'Saviour'

Since their team's formation, Suzaku only attended when Eiji specifically asked him to attend. Which only amounted to a single appearance since their initial meet up at the plaza. While this arrangement was beneficial to Suzaku, it was detrimental to both Saya and Sana. Without a proper three person team, they were unable to conduct any proper team exercises. Resulting in Saya openly reporting Suzaku to Eiji, only to be told that he couldn't force him to join. His response further infuriated her to no end, yet the two would come face to face later that week.

After almost two weeks, Eiji sent word to Suzaku that his presence was needed for their latest mission. The first time he received a similar notification, Suzaku was slightly hopeful for his first official mission. Sadly he was severely disappointed when he learned the mission entailed acting as a babysitter for some lady's cat. Ever since that incident he swore to never have any sort of expectations towards the 'Official' missions.

Arriving at their meeting place, Suzaku was immediately at the receiving end of Saya's hate filled glare. Sana was far more level headed although she only spared him a quick glance before turning away.

" Okay, today's mission is D-Rank! Which means it's easy enough for you three to complete by yourselves. Your objective is to clear council member Mr. Goza's garden of weeds, after you're finished, turn in the mission slip at the Kazekage's Office to receive your pay. That is all, farewell!"

Once Eiji left, Suzaku turned around and began to walk away while crossing his arms behind his head. This of course caused Saya to run over and stand in his way, reminiscent of their first meeting.

" Oh, no you're not going to walk away and leave all the cleaning to just the two of us!"

" How about this, you two clean and at the end you can split my cut of the reward."

Leaving her with those words, he proceeded to walk around her only to be pulled back by the arm.

" No, you'll be staying here and doing all of the work. As punishment for skipping on team training the last two weeks."

" Yeah, that ain't happening."

Not wanting to waste any more time arguing with her, Suzaku activated his phasing technique and slipped through her hold. Then while she was still confused at how he slipped away he took the opportunity to run away. Afterwards he was able to clearly make out how she cursed his name and swore revenge.

" DAMN YOU SUZAKU RYUGA!! I SWEAR TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR HUMILIATING ME TODAY! JUST YOU WAIT, I WILL GET MY REVENGE!!!"

Feeling a bit mischievous, Suzaku got on top of a rooftop and responded to her threats with a snarky reply.

" GOOD LUCK!"

" AAAAARGH!!!"

Back at their clients home, Sana sighed before getting ready to clear out the weeds.

" C'mon let's get started…"

________

The reason Suzaku openly challenged Saya and skipped team training was because he had more important things to deal with. Chief among them preparing for his missions, which obviously didn't go through the Kazekage's Office. No, these missions were personally sought out, negotiated and accepted by Suzaku himself.

It all started after their team's first mission where he spent his entire afternoon babysitting a cat. Believing that such insignificant labor was below him, that very night he set out to the surrounding towns in search of work. Quickly finding out that many people needed help, but we're far too impoverished to satisfy the monetary requirement to hire a shinobi. Fortunately for those he encountered, Suzaku was in search of experience, not a large reward.

While that was true, he usually accepted missions in which he would be able to practice his Jutsus. Such as guarding a trading caravan, clearing out a bandit camp or in one particular occasion eliminating a certain someone. The last of those Suzalu accepted only after personally confirming several of their alleged heinous acts.

After two weeks he'd completed eight of these clandestine missions with a 100% success rate. As for today's mission he was tasked with eliminating a group of thugs who'd taken over a small town. The way in which Suzaku learned of the mission was through a previous client. Who informed him about the town's dire situation after he'd completed his request. It was actually through word of mouth that Suzaku would come to know of these sorts of requests. Something he didn't mind at all since it allowed him to slowly spread his name amongst the populace.

Of course, while negotiating and setting up the terms of a mission Suzaku would change his appearance with the transformation technique. The name of this new appearance was Ryuzaki, a man of average height, a clean beard and hair parted to the left hand side. By all accounts completely ordinary, interestingly enough the template for 'Ryuzaki' was instructor Eiji.

Once he stepped out of Suna's gates, Suzaku was no more, only Ryuzaki remained at least until his inevitable return back home.

Making his way towards the occupied town was fairly easy since one of the reports he'd taken from the Kazekage's Office detailed the surveilling patrol's routes. Thankfully, for him after none of the stolen information was made public it seems the top brass deemed it unnecessary to make any drastic changes.

It took him around three hours to reach the outskirts of the town, making it dead of night when he arrived. Of course being an aspiring shinobi, he rested in order to perform at his peak. After which he utilized the phasing technique to do some reconnaissance on the town's layout. His next course of action was to identify the village head and make contact with them. Believing to have found the right person, from the description he'd gotten from his previous client. He phased through the town and unsuspectingly entered their residence.

Upon reaching their bedroom he covered their mouth, made eye contact and whispered his intentions.

" I'm here to help you with your rat infestation, control your breathing and tell me everything you know about them."

Understanding that he was there to help them, the old woman settled down and recounted the entire story. According to her, around a week ago five men took up residence in an old abandoned house on the outskirts of town. At first they kept to themselves and didn't bother any of the townspeople. However, one night one of the local girls went missing after an extensive search. We found her corpse in a creek behind the abandoned house. The girl's father went to demand an answer from the outsiders, but was brutally murdered. It appeared that one of the men was actually a former shinobi. Unable to retaliate against his mighty power, the townspeople are forced to pay a life tax with anyone unwilling or unable to pay being publicly executed.

While slightly surprised by one of his targets being a shinobi, Ryuzaki's heart raced at the thought of their inevitable clash. It was important to note that up to this point he'd only fought against regular thugs and bandits. Of course, there was nothing an ordinary person could do in front of a shinobi, which was the reason for his excitement. This upcoming battle would be the first to actually test his battle prowess and allow him to go all out.

Having heard the old woman's story, Ryuzaki phased through the wooden floor vanishing in front of the woman's eyes. Once outside he headed straight to the abandoned house the old woman mentioned. After scouting the area for any traps and not finding any he phased through the house.

The reason for his straightforward approach was simple, nobody ever expected for a shinobi like himself to actually accept such a low paying mission. This sort of mindset was what allowed Ryuzaki to always catch his targets with their metaphorical pants down.

That said as soon as he entered the house, he could hear the sound of whimpering and sobbing. Right in the center of the house's living room, four men surrounded a young woman laying on the ground. All of them were completely naked, giving anyone with a clear understanding of what exactly they were doing.

Making sure he was cloaked by the surrounding shadows, Ryuzaki drew a Kunai and slowly began to phase through the floor.

With their entire focus on the woman in front of them, none of the men realized when one of them suddenly disappeared. As for the woman who was on the constant precipice of losing consciousness from the pain. From her perspective she witnessed a 'living shadow' teleporting around the room making the men disappear.

' P-please help me…"

With her last remaining strength, the young woman uttered those three words.

" I already told you, no one is going to come to save you. Just give it up, I'm almost there let me fini-"

As the man was about to finish his sentence, his mouth was covered by a gloved hand, his head was pulled back before having his throat slit. Ryuzaki made sure to hold onto his lifeless body in order to not make any noise. At this point the young woman had finally lost consciousness, although she now had a relatively peaceful expression on her face.

' There were a total of five, with the leader being a former shinobi. Since these four didn't pose a threat, I'm guessing their leader is somewhere else, but where?'

The universe then appeared to answer him although the manner in which it did screamed, be careful what you wish for.

" That took longer than expected… A somewhat decent shinobi who knows what he's doing wouldn't waste more than a few seconds getting rid of such trash. So it's safe to say you're either some rogue ninja who picked up a few neat tricks or a wet behind the ears genin who wanted to play hero. Don't bother answering. Just Die!"

Immediately afterwards four kunai burst through, shattering the windows and wooden boards of the house. As they did, the explosive tags attached to each of them were already in the process of igniting.

" Fuck!"

*BOOM*

The entire house was engulfed in a giant fireball that decimated the entire surrounding area. In front of the now burning house stood a disheveled man manically laughing as he watched what remained of the house burn to nothingness.

" Hahahahaha!!! That's what you get for going against the great Kenji Fujiwara! Hahahahaha!!!"

' Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!'

Out of nowhere a raging gale of wind broke through the ongoing flames heading straight towards 'Kenji'. Who stood his ground, gazing intently at the powerful gale as it approached him.

Just as the gale was closing in on Kenji, it was cut in half leaving the man completely unharmed. Afterwards he proudly displayed a long serrated knife, with fierce lightning chakra crackling along the blade.

" Oh, it appears you're better than what I gave you credit for, albeit only slightly. Since, you lack the necessary stealthiness to- properly execute sneak attacks!

Near the conclusion of his remarks towards Ryuzaki, he appeared to successfully predict an incoming sneak attack. While he was disappointed by the attack amounting to just four kunai. He didn't lower his guard, slicing through them all with his knife.

