OOC: Sorry for posting in the wrong area originally; just repasted the post into here.

Seriously. He'd ran around to several different places and had adventures all across the Land of Earth, not to mention that he had performed three short term missions directly contracted by Iwagakure since they were urgently in need for the job to be done, even if it meant paying a foreign shinobi and sending him off with a mission. Yet still, after all this, Kenta and his entourage still hadn't reached Iwagakure! Sure, Kashizudoto had departed early, but, from what he could tell, they were at least a day late! Kashizudoto imagined that it was the genin tagging along that was slowing the Hokage down; he couldn't imagine Kenta travelling this slowly. While he waited for the rest of his leaf shinobi partners, Kashizudoto was ambitiously pursuing shinobi activities during their leave, hoping to train especially hard so that he could return home with double the skills that he had when he left. It was a daring task, but he had no doubt that he could do it.

Anyway, he was now taking up a mission from a private contractor rather than the village of Iwagakure itself. It was the Fire Temple, whose future Head Priestess had recently been receiving death threats from anonymous sources. In order to protect her, they sent out a mission request to any shinobi that were chuunin and up to defend her during a ceremony that she was hosting.

He came walking into the Fire Temple wearing his normal garb. Covering his torso was the black swordsman's robe which he had received as a gift from Master Piandao after his apprenticeship. On his left hip was a bamboo sheath that held the Tentetsutou or the "Sword of Heaven", the blade that the chuunin had forged himself out of a four billion year old meteorite. It truly was a wonder, that blade. That really was the one item in his possession that he was truly attached to. Next to the sheath was a 50 meter long coil of wire; that thing was really, really handy for some of the stickiest situations, it really was a lifesaver in this rocky hell known as the Land of Earth. Under it, on his upper left thigh, was a holster containing three shuriken and one kunai knife. He was hoping one day to stock it up with some more basic projectiles, but that was for another day. On his forehead was his Konoha hitae-ate, alerting all those looking upon him that he was not from this land.

The first person that he would see at the sacred place was a beautiful blue-eyed woman who was most likely the Head Priestess Yuna that he was supposed to protect. She smiled at the sight of Kashizudoto, who she had probably figured out by now was her guard. Her long, white dress and strawberry blonde hair danced across the air as she walked over to greet him, exposing her rather large bosoms and the red ribbon wrapped around her chest. He could only wonder how the heck she was supposed to remain chaste...

WC: 516

"You're just in time," said the hot (but unfortunately reserved) priestess to the chuunin, "We're having the ceremony in about a minute." Kashizudoto couldn't imagine someone having a vendetta against an innocent person like this so much so that they'd have death threats against her, but there were some really crazy people in this world, of course.

"Alright," Kashizudoto said as he followed the head priestess to the altar where she would perform her rites. Hmmm... He'd never been to a temple that was all about fire. It was kind of ironic that the Fire Temple wasn't in his own Land of Fire, but, as a Sarutobi, Kashizudoto would find plenty of fun in anything with fire in it, even if it was in the Land of Earth.

"Ne - Ne -" began the priestess as she performed two rat seals in a row, "Ushi- Tora- Uma - Inu - Tora Ne- Ne-." So she could perform hand seals? And there was some kind of religious aspect to these at the Fire Temple? That certainly was interesting. Suddenly the flame at the altar grew larger. This certainly was more than just blind religion - there was something chakra-based about it.

Plop. A canister leaped through the air and fell on the ground. His shinobi reflexes immediately got him suspicious of it, and he got ready to pounce. Immediately, gas would start leaking out of the canister, knocking out all around it. This was a problem. No, it was only a warning sign for something bigger. He needed to guard the priestess. He turned his head around, only to find an assailant in a red kimono - he couldn't make out much else - covering up Yuna's mouth, grabbing her, and running off with her towards the rooftop with the woman screaming with a closed mouth.

He was about to go chase them, but five more assailants, armed with katanas, jumped in front of him to block his path. All the monks were knocked out by the damn gas; Kashizudoto was really the only one left standing to fight them. He needed to get this over with quickly so that he could get to the head priestess in time. Still, these guys looked tough. It wouldn't be all that easy to solo them.

Kashizudoto drew out his Tentetsutou, the onyx black blade shimmering with the light of the altar's fire and the sun's bright shine. However, he wouldn't just use this blade vanilla and expect it to work just fine. He used his kekkei genkai jutsu, the Sword of the Will, to enflame his sword with a thick hot sheath of katon chakra, which would burn with a great light in the Fire Temple.

Two of the rogue shinobi leaped at him with their katanas in the air while the other three ran to charge at him from the ground. A combined assault from the air and ground, huh? He slid forward across the floor to dodge the two that were in the air and performed a low sweep with his sword on the three that were recklessly charging at him, knocking them to the ground with burns on their legs. Meanwhile, the other two assailants landed on their toes gracefully and immediately turned to charge at Kashizudoto head on. As they'd already observed him perform a low sweep, they were probably prepared for it. He would need something else to defeat them.

