Ch. 3

Upon arrival, Takeshi inspected his map. It was about 40 miles to the village where he was supposed to meet the chosen. He was supposed to meet them that evening, which meant that he would have to take some form of transport- his preference was to walk. So, he went outside and hailed a taxi. The driver was an older man, around 60.

"Ninja, huh? Don't get too many of those up here. Where you from?"

"The village hidden in the leaves."

After a few more attempts at conversation, the taxi driver could tell that this ninja wasn't very talkative. He just sat there, staring out the window. In truth, there was a purpose to this. Takeshi was taking a look at the climate, getting to know the general lay of the land, and any other information he could gather. All too soon, however, the taxi came to a halt.

"What's going on?", Takeshi asked the driver, his hand straying to his kunai pouch. It wasn't that he didn't trust the driver...alright, it was completely that he didn't trust the driver. He hated having to rely on unknown parties during missions- you could never know if they were bribed or not.

"Looks like the Desians are doing an inspection of each vehicle that passes. I've never seen anything like this- they keep to the ranches mostly."

Crap...This has something to do with the whole "journey of restoration" or whatever, I'm almost sure of it.

The taxi arrived at the stop, and the two guards, having seen Takeshi's armband, made them get out of the car. Immediately, both other teams abandoned their posts and began to approach. When they arrived, the leader began:

"You! Inferior being with that armband- what are you doing here? This seems to indicate that you are a ninja. State your name.

"Give me your name and I shall give you mine."

What the hell? Why would I say something like that?(A/N: because I like my meta-references, that's why.)

"Insolent worm! State your purpose!"

Takeshi rolled his eyes and pulled out his Hokage's letter. "This should explain everything." He said, handing it to the leader. The half-elf scanned the document, and his eyes lit up.

"This is the one we're looking for! Get him!"

With that, the six Desians drew their blades and advanced. Takeshi noted that they each had a strange orb embedded on the backs of their hands. He was just thankful that, for whatever reason, they didn't have guns. Those things were a pain to deal with.

Takeshi vaulted back up onto the roof of the taxi. He scanned the area. Traffic was backed up behind him, and nothing was getting through ahead on the three-lane highway. That mean a wide, open space with few civilians. Perfect...

Fueling his chakra into a leap, Takeshi jumped over the heads of the Desians who had been closing in on the taxi and landed beyond the gate, and he began to sprint up the road. The Desians, showing athletic ability that almost matched the ninja's, gave chase. As soon as Takeshi judged that they were a safe distance away from the civilian vehicles, he came to a halt and readied himself into a fighting pose to take on the Desians. They rounded the curve in the roadway and came at him full-tilt, 6 fast, agile swordsmen. Takeshi grinned. Time to give his Kekkeai Genkai a workout.

He brought his right hand back, and punched it forward. Concentrating the chakra in the palm of his hand, he activated his clan's bloodline limit, and a ball of fire the size of a man's head flew at the charging Desians. It caught the leader full in the chest. The burning ball of chakra did not extinguish, but instead remained there, searing the Desian's flesh as he tumbled to the ground. That one was out of the fight.

Takeshi followed this up with several more fireballs, hoping that this pyrotechnic show would keep his foes at a distance. It didn't work. They continued to charge, jumping and dodging and showing surprising ability for ordinary fighters without the benefit of chakra. He managed to hit another square on and graze a third's arm, but then the remainder were too close for comfort.

Takeshi dug in his pouch for two kunai and took one in each hand, intending to meet these idiots head-on. He charged at the lead, catching the blade on his first kunai as he aimed the second for the man's gut. He was surprised when the sword seemed to change direction in midair, blocking the kunai to the gut and slicing at Takeshi's shoulder. It was a shallow wound, but it bled freely.

Grunting with the pain, Takeshi attempted to trap his opponent's blade between his two kunai, but the Desian was simply too quick. Takeshi launched a kick behind him to discourage the second desian who had been attacking from the rear, but he quickly recognized that the superior strength and speed of these foes meant that engaging them in close combat was a bad idea. Fortunately for Takeshi, he had a better one.

Flames erupted from Takeshi's hands as he spun in a circle. The flames remained where his hands had been, forming a ring of fire that would force his foes out of range. A desian who had been charging in for a blow fell back, screaming as the intense heat seared his flesh. Given time, he would get back up, but Takeshi didn't plan to give him that time. He focused his chakra in his feet as he jumped just as the asphalt underneath his feet began to collapse from the heat, spinning skywards as he delivered several more fireballs from above, but his enemies were alert enough to dodge these. He landed, and immediately one hand shot forwards, launching a stream of fire towards the group of Desians now running to meet him again. His second hand made a series of complex hand signals. The desians were focused on dodging the flamethrower that was coming out of Takeshi's left hand and getting close and eviscerating him with their swords. They never saw the last few bits of Takeshi's spinning fire wheel suddenly brighten again, forming themselves into several dozen individual fireballs. These Takeshi, with a sharp motion disguised by the flames emitted from his left hand, launched in a wide spread to the rear of the three desians charging at him. The flames caught them, incinerating flesh and causing armor to turn red-hot. The desians screamed and writhed, all three having been hit by several fireballs, and three quick blasts from Takeshi engulfed their heads and ended their screams. Takeshi charged back to where the fourth desian had fallen from his flame wall, but the fireballs had caught him too and he was dead. Takeshi dragged the six bodies off the road, dumping them among the trees. He didn't have time to bury them, and knew that with that big, gaping hole in the road, there was no concealing that something happened here.

Takeshi returned to the taxi, blood flowing down his arm as he tried to staunch it with his hand. He ducked back in and sat down, the driver giving him something of a "what-the-fuck-just-happened" look. Takeshi's only response was "Drive. But watch out for the hole."