"Villagers of Jadestone, I am Raphael Kozai Chuunin of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. We were dispatched after your letter of distress reached our village, I..."
"What they only sent two of you?!"
"I assure you the village hidden in the clouds is currently getting supplies as well as more shinobi that will be here within the next couple of days, we came in urgency to help you in this time of need until they arrive."
"What if those bandits come back? They will kill us all!"
"If they come back I swear to Raava they will not leave here alive and no harm will come to any of you. I understand that you all have a lot of questions and you are all scared and my heart goes out to all of you but now is not the time, it is time for us to honor the dead and pay them proper tribute unto the afterlife. We will see all those that have died in this village's defence to a proper burial, after that we will do our best to tend to any of the wounded and see what shelters are left."
As Raphael took it upon himself to address the crowd, Kairyu would move through them and into the damaged village itself to look around. Kairyu would have attempted himself, but he knew his specialties were not in soothing words. He was a fighter now, his diplomacy was done with the sword and chakra. He would leave the sweet talking to the masters of genjutsu and the polititions.
As the male moved through the ruins, Kairyu's anger would raise and peak; this place was an utter disaster. There were bodies strewn all about streets, hanging out windows and splashes of blood everywhere. Peering into one of the abandoned houses, he could see that the furniture was overturned, opened and gutted with thier contents thrown across the floor. A nearby wall seemed to house a safe; the box itelf was practically pulled from the wall, its door nowhere to be found. Whomever these ninja were, they were thourough in thier searching. Moving on, Kairyu would find himself back at the place where they entered the village of Jadestone, staring at a child crying whilst laying a flower next to the building that once held the lynched man. Kaiyru would draw closer, intending to usher the child towards the square where the rest of the villagers were gathered, but something would halt him in his tracks, something the child whispered as she curled up into a ball next to the flower that she had placed upon the ground.
"Someone cut him down... they're gonna come back...the mean men in the masks are gonna get me too, just like daddy..."
That... was an odd thing to say. What did that child mea--
Realization hit Kairyu, and he almost kicked himself and silently began curing Raphael's name. The body that was hanging from the building was a signal, a flag of sorts. So long as it hung there, it was safe for the bandit group behind these raids to assume that no one had arrived from Kumogakure no Sato to assist the village. However, the moment the body was cut down, it could be assumed that the village had recieved some sort of aid and was rebuilding. And with the body cut down...
They would assume there were more supplies to pillage.
Shit.
Scooping up the child, Kairyu would carry her back to the square with the rest of the villagers. After entrusting her to one of them, Kairyu would be make his way over to Raphael, whom hopefully finished his task by then, and explain his findings. Kairyu assumed that with the body gone, it would take some time for the signal to reach the bandit's base, and that it was likely several hours from the village. They would need to prepare for thier raid, and that itself would take some time, in addition to making thier way to Jadestone. In Kairyu's mind, they had the very least until dawn to prepare for an assault.
~The Next Morning~
The next morning, and Kairyu was up early before the sun rose in the sky, already out and patrolling the perimeter of the village of Jadestone. Last night, the appointed spokesman of the village, the late mayor's assistant, filled Kairyu in on the situation; a group of bandits who called themselves the Masks. It seemed that the bandits were ex-ninja who took to raiding the minor villages to sustain themselves. Because Jadestone was one of the 'larger' minor villages, they were hit repeatedly. There were five members of the group. Each one wore a black mask over thier face save for the leader. Thier leader distinguished himself from the rest by the red, ornate mask he wore. Armed with this knowledge, Kairyu aimed to set off early in the morning, learning the layout of the village. When the rest of the villagers awoke, they awoke to the sight of Kairyu standing atop the remains of the temple, staring out into the desert at what seemed to be an approaching cloud of dust. Judging by the speed at which it appeared to be moving, it would not be long until the cloud reached the village. Even at this distance, Kairyu could tell that this cloud was not a natural phenom. He had to act quickly; either this dust cloud contained the reinforcement forces promised by Kumogakure no Sato, or it was another raid.
Kairyu prayed for the former, but could not help but think it was the latter.
