Something Bandit This Way Comes... {Mission- C}

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

Pre-Mission Brief:

Kimiko:

Mission... START!

The strangest things made ordeals memorable. Kimiko was all set to enjoy her day off even though she was awake at almost 6am; such was the way her body clock was set. She went for a shower, took an extra long time to use a hair mask, paint her nails afterwards, the works. When she came out of the bathroom smelling of a mixture between the refreshing grapefruit body wash she used and the softer vanilla-scented shampoo, she felt completely and utterly relaxed. She sighed deeply after opening the bathroom door to let out the steam that had built up in the small space, and padded leisurely across the hallway back to her bedroom to get ready for the day. Mid-walk, however, she was startled by a loud, urgent squawk coming from the kitchen-diner. She recognised it to belong to her messenger falcon, Susu, but wondered what an earth he was making such a racket about. She turned her head, opening her mouth as if she was about to ask the inquisitive bird what was the matter, only to be met in a head-on collision with the bird itself. A startled squeak left her lips as feathers met skin and she tripped over her own feet in shock, tumbling backwards and hitting the carpeted floor hard. Luckily her towel had been fastened in place otherwise this situation could have been unbelievably awkward, especially since she now heard angry banging on her apartment door. “KATSUMI KIMIKO, WOULD YOU STOP ALL THAT RUCKUS?! WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING IN THERE, IT MADE ME BURN MY PANCAKES!” The old woman that lived in the apartment below Kimiko’s was notoriously grumpy and… very loud. “Sorry Juuma-san.” Kimiko called in an apologetic tone of voice, the kind of drawl that a child would make when being told to apologise for something they didn’t want to apologise to. Juuma Chiyo retreated back down the communal staircase, muttering, ranting and cursing as she went, and all the Katsumi female really heard were things about pancakes.

She groaned as she sat up properly, pouting as she felt a throbbing pain in her backside where she had impacted with the floor. “Now, what is it Susu? Was it really necessary to be panicking like that?” She snapped irritably to the grown falcon, wings folded about his body and tilting his head to the side innocently as if it had not been any fault of his. He had grown a fair bit since she first received him as a youngster, and packed quite a wallop when he flew into one’s face, it had to be said. Upon closer inspection, Kimiko realised that the bird held a green-bordered mission scroll in its beak, the kanji upon it reading ‘Urgent: For the attention of Katsumi Kimiko’. She took the scroll from Susu’s beak, eyes wide and gleaming with confusion as she untied the small string from around it to unroll the parchment. She scanned it quickly, but from what she could read, there had been issues getting this scroll to her before this morning, and all she could think about was how Susu had been staying with her father while she was out on a long mission in a different country. No wonder they had trouble getting this mission scroll to her. But she only arrived back yesterday from that self same mission! She had been promised a day off! She suppressed a groan and read the scroll’s content, realising that this might be a mission for tomorrow or the day after.

It became quite clear, however, that she was wrong in her latter assumption. She had been called upon to complete this mission TODAY. Her chocolate-coloured eyes slowly widened as she came to this realisation, and let out a cry of fright upon realising how long she had to get ready for such a mission. No more than an hour, since she was expected to meet the Genin she was to be leading on this mission at the village gates for 8am. “KYA!” She yelled, dashing into her bedroom and throwing her wall-length wardrobe open. She frantically scrabbled for clothes, eventually settling for the first complete outfit that came to hand. As it happens, said outfit was a traditional get-up fashioned for kunichi of old that consisted of a black structured shirt with gold-plated armour on the shoulders, a matching skirt with the plating covering her upper thighs, one floaty pink sleeve for her right arm that billowed from the elbow to her wrist, a fitted black sleeve on her left arm and after a bit more digging in the bottom of her wardrobe she found a pair of sturdy flat dark brown shinobi sandals. The outfit had been a gift to her from her boyfriend due to an inside knowledge of theirs that she shared a resemblance to his clan’s founder, and this had been a similar outfit to the one she was known to wear. It was literally ornamental only, and here she was wearing it for a mission. It was certainly unique, that much was a fact. Her hair had only just dried and been brushed after her shower earlier, and thus remained a bit wavy from being allowed to dry naturally. To avoid it getting in her way, Kimiko quickly shoved it up into a high ponytail so that her ebony locks swayed at her hips with the usual bangs framing her face. After tying her green-backed Konoha forehead protector in its usual place around her upper right thigh, visible in spite of her skirt, she attached her usual weapons pouches around her waist.

Realising that she had no time to equip herself with all her weapons, she instead just left her bedroom and rushed for the door. If she didn’t leave now, she wouldn’t make it in time, and she decided to make a dash in the grocery store for provisions on the way to the village gates instead of trying to find her ration bars and the like in her apartment. She was in such a rush that she almost forgot to lock up her apartment afterwards, but she was soon making good progress. She sped down the stairs, ignored the shouts of protest from her loathsome neighbour, and made haste down the street heading to the North of the village. When she dashed into the nearest grocery store, she noticed that the clock read 7:35am, so she still had time. She bought ration bars and dried foods quickly, emphasising the fact that she needed to leave for a mission to the lazy cashier, and sprinted out of the shop all within the space of five minutes. She made to the village gates at 7:50am sharp, and for that she was grateful. Kimiko DESPISED being late for anything, and this for her was bordering on late. She was so used to arriving almost three quarters of an hour early for everything that this seemed very late indeed. Now that she was here and she realised that she was waiting for the Genin she would be leading for the mission, she took this time to catch her breath and read through the mission description properly.

There was an issue with bandits heading for Konoha, the group in question being after weapons and other valuable items from the village. No doubt they wanted to flog the items on the Black Market in order to earn good money for them, otherwise they wouldn’t make the effort of coming all the way to Konoha to get themselves some good steel. It was more profitable to sell Konoha weapons and the like, due to the smiths here being renowned as some of the best in the shinobi world. With that prestige came a whopping price tag, something that bandits would be stupid not to ignore. And at the same time, they were very stupid indeed for attempting to come into the village without any notice. The mission was to stop this group of bandits and bring the leader in for questioning so that the Intelligence Core would be able to find out if this was part of a bigger plan, or an isolated incident. Such things were important in a world constantly filled with turmoil; the last thing Konoha needed was a hoard of bandits, or worse, shinobi, coming to infiltrate and raid the village. Kimiko was to be waiting for a young man by the name of Aburame Mithrandir, a Genin of the village. The mission given was B-Ranked, so for him to complete this mission he would have to be led by a Chuunin or a Jounin, and in this case he had the latter.

While nature continued its sweet cycle of waking up to tell the world that it was morning, Kimiko waited patiently for this Mithrandir, of whom she didn’t know of. She was sure that if she had heard his name she would have remembered it due to its obscurity. How would this mission pan out? Would the series of bad events earlier this morning manifest into something more? How soon would Mithrandir arrive? Why was the ebony-haired Jounin asking herself so many questions? It was safe to say that she didn’t know the answer to any of the questions that she asked herself.

Posts : 182

A yawn and a stretch accompanied the young man’s waking that day, which was odd as normally he would take the covers and simply pull them up to his eyes before staring blankly and digesting the same dream that had cursed him night after night. Well today was supposedly an important day for him, the very first in which he would go on a mission. How did he know this so early, well the kage had picked him first and his leader second. The reason or reasons for this action were unknown to Mithrandir and puzzled him immensely. Still, he had gotten up at five am for that exact reason and after he finished his stretch his two hands went to his eyes. The fists that belonged to the Aburame rubbed at his eyes, however they failed in destroying the dark circles that surrounded them. Akin to a panda the two dark marks were permanent in their fixture upon his face. However that was where one could stop comparing him to a panda, while now he held brown eyes they would soon turn crimson before he left his house. Mithrandir’s hair of course was permanently dyed to be a golden-blonde and while it was not gelled to be spiked at the moment it soon would be. He had pale, dusty skin and this was the only thing that he did not cover from his Aburame heritage though one could argue the face paint he often wore did such an act. Of course one could also bring up the fact he made no effort to hide his bugs, but they were his lifelong companions first and attributes of his clan second. Getting back to the old genin’s appearance, his purple nail paint was still extremely vivid on his fingers and he would not need to re-color them this day, unlike his face paint and eyes which would be the first order of business. Much like a girl in late middle school it took hours for Mithrandir to tweak his appearance, however unlike them he did not simply fidget in the mirror and call himself fat.

Moving out of bed he made the extremely short trip to his bathroom where he cleared the white tiles on the floor and made it to his carpet. The carpet itself was maybe three feet in length and ran next to his sink. The make of this (well most would call it a rug) was mostly of a deep royal purple, gilded by golden lines, and interrupted here and there from golden Ms woven into the fluffy rug. It was extremely warm compared to the bare and cold tiles which seemed to seep the heat out from his feet whenever they were unlucky enough to touch the tiles. Not that it was magic or chakra, no it was just ceramic and did not retain heat as well as other material. Fancying a shower he decided to not jump into putting in his contacts nor painting his face just yet. Instead he spent the next several minutes on a peculiar ritual, he turned the faucet on which then started up the shower head. With an angry hiss the device sprung to live like a snake woken from it’s slumber, and this snake was rather upset. In response for the first couple moments it poured out cold water just to spite the one with enough gall to upset it’s slumber. Luckily for Mithrandir of course he was not fully in the tub, while he was naked (he never slept in clothes you see) he was not quite ready and as such only his left hand was under the water’s frightful torrent waiting until it adjusted into the correct temperature. After a few more moments it finally heated up, and Mithrandir adjusted the heat like one would a radio dial before settling for a setting and jumping over the ledge that prevented the water from escaping. The shower itself was also made of white tile and since it was just him in the house the shower curtain was perfectly clear. With the door still open the mirror would not fog up, nor would it get unbearably warm in there. Instead the heat from the water would join the heat in the living area and keep it warm for his return later, whenever that may be.

Finishing up quickly Mithrandir would shut out the water before getting back out onto his rug and drying himself off with a thick purple towel. The towel itself looked much like the rug which now hid his feet in it’s depths. Once he was sufficiently dry Mithrandir opened up the cabinet below his sink and withdrew the tools he would need to paint his face, his contacts, and of course the make-up he used to cover his face. Today it would be a simple design made mostly of black with white spots around his eyes instead of the normal black. He would of course also make sure to cover under his chin and down his neck until he reached a spot to where it would be hidden by the collar. After this he placed his contacts in this shifted his irises to vertical and shift their color to a deep crimson. Blinking a few times and admiring his visage in the mirror he soon left the bathroom and returned to his main living area.

Next to his bed there was a closet that was built into the wall, it was to there that Mithrandir went and he opened the door with a twist of the brass nob. The rest of his house was nowhere near as ornate as the bathroom but he did not mind much. Within he found the articles of clothing he was searching for, getting dressed quickly he then would move over to his weapons rack. Mithrandir was now outfitted in a skintight black under-suit which ran from mid-bicep, to mid-neck, to mid-thigh. Over this he wore a long black trench-coat, and of course he had his purple ninja band secured upon his left bicep the symbol of the leaf gleaming proudly on the metal. At the weapon rack he would then place his senbon launcher in his left sleeve and fastened it to his flesh before putting his quiver and bow on his back and strapping his ninjato to the small of his back. Yes he was ready and even the bugs in their silent glory were now getting roused into a flurry feeding off the adrenalin that Mithrandir had pumping throughout his body and chakra system at the time. To put it simply for the first time in a long time, the Aburame was excited and so even though he had but half an hour left to rendezvous at the gate he still made sure to look at his house one last time before locking it up.

Now while he knew a bit about his mission it was mostly to assist whomever he met there, they were to be of Jounin rank and he was not given the information on which exactly it would be. Still he knew he would be fighting bandits and he was not to kill their leader. ‘No disintegrations’ he told himself in a deep voice within his head before cracking a smile and allowing his eyes to roll about in his head as he walked towards the gate. Within ten minutes he would be close enough to observe the meeting spot and so he decided to take a seat near a tree on the outskirts of the wall before bringing his palm to his forehead. He had forgotten to gel his hair that morning, so it hung in shaggy locks around his head making him look like some form of drowning cat. Not that it mattered much to him; he was only going on a mission in which the gel would have eventually given way to sweat anyways. Still it was off putting for him to forget something from his morning ritual, not much he could do now.

