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"By the powers invested in me..."


"For now, all I need you to do is keep up a good face and continue your duty. You're a Jashinist, correct? Amp up your offerings by double if you can. I don't want anyone innocent harmed, but hell, you find a pirate, it doesn't matter how measly or unimposing they are, their fate is death, understood? Your Lord Jashin will be receiving many more souls soon. Above all, we need to maintain that we have control of the situation, and that means wiping out any opposition, even more quickly than possible. If Soragakure thinks we're stronger than usual, as opposed to weaker, then our conditions will obviously be more favorable. Do you follow along?" Shinji asked, standing up after he finished breathing. Now that he was certain his heart rate was normal and he was no longer woozy from losing so much blood, he began to stretch slowly, straightening out both legs and making sure to loosen his muscles up for the work to come. There was yet much killing to be done, and Shinji needed to be ready. He tightened the straps on his armor and sandals, drawing the twin Arakh from their respective sheaths when he finished. The Senju heir cracked his neck experimentally, before deciding he was ready. "Now, the way I see it, there's still quite a few stragglers out there, slower ships, maybe ships that aren't fully manned, you know the deal. Ships full of enemies of Tsukigakure. Ships full of men and women who deliberately harmed the island, and sought to kill it's denizens. You're a bright young lad, I think you know what we do to people like them." Shinji said with a devilish grin, a bloodthirsty expression clear on his face. He ran to a rather flat hunk of beached wood, that laid there in the sands. It was definitely large enough to comfortably house the two of them. "Come on then, Luka. They picked a bad idea, fighting a Senju with a ridiculous water affinity out at sea. For your Lord Jashin!"

xxxxx
Petra stood upon a cloud of golden dust, riding off to where her mission would begin for her, she noticed that something had changed in the formation of the land and found it strange. She didn't mind or say anything about it though, thinking that maybe Elizabeth decided to change up the decor a bit.

[exit]








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"By the powers invested in me..."


The Senju heir whistled appreciatively at Luka's ability. Explosions, coupled with the savage taijutsu he had, and his near immortality, would make Luka a viciously powerful opponent to face, especially out at sea, where the footing was unsteady and a slip up would lead to death. He clearly had picked a good partner. "I'll get us in close, you know what to do from there."

Shinji focused, closing his eyes as he kneaded chakra in his stomach, sending it out first to his feet, then to the makeshift surfboard. The wood, now pumped full of his powerful chakra, began to smooth out, curling up at the edges and losing its jagged shape. It was an oval-like shape, pointed at one end, with the edges rising about two inches. Shinji kicked off, a few powerful strokes of his long, lean legs sending the raft into the water. Now, for the easy part. Shinji simply willed the water around him to part, using his chakra to propel the 12-foot long board at high speeds towards the other ships.

"Get ready!" Shinji yelled to Luka, bracing himself and jumping back, his arm swinging out to bring Luka down with him. The two fell to the very back edge of the board, moments before about 8 feet of the board collided with the hull of a ship, tearing through the weaker wood with a screeching whine. Once he was sure that his makeshift dinghy was firmly embedded in the other ship, he stood up, helping his partner up. "Okay, here's the easy part. I want you to swim to the closest ship and do your work. If anyone looks important, restrain them. The average pirate dies. Try not to destroy too many ships, alright? If we get this done quickly and cleanly enough, I can probably link up the ships in a line and we can steer them to the mainland. Untouched ships are worth money, after all. If it's minor damage, with somebody who knows what they're doing, I can probably fix up a ship, but even I'm not able to patch up giant holes from explosions and whatnot."

With that comment, Shinji began to climb up the hull of the ship, his blades secured on his back. There was work to be done, after all.

Michael nodded and turned to help with the damaged houses. Fires raged throughout the entire village, he could also hear in his head cries for help from people who were trapped under rubble and other. In his mind he thought, 'Hmm, deal with the fire or the people? Yeah fire is not my thing so, people it is.' Michael then began heading for all the trapped villagers. A while later most of the people had been pulled out, and most of the fires had been put out, it had not been easy, but the Seaport was safe. The next step was to begin rebuilding the houses and shops, so he began. In his mind he wished he could be helping with the fight, but he knew this was important as well. Brick by brick, plank by plank, metal, by metal, the buildings went up, at least partially. He helped carry wood, and as he passed by the people he heard their worry, like would they be ok, were their families alive who lived in other countries, what why was the island attached to bridges, and more. Michael would stop and console them, telling them the Tsukikage would protect them till her last breath, and trying to keep the calm with any villagers in the area. He sent the children and the elderly more inland, while himself and the men and women of the seaport built on avoiding any trouble, at least till trouble came looking for them.

"By the powers invested in me..."


