Let's Get Down to Business!

In a flash of purple light, two figures would appear at Kazuo’s camp. One figure, adorned in blades and sporting a thick jacket, was holding the other by the shoulder, and would quickly attempt to shove the other figure away, turning now and tending to the circle of stones that was now covered in snow. A small breath of flames melted away the snow, and he set about tending to the fire, continuing the conversation the two had been having at their previous location.

”It won’t get infected, you blithering idiot.” He sighed as he set the logs in formation and doused them with flames once more. The fire crackled to life and burned hot. He sat down on one of the logs he’d set out as a seat and drew the purple-hilted blade, retrieving a whetstone and beginning to sharpen it. ”I don’t slack on caring for my blades. Your hands will be fine.” He said, gesturing to the tent. ”There are some bandages in there. Wrap your hands with them.” He said, a small measure of compassion now being displayed. Kazuo was not heartless, and cared for those he lead, but the hierarchy, the order, was important to him.

One week had passed since he had issued his order, and no member of Hitsuyo Aku, save for the insubordinate who did not plan on attending, was present. Kazuo grinned. He wondered who would arrive, and who would instead fail to show their faces and face their perceived punishment. Who was too rattled with fear to come, and who was honorable enough to face the music.

”The others should be arriving soon. Maybe a few days from now, maybe in an hour. Who knows which among them will dare to show their faces?” Kazuo mused.

The Lycan was giving off a low growl. He still held Ior over his shoulder. His mouth was a bit bloody and so were his claws. Ryou's felt ashamed in himself for letting get to that stage back in the forest. He killed fifteen people, and the only way he could find a way to redeem himself was telling himself It was either me or them. Ryou let down Ior before turning back into the little twelve-year-old. He bent down to the snow and grabbed a handful when the two others showed up. The Lycan heard Kaz speak while he wipes his face of blood with the wetness from the snow melting in his palm. ”The others should be arriving soon. Maybe a few days from now, maybe in an hour. Who knows which among them will dare to show their faces?” These were the last things he said before Ryou stood up, showing himself to Kaz. "We're are here," Ryou told the new leader. There was still blood on Ryou's hand, it was dripping off and staining the ground. "We got held up a bit." The Lycan wasn't in the mood to argue against anything Kaz said if he did. His hands trembled a bit from a mixture of fear and cold. He wondered how the others saw him now, a twelve-year-old boy with blood literary on his hands.

She had already been there of course, the young Nara girl had been waiting four hours upon hours before the others had shown up. The first two to arrive were ryu and the insufferable Kazuo who appeared out of thin air from a flash of purple light. A teleportation technique no doubt, and judging from their positions it was Kazzimoto that used it. The next was Ryou. The almost completely useless member of this team who's only alluring trait was his uncanny ability to turn into a giant wolfman thing. 

"It's about time you guys got here. I've been waiting for hours in this dreadful hell of a place."

This would be the only greeting they received from her.

From how things looked after he stopped, she could tell that 2 other members of the group had arrived. She would continued to be on Ryou's shoulders for now as one them had a faint indication that there may be more members in the group. Not that it would hurt to wait nor it would put a strain on Ryou.

“No, its not blistering I’ts just cut.” Ryu would say looking over his hand as Kazuo called someone an idiot. The boy would make seals for the basic medical jutsu and cause his hand to scab over as he headed for the tent to grab the first aid kit. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Once entering the tent Ryu would locate the bandages and wrap his hand tightly, so that if the scabs cracked the blood would not leak everywhere.

He would then exit the tent and look over everyone present. “It’s cold here.” Ryu would mention standing next to Kazuo. Not as a complaint, but just pointing out the obvious. If I use phoenix force, I can get warm and make plenty of steam for everyone. Nah, I’ll wait. Hopefully, someone would say what the goal was on top of this mountain with the few people that were here.


There were many missing, the exact number was unknown. But he knew people were missing like Faith. “Where is Faith?” As a former suna ninja Ryou and her were the closest to family Ryu had now. So, he couldn’t let anything happen to them.

Kazuo did not speak that last sentence, as it would be rather nonsensical of him to do so. Upon arriving, he took note of both Angel and Ryou, as well as the stranger resting upon Ryou’s shoulder. The boy, still crouched, said nothing, and appeared to be cleaning blood off of his hands. Kazuo, understandably, was a little confused by this, but figured the boy would explain soon enough. Kazuo would simply ignore Ryu’s comment, the boy’s sheer stupidity having left Kazuo numb to it at this point. Kazuo stifled a laugh as he attempted to make hand seals for a jutsu to heal his own hands, likely in a lot of pain. Perhaps he’d finally feel some penitence for his idiocy.

The first to speak after him was Alice, who apparently had been sitting around the camp freezing for a few hours.
”...And you didn’t think to light yourself a fire?” Kazuo inquired, the smallest trace of sarcasm in his voice. Good lord, he’d lived in isolation for so long he had forgotten the lengths people would go to have something to complain about. As he finished lighting the fire, he took a seat upon a log and looked at Ryou, who was still crouched. ”You there, explain yourself.” He said, vaguely gesturing to Ryou’s general location. He figured the target of his inquiry was easy enough to infer, but then again, Ryu was among them. ”Who is on your shoulder, and why is there blood on your hands?” He added, speaking slowly, more for Ryu’s benefit than for anyone else’s. His hand was resting upon the grip of one of his blades now, casually, as they often did.

