Part Time Bodyguard

Mission:

Kita was enjoying a large bowl of cereal when the letter slipped underneath the door. Kita barely noticed it over the couch of his food, but the slight crinkling of the envelope as it was squeezed underneath his door was unmistakable. Kita turned about, setting the spoon down and walking over to the doorway, looking at the crumpled letter sitting on the ground. Kita began to bend down before pausing. For a moment, Kita considered not picking it up. After all, he could use a day off, and his cereal was pretty good. After a moment, Kita shrugged and picked up the letter. He couldn't just turn down any mission he didn't want to do, and he had to pay for things on his own somehow. Kita brought the envelope over to his table and opened the note, reading it aloud as he continued crunching on his cereal. "Kita Hajime. You have been assigned to escort Koike Noboru, head of the Floodtech Foundation, as well as his wife during a shopping trip. The trip is scheduled at exactly 12:00 P.M., and you will meet the couple outside of their estate, located at an address detailed at the bottom of this letter. This mission had been assigned as a C-Rank mission, due to intelligence reports that Mr. Noboru will be attacked at some point during the day. The extensive number of death threats, as well as town rumors, suggests that there are a number of individuals who disagree with Mr. Noboru's business practices, and seek to remove him from his position as head of the foundation through violent means. From what little information intelligence could gather, it is assumed that those individuals hoping to bring harm to Mr. Noboru possess little to no combat training, and should prove no issue to a trained shinobi. Should any harm come to Mr. Noboru and his wife, the mission will be considered a failure." Kita continued looking through the note, excited at the prospect of the mission. Escorting the couple would be boring, sure, but Kita was excited to experience a mission with real opponents. Previously, it had always been information gathering, or grunt work, with Kita never having the opportunity to test his skills against a live opponent. This on the other hand, would provide Kita ample opportunity to test his skills. Kita quickly finished off the last of his cereal, and skimmed through the rest of the note, rushing into his room and throwing on his standard clothes. Kita grabbed his new katana as well, checking to ensure that it was still shining and sharp. He clicked it back into place, fastening to his belt, before rushing out the door to meet his client.

Kita walked hastily through the streets of Kirigakure, following the directions to the clients address as quickly as he could. It wasn't long before he arrived at the client's estate. It wasn't the largest that Kita had seen, but the size of the estate was massive in its own right. It rose high above the tops of the surrounding buildings, and cast a shadow over the surrounding area. Standing in front of the estate was a man, dressed in a formal suit, wearing glasses and combed black hair. Next to the man was his wife, who was dressed in more casual clothes, holding a purse at her side. The two were conversing with each other about their day shopping when Kita strode up to them. "Good afternoon! Sorry to intrude, but are you two Mr. and Mrs. Noboru?" They looked at each other and hesitated for a moment, before Kita flashed them his largest grin. "You don't have to worry! I'm not part of whatever group is threatening you. My name is Kita Hajime. I'm the ninja that they sent to watch after you on your shopping trip." Kita gestured to his belt, which proudly displayed his forehead protecter. The couple looked a bit relieved, and the man began to speak. "Sorry about that. You can't be too careful lately." The man took off his glasses and wiped them off with a handkerchief that he had in his pocket, before putting the glasses back on. "Forgive me for asking, but I have to make sure. Are you any good? It might be better if we just cancelled. After all, we can get whatever we need delivered." His wife stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Sweetheart, you can't let them get to you. It'll be fine, I promise. They wouldn't send us a bodyguard who didn't know how to handle himself. We'll have ourselves a nice time on a little shopping trip, and then we'll come back home. Does that sound good?" She smiled warmly at her husband, and he relaxed a bit, giving an uneasy grin back at his wife. He was still a bit jittery, and Kita waved his hand, through the air, as if he were brushing the man's concerns away. "I understand the concern sir, but I promise you that I'm more than capable of handling a couple of thugs. I promise you, I have the experience necessary to handle this kind of mission." Kita thought back to his first mission, when he saved a number of younger children who had been kidnapped and held for ransom. "This probably won't be so different. After all, it's only a couple of untrained thugs. How hard could it be?" Kita thought to himself. The man nodded, and clasped his hands together. "So how exactly is this going to work? You go ahead of us and check for any traps or undercover assassins?" Kita laughed and shook his head. "I don't think you have to worry about any undercover assassins Mr. Noboru. We don't have any reason to suspect that the people coming after you are highly trained mercenaries. From what we can tell, they're a couple of untrained street criminals. All that I'm going to do is follow behind you from a small distance. That way we can catch the criminals who are after you, and you can have a nice afternoon with your wife. Trust me, you won't even know I'm there!" The man gave a shaky laugh. "Alright, I trust you. What time do we head out?" Kita shrugged. "Whenever you're ready. Like I said, just lead the way, and I'll follow." His wife patted Koike Noboru on the back, and looked Kita in the eye. "Let's get going then!"

Kita followed behind the couple, watching as they went into the market place and walked from stall to stall, laughing and chatting with each other. Kita followed behind out of sight, watching as they made their way between the various shops. He had disguised himself to look like an average citizen, hiding his ninja clothing and Kirigakure protector. Kita's eyes darted between other figures in the crowd, trying to determine where the would be assassins were hiding. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Kita couldn't see anyone so much as looking at the couple out shopping. He was beginning to believe that intel might have been wrong. Maybe there wasn't going to be an attack on Mr. Noboru. Kita thought back to the mission details. Mr. Noboru had been receiving death threats from people scared that they would lose their homes to the growing Floodtech Foundation. The idea behind the company was simple, using the constant artificial storm that flowed through Kirigakure, they could channel the runoff floodwater into nearby hydroelectric generators, creating a greater deal of cheap power to Kirigakure. However, that process needed land, and large swaths of land were being purchased by the foundation to create the basins and generators needed to keep the business growing. Kita snapped back to reality. Someone was trailing behind Mr. and Mrs. Noboru. He was a small man, even smaller than Kita was. He had on a thick brown jacket, filled with several holes. Kita almost ignored him until he noticed the knife at the man's side. Kita moved forward quickly, tailing the man in the brown jacket. The criminals were about to make their move.

Kita watched the couple make their way away from this area of the market, slowly walking over to another area of the city. Kita distantly overheard them discussing something about getting lunch together. The man in the ripped brown coat followed behind, his hand slowly drifting closer and closer to the knife in his pocket. Kita followed behind, a bead of sweat starting to form on his head. "Am I ready for this? Can I actually do this? I've only been in one real fight before! What if I'm not strong enough, or I'm too slow, or..." Kita didn't have time to continue that thought process. Mr. and Mrs. Noboru rounded a street corner and began going down an unpopulated part of town. The man in the ripped brown coat's hand reached the knife and unsheathed it, holding it in his hand. Kita was out of time to think. As the man rounded the corner, Kita saw him begin to raise the knife upward, starting to raise it above his head, and he began to pick up in speed. Kita raced forward, heart hammering in his chest, rounding the street corner after the group. Kita saw the man right behind Mr. Noboru, knife high above his head, Mr. Noboru oblivious to his presence. Kita raced forward, pounding the pavement with his feet, praying to whatever god was listening that he could make it in time. As the knife began to fall, Kita leaped into the air, pivoting his body into a spin as he did. As he spiraled around, picking up the momentum needed for the kick to be truly effective, Kita's left leg came up just in time, slamming into the man's neck just before Mr. Noboru was stabbed. As Kita's foot drove into the man's neck, Kita felt a crack. The man's body fell to the ground, knife clattering from his hand, and his neck twisted in a bizarre angle. He shuddered and convulsed for a second on the ground, before falling still. As Mr. Noboru and his wife comforted each other, Kita stared down at the body, horrified. He felt like he was frozen in time, and he felt the experience over, and over, and over again in his head. The kick, the knife, his neck. He felt his stomach churning, and had just a moment before he vomited on the ground in front of himself. Kita had never killed anyone before. Truth be told, he didn't even want to kill this man. Kita just wanted to stop him. The man's face was contorted  shock, the last emotion he had felt before his life was snuffed out. It was... haunting. Kita looked to the side, and saw nine more criminals at the side of the street that they had entered into. This wasn't over.

Kita quickly wiped the vomit from his mouth and ripped off his civilian disguise, turning to face the thugs that were slowly filing into the street. Kita saw them wielding knives and clubs, one of them even had a sword. Their clothes were ratty and old, and their weapons seemed to be composed of whatever they could find. Kita stood as tall as he could, despite the fact that he was trembling and shaking. He held out his hands, one forward, and one to the side. His hands shook to a near impossible degree, and his voice was shaky and unconfident when he spoke. "Stay back! Your friend is already dead, and you'll be next if you try anything! Give up quietly, and we can lessen your prison sentence!" They laughed and continued advancing. One rather large man spoke in a low tone, and attempted to stare down Kita. "You and what army kiddo? I don't know how you managed to kill anyone when you're sitting there, blubbering like a baby. You're a dirty hypocrite. You're defending a man making people homeless, and you're willing to kill to protect him, but then start crying after you did like you're the victim. I'm the one that's going to have to go home and explain to his wife that he isn't coming home." Kita's legs shook, and tears welled in his eyes. "You're wrong! I didn't mean to kill him!" The man shook his head. "Doesn't matter much either way. Whether you meant to kill him or not, he's dead now. There isn't any changing that. Now, you're going to join him. We can't exactly have any witnesses." The men advanced forward, and Kita's hand reflexively went to the hilt of the katana at his belt. Kita unsheathed it, drawing the blade and interposing it between himself and the men in front of him. They laughed, brandishing their weapons, and holding them forward, intending to fight. Kita couldn't stop shaking. It was do or die by this point. Kita felt something shift inside himself. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but Kita felt his mind slip away. He wouldn't die here. Kita looked at the nine men, and clasped his hands together. He willed the chakra to his hands, feeling and molding the power. Slowly, he made the hand seals necessary to create the jutsu. Tiger, Rat, Boar (20 AP, 280 AP Remaining). As he finished, water from nearby puddles in the street began to rise in droplets, covered in glowing cyan light. The criminals backed up, and Kita pointed his blade at them. The droplets fired at the criminals, colliding with them, causing them to scream in pain. They attempted to fall back, but Kita advanced forward, holding his katana out to swing. Three of the men fell there, knocked unconscious or killed by Kita's jutsu. Kita swung hard at one of the men, arcing the blade upwards in a diagonal motion, colliding with the bottom side of the man's neck and coming out the top at the other side, decapitating him. The surviving men yelped, running for the exit. Kita sheathed his blade and drew Shuriken from his bag, tossing 5 at the men. They all crumpled to the ground. Three left. They all looked back, noticing their fallen companions on the ground. Two of them lowered their weapons to the ground, and raised their hands, surrendering to spare their lives. The last man though, glowered at Kita, holding a heavy club in his hands. It was the same man who insulted Kita earlier. "I ain't going down without a fight kiddo." He held the club high and rushed towards Kita, swinging the club down and attempting to bash his head in. Kita slashed his sword upward, cutting the club in two, and sending half of it skittering into a nearby storm drain. The man had only a moment to realize in terror what was about to happen before Kita stepped back. He held his sword aloft, holding it up near his head, holding the underside of the hilt near the front, and the top side in the back of the hilt, aiming it at the man's chest. Kita thrust the blade forward, driving it through the man. He collapsed to the ground as Kita pulled his sword out, and sheathed it. Tears welled in his eyes, and Kita began to cry and Mr. and Mrs. Noboru looked on in horror. Mission complete.

Word Count = 2563 Words

Claims =

Mission Claims: 

Ryo (2100) (100 from Genin bonus, 2000 from mission)

+5 AP

Stat Claims:

+25 Strength (2500 Words)

Jutsu Claims:

Mark Tracking (1000/1000) (Was working towards it before, 1647 Words left)

Shadow Clone Jutsu (1500/1500) (147 Words Left)

Metal Crusher (147/2000)

Approved.