intraspective | The Temple of Fire and surrounding environs, Fire Country, Thursday

Asuma	It didn't take them long to reach the Temple of Fire. Two days of running, searching, and finding nothing. Distantly, Asuma was impressed with how much Shikamaru had grown. Izumo and Kotetsu were less of a concern to him, due to their increased experience. Once they reached the temple, however, none of them were a concern as he surveyed the rows upon rows of tombs hastily built, with a few of the surviving monks by his side. The surviving monks had been busy, working away their grief. Picking up the pieces. The temple was broken and shattered, the out-buildings showing signs of a fierce battle. Chunks broken off, some as rubble, other pieces having simply vanished—he could name several jutsu that could do that off the top of his head. "Okay… so where's Chiriku?" He had to ask. He didn't want to see his friend's body but… he needed to at the same time.
Monk	One of the monk’s swallowed. "Unfortunately… his body is the only one we haven't found yet." Digging through their home for the bodies of the only family most of them had any more. They'd been busy, Asuma could tell, with that thankless task. If they hadn’t found him, it was likely Chiriku’s body wasn’t here. Damn.
Izumo	Izumo glanced down at his notebook and frowned. There were possibilities… "Asuma-taichou?" Both Asuma and Shikamaru glanced his way. Kotetsu was a solid presence at his back. "I'm not sure how to put this," he began, keeping his voice level as he was a ninja and he wasn’t going to shy away from saying the hard things. "An underground organization put a thirty million ryou bounty on Chiriku-san's head. Akatsuki might be…" He trailed off, giving an almost apologetic shrug.
Asuma	He didn't need to hear the rest. Grimacing, Asuma wished for a smoke. "Probably."
Shikamaru	Shikamaru glanced at Asuma-sensei before back to Izumo. "An exchange point. They must be taking his body along with them."
Kotetsu	Kotetsu ran his hands through his hair. Oh man, oh man. Talk about trouble. "Izumo, where're the exchange points?" What? He wasn't the one with the brains here and he knew it.
Izumo	"There are five including the one closest to us…" Izumo said, flipping through his notebook. "We'll need to send warning out to the teams nearest to the others." Kotetsu would take care of that, and he did, as Izumo read off the locations.
Asuma	Asuma watched all of this with half his mind focused on the destruction around them. The damage was too general to tell what the specialties of the Akatsuki members were. All they knew was that Akatsuki worked in groups of two. "Good," he said finally, when the last of the birds had flown. "Let's move out."
Monk	"Ah—Sarutobi Asuma-dono," one of the older monks intervened. "If you're about to head into battle, allow us to say a brief prayer for you." Asuma smiled.
Asuma	When the prayer was done, one that he'd patiently waited through and pretended that he didn't notice is subordinates trying to hide their impatience—some things could not be rushed—Asuma wasn't surprised when the monks escorted them to the exit. It was the monk staring at his waistband, though, that goaded him into speaking. "Don't worry about me," he said finally, wanting to ease their minds. “My head's worth five million more than Chiriku's! They won't get it without a hell of a fight."

Shikamaru	The leaves and branches were hardly coming in to focus as their team moved fast through the tree tops. Every chakra enhanced push off carried them closer to their target. So many unknown invariables lay ahead of them, but their plan was clear and Shikamaru found his mind returning to the one piece he seemed to be missing right beside him. "Asuma-sensei," he spoke before he remembered that it wasn't his place to ask, or the right time. He just hated unknowns, it left too many possible solutions open and that was tiresome.
Asuma	He was wrapped up in his thoughts, mind devoted to constantly, continuously, going over the scant facts they had. Intuition played a heavy part in hunts like this, he knew, but all the same... Going over the facts kept the part of his mind busy that wasn’t devoted to watching their surroundings. The movement itself, each leap and jump were so automatic, so ingrained, that he didn’t have to think about the chakra needed to do so. Asuma cast a glance over his shoulder at Shikamaru inquiringly.
Shikamaru	It definitely wasn't his place as Asuma was his sensei, but perhaps that made it more important to know. His foot touched the branch and he pushed forward, coming level with Asuma. "This Chiriku guy. What kind of relationship did you have with him anyway?"
Asuma	Asuma's lips twitched, almost a smile and his eyes were amused. "Oh? What's this all of a sudden?" Stalling like a Genin. Heh. He was only really surprised by the fact that it has taken Shikamaru so long to ask. Curious as a cat.
Shikamaru	"You haven't smoked in two days," Shikamaru pressed on, almost certain Asuma would deny him an answer. "As heavy a smoker as you are, you only quit when something's happened."
Asuma	"Quite observant," he said mildly. "Been spending a fair bit of time seeing through me, have you?"
Shikamaru	The trees grew closer together and Shikamaru was forced to move back, making his admission to Asuma's back. "Actually, I've been reading you like a book when we play Shougi," he said, pushing off harder from the branch to take up his position again as soon as the trees allowed it. "But you haven't quit smoking like this since Sandaime-sama died."
Asuma	Silence fell as they continued to run. Asuma was not fool enough to think that Izumo and Kotetsu were not listening in. They are ninja, listening is what they did. More importantly, he could understand why Shikamaru might be asking. Asuma sighed imperceptibly, and looked for words. “Chiriku and I served together as members of the Twelve Shinobi Guardsmen.” The waist band emblazoned with the symbol was proof enough. Silence and he smiled faintly. Should have known getting away with an answer like that wouldn’t happen. “To put it simply,” he said, glancing back at Shikamaru. “We were pretty much like you and Chouji.”
Shikamaru	Shikamaru's eyes widened as he understood and he glanced away, eyes fixed before them. There were no words to offer, but Asuma wouldn't need them. He used his hand to push off the next branch, needing to gain a little height. "You know," he said instead, "smoking isn't one of those habits you can just break."
Asuma	Heh. “Quitting isn’t one of those things that last’s, eh?” That did amuse him, even with the lead weight in his stomach about Chiriku, about the Temple of Fire. He snickered softly. “Well, I guess so since that’s how it’s been so far...” True enough and Asuma had no intentions of quitting for good. Give up nicotine permanently? He couldn’t imagine it. A glance at Shikamaru left him aware that something else needed to be said. “Shikamaru, I’m touched that you’re worried about me and all.” It wasn’t all need to know, he knew that. “But the reason I stopped smoking wasn’t because of Chiriku.” Mostly.
Shikamaru	The small smirk at Asuma's lighter tone disappeared in an instant and Shikamaru glanced at his sensei. His own shock seemed to ripple through the team as ahead of him, Izumo crouched a moment too long on the next branch. The Chuunin cast a look back at them and Shikamaru couldn't blame him. So much for reading Asuma like a book.
Asuma	He was deadly serious now. "More than that." More than anything right now: the mission came first. "The Akatsuki were strong enough to take Chiriku out." And he knew how strong Chiriku had been. "Which means they have serious skills. Don't let your guard down."

