Money to make, love to lose

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Assassinate a Bandit Leader

Taichi was still screaming angry. He was so mad at himself for believing that he was able to have made another friend. Something that he hadn’t had in so long, something he may never be able to have again. He knew where he was headed, but he also knew that he was going to need to get there quickly, so he wouldn’t be able to flee the area or reinforce too heavily. While he was sure he would be able to take on whatever Ryukao would be able to throw at him, he just wanted to make sure that he had enough chakra for when he got to Ryukao, the snake that he was. Taichi was walking along the road, betrayal and fury building in his heart and in his mind. Taichi quickened his pace so he would be able to catch up to Ryukao. He came to a fork in the road with one road leading him along the borders of the land of wind, but that followed along a river in the land of rivers. The other road went deep into the land of Wind and would offer him the quickest way to the outpost. Taichi thought for a few moments, he did love the land of Rivers, having the waters rushing next to him, it calmed his mind and allowed him to think more clearly and rationally. But in his current state and in the current situation, he didn’t want to think more clearly, the only thing he cared about was catching Ryukao and make him wish that he never tried to betray Taichi. Taichi was realizing that he had a giant flaw that would most likely end up the death of him, he trusted people too much.

He figured that his childhood that was filled with loneliness and hatred, caused him to seek people’s approval, and whenever he was shown any amount of support or kindness, he had the tendency to blow it all out of proportion and feel as though he had just made a lifelong friend. He knew that this was a naive view of the world, but he could never help it, it was just how he was. Taichi looked at the two options that sat in front of him and he pondered his decision. He decided that he was going to go away from his place of calm, the place that brought him the most peace in life, the waters of the land of rivers, and instead go directly into the place that brought him the most anger, the most sadness, and the most pain, the desolate and miserable deserts of the land of Wind.

Taichi began walking down the road and he watched as the desert sands began to get closer and closer, to the point that he had finally past the threshold that was the parting of the two lands. He hit the exact place that the lush green forests and the soil that came with it, slowly and gradually turned into coarse and gritty sand that covered the lands of the Wind nation. Taichi’s face turned from a noticeable and righteous anger, to a dull and lifeless face. Taichi was always being the one who was let down, always being the one who was betrayed. Taichi wanted to have a friend, someone that he would be able to count on and be with. He wanted to be able to have someone to go on missions with, to train with, to just walk with. He thought he had that with Bri, she was strong willed, a kind soul, and a wonderful woman to be around. Taichi only knew for a few days, but in that time, he felt something for her that he hadn’t felt for anyone, except for his fiance Hana. Taichi’s fury turned into a somber depression.

Taichi’s fast walk running pace slowed to a light jaunt down the roadway. He was still angry, but it was more out of the sadness of being betrayed, rather than the one who betrayed him. He thought to himself whether or not he was even worthy of being loved, or even having friends. Everyone that he thought could have been his friend, or in some cases more than that, ended up betraying him, or dying. Why would he be worthy of friendship or even love? He was nothing more than a no good criminal who failed both of the women that he had felt love towards. He was able to only watch as Hana was killed during the invasion of Suna, watching as her house collapsed directly on top of her, listening to her screams. Then when Bri and Taichi went out to the training grounds to train, she was abducted by a group of bandits, that was led by a mercenary that was a shinbi. Taichi tried to help her, the same that he had wished that he could have helped Hana. But even with his best efforts and almost being killed himself over her, still failed the woman that he loved. She had to go through unspeakable trauma, only to have no solace afterwards, only a slow and agonizing death. Beaten to the point of being unrecognizable. Her beautiful face, a face that Taichi saw a life of happiness with, was bastardized and destroyed all in a few hours. Taichi’s pace had changed once again. This time from a jaunt, to a slow walk. He was weighed down by the shame and guilt that he felt for both of their deaths, then by the betrayal by whom Taichi thought could have actually been a friend to Taichi. Finally he came to a complete stop and looked up into the sky. He thought to himself what he could change about himself, what could he do to make people want to befriend him. Taichi figured there had to be something, maybe he would find it one day. He wished he didn’t want friendship so bad, for all it really led to was pain, but he couldn’t fight who he really was.

Taichi pushed himself to push through the depression, for he had no time for whipping, he was going to need to keep moving at his original pace to get himself to the outposts before the sun fell. Taichi was just about to continue moving, he heard commotion happening just off of the beaten path, farther into the dunes of sand. Taichi figured that he had time to give someone a hand, so he ran over to the direction that he was hearing the commotion coming from.

