The Mission:

Dark brown braids dance as a young kunoichi walked out of the tower that she had called home for a long time. It seemed that living somewhere else was not even in her thought process, as she had no where else to go. Despite the fact that 'The Dark' was no longer really used and there was a new Kuraikage, she still felt some loyalty to Alec and the members of the group that she considered family. She did not know them well, but she did not have to. The accepted her and welcomed her, which was enough in the eyes of Hanako. She moved forward aimlessly as she tried to think of something to do. She could train, but she didn't really feel like it. As she was about to decide to go find someone to beat on, a messenger nin appeared in front of her, jumping from the shadows. In the old days, she would have reacted and possibly killed the man for such a thing, but she was used to it now. Makkura has a way of making surprises less eventful. "Yes?" She asked, recognizing the symbol on his sleeve that signified he worked for the administration building.

"The Kage has a mission for you. Here are the details." He said handing her a small scroll and then disappearing with the body flicker technique. While the idea that the Kage assumes he can send her on missions was a bit angering, she pushed it aside out of curiousity for what the mission could hold. She removed the latch and opened the scroll, reading what was on it with a grin. It seemed that some idiotic ninja was trying to mess with the village. While she didn't yet feel loyalty to the man known as Saito, she was loyal to the village. Plus, it never hurt to go crack some skulls. It also mentioned at the end of the scroll that she could possibly have a teammate. She could meet him at the tower.....she was already here. Great. She closed the scroll and pocketed it, not caring about how it was taken care of. She then found a tree to rest upon and wait for her mystery teammate. If they would come, which didn't matter to her. She would be successful regardless.

Word Count: 388/900

Things were quiet since that last episode. The majority of the family went back home, and “The Dark” was disbanded. All of it's former members continued to wear purple along with their “Dark” arm and headbands, though Alec told them they no longer had to, and all of them continued to remain fiercely loyal to Alec. He didn't really see any more action, but he couldn't really say that he minded their continued loyalty, especially with the way he got this village up and running.

Word got to him about how someone came along and claimed to be the new Kage of Makkura. The thought of it nearly made him laugh to be honest, but then he thought this would probably turn out to be another interesting episode. Alec had been the one primarily responsible for bringing this village out of the slum state it was in when he first arrived, and the villagers all currently looked to him as an authority figure now that Avery had gone back home, so Alec would definitely have to meet with this person.

Alec was left wondering who would be in their right mind to try claiming leadership over The Land of Shadows as he walked through the village, with many people waving in his direction as they usually did daily. Nearby was someone that looked familiar; Hanako, his last recruit into “The Dark” before things all went sour.

”Ah, you decided to stick around too, then? I apologize things turned out like they did, but staying here and remaining loyal to me isn't really necessary. I mean, you could, but if you wanted to branch out and find other crews to join, i'd have no objections, seriously... How've you been, by the way? Anything going on?”

Word Count: 294/900

As Hanako was leaning against the tree, thinking about how boring the wait was, she saw the approach of a very familiar person. It was Alec Kane, the former leader of 'The Dark' and one of the people she missed these days. He immediately recognized her and spoke. As she listened to him speak, she saw how cool he was. Unfortunately, she didn't get to know him very well, but there was always a time for that. She couldn't go anywhere else, she didn't have anywhere to go. Not to mention that she was satisfied with Makkura and the people here. 

"It's fine, I don't really have anywhere to go and I don't want to follow anyone else. Might as well stick around and remind people of what 'The Dark' meant to this place." She responded in a friendly tone, an action that she had to develop via actually communicating with people. Slowly but surely, she had become more sure of herself, allowing her to be socially normal. Or at least as much as possible for her. "I'm good, I was actually just about to go on a mission. I'm supposed to meet some potential teammate here, but you're the first person that's dropped by." She spoke with a tad bit of annoyance as she was growing tired of waiting. She was ready to get into the action. Then an idea sprung in her head. Maybe Alec would want to go as well? 

