Chapter 13: Shadow Rescue

They had been moving for the better part of an hour at a leisurely pace, for tree hopping anyway. Naruto realized that he needed any additional intel Shino could provide him. So, while moving, he made contact with HQ back in Konoha to get in touch with Shino and ask him.

About ten minutes after sending the request, Naruto got a response back.

'HQ to Ghost Stalker, come in.' It was his sensei.

'I'm here, what've you got for me?'

'We've gotten word from Shino that the leader of the band of hostiles that took our comrades came to interrogate him. While he didn't learn much, he did learn that the leader is a trap-master.'

Naruto's eyes narrowed at that piece of information.

'…Crap.'

'Indeed. This rescue op will be even harder than we dared estimate. Traps will be in and around the area. And cleverly hidden too, you can count on that.'

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle wryly.

'First I got to duel an enemy ninja in our stealth specialties, now I'm gonna test my trap making skills against someone else's. And it's the worst deal too. I'm the one going into his backyard, having to anticipate his traps if not spot and disable them before any are triggered.

This also means another thing. I'm the best choice to be on point for this, or even go in solo to minimize the risk of a misstep.'

'Kurenai-san isn't a Jonin for nothing, Ghost.'

'I know, but she's not the right kind of Jonin for the job. She deals with genjutsu and killing without much violence whenever possible. She's not a trap-master kind of Jonin. Neither am I, but I am still the expert of the group if only by the merit of being the prankster king of the Leaf. But you taught me how to use that part of my "useless" skills to the fullest. We'll just have to see how it all will match up against this trap-master. We've no other real choice anyhow.'

It was quiet on the channel for a moment before Naruto's sensei replied. 'I don't know how or why you seem to get into these situations in which so much seem to depend on you. I just hope your success streak holds up. I'll pray it will be so this time as well. Be careful and bring our friends home.'

'Count on it, sensei.'

"Ghost-san?" Kurenai's voice carried over the whooshing sound of the speed breeze.

"Yeah?"

"You appeared to have been preoccupied with your thoughts, you should focus on the mission." Kurenai said both in concern and in a chiding voice.

"Oh, but I have been thinking about it."

"Really?" She asked curiously with a hint of doubt.

"Yeah, I have reason to suspect that wherever this place our friends are being held is, it's going to be riddled with traps. This bunch of goons are lead by a trap-master by the looks of things, and we have to be extra careful not to trigger an alarm or a trap that could either kill or incapacitate us and leave us at their mercy."

"How do you know that, Ghost-kun?" Lee inquired.

"I told you I've been in contact with one of the hostages, as for the details about that, they're need to know only. He said that the leader is a trap-master by his own admission, though he never admitted anything about any traps around his hideout, we'd be smart to assume that he does. But even if we didn't have that inside information, take a look at what else we know so far. The ambush they set for the caravan looked like it took into account a shinobi escort. Which only a group of enemies that are at least made up partially of shinobi themselves could hope to pull off with any degree of success.

They probably had a plan B for if the fighting turned sour for them, which probably was to take the Genin hostage to ensure their getaway first, and later ensure a profit for trading the Gening back. Or at least increase their chances of surviving any retaliation from the hidden village the Genin belonged to. Then there's that trap they set for Kurenai-san, it was sprung by the guy I'm in contact with and he described it as being suitable to catch a Jonin. Even if it wasn't, I think we should err on the side of caution and assume this guy is capable of some seriously devious trap making and clever placement of them."

"So for all we know we could be walking into a minefield surrounding their hideout?" Kurenai surmised.

"That, and whatever traps, if any, inside the place itself."

"I am sorry to say that my strength lies not in locating and disposing of traps." Lee admitted regretfully. "Mine is to face my foes in youthful combat."

"Well, there's no telling how this mission will turn out. We're glad to have you around in case we need some muscle against theirs."

"You mean we're not going to bring them down and to justice?" Lee asked, sounding somewhat indignant even.

"No, Lee." Kurenai decided to answer. "Our sole, primary concern is to rescue our friends. The neutralization and/or arrest of the enemy is a secondary, if not entirely optional objective. The fact they pulled this stunt off warrants a harsher response from us, us as in the Leaf, once there's no more risk to innocents or our own people."

Naruto shook his head in both a negatory and dismay. "The problem with that is if we manage to save our friends from them without being detected, they will not take long to notice that they're gone. And will most likely desperately try to capture some civilians as replacement hostages before we manage to return with greater numbers."

Kurenai nodded. "I know, but we have to see to our people first, and deal with the rest afterward."

"I must say I am unsure of what to think in this situation." Lee stated resignedly.

"Maybe an opportunity will come along as we go. I want to take these pricks down as much as you do, Lee. But let's get them out first, then we'll see if we can't do something then and there. Maybe they're not as many as we think or something. In any case, I should go in alone once we find them and their hideout."

"Why?" Kurenai asked pointedly, not liking the idea or the potential machoness that spawned it.

"Because out of the three of us, I'm the closest thing to an expert in traps and trap-making. I have the greatest chances of figuring out where traps could be and seeing them before triggering them, and either bypass them or disarm them as I go. You guys tagging along will only increase the risk of something going wrong like a misstep or simply being spotted. I've got some skills to hide myself and while Kurenai-san does as well, it would be the only good thing you could do in that situation, no offense."

"(sigh) None taken, Ghost-san. You're quite right actually. If it were an amateur or standard trap-layer I could provide assistance, but a master would be a different story. But I am still not convinced you're a much better choice."

"Put it this way, you know me and my past exploits, right?"

"Your past exploits?" Kurenai blinked in confusion, before comprehension dawned on her. "But that is no more a qualification than my actual training and experience, I'd say it's still much less."

"Maybe not if it was trained and refined by a sensei that has that and other things as his field of expertise."

Now Kurenai began to understand. A prank king that had his raw, yet surprisingly potent talents in pranking and childish traps expanded upon and honed and refined would be a significant boon in anything trap related in a mission, be that in the setting up of the traps or the detection and evasion or disarmament of enemy traps.

"Very well, but you..."

"Have to be very careful or they could die, not to mention myself. I know, you don't need to tell me something I'm already 100 percent aware of." Naruto responded, getting slightly miffed at being underestimated, or even looked down upon. But he couldn't blame her, he supposed. The situation was dangerous in more ways than he could count on both his hands.

"But first we must find them before we can do anything at all." Lee pointed out.

And the timing couldn't have been better, one of Naruto's clones just dispelled, sending the location of the hideout to the rest and the original. Naruto created a clone and had it dispel to relay his instructions to his other clones to converge on, but not enter, the area.

"Why did you create and dispel a clone like that, Ghost-kun?" Lee asked, perplexed by the seemingly pointless act.

"Clones, or rather Shadow Clones, send any memories and experiences gained since their creation to the original, that would be me, and any clones that happen to still be around at the time. I just got the location from one of my clones and through that clone you briefly saw I told the others to get to the area but not enter it."

"Good, then let's get going as well." Kurenai said, urging Naruto to take point.

By the time they arrived at the hideout, which was about half an hour from when they learned their location, the sun was already well on its way descending towards the horizon, painting the sky a pleasant tone of orange.

The hideout was not a single building, but a handful of cottages that looked to be originally abandoned if their disrepaired state was anything to go by. Perhaps this was once a gathering place for hunters during hunting season or miners, though perhaps not the latter since any mine would be too far away for this spot to be viable for miners' lodgings.

"This complicates things..." Kurenai mumbled loudly enough for her comrades to hear her.

"And using shadow clones to search all cottages only increases the chances of discovery and things turning real ugly really fast." Naruto added, eyes scanning the area for the number of enemies and their locations.

"Could we not attempt to thin their numbers quietly?"

"Too risky." Naruto shook his head. "First of all, this group, while fairly large, appears to be not too large that there would be thugs that don't know how the guards are placed and their patrol routes and timings. Assuming of course that they are disciplined enough for that."

"Bandits might not be that disciplined normally, but bandits lead by ninja of Chunin rank have a fair chance of being disciplined enough. That ambush and fight was too well thought out for mere bandits, after all." Kurenai pointed out. "But the bottom line is, no we can't thin them out. Had there been no risk to any innocents or comrades, I'd have no objections to picking them off."

"So how do we proceed?" Lee inquired.

Turning to the other two, Naruto laid out his plan. "It is a risk, but we should wait until it becomes dark enough. That gives us the additional time to observe their numbers and movements, as well as spotting potential trap points. Once dark enough, I'll move in and search each cottage as stealthily as I can."

"Aside from the few buildings themselves, you haven't got a lot of cover. Even in the dark, they'll carry torches and night lamps. What will you do to conceal yourself?"

"If I do it right, not even you will see me." Naruto cryptically replied.

Once the darkness of the night had fallen sufficiently upon them, Naruto jumped down onto ground level behind some bushes.

'Time to turn into a shade in the night.' He made the signs, closed his eyes in concentration and uttered quietly, "Spirit Style: Spirit Stride."

Naruto turned invisible and unseen eyes opened to inspect his path of approach. A patrol was coming around the corner of the closest cottage. But his jutsu would keep him hidden from their vision, for a while anyway, he had no time to waste. He decided to follow their footsteps. He was thankful that it was a grassy area and no gravel underneath their feet.

Walking in pace with the thugs five feet in front of him, he inspected the cottage itself for any signs of physical traps or even seal based traps. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he narrowed it down to perhaps strings or ninja-wire based traps. Aborting his following of the men, he walked closer to a window to carefully check it and its edges for anything that could be part of a trap.

Finding nothing on it, or any other window on that side of the cottage, he peered inside. It appeared to house some sleeping members of the group and two bandits sitting on relative alert by a table. Naruto surmised that this cottage would have been one designated the sleeping cottage for the hunters that roamed these woods who knows how long ago. And now it's converted into a bandit barracks.

'While the increased security of more men in the building would help guard any captives, I don't think they're in here. This is the only room and there's no cellar or attic. Next one then.'

The patrolling men came back around the same corner again, conversing about nothing Naruto found to be of interest to his mission. It could have been a coincidence, but it was possible that they were instructed to keep any conversation they had to a minimum and even then only talk about nothing related to the captives or any stuff of importance that a sneaky shinobi could overhear.

Knowing by the earlier observations before dark that these two were the only ones assigned to go rounds by this cottage, Naruto took up his earlier position behind them and walked where they walked.

Aware that his jutsu would wear off before long, he swiftly canceled it and reapplied it. It looked he blinked into and out of existence if one were looking in his direction at the time. But no one did, except his comrades up in the trees.

'It appears his jutsu has a time limit of some kind if his brief appearance is any indication. I hope he doesn't forget it during any part of his search.' Kurenai thought, tense as she observed everything she could, which wasn't much considering...

'A most useful jutsu, Ghost-kun. It is times like these that I envy people who can use jutsu. But as Gai-sensei taught me, I mustn't let it get me down, that would be unyouthful.'

Back with Naruto, he was looking left and right for any tells of where his comrades could possibly be.

'If I was the leader, I'd place them somewhere hard to reach or even see. Making it harder to sneak by him and his men to reach them. As these are probably hunters' cottages, they ought to have cellars for storing their supplies and any meat and hides they bring back. That's probably where they'd be. But which cottage is it?'

Now walking on the other side of the cottage than before, he could see the entire inner part of the area. In the middle, there was a campfire surrounded by armed men. Apparently two men were always stationed by the fire while patrols originated from that spot and returned regularly to check in. By the fire was also an alarm bell, installed by the bandits given the setup looked newer than the surrounding structures.

The patrols appeared evenly placed. Naruto suspected that it was to not cast any particular attention to where his friends actually were located with any extra guards. Naruto was all but certain that they were right to suspect these guys were disciplined above bandit level. Too many things were not exploitable, things that would have been if they were undisciplined.

Naruto looked closely at all the cottages that now were in view from where he stood. None had cellar or attic windows.

'Probably to prevent critters from getting in to sensitive stuff such as their meat and hides.'

This meant there was only one course of action left, searching each cottage one by one, save for the barracks.

'It was a stroke of luck that I found out which was the barracks first and how it looks inside, sneaking into the barracks is a risky move even with my jutsu.' Naruto acknowledged to himself.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he reasoned that they'd want to be able to react fast to a rescue or escape attempt if it was discovered, so the cottage closest to the barracks would be a good place to put any captives. It also would be the most logical place for hunters to place their prey. Close enough to their place of rest, if something, say a bear, tried to get to the prey, they could wake up and ward it off if not outright kill it.

Certain of his reasoning, he snuck closer to the cottage in question and gently tried the door. It was locked. Even more sure now he snuck around the cottage and checked for traps along the way, then checked through the windows. It was dark and quiet inside, which put his senses on high alert. There was no light snoring to give away any sleeping guards. It was a dangerous area, Naruto knew by instinct. Genin might not have the skill and discipline yet for it, but Chunin had the experience and skill and the discipline to be alert even at night time and require less rest than normal people.

And they have a trap master.

This had all the signs, or lack of signs that were signs in and of themselves, of a death trap. It was additionally made so by the fact that Naruto's now adjusting eyes could just make out what must be a cellar door. It was between two separate room entrances, so it couldn't lead to another room on the same level.

Now Naruto was absolutely certain of it. His friends were in this cottage. Now the biggest issue would be to get past the traps and lurking ninja inside.

Naruto had a thought just then.

'Oi, Kurama. Foxes have great night-vision, don't they?'

"Of course they do, they're nocturnal predators. And yes, so do I."

'Any way for your night-vision to be transferred to me?'

"We can share senses, but not the sensitivity."

'What do you mean?'

"I mean, I can see what you see but I can also see in the dark at the same time whereas you wouldn't see the way I can see. The same image is seen, but I can see more and you cannot. I would have to alert you myself to something I can see, or hear or smell for that matter."

'Maybe we can work on that somehow later on?'

"Who knows? But for now, I can assist you by sharing your senses."

'Better than nothing, but you wouldn't know what to look for in terms of traps, right?'

"Traps have never threatened me and thus I pay them less heed than I would a turd."

'And yet, a seal trap is what put you in that cage, Kurama.' Naruto argued.

"That's a completely different matter and you know it! Now stop dwelling on things not pertinent to the task at hand!"

'You're right, I'll have a look inside here and you tell me if you detect anything or anyone inside.'

Naruto peered inside and had a thorough look around in the darkness. Or more like he looked in different spots of darkness for a moments to give Kurama a chance to detect anything or anyone.

'Anything?'

"I did not see any enemies inside. That leaves those traps you're so concerned with." Kurama said, his tone clearly showing how utterly unconcerned and indifferent he was.

'Did you happen to see any seals or strings or something else attached to, or looked like they could be attached to the window we're looking through?'

"From what I know of windows, everything seemed normal with this one, no strings or seals in sight."

'Ok...'

"You sound almost disappointed." Kurama remarked, amused.

'It's hard to explain, but I was expecting a bit of a challenge. I like challenges, but I also know to appreciate when things go smoother than expected. Especially when my comrades' lives are on the line.'

"Hmph." Kurama grunted, not caring.

Producing a very thin blade from his tool pouch, Naruto carefully inserted it to reach and unlock the window. It took a bit of force, and with it some sound. However, since no one was inside to hear it, Naruto didn't mind the small noise he made as he worked. After a minute, the lock was successfully opened and Naruto went inside with nary a sound made.

Closing the window after him, he peered once again into the darkness, trying to adjust to the even less light than what was outside.

'No good. I can't make out anything important. Could you take a look again, Kurama?'

"(Sigh) What am I looking for?"

'Again, strings or seals or something out of place.'

"You forget that outside of the two first items, I have no idea what would be out of place in a lowly human den."

'Then just alert me to whatever you think could be dangerous.'

"Watch out!"

'What!? What?' Naruto asked as he tried frantically to spot whatever Kurama was warning him of.

"There's a menacingly looking round thing on the freaky wooden thing with legs."

'… That's a bowl on a table...' Naruto sweat-dropped.

"Hehehe." Kurama laughed.

'Fine then, I'll just take risks and maybe get in serious trouble and maybe even die because you're not caring about my safety.'

"Coast is clear, is that the expression? I can't detect anything threatening." Kurama responded, indifferently. "Now go do your thing and don't bother me with something I can't help with."

Frustrated, Naruto nevertheless refocused on the task at hand. Sneaking carefully to the cellar door.

But he didn't even make it all the way before he heard the unmistakable noise of someone about to enter the cottage from the front door.

Releasing the Spirit Stride jutsu, he immediately applied his Haunting Hunt to cover the entire cottage.

Two men entered the cottage, but they apparently weren't meant to be there since they were trying to be sneaky themselves.

"Hurry, close the door." One whispered loudly.

"Yeah, yeah. No one's seen us and no one's in here. Well, no one we don't want to be here, hehehe."

Oh, how wrong that guy was.

The men went straight for the cellar door Naruto was beside. He didn't dare open it in case it alerted the men with a creak. He was right to consider that, the door creaked open noisily.

The two went through the door and Naruto followed right behind the second guy. But then the first guy stopped and turned to his comrade.

"What are you doing? Close the door and apply the silencing seal!"

"Oh, right."

"Seriously, get your head straight until we are all set." The first grumbled.

Realizing what was about to happen, Naruto hugged the wall, hoping that he wouldn't even be grazed. If he did, all hell would break loose.

Luck was on Naruto's side, the first man continued on down the stairs while the second turned around and closed the door. Naruto waited until the man had finished applying the seal before he struck. Knowing what the two men intended to do from the look in their eyes and their actions so far, he had no qualms in bringing righteous harm upon them.

Kicking the back of the man's knees, he quickly covered his mouth to muffle his exclaims of surprise. And as fast as it began, it was over as Naruto twisted and broke the man's neck and carefully laid him down on the floor.

Meanwhile, down the stairs.

Ino startled at the sound of the door up the stairs opened. She heard the voices of two men coming down and heard the words "silencing seal". That did not bode well for their intentions. Not at all.

She turned to Shino and Sakura and saw that they deduced the same thing, with Sakura going from fidgeting lightly to really struggle with her bonds in increased panic. Ino felt that same panic herself and found herself doing much the same. Shino remained stoic but he at the same time had a darker countenance.

The first man came down with a leering grin.

"Well, well, well. Lookie what we have here." He said as he approached the girls, completely ignoring Shino.

"S-stay away!" Ino tried to sound firm, but it instead came out more like a whimpering whine. She also heard the steps of the second man coming down the stairs.

"Now why would I do that, when I have a pair of beauties ripe for deflowering?" He said, stretching out his hand to her face.

It was then Ino saw something and she closed her eyes, Sakura and Shino did the same. The next moment, the man's head rolled to the side on the floor and his headless body collapsed to the floor, bleeding profusely.

"And you were overripe for decapitation." Naruto said coldly, cleaning his blade.

"Naruto-kun!?" Ino called, both bewildered and relieved.

"Naruto!?" Sakura was of the same mind.

"Cut it a bit close, did you not?" Shino commented evenly.

Naruto blinked. "Was that a serious comment or a pun?"

Shino sighed. "Just cut us free."

"You got it."

A moment later and the trio of hostages were set free. Ino wasted no time in hugging her rescuer.

"Thank you. Thank you so much, Naruto-kun." She profusely said in a low, sobby voice.

"You're welcome, Ino. I'm just glad you guys are ok." He hugged back. Sakura also hugged him in thanks and to reassure herself that she was alright.

"Yes, Naruto-san. Thank you for the rescue." Shino said with a nod, hands back in his jacket pockets.

"What? No hug for me, Shino?" Naruto quipped with an unseen grin.

"... I don't do hugs."

"Missing out, dude."

"I'll survive."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Really sure?"

"Are you trying to tell me you have no preferences?"

"What?"

Ino whispered in Naruto's ear for a second. Naruto's eyes widened before he exclaimed, "Dude! Have you never heard of bromance?!"

"Keep it down, will you!" Sakura hissed. "They could hear us upstairs or outside."

"Actually, no they wont, there's no one upstairs and the second guy put on a silencing seal on the door upstairs and I let him before I killed him to hide any sound of struggle down here. No one outside is hearing anything but the crickets." Naruto told them.

"A wise move." Shino complimented with a nod of agreement.

"Alright, let's get down to business." Naruto declared, suddenly turning serious. "Here's the deal: The cottage we're inside, as I said, seems to be clear of enemies, for now. They are all outside either patrolling or standing by the alarm bell near the central campfire. We are in an abandoned series of hunters' cottages, or so we think, and..."

"We? Kurenai-sensei is with you?" Sakura asked.

"Kurenai-sensei and a Genin from the year ahead of us in the academy named Rock Lee."

"You and Lee-san were the only reinforcements Hokage-sama could spare?" Shino inquired.

"Yeah, but Lee apparently is a beast of battle, or so he introduced himself as. And from what I've seen of his abilities, I kinda believe it. So we should be good if we're in for a fight with all of us now ready and able for anything."

"We don't have our weapons, we don't know where they're keeping them." Ino pointed out.

"They might be somewhere here, in the cottage." Sakura suggested.

"Perhaps, but that would not be a prudent move on our captors part, in the event of our escape or rescue. I assume, therefore, our equipment are kept somewhere under guard." Shino commented.

"I did come across a barracks, but I wasn't looking for your equipment pouches then so I can't recall for certain whether they were there." Naruto informed.

"That would indeed be a logical place to keep them, and a most problematic one to retrieve them from."

"Worst case, we should just forget them and pull out and head back to the Leaf village. Your stuff are nothing compared to your lives." Naruto said.

"I say we should do so regardless." Shino voted.

"Yeah, we're not hired to attack bandits in their camp anyway, if you want to be literal." Ino agreed.

"And a ninja knows to retreat from conflict if it is not in their favor." Sakura agreeed, sounding almost like she recited from something.

"Then it's settled, we're out of here."

As they headed upstairs, Naruto established a link to HQ.

'Ghost Stalker to HQ.'

'HQ here. Report!'

'Sensei, primary objective almost complete, I've located and set free our comrades, we're now making our way out of the enemy camp.'

'Casualties?'

'None on our end, two bandits killed, rank unknown but one of them was able to use at least basic sealing.'

As Yokai was replying to Naruto's last statement, Naruto opened the window he entered through and ushered his friends through it.

'Understood, good job so far. Exfiltrate with your comrades and return as soon as possible. We'll send a strike force to eradicate the bandits. What's their location?'

'We're at what we think is an abandoned hunting camp, a bunch of cottages about two miles east-south-east of Kyouboku no Sato.'

A moment later came the reply. 'We believe we know which it is, the strike force will soon depart. Come home, Ghost-Stalker!'

'Understood. Over and out!'

Naruto took point. He couldn't make use of his cloaking jutsus because he needed to be visible to silently direct his friends.

He hand signed to them. 'Several enemies on patrol, and a larger group at the ready around the central campfire. An alarm right by them. Too risky to go the same way I came, we'll head into the woods and take the long way around.'

They nodded in understanding. Naruto then looked to see if he could find Kurenai and Lee. They were well hidden, so Naruto couldn't see them. He had an idea to signal them to rendezvous outside the camp, since they didn't carry radios. But that was quickly scrapped.

'Alright, follow me and step where I step, we're not out of the woods yet. Actually, we're not even in it yet.' Naruto quipped. His friends just shook their heads, but the girls did smirk in mild amusement.

'I am guessing this trap master's traps is still a concern for you?' Shino signed.

'Yeah, and out of our entire group, I'm what goes for an expert on it, so like I said, step where I step.'

They had made it almost two dozen yards away from the camp when suddenly the alarm was sounded in the camp.

"Alright, this if far enough, let's go meet up with Kurenai-sensei and Lee-san. Follow me!" Naruto commanded, heading for where he left them.

Meanwhile, inside the cottage.

Senka had just turned in for the night when a ruckus outside disturbed him, very soon followed by a frantic knock.

"Senka-san!" The man at the door shouted.

"What is it?" Senka demanded.

"We've found two of our men dead in the basement where the captives we caught used to be!"

'Two dead men? Used to be?' Senka was instantly alert and opened the door. "What do you mean 'used to be'?"

"Our hostages are gone, sir. Their cut bonds were all that was left. One of our dead comrades was decapitated and the other had his neck broken."

"Their bonds were cut? I'll have a look for myself."

"Should we not organize a search party?"

"You idiot, they are shinobi. Even as genin they'd be difficult to catch up to. We don't know how long they've been gone. Could have been an hour and that's an eternity for shinobi. Additionally, there would be no point now anyway. We need to focus on breaking camp and relocate before the full fury of the Leaf comes down upon us. With luck, we'll have moved far enough away that they wont be able to track us or be willing to follow. Get things started right now!"

"Right away, Senka-san!"

Arriving at the scene of the escape, Senka closely examined the cut bindings.

'Hmm, these cuts were not from a kunai knife, but a longer weapon. Most likely a ninjato or something akin to that. Someone rescued them. Got the drop on the headless moron here judging from the position and angle of collapse of the body. Then proceeded to free the hostages. The first guy I stepped over upstairs was the likely first casualty. I noticed he had applied one of our silencing seals, probably to hide the loud noises from the imminent rape these two pricks had in mind. But how could the intruder get the drop on him after the fact?

This is really strange. The two came inside and went down the stairs, one all the way down, the other stayed behind to apply the seal before following. This means that the stairs should have been covered entirely.

The seal was applied and immediately after, he got dropped by the intruder, who then went down the stairs, probably not hiding his steps since he would have been assumed to be the guy he just offed. Stepped right up to the unsuspecting second guy and beheaded him in short order.

For someone to be able to do that, they would have to be as silent and stealthy as a... ghost...' Senka thought, a shiver running down his spine.

'Note to self, more traps in the future, no matter how safe you feel. The higher-ups aint gonna like this...'