Mission:

The ever pleasant songs of tropical birds drifted through the trees as they began to stir from their slumber, mixing with the steady beat of the surf against a rocky shore in the distance. Light from the sun had just started to grace the cloud tops on the horizon as Thaddeus made his way down a well beaten path to one of Shippuugakure’s outlying farms, which happened to be the second largest banana plantation on the island. Apparently a rather large boar, the size of a small bear if eye witness accounts were to be believed, had taken a liking to uprooting some of the smaller trees and slamming against some of the larger ones in order to get its daily source of potassium. As a result the plantation’s owner proclaimed a 15,000 Ryo reward for anyone who could bring him the boar’s head and submitted a mission contract to the shinobi of Shippuugakure, which Thaddeus was more than willing to accept. If witnesses were correct in judging the size of the boar in question then it was only a matter of time before one of the plantation’s workers wound up injured, or worse. Not to mention the damage it could do to the crop and nearby structures.

Before the tracking of the beast could commence Thaddeus needed to get some more information from the workers that had actually seen this boar, primarily the area of the plantation it frequented the most and when it was first sighted. Dressed in the typical shinobi uniform, comprised of tabi and a black form fitting suit, Thaddeus hopped the gate that marked the plantations property and headed towards the foreman’s cottage. It wasn’t his usual attire, which made him a little uncomfortable, but it was a necessary disguise for stealth and stealth is pretty important when hunting an animal that could potentially kill you. That being the case Thaddeus didn’t want to attract too much attention before he had a chance to talk the the foreman either. His visit was scheduled, although not quite this early, but there was always the chance of being spotted by someone that was out of the loop, and an unknown man dressed in all black wandering around at the crack of dawn wasn’t suspicious at all now was it?

Just like the birds waking in the trees the plantation workers were beginning their morning routines, made apparent by the light shining through the windows of a few cottages that belonged to workers that lived on site, including the foreman’s cabin. Jogging at a decent pace Thaddeus closed the gap between the gate and the foreman’s cabin before anyone could spot him, knocking on the door a few times once he arrived. ”Dammit Kenji, I’ma kick your ass if you try to weasel out of work again!” A rather brash feminine voice emanated from the open window above the door shortly followed by the emergence of it’s irritated owner, a brunette named Asuka that appeared to be in her early thirties, who was ready to whip her toothbrush at the man she confused Thaddeus for. ”Oh, you’re not Kenji, who the hell are you? Wait, you’re not here to rob me are you?” She asked in a slightly confused tone, initially lowering her cocked arm but raising it once more with her last question. ”Don’t worry I’m not here to rob you.” Thaddeus replied, laughing a little in an attempt to put her at ease, although he wasn’t sure why she thought he was going to rob her in the first place. Even with his all black outfit robbers generally don’t alert the homeowner to their presence by knocking on the door, let alone strike when the owners there.

”My name’s Thaddeus, I’m here to take care of the boar.” ”That’s right, the Chuunin. My boss said you were coming by today, except he failed to mention you’d be here so early.” Asuka said in a more relaxed tone, although the last part was more of a grumble that she kept to herself, sighing a bit as she finished. ”Gimme a sec and I’ll be right down.” True to her word, although not technically, Thaddeus only had to wait seventeen seconds for Asuka to greet him at the door, although he couldn’t say he expected what lay behind it. Just about everything he could see was a shade of green, yellow, or brown. Even Asuka’s tanktop and boxers were yellow. It was almost as if the entire theme of the house screamed banana, which brought about a slightly cocked eyebrow as he gazed past the foreman, or forewoman in this case. ”Yeah, I know, ‘banana’. Look I don’t pick the colors I just stay here.” She retorted in response to the question Thaddeus was too polite to ask. ”So, whaddya need to know?” ”Well, firstly I need to know who the last person to see the boar was and where the last sighting took place.” ”That’d be me, as for where…” She pointed past Thaddeus towards an empty lean-to in the distance. ”...It was near the southern border of the property, past the orchard on the other side of that lean-to.”

