Chapter 16: Doing One's Duties
Kakashi sat across from Sugiyama in the small, ascetic room that one of the city's many temples had given them. The citizens had called it a temple, but Kakashi found it to be terribly small compared to the grandeur he was expecting. He had heard that the people in Wind and Earth, insecure in their beliefs without the Will of Fire to guide them, had built massive and beautiful (though crass) temples to honor the Sage. This tiny, cramped, pyramidal building didn't even compare to those expectations. Kakashi wasn't surprised though. Sugiyama had said that there were almost thirty similar temples around town -- splitting resources between that many places probably meant they were all dumps.
The two of them waited in an almost-companionable silence. Almost-companionable because Kakashi had insisted that Sugiyama bathe to remove the scent of the road and the million other incenses they used incessantly, and Sugiyama had insisted that Kakashi wear the appropriate ceremonial clothing while they were housed in a place of worship. Kakashi yearned to break free from the prison the monks had constructed around him with that endless sheet of yellow cloth, but when he looked Sugiyama in the eye and saw them blandly sipping tea, he steadied his resolve. He would not be the first to give in.
"So, I don't really need to over-complicate things, do I? Why shouldn't I just work my way down the list efficiently, finish off whatever odd jobs Tsuru wants, get the book, read the book, and skip town? No real reason to stick around here, right?"
"As ever, the joy of living is sacrificed upon the altar of efficiency. I suppose I shouldn't have expected any respect for the transcendent and unique beauty of existing in the moment from the one who shamefully bears the mark of the gravekeepers upon his breast. Or face, as it were."
"Did… you just call me ugly?"
Sugiyama sighed. They didn't say anything else.
"Okay, well that doesn't really answer anything. Doesn't sound like there's anything worthwhile sticking around in this town for. There aren't many people Tsuru wants dealt with. Honestly, I could get this done in a couple hours, as long as he's had the good sense to keep his mouth shut about me."
Sugiyama took a sip from their horrifyingly strong tea. They had offered some to Kakashi, but he declined. He didn't know exactly how their drug dosage regimen worked, but he didn't want to be involved.
He slowly pushed himself to his feet, feeling the heavy cloth around his arms grow taut. Shortly after they had left line-of-sight with the monks, Kakashi had cut apart the cloth that tied his knees together and his arms to his sides. No amount of dirty looks from Sugiyama would convince him to reduce his mobility in hostile territory.
"Alright, I'll go do that. I'll be sensible about it, quick and quiet. Don't want anyone finding out it's me, right?"
"And, as I presume you do not want people knowing it was the irreligious supplicant of the Yellow-Marked Child, you will be removing the clothing."
Kakashi decided to take their words at face value. "Yeah, it'd be hard to sneak around with yellow streamers following me around. Also, it looks pretty stupid."
"It covers your face as effectively as your mask does."
"...right. I'll be back before sundown."
o-o-o-o
Shima Kiyoshi gazed idly over the city rooftops. The buildings in Hakata had almost all been constructed with stone from a single quarry site. The city clearly reflected that construction. The oldest, most central parts of the city matched the rich redness of the exposed wasteland surface around Demon, while the farthest reaches of the city had turned to pale yellows and beiges. The buildings made a pleasing gradient radiating outwards through the city.
Shima sighed. His father hadn't yet arranged for him to start meeting the powerful people of Hakata, who by and large lived in those beautiful red buildings. He had promised that Shima would get the chance to start making real change sometime soon, yet all he had done was stick Shima in this boring old city guard job for a year and a half now. He was so close, yet so far.
Sure, it was prestigious to be responsible for the city guard. Sure, it was easy to get a good reputation with how quiet the beasts had been lately. But still, Shima couldn't help but wonder if there was something more he could be doing. Maybe branch out the city guard into policing? Various districts mostly kept crime under control on their own… but they weren't perfect. Having the city guard marching through every street could be good, it might make it seem like he was doing something more than stamp papers…
"Hello, are you Shima Kiyoshi?"
Shima straightened up from his horrendously unprofessional lean against the water barrel. "I wouldn't go by any other name," he said. "Who are you? How did you get up here?"
The man smiled in response. Shima thought it was a smile, at least, since a lopsided hood bandana covered the man's mouth and nose and the entire left side of his face. "You won't need to worry about that, Mr. Shima. Tsuru sent me. He instructed me to beat you up for 'dereliction of duty'. Would you like to do that here, or somewhere more private?"
