Fuyuki wiped the sweat off his brow as he trudged alongside the caravan, led by a single horse.

The caravan looked something like a half-cylinder lying on its side, with the flat side facing downwards. On the two two flat circular ends of the cylinder lay a sliding door each, painted green in colour, though the bright paint was fading away from the course wood. The caravan was supported by four large wheels, also made of wood, and seemed to be ready to collapse at any moment, yet held firm regardless.

Within the caravan were two men, one of which was the mission client, going by the name of Tanama Housuki. He was in his late thirties and had requested the aid of ninjas to guard his caravan throughout the trip from wherever he was to Konoha. He had been frantic about his wares being stolen, though Fuyuki couldn't see what bandit would go out of their way and plan an elaborate ambush to steal the little money he had after paying for all those ninjas.

A team of advanced ninjas had already escorted him from the Land of Wind into the Land of Fire, fending off several wild animals that seemed to attack even more wildly than before when they had been crossing the border. While it was nothing too dangerous, the merchant had been adamant on another group of ninjas guarding him as he made his way through the Land of Fire and into the prosperous village of Konohagakure.

As the advanced team had been called off for more important matters – village security important – Fuyuki himself had been sent. While Konoha was prosperous and was flourishing at the moment, it still couldn't afford to lose any manpower, what with the pressure of growing further and also the drums of war beating on the horizon. Fuyuki had had to tree hop all the way from Konoha to the merchant's location, a small town he had remained with two of his ninja guards while the third went for Fuyuki.

He had been angry at first that his request for a team had been denied, but relaxed when he realised Fuyuki was somewhat proficient, which happened when the Chunin guarding him had pretended to be hit by Fuyuki's punch, just so they could trick him and let the relatively more professional ninja, who had had too much of his blabbering, be on their way.

As of now, Fuyuki was regretting taking the job. It had been a good few hours since he had begun escorting the merchant. The merchant's friend had been someone he met while they had been exiting the village, so not once had the merchant paid him any mind or shared any of his long stories with the young blonde, so his sanity was still fairly intact, albeit dwindling somewhat from the boy's own impatience.

He heard a loud roar, and the merchants yelled out in fright as they poked their heads out and saw a large lion right in their path. Its small, beady eyes hidden by its relatively hairy mane pierced through their soul, the killing intent it radiated paralysing their body with fear and forcing them to live through vivid replays of their deaths, mauled time and time again by the lion.

Fuyuki? He was unaffected, for the most part. Sure, he had shivered a little when the wave of killer intent had washed out, but the first impact would always be the most fatal, and nothing more, because the body would slowly adjust to it. Being a ninja, his body adjusted to the killer intent faster than others, so Fuyuki had only felt his legs turn to jelly for a good second or two before he regained his composure and made his way in front of the horse, standing firmly between the horse and the lion.

The lion took a step forward. Its attempt at intimidation did not work as planned when instead of running away, Fuyuki himself took a step forward, willing himself not to run off to the side to pee his pants as he stared the lion down, eye to eye neither flinching. Or, at least in Fuyuki's case, attempting not to flinch and succeeding somehow.

The lion let loose another ear-grinding roar that shook the trees around them. Fuyuki almost felt his feet lift of the ground, before the roar came to a halt and all that remained was the loud pounding of his heart, the image of the lion's large open jaw imprinted in his mind.

'Focus, focus,' he told himself, and looked into the lion's eyes again.

The lion, apparently tired of the games, ran forward at a speed illegal for its size. Fuyuki narrowed his eyes in concentration, moving the chakra around his body and moulding it through hand signs, before inhaling deeply.

“Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!” he cried as he spat out a strean of fire that flew straight at the lion.

Given all things, he shouldn't have attacked an animal with ninjutsu, but it was really a life or death situation here. He was fairly certain his Genjutsu abilities were not as up to par as he would like, nor would his Taijutsu abilities grant him any ground in wrestling the lion, while he had brought no weapons with him, and he was still struggling with his clan jutsu, despite supposedly being a natural in it due to being born into the clan. Hence, that only left ninjutsu, and the only one that he knew could in any way damage the lion, as well as protect him and the client, was the Fireball Jutsu.

The large fire dragon impacted the lion head on, and it shrunk back, having had some of its fur catch fire. It shook its head wildly, trying to extinguish the flames to no avail, and Fuyuki took it a step further, stringing together another set of hand signs.

“Fire Style: Misty Flame Dance!” he cried, this time exhaling a misty gas from his mouth which flew forwards to meet the lion.

Upon hitting the flaming lion, the entire thing burst into flames, consuming the lion and forcing it to flee. Fuyuki knew the lion would be alright; it was heading in the direction of a nearby stream that Fuyuki had once frequented while getting to know the area surrounding Konoha. With that done, he gave a sigh of relief and turned to the petrified merchants.

“It's clear,” he said.

He didn't know if their lack of reply was from fear of the lion or from him.

Word Count: 1110

Chakra 125/150: