Up. Side. Down, R and Janos. Judged.

[R]

Up. Side. Down.
Level: 33
Rank: Chuunin
Profession: Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (ANBU)
Mission Rank: C
Mission Briefing: Rain and fog hang over the village of Bakumatsu and so a criminal makes his haven there. A repeated escapee and constant issue for the Fire country's law proceedings, Kyoshi Abukara has been seen hanging around Bakumatsu frequently by contacts placed within the city. His favorite spot? The Cross Canticle a small little inn lost in the city's cobble stone pathways and old world style architecture. Kyoshi has loads of money, even with his frozen assets and we fear he may be dropping large wads of cash to keep this small, family-owned shop as his own haven. Drag him in with a bloody nose.

[Nazomi]

YOSH, Gosh!

*molests with approval*

[R]

"Hour one and a half, still no sign of any syndicate activity. Still waiting for two o-clock before moving any closer..." Rei mouthed into his tape recorder, the magnetic tape slowly transferring between the mechanical reels inside of the cassette before stopping at a second's notice with a click of the stop button on the electronic equipment.

He had been perched atop this roof for almost two hours now, his arms folded across each other as he couched behind the roof's outcropping and watched the door of a narrow building across the cobbled street. He mindless lifted his right hand and reached for the binoculars at his foot and put them to his eyes again, trying to peer beyond the building's only glass window. It was a nice little place, tidy even. He had actually noticed an older woman, likely in her sixties or seventies come outside with one of those cliché straw brooms and get to sweeping on the stoop before beating aggressively at a stray cat as it pestered her in hunger.

Giving up for the second time he determined at last that he couldn't see anything but the leg of a chair and a small portion of some random coffee table with a glass surface. The carpet had nice, middle-eastern patterns hand woven into and he noted this. Then again, hotel lobbies usually had nice waiting rooms. Small inns didn't usually have that and this is what that was. He hadn't noticed them making a lot of money today, either. To have that sort of a setting, there were only a handful of legitimate means they could have resorted to.

Rei made a throaty noise in thought as he set the binoculars down on the roof's over cropping and narrowed his eyes at the sky above him. Grey clouds of mourning hung above him, slowly creeping across the world's stratosphere. They were heavy with rain, he had noticed this for awhile now as he sat crouched on the rooftop. A stiff cold front blew through and finally convinced him to don the traveling cloak he had brought along with him as a weather advisory. It was comfortable and warm and drawn over his shoulders with not a second to spare as a drop of rain water hit his nose with the precision of Konoha's grandest archer. He winced at its icy touch and immediately batted it from his face in annoyance before drawing the hood over his head, hiding away his crimson length of hair.

His hand robotically reached into a bag of potato chips that he had brought along for the trip, drawing out several of the greasy snacks in one grab before shoving them greedily into his maw with the constant crunch of their demise. Their salty taste lingered on his taste buds before he realized the bag to be empty and attempted licking the salt from its crackling contents in desperation for more. Obviously his mind had now let slip of the objective at hand. He discarded the ruined bag a short while later in disappointment as thunder rolled overhead and he stole another glance down at the hotel's stoop.

"Hello, what have we here?" he mused to himself as the ANBU operative spied a familiar face and immediately reached into his cloak and drew out a sheet of paper, checking between it and the man as he lingered, checking suspiciously over his shoulder and around him. Rei utilized the binoculars for a closer inspection to be certain of his suspicions.

"Jackpot!" he snickered before shoving the wanted poster back into his cloak and tucking the binoculars into their slot on his belt just as he was getting to his cramped feet. He stretched his joints and limbs with a groan as he stalked to the other end of the roof where a ladder awaited him, for a lazier way to scale down to the alley below.

Kyoshi Abukara had been wanted on money laundering charges for some time now in the Fire country and always seemed to grease his way through the fingers of the law just when they thought to have him cornered. He had been in and out of jail a total of three times, two of them escapes and the first being the exploitation of a loophole in Konoha's since patched law proceedings. Lawyers were such a two faced and necessary evil with the current legal system that it almost made Rei wanted to go on a finger taking spree to make them all quit their jobs. Of course, knowing their asshole behavior, they'd probably try to sue him instead of quitting. He didn't have that kind of money, even if it did seem like a fun idea.

Rei dropped the adjustable headset's microphone from its raised position and tapped the talk button on the piece settled into his ear on his way down, a green light blinking into confirmation of the physical command.

"Silver Spoon, this is Empty House, do you copy?" he barked quietly into the radio transmitter as his right hand let go of the ladder and he landed with a small bend of the knees in the rainy alley way before proceeding for the outlet that led to the street and subsequently, to his mission point.

[Janos]

A smile played about his lips with about as much hope of permanance as a snowball in hell. The chill wind blew, ruffling the hair of the shinobi stationed on the roof behind the small-town inn. He hadn't been fully briefed as to the offences the man they tracked had committed, but for now it was enough that the law required him to be dealt with.

There was something about the chill breeze that even his ninja gear could not entirely shield him from, as well as the tension of a stakeout, that made his spirits uncharacteristically high. It seemed like his perceptions had slowed, existing in this perfect moment. All the cares of the world just faded away, except for the target. He focused more and more until his focus drifted away...

A jangling sound interrupted him from his accidental reverie, the sudden shock causing him to leap while barely suppressing a yelp of surprise. He righted himself, quickly scanning the area he had been ordered to survey before he answered the communicator. He had never used such a device before. It was disconcerting and uncomfortable, but he supposed that was the price to pay for being allowed to accompany a distinguished ANBU member on a mission. He hoped so, anyways. He'd hate to be wearing the damn thing for nothing.

He twisted the dial on the side of the device latched onto his head, attempting to isolate the message his...partner?...no, more like squad leader, though it was only a 'squad' of two. He didn't know much about the man he had been told he was privileged to fight alongside, save that he was a renowned ANBU member. He was also rumoured to possess a doujutsu of some sort, though thus far he had been much more amiable than any Uchiha, and, if his present behaviour and competence was any guide, much less inbred than the Hyuuga. Finally, his fumbling fingers found the frequency; the message came through quiet, but crystal-clear.

"Silver Spoon, this is Empty House, do you copy?"

He wondered what exactly he was supposed to copy; he lacked both paper and pen, and he was quite sure he hadn't been instructed to bring either. Nevertheless, he formed a reply.

"Empty House, this is Silver Spoon. I'm not sure what you want me to copy but I can hear you just fine. There's nothing new back here. I assume we're proceeding as planned?"

Unprofessionally but not cluelessly, he cut off contact, unsure whether the ANBU member would deem a second communication necessary. Crouching down on the roof, then springing up, he flipped to the alleyway behind the inn. He landed silently, as befits a ninja. Come what may, he would try not to disappoint.

The narrow alleyway was darkened by the shadows above, but even with the impending storm there was more then enough light to see by. He was unaware if his ally knew of his bloodline limit... It wasn't exactly something he advertised, the attitude towards the Kaguya clan in Konoha being what it was, but neither was it a secret. Nevertheless, in situations like these, his kekkai genkai gave him a distinct advantage.

Holding a hand to his equipment pouch in case the clatter of kunai gave him away, he approached the disused back door to the inn. It was in a much better state of repair then he expected. It had seemed Rei was right; something unusual was definitely going on. It was locked securely, but it didn't appear to be bolted from the inside. After attempting, briefly, to force it open, he realized he had another option.

Extending a sharpened talon of bone from his right index finger, he stabbed it directly into the lock. With the telltale sound of breaking metal, it gave way. There was still no sign of his superior, but Janos felt he should wait, instead of entering unprepared. Caution was a lesson that had come late to the Genin, but, eventually, he learned it well.

And, unless he was mistaken, the telltale patch of silence betrayed the presence of the ANBU Chuunin, already behind him. He turned to face him, retracting the talon before the other ninja could see, showing off his handiwork.

The smile, despite all futility, returned.

[R]

"Yeah, go ahead and open the box now," Rei instructed into the microphone after receiving his response from the Genin.

Copy? Does he actually think I want him to write something down?

Rei was left confounded at this and made a quirky expression before shaking it off. Kids said the darnedest things.

Glancing to his left and right respectively, Rei pressed down on the hood of his cloak, holding it securely to his scalp by way of his palm. He was certain this was going to make his hair all frizzy and messy beneath, but did it really matter? It was raining after all, lots of people would be frizzy and messy, not to mention wet. A puddle imploded around the sole of his right boot as he stepped through it, the surface tension breaking in the shallow collection of water as he entered the alleyway, giving another shot over his shoulder. If all was going as planned, Janos would have that back door open by now. Rei slightly wondered why they had given him a mere Genin to tag along. Must have been some sort of job shadowing thing.

