cutgut [ private | mission ]

[neko bo beko]

Name: Time for the Butchers to get Cut down.
Rank: C
IIC Length: 1 day
Difficulty: hard
Objective: the Butchers. A notorious gang inside Kusas walls, has finally crossed the line. Its time for the Ninja of Kusa to take them down once and for all.
Description: Eliminate the gang.
reward: 35,000 Ryo

Finding a gang called 'the Butchers' wasn't very hard in the long run. After a few questions to patrons in hot spot neighborhoods and a couple of goodhearted shop clerks who were ready to rat out the 'bastards' that terrorize them for protection ryo, Harue finds herself travelling to a dead street of West Kusagakure. Of course they would hold down in an abandoned butchery. It was only fitting for them, wasn't it? Harue thought so at least, but Ōmo seemed less thrilled about the joke, but the pinkette only continued to joke about how maybe Ōmo was just afraid of going into a fort that was once designated to butcher other four-legged creatures. Inwardly, however, Harue felt a pang as well. 

As night settles firmly over Kusagakure, Harue dips closer to her target. She'd survey from afar with her Tasukeru for some time, and continued to do such, and found that they were all relatively... slow. But then again, she had witnessed what looked much like a meeting, and she wished she could hear through the scope of life. She pulls her hood over her head, the large coat effectively devouring the rest of her which the shadows did not. She vanishes in those shadows, only illuminated by beams of lights cast by flickering lanterns that wall the outside of the hideaway. In times like these, it was almost unsightly for the pink lion to be alongside her, for he looks simply like a stray or roaming lion. Who would mess with a roaming lion though? That was Harue's justification, anyways. 

Nonetheless, Harue didn't want Ōmo in the direct line of danger, even if her readings of these gang members proved to be lesser than what she'd expected. Of course, she always needs backup. Ōmo stays in the cover of underbrush and shadows, always within hearing distance but out of the way. His ears sit perked on the top of his head, even as he settles around the corner. 

It's not until the pinkette has begun to enter the place that she wonders what this gang could have possibly done to cross a line. If they'd already not been above murder and exploitation and black mail, then what was the final straw?

[neko bo beko]

Entering from the safest entry point, a back door away from where majority of the Butchers loiters, Harue monitors each of the members present. While she assumed there were more of their men scattered among Kusa, she'd have to figure out at least the leader. It was impossible to assume she could eliminate all of them one way or another, whether it be lawfully or through otherwise lethal measures, so she'd have to take a different approach. Cut off the head and the body will flounder - it was a saying she felt was a little abrasive if not ruthless, but true nonetheless. She didn't like killing people, but she'd learned the hard way it was necessary in the shinobi life. A drag, really, but it made it easier to take lives once you realized it was you or them. Mostly, anyways - not everyone was devoid of hope, she still believed in that somewhere.

Yet she's as ruthless as the saying is - she can't allow herself to sympathize with someone simply for existing. They were bad, and that was final. Yuri, or some authority Harue functioned under, wanted the 'Butchers' neutralized - and so it must be. Muffled by both her shadows and planar soul, the man leaning against the counter with his back to Harue and the door she crouches in, presumably taking only a second from his guard duty to sip down the soda in his hand, is unbeknownst of his predetermined fate. A second Harue, as if out of nowhere, creeps up on his flank like a slithering shadow and slips a hand over his mouth before he notices her. In an instant, they're outside, a few hundred meters away. A series of soul shunts and sways with her as his host made for a seamless escape, and the distance crossed was enough to keep his frantic shouts nothing but a distant noise to the house. The second Harue takes to interrogation while the original continues her navigation of the first room. 

"I'll make this simple," The second Harue is saying, her fingers curling around the hilt of her katana, the blade pressing hard enough against his throat to draw blood. Not enough to sever anything important, though. Harue was too squeamish, but he didn't need to know that. He only needed to look into her crimson glowing eyes and cooperate. She knew that if he were stronger, he might not shake in his boots as he does now. But judging by his readings compared to the rest of the crew she could detect, he was one of the weaker hands. They were confident enough to put him on guard, so they were confident in themselves - or cocky. Harue twists up her expression. "Just help me out and I won't kill you or turn you into the police."

Looking in the direction of the rest of the household, Harue moves silently through what she thinks is the kitchen. There's an overwhelming urge to steal a snack, but it subsides when a fraction of the crew start her way. She steels herself, hopeful that the other her would hurry back. 

[neko bo beko]

She told him it was simple, and she wasn't lying. She only needed one name, one description, one anything to reveal to her the leader of this notoriously shitty gang. When nothing but a whimper bubbles over her blade, she presses it sharper against his throat, the supple curve of his adam's apple bobbing dangerously around the steel impasse. Harue tilts her head, frowning slightly as her glowing red eyes examine him thoroughly. "Elevated heart rate and temperature, low chakra levels. I can see how pathetic you are, so don't make this hard on yourself..." He frowns and whimpers vulgarity, delaying the house-bound Harue even further. She sneaks carefully into a dark corner, lying in wait as the fraction moves past the kitchen, heading towards an exit separate from Harue's original entrance. She monitors them closely.

