ROCK AND ROLL. [M]

[Seijūrō]

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Rock and Roll.
Rank: C
Description: We don’t even know how this creature actually exists but somehow it does. The stone beast golem of the Thunder Mountains is the creature you’ll be facing today. As far as we can tell it’s made of solid stone and has no discernible anatomy beyond those half ton boulders that make it up. I have no clue how’re your gonna win either but it’s either that or die right?
Reward: 50 EXP, 1,000 Ryō.
Minimum Shinobi: One.
Mission Status: Interminable.

---

There are some things in life you will always hate no matter how much you try to accept it. For Seijūrō, that would be waking up at six o' clock in the morning through the underground network of tunnels in Kirigakure no Sato. He looked around and examined the dull concrete wall and ceiling. The tunnels were created during the reign of the Shodaime Mizukage and served as an escape route for upper class. It has since then become common knowledge that a subterranean tunnel system exists and has been renovated multiple times over the decades. Multiple paths were created to lead to safe houses for civilians and shortcuts for them to maneuver from one part of the village to another during times of war. Even so, only the shinobi of Kirigakure no Sato carries the knowledge of getting through the intricate maze without getting lost.

But the most important function of the tunnel was that it led to the secret village gate. One of the most well-kept secrets in the village, it is used by the shinobi to bypass all the obstacles and natural barriers that makes it difficult to access the main gate above ground.

"At least I don't have to deal with the narrow bridge this time." thought the Genin as he saw a solid gold gigantic gate in the distance. There were quite a few ANBU shinobi guarding the entrance, but the number here paled in comparison to the people stationed above at the front of the village. But he knew that these were the crème of the crop, assigned to ensure that the existence of this gate remained a secret.

As he approached the base of the gate, an ANBU member appeared before him. Bandages were wrapped around his neck and the lower half of his face, preventing Sei from seeing much of his facial features but it was obvious what he wanted from the younger shinobi. He took out a mission scroll and tossed it over to the man. The man had caught the parcel in midair without even flinching and with unrolled it to read the information inscribed on it. His seasoned orbs scanned the scroll until he deemed that it was indeed the genuine article and giving the scroll back to Seijūrō. He made a hand signal to the others to open the doors.

The sound of the gates spreading open rumbled through the cavernous tunnels and for those who stood up close, it almost felt like an earthquake. The golden doors came to a grinding halt, allowing one to walk through to the other side. Sei saw that the tunnel path continued to stretch on even after the gates, but it would eventually led out to the outside world.

Sei took one step, and then another, and another, passing through the arch and following the path. Even as he heard the gates closing behind him, the teenager could feel the piercing gaze of the ANBU guards. Tough crowd to please considering they were not too keen on making small talk.

[Seijūrō]

After a long walk, Sei had finally made it to the exit. The bright light overwhelmed him for a second as his pupils began to adjust themselves. As his vision returned to normal, he realized that he was standing on a huge cliff overlooking a lush field of grass. He turned his head to the left and saw the narrow bridge that hung over the dangerous waters outside of the village walls. It did well to ward off unwanted visitors with its intimidating appearance. Even while standing several miles away, Sei couldn't help but sense a shudder of awe down his spine just from glancing at his village.

As Sei descended down the cliff path, he looked in the direction of the lush fields and saw the ominous dark mountains in the distance. Rai-dake^{(Thunder Mountain)} was one of the few mountain ranges that existed in Mizu no Kuni. Its name comes from the unusual amount of thunder clouds drifting around the range, making it a dangerous place to travel through. However, the mountain range also contains a vast untapped deposit of precious minerals, which resulted in the creation of several mining villages on the mountainsides. For the most part, the towns have been relatively peaceful since their inception, but it seems there have been reports of a golem wandering around the vicinity of one of the villages. No one knew where the creature had come from, but one thing was for sure.

In order to ensure the mining operations remain unharmed, Sei had been dispatched to deal with the threat before it jeopardized their plans. The time it would take him to get to the nearest town would be around six hours. Yet he couldn't help but get a bad vibe from the whole ordeal. For starters, the appearance of the golem on the mountain range when there has never been a sighting before made it all seem more suspicious to the Genin. Something just didn't add up. But he will have time to question the locals when he gets there. Until then, he will focus on getting there as fast as possible.

"I just hope I'm not too late."

