We left for the treeline by the graveyard very soon after breakfast. The hostess even sent us off with enough leftovers for lunch.

She was a sweet lady.

"So, what's today's plan?" I hope Dosu has a way to find random people in the forest. What would a homeless person even do there living in a forest...

'Like, forage, maybe? There are probably edible berries or something around here.'

"We don't have much knowledge of proper tracking... we could have taken advantage of an opportunity yesterday but..." Dosu trails off, then he goes up to a dying pine tree and breaks off a few branches then looks at the forest floor for a few seconds. The ground is covered in needles, not much undergrowth.

He tosses the branches aside and digs into his pack.

"Did you guys remember to bring string?"

Zaku hefts his pack and dumps it out.

"Uh.. yeah. Yeah, I brought that."

I dig in my pack... canteen, matches... rope, bedding...

"No, I forgot to bring that. Though I have some rope."

Dosu sighs and digs deep into his pack. "It's alright, you can borrow my spare."

"We should be on the lookout for tents, sleeping bags, and piles of refuse. If we fan out and keep to the trees then we can easily scout out the number of marks we each need. Each of us can easily handle grabbing a couple, then we can regroup and rest. I believe that a conservative estimate would be us completing our objective by the end of the day."

A logical course of action proposed by our team leader, and assented to by Zaku and myself. We won a major concession yesterday after all.

"Alright, we meet up back here. Be sure to be careful not to mortally wound the merchandise when hunting."

And with that we each dash into the trees. Dosu and Zaku effortlessly bounce from branch to branch and through the woods, stringing along white threads. I look down at my porcelain palm then make a fist. I charge myself with Chakra and focus on my next leap, making the branch... which I wasn't able to grip with Chakra properly and instead launch myself towards another tree.

SLAM.

I fall to the forest floor, thankfully cushioning my impact and saving me from the resulting concussion. I lay there.

'Am I cut out for this?'

"Wow... Maybe we shouldn't split up? ...Hey!! Dumbsu!!"

I scramble before hefting myself up. "Oh! Hey! It's OK Zaku! I'll manage, see?"

I walk over to the offending tree and begin to walk up the surface.

"I got this!"

Slow, painful step after slow step. Zaku scrunches his face up.

"Dude, think you can manage a run?"

I start to skid down as my Chakra cycling starts to malfunction.

"Y-yeah! I can give it a shot!"

"Wait, it's fi-"

I attempt to run only to lose grip on my third stride, causing me to careen down again. This time on a not so nice and soft thorny bush. I struggle out of the thick woody plant, becoming a bloody mess. Zaku blasts the plant with an Aircutter Jutsu tearing it off the ground so that I could more easily remove the plant.

"Thanks."

He scrunches up his face again, and puts his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, you're welcome. We gotta get stuff done. Dosu is doing this part on his own, but we can do it together."

"I appreciate the gesture Zaku but-"

"It's fine, besides I had an idea. You still have the food the inn lady gave us? Well, it'd probably be the perfect bait, right?"

"Yeah, but why didn't you bring this up with Dosu?"

He gives me a blank look, reconsidering, then deciding not to voice his opinion.

"Well he wouldn't listen anyway... Anyway! We can basically set out a nice meal, wait a little while, the person definitely notices it and when you're out here... well, you don't think twice about filling your stomach! And so we are just waiting nearby, you put a little Genjutsu on them so we can tie them up without any struggle. It's easy, right?"

"Zaku I don't know those people I can't-"

"Kin, listen to me."

He stares dead set into my eye, and grabs me by my shoulders.

"I know for a fact you can cast a pretty debilitating illusion, Dosu and I can still only barely get out of them."

"You can't chicken out here. We have to do this, no more games. This is it Kin, if you can't help this much I would rather just leave you here."

Fuck. This kid is really giving it to me. I, well...

It's just Genjutsu. No one is going to die from a Genjutsu, well... maybe a heart attack or I guess you could probably really mess up brain circuitry now that I think about it...

"Kin! Don't day dream right now! We have to do this! Are you prepared to get the mission on the way?"

"I... yes, Zaku." I shake myself from his grasp.

"I can do it."

We manage to find five homeless people relatively quickly, one of them is a bedraggled old man, and two were disheveled women with grimy female children. They are using spades to dig up some kind of root.

"Hm, they are all pretty focused." I muse to Zaku quietly, from our vantage point in the trees. "Do we even need to set bait?"

"Probably not... you think you can take out them all out with something? Focus on the adults, the kids won't get far."

"I can try... I don't know anything to knock anyone out but maybe..." I put my hands into a Snake seal. I focus on my Chakra, it's ebb and flow from my center to my extremities and back. I try to picture a soft bed, and a warm cozy fireplace. I run through the first half of the Hell Viewing Technique, but stop short. I don't need to give them a nightmare, just a gentle push.

I send out my Chakra in a tentacle that branches out and envelops the adult's heads. I try to get the kids too but anymore and I couldn't maintain enough... pressure... on the brain.

I focus on sleep, relaxation, and finding a nice place to curl up.

The two children are distressed when their guardians drop to the ground. They shake the women but before they could have a chance to check the man Zaku jumps out and wrenches one of the kids to the ground and blasts the other over with a low-power Wind technique.

I descend and grab the other little kid, she's screaming bloody murder and bawling. I was about to cast a Genjutsu on her but Zaku gags her with some cloth after he finished tying up the other little girl. I prop the three adults against each other and tie them together, making sure to gag and blindfold them.

In all, it took less than ten seconds to change these people's lives forever; of course, it really isn't for the better.

Zaku bumped me with his shoulder. "Good job."

When we return to the Graveyard Dosu is unsurprised that we managed to get five targets so quickly. He managed to get three people himself, two men and a teenage girl: each one bound, blindfolded, and gagged sitting on the ground shaking in terror.

"Well, it seems that we are nearing the completion of our mission. Only two to go..." Dosu places his hand under his chin and nods once. "We should drop off the captives at the meet up location, then we can focus our attention on the ninth and tenth targets."

"Can't we break for lunch first, I'm starved!" Zaku pipes up, eagerly taking out the box lunch.

Dosu swipes it from his hands and tutts, "work first. I'll be keeping this, monkey."

"Hey!"

Zaku lunges at the delicacy and Dosu leaps straight up and next to me.

"I am feeling a bit hungry too, monkey. But we can't afford to waste time."

Zakus crosses his arms but doesn't say anything.

I have to help out this kid.

"I think we should eat, if we maintain our strength we can probably get it down faster."

Dosu groans then says, "if I have to deal with another strong arm campaign like yesterday I will destroy the lunches. And we all know I can out physically maneuver you with my eyes closed."

"Zaku and I will take three prisoners, a man, woman, and a girl. Kin can handle the old man and the teenager. I think we can hide them with some shrubs and if we keep them sedated then they won't make any noise."

"Let's move, team Dosu."

-xxx-

We managed to find adequate cover, one of Zaku's almost went a runner but one broken leg later stopped that in its tracks.

"Kin, can you watch then while we get the rest?" Dosu unties and reties them for hunkering down rather than transport. Never enough ropes, if only there was a Chakra technique for that.

"Yeah, I can handle it."

"C'mon! Let's eat already! It's already past noon man..." Zaku whines.

Dosu sighs before handing him the confiscated food, which is promptly snatched from his grasp and into his gullet without preamble. He doesn't even use chopsticks...

"Well, I guess now is a good time for lunch." I take out the cold-but-delicious meal of salted sticky rice, steamed vegetables, and a faintly spicy chicken. I bring the chopsticks to my mouth to try the meat.

'Did she put cinnamon on chicken?'

"Dosu, are you going to join us?"

Dosu is in fact eating... a ration bar.

"I am."

'Righty-o! Not sure what I was expecting from that!'

We finish the meal in silence, but we don't have much to talk about anyway. Zaku finishes first, despite having a larger meal but the ration bars are difficult to enjoy.

Dosu finishes his bar with a drink from his canteen. Zaku says, "Hey Dosu, want to race? Whoever gets their mark here first wins."

"I already know I'll win, so I don't feel like competing but feel free to give it your best shot." He takes out his timer and tosses it to me. "Time him for me, would ya?"

"You are such an asshole..." Zakus bounds away back toward the city limits, Dosu not too far behind him.

I'm left alone again. I give the prisoners a dose of Genjutsu in turns for around 43 minutes before Dosu comes back with another person.

Zaku doesn't come back.

-xxx-