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| - Ikido, who was already in the village, was in the most unsuspecting place ever, outside a cookie shop, advertising the cookies. "Cookies! Get your hot delicious cookies today! We have the best cooks in town, and now you can try one of their specialties! What's even better is that for the whole day, it's free! So come on in and get your free dozen of cookies!" Ikido was shouting. Even though he was in a mission, he couldn't reveal himself. So that meant that he needed a job, some money, and a temporary apartment. If he wanted to find any information, a place like a Ramen store was the best option to start listening. He also didn't know anything about a Ramen shop in this village. Though, he wondered where his trusted companion went. He wondered how he was dedicating his time to complete the mission. Uta happened to be just walking around, when he managed to hear the man's yelling. He didn't care to get a job, but he did find an apartment and he had money already. He walked upon the cookie selling man and chuckled softly. "Heheh, cookies eh? I would but I am trying to stay healthy." He spoke. He knew that he was indeed on a mission, but he wanted no job. He simply walked around exploring and throwing change to the homeless and watching them smile. He seemed to think that today was a nice day for him, which would probably keep any bloodlust from reaching his mind. "Quite a nice day isn't it sir?" He decided he'd make a small conversation with his "partner", in case in the event that anyone was watching him, they'd discover only a man speaking to a cookie advertiser. Today he wore nothing more than a a simple black fitted top, that made his muscle look bigger and than what it was in all forms. He allowed his red hair to flow down his back, and his pants matched the black upon his shirt, being completed with black zori. Over all of this he wore a burgundy cloak, that was quite loose in constrast to the shirt on his upper body. Under his cloak lie a bag of shuriken and kunai along with his giant sword, Youkoubara, that was now in its smallest form, that of a dagger. "Ah, it is a fabulous day. A fabulous day for cookies that is! Please come inside young man and have some cookies, you won't regret it! You get a dozen free, so come on in!" Ikido replied, pretending to not know who Uta was. "Come on, the chocolate chip cookies are the best in this shop, try some! If you don't want to try some, then would you like a complimentary water bottle?" Ikido asked. Ikido despised this job, but he needed to act as normal as possible. He hoped that this wouldn't last long. As Ikido was speaking to Uta, two girls notice the advertisement and go inside. As the two girls spend a few minutes, they walk out with their cookies. "Hey, did you hear about that new gambling joint that was set up recently?" One of the girls ask. "No, I didn't. What's all there?" The other girl replies. "Well, I don't know all the details, but I've heard they got all sorts of games like Shougi and whatnot. I don't know where it's at, but all I know is it's apparently at some ramen shop." The first girl says. As they walk away, they continue on their conversation while they enjoy their cookies. Uta's eyes immediately flicker to those of Ikido's. He hoped the male heard what they had said and could put pieces together mentally. Gambling joints are where informants, information brokers, and other people among the secret underworld usually are located in some form or shape. They always are around. The inner thoughts of Uta spoke from within his mind, letting it replay over a few times before stopping. He did not signal Ikido in any manner as he just turned and walked off. He figured that since Ikido was working under a skilled, beautiful, shogun such as Toki, he had to have atleast enough intelligence to have understood the new objective was to find this Ramen Shop. His new goal would be to abandon his job for a while and transition perfectly on to the task of finding the Gambling Setup, wherever it might be. He had seen a map before in a man's hand but he hadn't been able to find his own. He just wanted to attack this whole country and be able to protect the Innocents at the same time, but there was no way doing this at the moment. He hoped Ikido would follow him, but surely the man was smart enough to either follow Uta or complete the same objective in a different way. Ikido thought to himself, "If I abandon this job to go and investigate the Ramen Shop, it'll look suspicious." He decided to just keep advertising for the cookie shop. Once the cookie shop closes, he'll go have dinner with Uta in any of the Ramen Shops. Of course, he can't go there to gamble. He'd simply have to order a dish of Ramen and listen to the people talk, while pretending he wasn't listening. However, he'd hoped that Uta will at least be able to find out the exact location of the Ramen Shop and tell him the directions, without anyone noticing anything. It was going to be a tough task, but right now, he has no other options. Minutes later, he managed to find a map posted on the side of a building. "Finally." He stared at it for minutes on end, as he was analyzing its displayed routes until he found Ramen shop, as it was the only one on this side of the large village. He had to tell Ikido where it was and wait for him to get off his new "job" whenever it closed. He doesn't found a piece of paper that floated from the small breeze of the wind. He grabbed it swiftly and wallked into a outdoor closet, around the back of a building. Amongst the walls of it, It was covered by thick spider webbing and held several insect bodies that had gotten caught and had been abandoned due to the spider's migration to another area. He smiled as he but his finger and placed a liquidy red drop of blood on the paper which then spread out and showed a full scale map on it. It showed where the cookie store was and the location of the Ramen Shop. The blood had even created a meeting place like Uta wanted in an alley way behind a building, in between the cookie shop and the Gambling Joint / Ramen shop but closer to the Ramen shop. His pure essence is what powered this blood instead of chakra, so the sensors within the village wouldn't have been able to detect it. As he opened the door he looked around to see if anyone was watching. "Clear." His mental mouth had spoken. He watched as he let the paper go, that the paper floated into the air and towards Ikido. It was folded into a sort of paper airplane. His pure essence of life is what kept it going