Spoiler:

The sun had been blotted from the skies, erased by the dark grey clouds that hung over Amegakure. The temperature of the weeping village dropped considerably compared the humid weather of Konoha, and precipitation had finished falling. The large, abstract structures of the architecture of Amegakure were covered in a veil of soft white snow which capped the city. Loose snow flakes and crunchy wet, long strain grass bathed in the winds between the Grass and Wave Countries. No wonder their opponents had take refuge in the caves beyond them. The borders held the clashing weather climates of sunny and snowy weather which made outside temperature warm, yet overly cold when the winds picked up.

Tailing behind Yamazu who was leading the mission, Shihouin waited for his command to find the cave. Standing up tall in the trees he activated a single tomoe in one eye and pointed towards the second closest gave to their position which was a mere 100m meters away. Shihouin's eyes fell back to black. "Yep. There are four of them. It is impossible to gauge more specifics at this distance but they are all there. Decide what you want me to do and how you want me to follow you until we start fighting. I don't know how far you need me to stay away from your taijutsu, I wouldn't want to get caught up in it." Shihouin placed his hands into the familiar Kage Bunshin hand sign, and a clone materialized on a tree five meters away from him. It scouted the area and moved towards the cave, attempting to come up behind it from the rear. "I'll take your orders from now on and also go as planned before."

The shadow clone would move swiftly through the soft grass and measure out the distance between himself and the back of the cave. Before he got too close, he would merge with the earth and travel underground in complete silence. With the aid of a Sharingan, it he would be able to watch the opponents and move through cave undetected while searching for the documents. Hopefully Yamazu's taijutsu style was good, if so it would allow him an easy time to spot the documents and high tail it out before being noticed.

Spoiler:

Yamazu nodded his understanding, licking his lips. He had full control here then, eh? Interesting. He was usually the one taking the orders, not giving them. It will definitely give him the opportunity to practise his leadership and strategic skills, should he have any of those by a happy chance. So, what to do with it? He needed a plan of action if Shihouin was giving him complete rein.

The Monkey Sage tapped his chin, thinking. Four of them and two (or three, counting the clone) of us. The element of surprise was key here, as well as possibly splitting the enemy group up. As a force, they would be a lot less effective if kept apart. But mainly, he needed to keep in mind his purpose as a distraction to prevent the foe from noticing the clone searching for the documents. Would it be better to stay in the cramped cave, or too draw them out into the open? After a few more moments Yamazu smiled widely and turned to Shihouin.

"Alrighty-roo, here's what we do", Yamazu announced in his nonsensical way. "I can sneak my way into the cave initially and force the whole lot outside in one go. I'll follow them and engage their attention whilst your clone sniffs around for the papers. I won't be able to trick them forever and I'm guessing they'll pick up on the fact that I'm just a distraction. They'll probably try to get back into the cave to save the documents then and I won't be able to stop all of them for long, at which point I'll signal you to attack from your hiding place. Try to disable as many runners as you can from hiding before you engage. If the clone hasn't found the documents by then, then they're probably on one of the enemy".

Yamazu took a brief pause, picking some food out of his teeth. "I advise you stay a good fifty to sixty meters away. The signal for you to engage will be very loud and will disable you if you're too close", the Monkey Sage warned Shihouin cheerfully. There was a second pause as he thought through the plan some more to try and pick out any lagging elements and finding that he could not think of any. "I think I've covered everything now. Anything you'd like to add here?" he finished, cocking his head at his companion in querying way. Just because he could not think of any problems, does not mean that Shihouin would not.

Some fifty or sixty meters away? Shihouin wondered why type of style he used. Naturally he assumed there would be some ninjutsu thrown into the mix to make the range that large, or was this fellow implying that he had the speed to engage enemies at such a level from such a distance? Taijutsu users that looked like him, agile and fast would no doubt be able to handle multiple opponents in close range combat, but from those distances.... He wondered what his true strengths were. If he held to his appearance, and furthered his abilities, Shihouin could see him easily mastering speed, strength and dexterity. Maybe he was one of the few with potential.

