By Any Means At Your Disposal (Escort Mission)

Age : 39 Posts : 122

It was extremely early, even by Zenki's standards, the stars still shined in the sky like a bucket of diamonds strewn on a deep purple velvet blanket. Still underneath his blankets he pondered how today would turn out, it was his first solo mission, and it showed that he had earned some respect with the higher ups, and trust as well. He would not let his superiors down or himself for that matter, he was determined to become a better ninja everyday, even his training had boosted and he was losing weight to boot.

Quickly he rose, feeling the cold mountain air kiss his naked skin with her stinging lips, and assembled his gear and got dressed. Looking over his map once more head shut off the lights and left to meet the client.

Zenki had only been out the village a few times, including the day he was dropped of at the orphanage, so he had very little idea of what happened elsewhere and when he arrived at the docks he was a bit taken back. It bustled with a different type of energy than he had ever known, people flocked in droves buying fresh fish for their restaurants or their homes, and the sellers calling out their prices hoping to stealing business from the one next to him. Zenki smiled softly to himself, it was chaos with a special rhythm to it, he could almost hear the song until he was interrupted by non other than the man he was supposed to be guarding this day.

"Wow, they sent me a big one... Hopefully that will deter these recent heathens.

Zenki bowed respectfully after he turned to face the man, his hair hung over his face slightly, obscuring his face and eyes from view.

"I certainly hope as well, I am Hyuuga Zenki, I will be your protector."

Zenki raised from his bow and meet the mans gaze with his silverish empty eyes, and from the mans reaction he could tell he was taken back. Zen smiled reassuringly, "My eyes are a gift of my lineage, I assure you they only mean harm for any that stand in the way of our journey."

With that Zen lead the man on their trek back to Kumo.

Age : 39 Posts : 122

The first hour of the hike was very dull and uneventful, mainly the weapon smith questioned Zen about his eyes and their abilities. He answered with the vague things, like being able to see far distances, but never revealing their true power. Zen found it odd that the man was so interested in his abilities, it was well past him needing to be reassured, it felt as though he were trying to size him up.

Zenki looked back at the man; he stood about 6 inches shorter than Zen, with graying hair that he kept in a messy ponytail. He seemed in fairly good shape for his age and his eyes held alertness in their smooth brown depths. Zenki turned his head back forward and smiled to himself slightly.

At least we won’t be caught off guard, he thought to himself as he continued down the path.

“It seems as though we are avoiding the main roads, is this to throw off the bandits?” the weapons smith asked somewhat uneased by the current circumstances.

“Indeed, all the times you were attacked seemed to be on the main roads, so we will try and avoid them whenever possible.” he stated reassuringly as he continued walking toward their destination.
Thoughts began to circle Zen’s brain as they walked, like how it was possible to be robbed repeatedly while traveling along the main roads, while you were traveling with armed escort. The thought alone was ludicrous, and you would have to be suicidal or at least half stupid to get the itch to take ninja on in a straight up fight.

So how in the hell were the other shipments stolen in broad day light…unless…

Zenki’s thoughts had been interrupted by something odd; a feather fell out of the sky and drifted slowly towards the earth. That wasn’t a rare occurrence; birds lost their feathers all the time; however what was odd was there were thousands of feathers falling, and his eyelids suddenly felt extremely heavy.

...So that’s how you rob someone in broad daylight…you put them to sleep…
That was the last thought that ran through his head as his body began its decent towards the hard packed dirt of the path.

Hito breathed a sigh of relief as the large boy hit the dirt, for a while he didn’t know if he would get the drop on him, and the buyers of his goods didn’t like for him to be late for their meetings, made them even more suspicious than they already were. He grabbed the boy by his ankles and dragged his limp body over towards a thick mess of underbrush and put his pack beside the boy. He searched one of his own pouches and then produced a simple and elegant flute. Taking a moment to catch a breath from dragging the heavy genin away, Hito put the mouthpiece to his lips and played the few notes that they had taught him to play when he had a shipment from them. As the notes were carried away on the whispering winds, he pulled out a small photo of him hugging a beautiful 5 year old child, and tears welled up in his eyes.

“Please Kami-sama, don’t let her die…”

He stared at the picture long and hard, the heaviness on his heart seemed physically pull him to the floor as he fell to his knees and small dots of moisture rained down on the picture. The entire situation was hopeless, he couldn't tell the village how he had gotten involved with these people, but he needed help if he was going to get his daughter back.

He knew they would be coming soon so he gathered himself and wipe the tears from his eyes, carefully placing the picture back in its rightful place, which was just above his heart. An odd rustle from the trees put him at high alert, but just as his tension reached its highest, a group of familiar men with mask landed in front of him. His chest relaxed a tad bit, allowing him to breath steadily until one of the men spoke.

"You are almost 2 hours late, you weren't seeking help were you, because if you were, we WILL find out...and then we WILL take our anger out on your darling little girl. Its not my personal preference, but I know of some men with very disturbing taste that have made more than a few offers to take her off of our hands for a very, very handsome donation." the masked man spoke in an even keeled, yet menacing tone.

Hito shivered with his entire being just contemplating what this man spoke, but his little girl needed him to be brave, so he choked down the horrific bits before responding.

"I told no one of this situation, I was merely late because this particular ninja tried to take some sort of back roads and it threw of my original plan."

Sighing slightly he walked over to the shipment and opened it up so that he could see its authenticity.

With a slight motion of the leaders hand, two of the masked me grabbed the bag and separated it into two different bags and made their way back into the tree tops and then vanished out of sight.

The leader looked at the Hito and nodded in satisfaction, "We will be expecting another shipment within the next month, you will need to get to work as soon as you get home, we will need double the amount you brought us this month."

Hito nodded in agreement with the man before he spoke, "When will you be returning my daughter sir?" he asked almost hesitantly.

"That all depends on you Hito-san, if you work faster, then you get her back faster, that is the way these things go. Perhaps you should think about that the next time you bet more than your worth on a simple dice game." , and with that the masked men all vanished, leaving Hito with nothing but a wretched feeling in his guts and no hope of light in front of him.

The man fell back to his knees and curled into a ball sobbing quietly.

"I am so sorry Sou-chan...so sorry"