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‘What a day,’ he thought to himself as he sat by the riverside and cleaned his clothes of all the blood of the enemies he had killed that day. He cleaned himself up as well refusing to be a bloody mess and risk exposing himself to all kinds of diseases. His body was exhausted too he had pushed himself to his physical limits in the last fight but in doing so had slain more men than he could have imagined possible. He wondered if this was the life he had ahead of him. A life of taking others’ lives so he and his friends could live. It didn’t seem right to snuff out someone’s life and take away everything that they were and would have become. Plus the people he killed had friends and family as well that would be devastated when they heard the news, well some anyways. He wasn’t that naïve he knew a lot of the human forces they faced were mercenaries for hire that had given up their morale’s to kill for money. Did he still have his though? He had killed dozens of men if not a good hundred or so to protect the village that he wasn’t born in and to protect friends he had only just met days ago. In a certain light his sudden existence and importance in the village was just like those he had killed. In some ways he himself was a mercenary. He got paid to kill and complete missions and tasks designated to him and he had only just been recognized as a ninja or resident of the village a couple months ago. He shook his head in disbelief as he hung his wet clothes up to dry in the remaining sunlight. It was going to be dark sooner than he had expected he would have to wear the damp clothes and dry them with the warmth of his skin.

A sudden rustle in the trees alerted him that someone was approaching; it was from the direction of the village though. Out of nowhere a shinobi wearing the hunter ninja mask of kiri landed close to him on dry land as Dameon bathed in the river. He looked up at the hunter ninja a bit envious. The man could do whatever and be assigned missions of great importance and not be recognized for the sins he had created. Nobody could judge him for their actions except the Mizukage, other than that nobody knew who these people were, only that they were skilled and elusive. He had applied to Kiri’s ANBU division a couple times now but it seemed they were skeptical because of his current ranking as a Chuunin and short time within the village. Dameon knew he had to do more and be more if he was going to win over the Mizukage’s trust enough to become one of the elite ANBU shinobi. The man was here on important business, it would have had to have been otherwise the village wouldn’t have sent an ANBU to deliver it. It wasn’t in paper form like the previous mission requests instead the shinobi leaned down to his level as Dameon turned around to receive the mission details by ear. No paper trail, this was serious. Dameon looked up at the man in the white mask with the teal markings of their village and waited for him to speak.

“Dameon Shikyo. You are being assigned your first high ranked mission. Frankly we are short staffed and a mission of great importance has been planned, but for this mission to succeed we need intelligence on the enemies camps, where they, are and how many there are. Distracting them by destroying a valuable asset to them like a barracks, armory, or even supplies would only make this mission run even smoother. It’s not going to be easy for someone of your level to pull off and we have concerns that you won’t make it back alive.  You will be going in alone to ensure complete secrecy of the mission. We have been studying you enough to know that you are loyal and won’t give the enemy crucial intel on the village if you were to be caught. The mission takes place as soon as it’s dark. The areas in question are in the swamp of sorrows. It’s a rough place and if you succeed in your mission you will have greatly affected the outcome of this war. Here take this as well, just in case you need it,” the ANBU shinobi said as he kept his head on a swivel to make sure nobody else was listening in on their conversation. On top of that he had also handed Dameon an explosive tag to do as he saw fit with it. Dameon simply nodded his head in agreement as the ANBU left back toward where he had come from. Dameon sighed a bit he knew everything the man he had told him was a big warning about the mission, it was subtle but it was there. He was essentially being sent on what they were considering a suicide mission.

Still this was an opportunity to prove himself, the mission had been delivered from the Mizukage herself otherwise an ANBU shinobi wouldn’t have been sent out. Maybe this is one big test to see if he was ready to take on more challenging roles and missions. Maybe they really were so short staffed that they would send a chuunin on a mission that normally a jounin would undertake. He was skeptical but perhaps his skepticism is what was giving him the attention, after all a shinobi that questioned everything was prepared for anything. On the other hand however this mission would be using the cover of night to hide his moments and perhaps they were counting on this just being a recon mission and perhaps not being spot long enough to record the information. Either way he looked at it this was going to be tough and he needed to take extreme precaution or he would indeed die. After cleaning himself up he got out of the river and walked to where his clothes had been bathing in the hot sun that was fading beyond the trees. He put them on, they were still damp but after it interacted with his skin long enough it became warm and dry. The benefits of his clan had more than one use he supposed. He looked at his bag of equipment and strapped it onto the back of his right thigh and placed the explosive tag in with his kunai and with his shuriken.

The explosive tag had a lot of uses in general. It could be used to complete the sabotage part of the objective, create a distraction decent enough to sneak in and accomplish his tasks, or in the worst case scenario a means of suicide to prevent the enemy from attempting the extract information from him. The ANBU shinobi had already mentioned another mission they were preparing for and that they were short staffed. If he got caught there would be no rescue, if he died his body wouldn’t be able to be destroyed by the hunter ninja. He sighed as he turned in the direction of the swamp. It was the worst place you could possibly imagine going, it was filled with all kinds of things nature used to keep people out. As such it was actually a great place to set up a camp if you could find a decent spot. The thick trees, the quicksand, the poisonous snakes, all of it was a pain. Luckily Dameon had a lot of knowledge on the land as well as potential places in mind that they could be. When he was younger Dameon liked to explore the territory as he still hadn’t adjusted to the idea of living in a village. He often went out and hunted and made sure he knew the land well enough that he could leave if he ever felt like he needed to for anything. Obviously he had never left but he had spent many nights sleeping outside the walls. Now he would have to go back into the swamp to try and locate enemy encampments one, or more, depending on the information he could find. He placed a notebook with a pen inside of his pouch as well. He needed to be able to document the enemies whereabouts or right down any key details he thought might be important, just in case anything were to happen to him, he could at least drop it and hope it ended up in the right hands, and if there was a map he would need to draw it. A lot of it was circumstantial but it was better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

He began his walk toward the swamp remembering the promise he had made to Toraika. He told he would be alive and well when she came back to see him. He needed to keep that promise. She was the first person he could honestly say that he loved and he would do anything for her. In these dark times of war and killing he thought of her as the light at the end of the tunnel. He would live just so he could be with her again. He walked toward the swamp as the sun continued to set slowly creating darkness as he walked. His eyes were still good enough to see with the faint moonlight that shined through the clouds. It was almost pitch back but not quite. He had to be careful as he approached the swamp the lay of the land wasn’t the only thing that was dangerous. The snaked would be out more than ever this time of night to hunt. He kept his eyes peeled for any signs of animal life that could prove to make things much more difficult.  He took his steps slowly making sure he didn’t create any noise as he used the map of the terrain in his head to find one of the clearings he knew about and one he often used to camp out at. He was a good ten minute run from it but he was already aware at his current pace and being so careful it would take almost an hour. It was far better to be safe and sure than uncertain and dead. The swamp was dense with not just trees but pools of mud and water that smelled like death and decay. At some points in his journey to the encampment he had to crawl along the ground through the mud to avoid obvious and possibly guarded if not booby trapped routes. The mud however was a sort of blessing, as he was now covered in it in just about all areas but his face he was a lot harder to spot if someone did look in his direction.

Dameon looked ahead and surely enough a fire could be seen. It was still in the distance but it was obviously a site for the enemy forces to sleep. Nobody in kiri would have been out this far during the war that was going on. He reached into his pouch and took out the notepad and pen and wrote down the sighting to recall it just in case he needed to recall any other detail. He stayed there laying down in the mud observing the area for minutes at a time writing down any physical sighting of the enemy force and monitored their guard routes. It seemed as if the guards were confident of their hidden camp because those that were patrolling were not wearing any armor for battle. It seemed more like they were just out there because they needed to be. Dameon needed to get closer though so he continued to crawl along ground making sure he stayed out of sight. Generally speaking a guard was more likely to look directly at the area in front of him and into the trees but normally didn’t focus on the ground especially in an area as bad as the swamp of sorrows.

The area was blocked; the camp was now about seventy meters away from him but was surrounded in a four corner look out. The only way he could slip in undetected was to take out one of the corners without them noticing. The good thing about the corners being guarded was they no corner ever had a direct visual of another corner this was so they could cover surveillance in the widest area possible. They were so reliant on someone not being taken out that they sacrificed defense for more visual awareness. There weren’t towers either they were simply standing guards that were out a good twenty meters or so from the actual tents of the camp. They were obviously not sensor ninja or he would have been spotted already, that or they had no reason to use their extra senses. He looked at one of the guard with his katana sheathed. He would be the easiest to take out as he was right next to the tree line where Dameon knew quicksand was just a couple meters within. He needed to be quick though and silent. He slowly made his way to the tree line in front of one the guards. They were wearing a typical shinobi uniform with a cloth covering their mouth. A good disguise as well. He waited for the guard to turn his attention to the area to his far left when Dameon snuck behind the man coming from his far right. Quickly bringing out his kunai he cut the man’s throat and covered his mouth before dragging him into the trees. He stripped he man and placed the guards uniform over top of his own and walked out casually.

He needed to play it safe and stay out of sight and locate any information on the enemies other camps. One tent was wide open obviously the war room they used to store intelligence and on the complete opposite end was the enemies’ armory and supply cache. It was a good place to cause a distraction and move to acquire the intel, but he would have to move extremely fast and reckless to get out of the camp unseen at that point. They would be onto him, someone at least would. Hopefully though the distraction would work well enough that he wouldn’t have all of them coming after him but it wasn’t like the village had planned escape routes for him after he had acquired the intel. He was too close to back out now.

He made his way to the closed tent that harbored their supplies and slipped in. A guard was in there as well taking a nap in a chair in the far corner. Dameon slowly made his way over to the man and slit his throat quietly, he then went into his pouch and found a lighter and grabbed it. The tent was huge; there was food to last weeks, swords, kunai, explosive tags, and pretty much anything else you needed to wage a small war. He took out the explosive tag and grabbed the others that were there and placed them all around the tent. He cut a straight line in the back of the tent and snuck out before lighting the tent on fire with the lighter he had taken. Being thankful for not being spotted he walked a good halfway across the camp before a guard had shouted at the fire, by the time he had noticed it was too late, one tag went off immediately triggering all the others and killing the few that were trying to put the fire out. He had to go now, time was against him.

He ran to the war room tent looking for something, anything. He spotted a rolled up parchment and quickly unraveled it to see what it was. A map, perfect. He stuffed it into his pouch and took out the lighter lighting the tent on fire before slipping out the back of it just like he had done with the previous tent. He raced toward the trees, heading in the direction of the village. He quickly disposed of the guard’s uniform but he could hear tracks closing in on him. It was only one person though by the sound of the footsteps that were quickly gaining on him. This wasn’t good, if the person was gaining on him so fast than he would have to be of a higher rank than he was prepared to fight. He swore under his breath and activated his electrolocation technique; the man was already within fifty meters and gaining fast. He wouldn’t make it back to the village without being stabbed in the back. Just as he thought that he felt an object approaching him, he turned around pulling his kunai out and deflecting the kunai the enemy jounin had thrown. Dameon stopped running and landed on a tree branch waiting to see his opponent visually and a moment later he was there sitting on a tree branch of a tree a mere ten meters away from him. The man was big and had a scar going across his neck. He was also covered in armor from head to toe. ‘Not good,’ Dameon thought to himself, before he could finish his though the jouning had come at him with his sword drawn. Dameon ducked just barely in time to catch the Jounin’s kick that had connected with Dameon’s face. He was sent flying nearly blacking out from the attack that landed. He didn’t even have time to react from that as the enemy had followed it up with a kick to Dameon’s ribs. He felt a couple of them crack as he was sent into a tree.

Dameon searched for the man as a he hit the ground, his back propped up against the tree had had just hit. Blood had flown from his mouth as he failed to catch his breath after just having had the wind knocked out of him. His vision was blurry but soon felt intense amount of pain as a sword was pierced into his shoulder. Dameon groaned in pain but leaned forward letting the sword go clean through him. He grabbed the back of the means head using all his strength to hold him still as he charged raiton into his right index finger and fired. A beam of white lightning shot out piercing the man’s jugular and going clean through his spine. The enemy jounin fell to ground instantly dead as his body twitched from the electricity. He released his technique and pulled the sword out from his shoulder. He stood up carefully and wincing in pain as he felt his broken ribs. He caught his breath back and began to walk back in the direction of the village not being able to sense anyone else coming after him. He raced quickly as possible. He would first report in and deliver the map he had taken revealing the enemies mercenary camps to the administrative building and then go to the hospital to be patched up.

[Exit thread]
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160/200 Chakra
3,218/3,000

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