The bunshin who traversed near the back of the cage had melded with the earth, using stealth techniques to cover its presence. Shihouin's ANBU techniques allowed for some easy access to most places when breaking and entering without leaving evidence. The fact that they were breaking and entering a mere cave would make moving all the more useful. With his amount of training, he was sure he could break in silently with a stack of dynamite and a good distraction.

Running over his orders and the situation at hand, he tried to compile a short list of assumptions and predictions for the battle. He was not the think tank genius who could plan a 100 moves in a few seconds, but Shihouin was smart to say the least. He was good with working with what he had available to him. "Too bad the mission objective isn't to simply destroy the documents. We could simply kill them all and leave if it were that easy." His dark tendency leaked out a bit. He had been talking about killing them for some time now and it would probably seem awkward. "I'm fine with what you have. When you signal me to attack I will use some simple genjutsu to make them misjudge the speed of the shadow shuriken technique. It's easy for you to notice as long as you don't look at the giant shuriken. Make sure to keep your eyes trained on the target and not me when you give the signal. Use your other senses to judge the position of the shuriken so you can know how to attack, because it will create an opening for you to work with. Don't worry about it hitting you, I'll follow up with wire to control it." Shihouin dropped down from his branch. "I'm ready."

Even though he wasn't in control of the mission, he moved out towards his position, seemingly going away from Yamazu. He made sure he would tail the perfect fifty meters behind him, being a close as he could. Even though his tall body would stretch high over the grass, he would move like a snake almost, moving on his belly and arms as he watched things from in between the grass. Hopefully he would learn something from Yamazu's style. He was debating on whether or not to take up taijutsu or weaponry as another area to specialize in. Taijutsu would help him unite his offensive abilities in close range, which would make him better as a combat specialist. Weaponry would allow him to engage opponents at a distance and fight with more versatility as a support type. Either way, it would be fun to see what Yamazu could do, and what he could learn. He would definitely keep his Sharingan going if he saw something he liked.

Yamazu's eyebrow had raised as once again his partner expressed his lax attitude to taking life. He knew that in the life of a shinobi, people died and killed. It was just the way things were. Still, the Monkey Sage himself never took life if it could be helped. Killing these thieves, no matter what they had done, solved nothing. That Shihouin was so prepared to kill with such ease bothered him. Many shinobi had grown to be like this lately and it worried Yamazu. The motives behind what drove a person was as (if not more) important than the act itself. Killing a man to defend oneself, one's family and friends or one's country was one thing. Taking a life because it was simply easier was lazy, not to mention disgraceful of those that had become shinobi.

"Any fool with a knife can take a life", Yamazu said, his tone serious for the first time. "A true master disables his opponent, so that he may be brought to true justice". These words had been spoken to him by the previous Monkey Sage, a man of great wisdom and standing in Konoha. If his companion gave any indication that he was listening he did not show it, making his way towards a safe hiding place. Yamazu shrugged to himself before making his own way to the cave. It took more than a few words to change a person and he doubted what he said would of had much impact.

Soon, the cave the thieves had taken shelter in came into view. The rain brought visibility down somewhat, but Yamazu could see the silhouettes of several figures inside in a circle around a small fire. An amateur mistake for people who were in hiding. Perhaps they did not anticipate any one to look in such an out of the way place, or maybe they were so cold and miserable that they decided it was worth the risk. Either way, the muted light made it clear that only three were in the cave. After a moment of searching, Yamazu pinpointed the location of the forth, standing a little way from the others, looking into the rain. Most likely a lookout. Dropping down from the branch he was on, he hit the ground silently. Making a few handseals, he sank into the ground and disappeared.

