Mission name: Operation: Javelin
Mission rank: C Rank
Objective: Spring the Trap
Location: Suna; What Lies Within
Reward: 300 Ryo + 2 EP
Mission Description: Arms trade has boomed in the Desert in recent years, and with battlefields on the rise, convoys have been detected moving in the cover of nightfall to recover and transport weapons caches… That may not be all they’re carrying however, be careful.
Mission Details: Upon approaching the convoy, it would become apparent that something hasn’t gone according to plan. Whether word has gotten out to them of your arrival, the convoy seems to be exceedingly small and unguarded. Ninja undertaking this mission will then come under relentless attack from all sides by C rank opponents with C-0 stats and equipment from the libraries. The sheer number of opponents rising from the sand an revealing themselves from stealth techniques will be enough to swarm the ninja over the course of 4 posts. Whether you’re able to overcome the convoy and their guards, or simply escape, the information about our given away position will be enough to secure the mission as a success… we may have a mole...

Verdandi was doing plenty of mission all over the compound. She had already four D-Ranks, three C-Ranks and an A-Ranked one behind her. Three B-Ranks were incoming for her next up but the higher ups insisted that she would not neglect the Kiri assignments in this joint venture of villages. So, in light of being promoted to Tokubetsu Jōnin Verd was getting more and more assignments where she was supposed to lead younger shinobi ahead and give them a taste of what she experienced herself not too long ago under the guide of her aunt, the Mizukage.

While most sensei were more of the abrasive kind and emotionally detached from their assigned partners. Some even rude, cold or arrogant towards them. Dandi often tried to give a warmer approach to the situation. While she usually gave away a rather motherly type of behaviour with them. Her assigned help was supposedly pretty much the same age as herself. Making it somewhat difficult for her to try it that way. She would contemplate on her move towards the Kiri compound gate. Since the Genin was from another, allied village. They would meet half way towards their destination. A little oasis a bit off the compound and not too far away from the village-nin troops.

Verdandi would arrive early. Her pet bear, Avalanche, would find himself quickly in the pond of the oasis, swimming around and refreshing himself away from the heat. Verd was not in need of refreshment herself just yet. She would lean under a palm tree and close her one visible eye. The eyepatch neatly covering the other one. Knowing that her pet would be more than enough of a proper guard. She would allow herself to nap a bit. While she did so, her own aura was radiating in a cold, frosty way. Her Yuki Clan blood was working on its own to fight the heat. Moisture in the air would crystalize on her skin. Making it seem like she was covered in sweat when instead it was the opposite. The frozen crystals would keep her skin dry and cool beneath them. A necessary body reaction from a frost clansman. It did put a somewhat constant strain on her chakra but it still made sure that Verd was feeling quite comfortable despite the heat that her body was obviously not made to tolerate by nature.

The ice princess would dream about pretty little snow storms. Skiing in the mountains of Yuki no Kuni. Visiting her family at the castle in Heidel Town. A smile would form on her lips as her own sanguine nature and positive attitude once more forced her into quite the comfortable feeling. Once her partner for this mission arrived at the meeting point, they would be able to go deeper into introductions before eventually moving out. The mapped location of their target was bound to a certain time of the day. So, they probably would have to wait at least an hour at the oasis if Satoru wasn't late. Plenty of time for some getting-to-know-each-other.


520

Chakra 230 / 250:

Today was not like any other day, it was his first mission. Satoru was excited to see this mission through, as for a gennin, going on a C-Rank mission first is pretty impressive. What also peaked his enthusiasm about this particular mission is that he was going to be working alongside a chunnin from kirigakure as an unofficial two man squad. This was outside his knowledge but the he was assigned a higher ranking partner as this mission would likely expose him to threats he might not be able to handle on his own just yet. All that he has been instructed is to rendezvous with the chuunin at an oasis to carry out a mission in the fallen Sunagakure. Satoru had never dealt with other shinobi before in a serious work environment so he did not have much experience with missions and how to go about treating comrades of a higher rank, this however, would not mean much as he is a naturally friendly and respectful person. Not knowing what to expect was a big factor of this mission that made it feel like he should go about it with extra caution despite being accompanied by a shinobi of a higher rank. In his heart, the young boy felt as though he wasn't ready to go up against other shinobi but in reality, he is quite capable of handling himself in a sticky situation

Before reaching his destination, Satoru had already anticipated the heat of Sunagakure by taking his arms out of his haori top, that was tied at his stomach with a rope sash, and letting it fall below his waist like a hakama. Upon getting to the oasis, he finally got to see who he has been sent to meet. A girl, likely to be roughly the same age as Satoru, was already there waiting for him. She wore an eye-patch and her one visible eye was close, she looked incredibly sweaty for someone who was taking refuge under the shade of a tree. As he walked over to the girl that appeared to be dozing off, a bear was in  the nearby pool and it seemed very unlikely to be native to the environment seeing as it was a white bear, because of this, Satoru deduced that it was the pet of the chuunin he had been sent to meet here. The young genin seemed to have disrupt the bear's playing by coming into close proximity of the chuunin because as he raised his hand to nodge the girl, the bear started adjusting its focus on Satoru as to see what his intentions were with the girl. Before his hand could meet her shoulder to wake her up, he was shocked for a second, realizing how cold the air was around the girl. "Whoa, the air around her is really cold, how could this be? she's literally covered in sweat" he thought to himself as he tried lightly nodding the girl's shoulder to snap her back to reality. "Hey there." he said to her.

514 | 514

Avalanche stared at the incoming stranger and slowly raised his feet from the pond and stepped out of it. Every step that Satoru came closer to Verdandi the bear would do the same. By the time he was standing in front of her and the young man had the guts to actually reach out and trying to touch the woman Avalanche's eyes would glimmer and his jaw was about to reach forward and stop the young shinobi in his path by gripping his hand away. But their presence had long since disturbed Verdandi's flow of meditation and sleep. She was awake and could feel their approach. As she could sense her pet raising in angst and anger towards the stranger, she would slowly lift her left palm and hold on Avalanche's leg, tapping him in a gentle way as if to say "Its ok" and hence preventing him from actually moving into action.

The ice crystals were in supplementary chakra mode. Hence when Satoru touched them, they wouldn't harm him and all her could feel was that the thin layer covering Verdandi's body was clearly not human sweat. Reacting to Satoru's touch as if she was naturally waking up, Verd smiled and moved back on her feet. She crawled her palm into Avalanche's head whom growled pleasantly before reaching forth to sniff at the scent the young man emitted. Getting himself acquainted with the smell that he would have to associate as an ally. Verd had the option to lecture the young man that it is practically unwise to approach a ninja, technically a certified killer, especially in a hostile environment. Suna was war territory. Verdandi had to be constantly prepared to react towards an ambush or assassin. But Dandi didn't feel like opening their social connection with a lecture. She was certain he'd have felt that his movements were unwise the very moment the bear reacted to it.

Verd would bow as it is custom in the land of snow, showing her respect to the young man and giving off manners that properly fit those of a royal heir. The princess would exhale a few times harshly and make it visibly evident that her breath was made of extremely cold air. "I'm Verdandi Yuki, pleased to meet you. You must be Satoru." Considering that Kiri's Mizukage was a Yuki, Verd usually expected people to know that those were the frost clansmen. Even if he did not know, he would probably get the idea from the way she had a huge Snowflake crest imprinted on the back of her Kimono. A polar bear. Was basically feeling like she was made of ice and her breath chilled his very skin.

Putting that clarification set aside. Verd checked the time. It was a good moment to start moving, slowly. "We can talk while we move out. I trust you have enough water supply with you. Drinking only suiton generated water can make your stomach feel ill. In case you need to stock up please help yourself at the fountain here." She would imply in gentle and friendly speech. Trying to not sound overly bossy about it but still strictly implying that he better be ready for this as she was not willing to care for him like a child despite her motherly instincts.

Once all was sorted, they would start moving out. Verd would touch Avalanche and allow the bear to cool himself within his own nature-based hyouton chakra. Allowing the lot of them to move out. The caravan that they had to intercept was not too far away from here. If the intel from the observation squad was correct. The mission was supposed to be simple. "We are to engage the caravan, remove hostiles, secure the goods and then send HQ word that they can come and pick up the resources." She shortly re-collected their job. pretty sure he had read the mission profile before though. Verd would look at her partner and glare at him top to toe for a bit. Obviously scanning him so she could calculate him into her battle strategies. "Could you shortly instruct me about your basic combat skills?" she would speak so with her continuously calm attitude. But her eyes quickly moved back on the horizon as she talked. Obviously, she was still somewhat expecting to face an enemy quite soon. Being alert was necessary.


