The Long Walk Home [Solo Mission]

Missions Completed:

It was very early in the morning. The sun had not even come out yet and there was thick fog surrounding the village hidden in the mist. The weather was calm and quiet, small waves of water gently crashed against the shores of the bay. The sound of crickets could still be heard, the workers of the village were waking up early to start their day, and the doctors were switching shifts at the hospital.

After seeing all his patients for the night, a young doctor was tired from working the night shift. This young shinobi was wearing his black hospital scrubs, latex gloves, a white doctor’s jacket with a hood on it, and his Kirigakure headband around his waist like a belt. This doctor had snow white hair adorned by black streaks and matching black bags underneath his eyes from the lack of sleep. He yawned and stretched as he began to leave the front door before overhearing a distressed voice.

A woman was crying over a child who had been seemed to be stabbed. Acting quickly, the doctor rushed into action and placed his palm over the stab wound. A blue stream of chakra emerged from the medical shinobi’s palm and immediately stopped the bleeding. The wound itself then began to heal as skin began to form over and closed up. The child was healed! The woman hugged the kid tight and asked the doctor his name.

“Soran.” The shinobi replied.

It turned out that this child was ten years old and considered a prince to some noble dynasty. Apparently he had been injured by roaming bandits who attempted to capture him. This woman was his nanny and he had been injured under her watch. The two were walking the streets at night when he was attacked. They managed to escape and were fortunate to be near the hospital. If he had died, she would have likely met the same fate. She was so impressed with his talents that she made an offer in the payment of five-hundred ryo to the medical professional. The white haired Jounin humbly refused the offer and told her how it was his job to save lives.

The nanny insisted and told him it could be for transporting the prince to his parent’s home, which was located on the opposite side of Kirigakure. She felt that it would be safer if she remained at the hospital and somebody more capable take charge of protecting the prince. Supposedly his family was extremely wealthy and very high profile figures in the village. After constant pleading, the doctor reluctantly agreed and accepted the payment. In truth, he only wished to go home and get some sleep. But he was informed that there were people within the village who would wish harm upon the kid or wanted to capture him for ransom.

“Does it hurt?” The doctor asked his final patient for the night. The prince pouted his lip and turned his head away. The nanny informed the ninja that the prince refuses to talk to the help. It seemed wealth and royalty at a young age resulted in youth becoming extremely stuck up, even to a person that had just prevented their death. What a brat!

Oh well, Soran didn't exactly oppose to the idea of a silent stroll across the village. It would be soothing for his drowsy mind.

As the two exited the hospital, the doctor removed his latex gloves and threw them in the disposable trash bin before putting his hood up. Warm color filled the sky as the sun began to rise. Nothing Soran asked the prince was met with a vocal response, only the sound of scoffing and rude sneers. Normally this would seem offensive and result in witty remarks, but Soran was much too tired to care, much less put in the effort to be disrespectful. Rank in society didn’t influence the opinion of this doctor. To him, everybody was made of the same components. They live, they die. His job was only to prolong the inevitable. It didn’t matter if you were a peasant or a king, you'd still bleed.

While daydreaming in his exhausted state, the doctor and the prince were by the docks where the fishermen left on their boats. Suddenly there was a quick flicker that zoomed by the two that snatched up the prince. Even though he was fatigued, the shinobi wasn’t a Jounin for no reason. He quickly determined the perpetrators to be drop-outs from the ninja academy who only knew the basics of chakra. So these were the cowards who would dare to stab a child. They figured a man in scrubs and a white jacket wouldn’t be able to stop them. But they would soon find out how wrong they were.

While one of the men began to escape with the prince, the shinobi quickly analyzed the followers. There were five men in total and four of them were tasked with stopping the doctor. Little did they know, they were facing off against a master of Taijutsu.

