Mission: Securing Assets:

I had finally done it. I, Nobuya Yomechiro, had actually passed the graduation exam and become a full-fledged ninja of Kirigakure. I was still in shock at the prospect, staring at my shiny new headband that signified my newly acquired status in the mirror of my room. If I was going to be honest, it looked a little bit weird. It was like a whole different Nobuya was staring back at me, a Nobuya with responsibility. I couldn’t just be the kid who would shirk schoolwork so that I could have more time to mess with sealing jutsu. I was a part of my village, and a part of my nation’s military forces if need be. And especially in Kirigakure, that meant that I had to be a fighter, at least in mentality. We may have left the days of the “Bloody Mist” behind us, but we still had a culture that very much enjoyed a good fight every now and again. Of course, I would still be the kid spending as much time as possible messing with new fuuinjutsu techniques, but now I wouldn’t quite have the opportunity I would before. I sighed, and of course the Nobuya in the mirror sighed back. It was still strange to see that Nobuya in a headband (and of course it was very strange that I was thinking somewhat in the third person), but I knew I couldn’t just stare into the mirror all day. This was the day I was going to receive my first mission! I was a bit nervous, but that feeling was quickly overcome with excitement. I know it was just going to be a D-rank mission, probably finding a lost book or getting pet food for Lady Mikzukage’s tiger or something, but it was my first step towards becoming a better ninja, and I couldn’t wait.

After eating a quick breakfast, I headed out towards Kirigakure’s mission board to see what my day would be spent on.

“Securing Assets,” I mumbled to myself. Seemed simple enough. There was an abandoned mine to the west of here, and they needed someone to go and collect some materials from it. I could do that! I was a bit puzzled by the mention of the mine supposedly being haunted, but I just smiled to myself.

I wonder if I could somehow make a ghost-sealing jutsu? Would ghosts just be made of chakra, or would I need to do something like what I’ve been working on with my Kunai-Catching Seal? Wait, why am I even thinking about this? I have a mission to do!

I snapped myself out of my self-created daze and, after officially taking the mission, set off for the docks. Apparently, there was a boat that was taking ninja like myself, mostly Genin, out to the different islands for pretty similar missions. A few of my classmates were also there, experiencing their first missions too. After talking to some of the others, I discovered that I apparently was the only one going to a haunted mine.

“Yeah, that place’s spooky. My older brother had to go there once. He wouldn’t talk to me for a week. Something really shook him up.”

“Oh, you’d never catch me going there. Even for a prank, that place’s too creepy.”

“Ah, what’s everyone getting so worked up about? It’s probably fine. Still, uh…be careful Nobuya. You don’t happen to have, like, an anti-possession seal, do ya?”

Well, isn’t this just fantastic. My first mission, and I was being warned not to get possessed. How would I even come up with an anti-possession seal? Actually, now that I think about it, if my previous hypothesis about ghosts being made out of chakra, or at least a chakra-like substance, was correct, it wouldn’t necessarily be to hard to- NOBUYA!

I interrupted my own train of thought. I couldn’t get bogged down with daydreaming about new jutsu right now, I had a mission to get prepared for.

…I could isolate the foreign chakra using my own chakra, and drive it into a seal somewhere! That actually wouldn’t be a bad defense against genjutsu, now that I thought about it. The problem, of course would be-NOBUYA! WHAT DID I JUST SAY/THINK TO YOU/ME! FOCUS ON THE MISSION NOW, RESEARCH AND DEVELOP NEW SEALING JUTSU LATER.

After snapping myself out of it a second time, I double-checked the kunai and senbon I had packed this morning. I didn’t really think I would need any of it, but a ninja must always be prepared, and its better to be safe than sorry, and all sorts of other sayings I learned at the academy that would probably apply to this situation. I was all good to go. The ferryman approached, and we set off on a rather short and uneventful boat ride. Soon, I was at the island.

“Alright, you’re one of the ones who’s gathering materials, so you’ll be picked up about five hours from now in a boat that can actually accommodate cargo,” explained the ferryman. I waved goodbye and he set off.

I turned around and followed the worn-out path to the long-abandoned mine.

Welp, guess I better get started.

WC: 902

After a rather short walk, I reached the mine entrance at the bottom of a cliff. It looked like it used to be boarded up, but even the boarding up was so long ago that the planks had fallen to the ground. I didn’t know if this was the only mine entrance, but I knew that there was only one underground network of mines on the island, so it was probably safe to go in this one.

Not necessarily safe for people, just safe for the mission.

I noticed my heart was beating like crazy and took a moment to steady my breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

Ok, it was time to do this. I grinned as I took my first steps into the mine. The entrance I had gone into was fairly narrow, and the temperature dropped quickly while the light became scarcer. I could still see, for now, but I knew that wouldn’t last long. Luckily, the fact that this used to be a mine meant that there were still torches on the walls and on the floor. Most of them were too burned to reignite, but I found a couple that I think would work well. I didn’t know exactly how long I’d be down here, though I wasn’t hoping it’d be for long. While I was at it, I grabbed a canvas bag to hold anything that I found down here. I scanned the rocks on the ground and found the next thing I was looking for.

Convenient that they had a bunch of flint here, but I guess miners would need it then like I need it now if they ever ran out of other fire-starting materials.

I grabbed a piece of flint and used it, along with my kunai, to light one of the torches. I made a mental note to remember to re-sharpen that kunai when I had a chance. It isn’t good to be walking around with dull blades. When the torch finally caught flame, I noticed a shadow flicker in the corner of my eye. I turned around, kunai still in hand, but there didn’t seem to be anything. I breathed out.

What those other genin said might be getting to me. It was just a shadow. You introduced a new light source. It makes sense. It wasn’t a zombie. Probably.

I stowed my kunai away and started heading down deeper into the mine. It began to branch out, so I decided to do the old trick of keeping my hand on the right wall, hoping I hadn’t missed any right turns so far. It wasn’t too far a walk, though at one point I nearly tripped over some wooden planks. There was a small sign on one of them, but it was way too faded for me to read. Once I crossed that point, though, I noticed that there were occasional clumps of ore on the ground, free from the walls they were mined from. Eventually, I reached a surprisingly abundant part of the cave and began filling the canvas sack.

In the distance, I heard a low noise, a sort of rumbling sound.

Well, that didn’t sound good. I have enough material, it’s probably fine for me to head back up now.

I realized I hadn’t even been keeping track of the time. It hadn’t felt like too long, but I wasn’t sure. Now having my left hand on the wall on the way back up, I walked back for a bit until I realized I was at a wholly unfamiliar turn.

I felt the rocks in front of me. No dust. Now I was sure, these weren’t here before. Only now did I realize in horror what the sign had said, why the mine was abandoned, what that noise was, why there was so much more free ore in this section than anywhere else I had been in the mines. I closed my eyes and could only imagine what it probably said:

“WARNING: AREA PRONE TO CAVE-INS. DO NOT ENTER!”

I was trapped. On my first mission. Oops.

WC: 700
Total WC: 1602

Okay, I’m blocked in this way. Shouldn’t be a problem if there’s another way out, right? The first thing you do when making a mine would be to construct another tunnel in case one of them collapsed. Hopefully, that one hasn’t collapsed as well. Then again, this mine was abandoned...

I tried to shove the thoughts that this may be my only way out into the back of my mind as I turned around to head back down. What I saw just a couple meters down the path however, startled me so badly I accidentally dropped my torch. It looked like a giant shadowy creature, standing a good couple of feet taller than me. It seemed to have a strange silhouette, with a back that arched towards what I could only guess was its front from the positioning of its other limbs. Speaking of its limbs, its arms were strangely thick and short compared to the rest of its body. Needles to say, it wasn’t a welcome sight to have seen unexpectedly in a cave without any real clear detail.

“AHH!” I yelled.

”AHH!”-Real befitting of a ninja, ain’t it?

I bent down and tried to pick up the torch as quickly as I could without burning myself. When I looked back up, the thing was gone. I hadn’t heard anything scamper off, but then again, I was a bit preoccupied.

Ok, that was weird. I think it was some sort of animal, but what kind of animal looks like that?

Torch in hand, I carefully crept forward, keeping an eye out for anything that moved down here. There weren’t many things, so I began to grow antsy at every shifting rock or lost insect. Slowly I made my way back through the tunnel, and began exploring the rest of the (accessible) underground system. After about an hour and a half of searching (in which I had picked up some new shiny things along the way), I had made my way back to the main area where I had obtained most of my materials.

Well, no luck there. I couldn’t find any exits close by, and I don’t want to go too far down in case I get trapped by a second cave-in.

