Another day, another dollar. Today he was assigned another B rank mission, the type of more difficult and more dangerous task that he was expected to do these days. More responsibility and a higher rate of excellence came with his promotion in rank but after all, that was to be expected. He could not shy away from such duties if he was to keep climbing the ladder in the shinobi career.

Fukai walked into the Dusty's warehouse and talked the the clerk at the front desk. He participated in a little small talk before showing him to the manager's office. After meeting the manager and sitting down, the two men went over the specifics of the task. Fukai was to escort some merchants and their caravans to their destinations around the little isolated villages in the land of stone. It was a short trip and one that was infrequently big. Apparently they were sending three caravans instead of one this time because there were some much needed building materials as well as some medicines. A larger haul like this had a better chance of attracting highwaymen and thus a bodyguard was needed. That is why Fukai had been called in. After going over the necessary details, Fukai left the building. In an hour, he would meet the merchants at the gate and leave on the mission.

He walked with purpose to the rendezvou at Iwagakure's southern gate. There were three caravans just off to the side of the road and half a dozen people readying their beasts of burden for the trip. Having prepared his equipment and a meal to take with him, Fukai was ready. After shaking the hand of the head merchant, they left. Fukai found a shady corner at the back of the leading caravan and let the horses do their thing. The hardy clydestales clopped their way down the mountains and over the rough roads. It would be a few hours before the group ran into trouble.

They had descended into the valley below and the landscape was slowly smoothing out as they traveled south. They were passing between two small hills when Fukai heard a call from the driver in front of him. He popped his head through the curtain to see a large rockfall had blocked the path ahead of them. The head merchant made a comment about the suspicious blockage and then called back to his men that were following. He bellowed out for everyone to turn around and go back the way they had come with haste. He became quite visibly stressed and Fukai quickly realised why. This would be a prime trap and place to ambush the caravan, sure it could be a natural rockfall but it was all too conveniently covering the way forward.

A warning yell came from the back, someone shouting about an attack. Fukai launched into action, flying out the back of the leading cart and onto the roof to see what was coming. He craned from side to side to try to get a glimpse of what was coming. There was another shout from behind the last cart, this one was more urgent than the last. Fukai hopped onto the roof of the next cart, his cloth shoes making a muffled thump on the wood. His heart was starting to speed, his clients were in danger. After making it to the top of the last cart, he looked down to see three masked bandits sprinting towards the rear merchant. He was frantically scrambling away from them. The Iwa shinobi jumped to their aid, flying into the midst of the enemy. The most forward bandit grabbed hold of the man's arm and raised his crude battle axe above his head.

Fukai ran chakra down the lengths of his scarf and they rose up like two snakes. As he flew towards the first foe, he positioned his staff so that it stuck out to intercept the target on the way down. He then charged it with a burst of raiton. The static electricity ran it's way down the staff and it crackled fiercely. The first bandit noticed fukai half way through his arc and stopped his attack. He moved to try to avoid the onslaught. They were obviously quite strong if they could react to his attack in that small amount of time. The attempt at escape was not quite enough as the bladed ends of fukai's scarf shot out and grappled the axe wielding limb and the opposite leg. The snakey scarf coiled around the limbs and blades ripped into flesh as Fukai drew nearer. Muscle and tendon was carved up and ripped open. The bandit screamed only for a second before Fukai plunged the raiton spear tip through his eye, killing him on the spot.

The two bandits who followed the first were nearly upon him but he had another problem before he could worry about his own safety. The man near him was rattled and panicked. The chuunin jumped back to him and addressed him quickly without taking his eyes off of the attackers. Quickly, get up front with the others, let me handle this. The male seemed to understand as he scampered away and left Fukai with enough room to move. It was just soon enough as the next second a large battle axe came towards him in a downwards swing, attempting to cleave him in two. Fukai could see that the bandit had reasonable strength behind his attack so he went down on one knee to absorb the impact. The second one sprung from the left and attacked him. This was a tricky spot to navigate as he was already preoccupied. Luckily he still had his scarf jutsu in affect, which sped towards the second thug. The first one made contact, and did not expect the jolting seizure that spread up his forearms and biceps. His hands clenched the handle of his weapon and his biceps contracted involuntarily.

The second bandit's attack came swinging in horizontally. Fukai's staff sprang out to meet it, both ends attempting to push it away. But the jutsu's strength wasn't enough and the attack only slowed a little. But the relief from the first attack due to the shock meant that Fukai had enough time to bring in his staff to absorb the impact of the second hit. Fukai knew his window was coming, and when it did, he made full use of it. The second attack hit and in turn, the bandit was shocked. Fukai then spun his staff from right to left, sweeping the chakra blade through the exposed stomachs of both bandits. The pair of attackers both bent over as their abdomen doubled over from the raiton induced spasm. When it stopped, they were seconds from being dead. Blood was already pooling into a puddle below them, the excess movement drawing out the red life essence from their torsos. A last coughing hack came from one of them and then they were gone. Fukai stood and looked at the trio of corpses that were strewn on the road.

After straightening his scarf and wiping down his staff with one of the thug's shirt sleeves, Fukai started moving the three bodies off of the road. The merchants gathered at the back of the caravan and watched as he dragged the corpses into a pile by a large stone. The spectators looked on and wondered what he was doing. Once the corpses were neatly to the side of the road, Fukai pulled out his kunai and placed it on the boulder. He found a smaller rock that fit well in the palm of his hand and used it with the kunai to form a makeshift hammer and chisel. He would then carve out a message to any other lawless peoples that should pass through the area and contemplate a similar act to the attack today. When the shinobi was finished, he stood back and the message read: "Iwa will not tolerate crime". The sentence was punctuated with the distasteful bodies of the dead bandits, which were already attracting scavenger birds that were circling overhead.

He then turned back to the merchants and told them not to worry, that he had disposed of the threat without any trouble. Hopefully this message would decrease the need for jobs such as this. But he knew that as long as society stood as it does, there were always going to be people that had to, or at least chose to go down the path of a criminal. He did not know if there was such a world could exist where people could be free of worry about losing their life, he certainly could not think of such a thing. Despair was always a constant in this world. After a small break and a confirmation that there were no other groups of people in the vicinity, the caravan turned around and started back on it's way.

1506 /1500 - mission complete
~exit~