beaded off his nose - he was always pulling the hood forward, but without fail it'd slide back after a few steps. He rubbed his cold nose with both hands.

     The sodden boardwalk creaked as he went along. He'd been told it was a simple mission, with Sadako along for it - he smiled. Yet there was something a tad bit more complicated: a Kirigakure Genin would be present. A 'Kuronmeru' named Shiu. Ren'd never been to Kiri, though he wished to one day. He hoped he could make a good impression.

     Through the dim light, he could make out a boy standing unprotected in the rain. Pale skin, nearly a foot shorter than Ren. He couldn't clearly see his eyes, but the traditional light blue clothes matched the description he'd been given.

"Kuronmeru?" Ren asked while pulling his hood forward. He looked at Shiu, drenched, and then into the inn. "Y'know, you could've just had a clone standing out here for you."

Kuronmeru Shiu takeda sadako | 232 words

[takeda sadako]

KILLING YOUR IDOLS IS A CHORE

Hidaka was a shithole, but in the way that it barely registered as a real place in Sadako’s mind; she’d been born and raised in the wealth of the Takeda clan in the ever grander wealth of Amegakure, and the idea of a place so run-down as Hidaka existing in Arashi no Kuni was foreign to the image that Sadako held of her homeland. Her experience was the only experience worth having, or so it was to her mind—it baffled her to look at the decaying wood of the boardwalk, to feel the malaise of the environment around her. She tried not to think about it took much. Protected by a thick black poncho with a deep hood and heavy waterproof boots, Sadako was unbothered by the thick sheets of rain, its rolling beat against the artificial weave of her poncho a familiar, comforting sound. She was nervous about this mission, though she could not quite pinpoint the origin of the feeling beginning to roil in her gut. Ren was cool, she guessed, and she didn’t mind spending more time with him. The Kiri-nin would be, she assumed, like all the other Kiri-nin she’d met during her brief foray to the Land of Water: stuck up and self-important. Bandits were whatever. She’d killed bandits before. Ghosts? Sadako didn’t believe in ghosts. Sadako couldn’t believe in ghosts. She pushed the thought out of her mind. She was just behind Ren, slipping up alongside him just in time to catch his greeting to the other boy they’d be working with. "Wear a jacket or something at least,” Sadako said, her lip curling with visible disdain. "Silk in Arashi no Kuni? Are you stupid? The fabric’s gonna be completely fucked.” Rolling her eyes, she gestured impatiently to the building, waiting for either of the boys to take the lead: she was just self-aware enough to know that her Sensei would insist that she keep her mouth shut while they met with their client.

Kuronmeru Shiu  Ishikawa Ren -- 330

LAIKA OF THQ

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Had it not been for one of them speaking up, Shiu would have had no idea the two that approached him were shinobi, let alone the two genin he was meant to meet up with. Much like the other residents he’d seen milling around below, the two of them were wearing hooded coats that made them little more than black, amorphous blobs. The taller of the two seemed to have trouble keeping his hood up, but he wouldn’t have recognized him from just seeing the picture alone. He seemed to have a sort of affable energy that didn’t really translate into photographs.

The comment made by the tall boy irked Shiu nevertheless, made worse by the derogatory remarks the girl decided to pitch in right behind him. He couldn’t see their faces all too well in that moment under the shade of their hoods, but very likely they would’ve seen the way his lips twitched and pulled into an even more agitated expression.

He felt very self-assured that he knew how to take care of his own clothes, or perhaps more accurately whoever did take care of them knew what they were doing. A prestigious family as his own wouldn’t pass on their clothes to just anyone after all.

As for the boy’s suggestion, there were plenty of reasons he hadn’t made a clone as a substitute for him standing out in the rain. To begin with, he hadn’t learned how to make tangible clones yet, so it would just be a projection of himself to let them find him. Strangers as they were from this backwater country, he didn’t trust that they’d actually be able to meet him in the correct place at the correct time until he saw it with his own eyes. He knew also that he must stand out, dressed different from everyone else and with his Kirigakure headband hanging around his neck, that once he stepped inside, if their employer was looking for them at all, she might invite him over early while they waited for the rest of the squad to show up. Shiu didn’t want to spend any greater amount of time talking with their employer than was absolutely necessary. He wasn’t thrilled to be standing around and looking so sodden as a first impression to anyone, but it spared him the possibility of having to make small talk just to keep up appearances. Once the rain cooled on his skin, yes, it felt cold to him, but it was a sensation that never seemed to particularly bother Shiu.

