[MISSION] Remove The Impaled [MISSION]

It sounds inhumane for anyone to deny death to the living via different medicinal practices, however, while reading the Mission Board, he spotted a task that briefed quickly about that very incident. One of the past Raikages didn't like the idea of people not siding with his motions to forward Kumo, and some of those people were injected with a poison that caused the body to continuously rot while keeping its host alive. "Gross as hell,", Rayul the upcoming Shinobi of the Cloud thought, "but how could I pass down an opportunity to get up and close with some crazy poisons designed by med-ninjas?". Ripping the piece of paper of the board, and stuffing it inside his pockets, he'd be going outside the village once again as he visits the Forest of Kumogakure to see if this mission is as gruesome as it claims.

Never has he visited the Black Forest of Kumogakure, but it doesn't take him long to learn how it got its name, as he reaches the border of the dense region. Every tree in sight was pitch black with white vines growing from them, and they seem to be rather tall compared to the ones he's accustomed to from inside the village. It's unnaturally dark here, as the sheer amount of trees huddled so close together almost completely block out all sources of light. As he walks through, hoping that he is headed the right direction, he feels as if he is in an entirely new world. "I wonder who in the hell would come here and train. This might be a good place for sensory ninjas to hone their skills.", he thinks to himself. He wasn't told exactly where to find the bodies once he got to the forest, but common sense told him that he'd be able to hear the groans of dying people looking for salvation and that he did. After minutes of walking in a nearly straight line, he begins to hear a faint noise: almost as if someone was quietly calling out to someone. The darkness is making it hard for him to see naturally but fears not, for he's brought along with him a tool he didn't think he would need. His eyes. He activates his Sharingan, and scans the area around him, hoping to be able to pick up on some chakra. Not noticing anything at first, in the distance he sees a faint sign of dying chakra, almost nearly depleted, but it was surely there. The genin starts pacing towards the area the chakra is in, pushing through branches and almost tripping over the huge roots protruding from the ground below. He was getting closer, as the sounds were becoming more audible. It was definitely a cry for help, and now almost being at the location of the noise, he could hear and see that there were multiple "beings".Looking forward, he notices a small patch of light shining down on an open area and sees an object that he cannot make out from the distance in which he is at. Continuing, he reaches the opening, and upon him is a sight for sore eyes. Impaled on spikes, scattered randomly throughout the opening, men and women cried out in agony repeatedly, wishing for their death. The smell was horrid, one of the worst he's ever smelt. It was so intense, the Shinobi is forced to his knees as he vomits, barely being able to breathe. His Sharingan is turned off at this moment as he tries to regain his composure. The face mask he is wearing isn't helping at all, and fearing that the scent might get stuck in it, he chooses to take it off completely and staches it inside of his backpack. "God, why are there so many of them?", he pondered. They didn't seem to have a grasp on language anymore, for they were only mumbling, but he knew what they were probably saying, and that's why he was sent here. All he had to do was remove them from the pikes, and their souls would be free and they would be able to pass on into the afterlife. Simple enough, yes, but the stench and how many there was to remove is what would make it more difficult than it had to be. Praying that none of the poison would get on him, he takes off his socks and uses them as gloves, as he walks up to the first body.

As he reaches the dying man, the smell is even stronger. Poking the leg, his finger almost goes completely through it, as if the skin was made of water. Grabbing the man by his waist, Rayul pushes up, causing the man to scream. "Hey! You're already dead, no need for all of that.", Rayul commanded. Realizing that he wasn't tall enough to completely lift the man off of the pike, he'd have to go a different route. The pikes were hammered into the ground, and digging without a shovel would take him probably a week. It seems as if he had no other option but to cut the bodies off splitting them in half and pulling them from the pikes one by one. Since they were already decaying and rotted, their bodies where near mush, so it would be easy to do, just disgusting as hell. Never-the-less, a job is a job, and it must be done. Pulling out a Kunai from his backpack, Rayul raises it towards the start of the man's chest. Impaling the rotting corpse as screeches are let out, Rayul pulls the blade down, ripping straight through the flesh all the way downwards between the man's legs. Once he reaches the bottom, he grabs an arm on the man and pulls it behind the pike, causing the split-into-two body to fall off. A small wisp arises from the corpse and ascends into the sky, signaling that the passing of the soul is complete. He wasn't told what to do with the body, but seeing the state that they all were currently it, leaving them there for nature to handle wouldn't take long at all. He moves on to the second body, repeating the same actions as he's done with the first, watching as a purple wisp arises from the ladies' body as it touches the ground. It felt rather peaceful to the Genin, knowing that he was set free the lives of those who wished it. He still thought to himself the nature of such a poison and contemplated on whether jutsu could be involved in any way. As he got to the 3rd body, he had trouble removing it from its impalement, as this one wasn't as decayed as the rest. While trying to cut down the middle of the body it proved to be more resistant to his blade, and as he tugged down on the kunai trying to get it to pass through, the body cried out in pain. Saddened by the results of failing to liberate the soul as "humanely" as possible, he chose to move on to another body, allowing the elderly-looking man time calm down, even though nothing about his situation would ever be calm.

He was rather swift with liberating these "traitors" to the afterlife. Before he had known it, only 4 bodies remained on pikes, including the old man he failed at removing earlier. He walked back over, and already half-way through the man's body, rips through the rest with a quick slash of his kunai, and pushes on the shoulder of the corpse, causing it to fall back. As it makes contact with the earth beneath, instead of the wisp ascending into the sky, this one was Red and shot up into the air for a brief moment before burrowing itself into the ground out of sight, "Well, I guess I know where he's headed.", he told himself. Knowing that the man's soul was sent to a realm in which he wishes he isn't condemned to when he passes, Rayul begins to slice through one of the final few bodies, making haste as he reaches his end goal.

He chose to take a quick water break while on his mission, and as he reached inside his backpack to grab his water bottle, he noticed that his socks began to rot. He instantly knew the cause of it and took them off as quick as he could. Instead of drinking the water, he used it to wash his hands off, hoping that none of the poison was able to reach his hands before he noticed, and if so, praying that the water would wash it off. He seemed fine and felt fine, but now he knows that he has to be more careful with the bodies. He wouldn't want to be one of them, hell if he was, he'd just sit in the forest alone waiting for someone like himself to come liberate him. Thinking on whether to continue with the same method he used before in sending them to the afterlife or to devise a new one, he chose the latter. He didn't even want to risk getting poisoned, so instead of cutting the bodies in half and pulling them off the pikes, he'd cut them and kick them off. "The poison shouldn't be able to soak through my boots. They're so thick and dense.", he told himself. Lacing up his boots, with no socks on, he walks over to one of the final bodies. Performing the same technique as before, he goes to work with cutting the body in half, and once achieved, he steps back and ready himself for a kick. "Hope you don't take this personal, buddy.", he insisted, and shifting his weight to the left, Rayul brought his leg up to shoulder high, and with a round motion kicked the left side of the body behind itself, using gravity to make the other half of the body fall to the ground together. A more violent method, yes, but it still proved to be effective. He'd only have to do this 3 more times, and by the time he reached the final body, he realized that the smell was nearly completely gone. "I guess the dying smells worse than the dead.", he proclaimed as his Kunai was driven into the woman's dying body. Driving his blade down symmetrically, he cuts the woman into two, and with another kick her body flings behind the pike onto the floor, releasing a wisp symbolizing the passing. He repeated this only twice more, and with the last wisp also ascending into the heavens, Rayul left his boots alongside the last pike, not wanting to even risk contamination of the Poison anywhere he goes. He reaches in his back and grabs his face mask, and puts it back on, and the shoeless Shinobi starts his journey out of the Black Forest back towards the Village of Komogakure.

Upon reaching the village gates, a Guard asks what happened to his shoes. He briefs the man upon the mission he was tasked and is commended for his bravery and loyalty to his nation. He thanks the man for the compliment, and continues through the gates. He returns to the Mission Headquarters to turn in the mission, and as he is handed his Ryo for a job well done, he is also given a cookie specially baked by the medical ninja who was improving the very poison that caused the situation he had to fix. He thanks the administrator for the "gift", and as he exits the building he tosses it on the ground, hoping that no animal was to eat it, just in case it was laced with poison. He gets home, and as he walks through the door his Aunt hits him with the same question ad the Gate Guard, in which he briefs her on the mission he did today. She is in shock that a past Raikage would do such a thing to his people, and prays that times like that never exist again. Positive that their current Raikage wouldn't do anything like that, he reassures his Aunt as he heads up the flight of stairs and into his room. As he shuts his door, he sits on the side of the bed as he realizes he only has one pair of boots left, and they are and an off-shade variant of Black. Slowly drifting asleep, the Ninja of the Cloud contemplates whether he should return to the forest to retrieve his most loved footwear.

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