As the time turned to seven fifty in the morning a jounin of great statue came strolling along to the meeting spot, and this made Mithrandir crack a bigger smile. What an honor indeed, to go off on a mission with one such as Kimiko. So he would get up from his resting place at the base of the tree where until then he had sat cross legged and walked from the grass to the packed dirt while throwing up his hand. “Hail Kimiko, fairest of the Jounin of the leaf. What an honor it will be for us to partake in a mission together” while his voice was not quiet, it was soft and just loud enough to carry it’s melodic tune to her ears as if he was closer than the fifteen meters than he actually was. His giddy-ness was betrayed by his voice for he did not in fact expect it to be any of the big named Jounin, rather he expected it to be a book pusher who would make him do all the work. This was quite a great turn of events indeed and the cheer was also evident by his body language, and cocked smirk as he continued to walk slowly forward. Dropping his arm back he made sure not to put it in his pocket as was a habit of his born from him wanting to feel the cold steel of his weapons in hand.

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

Mission Brief:

The lone Katsumi female stood casually while waiting for her student for today, holding the rolled up mission scroll in one hand and absently playing with the ends of her long hair with the fingertips of her other appendage. Not long after she had ran a great number of questions through her mind, she heard footsteps approaching her, not from behind, but from the side. She tilted her head a little in surprise; she would have expected the Genin to come through the village gates. That left her the realisation that he had been waiting for her, and now the boy was walking out to greet her. She turned her head towards the sound of soft footfalls, chocolate eyes focusing on the shocking blonde-haired youth walking towards her. She smiled a little when he spoke to her, making her out to be some kind of royalty. She was well aware of her status within the village of being a prodigy for her age, and one of the most active Jounin they had to offer. Mainly down to her determination, for she would not be seen dead not being busy or improving herself. She could tell from the excitement in the boy’s voice that he was excited for going on this mission, and she didn’t blame him. Her first mission had been exciting too, and her first B-Ranked mission had been a major milestone for her. Mithrandir was experiencing both of these things at once.

The surprisingly blonde Aburame commented that he would consider it an honour to partake in a mission with Kimiko, and this made her laugh as he drew closer. “You flatter me too much.” She said modestly, turning her body round to face him properly. “But you must be Mithrandir. It seems that you already know me.” She grinned upon saying that, lifting her free hand to brush stray strands of her ebony locks out of her eyes. “I’m not usually one for formal introductions, but my name is Katsumi Kimiko. I will be your leader for today’s mission.” She nodded her head while speaking, and beckoned the boy closer. She took this time to examine the youth properly, and couldn’t help but realise how striking his appearance was for an Aburame. As a girl, and even now, she had a great interest in the clans of her village, and took it upon herself to learn all about them, which included their typical visual appearances. The Aburame clan were well-known for their sombre, almost drab looks that matched their bug companions so well, to allow them to stay hidden easier, as they said. They were also known to wear dark-tinted glasses of some kind, but they didn’t give a reason for this visual oddity. It was just the norm. It was plain to see that Mithrandir was the exact opposite of the rest from his clan. He had a shock of bright blonde hair, and his eyes were a startling crimson colour. He wore face paint which was unusual to most shinobi, let alone clans, so it was even stranger considering he was an Aburame. Not one to judge by appearances, however, Kimiko instead used the boy’s physical traits to ingrain him in her memory better. With his appearance and unique name, it would be very hard indeed for her to forget him, she knew that much.

When the boy had moved closer, and took a deep breath and smiled, holding the mission scroll out towards him. “As I’m sure you know, Mithrandir, our mission is to intercept a group of bandits heading for the village. We need to stop them at all costs, and bring the group’s leader back for questioning.” She nodded her head slightly, retracting the mission scroll and putting it in one of her hip bags. The day was still young, and they would need to make good headway in order to intercept the bandits in their path. Due to the fact that this was a B-Ranked mission, there were bound to be some complications along the way, and even if there weren’t, the group of bandits themselves would require a good beating. The mission scroll didn’t give any indication as to how many bandits they would need to face off against, so Kimiko had to factor this into her future plans of action. She gestured with her hand towards the distance leading away from the village, smiling at her student for the day. “We should get a move on. The journey will take us a good while, so we can learn the necessary things about one another on the way.” She started to walk in the right direction slowly, looking behind her to make sure her companion was following at her side. When he fell in beside her and they had walked down the dirt road until Konoha was out of sight at their backs, she turned to face the boy walking at her side. “Even though you seemed to know me, Mithrandir-kun, it is best that you hear from me what I am capable of and what I expect of you, right?” She posed the question kindly, a friendly smile on her face while they walked together. “My preferred ranges of attack are up close and mid-range, but I can also cover long-range should there be a need for it. I can utilise three elements; Katon, Fuuton and Doton. My specialities are Ninjutsu, Fuuinjutsu and Weaponry with a focus on mid-ranged weapons.” She paused after saying that little piece, and sweatdropped as she remembered that this morning she hadn’t brought any of said weapons with her. “But for today I’ll be using good old shinobi tools.” She added with a sheepish laugh, gazing up at the sky in thought as she allowed what she had said to sink in.

When she had admired the almost cloudless blue skies above, she lowered her gaze once more with a smile. “Most Jounin would act all high and mighty by protecting the Genin, by saying it was for their benefit as opposed to their own due to having been there and done that. I prefer to make things equal between us. You’ll be my partner first, and my student second.” She looked at the blonde beside her to gauge a reaction briefly before continuing. “Of course, as your comrade, I’ll protect you with my life if things get ugly. But if like most Jounin I doubt your abilities because of your rank, what kind of person would I be, huh? I was a Genin once; six years ago, in fact. I used to hate it when people looked down on me!” She grinned, remembering back to her Genin days with a twinkle in her chocolate eyes. It had seemed like only yesterday she was running around the village like a mad girl, playing pranks on all that walked by to try and get attention by any means necessary, fighting against her classmates until she could no longer stand, getting up the next day to train and get stronger. Most Jounin and even Chuunin forgot their roots and only coveted their current rank as opposed to cherishing the memories they had of being younger, of becoming wiser, and of growing into a stronger shinobi. Kimiko would never forget any of that. “Feel free to yell at me if I talk too much, okay? I tend to do that a lot.” She laughed heartily and looked at her comrade again, eyes encouraging and bright. “So that’s enough about me. Tell me about yourself! If we’re to be working together, we need to know the basics at least, right?”

With her speeches done and over with, she looked expectantly at Mithrandir, but not in such a pressuring way. She understood that not all people were as open as she was; heck, she was an oddity in the shinobi world because she couldn’t lie to anybody. Not really. She loved to talk and be open instead of holing herself up. People either found it refreshing or intensely annoying, but as she made quite clear to all that she met, she wouldn’t change for anyone.

Posts : 182

“One cannot flatter thou enough” Mithrandir shot back, if his feelings were not genuine one would classify that as a sly comment, managing to snake it’s way in between that and her next sentence. “Since you ain’t for the formal, I shall switch to ‘ta informal and toss out the speech things” somehow even with a switch to a much harsher form of the language Mithrandir’s voice carried the tune. Continuing that thought he finished the sentence with “Mithandir I am, let’s get it crackin!” Of course with the switch from formal to informal his personality did not switch much, only the way he would be perceived. Funny how the human mind worked was it not, when one speaks in more refined tones, with more refined words one could still be a douche bag and would simply be called stuck up. If one were however to delve into a mess of words and a butchering of the language they turn into trash. One should know that both things are quite different from each other, not completely the same in the least and should not be noted by just that tiny difference as they so often are. However they do not, instead most focus too much on the verbal of the world instead of the physical. They will sweep out the old saying of ‘actions speak louder than words’ even those who live by that saying can fall prey to this mistake. It is a trick of the brain of the mind, of evolution of creation, whichever you wished to believe it was simply how humans were made. However every once in a while one would not be affected by this, and due to Mithrandir’s tones not changing, just his words he hoped Kimiko would be one of these.

Receiving the scroll from his leader he unfurled it and waited to break eye contact with her until she had finished speaking, from that moment on however he jumped onto the scroll and began to devour the information like his eyes were both portals to black holes. Consuming and digesting so, they took mere moments to read the whole thing and his eyes shot back up to Kimiko with a blazing intensity that betrayed his excitement at this assignment. Due to his speed he managed to read the whole thing before the jounin replaced it into one of her hip bags. Sure he would have rather been allowed to butcher the leader, but he saw the intelligence in capturing that one. Besides there would be plenty others for him to run through with his arrow or his short sword, not to mention test his bugs upon. Mithrandir and his bugs both hungered for such a thing, the bugs to consume human flesh and Mithrandir to have someone else replace his brother’s visage from the fact. “Good plan ma’am” he replied to the notion of beginning right away, he was only too eager to launch himself into the mission and so he fell into step with her and kept two paces behind and to the left as was only respectful. Of course his eagerness would not allow him to forget the training he performed nor would it overtake his usual fighting style but if needed he would rush in and allow his sword and bugs to handle what his bow would work on too slowly.

“Even though you seemed to know me, Mithrandir-kun, it is best that you hear from me what I am capable of and what I expect of you, right?”

“Better to hear from ‘ta source than ‘ta horse” which meant of course, and it was an old saying that meant do not believe something until you have heard it from multiple sources or you have one source completely under your power. While it’s true meaning was not applicable here, it would get the message of agreement across much better than most of his harsh adages would. Such gems that would not work here were “Lies are like flies, shit spews them, Don’t believe anyone til you take off their thumb, and of course Speak quickly before I get bored” and so Mithrandir did not speak any of them, nor did he even think to. His respect for the Jounin Kimiko was far too high to allow such a thing to happen, only switching to informal by her request alone. He looked at her allowing her to complete herself fully before replying with his answer “ Perfect, I prefer long range myself although I can get close and mid for my bugs and blades along with my other jutsus.” With his answer he dropped his informal speech on accident his excitement taking it away much too fast for him to replace it, he would normally have switched back to his older tongue but his subconscious luckily held that at bay for reverence at Kimiko’s wishes. Quite odd, the Jounin would be seeing a normally disrespectful little piece of work on his best manners, quite odd indeed.

Her next words shocked him, but the Jounin were more important than genin why should they be the ones to protect them, it made no sense in the mind of Mithrandir. No instead it should be the genin who takes the hit for the Jounin, allowing the Jounin to land the final blow on the enemy. After the mission was finished the healing of the genin could be attended to, and with this Jounin being a female there was no way that Mithrandir would allow her to get hurt at his expense. So it was with a glad heart he accepted these words before responding “It is my duty to protect you, not the other way around. However the partner aspect works much better so we do not get in each other’s ways, at least to me. This being said I will tell you now that if you get hurt defending me, I will end my life then and there so please do not attempt to do so.”Oh the awful chivalry of the Aburame, it was one of his most cursed traits the one which made him defend a female so. He knew in the ninja world that they were perfectly capable on their own, but something in his mind did not allow them to come to harm with him around. It also prevented him from attacking most females outright, and usually sent him into a fit of embarrassment at their presence. In the case of Kimiko however it simply elevated her to a position of high respect, which was lucky for him for he could not be blushing and staring at his partner for the whole mission.

“Feel free to yell at me if I talk too much, okay? I tend to do that a lot.”

“Better for you to take than me” Mithrandir said chuckling before continuing to follow the suggestion of his leader “There is not anything much pleasant to say about me, and I prefer for you to learn from my actions than over words. However, besides what I have already responded with I can tell you I am the last of my immediate family and would prefer if you called me Mithrandir Majin Jinkaku, instead of the curse Aburame. I hold my bugs in high esteem, do not mistake that, my clan however each one may rot for all I care. Much as I would like to get into why my views are this way I do not believe it fit for such a time as now. Not only would it spoil the mood, but it also may cause me to remember too much and fall into a rage. However if there is anything else you wish to know simply state so, that is until we get close to these bandits. Once we do I would rather hide and pepper them with arrows until you need me to rush in and dispatch the rest. I shall try for my first arrow to pierce the lower spine of their leader if you wish for that route to happen.” Mithrandir had not meant to speak that much, it was the most he had said in a long time. Simply put the speech was something he never expected to say, but today and the recent times were quite odd.