740 / 1260

He felt relieved that the girl reacted to his, and the bear's, presence in a timely manner. He took a gamble because he knew if she didn't wake up before the bear got to him, he might've been in a bit of trouble. The atmosphere around the girl got even colder as the bear got to her and she emitted frost whenever she exhaled, indicating that the girl he stood with was a heavily frost themed shinobi. "Hmm, she must be out of her element, bringing a polar bear to a mission in the sands, i cant imagine what this heat might feel like for her if she didn't have this frost aura." he thought to himself as he reached into his tool pouch at the back of his waist. He got out a canteen and shook it to indicate that he had water on him at the moment, he believed going about a mission in the Suna without water to refresh yourself can be a serious mistake.

"So yeah, I'm Satoru Namikaze, genin of the leaf" he said while putting the canteen away to where it was.  He returned the bow as a polite gesture even though he isn't used to bowing to peers. This wasn't because he himself was an impolite person, but he didn't have much friends back at the leaf village currently. "Without explanation i can see that your training included a lot of frost. You are very cold to the touch and you travel with a polar bear, you're from the same clan as the current Mizukage huh" Satoru stated as he was raising his torso from the bow, implying that the girl was a Yuki clan member. He continued, "Its nice to meet you, i haven't met much people outside of the leaf village so far and to team up with a Yuki clan member is a honor i must say."

Pleasantries aside, the young Yuki girl had ask about his combat abilities, something that he was slightly embarrassed talking to someone of a higher rank about, so folded his arms across his torso and explained in a serious tone without the smile that he arrived with "Well, this is my first mission, i'm not incredible in terms of hand to hand combat. I do have Fuuton and Suiton as elements and i intend to learn jutsus based on those elements. I also know a Fuuinjutsu technique that can thwart a jutsu for us should we ever find ourselves in a sticky situation. As a genin in training i'm open to learning. You've explained the parameters of this mission so I do understand that this might put me in harms way but i'm prepared to take care of myself. Or at least help you help me." After saying all of this, Satoru really wanted to ask the girl about her eye-patch but wasn't sure if she was comfortable talking about it or if it would bring up bad memories for her, so he just looked down at the bear that was sniffing at him and still trying to get acquainted, "So what's your friend's name?" he asked, putting back on his friendly smile.

540 | 1054

Verdandi sniffed to herself a few times hearing the name Namikaze. The leaf's fourth was a legend beyond most boundaries but she was sure to have met one of his clan before but couldn't put her finger on whom. Verd knew that someone with the fourth's blood would surely have potential but it was obviously too early to make assumptions. In the current war many people were dying, there was a good chance this young lad wouldn't make it either. But Verd would promise herself that it wouldn't happen on her watch. Verdandi took a sip of her own water as they moved. The ice crystals on her skin seemed to be in constant movement and renewal. The chakra strain on her body was not to be underestimated but she had already been in suna for quite some months now. Helping set up the camps, refugee centres and already having a large number of bandits on her kill list since she came here.

Verdandi nodded. "Yes, the Yuki Clan is very prominent in Kirigakure, since the fall of our own nation in the snow country most of us have moved to the lands of the mist. A minority is currently trying to rebuild parts of the snow… but that is a different story I guess. I can control my ice pretty well, so you shouldn't worry too much getting hit in the crossfire." She giggled a bit. Knowing well that the frost was one of the most annoying bloodlines for anyone to deal with. The frost burns it could deliver to one's skin was usually on part with the damage that fire can do to you. Many people usually avoided the Yuki clan for the very reason that their burning techniques often led to rather cruel deaths.

Dandi wasn't the naturally cruel type but she did not hesitate when doing her job. She nodded softly acknowledging that the Genin was still in his infant stage as a shinobi. Not bothering her much as she had seen many of his kind before. "That is Avalanche. I actually found him after a snow storm. He's a good little buddy. Right?" Verd gave him a smile and as the bear casually trotted alongside the two shinobi he made a proud face and growled a few times happily. Ninja Pets were something unique and beautiful in this world. Their powers and intelligence often on par with humans as it seemed.

