A man stood upon a wooden platform, behind a podium, and leaned forward to check the microphone attached to it. Feedback rang throughout the speakers that were placed in the town-square of Port Cirrus. A large crowd of people stood-by, looking up at the man with expecting eyes. They were here to hear the man, Yagyu Shinzo, speak. Shinzo received a permit to be able to speak freely in this assembly today by the city council and even asked for armed guards to stand near him. He had a total of 10 guards around; whether it was in the crowd somewhere, around the perimeter of the event, and even two guards standing beside him on the wooden platform. Shinzo leaned in once more and cleared his throat, having the sound being clearly audible to everyone in attendance. A hush came over the crowd, taking his queue to listen. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of Port Cirrus. You all know me as Yagyu Shinzo from 108.5 FM radio as 'The Voice of Reason' here in Lightning Country. There is an illness growing within the Lightning Country and the illness are those in power. Whether it is the shinobi of Kumogakure or the nobles and the 1% throughout the rest of this crooked country. There is an unfair imbalance of monetary gain in the society. The shinobi get paid hand-over-fist more than we can ever dream of. They get paid in one mission the same that we'd get paid in our entire lives! We would break our backs at the shitty jobs that we hate, day-in-and-day-out. We would try to work overtime just to make ends-meet!" the man said as a murmur started to grow throughout the crowd. [lb2][/lb2]
People were shocked to hear this information. Some were getting angry, some where concerned. Many of the people in the crowd started to talk amongst themselves, mostly about how unfair the financial disparity was between those that have and those that didn't have. "But you know who lines those walking-talking-murderers' pockets? It is the nobles and the filthy rich in our country! They are the only ones capable of paying for those services. The most -WE- could afford is asking one of their -CHILDREN- to get a cat out of a tree for us! How is it that the filthy rich could pay for assassinations and other military business while we are stuck with the mundane?" the man continued to go on as he started to rally the people, causing them to kick up a stir.[lb2][/lb2]
Laying down, on his belly, upon a rooftop overlooking the whole scene, Kyo can be seen holding a pair of binoculars up to his eyes, scanning the rooftops. Kyo let out a little groan as he heard the words coming from the man. "Stop your bitching," he said quietly to himself. He was on here at the behest of the village to prevent a possible assassination of this loud-mouth scoundrel. This wouldn't be the first time Kyo felt under-appreciated; the events that happened at Tea was still fresh in his mind. The ungrateful children not listening to him when he told them to leave did a number on, not only his pride, but his respect for the youth of this village. He put himself in harm's way to protect those ungrateful kids and they couldn't return the respect he showed them as people. While he didn't mind looking like a fool, himself, in front of the scoundrels of Leaf; he didn't like the fact that the disobedience of the children just showed a foreign country how inept they were as shinobi and how their lack of discipline showed. [lb2][/lb2]
Kyo snapped back to reality once he spotted something in the window of one of the buildings. He saw what appeared to be a man pulling out a briefcase and opened it up. Upon opening it up, he started to put something together near a window overlooking the talk. Due to the sensitive nature and the discreteness of this operation, he had to leave Dakota home this time around. He felt naked and exposed without his partner covering his back. Upon finding the man's location, Kyo pocketed the binoculars and memorized the target's location. It was then that Kyo discretely made his way down the building and worked his way towards the building.[lb2][/lb2]
The assassin wore a balaclava over his face and pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked down at the man on the podium. He had a clear line-of-sight with the man's face at a 65 degree angle. Upon looking at the man, he pulled out a photo of the man and compared what he saw in the binoculars with what he saw on the picture. He clicked his headset upon his ear and quietly said, "Target acquired. Have good line-of-sight," the man said as a buzzing came over his ear. "You have authority to make the kill. Return to base after deed is done. No more casualties other than the target," the headset buzzed and went completely silent. Upon gaining confirmation, the man put the binoculars down and hefted up a briefcase, entering the cipher-lock combination and opened it. Inside were pieces of an extremely high-powered sniper rifle. He pulled out the multi-part barrel and screwed them together before placing the barrel onto the receiver and continued to assemble the weapon. After assembling the weapon, the man opened up the window, just enough to poke the barrel and scope out of the window. Before he was able to get a bead upon the target, he heard a clicking noise coming from the door. [lb2][/lb2]
