For the Fallen! [Mission]

[Naegi˚ 苗木]

Name: For the Fallen!
Rank: C
IIC Length: 2 days, 1-3 Gennin
Difficulty: Moderate.
Description: Recently, a local farmer of an outside small farming village on the outskirts of Iwa, has been robbed by mere thiefs. The kage will not stand for such incompetence, not to mention this village was supposed to be under Iwa protection. The farmer, had a scroll hidden within his farm about his families farming techniques and methods and is more valuable then you think. Your mission is to go to the farm and retrieve it. If the scroll is missing, find it, use whatever means needed to do so.
Objective: Obtain the scroll of farming.
Reward: 1500 Ryo.

After receiving the mission he requested, Naegi now had plans to return to his house, which lay isolated from most of the village. As of now, it was no later then 11 o'clock at the time, and he wanted to leave the village before the sun rose to its highest at noon. He was glad it wasn't humid out at least, as it usually was, but there was a strong breeze, that would cool you down and seem to give you more energy then you normally would. He turned a corner, and continued running through the streets of Iwagakure, the heavy cloak he wore, flying behind him like a cape.

His mind came back to thoughts of Pandoru once more, he couldn't help but always think about her, and now she was Tsuchikage? Surely she'd be much to busy for the two to spar, or even hang out from now on. On top of that, she was gone on two important missions, and who knows when she'd be coming back. As these questions and thoughts race around in his own head, he had finally arrived to where his house was. The boulders that concealed the pathway to the house were directly in front of him, and he swiftly jumped over them, and ran toward the door. Naegi's mauve eyes motioned toward his pouch, and used his hands to feel around for the key to get in. He grasped it, and pulled it out quickly, before inserting it into the keyhole, and walked inside, shutting the door behind him.

He placed the key back inside his pouch, and ran into his room. On a small desk was the bag he usually took on missions, and gathered up several water bottles to place them in his bag. Soon after, he had gotten everything he had needed for this mission, placed the bag on his should, and left his house. Naegi locked the door, and ran through the streets of Iwagakure until he reached the gates. He gazed out, to take in the views of Tsuchi no Kuni. He needed to find the farm land, and the farmer that had been attacked first. From there, he'd start his search to hunt down the thieves, kill them, and return the scroll.

His left foot motioned forward, and then his right foot followed. Naegi, then began sprinting, his legs began moving faster, jumping from boulder to boulder in the Tsuchi terrain. He turned right, heading southwest of the village, the farm was supposedly in that direction, and wasn’t more then 30 miles from Iwagakure. It was no doubt 12 now, as the air felt much more muggy then it had before he went back to his house, and the breeze that had lingered around earlier, was surely gone now.

He continued onward, in search of his destination, and after several more minutes came to a halt behind a group of several boulders. Not too far ahead Naegi could here the sounds of several voices, by listening; he could tell that there were surely more then nine voices. He glanced around, and found a peek hole he could use to see what the people who were talking looked like. His right mauve eye stared at the nine, who were similar clothing to each other, and thought they were some kind of band in the Tsuchi terrain trying to make a living.

Naegi had plans to turn away and continue his journey to the farm, when something in particular caught his eye. In one of the bags that leaned on a small rock next to one of the nine men, was a certain scroll, he thought of his mission, to retrieve the scroll that had the families farming techniques kept within it. Was this the scroll? Or was this some other kind of scroll. He couldn’t be sure, but he found it most odd that a band of nine men sitting around together in the Tsuchi terrain would have a scroll on them. Even if it was the scroll, Naegi first needed to get to the farm, to make sure the farmer himself was alright, and get information from the farmer.

With that decided, Naegi slowly crept off, toward the farm once more. He didn’t glance back in the direction where he had found the nine men, but kept the group of boulders in his head, incase those nine men were indeed the thieves, in which he’d have to hunt them down.

[Naegi˚ 苗木]

It had only been a mere 10 minutes since Naegi had stopped to spy on the nine men, and he was now looking down upon a field of crops, that too him, looked completely demolished from the thief incident that had occurred here. He gazed around at the torn up farm, and saw that the barn was completely on fire; he inhaled a small amount of smoke, and quickly jumped away from the rising black air. The thought of him having to now deal with fire worried him. Fire was really his weakest in life, and all it would take is one little spark for him to burn up completely, with the plant life inside his own body.

However, he knew his mission was, and if it would cost him his life in doing it, so be it. He then spotted several shapes crawling across the crops, he noticed that the three shapes were more then luckily injured, and he quickly raced down the rocks to help them. He noticed that one of the three farmers, was much older then the other two, just by the looks of him Naegi guessed he was older then 90 years old. Swiftly, he ran toward the man, and grabbed him, then placed the man onto his shoulders.

He turned to his right to see a small old lady trying to crawl through the torn up soil. Naegi quickly ran over to her, and lifted her up. “Thank you young man, I can walk on my own though,” the old lady snapped, before ripping her hand away from Naegi’s own. He blinked his mauve eyes at the lady, and couldn’t believe how rude she was to him after he had more then likely saved her. However, he needed to ignore her for now, and just get the three away from the area.

The third person, who seemed to be a middle aged woman, was now beginning to get up on her own, and he quickly followed the two who were now running behind a large boulder. Naegi turned and saw the two sitting down on rocks, breathing heavily, and coughing from the smoke inhalation. He gently set down the elderly man on the ground, and leaned him against one of the boulders. His next motive was to try to put the fire out, but he didn’t know any water techniques that would be able to help him put it out at all. The only way would be to see if they had any water source that he could use to try and put it out manually.

Naegi looked down at the two ladies, and blinked his mauve eyes. “Do you have any type of water supply source that we could use to put this fire out at all?” His voice seemed mucky, as if he had swallowed lots of mud, and it got stuck in his throat. He then coughed slightly as he waited for the women to respond, but they seemed to horror struck to say anything.

“We….we have a….water tank…down behind….those boulders….” Naegi heard from behind him, and turned to see the elderly man coughing, forcing the words out in between each cough and breath. The man pointed unsteadily toward the largest boulders Naegi had ever seen outside the village. Swiftly, Naegi ran toward the boulders, and looked behind them to find an enormous tank, that wasn’t big in height, but it was surely wide. Attached to the outside of the enormous tank, was a hose, which would surely come in handy for this situation.

He blinked his mauve eyes many times, as he could hear the sound of barn wood cracking, and falling to the ground. Naegi quickly unraveled the hose and began dragging it toward the burning barn, as more smoke rose into the air. He glanced over at the three farmers, who watched him with intensity and hope that he would put this fire out for them. Then, he saw the younger of the two ladies running toward him. “I’ll turn it on for you!” She yelled, and made her way to the tank. Naegi knew this pressure would first cause him to fall off balance but needed to keep the water aimed on the barn to put this fire out.

Then, it came, the water shot from the hose, and Naegi thought for sure the hose would rip itself from his own hands, but he held it tightly, and aimed it on the burning barn. The fire began to sizzle, and after several moments of aiming the hose, the fire was gone. Only smoke was left, still rising into the sky, Naegi felt the water pressure subside, until it ceased completely, and he set it down, as the three farmers walked toward him, the elderly man being helped by the snappy elderly woman.

[Naegi˚ 苗木]

Naegi stared at the three farmers in a curious matter, as they too sat on rocks and stared at him, the fire had been put out, and now he had to get down to business and discuss with them the thieves that most likely had down this. He blinked his mauve eyes, and turned his attention toward the youngest of the three, and tried to give her a smile. As he was about to speak, the elderly woman interrupted him. “We know you’re here on a mission to retrieve our farming scroll. However,” the woman began but stopped quickly as the old man coughed, and quickly took notice to the blood dripping down his lips.

He stared at the man, but Naegi didn’t know any kind of technique that would stop him from coughing up blood. If anything, the man would surely die, or Naegi would have to take him to the hospital in Iwagakure. However, as quickly as the man started coughing, he stopped, and had begun to fall asleep. The old woman turned her attention back to Naegi, and smiled at him, rather then giving him a cold look. “However, when our farm was attacked, the scroll was stolen at the same time, along with the rest of our valuable items. Money was essential to us, as we don’t make a lot of it for what we do for living, and now all of it has been taken. We have nothing,” the woman explained and started to sob.

The Gennin wasn’t sure what to do, but knew he needed to ask questions and would surely need answers, if they wanted him to find these thieves. He turned to the youngest one more, and stared into her eyes. “I need to ask you questions, but, you need to give me the best answer you can possibly give.” Naegi began, and then coughed slightly, from the small amount of smoke he had inhaled. “How many thieves attacked you earlier today?” He asked them firmly, and watched as the two woman turned to look at one another, and then back at Naegi.

The oldest began to shake slightly, but gripped the rock she sat on tightly to steady herself. “I believe there were only five in total, however, that may be wrong, as when I saw them retreating with our things; I swear I saw at least nine or more.” She explained to him, and turned to the youngest, who nodded to what the eldest said. “They each wore black masks, and I was so close to four of them, that I could see a mark on there wrist. The mark was of a “Z” and a “T”, both letters were connected, and when I saw that mark, I remembered hearing about a group of seventeen thieves that called themselves the “Zushiki Thieves”. They live in the caves farther west of here.” The lady explained, but then stared at him once more. “What is you’re name boy?” She asked him.

As Naegi listened to her explanation of the thieves attacking, he knew immediately that the nine he had seen earlier weren’t the thieves who had attacked this farm earlier this morning. As the information she was giving him ran through his mind, she stopped him slightly as she asked for his name. He had really forgotten about introducing himself to them at the time, as the only thing on his mind was getting the scroll, and slaughtering the thieves who did this. Naegi grinned and nodded to her. “My name is Zassou Naegi of the enchanted Zassou Bloodline, and I’m a Gennin of Iwagakure no Sato.” He told them, smiling, and bowing his head.

The old lady smiled at him. “It is very nice to meet you Naegi. My name is Yobigoe. This is my husband Akubi, and my wonderful daughter-in-law Airai. My son, Ikanobori was killed by some thieves three years ago.” Yobigoe spoke in a more kind tone then Naegi had heard the entire time he’d been there so far.

Naegi listened as she went on about her son, and how Ikanobori and Akubi met, and married one another soon after. He really didn’t want to be rude, and tell them he needed to leave to hunt down these thieves, but also didn’t want to sit around here as Yobigoe continued on about her son. Quickly, Naegi stood up as the woman continued talking. “I’m sorry, but I can’t sit around here and listen to you go on and on about you’re life right now. I need to go, and hunt down these thieves before they move off to take out another local farm.” He explained trying not to sound too rude, but to make sure the lady got the point.

Yobigoe seemed quite angry at first, but smiled in nodded to him in agreement. “You are quite right; forgive me for babbling on about such nonsense at this moment.” The lady told him, and suddenly began to sob once more; Naegi guessed this sobbing was mainly about the death of her son. He knew how hard it was to be close to someone and learn they have been killed. His old friend, Okaji Nadosuke and the former Tsuchikage of Iwagakure no Sato, along with Naegi’s own mother, who died when he was just a young boy. As these sad thoughts ran through his mind, he snapped out of them, and knew he needed to get going.

He began walking away from the group, and promised them he’d be back soon to check on them, if he didn’t find these thieves by nightfall, he’d need to return to the farmers, so as to not let them be possibly attacked by the thieves again. Naegi began to run through the terrain once more, climbing the rocky area, until he reached the top. He looked to the west, and knew the caves Yobigoe told him about. He and his mother had stayed in those groups of caves after they fled Kusagakure no Sato. Naegi grinned as he ran to the west, he readied himself for a fight, and he wasn’t sure how strong these thieves would be, but no doubt guessed they surely had a leader guiding them. That leader would be the real challenge; he would think of a plan to ambush these thieves once he knew what the situation in the caves looked like.

[Naegi˚ 苗木]

It had been less then 10 minutes now since Naegi’s departure from the farm, and he continued to travel west. He had been to the caves once when he was less then 6 years old, but he had really forgotten exactly where the caves were. The thought of going back to a place he had stayed at with his mother brought back good memories of his mother, even though she was cold hearted. He had never even known his father; it was quite strange to him that his mother had never mentioned his father either.

He jumped over a rock as the thought of never knowing who his father was continued to run through his mind. Why he hadn’t thought of his own father before was quite strange to him as well. Naegi did know however that whenever his mother saw a man, she’d often lick her lips. Then usually within time, the man would disappear out of nowhere. Why these thoughts came to him now was a complete mystery, it just suddenly started to seem intriguing to Naegi as he remembered these things.

Several more minutes passed by as Naegi continued on toward the caves. It was no longer noon now, as the sun had gone down slightly, Naegi guessed it was no later then 2 o’clock by now. He could now see a dip up ahead in the earth, and began to slow down slightly. Naegi walked slowly toward the dip, and hid behind a boulder to peek down into the crater below.

Naegi blinked his eyes in disbelief at what he saw below. He saw the caves down below, but in the middle there was a clearing, where sixteen figures were gathered, and were listening to one man at the front speak, who stood on a tall flat boulder. How would he be able to take them all on? It would be difficult, but first he wanted to try and pinpoint a good hostage incase his plans on fighting them went awry.

He gazed around, and spotted a woman sitting on a boulder behind the larger man who spoke to the other sixteen men. Naegi assumed the woman was a close person of the supposed “leader” on the large boulder. The meters from where Naegi stood and where the woman sat was more then 40, more then his vines could extend too. He’d need to get closer, but wanted to at least take several of the thieves out before he attempted to capture the woman.

Swiftly, Naegi formed several hand seals, each one he finished with ease and great speed, as he was very familiar with this technique he planned on using. It was a great assassination technique and one he would enjoy using at this moment. He finished the several hand seals, held his palms upward, and aimed. The vines shot from the three holes in each palm, and headed for the thieves.

Hitoshirezu Yaiba no Jutsu ("Hidden Blades Technique")
Rank: "C" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: This lets long blades slice open from the vine. (A meter long per three meters vine)
Special: "Hand Seals"
Drawback: ---
Description: Once out of the body, the user lets the tip of the vine shoot out three blades, which are one third of the length of the vine out of the body. These blades can be used as a surprise attack and perhaps even as grapling hook.
Limit: Zassou members only.

Immediately following, the vines shot out, fired out three small blades from each, sending a total of 18 blades at the thieves. With out notice, 10 of the seventeen thieves were killed instantly, five others were merely harmed. Those five yelled out in great pain, Naegi quickly let the vines drop from his palms, and drew his katana from the sheath to his side.

The leader of the thieves began looking around in panic, and jumped up from the crater to look around. Naegi knew he’d have to fight the leader, but needed at least one hostage to tell him where the scroll is hidden, that one would surely be the woman. He grabbed four senbon, and shifted his body to come in view of the leader of the Zushiki Thieves. Naegi threw the senbon at the man, and saw all four sink into the man’s left leg.

:.-4 Senbon.:

Naegi swiftly ran past the leader, his katana grasped tightly in his right hand, and he sliced down at the man’s back, who was too pre-occupied with the pain in his left leg at the moment. He found this fight to be easier then putting out the fire from earlier, but as he thought that, he felt a surging pain in his back. Naegi turned his neck to see the woman he had spotted earlier holding the hilt of a katana. He felt her rip the sword out of his back, and yelled in agony from the great pain.

He moved his body as she went to stab him once more, but he avoided the silver blade by mere inches. Naegi jumped into the air, and spun around, landing a few feet away from the two. His plans of ambushing these thieves had worked at first, but he underestimated the woman’s abilities. He should have known she’d be skillful to be in a group of thieves. Naegi glanced up once more to see her charging in at him once more, he jumped up, and angled his body to avoid her attack. She was a surely a pain, he needed to deal with her, and fast.

The woman let out a scream of laughter, as she aimed and this time was able to stab Naegi in the right hand, causing him to drop his katana. He fell back on the ground, and saw the woman grasp his sword and aim both hers and his own at him. The leader of the thieves approached him as well. Naegi grinned, and opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead, a large, thick, thorn covered vine shot from his throat and struck through the mans neck. Quickly, Naegi let the vine from his throat fall out, and he jumped backward, avoiding the sword and his katana the woman used to try and slash down on him.

He slowly stood up, and grinned. Naegi couldn’t kill this woman now, or else he’d have no one to tell him where the scroll was. He needed to just injure her enough so that she couldn’t fight back, or bound her so she could fight at all. Naegi needed to get her sword and his katana away from her, before he did bind her with his vines though. He grinned as he grabbed two senbon from his pouch, to fight her at close-combat. Fighting her with small weapons would be difficult though, especially since he wasn't an excellent close-combat fighter as it is.

[Naegi˚ 苗木]

Naegi continued to dodge the attacks by the woman as she slashed at him repeatedly with her own silver weapon, and Naegi’s own katana that she had confiscated from him. He could not find any open spots to try and stab her with a katana, and if he did, he couldn’t stab her without taking a severe stab from the two weapons she held. How would he be able to stop her? He couldn’t think of anything that would slow her down enough so that he could take advantage of this fight. However, the thought finally came to him. He had a technique that could take energy from her, and give it to him, giving him an even more advantage.

In order to use this technique though, he’d need to use it when she least expected it. So first, he’d need a distraction, a clone perhaps, more then one for sure. He gripped the two senbon he held tightly in his hands, and a wide grin grew across his face. Swiftly, he threw both senbon at her, and jumped backward as his hands clasped together to form several hand seals with ease. Three brown clouds of smoke burst in the air, and three other Naegi’s stepped out of them, each holding two senbon to take on the woman.

:.-2 Senbon.:

He blinked his mauve eyes, and grinned as two of the three ran straight for the woman, each holding there right hand to there chest, senbon grasped tightly, the other hand straight backward. Immediately following, Naegi and his clone turned around and began retreating away from the area. He needed to find a spot where he could hide, yet still be able to attack her. There was a group of rocks to the right, and the two ran quickly toward the small boulders.

Naegi had his clone go to the front of the boulders to make the woman think that was him. He ran over toward a rock that was even closer to her, but that stayed out of sight, and so she couldn’t see him, but only the clone. The sounds of metal hitting metal could be heard clinging against one another. Until finally he could hear it no more, but did in fact here the sound of scandals crunching against the small rocks in the earth. He grinned as he quietly formed several more hands seals, the wounds on his sides were still paining him, but he made the most effort not to move or breathe heavily.

He glanced over as he had his last clone run at her with full force, senbon held tightly in his grasp. Quickly, Naegi held up his palms, the three holes in each immediately shot out with great speed and silence, like a needle being shot from a blowgun. The six vines shot, attached to the back of the woman’s legs, Naegi immediately could feel her energy being sucked from her body, and transferred into his own body. The best thing was, that she would hardly be able to feel or notice the vines attached to her legs, unless she moved out of his 35 yard range, or if she looked down and saw them herself. However, she was currently busy fighting his last clone.

Chakra Kyuuban no Jutsu("Chakra Sucker Technique")
Rank: "C" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: A technique used to boost one's own stamina by draining the life force out of trees or creatures
Special: "Hand Seals"
Drawback: User must stand still while using this technique. Heals somewhat slow.
Description: The Zassou member shoots out a vine which then enters a body or a tree. Once in there, it will start sucking all the life force, and chakra out of it. This all results the user to slowly regain health and such. This can be of good use after a combat, in order to get the user fit if there is only little time to get away.
Limit: Zassou members only.

The vine continued on sucking energy from her, he felt much stronger by the second, even if it did drain slowly. He noticed that she was beginning to slow down a lot faster, her movements were like that of a sloth now, and she wasn’t even able to hit the clone now. Naegi grinned now, his plan had been a success, and he ceased the draining, and let the vines drop from his palms. Quickly, he shot vines from the six holes in his palms once more. These vines wrapped around the woman’s still body, as she breathed heavily, her body seemed to be drained completely.

He walked over, and tied the hanging vines around her body in a knot so she had no chance to get away if she was faking at this moment. His body bent over to take the sword and katana from her grasp; he sheathed his own katana, and threw her sword down into a ditch to his right. "Where is the scroll that you thieves stole from the farmers to the east from here?" Naegi demanded, as she glared at him.

The woman ignored him, closing her eyes to avoid having to look at him. "It’s none of you're business, I'll let you kill me before I tell you where it is.” Her voiced seemed croaky, and unhealthy. She looked up and glared at him again, her eyes were very heavy, but just as he began to question her once more; he spotted something rolled up sticking out of her pouch.

Naegi bent down and grasped the parchment with his bloodied right hand. On the outside of it wrote Scroll of Farming, he grinned and immediately knew this was it. Now, he needed to head back to the farm to check on them, but first, he needed to kill this woman, so that she would not threaten the farm again. He placed the scroll in his pouch, grasped his katana with his right hand, held it firmly to the woman’s neck, and stabbed through it. Her body lolled backward as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, now only white could be seen in her eye sockets.

He dispersed his last clone, and ran off toward the farm. He hoped nothing had gone awry there while he had been away, and began picking up speed; his wounds still stung, but didn’t sting as bad as they had before he drained energy from the woman. Naegi ran on for minutes, and continued back until he finally reached the ditch where the farm lay down in.

As he made his way down to rocky slope, he could see lights on inside the house that had bee ransacked earlier this morning. The moon was now high in the sky, and he needed to get back to the village soon. He was greeted by all three before he had even reached the water tank, and the three talked for a small while, before Naegi finally told them he needed to get going. He ran off, waving goodbye, before disappearing.

Naegi wasn’t quite sure of the time, but knew it was past 7 o’clock at the moment he was heading back. Every moment his feet touched the earth, they kicked off going over six meters each time. A couple hours later, Naegi could see the lights of Iwagakure in sight, and he ran on heading for the village gates, and the Tsuchikage Tower.

:.Exit.: