Chained Missions:

Raphael stood atop the battlement looking across the military formation before him, it was not very often that the boy loaned his services to other villages but if it meant that it would quell the uprising within the land of wind he would do whatever it took. Even if that meant that he had to work with the village hidden in the leaf, the boy would do it to see peace was brought to the land of wind. He looked out into the faces of the men and women that he had been given command over, most of them were older than himself but still others looked to be close to his age. It was hard to believe that a fifteen year old would be in command of all of these soldiers, yet as a shinobi the young boy had proven himself more than capable of the assignment he had been given. The orders were simple there is a battle going on and under his command these men and women would be lead to the battlefield where they would reinforce the forces already in combat. In the back of his mind the boy knew that many of these soldiers would more or likely die during the process of this mission, but he could not let the death of these men and women concern him. The only thing that mattered was the completion of the mission and if that meant he had to lead the sounder to the slaughter than he had no choice but to do so. He would not be the only shinobi on this assignment however, there would be another and while the boy knew nothing about the one who was to be his partner in this he had to hope that the shinobi was at least skilled enough to handle themselves as well as help the young jounin in coordinating all the men and women in this militia to see to the missions success. As he waited for his partner to arrive the boy took quick inventory of his gear, ensure that everything that he would need would be ready to use and help him with this task. His Kaminari Steel Windmill Shuriken tucked snuggly in its strap on the left side his back while his tanto Ikari sat on the right, these as well as all of his other weapons hidden beneath the young Shinobi's cloak so that no one would see them until he pulled them out. With his various other tools and weapons in their pouches, the boy let out a sigh he hoped that he would not need them but it was always better to be better safe than sorry. With his weapons and tools all accounted for the only thing left for the boy to do is await the arrival of his partner, the boy's thoughts began to shift to wondering just who it was that he was strapped to for this mission.

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493

Makoto had learned something during his time in Sunagakure, the first thing he learned was that Konoha seemed to be spending a lot of time helping to rebuild the village. However he could not understand why they would help to rebuild this village when there was nothing but sand here. While it was clear that Kumogakure was all about erasing the culture of the village and replacing it with the Hastur religion, Kirigakure seemed to be all about secretly disposing of threats to their village while also keeping close tabs on everything happening here. Iwagakure he believed was doing what was best to help the nation, having not really seen the dark underbelly of his own village just yet. The thing that stood out the most was that Konohagakure seemed so innocent at first, however after his encounter with shinobi's from their village he soon found them to be rather hostile in nature. Were they really trying to rebuild the village or was their real plan to claim the land for themselves in order to expand their nation and one day rule over all the kingdoms with a fist full of leaves.

Makoto stopped thinking too deeply and decided to oppose their takeover since he knew that if this happened and he got forced into a war like the one they were currently in, just on a larger scale with his home land surrounded by Konoha and Suna villages with their only other option being to join the Hastur religion then it would be best for Makoto to simply hinder that for now. He knew he could not really stop it, if the village had built up as well as he thought they did, but in the end he had no choice but to do his best to bring about an end to their expansion on the front lines as he secretly began digging a few holes here and there. He knew that not all of them were well trained and like him some were also fresh genin ripe for the pickings.

For now he noticed there were groups of samurai roaming around and he decided since they love their swords so much bad footing would be the ultimate impediment to their struggle, all he had to do now was take care of their shinobi leader who was guiding them. If it was an elite shinobi of high rank they would not even bother leading a weak group since a single high rank shinobi was far greater then these samurai who feel they are skilled while barely mastering more then their katana. He had also learned to master the katana as well and knew that it was not as simple as they might think. Shinobi could be samurai too, so why limit yourself by simply being one or the other. Though Makoto did not have the same honor code as samurai did, for Makoto the greatest honor was the learning and mastering of all ninjutsu as he prepared to wait to ambush them from inside the ruins of an old building with all his holes laying in wait as he also prepared for his escape if he did not get enough of them.

Words = 534

The male was soon met with his would be partner a small young Konoha shinobi that the male did not bother to listen to his name. "Alright that's enough of that," the male snapped as he moved towards the front of the large army that he was now in charge of. This time as the boy spoke his voice carried itself upon the wind echoing aloud for all the troops to hear, "We are at War, it is now time that we end this war. Our brother's in this battle are in need of our help, now let us go and help them and finish the enemy off." With that he began to March toward the battle field as fast as he knew the soldiers would be able to move without tiring themselves out before the fight even begun, the Konoha shinobi in tow. The only good thing about the entire situation was that they did not have to go far as they were already near the border where the fighting had broken out. As they reached the battlefield that swarmed the border line where those who were opposing the foreign aid of the villages fought to drive them out the boy say the devastation that all the fighting was causing to the land they needed to move quickly if they were going to help those already in the mist of fighting and help push the enemy back. "Now! Archers take position at one hundred meters, rain he'll fire down upon them! Infantry on me we will drive them back with their tails between their legs!" The boy shouted as the troops began taking on a different formation as the archer and infantry began separating from one another. It was time for both the military of Konoha and the militia of the rebel to see exactly what the young shinobi in charge was capable of.

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811

D-Rank Completed, Moving Directly onto C-Rank Mission.

