The Honor Found in the Blade(Mission)

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou was lost deep in thought after the awkwardly short conversation took place, eyes gazing to the side and feet carrying a path set out by his comrades. He might've been caught unaware, had Kana-san not been paying attention. Some might be irked when others seemed to take a lead role and were always outdoing oneself, but the purple haired youth liked to think he got on well with the medic, and he knew that he wasn't perfect, but his air of professionalism and determination meant he damn well tried. The salt and pepper haired boy had managed to spot something which convinced him to give warning to the rest of the trio. Suddenly snapping back to reality, Saitou mimicked the landing manoeuvre that his comrade had performed, hand shooting straight to a pouch brimming with numerous varieties of spiked dangers. His first thought was of Masamune-San; he wanted to make sure the younger genin didn't get harmed in his first official encounter. However, as he spotted the figures that Kana-san had warned him of, he realised helping his comrade would have to wait. They were up against another trio, meaning their numbers were even and they would each take an opponent to fight; judging by the spear in the hand of the slender, female who had lined up Saitou, they would be better off each concentrating on their own battles.

The purple haired genin quickly began to way up the positives and negatives of the situation. They weren't outnumbered, as he'd feared, and they each had their own opponent. But their enemies were travelling in such small numbers signified that they were confident in their own abilities. They could only hope this confidence was misplace; luckily, if one member of the group were to finish their own fight quickly, they could assist another, but until then, they were responsible for their own necks. Unfortunately, he noticed that Masamune, the youngest and most inexperienced of the lot whom Saitou had been worried about, had been given yet another bout of bad luck. Based on faith in Kana's ability established from witnessing the medic fight, the youth decided that if he managed to finish up early, he'd help out his fellow purple head. For now, he would just concentrate on his own fight.

With indigo eyes, the youth quickly scanned his opponent. Any idiot's glance could inform them of the spear nestled confidently in between her arm and her hip; if he was going to want to get out of this battle unscathed, he would have to either fight from a distance or in very close proximity, were the swinging tip would be rendered useless. Neither was Saitou's preferred fighting style. Nevertheless, eyeing up his black haired opponent, he fancied getting up close and hitting her with a particular jutsu in mind. His best bet was to quickly subdue his enemies fighting chance with fast and furious attacks, to go on an unrelenting offensive; not his usual tactics, but perhaps he was up to the challenge. Securing his hand around three shuriken, the youth began.

The smile on his enemies face could've been perceived as unnerving, but Saitou wouldn't be so weak; he returned it with a smirk of his own, before lowering his head and charging forward, not looking back at how his comrades were doing. Two of the shuriken he was clutching were tied together by a meter of string. Propelling himself upward, the youth threw each quadruple bladed danger in a triangular trajectory; one he hoped would prove taxing to dodge. The first two that were attached to each other were sent either side, whilst the other soared toward the black haired woman's head. With a single downward stroke of her spear, each projectile was sent hurtling into the ground, rendering Saitou's first attack near useless. However, her spear was now pointed downward, leaving a slight opening in which the purple haired genin could attack once more, following his plan of wave after wave of assaults. Still hurtling toward his enemy, the youth grabbed a kunai from his pouch. He held the blade in his left hand, keeping his right open incase he needed to withdraw another weapon or the like. However, it seemed throwing himself at his enemy wouldn't work either.

Smile becoming a grin, the young woman leapt to the side of the kunai, quickly bringing down her spear. Saitou was too close for the barbed end to come near him, but taking a long shaft to the back was a painful ordeal, and his momentum was nearly completely stopped. Planting his right hand on a tree trunk, the genin managed to hoist himself upward. His initial attacks hadn't been too successful, unfortunately, as his opponent seemed quite agile. Nursing his sore back, Saitou formulated yet another plan of action which would put the spear out of the question, and leave his opponent with little chance to dodge anything, no matter how quick she was.

OOC: Jutsu, Chakra and Equipment:

Spoiler:

Age : 29 Posts : 341

Kanas shout pierced through the silence, Masamune didn't know what was going on, but when he suddenly hit something he knew what had happened. He knew he would had landed on the next branch just fine, so hitting something could only mean one thing. Just then he realized he was falling, he instinctively performed a single handseal, then, with a *plop* his zweihander appeared, he had it sealed inside a seal on his glove so that he could grab the swords haft instantly after summoning. Using that advantage he spinned around in midair and slammed his greatsword inside the tree next to him, the whole blade vanished inside the trunk and prevented Masamune from falling any further. While betting his life was just shortened by ten years Masamune channeled chakra into his feet and after only three times managed to connect them to the tree, he just avoided death by a slit second and was still under shock, so he didn't recognize his whole body shaking in fear. He managed to pull his sword out of the trees trunk and now, for the first time, looked up properly. Kana and Saitou were already fighting with some of the unwished guests, but Masamune still felt a pair of eyes resting on himself, it only took him a second to spot the mountain of a man he bumped into earlier. Now his mind slowly faded back and so did his fear, his knees got shaky and he almost dropped his sword, he should fight that man? Seriously? That was impossible, he was barely half as big as that guy and probably wouldn't even be able to cause a scratch on that giants body. He got ripped out of his thoughts, when suddenly the man jumped down the branch he stood on, he came at Masamune with his head first but he seemed confident that he would be safe. Masamune who was still under shock couldn't get his body to move, so when the mans fingers closed around his throat he couldn't react at all.

It was pitch black, Masamune opened his eyes again, he was lying in a small crater and blood was flowing out of his forehead, a few meter in front of him stood the big man holding up a piece of paper. He suddenly started to shout: 'Hey guys, hurry I think i got what we searched for.' He held up the paper card. It was Masamunes card, the one he sealed the knife inside earlier, just what had happened? Why was he down here, lying on the ground?
Right, he could remember.
The man had grabbed him and crushed him into the ground, he had to have lost consciousness. 'H... He... HEY! That isn't yours, GIVE IT BACK!' Masamune was surprised by himself for shouting at the man, but his whole body hurt and he could barely move because of his fear. *Why have i shouted, what will i possibly be able to do? I can't..... I can't even protect myself, how will i get that card back? He won't just hand it over to me after trying to kill me.... won't he?....... Sorry..... Saitou..... Kana....* The first tears started to flow down his cheeks as his thoughts went on.
He was a weakling, why did he even become a ninja, he never wanted to be one, he never liked fighting or defending people, he just wanted to life a normal life and now he was in this mess.
'Whoa.... i see. You are still alive, impressive. But tell me... kid, how do you plan on getting this back?' The man had turned around and was talking to Masamune now, he waved the paper card back and forth making fun of the Genin, he truly seemed to enjoy himself.

The smile disappeared from his face when suddenly a gush of blood squirted out of his arm and he shouted out in pain. While the man had been busy laughing at the Genin, Masamune had gotten up and slashed his big sword towards him, his face was covered in tears and snot, Masamune was still scared as hell, but he wouldn't let it end like this, he had to decide, whether stay a Ninja and go on with his current life, or go back to his old life and Masamune would do everything to prevent that, too he didn't want to betray his comrades who were counting on him.
Masamune took his stance, feets parallel the left foot behind the right, the swords tip pointed at his enemies throat, his legs still were shaking as hell, but Masamune had made a decision, for the first time in his life he would fight, not run away like he always used to do.
The man liked his wound, the sword had only grazed his arm and the blood had almost stopped flowing out of the wound, he raised his fists: 'Just you wait brat, I planned to be nice and let you life, but now you will pay, I will destroy you and make you beg for mercy.'
Suddenly the man dashed forward while shouting out loud, Masamune unintentional took two steps back, he really thought about just dropping to his knees and begging while he still could. That and all similar thoughts vanished when the first punch hit him and send him flying almost fie meters through the air, the man wasn't particular fast, but strong and Masamune still couldn't shake of his fear. Coughing and panting for air he got up again, he took his stance again and slowly breathed in and out, here he came again.

The man had just laughed for a while when the kid was sent flying through the air by his punch, what had the boy expected? He had been fighting for years and trained his body like steel and there stood this kid right in front of him and wanted to beat him, pathetic. With a loud shout he dashed at Masamune again, this time he wouldn't just punch him once, but kill him quickly, even through he wanted to play around more they didn't had much time and the other Genins, even through being kids didn't seem to be complete weaklings.

Masamune had been prepared, it was quite obvious what kind of guy his enemy was, impatient and overconfident, he may be able to use that for his advantage.
When the man dashed at him again, shouting out like a idiot, Masamune one step back while forcing his sword upwards with all his strength, the man seemed surprise when his punch only hit hot air. This would surely kill the man, Masamune was sure of it, but he, too, had been a bit overconfident. His blade hit the man just like expected, but it didn't went inside the mans body, a loud *CASHING* could be heard when the blade clashed into the mans Armour, which he wore under his clothes. His attack wasn't wasted through, something unexplainable happened, the man, who had been so confident in his strength, was raised into the air and fell on his ass. He didn't fly like Masamune did before, but being lifted up by a 13 year old boy only using a greatsword sure left the man speechless, just now he realized the abnormal size of Masamunes arms which were almost as thick as his legs.
'YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I TELL YOU SOMETHING. EVERY SINGLE DAY I TRAIN FOR 10 HOURS JUST TO BE ABLE TO WIELD THIS THING AND GUYS LIKE YOU, WHO JUST DO WHAT THEY WANT AND DON'T HAVE A SINGLE THING TO CARE ABOUT ARE WHAT I HATE THE MOST.' Masamunes sudden burst of anger had surprised the man, no one would have expected the little shy boy to be such kind of a person and even through it was a 13 year old boy telling a adult about hardships in life, one would lower his head in shame, Masamune was enraged now and he wouldn't be so easy to stop....

______________________________________________________________________________

Spoiler:

Posts : 542

The sun shone down on a sight familiar in the shinobi world. Three Gennin all sporting head protectors from Konoha, faced three rouge bandits in the middle of the ancient forests. First blood had been drawn by the leaner missile user but the toll had still not been paid. Kana felt the small trickle of blood run down his right cheek. Thankfully, the wound was not anywhere near his eyes which would cause him a great disadvantage. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Saitou follow the plan and position himself in a more defensible position. The young medic could not see in what situation the young Masamune found himself without turning his head and loosing sight of the weapon wielding person in front of him. Seconds seemed as an eternity as Kana tried to come up with a plan to finish the fight or escape safely.

From the corner of his eye the bronzed Gennin saw Saitou take action. It seemed that the purple haired teen was taking the fight to the enemy. With speed and agility the Masaki brought the front lines to the lovely bandit. This, however, was to not avail as the woman all but toyed with the purple haired Gennin. Kana tightened his jaw as his mind tried to race to find some sort of solution. His thought process was interrupted once more by the victorious call of the mountain height man. The young Medic’s stomach lurched at the thought of having so easily lost the mission and he was about to sprint towards the other when the youngest of the trio stepped up. The small show of force was short lived as Masamune was violently attacked by the bigger man. His concern winning over logic and safety, Kana rushed over to help his young partner. "Masamune-san!"

