The Way of Stone D-Rank:

Things were not looking good for his village as he was told to meet up with a spy, but being rather tired and taking note of this he was assigned to take on this mission with a partner as he proceeded towards the meet up location to meet with his partner first. They would simply meet and from there head towards the location to meet with the spy to receive the reports from their informant.

As Makoto would go towards the meeting location for the start of the mission he had this bad feeling deep down inside that he could not shake off. His heart was racing and his mind was feeling heavy and weighted by the idea that his current ninjutsu were not good enough. He could not simply rely on his clones all the time, they cost far too much chakra and in the worst case scenario if they ended up dying too soon he would be left at a huge disadvantage since all of them were as lacking in skill as him. Makoto hoped that by meeting the informant he would also learn something, like new ninjutsu from another nation as he made his way and finally stopped.

When his partner arrived he would greet him with a light bow and politely introduce himself, "I am Makoto of Iwagakure"

Words = 222

Word had made it's way along the wind that Iwa was had arranged a meeting with a traitor, the young Anbu made his way across the sun scorched desert at an alarming rate his goal clear within his mind as his electric blue eye's scanned across the sands from behind the cover of his owl mask. The boy needed to find the traitor before the meeting could happen and eliminate him and any trace of the information he planned to hand over. As the male moved across the sands forming a single hand seal before transforming himself into the appearance of Makoto, a young male from the hidden Stone village that he had met not that long ago. He would be the perfect ploy to get the information from the spy without having to result to conflict and someone from the actual village hidden in stone showing up at the rendezvous spot. Raphael did not wish Makoto to be blamed for something he did, but Myrddin push those thoughts aside. He did not care about the boy the way Raphael did, to Myrddin, Makoto was nothing but a pawn in the war that was raging on around them and the male was naturally gifted at the manipulation of pawns. His only hope was that this spy had not met the boy before or he would surely see through the male's transformation, as the eye's of the young Kozai now inhabited the eye socket of the young Iwagakure Shinobi.

As the male neared the rendezvous spot he realized that something was not right, quickly activating his wind sense the boy realized that the spy was not alone. There were at least ten people in the area based off the movement he felt, 'Damn did the shinobi from Iwa already make it to him?' The boy thought to himself as he picked up his speed as he began flooding his body with chakra. Without so much as a warning the boy, disguised as Makoto tore into the group of ten and began taking them out one after another. Anyone that happened to come upon the scene would see the image of the young Iwagakure Shinobi Makoto moving with the grace and speed of a Taijutsu Master. Though the fight would not last long, it over almost as fast as it started as the men were no where near the skills of the male. His surprise strike mixed with his speed, and the men had no chance to defend themselves. It took little more than a few punches to each man, breaking the ribs, legs, arm of each man before a final strike that would snap the necks and smash in their skulls. After the fight was over and the male looked upon the men he realized that these were no Iwagakure Shinobi, they were nothing more than lowly bandits. They must have come to rob the traitor or even spring a trap upon the Iwa Shinobi that came to meet him, he quickly began searching the bodies of the downed men for any sign of the message the traitor might of had on him.

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526

Makoto had partnered up with some unknown shinobi as he moved towards the location, it would still take a while before his meet up as he hoped that the informant was still alive or that things would be fairly simple when he got there. The shinobi he was partnered with was the silent type similar to him as they made no idol conversation as this partner spent time mumbling about things as out of boredom and curiosity he began to listen.

The partner whispered these things so that most would not here, though being right next to him it was almost impossible to ignore. "I can't believe I have to come all the way here to this stinking desert, and now they partner me up with some little kid, what happened to the older generation now kids are all running like mad with sword in hand as they create a mess all across the land. My wife kicked me out the house because of my own kid not liking my ugly face, and now worst of all this kid here is also looking at me every now and then. Can you hear me kid, no this kid is too green he does not even know what I am saying in the first place. You do know that if this informant was sloppy it could be an ambush right, are you even a real shinobi kid. If I was not getting paid for this, I would leave you here right now to see what the real world is like. "

As Makoto thought to himself he got a really annoying old guy for this mission as deep down inside he wished this guy would leave him alone, as they got closer towards the rendezvous point. Makoto stood a bit back as he decided he would use this guy as a meat shield if he had to, he was not going to take point for a jerk like this. He wished he was back with Raphael again, Raphael made their previous mission so easy with his awesome skills as he thought to himself how things were going south real fast with the mood as he hoped the informant was alive so he could just head back to the camp with good news.

However even without experience he knew a late informant was either injured or dead. The reason the mission was of such a low rank, was simply because the area the informant was hanging around in was a rather peaceful area and had no real vantage points making it under patrolled and rarely covered by anything other then bandits thinking the same thing. Makoto would prepare to use his clone technique if he needed to as they were getting closer to the location.

