Deep in the mountains that bordered along the western edge of Earth country a tall man with a smoking cigarette slowly traversed the lower altitudes of the mountain range as the sun was concealed by a thick layer of grey clouds that currently blotted out the sun above causing for the gentle breeze to turn almost cold. A pair of piercing blue eyes looked on from behind a pair of midnight black lens in the pair of sunglasses that rested gentle upon the bridge of the missing-nin's nose as he turned looking over his left shoulder as if he was looking at something off in the distance. The wisps of smoke seemed to almost swirl around his hair and up into his uncombed raven hair that shifted back and forth in the breeze now as the gaze seemed fixed on something.
It was an extremely tiny dot that most would not have even notices as it flew across the sky, behind it was a handful of other small black dots there were just slightly smaller then it. This was a mutated hornet that had once belonged to an ancient clan that resided within the country of Earth back in the days were the first great villages had just started to collect themselves. But unfortunately for this clan they crossed the Aburame clan who were a much more savage bunch during the early years and had been eliminated by them but they had never been able to find where they bred these hornets. It wasn't until just recently that the former Konoha-nin had discovered a few documents that pointed to this area...how he desired to rediscover the insect and add it to his collection.
Stepping up with his left foot onto a short rock two medium sized containers, one that was back and the other an earthen brown, that were only about a foot long that dangled from the left hand through a pair of leather straps as he puffed lightly upon the cigarette within his lips causing the tip to glow bright orange for just a moment as the soft glow faintly illuminated the bearded face of Hisato now. His gaze lingering on the single insect that was being pursued by a hand full of his own swarm now as they continued to track the insect in hopes that it would lead him back to the hive. This lone soldier was truly of not interest to the man besides that as he instead wanted to destroy the hive and remove the queen from within, binding it with his chakra making her his loyal subject and the swarm that she would then give birth to would become his own. "These thing are so troublesome sometimes..."
No one was able to see the contents of those two seemingly ordinary jars nor was one able to see with the naked eyes the terror that was a portion of his swarm that hid itself within his clothing and also within his own body as well. These bugs were his Hogoshachū swarm, one of the mutated swarm that his old mentor had been creating and one of the reasons that he spent time imprisoned and had his first swarm forcibly removed. But in the end this physically horrid act had actually strengthened the bond he had between himself and his swarm now as it was much more powerful then any swarm he had seen during his time before leaving the village and destroying some of the Aburame's breeding grounds. Though one day he would make more than just his old clan feel the pain and agony that they put him through...
He was in the mountains, yet again.
It wasn't that Yato was particularly scared of mountains, but he held a strange superstitious wariness of them--it seemed that every time he would be in the mountains, he would come to a near-death experience, or something similarly traumatic. His hand trailed over a scar that perforated the center of his chest as he took a deep sigh, thinking back to his encounter with his former sensei that left him half-dead and unconscious. A chilly breeze would come every now and then, bringing goosebumps to the skin of his arms as he walked up the mountain pass.
He was in search of an individual who had recently gained a good amount of notoriety for an unusual obsession. The man's name was Hisato and he came from the mysterious Aburame family. Yato knew all too well of the man's kin, having been from Konohagakure himself: the bug-mongering, espionage-focused, shade-wearing shinobi were nothing to scoff at. Back in Konohagakure the shinobi from the Aburame family that he had personally come across were mostly concerned with perfecting their tracking and spying skills, but he knew of a select few that focused primarily on fighting; to say they were just strong was an understatement--the Aburame never failed to decimate their opponents.
That being said, he couldn't help but travel in search of the man with an unshakable amount of confidence. Perhaps it was because he had already experienced death before, but he wasn't scared of the Aburame man, regardless of how potentially powerful he could be. What he did feel though, was an eerie paranoia that pricked at his back like a beetle walking across his skin. His eyes were constantly darting all over the area as he came closer and closer to the man's trail.
Yato had been travelling for quite some time, and travelling to the mountains was almost always a trip that proved difficult to someone of a weak physical stature like Yato. But he felt that finding this man was worth it--he almost knew without a doubt in his mind that he and the man had goals that coincided; the only thing that he felt would be necessary to 'gain' Hisato was to convince him that such was the truth.
Sure enough, the man was right where his informant had told him to look. Yato never quite understood how exactly these people got their information, but if one thing was for sure: they were damn good at telling him what he needed to know. The man stood at a ledge in the mountains--donning a pair of sunglasses, Yato was fairly confident that he was the 'Hisato' that he had been searching for the past few weeks.
"Aburame Hisato." He called out, a several dozen meters away from the man. Although they were quite far from each other, the mountain ranges allowed Yato's voice to echo and bellow much louder than usual. "Wanted for murdering your own family and fleeing the village of Konoha. What's a man like you doing all the way out here?" Yato tilted his head with a fox-eyed smile before reaching into his cloak and pulling out a severed head. He would throw the head to Hisato--on further inspection the head, rotting and pungent, would have a Konoha forehead protector slung around the eyes--it was another Aburame clan member: one who had gotten way in over his head and decided that it would be safe to hunt Yato on his own.
"Relax, Aburame. I'm an ally." His smile persisted as he kept a safe distance and stared, waiting for Hisato's reaction. Yato himself would have a daunting appearance, as black armor covered in similar black flames emanated from his body, with horns that extended from his head. This as well as the wings that spread a few meters on each side of his body would give him the eerie appearance of a demon, as he was surrounded by a black mist that spread just about everywhere around him.
'Hmp?!' A large pincer beetle landed upon the collar of the partially unzipped jacket now which for once wasn't hiding the bearded face of the missing-nin, though its arrival came with news that it had been trailing behind the man keeping watch and it had informed him that 'they' were being followed by a single individual. Sighing lightly the man inhaled slowly before blowing out a puff of smoke and reaching up taking the half smoked cigarette between the index and middle fingers of the right hand now. It was only a short while later that he would hear his name coming from the cloaked figure off in the distance, a good choice on the stranger part to not approach to closely to the Aburame.
Hisato was a man known for slaughter after his departure from the village, not even sparing a child if they stood between him and what ever his objective might be. Hearing his own name echoing in the mountainous area the man's head tilted to the left and twisted slightly a for a brief instant one was able to catch a glimpse of a set of brilliant blue eyes that were hidden behind the black out lens. Contained within them was a truly frightful amount of killing intent that was directly solely at the stranger whom himself claimed to be an ally. 'Oh really?' The mocking thoughts suddenly appeared within his mind now as this stranger came off a bit arrogant to the former Konoha-nin and that was something that irked him. "An ally, you say?"
A simple four word response was given as the deep voiced escaped the thin lips that were barely visible through his unkempt beard as the cancer stick once more found its place between those lips taking a slow drag upon it. 'What a strange mist, is that chakra?'An analyzing eye scraped over ever detail that was currently visible to the Aburame as he took in Yato's appearance that left many unknowns and that was something that just wouldn't do. 'Disperse and defend for now...' Casual tasking statements were mentally sent to the portion of the swarm within the small black jar now as a sudden droning sound arose from out of no where. Accompanying this sound was the surge of what appeared to be dark mist escaping from the container erupting out into a forty five square foot cloud that surrounded the man whom stood at the center while the cloud oscillated with their host at the axis point now. Konoha's Black Mist had revealed himself in response to this stranger whom had brought the head of a clansman to demonstrate his intentions, though the Aburame didn't recognize the man, not that it mattered to him one way or another.
Though the swarm didn't move at their full speed nor did the man expose the entire size of the swarm, keeping the remaining percent actually within his own body, this in itself was a simple deterrent for most and even this was a bit excessive for the man to do as a few cubic feet of this swarm was enough to devour a single person in a short amount of time. But their was something off about the stranger and the armor and mist of black chakra before before him and the man was someone who always trusted his gut feeling when it came to situations like this. In doing so he didn't plan to leave himself open to any unseen threat despite the large gap between the two of them now. "So you think that you are an ally of mine...that's rather humorous to me. Perhaps you'd let me in on what the joke is?" A sarcastic tone lingered openly within his deep voice as it was once more projected outwards across the valley of space between them now...he would be sure to have a little fun with this one.
Yato tilted his head as a single eye narrowed while the other remained large and globe-shaped. A cloud of black erupted from behind Hisato and dispersed among the already existing black mist that exuded from Yato's own body. Was the man looking for a fight? He chuckled to himself, tapping a single finger to his neck rapidly as he did so. If Hisato was looking for a fight, he would get one; there was a strange feeling of confidence that welled up in Yato's guts and pulsated through his veins that caused him to get excited whenever he was supposed to feel like his life was in danger. He usually put himself into unfavorable situations because of his invincibility complex, but it was the fact that he always triumphed and came out on top when he was 'pumped' that this impractical confidence continued to burn brightly. While fully aware that Hisato could and would be one of the most powerful enemies he had ever encountered, he couldn't help but contain his excitement as his fingers would rapidly clench and release over and over again.
Alas, Yato wasn't here to fight the man, but rather to convince him to join him. He would have to contain his urge to kill. He clenched his fists tightly once more as he took a deep long breath, holding it in for a long few seconds before audibly letting it out though a gap in his lips.
He didn't expect that the Aburame man would listen to what he had to say next, but it was worth a try before the two titans potentially clashed. "A joke..." He chuckled. He personally was a big fan of making jokes at what might be considered the most inappropriate of times, but this wasn't quite the same type of situation. He truly saw himself as an ally to the criminal; they both had similar backgrounds and were both constantly being hunted down by their villages. "A joke would be to say that we aren't allies, Aburame." His face straightened once more as his posture loosened and he opened his stance to the man, his hands down and palms facing towards Hisato as a sign of honesty. "You and I are both criminals pursued by the very nature of the law of man. You and I--as much as either of us might decide to reject it--are in a constant state of danger. Of death." He let out a cocky smirk--perhaps it was a detail to his expression that might have been harmful to his cause, but it was his genuine belief in his own words that practically forced him to warp his lips into a smirk in agreement to himself.
"You and I... Are just two men amongst many, trying to live. Now you tell me, Hisato: In what world are we not destined to be allies?" Although his words had a sense of urgency and honesty to them, he fully expected the man not to reciprocate such sentiments. Even so, it was worth the try to avoid an unnecessary scuffle. He hoped that at the very least, the two would be able to converse. He wasn't so keen on the idea of killing off a potentially powerful addition to his team.
'I wonder just what the true reason behind this stranger's words are. He does truthfully appear to be seeking some sort of alliance and just based upon the pressure I feel from him he is at least as strong as myself..' The bright blue eyes narrowed slightly behind the dark lenses that concealed them from Yato's view now as the swarm of devouring insects seemed to simply drone around him as their encirclement seemed to grow slightly larger now as they dispersed from one another a bit causing for them to appear to be a larger force then they were. A slow exhale revealed a few remaining wisps of dark smoke that had been circulating through his lungs for some time now as he shifted the free hand into the pocket of the leather looking jacket in thought. Attempting to decipher exactly what the young man before him truly wanted as he then replied. "Being criminals doesn't make us allies, there is only one reason we would be allies...and that is strength. I don't support the weak, if they die then they die. If your an ally of mine then that means you must have some decent strength..."
While the words that came out of the man's thing lips and echoed across the brief stint of mountainous terrain, theses were probably the most heart felt words that one would hear come from the missing-nin. He did not bother himself with the problems of those weaker than himself unless they held some sort of usefulness to him in one way or another. Stepping over the body of a weak ally was akin to him stepping over a small rock in the road as it caused no change for him. If this strange truly wished to become one of his very few true allies then it mean he considered himself to be amongst the peak of the missing-nin world. This thought in and of itself actually excited the Aburame as a somewhat sinister smile broke out across the dark bearded face to the point that his pearl white teeth began visible for a few moment. 'He thinks highly of himself...let my companions test him them as I too an interested in just what this strange chakra armor of his is able to do.' Hisato had been pondering upon the flaming black chakra armor that protected the man since laying eyes on it but hadn't ever been witness to anything like it in the past and as such was only able to do one thing.
'Frontal and Flank Attacks on both sides...' The commands were a simple and transmitted mentally to three portions of his swarm, the frontal attack command given to ten snych worth as the double flank command hand been given to a group of ten snych as well but this group would divide itself in half. Hisato only held back in the size of his swarm attack as the man's abilities and true strength was currently unknown and this caused for the former Konoha-nin to stand on the side of caution. Instantly the ten synch worth of the Hogoshachū that was directly in front of the smoker shot forward at their full speed and strength making the movement of the insect formation almost invisible to the normal human eye due to just their speed alone. Breaking out from behind the forward moving portion of the swarm their would be two smaller portions that curved outward to either side before coming in forming a pincer style of assault that struck out at Yato from either side.
The attack itself struck out at the strange man and his black flame-like chakra armor that seemed to form a defensive barrier, the bug man wished to test out the strength of this chakra layer foremost and then attempt to draw out its other abilities along with what the true strength of his new 'allied comrade' were at the same time. For this man to track him down had caused him to be interested in just whatever it was that Yato truly wanted from him and why he had the need to form an alliance with him. Perhaps their were more common factors between the two then was presently known. If it was revealed their intense and passionate hatred for their home village then perhaps things would go more smoothly in terms of discussing things like equals. Yet, for the moment the man was to interested in testing out the strengths of the man before him.
If he truly was strong and wished to become an ally then it would be something of interest for Hisato as their were a number of things that he wished to accomplish in the future which required him to gather some powerful allies in the process. 'If this man is truly as strong as he is brave, especially for tracking me down in such an environment, then perhaps he can be of use to me with the plans that I've already set into motion up to this point. Though I'm still not strong enough just yet.' Personal strength as a swarm user was actually a bit harder to develop then a normal taijutsu or ninjutsu user who simply practiced over and over attempting to perfect their technique or develop new techniques. For a swarm user it required not only hard work and dedication to training the insects but they needed constant attention and assessment in order to ensure the hive was functioning correctly. Plus their was always the need to be on the look out for other insects or swarms that could help improve his over all strength.
This was the exact reason why he had come to such a out of the way place in search of the giant hornet. If he was able to track it back to the colony and take away the queen then in time it would become another powerful swarm of insects under his command. Sadly, the effort and time required to raise a new colony was extraordinary and even if he did acquire the queen today it would be many months before they would even start to become combat ready as he needed to feed the growing swarm his chakra. But these were thoughts and problems for the future and the man's had currently placed all of his mind and combat focus upon the unknown figure before him....
"Ah, the type of man who speaks through strength, huh? So be it." Yato smirked as he responded to Hisato's brash claims about what being an ally meant to him. It was true, for the most part, that power played a large role in dealing the cards of fate. But to solely base ones' beliefs on the basis of strength was something that even a psychopath like Yato could see as stark naivety. He knew the Aburame was strong; this was going to take a bit of effort on his part to convince the man. It was unfortunate, really, but he'd have to show Hisato his true strength to gain his approval, it seemed. "Oh well, all's well that ends well..." He shrugged to himself at the thought of potentially killing his future partner, but if such actions were the only necessary means to gaining Hisato, he would take them without a moment's hesitation.
The swarm of beetles was the issue. Sure, he had come across quite a few of the Aburame both in his time as a Konoha shinobi and in his time as a nukenin, but never had he seen a swarm so large. They initially had a daunting presence, but he figured that spreading the insects out was more of a form of intimidation than anything else. Still, he kept a wary eye on them, and when it became evident that the bugs began to move towards him with an impeccable amount of speed, faster than he could imagine they ever would, he immediately knew that any sort of fighting without the intent to kill wasn't going to cut it. This was a fight that would take account for a hundred moments within a single moment, with everything happening faster than the blink of an eye. The hands that gripped around Yato loosened their grip on his body; although Yato didn't expect Hisato not to be able to see them, at the very least they would take a bit of focus to notice. It was then that the bugs began to near him, to which he would react by instantly moving 20 meters away from his original location. Sure, the beetles were quick, but they weren't instant quick. And he knew better than anybody that the Aburame needed to react on their own accord to be able to direct their swarms. This would grant him enough time to make a ballsy decision.
Yato would begin to channel an enormous amount of chakra in his flying hands as they would rise in the air, high above the both of them. "Call back the insects, Hisato-kun. Or you, your bugs, and I will all be blown into pieces of dust within seconds." He would cackle loudly with a toothy grin at the shinobi as the hands would form a ring wide enough to cover the area around them dozens of times. "Oh, and did I mention that other swarm of hornets you're looking for, as well?" His smile would curl even further into a warped manic expression as he would point up to the circle of hands rising above the both of them, which would begin to charge with an amount of chakra so titanic that the area within the circle would begin to crackle and glow with chakra. It would be evident that the sheer amount of chakra being channeled up into the air would be more than enough to destroy the mountain they stood on--many times over, at that.
He didn't want to die, but he was more than psychotic enough to go through with it. His expression and stature would speak volumes, as if saying, "I will do it," without the slightest ounce of hesitation in his voice. He knew that Hisato was likely nowhere near as crazy as he was. That was his trump card over him. In fact, it could have very well possibly been his only trump card; Hisato was a strong individual--one that would likely be able to take on the likes of Yato himself. He wouldn't risk slipping up even for a second, and things like pride had zero matter in this situation: it was kill both of them, or kill neither of them. That was his resolve.
'Body Flicker...give chase.' The faint glow given off by the young man before he moved a mere twenty meters was not missed my the analyzing eye of Hisato as he calmly watched his opponent's movements in this moment. Though where his possibly new ally was a bit mistake was due to the fact that they already had so much distance between them that reacquiring the man's new position for him and the beetles was actually rather easy. If it had been a close range where he needed to reassess by observing the entire surroundings then of course it would have taken much longer to do. Plus their was another factor and that was the type of training his bugs had been through and the reason that his style of fighting was known as 'Commander's Intent'. This was simple, once given a task they no longer needed anymore tasking from the host as they would continue to attempt to carry out the original orders until they had completed their mission.
'What were those?' As the hands burst out from within the man's layered clothing fashion now, they were like blurs that had had the resembling outline of hands of varying sizes as they shot out in each direction. Though what caught the man off guard next was that he didn't try to attack with them at that moment and instead send them careening out in every direction and high into the air. Something about this maneuver gave him a sudden uneasy feeling in the back of his mind now as the man didn't appear to be defending himself with the strange appendages. The sheer pressure given off by Yato in the new few moments was enough to cause even Hisato to break out in a faint nervous sweat as perspiration broke out upon his back underneath the heavy jacket. This pressure was due to the amount of chakra that the stranger was molding that even allowed for himself to feel and understand it without being a sensor himself.
But by this time the bugs had already instantly arriving in front and at the sides of Yato, the words coming out of the young man's mouth was the only thing that saved them both at that moment. In Hisato's mind if he killed the problem then the unsettling ninjutsu technique that was being powered up would be canceled due to the interference in channeling it yet he instead learned something about Yato. That this stranger had a godly level of speed at channeling chakra, something he was unable to account for in his original assessment of the fairly young looking male. 'Fuck! Hold!' For the first time since they started this little game with one another the slightly older missing-nin removed his left hand from his pocket as the mental command echoed in the mind of his swarm causing for them to near instantly halt their movements in midair. This left them with only a few meters between their overgrown mandibles and the sweet flesh they could smell from the one who was suppose to be their intended meal. The fellow missing-nin would be able to hear and even see the beetles for the first time up close as their pincers clicked together in a sound that was like to metal knives scraping against each other and their wings beating were like a low droning sound that echoed all around him.
The reason he Hisato didn't just continue on and let his insects kill this fellow was honestly rather simple and its reason was drawn not from what he first said but the second portion of Yato's statement, the hornets. Perhaps without even knowing it the young man had touched upon one of his true desires besides ruling over a country, that was his love for insects and his absolute desire to breed powerful insects and develop a second swarm which was something rarely seen amongst his family. As for dying, while prepared to do so because of the life he led as long as the man that killed him died as well then it would still have been a good day in the former Konoha-nin's mind. But to die without being able to achieve the goal that he was so close to completing was something that the man couldn't bear now. The hand not lifted towards the extension of his swarm lifted the half burnt cigarette up to his lips allowing for him to take a single long drag on it now.
The end glowed a bright orange color as the air passed through it and the remaining inch or so of the tobacco before the filter burnt up now to the point that it was at the edge of the filter before Hisato tossed it down and squashed out the remaining portion with the toe portion of the right foot. Sighing as he exhales a large cloud of grey smoke exited from both the nose and mouth of the bearded man before he pivoted off the right foot as it squashed the remnants of the cigarette filter and began to walk slowly towards the unknown man now. "Seems you're really serious about this ally thing, guess for the sake of those hornets we can talk this over." Both hands had found their way back into the front pockets of the leather jacket now as he walked in a casual manner towards Yato, everywhere he passed through his swarm they silently withdrew back into the small black container that hung off the left wrist by a brown strap that somehow despite its small size was able to contain such a giant swarm of insects.
By the way he spoke one might have miss thought that he was being sarcastic with his words but if one knew the man then they would know that he was serious. The two men were only alive at this moment due to those hornets that the young Aburame clansman had traveled and worked so hard to find. It would took nearly a minute to cross the gap between them as it appeared that their was not sign of rushing on his own part, unless Yato decided to meet him halfway. The bugs that had been surrounding him would have withdrawn back to their host now and followed the rest of the colony back into their home jar. As he started to near the man he spoke out once more but his body remained a few meters from him...just because he hadn't killed him earlier and in turn he had survived as well it didn't make them allies just yet..."Speak what you really want to say, kid. Neither of us have time for playing games."
A drop of sweat that would likely be unseen through the flaming black constructs slowly trailed from Yato's brow down to the tip of his nose. High pressure situations like this usually caused him to become animated, but he couldn't help but feel like his wide smile at Hisato was a facade. There wasn't a single word to describe the complex range of emotions he was feeling--all he knew was that his heart was relentlessly striking the inside of his chest as if it was trying to escape from his body. That in itself was enough to tell the violet-eyed shinobi that it wasn't excitement he was feeling, but nervousness. The Aburame's mastery over his swarm was much more proficient than he had anticipated, and by a wide margin at that. Images of himself being eaten alive by the beetles that surrounded him flooded his mind as he stared at Hisato, who was calmly taking a drag of his cigarette.
Luckily, the two were now at a standstill.
He took a deep slow breath that would stink of anxiety, but through the various visual obstructions he figured the Aburame wouldn't be able to tell. As Hisato walked towards him, the swarm had retreated back into the container; Yato followed suit as the titanic mass of chakra dissipated in the air above them, and the hands flew back at blinding speeds, returning to his body underneath his robes. He took his thumb and wiped the single drop of perspiration that remained hanging off of the tip of his noise before loosening his stance. It was absurd how quickly the two had 'settled things'--if that was what it could be called. His heart was still beating rapidly as a residual effect of the pressure that he was put under just moments ago, but for the most part he remained composed.
Yato snorted in repressing his laughter while listening to Hisato speak. The man was just as unreasonable as he was; it was revealing of his own character as much as it was of Hisato's. He remained in place, letting Hisato walk the full distance before passing the severed head that stood as a border between them. "It's clear to the both of us what you want. I know where to find it; got the info out of that guy." He raised his arm and pointed at the severed head that was behind Hisato. It was dumb luck, really; he was trying to find an Aburame deserter and instead found an Aburame from the village that was trying to hunt him down. By coincidence, while Yato had tortured and interrogated the village-aligned Aburame, he heard word of Hisato and a particular swarm of hornets. Perhaps he could call the coincidence fate--fate that had both endangered and saved his life.
"So... We'll consider this an exchange of aspirations: I need your strength." Before clarifying, he gritted his teeth while he stared with a haughty expression into Hisato's shades. Every time he uttered anything along the lines of needing someone's assistance, he couldn't help but cringe at his own inability to get things done by himself. It was an unrealistic sentiment, but one that any boy his age had, regardless of if they were crazy or not. He dug into his coat and pulled out a small piece of card with a wax seal embedded into it. The seal was ornamented with the symbol of an ouroboros, and the card itself had no details otherwise. "Keep this with you, for now. Because if I take you to the hornets, you'll be joining me in my mission..." He paused for a moment as he stared on into Hisato's shades, his eyes slightly glowing a vibrant violent all the while. "To destroy the shinobi villages."
It was sure to sound absurd to Hisato, but Yato's expression was resolute, and solid as stone. He was more than serious. "I sought you out because I know you're powerful, Hisato. But... That power by itself is nothing. After you fill your thirst for finding potent insects, what then? Surely you won't remain idle and at peace with yourself. I know where your ambitions stand. Use your strengths to cleanse this world of its corrupt law, alongside me." He wasn't sure what kind of response to expect Hisato to give, but just as the man had requested, he said what he needed to say.
"I see..." 'So that's how it is, well played kid.' A faint smile couldn't help but grow upon the bearded man's face now as he saw why the stranger was so confident in his words now as the head of the fellow Aburame clansman was presented to him. Withdrawing his hand and flipping it so that the palm of the hand was revealed about one synch worth of his swarm flowed out like a dark mass that instantly consumed the head as it was handed over as it floated in the air between them. Killing and extracting the information for himself and then using it to Hisato into a tight spot as he shifted his gaze away from the man for a moment as a handful of large pincer beetles rejoined the man landing upon his arm and crawling up onto his shoulder as if it was speaking to the missing-nin.
This act ensured that he had something the bug man wanted, with the return of his bugs also brought disappointing news as they had gotten to close and the long hornet attacked them and in turn thy killed it before finding the home colony of the insect. It turned out that Yato was holding all the cards in this moment and it only made Hisato slightly irritated but if the circumstances were flipped then he would have done the exact same thing. Perhaps the two had more in common with the way that they like to businesses then they realized. 'Devour..' A feeding frenzy suddenly enveloped the remains as the powerful jaws of the insects tore through even the bone of the skull like they were pieces of wet tissue paper as what remained of the crimson life essence within the stranger's head fell onto the ground and within only a few moments of time the head remained only in unrecognizable tiny pieces. This was done to destroy any evidence firstly and secondly to seen an unspoken message to the man in front of him now...if you fuck with me then this is the fate you will face.
"Quite the lofty endeavor, to destroy the shinobi villages. I really only harbor deep hatred for our home village..." The missing-nin spoke frankly towards the aspect of destroying the shinobi villages, the only true interest was towards Konoha for making him suffer for those years in the pit of hell. Just the thought of it made a flash of killer intent pass through his brilliant blue eyes and even caused for a for the man's face to contort just ever so slightly though his beard helped to hide this from the unobservant eye. A single bug flew over from its brief feast upon the head of the Konoha-nin and took the card into the pincers of its mouth now before returning the card to Hisato now as he looked on through the dark lenses of his shades taking note of both sides of the card before stuffing it away into the left jacket pocket.
"Hmm..." The man hummed lightly to himself at the words of the man across from him now, he would accompany the man on this mission of his but after that their would be no karma between them as he withdrew his right hand which had a half empty back of cigarettes and a silver zippo light in the same hand. Gently it was tapped against the sleeve of the left arm as a single filter escaped from the package that was then brought up to the man's lips that held it securely. Placing the pack back into the pocket the hand returned with just the zippo as the thumb flicked the flint wheel striking the flame that fluttered slightly within the gentle breeze. After a few moments the end of the cancer stick glowed a bright red before smoke puffed from the man's mouth. A terrible habit that he had picked up but as the smoke filled his lungs for a moment allowed for him to think clearly about everything that was laid before him now as his comrade finally finished speaking.
But their was only one that that struck a cord with the young man causing for him to return his gaze onto Yato now, reaching up and actually removing the stick from his mouth and blowing out the smoke in the man's direction. The words about corrupt laws. Something he felt was the reason for all of his suffering for those years within confinement and what had transformed him into this version of himself. Perhaps their was some fate between the two of them. "Lead me to my goal and you'll earn my assistance in yours..."
"Oho.." Yato raised an eyebrow as he watched the small swarm of beetles nearly instantly consuming the severed head. That could have easily been him. Although he and Hisato weren't necessarily teamed up yet, he was glad that he wasn't on the receiving end of the swarm. He smirked to himself as the swarm had left where the head once was, leaving no remnants of the former shinobi from Konoha.
He listened intently without interrupting Hisato; although he was usually one for jokes and cutting into peoples' sentences, he had some sense of respect for the man. It was much unlike his experience with Kenji, where regardless of how much Kenji had shattered his limbs and threatened him, Yato had retorted back with a witty reply. This meant that his respect was not so much for Hisato's strength, but more for what he perceived Hisato's ideals to be. It was true that Yato's main goal was to crush Konoha as well, but in his eyes, all of the villages were essentially the same in that they operated under laws and varying amounts of morality. But that would be a different conversation for a different time.
Yato was half-surprised, to say in the least, when Hisato had agreed to join him. It felt quick and half-hearted, but he knew that their alliance was far from a ruse; they were both people who had stared death in the eye just moments ago--from his experience, that degree of mental pressure was just as effective as truth serum in pulling genuine sentiments out of people. The cigarette smoke blown in his face was usually enough for him to want to snap someone's neck, but he stayed calm and smiled at Hisato as he puckered his lips and blew the smoke back at him. "Excellent," he responded, in regards to Hisato agreeing to join him.
"You should really quit smoking, Hisato-kun. Your life will be over before you get to wreak havoc on Konoha." He cackled to himself as he turned around and began to quickly make his way down the mountain pass. The trip was going to be relatively long, and the two had all the time in the world to talk. He figured that small talk like that would break the awkward hostile environment. As he scaled down the rocks, he talked to Hisato--who would be behind him--without turning to face the man. "The hornets are kept in a small artificial environment underground," he said, with a lifeless voice, indicating that he was more than bored about the topic already. He had no interest in the hornets, but nevertheless he was lucky enough that it was him who the info got to first, and not Hisato. "It'll be a moderately long distance from here... Anything you want to tell me about yourself while we move?" He cackled quietly to himself; Hisato didn't seem like one for small talk, but Yato himself was someone who often found himself mindlessly rambling at times. Their dynamic was interesting, to say in the least.
"Quit?" The notion of quiting as suggested by the young man before him as the began to descend the rocky terrain actually made the missing nin laugh lightly as smoke drifted from between his thin lips now. His left hand reaching up to take the cigarette between two of its fingers as the other hand reached down to aid him in climbing down the boulders in the path Yato had choosen. Beside the bugs he had breed the only other external pleasure he had was the act of smoking, enjoying the feeling and it allowed for him to remain calm and focused. It was like adderall for the young man in a way. "Probably not going to happen, I expect to have a cigarette in my lips when I die."
Another bried, but light heartered laugh escaped from the man's mouth with a few wisps of smoke as in replied in kind to Yato's suggestion to his bad habit. Though their was definitely not by any means a full amount of trust between Jim and the stranger their was slowly forming a matter of reapect between them. Only time would be able to tell how their partnership would continue to develop or if it would fade after this one joint venture with one another.
'This man seems like the kind who likes to mindlessly talk for no reason..' Hisato couldn't help but let out a light sigh as the man began to talk, having wished to simply enjoy the quiet that accompanied the remote location that the pairwas traveling through. When asked about himself the missing nin placed the cigarette back into his mouth while shrugging both shoulders light as he spoke in an indifferent manner towards the question now. "Not a lot to talk about really and it seems that you have been able to acquire quite a bit of information about me already. What I'm interested in is who you really are. "
Hisato was a very frank person and now was no different as he didn't speak about himself in the moment and instead spoke about his interests in the figure before him. The stranger was relatively unknown but possessed a unique ability to control hand like object much like how he controlled his swarm. Plus his strength appeared to be either on par or even above his own capabilities during their brief exchange a short while earlier. Yet despite his shocking strength Hisato didn't recognize the ability nor the man himself.
This meant that either the shinobi was a relatively new missing nin that had only recently left the village or that this person before him had been concealing his true strength for quite some time for one reason or another. A faint smirk curled up on the right cor er of his mouth now as he drew in a drag upon his half burnt up cancer stick now. One thing was for certain and that was that Yato was an interesting fellow with some lofty goals but he was also intelligent and calculating. Individuals like him could definitely not be underestimated and forming at least some sort of alliance with him would be in the former Leaf shinobi's best interests for the future.
"Quit?" The notion of quiting as suggested by the young man before him as the began to descend the rocky terrain actually made the missing nin laugh lightly as smoke drifted from between his thin lips now. His left hand reaching up to take the cigarette between two of its fingers as the other hand reached down to aid him in climbing down the boulders in the path Yato had choosen. Beside the bugs he had breed the only other external pleasure he had was the act of smoking, enjoying the feeling and it allowed for him to remain calm and focused. It was like adderall for the young man in a way. "Probably not going to happen, I expect to have a cigarette in my lips when I die."
Another bried, but light heartered laugh escaped from the man's mouth with a few wisps of smoke as in replied in kind to Yato's suggestion to his bad habit. Though their was definitely not by any means a full amount of trust between Jim and the stranger their was slowly forming a matter of reapect between them. Only time would be able to tell how their partnership would continue to develop or if it would fade after this one joint venture with one another.
'This man seems like the kind who likes to mindlessly talk for no reason..' Hisato couldn't help but let out a light sigh as the man began to talk, having wished to simply enjoy the quiet that accompanied the remote location that the pairwas traveling through. When asked about himself the missing nin placed the cigarette back into his mouth while shrugging both shoulders light as he spoke in an indifferent manner towards the question now. "Not a lot to talk about really and it seems that you have been able to acquire quite a bit of information about me already. What I'm interested in is who you really are. "
Hisato was a very frank person and now was no different as he didn't speak about himself in the moment and instead spoke about his interests in the figure before him. The stranger was relatively unknown but possessed a unique ability to control hand like object much like how he controlled his swarm. Plus his strength appeared to be either on par or even above his own capabilities during their brief exchange a short while earlier. Yet despite his shocking strength Hisato didn't recognize the ability nor the man himself.
This meant that either the shinobi was a relatively new missing nin that had only recently left the village or that this person before him had been concealing his true strength for quite some time for one reason or another. A faint smirk curled up on the right cor er of his mouth now as he drew in a drag upon his half burnt up cancer stick now. One thing was for certain and that was that Yato was an interesting fellow with some lofty goals but he was also intelligent and calculating. Individuals like him could definitely not be underestimated and forming at least some sort of alliance with him would be in the former Leaf shinobi's best interests for the future.
It was becoming more obvious to the smoker that the amount of deep seated hatred that dwelled within the heart of his new allie was even grander then Hisato had first perceived. His tone and body language told the observant missing nin almost as much as the words themselves did as Yato continued to speak to him and finally began to go more into detail about what his true plans were that were kept hidden from the ears of others. 'So this is his true feelings...'
The former Konoha shinobi had developed the ability to tell if someone was trying to put up a screen of bull shit our not and from everything about the manit was glaringly obvious that he did believe in his goals and had the drive in order to attempt to make them into a reality. But just their strength alone would not be enough, that was blatantly obvious to each of them and the young man began to ponder just whom else the strange little man had been able to pull in to his way of thinking. In order to attempt to do against such an opponent as one of the major villages then they would basically have to possess the same amount of strength in order to do so.
This caused for some heavy thinking to be done on the part of Hisato at the moment, they would needthree comparably strength to that of a village. How was one even able to measure such a thing? Suddenly a faint smirk crossed the man's lipsas he dragged out the remaining but of the current cigarette before turning his head to the right and shoutin spitting it out of his mouth and onto the rocky earth beneath their feet. "In other words, it sounds like you wish to create an entity that can oppose the strength of an egg tie village... almost like your own village?"
