Mission:

At first, she didn’t feel anything less than thrilled.
All the colours around her shone brighter, the greyish blue of the sky, the few rays of sunlight that sneaked through the clouds, even the milky fog which clung to the city. Her eyes took in her surroundings as though she had never seen the world so clearly before.
The cold air did not freeze her face, but embraced it in a soothing manner. The wind did not send chills of discomfort down her spine, but made her shiver merely with excitement while her hair continued to dance blissfully.
She was positive that not a single thing, nothing per se could spoil these moments of freedom.
Despite that strong belief, however, the tingling in her stomach faded as she proceeded to walk through Kiri’s streets, looking for the harbour and someone whose ferry would take her to Kumo in exchange for money. Suddenly, the mist regained its dull nature and her body realized that nothing other than the cold was covering her arms with goose bumps.
One would think the cloak she had wrapped herself in did a good job shielding her from the frosty air. Unfortunately, by taking into account the fact that it was oversized and she was wearing a short-sleeved top underneath this assertion could easily be disproved.
And so Misoka marched on, trembling in the chill of the late afternoon and beginning to explore the hollow feeling within her.

She was free, yes. Finally.
Free to do what she wanted and to go where the wind would take her.
This liberty was all that she had ever hoped for. Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but feel at a loss now that her joy was ebbing away.
As though someone had wiped the slate clean and erased the past, Misoka was forced to start from scratch again.
All the people she had come to know and love before had gone lost in the tides of time. Thus, she realized that it wasn’t hollowness clutching at her heart, but the quiet feeling of melancholy.
She didn’t wish to go back in time, she only wished back the people dear to her.
Just mindless dreaming of course.
She needed to move forward, on and on. Right now, she couldn’t afford to throw so much as a glance over her shoulder, mourning after memories which would never be refreshed again.
And perhaps this was for her own good.

The sound of someone crying brought Misoka back to present time. Looking around, she spotted a woman, crouched in an alleyway. Her soft weeping made Misoka’s chest tighten with empathy.
Carefully, she approached the woman, who was undoubtedly another victim of war.
“Can I... help you?”
With a gasp, the stranger looked up, revealing her tear-streaked face. She was fairly young, in her twenties maybe. One glance at her belly bulge was enough to tell that the person was pregnant.
Misoka knelt down and repeated her question quietly. “Can I help you?”
A sniff came as response. The woman wiped strands of black hair out of her face, all the while eyeing Misoka up and down.
At last, she spoke,”I... I don’t think so.” Pause. “An hour ago, there have been reports of a small hostile force in iron clad armour intercepting our shinobi. Only three people survived. But - the enemies moved on. They will just attack the next one of our forces.”
New tears gushed down her cheeks. “My boyfriend is out there. From what I’ve heard, the hostile shinobi are moving in his direction. He... he will be killed!”
Misoka listened silently, not sure what to say or do.
Eventually, she stood up with a stern expression. “Go home and wait there. It’s too cold outside for both you and your baby. And... do you know your boyfriend’s exact location?”
The other woman must have been so surprised that she gave her the necessary directions straight away. “But... but...” she then added in between sobs. “Why did you want to know?”
“Because I’ll be going there of course,” Misoka replied, a small smile playing upon her lips.
This, however, confused the Kiri civilian even more. “I... I don’t understand.”
Funny that Misoka wasn’t even sure whether she understood herself. Why would she go and risk her life yet again for a stranger, for a village she didn’t belong to?
She turned around. “I am a kunoichi.”
Whilst saying these four words, she suddenly got an idea of why she would put the woman’s needs above her own.
This was for all the people she had failed to protect in the past. And this time, she would prevail.  
“It’s my job.”

