[x] Rain's Shadow, to serve the tiger's ambition.
You can't give the tiger your blood. You won't give it your guide. If you want it to tell you where the body is, you'll have to trade it something less tangible. Takuto, next to you, is shivering. Your genin are pale. Agreeing to nothing is probably the right choice - you can promise nothing on behalf of the village, and even less on the part of Rain.
The sweet sting of ice and rot tickles your nose. The mountain god waits for your answer.
That would mean - quite possibly - failing the mission. Not rare, as these things go, but doesn't sit well with you. You might, you reflect, be unused to dealing with clients when things go wrong, if the thought of leaving Mr. Sato empty-handed by the end of the week bothers you this much. Something to work on. Similarly, your heart rebels at making the old man and his village bear the burden of your bargain. He's paying you already: he oughtn't pay you twice.
"An invitation, then, great lord," you say. It might be a stupid idea, but the mountain god is here, and Rain is far away. The Shikigami would want to know of a spirit seeking some sort of arrangement, you think to yourself, when Ibuse had helped forge Hanzo into what he became.
A syncopated blink rolls across the tiger's nine eyes. "Then we have an accord." One of the tiger's faces turns - not quite in the direction you came, but towards the village. "Follow the flowers, shinobi, and you will find your carcass." A quick glance does show a greater number of the underworld blooms in that direction. A primrose path to the object of your search.
With its task apparently complete, the great beast slinks back into its cold den. You wonder, briefly, what it found there - an entrance to hell itself, or simply some abyssal tree or stream emerging from the depths? You'll likely never know.
"Let's go," you say tightly, stalking off in the direction the tiger had marked.
"Hey-" Takuto yelps. "Could you- stop pulling me?"
You release your grip and turn around. Your genin team, and the humanoid bobcat, stare back at you. Nobody says anything.
"Obviously," you eventually begin. "This is not how missions normally go."
Takashi's face is incredulous. "What even was that?!"
"It was a tiger." You emphasize the past tense, turning to your guide. "Mr. Takuto. Did you know the tiger was… no longer natural?"
He raises both hands in surrender. "No! I mean-" He looks frantically about. "I knew it smelled. Cold, I guess? But it wasn't like that!"
You frown underneath your rebreather. "Given what it said about your sister-" A slight keening sound from Takuto. "-it was likely drawing on Naraka even then." You sigh and shake your head. "What a mess. Yuma."
The boy starts guiltily. Which is good - if he's already guilty, you don't have to do much.
"Information is a weapon. Don't hand it out recklessly. Now come on - we have a body to find."
The briskness of your reprimand and turn to follow the flower path keeps your genin quiet for a minute or two. You don't push the pace too much, both to be polite to Takuto and in order to be careful about wherever the tiger is sending you. Eventually, though, Takashi's patience breaks.
"No, seriously, what was that?" he asks again.
"Some would call them a god. Others would say a nature spirit, or a demon," you reply. "It's not quite any of those things, though, at least to the people who want to be precise about it. It's not connected to the heavenly realms - either Deva or Asura - so 'god' and 'demi-god' don't apply. 'Demon' is more complicated. Some people say anything which crosses the realms is demonic, and by that standard they would be. Others say a demon is something which opposes either enlightenment or existence. Or only the bijuu and their kind are demons, because true immortality puts them outside of Samara." You shrug. "And nature spirits are either just strong animals or something made of pure chakra, though I don't know if those actually like, exist."
Nobody says anything. You look over your shoulder to see your genin staring at you, baffled looks on their faces at your uncharacteristic verbosity. You flush under your rebreather - you rambled about theory again. "Does that answer your question?" you ask, slightly peeved.
"Uh," Takashi says.
"But what should we call it, ma'am?" Akira asks.
You blink. Oh, right. "To its face, something respectful. In a mission report, probably something like 'great tiger spirit of a yin hell'." They're still staring at you. "Look, there isn't a taxonomy for this or anything. The important thing is you probably don't want to fight it."
Especially, you grimly note, given how far this flower path is stretching. You know animal spirits often have some level of control over their habitat, but to reach so far, with so little apparent effort - and to know where the corpse is so precisely - affirms that the tiger is beyond your paygrade.
