On the southern shore of Kaze no Kuni, near the border to the Land of Rivers, waves crashed on the sandy shore. Lines of boxes were being loaded onto ships in the middle of the night, when the world was quiet and its firmament was dark and foreboding. A large crew, mostly male, worked tirelessly into the early morning to finish their work so that they could get a taste of the ryo all of these goods were worth. Weapons, supplies, food...anything of worth to be found was taken from the smaller villages in Kaze no Kuni and sold illegally. The leader of these bandits, who called himself Bearpaw, had made thousands and thousands over the last few months in Sunagakure's slow period. Apparently, this wasn't the first time the same bandit group had come, but Suzume had dealt with it last time. This Bearpaw was somehow related to the previous bandit leader, likely a brother or a close friend. Nevertheless, this bandit group was a formidable force; any shinobi that Sunagakure sent to stop the bandits were dealt with promptly, and none would never be seen again, presumably killed. The threat they posed to the village was undeniably direct. They were expected to be planning an attack before the end of December, so the village decided to take serious action to prevent it. Almost everyday, there was a chance that Bearpaw's ship would up on the shore by midnight, where he finished any smuggling he could manage and disappeared before sunrise. This information was given to Daraku, and he was assigned with the task to take out the bandits for good. Now, that was something he could get excited for. He hadn't seen any decent action in a short while since Kiyoshi had died, but it was about time he fixed that. A month out of combat could mean he'd be rusty, but he was a Sannin of the village, so he was definitely capable of completing a mission of A-Rank by himself, and perhaps he was even overqualified to do so...


In the afternoon, Daraku sharpened his weapons to make sure that they were in peak condition. He did a little bit of jutsu and close quarters combat practice in the Ishido stronghold's courtyard. By the time the sun set and evening came around, he packed up his survival gear and donned his ninja garb; a red and gray shirt, black shorts with his legs bandaged, gray sandals, and a black cloak that covered the lower half of his face and went down to his upper shins. His swords were strapped to his hips, one on each side, and his Sunagakure forehead protector was tied tightly to his left arm. His smile had come back to him, finally, and it remained on his face, obscured by the cloak, as he left for the border. His crystal blue eyes held a resolute look while he looked straight ahead to the circulating sands that danced around his feet  while he ran. His feet moved in a blur, and once in a while he would hop over a dune to avoid being slowed down by an uphill climb. He went over the mission details in his head; he was to investigate the bandits' operation thoroughly, and once enough information was gathered, he was to eliminate them as a threat. He had permission to kill all of them, if necessary, and even after his moral change of heart, he didn't plan on showing them any mercy.


The ship could be seen on the horizon, a massive, wooden mass equipped with chakra cannons. Nearby was the gang of bandits, around 10 to 15 of them in total. Daraku couldn't tell which one was Bearpaw, which was a problem, but he had plenty of time to figure it out. For now, he found a safe spot that was shielded from the elements by two rocks amongst the dunes. He pitched his tent using the rocks as supports since the sand wouldn't be a stable foundation, and placed his weighted sleeping bag inside, along with his rations and his water. He would be there for a while, approximately nine days and nights, before he'd try to kill Bearpaw, so his priority just then was to focus on surviving in the desert for that long in such a harsh environment. He looked up to the waning moon, which formed an ivory crescent up above.

Daraku spent the second day scouting out the docks. The ship wasn't to return until later that night, if at all, so he had until late that evening to do any investigating he needed to. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to find. The bandits did a great job of cleaning up after they left, so there was no evidence to be found aside from a few footprints that hadn't disappeared yet. Nonetheless, he still could do something to slow the bandits down a bit. He went underneath the dock that they anchored their ship at and placed a paper bomb on the underside. He'd wait until the perfect moment and then set it off while they were working so that he could do some damage and get rid of some of their numbers. Once he trap was prepared, he went back to his camp and ate some rice and dumplings so that he could fill up. With more than 7 hours left before the bandits' arrival, he figured he could fit some training in, too. He'd been practicing a Katon application to his medical ninjutsu in order to use the volatile chakra to create necrosis. He knew it was possible, because back before he defected and he was a Chuunin still, he'd practiced causing necrosis, although on a much smaller scale. This new jutsu he was attempting would be much more lethal.


