Ninja Business, But Now It's Personal. (NK, O)

Mission Details

It had started out as a normal day for Kuniko; his usual routine of bathing, grooming, breakfast, and meditating went uninterrupted. It was a clear day in Hoshigakure. The young genin sat cross-legged on the battlements of a castle, watching out over the village. His long hair was tied up today. He had gotten into the habit ever since his training began with Tsubaki. Learning the ways of a medical ninja was quite difficult, and required constant concentration. Though in truth, Kuniko only kept his hair up in a ponytail because it made him look trendy. 

After his pondering on his progress as a shinobi, Kuniko walked down from the battlements and head in the village to wear the missions were posted. He wondered as he walked what master Ayato would think of him now. Would he be disappointed that Kuniko was pursuing a primary specialty other than taijutsu? The young man did not know. However, all thought on the matter ceased as soon as he saw the mission board that morning. 

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As soon as Kuniko read the name off the mission board his heart sank in his chest. "Kaito!" The young man shouted at the paper in distress, ripped it from the board, and began quickly reading it over. Beads of sweat began forming on Kuniko's head as he finished reading. Kaito was one of the merchants that Kuniko had traveled with for the past few years. He was a good man; someone Kuniko admired and strove to be like. He had practically taught the young Hyuuga everything he knew about seeing the world for its beauty. He was a calligrapher, a landscaper, and (as far as Kuniko was concerned) a visionary. 

Kuniko quickly ran off through the village to collect his team mates. First he would go to Takeshi's home and tell him he was on an urgent mission and needed his help. Afterwards he would head over to Sakuragi's home with Takeshi and speak to the other member of Team Summer in his living room. The normally refined young shinobi was in a state of distress and didn't want to waste time moving to a different location before starting the mission. 

While carefully navigating around Sakuragi's old grandmother, Kuniko stood before his two teammates in Sakuragi's living room and read out to them the mission details. "Kaito is a very important person to me, and I need both of you to help me if I am to have any hope of rescuing him. He is my old mentor. Please, I beg for your assistance." Kuniko would bow deeper than he had ever before to his two comrades when asking this of them. He looked up, his eyes almost beginning to water, and waited for their response. 

TWC: 536

Takeshi had woken up before the sunrise, Takeshi felt like getting in some extra training today. The new S rank technique he had learned was still far from being perfected. As Takeshi was preparing his combat clothes, he inspected every inch of his clothing, ensuring that there were no imperfections that were bad enough to cause issues in battle. Takeshi searched over his clothes and found no issues, so at this point, he was ready for a hard day of training.

Takeshi went towards his front door, and just as he grabbed the door knob he looked at the sign that was next to the front door, "Prove her wrong." Takeshi gripped onto the straps of his backpack tighter, and mentally prepared himself to hit the road towards the training grounds.

Just as Takeshi was pulling his front door open, he heard steps rushing towards his home. Takeshi activated his Byakugan to see who it was. "Kuniko?" Takeshi questioned as he deactivated his Byakugan. Kuniko rushed into Takeshi's home and was in obvious distress. The ninja with his hair in the ponytail quickly explained to Takeshi that team summer needed to come together for an urgent mission. Takeshi nodded his head confidently and followed Kuniko to Sakuragi's home to tell him the same thing.

As the two arrived at Sakuragi's house, the brown skinned Hyuuga was at his home with his grandmother. Kuniko bursted into Sakuragi's house, navigated around Sakuragi's grandmother and began to explain to Sakuragi the reason for his intrusion. After Kuniko spoke on the details of the official mission, Kuniko continued to explain the personal connection that he had with this particular mission.

"Kaito is a very important person to me, and I need both of you to help me if I am to have any hope of rescuing him. He is my old mentor. Please, I beg for your assistance." Kuniko then bowed to both Sakuragi and to Takeshi, looking up at both the ninjas opposite of Kuniko. Takeshi looked at Kuniko, with his heart breaking at the sight of his teammate being emotional and the thought of his teammate losing his former and obvious old friend. Takeshi put his hand on Kuniko's shoulder and said, "Don't worry friend. We are going to find your old mentor, no matter the cost." Takeshi gave Kuniko the most sincere smile he could muster through the sadness. Takeshi then looked over to Sakuragi and waited for him to join in on the mission also.

WC: 415

Sakuragi woke up quite early today . There were a lot of house chores that he needed to do this morning . The black haired thought it'd be cool to start very early. With almost half of the chores done, his grandma would join him the moment she stepped out of her bed.  It was fun  doing the chores with his old woman  it would have been boring if it was done alone. Sakuragi had no real thing to do today, no training schedules or he would have left home early, no jutsu to learn or he would miss his night sleep. The black spiky haired had not train in some weeks nor did he train any jutsu. Most of the days were about spending quality time with his grandma. Today would not be an exception. His old woman has aged, she's  in her early sixties and the fear of old age pressed sakuragi to believe that the older she get,  the nearer she is to her grave. For this reason, Sakuragi wants to spend as much time as he could with her , he wanted to learn as much as he could. The only sure way to do that is to spend time with her. Also spending time with her would help them out of boredom. To the white eyed boy , old age is amazing.


Sakuragi was through  with the chores, he washed his hands and dried them with a towel. Just then did some footsteps  intrude the house. His old woman was in the living room, doing some little cleaning when two white eyed boys walked in. She could recognise kuniko she has seen him before, but not Takeshi. Since the stranger was with the one whom she had seen before, she concluded that they were here for sakuragi. She greeted them to sit and went in the kitchen to notify sakuragi of their presence .

Sakuragi walked into the living room and greeted his friends. The look on kuniko was frightening, perhaps he was bother about something. The black Jacket attired boy would not voice a word about his looks.

“This is a surprise visit. What's up with you guys? Should we hang out or go training” he says gladly as he sat on the chair. The young shinobi had no idea why Kuniko was bothered and would not ask him why, the spiky haired would however try to brighten the atmosphere a bit.  “Do you guys remembered how we fit into a cupboard in our last mission? I never Kuniko could fit into a cupboard, but alas,  the cupboard was big enough to contain the three of us, hahahahaha ”  he said jokingly.

He was sure that his friends came here for something. Whatever they came for would be spilled  out soon.


WC: 468

After Kuniko had explained the mission to his teammates, he handed over the page which actually had the mission details written on it. Since Sakuragi seemed a little confused, Kuniko handed it to him. The letter read "There has been a possible kidnapping in Hoshigakure. Popular calligrapher and merchant, Kaito Hriyama, has been reported as missing when he didn't show up to his trade post after several days. When his house was searched, it was found in absolute shambles. This mission is to find this merchant and bring him back to Hoshigakure. If there are any kidnappers, either kill them or arrest them and bring them back for questioning."

After handing it over, he asked once again if both of them would help him with the mission. Assuming Sakuragi agreed like Takeshi did, Kuniko would lead the two to Kaito's house. Along the way he would say with a strain in his voice "I have no idea where the kidnappers could have taken him, if there even were kidnappers. We should check his residence for any clues the investigation team may have missed." Kuniko knew where the house was, though he had not yet visited since his return to Hoshigakure. It only took twelve minutes before the three genin arrived at the old merchant's residence. 

It was once a beautiful home. Two stories tall, with a water garden and winding stone pathways instead of a typical yard. The house was painted a solid yellow color that was beginning to fade with age. There were rope seals forbidding anyone from entering the home along the entrance to the garden and on all the doors and windows. This was likely because it was still a crime scene. Thankfully the three of them had a means to search without entering. "Let us use our byakugan and look for any clues as to where he was taken." 


WC: 313
TWC: 849

Takeshi followed Kuniko into the merchant's house and was amazed at just how ransacked the house was. But there was something that was bugging Takeshi the moment he saw the house in its current state. "This doesn't look like a struggle. This looks like a clean sweep." Takeshi said. Takeshi continued to look through the house with his Byakugan and he couldn't help but to think that this didn't look like a struggle. Takeshi tried to explain. "The house doesn't show signs of a struggle, there's no blood on the floor or dedicated in one spot. You also see nothing broken or anything of the sort. If this merchant tried to struggle, there would have been erratic pushing and shoving trying to get away, the kidnappers would have hurt the merchant, most likely causing blood. So I believe that this was a clean sweep done after the kidnapping. If this is the truth, then we may be dealing with a more organized group than we may have originally thought. But the issue with this is if it is a more organized group, the likelihood of the merchant being outside the village is much higher. If this was a home robbing gone bad, there would most likely be blood in multiple places, or in one spot if they killed him. Plus they wouldn't chance going outside the gates with an injured/dead merchant. So I believe that this was a clean sweep done after the kidnapping, done by an organized group of criminals that have most likely taken the merchant outside the village gates. So the good news, I believe your merchant friend is alive for now. The bad news, he could be anywhere, most likely outside of the village gates." Takeshi finished talking and looked at both of his teammates, awaiting their response to what he said.

WC: 307

Since the time they set their foot into the house, Sakuragi knew something was off. Something wasn't right,  but he choose to be calm and not talk about it. The atmosphere around sakuragi changed when Kuniko handed him a mission task , his eyes narrowed as he read. Whoever this person is, he must be very dear to Kuniko. Kuniko appeared to be more concern than the other two hyuuga. This is something Sakuragi  can't refuse, so he agree to join his teammates for the mission. He went in and freshen up, he told his grandma about his new mission with his friends and left the house.


They arrived at the victim's residence. The residence had been sealed and no one must go in. This was definitely  because of the incident. His friends would activate their byakugans, so did the spiky haired boy. He saw everything they saw. He couldn't really tell what happened in there, everything look intact. There was no sign of struggle or something like that. If the victim was kidnap in this house, then probably someone made him vanish, or perhaps he wasn't kidnapped in here in the first place. Sakuragi was confused as how this could happen. They may have to deal with a more experienced set of shinobis In this mission than their last mission.

After seeing it all in the residence, the spiky haired turned to look at his friends , his byakugan still active “ I'm confused how someone got kidnapped In here and there was no sign of struggle. Perhaps they made him vanish or he wasn't kidnapped here in the first place” he paused for a second or two before he talked again “  What's the plan?  With our byakugan, he shouldn't be too hard to find. Maybe we need to split up to make the search more faster and easier or what do you guys think? ” .

It was true that their dojustu would enable them find him faster, but, finding him is one thing, defeating those who held him hostage is another thing. Sakuragi was quite sure they were up against strong opponents this time, or what could have possibly cause the victim to vanish in his own house?


TWC: 840

Kuniko was at a loss of what to do. With his old mentor missing, the ninja was already in a state of distress. He could also tell that there wasn't a struggle inside of the home, but he could hardly think as to what it could mean. He said while somewhat panicked, "I'm not sure how we're supposed to find him... Even if we split up it could be dangerous, but we don't know where to look. We would need someone good at tracking based off of scent or something. They're probably well more than a mile away by now... unless..." 

Kuniko's mind started racing. He was trying to think of where the merchant could have been taken, or who would take him. It would be difficult for any bandits to sneak in past the guards and the wall and not be noticed carrying someone away. Maybe the kidnapper was still within the city walls? He turned towards Sakuragi and said "do you remember that mission we got to deliver a strange package. It had organs inside of it? We were not supposed to look inside? We should check at that place. It was a little unmarked store at the east side of town. Bad neighborhood. Let's check it out." 

WC: 210
TWC: 1059

As Kuniko and Sakuragi began to speak of a mission they did together. Takeshi had no idea what they were speaking of. Takeshi then responded with a, "Maybe you guys should go to that place, having three ninja show up may cause a ruckus if it is in a bad neighborhood. I am going to continue to look for some clues around the village to see what I can find." Takeshi concluded with his contribution to the plan and he began looking through the house for anymore clues that he could work with.

Wc: 93

If there was any one more trouble, it was Kuniko. His heart echoes the sound of distress and sadness and Sakuragi could feel it. The body language tells it all. If the spiky haired could his friend's mind, he would have done that to know what was going on in his mind. But what would be in the mind of a young teen whose old master got kidnapped? 


The three youngsters had searched the entire house with their white eyes, not a single glue was yet found. Kuniko then would remind Sakuragi of a mission that they did together long ago, long before Sakuragi even knew Takeshi. It was a mission where they were to deliver a package, the package must not be opened or they failed the mission. However , the curious brown skin spiky haired ninja would make use of his unique dojutsu to see through the package. Several types of organs with blood were in the package. The outside of the package looked neat but the inside was like a tomb. Sakuragi could however not tell if the organs are that of humans even though majority of the organs looked human - like.


Once Kuniko made mention the package delivery  mission, his head would light up like fireworks. Kuniko was wise to have thought of that. Sakuragi would agree with kuniko,  but when Takeshi mentioned that he would stay behind to look for more clue, the spiky haired started feeling uncomfortable with Takeshi  plan, though he wouldn't force him to follow them nor say anything about Takeshi staying behind. “Just be careful, it's dangerous to stay here alone all by yourself” he said to Takeshi,  then would follow Kuniko if Takeshi remained behind.


TwC : 1126

Kuniko listened to his two comrades while wracked with nervousness. If organ thieves had targeted his old master for some reason, then they may already be too late to save him. He had already gone missing several days ago... Kuniko shook his head and pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He tried to concentrate. He forced his thoughts into a pattern; 'this is just as it was in the forest. If we cannot help them, we can only see that justice is carried out.' The simple thought meant Kuniko had to imagine his old mentor might already be dead. The thought seemed to harden his mind and cool his heart. If Kaito was dead, then he had to avenge him. With that thought, the process became much simpler to the young ninja to process. 

After being silent for a long moment, Kuniko finally spoke. His voice was clear, but it lacked his usual gentleness. "Takeshi, if you want to keep looking for clues here, then carry on for 5 minutes. Then follow after us if you find something or not. Sakuragi, lets go use our Byakugan on that building. If we see anything suspicious, we will wait for Takeshi to arrive. Then we will make sure these kidnappers will never harm anyone again." Kuniko then told Takeshi the location of the building they were going to. Sakuragi had already told Takeshi to be careful, so Kuniko simply nodded at him and then ran up a wall to the roof of the nearest building. As soon as Sakuragi started following him, the two would race off across the city to a familiar old building in a dark and dingy neighborhood. 

WC: 282
TWC: 1341