[Mission] In-tear-o-gation

[Taiga]

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It was a cold dark night or any of that crap. It was a bright day, and a day that Minako would use to track down Sozen. There had been rumours recently, about a masked man who started offing members of a local crime syndicate in the Bear Country. It could only mean one thing- Sozen.

But if Minako was sure to know she would have to weasel every ounce of information out of everyone involved. She would need to confirm this was her Sozen, and that the gang who's insignia she held in her palm each night not only paid, but that Sozen made it out.

This meant a lot of finagling, possibly bargaining, and most likely bloodshed. To start, the samurai would find herself right in a warehouse. It was a mess and a few man were scattered in it, still laying there in their own filth. Any blood spilled was fresh, and that meant it hadn't been more than 24 hours that Sozen might have been here.

Survivors searched through the wreckage and pulled each other from piles of ash still- possible confirmation in not only the ash, but the survivors.

[MedeaMoirae]

Minako's eyes wandered the warehouse, as did her feet, as she checked a couple of the dead to see how long it'd been. Before coming into town Minako had slipped her mask in her pack, thinking perhaps the presence of another masked individual might worry the population instead of help. "What the hell did you do, Sozen?" she whispered.

She walked up to the first person she could find. She might be looking for information, but asking the questions directly could hinder her at this juncture. "Tell me how I can help." she told him kindly.

[Taiga]

The mans eyes widened. "Who the fuck are you" he said as he laid in the rubble. His legs seemed to be crushed, and his buddies were trying to dig him out. With some grunts they went off to fetch a piece of timber to hopefully form a level. They weren't strong enough to life him free. He didn't know why some random girl was at their place- and even stranger why would anyone in the village want to help them.

"Why the fuck are you here?" the man said. He was angry, but his eyes were wary and filled with fear and his body and mouth coated in dried blood. He was afraid that his death would come soon.

"Answer me pretty little girl."

[MedeaMoirae]

"My name is Minako, I was travelling through the area and saw the devastation." she said, moving to take a look at the beam trapping the man. Depending on the weight she might have been able to move it herself, but the idea of helping others was the help them, not take over. She turned to the other men who were trying to help him as she bent down to grab part of the beam. "On three." she told them, indicating that they should help her lift the beam on the count of three. "One, two, three." as soon as she said three she moved to lift the beam, hoping she had the help of the other men.

[Taiga]

One of the men helped, the others doubted she'd make a difference and kept on their way to grab a beam. With their heavy heaving, they however were successfully. The man let out a sigh, but didn't stir. His legs were broken, and the blood circulation had long been cut off. His eyes closing, he passed out cold.

She wasn't going to get any information from this guy, but the man who worked with her seemed intrigued, and happy to have her help.

At the same time, the man did not seem like the others. He seemed nicer, he seemed out of place. Why would he be in a gang?

[MedeaMoirae]

Minako knelt next to the unconscious man and checked him, glad at the least that he was still alive, in a sense. She turned to the guys who hadn't helped move the beam first. "If you all want your friend to live, I suggest you get a medic or a doctor over here, or get him to one, because I'm neither."

She got up and turned to the man who had helped her move the beam. "Thank you." she told him, nodding to him. "What happened here? It looks like a storm went through, or a massive fight."

[Taiga]

The men whistled, and a few men dragged a Doctor out. It was odd, but the doctor looked afraid. It wouldn't be obvious to Minako, but the Doctor had explosive tags stuck to his back. The man next to him, had a seal made, but not any chakra in it. If the Doctor tried anything, he was gone.

After the Doctor started helping his friends, the man looked up and wiped the sweat from his forehead, pushing his long blond hair from his eyes.

"A Mask man appeared claiming he was retribution. In moments the place was on fire like he was some kind of God. One by one he took us down, until some of our veterans over whelmed him. One of them split his mask in half and got him in the face. He retreated into the night, a few of our arrows might have struck."

The man seemed off.

"I'm sure if he was careless there'd be a blood line we could follow right too him."

[MedeaMoirae]

'Sozen.... he could be injured...' Minako nodded looking at the man. "I wouldn't mind hunting such a target, sounds like a good challenge." she said, looking around before turning her attention to the man in front of her. "Is there more you can tell me about this man? About what happened?"

[Taiga]

The man raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "I can't really. I was at home with my wife- thank the powers that be. I'm practically a slave to this group and if I had been here I'd been slaughtered like them too... that man, what I will say." he paused staring up to Minako, a fire in his eyes.

"Is reckless and a danger. He didn't once think of the innocent people forced in to gangs, did he? The man over here owes this gang a huge debt. He's a good man, but now he's on his deathbed."

He spat.

"People like the masked man are better dead then alive."

[MedeaMoirae]

Minako found an anger rising up within her. Not against the man in front of her, but against Sozen. Was he so blinded by rage that he never stopped to think about those who didn't choose this life? If things had gone different, Minako herself could've been dragged into a gang much like this one, had Sozen met her under those circumstances would he have callously done away with her life instead?

She put a hand on the man's shoulder and gripped it, an obvious anger in her eyes. "If you have anything on this man, I'll find him." she promised him. In the back of her mind she wondered idly if by time she was done with her search, would she still be searching for a lover? Or would she be pursuing a target?

For now she washed those thoughts away from her mind. Finding Sozen was her reason for being here, and it had to remain as such. "What else can be done to help here?"

[Taiga]

"Like I said, he's reckless. Look for blood and it probably makes a line right too him." The man brandished a knife and a hammer. "And be careful. Not everyone here is unwillingly like me to take advantage of a young lady. Especially when they're looking for some relaxation." He frowned. Working with scum was hard.

The Doctor, was back to helping the patients, a knife still held to his back as he did so. There was a stirring noise however nearby towards the forest, followed by a scream.

[MedeaMoirae]

"Thank you." Minako told him sincerely, just as she heard a scream, and looked around quickly for the source.

She took off running for the forest, for a moment wondering if Sozen was that near, or perhaps it was someone else. She debated whether or not to put her mask on, but decided for the moment she was still too close to those hurt to don it, after all, there was no telling if someone might assume her to be with Sozen (and likely correctly so) if they saw her with it.

[Taiga]

When she would arrive there wouldn't be any Sozen, just shards of his broken mask and pieces of his tattered cloak. A man was lying in the brush clutching his side, his sword drenched with blood. "Help, kami damn it." It seemed like he was in sever pain as he rocked back and forth.

The man himself was somewhat odd. His teeth where sharp and had blood on them and his eyes hard a shark-eye look.. His sword was just as weird as he was, and he had some headband with a slash through it. Though Minako did not know the now nearly extinct Soumei clan of the Mist, it was clear he was an MN.

[MedeaMoirae]

When Minako saw the bits of Sozen's cloak and mask she wanted to stop and grab at them for signs of him, to see if he was alright, or was he hurt? Yet there was someone else here. She turned towards the man, and knew him to be a missing ninja. She was starting to recognize these sorts. She knew if he were up to a fight she probably couldn't take him.

She knelt beside him as if to help him, trying not to look at his sword, likely the blood was Sozen's. "What happened here?" she asked him as if concerned, which wasn't difficult since she was concerned, though her concern was more for Sozen, yet this man needed to think she was an ally. "Who did this?"

[Taiga]

The man grunted and let out some primal growling. "That bastard." he said then spat. Rubbing his side he moaned slightly as he tried to stir himself. "He broke my ribs clean, but I poked him right in thigh, probably right through, and bit his shoulder pretty bad." he smiled, licking the blood of his teeth. "He didn't taste that bad, somewhat like a lamb."

After showing his cannibalistic tendencies he groaned again. "I found the masked guy laying up in a tree. He was bandaging himself up, figured he was gonna attack again, so I attacked him. He caught me off guard and leaped out of the tree and tackled me as I was leaping up."

He motioned with his arm a stabbing motion as he winced.

"I don't think he's coming back to here now, least not in this life time with all those wounds."

He paused again, fighting through the wincing.

"All I know I couldn't see his face but I could tell that fuck was calm as ever."

[MedeaMoirae]

Minako tried to swallow back her horror at this man, unsure as to whether or not she should actually get close enough to check his ribs considering his attitude towards blood, he'd probably find hers sweet as well. And so she took on a different attitude for him. "Tell me which way he went." she said, hand on her odachi as if she planned to use it on Sozen when she found him.

[Taiga]

The man moved over and gave her a wicked glare, he was damn crazy, his mouth open wide almost drooling. "I don't know pretty girl but I assure you you can't take him." He twisted his neck and licked his lips again. "He obviously headed off in the forest and directly away from here." He grabbed his blade and attempted to stand, using it as a crutch.

"Mmmm. I want him dead." the man said as he winced.

"Get a doctor over here, alright?"

[MedeaMoirae]

"You'd be surprised how good I am with this thing." she muttered, hating that he'd just insulted her capabilities with her own weapons. Yet still she ran back to where she'd been before, looking for the doctor, despite the fact that she'd rather be going after Sozen. When she found him she turned to him, and those who had been keeping close watch on him, hating that she couldn't help him. "There's a swordsman in the woods needing a doctor as well." she told them.

[Taiga]

Another scream filled the air, and the sound of crisp fire. This time, the samurai would be free to pursue. A man came running from the forest, charred and with soot all over. He also bore a slashed metallic band on his arm, of another strange country, Iwa. Coughing up some blood he stumbled into a sitting position and laid back. "I think I found him, off that way. We were going to close in when he suddenly shot some canister into the air that exploded fire all over.

"We all made it out, I think. But I'm starting to doubt pursuing this guy is a good idea. We'll just raise our body count. It's like he's booby trapped the whole place... meaning this was all planned."

[MedeaMoirae]

Minako turned and took off at a run before the man finished speaking, heading straight for the sounds and into the trees once more. Yet again she was tempted to grab her mask but she wasn't entirely sure if there were still other men out here or not, putting on a mask of any kind would only make her a target.

Yet knowing that he might have booby-trapped things made her realize that protecting her face might be necessary. She reached back and grabbed her mask out of her pack and pulled it on as she moved into the trees, looking for any sign of Sozen.

[Taiga]

The young samurai would run through the forest with in trepidation, only to find herself halted. Before her would be a line of ash and fire, separating the forest in half, and on the other side, was a man bleeding anywhere he could, his clothes torn and his hair scraggly covering his face- slime, mud, grime, sweat, blood all mixed into it.

There was a multitude of twigs, which would snap under the girls foot, as the man would cast his gaze right at her. Freezing- he'd stare blankly for a moment, as if he knew who it was, but then look away as he didn't. Perhaps an eerie feeling for the two humans in the area indeed. His ring of fire biding him his escape, he would limp off till he was no longer visible over the horizon.

[MedeaMoirae]

"SOZEN!" She must've screamed for him a hundred times until her throat was hoarse and tears ran down her face. After he'd looked back at her she'd gone to remove her mask as well, trying anything to get him to see who it was. And yet still he walked away. When she felt like she couldn't scream any more she sat down where she was, looking around at the ash and flames, tears running down her face for several moments.

How long she was there she wasn't sure, but finally she knew she'd have to get up else be consumed by the flames. She put her mask in her pack as she moved to leave the woods. She would have to keep searching, no matter what it took, she would find him.

[Taiga]

[Passed]

Trail and Info Found