The ship arrived on the docks around 10 minutes past midnight. It was freezing outside, as a savage wind blew over the sands. Daraku watched the bandits from his camp and waited for them to start loading the goods. People came from the north, probably from one of the smaller villages out that way, carrying large crates and barrels. They would set them down in the sand and then wait while the members of the crew aboard the ship made room and prepared to move out. A tall, muscular man with a full beard and dark hair spoke with a masked person carrying a tanto. Daraku could tell by the way the man looked at the others and how he directed some of them that he must have been Bearpaw; unfortunately, he stayed aboard the ship while everyone worked, so he was safely out of the way of the paper bomb. Daraku decided not to set off the trap, mostly to preserve the dock so that it didn't need to be rebuilt later on. He waited until a sufficient number of crew members had boarded the ship, just before the supplies were to begin being loaded, and activated his kekkei genkai to shroud himself as he sprinted down to the shore. He took the paper bomb from underneath the dock and placed it on the ship, then ran back to his camp, all the while completely undetected.

Within moments, there was a powerful explosion, and the ship sunk into the shallow waters. Daraku couldn't tell how it had affected the crew from that far away, but he knew that he had to have killed at least a few of them, and if he was lucky, Bearpaw wouldn't be a problem anymore. He kept low and watched the survivors gather the supplies, some running back north and some using ninjutsu to create a boat out of Doton. Daraku caught sight of Bearpaw amongst those on the boat, retreating to the Land of Rivers. He wasn't worried, though. He was fully prepared for them to return the next day.

325/345:

Daraku awoke to find himself surrounded by three men. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and just stared back at them, not really concerned at all but curious as to how they found him. He wondered why they hadn't tried to kill him in his sleep; maybe they weren't bandits? "What do you want?" he said under his breath. He glared at each of them in succession. The one in the middle stepped up, apparently the designated speaker of the group. "Bearpaw sent us. You're either to pay up, or we kill you." Daraku got out of his sleeping bag and brushed himself off. "That's why you didn't kill me. You should've at least tried, you might've had a chance. But with this extortion bullshit? No, no no no. Now all three of you are dead, for sure." They were visibly afraid, and Daraku's hand was already wrapped around Nisebi's hilt, ready to draw the blade and cut them down.

"10,000 ryo, upfront. Now." Daraku rolled his eyes and dashed forward, running his sword clean through the man. He fell to the sand in two pieces and his blood stained the campsite crimson. Before the others could react, Daraku shoved the blade into the torso of the bandit on the right, then forced it up so that it sliced through his insides. The last one prepared hand seals for some kind of jutsu, so Daraku decided to humor the guy; he started making hand signs of his own. The bandit finished his hand seals and used the Fireball jutsu, but Daraku dodged it with ease and came into contact range. "Nice try!" he said, jokingly, as he shoved his fist into the man's ribcage. Immediately, gray flames formed and fed on the man's energy, weakening him significantly until his cells started to undergo autolysis and digest themselves. He started to scream as he looked down to find his skin turning black as necrosis set in, and by the time the necrosis reached his heart, his head fell and his body went limp. Daraku threw him down into the sand next to his fallen comrades. "Bearpaw's gonna have to do better than that."


Daraku delivered the bodies to the docks and left them there so that Bearpaw knew his attempt to stop Daraku had failed miserably, and also so that he knew Daraku wasn't a threat to be taken lightly. When he got back to camp, he packed everything up and moved out to the small village, Sakyūgakure, where the bandits were getting their supplies from. He bought a room at the Inn there, figuring that he could stop what operations they had going as soon as they arrived to get supplies at the cost of being unable to keep sight of their ship or of Bearpaw. After putting everything in the room, excluding his swords, he asked the innkeeper where the village's leader was. With the directions, he hunted her down, and found her to be a short woman with a sullen personality. He questioned her about the smuggling, and she admitted that she knew about all of it, but also admitted that there was not much she could do. The village was rather unprotected and any threat could take them out, so she had to comply to the bandits and allow them to use the village for smuggling. The bandits were taking imported weapons, gunpowder, drugs, and alcohol, but they were also stealing food and medicine from the village. As a result, the villagers were starving and dying due to disease. Daraku let her know that he wouldn't let any of that continue, and as soon as Bearpaw was taken care of, he would make sure Sunagakure helped to restore Sakyūgakure.

The bandits never showed up, so Daraku returned to the inn and went to bed.


Daraku helped to heal the villager's illnesses, or at least those that could be helped. He didn't have enough food to feed the hungry, though, nor was he able to return to Sunagakure to bring them food or medicine. He wasn't to return until his mission was complete, and he still had five days left. Despite this, the villagers appreciated the support he offered and they were glad to have him around.


The bandits returned that night, at near 2 in the morning. Daraku watched four of them enter the village in a single file line, spaced apart slightly. They split when they reached the center of the village, moving out to various buildings and picking up boxes. The villagers helped them, since the bandits could kill them if they refused and they didn't have much of a choice. Daraku jumped down from the balcony and headed to the first house. The door was left open, so he followed the bandit in and drew Nisebi. "Hey. Put down the box or I run this sword through your gut." The bandit complied, but revealed a bow and arrow and aimed it at Daraku. He let the arrow fly, but Daraku's reflexes were far superior and he deflected the arrow with a sleight of hand before grabbing a kunai with his other hand and throwing it into his opponent's face. It landed a direct hit in the center of the skull and the bandit collapsed, dead. The woman and her child who were inside the house watched everything unfold, and the woman let out a screech of terror while her child witnessed the death and began to cry. "Sorry about that, but he started it. Stay here and lock your door, there's others." Daraku commanded as he left to take care of the others. He spotted another two walking through the main path of the village, carrying crates, and he made a Snake hand seal. Using Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Gale, he infused his wakizashi with wind chakra and used it to manipulate the blade without having to touch it. He threw it at the first bandit, pegging him directly in the kneecap and the bandit fell over, knocking himself unconscious as his head hit the crate when he fell. Daraku used the wind chakra to pull the blade out of the man's knee and launch it into the other bandit's heart, the extremely sharp blade able to pierce the ribcage with relative ease. There was one left, but Daraku couldn't find him. The woman he had saved earlier approached him, her face wet with tears. "The last one got away, he took a barrel full of weapons and escaped while you were fighting the one in my house." Daraku released his jutsu and pulled his wakizashi out of the dead bandit. "Guess that's it for the night then. Come to the inn and let me know if any of them come back later tonight."

310/345:

The village was changed due to the night before. Having to witness murders and then dispose of the corpses left the light of heart shaken and afraid, and the villagers were all downtrodden and nervous. Daraku didn't blame them, but he also made an effort to assure them that he would take care of the bandits and protect the village, just like he had proven. He figured they just weren't used to experiencing battle and death firsthand like he was; having been trained as an assassin and worked as a shinobi for so long, death literally meant nothing to him unless it was someone he cared for. It didn't scare him or really affect him at all, which was rather gruesome, but understandable. The woman that he had saved tried to talk to him a lot; her name was Hitomi and her five-year old son was named Hikaru. Her eyes were bright and happy whenever she saw Daraku, so he figured she liked the sense of security he provided and maybe his looks, too. He considered a roll in the hay with her, considering she wasn't too bad to look at either, but he decided against it. There were more important things at hand than getting laid, and plus, he didn't wanna get involved with someone who had a kid.


The bandits didn't come around that night, either, and Daraku wasn't sure if it was because they hadn't planned to or if it was because they were feeling the toll of having already lost more of their men at Daraku's hands. Regardless, he didn't really care, and so he left the inn and went to the shore to explore. Nothing new, still the same old worn-down docks and no signs of the bandits' presence anywhere. He waited there, on the dock, for hours to see if a ship would come. By the time it was sunrise, there was still nothing, so he returned to the inn to sleep. He figured that if he slept for five hours or so, he'd have enough rest to function normally and still be able to get up early to help out in Sakyūgakure.


Hitomi asked Daraku to take care of Hikaru for the day while she went out to run some errands or something, but he turned her down and let her know that although he was there to help, he wasn't a glorified babysitter at all. She seemed offended by his response, but he was just being honest, and he also let her know that she couldn't expect him to help her with everything when the rest of the village was worse off. Later, he helped heal a woman who had broken her leg while out hunting for food. He wondered what the hell kind of food there was to hunt for out here near the shores aside from crabs and seafood, but didn't really have enough interest in the matter to ask about it. Before sunset, he returned to the inn and sat in the room practicing his medical ninjutsu. His application of necrosis on the bandit the other day was largely successful, which made him pretty excited about what the full potential of the technique was capable of. Gray flames danced around the room, built to feed on chakra and kinetic energy rather than oxygen and fuel, so Daraku didn't have to worry about causing a fire and burning down the inn by accident. He noted that his control of the Katon chakra was getting more precise and if he could manipulate its shape, it would be a deadly offensive jutsu, worthy of at least S-Rank.


Bearpaw's ship showed up at the docks early that evening, at around 8 PM. Daraku wasn't expecting anything that early, so when the bandits showed up, they had the element of surprise on their side, and they ambushed Sakyūgakure from the eastern side. Daraku heard an explosion and immediately left the inn. He found a large group of the bandits in the central hub of the village, along with plenty of villagers running away and a building in flames. Damn, that's the hospital... The bandits were escaping with crates, presumably of medicine taken from the hospital before they destroyed it. There were a few corpses nearby, which Daraku recognized as the two medical nin that had been helping him heal the sick and the wounded. He clenched his fists into tight balls and his heart was racing. "You...absolute...fucking IDIOTS! That's it, you're all DEAD!" Even though he was angry, he had mastered his meditation and natural energy consumption just well enough so that he could manage to be perfectly still as he gathered energy, his fists still balled and at his sides. He entered Sage Mode, and sprinted at the cluster of bandits. He took out some of them with fast sword swipes, severing arteries and piercing vitals. There were far more than he'd anticipated, at least twenty, surrounding him, so he figured once they were all close enough, he'd take them out with a jutsu that had a wide area of effect. The bandits formed a massive cluster in an effort to overwhelm Daraku, but he dodged all of their jutsu and attacks since he could sense them using his natural chakra before they could even execute the moves. He launched himself into the air with a powerful jump and did a backflip so that he was ascending into the air face down with his feet above his head. He formed a number of hand seals and ended the series with the Tiger seal. "Sage Art, Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" he chanted from the sky as he unleashed several golden fireballs from his mouth. They struck the cluster of bandits from different angles and lit them all aflame. Daraku landed on a nearby rooftop and watched as they panicked and tried to run, but the jutsu was too powerful and each and every one collapsed once they were covered with third degree burns and unable to move. Not all of them were dead, but Daraku didn't care, because those that were alive were useless and wouldn't be able to leave now. His priority was to tell the leader of the village, Rie, what had happened. She would be the one to decide what to do with the incapacitated bandits, as well. He jumped down from the rooftop and found the nearest villager. "Find Rie and bring her to me."

270/345:

Since the hospital was destroyed, there were a lot of civilian casualties and the two medics that were there had also died in the blast. Daraku felt bad for the village because now it was a little over a dozen people left and with their friends and family dying, they had given up hope. The ones that were still willing to help did what they could to clear out the ruins and salvage what supplies they could. There was to be a memorial service the next day. In order to ensure the villagers would be able to take care of themselves, Daraku taught some of them how to properly wield weapons. They used the illegal weapons that were delivered to the village on a weekly basis, intended to be shipped away and sold on the black market for profit by Bearpaw, and repurposed them to help defend the village. Furthermore, he taught Hitomi a basic medical ninjutsu, the Hovering Hands technique, in hopes that she would do whatever she could to keep the rest of the village alive and well. He told her to teach Hikaru medical ninjutsu when he was old enough, as well, since it was such a valuable skill to have.


Sakyūgakure was silent, aside from the helpless yelling of the bandits that had been imprisoned by Rie. They had been confined to the small jail that Rie had in the building next to her home; she chained them up as a precautionary measure, but Daraku knew they weren't a threat. The pain of the third degree burns all over their bodies was likely unbearable and they wouldn't have the strength to even try to escape. Daraku grew tired of listening to them scream, so he left the inn and went back to the docks. Much to his surprise, Bearclaw had established a camp there, with all of his men. The ship was anchored and they seemed to be drawing out plans for something. The camp was rather large, but Daraku knew that Bearclaw didn't have an infinite number of pawns at his disposal; this had to have been everything he had left. Since they hadn't come to the village, Daraku wondered if they had found somewhere else to get their supplies delivered to, or if they were planning to make a long journey for a direct pick-up. It confounded Daraku, mostly because he felt that there were much easier ways to profit from things than smuggling and selling goods on the black market. It couldn't have been that efficient, and Bearclaw's bandit crew had already suffered plenty of losses.

Daraku entered the camp without hesitation and went straight to Bearclaw. Bearclaw approached him without concern, and he made that his men didn't attack. Once they were face to face, Daraku smiled. "Nice setup you've got here. I hope you know it's useless, though. Just give up and leave before I kill all of you." Bearclaw ignored Daraku's taunting. "I'm not worried. You're underestimating my power, but you'll see soon enough. Now, leave. You're outnumbered by quite a lot here and I know even you can't take on my whole crew AND me at the same time. Fate sets our battle for a later date." Daraku rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Whatever floats your boat, pirate dude. Just know that whenever 'Fate' does decide its time for us to fight, I'm going to win, and you're going to regret ever fucking with Sunagakure."


Daraku told Rie about his encounter with Bearpaw and the base camp. Luckily, Sakyūgakure was safe for now, since whatever Bearclaw's new plan was didn't involve the little village. Throughout the afternoon, he trained a few others in weapon use and helped Hitomi with her medical ninjutsu as well, but he knew that he couldn't help them master these things in just a few days. It had taken him years to get a hold of even the basics of either art; it would be up to them to continue practicing the skills in order to take care of their loved ones and the village as a whole. He got all of his stuff from the inn and checked out, putting on his backpack and equipping his swords. He said goodbye to all of the villagers and Rie, and she thanked him for all of his help, with tears welling in her eyes. He gave her a warm hug and his usual grin before turning to leave. Hitomi intercepted him and kissed him, wrapping an arm around him and pulling him in close as their lips met. He returned the gesture and pushed his tongue into her mouth, giving her a solid minute of making out before pulling away and letting the spittle fall from their lips. "You're a terrible kisser. Take care of yourself."

And with that, he went off into the night, ready to finally kill Bearclaw at the camp.


The winds had died down significantly and it was actually kind of pleasant out. Daraku made it back to the base camp before 10 PM, but what he found caught him off guard. No signs of life. Anywhere. There were tents and some fires here and there, but he couldn't see anybody and the ship was gone. Where had Bearclaw and his bandits gone? He entered Sage Mode and used his natural sensory abilities to try and find someone, but everyone had disappeared. The only clue as to where they had gone were a few scattered footprints, headed back in the direction of Sunagakure. His eyes widened and he realized what was happening. "The invasion...they're on their way to Suna now. I have to stop them; if they get there in the middle of the night, they'll have the perfect opportunity to go in unnoticed and start killing people and destroying buildings. I can't let that happen." Maintaining his Sage Mode and using his enhanced speed to his advantage, Daraku sprinted away, following in the footsteps of Bearclaw's bandits. He could only hope that he'd be able to catch them before they got to the village.

250/340:

Daraku spent the whole night traversing the great desert that was Kaze no Kuni. He knew the land so well, having traveled through it so many times over the years, that he knew where everything was and he knew the fastest way to Suna while avoiding the dunes. The sun rose by 5 AM and the blazing heat set in fast, but he didn't let that slow him down at all. He was determined, and his eyes glowed a vibrant gold as they took in all of his surroundings. His compoudeyes had taken a while to get used to, but after a year of Senjutsu training, he had precise control of them and had adjusted to seeing everything from every angle without putting much effort into it. After a few more kilometers of running, the dunes started to thin out and the village's walls came into view and he saw Bearclaw's men; they were moving in a big formation, almost marching, but still nearly a kilometer away from the village, meaning that Daraku would be able to kill them all before they could get there. He took a deep breath and let it out gently. "Here it goes." he said to himself as he made a mad dash for Bearclaw. He didn't care about any of the other bandits, since they weren't a real threat and would be much easier to kill than Bearclaw would be. Nonetheless, the group saw him coming and started blasting Doton techniques at him, but using his senjutsu sensory, he anticipated their moves and dodged them accordingly. Once he was within 30 meters of the group, he diverted their attention and sprinted to the right. They had crowded around Bearclaw to protect him, but they couldn't keep up with Daraku's speed and he had a decent enough opening to hit Bearclaw with a ranged jutsu.

I'll end it with this. Let's see how many of them I can take out with this move. Daraku formed a string of hand seals, around 10, before ending it with a Tiger seal. His lungs flooded with chakra and it moved up through his windpipe and into his mouth. The gray flames built in his mouth until he was ready to release the jutsu. The name of the technique was determined, then and there: "Fire Style: Embrace of the Phantom!" he chanted as the fire poured from his mouth. They danced above the sands, covering a fairly large area, but he could feel the weight of them all seeping away his chakra in order to continue burning. He maintained the continuous stream of flames as far as he could, and once they reached the bandits, the mayhem began. The flames moved through the crowd like a ghostly cloud, never stopping, slowing down, or causing them to combust. Rather, whenever the flames made contact, they began to sap the life energy from the target, creating the same autolysis and necrosis that Daraku had experimented with in his first use of the jutsu when the three bandits had found his camp. On a much larger scale, this jutsu was making Bearclaw's entire group drop like flies. They fell one by one as necrosis overwhelmed their hearts, livers, lungs, brains, or kidneys. It only took one vital organ failure to kill someone; Daraku knew that very well, having been a medical ninja for so long. This was by far his greatest offensive application to medical ninjutsu, and with such a range, it was probably one of the most lethal jutsu in existence.

Bearclaw, being at the very back of the group, watched his crewmates die and immediately jumped to avoid the stream of flames before it could reach him, since he saw what it was capable of. He landed 20 meters away from Daraku and purposefully kept his distance at first so that Daraku couldn't attack him with his swords. The anger and despair was visible on his face; watching all of his underlings die like that had set him off into a vicious rage. "I'll END you, Suna-nin! I'll make you pay for all of this!" Daraku laughed off Bearclaw's threats. "My name's Ishido, Daraku, by the way! Just FYI." It looked like it had triggered a physical shift, because although it was unclear at a distance, his body was changing rapidly. He had used some sort of jutsu, apparently, because Daraku noticed that he looked beastly; significantly taller, more muscular, and he had claws. "Oh, is that why they call you Bearclaw? Well why don't you come over here and show me if those claws stand a chance against my swords?" Bearclaw weaved a few hand seals and his hair suddenly stood on end. "Hair Needle Senbon!" The hairs started to shoot out extremely fast, dozens of needles headed for Daraku. He didn't have much time to react, so he threw his arms in front of him to protect his torso and his head. The needles stabbed into him and pierced deep, leaving him in pain and bleeding severely. Bearclaw took advantage of that opportunity and sprinted toward Daraku, claws raised. Daraku blocked his first blow using Nisebi and counterattacked, but Bearclaw jumped into the air and did a front flip, dragging his claws across Daraku's face on the way down. "My hair senbon is coated with a special poison that increases the pain exponentially. Let's see how you can survive while you feel like you're already dying!"

Bearclaw prepared to fire another barrage of hair senbon, but Daraku turned to him with a fiery look. Three large cuts spread from his cheek to his jaw from where the claws had caught him, and the wounds bleed profusely. He lifted a hand to his face and healed all three cuts right then, as if it were nothing. Bearclaw sneered and launched his jutsu, sending way more senbon than before this time, probably in the hundreds now. Daraku unsheathed both of his swords and deflected every last senbon, using his senjutsu sensory to determine their trajectories before they could strike him. He then threw Nisebi down into the sand and held out his left arm, forming an open hand. He wanted to try another jutsu that he had been practicing. "Wind Style: Ultimatum of the Phantom!" he chanted as a powerful gust of wind carried a helpless Bearclaw to Daraku's hand. He struggled against the air currents, but they were so immense that they pulled him all the way into Daraku's open hand in less than a second. "Y'know, you might've heard of me before, but with a different name. Some people call me...the Phantom of the Sand." Daraku gripped Bearclaw's neck in a merciless chokehold with his right hand and held his uchigatana in the other. "And this is how it ends." he said calmly as he forced the blade through Bearclaw's chest, killing him. He pulled out his sword, wiped off the blood, and threw the corpse down onto the sand, next to the rest of the dead bandits. He did need some kind of proof that Bearclaw was dead, so he went with the gorey route and severed the bandit leader's head, holding it by the hair before sheathing his weapon.

Daraku went back and picked up Nisebi, brushing the sand off of its shining edge and sheathing it again. Then, he released Sage Mode and sat down, taking a moment to rest. "That tired me out more than I expected! But, I think that'll teach people not to mess with Sunagakure anymore, heh." He looked down at the bloodied, severed head in his hands and considered his actions for a moment. What if killing them wasn't the smartest idea? The village was in need of powerful shinobi, and if Daraku could have convinced Bearclaw and his men to join the forces of Sunagakure, the village would have been better off. Ultimately, he shrugged off the thought, deciding that Bearclaw couldn't have been reasoned with. But how would Daraku address the problem of Suna's weakness? It was too obvious not to acknowledge. Maybe he could make journeys to the smaller villages of Kaze no Kuni, like Sakyūgakure. They could be recruited to the ninja academy and Suna, and with enough training, go on to become Jounin and ANBU and other higher-ups that the village was in desperate need of. There was the problem of Daraku leaving though; that would leave the village to those shinobi who were in it now, doing their best to protect it despite their small numbers. Daraku, as a Sannin, was someone that they relied on for help as often as possible. Mulling over all these thoughts in his head worried him, because all he wanted for Suna was for everyone in it to be safe and for the village to go back to the way it used to be. With Suzume gone, everything had gone to shit and there wasn't much he could do about it on his own. He sighed, and eventually got to his feet. Nonetheless, this victory over Bearclaw was one mission complete, which was good for the village. He started to make the kilometer-long trek back to Suna in order to turn in the mission as a success. Above all else, he couldn't wait to get back home and sleep in his own bed.

[Exit, Thread Closed]

185/345:

Mission/Training: