Mission: Rogue Ninja

Menma was perched upon a branch looking out over the village, his knees bent with his backside resting on his Achilles tendons as the messenger hawk landed next to him. A scroll strapped to his back, Menma removed the scroll from the container and watched as the hawk took off leaving him sitting alone now. He peeled the scroll and unfurled it to display the writing to himself, his eyes began following and reading the following;

Menma resealed the scroll and slipped it into his pocket, looking out at the village once more to see the academy with scaffolding against a fairly damaged side. He set out towards the academy, reaching his destination within a few minutes. He looked to one of the workers asking if they knew which instructor worked in the affected room. After a moment of chatter between the workers one gave a name, Hiruzen, the name sounded familiar but Menma had never had him specifically as a sensei. After a few moments of questioning the staff of the school, Menma was directed to Hiruzen. The older gentleman was sitting in his office alone as Menma walked in, "So, no classes after the attack. Correct?" Menma said, Hiruzen responded without looking away from the scroll he was currently writing in. "Yes, they shut the academy down temporarily to move around classes. The school will not be closed because of one foolish child." Menma smirked as he continued to speak, "So was this one of your students? Or someone unaffiliated with you? Just find it strange that you seem to be the target from what I see." There wasn't long of a pause as Hiruzen dropped his writing brush and stood rather abruptly "Damn it. That brat, yes he was a student of mine. I don't understand, he was always quiet but never violent. He even stayed a few times to help around the class. I just can't believe it." Menma proceeded with a few less relevant but important questions before looking at the sensei and bidding farewell, he turned leaving the academy and eventually perched on top of the apartment building that this kid apparently lived at. He spent the better half of 3 hours waiting and watching the civilians of the village moving up and down the street, no one in particular seemed to draw any kind of attention to themselves.

Menma waited as the evening of the day began setting in, that's when he saw the small framed and cloaked figure disappear into an alley. The first and only person here all day that wore such attire, cloaks mostly came out during the rains of the Mist Village and never on a day as clear as this. Menma followed from the rooftops as this little cloaked figure seemingly ran through the back alleys of the village taking several turns almost as though he wanted to avoid being followed, though he wasn't as elusive as he must have thought as Menma was able to follow him without struggle. The suspect stopped suddenly still hiding in the edge of an alley way, Menma looked to see what he was studying only to see Hiruzen again at the local tavern having a drink. The reflection of the moon was enough, Menma spotted the glint of steel in the hooded suspects hand. He immediately signed the seal of the Ram as his body seemed to become a blur, as he disappeared and reappeared in front of this hooded figure with his hands resting on his recently acquired katana. "Come quietly, I'd prefer to not have to drag you body back myself." His face still hidden in the veil of darkness from the night and his cloak, he quickly flicked the kunai from his hand at Menma who was able to dodge it by leaning to his right. The time it took to dodge allowed this assailant to weave his seals Dragon to Dog, quickly he spit from his mouth a almost senbon looking stream of water. Menma ducked under it unaware that this jutsu done little to no damage, he grasped his katana and scabbard. Aiming for the attackers right shoulder hoping to slice it just right to paralyze this arm, performed the Quickdraw technique watching as blood dripped to the ground in front of them both. The enemy stumble back, his right arm dangling as though it had gone completely limp, his left hand formed the Ram seal as he seemed to disappear quickly leaving no trace of his presence. "Damn." Menma said to himself as he returned his katana to it's sheathe, the click could be heard as it locked into place. Menma left this location searching for a sign of bleeding, hoping the wound he inflicted would lead him to the attacker.

