Duke Nukem [Mission]

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

While Hiruzen had only been back for a little while, no time was wasted in getting him to do something for the sake of the village again. The mission he had been tasked with completing was a very specific and high ranking one that was not given to just about everyone. The description was quite simple, perhaps too simple given the exact nature of the mission itself. He had to gather up a team of shinobi and head towards the fisherman’s port where a group of pirates were supposedly stationed. While the pirates were not his target, they supposedly had information on a large and powerful organization of international criminals that had taken up residence somewhere in the lightning country. It seemed that these pirates were responsible for smuggling their stuff in and out of the country and aiding them in their illegal activities in the lightning country. His first thought would lead him to the administration building where he would pick up every single file regarding the pirates so he could figure out who they were, what their crimes were and who their leader was. In his opinion, pirates were often not the kind of people that felt very connected to the people they were doing business with once the transaction had been finalized and they had received payment. His main goal would be simply to extort these people by threatening to take them with him to the village or make them pay for their crimes on the spot. Hopefully, that would be enough to get them to give up the names of their employers and their current location. If they ended up resisting, he would make a good sum of money by bringing the pirates in as well and collecting their bounties along with those of the criminals he was hunting in the first place.

Hiruzen knew very well that the missions were made for the average shinobi and that they did not keep the exact level of skill of the individual in mind. The reason why he had gotten this mission was because everyone else was clever enough to avoid it so the village would eventually have to pin it on someone, in this case being Hiruzen. Hiruzen had a couple of varying experiences when it came to missions, but only one when it came to those of a higher rank. The last time when he had taken on a mission like this, his Sensei, his father and his friends had died due to them not receiving all of the details regarding the mission. While he had still not figured out why they had not been told everything there was to know, he had learned a couple of things. The first was to do a lot of digging so that he could figure out the kind of people he was dealing with and figuring out the ins and outs about the place he was headed. The second was to not bring people along that would just end up getting themselves killed in ways he could not do anything about, just like the people he cared about had done in the past. That said, he did not have any friends in the village ranks that he could ask to come along with him in order to complete the mission because of all the effort he put into not making any friends at home. Thanks to the select group of people in the village that was making sure to make his life into a living hell by murdering or hurting all the people that got close to him, it seemed like the best thing for him to do.

A few hours passed as he went through every single one of the files he had taken while taking mental notes and using his photographic memory to save every little detail he saw. He did not intend to take a whole stack of paper with him on his journey, nor would the village allow him to take their files with him, making this the best option for everyone. Once he had taken the files back to the administration building, he returned home to have a quick bite and prepared food for himself that he’d be having while on the road to keep himself from having to go to any diners or other places to eat. Taking the time to collect his equipment, pick the right attire to go along with it and cover it up with a dark cloak, he even wore his head band for the first time in months. When going on a mission such as this that was meant to not only take care of certain criminals and problems of their kind, it was also to show the world that Kumogakure was not to be trifled with and that attempting to do so would have it’s consequences. Once every single one of his kits had been placed in tactical locations so he would easily be able to reach for them when he needed it. Believing that his new kits would pack enough explosive and supplementary force to subdue a small group of enemies, he did not feel like he was held down by the lack of support. Heading out on his own, he had not made any effort at putting a team together to aid him on his mission to bring down such a dangerous bunch of people due to obvious reasons. Passing over the main bridge, yet another adventure started for the young Uchiha, one he wanted to put behind him as soon as possible.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Once he had walked for a few hours, he put his hood on so the people would not see his head band just yet. Hoping that there would be brigands and highwaymen on his way to the port so he would get some practice before heading into the actually dangerous events that would no doubt come to happen once Hiruzen found and entered the place where his targets were. Keeping his eyes and ears open as he walked down the main road leading to the port, all he saw was the occasional traveler and a wandering merchant, but nothing that remotely seemed like it could be a possible threat to him. In a way, it sucked that there were no challenges or just some small fry he could take care of to warm up for his big entrance. Sighing deeply, the young Uchiha kept following the road until he eventually saw the port up in the distance. A large variety of ships could be seen from this distance, some obviously being fishing boats, others being larger, leading him to believe that most of those were either luxury cruise ships or military ships belonging to the Hidden Cloud that just passed by to make sure everything was okay while keeping an eye out for possible invasions by sea. Ships and the like were not meant for someone like Hiruzen, he enjoyed having the earth beneath his feet so he would not be stuck in a place where a large portion of his Ninjutsu and his pre-made battle plans would become useless by default. As a person that possesses the earth and the fire elements, it seemed unwise to seek a profession that would take him to a place where neither were truly useful, this being one of many reasons why he would never board a ship if such a thing could be avoided.