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

The comical side of things was all too funny to Kimiko when her mission companion broke into an informal drawl, and she couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing it. She wasn’t one to judge people on any grounds, no matter a way somebody spoke or looked, and she simply found it a rather good joke instead of judging Mithrandir on the way he altered his formality. There was that, and the fact that it was a very obvious jest. She knew people who spoke with such a posh, refined, perfect accent who were perhaps the most immature and guttural individuals she had ever met, and on the flipside she knew those whose speech sounded no better than a donkey trying to speak English who were incredibly posh, refined and unbelievably mature. Human beings were funny things, and that was part of the reason why she loved socialising so much with everyone she came into contact with. She loved learning new things, and to compliment this she loved learning new things about people in particular because there was always so much to know. No one person was ever same, she knew that much with her wide repertoire of friends and those she had met in the past.

She was very happy to see that the blonde youth seemed very eager indeed to get on with their mission, and eagerness was a good thing. Without it there would be no urgency, and she had been on many missions where her partner or leader just did not want to be there. It was nice to know that she would be leading an eager Genin who wanted nothing more than to complete a mission to the best of his ability, and she made a subconscious effort to match his enthusiasm. While they were walking and before Kimiko had started on her long tangents of speech while talking about herself, the saying chimed by Mithrandir in such an accent made her almost howl with laughter. The boy knew how to amuse her, there was no doubt about that. She found it strange and fascinating that he knew so much about proverbs/ sayings of the olden days, that she had only heard of from her father. The saying did of course mean that it was better to hear the truth from the person themselves as opposed to lies which had been thwarted by many others. During her speech about which ranges she preferred to work with, Mithrandir expressed delight as he explained that he worked better at longer range. ‘The Hokage really knew what he was doing by sending us off together to complete this mission.’ She thought to herself with a smile, her fondness of the Yondaime Hokage growing by the second. By the sounds of things, this mission would be a doddle. She could co-ordinate attacks up close and from mid-range while Mithrandir worked at long-range to provide support and finishing blows from afar. He did say that he could adapt and come in for mid and close-range attacks and support as well, so by all accounts between them they would be able to cover all aspects and ranges with no issues at all.

After what she had said about protecting Mithrandir should it be necessary, he replied with a rather chivalrous statement. He basically told her that she should be the one being protected as opposed to him, which was something that she didn’t understand. It was common knowledge and instinct to her to protect those younger whose futures were up-coming and brighter. Each generation surpassed one another, that was the rule of thumb. Kimiko did not fear death or injury after being close to departing this world on numerous occasions, but she made it clear that she fought for her village and those she loved. For that very reason, she couldn’t throw her life away, because she lived for those causes. She smiled slightly at the youth walking beside her, turning her head to face him slightly to show him the smile. He ended by saying that if she was injured while protecting him, he would not be able to live with it and end his own life. An extreme chivalrous comment if ever there was one. ‘I think Toshi-kun has a run for his money with this chivalry.’ She thought, suppressing a fond chuckle because of the seriousness of the current conversation.

“I respect your wishes, Mithrandir-kun, I really do. However, this mission is for those of a Chuunin rank. Bandits can’t be underestimated, especially not for the rank of this mission.” She said, her voice low and showing obvious wisdom beyond her years. “We will fight as a team, and as my team mate I will protect you. I assure you that you needn’t worry about whether I get hurt or not; number one, I’m an impeccably fast healer, and number two, in light of recent events dodging has become second nature.” She remembered back to her Weaponry training not very long ago, when upon arriving at 5am in the mornings she would have projectiles big and small launched at her by her ever-loving boyfriend/ sensei in this instance. Needless to say, her ability to dodge and pre-empt had heightened considerably since then. Not only that, but her training alongside her lion summons had taught her to be aware of her surroundings; giving her a keener sense of hearing and smell in order to aid her in dodging as well. Cat-like reflexes went a long way. Strangely enough, since becoming a Jounin she hadn’t really had as many close scrapes as she had done while she was a Genin/ Chuunin. “Plus, with you as the future generation of Konoha, I can’t allow myself live if you don’t.” She pointed out, her tone quite chirpy despite the sombre topic of conversation.

She smiled while she waited expectantly for her student to talk about himself as much as he felt necessary upon inviting him to do so, and needless to say she was pleasantly surprised. He expressed the fact that he preferred it if she would judge his actions as opposed to his words, and went on to delve a little bit into his personal life in regard to his clan. He expressed a sense of dislike towards them, with ‘dislike’ being an understatement. He segregated himself from the rest of the Aburame clan, and made this obvious with his preferred choice of name. She made a mental note of that; Mithrandir Majin Jinkaku. He treasured his kekkei genkai, but his clan members were a different story. The youth pointed out that he would leave that part of his speech as it was due to it being a touchy subject that he found enraging at best, but encouraged Kimiko to ask any questions should she have them. He continued to say that he would prefer to stay at a long range using arrows for a while, until the Jounin gave orders for him to rush in and attack at close-range. There was the matter of keeping the bandit’s leader alive, and Mithrandir suggested he could fire an arrow at their target’s lower spine to paralyse him and stop him from causing much trouble. Although that plan was definitely a possibility, Kimiko thought it to be a bit too idealistic. They weren’t even sure when and how they would come across the bandits as of yet, so she was expecting to make a plan when they were better assured of their situation. The bandits may have taken a different route altogether, or split up into groups. So far they didn’t really know, so she couldn’t say what the case would be as of yet.

When the blonde youth had finished his speech, the ebony-haired Jounin nodded encouragingly and smiled at him. “I’m pleasantly surprised, Mithrandir-kun. Most shinobi I come across are very cagey about the little details that matter a lot to a person, as if their emotions have been sucked right out of them at birth. It’s nice to see some humanity for a change.” She said brightly, her warm chocolate eyes reflecting the delight she felt. They had been walking for a fair while now, give or take about half an hour, tops. The forest surrounding them had become thicker on both sides, and the road was beginning to narrow and become more like a footpath meant for two or three people to walk upon. The road was well-travelled by many people, but more often than not while walking down it chances are you wouldn’t meet anybody heading in the opposite direction. The silence that enveloped the pair now wasn’t uncomfortable, and Kimiko appreciated it as time to think. She had numerous supportive jutsu now as opposed to her younger years when all she seemed to use were those of an offensive nature. She also had her Lion summons to call on if things got rough, two of which were of her own A-Rank with different capabilities. There were many possibilities when it came to attacking the impending group of bandits, some of which included bombing straight in there with all guns blazing, and most took a more subtle, secretive approach. So far, Kimiko was favouring the latter plan. “The mission doesn’t give us any indication of how many bandits we should be expecting, or from where, so we should keep on our toes.” She advised quietly, standing tall and automatically tensing all her well-toned muscles as if she had transformed into a cat ready to pounce.

They hadn’t walked a yard or so when the Jounin heard voices approaching them. She stopped walking, held out her left hand and firmly placed it on Mithrandir’s shoulder to stop him from walking as well. She nodded her head to the left of the road, a signal for him to hide in amongst the tree at that side of the road, and after doing so she put all her trust in him and dashed to the right. She hid her slender body behind one of the nearer trees to the pathway, back pressed against the rough bark with her head turned round to watch those approaching their position. All she could hear was muffled voices and footsteps at present, and couldn’t get any idea of how many there were exactly heading their way. As the group emerged over the bough of a small hill, her keen eyes focused on every detail instantly. There was a group of four men, all dressed entirely in black. They each wore a green and black striped band tied at their upper arms, and although it differed per person, Kimiko could tell that from this they were all together in the same organisation. They continued to move towards them, unaware of being watched, thankfully. As far as looks went, all of them appeared to be quite generic. Three out of the four had brown hair of differing shades, and one had black hair. Eye colours wasn’t something she could pick out at this distance away, and it wasn’t all that important either. Each of them carried a katana at their hip; the two on her side wore the katana on their left, the ones on Mithrandir’s side wore them on their right. Was this intentional? Probably not. Knowing bandits and their habits, Kimiko knew that this had to be an accident. Never before had she met a completely organised, meticulous brigade of bandits. It just didn’t happen.

When they walked close enough so that Kimiko could actually hear what they were saying, she glanced across the dirt road in the other mass of trees, searching for a flash of blonde hair to give a signal to. After deciding that he would simply follow her lead, she dashed out of her hiding place after drawing a kunai from one of the weapons bags at her lower back. She moved quickly, going straight for the pair closest to her, and using her kunai to cut their throats open before either of them could sound an alarm of any sort. This was done purposefully. Due to the low number of bandits, she assumed that these men were acting as scouts, and would possibly wait when they got to a certain point down the pathway for the rest of their brethren when the coast was clear. Whatever happened, they couldn’t let these men escape.

Posts : 182

‘Starting out with an ‘I respect your wishes’ this will not end with her granting mine desire I would wager, boats to britches.’ Mithrandir thought as the worlds escaped from the lips of the Jounin besides him and floated along the wind currents into his ears. Of course he was right in this as she followed that statement up by reminding him the dire situation of which they were about to partake in. However this did not much phase the golden haired boy from the Aburame clan, he expected it, relished it, and embraced it with eager arms. Another saying one that was also harsh was ‘I’m waiting with bells on bitch’ which of course meant that one was prepared beyond degrees and quite a useful taunt. It was not that he underestimated his opponents; rather it was that he had faith enough in his own skill and unless the bandits got the jump on the duo he knew they would win with ease. However her next statement brought joy to his heart and lengthened the cheeky grin on his face, ‘As a team’ exactly what he wanted. A symbiotic fighting force was much better than two individuals trying to outperform each other as ‘heroes’.

“Well fine if it is thine wish then I shan’t break it, duality fits much better. Let us pray that I do not witness this fast healing however, I would hate to lose mine head in a mission” unconsciously Mithrandir’s voice switched back to that of a mixture of the old tongue and the slang currently used. However this seemingly increased it’s melodic quality more than the others before it. How that was possible was unknown to Mithrandir but now his grin was vanished and replaced by grim determination. The time for fooling around had ceased as they grew further and further from the village. One could never be too careful in the country side, least of all when one was expecting trouble. However this seriousness was cracked by her next statement and it caused Mithrandir to burst into laughter than was a hearty bellow but also like the shrill tweet of a bird. The next generation, he was but two years her younger, what kind of speak was this? The sheer oddity of it all caused the outbreak of laughter, though it was quickly stifled with a cough and a follow up. “No, the other genin are the next generation not I” Mithrandir stated after the mirth was gone and he could reset himself back to that grim face. It was true; he was much too old to be lumped into that sort of thing after all. Of course after this he grew extremely serious and repeated the tale about himself, which truthfully put him in a sour mood but soon he would have a means to let off some steam as it were. With each death he hoped he could replace his brother’s face with that of some nameless scourge of a bandit. That would suit him perfectly fine and perhaps would finally allow him this thing he was told was a ‘dream’.
At the statement of her surprise he snapped himself back into a serious mood rather than a brooding one. The past was the past and it should stay that way when there were things to be done he should not have let it afflict him so. However it was just the way he was if he were to guess for that is the way it had been for a long while, still for this mission he would focus on the here and now rather than stories that had already been told. Now for the following words she spoke she found him in a confused state, for he did not see the point to shutting off one’s emotions. Rather to Mithrandir the emotions should be molded into tools to use. No surprise that it was how his mind worked since he was a weapons user after all and somewhat mechanically inclined. Shutting off the emotions would just ostracize oneself from the world and there was no point in that. Besides that fact was the one that it would harm the understanding of others, which was a skill that Mithrandir held precious to him. If he could not to that he would not be able to guess an opponent’s move or get into their mind set. However he did not speak of his thoughts and instead replied with a coarse language once again “Ya told me ‘bout yerself, was only fair.” After this a silence fell over the pair as they walked and allowed time for Mithrandir to stud his Jounin, by the way she walked and talked she did not have it too hard. However he could tell that she had trained every day for the skill she had gained, and no doubt had many a story to tell. Still he felt as though she had not suffered much of the pain of loss, though he was still not the best at reading others and could be far off base. It was important not to react to quick judgments but rather to study deeper and see if they were true or not. Aside from that, humans were constantly changing creatures. A wise man once said that ‘The only constant in the world is change’ it stuck in Mithrandir’s head, and somehow carried him to tweak his judgments on everything from situations, to food, to people. One could not be caught in the static of assuming life was never changing, one of the quickest ways to die in the book of Mithrandir Majin Jinkaku.

