Back on the Beat

Missions:

Mac had finally cured himself from the malady of the nights prior with a stiff and steady night of drinking, he would arrive in his office a bit later than his usual eight o’clock on the dot shit, not getting there till about ten. Now, granted, Mac usually made this time on account of sleeping in his office and being awoken by Vera, but last night was the first one in a while he spent in the comfort of a bed. Making it past his office door, he was immediately greeted by an upset coworker. “Mac, you piece of shit I thought you were dead,” she said, “Got my hopes up I wouldn’t have to deal with the burden that is you any more, got my hopes that I’d finally be free to pursue my dreams as the next great poet of the Village Hidden in the Must, but you just had to be alive and ruin that possibility didn’t you,” Vera would snicker at her own sarcasm, showing that while she was annoyed, this behavior wasn’t anything too unexpected or too enraging. It was assuring to her to see that Mac was all in one piece, surprisingly he even had a smile on his face.

“Love you too Vera, now, let's get down to business, what you got for me,” the detective would reply, “Got a feeling I won’t have this day off.”

“Opposite I’m afraid Mac,” Vera would somberly state, “looks like the village doesn’t see your previous experience, upon review, as substantial qualifications for much of anything, you are going to have to go through a reverification process, and Mac, you know what that means.”

“Oh please don’t tell me, not again, I already got my badge already placed through some sort of test, I shouldn’t have to,” Mac would plead.

“You have to go on the beat again” she would concede, “And you gotta take a class before it to boot. I’m sorry Mac but this is the best way for you to get back to the position you were in.”

“Fine, I’ll take the dumb classes and do the dumb fuckign beat work, but I need you to help with the organization, if you can, try to condense it all to today, I don’t care if I’m working to midnight I don’t want to spend more than another day working as some beat cop mook in a foreign land,” Mac would, in his less than polite manner, ask from his colleague. 

“Sure thing Mac, but you are gonna owe me for this,” Vera would reply, an obvious headache in the making coming over her.

“Add it to my tab,” Mac would reply, before departing from his office to start his walk, a pamphlet in hand on some sort of course for training for patrol and mystery solving missions within Kirigakure, following the map within it to a facility supposedly designed to hold up to 450 people for intense training all together, upon entry Mac found the venue to be agreeably large, as advertised, but he could tell just by the echoes resonating even outside it had to have been almost entirely empty before he even entered. Going into the facility would just go to prove this observation correct, as although it could easily fit the hundreds of people advertised, there was about a baker's dozen people within the auditorium, twelve of them children and one kid who looked like he was in his late teens on the stage. Taking a seat towards the back, Mac tried his hardest to blend in with the ground as he felt embarrassed just being here. He had been on the force for ten years, and here he was with a bunch of literal children in front of some runt who was going to teach him how to do the work he had excelled at enough to make detective.

At the end of a long boring seminar of exclusively things Mac already knew, the presenter said, “Alright guys, now it's time for a little event, and whoever the three lucky people that do the best here get to go on a real patrol immediately after the session! Isn’t that exciting!” This killed Mac a little bit on the inside, but he needed to finish this as soon as possible, so he was down for anything. “And the activity today party people,” he would shout and a voice obviously trying to raise the spirits of the kids, before quickly cutting himself off when he was met by a death stare from Duncan, as he was more than ready to accomplish whatever task was set in front of him in as efficient a manner as possible, and this almost deadly intent was potently felt by the still ametuer teacher, “is a crossword puzzle,” he said now flatly, obviously offset by the man twice his age coming here for a quick certification. Passing out the puzzle, Mac would crack his knuckles before going all out on this crossword puzzle, finding each on the list in no time.

Approaching the “teacher” with his crossword filled out, having found words like “suspect” and “infiltration” easy to point out in an instant, he expected to be the first one there, but just as he was getting close, a kid sprinted out ahead of him and to the instructor, practically shouting, “Hi, my name is Billy and I think I filled this all out correctly, does that mean I get to go on the patrol after this?” “Well let me check'' responded the instructor, allowing Mac to harbor all his resentment and anger over the years and focus it on just one single child,  “Oh you see here, you spelled northbound wrong, here it says ‘northbonnd,’ an intentional trick by the puzzle designer, I’m afraid you’ll have to do a different puzzle a different day because you failed,” the instructor informed the child. Yes, thought Mac, crush those kids' dreams, good luck next time, twerp. 

