Mission name: Eradicate the smugglers (Repeatable)
Mission rank: B
Objective: “With the new customs protocols, and the limited entry into the country, smugglers trade have been spotted making illegal ports across kiri… this presents an opportunity. Kill the smugglers, secure the goods.”
Location: Kiri
Reward: 500 ryo
Mission description: Small smuggler’s ships have been trying to slip in under our noses. Root them out, kill their captain and secure their illegal weapons/ cargo for kiri. They will resist.
Mission details: The ninja will find a small unmarked vessel with ten vanguard men who will be trying to look inconspicuous. Kill them. They have C rank Katon, ninjutsu and C rank Bukijutsu, with C rank katana and broadswords.

NPC:
Name: Smugglers
Age: 16-40
General Appearance: Pirates
Personality: Mongrels of all shapes and sizes, usually wearing silks and distinguishing colours
Motivations: money, power, position, anarchy
Fears: Death, pain, loss, superior enemies
Other: B rank Pirates who each have 10 D rank throwing knives which can penetrate 2” deep. C rank Ninjutsu And C rank Bukijutsu, with C rank Katon. They each have a C rank sword which is able to cut or penetrate 4” deep but not through bone. And possess all academy jutsu and C rank and lower fire jutsu from the library.

Mongrels of all shapes and sizes. Chigetsu glared, staring down through the glass of his telescope. He could see them now, far off in their little shantytown. The issue of piracy and smuggling was one that Kirigakure was unfortunately plagued with, being primarily a seafaring nation spread out over an archipelago. Bandits, layabouts, and those who felt disposed by the traditional systems of Kirigakure. He was almost impressed by it. The ability for these criminals to construct a rudimentary port and a small shanty seatown so quickly was something he could definitely admire. It was all impressive, especially considering the mission’s intel claimed that this was all only a week or so old. Regardless of their skill in erecting architecture, the smuggler’s little hangaway would have to be destroyed. Ransacking the town and seizing all illegal goods would provide a nice bonus to Kirigakure’s funds, and was likely why these little smuggling port towns were allowed to exist in the first place. It would have been easy to squash it before it got to this size, but waiting until it became a nice and juicy target was too appealing.

The telescope would be retracted, and placed back into his pouch. The little port town consisted of what appeared to be twelve decently sized buildings in addition to the port itself. What appeared to be an inn and a general store could be clearly marked out, along with what Chigetsu could only assume was some sort of storage shack. A frigate of modest size was docked in the harbor, and strewn across the harbor were perhaps a hundred men. These numbers alone exposed the understaffed nature of this little smuggling endeavour. That number would be barely adequate to staff a ship of this size, and that didn’t account those who would have to stay behind to staff and guard the port while the ship was out. Among those hundred there were hardly any of noticeable combat prowess. His telescope had confirmed that the majority were unarmed, and a moment taken to focus would confirm that only a handful left any sort of noticeable chakra footprint. There were only perhaps ten among the crowd of people who gave off a chakra presence. He could only guess they were mercenaries or something along those lines, used by the captain of the ship to maintain order.

The captain himself was clearly visible by the pointed tricorn hat he worn, adorned with a feather. The colorful bird he had perched on his shoulder only emphasized his role. Aboard the ship he seemed to be barking out orders to the variety of men carrying cargo down from the ship’s deck. With the fabulous silks and colorful clothing he wore it was easy to spot him amongst the crowd, even without the telescope. The cliffside perch that Chigetsu was resting on gave him the perfect vantage point to spy down on the cove. After one last cursory glance over the ship he would turn back to stare the partner he had been assigned for this mission. Hitatsu, Takayuri. Truthfully he didn’t know anything about the man besides what he could immediately see, but that was enough to give Chigetsu the gut feeling that he was worthy of his rank.

“There’s only ten or so who look like they could be any threat, along with their captain. The rest will probably run as soon as there’s any sign of trouble. The main target is the cargo, so any collateral damage should be kept to a minimum.” The telescope would be pointed down at the ship before being offered over to Takayuri. “What’s your skillset anyway? I wasn’t given any information on you in the intel file…” Chigetsu let out an awkward cough. Immersing himself in tactical sounding speech about the contents of the mission was easy. Asking personal questions to strangers was a bit more difficult. Should he have started with an ice breaker first? Chigetsu would clear his throat. “Hey… Why couldn’t the Sand nin get any sleep?” He would pause for effect. “Because his futon blew away.”

…

This was a mistake.

“Uh.” He would look back down to the ship. “We can begin whenever you’re ready.”

---

[712]

Nightmares plagues the Sunagakure ninja once again, the same recurring one that he had experienced since the day that his village had been burned to the ground. He hadn’t gotten a decent sleep in months since that terrible night, though he had been sleeping slightly better recently since he had taken up doing missions for the mist village. The sense of purpose that taking on those missions had given him was something he was grateful for, and he worked hard to give back to the village that had taken him in when he needed them most. It was for that reason, once again, that he dawned his Kirigakure armour and placed his spears upon his back once again, the blades prepared for action in defence of the place he had recently come to know as home.

He had been getting a chance to work with many different people throughout the village, who had many different philosophies on how to deal with enemies, though only one so far had shared his views. It was a rare thing indeed to find a shinobi who would rather bring an opponent to repent than end their lives, and an even rarer one in a village that had come to be known as the Bloody Mist Village. The reputation of Kirigakure seemed to hold true from what Takayuri had noticed so far, and it was something that saddened him greatly. His former village hadn’t been perfect, but the Kazekage, when she was around, had been a compassionate woman. Lady Ayakashi didn’t seem to look upon things such as compassion the same, and strength and swift punishment were often handed out here.

With his Sunagakure forehead protector placed around his neck to protect his throat from blades, he made his way towards the location he had been told to meet the shinobi he would work with this day. The man whom he was supposed to work with was a member of the legendary Hozuki clan, one whom Takayuri had heard stories of. A member of their clan famously had once been a holder of one of the seven swords of the mist, something that Takayuri believed would one day be something he should strive for. He wanted to prove himself to the village that had taken him in, and he believed that being inducted into their most famous order would be a good way to do that.

For the first time in what seemed like quite a long time, it wasn’t raining. It was a fairly nice day as he approached the docks, spotting the man standing there on the docks, observing what he assumed were their targets. He could see the pirate ship in the distance, a scowl crossing the normally kind face of the young Takayuri. Pirates prayed upon the weak and took the supplies that the village needed to support their people, and that the victims needed to keep their families alive, and it was something that sickened him. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to cause such hurt to anyone, but he was being given an opportunity to correct that here today. As he approached and stood beside the man, he heard him speak, talking about the people on the ship and the plan before handing him a telescope so he could observe for himself.

As he scoped out the enemies on the ship he spotted the captain, the man whom if Takayuri could take him out, would quickly end this madness. Chigetsu asked him about his skillset and the young Hitatsu chuckled softly at that. He seemed to have an easier time relaying the tactical information than he did asking Takayuri about himself, and it was interesting to see a shinobi get caught up on such things. He would collapse the telescope and hand it back to the man, offering a soft smile and motioning to the spears on his back with his right hand as his left hand brushed its fingers over the drum at his hip.

“I don’t generally like to talk about my ‘skills’, but as you have asked; I am a weapon combat specialist, specifically adept in the use of one or two spears at once. I also use sound based jutsus by channeling them through my father’s bodhran. I recommend if you hear the drum beating not standing too close...it could be dangerous. I hope I won’t slow you down, friend.” Takayuri ignored the joke that the man told, choosing not to point out the fact that as a ninja of the hidden sand it could have bothered him a little bit, not to mention the fact that he had been having trouble sleeping as of late.

He was told that they could start whenever he was ready, and Takayuri nodded, pulling out Gáe Buidhe, The Yellow Rose of Mortality, and spinning it in his hands as he would activate his “Ascend to the Clouds” jutsu, channelling futon chakra into his feet and allowing him to run on the air. He would move as quickly as he possibly could, making his way towards the ship from above, his spear preparing to strike...

867/2500

The silence that followed was both appropriate and unnerving. The joke that he had made was likely incredibly inappropriate given the subject of their mission. Comedy before going off to kill people? He hadn’t been thinking straight. It definitely set a strange mood that hung over the two of them, and only served to make the awkward air even more tense. It felt almost unnerving now that he had even decided to make that statement at all. While he didn’t exactly feel ashamed it still made him feel uncomfortable in a way he couldn’t exactly describe. Perhaps if he had honed his abilities as a comedian a bit further before attempting some pre-mission banter was a stranger it would have been more ideal. Of course being a master comedian wasn’t exactly on his list of things to do. Was that a shinobi skill? He hadn’t really ever thought about it before. Perhaps it could be used offensively, joke telling...

No. Probably not.

Chigetsu’s internal monologue about comedic skill was thankfully interrupted by the man beside him, which likely helped prevent him from falling down into some mental pit of nonsense. Chigetsu could only assume the soft chuckle was out of pity. It was uncomfortable, but he deserved it.

“I don’t generally like to talk about my ‘skills’, but as you have asked; I am a weapon combat specialist, specifically adept in the use of one or two spears at once. I also use sound based jutsus by channeling them through my father’s bodhran. I recommend if you hear the drum beating not standing too close...it could be dangerous. I hope I won’t slow you down, friend.”

Weapon combat specialist. That roused his interest, and snapped him back from his anxious internal breakdown. Although perhaps it should have been obvious from the spears on his back. He didn’t bother asking what a bodhran was, as with context clues he could assume it was just referring to the type of drum that he was carrying. Sound based ninjutsu. Interesting. Perhaps instead of offensive comedy techniques he should have considered music instead. Another glance would be taken up and down the male before him.

“I’ll keep your drum in mind then. I assume if you pull something like that out it would give a good signal for the weaker among them to flee. Those without any ability to use chakra are inconsequential, so leave hunting them down until after the main threats are dealt with. I’ll see if I can direct a Hunter-Killer squad to comb the area afterwards as well to clean up.”

Hunting down all these pests, who would surely scatter at the first sight of chakra based combat, would be too much of a pain to think about. Hopefully that job could be completely shifted over to the Hunters instead of having it entirely be something they had to do. His comments would be put in just before Takayuri would head off, descending down with spear in hand. Nodding to himself, Chigetsu would head off as well. His lack of ability to travel through the air would make their split up unfortunately necessary. He could only hope that Takayuri would be able to handle himself. Beginning his own descent to the port, Chigetsu would travel in a much less flashy manner. The bottoms of his feet would be liquefied, and sliding downwards he would adopt a pose not dissimilar to an ice skater. Down he would go. As he approached closer he would lower himself to the ground, further and further into he was scant but a puddle racing across the scenery.

He would strike down into the already damp dockyards, slipping across the shanty town without troubles. The occasional foot of a busy pirate stepping into him did little to slow him down, and these poor fellows who did usually ended up slipping somewhat hilariously due to how fast he was moving. Rather than immediately attempt to seize the advantage he would wait, positioning himself close to the ten men he had scoped out and targeted. Takayuri would give given a chance to strike first, and Chigetsu would observe his actions closely.

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[710/1422]