Side Mission: Naoki: Mercy of a Sage - Complete-

[Ganryu]

Mission: Mercy
Rank: A
Description:
More villages have been attacked on the eastern border. The residents of the east are becoming scared, and scared peasants have trouble paying taxes. And fewer taxes mean less ninja to protect them, the cycle grows more vicious. We need a scout NOW to go and find out what's happening. We suspect its the Swordsmen of the Mist again. A few Mist villages have also been hit, so we suspect they are growing bored and bloodthirsty enough to even attack their own. Be careful, and be quick. We need information for now. If it is the Swordsmen, this is likely to be open war again. Information makes it likely Shimogawa is next to be attacked.

 

[Arne]

Naoki didn't think twice before throwing himself the solo A ranked mission issued to him once he read the content of it. Even if he wasn't all that sure of his capacity, he just had to do it once he read that the Swordsmen of the Mist were involved, the guilt of knowing that it was due to his lack of strength that Himawari Abe - The Lightning Sword wielding psychopath responsible for the destruction of a number of border villages in the land of fire - was still out there after all her crimes together with the awareness of her companions being possibly as bad or even worse than her compelling him into not even considering it for a bit before directly making quick preparations and leaving the village towards Shimogawa.

Having the experience of his previous mission in mind, he didn't even try to do so silently or steadily either, directly making a couple of clones with a minimal amount of chakra as soon as he neared the town and sending them towards it's gates from different directions while he went in through less conventional ways. After all, even if it was indeed one of the Mist Swordsmen the presence of those clones would most certainly be enough to distract them for a second while buying him some information and time to react accordingly in case a battle happened.

 

[Ganryu]

The city would already be in ruins by the time Naoki, and his company of Naoki appeared. Familiar cuts across the building would look similiar. However, upon closer inspection, they would look heavier, more jagged in some locations. And none of them as deep.

Corpses against lain strewn. Again, the cuts weren't nearly as clean this time. Someone half-assed several of them. A few trails of blood leading off indicated there had been several survivors, but none wanted to stay here. A blackened mark revealed lightning had been used, splitting a tree in half.

In the distance, a cursing could be heard following a collapse of a wall.

"DAMNIT!"

A nin lay in the distance, looking furious. She was a kunoichi of Naoki's age, and wore a simple robe, armed with a quarter staff. She had a headband belonging to the Mist.

 

[Arne]

Naoki didn't even bother with hiding his presence as he directly went towards the Mist Kunoichi, the brutality of the situation bringing the hate he felt for the Mist Nin take over his reason and cloud his cautious nature as he arrogantly walked towards the girl with one of his traditional wooden spikes already protruding from his arm - seemingly not even considering the seemingly young Kunoichi as a real threat due to her lacking a weapon who could actually do the damage shown in the area, pretty much proving that she was merely a follower of the true criminal (at least for the not so keen on making accurate judgements at the moment Naoki).

"Tell me where the responsible for this is and I'll give you a quick death." He calmly said, the coldness in his voice clearly demonstrating the rage he felt under his relatively nonchalant facade. From the looks of It, the simple fact that the girl was wearing a mist headband were more than enough to convince him of her guilt, with the frustration shown in her face only working to convince him that she was unsatisfied by how some of the victims managed to escape - a biased view that was fairly justified when considering the young man's experiences with mist shinobi up till now.

Naoki's clones, in comparison, were considerably less clouded by anger than their source, as they at least respected their original task of scouting the area and went around searching for either survivors or more mist shinobi, working to ensue that not even a single criminal would escape from Naoki this time - a clear sign of how truly troubled he felt about Abe being able to go away scot free (at least in his opinion, even though her crippled arm told a different story) last time.

 

[Ganryu]

Turning towards Naoki, the girl spun her staff, and pointed it towards him, specifically at this throat.

"I don't know, why don't you ask your ANBU? Or, hell, your chunnin who blow up ferries. Tch, bloodlust isn't enough for our side of the border? I'm not falling for your Leaf tricks anymore. "

Her knuckles were already white, and the girl barred her teeth at Naoki. Then she kept true to her word and lept at him, starting off with a horizontal swipe of her quarterstaff at Naoki's temple, and spinning the staff to turn it then into a sweeping blow.

"I will give you a heads up though, your trickery CAN'T kill me! I'm Miyu, the Immortal Sage of the Mist! And I WILL protect my village."

 

[Arne]

Naoki couldn't help but laugh at the Kunoichi's words, almost seeming legitimately amused by her accusations if not by the sheer coldness transmitted by his laugh, that revealed how absurdly mad he truly was. "Big words for someone who invaded a village and slaughtered genin, truly. Even more when considering that we're standing on the blood shed by innocent civilians who were mercilessly slaughtered by your people just like in Taka Woods." He said, his skin already assuming the black colouration characteristic to the earth spear technique as he slowly walked towards the self-declared Sage.

"Since I can't lose in courtesy to a Mist animal, I shall identify myself too. Your executioner is Naoki Senju of the Thousand Branches." He added in the moment before they collided, proceeding to directly dash towards the girl while lowering his body, lifting his right hand to block the incoming staff while directly throwing a punch towards the girl's throat with his blackened left hand, quite obviously trying to directly ignore the damage transmited by her blow and go onwards crush her windpipe instead - a harsh, less than tactical move that most certainly didn't suit his normally careful nature, leaving how truly enraged he was pretty clear.

 

[Ganryu]

"Focus on the basics Master Han'yo always said. If I can't hit you directly, I'll turn your body against you!"

Miyu moved ever so slightly to cause the hand to go the right of her throat, over her shoulder. She dropped her staff, it was a midrange weapon, and she was now close range, and her hands went up to grab Naoki's arm, and to try and throw him over her shoulder, and trying to dislocate his.

"During the Invasion of the Leaf two years ago, my house was destroyed. A lot of our civilians died. Don't give me that righteous bullcrap! At least we don't lie about being the Bloody Mist."

Miyu stood still following. She didn't bother trying to pick up her quarterstaff, it wasn't worth testing out against Naoki's hardened skin.

(OOC Note: During Mist Invasion, Yoaki betrayed Mist, had a couple Bijuu launch a few presents at the Hidden Mist Village itself. Leaf was invaded, tons of damage there. Mist also got near destroyed. Doesn't mean Mist can't further blame Leaf.)

 

[Arne]

Naoki didn't even try to evade the shoulder throw, simply not worried enough to stop attacking due to his not so stable mental state, and just lifted his knee instead, throwing a reinforced kick towards her as she threw him, obviously not quite avoiding the blow but undoubtedly dealing a considerable damage in exchange for it due to the extra impact brought by his Earth Spear technique.

As for the aftermath of this reckless way of acting - i.e. his not quite in the right position shoulder - it was dealt with right after he landed in the ground, as all he had to do was giving a particularly rough push to help with putting it in place before his regeneration kicked in and made it marginally functional again. "So the fact that your dogs betrayed you after you sent them to destroy our home is our fault? Sounds like sophistry for me. Especially when coupled with the bodies I had to bury after the attack. YOUR attack." He said, his voice devoid of any emotion as he started making handseals, preparing himself for the Kunoichi's attacks.

 

[Ganryu]

A sharp thud was heard as Naoki's knee collided with the kunoichi, landing hard, and from the sound of it, dealing quite some damage to her ribs. However, one odd thing to note, she didn't seem to so much as flinch. It wasn't like she was pushing through pain, she stood still after the throw. It was less like she was on a fighter's high, and more like she was completely and utterly lifeless.

Her eyes, however, still burned as she glared at Naoki, waiting for his next technique. She was even holding her breath, perfectly still and without motion.

In the distance, a crack of lightning could be heard.

(OOC note: 2 posts before something different happens IC)

 

[Arne]

Naoki didn't have the time to think about his opponent's apparent indifference to his blows. While he'd love to figure out what exactly powered up his opponent and how to take advantage of it to utterly ruin her, he didn't have the time to go around thinking while trying to get rid of the enemy of his village. If she didn't go down after a single attack, he just needed to attack until she did.