But more than any other reason… he just hadn’t thought about it. And now that it had been suggested to him, it was such a frustratingly simple solution to a lot of his grievances he was annoyed he hadn’t thought about it sooner. It was too late now though, and he was never going to admit the slip-up to the other genin. No, the both of them seemed entirely too comfortable talking down at someone of his own stature. It didn’t surprise him, these two, or at least the boy, knowing his family name without knowing the weight it held. They had gone through some foreign graduation program, after all, and likely didn’t get the proper education they would have received if they were Kiri ninja. The responsibility fell on him to teach and put them in their place, but all in due time.

He leaned in closer to the pair to menace them with his angry stare. "The next time I want advice I never asked for, I’ll let you both know,” he said, sneering.

With that, he turned and entered the inn.

The inn was much brighter than all of Hidaka outside it was, such that it took Shiu’s eyes a moment to adjust. The entire establishment was built with pale, softwood. Several spots on the floor were wet from people coming in and out, and those small puddles had mixed in with the dirt from its occupants’ shoes and left muddy streaks. Where there weren’t streaks, there were scratches on the floor from where chairs and tables must’ve scraped against it. As filthy as the inn already was, Shiu stood off to the side to squeeze the water from his hair and wring out what he could from his yukata. One more pubble for them to not clean up would not make a difference.

As one could imagine, the interior was sparsely furnished. It was some sort of lounge area, and the hallways presumably led down to the actual rooms the inn’s tenants stayed at. For the most part though, the lounge was just round tables scattered across it with accompanying chairs tucked in. The vast majority of these tables were unoccupied, but towards the back, they would be able to make out two women, one seated and the other standing by her side.

They were positioned in such a way that they were able to have their backs against the wall and face the entrance, which seemed intentional. The woman that sat had the white, wavy bob of Gumi and kept having to push up the lightly-colored frame of her glasses as she looked down at a scattering of papers at her table. The woman that stood by her appeared to be a sellsword, and she kept her right hand rested on the hilt of her katana. She had a bored expression on her face, and seemed to be occupying herself by peering over probably-Gumi’s shoulders to look at whatever it was she was writing, but this also did not seem to do much to excite her.

Eventually, the sellsword did look up and seemed to notice them. She tapped the seated woman on the shoulder to get her attention, who after a second of scratching out the rest of what she’d been writing, looked up, bumping her glasses up with her knuckles. As soon as she saw them, her eyes widened slightly in recognition, and she waved the group over.

Unlike in the photograph Shiu had seen, Hosono Gumi wore almost no makeup, save for the threadbare traces of mascara she’d used to thicken her eyelashes. Otherwise, she had the same square face, and the same energetic affect. As they approached her, she popped a kibi dango from a small plate into her mouth and rubbed her fingers together to brush off the stray millet flour. Either her timing was off, or she just didn’t care, because the group had to wait a moment as she chewed and swallowed before she was able to start speaking.

Gumi rested her arms on the table and leaned forward to say to them all, almost conspiratorially, "Can you believe this place? It’s like they hired a garbageman to be their city planner, this place is a total dump.” She shook her head, fidgeted with her glasses again and sat up straighter. "The rent’s next to nothing, but what good does that do you if you can’t turn on a faucet without a legion of cockroaches coming out of it?” She wrinkled her nose and frowned deeply for a moment, just to show her disgust. "But that’s exactly why I wanted to buy out that factory. You know, have something look nice around here for once. Give the people here something to do, a real job. At least if they’re working they won’t have to think about how their landlord is passing out cardboard and telling them it’s bedsheets.”

