Konoha is perhaps the most peaceful and also the most bland of the hidden villages. The cerulean sky and angelic-white cloud overlooked a village where the air was fresh with the scent of freshly cut grass, the lay was always flat and peppered with single and two storied structures, with a few instances of water towers and important buildings; who were over four stories even. Leaves floated about in the air, like some sort of ever-present ornament, giving a feeling of tranquility and nature.

The streets were littered with easy-going folk, slowly filtering in and out of flower shops, vending stalls and other mundane supply retailers. It was yet another calm, peaceful and boring day in the hidden Leaf... or was it?!
Opposite to, and coming in the direction of the Uchiha, was a rather peculiar person. It was none other than Asmodeus himself, the pirate-turned ninja. His hair was a messy black with a few golden streaks in front. He wore a white full blouse, tucked into his long, black trousers and some sort of fisherman's boots to finish. His left hand clenched a small vase made of translucent, avocado colored glass. He clenched it by two fingers around the neck. It was half filled with a blood-red liquid, and yellow-labeled with a cheap sticker of "red-wine" written on it. His golden yellow  eyes looked glazed over and shifty, and his cheeks were flushed pinkish-red; he bumped into passers-by occasionally. He made his way, shifting from left to right with a series of sudden stops, staggered steps and uncoordinated footing.
Suddenly he sidestepped into a man carrying a bag of groceries, spilling a loaf of bread and some celery sticks on the sandy but hard ground. The civilian man yelped with an angered demeanor, but Asmodeus quickly interjected:

"Hey, lady! watch where you're *hic*, going."

he said, with a slurred tongue. It was only nine in the morning, and to see someone in his condition was largely frowned upon within this peaceful town, and much to the nearby crowd's chagrin. Shifting through the people, he would eventually come to Maeda Mana, the fourteen year old newcomer. Asmodeus was a bit taller, standing at 5 foot 9 inches-- but in his current state he was hunched a few inches short. Then when he was about a foot or so away from her, he would, without warning bump into her as well, on the side of his free right hand. Should he do this, he would also utilize the blatantly overt distraction, to slip that right hand of his into the young woman's pouch in an attempt to sneak away with its topmost article; her documents! He would hide it within his long and frilly sleeves before retracting his hand to his personal space, before continuing past the person.

"Hey man, get ahold of your *hic* self"

he slurred again during the crass encounter. Asmodeus had never seen this young lady before within the ninja ranks of Konoha, thus assuming her to be an ordinary civilian. So, he was now surely in for a surprise. .  .

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The under his pretentious guise as a drunk, the pick-pocket went according to plan, but needless to say, he was in for an utter disappointment. He did not turn back, overconfident and expecting the young lady to be completely oblivious. Then he would flick his right hand, as if making a card apparate out of thing air. Sure enough, a single sheet of paper was procured. It was forcibly folded and creased unevenly from the transaction, and he held it up to the sun as if expecting something else. His face grew a disappointed look as he shook the page mid-air, expecting something to fall out. But no jewelry, not an earring, not even a shilling or spec of gold was there.

"Fiddlesticks!" - he said, disgruntled.

He walked in a straight, controlled path now, holding the paper back up to the sun. His eyes squinted and his mouth gave an accompanied open-snare, a recoiled look as if staring into some excessively bright area. There was writing within the sheet, so he would naturally unravel it to at least see it. With the same hand, it was flicked by the topmost corner, as if dusting of a piece of cloth. He held it squarely level with his line of sight, hand fully extended.

"Maeda Mana?! What a strange name. Land of Moon?!!!" he blurted.

Suddenly he would stop, reading that last part with genuine concern and grabbing the paper with both hands now, his left still clenching the bottle with two fingers. A flurry of thoughts raced through his head; he had come here from Water country after songle-handed taking down a powerful pirate gang, the Kurayami-- but leaving one member alive. Now this, a stranger who came from the Moon teritory, just south-south-west of the Kaiju ocean near Water country. Was it a hired assassin? or spy even? Whatever it was, it surely spooked the Nara.
He looked over his shoulder now, as the young lady had cried out upon realizing something was amiss.

"That's a rather wee assassin. But ehh, I best not take any chances."- he muttered to himself.

Then, surely enough, he would walked back towards her. Keeping a decent distance away, say the length of a small shop building, he would flash the paper towards her, arms extended with a cocked head. He had mastered his posture now, standing tall seemingly unphased by the liquor.

"Say. What's a Moon girl like you, doing in a place like this?"- he queried with a clean, crisp and deep voice.

