better left unsaid

Chapter 14: Teen Outreach Summit

By this time, Katashi had found that his cattle had been all cleared out of the pen that they had been put in after they had been allowed to graze for the day. The young rancher was panicking until Asuma calmed him down, "It's fine. My kids are already on it."

"How do you know?" Katashi said in a panicky fashion, "They could have been killed, or caught, or got lost or who knows! Aw man, I was just starting to get this place to work out for me!" He said, crying heavy anime tears.

Asuma cleared his ears out, not really wanting to see or hear a grown man cry in front of him, "Because one of the guys that took your animals is laying dead just over the hill over there." He said, pointing to the left, "They probably headed on ahead to catch up and take the others on. But don't you worry. I'll be right behind them." He scratched his head, "Tracking isn't my strong suit, but with a large herd of cattle there aren't many places they could take them out of here. I doubt whoever took them knew we were even here."

"Why?" Katashi wondered.

Asuma smirked, "Because they actually tried taking the cattle in the first place."

XxX

"Kei hasn't returned yet Satoshi-oniisama." Manabu remarked as he brought up the rear of the cattle that they had managed to steal from the Kojima Ranch as they directed them down the forest path leading away from said ranch. Manabu was a thickly muscled man that had a brown Mohawk on his head and red war paint over his eyes. He wore a tan pair of shorts and an open sleeveless jacket, and around his mouth he had a facemask that had a demonic mouth printed on it. The facemask had tubes coming from the back going into his jacket, "He should have caught up by now, we can't keep going slow like this if we want to get away clean."

A tall, lanky man with a long mustache and shoulder-length brown hair made a pondering noise. He wore an olive sleeveless shirt and brown pants to go with the red bandanna around his head as he calmly lead the herd forward at the head, "Well then I guess we'll just have to leave him behind won't we? He was the most expendable of us anyway. As long as I'm still here then everything is fine, the plan will still go off without a hitch."

"Of course Satoshi-oniisama." Manabu said, not really caring much for the fate of their brother, "If he is a liability then his fate is his own. He was only supposed to be the diversion anyway. If he was unable to get away from a ranch hand and the brats he keeps with him then he wasn't strong enough clearly. Not like you and I."

"My sentiments exactly." Satoshi replied coolly in an even manner, "Get these cattle to pick up the pace, it's time to get moving."

XxX

(With Team 10)

Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru leapt through the thick trees of the forest surrounding the path that the cattle had been driven down. Shikamaru looked over at Naruto, "Can you sense anyone yet?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, there are too many trees in the way. My range is getting better, but with all of this solid stuff in the way there's only so far I can scan out. All I can do is half a mile from an open spot anyway." He frowned visibly, "Like this, I can barely sense 500 feet."

Shikamaru grunted, "Fine. Ino? How about you, any ideas?"

"Don't look at me." She said in a stumped manner, "Maybe if we run into an owl or something I can take over a bird that wouldn't be too weird to be seen flying around so I can find them, but other than that I've got nothing."

Shikamaru let out a sigh, but put his game face on as he got himself ready to put that brain of his to work, "Fine… they have to use the path through the woods if they really do have all of the cattle. We all know that the path is a troublesome bitch… I mean why not just make the thing a straight shot right through? What's with all of the twists and turns? Who the hell designed this thing, a-?"