At this point, she raised a finger and wagged it in the air. "I will say, though, the food is pretty damn good.” Gumi grabbed a cup that seemed to be filled with green tea and brought it to her lips, popped another dango in her mouth, then gestured for them all to take a seat before continuing to talk. "There’s a barbeque place a few blocks away from here that have these pork ribs I would kill a man for. Or ten, if needed.”

It hadn’t been immediately apparent to Shiu, but as he complied with her request to be seated and she continued to ramble, it soon became evident that Gumi would continue to get further and further away from the topic at hand if someone didn’t intervene.

coded by pinn @ thq

Ishikawa Ren takeda sadako

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren smiled as they entered the inn. He threw back his hood and ran his hand through his moist karakul hair, resisting the urge to shake it dry. His eyes wandered around the place, taking in the - as he saw it - well-worn furnishings and comfortable air. It seemed to him to be akin to a place of refuge, a warm place where one could come to share a drink with friends and get out of the rain.

     A small grin came over his face as he looked back at Sadako, as though to say: "Nice jab." about her remark to the Kiri-nin. It seemed even mean-spirited jokes didn't seem so bad to the jovial country boy. So long as no real harm came of it. And it didn't seem to him that this Kuronmeru was particularly thin-skinned. He turned back to look at him, and at their client.

     Clearing his throat, Ren interjected. It wasn't that he wanted to interrupt her or was impatient, but he was considering his teammate's time. Didn't want to waste it. Or his own, to an extent. Relaxation was nice, but he'd rather spend this time learning or applying.

     "Miss Hosono, right?" Ren asked politely. "What exactly is in this factory that's preventing you from opening it?"

Kuronmeru Shiu takeda sadako | 212 words

[takeda sadako]

KILLING YOUR IDOLS IS A CHORE

Rude ass mother—Sadako gritted her teeth, robbed of her opportunity to snap back at the Kiri-nin as he disappeared inside the inn. She was somewhat mollified by the look Ren shot her, a certain sense of solidarity reigning her anger in from the snapping point. Her eyes glazed over as their client droned on and on about shit that didn’t matter; Sadako hadn’t taken her hood down as they entered, and she didn’t do it now, retreating into the refuge of her deep cowl in order to hide her souring expression. Her memories of Squeakers, that bitch-ass guy who’d beat the shit out of her after she broke Kyoko’s arm, were not terribly fond—but she was beginning to understand the appeal of wearing a mask everywhere. If nothing else, something to cover the lower half of her face. She could feel the irritation rolling off her in waves. In a continued effort to practice emotional discipline, as her sensei called it, Sadako removed herself from the irritating factor, instead moving to go stand watch by one of the windows. Folding her arms across her chest, she stared out at the outside world for any "potential threats,” but mostly just focused on keeping her mouth shut and her expression neutral.

Kuronmeru Shiu  Ishikawa Ren -- 209

LAIKA OF THQ

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Gumi turned her head in Ren’s direction. Throughout the duration of her time sitting with the two boys, her gaze had roamed back and forth between them, but now that Ren had cleared his throat and spoken up, it seemed almost as if she was finally really noticing him for the first time.

"Oh, lots of things,” she said, answering his question. "For starters, it needs some serious repairs. That factory used to be a sweatshop years ago. Had a bunch of workers crammed together in too-tight quarters, constructing flammable material, not enough fire exits, and what do you know?” Gumi raised her brow and shrugged her hands in a sarcastic gesture to convey just how obvious she felt the consequences of these conditions were. "No less than a hundred of their employees got trapped, went up in flames. I’ve heard rumors there were children there too, but those bodies were never found. The whole thing is extremely, extremely upsetting.”

As though to emphasize her point, she bumped her glasses up with her knuckles with one hand and prodded at her tear duct with her other, where an errant tear was getting ready to fall. She paused to sniff, shake her head, and readjust her glasses.

"So, as for the work that needs to be done, there are segments of the building where the steel has been warped. That needs to be replaced. Then all of the bolts need to be checked. Apparently those are the most vulnerable parts of the building after a fire, because the heat can affect the very properties of the metal itself. These are all notes from an assessor directly following the incident, but that was years ago, and they had specifically mentioned some parts of the building were vulnerable to collapse. You wouldn’t be able to tell from the outside, but this may have already happened. Then of course, after fixing the structural integrity, I need to rework the layout so that I’m not just in there remodeling a tried and true death trap. Not exactly the kind of optics I’m looking for in my company.”