"Here's the scroll if you want to check it out. Just your average killing of some idiots on a power trip." She spoke lightly of the mission for a reason. She had been through much worse and been fine. She in no way was worried about this one. She held out the scroll to him, offering to see it if he wanted. It would be fun to kind of have a 'The Dark' reunion mission...

Word Count: 717/900

”Staying here, then. That's fine with me. Although i'll have to meet this new guy sooner or later and educate him on who really runs things around here...”

Avery went home, as did Destiny and Demi. He didn't know where Jr was, but he suspected that he could still be around somewhere. It was good to know that at least one of the old crew stuck around. She mentioned a mission, and how she was waiting on a partner to assist her to show up. The radar showed Alec that no one around the village was headed this way, at least not some knucklehead that was late for the mission start. Alec took the scroll that she handed toward him and had a look at it.

Someone named Kazuki Muto was fucking with the trade routes he'd re-established into the village himself. This was a direct insult to Alec himself; was this person actually attempting to take over? Where was the new so-called Kage to fix the situation? Reading the words made Alec frown beneath his blindfold, but also grin. It had been too long since he'd killed a man, years even.

”So, this person has a death wish... A full-on Charles Bronson. I'm glad you ask me to come along on this, it seems this dude, whoever he is, is taking a shot directly at me... So I feel it only right that I go meet this dead man face to face, before I cut it off of him, that is. I'm ready when you are, Hanako...”

Alec handed the scroll back and tightened his grip on his Blind Fury stick sword. It was still a virgin blade craving the taste of blood, and would be bathed in such before the day was out.....

Word Count: 297 + 294 = 591/900

Alec responded with a statement that made her crack a slight grin. She had yet to meet the man that called himself Kage. She shared the same feeling he did. "When you do talk to him, let me know what we are dealing with. If he survives the meeting." She said in a half-joking manner. Alec wasn't an overly violent person. He was easy enough to get along with. The meeting between the two would tell just exactly who this guy was and how he handled things. She just hoped that he wouldn't run the village into the ground. Not that Alec would let that happen.

The former leader of 'The Dark' took and read the scroll. After a few short moments, he responded by accepting the mission. Good. It would be nice to fight alongside him. "I'm ready as well." She said with a nod. "I would go ahead and locate him with my eyes, but you can do that without me wasting chakra." She added as she looked around one last time. The 'partner' that was supposed to show up never did. What an asshole. She would wait for the man to take off, as she didn't really want the lead.

Word Count: 925/900

Pinching the bridge of his nose, it only took Alec several seconds to locate the camp of the man who aimed to make Makkura his. It was located a short distance outside of Makkura's outskirts. It was in a convenient circle of large rocks, meaning ordinary eyes wouldn't see where he and 20 other males were located, gearing up for battle, but Alec's chakra eyes saw all, as long as it was located above ground.

”He has 20 other guys with him... all armed with katanas. All of them look like small fry. Kazuki looks to be the strongest of them all, this should be easy. Let's get this over with, he's not far from here.”

The blind criminal was up upon the roof in a blur, then quickly moving in the direction of Kazuki's camp. Silently and swiftly from rooftop to rooftop he moved until he was outside of the village and into the trees.

In Kazuki's camp, their gearing up and plotting was interrupted when something fast and black moved in from above and cut a man in half at the mid-section. The top half of his body fell off, exposing guts and internal organs. Red liquids began to flood the area around what was left of the body. The legs took 3 steps before falling over and twitching. Several other men began to be slashed by something unseen, seeing their bodyparts fall to the ground with red crimson liquids and filling the night air with soprano screams.

Word Count: 251 + 591 = 842

Alec quickly located the enemy, sharing the necessary details directly afterwards. The guys weren't far away and really didn't stand a chance by the sound of it. Oh how she would enjoy seeing Alec destroy these guys with ease. Not that she wouldn't kill her share of them. In an instant, Alec left the ground and headed to the rooftops. Hanako followed suit, while not as fast as him, she was about to keep a general line of sight on him.

Within what seemed like seconds, they were apparently there, as Alec took off into the crowd, slicing a man in half. The gore that was about to take place would make any ninja squeamish. Well...besides Alec and her. They weren't ordinary ninja after all. She followed him into the fray, using her speed to weave through the men as she took each other with a series of well placed kicks and punches. An axe kick to the temple, a jab to the bottom of the nose, and many more one shot kills were landed as the guys continued to fall like dominoes. 

Stopping only to let them see one of the faces that would end their lives, she inhaled deeply and molded chakra in her lungs and throat. Creating the tiger hand seal to give it a little more finesse, she spewed out a large stream of fire in their direction. It sped out faster than most of them could move, burning them instantly, and killing them within seconds. Shrieks of pain and suffering danced in the air around her as she continued the stream, moving it. Very few of them dodged it. Alec would most likely have killed them before they landed. Then she would watch as he killed the leader, unless he wanted help.

Word Count: 1227/900

Chakra 480/500:

A sword slashed into the adam's apple of a man, exiting the back of his head. The sword twisted before being viciously yanked out of the flesh, bringing with it a splash of red. Shinobi were on the ground, bleeding, dying, dead. Others were being ripped open and having limbs removed. One of them looked down to see that he had only one leg; the other one currently on the ground flopping around like a fish out of water.

Another shinobi had his arm cut off at the elbow and began to scream like a woman in a horror movie. His head was decapitated next at the mouth, leaving the bottom half of his head to spray blood like a fountain and make a choking sound, grabbing at something that wasn't there before falling and continuing to convulse and twitch around on the ground.

Eventually, all of the shinobi were dead, or on the ground twitching the death dance. The leader Kaito threw his weapon away and gave up, upon seeing what easily happened to 20 men under his employ. Alec still stabbed the Stick Sword into the mouth of the leader, causing him to scream and blood to pour from his mouth.

”Regret even thinking of coming and taking what was mine yet?”

This was all that was said before the sword was pushed the rest of the way through Kaito's head, causing the sword to exit the back of his neck. A vicious yank and a quick shake to rid the blade of guts and blood, and it was back within the sheath. A job he figured was well done, Alec began moving away from the scene.

Word Count:  279 + 842 = 1,121/900

With all the henchmen slaughtered like the traitors they were, her eyes turned to Alec. The leader was a coward, as he threw down his weapon like he had not ever used them. Alec did not show him mercy though, as the sword ended his life within a few moments. The man dropped to ground in a puddle of blood as Alec sheathed his weapon. She followed him as he walked away from the scene of this massacre. "Nice to fight alongside you again." She spoke sincerely as she followed him. She didn't know if he was the goodbye kind of person, but she figured she would give him the opportunity for conversation again. 

Word Count: 1342/900

Alec held up his right arm and saluted Hanako with a thumbs up. Again she'd proven she was a loyal citizen of Makkura, and someone who could be counted on in a scrap. In a life filled with betrayal and jealous, it felt good to finally possibly have someone at his side that he could trust, and not someone sharpening a blade to drive into his back sometime later.

”You too, Hanako. Was good exercise, shook off the rust. If you ever come across other assignments such as this one, please. Don't be shy. People may look to me as the boss, but I wouldn't send someone to do something that i'm more than capable of doing myself, understand? Heheh.”

It wasn't long before they would be back within village limits, with Alec re-taking his drunkman routine....

[Exit]

"I'll definitely let you know! Bye." She said with a smile as he walked off once again. She returned to the tower on foot, making quick time of it. She landed with a sigh as thought about her mission. Did she need to go 'report' to the kage? She didn't really feel like it. As she was deciding this in her mind, the same messenger nin popped out of shadows again. "Is the mission a success?" They asked with a serious tone. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't." She said handing the scroll back to them. The ninja pulled ryo out of their pocket and handed to Hanako, nodding and disappearing once again. She sighed as she put the money up. At least she made some cash. 

Turning, she walked inside the tower and to her room. Time to find something else to do with the rest of her day. Maybe some training

[Exit Thread]

Word Count: 1500/900