Ryu, for his part, stated the obvious about the temperature of the area, and then inquired as to where Faith was. Rolling his eyes, Kazuo shrugged.
”Perhaps if you had actually listened, you would know that I instructed both Faith and Akane to remain at their posts.” Kazuo commented. Boredly, he continued to sharpen his blade, the metallic ring of each swipe he made with the whetstone punctuating his conversation.

”Alice, would you happen to know who is missing among our ranks? I seem to recall our numbers being greater.” He droned boredly, his crimson eyes darting from person to person, lingering on the girl lying on Ryou’s shoulder. She was still breathing…  ”Well, regardless…” Kazuo said, lurching up onto his feet. ”You’ve all made the climb. Three Wolves Mountain is no easy summit, and I’m impressed with the both of you for making it this far…” Kazuo mused, actual pleasantries being uttered by him for the first time to the lot of them. Well, half of them. Ryu had been too dense to follow orders, and the unconscious girl on Ryou’s back was hardly a member of Hitsuyo Aku. Alice, however, had crossed the continent even before scaling this mountain. Ryou too had come all the way from Shadow country, if memory served.

The blood of the attackers trickled down Ryou's hands. He just stared at them, he wasn't sure what to do. How am I gonna become Kazekage if I can't handle killer a bunch of assassins? He put the girl down and continued. ”You there, explain yourself.” Ryou then slowly brought his head up to see who he was talking to. Of course, it was him because Kaz was pointing at him and then he asked, ”Who is on your shoulder, and why is there blood on your hands?” Startled, the Lycan replied, "Well, sir, we were attacked by some people...they wanted my pelt to sell it...the rest is blank until I found her again..." Ryou almost forgot about the part when he met this girl. "Oh right, I was doing some training and I almost hit her with a jutsu...we talked and then she wanted to join our group..." He then noticed that Kaz was sharping a blade, almost intimidating like. "I thought she could join...but if you don't think so...well." As spoke he pulled out a kunai and held it right at her neck, implying he'll kill her if need be... which he hoped wouldn't be the case.

The girl simply rolled her eyes at Kazuo's comment. That wasn't the point; the point was why the fuck were they meeting in this desolate frozen tundra. Even so, she sat down on a log across from their fearless leader after he had lit a small fire for the group. After that, Alice simply sat quiet and listened. She didn't much care about the small child that was still seated atop their furry comrade. It was just a child after all. Yet Kaz demanded answers from the Lycan. Apparently he had come under attack by some people trying to skin him alive and sell his fur. Not a bad idea actually, Lycan's were few and far between. In fact, they were so rare that Alice had only ever met the one, as useless as he may be for a guard dog. 

In a show of blind loyalty, or absolute stupidity, Alice wasn't quite sure which, Ryou held a knife to the poor child's throat implying he would end the girl's life right now if Kaz demanded it. That was when Alice spoke up. "Please, no need to get all dramatic. Why don't you be a good dog and go lick yourself in a corner instead, hm?" The condescending tone was obvious for all to hear, a slight hint of disgust melded in with her words. Regardless of the boy's reaction, unless it was to attempt to actually slit the girl's throat, Alice would ignore anything more from him and instead turn to speak to Kazuo. If he did choose to get violent with the child, Alice would react accordingly.

Who was it that they were missing? Assuming Ren actually was dead, and Faith and Akane had stayed at their respective posts as they had been ordered to, that left just Ezra who hadn't made an appearance. It was too bad really, he had showed quite a bit of promise in their previous little spar. "Well, if what you say is true, your highness, then we seem to only be missing Ezra, the wandering samurai. Not that it really matters," she would say with a knowing smirk, "Anyway on to actually important matters of business. Like I mentioned on my way to this hideously isolated piece of crap mountain, I happened to chance into information on Kumogakure and it's forces while I was in Haven." She would wait then, letting the assumed silence hang in the air for a moment before continuing. This would be the time for ol' kaz to chime in if he so chose.

What she knows of his group now is 2 more personnel. Wit her combat skills, it doesn't matter getting noticed. Still, he had explained the main point of her purpose here; Though it wasn't accurate. She hasn't them as rumors of those wanted during her years of duty; Maybe there were new. Nevertheless, she would revert her transformation and stood beside Ryou.

It is as he explained. She addressed to the people currently around. I am Ioritsu, nice to meet you all. A greeting would always seemed proper as a start.

“Oh, cool.” Ryu would say picking up some wood from the ground that had been covered in snow. “What is all this white cold stuff? He would ask moving the stuff through his hand as it heated turning into water.” Its one of those rain forests, I heard about. Five balls of heat would form around Ryu melting the snow around the group revealing many more pieces of wood.

“Well it’s probably all wet.” The boy would say raising his arm and moving his fingers causing the orbs to move along with them and into the wet wood. “Good thing I have a drying method.” The orbs would pass through the wood creating steam before long there would be plenty of dry wood for a fire. Which the boy would begin to move to make a fire pit.  

“What in the fuck are you doing?” Ryu would ask upon watching Ryou take out a blade and hold it to a sleeping persons throat. All five orbs seemed to glow a brighter pink as he asked. “Put down the blade or I deep fry your hands. You can kill all you want, but I won’t just watch ya do it.”
“Yeah, do what she said go lick yourself in a corner.” Ryu would say pointing to Alice as she mentioned a better alternative of activities. If Ryou put down the blade then Ryu would also go back to his activity of making a fire by gathering the sticks and placing them all together.


Ryu was interested in the news on kumogakure finally something was going the way it was supposed to. Though the tone used was weird she even called someone tall (high-ness). I know she don’t mean me I am too old to count on my fingers and some amount of inches I can’t count on my fingers and toes. 


WC: 310