Mission:

It was noon in the village hidden in the sands, but it may as well have been night. Clouds hung in the sky, dark and foreboding, as though a storm was coming. The sun was blotted out by the dark masses, making the village feel as though it was stretching to the evening when it had just become midday. It was strange for these clouds to be here at this point, as though there was something unnaturally wrong with today. Today was a dark day, an ominous one. It just had to be a monday. Perhaps darker still, than other parts of the village was the sand dune slums. Where many of those down on their luck had found themselves during the course of their lives. So many used to be's took up residence here. Used to be a diplomat. Used to be rich. Used to be so full of hope and so happy. There was no end to the constant nagging and complaint from the downtrodden in these alleys. Apparently no end to their suffering, as someone had taken it upon themselves to start killing. It was a bad day.

There was a petition set up and many people signed, and donated money, what little bit of money they had, to find the killer, and stop them. It wasn't much, only a couple hundred ryo, but it was enough to put a mission contract in to the administration building for a ninja of exceptional skill. The mission would require a special jounin or above, someone who knew their way around a fight and the village, and who could kill if needed. Someone who wasn't afraid of death, nor seeing dead decaying bodies. There were many ninja that fit this bill, but the ninja that was sent to do this mission was none other than Syekren Uchiha, the special jounin extraordinaire! Or so he liked to call himself when no one else was looking

It was a rather complicated and difficult mission, but Syekren was nonetheless ready for the challenge and to test his mettle against the murderer. He arrived in the slums, dressed in his normal shinobi attire: a netted shirt with black out sleeves covering his arms, a shinobi gi vest, shinobi tights and black shinobi sandals with shinobi tabi (also black.) Syekren had his hitai-ate around his forehead, the left edge pulled over his left eye, covering it to hide the deformity from view. He had come with his ninja tool pouch, in case he needed it for the battle that would ensue, or simply to throw the shuriken as a distraction against his soon to be opponent. Syekren felt a fire burning inside him, the flames of youth that would never die out. He could feel the excitement of a real mission.

With the spirit of burning youth in his heart, Syekren set out further into the slums, a pep in his step, always ready, tensed for battle. He approached the scene that was described to him for his mission briefing. Upon arriving, he looked about the scene, it was grisly, horrible and disgusting. There lay a body before him, mangled and hacked up, limbs strewn across the ground, blood coloring the sand a crimson color. It was dire, to say the least, and as he stepped closer for a better view, Syekren's foot landed on something squishy and wet, the coagulating substance getting onto his sandal and seeping into his tabi. It was blood, blood that was covering a portion of the victim's lower intestine, which was strewn about like discarded jump rope. Sickening. This would not deter the special jounin however, and he quickly kicked the intestine portion from his foot and continued to survey the scene. There wasn't much to be gained from this. It was a male, mid twenties, stripped and cut up, left as a calling card of the murderer. As if he wanted people to know he was killing for enjoyment and nothing else. He wanted to kill more by the looks of the post mortem gashes in the body. He hadn't gotten his fill.

Syekren completed his surveillance of the area, moving to the houses near the scene to question witnesses. Coming to the first house, he knocked, to no answer. There was apparently no one home, perhaps the victim had come from this house? No matter, the special jounin moved to another house on the other side of the scene and knocked thrice. Nothing. Surely this dead man couldn't live in both houses, right? Perhaps the villagers were hiding for fear of their own safety. Syekren couldn't blame them but it certainly made his job that much harder. He turned to walk away and got a few feet before he heard a door creak open behind him, where he'd just come from. Syekren turned to greet the villager, before hearing a feral scream and saw a gelatinous arm reel back, before pushing forward, knife in hand. The clear intent was to throw this knife at Syekren, to injure or kill.

"YOSH!"

With that sound, Syekren turned and made a jumping roll out of the way of the incoming weapon. The knife stabbed into the sand, falling flat after a few seconds for it had nothing stable to stab into. Only sand. After his dodge, the ninja turned to look at the assailant who had thrown the knife, expecting to see the murderer.  Instead he saw a messy haired, rotund woman of her mid to late forties, shaking and quivering so much that the gelatinous arms she had shook with each tiny movement. She was a large woman, of stature and weight, almost a half foot taller than Syekren and had at least eighty pounds on him, but she quivered like a newborn kitten, muttering prayers under her breath. It seemed that she had the same thought Syekren had initially. She thought he was the murderer and had come to kill her as he had killed the man before

But this was simply not true. The shinobi rubbed his temples quietly, thinking on the situation and each word before he decided to speak.

WC: 1,035/2,500

"I am looking for someone, someone who's killing and dismembering his victims. you needn't worry yourself about me,  they call me the Sand's noble gentleman!  I am not here to hurt anyone but the man responsible for these horrendous crimes! Point me in his direction and I'll use the power of my burning youth to take him down!"

The woman, needless to say, looked rather taken aback. Syekren was one who wasn't used to showing emotion and so to make other people comfortable when he was not wearing his mask he had taken on a new way of acting and speaking. It wasn't working however and this woman seemed rather flabbergasted. But for the most part she did seem to believe  him and turned towards one of the alleyways, taking a rather mouthy breath before she'd point and begin to speak to him, her rows of chins jiggling against her neck and chest with each word she spoke, more emotion and fervor into it than necessary. It was as though she'd gotten the holy spirit in her with each uttered phrase.

"Oh mister, mister! It was horrible! That man chopped up poor ol' Takujo. He never did nobody no harm! You gotta stop him, he went down this alley right here! You gotta stop him before he kills again! He's gonna kill and kill and kill and he won't let up until we're all dead or he sates his sick lust for the corpses he wants strewn around the slums. He's even worse than the gangs we have here, you have to get him."

Syekren smiled and gave the woman a simple thumbs up and rushed off in the direction she pointed. He was on the trail of the killer now and he wasn't going to get away. Syekren was letting the flames of youth burn inside him, whisking him into his nindo, his ninja way. To protect the village and her people at all costs, he was going to stop this murderer in his tracks and take care of him for good. Syekren moved between each alleyway and a few buildings used for housing or other amenities, searching for any other signs of the killer. There was no blood trail, too many foot prints in the sand to count, and no one screaming for help. It was all too quiet, and there was no evidence that the man even existed.

Syekren stopped and looked around, scratching the back of his head. He was told that there would be a man murdering more than once and so far there was only one body at the scene of the crime and nothing else had happened. The woman had put him on the trail of the killer, yet the killer was nowhere to be seen. Was he planning another murder, waiting for the opportune moment? Or had he simply wandered off to do something else until the heat died down? Or was he even in the slums anymore? So many questions raced through Syekren's mind as he searched around for his mark, stopping in between alleys and at houses to ask about anything peculiar going on. It was the same everywhere he asked. No one had seen anything, there was nothing to report, nada. They'd heard there was a murderer on the loose and were staying in groups in their homes so that they could defend themselves better or were less likely to be attacked.

It was as though he'd disappeared without a trace. Syekren didn't like this, not one bit. There was something going on here and it was very peculiar to say the least. He sighed and continued to search around the area, looking for any signs of his quarry. This was a rather long and arduous hunt to say the least and one that as a ninja trying to eradicate crime from the area, he could not fail. But just how was this man so adept at disappearing? He wasn't a ninja, or so the files said, so he had no jutsu or hiding specialties to speak of. Then again, Syekren didn't have much of a description either. Just that he was a man in his mid thirties, thought to be carrying a knife and a meat cleaver, based on the marks on the body found as well as witness statements he'd gathered in his search for the man.

But even with all this information there was nothing linking anyone he'd seen to the murders. Syekren sighed and started to walk back towards the initial crime scene, to see if he missed anything. It was better than standing around here, looking stupid. He'd have to make his way back through a few alleys and down a few streets, but he did so without any problems arising on his way. He was nearly back to the scene when he noticed a few spots of blood and a bottle of medication on the ground to his right, almost half buried in sand. Syekren bent down and picked it up, reading the name upon it. 'Takujo' So, the man that was murdered had been ill, deathly so from the looks of it. He must have been too weak to fight off the assailant, which meant that the man was targeting weaker individuals, possibly with health problems.

Interesting.

It was then that Syekren heard a loud feminine scream and jumped up onto the top of a small building, jumping from that to the roof of another and continuing to leap across them in the direction of the scream. The direction the scream was coming from happened to be where the initial murder had taken place. Did that mean the woman from before was being attacked? Syekren quickened his pace and just before he jumped to the last building he heard the scream cut short, with maniacal laughter following. 'Too late.' Syekren shook his head and jumped to the last building, looking down from the building to see a large man, in his mid thirties with a balding head, taking to the body of the woman Syekren had met earlier with a cleaver. He was trying to cut her body into separate pieces, which Syekren became angry at.

"Gotta play this smart." Syekren whispered to himself. He then jumped down on the other side of the building, landing silently while he formed a plan. He'd have to lure the man into a small space to catch him unaware and end his life. Syekren then looked around the side of the building to see the man still going about his work with an alleyway behind him leading to a dead end. This would be perfect! All he needed to do was lure the menace into the alleyway and confront him. The man looked to have a good bit of strength and speed behind his movements which could spell trouble for Syekren. But syekren had the element of surprise and strategic superiority.

With a quiet resolve, Syekren made a few handseals, having a clone of himself poof beside him. As long as this illusion made it past the other man and to the alley, the plan would work. And so Syekren watched it run around the building, past the man who was busy with chopping the woman up, and towards the alley. Seeing a bit of movement, the menace looked up to see Syekren's clone run past and grinned evilly. He thought he was going to have two for the price of one! He left his work to be finished later and ran off after the clone into the alley, with Syekren following behind at a quiet and steady, though hurried pace.  Syekren leaped over the body of the woman he'd met not long before and continued following the two into the alley. Once he reached the beginning of the alleyway, he began to make handseals, smirking to himself. His clone had reached the end with the menace bearing down on him. Within a few more seconds, he swiped at the clone, with the clone dissipating. He was confused and didn't know what to think until he turned around.

Syekren was inhaling deeply, filling his lungs and throat with chakra, mixing it with his katon nature. The chakra in his throat was immensely thick and Syekren held it for several seconds which gave the menace time to turn and charge him. But it was too late, as Syekren had already made the tiger hand seal and taken a deep breath. His fate was sealed as Syekren leaned forward and let the breath out, the thick chakra becoming flame which took the form of a chinese dragon. The flaming dragon fireball sped towards its target, contacting him in the chest, knocking him back through the alleyway into the dead end wall. The flames spread over his body, engulfing him within their wrath, fourth degree burns upon his chest at the point of contact and third degree burns on the rest of his body. Syekren watched as the man burned alive, dying from the agony he was subjected to. When syekren walked over to him to check his pulse, charred skin came off of the man's throat as his fingers did. There was no pulse, no breath, the menace had ended as quickly as it began.

Syekren sighed and shook his head, leaving the alleyway and walking towards a few onlookers that had gathered to see the murderer dealt with. They cheered a bit and congratulated the ninja on ending their nightmare. Syekren sent one off to get a clean up and to let the administration know that the menace had been killed and he needed someone to help him collect the body for the completion. With that done, Syekren sat and waited,eventually watching the clean up crew get rid of the bodies of the victims, to give them a proper burial later. Another of the village's special jounin came to examine the body and be sure he was dead before he then used body destruction on the male and walked with Syekren to report a mission complete. Syekren was happy it was over.

Exit Thread, Mission Completed

WC: 1,715 + 1,035 = 2,750
Mission: 2,500/2,500 COMPLETE

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