Character Bio’s-

Hazard’s OC
Gatsuuga Hyouro
Age: 24
Position: Jounin- Captain in P.I sector
Looks: Wears standerd Jounin shinobi outfit, while undercover wears same combat pants w/ Black T-shirt, about 6'2", Fairly long reddish brown hair that is not well kept.
Personality: Charismatic, usually doesn't trust others due to the line of work, very calm, and can be caught daydreaming- or get off track easily.
Good at: Negotiating, problem solving, and genjutsu.
Bad at: Can be a bit lazy, and doesn't possess great stealth abilities.
Weapons: Simple tool pouch for kunai and such.
Jutsu: genjutsu uses illusions to bend opponents’ reality and decision-making, also uses taijutsu and fire style jutsu.
Kekkai genkai: none
Animal partner: Octopus

Shizake’s OC
Hayai Sutoraiki
Hayai= Quick
Sutoraiki= Strike
Age: 19
Position: Anbu Black op (recently get's transferred to the P.I unit in this story)
Looks: The usual Black op look. Wears a dragon mask. Has short, spiky black hair.
Personality: As all Black Ops- kills his emotions, takes personal interest as to who, what,when,where,why, and how a person was killed (mainly the resason he get's transferred to the P.I unit).
Good at: Sensing enemies, sword skills (very swift)
Bad at: Get's himself into messes a lot. Will fall to deep into personal matters (another reason why he is transferred to P.I unit)
Weapons: Carries two Katana in a X formation on his back along with the normal ninja tools

Jutsu: Uses some earth jutsu. Can make his sword encased in rock to make it hit harder.
Kekkai Genkai: None
Animal Partner: None, but uses dog summonings to help sometimes

So these are the main character’s we have created for this fic. These are two shinobi in the Private investigation unit, or more simply P.I that solve unexplained attacks, large scale crimes and disasters before they get out of hand or dealing with the aftermath. These shinobi usually deal with rogue ninja, risky under cover missions and calamity in their line of work.

This is taking place just 1 year after the 3rd great Shinobi war. Just about every country is dealing with internal problems at this point in history to rebuild itself after the expenses of war and holding done rebellions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1- The Assignment
(Gatsuuga’s P.O.V)
I walk into the P.I sector of the kage tower at 7 am that morning to go get briefed like I did every morning when getting a new case. Even though the war has ended there are still plenty of stragglers holding out and rogue shinobi to deal with. That’s where I come in. Just yesterday I finished another solo mission on investigating a homicide case in a small rural country town. Deaths included 3 children, 2 boys and a girl, and the mother and father. I figured out that it was arson and they were burned alive in their sleep along with the house. The cause? I narrowed it down to one of the likely raids from a rogue group of shinobi that was passing through.

Today was quite pleasant, except for the fact I would have a partner on this mission. The details are unknown, but working with somebody in these kinds of situations are much different than standard shinobi work. First, you actually have to get to know the person and trust them to an extent. Second, It’s not necessarily your combat skills you’re using, but more of logical reasoning and negotiating. I’m going to be seriously pissed if I’m given some blockhead as a partner.

I walked into the Sandaime’s office swiftly to see the man smiling back at me with someone in a mask already in the room.

“ Hello Gatsuuga. I was most pleased about the report you handed in about the arson case. Most informative. Anyways, you will be working with Hayai Sutoraiki, a transfer from the ANBU in an investigation of a small village south of here that has been having some disturbances.” Said the 3rd Hokage.

I walked over to retrieve the scroll and look it over. I noticed my new partner was peeking over my shoulder to look at it as well.

“ I’ll let you see it, just a second.” I stated to my overly curious partner.

“ Sorry. I’m just new to this and would like to see the mission. That’s all.” Hayai replied.

“ Ok, here ya go.” I say as I hand him the scroll.

“ Good, now that you’re all acquainted I want to add something in. I expect you to take your time with this. There has been a lot of weird activity around that general area, and we can’t just send in a normal team. The reason I picked you two was you both can hold your own in combat and are more skilled in problem solving. I want this conflict resolved when your done and to know all the details.” Hiruzen stated.

“ Hai.” Hayai and I reply back in unison.

I turned towards Hayai and said, “ Hey, you don’t need that mask anymore. It’s ok to actually show your face.”

“ Very well.” Hayai replied as he removes the ANBU mask to reveal a young adult, but no more than 21.

“ Great, I get a damn kid with no experience.” I mumbled sarcastically to myself.

“ I expect you two to cooperate. I don’t want this to end up like your last partnership Gatsuuga.” Hiruzen interrupted.

“ Oh, we’ll be safe. I plan to have us leave by tonight, if that’s ok with you?” I state then ask Hayai.

“ Fine by me.” Hayai bluntly states.

“ Ok then, you two are dismissed.” Hiruzen declared as he motions for us to leave.

I walked out of the office with Hayai in tow, still looking attentively at the mission scroll.

We get outside finally and I ask him, “ So what has your attention?”

“ It’s unlike any mission I received in the ANBU. Most missions were assassinations of some sort, never something quite vague as an investigation. We aren’t even given any helpful leads, only hints it seems.” Hayai points out.
“ Welcome to the wonderful world of investigation. We won’t know what were up against until we actually see it. Anyways meet me by the front gate at 4 pm, that’s when we’ll depart.” I respond back.

“ Alright.” Hayai answers as he leaps off to somewhere else in the village.

I decided I would go back to my apartment and pack my bag then make a fruit salad and some tea. I would want something pleasant to leave on in my stomach. I still couldn’t shake the idea to why I was given an emotionless ANBU to deal with as a partner. I had never had a good history of working with others, and this mission was high ranking. Somebody with little or no experience in this field shouldn’t be doing A rank investigations.

“ Guess I’ll just have to tough it out I suppose.” I chuckle to myself as I start to make my way through downtown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2- Meet n Greet: The first Mission
(Hayai's P.O.V)

Today was my first day joining the P.I unit. I was finally going to be able to go more in depth into who,what,when,where,why,and how a murder took place. My commanding officer told me I was very good at these type of things so he recommended me for the P.I. I was told I landed a position in the P.I unit. Well there was only one other person in the P.I unit and I was meeting him today.

I was summoned early, about seven o' clock. I put on my usual ANBU outfit and slipped on my dragon mask. I grabbed my sheathed katana's and put them on in an x formation on my back. I was then out the door and on my way to the Hokage's office.

After about a thirty minute walk I made it inside and strode into the Hokage's office. I bowed to lord Hiruzen as we waited for my partner to show up. Before I knew it a jounin in his mid twenties casually stepped into the office, giving lord Hiruzen a bow. His name was Gatsuuga Hyouro, the captain of the P.I unit. Hiruzen began briefing us on our mission but something caught my eye. When the Hokage mentioned I would be working with Gatsuuga, something changed in his eyes. He gave me a look that said, " I don't trust anyone, so don't get in my way." I shrugged to myself and continued to listen to lord Hiruzen.

The Hokage was done briefing and handed Gatsuuga the scroll that contained the mission specifics. I curiously looked over Gatsuuga's shoulder and he instantly noticed, stating, "I'll let you see it, just a second." To which I responded with,

"Sorry. I'm just new to this and would like to see the mission that's all." A few minutes passed by of him glancing through the scroll then finally he handed it to me to look over. We were to conduct a small investigation of a small village just south of the hidden leaf village. Apparently there have been some disturbances.

Lord Hiruzen explained that he wanted the problem solved quickly and wants all the details once it's complete. You know, the normal mission details.

Gatsuuga turned to me and stated, " Hey you don't need that mask anymore. It's ok to show your face." I thought about this for a second, usually an ANBU isn't supposed to reveal their identity. But my mask would reveal which village I am from so I only thought it was logical not to wear it. I removed it and noticed a little surprise in Gatsuuga's eyes as he mumbled something to himself. As usual I shrugged it off.

"I expect you two to cooperate. I don't want this to end up like your last partnership Gatsuuga." The Hokage stated.

" Oh we'll be safe. I plan to have us leave by tonight, if that's ok with you." Gatsuuga remarked bluntly.

"You two are dismissed." Hiruzen says as he motions for us to leave

I was still glancing at the scroll when Gatsuuga stopped me and asked, "What has your attention?"

"Well, this is unlike any mission I've received in the ANBU." I reply. " Most missions are assassinations of some sort, never something quite vague as an investigation. We aren't even given helpful leads only hints it seems."

"Hmm, anyways, welcome to the wonderful world of investigation. We won't know what we're up against until we actually see it. Meet me by the front gate at 4pm, that's when we'll depart." He responds.

"Sounds good." I say as I leap on top of a roof and take off home to prepare.

I went back home and prepared my ninja tools and what not. Loaded up on some summoning scrolls and ate nothing more than a piece of toast. I wasn't very hungry, just a bit curious as to see what we're truly dealing with. I set my alarm for 3:45pm and took a quick nap before we set off for our mission.

Time flies by quick, my alarm was going off and I woke up and slammed the damn thing off. "I need a new alarm clock." I thought to myself as I left my apartment and headed to the front gates to meet Gatsuuga. Again, I was there before he so I posted up on a wall, crossed my arms and casually waited for him to appear. After a few minutes of waiting, Gatsuuga showed up remarking that I was here early. We both strode out the front gate and were off to complete our mission.

It was quiet on the path to the southern fire country, finally he broke the silence by asking me, "How did you get transferred to the P.I unit?"

"Well I've always been curious when it comes to problem solving. I guess it finally paid off. My captain recommended me for the unit anyways." I replied

"Hmm ok, just don't get in my way...Usually I don't trust outsiders like yourself." He sharply commented.

Looks like my notions were right. He doesn't trust to many, but I see how that comes with the territory of doing these missions. It takes a lot of guts to investigate murders and what not. I just hope he can trust me enough to not abandon me.

"How did you become the captain of the P.I sector anyways?" I inquired.

"I believe that's a story best left untold." He responded coldly.

I decided it was time to shut my trap as I let out a sigh and kept walking towards southern fire country. My life was going to get a whole lot interesting from here on out. Especially with this guy around.

- On the Road

(Gatsuuga’s P.O.V)

Traveling with Hayai is quite annoying to say the least. He asks so many damn questions it’s probably going to make me insane or make my head explode. He won’t stop asking me about what I do, how I do stuff, am I interested in what he does, blah blah blah. I really couldn’t care less. I know the ANBU are emotionless people with no real feelings, and I refuse to be sucked into the façade. And besides, why the hell would you want to know my stupid past? It’s not exactly something out of a children’s book.

We finally get to a clearing just a few miles before the last town before our destination, and I decide it’s finally time to get into costume and give my teammate some pointers before he screws everything up with his lack of skills in P.I. The woods were getting a bit old and I was looking forward to being in a city again.

I stop to face him and say, “ We’ll stop here for now. Take off your clothes.”

He gives me the most confused look to why I just said that as I toss him a scroll with civilian clothes, as I remove my own. Was this guy self-conscious or something?

I sigh out loud and repeat, “ Just remove your clothes already, or people in town will get suspicious. Our current attire will be a dead give away that were ninja.”

“ Ok that makes sense.” Hayai solemnly replies as he extracts the clothes from his scroll.

“ Good, now I’m going to say this next thing once and only once. When were in town let me do the talking. Only speak to when spoken to until you get the hang of things.” I state to my teammate.

“ Why? I can talk perfectly fine, so what’s the problem. Do you not trust me that much?” Hayai skeptically replies.

I scratch my chin and respond with, “ It’s not you parse, but your training. You’re trained to kill, not to interact with others on a complex social level to manipulate conversations. Also you lack emotion and the people we will be around will get suspicious of you quickly. Don’t take it personally, it’s just I’ve been doing this awhile.”

“ Fair enough. Anything else?” Hayai asks as he slips over the plain grayish red T- shirt.

“ Yeah. I’m going to give you a crash course in lie detecting. Now I’ve had years of training, but I can only show you the easy stuff. If somebody is lying they’ll tend to avoid eye contact and fail to make full facial expressions, much like you do on a daily basis. The other thing is people will want to cover up the mouth or touch their face in some fashion. These aren’t fool proof, but there the basics to look for and will help you in making decisions about trusting somebody.” I explain in great detail to my caveman like partner.

“ What if they try to tell that I’m lying?” Hayai asks.

“ That’s the tricky part. Just try to answer it directly like you would if you told the truth. Easier said than done.” I honestly shoot back as I slip on my civilian pants.

“ Ok, so what is our first objective once we are in town?” Hayai again asks.

“ Don’t know yet. I have no idea what were up against so the first few days will be recon based just to get caught up on recent events.” I say with a shrug as I pack the two scrolls into my pack.

“ Now let’s go, it’ll be dark soon and I want to sleep in a bed.” I shout to my partner as he packs away his old clothes and weapons.

“ Alright, I’m ready.” Hayai replies as he swings his pack onto his back.

We walk until sunset and finally reach the town before our true destination. I figure we could scour the pubs or something for information on the village over. It’s a medium size rural village with about 30 homes in town not including hotels and apartments, with a small downtown area. Not nearly the size of Konoha, but decent for a country place. Hayai and I walk into town at a casual pace, and we see most everyone has either gone in for the night, or is downtown drinking.

We stroll into downtown about five minutes later, and I take a quick glance at Hayai to see how he’s holding up. He looks a bit shell-shocked with all the lights and people talking, so I decide to give him something to think about.

I lean in and whisper to him, “ Hey, if anybody asks were travelers from the Land of Rivers. We are just passing through and are looking for some drinks and women if anybody asks.

Hayai nods in approval and we decide to enter a decent size tavern that looks a bit filthy with many people laughing and drinking. I quickly scan the area and I can’t believe my eyes to whom I see near the back in a booth with two skanks draped over him.

I quickly snap Hayai out of his daze and whisper to him, “ Look who’s in the back of the bar.”

“ No shit...” Hayai says while trailing off.

“ Well, lets go introduce ourselves. This information gathering just got a whole lot easier.” I reply to Hayai as we both head back to the pub to meet the man.

I quickly motion for Hayai to take the inside seat across from him, and I slid in next to him. He removes his attention from the slutty women to give each of us a weird gaze.

“ Do I owe you money or something?” He slurs; evidence that he has been drinking.

“ No, but we know you master Jiraiya. I think you might be able to help us.” I say as I pull out my leaf headband and P.I identification.

“ I swear I didn’t know she was under age! Don’t arrest me!” Jiraiya quickly yells in a drunken fashion, and the two women near him quickly leave his side.

Hayai and I both face palm at the same time, and I elaborate with, “ No. Just calm down, and we don’t care about that. We need to know if you have any information on the events that have been taking place in the next town over. Anything would be much appreciated.”

Jiraiya shapes up quickly and lets out a deep breath as he sputters out, “ Oh. Ok I can help with that I suppose. I just prefer if we move somewhere less public, any ideas?”

“ I saw a motel while we were coming in that would be suitable.” Hayai adds in.

“ Perfect. Let’s go…. after I get another drink.” Jiraiya replies as he motions for the waiter to bring us three shots.

“ Alright sounds good.” I declare as I nudge Hayai to play along.

Luck just so happened to be on our side so far.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Lets Get Down to Business
(Hayai's POV)


"It's about damn time." I mumble to myself as Jirayia motions for the women to leave. All three of us walk out of the bar and head towards the motel. This task should have taken five minutes but with Jirayia constantly checking out women, it took us fifteen minutes. This was starting to piss me off, but I can't lose my cool here.

We finally make it to the motel, rent a room, and sit down to discuss business.

"Hey your that guy from the P.I unit aren't you?" Jirayia slurs to Gatsuuga.

" Of course it's me, I showed you my fucking badge didn't I?" Gatsuuga sharply retorts.

" And your from the ANBU Black ops aren't you?" He points at me and says.

Great. Not even two hours into the job and someone already knows where I'm from. Luckily it's just Jirayia. Gatsuuga glares at me and then turns to Jirayia.

" Ok seriously. We need to talk Jirayia." Gatsuuga states in a serious tone

" What's going on?" Jirayia asks

" Have you noticed any suspicious activity in this village? Gatsuuga inquires.

" Hmm...Not that I have paticularly noticed." Jirayia replies.

"Are you sure? Gatsuuga states. "Do you just not remember because you're drunk? We could use some helpful information to get us started."

"Hmm." He thinks then snaps his fingers. " Now that you think about it I've seen the same pair of these guys snooping around asking questions. I actually caught them spying on me before you guys walked in the bar." Jirayia replies proudly.

" Do you remember what they look like?" I eagerly ask.

I receive a glare from Gatsuuga knowing I spoke out of line. Again luckily it's just Jirayia.

"Yes...Do you remember what they look like?" Gatsuuga restates.

"Well...One was tall. About six four I would say. He had long blonde hair and was wearing green pants." Jirayia scratches his head, saying. " The other one...I can't remember"

Gatsuuga scribbles something in his note book and then slams it shut.

"That's all you remember?" Gatsuuga asks, his tone begging for more.

"Yes, thats all I can remember. Sorry" Jirayia says apologetically

"Well it should at least give us somewhat of a lead. Thanks anyways." Gatsuuga states, shaking Jirayia's hand. " If you see anymore suspicious activity find us immediately."

I too shake Jirayia's hand and we all split our different ways. It's probably time to go find this guy Jirayia spoke of and see whats up.

"So whats the first step?" I inquire

"Find one of the two guys Jirayia described. That's the only way we're going to get more information." Gatsuuga bluntly responds.

We begin walking around the village looking for a tall blonde with green pants. It's best not to question the villagers, one because most out at this time were drunk and two because people would get suspicious of us snooping around. I keep my eyes sharp as we continue looking for this blonde. I'm not used to being in this kind of environment and it's really beginning to bug me. There are too many lights and we actually have to interact with people. Just gotta toughen up I guess.

After about thirty minutes of walking around we finally see a man that matches the description Jirayia gave us. Tall, blonde, and green pants.

"That look like him to you?" I point out.

"He seems to match the description, I believe it's time for some interrogation." Gatsuuga states, a bit of humor in his tone. "Again, let me do all the talking. Take notes."

He tosses me a notebook and a pencil and we start trailing the guy, seeing where he goes. I assumed if we caught him walking into an alley that's where we would strike. To our luck the man stops before an alley, glances around and walks in.

Gatsuuga is instant with the commands. "Take to the roofs, I'll confront him in person."

I hop up on the roof and peer over the edge, making sure the man doesn't pull anything. I see Gatsuuga stride into the alleyway and pursue the target. A quick thud fills the air and Gatsuuga motions for me to jump down. I do so to find that he knocked the blonde out.

"We gotta move him to somewhere more private where we can hide our faces and interrogate him without any interruption. If anyone asks, he blacked out from too much alcohol and we're just carrying him home." Gatsuuga casually states.

"Sounds good to me. I think I saw an abandoned warehouse not too far from here." I return.

"Perfect that's where we'll take him." Gatsuuga says, picking the man up and putting him on his back.

I take lead and glance around the corners of the alley making sure no one is headed our way. I motion to Gatsuuga that the area is clear and we calmly step out of the alleyway carrying our "friend" home. I'm very interested as to how Gatsuuga goes about interrogating people. I decided I would take detailed notes and watch every move Gatsuuga makes so I can learn from what he does.

The village is literally a ghost town. I guess it's pretty late by the time we make it to the warehouse. It made that task ten times easier. We walk inside to find out it's an abandoned weapons factory. What was a weapons factory doing in a village like this? I shrugged it off and put a piece of plywood against the door. An alarm if you will, for anyone who decides to disrupt our business.

Gatsuuga places the man on a chair and ties him down. We then wait there in the shadows for the man to wake up. I'm pretty curious to see how this questioning will take place. The man grumbles, as he begins to wake up.

This mission just gets more interesting by the minute.

- Elusive


(Gatsuuga’s P.O.V)

We had finally secured our first suspect, and by the looks of him he was defiantly drunk, and a shinobi by the look of his build.

The man slowly comes to and barks, “ What am I doing here!”

I quickly move into action and activate a chakra restraint seal onto the man’s chest, just so no funny business goes down. He looks very displeased by my smart action, and seems to be in a sour mood, which makes sense. It isn’t fun feeling helpless at all, especially if you’re tied down in an old warehouse.

Hayai turn to me and asks, “ So what’s the plan?”

I think for a moment before replying, “ Well, there are a few things we could do. First, we could ask him nicely, but no smart shinobi would go along with that. Second, we could beat him until he give us and answer.” The man looks a bit frightened at that choice as I continue with, “ and finally we can use either genjutsu or an information gathering ninjutsu.”

“ I doubt the man will freely talk, and I don’t know any information extraction techniques so I say we either use genjutsu or beat him.” Hayai remarks while pitifully staring at the drunken man.

I turn back to him and ask, “ So what’s your name?”

“ Takanori.” He bluntly replies.

“ Ok, Takanori I have a choice for you. Tell me where your partner is.” I ask in an amused manner.

“ I’m here alone.” Takanori replies in a monotone.

I motion for Hayai to punch him, and he breaks the man’s nose in the painful blow. I had to hand it to him; he could deliver a nasty punch.

After the man calms done from his agony I ask again, “ So where is your partner?”

“ I told you I’m here alone you bastards!” Takanori spitefully screams back.

“ Then why are you here?” I inquire.

“ Business trip for a lumber company in Iwa.” He replies quickly.

I quickly mulled over his response to see if I had the right or wrong guy, and it was tricky. He did have a good motive, but his answer seemed a bit too rehearsed. He was definitely hiding something from us; I could see it in his eyes, but I figure I’ll play along just to see how bad he trips up.


“ So, what is this trip about?” I ask while giving him a false sense he has tricked me.

“ I came here to meet up with the rest of my crew to start cutting down lumber.” He replied easily.

“ Where are you going with this?” Hayai impatiently asked.

I turn to him with a small grin and say, “ Now now, let’s here the man out.” As I turn back to Takanori and reply, “ So, where is your crew?”

“ I believe there in town drinking.” Takanori replies.

“ Ok, but didn’t you say you were alone?” I skeptically ask the strange man.

“ Yes, I was by myself drinking.” He replies.

I take a step towards him and ask, “ So why were you by yourself?”

“ Because I had just arrived a few hours ago, and I haven’t met up with anybody yet.” Takanori says while shrugging his shoulders.

“ Ok, I have a different question for you now. Where is your lumber gear?” I ask and I think I may have seen a sweat bead.

“ It’s in my hotel room.” He quickly answers.

“ What room number and what hotel.” I sternly ask.

“ That’s my private stuff, I won’t tell you.” He sharply replies.

I decide I’ve had enough of bullshitting him, so I think I’ll try that new jutsu out I learned from Ikibi. It should be quite useful in breaking down his moral, and hopefully spilling the beans.

Hayai takes a few steps forward and states, “ This is wasting our time, and I’m really getting sick of these lies.”

“ I’m not lying!” the man pleas, but I notice a small lack of emotion in his facial features. He’s good, but I’m better at this game.

“ Hayai, brace the Takanori down.” I ask and he speedily complies as he holds him down by both his shoulders from the back of the chair.

“ Now, you have one last chance. What are you here for.” I ask in an ominous tone.

The man gives no reply, and I sigh. This could have been so much easier if people weren’t so stubborn and loyal. I form a few hand signs and place my right hand on the guy’s chest, as he looks down on it with distain.

“ Ninja Art: Chakra Total Overload.” I mutter as I feed my chakra into his system to overload his own chakra points to the point of extreme pain.

Takanori hangs in strong for about 30 seconds before he starts screaming and convulsing to the massive overflow of foreign energy attacking him like a virus.

“ I’ll talk! Please stop!” He shouts at the top of his lungs.

I remove my hand, which is a bit numb at this point and I fell a little light headed for dumping a little too much of my chakra all in one go, but Takanori looks like he’s been through hell as his chakra points are actually visible on his skin and looked burnt to a degree.

Takanori quickly tells us the information of everything he knows while Hayai jots down most of the important stuff. From what I could make out of it is he is part of a rogue gang of shinobi who run a prostitution ring, racketeering, and are also assigned bounties to create wealth of their organization who refer to them selves as the Taisou. I also asked about the leader, but nobody has ever seen his face so nobody knows his real identity. He gave us some information about the local hideout in the next over, but beyond that he seemed pretty out of the loop. He also knew nothing about the supposed “monster” rumors either, so that would still be something to look into. He said his partner knew more and was somewhere in town dressed in a black and gray over cloak with a red shirt and pants, had a sword, and told us his name was Doku.

“ Well, thank you for that incentive.” I replied as Hayai handed me his notebook so I could see what he caught.

“ So are you going to let me go now?” Takanori eagerly urged.

“ You truly are an idiot. Hayai, dispose of him neatly.” I said and Hayai quickly delivered a kunai to the man’s neck without question.

“ Why was that necessary?” Hayai asked me in a very confused tone.

“ We can’t have a fugitive running around telling his group that they now have enemies. Why does this bother you, don’t you do this kind of thing all the time? Geez…” I ramble off to Hayai in a joking manner, but he looks like he didn’t get the joke. Guess not having a sense of humor is another to add to the list ANBU don’t have.

“ So how do we find this man Doku?” Hayai asks as he unties the dead man from the chair.

“ Simple. We’ll setup a henge of one of us posing as Takanori and confront him. After that we’ll draw him away to get him to spill some information hopefully similar to this. What I’m aiming for is him to tell “Takanori” the recent dealings going down in Taisou, and besides they’ll get suspicious if more shinobi just randomly disappear within short periods of time.” I explain, as Hayai seems to get the message.

“ So when will you do the henge?”

“ The henge will be done tonight while everyone’s still drinking, and who said I would do it?” I reply in a playful manner.

“ I just assumed tha-“

“ You’re the one that took notes, right? You studied him the most so you’re going to do it.” I say while cutting off Hayai.

“ Seriously?” Hayai says in a very astonished fashion.

“ Don’t worry too much. I know you have the social skills of a rock, but you’ll pull through for sure, and if goes to shit I’m right there to help you out.”

“ Okay…” Hayai mutters as he takes Takanori’s body to hide it.

This would be good for the kid to get some first hand experience, and I hated doing these kinds of things anyways. Pretending to have a personality you didn’t have and such sucked, but maybe he could pull it off since he really doesn’t have a real personality. If he fails though, we are going to have to take some drastic measures to cover our tracks if we let this guy get away alive.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Compromise
(Hayai's POV)

"Crap. I have to pretend to be someone else? What is Gatsuuga thinking? Tch. Whatever I can pull this off." I nervously think to myself while dumping the body in a gulch. Gatsuuga is waiting for me in town to come back. The plan is for me to do a transformation jutsu and go back into the alley where we saw Takanori and wait or meet up with his friend, Doku. Obviously Doku is going to be pretty pissed at me for taking this long but I couldn't give two shits what he thinks, just as long as we get the correct information.

I meet back up with Gatsuuga and we go over the plan one more time just to make sure we didn't miss anything.

"Okay." Gatsuuga begins. "Your going to use a transformation jutsu and steer the conversation in the direction of any motives dealing with the rouge ninja gang."

"What happens if he sees through the jutsu?" I ask

"Hmm...I don't want to be too close or else Doku might sense me, but I have to be at a distance to where I can jump in quickly if anything goes wrong." Gatsuuga ponders.

"What about a noise signal?" I suggest. "We use them all the time in the Anbu Black Ops. If one of use get compromised then we pop this little firecracker in our hand." I explain, pulling out a small, round, white firecracker. "It makes quite a nice pop that can be heard for a ways."

"I guess that works." Gatsuuga jadely replies.

I put the firecracker in the palm of my hand to where it can't be seen unless your up close. I make a hand sign along with a loud poof and a small cloud of white smoke. I transformed into Takanori a perfect replica. Gatsuuga gives me the thumbs up and takes to the rooftops as I head towards the ally where we found the real Takanori.

A couple minutes of walking later I find myself at the ally. I take a deep breath and stride on in there, making it to a dead end and waiting. I post up and act casual when something catches my eye in the darkness. I see two faint glowing yellow eyes in the darkness and a figure appears from the shadows.

"Took your time didn't you?" The man, who I obviously assume is Doku asks.

"Sorry, I got a bit uh...Drunk." I slur, trying to act a bit drunk.

" I told you not to enjoy yourself too much...We were here strictly on business." He sharply states.

"Sorry just thought I would enjoy it while I was here." So far so good...

"Is that so..." He solemnly remarks.

In an instant he swung his sword at me, when the hell did he pull that out? I jump back, dodging the blade and the man points his sword at me.

"You think you could trick me huh? I could tell from the way you talk that you weren't the real Takanori. He is more lively, especially when drunk." He comments.

Crap...This isn't good. A sharp pop fills the air and I can hear shuffling on the roof top. That was quick... A figure leaps down, kunai glistening in the moonlight to pounce on the enemy. Doku knew what was going on and hurled himself backward, dodging Gatsuuga's kunai.

"You already mess this up kid? Hmph." Gatsuuga grumbles.

No time to think about mistakes. We gotta capture Doku or else things will get difficult. I slip out a kunai and charge at Doku. He instantly moves his sword to block as the clang of metals screeches in the night. Gatsuuga flips over me and tosses a couple of shuriken at Doku who slides back to evade. The man grunted backing up into the dead end, realizing he is trapped.

The man makes a couple of quick hand signs and shouts, "Fire style: Fire ball jutsu!"

A massive fire ball is headed straight for us so we jump up and cling to the walls to dodge the fireball. I look back and Doku is gone, he used the fireball as a diversion, yet he is not far.

"Dammit." Gatsuuga mumbles as he jumps on top of the roof to pursue the target.

I follow suit to help Gatsuuga pursue Doku. We go through a lot of cuts and corners just so we could have our eye on him. If he disappears behind a wall even for a second he could be gone. He is obviously trying to trick us. We manage to keep up with the rouge shinobi and eventually make it into a clearing on the outskirts of the village.

He turns around to say, "You boys can keep up! Lets see how you can really fight then!" Throwing together some hand signs and shouting, " Earth style: Vine trap jutsu!"

All of a sudden, a mass of vines spouted from the ground heading towards us. Gotta act fast. I decide it's time to get serious and pull out a scroll from my pocket. I open it with a loud poof to summon my two katana's. I pull the glimmering blades out and slice the vines that were headed for us.

"Thanks." Gatsuuga remarks, pulling out a scroll of his own. With another loud poof, I could tell it was a summoning also. The smoke cleared to reveal an octopus on his shoulder. "Hello Tako." Gatsuuga acknowledges.

"What the hell do you need me for at this time of the night." The octopus demands.

"Shut your trap and follow my lead." Gatsuuga retorts, striding towards Doku.

"Fire style: Dragon flame jutsu!" Doku screams, followed by two dragon shaped fireballs heading towards Gatsuuga.

I decide to let Gatsuuga do his thing. He obviously has a plan. I'll just support him if he needs any. Gatsuuga swiftly dodges and advances towards Doku.

"Now Tako!" Gatsuuga bellows.

The octopus jumps into the air and shoots a jet stream of ink at Doku. The jet stream nails Doku right in the face, making him blind.

"Again Tako!." Gatsuuga commands.

Tako jumps into the air and shoots a stream line of oil at Doku.

Gatsuuga weaves a couple of hand signs, then roars, "Fire style: Oil ink flame!"

Gatsuuga shoots a fire blast into the oil and it lights up the area with a bright red and yellow flash. The man is on fire and rolling around trying to put it out. With all the oil, he is unable to.

"One last time." Gatsuuga commands Tako.

Tako shoots a blast of ink at Doku to extinguish the fire.

"Hayai. Take care of him." Gatsuuga addresses.

I leap over to the man Doku covered in ink and slap together hand signs.
"Earth style: Grass binding jutsu!" I shout.

The grass around him grows tall and wraps him up tight, so that there is zero escape. He struggles, but eventually gives up, knowing he has been caught.

Gatsuuga trudges over to Doku and states, "Show us where your hideout is or we won't hesitate to spill your blood."

"Ha! Like I'll show you anything!" Doku cockily says.

"Fine by me." Gatsuuga come backs with. He casually walks over to the man and cuts the grass where Doku's hands are. He takes off Doku's gloves and pulls out a senbon of his own. What was he planning on doing with that? In an instant the main is shrieking in pain. What the hell is Gatsuuga doing to him? I glance over to see Gatsuuga shoving senbons in the man's fingertips.

"A little trick I learned in the interrogation unit. The nerves here are the most sensitive so shoving a sharp object in them is one of the worst pains imaginable. Now will you obey or not?" Gatsuuga explains, then humorously asks.

Doku proceeds to spit in Gatsuuga's face and grin. The expression on Gatsuuga's face went from playful to pissed in an instant. He lifted up Doku's hand and shoved the senbon in his fingertip so deep, only about one centimeter was sticking out of the man's fingertip.

A blood curtling scream erupts from the man's throat as he screams, "I'll show you!!! I'll show you everything!!! Just please stop!!!"

"How can I be sure?" Gatsuuga playfully demands.

"I promise! Just please stop this excruciating pain!" Doku pleads.

Gatsuuga slides the senbon out and Doku's arm falls to the ground as he weeps in pain. He then slips the senbon back into his tool pouch and smirks.

"Easy enough." He casually comments. "We can keep him tied up in the motel room until morning." He then bats Doku on the head and knocks him out. "We can tie him back up once we get into the room." He says. "If anyone asks just say he blacked out while drinking. Same excuse as the other time. When morning breaks we'll knock him out again and tell anyone who asks that he is sick, make it to the outskirts of town and wake the poor fellow up to lead us."

I nod my head in agreement to watch Gatsuuga cut the grass binding jutsu as he orders for me to carry the body. Stuck with the drudge work again. Whatever, just glad Doku didn't get away. We begin to trudge our way back to the motel tiredly and pass out for the night. So much work in one night. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow.

- Haunting Memories

(Gatsuuga’s P.O.V)

Hayai and I had just finished dragging Doku’s heavy body back to the hotel, and I can say I’m ready for some damn sleep. A lot had happened tonight in meeting Jiraiya, finding about an underground organization and taking a hostage. I’m whipped.

Hayai seemed pretty tired, and a bit disappointed that he had failed so fast in having Doku see the deception. I figured he would take it hard since he’s used to never failing, where out in P.I is nothing ventured nothing gained. A lot of trial and error, and a bit of luck were necessary.

As we finally secured Doku in the corner of the room with rope and restriction seals, I turned to the down Hayai and said, “ Don’t feel down kid. He knew something was up with his partner being so late, so I didn’t really have too high hopes. Just brush it off, it could have got a lot worse, and now we have a lead.”

Hayai gave me a faint smile and replied, “ Thanks.”

I quickly went in to the small bathroom to wash up before I hit the bed, and I could here the man Doku starting to come to. Good thing I tapped his mouth shut. I quickly finished by washing my face and taking a piss before returning to the only other room in the small hotel suite we had rented. As I returned, I saw that Hayai was sprawled out on the one bed already trying to get comfy. Not on my watch.

“ What do you think your doing?” I asked in an irritated tone.

“ Umm, going to sleep?” Hayai hesitantly replied.

“ No way you get the bed, you gave of the cover so take a pillow and some blankets and go sleep in the tub. It’s nicer than it sounds.” I maniacally responded to his disillusion.

“ You serious? You said that the plan wouldn’t have worked out most likely though!” Hayai sternly disputed.

“ And who’s fault was that? Exactly. Get in the tub, unless you want to see me treat you like that poor bastard Doku.” I retorted while pointing to the pitiful man in the corner of the room.

Hayai looked at Doku, and then me before grunting, “ Alright, I’ll sleep in the tub.”

“ Nice choice.” I reply in a cheery tone as I let him take the necessary accommodations for sleep, and then I hop onto the soft mattress. The hotel room was quite plain with only one small window, very bland colors that were all variations of brown, and it was pretty much only a bed and a bathroom.

Hayai trudged to the tub and spread out his blanket and pillow to try to make it as nice as possible. After some fidgeting, it was quite in the room and Doku seemed to have passed out due to the seals I placed on him ebbing away his energy.

“ So, will you tell me where you got the octopus summoning contract?” Hayai beckoned from the bathroom.

I closed my eyes and sighed out, “ Well, about 12 years ago on my mother’s side her clan had been in possession of the contract and it was passed down to me. Not much after that really, why do you ask?”

“ I just thought it was weird to see a fire style user with an octopus, that’s all.” Hayai replied seeming content with the answer I had given him.

“ So if you don’t have any more questions I’m going to try and sleep.” I reply as I pull the covers up over my body and rest my head on the lone pillow.

“ Oh, but I do have more. I still want to know how you got to where you are today as a shinobi.” Hayai quickly spat out from the bathroom.

“ Are you sure you want to know?” I ask back.

After a short pause I hear, “ Yes. Now, what’s your story?”

I quickly take the covers off me and sit up in the bed and reply, “ Ok, listen good since I’m only going to say this once, got it?”

“ Yep.”

“ Alright, so I guess I should start from the beginning. I graduated from the academy at the age of 10 to become a genin. Since my class had uneven number of people for teams, I ended being the odd one out since I was younger than most at the time. For the next few years I spent time working in various private sectors of the shinobi build like the interrogation sector, Information, and Medical. After being bounced around for about 4 years I finally found a team to compete with during the chunin exams since their teammate had died in combat. Their names were Shibi Aburame and Zeshi Gomi, and I think their Sensei was from the Uchiha clan but I can’t remember his name at the moment.

“ Interesting, now what happened during the exams?” Inquired Hayai.

I took a small breath and continued, “ Well that year the exams were to be held in Kiri, so we traveled there along with two other teams from Konoha. The exams were some of the most brutal events I had ever seen take place, even to this date. The first one was an academic exam that used stealth techniques to gather information, which wasn’t a big deal. The second test was held out on one of their random islands that were covered in a dense jungle. The objective was to steal a pennant from another team and live for 5 whole days until the boat came back. It was horrible too since it was rumored the island was haunted by lost souls of the sea. It was mind wrecking and many teams cracked due to mental break down or being defeated.”

“ Sounds terrible indeed. Do recall the name of the island?” Hayai asked.

“ No, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The next stage was 1v1 combat in which to win and become a chunin you have to kill your opponent.” I grimaced

“ Seriously? Isn’t having a kid fight to the death wrong?” Hayai proclaimed with a bit of anger.

