Mission: A Simple Escort

Masaru could not help but wonder what the higher-ups were thinking. Yes, this was just an elderly man who had requested an escort to somewhere else. Yes, the assigned ninja would mostly just guard him from wild beasts and carry his things. But nevertheless, they had marked a mission which required going to another ninja village, through potentially dangerous terrain, the desert especially, as a D-rank mission, which meant that one did not even require a genin team to do it. It was given to a sole genin, with no backup of any kind. But a mission was a mission, and one could not turn one down just because one felt that it had been mislabeled. A ninja was a tool to be used, and tools did not complain. Or something like that, he could not really recall the exact way the teachers at the academy had put it.

Once Masaru was done raging about the mission to himself, he took a deep breath in, and thought about what the mission actually was. Since the elderly man would not be able to move rather fast, it would be an easy trip for a ninja to make, even if they had to carry some things. In fact, one might look at this like somewhat of a vacation, as it might be nice and easy going. However, there was no guarantee that it would be that. Wild beasts were to expect, and if they were lucky, then that would be the most exciting thing on the trip. However, there was also the desert to worry about. Desert storms could easily prolong or ruin the trip, but statistically, that should not happen.

During the first day, there had not been anything all that exciting. Sure, there had been some episodes with some of the beasts of the Fire Country, but most of the time, a simple Clone Technique had convinced the beasts that it would be a bad idea to attack. There had been a boar which attacked Masaru and the elderly man, but Masaru had slain it without many problems. Even though he did not have his puppet, Masaru could still fight, and he had been able to take down a boar bigger than this during his time at the academy. Even though they were attacked now and then, the trip went easy, although Masaru sometimes felt that there was just a bit too many breaks.

When they reached the desert, the attacks stopped, as few beasts out here were large enough to want to attack humans if they were not provoked first. Thus they had peace during the second day of travel, with a break being taken every time they found a rock large enough to give some shadow, so that they could have a break from the merciless sun in the desert. The third day went much like the first, although they reached Sunagakure around 15:00 O’clock. While Masaru had found the trip enjoyable at times, he was glad to have the mission done, as that meant that he had the opportunity to travel at full speed back to Konoha, being able to ignore wild beasts instead of having to protect the man from them.

WC: 535/500

Spoiler:

Approved!