Mission Dragonborn:

"A troll...?" Aethir stared at the Kumo ninja standing before him, nodding. "That's right. We need help finding a troll that's been terrorizing out village." The boy stared at the ninja explaining the mission to him. 'And I thought Konoha ninjas were crazy... A troll...? Really...?' he mentally spoke to himself as the woman sighed, crumbling up the mission paper. "Look, I know what you're thinking, okay...? I know you think this a load... Forget about this mission." Aethir stared, looking at the saddened ninja walking away as she dropped the balled up piece of paper. The boy stood where he was, slowly looking down at the paper ball, soon picking it up. He opened up the paper ball, looking back up at the Kumo ninja. "Wait." he simple said, the ninja turning with a sad expression then a shocked look as she saw Aethir reading it. The boy had an interested look on his face, details of the troll and location being specified to the letter. Except for the age and name of the troll, the appearance and mood and habits of the troll is ...well explained! Aethir figured if something was so well explained as this, there had to have been something causing this description in the first place. "I'll do it. Just..." the woman ninja gasped, staring at Aethir, "Just tell me the mission again. From the top." the Kumo ninja smiled, soon nodding, explaining once again.

"The troll, we don't have photographic proof, but we have this drawing to go off of..." Aethir nodded to her words, listening to the rest of the mission briefing. "Outside of the village in the wilderness, the troll is said to reside. Even if this is just...fiction...we're still paying for effort." The boy shook his head as the ninja blinked at him. "No...If I don't catch the troll, you don't have to pay me for this." the Kumo ninja stared for a moment before nodding. "R-Right...well outside of the village is all we know where the troll is. We just...We just don't know where the exact point is due to our recon squads vanishing suddenly..."  "Are the recon squads trained for combat?" The Kumo ninja slowly shook her head, Aethir nodding once. "So then that leads me to believe that the troll has some sort of combat experience.... As funny as that might sound." The ninja gasped, writing something down, possibly updating the mission specifics.

"Thank you...!!" Aethir was about to walk away, but turned to the woman ninja curious as she bowed. "Thank you...Thank you for not thinking this was a joke...!" The boy stared for a moment. Deep down, he did feel like this was some cruel joke being pulled on him, something for outsiders like himself to fall for. But seeing this woman...Seeing her like this... Something felt believable. Maybe she was an excellent liar and actor... Or maybe she was telling the genuine truth. Maybe... "I'll do my best. Remember, it's free of any rewards if I don't find any troll." Aethir smiled, walking out of Kumo, heading towards the wilderness to hunt for this terrorizing troll. He could hear the woman sobbing lightly, either from sorrow or from happiness...

As Aethir walked throughout the wilderness of the lightning country, he sighed, taking a seat on the ground. "Sheesh...Where's a troll when you need it...?" Aethir joked, lying on the ground now. As he looked up to the sky, he thought back to the troll picture, wondering if such a thing actually exists. "Apparently, whoever searched this thing out never came back alive..." the boy sighed, thinking back to the recon squad that never returned to Kumo. The ninja back in Kumo began to sob as Aethir left... The boy had to wonder why...? Why was she sobbing? Perhaps someone she knew was on this mission and did not return? Or perhaps she was trying to stop someone like himself accepting this mission by balling it up... Perhaps that's the reason why she was crying, just sending a boy his age to his death. "Well it's too early for me to die unfortunately." the boy told himself, but had to be honest with himself as well. 'Then again... I am a bit scared...' the boy heard his own voice speak against his will. "I am...a little."

The boy took a deep breath as the air of Kumo filled his lungs, soon exhaling quickly as he heard rustling. "H-Huh?!" he sat up, looking around himself, noticing nothing visually moving, but rather the rustling getting louder. He focused around himself, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise, soon noticing it was coming behind him. He stood up, staring at the branches on the ground behind him, then turned suddenly as he heard the loud rustling. Suddenly, some masked...kid jumped near hear, throwing a punch to the boy! Aethir reacted in time, brushing the punch aside then delivering a single punch to the masked child.

Noticing what he had done, Aethir gasped, running over to the small kid, kneeling down to him and his broken mask. "Are you...alright?" Aethir blinked as the kid rubbed his cheek. "Damn...That hurt...!!"  "Well it should! That punch was for a troll! Sorry...! Sorry- Wait, why am I apologizing to you...?!" Aethir stood up, staring at the boy as he looked at Aethir with a surprised look. "Just what were you doing...?!" the boy sighed, feeling a bit annoyed. "Are you the troll people are flipping out about...? And if so, where are the missing people?" Aethir awaited an answer as the boy stood up, his 'troll' mask crumbling to the ground. "Well, I'm not the troll..." Aethir blinked, tilting his head, "Actually, I just...wanted to pretend to be the troll. My friends are on the way right now, and I wanted to scare them but..." Aethir turned, noticing kids walking over chatting and eventually pointing at the ronin. "You kind of ruined my mask..."  "A-Ah...I see..."

The kids stood near Aethir, chatting about the troll, the boy with the mask smiling and revealing his plan to them all. "That wasn't going to be funny anyways!!"  "Yeah, I think I might of had a heart attack!" Aethir smiled, then shook his head. "So, is there a troll here or not? Or were you really pretending to be the troll to others...? Like the recon group?"  "Nuh uh." Aethir turned to the boy with the mask, staring. "There's a troll alright. We just...don't know where it is..." Aethir sighed, putting his hands behind his head. "Well I guess we should just return to Kumo huh...? I did tell them that it'd be free if I didn't catch a troll..." As he said this, the group of kids and Aethir wandered over to the villages direction until there was a low grumble. "...Er...Was someone hungry...?" Aethir asked, turning, seeing a large brown furred creature breathing heavily at the sight of all of them. "Scratch that question. Is he a friend of yours...?" Aethir pointed, the kids turning and soon screaming, breaking into a sprint towards the village.

"Guess not..." Aethir gulped as the furred creature roared. It wasn't a bear...and it wasn't...Hell, it wasn't like any animal Aethir's seen. "I guess this is a troll...!!" the boy breathed heavily as he stared at it. He had to admit, he was quite afraid of this ...thing, roaring and acting like a savage. As the boy thought of something, anything, to capture this creature, the troll ran after the boy. 'I'll block this...' Aethir mentally told himself, soon blocking what felt like a whole tree being swung at him. He was pushed back some meters, staring wide eyed at the animal. "O-Okay...Scratch bl- AH...!" Aethir tried to move his arms, but they stung as he did. They weren't broken, but they didn't feel the like they were in the best shape either. The boy clenched his teeth, slowly raising his arms to use the water trumpet technique, forming two clones from the puddle. The two Aethirs turned to the prime Aethir who shook his head. "D-Don't worry! My legs still work, just-" As Aethir was speaking, the troll ran towards the distracted clones, knocking one aside easily. The other clone delivered a quick punch to the troll's forehead, the troll simply knocking the other clone away as it trudged towards the prime Aethir. The boy jumped back as the clones regrouped, staring at the troll angrily. One soon used the water trumpet technique, the other forming two more Aethirs from that puddle. They informed each other of the scenario, the two new Aethirs turning to see the prime Aethir wounded.

"Okay..." Aethir sighed, standing as he saw his clones go to work, kicking and punching the troll. He weakly rose his arms, forming hand signs, three electric rods appearing near him. "G-Guys...!! When I hit him, you unload all your water bullets on it!!" Aethir nodded, the clones glancing to the prime Aethir as he began to form a large electric javelin. As a clone got on the back of the troll, it uses the water trumpet technique to douse the creature. Aethir threw the large electric javelin, the rod hitting both the clone and the troll, zapping them both. "Now!!!" Aethir cried, pointing his finger, shooting his shock bullets as the clone used the water gunshot technique to the downed trolled. The troll soon roared, smashing all of the Aethirs into puddles of water, soon turning to the prime Aethir who had his palms together. "Good bye..." Aethir said before firing the Wave of Inspiration raiton technique, shocking the poor troll in the larger puddle of water. The boy held his breath as he saw the troll stared him as he wobbled where he stood... Soon, the troll collapsed, breathing hard as it laid there, knocked out. "Huh..." The boy sighed, relaxing as he saw the troll knocked out.

"Hey!" Aethir gasped, turning to see the female ninja return with the masked boy. "You found it...!! Wonderful!! Now kill it!!" Aethir blinked at the woman with a look of disbelief. "...What?"  "Kill the damn thing! Now!!" Aethir shook his head as he stood. "No... It's...It's defenseless right now!"  "And?! My husband was defenseless and he's gone!!" As Aethir stood, the woman shoved him back to the ground, shocking the poor troll to death. Over...and over... With each shock, the troll would let out a melancholic cry, nothing like the roars he's been giving earlier. On the last shock, the troll didn't let out a cry, but instead looked at Aethir with sad eyes...as if saying he was sorry...and make this woman stop... But it was too late before it registered in his mind as the troll passed away.

"There! That'll teach it." she laughed, kicking the dead troll's body over and over, the masked boy looking at the Kumo ninja a bit horrified. "You...You'll get your reward soon." she said, walking away with the boy. Aethir stared at the corpse, feeling sorrow in his now bleeding heart, not sure how to feel about this. It was true that the animal attacked him...But to mercilessly kill it... Aethir would never do it to anything that can no long defend itself. He thought back to the gorilla in Konoha, how he knocked it out and the ninjas didn't have a problem with it. "Is it because Konoha is more forgiving...?" Aethir sighed, standing up, moving back to Kumo. "Or is it because... they still needed that gorilla...? If they didn't, would they have killed it...?" Aethir sighed, feeling a bit bummed to the turn of events.