It's cold here, freezing. I have never felt so cold in all my life. I can feel it in my bones. Were it not for the small lantern in this sled-carriage, I would not have the warmth to be able to write properly. This semipermanent chill is the norm in the Land of Frost, a small nation tucked between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Lightning. When I traveled north from the former, I found the gentle forests giving way to rockier and much more rugged terrain. Finally, I was forced to change into a snow-based carriage to carry me the rest of the way to this nation's hidden village. This is a stubborn land full of stubborn people, for better and for worse.

I am told that for the 3 or so months that there is no snow here that this land manages to become something like a green paradise on Earth. If that's true, then I have badly chosen the time to visit. Like most of the settlements here, the Village Hidden in Frost is carved out of the rocky crags and mountains. There are chimneys that seemingly appear out of the ground with little pattern to them, with black smoke rising up into the air sporadically. The people here are mostly miners, chipping away at the subterranean wealth available to them. I have yet to see any fellow traveller's on the old sledding trails save for the odd shinobi patrolling the surface.

After a few days of travel, I reached the Hidden Village. Here, I entered the subterranean city to find a wealth of activity that betrayed the desolate surface above. WArm fires seem to light every corner, shinobi patrol the rooftop bridges or suspended walkways, and entires streets and neighbourhoods are carved out of the earth. It is a village constantly expanding, and by all accounts, is thriving in the shared warmth of its prosperity... There are, however, downsides to this.

To be blunt: the daimyo who run this country are corrupt knaves. They, and those wealthy enough to be of a similar level of prestige, live closest tot he greatest sources of heat, living a life of luxury without ever needing to know the chill of the outside world. Those who are poor or ill are shunted towards the cold depths of the underground caverns, into the dark and deep places of the earth where there is no light nor hope.

I am staying now at the Tunnel Snake tavern, here, I am waiting for my partner for this informal mission of sorts. I have been told of strange going ons at night along the streets of the Hidden Village. There are disappearances popping up all over the city. At first, there had been only prostitutes or the poor- and yet, more and more people have vanished. Now, a daimyo has gone missing, and a wave of unease has come to sweep over the entire Land of Frost. There is something down here scurrying just out of the light of the flickering flames, watching us from the shadows, waiting for something.

I want to solve this mystery, but I cannot do it alone. I hope to hear from my contact soon. This land of hot and cold is starting to wear me down, I fear.

Ever your faithful travelling partner,
ジョーよしひろ

Yojo sat in the corner booth of the musty bar, his head turned and looking out the window at the common folk passing by. The awe of this subterranean village had faded to him by now after a few weeks of being here. Now, with all that had happened, he was more concerned than intrigued about what was going on in this small nation. When he had first come, there had been talk of kidnappings and vanishing people- and yet now, with the disappearance of a daimyo, the entire nation was growing increasingly paranoid.

The Chunin looked to the bar, watching some of the older types turn their heads away from him. Even without the recent paranoia, the people of the Land of Frost were a stubborn and distrustful group of people. They were the middlemen between the Land of the Lightning and the Land of Fire, they had been victims of the Fourth Shinobi War, and their politicians were as corrupt as they come- with only the merchant class seemingly being strong enough to keep the country afloat. The nation was just one decisive push away from being plunged into utter chaos... Which was all the more reason for Yojo's suspicion.

It was all too perfect, all too co-ordinated. There was something going on that went beyond a rampant serial killer- he had a feeling in his gut he couldn't shake. He had to find answers...

And so he waited.

808/808

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Yoshi's gaze turned to the front of the tavern as he saw the door open and... a woman close to his own age, and a beautiful one at that! The sight left the Chunin flabbergasted somewhat. Even on the job he couldn't ignore the good sights right in front of him, he might've been dumb at times but he certainly wasn't naive. He nodded as he saw her approach him briskly, all whilst the rest of the tavern verbally catcalled amongst other pleasant names. Too many sausages spoils the broth it would seem.

"Are you..." he started, looking down at the paper he had with him. The request he'd put in for a short-term partner out here in the Land of Frost had gone through quick, he hadn't been expecting someone to reach him even quicker. "Hina?" he asked, looking back up to the Genin. He poked his head up over her shoulder as she sat in front of him, as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping him nor that the real Hina was walking in any moment now. With neither of that happening, Yojo felt a bit more at ease about speaking plainly.

"Right, okay" he said, partly to her but more so for himself. He'd been thinking about this plan for a while now, and he'd found no better way to explain it in his head to himself than he was going to now. "I don't know how much you know about the Land of Frost, but it's corrupt as shit and full of paranoid locals. On top of that, people have been going missing at an increasing rate- which is why I messaged Konoha to ask for you to help me out here. I'm looking to figure out what's going on and who's been kidnapping all these people, including a daimyo of this country" he explained, trying to get her up to speed as quick as he could without skimping on any of the minutiae too much. Once she had a look that seemed to grasp what he was saying, even a tad, he continued his story. "As you can tell The Village Hidden in Frost is a subterranean city, with caverns going all the way down into the depths of the earth. Sooner or later, you'll go so deep that you'll be stuck in a labrynth that you'll never get out of" he explained, placing a map of the village out for her to see under the musty light of the tavern.