Three painful and blood thirsty senbon bit deeply into the thigh of the young medic causing him to stumble and come to a wounded halt. The pain shot up his leg in throbbing waves. The tenor voice of the lean man came haughtily, “One must worry about their own fights. Rushing over to help your young friend makes it seem as if you think nothing of me. That is hurtful; my three friends are payback for making me feel that way.” Kana clutched his leg as the small wounds began to ooze blood. The mountain man prepared for another attack and all Kana could do was watch helplessly. The Academy had chosen well, however. Masamune bravely stood his ground and made a bold declaration.

The force and spirit behind the young purple haired boy filled Kana with pride. Standing up slowly, he grabbed the three senbon trying to make a home in his leg and yanked them out. Blood flowed more freely without the steel plugs but Kana did not care. He turned to the lean man and raised his own voice. “It was an unlucky day when you decided to face Shinobi from Konoha. I am Kinoshi Kana and I shall show you what fire burns inside the hearts of ninja from the Leaf!”

With a sudden surge of strength, Kana rushed forward as he returned the three senbon to their owner for a deadly kiss hello. As three deadly missiles sailed through the air, Kana began to weave some hand sings and follow through with a wind jutsu. “Reppushou!” A strung gust of wind sailed forward just in time. The lean man had dodged the tree senbon with ease and had sent four kunai from the twenty at his belt. The quartet flew through the air flawlessly; such was the skill of the thrower. But skill can do little against the whims of the free spirited wind. The gust of wind caught the four projectiles in mid flight and not only redirected them harmlessly, but the wind pushed on through to the unprepared man and threw him two meters against the trunk of a tree.

All smirks were gone from the man as he regained his composure. His voice was filled with hate and anger as he shouted. “Forget the contract. You are going to die! Kumaro! Aishai, kill these worms!” As if to drive his point he pulled out the two gigantic shuriken on his back. “NOW IT WILL BE YOU WHO WILL CURSE THE DAY YOU MET KUSHA!”

Spoiler:

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou placed one hand against a tree, giving him a small amount of support, whilst his other was nursing his back; he was panting heavily, after being winded by the fierce blow from his opponents spear. The youth knew his best bet was to find a way to render her weapon and speed useless. That meant he'd have to perhaps disarm her, as well as launch numerous assaults in order for one, or perhaps a few, to actually have an impact. Wearing a mocking smirk, the female bandit looked at the genin, eyes cold as they bored into his; she was standing cockily, one hand on her hip as she spoke down to the boy in front of her. "You know, I expected more from Konohagakure. Clearly the standards of their shinobi are dropping; look at you three! You're hardly even teenagers, just kids throwing up a weak façade; it's pathetic, honestly, I don't know what the Hokage's thinking, clearly she's off her rocker if she thinks you are up to tasks like these," Normally, Saitou would've described himself as level headed, perhaps even sensible. He wasn't a particularly proud person and he wasn't easily offended; but the one thing he couldn't stand was his comrades being talked about in such derogatory manner. It was made worse by the fact they were being insulted by someone as lowly as a bandit. The youth didn't have a sudden burst of anger which propelled him into victory through rash, bullish actions; that wasn't in his nature. But he slowly rose, not using the tree for support or clutching his back. With a grin, he replied. "It is pathetic, isn't it? We're just little kids, fighting for our village; but what's more pathetic, is the fact that a group of fully grown bandits have decided to take us on, and then they've gone on to underestimated us, and are about to experience a humiliating defeat,"

Saitou didn't even build his own confidence with his speech; it was pretty rubbish, truth be told. And quite clearly, his opponent thought so to; but that didn't matter right now, because he had an idea of how to launch his next attack; burrowing his hand into his pouch, he began. Withdrawn from his pouch were two hooked shuriken, which screeched as metal slid across metal. The screeches were like an announcement of their thirst for blood. Connected to them were too spools of wire, the other ends of which were clenched in Saitou's hands; with little deliberation nor hesitation, he threw them at his opponent. Still grinning confidently; she rose her spear horizontally, knocking both projectiles into a different trajectory. However, it was now time for the genin to smirk, for he had known she would knock them upwards with ease, but she wasn't his target; a few meters above and behind her, a large tree branch was jutting outward. Both shuriken found themselves lodged into the bark, and the wires became taught. Happy that everything was going as he'd planned, the youth quickly leapt forward, letting the string suspend him as he hurtled toward his opponent.

As he swung toward the jet black haired bandit, Saitou could feel the hooked blades of his shuriken beginning to weaken under the strain of his weight. Raising both legs upward, he launched his limbs forward. It would appear that he had intended to kick his opponent in the chest with both of his feet, a plan stopped when she evaded him with a step to the side and planted the put of her spear in his shoulder. Of course, this was yet another conducive element in his plan. His suspended flight continued as he rose higher, the shuriken now nearly completely dislodged. Quickly turning his body with a small roll, Saitou released his firm grip on the wire spools, now flying through the air with nothing to stop his fall. But the youth wasn't one to create a plan that ended in such a fashion; he, unlike Kana-san, could not manipulate the air, but he didn't need to, for he had a few jutsu of his own which would be useful in such a situation. Quickly flicking through a series of handseals he turned to face his opponent, who still hadn't turned around yet. Clearly she thought victory was already firmly in her grasp.

The result Saitou's jutsu quickly appeared in front of him; it was in fact little more than two foot long, but it would do exactly what he required of it. It was a purple disk of raiton chakra, with small wings sprouting either side. With a flick of his wrist, the youth threw it forward, his other hand still clenching onto the side; it moved quite slowly when its caster was clinging onto it, but he was hidden from his opponents view by the oleaginous tree trunk. As Saitou reached the branch on the other side from the one he'd used to grapple his shuriken with, he let go of the projectile. With another hurling motion, it flew toward his opponent. In this sense, it was little more than a disk of metal; when thrown at speed, it had a good offensive cutting ability, exactly what he needed. The trajectory of the jutsu was in fact quite strategically planned. It was positioned so that when the genin's opponent came to deflect it, she would use the upper half of her spear; here, the wooden pole became thinner, before it became the metallic spearhead. Acting as if by a script, she swung the spear upward into the jutsu. It didn't have quite the affect Saitou was hoping for, but it lodged itself in the polearm to a decent effect. The wood had cracked, meaning the spear was next to completely out of the question. Meanwhile, the youth grabbed a flare from his fire-starting kit; he only had the one, but it was all he needed. Aiming it at his female opponent, he fired the blinding, iridescent light straight into her face.

As he descended yet again, Saitou secured his hand around a tree branch, swinging himself upward yet again. The palm of his hand had begun to bleed, but he took no notice, not wanting his opponent to get a chance to recover. Although, a flare to the face might be slightly damaging. It may be a while before she recovered, but he was taking no chances. Rocketing toward his prey, the youth rose his hand and brought it down, straight into the burnt face of his opponent. He had no desire to see the effects of his flare, so he quickly grabbed the wire he'd used to oscillate from the tree branch and began to work on tying up his opponent. Saitou did so as quickly as possible, wanting to aid his comrades as soon as he could. Once he had knotted the restraining binds, he placed a foot on her chest, pretending to be deaf to her squeals as he kicked her from the treetop perch that they had fought on. It probably wasn't his best decision. He had always been a firm believer of respecting his opponents once they'd beaten him. Oh well; it was a bit of a fall, she'd probably suffer a few fractures, which meant even if she could break his restraints, she wouldn't be going anywhere quickly. Saitou's smirk was still in place, but it didn't feel right, after beating his opponent.

Being anxious about how his comrades were faring, the youth pivoted on his heel. Hastily gathering his equipment from the scene and regaining his breath, the genin ran toward where he'd last seen Masamune-San, adrenaline still pumping through his body.

OOC: Jutsu, Equipment and Chakra:

Spoiler:

Age : 29 Posts : 341

Masamune was exchanging blows with the Bandit since some time now, swinging his big sword around and withstanding the mans heavy blows exhausted Masamune to the fulest, but he couldn't give up, he wouldn't give up. The unknown stranger had used either a Ninjutsu or a Taijutsu, with the result that his hands were now covered in fire. He was obviously a katon user, not only did every punch of him now couse burns, too he was able to fight Masamunes weapon equaly without taking any damage, like this, even through he tried his best, Masamune was covered with several burns and bruises.
The man was having a hard time, too, but did he seem to have more stamina than Masamune who used all his strenght just for repeling the punches, but at least he still had one or three tricks up his sleeve. The man punched again, it was a ruight hook followed by a left uppercut, Masamune jumped backwards, performing a backflip with the help of his sword, which he had stabbed in the ground and now used as pillar to give his manouvre more speed. He was now five meters away from the man, finally, the pace had been changed and now it was Masamunes time to fight back, seeing as the bandit was a powerhouse fighter Masamune switched tactics, from powerhouse to speed. He performed a single handseal and summoned a Katana, the sword wasn't caught through, just fell down and got stuck inside the ground. The big guy had been distracted by the sword and seemed kind of disappointed when nothing spectacular happened, his facial expression changed suddenly, when he looked up and recognised that Masamune had let thrown of his zweihander, at the same time, he was charging at the guy, performing a short number of handseals and after that grabed the Katana, which sticked in the ground. The thrown weapon had missed the bandit,even through he had not expected this, he reacted fast. He had sidestepped, which made him evade the Zweihander, but beeing focused at the weapon he hadn't noticed Masamune who was now, out of nowhere, stood behind the big guy, apparently he had just jumped there, over the head of the bandit, but his enemy was distracte with the sword so he wasn't able to follow his movements.

'RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAA' The bandit spinned around, his elbow was heading in Masamunes direction, but the young Genin was already in movement, meaning he slided through the big guys legs and stricked the mans left leg with a palm strike from his left hand, while letting his swords blade cut through the right leg.
'Thats it for your legs.' Said Masamune as he jumped up from his quick slide. After doing another backflip he landed on his feet again, performing another handseal. He released the seal, which he had planted on the bandits leg, a big explosion emerged from the mens left leg and with a loud shout, full of pain and surprise about the sudden attack, did the man go down to the ground. With a smile on his face did Masamunes hand spring inside his cloak and took out little round orbs, which were thrown in the air, a few seconds later the little bombs brought forth a smoke screen, which slowly started to take over the ground of the battlefield, it wasn't very windy today, so the smoke could grow steadily without beeing shrinked, he would at least last for the next ten minutes (2 posts) and make the fight below the trees MUCH harder. It weren't very strong smokebombs, but the amount of thrown objects and the geographical layout of the battlefield allowed Masamune to play this tactic. He would, from now on strike with fast dashes out of the nowhere while his enemy couldn't move anymore, still having his hands and probably a tree as backup he would be able to oversize Masamune and couse a big danger with his fist. Masamune counted on the surprise effect of his techniques and the fact that his enemy was easy to spot.

The fight above in the trees distracted Kumaro, the bandit was leaning his whole body on a trunk while he held his fist high, this little boy had tricked him quite good, but here would his luck end. Even through Kumaro didn't knew what the boy had planned he knew he was stronger and as soon as this smoke would lift he would have beat that stupid brat. His eyes registered a movement from the right side, he quickly spinned his upper body to the right and punched into the direction, his fist hit a kunai which flew back into the darkness, at the same time did Masamune emerge from the leaves on top of the tree and descend down on the distracted bandit. His blade slashed down, tearing through the flesh of the mans shoulder blade while his left palm hit the mans tummy. Kumaro howled out, but the attack hadn't ended yet, more was comming...