With that being said, he wasn't angry enough to ignore the advantage given to him now that his opponent gave him the opportunity to use his ninjutsu, directly starting to make seals as soon as he noticed the Kunoichi didn't plan on rushing towards him. As per usual, the technique he decided to use was the ever so familiar Wood Clone Technique, dispelling the now almost chakraless clones he previously made to scout the area and creating 3 brand new clones in their place, this time pouring enough chakra for 3-4 jutsu in each one of them - just enough to support him no matter what happened from there on.

Naturally, he didn't immediately attack after doing so either, deciding to just move his clones to slowly circle his opponent instead, putting himself in a position of advantage in relation to the self-declared sage and conveniently blocking her from escaping. From now on, he was prepared to take the kunoichi down.

 

[Ganryu]

Orange circles started to form under the kunoichi's eyes and a cracking could be heard from her chest again, her ribs resetting. Then she moved. With a quick movement she kicked up her staff, and grabbed it with both arms. She then twirled it in a circle around herself. The staff obviously wasn't long enough to hit any of the clones. But an invisible force extended from it, making it far deadlier than it might look.

"I am the Immortal SAGE. Senjutsu is where I specialize in, it's what's always appealed to me. Master Han'yo always spoke of how we should work on the basics, and Senjutsu simply improves everything by a little bit. If you know what a sage is, you should run, Leaf Scum."

The way the kunoichi moved, it didn't look like she'd even taken any damage, even if from the sound of it, the knee earlier had broken many of her ribs.

 

[Arne]

"It doesn't matter." The original Naoki said rather indifferently as the Kunoichi voiced her boast, grasping the rods sticking from his arm as a result of the cutting technique and waving them one in each hand in a fairly lackluster way, obviously just meaning to test its weight as his clones - destabilized by the previous attack - recovered their footing and made rods of their own. "Sage, demon or Buddha, from the moment you decided to go against the leaf the only choice left is perishing."

As soon as each of them finished making their own rod, they - with the original being the exception - directly throw them towards the Kunoichi and run right behind, meaning to overwhelm her from 3 different sides while making use of Earth Spear to safeguard themselves from her seemingly invisible blows.

Naoki himself, in comparison, didn't seem to be all the interested in rushing towards the female ninja, quietly waiting for her to move instead as he prepared to take advantage of the openings she'd show while defending from his clones. In the end, he couldn't trust his ninjutsu to pierce substantially damage her when she seemed to be impervious even to his blows strengthened by earth spear, so waiting for an opportunity to deliver a solid blow with the cutting technique to destroy her body from the inside was naturally the most reasonable decision.

 

[Ganryu]

As the clones attacked, Miyu stood still, completely immobile, allowing each and everyone to hit her. The wood would crack against a defense very similar to Earth Spear.

Miyu raked out at the clone infront of her, with her hands in a claw like position, trying to strangle the clone, already figuring she would have a hard time penetrating their defense, so she’d simply deprive them of air.

From above them, a wall of fire suddenly descended, threatening to engulf both.

Cloud Style: Great Flame Spread

“You’d think get a Leaf and Mist ninja to kill eachother would be easier than this. But at this rate, you’ll be at this all day, and I have a war to restart.”

A large black man stood above the two holding a large cleaver, and the vest and headband of the Hidden Cloud.

“Still can’t figure out how the Mist Swordsmen get their cut so clean every time. Or how the Leaf ANBU get those high-pressure blood sprays.”

Naoki didn’t even try to react as fire came pouring down on him and his clones, trusting that the earth spear technique was more than enough to safeguard himself from the third party that decided to intervene on his battle.

He didn’t, though, keep this attitude for much longer, as the Cloud Ninja’s talk quickly managed to arouse the anger he had hidden for the fight back, shaking his calm facade quite a bit as he announced his intention.

“Is that so?” He said while making some quick signs to dispel the clones that still encircled the kunoichi, the tone of his voice failing to completely conceal the rage he felt at the moment in. “Well… I owe an apology to you then, Miyu of the hidden mist. It seems that you’re not the one I have to kill today.” He “calmly” addressed the kunoichi, seemingly dismissing the threat that came from the Cloud nin - or so one have thought if his Earth Spear wasn’t kept, denoting quite obviously that he was more trying to bait his enemy into attacking him than actually ignoring the shinobi.

