Of all the things that Balto hated the most was someone being tardy or late when there was a date and time for meeting someone. That hatred increased with each annoyance of waiting another second of not being accompanied with the person that he was to meet in the first place. The sun shined against Balto's face as his fingers bounced on the cafe table in unison while trying to contemplate on how he would do away with the insufferable witch of an info broker that he was meeting with. Should he burn her until she's reduced to nothing but ashes blown into the wind, use a single senbon needle to shed her skin as though she was a living potato, or choke her out until there was no air in her lungs. Either way, Balto can assure anyone that would witness his displeasure that this female info broker will be very sorry for leaving him just standing at a cafe. Taking slow and very passively angry sips from his coffee, Balto felt his cup becoming bubbling hot from his katon chakra that he was unknowingly putting his his coffee cup to make it hotter. It was even bubbling so hard and hot that it looked to even spill over his hand and burning his hand from the intense heat that was coming from his cup.

All around him, patrons were looking at the young Uchiha whom looked to be at a bubbling point from how angry he was. The tapping from his feet looked to be radiating heat with each tap. Anyone that had passed him felt as though they were close to an oven that was left wide open radiating enough heat to roast a marshmallow from inside its bag. Balto wasn't one to show his anger in an obvious methods of yelling, screaming or throwing a tantrum. However his feelings can be seen through the energy he was giving off. Air came through his lungs as he tried to control his breathing by taking deep breaths in and out while drinking his coffee. That just fed only more flames to the cup, to the point that the vessel was just glowing fiery red hot. The burns on his hands meant nothing as he was holding the cup and still drinking his beverage to calm down his rage. He found drinking hot beverages, odd enough, causes him to calm down when he feels like exploding his burning rage at someone. It was ironic indeed considering the heat he was giving off from his calm exterior. The only visual sign that he was not pleased was the slight scowl painted on his face. If she didn't show up soon, there would be hell to pay...

"Dun dun dun DONN!! Your queen has arrived!" Looking upwards, Balto saw a woman that looked to be in her early 30's. She had long blue hair with its colors that is more similar to the complexion of sky blue. It looked well conditioned and tamed with smooth brushes that must have taken hours for it to gain the silky lookit has now. The blue haired woman had her hair tied up in a bun with two strands of it coming down on each side of her bun to reach to both sides of her chin. She wore a blue tank top and a bit tight on her so it would reveal her rather large bust. The woman wore a darkened brown dress that reached her ankles. She had a purple bandanna wrapped around her head to help hold up her hair. Light glittered in her purple round eyes as she laughed and waved her hand in front of Balto's face. Even when Balto was looking at the woman with nothing but a deep seated anger directed at her, it didn't bother the woman at all as she sat down at the same table as the young Uchiha. Nearby patrons looked towards the two and the newcomer wondering exactly what was going to occur between the both of them.

Cold auburn eyes laid upon the woman as she laughed nervously and took one scone that was on the table that was half eaten. Apple frosted flavored, one that he had began to eat but couldn't finish because of how angry he was. And the cause of that anger was coming from the woman that was before him. "Botan give me one reason why I shouldn't burn you down on the very spot.." Balto said apathetically as he set the red hot coffee cup down. Being late was just a sign of disrespect, and this girl was on rather thin ice at the moment.

"Oh you wouldn't dare. I'm too cute for you to kill." The woman said with a playful wink she shot at him. There were bits on scones fragments loitered all over her face as she stopped eating and began licking her lips. Even though he wouldn't ever outwardly admit it, Balto knew that she was right. They've been working together for almost 2 years now, and he needed her; even if everything she did made him want to strangle the woman to death. When searching for a long lost mythical object, one had to have some sort of info broker that knew where to find certain relics and ancient texts that can help him solve this mystery. He was an info broker, but being an info broker means to share information with others. The young Uchiha gave the girl a simple nod as she smiled to continue.

"You remember that ancient relic of an ox statue you found a few months back in Iwa?" Botan asked as she licked her fingers of the scone that she just finished. She was now moving on to the tea that she ordered from a waiter and began sipping on it slowly.

"How could I forget? It was bejewled and nearly every bandit in a 10 mile radius tries to kill me and get it." Balto nodded as he was now more interested into what Botan had to say. She finished sipping on her tea before clearing her throat.

"Well you were right it being related to the Kozoku Family. They were the ones that had once raised Lady Leona when she was born." Botan said while she was slowly sipping her tea. Balto couldn't help but let out a small conquering smile. He was right. The horns on the statue looked just like the ones stylized in the book about ancient hostess. It seemed as though it can be confirmed; Lady Leona was raised in a brothel. Trivial information, but information was information. "When I asked them where exactly this artifact was found, he told me that it was found near some ruins on the southern coast of this country right here, Hi no Kuni."

Balto nodded as he took out his wallet and paid the difference. It caused for the blue haired woman to look at the silver haired boy with a raised eyebrow. Normally Balto wouldn't have even thought about paying someone's food except for his. But right now, he was in a good mood. If he can look through those ruins and find something about Leona's childhood or the shrine where she went off to when she was 17, then he might find something out about what kind of person she was and where she hid the stone. "Not a bad find indeed. I'll head over there now." Balto said as he put on his jacket that he took off while he was at the cafe and put it back on.

"Hey! What about my payment?" Botan sputtered.

With a small chuckle, Balto looked a the woman while shuffling through his pockets in search of something. [b]"Coming in late for our meeting, eating my scone, and purchasing tea on my tab. All that comes to about this..." He got out one golden coin and flipped it with his finger so it clattered on the cafe table. The woman looked at the coin then Balto and gritted her teeth.

"Balto you little brat! What the hell am I going to do with this?! Get back here!" Botan screamed after the boy as he was walking off and waved at her with his free hand and continued walking. The coin was enough to eat some of the best food in Konoha, but he knew that Botan wouldn't at all be satisfied with that. She always wanted more. An info broker that's greedy, but she knew her stuff. But right now, he had some ruins to visit.

---

The leaves crunched under his boots as Balto walked through the woods of Konohagakure. With each step that he took, he was suddenly reminded of home and what it was like to be there and not necessarily on a wild goose chase for an ancient artifact that may or not exist. Some of the leaves that hung high in the forest that the young Uchiha was traveling in, fell down and trickled his nose. Some of them came close to causing him to sneeze, which is why he pulled his scarf closer to his face to make sure that no other leaves can fall and make him sneeze once more. Light was slowly dying as he traveled. It would soon be night time. That would make his investigation that much harder if he stopped here and turned back to an inn. Searching at night time would make him miss obvious details that he would never have missed otherwise with light on him. Of course being a katon user, Balto can easily user flames to make a torchlight to allow himself to see properly. But that might get the attention of other treasure hunters.

Treasure hunters are drawn to ancient buildings like a moth drawn to light. They can’t resist looking into those kind of buildings for something to get and salvage from its ruins. Those were the people that Balto will have to compete against whenever he would look through abandoned ruins for information about Lady Leona’s life for hints about the location of the Stone of Leona. Some of them were harmless, and rather easy to shake down with enough intimidating force. Others however, would be a bit harder to negotiate to stand down. Most likely they are going to put up a fight so they don’t have to give up their find. And then there were the ones that would jump the silver haired Uchiha while he is searching for any leads. Those are the ones that he needs to look out for. When he is focused on a single task, like searching or reading, he’s distracted and can’t pay attention to the things around him. Balto hated that he couldn’t investigate and check behind him at the same time, but there wasn’t much time to regret. He had to focus on the task of getting himself into the abandoned estate before nightfall.

