“Finally, some real shinobi work,” Bokuden exclaimed gleefully as his eyes scanned over his assignment.

“They are just some random thugs, don’t get too excited. If you are looking for some excitement you probably aren’t going to find it here,” Satomi replied walking alongside him.

“Listen, we have spent the majority of our early shinobi careers searching down shoes and cleaning up libraries. Anything that involves real combat on any level is a welcome change,” Bokuden answered, tilting his head back and lowering his shoulders as he thought back to all of the menial tasks they had to perform just to get to this point.

“You didn’t seem to upset with out last assignment. You know, the one where we had to track down that skank of a thief,” Satomi said with a tinge of annoyance in her voice, glaring harshly at Bokuden.

“Oh that? You see, what had happened was…” Bokuden replied, waving his arms frantically.

“Yeah, save it,” Satomi interjected, turning her nose away from Bokuden demonstratively, “Now, I want details about our targets. How many? How strong? What do we know about their fighting style?”


“Well, uh…” Bokuden hesitated as he searched the mission briefing for information to appease the irritated Satomi, “It doesn’t say.” Bokuden then crossed his arms in front of his face and lifted up his leg to guard his midsection, sure that Satomi was going to hit him.

Satomi did not hit him however, and instead continued walking forward without so much as turning to look at Bokuden, casually saying, “I see.” Confused for a moment, Bokuden hesitated to drop his guard, but soon did so letting out a sigh of relief. “What the hell do you mean it doesn’t say?!?” Satomi yelled as she swung around violently to face Bokuden.

“I’m sorry, the briefing doesn’t say!”  Bokuden exclaimed, reassuming his defensive stance.

“So we are going into a fight blind then, wonderful,” Satomi said in a sarcastic manner as she turned and continued to walk.

“Well, it’s like you said, they are just some random thugs. It can’t be too dangerous, right?” Bokuden said with a smile.


Satomi let out a deep sigh before responding, “I suppose so. Now let’s get this over with.”

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Word Count: 382/1000

The duo continued to scour the city searching for their targets, and it wouldn't take long for them to find what they were looking for. As they jumped from rooftop to rooftop Satomi heard a cry for help along with some disgusting grunts and laughter. The two swiftly closed in on the location of the sound, finding a group of four filthy thugs surrounding a couple in an alley. Bokuden jumped down from the overlooking rooftop landing in front of the bandits, standing between them and the couple that was under attack. Satomi did the same, but landed behind the bandits, closing off their escape path. Bokuden turned around the face the couple and spoke to them in a comforting tone, "It's alright, I'm here now. You guys will be fine." The couple while slightly relieved was still shaking in fear as the four bandits still stood before them, entrapping them in the alley. Bokuden glanced over his shoulder for a moment before continuing, "Oh, you're worried about them? Don't worry about them. As a matter of fact..." Bokuden stopped to weave a series of hand signs before launching his Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration and blowing open the old wooden fence that stood behind the couple. "There you go, run along now," Bokuden said waving the two off with his hands.


The couple ran off leaving Bokuden and Satomi alone to deal with the four bandits. "Well, now that we are free of distractions,"Satomi said pacing back and forth behing the group of thugs, "What do you say we take care of business?"


"I think that that is a wonderful idea, Satomi. What do you say boys? It looks like we let your prey get away, I guess we will have to do as a replacement," Bokuden replied, gripping his katana with his left hand.

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Word Count: 696/1000

The first of the bandits charged forward at Bokuden with his fists raised and speaking in incomprehensible gibberish. The thug’s movements were sloppy and undisciplined, not even a challenge for Bokuden to avoid even without activating his close combat range. Bokuden merely ducked under the bandit’s punch and delivered a strong two handed palm thrust to the man’s solar plex, sending him stumbling back to the rest of the group. “Is this the limit of your strength then? You aren’t even worth killing, it would be an insult to my blade to draw it against such unworthy enemies,” Bokuden explained as he reached into his coat and pulled out a spool of wire, “Satomi, I’ve lost my interest in ending their lives. Let’s just bring them in alive and allow the courts to decide their punishments.”


“I see, that’s too bad,” Satomi replied, now standing firm in a position directly opposite Bokuden behind the bandits, “At least it will give me an opportunity to try out one of my new jutsu.” A light blue glow formed around Satomi as she began to focus the chakra flow in her body. The bandits turned around and stared, unsure of what was going on. A cloud of smoke formed around Satomi, completely obscuring her image and leaving Bokuden with a grin on his face. As the smoke cleared it revealed the effects of Satomi’s jutsu, transforming Satomi into a bipedal werewolf. She leapt over the four bandits and landed to Bokuden’s right, stretching out her hand to Bokuden as if she was expecting to receive something. Bokuden then tossed Satomi the spool of wire, holding on to the wire end, and the two took off in different directions around the thugs. The duo easily out sped the bandits, circling around them several times. With each circle the duo wrapped more of the long wire around the bandits before finally having wrapped enough to restrain them completely. Unable to move the bandits were easy to turn into the authorities, who arrested the thugs and escorted them to detainment.

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Word Count: 1049/1000