Prey

The calm before the storm was always the time when someone really needed to be afraid. That silence that says the most. When things are happiest, it's only the etching foretelling the cascade of danger and soil. The Ninja clans of China were taught to harness this calm to their advantage. They had the duty of seeping the chaos coming into the cracks and leak it through the transitional boundary. Vengeance must not be seen, nor should the causation of it. Chaos must be chaos, random in appearance. Ninja were taught to be articulate but elusive and deceitful. They were taught to blend and flow with society like rain drops falling in line with a bustling river. Hattori did just that. He didn't mask himself with a massive robe. Too suspicious. No, he kept himself lightly equip. Scoping out his target, he had been pursuing the same noble for the past week.

First, the noble would wake up and stomp around his residence barking commands for the family and the staff they enslaved. Abusive. Greedy. Manipulative. The man, after his rituals, would spend a few hours at an executive building. Hattori had a hard time getting in the first few days, but he was easily able to disguise himself as one of the maintenance crew. Crawling through the walls and shafts of its skeleton, he was able to eavesdrop on the noble's plans and secrets. He didn't hold any weapons on him, otherwise he'd be thought of as an assassin rather than simply a spy. Even then, he risked execution over arrest. After leaving the building, the man would make a routine trip to the bar. A routine visit to the same escort. A routine visit to a shady backroom in said bar. Hattori did a good job of tailing him undetected. Now, walking through the masses, he focused on the man's return home. Hattori had hidden his suit and equipment in a shack not far from the residence.

This noble was going to die. He was a criminal. The Nin had contracted him to eliminate the man, and he had an obligation to follow through. Once the man got comfortable within his own home, Hattori had mounted the walls, donning a dark suit. Shuko on his hands, a thin bow strapped to his back. A wakizashi on his waist, and three shuriken on a sash going across his chest. Looking down, he noticed one of the guards leaning against the wall. Softly rolling forward, Hattori pawed the guard in the throat, smacking the man's head against the wall and knocking him out. Dragging the body into a bush, Hattori kept low to the ground and sprinted across the estate's field. He kept note of the guards' field of views, curving around them. Approaching one of the doors, he hid behind the room leading to it's wall, peaking around the corner and viewing two guards both wielding batons. Whistling, the guard on the left complained about one of the other guard's messing with them again and the other took it seriously. Leading the serious guard away, Hattori put the man into a choke-hold before dragging him away and placing him in a near-empty barrel. Convenient, but he didn't question it.

Returning to the now impatient guard, he used the shuko to climb the wall and watched the last guard come out from his position. Upside-down, Hattori let his body fall, tensing his muscle to slow the descent and wrapping his legs around the guard and lifting him up, putting him to sleep with a foot choke-hold. He also put the guard in a barrel. Again, he wasn't going to question it. It didn't make sense, but he didn't mind. Returning to the door, he made a slit in it to peer through, seeing the hallway was empty. Opening the door, he immediately spun into the entrance, closing the door softly. In his momentum, he climbed onto the high ceiling, opening a panel to give him access to the space beyond the ceiling. Closing the panel, he lightly crawled across and listened for his target. Finding the man complaining to himself, he opened up the panel, unveiled his bow and dropped softly behind the man. Suddenly, a blade was at his throat.

Another ninja. Not one of his kind, but of another school. "I knew you would come, Hattori. You didn't think your actions wouldn't give you notoriety?" Hattori didn't flinch or speak, he didn't want to reveal his identity. He kept his bow drawn. If he released the arrow, the man was dead. If the ninja killed him, he would release the arrow. But he also didn't shoot to keep himself alive. A stalemate. "No need to speak. Now, this charade...With me being targeted? I would kindly ask you to stop it. Put down the bow." Hattori didn't budge, but knew the blade on his throat was prepared to stab through. Tension building, Hattori returned the string to neutral, dropping the bow. "Good. Now, there are multiple ninja here for my protection. So let's put down the blade." The ninja threatening Hattori gave him breathing room, albeit hesitantly. Rightfully so, as Hattori sliced the ninja's throat with his shuko, bringing his hand back and withdrawing his wakizashi. Deflecting multiple arrows, he shifted to punch his target, stabbing it through his shoulder and into the man's table behind him, pinning the noble.

Drawing multiple arrows and clenching them in his hand, Hattori would procedurally use his hand as a makeshift quiver for quick-firing. Several thuds could be heard, allowing him to turn back to the man with his last arrow. "Maybe you should have spent less time ruining the lives of others...instead of needing such a flimsy security." Hattori pierced the man's heart with an arrow, removing it after a few seconds and picking up the one he dropped before. Replacing the empty space of his scabbard with the wakizashi, he made sure the blood was wiped on a cloth wrapped around the container's tip. Making his escape, Hattori was pursued by several guards wagging batons. He had no time to retrieve his arrows, so he only had two to work with and three shuriken.

Running through the forest, feeling woes, Hattori was chased by several guards and he was not keen on potentially revealing his face. It was not his job to kill the guards, but ninja were fair game. It was a cruel underworld for him, but his contract was sealed. He approached the village, hoping to lose them in the night crowd.

Shrouding himself into the night crowd, Hattori had transitioned between buildings as the nobleman's security spread out. Keeping a keen eye on his pursuers, he slowly removed and hid pieces of his costume. Leading into what seemed like a hidden brothel, he took advantage of the intoxication going on to steal a set of clothes. Stumbling out of the bar, he released his hair and styled it really quickly to make him seem like an old drunkard. Holding a bottle of stolen sake, he bobbed around amidst the crowd. People like that were usually ignored, so he was able to stay away from the eyes of the baton-wielding guards. Nearing the village's exit, he would make a run for his hut, where he had been planning the operation. Unveiling his bow, he shot a tether of light at a tree, darting upwards and swinging from it onto a thicker tree. Soon, he watched the guards release into the forest. This was quite the pickle.

Hattori wondered why they had been so prepared for him. There was no shift in anything, no discrepancy in the formula of the mission. The target showed no change in attitude or action, it was almost as if he was already informed of his presence before the assassin even appeared. His operation was breached before it even began. Did his employers set him up? Hattori expected it to happen eventually, but out of the blue like this. It couldn't be an attempt at his life, because the ninja he faced were too sub-par. In fact, it was likely some backwaters clan. He's going to have to keep an eye open for when he goes to collect his reward. For now, he needed to make his home. Returning to the hut, he made sure to relieve himself of all his tools, A knock on the door rang throughout the hut, alerting him and causing him to retrieve his shuko. Telling the person to come in, his friend Julio emerged. The man held the discarded uniform,

Smiling he took the uniform and started packing his things. It would be time to move on from this village and back into the mountains. "I see it went well." Julio said sarcastically, Hattori rolled his eyes as he tied up the bags containing his tools and clothes. "Well, it would have went better if I wasn't exposed before it even began. He had ninja there, waiting for me." Julio was set aback, but not too surprised. "Likely had eyes on the village. I wouldn't look too deeply into it." Hattori shook his head, putting his bow over his shoulders. "I don't know. I'm going to have to be careful. Well, I have to get some rest. I'll talk to you in a few days, after I go report." Julio nodded his head, heading out.

The next morning, Hattori had already been on the trail towards the mountains. He made sure he didn't show his face around the village. For the next few weeks, people would likely recognize him as the assassin who killed the noble. He rode a carriage with all his belongings inside. Suddenly, half-way towards the mountain trail, one of the wooden wheels on his carriage shattered. He would be stuck there trying to repair it for a while.