Menma spent a solid thirty minutes or so investigating before discovering a small trail of blood a few meters south of where the initial fight had occurred, he began tracking the injured kid hoping he would be able to keep a distance in order to catch him off guard. The trail lead to the outskirts of the village, Menma found himself in a saltwater marshland that he hadn't seen before. The sounds of the saltwater crocodiles hissing as he continued to trek through the tall reeds, until he reached the end of the trail signs of quick medical attention from torn cloth and a few soaked in blood. He felt the cloths that were laying on the ground, the blood was almost still warm meaning he was not far behind his prey. Spotting a rather tall willow tree on the edge of the water, Menma walked over and began walking up the tree and standing on a higher branch and surveying the terrain. On the other bank a small shack could be seen with light flickering from with in, Menma began approaching as stealthily as he could resting beneath the window he had noticed. From inside he could hear, "How the hell did you know I had a fishing hut? You little..!" The sentence was cut short by the sounds of a hand striking against what Menma could imagine was Hiruzen's face as he recognized the voice. "You may not remember you old bastard, you killed my father because he was abandoning his mission." another strike could be heard as the young kid continued speaking "This damn village, you teach results above people! You will be my example!" The sounds of a kunai singing as the kidnapper drew his weapon to strike, Menma quickly signed the seal of the Ram and performed the body flicker to appear between the two of them. His katana parrying the kunai as they now looked into each others eyes, "Stop, you are under arrest. The kid was young, but probably close to Menma's age, brown hair and a cloth half mask covering him from the bridge of his nose down.

"You don't understand, you fight for these idiots!" Menma ignored his blasphemy as he looked to see his right arm was in a crudely made sling, he knew he could overpower him and so he pushed him back with both hands on his katana. As the kid slid away from Menma he quickly signed Dog, Ox and Hare, chakra flowed into his offhand while the other maintained a grip on his katana. The boy charged forward again and rage had begun to rob him of his common sense, Menma parried him again with katana to kunai whilst slamming his left palm into his chest. The mark seal formed on his chest as Menma used this hand contact to shove the attacker out the window he had previously been hiding beneath. Menma turned and sliced the rope tied around Hiruzen, "You need to leave, stay in town more eyes to keep you alive." Hiruzen, looking terrified, nodded quickly and sprinted off back towards the village. Menma himself ran out the door using the mark to locate the rogue ninja as he seemed to still be tracking Hiruzen on his quest for revenge, luckily he was able to catch up to him and land a kick into his spine as they both crashed down into the salty marshes below. The boy had to be happy to wash out his wound in saltwater, Menma thought as he smirked, jumping off the ninja and putting roughly 5 meters between them. The kid struggled to get back on his feet using only one arm and shaking from being beaten from the various attacks, Menma sheathed his katana and began signing Snake and then Ox making his right hand become static with electricity shimmering around it. The boy went to weave a sign with his one good hand forcing the other to complete a seal, though he was interrupted by Menma thrusting his palm forward and releasing a bolt of lightning that crashed into the rogue shinobi's left shoulder burning a hole into it though not coming out the other side. With his right shoulder sliced open from the earlier strike and now a crater in his left shoulder, the boy collapsed fading into unconsciousness as Menma began approaching him.

Menma bent down and lifted the rogue from his bed in the swampy reeds, he tossed him on his right shoulder as he turned towards the village and began to traverse the marshy lands to go back to the intelligence agency of the village. After making it back into the village he could hear a faded and weak voice from his captive "You will never understand. You are a pawn and if you fail to do your every order, they will kill you and cast you aside like trash. How can you follow this system so blindly?" Menma smirked and offered an almost bolstering response, "You may not understand, but your father was a failure. He turned from his duty as a shinobi. Trash is trash, a true shinobi dies to complete his orders. Only a coward runs when faced with the dangers of this world." The captive coughed a bit of blood, but continued to speak "You're just cattle..." his speech was interrupted by a elbow from Menma slamming into his sternum causing him to pass out yet again. The white stone steps of the intelligence agency came into focus as Menma made his way up to the door of the building, two larger men wearing Kirigakure flak jackets and headbands appeared before him. "Good work Menma, we'll take it from here." the words were accepted as Menma handed over the kid to one of the shinobi, the other walked up and accepted the original scroll with his mission on it and spoke. "I have you rewards, here you've earned it kid." Menma accepted the ryo from the senior shinobi and began counting to find all 4,000 of it was there, he turned walking from the building pondering how such a young member or at least old member of the village could twist the duties of a shinobi so far as to become a terrorist to his home. The thought baffled him as he tucked away his money inside his pants pocket, the thoughts of what to spend his newfound ryo on replaced his original thoughts and he eased into a new day.

(WC 2017)

Menma wrote:

Rogue Ninja

(WC 2017)

Mission Rewards: 4,000 Ryo | +20 AP | Chidori (2017/2750) | +16 Vigor | +4 Chakra

Approved