Dont Go Lookin For Trouble

Mission:

By now Hara had enjoyed some small level of notoriety within Yugakure. People had begun to give him a wide berth and limit the amount they talked to him, he didn’t mind, he preferred it usually. He had taken to spending more time at the local tavern, even securing his own table at the back of the establishment. As he sipped on a small glass of sake he looked around at the crowds, occasionally using his Byakugan out of paranoid habit.

It was a normal enough night, and more of the laborers of the misty village flowed in, looking for a reprieve from their tough day of work. Hara had begun to enjoy people watching, he found he could learn quite a lot by just watching and listening, he eavesdropped as a trio of road-weary bandits took a table next to him and began talking.

“We stayin long?” One of them asked
“Nah, one day best, we need to get back out to the borders.” An older one replied.
“You think he’s actually here?” The third one chimed in.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care, that kid is dangerous and we shouldn’t be messing with him.” The older one said gruffly
“I’m just saying, if we can bag a Hyuuga and bring him back to the clan, it might be a pretty payday.” The bandit said.
“Now that’s not a bad idea…” The older one said, before shaking his head “No, we’d need easily another 10 people, and we don’t even know what he looks like.” The older one said
“That’s fine we can just start asking around, surely he’s used his Byakugan, people will know. And we can cut them in and then leave once the job is finished, it's foolproof.” The other one said with greedy enthusiasm.

Hara’s eyes grew wider, and he strained to not turn towards them immediately. How did anyone know of him? This was dangerous, Hara didn’t like the idea of people knowing where he was or what he was doing, it was vulnerable. He had to act fast before they started asking around. He decided a direct approach was best, and walked to the front of their table, staring down at them from his seated position.

“You lookin for the Hyuuga?” Hara said he made sure to slur his words and dumb down his vocabulary to give the impression he was nothing more than a garden variety bandit. “I know’ve ‘im.” Hara said again before they could reply. “Even seen his little camp” He said again in an attempt to entice them more. Hara had been using a small camp at the outskirts of the village as his home; it would serve as a private enough place to handle this particular problem.

The bandits looked at him with distrust as he approached and even more distrust as he explained why he had approached.
“Are you eavesdropping on us?” The older one said, clearly the leader.
Hara put his hands up and did a fake stumble backwards “Ya got me. I was eavesdropping” He said with a bit of a chuckle rising “But, I’m tellin ya, you’re gonna want my help if you’re gonna try to tangle with him.”

The bandits conferred with themselves for a moment before turning back to him. “Show us where this camp is and we’ve got some ryo for you” Their leader said with venom in his tone.

Oda maintained a stoic face as he led them out of the tavern and towards the edge of town. The air was cool on his skin and mist permeated their path. The bandits joked and laughed, still feeling the effects of their sake. Hara however was calm and collected, with a dead serious focus as he stared ahead and led them away from prying eyes. They tried cracking jokes with him throughout their journey but he always maintained silence, barely acknowledging them. In their drunken stupor they had allowed themselves to be led into a remote and dark area just outside the village.

As he came to a bend in the pathway he stopped and pointed further into the forest. “His camp is down there about 200 yards.” He said simply, keeping his hand pointing into the forest. The men looked at him slightly confused at first but quickly caught on. They needed to enter into the forest, and the sun was setting quickly.

By now men had sobered up a bit, and the eerie mist and foreboding shadows of the forest seemed to test their bravery. They all fidgeted nervously in place, unwilling to be the first to step forward. The men even tried prodding Hara but he feigned the same fear and refused.

Finally, the leader and the oldest, stepped forward. He tried cloaking his fear in a shroud of bravado. “He’s a damn kid, just because he’s a Hyuuga doesn't mean he's special.” The leader glanced up at the dark sky, it was a new moon and the night lacked any illumination. He motioned to Hara to hold the torch, their second mistake. “Follow me then, and keep in line, don’t need any of you cowards running off on me and getting lost. You tallboy, hold the torch so we have some light- I can barely see anything in here”

They trekked through the forest for a few minutes before Hara thought it was safe from prying eyes. The group of bandits and himself had formed into a single file line with Hara in the middle with the torch, one bandit behind him, and two in front of him. The leader was yapping about some sort of stupid tactical plan when Hara put the torch out and activated his Byakugan.

“So we’ll surround him, and then I’ll go in and- Hey- What the-” The leader was interrupted by the lack of light. And turned around to see the torch quickly fading as it laid on the ground. The leader watched in horror as the man directly behind him screamed in fear as Hara's two long arms wrapped around him, locking his arms into place.

A crunch of bone and a scream pierced the silence as Hara grabbed the Bandit in front of him in a bear hug and snapped his spine in one deft squeeze. The leader panicked along with the other bandit and they bolted in opposite directions, Hara left the now paralyzed bandit on the ground whimpering as he ran after the second bandit, ignoring the leader for now. It was a simple task to track the panicked bandit through the woods as he flailed and tumbled through the thick forest. Hara was on him in no time, grabbing him by the back of his robes. He yelled out in terror, pleading with Hara. “No, No please-” Was all he was able to get out before Hara swiftly smashed the man's windpipe with an open palm, following up with multiple strikes to the face, a resounding crunch after each strike.

A breaking of twigs snapped Hara out of his savage trance, and he locked onto the leader, who in his confusion had circled back around and was now running towards Hara, too focused on the ground to notice.

Hara stood up and ran straight towards him, his heavy footsteps causing the bandit leader to look up, it was too late however as with blazing speed Hara clotheslined the man, flipping his body in at unnatural speeds and slamming him to the ground. The man coughed and choked as his broken ribs punctured his lungs. Hara loomed over him, nothing behind his eyes as he calmly looked down at the dying man “Either you tell me where you heard of me, and I kill you now fast and painless.” He pressed his foot down on the man's shin and felt a slight crunch, the man screamed out in pain “Or I leave you here to fend off the wolves.” He crouched down and got closer to him,”You do not want that. Now, I’m waiting for an answer.” Through whimpers and cries the man explained he was from Hara's home village, and had left to potentially capture him in order to prove himself. There was no bounty, that was a lie he told to get the other two bandits to help him.

Hara stood up and looked down at him in silence for a few moments as the man writhed in pain. His anger bubbling, that a mere peasant like this thought he could bring him in? Insulting. That he could forgive, what he couldn’t forgive was this man being from his hometown. Hara's face got very dark, and the man began to plead. “Please, no, dont kill me please.” Hara cocked his head, looming over the man. “Don’t worry. I’m not”

As Hara walked out of the forest he could hear the man still screaming from his now two broken legs, and as he reached the edgeline he could hear the wolves begin to howl.

[Exit]

WC: 1500

Claims:

Hara wrote:

Mission:

[Exit]

WC: 1500

Claims:

Approved