Crypt Creepers Mission [C Rank]

[Guyviroth]

SPOILER: Click to show

Crypt Creepers
Rank: C
Repeatable: Yes
Description: The crypts beneath Konohagakure have been plagued by grave looters. While they are not notably dangerous, they are still capable combatants and therefore dancer is to be expected. Go into the crypts and defeat the grave looters. We will not allow theft in Konohagakure.
Reward: 50 EXP and 1,000 Ryo

It seemed the day wasn’t to start off to a good one. Helios was so tired that he just wanted to sleep in; his body was far too exhausted from yesterday’s mission especially considering he spent most of the night on watch for the criminal. Not only that, but he had to spend another few hours writing up his report as well as serving interrogation to make sure his story corroborated with that of the thief. It was still quite a shock to him that the culprit was amongst the Jounin ranks too. The annoying part was that he couldn’t even close his eyes either to get any much needed sleep, as though his body was crying for reprieve, and yet his mind was wide and awake, awaiting for its controller to start pushing buttons and pulling levers to get it into gear and going.

The shinobi couldn’t even tell what time it was; his eyes were so blurred from the sand in them that he couldn’t clearly see the hands of the clock on the opposite wall. He could make out the larger of the two sat upon the five, so it was twenty-five past something. With a thumb and fore finger he rubbed his eyes pressingly, blinking a few times before he could see clearly. Suddenly, he shot up from his bed. ”Ah, crap,” Helios muttered to himself, his voice louder than he anticipated considering that usually when he wakes up his voice is a bit quiet and raspy. ”How the hell could I wake up so late?” Twenty-five past eleven in the morning is what he saw upon the face of the clock as his vision became clear. Even though he only had seven hours sleep it was no excuse that he would awake so late in the day, especially when he still had missions to complete.

Helios quickly shot out the door, clothing and equipment in tow, and headed straight for the mission office. He really didn’t care how many steps the office had, he bolted up the path that circled around the cliff face and to the wooden structure near its peak, even jumping multiple steps at a time with powerful leaps and strides. At one point he even decided to leap from half way up a staircase and latch onto the one above just to make up the extra time; it was quick, efficient, and really did help out his upper body strength.

[Guyviroth]

It was rather fortunate that Helios managed to clear the entire stairway in record time, taking note that perhaps he should do so more often; the workout of jumping and, at points, literally climbing the staircases helped get his body loose and fit, plus it was also really good exercise. The boy was lightly out of breath too, which was pretty amazing considering it was only yesterday that he was pretty much having an asthma attack outside the office door.

Speaking of which, Helios found the door open, expelling a gleam of light through the office’s interior into the otherwise rather dark corridor; the corridor didn’t contain many windows and thus was only kept lit through artificial lighting sources. ”What’s going on?” the boy muttered to himself briefly, having a habit of doing so whenever he was caught amidst a maelstrom of doubt and confusion, even though he really shouldn’t be. Nonetheless, the door was normally kept close due to confidentiality between the mission captain and any who are present, especially when discussing mission objectives or any serious or vital matters.

Slight voices could be heard discussing some sort of event of importance. Helios decided to see if he could be used for anything that could pertain to such an event, walking into the room. As he entered he found a Jounin leaning over the desk of the mission captain, and on the other side standing at either side of where the captain would sit were another two. All of them were looking down at the desk as though there were reading or deciphering something. A single voice, mellow and calm, was describing some sort of scenario to them. The two at the back were simply gazing while keeping their ears open to the voice of their superior, while the Jounin with his back to Helios was hunched over, his hands placed firmly upon the desk. As Helios shut the door behind him, the two Jounin at the back of the room looked up and spotted the boy, while the third turned his head, then his waist, to notice the young shinobi. Then Helios spotted the captain and sighed.

”Ah, it’s you. Come in.”

Helios recognized the guy immediately as the mission captain that gave him the mission on the thief yesterday; the same guy whom one of his own personal Jounin was the culprit in the fiasco. For the most part, he seemed to of gotten over the worse of the event, even finding a replacement for him rather hastily too. It was rather upsetting that Helios had gotten off on the wrong foot with the man, having left the impression he was a chain smoker and having manhandled his Jounin rather roughly, but he hoped that he could use this opportunity to get into his good books.

Approaching the desk, the white-haired lad looks down upon its oak top, noticing two piles of paper and a folder. The sheets of paper were fanned out, with the first pile containing pictures and a strange wooden carved emblem resting a top of them, while the second pile contained information that Helios couldn’t make out from the angle he was standing from. The captain looked up to Helios with rather serious eyes, but yet a look that displayed confidence.