When he reached the source of the commotion, he had an internal war going on in his head when he saw who was involved. Taichi had looked over the mound of sand and he saw what looked like thirty bandits, all surrounding the man that Taichi was currently chasing. Taichi sat on the mound of sand and watched as the gang of bandits began taking turns in groups of five come into the middle and begin kicking Ryukao, he could hear the grunts and short cries of pain coming from Ryukao’s mouth. Taichi knew that this was the wrong way for anyone to die, and in the back of his mind, he still had hope that what they had was in fact a friendship, even though he did try to kill Taichi. He stood up from the mound of sand and began sprinting down the sand, his piercing eyes staring down at the gang of bandits who had yet to acknowledge his presence. Taichi two wood clones out of his own chakra. Taichi and his two clones all took their own points around the gang of bandits. The bandits finally noticed that he was there and began to look around as his two clones and himself stared down at them.

Taichi wasn’t actually sure how he was going to take on the bandits. He could just burn them to a crisp, but he would hit Ryukao in the crossfire and that wouldn’t solve anything. He could try and take them all out one by one. But he wasn’t sure if that was going to come out in his favor. Taichi thought for a few more moments, but the gang of bandits had split up into three groups and began rushing his two clones. Taichi figured that his decision was made for him and the two clones, so they went to work. Taichi and the clones all activated their chakra scalpels, and began slashing through the bandits. As the first few went down, Taichi’s first clone activated his fire stream. He hit the front line of his group with the stream of fire, catching several of the bandits on fire. As the bandits in flame began running away, he moved on to the rest of them. Taichi himself was having little worries with the bandits on his side of the triangle. Taichi jumped into the air and activated his Great Fireball technique, burning half of the bandits at once. Taichi, upon landing, thrusted his right hand into the chest of another bandit and sliced the head clean off of the second to last bandit. After he saw that there was only one more bandit, he grinned and activated his Sharingan. He then grabbed the bandit’s arms and stared into the bandits eyes, placing him under his genjutsu, forcing him to drop to his knees and thrusting a knife into his neck, killing himself.

Taichi checked on his copies and he was pleased to see that they were faring just fine against their own bandits and were finishing up at the same time. Taichi released one of his clones and had the other meet up with him to check on Ryukao. When they reached Ryukao, he was in a bad shape. Taichi wasn’t sure how long they had been beating him, but he did know for a fact that they did one hell of a number on him. Taichi had his clone pick Ryukao up and they would both find themselves a source of shade to get Ryukao out of the sun. Taichi and his clone carried Ryukao for a couple hours until they finally found some shade. During their dragging, Taichi had used his bed roll to cover Ryukao, helping him from being baked by the sun too heavily. Taichi and the clone set Ryukao down and leaned him against the tree. He stirred for a few moments and Taichi had his clone keep lookout with his Sharingan while Taichi tried to help Ryukao get back to consciousness and to see what had happened to him and how he was overcome by simple bandits.

Ryukao began to open his eyes and he was checking his surroundings when he saw Taichi. His eyes widened and he tried to block his body from whatever blow he was suer was coming from Taichi, due to what he had done to Taichi in the land of Rivers just the night before. Taichi sat down on the sand in front of him, eyes less piercing than usual. “I am not going to hurt you. If I wanted you dead anymore, I would have let the bandits kill you for me. Now you going to tell me what the hell happened and why you tried to kill me?” Taichi hand his hands kicked out behind him as he leaned against them, having his legs straight out in front of him. Ryukao had a fearful look, then turned into a shameful one. Ryukao leaned forward, with his legs crossed and he put his face into his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for trying to kill you.” He then fell silent. Taichi wasn’t sure just why he did what he did, “Why did you do that?” Taichi asked him once again. Ryukao picked his face back up and brought in a big inhale, then released it. “Alright, shortly after you and my bandits captured the outposts, right after you left and began looking for the head of the walls of Jericho, there was a mutiny. All of my men decided that they didn’t need me anymore and ran me out of my own outpost, and throwing me out of my own group. I took this contract so I could make some money for myself, but wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to carry it out since I haven’t been on a contract on my own in almost a decade. So I was extremely happy and relieved when you came along. I hadn’t been alone in a  long time and knew that I was going to need money, fast. So when you told me about the transplants that you had received, I kinda freaked and tried to kill you for your organs so I could have money for myself to be able to eat and begin a new life on my own. Ever since I tried it, I felt terrible. Hell, even before then I felt like shit, trying to kill someone who had helped me out. I’m sorry, man. Truly.”