Verdandi however suddenly stopped moving and her motions gave away that she wished for Satoru to do the same. Slowly stepping over the next sand dune they could see the caravan beneath them. "We're here and we're going to attack now before they spy us or can react to our chakra in case they have a sensory type among their midst. I can see around…. Three guards…" Verd was genuinely surprised. She had expected more than a dozen men to guard this convoy. "… something is off here. Just stay close to Avalanche. He will guard you with his life. Alright?" Verd gave her pet a quick look whom stepped close to Satoru in return and brushed his head to the young lad's palm. Avalanche's claws extended below him. Natural weapons that could easily tear deep wounds into anybody daring to get closer. His jaw probably more powerful than any common weapon found within chuunin ranks. He was ready and so was Verdandi.


580 / 1840

From his stationary position, Satoru felt safe being with this Yuki clan member and having a strong bear as a close guard, he still had to be on his toes though. He reached into his tool pouch with his right hand and got a kunai out in a icepick grip (or "reverse" grip) ready to do close combat with his opponents. In his left hand was the head of the bear, acknowledging the young man as a comrad in battle. The genin got down on one knee and held the bear and told it "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Closing his eyes for a second, he meditated in his head "Satoru you got this, this is what your mom and dad wanted for you. Don't let them down" before he raised his head to a startling sight. The three guards were now looking directly at Satoru and Verdandi but they didnt act. After a while of staring, all the guards dissipated into sand, they were illusions. The young boy quickly turned to Verdandi for instructions but when he did, his peripheral sight alerted him of the sand behind him that was changing. Three shinobi with swords shot out of the sand with high velocity, "Behind you!" he yelled as they both turned their heads. The shinobi were now 15 meters into the air, aiming to land down and cut down both the genin and chunnin with their swords. Without waiting for his partner's reaction, Satoru formed the bird hand seal than put his left hand to cup his mouth to help him aim his jutsu at the opponents. Three balls of condensed wind were shot out of his mouth in quick succession at the airborne shinobi, one ball aimed at each of them. After shooting the air bullets at the opponents with his back to the caravan, he jumped back a bit to shorten the distance between himself and the priority of the mission. But more importantly to but some space between him and Verdandi so they wont be caught too close to each other, they'd be easier to pick off that way. Another reason he created that gap is because the Yuki clan is known for the frost jutsu, the young Namikaze would really rather not get caught in the crossfire of any jutsu performed by his partner.

Satoru didnt worry about his chuunin partner because he believed that even after performing his air bullets jutsu, she could more than handle herself in the given situation. He started in the caravan's direction bracing himself in case there were more than three enemies because instead of worrying about his partner who is well equipped to stand against other shinobi, Satoru knew that he hasn't had the chance to train as much as he would've like to, he can't afford to go down on his first mission. He knew that he would have to try to defend himself and the caravan against any more advancing threats. "Avalanche, on me!" he commanded the bear to come to him as he held his kunai, ready to defend himself.

Chakra: 135/150:

524 | 1578

By the moment Satoru mentioned that they were illusions and supposedly turned around to see what was going on. The Verdandi that was standing there next to him was moving like flesh and blood. But it wasn't really Verdandi anymore. Verd had casted a hyouton clone in the utter silence of the moment and neatly used the silhouette technique to slide into the very shadow of the clone. A combination she not rarely used. If executed with her speed anyone below B-Rank would not be able to see it happening. Verdandi's real body was instantly replaced and her original would neatly hide in its shadow completely off from being targeted. The clone would run into the middle of the incoming attackers. The first of them neatly hit by the wind blow of the trusty Genin. A multitude of at least fifteen C-Ranks would instantly launch at Verdandi's position.

While the ice clone neatly defended herself, Avalanche had enough time to escape with Satoru. Giving both of them the proper space to prepare their retreat and aim to secure the goods at the caravan. The shinobi near the caravan that raised from below the sand would charge in and threaten on to slice their blades into Satoru. Avalanche neatly did his job by crashing head-on into the first of them, before slicing his claws vertically over the man's chest. Smashing his head into him once more to toss him with his back against the caravan wagon and leave him to bleed out. Avalanche would jump on the second enemy whom was trying hard to dig his kunai into the bears fur but couldn't really reach any critical point before the bear had smashed his jaw into the young mans neck and pulled out quite a vital amount of flesh. Leaving him to bleed away as well. The third one was incoming. Satoru would have to defend himself. Avalanche was launching for help but the Genin would have to deal with the attacker. A Giant fireball escaped from the bandit's lips and was certain to burn the both of them. The C-Ranked flame threatening to consume and burn them alive.