”Kid, you fancy an infiltration mission?”

[Guyviroth]

Helios looked down to meet the eyes of his mission captain. The look in his face and the smirk upon the man’s mouth showed strong signs that he had come to trust upon, if not in the least appreciate, the work he had done in yesterday’s ordeal. Helios couldn’t help but smirk back, holding out a hand in an open gesture, his fingers loose and his palm facing skyward. ”If you pass me those papers over there,” Helios acquiesced to the captain, his eyes shifting to the second pile of sheets that contained various amounts of text and paragraphs. ”I’ll let you know of my answer.”

The captain gave a small yet humoured hum before turning his head to the designated papers, sliding them off the desk with his thumb before gripping them between his thumb and fore finger, and then placing them upon Helios’ hand. The boy scanned across the lines of justify-aligned text, some spanning the entire length of the page while some formed columns with images imbedded to the side. The details were quite accurate in their description as well; “Numerous suspicious individuals spotted among the streets”, “Witness accounts describe each individual in dark brown overalls”, “No facial descriptions have been detailed”. Helios could see where the infiltration in this mission would be needed.

”Yeah, the details aren’t much better than the last mission’s, but it’s more to go on. All we can gather is that there is multiple “suspicious”-type people roaming the streets. Reports of witness accounts say that they saw them walking through the main square at night, around 11 PM. No one has paid much attention to them, but state they were carrying various excavation equipment and tools. No one know where they go or what they do, however we do have some idea as to where they go…”

The captain picked up the wooden carved emblem off the top of a set of pictures that remained on the desk top. According to the document, the emblem is part of the “Excavation Guild”; a band of travellers that originate from the Land of Earth who travel the globe uncovering artefacts from “the old world” as they say. However, the captain then passed the boy the set of pictures, of which some were rather awkward to look at; some were blurred and others were dark.

Five pictures were taken some days ago according to the time stamps. The first picture is of a dead bandit that was recovered from outside the village gates near a destroyed caravan; his identity remains unknown for the time. The second picture shows the emblem provided, which was recovered near the Hokage monument, presumably dropped by the criminal. The third is a dark yet blurry picture of a large stone door, with the handle broken off and parts of the lock scratched and chipped; signs of forced entry. The fourth picture is blurred but can be made out as the floor just in front of the door, showing multiple criss-crossing footprints, which have yet to be identified. The last picture shows some sort of tomb or crypt where two graves have been dug out and desecrated.

” A damn sick crime if ya ask me. From what we’ve recovered, someone from this “Exploration Guild” has decided to go grave robbing and picked the Konoha crypts as his target. Burial records say that the victims were buried with some items of jewellery, which were missing when we got there. We’re still not sure what the bandit has to do with the case, but both events took place the same day; we couldn’t rule out the possibility of a connection. ”

The captain sighed as he took the reports and the pictures from Helios’ hands and slid them into the empty folder upon the desk before handing them back to the boy. Helios couldn’t help but think that this mission would be straight forward, but he needed to conduct his own investigation and see if he could uncover anything that the Jounin might have missed. The boy nodded in acceptance, turning and walking out of the office. ‘Time to get to work’ the boy thought to himself, heading to the stairway.

[Guyviroth]

This was beginning to turn into another investigation case, Helios thought. He had a lot to go on but there were still several things to figure out; why would a member of the Exploration Guild come to Konoha without notifying anyone of his arrival? Why would he perform a grave robbery and only ransack two graves? How was he able to get into the crypt so easily in the first place? Was the dead bandit an integral part of this case, or is it simply a red herring? Helios decided it would be best to take the lead on this case by first trekking to the Konoha Hospital.

The hospital looked as good as it ever has; a bright pearl white made up of large square wooden panels, concealing the brick and block work that constructed its gargantuan frame. Helios approached the doors of glass, both sliding to either side as Helios stepped on the charcoal grey mat that lay just in front of the entrance, with another identical piece on the other side. Stepping through, the boy approached the reception desk to meet a rather cute, blonde woman, probably no older than her mid twenties, with round glasses as she looked up and smiled to the shinobi. ”Excuse me, miss,” Helios spoke in a soft tone to not appear imposing. ”I was wondering if you could assist me with an investigation. Recently a deceased man had been brought in a couple of days ago, and I was hoping I could speak to the lead coroner?”

”Oh, yes, of course, If you could give me a moment, please?”

