A Missing Merchant (Hikari, Kouse?)

(No worries, we can wait! ^^ <3)

(no problem bro)

Hmmm. Draconis surveyed the interior of the house. Some letters on the table indicated that indeed the Soru Akamoto had actually gone on the trip as rumors had it. “Looks like he was supposed to be back today, later in the day. Let’s go take a look for him, Kouse, Hikari.”

 

Draconis looked around him, realizing only Kouse had followed him into the house.

 
“Hikari?” One of the maps on the wall specified the route that Soru Akamoto was likely to take on his return trip.
 

Draconis burst out of the house. “Hey, I figured out where he should be coming back from. He should be arriving in a few minutes, there is a small hill over to the west that…"

His voice trailed off as he noticed that there were a lot of people rising up from in the bushes. Uhoh. Worse yet, some of them were awfully close to Hikari. And by awfully close, Draconis meant about 15 meters away. “Looks like we have some enemies to take care of first.” Draconis began using his Byakugan again, noticing there were about 6 opponents to take care of. Well, 5, since Infurius was having some fun annoying the hell out of one of them, eventually tricking the ninja into slamming his head on a tree, and rendering him unconscious without even touching his opponent. “Ok, let’s see here. We have “Shorty”, “Fatty”, “Gormless”, “Gutless”, and “Haughty”.” Draconis pointed to each of the opponents in turn, that remained. “Gutless is mine, cause he was hiding his chakra signature.”

 

Meanwhile, “Haughty”, a young girl, turned a brilliant shade of scarlett, and began a tsundere act, trying to act like she had not just been complimented but failing miserably, to Draconis’ amusement, and the extreme annoyance of the enemy. “He meant Haughty, as in stubbornly proud, not Hottie! Fool! Get a grip on your hormones girl!”

 

Gutless was starting to get angry, maybe “Gutless” was not such a good name after all. Meanwhile “Haughty” broke into tears, and ran off, covering her ears, returning shortly after with a monster of a man literally two times her size. “They insulted me!!!” She wailed through her tears. She pointed the monster man at her team mates, and not Draconis, Hikari, or Kouse.

 

Draconis was a little stunned. He had intended to rile up the opponents so that they would be easier to fight, but frankly, this was just rich. He watched the ensuing battle with amusement, the monster of a man, “Gutless”, and “Haughty” all being removed from the battle, with the first two taking each other out, and “Haughty” running off by herself in tears after a particularly vicious insult hurled her way. Well, after that amusing interlude, there was only 3 opponents left.

 

“Ok guys, 1 for each of us then, no need to share. Who do you want to fight? Shorty, Fatty, or Gormless?"

As the others hesitated, Draconis charged for the closest one of the opponents. Being that gormless was by far the largest of the opponents, Draconis formed hand seals, and the jumped up, aiming to soar over the other fellow. As the other fellow looked up at him, Draconis launched a Great Dragon Flame right at the target, aiming right at the center of his loose jaw.

The large Dragon shaped fire ball enveloped the target, destroying much of the shrubbery. Hmm. Looks like the other fellow was still standing. That was unfortunate. Draconis would have to take this guy down with a lot of attacks then. Activating the Gentle Fist: Abhorrent Amalgamation Aberration technique, a true mouthful of a technique, his motions sped up, but unfortunately the Gormless guy was unfazed and charged, his fist stretching out.

Draconis ducked back at the last possible second, the fist barely missing him, as he deliberately tripped the large massive foe, who looked like he had also eaten too many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, though not as badly as “fatty” over there, who was left to either Hikari Hyuuga or Kouse Uchiha. Hopefully they did not have too much trouble with the opponents. He decided to try insulting the opponent again, mostly cause he was bored yo and he needed a way to pass the time while he was ostensibly fighting a powerful opponent. That and because he was unable to think of something better to do. “I would insult you but it would probably be a compliment.”

Draconis dodged another punch and waited for the other ninja to react. Dang, looked like he had not managed anything with his barbed comment. “Is that jaw disconnected, or are you incapable of controlling your basic body functions?”

He dodged another punch, but the other was not affected. Oh, my. “Looks like you are incapable of understanding speech, or you are unable to articulate language, huh?”

The gormless one did not even seem to hear him. Weird.