After walking a few steps to the right Masamune took out a kunai and turned around, now facing a trunk, he performed a few handseals and with a *plop* did the kunai vanish while the kanji for 'seal' appeared on the trunk. Now Masamune turned around again, he knew how he wanted to attack the bandit, that's what the preparations were for, now he would just try to be as silent as possible while he channeled chakra into his feet and started climbing a tree. He reached a good height very fast, even through it was hard to see the trees were very big and only had few branches, Masamune pushed part of his cloak aside, embrassing his chest which had a huge circle formed seal on it. Masamune performed a signel seal and 5 giant shurikens appeared in the air while the seal disappeared. Masamune catched all shurikens by catching them with his katana, which he did by stabbing through the holes inside the shurikens. He performed one handseal again and one of the Shurikens disappeared while again The same kanji as before appeared on the tree. Masamune jumped to the next tree, climbing it up again, looking down on the bandit, he was still struggling getting up again, and then again sealed one of the giant shurikens away. He did the same process two more times, until all the shurikens were sealed and then he finally jumped over to the last tree, the tree the bandit was now leaning on. Ready to assault him from the top, he put down the other giant shurikens, two were left, he took out his wire and connected both giant shurikens, he then tied the new created weapon around himself, so that his whole back was covered with the two giant shurikens, these would be needed later during this fight, since Masamune had used up a lot of chakra and more would be used now.
He performed a lot of handseals, all in als he did the same jutsu four times, then again a earlier performed fuuin which made his left hand glow red. He took the Katana which was stabbed inside the tree and jumped down the branch. Below him did the Bandit evade deflect the kunai which was shoot at him with a 'Fuuton: Fuuin Houshutsu'. Right after that Masamune slashed his sword down on Kumaro, he felt how his blade ripped through Kumaros flesh, right after that he striked Kumaro into the tummy with his left palm.

Kumaros howl echoed through the darkness, he was blinded, and pain spread through his body, something weak had hit him in the tummy, but what was terrible were the following pain attacks. ONE - TWO - THREE giant shurikens striked his body, he was stunned by the pain which striked through his body, the shurikens digged deep into his flesh, but his muscle amount hindered the shurikens from doing any critical damage, too he managed to block most of the damage with his arms, which he had raised above infront of his body to shield himself.
#BOOM#
Yet another explosion ripped apart Kumaros defense,his heands were blown down on his body while his whole upper body got burned , never before had he felt such pain.

Masamune still smiled, he wasn't himself, right now he was someone else fighting in his place, never had he dreamed to be able to be this effecient, something about himself had changed. Right now he was extreme confident and knew exactly what he had to do, he really liked this part about himself, maybe... he could get used to this. He heard the explosion, this was the signal, for now Masamune would stop about himself and just focus on his attack. He started to dash forward again, a tree emerged out of the fog and Masamune avoid a crash by doing a cartwheel to the side, while running he noticed his Zweihander, it was struck sideways inside of a tree, he made a sharp turn and put his katana back into his belt while running with full speed against the Zweihanders handle. The whole air got pumped out of Masamune when he crashed into his sword, but at least he managed to get his Zweihander back. Now that his Chakra had been completely depleted he could use his best weapon. He dashed forward again, he still heard the bandit, his shouting and cursing couldn't be overheard, while running he started to spin the sword over his head, he didn't had all his previous strenght anymore and was exhausted so he would need to not get strenght, but momentum to get this slash in as effective as possible. Slowly did the huge body of his enemy emerge out of the smoke, Masamune slash his sword down. The man howled the loudest of all times now. Kumaro had protected himself by channeling chakra through his skin and harden it, but still. Masamune was able to perform a strike powerful enough that it cut open Kumaros whole chest, at the same time the hit made all of the giant shurikens fall of Kumaros body. But Kumaro had been prepared, as soon as Masamune had performed the strike and almost vanished in the smoke again, Kumaro reached out and grabbed his neck. He pulle Masamune back and punched him three to four times.

Masamune had luck, the punches all hit his back and were blocked by the Giant Shurikens on his back. Masamune grabbed inside his cloak and pulled out a senbon, when he was once more punched into the back he throw his hand back, which was followed by a loud painful shout, Masamune had pierced his senbon into Kumas right eye. The man wouldn't be able to see on his right eye ever again, Masamune was sure of that and it hurt him to do this, but he had no choice, now it was his life or Kumaros. Kumaro let go of Masamune, the boy used that chance to get away from Kumaro again, as soon as his feet touched the ground he dashed away, tripping over one of the great shuriken. He didn't hold his Zweihander up anymore, he just grabbed it's haft and let it slide above the ground, this coused it to jump up into the air a lot. Masamune turned around and looked back, he couldn't afford losing track of the bandit now.
#TUCK# a strange noise could be heard then it was silent, Masamune was lying on the ground, holding his forehead, maybe his skull had been smashes when he ran into the tree, but since he had worn his forehead protection he was safe.
"OOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh......... ouch, my head is about to burst." Masamune slowly stood up again..... he had lost his target and couldn't see properly. All he could do now was going uo the trees and help his friends, the bandit wouldn't be able to move anywhere far, climbing was out of question, so tey could take care of him later.

(Cutting the smoke bomby duration by one post due to long post, if anyone has a objection against that please state so.)
_________________________________________________________________________
CP: (-45) 3/50
Items

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Posts : 542

Rage and hate could bee seen clearly in the eyes of Kusha. His calm and collected demeanor was completely gone and substituted by blood lust and a sense of revenge. Kana was sure that he had hurt the man’s pride more than his flesh. Who knew how many lives these bandits had ended? Victory always engorged ones ego and it seemed that the trio had become fat and complacent. Enraged as he was, his accuracy was less than perfect, something that the young Medic counted as a blessing. Even in this state, the older man was quite deadly and only his training at evasion had left the young Gennin with little more than surface wounds. To any onlooker, it would appear that Kana was loosing pitifully. The bronzed skinned medic sporting more than a dozen wounds which oozed with blood. To a more trained eyed however, Kana was withstanding the pain in order to reach an end, the end of the amount of weapons Kusha could call upon to be more precise.

An experienced projectile user knew that pin-point accuracy and perfect timing would always win the fight rather than bulk numbers. From what he had read, most long range fighters had little in the way of close up defense. Based on this principle, Kana’s plan of attack was to get close and use one of his close ranged jutsu while avoiding the deadly projectiles coming his way. Jumping from tree branch to tree branch, sideways and sometimes to the rear, Kana, slowly and painfully, made his way towards Kusha. Each step was paid in blood as a new wound appeared on the young Medic as he calculated the trajectory and was able to just barely miss the sharp edges. His entire body burned with pain and his eyes watered as the biological way to relieve pain. Still on he came, the fruits of his labors visible in the emptying ammo belts sported by the older bandit.

He was only five meters from the other when realization came to the eyes of Kusha. Kana leapt and a kunai which he had dug from his own shoulder was the weapon he would use to incapacitate the bandit. However, in that split second, eyes that had been full of rage and hate now shone with maliciousness and glee. Kusha reached behind him and as the young Medic flew through the air. When the rouge’s hands snapped forward, two Bolas shot forward, spinning diabolically. One caught Kana by the shins and hugged the young Medic tight as if it was some sort of demented lover. The other captured the young Gennin just below the shoulder bringing his arms against his sides. The rope snaked its way down to tie him securely all the way to his elbows.

Being denied his legs to land, Kana grunted as he fell like a heavy sack of potatoes at the feet of the devious bandit. A vicious grin spread across the mouth of Kusha. “Caught like a stuck pig. You had me going there for a second young man, for that you must be acknowledged. However, the day that a punk like you can beat me will be a freezing in hell! Now, to finish you off like the dog you are. You are not even a warrior deserving a clean death. No, you will die like a rat and I have just the thing for it too. Consider yourself lucky, few see this jutsu but I need to utterly annihilate you. I would say enjoy but I doubt it will be enjoyable for you.” Kusha dug into his side straps, where two pouches were located. He retrieved two very thick looking scrolls. Kana could only watch as he held each in one hand and with a diabolical grin he flung the into the air. “Secret jutsu: Deamon’s Cocoon!” The scrolls started to inter sect each other and form a sphere around Kana. Length by length of scroll, the light of the sun started to fade as the scrolls formed a Cocoon from which the Jutsu got his name. When the last sliver of light was covered by the scrolls, Kana discovered why it got its second name. The young Medic’s already wide eyes widened even more as the jutsu was released. Thousands upon thousands of Senbon were released and each and every single one of them raced to impale Kana….

On the outside, Kusha breathed heavily. He was not a Ninjutsu user. His skill was derived by his ability to impale others from a distance or before they even knew what hit them. The jutsu he had just performed was seldom used because it drained him so much of the little chakra he was able to wrangle out of his body. Sweat started to form on his brow, his age was also a factor on his tiredness. He only remained standing out of pure satisfaction that his prey laid dead, pin cushioned by his jutsu. With a flick of his wrist he recalled the scrolls which once more returned to a rolled position, the last function of the jutsu. To his satisfaction, there lay before him, a bristling cocoon of spikes in the same shape that Kana had been laying. A chuckle then full flown laughter emerged from the depths of Kusha. “Foolish boy! There is your payment for defying us. Where is your pride as a Shinobi? Where is your strength? Where is that fire you so vehemently proclaimed? Konaha is nothing more than a place for fools and cowards!” His laugh roared yet again. However, this was cut short by pain in his entire body. His throat gargled and his right eyes stung. So fast was the speed at which he had been hit that he hardly noticed that he now was now the owner of hundreds or thousands of senbon. Kusha fell backward and from the immense pain now assailing him.

Through trembling and watering eyes, He could see a shadow. As his lone eyes focused as best it could, a sudden realization came to him. Disbelief could be seen in his eye and when he tried to talk only blood spewed forth. Kana stood over him, resignation in his eyes. “For a seasoned veteran, you talk too much. I hope that your soul finds peace.” The young Medic then dug into his pouch and produced one of his exploding tags. He placed it near the top of the chest of the elder man. The man’s eye twitched and moved furiously but there was little he could do. His whole front had been turned into a resting place for senbon and salt-and pepper colored hair senbon. Kana walked away and when he was about three meters away, detonated the tag. The explosion would rip through the chest and lungs and heart of the bandit.

Taking a deep breath, Kana looked around, black smoke seemed to rise from an area about ten meters to his left and he headed in that direction. He hoped his partners were all right. He did not even stop to heal himself as he pressed on bloody and diced.

