Fighting off the Sand King (Invite Only)

Ugatta walked along the dusty stone streets of his village. Here where he was, it was a watering hole; literally. This place was in cave but it was different. It used mirrors to reflect the light inside of it during the day and had lamps during the night. It was his favorite meeting place and the insides of it was nothing like the dull faceless and ragged surface that one would see on the outside of a cave. On the inside has intricate, hand made draperies that had adorned in gold thread, the ancient writings of his people and his village. The walls were shaven smooth and were polished with bee's wax giving it a special shine. The tables were made of acacia wood, the kind of trees that can withstand the harsh environment of this place and was a very durable wood. The bar top was made of marble as it rested on an oak cupboard for the drink supplies to be stored.

Ugatta walked in confidently, everyone in there knew him and what he had done. Without each other knowing, he himself had went on missions for the note worthy people that were in there. But today he did not come to meet any of these but rather he came to meet one person in particular and he saw the figure sitting in the corner with his back against the wall as a true gangster would not allowing himself to be vulnerable and keeping his eyes on everything in front of him. He was smoking a pipe too as the breif glow from the pipe illuminated his hidden face under the hood. Ugatta smirked as he saw this and looked at the smoke slowly rising from the hooded one's lips. He took a seat opposite from this man and the man began speaking right away.

"You sent for me Ugatta, so here I am." he said in a deep voice.

"That I did." replied Ugatta in an octave deeper than this visitor. "I sent for you because this mission is different. Its not one that is assigned from the Kage and it would not be registered in the log they have here. But only for our organization."

"Oh? You of all people should know that I do not work for free."

And with that, Ugatta tossed a sack of gold on the table. The man took another pull of his pipe as he looked at the sack and again Ugatta saw the man's eyes under the glow of his pipe. His face had looked weary, no doubt from the long journey but now, he was ready to talk business.

"What do you want from me Ugatta?"

"Isnt it obvious? I need you to come with me on this. Even I cant take down the Sand King on my own." said Ugatta as he gestured to a waitress and ordered some saki for the two of them. "Yabedo, I need your abilties. As you can see, money isnt the problem here. And depending on if I get what I want and we both come out of this alive, there will be more where that came from."

After a few seconds of thought Yabedo said, "But why Ugatta? Why are you so persistent in taking down this Sand King? What could you possibly have to prove?"

"Simple, I need to test myself against him. His men would not make it easy for that to happen and that is where you come in."

"I see. So you want me to keep his men busy while you hunt him."

"Yes, to put it bluntly. But, we will do it together if at all possible."

"I hope you know what kind of person the Sand King is Ugatta. I'm sure youve heard of the stories." said Yabedo.

"Yes I have not only that but I have served with the man in the military at a point. He was my General. The man was fearless and his ability with the sword is formidable to say the least. I have trained hard for this and wanted to face him ever since we fought together in the war. But even more important, I think he has some sort of link to the death of sensei."

With that Yabedo got even more serious as he took a longer than usual drag of his pipe.

"Are you certain?" asked Yabedo.

"I am. There is no doubt what I saw the day I returned from that mission and I saw how sensei's house was and those markings I saw were not shuriken or kunai marks they were those of a broad sword. And there are only so many people that use that kind of weapon and I have killed off a few of them."

"Youve convinced me Ugatta. Alright, since this bastard could be our sensei's killer I will have to help you and forget the money. We can use it on out trip I hate to not be comfortable when i travel."

And with that, they are allies once again. And they will be working together to avenge the death of their sensei.