A Rat, a Dog and a Fish Walk into a Bar

[Tenkō]

In retrospect, Tenkō was not entirely sure why she decided to accept this mission. It was a bit of a stretch from her standard M.O. to say the least. She was a fighter. It was in her blood. It was, in a general and overarching sense, all that she knew how to do. A bodyguard mission would have been right up her alley. However, this was an A-Rank mission. That was an easy couple of hundred thousand ryō in her pocket should she succeed, and her expenses were still pretty high. Besides she often toyed with the idea of being an oinin.

Walking through the city's streets she was a little swept away by all the hustle and bustle. Konohagakure might as well have been a quaint little country village in comparison to how active this place was. This was certainly the type of place where one in their "Springtime of Youth" could go wild. Pulling out a piece of paper she looked at the address written on it and then scanned her surroundings.

"Ruby's Red Teahouse," she read out loud to herself as she looked at the teahouse. It looked so out of place, a small relic of the past, a simple wooden teahouse amongst a forest of towering buildings. Making her way of the painted wooden steps she entered into the building. It was nicely decorated and surprisingly spacious. A hostess quickly greeted her and escorted her to a room where she would wait.

She remained in the room for the next fifteen minutes, sipping on the tea that had been brought to her, before the door would slide open revealing a man wearing a black suit, gold shirt, and a matching fedora. Tenkō glanced at him before continuing to sip on her tea.

"I'm sorry if I kept you waiting," the man said as he entered into the room and took a seat across from her. "I wanted to make sure that I was not followed. My name is Detective Kato, and I believe you are the ninja I requested." As he spoke Tenkō could almost feel him give her a once over, scanning to see if she was the right person for the job. In return, she did the same to him. he was thin, but looked like he could put up a decent fight for an average person. However, what she ended fixated on were his swirling sideburns.

"It is best to be safe than sorry," Tenkō said simply in response to his tardiness. "And yes, I am here to fulfill the request you sent to the village." She reached into her flak jacket and pulled out a small scroll before offering it to Kato. "Pretty vague for such a highly ranked mission."

"Ah, yes," the detective said as he skimmed through the scroll. It merely stated the intention of the mission, the place to meet, and the tentative reward for completion. "Since everything seems to check out I'll get straight to the point. I have been in charge of investigation of a business mogul by the name of Yukada Rikimaro, or as he used to be called 'No Neck Riki,' back in his former gang days."

"No Neck Riki?" Tenkō questioned, trying to comprehend how a man gets that kind of moniker.

"Yeah. He was a hit man for a drug lord in his youth. His signature would be to cut his victim's necks so deep it might as well have been ripped out. Unfortunately, we have never been able to pin a murder on him. At least until recently."

"Did he slip up?"

"No. As he grew older he gained more influence. Stopped doing his own hits and started running his own gang. He's one of this country's most notorious crime lords and we couldn't touch him. So I caught one of his lackeys. Planted him as a mole. Started building up our whole case around this rat. Just as we're putting the finishing touches on the case he gets found out. I tell him to come in. That we can protect him," Kato says, a little bit of anger slipping through his once reserved tone. "He says we killed him and fled in the night."

"You want me to find him then," Tenkō surmised.

"Precisely. We can bring in Rikimaro with what we have now, but without the testimony nothing will stick." Kato pulled out a folder and handed it to Tenkō. Inside was a detailed analysis of her target's personality, favorite locations, habits, etc. Everything she would need to know to help track him down.

"Then you can count on me. I'll bring your rat home for you," she stated as she flipped through the documents.