Demon's Eye

Missions:

Anzo waits just outside the village gates for Airi, having been told that because he was still officially a genin until his rank increase was made public, he would need a chaperone for the mission from the Konoha Police Force, at least to ensure that the mission wouldn't run afoul. He was extremely nervous for this mission, since he knew that Airi still didn't really like him after their last two interactions, and now he was somewhat going back on his word about having the money for her the next time they would meet. Although this would surely go a long way towards paying her for the armor. Still, he'd have to go on at least a few more missions to be able to ensure that he's paid her in full; he'd agreed upon paying her an additional 100,000 ryo, and he would likely try to have her accept that amount despite her apparent insistence on only accepting another 50,000 ryo.

He turns when he thinks he hears someone coming up behind him, expecting to see the redheaded Hyuuga coming up to meet him. He already had his hands together, almost as though he was praying, when in reality he was practicing a particular jutsu. Although he'd trained it once and even mastered it, it still helped him to keep the jutsu fresh by performing it every once in a while. His appearance slowly changes to that of one of the tradesmen that had just left the village, some heavily built man that was likely some kind of woodsman, judging by the axe the man had been holding when he walked out of the village gates. Regardless, the jutsu would likely be extremely useful during the mission, especially if he can take down two of the bandits and have himself and Airi take their place. Such a technique would be perfect for this mission, after all.

"Ah, hello Miss Airi. I hope you're ready for an unforgettable mission."

Anzo ends the technique then, causing him to return to his taller, somewhat lanky appearance, though he could often become far stronger than his appearance would suggest. It was already about midday, but even with the sun beaming down on both of them, his jacket stayed fully buttoned. At least his bronze yellow sunglasses would be helpful in blocking the sun's rays from his eyes. He also had his Kikaichu gourd on his back, with its bright red sash across his body to keep it where it is.

"Also, erm, I won't be using the Kikaichu on this mission unless absolutely necessary, as per your orders to keep them away from you. You'll barely know I was an Aburame, Miss Airi."

He's clearly a bit nervous, which is a rare show of emotion for Anzo, but it was a genuine bit of nervousness. Perhaps he was being a bit too formal, though, but he decided he wouldn't drop the formal tone unless she said something about it. The last thing he wanted was to make Airi dislike him even more than she already did.

OOC: 1500 Kikaichu total

Anzo frowns a bit when he's asked how his acting skills will fare, carefully considering it for a moment. He decides his acting skills aren't great, but they likely won't need any very good acting skills anyway, since they'll hopefully only be taking the place of a couple low-level grunts within the bandit hideout. He already has a plan, too, though he can only hope the plan is effective. He decides it's best to give Airi the most honest answer as he follows after her on her quick movement towards the bandit hideout deep in the Senju Forest.

"With any luck, we won't need much acting skill. I plan on taking out and then stealing the identity of a couple bandits when they leave to take a bathroom break. I'll take the first one that we come into contact with, and try to send exactly one out to you so you can nab them and take their identity as well."

Anzo has clearly been thinking this through, especially as he considers the issue of the bandit guards for the meeting. After all, leaving them there would be more dangerous, unless they can lure their potential targets further away from the guards.

"The best bet is to use Genjutsu in order to one, get our target much further out into the forest to be out of sight of the guards, and two, make sure the guards don't notice their little buddy being taken out. It should actually be very easy."

He shrugs nonchalantly at his plans, which were made before even seeing the guards situation for the bandit camp, but he assumed it couldn't be more than a few roaming guards switching between each other every few hours.

"But we'll see when we get there. The bandits shouldn't be able to tell the difference between our Perfect Copy of their thugs. Do you have an idea for how we can get that information to the Konoha Police Force without getting their attention?"

At this point, they're getting deep enough into the forest that it's more shadow than sunlight, and soon bringing the scent of smoke to them, letting them know that they're getting very close to the bandit camp.

Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga That does sound like a bit more reasonable plan. I'm not really that great with these subterfuge kind of missions, she said, begrudgingly admitting one of her downfalls. She was more into direct confrontations and ambushing rather than disguises and other forms of infiltration. If it was up to her, she'd just quickly invade, murder all of the bad guys, and be done with it. However, the mission objective would state otherwise. She slouched her shoulders forward a bit and let out a rather embarrassed groan. She stood up, correcting her posture and moved her breasts around a bit, feeling a bit constricted with the Snow Chakra Armor on. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga I suppose we could use Genjutsu. Though I don't really know any that would drag their attention towards us. I think we'd be better off just sitting and waiting for the time being and just wait for them to get out of position. Genjutsu would just alert anyone with a Doujutsu that something is wrong. And about getting information the to Konoha Police , she stopped and just looked at Anzo. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga Remember the Hotspring?

She shouldn't need to explain. Shadow Clones were capable of carrying information and then instantly dispersing, sharing the information with the Konoha Police. As they entered the forest, light became covered by the canopy of the thickening forest. As they began to approach, Airi activated her Byakugan, seeing many, many chakra signatures. Without saying a word, she dropped to her knees and tried to hide in the brush as best as possible.

Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga

(whispered) They're close. We should probably wait here until nightfall and use the cover of darkness to our advantage.

Anzo nods when Airi states that she doesn't seem to think much of this particular subterfuge mission, and Anzo definitely understands it. He'd have much preferred to take out the bandit cell as well, but it could be important to find out if this group of bandits is acting alone, or as some part of a larger group; if they were part of some kind of syndicate, then annihilating only this chapter of them would likely only draw the attention of the other groups, and instead of dealing with one small cell, they'd end up having to take down more. He doesn't bring up this possibility, though; he assumes Airi would have reasoned this as well and he's not about to insult her intelligence.

He listens as she describes her misgivings about utilizing genjutsu for luring at least one mark out and possibly distracting the guards, and he stops himself from shaking his head at her suggestion that someone with a doujutsu might notice them placing genjutsu.

"Forgive me for saying so, but the majority of ninja with doujutsu would probably not stoop to banditry. Definitely not the Hyuuga or the Uchiha, in any case. I'll mostly just be using the genjutsu to make one of our marks get lost on his way through the forest so we can ambush him when he's too far away to be seen by any guards."

Still, Anzo turns his head a little when Airi mentions the hotsprings, and he feels a sudden urge to apologize again, so he figures he might as well do so.

"I'm sorry about peeping on you in the hotsprings."

He knows she wasn't really trying to make him feel guilty, but the memory of it did bring a bit of color to his cheeks, though unlike at the hotsprings, this was the heat of shame. As they approach the bandit camp, Anzo similarly drops to his knees with the Jounin, letting her describe her plan to begin their infiltration at night, speaking in whispered tones, and so Anzo does the same.

"Won't they be even more watchful at night? They'll almost certainly have more guards on a night shift than on day shift, specifically because the cover of darkness would be a boon for them. They're going to be relaxed in the daytime, so we can likely learn more about the bandits after we infiltrate during the day."

Of course, if Airi insisted on a night infiltration, he would have to acquiesce, but he also silently turns away from Airi to place his hand on the ground, calling on the burrowing insects so that he could ask them about the bandits' movements; although he knows from having trained with Peragus that the Byakugan was capable of many visual feats, including looking straight through solid objects, Anzo still at least tries to keep Airi from being able to directly see his affinity for insects in action. He gets plenty of information from the insects and then sends them off before turning back to Airi to relay the interpreted information, whispering again.

"They've been in this spot for a week. During the day, they mostly sleep, with the occasional straggler going out for bathroom breaks. But they definitely have more activity at night. They also only do a little pillaging during the day, but it's usually just one team of six that goes out to ambush a trader caravan."

The Aburame only relays the information; despite Airi's statement that infiltration wasn't her forte, she was still the Jounin on this mission, and while he could come up with plans, the progress of the mission was entirely her decision, and his job, for now, was merely to give her the best information so she could make the most informed decision.

Anzo nods when Airi asks him what his plan is, then gestures towards the bandit camp, just as one of them begins to stir and get up from his tent. Unfortunately, he just plops back down in his cot, seemingly completely unaware of being watched. He frowns when that happens, but he figures they would have to live with waiting until someone comes out of the camp for now.