Tugging the ANBU mask free beneath his cloak, Rei slipped his porcelain identity over his face and secured it well enough so that he could see as effectively as one would hope through the slits it provided for such a purpose. From this point on, he was no longer Rei Junsui. He was R and R's key detail in appearance was that of a white Usagi mask with crimson intricacies detailed in random brush strokes to create wild and vivid patterns meant to burn themselves into the brains of those who saw them. That was the only purpose these masks had and they fulfilled that purpose very well.

R grasped a kunai from the holster situated on his upper thigh and rounded the corner, twirling the trowel-like weapon by the ringed pommel as he did so. He was expecting to have to aid his lower ranking counterpart in "fixing" the door so they could enter the premise and grab their target by the collar, maybe even smack him around a little bit while they were at it. R was all for police brutality against scum like this asshole.

Blinking as he took note of the partially ajar door, the black op strode his way up the steps silently behind his counterpart, while simultaneously shoving the kunai away and out of view. For a moment he thought he could see the boy toying with something pearl white in his hands from over his shoulder, but the agent hadn't been sure as to whether or not he was just too tired from lack of sleep lately.

Falling back into posture to hide that he was attempting to pure over the younger shinobi's shoulder, R declined to make eye contact with him, before doing a brief double take. Was this kid actually smiling? He was. What did he do to make him smile. Analyzing it further, Rei figured it to be a smile of accomplishment. Maybe Janos had done something that he had determined to be of significant accomplishment for his respective rank? It was just an opened door. either way, the operative wasn't about to dwell on things.

Moving past his comrade, the ANBU slipped a small mirror between his fingers from a pouch fastened at his belt and slid his back against the wall, angling the shimmering surface just enough so as to peer around the corner. They were inside of a residential building now, after all. Screams of terror and fright weren't something they could really afford, what with breaking and entering without a warrant to show for it and all. He had also heard the politics were a bitch to deal with when you were rolling around in somebody else's sandbox rather than your own.

"Clear" he shot a hushed message to his Genin partner before slipping around the corner and depositing the mirror back into its sleeved pouch. He analyzed the next obstacle before him, which was a choice of two paths, a set of stairs, and a hallway that tunneled from said stairs. R hated stairs. Stairs meant creaking wood and creaking wood was very bad for stealth, for wood often croaked in stairs constructed from it unless properly balanced, leveled, and cared for incessantly. Most people just dealt with the noise and this was always a problem.

"I don't suppose you could fly at all?" queued the higher ranking shinobi as he scratched his head in thought at the situation and glanced to his partner for the duration of this mission.

"Uhh...never tried." his reply was as simple as that. Kinda of useless in a lot of ways, but it helped to make a decision on R's part. They'd have to scale the stairs, squeaks or not and rely on the idea that they may consider it to be one of the homely inn's resident occupants.

"We're going upstairs. Any objections?"

[Janos]

The ANBU shoved past him, mask in place; Janos felt the wind of his passage before he saw him, or the mask. With the mask on, the Chuunin seemed to be an entirely different person from the person he had worked with earlier in the mission. He seemed more refined, more brutal, with a 'kill you rather than look at you' attitude.

He seemed to be holding a mirror in his hand, using it to look around the doorway. Janos thought this was rather stupid. He entertained the thought of the mask obscuring his vision that he actually couldn't see what lay just a few feet in front of him, but dismissed the idea. He'd have tripped already.

Janos followed him eagerly but cautiously, like a curious puppy. He was way out of his depth, but was determined to put forth a good effort, and make as little an ass of himself as possible. Rei was peeking around the corner with the mirror again. Janos stared blankly ahead for a moment, shook his head, then continued walking across the room.

"Clear," Rei said, quitely but forcefully, voice slightly muffled by his mask. Not even beginning to consider the utter lack of information content in the sentence, he followed the higher-ranked ninja around the corner.

There was a stairway. It was a wooden stairway. Look at the wooden stairway. See the ANBU looking at the wooden stairway? It is a puzzling stairway, thinks the ANBU. It is a puzzling ANBU, thinks the Genin.

"I don't suppose you could fly at all?" asked the ANBU. Janos didn't suppose he could either, but assumed the other ninja thought he may have invisible wings. Glancing over his shoulder, he came to the conclusion that if he had invisible wings, they were indeed invisible.

"Uhh...never tried," he responded honestly.

Should I have tried? I mean...people don't normally fly... Can I fly?

He tried. Nothing happened. He blinked furiously, regained his composure, and looked again to the more experienced Chuunin.

"We're going upstairs. Any objections?" The higher-ranked shinobi spoke the words like they were grim declarations of doom. Janos really didn't see how one could object to going up a flight of stairs in any case. They were just stairs. He remained silent, daring to roll his eyes. Any minute now, he expected to see the ANBU walk ponderously up each stair, as if it was a crushing effort to bring each foot one step higher from the ground.

See the wooden stairway. See the exasperated Genin walk up the wooden stairway. See the ANBU fume. He is a very angry ANBU. See the Genin wave at the top of the stairs.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" were what may very well have been Janos's last words.

[R]

R glared up at the top of the stairs, his right foot hovering over it no more than an inch or two. He had exercised caution where Janos had simply, bolted up the stairs at a remarkably reckless pace. The ANBU would have liked to keep things nice and quiet and make this as silent and ninja-ish as humanly possible. Janos was just a noob, after all, so not much was expected of him. Rei would lecture him over the finer points of stealth on the way back to Konoha, their perpetrator in hand and how not being careful could fucking cut you wide open. Literally. Who knew what lurked beyond a certain corner at any given moment, after all? They were taught this basic in ANBU. He wondered if Janos would learn that lesson the hard way later in life.

Rei sighed and gave up on the idea of stealth right now. This was stupid and, though he loathed to admit it. They could just drag this asshole out by his balls without being opposed in any form. they were shinobi after all. Anyone who tried to stop them would simply get a face full of pwn. What sucked about this sort of idea is that they could easily be identified on markings alone and retroactively be the trigger to an international incident. Those were never cool when it was your fault, even if they were common in recent memory these days.

Finally arriving at the top-most landing, Rei passed one more glare of disapproval at Janos and then peered to his right before taking steps down the hallway, his boots silent on the hardwood flooring, a constant flow of chakra to his feet had long deflected any water to their soles, thus eliminating any chances of that annoying squeak that often came with wet boots. Rei hated things that went squeak too loudly. It was annoying. Annoying things were bad and because it was bad it had to go. Like Squeaking boots. Those had to go.

Looking around him at the multitude of doors, the ANBU observed the situation. Their target could be in either of these rooms and even the slightest error could prove to totally screw them over for this mission. It was for that moment's duration that Rei was tempted to pull a Janos and simply play a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the Genin to decide on which room to barge into and raid for their bounty. It was at that moment that Rei took note of the obvious plaque staring back at him on the doorway he was, conveniently positioned right in front of. It read the very name of his target.

Motioning for Janos to come closer without even looking at his partner, he continued to look up and down the door. It was constructed of oak, maybe cedar from the looks of it. No, cedar was smoother and had a reddish tint to it. It was definitely oak. He didn't even have to ask the audience or phone a friend this time. If only he was on that game show with hat washed up talk show host. He'd have won a million Ryou for that answer,wouldn't he? then again, you had to be like a college graduate and meet all other sorts of stupid requirements. Not to mention the taxes. The taxes were murder. One thing in life was always certain. Death and taxes.

Fuck the IRS, nobody would get my money...

Rei had managed to zone out at that point before he finally awakened in his own mind with little outward indication, although he had probably given up some sort of sign as to his daydreaming with his significantly awestruck pause in front of a simple door. Nobody was that interested in doors. Well, Rei had been. Sort of... Kinda of... Just a little bit? People had a lot to be thankful to doors about. They kept you sheltered and kept you in privacy. Rei was thankful. This door was not a deserving door for thanks, though. This one had to pay. For it had done bad things. Like harboring criminals. Bad door.

Bending over and shutting one eye to peek through the keyhole, Rei tried to spy and see if there would be any installed traps if one attempted to tamper with the handle, only to to be met by, of all things, somebody else's eyeball.

Who's this? Do I know this eyeball?

That must have been the owner of the eyeball's thoughts in Rei's opinion as his azure eyes peered, or at least attempted to peer into the next room.

"...er....room service? Ah, fuck it, let's just get him," Rei gave up the game as he straightened his posture and threw out, if he did say so himself, a rather well placed kick that practically shattered the door to several different shards of composite wood. Alas, the door was not oak as he had guessed, perhaps at some level it had been created from varying oak shavings, but it was, indeed, composite pressed board. What a cheap way to do things. Rei felt cheated. Bad door.

Now it was time to get the bad guy. He hoped Janos had his ninja wire out. Rei would want to put a bag over his head for that prisoner of war type of effect. He had always wanted to do that. A lot. It seemed like a cool idea. A really cool idea. Rei's ideas were always made of win. Always.

[Janos]

After climbing Mt. Stairway, (and waiting patiently while the glaring ANBU did the same), he stood proudly at its summit and beamed, while his partner came face to face with the next death-defying obstacle in their path.

A hallway.

The ANBU walked swiftly, and using some power known only to him magically knew which room their target dwelled. Or, so Janos thought, until he read the name on the door. That was the next terrifying obstruction they had to face. A door. The ANBU seemed to freeze, not knowing how to progress.

After several minutes, Janos decided to give Rei a helpful hint (that of the word 'doorknob') when he snapped out of the intimidation tactics the door had used on him (For a clever, clever, door it was.) and kicked it, shattering it into pieces, and knocking the person behind it to the ground, unconscious.

"Well, that was...easy. The person was less trouble than that damn stairway."

Rei shot him another glare, and gestured towards the bedsheet, while fumbling with the man's pockets. Unsure what Rei wanted, he draped the sheet over his head. Something was wrong, though. Something was...missing.

Ah, he had it. Eyeholes!

He quickly withdrew a kunai from his touch and sliced one round hole for each eye into the sheet. The first thing he saw was the mirror, and staring back at him was...a ghost! He leapt at least a foot into the air, yelping quitely so as not to disturb the grumpy, grumpy ANBU.

Slowly, comprehension dawned; he WAS the ghost! It came as quite a shock, for he didn't remember dying, only putting the sheet on his head? Maybe it was a poisoned sheet. Yes, yes that had to be it. The sinister, dastardly plot of the man they were sent to capture. Poisoned sheets!

New to the whole haunting thing, he wasn't exactly sure what ghosts could and couldn't do. He felt, though, that he should at least enter into the spirit (ha, ha) of the thing. He recalled something about...ectoplasm, and...chains and...screaming?

He said "Wooo" very quietly, under his breath. Rei barely turned to look. He also seemed to remember that ghosts could walk through walls. Game for anything, he walked towards the area beside the door. He walked towards the wall.

"Ow." His head hurt. The wall still felt very wallish indeed, as did his head.

"Damn ghosts," he grumbled, "not tellin' me how they walk through walls..."

Rei looked over then, rolling his eyes in disbelief, and yanked the sheet off Janos in one pull. Able to see the room clearly again, all Janos said was "...oh."

After much trial and error, and a rather intricate descension of Mt. Stairway, they were well on the path to home. Janos, feeling he needed to lighten the mood, decided to chronicle this journey as an epic tale of mountain climbing, woe, and death. Well, almost death. Ghosts, alright? Bruises, certainly.

To his surprise, Rei agreed, though perhaps he was feeling giddy and triumphant from his defeat of the vile Door. Janos cleared his throat, and mustered up his deepest, very best, announcers voice...

"In a world where stairways were king..."

"No 'in a world', kid. We're in the same world before, " Rei replied, ANBU mask slipping rakishly over his eye, almost causing him to tumble and become a ghost himself.

"In a land..."

Rei growled. Janos grinned sheepishly and chuckled, clearing his throat again.

"On a rooftop, on the edge of town!" He paused, expecting Rei to interrupt. The mask remained silent.

"A renegade door! A vile renegade door!" Now he knew why Rei was silent. He was trying not to laugh. Janos wished he could fly. He tried again. Nothing happened. Deciding to give it just ONE more try, he motioned for silence.

"When your life is no longer your own, when everyone you know can fly, when stairways stop ninja in a single creak!"

Their laughter echoed all the way to Konoha.

[Janos]

Done. Judge please.

[Shinamari Kuishen]

Tagged, getting this in a few minutes.

[Shinamari Kuishen]

... That was an interesting read...

Rei: You're awesome buddy, and your ideas are made of win. A missing letter and like two spelling errors, other than that, flawless. Only beef I had with it is that you used terms like 'noob' and 'pwn'. It made me wince, so try to refrain from that please.

50 LP, 20 MP and 400 Ryou

Janos: You are always a blast to read my friend. Your character is an odd one. Made me laugh a couple of times, so that's always a good thing. I didn't notice any errors though. ^^

40 LP, 20 MP and 400 Ryou.

Good read guys.