[Seijūrō]

As he arrived in the mining town located at the base of the one of the mountains, Seijūrō could tell that he was too late. Some of the buildings were reduced to smoldering piles and medics were tending to the injuries in the streets. The smell of burnt flesh and toxic fumes filled the air. The environment would have a detrimental effect on one's health if he or she were to live here for a prolonged period of time. Most of the villagers were wearing gas masks and standard mining gear, preoccupied with cleaning up the mess and attending to their duties. Luckily for Sei, he was able to pull aside one of the miners for a moment.

"What happened here?"

"The golem attacked again, we tried to stop it from reaching the warehouses where we kept the explosives." the miner said with a muffled voice under his gask mask, nudging his head to the direction of the burnt ruins, presumably where the warehouses used to stand. The explosion had taken out a whole block from the looks of it. The causalities were mounting and there was no end in sight for the golem's rampage.

"You can see how well that went for us. It's a miracle that the golem hasn't demolished the rest of the town yet. It always stops and runs away before it can finish the job." the miner said before sighing in defeat. It would seem that the town can't mount up a force against the beast. The lack of a coordinated effort to stop the monster showed that there was an absence of leadership within this community.

"Who is the leader of this mining town?" Seijūrō asked, patting the man on his shoulder.

"That would be Kin'iro-san, ever since he arrived here and replaced the old village chief, there has been nothing but trouble around these parts." The last part of the worker's statement was another clue as to what caused the golem's sudden appearance. Perhaps it was time for him to make a visit to Kin'iro and have a word with him.

"Do you know where he is right now?" asked Sei, the miner cocked his head back and pointed to the large building complex behind him.

"He's most likely holed up in his office; the man doesn't like to talk to us though, thinks we're beneath him."

"Thank you, I'll see what I can do to help." said the Genin, walking past the mine worker towards the building where his target resided. He swore in his mind that he was going to get to the bottom of this case and stop the attacks before more people get hurt.

[Seijūrō]

Barging through the doors of the town leader’s door, Seijūrō found the man walking back and forth in the room. The man was startled by the teenager's sudden appearance, but something told him that the chief knew he was coming. The few receptionists that had tried to stop the shinobi from getting into the main office were still standing there before being told to get back to work. The door closed behind Sei as the last of the workers left the room, leaving the two of them there to talk business.

"Kin'iro-san I presume?" It was a rhetorical question, but there was no harm in keeping this civil.

"So this is the best Kirigakure no Sato can offer. A whelp that isn't old enough to legally exchange sake with me?" The man was beginning to push his luck with the Genin. A shinobi had a social obligation to his client, but that trust was frail at best seeing as how there was no physical restraints on Sei that would stop him from murdering Kin'iro this very second.

"You sure act pretentious enough coming from the man who is responsible for the golem." The leader glared at the young shinobi before looking out the window.

"These mining towns only exist to procure minerals and precious metals which are then sold to Kirigakure no Sato. Once that vein dries up, this place will become a ghost town. Those plebeians know that is inevitable, believing that they should leave and settle for a more stable line of work. Our work output since then has dropped sharply over the last few months and more have left as a result of the attacks. “The man was going somewhere with this rant and Sei could put two and two together, pressing Kin'iro for more answers.

"So you created the golem as a substitute for the workers that left." Kin'iro gave a mean-spirited laugh when he heard Sei's statement.

"Are you that naive to believe that I am the only one responsible for the creation of the golem? Who do you think even gave us the material and knowledge to form such a construct to begin with?" Kin'iro hissed at the teenager. He was stunned for a moment when he heard that his village was in cohorts with this lunatic in building the golem, but it all added up.

"The village entrusted you with this task because they believed that you were capable of making sure that the golem did not go berserk. But seeing as how I am here, that is not the case, Kin'iro-san. Your ineptness has not only staggered the village, but your actions have cost the lives of innocent workers in those mines!"

Before the man could respond, the sound of an explosion made the two men turn their attention to the window. A few blocks down, Seijūrō could see the vague outline of a figure in the center of the streets that was as tall as the buildings around it, thrashing about to the point where the shinobi could feel the tremors even from afar.

"I'll deal with you later." growled the Genin before storming out the door he had barged through minutes ago. Kin'iro continued to watch the events unfold from where he was standing.

[Seijūrō]

Sei could hear the screams down the block as he rushed to deal with the abomination. Walking through the blazing inferno was the stone construct that Kin'iro had lost control of. It looked even more enormous up close as mine workers ran past the shinobi. He stood his ground and examined the golem as it escaped from the flames of the explosion.

