Protect the Merchants [Mission #3]

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

Saturn looked at the mission which he had been assigned. His face went white as he realized this would mean travel and for the individuals involved to trust him. With his apparent sickness he wondered if they would even allow him to accompany them. His muscles were sore and his nose was stuffed, he was sure he hadn't smelled anything since that fateful day. They wanted to meet at the village gates before they all headed off. It was a small group and there were no apparent ideas that a bandit was going after them but having a shinobi with them decreased the chance. Even so, there were bandits around and it was his job to protect them. He was having to go alone, then again being such a small village this was a common reality.

He had came to the gate, half expecting something was going to happen right as he got there. He remembered his tissues as well as some herbal medications for his sickness. He could somewhat dull the pain and there was a certain degree of comfort coming with this since the attack so long ago (or so it seemed). The idea that they were not here yet though was interesting, he took them for much more punctual. He could hear something though he couldn't make it out but whatever it was he hoped it was those who were going on the mission with him. He finally saw the caravan, wondering if there was anything in particular this group would ask of him. He didn't look at his best but he hoped they just wouldn't try and do anything funny.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

As the caravan came closer and closer he wondered what they would think about him since he was a lone and rather young kid. Most of the villagers were rather excited to learn that he was going to be leaving for a short bit, probably not a coincidence. There is a sense that he is not going to have a great time. His fire is gone which makes his availability much lower than it once was when it comes to how much of a range of jutsu he had. He needs to be able to handle this while at the same time feels more or less unable to tell them his jutsu is now limited. He was given this mission for a reason, his god would not send him against the odds in order to survive and possibly lose these individuals.

Finally the group had come to see him, the group of individuals who he needed to protect but he didn't see the reason for this to be needed to be protected. The people looked normal but as he approached and began to speak to them he saw their faces sink. They did not seem to have an amazing amount of faith in him but the villagers at the gate reassured them they were in good hands. In reality they wanted to see him get killed and they wanted him out of the village in case something were to happen. The idea that he was going to be in their village sounded much less appealing than just sending him off on his merry way to possibly be killed. That sounded much better, hero or not.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

Saturn had noticed that the group all seemed rather old, there was not one person under 60, a group of Q-tips and even their pesudo-bodyguards were quite old, maybe in their 70's. They wanted him around in order to assist and protect them, they were not really sure as to why they were being accompanied by a little youngin. They were assured that there was nothing more to this than the fact that they drew the short straw, which at this point they were more or less going to have to deal with it. They knew how shorthanded the village was but becuase they made the mission such a low rank to save money they were going to have to handle this. They trusted that they were getting at least something, he had some battle scars.

The two of them interacted, Saturn and the caravan did. He seemed to get along with them alright even though the smell of soap might never leave him. He had to think about this in the sense that he had to do this and that there was no other choice. There wasn't any other way to make a living. He had continued with the Carvan hoping nothing would happen because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to control his inner beast or not. He had been told early on provoking the monster was the best way to do this and that there was no better way to avoid fighting other than assist a caravan, who were rarely attacked by anyone much more capable than the common bandit if that. He was not worried though, there didn't appear to be anything he would need to worry about.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

They were apparently only going on a one or two day trip depending on their stops and their pace. They argued they could get there by tomorrow afternoon since it was a village that was not very difficult to reach but somewhat far. A small village not very well known but it was more so a fishing town on the edge of the land. Sure the whole land was an island but they were just going from one to the other and bandits existed in the land, it was not something holistically uncommon. He and his enemies were not going to be more than common thugs. They had continued walking all day, the whole day he had felt awful and by the time he had finished up he was already asleep. They thought about cutting his pay in half because he wasn't doing much.

As the smoke was rising on the campfire there appeared to be something amiss. The older folks had stayed up for an extra few hours for dinner and such but didn't care to share their now cold soup with him. They didn't expect to be ambushed so late at night but the russell of the bushes was something they were fearing. No animals were coming out, they felt that there was someone here. The two elderly bodyguards went to check it out, thinking they could handle it as they had asked one of the others to wake Saturn. As they had come closer to wake Saturn though it appeared as though there was nothing to worry about it was not the touch of the older woman that brought him up but the screams and blood-gurgled cries of the older men. Saturn shot up, still feeling awful he knew he had to do something and fast.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

Saturn had just barely woken up. He was not really in the mood to be confronted over the idea that he was having to deal with some bandits willing to kill. He felt him being his old self though before now he would have been able to handle them by just lighting it up. He used to have his fire to win a fight but now, even with much more chakra he didn't have much to use it on. Pulling out two Kunai he went into the bushes hoping for something to happen quickly. He had to wonder how many there were, from what it looked like there were three of them, with swords. Each of them had swords, all of them incredibly skinny and long oily hair. There didn't appear to any sign of a good time for him, it was unfortunate that he was being forced to fight under these conditions. Minimal light was hopefully not going to affect him too much.

