Getting out of the House

Spoiler:

Akame had been assigned a basic mission to aid in getting her back up to snuff from her long nap. This mission was a simple guard mission where she had to protect a small caravan as it made its way to the border. It was supposedly a rich man, and so it was decided Akame would be sent to ensure future business with the man. She wore black pants that were slightly loose around her legs to allow for better movement while also keeping her warm in the elements of the Land of Lightning. For the same reason she wore boots, with a black top that had long sleeves on her upper body. A flak jacket rested over this, and finally a travelling cloak with a hood was draped over her shoulders.

Two swords were on her hips, the one on the left of a very fine quality while the one on the right was... well, it could get the job done if necessary. These were the only tools she had on her person barring the fuuinjutsu tattoo on her skin. She showed up to the predetermined meeting place, a small village near Kumogakure that he had set up himself and which had a few guards permanently stationed there. He needed to get to the border of the Land of Frost, where Frost shinobi would escort him to the Land of Fire. The merchant had two wagons laden with goods he had bought in the Land of Lightning and was eager to get to the Land of Fire. Apparently he was a Land of Water native, but decided he didn't like ships and made his way to the Land of Lightning instead. Akame didn't particularly care.

When she got to the entrance of the village, the two guards let her in. They had been expecting her after all. She made her way to the center of the village where the man was having a couple of the villagers finish securing things and the wagon drivers were climbing into their seats. The merchant himself was riding inside a carriage though he had yet to enter it yet. Akame approach, nodding her head in respect to the man.

"Greetings, sir. I was sent from Kumogakure to guard you as you made your way to the border," she said formally.

He looked at her skeptically. "They sent you? Just... you?"

Akame nodded. "This is a C rank mission according to our scale. Typically I do B rank and higher missions. Alone." The last word was punctuated slightly, hinting at what she meant by that. The merchant raised an eyebrow, seeming to get her hint.

"I... I see. Well, then I'll leave it to you then." He turned to get into his carriage, the party getting ready to depart soon. "Oh yes," he said again, turning to face her before continuing. "What was your name again?"

"You may call me Yuna." He nodded, continuing into the carriage. Five minutes later, the party had departed the village. Akame created two shadow clones, one to guard each wagon and herself guarding the merchant. The goods were not the primary target of her mission, the merchant was, so he got her real body. She sat atop the carriage in a meditative position. Her eyes were closed, sensory abilities active. The clones squatted atop their wagons as well, facing opposite directions at all times to gain the best combined vantage that they could. It would be difficult to surprise this caravan, that was for sure.

The trip was relatively uneventful for the first day. The caravan moved slowly due to the wagons having limited mobility. Akame maintained her clones for the entire trip throughout the day, the effort in doing so negligible to one like herself with enough stamina to go days without needing rest if the need arose. Nobody was foolish enough to attack an obviously guarded caravan in broad daylight though, something which made Akame get a weird feeling. Something was going to happen that night, she could feel it. Her gut told her so.

That, and she had picked up a couple signatures around three in the afternoon that day trailing behind them. Then they had gone around, utilizing the terrain to stay out of sight until they got out of her sensory range. Definitely a scouting party of some sort. If they knew the area well, which was likely, then they would be able to get ahead of the caravan on foot to try and either set up an ambush for the next day or possibly launch a night raid. Akame hadn't given any hints that she had noticed their presence whenever they were near enough for her to sense, opting to let things play out rather than abandon the caravan to go hunting what could also be a decoy.

Once dusk fell, Akame insisted on the caravan stopping and setting up for the night on the side of the road. Moving at night with what she knew seemed like a bad idea, and as they were setting up she warned the drivers as well as her client that there was the possibility of an attack tonight or tomorrow. He didn't question that, apparently expecting it to happen at some point. Once the caravan was stopped and set up, the two clones and the real Akame set up a couple guard posts. One by the two wagons, one by the carriage carrying the merchant, and then a third one up the road along the direction they had been traveling. This one was the real Akame, squatting silently next to the road with her sensory skill active. She waited there for over an hour, wondering if she should change locations when something caught her attention. There were a handful of signatures approaching the caravan from the road ahead, and one of them was a signature she recognized from earlier. Looks like there would be very little sleep gotten tonight.

In total she sensed five signatures, three coming from the road ahead and one to each side a few dozen meters out. These last two she detected later, their different angle causing them to enter her sensory range at a different point from their three companions. Akame squatted as low as she could, ebony blade drawn. Her dark clothing, hair, eyes, and sword blended into the darkness of light. Her head was dropped so low in her squat that it was between her knees, blade at her side.

Quiet as an owl in flight, Akame patiently waited for the three people to move past her. They passed within three meters of the ANBU, her breathing controlled and silent. Once they had moved past her about two meters she would pounce. Akame was, when push came to shove, an assassin. There were few situations where she would fail to kill her target when she got the drop on them, most of which involve some very big shenanigans that generally indicated shit was going to go south quick.

That didn't happen here.