Spoiler:

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

As Saitou sprinted toward where he had last seen his comrade, he became aware of a dull, aching pain in his back. The adrenaline from his fast paced battle had finally left his body, and the bruises inflicted by the heavy swinging of his opponents spear lingered across his body; a nagging pain from a rib on his left suggested he may have cracked it. Taking a deep breath, he looked forward. He couldn't see his friends yet, and he wanted to make sure every member of the trio was alright. The youth ignored the protest from his body, standing completely upright before beginning to move once again, heading into an odd haze. Saitou immediately thought the odd scent was a poisonous gas and quickly threw his hand to his nose, clamping his nostrils shut and refusing to believe. However, a second glance informed him that it was simply the passings of smoke. Realising that it was harmless, the genin pushed onward, looking for a flash of purple, the distinctive sight that would be Masamune-San's hair. It wouldn't be too hard to miss, what with the natural color of the area contrasting so much to the vibrant shade. Saitou started to worry about his comrade, but then he saw a clump of purple topping off a slowly rising body.

Breaking out into a grin, the youth ran toward his companion, about to congratulate him and offer him a hand up, but his words were cut short. Towering above the Konohagakure Shinobi that was slowly rising was a huge figure. Clearly, he wasn't in the greatest shape, and Saitou realised that this had been his companion's opponent; the youth's first thought was about how well Masamune had done to succeed against such an enemy. But as a large fist was raised, flames gathered menacingly around it, the boy had other things on his mind. One hand went straight to his pouch, the other came upward; swiftly drawing a kunai, he realised his inferior speed would mean he would not be able to reach the scene in time. He couldn't risk throwing any projectiles, for there was little of the mountainous man exposed with Masamune's body in the way. Saitou didn't want to risk hitting his comrade; all he could do was bellow a warning at the top of his voice as he dived forward, intending to get close enough to use his kunai to hit the exposed armpit of the opponent. The warning shout was mostly incoherent, due to the panic in the boy's voice. Someone with good interpretation could perceive the sound as "MASAMUNE! MOVE IT!" With sudden fear in his body, the purple haired boy realised he probably wouldn't reach his opponent in time. His friend would have to take things into his own hands if he so wished to survive. The large man looked to be on his last legs; a quick glance showed it was amazing he could still stand after the wounds he had sustained, and probably wouldn't be able to mount another assault. This was a last effort.

[OOC: Sorry for the short post]

Age : 29 Posts : 341

[OOC: Maybe i overdid it a bit here, just tell me and i edit it ^^]

Masamune was still rubbing his head when he thought to see a fade shadow in the smoke, a few seconds later he could see the shiny violet hair of his teammate, which was just like his own. He seemed mostly unhurt, Masamune felt strangely relieved, he didn't even knew these guys well, but he somehow cared about them.
"HEEEEEEEEEY.... SAITOU~KUN. HOW ARE YOU??" Masamune had shouted out for the other Genin as soon as he had recognised him, but suddenly the boy seemed to be in a hurry, Masamune wasn't able to recognise what was going on, but suddenly he heard Saitou: "MASAMUNE! MOVE IT!"
Masamune was confused, what was going on? He should do what? Move?
Suddenly he felt a strange presence behind him, he clearly stood in the shadow of something big, it couldn't be...... could it?

Masamune spinned around, behind him was the bandit, even through it was impossible for him to be able to walk, Masamune had been sure about his enemys condition, that guy couldn't possible be able to move anymore. But still, there he stood, his hands were covered in flames, just like they were the whole fight. His enemys hands moved forward, his hand was shaped like a spear, his enemy was obviously trying to pierce right through him and he would manage to do that, no doubt about that. Masamune didn't had one shreed of strenght left, not in his arms or in his legs, he was barely able to stand, dodging or blocking the attack was out of question, too Masamunes fear had come back and once more was Masamune unable to think a clear thought. His mind was blank......... he would die... this was it.

"Ugh...." Masamune opened his eyes, he had hit the ground very hard. What had just happened? Was this for real?
Masamunes eyes got teary, he could feel the blood flowing over his chest, it was warm. He could see his comrades run over to him, everything moved slowly, every second was like a eternity, the tears didn't stop and he didn't tried to hide his tears.
"Damn.... yo....u... bra....t..." The bandit spoke his last words as his eyes lost their shine and became dull. Masamune was breathing unsteady, short and long shouts of pain and agony escaped his lips, he was burried under the giant corpse, his blade sticked out of the bandits back, blood was gushing out from the wound and painted the grass around them red. A gush of wind blew through the forest and the smoke faded away, a singe drop of water landed on Masamunes face, another one followed the first and after e few seconds a heavy rain was coming down from the sky. Masamune didn't noticed any of this, his mind was blank, he couldn't hear anything, he couldn't feel anything, only one sentence went through his mind, repeating himself over and over again: *He is dead*
Masamune had tripped, his legs just buckled away under him and somehow did the bandit tried to go after him, and then? What had happened then?
It went so fast...... somehow he had raised his hands and..... the man just ran in his blade, just like that.
Just like that had he ended a persons life..... what for?
Masamune felt a pair of hands pulling him away from the corpse.
"KANA.... KANA..... *Sniff* help him..... he... he is....... uggh... please..." Tears kept gushing out from his eyes as he spoke, the words just came out of his mouth, he had wanted to tell Kana to help the bandit, but his words didn't made much of a sense....

Posts : 542

Time is measured by the body in the fractions of a second it takes for information to reach the brain. It is because of this that those trained to fight can react to things normal humans would only just be registering. Under this principle, Shinobi have almost super human senses that allow them to evade and launch eye blurring speeds. However, no amount of training or speed would ever give one the ability to travel great distances in the blink of an eye except by the aid of space bending jutsu known only to the most expert of shinobi.

Unfortunately, Kana did not posses such high level jutsu. Truth be told, at the moment he barely processed the ability to walk. Even this small feat was pain in pain and loss of blood. As he walked in the direction of the thinning smoke in search for his comrades, he had healed the major wounds that would have let too much blood seep out. A medic did the group no good if they were dead or incapacitated. Still, the stings from the hundreds of cuts left by his battle with the projectile user, burned like fire now that the body had stopped pumping adrenalin into the young Medic.

Kana had chosen his direction correctly and he made his way slowly and carefully, not sure if any of the other two members of his team had fallen under enemy hands or had been victorious. He was glad to see what appeared to be one of the purple haired boys about five meters to his right, judging by the size, it had to be Saitou. The small smile that had appeared on the bronzed face quickly disappeared as an urgent cry was raised by his Masaki friend. Following the gaze of the other, he discovered the other purple haired boy about the same distance of five meters to his left.

That small distance suddenly became an eternity to Kana as he saw the reason the other raised the alarm. A huge man, standing well over the small Masamune, appeared to materialize out of thin air. Flames born from the pit of hell and fueled by hate covered the man’s hands. Kana followed suit and attempted to sprint towards the young Ken user. His feet seemed to cover little ground as if the scene that played before his eyes seemed to move ever away from the young medic. A hole in his stomach formed at the realization that he would not make it in time and that one of his partners was to die right before his eyes. He had known this would happen someday. His line of work almost guaranteed it, but for it to be so soon and for the subject to be one so young, it tore at Kana like no blade would ever be able to.

The mountain of a man lunged forward, from his angle; the tiny Masamune all but disappeared from view. The bronzed skinned Gennin’s hear sank. His eyed drew wide and a knot formed in the middle of his throat. His pain was gone, he sprinted forward and as if to toy with him, time flashed. A second ago he was feet from the scene and in the blink of an eye; he was standing next to the fallen bandit and to sounds of groaning. Kana pulled the young Tsurigi from under the arm of the giant opponent. The man cursed to poor younger purple haired shinobi and breathed his last. As the young medic pulled his partner further away from the dead bandit, the other started to cry. The tears of pain and grief were for the person who had tried to end his life. Kana did not know how to console the poor ninja. Taking another’s life was another guaranteed of the line of work the trio had taken up. Kana turned to see Saitou arrived just seconds after he had the other seemed to be in a bad shape just from the looks of it. He gave the Masaki a silent request to look after Masamune as he inspected the dead giant.

The young medic looked at the immobile body of the bandit over. Masamune was right to be worried the other was dead. Even a beginner could tell that the place the blade protruded from was the honey spot to kill somebody. Normally, the ribs would deflect such actions but since the bandit was such a huge man, the smaller blade found no opposing force and totally skewered his heart. Judging from the wounds the other had suffered in the battle with the young shinobi that had been the last straw. There was little else Kana could do. The official verdict was death for the giant bandit.

Kana returned to his companions. “I apologize Masamune-san, but I fear that the bandit did not make it.” It was no mistake that he failed to tell him that his own opponent had been put to death. Who knew what reaction the young swordsman would have at such news? “Allow me to mend you two and then we shall move on to a better spot and rest. Who knows how many other were in their band?” He looked the young Fuin user over and decided that the most present concern was how drained the young Masamune looked. “Please relax Masamune-san this will not hurt.” Performing a short string of hand seals, Kana called up some chakra which he then passed on to Masamune. The young man would still feel broken and battered but his life would not be in danger.

The bronzed Medic proceeded to look Saitou over. The elder purple haired shinobi was harder to take care of. A cracked rib on his left lower cage was threatening to become a full fledge breaking and maybe even risk an open wound if not taken care of properly. Despite any protest the other would put up, Kana proceeded to mend his friend. He wrapped a few bandages he had with him and stabilized the fracture. All the healing being done, Kana reluctantly called out to his partners. “Let us move on then, we will rest in an hour.” He waited for them, the rain washing over the trio and the dead bandit like solemn tears from the sky.

Spoiler:

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou's diving effort in order to help Masamune-San may have been in vain, but thankfully, it seemed that the attempt wasn't required; his shout had warned the boy of the incoming dangers, and the younger genin had taken it from there. The mountain like thug had been on his last legs, he couldn't have reacted in time. His final effort was cut short when the Konohagakure Shinobi found himself in need to defend himself. The older purple haired genin realised what kind of impact such a thing could have on someone so young's mentality, especially someone who seemed so fragile. Recovering his composure, Saitou got up and ran toward the scene, where Kana-san had just arrived, also looking slightly wounded. The medic hoisted the giant's arm, pulling it off their comrade; but as the youth saw Masamune's tears, he felt himself stunned, not sure how to deal with such a grievous situation. However, it warmed his heart. That somebody so young would cry for taking another's life, something he'd enlisted himself to do and knew he would one day have to commit himself to such actions, most likely numerous times over. A silent nod from the Kinoshi informed Saitou that he should attempt to aid the boy. Feeling slightly uncomfortable wasn't particularly odd, but the genin threw away any social awkwardness for the sake of his comrade; he enclosed the younger boy in his arms, attempting to cover his eyes in order to block out the sight of the man's body, laying idle.

Kana-san went over to inspect the body, but it seemed like a hopeless gesture. If the final wound wasn't fatal, the ones before that would finish the bandit off. However, it might give Masamune peace of mind to see a medic looking over the opponent; Saitou continued to embrace his comrade, holding him tightly as if to conceal the tears. Over and over he whispered to him, attempting to comfort him. "It's alright... You did what you had to. It was him or you. He would've killed you without a second thought. You were strong..." The youth found words along these lines the only he was currently capable of speaking; he nearly felt tears glistening in his eyes, but he blinked them aside. It would probably be best to appear strong right now. He turned his head toward Kana-san, who was inspecting the body, and he waited with bated breath for the verdict.