"As unhygienic as it sounds... We wait for one of the bandits to come out of the bandit camp in order to do his business, and I'll put him in a genjutsu before he can start on his way back in order to trick him into going deeper into the woods to ensure that he can't raise an alarm to his other bandit friends. While he's doing that, I'll be able to gather enough information about his mannerisms and his speech to be able to perfectly mimic him with the Perfect Copy technique, and I'll simply knock him out, restrain him in place, and return to the bandit camp to lead another bandit out for you to take his place like nothing happened."

He watches as that one restless bandit from earlier seems to jolt upright from his tent and quickly rush out towards the woods, far to the east of their position. Anzo follows after him and immediately places him under one of the most extensive location-based genjutsu, layering the environment with a similar one that should confuse the bandit and send him deeper into the forest when he attempts to return to the bandit camp, since that genjutsu takes a bit longer to set in. Anzo then follows up with the Tiger handseal to place another genjutsu on the bandit to mess with his sense of direction, and send him walking around in circles. Anzo studies him carefully during this time, then simply drops down silently behind him, building up strength using his chakra,  then attacking the bandit directly on the back of the head with a forceful punch that knocks him out immediately. The Aburame then tightly binds his limbs to each other and to a series of tree limbs, ensuring that his mouth is blocked off with a chunk of old log, locked between his teeth and tied around his head with steel wire.

"That should do it."

Anzo brings both of his hands together, holding them in place for five full seconds while he focuses his mind intently on his memory of how the bandit had moved, sounded, and acted, until his body transforms into a more long-lasting and durable form of transformation technique, matching the bandit's identity, more than good enough to fool even the bandit's family and friends.Now, however, he speaks just like the bandit a he nods to Airi.

"I'm gonna send out another guy for you to take out so you can infiltrate too. Then we just wait for the meeting tonight..."

Anzo does just that, waking up the lowlife in the next tent over, who greets him as "Jack". No wonder the guy turned to banditry with a name like "Jack"... But he tells the other bandit using Jack's voice to follow him out to the forest, but to be quiet about it because he's found a trove of ryo and he doesn't need nobody else running their mouth about it and forcing him to split the cash. He starts leading the guy out, allowing Airi to be able to observe him as much as she needs while he talks to the other bandit, learning more than enough information from him through conversation to be able to get through until at least the meeting without arousing suspicion.

Anzo, in his "Jack" persona, simply shrugs when Airi, in her "Mike" persona, and can only shrug when she asks him if he couldn't have found her a more suitable body. There weren't exactly many women among the bandits, and he presumed that any women in the bandit camp would look much worse than the men. In any case, he didn't have much idea about where any of them came from, but he'd heard of people out west "beyond the Land of Iron", as though that territory wasn't mostly wasteland already.

"No' a clue, guv! Dey comes from somewheres way beyond Iron, land ain't got no ninjuhz."

Speaking in the way that Jack does annoys Anzo, but it's how he's got to learn to talk, at least for a day. Then he also takes on his role as "Jack" when Airi tests it out herself on him.

"That were a one-time thing, and we was both drunk! But maybe it were jus' a dream. Realistic gobshite dream..."

"Jack" kicks at a clod of dirt, then makes sure to help cover up the remaining clothing to fully hide what had once been a body. To be honest, Anzo didn't want to actually kill his bandit until after the mission was over; he was restrained enough that he couldn't interfere, and far enough off the regular beaten path near the bandit camp to ever be found by the others anyway. In any case, Anzo begins to lead Airi back into the camp, since it was already getting close to dusk, and by the time they got there, guards were already posted up and bandits were starting to mill about. The guards they come to almost stop them, but upon seeing that it's"Mike" and "Jack", they get to giggling and making smooching noises to them, but they let them both in without any additional hassle. The bandits start to gather around the largest tent near the center, and Anzo bumps past most of the other bandits until he can catch the words of the apparent leader.

Anzo is mostly silent, though he acts bored and nonchalant about the whole thing, he's paying the sharpest of attention; two weeks, they say, before they're ready to try and storm the nearest small village and take what valuables they can, but especially food. Cooked meat is apparently a scarcity for the bandits here, having no skill with hunting or trapping anything larger than a rabbit, and of course the villagers being full of people who knew the Senju Forest well, they could find and take their prey quite efficiently. And then one of the bandits asks what they're still waiting on. It seems Anzo's assumptions were correct, as the leader explains that there's still trouble in their larger organization that's slowing up their process. But he states they're doing well in the Land of Lightning, since the destruction of Kumogakure had left them with many Kumo survivors and little if any other authority presence. Anzo has basically heard enough about the goings on of the bandits, but he stays simply because it would draw too much attention if he left early, but he turns his head a bit to catch Airi's eye with a bit of a hard gleam; if the mission permitted, he likely would have annihilated the entire camp as well.

Anzo has to restrain himself from taking a sudden intake of air when Airi, as her "Mike" persona, tries to somewhat joke with the guard, but he manages to laugh just as hard as Airi does at the joke about excrement as big as the guard's head, which, judging by the size of the guard's forehead, would indeed take quite some time to bury. Inwardly, he's a bit disgusted, but he can't exactly show his disgust with the guard directly in front of him. Regardless, with them having successfully made it inside, he relaxes a little more, though he has to keep up with the "Jack" persona.

"Don't much 'ppreciate 'im makin' jokes 'bout that. S'pose 'e gits a li'l less beef stew tonight, eh Mike?"

Anzo pays attention for a little longer, then notices that even a few of the other bandits seem too bored to stay awake during some of the meeting, and so he pretends to daze off just a little, too, letting his eyes lose focus as the meeting continues, though he listened intently to every word. Then the leader seems to have had enough after a couple hours of going through the plans to raid the small village, calling them all lazy scum, and that if they were too tired to go on the raid, they could all starve staying in the camp next week when he goes raiding with a few bandits specifically picked out for that purpose, and he points directly at both "Mike" and "Jack", causing Anzo's eyes to fully refocus back on the leader.

It seems the chief is demanding specifically that the two of them go with him on the raid in a week; that would actually make their jobs much easier, considering the fact that both Mike and Jack would be dead, with no corpses to be found later. In any case, Anzo nods once, hard, still disguised as Jack when he answers.

"You gots it, boss! We'll be dere for da raid, and we'll kills 'em good, too!"

That seemed to satisfy the boss plenty, although he acted as though agreeing to go on that raid was more of a chore, like being volunteered by someone else to go and do some menial job. With the other bandits having a relieved expression at not being singled out by their leader, that must have been the right response. In any case, it seems the meeting is adjourned after that, dismissing them all back to whatever they liked.

"Jack" gets up and starts to head off to his own tent, picking up the bandit's cheap cleaver blade and nodding to "Mike" to suggest he comes along.

"I thought I seen a dirt cloud out dere, betcha there's some-at merchants out dere we can shake down in a caravan."

Such a reason would make sense, and get them out of there for more than long enough to send word and also to kill and eliminate the actual Jack, since they no longer had need for him, either.

Anzo lumbers out of the bandit camp, and after a few hundred meters, he finally drops the bandit act, having to cough and clear his throat after changing his voice so harshly to match the tone and cadence of this "Jack" man as he walks much more confidently through the forest, and right up to where he'd left Jack himself, strung up as he was in the vines and with the block of wood effectively masking his voice and keeping him nearly-silent, because he was certainly awake now, and having thrashed around a bit, but only managing to chafe his wrists. Anzo tsks at the bandit before rapidly coalescing Raiton chakra over his left forearm. He could feel the electrical signals boosting the strength in his arm before he slams his fist directly into the bandit's chest, stunning him at first before the lightning erupts into his chest, directly shocking his heart and near-instantly killing him.

Anzo uses that rusty, nasty cleaver to cut him down, allowing him to also perform the Body Elimination Technique, and he carefully watches the body burn away to even less than bone, even less than ash, and leaving behind only a few personal effects behind as Anzo clears away anything that could be used to show that a person had ever been there in the first place. Both techniques were fairly simple compared to some of the other techniques that Anzo had learned over his time as a genin, but he found that they would probably both be fairly useful techniques in the future; it just made sense to get both of those jutsu figured out now, while he had both the opportunity, and the requirement, to burn the body into nothing. For most, the technique was probably not very useful to learn, but in the case of an infiltration, leaving behind any people that may have known what was happening was a bad idea.

He then sighs and turns towards Airi, putting the machete on his, or rather "Jack's" shoulder as he rubs his eyelids, making sure he'd committed the entire thing to memory. For now, he dropped the false voice of this "Jack" person, finding it too painful to continue that scratchy, smokey voice when he didn't have to, and this far away, several hundred meters from the bandit camp, he felt he no longer really needed to.

"Anyways, the police want an actual dead drop. Dunno why they can't accept the word of an actual clone. Any chance you've got a sealing jutsu that will seal the information into a scroll for a clone to place in that dead drop? It's in a hole in a specific tree, but it should be fairly simple for a ninja to get it there. These bandits don't have enough chakra control to do any kind of good tree-climbing anyway."

Anzo certainly had a lot of disdain for these bandits, but at least they got him paid through these missions.

"To be honest, it'd be easier to take the information straight to the Konoha Police Force, but maybe they fear some kind of insider. Oh well, it can't be helped."

OOC: 200/200 Thunderclap Drill
150/150 Body Elimination Technique

After following Anzo out of the camp, she quickly removes the Perfect Transformation and her entire body shuddered. She felt gross in that skin, causing her to walk around in a repulsed manner. The visuals, the smell, the voice, and everything else involving that grotesque man. Once she finished getting the heeby-jeebies out of her system, she knelt down to make her profile even smaller than it already is -- kinda like a gremlin or a goblin hiding in the bushes, even if she isn't nearly as tall as one, g'damnit, to keep hidden as Anzo didn't seem to elicit any similar reaction -- must've been some kind of bro thing. Just something about appearing and acting like 'Mike' was completely repelling to her. She hoped she wouldn't have to do that ever again. During this, she watched as she quickly finished the bandit before noticing Anzo also using the Body Elimination technique. She groaned at the police wanting an actual Dead-Drop. This felt like criminal behavior. She rummaged through the clothing remains of the two bandits and, magically and quite a plot convenience, found a pet and a paper. She started to scribble the objectives of the bandit camp and when they plan on making the attack. She kept the information brief. She turned towards Anzo, holding the sheet of paper up with the information. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga Well, no need to seal this. They should be able to find it at any rate. Airi activated her Byakugan and looked around, finding a bit of chakra tingling in one of the trees. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga Found it she whispered before quickly running through the forest and began to wall-walk up a treee, placing the note around the pen and placed it into the hole. Thankfully, they left something with a bit of chakra in there to find the dead drop. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga Before we go back, Airi said as she slid down the tree and reached into her cleavage and pulled out a small radio communicator and tossed it towards Anzo. Airi Ohara, The Carmine Hyuga Keep a hold of this. I'll be using this if I ever need to get a hold of you. It's set to a single frequency. If I need you for anything, I'll call you. Airi smiled before ducking low again and headed back towards the village. They should be returning and returning with haste.

==Gave Anzo 1x Wireless Communication Radio -- Bringing me down to 6==
==Attempting Exit==
==EXP==
+35 for posts (would be 70, but my UA reduces 5)
+50 for mission bonus
+50,000 Ryo

Anzo rapidly releases the Perfect Copy technique, and thankfully nothing from "Jack"'s persona remained, much less a physical reminder of his time as that low-life. He observes Airi finding and then placing the information into the dead drop location before she mentions that she has something for him, and he raises an eyebrow at that before his own body's instant reaction allows him to reflexively catch the wireless radio tossed in his direction, then looks it over before connecting it up, allowing him to be able to communicate with Airi instantly, although there might likely be some delay in the transmission back and forth. Anzo gives Airi a thumbs up before he starts heading towards Konoha himself, although admittedly he wasn't quite as quick on his feet as the much more fleet Jounin.

Regardless, he wonders for a moment if that smile means she's forgiven him, or at least she might at least decide that he's not such a creep after all; it's not like he often went to the hotsprings to peep on women, even if both of them were good-looking snd making some very... unwholesome noises in the next room over. It would only be natural to have a look.

He shakes the thoughts from his head and resigns himself to pick up the pay for the mission himself, and then has to make a quick trip to Airi's Armory anyways... Which he decides to do tomorrow. She's seen enough of him as it is.

OOC: THREAD EXIT