Her voice was golden like the morning sun, sang through the heavens as good as a choir, and cut into the soul like a knife through butter. Her notion was so sweet, so sincere, that it was impossible for anyone to deny her. She pressed on a little red button as she smiled, turning on her chair as she dug out a piece of paper and a pen.

”If you could sign this visitor’s form, please?”

Gently grasping at both items, Helios slowly jotted down his name to make sure it appeared eligible before giving his signature underneath. Handing it back over to the young receptionist, Helios dug into the file to withdraw the picture, but was met with a rather loud voice just over to the right of his shoulder.

”Ah, yes, he’s one of mine. Follow me, Mr. Marushagan; we’ve been expecting you to visit.”

[Guyviroth]

That was rather unexpected; Helios began to ponder as he followed the doctor, although he assumed loosely that the Jounin had notified the hospital of his arrival in order to conduct a report upon the body. After some walking, the doctor led Helios into a large, cold room; the lights were dimmed in shadow that gave the room a darkened, ominous blue color; various metal tools glistened in what little light there was; the floor was made up of rough yet polished tiles. As Helios gazed around to familiarise himself with his surrounding, the doctor opened up a chamber on the far wall, pulling out a metallic slab that housed a body, that of the victim in the photograph.

Not much to tell, really. The victim is five foot and eleven inches; weight, around two-three-six pounds, give or take some due to decomposition at the time of recover; black hair; brown eyes. Cause of death was trauma to the head by an unknown implement at the time which was not recovered from the scene of the crime.”

Helios took a look over to the head of the corpse. Along the top of the skull and down to the left side was a huge wound, around 6 inches long, and considerably deep; it cleaved through the skin and into the bone. Looking through the documents the picture displayed the body with a surmountable pool of blood located directly underneath the wound with no other visible wounds, indicating it was the only point of injury and, by extension, the cause of death. Helios decided to question though, to see if he could get any more information about the body. ”Is there anything else about the body I should know?”

”Yes. Unfortunately the Jounin who handed over the body were not patient to wait for the updated autopsy. Upon looking at the body after removing the articles of clothing, several other points of interest arose. If you look around the neck, there’s a thick line of bruising around the throat, indicating strangulation. Bruising is also apparent upon his wrists, with a similar pattern, showing signs of being held off or restrained. Finally, two bruises are evident on the abdomen and pectoral areas; a fight that resulted in battery. A similar bruising on around the left eye of the victim as well yet subtle; a shame the picture was too blurry to pick it up.”

”So what about the wound on the head; some sort of bladed weapon?”

”Presumably; the wound is thin enough to be a blade, but the length doesn’t suit a bladed sword.”

”So a knife or a dagger?”

”No; the wound is also curved.”

”So a tanto blade of some kind?”

”Not that kind of curve. If you take a look close, you see that the blade curves along the length of the wound, and not depth. Also, the skin has a small flayed pattern while the skull was fractured. A sharpened blade would cut clearly, and much deeper. This was done by some sort of blunted edge, perhaps rusted.”

The doctor concluded his explanation by sliding back the corpse into the chamber, closing its door and locking it. It was a bit to go on but Helios decided that he could make a go of what he got, although it did baffle him; if a bandit killed the guy, why would he not use a sword? What sort of make-shift weaponry could cause such a wound? Regardless, Helios nodded as he packed the picture away into the file and gave his farewell to the doctor, leaving the hospital.

[Guyviroth]

Hours seemed to pass by so quickly today; the sun started to drift towards the west with each passing moment, showing that the afternoon was slowly coming to a close before nightfall would set upon the sky across the village. Helios didn’t think that the hospital visit would take as long as it did, although he was able to gather some information out of it, such as the inflictions upon the body of the victim; it didn’t seem right for a bandit to pick a fight with bare fists, get strangled, and then get killed by some foreign object. Perhaps the attack was from the grave robber before arriving at the village, although that raised questions to how a digger could successfully fend off a bandit.

In any case, Helios needed to work quickly; with the sun setting he didn’t have much time before he would have to call it a day. Trekking over to the crypts, he found that the doorway was guarded by two Jounin, while a third person, possibly a special Chuunin, was examining the entrance. The Chuunin seemed to be using an assortment of chemicals and papers while checking the door and the dirt in front of it. Decisively, Helios made his way over to the three shinobi to which the two Jounin allowed him through, perhaps recognising that he was on the mission.

The Chuunin looked up at the young boy through a pair of rounded, thin, metal specs with rather thin lens, showing he was properly short-sighted. His hair was unkempt but fastened at the back with a black hair tie into a long ponytail that reached past the shoulders. His eyes was rather big as well, almost bug-like. A smile crept upon his fair yet pale lips, showing a small wrinkle upon his smooth complexion.

”Oh, you must be the Genin helping with the mission? I’m glad; I could use your help, actually. Press your fingers on this piece of paper for me, if you will.”

Helios was shocked and confused at such a request, but complied anyway. Upon lightly pressing his fingers upon the paper, he saw numerous circles of green chakra glow around his finger tips. After a brief pause, the Chuunin removed the sheet from underneath, and on it showed the swordsman’s finger prints in a green glow. The Chuunin held it in front of his face before using a dropper-like tool to place a chemical on each print. Suddenly, each print vanished from the sheet. The Chuunin sighed a little.

”I guess we can rule you out as a suspect, too. I’ve no luck matching any of the finger prints found here with anyone around the village, so I guess we can assume that whomever this grave robber is, definitely isn’t part of Konoha. I’ve not found anything else that hasn’t already been reported, so I guess we can only wait for the culprit to make his return.”

Helios nodded in agreement, but after a brief moment of thought he had come up with an idea. ”Listen, if the culprit makes his return, let me stay in the crypt overnight and keep an eye out for him,” Helios suggested towards the Chuunin and the Jounin present. ”If he shows up, I’ll deal with him.” The Jounin and Chuunin nodded in approval; a single person wouldn’t be as conspicuous as multiple shinobi waiting in ambush.

[Guyviroth]

The hours passed by slowly while the darkness in the crypt remained ever constant; it was impossible to tell how much time had passed in a place where night and day had no connection to one-another. Shadow imposed all around the graves, coffins and burial chambers without restraint, enveloping the stones and rocks like a blanket of dusk. One could still see what was what, however, as the crypts were not completely soaked in the darkness; tiny lanterns hung upon the ceiling, held by chains of iron, that gave off small cones of light down to the floor.

Helios had been sitting, waiting, biding his time until someone should arrive. He assumed that they would arrive, although it was under theoretical evaluation; he remembered back to yesterday at the night of the theft when the Jounin stated that he had to wait a few days before his next heist to throw people off his trail. Taking on board that information, the seated, huddled shinobi hoped that that information could be used here as well. If someone did turn up, he would know it would be the grave robber; earlier he had notified the Jounin to keep the crypt unguarded and open, the way it was two days ago, to not ward off the robbers.

As the time passed, Helios heard a few voices outside; more than one grave robber, it seemed. The voices couldn’t be deciphered since the large stone door shielded most loud sounds from getting in or out of the chamber. Quickly, the swordsman tumbled across the floor and pressed his back upon a large, thick stone pillar and waited for the infiltrators to open the door.

The door slowly jarred open and let in a bright glow of silver moonlight into the crypt, lighting up the scenery that lay in front of it, though Helios still remained within its shadows as the light struck the flat side of the pillar. Helios peered around the corner and noticed two people walk in; the main target who was dressed in the attire detailed in the report, wearing a brown uniform and carrying a shovel that was already dirty, while the second person was a small man, hunched over with a sack that rattled with metallic clangs, presumably more equipment.

As the two men began to move across the corridor, Helios waited before they moved past the pillar fully before tumbling to the door’s entrance, standing up and placing his hand on his sword, ready to attack if necessary as it called out to the two robbers. ”Hold it there, scum,” Helios taunted as he called out, his voice echoing across the walls of the crypt. The two robbers turned with dumfounded expressions upon their faces, seeing a child hold them up. ”Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.”

”We prefer you dead, kid.”

[Guyviroth]

It seemed that whoever these were they were pretty smart. The voice came from behind Helios and, before he could so much as draw his sword, he felt a pair of large arms and hands grasp at his right arm, pulling it away from his sword as he lost his grip and holding it out to the side. Likewise, the same happened to his left arm; a large pair of arms pulled his hand away from the scabbard and out to the side. With his arms restrained at the elbows and wrists Helios couldn’t reach for his sword or any of the items in his pouch. Turning his head to either side, he found his captor’s faces to be round and bald, looking similar to one another but not recognising the two of them.

Suddenly, as he turned to look forwards, the two figures that entered first strode into shot. The glistening light of the silver moon shone upon their faces and revealing them in their totality. The man with the shovel, which showed a red-brown color along one side of the edge of the shovel’s head, smirked as he hoisted his tool from his shoulder and gripping it around the middle. He darted his eyes into the young shinobi’s, piercing through his retina and into his soul. His gaze was that of a madman and a murderer, not of an explorer.

