Caravan Assault! [Mission]

Mission Details:

Akihiro arrived once again before Zurui. This time he was wearing a mask, since the nature of this mission wouldn't him to reveal his true identity. He had been tracking down one of the caravans they were supposed to hit, and it had stopped at a small village in the Hyoto province. Apparently they were here for resupplying in food, water, and maybe even get a few trade deals. Akihiro figured the best time to hit them would be on the outskirts of the village, where the roads narrowed and deep forests surrounded the long merchant line on each side. He was still unsure on whether to rob or destroy the whole conboy but either was fine since they were getting paid the same no matter which method they decided to use to assault the caravan. Akihiro chewed on an apple while seating on a rock overlooking the village. The whole tailing business would be easier with two people but Zurui was nowhere to be found yet. Could he be lost again? On their earlier missions in the Land of Water Akihiro had arrived late, but this time Zurui was managing to break every one of the Uchiha's tardiness records.

Take a left at the tree. The tree?! He didn't know which was worse: that somebody gave him those directions or that he actually took them without question. In Kirigakure, sure, a tree wasn't a terribly common thing, even on the many islands in the Land of Water, but out here? He should've known better. After finally managing to get himself back on track, Zurui marched in as dull a mood as ever onto the meet site. Seriously, somebody needed to do something about all of these trees.

"So, what's the deal with this one?" He said, overlooking the village as he stood next to Akihiro. He read the mission, or so he thought. Actually, maybe he didn't. It was probably somehow the trees' fault, or maybe he was lost in mediation?

Akihiro noticed Zurui approaching but remained quiet and carefully watching the area. It was not until the man spoke that the young Uchiha replied with his own words. "We're supposed to take down the caravans who follow the Land of Fire's trade routes without paying for proper protection. It will be troublesome if they recognize either of us so we should either wear masks or leave no survivors." Personally Akihiro had brought no mask. If they really tried they could cover their faces with some sort of cloth found on the first caravan they took down. But that implied taking down that first caravan.

"This first caravan has been trading at the village for a few days. They should be leaving soon. I'd rather wait and hit them on the road. If the village gets caught up in this whole thing, we could find ourselves under unwanted attention." This was true. They were being paid to take down a caravan, not burn down a village. Akihiro deduced their clients were interested in getting hired for protecting the caravans, but without this village here there would be no place to do business and thus no caravans, which meant there would be no need to protect anything. This was a delicate op indeed.

"Mm." Zurui acknowledged the assessment. This one sounded like it was coming down from Konoha itself, or at least someone vested in it. To think that a village would need to use such underhanded tactics to get what it wanted. That's politics for ya.

The Jounin sat and waited, fortunate enough to have brought a mask in preparation for that other thing he had to do. With a transformation active on top of that, he'd be impossible to recognize without some particularly skilled methods. He doubted people from this little village would have anything of the sort. In fact, given that he and Akihiro were the bandits in this scenario, they'd likely not find much resistance at all. That was the whole point, though, to give them cause to pay tribute to Konoha for protection. Then again, maybe it wasn't that they were too cheap; maybe they already had protection and the two shinobi would have to prove it to be more fallible than these little villagers thought.

Zurui watched as the first of the caravans began assembling towards the front of the village. They were bringing up a couple of carts and loading them with the last of their goods before securing them and starting off. The goods weren't anything important, just some refined materials and raw resources -trade goods, most likely. The caravan continued to form until it had made a considerably long line, when it would take off underground.

Akihiro also watched as the caravan loaded up their goods in carts and readied to leave. He was trying to see if there was anything particularly valuable but truth to be told there was nothing really worth stealing there. A few raw materials, refined goods but nothing worth carrying over to the black market for selling. Alas, the young Akihiro figured out they shouldn't go through the trouble of searching every single caravan they found. They were tasked with destroying them, and getting paid precisely for that. Akihiro didn't want to think Konoha was responsible for this mission but he wasn0t naive enough to believe that wasn't a possibility.

"Hey, we should get moving. The caravan is about to move also. I know just the perfect place to ambush them." Akihiro moved out, away from the village and following a road he knew the caravan would take. Not only did they not pay for protection money but they also took incredibly predictable routes which made them an easy target. Akihiro's only concern was that someone else attacked the caravan before them. That was unlikely, however. Konoha did too much of a good job keeping outlaws in their place (which meant out of the Land of Fire). Except today, for some reason, there didn't seem to be any patrols roaming around... Alas, Akihiro moved (hopefully followed by Zurui) towards a clearing. The road exited the forest for about a kilometer and it went through a clearing where nothing seemed to grow. It was almost like a battle had happened in that place. Then it entered the forest once again where the path was lost among trees.