"So, here's what we're going to do. My best guess is the culprit is using these caverns to escape into after kidnapping their victim. If I can watch them take someone, I can follow them with my jutsu back to where they're keeping the other hostages... If they're still alive that is" he explained, pointing at some of the previous sights where victims were last seen. He'd been scouring this village from head to toe, and still he hadn't seen any escape route that linked all of the crimes together, which meant he was out of options. "In short...I need you to let yourself be kidnapped so i can find the one responsible for all these disappearances" he said, dropping what he knew would be the make or break bombshell for the Genin. He knew the kidnapper had a preference for young women, that they had a knack for stealing young or fresh Genin, and that they struck most at night- all things that made Hina the ideal kidnapee. He waited to see how she'd take the news.

"With a daimyo kidnapped, the entire country is slowly descending into a panic. If things keep up, the entire Land of Frost might succumb to anarchy" he said, hoping to throw some sort of weight of gravity on Hina with what they were doing here. "If you don't trust me, then trust my skills. I won the Chunin Exams, I can make sure nothing happens to you. All right?" he asked, tilting his head as he looked at the Genin. He knew what he was asking was less than ideal, but he wouldn't have asked her in the first place if the situation weren't that dire.

Yojo waited for a reply, though he hoped one would come soon. The hour was coming near when he was estimating a new kidnapping would take place, and, ideally, he wanted that kidnapee to be Hina.

766/1574

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She... seemed to be taking all of this pretty well. In fact, so well that he was beginning to wonder what it would take to earn a strong reaction out of her. He had asked for only a female Genin, but by the way that she seemed so calm, he couldn've sworn that she was something closer to a full on Tokujo by her demeanour alone. It reminded him a tad of his mindset in the midst of the Chunin Exams. He gave a nod here and there at her question, humming as he thought it over. He certainly wouldn't lose track of her. Even if some manner of visual genjutsu was employed, he could see through it all thanks to his sharingan. Ultimately though, he was there to find who was responsible for all of these attacks and bring them to justice. Finding any survivors was a nice bonus, but not one he was planning on, as grim as it might've sounded.

"All the way to the hideout. I wan to see where they've been taking people, as well as if anyone else is alive" he explained, looking over the girls shoulder at the drunk bar patrons. They didn't seem to interested in the conversation the two shinobi were having. That might've been a blessing in and of itself. Who knew if there were spies informing their enemy- or worse, if there was more than one kidnapper working together. Still, once Hina introduced herself, he realized he had been rather rude in not giving his own name. "I am Yoshihiro Joe, though you an call me Yojo" he said, giving a small nod as if to put a seal of approval on the name.

Once pleasantries were exchanged, they could get down to the nitty gritty of it all. "So... How did you find your trip up here?" he asked, trying to get a bit more insight into his newfound partner. He didn't have any reservations about her ability as a shinobi, but he still wanted to get a feel for her personality somewhat. In the heat of combat, he'd found, he had  tendency for misunderstanding when a person was joking or trying to be serious. So, he tried a new tactic, "So how is your sex life?" he asked bluntly. His logic was ingenious. If she grew angry at such a rude and unbecoming statement, he'd know that she was not the joking type when the time mattered. If she laughed or played it off, then he'd know to keep her humor in the back of his head! There was no way such a question could go wrong?

After Hina responded, Yojo would get up from the table in a single motion. "Right, that does it for introductions" he'd say, moving to the door of the tavern and opening the door for her to follow. "Let's go catch a kidnapper" he said, pausing for the dramatic gravitas he oh so craved. Once they'd left, the duo would head out on the subterranean streets of the city, moving towards the outskirts of town. Shantytowns would replaced regular buildings, the lighting would grow more dim, and the atmosphere would all around grow more grimy.

Once they were close to the spot Yojo had in mind, he'd look to Hina, nodding at her to take the lead. "I'll be watching" he promised, stepping into a nearby alleyway. With that Hina would be left alone, so very, very alone.

592/2168

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What... What the hell was she doing?

Yojo watched from a nearby alleyway, his sharingan tracking Hina's chakra signature as she adjusted her appearance to take full advantage of her sex appeal. She looked either a few paces short of a prostitute in a slum, or a few past a genius-level shinobi. He couldn't tell which. Regardless, as she walked along, she certainly attracted the kind of attention that he'd been waiting for. A vagabond appeared suddenly, roughly in the area that Yojo had expected they would. They harassed Hina, touched her in some rather... inappropriate ways, and would eventually throw her over their shoulder and force a gag into her mouth to keep her quiet. With that, the hunt would be on.

Yojo would keep his sharingan active as he tailed the strange hooded figure down away from the main slums of the Village Hidden in Frost. They'd take a tunnel that looked identical to any of the others. Down, down, down they'd go, descending away from the known tunnels and travelling lanes of the subterranean city into the truly uncharted depths that lay beneath. Were it not for his unwitting guide, Yojo was certain that he would be lost. He managed to trail Hina's captor well enough, as well as hear some of their footsteps through the echoing hallways of the tunnels.

Finally, after a great deal of running and tracking through the depths of the earth, Hina's captor would finally reach a strange structure. It was built within a large hollowed out section of cavern, lit up by fluorescent lighting. In the center stood a metal building that looked fairly modern for its size. It was bolted into the ground, filled with a light from inside its windows, and held a strange sigil atop its front gate. It looked like something like an outpost of sorts, except roughly a mile beneath the surface of the earth...

Yojo stopped, hiding behind a stalagmite as the hooded captor carried Hina inside.

They had their man.

344/2512

Total WC: 2512

• Training B-rank jutsu, 'Kamaitachi's Laughter': 1500/1500

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