Mission taken:

"We require that you send a message to Shinno Kazuki, the owner of a trade outpost, Yurei. His outpost lies in a very prime location out in the Valley of Mountains; the crossroads of several major trade routes. We seek to use his location as a cover for a safehouse for our forces, but Shinno is a stubborn man. He has resisted our influence for sometime now. Normally, we would simply have him killed and replaced, but the man is very influential with the traders of the region -- killing him would result in a disruption of the trade routes, something that we would very much like to avoid if we can help it. We would like you to convince him to come into our employment, and allow us use of his outpost. Do so by whatever means you see fit, but we must stress that you refrain from killing him unless it is necessary."

---

Another coded message, delivered to him in the early hours of the morning. As the male looked over the message, it was memorized and a hand was lifted to allow the male to draw in his breath. The hand grasped at his mask for the briefest second and pulled it down, allowing the male to spit a small bullet of flame no more than an inch in diameter at the scroll to set it on fire. There was no use in letting the scroll and its contents fall in to the wrong hands -- no evidence of a crime being committed was a good thing. One less loose end, one less thing that could be used against him at a later date should something go wrong.

The male would pull himself out off of the pallet on which he had been resting; following the fiasco at Gisei Lake, the male had taken to laying low at an inn on the border of Tsuchi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni, keeping his eyes peeled and his ears open for any sort of retaliation for his actions; despite the organization assuring him that he completed the mission to their satisfaction. Time would tell if he truly escaped scot free. For now he had a mission to complete, something that would hopefully push him further along on his path to joining this organization. Reaching out, the male would take hold of the weapon he had looted from a grave recently; an old but still useful Odachi, and attach it to his side. While the weapon was rusted on parts of it, it still held an edge, and that was all Yurei needed from it. Departing from the inn after just before the break of dawn, The Ghost would begin his trek across the country of Tsuchi no Kuni to reach his destination in the Valley of Mountains. He knew it would take him several days to reach the Valley of Mountains, and even then an addition day to reach the trade outpost. But, he was in no rush. His target was not going any where any time soon.

---

It was a simple to task for the Mischievous Ghost to find a way to acquire the trading outpost for the organization to use. Yurei was a patient creature when need be; he remained at the trading outpost for a week's time, not including traveling to it, watching and learning all he could about the owner, Shinno Kazuki. Through careful observation, Yurei came to know the man's daily routine, something that he planned on exploiting to his advantage. He came to find that every morning before dawn, Shinno Kazuki took a walk through the trails surrounding the trading outpost, making sure that the signs and headers were clear and clean. He also came to take note that Shinno Kazuki took a stroll to a nearby lake every night to bathe himself. It would be this lake at which Shinno Kazuki would meet his end, and his maker.

It was a simple task to sneak up on the male under the cover of darkness; the clothing that Yurei normally wore was perfect for this endeavor; a bluish-gray, bandage-like carapace around his torso, right arm, neck, and over his nose and mouth in a mask like fashion. Black, flame-like markings cover across his chest and wrap around his left arm, and the remains of a tattered black cloak cover his lower body, held up around his waist by a thick chain. His feet are covered in bandages to dampen the sounds of movement. It was an easy maneuver to race down Shinno Kazuki, to pierce his chest with the Odachi drawn from the Mischievous Ghost's side in a silent hiss several times; each location serving to sever major arteries and muscle fibre to render the older man unable to fight back. But the Ghost would not be satisfied with merely piercing into his victim; He would carry his victim, still impaled upon the odachi, further on to the lake, away from prying eyes. Given that it was night time, it was safe to say that he would not be seen. Shinno Kazuki carried only a single lantern with him, and it would be left on the shore line.

With him carrying Shinno Kazuki to the middle of the lake, the Mischievous Ghost would take his time now, producing a set of weighted chains to from a sealed scroll. Nothing would be said to the struggling, bleeding and shouting elderly male as the Ghost worked, wrapping the chains around the body of Shinno Kazuki before dropping him into the middle of the lake. Yurei was not worried that the male might somehow survive; the old man was nearly bled out, and given the trail of blood that was drifting down into the depths of the lake, it would not be long before the predatory creatures of that lived this far out in the lake would come up to devour what they could of the body. His work was safe, and his mission completed. He would send off a mission completed report at first light, alerting the organization that it was safe to expand their operations into the region using the trading outpost as a base of operations. It was a good day, ha.

1060 wc

1040/600 = Mission Completed = D rank Jutsu Credit

440/380 = PER E0 to E3

60/60 = REA E0 to E1