A Serpent changes his Skin, not his Fangs (Training)(P)

[Hamura]

(Part 8)

The police reports gave him a bunch of names and a couple of reported locations in which the disappearances had occurred, as well as the addresses of those that had filed the reports at the time. But since the missing persons report regarding Kharal had been filed two years ago and the disappearances of people taken by the water woman were filed within the next four months after it, he had to keep the possibility in mind that some of them might not be here in Port Porthos anymore.

Still, he went to the streets that were slowly starting to fill up with people that had taken their sweet time waking up, getting ready for work, preparing to go grocery shopping or planned on going to their ship and set out in the daylight. Using this chance to ask around regarding the disappearances, it turned out that the place had more or less turned the story of the water woman into a piece of local folklore. Some stated it like she was some kind of Youkai, some said it was the spirit of a drowned woman who took vengeance upon those she believed were the person that drowned her.

While interesting, most of it was just a bunch of stories told by people who didn't know any better. Fortunately, there were some of the older folks that actually knew a bit about it. An old lady doing some grocery shopping had apparently been there the second time the water woman appeared and took a shady looking man straight from a pier and into the water. Being able to point him to the exactly location, her elderly friend stated that she too had seen it, and that the man was carrying a bag with him. While the information was as old as the crimes themselves, they offered him some additional insight, and that was priceless.

-End-

[Starnaess]

learned

[Hamura]

(Continued Investigate Training)
(No Roll or SP Modifiers)
(Total SP: 102 / 125)

_______________________________________

Now that he had several addresses to check out, a couple of confirmed sightings of the water woman and a lead as to what might have happened to Kharal, Hamura had to make some decisions as to what he was going to track down first. There was Kharal, there was Miraigetsu the water woman, and there was the stolen religious idol for which they had both come here. While every decision he made at this point would be valid since there was very little to go on, every single one of them would likely alter the outcome quite a bit.

The way he saw it, if he went to find Miraigetsu first, there was a good chance that she might not believe him or his intentions if he brought up wanting to look for Kharal and the idol. There was even a chance that she might attack him over it, which was not going to be a good thing for him. As things were, she was an unknown factor in all of this, and given the fact that she had supposedly killed at least three people in the last two years, it was safe to say that she had a bit of power going for her.

But since he had no idea as to what her actual powers were aside from being able to turn into water, which appeared to be the Hozuki bloodline ability, fighting her was out of the question until he knew exactly how to handle her if she were to turn out violent. For as long as he had been a Shinobi, calmly assessing the situation and working out a contingency plan had always been the way in which he handled things, and now would be no different.

[Hamura]

(Part 2)

Feeling like the best thing he could be doing right now was either finding out what had happened to Kharal or locating the Idol, finding Miraigetsu was the wise thing to postpone for the time being. If he had Kharal or the Idol with him as a show of good faith when he found her, being attacked was certainly a lot less likely. This meant that he had to figure out which would be the easier thing to do, finding a person or finding an artifact. After letting the thought sit around in his head for a bit, he decided on the latter.

Figuring that Kharal and Miraigetsu had come to the land of Fang for an audience with Juuro Chiyohiro under the assumption that this man had the know-how required to help them get it back. Either that, or he knew a bunch of things about it that he wasn't planning on sharing with the two of them, but just wanted to hear them out about it. Whichever was the case did not matter a whole lot to the young Shinobi, as he had his ways of making a person talk.

After all, everything was fair game when it meant potentially saving those in need, and that was very much the case right now. As far as he was aware, Miraigetsu had killed at least three people, and nobody in the land of Fang seemed to know where Kharal had gone to, meaning two things. It meant that Kharal was likely taken away somewhere for asking questions and being a nuisance, and that it was likely that Miraigetsu might have taken some people for questioning, meaning they could be alive at this point.

[Hamura]

(Part 3)

Not willing to make such positive assumptions, he decided that for now, it would be best for him and his investigation to continue as if Kharal had been killed two years ago, and that the people taken by Miraigetsu over the years had met with a similar end. That way, he wouldn't be as surprised if things actually turned out as grim as he had just imagined them to be. Knowing that the address of Juuro was nowhere in Port Porthos but near the end of the forest, he had quite a ways to go before he'd reach the place.

Deciding to go there straight away, he hoped that this was one of the addresses that remained valid over the years. Considering the fact that Juuro's house was supposedly some kind of mansion that had a large amount of land accompanying it, it seemed unlikely that he would have moved away like some of the villagers had. Reaching the forest in little to no time at all, he wasn't planning on wasting any time by running into any wild animals that might want to snack on him. Stopping every now and then to check for tracks, he made sure to move around potential predators.

It was at times like these that he felt fortunate for his prowess at learning and adapting to certain situations. Moving through the forest relatively quickly considering he'd need to make stops once in a while, he could see the large mansion above the treeline. It was always good to see that the important people of the world saved no expenses to make sure their homes were easy to locate. Within the next ten minutes, Hamura arrived at the property and started looking around the property to make sure he wouldn't run into a welcoming party.

[Hamura]

(Part 4)

As this was seemingly not the case, he made his way over to the front door, knocking three times before waiting for someone to get to it. After reaching the count of fifty, he finally heard hints of a door unlocking before opening it. Spotting a well dressed man, Hamura was asked whether he was expected or had anything to discuss with the esteemed owner of the mansion. Stating honestly that he was not being expected, there was indeed something of great importance that needed to be discussed.

Raising an eyebrow as he looked down upon the kid, the man closed the door and walked away. Feeling like he had just been left out there like some annoying pest that would likely go away if he were to be ignored long enough, he decided to do some further recon of his own. Feeling that some quick investigation of the building's exterior might be a good idea if he were to be forced to make an attempt at breaking and entering, he checked all the entrances and windows he could find.

By the time he returned to the front door and planned on leaving the property for the time being, he was surprised to hear the door opening again. Watching as the man gestured at him to come on in, he was even more surprised at the notion. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he entered the large mansion and followed the man up a flight of stairs. After a short walk, he was almost pushed inside of a large study where he saw an older man sitting behind a desk, writing some kind of document.

[Hamura]

(Part 5)

Once the door got closed behind him, the man stopped writing and put the documents away in his desk, locked it and turned around in his chair. Staring into a stern face, Hamura could tell that this was without a doubt the owner of the mansion, the man known as Juuro Chiyohiro. When the man told Hamura to take a seat, he did so without asking any questions. Knowing that it was often best to just do as these people asked so as to not trigger their ire and make them entirely uncooperative, he waited for the man to speak.

When Juuro finally opened his mouth, it was to ask Hamura who he was, why he had come and what it was that he wanted from him. Apparently, the man had been bothered in the middle of his work and had only decided to take a break to humor himself by letting in someone who was likely a young Shinobi. Even though Hamura had no weaponry on him and had come in his casual attire, it seemed that the man had seen right through him, likely something he had learned how to do after a lifetime of being a politician.

For a moment, Hamura considered lying about being a Shinobi and making up some bogus story, but quickly decided against it. If he was going to be smart about this encounter, he was going to have to primarily stick to telling the truth, mixing in small lies in order to turn the conversation in his favor and hope for the best. If he were to outright lie to Juuro's face, Hamura felt like he would be kicked out of the building rather quickly and might have the authorities put up against him back in Port Porthos. Not being something he looked forward to, he decided to go with his new plan.

[Hamura]

(Part 6)

Explaining that he was a Shinobi who had been sent to check in on a cold case regarding a disappearance that had been filed by Juuro himself, he elaborated on it further by stating the local police department told him about this address, and that a journal written by the missing person had implicated his involvement. While he had not been entirely truthful regarding how he had gotten to be on the case in the first place, the rest of it had been entirely true and could all be traced back through earlier actions of his.

This meant that if Juuro was to not be impressed by his story, he could just call the police department and hear from them how Hamura was now working on the case. At least, he hoped that they would back him up on this after all the things he had done for them during his few weeks long stay in Fang. As it turned out, Juuro decided to believe him as he had received word of his coming from an inside man. Not finding this hard to believe at all as the guy was a politician at some point, Hamura went along with it.

Before Hamura could actually ask a question, the man rose from his seat and walked on over to the window. Staring out across his back yard, Hamura could see from the reflection in the window that his eyes trailed far off into the forest. Having no idea as to what might be that far into the country, Juuro started talking about how Kharal had been barking up the wrong tree when he came to Juuro, demanding to know where the Idol was and who had been responsible for taking it from his people.

[Hamura]

(Part 7)

Wondering what this meant, the man gestured at him to follow him to a different room on the lower floor of the building. As it turned out, it had been there that Kharal and him had been talking about the future of the Idol, and where the people responsible for taking it broke into the mansion in order to keep people from asking questions. Lowering his suit and unbuttoning his shirt, Juuro showed Hamura a large scar that was undoubtedly caused by a sharp bladed weapon, Juuro went on to explain that he never could be bothered to fix the room.

Aside from plastering the wall they had broken down back to the way it was, everything else inside of the room was still as it had been two years ago, except covered up by a rug. Giving Hamura his permission to roll up the rug and see if there was anything there that he could find that might help him in his investigation, the young boy could not shake the feeling that the former politician was hiding something. After all, why would the man need to be told beforehand that Hamura was coming to ask questions if he had nothing to hide.

But that was not something he would share with the older man. Instead he just nodded at him in approval of letting him go about his investigation in peace. Before he left and closed the door behind him, Juuro said one last thing about how he had been ashamed of his own security being lax enough to let one of his political guests get captured and nearly get himself killed in the process. Claiming that this was why he had never really called in the authorities and only filed a missing persons case, Hamura was left with no choice but to believe him until facts proved otherwise.

[Hamura]

(Part 8)

After carefully removing the rug and putting it in the hallway, it became apparent that the man had not been lying about the fact that someone had broken into the building through the wall. Noticing burn marks along the floor around the newly installed portion of the wall, Hamura couldn't tell whether the invaders had used actual bombs or explosive tags as this was not his forte. The same applied for his knowledge regarding blood spatters and DNA profiling, meaning he wasn't capable of telling who's blood it was on the floor.

Regardless of that, he could still apply some common sense to his investigation that might allow him to figure out a thing or two. For instance, there was a trail of blood that disappeared into the wall, which told Hamura that it most likely belonged to a heavily bleeding Kharal as he was dragged out of the building through the hole that had been made by the third party. Figuring that Miraigetsu had not been there at the time of the meeting to protect Kharal, he could suddenly see some reason to why she had been snatching shady people all over the Port.

Leaving that thought for a later time, he started looking for anything that could help him in his investigation. As he looked around, he saw something faintly shimmer in the sunlight that came in through the window. Getting closer to pick it up, it seemed like a broken Kunai that had been charred black for the most part. Having the handle blown off and most of the ash being near where the handle had been, Hamura deduced that an explosive had been attached to the handle before using the Kunai as a ranged projectile explosive to blow out the wall from a safe distance.

[Hamura]

(Part 9)

Putting the broken Kunai into the empty pocket he kept ready specifically for times like these, he had found his first clue as to what might have gone down at the mansion. However, there was bound to be more for him to find there, and he felt like it would be best to lower himself to the ground near the dried up puddles and spatters of blood. According to Juuro, he had been stabbed, so someone would have had to have been standing next to him in order to make contact with his weapon, or so he thought.

While it did help him uncover a bunch of footprints, they were either too shallow or too old for him to make anything out of it aside from a rough estimate as to their shoe sizes. Not really getting anywhere with the footprints, there was one thing that he had hardly overlooked. Closer inspection of the footprints showed shriveled plant parts that had likely only been preserved due to the rug being pressed down upon it so tightly after the attack on the mansion. While shriveled, someone who knew a thing or two about the local flora might be able to help him along.

In order to be sure that this was an actual lead and not just a random observation born from his urge to solve the case, he checked for any other footprints in the room. Going by the size of the footwear he had more or less established, he tried to differentiate between those which may have belonged to Juuro or Kharal. Though not the case with all of them, he did find some similar plant parts on top of some of the other prints which he tied to the interlopers that had taken Kharal with them.

[Hamura]

(Part 10)

Carefully collecting all of the parts without breaking them, he put them in his pocket and closed it off so he would not end up losing them on the way back to the Port. For now, he had done just about everything he could do in the mansion. Unfortunately however, he had not managed to get a whole lot further than he had been before he entered the room in which the attack had taken place. While it bothered him, he was glad that he had managed to uncover just a little bit more that could not have been obtained without going to the mansion.

Before he left, he made his way around the building and into the gardens near where the wall had been blown out. Looking around the flowers and plants there, he wanted to make sure that the parts he had found were not actually from any of the ones grown here. If they were, they would not have been much of a lead as they just got inside the room due to the explosion and the wind blowing them there. Spending the better part of a half hour looking around the garden, his suspicions had been warranted.

The plant parts did not match any of the flowers and plants around the mansion, and that was saying something as Juuro had a ton of them ranging from all sorts of sizes and colors. Not bothering himself with placing the rug back, he figured that the former politician had his own people for that kind of work which was honestly beneath him at the time. After all, there was still a lot that needed to be done that could not be done here. For the time being, he would need to get back to the Port and work out how to handle things from there.

-End-

[Starnaess]

+19 SP
+50 TP

narutoforumrp.proboards.com/thread/103073/skill-training-rolls?page=181&scrollTo=1067559

[Hamura]

(Rounding up Investigate Skill)
(Total TP: 121 / 125)

_____________________________


On his way back, he thought about the Kunai shrapnel he had recovered, and how it seemed different from the Kunai they used back in the Hidden Cloud. Regardless of whether this was a fact or just a poor observation on his part, he could have sworn that it had curved edges along the side. This likely allowed whoever used them in order to stop a blade from sliding down and severing their fingers or hand in close quarters. With that thought in mind, he dashed from branch to branch, wondering as to who might be able to help him figure out the origins of the Kunai, as well as figure out whether his other assumptions were correct.

[Hamura]

(Part 2)


What he meant with this was more or less that he assumed that the Kunai had been used as the carrier for the explosive that had been used to knock down the wall in the mansion. The way he saw it, it was just about the only way for them to place a bomb without anyone seeing them. If they attached it to a Kunai and just threw it, the bomb would be able to go off without anyone really having the time to respond to it. If it were Hamura having to do a quick breaking and entering in which casualties did not play a role, he would have done it exactly like that. That, and it was the only thing that explained why the Kunai was there and why it had been blown apart to some degree.



-End-

[Starnaess]

skill maxed

narutoforumrp.proboards.com/thread/103073/skill-training-rolls?page=181&scrollTo=1067563

10 Tp learned

[Hamura]

Lore, Plant (Specify)
Rank: "E"
Skill: Academia Skill
Effect: A character with this skill has a basic knowledge of plants and how they grow.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Relevant Abilities: Intelligence Skill. Die Rolls: 5 Die Rolls. Check Requirement: Described. Characters with this skill can train 1 Region (declared when the skill is chosen) to gain knowledge of Plants. A character may acquire additional Regions by choosing this skill again. A character with this skill has a basic knowledge of plants and how they grow. They know how to tell various species of plants apart and under what conditions each type of plant grows best. Most of the time they can tell poisonous plants from non-poisonous plants. Each Plant has an Identification Difficulty found in their description. User must beat their Difficulty in order to identify the Plant. If the user succeeds they know what the plant is and what properties it holds. If the user fails by 20 or less they do not gain any knowledge of the plant and are unable to try again. If the user fails by 21 or more they will gain false information, like a different plant. Synergy: A user with Lore, Plant gives a +5 per Mastery Level Synergy Bonus to Agriculture to the specific Region.
Limit: Must learn from Skills.

_______________________________


Returning to the port an hour later, the first thing he did was take the broken Kunai to the police department. Since there was really nothing else he could do with it after inspecting it himself in the mansion, the fact that he knew very little about explosives, ballistics nor had any expertise in terms of weaponry like Kunai, he could only hope that someone in the police department would be able to shed some more light on the matter. In any case, it was the first bit of evidence they had gotten in almost two years, so it was bound to be worth something to them.

He however had something else that needed to be taken care of, something which he would actually be able to do a thing or two about. Checking around to see if there was a local florist near the city, it seemed that there was one on the outskirts of the Port as well. Apparently, this woman had at one time made a lot of money selling flowers, back when many sailors did not return from their journey. During the ceremonies, they sent a small raft with special flowers and the pictures of those that perished into the sea.

Symbolizing that the living let go of the dead, the flowers were meant to appease the ocean and whatever gods they believed in so the souls of the deceased would find rest. Nowadays, the ships that were built were a lot more resilient to the weather, people had a better idea as to when it was safe to go out to sea and had a lot of better traveling routes that took them through less tricky water. This lowered the amount of deaths at sea a lot less common than it had done some fifty years ago. Still, Hamura chose to avoid ship-based travel whenever he could.

[Hamura]

(Part 2)

Since those days, the flower shop had apparently been rather quiet, but had still somehow managed to keep their heads above water due to other jobs related to their profession. The word around town was that the husband of the florist was a well known herbalist that could make some natural remedies for specific diseases and rashes that people would often try before going to one of the doctors in the city. Keeping some of the people from having to make that journey from the port to the city, he made a fair amount of money from these services.

Additionally, both he and the florist were collected by Juuro Chiyohiro himself every Wednesday in order to spend the entire day tending to his gardens and making sure that his flowers, plants and trees got the best care money could buy within the confines of the land of Fang. Since today was luckily not a Wednesday, he figured that the store would be open for him to stop by, especially if he explained that he was there on official business. Hoping he was correct in making this assumption, he was greeted by a young woman that just came from the store with a large bouquet in hand.

Telling him that the store was undoubtedly open now, he picked up the pace and made his way to the outskirts of town. Seeing a large wooden building with many racks filled with vibrant flowers of varying sizes out in front, he knew that he had found the place. Entering the building, he saw that there were still a few people inside, browsing to see if they could find anything that matched with the interior of their homes. Spotting the one he believed to be the florist working out front, he decided to see the herbalist.

[Hamura]

(Part 3)

Spotting him in a chair behind the counter, Hamura was not entirely certain as to whether or not this was the man or not. What he did know was that the elderly man was vast asleep, and it felt like an unkind thing to wake him up all of a sudden. Deeming it to be the best course of action if he just waited for the Florist to have a moment of time, he just stood there waiting, inhaling the sweet aromas of various flowers that mingled together into one fragrant one. While he waited, he did some looking around from his spot.

If he could locate a similar flower or plant to match the parts he had found at the crime scene, it would go a whole lot faster as he knew what to ask about. However long and hard he tried to locate it, he did not seem to be capable of pulling it off. While he found a lot of similar looking ones, none of them really seemed to have the exact same kind of petals, even though the leaves themselves matched a bit. As he looked over the flowers, he heard the voice of an older woman asking him if he was interested in the orchids he was glancing at.

Turning to see that the Florist finally had a moment of time for him, he made it quite clear that he was not exactly looking to buy anything, but that he had something he needed some help with. While initially reluctant to help out, Hamura stated that he was working in league with the local authorities and with Juuro Chiyohiro himself, but that the details of the case were classified. After frowning upon the young Shinobi for a bit, she ultimately agreed.

[Hamura]

(Part 4)

Whether the fact that he mentioned the authorities triggered the change or if the mention of Juuro did, she suddenly seemed to be a lot more willing to work with him. Telling him that she would meet with him in the back room, he wandered over there while the Florist woke up her husband, the Herbalist, in a rather loud manner. While he could not help but giggle a bit at how he woke up in a shock, he soon regained his straight face as he sat down on top of a table which was obviously used for cutting flowers for a bouquet.

Cleaning the table with a quick sweep of his sleeve, he waited until the two elders entered the room and closed the door behind him. While it made him wonder who was taking care of the store in their absence, he figured that handling this case was what should take priority over a few bucks they might make more or less. After all, Juuro wasn't going to let the people who took care of his gardens go out of business as that would backfire on his plants. That, and he had the funds to keep them in business indefinitely.

Placing the plant parts on the table, he made sure they had plenty of lighting for the older people to see it with their undoubtedly deteriorated vision. Once the two started going through the parts, they made some rather obvious statements regarding the shriveled and withered state that they were in, and that such a thing would make it harder to figure out what they were dealing with. But after a while of looking at it from various angles, they two brought out some literary works of their own to help figure things out.