In the Dragon's Grasp [Solo]

The Objective:

Ryojin had once again been tasked with scouting out the tattered terrain between the village and the river basin. He had chosen to do this mission in broad daylight. He made his trek along the river basin and after a moment reached the first empty building. There was no evidence that anyone had been in this building recently. There was no pile of ash in the center of the building as signs of a fire. There was nothing laying around suggesting something had been left behind by someone recently. No evidence of foot traffic in the moist earth around the building. He made his way down to the river from here and searched for tracks, but on this side there weren't any. He walked across the surface of the river to the other side where he did think he saw tracks.

He followed along the opposite side of the river and managed to reach a small abandoned outpost. This building had two floors. He silently slipped in through the open entry way and made his way up toward the second floor after finding that the first floor was empty. On the second floor he found a wolf mask just simply sitting there on a table. He walked up to the table and lifted the mask. He turned it over in his hands. There seemed to be absolutely nothing particularly exclusive about this mask.Why had they chosen a wolf? He took a seat on a chair by the table. He waited, but only for fifteen to twenty minutes. Nobody made their way back into the room. He picked up the mask and tucked it back down into his coat. He would hold on to the mask in case he needed it later. If he needed to hunt down his brother, he had no doubts the mask would be invaluable just for that.

He made his way downstairs and out of the outpost. There were no tripwires, no foot prints that were recent. Had the mask been here for a purpose? For the time being he would have to push it to the back of his mind. He continued on his path further out from the village and came to a hollowed out tree. The jungle trees were particularly large, so he took a look on the inside. He found evidence inside this tree of a recent fire. There was charred wood, but someone would have seen the smoke from the village right? He looked around this tree more and found a bag full of rations. He slipped an explosive note into the bag and made his way ten meters to the east hiding in wait. Before long, a raggedy looking man would lift up the bag he had found full of rations and this led to Ryojin making the hand seal to set off the note inside. Hearing it light up, the man tossed the bag and dove the opposite direction. An explosion rang through the immediate area of the bag sending charred remains of rations everywhere.

The man had suddenly broke into a sprint headed back from the way he came, but Ryojin followed. Ryojin had formed two kunai made of ice in his hand and he threw them toward the man's back. The two kunai struck their mark and the man was down gasping for air. Ryojin walked over the top of him. "Forgive me, but.. this is it for you." The man was face down in the dirt breathing hard. Ryojin pulled his kunai from the man, and as he did, he flipped the man over to realize it was in fact a.. fox? Ryojin shook his head a moment. "Damn.. Genjutsu. He got away." Ryojin sighed. It might've been better this way he didn't have to take the life of someone who had just got too close to the village. His job was done for the day. He turned back and began to head home.