Retrieve the Scroll [Mission]

As he moved Noriyuki listened to the soothing sounds of the woods around him. The rustling trees, the gentle breeze and the cries of forest creatures were natures call and the only company he had for the long journey. The loneliness and quietness of the trip was what he needed. He was left alone with his own thoughts as company and he liked that.

As he bounded from one tree to another, Noriyuki's hair billowed in the breeze, along with his cloak. He let out a gentle sigh and picked up his pace.

'This is going to be a long trip...' He thought as he began skipping trees after gaining a burst of momentum.

Noriyuki took his time in finishing his tea. He savored each sip of the hot beverage as he looked up at the darkening sky. Once finished, he packed away all the items he had used to make the tea in the backpack and put it on. He then proceeded in putting on his cloak and extinguished the small fire.

Launching himself back into the treetops, Noriyuki continued on with his journey. He had cut his break a few minutes short, seeing that he did need to make up for the lost time. He jumped from tree to tree at a fast speed, but was careful not wear himself down too much. He paced his movements carefully by slowing down his speed every now and then to catch breath.

'Just a few kilometers to go...' he thought.

Now that he had decided on what approach he would be taking he could finally get to work. Taking out the four patrolling men would be the first step in this. He had observed their patterns and how they worked in conjunction. They were traveling in pairs and were operating on a rotating formation. Two of them were on the ground, walking clockwise around the camp whilst the other pair were in the trees moving in an anti-clockwise direction. The formation kept Noriyuki on the move. He couldn't stay in one location or he'd get caught.

Moving into the tree line, Noriyuki got to finding the two bandits on the ground. He had his Sharingan turned on as he leapt from tree to tree. He had to time his movements cleverly. It took about five minutes for each pair to complete a rotation around the camp and come back to a starting point. If he was in trees when the tree pair came 'round they'd definitely catch him. He had to drop down prior to that to avoid detection. Good timing was all this bit required, something he was sure he had.

If his calculations were correct the next pair that was coming around would be the ground pair. He stopped on a branch and prepared for an ambush.

Noriyuki dispersed the clones and quickly disposed of two bodies before preparing for the next ambush. He jumped into the trees and positioned himself in a seated position where the next two would be coming. Forming the tiger hand seal, Noriyuki said: "Nehan Shouja no Jutsu - Temple of Nirvana Technique" he streched the range of the genjutsu as far as it would go and simply waited whilst maintaing the technique.

Very soon the next pair arrived and were not pleased with Noriyuki's presence. They tried attacking him but their advancements only brought them into the range of his genjutsu. They both found themselves under the spell of the technique and went drowsy with sleep before being sent into a deep slumber. Noriyuki dispelled the jutsu and wasted no time in slitting the throats of the duo.

Now done with the guard, Noriyuki headed back to their camp to do further reconnaissance and decide on an approach to deal with the rest of the group.

Noriyuki's first two clones headed for the group of four, his next pair attacked the second group by the fire and his last two attacked the chatting bandits by the tent.

Everything seemed to going as planned. For the first few seconds of the infiltration the clones went unnoticed. It was only later where the group of four bandits took note of his two approaching clones. They had managed to land several kunai hits on one of his clones which burst into lightening. His remaining clone did however manage to get close to the group who were now sending a barrage of attacks at him.

Meanwhile all of Noriyuki's clones had made the necessary advancements towards their targets. Each of them were now in close vicinity of their targets and the camp was in utter commotion as the forces fought it out. The leader had now made it out of the comfort of his tent and was deeply angered by the incursion.

In that moment, Noriyuki detonated the paper bombs and several bangs filled the air simultaneously, making the sound of one loud 'BOOM!'. The leader tried jumping into one of the conflicts, but was stopped in his tracks as the explosions went off and the force knocked him back.

Sheathing his sword, Noriyuki searched the bandit's body for the scroll. He found nothing but a key as he patted down every inch of the rogue shinobi's body. Grabbing the key and standing up straight, Noriyuki took some time to think of the scrolls whereabouts. He looked around the camp and could only see one possible location of where the scroll could be; the bandit leader's tent.

Making his way into the tent, Noriyuki briefly scanned the living space. There was a single flickering candle that sat on top of a chest in the corner of the room and a single unmade bed beside it. The light emanating from the stick brought much needed life to the boring and plain setting. Noriyuki began his search for the scroll by looking around and under the bed. He found nothing around the area and was left with the chest as his only viable.

He tried opening the wooden box, but learned it was locked. He pulled out the key he found on the bandit and slotted it into the lock. Turning it, the chest let out and audible click and Noriyuki opened the box. He checked the box for it's contents and found a bunch of identical scrolls.

Noriyuki let out a bitter chuckle as he picked up one the scrolls and gave it an analysis. "Clever... he said as he realized what this was. One of these was the real thing whilst the others were decoys. A tactic which would delay any thieving hands. "Real clever..." he said, with a slight smirk.