S-Rank Mission: Keepin the peace

Nietzsche awoke to the sweet sound of birds coming through the windows. It was odd for the Mist. Usually the birds remained quiet or just weren’t around. Nietzsche hoped that it would be a good omen for the rest of the day. The Mission command had been overloading him with missions lately and generally he was getting tired. In fact the past couple missions had taken an especially large toll on him. The first one he had to kill a man who found it fun to kill citizens of the mist, which challenged him both physically and psychologically. The second one was a mission to steal some intelligence from the village hidden in the rock, which had been a close call after he almost got killed by someone from the nara clan. Most recently he had been on a mission to pursue and kill a pirate captain and destroy his ship, which had been complicated by a man who could transform into water. Nietzsche had grown tired of all the killing. He knew that if another mission came he would have to accept it, but he would be rather reluctant to go on another killing mission; it seemed to him that there had been far too much blood flow and death by his hand. With these thoughts weighing on his mind Nietzsche pulled himself out of bed and pulled on his shirt and then his pants. He then tied his hair back, because lately it had grown rather long.

As he walked over to his kitchen he still heard the birds coming from his backyard. Nietzsche put on some tea to boil while he walked out into his backyard. He pulled some weeds from his herb garden. Lately the weeds had been encroaching upon Nietzsche’s prized herb garden and had managed to kill off a rosemary plant and because of the constant missions he had been sent on. It was calming for Nietzsche to just sit and tend to his garden. It made him feel removed form the real world and all its strife and commotion. Standing up from his garden Nietzsche went back inside to check on his tea. Sure enough it was going at a steady boil. He poured then poured the water into a small cup and placed the orange flavored tea bag in the boiling water. Nietzsche watched as the flavoring slowly saturated and after a minute or so of waiting he took a sip. It tasted wonderful; Nietzsche wished that all days could be like this-waking up and gardening then drinking a cup of tea without a care in the world. Laughing in spite of himself Nietzsche felt like an old man.

Feeling rather restless Nietzsche decided to go for a short walk around the village. He pulled on his jacket as it was slightly cold outside and strode out into the Mist masked streets. There were a few people milling about here and there. All in all the village seemed peaceful. Taking a detour on his loop around the city Nietzsche went to the heart of the city and walked through the marketplace. While there he picked up a fillet of fish and some fresh fruit. One thing about the Mist Nietzsche loved was the fresh seafood that the merchants brought in everyday. After buying all his groceries Nietzsche made his way lazily back to his house. It seemed like today was going to be a lazy day. That was until he saw the note on his door. It was pinned up there with a kunai. It was a direct order from the mission command and read as follows:

Nietzsche Mizushima Jounin of the Mist,
You are commanded to report to the mission command for an S-rank mission. Oh and sorry about the door.

Nietzsche’s day had just gotten about a hundred times worse. Yet another mission; it was really getting tiring, but he had to report. He quickly went inside and gathered his ninja tools and made sure to put away his groceries. He then set out to the mission command.

This time as he left his house he locked his door and had more serious air about him. He was now on a mission, which meant he had to be serious or he could very well die. Whatever the mission was he knew it would be challenging. He had not read anything in the newspaper regarding any major happening so either it would be top secret mission or it would have just recently developed. Either way to earn an S-Rank rating Nietzsche knew that it would be life threatening.

Slowly he wandered into the mission command he did not really want to draw attention to himself. He had become rather famous around the mission command and some of the chuunins had started a habit of keeping track of Nietzsche’s missions. It was rather annoying really. So in turn Nietzsche attempted to avoid much fanfare by sneaking into the mission command. So as he snuck into the window he was greeted by an ANBU operative. The ANBU wore a rhino mask and he turned quickly and started addressing Nietzsche: “Ok listen and listen well Nietzsche. Your mission is simple: recently a group of underwater village settlers had sent out a raids against out fisheries. They have stolen countless pieces of property and caused thousands of ryo in damages. So naturally we sent some operatives to protect these fisheries. Though those operatives have disappeared over the past few days. Our investigative squad has found evidence that these men were taken down by large summons. Your job is to get the underwater village settlers to move back and find if the attacks by the large summons are somehow related to them. That is about all the information I can provide the rest you will have to figure out yourself good luck. Oh and by the way I suggest using the back exit your Chuunin fan club is waiting out front.” With a laugh the ANBU flickered out the window himself to attend to another mission. Nietzsche sighed it seemed like this mission would be more or less a bunch of fighting unless he could turn it into a diplomatic mission, which he would prefer. Either way he went down a flight of stairs and snuck out the back door effectively avoiding his “chuunin fans”.