~~

Misoka could already see the hostile forces she had been told about from afar. Four seemingly female shinobi in iron clad armour, striding along the street. Their movements reminded Misoka of robots somehow. They were all walking in a straight line and taking their steps synchronously. Strange indeed.
However, she could rack her brain about it later on. For now, she had to prevent them from moving forward, at all costs.
Swiftly, Misoka leaped down from the rooftop where she had been spectating her soon-to-be enemies and blocked their path.
“This far and no further!” she called out, deciding to make her message crystal clear to them from the start.
Without a word, the iron shinobi came to a halt. Of course it would have been far too easy if they simply turned and walked in the opposite direction now, absolutely intimidated by their unexpected challenger. No, Misoka knew that she didn’t even look threatening enough for that.
But... they could have at least given her an answer. Something like, “You dare standing in our way? We don’t take orders from you! Let’s fight!” Or, granted, something a bit shorter maybe such as, “Nice try!”
Instead, all four of them silently assumed their fighting stances before rushing towards Misoka altogether. And one thing was for sure: Considering the iron women weren't exactly chatterboxes from what she'd seen so far, they wouldn't just want to say “Hi”.

---

1042/3500

He just woke up it seemed his day was not over yet, could they not even let him rest for a moment. He received a letter stating that an elite squad of super women were taking out the support squads. Killing them off and preventing them from helping those in need. The supply to their forces was also being hindered and this also meant that Ren had no choice since the support squads were also responsible for delivering food supplies and medical resources. As he sighed then looked out of the home he had planned to spend the rest of his day in. He began making a dash for the location as he read that he would be joined by other shinobi as he tried to make sense of the description. She was apparently five foot four which meant she was fairly taller than him. Her hair was blonde and hung down below her back. He wondered if a shinobi could really fight with such long hair. Turqoise eyes would be fairly easy to notice he thought as he kept dashing to find his partner for this mission.

Further details mentioned she was from the Karisuma clan which he realised was not from Kirigakure meaning this mission would have some diplomatic issues with it something he read into the last time when he had to go with a foreigner Zanto. As he made his way to the location he noticed someone matching her description jump off a nearby roof top as he jumped up on the roof and quickly perched himself up high then looked over the situation. The were four women he then noted that she matched the description and that those four other women must be the targets for the mission.

He immediately realised that these women did not even answer her as she called out to them they turned around then began charging at her. He felt a lot of clones would not be useful when he noticed the enemies armor did not seem normal as he made one water clone and sent it down to the battle field as he went into hiding inside the nearby buildings. The water clone jumped in front of the woman then quickly said. " Can you handle one of them i doubt they will attack randomly ... Mi... whatever your name is, just get ready" The water clone quickly performed the hidden mist technique while the armor looked like it could handle anything of a low standard he knew the hidden mist technique was useful on almost all levels. He quickly told her to head to her far left as fast as she could into the nearest building to surprise them.

One of the woman ran straight through having lost sight of them in the mist and had appeared behind him. It made robot like movements then had blades coming out of its arms and hands as it stood there waiting for them incase they came out.

The other three were in the mist as you heard blades being released as they seemed to be trying to cut up whatever was inside the mist. A chain could be seen appearing outside of the mist as the one that was outside the mist was waiting as the clone gave a scream as a blade sliced through it. "Aaaarrrgggrrrlll", Ren sweated as he thought that must be the sound of dying as he held his chest his heart racing. This mission was intense and he would not have time to take any chances.

He only had one technique he could use in this situation but he would need their movements to be sealed for it to work as he could not get close enough to use his water prison technique he could not figure out what to do. They were faster stronger and had better weapons at their disposal, while all he had was one truly strong technique to deal with them. All he had was one attack but in the end all it took was one skill to turn the most deadly of situations around. It was unclear if she listened to his comment to quickly jump into the nearby building to hide and regroup as he watched carefully.

He gripped his sword tightly as he took his hand away from his chest and breathed once more as he said. " I will become the next mizukage " He stood up still remaining hidden as he looked the one woman up and down while it sounded like the others were no longer moving. The one on the outside spoke for a moment and said.

"Walk to me". It was clear they were told to come out of the mist and follow her voice, time was running out they would not have an opening to deal with one of them on their own again. He could not jump out there it would be up to Misoku to deal with her before they can regroup. Will she rise to the challenge and were they strong enough to deal with this.

Word Count 843/3500
Chakra = 183/220

Jutsu List

Things were looking bad but before the three could escape the mist a strong shinobi bearing the leaf symbol on his headband appeared performing a strong technique whereby he struck the woman about sixty four times or more, Ren was not sure if his count was correct cause he thought he saw double strikes in between. The woman did not even have a chance to respond as her weapons failed her. The man had a serious look on his face as his eyes looked coldly at the enemy. The woman stopped moving and collapsed as while she may have been less than what you call human, the mans eyes were amazing.

As Ren was watching he felt a hand on his shoulder, he nearly screamed but the person covered his mouth. "Sorry about that I am here to help, that Byakugan is amazing isn't it, I am Zed from Kumogakure that is Hyuga Lee from Konoha and the one hiding in the corner mumbling that we all going to die is Sami from Iwagakure. Ren nearly wanted to laugh but then spoke to the person helping him. He can not take all of them by himself even if he beat one of them how will he take on all three, and the fourth one just needs time to recover. The guy looked back then said, "Sami get out of that corner we need to fight our way out of here and must do our villages proud". The mumbling shinobi stood up then nodded, he formed a few seals and ran out into the battle, meanwhile the other shinobi Zed carried Ren out the building as the building collapsed. It seemed that Ren did not realise that this area was far more damaged than it looked.

As they jumped into the air two of the A-rank enemies decided to go for the Hyuga while the third one ran after Zed,Sami and Ren. It was unclear what happened to Misoku who had vanished sometime during the hidden mist technique. They could not out run the enemy and the Hyuga would have a tough time with his two opponents being of equal skill.

The Hyuga standing proud as they dashed for him the moment they were in range he hit them with his rotating palm technique Kaiten. Some of the weapons broke as the one enemy nearly lost their arm, while the other one got hit face first by the rotation being knocked out. As he was thinking he was winning he noticed a little too late that the one he took out earlier was already moving again. With his leg grabbed he was now going to be unable to dodge any incoming attacks. Luckily the one was still unconscious while the other one got up slowly. He stomped on the woman's head trying to get her to let go. Things were looking bad and it seemed like there was nearly no hope left.

Sami had blocked the enemy using his earth style stone skin technique. This was proving very effective as he blocked the chained blades with his armor of stone. Ren watched as Zed had stopped and began forming seals to use Raiton. In that moment Zed was careless as the enemy by passed Sami and chopped off Zed's head as it flew through the air. Ren was in too much shock, he had seen death many times, but this person died helping him. It was his fault they were in this mess and he died. Noticing the danger of the situation the guy grabbed the woman in a full nelson. The attack bought them time and it was clear things were in a dire straight. The man then said, use whatever technique you have i can not hold her much longer. Would Ren be able to handle the pressure, could he strike knowing that an allie would be behind his blow. After a long five seconds Ren took his stance then the monster released her weapons as they were chipping away at the stone skin armor. Mizukiri, as the technique hit it broke some of the weapons and dealth a fatal wound to the liver and kidneys but did not get through the chest as it went half way through the rib cage. The woman in her dying state raged around spinning like a top as Ren so a blade fly towards him, Sami jumped back boosting his speed at the price of ending his technique. He took a direct blade to the back as he coughed up some blood. "This is so much trouble". As he collapsed slowly as the blades fell all over with the woman now dead.

In a brief moment he had become attached to these two strangers from another village. As he looked on struggling to keep it in as he looked around, no one was there to see him. He began to cry as things became strange, the day was getting late as he did not even know what would happen to them. Would there be anyone left after this war?

