Mission:

---

Raphael took in a deep breath of the fresh morning air as he exited his tent within the Kumo border-camp, despite the circumstances of why he was here the young special jounin was glad to be back in his home country of Kaze no Kuni. The sun was just coming over the horizon casting a faint glow across the sand dunes that made up the land of wind, after a quick stop at the mess tent to grab some food the boy headed to the deployment tent to recieve his orders for today. "Ah Raphael good morning," came the voice of a jounin as the young shinobi entered the tent. "Good Morning," Raphael replied as he walked up to the desk that sat in the middle of the tent. Despite having worked with this jounin on countless missions during his time here in Kaze no Kuni the young special jounin could not remember the man's name for the life of him, and he was far too embarrassed to ask the man's name now after working with him for so long so the boy did his best to avoid names when speaking with the man. "What do you got for me today?" Raphael asked as he tried to peer over the files the man had press out over the desk, "well you know there is always work for those that want it, lets see what we can find." The man stated as he began looking over the different papers on the desk, "there is a courier mission, just some minor delivery of letters to the other village camps. It low key but if you want it you can have it," the man stated as he looked up to Raphael who simply shook his head. "Nah better leave that to the lower ranks, got to leave them something to do or they would just lay around in the sun all day." Raphael said with a chuckle which made the man burst into laughter, "that is so true," He stated wiping a year from his eye. "Alright let's see what else we got... Ah here's something, I was going to send a group but I am sure you can handle it on your own. We got some reports of a small faction looking for refuge among the villages, if you think you can handle it, it is all yours." The man said as he handed the boy the paper with the report he was talking about on it, "this report went to multiple villages so it is possible that you might encounter members of one of the other nations while out, in all honesty the leadership does not care where they go so long as the innocents get to safety and are out of the way when we move forward with our plans, so if another village shows up to take them by all means let them."

Raphael looked over the paperwork, the job was pretty straightforward as the man had said just an escort of some civilians, adding to the fact that the village was paying for him to pretty much just walk the group across the sand to any one of the village's border-camps it would be a cake walk. "I will take it," the boy said handing the paper back to the man before turning and exiting the deployment tent, pulling his travel cloak over his head as he headed for the gateway of the border-camp. The boy's journey to the civilians camp did not take the boy very long, the sun had not yet rose to the high point in the sky letting the boy estimate that it would be about a three to four hour trip depending on how fast the civilians were willing to move. Where the civilians had set up was just on the border of where Sunagakure once stood, the sight of the glass stained desert and rubble of buildings bringing the memory of that fateful night flooding back to the young shinobi.

---

677

Tenjin was one of the first shinobi to enter the borders of Sunagakure no sato, scouting and setting up the area to better organize the relief effort. Seeing that Sunagakure borders the land of Iwagakure no sato, it did not take long for platoons of Iwa shinobi to come across Ishigakure no sato to build tents and prep for relief. The young shinobi has spent a majority of his chunin rank career attempting to ‘find himself’ in the form of a willing and capable efficient shinobi, and because of this, he has been rather alone in his efforts to journey on ahead in life. It didn’t take long for the masked Tenjin to come across a group of civilians in a camp that appeared to need help. They were quickly running out of food and water but most of all were lacking clear and distinct leadership. Those who wish to vacate the Sand must be safely led to any of the evacuation and processing facilities set up by the villages. So Tenjin thought about simply picking up civilians at this marked location and help them get to a new home. Tenjin didn’t want to startle the large crowd but he needed to make his presence known. Standing atop of the highest point in the civ camp, Tenjin began to express his concern with the situation.

“A year ago, you were all in the middle of a major and bustling village. There is one message I hear loud and clear on the doorstep of todays Sunagakure no sato: you want things to be different. You people said you wanted a government that didn't just do what was good for the people but good for the long term and good for the land of wind. That's what you’re all engaged in.” Tenjin noticed that more civilians were looking up at him and even stopped what they were doing to listen to the young masked shinobi speak. “Let's start with being open. The Suna people are fair minded and I want you all to feel that you can be honest about what you think about this subject. Here's what I think. The remaining villages have benefitted immeasurably from immigration. Go into any village and you'll find people from Sunagakure no sato who are protecting the vulnerable. Go into Kirigakure and you'll find Nova and Izumi, the chunin exam finalists who both hail from the Land of Sand, inspiring young people of the land hidden in the mist to fight on. Go to almost any village in the shinobi world and you'll find Sunagakure shinobi who are not just adding to the villages population but also playing a major part in the defense of the entire village. So yes, immigrants make a huge contribution to other villages, so you will not be a burden. I recognise that – and I hope you welcome travelling to one of the major villages camps.” One man then decided to speak, but what village will take us? And where should we go? Tenjin wondered, and decided to take the civilians to the nearest camp, which coincidentally enough meant taking them to the Iwagakure relief camps. “There is a camp nearby ran by Iwagakure no sato, I can lead you there and leave you to the responsibility of those running the facility. The group unanimously agreed, and decided upon following the masked shinobi to the camp ran by the village hidden in stone. Tenjin came down from his platform as noticed the crowd collecting the little belongings that they called their own and began already following Tenjin as he moved. Tenjin then proceeded to walk toward the west, acknowledging that this was where Iwagakure was and where the camp resided. Looking back at the crowd, Tenjin noticed about 50 civilians in his rear following him, which meant that if trouble arises, it would be more than problematic to protect this large crowd if he handled it on his own. Tenjin hoped that this didnt happen.

WC 666

The sound of a ringing bell that alerted the village of the attack, screams heard from all over the village, the sight of buildings burning as the streets of the filled with bodies. The sight was horrific, and still haunted the young special jounin to this very day. Every night when he slept his dreams were filled with screams and fire and death, now with his return to Kaze no Kuni the nightmares have been getting worst and it only seemed to worsen the close the boy came to the glass stained ruins that was once the great village of Sunagakure no Sato. The appearance of the large eight headed beast that rampages through the village with nothing seemingly able to stop it was the most terrifying to the boy, he had many a nights that saw him awoken in a cold sweat of fear of that horrific beast that destroyed his village, even after a year had past since the event the young special jounin remembered it all as if it had just happened. He remembered the fear he had felt that night when he saw the beast completely frozen in fear unable to move as the beast tore through the village, then the building next to him collapsing on top of him and the next thing the boy knew he was waking up miles away in another much smaller village, with no idea as to what had happened between the building falling and him awaking in the bed or how he had gotten there.

Raphael's was snapped from his thoughts when he heard a voice that seemed to carry throughout the village, the young shinobi had been so caught up in his own thoughts that he did not even realize that he had walked into the ramshackle of a village until he had heard the voice. Looking out from his hood the boy could see that most of the villagers were dirty and looked to be frail from lack of food and water, it was clear that they needed help it was just a shame that they had waited so long to finally ask for it. Raphael looked to find the source of the voice that carried itself throughout the village, to see a masked man standing atop a building calling out to it's people, speaking of helping them move to a safer location in one of the village camps at the border. A smile formed on the hooded shinobi's face, it was obvious that this man was a shinobi of one of the villages sent here for the same job that he was. "This is going to make things easier," the boy said aloud to himself, though no one else would of heard him over the man on the building's voice. If this man was here to escort them to one of the camps then that would mean all the boy would need to do is travel with them and make sure all of them made it to their destination, he would not have to talk to anyone and no one would know that he was not but a refugee himself. The best part about this was even though the refugees and this man would not be any the wiser, Raphael would still be paid for his time when he returned to the Kumogakure border camp. The young shinobi did not care for the fame or acknowledgement of helping these people, he only wished to help them, of course the money was a nice and well appreciated incentive to this as well.

As the large group of refugees lead by the masked man topped another sand dune as they moved towards their destination of the Iwagakure camp, Raphael saw a sand cloud moving towards them. This was not a cloud caused by a natural sand storm, no this was something worst and Raphael recognized it immediately, it was the type of cloud that came from a group on horseback travelling at an accerated rate, which meant only one thing and the words flowed from the boy's mouth at the same time it crossed his mind. "Bandits," he was not sure if the masked man leading the group saw the cloud or not or whether or not the man knew what it meant. Still hidden under his cloak he prepared himself for what was to come as it was undeniable, there was going to be a fight and these people would be of no help and he did not know of the skills of the masked man. It was possible that the man was more of a skilled shinobi than he was himself, however with a group of civilians as large as this the young special jounin was not about to risk the life of a single one of them on a possibility.

The bandits rode their horses up on the group of travellers, the 11 men circling around the group until their path was cut off by the crescent of men on horseback, causing the group to come to a halt. The men all dismounted their horses as the man in the middle stepped forward and began addressing the masked man that lead the group, from where he stood the hooded shinobi could not make out the words that the pair was exchanging and so he used this opportunity to slowly maneuver himself through the crowd of civilians until he came to the front of the pack standing a few meters behind the masked man. Whatever was said between the two seemed to have angered the man that lead the bandits as he turned his back to the man and began walking back toward his horse and two of his men charged at the masked man. As the masked man moved to deal with the two a third moved to attack him with his back turned, no honor among criminals the young shinobi thought to himself as he sprung into action. Raphael began weaving the dog, monkey, bird, bird, monkey handseals in quick succession forming 5 semi-translucent clone of himself out of wind standing between the civilians and the bandits to provide them with some protection while he moved to help the masked man. Using his Kaze no yōsu that he had prepared when he first saw the approaching cloud of sand the young shinobi dashed forward towards the third man striking him with his Hakaiken sending the man flying 10 meters away, the man letting out a painful yell as he soared through the air. The hood of the young shinobi had fallen back from the boy's head during his quick dash forward revealing his face as well as his Hitai-Ate that bore the sigil of Kumogakure no Sato that rested on the boy's forehead. Raphael looked over his shoulder to the masked man, giving the man a nod as if to say "I got your back" before returning his attention to the remaining 7 bandits and their leader.

---

1850

Chakra 195/260:

The sunagakure civilians had camped for almost an entire year near the crystal village in a state of unorthodox peace, and they now travelled for less than half an hour and have already encountered a pillar of cloud which arose for the first time, over the horizon caused by a horde of criminal entities on horseback. At once, the crowd of civilians were instructed by Tenjin to resume their journey. Marching according to the order given by Tenjin, the Sunagakure people continued their journey until they reached the horde of bandits who circled the crowd without a word being spoken amongst the bandits in an instant. Tenjin remained cautious and at this point raised his right hand into a fist as to signal a halt by the community being led to sovereignty. Tenjin, poised, counted and saw 11 men surrounding the journeying civilians. One man in their group decided to step forward once all bandits stepped off of their horse saddles, and began to speak to the young Tenjin. “What brings you all to my neck of the woods?” Said the man in a jokingly but sinister manner that forced Tenjin to believe that this man has shown himself to be a charismatic and cocky, man with a sarcastic, inappropriate sense of humor considering the situation. Tenjin said nothing to this man, as he forced himself closer to the young shinobi. “So what? You don’t talk?” He said while walking forward. Tenjin opened his right hand and began to collect chakra in a more or less imperceptible manner. The lead bandit sensed something coming from the palm of Tenjins hands and this angered him greatly as he angrily grilled the young chunins right hand and stopped his move forward. “Is that how you want it?” The man said while turning around, and while walking to his horse and saddling up, he uttered his orders “Make quick work of these people, I just want their belongings afterwards.”

Two men began the charge coming after Tenjin ferociously with weapons and shield in arm. The young shinobi flexed the palm of his hand and gathered chakra more overtly. To all who are initiated, although the color is tainted, the technique is all the same, as they would be able to tell that the jutsu being used is the legendary Rasengan. The rasengan and its variants are powerful jutsu that create high velocity spinning vortexes of incredibly dense chakra, upon impact, these vortexes drill into an opponent or structure before detonating in a brilliant display of power and ferocity. Tenjin needed no handseals to perform this technique, and thus was able to accelerate toward the attacking bandits in a near instantaneous act. Tenjin cocked his hand back, with his palm aimed at the closest bandit as it became apparent that he had created a small orb of spinning chakra in the palm of his hand, large enough to fit perfectly in his palm. The chakra within this technique is black as well as dense, and spins at a high velocity which appeared to streak with white chakra.