Instead, Akame's ebony blade would slice through the closest man's spine where it transitioned into his neck. Before he had hit the ground she had stabbed the second man through the heart from behind and pulled the blade free to strike the third man down. He had begun to turn, startled as his two friends dropped to the ground. Neither made a shout, their bodies going into shock as their minds processed just how badly they had been wounded in such a short span of time.

The third man's mouth opened to let out a scream but Akame's slash took that head off, her left foot coming up to kick the body to the side of the road before it could stain it any more than these two were already going to. The first man had begun to whimper, but Akame put him out of his misery by stabbing him through the brain stem from behind. The man who had been stabbed in the heart had already stopped moving, his body shutting down quickly once his most vital organ had been so irreparably damaged. Akame quickly moved the corpses to the side of the road, not too worried about digging graves or anything. They had been armed with swords, though none of them had known how to use one apparently. When their bodies were discovered, this caravan would be long gone and nobody would have any idea just what had happened. Once they were moved, Akame would turn her attention to one of the other targets and started to move that direction carefully. Quietly. She intended to take this one from behind too.

Akame sneaked up on her next target, being sure to stay quiet as she maneuvered around the rough terrain to get behind him as he made his way towards the caravan. The caravan was about sixty meters away from where he was, giving Akame enough time to take him out before moving on to the last would be robber and leaving the rest of her party none the wiser. This guy hadn't detected her sneaking up behind him it seemed, something that disappointed her slightly.

No time was wasted on her part as she snapped herself forwards once she had gotten within close enough range for a dash and strike. Incredibly, the man slipped on a loose rock and staggered forwards. Akame's sword slash found open air as it passed above his head no more than a couple inches rather than taking his head. The ANBU was a little stunned at the silliness of the scenario, the man jumping in surprise at her sudden appearance and staggering back. He barely managed to keep his sword in front of him and it was now shaking as it got through his head that he hadn't even come close to detecting her.

He began to say something but Akame cut him off with a sudden series of five strikes in quick succession. To his credit, he managed to block the first two but the third one robbed him of the use of his right leg. The fourth took his right arm, and the fifth took his head. Akame snapped her blade, flicking the excess blood from the edge of the ebony blade as she turned and made her way towards her final target for the night. Tonight was a night of blood and practice for her, it seemed. These men so far had not posed any real threat to her just as the rest would likely prove to be on this mission.

Akame was a whisper on the wind as she ran over the road, approaching her final target as he closed in on the caravan. The poor man had no idea that the plan he and his comrades had come up with was in complete shambles now considering four out of the five were now dead, their corpses left for the buzzards. Akame had very little tolerance for petty thievery and murder. Funny, considering her line of work, but murdering people who did terrible things and murdering people just traveling on the road or trying to make a living was something else entirely. The former was distasteful but necessary in the long run while the latter was just cruel and barbaric. Killing for no reason other than for a bit of wealth was the epitome of selfish to the ANBU.

This man was a bit more aware it seemed, and he had been the one coming up from behind the caravan. Akame's eyes narrowed as she approached, sensing the man tense as she got to five meters. Before she could get in a strike he would spin around with his sword in a defensive position. Akame thought that the stance he chose was reminiscent of the samurai from the Land of Iron. A mercenary, perhaps? No, more than likely a rogue who decided their sword could be put to a more dishonorable task. Akame did not acknowledge the stance as she approached, a reaper in the night.

Her ebony blade flashed, caught by the samurai's block. He made his own counter though it was slow by comparison to her movements. Akame ducked under the blow and made a low cut at his knee. The man pulled back, swapping his stance and trying to bring his sword down on her head. Akame rolled out of the way and sprang to her feet in the man's direction. She feinted a strike for his legs that he attempted to block. A twist of her wrist and a sudden shift in direction allowed her to snap her blade up to sheer off the man's hands. His sword clattered to the ground, his eyes staring at the stumps of his arms, stunned. Akame didn't let him make a single noise, taking his head with one strike. When he fell, she would wipe her blade on his clothing before sheathing it and returning to her post.

Akame remained alert the remainder of the night. Thankfully there were no more issues. The rest of the night passed by quietly, with only the occasional noise from the few animals living nearby breaking the silence of the night. Well, that and the light snoring of the merchant as he lay sprawled in his carriage. Akame had shared what had transpired with her clones. Neither of them had made to move and assist the real Akame, staying at their posts until those posts were put under direct danger. With her moving around, acting as the enforcer of peace there hadn't been much reason for the clones to fear that their positions would be compromised. This was a tactic she liked to use when something required more than one shinobi but she didn't trust anybody else to do the task. Better an Akame with only a portion of chakra than someone she didn't fully know who might fuck it up. At least, that's how she thought of it.

Once dawn had come the merchant and his drivers were up and about. The drivers were preparing the wagons and the carriage for travel, loading up bedding and feeding the horse and the like. Akame and her clones stood nearby, making sure nobody with any foul intentions could do anything to them. A couple wagons passed them going back into the Land of Lightning from the Land of Frost. One had stopped, the driver commenting that he had seen some corpses along the side of the road up ahead and that this group should probably be careful. Akame had been sure to thank the driver for the information. Inside she gave a wry chuckle in response to the man's warning. Yes, there was definitely something out there than people had to look out for. The thing was, her group weren't the people that needed to look. Soon the caravan was off again, Akame and her clones taking up their original positions atop the carriage and the wagons for their vantage.

About two hours into the start of their journey on the second day, Akame sensed a couple chakra signatures up ahead. She glanced towards their spots, noting that there were a few low cliffs and boulders that would make good vantage points for anybody with a bow or some other form of ranged weaponry. Akame made a few hand gestures for her clones to see and interpret. They made no sign that they had seen her motions but Akame knew that her clones had. They likely already knew what they needed to do but Akame was in the habit of doing such things.

Non-verbal communication was a key part of the job of an ANBU. Being as quiet and stealthy as humanly possible was the goal for one of her rank, so talking to each other in the middle of a mission was generally not how things were done. At least, not in Kumogakure. Perhaps the ANBU in other villages liked to giver themselves away easily, but Kumogakure trained her shinobi right.

Akame guessed right, with the two signatures popping up from behind cover on opposite sides of the road. Each had a bow and each was aiming at the wagons rather than the carriage. So they were after the loot then instead of a potential ransom. That made life a lot easier. The Akame clones reacted swiftly to the appearance of the archers. They fired their arrows quickly, each trying to kill the guard atop their targets. Akame sense three more signatures appear at the edge of her sensing skills ahead, moving their way quickly. The hill prevented her from seeing them approach, but it seemed to her like they were on horseback.

One archer managed to graze the cheek of one of her clones, the wound being too insignificant to disperse the clone. The other archer missed, the arrow hitting the top of the wagon rather than the clone. Each clone moved quickly, leaping from the caravan towards the two archers. Akame focused on the road ahead of her, waiting for the cavalry to get there before she cut their legs from under them. Akame didn't know what happened with the archers, but once her clones had moved their chakra signatures quickly disappeared. Quick deaths, and they likely hadn't even fought back. Archers weren't very good in a melee, generally.

The real Akame dashed ahead, activating her Harmony technique at maximum power briefly. The ANBU met the three men who were indeed on horseback at the crest of the hill. She had moved to the side and, when the horses were lined up properly, performed a Zantetsuken strike with blinding speed and power that cut the heads off the horses all in a straight line. She couldn't have done that with her other weapon, but this one? It was a beauty, and she intended to get more like it very soon.

No screams came from the horses, but their riders did shout in shock as they suddenly plummeted towards the ground and went sprawling. One of them was killed instantly when the corpse of his horse flipped and crushed his chest. The amount of blood that man coughed out of his mouth was horrifying, to be honest. Akame's clones were making their way towards her when she turned and casually took the heads of the other two men as they attempted to stagger to their feet. In less than two minutes, the entire ambush had been eliminated.

When the clones got there, they would aid Akame in dragging the bodies to the side of the road. There, she would start a fire with a match to burn the corpses of the men and the horses. The road was barren here, and the bonfire would be a good way to let any other bandits on this god forsaken road know that she was not the person to fuck with. This caravan was going to get to the border, and there likely wasn't a single bandit gang alive that could stop Akame from making that a true statement. Not anymore, at least. The three then returned to the caravan, which had stopped to wait for them, and continued on their merry way. The drivers seemed a bit stunned at the ferocity and ruthlessness Akame displayed, avoiding looking at her as they had been doing the first day. Seeing so much death in such a short time was not something that happened very often.

The second night went very well, with no bandits or other generic bad guys coming out of the woodworks to bother them. Akame still didn't sleep, opting to keep watch again. They had only a few hours travel in the morning before they got to the border, at which point she would likely head back to the village and fall asleep there. The morning of the third day, the merchant approached Akame before she got atop his carriage. He gave a brief smile before continuing.

"I just wanted to thank you for defending us so, um... effectively... against all of those bandits. I don't think I've seen anything quite like that yet, and I've hired a few Kumogakure squads before."

Akame gave a nod. "It's not a problem, sir. Glad to be of use." With that, she would hop up on top of the carriage and await the rest of the caravan as they readied themselves. Eventually they would get going on the last leg of the journey, the drivers appearing somewhat eager to get away from the assassin in their midst. Akame sensed nothing fishy throughout the morning, the locals apparently having learned their lesson after two groups wound up massacred attacking this particular caravan. Once they got to the border, Akame would dismiss her clones and shake hands with the Frost shinobi. The merchant would greet them, the drivers eagerly crossing the border. The Frost shinobi looked curiously at the caravan, then back at Akame.

"Kumogakure sent only you?"

Akame just smiled before turning around and beginning her way back to Kumogakure. She had no obligation to answer those men, and she wanted paid. She was going to need every dime she could get to fulfill her plan on trying to infiltrate the Society, and there were many more missions to be done back at home.




[exit]