Mission A curious herb found its way inside the Hidden Sands. P1. [SMSM]

[Toraono Ryota]

"So that will be our mission..." The Jounin concluded as he looked over the small group. "That seems almost too easy.." The genin Ryota replied, as he was the older genin some people were weary of him. The young teen studied the maps once more as he was going over the mission. "So... so far we know, is that they target people from the slums. and that we have to look and act the same..?" The Jounin nodded and handed out some clothing, internally Ryota already sighed and looked at the Jounin. 'Are you kidding me face?' "Suck up that pride from your clan right now." Was the comment he got thrown to his head. That was a mistake they made.

"Of course, I will keep my pride, but it seems to require brains to know that this won't work." A sneer came from the younger male as he looked at the older males. "Oh and why so?" The man bickered back and Ryota simply showed the clothing. "Despite them being low-class clothing... Don't you think they are a bit too clean? Don't you think we are a bit too clean?" He asked blatantly and kept looking in the other eyes. The pressure got to that man and eventually, he agreed. "The way this works... you need a lot more pre-work. Wear this clothing down, wear yourself a little down. A person that is having full weight but on the streets? Isn't that weird either?" He kept on going to them and due to that the mission got pushed back a little bit.

After a week or two they got together again, Ryota lost some weight for this mission, and because of his lean build, it easily showed. "Hungry..." He muttered as he got dressed into the clothing that he had been wearing down properly. Going over stones, in the mud, then going through the river to get rid of the mud, stains, and all kinds. Out of the three of them, Ryota looked the most convincing out of them all. After he was done putting in the contact lenses so his pupils weren't just tiger slits... he would take to the streets.

It was only in two days that the genin were contacted by the group.

 

[Toraono Ryota]

[ You have been warned, yes it is inside of the rules of Ninpocho on Violence 2: Graphic violence is permitted. Explicit description or in-game narration violence is allowed.]

Spoiler

“Someone came to us… They said they could make us all better, they had something.” They were speaking to each other while Ryota was trying to keep a level-headed mindset. It seems like the other one had at least bait, so he failed again huh? He would shake his head a bit to get rid of those thoughts, he had to make sure that he was doing everything he could right now to get this all done correctly. He didn’t want to disappoint him again, not like that thief.

The plan was simple, get in, get proof, and get out. That is all that they had to do at this moment since the Jounin wasn’t able to follow directly. He was already getting more members so they, the genin, would have a backup if it was needed. Yet it didn’t sit well with Ryota if this contact was so tricky… Then what was going to happen?

They met at a location which was behind a shady bar... Ryota tried to play it off like he wasn't so sure. "Oi... nii-san..." He mumbled and looked to the genin in front of him. He played the brother right now and patted Ryota, who internally was trying so hard not to curse or have an outlast, which this Genin was enjoying very much. "Don't worry, this man told me we could trust him." A cat sounded and made them both jumpy. "But why here? It scares me!" Ryota tried to protest, but something in his gut told him this wasn't correct... Someone could almost say it was a cat's instinct right now that told him that.

His head was pounding as he woke up, he was seeing blurry. It took him a moment to get his vision right and his ears picked up sounds soon after. His teammate was on the ground, and he sounded like he was in a real panic. Ryota gazed over to where the sound was coming from and he could now see the way that the other genin moved, it was rushed and panicked as if he was trying to get away from something. “Well… Good morning, did you sleep well?” It was the voice of a man, a raspy and old voice… Yet the man didn’t look that old. Yet at the same time, he couldn't make it out clearly as he was wearing a cloak-like garb. “Come on… Stop moving… Are you that happy to see me?” Ryota looked carefully around, where was the voice coming from, where were they targeting people? It was right a moment after that he saw a figure coming from behind the pillar going to his teammate. There was one symbol on the back of that cloak, one that Ryota was fearing for.

'Jashins...' ​

“Don’t worry. I am going to play with you today.” The genin was trying to get away from the man, yet he was bound and had a hard time moving. “Hey… don’t move.” Ryota tried to keep his breath steady so it seemed like he wasn’t awake yet.. but the pounding on his head didn’t make it that much easier…Yet at the same time, he tasted something weird.. ' that was from before... That little leaf.' “It gets harder to cut you nicely you know..?” Giant questions were getting above his head and he did try to get a peek at what the man was saying. The genin was already making sounds and whimpers, scared and almost in a flee situation the man poked the knife inside the leg. Muffled screams were coming from the genin and only now did Ryota notice that the genin had been covered in more poke holes like this… He was bleeding, which made sense as to why the other wasn’t getting away quickly and how the air was smelling so stale.