The man quickly took aim towards the target, lining the crosshairs upon the target's head. Before he was able to pull the trigger, the door was kicked open and an arrow was shot into the high-powered rifle. The arrow pushed the rifle to the side causing the sniper to pull the trigger, killing one of the guards in the most gruesome way possible. This kicked up a panic, causing the audience to run around. The assassin moved the weapon up to take another shot only to see the scope being completely destroyed from Kyo's arrow. Without a way to aim, the assassin took another shot, guessing where to aim. His next bullet struck the ground in front of Yagyu Shinzo before Kyo attempted to punch the man in the back of the neck with a Chidori. Hearing this coming, the assassin ducked and smacked Kyo in the face with the butt of his rifle, causing Kyo to stagger. This gave the assassin just enough time to rip off the scope and run out the door that Kyo had kicked open. Kyo made chase.[lb2][/lb2]
By this time, the guards had ushered the target away and into a carriage. Having seen the carriage before taking his perch, the Assassin started to follow the carriage, running along rooftops. Kyo followed and took potshots with his bow and arrow, hearing the whistle of the arrows whiz by the assassin. His feet were nimble and quick, avoiding any shot that Kyo was trying to perform; pinning his feet to the roof. The assassin turned around and took a quick shot at Kyo. Responding with lightning fast reflexes, Kyo shot an arrow towards the high powered bullet only for the bullet to completely crush the frail wooden arrow. This cause Kyo to turn his shoulder to let the bullet continue elsewhere. Turning back around, the assassin aimed in the direction of the cart and took a shot. One of the drivers of the cart's head exploded, bringing the cart to a stop. The man lined up yet another shot at the now stopped vehicle. Kyo laced yet another arrow into his bow and shot it towards the man's left arm, causing the arrow to completely pierce through the man's left bicep, forcing his aim downwards, having him shoot the bullet directly into the building below him. The sound of screaming could be heard inside. [lb2][/lb2]
The tremendous weight on the now-crippled arm made it difficult for the assassin to carry the rifle. Ditching the weapon, he pulled out a knife from his utility belt and dove down onto the carriage. This caused Kyo to curse lightly, dropping his bow and arrows before diving down towards the man, intercepting him in mid-air and began to wrestle with him. The two exchanged punches and Kyo took several slices to his arms and face from the man's knife before the two slammed hard into the carriage holding the VIP. The entire front part of the carriage roof collapsed, having the assassin and Kyo now in the carriage with Yagyu Shinzo. Now, it was only a matter of who woke up first. Shinzo just witnessed two people crash into his cart and stared on in absolute horror.[lb2][/lb2]
The assassin stirred awake first with Kyo returning to consciousness a half second later. This was enough time for the assassin to leap onto the target. Before he was able to shove the weapon into the horrified radio personality, the assassin noticed this his weapon hand was being held back by the disoriented Kyo. The assassin continued to push through Kyo's grip a couple of times before moving his arm back, causing Kyo to fall back and threw the blade from behind his back over his opposite shoulder. The assassin caught the knife with his other arm and before he could shove the blade into Shinzo, his head exploded in a mist of red. The violence and gore splattered all over Shinzo's face as the sound of thousands of birds could be heard with a black and green glowing hand pulling itself out of what used to be the assassin's face. Kyo swung his hand, throwing off the blood from his body and onto the interior of the cart. The assassin's body fell limply to the side as Kyo simply sat there and breathed heavily, trying to regain his breath.[lb2][/lb2]
Shinzo gave Kyo a stupid, dumb-founded look as the primordial shinobi continued to catch his breath. Kyo turned to look at the dumb-founded man and sneered at him for a moment. "You're welcome, you ungrateful mother--" he said before he heard a voice coming from the headsets of the assassin. Kyo's eyes darted to the noise for a moment. The voice shouted out. "Was the target successfully dispatched? There is a lot of commotion going on in Port Cirrus. Did you complete the mission?" the voice came in loud-and-clear. Kyo turned to look at Shinzo and raised a finger up to his lips, as if to tell him to silence himself. Shinzo placed a hand over his mouth to stop, even the sound of his breathing, from being heard. Kyo picked up the headsets and pressed into it. [lb2][/lb2]
"Yeah," Kyo said in the most generic voice he could.[lb2][/lb2]
"Very well. Bring proof and return to base immediately," the voice said before returning to radio silence. Kyo pulled the headset out of his ear and crushed it between his fingertips. Kyo turned to look at Yagyu Shinzo. "For the next 2 weeks, you are officially dead. Stay low and don't make yourself public. And most of all, don't go to work during that time," Kyo said in a demanding manner.[lb2][/lb2]
"W-w-w-w-why two weeks?" the man asked after uncovering his mouth.[lb2][/lb2]
"It'll be more than enough time for us to find who these people, that wanted you dead, came from and take care of them. You know, the shinobi that you've been shitting on that saved your lives. Now you know why we get paid more than enough. While you are entitled to your opinion, don't shit on us and make us look bad. Do it again and I might come around and kill you," Kyo said before standing up and jumping out of the cart that he fell through. Kyo grumbled in annoyance. Whoever that assassin was very highly skilled; Kyo believed that he only won that fight out of sheer luck! Now to figure out who hired him and take them out!
WC: 2002
People were shocked to hear this information. Some were getting angry, some where concerned. Many of the people in the crowd started to talk amongst themselves, mostly about how unfair the financial disparity was between those that have and those that didn't have. "But you know who lines those walking-talking-murderers' pockets? It is the nobles and the filthy rich in our country! They are the only ones capable of paying for those services. The most -WE- could afford is asking one of their -CHILDREN- to get a cat out of a tree for us! How is it that the filthy rich could pay for assassinations and other military business while we are stuck with the mundane?" the man continued to go on as he started to rally the people, causing them to kick up a stir.[lb2][/lb2]
Laying down, on his belly, upon a rooftop overlooking the whole scene, Kyo can be seen holding a pair of binoculars up to his eyes, scanning the rooftops. Kyo let out a little groan as he heard the words coming from the man. "Stop your bitching," he said quietly to himself. He was on here at the behest of the village to prevent a possible assassination of this loud-mouth scoundrel. This wouldn't be the first time Kyo felt under-appreciated; the events that happened at Tea was still fresh in his mind. The ungrateful children not listening to him when he told them to leave did a number on, not only his pride, but his respect for the youth of this village. He put himself in harm's way to protect those ungrateful kids and they couldn't return the respect he showed them as people. While he didn't mind looking like a fool, himself, in front of the scoundrels of Leaf; he didn't like the fact that the disobedience of the children just showed a foreign country how inept they were as shinobi and how their lack of discipline showed. [lb2][/lb2]
Kyo snapped back to reality once he spotted something in the window of one of the buildings. He saw what appeared to be a man pulling out a briefcase and opened it up. Upon opening it up, he started to put something together near a window overlooking the talk. Due to the sensitive nature and the discreteness of this operation, he had to leave Dakota home this time around. He felt naked and exposed without his partner covering his back. Upon finding the man's location, Kyo pocketed the binoculars and memorized the target's location. It was then that Kyo discretely made his way down the building and worked his way towards the building.[lb2][/lb2]
The assassin wore a balaclava over his face and pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked down at the man on the podium. He had a clear line-of-sight with the man's face at a 65 degree angle. Upon looking at the man, he pulled out a photo of the man and compared what he saw in the binoculars with what he saw on the picture. He clicked his headset upon his ear and quietly said, "Target acquired. Have good line-of-sight," the man said as a buzzing came over his ear. "You have authority to make the kill. Return to base after deed is done. No more casualties other than the target," the headset buzzed and went completely silent. Upon gaining confirmation, the man put the binoculars down and hefted up a briefcase, entering the cipher-lock combination and opened it. Inside were pieces of an extremely high-powered sniper rifle. He pulled out the multi-part barrel and screwed them together before placing the barrel onto the receiver and continued to assemble the weapon. After assembling the weapon, the man opened up the window, just enough to poke the barrel and scope out of the window. Before he was able to get a bead upon the target, he heard a clicking noise coming from the door. [lb2][/lb2]
The man quickly took aim towards the target, lining the crosshairs upon the target's head. Before he was able to pull the trigger, the door was kicked open and an arrow was shot into the high-powered rifle. The arrow pushed the rifle to the side causing the sniper to pull the trigger, killing one of the guards in the most gruesome way possible. This kicked up a panic, causing the audience to run around. The assassin moved the weapon up to take another shot only to see the scope being completely destroyed from Kyo's arrow. Without a way to aim, the assassin took another shot, guessing where to aim. His next bullet struck the ground in front of Yagyu Shinzo before Kyo attempted to punch the man in the back of the neck with a Chidori. Hearing this coming, the assassin ducked and smacked Kyo in the face with the butt of his rifle, causing Kyo to stagger. This gave the assassin just enough time to rip off the scope and run out the door that Kyo had kicked open. Kyo made chase.[lb2][/lb2]
