Cheating Problum

[PureWillPower]

It was a pretty average day. Ken had received orders to hunt down a snake in the western desert. But before he ventured fourth to confront serpentine dangers he had to find out information on local snakes and their habits. Taking a turn from the Kazekage’s office, he proceeded right for the library. Like most buildings in the village, it was not exactly wheelchair accessible. Pulling himself up the stairs by the handrail backwards, he eventually got up to the door. It was a slow day inside. One couple over at a table reading. One librarian at the desk and one putting books back on the shelves.

Ken rolled over to the desk with a grin. The woman was in her fifties, easily. As he came up to the desk he pulled out his papers and slid them to her on the desk. “I need info on the snakes of the western desert. Particularly the dangerous ones.” the librarian looked at his papers for the classified level and nodded. She walked into the back of the archives. The other librarian was coming back to the desk with empty cart ready to fill up. She was pretty cute. She had long black hair braided together around her face and together in front of her. It ended just above her stoamch. She was pretty slender. Wearing a black kimono with white accents. She had her obi replaced with the Suna hitai-ite [forehead protector] and even managed a decent sized bow in the back. Her feet were covered with white tobi that extended up into her kimono. Over her beautiful green eyes were a pair of coke bottle glasses. Freckles adorned her cheeks gingerly giving her the stereotypical bookworm moe look. As she loaded up the cart with more books to put away, the two exchanged smiles though the librarians was accompanied by a blush.

As the other librarian left to put more books away the elderly librarian returned, and slid the scrolls to Ken. Ken offered her a smile in thanks and she smiled back accompanied by the same sky look and blush. Ken carefully took the scrolls and slowly rolled away. Getting to a table he unrolled the first scroll and starts to read. The couple was at the table next to him. After a few minutes, the woman stood up and left. Ken noticed the Suna hitai-ite wrapped around her left thigh. After she left the library, the man walked over to ken and took a seat. ‘Umm. You are a ninja right? I have a favor to ask you.”

Ken looked up to him. He was a common “look like every guy” guy. Nothing special but nothing bland. “Umm. I have a mission to prepare for…”

The man leaned forward and stood up. “Please I need your help” depite his better judgement, he closed the scroll and sat back listening to him. The man sat back down and sighed. “My wife has been coming home late every night, even when she is not on a mission. I think she might cheating on me. I was wondering if you could check on her and see if she is. She’s a ninja and I’m not, there is no way I can find out for myself. I need the help of a ninja and I can’t go to the board to request it as a mission since the village won’t spy on it’s own.”

Ken sighed and passed the scrolls to him. “I’ll see what I can find. Could you take these back to the librarian for me while I get to work?” The man nodded and ken just flickered away.

[PureWillPower]

Landing from his Body flicker just outside of the Library, Ken spotted the kunoichi walking away with a look over her shoulder. It seemed she was keeping an eye out on if she was being followed or not. He had to focus on stealth if he wanted to help this guy. But he really didn’t. He was kind of blindsided with guilt. The ninja turned the corner quickly. Ken had to turn on Itoguruma to catch up with her. As he turned the corner, she turned the next corner. This kept up for a while until he saw that she entered one of the bath houses.

He rolled to a stop and rubbed his temples. This particular bath house was run by a group of Suiton kunoichi. In fact it was well known as to only allow kunoichi in it. This was not good for the favor. Any other bath house, he could use henshin no jutsu and just move in there. But every clerk was skilled at spotting disguise jutsus. There was even fuijin barriers through the entire building preventing any jutsus that would allow spying. If anything was going on it had to be in here. He would need help.

Luck however was on his side it seemed. Walking up to the bath house from the other direction was Ai. He hurried over to her and waved hi. “Hey Ai-san. Got a favor to ask.”

Ai stopped in her spot and closed her eyes. “No Ken-kun. I will not cause a distraction so you can look at the girls bathing.’

Ken just skidded to a stop. His face red in anger, not embarrassment. “I’m Ecchi not Ero!” As he opened his eyes, he saw Ai with her tongue out cutely. She was making fun of him again. He settled back down and cleared hi throat. “I need your help in the bath.”

Ai looked to him and adjusted her tub. “A couple problems with that. First this is an all female bathhouse. And second, even if guys were allowed I wouldn’t be able to scrub your back.””

Ken blushed and looked up to her. “I don’t need help with that, I have puppetry strings. For things like that.” There was a momentary silence before he put two and two together. She was smiling back to him even though he yelled at her. She knew he uses Kugutsu for EVERYTHING. And she knew about both his crush on her and that he was ecchi. She was just picking on him even more. “I need you to spy on a a kunoichi for me. A guy is married to her and he thinks she is cheating on him. Since I can’t go in there, I need someone who can. I got just today since I have that snake mission in the morning.”

Ai took a look in and sighed. “Sure but no henge recreations for your direct information. So what does she look like?” Ken henged into her exact appearance but stayed sitting down. Ai nodded and walked into the bath house. Ken shook his head trying to once again figure out why he was doing this.