The entire time they had sat there, Shiu had made certain to keep his posture straight and his countenance appearing attentive. Appearing dignified in the company of these foreigners was his top priority. However, as their employer launched into the most long-winded, excessive-in-detail explanation he thought he’d heard in his entire life, he couldn’t help but breathe out a long sigh through his nose and tilt his head back a little. Everything that came out of her mouth was so boring. There was nothing about a business owner’s perspective on a factory fire that was going to help him become a better shinobi. He just did not care.

As she continued to ramble, his eyes began to drift over to the two Ame-nin in his company. Now that they were out of the rain and in the yellow, incandescent lighting, he could get a better look at them. Or at least, he could get a better look at one of them. The girl had apparently opted to keep her hood up and lean up against a nearby window where most of her face and body were out of view — a move that, if he were being honest with himself, he was envious that she could make.

As for the other boy, something was beginning to strike Shiu as strange about him. Both times that he had spoken, his voice was deeper than Shiu had expected. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the boy’s sharp jawline, and an Adam’s apple much more prominent than his. Not only that, but he was tall, towering above him even as they were both seated next to each other. He looked old, like Inei. Shiu had thought he was supposed to only be working with other genin on this team, but now he was beginning to wonder if he had missed something in the debriefing about a chuunin being in their company. It wouldn’t surprise him too much if he was misremembering. That part of the briefing, where he had been told some rudimentary information on who he would be working with and basics to know about climate and culture in Arashi no Kuni, just as whatever it was this woman was gabbing about now, was something he had lost interest in very quickly.

Gumi continued. "In order for me to get these repairs started, I need to be able to send people in to work on them. In order for me to get the workers in, I need a new assessor to look at it and find out where and what exactly needs to be fixed. And in order for me to send any of these people in, I need to make sure that it’s actually safe for them to go in there. This is where you all come in.”

She plucked the last of the dango from her plate and popped it in her mouth, covering her lips with her hand as she chewed. She neither seemed to drag this out to savor the flavor or hurry herself so as to keep them from waiting. After she swallowed, she brought a napkin from her lap to dab away any flour left on the corners of her mouth. "In this dumpster fire of a town, a place that’s been abandoned for that long is going to be teeming with squatters. Some of them thugs, some of them just some down-on-their-luck chumps that couldn’t get a leg up in life and now want to bum out in what’s essentially a graveyard. I need all of them gone.”

Gumi folded the napkin in the air with no discernable pattern, other than it wouldn’t just be bunched up when she set it back on the table. Much of the way she had spoken and conducted herself up until that point had been brusque, and with a slight agitated edge, but in that moment, she seemed to begin to hesitate. She looked directly at Ren, as he had been the only one to speak to her thus far. "There is… another matter that concerns me.” Gumi set her fingers to work fidgeting with her glasses again, this time seeming to linger on the nose pads for much longer than should be necessary. She continued, "I cannot imagine that those who passed in that fire went without… resentment in their hearts. So many deaths, so much bad energy, I…” She shut her eyes, shook her head and hands slowly. "It’s not a risk I’m willing to take. I don’t need any bad karma, hauntings, anything like that near me or my company. I need that to be taken care of as well.”

coded by pinn @ thq

Ishikawa Ren takeda sadako

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren scratched his ear and resisted the urge to let out a long uhhhh. Ghosts? How are we supposed to deal with that? The concept didn't seem completely illogical to him: it was a prominent feature of a lot of the folklore he'd learned growing up, but he'd never seen any himself. Beyond that, shinobi and ghosts? Didn't seem to go together.

     Sadako stood off to the side - at a glance over his shoulder, she didn't seem to be able to help him out here immensely. The Kuronmeru just looked bored, no doubt he thought it was all bullshit. Ren looked back at the client with a weary smile. "Any suggestions on that front?" he asked.