Hidan	The urinal fucking reeked. Ugh. "I can't believe they hid the entrance behind a urinal," Hidan muttered as the hidden door opened and the face of one ugly sonuvabitch appeared to gesture for them to come in. In past the urinals. What the flying fuck? He’d almost have preferred to stay in the bathroom proper rather than the cold brightly lit room he and Kakuzu entered. Rows upon rows of stainless steel fridges to keep the bodies... fresh.
Kakuzu	The body collector studied the corpse laid out on the table, ignoring the two very dangerous men with practiced ease. "That's Chiriku alright," he determined finally. Always, especially with ninja, you had to make sure. "You caught a good one this time Kakuzu-san." Kakuzu gave an affirmative. Somewhere between a ‘yeah’ and a grunt.
Hidan	Hidan resisted the urge to bitch about that. See? He had self control. But when the money was handed over and Kakuzu made to begin counting it, he could feel his blood pressure rising. "Hurry the hell up," he snapped, "it reeks in here. Kakuzu! Let's go."
Kakuzu	The sharp voice of his partner hammered through his skull. Kakuzu glared over at him. "Hang on. I've got to count the money." Because this had better be thirty million ryou.
Hidan	Ugh. Seriously, what the hell? "I can't tell if the stench is that body or all the piss in here, but it's fucking gross," he said, ignoring Kakuzu. "I'm going outside."

Ino	There was a certain freedom in flying that thrilled her to the bone. This sort wasn't the same as when she used Staffy, not at all, and Ino refused to let herself give into the urge to just fly and fly and fly for nothing but the sheer joy of it. The hawk's mind, firmly under her grasp, was amendable to flying like that, far away from her. But she had a job to do. Down below, Ino was distantly aware of her own body, Chouji carrying it so they could make progress on foot while she scouted by air. In this area, the bird she'd chosen would draw no suspicions from its appearance. It was up to her to keep it flying in such a way that seemed natural. Ino spared a moment to wish she was better at simply opening her mind up to look for people, but that was a skill she had only the barest idea of how to go about. Out in the field, while looking for S Class criminals while she wasn't even in her body seemed like a poor time to experiment in her eyes. Ino-the-hawk cast a glance down when a faint nudge rippled up from her body. Someone wanted her attention. She locked the hawk's wings into a long glide, trusting the air currents to keep them in the air (she knew she could do that, the hawk had memories of it) and waited to see what they wanted.
Genma	Chouza's boy didn't even look winded from carrying the girl around for hours on end. Her body draped over his shoulders, arms gently bound together so that, in the event of an unexpected fight, the boy would be able to make a clean break of it without worrying about his teammate managing to stay on if she couldn’t immediately return to her body for some reason. Genma cast a glance up at the sky, at the shadow of a bird, and idly flipped his senbon from one side of his mouth to the other, before rapping the girl on the arm. Sharp enough to get her attention, not sharp enough to bruise. "Yamanaka. Report."
Ino	Forming words for her body to speak while she was up and away required concentration. After two days of almost constant practice, however, Ino was getting pretty good at that. Two places at once, thinking and analyzing—answering and watching—she could do it. "Nothing has changed," she said, the words with an odd almost echo to them, from her perspective. Chouji said, when she'd asked him, that she'd sounded mostly normal to him. "Still no sign of Akatsuki." No sign of their targets. Ino didn't like that. It was frustrating.
Genma	"Alright," Genma said, having to trust her eyes for anything further out. They kept watch on what was closer. "Keep searching. Aim more for the west." Nearer to one of the exchange points. They were slowly but steadily making progress.
Ino	Ino bobbed her head and snapped her focus back onto the hawk, veering upwards with a flap of powerful wings. Seek and destroy. She wasn't sure about the destroying bit, considering what seemed like marked differences in skill levels, but seeking? That she could do.