Nearing the end of the road, Hiruzen could see the port for all that it was, a nice location away from the dealings of the ninja world. When he looked around, everyone seemed happy, greeting him on the street as if they knew he was a man with good intentions. Hiruzen had never been to this place before due to his busy life of handling things for the clan and for his village, though he knew from the look of things that he was going to like it. While he was not a big fan of boats or water in general, the people seemed nice and the vast majority of them were earning their money with jobs not involving the harming of other people. Knowing that there was a crew of pirates somewhere around here, it seemed strange to think that there was no trouble in the small port at all. Normally, pirates were known to bring a lot of negativity with them wherever they went, brutalizing ports and sinking ships after raiding it for loot, though that did not seem to be the case at all. When he left the village, he had made sure to remember the name and the looks of the ship among other details about the ship and it’s crew. Hopefully for him, he would be able to find the ship as fast as possible, which seemed like it was almost too much to ask for in a port as big as this. Knowing full well that this was the biggest port on the mainland that had connections with most other villages in terms of trading and delivery, finding the ship he was looking for might actually be quite hard. Wandering through the port, there seemed to be a multitude of Bed and Breakfast locations too, showing just how much these people profited from tourism and sailors staying in town for the night. Checking in at one of the smaller buildings, he left some of his belongings that were not needed in hindsight.

Normally, Hiruzen would not have had any problems with creating a temporary shelter on the outskirts of the port with his earth release, though chances were that he would have to stay for the night if he was going to find the pirate ship. Taking his time to have a quick bite, the young Uchiha set out to check out the western docks. Even if he would not be finding the ship itself, he hoped he would be able to get some hints as to where they might be located from some of the local fishermen and traders. Taking a look at the ship registry down by the docks, Hiruzen was not exactly surprised when he could not find the name of the pirate ship in it, meaning just looking around and asking people the next best thing. After several minutes of wandering all the way from the western docks to the northern docks, all he could get out of these people was that they may have seen the people he was looking for, though they were not entirely certain. It was very unfortunate that he had to spend so much time looking for these people. If any of them got word of a shinobi wandering around the port while looking for them, they would have time to prepare themselves for his arrival, which in turn meant that things were going to get very messy. Regardless, it was the only thing he could do along with keeping his eyes open to make sure that he would be able to read the signs of an impending attack before it came to bite him in the ass. Finally, after a long time of searching, he stumbled upon a rowdy tavern that reeked of alcohol and other unwelcoming odors. Hoping that his bad luck streak would end here, he wandered it, not expected what he’d be walking into.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Upon entering the tavern, it seemed that all the peace and quiet found outside was just because all of the loud mouthed folk and heavy drinkers were all found right here in this establishment. Keeping to himself for the moment, he looked around while remaining in a corner of the building, looking around to think up his next move. From where he stood, it was not that hard to see who were the more important and influential people as they were the one doing all of the talking while the rest just made them the center of attention by standing around them in a circle. Thanks to his training as a shinobi and his years of wandering the streets and keeping an eye on people for the Clan, Hiruzen had gotten to the point where he could read and profile people without needing a whole lot of time. This obviously helped him a lot in this particular situation as he now knew exactly who to keep in his scopes. Sitting down at a small table that was close to the door, he did not do a lot to draw any attention to him while making sure his targets would not get away from him. These people were without a doubt the pirates he was looking for, so he should not underestimate their craftiness if he was to take care of this without turning the entire port into a battlefield. Several hours went by, every hour that passed taking a huge chunk of Hiruzen’s patience along with it, though it seemed like he was in for a bit of luck. One of the men that seemed like they were important put a good stack of money on the table for the rest of the crew before making his way outside, giving Hiruzen the perfect opportunity to make work of it. It had already started getting quite dark outside, something Hiruzen would use to his advantage. Making use of the darkness, the young Uchiha moved unseen, easily keeping up with the drunk man as he stumbled to his destination. By the time the guy got to his location, he walked onto a ship that did not seem like the average pirate ship at all. Wondering if he had been given false information or if they had made an attempt at keeping their true business hidden under a layer of paint and an air of professionalism, something was wrong here.