When you reach the flowerbed that marks your destination, you have to quickly grab Takuto's collar again to stop him from rushing forward - or breaking down. Behind you, your genin retch. You sympathize - unfortunately, your gag reflex is pretty dead, and you've seen worse.
Granted, you think, as you approach the body, there's not much worse than a corpse in this particular state of decay. Your rebreather filters out most of the smell, but it's still a vile scent. You're not sure if the hell-flowers are making it better or worse - they smell sweeter, but the combined odour is nearly overpowering.
You pull out a kunai.
"Hey!" Takuto shouts. "What are you doing!" He really has gotten a lot braver since you wrung the secrets out of him. Or maybe he's so overwhelmed he's forgotten to be scared of you. But you don't really care about his offense or his now-recovered spine.
"I'm trying to figure out if he was murdered," you reply. It's… difficult to be sure, this long after death. Damage to the flesh is basically impossible to distinguish from decay, at least for you, and the scene is long settled. He wasn't buried, which would've been an easy clue - for all you know he was gored by a boar and crawled into a ditch to die. But there's damage to the bones of the forearms and hands which looks just a bit too much like self-defense.
You call your genin over. They come, slowly, covering their faces with their shirts. "See this?" They nod. "It's hard to tell, but it looks like he might have been trying to block something. Not a steel weapon, but maybe a heavy stick or rock." You frown. "Takuto, was anybody oddly… injured seeming, after he disappeared? Smelled of blood?"
The bobcat shakes his head quickly. "No- not that I noticed, anyway."
You stand up and give the body space. "Akira, back away, you look like you're about to throw up. Actually, all of you, get some fresh air." They dash away. You hear, faintly, the sound of dry heaving, and pull out a body scroll. "Mr. Takuto, is there anything you know about this area in particular?"
He shrugs helplessly, eyes fixed on the rotten mass that used to be a man. "Not really," he replies. "We came here a few times, but not often." So maybe you'd have found it on your own, but maybe not.
You sigh and turn your attention back to the corpse. You gently pry away what seems like a recognizable accessory before a handful of hand seals and the whole sorry mess is sealed away - and a handful more scorches the fouled earth it was resting on, replacing the awful odor with the more tolerable smell of ash. "Well," you say, as your genin return pale and red around the eyes. "I can't say he was murdered, but I can't say he wasn't. But Mr. Sato will be able to bury his son. Mission complete."
Takuto blinks. "That's- that's it?" he asks.
You look at him flatly. "That's the mission which was agreed to."
He bristles like the cat he is. "But- if he was murdered? You said it yourself- it's an offense against heaven! He needs justice!"
"Sure," you agree easily. "I can't give it to him."
"Why not?!"
You draw yourself up to your full height - you're tall and gangly for a woman. Definitely taller than Takuto, who's a pretty and delicate looking man in his human form. "Would you have me bargain with the tiger again?" you ask. "Break into all your neighbours' houses to see if they kept the murder weapon? Maybe a diary? Or simply try and terrify the answers out of them, despite not being an interrogator?" You tilt your head. "I could do it. It might work, it might not. Maybe there was no murder. Maybe there was, and nobody you could hire would be able to discover the culprit. How much more can Mr. Sato spend on those odds?"
He says nothing. His hands flex by his side, claws coming out. He's angry - maybe he's right to be. The case is only so hopeless because it took weeks to reach Amegakure and get a response. You imagine his nerves are a bit raw from meeting the tiger; from seeing how beyond his revenge the mountain god had become, and how his sister was still… within it.
"This mission," you say firmly, "is over."
~
Takuto doesn't speak to you much on the way back. You wonder what he'll do from here. If Mr. Sato will adopt him, if he'll marry his friend's fiancee. You'll be including his nature in your mission report, of course. Maybe if he has children, they'll be recruited to Amegakure. Cross-breeding is one of the explanations given for more animalistic bloodlines. Or maybe he'll just leave, return to being a nameless bobcat. Look for some other means of getting revenge, or just a different life. Your musings make you feel a bit melancholic. You'll probably never hear about this village again: not Mr. Sato, not Takuto, not the fiancee or the priest.
Well - and this thought is unpleasant - unless something goes very wrong or very right with the Nine Eyed Tiger.