The Jounin would be the one to break the silence by reminding to keep cautious, it was well intentioned by Mithrandir was unable to keep the thought from his head. ‘Thanks mom’ the sarcasm dripped off the statement in his head like water rolling off of one’s body as they came out of the shower, or like the grease down a fat person’s chin. Still mere moments after she said this she stopped and threw an arm up, so consumed in his thoughts was Mithrandir that he did not hear the voices until she threw up her arm. Of course the Genin did not bump into it, although he would have liked to having admired her stretching moments before. All thoughts of the hormone fueled boy stuff were flown however due to the voices. The mission came first; always first, ever first in his mind and so it was easy that time to wipe his brain clean whereas normally it would be hazy by replaying moments such as the one he witnessed before. The voices now were almost clear to him, they were muffled but he felt like he could get the words out if they drew closer. Not that he would have that chance for at that moment Kimiko gave the signal and he began to move into position with the grace of a giant feline. In one smooth movement he withdrew his bow and notched an arrow with his arms while leaping with his legs into a low hanging branch and from there onto a higher and studier one. While the tree was thick with leaves there was a hole he immediately noticed that gave him quite the view of the road. Seconds later the bandits, yes they were bandits no doubt in Mithrandir’s mind by their garb, crested over a hill and put themselves into view. He did not have a shot yet, and figured he had better let his leader take the first move. He was here for support after all, and so he instead just leveled his bow while shifting his back a bit to prop out another arrow for a quick draw on the next one. His plan was to pull off two shots before moving to another tree and finishing off the stragglers as their attention was turned to the tree he had previously been in.

Four in total dressed in black with green bands but otherwise no other remarkable features were there on that road at the time and so he decided to try and head shot the two on his side. Of course he would aim for the eyes, and since they were only eighty meters away when they first came into view it would not be difficult shots in the least. Of course they crossed half that distance before Kimiko shot out quick as a flash and took down two in an instant. Not that her speed outpaced the first arrow of Mithrandir who shot at the first sign of movement to his side. The first arrow went true and pierced the one closest to his side through the right eye, the second however was fired hasty and as such a rookie mistake. Mithrandir did not see the result of that one until he was in the next tree as per his plan, and two seconds later. The first of his victims had fallen backwards and died swiftly; the second however had managed to yank the arrow out and was now gripping his throat as crimson sprayed heedless of the hands that tried to form a dam. The mouth was making movements he could see, and he had hoped to end it quickly however that not being feasible his second hope was that he had not ruined Kimiko’s clothes. Luckily both arrows were fine, one still in the dead man and the other thrown upon him in haste by the no doubt other dead man. Of course after he saw that his arrow hit, Mithrandir leapt from the trees and rolled below into a bush. After a few moments he would walk out onto the path and look at his leader, offering a sheepish smile as he went to collect his arrows unless Kimiko gave him a signal to hide again. Bow already on his back all the same Mithrandir wanted to clean his arrows quick and return them into their home upon his back. If no signal was given he would do so by using some leaves he had brought down from the tree with him before replacing them into the quiver. No sooner would this act be done however than he would hear another group of voices and look to the female Jounin for guidance.

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

Kimiko was most certainly fascinated by the way in which Mithrandir changed his speech rather a lot, but didn’t question it. She simply found it amusing and… unique. It was an odd mixture of the old tongue now with a few slang terms/ words thrown in; and somehow, it sounded normal. She almost wished that she could speak in the same way, but knew she would probably sound completely idiotic. So instead she smiled to herself when her companion said that he would prefer they work as a team. It was the better solution all round, especially since with their compatible skill sets they could get a lot done. What he said next, however, about not being the next generation, she was confused for a millisecond or so before she realised that in fact, Mithrandir appeared older than most Genin she saw in the village nowadays. That would explain why he felt that he wasn’t of the next generation. Technically he was because of his rank, but by age perhaps not. Then again, she was an oddity for her age of nineteen. She didn’t know many Jounin in the village who were of her age, apart from her boyfriend. With the exception of her and Hinamori Toshiro, the rest of the Jounin were mainly in their mid to late twenties. She realised that her thoughts had gone off on a tangent when the blonde youth walking beside her spoke again, this time saying that it was only fair that he spoke about himself because she had done the same. His speech had changed once more, and that made her giggle slightly in realisation. It really was amusing to her, in a good way. “It was probably fair, yes, but shinobi don’t tend to play by the rules at the best of times.” Her voice reflected some of the wisdom she had gained beyond her years, flashing a small smile at her companion briefly before focusing on the road ahead. She didn’t notice him studying her, and even if she did she wouldn’t be uncomfortable about it. She realised that she often studied people, so it was natural for others to study her, right? It was human nature.

After the initial sounds of the bandits up ahead, her plan had gone well as Mithrandir ran and hid himself in the trees across the road. She was very impressed indeed as her keen ears picked up on the sound of something whistling towards her, and soon embed itself into one of the bandits on her left. It was an arrow now that she had chance to turn around and look at it, so she knew that her companion was on the ball and quick. ‘Good, very good.’ She thought, watching as another arrow plunged itself deep into the remaining bandit’s throat. This death was a much messier one, but a death all the same, and that was what mattered. ‘That’s four down.’ She realised as the last bandit fell to the floor clutching his throat with a satisfying thump, the same sound that a dead body made. Not long afterwards, Mithrandir appeared out of the trees with a sheepish smile on his face, collecting his two arrows and sheathing them once more. Kimiko turned to him and gave a nod to show that she was satisfied with the killings they had made, and used her own hand to clean the bandit blood from her kunai, slipping it back inside the weapon pouch she had retrieved it from. She was alerted once more to a group of voices approaching, and these sounded much more urgent than the ones before. The ebony-haired Jounin diverted her gaze downwards to the ear of the nearest dead body, and heard frantic voices coming from a small black device. “Kuso…” She cursed quietly aloud, not thinking before to check the bandits for any technology that could get them into trouble. It appeared that at least one of the bandits had been wearing ear pieces to keep in contact with the rest of the group, and now they had back-up coming their way.

She turned to her student quickly, realising that this ensuing fight situation had to be profitable for them. They had to capture at least one of the bandits alive to find out what was going on, and why they weren’t all travelling in one group. It was odd for bandits to organise themselves into logical groupings; they usually moved as a pack. She had her suspicions that this ‘bandit operation’ had some brains at the top... shinobi brains. “This time, we’ll stay out in the open to fight. You can choose however you wish to make your movements, which ranges you fight at and the like, but try to keep chakra consumption to a minimum. We need to get at least one of this group alive, because something isn’t quite right here and we need to find out what.” Her voice was hard and serious yet spoken softly enough for it to be a whisper, and therefore not loud enough for the oncoming enemies to hear. She realised that they were approaching at a run and would be upon them at any moment now, so she settled her body in a well-known fighting stance. “I’ll adapt my style to suit yours.” She nodded her head, and after this statement the bandits appeared over the bough of the hill. There was a group of five this time, all of them still garbed in black. They did, however, look a bit more formidable than their predecessors; most of them being over the height of 5’8”, which for the reasonably slight Kimiko who stood at 5’6” on her good days seemed very tall indeed. The same green and black armbands were in place on the right arms of all the men, showing more organisation than the earlier group.

“It’s Konoha nin, I repeat, it’s Konoha-…” The guy frantically shouting into his mic didn’t have chance to finish his sentence as one of the Konoha nin had dashed forward to close the gap between both parties. She had hold of the man in question around the throat and squeezed tight enough to feel the crack she was out to achieve, effectively breaking his neck. As he fell to the ground, she seized the microphone set and stamped on it to destroy the little black device. “That’s enough of that.” She muttered to herself, dusting off her hands as if she had completed only a menial little task. The man nearest to her had stopped to take her on, holding out a katana point-first as if threatening her. The other three had bypassed Kimiko and instead were charging straight on, towards where she had left Mithrandir. “Let’s get the kid first!” She heard mutterings amongst the men while they charged, and she ground her teeth together angrily that the cowards had chosen her comrade instead of her. “Mithrandir! Heads up!” She yelled to her partner, ducking a slice of her own opponent’s katana. She raised her elbow sharply, jamming it on the man’s hand to make him drop the sword to the ground. She placed a foot on it and kicked it away, watching it skitter and bounce across the uneven road surface. “There. That’s better.” She said in a mock cheerful manner, looking the man over quickly. He was taller than her and stockily built, which screamed at her that he was probably tough in close combat. “I’ll keep this guy alive, the rest can die!” She yelled in the blonde youth’s direction, not taking her eyes of her opponent. She knew better than to do that, especially since he looked as if he could break boulders with one punch if he so wished. ‘He probably isn’t very bright though.’ She thought, cracking her knuckles and taking an advancing couple of steps towards him. When a fist flew out to greet her, she was ready and dodged underneath it. She twisted her body round and took hold of his outstretched arm, easily swinging herself up as if it were a solid metal bar. She winked at the man on her journey upwards, letting go of his arm when he tried to yank it down. With her height advantage about a foot in the air above him, she came crashing down onto his shoulders, firmly planting both her feet on either side of his head. He cried out in confusion and started to wave his arms to try and grab hold of Kimiko, but she was quick. She pushed his head down with one of her heads and found the weak spot on the back of the neck, using her other palm to strike it which effectively turned his legs to jelly.

He dropped to the floor like a sack of extremely heavy potatoes, still alive but simply immobilised. He grunted as Kimiko stepped off him slowly, using her feet to dig into some of his pressure points just to make sure he was down for the count. When he couldn’t do much to try and hit her back, she grabbed hold of his nearest arm and lugged him up over one of her shoulders in a classic fireman’s lift. For one so slight as herself, she was often surprised by her own strength. With one of the bandits left alive for questioning, she turned round to check and see how Mithrandir was getting on in his own fights. If he needed any aid, she would be there in a flash in spite of the heavy lump of a man she was carrying, but she had confidence that he would have managed to finish off the three bandits who had launched themselves at him. Ironically enough, it was easier to kill than it was to keep someone alive.

Posts : 182

((Sorry for the extremely short post but I wanted to leave one of them for ya))

The softest flicker, yet Mithrandir caught it as well it came from the ear of a bandit. A small chirp yet there was no doubt about what it could be, his companions calling out his name. ‘We really screwed the pooch on that one, still it cannot be helped’ Mithrandir thought as he withdrew his short sword whose blade was seventeen inches in length, it flashed into his right hand and two senbon flashed into his left bundled together by a small piece of string. Nothing like ninja wire but it’s only purpose was to keep the two together in their flight from his hand. The Aburame withdrew the sword from his back by crossing his right arm as it picked the senbon out of the right side pouch on his hip. Mithrandir Majin Jinkaku was quite ready for this new threat and he had a grin on his face as the chemicals in his body began to pump.

“This time, we’ll stay out in the open to fight. You can choose however you wish to make your movements, which ranges you fight at and the like, but try to keep chakra consumption to a minimum. We need to get at least one of this group alive, because something isn’t quite right here and we need to find out what.”

“Aye Mistress” Mithrandir said his tone a mix of ecstasy and cold hard determination. The boy was excited, more excited than he had ever been before and the blood began to throb within him. The bugs inside, he could hear them call out to be withdrawn but he would not do so, not yet at least. He needed to save his chakra and did not need to direct them around as he flashed about with his sword. It was soon after that the group of five crested over the hill and one began to report back before the Jounin flashed across the distance and snapped his neck in what seemed like an instant. “Aw now the odds aren’t quite as fair to them” Mithrandir playfully whined as he threw the senbon forward to the eye of the first who had already rushed past his leader on the mission. Of course that one managed to call out his plan before begin caught in the right eye and yelling out in pain. “You’ll pay for that you little shit” he growled as the three rushed forward while Kimiko called out a warning.

