It'll be tough, but don't lose your head. (Io)

He was right to trust CoRin with this mission, she was one of the only people he could trust to do a truly just job. He watched as she, her anbu squad of 3 and bring for the seven ninja that they had determined were the worth the village had to offer.

A ninja who committed fraud
A traitor
A drug Dealer
A Child molester
A thief
A coward
A ninja with only one arm.... that was his only crime

They brought them out in front of the city wall before the gate that youka demanded they be put on display. He'd had Hans commission ten freshly sharpened katanas and ten spears with which to do the foul deed. It wasn't really the type of commission he'd been hoping to make when he met back with his old friend. 

Li Had never killed before, now he was about to become a mass murderer. He kept telling himself that it would save everyone in his village, but it still eat him up inside. He'd never killed before and now his first ones would all be ninja who pledged their lives to his cause. How utterly tragic.

"CoRin!" Li announced a little concerned. "I only see Seven. Please tell me, we have three more." Not that it was news he wanted to get at all.

Oh fuck she was planning this from the very start. He felt bad for not arguing that her anbu crew not sacrifice their life but he was already making a big deal over NPC's so you can just roll that up with them. 

"CoRin." He said simple, quietly. "I have no ill will against you for that day. Please don't do this. I" He paused, and took a deep shuttering voice. "I don't love, you if that's where you think I'm going with this." He laughed nervously. "I need you. We started this together. As a team. We do everything as a team. You're... as sad as it is, my best friend. If you were not here, I'd... I'd lose everything. I wouldn't be able to go on."

CoRin had never known what she'd been to Li. An annoyance. A burden, an assassin, a threat, a friend, a sister, a mother, a ghost. She'd always been enamored with him. His holy ways. His religious devotion to hope, ame, and niceness in general. It wasn't justice that he performed, but something a little bit more.

She dropped to her knees and cried. "I can't live with myself. This isn't justice. We're just killing people to protect our own skins. One of us should die! not people who didn't have anything to do with it. You're too important Li! and Jun wasn't even a ninja when it was happening. It has to be me. I'm a failure to myself, my family, and justice, but most importantly I Failed you Li. Please let me die. They're my sins, all of this. I shall die, and you'll make this the land that we dreamed it would be when we slept in that grocery store." Please.

Li's mouth was just hanging open in disbelief. "Jun watarase you are without a doubt the coolest fucking old man I've ever met in my god damn life." Li was beaming, he was giddy. He couldn't believe it! Now that's a way a man dies! He'd been looking for that manly role model all his life, and now he knew who it was. All too late. 

He looked at CoRin practically jumping in the air with excitement. "How can you deny a guy, when he goes out like that." 

Poor NPC anbu guys, going out without even a whimper of protest. 

So Li positioned all of his victims in a straight line. "My ninja. The people who swore their lives to me, on this day all I have to say to you is: I failed you. You die because of me, and there is nothing else I can do or say that can make this better. Your families will live well, and shall want for nothing." He attached his chakra threads to each of the ten Katana and raised it above their knecks. "I hope in the next life, I suffer as big of a betrayl at your hands as you have mine. But As you leave this earth I leave you will two final words that I hope you find solace in." Li Raised his hands, and stared into each of the eyes of his victims. He saw fear, hate, sadness, panic, pain. He saw himself in all of their eyes, the same feelings he felt right now, only far less dire. He saw thier folly and his just as Youka had said. and for the first time in his life he saw what it was to be a killer. 

"Never again."

The katanas came down. Ten clean strikes, and the sound of ten heads thudding against the wooden floor beneath them. He picked up each of their heads and stuck them on the prepared spikes, displaying them before anyone who entered Ame. 

God damn! Li Hated killing. He didn't know how maniacs like youka got so addicted to it. He'd be haunted by these foul memories for the rest of his life. Perhaps he should have fought back. Death may have been preferable to this. But he knew youka wouldn't stop with him, he'd destroy the entire village just to send a message. By some twisted, horrid, bad logic. He was saving lives.

"Thank you CoRin." He whispered Hoarsely. "You're truly my most trusted ally, and friend. Please accept my thanks. And A promotion back to the rank you enjoyed under my rule. Jounin. Also prepare for more work, youka arrives tomorrow, and I fear what he has in store for us."

"Good bye, my friend." Though no one could tell if it was directed at her or jun.

(Exiting, and promoting CoRin to Jounin. For the reasons of: That was her actual Rank before the two of us went AFK. She did a very heavy job and led a squad of anbu in it. Also She lead Squad 8 in a successful mission (Perhaps as a test of her leading skill) which is a position reserved for Jounin. And she's the leader of the Ame police force!)

CoRin kept on her knees and the water works kept on flowing. "I will jun I swear I will! I'll take her around the world. I swear! Why did you do this? It should have been me. It doesn't matter how long of a life you live, just how well. You've lived and would live better than I ever could. Why are you doing this jun? I'm your leader, I should be shielding your from harm. Not the other way around, you've to this while thing mixed around! jun noooo." She wept she cried. Streams of water and snot just ran down her nose. "I will Jun! I'll have a beautiful baby boy, and he'll be gorgeous. I'll teach him to be fair, and just, and a little bit more sane than me. I promise."

Li gave a pretty sweet speech. But words were just words, remorseful though they were.

"Thank you my friend. Just know that I will serve you always. In whatever form that takes. But I'd ask you for one more thing. May we sleep together tonight? Platonically? I... I simply don't wish to be alone tonight. is all." Despite herself she blushed on. "So long as you keep those hands to yourself."

(Exiting and claiming Jun's generously donated eyes.)

Okie Dokie