Mission name: Increased patrols .
Mission rank: B-Rank.
Objective: Clear the sector of Bandits.
Location: Rolling hills of Konoha.
Reward: 500 Ryo.
Mission description: Trade routes to the north-east have been raided by bandits heavily in the past month. Normally our regulars would take care of this but the squads that normally patrol that area have their hands full.
Mission details: Eight bandits are camped about half a mile off the road. Five of the bandits have C-3 stats and use bows that can drive arrows two inches deep into flesh  while two bandits with B-1 and use a-rank clubs that are able to break bones. Their leader, a large beast of a man that stands over seven feet tall and has B-3 stats wields a war-hammer that can shatter bones and cause internal bruises. These men have been using their brute strength and numbers to raid caravans, rather than any real jutsu.

Yojo hopped out of the wagon, landing on his feet and dusting the hay off of his clothes. Travelling from Konoha to the border wasn't a hard thing to do per se, it was just damn time consuming to do so. Even for a Chunin like him who specialized in being fast and slippery, sprinting from the walls of Konohagakure to the fringes of the Land of Fire was exhausting. So, like any self-respecting shinobi knowing that they were heading into a fight, Yojo opted to do the next best thing: be lazy and hitch a ride on some farmer's cart. The farmer in question was a senile old man who seemed more offended at having a freeloader hitch a ride, even if said freeloader was a shinobi of the village. They watched Yojo dust himself off with a none-too-subtle look of disdain for the younger man. "You'd better take care my boy. These roads are plagued by bandits. You can never be too safe around here" he warned. Yojo frowned, looking to the man poking his head from the front of the cart. "I told you, like, six times that I'm a shinobi. Dealing with bandits is low on the priority list of things to worry about. It feels like theres always some new gaggle of bandits popping up somewhere around Hi no Kuni" he replied in a snappy tone. The old man didn't seem phased though, instead continuing to speak in a forboding tone.

"I bet they're watching us right now ya know, just sittin' there, planning to gut ya'" the old timer commented, sniffing loudly as he looked along the woodland path to the dark underbrush that lay beyond. Yojo looked down at his bag of supplies, checking his kit once, trying to keep his mind off the geezer who seemed just a bit too excited at the prospect of him wandering off and ending up dead in some ditch. "Kids these days, I tell ya- they don't know what it was like back then. They keep their heads stuck in the clouds, I'm tellin ya. They keep thinking about pre-marital sex and drugs and being hoodlums" the merchant said, even though Yojo hadn't exactly asked for their full opinion on the current socio-cultural trends within his generation. "Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to go shoot?" he asked snappily, looking back up to the old man as he in turn seemed to come back to the present. A frown was prevalent on his face. "So yer reaaaaally staying out here, eh? Even with all that talk of them Jashinists running about" he asked, much ot Yojos chagrin. How many times had they been over this? "My partner's on their way, I'll be fine" he stated. He walked up to the front of the cart, aware of the leering look that the farmer gave. He slapped the bum of the horse, causing them to neigh suddenly and break off into a gallop up the road.

The merchant yelled a few obscenities in Yojo's direction, angrily shaking their fist, but they were soon out of sight. With them gone, the Joe clansman was alone once again. He turned on his sharingan, shutting his eyes for a moment to get into the zone, before opening them to reveal the simple Two Tomoe that had become increasingly familiar over the past few months. These eyes had felt foreign to him when he first activated them, yet now, they finally felt like an extension of himself. He hummed, looking around the area for any scouts possibly spying on him from a distance. These bandits weren't shinobi, but that didn't mean they didn't have chakra signatures. He could see them, track them, from a great distance away. For now though, the man simply adjusted his sword and found a flat-top rock along the side of the road. It was a boulder a few feet in height. He sat on top of it, folding his legs underneath him and resting his chin in his palm. Now, with his new sedentary position embraced, Yojo began to wait for his partner to arrive. He didn't know anything about them save for a name: Kisei. He couldn't say he was familiar with it, nor the stranger's clan- still, they were devoted shinobi of Konoha. Hopefully that would be enough to get him past any communication breakdowns.

He'd gotten the request for this mission somewhat out of the blue. Maybe it was because the last time he'd been forced to clear out some bandits, he'd done it so quickly and efficiently. God, he really hoped he wasn't getting typecast as the generic shinobi who always picked up bandit-related missions. Sure, he'd had some pretty major help from Sunadokei and N'Jobu, but it seemed that he was the one who was going to get the brunt of the bandit bashing missions. Yojo pulled out the paper and looked it over again lazily, looking the reports over a tad. This gang seemed quite a lot more violent than the previous hoodlums that had been squatting in the ruins of the fire temple. It said they didn't know any jutsu, but surely their physical strength must've been impressive if they had managed to rise to such infamy by now. "God damn bandits" Yojo muttered to himself, grumbling in frustration as he put the request away. He looked up and down the road, keeping a sharingan-enhanced-eye out for any travelers with a konoha headband. They hadn't told him what this Kisei would look like, so he was going with his gut on this one. Occasionally, he'd look over his shoulder to check for chakra signatures in the treeline behind him aways. Still nothing to note... Yet he couldn't help but shake the words the merchant had said. These forests were spooky. Spooky forests never added anything productive to a mission, so far as Yojo was concerned.

1025/1025

Yojo heard footsteps approaching. He turned his head to look up the road. There was a slight heat haze that made the figure appear a tad distorted as they approached gradually. He had to squint, even without using his sharingan, to better discern their features. Firstly, oh lord he was short. They were a far cry from the tall height that Yojo knew all his life. The stranger was skinny, somewhat gaunt looking, and clad in a black outfit that combined with the heat of the midsummer's day, made him appear like a haze of black slowly approaching. There was no doubt in the shinobi's mind that this was his partner for this mission, beyond the Hi no Kuni symbol emblazened proudly on his attire. Perhaps the most strange thing of all though, was the umbrella that the stranger carried with them. They didn't seem to be carrying any items or materials, just a somewhat classy looking umbrella to shield them from the overbearing sun. Once they got close enough, they called out to Yojo, shaking him out of his inner thoughts and back to the present. It took a moment for him to respond, "Sure, let's go with that" he called back. The introduction was a tad jarring, if only for the somewhat cocky air that the stranger was giving off to him.

"You're Kisei then? Kisei Ushinatta?" he asked, looking the shorter male over as he stood up off his rock. He had to crane his neck down a tad to look at him. Violet eyes? That was an interesting color. "I'm Yoshihiro. Yoshihiro Joe" he introduced, gesturing to himself before offering a hand to shake. Hopefully that would be enough of some kind of formality. "How many bandit-related missions have you had to deal with? Three? Two?" he asked, finding this whole assignment rather annoying. He'd literally just finished another similar mission with N'Jobu and Sunadokei, why the hell was he the one being saddled with the generic bandit hideout quests? "This gang is apparently quite nasty. No shinobi amongst them, but they're all physically up there with Tokujo. It'd be good for me to know what kind of jutsu you use ahead of time to plan a surprise attack" he stated, not so subtly trying to fish out soem information about his new partner. He'd never heard of the Ushinatta before. Were they more traditional 'fighters' or 'duelists' like Yojo? Sensory or 'support-nin'? Medical specialists? Having an idea of what Kisei could do would go a long way. Yojo decided to offer himself up first. "I'm a swordsman, I cut and stab things very well. I put the edge in edgy" he explained with a shrug.

Once the small talk was out of the way, Yojo would nod to his partner and then look to the woods nearby. "Well, tally-ho" he said somewhat half-heartedly. He blinked, closing his eyes for a second before reopening them with his sharingan. "I'll keep an eye out while we search for the camp... Heh, 'keep an eye out', sharingan- I kill myself sometimes" he grumbled mostly to himself. With that bad joke, the Chunin leapt into the treeline nearby and began jumping from branch to branch. He'd respond to Kisei if they tried to talk more, he had to attempt to be 'social' and whatnot, though for the most part his focus was on looking around for any ambient chakra signatures from foraging bandits. Truthfully, it took some time to eventually make progress, they were essentially wandering around the forested wilderness along the border of Hi no Kuni looking for a hidden camp. After a few hours though, they finally caught their break. Yojo would hum, turning to face the disturbance he saw with his sharingan before leaping off in that direction. "Hold up, stop the presses, don't eat the last of your potato chips" Yojo would said in pointless jargon. Coming to a stop, he'd look out through a thick canopy of branches and leaves. There was a clearing up ahead, a camp in the middle of the woods. A curosry surveying was enough to deduce that this was the camp they'd been looking for. The majority were in the tents. Obscured to the naked eye, but discernable via chakra through the meager barreirs.


"I see four bandits in the big tent in the middle there. Two in the one close to the firepit. One in the tent at the entrance, and another in the one next to the waterfall" he analyzed, his shringan spinning idly. Yojo stepped back from the parted shrubs, obscuring the view into the camp briefly. He looked to Kisei. "How do you want to do this?" he asked, wondering if the other Chunin had any final input before they committed to a surprise attack.

825/1850

Yojo thought the options over for a while, slav squatting on the sturdy tree branch next to the rather strange looking shinobi. He'd been told these marauders did not know jutsu, which really, made them only a bit better than glorified punching bags. On the one hand, he could likely cleave a path through their camp like he had with N'Jobu and Sunadokei, but on the other it might pay off to go through all of this with a bit more tactfulness. He rubbed his thin, thinking as Kisei spoke. "Ehhhh, fine, alright. We'll try to step a bit more lightly on the lighter side of gray and just subdue them" he conceded. He stood up from his spot, peering again through the shrubs out to the camp below. Yojo watched his partner reach into their pocket and pull out a sealing scroll. A few moments later, he saw the enigmatic lad hold a pinwheel and an umbrella, proudly equipped for battle. Yojo couldn't help but blink for a moment in confusion and concern. Kisei was going to use an... Umbrella and pinwheel to fight? Sure he'd heard of shinobi using some rather unorthodox tools to devastting effect, but this almost seemed like a bridge too far in that regard. Realizing he'd been staring a tad, the shinobi blinked back to attention, turning to look back through the leaves to the camp below. "Alright, sure. I'll start at the waterfall and move counterclockwise toward the entrance. You take out that firepit and deal with whoever's in the main tent" Yojo repeated just so that they could be on the same page. Once he was sure that Kisei was ready, he'd give a final, his sharingan still activated, before body flickering away.

He'd reappear on the far side of the camp behind a boulder. Behind him was the gentle groan of a moderately sized waterfall. Ahead of him was the silhouette of a chakra signature within the nearby tent. They were big, taller than Yojo to be certain. He narrowed his overpowered-red-gaze as he focused in on the signature. He didn't need hand seals for what would come next, nor anything else really, all he had to do now was focus. An invisible stream of yin chakra would zip forwards through the air, passing through the pelt tent. Yojo watched with baited breath as he saw the genjutsu connect with the seated figure. He saw the way that they froze up, totally paralyzed from head to toe by the invisible doppleganger that only they could see within their illusion. In a swift but silent blitz, Yojo would step across the ground towards the tent to disappear inside. He saw the large, pudgy looking man stare wide-eyed ahead, lost within the bowls of the Joe-clansman's genjutsu. From a cursory surveying of the tent's interior, Yojo could tell that this place must've been their little 'treasury room' of sorts. There was jewels, stacks of plundered ryo, and other expensive looking valuables scattered about. On the desk was a ledger where this bandit must've been keeping track of their intake of 'income'. Yojo frowned, what heartless fiends to steal from another!

"Bad" the young man simply said, brining his sword up and slamming its butt down on the back of the man's skull. The goon slumped to the floor, knocked out by the hit. Well that was easy. Yojo looked around the room again, spotting a large wooden club on the ground near the opposite entrance. It was a beast of a thing, this guy must've been pretty damn strong to use it in a fight! Stealth really must've been the safer choice here. They'd whittle them all down until it was just a handful left to subdue. The Uchiha looked through the pelt tent, looking again at the chakra signatures in the camp. Kisei should've been somewhere nearby taking down the bandits closest to he fire pit. Most seemed to be celebrating in the main tent. He could hear a clammor of sound and laughter radiating from the large structure. Yojo slipped out of the tent again, keeping low to the ground as he moved counter-clockwise around the main tent and the center of the camp. He could see another goon keeping watch near the entrance of the tent, their chakra signature slumped forwards in a way that seemed vigilant. Yojo activated the same paralytic jutsu as before, stunning the unawares bandit once they were in range and knocking them out with the butt of his weapon.

Well, things were going smoothly so far... But how was his partner faring?

792/2642

"Everything okay?" Yojo asked loudly to Kisei, poking his head out of the tent near the front of the camp to look expectantly towards the sounds of commotion coming from the main structure in the center of the settlement. He'd been tracking his partner's movements with his sharingan, but had let the black and purple Chunin go about his business. With Yojo's targets subdued, he could look back at the main tent where the last bandits were hiding and yikes, things were suddenly going south. He blinked slowly as he saw the structure begin to collapse, the wooden support beams keeping it up having been seemingly destroyed. "I'm taking that as a 'no'" he said, observing the way that the tiny cube the shinobi had tossed suddenly transformed into a very large one. The cube crashed down on top of the tent, breaking the rest of the wooden support beams but failing to fall down onto the ground. The sounds of frustrated and angry grunting was enough to clue Yojo in on what was happening. This bandit leader was seriously strong enough to hold up that huge box! Yojo stepped out of the tent he'd been watching from, bringing his sword back and to the side in preparation for the usage of lethal force. He bent his knees as he spoke, "Don't need to tell me twice!" he said, winding up visibly.

In a flash- or rather, a dash- he was gone. Leaping forward with a burst of amplified Futon coursing around him like a pocket slipstream, the Chunin zipped into the tent at a breakneck speed. As he dashed underneath Kisei and his cube, he'd move alongside the bandit leader straining to hold the box up over his head. Yojo would slash horizontally with his sword at the bandit's abdomen, Raiton erupting along his blade as he did so to utilize the full cutting power of the chidori. With the combined power of his sword and of the enhancing jutsu, Yojo would brutally bisect the beastly bandit. With a loud, "Chaaa!" ringing through the air, the Chunin would emerge from the other side of the tent to end his seamless dashing attack. Keen to capitalize on style points for the invisible judges watching him, Yojo would sheath his blade slowly, looking ahead of him. With all this extra edge, he was certain that his blade had been able to finish the job. A loud and pained yell came from underneath where Kisei stood, accompanied by the tent collapsing. The animal pelts and furs obscuring the bandit from view fell away, revealing the large man as he strained against the cauterized wound that had cleaved through his gut.

"W-Well, that wasn't so bad" he started, chuckling morbidly in denial. Suddenly, his lower half gave out from underhim, resulting in his upper body falling to the ground like a stump, still holding the cube above his bisected torso. "I-It's just a flesh wound!" he refuted in pain. Yojo raised an eyebrow, damn bandit had some spirit to him. "It'll take a lot more than that to take me down!" he proclaimed, to which Yojo walked around to the front of the bandit before silently looking up to the top of the cube where he'd last seen Kisei standing. "I mean, you're already down on the ground, right?" he asked before jumping up next to the puppet user. The added weight of a second body on the cube seemed to be too much for the bandit to bear, the weight of it all and the pain causing his resolve to break. Yojo felt the cube slowly lowering downwards as the bandit's strength started to give out, "Nonononono" he head before a loud crunching sound cut the stammering off. With that rather comical final death, their duty was done. There would've been no way to not use lethal force there... Besides, they captured the rest of the bandit gang, surely missing one wouldn't dock them points with the Kage's office, right?

Yojo hummed idly as he looked around the base of the cube. "Well that was different" he surmised. Death-by-cube and death-by-umbrella weren't things he'd been expecting to witness today, and yet here he was. He looked back to Kisei, "Good job. I'm impressed! I hope we can work together again someday" he complimented, rather charmed by the strange shinobi's unorthodox fighting style. He surveyed the aftermath of the battle as he spoke next, eyeing the unconscious bandits with his sharingan. "If you ever need a mission partner feel free to reach out!". With that, Yojo hopped down from the cube to the ground, being careful to avoid any nasty bandit blood. "You coming back to the village or not? We'll just make some poor Genin carry these guys back- give them a bit of trauma to develop from. Character building and all that" he suggested, waiting for Kisei's answer before he'd depart.

883/3525

[Exit]

Total WC: 3525

• B-rank Mission Completion: 2500/2500
  
• B-rank Bonus Ryo: 1000/1000 (250 bonus ryo)