By this time, the guards had ushered the target away and into a carriage. Having seen the carriage before taking his perch, the Assassin started to follow the carriage, running along rooftops. Kyo followed and took potshots with his bow and arrow, hearing the whistle of the arrows whiz by the assassin. His feet were nimble and quick, avoiding any shot that Kyo was trying to perform; pinning his feet to the roof. The assassin turned around and took a quick shot at Kyo. Responding with lightning fast reflexes, Kyo shot an arrow towards the high powered bullet only for the bullet to completely crush the frail wooden arrow. This cause Kyo to turn his shoulder to let the bullet continue elsewhere. Turning back around, the assassin aimed in the direction of the cart and took a shot. One of the drivers of the cart's head exploded, bringing the cart to a stop. The man lined up yet another shot at the now stopped vehicle. Kyo laced yet another arrow into his bow and shot it towards the man's left arm, causing the arrow to completely pierce through the man's left bicep, forcing his aim downwards, having him shoot the bullet directly into the building below him. The sound of screaming could be heard inside. [lb2][/lb2]
The tremendous weight on the now-crippled arm made it difficult for the assassin to carry the rifle. Ditching the weapon, he pulled out a knife from his utility belt and dove down onto the carriage. This caused Kyo to curse lightly, dropping his bow and arrows before diving down towards the man, intercepting him in mid-air and began to wrestle with him. The two exchanged punches and Kyo took several slices to his arms and face from the man's knife before the two slammed hard into the carriage holding the VIP. The entire front part of the carriage roof collapsed, having the assassin and Kyo now in the carriage with Yagyu Shinzo. Now, it was only a matter of who woke up first. Shinzo just witnessed two people crash into his cart and stared on in absolute horror.[lb2][/lb2]
The assassin stirred awake first with Kyo returning to consciousness a half second later. This was enough time for the assassin to leap onto the target. Before he was able to shove the weapon into the horrified radio personality, the assassin noticed this his weapon hand was being held back by the disoriented Kyo. The assassin continued to push through Kyo's grip a couple of times before moving his arm back, causing Kyo to fall back and threw the blade from behind his back over his opposite shoulder. The assassin caught the knife with his other arm and before he could shove the blade into Shinzo, his head exploded in a mist of red. The violence and gore splattered all over Shinzo's face as the sound of thousands of birds could be heard with a black and green glowing hand pulling itself out of what used to be the assassin's face. Kyo swung his hand, throwing off the blood from his body and onto the interior of the cart. The assassin's body fell limply to the side as Kyo simply sat there and breathed heavily, trying to regain his breath.[lb2][/lb2]
Shinzo gave Kyo a stupid, dumb-founded look as the primordial shinobi continued to catch his breath. Kyo turned to look at the dumb-founded man and sneered at him for a moment. "You're welcome, you ungrateful mother--" he said before he heard a voice coming from the headsets of the assassin. Kyo's eyes darted to the noise for a moment. The voice shouted out. "Was the target successfully dispatched? There is a lot of commotion going on in Port Cirrus. Did you complete the mission?" the voice came in loud-and-clear. Kyo turned to look at Shinzo and raised a finger up to his lips, as if to tell him to silence himself. Shinzo placed a hand over his mouth to stop, even the sound of his breathing, from being heard. Kyo picked up the headsets and pressed into it. [lb2][/lb2]
"Yeah," Kyo said in the most generic voice he could.[lb2][/lb2]
"Very well. Bring proof and return to base immediately," the voice said before returning to radio silence. Kyo pulled the headset out of his ear and crushed it between his fingertips. Kyo turned to look at Yagyu Shinzo. "For the next 2 weeks, you are officially dead. Stay low and don't make yourself public. And most of all, don't go to work during that time," Kyo said in a demanding manner.[lb2][/lb2]
"W-w-w-w-why two weeks?" the man asked after uncovering his mouth.[lb2][/lb2]
"It'll be more than enough time for us to find who these people, that wanted you dead, came from and take care of them. You know, the shinobi that you've been shitting on that saved your lives. Now you know why we get paid more than enough. While you are entitled to your opinion, don't shit on us and make us look bad. Do it again and I might come around and kill you," Kyo said before standing up and jumping out of the cart that he fell through. Kyo grumbled in annoyance. Whoever that assassin was very highly skilled; Kyo believed that he only won that fight out of sheer luck! Now to figure out who hired him and take them out!
WC: 2002