The Perfect Crime (Mizuki, Mitsuko) [OOC]

[walkerm]

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Setting politics aside and bending Naruto-canon just a tad, Mizuki of the Village Hidden in the Sand and Mitsuko of the Village Hidden in the Mist are teaming up to hunt down the notorious stigma of the famed Li clan - Jun Li, a former Mist ANBU operative made a fail and destined to die. For crimes against humanity and the sanity of all, the man is a fugitive: specifically, the Li cry for blood (to be spilled, the fucker) and the Mist demand his death (for fleeing, the coward.) How will this end? What bloody finale will occur? Who will strike the killing blow? Why is there bacon in the soap? Where is Waldo? And most importantly: where has all the rum gone?

[Mitsuko Subeki]

Jun Li...the man who had betrayed him and his team, leaving them to die in a forest with an ANBU and several Jounin in a cage made of indestructible wood. That was a dick move. The man had skill, Mitsuko had experienced this when they fought, ANBU vs. Genin. Actually, that was also a dick move. There may be a theme arising. However, Jun was from the Li clan, a Suna family that was not known for producing ninja capable of such elite levels of douchebaggery. As a result, his escape after the big battle made him wanted by two villages who don't fuck around. You could tell by the way they sent Genin to go after him.

Mitsuko was no ordinary genin, however. He was ready to acquire all the cool points that come with the assassination of ANBU traitor, bring pride to his family, and most of all, dude was pissed. The young Subeki was primed and ready to go when he arrived in Rice Country, the are where Jun was said to be hiding in a cave, along with several mercenaries. Kiri and Suna intelligence combined couldn't be wrong. The boy sighed heavily, closing the report in hand just after recalling that the boy was not to be accompanied by Akemi and Kyomu, but instead a Suna ninja.

Unfortunately, he knew nothing about the ninja or what they'd be like. Apparently this joint operation was meant to fortify relations between the two distant nations and allow both to get some revenge. No matter, he would have to make sure that he landed the killing blow, but even his cocky ass knew he'd need some help this go around. He just prayed for a competent partner. Tapping his feet against a lightly grassed plain, Mitsuko waited impatiently for the arrival of his partner, and for the mission to begin. After all, he only lived once.

[walkerm]

It was a dangerous mission. They'd all said that. Rogue ninja, man, those were not easily monkeyed with. Such, however, was necessary. She'd been assigned the task, and that was that - and it was off to the Rice Country with her to meet up with whatever Mist operative had been paired with her. It was all that she could hope for that he'd not be a total pissant.

Who were they after? Some dick by the name of Jun Li. He was, like, apparently a cousin of her teammate's, and it was with his blessings that she'd been shipped off. Frankly, she wasn't even sure what he'd done to warrant such animosity, but it must've been bad - both Sunagakure and Kirigakure had him on their shit-list. He'd apparently been an ANBU operative of the Mist village before skipping out of town like some craven fool, and to hear tell, it wasn't all that surprising, either.

That, Mizuki figured, was the Mist for ya.

Of course, she really hoped that that wasn't really the case. She needed a competent partner. Craven that he was, he was still strong enough to have become an ANBU, and it'd be no small task for a genin pair to overcome the creep.

She'd been travelling far and wide (searching for the power that's inside), and it was late evening when she finally dropped down to the rendezvous location prearranged for them in the intelligence reports. What she found, was... Not what she expected.

"Yo. Kosua of the Sand, reporting in." The name, not her true given name, was the codename she'd been assigned for the mission. Apparently, it was imperative that her identity be hidden. Probably to prevent identity theft or something.

[Mitsuko Subeki]

Finally, a form came into focus. And as she came closer, Mitsuko got a good look at what he was working with. She was way too thin to be a ninja, reminiscent of his teammates in a way. Of course, there probably wasn't much to eat in the Sande...but that wasn't the point. Teenage boy meets teenage girl sizing up out of the way, the girl introduced herself as Kosua of the Sand. Nothing to be gathered from just that, but she seemed as loose as anyone can be, given the task before them.

Mitsuko opened his mouth to speak his name, but it suddenly occurred to him that Suna and Kiri weren't allies just yet, so it may have been useful to hide his identity from her. Plus, she might've known that the Subeki were a turd farming folk, and that wouldn't have helped the whole cool points thing. At this point, his mouth had been agape for quite some time, and it was a wonder that he had yet to eat an insect. "Mitsuko Subeki." He finally stammered out his name, thoroughly embarrassed but not outwardly shaken.

