Mission Details :

It seemed like it had only been a couple of hours since Gin had returned that goddamn rabbit to the Administrative Office. She had been walking about town to see if she could finally find food. Fortunately for her, she was able to find someone that was kind enough to just give her the money she needed to buy a couple of rice balls at the convenience store. Ok, so maybe that was an exaggeration. The guy hadn't exactly given her money of his own free will. It was more like she had intimidated him enough that he decided it was best to just offer to pay her to leave him alone. In any case, it wasn't as if Gin had resorted to any kind of violence to get the money, so it hadn't been an actual mugging. Her expression - an intimidating smile, to be exact - of sheer menace and anger was enough for him to drop all of his cash. Nice. Now the former Kazekage knew that she could use this whenever she needed to get some quick money. In any case, it was easier and faster than going on stupid missions like the one she had gone on a few hours ago. Such a waste of time for such a miserable reward. Seriously, what was she supposed to do with the eggs? It didn't look like she could eat them and honestly, she didn't want to risk the nausea and indigestion.

That brought her to her current situation. As she was munching on a rice ball - this one was filled with salmon and wasabi - a small boy came to her to deliver a letter from the village's officials, it seemed. She opened it one the spot, her curiosity getting the better of her. The young woman read through the words quickly the first time and cocked an eyebrow in confusion. This sounded too similar to the assignment that she had just gone on. It was something about a white rabbit needing retrieval. She looked past the letter to tell the boy that this had to be some sort of mistake, but he was gone before she could. She read the letter again, this time with more care. Maybe it was just a report hat needed her signature? It sounded plausible. Upon closer inspection, however, she noticed that it wasn't. It was actually a request for another mission. Apparently, it seemed like the idiots that she had given the rabbit to had managed to let it escape - something went wrong when they tried to pet it and feed it treats to get good luck.

For a moment, Gin thought about turning it down. She read the bit about "an even bigger reward" and scoffed loudly. It was probably more eggs or something as equally useless. She kept munching on the rice ball as she considered her options. She could just spend the morning lounging about, but that was boring. She could sped it training, but that was what she had planned for the afternoon. Then again, one could never have enough training and there were several techniques that she had to work on. Yes, that seemed to be the most feasible option. It was at that point that she remembered the stupid rabbit making some sort of mocking expression at Gin's expense when she turned it in, like it had planned this all along and knew that Gin's reward wasn't anything that she was looking for, expecting, or wanting. And she would be damned if she let a stupid fluff ball like that get the better of her. Fire lit up in her eyes. She would get that thing back to the Administrative Office. Her mildly wounded pride relied on this. And she would be damned if she let a stupid looking animal one up her at any point in her life. She stuffed the rest of her food in her mouth and set off.


Gin Kuroka was starting to hate rabbits at this point.

In any case, that was how Gin found herself at the entrance of a tunnel with a sign labeled "The Warren Maze." She supposed that the rabbit was at the end of the criss-crossing tunnels that composed the labyrinth. Gin nodded to herself and placed one foot inside. The report said that the place was crawling with large bugs and wild roots. It was also prone to cave-ins. For a moment, she was grateful that she had taken the time to learn Doton as an element. It would definitely come in handy during this little adventure. Gin smirked. The place was, of course, shrouded in a pitch black darkness. Closing her eyes an opening them again once more, she activated her mechanical eye so that she could better perceive her surroundings. She drew one of her basic swords - Sabaku no Bara - and began moving forward. Drawing any other weapon more than that would have been overkill. And sure, Gin wasn't exactly against that, but she could recognize a landmark when she saw one.

The sign outside was impeccably kept, as were the woods around the area. Gin had a bit of a soft spot for places like these, which often defined a village's culture or made up a significant part of its history. In this case, it was probably home to some unique form of wildlife. She would rather not have to ruin the entire thing by blowing it up from the inside. Sure, she cold have made this incredibly simple by incinerating everything in her path with a fire ball and then modifying the tunnels to her will using her war hammer, Jishin, but again, that would have led to pulverizing the place and leaving it barely recognizable. So onward it was, making sure to use more simple techniques to get the job done.