" Hehehe… I see you're cautious now that you've seen what my blade can do. Tell you what, if you give yourself up now, I'll leave your corpse intact, what do you say?"

As he spoke, Kenji activated his sensing technique to locate the hidden Ryuzaki. He did this by sending out an almost invisible wave of chakra through the ground.

" What's wrong old man? Can't find the 'newbie' genin? Surely an 'Experienced' shinobi such as yourself can deal with a lowly genin, right?"

The moment he pinpointed (Ryuzaki's) chakra, Kenji began to inconspicuously close the distance between them.

" Tell me something, who sent you? I was certain no one knew I'd survived the war, so how did you find me? Was it that psychopath calling himself the saviour of Ame, no he likes to do things personally. Oh, it might have been Zan-"

Surprisingly he stopped speaking mid sentence and in what appeared to be a single motion dived forwards slicing through a tree revealing Ryuzaki.

" Hehehe, found you!"

Ryuzaki attempted to flee but Kenji's blade was faster reaching and slitting his throat. Blood spurted from the laceration, yet before he could celebrate his triumph a mocking laughter echoed all around.

" DAHAHAHA!!!"

A somewhat unexpected aspect of transitioning into Ryuzaki was the innate desire for battle and the finding an almost sadistic enjoyment in outmaneuvering his opponents. The latter of which was currently in full display, as the laughing seemed to be coming from various sources.

" Hey, old man! You wanted to know who sent me to kill you right? I'm almost embarrassed for you, but the truth is I'm here for the 2,000 ryō this town is offering to get rid of a few noname thugs. I'm sure even someone as stupid as you knows what that means. If not, don't worry I'll spell it out for you, it means absolutely no one of any significant importance cares if you're alive or dead. My guess is it's because you're actually quite pathetic and worse yet are completely unaware of it. Dahahaha!"

Without needing to confirm it, Kenji knew he'd been duped by the increasingly annoying genin.

' How the hell can a genin's Shadow Clone Jutsu fool me!? He shouldn't even be able to perform it, much less to such a high degree… Dammit, when I get my hands on him I'll rip him to shreds!'

While Kenji was giving in to his fury, Ryuzaki finally went on the offensive. It began with four Ryuzaki's stepping out of the shadows and encircling their target.

" How about we put an end to this old man? It might not look like it, but I actually have a curfew. So how about you just give up, if you do I'll leave your corpse intact, what do you say?"

Having his previous threat thrown right back to his face, infuriated Kenji so greatly that his eyes turned bloodshot.

" I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!"

" Let's see you try! Wind Style: Wind Blades Jutsu!"

The four circling Ryuzaki's quickly performed identical hand seals conjuring several blades of razor sharp wind which shot towards Kenji. In retaliation Kenji threw his knife up into the air and began to perform a series of hand seals. At the end of which he grabbed onto his descending weapon and unleashed a vicious attack.

" Lightning Style: Horizon Slash!"

The lightning chakra enveloping the knife both expanded and became more potent. Resulting in everything around Kenji being torn apart, including the wind blades much less the four Ryuzaki's.

" How'd you like tha-"

Kenji suddenly stopped speaking, the cause of which was a sharp pain coming from his lower abdomen. Lowering his head to see why he felt such excruciating pain, he found a hole the size of a small child's wrist in his stomach.

" How…?"

With his strength quickly leaving his body, Kenji fell down to his knees as he failed to understand what happened. To this end, the real Ryuzaki seemed to finally make an appearance.

" The thing about big flashy finishers like the one you just used is they tend to leave the user completely defenseless afterwards. Meaning something simple like, let's say a kunai launched by my Gale Palm can reach you with devastating effect. So how was my stealthiness on this sneak attack, Mr. Esteemed shinobi?"

Kenji didn't offer an answer, instead in a rather unexpected turn of events he was smiling. The reason behind this odd behavior comes from his final words.

" A meaningless death, a fitting end for a shinobi who failed to protect his lord… Hanzō-sama, please forgive me."

As he watched the man's final moments, Ryuzaki couldn't help but inadvertently recall what he'd said earlier on.

" He mentioned something about a 'saviour' from Ame wanting him dead, then goes on to say he couldn't protect Hanzō. As far as I know Hanzō is still the leader of Ame, unless… I shouldn't take the word of a missing-nin seriously, but just in case I'll stay clear of Ame."