S-Rank: Bandits on the High Seas

Yet again there was a panic in the mist. Though this time the danger lurked in the water not the land. The ship of the bloodthirsty demon shark pirates had been spotted around the main island of the land of water. Thus far the pirates had not committed any acts of piracy, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time. That was why Nietzsche was not surprised when he was dispatched on an S-ranked mission to eliminate the pirates before they struck. Nietzsche did not have much experience in sailing so he hoped that he would be able to hitch a ride on a merchant ship, which would probably be the target of the pirates as the particular merchant ship was laden down with gold and supplies, making it a perfect target. Nietzsche himself had already been promised a healthy sum of ryo to compensate for his trouble so he didn’t see this mission as that hard. He would only be fighting a mangled group of pirates; how hard could they be? With hat thought in mind Nietzsche set out for the docks where he would meet up with the merchant vessel. Though he managed to get sidetracked before leaving the house, because he could not find his headband. Finally after turning his house upside down he found the headband in the most unlikely spots: on his lamp in his living room. With that cleared up he truly left for the harbor.

As he walked the streets he observed that in the market the fish vendors were no long selling fish or any seafood for that matter; were they afraid of the pirates as well? It was truly a sad state affairs thought Nietzsche. Was this group of pirates that bloodthirsty that they would kill fishermen; he rather doubted it, but the way people acted proved the contrary. Regardless the villager’s fear made Nietzsche want to finish these pirates even more. A cool mist hung around the harbor as Nietzsche approached it. The merchant ship he was looking for was rather easy to find due to it being the largest ship in the while harbor. As he approached it a gruff old man came up to him: “So you are Nietzsche I assume. I sincerely hope you are ready to fight back these pirates, because they will no doubt be after this ship.” Nietzsche still wasn’t clear on a few things so he inquired further: “So why are you so sure that the pirates will come after this ship?” The old man chuckled a bit: “Well we are hauling the largest treasure hoard this side of the continent. There is no self respecting pirate that would not come after this ship.” Nietzsche couldn’t help laughing a bit as he followed the old man on board the ship.

The ship itself felt like a floating fortress. Nietzsche wondered if it was even practical to attack such a behemoth. Then again from what he had heard thus far these pirates seemed pretty out of their minds. The ship had three large masts that stood like trees on the deck. From them hung various sails that Nietzsche assumed were being unfurled as he watched, because slowly they were billowing up. The wind caught the sails and started the ships slow voyage through the treacherous misty waters. Nietzsche sent to the prow of the oat and looked out into the water. It looked almost black and foreboding, but maybe it was his imagination. The ship was basically waiting to be attack Nietzsche could feel the tension in the crew as they worked. Undoubtedly they knew some of them would die this day, yet each man hoped it would not be him. Luckily the boat Nietzsche was on ha quite a few skilled ninja of their own so it would not be an outright slaughter. As the boat sailed on the crew and Nietzsche fell into a false sense of security. There had been no sign of the pirates and they had been sailing for three hours; maybe the crew was lucky.

Though the second the collective sigh of relief went through the crew a large wave impacted the port side of the giant boat. It had indeed been a large wave, because it was enough to rock the oat back and forth width. Then seemingly from underwater a ship rose. It was a ship so horrible that the very earth seemed to shutter at its presence. The ship was as large as the treasure hip and was covered in shark like scales. Quickly grappling hooks hit the deck of the treasure ship and men of all sorts started to climb from the pirate ship onto the treasure ship. Thinking quickly Nietzsche dashed to the port side and started battle with a few of the pirates who had boarded. These ones were not particularly skilled, but their battle styles differed so greatly from person to person that it was hard for Nietzsche to predict their movements. Though after downing four of the pirates he found that he had a small break between waves of attack. So he looked around to take stock of the situation. The upper deck of the treasure ship had turned into a battle field and really it seemed like anyone could win. The pirates had brute force and numbers, but the treasure ship guards had skill and experience. Nietzsche’s thoughts were interrupted by a pirate running at him rather clumsily with a spiked mace. Nietzsche easily sidestepped him and threw him over the edge; were these pirates for real? Sure they had a huge ship and all that, but their crew members sucked at fighting. Maybe these pirates were just pushovers.

Almost as a response to Nietzsche’s naïve thought bigger pirates started to come across. These ones were more attired like ninja and had an easily visible shark tattoo on the side of their neck. The first group of weak pirates must not have been truly part of the crew, because these new guys were stronger and put up much more of a fight plus they used jutsu. The battle was reaching a turning point as the merchant ship’s guards started to retreat below decks. Meanwhile Nietzsche was confronted by a man with blazing white hair much like his own. The man, a pirate, drew a two large swords and ran at Nietzsche, which struck him as rather odd-the pirate had left so many openings in his attack. Not really caring why a man would do such a thing Nietzsche swiftly drew his tanto and sliced at the man’s exposed belly. The blade went straight through the man quite cleanly in fact all that was left on Nietzsche’s blade was a bit of water. Looking behind him Nietzsche saw that the man was still standing, but how? The man flashed a toothy grin, which reminded Nietzsche of the killer he had combated not too long ago. The man yet again charged at Nietzsche this time the white haired man did not even bother to raise his two swords. As Nietzsche tried to ward him off he was surrounded by a sphere of water. Thinking quickly Nietzsche started using his breathing under water technique. Though he found that he could not move the man had become a water prison jutsu. Never before had Nietzsche seen a man who had that ability to change his body into water.

Nietzsche could only sit inside the water prison and watch as the treasure ships guards made blockades to keep the pirates out of the lower decks. From what he saw he was now the lone treasure ship guard above deck who was still alive. The second wave of pirates was unbelievable they had destroyed all defense and cleaned the deck of life in minutes. For now it seemed the pirates were waiting for something; maybe a signal of sorts, but Nietzsche did not know. For now he focused on the chakra within him and started to awaken his inner beast. All he needed was a burst of chakra to disrupt the water prison around him and he would be able to escape. Luckily the Bijuu within him complied for once and in an instant a burst of chakra was sent out and the water man who imprisoned Nietzsche blew into a thousand little water droplets. Knowing that it would draw attention Nietzsche transformed as quickly as possible into the water man he had seen. Though unfortunately no sooner had he transformed then the real water man reformed and stood next to him. Now was Nietzsche’s chance to sow the seeds of doubt among the crew or at the very least some discord among the pirates. Bellowing at th top of his lungs Nietzsche drew attention to the two of the them: “Hey! This guy has transformed into me get him!” The pirates started to gather round, but the real water man said nothing and only smirked. Pushing through the crowd was a large muscular man who wore a rather fancy hat.

The crew members gave the man a wide berth as he walked by: it seemed this was the captain and this was Nietzsche’s target. The captain looked at the two water men and simply smiled: “This will solve the mystery my men!” While saying that the captain drew a nunchaku a moved in a blur, that had Nietzsche not been ready, would have hit him. Instead the strike went straight though the water man and missed Nietzsche by inches as he jumped back and squared off against the hulk of a captain. The captain smiled: “So you are going to challenge me? At the very least drop your fake façade.” Nietzsche didn’t see any point in keeping up the transformation jutsu so he retuned to his normal state and looked the captain in the eye: “You, captain Zurui, will die today. Please remember my name for it is the last you will ever hear: Nietzsche Mizushima.” The captain and the whole crew broke out in a roaring laughter and then the through laughing fits the captain responded: “You really are a fool. Do you know what I am capable of? I don’t even need my crew to beat the likes of you. In fact why don’t you lot buzz off don’t we still have a treasure to get. I will take care of this boy personally.” The captain stepped forwards and his crew scattered towards the lower deck where the fighting had continued. The captain started spinning his nunchaku at an alarming rate. Nietzsche was not taking any chances with this man: he was going straight to all eight tails of his beast cloak. Hje felt the chakra surge through him and then the power followed. In fact it came so suddenly and quickly that Nietzsche was able to block the captain’s first barrage of attacks. The captain wore a face of surprise. He had clearly no idea what Nietzsche was. So Nietzsche smiled and figured he would give this man an education before he died: “I am the host of the mighty eight tails. You are truly nothing compared to me. So please give up now and die!” Nietzsche could feel the hate of the Hachibi building in him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind now; he was going to finish this captain with one blow; he was nothing to Nietzsche. He maybe powerful in terms of average ninja, but when pitted against the power of a tailed beast the captain would be a feeble child. An evil grin spread across Nietzsche’s face as the captain launch a flurry of chops and kicks, which Nietzsche merely dodged and laughed at. Now it was his turn. Nietzsche made a chakra arm shoot out of his chest and right after the captain’s nunchaku. The captain had no time to react whatsoever. His hand and weapon were crushed utterly and completely leaving a bloody stump in its place.

The captain let out a shout of pain, but behind the pain he shouted something release. All of a sudden the captain was keeping up with Nietzsche’s attacks and even blocking some of them. It must have been the release he yelled out, but Nietzsche had no idea what kind of release would allow a person to reach tailed beast levels so quickly. The captain was laughing again and in between laughs he yelled out: “This is the power of the eight gates. Even your small animal thing cannot not compare to the true power hidden inside every human!” The man captain released another gate was now outpacing Nietzsche at every turn. Nietzsche knew he could not allow the man to open anymore gates he could not allow him time to act. Nietzsche produced four arms of chakra that all came at the captain from every angle, but he merely brushed them aside like punches from a child. Nietzsche had had enough he wanted this man dead. Nietzsche shot a barrage of four water bullets and then followed them up with chakra arms in hopes of catching the captain off guard. And that was exactly what happened the captain jumped up to dodge the water bullets and then was caught by the two chakra arms. Nietzsche did not waste anytime lecturing him. He simply went right for the kill and crushed the man in between his chakra hands. He then threw the body overboard and deactivated his beast cloak. He would not need it to take down the rest of the crew.

Once Nietzsche went below deck a place of pure carnage came into view, but it seemed that the treasure guards had prevailed. Now all that remained was to get rid of the pirate’s bodies and blow the pirate’s ship to kingdom come. Nietzsche walked to the seal room where the crew kept a large amount of exploding tags in case of attack. He gather fifty of them and then went above deck. Using one of the grappling hooks that the pirates had boarded the treasure ship with Nietzsche climbed over to the pirate ship. The ship itself had a creepy aura about it. Nietzsche just wanted to get in and get out. He placed the tags all around the ship. He then retuned to the treasure ship and informed the captain of the treasure ship to set sail. As the pirate ship was left behind Nietzsche unleashed all fifty exploding tags and the ship was blown clear out of the water. There was no chance for anyone still aboard it. The shrapnel rained down in a half mile radius it was really quite impressive.

As he turned away from the exploding ship Nietzsche went over to talk to the old man he had talked to earlier that day. Now the old man had a nasty cut on his face. While Nietzsche talked he healed the cut with the mystical palm technique: “ So those pirates weren’t that bad were they old man?” The old man smiled: “Well that was only one grup of pirates there will always be more. That is the nature of the world. People will always want to become rich quick. So if you have money you should watch out, because people will be after it.” The Old man then looked out into the bay. The ship had been sailing for twelve hours now and they had just now arrived in the land of lighting. Slowly the wounded ship came into dock. The damage sustained by the pirates had been fairly major and left the ship with only one mast. Luckily Nietzsche did not have to stay with the boat till it was repaired: he had done his job the captain was dead and the ship nonexistent. All that remained to be done was retuned to the land of water and report back to the mission command.

Though it would seem that Nietzsche had to wait for the small boat rerunning to the Mist to get resupplied. So to kill the time Nietzsche went to the local fish market. As he walked through the streets his lungs were filled with the crisp sea air. Surprisingly the fish here seemed even bigger than the ones usually brought in the land of water. Nietzsche had never been to the land of lighting before, thought technically he was not in as he had no gone through customs. Nietzsche longed to travel more he felt very confined in the Mist, but he still adored it; it was truly a sad state of affairs. The only time he had left the Mist was on missions. Never had just gone around to see the sights. After he got back from the current mission he planned on visiting the leaf or something. He stopped to watch some men throwing fish back and for width. It was amusing for a while until they dropped it once or twice. Then Nietzsche moved on he had had enough of the fish market so he retuned to the small ship that was now ready to set sail back to the mist.

The skipper on the small vessel was anice young man who looked to be only a few years older than Nietzsche, which he found interesting. Nietzsche had never known anyone who was not a ninja. Whil on the ship the two boys conversed about the ascpects of sailing. Nietzsche even got a chance to captain the ship for a sjhort while before he almost shipwrecked it. At which point the blond boy took control and steered the boat back on course. This was the freedom of the sea Nietzsche thought. This was why the pirates did what they did; not only for the riches, but for the freedom to go where they wished and do what they wanted. Nietzsche took his leave of the young skipper and went to take a short nap, because now that he was not moving a round a large wave of fatigue washed over him and he felt very tired. As he drifted off to sleep his thoughts retuned to the captain he had killed: he had been another man who could stand up to the tailed beast cloak.

When Nietzsche awoke he knew that they were near the village hidden in the Mist, because the water was hidden by the mist that hung over it. As he looked down into the misty surface of the water he saw fish swim by in the shallows. He assumed the boat was just coming into port, because he could hear a commotion coming from the shore, which he assumed was the hustle and bustle of the harbor. Looking up from his bed confirmed his assumption the ship was being expertly guided into a slip. It had been a long two days and Nietzsche was tired. Once the boat had docked Nietzsche departed and took the long road back to the main village. He passed by a group of fishermen who were heading back out to sea to get some product for the market the next day. People got back to their regular lives so easily. It had been only yesterday that the fishermen had been too scared to go out fishing, but no with the threat gone they left the shore in droves. Nietzsche couldn’t help flashing a smile. He had done it: rid the world of yet another threat to the mist. Now all he wanted to do was take a nice long nap. He sleepily waved at the guards at the gate and then made his way home. He decided against reporting back to mission command, because he feared that he would collapse from fatigue while being debriefed. For now the Mission command could believe that he was still on his way back from the mission. As he pulled open his door Nietzsche was greeted by the familiar smell of sea salt that seemed to always hang around his house. Instead of stopping for dinner Nietzsche went straight to bed. He really didn’t care if he had slept not two hours ago; he was still tired. As he fell into the land of dreams his mind was fixated on the good people he had seen die that day. He wondered how many of those pirates or treasure ship guards had a family at home who would never see them again. It made him remember his parent’s tragic death on a mission. He recalled the sorrow and the dark thoughts that pervaded is mind during those days. He wondered if it was worth it to really continue to kill people indiscriminately. Before he fell into a deep sleep he resolved that he would not take anymore elimination missions unless he really needed to otherwise he preferred to avoid killing more people than necessary. Allowing his mind to be at peace he finally fell into a restful sleep. (3510/3500, S rank mission done )

Approved, +3,000Ryo, +12JP.