[985/1500]

Gin held her sword in hand, gripping it lightly as she was used to. It enabled her to move it effectively and make it an extension of herself rather than just a tool. It sounded cliche, but it was the truth. Her students and even her kids rolled their eyes whenever she said something along those lines. Then shortly after, they remembered who was training them and went back to sobbing in a corner. Gin smiled at the thought. How she yearned to see her children again. Soon. It would be soon. She could feel that her moment was approaching soon. She felt that soon, she would be strong enough to see this through and free her family from Sunagakure no Sato's Council of Elders. In the meantime, however, it was best that she stay focused on the task at hand. She cut through the vines that came into her view, cleanly carving a path for her to reach the rabbit's location. All the while, she dragged the edge of her sword along the right wall of the cavern so that she knew the places where she had been through so far. It was a slow method of moving about in a maze like this one, but it was the surest way to make sure that she would reach her target. It also avoided the frustration of walking about aimlessly.

A large flying bug came straight at her. Gin narrowed her gaze and sliced through the thing. An oddly colored goop exploded from the animal. It hadn't just split in half and dripped all over the place. No, it had gone and literally exploded outwards and covered her in its entrails. The smell was foul and disgusting. It almost made her gag as she tried to wipe it off of her as best she could. Ugh, this would certainly be a bother for the rest of this mission. "Shit, fucking shit, these fucking little bastards," she cursed under her breath realizing that the scent had some sort of pheromone that attracted other bugs around the cave. This was wonderful, just wonderful.

Gin sighed. At least this would provide a bit of a challenge. The young woman looked around her. These little shits really didn't waste any time at all, did they? About ten of then had already swarmed around her. Three were crawling around the ground, their dozens of small legs tapping along the ground. Gin shuddered, hating the sound of buzzing and hissing around her. She didn't particularly hate bugs like some women did, but she wasn't really fond of them either. She could understand why most people hated them with a passion. They were certainly creepy in their normal sizes. This made chills run up the silver haired woman's spine. She began to move swiftly. Cutting the flying bugs would only add to her problem. She had to get rid of them from a distance. She took a deep breath and exhaled into her free hand. While she did so, she could see one of the crawling bugs slithering towards her. "Wind Release: Spiraling Wind Ball!" She yelled loudly and shot three spheres of wind towards the bugs. They exploded at a fair distance from her, meaning that nothing got on her clothes this time.

She couldn't pause now, however, seeing as one of those bugs had begun to wrap itself around her leg and was baring its teeth in an attempt to bite her. With all of her strength, she shook her leg hard enough to send the thing flying against the wall of the cavern  with a sickening thud. Good, these didn't explode. They just died as normal things should. She sliced the thing in half for good measure and moved on to the others, using the momentum of her blade to ricochet from one of them to the next. Soon, they were all rendered into small pieces. It was best for Gin to get out of there and cover her tracks before more of those things came her way. She took a combustible lemon from her weapons' pouch and threw it in the middle of the discarded carcasses to cause an intentional cave in. As the thing exploded, a wall of rocks descended. Gin was careful to dodge the debris and not get caught in it.

Now she just needed to find that stupid rabbit so that she could get this over with. She just wished that she had something other than the small cloth she used to wipe blood off of her blades in order to clean herself. She made a mental note that she should start carrying something along those lines sealed within a scroll. Gin shook her head like a dog would its body in order to get some of that gunk out of her silvery white locks of hair. She pressed forward, maintaining her previous method of marking the right wall as she walked and chopping down the thick roots when she came by them. Soon enough, she found that little devil of a rabbit sleeping and smirked to herself.

Moments later, she once again turned the animal in and received a few more of those eggs in exchange. She placed them in the same sealed scroll as the rest that she had found or gotten as a prize for her services. She could only hope that they would keep the rabbit from running away again this time.

[1901/1500]