Right before he was about to yell another taunt and as the bandits closed the gap to five feet the injured one at eight and keeping his distance, Kimiko told him that he was free to kill the others. “With more pleasure than I thought this world would allow” Mithrandir cackled a glint coming into his eyes as he shot forward slashing one across the chest before pivoting his feet and leaping back before the one next to him had time to swing his katana at Mithrandir. The one he slashed cried out and withdrew his weapon, very much alive still. “He’s just a little kid” the one in the back cried before taking out two jagged knives. With the senbon still in his right eye he looked extremely humorous to Mithrandir. Unfortunately the boy had no time to laugh now as the man he slashed came down with a vertical slash aiming to cleave him in twain. The Aburame of course side stepped to the left which placed the slashed bandit in between his companion closest to him and Mithrandir. While the other bandit moved around his friend, and still in one dancing motion Mithrandir’s sword slashed right under the man’s arm cutting open a gash in between his third and fourth rib. It was a long and clean cut and blood now poured from that and the cut on the front which had torn one of his nipples and cut almost down to the opposite hip. This was when the bandit with the injured eye rushed forward thinking to take the genin by surprise. Mithrandir had expected this and danced around to the backside of the bandit he slashed milliseconds after he did his motion positioning him in next to the bandit who was now turning to rush at him. With a backswing the pommel of Mithrandir’s short sword jabbed into the eye of the man and shoved the senbon deeper in and piercing his brain dropping him like a lump of ugly flesh. This whole time Mithrandir did not stop cackling and brought his sword back in a one hundred and eight degree swing to stab the Bandit behind him in the left lung. Leaving his blade there he jumped back by twelve feet and brought bother his hands up into fists in a feint as the heavily injured bandit fell to the ground gasping and begging for life as his companion stepped over him to confront Mithrandir.

“They were too easy, I’d stop now while you’re still alive” Mithrandir said in a bluff. There weren’t any weapons he could use at this range with his short sword still stuck in the fourth bandit he killed that day. Of course he could still use his bugs without much need for hand seals, but his other jutsu were out of the question offensive jutsu at the least. At that distance the bandit could close it before he could flash the hand seals in time. So yes it was a bluff, but it made the bandit pause for a couple seconds hopefully buying him enough time for Kimiko to bail his ass out. If she couldn’t reach him in time his bugs would finally be able to feast however. In either case the bandit in front of him was going down.

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

While Kimiko was making her way back to see how her student for this mission was getting on, she saw one more bandit starting to advance on the youth in question. The other two lay dead around him, but bandits didn’t often need reason to be scared of death. They fought no matter what, the prospect of being paid for their dirty work valuing much higher than the lives of their comrades, or anything else for that matter. As she moved closer still, she heard fighting talk from Mithrandir, telling the remaining bandit that he should stop now before he met the same fate. The bandit didn’t appear to hear or even care. The Jounin realised that her student was unarmed, and saw the slight glint of a sword he had drawn earlier sticking out of one of the dead bandits sprawled on the floor. ‘This is teamwork.’ She thought to herself as she slipped out three shuriken from her weapons pouch, her sharp eyes watching and waiting for the moment just after the bandit made a move. When he did, he would be in her direct range. At the moment she would risk hitting the blonde stood slightly in the way, and she didn’t want to shout for him to move at all. That would give her away. In her experience, bandits weren’t the cleverest people to ever walk the planet, and like single-minded predators they wouldn't notice anybody or anything else if they were quiet enough while moving. This worked to Kimiko’s advantage as she held up her shuriken, one between each of her three fingers; the index, the middle and the ring finger.

As soon as she saw the man make a break for attacking, the shuriken had left her hand and found their target all within a couple of split seconds. He managed a small grunt, looking down at one of the shuriken that had pierced his left breast. The other two had punctured his abdomen and struck him in the left shoulder respectively. Either way, it was a definite kill. It appeared that the shuriken that struck his chest had probably pierced his heart, otherwise it would have taken longer for him to die. The young woman smiled at the youth she was approaching, admiring his handiwork and nodding her head slightly to show that she was impressed. “Nice job, Panda.” She grinned at the nickname she had given him, per his own request as a matter of fact. One of the names he had given her to call him by had translated to ‘Panda’, so it was a fitting nickname if ever there was one. When she reached his side, she kicked away a couple of dead bodies with her feet before dumping the live bandit down in a sitting position. He was still conscious, just unable to use his body below the neck at present. It wasn’t an effect that would last forever, so Kimiko realised after they had prised the information out of him that they needed, he would have to be disposed of. She crouched down gracefully (if such an act was possible) and leant her arms forward onto her thighs while looking straight into his eyes. The eye-contact obviously un-nerved him because he looked away after a second or so. ‘Looks like we’ve got him on the run already.’ She thought, managing to restrain a smile for this part of the mission. Next would come interrogation; asking questions and using any means necessary to have them answered. Kimiko’s area of expertise wasn’t interrogation, but she had good ideas of what had to be done from past experiences, and one of her boyfriend’s sisters being part of the Interrogation Core back in Konoha. It was scary, scary business, and she was a scary, scary young woman when it came to her job. To say she took it seriously was an understatement.

“Let’s do a deal, shall we?” She asked bluntly to start off with, her voice commanding attention from the male sat shame-faced in front of her. He sheepishly met her gaze, and even if he couldn’t look into her solid brown eyes after that, he made it obvious that he was looking at her somewhat anyway. “If you answer our questions, we’ll let you live. If you don’t… you’ll just have to die in the most painful way possible we can imagine. A favourite of mine is to let you bleed out here, alone with the rest of your dead comrades.” Her tone was cool and calculating, a voice she rarely used. This fact wasn’t obvious, however; it could be thought that she spoke like this on a day to day basis. She had been lucky in choosing a man to question because he was as soft as he was stupid by the looks of things. He nodded his head eagerly and grunted slightly, as if trying to speak and then deciding not to. “Who are you working for?” She demanded, leaning forward ever-so-slightly to glare deep into his shifty eyes. “I…” He started, looking from Kimiko to Mithrandir and gulping slightly before continuing. “I’ve never met him, but… his name is Hasamari Himitsu.” He was being compliant, just not very detailed. Although it was annoying, it was a start; and Kimiko could work around that with more questioning. “Is he a bandit?” She asked, her tone never wavering for even the briefest of seconds. He shook his head slowly, briefly looking past his interrogator as if expecting the man in question to be looking for him. “No… he’s a B-Ranked Missing Nin…” Ah, the joys of those criminals. Kimiko had encountered two at once back when she was a Chuunin spending a year in Kumogakure, and ever since she had a small stigma against them. They seemed to follow her everywhere.

She could tell from the fear in the man’s eyes that he wasn’t lying to her, so she nodded her head and took a small breath to continue. “So I take it he’s the mastermind behind these operations? Sending you out in groups?” She asked and got another nod in response but no words to quantify it. She could live with that though; even though he was a bandit and not worth any trust, she knew that he daren’t lie to her. Stupid people rarely told lies. “How did your group of bandits get involved with a shinobi?” She asked slowly, showing with her eyes that she was threatening him to give her a definite answer to this question. “He… he financed our leader, and said that he wanted his share of our next plan…” He slowed to a stop, but still had more to say on the matter. “And he’s ended up planning it all… leader isn’t too happy about it, but… Himitsu-sama is strong…” Kimiko should have known that there was to be more than meets the eye on a B-Ranked mission; there were always complications of some sort alongside the mission objective. She wasn’t sure now whether they would bring back the bandit leader, or the shinobi, but decided to cross that bridge when she came to it. The shinobi would be more valuable, but not as easy to restrain and take back for questioning. The bandit leader would be much easier to restrain and take back to Konoha, but probably wouldn’t have as much valuable information. Whatever decision she made, she would have to come to a very definite conclusion the more this mission continued. So now it wasn’t just a bandit mission anymore; there was a shinobi involved, a dangerous one if that. “Where is Himitsu? Where does his travel in relation to the rest of your bandit group?” She asked; this question was perhaps the most important of the whole lot. The man widened his eyes in what she assumed to be fear, and he visibly began to sweat as he considered whether to reveal this information or not, should he even know it. He sounded like just a typical grunt-type character, not one to know all of the group’s movements. “At the back… with leader…” He finally managed to say, deciding against lying because of Kimiko’s steely glare.

That whole scene went much better than Kimiko expected it would to say the least. She straightened up and retrieved her shuriken from the dead body not far away from where the oaf was sat, wiping the blood on the black material of her structured shirt. It didn’t show up bloody at all which was a bonus. “Well, thank you for your time.” She said in an eerily cheerful manner, circling back round to face the immobile bandit. She placed a foot down hard on his chest, flooring him in an instant. “B-But! We had a d-deal!” The man floundered around madly but unable to help himself as Kimiko brought her foot slowly to the side of his face. She smiled innocently and tilted her head to the side, pushing her foot hard onto his face, hard enough that his neck cracked. “I’m a notorious liar… sorry.” She smirked and stood up straight once more, stretching her arms above her head and glancing ahead, a plan starting to fall together in her mind. “We should use the trees as a way of staying hidden while moving from now on until we find the bulk of the main group.” She spoke aloud to her student, her smirk by this point having softened into a small smile. She slipped her shuriken back into one of her weapons pouches, moving across the road and into the line of trees on the right-hand side of the road, gesturing for Mithrandir to follow her. From there, they would run as fast as possible up in the tree canopies, keeping as quiet as could be in order to remain hidden until the right moments. To go head on against a shinobi, especially a B-Ranked one if that, had suicide written all over it. Bandits could get lucky shots as well, so for now stealth was the best option.

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((All moved in, my replies will become faster after this))

His hands itched and burned to transfer chakra through them, to give the order to the beings within his skin. However he heard something behind him or that is to say he heard a lack of something. There was no fighting to be heard, as such that meant Kimiko would have his back. Thus Mithrandir stood still and was not surprised to see the shuriken pass by him and sink into the bandit before him. Smirking he knew his guess had been accurate as the foul human fell to the pathway below with a soft and dull thud.

“Nice job, Panda.”

‘Due to my eye coloring no doubt, tis my favored one as well’ Mithrandir thought to himself as he smirked and gave a bow. “Thou flatters me too much I fear” was his reply, a cheeky one whose tone showed that he accepted the praise highly. After getting up from the bow he retrieved his weapon in a flash and turned once again to regard his Jounin leader. She was interrogating her prisoner and already had the fear in him, which made sense due to how they handled the eight of them without so much as a scratch appearing on either ninja. Fear was the most powerful tool when prying for questions; it really washed away the thoughts of lying and made those lies even more obvious. Of course this bandit was one that would not try a lie, he was already drowning in the pool of fear cast onto him by Kimiko. The first thing she spoke of was making a deal, unnecessary in Mithrandir’s mind but since she made one that meant she was willing for some give and take which would further shave away the chances of the bandit fabricating his words. ‘I can think of much better ways than letting him bleed out’ Mithrandir thought to himself, flashes of further torture plaguing his mind before he cleared them away like a house maid doing the same to cobwebs in an attic. Her tone was sublime in the mind of the Genin, being able to use it shifted his opinion of her even higher if such a thing was possible. After this the bandit glanced at him, so Mithrandir put on a face of pure darkness as he raised the blade to his tongue and licked the blood of the other bandit from one of the flat sides of the steel. After the bandit looked away he went back to wiping the blood on his pants and sheathing the sword in it’s case in the small of his back. After giving the name of the leader, his next words set Mithrandir at unease. ‘How would he know the rank of the ninja, I would say the man in question has a lot of pride but if so he would lie and give a higher rank. What benefit was it to be truthful in this instance? Perhaps to hold sway over suspicious bandits, no the leader of the bandits must have known about and hired the man while detailing him to his subordinates ’ Mithrandir mused to himself. Well even though he is rather dull they were getting good information out of him, not as much as Mithrandir had hoped, but if the man’s tongue flowed more freely he would have been suspicious after what Kimiko had done. The next answer dispelled Mithrandir’s earlier musings and brought back the seed of unease to be planted into the Genin’s skull. The Aburame did not like this at all, there was nothing logical about this bandit’s explanation, and the worst part was that the man was not lying nor had he been tricked with false information. In any case it was clear that the true enemy was this missing ninja and as such the bandits could be ignored from here on in his opinion. Of course he doubted that his leader would agree to that fact, however killing all the bandits would not be good. Instead Mithrandir would rather allow the message of not messing with Konoha to spread from the survivor’s lips. It was a good thing that Kimiko had decided to spare this one. ‘With him at the back we can just sneak up to them then, that settles it. Kill the leader of the bandit’s thus scattering the rest of them with a message and probably reforming them in the process. Next we will have to lop off the limbs off this ninja and bring him to Konoha to get his mind cracked open. Mithrandir thought this to himself after learning where the missing ninja was, so far this mission was going much better than he expected. It would be a great challenge for his first mission, and was not as quagmire as he first suspected. Still this should have been ranked at A not B in his opinion, but he could not do much to change that now. Then Kimiko did something unexpected and withdrew her shuriken and placed her foot back upon the bandit with the intention to kill.