As he walked down the street away from the mission command he pondered where to begin. It was mid morning so Nietzsche had two options: go and talk with the underwater village settlers or investigate the large summons. He figured that there would be no real point in searching for the summons as of yet they had only attacked in the night and Nietzsche did not have much to go on so he decided to go work things out with the underwater villagers. As he walked to the town gates the sun shone down; it was rather rare to see the sun much in the morning. Usually it was hidden by and overcast sky and mist. Nietzsche took it as a good omen. Once he reached the city gates he checked out with the gate guards; they had been rather strict lately. Nietzsche wondered if they knew something he did not. Being only a Jounin he was not very connected politically nor did he pay much attention to politics. Regardless the guards knew more than what they let on-maybe there was unrest brewing or a strong missing nin was on the loose. For now Nietzsche could care less he had things to do. So with a wave back to the guards he departed for the shore line where the underwater village settlement was supposedly stationed.

The walk down to the settlement was rather long. Nietzsche half considered going into tiled beast mode to get there faster, but he thought better of it. What would the settlers do if they saw a man cloaked in an evil chakra approaching them at high speed? Probably nothing good so instead Nietzsche took to walking down the small rural road to the sea side. The settlers had chosen the hardest place to access out of all the beaches on the island of water. It was rather irksome, because the path took so many twists and turns that it began to feel like the road would take forever to walk down. While he walked down the path he felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. He used to walk down these paths as a small child with his parents.

It felt like such a long time ago; he was only seven. His parents had taken him on a trip to the sea side. While they had walked there his mother would sing sweet song that sounded like birds singing from the sky. As he walked now he could faintly hear the song in the back of his mind. Nietzsche returned to reality and found himself whistling the tune to the song his mother always sang. Had he not been hardened by ninja training 101 he would have been crying a bit, but in his mind he was overtaken by grief. So far he had done so well to forget his parents death, but walking down the same path he once did with them brought his emotions to the forefront. Shaking his head a bit he cleared his mind; he needed to stay focused, because the underwater villagers could very well be hostile. As he neared the sea shore the smell of salt filled Nietzsche’s lungs. It was familiar smell, which comforted him. He would soon be arriving in the settlement. The entrance to the settlement was supposedly over a sand dune, which blocked it from view from where Nietzsche stood in the forest.

Slowly Nietzsche climbed the sand dune with some effort, because once or twice the sand slipped beneath him and caused him to fall to the bottom again. Once he summited the tall dune Nietzsche stood atop it with complete and utter shock in his eyes. The scene lay before him was one of complete chaos and destruction. The small settlement lay there was in shambles. A steady column of smoke was coming off the main building in the center of the settlement. Nietzsche was surprised that he had not noticed it earlier. Staying on his guard Nietzsche walked down toward the ruins. The smell of death was in the air, which struck Nietzsche as odd: weren’t the underwater village settlers supposed to be the ones causing destruction? Something fishy was happening yet Nietzsche did not know what as of yet what is was.

As he walked through the ruins he saw some charred bodies. The smell of burning flesh was almost made Nietzsche throw up. All his ninja training could not have prepared him for what he saw. He started in horror and wondered how a person could do such a thing to another person. Pushing past his disgust Nietzsche stooped down and investigated one of the bodies. Upon looking closer Nietzsche found that the body had headband wrapped around it’s head. He gingerly pulled it off the corpse attempting to avoid touching the scorched skin of the body. The headband was rather scorched so it made it hard to make out symbol emblazoned on it. Holding it up to the light Nietzsche could still not make it out. Sighing he begrudgingly rubbed at the headband’s metal plate with his sleeve. The headband left some soot on Nietzsche’s sleeve, but that didn’t matter the symbol on the plate was now revealed: it was that of the underwater village. Nietzsche judged that the bodies had been here for at least four days, which made no sense.