“ Not in Kiri I suppose. Anyways the battles were horrible as I saw many young faces perish that day. After about 5 fights mine came up, and I had to fight my comrade Zeshi. As we entered the arena he told me we wouldn’t fight a comrade, but I was young and bull headed back then. I wanted to advance, and frankly I regret the decision I made that day. I used a katon on Zeshi, and he didn’t evade or fight back. He took the brunt of the attack and died right on that battlefield. Many spectators were surprised by my action, and I couldn’t blame them. Thinking now I was still mentally shaky after spending so much time on that damned island, which is probably what possessed me to perform such an atrocity.”

“ That’s terrible. So what happened later on in your life and led you to being a P.I?” Hayai tiredly asked with a short yawn.

“ Well, I spent about 2 years as a chunin until I was introduced into private investigation. Since I had exceptional skills in leading, communication and problem solving the 3rd saw it as a perfect fit. I was quickly assigned with my partner who shall remain unnamed at this point, and we worked together for about 3 years, until I was about your age. We had done roughly 26 missions all ranging from C-A rank, and I think the last one we received was an S rank. Prior to our last mission I was granted rank of Jonin as well. The last mission we did was investigating a mass murder of a clan in the rural foothills of Konoha. Everything was going smoothly as we gathered evidence from remaining clan members and neighbors, until I figured it out. My gut told me to look for any DNA evidence, so I scoured the main hall where most of the struggle had gone on and found an unidentified hair strand.” And I paused at this part.

“ And?” Hayai anxiously said out loud.

“ Sorry, just a little painful. Anyways when I showed the results to my partner he took it, and said he would take care of it to finding who’s it was. After a few days of other dead ends I got back the report, and saw the unbelievable. It was a match with my partner, the guy who I trusted and formed a bond with over a great deal of time. I asked him about it assuming the labs made some sort of mistake, and he promptly stabbed me through the chest with his sword. Luckily, he missed my vitals and thought I was dead. As we walked away from me with the last of my strength and will power I through a senbon at the back of his neck and killed him. I quickly passed out after that and was recovered by one of the near by neighbors and sent to the hospital. The wound was taken care of in a week, but my mind had been left in tatters. After having the experiences of the chunin exams, elaborate schemes in P.I during missions to deceive people, and to be finally be betrayed by the one guy I thought I could trust, I snapped. I was deemed mentally unstable and sent of to the psych ward to be treated by therapy and Yamanaka techniques to heal my mental wounds. I missed most of the 3rd great shinobi war due to being in treatment for about 2 years, until I was considered “safe” and “combat ready”. I was elated to be free at the age of 22, and that’s how I’m here today 2 years later.” I finished by falling back as my head hit the thin pillow.

“ Wow, that’s crazy to think you were locked up in the asylum.” Hayai absentmindedly said.

“ Yea, well they figured out that I still had some and energies attached to me from the past encounter with the island since I hardly slept while there. They said they removed all of it, but I don’t think you can flush something like that out completely. 3 months ago I stopped having monthly check-ups on my brain and was deemed completely cured. I never would have guessed in my childhood that I would end up the one in the whack shack. Strange how that works, huh.” I said with a bit of humor added to get a rise out of Hayai, and then I remembered whom I was talking to.

“ Ahuh, that was a nice good night story Gatsuuga. Now I know who you are and can finally understand you better. Oh an would you care to hear my story?” Hayai solemnly replied.

“ Understand me? I don’t even understand me kid. Now get some sleep, we got a big day tomorrow. I’ll listen to your story maybe some other night.” I responded as I turned to my side and closed my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up that next morning feeling pretty shitty. I quickly wiped the sleep out of my eyes to see Hayai was already up and fully dressed keeping an eye on Doku and me while eating some bread.

“ Morning.” Hayai said to me while chewing some food.

I quickly ripped the sheets off me to see Doku was awake and still seemed very energy deprived, but awake nonetheless. I slipped on my shoes and took the rest of the bread from Hayai, and gulped it down in one bite.

“ I was eating that ya now!” Hayai angrily shouted, but failed to intimidate me.

“ Yeah, and I finished it. I have some food sealed away so don’t worry, I just wanted a quick snack. As for him.” I said quickly changing my attention to Doku and said, “I want you to place a henge on him to appear as a dog when we go through town. Right now with my seals he’ll be to weak to override it with the state his chakra is in.”

“ Easy.” Hayai said as he walked over to the worn down man and changed him into the form of a usual brown lab.

“ Great. Nobody should notice a thing, and the rope would easily be used as a convincing leash.” I said to Hayai, and then I told Doku-dog, “ And if you anything weird, I’ll shove so many senbon inside you that people will mistaken you for a pincushion. Got it.”

Doku weakly nodded his head in agreement, probably still hadn’t forgot about what I did to his fingers. I quickly rounded the rest of our gear and got out of the hostel right before sunrise. We walked through town and bought some water and a bit of fruit for the rest of our breakfast, and made our way our target town. Once out of sight from the town, Hayai and I dragged the dog form of Doku out into a denser part of the woods to start an interrogation. According to his partner, he knew more about the movement within the organization. I quickly released the henge from Doku, and motioned for Hayai to start of the interrogation.

“ Just start it off, and consider this a test of your informational skills. I’ll be asking questions as well.” I said to Hayai who seemed reassured.

If Doku told us the truth, we may actual be able to use enough information to sabotage an entire organization. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I got a feeling that things might be in our favor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

-Redemption
(Hayai's POV)

We make it to a clearing in a forest for Gatsuuga to tell me that I need to interrogate Doku so that we learn the rogue shinobi's business. Time to put all my note taking into effect. We place Doku down and undo the henge to change him back into a human. He is still tied up though, so he definitely isn't going anywhere. I rip off the tape over his mouth making Doku wince and stare him straight in the eyes.

"So...Are you going to tell us your plans or not?" I interrogate. "Or should I have my partner over here help you?"

The fear in his eyes are so apparent that he immediately starts blabbing about what the rouge gang is up to. He mentions that they are starting out as a mob. You know, collecting money in exchange for "protection". They are starting out in the next town over and plan to expand and become a sort of dominant power in the area. I notice Gatsuuga taking down notes and nodding his head. The man proceeds to tell us that they are going to use this money to also start a weapons factory. Crap...I hope they don't plan on using that abandoned weapons factory in the last town we visited, that would cause trouble. I glance over to Gatsuuga who gives me a thumbs up.

"Oh by the way, have you heard any rumors about a monster terrorizing the nearby lands and what not?" Gatsuuga questions.

"N-not that I've h-heard of." Doku stutters.

"Hmm, we'll have to look into that. Anyways lead us to where your hideout is located." Gatsuuga demands.

"I-I can't do that..."

Gatsuuga bends over to look the man straight in the eyes "And why is that?"

"M-my b-boss, he'll k-kill me." Doku shakily replies.

"Your more scared of your boss than you are of me? I think I can do things way more...Tortuous than your boss ever could." Gatsuuga beckons as he pulls out three senbon.

Doku's eyes became wide again and he agreed to show us where the hideout is located. I only assume Gatsuuga will order me to kill Doku, what use could he possibly have after that? Gatsuuga forces Doku on his feet and we begin walking towards the village named Miyu.

~~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~

Wow. This village is a lot more lively than the other. It's almost like the leaf village, the way the people act, the cheerfulness of it all. It's just missing one thing. The ninja. Just before we enter the village, I turn back to Doku and change him into a dog again. People would get suspicious if we were walking around the village with a tied up man. Doku dog led us around a variety of cuts and alley ways, obviously trying to stall. Gatsuuga tugged on the leash hard which made Doku dog quit stalling. After about twenty minutes of walking around Doku dog points (As much as a dog can point) at a building. That must be the "hideout".

"Perfect." Gatsuuga contently states, jotting the location in his notebook.

Gatsuuga then looks up at me and nods, continuing to scribble in his notebook. He wants me to kill Doku obviously.

"Come on pooch, we're going somewhere else." I command.

Doku dog whimpers and whines, knowing his upcoming fate. I yank on the chain and literally drag Doku dog back into the forest. I undo the henge and he begins pleading me not to kill him.

"Hmm, I won't kill you...If you answer some more questions." I compromise.

"I'll tell you anything just please don't kill me!" He begs.

"Which businesses has your gang began bothering?" I inquire, preparing my notebook.

"Just the ones in the surrounding area. The general market, the restaurant, and the book store." He names.

"Way to be specific..." I sarcastically state as I turn around and begin to walk off.

"Thank you so muc-"

I grin to myself and head back towards Miyu. I had secretly placed a clone behind him so when I was done with him, I could just have him killed and have my clone take care of hiding the body. Killing two birds with one stone.

Back in the village I meet back up with Gatsuuga who is sitting on a bench drinking a bottle of water. He seems to be in a pretty good mood today.

He looks at me and says, "I assume you took care of everything."

"Yeah and I managed to grab some more information out of him. Apparently the "mob" or whatever you wanna call it has already been bothering a couple of the stores in the surrounding area." I explain, pointing to the stores Doku mentioned.

"Excellent, we can talk to the store owners and maybe be able to piece some information together." Gatsuuga analyzes. "For now we will play territory and see if the mob is picking on anyone today. We have all three stores in our line of vision here."

"Sounds good to me." I answer. Finally kicking back for once.

- Uninvited Guests


(Gatsuuga’s P.O.V)

We had finally located the said hideout of the gang, but this isn’t the time to be hasty. Solving a month long case in a couple days isn’t the game, and we had hardly scratched the surface of actual evidence of the events that have been going on, and that’s not even including the monster sightings. Alas, I’m just happy that we managed to get ahead of schedule.

It was starting to get around dinnertime so I look over to Hayai on the other side of the bench and ask, “ Hey, you want to grab some food?”

“ Sure.”

We get up and walk into the downtown palazzo seeing the beginning of the nightlife erupt. Everything going on seemed extremely fun and energetic, yet so plastic and fake. It seemed like a shallow atmosphere that had some sort of ugly lie hidden underneath.

I quickly push the negative thoughts from my head when a young girl bumps into me from behind, and drops her basket that seemed to be holding some produce.

“ I’m so sorry! I’m just need to get home right away for dinner!” She cries out as she scrambles to collect the fruit that fell out of her basket. I an awkward exchange a glance with Hayai, and he steps forward.

“ Lemme help you.” Hayai states as he crouches down and helps collect the fruit for the young girl.

After they had gathered all of the fruit from her rather large basket, she said, “ Thank you so much! How can I repay you?”

I look to Hayai first, then turn to her and inquire, “ Maybe you invite us to dinner at your house?” Hayai gives me a scowl for taking advantage of a child, but if I can score some free food, go me.

“ Ok, that sounds fine. My mom and I will be glad to have some company, so just follow me!” She squeals out and bounds down to the housing district with us in tow.

As she goes on ahead, Hayai looks to me and says, “ Why are you doing this? Using an act of kindness is awfully evil to get a free meal.” Why do I have to be the bad guy?

“ It’s not just that. These people are locals and might be able to help fill in the holes about the strange shit going on around here. And we also just so happen to get a free meal, and maybe a place to stay in the meantime.” I explain in an irritated way. Hayai gives me a skeptical look at first, and then nods in acceptance.

“ You better hurry! My mother is going to be mad if I’m late!” The young girl yelled out.

“ Were coming.” I shout back as Hayai and I chase after the spastic kid.

We arrive at her house about five minutes later, and it looked fairly average in contrast to most houses I’ve seen. I see her walk straight up to the door and open it wide.

“ You two wait here.” She says quickly to us as she runs inside with the large basket.

From the inside of the house I can hear a women shout, “ Hoshi! What took you so long?” Sounds like somebody in there has a short temper with their child.

After I hear some whispering that is too hard to make out from outside the door, I hear footsteps quickly approaching the front door. Then, a woman in what appears to be in her early 30’s with an apron on greets Hayai and me. She looks actually quite attractive for being a house mother and a bit tired looking, yet she does look a bit pissed to see that her little 10 year old daughter has brought home two strange men. Couldn’t blame her.

“ So what are you two doing here?” She hissed at us.

“ Your daughter offered us a place to eat for dinner. By the way my name is Gatsuuga, and to my left here is Hayai.” I announce to the clearly pissed woman.

“ These nice men helped me when I dropped all the fruit when I was in downtown!” Hoshi shouts out in a gleeful manner then continues with, “ So, they can stay right?”

The mother let out a sigh of frustration, and quietly mumbled, “ I suppose…”

“ Thank you. Also, what might your name be?” I ask the lady.

“ My name is Shira. Now come inside, it’s getting late and being outside at nighttime is dangerous around here.” Shira says while motioning with her hand to get inside quickly. Both these girls seemed to very high strung, which could spell trouble for later.

Hayai and I quickly step inside, and drop our stuff by the living quarters in the next room over Shira pointed to as we entered the house. The inside of the house had a very plain feel, and also had a strange ominous feeling as well, but it was very soft.

Once we came back into the main room Hoshi ran up to us and quickly blurted out, “ So what are you guys doing in this town?”

“ We’re just travelers from river country. We both work in postal services, like delivering letters and such in larger quantities than carrier pigeons.” I respond to the bouncy girl.

“ So where’s the letters?” She asks in an endearing tone.

“ There sealed away in a special scroll.” Hayai quickly replies, and I give him a quick “thanks” glance for completing our cover.

“ Hoshi! Come help with dinner!” Shira shouts from the kitchen in a very thunderous tone that seems to shake the house.

“ Ok! You tow can relax till dinners up.” Hoshi replies as she runs to the other side of the house to help her mother.

I quickly walk over to a small mat and sit down in the living quarters where we stored our stuff, with Hayai close behind me. I sit down letting out a huge sigh of relief that I’m finally off my feet, and motion for Hayai to take a seat as well, but he just shakes his head.

“ I’m ok. So what are we going to do here in finding out information?” Hayai asks.

“ That’s easy. We bring up some things during dinner, and if Shira gets suspicious we just pass it off as rumors we heard. I’m already starting to sense that there is a lot more going on than were aware of, and hopefully we can weasel out some helpful information, and maybe another lead.” I respond and Hayai nods to my answer.

After about 5 minutes of relaxing I hear a loud, “ Dinner’s ready!” in a high pitch tone. Guess Hoshi is real excited to have some guests.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Answers
(Hayai's POV)

Jeez. Asking for dinner after helping this little girl out was a bit low even for Gatsuuga. No matter, we're here and that's all that matters. We strode towards the center of the house and sat down at the table. The food looked pretty good to me and hey, it was better than having to buy some or eat the crap that Gatsuuga packed.

"So what brings you two to town?" Shira asks.

"As we told your daughter, we work in the postal service. You know delivering letters and packages. Things that a normal carrier bird couldn't do." Gatsuuga responds.

"Oh that's interesting. You must be pretty busy having to travel all of the lands, no?"

"It gets pretty tiring sometimes, but we enjoy getting to see all the sights and what not." Gatsuuga answers. Role playing must be easy for him. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but we heard some rumors around town today."

"Oh...What rumors might those be?" Shira curiously inquires.

"Well just small things. I heard a monster or something has been terrorizing the nearby lands, and that a rogue ninja gang has been working around here. Those were just bits and pieces I put together though...Can't believe everything right?" Gatsuuga explains.

"Yes...They're just rumors." Shira distantly responds.

I raise my eyebrow and glance at Gatsuuga who gives me a reassuring smile. I calm down and look to give Hoshi a smile who smiles back at me and continues to eat her food. Dinner goes by pretty quick as does the small talk. We help clean up and wash the dishes, I mean cmon we basically invited ourselves inside. Shira tells Hoshi to go along and play as she pulls out some desert and tells us to sit down.

"Those rumors you heard...They are true. I own the general store you see...Recently the rogue ninja have been terrorizing me. Demanding money in order for "protection." I refused at first and they bashed the store up pretty well. It was emotionally scarring not just for me but for Hoshi too. All we want is our peace of mind..." Shira breaks down.

Gatsuuga shoots a look at me before turning back to Shira and stating, "Ma'am. I think we can help."

"Wh-what? How? Your just delivery men. How can you..." Shira trails off.

Gatsuuga lets out a sigh before declaring, "Normally I wouldn't give up our identity...But seeing as you're being emotionally hurt from this...Me and Hayai here are part of the private investigation unit of the village hidden in the leaves. We've been assigned to track down the rogue ninja and deal with them. We're going to help you ma'am."

Shira's lip begins trembling as be begin's saying thank you over and over. I didn't know what to do so I just smiled at her. I've never been in a situation like this, directly dealing with people. It's...different. I guess this makes up for Gatsuuga getting a free lunch out of a little girl, plus we have some more vital information. Still nothing about the supposed monster, but I have a feeling that's going to spring up sooner or later.

"So what's the plan?" I put out.

"Hmm. How often do the ninja ask for money?" Gatsuuga queries.

"They only started two weeks ago. But that was the end of the month, when it was time for the paycheck."

"So we can assume that they will come in at the end of the month and demand the money...Problem is we don't have that much time to wait around for them to strike." Gatsuuga examines then snaps his fingers. "I got it! What about the other stores? We recently acquired some knowledge that the ninja have been bothering the others, the bookstore and the restaurant close by."

"They've been bothered too? I never knew...What about them? Shira eagerly asks.

"Apparently...And this is just by sheer assumption but the intervals in which they collect the money won't be the same. The restaurant makes some of it's money off tips, which means they are going to have a high cash flow in a short amount of time. Customers are coming and going nearly everyday which means the rogues should be bothering them the most often." Gatsuuga deciphers.

"But how do we go about this? How do we take them down?" I put out.

"That's a great question...In the end, the boss needs to be killed or arrested. I suggest killed. Then the whole organization itself will fall apart. Plus we need to stop them before they expand into other nearby villages." Gatsuuga continues.

"Well, it might be risky, but...We could act as potential rogue ninja? You know, infiltrate from the inside?" I suggest.

"You could be onto something Hayai. They don't know who we are. Hell pop on a leaf headband and say we deserted the village and we could be in. We just have to seem professional is all." Gatsuuga affirms.

"Where are you going to begin? Won't it seem suspicious if you just appear our of nowhere and ask to get in?" Shira challenges.

"Hmm she's right...Maybe we could cause a ruckus in town and hope the rogue gang sees what's happening." I throw out.

"Ah a little hell raising? I'm up for that." Gatsuuga devilishly states. "It's set. Tomorrow we put our plan in action."

"Ok, I trust you two. You can stay here tonight, it's the least I could do for helping me with my problem." Shira suggests.

"Thank you very much." I say before grabbing my things and making a pallet on the floor.

"I get up pretty early for work, I hope you won't mind."

"Oh not at all. I get up pretty early myself." Gatsuuga replies.

"Ok then. Goodnight, and thank you again." Shira says, before turning off the lights.

Gatsuuga instantly passes out and I lay there, thoughts running through my head. This is going to be a tough one to pull off. I've never ever done anything like this before. Is this what being excited feels like? I shrug it off and rest my head on my pillow before drifting into deep sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Abyssmal
-The Calm Before The Storm

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

The dinner was quite nice, and we figured out to catch the gang's attention. All my concern is really is how we going to make it seem realistic? If we go down there causing trouble for no good reason, people will get suspicious. Hayai and I have been relocated to the main living room with some blankets in Shira's home, which she was nice enough to offer it as a haven for us. Nice lady after you got through her tough exterior.

Hoshi was sent to bed soon after dark, and I noticed Shira give Hoshi some weird looking medicine before she left to her room. At least I think it was medicine, but I;m not going to dwell on it.

Across the room from me is Hayai resting ontop of the sofa with a blanket, as I'm on the ground with a pad and two blankets and I ask him, " So do you have any ideas for tommorow's little event?" Hayai furrowed his eyebrows and replied, " Well, I thought you would think of something."

I frown at his dumb remark and reply back, " Hmm, figures you'd leave that to me. I'm having enough trouble thinking up a plan that won't seem suspicious, and to catch the gang's attention in a good way. So I'll ask you again, any ideas?" Hayai looked up in his "thinking mode" before looking back to me and saying, " Meh, I don't anything."

I facepalm myself and scratch my messy head of hair before retorting, " You're not helping us with that snarky attitude! it's been pretty easy so far, but this is the make or break it kind of deal. If we screw up we'll end up dead, or worse." He gives me a slightly astonished look only to the trained eye and replies, " What is worse than death in your opinion?"

" Death is actually one of the best things that can happen reguarding our sitiation. If we get captured, or found out without knowing we'll be wishing we were dead. Trust me. Besides, the only plans I have are a robbery with someone from the gang noticing, actually approaching them to get in, which I'm leaving out as a last resort, or to do some kind of hostage sitiation." Hayai ponders my ideas, and then says back to me, " I think the hostage for ransom could work, but who?"

I give him an ominous grin while inching closer to him, and whisper, " We use Hoshi as a hostage and hold her for ransom while her mother begs to get her back when we invade their store tomorrow." A light bulb finally goes off in Hayai's brain and he nods in agreement, and responds, " Sounds good, should I go explain the plan to them now or in the morning?"

I let out a small chuckle and whisper to him, " That's the funny part. We can't tell them since we need it to seem real as possible. We fake betraying them and hold Hoshi for hostage. Remember, we are professional's, and I don't want to have this go down the shitter because of some bad acting skills by those two. Understand?" Hayai slowly nods in agreement and quietly says, "Ok, but seems kinda sleezy to me."

I give him a smirk and reply, " That's what this business is. It's one giant mind fuck. It's almost as twisted as the ANBU, but with more tears and emotion. You never do get used to it completly, so I'm advising right now that you should get more connected with those two by the end of tonight." Hayai gives me a puzzled look, and I continue, " It's so they feel more attached to you, and when we pull the trigger on our plan it's that much more effective."

" I follow you. I guess I'll go ask Shira permission to read Hoshi a bed time story or something." Hayai replies in a slightly sickend manner, and I just give him a big thumbs up. Looks like someone os starting to catch on. Hayai leaves the room, and I just roll to my side and throw up the blanket over me. It'll be a long day tomorrow.

(Next Morning)

I woke up early around 6:30 or so feeling quite refreshed from the other day. I look across the room to see Hayai fast asleep. Looks like that girl kept the poor guy up for a while. I finally get out of bed and do a little stretch when Shira walks in and asks, " Would you fellows like to join us for breakfast?" I smile back at her and reply, " That'd be lovely."

I quickly dress myself into the rest of my gear which was strewn about the now somewhat messy livingroom. I find all my neccessary gear and Hayai is tarting to come to." Mmm....d-do I smell sweetbread?" Hayai asks in a very tired yet interested tone. " Ha, looks like Shira found you're weakness." I say to him in a mocking manner, but still joking around.

He shoots me a bored look and quickly inquires, " So, how much time do we have until we do that one thing?" He never has been one to beat around the bush. " Oh, I think we have until noon or so, since we need to scout out possible gang members that will be in the area during our scuffle. We'll need to be noticed by them, or this will just be a giant waste of our time. Figure we go out a little bit after breakfast." I shaply reply back.

" I'm good with that. Now, I want to have some sweetbread. Haven't had any since I was with my grandmother so many years ago." Hayai remarks as he heads for the kitchen still half asleep, while almost losing his footing on a rug. Looks like he's too distracted to even walk straight.

I walk into the kitchen about a minute later to see a nice loaf of sweetbread on the wooden counter with some fresh water, and Hayai and Hoshi gobbling it down like ravenous beasts. " Well hopefully I can still get some." I sarcastically say aloud. Shira quickly turns to me and says to me in a cheery tone, " Don't worry, you'll get some."

" Nice." I reply as I take a seat right next to Hayai and tear myself a piece off. I eat the delicious bread, but all I can think about is what will happen later. I have all the possible scenarios playing like a broken record through my head, and I'm sure going to miss the nice hospitality with Shira and Hoshi.

-Deception Point
(Hayai's POV)

Holy shit. What have we got ourselves into? Taking an innocent girl hostage for the sake of the mission is something totally unheard of in the ANBU. Rgh, I just have to keep my mind straight and remember that this isn't real. Hopefully the rouge ninja catch on and invite us to their little...gang. Getting one of the members is going to be...difficult...But I do have an idea in mind.

We thank Shira and Hoshi for letting us stay and Hoshi gives me a small hug. I guess connecting with her worked better than I though. It's a bit sad to think that her innocence will be tainted later today. We walk back into town and pick up some supplies. Rope, kunai, duct tape, you know...The works for a hostage situation.

"So how do we go about this? We can't just waltz in there and wreak havoc but at the same time we have to get the gang to notice." I spit out.

"We can hang around the store out of sight. Once we see a good opening, we grab Hoshi." Gatsuuga returns.

"Sounds good to me." I casually state, kicking back and enjoying the suns warm beam.

"Just don't screw this up and all should be fine."

"What makes you think I'll screw this up?" I retort.

Gatsuuga shrugs and munches on an apple. Obviously he still doesn't trust me, but I don't blame him. This line of work, in his words, is one giant mind fuck. You can't just force your trust in someone, it needs to be earned. The day goes by and we eventually see Hoshi and Shira setting up shop for the day. Operation: Hostage takeover is about to be enacted, and I figured striking right when shop opens would be perfect since there will be little to no customers. Gatsuuga shoots a look at me and I get up and walk to an alley way near the store where I have a perfect view of the inside. Hoshi and Shira are stocking up on foods and items. Putting up apples in the giant baskets, assorting kunai and shuriken by their size, and making sure the produce is correctly refrigerated.

I give Gatsuuga the thumbs up and he starts trotting to the store. He walks inside and I follow suite. We instantly notice Shira taking stock of items and Hoshi walking around the store. Surprised they haven't noticed us yet...oh well. Gatsuuga motions for me to go grab Hoshi and duct tape her mouth shut. Easily, I do so without making a sound and we approach Shira. She turns around and is about to scream when Gatsuuga flickers behind her and clamps her mouth shut.

"You make one noise, one tiny little noise and we'll slit her throat. Gatsuuga slowly speaks.

Tears begin pouring out of Shira's face and I can literally feel the agony in the air. She put all of her trust into us and in one move we totally wrecked it. Mind fuck for real.

BOOM!

The door slams open and three men walk inside. One is tall with short spiky blonde hair and is carrying a sword, he must be the leader. The other two look a lot like each other. Short, with long black hair, and evil facial expressions. Wait this can't possibly be...

"It's time to pay up Shira, or have you-" The man stops dead in his tracks and looks at the situation unfolding before his eyes. Fuck! Out of all days they had to come and collect money?! We are in the shitter now.

"Hey! What are you doing with our client?!" The leader demands.

Gatsuuga looks at me and I have no idea what to do. So...I drop the kid and Gatsuuga and I haul ass.

"You get back here!" The leader shouts as they begin to chase after us.

Gatsuuga and I take off down the streets of Miyu, turning every corner we can to try and lose the rogue gang. They manage to stick pretty close to us and we decide we have no other option but to fight. Not in the middle of town though, that would cause to much damage.

We lead the three to a clearing just outside of town. They catch up and we stand face to face with them.

"You thought you could get away like that huh? Well now you have no choice but to fight!" The leader bellows.

I smirk and pull out my two glimmering katana's from the scroll, going into a battle stance. Gatsuuga readies himself and we charge in at the group.

"I'll take the twins, you get the leader!" I call out

"Got it!"

I undo a hidden flap on my swords to reveal two pieces of string. I then wrap them around the twins and fling them over to the opposite side of the clearing, leaving Gatsuuga and the leader of the three to fight.

"You two are mine." I state, pointing my katana's at them.

"What makes you think you can take on both of us? Hmm?" One of the two challenges.

I don't say anything as I proceed to charge exchanging metallic blows with their kunai. Sword skills may not be enough in this battle, they can sure keep up. I continue gracefully swinging my sword at the two who easily dodge and block, trying to strike me at the same time. One of them backs up and streams a fireball at me to which I just easily dodge. The other stops and does the water dragon jutsu, which I easily dodge also. A fire and water pair? How interesting.

The fight continues and none of us are beginning to tire out. Looks like I'll have to pull something out of my sleeve. I throw up a hand-sign to summon two clones to hold them back as I prepare what I'm about to do. The clones manage to keep the two at bay while I pull out a scroll. I then bite my thumb and write a few Kanji symbols with the blood, slamming my hand into the center. A giant plume of smoke fills the area around me. The smoke clears to reveal my three ninja dogs, whom I must say are loyal as hell.

The larger wolf/hound mix barks first, "Yes Hayai?"

"I'm in the middle of a fight. These guys can keep up with my sword skills." I reply.

The three dogs charge in, snarling, trying to get a bite on the two twins. They make for a perfect distraction. I throw together the familiar hand-signs and shout, "Earth style: Rock embedment jutsu!" Some rock from the earth rises and ecases my katana's in solid rock. I charge, jump over my dogs and manage to slam one of the two across the head knocking him out. The other one backs away and launches a fireball at me which sears my back. Rgh, these rock swords slow me down...I shake off the pain and order my dogs to charge at the other twin. They manage to bite a chunk out of him and hold him down. I trot over and chop the guy on the back of his neck, knocking him out.

Phew...That was fun. I pull out a giant slab of meat from a scroll and toss it to my dogs right before I un-summon them. They definitely deserved it today. Now it's just up to Gatsuuga and we'll be home free. I feel light headed. Keeping up the summoning as well as using the jutsu's depleted my chakra. I can only watch as Gatsuuga fights.

I can tell they've been going at it for a while now. Exchanging blows and landing the occasional punch. The leader looks tired but Gatsuuga looks like he can take on an army. That seems to be the ultimate factor to this fight.

Gatsuuga lands a series of bunches, kicks, and kunai slices on the leader, knocking him on his ass. Gatsuuga goes in for the crushing blow to which the leader uses a substitution. Gatsuuga looks around and faces the leader.

"I'm getting sick of your crap, lets end this!" Gatsuuga roars, obviously pissed.

"Yes...Lets." The man calmly shoots back as he makes a series of hand-signs. "Lightning style: Thunder clap jutsu!

A bellowing BOOM! fills the clearing and a pulse of energy streaks towards Gatsuuga, smashing him in the chest and into a tree. I can hear him hacking and to what looks like spitting up blood. He wipes the blood off his mouth and stands back up, more pissed than usual.

He throws together a set of hand-signs and shouts, "Fire Style: Fire typhoon!" A tornado of magnificent flames explodes out of no where and streaks across the ground straight for the leader. The leader's facial expression is beyond hopeless. The tornado like thing, crashes into him like a train. He is engulfed in flames and gets send headfirst through a set of trees. I can hear his blood curdling scream as he slowly dies, eventually the screaming stops and I can just hear the sound of burning accompanied by the smell of a burning corpse.

I get up and scream, "Gatsuuga! What the fuck was that?! We were supposed to keep them alive!"

He stares at me, panting heavily, his eyes literally staring through my soul. Something must of tipped him over the edge during that fight.

Flustered, he says, "S-sorry, I forgot my own strengths."

"Rgh, I guess it's ok. I managed to knock out the other two anyways, looks like we'll be doing some more interrogation huh?' I deliver.

Gatsuuga shakes his head and replies with, "Yeah, looks like it. We can set up here for tonight, and keep these two out of town."

"Sounds good to me." I answer, going over to the two twins and binding them up with some rope and duct tape. Gatsuuga begins setting up a couple of tents and eventually finishes up. I throw the two twins inside one of them and zip up the tent, placing a sealing tag on each side of the tent so they don't escape. Gatsuuga goes out to the forest to collect some firewood so I pull out a scroll and summon up some food to be cooked later. Something must be eating at him...I'll ask later tonight when he's calmed down.

On more important news...We totally blew the fucking hostage negotiation. I only assume Gatsuuga has a plan to recover from our downfall. Now I feel real guilty for even attempting to take Hoshi hostage.

Wait...Did I just say I feel guilty? I shake my head and drop it as I prepare the food to be cooked. Gatsuuga comes back and throws together a wood pile and ignites it. I throw some fish on a pan and begin cooking the food. Gatsuuga is just staring at the fire, no expression on his face what-so-ever.

"You alright?" I pipe up.

"Hmm? Yeah I'm fine, just memories is all." Gatsuuga solemnly replies. "My old teammate from my genin years used that exact move. It just brought back some sickening memories is all, nothing to worry about."

"Whatever you say. What do we do to come back from this?" I ask.

"I'm not sure yet, lets just get some information from those two we captured and make our next move from there." Gatsuuga suggests.

"Whatever you think is best." I respond, picking up one the fish to eat it.

Gatsuuga picks up the other one and slowly chews his food eventually finishing it off. I rub my eyes and decide to pass out for the night, after all that's happened, I need a good nights rest. I tell Gatsuuga that he can take the tent, as I set out a sleeping back on the ground beside the fire. What a long day...Wasted. Hopefully we can recover.

Abyssmal

Calamity

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

What the fuck happened. I really don't know what possessed me to fire off one of my most powerful jutsus when I saw the lightning clap technique, but it just struck a chord. It's something I can't even explain through words, but it's kinda of like seeing a ghost. That was no run of the mill jutsu either, it was a created just a little less than 10 years ago, by someone who is dead now, which really worries me.

Hayai managed to spare his opponents, and honestly I'm getting sick of subordinates that don't want to cooperate, so I'm gunna bring out the big guns tomorrow. As for Hoshi and Shira, it doesn't matter to me. Honestly, I'm just playing the game like anybody else, and if anybody thinks I'm being "cruel" or "evil", get over yourself. It's all business in the end, and grudges are for the weak, even if I am a hypocrite for saying that, but I rest my case.

I wake up early next moring to see Hayai is still fiddling with the fire, and I give him a small waive to alert him of my presence. " So, what is the plan now?" Hayai quickly asks while droping the burnt sticks. I wipe my dirty bangs from my eyes, and reply, " Well, not sure yet. How about we split up for today?"

Hayai gives a very cautious look like he doesn't want to leave my side or something, and he states, " I suppose if you think that's the best idea. What do you propose?" I first take a look to the trees where the two men from yesterday are tied up and knopcked out and respond, " I'm going to stay here and weed out any information from these two, and I suppose you should go into the city and scout out where their hideout is stationed. I'm done dancing around with this nonsense, and I want to plan an infiltration." Hayai then replies, " Fair enough. I'll get a bite to eat on the way into town. Oh, and what time do you want to meet up?"

" Just meet me back here at sundown. I should be done in a few hours or so, and I need you looking all day for potential leads. Even if you do think you've found our ticket in, just keep looking for anything that may help. Alright?" I explain to Hayai, who gives me a quick nod of the head and walks off. Now, it's time for me to have some fun with those two poor souls.

I walk over to the two men tied up, and I undo the seal that I placed on them to keep them asleep, and they wake up in a fit of panic and rage. Luckily, Hayai taped their mouthes shut so they can't scream. I stand directly infront of the two and I preform a few hand signs that were taught to me from Ibiki, and I mutter, " Ninja Art: Torture Chamber." And I drag all three of us suddenly into an isolated room with no door or windows, just a few candles lighting the gloomy room, and the two men are now tied down to a kind of blood covered surgeon's tables.

" Now, listen up good you two. I want to know everything about your gang, and if you don't tell me the truth it will be bad, for you that is." I spit out in a dark tone as I rip off the tape from their mouthes. " You think these cheap tricks will work on us!" Roars the one on the left. I quickly walk over to his side, and pull out a senbon from my weapon's pouch. I jab it right into a very specific part of his neck to put him in a near death state, and his buddy looks paranoid.

" You're freaking psycho!" Cries out the guy on the other table, and I just shoot him a blank stare and ask, " Just answer my questions, or I will make you experaince a fate worse than death. In here you're worst nightmares can come alive." It's true the torture chamber is extremely effective, but it drains you're chakra like a sponge to maintain it, and I probably have about 8 minutes left until it falters. Fortunately time can be skewed in a jutsu like this to make it seem like hours or days, but all requires more chakra. So taxing these techniques are.

I pull out a scroll from my left pants pocket and I undo the seal on it, and a good 200 senbon flood out of it. The man's eyes are practically saucers, and he's at a loss for words. " Let me tell you a little story. Back in my village I studied acupuncture as a secondary job for me if I decided to quit being a ninja at some point, so I know the human anatomy quite well. With that being said, I'm going to jab every single one of these senbon into you until I get an answer. It doesn't matter how well you're trained to deal with pain. This is a whole new level of agony, and by the end you'll be begging me to kill you. That I can promise you. So are we doing this the hard way or the easy way?" I explain to the fear stricken man who just gives me a very pale stare. I shrug and reply, " Fair enough. I like the hard better anyways." He starts squirming around against the straps but its useless, since he's tied down extremely tight from head to toe. I leave the fiirst man alone, figuring I'll leave him for later when I've finished up with his poor little friend.

After about an hour in the chamber(3 minutes in real time) I had successfull impaled the man with 189 senbon without killing him, and leaving him functional for the most part. He has probably lost all ability to move his arms and legs by now, but his mind is still intact and he's been very awake the whole time. He's screamed so much his voice box won't even make a sound anymore. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. I feel that I've set a new personal record on keeping someone alive with that many senbon sticking in them, and looks like it's time to wake up his friend. I pull out the senbon from his neck, and he starts to come to about 30 seconds later.

He takes one glance at his friend next to him and screams, " What the fuck! What did you do to him!" I glance at his pincushion of a friend and causally reply, " He choose the hard way. Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know, or do you want to end up like you got raped by a cactus like you're friend here?" He quickly sputters out, " I'll tell you anything, but just don't kill me!" That's the reaction I was hoping to get.

" Good choice. So, where is you're gangs hideout located?" I inquire to the man, and I'm starting to feel fatigue settling in from holding up the jutsu this long. Hopefully I can wrap this up quickly. " It's hidden in the plaza district, and it's located in the back room of the pub with no name. It's all an underground network." He blurts out almost too fast to understand. I nod my head and rub my chin and reply, " I see. Tell me about you're leader of the gang, and you're squad leader."

" I don't know much, honestly! Nobody besides the highest ranking members actually talk to the boss, and nobody besides then know his name. We all know him as "The Boss". AS for my squad leader, he was close to The Boss and never told us his name since we are still kinda fresh." The frantic man explains, and I sense that he's indeed telling the truth. " Thanks, now I suppose I'll let you go now..." I trail off as I pull out chakra conducting cord from my pocket. This is used in interrogation to have two people feel the same sensation, and usually not in a good way.

