It's more humane to cure your enemies than to kill them. ~Hugh Mann
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"So this is it, huh?" Naruto said, as we curved around the pass that lead to Station One, the first town into the Land of Stone. The path in front of us curved and wiggled down the steep mountain side, but the village was cradled in a flat valley spread out before us. "It looks pretty rough."
I hummed. "We should probably check and see if Gosunkugi has been spotted in the area. Start with the hotels, maybe check out the bars and food markets? And maybe ask the local police if there have been any recent incidents – if he's not worried about keeping his head down, then he might have stolen something here too."
I wasn't entirely sure what kind of lead Tsunade had had that pointed here; it didn't say in the scroll, only that it was 'likely'.
"Okay." Naruto nodded, determinedly. Then he stopped and turned to his other side. "What do you think, Sai?"
Sai blinked. "I concur with this plan of action."
"Great!" Naruto clapped him on the shoulder with great enthusiasm. It was maybe a little over done, but not exactly false cheerfulness. Bull headed, stubborn cheerfulness, like the rest of his smiles, but not false.
Naruto it seemed, had not just accepted Sai as a pale, slightly weird, fellow ninja, but distinctly decided that he was a friend. A friend in need of a perpetual cheering squad, constant prodding and persistence, but a friend none the less.
He's going to feel so betrayed.
I looked down at the town below us, pretending to examine it.
If I said anything, Naruto would never let it lie. He would confront it – confront Sai – immediately.
"Hey," I said, throwing a teasing smirk at the boys. "First one to the village gets to pick where we stay tonight."
I stepped off the edge of the path and fell.
Oh, shit. Why did I think this was a good idea?
No, I wasn't falling. I anchored myself to the rock with just enough chakra to skim over the rock, like snowboarding without the board. Or snow.
Naruto shouted behind me, and a glance over my shoulder told me that he was imitating me, chakra glowing blue around his ankles and throwing up a mess of dust.
I grinned, adrenaline burst fading from 'mind numbing terror' to 'pleasant thrill', and slid my stance out so that it really was like I was snowboarding. I picked up speed, wind whipping through my hair as I careened down a nearly seventy degree slope.
Then Sai plunged past me, not slipping down the mountain, just falling. I nearly leapt out to catch him, but noticed, last second that he had a scroll out and was drawing on it in freefall. A huge bird burst out of the page, swept underneath him and delivered him lightly to the ground.
I increased the chakra in my feet as we neared the ground, bracing my legs against the increased stress and slowing my speed. At the last minute I jumped off, flipping and hitting the ground rolling to bleed off the rest of it, before popping to my feet.
I laughed, exhilarated, and threw my arm around Sai's shoulder. "Hurry up, slowpoke!" I shouted at Naruto. "Do we have to wait for you all day?"
He crashed into the ground moments later, landing a little gracelessly on hands and knees, but unharmed. "Hey! You're both cheaters!"
I poked my tongue at him. "I can't hear you over the sound of how long you took~!"
Naruto puffed out his cheeks. "You lost too! Serves you right for cheating first."
Sai shifted a little awkwardly beside me. Clearly too much contact. I dropped my arm and stepped away, turning to head for the village.
We headed to the main hotel first, mostly because it was the most obvious building in the main street. It looked like the ground floor was a bar instead of a reception anyway, so it was probably an important locale to check out.
"What's that?" Naruto asked, puzzled, as we stopped at the huge notice board right next to the front doors. "There's a picture of Gosunkugi."
"A bounty posting," Sai said.
"Land of Stone doesn't have a ninja village," I explained to Naruto as he continued to look confused. "So, when there is a criminal who has evaded the local police, they can't easily hire a ninja to bring him in. Instead, they just put up a bounty, and whoever finds him and turns him in can claim the reward. Kinda like a bingo book."
It wasn't exactly so straight forward – for one, plenty of other countries did bounties as well, and not always only on criminals. There were plenty of ninja that had money on their heads; Asuma-sensei for one had a bounty of 35 million ryo, or something. And bingo books were more like warnings than bounty postings.
"Oh," Naruto said. "So there might already be a lot of people looking for him, right? So they'd be able to tell us where to find him?"
"They wouldn't tell us," Sai countered. "Because they wish to claim his bounty themselves. They might even hinder us in our mission." He smiled.
I ignored the out of place expression. "It's a possibility," I allowed. "But not particularly worrying. Gosunkugi might be trying harder to hide if he knows so many people are looking for him, though."
"We'll find him," Naruto said, completely unworried. He turned away from the bounty board and pushed his way inside.
I shrugged and followed him. The inside was … okay, not just a bar, I was going to call it a saloon. I had noted that the architecture of the town seemed to be not just 'western' but 'old west', but this was really getting ridiculous.