Miyu stood through the flame as well, every single combatant looking at the Hidden Cloud Ninja who had just assaulted them.

“... Accepted. If the Hidden Cloud wants a war… we will show them war. Truce?”

Miyu leapt towards the Hidden Cloud ninja, leading with a quarter staff strike.

It was at that moment, that the Shinobi of the Hidden Cloud knew… he’d @#$@'ed up. Blocking the quarterstaff, his attention was drawn to the kunoichi, as he tried several swipes from her, and blocked as many, letting Naoki prepare

“Truce.”

Naoki obviously didn’t slack off as Miyu drew the attention of the cloud shinobi, directly starting to prepare as soon as she started to engage the criminal.

The first thing he did was, of course, taking control over the local roots and gathering them in a single place - this time choosing to gather them under the area where the two other shinobi were fighting. Instead of merely making use of those to assault the cloud nin, though, he started a second series of seals for a much more chakra expensive technique, controlling the gathered roots into gathering in a wooden mass of sorts that quickly morphed into a dragon head as he continued to make handsings and directly emerged under the cloud shinobi with a remarkable speed,prepared to grasp him in its mouth as soon as he got distracted engaging the mist kunoichi.

Miyu continued to push the cloud nin, more buying time than anything. Noticing the large amount of chakra under her, she acted. As the cloud ninja stabbed at her, she let it pierce her, and grabbed his blade with both hands. The coloring under her eyes was starting to fade, but it’d hold this long.

“Go ahead, Thousand Branches, I got him.”

Naoki didn’t need anything else to immediately trigger his jutsu, directly forcing the dragon figure out of earth while grasping the Cloud nin in its mouth, making it so he was firmly held and similarly taken up as the wooden dragon made its way out of the underground.

As soon as it managed to leave the surroundings of the mist kunoichi, though, the head of the dragon figure would spontaneously dive towards the ground again, this time not really planning to enter earth as much as it planned to directly smash the cloud nin against it - A technique that while comparatively more troublesome (and less efficient) than just detoning the dragon and killing the cloud nin with the shrapnel was similarly away more painful to the target, letting it pretty clear that Naoki was still fairly emotional as he dealt with the mass murderer.

“WHAT THE FUUUUU-”

The cloud ninja was cut of as he was dragged into the sky, before similiarly being taken down. Fire started to surround him as he fell, trying to burn away the dragon. It was like a mouse trying to eat an entire house however, the cloud ninja smashing into the ground with brutal force. Laying on the ground, a bright blaze around him started to dim. His fingers twitched, but the way he struggled for air was not looking promising.

Miyu casually pulled out the sword, which was as large as she was, and threw it to the side. As the wound healed, her eyes fully faded.

“It looks like I owe you an apology as well. I have to know. Have you actually ever killed a Mist ninja? I propose a deal. You hand that Cloud Ninja over to us, and I’ll teach you senjutsu. I can at least leave with a clear conscience then knowing its not your lot who attacked here.”

“Honestly? No. Not for lack of try though. Even if we do end up making peace, Himawari Abe is someone I have to kill.” He said, not bothering to sugarcoat his words as he answered the female. After all, he did attack her without any proof, so it wasn’t fair to treat her as an enemy.

“As for learning your technique for this scum… I’m not sure if that’s ethical. While I’d appreciate it I don’t think exchanging a weakling with some info for a technique that most certainly isn’t widespread is a fair trade.” He said, quite obviously already back to his usual weak attitude.

“Fair, there’s a Leaf ninja I have to kill as well. Are you the one the seven swordsmen are hunting? Himawari’s having to fight for her position as a swordsman after that scuffle.”

Miyu rubbed a scar on her shoulder.

“As for the trade, I’ll just give you a hint then and leave it at that. There’s a cave full of statues 20 km south of here, with a pool in it. That pool will either kill you or teach you senjutsu. 50/50, so a win for me. The water is full of nature energy. Using it incorrectly petrified a person. Most of the time sage mode is animal based. I’m a human sage though. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a package to bring home.”

With that, Miyu picked up the cloud ninja, and headed back towards the Mist.

“Farewell then, Human Sage Miyu. I hope we won’t be enemies the next time I see you.”