Shima's hands went to the daggers at his sides. A moment later, he felt the back of his head hit the rough, brown stone of the rooftop. The man had crossed the gap in an instant and kicked him squarely in the chest.
Shima coughed and pushed himself to his feet. "Guards, assist me! Intruder on the roof!"
"Ah, so you want an audience then?" said the man. He was playing with Shima's daggers. Shima absently patted his sides. He hadn't even sensed them being taken.
"Well, Mr. Shima, step away from the edge of the rooftop so we can get started."
Shima stepped forwards to throw a punch, and his world turned into pain.
o-o-o-o
"Ushijima Bairei? Tsuru sent me."
The heavyset man turned slowly at his name, but suddenly jumped at Tsuru's. "That demonic little cretin has finally seen fit to call for the end of my life?" He looked Kakashi up and down. "A shinobi. I knew the cretin was vile, but I would not have expected him to send a shinobi to rob me of my right to go out fighting. I knew his retribution would come, ever since-"
"Ah, let's skip the backstory. Also, I'm not here to kill you. Just punch you in the face a couple times and give you a note from him."
Ushijima grimaced. "So be it. I will take my beating with dignity rather than let my honor die with begging and mewling." He squared his jaw and closed his eyes. "Do as you must."
o-o-o-o
Kakashi entered the small, dank smelling den built under a small fishing supply store. The street thug gruffly pointed him to a man who was quietly giving orders to another blandly dressed, heavily-muscled woman. The woman, who Kakashi mentally named Thug Two, nodded as her orders ended and left the cellar, intentionally shoulder-bumping Kakashi on her way out. Thug One pretended not to notice and gave him an escort to his leader, while shooting Kakashi a glance that said "screw this up and I'll break your neck."
"You got summat worth tha time here, Yasu? You, mask guy, show me ya goods."
"Ah, you think I'm here to sell you… drugs? I actually know someone who might be interested," Kakashi realized. Maybe that's how Sugiyama had managed to stay afloat in Yahashibetsu. "But no, I don't have anything to sell you right now. You're Takishima Tsuneari, right?"
The man nodded. "Wouldn't be usin' any other. Get to tha point."
"Right. Tsuru sent me to beat you up a bit, probably for crossing him at some point. 'Perils of leadership' he said."
Thug One at his side stepped closer to grab Kakashi in a bear hug. Kakashi didn't even look at him as he grabbed the man's left arm, twisted under his body, kicked the man's legs out from under him, pressed him face-first into the foul dirt of the fish-shop cellar, and yanked the man's arm out of its socket. He kept eye contact with Takishima the whole time.
"Yeah. I was hoping we could be civil about it. The last guy was surprisingly cooperative, so that was pleasant."
Takishimi had paled with Kakashi's show of strength. "Uh… yeah, we can do tha. You ain't gonna kill me, iszat right?"
Kakashi shook his head. "Nah, just beat you up and leave a note." He reached into his pocket and grabbed the note Tsuru had left for Takishimi. Clearly written on the exterior were the words "KILL AND LEAVE NEXT TO CORPSE."
"Oh, never mind about the no killing thing. My bad."
o-o-o-o
"Stupid Tsuru. Teach me not to check the mission details."
Kakashi grumbled as he walked through the streets of Hakata. ANBU training indicated to minimize talking with targets before you killed them, to avoid the risk of emotional conflict. Kakashi certainly wasn't conflicted about offing a minor street gang leader, but breaking the rules still annoyed him. It was his fault, really. He should have read the mission briefing more carefully.
Still, he had almost finished up the list. All that remained was a Fukunaga Murakumo, a monk at the temple of one of the endless minor gods people worshipped out here. He hadn't told Sugiyama about this target, since he figured their eccentric religious attitudes might force them to object on principle.
He approached the temple, another small pyramidal thing. The differences in their construction were pretty minimal, limited to the ornamentation.
As he approached the gates, an attendant called out to him. "Greetings, traveller, and may your journey pass unnoticed among those who wish you harm. Have you come to give an offering to the Tower of Light? Or do you wish to perform the rites of the monastic order?"
"Let's go with the second," Kakashi said, letting a bit of his weariness seep into his voice. "I'm looking for a guy named Fukunaga Murakumo."
The attendant's eyes widened with fear and she put on a fake smile. "We do not really know what he is named, yes? So let us forget the idea of names." Kakashi waved his hand in rough agreement, and the attendant continued. "There is certainly one here who calls himself Fukunaga Murakumo here. Would you like to see him?"
Kakashi nodded and the woman gestured at him to follow before scurrying away. Kakashi took advantage of the commute to daydream. He had been missing his quota lately.
"...sir? Are you alright, sir?"
Kakashi focused his gaze on the surprisingly-short middle-aged man in front of him. He wore plain grey robes in a simple sash and skirt, exposing his small pot-belly and sun-wrinkled skin.
The monk flourished and bowed. "The wisdom of-"
Kakashi cut him off. "You're Fukunaga Murakumo, right?" The man nodded, and Kakashi continued, "I'm glad. I need to talk with you about something private. Do you have a place we could do that?"
"Of course sir," said Fukunaga as he turned to walk. "May I ask what this is about?"
Kakashi shook his head. "It really is quite private. I'm sorry."
The monk entered a small, ascetic room. It was sparser than even Kakashi and Sugiyama's room in the other temple -- the only furniture Kakashi could see were a pair of thin straw mats for kneeling and a thinner blanket on the floor. Kakashi entered, and Fukunaga shut the door behind them.
Kakashi grabbed the man's jaw and shoulder and snapped his neck before he could do anything more. He dropped the body to the orange stone in the corner and placed the blanket over it, leaving Tsuru's note on top. He started making his way back out of the temple, ignoring the other monks and supplicants bustling around him.
"Finally," he grumbled under his breath, "Let's see what else Tsuru needs done."
o-o-o-o
Kakashi entered their shared room. Sugiyama still sat at the short table quietly sipping at a cup of tea. They were in the exact same position, like no time had passed while he was out.
"All done. Tsuru wants me to do a couple more things for him before I can get the book. Couple messenger missions, need to make a couple storage seals for him to store some stuff, then we're good. It'll probably take a couple days to round all of those loose-ends up, but that's good since it'll give him time to get the latest update on the Mantis Summoner. It'll be easier to dodge a fight too, since Tsuru might be able to get me a proper introduction to the Summoner."
Sugiyama didn't look up from their tea. Kakashi could tell that the scent had changed. They had definitely brewed a new cup of something. "So you have finished sowing the seeds of misery in this town, then?"
"Yeah," Kakashi shrugged. "I'll cop to it. Being a ninja means hurting and killing people sometimes, when it aligns with your goals. Whatever."
Sugiyama frowned, but didn't say anything.
"Anyway, I'm telling you all this since we're going to be spending a couple of days in town," Kakashi said, sitting down heavily. "You can do what you want, I'll come and grab you once we're ready to leave."
Kakashi tried to be stealthy with Takishimi once he realized. The other two were to send a message, so he didn't really have to be that stealthy.
On account of the players voting in:
[] Work on...academy basics...with Sugiyama
We've decided to give Sugiyama a 35 XP advance on their next XP payout. Presumably, it will be the end-of-arc award, if they survive that long… Sugiyama's sheet is still not player-side, so this doesn't affect you yet. I'm including it for transparency's sake.
Voting Time! What do you do now?
Here are some options to get you started.
[] Speedrun the tasks to get Icha Icha quicker. Tsuru and Sugiyama said not to go out at night, but that's for normal people, not jounin.
[] Gather information on the local ninja clans. Tsuru might claim they're non-hostile, but Kakashi doesn't take chances.
[] Track down even one of the local ninja and give them the Mieko treatment (with maybe less maiming).
[] Break into the various temples in this town. Maybe some of them have secrets worth knowing or stealing.
[] Start a Technique Hacking project. More Chidori is never a bad thing.
[] Get Tsuru to give you what he's got on the Mantis Summoner and skip town. No point hanging around any longer.
[] (Write in)
Remember, we use approval voting, so you can vote for as many plans as you like. Also, feel free to ping
@Paperclipped or
@MMKII to ask setting or detail questions that Kakashi could plausibly know. Note: This includes specific questions for Sugiyama about Demon (though we might not get to it until the update)
Voting is open, and closes at 9am London Time, Wednesday March 03. 
