I Killed a Man!

Guard the Dead

Spoiler:

Upon successfully completing a couple of missions, Sakaiza was beginning to develop a bit of an ego. Along with the rest of Sunaga Seven, Sakaiza had wiped the floor with some thieves going around Sunagakure no Sato around a week ago. He had single-handedly wiped out two of the bandits who seemed to be harassing a lady at the festival. How rude of them. Then earlier this week, Sakaiza completed his second mission with the help of his teammates. He had helped out the academy that he once learned in by reforming and training a student to master one of the basic level ninjutsu techniques. He could still remember the student, for he was just like Sakaiza when Sakaiza was in the academy: a troublemaker. Nevertheless, Sakaiza completed the mission and did it well. As a result, he felt accomplished as a genin and the pay wasn't bad either. 

Sakaiza wanted to undertake another mission, yet a problem seemed to arise. His teammates were nowhere to be found or heard of. Sakaiza had tried going to their homes and asking the residents of their homes if they were there but shockingly enough, neither of them were. Perhaps they had gone out on a mission alone without Sakaiza, which saddened his heart a little. But Sakaiza was a tough cookie. Combining the fact that he could not find his comrades and had no clue why there were missing and that he really wanted to take on another mission, an idea sprouted in Sakaiza's mind. Since he had no one to do the mission with, it seemed as if he would have to do it alone. With Sakaiza's ego swelling at this point, he felt more than capable taking on at the most a C - rank mission alone. But as the mission rules of the village had it, the highest rank mission that he could solo would be a D - rank. So it seemed as if Sakaiza had but only one choice: take on a mission alone.

He had made his way to the mission board and read all of the postings. It seemed as if there were an overabundance of E - ranked missions, which were all quite simple. Yard work, taste testing food, and even painting; none of these seemed appealing to Sakaiza. He scanned through each one of the E - ranked missions and simply ignored them, until finally his eyes had fallen upon one mission that sounded so mysterious it was almost daunting. It had read the following:

"D - Rank mission available today and today only, I am in need of some assistance. All of my usual shinobi that volunteer are out of the village on missions and I am in need of a shinobi to assist me in a task. If you are interested, come to the building across from the cemetery around 7pm tonight."

After he read this, Sakaiza grew quite curious. The lack of details from the flyer pertaining to the mission made Sakaiza begin to think f fillers. Perhaps the person who requested the mission needed help with something minor. No, that wouldn't be the case if the person had "usual shinobi" that would help. What really threw Sakaiza off was there those same shinobi were sent out of the village to go on missions. The only missions that would send a shinobi outside of the village were B - ranked and above, with the exception of some C - ranked ones. Therefore, Sakaiza inferred that this mission had to  have been something important. Or at least, something more challenging and strenuous then the last two missions that he completed. A smile grew upon the face of Sakaiza. It seemed to be quite the devilish one. It was mischievous in nature, almost as if the corner of his lips curled up and in. He knew that he had just found the jackpot mission, although the payment didn't reflect that. But to Sakaiza, this mission didn't seem anything less of interesting. Then a thought occurred to him, what if by chance it was an extremely easy mission, something so easy that it didn't matter if shinobi were pulled from it because the missions they were in turn being assigned to were far more important. Sakaiza's head fell and the smile faded away. It seemed as if he was rolling the dice and gambling with this mission, it either being fun or the opposite. Nevertheless, it seemed better than all the other mission flyers posted. He swiped it from the board and began to walk over towards the cemetery. 

He didn't have much time to get to the building across from it in truth, since the time was roughly 6:45 pm now, but he wasn't too far from the cemetery to begin with. On top of that, Sakaiza maintained a relative quick pace realizing that he was short for time. In roughly 6 minutes, he could see the cemetery in sight as he approached it. Outside of the cemetery was a lady, rather elderly, walking from the cemetery to the building across from it. That was most likely the lady that Sakaiza sought. By the time he would reach the building, the lady had already entered and so he would knock. Three sharp, quick knocks. The door opened and there was the lady, draped in all black attire with a large hat upon her head blocking Sakaiza from seeing her eyes. One hand on the door, she turned and lifted her head slightly to look at a clock that appeared to be ticking away upon the head of her wall. It reported the current time as 6:57 pm. She turned back towards Sakaiza and noted his appearance, he was a shinobi, likely a genin due to his lack of flak jacket.

"You must be here for the mission," she began while turning around and walking into her home, leaving the door wide open as if she wanted Sakaiza to enter. 

Sakaiza unsure of whether or not this was an invitation to enter or not, slowly crept into the house. He looked around and noted that it was not that special of a house, in fact it look like there wasn't much in it. The only thing notable from the house was a strangely eerie door that remained cracked open just enough to reveal the beginning of stairs that would likely descend. But to where?

"Well this is the funeral home and crematory. It's where we prepare the dead for...well being dead. We prepare their bodies to be deposited in the cemetery across the road. The preparation process can include sealing jutsu and kekkei genkai within a user as well as sprucing up their appearance. But the problem is, there's sometimes pesky grave robbers that seem to stealthily breach the village at night to dig up their bodies and steal their kekkei genkai. These shinobi can....." the lady continued but seemed to be toned out by Sakaiza whose jaw was slightly dropped and mind wandering with speculations.


"Oh man, I'm going to be fighting off grave robbers. This is so cool. They'll all probably be pretty weak, nothing I can't handle at least."


Sakaiza's hearing seemed to tune the lady back in after his thoughts subsided. It would pick up on the lady saying, "but do not disturb the dead. They are powerful shinobi of the past and deserve to be laid to an eternal peaceful rest. Try not to kill the robbers too, it would be better to keep them alive to interrogate them."

Sakaiza nodded. He realized that he had missed out on a nice portion of what the lady said, but he had all the information he needed. The general gist of the task was to guard the dead, prevent grave robbers from stealing information and not kill them. Sakaiza wasn't planning on killing anyone, he never had, so he didn't plan on starting today. He bowed, turned around and walked out of the building to start for the cemetery.

As he crossed the threshold gates of the cemetery, chills were sent down Sakaiza's spine. Not chills stemming solely from the fact that he was surrounded by dead people, but chills from the fact that many of these dead people were some of the greatest shinobi that Sunagakure no Sato had ever produced. He walked down a pathway that seemed to pass by several of the most notable names, to Sakaiza at least, of the shinobi that had fought and defended the Sand Village in the past: Baki, Kankuro, Tamuri, Chiyo, Ebizo, and many others. Sakaiza had recognized these names from the history portion of his academy days, but he did not know everything that they were capable of. Nevertheless, he continued on walking. He stopped walking when he came upon massive tombstones, each dedicated to a former Kazekage. He looked upon each, noting their names and chronological order of leadership. However a sound of rustling seemed to catch his attention

Activating his Byakugan, he shifted his eyes towards the source of the sound. There crept two men, talking quietly amongst themselves regarding their plan to kidnap several of the dead kazekages, revitalize them and employ them under their command. Shocked, Sakaiza transformed into a tombstone along the ground and continued to eaves drop. They seemed to be a part of some missing ninja organization and only made it within the village walls through the use of transformation jutsus that fooled the guards at the walls. They each held a shovel in their hands and were draped in dark clothing, likely so that they could employ secrecy in their attempts. 

Hearing all that he needed, Sakaiza ended the transformation and now stood 5 meters in front of them. "Well, I hate to rain on your parade but that's as far as you go."


The two shinobi simply laughed, "What are you going to stop us?"

"He's a genin, he doesn't have a flak jacket. We could take this guy!" 

Sakaiza didn't need to respond any further, as he had already knew everything they were planning and didn't see a purpose in speaking with them any more than what he had to. 

The two men noted that Sakaiza didn't even speak more and thus they would begin their attack upon Sakaiza. The first seemed to be more concerned with defending the other, as he had begun digging on one of the burial sites. The first stood locked with Sakaiza in eyes, both awaiting the other to make a move. Then it happened, he began performing a series of hand seals ultimately resulting in an earth fist formulating around each one of his own. He then leaped right for Sakaiza, swinging a haymaker for the genin.

Sakaiza, noting that the second grave robber had began digging, realized that he would have to make short work of this first opponent. He was likely just the first line of defense and not the main attraction anyway. Sakaiza too formed a hand seal and swiped at the air in front of him, which the first man was leaping through. As he swiped at the air, a wind slash formed and staggered the leaping man. He fell onto the path that Sakaiza was standing on, and now Sakaiza would act. He quickly formed the bird seal and released four air bullets at a high speed right for the man. The man would cross his arms in a defensive stance and intercept the bullets. However, each bullet seemed to force the fist to crumble away in the process, leaving piles of earth on the ground in front of him. Sakaiza quickly employed his taijutsu style shunshin to sprint forward in hopes of closing in some of the distance to fight the man. The man however performed several hand seals in conjunction, creating a snake made from the earth which lied in front of him. The snake flung itself right towards Sakaiza, who would stop running and quickly perform his palms revolving heaven technique, which destroyed the snake and sent earth ricocheting everywhere outside of the graveyard. He knew he was taking up too much time battling the first man, so he ceased his spinning and decided it was time to put an end to the fight. Now a distance of 3 meters away from the man, he readied himself to release his mountain crusher jutsu. Dashing forward at a great speed, he raised his palm to strike. The man took steps back and flung kunai at Sakaiza, who would simply side step each until he was right in front of the first man. His palm lifted and thrust ahead, the man was sent flying and crashing into the cemetery wall which was roughly 15 meters from Sakaiza. Blood would now stain the path that Sakaiza stood on, leading all the way back to the man's unconscious body. The blow wasn't lethal, but the way it was aimed with the power behind it would have likely blown a hole in the man's shoulder. 