The Underwater village attack’s had only just happened in the past two nights. So it could not have been the underwater village that had attacked the fisheries. Something didn’t match up. The raids had been confirmed to be by underwater ninja, but the proof here proved that it was impossible for them to have, unless there was someone or something that was making it seem like the underwater village was attacking the Mist, but who or what? Nietzsche needed answers, but he obviously wasn’t going to find them here; the place was a ghost town. He took one more round around the village looking for any clues as to who destroyed the settlement. As he was about to leave he heard a slight cry from a burned down hut that was situated on the outskirts of the settlement. It sounded like a wounded animal. Going to investigate Nietzsche found a small boy. The kid was missing a left arm and his legs seemed broken. Worried Nietzsche knelt down and picked up the kid. He quickly closed the wound in the arm. There was no sign of the arm anywhere and boy fell unconscious. Nietzsche assumed the boy was part of the underwater village. He knew that he could not help the boy any further out here in the wilderness. So he threw the boy over his shoulder and started running back to the village; he needed to report this to the mission command and get this boy to the hospital. Luckily the boy was small and did not weigh much he must have only been about ten years old.

Instead of taking the long winding path back to the village Nietzsche took a more direct route. He had no need to worry about startling anyone. This time he body flickered from tree to tree. As he went on his way the once sunny day started to turn cloudy. Once the village came into view the sky opened up and the heaven began to cry. At first the drops came down slowly then they started to pelt down in increasing numbers; it turned into a downpour. He reached the gate and didn’t bother checking in with the guards he didn’t have time. He had to get the boy to the infirmary and report back. Calling on all the speed he had he made it to the hospital in record time and dropped off the boy there. After checking the boy in Nietzsche flickered off to the mission command.

Unfortunately this time he did not really have his wits about him and he walked right into his little “fan club”. Instead of trying to think of an excuse to answer all their questions he just pushed through them and into the ANBU captain’s office he had talked to earlier. When he burst in he found the ANBU captain napping, which Nietzsche found rather odd and almost decided not to wake, but he recalled the situation so he shook the ANBU captain awake. The ANBU woke with a start and Nietzsche found himself on the ground with a knife to his throat; these ANBU were good, even when they were caught off guard they made up for it with pure skill and reflexes. Nietzsche envied their abilities, because he himself had never had very good reflexes. The ANBU captain lowered his blade from Nietzsche’s neck and seemed to be still waking up. So Nietzsche chose to prompt him a bit: “Uh, Sir? I am here to report back regarding my mission.” The ANBU captain’s eyes shot open, or at least Nietzsche saw something move behind the captains mask. The captain then responded: “Ah yes, sorry about that…old habits die hard. Too much time fighting for my life, but I digress. What is it you wished to report?” Nietzsche was not really sure what action the ANBU captain had seen, but he assumed it must have been rather horrific to make him ready to kill before he was even awake. He chose his words wisely, because the captain did not seem to be in a very good mood: “Well, sir, it seems that the underwater settlers are not behind the attacks. I found their settlement to the ground. Most everyone in it was dead save for a little boy who I found; he is now in the hospital. That is my report and I will now be going to question the boy I found.” The ANBU captain nodded and sent Nietzsche out. As Nietzsche left he made sure to take the back exit again as he did not want another encounter with his “fans”.
Pushing open the back door Nietzsche stepped out into the rain. It was now late afternoon and Nietzsche knew he should go be on guard for the large summons, but he had to question the boy first. So he made a beeline for the hospital. Once there he signed in and went to the boys room. When he entered he saw the boy laying down in a cot next to the open window. The boy was conscious and he seemed to be listening to the quiet pitter patter of the rain. The room itself smell of disinfectant, which was a smell Nietzsche adored. It was one of his odd quirks. Sliding the door shut behind him Nietzsche walked over to the boy. The boy did not notice Nietzsche he seemed too concentrated on the rain. The boy jumped a bit when Nietzsche talked: “Excuse me? My name is Nietzsche. I was the one who brought you here. May I ask your name?” The boy kept his gaze out the window, but stared talking: “My name is Arata Mitzuki. I am from the underwater village. Where am I? Were is my family?” The boy’s voice was hardly audible above the rain outside. Not, because the rain was loud, but because the boy’s voice was so weak. Nietzsche took a moment to think about how to break the news to Arata: “Well Arata you are now in the hospital of the hidden Mist village. I am sorry to have to tell you this, but your parents are probably dead. I managed to save you from your ruined settlement and I found no one else alive.” Nietzsche watched the small boy’s head jerk around. Arata’s blue eyes were welling with tears. For a while he just cried. Nietzsche sat there rather helpless; he had no idea how to comfort the kid. So he sat there for a few minutes until the kids sorrow died down at which point he continued his questioning: “I am here to help I only want to find out what did that to your settlement can you remember anything?” Arata closed his eye; it looked like it pained him to think about it and after a minute he spoke: “We had only just set up our own small village. I was told that we were going to join the Mist. My family had been exiled from the underwater village. We had just finished setting up our small temporary hut when it came from the sea. It looked like a squid or something, but it had eight eyes. Then a crab a giant crab came up from the depths. They destroyed the village. That’s all I remember. Now can you please leave me alone?” Nietzsche smiled and nodded. He then got up and filed out of the room making sure to close the door firmly behind him.