“Here it is,” Mac would tell the instructor, handing over his correctly filled out application, allowing him to check it over and mark it with a green check mark, before going over to the borderline crying failed child and whispering, “Eat shit, Bobby, you fucking ametuer trying to cut in front of me, you-” “My name’s billy,” he would interrupt, prompting Mac to yell out, “It doesn’t matter what your name is!” making a bit of a scene before quickly recollecting himself now assured in his place along with the patrol team. After all the genin were done with their exam, the team was all assembled and they were allowed some time to meet each other, meeting with a team of people specifically just interning as guards. Taking some time to introduce himself to the rest of the team, Mac would state in a much calmer manner, “Hey, the name is Duncan McNally, but you can just call me Mac, what can I call all of you guys? I hear we are just going to be patrolling our headquarters, doing the basic stuff, shouldn’t be too eventful.”

Getting down to the nitty and gritty of it as soon as he could, Mac would suggest they all split up, cover more ground that way, and spread across the headquarters, this would allow everyone to get acquainted with both the HQ and with the kind of alertness required to be on patrol, as well as the kind of monotony it usually presented with. Mac himself would not run into trouble as they split up in separate ways, but when they rejoined together, he would suggest they talk about their shifts in this first patrol. “I was walking in the halls, and this guy,” he would start, “Had no clue that the entire time he’s walking across the halls he’s got a bit of toilet paper hangin out his pant leg. And like I’m there and I try to get his attention but he’s walking fast and he goes into our sensory and information division offices, and I’m like my guy, how come you can sense what’s happening ten miles away but not the paper down your leg, anyway it was around there that I found a few more fliers for more patrol missions if any of yall want to join?” Mac would show off the dossiers, the first one labeled PATROL: RESIDENTIAL AREAS, gesturing with it to show it off to his fellow ninja. “So what about it, yall in?"

WC: 1416

“Nice to meet ya Hafuma Pendragon,” Mac would let her know, trying his best to appear genuine in the face of his overpowering ambition to get this all over with, “And you are exactly right, a boring day is a good day in terms of patrol, but you also got to be careful with it, if you spend too many days with nothing but peaceful events, good faith, and a severe lack of crime, all that means is that you don’t see the crime that is happening right under your nose, and you got to increase your vigilance. Long and short of it is all work and no play makes jack a dull boy,” Mac would ramble, embracing fully his tendency to drone on much longer than he should all in the name of sounding like he knew what he was doing, which, to be fair, in this case, unlike many others, he actually did know exactly the kind of work to be done here as he had to keep an eye out for criminals all throughout his career before becoming a ninja. As he said this and began motivating to start the first hour shift of his work for the day, patrolling the shinobi headquarters.

As established, the hour spent essentially touring the village headquarters turned out uneventful in terms of crime, but there was limited entertainment at least on Mac’s side coming from some of the people watching that patrolling around any place would present. When it was all over and those with no wishes to continue left, Mac was kind of glad, in a certain sense. He no longer had to deal with people dragging their feet through the entire job,  he could go at a more full pace through each endeavor and get to the work at… almost his own pace. “Glad to see you’re sticking around, two sets of eyes are usually better than one, just let me know if you got any concerns before we go out patrolling in a less contained scenario, things may get messy and wild out there and I ain’t always going to be in your immediate presence in the case we run into anything. Now I don’t think it should be too difficult in the residential area, especially since we’ll be there around noon, but as the day goes on and we do more mission, I expect the danger to slowly ramp up, a kind of increase most likely attributed to the ballsiness of criminals the higher the moon rises. Are you ready for the potential danger that comes with this work? If so let’s get going, these areas ain’t going to patrol themselves."

Mac would lead Hafuma Pendragon down a long and winding path through the island they were on, across the bridge, and into a neighboring island, through another set of zig zagged paths until the relatively industrial setting was replaced with that of a much more grandiose and comforting suburbia, or more so, one that would be comforting to most but to Mac, unsettling, reminding him of the dirt and grime, the bugs beneath it, the pasting over that with white picket fences and bright green grass, the gilding of the kinds of people that lived in houses like these, plugging up their nose in order to avoid smelling their own refuse that spilled out around their every action. Making it the central street they were assigned to patrol, Mac would explain, “This is the place, Daisy Street, suppose we should go rounds up and down making sure to investigate any suspicious activity. Give me a shout if you find anything or need help, but we’ll cover more ground if we split up.  Barring the intervention of any kind of extenuating circumstances, we should be able to get this work done and meet back up here in an hours time, my watch says that will be 1300, see you then hopefully, but don’t be worried about trying to get a hold of me, I’ll hear you. This all established, let’s cut the quick and get this work done.”

His small speech over, Mac began his wanderings about the street, keeping an eye out for any potential events, any break ins, suspicious characters, the kinds of things he remembered getting calls for when he was first on the beat. The street was fairly wide and long, and although the two would occasionally cross paths doing their circles around Daisy Street, they would have plenty of time to individually investigate leads. Mac, personally, would find what at first seemed to be a vagabond trying to break through a window, only to reveal it to be nothing but a scurrying raccoon, nothing in any terms of a dangerous threat. After scaring the racoon off, he would return to their meeting point, the time reading 1:00pm, and begin to debrief Hafuma.

“So yeah, I didn’t see shit, did you find anything interesting out there?” He would ask, genuinely interested in how the younger man’s patrol went. Listening and giving feedback where he could, Mac would soon move on after this to bring up the next mission they have, “We got about fifteen minutes to get to the trade district, lets hop foot,” Mac would state, getting moving as soon as everything was cleared out of the way. The trade district wasn’t far, but as compared to the seemingly calm, borderline sedated suburban neighborhood, this place was virtually a sea of people, flooding into the stores, out their windows, up their chimneys. It was virtually impossible to avoid contact with someone. Shouting over the people to try and get the attention of his coworker, Mac would barely audibly get out, “We’ll meet up back here at 2:15, that is 14:15, in the mean time I’m sure there are some pick pockets and shoplifters here, take out as many as you can and try to bring em to the local constable office, should be one right in the heart of the district to take care of it. Our mission is to help the already present forces here, they’re going to need it, see you on the other side young Pendragon, try not to get yourself robbed.”

Mac would break away from Hafuma almost immediately as he grabbed the wrist of a man who’s hand was deep into the pocket of the elder genin, slamming him down to the ground, pinning his arm and beginning the walk to the central offices. Mac would spend a lot of time specifically around the shops, settling disputes as best he could and, in rare cases, breaking up violent behavior. Most of the time Mac was loose with criminals, letting some off with a warning if they looked young, but those that obviously made their living preying on people he showed no mercy for, those that tried to make their living preying on him specifically even worse. Luckily, he would never have to pull out or use his weapon, but there were several occasions where he had to bash the metal gloves he wore on his armor to assist in his detainment, knocking out a man at a coffee house who refused to calm down after repeatedly being told that they no longer had the specialty summer drinks they had previously.

Reporting back in with Hafuma after his share of the detainment line, Mac would explain the non stop business of minor crimes his shift presented him with, before suggesting that, on account of not having much time left before they were supposed to make it to the village outskirts, approximately fifteen minutes till then to be exact, they again hurry up and continue to finish up the lower rankings of guard duty they had. Mac would specifically say, “I just spent the last hour constantly walking miscellaneous criminals into an already crowded holding facility and cannot wait to get some fresh fucking air outside the walls of this village, I got to say working here makes me crave the solitude I can get in my office even more, but that is besides the point, you ready to head to the village outskirts and finish up our last of the lower ranked patrols for today, guarding the village outskirts. Who knows, we might get a big bust out there? This may be wishful thinking, but damned if I ain’t going to hope to get some sort of wider credit for this.” Finishing up his rambly additions, Mac would gather and compose himself, accounting for all his equipment and ryo to make sure nothing was stolen during his work in the trade district, and start making his way to the outskirts of the village. Checking in with the guard, the two genin would be given a third member to their cell in order to make sure they didn’t abandon the village or get into any extra trouble at the gate, being assigned a Chuunin named Yashni. He was a dark haired short man, and not much for conversation, the perfect silent partner to fade into the background, Mac thought.

WC: 1515, TWC 2931

First 4 mission WC satisfied

"Ey, don't bow, keep your chin up kiddo,” Mac would reply awkwardly to the younger genin in front of him, “That stuff is for lords and self righteous dick bags that demand it. Although I may be a bit more versed in the world, a bit older than you, we are equal, your potential rising to equalize for my experience, afterall we are both the same rank aren’t we? That means if you bow for me, I’d have to bow for you and my back is killing me, would hate to injure it before we go on a long ass patrol,” Mac would say with a smile, emulating the same words that were told to him by his first partner when he was just a beat cop, when he was fresh out of the police’s civil service exam, only a rookie. To Mac, this kind of walking through was his attempt at politeness, however, outside of his view this very same practice could easily be taken to be some sort of talking down to a child. He was, afterall, talking to a literal child, but given the context of how Hafuma must have been raised, Mac assumed any of the traditional childhood experiences would likely prove to be not shared, given that they had been trained to be a killer and all.

On their patrol around the residential area, Mac had thought it odd just how often he had run into Hafuma, seemingly finding more than one of him going in all sorts of different directions. This puzzled the detective, but he figured it must have just been that he was distracted, or some other simple logical solution. By the time the two genin met back up, Mac would notice the scratch marks along Hafuma’s arm, not getting the chance to ask before the situation was explained to him, “Well, I suppose the cat’s safe and that’s what matters, that said if you want we can go try to get some treatment, but it looks surface level, like -” Mac would begin to say before pausing, seeing the other two Hafuma’s arrive, “Why… are there two of you?” he would ask, “Correct that, why are there three of you?” Mac would rephrase, showing his lack of complete understanding of the ninja world. Mac would pay attention to whatever explanation Hafuma had offered, showing that even though he was still slightly ignorant, he was willing to accept the eccentricities and ninja magic presented with being a part of the shinobi world. “Sounds good, you stay with him I guess and you also come with me? Are you different minds, or do you share one? Anyway, lets get going,” Mac would state moving onto the market district mission.

After going on their escapades and meeting back together, Mac would talk some with Hafuma. Responding to her most likely rhetorical comment, Mac calmly explained, “Well you never know who you are stealing from, what they can do, so if you can kill em you make sure that you get whatever it is you want, and you make sure you can get away. Because of the random nature of those kinds of crimes, it’s hard to solve without any sort of use of chakra, but I imagine with advances in sensory, one could potentially find the author of such pain and track them down. Believe it or not we are stopping events like this from happening, we are doing good work, imagine if it was some civilian that would be murderer targeted, what if it was someone important to the village’s politics, and if not today some day down the line. Beat work is some of the most important assignments one can be assigned, we may not be conquering enemies or eliminating external threats to our village, but we are protecting the interior, making sure that everyone inside the village is protected, our work makes other people’s duty something worthwhile.”

Making his way out of the gates, Hafuma and Yashni in tow, Mac would reach the village outskirts, a coast scattered with rocks ranging from pebbles to chiseled cliff faces. “Duncan McNally, Hafuma Pendragon, we are too fan out and search these rocks for any places invaders or illegal goods may be stored, we have received word several times that there may be a hideout within our own coast, we shall patrol them to attempt to route out the potential contraband or contrabanders,” Yashni would explain, giving the two of the genin their task. Mac quickly dispersed leaving no stone he could lift unturned in a very literal sense, looking for any sort of illegal weaponry, fuin seals, or drugs that a band of criminals may have attempted to use in order to assist their smuggling. It took Mac some time out of the hour allotment they had here, plenty of time for anyone else to find their own discoveries. 

Covering the western most sector, Mac would find in his turning, and many attempted turnings, a large rock that felt far too light for its size. Flipping it over, Mac found a satchel within a hollowed out crevice. Picking it up before alerting any of his comrades, he found it filled with papers. Was this some sort of school kid’s backpack, hiding it from bullies to not get his homework stolen, Mac began to think, looking at it, but as he flipped through the pages, each one revealed a powerful seal, seals that as Mac decoded, he found had some sort of illegal genjutsu seals that, when applied to the self, put the user in a highly hallucinatory and artificially calmed state. Shuffling through the notes he eventually found a note with just words, no seal, written at the back of the pile. Picking it out, read it, finding that it told of some sort of meet up scheduled to happen later that very night, sneaking over the walls with the seals, and flooding the streets of Kirigakure with their illicit seals. Reading this over, at the end of their shift, Mac would call over Hafuma and Vashni, “Hey guys, check this shit out, think I’ve got a lead that may build into our next task, patrolling the walls.”

Mac would present his findings of below the stones to his colleagues, allowing them time to field him for any questions they may present. Whatever this bag was and whatever it represented, Mac knew that at some point over the course of the night he would have to deal with it, likely having to take out whoever it was who was coming to smuggle these, essentially, drugs across the wall.

WC: 1104, TWC: 4,035

Taking Hafuma up on the offer, Mac extended his fist and collided it with the younger of the two genin, a sign of mutual respect, as well as a less rigid type of social expectations than the bowing, the idea of lowering your head to another person always seemed so antiquated and impractical in Mac’s mind, if you respect someone, look at em in the eye, he had always figured, bowing your head was usually a sign of some sort of guilt, or baiting pity. Baiting pity was usually the sign of a liar, a liar was usually hiding something worth hiding, something usually criminal or morally reprehensible. Those showing guilt are usually more up front about it, and at least Mac can respect the up front nature of it. That was the main reason why Mac preferred less formal ways of communication, something where your eyes were locked with the others, so you both could get a read on each other, so you could learn what each other was about, words not required, but assisting. Just like playing a game of poker, you don’t have to show your cards to be an honest player, but you sure as shit shouldn’t put your hand under the table.

That thought thoroughly explored, Mac would move on. “Fucking copying self techniques that allow you to see from all sorts of different perspectives and gather information everywhere isn’t enough, some of us can also have X Ray god damned vision? With special eyeballs,” Mac would start, in confused disbelief, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by all this as it keeps building and building, but Christ if it isn’t a shock to my system. I heard a tale of you ninja type with all this back in key, but never quite believed in it till I joined the village. Is it true some of us can shoot fire and trap people in an infinite illusion? That seems a bit unfair if you ask me, I think disputes should be treated with as little fire as possible, it is a war crime I believe, in most places, and seems like an awful way to go. Anyway, that little digression out of the way, we got a busy day ahead of us, so let's get the hell out of here before we get chewed out by whoever we have to meet up with in the future for these missions,” Mac would state again, obviously being side tracked in casual disbelief of the world around him, but still focused enough on what he set out for today, his recertification.

The three man cell then all gathered, Hafuma, Yashni, and Mac, all spreading out along the rocks to search for all possible information regarding any illegal activities and items. Mac, as previously mentioned, had been the first one to find a clue, in the form of the illegal seals used for self genjutsu, the equivalent of the kind of vice work Mac had participated in during his time on the force, before it was cut short. Mac had been working by himself, while not too far away Hafuma was in a much more literal way working with himself, his copy paired up with him to work together in terms of lifting up the stones and turning them over to see what was squirming underneath. He overturned a confirmation of sale for a carriage service, confirming their intent to exit as soon as the seals were sold, and their method of exit with a detailed path, carriage to boat to tea country. All while the two were busy with their discoveries, Yashni discovered a map of the village of Kirigakure with a specific point pinned down. All having gathered their information, they met back up to exchange information and go into detail in a sort of debriefing.

Mac would be the one to start, going over the illegal seals, and the entranceway plans of the criminals, finishing off by stating, “If we cut off these guys in our next shift, guarding the wall, we should be able to take them out before they can spread any of this into the city, saving a lot of people from the negative effects these seals bring and filling up the detention center something fierce.” Hafuma would be the next to speak up, mentioning their intended escape route, causing an instant reaction from Mac congratulating the younger genin, “Nice detective work Haf n’ Haf, keep it up,” before his expression immediately changed given the young Pendragon obvious teasing, snidely remarking back, “I don’t know kid, isn’t it past your bed time, maybe we should be getting you home yourself?” Before Hafuma would offer to go catch the bad guys, Yashni would present a map with the marker on it, asking Hafuma and Mac what they thought it could mean.  

“I think it’s a drop point,” Mac would open confidently, using his detective experience to speak with confidence in his voice, “After we stop the people trying to bring these in, I say we take the seals to the area, I know, sounds crazy, and put them in the drop point, but then we wait and see who shows up. That’s right, after we bust the guys trying to get through the wall, we have a good old fashioned stake out!” Mac would end that bit with a lot of excitement, it had been so long since he had the chance to stake anything out on the job, last time he ‘staked something out’ was when he sat out front the liquor store from two in the morning till twelve o’clock noon waiting for it to open so he could replenish his stores. “Hafuma, how does this all sound to you, you got any ideas of things we could do to make sure we find the guys we are staking out, once we get to that? We still got some time so it’s okay if not, just got to make sure we get the guys coming up the wall first.”

Hearing Hafuma’s offer, Mac confirmed, “Let go catch some people,” matching his words with a focused stare that told the other two people surrounding him he meant business. Yashni would look like he wanted to say something, but ultimately kept his mouth shut as his will was somewhat dominated by the competence and enthusiasm of the two genin he was accompanying, feeling useless in his job of essentially just making sure these two didn’t run off from the village. It wasn’t long though before his hopes would be lifted, as Mac gathered the three of them, well four including the two Hafumas, closer together and started to explain, “If neither of you all have a plan, I got something that might work, at least in terms of our duty on the wall. It should go something like this, I’ll hang out by the sea, on the shore waiting for the boat to come in, keeping my presence masked with a method I believe is called hiding in camouflage. It makes me completely invisible, so I should be able to track them along with my own sensory prowess. As I come from behind them, Yashni should be on the top of the wall keeping his eye out for when they arrive, and when they do, stopping them in their tracks, just in time for you, Hafuma, to come in from both their flanks. This should completely surround them, and allow us to detain them with pretty great ease, after we take them down and bring them in. From there I’m sure one of us can come up with another plan in order to take down the other half of this equation, those already in the village in the slums, but for now we should simply focus on our duty on the wall.”

Mac would say this, and upon all coming upon an agreement, be it this plan, or another, Mac would begin to move into action. Assuming that he would be able to go along with Mac’s plan, he would find his spot along the shore, not far from the wall itself, hide among the rocks at first, and upon the proper arrival of a crew of miscreants counting no more than five, he would apply the appropriate hand seals and seemingly turn invisible. Following closely behind the band, he would silently draw his blade, crouching down as he got in close, seeing they were getting close to the wall. Immediately when they were stopped by Yashni, he would use his Ivory Handled Katana’s dragon headed hilt to strike a man unconscious before moving in behind another, pressing his blade to his throat and using his arm to lock the man’s position, any movement causing a cut to the jugular. This left 3 more people in the surrounding area, and as Mac came into form, his appearance becoming, well, apparent, he would demand, “Surrender now, you are criminals violating the laws of the village, you are to put down any weapons, submit to a search, and we shall send you out to the nearest detention center for holding,” hoping that with the backing of Yashni and Hafuma, he would be able to detain the criminals assaulting the wall.

WC: 1544, TWC: 5,579

When it came to dealing with adults or seniors Hafuma had quickly learned bowing your head to another was almost the same as a dog rolling onto it's back to expose it's stomach, it was the admittance of someone's dominance or leadership over the other, while Hafuma tried to not think of that aspect of it he simply did it because it was a simple gesture that could very well deter trouble, in some cases it did for him but it seems Mac was not of like-mindedness. Since the act didn't mean much to him and he was simply trying to respect Mac superiority the man told him to not so so, Hafuma knowing where he stood decided to just give a fist bump, a more mutual way that Mac seemed to appreciate more.

In that moment Hafuma realized he could see into Mac eyes, they were narrow and had a roughtness to them but from what he could grasp they were the eyes of a man that had some level of mercy or compassion, it was a nice feeling compared to not knowing or malicious intent. 

Explaining his shadow Clone Technique earlier and then now adding the bit about his eyes Mac seemed to be in awe of how much ninja could do, Hafuma having a suspicion earlier but now definitely realized Mac perhaps wasn't born into the Shinobi life, any question of that seemingly answered by Mac himself as he referred to Shinobi in the third person and suggesting he lived elsewhere previously. Asking Hafuma further if it was true that some could shoot fireballs or trap others in some infinite illusion, immediately noting the unfairness of it all, mentioning it sounded like some war crime and disputes should be handled as peacefully as possible, Hafuma found himself agreeing however it was easier said than done. 

Not knowing how to respond to that Hafuma lucked out as Mac seemed to want to pass over that and continue with the days objective, surely the person that would be their guide out further would be suspicious if they were late, "Agreed, don't need to make the guy angry by being late. But some other time we should meet, if you're going to be living in this village you're going to have to learn some more about the world it belongs to. " Hafuma commented following Mac to the next location.

Arriving at the next location their third member, a man named Yashni led them to a rocky area where they began to search for illegal goods and scrolls, weapons, basically anything that screamed fishy in nature to them. While they had all been searching, Mac was the first to speak up on his discovery, an illegal Genjutsu of sorts. Hafuma, who had been teaming with a clone of himself, was able to obtain some type of map and papers, the papers revealing a carriage service and it's route out of the village that would take them to a boat further behind to the tea country. Finally Yashni found another map that had a specific point planned out, it seemed it was the point where this would all begin.

The three separate clues made it pretty obvious what they had to do but a debriefing was necessary. The plan was quite simple since they knew a great deal about this specific operation, Hafuma and Mac next shift was the wall where the location was also at, they could cut them off and stop whatever they are trying to sell before someone gets hurt or changed, it was the most effective plan with such little time left before the sellers would act and attempt to flee the village, Hafuma would help capture people just like his mother and father, yet he felt no remorse, this was the system they lived in. 

With more work cut out for them Hafuma teased, a small bond between the two forming with each destination completed as they came to understand each other a little more at a time, Mac teasing back causing Hafuma to smile as he asked if he was ready, they were ready.

While Hafuma thought it was pretty obvious Yashni asked what they thought the marker was, "has to be a drop point, we know the carriage they plan to use and the destination outside of the village, I'm sure this is the drop point." Hafuma clarified after Mac as he continued to plan. 

It seemed Hafuma had missed a detail or two, the plan had a few more layers he quickly realized, drugs had to be bought and sold meaning that their had to be two groups, one trying to escape selling illegal seals and the ones trying to buy them at the drop point, how did he not see that at first

Asking his opinion Hafuma hummed in though, "If we focus on catching the ones that are trying to escape by selling the items, the ones coming over the wall will come straight to us. Another technique Shinobi possesses on transformation, me and my clone can assume the guys from and we can try to wrestle more information out of them that way but I suppose we should focus on keeping the villagers in the village and intruders out so the wall it is. When there's smoke, there is fire. Also your happiness is showing Mac Hafuma would comment not missing Mac new found excitement at the thought of a stake out as he so put as the plan continued forming, the "who" to focus on part now established between the three although Yashni looked a bit lethargic in the situation now.

Now the actual plan, Mac saying he was going to wait by the wall not too far from the shore using a technique to camouflage himself as Yashni caught attention. Hafuma and Mac have the muscle to take down the parties involved. "I like that plan, let's do this guys."

So the plan went as Mac predicted, him hiding among the rocks as Hafuma made another shadow clone , making three of him, all three versions of him transformed using the transformation technique to pose as lazy dirty looking bumps that appeared drunk loitering around, as the accused man began making their move. Yashni stopping them the next few moments happened quickly as Hafuma and his clones and Mac snapped into action. 

The three man left, Hafuma himself dashed quick to behind the man, kicking the soft muscle in between the back knee area hard and down, forcing the man to bend down as Hafuma slid a kunai to his neck, clone one running behind smacking the back of their fist directly into the temple of the second man knocking him out via disorientation as he dropped. The third clone like Hafuma except he threw a shuriken right at the back knee causing the third man to fall in pain as Hafuma clone landed on top of them pressing a kunai to the center of their neck while covering their mouth preventing them from screaming and making this too public as Mac officially said the arrest sentence.

WC:1,330
TWC:5,008

It all went easily, perhaps far too easily, as all the working parts of the plan came together into something more than the sum of its parts, a full on, active, and successful mass detainment of a group of criminals. None of the poor vagabonds even had a chance to get away, and thanks to Hafuma’s quick thinking, none of them had the time nor the ability to let out a shout that may warn others about their failed plan to smuggle in the seals. Taking the time to bind them with the assistance of Yashni and hopefully the young Pendragon Hafuma. Taking time to carefully round 'em up in a group and ensure that they would be safe in the control of Yashni. “We’ll head over to the drop point to try to find the drop point, there we should be able to track down the buyers in this equation, it is down in the slums of the village, deep within it’s walls, so we should not need your supervision going forward to complete our final shift of patrol, this frees you up and seeing as we need to get there within the next fifteen minutes, I would deeply appreciate if you would take these criminals and these seals into the local intake station so that me and Hafuma here can attempt to catch these buyers. If it isn’t too much of a bother do you mind bringing in the seals themselves, and if we can hold onto the pack to use as a decoy.”

Yashni would say nothing, but nod and indicate he would agree with what Mac had said, proceeding to head off with the detained criminals and head to send them into the intake center for the corrections and detention department.

“Very well, now, let's get this plan sorted out. I’m going to go assemble some rocks, weigh down the pack, Hafuma, I’m wondering if you know any way we should be going abouts this. I got the pack which we can use as a decoy, but I have no idea how we should go abouts doing this sort of thing. I am hoping that you might have some insight on what we should do to track down these buyers. My closest idea of anything of the sort is that we stake it out and wait to see who picks it up, but I don’t know how we should do it from there, and I genuinely would appreciate your help here. We’ll be in the slums so it is not unlikely whoever these buyers are, they’ll have some sort of backup among the general public. We gotta find a way to isolate these people while keeping the damage in both literal and public image sense. I know it might be putting you on the spot, but if you can formulate a plan for this, you’ll have my support.” Mac would state, prompting Hafuma to come up with a plan for their crackdown on the buyers as they walked to the drop off site, “We’ll know where they plan on exiting potentially, with the information you recovered, so we should try to utilize that information to the best of our ability,” Mac would continue.

Believing he had set up the proper situation for Hafuma, Mac thought to himself that he had done a good job setting up what was technically a deception, a white lie. The honest truth was Mac had done no attempts at planning this out. He had realized that he had been somewhat dominating the planning phase of the assignments throughout the day, and felt he had overstepped. Now that he knew the ultimate negative was out the window, the seals having been dealt with, it was the perfect time for Mac to examine Hafuma and their capability to problem solve. Mac had enjoyed his plans of the past, but would like to see them put into action. It wasn’t a test, as Mac was already sure of Hafuma's abilities, this was proof to himself that his faith was properly placed.

WC: 677, TWC 6,256

WC Remaining on mission: 500

The original plan Yashni had proposed was just looking for illegal contraband to take and secure to keep the village safe, but on top of finding illegal seals they had found an entire plan to abandon the village, Hafuma knew all too well the more serious crime of abandoning your village as a shinobi, as a Shinobi they knew secrets and defenses of the village, the past was filled with shinobi that abandoned and then sold secrets to make a living which is why it was banned now and often lead to the capturement or death of the escaping Shinobi.

So with the nature of the new crime they came together to figure out a plan, after a sharing of minds it seemed Yashni although their superior wasn't as competent as he looked, Hafuma feeling the shift in tension in his movements, his growing insecurity palpable. Unfortunately, they couldn't go without him still and he was still an extra body they could use to help. The end plan being Yashni to distract them as Mac and himself moved in to knock out or disorient the people that would show up to destroy the plan that would go off tonight, it seemed Mac found his big case afterall. 

The plan went off without much struggle, Mac having used some type of jutsu of his own turning invisible or something to Hafuma taking down a few guards leaving the rest to Hafuma, with his clones he was able to quickly knock out the rest and prevented them from screaming for possible back up or alerting the other half if this terrible plan. "Shhh, you've been caught, it's over. Do yourselves a favor and don't make your punishment any worse."

The three of the Shinobi teamed up to secure the captured man rounding them up together into a group so each of their own separate movements unless  in unison prevented them from escaping, an ingenious method of capture. "That seems like a logical next step, they shouldn't be far since it seems to be in a sl-which you already figured out" Hafuma said as Mac basically spelled out what he was already thinking, and then they turned to Yashni, his presence no longer needed for this part. While Hafuma could have imagined he would have been blunt, Mac had a way with words that was logical, suggesting Yashni depart with the captured buyers and take the seals with him as well while they took a decoy. 

Immediately working on that part Hafuma looked at the seals and took a shuriken out, using one hand to weave hand signs as he transformed the shuriken into the forbidden seals, or atleast a realistic copy of it, sliding it into the pack to make it look that more realistic.

By the time Mac turned around and attempted to weight the pack with rocks Hafuma smiled, "Look inside Mac, I already made a transformed copy of the scrolls that would be more reasonable just in case they tell us to open it before we approach, buyers are a lot more cautious than you think because getting trapped is a real death sentence outside the village safety."

Even with that though however they still had to discuss the plan now since they were down one extra men, Mac actually asking Hafuma to come up with a plan this time around as he was a lost of what to do, he had a plan to stake out but Hafuma knew that wouldn't work, buyers don't sell their face until the seller does. Mac suggested the plan had to be a way to reduce damage to the general area as since this was a slum there would most likely be group members hidden nearby which was a real possibility, Hafuma humming as he thought about what they could do.  

"Okay. The plan is simple. From the drop off position I'll be in wait, I'll transform into one of the sellers from earlier to meet up with them at the drop off point. You and my clones will wait near an open field that some of the little children play in during the day that's closer to the exit point, that will make them more..agreeable to the change of location.  At this location we will have explosive tags buried before hand as you and my clones wait around the buildings of the field, if I'm right the main buyer group will have three maybe four with others scattered around like you said, once I get them into the field I will activate the tags causing explosions that will take care of the ones that followed me and scare the rest into trying to escape which is why your be waiting around to capture them. We can do this but I can't do this without you so thank you for the support." Hafuma offered a fist bump , then it was time to get to work. 

So, about seventeen minutes later Hafuma leaned against a wooden beam, transformed as one of the sellers, occupying himself flipping a Ryo coin, the fake scrolls in his back pocket as he looked at the coin only for his ears to twitch at the sound of approaching footsteps, Hafuma stopping as he peered into the direction of the steps, seeing a women in the center and two larger man to her side, "Hooo~" the women stopped the two men and took three more steps towards Hafuma, holding out a katana, "Where are the scrolls?" They asked holding up the blade to transformed Hafuma  chest, "No patience or respect for the sellers these days, that's tuff, but here you go girly. " Hafuma said playing his part as he opened the pack, showing the fake scroll as the female Shinobi went to grab it only for Hafuma to shut the case shut as she retracted her hand, the guys stepping up to attack, 

"Easy cur, you get the scrolls but not here, up ahead is an empty field at this hour surrounded by the back of buildings, practically invisible, and a little carriage service told me you're planning to escape tonight, it's on your way out so what ya say, girlie? Follow me?" The transformed Hafuma smiled as he began to lead the group of buyers to the fore mentioned field, "How did you know and why should we follow you.." Hafuma chuckled, "I have eyes and ears everywhere girly, and they tell me you need the money from this deal to escape the authorities of the land, would be a bloody shame if someone called them before you could disappear wouldn't it?" 

"..scum..were to follow" Hafuma transformed face twisted into an insidious smile, "Right this way then girlie and crew~!" Hafuma said now leading them to the field

---

Right before Hafuma split, he created three clones to go along with Mac to the field his mentioned, the field of grass about seventy two meters as a circular radius, Hafuma clones with their separate copies of explosive tags began to bury them into the dirty about two three meters apart and place around the edges and the center of the field in anticipation of the real Hafuma arrival, the clones after the deed was done using hiding like a mole to sink below the earth surface to lie in wait for their targets to enter the honey trap.



WC:1,231
TWC: 6,233