The flames, the horrible black flames. Miso couldn’t escape them. They had destroyed his village, they had killed his friends and family and now they were plaguing his dreams. Why? Why was Miso destined with such a horrible fate? Had anyone from Kirigakure actually survived other than him? Of course, what stupidness to think. Miso was staying in a refugee camp with a bunch of other Kirigakure survivors. There was apparently another Uzumaki there, but Miso didn’t know who. He could only hope that it was Felix. Felix was the only family he had left, his cousin. That was assuming that he was still alive. Miso shot up, bolt upright; his eyes wide open. That same dream he had been having, ever since that horrible day. The flames came and they ate everything, everything except for Miso; he was left there to watch everything he knew and loved perish, before being the only person left on the planet, and alone; the flames refusing to engulf him. That dream was awful. He would beg the flames to take him, beg them to drag him down with the rest of the planet. They always refused. Miso climbed out of bed slowly, it was time to make some ryo, he was almost skint.

It was hard for a refugee to find work in Konoha. It turns out, all the work going in Konoha, is only for Konoha shinobi. Nobody who did non-shinobi work was hiring, and basically; there was no work for anyone other than a Konoha shinobi. The Hokage, Kenta Inzuka, such a respectable person, surely he would have some kind of work for refugees by now. Miso could barely feed himself on the tight budget he was on. He had lost the money to go buy instant food, and he had lost the money to buy cheap ass ramen. The only thing keeping Miso alive was his hunting. He would go out to the forest and see what he could find. He wouldn’t eat every night, but he was still alive. Still, It didn’t mean that he didn’t need ryo. He couldn’t keep on hunting forever, he needed money. There was only one place to go. The Admin Building. There Miso would find work, surely there was work going for refugees. Miso would take any work, any work. Anything that somebody wouldn’t take, Miso would take it. Anything for just a small amount of ryo.

The admin building in Konoha was huge, the Kage;s office there must be huge. Miso looked up, surely he would find some work in here. He walked to the big front doors, smiled and gave a nod to the kind man who opened them for him. The interior was fantastic, the decoration, the sheer size. The administration building was an architectural masterpiece. Ok…where to look? Miso was wondering around the building senselessly, expecting a job to just punch him in the face. Miso was seriously desperate for this job, and his rumbling tummy was begging him to find one. Miso looked around and spotted a man who looked like he worked at the admin building, or at least knew his was around the place. Miso had to ask him where to find a job, he needed to. He walked over calmly, trying to seem like a respectable individual. He bowed slowly to the man before smiling and quietly speaking. “Excuse me sir, do you know where a refugee from Kirigakure could find a job?” The man returned the smile to Miso before kindly directing him to the mission board. “Thank you, sir” Miso bowed again and with that the man took his leave.

There was a pretty nice selection of missions on offer, but they were mostly D-Rank. Miso didn’t much care for small cash rewards, he would have to take a much harder job if he was going to earn any cash. The missions were divided. There was missions that only Konoha nin could take, and there were missions that both refugee and Konoha nin could take. Although the rankings were low, at least the Hokage had taken the time to make opportunities for the refugees to make a living. The highest ranking mission that Miso saw was a C-Rank. A group of drunkards were causing trouble by the docks. Former sailors, tough enough. Their leader was a man called Hanzo, he was to be removed from the equation; the others would stop when that happened. Miso signed his name on to the mission, checked with the Kage and hurried on home to gather his things. He wouldn’t need much for the mission really, just some kunai and a few scrolls to use his sealing jutsu. He didn’t know how long he would be on the mission for, so he grabbed his last packets of instant ramen. With that, he set off on his mission.

The way to the docks was pretty calm, Konoha was quite a quiet village. Miso took in a whiff of the Ichiraku ramen. It was pretty famous, Miso had heard about it all the way from Kirigakure. The smell was divine, ramen cooked to the finest degree. Of course Miso could never afford anything like that. He could barely afford the packet ramen from the convenience store, let alone the expensive but absolutely delicious ichiraky ramen. Miso carried on walking to prevent himself from being further tempted by the ramen shop’s charms. The road was really dry, surprisingly. All the roads in Kirigakure were regularly flooded out, most of the time extremely difficult to get to; sometimes inaccessible. Konoha was much better than Kiri in Miso’s eyes. Well, much better than the old Kiri. Anything would be better than the measly ash pile that some people still try to call Kirigakure. “Village Hidden in The Mist” Ha, try “Village Hidden in The Ashes” Miso was pretty much losing hope for Kiri, but then again, so were most of the refugees. The docks were nearby, Miso took in a deep breath. Mission time.

Ha, the docks at Konoha were the only thing that wasn’t better than Kiri. They were quite embarrassing to be called docks actually. There were a few boats there, their nets bulging with shrimp, but then again; if the mission description about a bunch of hoodlums terrorising the place was true, Miso could understand why. The place didn’t look like it was subject to attacks by a bunch of rowdy sailors, but just as Miso was taught as a child, looks can be deceiving. Miso took a quick stroll around the docks, asking the occasional passerby about the sailors. People seemed reluctant to talk, as if they were in fear of the hoodlums. Miso was happy. Not only would he be getting ryo in his pocket, he would be doing an extremely good deed and would be benefiting the docks greatly. Miso was losing hope however, nobody was willing to speak and there was not a sailor in sight. Wait. No. There he was, just as the mission had described him. Hanzo, the sailor; his cronies behind him. They were mugging an old man, sickos. Miso shouted “Hey, why don’t you pick on someone who can fight back!”
Miso smiled as Hanzo and his gang strutted towards him, thinking that they had another victim in sight. How wrong they were. Hanzo gave Miso a hard shove before sneering “Hey , why don’t ya shut ya mouth befo’ I punch ya in it!” Miso grinned to himself. This mission should be fun.

He walked towards Hanzo, who was feeling smug with his followers laughing behind him, and gave a nice retort. “Why don’t you learn to string together a sentence before you try and scare me, buddy” Hanzo’s face got more serious, his cronies egging him on to punch Miso. “Smack ‘im in ‘is jaw. Knock tha bloody idiot out!” Hanzo ran at Miso, his fist clenched, swinging a hard punch in the direction of his face. Miso dodged the reckless action easily, before sticking out his foot, tripping Hanzo down. “You see the thing is, Hanzo buddy, I have been sent here to get rid of you. So I’ll give you a chance to leave these docks and stop terrorising the people. If you choose not to take it, I will kick your behind.” Apparently the comment didn’t go down too well with Hanzo, Miso watched as he got up and swung at him.

Miso easily caught Hanzo’s fist, squeezing it tightly before stamping him in his stomach hard, and giving him a foot to the head as he fell. “Im guessing you want to do the latter option then. Well, I would be gladly obliged.” This angered all of Hanzo’s followers, Miso watched and laughed as they all charged at him. Time to get serious, time to use some Fuuinjutsu. Miso slammed his hands into the ground and shut his eyes as an intense light smashed out of the freshly formed seal. He opened them again to see everyone holding their eyes. Miso’s target was Hanzo, he wouldn’t have to deal with the gang if he could get rid of Hanzo. Of course they would still be a nuisance. Miso slammed his hands into the ground again, this time seeing a large wall of fire form. That should keep the buggers back for a little while. Hanzo had just about recovered from the blinding light when Miso was ready to attack. He didn’t want to kill him, just beat him up enough to make him leave, maybe maim him a little. Miso walked towards him slowly.

As soon as Hanzo came at Miso his whipped one of the sealing scrolls off his back, releasing one of the seals and sending rock hard earth pellets at Hanzo at a high velocity. They hit him hard, sending him back to the ground. He didn’t look like getting up this time. He sure as hell proved Miso wrong as he shot back up, sprinting right back at him. Another wave of pellets was released, putting him right back in the dirt. Yet again, Hanzo shot up. It wasn’t even worth wasting another set of pellets. Miso let him get close before giving him a solid punch in the nose. Surely that was too much for him, he couldn’t get up again. Well, either he was really stupid, or really drunk, because he got back up and ran at Miso again. Miso used the last set of pellets, these ones hitting Hanzo hard in the head. That was finally enough to keep him down. Miso picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. The fire wall dispersed. The gang briefly charged at Miso, but stopped when they saw their leader had been defeated. Miso set them down in the countryside. They shouldn’t be bothering the docks anymore; if they did, they knew that Miso would be back to kick their asses again. Miso walked back to Konoha, pleased that he was going to pick up some ryo for his first mission. He might just treat himself to ichiraku ramen…

Total Word Count: 1849