Private Fox and the Hound [Kaen]

[Kazumi]

Kaen had been regularly assigned to leads squads varying in size from three to twenty in these tactical raids on Unbent strongholds. The Unbent were rarely coordinated enough to organize any matter of defenses, but anytime a larger group of the abominations gathered in any previously fortified location, command referred to it as a ‘stronghold’. So now, as he and his team waited out in the middle of the harsh wastes, his scouts watched as more of the mindless creatures shambled into the abandoned village.

The more Unbent that gathered in one place, the more dangerous any sort of assault would be. Curiously, this also seemed to draw more and more in from a growing area, so waiting until the swarm grew ever larger helps save the shinobi forces time in hunting down stragglers. It was up to the commanding officer for the mission to determine the time to strike, based upon a vast multitude of factors, and with his experience in culling these hordes, Kaen had gotten extremely capable in determining the exact time to strike, with whatever sized forces he had available to him.

They had been camped here for two days, waiting for any signs of change as their numbers swelled, when one of his scouts signaled for Kaen’s attention. It was a rare occurrence for word to come directly from ANBU HQ while in the middle of an assignment, but the sunan vest wearing fox that was rapidly approaching from the east could only have come from one source. Kaen and some of the others recognized the animal, one of the many messenger beasts that the ANBU utilized whenever their forces could not spare a full shinobi to deliver a message. Out of breath, the fox leaps through the ranks and scurried up to Kaen, reaching over with his snout to unbutton a pouch on its vest that contained a narrowly rolled scroll.

This fox was not one of the more advanced animals under the ANBU employ that could talk, but it was intelligent enough that some suspected it just didn’t want to do so. The fox sat down, panting heavily as he waited for Kaen to retrieve the small scroll. It was sealed with a few drops of wax with the ANBU seal. The message within was short but urgent, bearing Kaen’s codename at the top, “report back to HQ immediately, you have been requested for a high priority assignment.” The men near Kaen could not see what was written, but it was plain on their faces that there was hesitant curiosity as to what would force HQ to send a message out to a remote squadron in the middle of an important defense mission.

 

[Kaen]

As the Flame Court Hybrid keenly observed the stronghold one of his scouts would catch his attention. Taking the binoculars from his face holes he would see what all the fuss was about. Not many things took Kaen by surprise, but the sight of the messenger fox did just so. "Oh Suna, what in the world would be so dire that they can’t wait for me to finish up here. I swear, this better be important." The vetted flame wielder grumbled under his breath as he dropped down from his carefully picked vantage point. The agile fox dipped, ducked and dodged its way to him where Kaen would be waiting already down on one knee. Despite the obvious annoyance and inconvenience this was to him, he would not disrespect the tiny animal. He was only doing his job.

Taking the scroll from the red-furred creature he would immediately recognize the seal of the Anbu. Without delay he would open it to read the contents; “Report back to HQ immediately, you have been requested for a high priority assignment.” Instantly the immediate area around Kaen would have a massive spike in temperature. The fox messenger would sense the danger and seek refuge behind a nearby soldier. "Are you KIDDING ME?!" As he growled the last two words he would clench his fist shut over the scroll and it would ignite under the now growing flames exuding out of his body. Taking a deep breath he would attempt to compose himself so as not to cause a disturbance or cause the morale of his troops to falter. The flames would recede away, but the scroll was nothing but ashes and would gently fall to the floor below him. "Somebody pay the beast!" Kaen would bark an order as he lept towards the rear guard. The fox would earn himself a portion of meats for his service, what a good doggo, cat? Whatever it was…


There was only one other suitable person to fill in for him in his absence, and nobody he couldn’t trust more to watch his back, aside from his sister of course, was none other than the Lord Stewart’s own daughter. In secret she was in fact Kaen’s personal apprentice. Don’t let the title fool you, she may very well be capable of besting Kaen himself in combat. Having both Kaen as a mentor, and Lord Sousuke as a father, she was more than qualified to fill the hole that would be left as Kaen responded to this summons. He would find her quickly and fill her in on the details. She would nod in agreement and rush towards the vanguard where Kaen was patiently watching. "Here goes my beauty sleep…" With a begrudged tone he would promptly dash off towards Sunagakure, at least a day’s run without breaks.