"I wanna try something. Catch any that may escape." Akihiro and Zurui would stand over a small rocky hill that overlooked the area from a slightly more elevated position. Akihiro made a horse hand-seal with a single hand and then proceeded to release the pinnacle of Uchiha Fire Release techniques, chakra was kneaded inside his body and converted into fire, then expelled from the mouth and shaped into a literal sea of flame which would cover a wide range as it moved towards the caravan and in a moment eradicated the poor bastards. There were a lot more to take down, tho.

Trained: Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation S-rank 388/300 words

Zurui followed the Uchiha to a particular spot of the forest where he watched the lad unleash actual hell upon the caravan. Flames spewed out in every direction, burning horses, goods, and people alike in its all consuming fury. The Jounin was rather impressed; not even he had ever attempted to use that particular technique. The fact that a Chuunin was doing it, and one that hadn't bothered much with Katon until lately, was rather distinguished.

He snapped back to the situation at hand. There was still plenty of work to be done, for while the flames roasted many of their targets, there were yet many more that escaped the fires and were now in a frenzy. Zurui took advantage of this, quickly approaching the remnant flames and then fanning them with Fuuton. This caused an explosive burst of heat to cascade upon those that hadn't quite made it out of the area, as well as those not quite finished off by the Fire Ninjutsu. With this area cleared, all they had left to do was hunt down the fleeing carts, which would be slowest, and the fleeing people, who would spread word of this and were much faster.

Akihiro frowned. The jutsu had been effective at eliminating most of the caravan's supplies and men, but there were still a few running around and scattering all over the place. This wasn't a huge problem because most of the survivors were far from the front of the caravan which Akihiro assaulted. The front area had, quite literally, been reduced to ash and dust in an instant. Meanwhile Zurui had been making use of his Fuuton to fan the flames and raise the remaining fire to new proportions.

While he did that, Akihiro ran around killing anyone who was still alive and within his grasp. From the badly wounded people to those who had been lucky enough to survive the fire unscathed, Akihiro chased the ones he could and killed from a distance those which he could not. Minutes passed, and smoke was rising high up in the air. "We need to move out and hit the next caravan." Akihiro yelled out to Zurui. "The smoke is certain to bring unwanted attention from the nearby village. Let's go." Akihiro moved away from the rocky clearing and into the forest once again. There were a few more caravans like this one-perhaps better guarded, and which they still needed to take down. The burning hell they put this one through would certainly send a message but there was no need to use the same process on every caravan.

It was unfortunate in Zurui's mind that some of the people had managed to escape. He had been trained to leave no survivors, which made his task as a shinobi easier and by extension protected Kirigakure. Most missions he had done revolved around this goal. This time, however, he knew they needed to send a message and nobody spread messages like people. So, he stayed his nervous hand and followed Akihiro on to the next caravan.

When the two finally came upon their second target, it was moving quietly along through one of the many trails throughout the forests. None of the people here seemed to be in a hurry, which meant word likely hadn't reached them of what had happened to their friends back there. This made things very easy for the two shinobi, who could strike at their leisure with no need for urgency. To this end, Zurui moved from their temporary lookout point and sneaked around to the end opposite Akihiro. As soon as the Uchiha struck, Zurui would as well, closing off their escape route to add a little more emphasis to just how badly they required protection.

Akihiro smirked as he saw how the second caravan was calmly moving along its path. Of course, news hadn't reached them already, for a couple of reasons. First, the two ninjas moved way faster than any non-shinobi caravan guard. And second this caravan was moving through an isolated road and the survivors from the first attack had made the sound decision of moving towards the safety of local villages and small settlements.

This road was a bit more dangerous for using fire. Surrounded by a lot of the many trees that found its home in the Land of Fire, the entire road and a lot more would be consumed by flames should Akihiro choose to use the Great Fire Annihilation once again. No, this wasn't an option. Akihiro had been hoping Zurui would use some sort of large scale jutsu this time but it seemed the Jonin thought waiting on his signal was a better idea. Perhaps he was right....perhaps a coordinated attack would be for the best. Akihiro positioned himself behind the caravan, jumped towards the road and made a set of hand-seals. He had little time to see the guard's surprised face as he used the Great Breakthrough technique to send him, the horses, and most of the carts on the back flying towards the front. They crashed into each other, and chaos ensued.