You meet Mr. Sato on his porch. He's been waiting for you, and quickly shuffles you inside. When you place the tassel you peeled off his son's corpse on the table - cleaned, but still in very poor condition - you think the man's heart stops for a moment.
You could probably save him from a heart attack, at least. You've never tried to keep someone from dying like that, though, and thankfully you don't have to try. Sitting through his grief is awkward, even more so for your team. You can't exactly do anything while Mr. Sato gnashes his teeth and weeps and beats himself over the head. You aren't his friends.
You're the ninja he hired.
When he's composed himself, you continue speaking. "I have his body sealed. If you'd prefer, I can cremate him for you. You can watch, if you like. However, the body is in poor condition-"
Mr. Sato raises a hand and cuts you off. "We have a kiln," he answers. "I… I will see him. It's nearly been seven weeks."
You nod. He leads you and your genin to a large pile of bricks. Not up to the standard of kilns in Amegakure at all, but it'll do. Mr. Sato tells you to wait, and hurries off, returning with an elegant young man. The priest. You suppose that makes sense.
You unseal the body scroll to deposit the corpse within the firing chamber, and wince at the odour. Then wince again at Mr. Sato's renewed sobs. You're really out of practice dealing with civilians. Yuma gently approaches the man and pats him on the arm. It's… unprofessional, probably. You don't stop him. He's a good kid.
Eventually Mr. Sato calms down enough to perform the prayers. The priest seems mostly unaffected, and does his own part professionally. Mr. Sato puts the tassel you brought as proof on top of the corpse and sobs again, but keeps control of himself. You suppose you're rushing things by civilian standards, but given the state of the body, ninja practices are better suited: confirm the corpse, say a quick prayer, and burn with witnesses.
Then it's your turn. The hand seals come with appropriate solemnity - this isn't your funeral, or your grief, but you can play the role requested of you. A deep breath, and-
"Fire Release: Volcanic Ash Cloud."
Your other signature ninjutsu really isn't meant for cremation. Given you don't want to blast the kiln into shrapnel, this is going to take some control. You keep one hand in the tiger seal to drag the technique out, and slip the other one into the sign of the dog to moderate the release of the fire chakra stored in the hot ash into a slow, high-temperature burn rather than a burst.
At least, you think with grim humour, the level of decomposition means there isn't quite as much to cremate. It doesn't take long for the consuming fire chakra to reduce the corpse to bone fragments, and you complete the dog seal to neutralize any of the danger left. You get a bit of a headrush as you turn to face Mr. Sato - the beginning of chakra exhaustion - and request to stay one more night to recover as the priest picks out the bone shards for the last rites.
You'll finalize the paperwork and leave in the morning.
~
It's you and Akira for the middle watch that night, and he asks you the question that's been bouncing around your skull the past day.
"Are we going to tell him, ma'am?" He whispers. Mr. Sato is out like a light, but you can't fault his paranoia. "About the murder? Or the tiger? Or Mr. Takuto?"
You stare out the window. The village houses are dark shapes in the faint moonlight. It's so strange, being in a room but not seeing lights outside.
"Takuto's secret isn't Mr. Sato's to know," you decide. "He's been here six years - if he wants to stay, that's his business. If he gets adopted, married, that's his decision too." You look at Akira. "It's not our job to expose every hidden thing."
He frowns, accepting your logic, but still unsatisfied. "And the rest?"
You sigh. "I'm not sure," you admit. "In this sort of case, you have to balance honesty, and the risk that someone will do something very stupid."
You'll be glad to be out of this village tomorrow.
~
Ninja - or powerful people in general - have a tendency to enter peoples' lives, upend them, and moving on. Here, at least, you can modulate some of your impact, but whatever choice you make, it's probably not you who's going to have to suffer the consequences.
This mission is done. On to the next.
[ ] Tell Mr. Sato nothing, except that there is a dangerous tiger god which is best avoided and that you don't believe it was involved in his son's death. Let him move on, even if it might mean living by his son's killer.
[ ] Tell Mr. Sato your suspicions about his son's death and potential culprits, but say little about the tiger god beyond its existence, danger and lack of involvement. He deserves to know - but can he afford to?
[ ] Tell Mr. Sato nearly everything: your suspicions about his son's death and potential culprits, the power of the tiger god - and its willingness to make deals. If he wants justice, there's options besides Amegakure.