Sakaiza quickly averted his attention to the other man who seemed to be close to finished digging. He hurled a kunai at him and projected it forward with a vacuum palm which carried the kunai at an exceptional speed towards the man. It went right through his hand and stuck itself in the ground behind the man. 

Weeping, he looked up at Sakaiza and realized that the genin was far more powerful than what his rank alluded to. He performed several hand seals of his own, hurling a wind cyclone at Sakaiza. It was too quick and powerful, for Sakaiza to simply try to parry so he tried to dodge it. He side stepped then leaped into the air, but was caught by the tip of the cyclone. It caused him to fall to the ground. The man would then appear right in front of Sakaiza and swing the shovel down upon Sakaiza's head. Sakaiza rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the attack and pushed up and off of the ground with his hands and sent a roundhouse kick to the skull of the man. It connected. Continuing the momentum from the flowing of the beginning of the leaf hurricane, Sakaiza delivered a quick leg sweep to the man, bringing him down to his knees. Sakaiza quickly leaped up and performed a quick hand seal, thus paralyzing the man in place on his knees in front of Sakaiza. 

Assuming the gentle fist stance, Sakaiza began his sixty four palms technique. He delivered the first two strikes on the man's right arm, the next on his left. The next four would work their way in from his shoulders to his chest. The next eight would work the abdomen of the man. Sixteen more were delivered upon any upper body spots that Sakaiza didn't target before. The final thirty two pinpointed the secondary tenketsu which served auxiliary purposes in the upper body, the neck and then spots upon the man's head. The man, coughed blood and seemed to pass out right in front of Sakaiza.

Satisfied with the use of the new jutsu he just learned, Sakaiza began binding the man's arms and legs with rope that the lady gave Sakaiza earlier to subdue the grave robbers with. As he did so, his Byakugan detected movement approaching him from his right side. With his hands busy tying up the man, Sakaiza did not have enough time to react to the other approaching man since they had been occupied securing the knot. He then recalled the words of Evander when he had shown Sakaiza the temporary paralysis technique that he had just applied to the first man. He told Sakaiza that once one had mastered the jutsu, he would be able to use it without forming the tiger hand seal at all.

Then it seemed as if time slowed down for Sakaiza. His hands were moving extremely slow, and so was the man approaching him. Focusing, he could hear his heart beating slowly and could see the man's chakra flowing through his body. Sakaiza could feel his own, coursing through his body in turn. Projecting his own chakra from his body, he met the man's eyes with his own and his chakra began flying towards the man. The man was still approaching though. As he was, he raised the other shovel that he had picked up from the grave he had been digging, and swung it in an overhead fashion meant to split the skull of Sakaiza. But just as the shovel was right above Sakaiza's head, he froze in place and Sakaiza finished typing the knot on the first man.

Sakaiza smiled, he had done it, and now the man would pay. Although, Sakaiza did commend him for being able to move still even after Sakaiza had blown a small hole in his shoulder. But commencement did not matter. Sakaiza took on his eight trigrams technique and released one hundred twenty eight relentless strikes upon the man's immobile body. When he would finish, the man fell to the ground beside him. There he laid, not breathing, but lifeless. Realizing what he had just done, Sakaiza stood over top of the dead man and felt hollow. What had he done? He couldn't even focus, let alone think, about what just happened. For it seemed as if as soon as he killed the grave robber, he was already dragging both of their bodies back to the footsteps of the funeral home. The lady came out, shocked and asked Sakaiza what had happened.

He explained the situation from what he could recall and everything else seemed to flow in order, almost as if death was something the lady that worked at the funeral home was accustomed to. Authorities arrived and took the man in custody in for question and thanked Sakaiza. Sakaiza was paid and thanked then turned to go home, heavy in body and thought. 

[Exit]

(WC: 2,995)

Claiming 1000 Ryo, 3 AP and Temporary Paralysis Technique Mastery