Crashing and collapsing bodies piled up on each other in the middle of the road as Zurui descended upon his prey like a hawk on a mouse. He drew no weapons, taking instead a sword that had fallen from one of the two guardsmen tasked with protecting this caravan. The Jounin then proceeded forward, first stabbing the guard at his feet through the chest. Blood spurted from the wound and the man grasped the blade and opened his mouth in a futile attempt to shout for help. All that came from his cries was a fountain of blood.

Zurui pressed forward, severing the head of a merchant that had found his footing and tried to flee. He followed the arcing blow with a swift kick, putting a laborer back on the ground before shoving the blade right into the young man's throat. It was a brutal scene, but Zurui managed to take care of most of the caravan this way, leaving only a few runners for Akihiro to deal with while the Jounin set fire to the caravans via first a spark of his iron blade and then a makeshift torch made by wrapping burning cloth around the tip of his sword. The smoke would signal other caravans to watch out, unlike the other that had been put out much quicker than usual by Zurui's Fuuton -after it had incinerated most everyone else, of course. This time, he had little concern. In fact, after getting a taste of blood, he kind of wanted the challenge.

Moving as fat and swiftly as he could Akihiro dealt with the runners using a very similar method to Zurui's. by stabbing, cutting or otherwise hurting those people until they could no longer draw a breath. The only difference was that Akihiro was wielding one of his kunais- if he had to use a blade the Uchiha preferred to use his own, one with which he was already familiarized. He wasn't all that great at using ninja tools, but he felt comfortable wielding a kunai blade despite its short blade length. It felt good using his arms and legs to fight every once in a while- even if his taijutsu skills were of academy level at most. But even the E-ranekd academy students were easily a threat for these merchants and pathetic excuses for guards. Why even bother hiring these thugs when they were shinobi available and ready to do the task? Was it because the thugs were cheaper? Well, could one really out a price on the safety of their merchandise and more importantly, their lives? Akihiro certainly could. He was getting paid 15,000 ryo to do this. A quick calculation while in battle and the young Uchiha figured he was getting paid about 200 ryo for each life he'd probably need to take. Not a bad deal, considering this was the equivalent to crushing flies.

After it was done and there was no more screaming or running away people, Akihiro went to meet Zurui. "We made short work of this one as well. Best move on to the next. I think we have about three remaining...maybe next time we should try to avoid this much bloodshed. If the risk gets too high the price for hiring shinobi will shoot up, and these poor bastards can't afford it."

"Sounds like someone else's problem." Zurui replied coldly. He honestly didn't care about the future of any of these people, for they did not pertain to his life in any way. Should the work from this group dry up, there were thousands more elsewhere to be found. In fact, he wouldn't blink if they all fell down dead. He looked down at the burned and blood-covered sword. Maybe it was the killing that shifted his exterior mood; sometimes he had trouble projecting the correct personality for the situation, and with Akihiro, indiscriminate cruelty was rarely ever appropriate.

Dropping the katana into the dirt, Zurui walked off with Akihiro towards the next caravan. Only three left? That simply wouldn't do. It'd been so long since they'd had a mission directed to bloodshed, and he wanted to savor it. This next one would have to involve much more care and consideration. He wanted to get really meticulous with it. "Only three more? We should try to enjoy this more. Maybe we could hunt down more..."

"It is *our* problem as well." Akihiro corrected his friend. The Kirigakure no Sato ninja could be cold and make his targets bleed with little to no hesitation at all. But the moment his joy interfered with their business that's when Akihiro stepped in. Nothing wrong with enjoying a good killing, but one needs to be smart about the way they do things."Our client's objective isn't to destroy caravans. It's to get these caravans to pay for protection. If protection costs shoot up, and they can't afford it, we'll have screwed up. Trade will be reduced and both the hidden village and the underworld crime lords will lose money. We'll be ruining our own reputation. " It was sometimes hard to grasp the true nature of an underworld mission. There was a lot more freedom but they also needed to be a lot more careful. Their objective could be "kill a guy, no matter how". If they killed the guy and the entire town he lived in they'd still get paid, but that didn't mean their reputation as underworld agents would increase. One needed to play it smart in order to navigate this world properly.

"Very well. You start the next assault then. They should be moving on a small road northeast of here. I'll follow your lead." Akihiro told Zurui. The Uchiha had started two assaults on caravans, it was definitely Zurui's turn to make the first move. Hopefully he would listen to the young Uchiha's advice and not go overboard...but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.

Zurui mumbled some form of agreement to Akihiro's words. He certainly didn't like to hear them, but he couldn't refute their logic. Reputation was everything in this line of work and since they'd not yet climbed to the top, they couldn't afford any negative counts against them. The Jounin moved along through the woods until he came upon another trail. There were tracks in the dirt, recent ones, reflecting people, horses, and carts. The caravan had already passed by this point, but they weren't that far ahead.

The Jounin started to follow the road, walking right down the middle of it without a care in the world. They didn't need to be secretive about this, especially with masks. Well, Zurui didn't since he was wearing a mask. He eventually came upon the little convoy and, once the guard tailing the troupe looked back his way, he gave a wave. "Sorry to bother you, but could I ask for your assistance in something?"

"Sure. What do you need?" The young warrior asked as Zurui continued to catch up to them. A brief silence passed as the Jounin closed the gap between them and punched the boy square in the face. "I'd like to steal all of your goods." The guard recoiled unexpectedly quick from the hit and retaliated with a punch. Zurui dodged and the guard drew his sword, taking a few steps back to put some distance between the two. "Run!" he told the rest of his entourage. The caravan suddenly picked up speed.

Zurui sighed and tried to move past the guard, but was cut off at every point. "You just have to make things difficult, don't you?" Said Zurui before spitting out a series of fireballs. It caught the guard, some of the merchants, nearly all of the laborers, and at least two of the carts on fire. The guard screamed and ran off into the woods trying to put himself out. The laborers worked furiously to first douse each other and then tend to the carts while the merchants either fainted and burned to death or took off into the woods.

Akihiro watched from the shadows while Zurui made his approach. The man said he was going to enjoy this and it certainly look like he intended to make that promise come true. Akihiro held back a chuckle as the first punch landed. How could one be so gullible towards a masked man's approach? Zurui's look was incredibly suspicious and yet the guy simply stood there asking what he needed. Akihiro made a mental note to remind himself of what happened to people who were too kind.

Zurui proceeded to fully attack the caravan with a mixture of swift moves and Katon jutsu. The young Uchiha couldn't help but be surprised every time the older Kirigakure ninja used elemental ninjutsu. Akihiro had been born with Fuuton affinity and had struggled over the years to master Katon. And yet here was this guy, using Doton to bury bodies, katon to burn them and fuuton to slash as if it were nothing. Not just that but Akihiro was certain that Zurui was a master of Raiton and Suiton as well. But those weren't as fun to use on a fleeing merchant caravan.

Akihiro jumped from a tree to the ground and cut off the path of a fat merchant who was trying to run away. A swift move and the merchant fell dead on the ground- he had lived a good life at least, it seemed. What followed was not much different from the previous caravan attack. Bloodshed, screams, burning goods and smoke. The only difference was that this time Akihiro let more than a few people escape.

Akihiro joined in on the fun and Zurui found that it was over way quicker than he would've liked. These caravans were no challenge at all, but that was honestly to be expected. This area had, up until this point, been considered rather secure. Gangs and bandits had more or less been dealt with and those that lingered could easily be handled by even untrained security. The real outlaw presence was elsewhere, towards Tanzaku or the Scarlet Region. Over there, shinobi protection was absolutely necessary; to not pay for that is to simply invite ne'er-do-wells to take all of your things and leave you stranded in the woods, often without even the clothes on your back and not a penny to your name. Out here, though, nothing hardly ever happened that a random Konoha patrol didn't catch or that wasn't immediately taken care of by some good hearted people.

The Jounin looked out into the woods at all the fleeing people. There didn’t really need to be that many left alive, right? He held out his hand, pointed a finger at one of the laborers, and fired a bolt of lightning that cut right through the man and struck the tree on the other side of him, charring his body around the wound and setting fire to his clothing. Zurui looked elsewhere, towards the guard that had so kindly stopped to help him and had not put out the flames about his body. Drawing a seal on his chest, Zurui found himself with a new burst of speed as he used the technique to rush upon the guard and fell him with one blow. It was over quickly, perhaps, but it was a successful test run for one of his new Fuuinjutsu.

Trained: Seal of Haste, C-Rank Custom, 298/200 WC

Akihiro merely stood there and watched as Zurui took down yet another man. The Kirigakure no Sato ninja really seemed to enjoy this sort of thing...Akihiro couldn't say he disliked it- after all it was easy money. But he looked at this activity more like a business. The important thing was to get the job done and get it done properly and as fast as possible. Everything else was just a bonus. This was why he didn't carry out more murders and instead let the merchants and civilians who survived escape. There was still a job to be done and going around killing people of a caravan that was already destroyed didn't put them any closer to their goals. Alas, he couldn't blame Zurui for wanting to have a bit of fun. While the man killed his final target, Akihiro glanced around for another survivor. They only needed one really... and one was what he found. It was a fat merchant (why were all these merchants so damn fat?) who Akihiro chased down and put a blade through his knee.

Between the screaming and noises the man made, Akihiro would place his hand over his mouth and speak."Listen to me. And listen well. You're going to tell me where the two other caravans from this company are heading. If I believe you, you get out of here without a knee. Otherwise you get out of here without a life. Choose." The choice was quite evident. Even if this man hadn't been a merchant all his life, he could have easily understood the advantage in taking this bargain. With a few words, he explained Akihiro the path the other two caravans were taking. The Uchiha nodded and sliced his throat with a quick movement. This man had seen his face from way too close. Then, from the wreck of one of the carts, Akihiro picked up a mask. Ironically, it represented a bird.

"Of course of course! It's just over the hill down that way, I swear! Next road over, through the trees, it left a little before us but it couldn't have gotten far!" A random laborer exclaimed as Zurui approached. It was enough to go on for their next target, and they'd likely be able to track down the final caravan from there, but that wasn't what Zurui had wanted to hear. The Jounin scribbled on his clothing. The symbol he drew was similar to the other one, but with a minor difference indicating a slightly different effect. When activated, the seal pushed energy through his body like the last one that he'd just deactivated, but now it was a different part of his muscular structure that was being affected.

The Jounin stepped on the man’s foot so as not to completely remove the man’s mobility. As Zurui increased the pressure, the laborer’s screams grew louder and louder. He kept yelling that he didn’t know where the other caravan was, started spouting random information that might be useful, but it wasn’t until the end that the Kiri-nin truly believed him. After crushing most of the bones in the man’s foot, Zurui started off towards the next one. His mind started to wonder if there was anything to that babble, to the thing called Nefarus.

Trained: Seal of Power, C-Rank Custom, 229/200 WC

Akihiro and Zurui followed the same direction towards their next target. The forest around them seemed to be growing darker and darker as the trees got denser and the sun found trouble passing through the leaves to reach the ground. Luckily it was still noon and the sun was shining brightly enough that they could see the way despite low light. Tracking down this caravan wasn't so hard, in fact, it was much easier. For some reason, the tracks of this group's carts were much heavier. Could they be carrying some sort of treasure? Akihiro could only hope so. After all, everything they managed to rob was theirs and he would never say no to a little extra money even if the mission did pay relatively well.

They kept following the tracks until they found the caravan resting uo at yet another rocky clearing where the dense forest gave way to a sudden large circle of rocky ground. It was quite the weird scenario, but the scenario wasn't what surprised Akihiro. "What the hell is that?!" Akihiro asked Zurui, completely shocked by the creature that several carts were carrying, bound in chains and which seemed to be sedated or asleep.

One look at the caravan gave Zurui immediate pause. This wasn't going to be anything like the other caravans. If they ran up and took out the people as they did before, they'd risk causing too much noise and waking the beast. If they set fire to the caravans, they may well anger it on top of setting it free. This would need much more care because a certain someone still didn't have a certain bloodline that would come very in handy for the second time now. Do you know how easy this mission would be if they could control that thing? Zurui knew. Do you remember how easy the rescue mission would've been if they could've controlled that wyrm? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

The Jounin sighed and weaved several hand seals. The only way to deal with something like that was to surround it in terrain that could easily be manipulated to their advantage, and that meant a change of scenery. So, naturally, Zurui dropped the whole area so deep into the earth that it was no longer visible, leaving only one person standing on the edge of a very, very long fall. With flick of the wrist, Zurui waved the man to go away, and so he fled. Now they needed to deal with whatever that thing down there was. Or, maybe they just walked, leave them all down there.

For a moment Akihiro was legit worried. He had not been planning on fighting a wyvern today. This was supposed to be a simple "murder a few civilians here and there" kind of job and not a god damned Monster Hunter mission. Alas, the thing was still asleep and this meant there was a chance they wouldn't have to fight it if only they played their cards right. Zurui seemed to have thought just the same, as he sunk the entire area into a hole leaving only a single man behind. Akihiro was surprised. Not at Zurui's Doton skills but at the fact that Zurui had actually let someone escape for a change. Akihiro could not help but wonder whether this was still the Zuruihe had been working on this mission with so far.

Either way, the man escaped and Akihiro wasn't going to go through the effort of chasing him down. Instead, he approached the edge of the hole and peeked down. A man saw him from below, and began to shout. "Heee-" he was suddenly interrupted by a fellow merchant, who covered the first man's mouth with his hand and with the ither hand pointed at the wyvern. The thing was snoring loudly. They *really* didn't want to wake it up. Akihiro looked at Zurui. Then back at the hole. Then back at Zurui. The young Uchiha shrugged, and kicked a large boulder down the hole, directly towards the wyvern's head.

The duo would leave that area with the memory of screams and the sweet scent of roasted pork.

The Jounin walked away. It was a cruel thing to do, leaving those men with a man eating monster, but hey, it wasn't his problem. The duo pressed on to seek out the other caravan. Unlike the others, they had absolutely no idea where this one was or even where it was going. All they is where it had come from, which gave them some idea, but there was going to be much legwork in hunting the thing down. They walked for some time without any hint of even a road and, for once, Zurui was at a loss for how to locate it. Thus far, they'd come across road after road with typically less than a kilometer separating them, but this time, they had walked and walked with nothing but trees and grass as far as the eye could see. The Jounin looked to the Chuunin, hoping for some idea of how to find beyond what the Kiri-nin had wanted to do from the beginning: burn the forest down.

Akihiro reluctantly followed Zurui during all of this time, hoping the man knew where he was going. Perhaps he had obtained some kind of information and that was why he had let the other guy escape? Either way, he seemed to be walking with much confidence, which led Akihiro to believe he could be trusted. Alas, the young Sparrow should have known better than to trust the navigation of a path which included trees to this man. Akihiro sighed. They were truly lost but it wasn't like they couldn't fo anything about it. "I'll figure out where we are." Akihiro stated, confidently. Looking around he picked the tallest tree and quickly climbed it up until he reached the tallest point. There he was above the entire forest and could see the smoke rising from the previous caravans they had defeated. Now all he had to do was calculate the most obvious path for the last caravan to take...considering these carts weren't crossing the same roads, it was easy to conclude they were part of the same company doing different runs toward different places. So that meant there was only one section of that particular territory that was left...

Akihiro quickly descended and signalled Zurui to follow him, heading towards the completely opposite direction from before.

Trusting in Akihiro's assessment, Zurui followed him through the forest and over the river, all the way until they'd finally caught the trail of the final caravan. It was much less a road than the others had been, so perhaps that's why they missed it, but there the unmistakable tracks of a caravan freshly lain upon the road. Zurui estimated that they had passed by that particular spot no more than 40 minutes prior and, given their pace, it would probably take the duo fifteen minutes to catch up.

So on they went along the road until they came across the caravan. As with the others, there were a few sparse guards, several merchants, and many laborers along with four ox-pulled carts. Zurui went to work, running up on the nearest guard, disabling him, stealing his weapon, and then slaughtering the rest.

This caravan was an easy job. Very much like the first few, this one carried actual goods instead of stupidly dangerous animals which would turn humans into roasted food when put in a hole with them. Alas, it seemed these merchants had enough common sense to not carry dangerous creatures, and yet not enough common sense to hire proper guards. It was...an odd interval in common sense. Not wanting to waste more chakra and also because at this point it didn't matter how many people escaped because he was wearing his mask, Akihiro ran around the area stabbing and slicing whoever was unlucky enough to cross his path. The whole battle (if it can even be called that) was over in only a few minutes, and then Akihiro and Zurui would find themselves standing next to yet another smoking pile of cart remains. This time they hadn't even set the thing on fire themselves, they just kinda...stabbed people and it happened. Weird huh? Either way the job was done. It was time to go to a the arranged meeting spot and collect their pay. This had been a good day of work in the life of a shady shinobi.

[Exit]