Zetsume opened his eyes to an uncomfortable situation than what he was used to. Normally he would find himself within the confides of his home and in his cozy bed. However, when he opened his eyes he was only greeted with slight exhaustion from the training he was doing. He had wanted to perfect his jutsu, but it seems that he lost consciousness and passed out on the training grounds. Repede was with him curled up in a ball for warmth. Surely the dog stayed awake during the night to keep him safe. Standing up he could feel a slight pain in his right shoulder.

Am I pushing myself beyond my limits...
Hurting myself will only prohibit my chances of protecting my village., he though as he whipped the dirt from off of him. Zetsume was unsure as what time it was but could tell it was high noon. The sun beaming upon him, which felt rather nice. The rays almost seemed invigorating.

Kneeling down he pet the dog before calling to him. The dog's ears would perk up before opening a lazy eye. It was apparent that he did stay up to watch him. Loyalty is quite an impressive thing. Zetsume told the dog that it was time to go home, and the two did.

Luckily for him it was still rather early when both of them made it back to his house. Repede was in no condition to do anything, but Zetsume seemed to have slept off his exhaustion. Though he was still concerned about his right shoulder's pain hoping it would not prohibit his mission. After a long shower and a change of clothes, Zetsume grabbed his gear and headed out leaving Repede to rest the day. Which probably meant when he gets back the dog will be hyper. He sighed before locking up and heading out.

Zetsume remembered a spar his did with a genin once by the name of Kaekio. Fierce one she was. Shamefully Zetsume attack the genin with a rather strong jutsu. As a small repayment he once offered to take her along side missions. Zetsume had signed them up for a mission and wanted to bring along Kaekio. He figured that the combat could help her. He just had to make sure that she would not get hurt, though he would not tell her that. Her pride would be offended and Zetsume knew how fragile one's own pride can be.

During his walk towards Kaekio's house he remembered sending an academy student yesterday to deliver the message which held the contents of their mission. Also inside the letter was a small personal note that had words at the bottom written by Zetsume's handwriting

P.S. I will be by your house in the afternoon.

It was a bit later than Zetsume had written on the note that held their mission details. By the time he made it to Kaekio's house, it was about three hours later than he mentioned. He could only hope that Kaekio was not waiting long. Then again he hoped that the address was right for the house he looked up within the Kumogakure library. Walking each step, he knocked three times.

WC:539

Kaekio woke about at about 6:00 a.m. to get ready for the day. yesterday she had been informed the she was supposed to go on a mission with Zetsume, the one who she had first had a spar with. as she sat up from her bed in only her bra and panties, she rubbed the scarred tissue on her shoulder. that scar would probably be with her for the rest of her life, but honestly, she didn't mind it all that much, it allows to remember to focus and become stronger so things like that won't happen again. she got out of her bed and walked a crossed her house and into the bathroom, she took a quick shower. then she put on some make up and made sure her hair was nice before walking all the way back through the house in order to get to her room. she opened up the closest and pulled out her typical blue ninja outfit along with her Kumogakure head band. she held up her hair with one hand as she placed the head band on her fore head. the she let her bands fall over it, as she reached both hands back and tightened it into place. then she put on her wraps so that her boobs wouldn't be all over the place as she was in the middle of the mission, the she put on her pants, then her shirt/vest thing. then her fingerless gloves, and then finally she put on her shoes and walked into the kitchen. she made her self a simple bagel and some tea. then she sat on the couch and awaited Zetsume to come and Retrieve her.

By the time she heard knocking on the door she had had 3 and a half bagels and 5 cups of tea. she had grown so impatient that she was physically pacing around the house making sure she had all of her ninja gear with her, Katanas, Check, 11 Kunai, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11" she said out loud as she counted them for the 6th time, check, 3 shuriken, check, she was all good... when she finally heard the knock on the door she ran to the door barely even remembering to set down her tea and bagel on the kitchen table. she opened the door and greeted Zetsume with a smile "Hey, your finally here, almost 3 hours late but whatever... it's nice to see you again Zetsume" she said as she stepped out of her house and locked the door. then she looked around for a bit "wheres repede?" she asked him questioningly, that dog may or may not have saved her life when she was at risk of infection from Zetsume's arrow. the dog had brought another Kumo ninja there to heal her, and she was very great for him. she was then ready for the mission and would follow Zetsume where ever he may want to take her.