“Tell me, does this feel good?” The cries and screams that were getting from the genin were slowly getting softer as he was getting used to the pain, but that was when a twist of the dagger happened. You could swear that there was a pang sound… That wasn’t good. Slowly Ryota tried to get loose, what did he have on him to help this situation…

“Ah… this is it… this sound, this music, makes me want to go harder…” The man sounded like a lunatic if Ryota had to describe him, yet the man had pleasure from hurting others and probably getting hurt too. ’ This is so ducked up!’ Ryota thought and was getting in the survival mindset… He had to survive this no matter what. Again the dagger was pulled out and inserted into the same wound. ’ What kind of sick?!’ his mindset was cut off as the man was now screaming. “More…!! ahahhaha.” That laugh… That laugh went through your bones, that wasn’t someone normal.

“ah… passed out again huh, so boring.” He was right… it had become silent again and this was a problem… that meant that the guy was now on the move…“Hey, wake up… Tch… Well, I went too hard. Sorry… Let’s play again later.” Ryota’s heart was pounding in his chest, he could hear how the knife was pulled out of the body. He could feel the other's emotions being sad and bored at the same time. This was not good… Sounds? What sounds were there?

Nothing…​

It was too silent… and when he went to look, Ryota’s eyes met the man’s eyes. There was just a hand in between their faces. This action made Ryota jump up and have a muffled whelp. “Well… Good morning..."

[ Cliffhanger!! Read about it in the next mission post! ]
WC: 900

 

[Toraono Ryota]

That guy was so close right now, that even his bloodshotbrown eyes were getting engraved in his mind. The guy even smelled bad, a mix of sweet, blood and a hint of dirt. Yet he knew one thing, this guy was not right in his mind. A lot of screws were loose with him.. and that was only more confirmed as the man chuckled and grabbed hold of Ryotás leg. Ryota had managed to kick himself free from the grasp, the dragging had stopped and he tried to get away as soon as he could crawl. The man wiped his hand as he laughed. It seemed that he liked his prey struggling and kicking. "I will break you eventually, don't worry... you will be a fine toy." The voice of that man was bittersweet as Ryota tried to crawl away. “I will make you my dog… I will make you bark any command.” The way he spoke made the teen's skin crawl, that man did not know who he was messing with.

While Ryota was bound, he figured out that he had to be smart, the other did not know that he was a shinobi, yet. But Ryota could not get his arms and hands free right now due to all the ropes that were around his arms, torso, and hands. A rattling sound echoed through the room and behind the teen was the man walking up to him. In his hand was that dagger that he was dragging over the wall.. “Hmm!” Ryota sounded as if he was almost, almost through the ropes around his mouth. They were keeping them silent as much as possible for a reason. One more hop was made before the genin had to let himself fall on his side to dodge the knife, he took the side as that would be the best position to then try a counterattack rather than a face flop. But this Jashin had combat experience and Ryota didn’t see the next action coming. The man sat down on Ryotá's hip, pinning him down in the progress. The teen gritted on the rope as he tried to struggle against the man. “Stay still!” With those words, his mind and body stopped for a split second.’What the..?’ A laugh echoed. “It works!!”

Earlier when both teens were knocked out, the man had placed a heart-formed leaf under their tongues. Before even tying them up, he had repeated this twice already. The leaf would make anyone more docile and you would be more likely to follow commands more easily. To make sure that people would keep on taking it, they made the withdrawal symptom that you would get it very cold. Despite the weather outside, or your body temperature. You would get cravings and lose all focus so that wouldn’t think clearly… Yet if you took it regularly, then you would want more and more until you would be a slave. A slave that would listen to every command, and stop thinking altogether. The jashin already had seen some cases where people would keep working without breaks until they collapsed. For a person that used this method, a child got 3 on a day and a grown man could easily take 4 up to 6… Women often got 7 to keep them obedient for selling even.

The genins had already gotten 2 doses…

Finally, Ryota had chewed his way through the ropes and the man soon found out that Ryota but the hand that was holding the dagger. As Ryota bit through the skin and attempted to break the man's hand… the man was already trying to get away, He started to punch and kick the teen until the teen let go. The teen snickered. “Can’t tame me like that..” He spoke with a provocating tune, the man started to swear heavily and grabbed the knife. With just the tip of the blade, he started to carve into the flesh. And as Ryota started to scream and wiggle, the man kept on going. While this was going on, there was movement from the other side of the room… The other genin had woken up and was now trying to get out of the place without making any sound. The luck was on the genin side as Ryota seemed to have the red flag right now, and once the symbol had been carved into the upper arm of… The genin was already gone.

< Fade to black… >

‘Ah… that’s right… I forgot… I am alone again, it’s always been like this… I had my hopes up, but no matter how much I tried… Nothing changes…’ That was the mindset of the teen right now who was lying on the ground. He had no idea how long he had been here now, he had lost track of time. And every breath he took was more painful than the other... Yet he had no more tears to shed for the pain. Even the jashin was in the corner sleeping. Yet Ryota's brain was almost in an off mode. Trying to block certain things out that had happened. The ropes had been tattered in various places and the blood was visible on it.

‘Fight..’
‘Huh..?’
‘You ‘re tired, you want some time off.’
There was no reply from the red-haired as he was lying there, for anyone else it would be lying down, but to him, it was speaking with the spirit that resided inside of him.
‘What is this pain… it’s so wicked.. so evil..’
‘You want to survive right?!’
‘Can I overcome this darkness..?’
‘You can, but in that case, fight, fight with all your might!’

The atmosphere around the place got heavy, and one could argue that they would have trouble breathing. An aura-like light was coming from the teen, his eyes were shimmering. The Jashin was sitting in a kneeling position on the ground, his eyes small and full of fear while tears were streaming down his face. This was a sight to behold… Ryota stood now up straight, arms resting behind his body while looking directly at the jashin. One of his contacts was gone, god knows where. His Beasts Fangs were activated by the amount of provocation he had suffered, yet due to all the emotions, he wasn’t calming down.

“You told me… That I should consider myself lucky, for being rescued. And after that, you told me that my background wouldn’t disappear, no matter how hard I tried.” And slowly he placed a hand on the cheek of the male who was succumbing to fear. “And, what did you say to me today?”
“Uh… uh…”
“Go on..” Slowly spikes of Chakra were forming around the place, they were a manifestation of the chakra that was now on the loose by Ryota. “That… That was… Uh, today..” The words were now shaking, the man had angered a beast, a beast that was sleeping. “It was a misunderstanding.. Didn’t you tell me, that I need to know my place..?” A set of glowing ears, fangs, and a tail were visible on the teen as he stared into the other's eyes. The crystalized Chakra grew closer and wider around the place.

The Jounin, who finally made it near, quickly made his way inside. “Ahw man… They said he was on a rampage… And he is. I see that he needs to learn some manners.” Even for him, it was suffocating to walk through, but he did manage to let Ryota settle and calm down. He was struck almost directly after with a high fever because of it. When Ryota calmed down, the static first disappeared around the area and then the crystalized fangs of chakra were going away with a blow of the wind.

After two days Ryota woke up… He was in a daze and still had a fever. When he was spoken to by his captain… he would apologize… He used the Beast Fangs and lost control even. “Did you lose control on purpose..?”
“huh.. no… I was.. just mad…”
“Then it doesn’t matter… You did well.”

When he had to make a report… It was quite shocking. “So you see… Kage…” It was already difficult for the Jounin to bring a report like this, but even more so when it was too a youngling of his clan. “When I arrived, he was out of control… His signature move ‘beast fangs’ was all over the place. The place was littered with his chakra crystalizations and they were electrified. The air had become so dense with his cursed energy that even the Jashin was slowly dying of it. The teen never told what exactly endured. But he has a broken lower arm, two bruised ribs on the left and his right upper arm has a carving of a symbol. Overall he is lucky to only have broken that… But we feared that he had gotten a high dosage of the drugs that we were supposed to stop. We have no idea what the drug is, or whether is it safe to stop or not. The genin who was part of his team told us they had gotten 2 of them so far. But we aren’t sure how much Ryota has gotten after the Genin got out. Currently, Ryota is resting up, he is placed on desk work until his arm is fully healed. They say after the minimum chakra healing at least a month.” After a small moment of silence, he would kneel before the Kage. “It is my fault that my team wasn’t at their peak condition. To fit in the crowd, we all were not on our strength, all not with filled stomachs… I will take the blame for that. Currently Jashin is inside Jail, he is a chakra user so we have sigils over him so he will be unable to use any” He would comment. Before placing down the two scrolls one with everything they knew… and one evaluation of Ryota’s mental and physical health. Ryota played the system, he knew how to play that system. So all there was described, was some rest and then see how things went.

Whatever happened in there... Ryota would make sure that it would never be heard off. No one would know. No one could know. He would turn around in his bed inside the clanhouse. There was hardly a good position to lie in… Everything was still hurting.
‘Am I an orphan… With no memories? A lucky adoptee? A son of a foolish woman who ran off with her lover? I received indescribable hospitality and my cold heart has warmed up to the kindness of the people here. But I still cannot escape the insecure fact, that nothing was ever ‘mine’. The words you should be more aware of your position like that Jashin said… Those words which I had neglected, resonated within me. ’. Ryota curled up and simply hid his body with the blanket… What would his uncle think, if he saw him like this? He would probably scold him.. Yea… just like the old man.

[mission finished; wc; 1800+]