Unlikely savior

Taichi had finished his prayers fairly late in the evening, the sun had already set and the darkness filled the air. He rose from his knees and he began to walk back into town. The brisk evening air blew through his platinum hair and caused a slight shiver to spike down his spine. He ensured his vest was on tight as he walked. He passed by the bench that he had sat upon when he and Stein had talked. The day that he had learned so much about Stein and why it was that he decided to return to his old life, the life of a criminal to the village of Konoha. 

Stein had given him much to think about, much about what he was going to do with not only his life, but with his powerful abilities. He could just fade away from existence, just hide away in the village that he now resided within, should he be allowed to do so. Or when the Chuunin exams were over he could go back into the borders, traveling from village to village, making whatever money he could before being shipped out of the village once again. He knew that he wanted something different than that life, he wanted something more stable. He wanted a place that he could settle, a place to hang his hat as it were. But was this the place for him? Only time could tell, but as far as he could tell for himself, he was quite comfortable here.

He came across a trail, a trail that he had not seen before in his time within the reserve. He saw some evidence of a rather large animal roaming the area, some broken sticks and a dung pile off to the side. He thought to himself for a moment, he thought that that large of a creature was probably too close to the village and it was better to lead it deeper into the forest, that way the younger members of the village were less likely to be attacked. As he began down the trail, he could hear the snarls of what was likely the very animal he had begun to track. He ran to see just what the animal was doing.

Ro was lying on his back at the base of a boulder, nursing a large cut on his upper chest. It was still morning, and a light fog had descended upon the Wild Reserve. The mist wasn't blinding to familiar eyes, but the Sarutobi descendant firmly believed that it might hide his location from the horror that was after him. 

He was wearing a hunting outfit, known as country borders armor, over it a dark woolen cloak all in tatters covered in dirt, ash, and Sarutobi blood. His shaggy hair was practically a mess, greyer now than black. Ro tried to steady his heartbeat while his blue eyes also observed the surroundings. 

Three meters away was the half-eaten carcass of an elk, its head almost severed from the neck with bear fang marks. Ro instantly recognized the dead stag as a clue he had used earlier to track down the woodland predator. He had not realized he had run that far back until now. "Come on motherfucker." The Genin let out the brief whisper while thinking of this adventure he had decided to undertake alone. As the sound of branch snapping echoed through the woods and a growl filled the air, the Konoha native thought of how he ended up in this pickle.

We are in search of brave men and women,
We have received reports that a monster has made its den is in our woods. Considering the history of Hoshigakure, the council has decided not to take any chances. Your mission is to go out and hunt it. Our reports mention a wolf as big as an ox, others a bear.  Either way, this is not an average creature, but it will trouble us no more.


To Victory
Hoshi Council of Elders

Ro had felt a sacred call after reading this on the mission board. Or perhaps the desire to redeem himself after failing the first round of Genin Exams. Ro was already good at toughening things up, but undertaking this mission alone proved to be more stupid than brave.

He should have turned back after the elk or when he saw the hunters’ dead bodies in the woods. If he had, the beast wouldn’t have emerged from within the cave to attack Ro the moment he reached its entrance.

The short battle was a bloody thing. The Sarutobi took a blow to the head and another in the chest, where the claws cut chainmail and boiled leather. And the beast knocked the blade off his hands, yet he still fought one with his ash release techniques. He remembered how desperate he was to reclaim his sword, he had no coin to buy a new one, and without it, Ro could never be a knight. 

That was all he was thinking off if truth be told, before he ran out of chakra and also out of courage. He had gotten a good distance between them, but the creature’s growls were getting closer now, most likely tracing him through the morning mists with its keen sense of smell. Before the Sarutobi could think this further, he felt the glare of those red eyes once again behind his back, as a massive paw sunk in the mud-caked earth, and another was raised high in the sky for a downward swing.

WC:524

Taichi's instinct was right in his concern, he knew there were some terrible beasts in this reservation and it was none too wise to have them so close to the village. Now the only question that remained in his mind was how he was going to get the beasts farther away from the village without harming them. Knowing this was a wildlife reserve, he was not going to be to quick to kill the beasts as that would be counter productive to what this reservation was trying to do, reserve the wildlife. 

Taichi continued into the woods, following the trails of what seemed to be quite the sizeable beast, until he had passed the body of a dead hunter. He assumed it was a hunter due to the garb he was wearing and the equipment that he was once carrying. Now dead, Taichi assumed that this beast had already had the taste of human blood, and would likely be impossible to tame, without the help of his genjutsu, that is. He continued down the trail, seeing that the tracks were as fresh as he originally assumed when he began hearing the growls coming from a little deeper into the forest. He pulled a kunai out of his weapon's pouch and he creeped his way through the trees, being sure not to draw too much attention to himself as he began hearing another sound coming from the same direction, that of a human, a child by the sounds of it, battling the monster. 

Activating his enhanced eyesight with his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan he quietly began sprinting towards the sounds of flesh tearing and armor breaking when he finally saw the beast with his own eyes. It stood at least twice Taichi's height when he was on his hind legs, and the claws on this monster looked to be just as sharp as the kunai he held in his hand. He seemed to come in at the right time, if not just a little late. The boy had tried valiantly, but he was no match for the giant beast that stood before him. The child created some distance from the animal, just enough for Taichi to interrupt the animal's attack. Taichi sprinted into the situation, Sharingan still active when he threw his kunai at the animal's paw before it had the chance to swipe down upon the child for it's final blow. 

The animal's paw would recoil from the pain, allowing Taichi just enough time to come in closer and have three branches protrude from his body and use two to block any attack from the animal's claws, while having the the third branch extend directly for the lung of the animal. He knew that he at first wanted to keep the animal alive, but an animal on a rampage may never truly calm down again and it was better for the village that this animal meet it's end before he killed anymore of the inhabitants of the village. With the beast having a collapsed lung, it wouldn't have the strength to commit itself to another attack. But Taichi would ensure the beast's death before he would give it no more of his attention. 

He would kneel beside the animal and he would pray to the gods, he would thank them for allowing him the opportunity to save the child, and to slaw the beast before him. After he prayed, he rose to his feet and finally gave the boy his attention. "You have some fairly serious lacerations, here, lie back. There isn't anyway I'll be able to get you back to the village before you bleed out on me." Taichi would press his hands against the ground and focus his chakra, creating from the ground a small table for him to lie on. After aiding the child onto the table, should the child allow, he would use basic medical ninjutsu to close up the wounds and to heal whatever internal bleeding there may be due to the injuries the child has sustained. Once done, the two would be able to talk more thoroughly about just what it was that brought this child out into the deeper parts of the forest, a place where children had no place in wandering randomly.

"Tell me. What exactly was it that brought you out this deep into the wildlife reserve? This is no place for a child such as yourself to wander on your own." Taichi would say, leaning back on the tree that was behind him, taking a small swig  of whiskey from the flask that resided within his vest pocket.

The boy was shocked, and for all he knew, everything happened at once. A whirlwind appeared, moving in a blur. For some reason, midway through the swing, the beast seemed to lose its focus and momentum.

The man wasted no time and moved on to the attack, but the beast did not seem to react to the attack even then. Not that it wasn’t fast enough, it was as if he was not aware of
It.

Wooden spears carved through fur and muscle, and the bear let out a roar before hitting the ground with a loud thud. Its eyes showing the intelligence hint, seemed to be alive even though the rest of its body was dying. A pool of red blood began to appear underneath, where leaves and ground eagerly drank from it. The man kneeled beside it, about to grant it the gift of mercy. The unlikely savior ushered a prayer in a language that Ro had not heard before. This was the city of all faiths, but the man was not from here.

“Thank you, stranger.” The Genin said, pressuring his wound and taking deep heavy breaths. “I’m Ro Sarutobi. A Sarutobi butchered like a pig, I might add.” Ro watches as the man vegan to create a makeshift wooden table, to presumably heal him. If he wanted him dead, he could have let the bear do it, not to the extra mile to finish the job himself.

There was no possibility to risk it. “For a moment, I had feared bly entrails had spilled out.” He said, scared, struggling to remain conscious. He either allow him to heal me now or rush to the hospital, where he’d probably die on the way from blood loss before he could even get the building with eyeshot. 

He lied down to the table.  “I wanted to prove my valor with this mission. But now it looks like all the stitches in the world won’t save me now.”

wc:328

"Sarutobi, eh? I haven't seen a Sarutobi for myself, but I have read about them. Good to meet you, young friend. My name is Taichi Uchiha, and don't worry you weren't butchered, at least not yet." Taichi continued to patch the child up when he began to explain just what it was that he was doing out here in the wild alone, trying to take on the monstrous beast that was once standing before him. The child spoke of valor, and rying to prove himself on a mission that he was given. Taichi furrowed his eyebrows, wondering who on Earth would give such a young child this mission when they had to have known that it was going to be too much for him.

"Don't worry, you're not too far gone. I should be able to mend you up at least enough until I can get you over to the hospital, they should be able to get you patched up the rest of the way. But first, I got to get you over to the hospital so the more trained medical ninja finish the job for us." Taichi placed his hands on the table that he had created and he caused four handles to extend from the ends of the table, after which he would create a wood clone of himself to help Taichi carry the poor child in the newly formed stretcher. The wood clone had walked around to the other side and he the two Taichi's picked up the child in the stretcher and hurriedly carried him off to the hospital.

Once the group had reached the hospital, he set the child down gently before having his clone rush in and grab some professional help to get the child back to his normal state and finish the job that Taichi had started for them. The wood clone got back with the medical ninja who took it over from there. "Alright kid, you're going to be okay. Don't worry so much and don't worry about your honor, sometimes the mission just gets ahead of you, but you won't let it happen again. Learn from this experience and push yourself to get even farther than you could ever dream. See ya kid." Taichi would then take a step back, dispel his clone and allow the medical ninja to take the child into their care so they could more completely heal the child.

Taichi saw there to be no reason for his presence to continue, so he decided to withdraw back to the village, figuring there was a tavern's barstool missing him by now. He hoped the child would get better from the injuries that he had indeed sustained, but he had plenty of faith in the village's shinobi.He watched as the medical staff brought him into the hospital that was there behind them, and he walked into the village, trying to decide which of the taverns he would spend the rest of his day.

As he was walking through the village, he thought back to the bear that had nearly killed the poor Sarutobi. He was so curious as to what kind of leadership would have such a young child brave the wild that was the wildlife reserve. He knew that the village had some rather hardcore religious folk, so maybe the leadership had believed that their god would have protected the child, and would have granted him the strength of ten men. 

Unfortunately this time the child didn't fare so easily and ended up getting saved by an unlikely individual, little old him. He wasn't one that was quick to protect others, not anymore, but there was something about the life of the village ninja that was just beginning to affect his mindset. He was wanting to protect those that couldn't protect themselves, even if he had nothing to benefit from their being saved. He used to love the idea of saving those around him, but with the constant sorrow that was his life, he was beginning to feign away from such a mindset.

This village was certainly something of interest to him as it had only been a few weeks since he had entered the village's gates, but he had felt so at home since that very night. Maybe it was the abundance of taverns for him to park himself throughout the night, or maybe there was something deeper that his body and soul was latching to. 

WC: 1882


+1875 towards Mind’s Eye of the Kagura (completed)

Approved

"It was all a nightmare," The Sarutobi warrior thought.

Even after he woke up, he could see nothing around him. As if the darkness at the end of his dream enveloped the whole world. As if his dream never ended. He knew he was awake, though. The pain that stabbed through him confirmed it. After a time, the vague outlines of a room appeared around him. The drapes were closed. Under him was the yielding softness of a bed, and the pillow beneath his head was goose down. "This bed is not my bed." It was warm beneath the blankets that covered him up to his chest, but his arms, they felt exposed. "A hospital bed, I am in a hospital, The Sarutobi thought groggily. Ro attempted to lift his head, but it felt enormous too heavy to raise. He was so weak he gave up the effort. How did I end up here? 

It all came back to him in fits and flashes: The half-eaten men, the bear who nearly clawed Ro to death with his punches, and the missing ninja who helped him. "Young-man," The stranger called him, and Ro hated for he was a man grown. He wanted to thank for everything else, though. Yet when he looked around for his savior, he was all alone in the dark."Grandfather, if you were still around, I wouldn't have to suffer like this. He began falling back to his sleep, hoping his head would stop pounding.

The following day, he opens his eyes; and a beautiful woman was standing over him. She was tall, taller than Ro and the sun made her hair look more gold than silver. Her regal clothing gave away she was not of the nursing staff and her white eyes to which family she belonged.

"Let me guess, Lord Hogokage sends you in his stead to pass justice." 
"She sends me in his stead to take care of you. You went to do a mission way out of your league even after Shina strictly forbidden you to."

"Why wouldn't I!?" Ro bristled. "Ayato let my grandfather take any mission he pleased. And always looked at him for council." In many ways, Lance Sarutobi was Ayato's mentor, taught him everything he needed to know in terms of using his brain when the Gentle Fist couldn't get the job done.

"You're not ready for that, and probably you'll never be," She told him, and Ro felt anger coiling around him like a snake. "And what do you know of not being able to live to the Ayato's ideals."
She smiled, a gentle smile."More than you."

Ro looked away, somehow ashamed at the realization. He finally realized who the woman was. "Apologies, Lady Natsuki, my brush with death has left me quite shaken. Tell the Seventh I'm thankful he sent his sister to check on me." It had been a while since Ro had seen Natsuki, and that was only from afar. And when they served a different village. 

"A man saved me, and he wasn't from Hoshi. " Ro let out begrudgingly. "He gutted the beast with some form of wooden branches." Ro had seen Dusk Tachibana in action too many times not to recognize Wood Release. 

"Yes, I am aware. Shina looked for him while I stitched you back." Natsuki Hyuuga said, her face still as a porcelain mask as she examined the Sarutobi's patched wounds. "The description witnesses gave us helped track him down. His name is Taichi Uchiha. Harold allowed him entry a couple of weeks ago, and he has been offering assistance in missions as a sword arm for hire. Rumors have it that he spends the coin he makes in drinking himself stupid." 

"A missing-nin!?" Who knew there was a sellsword this strong. 

"Not for long. Ayato has been impressed by his bravery and plans to ask Taichi to join his service. You'll probably get your chance to thank him." Natsuki's white eyes moved quickly and didn't miss much. Ro wasn't sure if he should be thankful or jealous.

WC: 675
[EXIT]

1,527 TWC

Claims for Natsuki

1125/1125 towards Mastering poison mist for reduced handseals
402/1125 towards mastering poison mist x2 for no handseals

Approved