WC:517

Zetsume stood there as he was being scolded for his tardiness. It was to be expected, as he was quite some time late. He had just hoped that she would not dwell on it for that much longer. Kaekio asked where his dog, Repede, was. Zetsume smiled before speaking.

Repede is taking the day off to rest. We do not need him for this mission. Also you look-"

At first he was going to compliment Kaekio upon her looks on this day. Though his mind quickly adverted from it as he would have thought she would take offense to it. Instead he would had to take a different approach.

"Like you will be a fine shinobi for our village. Keep up the good work. When we travel I will take point. Let's go.

With that being said Zetsume began to run towards the gates of Kumogakure, making sure he was not running to fast so that Kaekio could keep up. He had no intentions of leaving her behind, it would be good practice for her to be in this mission. Once outside of the gates, Zetsume kept up his pace, looking back occasionally to make sure she was still following. The last known location of these bandits were not far at all in relativity. To pass the time Zetsume decided to strike a conversation with his fellow ninja.

Are you going to be entering the Chuunin exams Kaekio? I personally have never participated in one but i hear they are rather intense. How prepared do you think you are for it?"

He did not know how she would react to his words. Maybe she would remain quiet and not talk much of it, or maybe she would just scold him for talking such nonsense during a mission. Though the walk was getting boring without a proper talk.

WC:308

((Sorry for the short post))

Kaekio followed Zetsume quietly as they walked. her mind wasn't really on the missiona all to be honest. she was more worried about the up and coming chunin exams. and things like how was she going to do in them? and would any one be even cheering for her? watching her? Surely as the raikage Sano could be biased towards only her he needed to be supportive of all of kumo. were there any other ninja competing for kumo? Kaekio couldn't be sure, but she must have looked distant because as they ran she was simply staring at the heels of Zetsumes boots so that she wouldn't lose track of him. Zetsume must noticed how distant she seemed because he asked her a question to refocus her. "Are you going to be entering the Chuunin exams Kaekio? I personally have never participated in one but i hear they are rather intense. How prepared do you think you are for it?"  sje looked up slightly started by his question... mainly because she was simply not excepting it. "oh! uhh, yeah im entering in the chunin exams... why do you ask?... oh i don't know really, like you i have never been in one either and so i have no clue as to how prepared i should be, and so im trying to get as strong as i can before then, and im training really hard. although i don't want to train too hard because then i might be extremely exhausted before the exams even begin and then what will i do? she giggled at her last little line there as she kept on running... everything she had told Zetsume was true, she had gotten stronger in prepartion for the exams and now Sano was having her do some pretty intensive training. at some points it made her body just want to quit and give up all hope, but she knew better. she knew that she needed this training if she ever wanted a chance to go up against some of the worlds best genin...

After she Awnsered zetsumes question she would go back to staring off into space at his boots. if she had been paying attention she would have probably completely memorized his boots by now and be able to pick them out of 100 other almost identical ones, but she wasn't instead her mind was else where as her body simply moved seemingly on it's on free will. the funny thing is is that the chunin exams location hadn't even been announced yet, nor when it shall be held. she had no clue if it was tommorow or in a month, or if it was being held in Kumo or Suna. this frustrated her to no end.had she known these details her and Sano could have gotten there early and done their training there. then they could have Scaled Her training to the amount of time she had left with accounting how much resting she would need. Kaekio shrugged her shoulders at her own thought, which may have looked a little strange. she supposed this was because then people would head there early and either A. sabotage the exams or B. scope out the competition and get the details on everyone so that way when you went into combat with them you would know their strengths and weaknesses, and know how to handle them exactly. which would also be unfair to the competitors. so she guessed that she saw a point in waiting until the very last minute to tell the Villages the location... well then again maybe it had to do with the host village taking their time to set up and get ready for the exams. either way Kaekio understood the problems that could arise from people coming too earlier to the designated location. as she came to a conclusion on her thought process she "returned" to her body and focuses once more. she shook her head as to clear it and then began to run faster as in her spaciness she had fallen a tad bit behind Zetsume.

"Sooo.... Zetsume? where are we headed?... like where is the mission located, i got that we are supposed to take on some thieves but this mission details didn't tell me where they were located. was that at the fault of Sano-Sensei or are you to blame for that lack of information? OR... am i gonna have to track them down? because no one knows where they are located" this was something kaekio had thought about that morning as she paced her house waiting for Zetsume to come and pick her up. she had read the mission detail that Zetsume had left for her over and over again but couldn't seem to find the location of where these Thieves were hiding out at, and if she had known then she would have made a plan a head of time given the location, Because your Environment is just as much a tool as the Kunai in Kaekio's pouch. However if Zetsume had simply left out that detail when he had given her the mission description, then maybe she could still come up with something as they headed there.

WC:890
890 + 517 = 1407/2500

Zetsume listened as Kaekio spoke about the upcoming chunnin exams. The sound of doubt in her mind was settling in, as evident by her slight ramble at the end. He was not the type to tell people good luck. That concept is strictly forbidden within his clan. Most of the clan believe that good luck is merely a concept people base achievements off of. For them it is not about good luck or bad luck but rather striving for whatever you have your eyes set on and to hell with grandeur of a luck system to carry you through it. For them it would be more of an insult to say good luck because it implies that they would need it. He shook his head at the thought slightly because Zetsume knew that it was not as bad as other members would say it is.  All in all though they would just be petty words, at least he should show his support. Though all of that could wait till after he has dealt with these ninjas. He became more focused as he neared them, but his focus was slightly broken by Kaekio speaking again.

It almost shocked him that she would strike up such a conversation. She did not seem like the type to enjoy small talk and here he was being proven wrong. He could tell by her words she was anxious to get this over with. Keeping his mouth shut, he pressed on because he knew that they were not far from their last known location. In all honesty the information they got could be wrong, but it was received a few days ago. All doubt of that however was thrown away as he could see men carrying boxes in the distance. Quietly stopped at a nearby tree and spoke in a low tone towards Kaekio.

"Follow my lead"

Which was a lie, he was ready to kill them all and be done with it. Only problem was that he would have to find the leader. His eyes scanned the ground until he spotted a man who was shouting something and pointing at the men who were carrying the boxes.

Bingo, he thought as he quickly used a Raiton Chakra bow. Aiming at the man Zetsume used Shōmei Ar No (Lighting Arrows). Grabbing the arrow from the mass he pulled back and was ready to fire. Though, he had a small flashback. He had remembered how Kaekio was unsure if she was strong enough or practiced enough. A small grin formed on his face as he had an idea. He released the arrow which flew right past the man's head before landing into the ground and dissipating moments later. Zetsume jumped out from within the treetops and landed on the ground near the group. At the moment he touched the ground, two nearby men drew their blades and dashed at Zetsume. Quickly he shot both of them down with Shōmei Ar No (Lighting Arrows). One arrow lodged through one man's eye and came out the back of his head. The other guy was not so lucky, the arrow shot through his neck. Quickly he grabbed his throat before blood began to gush from it and he hit the ground choking on his own blood.

Some of the men were horrified at the sight of their fellow brothers getting slain. The moral decrease was good against them but the leader held one hell of a poker face. Zetsume smiled before speaking loudly to them.

"I have a proposal for you. Should you fail to accept, I will smite you all in one go. As you can tell I do not wish to kill you, as evident by my first shot. Those two guys were just stupid enough to attack me without saying a proper hello."

The leaders ears perked up at the sound of an offer. Zetsume knew he had his attention and the attention of the other men also. Normally he would have shot the figure head and sniped the rest as they tried to flee. In this case he wanted to see what Kaekio was made of. Zetsume could not tell how strong the leader was, but if it became to much for her, he would cheat and genjutsu him. Till then he would enjoy the show.

"I am Zetsume and this is Kaekio. We are shinobi from Kumogakure hired to kill you. Now today is one hell of a fine day, I am sure you could agree, right? I really hate killing on such fine days, so ill tell you what. If you can defeat Kaekio in a duel, I promise I wont kill you or your comrades. Should any of your comrades interfere with this duel or try anything suspicious then I will not hesitate to make them just like their pals here. Now this is a very generous offer, please do not make this into a blood bath."

Zetsume spat out words that were mostly lies. He had not problem killing so long as it benefited Kumogakure. He had no intentions of letting them go, he had heard of their atrocities from reports. Most of them were probably orphans and this was their only way to make a living. Shame that their petty lives could not have just stuck to an honest living.


The leader let out a loud laughter of confidence before he spoke.
"Your proposal was for me to fight this puny looking girl. I've made girls bigger than her beg for me to stop, SHE WILL BE NO DIFFERENT!"

The man drew two massive swords before charging at Kaekio. Zetsume jumped to the side and in his mind wished her good luck, and to put on a good show.

WC:963

Kaekio stopped suddenly as Zetsume told her too. she crouched down and watched closely surveying the land before her. she saw 11 total bandits, one looked to be ordering the others around. Zetsume seemed to notice this as well, a bow formed in his hand Lighting, kaekio could tell without looking the bow's was made of strong lightning as well, then arrows of lightning and he shot. the arrow quickly flying out of Kaekio's current perception range but it remained in her peripheral vision. she saw the arrow hit right next to the leaders head. Zetsume was very very accurate Kaekio knew this all too well, so this couldn't have been a mistake on his end. the Leader however did not even look surprised or shocked at the arrow. Kaekio ran right behind Zetsume as he charged straight into the camp. the thieves that had charged Zetsume were down before kaekio had even noticed them. Kaekio listened closely as Zetsume Spoke. the leader seemed rather interested at Zetsume mentioned a proposal. and seemed even more excite when Zetsume said that she was to be fighting him. However Kaekio's expression did not change at all. He walked towards her as he drew out two massive swords. Kaekio drew out both of her Katana's as well but still retained a straight face "Your proposal was for me to fight this puny looking girl. I've made girls bigger than her beg for me to stop, SHE WILL BE NO DIFFERENT!" Kaekio simply began walking towards him as lightning covered both of her blades, and due to the raiton affinity of the Ryuzoji these blades would be about A-ranked. Kaekio simply said these words "You better watch how you speak to me... you those words may be your last" kaekio continued to walk as the words hit her opponent, agitating him. as he ran towards Kaekio she locked onto him with her Current Perception Close range, and all of his movements became clear to her. so clear she knew where he was going to be almost before he was. he calculated her speed and his distance and brought his blades down on top of her. she brought her blades up to meet his with a still blank face. the blades clashed kicking up dust and sending it outwards creating a shock wave effect. after a moment of the leader trying crush Kaekio with his blades she simply said "Any last words?" she simply stood there and waited for an answer. his face lit up with anger "Shouldn't i be asking you that you little shit!?!" a slight smile finnally appeared a crossed Kaekio's face. "Ah wonderful choice, although they are a little bit over used by every other cocky, and arrogant asshole i have erased from existence" kaekio twirled her body as well as her blade, to where she made the massive blades slide down her blades and fall to the ground behind her. leaving him open. she slashed one blade a crossed his chest causing a deep gash. the she let go of the blade as she finshed the slash, and with her other hand threw that blade into the air. then with the hand that just threw the blade into the air she caught the first blade, and then jumped into the air twirling around as she caught the second blade in her other hand. she hadn't jumped very high however and was now coming back down, and right as she was at the perfect level she placed both of the blades diagonally on his neck so the blades made an X with the cross pressing against his neck. then she brought the blades apart heading in opposite direction they decapitated him. he had just managed to bring his blades up at this time seeing as how this all happened so quickly. and his hands now imp sent the blades flying in the air far away from the camp. she press one foot against his chest and kicked his limp body away from her, as she did so she unlocked his electrical signal from her current perception, and switching it to regular combat range. then she turned around to find all of the of thieves dead on the floor. "We done here then?" she would ask zetsume and then she would follow him wherever he would go until they got back to village and reported to the Raikage. then she would leave his side after they reported and head home and sleep.


WC:760
1407 + 760 = 2167 / 1500 mission complete
667 words remain
-5000 for demonic blue flames


[Exit thread]