“B-But! We had a d-deal!”

Before the words escaped Kimiko’s lips after the bandit spoke Mithrandir spoke his tone cool and deadly like a blade poised at someone’s throat. While he was five meters away from Kimiko it would sound as if he was right behind her, and as such the voice would not reach much further than her. “He is right you know, you made a promise. Do not break it I will not give you an ultimatum other than this; if you kill him now, when I am strong enough I will kill you as repentance.” After that he turned his back to Kimiko and decided to wait for her to do what she would. He would not attack her now, that would be very foolish on his end, but he did not like those who broke promises. It was not about killing someone who was helpless Mithrandir would have killed the man himself. However he would not have promised to spare the man and now that the wheel was set in motion he could not stop it. If Kimiko broke that promise she would be no better than his clansmen who had gone forward after swearing his brother would be fine. “If anything cut off his feet and make him crawl back to Konoha, without his feet or any radios there is no way for him to get back to his comrades before we do.”

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

Kimiko was surprised by the reaction given by Mithrandir when she advanced to kill the bandit that they had held hostage, turning and giving him a confused look. He said that if she went back on her promise he would grow stronger and have his revenge upon her, which was something that struck her as odd. He was okay, however, with chopping off the man’s feet and allowing him to crawl back to wherever he would go, but killing him was out of the range of options. The Katsumi frowned slightly and stood with her hands on her hips, glancing at the currently unconscious man at her feet who had fainted from sheer fright. “If we don’t kill him now, he will come up behind us and kill us.” She said lowly, as if to emphasise her point even further. Her promise had been made to gain the man’s trust, nothing more, nothing less. “Not everybody in this world fights fair, Mithrandir. What if he had told us fake information and led us to a dead-end after we left him alive? He would charge our backs and kill us both. Bandits may not be trained shinobi, but they can get lucky; especially if they’ve been given money as an incentive for their work.” Even though the facts of the world pained her at times, they were facts for a reason. She was striving to change that by getting stronger and more able to help everybody she could, but for the most part she could only go with the system and corruption that was wide-spread throughout the world. She paused and looked at the unconscious man, sighing deeply and drawing a kunai from her pouch. “My family’s way of life is keeping promises…” She muttered quietly, loud enough for the blonde youth to hear her even with his back turned. “No matter what, a Katsumi will always see their promise through. The world as it is now has been the responsibility for killing many of my family members in the past; and whatever the cost, I must survive to bring about the dawn of a new age, a better age for humankind.” Her voice was still quiet, almost a whisper if not for all the emotion she had seeping from her tone. She stooped down with the kunai held lightly in her grip, still staring at the unconscious bandit at her feet and great considering her next move.

Silently, she lowered her kunai and made one long slit across the man’s throat, effectively killing him there and then. To think that three years ago the self same girl would be so against death, to the point where she would rather die than kill somebody herself. “At times promises are all we have in this world, and even then they’re empty words. Being a shinobi has made me realise that nothing is as simple as it seems. It will serve you well to remember that… Panda.” She continued as she got back to her feet and walked past the youth upon saying his preferred nickname. She hoped that through what she said she had shown her true feelings on killing a helpless man whom she had made a promise to; and that was the fact that she hated it. She despised it with all her being. But what could she do? Nobody else would fight fair, so she couldn’t either. She preferred to when it was humanly possible, but chances like that were diminishing fast. The world wasn’t healing itself; it was getting worse. The wounds of humanity were deepening and life-threatening now, letting the lands and the people bleed dry. Hopes and dreams were a distant memory, and material values have increased. Money. Everything was about money. Katsumi Kimiko wished to change this drastically, to shape the world in the way she deemed fit, in a way to make humanity thrive and prosper. That wasn’t possible in the state that the world was in now. Although idealistic in many senses, the young woman wasn’t a girl anymore. She wasn’t naïve to the ways of the world and how it worked, and had grown up massively in these past two years especially with her advancement to Jounin rank. She wished to put the past disagreement between herself and her current student to rest, and continue with their mission to complete it. Now that there was the added complication of a B-Ranked shinobi in the mix, it was doubtless to say that things would get much tougher from here on out.

Following the plan that she had set out earlier, the ebony-haired girl gestured to her right-hand-side to the forest lining the road, and started making her way over there. After pausing a little to wait for the blonde youth who was both her partner and student for today, she set off at a fast-paced run; not too quickly to tire herself or Mithrandir out, but fast enough to cover ground effectively. She made sure that the boy could match her pace, and continued running like that. She didn’t open her mouth to speak not because of the earlier events between the pair, but because things were becoming increasingly serious. Although she kept watching the road and didn’t see any more bandits coming their way, there could be some hiding and keeping tactical positions up and down the road. The last thing they needed was their position to be leaked through speech, and as such she remained silent while running quietly through the trees. Continuing this way for the good parts of an hour, they finally reached what would be described as the ‘outer ring’ of the Fire Country. Just past the middle of the country, but still a fair distance away from the borders. Kimiko’s assumption that the bandits wouldn’t much further away than this was correct; she saw a fair-sized group of bandits walking ahead of a smaller, much more nuclear group at the back. Thinking of the information given to them earlier from their now-dead hostage, she continued running, but slowed her pace considerably. If there was indeed a shinobi involved, they should be extra cautious with their speed of running; it was possible for trained ears to hear tell-tale signs of oncoming pursuers. When they reached the last line of the main group of bandits walking slowly, she held up a hand as a signal to her partner that they should slow down and stop in preparation. She turned her body to face the direction in which the oncoming group was moving, and took in vital details for reference. There was a group of six bandits, walking in two lines of three. At the back, there were two men; one was non-descript, a basic man (albeit stocky) with a shaved head wearing the garb of the rest of the bandits. The other man was a different story.

The Jounin assumed that this man was the shinobi they were after; the main threat on their mission now. He was small for a male, probably standing at around 5’4”, definitely shorter than Kimiko. He had long silver-grey hair and in spite of this looked youthful. He wore a grey long-sleeved shirt, underneath which was a black net shirt which was made obvious due to the fact that the latter had a higher neck and was visible there, a pair of dark blue cargo pants with bandages wrapped around the upper left thigh, and basic sandals. A forehead protector was tied above the place where the bandaging was on his pants, and as they drew closer the symbol on the plated metal made his identity known as a Missing Nin from Amegakure. 'Strange… can’t say I’ve encountered any Missing Nin from Ame...’ Kimiko thought to herself, and started to think about what she did know about the minor country. True to its name, it almost always rained there, and although small the country had produced skilled shinobi in the past. She had never actually been there herself, but had relied on descriptions from other people who had, namely her boyfriend who was there for a rigorous training regime three years ago. Because most shinobi wore bandaging on their upper right leg and had a kunai pouch there, that would betray that they were right-handed; the fact that this man, Himitsu, had his on the left leg might prove that he was left-handed. That was yet to be confirmed, however. As the shinobi drew closer, it became obvious that he was a weaponry user. Around his waist was a typical strap and holster for a katana, and he had two of these slung at each hip. A scroll jutted out at each side of his lower back, perhaps betraying the fact that Himitsu had more weapons sealed away ready for use. When he and the bald man drew closer still, it became obvious that the shinobi had blood red eyes, a disconcerting affiliation with evil and the Sharingan. With her sharp eyesight Kimiko hadn’t seen the characteristic commas inside the irises, but these just gave more need for caution if anything. However, if he did have the Sharingan he would have noticed their presence up in the trees. Because he simply walked past having not noticed anything was a good sign.

The bandit party moved past them, and that was taken as a chance for the Konoha nin to spring out of hiding and launch a surprise attack. Making a gesture that made it known that this was the intention, the ebony-haired Jounin sprung down from the tree branch she had been stood on and landed cat-like in the road, not making a sound. She straightened up again and glared daggers in the direction ahead, wondering what the best course of action would be now. All in all, there were no more than twenty bandits, not including the bandit leader, but all at once they would prove a problem. Unless Kimiko brought out some of her more advanced Ninjutsu to wipe them all out in one fell swoop which would be an option. She focused first on keeping the bandit leader alive, and would plan from then onwards. First, she waited for Mithrandir to be near her side, and then she made a move; sprinting forwards with all her speed to reach the backs of the two respective leaders, reaching out a strong fist towards the bandit variety. Hitting him in the same place she had hit the man to paralyse him from the neck down temporarily, that was him alive and ready for the taking. There wasn’t even a cry of pain from the strike because it had been so fleeting, and the bald man crumpled to the floor. To her surprise, the shinobi didn’t turn to attack her. He did see her, giving her a purposeful smirk. He could have struck her with one of his katana, but instead took a few steps backwards. “We have some enemies on our hands, gentlemen.” He almost seemed to purr; such an odd voice. It un-nerved the Katsumi female and made her visibly shudder, so much so that she was almost struck by a bandit’s hasty upwards strike with his katana. She searched for Mithrandir, wanting him to join this fray. If they co-ordinated their attacks, they would plough through this lot of bandits with little to no effort, and then be able to focus on the shinobi. There was something about Himitsu that wasn’t quite right; he had weapons as if to say that he was a close-range fighter, and yet he was letting these bandits do his dirty work for him. Missing Nin in general seemed to let that happen though; more often than not they thought they were above everybody else and let their lackies do all the work. And they were fools for doing so.

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“I know most people lie, I know most do not honor their word. I know the world is not fair, I had just hoped you were better than that. Without his feet there would be nothing he could do to harm us, yet you had to break your word. You could have done things unthinkable compared to killing him…yet you turn your back on your family.” Mithrandir’s words were cool like a cold edge blade and hissed out of his mouth like angry steam from a heated kettle. They were said after the deed was done, something in Mithrandir’s mind snapped that day. The path of lightness and darkness he could have traversed changed. The crossroads shifted and with that seemingly small action the lighter and better path was stripped away forever. It fell away into a sea of black, rage and despair those feelings began to consume him and he shut them within the prison of his mind. They were left to sit in his mind and fester, poisoning the grey matter within the skull twisting and corrupting it. If anything theJjounin’s words made it far worse. Mithrandir always thought that actions spoke far louder than words and this confirmed it in his mind, shifting it into a monstrous beast. Though the change would not be apparent now already there were other voices giving dissent in his mind. His persona fractured and split with the small action there today, built upon as it was by previous actions. It was the straw that broke his mind sending him into a spiral of downward emotions, shutting him off from the outside. What could have been, no longer was apparent even to Mithrandir. There was now multiple fractions garnering for control of his mind and the good was far outweighed by the bad. It would be like a candle trying to boil an ocean from here on, it was impossible for him to climb his way out of this pit. Still those things under the surface took a back seat to the mission, it was his duty to finish it and finish it with Kimiko he would. Whatever happened after would happen after but he would make sure to turn his rage into actions and fuel his movements from here on. Perhaps it was done in hopes of draining the evil from him, purging himself of the bracken waters inside, or perhaps this was whom he had slowly become. In any case he followed Kimiko his actions making no noise at all. He matched the pace she set effortlessly with the fire inside his spirit and traversed the forest without alerting even the wildlife who lived there.