I have both ends of the chord touching each men and the fiery one shouts, " I thought you were going to let me live!" I just cackle like a maniac and relpy, " Oh, I am. Just as a vegatable. I don't like loose ends in my line of work. And his eyes grow wide with fear. I preform a few hand signs, and then place my left hand in the middle of the chakra cord and whisper, " Ninja Art: Pain Split Jutsu." Once I had finshed the jutsu he suddenly stops resisting and freezes up like his buddy full of senbons. I do not envy either of them, and I guess I should release the jutsu. " Release." I shout and the world shifts around me and I find myself back in the forest with the two men tied up still, except they both have faces void of any emotion or feeling, and are just sitting there motionlessly staring into oblivion.

I figure I have done enough of that for one day, and I decide to walk into town and snag a bite to eat, and from the looks of the sun's postion, it's only been about 6 minutes since I activated the jutsu. Dealing out torture in almost 5 minutes or less, like some kind of bad coorperation.

I walk back into my tent to fetch the rest of my belongings and I start to head to town under a henge to grab some food. Since yesterday's little slip up with Hoshi, I don't want to run the risk of getting caught. I figure Hayai will be busy for most the day, so I get to take it easy and go enjoy a nice breakfast. Always got to appreciate the little things when there given to you.

I walk into town and I stroll passed Shira's shop, and I just take a quick peak inside. Everything looks like it did yesterday, except it's closed for the day. Figures, since the whole sitiuation yesterday was pretty sudden and mind bending. I continue on my way and I head into a bar/ resturant to grab my meal, and possible gather some information on the "monster" that has been sighted here. I walk casually into the bar and most people seem to be minding their own business or gambling, just the normal stuff. I go take a seat on one of the stools at the front bar and I order some rum and some fried tuna. Nothing like drinking before noon.

The bartender brings over my order about 10 minutes later and seems to be in a dreary mood and asks me, " Why you looking so happy?" I give him a confused look and answer back, " Excuse me? Am I not supposed to be in a decent mood?" The bartender gives out a audible sigh and replies, " Well, just with last night's monster attack and all most folks are in a panic. They confirmed 4 dead, and 2 still missing." I raise an my left eyebrow to the gold mine of information I've been handed and ask, " I'm not from around here, so can you tell me what this monster is exactly?"

" Wish I knew too. Nobody has reall gotten a good look at the best, but it always seems to suck out all the bones of the victim, just leaving the skin, blood and meat. It's awful. Some folks think it's a plague while other's think it's a curse." I absorb the information in and ask the elderly man, " How long has this been happening?" The bartender starts washing a glass and replies, " Well, we've had dissapearances here and there for about ten years now, but it's receantly picked up with the arrival of that rotten gang in the past few months. It's like it's provoked it even further. Now, I must go attend to the other customers, excuse me." I start to munch on my brunch and think to myself, " What could this possibly be?" and I have an idea. Looks like I'll be taking a feild trip to the local library today to do some research on monsters sucking out the bones of people.

-Confrontation
(Hayai's POV)

I run my hand through my hair as I reflect on the past events. We sure have come a long way since we first started...First Jirayia and now torturing people for information. Along with a monster we still haven't heard about...I sigh and begin to wonder where Gatsuuga is. It's getting pretty late and we need to find a place to crash for the night. I'm sitting on a bench on the east side of Miyu. The moonlight is the only thing illuminating the place, and might I say, the place is damn creepy at night. Where the hell is everyone?

"Yo." I hear along with a figure walking up.

"That you Gatsuuga? I can barely see anything?"

"Yeah. It's me." He responds.

"Where have you been?"

"Get this. I caught a gold mine of information on the monster. This thing has been lurking around for ten years or so. I can't believe no one has done anything about it."

"So what is it?"

"So about ten years ago a phantom descended upon the village. It began killing people, sucking out their bones as well as chakra, leaving only flesh and what not. It used to roam around until one day it possessed a person around the age of ten and is still alive to this day."

"What do we do about it?"

"Not sure. Thinking about it gives me the creeps...Especially at this time of night."

"Uh...Gatsuuga...What the hell is that?" I point out as Gatsuuga turns and looks too.

A dark figure seems to be standing alone in the moonlit streets of Miyu. I can only make it out to be a child.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I ask the figure

The moonlight casts a fairly bright light on the child and the shadows flicker and dance behind him/her. The shadow starts to grow increasingly large until the thing actually rises off the ground above the child, transforming into a monster shape.

"What...The...Fuck...Is that?" Gatsuuga sputters out.

"I...I think it's the monster?"

"Run." Gatsuuga monotonely puts as we turn around and take off, leaving a dust trail

I glance over my shoulder and notice the figure is gaining on us...and quickly. The thing is damned scary as shit. I've never experienced a paranormal event like this before, and I don't think I ever want to again.

"What do we do? It's gaining on us!" I shout out to Gatsuuga

"Fight or flight" Gatsuuga replies as he skids to a stop and turns around. "Fire style: Dragon flame bombs!" Two giant fire balls sear across the street and go straight through the phantom.

"That won't work." Gatsuuga says

"Earth style: Spiky rock path!" I shout as pillars of rock spikes shoot up at the ground and head towards the phantom. This time the figure jumps out of the way.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?

"The thing dodged your attack. Aim for the kid."
"But it's just a ki-"

"Do you want your bones sucked out?!" Gatsuuga shouts as he prepares his next jutsu.

"Guess not" I reply as I weave a few hand-signs too."

"Fire style: Dragon stream jutsu!" Gatsuuga roars as five streams of fire shoot out of his mouth. The monster manages to dodge four of the streams but the fifth one slams into the child.

"Earth style: Rock entombment jutsu!" I scream as a dome of rock en-cases the child and phantom alike.

"Perfect!"

Gatsuuga dashes towards the dome and jumps on top of it. He punches a hole in the ceiling, screaming "Fire style: Thick smog!" Filling the dome with a heavy smoke that only comes from a fire. I run up and glance around at the aftermath. We sure caused a lot of damage...Another reason I hate fighting in towns. Whatever at least we incapacitated the monster...

"That sure was an ordeal..." Gatsuuga states as he slumps up against the rock dome.

"Sure was. What do we do with the thing?"

"Not sure. First we find out who the damn kid is." Gatsuuga announces as he gets up and busts the dome open.

"You know I could've just released the jutsu..."

Gatsuuga picks up the kid and stares at her, jaw dropping as he looks up at me with dead eyes.

"What is it?" I question as I get closer to look at the child who appears to be...No...It can't be..."H-Hoshi? Hoshi? That can't be her..."

"This doesn't add up. This thing has been around for years. The kid is only ten years old!"

"What do we do about her? Shira will gut us if we get anywhere near her."

"Not sure. The mission objective IS to get rid of the monster."

"Yeah bu-"

"I don't know. We'll figure it out tomorrow morning."

"But...Fine."

Gatsuuga seals the kid in a scroll to prevent it from further terrorizing anyone. The scroll also leaves the person unconscious so Hoshi won't know anything. We get a motel room and hit the bed like a sack of rocks. Luck just hasn't been on our side lately but at least we get to deal with the monster. We've yet to deal with the rogue gang but their demise should be coming up sooner or later. Before I go to sleep I scribble more crap in the notebook so writing the mission report will be easier. Someone has to do it and Gatsuuga looks dead. What was Hiruzen thinking putting us up to this? Fuck, I'm just looking for someone to blame.

I shrug off the though and smack my head on the pillow and instantly drift off into dream land. Shits gonna get insane tomorrow. I find myself saying that every night...

Abysmal

Only Mortal

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

Hayai and I reach our campground outside of town quickly after sealing away Hoshi, or whatever she is. I knew something didn't sit right with me when I first laid eyes on her, and I suppose that's what caught my curiousity in the first place. The only thing out of place to me was Shira, her mother. She seemed to hate me right from seeing me, and now with her child being a fucking monster, it has me all that more curious. I've always been sensitive to paranormal, and maybe she sensed I may be some sort of threat, but this is all just speculation.

We setup the tent, and I tell Hayai that he should take the tent tonight since he just witnessed a very unusual and scary event. He asked me what I did with the prisoners from earlier, and I merly told him I had taken care of them, and he seemed too tired to go deeper into the subject.

Staring up at the stary night kept my mind thinking, " How does all this connect?". We have a monster situation and a rogue gang with an strange unknown leader. What am I missing? Hmm, maybe I should just get some sleep and stop dwelling on things that can't be solved over night.

I wake up early, and just as I stand up Hayai emerges from the tent. " Good morning." I softly speak to him, and he replies back, " Morning. So do you want to deal with the Hoshi thing? I think we should return her to her mother and ask her some questions." After he said that I began to get a very bad vibe from thinking what might happen. Not that it was a bad plan, but my gut was screaming "no" along with my mind. Seem he didn't pick up on the same vibes while staying with the two girls, since I always pay close attention to details.

I think carefully and respond, " No, I think we should destroy the scroll here and now to be rid of the beast. There's no telling what will happen if we let it loose again. It's the only way." Hayai gives me a shocked look and quickly says back, " Hoshi is a person too! Destroying it is a horrible thing to do? Are you really that heartless?" I glare at Hayai for being stubborn, and now of all times to stand up to me and coldly say, " Hayai, you've let your emotions control you. I know this is a new enviorment to you, but trust my judgement. We must destroy the scroll. Now give it to me!"

" You're insane Gatsuuga! You've been having flashbacks and it's clouded your judgement. Also the way you carelessly throw away life is worse than any other ANBU. I'm taking the scroll to Shira." Hayai defiantly shouts back. I take in a deep breath to supress my anger, and I say, " If I cannot persuade you to follow my orders, than I will have to restrain you for compromising this mission. This is you're final warning." I declare as I assuma and attack stance, to which he takes his own.

" So it's that way, huh." Hayai whispers as he quickly forms an earth style jutsu. The jutsu is too fast and comes up right from beneath me binding my legs and arms with rock. " I planned that jutsu ahead of time to restrain escapinf prisoners, but I guess it will do to keep you doing anything crazy. Once I return Hoshi to her mother we are going back to Konoha to have you checked out again." Hayai says as he turns and starts to leave. I shout back to him from my restrained position, " Hear me out! You don't know what that beast is capable of! There's no telling what might happen!"

Hayai just shakes his head pitifully at me and takes off into the city. I struggle against the rock shackes, and once I pour a decent enough of chakra into my limbs, I break free. I catch my breath and look toward the city. Hayai should have about a 45 second head start on me, but luckily I'm the faster of the two of us. I bolt towards the city desperatly to catch up to him and reach Shira before he does. From the books I read at the library the monster can be controlled by a kind of seal master or juinjustu user. All I can do is hope I'm not right, and the book didn't even cover all the details on the beast since hardly anybody has had enough time to study it properly.

I run through town in a flash across the roof tops, and I know my destination is coming up dangerously close. I reach the house a little out of breath since I ran so fast and I see the door had just closed, meaning Hayai porbably just beat me by a few seconds. Damnit. I run inside and in the living room area I see him greeting Shira, and about to pull out the scroll. Hardly with anytime to think I shoot out my Fire Style: Hot Steam Shot jutsu to seperate the two of them.

Hayai notices the justu and jumps back across the room and says, " So, still being delusional?" and Shira shouts outloud at both of us, " Why are you two horrible men back here, and where is my daughter?!" Hayai is the first one to speak up and says, " I have ton inform you that she inside the scroll I possess here, and I plan to return her to you only if you explain why is Hoshi the monster the people are afraid of." and Shira questions back in a confused manner, " Monster? You're the monster for stealing my child! Just please give me back my baby!" She's quite the good actress, but I'm no fool. There is just something off about her vocal pattern, and it seems too genuine to me.

Hayai begins to walk toward Shira with the scroll and I walk toward him and say, " Hayai, don't do this. Destroy it before something bad happens." Shira glares at me in a slightly sinister way and growls, " How dare you want to kill my sweet daughter! Now Hayai, please hand me the scroll and unseal it." In the blink of an eye Hayai rolls out the scroll and undoes the seal, realesing Hoshi in her child like form. She seems normal enough, but isn't acting very animated. I look over to Shira and she seems to have a different look in her eyes. Something menacing.

" You fool. You should have listened to you're friend, boy." Shira hisses out in a completely distorted voice of a man. Hayai eyes go wide as the atmosphere of the room shifts to feeling colder and unsettlingly eerie. Hoshi then starts to transform before our very eyes into the phantom like creature we saw earlier. " What are you?" I frantically ask just as my worst nightmare scenario has been confirmed. Shira grins at me in a sickly way and sweetly says, " Oh, you may know me as The Boss. I was right from the start to be weary of you, Gatsuuga-san. I've kept my eyes on you two trying to infiltrate my orginization, and it seems you will both die here."

Hayai jumps back to my side and whispers to me, " I'm sorry for all this." while I keep my attention on the two entities infront of us and reply, " It's fine, really. You led us to the jackpot, and now we can finish this mission once and for all. Shira laughs and beckons to us, " It's amusing that you two can think you can defeat me! I control the Bone Demon, and you're no match for my power anyways." Then Shira slams her hands flat together and shouts, " Forbidden Jutsu: Dark Beast Possesion Jutsu!" and the phantom version of Hoshi starts to make awful screeching sounds and charges at the both of us with incredible speed. Hayai and I jump out of the way to avoid the freaky creature, and I yell to Hayai, " Get to cover! It's about to heat up for real!" Hayai gets the notice and uses an earth style jutsu to completely cover himself in a protective dome over him. I look to Shira who seems to be still focusing on maintaining the jutsu, so I take another jump back with the Bone Demon stil charging at me since I seem to be the first target.

As I'm in mid air I form a dozen hand signs as quickly as I can and roar, " Fire Style: Fire Tsumani!" and I let loose a huge amount of intense flames from my mouth. This is my most powerful fire style technique and is extremly destructive, and it puts the dragon fireball jutsu to shame in terms of raw power.

I continue to fly backward as the jutsu propels me out of the house and into the street, and once I had finished the jutsu I almost collapsed due to the amount of chrakra I had just released. The entire house was burnt to a crisp along with the one behind it and the parts of the two next to Hoshi and Shira's house. All I see is scorched earth, but nowhere do I see that nasty Shira, or her demon. Most the people on the street look horrified at the destruction that has just taken place, but I ignore it as I walk back into the remains of the house to the dome of rock still standing.

I give a 3 specifically timed taps and the jutsu is let down to show a very suprised Hayai. " What did you do? Burn down the whole town?" Says Hayai in a half joking manner, and I just roll my eyes. " Nah, just a few houses. That's beside the point though, we need to locate those two, and we need reinforcements. We have our lead and must get back to the Hokage as soon as possible. Our enemy has just been toying with us up until now, and now past the point of no return."

" Alright, and Gatsuuga? I'm sorry again for earlier." Hayai shamefully says to me with his head slightly down and I just reassure him with, " Look, I don't blame you for youl're actions entirely. Your new and you just did what you thought was right. Learn from you're mistake, and let's move on. I need you in this with me."

We quickly flee the scene moments later to the outskirts of town where we duck into an empty ally way. I figure it would be safe here to take a break, since I'm low on chakra and can barely keep running at the current pace. As I rest my hands on my knees I look up to Hayai, and I can't decipher what he's thinking. I can only hope he isn't being to hard on himself. I said before, and it just seems to become more true the longer I live,is that this business will ruin you in more ways than you can imagine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```

-Aggregation
(Hayai's POV)


I can't even form words at this point. I feel dead inside. My eyes feel heavy and I just want to collapse. Gatsuuga is slouched against the wall breathing heavily, that jutsu was beyond extreme. He gives me a nod of reassurance like he's been through this before. I let out a sigh and put my head in my hands to try and shake the memories. I couldn't believe there was a bigger demon behind what Hoshi already is and the fact that the demon is still loose frightens the living shit out of me.

"Again, I-I'm sorry." I sputter out.

"It's ok, I swear. Our main objective right now is to head back the the Hidden Leaf and inform the Hokage on what's just happened. This is a bit beyond our control now."

"Ok but I don't think I can make it to the Leaf in this condition, I'm too...Shell shocked."

"It's ok, I can barely move either. We just need to make it into the forest and find a place to sleep."

I hear a screeching far off in the distance and instantly freeze in fear. If that monster comes anywhere near me I swear level this whole village.

"C-can we get into the forest?" I shakily ask.

"You scared?"

I stay silent and look at Gatsuuga with dead eyes.

"Yeah lets get to the forest. A little help?"

"Right." I reply as I throw Gatsuuga's arm around my shoulder. We slowly make our way to the forest. My legs are aching at this point and I can feel Gatsuuga dragging his feet by now. We eventually make our way into a clearing and I set up a pallet for the two of us. I set up a fire and we sit there staring at it.

"That sure was an ordeal." Gatsuuga says.

"You got that right...I still can't believe the mind fuck we just went through."

"It comes with the territory Hayai. It's all twists and turns in the P.I sector."

"So I assume this is why your last partner left?"

"Yeah...Something like this happened except I refused to work with him after that."

"Oh...Well, I'm glad we could work it all out."

"We're in this together Hayai. I can't ditch you and leave you for dead...As cheesy as it sounds. Alright enough of that I'm getting some shut eye."

Gatsuuga falls asleep and I attempt to but can't. Either paranoia or restlessness is settling in and I can't do a damned thing about it. I sit up and continue to stare at the fire which flickers all over the place making the shadows dance before my eyes. All I can visualize is the monster and it's just freaking me out. Eventually I get fed up with sitting there so I pop a sleeping pill which causes me to hallucinate a bit before I hit my head on my makeshift pillow.

"Hayai."

"Hayai!"

"God dammit."

I wake up to a jab into my ribs and I shoot up and look around.

"Huh?! Who's there?" I yell.

"It's me you idiot. Wake the fuck up we're moving out."

"My bad...I took a sleeping pill last night and slept like a sack of rocks."

"Whatever, lets just get moving. I plan to make it to the Hidden Leaf by sundown."

"Sounds good to me."

We set out and keep at a steady pace all day. Making occasional breaks, salvaging food, and stopping by rivers to collect water. The sun was blistering hot and staying hydrated was difficult. Gatsuuga and I were sweating like crazy. The day continues and after hours and hours of traveling the gates of the Hidden Leaf finally appear on the horizon. Finally...It feels so good to be someplace familiar. We walk up to the gate and nod to the guards who nod back. We make our way through the familiar streets of Konoha and arrive at the Hokage's office.

"Gatsuuga? Hayai? What are you doing here? Have you completed your mission?" Hiruzen inquires.

"Sir, it seems things are more...difficult than it seems."

"What do you mean?"

"The monster and the rogue shinobi gang are tied together. Last night we were attacked by the monster. It disguised itself as a woman and her child and let us trust them. This thing is vicious and we can't do this alone. We need reinforcements or else things will get ten times worse."

"Hmm. Hand over your notes and I'll consider it."

I hand over the note book chock full of notes on both the rogue gang and the monster. Hiruzen looks through the notes and his facial expression changes from calm to wide eyed. He looks up at us and is just speechless.

"What have you been through...?" Hiruzen asks.

To which I reply with, "Hell and back sir. Hell and back."

"Bring in Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai immediately." Hiruzen demands to his assistant.

"Yes sir."

"Hmph. Kakashi Hatake? I haven't worked with the copy ninja in ages." Gatsuuga states.

"I want the best of the best going with you. Take a day to rest. I'm sorry about all of this."

"Don't worry about it Lord Hokage. It comes with the territory." I respond.

"Very well. Your dismissed."

"Hai!" We both reply before bowing and leaving the room.

"I'll see you tomorrow, I need to be alone for a while." I tell Gatsuuga.

"Sounds good. You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah I'm good, you know how it is."

"Sure. See ya tomorrow."

Tomorrow will be fun.

Abysmal

Overcast

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

Finally back in Konoha, and it seems the Hokage has given me some decent reinforcements. I'm fine working with Kakashi, also Asuma isn't too bad to work with, even if we don't agree on a lot of things, but Kurenai is just an up and coming chunin that I don't think is cut out for what's up ahead, hell I thought Hayai wouldn't get through it and he barely managed. It's not as much physical, but psychological and that's why I'm on my way to the Konoha hospital right now.

I'm starting to have illusions appear again and nightmares more often, and I think I should switch back to my original medication that I left behind a fwe months ago. I reach the hospital and fill out some paper work and hand it to a nurse, who happily takes it. I wait about ten minutes and I'm returned with a bottle full of a months perscription. The doctor I had the paper work sent to knows me quite well, and probably didn't bat an eyelash signing off on the meds, after all he said I should probably never go off them.

I leave the smelly hospital and I decide to head to the springs. I have the day off and I should probably enjoy myself before having to go fight monsters and whatever the fuck else is out there waiting for me. I walk back into downtown Konoha, and I reach my apartment which looks like it hasn't been touched in ages. I slowly reach for the knob and turn it open the door( Never felt like locking things since shinobi can get in anyways and I don't have anything worth a damn). Inside it's almost musty from the lack of house cleaning, but I make my way to the kitchen and open my tea pot, to where I see my little stash of money is. I grab the small amount of cash and head back out the door toward the hot springs.

I walk down there peacefully, and I enter to the main bathouse to get my towel and robes for the spring. I pay the young lady at the front desk, and she leads me back to the dressing room and fetches me a towel. Not many people attend the springs at mid-day at noonish, but there is bound to be some good people watch. After the lady leaves I undress into the robes and store my clothing in the small locker I was given, and I head out with my towel to the hot pool of water.

Not many people seem to be here, and not surprising since the war happend business slowed down, and even after it's yet to pick up. It's even been 3 years since the Kyuubi attack and people are still a little on edge, but customers are coming back slowly but surely. I undress myself completely and lower myself into the steamy water, and it takes a little getting used to since I haven't been here in about 9 years. I lean against the rock wall of the pool and I hear a voice call out, " Well, I don't believe it."

I turn around to see my former colleague Inoichi Yamanaka standing behind me with a towel in hand wearing a bathrobe. " What's not to believe?" I innocently reply to the astonished man. " Oh, just that they let you out of the wacky shack, that's all. Anyways, how have you been?" Inoichi replies as he sets down his towel and lowers himself into the warm waters, to where he sits across from me.

" I've been ok. Dealing with a real shit mission, and my first one since being cleared. Ontop of it my new partner is a newbie." I ramble out as he just seems to analyze me and take in the information. " I see. Well, what happend between you and Hatsu is still probably one of the eeriest mysteries to have happend in Konoha. I'm just surprised you haven't commited suicide or something." Inoichi responds in a bit of a concerned yet distant tone. I chuckle at his sympathy and say, " Oh, don't tempt me now. I've always been someone to go against the grain."

" Yes you have, maybe that's why Ibiki-sama banned you from torture and interrogation since you had a little too much fun." Inoichi says in a more serious tone. I'm not intimidaited at all by the man, and I have proof he wanted me gone from that division since I had to interact with him, and we usually had different opinions on getting information. " Hey, might as well have fun doing something while ya can, right? And besides, why do you give a rat's ass?" I sternly snarl back in a slightly louder voice.

" Let's keep calm, I'm not here to argue with you Gatsuuga. I'm just saying making people pincushions for self enjoyment is not something practical." Inoichi says back in his o so calm demenour. " Call it what you want, but my methods have proven to be successful. Point and case. Now, what else would you like to talk about, hmmm?" I say quickly changing the subject since things will most likely get dicey if we start argueing baout the old days.

" Well, I'm here since it's my day off and I need some time away from the wife and kid." Inoichi absentmindedly says partly to himself, and I cut in and ask, " Since when did you have a kid?" He gives me a weird stare, then looks like he remembered something and says, " You've been gone awhile Gatsuuga, and a lot has changed since you were quarentined. It's not like it used to be." I just stare at him for a breif moment to gather my thoughts and emotions, and I reply, " I know, and I'm trying to adapt. Now, if you will excuse me I think I'll be going now. Thank you for the company." and I hop out of the pool and gather my towel and robe without saying another word to Inoichi. I've never really liked his personality, since he just always seemed too much of a pussy, but that's coming from someone who is "insane" so what does my word mean, really.

I walk back to the locker and regroup my things to head back to my house. I really want a long sleep in my own bed for once, rather than all that damn camping I've been doing while out on the mission. Thinking more seriously about how things have changed over the past few years, do I really need to adapt to this new regime of Konoha or is it all in my head? Who has really changed?

(Hiruzen P.O.V)

Hmmm, looking at the notes Hayai handed me it looks like it's more a journal of how twisted Gatsuuga's torturing methods are and the day by day events and thoughts of the boy. The torture doesn't surprise me as Gatsuuga has always had a nasty reputation, but he gets things done, and reading from start to finish I would say the boy has lost a little bit of his sanity along the way. There is definately something different about how he words things and asks questions to himself throught the journal. I really hope sending them back in doesn't cause anymore damage, but I need them both there to inform their new teammates of the mission and specifics.

I hear the door open up, and Kakashi, Kurenai, and my son walk into the center of the room looking ready to get briefed. " Hey pops, what's the occasion?" Asuma says to me as he lights up another cigar. I always tried to tell him not to smoke like I do, but looks like he never listened to his mother enough. " So what are the three of us doing Hokage-sama?" Kurenai pipes in looking a little excited.

I put donw my smoking pipe and look at them very seriously and bluntly state, " I need you three to join in an already going mission to a town south of here with disturbances of rogue ninja." I pause for a moment and Kakashi asks, " So what happened to the previous team? Rogue ninja isn't a very demanding task usually." I crack a smile smirk and continue, " That's just it, they are usually a handled, but this is different. From the report the gang has control over the town and a demonic force of some sort. The P.I team is here resting and you three will head out tommorow to help finish the mission."

" Alright, so which of the three of us is captain?" Asuma anxiously asks me, and I just sigh at his hopefulness. The boy still needs to learn to be a bit more humble. " None of you are captain, and it leadership will remain with the prior captain, P.I detective Gatsuuga." I declare and they all look a bit stunned. " He's out of the psych ward?" Kakashi muses as Kurenai quickly follows up with, " Isn't he a high A-rank threat to everybody for lack of self control and sanity?" Asuma looks to both his teammates and finally says, " I have to agree with them. Is it even safe to have him lead us? For all we know one night he just decides to loss it and attempts to murder everyone in there sleep for some god foresaken reason."

I look up to the ceiling and respond, " Ahh, I thouhgt he might do something like that earlier too, but he hasn't killed his current partner and his sanity seems to be stable enough. Trust my judgement, and I'll let Gatsuuga and Hayai fill you in on the mission. They know much more about the whole ordeal than me. Number one priority is to keep this from goijng public at all. Last thing we need is other nations hearing about rebellion arising in The Land of Fire. Understand?" All three of them bow and return a clear, " Hai!" look back up to me.

" Good, now Gatsuuga requested to be at the gate at 7:00 tomorrow morning...that means be there at 5:00 Kakashi. We don't have time to spare." I say to the three shinobi as Kakashi nods his head, and they all file out of my office. Once they had left I return my attention back to Hayai's journal. Even though he was originally a skilled ANBU, I can see why Danzo discharged him. The boy still seems to have his emotions intact, fully evident by his scribbling. I do wonder how this turns out, since I don't want a national crisis on my hands.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Face Your Fears
(Hayai's POV)

I received word that I am to meet Gatsuuga along with Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai at 5. I feel ten times safer with more shinobi but the fear is in the back of my head. Last night I had a night tremor. I woke up shaking violently, in a cold sweat, and breathing heavily. I felt like I was going to die. That must be what dying feels like...

Right now I don't want to leave my apartment. I feel like the damned monster is going to be around the next corner. My paranoia is kicking in and I feel like I must look over my shoulder every few seconds. This isn't good, I thought the ANBU trained us for emotional stress. Why are my emotions showing. It's like I'm actually...Normal again. I sit in my apartment all day until about seven until...

*Knock Knock*

I turn my head to the door and stare at it before registering what just happened. I pull the kunai out from under my pillow and approach the door warily. Looking through the peephole I see it's Gatsuuga and put down my kunai before opening my door.

"G-Gatsuuga. What's up?"

"Shit, are you alright Hayai? I thought I was the crazy one...You look like hell."

"I don't really know...I had a night tremor last night and it felt like death. This crap is really haunting me."

"I kind of expected this to happen...Here take these." Gatsuuga presents, putting his hand out holding some pills.

"Wh-what are these?"

"My medication. It relieves the stress on your brain. See if you like them."

"O-ok." I shakily reply before taking the pills and gulping them down.

"They should kick in in about 15 minutes. You'll feel a sense of euphoria and relax."

"Th-thanks." I say before sitting back down on the bed.

"If you're going to get rid of this fear though you're going to have to face your fears."

"I know. I'm prepared to. I'm prepared to take down this monster."

"Good. I'll see you at seven tomorrow morning?"

"You know it."

"Alright. See ya."

"Bye." I say before closing the door behind Gatsuuga. Whoa...This pill is starting to take effect and it feels pretty good. I don't feel so paranoid anymore and I actually feel a bit...Happy. Hmm. I think I'm going to go out tonight and enjoy myself...I haven't done that since before I joined the ANBU.

I throw on some casual clothes and head out of the apartment. I head straight into the heart of Konohakagure. The first bar is a blast. I can't believe I'm actually having fun. Probably not a good idea to drink alcohol with these pills but who cares. I get pretty buzzed at the first bar and head off into another. To my surprise I happen to find the infamous Jirayia at the second bar and instantly order a couple of drinks. He has few nice looking girls around his shoulder so I decide to hang out with him. In his drunken stooper he doesn't remember me which is either good or bad. I don't really know.

The rest of the night goes by in a blur and I'm pretty sure I blacked out...Twice. I wake up, head pounding, feeling...Gross. I turn to my left and as I expected there's a woman right there. Last night must of been fun...

I look at the clock and notice it's about six thirty so I hop out of bed and leave. I manage not to wake anyone up and sprint to my apartment. I gather up all my supplies and throw on my outfit and head towards the gate. Dammit my head hurts and my mouth is dry as hell. I stop by a vendor and order a bunch of water and some juice.

I arrive at the gate to notice Asuma and Kurenai there already waiting. They look a bit tired.

"Hey." I say to the two.

"Hello Hayai." Asuma answers.

"Hey." Replies Kurenai.

"It's finally nice to get some reinforcements. This whole deal is insane." I put.

"Think it's something we can handle?" Asuma asks.

"With backup yes." I reply.

Gatsuuga shows up next and says his hellos to us. Of course Kakashi is the last to show up and we end up waiting an extra hour before he shows up.

"Sorry guys, I got lost i-"

"I don't wanna hear it this time Kakashi." Gatsuuga spits out.

"Fine by me. Shall we get going?"
"Yes. Lets."

We head out on the path towards Miyu. Eventually hitting the forests and dashing through the trees for a while. I get beside Gatsuuga to ask him a question. My paranoia feels like it's approaching again.

"H-hey Gatsuuga. You got anymore of those pills?" I ask.

"Hmm? Yeah. Don't get hooked on these though. They'll create you into a mindless zombie if you get dependent."

"I promise I won't. Just until this whole things is over. To get me though it you know?" I reply before swallowing the pills.

Before I know it the same sensation from last night washes over me. I kind of lose a sense of time and it feels like we've been traveling forever. Oh well. As long as we take this thing down I don't really care.

The day literally flies by and we hit the first town that we came across from before. We all decide to go information hunting tonight just in case things have spread out since we left. By nightfall we get settled into a hotel room and meet up once more to discuss how we're to go about information hunting.

"Alright, the teams will be Hayai and I. Asuma and Kurenai, and Kakashi you will go alone. Find anything you can." Gatsuuga discusses.

We all agree and split up. Gatsuuga and I have the south side of the village. Kurenai and Asuma have the north side, and Kakashi created a shadow clone so he can cover the east and west sides of town. I'm still feeling pretty relaxed so this won't be hard at all. I just hope we can find some good information.

Abyssmal

Boiling Point

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

Being back in Riya deosn't have the same feel as it did before. It's almost malevolent in how the air tastes in your mouth and when you look at the buildings. It's like Shira has twisted this whole place to her will, which freaks me out. Speaking of freaking out, Hayai isn't coping too well. I gave him some of my medication, but the downside is you can get hooked easily and it can have some nasty side-effects like blackouts, mood swings, and increased paranoia if you're hooked and having withdrawls. Not good stuff, but luckliy I never have become hooked to them.

As Hayai and I search the city for the night we find nothing of particular interest, and decide to call it a night and head back to camp. We arrive at camp and Asume is already back setting up some tents.

" Glad you made it back Asuma, anything to report?" I ask in a kind voice, and he grunts back, " Ughh, nothing really. I didn't see any rogue ninja or signs of a monster anywhere so i decided to head back here and setup camp for the night." I understand his reasoning and nod, as I lay down next to the fire he just started up minutes ago and Hayai comes up from behind me and asks urgently, " Umm, Gatsuuga? Can I speak to you in private? Like Now?"

" Alright, just lemme get up." I mumble as I stagger to my feet and follow him deeper into the dense woods. " So what's this all about? Is this about the medication I gave you?" I ask him, but I feel like that was where the conversation would be going anyways.

" Yeah, and what the hell was in them? I can hardly think straight since they wore off!"

"Calm down. it's a special medication that was given to me during my rehab. To avoid trouble, I'll help ween you off of it." I announce to him quietly as I take out the bottle and snap a pill in half.

" Take it. we'll just lower the dosage each time until you're back to normal ok? For now you're just going to have to muster up some will power, ok?"

Hayai quickly take the pill-half and downs it and replies, " Understood."

We walk back into the camp and I see that Kakashi has now just made it back, and he is reading a book by the fire. " Whatcha reading Kakashi?" Hayai asks as he heads for his canteen of water. " Oh, this is just the new book from Jiraiya. It's called Ichi Ichi Paradise, and it's very good." Kakashi replies back as he refocuses on his novel. I just smirk, knowing that he's just reading some stupid love novel written by a pervert. I've never been one for reading anyways.

With neiter of us bringing back any information at all, we continue to wait on Kurenai for about an hour but she doesn't show up, and we all get a little worried. " Should we go look for her? It's past the time we said to be back by." Says Asuma with a worried look on his face. I ponder the suggestion for a moment and reply, " I think so. The monster is said to be most active at night, but we shouldn't send everyone. I think one person should be enough."

" Who do you have in mind then?" Kakashi interjects as he looks up from his novel curiously. I weigh my options for a moment, and it seems to me Asuma seems a bit emotionally connected to the problem, so I can't risk him making irrational descisions. Kakashi seems too enticed with his little book to probably focus properly, so that leaves Hayai and I. Hayai is probably the better option since he probably needs something to distract him, and I'm feeling ready for some sleep.

" I supose Hayai can go look fro her since he's most familiar with the city, sound reasonable?" I declare to hear the response from everyone.

" Ok." Kakashi bluntly says as he goes back to reading.

" Fair enough, but be careful." Asuma warns and I just waive Hayai off to get the task done. The quicker the better.

After Hayai departs into town I decide to retire to a tent and catch some "Z's" while Asuma and Kakashi keep watch for a little bit. As I start to drift into sleep I start to wonder if I'll have another nightmare again like I have been before, but I never get the chance to ahve a dream on this night.

It only feels like a few minutes later that I'm dragged out of my tent by Asuma and he's screaming at me, " You've got to help out!". I yank myself away from him in an angery stupor, and I rub my eyes to take a look at the ordeal at hand. Infront of the the campfire I see Kurenai lying on her back with a huge gash across her abdomen, her clothes soaked in blood, Asuma is in a panic trying to bandage her up with Kakashi, and Hayai is off to the side staring blankly into nothingness.

I march over to Hayai and shout at him, " What the fuck happend?!" I get a very confused and frieghtend loon from him and he yells back, " I don't know! Last thing I remember is that I was running into town looking for Kurenai, then I coem to looking at her on the ground of one of the streets with a huge gash!" I almsot shout back at him again, but I hold back.

I remembered that one of the side effects to the meds is blackouts, and he probably had an episode since he's trying to break his new addiction. How fucking convienent. I return my attention to the badly injured Kurenai, and I jump into the frey. Me being the only one with some sort of medical background and extensive knowledge on anatomy, I'm the suited person to get her back to health. Times like there are when I regret never taking Tsunade's medical nin-jutsu class, but ever since we first met, she's hated my guts with a passion since she had to heal the my "victims" from torture and interrogation. So childish and irrational to hold a grudge like that.

I analyze the wound and it seems non-fatal, but the bleeding needs to stop. I take some medical wrapping Asuma hands me and I wrap up her stomach area tightly, and then I take another cloth and apply pressure. " Asuma, you'll need to take Kurenai back to Konoha and to the medical ward ASAP, understand? And keep pressure on that wound the best you can." I bark and Asuma just shakes his head in complete acceptance. Asuma lifts up Kurenai over his shoulder carefully while stilll keeping pressure on the wound, and since she's gone unconcious frombeing in shook to long, it'll be difficult.

" Be careful." I warn as he gives me a nod, a blank look to Kakashi, and a scowl to Hayai before he darts off into the night.

Once Asuma had dissapeared into the forest I turn to Kakashi and ask him, " So what happend exactly?" Kakshi just shrugs and calmly replies, " All I saw was Hayai carrying Kurenai back to camp all bloodied up, and him bloodied up to a bit. See was unconcious by then and Hayai seemed to be in shock as well."

I look over to Hayai who has remained in the same spot since I got out of bed, and I order him to take off his gear and get to bed, which he doesn't protest at all. I told Kakashi I would be taking Guard duty for the night, and he seemed thrilled to hear that news to go to bed and read his dirty book.

As the two of them retreat to their tents something on the ground catches my eye. I see that Hayai dropped his two swords by the fire before he went in to go sleep, and there seems be someblood on the sheath.

Out of curiousity, I pick up the two katanas and unsheath themto reveal one looking shiny and metallic, but the other one has some blood around the blade part. Fresh Blood. I quickly think back to Kurenai's wound, which was more of a laceration than anything else, and with Hayai's balckout, something doesn't add up. I quickly shove the two swords back into the holdsters, and I mutter to myself, " What the fuck..."

Could he really have injured Kurenai? Too bad she was unconcious earlier, or we could know. But fresh blood on his sword along with her injury makes me very nervious. Have I made a grave mistake in handing those meds the other day? I suppose I'll figure out more tommorow, and see if I can dig some info out of Hayai's subconcious since he wasn't truly awake during his " rescue".The mind is a tricky thing.But,it still bothers me to think this may be all my fault though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Unsettling
(Hayai's POV)


Ok...So...Last night was pretty weird. I don't really remember much. All I can recall is going to search for Kurenai, blankness, then I woke up this morning. Asuma headed back to the Hidden Leaf with Kurenai which just leaves Gatsuuga, Kakashi and me to carry on the mission until Asuma comes back. It's early in the morning, Kakashi is reading a book and Gatsuuga pulls me off to the side.

"So...What happened last night?" Gatsuuga questions.

"What do you mean?"

"I checked your sword last night. One has fresh blood on it which doesn't go well with the fact that Kurenai had a slash wound on her either."

"Are you saying that I hurt her? She's our teammate, besides...I would've remembered hurting someone."

"I'm not saying anything. You were the last one to see her so I just want to know. Plus those pills have some nasty side effects.

"I promise, I didn't do anything."

"Yeah we'll see about that..." Gatsuuga says as he grabs my head and yells, "Mind replay jutsu!"

I can't seem to move a muscle and everything goes white. I'm not very sure what's going on and there is a burning sensation in the back of my head. A few moments of this pass and finally I come to with Gatsuuga glaring at me.

"It was you! Hayai?! What the hell happened?"

"What do you mean?! I don't remember doing anything like that!"

"I just went through your mind! How is it that you don't remember...Unless...Those pills must of made you black out..."

"They had to of. Gatsuuga I swear I would admit it if I remembered it..."

"Rgh. Fine I believe you. But I'm keeping a close eye on you! We can't have that happening again."

"Alright...Hey uh, can you break me off a half of one of those pills. Still trying to ween them off."

"Yeah sure. Just don't go crazy again got it?" Gatsuuga states as he breaks me off a half and gives it to me.

I gulp it down and we decide to not waste time as we head off towards the village of Miyu. Everywhere has a dark aura to it as we pass by. Every single square inch of this area is unsettling and I don't like the feeling of it.

"What happened since you two left?" Asks Kakashi.

"Not sure...It's like within a few days the monster took control ...Of everything."

"Then we better keep our guard up." Kakashi says, sliding a kunai up his sleeve.

"Good call." Gatsuuga agrees, pulling out a kunai too.

I grab the handle of my katana and slide out the glimmering blade to notice dried blood on it. Huh. I guess I did hurt Kurenai...A wave of guilt washes over me...I-I didn't mean too... Rgh. Whatever...

I attempt to shake it off as we continue traveling through the forest. The skies above are getting darker and I can tell the final showdown is on the horizon. We still have a lot of information hunting to do when we arrive and I bet the monster won't appear for a while.

"I guess we deal with the rouge ninja's huh? They're more of a nuisance in this situation." I state.

"Right on the Money Hayai. Though I fear they may be in collaboration with the monster...Or worse...The monster is manipulating them. We must assume the worst..."

"And to think, all of this started with a simple recon mission." Kakashi puts in.

"Hn. You got that right..." Gatsuuga solemnly puts.

I hear a rustling in the bushes and point my sword at it.

"Who's there?!" I yell.

Gatsuuga and Kakashi turn towards the bush and assume a battle stance. Just then, three dark figures walk out and waste no time in throwing various ninja tools at us. I manage to block all the incoming tools and so do Kakashi and Gatsuuga. Kakashi spews a fire ball and Gatsuuga charges in at one of the figures. I follow suite, throwing together some hand-signs to sling some boulders at the three shadowy figures. Kakashi immediately takes down his opponent and mine just takes the blunt end of the boulders and dissipates. Gatsuuga grabs his target by the head and picks him up, to which it dissipates into thin air also

"What the fuck?" Gatsuuga says as he steps back.

"Must be some sort of clone jutsu set up by the monster. They had a pretty dark aurora to them." Kakashi infers.

"Well I don't want to see any more of them. Let's get to Miyu asap."

Kakashi and I agree as we continue quickly to Miyu. The skies keep getting darker and darker and I feel like we're entering the eye of a hurricane. After about an hour of traveling we approach the walls of Miyu and what do you know...There's a giant black swirling cloud above the village. How decent...

Kakashi gives us both a worried look as we continue into the streets of Miyu.

"I suggest we find someplace to sleep and hide before we go info hunting." Kakashi suggests.

"I agree. Lets find a motel and formulate a plan, hm? Gatsuuga suggests also.

We warily creep through the streets avoiding contact with anyone. Eventually we find a motel that is out of public view.

"Room for three. Also...What the hell is going on outside?" Gatsuuga asks.

"I-I'm N-not sure...P-people have been dropping l-left and r-right. I d-don't sleep at n-night anymore...H-here's your room key." The owner sputters out.

Gatsuuga takes the key and asks no more questions. We get into our room which by the way sucks. And decide to come up with a plan of action. Hopefully we can create something that doesn't involve getting us killed.

"It's most likely that the monster will know we're here. I suggest we hide our faces. Kakashi...Well...You seem to have that down. We can continue to go information hunting and in the mean time wait for Asuma to come back. I gave him a map with the coordinates. Hopefully he gets here quick." Gatsuuga defines.

I throw on a hood and Gatsuuga puts on masking cloth. We split up and carefully go information hunting around Miyu. Everyone is either too scared to talk or not know jack. I stay away from the marked rogue ninja hideout because I assume that's where the monster is. God damn she gives me the creeps...What a psychological mind freak.

Whatever...At least I'm not having a panic attack like before. These pills help...sometimes... I sigh and continue to go information hunting. A calm boom sounds throughout the air and then it starts to rain. Calming actually...I look up and continue down the eerie streets of Miyu.

Abysmal

Voodoo

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

We went over the plan for tomorrow until Asuma arrived, so for now we've been doing very small recon missions around the city in small amounts of time, and to be compltely honest, it's just plain creepy to be walking around. It's that same feeling you might of had as a kid when you looked at your closet when in bed at night, think something might be watching you...same kind of feeling here, but 24/7.

My nightmares haven't ceased completely but are much more infrequent thanks to my medication, but I can't say the same for Hayai. He's tweaking pretty bad, and even though were trying to break him off, I doubt any short term fixes will be made in this hell hole. I'm guessing with Hayai's mental state and as well as my own, if we don't wrap up this mission soon we'll be off the deep end, and there won't be any coming back.

Kakashi took the first recon mission and bascally he scouted some of downtown to investigate the mrket place, and nothign really turned up. Next Hayai took a shift looking about, and he said he say a few rogue ninja gathered outside of Town Hall, like they were guarding something, but it was pretty hard to tell from his understanding. I was up for the last shift before Asuma returned and I decided to look at Town Hall for myself, as well as check out some pubs to get the word on the street. Town hall looked sketchy, and very well might be where that bitch Shira is dwelling(since I torched her house) with that vermin Hoshi.

After getting a consensus of " scared for my life" from some of the remaining locals that haven't gone mad with fear or been killed, I returned to meet up with everyone at our piece of shit motel.

I walk into the room to see Kakashi reading his pornography while Hayai seem to be having a very stern talk. I decide I should interrupt them since it seems to be getting a bit emotional from both sides and I interject, " So, how is Kurenai?"

Asuma looks at me with a blank yet grim face and replies, " Things will be fine for Kurenai, just needs sometime with the medical corps, and from her account Hayai attacked her, and he admitted it!" He finishes with a booming voice.

" I didn't mean to hurt her! It was my medication!" Pleaded Hayai in vain. Asuma seemed to be more hurt than Kurenai in a way. He really cares for her, and it seems Hayai is on his shit list. " Calm down you two, I can explain something. What Hayai said about the medication i gave him is true. It was some side effects like hallucinations and blackouts, so it was all just a mistake. So be happy it didn't end up worse."

Asuma seems to be taking in the information and looks up to me and says, " So, wait. You gave him the drug that made him attack Kurenai?" Asuma was practically shaking, and I could see it clearly with my trained eye, and it looked like he would either make a lunge for me or Hayai.

" You can vent out your anger when the mission is over." Kakashi casually muses frombehind his book. Asume still seems upset, but gives into Kakashi's reasoning and replies, " Hmmm...your right. We have a bigger threat at hand, but I'm watching you Hayai." with a final glare at the poor boy.

I take a seat on the floor and I start my tedious task of poisening senbon and then to seal them away as Asuma leaves to go take his shift, Kakashi reads, and Hayai sharpens his katanas. it was getting fairly late by the time Asuma came back, and as he removed the scarf covering his face he stated, " Something big is going on down near Town Hall tonight. I suggest we all go undercover to see what all the fuss is about."

I jump up off my arse and reply, " Agreed. Pack what we need up. We'll seperate so we can blend into the crown better and get different perspectives. We need to stay in the shadows and not be caught. This is only observation because we need to know what were going to be dealing with."

" Exactly." Hayai replies as he sheathes his katanas and places them in an X formation across his back. We all pack up in about 10 minutes(I blame Kakashi) and head out of the motel all taking different routes toward town hall. I take the long way around andunder the faint shimmer of the street lamps, I see a huge stage setup infront of Town Hall with many of the villagers and rogue ninja alike in the crowd. I weave myself near the back of the crowd and I watch with horror to what unfolds.

Out of the two story building emerges Shira carry a staff of some sort with Hoshi in beast like form following behind her like some kind of pet. Disgusting. Shira takes center stage and announces in her eerie voice, " Hello. I am Shira, and the ruler of all you people. TOnight is a very special night indeed, as we will be holding a very special ceremony." She takes a pause as two of her guards dip into the crowd and pull out a man in his late 40's begging for help, but the nobody answers the call since we are all surronded by her gang.

" Now, if you may have noticed people have been dissapearing, and that's for what I'm going to show you tonight." Shira declares as she steps back and does some very weird hand signs I can hardly decipher. Shortly after Hoshi takes on a greenish glow and starts to fidgit while standing in place.

" No witness you god come alive my darlings!" Shira cackles as the poor man from taken from the crowd is strapped down to the stage, and Hoshi approaches from behind him. Also during this time I notice Shira is drawing something on the floor of the stage, possibly some kind of seal. I do not like where this is heading.

" Eat up my dear, Hoshi." Beckons Shira as she points to the now crying man as the monster known as Hoshi latches her mouth on to the man's back, and begins to suck. Nothing happend for a moment, then I realize something. He's deflating, like he's losing air. But as I recall from my research she's actually sucking out all his bones and innards from him, and rumored his soul.

Hoshi finshes up and then approaches her master from behind and lactches her mouth onto her back this time, but now seems to be blowing somthing in. A light bulb just went off inside my head. Shira is using the Bone Demon to transfer the souls of the living to her body to increase her wicked power. Such an awful thing to do to someone, and to abuse such an innocent little girl. Truly this Shira is a monster in her own right.

After the disgusting ritual, Shira returns her attention to the crowd and with evil glee states, " Wasn't that wonderful? Anways you too will all suffer the same fate eventually, and don't even think about running away. I've setup a special barrier around the town, so there is no escape for any of you!" and then she dissapears into the Town Hall with two of her guards and Shira in tow.

I quickly get the fuck outta there like many other people, but what disturbed me is all of the rogue shinobi I've seen as of late have been rather emotionless, like her persoanl guards and the ones keeping watch. it's like there under a trance caused b y Shira. Possibly a puppet control jutsu? I don't know, but all I do know is I must regroup with the others back at the hotel. We are officially out of time, and we will be attacking tomorrow no questions asked.

I coudn't get back to the motel quick enough, and I enter the room hastily to see Kakashi has already made it back and has just picked up his book to continue reading.
" Some show, huh?" I sarcastically remark to which he replies, " Plain wrong is what it is. What is the plan know?"

" In do time, I'm waiting for the other tow to arrive before I say anything." I respond bluntly as I lay down on the one bed in the room. After about 3 minutes Asuma enters the room looking horrified. He doesn't even haev words to say, but isn't paralyzed by fear. He looks more angry than anything that we didn't do anything to save the poor man's life from earlier. Can't really blame him.

After a whole half an hour, Hayai still hasn't shown up and I'm starting to get worried. I decide to wait some more, but he still hasn't shown up. After two hours of waiting around I finally stand up and say, " I'm going out." Kakashi nods in responce and Asuma seems indifferent about it since he doesn't care for the kid anyway. I'm just hoping he didn't have an episode with the drug side effects or get spotted. It's pitch black outside in the dead of night, but I have no choice. We've been in it this long together, so there's no turning back now for one another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Pitch Black
(Hayai's POV)

"Ungh..." I mumbled to myself as I began to come to. Where the hell am I?

"So the little shit is awake finally. Zuro! He's awake!" A voice called out.

"Wh-where am I?" I quietly grumbled out.

"That's not important. When our boss gets here you're going to get it."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Just you wait."

I finally regain full consciousness to realize that I'm in a dark room tied to a chair. My feet are bound up pretty good as are my legs. So no escaping here. Finally after about ten minutes of waiting a large man walks into the room. He has long blue hair, a black warrior outfit on, and a large serrated blade on his back. This must be the boss...Oh no...

"You think you could take down our organization you piece of trash? We caught you snooping around yesterday." The boss man blurts out to my face.

"Hey man, I don't know what your talking about. I don't exactly remember much of yesterday."

I groan to myself as I realize I must've blacked out from the pills again. These things are starting to become a lot more bad than good.

The man slams his hands on the table and screams, "Who are you and what do you want from us?!"

"Why I have no idea what your talking about." I smile and say.

Instantly he lunges at me with a punch straight to my jaw. I take the pain and then spit out some blood and continue smiling. He glares straight into my eyes and I stare right back into his. There's no way I can give up any information or else it's game over.

"I'm giving you a chance here. Tell us your plans and I'll let you live."

Ha! The usual interrogation technique. Just promising me that I'll live. Yeah right, once I give him the info he'll probably kill me or feed me to the damned monster.

Again I look into his eyes, grin, and spit in his face to which he lands another punch into my jaw. I grimace from the pain but it wears off after a while.

"I guess you don't value your life very much. You must want to enjoy a slow and painful death. Leave him here! Let him rot for a while until he wants to talk." The man puts then demands.

Looks like I'll be sitting here for a while. Which should give me enough time to formulate how I'll make an escape. If I even can...

I take a look at my surroundings to see what I can work with. There's a metal table right in front of me. I'm bound to a wooden chair with chakra bracelets on. And one lone window on the wall. Not much to work with. Especially with these chakra bracelets on, otherwise I could easily break out. Though this wooden chair can't be that strong...And with these tough bracelets I might be able to get enough leverage to break the chair.

I push as hard as I can on the left arm of the chair and eventually it cracks and gives way, leaving my left hand free. I do the same thing with my right arm and with a loud snap, I feel and hear my shoulder dislocate as I break the chair. I squeeze my face in pain and get up to snap it back in place. It hurts so fucking bad but I manage to not make any noise.

Ok so that's the first part. Now I play the waiting game...I rearrange the chair to make it look like I'm still tied up. When that boss gets in here I'm going to whack him so hard in the face. Hours go by and I fall asleep from pure boredom. Eventually Mr. Boss man busts back in, waking me up. Time to put this plan in action.

"Ready to talk you piece of trash?" He interrogates.

"Yeah I am."

"So one more time...Why are you here and what do you want from us?"

"Hmm. Now it's coming to me clearly. This!" I yell as I smash him across the head with the arm of the chair, knocking his ass out cold.

Huh. I didn't think it was going to be that easy. I search his pockets and find the key to my chakra bracelets and unlock them. Time to bust out of this crap hole. Weaving a few hand-signs together I send a giant boulder through the wall and make my escape. So much for interrogating me. I should probably find Gatsuuga and the others. They're probably worried sick about me at this point, or not. Who knows. They could've left me for dead.

I continue through the dark town trying to avoid human contact as much as possible. The skies continue to darken and I swear I can see bits of red swirling around in the pitch black death hurricane. I really need to figure out what the hell is going on with this storm. That rally earlier didn't seem to promising for a bright future. A big genocide is on it's way I just know it.

After hours of walking around (because I forgot where the hell the campsite was) I find the team.

"Hayai? Is that you? We've been looking all over for you?" Kakashi questions.

"Yeah it sure is me. I've been through hell and speaking of hell." I reply as I look up into the darkened sky.

"What the hell happened?" Gatsuuga asks.

"I blacked out and was captured by the rouge gang. Also met the leader of the group. I managed to free myself and knock him out cold. I've been stumbling around town looking for you guys." I explain.

"Now that everyone's here what's our next course of action Gatsuuga?" Kakashi wonders.

"Hmm. I'm not so sure...It's not like we have intricate details on how to take down the monster. We might have to go after the rogue gang the two guards up on that stage were definitely rogue members. Oh and did anyone else notice that staff that Shira was carrying? That could be important so we might need to look into that." Gatsuuga breaks down. "For now continue recon, we will need to strike soon though. The Hokage didn't hire us just to scout this out. So move it"

"Hai!" We all reply as we break off to do some more recon.

My shoulder starts throbbing so I rap some bandaging tape around it. It's a gross purple/black looking bruise so that's going to be a nasty site for a while. Whatever, I hope I don't black out again like last time. That's the LAST thing we need. All I want to do is get rid of this monster for good. It's literally driving me insane with her still lurking around. I just want to go home...

Abysmal

Martyrdom

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

It's been almost 2 days since we watched the sacrifice go on at town hall with Shira, and it's now crunch time. Kakashi and I inspected the barrier surronding the town, and it seems very sturdy, but I think I found a loophole in the jutsu, but I didn't tell Kakashi that. I plan to get Kakashi and Asuma out of here one way or another before it gets any worse, and it will for sure. Hayai and I are lost causes at this point and dragging them two down with us is futile. Being in this business has aged me severally mentally, and I'm starting to see the effects rub off on to poor Hayai.

The point of this mission is to rescue the town and restore order, and I will have justice at the cost of my own life if need be. Most people after seeing half the shit I have would've committed suicide by now, but I'm one tough son of a bitch and I can keep head straight for the most part. I was born to do this, and I'll succeed one way or another.

It's night and we're all sitting around our campfire since we've abandoned the city for the most part sicne it's out of control. People have been dropping like flies in the last 48 hours. We are all just kinda staring at the fire hypnotized until i speak up and say, " Hayai, come speak with me in private." as I get up and Hayai stadns up from his spot and follows me all the way to the barrier, and well out of ear shot.

" What is it?" Hayai asks tentively.

" It's finally time. You and me are going to face the monster tonight, but first we must get them outside the barrier."

" Kakashi said that you two couldn't find a wa-"

" I lied. It's for there own safety. If we fail it's better to lose two than four, and we can't let them become tainted by this infectious demon like we have. it's all or nothign here tonight, so are you in?"

Hayai looks at the ground for a few moments silently, then looks right into my eyes and replies, " Let's kill that fucking thing." I smirk at his slight enthusiusm and respond, " Good, now do you still have your earth binding jutsu active at the camp site?"

" Yes, what do you plan to do?"

" When we go back I need you to activate the jutsu to bind them briefly so I can use my senbon to put them in a dazzed state, then we can transport them through the barrier. I doubt they'll leave willingly, and having the element of surprise is our only shot." I explain to Hayai and he nods in complete understanding.

We walk slowly back to the camp ground, and we stop just outside of the area. I nod to Hayai and he activate his Earth Style Binding Jutsu, that snares up Asuma and Kakashi by total surprise. In less than a second I launch two senbon perfectly aimed at their neck to put them in a temporary full body paralysis. Everything goes off without a hitch, and Hayai and I each grab Kakashi and Asuma and carry each of them to the barrier's edge. The faint purple glow is very ominous, but I have just the jutsu to burn a hole in it to get Kakashi and Asuma out of here.

" Are they still concious?" Hayai asks as he sets down Asuma. I set down Kakashi and reply, " Very. All their senses are intact, just unable to move a muscle. Now, when I remove the senbon from their neck, they'll regain movement in approximately 15 secounds so we'll have to work fast. Now step back."

I weave a few hand signs and whisper, " Ninja Art: Overload Jutsu." and I begin to pump my fire nature chakra into the barrier and after about an endless minute I've carved out a nice hole, but it's starting to regenerate. " Hayai, quickly remove the senbon and toss them through!" I shout as I release the jutsu. Hayai swiftly removes the senbon and sets Asuma and Kakashi on the other side of the barrier. The hole quickly closes up, and just as it closes they both regain movement and control over themselves.

" What the hell?" Asuma shouts from outside the barrier in a fury, as Kakashi just seems to be waiting for me to explain things out in a slightly pissed manner, but it's hard to tell with the mask. " Calm down my friends, Hayai and I have done this for you're own safety. We don't know what lies inside there, and I won't risk losing you two to death or insanity, like Hayai and I are experiancing. Report to the Hokage that the mission will be taken care of, and thank you for your help."

" Hmm...very well." Kakashi calmly responds as Asuma shouts out, " You can't do this by yourselves! It's suicide, and you deliberatly attack your own teammates, stop trying to be so noble and let us help!"

" Maybe we know it's suicide..." Hayai ominously responds to Asuma in an unusually relaxed tone for being yelled at.

I glance at Hayai and his very blank expression for a moment, then I focus back on Asuma and Kakashi to say, " Trust me, I've done this for awhile. I still have my ace in the hole, and Hayai can fight greatly. The mission will be executed properly, now go please. And also leave our reguards to the Hokage and Kurenai if we do not return."

" Understood, and good luck. You'll need it." Kakashi replies as he grabs Asuma by the arm and they both flee the scene, and now it's just us two left inside the mysterious barrier with a match with the devil.

" Give me some time to recover from that last jutsu, ok? Once I'm good we'll begin phase two of our plan: kill as many gang members as possible as we make our way to Shira and Hoshi, and kick some freak-ass." I say with a little smile on my face. I suppose I do have a twisted sense of humor, but what do you expect from me?

" Wouldn't have it any other way." replies Hayai as he smiles back at me and hands me a soilder pill. I swallow it and take a seat on the ground to just get off my feet, and to prepare myself mentally for what about to go down.

" You think we can do it?" Hayai asks me as I fiddle with a senbon between my fingers, and I say back, " Well, we are going to do it or die trying. I can tell you that much."

After about a half hour of resting, I feel my chakra reserves are almost back up to full again, and I stand up. It's pitch black out side now as I estimate it's around 1 A.M. or so. I grab a stick on the ground and lightly use some of my fire jutsu to light it on fire so we can lead ourselves back to the shadowy town. Atleast it has some form of light, even though it's creepy as fuck.

" Ready to go?" I ask Hayai and he just gives me a thumbs up. We walk through the forest with the little makeshift torch, and after about 10 minutes we can see the town and are at it's gates. I take one deep breath before I spring into action and jump up about three stories to a roof top and start running towards town hall with Hayai following closely.

As we are travelling by rooftop I feel enemies among us, and almost like on cue possessed gang members start to jump up infront of our path and follow behind us. Looks like Shira is giving us a welcoming party. " Let's not waste time or too much chakra on these guy. We got bigger fish to fry." I state as I pull out a bunch of poisen dipped senbon, and I let them fly. Hayai unsheathes both his swords and begins to tear through their ranks.

We keep moving toward our destination as we are taking out countless enemies, and it seems the puppet jutsu is a bit sloppy when trying to manipulate so many bodies as the offensive hasn't really given either me nor Hayai problems. After about 10 minutes of dishing out pain to those poor souls, we finally reach town hall, and it seems all our pursuers have vanished, and that creepy feeling is starting to fill the air making my skin crawl.

The air is starting to be discolored with a thing green smog that smells and tastes horrible, and out of the building exit Shira with her staff in hand, with Hoshi in full beast form on all fours growling and walking (if you can call it that) behind Shira.

" So, you have abandoned your friends to try and save them? Pitiful to even think you two stand a chance against me. I'll make you're deathes nice and slow, hahaha!" Cackles Shira as the witch points at us mencaingly with her staff.

" You underestimate us, demon." Hayai shots back at her like verbal daggers and she just snickers to herself. Hayai and I both assume fighting stances and face our two attackers. I would have never guessed that it come to this when I first met them, and Shira seems to still be wary of me. Seems like the crazy bitch is a bit arrogant, but isn't stupid. I take a peek over to Hayai, and his eyes are dead-locked on Hoshi, and I swear I can see a tear almost form in his eyes, but it could be my imagination. It's hard to not have some empathy for both of them, especially when they started to bond. Just an example of why you don't make friends in this type of business, since you'll end up more times than not heart-broken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Riders of the Apocalypse
(Hayai's POV)


So it's come to this huh? Gatsuuga and I versus that grotesque monster and it's master. I'm not exactly sure how we're supposed to kill something like this...My only thought is complete annihilation such as tearing her head off...Or ripping her body to shreds. Which reminds me of a jutsu I have in store...

A few more rogue's pop up, surrounding us. I look at my glimmering blades and preform the most elegant of all fighting styles: The grim reaper. I flip and spin as I slice apart the rogue's, decapitating a few, and just plain slicing a couple in half. Gatsuuga just stands back and keeps an eye on Shira. I finish up, completely blood stained, to which Gatsuuga just gives me a nod of approval. Must of impressed him or something.

"That's it!" Shira roars, shaking the ground.

"Ah fuck." States Gatsuuga. "It must be on now."

Gatsuuga pulls out a scroll and once again summons his octopus, Tako.

"What the fuck is this?!" Blurts Tako.

"Yeah...I kinda need your help again. We need to destroy that and that." Says Gatsuuga, pointing out the monsters.

Tako just stares at the monsters, remaining silent, knowing he is to obey.

"Lets just get this over with." Gatsuuga grimly puts.

"I'm right behind you." I add.

Gatsuuga and I hit the ground with a thud. We get into a stare off with the two evil figures before flickering at each other. I hold off the little Hoshi monster thing while Gatsuuga takes on Shira.

Basically, I get into a sword fight (If you can call it that) with Hoshi. I swing my blades back and forth as she retaliates with sharp claws. The sharp clang of metals fills the air as we proceed with the battle. Hoshi is pretty quick in this form, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up. She manages to slice my arm pretty deep, but at this point, I just block out the pain and continue fighting. I guess it's time to put my plan in motion.

I back up and slam the ground with my palm. At the same time I do that, my dogs erupt from the ground and dig their fangs into the monster pinning her down. Quickly, I throw together some hand-signs but she manages to overwhelm my hound's strength and lunge at me, gashing my face.

"You fucking bitch!" I scream. "That is it! Earth style: Mountain buzz saw jutsu!"

Two small, spiked to the brim mountains arise from the ground and slam Hoshi in between them. In a minute they should begin rotating to grind that monstrosity to pieces.

"Hayai! Please don't!" A voice calls out.

"What the..."

"Shira just has me possessed! Please! It's just me, little Hoshi!"

I drop the jutsu and run over to what used to be a monster. It turns out to be the human form of Hoshi, battered and bloodied up. Oh god! What have I done! I can feel the tears swell in my eyes as I pick up her body. She's still living, still breathing. I have to save this little gir---

I look down to notice a claw going right through my stomach...Looking back up it's not Hoshi anymore. It's the fucking monster I'm holding. I feel the burning pain in my abdominal area as the monster pulls it's claw out and jumps back. I fall to my knees and spew up blood into my hands. What kind of sick trick is this!?

"How...how dare you!" I roar, spewing up more blood

"Haha. Hahahahah!!!" Hoshi cackles.

I arise to my feet, chakra visibly exploding around me. I'm done. I'm just fucking done with all of this!

"I'm going...to FUCKING kill you!!!" I bellow.

I throw together about two dozen hand-signs in a flash, as my body becomes encased in rock armor. My swords too become encased. This is my trump card, and I'm going to use it to it's fullest extent...

Instantly, I flicker behind the monster and smash her head into the ground. I continue battering the monster with my stone-encased swords and I don't let up. With one last attack I leap up into the air and scream, "Earth style: Sink hole burial jutsu!" The ground below her sinks until she is completely underground. Then I snap my fingers and spikes emerge in an intricate pattern with the monster's body parts splattered all over them. Finally...Finally, it's over. With one last breath, I collapse face first. Unable to move, all I can see is Gatsuuga locked in deadly combat with Shira.

I wish I could help but I have to remain a spectator. In my condition I'd just be a nuisance. Gatsuuga and Shira clash kunai and staff. Occasionally she sends bolts of lightning at Gatsuuga but he is swift enough to dodge them.

"Tako! Trap us in here. I don't want her to flee..." Gatsuuga orders

Tako jumps into the air and spits out a ring of oil that encircles both Gatsuuga and Shira. Gatsuuga proceeds to spit out some fire to create a ring of fire that traps the two. I can barely see the action but I can make out the figures. I find enough strength in me to crawl to a better position to see the battle too.

"You really think you can beat me?! My little pretty has probably eaten your stupid partner's bones." Shira hisses.

"He wouldn't go down like that you filthy piece of trash."

A thunderbolt from the sky zaps Gatsuuga in an instant as he cries out in pain. He staggers to his feet and proceeds to engage in deadly taijutsu with Shira. For a dumb witch, she can sure keep up with him...

She unleashes a fury of lightning bolts in his direction to which he can only put up his arms and receive the strike. Again, Gatsuuga roars in pain as the electricity flows throughout this body.

"Fire style: Dragon flame bombs!" Gatsuuga shouts.

Two blazing figures sear across the ground and explode and Shira's feet. Of course, she is unaffected and stands there perfectly fine. She throws together a few hand-signs as lightning erupts from the ground. For some reason though it doesn't affect Gatsuuga as he stands there, glaring at her. He doesn't waste anytime as he orders Tako to spray oil all over the witch.

"Ugh! What are you doing!" She screams.

Gatsuuga remains silent as he slaps together more hand-signs, "Fire style: Dragon's roar!"

Chakra explodes from behind him and transforms into the shape of a dragon. My god...What is this jutsu? The chakra dragon erupts a fury of flames from it's mouth which could cover the size of a mountain. It's obviously a direct hit. The flames die down to reveal Shira standing there, set ablaze by the jutsu. She just stands there...doing nothing...Either it killed her, or she's still living...Please let her be dead.

"You dumb fool! You can't kill me!" Roars the still alive monster.

"You...You have to be kidding me." Says Gatsuuga, heaving from the loss of chakra.

Wow, that one attack depleted him, though I guess he'd been using chakra to hold himself against her. Out of the corner of my eye I notice Gatsuuga smirk as Tako leaps up out of the ground and covers Shira's face. Tako must be resistant to fire...

All I hear is muffled screams as Gatsuuga nabs the staff out of Shira's hand and snaps it in half. A huge bolt of lightning shoots up into the sky and Gatsuuga must've gotten some idea because he points the stick in her direction as the lightning zaps her, creating a crater.

Gatsuuga in his final motion drags himself over to her smoldering body and with one last chakra filled strike, curb stomps her head, making it explode as blood spurts out in every direction.

Is...Is it over...?

I look down at my wound which has been bleeding for...I don't know I've lost track of time. A weird feeling washes over me and eventually I begin to black out. Heh, good thing I was alive long enough to enjoy that fight. I'm glad we stopped them...I spew up more blood onto the ground and notice Gatsuuga walking over to me.

"Hayai. You alright? Oh shit." I hear Gatsuuga call out as darkness fills my sight.


***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***

I feel a warm feeling bathe my body. Not really sure what it is, I attempt to open my eyes. After a struggle, I fully open them and realize I'm in a hospital. Should've known...

"Hey! You made it. How are you feeling?" I hear a voice ask.

"I don't know..." I groan as I try to move. A sharp pain stings my stomach to where I can hardly move.

"Hey man, don't move. You suffered that nasty impalement through your abdominal area. It's a miracle you're still alive. You've been out for a couple weeks now." The voice explains.

Eventually I realize it's Gatsuuga. Ha. Glad to see he's still alive...

"It is a miracle isn't it...So are those two things...?"

"Yeah. Taken care of by us. Good job by the way. You absolutely destroyed Hoshi."

"Heh. Thanks. So now what...?"

"I'm not sure yet buddy. Not sure yet..." Gatsuuga trails off.

"I'm just glad this whole thing is over."

"We just have to speak to the Hokage when you have the strength to move. Simple as that."

"Alright then..."

Gatsuuga and I continue to chat the day away. Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai come to visit also asking all that happened. I kinda feel bad for making Kakashi and Asuma leave that battle zone but...It was for their own good.

Days and nights pass and I'm having the worst night tremors of my life. Eventually I develop insomnia and even with that I'm still freaked out of my mind. The doctors try to prescribe me everything but nothing works. I can actually feel myself becoming insane and I've yet to talk to the Hokage. Oh man...Oh man...What the hell is going on...? I thought killing those things would've stopped all of this but my symptoms are just getting worse by the minute. Occasionally I can't help but scream as doctors have to come in and hold me down as they inject me with sedatives. What do I do with myself?

Abysmal

Epilogue

(Gatsuuga's P.O.V)

It's been a few weeks since Hayai and I defeated that fucking creature and it's master, and things have been quite slow honestly. Today Hayai just got cleared by the hospital to go meet with the Hokage since he's physically recovered, but there still doing tests on his mental health which isn't a good sign. I've noticed too in the past few weeks while visiting him he's become less coherent and is starting to just not make sense anymore. Yesterday he asked me when we're going to fight Hoshi and Shira, and I just shook my head.

Since it has been very quiet, I'm a bit worried about what the Hokage is going to say to us. I have had ANBU watching over me night and day since I've been ordered not to leave my house unless I go to see Hayai at the hospital, so I'm a bit worried. I didn't run things by the book, but I got it down, right?

I walk to the front of the hospital where I see two ANBU waiting by the front door with Hayai in the middle of them looking very happy to be out of bed, but has that lost glazed look in his eyes. I walk up to him and ask, " So are you ready to go see the Hokage?" and he doesn't respond for a moment, then hastily replies, " Of course!"

We walk down to the Hokage tower with the ANBU following behind us, and I've got a real bad feeling of what might be in store for us.

We get to the office, and as we enter I announce, " Hello, we're finally here." I take a look around to see 2 ANBU next to a sitting Hiruzen and off to the side Danzo Shimura. Fuck that guy. " Hello Hokage-sama and Lord Danzo." Greets Hayai as he bows and I just stare Danzo in his eye. I suspect something is off if he's here to just hear a mission breifing.

The Hokage takes a deep sigh and says, " Welcome... I have already been briefed on most of the mission report, and I see that it was a success, but there is a few more quirks to deal with." as he ends with slight pain in his voice. This is where Danzo steps forward and says, " You two have broken many rules during this mission, and there are consequences for those actions."

I felt like this might happen, so I shout back, " We did what we had to complete the mission!" Danzo lets out a small chuckle and says, " Not exactly, you see Hayai attacked a comrade on the mission, Kurenai Yuuhi, and it was confirmed by Gatsuuga himself. Also you two Betrayed Kakashi and Asuma, which wasn't required at all to fufill the mission, and if you combine that with all the other shit we've let slide Gatsuuga, you're going to be locked up for quite awhile."

I'm literally shaking at this point. Yes I don't have the prettiest track record, but now of all times to peg me? I've never liked this pig of a man, so I just spit at him, which he wipes off and motions for the ANBU to restrain my arms. " Very well, looks like I'll add this to the list as well. Hiruzen and I spoke and we've agreed that since you're so talented you will haev your shinobi status suspended until you complete you're prison term. As for Hayai, he will go to a very secure facillity for unstable shinobi." Danzo explains as Hiruzen just nods his head shamefully.

" Sorry you two, but the law is the law. This is what must be done." Hiruzen says as he takes a big drag from his pipe. I'm now livid, and I angrily ask Danzo, " How long is my sentence, and why am I not being given a trial?"

" The council debated this very topic a week ago and came up with a verdict. you will serve 12 years in prison, then you may reapply for being a shinobi once released. Hayai will be locked up for a minimum of 6 years and until his mental illness is cured. That is final, now take them away." Danzo commands as 4 more ANBU enter the building and knock us out, and drag us away to our doom. Looks like my past has caught up with me finally and, and I unfortunately Hayai became ensnared in it, and I never got to say sorry before that fateful day.

~~~~~~~~------------------------------`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__________

(Gatsuuga's Ending)

It's been two weeks since being in the Hokage's office, and I haven't been very happy since. Prison is awful, but I'm already on of the most feared people in here, just thanks to my gruesome past. The food is horrible, and I spend most of my days either working out or writing my new book, labeled Behind The Curtain which is basically a personal anecdote about my experiances as a shinobi and the darkness of the system. I should have it finished up in a year or two, besides I have 12 years so that won't be a problem.

Living inside here is a daily struggle since we are treated like animals that have to fend for ourselves. So many evil people here, it seems I've dipped right back into hell, but still I'm probably better off than poor Hayai.

Nothing will ever be the same once I get out, but I think I won't be going back to being a P.I or Interrogation and Torture, those days are done. I'll probably apply to be just a standerd jounin, hell I might even apply to be a academy teacher, hehe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*********************______________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Hayai's Ending)

(Doctor's P.O.V)

My team has been studying subject 289-C (Hayai Sutoraiki) for the past two weeks, and his condition hasn't improved at all. He seems to be stuck in a loop in the past where it is him and a Gatsuuga fellow planning to fight someone. Also at random moments he will break down and cry, usually get angry and try to use jutsu. We now have chakra bracelets on him, since we learned our lesson from the first attack.

My guess is his condition is incurable or he will need more than 6 years to recover from his trauma and his addiction. The kid has been quite nice to us for the most part, but he still is very confused. He also seems to fade in and out of sanity, and we've tracked a pattern. Right now he is only "sane" for about 3 hours of the 14 he is awake, where he is generally nice and just slightly confused. The other half of him is stuck in the past and can get very violent. I feel bad for the kid, because whatever he saw has destroyed him, but I do see a small glimmer of hope for him.


The End?
__________________________________________________________________________________