Then Draconis saw the hearing aid and realized, this guy is deaf. No wonder he was not able to affect the other fellow much. Too bad he had not realized earlier or he would not have bothered with the petty remarks. Honestly, to do such things should be below him.

Narrowly avoiding another kick due to being a god modding retard, Draconis went on the offense again. Perhaps this fellow had a resistance to fire? Draconis might be able to fix that. Gathering his chakra in his hands, he lashed out at the opponent as he stumbled by again, hitting the other fellow in the stomach, and the chin. The other fellow stumbled, tripping and then slamming his face on a rock. Ouch. That had to hurt.

Having defeated his opponent in a cheesy way because he was bored kinda, Draconis heard sounds of fighting behind him. “I am going to go look for the Weapons Dealer.” He yelled.

Running off into the forest, Draconis searched for a man matching the profile of the weapons dealer, Soru Akamoto. Noticing a lone man, he checked the fellow out with the Byakugan. It looked like this fellow was the real deal.

Draconis popped up, and asked the fellow “Did you have any trouble crossing the Haven mountains?”

The other man frowned, and then said an affirmative answer, the words being cut off as Draconis landed his fist square in the other man’s mouth. The other man dropped, all kinds of glass bottles dropping all over the place because Draconis, or rather, the controlling force for Draconis, could not think of anything better to do after all this time still.

Despite many set backs, Draconis eventually found the weapons dealer, and escorted him back to the house, managing to fight off another round of bandits with just his glare. Because the mission still had a little time to lapse, he managed to keep Soru Akamoto from being brought back harmed, and only brought him back unharmed. By this time the others were most likely finished their fights. If needed he would briefly help, but most likely his team mates had won.

Then it was off to go report back that Soru Akamoto was fine, and had just returned from a trip, several kidnappings averted. It was time to argue with the demon again as it became tangible just in front of Draconis’ fist. The demon grinned. “You look like an amusing subject for me. I might stick around you for a little while, but don’t expect anything major yet. You should go beat up someone S ranked, for me, so that I know you have power on your own.”

The demon poofed away, back to the land of demons or whatever, as Draconis gritted his teeth, growling in frustration. Looked like he had to take up another battle, huh? Well, hopefully he could be a bit stronger by that time.

He grumbled all the way back to the village, as the team headed off to report back to the authorities. That damn demon! He would show it who was boss! His grumbling scared off the occasional bird, and fortunately, the officials who had assigned the mission seemed to think that they had done a reasonable job. The money helped to reduce the annoyance in his heart, though it was not quite enough.


(exit)

(ttl wc: 1428+483+891=2802)
all wc towards Infurius, the Demon (summon)
(claiming 4000 ryo (mission reward), +7 stats converted to 700 more ryo, and 10 mission ap)

Approving all rewards, you special little snowflakes you.