“I apologize Masamune-san, but I fear that the bandit did not make it.”

At this statement, Saitou felt a feeling of descent inside him, as he realised the effect this could have on his younger comrade. He thought back to his opponent; had he killed her? The youth didn't think he had, but kicking her from the high perch could've broken whatever bone she'd landed on, and possibly more; what if she'd landed on her neck? She'd been bound, so she couldn't throw out a limb to catch herself. This realisation hit the boy hard, but he put such thoughts aside in order to care for his comrade, who'd had it much tougher; Kana-san came over, clearly intending to nurse the wounds they'd sustained. Saitou relinquished his grip on the boy, allowing the medic to treat him. Soon, the salt and pepper haired boy was done, and moved on to the second purple head; he began to wordlessly wind bandages around his rib, the one where he'd been hit by the shaft of his opponent's spear. Initially, the youth made to complain, but he realised his companion knew best. As the repair work was underway, Saitou gave out a small smile to his comrade and nodded his thanks, before turning his neck to gaze at Masamune-San.

Rain washing the blood from the palm of his hand, the youth realised they'd better get moving. They could probably make it to their destination by nightfall if they moved quickly, but as the purple haired genin looked at the youngest of the trio, he wondered if he'd be up to much. But for now, it was best they put distance between themselves and the battle scene. Looking at Masamune, Saitou wondered if he was up to much. He seemed frail and young in this rain, and the boy wondered if it was best they went on; but he knew the mission had to be completed, for Shinobi had to throw away their emotions. Looking at his comrades, he wondered if people so young were capable of doing such a thing. Sighing, he walked over to the younger of the three, before wordlessly scooping him up in both arms. Saitou wasn't particularly strong, but the boy he was now carrying was both much smaller and lighter than him, so it was no difficult task; looking at Kana-san, he explained. "We'd better get a move on, I'll take him for a while. We don't want him wondering, or getting too tired..." With that, the youth set off, his pace hampered by the boy in his arms but driven by determination and a will to complete the mission as soon as possible, and get the small genin home, in warmth, somewhere he could relax, somewhere away from this bloody battlefield. Tears had began to form around Saitou's eyes, but he ignored them. He moved onward, not looking back to see if Kana was following, looking forward only, feeling the rain lash his hair and skin.

Age : 29 Posts : 341

[OOC: since i had a character edition recently please forget all the former stuff i said about Masamunes past, since there was only one thing which really concerned his past that shouldn't be to hard, oh and... sorry for the short post and Masamune will stay unconscious for some while now, even through i do want to keep rping this is only logical to occur looking at his present state >> i will state when it is time for me to post again (besides when waking me up some other way), therefore just skip me for a while ^^ ]

Masamunes mind just seemed to switch off after a while, he recognised that he was held tight, seeing as Kana was inspecting the corpse it had to be Saitou.
Masamune couldn't hear either Saitous nor Kanas words the feeling of emptyness inside the young boy spread further through his body and made him completely unable of any action, not that his exhausted body would be able of any movement right now, even through the chakra Kana lend him resurrected some of the lost strenght. The next thing Masamue recognised was that they had started moving again, he was on someone back, being carried through the forest. He didn't waste his thought for details like, what had happened to his sword or did we get back the sealed knife? Steady but slowly did Masamune closed his eyes, the monoton rythm of Saitous jumping and landing made him sleepy, too he was extremely exhausted and nearly out of chakra, it wasn't a wonder that Masamune fell into a deep slumber after mere ten minutes. But the real nightmare would start now....

Masamune cried from time to time during his sleep, short shouts of agony came forth his lips and he randomly moved at whims, one time he even started to scream and randomly punch around himself, with the result that Saitou almost dropped him. Inside of his head Masamune was currently fighting himself, pictures of the bandits dead face and other things popped up and left the little boy restless even through beeing asleep. "Mum..... help me..." Were Masamunes last words before loosing his consciousness.......

Posts : 542

The downpour continued to shed its solemn tears upon the trio of Gennin from the Legendary Village Hidden in the Leaves. Kana had taken point being the least hurt of the three and though he wanted to oppose to Saitou carrying Masamune, the medic knew better than to dictate to another how well he felt. It was a well known fact that every shinobi would bare their teeth at pain and stand on little else than pride. So the slashed and cut young man led leaving the pair of purple haired shinobi to their thoughts, and in Masamune’s case, their feverish dreams.

There was no medicine that could heal a broken heart other than time and experience. The youngest of the three would one day come to understand that some lives had to be extinguished so that the fire which burned in Konoha could illuminate the way in the darkness. Killing was a dirty business and Kana hoped that Masamune would come out of this a stronger person or at the worst, come out with an understanding that this is not his calling.

Clouds had sent the light into a sort of eerie twilight as if the world itself shared in the sentiment that Saitou and Masamune felt. Kana somehow had come to understand that loss was a part of being a shinobi, the Memorial Stone in the village was a grim reminder that honorable death in battle came at the cost of an emptiness of those left alive. Despite all his mental preparedness, Kana was not completely unaffected and he had wanted to hold the youngest of the trio with as much embrace as the senior Masaki had. However, in times like these, despite the actual emotions running rampant inside, a pillar must support the weight of those that are downfallen.

During their musings and dark dreams, the hour had passed. Satisfied that they had covered enough ground to have left the battle ground, if not the battle scars, behind them, Kana motioned for Saitou to stop and rest. The Medic would focus on the routine to keep his mind sane. He first checked on Saitou to make sure the carrying of the youngest one had not caused undue strain on the hurt rib. After making sure the other would be fine, he checked on Masamune. He noticed the other seemed to be in a sort of delusional slumber but no sign of physical harm seemed to be present. The young medic decided not to wake the poor Ken user and let him battle whatever daemons might come for him. Every shinobi must fight this fight.

The sun had started to set on the horizon as if in a hurry to leave this bloody day behind. Kana took out his water skin and offered some to Saitou. He was walking over to give the other the container when his danger heightened hearing picked up the sound of people moving amongst the trees. Based on the sound of it, a group was moving closer and they did not care to hide their movements. Kana immediately placed himself in between Saitou and whatever danger was about to come through the foliage. What presented itself was not quite what he had expected. A group of about five people broke through the cover of the trees. Shock and surprise registered on their faces as they saw the trio. The group all wore a travelling palm raingear. Their attire was more of high class servants than warriors, which made Kana ease up just a bit. The swords that they wore on their hips however made him rethink his relaxation. Kana had a Kunai in hand and was eying the five newcomers. Finally, a male in his mid 30s took a step forward with his hands outstretched. “Would you perhaps be shinobi from Konoha?” The question was loud but lacked any sort of challenge or animosity. Kana nodded while still keeping his ready stance. “I am Kinoshi, Kana, Gennin of Konoha. Who may I ask are you?”

The other bowed and his companions followed suit. “I am Hirosi, Kino. We were commanded by our lord, Jinmusa-sama, to escort you to his presence. He awaits the tanto which you were ordered to guard. He…foresaw some complications.” His eyes fell on Masamune and the obviously bandaged Saitou. A look or shame and awkwardness fluttered across his features as if he knew something of the attack, but quickly regained his composure. Kana relaxed his stance but did not return the kunai to its pouch. “We had some complications indeed Hirosi-sama. We are thankful for your opportune assistance. If you do not mind my boldness, but I fear that I must remain in possession of the tanto until delivered to Lord Jinmusa himself. I do hop you understand.” Kana bowed and the other merely nodded. “Indeed, please allow us to help with your companion there. The village is not too far from here, we may reach it an about four hours.”

The young Medic motioned for Saitou to stand down, even without having turned; the young medic knew that his purple haired friend would be armed and ready. Two of the group moved over to Masamune and shared the load as ceremoniously as possible. Kino turned to Kana and said. “Please let us know when you are ready.” Kana double checked that Saitou was ready, giving him a silent look to remain alert and look after Masamune and then turned to the servant and nodded. “We are ready, please lead the way.” Eight figures moved through the darkening woods, with torches being lit by the group. What awaited the trio in the village was anybody’s guess.

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

The deluging rainfall was coming down heavily, cast by a grey sky that sent a glum atmosphere to all those who could see it. Saitou, however, took little notice of the weather, his mind not lingering on any thoughts of any kind, just letting his legs move him onward as he followed Kana-san mindlessly. Only upon occasion did his eyes flicker upward to check where he was going, instead listening to his comrade's foot fall and imitating the movements; most of his attention was focused on carrying his burden. Masamune was rather light and small, but Saitou wasn't particularly well built, and thus the load began to take its toll toward the second half of the journey. The taxing task of carrying the boy was made more difficult by the movements. When he was awake, he shifted a bit, but was mostly still. No, it was more problematic when he was asleep and less control of his motions, in which case he was much more strenuous to contain, and the damage caused to Saitou's ribs was slowly becoming more and more aggravated. However, he paid little attention to this, moving onward without another thought. The battle he'd fought earlier had taken a lot of his stamina, and he was beginning to feel fatigued, after a hard day of travelling and combat. But complaining, or asking for a rest, wasn't something the youth wanted to do, and he was much happier to put more and more distance from the trio of Shinobi and the scene of the fight. He pretended to be oblivious to his burden's outbursts. Whenever legible sentences came from the boy's slumber, he made sure to tune out, not wanting to hear anything that might be considered private or embarrassing.

Saitou nearly dropped his companion a few times, but was lucky not to. To his surprise, he preferred Masamune awake, as he didn't squirm or make as many sound whilst conscious; which meant he was less likely to drop him. The strain on his rib was beginning to make itself present slowly, an ebbing pain appearing menacingly at the side of his thoughts. It was as he was considering asking for a short rest that Kana-san made an unmissable motion to signify it was time to stop. Although the hard journey had felt like a miserable one, Saitou was surprised an hour had passed already, but didn't stop to complain, quickly scooping up his burden and placing him sitting upright on a tree trunk, where he would be, for the most part, sheltered from the weather. With a sigh, the youth surveyed the area, one hand clutching his ribs.

It seemed that Kana-San didn't need verbal communication; without a word, he moved toward the purple haired genin, quickly working his magic. A part of Saitou wanted to wave off his comrade, to inform him he was capable of going unchecked and to look after Masamune-San, but he decided that pride could be hung on the rack for now. After a quick examination, the medic moved on to the youngest of the group. With little deliberation, the youth began to rifle through his pack, looking for a small amount of food he could distribute among the trio. Before he could find any, however, he noticed Kana-San offering a water skin; feeling it'd be best he didn't refuse, Saitou nodded his thanks and took the offered beverage, wiping the mouthpiece before taking a few swigs. He was about to hand it back when he realised his companion was now facing away from him. With a startling realisation, he spotted his comrade's stance, one that would suggest he was ready to take action. Concealing a sigh, Saitou quickly drew a kunai of his own, rising into a crouching position and thinking to himself: More bandits? I thought we were done with them... He was worried about Masamune-San, now lying a few feet away and not in any state to fight, if he was even conscious right now; it was most likely he wasn't aware of what was happening. Although, neither was Saitou. The youth was simply following Kana's movements.