Words = 222 + 462 = 684

The male cheered silently to himself as he found the message he was looking for in the man, however his celebration was very short lived as he soon picked up movement on the edge of his wind sense. There was not doubt that it had to be the Iwa Shinobi sent to meet the messenger, the male did not know who it was not did he care. It was time for him to get out of there, placing a fake note within the pocket of the messenger should the Iwa Shinobi try to locate the information the traitor was to hand over to them. Should they take it this information would lead to the downfall of Iwagakure's operations within the Land of Wind, the boy turned and began his departure from the site. Should anyone see him he was still transformed into Makoto so there would be no chance that they would be able to connect it back to himself and he was not planning on sticking around as he quickly moved across the desert sand. Now that he had prevented the leak of information there was nothing to stop the plan from going through without a hitch. Once the boy was far enough away from the scene he had left behind he ended his transformation, reverting back to himself in his Anbu gear as he approached the Kumogakure base camp.

{Exit Thread}

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758

Mission Completed: -750

The more experienced of the two raised up his arm to signal for Makoto to stop moving, the experienced shinobi looked around at the site as Makoto caught on as well afterwards. Everyone was dead, this was not a good thing as they looked around and then spotted the dead informant. Makoto moved towards the target and got pushed to the side as the other shinobi checked the body frisking it all over before stopping after getting hold of some note that seemed to match the note they were looking for, something did seem a bit off but the shinobi did not really care as he tossed it over to Makoto.

"Deliver that back to the camp, I have other business to take care of. Oh and if you fail to deliver it back I will kill you"

With that comment the guy vanished as Makoto returned back to the base camp with the information not knowing it was actually bad intel.

There were a few things that seemed to run through Makoto's mind on his way back to turn in the mission, sometimes even partners in a mission did not get along. However even though his partner for this mission disliked him and wanted to leave him to die, he made sure to let Makoto stay back when he noticed danger and even retrieving the information the older shinobi stepped in.

That shinobi had went on and on about leaving him to die and learn about the real world, but in the end the shinobi was being extra careful and looking out for him. This made no sense to Makoto who did not understand that while the man was grumpy and serious in general, he was actually a doting father who worked hard to look after his child back home. Being that Makoto was young and to some degree a bit clueless to the situation, the older shinobi felt it was his duty to look after the younger generation. He was not bothered that the younger generation was around, he was bothered by them all taking the path of a shinobi.

Makoto knew that he could not accept it in the end
He worked and trained hard in the pursuit of jutsu and now this was how things were to become for him in the future. He wanted to be sheltered, he wanted to be loved and he wanted all those things normal kids wanted. However in the end he already knew he was no normal kid and that all those things were lost to him as he thought back to all those dead bandits and the informant. If they had gotten there sooner would he have been just another body littered among the rest of them as he made his way back he was still brooding as he realized they went further then he thought.

Makoto had to make a change of pace
As the only reason it ended so soon was cause it seemed like a race
A rush to finish the mission
Avoiding any kind of intermission
Was in the end his only decision
As he came to realize things with new intuition

Makoto did not understand where it all went wrong
Did the informant get found out or were the enemy too strong
In the end he did not even know if he would ever belong
As he opened his mouth to let out the words of a forgotten song

"la la la la la, le la lu, la la la, le la lu"
"la la le lu, la le lu la, li la la le lu, la le too"
"la la la le, la la la le, la la la le, la le lu"
"la la la le, la la la le, la la la le, la le lu"

As he began to bounce to the beat
Never looked back as he walked on his feet
Lost inside no where to hide
Who cared in time he had to bide

Bide time like he had no choice
Make sounds like he had no voice
Every day he trained making his loud noise
The beauty of noise in the choice made by silent voice

"la la la la la, le la lu, la la la, le la lu"
"la la le lu, la le lu la, li la la le lu, la le too"
"la la la le, la la la le, la la la le, la le lu"
"la la la le, la la la le, la la la le, la le lu"

He remembered how he trained hard
If jutsu was a song, he was a bard
An artist without art, like scholar who is not smart
Everytime he acts like a poptart

Upstart, bringing the pain
Everytime he makes he new jutsu he has to explain
How everytime he tries to think it hurts his brain
And all that is left is the fragments of the jutsu in the rain

"laaa leeeeee luuuuuuuu, laaa leeeee luuuuuuuuuuuu"
"La..... leeee......... luuuuuuu........."

As Makoto continued on his way
He would keep humming till he arrived as people thought he was simply a child at play
Not realizing Makoto was still very much a shinobey

[exit]

Words = 684 + 870 = 1554
Mission = 750
Extra Pay = 600 (25x6=150ryo)
Training Strength E1 - E2 = 150
Total = 1500

Opposed by Myrrdin (x2)