This was Saichi's second offcial mission. Recently, he had not been doing very much in the sense of missions. He had locked up inside, completing his first puppet. The process was going well, but he still needed some more money to complete his puppet. He sighed slightly, as his eyes glanced over the mission board. He saw one that looked slightly interesting, and it was within his skill range too. Another C-Rank, and this one was an escort mission. He took it down off the board and went to prepare for his mission.

After a small trip through the village and quick leap through some forests he arrived at the borders for the Grass country. It didn't take long for him to find the group of merchants. Saichi dropped in front of one of the merchants, a brightly coloured gentlemen, fat and balding. Saichi put on a smile and spoke. "Hello, I'm Saichi and I will be escorting you to the Leaf" Instantly words like he is just a child and the like quickly flew around, Saichi sighed and spoke again. "The route we are taking is safe enough that you will only need me, the Leaf couldn't spare anyone of a higher rank at the moment, so you are stuck with me I am afraid, is there a problem?" Saichi looked at each of their faces individually, before the extravagantly coloured man nodded. They set off down the path.

This path would be well policed anyway, but Saichi couldn't blame the merchants for wanting that little bit more security. As their party continued to trundle down the path, the merchants began to animatedly talk to one another. They occasional dragged Saichi into their conversation, which made him smile at them and nod. Their party was a strange one, a ninja and the rainbow man. Saichi was more curious with the land around him rather than the men himself. He had honestly never been this far out of the village before, so it was very interesting to see the differences.

The merchants stopped all of a sudden, which put Saichi on edge. It turned out that they had found a shiny rock, and had to have it. Saichi sighed and sat down, waiting for them to extract it. He pulled put his windmill shuriken and fanned out the blades, checking it worked. This route was usually well policed so Saichi didn't expect to see any ninja attacking him on this route, however wild animals were a possibility. Saichi looked up, they were still harvesting the rock from the ground... Saichi stood up and yawned, before speaking "I hate to rush you while you're rock collecting but can you please hurry it along?" The looks he got for suggesting such a thing were quite scary, if you thought about who was giving them him. They stood up however and they were all able to continue down the road.

After a short period of time a wild boar decided it would be funny to charge into their group. Saichi leaped into the air. He spun the blades into a single blade and promptly skewered the beast through the chest. The merchants cried out in shock, especially the merchant in the bright colours, who Saichi hadn't bothered to ask the name off. Saichi pulled the windmill shuriken out of the boar and picked up it's carcass. He went to bury it in the forests of which it had came out off. it may have been a boar, but Saichi respected the creature nevertheless. It took him a while to bury the beast but he knew it war worth it. He pulled a cloth out of his tool bag and walked out to the merchants. He cleaned the shurikens four blades before looking at them. They no longer doubted his skill it seemed.

Their party continued down the road, the merchants now a lot more friendly with Saichi considering he had just saved their lives. The coloured one, who Saichi found out was called Tanama. Saichi smiled before looking at him. "Can I help you?" He merely extended his fat, sweaty closed fist and opened it. Inside Saichi saw a small jade, the colour of Saichi's jacket. Saichi grinned and took it, which made them both laugh. He pocketed the jade with a smile before heading off with the merchants.

This journey may have started off rather poorly, but it was turning into quite the merry journey. Saichi knew this type of mission was easy, and he wouldn't expect any trouble. However, when his skills increased with his rank, he knew he would take missions where actual danger would be a thing that would very much be present. It made Saichi shudder, but he figured he might as well focus on the here and the now rather than the future. Saichi yawned and put his hands behind his head as he walked, The merchants were speaking about the dust they had found; Saichi had learned how to drone out their conversation. It was quite simple really, he would just think about his puppet waiting for him back home. He sighed slightly, before looking around again.

According to the map, they would be close to the village gates soon. That would be were Saichi's mission ended and the next teams mission began. Their route would be much harder then, Saichi presumed. The gates slowly came into their field of vision. Saichi turned around when they reached the gate to look at the others. He liked these merchants, and he knew the feelings were mutual. Saichi smiled and looked at them before speaking.

"Thank you all, this is the end of your journey with me. This team will take you the rest of the way. Good luck, to all of you"

The merchants smiled at him, before nodding and moving over to the next team, they quickly began to the next leg of their journey. Saichi smiled and headed into the village to turn in the mission. This was his second successful mission, and they were both C-Rank. Next time he might try a D-Rank mission. He smiled and headed back into the village.

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