Taichi sat for a moment and he thought about what he had just heard from Ryukao. Taichi tried to stay angry at him, but he truly saw Ryukao as being a possible friend, so he just couldn’t do it. “I understand why you did what you did. I know your concern about your own self preservation, but let me tell you something man. Killing me won’t get you very far, you may get a couple thousand Ryo out of it. But then what? You have killed one person that would be able to help you make much more money than that. A man that could help you get back to your outpost and gain the rule back of your people. What do you say?” Ryukao’s look of shame intensified, he nodded his head and agreed with him. Taichi then offered him a hand and he picked Ryukao up. Taichi released his wood clone and both of the men began walking back towards the road. Both men looked into the sky and noticed just how hot it was that day. They then put their heads down and they began walking towards the outposts.

They continued to walk down the path, but Taichi was wanting to know just what had happened when he left, he needed to know who exactly was heading the bandit group if it wasn’t Ryukao. Taichi continued to walk the path and asked Ryukao, “So if you aren’t leading the group, someone still has to be leading them. So who is it?” Ryukao’s face turned sour, his anger seemed to boil and he answered with a cold and angry tone. “One of my seconds. He was a man that I had trusted to watch over the group a time or two when I was gone on business for the group.” Ryukao was obviously angry and Taichi understood as to why that was. “So we are going to need to figure out a way to kill this new leader and make it seem like you did it. If they find out that I did it, then that won’t exactly help the situation. I can easily get into the outpost and gain access to the new leader, but I don’t exactly know how you will be able to get into the outpost without being noticed. We will need to get into the leader building and kill him. If we can convince the people that you did it. They would be likely to give you back their allegiance and hopefully there are no other dissenters for a while, you would have to put him on display after he is dead, show the people what happens when they screw with you. Unfortunately, both of us are fairly new to this outpost, so we don’t know the exact layout. I have only been inside one time when I sacked the outpost, but I had not been paying attention to the exact layout. I do know where the leader building is. Do you think you would be able to get into the leader building without being caught?” Taichi asked.

Ryukao thought for a moment, seeming to contemplate on just how he was going to be able to enter into the outpost without being noticed. “I had taken a few walks around the outpost before I got booted out of there, I remember there being a hole in the wall on the north side. I had talked to my seconds about it and they had made some plans to patch the hole in the wall, so if they haven’t fixed it yet, that would be a great entry point. Only problem is the leader building is on the opposite side of the outpost, but I think I can sneak my way through to the leader’s building and help take him out.” Taichi nodded and began thinking of a plan that they would be able to enter into the outpost and take out the second wtihout alerting all of the other bandits. While Taichi would be able to fight off the entire group most likely, he didn’t want to. He wanted to help his friend, which meant that the only person that they would be able to kill, would be the false leader that was sitting in the leader’s building right now doing God knows what.

Taichi knew how he was going to get into the leader’s building, he was going to use his Mayfly technique to go into the Earth and use it to transport him under the outpost and into the leader building with ease. But he also needed to kill the current leader in a way that it would have been possible for Ryukao to have taken out, so no burning him to a crisp. Taichi also thought that he could just hold the current leader while Ryukao killed him, but he wasn’t entirely sure as of yet. He was going to figure that out a little closer to the time for action.

Taichi and Ryukao reached the outpost and they both began scanning the area to see if the hole in the wall that Ryukao had mentioned earlier on their way to the outposts, was still there. Taichi looked along the entire wall and he didn’t see anything there. Taichi asked Ryukao if he saw the hole in the wall that he had mentioned earlier, and he confirmed that he did not see it. “Looks like they patched it already, things just got a little more difficult.” Ryukao stated. Taichi nodded his head and he began searching the wall for any type of opening that Ryukao may be able to take advantage of and infiltrate the outpost. Taichi told Ryukao to stay where he was, then he activated his Mayfly technique. Taichi went into the ground and he moved through the Earth towards the outpost. When he got close to the wall, taichi popped his head out and was only partially submerged into the ground. He went through the Earth, looking at the wall inch by inch, waiting to find something that they would be able to exploit.

After searching for a few minutes, swimming through the Earth partially submerged, looking as if a head was being thrown around by magic, he finally found something. Taichi went back to Ryukao who had asked what Taichi had found. Taichi smiled and said that he thought that he had found something that might be able to help them get into the outpost without being noticed. He had found a sewer grate with weakened bars, so that would be the best way to get into the outpost without being noticed, no one wants to check the sewer, it’s disgusting. Taichi told Ryukao where to go and what to do when he got there. Taichi explained to Ryukao that when he was to leave his current position to go toward the west side of the outpost and crawl under the sewer grate after Taichi had the ability to cut the bars and open the way for Ryukao to get in.