The response from the Aburame was partially a statement and partially a question as he attempted to confirm his own thoughts on the matter with those of Yato now. In truth the man did have dreams of dealing a large blow afainst his own former village, and even thoughts of perhaps ruling over a small country. But their was actuLly something that he hadn't ever spoken along and that was his desire to develop and grow a new clan of insect users that would be able to crush the Aburame clan. "I have had thoughts about wishing to rule over a small country and such things, by what I desire most is to restart a new lineage of insect users and use them to destroy my old clan. But such things will take some time..."
Hisato's words were filled with an over abundance of resolve as he spoke back to his new comrade now as they finally began to encroach upon the area of this out of the way place which supposedly contained the lost giant hornet breed. Cutting off any further words about dreams or ideals it was time to become serious in this moment as he only nodded to Yato at the mention of the underground chamber being within this unnatural area of cleared forest. A bright blue gaze that was contained behind the cover of dark lens swept over the area before he seemed to shake his left arm slightly and a two foot long surge of beetles swarmed out from the wide jacket sleeve and immediately began to spread out and burrow into the eath.
'So there is something here...' After about the time for the smoker to light another cigarette and take two drags from it a few of the inch long beetles emerged and flew to the point that they were hovering face to face with their host now. It would appear that their was some form of chamber underneath the earth about fifteen meters down below the top of the grass. With a smile, he turned his gaze to Yato and spoke in a slightly excited manner "Seems that your information extraction skills aren't to bad my friend. Let me open a path now..."
With his left hand the man simply pointed to a spot in the ground before from the jar that dangled from his wrist burst forth Bout fifteen synch worth of black insects as the droning sound filled the area. They twisted and slammed into the earth with tremendous speed and power before they began to dig a two meter wide hole into the earth now...
"My own village, huh...?" Hisato's question struck a whole chain of implications that Yato had never considered. To form his own village was very well in the realm of possibility, but at any rate it went against the very root of his beliefs. Yet, at the same time it almost seemed necessary; with the sheer amount of military power that the villages had, even the overconfident Yato seemed to pale in comparison. He pondered to himself as Hisato continued to reveal things about his own ambitions.
His mind was in other places at this point, unable to properly respond to Hisato's claims of wanting to essentially restart the Aburame clan. In any other train of thought, Yato would have been excited at the prospect, but the looming prospect of eventually having to form a village to combat the other villages was one that he had only just began tackle. His expression was blank as he stared into the space in front of him, with a single finger tapping against his lip all the while. "A village..." He would mutter to himself, yet again. It was really something that he would have to sit down and weigh his options on in the future.
He shook his head, snapping out of his daze, before addressing Hisato's statement. "Ah... Yeah. It will take some time, I reckon." He cackled characteristically as he scratched the back of his head nervously. He didn't even know what he had responded to, and only caught the butt end of what Hisato was saying to him.
It wasn't to say that Yato was lying, but he was a considerable amount more surprised than Hisato, when he came to the realization that the hornets actually were where the village shinobi had told them they were. If he was to be honest with himself, he thought that it was more possible than not that the now-dead Aburame had lead them to a trap; he seethed as he thought back on the weakness of the Konoha shinobi, begging for his life and spitting out info as if he was a puppet. "Disgusting..." He grumbled to himself.
Granted, he was glad by all means that his torture skills were as sharp as he thought they were.
As Hisato's bugs drilled into the ground, it wouldn't take too long until they hit a solid glass box with thick walls that contained just what the man was looking for. Almost as if it was kept a hidden treasure, the box was the size of a chest, and housed a small environment within it that sustained the insects inside. Yato yawned audibly and tapped a hand to his mouth as he stared at the box with a look of disinterest painted on his face. "So that's what you were looking for, huh? What's so special about these, Hisato-kun?" He lowered his body and sat down as he stared into the hole in the ground, getting a closer look at the large hornets that aggressively flew around the inside of the glass.
"Heh, well these are not normal hornets as they are much larger...but what truly makes them so special is their sting." The man withdrew another cigarette from his pocket and placed it within his lips but didn't light it up just yet, simply enjoying the feel of the filter on his lips and the smell of the unique tobacco within the paper roll. These nearly two to three inch long hornets were indeed the largest known breed of hornets and that was mainly because they had been raised from a mutated breed that the old Iwa clan who were once arc enemies of the Aburame had breed in hopes of destroying the other. But fate was not kind to them and now only the bug users remained were Hisato's clan.
"Their sting seems simple starting on with a sudden and excruciating pain like someone had just driven a red hot nail into your skin. But their venom was once known as the Eight Evils Venom due to it being created from a combination of eight different chemicals that they naturally produce. This venom actually breaks down the tissue around the sting sight leaving holes within the tissue and as they mature the poison begins to cause paralysis as well while the amount of tissue destroyed is increased." Finally the flame flickered to light within the zippo as Hisato paused to take a puff of the cancer stick, all the while never removing his eyes from the tunnel that his swarm was digging downward at somewhat of a forty five degree angle now. Their sting, when delivered from a matured hornet was very dangerous to even humans but their was something else interesting about then. "You have to take into account that a single hornet is capable of stinging someone multiple times as well, since they don't loose their stinger after one strike like other bees. Plus their mandibles are large and capable of delivering harsh bites. Combine this with large numbers and killing large prey or other human's is actually a relatively easy task for them."
Narrowing his eyes at the tempered glass that seemed to be holding the swarm within as it was obvious that the invasion of their territory by the portion of Zao's sward was unwelcome and he took a few steps back, simply assuming that Yato would take the hint and do the same. The sward then smashed into the glass releasing the giant hornet's from their confinement and it was like the eruption of a geyser as a massive organ cloud that was about twenty five synch worth of hornets emerged from underground now. Without a second thought the bug user summoned forth his entire swarm from within their resting container as the two swards instantly clashed with one another. Hisato quietly observing as both sides began to take losses, though his more mature swarm and its larger numbers would slowly gain the advantage and begin to over whelm the assault force that had came out in order to defend the queen. "Impressive, I lost nearly twenty percent of my swarm in that attack. Retrieve the case..."
In the time it took an incent stick to burn the battle would be concluded with Zao having taken a lose of about one fifth of his total swarms number, which caused even the normally composed man to raise an eyebrow as he then directed the remaining bugs to dig out and retrieve the glass case which held the queen within it. The dark swarm carried the crystalline container over as the case contained a nest created from several thing as the man then smashed it across the ground causing the nest to fracture. In the center was a four in long, bright orange hornet that was different from he rest. Quickly he snatched up this specific bug, the queen of the enter hive, holding it in his hand as she stung him one before he could get a firm grip upon her on his other hand. The pain was tremendous and if he hadn't been in the presence of Yato he would have probably did more then let out a grunt as he turned the back of his left hand over to look at the wound. It was a shoot pain that lived up to its name as ti caused fort he man to break out in a sweat..."That bitch.." the man couldn't help to himself for being so impatient and making himself look like a fool.
Slowly the tissue began to turn black just around the injection site and next it could be seen that the black tissue was dissolving at a speed one could see with their own eyes, this was how powerful the venom was and this wasn't even from a fully matured queen. Yet, within the about half inch deep wound those with a sharp eye would see tiny worms emerge from the blood that was starting to flow from the wound as it began to reclose and heal on its own. It would seem that his swarm was not the only kind of insect within Hisato's possession. As the hand healed it reach back into his jacket and removed a large vial that he placed the queen inside for safekeeping...mission complete. Turning to Yato he firmly stated, "Let's go, I'm interested to meet this noble." He would slowly have to bind the queen and force her loyalty with his own chakra which would take some time, in the mean while he wanted to see some sites. Though the man was a murderous fiend in some regards, his word was something that wasn't given lightly and when he spoke that he would help the man after being shown where the hornets. Well, this was better than a contract in writing for the other Konoha missing-nin.
10,690 words - 14 Control Trained
Omage to Yato, Part 1 (Lonely)
Tales of young Hisato (Kemuri) and Yato
Omage to Yato, Part 1 (Lonely)
CharactersShow
Active
Tsukino Hisato - Kiri Chuunin - Seven Swordsman Dagger
Saisuko Zao - Suna Bannin - Spirit Weapon Saint
Kyōhō Ken - The White Snake Sage - S Rank Assassin/Bounty Hunter
Aburame Hisato S-rank Mn / Inactive
Tsukino Hisato - Kiri Chuunin - Seven Swordsman Dagger
Saisuko Zao - Suna Bannin - Spirit Weapon Saint
Kyōhō Ken - The White Snake Sage - S Rank Assassin/Bounty Hunter
Aburame Hisato S-rank Mn / Inactive
Old CharactersShow
Inactive/Dead
Arashiyama Ning - Kumo Chuunin - Weilder of the Ghost Spear
Yami Kasai - Mizukage - The Black Reaper - DEAD
Genso - Elemental Crafting Shaman - A Rank Monk - Inactive
Aburame Akiro - Konoha Jounin - ANBU Member - Inactive
Hyōryū -- Suna S-Rank / Dead / Used as Inheritance.
Xi - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Sato - A Rank, "The Cleaving Swordsman " / Inactive
Akujin - Konoha Genin, Art Ninjutsu Guy / Inactive
Toukai Touma - Kiri Genin / Inactive
Arashiyama, Toushi - Kumo Bannin / Dead
Hitachiai - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Ji Ning - Iwa Genin / Inactive
Naegi, Chin - A-rank MN / Inactive
Arashiyama Ning - Kumo Chuunin - Weilder of the Ghost Spear
Yami Kasai - Mizukage - The Black Reaper - DEAD
Genso - Elemental Crafting Shaman - A Rank Monk - Inactive
Aburame Akiro - Konoha Jounin - ANBU Member - Inactive
Hyōryū -- Suna S-Rank / Dead / Used as Inheritance.
Xi - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Sato - A Rank, "The Cleaving Swordsman " / Inactive
Akujin - Konoha Genin, Art Ninjutsu Guy / Inactive
Toukai Touma - Kiri Genin / Inactive
Arashiyama, Toushi - Kumo Bannin / Dead
Hitachiai - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Ji Ning - Iwa Genin / Inactive
Naegi, Chin - A-rank MN / Inactive
Omage to Yato, Part 2 (Lonely)
Truth be told, Yato absolutely detested nobles--in his eyes, they were the authors of wicked, man-made laws that corrupted the people of the world. His gut instinct upon meeting one, he thought, would be to go immediately at their throat.
And yet, he found himself in front of one--not with his hands crudely rearranging their organs, but instead, he stood bowing to a noble in the most uncharacteristic manner possible. He and Hisato had taken on a contract that involved rival nobles, and although Yato's personal values completely went against such an act, it seemed that there was a price for everything--including one that bypassed Yato's integrity. The contract held prospects of heaping sums of money, which would translate to resources. He hated it, but at the end of the day, things he hated would have to be done in order to fulfill his plans. Everything was a stepping stone, and this was no exception.
"So we're clear then, Yato of the Leaf?" The noble raised an eyebrow at Yato, who had been bowing for an awkwardly long amount of time. However, the truth was he was only doing so because he was hiding his expression of disgust for the noble by dipping his face towards the ground. Gritting his teeth, Yato stood up with a smile. "Yes, Lord Koyozu-sama..." As he spoke, his words were restrained and careful; one who didn't know Yato would assume this was out of courtesy, but in reality, he was just holding back curses. "And you're sure you can do it with just you two?" Yato would simply nod in response before turning and walking away.
He and Hisato were posing as shinobi of the Leaf on a travelling excursion, which was the only means by which they would have been able to obtain the contract in the first place. Koyozu was a keen noble who focused primarily on controlling trade in his domain, and the contract entailed assassinating a rival noble in the area who was impeding on Koyozu's economic expansion. It was a simple contract, but difficult in its own right; the exorbitant payoff, however, suggested that it wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. While Koyozu himself did not have many retainers that seemed to be combat-privy, that didn't mean the other noble wouldn't.
Yato walked out of the noble's palace room groaning and stretching his arms out above his head. As he yawned, he turned over to Hisato. "So... Got any plan in mind? I was thinking we just take the place by a storm. Or maybe..." He took a single finger and clicked it against the fake Konoha-engraved protector around his neck while smirking. "We can just pretend to be your friendly neighborhood Konoha shinobi." He cackled as the two would leave the noble's building and be out in an open forested area. It was just beginning to hit night time, and the weather was moderate; no clouds inhibited the large yellow moon from illuminating the forest.
Turning to Hisato once more, he whistled cheerfully. "I don't suppose you could use those beetles of yours to scout out a safe path for us? I'd assume that there might be guards or traps along the way."
Hisato had to hold back the urge to want to laugh at his comrade throughout the brief visit with this nobleman who it turned out wasn't so noble after all, but like Yato the former Konoha-nin didn't believe that any of these so called nobles were better then the criminals that he had been confined with during his time of imprisonment. But during the chat he had completely zipped up his jack to the point that even his nose was concealed behind the high collar and the forehead protector concealed the scars upon his forward and even held his normally messy looking hair in place for once. "Heh, by storm. Well my swarm is a bit hungry but perhaps you're right. It would be more fun to slander the village's name at the same time." The man reached up unzipping the collar back down to about his chest now as a cigarette had somehow already found itself within the man's mouth that was almost concealed by the beard upon his face now.
As the night slowly consumed the sky and darkness fell upon the two shinobi, the man smiled lightly as he spoke aloud now, "Darkness suits them well, disperse my friends and search ahead." The words were partially for his bugs and partially for his current ally whom he walked side by side with keeping both hands within the confines of the jacket pockets for a moment. With just the simple task a cloud of dark beetles droned from their black container as about twenty synch worth appeared first forming a cloud of darkness above the duo as they walked along. Then a moment later they dispersed from one another and shot forward at speeds that even Hisato had trouble following and with the night as cover and them not being in a large group it would be difficult for even a shinobi to notice them.
With a little hundred half his swarm out and about searching for anything that might lay in front of him the man held an unlit cigarette between his lips, as much as he wished to light it the man held back his cravings for the moment as it was night time and the orange glow that wouldn't have been noticeable in the day time stood out like a sour thumb at night. "That guy was even willing to hire shinobi for this..." Hisato pondered out loud for a second pausing between his words while shifting the unlit cancer stick to the opposite side of his mouth now before continuing. "...perhaps my bugs will be able to have the delicacy of the chakra enhanced meat of shinobi tonight. They like that the best, you know?" His mouth curled into a smirk as they continued to walk as he shot a glance to the side at Yato as he finished now.
The darkness was the man's favorite time of day, it allowed for someone like himself who preferred to linger in the shadows and allow for the powerful swarm under his control to do the majority of the heavy lifting, after all their was a reason that he put so much blood and sweat into training the insects. His gaze shifted down into the earthen color container in which he had placed the hornet queen within already after binding her loyalty with his chakra, he could since that she was already hard at work attempting to rebuild her hive from within. Though it would be sometime before her and the Suzumebachi Swarm would actually be of any real use to him sadly, but all good things come in time, and he would still need to slowly train them just as he had done with the guardian beetles in his combat style. But his eyes bright blue eyes seemed to almost glow as he removed them from his face at the prospect of using both swarms at their max strength in combat.
"Guess it would be, huh?" Yato shrugged in response to Hisato's declaration about slandering Konoha, chuckling all the while.
Hisato's smoking habit was one that Yato had taken into consideration, and he sneered at the man shifting around the unlit cancer stick around his lips. "Tempting, aint it?" he taunted. "That nicotine's got shackles on you, Hisato-kun." He cackled with a hand covering his mouth, as he watched the tiny beetles scatter off like specks of dust. The two continued to walk and Yato tilted his head, as the hand over his mouth shifted back into his pockets. He too, wondered whether or not they would have to deal with shinobi. Most of the time there were usually samurai that tried to apprehend him when it came to nobles, but his gut instincts told him to think otherwise.
"Mm. Koyozu 'sama' didn't tell us too many details, did he? The contract is an expensive one; I'm willing to bet more than not that your bugs will get their fill..." His intonation when he spoke of the nobles name was exasperatingly sarcastic. "At any rate, if we don't get paid enough, we can just..." Pulling his hand out of his pocket, Yato made a quick motion towards Hisato, with his thumb across his throat, smiling all the while.
"We'll get what we need. And even better, we'll get what we want." Cackling as he stuffed his hand back into his pockets, he stared on into the darkness of the forest with a blank gaze; although he couldn't see anything further than a few feet ahead, he was more than confident that he would be able to deal with any issues that would arise. His lax posture and slow pace would indicate this sentiment, more than anything.
Yato turned to Hisato and cocked his head at the man staring intently at the large hornet he carried around with him. Although he was unable to comprehend why Hisato was so obsessive, he knew that he himself had vices that shackled him in the same way--lately he had delved into the idea of immortality, something that was a prior obsession of his in his younger days. "Any leads yet? Those beetles are quick as hell." His eyes darted up to the moon, which was for some reason much larger than usual. It shined onto his eyes in a way that made the purple irises glimmer like water in the sun. It was hypnotizing, really.
"Ah..."
Yato's movements would halt suddenly. He stared down at his legs, which were bound by vines that protruded from the dirt beneath their feet. "Guess your question's answered." He jerked and tugged at his legs, but they would not budge. Of course, Hisato wouldn't be able to see the vines, and to the man Yato would seem like he was playing around--the white-haired nukenin was trapped in an Illusion of Force Genjutsu, with the caster nowhere to be found. "Hmm..." Two hands lifted off of his shoulders and easily ripped the vines off as if they were tangible, freeing Yato from the bindings. He stumbled forward as that happened, staring around into the darkness that surrounded them.
Hisato could only nod in approval as the man made the motion with his hand about how they would deal with the other man up on returning from this 'mission' of theirs as Leaf shinobi. "They should be returning soon, I had them scout out the next mile or so." The slightly older man of the two didn't both to look over towards Yato as he spoke in return to the question if his bugs had managed to discover anything ahead of them at the moment. While they were abnormally fast he had tasked the large portion of bugs to scout out a fairly large piece of the dark forest in front of them and they still needed a bit of time to do so and return with their results. Both hands remained in his jacket pockets for the moment as he spoke with the still unlit cigarette within his lips as he could taste the tobacco within the paper wrapping. But he was to discipline to actually light it up at a time like this. "Hmm?"
Suddenly he was brought out of the thought of lighting up the cancer stick when the soft foot steps of his comrade stopped and an 'ah' sound had managed to escape the man's lips. Casually he look over his shoulder, having stopped for a second in order to turn his body a quarter of the way around in order to see what the man was doing. With his sunglasses pushed up into his messy hair the bright blue eyes that were revealed took in the situation as it seemed he was stuck? A light sigh pushed through his lips as he looked down to his feet observing that their was nothing on them and the soil here wasn't wet enough to pass as mud.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up lightly, as first he thought perhaps the man was just messing around as he had a strange sense of humor but now it appeared to the man that their was something amiss at the moment as he closed his eyes. Yato's hands had told him everything that he needed to know as they had removed something that wasn't even there, it had to have been some form of illusion and the only form of illusion that relied on the victims own personal strength to break out was an illusion of force. 'How sneaky...I must meet this shinobi.' It was hard to actually tell the strength of the technique due to how strong his ally's strange hands were but bothered him more so was that this person was very adept in triggering the technique without changing anything about the environment to drastically.
But it meant that he had to be somewhere nearby and as the man closed his eyes and found himself becoming one with the surrounding, having lived within the forests mainly as a missing-nin he had become intimately familiar with the sounds of nature and at the same time knew how to focus only on his hearing while temporarily disregarding his sight. 'Return my friends, if you encounter a fleeing person wound them but do kill them.' Everything within a thirty meter radius became all to obvious to him as he had also mentally sent out the order for his bugs to return to him from their searching now as if the shinobi attempted to flee back towards the noble's house he would encounter the swarm. While they would not kill him most likely the stranger would wish himself dead if attacked by the swarm that flew through the darkness like a invisible predator just waiting to strike. "Jin, everything good?"
Hisato truly wasn't that concerned with the man's well being but under the guise as a Konoha shinobi he felt that it would be best to attempt and play the role incase someone was still within the area watching or further away attempting to eavesdrop on the pair of former shinobi while also avoiding using the man's real name as well. This was also a small ploy to keep anyone who was attempting to leave the area to stop for a moment in hopes that he would be able to hear either their movement or perhaps if they were within the initial thirty meter radius he could catch the sound of their beating heart. Perhaps even Yato would be able to give him some information about the technique that had caught him off guard.
Hisato called out to a man named Jin; squinting his eyes, Yato could only assume that the man was covering for him. He fought back the urge to laugh at the name--Jin was a terrible name by his standards, and even in a dire situation like this, the name gave him an itch to gag himself with his finger. Still, he kept to the act and replied back, "Yeah. I'm alright, Zingyizang," smirking as he stared straight at Hisato. He had to have a bit of fun with it.
Still, the issue stood that there was one--or potentially more than one--shinobi that was actively ambushing the two nukenin. The mission already proved to be a lot more of a nuisance than it seemed. He peered around the area once more, but to no avail. "Tch..." Without any way of being able to see in the dark, Yato was practically a goner to these types of ambushes. Turning back to Hisato, he was about to mention the bugs again, but found that the man was closing his eyes, trying to focus on something. His eyes glowed purple as they focused on Hisato, tagging him with chakra and allowing Yato to emulate the man's senses upon himself.
Suddenly, the two would hear heartbeats simultaneously. "Ah, so that's what you're doing..." Yato whispered to himself. His senses then returned to him--all except for hearing, as he cracked his neck and began to run in the direction of where the sound was coming from. "I got this one," he growled towards Hisato playfully, licking his lips as he jumped between the trees. Although he wasn't able to see much of anything at all, Hisato's enhanced hearing was to a degree of inhuman power; through Hisato's ears, Yato could ear his own breath from meters away.
It wouldn't be too long until Yato found the single shinobi who had attempted an ambush at them. The shinobi wore a dark garb much akin to a traditional ninja, with a mask that covered all of his facial features save for his eyes. Without so much of an utterance, Yato leaped out at the shinobi and spit into his eyes, before hands shot out from his robes in tandem and bound the man's limbs, while a single hand covered his mouth. "Shh..." Yato whispered, slowly pacing towards the shinobi. "Hisato-kun... Over here." He continued in a soft whispering tone, for he knew Hisato could hear it.
"Let's play with this man and figure out the in's and outs of the path we're taking, shall we?" Yato licked his lips once more as he spread his index and middle finger out to a width that perfectly aligned with the trapped shinobi's eyes. He smiled innocently before proceeding to stab them straight into the sockets, as the hand that muffled the shinobi's mouth let out subtle, muted cries. "Shh shh shh," he continued, pulling out the slimy spheres before flicking them to the dirt. The man continued to scream muffled noises, but only Yato and Hisato would be able to hear his helpless pleas.
If they weren't working together then the name he had so casually of chosen for Hisato would have definitely have caused the two to break out in a verbal jousting, but sadly this wasn't the time or place for such meaningless things as he attempted to focus on his surroundings. The man hadn't even turned to his partner when the man suddenly shot off in the direction of one of the three nearby heartbeats that lingered at the edge of his hearing as the man pushed himself a little to expand the range of his hearing more. 'How did he know?' This was something truly unexpected as Hisato had not been privy to the knowledge about Yato's ability to sense through the senses of others, something that had been rather useful in this type of situation.
"Aye." A single word response was the only thing that slipped through the almost beard covered lips of the missing-nin towards his ally now as the man disappeared off into the thick darkness of the forest while he focused on the other two men. One seemed to understand that danger was eminent and swiftly darted away from the area while the other hesitated just a moment to long as a portion of the swarm that had went out doing a recon patrol returned enveloping him as a blood curling scream echoed out in the night. Though it was not a single one as the screaming seemed to continue as the while the former Konoha-nin smiled as their was no longer any need to keep his position a secret and no need for him to comply with using light discipline either.
Yato would be able to hear the strike of the flint within the zippo as the flame flickered to life and illuminated the man's face in an eerie orange glow briefly before the cap snapped back down extinguishing the flame. All that was left was the small cherry glow at the end of the cigarette as the man took a much needed drag from it before exhaling slowly. It was to bad that his comrade was not still linked with all of his other senses as it would have been interesting to see his reaction at this point. Casually putting his hands back in his pocket he sighed as the bugs were chasing after one who seemed to be able to move rather quickly and he quickly ordered them to drop back and follow as the five synch size portion began to lurk in the man's shadow from a distance in an attempt to follow him back to where ever he was going.
As if strolling through the forest on a moonlit stroll, the raven haired man made his way through the brush towards his partner in crime now, dipping around and weaving through the thick underbrush off the trail now until he walked about twenty meter to find a masked shinobi pinned down. Arriving just in time to see the free hand jab into the man's eye sockets now as the screams of pain were muffled by the hand holding tightly down upon the unknown man's mouth. "But of course, guess this means we only need one of these guys." 'Devour him...' A simple order was given to the remaining active portion of the swarm that was returning to their host now as the painful screams of a man approaching death by being eaten alive once more filled the forest in the distance from the pair.
After finishing up after about ten seconds the droning sound of thousands upon thousand of beetles faintly began to fill the air as they encircled the duo in a twenty meter radius making sure that no one would be interfering with them for what happened next. "Please continue...my bugs are tracking the friend of his that managed to flee. The other man wasn't quite so lucky I'm afraid." A sinister smile was illuminated as he drew in a drag from the cigarette which glowed for only a moment as a slow exhale caused for dark grey smoke to swirl around his face and up into the air, seeming to under stand that his comrade didn't appreciate his lovely habit. A bit of respect sent his way...
"Oh Hisato-kun. Smoking again? Tsk tsk..." Had the man in front of Yato still had his eyes, he would be giving him a stare of confusion. Yato's face neared the man's face once again before he took his finger's to the man's socket and gave it a nice wide spread open, revealing a fleshy, blood muddied hole. He then proceeded to stick his tongue into it and swirl it around, as the bound man shivered and screamed, in a bout of disgust and pain. Yato pulled back and wiped his mouth once more before whispering into the man's ear.
"Doesn't feel good, does it, shi-no-bi?" His pronunciation of the word 'shinobi' was long and strung out, making it a point to ridicule the title. The man mumbled back some profanities, but none of them were paid heed to as they sounded the same as anything else the man tried uttering. There was a sense of serenity that came to Yato in extorting people for information; the way he did it was with psychological warfare. Sure, there was pain involved, but the moment people were deprived of their senses, and only allowed to talk when they gave him the information he needed, some how they all seemed to do the same thing at the end of the day. That is, betray their villages with the last words that they would utter in their pitiful lives.
Off in the distance, it became evident that Hisato's work was done. All they had to do was slap the man around a bit and they'd be done with him--of course, that was a severe understatement as to what Yato was really about to do. Yato peered around the area as bugs surrounded them. "Ahh. Guy, you're lucky my partner isn't the one dealing with you. He's not as nice as me," he muttered to the eyeless man with a chuckle.
"Such a shame... You're working for the wrong side, you know?" His finger tapped against the man's forehead in intervals of exactly 3 seconds, and continued to do so without any sign that it was going to stop. "I've got... Talents. Yeah, talents. In the medical field, I mean. Your eyes can come back to this little noggin of yours, and we can go on about our day. You live to try another day, and me? Well..." He cackled briefly as the man tried his best and struggled to free himself from the grasp of Yato's hands. "I leave you alone. It's a good deal, isn't it?" The man let out muffled screams once more, to which Yato frowned. "You're really stubborn, aren't you? What's next? Your ear?" Without so much as a warning or pause to let the man respond, a hand flew off of Yato's arm and ripped off the man's ear in a split second.
Again, muffled screams. And the process continued.
"We can keep going. Or we can stop before your precious body that you spent years training is nothing more than a little nub. It's your choice..." Yato continued to tap on the man's forehead, and for the first time since his torturing had begun, the man stopped moving, and was silent--he was subservient. "Ah. Good choice." Pulling his finger away from the man's forehead, the hand that covered the man's mouth released itself and allowed for a couple of inches of breathing room.
"It's a straight path. That's it. We were just hired to scout out the other noble, and you caught us at a bad time. I'm telling the truth. Please. Please. Please..." The moment the man began to plead, he let out cries of urgency that would seem all too sincere, despite the fact that he couldn't physically tear up. "So be it." Yato smiled at the man despite the fact that he wouldn't be able to see the devilish grin.
In an instant, several hands entered through the man's mouth and seemed to plunge into him--they quickly traveled down his throat as lumps expanded the throat and let out a grotesque cracking noise before they pushed and pulled from inside his intestines. "Cover your mouth, Hisato-kun. Don't want to be smoking this stuff," he warned with a cackle. Yato jumped over to a different branch as the hands inside the man's body did their thing. The hands pushed a hole through his chest and escaped from the cavity before returning to Yato's body. And just like that, the man was dead. "Shall we go on the straight path now?" He cackled; this mission was a bit too easy for his tastes, but it was moments like these that he relished.
"Don't judge me, I haven't had one in a few hours." The man jest back at Yato now, though he really hadn't been able to smoke one of the cancer sticks since darkness had fallen upon them for the reason of keeping at least somewhat stealthy during their approach to the noble's land. But a feeling of relief slowly filtered through the raven haired man's body now as he was able to enjoy the wonderful feeling that warmed his lungs at the moment before fixating his gaze back onto the highly unusual actions of the young man who was more or less rimming the pinned shionbi's eye socket. An act that even caused for Hisato to question his pairing up with this man, though the man had done a number of things himself in order to extract information from those who sought to end him and instead looked on never batting an eye at the action. 'I always manage to end up with the weird ones, it must be a requirement to be a missing nin these days.'
The smoker seemed to just casually watch the torture of the unknown shinobi now as one hand remained in place in the right jacket pocket as the left hand went back and forth between holding the cigarette between it's fingers and resting in place at his side. The information gather only took a few short minutes as the man before him seemed to be even more adept at talking to the man and putting just the proper amount of pressure and hope for release into the mind of the man. What a pity it was for this kid to have fallen into the hands of a duo like Yato and himself. 'This seems to line up with the path of egress the other shinobi took, guess its at least somewhat true.' Hisato confirmed the words spilling from the injured man's mouth now as the hand had finally removed itself allowing for the shinobi to speak and his words matched with what his bugs had brought back to him about where the noble's place of residence was located. 'Shield me...'
Speaking mentally to a nearby portion of his swarm they seemed to almost instantly appear between himself and the body of the shinobi as the hands went to work doing the dirty deeds of their master now, the bugs interlocking with one another to the point that not even water could easily push through their tight web. "Bit dramatic, no?" The light drizzling sound of blood falling down onto the forest as it fell from the wall of bugs off to Hisato's right side as he turned to look up at his comrade whom had moved over to another branch in the tree now. 'Devour...' With a single word after his slightly snide remark towards Yato the bugs swarmed from every direction now as they began to feast as the sound of puncturing skin and the crunching of bones being bitten in two filled the air of the immediate are.
Hisato himself has already turned a blind eye to the bugs devouring the corpse upon the ground as he started to slowly walk forward through the dark forest as he awaited for his company to rejoin him now as he started to speak taking a drag of his almost finished cigarette now. "Seems he was telling us some of the truth at least, my bugs are still tracking the one that we let flee. He's heading straight ahead, though I guess our element of surprise is all gone." The bearded man said indifferently now as he took the last drag from the cig and tossed it down stopping it out with a twist of his foot not even seem to miss a step as the bugs once more returned into a encirclement around the two men. Being more of a stealthy type of person who truly didn't place himself out from the shadows losing their element of surprise brought forth a small amount of fury within his chest. He was the one who was suppose to be launching ambushes not them...
His style was dramatic, apparently.
Yato shrugged with a cocky smirk at Hisato as the blood splattered in every which direction. "Sometimes it's more fun to see the last look on their face; it's hard to see them crying when they're surrounded by a bunch of beetles as they're dying." He cackled at the small jab he had made at Hisato, watching the bugs devour the remains of the shinobi at a rapid pace. Clapping at the display, Yato gave Hisato an over-exaggerated look of surprise, as if he was saying, "my stuff looks cooler". Alas, the fun was over, and the two would be on their way in just a moment.
He shrugged yet again at Hisato's next statement. "Surprise is fun, but it's more fun if they know you're coming and they can't do a thing about it... Keke..." He wasn't caught off guard in the slightest at the fact that the shinobi had been telling the truth to them the whole time; in his eyes, all people had a breaking point, and he was more than capable of finding anybody's. "Shall we go... Um... Straight, then?" Cackling once again before leaping down onto the forest floor, Yato yawned before beginning a slow pace in the direction that he was tipped off to. It was ironic, really--despite how powerful he was, he wasn't nearly fast enough to catch up to the shinobi that Hisato's insects were trailing. That part would be up to Hisato, at the very least.
As he paced through the forest, Yato stared on at the darkness around him. Although he was well aware that he and Hisato would be able to handle just about anything that came their way--as evidenced by their most recent encounter--he couldn't help but shake off the feeling of paranoia that came with... Well, being a nukenin. He wondered if Hisato felt the same way.
"Oi, Hisato-kun. You ever get paranoid?" Again with the vagueness. Yato was great at getting lost in his own thoughts and not explaining himself. He figured that if someone was crazy enough to be on the same wavelength--and subsequently be his comrade--they would be able to understand his strange whimsically unclear patterns of speech. Of course, this was far from the truth; nobody really understood Yato all the time.
"Perhaps so, but of course this could also have just been the welcoming party..." Hisato casually spoke back in return to his new partner's words, but in truth it would take a rather strong or exceptionally crafty shinobi to be able to deal with both of the men presently walking towards their destination. The bearded man had seen first hand the incredible strength of Yato's ninjutsu prowess during their first exchange and he also know that this man wasn't like any others that he had encounter. Not only did the man have a dream in mind but a rather interesting and well thought-out plan to achieve the end goal. "I suppose their isn't any harm in just taking the front door approach." Though he agreed with his partner at this point with them already expecting their arrival now it was just as each to push straight in without wasting to much time, plus Hisato had the added aid from his swarm recon that had followed the fleeing shinobi ahead of them.
Shrugging his shoulders for a moment to loosen up his body now the man refrained from drawing out another cigarette as he knew that he didn't have but about half a pack left at the moment and needed some for the return trip, instead he closed his eyes briefly before reopening them after having focused on his senses of smell, hearing, and sight. After doing so he began to casually walk forward no as his footsteps didn't release the slightest amount of sound into the outside world as they had only moved about fifteen meters before he was able to pick up on the trail left behind by the one that had escaped temporarily. Currently four fifths of the maximum swarm's capacity as spread out around the two men and had descended to the ground to make their movements less obvious to through and to silence their movements somewhat from the droning sound of their wings fluttering in flight.
Of the ten synch of the swarm not involved in forming the perimeter five were contained either on his body or inside the containment jar and the other five had been the ones scouting ahead and following the fleeing individual towards the noble's estate that was about two kilometers ahead of their current positions. A portion of the swarm that he been among the tracking section returned and reported the distance to them not long after the pair had stepped off and were on the trail. 'I see, we aren't to far away then.' The conversation was simple and brief with the bugs as they joined into the tens of thousands of bugs spread out within the forest around Hisato and Yato now as the man removed his dark shades from their position within his ravel locks atop his head and tucked them into an interior pocket of the jacket as he turned to his partner in crime now. "We're only about one and a half kilometers from the noble's estate according to my recon bugs."
It was a simple status update and he didn't expect any reply in return and at the most perhaps a gesture of his head or some other type of body language perhaps now as he stuff of his hands into the jacket pockets as the pair continued to slowly advance down the trail with the cordon of bugs being there to serve as the first line of attack and defense for when they encountered a threat to either one of them. Yato would be a priority for the bugs to help out and assist in defense if need but he was a far second from their actual host and the precedence that his protection took. It was only a short while after the brief update that he head his name being called by Yato, the addition of 'kun' onto his name was a bit irritating but Hisato was starting to get a slight understanding of the strange patterns of speech that the man threw out from time to time and simple chose to ignore it for now.
"Paranoid? Honestly..." Did he ever get paranoid? That was an understatement for a missing-nin, as to an extent those like Yato and himself were always a bit on edge about things just do to the life they had chosen and all those whom they had offended in their past who wished for nothing more than to erase them from this world. Pausing only for a moment to withdraw a cigarette despite the low amount of them he had left, the raven haired man glanced over the cig briefly with his brilliant blue eyes before placing it carefully between his lips now but refrained from lighting it in that moment. Instead he turned his bright gaze over onto his comrade and continued to speak. "...sometime I do, man. But I use these to help keep myself focused and to relax a bit. Obviously not the best habit to have started but it gets me by. " A faint smirk appeared on his lips as he contemplated lighting the stick or waiting a bit longer trying to way out the pros and cons in his mind for a few moments as he turned his gaze back onto the trail. Able to sense that they weren't to far away from the tracking portion of the swarm now.
Yato raised an eyebrow at the fact that Hisato just admitted that smoking cigarettes wasn't 'the best habit to have started'. With the way he had interacted with the stern man up to this point, he wasn't so sure whether Hisato was opening up, or coming to a point of realization. At any rate, it was strange that the bearded Aburame was, in a way, rejecting a significant piece of his lifestyle.
Interesting.
He licked his lips in a subtle manner that would be masked by the darkness of the forest. Small utterances like that were of no significance to most people, but to Yato it meant everything, for someone's identity was directly attributed to the things that they said about themselves. What began as small talk had opened up a small peeping hole for Yato to peer into Hisato's inner being.
The kilometer and a half it took to walk to the other noble's domain hardly took much time to get to, despite the slow pace the two shinobi were taking. Unsurprisingly--or surprisingly, depending on who was concerned--there was no further resistance that opposed Hisato and Yato, and they remained unscathed as they approached the doors of the palace. Yato formed two hands together in a seal before glancing at Hisato as an urge to do the same. In a split second, a dash of smoke arose around the white-haired shinobi, as he transformed. The smoke disappeared, revealing a copy of the same shinobi that he had just tortured moments ago.
"I'm hoping you remember what that piece of trash looked like," he cackled, staring at Hisato as his newfound appearance masked his normally-demonic eyes. His own recollection of the man was accurate for the most part, with only a few variations here and there--the truth was, he hadn't thought of transforming into the scouts that were sent after them until they were already at the doors of the palace, and because of that his transformation wasn't exactly seamless. It would be easier to get to the noble's throat masked as the scouts that came from the palace, at any rate.
The remainder of this leg of the pairs journey was filled with idle chit chat between the two criminals as they continued at a slow but methodical pace, since they knew the pair were coming then it was fun to make them wait on them for a change. After his bugs had scouted out the remainder of the trip ahead finding no immediate danger they then began to return in small waves that flew back inside the matte black container that hung from the bearded man's left side off his belt. The other shinobi had fled upon contact and hadn't gotten a good the skills of either of the two missing-nin so it was best to hid ones true strength as they began approaching the end of the road now.
Yato forming hand seals caused for the blue eyes former shinobi to glance over, their speed was rather impressive but the simple series of seals was one that even someone lacking in the ninjutsu arts like himself could even recognize at a moments glance. 'The transformation technique, very well...' Hisato gave a simple nod as he watched the younger man transform now into the shinobi that Yato had tortured the information from about the way to go a short while earlier. Seeing the man's appearance cased for the man to smirk a bit. He had not been able to see what the other looked like as he simple had hit companions deal with the threat, "Yeah, no idea what that bitch looked like."
Exhaling slowly the man made the same simple series of hand seals now and their was a poof of white chakra smoke that enveloped the man for a moment before it blew away with the gentle breeze that pushed from left to right, it revealed a battered looking version of himself with what appeared to be wounds from a battle and yet the unlit cigarette hung from the man's lips. Hisato's hands appeared to be bound from the wrist by some rope, thought it was last minute the man's attention to detail was as impressive as always now as he shook his head lightly and turned to his comrade. "Well, this will have to due, I guess. Ready?"
Yato smirked at Hisato's quick witted improvisation. Criminals like him weren't noted as 'A-Rank' for nothing; it was deceptive traits like these that set them apart from the rest. He stared at Hisato's wounded appearance and took it in for a moment as he thought deeply.
"Hmm yeah, I'm ready. But... One more thing." He reached towards Hisato's cigarette in a joking manner as he pretended to snatch it from the man's lips before pulling back and cackling to himself. "No, but really.."
Placing his two hands together in the form of a seal, a clone of his real body appeared in a poof of smoke. Similar to Hisato's appearance, the clone of Yato was battered, bruised, and tied at the wrist. With Yato disguised as the scout, he would be the talker of the group as he tugged along the beaten up Hisato and clone of himself. He sighed as he began to pace toward the building, shaking his head at the ground. If only he had thought of this earlier, he would have gotten a trace of the man's personality or speaking patterns prior to mutilating him.
Oh well.
The three approached the front of the building, where two armed samurai were perched on either side of the titanic doors that lead into the throne room. The building itself was but a single building, and not necessarily a palace, but it was large enough for anybody looking at it to know that it belonged to a noble. From the looks of the building and its narrow composition, one could only assume that past the doors it'd be a straight shot to the throne. One of the samurai noticed Yato and immediately darted towards him, the sounds of his armor clinking away all the while.
"Hey, what the hell happened? Where's Kotatsu?" The samurai stared at Yato with eyes of concern, rather than suspicion. Perfect.. Yato took to acting the best he could as he took in deep heavy breaths and stared into the samurai's eyes. "Dead... These fuckers got him... I had no choice but to leave his body there while it was eaten alive..." His voice was husky and broken up--a product of Yato pretending to be exhausted. The samurai looked at Hisato and Yato's clone with a look of disgust before putting his hand on Yato's shoulder. "C'mon. Let's report your findings to Yaboku-sama."
With a single motion, the samurai that stood next to the door pulled a lever that opened the giant doors slowly, as the thunderous creaking noises from its hinges resonated throughout the forest. The doors peeked open to reveal the luxurious palace within: adorned with red carpet and gilded accents, Yaboku's palace was nothing short of extravagant. "Quick, quick, it takes a while to get the doors closed again." The samurai nudged Yato in before giving Hisato an expression of disdain, and slapping the back of the Aburame's head. "We should have known better than to trust Koyozu... You're scum trash, you know that?" He growled at Hisato as the giant doors slowly closed behind Yato and company.
Yato slowly paced down the long carpeted hall while muttering quietly to Hisato. "... See that?" He was referring to a single retainer standing beside the noble who was seated in a large golden throne at the end of the hall. "Once we get close enough... Let loose." Yato then stiffened his back straight and let a smile wash over his face as he walked towards the noble, who held a rather stern expression as he looked back at Yato and Hisato.
"Oh hell no!" The moment that his younger comrade performed his feint at snatching the cigarette hanging from Histao's mouth the raven haired man instantly pulled his head back and away from the slender fingers of the fellow missing-nin. His cancer sticks was something that he didn't play around with at all and found it truly unfunny at the moment when Yato had teased that he was going to take it away. Shaking his head the man took additional measures and put another step between the pair of them as the other man formed a hand seal and produced a clone of himself that appeared to be in a similarly distressed and wounded manner as the former the former Konoha-nin had taken, as well.
Only giving the man a simple nod of approval for his last minute addition to the group he then turned and walked alongside the clone of Yato now, both men appearing to be bound and injured from battle as they traversed the last portion of forest arriving at a small mansion style building that was fit for a noble with money. While not amongst any of the grander building that the man had seen in his lifetime it was easily noticeable that it wasn't just some average business man who owned the estate and it seemed to have a single guarded entrance being made up of two large doors and a pair of samurai whom stood guard at the moment. 'Only two out here, wonder how many are inside this place.' The calculating man was already working no determining his next course of actions as their had been at least these three shinobi in the noble's pocket and he couldn't help but wonder if their were others.
But at least the ones who had been sent out as scouts weren't on the same level as Yato and himself or it would have been a much more intense exchange so deep in the wilderness. Though Hisato's appearance was worse for were the dark shades had once more fell onto the bridge of his nose as they arrived aiding in hiding the disconcerting gaze of the man as their first interaction went very smoothly as it appeared that their had been some comradery between the samurai and the shinobi that they had killed. Yet, he wondered where the shinobi that had managed to escape had gotten off to at this moment. After all, his beetles were still a bit hungry as such a tiny meal was far from being sufficient for them. Seeing the figure before them open the gigantic doors that would have been a bit troublesome for them to bypass by force the man almost smirked.
Concealed within the doors was actually a very luxurious palace that surpassed some of the other residences of nobles that Hisato had done business within the past, catching him slightly off guard as he wondered if he had underestimated this man or not in that moment. As the samurai nudge Yato inward Hisato whom was at the back was still analyzing the room before he saw the hand coming and in that moment he had to force his swarm to hold their position within the container as they were half a second away from attacking the threat to their host out of instinct alone. Focused on stopping the swarm from revealing themselves prematurely the hand smacked him hard on the back of the head and actually knocked the cigarette from his mouth as it spun through the air and landing on the ground breaking into two pieces now.
Hisato had to forcible exhale to remain calm as impact ad pushed his sunglasses to the tip of his nose revealing the deep blue eyes that had instant shifted to the left corner taking in the samurai, the killing intent within them was so overwhelming that it actually caused the samurai to take a step back out of fear. It made one wonder just how many people one had to kill in order to possess such a large amount of murderous intent. 'It will be a slow death for this one, I'll make sure of that....' The bearded man had to slowly force a few more breaths in and out of his cirgarette less mouth in order to calm himself down to not break their plan early and kill the unnamed man on the spot over the incident. It was funny to Hsato that they were now all sealed within the palace where they would be unable to run or hide once his hungry swarm was released but he had already given them mental orders to no kill the man who had smacked him, that pleasure was reserved for him.
With the massive doors behind them closed the two were being escorted down a long hallway as the muttering of his comrade could be heard in a tone below a whisper but with his enhanced hearing it was as thought the missing-nin was having a typical conversation with him. The appearance of an injured man that he currently held on to was kept up to the tee as his gaze lifted from the floor to meet the stern gaze of the noble who's head they had come for, still around his neck was a Konoha head band that the two missing-nin had brought with them to demonstrate their 'loyalties'. Finally their escort had ended as the clone of Yato and himself stood side-by-side with one another as the true Yato stood just to their rear. Perhaps his friend hadn't even noticed but on the back of Yato's pant leg was a single small beetle that was being used to mark him as an ally at this moment. When they had entered the throne room he had released two beetles, one for the true Yato and the other had stealthy made its way around the room and was currently climbing up the back of the golden seat in which the noble set.
The noble was reserved for Yato to play with, as it appeared that was something he would enjoy based on the previous encounter with the shinobi in the forest. This was close enough as a light bomb that had been removed from a kunai earlier appeared within the Aburame's hand and was tossed straight up above his head in the room before a brilliant flash of light filled the large room in an instant. It was within that instant that a single word exited out of the wounded looking man's lips that had curled upward in the corners forming a devious smirk at this moment in time. "Devour..." With that single command forty five synch worth of flesh devouring beetles emerged from the matte black container like a mist of death sent from the grim reaper himself as a droning sound of millions of wings filled the large room.
The speed and power of the completely matured swarm was beyond the measure of the normal individual, only those at or above the two missing-nin's level of experience would be able to contend with such a force or nature. Everyone not marked or spoken for would be attacked relentlessly and in the end devoured, starting with the retainer at the nobles side. A single portion of his beetles, five synch worth, were kept in reserve as the circled around the true Yato and their host now...
Although Yato had been expecting Hisato to do something with his bugs, he certainly had not expected a flash bomb to go off. With the sudden burst of light, he was forced to cover his eyes with both arms as Hisato let out an all too familiar utterance.
"Devour".
Grimacing, he turned toward Hisato with eyes shut tightly and cursed at him. "Could have fucking told me you were going to do that asshole!" Although his words were like knives, his tone of voice was like a balloon--high pitched, playful, and nowhere close to serious. He stood still for a brief moment as the sound of beetles began to roar around the room, and laughed in place as his vision began to return to him. "Devour, he says..." His laughter escalated to a cackle as he turned back to the noble and the servant that stood beside him.
"Sir, we're messengers from Konoha here to uh..." He stopped speaking and put a finger to his lips exaggeratedly as if he was thinking of what to say next. "Hmm... Oh yeah! Kill you! We're here to kill you. Kekeke." His transformation then came to an end as the clone behind him dissipated as well, revealing his demonic figure that stood beneath a shadowy veil of chakra.
As the beetles sped towards the noble and his servant, the two would seemingly disappear for a brief moment in a poof of smoke. However, in Yato's domain, no one could hide. "Behind!" From behind, the retainer--robed in similar clothes to Yaboku--jumped at Hisato from above while forming handseals. A giant fireball would erupt from the retainers mouth and fly at Hisato at a decent speed, before the man would disappear in a poof of smoke once again, appearing on the ground 20 meters away from Hisato. "Rats like you should know your place."
He quickly turned as hands loosened themselves from his body and flew in the direction of the noble, who was sat on top of a beam near the ceiling of the palace. Although they clearly didn't have synergy in mind with this excursion--with the light bomb and all--Yato knew all too well that Hisato would want a slice of the pie. The retainer would be all Hisato's, and Yato would be tasked with the noble. "You're making this too easy for me." He cackled, as the hands wrested upon the noble's body and began to bring him down towards Yato.
A smirk found its way onto the man's lips as the bright flash began to fade and the majority of the swarm had already spread out across the entirety of the thrown room to attack the priority targets within the area, mainly focused upon the actual throne location where the noble and the shinobi that gave the Aburame a hint of danger within his senses. Now as the light faded a cigarette had somehow appeared within the mouth of the raven haired man as the transformation technique poofed out of existence. Their was a violent screaming coming from their pair's six o'clock as a portion of the swarm had already attacked and pinned the man who had smacked Hisato to the ground with such force that cracks splintered out from the floor but the screaming more so came from the fact that they were devouring the man's limbs starting from the tips and working their way towards the torso.
'Hmm?!' The retainer appeared to truly have some skill, perhaps even on the jounin level but without getting into a full out battle so that he could test he man's skill he wouldn't know for sure. He had managed to not only avoid the first wave of insects but also move the noble with him, very interesting. As his comrade warned him the man had already heard the movements from above them in the rafters and the sound of flames filled the room now as the insects nearest Yato and Hisato flew upwards in a shielding pattern as the ball of flames crashed into the beetles. Though the bodies of the beetles were extremely tough their wings weren't as strong and upon impact of the powerful flames the wings of the insects struck were injured and fell to the ground after forcibly stopping the ninjutsu attack upon. 'Seems he wants to play..'
The swarm had already shot forward as they attacked from three directions. Left, right, and front with amazing speed and ferocity as they pushed forward now assaulting the man but not at their full speed and strength. No, Hisato wished to have a little bit of fun with this man as he was forced to flee around. The edge of the room as the different portions of the swarm that numbered around eight in total smashed through and destroyed everything in their wake as they grew closer and closer to the man as he formed hand seals launching a series of fireballs at the portion closest to him causing a series of small explosions that created a bit of a gap between the swarm of hungry bugs and their prey at this moment. 'What a spry one.' The bearded man had already lifted the zippo with its wavering flame up to the tip of his cigarette now and with a strong inhale through the cig the tip grew bright orange as the tobacco within began to burn.
Their was a sweet, refreshing taste of the smoke as it entered his body and was drawn down into the lungs before being naturally cycled out in a plume of wispy grey smoke that created a bit of a haze around the missing-nin. His 'friend' had already captured their main target with his strange hands and all that was left was to deal with this monkey of a man as he landed behind the two in the distance and was already forming hand seals once more. "Know you place..." A puff of smoke slipped through the bearded man's lips as he spoke in a low tone now as before the man could complete the series of hand seals the floor burst upwards at his feet now as the bugs had tunneled from underneath the floor as a hole about six inches across could be seen between the man's feet now.
He had used the movements of his swarm and their attack patterns to judge the skill of the man and anticipate what his next move would most likely be and in doing so used the swarm to force him into an advantageous position for his swarm that had chewed through the stone floor to tunnel underneath where they were forcing the shinobi's position. Then at the right moment he willed the creatures to burst forth with their maximum speed and strength to catch the foe off guard now as the swarm was so thick around him that one couldn't see what was happening within it and only the screams of agony told the story to those not within the jaws of death now. Exhaling slowly the man turned his attention away from the man an slowly walked to his left now as the whimpering man who had smacked him and caused for the former Konoha-nin to break one of his precious cigarettes was laying there in shock from loss of blood as he had four stubs where his limbs once were.
"This will be painful and slow..." The words were slow as they slipped through his thin lips and a wave of smoke pushed down upon the dying man's face as the bugs began to crawl in through the wounds starting to eat him from the inside out as a set of two screaming men filled the room with their wailing screams of pain for a short while as Hisato turned to rejoin the company of Yato and the noble. Turning what seemed to be a death ear to the two men who were being devoured alive by the beetle swarm and their powerful jaws. Only the man on the floor was being devoured much more slowly then the other who's screams had already ended as he arrived at the young man's side shifting his bright blue gaze upon their main target...
The noble slowly floated down towards Yato with a look of spite at the white-haired nukenin. It was evident that despite the situation he was in, the noble felt as if he was higher, or more important, than his assailant. Yato grimaced back in response to the man's expression as the two floated down to the ground level where Hisato and his 'stub' were. Yato cackled menacingly while staring at the man who had smacked Hisato before, pointing and stamping his feet on the ground all the while as to mock the people who dared to be so audacious.
"Smack the smoker's head again! Smack it again!" He snorted between his words as he continued to taunt the man being eaten by Hisato's bugs.
Through the chaos and echoing of screams in the room they stood in, one thing resonated loudly--clearer than anything else: the noble's subtle grumbling was the hidden undertone that made the melody of death all the more pleasant to Yato's ears. Ceasing his laughing, Yato smiled and turned his attention back to the noble before placing a single finger on the man's forehead. The noble stared back at Yato with an unchanging, solemn expression of superiority.
"It's things like this that made me come to realize how shitty the system is, moneybags. Imagine being born into a position where you have to work for what you get. And when you do something that the people 'above you' think is wrong, you're suddenly put under trial and marked as a criminal. Terrifying, isn't it?" He leaned in forward and licked the restrained noble's eye, as the hands that restrained the noble tightened and covered his orifices so not a single sound would be uttered by him. "I'll give you a taste of the oppression that you so tightly adhere yourself to... Today, I'm the law, and you're the citizen." Cackling, he turned back to Hisato, who was presumably done with this feasting at this point.
"Let's go Hisato-kun! I have a terrific idea. We'll be... Hmm... Visiting... Yeah, visiting our contractor."
Giddily, Yato skipped on and out of the door of the noble's domain, as the floating hands carried said noble behind him like a carriage.
They had indeed been very audacious to think that they could do and say what ever that wanted to a man such as Hisato, seeing that the bugs who were devouring the smoking man had managed to devour the 'three legs' of the man before he went into shock and the pleasant screams of agony finally ceased. Inhaling slowly the cherry of the cig burnt up to only about an inch from the filter as the ash fell from the end of the cigarette now and the man shifted his bright blue gaze around the room feeling the refreshing sound of millions of droning insects. With a light tap upon the edge of their swarm container they returned from whence they came without a verbal command as the man turned and started to walk over to where his comrade was still standing having hear him mocking the man who had smacked him earlier. "These two are done..."
After finishing up their fresh meals, it was like a vortex was formed from the insects as one could watch the smaller end of the vortex swirling into the jet black container that hung from the missing-nin's left hip now, following their host as he moved to close the distance between Yato and himself now as the words directed at the noble were entering into his ears at this moment. 'Again with the licking. Perhaps this man has some strange licking fetish?' It was at this moment that he once against saw the white haired young man lick the Noble that they had captured, but while it was strange it didn't even cause for the older of the two to even bat a single eye at the actions. Having seen many strange things during his time in prison and on the run he simple disregarded it was some odd habit of the man. All the man cared about at this point was that this man had strength and with that strength combined with his own they had the potential to help him not only achieve his petty goals of revenge on the Aburame and Konoha but also the other life goal he had, as well.
"A terrific idea?" Hisato actually shook his head slightly at the mention of Yato having a terrific idea but only spoke mainly to himself about the words of his friend and listened to determine just what kind of good idea the strange little man actually had. "Hmm, I am actually interested to visit this other noble you speak of. Perhaps he can even be of use?" In truth, the former Konoha-nin was very interested to find out who the fellow missing-nin's client was that wanted this smaller fish out of his way, though the reasoning why wasn't what the bearded man wanted to know and instead he desired to know if they would be able to use this man for their own personal goals. That was the reasoning behind the casually spoken question at the end of his reply to the multi-hand using shinobi that was holding onto their prey at the moment.
Taking one last drag from his cancer stick as it burnt the contents all the way down to the filter within the raven haired man's mouth, he then spat the filter onto the ground where a blood stain of the one who had smacked him remained after the bugs finished their meal earlier. Placing both hands back into his jacket pockets the man turned on his heels and opened his stride to catch up to the rather giddy young man who was actually skipping out the door of the noble's mansion at this point. Hisato was never truly sure that he would be able to understand the constantly changing mentality of Yato but at the same time he wasn't sure it was worth the trouble of even allowing for a smart man like himself to try. This guy was truly 'unique' but he had goals that aligned with his own to some extent and that was enough for now. After only a few moment the leather jacket wearing shinobi stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder with his comrade as they moved back into the darkness of the dense forest with the captive noble tightly imprisoned within the numerous hands that floated behind them like a trophy from their brief hunt.
11, 451 Words - 15 Control
And yet, he found himself in front of one--not with his hands crudely rearranging their organs, but instead, he stood bowing to a noble in the most uncharacteristic manner possible. He and Hisato had taken on a contract that involved rival nobles, and although Yato's personal values completely went against such an act, it seemed that there was a price for everything--including one that bypassed Yato's integrity. The contract held prospects of heaping sums of money, which would translate to resources. He hated it, but at the end of the day, things he hated would have to be done in order to fulfill his plans. Everything was a stepping stone, and this was no exception.
"So we're clear then, Yato of the Leaf?" The noble raised an eyebrow at Yato, who had been bowing for an awkwardly long amount of time. However, the truth was he was only doing so because he was hiding his expression of disgust for the noble by dipping his face towards the ground. Gritting his teeth, Yato stood up with a smile. "Yes, Lord Koyozu-sama..." As he spoke, his words were restrained and careful; one who didn't know Yato would assume this was out of courtesy, but in reality, he was just holding back curses. "And you're sure you can do it with just you two?" Yato would simply nod in response before turning and walking away.
He and Hisato were posing as shinobi of the Leaf on a travelling excursion, which was the only means by which they would have been able to obtain the contract in the first place. Koyozu was a keen noble who focused primarily on controlling trade in his domain, and the contract entailed assassinating a rival noble in the area who was impeding on Koyozu's economic expansion. It was a simple contract, but difficult in its own right; the exorbitant payoff, however, suggested that it wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. While Koyozu himself did not have many retainers that seemed to be combat-privy, that didn't mean the other noble wouldn't.
Yato walked out of the noble's palace room groaning and stretching his arms out above his head. As he yawned, he turned over to Hisato. "So... Got any plan in mind? I was thinking we just take the place by a storm. Or maybe..." He took a single finger and clicked it against the fake Konoha-engraved protector around his neck while smirking. "We can just pretend to be your friendly neighborhood Konoha shinobi." He cackled as the two would leave the noble's building and be out in an open forested area. It was just beginning to hit night time, and the weather was moderate; no clouds inhibited the large yellow moon from illuminating the forest.
Turning to Hisato once more, he whistled cheerfully. "I don't suppose you could use those beetles of yours to scout out a safe path for us? I'd assume that there might be guards or traps along the way."
Hisato had to hold back the urge to want to laugh at his comrade throughout the brief visit with this nobleman who it turned out wasn't so noble after all, but like Yato the former Konoha-nin didn't believe that any of these so called nobles were better then the criminals that he had been confined with during his time of imprisonment. But during the chat he had completely zipped up his jack to the point that even his nose was concealed behind the high collar and the forehead protector concealed the scars upon his forward and even held his normally messy looking hair in place for once. "Heh, by storm. Well my swarm is a bit hungry but perhaps you're right. It would be more fun to slander the village's name at the same time." The man reached up unzipping the collar back down to about his chest now as a cigarette had somehow already found itself within the man's mouth that was almost concealed by the beard upon his face now.
As the night slowly consumed the sky and darkness fell upon the two shinobi, the man smiled lightly as he spoke aloud now, "Darkness suits them well, disperse my friends and search ahead." The words were partially for his bugs and partially for his current ally whom he walked side by side with keeping both hands within the confines of the jacket pockets for a moment. With just the simple task a cloud of dark beetles droned from their black container as about twenty synch worth appeared first forming a cloud of darkness above the duo as they walked along. Then a moment later they dispersed from one another and shot forward at speeds that even Hisato had trouble following and with the night as cover and them not being in a large group it would be difficult for even a shinobi to notice them.
With a little hundred half his swarm out and about searching for anything that might lay in front of him the man held an unlit cigarette between his lips, as much as he wished to light it the man held back his cravings for the moment as it was night time and the orange glow that wouldn't have been noticeable in the day time stood out like a sour thumb at night. "That guy was even willing to hire shinobi for this..." Hisato pondered out loud for a second pausing between his words while shifting the unlit cancer stick to the opposite side of his mouth now before continuing. "...perhaps my bugs will be able to have the delicacy of the chakra enhanced meat of shinobi tonight. They like that the best, you know?" His mouth curled into a smirk as they continued to walk as he shot a glance to the side at Yato as he finished now.
The darkness was the man's favorite time of day, it allowed for someone like himself who preferred to linger in the shadows and allow for the powerful swarm under his control to do the majority of the heavy lifting, after all their was a reason that he put so much blood and sweat into training the insects. His gaze shifted down into the earthen color container in which he had placed the hornet queen within already after binding her loyalty with his chakra, he could since that she was already hard at work attempting to rebuild her hive from within. Though it would be sometime before her and the Suzumebachi Swarm would actually be of any real use to him sadly, but all good things come in time, and he would still need to slowly train them just as he had done with the guardian beetles in his combat style. But his eyes bright blue eyes seemed to almost glow as he removed them from his face at the prospect of using both swarms at their max strength in combat.
"Guess it would be, huh?" Yato shrugged in response to Hisato's declaration about slandering Konoha, chuckling all the while.
Hisato's smoking habit was one that Yato had taken into consideration, and he sneered at the man shifting around the unlit cancer stick around his lips. "Tempting, aint it?" he taunted. "That nicotine's got shackles on you, Hisato-kun." He cackled with a hand covering his mouth, as he watched the tiny beetles scatter off like specks of dust. The two continued to walk and Yato tilted his head, as the hand over his mouth shifted back into his pockets. He too, wondered whether or not they would have to deal with shinobi. Most of the time there were usually samurai that tried to apprehend him when it came to nobles, but his gut instincts told him to think otherwise.
"Mm. Koyozu 'sama' didn't tell us too many details, did he? The contract is an expensive one; I'm willing to bet more than not that your bugs will get their fill..." His intonation when he spoke of the nobles name was exasperatingly sarcastic. "At any rate, if we don't get paid enough, we can just..." Pulling his hand out of his pocket, Yato made a quick motion towards Hisato, with his thumb across his throat, smiling all the while.
"We'll get what we need. And even better, we'll get what we want." Cackling as he stuffed his hand back into his pockets, he stared on into the darkness of the forest with a blank gaze; although he couldn't see anything further than a few feet ahead, he was more than confident that he would be able to deal with any issues that would arise. His lax posture and slow pace would indicate this sentiment, more than anything.
Yato turned to Hisato and cocked his head at the man staring intently at the large hornet he carried around with him. Although he was unable to comprehend why Hisato was so obsessive, he knew that he himself had vices that shackled him in the same way--lately he had delved into the idea of immortality, something that was a prior obsession of his in his younger days. "Any leads yet? Those beetles are quick as hell." His eyes darted up to the moon, which was for some reason much larger than usual. It shined onto his eyes in a way that made the purple irises glimmer like water in the sun. It was hypnotizing, really.
"Ah..."
Yato's movements would halt suddenly. He stared down at his legs, which were bound by vines that protruded from the dirt beneath their feet. "Guess your question's answered." He jerked and tugged at his legs, but they would not budge. Of course, Hisato wouldn't be able to see the vines, and to the man Yato would seem like he was playing around--the white-haired nukenin was trapped in an Illusion of Force Genjutsu, with the caster nowhere to be found. "Hmm..." Two hands lifted off of his shoulders and easily ripped the vines off as if they were tangible, freeing Yato from the bindings. He stumbled forward as that happened, staring around into the darkness that surrounded them.
Hisato could only nod in approval as the man made the motion with his hand about how they would deal with the other man up on returning from this 'mission' of theirs as Leaf shinobi. "They should be returning soon, I had them scout out the next mile or so." The slightly older man of the two didn't both to look over towards Yato as he spoke in return to the question if his bugs had managed to discover anything ahead of them at the moment. While they were abnormally fast he had tasked the large portion of bugs to scout out a fairly large piece of the dark forest in front of them and they still needed a bit of time to do so and return with their results. Both hands remained in his jacket pockets for the moment as he spoke with the still unlit cigarette within his lips as he could taste the tobacco within the paper wrapping. But he was to discipline to actually light it up at a time like this. "Hmm?"
Suddenly he was brought out of the thought of lighting up the cancer stick when the soft foot steps of his comrade stopped and an 'ah' sound had managed to escape the man's lips. Casually he look over his shoulder, having stopped for a second in order to turn his body a quarter of the way around in order to see what the man was doing. With his sunglasses pushed up into his messy hair the bright blue eyes that were revealed took in the situation as it seemed he was stuck? A light sigh pushed through his lips as he looked down to his feet observing that their was nothing on them and the soil here wasn't wet enough to pass as mud.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up lightly, as first he thought perhaps the man was just messing around as he had a strange sense of humor but now it appeared to the man that their was something amiss at the moment as he closed his eyes. Yato's hands had told him everything that he needed to know as they had removed something that wasn't even there, it had to have been some form of illusion and the only form of illusion that relied on the victims own personal strength to break out was an illusion of force. 'How sneaky...I must meet this shinobi.' It was hard to actually tell the strength of the technique due to how strong his ally's strange hands were but bothered him more so was that this person was very adept in triggering the technique without changing anything about the environment to drastically.
But it meant that he had to be somewhere nearby and as the man closed his eyes and found himself becoming one with the surrounding, having lived within the forests mainly as a missing-nin he had become intimately familiar with the sounds of nature and at the same time knew how to focus only on his hearing while temporarily disregarding his sight. 'Return my friends, if you encounter a fleeing person wound them but do kill them.' Everything within a thirty meter radius became all to obvious to him as he had also mentally sent out the order for his bugs to return to him from their searching now as if the shinobi attempted to flee back towards the noble's house he would encounter the swarm. While they would not kill him most likely the stranger would wish himself dead if attacked by the swarm that flew through the darkness like a invisible predator just waiting to strike. "Jin, everything good?"
Hisato truly wasn't that concerned with the man's well being but under the guise as a Konoha shinobi he felt that it would be best to attempt and play the role incase someone was still within the area watching or further away attempting to eavesdrop on the pair of former shinobi while also avoiding using the man's real name as well. This was also a small ploy to keep anyone who was attempting to leave the area to stop for a moment in hopes that he would be able to hear either their movement or perhaps if they were within the initial thirty meter radius he could catch the sound of their beating heart. Perhaps even Yato would be able to give him some information about the technique that had caught him off guard.
Hisato called out to a man named Jin; squinting his eyes, Yato could only assume that the man was covering for him. He fought back the urge to laugh at the name--Jin was a terrible name by his standards, and even in a dire situation like this, the name gave him an itch to gag himself with his finger. Still, he kept to the act and replied back, "Yeah. I'm alright, Zingyizang," smirking as he stared straight at Hisato. He had to have a bit of fun with it.
Still, the issue stood that there was one--or potentially more than one--shinobi that was actively ambushing the two nukenin. The mission already proved to be a lot more of a nuisance than it seemed. He peered around the area once more, but to no avail. "Tch..." Without any way of being able to see in the dark, Yato was practically a goner to these types of ambushes. Turning back to Hisato, he was about to mention the bugs again, but found that the man was closing his eyes, trying to focus on something. His eyes glowed purple as they focused on Hisato, tagging him with chakra and allowing Yato to emulate the man's senses upon himself.
Suddenly, the two would hear heartbeats simultaneously. "Ah, so that's what you're doing..." Yato whispered to himself. His senses then returned to him--all except for hearing, as he cracked his neck and began to run in the direction of where the sound was coming from. "I got this one," he growled towards Hisato playfully, licking his lips as he jumped between the trees. Although he wasn't able to see much of anything at all, Hisato's enhanced hearing was to a degree of inhuman power; through Hisato's ears, Yato could ear his own breath from meters away.
It wouldn't be too long until Yato found the single shinobi who had attempted an ambush at them. The shinobi wore a dark garb much akin to a traditional ninja, with a mask that covered all of his facial features save for his eyes. Without so much of an utterance, Yato leaped out at the shinobi and spit into his eyes, before hands shot out from his robes in tandem and bound the man's limbs, while a single hand covered his mouth. "Shh..." Yato whispered, slowly pacing towards the shinobi. "Hisato-kun... Over here." He continued in a soft whispering tone, for he knew Hisato could hear it.
"Let's play with this man and figure out the in's and outs of the path we're taking, shall we?" Yato licked his lips once more as he spread his index and middle finger out to a width that perfectly aligned with the trapped shinobi's eyes. He smiled innocently before proceeding to stab them straight into the sockets, as the hand that muffled the shinobi's mouth let out subtle, muted cries. "Shh shh shh," he continued, pulling out the slimy spheres before flicking them to the dirt. The man continued to scream muffled noises, but only Yato and Hisato would be able to hear his helpless pleas.
If they weren't working together then the name he had so casually of chosen for Hisato would have definitely have caused the two to break out in a verbal jousting, but sadly this wasn't the time or place for such meaningless things as he attempted to focus on his surroundings. The man hadn't even turned to his partner when the man suddenly shot off in the direction of one of the three nearby heartbeats that lingered at the edge of his hearing as the man pushed himself a little to expand the range of his hearing more. 'How did he know?' This was something truly unexpected as Hisato had not been privy to the knowledge about Yato's ability to sense through the senses of others, something that had been rather useful in this type of situation.
"Aye." A single word response was the only thing that slipped through the almost beard covered lips of the missing-nin towards his ally now as the man disappeared off into the thick darkness of the forest while he focused on the other two men. One seemed to understand that danger was eminent and swiftly darted away from the area while the other hesitated just a moment to long as a portion of the swarm that had went out doing a recon patrol returned enveloping him as a blood curling scream echoed out in the night. Though it was not a single one as the screaming seemed to continue as the while the former Konoha-nin smiled as their was no longer any need to keep his position a secret and no need for him to comply with using light discipline either.
Yato would be able to hear the strike of the flint within the zippo as the flame flickered to life and illuminated the man's face in an eerie orange glow briefly before the cap snapped back down extinguishing the flame. All that was left was the small cherry glow at the end of the cigarette as the man took a much needed drag from it before exhaling slowly. It was to bad that his comrade was not still linked with all of his other senses as it would have been interesting to see his reaction at this point. Casually putting his hands back in his pocket he sighed as the bugs were chasing after one who seemed to be able to move rather quickly and he quickly ordered them to drop back and follow as the five synch size portion began to lurk in the man's shadow from a distance in an attempt to follow him back to where ever he was going.