It was at the sight of five newcomers that the purple haired youth began to curse his luck; by the looks of things, they were well armed, and the two of them, both most likely tired from their battle and day worth of travelling, wouldn't stand a chance. However, Kana-san, quick off the mark as always, engaged them verbally. The result was much better than Saitou could have hoped for. Five well armed figures bowing to them and announcing themselves as people sent to escort the Shinobi and aid them in their mission seemed to be too good to be true. When guilty eyes cast themselves upon the purple haired genin, he simply greeted them with a shaky grin as he lowered his kunai slightly, no longer holding it at the ready but still clutching it, just in case. He threw a quick glance around himself, making sure there was nobody else present. Kana-san motioned for him to stand down, clearly knowing the genin well enough to assume he would've taken arms upon the sudden arrival; with a small smirk, Saitou returned his kunai to its place amongst its brothers. A silent look from the medic communicated all that he had to say. With just a simple nod once more, the Shinobi made towards the youngest of the group.

As he bent low in order to scoop up Masamune, he nearly collided his head with one of the newcomers, who'd clearly had the same thought pattern. But the genin wasn't going to let the other carry the burden of the boy, and instead he threw a warning glare into the hazel eyes of the man, informing him that he could handle his comrade. The man, who clearly found the action slightly hostile, backed off, heading toward the front of the group. Slinging the small boy around his back once again, Saitou marched onward, moving to Kana-San's side, and pointedly keeping his Kunai exposed to any eyes that set themselves upon him.

Fortunately, the rain was slowly letting up, and the journey was becoming easier. The fact that they were now eight instead of three meant that the Shinobi didn't have to be so wary of any approaching menaces, however the purple haired genin wasn't completely relaxed. It wasn't that he didn't trust his new companions, more that he was skeptical of their aims and wanted to make sure he wasn't caught of guard. He averted eye contact with al of the group, instead looking straight ahead, occasionally glancing toward his fellow Konoha shinobi for the reassuring knowledge that he wasn't the only conscious person from his village. Saitou skidded to an abrupt halt when he noticed that those in front of him had become motionless. At first, he began to panic, one hand moving toward the handle of his Kunai knife, but he then saw what they had seen; the tree line had come to an end, and they had now reached their destination. A few hundred feet away, a small village, illuminated by the numerous torches and street lamps lining the streets. With a small smirk, the youth realised they'd finally arrived.

Posts : 542

Darkness lived in the outskirts of light. Waiting for the time when it can sneak in and snuff it out. For the small group travelling towards the small village in control of the local lord, the torches they carried kept the darkness at bay. In the case of poor Masamune, Kana could only guess at the dreams and feverish nightmares the poor Gennin might be experiencing. The hours passed quickly, the monotonous sound of their steps the only sound in the forest. It seemed the rain had sent any intelligent animal or human scurrying for cover. Only the three shinobi and entourage from the village were the only foolish to brave the incessant rain.

Soon however, the woods relinquished their claim on the band and soon opened up to reveal a small but very gorgeous village. What the village lacked in size it seemed to make up for it in artistic landscapes and ornate buildings. It seemed as if they poured their riches into the culture and enrichment rather than size. At least, that is what Kana could see through the light of the torches. Hiroshi led the group through the coble stone path. The finally manicured lawns bordering the path testament to the honorable people who lived there. The entourage took positions on either side or the rear of Kana and Saitou as if to provide some sort of honor guard. Perhaps this was to also hide their sorry state from the stray onlooker who could be still out in the now dying down rain.

Being led through the path, Kana felt no animosity or distrust from the few residents that appeared now and then, but it felt as if they were on edge as if awaiting some sort of terrible news. Soon, the trio was led to the front lawn of the most ornate and seeming, biggest house in the village. The chest high walls making sure no unwanted guest could enter. A servant stood at the gate as Hiroshi took lead. Low and hushed introductions were made as if the trio of outsiders were not ready to be exposed fully. The servant led them towards a side house of the main one, probably a guest quarters or something like that.
Hiroshi turned to Kana and Saitou. “We have prepared a room for you to sleep in, please make use of it. There are dry robes and warm mats inside. If there is anything you require one of the servants will be standing ready to assist you.” Hiroshi bowed and proceeded towards the main house as if to report to the lord no doubt. Kana bowed back and watched them go. The wooded floors of the porch staining slightly with the wet sandals, this let Kana know that Hiroshi must be high in the chain of command to not worry about taking off his sandals. A servant came behind him and dried the offending foot steps. Soon it was only Kana, Saitou and the servant assigned to them sitting just outside of sight but with a good view point as to the inns and outs of the room.

Kana turned to Saitou and motioned for him to enter. He opened the door the room as he took off his boots and entered. “Please Saitou-san, place Masamune on that mat right there. I shall help you undress him. It would not do to have him suffer pneumonia on account of wet clothes.” He helped his purple haired friend lay Masamune down and proceeded to remove all of the outer clothing. He stopped at the undershirt and underpants. He was not sure how Masamune would take being left naked by the two male Gennin. Kana was tired and he was sure that Saitou was too. Knowing that the purple haired Gennin would not sleep so easily, Kana turned to him. “I believe it would be safer to take watches. You will take the first watch and I shall take the second. Please wake me at midnight.” There was no reason to explain to Saitou his misgivings and how secretly they had been treated. However, they were in a dry place with the chance to sleep and lick their wounds. Kana proceeded to put on the dry robe and at the same time take off his clothes under the cover of it to not make Saitou uncomfortable. He gave the Masaki a nod and then turned over and almost instantly proceeded to sleep.

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou kept in line as the group made their way through the small village, the bodies of their entourage a shield from the gaze of onlookers. The genin took little notice of his surroundings, keeping his eyes solely glancing at the floor in front of him. He was beginning to feel increasingly weary after the long, eventful day; the surroundings of the village, and indeed, the structures and scenery around and inside it, gave the shinobi the impression that in the day, it would appear warm. However, the tempestuous night and harsh rain from earlier made it look much less than inviting. Saitou could feel an unwanted creeping, the tension slowly rising as residents of the village peered for a closer look at the arrivals. Thankfully, the shield of bodies hid the state of the trio whom had journeyed from Konohagakure. The purple haired boy felt mildly uncomfortable in the midst of the foreign, unknown village, armed figures on every side of them; feeling slightly trepidatious, he glanced towards Kana-san, reassured by the familiar appearance. With surprise, he realised the group had come to a stop. Flickering his gaze upward, Saitou saw a large house, one that was situated and constructed in a fashion that established its importance, which he realised was most likely the home of the aforementioned Jinmusa-sama.

To his surprise, the tanto that the shinobi had journeyed to deliver, to considerable risk, was not asked after. Deciding it would most likely be requested in the morning, when the group were rested and rejuvenated, Saitou moved onward, glad that he could soon lay down the burden slung across his back that was Masamune. He felt slightly anxious for his comrade's state, but pushed aside such fears. Kana-san may not be a medical genius, but the youth trusted his adept judgement on how the younger boy would fare, and did not bother to waste his time questioning his friend's abilities. With a yawn, the genin followed the servant and the medic into the allocated room.

After removing the outer layers of clothing that had been slung around Masamune-san and wringing the rain from them, Saitou found himself surprised to hear Kana suggest he take watch. Clearly, the other hadn't fully come to trust their hosts either. Although he was exhausted and in need of a rest, he nodded with a small smirk, throwing one last glance at the idle body of his fellow purple head. Subduing yet another yawn, the youth found a reasonably comfortable perch opposite the entrance of the room which he took his position in, eyes facing the door, legs drawn up to his chest and hand enclosed around a kunai. He listened for noises from his comrades, but none came. Realising they were already asleep, the genin kept his gaze locked on the door, attempting to fight off the weariness beginning to consume him. Saitou's eyelids became heavy, but he warned himself that this was not the time for dozing. He readjusted himself into a highly uncomfortable position, one he felt he wouldn't be able to sleep in; frustrated with himself and his inability. Shifting around once more, he realised there was some sort of movement outside; a flash of fear passed through his mind. Listening intently, he heard nothing more. Silently, he leant forward to push his ear against the door, and was greeted with no more sound; he sat, motionless, for what could've been for hours, but in reality was no more than a minute or so. Then came more noise, of the same kind. Footsteps. Heading away. Letting out a deep breath, Saitou realised it was most likely a servant of some kind; they had no reason not to move about, after all. Feeling stupid, he leant backward.

With a start, the purple haired genin leapt upward. He had fallen asleep, and he was about to thrust his kunai into his own side after falling sideways; steadying himself, he let forth a stream of muttered curses. He did not know the time, but he knew that it was best he didn't sleep whilst on watch, and it would be best to wake Kana-san now. Saitou would do no good asleep. Shaking his head, he rose. He took a stride across the room in the darkness, realising he didn't know where his comrade was sleeping in the room. However, before he could move onward, his foot caught what could only be a leg. With a small yelp, he crashed straight into the floor, kunai skidding away under a table as it slipped from his hand.

Age : 29 Posts : 341

"DON'T KILL ME"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......." Masamune shot out of his futon, he was confused, confused and scared. Where was he? What had happened? Why is everything black?
Why was almost completely naked?
He quickly reminded himself of everything that had happened, his heart broke and scattered into thousand pieces, when he remembered the last events. After calming himself down and getting rid of all the tears, as well as some snot, he started thinking logical.
Where was he? -He was lying in a futon, meaning he probably was in some kind of residence, he quickly touched the ground and ensured himself he was indeed in a building with a proper wood floor. It had to be late at night, since there was no light, even through the room had some paper walls, which surely would let some light through if the sun would still shine.
After getting a clear view on the situation, Masamune suddenly felt the pain gushing through his body, of course, he was heavily injured during his fight,- Masamune had to remember the last moments of the bandits life again and shrugged, he had to fight back the tears and calmed down again- after ensuring that he, indeed, was covered in bruises, but in bandages as well, he was sure that Kana had treated him. The medic sure did a good job, Masamunes bleeding had stopped, since he didn't got cut or anything, but just had a few lacerations on his head and back it might not have been so hard to do that, but what did HE know about medic stuff.

Now that he was completely awake thousand more questions shot through his head, where were his clothes? And his weapons? He had carried his giant shurikens around with himself.... where were those? He already wanted to get up and search for his stuff, but then he realized he still didn't knew where exactly he was and running around in a unknown building surely wasn't the intelligent way to handle this. He remained on the futon for some more time, then, after his eyes slowly got used to the darkness, he started to crawl on the ground, feeling around for something useful, like his clothes or a candle or something.
He quickly found his clothes, which were placed almost right next to him.
He had a hard time pulling them on, every time the rather heavy clothes touched one of his injures, especially putting on his belt almost made Masamune cry again, but he kept it in, for the sake of not waking anyone up who might as well sleep besides him or in the room next to him, paper walls were thin, Masamune knew this. After getting himself dressed he started taking a few careful steps, when suddenly something grabbed his leg and he screamed out in a girly voice...

