Squad 13 stood poised to being their mission as they congregated before the exit gate of the city with their guest in tow. Not wanting to waste any time Takeyo Yuda asked if they could leave immediately after they left the kage's mansion. Akuma said that after the necessary paperwork was filed they could embark. And so there they were standing before the great gate leading outside the Village of Fire. They waved goodbye to the guard who opened the gate for them then began their walk northward to the small Village of Ember. The three young genin could contain the small bit of fear they all had as they could no longer see the village behind them several minutes later. Akuma encouraged them, "No worries you will return to it's safe walls soon."
An hour after their departure the serenity of the surround area outside Flame's jurisdiction was blatantly obvious to everyone. The cool crisp air of late summer nipped at them as a cool breeze rushed through the tall, lush blades of grass on both sides of the path. Sho and Nel took point as they passed through the long blades of grass, watching every side for traps or any irregularities. Xane stood back near the rear with Akuma forming a box around Takeyo. They kept moving forwards like this for the next fifteen minutes in near silence. As they finally reached the crossroad leading towards Ember to the right, the villages of Ash and Smoke to the left. The village of Ash always had great relations with those in their neighboring village of Smoke, the two villages could not hide the fact that they were riddled with no-name cutthroats and mercenaries who would have no problems accepting any task . . . for a fee.
The team tool their turn to the right with caution to their back now the task of Sho and Xane with Nell and Akuma leading the pack towards their destination. Takeyo seemed to be in an unusually tense mood as they reached the halfway point to Ember. While Nel noticed this immediately she figured it was not worth telling her team as he could be uneasy for a variety of reasons. Fifteen minutes had passed and in that time Takeyo's tension became clear to the rest of his team. As they stopped to ask what was the matter, and to take a break Takeyo implored them to continue. Nel decided now as as good a time as any to confront him about his tension. " Mr Yuda is everything alright? " No sooner had she posed the question the answer made itself, or rather themselves known. A group of rogue ninja appeared around the group ready to attack. As Nel stumbled backwards from the sudden arrival of attackers Sho jumped forwards to steady her and to add cover for Takeyo.
"Shit" was all Akuma said before lunging forward, kunai in hand, to fend off one of their five unwelcome guests. Sho and Nel kept very close to Yuda as Akuma and Xane fought off their attackers. Xane knew that things could get very bad, very quickly. And with that in mind he decided to show his guests a few of his moves in an attempt to not only scare them away, bu to also hopefully beat some of them down. Forming the necessary hand sign to activate his jutsu, he placed his hand before his mouth as the eruption of fire progressed towards his mouth as he shot off the enormous Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu at two rogues fighting Akuma. Akuma dodged at the last moment as one rogue took the blast directly to his back with the other one's left side getting caught up in the blast. Both enemy fell to the ground as the numbers were now turning towards the favor of squad 13. As Xane and Akuma turned to look for the rest of the enemies they watched in horror as one rogue launched a scorching tower of flameing ash at Nel and Takeyo.
Nel froze as the flaming tower rocketed towards them at a blistering speed. Takeyo managed to jump out of the way on his own as Sho shoved Nel out of the attack's course, taking the full brunt of the attack on his own. "SHO! She screamed. Sho's charred body fell face forward to the ground as Nel dropped to ner knees with her hands supporting her head as tears flowed down her cheeks. The rogue nin took this oppertunity to focus on killing the downed Nel. They lunged forward with their katana as they slashed down towards the ninja's body from three angles. Akuma arrived to block two of the three blades, sadly missing one which found home slamming hard through Nel's stomach in a last minute thrust on the rogue's part. She coughed up a bit of blood as she fell backwards to accompany Sho on the ground. Xane's rage now erupted as a physical manifestation of fiery chakra covering his whole body. "You'll regret hurting my friends!" He screamed in his fury as he now lunged towards the three rogue nin full force. Akuma stabbed one of the two of the rogue in their heads with his Kunai as Xane slammed his charged Oukashou no Jutsu into the remaining ninja's chest blowing out it's contents in a flaming inferno.
The team had beaten their attackers but with the loss of Sho and Nel they were faced with a split decision. After Xane had finished using the minimal field medical knowledge to stop his friends from dying immediately he was instructed to take his friends back to the Village of Flame while Akuma took Takeyo the rest of the way to his village. As Xane and his clone carried Nel and Sho back, running as fast as he could, the question of why they had sent such a new team to escort this man rattled around inside his head furiously. The fury slowly subsided as he grew closer to his destination. He began to slowly understand that this sort of thing was always possible as this was not the child's play the academy was. As he arrived at the gate to enter his village he dashed quickly off to the hospital to drop his friends off before rushing back to the gate to wait for Akuma to return. Akuma returned less than two hours after Xane had. The two went to report their mission results before parting ways. Akuma told Xane that while today was a success in that they had passed their mission successfully. It was a failure in his book as members of his squad were injured. The same went for Xane personally. They agreed that the entire group required more training before they were to go out on any more missions. This left Xane free to train as he pleased as his fellow squad members healed from their wounds. Xane was introduced to the harsh world of Ninjas in all it's entirety and he realized that if he was to survive it he would need to get alot stronger.