As if strolling through the forest on a moonlit stroll, the raven haired man made his way through the brush towards his partner in crime now, dipping around and weaving through the thick underbrush off the trail now until he walked about twenty meter to find a masked shinobi pinned down. Arriving just in time to see the free hand jab into the man's eye sockets now as the screams of pain were muffled by the hand holding tightly down upon the unknown man's mouth. "But of course, guess this means we only need one of these guys." 'Devour him...' A simple order was given to the remaining active portion of the swarm that was returning to their host now as the painful screams of a man approaching death by being eaten alive once more filled the forest in the distance from the pair.
After finishing up after about ten seconds the droning sound of thousands upon thousand of beetles faintly began to fill the air as they encircled the duo in a twenty meter radius making sure that no one would be interfering with them for what happened next. "Please continue...my bugs are tracking the friend of his that managed to flee. The other man wasn't quite so lucky I'm afraid." A sinister smile was illuminated as he drew in a drag from the cigarette which glowed for only a moment as a slow exhale caused for dark grey smoke to swirl around his face and up into the air, seeming to under stand that his comrade didn't appreciate his lovely habit. A bit of respect sent his way...
"Oh Hisato-kun. Smoking again? Tsk tsk..." Had the man in front of Yato still had his eyes, he would be giving him a stare of confusion. Yato's face neared the man's face once again before he took his finger's to the man's socket and gave it a nice wide spread open, revealing a fleshy, blood muddied hole. He then proceeded to stick his tongue into it and swirl it around, as the bound man shivered and screamed, in a bout of disgust and pain. Yato pulled back and wiped his mouth once more before whispering into the man's ear.
"Doesn't feel good, does it, shi-no-bi?" His pronunciation of the word 'shinobi' was long and strung out, making it a point to ridicule the title. The man mumbled back some profanities, but none of them were paid heed to as they sounded the same as anything else the man tried uttering. There was a sense of serenity that came to Yato in extorting people for information; the way he did it was with psychological warfare. Sure, there was pain involved, but the moment people were deprived of their senses, and only allowed to talk when they gave him the information he needed, some how they all seemed to do the same thing at the end of the day. That is, betray their villages with the last words that they would utter in their pitiful lives.
Off in the distance, it became evident that Hisato's work was done. All they had to do was slap the man around a bit and they'd be done with him--of course, that was a severe understatement as to what Yato was really about to do. Yato peered around the area as bugs surrounded them. "Ahh. Guy, you're lucky my partner isn't the one dealing with you. He's not as nice as me," he muttered to the eyeless man with a chuckle.
"Such a shame... You're working for the wrong side, you know?" His finger tapped against the man's forehead in intervals of exactly 3 seconds, and continued to do so without any sign that it was going to stop. "I've got... Talents. Yeah, talents. In the medical field, I mean. Your eyes can come back to this little noggin of yours, and we can go on about our day. You live to try another day, and me? Well..." He cackled briefly as the man tried his best and struggled to free himself from the grasp of Yato's hands. "I leave you alone. It's a good deal, isn't it?" The man let out muffled screams once more, to which Yato frowned. "You're really stubborn, aren't you? What's next? Your ear?" Without so much as a warning or pause to let the man respond, a hand flew off of Yato's arm and ripped off the man's ear in a split second.
Again, muffled screams. And the process continued.
"We can keep going. Or we can stop before your precious body that you spent years training is nothing more than a little nub. It's your choice..." Yato continued to tap on the man's forehead, and for the first time since his torturing had begun, the man stopped moving, and was silent--he was subservient. "Ah. Good choice." Pulling his finger away from the man's forehead, the hand that covered the man's mouth released itself and allowed for a couple of inches of breathing room.
"It's a straight path. That's it. We were just hired to scout out the other noble, and you caught us at a bad time. I'm telling the truth. Please. Please. Please..." The moment the man began to plead, he let out cries of urgency that would seem all too sincere, despite the fact that he couldn't physically tear up. "So be it." Yato smiled at the man despite the fact that he wouldn't be able to see the devilish grin.
In an instant, several hands entered through the man's mouth and seemed to plunge into him--they quickly traveled down his throat as lumps expanded the throat and let out a grotesque cracking noise before they pushed and pulled from inside his intestines. "Cover your mouth, Hisato-kun. Don't want to be smoking this stuff," he warned with a cackle. Yato jumped over to a different branch as the hands inside the man's body did their thing. The hands pushed a hole through his chest and escaped from the cavity before returning to Yato's body. And just like that, the man was dead. "Shall we go on the straight path now?" He cackled; this mission was a bit too easy for his tastes, but it was moments like these that he relished.
"Don't judge me, I haven't had one in a few hours." The man jest back at Yato now, though he really hadn't been able to smoke one of the cancer sticks since darkness had fallen upon them for the reason of keeping at least somewhat stealthy during their approach to the noble's land. But a feeling of relief slowly filtered through the raven haired man's body now as he was able to enjoy the wonderful feeling that warmed his lungs at the moment before fixating his gaze back onto the highly unusual actions of the young man who was more or less rimming the pinned shionbi's eye socket. An act that even caused for Hisato to question his pairing up with this man, though the man had done a number of things himself in order to extract information from those who sought to end him and instead looked on never batting an eye at the action. 'I always manage to end up with the weird ones, it must be a requirement to be a missing nin these days.'
The smoker seemed to just casually watch the torture of the unknown shinobi now as one hand remained in place in the right jacket pocket as the left hand went back and forth between holding the cigarette between it's fingers and resting in place at his side. The information gather only took a few short minutes as the man before him seemed to be even more adept at talking to the man and putting just the proper amount of pressure and hope for release into the mind of the man. What a pity it was for this kid to have fallen into the hands of a duo like Yato and himself. 'This seems to line up with the path of egress the other shinobi took, guess its at least somewhat true.' Hisato confirmed the words spilling from the injured man's mouth now as the hand had finally removed itself allowing for the shinobi to speak and his words matched with what his bugs had brought back to him about where the noble's place of residence was located. 'Shield me...'
Speaking mentally to a nearby portion of his swarm they seemed to almost instantly appear between himself and the body of the shinobi as the hands went to work doing the dirty deeds of their master now, the bugs interlocking with one another to the point that not even water could easily push through their tight web. "Bit dramatic, no?" The light drizzling sound of blood falling down onto the forest as it fell from the wall of bugs off to Hisato's right side as he turned to look up at his comrade whom had moved over to another branch in the tree now. 'Devour...' With a single word after his slightly snide remark towards Yato the bugs swarmed from every direction now as they began to feast as the sound of puncturing skin and the crunching of bones being bitten in two filled the air of the immediate are.
Hisato himself has already turned a blind eye to the bugs devouring the corpse upon the ground as he started to slowly walk forward through the dark forest as he awaited for his company to rejoin him now as he started to speak taking a drag of his almost finished cigarette now. "Seems he was telling us some of the truth at least, my bugs are still tracking the one that we let flee. He's heading straight ahead, though I guess our element of surprise is all gone." The bearded man said indifferently now as he took the last drag from the cig and tossed it down stopping it out with a twist of his foot not even seem to miss a step as the bugs once more returned into a encirclement around the two men. Being more of a stealthy type of person who truly didn't place himself out from the shadows losing their element of surprise brought forth a small amount of fury within his chest. He was the one who was suppose to be launching ambushes not them...
His style was dramatic, apparently.
Yato shrugged with a cocky smirk at Hisato as the blood splattered in every which direction. "Sometimes it's more fun to see the last look on their face; it's hard to see them crying when they're surrounded by a bunch of beetles as they're dying." He cackled at the small jab he had made at Hisato, watching the bugs devour the remains of the shinobi at a rapid pace. Clapping at the display, Yato gave Hisato an over-exaggerated look of surprise, as if he was saying, "my stuff looks cooler". Alas, the fun was over, and the two would be on their way in just a moment.
He shrugged yet again at Hisato's next statement. "Surprise is fun, but it's more fun if they know you're coming and they can't do a thing about it... Keke..." He wasn't caught off guard in the slightest at the fact that the shinobi had been telling the truth to them the whole time; in his eyes, all people had a breaking point, and he was more than capable of finding anybody's. "Shall we go... Um... Straight, then?" Cackling once again before leaping down onto the forest floor, Yato yawned before beginning a slow pace in the direction that he was tipped off to. It was ironic, really--despite how powerful he was, he wasn't nearly fast enough to catch up to the shinobi that Hisato's insects were trailing. That part would be up to Hisato, at the very least.
As he paced through the forest, Yato stared on at the darkness around him. Although he was well aware that he and Hisato would be able to handle just about anything that came their way--as evidenced by their most recent encounter--he couldn't help but shake off the feeling of paranoia that came with... Well, being a nukenin. He wondered if Hisato felt the same way.
"Oi, Hisato-kun. You ever get paranoid?" Again with the vagueness. Yato was great at getting lost in his own thoughts and not explaining himself. He figured that if someone was crazy enough to be on the same wavelength--and subsequently be his comrade--they would be able to understand his strange whimsically unclear patterns of speech. Of course, this was far from the truth; nobody really understood Yato all the time.
"Perhaps so, but of course this could also have just been the welcoming party..." Hisato casually spoke back in return to his new partner's words, but in truth it would take a rather strong or exceptionally crafty shinobi to be able to deal with both of the men presently walking towards their destination. The bearded man had seen first hand the incredible strength of Yato's ninjutsu prowess during their first exchange and he also know that this man wasn't like any others that he had encounter. Not only did the man have a dream in mind but a rather interesting and well thought-out plan to achieve the end goal. "I suppose their isn't any harm in just taking the front door approach." Though he agreed with his partner at this point with them already expecting their arrival now it was just as each to push straight in without wasting to much time, plus Hisato had the added aid from his swarm recon that had followed the fleeing shinobi ahead of them.
Shrugging his shoulders for a moment to loosen up his body now the man refrained from drawing out another cigarette as he knew that he didn't have but about half a pack left at the moment and needed some for the return trip, instead he closed his eyes briefly before reopening them after having focused on his senses of smell, hearing, and sight. After doing so he began to casually walk forward no as his footsteps didn't release the slightest amount of sound into the outside world as they had only moved about fifteen meters before he was able to pick up on the trail left behind by the one that had escaped temporarily. Currently four fifths of the maximum swarm's capacity as spread out around the two men and had descended to the ground to make their movements less obvious to through and to silence their movements somewhat from the droning sound of their wings fluttering in flight.
Of the ten synch of the swarm not involved in forming the perimeter five were contained either on his body or inside the containment jar and the other five had been the ones scouting ahead and following the fleeing individual towards the noble's estate that was about two kilometers ahead of their current positions. A portion of the swarm that he been among the tracking section returned and reported the distance to them not long after the pair had stepped off and were on the trail. 'I see, we aren't to far away then.' The conversation was simple and brief with the bugs as they joined into the tens of thousands of bugs spread out within the forest around Hisato and Yato now as the man removed his dark shades from their position within his ravel locks atop his head and tucked them into an interior pocket of the jacket as he turned to his partner in crime now. "We're only about one and a half kilometers from the noble's estate according to my recon bugs."
It was a simple status update and he didn't expect any reply in return and at the most perhaps a gesture of his head or some other type of body language perhaps now as he stuff of his hands into the jacket pockets as the pair continued to slowly advance down the trail with the cordon of bugs being there to serve as the first line of attack and defense for when they encountered a threat to either one of them. Yato would be a priority for the bugs to help out and assist in defense if need but he was a far second from their actual host and the precedence that his protection took. It was only a short while after the brief update that he head his name being called by Yato, the addition of 'kun' onto his name was a bit irritating but Hisato was starting to get a slight understanding of the strange patterns of speech that the man threw out from time to time and simple chose to ignore it for now.
"Paranoid? Honestly..." Did he ever get paranoid? That was an understatement for a missing-nin, as to an extent those like Yato and himself were always a bit on edge about things just do to the life they had chosen and all those whom they had offended in their past who wished for nothing more than to erase them from this world. Pausing only for a moment to withdraw a cigarette despite the low amount of them he had left, the raven haired man glanced over the cig briefly with his brilliant blue eyes before placing it carefully between his lips now but refrained from lighting it in that moment. Instead he turned his bright gaze over onto his comrade and continued to speak. "...sometime I do, man. But I use these to help keep myself focused and to relax a bit. Obviously not the best habit to have started but it gets me by. " A faint smirk appeared on his lips as he contemplated lighting the stick or waiting a bit longer trying to way out the pros and cons in his mind for a few moments as he turned his gaze back onto the trail. Able to sense that they weren't to far away from the tracking portion of the swarm now.
Yato raised an eyebrow at the fact that Hisato just admitted that smoking cigarettes wasn't 'the best habit to have started'. With the way he had interacted with the stern man up to this point, he wasn't so sure whether Hisato was opening up, or coming to a point of realization. At any rate, it was strange that the bearded Aburame was, in a way, rejecting a significant piece of his lifestyle.
Interesting.
He licked his lips in a subtle manner that would be masked by the darkness of the forest. Small utterances like that were of no significance to most people, but to Yato it meant everything, for someone's identity was directly attributed to the things that they said about themselves. What began as small talk had opened up a small peeping hole for Yato to peer into Hisato's inner being.
The kilometer and a half it took to walk to the other noble's domain hardly took much time to get to, despite the slow pace the two shinobi were taking. Unsurprisingly--or surprisingly, depending on who was concerned--there was no further resistance that opposed Hisato and Yato, and they remained unscathed as they approached the doors of the palace. Yato formed two hands together in a seal before glancing at Hisato as an urge to do the same. In a split second, a dash of smoke arose around the white-haired shinobi, as he transformed. The smoke disappeared, revealing a copy of the same shinobi that he had just tortured moments ago.
"I'm hoping you remember what that piece of trash looked like," he cackled, staring at Hisato as his newfound appearance masked his normally-demonic eyes. His own recollection of the man was accurate for the most part, with only a few variations here and there--the truth was, he hadn't thought of transforming into the scouts that were sent after them until they were already at the doors of the palace, and because of that his transformation wasn't exactly seamless. It would be easier to get to the noble's throat masked as the scouts that came from the palace, at any rate.
The remainder of this leg of the pairs journey was filled with idle chit chat between the two criminals as they continued at a slow but methodical pace, since they knew the pair were coming then it was fun to make them wait on them for a change. After his bugs had scouted out the remainder of the trip ahead finding no immediate danger they then began to return in small waves that flew back inside the matte black container that hung from the bearded man's left side off his belt. The other shinobi had fled upon contact and hadn't gotten a good the skills of either of the two missing-nin so it was best to hid ones true strength as they began approaching the end of the road now.
Yato forming hand seals caused for the blue eyes former shinobi to glance over, their speed was rather impressive but the simple series of seals was one that even someone lacking in the ninjutsu arts like himself could even recognize at a moments glance. 'The transformation technique, very well...' Hisato gave a simple nod as he watched the younger man transform now into the shinobi that Yato had tortured the information from about the way to go a short while earlier. Seeing the man's appearance cased for the man to smirk a bit. He had not been able to see what the other looked like as he simple had hit companions deal with the threat, "Yeah, no idea what that bitch looked like."
Exhaling slowly the man made the same simple series of hand seals now and their was a poof of white chakra smoke that enveloped the man for a moment before it blew away with the gentle breeze that pushed from left to right, it revealed a battered looking version of himself with what appeared to be wounds from a battle and yet the unlit cigarette hung from the man's lips. Hisato's hands appeared to be bound from the wrist by some rope, thought it was last minute the man's attention to detail was as impressive as always now as he shook his head lightly and turned to his comrade. "Well, this will have to due, I guess. Ready?"
Yato smirked at Hisato's quick witted improvisation. Criminals like him weren't noted as 'A-Rank' for nothing; it was deceptive traits like these that set them apart from the rest. He stared at Hisato's wounded appearance and took it in for a moment as he thought deeply.
"Hmm yeah, I'm ready. But... One more thing." He reached towards Hisato's cigarette in a joking manner as he pretended to snatch it from the man's lips before pulling back and cackling to himself. "No, but really.."
Placing his two hands together in the form of a seal, a clone of his real body appeared in a poof of smoke. Similar to Hisato's appearance, the clone of Yato was battered, bruised, and tied at the wrist. With Yato disguised as the scout, he would be the talker of the group as he tugged along the beaten up Hisato and clone of himself. He sighed as he began to pace toward the building, shaking his head at the ground. If only he had thought of this earlier, he would have gotten a trace of the man's personality or speaking patterns prior to mutilating him.
Oh well.
The three approached the front of the building, where two armed samurai were perched on either side of the titanic doors that lead into the throne room. The building itself was but a single building, and not necessarily a palace, but it was large enough for anybody looking at it to know that it belonged to a noble. From the looks of the building and its narrow composition, one could only assume that past the doors it'd be a straight shot to the throne. One of the samurai noticed Yato and immediately darted towards him, the sounds of his armor clinking away all the while.
"Hey, what the hell happened? Where's Kotatsu?" The samurai stared at Yato with eyes of concern, rather than suspicion. Perfect.. Yato took to acting the best he could as he took in deep heavy breaths and stared into the samurai's eyes. "Dead... These fuckers got him... I had no choice but to leave his body there while it was eaten alive..." His voice was husky and broken up--a product of Yato pretending to be exhausted. The samurai looked at Hisato and Yato's clone with a look of disgust before putting his hand on Yato's shoulder. "C'mon. Let's report your findings to Yaboku-sama."
