He couldn't believe his eyes when he received the slip of paper: it had only been a day, and he was already being called for another mission. He had a business to keep! Missions payed well, but not when he wasn't receiving any; could he expect the village Council to keep its pace a few weeks down the road? Definitely not. He had to have a word with them, else he had to figure something out so that he didn't have to leave The Arkane so often. Today, for example, he was expecting a visit by the steward Kazekage and he'd been asked to stop an ugly drug war that began in... A bar. Weirdly enough. He didn't have time for this, and he was going to settle it before work; if he couldn't, it would just have to wait for his evening nap time.
... The place was more than a riot. Within thirteen seconds of his arrival, Shinbatsu witnessed a man have a hatchet buried in between his eyes, another toss an explosive of some sort into a store, and another trip over himself as he tried to run past Shinbatsu. A grimace took over the shopkeeper's face as he easily dodged a rock that was being thrown at his head. He had never seen anything like this! The chances of him getting back to work in time were extraordinarily low. He began to shake his head and turn around, when suddenly he saw someone he certainly did not expect.
He blinked twice. This wasn't a joke: this was one of those ladies off the wanted poster, and there she was, standing almost as calmly as he was in the middle of all the rioting, watching for something. Shinbatsu held his breath and started walking toward her. He had to dodge a few crazy, uneducated attacks along the way, and he saw that at least once she had to, too. At some point, he finally found his way next to her, and he stood by her side, crossing his arms. She looked at him sideways. An apple soared by his head in between them, but the accuracy was so off that neither of them even bothered trying to dodge it.
"... So are you just watching, or are you responsible for this, too?" One of her eyes widened slightly, but she didn't seem scared, by any means. She was more perplexed. "What's it matter to you?"
A man came diving for one of Shinbatsu's knees, and he simply lifted his leg and trampled his head into the ground. In that same motion, the shopkeeper leaned his weight onto his bent knee and rested on it as he turned to make full eye contact with the lady. "Listen. I know who you are, and frankly, I'm busy. Real busy. We could make a fuss out of this and I could turn in a fine bounty by the end of the day, or you can help me out so I can get back to work." Just then, a hatchet flew at the missing nin's head and she had to take a moment to dodge, so Shinbatsu paused for a moment until she composed herself again. "I'm supposed to put an end to this mess. I do see it is a fine means of population control, though. So the way I see this, either you can tell me what's going on here and when it's going to end, or I could kill everyone here, capture you, and go home rich tonight. I don't feel like making a mess and would much rather you cooperated."
Something about what Shinbatsu said seemed to satisfy her. She smiled at him, and when she spoke, she sounded softer than she did the first time. "This is all a distraction for a hit. He's nobody important to the village, but he'll be dead by six PM and this will all be over. Think you can put in a good cover story?" Shinbatsu smiled in return. "You were never here, woman. I saw you leaving the village, but you were too far ahead for me to catch up and get to this mess in time, so I had to let you go. I like it."
By six that night, Shinbatsu turned in a false report for a mission well done. The Red Lights would sleep safe that night.
[MFT]