Broken as he was as soon as he saw the enemy his mind shifted once more and a blood rage fell upon them, shifting his vision into a crimson veil. They would all die from overkill from the boy; he had forgotten the main objective. Still he would allow the leaders to be dealt with Kimiko, which was good since he would have mangled their bodies as he planned to do with the underlings as soon as she made her move. Once they stopped and saw the two groups he redrew his bow and notched an arrow, the rest in his quiver stood out as if begging to be launched. As soon as Kimiko launched herself from hiding Mithrandir focused on losing all of his arrows, his hands working like a blur driven by the blood rage he felt inside. All twenty five were spent before Kimiko even reached the two leaders, and with that ten bandits fell dead pierced by arrows in the matter of seconds. Mithrandir’s eyes widened as he saw the other ten had been either hit poorly, or missed entirely. Only two had lost the ability to walk, and three besides them had lost the use of one arm. Since he was perched in a tree his angle allowed him to hit them all regardless of how they were positioned. However ten whole arrows were spent needlessly and five bandits were still in action. Casting his bow aside onto a branch nearby he withdrew his sword. He would not go to Kimiko’s side and assumed she had just continued her actions anyways, by the time he had leapt from the tree she had already taken the bandit leader out and the missing ninja spoke. Mithrandir did not notice, nor did he care about his eyes. While the uninjured ones went charging at his Jounin leader, the injured ones ignored the closer prey with screams of revenge for the one who had shot the arrows. Of course he just lifted his left arm and released the senbon killing them all as they came close with blows to the eyes and throats. The pathway was bloody already and with his eyes focused on the missing ninja Mithrandir grinned and felt the senbon launcher reload itself.

“Let’s dance” Mithrandir said his voice betraying the gleeful malice he had inside, it was a voice of insanity and the way his head was positioned one could almost swear that he was enjoying himself far too much. Which was true, each kill was raising his bloodlust and giving him an ecstasy he had never felt before in his life. With each kill he had imagined one of his clan member’s falling, he felt as though he was avenging his brother in some way. It was now beyond any reasonable doubt, the Genin had indeed snapped completely. Still with the missing ninja with the sharingan a good fifteen meters away the true battle would be soon at hand. By the time he had already spoke the bandits had arrived at Kimiko’s position with their crude clubs and swords, unless she had already dispatched of them.

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

Just after Kimiko had killed the bandit who could cause problems for them in the future she was alerted to a disturbing speech from Mithrandir. Although she had not been facing him, she had sensed a definite difference in his demeanour; almost as if a dark cloud was raining insanity down on him. ‘Oh goodness no…’ She thought, knowing this feeling well as belonging to those she had met in her life whose own lives had taken turns down the wrong path. Upon meeting the blonde self-shunning Aburame, she had sensed an indecisive nature about him. He wasn’t quite good, but he was far from being evil as well. At a fork in the road, so to speak, hesitating when it came to deciding which road to take. Her unique ability, deemed pointless by most, came into play right then when she felt a notable change. Mithrandir had taken steps down the dark road of no return, and she could have stepped back and hit herself for being so blind up until now. But something about cutting off the bandit’s feet seemed inhumane to her; at least the bandit’s death was quick and he was unconscious for it. He wouldn’t have felt a thing. It was the best way to die in a shinobi’s way of life, and therefore perfectly fine for a bandit to die by as well. But somehow, the fact that the Katsumi hadn’t kept her promise had tipped the unstable youth over the edge. She couldn’t quite fathom why; she understood his hatred of betraying promises, but in her line of work one might as well walk around with a huge target attached to their front if they kept their promises. They wouldn’t live long. Kimiko had a strict work-life separation because of these reasons; she kept all promises she made in her life away from being a deadly weapon, but while on duty she became ruthless out of necessity. While she had been contemplating Mithrandir’s words, she simply shook her head with a look of sorrow painting her face. And hidden grief. Had she been responsible for this descent? It appeared as much, because it was through her action that his heart had taken a definite turn for the worst. Determined not to let the youth see it, she kept her face hidden from him when they started off to complete their mission. She secretly prayed to whatever Kami there was in this world of theirs that they would watch over Mithrandir where she had failed.

She didn’t have time to beat herself up about this, however, after they had alerted themselves to the bandits and their lone shinobi leader. Mithrandir had stayed in the trees and while Kimiko had been focused on rendering the bandit leader useless, and thus when she saw Himitsu’s face turn from one of smug satisfaction to one that reflected horror and anger, she was surprised to see more than half of the bandits felled. Many others were injured, some unable to walk, others with wounds to the arms. ‘Focus on the emotional situation later.’ She told herself, fearing malicious killing intent would pour from every pore of Mithrandir’s body when he eventually came to join her. Shortly afterwards, senbon shot past Kimiko and pierced some of the advancing bandits’ throats and eyes, effectively killing them where they stood. There was a small gaggle left that approached the female Jounin, but she was ready for them. Aware of the Missing Nin watching, she made sure not to pull out any of her jutsu as to give away her elements or fighting styles to the vigilant man not far away from her. Instead, she drew four shuriken and threw them at each one of her targets, felling them with no real drama. The blonde had appeared at her side, revealing her worst nightmare that he had indeed delved onto a path of no return. His voice when he used such harmless words made them sound venomous and deadly, and at that point Kimiko just knew that she should leave him to his own devices for fear of worsening his already deteriorating state of mind. And thus, they stood facing down the red-eyed Missing Nin who looked positively furious at present.

After a deadly silent pause, Himitsu suddenly smirked, his gaze never leaving Mithrandir. “You troublesome Konoha Nin. You’re everywhere, and you keep ruining my plans.” His voice had lost all traces of an earlier musicality it held, something that made Kimiko shudder for an entirely different reason. It became obvious from that simple statement of what the man was capable of; he had been putting on a charade before, a mere act by hiding behind the ‘big tough’ bandits that he had manipulated to his will so easily. Those pawns of his were scattered dead or dying on the floor, and now he realised the magnitude of his situation. “My apologies for my brethren not stopping you before. We’ll finish what they started.” The ebony-haired young woman spoke, her voice radiating a confidence that she had gained with experience in such exchanges with dangerous individuals. She was probably the worst target any Missing Nin could make in many cases; mainly because she knew exactly what she was doing and despite the demeanour she put across, she was able to outsmart most she came into contact with. Those who prided themselves in their intelligence often fell at her feet, and this Himitsu would be no exception. “Ah, money… slipping from my grasp… it’s so sad that I could cry…” The grey-haired man spoke again, adding an emphasis of dramatisation to his tone that Kimiko had to resist the urge to gag at. Himitsu was so hell-bent on money, so driven by greed that he would stop at nothing to get his dirty hands on it. More often than not, Missing Nin as of late had defected through greed; all afflicted with the same corroding disease. “Go ahead and shed your tears. We’ll make sure your ‘grasp’ never tightens around that poison again.” The Katsumi retorted quickly, slipping into a ready fighting stance. And yet in spite of her direct challenges, he didn’t look at her. His gaze was still fixed on Mithrandir. His red eyes showed something a bit like satisfaction when he stuck forth a small pink tongue from between parted lips, as if tasting the air with his tongue like reptiles did. The realisation started to dawn on Kimiko that Mithrandir had been responsible for most of the bandits being felled in a rain of arrows, and just as that well-known look flashed through the Missing Nin’s eyes… she had enough time to react.

In a flash and clouds of dust thrown up by both high-ranking ninja’s feet, Himitsu had closed the gap between them with both his katana drawn and precisely pointed at the chest and abdomen. Kimiko had intercepted the strike of one katana with a measly kunai of her own, but the other, the one which was aimed at Mithrandir’s abdomen had sliced across her stomach barely missing the vital organs. The blade was still within her torn black shirt, and she could feel the cool metal pressing inside her sliced skin. But she didn’t move. Not even an inch. Her kunai wavered ever-so-slightly against the katana that had barely missed her most vital organ of all, and her breathing came from her throat ragged and heavy while she glared with only one eye open at Himitsu. The other was closed from the pain currently affecting her stomach. “I may not have kept my promise before…” She said quietly, her voice just about reaching Mithrandir’s ears and definitely audible to Himitsu. “But I will now. I promised to protect you with my life, Mithrandir Majin Jinkaku, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.” Her voice was stronger now, growing in power until right at the end when she practically shouted for the world to hear. In a swift counter-attack, she pushed her kunai forward hard enough for her opponent’s katana to ricochet backwards and throw him off balance. She hopped backwards away from the harm of his blood-stained katana that had pierced her stomach, and ignored the wound that was currently trickling crimson marks down her ornate clothing choice. “Now help me defeat our enemy.” This was a spurring demand, something she followed up with swift hand seals. “Tsuchi Kairou no Jutsu!” She cried out, slamming both her palms onto the ground below her. The earth surrounding Himitsu while he staggered backwards almost in slow-motion sprung up thick and strong, encasing him in a corridor, just like the jutsu name eluded to. The opening was right in front of Kimiko and Mithrandir, and the former of the given pair started a string of more hand seals to utilise her choice Doton Ninjutsu effectively. “Hibashiri!” She called out the name of one of her favourite Katon Ninjutsu, ending the string of hand seals with both her hands clasped together in front of her. From them, two long jets of flames erupted and travelled deep into the earth corridor to hit the defenceless opponent. She upheld her earth corridor jutsu in order for Mithrandir to add anything he deemed necessary.

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Posts : 182

The man’s eyes were upon him, good he would finish this by submerging the beastly ninja in a wrath of bugs, a delude of destruction. Then Kimiko spoke and halted his hands from forming the hand seals that would allow him to evoke the bugs out of his body. It seemed those two would speak first, a bad decision in the mind of Mithrandir but still he was not the leader and much of his bloodlust was sated. Still he would have loved to torture the man before him personally. The idea of breaking such a man brought such a fire into his heart that it warmed his whole body. Ticking away the man replied and revealed his major sin, the one which Mithrandir looked upon with the least favor. “How foolish, all that is in this world belongs to me. You should not have any of my money in the first place” the taunt was filled with an earlier mirth as the genin stood with his ninjato in hand ready for a charge. It was said following Kimiko’s final verbal jab. After which the man focused completely on the Panda, and began to lick his lips like the snake he was. Be that as it may Mithrandir would stomp him and trod him underfoot and raised his senbon launcher towards the man, hidden under his robe sleeve as it was. Both of the higher ranking ninjas charged as Mithrandirs payload unleashed itself, most missed their target but the missing ninja charged in a straight line, and got stuck by two senbon in the chest. Each burrowed through and between the ribs into the man’s lungs. It would not be long now but Mithrandir’s ninjato was in place when Kimiko appeared before him and accepted the hits. Eyes widening in surprise all he could think was why, he would have been able to deflect one of the blows and accept the other. Now the scar that should be upon his body was on another’s.

All that reached him from the words was protecting him, while she killed the other but why. Why was Mithrandir’s life more important than the defenseless bandit she killed? It made no sense to Mithrandir, sure they were of the same village but if all you did was fight under a banner then how could you accept betrayal from those under the same banner. It sent Mithrandir into confusion; he truly did not understand the Jounin at all. Why did she take the attack instead of simply taking the Missing Ninja out? She was in the perfect position to do so when he had focused on Mithrandir Aburame. It made no sense, what was her aim? Was she suicidal? Why was it so important to take the hits for him? Still he had no time to think as she jumped up and launched her jutsu, like a machine he responded to her call for help. “But of course, me lady” he said as she launched her jutsu. As she called her other jutsu Mithrandir was not yet finished with his hand seals and switched the final one to better compliment the choice of attack suddenly infusing himself with Wind chakra. “KAMI OROSHI” he bellowed as the flames continued forward and the rush from the wind complimented the flames and made them grow. The two jets of flames combined into one giant maelstrom of fire like hell itself had opened up from the two ninja and rushed into the earthen jutsu filling the cave with a gigantic explosion of flames. The earth shatted under the sheer force of the explosion and inside he could see the missing ninja drop to the ground rolling himself out and screaming in pain. He was not dead, but the superheated senbon had melted and sealed the wounds he had given before. This would make it entirely too hard to breathe and react in any way more than a leisurely pace for the rest of his life if they were not removed. Of course this was not counting his now blackened skin which peeled off of his chest. One of his eyes had boiled out but the other along with half of his face had escaped realitively unharmed. There were no hair, nor clothes left upon the man and all the metal objects had fused with his skin. It was truly an awful sight to see, and the missing ninja was just barely alive. Now when he opened his mouth to scream nothing came out, just gasps and pained breathing. One of his arms, the left which matched with the boiled eye was withered down to the bone. However he would survive, unless the two ninja could not transport him back to the village properly.