Turning his attention to the villagers whom gathered when the alarm rang through the village, he spoke quickly, as time was of the essense. "Hide. We will handle this. Do not come out until Raphael and I come back."
As the villagers scrambled to find places to hide, Kairyu leapt from the top of the temple to a nearby rooftop before sprinting to the village outskirts. As he moved, the male began to channel chakra throughout in preparation for something to come, should the people this dust could contain proved to harbor ill intentions. Should Raphael follow, Kairyu would motion for him to hide and sneak around the group; there was no use in revealing that there were two of them, and an attack from two fronts would throw them into confusion. Kairyu would come to a stop outside the village gates, waiting patiently as he adjusted his his collar to cover the bottom half of his face. Soon enough, a group of five men descended upon the gates, each wearing a mask upon it, with one of them wearing a red one.
As they spotted Kairyu outside the gates, they came to a stop roughly ten meters away, watching him carefully; who was this man? Why was he here? Was he some sort of protection the village hired? Finally, the man wearing the red mask stepped forward, pointing at Kairyu. "Who the frick are are you?!"
Kairyu smiled behind his scarf. "Me? I'm nobody. Who are are you?"
"I'm Setsuko Kashiro, leader of the Masks!" Ooh, this one was a boastful one? Kairyu continued to smile behind the collar, feeling that familiar itch beginning to surface -- that desire for vengeance. That itch, that desire to murder. For the moment, he pushed it down, repressed it. He would give in to it soon enough, and it would feel all that much better.
The one thing he could not hide -- did not even bother to try -- was the boner he was getting from this.
"Thats nice, Setsuko Kashiro." The response was nonchalant, as if the male was wholly unimpressed by the name. In truth, he was not. He did not care for this man's name, but it was valuable information nonetheless. Perhaps there was a bounty on his head that Kairyu and Raphael could collect on for more money? He would have to lug the body back to Kumogakure no Sato if there was, or perhaps there was a bounty station nearby? He would figure it out later; right now, there was still the matter of dealing with these people. "So, I'm going to have to kill you now, okay? Just so there's no confusion as to what is about to happen, okay?"
The leader laughed. It was obvious that he did not think that Kairyu could back up his words. "You? You defeat me, the great Setsuko Kashiro, the leader of the legendary Masks?! Impossible!" His henchmen laughed as well, but Kairyu ignored them. "There's only one of you, and five of us! You can't do shit to us! I suggest you run your ass back home to Mama and hide, little boy, before I put you over my knee like your Papa should have done."
Kairyu paused for a moment, considering this man's choice of words. It took only a split second, but in that split second, he decided that this man's very poor choice of words had flipped a switch within his psyche. For this, Setsuko Kashiro's reward would be a slow, painful death. With a small sigh, Kairyu pulled out his Kunai, charged it with Raiton chakra, and began to lay waste to Setsuko Kashiro's men. In a flash, Kairyu crossed the expanse and swung the kunai twice, slashing out the throats of the two closest Masks. The scent of burning blood would fill the air as the crimson liquid crumbled off the blade, as Kairyu turned his attention to the three remaining bandits. Despite the masks covering most of their face, Kairyu could tell a horrified expression when he saw it. Beneath that golden glow he wore, the grin grew; the murderer was released, and he would not go away until the job was finished.
"Get him!" A cry from Setsuko's mouth as he pushed the two remaining men forward and turned away in an attempt to run away. Unfortunately for him, Kairyu was not having any of that. No, this man was beyond saving. There was no salvation, help was not coming. There would be no forgiveness, and running only made you look like prey. No, these men had come to this village with the intention to rape, pillage, burn and murder, only to find the tables turned upon them. Kairyu wondered for a moment before he drove the kunai into the eye socket of the next mask member if they expected something like this to happen? Did they think that their actions would not garner the attention of a monster? There was always someone bigger and badder out there that was higher up on the food chain that you were, and everyone's days were numbered. For these men, they devoured the villagers, and in turn, they were being devoured by Kairyu. Survival, at its most base.
It was almost poetic justice.
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