Looks like he was supposed to be back today, later in the day. Let’s go take a look for him, Kouse, Hikari' kouse heard draconis say. 
He followed draconis out of the house quickly, draconis went on speaking 'Hey, I figured out where he should be coming back from. He should be arriving in a few minutes, there is a small hill over to the west that…' but he trailed off. 
Kouse at first wondered what made him trail off, but taking a better look at their surroundings understood instantly what they were facing. They were lot of people appearing around the area, some he noticed were pretty close to hikari,at first he felt the urge to keep her away from them but he knew she was strong enough to handle such weak opponents easily.. He chuckled quietly, its them that should be scared of her. 
"yeah draconis, it looks that way" kouse replied him.
He watched carefully as draconis pointed one by one to each target 'Ok, let’s see here. We have “Shorty”, “Fatty”, “Gormless”, “Gutless”, and “Haughty".. Kouse couldn't help but laugh a little at the names draconis gave them.. Kouse marveled at the way draconis could instantly give out insulting names to each of them.. Kouse assumed he must be really good in cursing.
Kouse nodded at draconis decision to take the one who had concealed his chakra signature.. Yeah he must have some things up his sleeves to be able to do that kouse thought it's best draconis takes him on. 
Kouse was surprised when a girl began acting strangely, maybe she was pissed off at what draconis called them, but at the reaction of one of them kouse knew it was just the opposite 'He meant Haughty, as in stubbornly proud, not Hottie! Fool! Get a grip on your hormones girl!' 
He watched with an amused expression as he saw the girl draconis called 'haughty' break down into tears, also as she ran away, covering her ears, and arriving back later with a huge man more than twice her size.. And muttering 'they insulted me' kouse stiffened, at first he expected the girl to point at them but to his ever increasing amusement she pointed at the one who had told her to take control of her hormones. 
Both took themselves out of the equation and the threats they faced were now numbered just three... He took a cautios stance, it would most likely be three one on one battles. 
He nodded at draconis words 'Ok guys, 1 for each of us then, no need to share. Who do you want to fight? Shorty, Fatty, or Gormless?' he's prediction was right after all. 
But draconis didn't wait for an answer immediately charging on the one nearest to them, kouse looked on as he saw draconis perform hand signs, and jump high over his target unleashing on him a huge fire Technique. 
Kouse heard a cough, he turned back to look at his opponent, he was surprised his opponent felt he wasn't paying enough attention to him and had coughed. 
Kouse took a look at his opponent, hmmm it was the one draconis had referred to as 'fatty'. 
Kouse looking at him wondered what such a fat guy was doing causing trouble, could he even move fast or run fast?. 
"well" kouse spoke up. 
"well what, brat? I'm your opponent so your gonna treat me with respect to at least pay attention to me when I'm challenging you" fatty said getting angrier by the minute. 
Kouse couldn't help but chuckle at this, and when he couldn’t hold himself back anymore, he burst into laughter. 
"wait what is funny! Fight me if you dare". 
Kouse stopped laughing wiping the tears out of his eyes and became serious. 
"listen 'fatty' you and I know I'm the far most likely to win this battle of we do get into one" kouse folded his arms "and also take into consideration that I'm not like most ninjas, I might look and sound nice but when I do fight with someone like you, I tend to lose control and take things a little far" kouse smiled but continued "I recently lost my father to people just like you, so.." kouse quickly took out a Kunai from his weapon pouch and stared at it "it's your choice, surrender or make me make you surrut of his eyes and became serious. 
"listen 'fatty' you and I know I'm the far most likely to win this battle of we do get into one" kouse folded his arms "and also take into consideration that I'm not like most ninjas, I might look and sound nice but when I do fight with someone like you, I tend to lose control and take things a little far" kouse smiled but continued "I recently lost my father to people just like you, so.." kouse quickly took out a Kunai from his weapon pouch and stared at it "it's your choice, surrender or make me make you surrender, but if you choose the second option, I can't guarantee you won't end up losing some parts of your body or even your life". 
Kouse would see the way fatty looked at the Kunai he held with a tinge of fear in his eyes and kouse would shake his head. "no need to be scared of this Kunai, be rest assured I won't use any weapon on you" kouse dropped the Kunai and removed his weapon pouch, also dropping it "but I have a couple of jutsus I've learnt recently I would like to try out though, and you would be a perfect test subject". 
Kouse looked waiting for an answer,but he didn't get what he expected but an attack from fatty rushing in on him with a punch the instant he dropped the weapon pouch. 
Kouse was caught by surprise at that move and could just barely dodge the punch by stooping low. 
He then jumped back giving himself and fatty some room shaking his head at fatty's huge stupidity. 
"wrong choice fatty, well then.. Let's get started shall we?". 
Kouse wanted to go through most of the  jutsus he knew on fatty, he wanted to make sure he could perform each one without a problem, poor fatty though. 
Kouse quickly performed a couple of hand signs making a water clone pop out.. He went on performing other hand signs as his water clone went to challenge fatty. 
Kouse performed the hiding like a mole Technique, entering the ground and biding his time, it felt like assassinating a target, although he knew he was playing and kidding around he wouldn't admit that to himself, he saw this as he, training himself to be a better tactician in battle but in truth he was just having some fun. 
Kouse's water clone wasn't taking it easy with fatty who already spotted a pink eye and a bleeding nose, but he kept on fighting ruthlessly, he threw punch after punch at the clone only to his frustration to see it time and time again block them and send some of its own. 
Kouse knew fatty didn't know what he fought against was a clone and he was going to use it to his advantage. 
Then fatty finally got a breakthrough,or so he thought, he managed make the clone stumble by kicking out at its feet and he used that moment of vulnerability to sucker punch it in its guts.
Kouse instantly knew when his clone was taken out and he performed the chakra sensory Technique to be sure of the exact location fatty was. Finding the location he then performed the head hunter Technique dragging him into the ground until only his shoulders and head was still out of the ground. 
Coming out of the ground he hardly glanced at fatty before he performed the fist rock Technique, he was going to bash in fatty.. Until he passed out.. But as he was about to throw in the first punch which would most likely kill him, Kouse stopped..he remembered what had happened during the mission with salzem, when a threat is captured there is no real need to kill him. 
Kouse smirked and deactivated the rock fist Technique,and instead charged his arm with a little Chakra and punched him, hard enough to knock him out. 
Kouse then turned to see draconis appear with someone, most likely soru akamotu. 
Kouse nodded at draconis and at the now neutralised threat, and would follow him including hikari back to the village,the ryo he got from the mission was substantial but not quite enough for the thing he desired, he smiled as he slowly entered his room, that only meant he would have to go for more missions quickly and that only meant some bandits or robbers somewhere were gonna soon get really messed up. 