Taichi went back into the ground and he quickly went over to the outpost wall and he began cutting the steel bars on the sewer grate with his chakra scalpels. After a few minutes of chopping at the metal, it finally gave and just then Ryukao arrived. Taichi told him how to get into the outpost from the sewer and Ryukao nodded as if he had understood. Taichi nodded and he used his Mayfly to get under the outpost and he began looking for the leader’s building. Taichi could feel all of the bandits that were walking above him above ground. Taichi was slightly concerned that Ryukao would be caught, but he needed to focus on the task at hand and let him deal with his own problems. Taichi popped his head out of the ground when he could no longer feel anyone above him. When he looked up, he saw no one surrounding him, so he came up from the ground and he began sneaking around the outpost, trying to find Ryukao. Taichi looked for a few minutes, but he couldn’t seem to find him. Taichi continued to look, dodging patrols that were walking near the perimeter of the outpost.

After around twenty minutes of looking, he finally gave up and figured that maybe he was already in the leader building, waiting for Taichi. He snuck over to the leader’s building, and he looked around it, hoping that he would find Ryukao, but he again found nothing. This is when he began fearing the worst. He thought that Ryukao was captured and was being tortured or was already killed. Taichi was hopeful that that wasn’t the case, but he was ready for that reality. Taichi decided to go in for the kill on the bandit leader, then he would find Ryukao afterwards. Taichi activated his Sharingan as he leaned against the front door of the leader’s building. Taichi took in a deep breath and shot through the door with his chakra scalpels activated on both of his hands. Luckily he had his Sharingan activated for the moment he went through the door, he saw a piece of wood coming for his face. Taichi ducked underneath it and rolled out of the way. When he got back to his feet he was able to see who had just swung the piece of wood, looking to knock him out. When he saw his assailant, he was stunned for a moment. “W….Why?” Taichi asked to the attacker, with a quivering voice, partly full of anger, while also being utterly shattered.

“I told you. I need money and I am going to do everything I can to get it. You said it yourself, I can make a couple thousand Ryo off of your body alone. But by the look of your eyes, I think I can do much better than that.” Ryukao walked out of the shadows and he exposed his face. His massive body lurking in the middle of the room, with a sinister grin on his face. Taichi couldn’t believe that he had been duped twice by this man, he trusted him twice and drug him across the desert to safety after wasting his own chakra and energy killing so many bandits that were trying to kill him. Taichi couldn’t believe that he did it again, he trusted someone, risked his life for someone, only to have that person betray him not once, but twice. Taichi’s sadness and depression turned into anger and fury. Taichi’s fists clenched, his eyes narrowed, his nose flared. “I trusted you. I trust you you bastard!” Taichi rushed toward Ryukao, chakra scalpels activated and he thrusted his right hand towards Ryukao’s stomach, only for him to dodge. Taichi was surprised at the speed. He stopped and asked, “Was there even a mutiny? Was all this a lie!?” Taichi could feel tears beginning to form in his eyes.

“You naive child. Of course this was a lie. The only thing that wasn’t planned was me being jumped by those bandits. But thanks to you, I survived that. Once I saw your strength when you tore down these outposts, I knew that you would have proven to be quite useful to me. You left and I almost immediately went out looking for you, hoping I could bring you back here and torture you to the point of handing me your mental servitude. With you at my right hand, there would be little that I would not be able to accomplish on the desolate plains of sand that this desert provides us. Constant caravan raids, we could even take on Suna one day, when you got stronger for me of course. Then I would be able to rule this desert, with you under my boot.” Ryukao looked at Taichi in a new way, as if he was already over him, dominating him. Taichi’s blood boiled. He could feel his chakra beginning to explode within his body.

Taichi could bring no words forth, he could only yell. Taichi deactivated his chakra scalpels. “I am going to beat you to death, these would make it quick for you!” Taichi sprinted towards Ryukao and launched a jump kick directly to Ryukao’s sternum. His mind was racing and only focusing on his anger and his fury. Ryukao let out a chuckle and grabbed Taichi’s leg, then proceeded to slam Taichi directly into the wall of the building. Taichi fell to the floor and immediately felt the pain overcome his body. Taichi’s anger was still skyrocketing, he leaped up from the floor, only to be met with Ryukao’s fist directly into Taichi’s stomach. Taichi doubled over and coughed up a little bit of blood. Taichi looked up and he saw Ryukao’s foot coming directly for his head. Taichi smirked, rolled out of the way. The hit to his stomach allowed Taichi to finally feel enough pain to break him out of his rage mode. Now that his mind was thinking more rational, he knew what he was going to do next. His Sharingan allowed Taichi to predict exactly what Ryukao was going to do next. Taichi watched Ryukao’s body beginning to throw a left straight directly for Taichi’s mouth, he dodged the massive fist and just as he was rolling over to the right, he activated his chakra scalpel and sliced the achilles tendon on his left foot.