Posts : 542

It was hard to sleep with all the commotion. Not that it mattered since Kana was not really asleep. It was more of a meditation. This was a way to rest while not completely devoting to REM sleep. This would mean that the Gennin would not be completely rested but his body would have the break needed after their encounter with the three bandits. Kana was just about to wake up anyways when Saitou and Masamune let out a yell. The medic reacted like a cat falling from a building. He lifted right leg and brought it up and left. Rolling on his side and shoulder, Kana would land in an all four’s position, keeping his profile low. From here he could spring left or right or roll forward to avoid an attack. Due to the low lighting, Kana was not able to completely see the room until a few seconds passed. His first attention was to the door, but the white paper door went without being disturbed. He then quickly scanned the room and found the shadowy figures of the two purple haired shinobi tangled and in a clump.

He was about to inquire what had happened when a small explosion, like the sound of a fire cracker, and a shriek followed by a siren noise was heard just behind their dormitory. Kana’s hands immediately went towards the clothes at his side that he had taken off to dry. He picked through them and found what he was looking for to be missing. He called with a sense of urgency towards the poor and tired members of his party. “Saitou, Masamune! Follow me!” Disregarding any danger that might be lurking in the dark, Kana headed towards the far window and jumped through the paper and thing wood that made up the window screen, and ripped it out of its hinges.

With a tuck and roll he landed on the soft wet grass and continued to sprint towards the nearby woods hoping that his companions could follow him. Some lights begun to appear around the nearby houses as the siren song was loud and obnoxious. Kana sprinted into the woods, but he did not have to go far. It had been only seconds after the trick scroll he had bought from a gag store had gone off. The original intention for the gag gift was for fun but Kana had used it as a way to weed out any thief that might have been in league with the three bandits.

A few dozen feet into the woods his eyes noticed a shadow trying to get away from the howling scroll as fast as they could. With the speed born from training, Kana all but pounced on the shadow and the pair tumbled and rolled on the wet grass. When they finally came to rest, Kana was straddling the target and both of his hands pinned the wrist of the thief. When the cloud showed its light from behind the clouds, Kana was able to place a beautiful female face to the thief in the night.

At this time, a few guards from the main house started to enter the woods. Hiroshi was among them and his face went deadly white when he beheld the person on top of whom Kana sat. “Please release her Kinoshi-san.” Came the ashamed voice of the man. Kana turned to the man and questioned “Why should I Hiroshi-san. This person attempted to steal the scroll that contained the Tanto meant for Jinmusa-sama. Yet you ask me to release her?” The other bowed politely and stated. “Yes Kinoshi-san, I ask you to release her because she is Lord Jinmusa’s Daughter.”

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

“Saitou, Masamune! Follow me!"

Saitou was still in his half asleep state, and the sudden outburst from his comrade sent him straight to his feet; at first, he'd thought his falling over had been interpreted as an intruder, and Kana-san was simply making a mistake. But with a shock, he realised that something was happening. A girly squeal emanated from Masmune, who it seemed was the possessor of the leg the Masaki had fallen over. He was glad to see that he was awake and well, but a loud ripping as the medic of the trio burst through the window reminded Saitou that there were other things than his companion's recovery to worry about. Without a second thought, the genin secured a hand around the other's arm, before following Kana through the dark. The night greatly hampered the boy's vision, but from outside, many lights seemed to be flickering on as a loud wail pierced his ears; now thoroughly frightened, the youth made to follow his companion. Ignoring the blinding glare, Saitou leapt out of the window, still having one hand clasped around the youngest of the group's wrist. He had no idea what was happening, but he could hear commotion ahead of him, and after rolling across the grass, he relinquished his hand from Masamune, now bursting into a sprint to follow Kana-san. The youth had no time to pause and check is his comrade was following. Instead, he called out to him, hoping he was right behind him. "Masamune, keep up!"

The genin's run was rewarded with the sight of his comrade struggling with another, slender, feminine figure in the grass. Saitou had left the kunai he'd been holding under the table back in the room, but he reached for the small blade he kept in his belt. It wasn't particularly sharp or remarkable, nothing like the tanto that the youth had begun to worry about. He initially made to move the blade into a position against the unknown person's throat, to prevent them from struggling against the medic's grip, but Saitou realised he probably wouldn't be able to manoeuvre himself into the scuffle. Instead, he settled for crouching nearby and waiting for his friend to subdue his opponent. However, he did not have to wait long. It was not, however, the pin that Kana placed on the figure that ended the scuffle, but the command to release her. Whirling round, Saitou realised that some of the guards, including the ones whom had found them before they reached the village, were now present, and were demanding the release of the female.

“Yes Kinoshi-san, I ask you to release her because she is Lord Jinmusa’s Daughter.”

The shame in the speaker's voice was evident; but this didn't stop all the misgivings the genin had initially had about the village returning to him. What on earth was the daughter of their client trying to steal the tanto for? Suddenly, Saitou knew that the guards had not told the group something; had they known that she was after the blade? Had that been the reason for their evident guilt when they had found the trio, battered, tired and wet but determined to go on and reach their destination, to complete their mission? Clenching the pathetic blade in his hand tightly, the purple haired genin suddenly found himself worried about the whereabouts of Masamune; but he threw away such worries, now immensely curious about the attempt to steal the tanto, and its culprit, who, to the Shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato at least, had a lot of explaining to do.

OOC: Equipment:

Spoiler:

Age : 29 Posts : 341

Everything went to fast, Masamune couldn't react to what had happened and before he caught a clear thought both, Kana and Saitou already left. Just now he realized just what had happened, and almost was to follow both of the guys, but after taking a few steps he realized he wouldn't be of much help.
His body was a wreck and as soon as he wanted to move quicker than casual walking, his muscles screamed out in pain. After his first painful encounter with that fact he wasn't foolish or even brave enough to try another time, for now he would check out what exactly happened.
Now that he hadn't to be worried about his teammates he could move as loud and careless as he wanted and so it didn't took him long to find lamps.
After the whole room was enlightened everything started making sense, they surely had reached their destiny, as far as Masamune could tell they were in a big mansion, meaning only one thing... they had reached the mans mansion, whose Tanto they were currently carrying...
THE TANTO
Masamune reached into his cloak,..... nothing there. He looked around and spotted their bags, first he hesitated a bit, he felt uneasy going through his comrades stuff, but then he started looking through the already opened bags, someone already had looked through them and didn't intended to do it very secretly, or he just sucked pretty much at what he tried to do.
Masamune let out a relieved sound, when he found the paper card between some of Kanas' stuff, it was indeed clever of him that he had it sealed in something plain like a paper card. He took the card and hid it inside his cloak again, for now he would wait for his companions and guard the room, maybe the person just now was just a convoy to lure the Genins out of the room, well the plan failed now that Masamune still sat there, his hand closed around a Kunai and inspecting the entrance.

Posts : 542

After Kana had released the beautiful girl from his uncomfortable pin, the medic had bowed his apologies and the young woman had been led away escorted by a group of guards. Hiroshi had begged them to follow him back to the room where they had spent the night. It was still early morning, only one or two hours past the midnight hour. The young medic walked silently beside Hiroshi, stealing a glance every now and then at the man who now seemed to hang his head in shame. Once they reached the quarters, another surprise awaited them. As Saitou had noted, Kana was ready for an explanation. The person he had expected to receive it from however was quite different in his mind.

In the front of the door a proud and imposing Jinmusa waited for the returning shinobi. The door was opened to allow them inside and found the still weak Masamune waiting. Kana motioned that everything was ok to the young Gennin and proceeded to take the other’s side as Jinmusa and Hiroshi moved to one side of the room, Kana moved to the other side and followed their lead and sat. The first move that Jinmusa did however was unexpected. He placed his face to the wooden floor in a sign of forgiveness.

“Shinobi from Konoha, I ask your forgiveness for what we have put you through. I believe we owe you more than an explanation. It pains me to give it but a man’s honor must be the steel his sword is made of not the shield he hides behind. The Tanto you have so fiercely guarded is to serve a very specific purpose. It is to bring about my death.” Despite this astounding declaration the older man did not pause. “I commissioned the tanto from the honorable Hinamori of your village. The reason why you were assigned to deliver it was as a show of force. You see, during the years of the war I was only a lowly general in the service of one of the lords of the Fire country. I was honored by my master with a lowly noble title and these lands. A few years ago his son replaced him after my master fell to old age. In a visit to establish ties and ascertain my allegiance, he saw my beautiful daughter you just met. He demanded her hand in marriage and I refused knowing he was a man without honor. Having refused him, he demanded my life. A servant cannot refuse his master twice.”

There was a pause here as if speaking of such man brought distaste to his mouth. “Not wanting to cause an internal war when these few years of peace have been so hard to earn, I conceded to his request. I have invited other lords to be witnesses with the intent of showing how unstable my new master is. The reason why you were to deliver this shipment was to be witnesses too and report back to your Hokage. If my life can prevent the stability won at the cost of many lives to be lost then so be it.” The fire in his eyes showed the resolve of the warrior. Hiroshi was silent and had a glazed look in his eyes as if remembering the story now told.

A sad smile appeared on his face as he continued. “My beautiful daughter, however, knows nothing of the politics that govern our society. She saw my death as unfair and has done everything in her power to stop it. She innocently hired those bandits that attacked you and when Hiroshi found of the plan he rushed to your aid. Unfortunately, you and your friends had already suffered from her misguided plan. I ask you once more for your forgiveness and beg that you will not hold it against her. Now if you please, I will take possession of the Tanto so that no madly conceived plan puts you in the way of harm.”

Hiroshi followed his master’s unspoken request and shuffled forwards towards the middle of the room and extended his hands palms up and head down. Kana moved towards his bag where he had put the real Tanto and found it missing. A small wave of fear at having lost it went through him but then his mind reminded him that perhaps Masamune had it. He turned to the small purple haired boy and nodded his head as if to say that it would be ok. As this was happening Jinmusa stood up and bowed once more. “I shall take my leave now. Please make sure you rest. The ceremony shall be conducted tomorrow at sunset. One of my servants shall see to your needs during the day and will lead you to the ceremony grounds when it is time.” The warrior lord disappeared from the room and only Hiroshi remained.

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou was now clenching his kunai tight, mistrust etched into every line of his face. He refused to drop his guard after the trio had found danger in the abode of their clients, and was not going to allow himself to rely on their protection; as Kana-San relinquished his hold on the young woman, the genin continued to survey the area. The boy could no longer believe they were safe amongst these people. It was incontrovertible that something was being hidden from the group of Shinobi, and the youth wanted naught but a detailed explanation, which was all that stopped him from leaving the village there and then. They could leave the tanto and be off and say that they had completed their mission. But Saitou was now curious about the affairs of the village, and personally felt the trio deserved an explanation. After all, they had battled their way toward the settlement at high risk, and their youngest member had been forced to take another's life in order to save his own; they were owed the truth now.