With a single motion, the samurai that stood next to the door pulled a lever that opened the giant doors slowly, as the thunderous creaking noises from its hinges resonated throughout the forest. The doors peeked open to reveal the luxurious palace within: adorned with red carpet and gilded accents, Yaboku's palace was nothing short of extravagant. "Quick, quick, it takes a while to get the doors closed again." The samurai nudged Yato in before giving Hisato an expression of disdain, and slapping the back of the Aburame's head. "We should have known better than to trust Koyozu... You're scum trash, you know that?" He growled at Hisato as the giant doors slowly closed behind Yato and company.
Yato slowly paced down the long carpeted hall while muttering quietly to Hisato. "... See that?" He was referring to a single retainer standing beside the noble who was seated in a large golden throne at the end of the hall. "Once we get close enough... Let loose." Yato then stiffened his back straight and let a smile wash over his face as he walked towards the noble, who held a rather stern expression as he looked back at Yato and Hisato.
"Oh hell no!" The moment that his younger comrade performed his feint at snatching the cigarette hanging from Histao's mouth the raven haired man instantly pulled his head back and away from the slender fingers of the fellow missing-nin. His cancer sticks was something that he didn't play around with at all and found it truly unfunny at the moment when Yato had teased that he was going to take it away. Shaking his head the man took additional measures and put another step between the pair of them as the other man formed a hand seal and produced a clone of himself that appeared to be in a similarly distressed and wounded manner as the former the former Konoha-nin had taken, as well.
Only giving the man a simple nod of approval for his last minute addition to the group he then turned and walked alongside the clone of Yato now, both men appearing to be bound and injured from battle as they traversed the last portion of forest arriving at a small mansion style building that was fit for a noble with money. While not amongst any of the grander building that the man had seen in his lifetime it was easily noticeable that it wasn't just some average business man who owned the estate and it seemed to have a single guarded entrance being made up of two large doors and a pair of samurai whom stood guard at the moment. 'Only two out here, wonder how many are inside this place.' The calculating man was already working no determining his next course of actions as their had been at least these three shinobi in the noble's pocket and he couldn't help but wonder if their were others.
But at least the ones who had been sent out as scouts weren't on the same level as Yato and himself or it would have been a much more intense exchange so deep in the wilderness. Though Hisato's appearance was worse for were the dark shades had once more fell onto the bridge of his nose as they arrived aiding in hiding the disconcerting gaze of the man as their first interaction went very smoothly as it appeared that their had been some comradery between the samurai and the shinobi that they had killed. Yet, he wondered where the shinobi that had managed to escape had gotten off to at this moment. After all, his beetles were still a bit hungry as such a tiny meal was far from being sufficient for them. Seeing the figure before them open the gigantic doors that would have been a bit troublesome for them to bypass by force the man almost smirked.
Concealed within the doors was actually a very luxurious palace that surpassed some of the other residences of nobles that Hisato had done business within the past, catching him slightly off guard as he wondered if he had underestimated this man or not in that moment. As the samurai nudge Yato inward Hisato whom was at the back was still analyzing the room before he saw the hand coming and in that moment he had to force his swarm to hold their position within the container as they were half a second away from attacking the threat to their host out of instinct alone. Focused on stopping the swarm from revealing themselves prematurely the hand smacked him hard on the back of the head and actually knocked the cigarette from his mouth as it spun through the air and landing on the ground breaking into two pieces now.
Hisato had to forcible exhale to remain calm as impact ad pushed his sunglasses to the tip of his nose revealing the deep blue eyes that had instant shifted to the left corner taking in the samurai, the killing intent within them was so overwhelming that it actually caused the samurai to take a step back out of fear. It made one wonder just how many people one had to kill in order to possess such a large amount of murderous intent. 'It will be a slow death for this one, I'll make sure of that....' The bearded man had to slowly force a few more breaths in and out of his cirgarette less mouth in order to calm himself down to not break their plan early and kill the unnamed man on the spot over the incident. It was funny to Hsato that they were now all sealed within the palace where they would be unable to run or hide once his hungry swarm was released but he had already given them mental orders to no kill the man who had smacked him, that pleasure was reserved for him.
With the massive doors behind them closed the two were being escorted down a long hallway as the muttering of his comrade could be heard in a tone below a whisper but with his enhanced hearing it was as thought the missing-nin was having a typical conversation with him. The appearance of an injured man that he currently held on to was kept up to the tee as his gaze lifted from the floor to meet the stern gaze of the noble who's head they had come for, still around his neck was a Konoha head band that the two missing-nin had brought with them to demonstrate their 'loyalties'. Finally their escort had ended as the clone of Yato and himself stood side-by-side with one another as the true Yato stood just to their rear. Perhaps his friend hadn't even noticed but on the back of Yato's pant leg was a single small beetle that was being used to mark him as an ally at this moment. When they had entered the throne room he had released two beetles, one for the true Yato and the other had stealthy made its way around the room and was currently climbing up the back of the golden seat in which the noble set.
The noble was reserved for Yato to play with, as it appeared that was something he would enjoy based on the previous encounter with the shinobi in the forest. This was close enough as a light bomb that had been removed from a kunai earlier appeared within the Aburame's hand and was tossed straight up above his head in the room before a brilliant flash of light filled the large room in an instant. It was within that instant that a single word exited out of the wounded looking man's lips that had curled upward in the corners forming a devious smirk at this moment in time. "Devour..." With that single command forty five synch worth of flesh devouring beetles emerged from the matte black container like a mist of death sent from the grim reaper himself as a droning sound of millions of wings filled the large room.
The speed and power of the completely matured swarm was beyond the measure of the normal individual, only those at or above the two missing-nin's level of experience would be able to contend with such a force or nature. Everyone not marked or spoken for would be attacked relentlessly and in the end devoured, starting with the retainer at the nobles side. A single portion of his beetles, five synch worth, were kept in reserve as the circled around the true Yato and their host now...
Although Yato had been expecting Hisato to do something with his bugs, he certainly had not expected a flash bomb to go off. With the sudden burst of light, he was forced to cover his eyes with both arms as Hisato let out an all too familiar utterance.
"Devour".
Grimacing, he turned toward Hisato with eyes shut tightly and cursed at him. "Could have fucking told me you were going to do that asshole!" Although his words were like knives, his tone of voice was like a balloon--high pitched, playful, and nowhere close to serious. He stood still for a brief moment as the sound of beetles began to roar around the room, and laughed in place as his vision began to return to him. "Devour, he says..." His laughter escalated to a cackle as he turned back to the noble and the servant that stood beside him.
"Sir, we're messengers from Konoha here to uh..." He stopped speaking and put a finger to his lips exaggeratedly as if he was thinking of what to say next. "Hmm... Oh yeah! Kill you! We're here to kill you. Kekeke." His transformation then came to an end as the clone behind him dissipated as well, revealing his demonic figure that stood beneath a shadowy veil of chakra.
As the beetles sped towards the noble and his servant, the two would seemingly disappear for a brief moment in a poof of smoke. However, in Yato's domain, no one could hide. "Behind!" From behind, the retainer--robed in similar clothes to Yaboku--jumped at Hisato from above while forming handseals. A giant fireball would erupt from the retainers mouth and fly at Hisato at a decent speed, before the man would disappear in a poof of smoke once again, appearing on the ground 20 meters away from Hisato. "Rats like you should know your place."
He quickly turned as hands loosened themselves from his body and flew in the direction of the noble, who was sat on top of a beam near the ceiling of the palace. Although they clearly didn't have synergy in mind with this excursion--with the light bomb and all--Yato knew all too well that Hisato would want a slice of the pie. The retainer would be all Hisato's, and Yato would be tasked with the noble. "You're making this too easy for me." He cackled, as the hands wrested upon the noble's body and began to bring him down towards Yato.
A smirk found its way onto the man's lips as the bright flash began to fade and the majority of the swarm had already spread out across the entirety of the thrown room to attack the priority targets within the area, mainly focused upon the actual throne location where the noble and the shinobi that gave the Aburame a hint of danger within his senses. Now as the light faded a cigarette had somehow appeared within the mouth of the raven haired man as the transformation technique poofed out of existence. Their was a violent screaming coming from their pair's six o'clock as a portion of the swarm had already attacked and pinned the man who had smacked Hisato to the ground with such force that cracks splintered out from the floor but the screaming more so came from the fact that they were devouring the man's limbs starting from the tips and working their way towards the torso.
'Hmm?!' The retainer appeared to truly have some skill, perhaps even on the jounin level but without getting into a full out battle so that he could test he man's skill he wouldn't know for sure. He had managed to not only avoid the first wave of insects but also move the noble with him, very interesting. As his comrade warned him the man had already heard the movements from above them in the rafters and the sound of flames filled the room now as the insects nearest Yato and Hisato flew upwards in a shielding pattern as the ball of flames crashed into the beetles. Though the bodies of the beetles were extremely tough their wings weren't as strong and upon impact of the powerful flames the wings of the insects struck were injured and fell to the ground after forcibly stopping the ninjutsu attack upon. 'Seems he wants to play..'
The swarm had already shot forward as they attacked from three directions. Left, right, and front with amazing speed and ferocity as they pushed forward now assaulting the man but not at their full speed and strength. No, Hisato wished to have a little bit of fun with this man as he was forced to flee around. The edge of the room as the different portions of the swarm that numbered around eight in total smashed through and destroyed everything in their wake as they grew closer and closer to the man as he formed hand seals launching a series of fireballs at the portion closest to him causing a series of small explosions that created a bit of a gap between the swarm of hungry bugs and their prey at this moment. 'What a spry one.' The bearded man had already lifted the zippo with its wavering flame up to the tip of his cigarette now and with a strong inhale through the cig the tip grew bright orange as the tobacco within began to burn.
Their was a sweet, refreshing taste of the smoke as it entered his body and was drawn down into the lungs before being naturally cycled out in a plume of wispy grey smoke that created a bit of a haze around the missing-nin. His 'friend' had already captured their main target with his strange hands and all that was left was to deal with this monkey of a man as he landed behind the two in the distance and was already forming hand seals once more. "Know you place..." A puff of smoke slipped through the bearded man's lips as he spoke in a low tone now as before the man could complete the series of hand seals the floor burst upwards at his feet now as the bugs had tunneled from underneath the floor as a hole about six inches across could be seen between the man's feet now.
He had used the movements of his swarm and their attack patterns to judge the skill of the man and anticipate what his next move would most likely be and in doing so used the swarm to force him into an advantageous position for his swarm that had chewed through the stone floor to tunnel underneath where they were forcing the shinobi's position. Then at the right moment he willed the creatures to burst forth with their maximum speed and strength to catch the foe off guard now as the swarm was so thick around him that one couldn't see what was happening within it and only the screams of agony told the story to those not within the jaws of death now. Exhaling slowly the man turned his attention away from the man an slowly walked to his left now as the whimpering man who had smacked him and caused for the former Konoha-nin to break one of his precious cigarettes was laying there in shock from loss of blood as he had four stubs where his limbs once were.
"This will be painful and slow..." The words were slow as they slipped through his thin lips and a wave of smoke pushed down upon the dying man's face as the bugs began to crawl in through the wounds starting to eat him from the inside out as a set of two screaming men filled the room with their wailing screams of pain for a short while as Hisato turned to rejoin the company of Yato and the noble. Turning what seemed to be a death ear to the two men who were being devoured alive by the beetle swarm and their powerful jaws. Only the man on the floor was being devoured much more slowly then the other who's screams had already ended as he arrived at the young man's side shifting his bright blue gaze upon their main target...
The noble slowly floated down towards Yato with a look of spite at the white-haired nukenin. It was evident that despite the situation he was in, the noble felt as if he was higher, or more important, than his assailant. Yato grimaced back in response to the man's expression as the two floated down to the ground level where Hisato and his 'stub' were. Yato cackled menacingly while staring at the man who had smacked Hisato before, pointing and stamping his feet on the ground all the while as to mock the people who dared to be so audacious.
"Smack the smoker's head again! Smack it again!" He snorted between his words as he continued to taunt the man being eaten by Hisato's bugs.
Through the chaos and echoing of screams in the room they stood in, one thing resonated loudly--clearer than anything else: the noble's subtle grumbling was the hidden undertone that made the melody of death all the more pleasant to Yato's ears. Ceasing his laughing, Yato smiled and turned his attention back to the noble before placing a single finger on the man's forehead. The noble stared back at Yato with an unchanging, solemn expression of superiority.
"It's things like this that made me come to realize how shitty the system is, moneybags. Imagine being born into a position where you have to work for what you get. And when you do something that the people 'above you' think is wrong, you're suddenly put under trial and marked as a criminal. Terrifying, isn't it?" He leaned in forward and licked the restrained noble's eye, as the hands that restrained the noble tightened and covered his orifices so not a single sound would be uttered by him. "I'll give you a taste of the oppression that you so tightly adhere yourself to... Today, I'm the law, and you're the citizen." Cackling, he turned back to Hisato, who was presumably done with this feasting at this point.
"Let's go Hisato-kun! I have a terrific idea. We'll be... Hmm... Visiting... Yeah, visiting our contractor."
Giddily, Yato skipped on and out of the door of the noble's domain, as the floating hands carried said noble behind him like a carriage.
They had indeed been very audacious to think that they could do and say what ever that wanted to a man such as Hisato, seeing that the bugs who were devouring the smoking man had managed to devour the 'three legs' of the man before he went into shock and the pleasant screams of agony finally ceased. Inhaling slowly the cherry of the cig burnt up to only about an inch from the filter as the ash fell from the end of the cigarette now and the man shifted his bright blue gaze around the room feeling the refreshing sound of millions of droning insects. With a light tap upon the edge of their swarm container they returned from whence they came without a verbal command as the man turned and started to walk over to where his comrade was still standing having hear him mocking the man who had smacked him earlier. "These two are done..."
After finishing up their fresh meals, it was like a vortex was formed from the insects as one could watch the smaller end of the vortex swirling into the jet black container that hung from the missing-nin's left hip now, following their host as he moved to close the distance between Yato and himself now as the words directed at the noble were entering into his ears at this moment. 'Again with the licking. Perhaps this man has some strange licking fetish?' It was at this moment that he once against saw the white haired young man lick the Noble that they had captured, but while it was strange it didn't even cause for the older of the two to even bat a single eye at the actions. Having seen many strange things during his time in prison and on the run he simple disregarded it was some odd habit of the man. All the man cared about at this point was that this man had strength and with that strength combined with his own they had the potential to help him not only achieve his petty goals of revenge on the Aburame and Konoha but also the other life goal he had, as well.
"A terrific idea?" Hisato actually shook his head slightly at the mention of Yato having a terrific idea but only spoke mainly to himself about the words of his friend and listened to determine just what kind of good idea the strange little man actually had. "Hmm, I am actually interested to visit this other noble you speak of. Perhaps he can even be of use?" In truth, the former Konoha-nin was very interested to find out who the fellow missing-nin's client was that wanted this smaller fish out of his way, though the reasoning why wasn't what the bearded man wanted to know and instead he desired to know if they would be able to use this man for their own personal goals. That was the reasoning behind the casually spoken question at the end of his reply to the multi-hand using shinobi that was holding onto their prey at the moment.
Taking one last drag from his cancer stick as it burnt the contents all the way down to the filter within the raven haired man's mouth, he then spat the filter onto the ground where a blood stain of the one who had smacked him remained after the bugs finished their meal earlier. Placing both hands back into his jacket pockets the man turned on his heels and opened his stride to catch up to the rather giddy young man who was actually skipping out the door of the noble's mansion at this point. Hisato was never truly sure that he would be able to understand the constantly changing mentality of Yato but at the same time he wasn't sure it was worth the trouble of even allowing for a smart man like himself to try. This guy was truly 'unique' but he had goals that aligned with his own to some extent and that was enough for now. After only a few moment the leather jacket wearing shinobi stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder with his comrade as they moved back into the darkness of the dense forest with the captive noble tightly imprisoned within the numerous hands that floated behind them like a trophy from their brief hunt.
11, 451 Words - 15 Control
CharactersShow
Active
Tsukino Hisato - Kiri Chuunin - Seven Swordsman Dagger
Saisuko Zao - Suna Bannin - Spirit Weapon Saint
Kyōhō Ken - The White Snake Sage - S Rank Assassin/Bounty Hunter
Aburame Hisato S-rank Mn / Inactive
Tsukino Hisato - Kiri Chuunin - Seven Swordsman Dagger
Saisuko Zao - Suna Bannin - Spirit Weapon Saint
Kyōhō Ken - The White Snake Sage - S Rank Assassin/Bounty Hunter
Aburame Hisato S-rank Mn / Inactive
Old CharactersShow
Inactive/Dead
Arashiyama Ning - Kumo Chuunin - Weilder of the Ghost Spear
Yami Kasai - Mizukage - The Black Reaper - DEAD
Genso - Elemental Crafting Shaman - A Rank Monk - Inactive
Aburame Akiro - Konoha Jounin - ANBU Member - Inactive
Hyōryū -- Suna S-Rank / Dead / Used as Inheritance.
Xi - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Sato - A Rank, "The Cleaving Swordsman " / Inactive
Akujin - Konoha Genin, Art Ninjutsu Guy / Inactive
Toukai Touma - Kiri Genin / Inactive
Arashiyama, Toushi - Kumo Bannin / Dead
Hitachiai - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Ji Ning - Iwa Genin / Inactive
Naegi, Chin - A-rank MN / Inactive
Arashiyama Ning - Kumo Chuunin - Weilder of the Ghost Spear
Yami Kasai - Mizukage - The Black Reaper - DEAD
Genso - Elemental Crafting Shaman - A Rank Monk - Inactive
Aburame Akiro - Konoha Jounin - ANBU Member - Inactive
Hyōryū -- Suna S-Rank / Dead / Used as Inheritance.
Xi - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Sato - A Rank, "The Cleaving Swordsman " / Inactive
Akujin - Konoha Genin, Art Ninjutsu Guy / Inactive
Toukai Touma - Kiri Genin / Inactive
Arashiyama, Toushi - Kumo Bannin / Dead
Hitachiai - Iwa Jounin / Inactive
Ji Ning - Iwa Genin / Inactive
Naegi, Chin - A-rank MN / Inactive