[PureWillPower]

After about an hour of waiting outside, Kenjiro spotted Ai walking from the bathhouse. She stopped just past the door and downed her open drink in one shot with a exaggerated sigh. Ken rolled up to her. “So Ai, what did you find out?””

She sat down her tub and let her hair down to dry in the warm dry air. Ken closing his eyes a her hair sprinkled some water on him. “She does have a meeting late tonight. She invited me to come along and bring another ninja that can keep secrets. “ She picked her tub up and placed a card on Ken’s lap. “You are my invite. Midnight tonight under the west sign.” She walked away as Ken looked at the card and stowed it in his pouch. Guess there was nothing left for him to do until later tonight.

________________________________________

Later that night, Ken arrived at the meeting place only to be shocked by the large number of shinobi in full body black hood cloaks with the Suna symbol on their chest. Hitai-ite worn where they usually would. Ai was adjusting her hair before pulling her own hood up. She then walked over to Ken flanked by two other cloaked ninjas. Despite all his training, all he faced, he was still frightened about this turn of events.

She handed him a cloak. “But this on brother. Then we can join the others in the Snake pit.” Ken held the cloak and looked at it strangely. So this was what the man’s wife had been doing late at night now. She was part of this cult of…Hold on did she just say Snake pit? A snake worshiping cult? Not again…

Ken handed the hood back. His head shaking, Ai was pretty, she was intelligent, but every bell in his head was ringing, saying run. Run away. Run away as fast as your wheels can take you. His heart however….started screaming like a little girl as it left without him. “Ai. I won’t tell anyone about this but there is no way I’m hanging around snakes. Nuh-uh.”

Ken turned around and started rolling away. He still had to do a mission in the morning concerning a dangerous desert snake. He had to leave at a specific time to get there when it had been spotted. Now a Snake worshiping woman’s husband asked him to check on her and see if she was cheating on him. That woman had talked his crush into joining the cult and now they were trying to have him join. Not anytime this century. Before he got tofar, a large swirl of sand aperead around him and died down as he was suddenly surrounded by a sea of black. Not an ounce of skin to be seen by any of them.

Of course all of them were ninjas. At this age, at least sp. Jounin. Numbers, age, and rank would overwhelm him if he tried to attack. One of them stepped forward. His symbol was made of golden color. A golden snake pendant hun around his neck. “Do not be afraid Brother. We of the Sunagakure no Hebi are peaceful and only wish to create a network for the trusted shinobi in case our governing force fails us as it has in history. We were created one hundred years ago for that sole purpose. “ The other ninjas surrounding him started swaying back and forth hissing “join ussss, join usss.”

Ken looked around to them and sighed. His hands then went up in a stopping motion to try and quiet them down. “Screw you guys. I’m going home.” His hands hit eight quick seals as he formed a Gintama in his hand and let it slowly roll off his figner tips in front of him. The resulting blast of sand gave him the perfect opportunity to flicker away to a roof top a block away.

[PureWillPower]

The next morning, Kenjiro came rolling out of his house with a yawn. That request and going to meet the snakes took too much time from his sleep schedule. However outside his yard was the man from yesterday. No doubt wandering about his wife. What could he tell this guy? Your wife is cheating on you with a hundred snake lovers? Should he tell him about the secret society for the advancement of moronity? That his wife became a part of perhaps the most powerful non government faction in the village?

As he rolled into the public path, the man approached him with an honest worried face. “So what did you find out?”

Ken just stopped and looked to him. “I am going to treat this like a mission you understand right?” The man nodded. “So before a debreifing a client would repeat the exact words of the mission contract to ensure everything was met.”

The man looked back to him and thought for a moment. “Your mission was to spy on my wife, using what ever resources you have at your disposal and find out if she is cheating on me and if so with who.”

Ken cracked his knuckles and his neck as he prepared for the obvious battle later in the day. “Very well. As for the information you have requested. She is not cheating on you.” He put his hands on the wheels and leaned forward. “As a bonus, I will give you this much information. Your wife is straight up psycho.” With that he gave a strong push and started about on his way to a real mission.

As he approached the gates he started thinking. If he ever got married and found out his wife was in a cult like that, could he really still love her? That bond is eternal but that was some heavy hebi stuff right there. He doubted he could love someone who looked at the government with a constant distrust and lived to be part of some back up plan.

Then a thought came to his mind. Ai. The lovely one had worn that same cloak and anxiously invited him to join. She had no reason to actually go into it. She seemed genuinely interested in their activities. While he looked stoic passing through the gates, his heart was sinking as he realized the woman he loved, he never really knew. He couldn’t even bring himself to think of her romantically anymore. He had to let her go now. She was a friend, nothing more. And life had determined that there would never be anything more to it. He felt as if a tidal wave had just crushed his heart.