Luke was hanging by the gates of the hidden heaven village, having packed lightly for the trip to the hidden oasis village since it wasn't too far away from the hidden heaven village, give or take about fifteen thousand feet and about a day's journey from the landing site. The guy he was meant to be escorting was a famed ninja from the aforementioned village, in charge of a small village in his home town. Luke knew the situation and the benefit of having him escort him safely back was meant as a diplomacy tactic between the two nations. The Yokuchi chunin arrived ten minutes later, having packed his things while having one more drink of sake before arriving. He did appear drunk, but not intoxicated enough to act stupid or at least, not forget he was meant to meet Luke by the gates to the hidden heaven village.
"Sorry about that; the people at the bar were really nice and they threw me a party, I couldn't say no, I hope I didn't make you wait too long," He said apologetically, rubbing the back of his head. Luke took a sigh before responding, look at him with his blood red eyes.
"I haven't been here long, besides, excellent service requires reward, but I presume since your here, your ready to go?" Luke asked him, going into a standing position from where he was laying by the gate. He nodded, smiling a little.
"I'm good to go, don't worry, I'm just happy my request for a escort was accepted, I prefer the company while I travel and there is safety in numbers, right?" He said and Luke nodded again; there was always a advantage in numbers, but there was always the case that they could be attacked on the way back to his village, so caution would be best.
"True enough, but I wouldn't relax till your back in your village where you belong, Luke told him, being honest that it was a rule of ninjas to never let your guard down, regardless of what was going on. The chunin nodded his agreement, understanding Luke's position as the two stood by the gate as the release was accepted. The chunin appeared confused as to why the gate was shut and looked to Luke for a answer. Luke chuckled a little before replying.
"Being as high up as we are, there are massive gale-force winds that travel through the gate when they are open, so to not damage the village, the gates remain shut until necessary and even then, we keep the opening just enough to not blow away the buildings," Luke explained as the gates were opened enough for them to pass, but allowing a large gust of wind to flood into the gap and into the village. The chunin walked forward and looked down to see the clouds floating below him.
"So, how do we get out the village then?" the chunin asked him and, just as he asked, a large royal griffin appeared at the gate, wearing a hidden heaven headband around its neck as it eyed the two ninjas.
"Ah yes, since you asked; this is Gurankase (Grand Hank), the summon of the ninja responsible for the transport between here and the surface, he'll be taking us down to the earth. But just a word of warning, don't talk to him about his job; he doesn't like to be reminded of it," Luke explained to the Yokuchi chunin, whispering the part about his warning so the griffin couldn't hear it before turning back to to it, where it was looking annoyed.
"Are you coming or are you going to keep talking amongst yourselves?" Gurankase asked them in a grumble, feeling less then dignified. Luke and the chunin heeded Gurankase's words and got onto his back, holding onto the leash for them to hold onto. Luke warned the chunin to hold on tight before Gurankase dived straight down, the wind rushing through their hair as they dived thousands of feet before they broke up so the G-forces didn't get too much before diving again to reach the level of the forest before they gently landed in a clearing. To which the chunin shakily got off, followed by Luke before Gurankase flew back towards the village, who wasn't eager to stick around since he hated his job.
The chunin was throwing up against a tree, now regretting going back for that last round of sake while Luke patiently waited for him to finish emptying his stomach of his breakfast before finally stopping and taking a drink of water from his supplies as his throat was sore. Luke chuckled to himself before helping the chunin get up and moving.
"I did warn ya, you know; by the way, I didn't catch your name, Chunin of Yokuchi," Luke asked him as they started the walk towards the chunin's village. He looked up, thankful for the hidden heaven's Special Jonin's assistance.
"Oh yeah, sorry, I got so worked up, I forgot to say my name on the mission contract; I'm Hiroki, how about you?" Hiroki introduced himself, trying his best to match Luke's larger steps. Luke understood that this sort of thing happened from time to time, so he wasn't surprised by this as they headed into the forest.
"My name is Luke Yasenha and don't worry, this is natural for the world we live in, so don't fret, we'll make camp on the border to the desert and we'll be there by tomorrow night," Luke explained to him, Hiroki nodded, looking on as he shifted out of Luke's hold so he could walk on his own. Luke let him, it would be important to let him walk the jet lag off. They continued until about midnight, exchanging small talk every so often about how things were going in their respective villages as they were unsure really of what to ask before deciding that it was about time to pitch the tents.
After setting up camp, just by the border to the wastelands of deserts, Luke took watch as Hiroki slept. However, he heard the footsteps in the silence that were not their own. Luke stood up, his eyes scanning the darkness when he heard the distinctive sound of kunai being thrown. Luke dodged out the way as they hit the ground where he was standing as two masked ninjas appeared from the trees, with kunai drawn and eager to kill.
Luke drew out all the Shuriken he had and throw three at each ninja, forcing them to dodge out the way as Luke came at one of them, running him threw the heart with his precious blade, letting his blood drip out while the other one cursed as Luke killed his friend and threw all the kunai he had into Luke's back and Luke appeared to fall, however, Luke suddenly vanished in a burst of white smoke, revealing in fact, he had shot all those kunai into his friend instead. He felt shock going through his body before he felt something wrapping around his legs before he was dragged around, screaming in terror as he was dragged into the forest, waking up Hiroki as he came out his tent with a torch, looking for where Luke was and saw the dead missing-nin on the ground, laying with a hole through his chest and several kunai sticking out of him. He turned his head to a scream of pain and terror coming from the darkness of the forest and then. Silence, a dark, creepy silence before footsteps came from the darkness in the forest as Luke came, dragging the corpse of the low-level missing-nin with a slit throat by his shirt and holding his blood coated blade as he dumped the corpse at Hiroki's feet while he cleaned the blood off his blade before sheathing it.
"I guess not everyone likes you, eh? Luke told him, eyeing the corpses of the two missing-nin before grabbing the missing-nin and moving the body away and putting it on top of the other one when Hiroki came over.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of the bodies," Hiroki told Luke, looking serious and Luke moved back as Hiroki made a few hand signs before using fire style: Fireball jutsu to burn the bodies before returning to their tents, the fire would tell any hanging around that it would appear that the first two missing-nin succeeded and burned the camp to the ground, especially with the smell of burning flesh in the air.
The next day, they packed up and headed towards the village through the burning heat of the desert; although both Hiroki and Luke didn't mind the heat; Hiroki because he lived here and was used to it and Luke because he lived fifteen thousands feet into the air, much closer to the sun then most people so they weren't too bothered, although it took a lot of time to reach the gates of the hidden oasis village, but suddenly, more kunai came down from a unknown location and quickly; Luke manifested his shadow arms to wrap around Hiroki to block the kunai while Luke ended up getting one in the shoulder, giving a grunt of pain before taking it out and tossing it on the ground while his arms got half a dozen kunai in his arms before he moved them away and the arms shook off the kunai as two more missing-nin came out with kunai, charging at him, using a clone jutsu each to make it appeared like there was more of them then there was.
However, this were the most basic clones and they didn't even kick up the sand, meaning the real ones were easy to spot so he changed his lower arms to tentacles and wrapped them around their legs and tossed them against each other, falling to the ground before seeing Luke, having reformed his two lower shadow arms as he stood over them, his chakra forming around him like the darkness itself, his aura intense and his appearance like the devil himself.
"Here's some advice...Run!" Luke snarled and, terrified, the two missing-nin ran past him into the desert before Luke reseeded his jutsu and turned to Hiroki as he took a bow towards the gate, allowing Hiroki to enter the village with Luke following. Once Hiroki was safe, Luke got him to sign the contract before making his goodbye to him, shaking his hand for a job well done, however unsure of Luke by his actions, but Hiroki knew that he did his job and he wasn't too bad, so he signed the contract and, with that, Luke headed back to the hidden heaven village, getting Gurankase to take him back to his village so he could hand in his mission report and the signed contract so he could get his pay before finally heading home, glad to see his own bed and, after a quick dinner of takeout chow mei before heading to bed, glad to have the pink and black covers over his body as he fell asleep at last.
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