And it would take him just about that long to return home, having run the entire way without break or reprieve. He was a sturdy man; a single night of sleeplessness wouldn’t kill him. He would, however, be slightly grumpy. Who wouldn’t be in such circumstances? Slamming open the entryway, having arrived at the Anbu HQ, he would make no attempt in courteous behavior. Despite the earlier mention of being someone with great endurance, he was slightly out of breath and fatigued. "Ruin, reporting in. Now what the hell is so damn important I had to be dragged away from a critical mission? I swear, the kage better be dying…" Tenken, the Anbu’s official leader was away on… business. So, he was quite curious to see who had summoned him. Only another Captain would have the authority to make such a command. Well, there was also the Sennin, Lord Sousuke and the Kazekage. But for real, what gives?

 

[Kazumi]

After nearly a day of long and hard travel, Kaen eventually made his way back to the village proper, having encountered no hostile forces in route. He likely was not sure what to expect. If it had been so vital, why did they not recall his entire team? Perhaps it had something specific to do with him or his past, and it was not worth fully jeopardizing the mission that he had been on. It was not rare to be singled out for assignments within the ANBU; each shinobi had their own skillset and using the right tool for the right job was commonplace, but it was rare for them to expend this much effort to retrieve a shinobi from a mission just to do so.

His arrival was not met with armed guards or open arms, everything was very business as usual until he made it to the chambers of one of his superiors, Gaijin Hiro. Hiro was one of the younger among the administrative ranks, having been recruited into the ANBU less than a decade ago, but having shown more prowess over administrative skills than combative ones. Hiro mostly coordinated with the others at the highest ranks, forming deployment stratagems and larger scale management, and so it was a rare thing for him to be providing a briefing to any one shinobi, even of Kaen’s status.

The next ten minutes would help to alleviate any of the questions that Kaen had wondered about over the past day, though not all of them were one he would want to have heard. It was explained to him that the head of the Oushi-Ouja clan had specifically requested that Kaen provide personal protection for the heir of the clan, Oushi-Ouja Suzume. According to his Hiro, Nabushin expected there to be resistance by the young woman and that a familiar face would make it more likely for the girl to cooperate.

The details were sparser than Hiro would prefer, but it seems as if the heir was recovering from some illness and Nabushin was concerned that she would endanger herself in one way or another. He had attempted to restrict her movement to the Oushi-Ouja compound, but she had evaded her assigned escort within the first few hours of their assignment. From everything presented, it was being put on as a honorable assignment, but even Hiro looked as if he knew someone like Kaen would chafe at could be argued as a pointless misappropriation of influence.

 

[Kaen]

After much debate regarding exactly how Kaen felt about being chosen, and more wasted time getting nowhere with it, Kaen would eventually, begrudgingly, accept the mission and exit HQ. Trying whatever he could to ease his troubled mind about the situation he considered it another test in the long line of fire lit hoops he needed to jump through for a promotion. He tried his best not to think about how it was a classified pormotion and nobody but those select few among the Anbu would even know about it. For now his title as Lord would have to suffice. Wracking his brain along the way he tried with all he could muster to recall just who and what the Oushi-Ouja were. It wasn't anything that rang a bell off the top of his head, perhaps it was just a lack of sleep keeping him from recalling.

Heading to the address given to him by Hiro he would find an overly large door that most likely led to some grand courtyard or something. Sleep deprivation was not something that usually bothered him, but for some reason he was a bit spacey. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep coupled with a long sprint home with a side helping of active duty in his last mission that was all totaling together for a rather nasty recipe that could lead to a ticking time bomb. Just as he was about to knock on the door he realized he was in uniform, and this was an Anbu mission. Why knock when you can just go where you want, he was Anbu after all. Quickly scaling the wall he would find a man that appeared to have been waiting for him. What else was there to do but greet him. "Ruin, reporting as requested. Where might I find the heir of the Oushi-Ouja?"

 

[Kaen]

[Topic left due to inactivity]