A Ranked Mission

Kino awoken by a knock at his door. He sat up on his bed, and yawned. Who could be visiting at this hour?.. Kino thought, as he sat up, and looked at his clock. It was five in the morning. He yawned once more, getting up and heading for his front door. He began to think, he didn’t have any friends who would want to visit him at this hour.. He sighed, it must be an issue then, something that couldn’t wait, perhaps, meaning it must be not only an issue, but an important issue. Perhaps it had to do with something about his genin squad, they could have gotten into trouble. He sighed, hoping that wasn’t the situation.


The front door no more than a few feet away, and then the knocking stopped. Kino let out a sigh of relief, it wasn’t so important to where he had to be notified immediately. He opened his front door, and looked around. The one knocking on the door was fast, and quick to leave. A Shinobi indeed. He looked down, and noticed a piece of paper, and then he sighed. He had a feeling he knew what this was, a mission assigned to him. This happened often, the messenger coming to fetch Kino, often early in the morning. He picked it up and unfolded it, and then slowly began to read it, line to line. His lips motioned as he read, he was silently reading it ‘aloud.’ “.........!!” Kino exclaimed through a facial expression. After reading the letter, he couldn’t believe what he was being assigned. He sighed, work. He was to travel to Kumogakure, escorting some man. No, not just some man. This was the surprising part. Sure, Kino was a Jounin and could easily handle an A ranking escort, but this.. He read it over one more time to be sure. Yep, he was positive this was no prank. He had to meet the feudal lord at the village gates at seven in the morning, sharp. It would be awhile before Kino would manage to arrive at Kumogakure, a few days at most, if there’s nothing but straight traveling. He had to prepare, if he were going to be taking the feudal lord to Konohagakure, he would need to be prepared indeed. He needed to wear better clothing, and pack some weapons, and food, assuming the feudal lord wouldn’t share his food. That or he would be unprepared and wouldn’t bring his own.




He began to walk back to his room, not daring to go to sleep now. He was already awake, not too awake, but awake. He was only slightly tired, though excited to be sent on an A ranking mission. It has been a while since Kino had been sent on a mission that wasn’t on his genin squad. Hell, he began to think he has never been sent on one without his squad.


Once in his room, he made way for his closet. He opened it, sliding open the door. His closet was somewhat special, he was unsure whether or not other people had a closet similar to his own. His door slid into the wall, rather than opening outwards, or inwards. Once the door was out of the way he viewed a variety of clothing. Pants, shirts, socks, even a few differently styled shoes. He pulled out a black sleeveless shirt, and put it on, considering he wasn’t wearing a shirt at the moment anyways. It had used to have been a T-shirt, though it was ruined. He think he had a stain on both sleeves, so he simply tore them off. He took off his normal, pajama pants, simple sweat pants, and took out a pair that resembled jeans in a way. They had front pockets, no more. He put a belt on, not to hold up his pants, but to attach a pouch to. The pouch had a Kunai stored inside, though was capable of holding more, much more. Though it was only capable of holding small, projectile objects, mainly anyways. He had obtained the Kunai from a student of his, during their first meeting, when Hikarishi, the student of Kino’s, was attempting to kill Kino. Of course, Kino was masquerading as a missing shinobi. Good times indeed. He managed to keep one of the Kunai knife thrown by Hikarishi, which was the only reason he had a weapon at the moment.


He sighed, slipping on some simple shoes, and grabbing a somewhat large backpack that didn’t weigh much alone. He began to walk for his kitchen, where he would grab small, packaged food. He put his back pack on, then walked back to his bedroom, where he would walk for the nightstand next to his bed. He picked up the only thing, besides the lamp, that was sitting on the nightstand. It was his headband, a majority of it was made out of clothe, besides the metal plate on the front, which would cover his forehead. He tied it around his head, to where the head band covered up his forehead. This was a common style among shinobi, tying it over the forehead.


He headed out, now all packed and ready for this A ranking mission. He began to head for the village gates, no more than a few minute jog. There was about ten more minutes remaining until seven in the morning, he had enough time to get there, with his speed, anyways. He dashed towards the get, and was there in a matter of minutes, noticing an approaching man. The man was dressed in somewhat fancy clothing, fancy robes, and had a fan, that he continued to wave in front of his face as if he were cooling himself off, despite the seventy-two degrees it was outside. Kino raised an eyebrow, he looked somewhat younger than he had originally imagined, though he was assuming he actually was the feudal lord. He was an adult, and slightly taller than Kino. As the feudal lord approached, he raised an eyebrow as well. “... Is this brat the one to escort me?” He asked a shinobi, following him. “Yes, sir..” The shinobi replied, Kino only stared, slightly annoyed to be referred to as a ‘brat’.