750/750
61/1500

Makoto was not a big fan of these samurai as he hid inside the ruins as he heard a sound as someone fell as they kept marching on as the guy struggled while grumbling. "This shinobi was suppose to scout for us, what is he doing. Whatever I will catch up". As the weakling among the group this was the first clear job for Makoto, to thin out the forces even if it was only by one. This samurai was careless and having not bothered to look back Makoto through several shuriken to the back of the neck as the samurai turned around only to get hit by three kunai, one lodging itself in the man's eye and another in the guy's throat as he dropped down. This was war and the one rule everyone knew in war was there were two kinds of military.

There were those who left no man behind, standing side by side to die along with their comrades for the sake of friendship and teamwork. Then you had the pirate's code where those who fell behind were left behind as Makoto took out his tanto and slashed at the dying man who still managed to parry him as he struck clashing blades for a while until the man eventually lost his grip as Makoto finally landed another hit to the throat finally killing the man. If this man had been a shinobi he would have never fallen for the traps he had set up in the ruins, though some of the men were lucky and just passed all of them as he would carefully track them down. However he wanted to live so when he heard movement again he went back into hiding.

When he finally got closer it looked like the enemy forces of Konoha were unable to advance as he used this chance to go the long way around. It seemed they were trying to fight with archers as well as the infantry seeming to have trouble getting passed the wall of the rebel forces. Konoha must not have expected the shinobi forces mixed in with the rebels as Makoto felt that Konoha were just here to ravage the lands and take control of sunagakure as a base of operations. He had been attacked by two shinobi from the hidden leaf village, one who wanted to kill the refugees and disrupt his mission while another wanted to kill him in the depths of the war before changing his mind for the time being.

Makoto arrived on the other side and had identified himself as an ally for their cause, fighting for their independence until the very end. "I will help you, but I will not die for you" as they took that as good enough since any help was needed in this situation as he helped hinder the forces by giving them information on what he had seen. Knowing that Konoha had sent a samurai group meant they were probably attempting to push forward, however the rebel forces shinobi were not going to let them through so easily as they clashed with military might, the battle seemed to be at a stand still with the two shinobi preventing them from advancing. Makoto looked on and then helped to set up further traps and holes. With these efforts as he was busy a stray arrow came flying as he blocked it with his shield. This was unusually since their aim seemed to be improving for some unknown reason. Had the forces received a commander, or were they just getting better as time dragged on.

Makoto's hair felt like it was standing on edge when he noticed the shifting patterns while he was no tactical genius he did notice that the enemy seemed to be mounting an offensive as the two main shinobi who were perhaps of chuunin rank proceeded to perform their jutsu in sync with one another.

The shinobi seemed to have banded together in order to stop the one leading the charge as the one on the left formed the bird hand seal, the chakra condensed into several compressed spheres of wind that the shinobi shot out in rapid succession which had a knock back effect as debris seemed to leave a half a meter or more distance from these transparent air bullets as Makoto could not make sense of this combination as it was followed up at the same time by another technique as well.

The other shinobi formed the tiger hand seal and breathed in deeply filling his throat and lungs with chakra and exhaled a massive orb of roaring flames that seemed to overtake the other technique which may have been meant to hide it as the ball had more then twice the speed if the enemy avoided the ball they would get knocked back by the following wind technique which may knock them towards the ball of fire.

Either way these samurai would be no match for the technique, however should anything go wrong Makoto would retreat to the main camp of the rebel forces in order to let them know what was happening so that they would be able to be better prepared for the follow up from Konoha. This was a war, but Konoha were outsiders who needed to know their place and stop using force to subjugate this nation's land.

Makoto would take a mental note that he would need to train harder in the future to also use technique like those two, though he did not know it at the time. He would never see those two again as he helped finish setting up the traps and made a slow retreat after witnessing that beast's explosive entrance to the battle field as they would do all they could as a few dozen military men also joined in the battle to attempt to combat the onslaught. Was Konoha really this desperate to cause trouble for them as it became clear that the Fire Nation were out to destroy the Air Nomads, as the people hidden in the sand had no village and could only live as nomads if this continued. If only they asked for peace, if only Konoha was not so greedy, not that the other villages were any better in the first place as Makoto resolved himself not to worry as long as he stopped Konoha from destroying them so he could one day learn all their jutsu.

The land of the wind boasted a village hidden in the sand, however the land was barren of most resources. However the one thing they did have was the ability to use jutsu he may have never seen before, the one thing he understood about his parents was that one could learn many jutsu from the past as he would train every day to try and mimic jutsus he read about, not always sure what it was he was missing to complete them. However if he could just discover more and learn from what is left of this village it might prove to be even better for him in the future.

He wanted to help them not because it was the right thing to do, he was helping them so that he could one day learn from them. If they had nothing more to teach him he would not even bother to raise a finger as he was already risking his life enough as it is. Things were always heating up on the battlefield and it was now Makoto's time to shine as it were. However he could not believe the enemy would still force their way through when it was clear that his current group he was assisting clearly had the advantage. However he did not understand the true power of the one spear heading the operation, only time would tell if he would ever learn the truth that day as everything seemed to be in chaos on the battle fields as he wondered if the rebels were being a bit too confident with their numbers in this fight. One or two strong shinobi could easily turn the fight around, especially considering so many rebels were not shinobi to begin with.



Words = 534 + 1374 = 1908

Opposed Chain

D-Rank Completed = 750/750
C-Rank in Progress = 1158/1500

Exiting to accuire wc.

811 words