Leaping up from the ground, Balto landed on a thick branch of a tree that he was under. The only reason he knew that a tree was right there above his head was because of the looming shadow that was above his head. Even though he couldn’t tell what the time was while he was investigating, Balto sure as hell was good when it came to noticing his environment when he doesn’t have his nose into a book. From his crouched position, he looked out into the distance. Maybe he might be able to spot the brothel where Botan gave him a lead to check out. To his left, about 10 meters from where he currently was standing, was a waterfall. Most likely a bathhouse wasn’t too far behind. A brothel could be close by, but there wasn’t time for speculations, he had to know definitely that he was looking in the right direction or else everything he was doing at the moment was pointless. From the corners of his eye, birds fluttered from the left side of his vision. They were flying from the west to east. It was towards his left and caused him to look away from the waterfall. If birds were flying away from something, at this time of day, then that must mean someone disturbed their natural habitat. Botan did say that the abandoned brothel was somewhere in this neck of Konohagakure. Could someone possibly have been looking into the brothel? If so then maybe he should investigate. That was currently a better lead than following a random waterfall that maybe or may not lead to a waste of his time.

Shadows all around of him began to grow larger and larger. Balto looked at the sun to see that the light was changing from orange to a darker shade of red now. The sun was dying, meaning that the day was almost over. He had to get there and look into the ruins or else he might run out of time. Judging from the distance he was from the tree that the birds flew away from and the one that Balto was currently standing on, it didn’t look too far away. But also it was far enough to take away a good chunk of searching. It meant that if he went that way into the tree, then he wouldn’t have enough time get to his other lead which was the waterfall to see if there was a bathhouse nearby that might be close to the abandoned brothel. Setbacks was something that Balto hated with a passion, he had to throw his chance into the wind and stick with his gut. Not something that he normally did, but he didn’t have a choice at the moment. It was either now or never.

Taking a deep breath, Balto got himself ready to leap from tree to tree that was before him to get to the location that he wanted to get to. Looking to his left, he had a kunai on him in case it is a treasure hunter that he runs into that wants to be violent. He needed something to defend himself after all. Balto leaped from tree to tree to get himself ready and to figure out exactly what he needed to look for. Something, maybe a letter, a diary would be too perfect. Maybe the owner’s logbook that registered Lady Leona of leaving the brothel at the age of 17 to join the shrine. He might need to dig slightly deeper than that in order to get the answers he wanted, however that shouldn’t be a problem if there was really nobody there. While he ran, Balto looked around to see that he wouldn’t run into traps. That was one thing that treasure hunters liked doing when they’ve found a good find like this. They make traps to ensnare anyone whom dares to enter their territory and potential take their prize. It would not only capture him if he should fall for the trap but also alert the people whom had set the trap to his exact location. Long story short, it would be his death. Now he would much prefer that his simple investigation wouldn’t end like that, but there was no room for optimisim that he won’t see a single trap. Besides he know what a majority of the traps that treasure hunters set and what they look like, and also how they function. Also how to escape them as well.

Balto knows what it feels like to have someone enter his territory after a search and knows how annoying it is for someone to take his find. But unlike the treasure hunters before him, Balto normally goes into the location he’s trying to investigate and only spend a few hours at most looking into the a site before heading out. Another key difference between a treasure hunter and him was that a majority of treasure hunters will look carefully and analytically through sites. It will cause them to stay there for days upon days in hopes of finding something. It may sound as though Balto was impatient and left before finding anything good, but that’s just it. He’s really good at what he does. He only needs a few hours to see what he needs to find, and in that time he can determine if he found anything useful or if looking at the site was a waste of his time or not. Normal people need a few days to get to the conclusion that the young Uchiha had already gotten to in the span of a few hours. Which is why setting traps and sleeping a night would just be a waste of his time when he can just find everything he needed right there. He has a photographic memory and can also remember things as though it was a snapshot of the event taking place in his mind. If he had any question about his findings for some odd reason, which would be considered weird since his observations are usually top of the line and never really wrong, he would bring any artifacts that might be questionable in case his memory wasn’t up for it.

He checked upwards towards the clouds to monitor his progress to see exactly how long he had before the sun would set. While running, Balto checked upwards to see that he still had a rather large chunk of the sun was gone. He would have about 2 hours to find what he needed before he would be forced to use fire to light his search. He would rather not use it considering that it would draw out unwanted attention from incoming treasure hunters to ambush him. If he found a strong lead, then he might just take the risk.

Right now he was close enough to the site, so the young Uchiha hopped off the branch he was running on gently. The leaves bellow his feet crunched gently under his landing barely letting out a sound as he touched down. Taking a deep breath, Balto tried to control his breathing. He had been running for a while now and at high speeds, not something he was really used to so it was something rather new to him. Sweat caked his face as he wiped the sweat from his brow and let it splatter gently on the ground. Even though he really wanted to get back to searching, Balto knew damn well that he had to keep himself hydrated or else he wouldn’t be analyzing to his full extent while severely dehydrated. Luckily, Balto got out a canteen and began drinking the water that was in it. Never go out on an exhibition without any water or other supplements. When he was finished, he put the canteen back in his bag and began walking towards the tree that he saw the birds scurry from quietly. It only took a few minutes to get to the tree. It was on an incline going downwards to what looked a lot like an incline going downwards into a valley. Inside of the valley was what looked like a ruined building that looked to have succumbed to years of wear and rot from the foundation causing it to fall down and rip itself apart.

From the distance he could very faintly make out the words of brothel that was etched into the sign. If this wasn’t the brothel that he was looking for, then he might actually have to kill his informant for giving him bad intel. Already excitement was getting the best of him as the young Uchiha attempted to calm himself down so he can get back to the topic at hand. Once he had calmed down his breathing, Balto began to survey the path he was considering taking down the incline so that he wouldn’t run into some traps laid down by a treasure hunter that could very well still be in the area. After all the brothel was here, and the birds fluttering away could mean that the treasure hunter must have looked into the brothel and rattled the inhabitants of the forest. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to check that there aren’t any booby traps. Looking to the bottom left, he found a rather thin wire that was tettering on an abandoned leaf that was by itself on the ground. Sighing, Balto rolled his eyes while laughing. ”Amateur hour.” he said to himself as he got his kunai and disengaged the trap before putting it back in its holster and continued walking past the obvious trap of an experienced treasure hunter and began approaching the abandoned brothel.

Soon he will find answers…

---

1425[total 2500](WC Stats(Reaction Time--->D-3....575 leftover......Perception--->E-3...125 leftover)

Dirt fluttered around his boots as he walked down the inclining hill into the cobblestone pathway leading to the pathway. As Balto walked, he tried to vision this once valley as a brothel where there would be weary travelers looking for the company of a female companion at a negotiable cost for the night. From the cobblestones one can assume that the brothel was a roaring success. It cost money to pay someone to lay down cobblestone back then, unlike now which doesn’t cost as much. The hill itself was beginning to incline downwards to the point that it felt as though if he continued to keep walking downwards in the fashion he was doing, it wouldn’t end well. So the young Uchiha decided to allow himself to slide down the hill as though he was skating on a skateboard of the ground. He just had to ride the dirt and he would soon find himself at the bottom of the hill without any troubles with landing.

All that he had to do was put his foot down on the ground to stop himself from going down too fast. Balto adjusted his small tumble to a brisk walking pace as he continued to look around for traps. It seemed as though whomever was here didn’t really know the first thing about treasure hunting and salvaging. One should set as many traps as possible if they are going to set them. Normally treasure hunters set about 7 traps in total around the site they were investigating. But this amateur seemed to have set about 4 of them. The one that he disengaged at the top of the hill, was going to most likely ensnare his leg with a metal trap most likely that would have been painful enough to cause the crosser to scream in pain. If the trap was strong enough, then the only way to get out of the trap would be to amputate their own leg fast enough to escape the trapper.

Then of course there was the classic bear trap that he encountered along the cobblestone pathway and finally 2 hanging traps that would hang someone by the leg and suspend them off the ground until they find a place to land and not harm themselves. Balto, though he hated to admit it, barely noticed those ones. If it wasn’t for his peripheral vision that he had trained since he began his quest, it would have most likely gotten him trap. Now that would have put the silver haired boy in a bad mood that not even a good clue would get him out of his funk.

Balto looked around him when he finally reached the entrance of the brothel. It was a rather large estate. It looked more like an abandoned mansion than a small brothel where harlots would reside. To think that Lady Leona had once spent 17 years of her life here was astonishing. The walls had collapsed meant that there was no point using the barely hinged door that looked like it would disintegrate into dirt and debris the second a moderate force would be used to open the door properly. Besides he needed to investigate this door to see if his friendly acquaintance was actually in the room. Balto looked around to make sure that nobody was around before he got to work.

Fingerprints was something that could be seen if there was enough light applied to the area to reveal its presence. This would have to be done quickly or else the treasure hunter inside of the estate might be alerted that he was on to them. Very quietly and quickly, Balto snapped his fingers gently to cause a tiny green flame to balance on his finger tip. There was enough light on this thumb, and also from the sun, to cause a glean from the extremely rusty door handle to get a better visual of the looks of the handle. Usually people would shield their eyes from the bouncing, retracting rays from shining light on metal. It’s a normal reaction actually. The eyes can only take in so much of an external stimulus before being overloaded, causing one to close their eyes or shield them. However, if one can fight that natural implulse, then they can easily find things that they would have never found if they had simply shielded their eyes from the stimulus in the first place.

Light splashed into his eyes as Balto inspected the door handle with great detail. The only thing that could show that he was in discomfort of what he was looking for was the fact that he was clenching his fist slightly to deal with it. It was worth it because when looking closer, Balto can make out the details of a few faint and barely placed fingerprints. So he was right, some moron was looking around these parts to find something in the brothel. What could this person want in the brothel? Was he a thrill seeker or was this just a bunch of kids? No that wouldn’t work. What kind of kid would know how to set traps like a treasure hunter? Wait then again Balto was a child himself. So did he really have room to talk?

Balto shook those thoughts out of his head as he very carefully entered the side of the brothel through one of its various caved in walls and began to investigate the ground floor of the brothel. There was nothing but dust, but also there was a trail that he could easily identify. It didn’t take a genious to come to the conclusion that there was someone else in this brothel with him. The footprints of dust followed by the fingerprints he saw on the door handle was all the evidence he needed. Balto had to take care to make sure that he wouldn’t be found out. If this was the same amateur that he believed was here, then maybe he should jump him and interrogate him on the things he had found.

That would be the last thing, but for now there was degfinitely someone in this brothel with him. Now that he knew that, the signs of him being here was that much more obvious. Balto dragged his feet gently was he walked to get rid of his own footprints thatmight show that he was here. Later he would need to backtrack and make several footsteps incase someone saw his to confuse them of where he might be. There was the sound of crackling coming from the end of the hallway to his left as Balto was investigating the counter of the bar for some logbook. He found a check in book that could most likely show him something. What he found was an entry of a girl with orange hair being entered into the brothel. It shows that she was a customer but that didn’t make sense since why would a woman go to a brothel? This had to be lady Leona as a little girl at the age of 3. So she was raised in an orphanage afterall, and most likely adopted by one of the call girls as well. It made sense. So that meant that there had to be some item from her past that would link him to Leona’s past.

The crackling was something that had to be addressed at some point as well. The amateur must have lit a flame to get some light of what he was looking at. That much was certain and easily punishable. Balto crept slowly to the hall while using his shadows to mask his approach. When he was close enough, Balto saw that it was a woman with black hair tied in a bun using a torch to look through a library of some sorts of the brothel. This had to be the databases, and most likely the log books of each callgirl. If he can find the name of Lady Leona’s caretaker here, then it would make this job that much easier. He would have somewhere to look through at least. But first this girl had to be dealt with. With enough energy inside of him, Balto walked over to the woman looking through the books with his kunai in his hand. When he was close enough, Balto rested the kunai against her throat gently. She turned around stiffly in fear to look at a cold stare from the young Uchiha.

”Tell me what you know about this place and we all walk away happily.” Balto whispered harshly to the girl whom looked to be a little older than he was, probably 18 or 19. The message with his kunai was simple, if she screamed then he would have no choice but to end her life. She knew that as the black haired woman nodded as she held her hands up in the air to show that she wasn’t a threat and wouldn’t do anything to fight Balto.

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1638 Stat Training WC[4013 total] (Perception--->D-1....1013 leftover, Endurance--->D.....163 leftover, Speed and Strength E-1)