Shinji climbed aboard his own ship, slipping quietly over the side as everyone had left to examine the gaping hole left by his high-speed makeshift boat ramming into the side, creating a large leak. When he was safely over the edge of the ship's uppermost levels, he simply sauntered over to the wheel, occasionally blocking clumsy swings of scimitars and sabres with two kunai, dealing death as he strolled merrily to his destination.

Leaving a veritable trail of bodies in his wake, Shinji finally arrived to the wheel of the ship, lifting the helmsman by the scruff of his disgustingly dirty vest, no doubt the sole witness to a long career of brutal crime. Shinji made a mental note to dip his hands in a vat of rubbing alcohol later, he couldn't stand this uncleanliness. The Jounin peered over his prey, noticing with some satisfaction that the helmsman was very afraid. Good, that made Shinji's job easier.

Shinji put up one hand signal, activating a Mokuton jutsu, the Cutting Technique. Spears of wood shot out from the wood of the ship, tearing the floor apart and simultaneously sending up the spikes. The entire crew died in moments, as the tendrils of wood pierced through them, before warping back to their previous position, leaving the entire top deck drenched in blood, and in perfect condition.

When the short slaughter was finished, Shinji turned back to the helmsman, who had wet himself profusely and was reduced to tears. Shinji eyed the throbbing, crying mass of flesh with more than a little distaste, his nose crinkling in revulsion from the stench of blood and piss. Instead of pushing him away, Shinji pulled the man closer, digging a kunai into his stomach, twisting the already deadly weapon. As the man's moaning and crying escalated to a scream, Shinji leaned into his ear, whispering to him.

"With your gut pierced, your stomach acids will eat away at your flesh and you will die from the inside out. If you'd like to avoid that fate, you will send up a signal for the ships to surrender. Once that fails, you will lead this ship into the harbor, leaving me on a dinghy. Understood?"

The man simply nodded, obviously in too much pain to respond. Shinji left him for a second, ripping off a cleaner-looking strip of clothing from a dead sailor's chest, and wrapped it around the injured helmsman, not even bothering to make his blood coagulate. Served the damn pirate right.

"Oh, and if the ship slows down or you seem to be slacking in any way, I will make that hole in your chest the least of your concerns, you filthy sea peasant."

Satisfied with the pirate's frantic nodding and hobbling quickly to his post, Shinji laid back, toying with a kunai in one hand, the other clenched tight around the railing of the ship. He was ready to kill.

"By the powers invested in me..."


The Mokuton user watched impassively as his one lone ship faced against the multitude of others, calling for a surrender. Surprisingly enough, two or three ships did actually surrender, no doubt scared witless by his Kage's show of power and sheer destructive capabilities. Shinji chuckled darkly to himself. Perhaps a few of these surrendered pirates might even live, he thought. The young man looked over at his hostage, nodding to him to sail close to the surrendered ships.

It took a few minutes to get there, but once Shinji had made it close enough to the three surrendered ships, he simply held a half-ram seal, willing the wood of the ships to meld together, fusing all four ships together in a vaguely diamond-like shape. "Alright, you sorry excuses for flesh-bags, get sailing. You'll go to the harbor, get off the ships, and beg for forgiveness and mercy from the Tsukikage. If you tell her you surrendered willingly and are willing to face justice she might let a few of you sorry lot live to see another day. I'm taking a dinghy, and so help me, if any of you even think of disobeying me, I will personally make sure these ships become your graves. Am I understood?" He said in a sibilant tone, practically hissing out his displeasure at the situation. The assorted crews, probably 160 or so men in total, seemed to nod as one collective, gulping in unison at the demise they could face if they crossed the clearly pissed-off man in front of them.

Shinji simply chuckled to himself again, going below-deck to gather a twenty-five meter length of rope and a cast-iron grappling hook, winding about five meters of it around the foot-thick mast of his small boat. Once the man lowered his tiny vessel out onto the open water, he picked up the other end of the sturdy cord, looping it through the heavy hook, watching his hands so he didn't slice himself apart on the jagged, blackened barbs on all three sides of the brutal tool.