“Don’t be alarmed, I came here to talk, not to cause a scene. People have been keeping an eye on you and your crew and seem to believe that you’re a pirate, that’s not something that inspires a whole lot of trust, so I’ll keep this short so we can both be on our way. I’ve come to you because I heard this ship has been taking cargo for a group of shady individuals that intend to harm a lot of people with the things you bring in to this country. If you have any information about these people, I am authorized to take it from you by force if I have to, so please cooperate and I won’t have to.”.

“Ah, a shinobi of the Hidden Cloud, it’s been a while since we’ve had one of you around here. I’ll tell ya, we are not the kind of pirates you may think we are, we just ship things for all kinds of people without needing to know what is being shipped out. At the end of the day, all that matters is that we get paid. If I tell you who is coming to pick up what kind of package or remotely let you look inside the crates to see the merchandize, we’d lose credibility and people will no longer want to make use of our services. That, and those people you speak of would have my head for leading a shinobi to them. After all, if we don't get paid, we won't be able to continue doing what we do best.”.

For a moment, not a word was spoken by either one of the men. The blatant disregard for human life shown by this man was rather shocking as he would rather keep money flowing than know what he was shipping and basically act as a courier for terrorists. After a moment of careful consideration as to what he should be doing, he decided that approaching this situation the way that he had up until now was not going to work anymore. Activating his Sharingan and forcing the man to spill the beans on what he had been hiding, the first thing Hiruzen made him say was where the ship registry was being kept, when the people were going to pick up their package and where the package was currently located. Now that he was not capable of lying to him or in any way capable of denying him what he wanted to know, things would finally be able to get done in a lot less time. Leaving the ship’s captain with a painful Genjutsu that would most likely leave him in bed for at least a week after experiencing his own body turn into paper and burning down from his toes up to his face the moment he got the information he needed, Hiruzen went towards the cargo hold where he looked for the crates that were supposedly going to the terrorist organization. Opening it in a way that would not make it look like it was forced open, Hiruzen’s jaw almost fell to the floor at the sight of the symbol inside of the crate. As a man who had been fighting against them on several occasions and knew quite a bit about their methods, there was no way in hell that he would not recognize the crest of the Prajñã. For a moment, he had been startled about crest of his most hated enemies being inside of a crate of new weaponry, though that soon changed. Opening up all five of the boxes, he saw that they had all been filled up with basic projectiles and explosive tags that would no doubt be used against people like Hiruzen once the terrorists were done organizing themselves.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Figuring that he would have plenty of time before anyone would come down to check up on the cargo, he mixed in several of his own explosive tags, cleverly hiding them in parts of the crate that were covered by the large quantity of weapons and stacks of explosive tags. Infusing his own tags and a couple of the stacks with his own chakra, he would make sure that there would be quite the surprise awaiting them once the crates were brought back to the Prajñã encampment. Making sure that every explosive tag was hidden and the ones he had prepared for activation were placed under another stack of tags, his work was done for now. Leaving the ship after making sure that the captain was still immobilized, he tossed him into the water between the ship and the docks so it would take some time before they found him. While he was not an inherently evil man, the fact that he put the lives of innocent people at risk because money was worth more to him, he saw it as a fitting punishment to drop him into the water in a paralyzed state, incapable of keeping himself from sinking and drowning as the water would fill up his lungs. Helping out terrorists by shipping their weapons for them under a ”Don’t ask, Don’t tell” kind of policy was terrible, so he would make sure that these pirates would never do business in the land of lightning again as soon as he got back to the village. Staring down into the dark water as the bubble making up the last air in the captain’s lungs made it to the surface, he knew that he would not get back up to tell anyone about how a shinobi from the Hidden Cloud had come to ask about the cargo and used his Genjutsu to pull information out of him.

With the knowledge gained from his Genjutsu interrogation, he had learned that the men would come to pick up the package the next morning at dawn, giving him enough time to get a good night of sleep before preparing himself for an assault on the Prajñã. Returning to the Bed and Breakfast building, he had a quick snack before going to bed early. Tomorrow would be the first time for him to lash out at the Prajñã that had been setting the villagers of the Hidden Cloud against one another while bombing specific locations and hurting quite some people already. If he was lucky, he could end the organization in one go by murdering them with their own weaponry. Having a hard time falling asleep due to all of the excitement that surrounded the next morning, the night passed quickly once he finally got to the point of sleeping. Early in the morning, he gathered his belongings and prepared himself for the meeting with the members of the Prajñã that would be picking up their belongings. Using the Transformation technique to copy the appearance and voice of the captain he had killed earlier, he made sure to impersonate him as well as he possibly could. Luckily, it would not be that hard due to the fact that he had spent some time with him, went through the ship registry and had been watching how he behaved around his crew in the tavern. Hiruzen never did anything without having a good reason for it, which was also why he had been paying such close attention to him for the two hours he spent observing the captain from a dark corner of the tavern. Now, all of the observing and interaction with the late captain would get it’s time to shine as he approached the ship.

Setting foot on deck, he was greeted by the other pirates that seemed like they did not even suspect that their captain was someone in disguise. Shortly after greeting the men and telling them to set off and head to their next location, he retreated to the captain’s quarters where he would go through the registry and the man’s journal. Though he already knew where they would be headed, it turned out that the entire ship could enter the base of the Prajñã by heading into a river that went inland from the sea and would head into a large cavern. Deciding that he would pick things up from there, he made sure that the surprise that would await the assassins and terrorists would not be found out before it would be forced down their throats. Coming up with a plan, he took a walk around the ship to get a clear estimate of how many people were currently on board. Counting a total of thirteen men, he came to the conclusion that snatching all of them would be too hard and would be far too taxing on his body as the amount of chakra spread would leave him in a severely weakened state. Entering the cargo hold of the ship, he made quick work of the four physically fit men that were tasked with watching the cargo and lifting it off of the ship once they arrived at their destination. Dispatching them in a few moments by strangling them with steel wire without alerting the others, he dragged the bodies into a dark corner and hid them inside unused storage crates. Thanks to his use of wire, there was no blood to alert anyone to some funny business happening below deck. Once he hid all of the bodies, he created four Shadow clones and had them take on their shape with the Transformation technique. Now, everything was ready for the demolition party.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

With all of his clones in disguise and in place, all that was left for Hiruzen now was to wait for them to reach their destination. As he returned to the captain’s quarters and sat down in his chair, all he could do was think of the looks on their faces when their weapon crates would explode in their faces and take their base of operations with them. If everything went as planned, the entire organization would be devastated to the point where no one would be able to repair it. Hiruzen would see to it that every single one of the people that had been responsible for the deaths of his best friend, his Sensei and his father would get torn apart or get buried under tons of rock and soil. For the things they had done to him and his village in the past and in the present, as well as the things they had planned for the future, he would make every single one of them pay the ultimate price. Continuing to sail for quite some time, a knock on the door let him know that they had arrived at their destination. Docking inside of the cavern that was lit with only a few torches, a bunch of masked men soon popped out of the shadows, welcoming them into their lair. Being extremely cautious in his approach, he let the disguised clones carry the boxes off of the ship without giving anyone any reason to doubt that there was anything going on. When Hiruzen himself made it off of the ship, he took a good look around to see where other members of the group might be hiding and watching the pirate crew as they went about their business. Due to the clones having his level of intelligence, they would easily be able to figure out where to plant the charges so they would deal the highest amount of damage they could possible put out.

With one last glance, Hiruzen made sure that all of the exits and entrances into the cavern were covered by his clones before moving to the back of his ship. As soon as they placed their cargo, they made their way over to one of the nearby exits and used Earth release to seal them shut with rock, sealing everyone inside and in doing so showing the real Hiruzen the signal. Setting off the charges as soon as he got the signal, he jumped off of the ship and landed into the water where he would use the ship as a shield against all of the flying shrapnel and projectiles that would be fired throughout the cavern. As soon as he put his back against the hull of the ship, he put in his breathing apparatus to keep him from suffocating in case the cavern itself came down. Even under water, the rumbling of the explosion could still be heard and felt clearly. One by one, the memories of the clones that dissipated came back to him, showing him how large portions of the roof came down, how members of the Prajñã were torn apart by dozens of projectiles that were blasted into every direction when the tags inside of the crates were set off and more. Quietly breathing through his apparatus, he was overcome with joy whenever another memory of dead or dying Prajñã entered his mind. As the loud rumbling continued, huge chunks of rock coming down from the sealing crashed into the water around him and onto the ship. Among the rocks that fell in, shrapnel as well as complete projectiles such as Shuriken and Kunai shot into the water at a high velocity before the water completely slowed down their impact to the point where they just stopped moving and sank to the bottom. For several minutes, the rumbling continued, meaning it was no longer safe under the ship that was starting to lower into the water due to the rocks falling down from the top.

Swimming away from the now sinking ship, he remained close to the bottom as things still fell down, making it dangerous to get up. Still under the effects of his Transformation technique, the Uchiha decided that the longer he waited under water, the more time any possible survivors among the Prajñã had to get to safety. Once he set foot on solid ground, he looked around, seeing that most of the roof had come down completely, most likely hiding quite a bunch of bodies underneath. Unfazed by shattered masks, bodies battered and torn to the point where they no longer even looked like human beings, torn off limbs and even the pirate crew that had no doubt started running for the nearest exit the moments the bombs started going off. They had found out first hand that it did not turn out well for people who made their money at the cost of other people getting hurt, something a lot of people would soon come to find out if it were up to Hiruzen. Though he did not know who it was, he had become rather confident about someone in the current village council knowing about these people and possible being in league with them. Unfortunately, he would only be able to prove such a thing by having concrete evidence, something he did not have. Wandering across the hideout that had been turned into a graveyard, there were some now unmasked men that had been crushed to the point where their organs would soon give out even if he helped them. Where a good person might have made an attempt at putting them out of their misery, Hiruzen just walked past them, leaving them to suffer until they would perish.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