Meanwhile the Hyouton clone had served its purpose and swallowed more cuts and damage than it supposedly should have. Slowly crumbling back into snow and quickly into water as the snow would melt away into the sun. The real Verdandi, whom had been hiding in the shadows however, had not been lazy. She used her easy disguise to call upon the water reserves she could tap on below the snow. Raising it step by step closer to the surface. The moment her clone died, Verdandi was still halfway reappearing from the shadows as she casted her technique "Certain-Kill Ice Spears".

What followed was not something that fresh Genin's wanted to see. Hopefully, as she jumped past the dune and the screams would echo into the valley behind her. Verd would make her way towards Satoru. She could feel that more ninja were incoming from below. So, she neatly aimed at a little sand patch behind Satoru and simply sent another shockwave of suiton water that way. This shockwave would do nothing just yet, it was but a simple preparation for another, next move to come.

As Verdandi was about to catch up. The more than fifteen bandits behind the sand dune had all already been impaled and lifted onto criss-crossing large, 5-meter-tall ice spikes that stuck many inches of cutting damage into their skin until they eventually just felt their own body's stuck and impaled by the spikes. Leaving behind a battlefield of dead that hopefully didn't have to be seen again.

The next patch of bandits was already erecting from the sands. Hopefully the last wave of them. Incoming towards the caravan's wagons where Satoru was and where Verdandi hoped to be by the time they impacted. They had to get ready for the last attack.


670 / 2510

Chakra 175/250:

The young genin watched as most of the Suna bandits suffered gruesome fatalities at the hands of Verdandi and her pet bear. There was an unexplainable beauty to seeing her execute her jutsus and weave them around the battlefield with such finesse and enough lethal force to wipe out entire squads. Seeing this made him understand the gravity of the situation, this wasn't a random ambush, this was somehow premeditated but whoever planned this wasnt the major focus of Satoru at the moment as a fireball was threatening to burn him away.

Without giving it second thought Satoru performed the only jutsu that seemed to make sense at the moment. He raised his left hand to his mouth once more but this time to perform a Suiton technique, releasing a burst of water at 10m/s, nullifying the travelling fireball in a short mixture of water and fire, producing steam at the meeting point of the two jutsu. "Verdandi, this is getting really heated, we should get out of here!" Satoru shouted over to Verdandi who had just finished making quick work of some bandits. Satoru got back into a defensive position waiting for Verdandi to give the retreat command, she wasnt holding back at all. Noticing that she so effortlessly used lethal force, it make put some of the suna ninja on alert making it possible that reinforcements were on their way. "WE GOTTA GO!" the leaf genin once more called out to his partner.

Chakra 125/150:

241 | 1819

Verdandi realised that her Genin friend seemed a little bit distressed within the situation. She smiled to herself seeing that he could handle himself against the fireball. Avalanche quickly tackled the man using the technique and proceeded to slash his claws over his throat to finish him up. Verd however enjoyed the fact that Satoru loudly yelled his wish for retreat. It gave her a genuine tactical advance. The bandits around them had heard that as well so when Verdandi rushed towards Satoru's location to grab him by the arm softly and seemingly lead him away to their retreat. The criminals would neatly follow behind them. However, Verdandi didn't take the closest way out. Instead she headed for a little specific area next to the convoy. The sand had turned a little darker where she was headed to. But the criminals would really care about such detail. Verdandi however had neatly prepared her trap in her last move. But she wanted to maximize her potential damage here. So, as she reached the very rim of the darker sand, she would turn around. Leaving Avalanche to seemingly protect the Genin. It would seem to the criminals that Verdandi just tried to buy them some time for their escape while sacrificing herself. The incoming bandits, about twenty or more at that time. Were all entering the rather large field of effect for Verdandi's trap. Verd realised that most of them had entered the 12m radius of her technique and the first of them was already about to impact with his blade against Verdandi's.

It was that moment when she activated the last necessary hand seal to turn the trap active. "Erosive lake!" The dark sand below the men suddenly crumbled and disappeared. A 7m deep hole suddenly revealed itself below. The hand seal removed the makeshift hole filling water and moved it aside leaving nothing but empty space below their feet. But the technique wasn't just done with making the twenty criminals fall down to their demise. Upon finishing the next hand seal, the water that had vanished into the sand beside the hole would come crushing back down upon the trapped men. Along with thick gushes of sand until it would ultimately bury all these men alive beneath the surface. A cruel death even for Verdandi's taste but, one must however use all techniques available to reach their target. Some of the remaining criminal forces retreated. Their numbers a mere dozen. Realising that Verdandi had already killed more than that were left to deal with and she wanted to make clear that she wasn't finished by all means. Jumping forward to attack the first ninja she could see that was lucky enough to not have entered the area of effect for the trap. Verdandi clicked a button at the handle of her sword and quickly shark like teeth appeared on the surface of her normally smooth blade. As she pulled her blade vertically upwards towards the criminal's chest it would rip the skin apart, cut through his feeble armor and make a huge ugly wound on his chest. As she kicked him in the same to fall back he would casually be left to bleed out.

Verd wanted to show her apprentice that sometimes pure gruesome intimidation was the primary way to defeat your enemy. Many of the remaining criminals were running away. The final assault was coming from five of them. Verdandi quickly checked their approach in her field of vision. Five more large fireballs would come at her at the same time. Verd quickly formed the hand seals for a suiton based technique that would easily be able to swallow as many fireballs as they could come up with. As she cast the "Water Encampment Wall" her lips exhaled a rather large shield of water that would form to become a halfway 6m large sphere in front of Verdandi. The fireballs crashing into the surface of the water wall not even scratching it down. The water remained. Verdandi was calculating her next move. The moment the incoming enemies would pass through the water shield, Verdandi knew that it was time to finish them. She exactly knew the distance of herself to her wall and how far her next technique could reach out for. While she was charging her Hyouton technique neatly behind her wall she was waiting for them to breach the water wall. As they came through. The first she would do is deactivate the walls chakra nature. Turning it back into normal water.

The water would come down along with the charging criminals. Lingering around them as if it was sticking itself to their bodies. Perfect. Five enemies within reach of her Hyouton technique completely soaked in water and surrounded by more. Verd would reach out her Hyouton loaded blade. "Cold-steam Cut" would be thrown from her blade and instantly hit all her five targets in a matter of a second. Making it look like she just extended her own blade past 12 meters. The slice would cut through her enemies. But instead of making them bleed it would burn their skin and make their flesh start to dissolve. Major second-degree tissue damage would cover their bodies and the water surrounding them would freeze them into nothing more but statues of ice for a second. As they came crushing down, Verdandi slowly moved towards them. The brittle ice on their skin would quickly break apart and not be able to hold them. But as they struggled coughed, screamed in pain. Verd would walk through their numbers. Her sword still in its shark teeth form, cutting their throats open one by one until they were ultimately dealt with. With a quick motion of her hand to her right. Verd would remove the blood from her blade. Clicking its mechanical button to undo the shark teeth and allow herself to sheath her blade back into her belt. Moving towards Satoru whom had to become aware that all the enemies they were running from had been either eliminated or fled by now.

With this ultimate showdown of what a Chuunin, or rather a Tokubetsu Jōnin was capable of. Verd hoped that this had been somewhat educational of how a skilled ninja would need to combine their techniques, think ahead, plan, keep your surroundings under control. Create traps. Confuse the enemy. Make them think they are at advantage and ultimately strike them at their heart to crumble their morale and defeat them by psychological means. Making them flee and deal with the feeble remains in a casual manner.

"Seems like we can send off a raven for the retrieval team to get the caravan goods anyway." She mentioned. Checking back with her Genin as he had to come to terms with the very fact that the mission was successfully completed.


1150 / 3660

Chakra 115/250:

After leaving a pool of water to dampen a wide radius of nearby sand, the genin's parnter, Verdandi had retreated to his location quickly and softly gripped his arm with her hand, gently guiding him away from the caravan. The most obvious retreat route was directly the way the came, but something was strange, this wasn't the way they came. The frost ninja was leading him off to the side, more specifically, over the patch of sand that she just dampened. Satoru was very much puzzled but trusted his partner more than he cared to admit, walking calmly with her over the area. A wave of opposing Shinobi followed them onto the dampened sand which is apparently what she's been waiting for because as soon as they got close enough she made a hand seal and buried all of them in a hole that was hidden beneath the dampened sand. When they were all in the hole, Verdandi released the weight of the water and sand ontop of them, sealing their fate. 

One of the ninja who survived falling into this trap had faced Verdandi, he didnt stand long as he met a gruesome death. She had opened up his chest with shark like teeth that came out of her blade, kicked him to the ground and left him to bleed out in the sand. Verdandi spoke not a word, all Satoru could hear was the screaming of the Suna bandits as they attempted to fled the battle. At this point, the young genin felt a bit uneasy, being around the amount of death that his partnering shinobi left in her wake. Even though it was an easy feeling, he also felt a bit safe, knowing the enemies were being taken care of. He put his kunai back into his tool pouch and waited for his partner to rejoin him. Five of the shinobi didn't retreat and decided stay on their offensive, Satoru was calm as he found it obvious that they weren't going to survive very long in Verdandi's murderous plight. They launched five more fireballs directly at them but Satoru still didn't excite himself as his partner's style of fighting incorporated a lot of ice and water, he knew that she would neutralize the attack and most likely kill them. 

He was right, the frost ninja made quick work of the advancing shinobi by letting them get close to her, Satoru wasn't quite sure of what happened next but from what he saw, the bandits were all frozen for a second before she extended her blade an extra few meters, cutting them all down with ease. The shark like blades on her sword were retracted as she cleaned off the blood and sheated it. Satoru was somewhat jealous of what he had seen as he knew that he was nowhere near her level of expertise in the ninja world. This motivated him to go back to his village and train even harder because he knew this girl was nowhere near the level of power he wanted to attain and to get there he would first have to be able to handle himself on the battlefield the way his partner here could. "Impressively done. Your lethality knows no bounds does it? Reinforcements are probably incoming. After seeing what you're capable of, they would probably send people strong enough to neutralize us both, lets head back and report this ambush so whoever comes to secure the caravan wont be overwhelmed" the genin continued, "and hey Verdandi, thanks for having my back there. Without you i'm not sure if the leaf village would've seen me ever again. I owe you one." Satoru spoke to her as he himself turned away and started in the direction of the oasis the had previously met at. The mission was a success and he had planned to go back home and train himself very hard, he didn't like the feeling of utter uselessness in the situation. Hopefully one day he can protect the people of konoha the way his partner had protected him here today.

---

[Exit Thread]

[TOTAL WC- 2512]
[Spare WC- 1012]

[Speed E-3 ~> D]
[Endurance E ~> E-1]
[Perception E ~> E-1]
[Reaction Time E ~> E-1]

Verdandi gazed at her young partner and nodded. She reminded herself of her own first missions, how she too felt slightly useless in comparison to her partners until she finally learned some skills that provided her with the means to take part in the gruesome ways the Kiri-nin tended to do their jobs. It escaped Verdandi's knowledge if the shinobi of the leaf had a more peaceful approach within their missions. But the bloody mist was known very well and far for their brutality. They too had brought peaceful times upon these lands. Their alliance with the lead was of great use for a long time. But Verdandi could feel it. Times were changing. Politics were at unrest. This whole joint operation into suna was having a greater impact on the future than most would admit to.

Satoru was finished. He left the plane and Verdandi just accepted his thanks and bowed politely as he waved goodbye. She considered to follow him and make sure he wasn't attacked, when she could see a raven at the sky. Hunter-nin. ANBU. They were here. Whenever a casual low ranked mission turned out to be of potentially higher threat all of a sudden. The special forces would always supply potentially spare men to check on the situation. This time there were no hunters. Just two ANBU approaching the area. Another one was probably shadowing Satoru's return home. Considering the raven was following the young man, Verd could rest at ease. She however did not intend to leave this place and their mission up to the special task force. Not when she was aspiring to become one of them anyway.

The supply carriers would soon arrive. Lifting the heavy boxes of loot from the caravan crates. An expert would previously check each loot box for explosives and actually had to disarm three traps that could have easily blown half the civilians away that came here to recover the goods. It seemed like caravan was originally exactly as vulnerable and loaded with goods as intended for the criminals. They must have gotten their inside intel of shinobi action after the caravan was already on route. They had the chance to either flee and secure their goods, but hence also give away the fact that they know what is going to happen. Or they could lure the incoming ninja into their trap, capture or kill them and then keep the cargo anyway.

Verdandi wasn't sure if a single C-Rank ninja would have survived this task. At least they would have been forced to actually run away like the young leaf ninja intended for them too. For her it was a test of strength but it seemed to be more like luck than actually anything else that a ninja of higher skill had been deployed here. Verdandi spoke with one of the ANBU supposedly they already had a lead on whom eventually had sold the information to the suna nin.

Meanwhile she could indeed hear how the last remaining forces of the ambush were incoming. Revealing themselves from their sand stealth techniques to try and approach Verdandi. Many in the area around the caravan had to deal with the ANBU that were securing the cargo team. Verd did not have to worry about them. The ones charging here were throwing weak, potentially D-Ranked kunais in her direction. The three projectiles were swiftly dealt with as she pulled her sword and activated the "Reflection" Technique. Sending the projectiles straight back to their owners and letting them suffer their own fate from those weapons. One wasn't dumb enough to fall for it. Verdandi had to help a little bit there.

Forming a very specific set of hand seals left her to charge at him and act like she would punch his gut before a sudden rush of chains created by her ninjutsu would wrap themselves around the guy. He struggled and fell to Verdandi's feet. Meanwhile his comrades were being slaughtered by the special forces around him. Verd knew he wouldn't be locked by the "Temporary Paralysis" Technique for long and so started to lift him before gently freezing him into a small but secure "Ice Prison". While the final wave of enemies seemed to be quickly dealt with. Verdandi pulled her sword and pointed its tip to the mans forehead.

"Who gave you the information…." she asked. The ANBU that was conversing with her earlier simply stood there and watched. "… that we would arrive here. Tell me. Be so kind." She continued. Slowly cutting a first little scratch into his cheek. He gulped. He wasn't trained for this. He was from the militia. He never received the anti-torture training like the elder shinobi usually did. Especially those sent to war by the nations. Which again made Verdandi question for a moment as to why Konoha allowed a young boy like Satoru to step on War territory. She scratched her head. Her victim didn't answer. Another, deeper cut would have to loosen his tongue as his cheek started to softly bleed.

Verd didn't take pleasure in this. But she would carry on for at least another half an hour while inflicting minor wounds to his skin. The men piled up the corpses of his brethren nearby as a psychological way to show him how his brethren all had but fallen in this war. All had but become corpses in victim of this conflict. Verd would have commenced on to the beating or… having one of the ANBU do it. She wasn't really the person for that. But still. He started to talk eventually. With a name in hand. Verd would walk one last time past the battlefield. The waves of attacking forces had been eradicated. The resources had been picked up by the transport crew. Her Genin had trotted home safely. Avalanche was slightly wounded but happy and the prisoner would be executed by the ANBU. Too bad that Kiri had taken a rather brutal attempt to deal with criminals.

With a certain name tag at hand. Verdandi moved through the dunes along with her nameless ANBU friend. Arriving at the headquarters. The extracted information was clear. The militia guy wasn't a hero. He might have been if he knew that his demise was but planned from the start. Giving him hope of survival while all his brethren had fallen was the only motivation he had to spill the beans. Verd considered for a while if it was ethically correct to kill him anyway. But in the end. That was sort of her job. Why should she question the very basics of her job now?

The name was actually real. No fake. No acronym. No weird nickname. There was a person working at the mission headquarters with that name. But they couldn't just kill him. They had to make sure the intel was correct. So as the mission was already over. For the next three days they would follow him. Shadow him. Record his every move and sneak-listen into every conversation. Until they could catch him sending coded messages to his friends. About location of the next mission that he was supposed to announce. One that of course only lured the militia into a trap designed by the Kiri-nin knowing they would be ambushed.

It was out of Verdandi's jurisdiction now. She did her job. Went back to the mission HQ. Filed in her report. Gave her recommendation for Satoru in order to support the young guy and picking up the reward for her work. Her superiors seemed amused by the fact that Verdandi had not only concluded the mission objective, but also defeated a trap and returned back to get to the very source of this whole problem. After all, this leak in the HQ could have lead to way worse tactical disadvantages in the continued war effort into suna.

Her job was done. She crawled her pets neck. Time to give him a proper bandage and see towards healing his legs and claws. He had to be ready for the next job too. Which was soon to come.

[EXIT]

Verd WC: 1'370 / 5'030
Total Thread WC: 7'576

Chakra 75/250:

WC Usage: