Chapter One

[Sanjuro]

Chapter One
A Sleepless Night In Iwa

In almost any other village in the world, at 2 A.M, most residents would be sound asleep and enjoying comforting dreams of whatever the hell people found comforting. Iwagakure was not one those villages. At the best of times there were people coming and going at all hours for business. Such was the life of a Ninja Village. One young man stood on the railing of his veranda, chakra holding him to the side, while he stared up at the night sky. The smoke bellowing up from the underground steel mills didn’t leave many of the stars visible but Ken’ichi didn’t mind. He wasn’t looking up at the stars for their beauty or to study their movements like some astrologist. He was bored, plain and simple.

When one never slept, they usually found something to do to pass the time. Usually he would train or try and get a month long mission that involved constantly following different targets or something. Anything that would occupy him. Being unoccupied was as bad as sleeping. It brought up memories that were best left buried deep under several layers of insanity.

Taking one last long breath of the cool midnight air, Ken’ichi hopped down onto his veranda and walked in through the sliding glass doors. Security wasn’t a big deal to him, his apartment was very Spartan. A bedroom with a bedroll and alarm clock, a small kitchenette that was very rarely stocked, and a living room with three cheap couches and a second-hand coffee table. He very rarely, if ever, locked up his apartment. Even when leaving for weeks at a time.

He sighed as he walked through his apartment and out the front door. He knew of an all hours tea house nearby that happened to double as a gambling hall that doubled again as a brothel. The ruling government didn’t care about establishments like that, as long they made something of a profit. However, they did make some excellent tea. He spent most nights there anyway, why make things different now?

[Rothynn]

Ugh, god dammit.

Niiro rubbed his head as he tried to pull himself up off the ground. Looks like he passed out in the brothel again and... yup. His wallet is gone, seems to happen every day now.

He was supposed to be waiting patiently in the tea room for his new team-mates at 6pm sharp.

Then came 7pm...
and then 8pm...
and then 9pm...

Everything after then was a blur though, but he sure as hell knew he had pants 5 hours ago. He sat cross legged and pants-less on the ground as he looked around for some form of clothing. Groaning he noticed his pants hanging off the wall by his kunai, ripping it off the wall and shoving it in his pouch he jumped up to his feet and stuck his pants back on, hopefully they'd stay there for a while now.

Making his way through the door and past the crowds of people oogling the "friendly women" he stepped back into the Tea House. From what he was told, the first person to find looked like a panda.

Panda, panda, panda... he couldn't find anyone that looked like a.. "Panda!"

There he was, walking into the tea house. He didn't look all that interesting besides the panda face, muscles built carefully suggests some form of taijutsu, he just didn't know what. Waving maniacally he shouted loudly at the chuunin.

"Paaaaaaanda! Over here!"

[Karze]

"Ah, finally." For the past week, Kaosu had been on an exhausting mission that had left him little to no time to relax and lie down in peace. Only now he felt his first moment of relaxation, as the open window of his apartment came into view amongst the rooftops he was leaping to and from. It seemed like forever since he last sat down on his warm, comfortable bed and had a nice drink. In fact, sitting down and having a nice drink was all he had wanted to do since he started the hell of a mission.

Leaping across from the final rooftop, Kaosu landed on the metal beam that stretched from the roof of his apartment to the roof of the house opposite of him. The view tonight was quite beautiful, if you ignored the noisy streets below. The sky was open, the moon was full and the stars were shining brightly. Normally, he would sit there for a while and enjoy the nice breeze, but he was thirsty. Dropping down from the beam, he caught hold of the wooden plank above his window and swung himself into his apartment. His room was just as he had left it; an untidy pile of crinkled clothing at the end of his bed, empty bottles of soft-drink and cordial along the floor, his dinner plate from the night he left, which was now covered in fly shit and maggots.

Lovely.

Luckily for him, cleaning the pigsty was a job for tomorrow. For now, that drink and relaxing sleep was all he wanted to do. Opening his fridge door, Kaosu's jaw dropped and his anger flared. All of the shelves were empty. Completely empty."So that's why I went on the mission.. fuck." After he had ran out of food and drinks, he'd gone on a mission to earn some money that would hopefully sustain him for the next few weeks.

His drowsiness had disappeared, replaced by a burning desire for a soft drink. At a time like this, there's only one place to go. He threw off his gear except his staff, and put on a casual shirt over himself, then scooped up his wallet and and made his way out the window and down the street.
15 minutes later..

He was gone. With a half empty bottle of his favourite lemon soft-drink still gripped firmly in his hand, Kaosu had passed out on the streets surrounding the local gambling house, cross tea house, cross brothel. Definitely not a good place to sleep..

[GardenSalad]

Rikaku was charming, cute and energetic. But she wasn’t a whore. Far from it actually. The amount of times she kept getting asked to work at the brothel was beyond belief. She was underage, yet, they continued to persist her. Sure she would go to a tea house. But a brothel? That wasn’t going to happen. For now, anyway.

If that was the least of her problems, you would ask why Rikaku was complaining. But not only does she constantly get hassled about working at a brothel, but the countless seedy men trying to perve on her, as well as give her creepy looks was probably seen/done double the amount of times being asked to work at a brothel. Rikaku wasn’t a side street hooker. She was a shinobi. A proud ninja of Iwakgaure.

But you wonder. Why keep going back to the same place if you keep getting harassed? And there were two reasons for it. The first was that it was the best tea in town. But most of all, there was gambling. She was underage, but hell, she was so good at winning, heaps of people would come and watch her play, just so they could see someone lose all their money.

”24. Jackpot! You win again, Rikaku.”
”Ah, thank you. Thank you! My necks getting a bit stiff. Think I’ll go rest for a bit~” she smiled and scrunched all the winnings in her pocket, slipping a note from her sleeve into the dealers pocket as she walked past. With a wink, she headed to the other room. Sometimes winning is too easy. Especially if a few people are helping me out. Hehe.

Upon entrance, she noticed a few weird-looking people. But where there was a brothel, there would always be strange looking perverts. So ignoring that, she skipped along, checking how much money she earned. I don’t even have to work at the brothel to earn thousands. While she checked however, Rikaku wasn’t paying attention, running into a man. And who would that be? Yes, the most suspicious character in the room. The one with the dark rings around his eyes. ”Aaaaahh, Sorry~”

[Sanjuro]

First he had tripped over some kid just outside the teahouse, sitting right in his path. Who the fuck collapsed in front of a known gambling hall over some lemonade? Seriously. It was just pathetic. And then some girl and ran headlong into him.

Ken stared at the girl that had run into him. He didn’t glare or sneer, just stared; his face blank. He didn’t know this person and he didn’t like other people touching him. Especially people he didn’t know. God knows what kind of crap they had on them. Some kind of weapon? Or was it a unique skin-to-skin based technique that he hadn’t heard about? Possibly even tried to stab him with a poison needle and miss-- He was doing it again. Letting out a sigh, he brushed passed the girl and went to sit closer to the counter. He could heard the roars of the gambling hall coming from the room beneath this one. Iwa was one of the few places that towered down instead of up. The brothel was attached to the gambling hall directly rather than tunnelling down even further.

He simply signalled the middle aged woman who was making the tea and she smiled kindly. He frequented the place enough that he didn’t need to speak anymore. Thank god.

"Paaaaaaanda! Over here!"

Ken’s left eye twitched. It wasn’t the first time the higher ups had told someone he looked like a panda and then sent them out to find him. He particularly hated the loud ones though. Shouting that god forsaken name across his usual habit? Not a smart idea. He clenched his fist around the tea cup he had just been handed and realized he wasn’t wearing his gauntlets. Fucking lovely.

“Just ignore them all… Maybe they are like the voices that come and go in my head. Ignore them and they will shut up…”

[Rothynn]

Shunned. Totally and absolutely shunned.

His new teammate seemed to take no notice to his calls and just continued on his merry way without a care in the world. Who the hell does that? It was Niiro's mission to correct this situation!

Making his way over to the panda-man, he let out a wide grin and held his hand out to the boy.

"Seitetsu Ken'ichi, Chuunin of Iwa, currently team-less." Maybe this kid preferred serious conversation, let's see how that works out. "Enkouton, Niiro. I've been sent here to meet with my new team memb--" At that moment he looked out the door and saw a kid passed out with.. softdrink? Niiro's eyes suddenly had a strange gleam as he walked out the door and looked down at the kid.

"Gotta be here somewhere..." patting down the kids clothes in search for his wallet, Niiro hoped this kid had some money left over for some drinks. Maybe he could even get some for his new panda friend.

"Aha!" He found it, a small wallet tucked neatly in the boys uniform, how easy. Sticking the wallet in his vest he spun back around and made his way back inside to his new teammate.

"Now, where were we?" 'crap, I was trying to be serious.' "Aha, I'm your new teammate!" he yelled, holding his hand out once more for a handshake... if that failed he would initiate Kuma Hug.

[Karze]

Kaosu found himself quite uncomfortable lying on his bed of cement. Constantly he would groan and squirm around, instinctively looking for a pillow to fold under his head or blanket to cover himself with. Of course, tea houses slash gambling hall slash brothels don't keep bedding gear lying around outside for homeless bums to sleep with. But he didn't know that he'd fallen asleep there; for all he knew he was currently lying at home, on his relaxing queen-sized mattress with his favourite type of lemon squash in his hand. He was dead to the world.

Or at least, he was up until some blind asshole basically kicked him in the ribs. The pain jump started his mind and he found himself awake, although his eyes didn't like the idea of opening. "Nghh, fuck off." he moaned, not wanting to move or get up. Was it honestly that hard to walk around? Fucking dumbass.

The pain passed shortly after so he closed his eyes and rested his head back against the cement, beginning to doze back off. Of course, wishing to be left alone on the streets of Iwagakure was but a distant dream. "Gotta be here somewhere..." Two cold hands ran themselves across his body, searching for something. He let out a pathetic groan as he flopped his body over lifelessly. By then the man had found what he was looking for and left as fast as he had come. Kaosu managed to open his eyes enough to catch a glimpse of the man as he walked off - darkish red spiky hair with some sort of red jacket.

Shaking his head, Kaosu pulled himself up off the floor and gathered his bottle of lemon squash in his right hand. With his left, he scanned over his pockets to find what was missing. "Oh you son of a bitch!" he grumbled to himself. Whoever that guy was is a dead man. He'd taken his wallet and all the money he got from that mission. That long, boring, exhausting fucking mission. There was no way in hell he was going to let anyone take it.

With anger beginning to show in his eyes, Kaosu entered into the building through the door just near where he had passed out. To his surprise, the man who had only just stolen his wallet was basically waiting to be caught. He was standing not too far away from another man with rings around his eyes so dark that it could be mistaken for make-up, chatting away obnoxiously. "Aha, I'm your new teammate!" the man yelled, holding out his hand to the creepy-looking guy who didn't seem to give a shit.

"Oi redhead, I saw you run with my wallet. If you value your left nut, I'd give it back." He was serious. Kaosu loved his money, a lot.

[GardenSalad]

The man staring at Rikaku was just.. creepy. It caused a shiver to run down her spine. Was she going to get raped? Was she going to become his slave, only to be fed once a day while waiting in his base--

She was thinking too much. Rikaku would always do this, but in a way where they were either trying to rape her or trying to steal her money. And it wasn't easy. She was the type of person that over-thought things. It sucked, because she would always try and sleep, and the moment her head goes blank, a big picture of a money bag would appear; followed by lots and lots of jewelery. Now that calmed her down.

But another reason she didn't like to go to sleep that much, was probably because her expectations were so high, Rikaku needed five-star treatment. A bed with the most comfortable material. The aroma filled with expensive scented candles, and paintings, curtains and plants that just made the place so relaxing to sleep in. But when she saw two people lying on the ground, Rikaku kept thinking how bad it must of felt. This was all in a split second moment, so when she looked up after day dreaming, the man who she accidentally knocked into had already left.

She stressed and once again checked the money in her pocket. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. All there. Phew." With a sigh of relief, she wiped the sweat across her forehead and looked around. She was getting paranoid. A creepy man just walking out and not stealing her money? Something must have been up. But for now, Rikaku was safe. No-one would try something against her in the tea room. Unless they wanted to get their ass kicked by all the spectators.

The tea house was known as a place where commotion would happen. Mixed with a brothel and a gambling house, it was bound to happen. And as usual, it didn't disappoint. A fight was about to break loose, and all she wanted to do was cheer them on to see who would win. "I bet 50 on the red-head~"

Due to her popularity in the place, a crowd of people circled the group in a heartbeat; yelling out to persuade them to fight. Carrying a hat she stole from the gambling room, Rikaku took all the money from the bets. "You better not lose red-head. I have a lot of money riding on you~"

[Sanjuro]

Okay… this was starting to get very annoying. Fights broke out all the time here, Ken was used to it, but they were usually on the floor below in the gambling hall. Not in the teahouse. The Madam usually ran a very strict ship and he started to wonder what the hell was going on.

---

“Again…? That’s three deliveries in as many months that have gone missing! We are changing the routes and increasing the guards but they still manage to find the supply chain every fucking month!” Madam Tsuyako was not in a good mood. “There is obviously a sell-out in this building somewhere… and you still cannot find him? I expected more from my main enforcer…”

In a flash a man who was formally known as Yoshiro was falling to the ground, his head already at his feet and rolled to a stop at the Madam’s desk. She would not tolerate incompetence and he had failed consistently for three months.

“Madam!” The messenger came up short as a short sword was held to his neck and he saw the body of a man on the fall. “M-madam! There is a man outside! He has one of the new slaves! He is demanding your presence!”

Tsuyako grunted and motioned for her 2IC to step forward. “Get this mess cleaned up and gather whatever guards you can find in the next five minutes. Now!"

---

… He was going to murder all of them. Not just the one who had called him panda, but the girl he had bumped into and the white haired brat who was demanding his money as well. And once he was done with them he would bury every other fool in this building and feed them to flesh eating ants. Yes… that would be a sufficient punishment for his headache.

A shiver ran down his spine and Ken’s head snapped up towards the bead-covered entrance that led to the stairs of the gambling hall. He had felt this sensation only twice before. Both times even he had had to hide from Madam Tsuyako. And she liked him. Old family friend and what not. The crazy bitch was a retired Iwa Ninja who wanted to support her village in a way that made her a higher profit. Hence this crazy establishment.

He watched as the Madam and a contingent of the ‘peace-keepers’ from the floors below cut through the crowd and headed outside. This was not going to be good. He could hear someone outside and turned around to follow the group with his eyes and narrowed them when he saw what was outside. A man holding a katana to a woman’s throat. The woman bore Tsuyako’s collar. She was a slave. So this was the problem she had been complaining about last Thursday at dinner.

[Rothynn]

"Oi redhead, I saw you run with my wallet. If you value your left nut, I'd give it back."

Oooooohhh, Drama.

Cute kid though, being all demanding and what not. Before long a crowd had formed around them with a small girl leading the pack. Cutie, but not really his style.. he liked them with a little meat on the bones. Besides, what kind of self respecting girl her age hung out in one of these kinds of places? She had attention whore written all over her.

All this had come at a bad time though, he was in the process of introducing himself to a team mate and forming an unbreakable bond of brotherhood with panda man, all ruined now though. Thanks guys,

Although it seemed like something else had the panda's attention, the commotion outside was a surefire guess. Deciding to be assertive, he grabbed the panda by the wrist and ran up the stairs. "Let's do this!" He had no idea what was going on out there but he wanted to join in.

He had forgotten all about the little tussle he was supposed to be in, but who cared? The kid can come back when he grows some hair where its important.

[Karze]

Although he had threatened the thief in blind-rage, Kaosu had no intentions of starting a fight in the tea room, or at all for that matter - he just wanted his damn wallet back. Sadly, threatening someone in a building like this was bound to bring an audience, and with the audience comes.. "I bet 50 on the redhead~" Yep, there we go. Gambling. The lady who had yelled out was standing at the front of the crowd, appearing to be leading them. Chants of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" began as more and more people placed bets on their favourite.

Meanwhile, the wallet-thief was completely ignoring him and focusing on the man seated beside him, whom he called "Panda". Judging by the looks on Panda's face, he knew this guy as much as Kaosu did, and was beginning to get pissed off as well.

Giving it a few more seconds, Kaosu stood there still waiting for a response but received none. This guy really was an arrogant prick, and if there was one thing in the world that he hated the most, it was arrogance. If this guy didn't acknowledge him soon, he was going to lose his nana.

"Let's do this!"

About bloody time.. he thought as he unclipped his metal staff from his back and drew it into his right hand. If this guy seriously wanted to fight, he'd have to drag him outside to avoid damaging the tea room. It was probably the only nice looking place in this whole building. To his surprise, before he even got the chance to adjust his stance, the red-head had grabbed "Panda" by the wrist and ran up the stairs with him.

What.. the..?

Quite frankly, he was dumbfounded. What kind of person steals a wallet, ignores your threats, says something misleading and then just.. runs? Ugh, oh well. He would just have to follow.

Pushing through the crowd, Kaosu made his way up the set of stairs and followed behind the duo as fast as his tired legs would allow. Where the hell was this guy planning on going, anyway?

[GardenSalad]

It got boring quite quickly. Rikaku wanted attention. No, seeked attention, and with all the commotion subsiding in a matter of seconds, everyone took their money and went to gamble somewhere else. Rikaku was heart-broken. Her potential winnings all gone. And who was to blame? That stupid, dumb-looking red head. That's who. So she followed the men outside, making sure the red head would pay 'twice as much' for what he did.

But her thoughts were passed away when she noticed the situation. A slave? And not just a slave, a woman slave. It made her shriek. Rikaku always believed they deserved to live a proper life. It brought her back to when a relative of hers was almost sold to become one; they were poor and just recently had their house knocked down. But luckily for them, Rikaku's family helped out, and the family didn't have to live a traumatizing life by having their daughter (same age as Rikaku) becoming a slave.

And because of that, Rikaku despised people who wanted slaves. Everytime she saw one, she just wanted to shout out in rage, and literally go 'ape-shit' by destroying everything in her path. But by herself she knew this would never happen. It was more likely that she'd be caught in the process and have to live through a terrible life.

So now was the time to take action. Rikaku wouldn't normally do things for free, but this was an exception. Smiling, she moved into handseals as froth filled into her mouth. Not a second later, she spat them out as they spread along the ground. It looked disgusting, but was effective. Not only would it slow down the man with the katana, but the amount of bubbles caused a some-what smokescreen that filled the area. Taking advantage of this, she yelled out to the other three people she followed, asking for help.

"I'll try and save the lady. You do what you can, mk~"

Saying that, she moved into another set of seals, sending out a whip of water around the ladies body, trying to pull her out of the bubbles and toward her.

Techniques UsedShow

†Suiton • Violent Bubble Wave (水遁暴力的なバブルの波)
C-rank Ninjutsu
After the user has done the necessary handseals, Rikaku will spit out a large volume of bubbles which covers the ground and reduces friction, considerably limiting the opponents' movements. The bubbles are spit out with violent force that is capable of washing away attacks. Oil/Fire techniques that are C ranked or lower will be washed away, while B-rank or higher will just be weakened. This technique can also be used as an effective smokescreen.

*Suiton • Mizu no Mushi [Water Element • Water Whip]
D-ranked Ninjutsu
Suiton • Mizu no Muchi is a Ninjutsu technique that utilizes water to create a 7 foot long whip. The ninja can also send an electric current through the whip to electrocute their opponent if the user has a Raiton affinity or Nature Chakra Manipulations aside from Suiton. The whip will function in the normal fashion, such as allowing the ninja to whip the opponent, and grab hold onto limbs or inanimate objects.

[Sanjuro]

“H-huh? What the hell!?”

Kenichi ripped his wrist free from the redhead and glared at him for a moment before he heard footsteps rushing up behind him. Two others were following them, the one who had tried to instigate the fight and the one who started the round of betting. So all three people that had pissed him off were here? How convenient. Tsuyako was trying to negotiate a price for the rest of the slaves return, Kenichi saw no point in interfering. And then the girl started attacking the man. Fucking lovely. That bubble spray looked kind of gross though. Vomiting bubbles had to feel weird.

"I'll try and save the lady. You do what you can, mk~"

Oh for the love of... She couldn’t just let Tsuyako do her job, could she? Noo.. she had to go and interfere. Ken saw the look Tsuyako gave him and then sighed. He was going to get roped into this now. He could feel it. She had enough contacts to bury all four ninja and no one would ask a single question. If they were going to get anywhere, he knew they would have to take the man alive. Maybe a little interrogation to get his fish-like lips talking. Now that he looked, his lips did look a lot like a fishes. Even his eyes were a little bulbous. Maybe he was from some kind of fish clan? Or a result of fish-human experimentation. Why the hell would anyone want to combine a fish and a human? … Mermaids. Mermaids were hot. That explained everything. But this was a male, so again it made no sense--- Oh.. he was getting distracted again.

His fingers folded through the seals for one of his many earth based techniques. ‘Earth Release - Earth Trapping Technique.’ Punch the ground for a little dramatic flair and… voila! The compacted earth that made the streets of top-side Iwa rose up and latched on to the man, holding him tight while the water whip pulled the slave away.

JutsuShow

*Doton • Doton Torappingu [Earth Element • Earth Trapping Technique]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
Doton • Doton Torappingu is technique used to trap the user's target(s) in the earth. Using their mastery of Doton, the user causes the earth beneath their target to rise up and latch onto the target. While it can be broken by Taijutsu technique, this is a good way to distract your opponent while you think up your next move.

[Rothynn]

This was certainly something you don't see everyday, someone actually had the balls to come into Iwa with a slave hostage and then demand payment? Looking around, Niiro could spot plenty of people with the skill to cut him down before he finished a sentence... surely he couldn't be as stupid as he smelt. Which was another thing, why does a man who looks like a fish smell like a dead cat? Shouldn't he smell like fish?

"I'll try and save the lady. You do what you can, mk~"

Easy for her to say, she took the easy job and still managed to make it impossible for Niiro to do any sort of combat ninjutsu properly. Suiton ninjutsu, honestly.

Niiro looked upon the tussle with excitement, he hadn't punched anything in days! Although, the last thing he needed was his new uniform getting covered in mud on his day off. So why not improvise? Grinning widely he grabbed back onto panda's wrist. Planting his feet into the ground tightly, he twisted his body and yelled. "Kuuuuuuuuuma throwwwwww!" 'Kuma throw, I need to write that one down.'

Still grinning as his body twisted and lifting Panda off his feet, he released the boys wrist. Sending him flying towards the slaver trapped by earth. A sickening crunch was heard as the Iwa-nin connected perfectly with the slaver, who was broken out of his restraints and sent flying back into the ground, seemingly unconscious.

"Ahahaha, bulls eye!"

[Karze]

Kaosu's emotions of rage and frustration were reduced to nothing but confusion as he spun around the corner to find the red-headed guy and the so-called "Panda" standing in front of the doorway. Just outside, negotiations regarding slaves were taking place, and things didn't seem to be going all that well. Knelt on the ground in the center of all the commotion was one female slave, who looked utterly helpless and broken. He felt bad for the girl. Living such a pathetic life, being sold, bought, used and thrown away for the next high-and-mighty asshole to misuse would break most people. But this was how things worked in Iwa. Slaves were an ordinary thing, and there wasn't much point in trying to stop it now.

"I'll try and save the lady. You do what you can, mk~"

It was the girl who had started the chanting for a fight before. Something about her had changed since before though. The intensity had created an atmosphere about her that no ordinary brothel-dweller had. Her eyes were fixated on the slaver as she ran her hands through seals and spat out a bubbly substance, then followed by the water whip technique that he was quite familiar with. So she was a suiton-user like himself. Interesting.

Backing the woman up, "Panda", as he had been named by his obnoxious newfound friend detained the slaver with strips of earth made from the streets as the whip drew the slave girl backwards. That would of been sufficient, but of course, the annoying red-head had to play his part in the confrontation. Expecting a different combat style, Kaosu was disappointed as he grabbed "Panda" by the wrist and launched him into the slaver head-first, who then fell to the ground apparently unconscious.

"Well, that was over faster than it started. Now can I have my goddamn money back red-head?"

[GardenSalad]

"Maybe you should give me MY money back. Well, the amount I was going to win if you didn't bail red-head," she interrupted, skipping along and poking the man on the forehead. "I would usually get people to pay me on the spot, but since I've got something better to do, I'll wait until I deal with this guy first." With a creepy smile on her face, she continued skipping past him and reached guy who was holding the slave hostage. He was unconscious, but Rikaku was going to make sure he would wake up and answer her questions.

"Heeeeeeeeeey you, wake up~" she slapped him across the face a few times; a red hand mark formed on each cheek, but no matter how hard she tried, he stayed out cold. "I saaaaaaaaaid, WAKE UP!" Moving into a set of seals, a bee came out from the end of her robe and landed on the guys face. Afterward, it exploded with acidic honey, causing first degree burns on his face. Not a moment later, he woke up, screaming and trying to grab his face from the agonizing pain from the honey.

"You didn't listen to me. It was your fault mk~" Tieing some wire around him, she sent out another bee that exploded acidic honey over his face while she turned around. Smiling once again, she got ready to go back to gamble and get a drink in the tea house. "One of you can interrogate him. I'm getting bored."

This was another side of Rikaku that they didn't know about. She was evil and manipulative, and would do anything to make sure she got what she wanted. It was like she had some sort of dark, evil aura around her, and her smile just emphasized her change of personality.

What have these guys gotten themselves into?

Techniques UsedShow

†Acidic Honey Bee (酸性蜜蜂)
D-Rank Ninjutsu
The user does the needed hand seals and summons a bee made of honey. Then, the bee attacks with it’s stinger at a speed of 3. The honey is slightly acidic, causing first degree burns where it hits. When the bee gets hit, it will turn into a splatter of sticky honey.

[Sanjuro]

Kenichi sat on the side of the teahouse, staring at the sky while he listened to the screams coming from inside. Tsuyako had cleared out house and started interrogating the man on her own. She tried to avoid involving shinobi wherever possible when it came to slaving problems. It was a nasty business, she had told Kenichi many times, and the less the government knew about it the easier it was to maintain alliances with other villages. He really didn’t care. Blue eyes travelled over the trio standing below him as he turned around. What a night this had turned out to be.

A highly annoying son of a bitch who threw him straight into a man that was already captured. A highly annoying son of a bitch who instigated a fight when a fight wasn’t necessary. And a highly annoying son of a bitch who was highly annoying.

He heard the stone door sliding open and looked straight down to see Tsuyako staring at him. She was wiping the blood of her hands on a rag and looked at each one of them slowly. She didn’t say a word, simply motioned for the group to come inside.

“I should have done this when the merchandise first started disappearing,” she started, clamping down on a pipe between her teeth. “I’ve put in an official mission request and I think I am going to have you four sent out. You’re already involved in this. The details are in that scroll by the door, but you would have heard most of the nitty gritty stuff from squealer over there.” She jerked her thumb over to a corner of the room. “I want my merchandise returned. The booze, the slaves, everything. I don’t care how you manage it as long as it’s done. If you happen to find the a lead to leader of this fucking slaver gang or better yet the fat bastard himself, follow up on it. Now get going, I have other problems to deal with.”