The bandit raised his shield, being overwhelmed by Tenjins speed, and on impact, this jutsu drilled 3" into the opponent's defense, shattering what appeared to be a B-rank shield before exploding in a shock-wave that delivered severe damage to the arm that was holding the shield and everything else in a 1/2 foot radii from the point of impact. Breaking his arm and fracturing his collarbone as it stood within that radii. Each of these stages of the attack was considered a separate B rank jutsu for the purposes of interacting with shield, and the individual behind the defense. Scared, the second bandit stumbled and stopped right on his track in order to jump back to the crowd of criminals. It was right there and then that Tenjin noticed combat occuring right behind him, as a man was slung forward a great distance after exerting a yell that can only be defined as agonious. This by a shinobi that Tenjin noticed even with the hood on, as it came down to reveal a familiar face… ‘it is Raphael.’ Tenjin thought, looking at his old rival as he nodded in what Tenjin figured to be a sign of acknowledgement that both stand confronting the same enemy, and Tenjin remembered the saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” which had a double meaning in this instance as Raphael, Tenjin, considered to be indeed a good friend. Tenjin didn’t reveal himself, as in this moment, he hoped to disassociate himself with original persona and create one more conducive to his goal driven mentality. Tenjin didnt feel like socializing was productive for his attainment of power at this moment, and considering the heated political climate that both Kumogakure and Iwagakure have woven for themselves, it is also a good idea to be cautious with members of that village who house one of the criminals that caused such a catastrophe in Sunagakure to begin with.

All of this was processed by thought in near the speed of light as Tenjin nodded back, masked with a hooded cloak and all, and opened the palm of his hand once more to gather chakra for yet again the same dangerous technique. There appears to be 9 from the 11 that started, and seeing his rival alongside him, Tenjin felt comfortable in his odds of winning this encounter. Tenjin looked up, and saw the leader, still on his horse appearing more angry than before. Right when the pair locked eyes, he yelled out. “Get them now!” afterwhich four bandits came toward Tenjin while the other four went after Raphael. Tenjin continued to mug the leader as the criminals charged at him, because the young shinobi wanted to make it apparent that his target was the head of the snake. Tenjin waited for the first fist to come at him before he dodged it by bending and leaning back, which gave him the position to continue to dodge a succession of flurries aimed at his face by stepping back and weaving to the left and right, opposite of the strikes. Tenjin, with the rasengan still in the palm of his hand was able to position himself perfectly by grabbing the man that was punchings fist with his left hand and striking at his abdomen with his right, which was carrying the rasengan.

WC 1,068
TWC 1,734

A smile formed on the young special jounin's face when the four bandits moved against him, it was obvious that they did not know what they were getting themselves into. They must have underestimated the boy due to his age or maybe it was the fact that they had the numbers, whatever the reason was they were going to regret their decision very soon. The four bandits surrounded the young shinobi cutting off any chance of escape, not that the boy had planned to escape. The bandits thought they were being smart but in truth they were just making it easier for the boy to end their life. Channeling futon chakra into his fist the boy covered his hands in small blades of wind, his fist giving off a faint silver glow to them as the blades of wind spun around them. The first one made his move against the boy letting out a loud yell as he charged forward towards the special jounin, it was obvious that this one was a diversion similar in the way that the two had attacked the masked man while the other one snuck up on him just moments before. "How unoriginal," the boy scoffed under his breath quickly releasing a burst of wind from all around his body blowing the assailants that were trying to sneak up on him as well as the other one back. Raphael then acted fast pushing himself off with his back foot launching himself at the bandit that was in front of him, striking him repeatedly in the chest and stomach before a final strike to the man's face. The man's body fell to the ground as blood began to pour from the cuts that covered his body, Raphael turned his attention to the others who were still recovering from the push back. Charging forward the young special jounin made quick work of the second offender before moving to the third and then finally the fourth, the boy was in no mood to waste time with these lowlife bandits a fact that was proven by how quickly the four that moved against him were taken out. Raphael looked over to the masked man who seemed to be handling himself with those that attacked him as he was almost finished with them, Raphael looked back to see that all of his guardians still protected the group of civilians which was good as it meant none of them were hurt. The boy then heard a yell come from the leader of the bandits, turning to look Raphael saw that the man had returned to his mount and was now charging at the group of civilians. He must of been blind with rage having his troupe taken out by two shinobi, Raphael would have figured that the man would of tried to flee but instead he charged the group more than likely trying to make something out of nothing. However he would not reach his target, Raphael propelled himself forward drawing chakra into the bottom of his feet before dropping and releasing a sweeping kick that release the built up chakra that quickly formed a whirlwind around the man and his steed sending them both into the air. Raphael then launched himself into the air channeling more chakra into his feet before performing a spinning drop kick upon the man sending the man rocketing towards the ground before exploding upon impact with the sand below. As Raphael slowly floated back to the ground he ensured that the threat was now none existence as he dismissed his guardians, pulling his hood back over his head he looked to the masked man. "Let us move before more try to interfere," as the group of civilians clapped happy that the two were able to protect them from harm. The rest of the way to the Iwagakure camp went smooth with no interference from bandits or other trouble makers, as they neared the border camp Raphael looked back over the horizon with his job now done it was time for him to return to his own camp and without a word he flickered away kicking up sand as he disappeared into the desert.