Yamazu knew how far away the men were and when he stuck a tiny portion of his head out so that he could see properly he was in the perfect place to strike and begin his distraction. Emerging from the rocky ground up to his waist, he made a few more handseals and put his hands to his lips. One of the thieves looked up and saw a dark figure through the flames and opened his mouth. Whatever the man was going to say was lost as a powerful blast of wind hit the group of missing nin, sending three of them instantly flying out of the cave and the forth (who had grabbed a rock) shortly afterwards.

Getting to their feet, the thieves looked around for their attacker, drawing kunai. One of them had a sword and held it like someone who knew how to use it. But there was no sign of the man who had knocked them out of the cave and the pouring rain made it hard to see anything too far away. "Get back to back", the man with the sword said. The others followed the order quickly, standing with their backs to each other and weapons raised defensively.

For almost a minute they stood in the pelting rain, waiting for the foe to make his next move from the curtain of water that fell all around them. But the Monkey Sage did not appear at the front. In the small gap in the circle they had formed, Yamazu emerged fully from the ground as if he had jumped from it. He begun to spin in the air, lashing out with his hands and feet. The four men, taken once again by surprise, stumbled forward and fell. Scrambling to their feet, one of them cried out in pain as Yamazu struck out with the knuckles of his index and middle fingers at a bundle of nerves in the man's back. A swift flurry of punches and kicks followed and by the time the rest of them and righted themselves the missing nin Yamazu had engaged had been knocked down to the ground again at the feet of his compatriots.

Helping their beaten and bruised friend to his feet, the group finally saw their attacker in full detail. There he stood in the rain, arms raised in an almost comical fashion, hands limp at the wrists and a high-pitched chattering laugh coming from his mouth. This was all they had time to see, for at that moment the Monkey Sage swayed on his feet as if drunk and fell forwards. The fall became a terrifying burst of speed towards the group and they barely had enough time to raise their arms to defend before he was upon them.

The missing nin swung their edged weapons at the Monkey Sage almost at the same time, hoping the number of attacks would allow one to get through. Yamazu seemed to slip and collapse, making the thieves hearts jump on relief. But instead of going face down into the floor, the slip turned into a roll and a foot kicked upwards, hitting one of the men's wrists and making him drop his kunai. The odd looking shinobi suddenly started to spin in place on the floor, his limbs striking out at the lower bodies of the foe. Two were tripped and fell straight on their backs, whilst the other two (one of whom was the sword wielding thief) where just pushed back by the sudden tirade of blows.

Eventually, Yamazu's momentum began to slow and the standing kunai holder threw his weapon. His aim proved true and it looked as if the Monkey Sage would be hit. But Yamazu's spin ended facing the projectile and he caught the missile in mid air. With one last twirl, Yamazu set the kunai right back at him as he began to form handseals. Abandoning his ninjutsu, he leapt to avoid being hit, the kunai thrower crashed into the sword-wielder, who grabbed the man to steady him. His hands occupied, he had no chance when the Monkey Sage stumbled up to him and delivered several light punches to his face before kicking him hard in the midriff.

Trying to catch his breath, sword-user's face gained a beam of realization. They were slowly but surely making their way further and further from the cave. Gathering up his men as Yamazu began his next assault, he gave them orders. "You two, go back to the caves, get the documents and run! Go to our second safe-house. You, help me hold this guy off. GO!"

The two runners did not need much more encouragement and made haste towards the cave. Yamazu tried to follow but was swiftly engaged by sword-user and the last kunai holder, his path blocked. Sword-user swung high for his head while kunai-holder stabbed low. The Monkey Sage flipped sideways, just missing the sword swing. Making some more handseals, he took a deep breath when he landed. Sword-user, seeing this and expecting another blast of wind, jumped out of the way and covered his head. The other was not so fast, but instead of a blast of wind, a massive high-pitched screech came from Yamazu's mouth, signalling Shihouin from the trees.

As the unlucky kunai-holder vomited and fell to ground, unable to stand thanks to the damage the noise had done to his inner ear, Yamazu hoped that Shihouin had remained a good distance away. The runners had only caught the edge of the jutsu, stumbling and perhaps suffering from momentary blurred vision. They would be fine in a few seconds time and Yamazu had to stop them from getting to the cave. He went after them with haste, hoping he would reach them in time for Shihouin's ambush attack.

Spoiler:

Everyone was so scared of power. Shihouin entertained the though of it being a real object. A black, why black? Or rather more specifically a dark entity with no form, void and boundless. Or was it space itself? It would more than likely reside somewhere in some huge space, and if it resided in a person would it reside in the unconscious mind? Yes, more than likely it was too large for anyone to be consciously aware of all the power they had. For if someone were aware of the conscious power that they had, there would be no room for training or growth you would all ready know how strong you were, and as humans strength could be possessed in every conceivable way. So what was this power? It's personality, was no more than a product of the human mind? To attain it, what did that mean? There was one thing he knew, whatever it was, it offered him the ability to grow and to gain. Greed? Maybe so, but the feeling of such a endless potential, the ecstasy of understanding what he could not know. That was power. Or maybe it was something more...

Keeping to himself he decided not to respond, his comrades words jumbled around in his mind. What exactly did they mean? "Any fool with a knife can take a life....A true master disables his opponent, so that he may be brought to true justice". Had training corroded his mind in this way, such a way that he was no longer able to receive understanding from justice? As far as he knew "justice" was a false sense of security, a false sense of morality and a lie to regular shinobi across the face of existence. Justice... Had justice kept him from killing his own father who was going to use him for power? Had justice forced his favorite teacher Sanzen away from his life? His mother, had justice laid its heavy hand on her, mysteriously closing her away from his life? Was she dead or alive? Maybe he was confusing justice with karma. Hmph. He was a ninja, so morals and emotions, things of the like were discarded long ago. Or maybe they were suppressed to the point that he could no longer reach them. Justice. Such an odd word.

Yamazu was no doubt a skilled taijutsu practitioner. From such a large distance away, he was able to engage opponents with ninjutsu and force things on to his own terms by combining earth techniques and his own taijutsu. No wonder Shihouin had to stay so far back, to get caught up in a form of taijutsu like that would be hazardous for him as well. No doubt blocking would be easy with Sharingan, but the wind and earth jutsu with taijutsu would make it something all too troublesome to deal with. He could cover such large distances with Doton easily. Using Sharingan he watched the control -no doubt what years of training or genius had afforded him- allowed him to subtlety move his body in different ways. He could control the way power entered into all of his muscles to feint taijutsu attacks, and once an opponent remained open, he could use the feint as the grounds for his next attack. Truly splendid, even though it seemed quite primal... Shihouin smiled at his rather odd comrade, preparing his move while he enjoyed the display.

He watched insightfully with Sharingan. He noticed that Yamazu was pulling them away from the location where they were once held up in. Caught in amazement by his skill, they had only now realized that they had been pulled out. With that, the location of the documents were confirmed. They were inside of the cave, which made things for the bunshin a lot easier. Now he didn't have to worry about finding any of them. He would simply watch with Sharingan until they led him right where they were, and move to strike from there. Luckily being in ANBU had given him the ability to quite easily.

A loud shrill sound blared from the Leaf Ninja as if he were a true primate. At the range Shihouin was, he could feel the small hairs in the lining of his ears tingle under the shrill high pitched sound. Shihouin smirked. So thats as the signal? Even with normal eyes he could have caught something much smaller, like a specifically raised finger or certain taijutsu position. There was no need to scream using such primal force. Shihouin grabbed the giant shuriken which he had rigged up while waiting for the signal. There were two shuriken both attached to wire. All Yamazu had to do was trust Shihouin now.

From his hidden position, Shihouin's tucked legs sprang upwards like two tightly coiled springs. Obviously his hiding spot was instantly know by his opponents, so was the giant blade in his hand. With marksman like accuracy, the single shuriken took a wide arc and covered a large path, swooping towards the legs of the swordsman. Expecting a shadow shuriken, the blade came insanely fast towards the opponent legs. The only option here to deal with the speed was to jump as high as possible. However, now it would be safe for Yamazu to look. The trigger cast for the illusion had been meet before he had jumped, at the time he spotted Shihouin from his cover position. What Yamazu would see was something all too funny. The shuriken had not been thrown that fast and he was about to jump for no reason at all. This was his chance to strike, while Shihouin would pull back on the shuriken before he would reach Yamazu. Since he was in close proximity of Yamazu, no doubt a quick wind jutsu or even hand to hand skills would allow them to be paralyzed. It was up to Yamazu to finish it off, but with such skill in taijutsu he could take down two opponents who had created such a large opening -their entire bodies were vulnerable- and close it.

As for the issue near the inside, the clone would deal with it soon. This would be easy in theory but take a deal of chakra to make it so easy. Shihouin's illusions, they were supplementary and worked best because of their function. To use genjutsu on a level that required primary offense was not the strength of his Sharingan. Each Sharingan was different, so his opted to be out of the primary illusion category. Specializing in ninjutsu and dealing with physical attacks, his body was more suited towards reading movement and reading chakra signatures, the individual control of each tomoe allowed him to specialize better in those areas of combat.

But genjutsu was another hand dealt to him which he did not have the best of cards to play with. His training in ANBU had allow them to close these gaps so terribly exposed in his hands. There were normal genjutsu which a plethora of ANBU could perform and he was not kin to letting any type of jutsu pass unknown before his eyes. As the two searched for their position, Shihouin's bunshin remained melded with the cave, watching while he held a single kunai in his hand. They rushed in haphazardly, almost as obvious as a pointing arrow towards a set of tables in the back with a bunch of papers on them. One of them, the younger one shouted as they ran. "Do you know where the originals are? Get the originals!!" The older shinobi pointed towards the table. "They're on the table in the center. I'm going to close off the cave and head towards the second hideout using the tunnels. Grab the papers and lets go." Shihouin's keen eye spotted the small stack of papers in the center. Man, it would be so much easier to just to kill them.

The younger one, somewhat dim-witted searched for the papers, picking up the pile on the left instead. He read over the document and a confused face followed. "These's aren't the ones! Where are the ones with the Hokage's name on it?!" The older shinobi ran quickly over to the table, reaching his hands for the correct documents. Before he could reach his hand on the table, a kunai met its mark right in between his hand and the official documents. He pulled his hands back quickly and eyed the direction in which the tool had come. To no avail could he see. Before he tried to engage the unknown threat, he secured the documents quickly, grabbing them while he kept his eyes peeled in the direction of the kunai. Gritting his teeth he made a hard decision. "I'm off with the papers, secure my exit! You can set off the traps and destroy the cave with your ninjutsu!"

He bolted, with shunshin like speed towards the trap door that Shihouin didn't bother with. The clone moved away from this position, out towards the rear entrance of the cave. At this point it didn't matter, stealth or not. They would not sense him through the walls, their guard had been raised falsely and because of that the mission had been successful. With hands in his pockets, the clone turned around and found a suitable tree, climbing up it with chakra as he made his way towards the point where they had started the mission. Once Shihouin saw his own clone move away from the cave, he began to do the same, whistling for Yamazu to come.

When Shihouin met up with his clone, he pulled a stack of papers from his pocket and handed them to Shihouin. They were placed in a manila folder which had been clean and untouched. Official Konohagakure stamps and the Hokage's own signature had been covered in the documents. Shihouin whistled to himself as the clone dematerialized. "That genjutsu is something else. That old guy got off with a couple of explosive notes that'll blow up in his face in a few seconds." It was simple. With the time the illusion gave him, all he had to do was switch out explosive tags for the papers, and henge them into the original documents. He would have prefered to kill them.. but.

There was something about 'justice' which piqued his interest...

Maybe Yamazu was on to something...

Spoiler:

Moments after Yamazu had given the signal, the sword user rose to his feet and readied his weapon to strike him. But both of them felt Shihouin's presence as he kicked off from his concealed location in the trees. The swordsman looked up and fairly yelped as he thought he saw the massive weapon hurtling towards him, jumping into the air.

Of course, in reality the weapon was not coming in anywhere near as quickly as that, making the sword user leap up and leaving himself vulnerable for no reason at all. Yamazu knew an opening when he saw one however and did not waste time in bringing his part of the mission to a speedy conclusion. Flipping into the air above the enemy just as he was begin to come back down to earth, the Monkey Sage punched downwards. To an observer, it would appear as if he had not even made contact and had missed the man by an inch or so.

When the man hurtled to the ground with some force, it became obvious that Yamazu had been using more than your average taijutsu moves. The sword user smashed into the floor and bounced such was the power of the strike. Letting gravity bring him back down, the Monkey Sage formed some handseals as he fell and when he made contact with the ground he slammed his hands into the earth. After his bounce, the sword user hit the floor once again, only this time five thick ropes made of earth and rock shot up and wrapped around his body, strapping him to the ground. The swordsman did not struggle or cry out, so Yamazu check his pulse to find that he was still alive and just unconscious.

It was time to meet back up with Shihouin. Making his way back to the place they had agreed to meet when they had finished up, the Monkey Sage was sure that his companion would be able to handle the two in the cave. After fighting with them, Yamazu had come to the conclusion that they were ether very bad at hand to hand or they were not really B ranked foes. Although, it was possible that the speed and surprise of the attack had caught them off guard and if that was the case they were just bad shinobi. Of course, being missing nin, they were obviously bad shinobi, but that did not mean they lacked skill. Lacking skill might make one follow the path of a traitor to get extra cash. Perhaps this was the case here? They seemed to be intent on selling the documents rather than using them against Konoha directly.

Lost in his thoughts, Yamazu went straight past the meeting place and had to had to double back to get there. By the time he arrived, Shihouin had just dismissed his clone and was holding some paper. Landing right next to him, Yamazu gave his trademark moronic smile.

"Mission accomplished, yes?"

Spoiler:

OOC: I completely forgot to post.

IC: Shihouin secured the documents, holding them in his hands as he stacked them tightly and secured the manila folder around them. With a bit of sticky tap that he'd had in small supply in his picket, he taped the manila folder closed, wrapping the adhesive plastic around the edge of the folder. After securing the documents, he nodded, getting ready to move back towards the village. "Yeah, mission successful. Normally that A rank would have been a lot harder, but the objective wasn't who we had to fight necessarily, but rather the documents we had to retrieve. Let's go though." Bending his legs at his knees, Shihouin lowered himself and sprang forward into the higher trees of the canopy of the hidden forest of the Fire Country.

His legs soundlessly and sightlessly pushed off on each secure branch, pushing faster as he did so to arrive back in the village as quickly as possible. They weren't so far from the Hidden Leaf Village, still in the Land of Fire for technically the most part since the borders had only been a few minutes away from the Land of Fire. Shihouin wasn't one to strike up conversation so he opted to listen to the ambiance. The brush of the wind as it rattled the leaves, dancing across the lush foliage of the endless forest. All types of animals scurried away fromt eh threat that had been long gone the moment they sensed it.

Even though their level of movement was not something entirely amazing for other ninja, Shihouin knew that they'd make it home soon. In silence he entertained some new thoughts. Justice. Justice. So easily, to someone who's psyche seemed to be blocked, no comprised of the greed of power and the want of strength. So easily had Yamazu reached him. Justice. He almost felt like a child revisiting this moral. Even though he didn't necessarily get it, he could slightly understand what it meant. The Hokage had punished him, was that justice for the nurse he had killed? Justice seemed to be some strange force which had the power of balance. Even though Shihouin had not died, he suffered an intolerable amount of damage.

He was begging to ask Yamazu, his face silent and not wanting to speak. After a while, he didn't know what to do and grew embarrassed. His cheeks turned bright red, like two bruise marks under his eyes. For such a large man in stature, this was awkward. He touched the bottom of his chin in inquisition. "Uum. Uhhh. Never mind." Too awkward, yet his cheeks burned bright red still. Yamazu would have his attention on him, Yamazu knew he wanted to ask something that this point. A child could figure that out. Giving into his own pressure, Shihouin asked. "Could you, could, c-could you explain justice? Is it like some weird combination of balance, karma, and good morals? I don't seem to understand it." He didn't, but he was making a slow change, for the better. Yamazu could be a influence to help him along.

They were back on the move once again, this time heading home to the Village. They could take it easier on the way back since they had now obtained the mysterious documents that the authorities of Konoha had managed to lose somehow, but his companion was still seemingly eager to return. Yamazu could not blame him though. Even he, a man who loved to travel the open roads, enjoyed the sensation of returning home, to the place that he belonged. It signified an ending of something and, for good or ill, an ending was always needed. Otherwise, what was the point of travelling the open road at all?

For while the two ran on in silence, with the occasional laugh or whoop from the Monkey Sage as he made a particularly spectacular jump or landing. But Yamazu noticed Shihouin's face, an expression of deep thought plaguing it. For his own reasons he did not share and Yamazu did not ask but eventually he spoke, with an almost child-like embarrassment turn his cheeks bright red, something which did not seem to suit someone of the Uchiha's size or standing. At first, he did not appear willing to speak his piece and it looked like he had second thoughts, yet he ended up asking anyway.

The question made Yamazu's eyebrow raise and came to close to making him crash into a tree. Explain justice? To him, that would be like explaining how to breath or eat or drink. He always acted on what he thought was justice, even on the rare occasion he was tempted not to. In fact, Yamazu had been worried that he would have to face off against Shihouin to ensure that the thieves would not die. Had that one sentence have as much impact as this?

"Any fool with a knife can take a life. A true master disables his opponent, so that he may be brought to true justice".

Yamazu thought about what to say, choosing his words with more care than he normally did. "What is justice? It would take a wiser man than I to explain it in the way it deserves", he began, his thoughts flickering to the Old Sage before continuing. "But I will try. Justice is... knowing when something wrong has been done and trying to set it right. Some think that killing the wrong-doer on it's own is justice, but they are fooling themselves. A dead person cannot suffer for his crimes, nor can they regret and repent for them. Killing the one responsible solves nothing. The action will not be reversed upon their death, and those they hurt will not be unhurt. That is simple vengeance, and that is for the foolish and the mad.

"Justice is taking the hardest path, no matter how tempting it is to descend down the easy one. It is the hardest path for a reason, after all, and if pursuing justice was easy or simple the word itself would no longer have any meaning, I think".

Yamazu finished speaking, scratching at the hair on his face where a twig or leaf had caught it. He was not sure his definition of justice had done it... well, justice, but he felt that he had it right when he spoke. He himself had been tempted to take the easier road, when he had Katai under that blade. But he had in the end chosen justice and he thought that if the Old Sage had seen him, he would have been proud. Giving Shihouin his smile once more, he spoke again.

"Well, I'm not sure if what I'm saying makes sense to you, but that is my belief. And I don't say it lightly for that belief has been tested, sometimes quite harshly". With that said, Yamazu gave another one of his chattering laughs and bounded off ahead, the echoes of his joyous cackling bouncing from the trees.

OOC: I'm going to make a new thread at village gates, and we will Rp the rest of the journey there so we don't have to make two more threads.

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