Ryukao yelled out in pain and this is when his bandit friends began flooding the room. Taichi whipped his head around and performed the horse hand seal. He then blew out a massive cloud of fire, great fire annihilation, the bandits were then burned to ashes and Taichi focused in on Ryukao once again. He performed a drop kick on his right leg, on the back of the knee. This caused his knee to buckle and fall to a kneel. Taichi leaped up and threw a knee directly to the side of the head. Taichi’s knee connected and Ryukao fell to the floor, body barely moving. He looked up at Taichi and Taichi looked down at him. Taichi kneeled down, with pity in his face. “I’m sorry that you felt that this was something you needed to do. You are going to die tonight, as are the remainder of your group. They are going to plead for your help, but you will be unable to help them. You let your entire group down, over a few thousand Ryo that you will never receive. I hope it was all worth it to you.” Taichi was just about to slice his head off with his chakra scalpel, when Ryukao began to cry. He apologized for what he had done and pleaded for Taichi’s mercy. He promised that he wouldn’t hurt Taichi and he would even help him find the leader of the Walls of Jericho. Taichi heard all of his pleas, but they meant nothing to him. Taichi continued to look at him with his blank face, Ryukao had turned Taichi jaded to friendship, with the organs that he had, there was no one he could trust, Kenshin was right. Taichi waited for Ryukao to be finished before he picked him up and helped him over to a chair in the building and began healing his tendon that had been sliced with Taichi’s chakra scalpel. Ryukao was sobbing, thanking Taichi profusely for his mercy and for not killing him. Taichi faked a smile and told him it was no problem.

When he was done healing his tendon, he asked Ryukao to try and walk on it. When he did, he told Taichi that it felt wonderful. Taichi smiled and told Ryukao to be careful with it for a couple days. Ryukao thanked him again and they both walked out of the building. The remaining bandits were confused as to what was going on. Mostly wondering why they were both still alive and neither had died as a result of the fighting that was going on the night before. Taichi and Ryukao stood in the center of outpost and the bandits gathered around them. Ryukao lifted his hand and began speaking loud enough so the remaining bandits could hear his every word. “This is Taichi! He is a friend of our group and is to be treated as a guest every time he crosses your path! Is this understood?!” Taichi waved at the group of bandits and some waved back. Ryukao stretched out his hand to shake Taichi’s, which Taichi returned the gesture. Taichi then began to speak, “I wanted you all to know!” Taichi stopped for a second, he activated his chakra scalpels on his hands and continued, “You’re all fucking dead.” As he finished this sentence, he sliced Ryukao’s head clean off and watched as the bandits began scurrying around trying to run away from Taichi. Taichi grinned and massacred the entirety of the outposts, laughing maniacally as he did so. Taichi always wanted a friend, but due to Ryukao, the jadedness came over him and he gave up on the idea. With what he had inside his body, there was no chance he would ever trust anyone.

When he was done with the first outpost, he grabbed the head of Ryukao and he used his Mayfly to transport his body to the other outpost. When he arrived, he popped out of the ground directly in the center of the outpost. All of the bandits immediately gathered their arms and gasped when Taichi pulled Ryukao’s head out of his backpack and held it up for all to see. He tossed his head over his shoulder and goaded all of the bandits to come to Taichi to fight for their lives. Taichi spent about an hour slaughtering all of the bandits that filled the outposts. His thirst for revenge never being quenched and his rage to never be calmed until every single living organism in the outpost was skewered. When he was done, he kneeled down to the ground. With his rage being gone, his exhaustion came to the front of his mind. Taichi gathered a couple bodies and laid them out on the floor. When he felt like it was thick enough, he climbed on top and used the dead bodies as a bed. He laid on top of the bodies and slept like he never had before. Come tomorrow morning, he would resume his main goal, he would find the leader of the now dead bandit group the Walls of Jericho, and he would take out some of his aggressions on that bastard next.

WC:5281
+17 stats & 15 AP & 6250 Ryo (+250 for C Rank MN)
+381 toward Water Wall (737/1500)
+2450 towards One with the water (completed)
+2450 towards mastering One with the water (completed) [No hand seals/Less AP]

Approved