"Right, so Jun Li is said to be hiding in a cave just a few miles north of here, in a place called 'Douchepocalypse Caverns." Fortunately for the two of them, the mountain path was only super steep and notoriously treacherous. Even worse was the fact that the boy may be forced to socialize with a girl he had just met. Despite his forced aloofness, he couldn't stand to make an enemy with the girl. It occurred to him that they should become familiar with each other's skills, just so that they know what to look for.

The boy took a step forward, beginning to walk towards the caverns. "So then, anything I should know about you and your talents?" He had to be a cold dude... he had to get back to his ways. But with no around, there was no point in being so guarded. All that matters are results, as far as anyone else is concerned. And so help him, Jun would have a kunai jammed so far up his rectum it'd give knew meaning to the phrase "having a sharp tongue."

[walkerm]

Briefly, her eyebrows flickered up. She filed the name away in her head for later research (assuming she survived the mission). The clan name was not familiar to her, but that was probably only because it was insignificant when compared with other legendary clans of the ninja world. Still, he was a shinobi, and as such warranted some caution.

"Douchepocalypse Caverns, eh?" That had promise. Though known to be difficult to enter, it was also a bitch to get out of. And unless you knew some serious earth-release jutsu and could create new escape tunnels, there were only a couple of ways out of the region - most of which were so dangerous as to not be worth any sort of consideration. Mostly because of, you know, imminent death and the like: people generally liked staying alive.

As she followed the boy (who was nearly a foot taller than her, she was mildly disconcerted to learn), the girl considered his question. To tell, or not to tell, that was the question. And subsequently, it was wondered just how much to or not to tell. The boy, for all that he was her ally for this mission, was still a stranger, and given the tenuous relationship between Suna and Kiri, it was possible that they might meet each other on the battlefield one day in the future, and they wouldn't be on the same side... Who wanted to give up precious secrets, then? Then again... This mission required cooperation. But how much? How little?

They were moving at a good pace, both travelling quickly and - more importantly - quietly over the rocky terrain leading to the hiding spot of their quarry. He was, the Suna nin judged, competent, at least. But just how good in a fight he was, well, that remained to be seen... Finally, after a lengthy consideration that consisted mostly of dithering and dallying, she settled on, "A little bit of everything." Which, insofar as it went, was true. She thought about leaving it at that, but then an inexplicable sense of disquietude moved her to add, "Mostly nin and tai, though. And you?"

[Mitsuko Subeki]

This was going to be very interesting. The Caverns provided an interesting battlefield for his water type ninjutsu. Not only that, the girl said she was a ninjutsu used, though prefaced with the fact that she's a jack of all trades. Interesting, considering he had thus far only had experience with specialists. He'd also be able to measure up his ninjutsu and taijutsu against her better than he would against Kyomu or Akemi. "I'm a ninjutsu taijutsu guy, myself." He said, in the coolest, most subtly badass, and non nonchalant way possible.

Unlike the girl, however, Mitsuko wasn't too afraid of her finding out anything about him. His career was still young, and it wasn't like he had an ace up his sleeve anyway. As much as he hated to admit it, he was pretty prototypical. While effective, it certainly wouldn't stand out very well. Mitsuko drifted on and on as the pair climbed the mountain path. Then, he felt as though these two had been brought together for a reason. That it was fate...a boy, a girl, puberty...they HAD to fight. It was too perfect. It also occurred to him that they might meet in the Chuunin Exams. It was time to put on a display of power, it seemed.

"So, I'm not too sure how this is gonna play out. He definitely has bodyguards and there's just two of us." Mitsuko continued on, checking his map and noting the two were nearly there. "I've had experience with this guy before, in battle." +15 cool points~ Mitsuko sighed, thinking about just how to approach this fight. "Rumor is that he's been injured by a boy from his own clan (Shouten), beforehand. So we may have an advantage there. He's going to use the Kirigakure jutsu, and if he does just follow my lead. I'll handle it."

