The Child Of The Star

Chapter 47

Yoriichi ambled, his larger figure could have been seen clearly from a distance walking next to Yukie who was on horseback. Yoriichi had been the one to place them all in a strategic formation making Yukie be placed in the middle of the group. 

Yukie: What are you doing?

She looked down from her horseback towards Yoriichi who was reading a magazine with the cover having the symbol of the fire nation. He didn't even look at her when he spoke.

Yoriichi: The village where we will be making our stop is known as Yugakure. It is a village created on a large geothermal lake or massive hot springs. They are famous for their hot springs. 

Even though Yukie listened to his explanation she was annoyed at the fact that he was more focused on the magazine than her, he didn't even glance in her direction. Wasn't he supposed to protect her? Yoriichi took a step forward easily avoiding the foot, barely grazing his broad shoulder. Yukie nearly fell off her horse, narrowly saving herself the embarrassment and injury. She looked at him and fumed when she saw him giving her a smirk almost getting her to shout at him...almost. She held herself back and that's how the travel continued with Yukie trying to hit Yoriichi only for him to dodge out of her way and embarrass her. The others who were on horseback either were too much of idiots to notice or they just ignored the two. 

.

The group of fifteen reached Yugakure at sunset, the sky was bright orange when they crossed the village gate. Asama was quick to book rooms and bribe the hotel owners when there wasn't enough room for everyone. Yoriichi's room was three doors away from Yukie and her female assistants, his room was just around the corner, the closest one other than the two rooms of the female helpers. Asama had no problem with this since anyone who had to get to Yukie would either have to go passing from his room or from outside of the garden area where her room was. Yoriichi had swapped himself with a clone as he made his way around the village. He could be in multiple places at once so why not take advantage of that? He strolled through the village as he took in the sights. There wasn't much about the village in the manga nor in the anime, not that he remembers any. Only a few things like Hidan was once a shinobi of this village, with there being a secret Jashinist cult and a secret clan that once lived somewhere nearby. 

Yoriichi's feet hit stone as he landed down in the deep valley. He stood up to his full height and looked around. From the distance his eyes could see, the entire area was small less than a hundred kilometres. In the middle was a massive lake, the odd thing about it was that it was red, not blood red but bright almost jewel red. Walking closer to it Yoriichi could smell the water, it was filled with a lot of iron and other minerals. He was sure that they were the reason that the water was red. Walking past the lake, he pushed the old wooden door and entered one of the old wooden houses he could see. It was covered in a decade's worth of dust, the house had a few holes in it. The items were there where they were left by the former owners.

Yoriichi picked up a knife from the dining table, it was kept beside an old wooden chopping board, and the vegetable kept over it was covered in mold and dust. 

Yoriichi: 'What happened here? It's like everyone has disappeared however there are no signs of struggle'

Putting the dusty knife back on the table, he left the house and continued his search in the remaining of the old houses. All of them were like the first house, old, dusty and looked like they would break any second. It took an hour however he found nothing that gave him an indication that something happened here. He began to brainstorm about what could have happened to the people here. From what he remembers and from what he had questioned the locals the Chinoike clan lived. The name immediately allowed him to remember about the clan from the internet and short clips he had once seen. He doesn't remember much however only that they could control blood or something like that.