so it found its way to Ikido, which he wasn't so far from himself, and it would peck him right upon his head then he hoped Ikido would open it. He walked, getting the supplies he would need for this little "event". Ikido noticed the paper, picked it up, looked at it, and said, "Oh, this is just a bunch of math work. Oh well." Ikido crumpled the paper up and put in his pocket. In reality, the paper showed the locations of the Ramen shop and alley. "Gosh, who's to say spies won't be nearby?" He thought to himself. Later that night, when the cookie shop closed, Ikido went to the Ramen shop instead of the alley. He ordered Ramen, sat down and started listening to others, while eating Ramen and reading a book, so as not to be noticed. He had waited patiently for several minutes, but he had gotten agitated after waiting for so long. Uta walked to the Ramen shop and expected to be the only one there, but he noticed Ikido upon entering. He ordered his favorite flavor of ramen and waited as the cook prepared his dish. He had began drawing upon a piece of a scroll, sketching out a picture of a man. The had held a sword in his hand and had a stern look on his face as if he was a fierce tyrant. Uta had still been observing the surroundings with his eyes occasionally but he was also using his ears for hearing as well as his instinct and his reflexes. He could tell if someone was near. He felt as several men passed him and when they got in front of him, he could see when they made their way to the back of the shop. He glanced at Ikido and then continued watching, hoping that he'd caught that detail. Ikido, who noticed the men, pretended as not to notice. He couldn't just walk in and expect to not be noticed. He had to come up with a plan and had to continue listening. Listening was only the best option now, he had to gain the trust of the civilians. And then go into the gambling area, and hopefully find more about the Black Crown. Though, he smiled, wondering what Uta was going to do. Uta laughed within his mind and smirked a bit physically. He has spotted two doors. He concluded on was a restroom the other was the backroom. He knew what tactic he'd take but he wanted to do it thoroughly. He walked calmly to the counter and the rang the bell, in which he hoped would get the cook's attention. Moments later, the man came speaking with a nice tone that Uta knew was not genuine. "Yes? Is your meal alright? How may I help you?" He said, smiling, clearly waiting on Uta to reply. "Yes, my dish was delicious. My question was that, could you possibly direct me to the restroom?" He asked, making a ingenuine smile just like the man but his was more beliveable. Uta watched as the man's eyes moved swiftly to the left, the same direction of the small hallway that the men had went down, that led to the two doors. The man spoke. "Just down this hall and the door on the left." There it was. The process of elimination worked perfectly. "Thank You." He said. He watched as the cook turned to go back in the kitchen area as Uta walked away and he looked at Ikido and made a gesture for him to follow. There weren't any other people in the store, so he decided this was the perfect timing. Ikido closed his book and stood up, leaving a tip behind for whoever cleans up the dish. He decided to go to the right door and walked inside. While Ikido was walking, he wondered how this was becoming too easy. He'll be ready if anything bad happens. However, he didn't look like he was cautious, as not to attract attention. When he walked inside, he saw... Inside the gambling room lies many tables dedicated to a wide variety of games, from card based to die based and everything else in between. At different points of the room stand burly, muscled up individuals, bouncers who show cheaters and rough housers the door. Disregarding the bouncers, everyone looked fairly normal and all seemed to be having a fairly good time. The dealers all dress nicely in tuxedos, dress coats, attire befitting of a dealer. The patrons themselves are equally well dressed, wearing casual, but medium to high class attire, all of them hoping to walk out with more money than they came in with. The clothes that Uta wore weren't necessarily, high on the level of class, however they didn't look trashy, so he didn't stick out much. He had walked in and could seemingly feel the eyes of the people who were already there on him. He was here for business purposes so he immediately looked for someone who could be an information broker or snitch. He had witnessed them both several times in Amegakure, they always were out at night, ready to give information for the right price. They usually had some form of spies under them, as that was the way they obtained their information. He didn't want to simply walked in and observe, that'd look suspicious. He decided he would parttake in the activity of one of the games. He made his way to a table with only a few men. This game was one he'd seen before, the gamemaster had three cups on the table and placed a rock underneath it. After shuffling it rapidly, the player has to pick the cup with the Rick under it. He watched the other men play at the current moment, just observing yo see if there was any foul play in the game. Ikido, who was not interested in some cup came, decided to go to a regular Oicho-Kabu game. It contained Kabufuda cards. Kabu means 8-9 and has names for numbers 1-10. There is a dealer that the players must beat. "The goal of the game is to reach 9. As in baccarat, the last digit of any total over 10 makes your hand: a 15 counts as 5, a 12 as 2, and a 20 as 0. Having two of the same card makes it the card number: a 10 and a 10 = 10, 1 and a 1 = 1." (Wikipedia, 2015). The worst hand in the game is an eight, nine, and three. (The information of the game was found on and all credit is given to the author.) Ikido decided to wait for the next game before playing. Uta watched his game, while also watching around him, waiting for anything suspicious. Occasionally his eyes would land themselves upon Ikido, watching him. He was just examining him and seeing what he was doing. After looking a few times, he decided to just go back to his game. Once it was his turn, Ikido sat down. His opponents were some old dude who looked like his face got smashed in, a pretty lady who happened to be a body builder, and some masked dude with a long nose. The dealer was someone in a suit with a nose ring. They all began the game, and Ikido will occasionally look at Uta and the other players in the area.
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