They traveled for hours, an hour past midday, Ryuu and Kakashi slowly traveled and checked for signs of the masked man.
So far, the only clue they had were some broken branches in the forest, the masked man was in a hurry is what they concluded.
"Luck has shined upon us once again, Kakashi."
"What? You found something?" Ryuu nodded.
"He cut tore his clothes while he was trying to run. From the looks of it, he even has mesh armor." Ryuu pointed at the cloth.
"Summon the hounds and have them track that blood while we go after that house I've been telling you about." Kakashi nodded.
He bit his finger and made the hand signs.
"Summoning jutsu!"
*Poof!* multiple dogs appeared, all of them were wearing Konoha forehead protectors on their bodies and some on their necks.
"What's up Pakkun?" Ryuu greeted the smallest one, a small pug named Pakkun.
"Hey, you need us?" Ryuu and Kakashi nodded.
"We need you to track and find the owner of this." Ryuu gave Pakkun the cloth.
"What? You aren't using your ninken, Ryuu?" Ryuu nervously scratched his head and said.
"Well, I'm trying to keep things quiet, you know."
"That makes sense, Kai and the others are too wild for a mission like this, aren't they?"
"Yeah."
"Well, alright, we'll do this."
"Good luck."
Whoosh… Whoosh…
All the ninkens left and followed Pakkun.
"Good, now let's check that house out." Ryuu and Kakashi ran towards the house Ryuu was sensing.
"You know, for people who appear to be a quiet and friendly family, they sure have a lot of traps set up," Kakashi commented as they ran, avoiding the traps.
"If we're lucky, this means they're simply worried for their safety. But now that I've said it out loud, I've probably jinxed it."
"You've jinxed us now." Ryuu smiled.
"There, they live there."
Ryuu pointed at a small cabin.
There was a small cabin with two rooms, and an enormous garden, which was surrounded by trees.
Ryuu and Kakashi stood above one tree as they looked at the cabin.
"Let's get some answers before using other methods." Kakashi nodded.
Ryuu flickered to the door and knocked.
Knock knock knock…
Someone opened the door.
It was Hideshi, the man with the Kurosu symbol tatted on his chest, he had a scar stretching from right below his eye to his jaw. Hideshi Shinonashi.
'A shinobi?' He asked himself, clearly shocked.
"I'll get straight to it, I'm looking for someone who you might have seen.
A masked man, according to description the masked man is tall and well built."
"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what or who you're talking about."
"Well, this masked man wears something with the same emblem tatted on you."
"A Kurosu?! That's impossible!" Hideshi frowned.
"It's not, just tell me if you know something, I want to find this man and end what they're doing."
"What they're doing?"
"That person snuck into the Kenhikari compound and left their corpses there to terrorize the ones who live in that small town, I figured that person has some sort of grudge against the people there."
"A grudge? The bodies? None of this makes sense."
"I can see your tattoo there, do you have a history with the people who live in that small village?"
"No- I mean yes, but… to go as far as to show them what caused their fall like that, I wouldn't even think about it…"
"Do you know anyone who would? Old teammates or something?"
"No, I disbanded the Kurosu gang shortly after that job, none of the others have the guts to do that without me, I was one of their leaders, you know."
"Who was the other?"
"A woman named Himiko.
She was undercover and helped us break into their compound, but she let the kid go, shortly after that, she left the gang.
That snake… maybe after all this time, she finally grew some and finished the job."
"So no one you know hates the villagers so much they would do this?"
"I'm positive."
'I can't kill Hideshi based on a theory or assumption only. I have to have concrete proof that he did this, and Nobu can't find anything that ties him to this…'
"If you'd like, I can send a messenger bird to them. I still know where they live, we keep in touch, those who were there when I disbanded it, that is."
"No, that's unnecessary. I'm on a tight schedule.
Sorry to bother you, you've been a lot of help." Ryuu got up and walked towards the door.
"Stay out of trouble though, I'll catch this guy soon." Ryuu flickered beside Kakashi.
"Find anything?"
"Yes, and no.
I can't tie him to the corpses, he doesn't seem like the kind to do that.
But Nobu found something that requires our attention."
"Really? Like what?"
"We'll need to stay here a bit longer. Maybe I should talk to him one more time."
"Do whatever you think is necessary." Ryuu nodded.
Ryuu flickered towards the door again and knocked again.
This time, instead of Hideshi answering, it was his son. I figured because they look too similar.
"Are you the shinobi my dad is talking about? He already told you everything he knows, what do you want?"
"I want to talk to you."
He frowned.
"Sorry, but I'm not interested. I have better things to do."
He attempted to close the door, but Ryuu put his foot in the way.
The young man grit his teeth.
"I'm not saying shit!" He swung his fist towards Ryuu, but Ryuu caught it rather easily.
"I'll be back after I do some… further investigation.
When I'm back, you have two choices: either find a way to pose a threat to me, to which I'll reply by forcing answers out of you.
Or the other option will be to speak with me politely, consider this me being merciful, not weak." Ryuu's body transformed into multiple flocks of crows that flew upwards.
Ryuu appeared beside Kakashi on the tree and Pakkun arrived beside them.
"Ryuu, we found something. I've left your kunai on Bull." Ryuu took Kakashi and Pakkun and teleported with them.
They found themselves inside a shed not too far from the house.
The shed had a pitch black suit with the Kurosu emblem in the middle and a mask on top of a table.
The mask resembled a demon with one horn in the middle.
On the walls were sketches, sketches of some people tied to the Kurosu gang, and a picture of Hideshi and his son.
"This must be his son's place," Kakashi suggested and Ryuu agreed, he was thinking the same thing.
"Look here." Kakashi looked at what Ryuu was looking at.
"A plan to turn all the villagers against each other after showing them the results of their action.
Up there's a map marked with three locations.
One of them is the woman I met. Kazumi might have been a target of his attack or something.
Down here is the other woman, the one who let Mina go, Himiko, she lives far from these people alone.
She stole most of the money they gained and keeps it stored.
He gathered so much information about her and some other people in the village, too.
But that's not all, up here is the name of the companies which wanted the downfall of the Kenhikari clan.
They're under new management now, they've even allied with their rivals and now work under a new name.
But that's not important right now. We have to kill that guy and his family after I do something."
"Do something?"
"I believe the Kurosu gang is making a comeback. The son doesn't know, though. And it'll be easier to take them all out together, so I'll play some games with them and rally them all to take them out at once."
"Well alright, I'll follow your lead." Ryuu nodded.
"As for all of you, thanks for your help. Give my greetings to my hounds."
Ryuu said to Pakkun as he waved them off.
"Yeah we will, but don't expect us to put up with their complaining that you never use them for missions."
Ryuu nervously scratched his head.
"I won't, I promise."
"See you later, Kakashi."
"Yeah."
*Poof!* they all dispersed.
"Let's go get those guys before it gets late." Ryuu teleported above the tree with Kakashi using Kamui.
"I'll go mess around first, to see a distraction and to see why he did this."
Kakashi nodded.
Ryuu went to the door and knocked again.
"I swear if it's that damn shinobi again."
The young man opened the door with a grim expression.
"I hope you've calmed down since our last meeting. Because if you haven't, this won't be a very pleasant experience, I have very rare and painful methods of getting my answers, and I'm not afraid to use them."
Ryuu activated his Sharingan.
(Authors Note: Question for you all.
If Ryuu became a Jonin, what team should he lead? should I make characters up who train with him and become great or should he lead a team that's known already?)