Then Mitsuko began to wonder why the girl had been sent alongside him. He had requested this himself, so that was obvious. But why was she here? Perhaps she was an elite talent. He just had to know, now. He couldn't stand to be worse than his partner. He had to be the very best, that no one ever was. Dun dun duh duh duhhh.

[/b]"So, why did they send you here in particular, Kosua?"[/b]

[walkerm]

He, it seemed, had much the same skill focus as she; ninjutsu coupled with taijutsu. How very interesting. Most people when left to their own devices specialized - it seemed almost to be encouraged, people picking specific skills to excel in did. And of course, why not? Better to get really good at something than to be mediocre at everything - that was why people were assigned into teams, after all, to even things out and make sure that everybody's weaknesses were augmented and their strengths complimented. Of course, what that meant for the two of them was that, likely, neither were particularly excellent at anything. Lovely.

This Mitsuko seemed to have some of the same concerns as she. That was gratifying, but only just. The rest of her sentiments fell right in line with the whole "Oh Shit, Oh Shit, We're All Going To Die" dealio. Of course, they did have the advantage in that this Jun character was injured. But then again, he had allies. Mizuki's greatest wish at that point in time was the hope that said allies of said rogue ninja went turncoat, and that the rogue would have a "Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal" moment, and then, shwumph, he dead. How likely that was, well...

"If I were to guess," she paused mid-speech to hopped over a large boulder, "It would have something to do with the fact that the dude's a pathetic loser worthy only of being dispatched by genin. And I guess they figured I was the genin for the job." Well, not quite. See, she wasn't the only Suna genin to be sent on the mission to the Rice Country, and the only reason she in particular had been sent to meet up with the ally was because, as the sole female of the team, it was figured that she'd be the least threatening. And should he decide to go with the "Let's Name This Land Your Grave" ploy, well...

But that didn't bear much thinking at the time being. She'd already thought it out time and time again on her way in, and she'd cross that bridge again should it become necessity. And in that spirit, she added, "It's not important. What matters, is I'm here."

They were just about to round a boulder bend when Mizuki halted and hissed, "Wait. You see that?" And she pointed at a faint glint in the air, barely perceptible. A trip wire.

[Mitsuko Subeki]

The Subeki boy hoped that Kosua hadn't gotten the wrong idea. His pointing out that the man was an ANBU and that they were to be outnumbered was not a list of worries, but rather just an implication of how badass it was going to be when he...they came out on top. And they would come out alive, and winners. It just had to be that way. This was perhaps the most important mission in Subeki history, and it certainly was the most significant one Mitsuko had been sent on. This was S-Rank hunter-nin territory. He could see the headline already.

Unlike Kosua, Mitsuko was rather large and so had much less difficulty climbing the mountain and hurdling larger rocks. The girl spoke up, very condescending and brash. And as she spoke, he got the feeling that she wasn't being completely forward with him. She was way too emotional, which meant that there was another reason for her being there than the fact that Jun deserved to be killed by genin. But then again, maybe she was just that type of girl, or maybe it was a Sand thing. Either way, something was off.

An awkwardly long period of time had passed after the girl's statement, which Mitsuko realized quickly enough to speak a response. "That he is. And I suppose it isn't..." The boy faded off as he continued to push the pace to the point where he was slightly ahead of the girl. It was time to make a statement, however. While secrecy was to be expected, and the girl may not have even been all that secretive after all, the fact that it was just the two of them made him wary. He could take her, that's for sure, but an ambush? Not too much fun.

"Listen, I don't really like..." He began boldly, but was interrupted by Kosua pointing out a trip wire that was just about ankle-height for the boy. Unfortunately, his symbolic leadership gesture (being ahead) meant that he was moving way too fast to just stop. Scowling, the boy purposely fell head first over the wire, narrowly avoiding it with several different body parts. As he fell, Mitsuko planted both his hands into the ground and pushed up, flipping the boy's large frame and leaving him standing on the other side.

"Phew...I guess he knew we'd be coming this way." (-15 Cool Points) Mitsuko dusted himself off and looked behind a large boulder to find a slew of kunai that were to be launched at the unsuspecting duo. Unfortunately, as smooth as that maneuver turned out, it said a lot about Mitsuko that it was necessary in the first place. He looked naive, stupid, and incapable, and he wasn't about to be the weak link. But there wasn't much he could do about it now. He just had to make sure to not think so much about stupid things. As of now, Kosua was an ally, and that was that.

