Mission:

Defending the builders was a simple mission. Normally, it was an easy mission since guard duty didn’t tend to be exciting at all. However, this time, it was different. From the report that she had received along with the mission, it was easy to tell that there was going to be trouble. For a couple of nights now, there had been saboteurs that had taken to nightly raids. It wasn’t all that dangerous; those saboteurs had been mostly trying to damage the bridge instead of straight out killing the construction workers. It didn’t look like they were actually violent people; it mostly seemed like they were protesting against the construction of the bridge.

However, that didn’t mean that they could protest through means like this. Doing so in this way allowed the defender to claim the right to harsher methods. No one would complain about the deaths of a few raiders.

And the Shark woman was not so inclined to the concept of mercy in the first place.

But the night was young so maybe the outcome would be bit more different than she thought it would. She idly leaned against the pillar that stood out at the side of the bridge, holding it up. If everything went well, then some ropes would be attached from pillar to pillar to form a sort of wall so that it would prevent people from falling off the side and into the water.

Production had been down since the start of the raids. The damages that it had caused along with the fear and sleep deprivation amongst the workers had certainly been a contributing factor to the slowness of bridge construction. In fact, it had been set back by several weeks by the damages alone. Repairs were slow, and some parts had to be replaced entirely; this was because if you kept a piece with a damaged part that couldn’t be repaired properly, then sooner or later, it was going to fail there. It could be years or decades, but eventually, it would fail. When that happened, the results would be catastrophic to anyone that was currently on the bridge.

Well, not that catastrophic. They would just fall into the ocean and possibly drown.

Of course, that kind of thing was what she was trying to prevent. These builders were hired by the country to create more commerce between the islands. Though, she had to admit that the people who would benefit the most from the bridge would be the business tycoons.

That was fine with her. Finances and commerce were out of her range of specialties, and it didn’t directly affect her in any case.

And it looked like the show was about to start.

The night was previously only illuminated by the moon, but the signs of approaching torches told her a few things. Most importantly, it told her how many were approaching. There were five of them, but she couldn’t see them very well from this distance.

She quietly slipped off the side of the bridge and filtered chakra to her feet, landing on top of the water’s surface with only a tiny splash, nothing audible enough to attract their attention from this far away. From there, she slowly let the chakra drain out of the soles of her feet, letting her body simply slip down beneath the depths.

By the time that the men with torches reached the first step on the bridge, she could see them from underwater. They certainly were different from what the report told her. In it, it was supposed to be masked men with Molotov cocktails, but these people were different. Wearing black clothing and a brown cloak that hid their faces, it wasn’t immediately apparently, but when they moved, she could see the faint outlines of weapons within their cloaks.

These certainly weren’t just relatively innocent raiders. These were mercenaries. The slight bulk of their chest, especially when they moved, told her that they were wearing body armor underneath the cloaks. Of what quality, she couldn’t tell, but they were obviously here to do more than just burn down the bridge. She wouldn’t be surprised if they were going to slaughter all of the builders as well.

Well, that made things a little more difficult, but not terribly so. She had enough of her clan jutsu’s to easily and permanently deal with these mercenaries, but it would cause some damage to the bridge. Still, it was the easiest message to deal with them, and it would send a message to other would-be raiders on the consequences of their actions. Seriously, didn’t they think there wouldn’t be any retaliation for what they were causing?

From below the waves of the water, she began to mold her chakra. Each movement of her hands swished through the water as she went through the seals of her clan’s jutsu. The moment that she finished her last seal, she released her chakra into the water. All around her, the water began speeding upward, being funneled toward the surface. A pillar of water splashed out of the sea, rising high into the sky. Reaching its apex, it turned into a wave that began to crash down upon the occupants of the bridge.

However, this was no ordinary wave. Each droplet had been changed into the form of a tiny shark, their razor teeth-filled mouths wide open and yearning. The surprised mercenaries didn’t even have time to scream before the water fell upon them, bringing with it the legion of sharks. Their struggles and their cries were drown out beneath the wave as the piranha-like shark droplets ripped into their skin and flesh, eating away their lives.

By the time that the water washed off of the bridge, the only remains of the mercenary group were half-eaten chunks of flesh and metal. Even the bridge itself had sustained damage as the sharks were biting into the wood as well. But those lingering droplets soon lost their form, returning back to simply salt water.

Ciera’s head rose above the surface of the water, a smile gracing her lips. Mission completed.

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WC: 1041/1000