His brazen yellow eyes locked onto hers after taking in her features. Upon further scrutiny, that casual grey dress of hers looked stark in contrast to her hair and eyes, which was as black as a moonless night-- if weren't for the red stripes, she would look almost entirely black and white. It was a minor stand-off, as the two looked at each other from the distance within a reasonably wide street. The passers-by went on their way, not caring to make a second glance at them as if it was yet another mundane social encounter. Asmodeus' expression was bland; his mouth was flat and widened as if someone made a distasteful joke.
He would wait for a response, looking at any expression that would give away her profession. A regular response from a civilian would be that of anger, shock and elevated concern, for he did blatantly steal her beloingling. What he looked for specifically was a more calm, collected persona, for an assassin would not flinch at such a small endeavour. He gulped, hoping that it wasn't the latter, for that, would spell trouble...

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She responded, but with a collected demeanor. Asmodeus didn't quite yet know what to make of it, so he would continue to press the matter further. Her eyes to him looked as if she was experienced by many battles-- either that or due to pain and suffering over the years; they didn't seem to be phased by the trivialities of everyday life anymore. These types of people he reckoned, were quite different from the usual class of villains and crooks he came across over the years in the Land of Water. They were much more... cold, and mysterious, as if emanating from unfathomable depths of some dark ocean far away.
Moving on from that dark thought however, he would continue his observations. She motioned to have the document returned, to which he snickered in response:

"M'fraid not Moon girl." - he remarked, rolling up the paper and slipping it into a hidden pocket within the chest area of his white full-blouse.

"Not till you tell me why you've graced us with your presence" -he gestured, with his left hand, swishing the beverage around before taking a sip.

"Ahhh. See, the Hidden Leaf is a safe house of sorts, where I run my ugh, business-- and I prefer my business to be, how shall I put it... unbothered, by spies and whatnot. Say, you're not a spy are you?" -he pointed, with an index finger in the most accusing way possible ,

"Cuz if you don't enlighten me, you might just become one!" - and gave a coy smile,

revealing a hidden Leaf headband out of his right pocket. Of course, Asmodeus implied that he would tell the gaurds lies about the girl being a spy within the village. Having in possession her only piece of identity would further provoke the authority should she not be able to procure it. The Nara, though raised poorly and in the worst way, still had the clan's blood running through his veins, and strategy was obviously not foreign to him.
At this distance, she would probably get a whiff of the man's cheap perfume and the stench of alcohol soaked clothing. . .

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Asmodeus seemingly ignored the girl as she spoke, preferring to look at his wind bottle. It shun where the sunlight struck its curved edge in the center, with the brilliancy of a well cut diamond. He took another chug with one hand, and wiped the side of his mouth with his shoulder-sleeve. But he was indeed listening, for she said some things which made him burst out with laughter.
"Ahahahaha!" laughed Asmodeus as the young woman rebuked, standing her ground and even turning the tables on him. He was genuinely intrigued by the game they had now been playing-- a tug of war where the stakes seemed high enough to cause panic. But as arguments go, the combatants play by very set, logical rules, giving respect to others where it is due. However, but most unfortunate for the Nara's enemies; he doesn't play by many rules, if any!

"Very persistent, Moon girl. I'm actually beginning to like you." he said, shaking the wine bottle at her with a friendly gesture. But the air about this man was not friendly at all-- and it was this contrast which made him an unpredictable pickle of a problem. "And to your proposition, I'll make a third... ,with that said, he took the paper, and stuffed it into his mouth! The man brazenly chewed it like spaghetti as its lower ends shortened and eventually vanished. The man seemed unaffected by the dry, bitter taste of paper which would churn the stomach of many a man-- indicating that he has done a good deal of similar atrocities. Taking another sip of from the bottle of red wine, it would be gone in a single gulp.
"Now where were we. Ah, yes, back to square one. So what's it gonna be? Hmm?!" again that fox-like grin shot back at her.

As he waited for a reply however, a look of concern took over his face as a flock of crows fluttered from the eastern side of the village. His eyes widened, for that usually meant something was amiss with his operations, and he needed to tend to it at once.
"On second thought, I must be going now-- you take care!" he blurted, in the most contradictory and friendly way. This man was certainly one of the more mentally estranged ones it seemed. With a hop and a skip, he lunged atop the entrance roof of a vegetable stall, then jumped again way across the street again to the top of a two tier building. On its edge, he would look down at Maeda Mana for the last time. "Name's Asmodeus. And that's Captain Asmodeus to you!" he yelled. This man was obviously unfamiliar with typical shinobi conduct, not caring about concealing his name or his profession, should one be so obliged to ask. He went about it quite overtly, as if the police force had already known-- maybe he bribed them off? ... But whatever it was, he was an aberrant, a free radical that should be kept in check.
Then, with an exaggerated bow, as if to usher in the end of some great performance, he did so briefly, taking off to the east along the rooftops.

[Exit]

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