Nietzsche’s mind was swimming with thoughts as he left the hospital. So it seemed like large sea creature were coming after the sea. They could not be doing it of their own accord there had to be a summoner or summoners, which was more likely, because Nietzsche doubted one person could have so many S rank summons out at one time without dying from chakra overuse. All that remained was to catch the attacker in the act and defeat them. Nietzsche had a notion of who was attacking the shore now. It was not a solid theory, but it was the only one he had. As he walked through the rain-drenched streets towards the fisheries he evaluated what he believed to be the truth. The group of underwater ninja who had their settlement destroyed had been attempting to defect to the Mist. So it only made sense that the Underwater village would retaliate and attempt to stop them to protect the underwater village’s secrets. The only part that the theory did not account for was why the large summons were attacking Mist village fisheries. That was why Nietzsche was going to the fisheries: to catch the culprit and confirm his theory. The trip down to the fisheries was uneventful. All that happened was that the rain abated and a cool yet eerie mist fell over the land.

Once Nietzsche arrived at the fishery he was greeted by the owner who was wield a large pitchfork, which Nietzsche doubted would doing anything, but at least he was tenacious Nietzsche thought. The owner had a clear markers of stress and fear in his voice when he greeted Nietzsche: “You must be the Shinobi who is going to save my livelihood. L-l-listen I have seen ripples in the water. They are unnaturally large. I just know they are down there just waiting to come and wreak havoc on my home and family. Please save us.” Nietzsche smiled and responded confidently: “Don’t worry that’s why I’m here. Now show me where you have been seeing those ripples.” The owner showed him to the water and sure enough there were large ripples that were slowly moving toward land. Nietzsche told the owner to get back in the house and stay safe. For now the ripples stayed at bay. Nietzsche was not too eager to go into the water after the large summons; into their home where they would have an advantage. So for now he would just wait out the monsters. Sooner or later they were bound to come out and at that point Nietzsche would be ready.

Time slipped as if by magic. The mist had lifted and it was replaced by silver moonlight. Still Nietzsche sat cross legged on the beach. The ripples had been getting closer all night as if the creatures making them were slowly stalking their prey. Then it happened in a flash. A large pincer rose from the depths and came down on the spot where Nietzsche once sat. he had evaded the attack and now activated the first six tails of his tailed beast cloak. The power that filled him was immense. From within the Bijuu roared as if it could tell battle was imminent. Nietzsche could feel the bloodlust of the beast within him growing. While that was happening the form of a large crab sprung from the water. It was the height of a small building and the length of a large two story building. Nietzsche had never battled something so large in his life. The crab’s pincer swung down in a clean arc headed right towards Nietzsche’s position. Thinking quickly Nietzsche sidestepped the claw and jumped at the crab creature. He was aiming right for the crab’s face. If it hit the force of Nietzsche’s chakra arm coming down on the crab would split its shell wide open. Though unfortunately the crab spit out a stream of bubbles that hit Nietzsche directly in the chest. Luckily the cloak he wore was able to take most of the damage, the stream of bubbles forced Nietzsche onto the beach where he landed and made a large crater. Pulling himself out Nietzsche cracked his neck a bit and then jumped at the crab this time for sure it would fall to his fist. The crab yet again sent out a stream of bubbles, but Nietzsche was ready this time. He was hit, but as he was thrown back he shot out his chakra arm and hooked the crab on the very top of its shell. With a resounding crack the crab desummoned. Yet still Nietzsche flew back and impacted the sand. He pulled himself out of a small hole again. He stood on the beach as another ripple started to come out of the water.

