Sipping a cool glass of water, Jet narrowly dodged a kunai aimed at her head. It lodged itself into the walls as a few strands of silvery hair fell to the floor. She ignored the potential life risking attack on her person and continued to read from her book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, someone from the lands to the east. She turned the page, petting Kira the two tailed nekomata companion of hers on her lap before sighing as a dagger aimed at her head and she blocked it with the book. The dagger almost made it completely through the book and its tip almost pinched her nose. Feeling enough is enough she threw it behind her head and turned towards the blonde woman. She signed as if this was a troublesome chore and put her chin on the palm of her head. "Maki" she drawled. Getting the woman's attention as red glowing eyes pierced her person with unrivaled fury. Its fires were as hot as the sun yet she remained cool, calmed and collected. Not caring for the woman's temperament "When are you going to stop your tantrum?"

It seemed those words were not the correct choice but she wasn't in the mood to sugar coat. The blonde uzumaki's nostrils flared in anger and her voice raised, almost booming throughout the apartment "Tantrum? You call being worried sick about you a tantrum!" Jet however was not fretted by how the house seemed to shake for a second, maki always had a thing for the theatrics. Jet waited, watching her movements as the woman continued to yell, tossing random kunai at her and as she dodged the couch, furniture now as well. It continued to go on and it was starting to get out of hand seeing as she was running out of kunai and furniture that was still in one piece. Jet was about to put a stop to the mess when suddenly the doorbell rang. Both of them froze, as if time stopped and before she could, Maki bolted for the door to give whoever interrupted them a piece of her mind. As she almost pulled the door out of its hinges, Maki yelled at the person at the door "Can't you see we're busy?"

It was chuunin she often seen at the mission distribution office working at one of the desk. He was a quiet man, polite and seemed to enjoy working a desk job if the limp he walked around with was any indication. He had a scroll in hand to which Maki narrowed her eyes at and snatched it out of his hands. The man's eyes widened and yelped saying it was for Miss.Yuurei but was cut off when she slammed the door in his face. Maki opened the mission scroll skimming its contents, and suddenly the fury on her face melted and was replaced with something akin to sadness. She whispered under her breath and threw the scroll away to which Jet picked up. It seemed whatever were in its contents made Maki upset, more so than she already was. She skimmed the scroll and pocketed. Processing it as she walked towards her bedroom, Maki followed behind although a bit sluggishly. She stripped down and pulled on her ANBU uniform on, the mask on her face. Jet was deciding which weapon to bring with her and opted to just bring the usual kunai and her combat gloves which she equipped. Just as she was about to head out the window, Maki grabbed her leg making Jet turn her eyes towards her "What is it?"

661/2500

Maki seemed saddened from the mission, as if it were a dire blow to her heart. Her eyes were shadowed, replicating her heavy heart. Her shoulders sagged with an aged weight, pulling her down and sinking into her inner self. It was then our Yuurei recalled the woman's troubled past. Jet and Maki's pasts were hardly comparable but they were both seeped in blood, be it our their own, friends, loved ones, or enemies. Their souls were stained black from the darkness of the world. So when their eyes meet, Jet was hardly surprised to see no light in them nor the trembling of her voice "I....I have a feeling who it is...I want to say I am wrong...and kami knows I hope I am wrong. But....if it is the person I am thinking of, then I can only say I wish it were not so. Please, if it is the old man, do not be mad at him. He's hurt, confused, and suffering. No one should gone through what he has..."

Jet sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, her back leaned against the cold wall. "Maki...there are plenty of people in the world who have been hurt, cheated, and lied to. If we allowed ourselves to grant mercy to each and every one, eventually there will be none for ourselves. If you think it so necessary, then go yourself. Go be the hero you want to be. But remember who were are, what we are. There is no salvation. Only work. We work, and work, and work till we tire ourselves out. So do not think we will take it easy on anybody because we know no one will take it easy on us. Go if you think it so important, go and calm your mind, see for yourself if it is the one whom you so worry for. Go"

But she knew, Jet knew she wouldn't. And so did Maki. The blonde uzumaki hung her head low, silenced by Jet's words that rung true to herself. The guilt was horrendous and it was consuming her. Devouring and clawing at her guilt heart, and badgering conscious. She can not really assume much of Jet, least of all that when she herself was too afraid to confront it. Ha, it was ironic, to think that she was so wise, powerful, and brave that nothing would make her stagger. Yet here she was, decommissioned and retired, off from active duty when she could do so more. She had so much going for her. She was the cream of the crop. One of the best. Her legacy was renowned for all to here. But she got ahead of herself, and allowed herself to get a bloated head, an over inflated ego that left her scarred, scarred and alone. Hence she ran away from it all, her past, the suffering she has cost, into her little workshop where her constant companion were a soot that clung to her skin and a roaring flame that had to be constantly fed.