”I’d kill you myself boy, but I’ve had my share of fun. I’ll let my lads have their fun with you.”

Helios recognised immediately his words; the murder weapon that killed the bandit in the forest was the shovel he was carrying as evident with the dried blood stain along the edge of the shovel’s head. He could begin to imagine what happened in the forest; the two big guys restrained the man by the throat and wrists, while one of the other two beat him up, before executing him.

But there was no way in hell that Helios would become another victim. He was able to flex his wrists, and that’s all he needed to do; by tilting his left wrist back the small wrist blade hidden up his sleeve ejected from its compartment, piercing one of the goons through the hand and forcing him to let go. With speed and precision, Helios spun his arm and waist around to the opposite captor, plunging the blade deep into his chest, into his heart, before pulling it away and watching as his lifeless body crumbled into a heap. Swinging back around with the blade still drawn he slashed at the remaining big guy’s throat as he was holding his hand in pain; blood soaked both Helios’ robe, the floor and walls around as blood sprayed out. This feeling Helios had… was a good feeling.

[Guyviroth]

It wasn’t a feeling that Helios had ever recognized before. The bloodshed, the thrill kill, the act of ending one’s life with his own hands felt like a huge adrenaline rush; Helios needed more of it. It was like an addiction for the brief moment in which he was suddenly overwhelmed by the opponent, and then in a split instance was turned on its head to his favour. A smirked spread across his pale lips as the blade retracted back into his sleeve before placing a firm grip upon his sword, beginning to close the distance between himself and the last two, approaching them.

The two robbers were shocked, horrified, and terrified that a kid was so easily able to strike down two rather strong, burly-looking in a second or so with such a contraption. The smaller man with the bag was visibly shaken and dropped the bag, stepping backwards. However the leader, as it were, grabbed his shovel in two hands and stepped forwards and went for a powerful overhead swing with the sharpened edge of the tool, aiming to repeat what he had done two days earlier to the bandit.

”I’ll send you to hell with that damn explorer, too!”

What did he mean by “Explorer”? Doesn’t he mean the bandit in the forests outside of the village gates? Regardless of what the person meant, Helios decided that this guy had to be dealt with in whatever way he saw fit. Before the shovel could come crashing down atop his head, the swordsman made a quick back-foot turn and spun to the side, avoiding the attack. As he made his spin, he quickly drew the sword in a reverse grip, held it forwards, and then plunged the blade past his right side, impaling the robber through the stomach. The shovel dropped from his hands and into the dirt of the crypt with a loud, echoed *CLANG*. Blood poured from the open mouth of the man and began to slump to the floor as Helios withdrew the blade.

Helios turned to notice the other smaller man, cowering behind a rock to which he could tell from the light of the lanterns formed his shadow upon the floor and nearby wall. ”Get out here now before I kill you as well,” Helios exclaimed, his voice booming across the crypt and into the man’s ears. Hurriedly the man scampered from behind the rock and looked at Helios. ”You’re coming with me to confess your crimes to the captain, and all that you know of what happened.”

[Guyviroth]

It had been so long since Helios had been out of the crypt that he nearly completely forgotten what the village looked like, and hoped that if he ever did venture outside of it for too long he would still remember what his home looked like. It was almost painful being stuck inside that save for as long as he was, realising that he had been in there for nearly five hours. His eyes could just about adjust to the light that the street lights gave off as they hung from their posts.

At the mission center, Helios handed over the remaining robber into interrogator hands. The criminal confessed that they were a group of bandits that attacked caravans and, during their last raid, murdered and stole the uniform of a member of the Explorer’s Guild in order to gain entry into the village; this explained why the victim had bandit clothing on. Cause of death was also linked to the shovel recovered at the crypt, identified as the murder weapon. They then proceeded to loot the crypts after forcing entry and managed to acquire two gold rings, an emerald set silver necklace and a diamond bangle. The location of their rooms at the inn revealed the location of the stolen items to which the Jounin recovered all the jewellery taken, returning them to the deceased’s families.

Helios, however, had to spend another few hours writing up his report, as well as explaining to the mission captain that he had no choice but to kill his attackers in an act of self defense. The captain sighed a little, but showed an actual smile regardless of the circumstances. It seemed that with the mission accomplished, the bandits dealt with in suitable fashion, it was a closed case. Mission accomplished.

EXIT

[Messatsu!]

+85!

[adero]

+50 for mission completion

May is for missions bonus +50, +85

Total added: 185