He could feel the heat emitting from the monster before throwing several kunai at it to attract its attention. His projectiles bounced off the rock hard exterior with little effect, but Seijūrō saw where the golem's weak point was as it began to march in his direction. The construct was held together by the chakra core which was located at the center of its torso. The sound of its core pulsated like a heartbeat making it obvious that it was where Sei should strike. If he could restrain its movement for a few minutes, then he might be able to climb onto it and jam his katana into its core thus incapacitating the beast.

Retrieving his wire strings from his pouch, the shinobi weaved and twisted his fingers as the strings latched itself to golem. With a hard tug, the wires that had latched onto the construct tighten and stopped its movement.

"That was simple enough." As if to spite on his luck, with one great churn, the stone being broke free from the wires and slammed the ground in defiance sending a shock wave that knocked Seijūrō back a few feet. Before he could regain his proper footing, the golem slammed the ground with its fist again, but this time causing the street to rise like a tidal wave. The wave was approaching where the Genin was with great speed. Sei had to do something or else he will get crushed.

"Raiton: Purazuma Booru!^{(Lightning Release: Plasma Ball)}" A transparent blue shell formed around the shinobi before he was overtaken. Just as he thought he evaded the golem's attempt to kill him, a shadow loomed over where Sei was residing. It tried to pick the Genin up from the ground, but his electric barrier shocked the being when it attempted to do so. Enraged, it raised its fist once again, preparing to break Seijūrō with this blow. The shinobi knew the technique would not be able to endure a frontal blow from the construct.

The blue shell around him began to dissipate as he made a mad dash for cover. The golem's fist came down once again, but this time the force was enough to send Sei crashing through one of the store fronts. As the dust settled, the beast could not find traces of its target. Assuming that its target was terminated, the automated turned its attention at the building complex where Kin'iro was and began to move again.

[Seijūrō]

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" yelled one of the miners as he pushed past the workers to escape the golem's wrath. The receptionists and other workers in the village hall began to evacuate the premises but Kin'iro remained in the same spot he had been in since the young shinobi had left to fight the beast.

"So he wasn't able to stop the construct." It was not long before the stone construct was standing over the building. If the man feared that his existence was coming to a close, he made no sign of it. Even in the face of death, he stood firm as he watched the golem raise its fist once again, threatening to crush the building in one fell swoop. He was accepting the consequences of his action, even if it meant death. He closed his eyes and waited.

But the feeling of pain never came.

He opened his eyes once again to see that something was constricting the golem from delivering the blow. It looked like some sort of chakra construct, resembling a snake as it crushed and shocked the golem, forcing it to turn around and face the opposite direction. Kin'iro looked past the stone monstrosity to see a lone teenager standing in the middle of the street forming more handseals. With his chakra, the being began to create what seemed like a bolt of lightning. Just as the Genin completed his spear, the stone construct was now facing him struggling to break free from the snake's grip.

"Say "ah", dirtbag." With great strength, he tossed the bolt imbued with Raiton chakra straight at the golem's core. It struck home, shattering the chakra core and ending the stone construct's struggle came to a stop. With its power source destroyed, there was nothing left to hold the golem together as it began to crumble before his very eyes. The shinobi dropped down to one knee after he realized that the threat was gone.

Sei had exhausted a lot of chakra when he had used Karasuhebi to stop the golem from wrecking the village hall, but his plan had succeeded. Mine workers began to appear out from the buildings to check to see what had happened. When it began clear that the stone construct was no more, they began to cheer and picked the tired shinobi up off his feet and carrying him overhead. The crowd continued to celebrate and rejoice until they noticed the village chief, Kin'iro, was waiting for them to settle down and speak.

"I want to apologize for what I said before about you." said Kin'iro with a rough tone, showing a softer side to his cold exterior.

"If you have to apologize to anyone, it would be these people. They've stuck with you here despite the conditions and hardships that comes with being here." said Seijūrō as he was placed back on the ground and extending his hand out for a handshake.

"Pehaps you're right, perhaps it's time for me to make some changes for the better." said Kin'iro as he returned the younger man's handshake with his own. He was still too stubborn to admit his mistakes, but it was a start. He was going to have to do a lot to regain his worker's trust and bring the town back on its feet again, but he was a capable leader. He just needed a wake-up call.

---

【MISSION COMPLETE】

[~Kohana <3]

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