Mission In n' out:

Lying on the ground, staring up at the cloudy sky, Aethir was lounging around Kumo, thinking to himself. "Hmm..." Aethir  scratched his head, rolling onto his side, staring at an overjoyed looking female ninja. "Hello!" she smiled, Aethir blinking at him before greeting her with a nod. "I...I'm not sure if you're busy...but I need your assistance again." Aethir stared, soon sitting up, chuckling lightly. "You really are putting me to work, huh...?" the woman laughed as Aethir said this, the boy shaking his head. "Well...we have a problem..." she frowned, the boy staring with his blue eyes.

"A...monster." Aethir stared as the woman nodded with a determined look on her face. "A...monster...monster...?" Aethir asked, the woman nodding vigorously. "W-We aren't talking about the metaphor monster...right? Like they're actually a person...but they're being called a monster...?" The woman shook her head while maintaining the determined look. "Like...a monster under my bed...monster...?" she nodded as Aethir took a deep breath, looking up at the sky. 'It's official,' Aethir stared at the cloudy sky, 'Kumo takes the crazy award...'

As the boy sat up, the woman continue to inform the boy of the mission details. He nodded, listening to the woman as he began to get ready to go off on a mission. "O-Once again, I'm curious," the woman smiled to the boy, awaiting the question, "Why did you pick me first...? Again...?" The woman remained silent as Aethir looked around at...people with terrified looks on their face. "A-Ah...I see..." Aethir nodded, stretching one last time before nodding to the woman. "Alright, where can I find this monster...?" The woman happily pointed the boy to the direction, Aethir setting off, but then paused as the woman began to speak. "And," he turned, looking at the woman with a very...VERY...dark and serious face, "You must kill it." Aethir stared for a moment as the woman glared at the ronin boy. "This monster has no remorse if you die to it. You must...kill it..." The boy slowly nodded before cautiously walking off, getting a vibe that the woman was...quite serious.


As Aethir continued to walk outside of Kumo, he heard hissing of some sort. He looked around curiously, taking note of a man sitting on a rock. He decided to walk over as he signaled for the boy to come over. "Hey," the man smiled, looking around himself, "You lookin' for the monster, king?"  "King...?" Aethir blinked as the man eyed the boy. "Yeah, King, you lookin'?" Aethri blinked, soon shrugged with a nod. "Good good, well I heard a scream over there, and was too scared to check it out." Aethir nearly fell over as the man began to shout. "HEY, YOU CAN BLAME ME FOR BEING SCARED." The boy shook his head, telling the man that it was perfectly reasonable. As the boy began to walk over to where the man directed him to, he narrowed his eyes as he saw a small sobbing woman on the ground.

"Excu-"  "OH GOD, NO!!!" Aethir stared wide eyed, soon dodging a large rock being thrown at him. "Ma'am...?"  "OH! oh...!! Oh my, I'm sorry!!" Aethir waved his hand, smiling. "I'm just wanting to know...about the monster-"  "MONSTER?! OH DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HIM!!"  "H-Him...?" What started out as a morning overcast day slowly transitioned to an afternoon overcast day. "AND THEN HE HAS THE AUDACITY! THE AUDACITY I SAY!! TO SAY THAT I-"  "Ma'am, I don't mean to interrupt-"  "OH WELL ARE YOU JUST NOT INTERESTED IN MY TROUBLES?! LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT SOMEONE LIKE THAT!!" Aethir whimpered lightly as the woman began her tangent again, the cloudy skies opening to reveal a golden sunset evening sky. "AND THAT'S WHY YOU SHOULD INTERRUPT SOMEONE IF THEY GO ON AND ON AND-"  "Thank you ma'am, I-"  "OH, SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO LEAVE LIKE THAT?! LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT SOMEONE LIKE THAT!!!" Aethir sat for a moment as the female went on ANOTHER tangent, soon standing and simply walking away, now without a lead. "W-Wait," Aethir thought to himself as the woman could be heard yammering on, "I think she said someone was over...this way..." Aethir nodded, walking in some direction, desperate to separate himself from the woman speaking.