I considered my options.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to try just moving the rocks enough to squeeze out could it? I mean, it probably could, but I don’t know enough about cave structural integrity to say for sure. I guess it’s my best course of action right now.

I grabbed my things and headed back up towards the blocked path. When I reached the cave-in, however, I was in for a bit of a surprise.

“Ok, this was definitely not how the rocks looked before.”

Somehow, the formation of the fallen rocks had changed almost completely since I was last here. Around the edges, it seemed mostly the same, but in the center there was a single huge rock blocking the path where there definitely wasn’t before. I hadn’t heard any other cave-ins or large falling rocks, but small cracks on the rocks beneath suggested to me that it looked to have fallen.

Or was dropped by something. Ya know, like those ghosts that you might’ve been able to develop a sealing jutsu for if you weren’t so quick to dismiss the idea…Ok, I have to get out of this mine. It’s making me paranoid. Just like I always suspected…

I tried to edge around the giant rock, but there just barely wasn’t enough room. Somehow, I would have to move this rock. I briefly considered trying to destroy it, but I didn’t exactly have the strength, nor the repertoire of jutsu necessary to pull something like that off. I had always focused on sealing techniques, because to me, they were always the most fun. You had to be able to come up with a bunch of weird things for locking things away, sealing formulae that would need to be exact enough to accomplish the task, but simple enough not to require all your concentration and/or chakra while doing it. Also, it was surprisingly difficult to develop fuinjutsu without either accidentally sealing a good portion of your own chakra or destroying the paper seals or scrolls you had been working with. Which is what I had done right before I graduated from the academy. While working on a technique that eventually became my Minor Seal Transfer Jutsu, I might’ve accidentally ruined a scroll by sealing half of itself inside the other half and rendering it pretty much useless. I wondered if I could even seal away something this big with just a simple enclosing technique.

So, I decided that none of my jutsu would cut it. I would have to use pure strength. In terms of which, I was pretty much average for shinobi. Maybe even a bit below average.

Probably wasn’t the greatest idea to skip so many taijutsu classes.

I winced. The past was the past, and I didn’t have time to spend reminiscing. I had a rock to move. I rested my torch and canvas bag on the wall (not too close), grabbed hold of the rock, and started pulling. Despite my efforts, it would not budge, and every time I tried pulling harder, I would just slip and fall.

Huh, maybe a jutsu COULD come in handy.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. This was one of the last jutsu we learned, but even I had managed to do pretty well with it. After all, all those afternoons and nights messing with new sealing formulae had helped me quite a bit with chakra control. I focused my chakra in the palm of my hands.

A steady stream. Keep calm. Keep control.

I exhaled. I grabbed on, sticking due to the chakra I was using to keep my grip on the rock. I opened my eyes.

Alright! It’s time to do this!

I started pulling, and pulling, and pulling. I knew this wasn’t the last rock I had to move, but it was the first hurdle in my way and I. Was. Going. To. Do. This. I could feel it start to give way.

Yes! Now just a little more!

After one last burst of effort, I finally managed to pull the rock out and away, giving me enough space to squeeze through.

“WOOHOO! Yes! I actually did it!” I half exclaimed, half laughed to myself.

I picked up my stuff, squeezed my way around the newly freed rock and…

“Wait…what?”

There was…a tunnel. A fully formed tunnel right behind the rock, clearly constructed pretty recently. I was left wondering about why the heck weird stuff kept happening in this mine as I crawled my way out.

Eventually, I reached the shore of the island, where just a little while later, the other ferryman found a very dirty, very tired, very proud shinobi who had completed his mission.

Epilogue:
I climbed up the stairs and opened the door to my room. Just as I was about to flop myself down onto the bed, I glimpsed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked, quickly discovering that my headband in my mirror had caught just the faintest glint of moonlight passing through my bedroom window. I looked at the figure standing there, dirty and disheveled, probably needing a bath but a bit too tired to take one. But with a smile I didn’t even realize I had been making. I had actually done it, I completed my first ever mission! It was a bit weird, no doubt, but I was proud of myself. Maybe that Nobuya staring back at me wasn’t too different after all.

Chakra: 245/250:

WC: 1318
Total WC: 2920
750: Completing Mission
-Requesting Payment in a D-rank jutsu rather than ryo
900: Train C-rank jutsu (10% discount from Quick Learner)
450: Train E-rank jutsu (again, 10% discount)
750: Train Speed D-1->D-2
Remaining WC: 70