Shortly after his proposal the two were locked in a timeless display of swordsmanship. Zetsume wondered if he was fascinated by it because his knowledge of it was very small because of his style as a Kyujutsu user. As the clashing of blades was commencing he could not help but to feel slightly worried about Kaekio. Her being a genin, while him being to what seemed as a more experienced fighter. All doubt quickly vanished as Kaekio demonstrated beautiful and swift attacks. He had almost been caught in awe and forgot about his mission to exterminate these bandits. Looking around he could tell that they were all watching the fight intently. Taking this chance, Zetsume began to shoot the members, though when he did the others took notice. It was not until he had already killed three of them that they did. It seemed that his plan worked, though there were still five. He could not use a large scale jutsu this close to Kaekio unless he could get his back towards her and shoot what is in front. Though in this case some were scattered all about and from his direction he would surely hit her. During his time of shooting his bow at the running attackers, trying to get the ones that were getting the closest, Zetsume ran out of arrows in his jutsu. He only got two of them before he ran out. Shortly cursing luck before remembering that he had been practicing a new jutsu. Using his training as guidance he used Paralysis Shot. As the three remaining men were getting close he shot the arrow. Though he would make it use its other effect by exploding in a radius at the cost of less paralysis. Though the plan worked an in a bright light the three men were all hit by it and fell to the ground hard making a loud thud sound as each one dropped. Zetsume walked over picking up a blade and swinging it around for a second as to imitate what he had seen. Before a quick laugh he realized that this was not what he was meant for. Zetsume slashed the men's throat and dropped the sword onto the ground.  Even though he could appreciate the ability to use Kenjutsu he could not help but to feel a slight superiority as a Kyujutsu user. With a small smirk he could feel the pride within him swell. A pride that his clan knew all to well. That they were the ones meant for battle with their range. It has been said that a single Kyodara member whipped out an entire army with one attack. Though these were just stories told to us as a child. How accurate could those stories be, and could he replicate this jutsu if it is? Zetsume knew his strength was insignificant at the moment, but what if he was able to stop an army. What if he alone could end a war and create peace. All trivial things at the time to think about, but he did have a mind that raced.

When the battle was close to end when Kaekio was in the air, the leader saw his broken tribe of misfits. Then a moment later, Kaekio's blade slashed through the man's neck before she kicked the body away in a triumphant manor. Zetsume was quite impressed by her ability to swing a sword but her talking was something to be left desired. She turned to speak to him, but she was quite brief and short and seemed uninterested in keeping a conversation with him. Then again, Zetsume had pit her against a slightly more formidable opponent and she came out alright physically, but mentally was she? Was Zetsume alright? He had what seemed effortlessly slain these men without a second guess or even an attempt at making peace with them. Can any human kill this easily and still stand up and say that he is alright? Is it the jobs of the shinobi to stain their hands with blood so civilians can have a chance at a normal life? It was how he felt, an uneasy feeling towards an unmistakable truth that they were all killers, ones who kill to protect however. Within his heart he felt an even more uneasy feeling as he knew that without a doubt that those were the most deadly of all killers. The ones who would kill to protect, ones who would die to protect, and ones who would sacrafice everything and anything to protect. Though was it safe to say that the ones he killed during the action of his "Protection" did not have friends or family that wanted to seek revenge. He looked down at the pile of bodies stacked up and dug roughly ten feet into the ground. Kaekio showed no interest in showing these men a propper burial. Though Zetsume's thought process was different. He knew that under different circumstances that these men could have been drinking beer with him joking instead of stacked in such a way that it looked sad that he could not bury them all separately. Zetsume used a Katon Chakra bow and shot a Katon arrow into the pile of corpses that he had dug into the ground. It was an easy way to discard the remains and put an end towards their existence. He gave a small prayer that in the next life they chose a better path. One that did not require such activities that lead up to the demise at his arrows and her blade.

On the way back, nothing was said between the two, and a distance began to form. Sure they reported but the small talk had ended. It was not until he had made it back towards the house until he began to think, maybe this is how I treat others. Pausing for a moment, he would have to hope he could become a more social person. When he unlocked the door he was greeted by of course Repede. It was dark before Zetsume had made it back and surely the dog either missed him or was hungry and did not want to do a bad thing like eat someone's chicken. Repede had done that once and Zetsume's scolding still haunts the dog's memory. It was not the type of punishment as physical abuse, but more along the lines of a morally wrong thing. Since him being a prideful person, seeing his own dog commit such things offended him. Though the chicken was paid back to the farmer at ten times what he had paid for. Zetsume felt as though that was generous enough. Luckily for the dog however, Zetsume had picked them up something to eat. At their favorite restaurant which served almost any type of food imaginable. Zetsume of course got the Chicken lo Mein while the dog had a medium rare steak. The two devoured their food with much satisfaction to be had. After eating Zetsume went to sleep though before he could many thoughts were still roaming through his head. Things like; could he protect this village against threats, could the current Raikage succeed in what everyone should strive for and that is eternal peace, could he really become more social and less cold hearted? All of these thoughts were pouring into his head causing his night to seem long and drawn out. It was many hours before he finally got some sleep and escaped his worried mind for what seemed like a brief moment of pure bliss.

Total Wc: 3076 (1500, B-rank mission)+(1500, B-Rank jutsu.)

Leftover:76 (worthless)

[Mission completed/Exit Thread]