"Look," Harue exhales, exasperated. Her shoulders and free arm move and gesture as if she's absolutely tired and fed up with this, frustrated with its prolonged continuation. "I don't want to have to call my Kage down here to wipe all you fools out. I'm sure you don't want everyone dead, do you?" Gang of thugs or not, loyalty was priority. If he wasn't loyal, then Harue was barking up the wrong tree. "Just one." She holds up her pointer finger, shoving it in his face alongside the blade at his throat. "That's all that needs to be eliminated. If you make this hard for me, then that number will go up to 2, then inevitably more. Then everyone's dead, and I don't want that on my hands, and you don't want that on your head."

Talking a lot. Too much? She can't let her guard down though, can't give this guy an inch to work with. She just needs one name, one description, one thing. Then she could be done with this.

[neko bo beko]

This was dragging on longer than she'd hoped for, but luckily everything was staying at least marginally on track. After a long time of convincing the man that it was this or nothing, he finally kneels after a final swift fist to the gut, butt of her katana working wonders for Harue's knuckles against his delicate body. He hacks and spits, looking up at Harue from under one swollen eyelid, the other closed. Harue shakes the blood from her hand, her knuckles prickling. "You fight like a girl," Harue snorts, wiping the bit of blood he'd managed to draw from her nose across her cheek, smearing his blood from her knuckles there too. He swallows and shakes, but gives up the name she needed and the vaguest description she can work with. "Gerardo." Harue snorts. What a stupid name. And then she was gone, and the beaten, pathetic butcher patrolman stumbles off.

The soul remembers all, and as she is rejoined by her missing half, the now singular Harue knows a larger yet bald man is her target, and that his name is (sadly, for him) Gerardo. She could do this seamlessly if she played her cards right. It was late enough, dark enough, and calm enough. She plans it all out carefully, laying down each stepping stone for herself. Through her Tasukeru, she'd find the man that matched the description, and...

Wait. She stills, then takes a quick swoop into a pantry. The pantry door clicks shut just as a portion of the already small group who had originally moved past the kitchen were entering the same space. Waiting in the dark, Harue watches through the solid pantry door as two of them begin rummaging for food as the other locks down the exit, then proceeds to lock up the windows. Harue sighs, but she knew at least she was only locked inside. If she were stuck outside, she might've been fucked without breaking in obnoxiously.

Stuck there for some time, Harue has the chance to single out exactly who she was trying to terminate. He was the heaviest man in the abandoned shop, and he seemed to be the only one with no hair atop his skull. She could tell mostly through the lack of distinct heat there often caused by the existence of hair, but still. Now she just had to wait, and hope for the best. She really hates sitting crouched in the pantry, but she only hoped that nobody would come digging for food in here. Just to be sure she turns - only her shoulders and head thanks to the cramped space - to gander at what's on the shelves, relieved to find only junk food. At least there was a reward waiting for her. 

[neko bo beko]

Hope and pray for things, but they hardly turn out how you wish them to. Or maybe Harue brought it on herself when she had the audacity to stand and begin pocketing a lot of their food, many of which were  wrapped in crinkly and noisy foils. Regardless, the pantry door swinging open would have startled anyone, the single soft red glow of the pantry dimming quickly as it does. Harue and a mysterious man come nose to nose, and Harue holds her breath, eyes wide.

There's too many exchanged glances until finally the man closes the door anticlimactically. Harue quickly turns her Tasukeru back on to watch the man wander back to his friends with a dumb limp and raised shoulders. "Must be some rodents 'r somethin', man."

Harue exhales, then drinks up as much air as she can. She was an idiot. Thank any Gods her shadow walker was always lying just beneath her skin, blending her against black backdrops, and thank those same Gods the only lit candle in the place was with Gerardo.

That was enough goofing. Harue was ready to get this over with. And she didn't want any confrontation, and she didn't want any fighting back. But she didn't want to take any risks, either. She'd wait until they all fell asleep or scattered, and take them out like such. 

***

So apparently they all slept here, which was sort of a bummer, but Harue could work with it. They were low level and dumb, to say the least. That didn't necessarily mean they deserved death however, so she'd leave a few. First, though, she went directly to Gerardo, the leader of this insufferable gang and... stalls in his doorway. She creeps towards him, wanting desperately for there to be a way to do this without just separating his head from his shoulders with the sharp edge of her sword.

Unfortunately, however, it seemed that's what she'd have to do... While her GenJutsu knowledge was extensive, she didn't know anything particularly deadly that didn't take nightmares. And the soul, her soul, as it was, could only do so much. She supposed she could just as easily bring Ōmo inside and have him eat their faces off, but a mauling probably wouldn't be the best thing to have circulating through the village with only one domesticated lion in sight. Not that anyone would care about these thugs, she presumed.

Alas, each body in the house end up with a sliver of a cut over their heart, the thin gash much deeper than it looks on the surface. With each heart pierced, Harue leaves with a heavy weight on her shoulders. Her only justification is that these men were meant to be taken care of under the authority of the Kusagakure leaders, and she had to be faithful to that despite her feelings and guilt. At least, like Circe always says; they're only humans.

[ exit ]