Chapter 23: Failed Mission ?

Once Nomad left, both Rasa and Custus stayed in silence.

Custus was busy concentrating on quickly healing her most serious wounds and then treating Rasa.

While Rasa was just calmly analyzing the whole situation that happened today on this mission.

'First of all, I need to improve my Taijutsu, at least to a level where I can defend myself against a Chunin' thought Rasa after seeing how weak he was against the close attacks of the bandit named Caratsu.

The thought of obtaining some Konoha taijutsu technique appeared in Rasa's mind, but he knew that it would not be easy to get such a technique.

After healing most of her wounds, Custus knelt down and gestured Rasa to place his head on her thighs and take a comfortable position to let her treat his wounds.

She was very grateful to Rasa because she was sure that if it wasn't for his early assistance against the bandit, she would have died in a short time.

Custus gently touched Rasa's head and began to treat his internal injuries first.

Once he finished doing that he gently ran her hands over the different external wounds he had.

Rasa just closed his eyes and smiled slightly as he felt the warm touch of Custus' medical ninjutsu chakra.

He had to admit that it felt pretty good to be treated this way.

A short while later Nomad returned.

" Done, everyone died, looks like our part is finished but... where's the captain?" wondered Nomad.

"Here" suddenly said a voice and the three watched as Captain Canteen appeared carrying two dead men on his shoulders.

"Captain" greeted the three.

"Looks like you were able to deal with everything on this side" nodded Canteen to the three as he threw the two dead ninjas he was carrying from his shoulders to the sandy ground.

"That's right, there were some complications, but everything is done" replied Rasa as he squinted at the two bodies of the dead ninja.

"Yes, all the desert rats died" affirmed Nomad confidently.

"And no thanks to you, in fact, all the credit goes to Gold, if it wasn't for him I don't know what would have happened" commented Custus and before Nomad could start a discussion with her, the captain spoke up again.

"I guess those complications were some unexpected Chunin weren't they?" said Canteen.

"Three Elite Chunin and two junior Chunin" nodded and clarified Rasa.

"I understand, then I guess that must be the reason why you let these two escape isn't it?" suddenly said Canteen pointing to the two dead ninjas he had brought along.

'Well, as I guessed' said Rasa to himself, when he saw that the captain brought two and not one ninja, he knew something was wrong.

"What do you mean captain, we took out everyone in the base," said Custus confused.

"Almost everyone you should say, these two cowards are bandits who left the base when they had the chance," the captain told them as he pointed to the two bodies he brought.

"Impossible, I personally eliminated all the bandits that went to the front of the Base, no one escaped" Nomad assured.

"I don't doubt that you did it, but apparently when you were fighting with those Chunin you forgot that the rest of the bandits could manage to escape and not stay in the base as these two" Canteen told them again.

"Does that mean the mission failed?" asked Custus in frustration, knowing that if two managed to escape, there could be others.

Nomad angrily clenched his fists and Rasa waited calmly to hear what the captain would say.

"No, in fact, the reason it took me so long to come was actually that when I came across these two bandits, I quickly looked around for any others that might have escaped and the only ones that managed to get away were these two" Canteen assured calmly.

"Phew, that's a relief, after so much work it would be ridiculous to fail our first official mission" Nomad commented more relaxed.

"Still, understand that this time I was able to intervene in time to prevent the mission from failing, but this must not happen again" commented the captain with a severe tone.

The three of them agreed.

"Very well, today we will rest and tomorrow we return to Sunagakure."

That was how the four of them headed to the village.

Upon arriving at the village, all was quiet in the surrounding area, showing obvious signs that the fierce battle had not come to upset anyone in the village.

The four entered the town as if the fierce battle of a few moments ago had never happened.

Canteen sighed and said:

"Everyone rest well now, I must finish with some things I extracted from the rogue Jonin."

"..."

The group of three nodded without speaking and continued walking to the hotel.

"Hey, what do you think is going to happen to the village from now on?" asked Nomad in a low voice.

"Why do you ask?" Custus looked at him strangely.

"Well, it was pretty obvious that this village was getting help from those bandits, wasn't it?" said Nomad, surprising Custus and Rasa again.

'Yeah, he's definitely not as dumb as he seems' thought Rasa.

"Unless the Kazekage or the Sunagakure council wants to seek retaliation against them, I don't think anything will happen," said Custus as she instinctively looked at Rasa to know what he thought.

"If your question is for the prosperity of the village, then I don't think that after today this village will remain in such good condition much longer, no matter if Sunagakure seeks reprisals or not" commented Rasa.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Looks like this village is going to go back to being like most of the villages in the Windy Country" sighed Nomad.

"Oh..., I didn't know you cared about such things" commented Custus rather surprised at Nomad's behavior.

"Of course I care. I had planned to vacation here, but now I have to look again for another village that suits my needs" complained Nomad.

Causing Custus to lose all hope in Nomad.

While Rasa smiled amused without saying anything.

After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the hotel where they were staying.

Then they each went to their own room.

The next day Rasa and his group prepared to leave for Sunagakure.

Rasa looked around the village for the last time.

He did not expect to return here again, but he knew that after the extermination of the bandits this village would not remain as prosperous as it was now.

The four of them returned to Sunagakure and arrived at night at the village, they only needed 3 days to get there without stopping in other villages.

After arriving in Sunagakure Captain Canteen was quiet for a moment and said in a hoarse voice:

"Your mission is over, rest and be ready for the next mission."

The three nodded and Canteen then left to give the mission briefing.

A few moments later, the rest of the team also retired and each went to their own homes.

Arriving home, Rasa took a seat in front of a small tree in his yard looking up at the sky.

Few plants could survive in the desert of the Wind Country, and the variety of trees was even fewer.

Sitting quietly looking up, all Rasa could see was the moon, and the countless stars that lit up the sky.

'Always impressed by this starry sky, it is extremely clear and you can see all kinds of stunning and beautiful things' Rasa thought with a smile as he looked up at the wonderful starry sky, he didn't have this kind of view in his original world, here the night sky was quite a beautiful view.

When Rasa used to live on Earth, he loved to watch the stars, and the constellations that formed, it was one of the many hobbies he enjoyed.

'I just hope those space beings that were so much talked about in Boruto don't actually exist in this world, it would be fucking shitty if they were real. 'Well... that's a concern for another time, it's still many years away for those beings to appear if they really exist' Rasa said to himself and lowered his head looking at his surroundings.

"Tch, luckily I wasn't a fan of green landscapes otherwise living in Sunagakure would have been literally a torture," Rasa said to himself with a smirk as he looked at the few plants he had in his yard.

Sunagakure along with the Wind Country has nothing but sand everywhere and the climate is just another thing of the many things that are so hard to adapt in the desert.

Rasa couldn't deny that he was a bit tired of seeing the same scene of sand and more sand every day, which fills him with the desire to know and travel other places in the Ninja World.

But, even so, he knows that if he were to leave Sunagakure for a long time, he would miss the village a bit, it was already like his home.

After this mission Rasa's temperament experienced some changes, killing for the first time was revealing to him.

And he knew that from now on, killing was going to be something he would have to get used to like any other person in this world and he had to be strong to accept everything that comes without flinching.