Minesweeper D-rank:

Makoto did not understand at the time how far things had gone, the darkened skies and that disaster that fell down upon the land. He felt like things had changed for him in a way that he could never have imagined as he thought to himself that this was probably the most disastrous thing he had seen in his life. At the same time he felt an excitement deep down inside after witnessing that technique he began to play around inside his mind to find ways to mimic that technique, but he knew all too well that he did not have the chakra, the skills or the ability to even perform that technique even if he wanted to. All he could do was watch from far away as the fortress had taken a blow that should have taken it down completely.

Right now he was on a mission to find traps and disarm them as he would now await for his partner for this mission once more, he spotted one trap on the river bed on his way to meet up his partner as he threw his shuriken and a few kunai at it before the trap triggered and ended up killing several fish as he jumped over to avoid the trap as the trap got cleared away by the flow of the river. Though he thought he saw smoke further up the river and wondered if bandits were lying in wait or if there was an encampment of some kind, either way he would soon see after joining up he would venture there and determine if it was another trap or threat meant to be cleared.

Words = 277

Raphael once again found himself in the service of the most village and their endeavours, having suffered great loss in a major attack against them the most called forth for anyone available to help. Having found himself on good terms with the Mizukage, the young shinobi would answer the call. No matter what the call was for or from who it came from, the boy would make himself available to help those who asked. It was the way he was and it was something that never would change, however he was not particularly happy when he discovered that he had to take the mission on with a partner. The boy was all for helping out where needed, but he was more of a lone wolf when it came to his way of operations. He was more efficient that way, no one to hold him back or that he would have to watch out for. Still a job was a job and he could use the money, so the male would suck it up and work with the partner despite his dislike for it.

As he approached the rendezvous point where he was too meet with the would be partner, the young shinobi would pump his chakra into the air around him spreading quickly to cover a two hundred and fifty meters radius around him. The chakra so minuscule that not even chakra sensory usually picks this up, but enough so that any movement within his field of chakra and the boy would be immediately aware of it. Raphael wore his normal attire which consisted of his all white travel cloak which bore the Kozai Clan Insignia which also held a hood for cover his blonde hair and face from the sun. His Hitai-Ate on his forehead that marked him as a shinobi of the hidden cloud barely visible beneath the hood of his cloak, yet his electric blue eyes would shine through the shadow cast by the cloak hood almost as if they were glowing. Beneath his cloak he wore a formal dress shirt with a buttoned collar, always button to the top so that his neck was covered by the shirt. His white dress pants matched his travel cloak, and contrasted his shirt perfectly meaning that with or without the cloak the boy would look elegant in appearance. His shoes like the rest of his clothes not something someone who was a shinobi often considered wearing and that was black dress shoes for formal events, not what one would want on a typical mission. The boy however found comfort in his attire, he cared not for what others thought or had to say, the boy was a skilled shinobi and he had always dressed in this similar manner so it was not a hindrance to him. His superiors disapprove of his clothing, often times where they would tell him that his clothing was not suited for stealth, something a Shinobi needed. The boy would always reply, 'I want them to see me, when they see me they will know that their death has arrived. I need not trickery or stealth my skills and my ability will take care of any threat turned against me.' So far the boy has held true to his word, not yet has he found an opponent he could not best, however he knew that the Titans of man were still out there and one day his life would be taken. If that were to happen, the boy knew that he would die with honor in his actions and a smile upon his face.

'Today is not that day,' the boy thought to himself as he began feeling movement at the edge of his range. Looking into it's direction the male smiled at the smoke stack that was billowing into the sky above, "Their making it easy for us," the boy remarked to himself as he turned his attention to the boy who stood at the rendezvous spot. 'So this is to be my partner, huh. Doesn't look like much, not much younger than myself. Let's just hope he can handle himself.' The male thought to himself as he approached the boy, "It is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Raphael Kozai of the Village Hidden in the cloud." The male would say as he extended his hand to shake the boy's as well as give the boy time to introduce himself, the boy intentionally did not mention his rank assuming that the boy being so close in age would assume him to be of similar rank as well. The tone in his voice one would expect from a person born of fortune and proper edict, a lifetime of learning how the regal lives were lived. After the introductions were out of the way, the male lowered his hand back to the side before he would continue. "There's some movement approximately two hundred meters down the river near where that smoke stack is, perhaps we can start there." Raphael stated lifting his arm once again to point in the direction that he spoke. Before turning to head towards it so long as the boy had no objections.

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870

On that day as Makoto was waiting as patiently as he could, he hoped his order for a new set of threads would arrive soon. He had discovered in his time here in the remains of the hidden sand village that he required more then just a shield for defense. The shield could only cover so much of his small frame as he thought a bigger shield would simply get in his way as he was mainly a ninjutsu specialist. Having his view blocked by a large shield would be counter productive as he thought about these things while brooding as he looked down, someone would approach him as he would raise his head slowly as the wind would shift his fringe ever so slightly to the side, before letting some hair hang down the middle pointing towards his nose as he blinked a few times.

Before Makoto stood a boy who was maybe sixteen or eighteen, it was hard to tell with how everyone seemed to mature at a different rate. This guy had blonde hair and it seemed he was wearing a white travel coat as Makoto began to wonder if he would need one soon as he decided to place an order for a cloak of his own as well. There was a strange symbol on the forehead protector, this guy was from the Kumogakure clan as he began hoping this was not one of those crazy priests again as they had a habit of talking and preaching all about Hastur this and Hastur that and the almighty Hastur placing his divine hands over his nation to rule them as the one true god of this world.

However the electricity within the bright blue eyes of this boy gave Makoto the impression that this might be someone as pure as water and with a mind so open it was vast like the ocean. He could not see the guy's neck and for some reason he did feel a bit intimidated, he was not sure why as he thought it might be just his mind playing tricks on him. He began to wonder if these blue eyes perhaps held some form of eye technique, or if they were just a natural blue and that the light from the sun was causing some strange lighting effect. He was feeling a bit distracted as his mind was drifting back towards thoughts of jutsu once more.

Then as Makoto looked away from the dazzling boy he noticed the shoes and his entire image for the boy was set then. This boy might be royalty with shoes like these he began to wonder if this was perhaps the son of a great daimyo or feudal lord as his mind was begin to lose its grip on the truth. The boy mentioned something about this being easy for them as the boy introduced himself as Raphael of the Kozai clan from the village hidden in the clouds. The boy stretched out his hand for a shaking as the boy held his hand to his chest first to think about it for a second before reaching out slowly as he slotted in his hand gently for the hand shake and replied.

"I am Makoto of the hidden stone village..." with a slight pause for thought as he finished his greeting with the same thing his partner used to start. "...pleasure to meet you too". Makoto felt nervous until the handshake was over as he felt a bit relieved since he was a bit scared having let someone hold his hand, since this meant he was at the mercy of the hand shaker with his weak strength and he was only recently gaining the benefits of his training from Suzume-sensei who he missed.

He mentioned the smoke stack and starting as he simply nodded in reply and re-positioned his tanto behind him horizontally but slightly angled as he took a reverse grip. While he mainly used ninjutsu he did not want to waste it on this mission just yet. Being a bit nervous Makoto's speech began to break down a bit as he explained why he was holding his weapon ready.

"Sorry, weapon ready, stab... kill... all..." as he realized it and shook his head a bit. "Sorry, weapon is ready for stabbing and killing all of them if we have to" as he got a bit more nervous some sweat running down his forehead as that bad speaking came out from having not spoken to anyone for a while as he normally just silently nodded and agreed to missions most people never spoke to him. That and he found it better not to speak to much with all the sand flying around and getting in your mouth. He also emphasized he was ready to kill, but that he did not intend to do it unless it was something he needed to do. Some shinobi seemed to have this thing where they want to kill everyone or just run wild on a killing spree. Makoto just wanted to do his mission and get on with his life, also he wanted to get back to learning more jutsu as they walked towards the location he decided to ask.

"Should I scout ahead?" as he was not sure which of them was more experienced and in any case if Raphael was weaker then him it might be bad to let him go first as they had quite some time before getting there unless they went crazy and just started running in like mad to slaughter them all.

Words = 277 + 934 = 1211

The boy did his best to hold back his snicker at the boys comment of scouting ahead, though of course the young Makoto would not know of the boys sensory jutsu that allowed him the full range of sense he had with the very air around them. "There is no need Makoto, they are within my range. There are ten of them in total and they are all close to each other, striking quickly is our best bet. Catching them all off guard at the same time, we will be able to deal with them all with little trouble." As they moved towards the camp the boy began picking up his speed, "keep an eye out for traps, and try to keep up." The boy said with a wink before picking up more speed, not paying attention to the obvious advantage he had over Makoto as he moved across the tree branches towards the bandit camp. As he approached the camp he removed a few of his Kaminari Steel Shuriken from his pouch on his belt holding three in each hand between his fingers. As he came upon the encampment the boy launched himself over their heads, releasing all six of the shuriken upon the mean before landing on the ground on the other side of them launching himself forward as he began channelling chakra into his feet as he ran before stopping just under four meters away from the group of men and sweeping his leg in front of him releasing a arc of chakra that quickly formed a tornado that sucked all those with the encampment into its torrent. As the men fell down from the air crashing into the trees and the ground covered in cuts the boy pulled out a Kaminari Steel Kunai from his pouch, slowly approaching each of them and slitting their throats to allow them to bleed out. Once all ten of them were dead the boy would bid farewell to the young Makoto before heading back to obtain his payment for the completed mission. He would not wait for the young Iwa Shinobi as he doubted he would see the boy again, and so he saw no need to get go know the boy and wanted nothing more than to move on.

{Exit Thread}

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380/1250

Mission Completed: -750 (+150Ryo, 1EP)
+25 Ryo per 100 words: -500 (+125Ryo)

Makoto began to wonder how things would go as Raphael said to him that everyone was within his range. The boy just said there were ten of them close together and that striking quickly would be their best option. Makoto seemed to agree, but he felt a bit lost at the time. He was told to watch for traps and keep up and then it was almost as if Raphael vanished as he ran after him, Makoto barely keeping up realizing that Raphael was still holding back just to allow him to barely manage.

However as they got real close he lost track of Raphael and then a tornado burst out as people were screaming, he did not know what happened as he got their all he found were dead bodies as he looked on only for Raphael to vanish as if he was working with a high speed bringer of death he decided that he would need to train his speed to one day keep up with these mad demons in the future. He reported his success for the mission and received his reward as he felt this was the easiest mission he had ever done before ever.

[exit]

Words = 1211 + 199 = 1410

Mission = 750
Extra Pay = 600(25x6 = 150 ryo)

Total = 1350

Passive Word Total = 1410 + 1250 = 2660/2500 = 1 EP