"That probably isn't the last of those. The plus side is that we're getting close, so if you need to make any preparations, now's the time." He knew some ninja needed to release weapons or the like, so he wanted to make sure the girl was ready. Cool as it would be to rescue a damsel in distress AND kill an ANBU, that last part would be hard enough as it is. Standing tall, the boy looked forward, mostly out of embarrassment from his recent stunt. Pale as he was, he couldn't let the girl see him blush or his voice quiver. He waited patiently, taking the time to recover and wait for Kosua to get ready.

He thought it would be most badass if he took no time getting ready, and instead seemed to be pensive, thinking only of the upcoming battle and not, you know, how he almost killed them but stopped just short by almost falling flat on his face. That didn't bother him at all. Mitsuko placed his hands in his pockets, closed his eyes for a few seconds, and sighed deeply, wondering just what this Suna ninja thought of him.

[walkerm]

When the kunai came, she was prepared. It was a common gimmick in the ninja world, linking multiple traps together; common, and effective. Usually, it was while one was disentangling themselves from the first trap that the second one got them. It was like the proverbial "other shoe" that people were supposed to watch for. Or the other fist. Especially the other first. Those hurt a lot... But, right, kunai. It was a small matter to dodge them and buy time for her to pull out a kunai and deflect the rest.

"That was lovely," she said in response to the boy's comment about them being expected, her comment oh, so deep and thoughtful, truly a valuable contribution to the conversation at hand. It was to be expected, of course, that the quarry would expect someone to be after them - it was kind of the definition of being 'wanted,' after all, that there were people that, you know, wanted you (and not in the Biblical sense of the word, either.) The question at this point was not if they were expected, but when they'd be expected. It was also a question of why such an ineffectual trap was laid out in the first instance. Was the enemy really that inept? Were they limited in their options? Or, more cleverly (but not really), was it more a diversion to let the quarry know how close their enemies were? Who knew.

Whatever the case was, they knew the genin were coming, and the genin knew that they knew. Which was great. Super to have that all cleared up - meant they could get to the gory bits all the more quickly. What a joy.

Mizuki patted her tool pouch and waggled a kunai at the Kiri genin - though the waggling was more for her benefit than his, given that he was staring off into the mysterious beyond (he was probably looking forward to/dreading fighting the sharpteeth that awaited). "All good." The girl took a couple steps forward and hopped over the trigger wire, careful to avoid setting off whatever trap had been laid in store for them. And it was then, that good news and bad news was to be had.

The good news: she had made it over the wire safely. Go her. The bad news: she landed on a trigger stone that she would later figure to be attached to the trip wire. She had just a second to spring forward a set and utter, "Ooooh shiiiii-" when the first explosion began.

Whups.

[Mitsuko Subeki]

Mitsuko watched as his teammate deflected the kunai with ease. Good, if that was all it would take then she may as well have died now. Glad to know she's got some game. True, the trap was as generic as it came, but people used it for a reason: it was simple but effective. But it begged the question: if an ANBU flees, he should expect to be chased by ANBU or hunter-nin, why set such a rudimentary trap? Ninja of that level wouldn't fall for that, so for some reason, Jun was expecting genin. Or he was a complete idiot. Nope, second one. Maybe the guy cheated on his exams or something, because this was just plain pathetic, even from the average Genin's perspective, nevermind one of Mitsuko's talents.

Of course, these high-class thoughts were interrupted by a level of sass that Mitsuko was very unaccustomed to. Clearly, it had registered with the girl that what Mitsuko has said was very obvious. And it had probably registered with her that he had also fallen for a very simple ruse. God damn...father would be beating the shit out of me right about now. He could see it now, Kosua returning to tell her team what nitwit she'd been working with. Talking to her family about it, even telling the whole village. Suddenly he'd have a reputation in the Sand Village. Kiri would look weak, Mitsuko would look weak, and most of all, his family would look weak...er. Unacceptable.

The only response he had was his go to move, a powerful, majestic, eloquent, "Tch.," and left it at that. Truth is, that's all he could say. There was no excuse for that rookie move he pulled, and it was sad to say the least. The scowl on his face marked his inner hatred. Perhaps this was a game for Kosua, but it was all bidness on his end. And not the normal Subeki bidness, real bidness. It was either glorious ninja fame or the vast and rolling plains of the Kiri turd farms. And he ain't going back to no turd farms.

The girl took a second to prepare herself, then started back off onto the trail. The sooner we move on the better, I suppose. And as he followed a few steps behind, he watched Kosua's foot sink as if into sand. Another trap. This truly was good news and bad news: good news was that he wasn't the idiot anymore, bad news was, well...explosions. Without thinking too much, he darted forward, chased by explosions like Shia LeBeuff in a Transformers movie, minus the mentally-insane screaming. The mines were set off to the side of each other, requiring the boy to sidestep multiple times, before being flung forward by the final explosion and rolling to stop, bent down on one knee, panting like crazy.

He quickly looked back to determine the fate of his partner, saying out loud, "Nah, THAT was lovely." If he was gonna take punches (and explosions), he was gonna give 'em back., with his trademark douche-smirk painted on his face. Learned that from his pop, of course. It projected a sense of undeserved self-entitlement and superiority. To be honest, it was the only thing Mitsuko knew he had down perfectly. "These guys aren't messing around anymore."

And as he said that, he felt eyes on them. It was definitely unnerving, but it was just a feeling. Still best to be cautious. "Be on your toes, we've got company..." The boy crossed his arms, closed his eyes and focused. If one can't see, he's gotta feel.

[walkerm]

It was almost in tandem that the two Genin rushed foward, albeit in a slightly roundabout manner as they worked to avoid the big boom-booms. Dashing left, jumping back, twirling over. Up! Down! Backwards! On the ground! Pencil roll! Summersault! Backflip to safety! And eventually they made it past the big boom-booms and were standing on relatively safe and explosionless ground. Mizuki was slightly out a breath, but still game to go. Mitsuko was slightly ahead of her, and a quick glance told her that the Mist Genin seemed okay. As she was looking at him, he glanced back, and the first words out of his mouth were a pithy comment directed right at her.

She narrowed her eyes briefly, catching his gentle jibe at her. It took her a second to realize that he thought she had been poking at him, and her brief annoyance morphed into something resembling consternation. She'd been commenting on their situation as a whole, really, but, so it seemed, she'd been too vague. That, or the boy really had no understanding of the nuances of conversation. And the smirk that he flashed, oooooh, she wanted to smack it. Unfortunately, it was then that, as Mitsuko put it, they had company.

To the boy, she ask, "Do you have many shuriken?" In the meantime, a hand slipped to her punch and grabbed, well, a handful of her own shuriken.



=============================================
OOC: I feel like, if Shouten or Daisuke or Kyomu or Akemi wish to jump in, by all means, they can. Because we'll have a some tuff fighting to do~

[Mitsuko Subeki]

Mitsuko couldn't help but wonder if he shouldn't have slowly walked away, back turned, when faced with those explosions. That would've been cool. But at the moment, he noticed that his compatriot had taken ire to his jibe. Was I being a dick? He thought back to the first time he was called a dick. "It means badass, son." His father explained, slapping the boy on the back. Still, it didn't feel too good. His smirk turned into a small frown. Oh, the life of a turd farmer's son was hard one.

His eyes darted back and forth as the grass ruffled around the pair, confirming his suspicions. "Yeah, I've got some. You go something in mind?" Mitsuko pulled a few of his shuriken from his back pouch and gripped them tightly. "Oh, seems you've noticed us kids!" A weasely, nasally, nerdy, deranged voice spoke from the forest. "Hao perspective." Yeah, he's that dumb. "I AM THUNDERTIPS, GAWD OF LIGHTING." The Subeki's eyebrow raised as he stared at the sorcerer standing top a pile of solidified manure.

"U've gots liek, elventy-twelve seconds before I strike you with my Lighting Style: Blatantly Idiotic Creepo Technique. Of Death. Give up now." Mitsuko stared the man down, unintimidated and ready to strike him down. The problem was, even though this manw as the leader of the mercenaries, there were several potential targets. Strategy wasn't his strength, so he'd have to defer for now. "On your go." Electricity started to gather at the end of the wizard's 3.6 inch staff as his face contorted in a way that just made you want to punch a small child. They had to act quickly lest their brain cells died from stupidity reception overload.