The shinobi himself would have been satisfied by an explanation offered by Hiroshi, the guard whom had found them, and did not expect what he received. As they made their way back to the guest house, Saitou saw a figure who resembled the woman that his comrade had restrained earlier. Startled, he realised that this must be Jinmusa-Sama himself. The man's next action went to surprise the youth further, as the lord gave a low bow in what the boy could only assume was an apology; with a smile, he realised that it was probably best that Jinmusa explained the recent happenings, as, after all, it was his daughter whom had attempted to steal the tanto, and he was their client. Before Saitou could give his own respectful bow, the lord skipped all pleasantries and introductions. He skipped straight to the explanation, and the genin could hardly say he minded all that much.

True, the youth knew very little of politics and diplomacy; as a Shinobi, he was supposedly just a tool, to do as his superiors bid him to. Although he did not support the mindless following of one's home nation, he felt a bond to Konohagakure and its occupants; but that did not mean he did not care for those outside the village, but he payed little attention to them. He had always thought regality and lordships slightly frivolous, but the tale that the lord offered portrayed the entire establishment in a bad light. Saitou was unaware of any honour codes or duties that people were obliged to, but something as unjust as demanding a man's death simply because he refused his daughter's marriage to someone who, frankly, sounded like a spoilt brat sounded preposterous. He thought of standing against such decisions, but he told himself it was worthless. This man seemed set on what he was going to do, as if it were a completely normal event. The injustice of it disgusted the genin, but there was very little he could do; he was but a teenager, a lowly Shinobi, and his word held no power against these people, he could not tell them right or wrong. Was Konohagakure aware of such affairs? Probably. Saitou found it hard to believe the Hokage and their council could just stand by at such waste of life; he wanted to protest, but he could not. However, the youth made a note to inform a senior member of the village about such happenings.

When the tanto was asked after, the boy panicked slightly. Then he remembered that it was still sealed away safely with Masamune-San, who had no doubt kept it well protected. With a slight smile toward his comrades, Saitou sat down, sighing; he waited a few moments before speaking, mainly addressing the arranged taking of the Jinmusa-Sama's life. "This whole affair sounds off, to me; it's an injustice, through and through. However much I'd like to protest against this, I fear our influence is not great enough with anybody to stop such an event taking place, as much as I hate to admit it. I for one have no desire to watch such a thing take place, we've completed our mission, if we can't do anything further here, it is probably most sensible to head home; I may inform someone back at the village of this, though,"

Age : 29 Posts : 341

Masamune had been quite shocked when the man just entered the room, he surely must had thought he would enter a left room and was quite surprised himself to find the young Genin.
Masamune was scared at first and took a defensive stance, but his opposite quickly introduced himself and sat down near the door, so that he would not scare the boy any further, he seemed quite sad when he saw the kid being covered in bandages, some of them red from blood, old, but new one as well, some of Masamunes wounds had opened again after he moved a bit to hasty before and blood flew out of them now. Somehow the old man calmed the boy, something the guy released some kind of energy, which seemed peacefully, like some kind of monk. It was clear that he was a religious man, he must have spended a lot of time meditating and strengthen his spirit, otherwise he wouldn't be able to emit such a presence.
Soon after that his fellow teammates entered the room as well.

Kana and Saito were just as surprised as Masamune first and the man introduced himself again, but now he started to explain even more. Soon Masamune understood why the man looked hurt when seeing his wounds, his own daughter was the cause for them and Masamune got terrible angry at her, because of this mans daughter HE HAD TO KILL, a persons life was waisted for nothing. But he didn't let his facial expression tell what he was feeling, to the outside he still looked like the scared, hurt, lovely little kid he always seemed to be, but inside he started to question many things, like the worth and reason of life. He seriously didn't got over the bandits death just yet and it would surely leave a deep scar in his mind.
He got even more depressive when he heard the gramps story, why would that man need to kill himself? Was life really just worth this much? It all just didn't make any sense anymore.
People killed each other over nothing, every day countless people died and no one even know they existed, what was the reason of all this, why were people even born if they would die anyway, without doing anything important in life.....
Suddenly he was ripped out of his thoughts, when his teammates tried to get his attention. He was supposed to hand over the tool with which the gramps was about to kill himself. As soon as the piece of paper was handed over Masamune stood up and walked out of the room, while passing Kana, Satou and the old man he said, almost whispered:
"I need to get some fresh air and time to think... excuse me please..."
His mask crumbled, now it was obvious that something wasn't alright inside of him, his face said it all, the pain and questions haunting him. Stepping outside of the room the cold midnight air blew into his face and his thoughts kept going.. Slowly he headed into the forest like part of the estate...

Posts : 542

Hiroshi followed his master seconds after the lord left with a low, apologetic bow. Kana remained sitting for a bit, his mind processing all that had been said and the entire trio had gone through. If what the man had said was true, there was little mistake why the leadership sent them. Kana would have staid pensive had Saitou not expressed his concern. The young medic listened to his friend’s concern and stood up walking over to the purple haired boy. He placed a hand on the other’s shoulder and nodded.

“You are quite correct Saitou-san. Jinmusa-sama should not have to give his life for such a reason. However, I understand that if he does not, his whole village might come under attack. Lord Jinmusa is trying to prevent that and in his way standing up to the lord in the only way he can without dragging somebody else into it. The fact that other lords are coming and that he asked for us to attend, it sounds like political strategy. I do agree that our mission, as per the scroll, is completed. We have delivered the Tanto and there is no reason to stay.” Kanas hand would pat the other twice on the shoulder and stood up. His voice had been understanding and he walked to the ripped open window. He turned back to Saitou and said in tone that carried with it a plea and a command.

“However, though our mission is done, I feel that I must ask you to take Masamune-san and report the situation as you saw it. I fear Masamune has gone through enough to witness another act of senseless death. Please do not argue with me on this.” Kana sighed, and then continued, “I feel I must stay to show the political presence of Konoha and to further review the situation. I will not have the stability in the region to crumble because of the whims of a spoiled lord. I also feel that I must honor Jinmusa-sama’s request and attend the ceremony.”

Kana clasped his hands behind his back adopted a sort of relaxed but professional stand. “I also worry about you, both as a senior and as a fried. I know you are strong and that you would not leave me behind but I feel like I must do this. Your responsibility is to Masamune-san and there is not another person I would trust him with. I shall request that you leave as soon as you are ready.” Kana bowed deeply to his friend and smiled.

Kana was not a man of many words or requests but as Saitou had said this struck him as unfair and wasteful. He wanted to get the full story but he would not put the purple haired pair through more than they had already endured. It would be dawn soon and the pair needed to sleep. “Saitou-San please go find Masamune-san and get some rest.” With that the young Medic walked to were the servant was waiting at his post and told him of their wishes.

(OOC: you guys can exit the topic now if you want)

Age : 25 Posts : 1767

Saitou was left incredulous after Jinmusa-Sama's explanation, and still felt the effects of such an emotion now, the shock of the injustice not quite having worn off. He shook his head, perplexed and angry at the political system that had ordered a man's life. However, as his comrade came and placed a reassuring hand on the youths shoulder, the genin felt he understood the reasons for such actions; the lord was being nothing but noble, by taking his own life for the sake of his daughter's martial status and the wellbeing of his people. It was a vacuous system, where spoilt ill minded men ordered the lives of courageous men. But as Kana-san went on in his speech of sorts, it became evident to Saitou that his return to Konohagakure no sato would be requested. With the reassuring tone and gestures of a born leader, the medic said what the genin had expected to hear.

In all honesty, a part of the youth wanted to stay with his companion in the village; however, he knew that for numerous reasons, this was not possible. The most important of which being that Kana now outranked him, and he could not refuse an order if one was to be directly issued. It was also the most logical and reasonable thing to do; if Saitou stayed, Masamune, the youngest of the group, would have to travel alone, and even if he did stay, he'd have been forced to witness yet another death. Although the genin was no psychiatrist, he doubted that watching two people die in such a short space of time was a particularly good idea. Especially with the person in said instance being so young, and already clearly traumatised from the first death; with a grimace and a nod, Saitou spoke. "I will not deny I partially want to stay here, Kana-san, but I agree that the best course of action is for you to stay. I'll take Masamune-San back to the village and report the mission, as well as the situation at hand, to our seniors; I'm sure they'll understand why you've lingered here. Until next time, I assume; farewell,". The genin returned the bow with a small inclination of his head, before grinning broadly. He stepped outside of the room, now looking for the other purple haired boy. Saitou yawned widely, stretching as he realised that the break of dawn could not be too far away now, that the sun could be ready to rise any moment now. With one last glance towards the medic, he nodded and smiled, before walking across the wooden pavilion and calling loudly.

"Masamune-San! You and I will be returning to Konohagakure no sato in a few hours; I'd recommend catching up on some sleep!" Saitou did not wait for a response, instead quickly walking back to the guest house, eager to catch up on some rest. He no longer felt a need to keep watch, now that the villagers and their lord held no relevant secrets concerning him; still yawning widely, the youth lay on a bed roll, falling into sleep surprisingly quickly.

It felt like only a few minutes later when the genin was shaken softly by a well dressed man standing beside him. Sunlight flooded through a recently opened window, and Saitou realised that a few hours had passed, and dawn was now upon them; he felt it would be best to get something to eat before setting off, as he would require some energy. The weather had improved somewhat, but the terrain was still reasonably wet. Without any more mishaps on the journey, the boy was confident that they could reach their home village relatively soon, given a fast pace. He rose, calling the other purple haired youth's name as he prepared himself to set off, and return home once again.

Age : 29 Posts : 341

*Anyone tries to protect his life, a few even waist their life for another one. But yet a life isn't even worth as much as a order and a high ranked persons life is worth more than those of a few. Why? Don't they allways say that every life is worth equal? Isn't my life just as important as Saitous or Kanas? .... NO! If it's for them (Konoha people) Kanas' life is without doubt more precious than mine, not only is he a medic, no he is a chuunin and wise person as well.
Even through it's his biggest goal to safe a person like me, he would be safed in a life threatening situation. Like this I have to say..... the current system doesn't take our feelings, our wishes, nor our life into recognision and just acts for it's very own benefit. The Hokage, who stands on top of it all, either acts wrong or allows people in charge to keep acting wrong. And for all the 'bad' persons out there, they might act wrong, but why should a outlaws life be worth less than a nice persons life? It is human to act different from person to person, people have different opinion, it's only natural for them to act different as well and who are we others, to clarify bad and good? Animals kill and take just like that, they don't care about wrong or right, to bad such a system would never work with humans, even through it would clarify everything. So as it is... I killed a man today, he wanted to do something recognised as bad, take something from me, and I killed him because I didn't liked his actions. I think i got it now....*

Masamunes thoughts were long and complicated, during the hours he spend alone in the forest something inside of him changed. A few hours ago Saitou had shouted out for him, but he hadn't cared, besides being to deep in thoughts to even notice it. wipping on a big tree branch he sat on, he kept thinkin, more and more, the direction his mind was wandering of to, was deep and complicated. Normaly to deep and complicated as for a thirteen year old boy to understand, but something was different with him now. He understood, not only the modern base 'good' and 'bad', but how it was dealt with today. And he disliked it, VERY MUCH. When his eyelids slowly fell down, to take him over to the land of peace and sleep, he had changed, something... inside of him had.

[OOC: Hope this is fine, it's hard to think of smth. right now :3 but this is kinda the direction i wanna go with my char ^^]