”Alright, how about size? Did you see it by something you could use as a comparison?” ”Don’t trust the rumors eh? Well I can tell ya they aren’t exaggerated. The damn thing’s shoulders came up to the top of the fence.” She explained, holding her hand in front of her to show Thaddeus just how tall she meant, which was about four feet in height. ”I see…” He replied, thinking to himself for a moment. The rumors were true, this was an abnormally large boar for their country, but just how did it get here? ”Sorry if this seems a little rude but ya don’t exactly look like you’re prepared to take this thing down.” Asuka started, placing her hands on her hips as she looked him over. ” I mean ya dress the part, but I don’t see much equipment, and ya don’t really look like you’re up to the task physically if ya know what I’m saying.” It’s not like she didn’t have a point, Thaddeus was quite lean, and the only equipment he brought with him was a short coil of rope and a couple kunai. If things got out of hand and he wound up injured or worse the fallout could end up on the plantation for downplaying how dangerous this animal was. ”Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself. I should be back within a few hours.” He responded politely before jogging off in the direction of the lean-to she pointed out. ”Yeah whatever kid, just try not to get yourself killed on my watch!” Asuka shouted as Thaddeus disappeared into the distance, shaking her head as she returned to her morning routine.

So the hunt began. The edge of the sun just barely began to creep over the horizon as Thaddeus silently made his way through the southern orchard, staying down wind of the area Asuka pointed out. It wasn’t long before he found some of the damage left behind by the boar, a couple of uprooted trees and a partially demolished wagon, fairly recent by the looks of it. Hmm, must’ve happened sometime yesterday evening… Quietly thinking to himself Thaddeus surveyed the damage, or more specifically the tracks in the area. A total of four different people visited the site, luckily they left the boar’s prints mostly undisturbed. With the increasing light of dawn Thaddeus followed the boar’s tracks through a section of damaged fence, and by the looks of it had been for at least a week. It was probably where the boar had initially found, or made, its way on to the plantation. Continuing his search Thaddeus followed the tracks a short distance into the jungle, quietly and cautiously moving through the lower branches of the larger trees in order to maintain the element of surprise. The boar had beaten a fairly worn path through the jungle south of the plantation, meaning that it probably came this way every day and returned to the same place at night, which made it easier for Thaddeus to locate, in theory at least. However, what Thaddeus found next was completely unexpected.

At the end of the trail was a small clearing, which usually wouldn’t be out of the ordinary but this clearing had all the signs of a man made one. The undergrowth was cut back, the marks of a temporary fire pit could be seen in the center, and the remains of a rather large crate were scattered about site. With no sign of the boar Thaddeus decided to descend from the trees and get a closer look at the site, landing quietly near the edge of the clearing. There was no doubt about the clearing being man made, but the storms that frequent the island ruined any chance of tracing those that made the camp. What was most interesting was the amount of debris from the destroyed crate, it would have certainly been large enough to carry an animal the size of the boar he was hunting. The question now was hunting trip gone wrong, or corporate sabotage? Either way Thaddeus didn’t have much time to think about it before his attention was turned elsewhere. The boar he had been tracking happened to stumble across Thaddeus first, and after a brief moment of bewilderment charged him in defense of his territory. Of course that brief moment was all it took for Thaddeus to weave a few hand seals and snap the fingers on his left hand, simultaneously pulling a kunai from its sheath on his belt with his right.

Before the beast could get more than three feet Thaddeus had him frozen in his tracks, shifting his head side to side and attempting to find the most stable footing he could. To the boar it felt as if the very ground was spinning faster than it could comprehend, all he could do to was attempt to stay on his feet. However in reality the boar was simply a victim of simulated movement, trapped in Thaddeus’s Equilibrioception jutsu. With a mere mental command Thaddeus shifted the direction of gravity, as the boar felt it at least, causing the boar to shift his center of gravity in the opposite direction and fall on its left side. It thrashed about for a few moments but was quickly overwhelmed by Thaddeus’s jutsu. Cautiously Thaddeus approached the downed boar, kunai in hand to deliver the killing blow. One strike wouldn't do it with a kunai, at least for most people, the boar was far too large. Then again Thaddeus wasn’t “most people”. As he neared the confused boar water began to drip from the tip of the kunai, a faint warning of what was to come. With just enough force to penetrate the animal’s skull a fraction of an inch Thaddeus thrust his kunai into the side of the beast’s head, resulting in an instantaneous fount of blood on the other side of the skull, soaking the ground as the boars body went limp. Now that the main part of the job was finished it was time to take the body back, which wasn’t going to happen without some means of easier transportation, so Thaddeus took the largest piece of crate he could find and fashioned it into a makeshift sled with the coil of rope he brought. He then rolled the oversized boar onto it and began the long trek back to the plantation.

(Word Count: 1934)

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