Exit. 

Wc(2813).. Words towards earth clone 2813\3000..+10 stats.. Including 10 AP from mission and yeah of course the 4000 ryo reward.

There were six opponents, all of varying heights, sizes, and gender. Some were even within a 15 meter range of her. Yet she was not frightened, no, in fact, she was quite exhilarated. It had been a while since she was last in a real fight, not just a spar between a comrade. She wanted to prove to both Drac and Kouse that she was strong, and able to hold her own in a battle. As long as her opponent did not have demon like strength or jutsus, she knew she would win. And from the looks of it, most of the bandits were weaklings, merely grunts without much experience. She was not worried in the least.

Drac and Kouse appeared, making their way out of the weapon dealers house and into the yard, where things were about to get interesting. Hikari heard Drac mention that the dealer was supposed to come back today, which was a good sign for them and their mission. She figured they just needed to quickly wipe out these grunts and search for Soru Akamoto, hoping he was not ambushed by the said grunts and was well. One of the six, an unnamed man, was taken out rather quickly, before the battle even began, when he ran himself into a tree thanks to Drac's summon. Drac then listed off the "names" of the five bandits, "Shorty", "Fatty", "Gormless", "Gutless", and "Haughty". To her amusement, the girl Drac called Haughty became flustered, obviously thinking Drac had complimented her appearance as a hottie. It was even more of a comedic show when another of the grunts, Gutless, told the girl to stop her hormones from getting the bets of her, and that Drac had actually meant she was stubborn, not attractive. The girl, Haughty, was no professional fighter, as she ran away crying at the harmless words. Hikari thought the girl would be gone for good, but as soon as she was gone she was back with a big, buff man. Who he was was a mystery, but the girl had him take Gutless out of the equation.

That left the shinobi to fight only three bandits: Gormless, Fatty, and Shorty. Drac, without waiting to see who wanted to fight whom, took control and dashed at Gormless, a bandit who hid their chakra signature. With Drac being their strongest comrade, Hikari was rather glad he took on the bandit, knowing he could take what ever the bandit had up his sleeves. Then Kouse took Fatty, leaving her alone to fight with Shorty. He was a rather plum little man, with receding hair and a nasty looking mustache. Definitely not a ladies man. He was well within striking range of Hikari's Gentle Fist technique, which would effortlessly knock the man out. Yet she had recently became aware of a new fire style jutsu, and wanted to see if she could train it while on this mission. It was known by the name Fire Style: Dragon Flame, and it was showed to her by an Uchiha, more specifically Ryugia Uchiha. He was the one who also helped her to master the Phoenix Fire jutsu, which worked off of the Great Fireball jutsu that Cole helped her to master. 

This new jutsu, she recalled, only took the tiger hand sign and had a range of 30 meters. It was a very useful long range attack, which would help aid her in being a well diverse ninja. She could attack close range with her Hyuuga clan jutsus, and use mid range to long range attacks with any of her ninjutsu. Plus she was a medical ninja. The only thing she needed to be a great ninja was more power, speed, and even stronger jutsu for her arsenal. 

"What, are you not strong enough, little girl?" Shorty spoke up, grinning crookedly. He was mocking her, believing she was the weakest link. She remained silent at his taunting, believing it to be useless to retort to his stupidity. He would come to realize soon enough that she was not to be messed with. Hikari made the tiger hand sign, and felt the chakra within her build up. She knew she had to make fireballs, which was something she mastered already, but she then had to manipulate the fireballs to shape them into dragon heads. Once they were out in the open, she knew she also had to find a way to control the dragon head fireballs and aim them at her target. It was easier said than done, and she was prepared to launch her Gentle Fist technique if he came too close, or to dodge if he used a long range attack.

Focus. Breathe. You can do this. With a mini pep talk out of the way, Hikari pictured a dragon's head in her mind as she released the chakra within and it came out of her mouth as red, burning flames. A few of the fireballs, the first two, were shaped like dragon's heads, but the next two were lumpy, not quite shaped like anything. And she was unable to control their paths. Shorty was able to easily dodge the flames, and laughed mockingly at her as the fire crashed somewhere in the distance, about 25 meters away from them.

"That all you can do? I could dodge those all day long, ya weakling!" His statement was followed by a bellowing laugh, one that shook his entire body. Hikari was getting quite annoyed with this poor excuse of a man, and knew she needed to try her jutsu again, as you can never fully master a jutsu the first couple of times you try it. That would be ridiculous, and super over powered. Only a genius shinobi coul handle that feat, or maybe a Kage could as well. She wasn't quite sure.

Hikari again made the tiger hand sign and channeled the chakra within her, building up a large quantity. Clearing her mind of everything but the jutsu at hand, she pictured in her mind the two fire balls that she had been able to shape into dragon heads. Once she felt she had stored enough chakra, she released it once again in a torrent of fire from her mouth. She was only able to create three fireballs this time, but they were all shaped like dragon's heads. However, she had not been able to perfect how to control them once they were formed. Shorty again was able to dodge the fireballs, and seemed to have grown tired of sitting there doing nothing. For he ran forward toward Hikari, a kunai wielded in each hand. He deemed her such a weak opponent that he didn't even need to waste any chakra on her. He underestimated her, and that small fact would be his demise.

Yet it wasn't Hikari who attacked the man, it was Kuro. His fangs tearing into the man's left arm, ripping away at the flesh and tendons. With his elongated fangs, he was able to render the man's left arm useless. Shorty shrieked out in pain, dropping his other kunai to clutch his now limp arm. Even the bone had been crushed by Kuro's powerful jaws. That demonstrated just how strong a wolf can be, especially when someone they love is in potential danger. I think Kuro just got tired of listening to that man, because he knows I can defend myself. Maybe he just wanted to fight and could sense how weak that man was. I guess I'll never really know why. 


"Good job, Kuro! Way to take him out!" She gleefully cheered as her wolf familiar came stroding up to her, head held high as we was very proud of himself for what he had done. "Now, let's see if I can take him out, and finally learn my new jutsu!"

While attempting for the third time to use the Dragon Fire jutsu, Hikari made the tiger hand sign once more. With the same dragon head's image in her mind, she built up another large sum of chakra, determined to finally master the jutsu shown to her by Ryugia. After a couple seconds of chakra building up, she yet again released a torrent of fire and was able to shape the three fireballs she was able to create into the shape of dragon heads. Focusing her mind on just the fireballs, she was able to control them- although it took quite a bit of effort and focus. Instead of aiming the fireballs at the crippled man, she aimed them round him in a triangle shape. It wasn't enough to kill him, but the explosion from them hitting the ground was enough to knock him into the sky, and once he landed we was out cold. Hikari had a long way to go before she could become a master of this high ranking jutsu, but she was satisfied with just knowing the basics and being able to control three fireballs.

By the time she had finished, both Drac and Kouse had already finished off their opponents. Drac even had the time to search and find the weapons dealer and bring him back to his home safely. Their mission had been eventful, and luckily, successful as well. They regrouped and headed home, ready to be back in Konoha. She wasn't sure what she would use her mission reward on, she figured she would save it in case she ever needed emergency funds (or if she needed new ninja supplies).

(TW: 3,381)(Fire Style: Dragon Fire jutsu learned + 4000 ryo, 10 ap from mission, and 8 stats for me & 8 stats for Kuro.)

Ah okay, my apologies! Thank you, Aki! ^^ <3