This time it was a man. The man had green hair and a bluish tint to his skin. He was also riding on a large squid. Nietzsche sighed it seemed his work was never done. The green haired man yelled out something, which struck Nietzsche as odd: “You there! How dare you destroy my crab summon? Do you know who I am?” The man asked the questions rhetorically and went on to answer himself: “Behold I the great summoner Ashigaru. I have made it my main duty to protect the underwater village’s holdings. Though unfortunately the underwater village’s elders don’t see it that way. I have been exiled, but still I hold it my sacred task to protect their secrets. These fisheries have trespassed therefore it is my duty to eliminate them. So please die quickly.” Nietzsche sighed so the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. So the summoner was rogue vigilantly from the underwater village. That was all Nietzsche needed to know now he could kill the man without qualms. The green haired man pointed at Nietzsche and all the tentacles of the squid wrapped around Nietzsche. He didn’t bother dodging. It would be easier this way. Instead of having him go after the squid the squid would bring him right in. The tentacles pulled Nietzsche in towards the beaky maw of the squid. Now was the time. Nietzsche released all eight of his tails and broke free of tentacles. Now he was at point blank range to the squid and more importantly it’s summoner. Nietzsche dashed at the green haired man with incredible speed. It took only a second for the green haired man’s head to topple down on to his summoned squid, which was promptly desummoned. Nietzsche had driven his arm straight through the man’s neck. He had broken his arm in the process, but he had also killed off an enemy of the Mist in one blow. He landed in the water and swam to shore to the cheers of the owner and his family who had come to the beach to greet a water logged Nietzsche, though his swimming was complicated by the broken arm he had, but he finally made it. He waved the family who wanted to repay him off and made his way back to the village hidden in the mist. He slung up his arm in a makeshift sling that he made from his jacket.

All in all the summoner was not that hard too beat. Though without his tailed beast cloak Nietzsche was pretty sure he would still be fighting him if not dead. Yet again the bijuu within him had proved invaluable. Nietzsche wondered what it would be like without such power within him. When he passed through the gates he made sure to check back in with the paranoid gate guards who congratulated him on his victory. The pain in Nietzsche’s arm spurred him towards the hospital, because the wound was far out of his scope to heal properly and he did not want to mess it up. Though Nietzsche recalled that he should report to the ANBU captain first before anything else. So on his way to the hospital; he took a detour to the mission command. Yet again he barrged in on the ANBU captain sleeping, which for once Nietzsche found normal, because it was still in the wee hours of the morning. Nietzsche was hesitant to shake the captain awake, but he did it anyway. Luckily this time the captain just woke up and sleepily greet Nietzsche: “Well are you done?” Nietzsche gave him a slight smile: “Yes, as it turns out the summoner was from the Underwater village, but he was a rogue ninja. He felt that he was protecting the underwater village’s secrets, but he wont be problem anymore. My only request for you is to make sure that the kid I saved be allowed into the Mist. All he wanted to do was get away from the underwater village so please make sure he has a good home. Ok?” The ANBU captain simply nodded and dismissed Nietzsche. Cradling his arm as he left Nietzsche walked headlong into his “fan club” though this time they seemed different. They brought with them medical supplies and had skilled medical ninja with them. It seemed for once they might prove useful-go figure. The medical ninja quickly rewrapped Nietzsche’s wound and started healing it. Once his wound was dressed they sent Nietzsche on his way after they made sure he would be back.

Overall Nietzsche felt overtaxed these mission were getting more and more irksome. After each one he felt even more tired. The cumulative effect was Nietzsche getting a fit of chronic fatigue. Once he pushed open the door to his house he didn’t even care about anything else except for sleep. Though before he went to bed he wanted to take a shower to get all the salt out of his hair. While he stood in the shower with the warm water cascading down his head and back. His thoughts wandered: were missing ninja really all that bad. Nietzsche figured that there were many different reason to become a missing ninja and not all of them were for bad reasons. The path of a missing ninja seemed almost inviting, but he shook his head put that out of his mind-the fatigue must be getting to him. Walking from the shower Nietzsche went straight to bed. He went to bed happy and content. He dreamed of a new Mist village one with a nicer reputation. That was his dream: a better Mist though Nietzsche wondered whether the new Mizukage was really up for bringing about a new image for the Mist he had never met her and Nietzsche wondered if she would really be up to bending to his will. He would have to find out later, because for now he slept and dreamed of the future. (5034/5000 S-rank mission done )

Approved unless overruled.