Welcome to Gaia! ::

At each fork in the cave, Eco would turn left. He knew the one way to get lost in a place like this was to go in various directions. Through the echoes of the cave, he could hear the heartbeats of what he thought was the Kage Council. Within moments Eco and Akuma would reach their goal.

After a few more moments of cave diving the two shinobi were in fron of an entrance to a cavern guarded by a sole Anbu.
"Halt! Identify yourselves!" he ordered.
"Eco Windoku, Hikage." said Eco.
The Anbu nodded and awaited an answer from Akuma.

The Anbu was about to say something before Eco raised his hand. "Relax. He's with me. Just show us to the council." he ordered.
The Anbu nodded reluctantly and moved out of the way. "The captain is inside. Move quickly, you're going to want to see this."
Eco nodded and walked into the cavern.

In the chamber stood only one man: Sanro Bermudo, captain of the council's personal Anbu.
"Good day to you, Sanro." said Eco with a polite bow.
"Good day to you, Eco." said Sanro, with a returned bow. "Who is this friend of yours?"
"Akuma Hittori. He's come to aid me an whatever mission you have for the SLS. Where is the council, Sanro? I was expecting to see them, not you." asked Eco.
Sanro sighed deeply, and looked to the ground. "They've been.... murdered."

Eco supressed his emotions. His old leader, the Otokage, had survived the war and was on that council. He had done much for Eco, but Eco knew there was no point in mourning. Better to avenge then to weep, as they say.
"Who, and how?" asked Eco, bluntly.
"We're not sure, but we feel a small group of bandits might know. We would take of them ourselves, but our forces are follwoing another lead. All we ask of you is to storm their HQ and gather what information they have. We'll take care of matters from there."
Eco nodded. "Where are they?"
"They've retreated to Fort Yousha. If you go now you may still catch them."
"Very well. See you soon, Sanro." said Eco with a bow as he rushed out of the cavern.

"Correct." said Eco. "We will be traveling on foot this time; I don't want to risk them detecting our pressence. Think you can keep up?" he said with a smirk as they reached the exit to the cave complex.

Eco merely smirked at the merc's remark. He never could figure out why, but he always enjoyed the company with a good freelancer. (post next in Yousha, I'll let Akuma win the race there)