     After what seemed like an eternity of explanation, the woman bent down and retrieved a bag from under the table. In one fluid movement, she dumped it out into Ren's surprised arms. He was left holding a massive pile of various kinds of tags, ofuda, and charms. She explained where the placements of them all should be, which Ren somewhat anxiously listened to as dutifully as he could. He asked for the address, which she gave them, and then waved them away with a grin.

     Standing in the doorway, Ren stuffed the tags haphazardly into his pockets and pouches, then handed the other Genin some as well. With that, he gave them a laughing smile, said: "Well, let's go then!" and led them out into the rain.

     Ghosts!

Kuronmeru Shiu takeda sadako | 244 words

[takeda sadako]

KILLING YOUR IDOLS IS A CHORE

Sadako had been zoning out for most of Gumi’s long-winded monologue, stifling a yawn with nothing more that the pure, unbridled discipline of her jaw muscles: until her delicate, ’essentially a graveyard’ wormed its way into Sadako’s earholes, and her back noticeably stiffened. Bad karma, hauntings. Ghosts. Ghosts weren’t fucking real. It took no small amount of effort for Sadako to keep her mouth firmly shut, her teeth audibly grinding together. She’d never been more grateful in that moment for Ren, who graciously took point on this absolute dumbfuck farce of a mission objective, collecting tags and charms and other spooky nonsense bullshit from their client before cheerfully ushering them all out the door. Sadako had never been so glad to leave a place in her life. "Ghosts aren’t real,” she exploded, once they were out of earshot of the inn: an act of impressive restraint on her part. "This is stupid, right? We’re just going to kill the squatters and get out of dodge? I hate this.” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the pounding rain, relentlessly thundering against her jacket. She ignored Shiu entirely, as if the Kiri-nin didn’t exist; instead she looked at Ren. Her expression was sour, her mouth twisted into a sullen moue, but her wide eyes and flared nostrils betrayed just the barest hint of fear beneath all of her bluster. Her fists were in a death grip around the charms that Ren had divvied up, and she would follow his lead unquestioningly, grumbling about the fakeness of ghosts and how bullshit this was all the while.

Kuronmeru Shiu  Ishikawa Ren -- 267

LAIKA OF THQ

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Shiu had taken to looking over their employer’s head and out the window behind her. It was more interesting to watch civilians struggling to hold their cowl over their head against the pounding rain than it was to listen to her try to garner pity for the dead from them. He only came back to focus on the room they were in when both of the Ame-nin began to stir in his periphery.

He made sure to take his time sliding out of his chair and appear unrushed, which wasn’t difficult to do given the state of his knees and ankles. He’d been walking for hours as it was, and he wasn’t eager to get back to it so soon, though he wouldn’t allow any tells of this in his impassive expression.

"So you want us to kill some bandits and hang up some talismans.” She could have just said that, and the only reason he bothered to say as much to her was to give a perhaps much needed demonstration on just how easily she could’ve summarized the mission details, rather than making them sit through an entire dissertation on things they didn’t need to know. But apparently, somehow, he had said the wrong thing, because in the next moment her jaw dropped and her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull.

"Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?” she blustered. "I’m trying to get rid of ghosts, not make more of them!” Gumi cupped the frame of her glasses between her hands and wriggled them up her nose with great indignation as she seemed to try to reign in her emotions. "When I said I want whoever’s in there gone, I wasn’t being euphemistic. Get them out of there and make sure they aren’t going to come back.”

The corner of Shiu’s lip twitched, his mouth desperate to form an annoyed sneer. The only thing he could do to soothe himself right then was to remind himself that all of this was inconsequential. She did not matter, and neither were these paranoid fantasies for which she felt was worth hiring shinobi to indulge herself in. All that mattered was that he carried out his job with professionalism and accuracy, because this rudimentary country needed a reminder of just how lucky they were to have Kirigakure as an ally every now and again.

"How are we supposed to do that?” he asked, tone laced with impatience. He knew a way to get rid of them for good. Kill them. That was the only way she was going to make sure they never returned, and as a bonus, it would serve as a warning to anyone else thinking of trying to occupy the factory before the workers can get in there. If there were any grudges to be held, it would be against whatever universal force had decided to curse them with a life of poverty and fruitless attempts to try to make their way in this slum. If anything, they should be grateful that he would put an end to their struggle.

"I don’t know,” she said, not bothering to hide any impatience of her own. "I hired you to figure it out, so figure it out.”

One thing he could do was pummel her on the spot. He vividly imagined shoving the table into her abdomen, grabbing a fistful of her hair and bashing her mouth against the corner of the table. She had that sellsword with her, but the woman wasn’t even a shinobi, not to mention some sort of denizen of this lesser land. He felt sure that he’d be able to stick his sword between her ribs before she could even wrap her hand around the tsuka of her own.

But he restrained himself. Instead, he decided it was best to not dignify her with a response at all, and turned to head towards the exit of the inn.

When the Ame-nin handed him a portion of the charms their employers had given him, Shiu stared down at them in disbelief. Did he honestly expect him to carry these any length of the way? He was a Kirigakure noble, not a pack mule, and both of them were wearing what was practically a trench coat. There was no need for this. Annoyed, he tightened his first around them, then followed where the two had already headed outside.

After having been in the relative dry of the inn for as long as he’d been able, stepping back into the storm was far more annoying the second time around. For a brief period of time, his hair held the form it had clumped into when it had begun to dry, but soon the rain soaked into its dark blue strands and flattened it against his temples and neck again.

"She said she doesn’t want any of them killed,” he announced to his squad. He hadn’t heard what the girl had said, and he wasn’t interested either. He only wanted to reiterate this to keep either of them from screwing things up and making him look bad.

The address they had been given was for a multi-tiered building, about a ten minute walk north from where they were, resting just on the outskirts of Hidaka. The old Fujita insignia for the Fujita Clothing Company was said to still be on display somewhere, so even if the structure of the building itself was indistinguishable from the rest of the rubble of this Godsforsaken city, they had a way identifying it.

Even with basic instructions as that, Shiu begrudgingly knew he had to wait for one of the two to take the lead. He’d long since lost his sense of direction, and the way Hidaka was stacked with boardwalks and funneled residents into alleyways by cramming their buildings together didn’t help. It was impossible to walk in a straight line in this city for long. Had it not been for this, he would have taken lead point without hesitation.

Similar to how the girl was ignoring him, Shiu barely glanced at her as he walked past and tried to forcibly shove the talismans from his hands into her own, as though she was beneath his consideration, and she was.

As he did this, he narrowed his eyes at the skyscraper of a boy in front out him. Now that they had gone through the custom of hearing out their employer, there was nothing keeping him from putting off the question that had been burning his mind since he’d first laid eyes on him. "How old are you?”

coded by pinn @ thq

Ishikawa Ren takeda sadako

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren looked over at Sadako with a perplexed expression. "Kill?" The woman hadn't necessarily specified that - he didn't think they deserved death for the crime of being vagrants, or thugs. "I dunno bout ghosts, but I think we ought to just kick them out." He looked back at the Kuronmeru. Least I'm not alone on this one, he thought, though he was a little surprised by the Kuronmeru's restraint. He'd heard bad things about that clan.

     "I'm twenty-one, bout to be twenty-two." It wasn't an uncommon question - especially for fellow genin. Most just assumed he must be at least a chuunin. Hopefully he would be soon enough. Ren smiled and shushed the Kuronmeru, predicting a quip. "Only been a shinobi for a year or so though."

     They walked through the streets for a while, navigating the city until they ended up in an even seedier district on the outskirts to the north and stood in the rain before a large derelict warehouse titled Fujita Clothing Company.

     A large steel sliding door towered above them, which Ren slid aside with a grunt as it bumped over old rust spots and creaked under its own misshapen weight. He ushered them in and then followed, into the darkness of the first floor.

     It was a long, wide building with a set of old iron stairs in the back, though the view of them was obstructed with old machinery and other crap. Faint reddish-yellow lights seemed to glow in the back, contrasting against the dark blue pouring in from the shattered windows all around.

takeda sadako Kuronmeru Shiu | 260 words

[takeda sadako]

KILLING YOUR IDOLS IS A CHORE

Sadako’s jaw snapped shut as she realized that she’d somehow said something that had thrown off both the insufferable Kiri-nin and Ren—she didn’t give a fuck what the kid thought of her, but Ren was a different story. Ghosts. Weren’t. Real. So why the fuck did it matter? Shiu tried to shove all his talismans into her grasp, and she quickly slapped his hands away, sending decorated paper scattering to the ground to be soaked by puddles and rain. She withdrew into a sullen silence, not gracing Ren with a response and continuing to pretend that Shiu fully did not existence, shoving her hands into her pockets to trace her thumb over the ink of the tags Ren had given her and falling three steps behind the other two in a clear indication of I’m not a part of this conversation. After twenty feet she doubled back, gathering all the sodden talismans from the ground, even though it didn't matter because ghosts weren't real and curses weren't either and there was nothing bad that could happen if she just left them there. Killing was off the table, then. Some small weight lifted from her shoulders, and she tried not to think about what that meant. When they crossed the threshold of the warehouse Sadako felt a chill run down her spine, as if she’d just passed through a sheet of cold water; she pulled her hood back from her face, brushing her damp fringe away from her brow and peering into the interior with wide eyes. Despite the distance she’d tried to put between herself and the other two, she found herself involuntarily sliding closer to Ren, her grip tightening on the papers in her pocket. Ghosts weren’t real. But she sure as shit wasn’t taking the lead inside this warehouse.

Kuronmeru Shiu  Ishikawa Ren -- 301

LAIKA OF THQ

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

The answer Ren gave did not placate the young Shiu as much as the older genin maybe had intended. He kept squinting at his back. He had been right in his suspicions that this man was close to Inei’s age, even a few years older than him. Why would anyone start their career as a shinobi so late? Was it like this in all the minor shinobi nations? Sending a bunch of nobodies pushing retirement into their academies?

He was annoyed, though, that the girl in company had not only refused to take on his share of the talismans, but she had slapped his hands away, causing some to drop in the process. Retaliation flashed in his mind, wanting to harm her for her uncouth behavior, but before he got too far with that thought process, he reminded himself that he was in an allied nation, and no matter how much the mission thus far had been a series of annoyances, he needed to represent Kirigakure in the best acceptable light.

He left the dropped talismans to soak in the puddles of concrete water, but for the ones still in his hands, he shoved them in his pockets bitterly and kept walking. Shiu only glanced over his shoulder when the girl walked back to collect the fallen charms before continuing on in silence.

— ♚ —

Shiu could have guessed that the door was not going to slide open smoothly. The sound of rust grating on rust seemed to scratch his brain, and his hands came up to cover his ears until it was over in an effort to soothe this sensation. All of this had been done before he could start barking orders at the two Ame-nin, which at least in the case of the old man, seemed to be the exact kind of guidance that was really needed. He wasn’t concerned for his own safety against however many bandits their employer had teased must be in the old ruined factory, but it would be a bad look for him if one or both of the people on his squad came up dead.

Now that the door was open, there was no point in trying to find any other, less obvious points of entry. Shiu shot the old man a dirty as he passed by into the warehouse. This guy may have been a grandpa compared to him and the younger-faced looking girl, but he wasn’t going to let him take the lead any more than he already had.

Shiu pushed ahead of the group just enough steps to better survey the first floor’s interior. With the windows shattered and the already overcast skies of Arashi no Kuni outside, it did not take too long for his eyes to adjust to the dim, scattered lighting of the warehouse. In one sweeping glance across, he saw no obvious sign of anyone occupying the first floor, though it was difficult to tell for sure from one singular vantage point given the abundance of sewing machines stacked on the workbench tables. He heard snippets of whispers, but they sounded distant, and no matter how much he strained his ears he could not make out the words of it.

Shiu began to walk down the middle of the room, keeping his feet soft as he walked over burnt debris. With the tables as cramped together as they were, the only other option was to walk all the way around the perimeter of the floor. Without stepping up onto the tables themselves, which were littered with junk and not a smooth surface to walk across, the group was forced to either walk single file, or two could walk close enough together their arms would be grazing each other.

He let his gaze roam the floor, trying to check for any huddled bodies in the darker corners of the first floor. Just as he had nearly reached the room’s center, Shiu felt something thin push up against his ankle. A wire.

Abruptly he came to a halt. His senses kicked into overdrive as he threw his head side to side for something to activate. There was no stirring in the dark though, no weapons being launched. The only thing that happened as an apparent, direct result of him tripping the wire was the sound of clattering wooden windchimes.

The whispering that had been getting steadily louder in their approach ceased. As the windchimes settled, the warehouse was filled with an eerie silence.

Shiu debated with himself on how to proceed. There could be more traps, but if they were all just going to be noisemakers like the windchimes, the first set had already done its job. He looked again for less obvious points of entry into the next floor, but the only thing he saw were the iron stairs directly across from their middle lane of the workshop. Likely it was this poor design of the warehouse responsible for trapping and killing so many of the workers when the fire happened. They could try the windows and climbing up the sides of the building, but he doubted the old man had that degree of chakra control yet, and it would be difficult to navigate the broken glass without giving themselves unnecessary injury, or even worse snagging his clothes on a glass tooth and ruining the fabric.

His attention was drawn back to the stairwell as the yellow light dimmed for a moment, then steadily came to burn even brighter than before.

Suddenly, a voice, masculine and relatively young, boomed at them from the stairwell.

"Leave this place.”

coded by pinn @ thq

Ishikawa Ren takeda sadako

[Ishikawa Ren]

     Ren squeezed his way through the packed warehouse, following Shiu. He apologized to Sadako under his breath as their hands brushed, only to then stop in his tracks. He'd heard the telltale sound of the wire being tripped and now his breath seemed to be caught in his throat. The warehouse was as silent as death.

     He cautiously craned his head over Sadako and Shiu, trying to make anything at all out. The silence was broken by the boom of the voice. The light grew brighter, but Ren still couldn't make anything out. It was clear to him though that they'd already been spotted. At the risk of pissing off their Kuronmeru partner, Ren jumped up onto the nearest semi-flat surface with a clatter and stuck himself there with the tree climbing technique.

     If they were about to be ambushed, he didn't want to be trapped in one of the corridors like sardines in a can. He exhaled with a smile as he pulled his katana from its sheath and used his other to pull a Fuinjutsu brush out. With a few quick strokes, he painted the symbol for the Genjutsu Intolerance Seal on his forehead, then activated it with 3 single-handed handseals.

     He wasn't sure of Sadako or Shiu's Genjutsu capabilities, or if his worry was even founded, but it was safer to do this now and ensure all three of them didn't get trapped in a Genjutsu in this dark, scary warehouse. "Not an option, I'm afraid!"

Using Genjutsu Intolerance Seal, low cost.
Kuronmeru Shiu takeda sadako | 249 words

[takeda sadako]

KILLING YOUR IDOLS IS A CHORE

Sadako rolled her eyes as the Kiri-nin shoved his way to the front, apparently hell-bent on being The One In Charge(™). She was more than happy to let him—if he wanted to get shot in the face by an ambush, that was his prerogative. (Because an ambush was absolutely why she was wary of stepping into the warehouse, and definitely not anything else. She wasn’t scared—she was being pragmatic.) Their pathway was narrow. She had the option of hanging back and taking the rear in a single-file line, but she stuck close to Ren’s side, shaking her head mutely as he softly apologized for brushing up against her. Just out of earshot she could hear the faintest whisper of quiet voices growing louder and louder, and it was making her teeth hurt; she nearly jumped out of her skin as the windchimes clattered, and all fell silent. Her chest rose and fell with quickening breath. She slid closer to Ren, unconscious instinct, but at that moment a voice boomed out across the warehouse. Ren hopped up onto a nearby table; Sadako shrieked as she lurched back, putting more distance between herself and Shiu, and produced a fistful of sodden talismans from her pocket as if that would banish whatever threat had appeared above them.

Kuronmeru Shiu  Ishikawa Ren -- 221

LAIKA OF THQ