Learning the Ropes [Mission]

Mission:

Kenshi took a deep breath as he finished packing up his camp. He was fairly certain it would only be a few more days until he reached Tanbogakure, and he was starting to get a little more nervous about the prospect. What would the shinobi of that village be like? Would he even be allowed to enter the village?

These thoughts kept circling through his head as he walked along the road. He had decided to take a bit of a longer route, sticking near the border to the Land of Fire in order to avoid the wandering bandits that seemed to plague the Land of Rice. He assumed there would be shinobi from Konohagakure patrolling somewhat regularly on their side of the border, which meant that hopefully he would be able to get assistance if he needed it.

It was, therefore, a surprise when a pair of shinobi lept out from the treeline to his right and blocked his path along the road. "Good afternoon," Kenshi said in greeting.

"Listen here," one of the shinobi replied. "A small village a few miles from here was attacked last night. Know anything about that?" Kenshi shook his head. He had a bad feeling about where this was going… "We've got witnesses that put you as one of the attackers."

"Me?" Kenshi asked, incredulous.

"That's right," the other shinobi shot back. "Tall man, bright red hair." He glanced at the backpack Kenshi was wearing. "Made off with a good haul of the villagers' belongings."

"Look," Kenshi said, trying to disarm the situation but calling up the chakra inside of him to respond in case it was needed, "I'm just passing through the Land of Rice on my way to Tanbogakure. I haven't even been on the Land of Fire's side of the border."

"Alright, looks like you wanna do this the hard way." Without any other attempt at conversation, the two shinobi reached into their equipment pouches and flicked a pair of kunai at Kenshi. Caught a little off guard, Kenshi just barely managed to dodge them before taking off at a sprint away from the shinobi.

The two were on his heels as he ran. These were actual trained shinobi, not whatever he was. He'd need to be careful if he wanted to get out of this alive. As he dipped into an irrigation ditch, he weaved a handsign and three identical images of himself appeared beside him.

While the clones may not have any physical substance, they worked well enough for Kenshi's intentions. He pressed himself up against the edge of the ditch as the clones continued running forward. He heard the two pursuing shinobi exclaim in surprise as they saw the clones, clearly not having expected that from him. At the sounds of their surprise, Kenshi weaved another handsign and in a quick puff of smoke, transformed himself into a wooden cart with a wheel missing.

The pursuing shinobi, too focused on the clones that were escaping, completely bypassed the transformed Kenshi. It was only seconds later that Kenshi felt the clones getting too far away from him. He'd never tried to do more than simply create the clones during his training with Akabo, and they flickered out of existence.

The two shinobi cursed as they slid to a halt. Kenshi cursed internally as well. He had hoped they would have been farther away before the clones disappeared.

"Come on," the first shinobi said irritably. "We split up. I'll stay here, you go back to the other side of the ditch and see if he backtracked."

"Why do I have to go back and you get to just sit around?" the second shinobi protested. "Screw that. Besides, you really wanna hang around in the Land of Rice? Without any sort of permission?"

The other man stopped and thought for a second at that. "Fine," he said reluctantly. We'll do one quick sweep of the area, then we'll head back. Stupid Land of Rice with their damned bandit problem."

Kenshi felt like he held his breath for an hour as the two shinobi walked past him again through the ditch. They didn't spare his transformed self a second glance, and eventually they simply hopped back up to ground level and left. At least, he assumed they left. Still, it wasn't worth it to leave now and find them still waiting there, so he waited for almost another hour with no sounds other than the water trickling through the ditch before he released the jutsu.

"Well," he said to himself wryly as he started to come down from the adrenaline. "I guess I'm not going to be hanging out near the border anymore." He was close enough to Tanbogakure that he felt like he could cut straight there if he had to. He would just have to be much more alert now for any bandit troupes. Two people who didn't really want to be there might have fallen for his little trick, but there was no way he could handle more than that. Not by himself. Either of those two shinobi probably would've beaten him easily in a straight fight. He'd just need to be clever until he had the strength to stand on.

With a sigh, he climbed up the ditch and continued walking away from the border. He wondered if this would cause any sort of problem with trying to visit Konohagakure in the future. Obviously he hadn't actually attacked anyone, despite the fact that he had been wrongfully accused and attacked himself. He certainly hadn't gone and raided a village. Besides, "tall with red hair" wasn't exactly a super rare description. He wasn't a criminal either, so he wouldn't give anyone a reason to be suspicious of him. Still, perhaps a trip to Konohagakure would have to wait a bit longer than he had originally planned. Maybe after spending some time in Tanbogakure he would head to the Land of Lightning and its hidden village first. It wasn't a pressing decision, though. He would have plenty of time to sort out the details.

[Exit]
WC: 1015

Claiming:
+10 stats (+10 Vigor)
+1000 Ryo
+5 AP
+Vagabond Headband
+Advancement to D-Rank (Spacetime Spec)
+Candlelight Method (250/250)
+Smoke Veil (250/250)
+Fire Stream (250/250)
+Out of a Hat (250/250)

Approved