{Exit Thread}

---

2551
B-Rank Mission Completed
51 words discarded

Tenjin said nothing in response to the bandits who charged up promptly toward the young chunin. Tenjin had a sense that his rival is doing well while fighting back there, but Tenjin wasn't looking, so the visuals was as expected when Tenjin looked back to see Raphael handling his own versus the charging criminals. The young chunin would put on a thinking face. He didn't give care much about anything but training and getting these people to their destination in the the appropriate amount of time. Luckily, fighting these bandits fell under at least one of those categories. Tenjin would then watch as the remaining three bandits hopped their way onto the area that was simply 10 meters away from the young shinobi. Tenjin was facing them and made fists with his hands. Tenjin would then position himself 1 meter in front toward the bandits, thus leaving 9 meters between them. And the clearing around that has great range where the ground was decently flat and the sand, with help from the winds, would begin moving outwards 10 meters from the ground.

"I prefer not dying today." Tenjin said, and soon after began his assessment as to what the bandits are capable of doing utilizing all his senses. Everything seemed rather ordinary except one of the bandits had a long sword that appeared to have been well crafted. That would be his reason for mentioning not dying. It was also duly noted that the bandits had no chakra, but their chi seemed to be quite powerful as it radiated from them like a fire in the middle of the night.

Before the battle would begin, Tenjin would take a good and strong look at his surroundings making sure no Raphael was handling himself and not close to the young shinobi in case he might get hit with friendly fire. Tenjin would then draw a normal kunai with his right hand as fast as he possibly could. He would then get into a squatted battle stance and say, "So then... Let the match begin."

Tenjin would listen as the leader spoke. In all seriousness, he didn’t care much for reacting secondly in a fight and didn’t plan on it, Tenjin wanted to strike first. But either way, he was interested in what the leader had in store and would do just that.

Tenjin took note of the criminals fighting style via observing their maneuvers without looking directly at one, and instead keeping an eye on all of them to not be snuck up on by surprise. Reason being? Tenjin had learned of various methods to attack covertly, even in front of the targets face. One of the bandits then threw a set of kunai at Tenjin, and as the weapons would surge from the criminals possession, Tenjin would set up his counter. He had already assumed that due to all of their movements, they had a combo set up. He didn’t feel like falling victim to said combo.

Tenjin, not expecting what's coming after the projectile attack, would attempt to escape by sinking underground at his fastest speed, but due to the range, this counter wouldn’t be enough for him to be able to escape the speed of the projectile weapons. Since Tenjin had never fought against the bandits before, he had little reason to assume that the criminal would know how to protect against his technique, and already have a counter for this scenario. So while Tenjin was hit with the weapons, scratching his mask, he successfully utilized the Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique to dodge any lethal effects by the incoming attack.

At the same time, Tenjin moved and pulled one of the targets underground. A criminal set himself up to attack underground with a huge attack, likely preparing for something big. Tenjin would then launch himself toward that criminal and pull him underground as well. Tenjin would then jump out of the ground, at an insane speed, allowing no opportunity for the criminals to react to his appearance. At that very moment, He’d activate both his unique and original to him, skills making himself undetected via chakra, and via visual sensation. This was completed much faster than any other technique because it needed no hand signs, so the last bandit had no significant time to react properly. Tenjin would fake a step forward to his right diagonally just in case the criminal could see through his jutsu, but in reality, he’d flip up, left ,and diagonally at top speed placing himself just a couple of meters away from the bandit. Tenjin would then kick off the air having successfully kicked the last bandit in the throat preventing him from easily being able to breath.

Tenjin turned to see the boss of the group already getting the works by Raphael himself, so instead of bothering to continue the combat, Tenjin ran toward the civilian refugees and investigated further to determine if any of them got hurt. Nobody did. Soon after, Raphael came with the brilliant idea of continuing with the mission and not let anybody get hurt by other criminals getting word that this group is in refuge in this area. Tenjin nodded, saying nothing as the pair continued and walked to their destination. After which, Tenjin had a new mission in store.

[EXIT]

WC 885
TWC 2,619 (extra 100 for 25 ryo)