1242/2500

Perhaps she went too far...Maki seems really upset now. A different kind than from earlier. At least with the way she was earlier she could have calmed her down at some point. Okay yea, earlier it would not be too hard to talk her down or run away so she could calm down. But this...ah this may be a little harder to recover from. It was a rare occurrence and Jet was hardly one to judge but it was kind of off putting every time to see the peppery blonde woman so down into the dumps and upset. But she had work to do...and for all they know it could be something small and insignificant. She groaned and banged the back of her head against the wall before finally pushing herself off. "Alright alright calm down. For all we know it could be something else entirely. Just don't worry will you. And even if it is the old man, we can just talk to him you know. Hasn't that always worked whenever he or anyone got into a mood. And if need be we can always sedate him or something so its nothing to really be worried about okay?" She patted the woman's head as she tried to comfort her though her words still had the hollow ring to them. But she would have to live with that. There are few people Jet cared for in this world, Maki and Karumo, one was practically family and one was her only friend.

Maki knew that, she liked to think she knew Jet better than anyone. So she should not be asking for a lot. It is just, if it really is him...oh kami may mercy be upon him. So with a crack her voice she regalated "Please, if it is him...just talk to him. He is hurting, that is for sure but do not let him fall down the rabbit hole. Not like this"


1641/2500

So once those last words were said, Jet decided to get out of that decidedly awkward environment that was created and hopped out the window without a word because holy hell that was tense as shit and she does not have the time to get that emo. Leave the edginess to the uchiha and let them go cut themselves or bleed out their arse, whatever those creeps do. Instead Jet had other things to deal with. She took to the roofs in a sprint, hopping and ducking between buildings, not allowing herself to be seen for time was of the essence and it was likely there was a traitorous soon to be rogue ninja on the loose heading towards the gate. The mission scroll said a man was seen purchasing about fifty explosive tags and spotted near the wall. Anyone with a brain can see that he was acting suspicious because not even the explosion corps carried that much firepower around. 2 or 3 she can understand, maybe even 10 but that was pushing it. But 50? 50! Nope, we got a threat right there boys and it needs to be neutralized now.

As she was nearing the location, she a fire clone of herself which then casted a henge to look like one of the various recent academy graduates, a small non descriptive brown haired girl with a slightly squeaky voice and small frame. The henge cloned and Jet planned to talk him out of this because as they got closer, they saw who it was and separated. The clone will be called Yuki for the duration of this discussion. Anyway, Jet went and used Ghost Style: Art of the Unseen and turned herself invisible, meshing perfectly with the background as she did so and headed up the wall using Supernatural Walking Practice to get behind the target. Yuka on the other hand went to confront him and appeared to be devastated with who saw found.

Target Identified as Igarashi Moto, age 62. Once he was famous for his kind demeanor and reveled as a hero but has since turned cold.  He is Jounin ranked but made frail with old age thus around b or spec jounin rank in terms of physical capability. Master of katon jutsu, he has an expansive list of jutsu which has helped him many of time to protect the village. A village which he vowed to keep safe forever. It does not explain why he chose to go rogue now. Let's have the clone engage with the target and gather intel and perhaps calm him down. If he chooses to attack the clone then we are going to neutralize him.

Yuka went up to the aged man who had reached the wall and was panting heavily, his face beating red. Yuka tentaveily walked towards him but before she could get close he whipped around and face her before throwning a kunai at her face in anger, his eyes glaring red, seemily from tears. "You all dare to send some clone after me! Me! Igarashi Moto! You think I wouldn't notice? I'm old but I aint stupid! Who do you think taught your fucking anbu how to wipe their asses! Course all of you want to stay quiet. Quiet when you're to blame!"

More anbu appeared however they kept their distance, if they wanted to they could engaged but seeing as how someone sent a clone in, they figured that it was going to be taken cared of. Plus they all were slightly afraid. As Igarashi's voice bellowed, his eyes met with most of them, breaking through their stealth techniques with the sensory jutsu they all were taught. Heck some of them were taught by the old man himself so seeing him so upset hurt.

2276/2500

The clone fell back as it exploded in the near vicinity of Igarashi but he did not care for his was on a roll "Fucking cowards, all of you! I sacrificed so much for this village! I gave up everything for you all to feel safe behind these walls so why couldn't you all do the same for me! YOU LET MY DAUGHTER DIE!" The statement sent a pang through everyone's hearts as they felt consumed with guilt. About two weeks ago, operative koala which was Igarashi's daughter, went on a mission with her squad. Everyone has had high hopes for the child of one of the living village heros. She had a bright future in front of her and was even talented to boot. Plenty of friends and a whole village looking out for her. She never really had anything to fear. Hence why when she went missing and did not return from a simple recon mission, it caused a buzz. So when the squad did not respond for a week, another went to find out what was wrong. What they found was an abandoned bandit hideout that was pretty much cleared and the corpses of their comrades. The back up squad was unfortunately made of her close friends and lover so when they found Igarashi's daughter's bruises nude corpse, they could tell what had happened. Jet heard about of it naturally but did not really care as that girl never meant anything to her. Most of them did not. Though it should've been a tell for what was happening now. "Now! If my daughter could not be protected by you all, then neither can yo-"

Igarashi couldn't finish his statement when a large whipsword wrapped around his neck and sliced his head cleanly off before he could throw any more bomb tags. There were gasps as Jet undid her invisibility and pulled her sword back. She looked at them all and shrugged "What?" she did her job afterall.

2613/2500 Mission Completed

[EXIT]