“Sir, I am a Jounin of Konohagakure. I am more than qualified to protect you on your way to Kumogakure. The fact that I am so young and a Jounin, means I am simply better, than most.” He said, bragging a bit, filling the feudal lord’s head with false facts, hoping it would reassure him.

“I was sure I had hired elite shinobi, not this brat.” He said, ignoring Kino’s speech. Kino sighed, and began to head off. “Well, let us be off. I assume you are all packed?” Kino asked, and the shinobi who had followed the Feudal lord handed Kino some bags. Great.. Kino thought, and then sighed some more.

“So, you can call yourself elite, though sigh in the face of work? Some shinobi.” The feudal lord said, commenting on the sigh.

“Well this will be a joyous trip for you two.. Good luck, Kino.” The man said, and then dashed off, he wasn’t going to be dragged into this. He sighed once more.


Kino began to walk outside of the gates. He had the letter, which was sending Kino on the mission, in his pocket, safe for should he get into trouble for being in Kumogakure later. “So, ever been to Kumogakure?” Kino asked the feudal lord, as he turned around to make sure he was alright. It had already been twenty minutes.


“No, this will be my first time visiting, that’s not on business, anyways. I believe I have at least once passed through it’s borders, however, though on business.” he replied. “Have you?” The Feudal Lord asked Kino. He hadn’t replied in an expected way, though at least there was no sarcasm, there wasn’t any insults either.


“No, being honest, I haven’t traveled much of the world, yet.” He said.

“Oh, so a Jounin who has not so much geology knowledge?..” He replied with, Kino knew it was too soon to not expect an insult, or sarcasm.

“I don’t believe I mentioned my geological knowledge yet, sir. I actually know maps quite well, so, yeah.” He replied.

“Very well then.” He replied, he lost this argument.


Kino noted the weather, the clouds about a mile ahead weren’t looking well enough to travel into. They were dark, and Kino could hear the rumbling noise of thunder. He sighed. “Bad weather ahead.” Kino said, noting the wind was blowing in their direction also. The storm would be on top of them in a bit.


“That is of no concern.” The feudal lord said, in reply. He was foolish, Kino deemed.


“I don’t think you want to be sick on your vacation, sir.” Kino said, trying to convince him it was time to find shelter. “Perhaps it is time to find shelter, until the storm passes. We will still be there in your requested time, there is no need to worry about it.” He said, as soon as he finished, the feudal lord began to sigh.


“Very well.” Kino heard the feudal lord reply. They began to look for a place to shelter themselves from the storm, while at the same time moving forward, towards Kumogakure. They didn’t need to worry about shelter right away, no, they needed to work on their timing. The storm was fast approaching, and the wind had seemed to have picked up. The feudal lord sighed. “Today was supposed to have good weather..” He heard him say. Kino did hear mention of good, nice weather today. He sighed as well, out of plain boredom.



They slowly began to move forward, continuing to look for shelter. Kino was doing all the searching, the feudal lord was just walking forward, continuing to ask every five minutes, ‘find anything?’. He usually replied with no, other times he had found something, but it wasn’t to the feudal lord’s requirements. One of the problems with dealing with a stuck up person, was that they got everything they wanted. Kino sighed, and just kept moving. There was no storm, coming, yet.


The storm was still about an hour away, they were lucky on that account. Kino noticed a large cliff, and thought that they could find shelter in a cave, if they were actually lucky enough to find one. It didn’t have to be too deep, just large enough to avoid getting wet from the drops of rain. And to avoid being in range of lightning strikes. He walked over to the cliff, it wasn’t that far away. The Feudal lord had enough sense to follow, seeing as there would be many who would want to attack the feudal lord, and kidnap him, and auction him off for ransom. The Feudal Lord, after all, is quite the important man, at least to the fire nation. Kino remembered that there were five feudal lord, one for each of the major country, at least.


He found a cave, that went deep enough to meet the feudal lord’s requirements. “Very well, we shall stay here.” The feudal lord decided. Kino went deeper into the cave, the feudal lord followed.