He looked towards the enemies, none of them looked impressed with the production of the small boy but he was not feeling bad. He imagined these guys were it as far as bandits go, or else the two gangs would've met and had their own confrontation. He didn't mind using any force necessary. He had thrown his Kunai towards them, they shrugged them off without much trouble obviously. He was going to think of a plan but there was not much time to. He had thought about fighting close quarters but he was not going to be able to take three at once. He had decided to do something slightly more sneaky instead, setting his plan into motion would be more fun than he might have thought to give it credit for.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

The merchants had all moved away to the other way of the bandits. Their cargo moving with them and even though the bandits were much more interested in them they were fully aware if they were not careful this shinobi would indeed kick their ass. He knew if he could get close enough to cut the muscles in their wrists he would be able to defeat them without much trouble. He saw that they were in a highly wooded area and that if he wanted to try something he would need to use his environment. He had decided to do the easiest thing. They backed one another up while Saturn moved behind the trees. He was sticking paper bomb to Kunai as he throws them, expecting to hit the trees that surround them.

He noticed that one or two of them had actually fallen around them from them blocking attacks not necessarily meant for them. This looked rather fun for him, he was going to get a good fight since they couldn't see the paper tags around them. He had thrown about seven and knew he didn't need any more. He was incredibly sore, very uninterested in this fight because he wasn't feeling well and being forced to fight even though he didn't have much jutsu to speak of he was just going to finish it off now. He had thrown off a flash bomb, hid behind a tree and closed his eyes. As it set off the three of them looked rather surpirsed, he was about to fuck shit up.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

As he had thrown them around he expected them to at least notice he was doing a lot of something and that he wasn't just trying to get a lucky shot. Even if he was a young kid with basically no useful jutsu now he was not interested in that part, he was just trying to make due with what he had. Being almost exclusively a medical-nin now he would be able to give the world something to cheer about when he was trying to do his best to help those who for the most part hated him. He was not sure about that but he was there more for his lord. He wanted to be useful and he had the enhanced chakra control to begin with so now it was simply a matter of becoming stronger. He was not going through all this though, he knew he had to make his move now.

He had finally gotten several of the kunai wrapped in explosives ready, they were in several good positions and all of them were ready for the fireworks. He might have lost his fire but these were going to bring it back, even for a short amount of time he was going to get his fire back. There appeared to be nothing quite like it as he set them off though. Several explosions in their area, around them and even those ones on the ground there was nothing to make this bad. He had felt them and heard them be thrown around as their bodies flailed in an attempt of survival. He did not care for them. As soon as he saw the caravaners they were ready to go. He had picked up the somewhat living bodies of the guards and spent the next three hours attempting to bring them back to at least a stable point.

[Shokugo "Sautrn" Gozai]

Saturn looked towards the two men. One had his neck slashed but the wound was shallow and he appeared to just be in shock. At the very least nothing a stitching was not able to fix. The other one on the hand had a very severe chest slash but he had just missed the vena cava. It was lucky but there was probably not as much blood now. Awkwardly there was nothing for him to worry about now. He imagined that nobody else was going to attack them at this time of night and more people were concentrating on a "large explosion" now a few miles back. If anything they were well on their way and probably safe for quite a little while. They had decided to stop when they felt the need to, but there was nothing they could say they cared about at the moment at the very least.

Finally in the morning they had arrived, without that nights sleep and constant movement they had gotten there not only on time but quite ahead of schedule. They were excited to know that both of their guardians (and good friends) were going to be fine. They both were able to recover, or at least when Saturn saw them last. He had decided not to spend too much time away though, he knew he needed to get back training but he had thought of just staying there for the day and night. He was supposed to anyways. He was in no hurry to get back to the people who were making his life a living hell, even if Seijin was interested in continuing their training it was nothing he was going to need to wait for longer than a day for, he was not interested in much else, that seemed true.

[Rock]

Mission completed. 80 EXP awarded