As Aethir looked up to the golden skies above, he sighed, seeing nothing around him. "I wonder if this monster even exists in the first place...?" Aethir groaned, taking a seat. However, he flashed back to the troll, thinking about how it didn't exists. "No, I'm sure it does." Aethir nodded, staring up to the dusk skies. "If there's a complaint about something, there has to be an original source..." Aethir stood, looking around, noticing how large the lands were. "But how the heck am I supposed to search....Wait a second!" Aethir smiled, using the water trumpet technique to form a puddle of water. As the puddle soon bubbled, two clones of the boy stood, looking around for the prime Aethir. He asked them to create more clones of themselves, the clones doing just that, alternating between water puddle creation and clone creation. "Alright everyone...We're looking for a monster." The clones blinked, looking at each other, whispering among one another, "I know, I know, but remember that troll?" The clones whispered to each other while nodding to the prime Aethir. "So! Let's get searching then! And if you find the monster, scream as loud as you can!" The clones nodded, sprinting off, the prime Aethir waiting before sprinting off in a direction a clone didn't run in.


As Aethir soon came back to where he had sent the clones searching, he panted, taking a seat on the ground. The skies were a violet-blue, a bit of gold on the horizon with red clouds. "No...No luck..." Aethir panted, shaking his head, yet to hear a scream. He looked around the horizon, finally noticing some twinkle in the sky. "Is that a star...?" Aethir smiled, noticing the twinkle was rising. "That's...odd. Is that a shooting-" the boy noticed two more rising twinkles, soon gasping. 'Are those...water balls? Then the sun must  be- That must mean-" Right when it dawned on Aethir, he heard a loud scream, his own voice screaming across the land. "Yeah, that's my voice if I ever heard it...!!" The boy quickly sprinted off towards the direction of the scream and the rising of the water balls.


A loud roared could be heard as Aethir was bleeding from the mouth, backing away while panting. Roaring in front of him was the tall monster, throwing a large fist towards the boy. The boy easily leaned out of the way, soon being punched by the monster's other fist as he went flying towards a tree. He grunted as he panted, the monster standing over him, soon lowering it foot, crushing the boy entirely as he screamed and breathed his last breath...

...Or so it would be, as the prime Aethir soon ran in, gasping as he saw himself turn into water. "W-What the-" The monster turned, roaring at the boy, running towards his direction. He couldn't move, his clone having to shove him out the way, the clone's head flying off somewhere as it transformed into water. 'This thing,' Aethir turned wide eyed to the monster battling his newly arrived clones, easily slaughtering them, 'This thing really is a monster...'

Aethir eyed the monster as it turned to him, covered in water. It rushed towards Aethir, drooling heavily as Aethir stared wide eyed, the words of the past floating into his head. "There's just no way you can keep a peaceful side in such a world, Aethir..." the boy's wide, coward eyes soon became a sharp glare, the boy forming hand signs to summon three large electric javelins, "Soon, you'll have to kill. Or be killed..." Aethir gripped the raiton javelin, the javelins transforming into one large lance, "To protect that belief, that dream, you continue to preach," Aethir glared at the monster roaring and running towards him, drooling, "You will have to kill those who dare reject your dream. Besides," the boy roared, launching the lance to the monster, zapping it with an undefined amount of volts, the boy firing a wave of inspiration, and just unloading any offensive jutsu he had, "How can you change a world if you're dead...?"


As Aethir stared at the dead monster on the ground, looking completely devoid of life, Aethir's eyes appeared to lack any care for it. "You can't..." Aethir breathed, closing his eyes tightly, soon regaining his usual facial expression, "You can't change a world when you're dead..." The boy summoned more of his water clones from the first set of clone's left over water, ordering, not asking them to, to help him carry the body back to the village. The clones, having the look of how Aethir looked before killing the monster, looked at each other for a moment before helping each other carry the monster back to town. Aethir hung back for a moment, closing his eyes and running a hand through his hair, wondering if this one kill changed anything. He soon came to the conclusion... "It hasn't." Aethir nodded, taking a deep breath, walking after the clones, "I still believe in a world where death doesn't reign supreme." He spoke aloud as he began to him his clone, apologizing to them as they worked together to move towards the village. 'But how many deaths will it take to make a peaceful world...?' the boy gasped, the thought making itself apparent against his will. He went silent, pondering as he continued to move the body towards the village.