Kashizudoto Chakra:

WC: 1095

The two rogue shinobi attacked Kashizudoto with their katanas, both strikes were parried by Kashizudoto's blade as he formed a tiger seal with his left hand and blew out a great fireball through it that would come out like a flamethrower offense. As a result, the assailants were knocked back with first and second burns all over their bodies. The orders that came with the mission said to kill anyone who was after the priestess. Therefore, with a hard stab in each neck, burning and cutting through the spinal cord, he killed all five criminals before they could recuperate. Now he could focus on saving the priestess.

He leaped up to the top of the Fire Temple, the sun shining very brightly on the face of the hot priestess and the head assailant - now he could get a better look at the person's appearance. It was a woman who was about the age of the head priestess, most of her rich, black hair tied up loosely behind her head. She donned a fancy red kimono with a yellow sash on her abdomen that failed to cover her right arm and upper chest, exposing some impressive assets. Of course, she was the villain here, so he couldn't spend time obsessing over her good looks.

"Oh, so Yuna, you've gotten yourself a little guard, I see?" said the assailant, her brown eyes looking straight at the priestess who she had captured, "Was the temple a little low on funds? You've brought a child. Moreover, he isn't even from this land. Hah, it's probably a good thing that you became the head priestess of this trash heap instead of me. This place isn't worth my time to run. I have greater ambitions after I finally leave my past behind and burn this establishment to the ground." Hmmm... So apparently Yuna had beaten her to a position somehow. Damn, that's rough. Still, was her only motivation pure jealousy? What a total bitch.

She pushed her hostage off to the side; this technically freed the priestess, but Kashizudoto would have to defeat the other hot woman to reach her. Unfortunately, the assailant brought a large spear; thankfully, Kashizudoto had his own great katana, still enflamed with his kekkei genkai jutsu, to fight her.

She lunged with her spear; however, Kashizudoto jumped to dodge it and countered by pouncing at her from the air and slashing from the upper left to the lower right of her body, creating 2 1/4 inch gashes along her chest accompanied by burns that dug in deep as a result of her jutsu. Additionally, it tore through and undid the lady's kimono in the process, revealing a short red skirt, a small top underneath, and an exposed stomach as it fell to the ground. Of course, one tool in a kunoichi's arsenal was her sex appeal, so he couldn't let that get in the way of his fight.

As she attempted to knock the boy down with her spear, he ducked to the ground to dodge her stroke and did a low sweep, knocking her off her balance with her legs cut through 2 1/4 inches in and burned. A little hesitantly, he stabbed her in the neck and killed her as was ordered. She did deserve it, but, still, Kashizudoto understood that could be him one day. After all, he was extremely ambitious; he didn't want to let that take him over though and cause him to become jealous and seek revenge as this woman did.

Now that the priestess was safe and the assailants were dead, Kashizudoto's job was  to figure out how to get this place back into working order before his departure. After all, having a scared as hell priestess, dead corpses of criminals, and knocked out monks scattered all over wasn't a good condition to leave this place in, especially considering that this was a sacred institution.

Kashizudoto Chakra:

WC: 1763

He released the jutsu that was covering his blade in flames; it still had a brilliant black glimmer about it. He then put it back in its bamboo sheath as he gave the priestess a hand up, who had by now regained her composure and was feeling safe again.

"Thank you so much for all your help," said the priestess to the chuunin as she got up with his help, "Shall we wake up the monks and continue with the ceremony?" Wait... After all this, she wanted to continue with the rites? Wasn't she exhausted? Afraid? Why not just postpone the ritual until later? Dang, she really was faithful to this position. No wonder she beat out that other person to the rank of head priestess.

Together, they shook the heads of the monks and woke them up, sometimes even dumping water on the heads of really, really tired ones so that they'd be forced to be alert. It was kind of fun seeing them in such a state of shock when they woke up, even the serious priestess chuckled a little bit at seeing the sight.

After they got everything under control, they continued and finished the rites as usual. To Kashizudoto, the whole thing was boring as hell, but, neverthless, he respected the right of these people to perform their rituals unharmed by crazy criminals. Therefore, he guarded them with a special alertness that would make sure that he'd be ready for any further interruptions. Thankfully, there were none to worry about.

Well, he was finished here, but just when he was about to say his goodbyes to the priestess and the monks at the Fire Temple, the head monk began walking over to him. What was he going to do?

"Your robe..." the monk mused, "Who taught you swordsmanship?" His black swordsman's robe was a gift from Master Piandao after Kashizudoto's study there, an exact copy of the robe that the master had on himself. He didn't think it was that big of a deal or really meant anything much other than something easy to move around in when having a swordfight.

"I apprenticed under Master Piandao, a retired shinobi, for a short while, said the chuunin, "That's also where I forged my blade. He gave me this robe as a goodbye present." The Tentetsutou was really something that Kashizudoto valued, but apparently this robe that he got also had some importance, at least from the way the monk was observing it.

"It's as I thought, whispered the monk in an almost deaf tone which none of the others would be able to hear from that distance as he handed him a lotus flower, "Ask for Professor Ivan at the Diamond Heights University. Tell him that Iriku sent you and show him this flower. Do it immediately."

WC: 2241

[Exit]

B-rank Mission: 1500/1500
Perception: C-2 -> C-3: 700/700