Meanwhile in the main battle the A-rank shinobi attacked with her blades aiming them for his leg as he managed to knock it away using his byakugan to predict the attacks, while he knocked her back during each of her swings as he could not release this woman's grip from his leg, she had all her tenketsu hit but was still able to withstand being beaten down repeatedly. He then took a deep breathe as he drew a secret weapon from his pouch. A short special kunai as he cut off the hand and jumped back just as the blades came down to hit him. He did not have the time to respond, the other woman was already conscious again and dashed behind him faster than he could react. The man barely avoided her stab to his back with a backward flip as he through an explosive tag at her as she cut it into pieces as it exploded her chains blocking the explosion.

The Hyuga looked back for a moment then shed a tear when he realised he lost both his comrades as he intensified his eyes. " I can not forgive you, children should not have to be involved in war " as he said that the woman who was lying on the ground got up slowly moving. Her weapons revolved around her as she began tossing the chain blades. He knocked the one out of the way and then another, she was sending four blades at him as he dodged and deflected while using his one foot as a pivot. His other leg too injured from earlier. The third one that recently woke up began rotating as blades flew at range in rapid swings as he jumped back repeatedly to try and avoid them the last one had used that time to position behind him again. He was surrounded as they continued their assault. He took some slashes to his arms and shoulders. He could not keep defending and the one behind him was waiting for him to slow down as he could not afford it. He slipped up and at that moment she tossed her blade directly at him.

Back to Ren who had been crying all this time as he got up taking both of their head bands and pocketing them. " I will fight to end this war ". As he began to dash back towards the battle field he had a plan this time as he hoped he would be able to make it in time. He did not want to be a nuisance as he wished to bring an end to this. As he looked up at the sky in the location he was in the mist seemed to be picking up as rain clouds formed. Was this a sign of bad things to come or a revelation of good times coming to an end.

The blade was nearly going to hit as he finally recovered enough time to use his rotation again, with his amplified sight he was able to hit all of them while the one that was spinning ended up impaling itself and dying. The other one ended up taking one of its own blades to the knee as it limped onwards still willing to fight him. The one in the back managed to avoid a direct hit but took a slight blow to the head. As it focused it then spoke, "We need to end this before the master arrives". The other one nodded as they both formed a stance with him in the centre. With his injured leg there was no way he could dodge as he realised they were going to both slash with the chains from his sides low and high. Things were looking bad as they were about to swing their technique as the Hyuga sighed before noticing.

As he looked on Ren jumped behind the woman stabbing her in the neck, while not deep it was above her armor as she flinched aiming the one side too high as the Hyuga rolled through the opening he was given. He knew things were bad and that he had to help out the kid rather than take out the injured one. The monster of a woman began swinging her blades to the back of her, as Ren was trapped in the chains behind the women her blades were nearly at his neck as the Hyuga just managed to grab the blade in time struggling to hold it back. The woman turned to get him with the other blade but he hit her with an exposive palm strike as she flew back only her chains holding on to Ren who was dragged back with her but her blades rooted into the ground while the other blades flew randomly to her sides. Ren was unable to break free and trapped as he kept hacking away at the chain with his sword repeatedly and desperately. The Hyuga charged in while the injured woman behind him aimed directly for the man and the kid at the same time. The one who trapped Ren was also aiming at Ren eliminating the weak link. The man increased his speed for a moment as blocked both blades with his body as the one lodged into his spine as the other one lodged into his left shoulder. He looked at Ren building up a charge then said. "Use it now stop hesitating". Ren used his D-rank Hiraishin and Kangekiha as it travelled along the chains electocuting all of them to some degree with the wetness of the clone that died earlier amplifying the damage to C-rank and they seemed to have a weakness towards Raiton techniques. That explained why the woman took out Zed so quickly. Stunned and somewhat damaged as the Hyuga was struggling to breathe. Ren began freeing himself from the chains as he coughed slightly injured from his own raiton technique as well as being chafed slightly by the chains.

As he stood he noticed they were not moving yet as the electricity had been disrupting them with all the metal on them they took more damage then they would have normally. The man said that he could not survive as he pulled on the chain bringing the one injured enemy to him before he struck it with a point blank explosive and told Ren to get away and report to the Mizukage. Things did not go that well though as the other one resisted by planting its blade in the ground. As he heard the sizzle he jumped away. The explosion kill the woman as the poor Hyuga flew through the air but he was still alive a fire deep in his eyes as he looked at the enemy on the ground below him. With the last life and energy he had left he focused all his chakra to his back as he used Fuuton Nagare to blow himself towards the injured survivor who took a massive blow as the woman's body seemed to have been embedded into the ground.

As the boy stood there he had just witnessed the price of saving the weak. It was his fault for being weak when they needed someone stronger, not to mention he did not know what happened to Misoku. Was she dead, did she desert them in their time of need. He walked on limping slightly as he was about to leave he noticed movement. The woman was still alive but her armor was broken, half of her chest exposed, not feeling the time for embarrassment as he did not even blush or care that the woman was half naked with her clothing in tatters and her armor almost completely removed. With her injuries she could not perform as she did before as Ren held a firm grip on his blade, the enemy picked up on of her blades as her chains were all damaged and were weighing her down too much.

This was the moment of truth, Ren did not have the stamina to do much anymore even though he still had plenty of chakra. He looked on as he walked slowly towards her. The woman was aiming to avenge her sisters as she spoke. "You little snot nosed kid, you ruined our mission, Seven Bells was going to return this land to a time of greatness. Now we have a bunch of kids running round representing the mist while all the strong shinobi are from Konoha and other villages. If we keep on being peaceful a time will come when Kirigakure will be burnt to the ground again. " As she said that Ren looked down as tears rolled down his cheeks before he shouted at her. " Kirigakure is not weak, it is because we are strong that we can rise up from the ashes. My friend once told me that war is not the problem, ignorant people are" as he looked at her she took insult. "Seven Bells is a greater leader than this useless Ayakashi could ever be, that woman would not know a serious war if it stood right in front of her. You may think this is the war but it has only begun. Have you never wondered why we did not send all our forces out on the first day or second? We already know a large number of your tactics and skills. Your only reason you have held out is because you got help from the other villages. You will see when this is all over the villages will expect payment for their help. I do think this guy was an idiot he could have taken us out one by one rather than saved a little defenceless kid like you." They had been walking all this time they were now only ten meters away. Their pace slowed as they both gripped their weapons tightly. Ren with his sword in hand and this woman with her blade in hand as she stood there ready to finish it.

"Aaaahhh!!!" as he shouted the woman shouted as well "Die!!!". It was looking good but Ren was still too slow with his swing, her blade was near his neck and he was short the range needed. As she slashed away as she thought he was finished. She looked as she smirked realising this kid had been saving a little academy trump card as she stood in shock. While her swing was fast her reaction time was not as good anymore. She laughed seeing that she had hit a headband from Konoha as he said. "Compliments of the Hyuga" as he sliced under her arm causing her to drop her weapon. She had lost the ability to use her other arm earlier as well as she then said. "You from the Yuzu clan?" as she noticed the symbol on his torn clothes. He looked on surprised "What do you mean?"

As things were not as they seemed he recognised a person who killed off the woman. "We do not need blabber mouths, yo Ren". There was a shock and confusion on his face as he looked at the man. It was unclear what happened after that but when the support troops had arrived they found all the dead shinobi with Ren as the sole survivor. They also noted that the one shinobi was from the Hyuga clan and was missing eyes. The mission may have been a success but at too much of a cost.

Seven Bells now had the Byakugan at his disposal, would this mean the end for the mizukage, will she be able to stop them before they are able to obtain the byakugan for use in the war. Only time would tell as Ren lies in the hospital having taken on quite a few injuries, but nothing as bad as the psychological breakdown he suffered.

Word Count = 3677/3500
Chakra = 158/220

Jutsu List
Exit Thread

MISSION COMPLETE!!!