Mission - Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, B-Rank:

Okay this was almost sad. He'd used a painfully fake ID to slip his way into a mission rated for Tokujo or better. Seriously, not even a cursory check of the ID number, image, anything. Shit, he could quite possibly have flashed his legitimate (if invalid as he was still consisted MIA- Presumed Dead by the village) and not been questioned. It was a little scary in a way, this absolute laxity of security and complete disregard for duty. The village was suffering without a leader, this much was absolutely apparent; it was making his blood boil to think about, and that anger was motivating him to push out of the shadows and do something about it. But he needed time, he was rusty and his body wasn't in the best shape, however that wouldn't take long to remedy. He'd focus on training back to some semblance of his prime, hunt down his missing weapons and armors, get his position stabilized before making his proper move. Whether that move wad a challenge to the (absentee, how had it gone on this long? The village was rotting, mercenaries roamed the streets and forests unchecked, how? How!?) standing Hokage, or a coup of sorts, coopting the people until they followed him again, and removing the Senju that no one knew and had a non-functional government and reinstating him as the only valid replacement. It wasn't unprecedented, a few instances of ‘ retired ‘ Kage replacing deceased or indisposed successors were well documented through history, and not just in Konoha. No, if he could get himself ready, he could make a legitimate claim at the position, and do something about the fuckery going on.


He'd picked up the clearance the previous day, it came with no time frame for completion really, and he knew better than to rush off unprepared. When he'd gone in, he'd done so carrying as little by way of equipment as possible, less chance of triggering some trigger happy ANBU with his rather… intense, aura. His icy chakra, even when suppressed and controlled, would be enough normally to turn heads, garner attention, specially from higher ranking and police - tasked ninja. Appearing with minimal gear would help to decrease his natural “DANGEROUS” vibes, which when combined with make-up and stylistic adjustments to his appearance (really, why waste chakra with a transformation that any decent ninja would see clean through when some contacts, hair dye, and the like did the job better and harder to detect unless you were specifically checking for it), meant he wasn't questioned our detained at all. They just handed over the relevant paperwork and moved on. For a moment he could pretend he was a Chuunin again, running mission after mission back to back until he dropped because he was young and had nothing better to do with his life. At least, until he met Michi, but that was a different story, for another time. If he let himself, he could get lost in memories of his ‘glory' days, or rather, the time before, when life was easy and he was looking forward to being a father, a young father, but a father none the less, with just the idea of maybe putting in for Tokujo in a couple of years to look forward to and none of the bullshit ruining the last ten years of his life floating around. No face on the mountain, no entry in the history books, no name on the stone in the park no one visited anymore. None of it. His entire life ahead of him and not behind him, or almost behind him. He was grasping for a chance to put his life back on track, to make the next ten better and the ten after that possible; dying young was a given for him, he likely wouldn't see 60, ninja or no. Making the best of the latter half of his life was his focus, if that meant sacrificing for his home one more time, so be it. Hell, someone could beat him to the punch and he could retire to be a father and a grumpy old dog roaming the village barking at kids like Michi had jokingly told him he would be by 30.

Roaming the deep forest was easy for him, he was Inuzuka after all, and moving across the terrain with Yuki and Aki at his side once more was almost exhilarating, even just the roaming and moving and being home. It was beautiful and wonderful and it lifted his soul so high that he didn't even notice the genin rabble. Guards, likely, the grunt job for the grunt members. Easily dispatched, between two giant dogs and his kunai blade… well, the trees would be drinking blood today. Yuki and Aki could rip throats out silently enough, and the curving nature of his blade made it wonderful for surprise executions, it might not be the most useful against stronger targets, but it was more than capable of slitting throats and slicing major arteries. He'd need to get around to making a better one soon, this old thing was years past it's prime, but it had it's uses.

The Chunnin, now this would be interesting. Or it should have been. Popping up the the world's strangest jack-in-the-box and flashing a Solar Flare as the dicked around the campfire was (hilarious fun!) effective enough, that sudden blind left them unable to react to the dogs flying at their faces with impressive speed and agility. Needless to say, faces were removed, as were skulls and the top half of spines; simple, effective. Brutal.
Classic. Kenta had never been one for the subtle approach when murder was on the table.

Well, there was no hiding from the real target now. That flash had set the entire forest aflutter, which drew the attention of the Tokujo napping in the tent. Hell, he probably should have surveyed the area a bit (or at all), but eh, he could handle himself. From what information he'd be given, this guy was a water user too, but he had lightning as a backup. Joy.

“Who the frick are you, and where the frick are my men!?”

“Mincemeat.”

“frick that, no one could handle 6 men that easily. “

“Are… are you blind? Or just stupid. Can you not see the giant dogs standing beside me? “

“Fucking Inuzuka ain't that strong. Not even close. Who the frick are you?”

….

Right.

His dogs were in the trees before his hands were up, hand signs flashing out of order and in a jumbled mess; he was trying to lure the Tokujo into fucking up and giving Kenta exactly what he needed. Water. Lots and lots of water. The more the better, even against a secondary lightning user, water was his ally. Make the Tokujo feel comfortable, make him sloppy.

Case in point:

“Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!”

Excellent. His ruse worked, he'd tricked the Tokujo into acting first, and with explosive results. Not that it mattered, he moved so ridiculously fast that he was out of the way of the initial impact of the water before the Tokujo could blink. In the next instant he was hidden in the water, his specialty, one of them anyway, was the Hiding in Water technique. Combine that with his rebreather and he could hang out safely underwater for as long as he wanted. With nothing to see or sense, the Tokujo couldn't hit him with lightning without risking electrocution himself now that everything was under meters of water and he was reduced to using Supernatural Waking Practice to stick to a tree branch that was barely above the level of the water. Perfect. With all the mud and debris, there was no way to see him once he solidified, but that didn't stop Kenta from knowing where the Tokujo was. Shadows casted, the howls and sounds of his dogs hidden from sight, he knew exactly where to aim.

‘Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!’

Kenta had woven the handsigns underwater, causing the dragon to bubble and rise from the water directly below the Tokujo, giving him no time to react before he was lifted into the air in the jaws of the beast, pushed 10 metres directly up and into the converging vortex of two massive dogs using the classic Tsuuga technique. Combined with the damage from the Water Dragon, well… the remaining mess of humanity wasn't very human anymore, but the head was intact enough to use as proof of completion.

Combine that with the lockbox full of documents that needed destroying, which was taken care of using enough water to dissolve the ink and pulp the paper into less than mulch, abd he was done, really. Now he just needed to clean up a bit and turn in. Easy enough, the water was already draining into the local creeks, so all he needed to do was get into the trees and make some fresh water of his own, hose down the dogs and put the head of the Tokujo into a scroll using the Generic Sealing Technique. Simple. Easy. Returning to the village was quick, handing over the scroll with the head in it even easier. Collecting his pay was satisfying, coming home with it more so. Time fur a good meal and a warm bath, for him and the dogs.

1587/1500

Chakra and Jutsu: