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They sat at opposite sides of the grandiose dinner table fit for feasts, each only eating a meager ration of grain on a dinner. They couldn't dine in a grandiose setting nor could they spend lavishly on an excess of food for a feast in this dark time. Lord Buma was a true leader who felt the suffering of his people and decided not to eat grossly while the citizens of his manor, overcrowded inside the castle, were starving and destitute. Kashizudoto did not mind one bit; he couldn't imagine himself with all the comforts of life while people nearby were starving. Either way, he was trained to live in substandard settings as a shinobi, including military standoffs such as this. At this point, it would be fair to consider it a war of attrition.

It had been a week since the last siege on the castle, when Lord Buma, Kashizudoto, and the samurai had fended off the invasion of the man known as Kitsune and that ghoulish army. Now, the lost souls were patrolling the land that used to be Buma's manor, killing anyone who would come upon those lands. Besides the original distress message that Buma had sent Ivan originally, they could not get any messages to the outside, as the ghouls would target and kill any hawk or samurai who ran out past the premises of the castle; Kashizudoto could only wonder why the professor only sent him to the manor rather than alerting others when the situation was so bad. Perhaps it was a sign of trust; either that, or the organization was so undermanned that, to aid Lord Buma, they could only spare a B-rank level ninja for the cause.

The fork dropped as the clanking of metal shoes drew closer. A samurai was here to report to Lord Buma, "Sir! I have urgent news from the scouting mission! We managed to locate an underground room hidden away near the first farmlands attacked. It is connected to a large tunnel downslope. We have reason to suspect that the lost souls are coming in from there, and the base has a congregation of lost souls gathered there. We also found their leader Kitsune present at this base." Earlier, Lord Buma had sent a group of eleven samurai on a mission to scout out the lands stealthily. This one had returned after a few days since they were dispatched. He could only wonder where the others were.

"Yamato!" Buma addressed sternly with a sense of urgency. Kashizudoto had heard the name before; this was the same samurai who had accompanied him originally from the drawbridge to the throne room to escort him to Lord Buma. Come to think of it, as all his comrades guarding the drawbridge had died to the lost soul invasion immediately afterwards, technically Kashizudoto was the only reason that this samurai had lived, the last survivor of those guards. Of course, it was only random chance, and he disregarded this as a passing thought.

WC: 505

"Where are the others?" he demanded an answer with utmost speed; however, to Kashizudoto, the moment felt as if ages had passed by, thinking about that samurai's name in suspension...

"Sir..." the samurai stuttered, the two syllables separated by an unusually long gap of space, "I... regret to inform you-" The samurai took off his mask, revealing a face dotted with droplets from the sea, running down to form saltwater rivers that dripped off his face and onto the rock hard ground. Loss.

"Yamato," Buma spoke immediately, "We cannot afford to grieve for our companions now. We will be doing them a grave disservice if we make their sacrifice in vain. They fought and died to protect the people of this land. Do not dishonor them by crying in this time when we should be fighting. We will have plenty of time to grieve for our fallen comrades once we take back this land from these ghouls!" It was neither particularly harsh nor was it particularly inspiring. No, but it was particularly motivating, appealing to the dead comrades of Yamato, both from the drawbridge guard and the scouting mission. He had seen so many of his fellow samurai fall, and that would only encourage him to put his all into fighting off these invaders.

"Understood, sir!" declared the samurai as he put his mask back on, "We have a few detonate-on-command explosive tags left. I suggest that you assemble a fighting force to destroy the base using those. With the size of the room, I suspect that one explosive tag on each corner of the rectangular room should set off an explosion that could capsize the room itself, filling in the tunnel with all the rocks and debris in the process so that the lost souls won't be able to file into our manor from wherever. Then it's just a matter of clearing the remaining lost souls, and we can reclaim our lands." The fact that a soldier at the bottom of the ranks was able to articulate such a well-thought out strategy impressed not only Kashizudoto, but also Lord Buma.

"That's an excellent strategy, Yamato, you'll make a great commander one day," Lord Buma declared, "However, I can't spare a fighting force. We only have ten samurai left, including you. I'll need at least nine of them to help me defend the manor."

"Kashizudoto," Lord Buma addressed the boy, "If Professor Ivan trusts you enough, so will I. Yamato will lead you out to the farmland where the underground base is, and you shall use our special explosive tags to blow up the room. If you find any enemies there, don't confront them directly. Remember, your mission is to blow up this base, not to fight anyone. Have I made myself clear?" It sounded like a simple enough task. Still, Kitsune was apparently in this base; avoiding that huge dove of his while trying to place tags on four corners of the room and running off without them being destroyed would be especially tough...

WC: 1021

"You see that door? That leads to the base," whispered the samurai to the boy, both of them perched upon trees overlooking a trapdoor on the ground which would supposedly lead to the base, "One last thing, kid. The lives of my comrades, their sacrifices, are all in your hands. Please don't make it all in vain." The voice strained around the end of his words, as if he were almost choking. This must have been very hard on Yamato, having been the only survivor of two samurai wipeouts from the lost souls. One thing was true: they were all brave warriors.

"Don't worry!" he reassured the samurai with a smile, trying to cheer up the man, "I'll come back. If any lost souls come out, just run back to the castle. I'll be fine." With that, he made a thumbs up and hopped out of the tree stealthily, opening the trapdoor down below ever so gently to reveal twenty lost souls who were clearly more manifested and solid, thus also more powerful, than the ones that he and the samurai had defeated at Buma's castle. Yet a bigger threat existed: Kitsune. He knew that he didn't have the power to beat this guy and his dove without the help of Lord Buma who was staying behind to guard the castle and its inhabitants, much less to beat this guy and his dove plus those lost souls, yet that wasn't his mission. Lord Buma had tasked him with blowing up that base, giving him ten special explosive tags to do just that. However, he couldn't throw these around sparingly; he only had a limited supply, so he had to make sure that the lost souls couldn't destroy the explosive tags before he could escape and detonate all four at the corners of the room. Brute force didn't seem like it would be an appropriate strategy either...

Still, he was armed and ready for the job. He wore his normal black swordsman's robe with gold patterns on the edges, a gift from Master Piandao. On his hip, he had on a bamboo sheath containing the Tentetsutou or the Sword of Heaven, a blade that he had forged out of a four billion year old meteorite during his apprenticeship under Piandao. Next to it, he had a fifty foot long coil of wire, a basic shinobi utility. Underneath it, he had a holster with one kunai knife and three shuriken, some basic weapons that came in handy every now and then. Perched on his shoulder, he had his messenger hawk dubbed Hawky, who he had trained to fight as a comrade not too long ago.

They spotted him, both the lost souls and Kitsune himself. With that, he jumped into the fray and drew out his sword, ready to make some noise and blow up a base...

WC: 1507

His first method: run and place the tags before they could catch him or destroy them! It was the only thing he could think of until he knew the lay of the room and the true power of what he was up against. The lost souls and Kitsune soon noticed his less than glorious entrance; the ghouls waited for their commanding officer to give them the orders, or something along those lines.

"Well look who we have here, it's that kid!" yelled Kitsune after a snort, soon smashing his open palm against the floor, "Kuchiyose: Great Dove!" With that, the man's oversized dove appeared, with Kitsune on top to command it. He immediately, instinctively, began to run towards the nearest corner of the room with his hawk perched upon his shoulder, deflecting balls of unstable energy with his blade, Hawky also helping do so with his beak, as he pulled out an explosive tag and pasted it onto the corner. One corner dealt with, for now...

Yet that giant dove and Kitsune did not stand still; the dove sped towards the corner of the room with remarkable speed, only stopping when Kashizudoto released an arc of katon chakra at it, his Heavenward Slash. In response, it stopped mid-flight and shot out a really powerful bullet of air at the arc of katon chakra. He had seen this technique before; some weird assassin with an obsession with faces had launched it at him, to which he defended with his chakra barrier. It was an S-rank technique, but, as katon was superior to fuuton, his A-rank arc and the S-rank bullet clashed in an ultimate explosion of wind and fire. With that over, the dove continued its charge through the air towards the corner where Kashizudoto was. Looks like combat would have to get a little close. Yet with the lost souls barraging him with the spirit orbs that he and his hawk would have to constantly block or destroy with their blade or beak and claws, respectively. He needed numbers of his own to fend off these lost souls so he could face the dove and Kitsune with himself and his hawk.

His second method: make clones to claim and guard each corner  and then run out. This was a much more practical strategy, and he himself could certainly hold off Kitsune and his dove as long as he made good use of his elemental superiority. He charged up his blade with katon chakra and formed a tiger seal, creating four shadows clones to claim and guard each corner. Certainly, his chakra would be low by the end of this if it worked, but he felt that he could make it out of here and still blow up the base if he tried hard enough.

Kashizudoto Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 1 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 2 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 3 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 4 Chakra:

WC: 1977

One of his shadow clones was to guard the corner of the room that the original had just claimed with a detonate-on-command explosive tag. The original ran, with his hawk on his shoulder, towards the dove and Kitsune to have a two versus two brawl, each ninja having their own companion. Meanwhile, the other three charged towards different corners with their swords in their air deflecting attacks and cutting through any lost souls that came through their path. It wasn't easy with all the spirit balls coming at them, and the original knew that it would take quite a while for them to get into position with all those lost souls in the way. That meant that he had to keep Kitsune and his dove occupied, even though they were probably much stronger than Kashizudoto and his hawk.

His hawk leaped off of his shoulders, spread its wings, and got into the air, getting ready for this combat situation while he brandished his flaming blade. He slashed at the dove, who dodged it; even with its immense size, it was still much faster than him.

"Lemme help you!" the clone defending the corner that he had already claimed yelled, soon unleashing a fireball in the form of a Chinese Dragon Head towards the dove, who responded in kind by creating a blade of wind out of its beak, stabbing into the fireball with force. Yet this was his opportunity. The original jumped forwards while the dove was distracted fighting off the fireball that the shadow clone had sent, slicing through its chest with his flaming sword. This catapulted the dove into the ground along with its owner with a large burn across it; however, they'd recover soon.

By this time, the shadow clones were all in their positions, having pasted the explosive tags onto their corner. They knew their fate; they wouldn't have enough time to disperse. The priority was to get the original and his hawk out of here. He ran out and climbed up the trapdoor with his hawk now perched on his shoulder once more. Observing that Kitsune and his dove were getting back up from the blow, ready to fly once more, the hawk released a small ball of fuuton chakra towards them from its beak that soon expanded to nearly the size of the entire room, devouring them in wind. As he finished climbing out the trapdoor, exhausted and hungry, he performed the final step.

"Tori!" he cried as he formed the bird seal, now having reached exhaustion near the point of fainting. As the base suddenly began the process of capsizing behind him in four giant explosions, he uttered with short breath, "Hawky, fly me outta here..." With that, the hawk grabbed him with its talons and soared into the skies. From up there, he could not see Yamato; the boy assumed that he was probably at the castle. What he could see from afar was Kitsune and his dove barely flying out of the ordeal, with cuts, burns, and bruises to show for it. From this distance, Kashizudoto and his hawk were too far for Kitsune and his injured dove to pursue; instead, the dove poofed away and Kitsune stood on the ground of the fallen base cursing away. Certainly this would be good news for Yamato; the sacrifices of his comrades had not been in vain.

"Where is Yamato?" Buma questioned him once he returned from the mission with the same stern voice he had used when questioning Yamato about his dead comrades.

"I thought he had returned to the castle," the boy stuttered in horror, "You don't mean to say he..." The next day, as Buma and Kashizudoto worked to clear out the nearby lost souls haunting the manor, Yamato was nowhere to be found. One could only assume that he had perished on his way back to the castle, like his comrades before him.

Kashizudoto Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 1 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 2 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 3 Chakra:

Kashizudoto Shadow Clone 4 Chakra:

WC: 2637

[Exit]

A-rank Mission: 2500/2500
Leftover WC: 137