“Should be safe enough to stay in. There’s a dead end, so that way no one can sneak up from behind. And I can continue to watch the entrance, to make sure no one sneaks in.” Kino said, beginning to walk back to the entrance of the cave, the storm would arrive soon enough. “Go ahead and get some rest, I’ll wake you once the storm passes.” Kino said, as he began to keep a lookout, to make sure no enemies would approach unexpectedly.


“Very well.” Replied the feudal lord, who was walking back over to the dead end of the cave. “I trust nothing will happen while I sleep. At most, I expect there to be one, maybe even a few dead shinobi at my feet, enemies, anyways.” He said. Kino figured he wasn’t going to be one of the few dead shinobi.


“Alright.” He said, not trying to reassure him. He began to walk over to the entrance, and watch natural events unfold, hoping they wouldn’t be found here. The storm was quite soon overhead, no more than ten minutes after the feudal lord laid down for a nap. The wind had greatly picked up, which sped the storm up to where it was right overhead. Rain was falling from the dark skies above rapidly, hundred of drops per second. He heard the thunder roaring also, and on occasion he would see a visible lightning strike. He sighed, the storm was getting somewhat rough, though the feudal lord continued to sleep, undisturbed. After two hours of the storm, it began to let up, though it wasn’t finished, yet anyways. It was slowly going away, he was getting lucky, any longer than four hours and they would have been behind schedule. As soon as the storm was reduce to nothing more than a few drops a minute, he began to walk over to the feudal lord.


“Don’t bother, I’m awake.” He said, as he began to stand up. “I’ve been awake for a majority of the storm.” He said.

“Alright then, guess you’re not so used to sleeping on the ground then.” Kino replied, and they were off. They headed back into the forest they were walking through, it granted an advantage, and a few disadvantages. Kino knew these forests, so he could use guerrilla warfare here. Though a forest was also the ideal place for an ambush, and that wouldn’t help at all. Though that disadvantage was nothing, Kino had the ability to sense chakra. It was one of the abilities of the sharingan, which was his kekkei genkai. Though Kino wasn’t using his sharingan, he had the ability to sense chakra all around him through a technique. His range was enough to tell him if someone was approaching, anyways. “We’ll be there soon enough, sir.” He said, letting him know that they would be there in a bit, though really there was about a twenty four hour wait to get there.


The clouds above head started to vanish. There were open parts of the clouds where powerful rays of the sun would shine through, and would shine down upon the great forest they walked through. A rather enjoyable view, though it was a shame that Kino couldn’t stop to admire it. He was on a mission, and it needed to be completed. The Feudal lord didn’t have an interest in the view, hence why Kino couldn’t enjoy it. Kino had a clone search the area outside of his sensory skill’s range, about twenty meters out. This was to take precautions, as the feudal lord had ordered Kino to do. He had respected the clients wishes and had followed his orders.



As they continued, more than five hours had passed. They had stopped for a single break, a lunch break, despite it being the time for dinner. They were currently on their break, when the feudal lord began to question Kino’s past. “It’s not something I wish to speak of, though, I suppose I can tell you a bit about my life..” Kino said, in reply to his questioning about his past.

“I was born in the village of Kirigakure. As I am sure, you have heard of it’s destruction.” He said, only watching the feudal lord nod his head in reply. “My parents had gotten a divorce, my father moved to Sunagakure, and my mother stayed with me in Kirigakure.” He said. “It remained like that for about a month, until one day my father requested to see me once more. I moved to Sunagakure, temporarily of course. And that was when my parents decided to switch over custody every month or so, depending on each other’s situations.” He continued. “Then my father wanted to train me to use my kekkei genkai, I went to live with him for a few years in attempts to even unlock my abilities. During his life time, it was nothing more than a waste of time. He attempted to kill me, so I killed him.” He said, calmly, as if he hadn’t cared for it. “Then I traveled back to Kirigakure, discovering it’s destruction. Then I went to Konohagakure, where I’ve lived for the past while. Nothing.. too big, for me, anyways.” He said,



“Sounds like a fun history you’ve got yourself, there.” He said, not having a single care. Kino sighed. “Yep, better than a normal man’s life.” Kino replied.

“What’s wrong with a ‘normal’ man’s life, exactly?” The feudal lord asked, he seemed to have been offended.


“Nothing, just slightly more boring, and safer than a shinobi’s.” Kino said.


“I suppose.” The feudal lord replied, it seemed he was only acting offended.



They got back up, after finishing eating. “Let us be off, Kinominki.” The feudal lord said. He didn’t seem to enjoy saying ‘Kino’ as most did. “Very well.” He said, packing up the remains of his lunch. He had his clone disappear for a while, for lunch. He created two clones this time, to do the job of the last one.

“Two clones will be more efficient.” He said, and began to walk, as the clones went to the sides, twenty meters away. It wasn’t long, however, before both clones were destroyed. This wasn’t by natural causes, nor by the canceling of the technique. “Two groups coming this way, hostile.” He said, preparing the feudal lord. “Act natural.” He said, as he switched places with a clone. If they had a sensor, hiding wouldn’t matter, but he was preparing himself. He was hiding in the tree tops, it wasn’t long before a Kunai hits his next clone, the one escorting the feudal lord.


“Damnit, another fucking clone!” Some child yelled. He had a voice of a child, anyways. It wasn’t deep at all. “Doesn’t matter though, the idiot left the feudal lord sitting out in the open!” He shouted, and Kino heard a Katana blade being unsheathed from a scabbard.


“Calm yourself, Tibimare, if it was another clone then we will have problems. The maker is probably somewhere close by.” another man, with a deep voice said, as they both came out of bushes nearby. “And don’t kill him, remember, we need him alive.” He said. The large man was quite fat, or large, whichever he preferred to call himself. He had orange hair, also. Not much, though, a simple line on the center of his head, about a few inches wide, no more than two inches tall. It went back to the back of his head. This man had no weapons, no like the small, black haired child. He was maybe about three feet tall, and he had a cheery look on his face.

“We’re gonna be rich! We’re gonna be rich!” He kept repeating, while keep a smile on his face. The larger one had a smile on his face as well. The feudal lord was calm as ever, casting a rather serious look at the two, he was judging them.


They were missing shinobi, he could tell by the headbands. The child kept his tied around his neck, though it was loose. The not would hold, even in battle, it was loose enough to not choke him in battle, though. The other one kept it around his arm. Both of them had a cross over their village symbols. The symbols surprised Kino, both were from Kirigakure.. they were outside of the village during it’s destruction. He sighed, and then cast his eyes wide open. He’d made a mistake. The large one looked at where Kino was hiding. “Looks like we found the feudal lord’s escort.” He said. The child looked at Kino, now.

“Ahhh, we do get some fun too!” He said, beginning to smile. “Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill!~ He kept on repeating, and then switched to rich. He was greedy, and apparently was a killer, these two didn’t seem to care for who got in their way. They had to be killed. Eleven more popped out from the bushes, Kino’s eyes widened.


“Ah, you two found them.” One said, a few were from different villages. One was Kumogakure, a few more Konohagakure, and then Iwagakure, and Sunagakure. He took out his Kunai knife, and jumped from his spot. He was well away from the lot, as was the feudal lord. Kino placed the handle of the Kunai knife in his mouth, and began to perform a hand sign. Thirty clones appeared. “Feudal lord, get over here!” Kino shouted, as all the clones took their Kunai knives out from their mouths.



The feudal lord ran towards Kino, and the original Kino went under the feudal lord’s arm. “Hold on tight, I’ll get us out of here and let my clones deal with this trouble.” he said. Kino began to perform a hand seal. “Body Flicker No Jutsu!” Kino shouted, and soon disappeared. He was going more than double his original speed, and soon was far from the battle taking place.



Kino’s clones began to beat on the thirteen enemy shinobi. All of the clones had charged at the lot, a few clones managed to pierce through the enemies vital points on the body, using their Kunai knives. Soon enough, no more than two remained. The first two, that is. THe large man and the child were alive for the longest, perhaps they were more skilled than Kino thought. One of the clones went forward, towards the boy, and the panting large man had gotten in the way. The clone sighed, the man was going to protect this child. THe clone slit the man’s throat, and then the child’s. There was no mercy in the land of shinobi..


“Well that hadn’t gone as planned.” The Feudal Lord said. “That was supposed to have gone much smoother.” He said, as they approached Kumogakure’s gates. “I take it you killed them?” He asked.

“Aye, sir.” Kino replied, somewhat depressed, though he didn’t let it show.


“Good, now farewell, this is where we part." He said. Kino simply remained, beginning to think. It was late, perhaps he should rent an apartment here.. he began to think.



[+10 JP due to this being an A ranked mission. +3100 Ryo, +9 stats, according to the new rules, B+ Missions allow for stats every 400 words. http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t15795-a-rank-a-dangerous-escort First one on the list was completed. 3725 words.]

Approved for the appropriate rewards