The man closest to the martial artist was holding the knife that had been used to stab the prince. Soran suddenly realized who this man was. As a Jounin, he had heard reports of a D-rank Missing Ninja who had left the village because he had been denied a rank up. The last he had heard, this man was supposed to be killed on sight. It seemed that this rogue had also joined the same group that was tasked with kidnapping the prince. It was a shame that an ex-mist ninja would become responsible for almost killing a child. It was unforgivable.

As the rogue shinobi attempted to stab the warrior; Soran caught the wrist of the assailant, gripped it so hard that it dislocated, then tore off the man’s entire arm. The rogue wailed in agony as he fell to the ground and began to lose a large amount of blood. The accomplices remaining looked on in horror. The blood leaking from the arm splattered all over the doctor’s hooded jacket. This was nothing new, he had prior experience of this while working at the hospital. There were three men remaining who likely knew where the prince was being taken. The truth would just have to be extracted from them.

Irritation from blood getting on his white clothing caused the sleep deprived fighter to reacted by throwing the severed arm at one of the other men like a harpoon. The knife held in the hand pierced the heart of the bandit furthest away from the shinobi. When this happened, both remaining men turned to see their fallen comrade. All according to plan. Soran then pointed his index finger at the distracted man to his left and shot a hardened bone from his fingertip like a bullet. The ninja landed a direct hit that landed against the foe’s temporal bone and killed him instantly.

Now only one of the kidnappers left behind was still standing and the Kaguya’s fingertip had already finished regenerating. Everything had happened so quickly that it was nerve-racking for the lone bandit. In a matter of seconds all his accomplices were incapacitated, aside from the one who had gotten away. Before this man could even consider getting away, Soran ran over at swift speed and placed his palm on the back of the man’s head. The last bandit standing collapsed as the electrical signals from his brain were cut and severed from his body. Luckily, he could still manage to speak.

Groaning came from behind the shinobi, it was the rogue ninja whose arm he had torn off. The traitor was still alive, but not for long. A blade of bone spawned from the Kaguya’s palm and plunged into the skull of the D-Rank dropout before retracting back into the white haired shinobi’s palm. One problem for the village was taken care of, but the doctor still had to cross-examine the man he had just paralyzed.

After interrogating the vegetable, it was learned that they had taken the rich punk to a hidden bunker built within one of the mountains surrounding the village. It seemed that this group of bandits had been quite busy the night before. The D-rank Missing Ninja that had was just killed had been using smoke bombs and explosive tags for assault and abduction on a popular live performing act. In all the commotion, one of the lead female performers was abducted several miles away from the village and taken to the same location as the prince. Soran could only imagine the vile things they could be doing to the performer. It seemed that he had two rescue missions to attend to now. Luckily, they would be in the same location.

Even though the medical shinobi had taken an oath to protect lives, the doctor felt that there was enough evil in the world without keeping those who would harm women and children alive. So the cold-blooded ninja dragged the lifeless body of the paraplegic over to the dock and tossed the body into the water. The paralyzed man begged for his life before being thrown in, but no sympathy was shown by the Kaguya as the bandit drowned within minutes.

Traveling to the specified mountain, the doctor quickly deduced the location of the hidden bunker. Putting his stealth skills to the test, the ninja managed to sneak in undetected. Within the base were many bandits who were lounging around. There were many rooms within this cave-like location. It was actually quite impressive to see a hidden base built within the walls of a mountain.

In the center of the mountain was where the majority of the bandits were located. From the looks of their banners, this appeared to be some sort of underground revolution who opposes the royal hierarchy. While Soran felt as though he could be sympathetic to their cause to bring anarchy, he could not agree with any group of individuals who would condone attempted murder of a child.

The sound of a woman screaming came from below this area, but was ignored by the bandits who seemed to find humor in their victim’s fear. Proceeding to this area undetected, Soran looked on as the street performer was being tossed back and forth between four men. Her clothes resembled that of a gypsy, but were torn and dirty. The woman screamed and begged them to stop as they attempted to violate her. Aiming his fingertips at the four men, skeletal bullets drilled through their skulls and killed all of them instantly. The screaming stopped, but the tears continued to fall. Soran had just prevented something horrific from happening.

Even though the street performer was still terrified, she immediately recognized the Kirigakure insignia on the belt of the hooded medic. Her body was bruised and bloody, but that seemed to be the only extent of harm that managed to get to her. The grateful woman ran over and embraced the doctor with a hug as she continued sobbing uncontrollably. The medic returned the embrace with the Mystical Palm Technique. All of the pain left her body as each wound she had endured was healed.

Leading this woman to safety, Soran managed to get her to the escape hatch undetected. Fortunately, she knew the precise whereabouts of the prince. Apparently there was only one man guarding him as the others were preoccupied with her. Once the traveling performer was safely out of the hidden bunker, the doctor instructed the healed woman to travel back to Kirigakure and reunite with the leader of her performance group. The white haired ninja went back into the bunker to finish the job. The Jounin would bring these kidnappers to justice.

Sneaking back to the specified location, the stealthy shinobi quickly spotted the man guarding the prince. With a swift rush of stealth and power, the man guarding the prince was stabbed in the throat by a bone spike extending out of the Kaguya’s palm. The kid was blindfolded and gagged with his hands tied behind his back. After retracting the bone spike back into his hand, the doctor pulled out a small scroll from his jacket pocket and extracted a gas mask from it. After removing the gag and blindfold, Soran carefully placed the gas mask over the child’s face. Soran then slung the prince over his shoulder and began running towards the exit.

While approaching the escape hatch, the medic turned his head back and began to knead the chakra within his body. This chakra then changed into special chemical substances, which were then ejected out of his mouth and transformed into a deadly mist of poison that rapidly flooded the base. Making sure not to breathe it in himself, the shinobi rushed out of the only exit and sealed it off. This caused all the people trapped inside the base to feel their body go numb from the purple gas in a matter of seconds. This was the first symptom a victim would feel after inhalation. In few short moments after the escape, everybody within the hidden base was dead.

Taking the gas mask off the prince, the doctor made sure to check that the kid he was escorting didn’t suffer any injury and was still in perfect health. Speaking his first words to the Jounin, the prince expressed outrage at letting him get kidnapped in the first place. Unbelievable! After risking his life to save this royal pain in the ass, the medic was still catching anguish for his deeds.

Whatever. At this point he was just ready to get this kid home and finally get some sleep. So he placed the gas mask back into the scroll and walked with the prince through the mountains. Many hours had passed during the time it took for the detour through the mountains to lead into the other side of Kirigakure. It was already past noon and the sun was high in the sky. But luckily the doctor had a few days off of work at the hospital. He would need the time to recuperate and relax after this whole ordeal.

Approaching a large house opposite of the hospital in the village, the prince had finally been escorted home. A servant answered the door and welcomed the royal youth with praise. Uninterested in receiving an audience with this spoiled child’s parents, Soran immediately left and journeyed to his own house across town.

Stopping in front of the shinobi outside of the mansion was the owner of a delivery shop named Hojo. Seeing the insignia on the doctor’s belt, Hojo knew that the white haired medic was also a shinobi. It seemed a large order of fruits and vegetables needed to be delivered across town. Soran shrugged and accepted, he was too tired to oppose anything at the moment and he was going in that direction anyways. Plus, it gave him some additional ryo. So the doctor delivered the food where it needed to go before proceeding to a more desirable location, home.

The shinobi entered the front door of his home in a sluggish state. Soran was extremely exhausted from everything he had done. The doctor took off his bloody outfit and placed it in a pile of clothes to be washed. He then placed his headband, his scroll full of items, and his newly earned money on the counter in his bedroom. Making his way over to the bed, the drowsy ninja collapsed on his mattress. Once his head made contact with the pillow, he was sound asleep. 

Word Count: 2,600