mission briefing:

He had found a third map, again leading to somewhere, yet somehow kegare was certain that this was the final one. After all, three times WAS the charm, no?

It was something he was thinking about when greeting the new day with a morning coffee and a read of the newspaper. It was funny though, that he had gone through both the neverendless cave and the underground tunnels, escaping from a deadly trap and nearly getting lost in a dark and spooky place, yet somehow he couldn't see what the Rockhenge could provide to top that.

Sure, he understood that the very idea was to possibly trap any unfortunate enough to try and find the thief's stash in one of those two places, which weren't known for being visitor friendly in the first place.

"Hmm, rockhenge does have those falling boulder issues," the masked man whispered to himself while taking a sip from his coffee and reading the obituaries in the newspaper. "So there's probably some sort of trap, that's nearly too predictable though. And still, somehow I think I'm overlooking or forgetting something very important. Ah well, no pain no gain, I reckon that's all the clues I have for myself."

When he finally headed out and went to try and check out the third map he had found, along the way the old man still couldn't shake off that very feeling of overlooking something rather important. It was as if he knew he should've known something about the thief, yet he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was he should've thought about.

Since he couldn't figure out what exactly it was he was missing, Kegare simply went onward, moving into the well known Rockhenge to try and find the elusive stash of the thief and finally finish the mission that had almost twice costed him his life and at least once had cost him a very nice suit.

wc: 334

While he was trying to follow the path that had been drawn out on the map, Kegare could feel it, that sensation of someone looking at him. It sent shivers all over his body to realize someone was keeping tabs on him, but even worse was the fact that this had to happen while he was so close to finding the deceased thief's stash of treasure and artifacts.

"Goddamn spies all over the place," The masked man hissed, letting out a deep sigh to calm himself down a bit and assess the situation with a calmer mind and body. "So while I went through hell to try and find this stash, someone tailing me and probably has been doing so all since the beginning of my mission. This either means there's been a leak with the people handling the information or I wasn't careful enough to erase my tracks. Either way, I need to be careful with my next moves, I don't want to get jumped out of nowhere when I'm this close to my goal."

Thinking about his options, the old member of the Yamada clan decided that his best option regarding this situation, was to memorize the map and if necessary burn it or destroy it some other manner, which would force the spy to do exactly as planned: follow him more openly and act more brazenly than someone who'd aim to simply wait for the opportune moment to strike and steal the map.

It would take care of at least one issue, but the possibility still existed that the one following Kegare had already seen the map or simply hadn't counted on taking it in the first place, which would mean that his actions would not change in the slightest and the masked man had to find another way to handle the situation.

"I'll just destroy the map for now," The masked man sighed and crumpled the map within his hands, tearing it to shreds an instant later. It seemed that though there were so many possibilities of his plan not really having any impact, it was still better than doing nothing at all, given how close he was to accomplishing his mission. "Better to be safe than sorry, I guess."

So, Kegare continued to walk on, following the directions which he had memorized from the map, while in the meantime making sure that he himself kept tabs on the person so annoyingly and foolishly following him and even daring to think that the masked man had yet to notice that he was being tailed. "there's always people thinking they're clever."

wc: 444
twc: 778

While he went on through the place, to reach the actual Rockhenge, Kegare finally managed to outsmart the guy who had been following him for a while now, hiding behind a rock he waited for his tailing suspect to pass and when he did , the masked shinobi jumped the scrawny little guy, only to realize it was a family member of the thief who's stash he had been searching for this entire time.

"You, you're Danado Dudaru!?" Kegare was quite surprised when recognizing the whimpering kid he was holding. A scrawny, weak little kid who probably wanted to get his hands on the stash as well, which was such a drag. "Go home kid, you won't be getting that treasure and you sure as hell can't do anything to me anyway."

Danado Dudaru looked at Kegare with blazing eyes, furious as a bat from hell the young man rose up and pressed a finger against the masked shinobi's chest. "I'm more worthy of the old man's treasure than any of you guys. However, I am willing to deal with you... what do you say, half 'n half and we go our seperate ways?"

The old man sighed and slapped Dudaru against the side of his head. "You get nothing, just go home and stop trying to trick or persuade me, it won't work."

Alas, the young man, even when kegare turned around and continued to walk to his goal, followed the masked shinobi relentlessly, continuously trying to convince the masked shinobi to at least grant him some leniency. "Come on, my uncle owed me at least that much...twenty percent is enough for me...ten percent maybe?"

Continuing to ignore the kid, Kegare finally found himself a hatch near the Rockhenge and as he opened it, he knew enough, as he could feel the blades of Iwagakure's ANBU pressing against his neck. "I reckon you'd been following me as well, impressive. let me guess, my part is done and I'm to leave this place in your capable hands on order of the Village's higher ups?"

"Correct assumption," One of the ANBU whispered in his ears before knocking Kegare out. When he woke up, he was laying in his own bed with a slip of paper telling him to retrieve his reward at Iwatobi's house. "Goddamn ANBU..."

wc: 401
twc: 1179/1000 Complete