“What now?” Mithrandir asked as the missing ninja fell into unconsciousness from the pain. It seemed like Mithrandir was better now, and the former actions were just an episode. Still, the darkness in his soul was not gone. It was simply subdued below the surface, waiting for another opportunity to leap out. Still, their mission was near complete and besides Kimiko bearing quite the wound, it had gone off rather well. Tearing a sleeve off of his coat he handed it to Kimiko as he spoke, he would rather that the Jounin not bleed out during their return after all.

Spoiler:

Chakra: 43

Age : 29 Posts : 3640

The Katsumi had known that her mission partner was able to use the Fuuton element, but it still surprised her when he followed up her Katon Ninjutsu with an appropriate extra fire power. The Wind embedded itself within the flames and fanned them hotter than before, speeding up in a great fiery stream to explode inside the earthen corridor. With the impact, said earth shattered and fell to the ground, and as the flames cleared, Kimiko could see their opponent laid on the floor, in immense pain and looking very grotesque indeed, but still alive. She seemed to have forgotten all about her wound while quietly watching on, her deep chocolate eyes making it clear that she was planning about how they should handle the situation now. Konoha was a fair distance away from this point, but she was pretty certain that her wound could hold out for that long. Mithrandir wasn’t injured save for the typical wear and tear that came with a shinobi mission, so she was glad of that. She was perfectly aware that while their enemy, Himitsu, had targeted the blonde youth, she had been perfectly capable of taking him out, or at least stopping him in his tracks without herself being hurt in the process. At the start of this mission, however, she promised to be her partner’s equal; his team-mate. If she flaunted her superior skill, that would not make herself equal with him. Not only that, but his earlier comments about actions speaking louder than words replayed in her head. To show her forgiveness for what she had done by breaking her word with the bandit they left further down the road, she took a hit for her comrade. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It seemed fitting in this situation, no?

After Himitsu blacked out from the immense pain racking his body, Mithrandir asked what was next. While asking as such, he ripped a sleeve from his coat and held it out towards the older female in the obvious token that she should take it to bandage her wound. The ebony-haired girl turned her head and smiled at the blonde beside her, accepting the sleeve and busying herself making some dressings to stop her wound opening further and to prevent infection. “Arigatou.” She thanked him after securing the coat sleeve in place, covering the bloody patches on her bare stomach with the material. She walked forward a few steps to the unconscious Missing Nin, crouching down and examining him. It was hard to tell whether or not it would be possible for the man to live, but she assumed that it was worth a shot if they hustled back to the village. As long as their victim was swiftly admitted to the Hospital, his life should be spared. She carefully took the man in her arms, not risking a shoulder-carry just in case she did too much to the already damaged body. “We shall be taking these two men back to Konoha, and then its mission completed.” She nodded her head, walking back over to where Mithrandir was stood. The unconscious bandit leader was beside him, and it became obvious that it would be the Panda’s job to heft the male back to the village. Kimiko was strong and could have probably managed to carry both men if one of them wasn’t severely injured, plus she wished her partner to share the load with her as much as possible. “If we make good time, we’ll be back in the village before nightfall.” She said before beginning to walk back in the direction that they had ventured from.

All in all, she was pleased with how the mission went. It could have been so much more complicated than it turned out to be, and they had managed to capture both leaders of the bandits in order to take in for questioning. Such a thing was a great achievement when one of the leaders was a B-Ranked shinobi. The one thing that the Katsumi was worried about, however, was Mithrandir’s earlier behaviour and shift in his heart’s alignment. She could still tell that something was amiss, even if he was acting as if he was back to normal. Her strange gift allowed her to pick up on many things with a glance, or a feeling, and she was aware that this event could well have changed the youth forever. She walked in silence alongside the aforementioned blonde, not raising her gaze from the road ahead of her even for a second. Her earlier smile had turned into a thoughtful, sorrowful frown while she contemplated how momentous this mistake of hers had been. Had it been a mistake? In her mind it was the cold hard truth of the world, but to Mithrandir it had appeared to tip him over the edge in anger and darkness. ‘If only I could turn back time…’ She thought to herself despondently, briefly glancing at the charred body of Himitsu that she carried in her arms. Why did nearly killing this man in such a gruesome way not affect her as much as her comrade’s descent into a darker place? She knew that she was immune to such things now, knowing that until the ideal world existed, she would have to continue doing such duties. But the fact that she could have done something different earlier that day, that she could have left the bandit alive instead of killing him, Mithrandir’s heart would be untainted and possibly even brighter. The wound at her stomach throbbed slightly, but not in a painful way. It was almost as if it was gently reminding her that it was there. Flesh wounds were things that she was used to, so it didn’t bother her as much as the things she could control. She was no Medic Nin, and she knew that her wound would be healed in due time, so she chose not to dwell upon it. And besides, she was used to way worse.

After walking in silence for so long, Kimiko looked up from the pathway ahead of them while clearing her throat softly. “You know that you believe that actions speak louder than words, Mithrandir?” She asked quietly, still not looking at the boy she was addressing. She paused to hear an answer, but regardless or not of whether she got one, she decided to continue. “What I did back there was something to illustrate that. I’m not going to ask for your forgiveness because I wholly understand if you never wish to ever see my face again.” She sighed deeply at this realisation, expecting the worst out of this situation that she found herself in. “But I at least wanted to make it known that I realise what I did was wrong.” Deep down, she wanted to launch into a speech about how she had no choice, about how if she didn’t kill the man he would have either betrayed them by sneaking up and landing blows, or he would have continued to Konoha to steal weapons for himself. But she didn’t. She knew that right now that would only make things worse as opposed to making them better. Leaving her attempt of redemption there, she fell silent once more, stealing a glance to her side to gauge the reaction from her mission partner should he have one.

Regardless, they travelled back to the village in good time; making it through the gates as the sun was beginning to set. Himitsu was given admission to the Hospital, and the un-named bandit leader was taken for interrogation. The skies above were streaked with reds and oranges, majestic colours that any Sheppard would know symbolised a good day to follow. Kimiko and Mithrandir had been debriefed in the Hokage’s office, and the former of the pair had been commanded to go to the Hospital for her wound to be properly treated. She had no intention to do so, of course. They stood outside the Administration Building after exiting their debrief, and the ebony-haired Katsumi hadn’t said anything to Mithrandir beyond what she vocalised earlier. As they stood there now, however, she had a sudden urge to apologise again and launch into a blabbering speech about how much she was sorry, but she held her tongue. She knew that she talked too much at the best times, and in her heart of hearts she knew that her speech would do nothing but make her seem like a fish floundering for a lost cause. “So… this is goodbye.” She claimed aloud, arms folded over her chest while she focused her gaze up at the Hokage Monuments. A warm evening breeze raked its refreshing fingers through her long locks and ruffled her clothing, but she stood motionless for a minute or so more. Her face was emotionless and her eyes were sombre; such a look was very odd for Kimiko to wear because everything about the way she conducted herself made her an open book.

She gave Mithrandir a sideways glance with a small smile before raising a hand in a wave and making her way from the Administration Building to the Clan Headquarters. She would much rather have her boyfriend’s older sister Rangiku tend to her wound than the Hospital because she hated being out of action for anything. This way, her wound would be healed practically overnight and she could go back to her usual regime, plus she didn’t have to grumble about the awful sterility and depressing attitude that the Hospital offered. Whether or not her mission partner responded while she departed, she continued her steady walk with her arms folded, all the time considering how she would forgive herself for throwing somebody into the darkness…

{Exit}

{That's a wrap! Post up an exit, Blaine, and we'll get this submitted for eval.}

Posts : 182

Kimiko wrapped the proffered makeshift bandage around her wound to stem the bleeding and clot the blood preventing her from growing weak on the way back to Konoha. She did so with thanks, and while she could not undo the descent she had puzzled Mithrandir for a time. So truthfully she had chosen to accept the wound to try and prove a point. The point of course warped into his mind that simply because he was of the same village her word rang true for him, but not for those who did not have the same birthright. Simply a chance allowed her to keep her word to him, it was queer in the mind of the Aburame but he did not have time to dwell on that line of thinking before she spoke again. Taking the hint from the words and the nod Mithrandir hefted the unconscious bandit onto his back. The man was heavy but he felt no different than a sack of rice Mithrandir would carry to the table for supper. Simply but it barely burdened him in any way, he was a ninja after all. Still he was glad to not have to carry both; such a task would surely doom the missing ninja to death in his mind.

“Being caught outside after nightfall would be unnerving I believe” Mithrandir replied in a quiet tone. His voice was no more than a whisper as he drifted from the world of thought to the world of reality and back again. Following the Jounin, the Genin bore his load silently from then on passing along the road without incident. The corpses of the bandits were still on the road, and as they passed the earlier groups Mithrandir began to ponder again. The world was rather cruel deciding so much on such random chance as birth. Still it was true that his leader for this mission was not cold hearted, simply misguided in the eyes of the Aburame. Perhaps his clan was also misguided, but was ignorance an excuse to fight fire with fire? Or in his clan’s case, experiment on something they had never tried on one so young? Excuses, what were excuses to him? Mithrandir could not quite yet decide, it was odd and he felt deep introspection throughout the journey back to Konohakagure. Of course this was jarred as Kimiko spoke yet again. She was…apologizing? Now this was quite odd to Mithrandir, what could this mean he wondered in the depths of his mind? Sure his suspicions brought it into a ploy but for what reason, the goodness in his mind assured him the words were genuine. The fact that she did not follow up with excuses heartened Mithrandir, though it did not shift his ideas to clear the ignorance of the world. Unite it as one, now that would be good, then nobody would be able to use village loyalty as an excuse to kill.

At length he finally replied in the same quiet voice as earlier “No, I have decided that you are a good one. Perhaps you should think more on the chance that is birth, but you had your reasons. I will not hold it against you as I earlier decided. It is not your fault” Mithrandir’s words were truthful in their entirety. It was not Kimiko’s fault; it was the world’s fault. It was something he would have to change even if he had to clean the world and start anew, but those were thoughts for another time. He would still live in that village for a time, but the time would come when he would have to journey about the world and see if the ignorance had spread everywhere. Only after that had been done could he finally decide.

Soon after that they returned to the village and deposited the missing ninja at the hospital, of course Mithrandir kept the leader of the bandits planning on delivering him to the Kage personally. However at the hospital another ninja demanded the bandit to be taken for interrogation, and Mithrandir would not deny him. Soon after they went to the Hokage’s office where they wrapped up the mission and Mithrandir was silent the whole time allowing his elder to explain the mission in full. Sure he would have rather asked why they were sent out with such little information, or why if Himitsu had encountered other leaf ninja what their outcome was. It was odd to him; perhaps the missing ninja was lying. The whole thing just didn’t add up to Mithrandir but it was not yet his place to declare such. After they exited the building Kimiko spoke yet again, uttering her farewell as if it was a final thing. In reply with a kind hearted smile Mithrandir spoke in a cheery tone “For now Lady Kimiko.” If this surprised her she did not show it and instead left with a sideways glance, though he swore he saw a smile on her face.

Leaving the building Mithrandir spent the rest of the night walking around the town in introspection. Perhaps soon he would find others who thought like him, and he could debate about the feelings he held inside. However until that was possible they would just stew and become corrupt in his soul.

[Exit]