Naruto made a bee-line for the counter and bartender, but Sai and I – with surprising synchrony – flared out behind him and scanned the room. For being mid-afternoon, there were a surprising number of people in here. A group of men playing cards at a round table, a couple drinking quietly, two separate men with cloaks and hats pulled low over their faces in the corners.
Not suspicious at all. Right.
"Hey, old man," Naruto said, amicably enough to the bartender. "We were hoping you could answer some questions."
It was a tossup whether it was the greeting, or if the guy just had a naturally surly disposition. He glared. "If you ain't buying anything, then beat it."
Naruto slid onto a barstool. "We're looking for this guy," he said, putting the picture of Gosunkugi down on the bar. "Has he been here?"
"Hah," the barkeep said, leaning back and crossing his arms. He didn't even look at the picture. "You think you're a bounty hunter, kid? You've got no idea. Get the hell out of here and you might even survive."
Since Naruto was facing the bar, I turned around, leaning casually against it and facing the rest of the room.
Naruto scoffed. "You're the one who has no idea," he said, slapping his hand down on the bar. "Have you seen him or not?"
"I wouldn't tell you, even if I had," the bartender said.
One of the guys playing cards put down his hand. "What's this? A buncha kids think that they can be bounty hunters? What a joke. But you know, I'm a nice guy. I'll give you some advice. If you pay me."
I eyed him. Somehow, I didn't believe that the 'advice' would be worth the money. "Information first, money after," I said. "We'll pay what its worth."
"Oh yeah?" Naruto said eagerly. He turned around. "What is it?"
"Don't get messed up," the guy lunged forward, huge steps clearing the ground between the table and the bar, "in things that don't involve," he swung, one meaty fist heading on a collision course for Naruto's head, "YOU!"
Naruto caught it, barely shifting in his seat. "That's pretty crappy advice, yaknow," he said, frowning.
The rest of the guys at the table stood, dropping their cards. A couple of the chairs clattered to the ground in the rush. The man at the right back corner of the room twitched, arms shifting underneath the poncho cloak that covered him. Reaching for a weapon, no doubt.
"Manaka Michizou," Sai said suddenly. He smiled. "Your picture was on the bounty board outside. Fifty thousand ryo, was it?"
About the same as a D-rank mission. Or a low C-rank, if you wanted to be generous. He might have been dangerous – all the people in the room were carrying knives or machete or even rough swords – but he wasn't anywhere near the league of a ninja. Even a Genin.
It was clear that no one in the room was, because not a single person had looked down to notice that the shadows on the floor were darker than they should be.
I was confident but I wasn't stupid.
"Only small time," Sai concluded.
"What'd you say?" Manaka roared, pulling back to turn on Sai. He stalled as his fist failed to budge in Naruto's grip.
"So you're a crook, too, huh?" Naruto said, contemplatively. "What'd you do?"
Manaka didn't answer, arm muscles bulging as he tried to wrench his fist out of the lazy grip Naruto had on it.
"Cattle rustling," said the man in the corner, tilting his wide brimmed hat back a fraction, to reveal a face cut with scars. So far he'd seemed perfectly at ease with the brewing fight – not even moving for his weapon. "And some petty thievery. He also has a habit of getting into bar brawls, but that ain't even considered a crime round these here parts."
Of all the people in the room, I would have put him as the most dangerous.
Apart from us.
"Let Michi go, you little brat," one of Manaka's friends snarled, drawing a machete out of his belt. The blade was rough, and I suspected it was used a lot more for actually chopping wood and… things… than it was for fighting. A tool, not a weapon.
"No fighting in here!" The barkeep shouted, a little frantically. "Take it outside."
"There won't be any fighting, will there, pal?" Our informant said, directing it towards the man with the weapon.
"You bet there will, pal," the man snarled back.
The man with the hat moved. He had some respectable speed, slipping around the table and using the hilt of his – oh yes, he had an actual sword – to knock the man out. An equally quick blow to the sternum took out his neighbour, and the third man fell in quick succession.
Naruto twisted the hand he was holding, forcing Manaka down into a very simply arm lock in effort to avoid having it dislocated.
"There you are, sir," the man said, tilting his hat at the barkeep. "No fighting."
I laughed.
Suspicious. But funny.
"How about we drop these guys off at the sheriff's?" he continued, turning to us. "I don't think you're going to get any answers here."
Naruto shrugged. "Sure thing, old guy. You're pretty quick on your feet."
I stepped behind him, like I was just pushing off the bar. When my hands were out of sight, I twisted them into the Rat Seal.
Shadow Possession Complete.
"To the Sheriff's," I said, and took another step forward. The three unconscious men got to their feet. Naruto let Manaka go, turning to pick up the photo he'd slapped on the counter, and the crook followed my movements.
I walked out the door.
It took a little bit of quick stepping and spatial awareness to get all four of them outside without crashing anyone into a wall, but it wasn't exactly complicated.
Okay, so there wasn't really any need for the drama, or to hide that we were ninja or anything. But the wide eyes of the rest of the bar had been pretty damn gratifying.
And it wasn't like I wanted to carry them or anything. This was just easier.
"That's… a neat trick you got there," the man with the hat said, a little weakly. "The sheriff's is this way."
"Who are you, anyway?" Naruto asked. "Why'd you step in like that?"
"The name is Sazanami," the man said. "I'm a bounty hunter. I remember what it was like when I was starting out, so I thought I should give you a hand. I guess you didn't need it, though." Even from beneath the hat, I could see the apprehensive glance he gave the four men walking under my power.
"Ehehe," Naruto laughed, folding his hands behind his head. "We're not really bounty hunters," he explained. "We're ninja from Konoha. But we are looking for this one guy – so I guess you could say we're temporary bounty hunters."
"Ninja, huh?" Sazanami said. "I've met a few before, but none who weren't old enough to shave." He ran a thumb over his own chin. "But I guess that makes sense. If you were bounty hunters, you'd know that that wasn't really the way to go about asking – crime makes for a pretty insular community, they don't really like to share things with strangers."
Surprisingly, Naruto's straightforward way of asking things seemed to work more often than it didn't, in situations where it probably shouldn't. It wasn't the way I would have gone about it, for sure, but it wasn't a bad tactic to take either. And it was a good gauge of the town and what we had to work with.
"So have you seen this guy?" Naruto asked. "His name is Gosunkugi."
"Oh. There's the Sherriff's office," Sazanami said, in one of the worst deflections ever.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and walked the posse inside.
"Manaka Michizou and companions," I announced, to the poor stunned sheriff, who probably wasn't used to criminals walking into his office. I let the shadow possession fade, and three of them collapsed to the ground. Manaka took a step back, as if to try escape, then toppled over with Naruto's foot planted firmly on his back.
Sazanami slipped inside, stepped around the pile of bodies, and handed the guy a flyer. "They here to collect the bounty."
"Right," the Sheriff agreed weakly. "I see."
The process was a little interesting, but took way too long. Konoha was much more efficient at handling prisoners.
"You should take it," Naruto said fairly. "You did most of the work." He held the envelope of cash out to Sazanami.
The bounty hunter shrugged. "It's fine. I wouldn't feel right taking money from kids, even if you are ninja. Besides, I've had a pretty good run lately."
"So, Gosunkugi," I prompted, to see Sazanami's eyes flicker to the side.
"That's a dangerous man," Sazanami said. "You might have been able to handle thugs like Manaka, but Gosunkugi is in a whole different league."
The warning was useless – a bounty hunter like Sazanami had no idea what kind of strength a ninja had, and unless Gosunkugi turned out to be a secret member of Akatsuki…
I was pretty sure he was not –
… or otherwise a missing ninja, or so on, then we could handle it.
"He's an unrepentant murderer," Sazanami continued. "He's killed dozens of people, just for the sake of robbing their corpses. He even killed an innocent family, just for the chance to steal some money."
I tilted my head to the side. Interesting.
"Did you know them?" Naruto asked, also homing in on that line. He had a sense of what was important to people.
Sazanami blinked. "What makes you say that?" he asked, caught off guard.
Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems like you did."
Because why mention the family? If there were dozens of people… what made the family stand out, above the rest? If he was doing it to scare us, then he would mention the most horrifying, or the one that involved people most similar to us. Mention kids, or the fates of the bounty hunters that had come after him before, or the way he always escaped.
Sazanami sighed. "Not well," he said, pulling his hat low, and shading his face. "Look, kids. I'm also looking for Gosunkugi, to bring him to justice. I don't want you getting in my way out there. You should just go home."
Naruto glared and crossed his arms. "Well, maybe we don't want you getting in our way," he shot back. "This is our mission and we're not going to quit!"
Sazanami smirked, slightly mockingly. "Well then," he said. "I guess that's it. May the best man win."
He turned and strode away. I narrowed my eyes at his retreating back. "Naruto. Spider."
Naruto nodded, a puff of smoke forming into a spider over his hand. He flicked it towards the bounty hunter, a small black spot sailing unnoticeably through the air. Sazanami never detected the bug clinging to his back.
That was one lead available to us.
"Shall we continue searching?" I asked.