Shinji simply rowed himself out for a few more minutes, focusing on catching his breath. The other ships would be following his diamond-shaped conglomerate at the moment, and he had slipped out the opposite direction, so it would be a bit longer before they noticed him, perfect for his plans. Once the dark-haired man got closer to a specific ship, he began to swing the grappling hook around his head in a wide, but tightly controlled arc, eventually building up speed and letting the heavy instrument loose. It sailed through the air, propelled by the centrifugal force of his frantic spinning, eventually latching firmly onto the railing of a rather unoccupied section of the ship. Capitalizing on his momentary advantage of surprise, Shinji climbed hand over hand, ascending the rope silently until he managed to get to the top of the railing. He hid on the side, his fingertips barely visible, and his body only visible if one were to peek over the edge of the ship, directly down at him. Sneaking a quick peek to make sure nobody was looking at the rather cornered part the ship, Shinji swung his legs over, detaching the hook and instead tying another five meters of the rope around the railing, securing it firmly in place. Now, with the heavy grappling hook in one hand, Shinji stalked the crew silently, coming behind one member and brutally grabbing him around the neck, squeezing the man's neck between his bicep and forearm, and braining him with the hard blunt end of the grappling hook. The man's head was caved in, and another brutal strike to the temple finished the job. Shinji dragged him over to a corner, hiding the body underneath a bundle of ropes. It seemed the crew was almost all below-deck, probably manning the longer-range weapons in an attempt to fight off the two savage opponents brutalizing their fleet. There were three crew members on the top deck that Shinji could see. One with his back towards Shinji, and the other two working together to fuse ends of rope together. They were farther away, and of less risk of spotting him. Shinji crept along the ship's deck, his feet making barely any sound. When he was just barely behind the crewman, he swung his grappling hook in a huge overhand arc, crashing the barbed ends down on the man's face, killing him instantly. Shinji caught the falling body with one hand, setting him down as quietly as he could. Reinforcing his leg muscles with a bit of chakra, Shinji lept, rising higher and higher into the sky, coming down on the two men fusing the rope, landing between the two and spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. Shinji's left elbow met one man's nose, and his right fist met the other man's solar plexus, blinding one and driving the wind out of the other. Not wasting any time, Shinji grabbed the blinded man by the head, crushing his windpipe with a strategically placed knife-hand strike, and spinning to meet the other, who had by now whipped out a knife. Shinji's right arm shot down, elbow first as his right knee shot up, literally catching the knife between elbow and knee, before pulling his body to the right, taking the man off balance. As he did so, Shinji twisted his body slightly to force the knife out of the man's hand, crouching as he did so to dodge a swinging right hook. Shinji's right foot hit the ground and he used it to jump up, expanding his entire body in a vicious roundhouse kick to the man's throat, also crushing his windpipe. The Mokuton user picked up the knife, using it to slit both their carotid arteries to finish his work. They would bleed out soon enough, and they definitely couldn't breathe either.

The veteran Jounin simply walked downstairs to the lower deck of the ship, whistling a jaunty tune. The assembled crew, probably 55 men or so, looked at him incredulously before attacking with assorted battle cries and their puny little scimitars and spears. Shinji just pirouetted on the ball of his left foot, lashing out with a kick from his right to knock back the first man, before two took his place. This time, Shinji ducked underneath a high left hook, sweeping out one man's leg and using the previously killed pirate's knife to slice open the throat of his second opponent. As the man fell in a spray of blood, Shinji ducked again, this time driving his borrowed knife into the chest of the swept man. The Mokuton user didn't bother to pull it out, instead drawing his twin Arakh for the first time in a fight that day.

Shinji fell into a familiar stance, with one Arakh raised above his head and pointed down, the other at hip level and pointed up. He engaged the crew of 52 men in a deadly dance, his lithe frame moving around them like water around rocks, nicking open throats, hamstrings, calves, biceps, ankles, whatever was offered to him. At one point he sliced out a man's entire eye with a scooping motion, flinging the bloody mess at another man to disorient him, before Shinji knocked the wind out of him with the hilt of his swords and chopped open his chest. A high swing of a hammer almost hit him, forcing the Jounin to plant his sword down into the wood of the floor as he ducked underneath it, pulling it free and pointing it up as the wielder of the hammer literally pierced himself on it in his stumbling rage. Shinji was in his element, butchering the crew. In his haste, he almost missed the telltale sign of two ninja on board. They probably weren't even real genin level, rather pirates who had learned chakra exercises at some point. The two teamed together, one using Manipulating Attack Blades to levitate a large number of weapons, all aimed straight at Shinji. The second pulled out a scroll, running his hand across it to summon yet more weapons. Shinji smirked, facing the collision of hundreds of weapons head on, using his blades to push past certain weapons and simply dodging others. However, the Jounin was in for a surprise, as the second of the two used tiny chakra strings on ten of the weapons, all swords, to attack Shinji from behind. At the very last second, Shinji noticed, sending out a shuriken that embedded itself firmly in the weapon puppeteer's skull, disrupting his control. However, the weapons still had the momentum behind them and sped towards both Shinji and the first of the ninja. The Mokuton user jumped, ducking into a roll and sweeping out the legs of his opponent. As the swords shot towards him, Shinji grabbed the body of the living ninja, using him as a meat-shield. Six swords sliced cleanly into him, three missing, and one going through the body entirely, and stabbing into Shinji. It wasn't a deep cut by any means, just a scratch into his upper thigh, but it surely hurt like hell. Grimacing and cursing rather loudly, Shinji ripped a piece of cloth off of the dead man, wrapping it tightly around his wound. It was minor, and he couldn't waste chakra at this time. The lone ninja wandered around the lower deck of the ship, grabbing any documents he could find and sealing them away, to bring to his Kage. This ship seemed quite a bit bigger than the others, obviously manned more heavily than any other ship, and so, Shinji assumed that besides the one that the Uchiha was personally on, this ship acted as the flagship of the fleet.

Even though the fight was rather loud, Shinji was a bit alarmed to find that nobody had reacted. There was surely more than 60 men on this behemoth of a ship, even with all the fighting going on. The Mokuton user wandered around for a few more minutes, finding nothing. It was eery, Shinji was sure he had seen hundreds of men manning the ship. Eventually the Jounin wandered down to the third of the four levels on the ship, being greeted with the sight of probably a hundred or more slaves chained to various posts. They were filthy, malnourished and underfed, some appearing more dead than alive. The place was filthy, reeking of the stench of humans and decay, and Shinji simply went around, clipping chains left and right to free them. Without a word, he left, kicking open the door to the final level of the ship.

Shinji saw where the rest of the men were. On the lowest of the four decks, in the midst of a few chests of money and valuables, was the captain and ten men, clearly rather frightened to be there. The Jounin walked silently to them, dropping his Arakh as he did so, cracking his neck in anticipation. "You ten, you might live. Get out of the way." The guards, already fidgety and nervous, did so, parting like wheat before a scythe. The captain, by now a blubbering, crying mess, began to beg for his life, offering gold, slaves, his ships, anything to let him live. Shinji simply chuckled to himself. "I don't think you understand, mongrel. I'm going to take all of that anyways. Your death just makes it more enjoyable." And with that final comment, Shinji reared one fist back, bringing it crashing down on the fat captain's chest, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck to reel him back in. A rather brutal trouncing occurred for the next fifteen or so minutes, until the captain was left a sad, vaguely human-shaped mass of blood and broken bone on the ground. Shinji's hands, face, and armor were quite literally soaked in blood by this time, both from the battle before, and from the barehanded beating that he gave to the captain. Turning to the guard of the captain, Shinji simply spit on the ground, walking away.

As he reached the top floor, he was greeted by the sight of the hundred or so slaves celebrating atop the deck. Shinji himself went to the mast, raising a white flag. Before he did so, he dragged up the obese body of the dead captain, drove a spear through his chest, nailing him to the flag, and raised up the flag, showing the other remaining ten ships or so the cost of not surrendering. The effect was almost instantaneous, with all but one of the ships raising up a white flag as well, and beginning to sail into the harbor. The final ship was bombarded with weapons from the other nine, reducing it to splinters before Shinji's eyes. Nodding in approval, Shinji stood, a lone, blood-splattered figure guiding a fleet of ten ships, fifteen if one counted the previous five he had 'persuaded', towards the harbor of Tsukigakure.

In twenty or so minutes, all fifteen ships were there, docked and ready to be raided for valuables. The slaves were led to various hospitals, and Shinji sought out Luka and Elizabeth, to report his rather bloody success. "You look like hell," he commented to the both of them, a massive s**t-eating grin on his face as he idly wiped some of the gore off of his face with a now-useless towel.

[Post so crappy I need to get back into the swing of things x.x]
[11.6k word count in total shinji for joint mission, thats a 5800 ryp bonus]
Luka had been occupying himself by scraping the dried blood from his body. He had been waiting for Shinji to arrive, and when he did Luka couldn't help but smile and nod his head in awe and respect. He had captured two vessels himself, but Shinji just came back with like ten. So this was the power of a Jounin? Luka smirked at Shinji when he spoke to him. "No Shinji, I look like glory." He said, pressing his hand to the inverted triangle on his chest. Jashin had favored him in battle and once more Luka had proven his worth. He would live to fight another day, and most importantly he would live to sacrifice again. Luka planted his blade into the ground and leaned on it, turning only when Elizabeth approached. Luka could not help but smile devilishly at her. She had lost her battle, proving she indeed was not the strongest around. That meant a great deal to Luka. Regardless, he bowed her head when she spoke and paid careful attention to her as she began to look around. As scary as she could be to Luka he enjoyed the very sight of her and did not look away. "Under Shinji's command I was able to destroy a number of ships, and even captured two myself. There were a few captives, but I sent most off to greet my Lord Jashin." He said with a certain air of happiness about him. Even though he was tired and filthy this was how Luka liked it to be. He had fought diligently and scored for his village. There was no way Elizabeth could be angry at the number of people he had killed.