It was a good thing that no one saw what was happening here as many would most likely stop seeing him as a human being. In truth, Hiruzen had been followed around, had people set up against him and lost some of the most important people in his life to the men of the Prajñã organization. While that was something people would most likely not be interested in hearing, all they would see was a monster with no regard for human life, which was why no one was going to get out of here alive, save for two people including himself. Looking around for the person that was hurt the least, his mission details stated that he had to take at least one person captive, preferably someone with a high rank within the organization. When dealing with a group such as the Prajñã, finding out who held a high rank and who did not was hard, seeing as they all wore identical masks and had a hierarchy based on the strongest and most cunning becoming the next leader. Luckily for him, if everyone else was dead, that just meant that he had to take the sole survivor with him to fulfill the special request within the mission, even though he really just wanted to see every member of the organization dead and buried. Regardless of what he wanted, this was not a personal undertaking as much as it was ordered by the village that employed him. Even if his personal feelings told him to do otherwise, this was going to be the last big mission he would do for the Hidden Cloud before he would go about his own business to become his own man. At this point, he still had no idea as to what that meant, though he wouldn’t ever find out what he truly wanted if he didn’t explore the concept of it all.

Looking around the survivors, he found one particular man that did not seem like he had any life threatening wounds. Looking him over more closely, it seemed like his left foot had been caught under the falling debris and broke it in several locations. Removing the mask from the man, Hiruzen saw that he was in fact one of the villagers he occasionally saw on the streets of the Hidden Cloud. He knew that people were watching the village after they infiltrated, he also knew that they had turned some of the village’s shinobi that had proven how much they were against the clans to turn a blind eye to their activities, but to think that some of them had actually been recruited into the ranks of the Prajñã was something he had not expected at all. When a single assassin of the organization had come for him two years ago, he had made it clear that their intention was to take care of the people that had caused their group to fail their first assassination assignment as well as the village they belonged to. As such, it made no sense for any of the village shinobi to join the group as they also lived in the village. Releasing his Transformation technique and showing who he was, it did not take the last of the assassins long before he realized that he was now in the presence of the Genin that had been partially responsible for the organization he had joined losing it’s credibility and falling into obscurity.

“You should be happy you’re still in such a good state, that means I won’t get to kill you or watch you die at the hand of something else just yet. Now, I get that you don’t like the Shinobi Clans because we have wronged you in so many ways that far outweigh the fact that we originally built the village you and your family lived in, though I do not see why you would join an organization that wants to purge the entire village and send it to the bottom of the canyon when you know that your family would die along with it. Would you care to amuse me with a response before I drag you back to the village and sentence you to life in prison or an execution?”.

For a moment, things were completely silent between the two, though Hiruzen was not fine with his decision to remain quiet. Stomping down on the boulder that kept the man pinned down, he let out a shriek before gasping for air. Contemplating on using his Sharingan to make the man talk, it seemed that he would not need to do so when the man started panting and raised himself up a bit.

“The boss said that once he purged the village of those who belonged to a clan, he would allow us to rebuild the village and use all of the riches you people keep for yourselves. They said they would watch over us so we did not need to be a Shinobi village anymore. The ship you came in with was supposed to be the first official trading vessel that would strengthen our bonds with other villages as a community of merchants and traders. All they asked for was that they could live in the village and use it as their new base of operations so they could watch over us while we all did our own things. I know it was not perfect, though we’d at least be rid of people like you!”.

Having heard enough, Hiruzen kicked the man in the temple just hard enough to be sure that he would be knocked out for a good amount of time. Even though he had been the one asking the question, hearing something so immensely stupid still managed to knock his socks off. How could one trust in an organization of assassins and terrorists to keep their word. The moment the man raised his voice and started causing a scene, Hiruzen was done talking to him, making this the best solution in terms of ending it on his own terms. Summoning a clone, the two of them removed the large boulder from the leg of their prisoner before having it toss the man onto his back. With the entire organization brought down along with the roof of their base of operations. Thanks to his clone doing all of the heavy lifting, Hiruzen could finally get back to the village after traveling all across the country. Once he’d get back back to the village, he’d let people know that there was still a partially sunk ship full of weaponry, food, clothing and the kind of stuff merchants would like to get their hands on. That way, he’d feel more like he had helped the village instead of just helping himself in proving that he was not crazy and that people had been blind to what he had told them as a child.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

End of thread.
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