Mission Description :

Misao could feel her knees going numb. Maybe an hour ago, she had felt an uncomfortable sort of pain as she sat on the hard wooden floor of the Uzumaki Temple that she currently presided over. She had spent all of the budget on refurbishing the building itself and hiring a couple of monks to help her take care of daily business. The temple gathered a decent amount of visitors, seeing as it opened fairly recently, but at 5 ryo coins per visitor, it was difficult to gather the funding that she needed for other things - namely pillows to sit or kneel on for meditation and prayer. That was probably her top priority right now. She was still a priestess in training - despite her title of Head Priestess - and not to mention a fourteen year old girl. She was nowhere near the point where she could ignore everything around her while she meditated. Honestly, all that she could think about was where she was going to get the cheap supplies that she needed at this point. It was rather futile to try and detach herself from the world at this point. She shifted awkwardly from her position and took a deep breath.

The young girl was supposed to set an example. She couldn't just get up and walk away, no matter how much the incense was bothering her nose. It kind of made her nostrils itch. Her face scrunched up every once in a while, though she tried to hide it. Maybe better quality incense was something that she had to add to her list. Not for the first time, Misao wondered if there was some way that she could contact the Uzumaki Temple in Konoha to get some funding or help. Because, quite frankly, she had no idea what she was doing. Sure, the spirits linked to the temple's masks spoke to her. Well, not all of them did, only some. Actually, it was only about five of them at this point. The other ones probably didn't consider her worthy or maybe her power wasn't enough to reach them at this point. She tried not to sigh in order to keep up appearances, or at least try to, even though no one was really in the room with her. The point was, if the priests and priestesses in Konoha sent a few people over and maybe some ryo, it would make Misao's life much much easier. However, with her mail being monitored closely, anything sent with the words "please send help" would be burnt to a crisp in seconds. She knew this from experience since none of her mail was ever delivered anywhere.

At first, she thought she simply wasn't getting any replies and that her letters were being ignored. It wouldn't have surprised her. After all, she was sending them to people like the Mizukage to ask about her mother and to the Head Priest in Konoha. Really, they were busy people. And Suutei-sama... well, maybe she had said something to offend him? But once she found out that similar things were happening to her siblings, they had all concluded that their mail wasn't being sent at all. Chie and Reiko had developed ways to get around that - mainly training their own birds to send their mail, though they were shot down more often than not - but none of them lasted too long before they were found out. To say the least, it was inconvenient.

Hearing the gong sound throughout the temple, Misao finally decided it was time to get up. She dusted off her clothes, brushing stray pieces of dirt off her knees. As she did so, one of the monks - an Uzumaki boy only slightly older than she was - came into the room. "Momotaro-san," she greeted him, bowing. He did the same.

"Misao-sama," - she still couldn't get used to being addressed with such a degree of formality - "a request arrived from the Administrative Building. It's a mission you were assigned, I believe," he explained, handing her an envelope. Well, at least this meant that she would have something to do this afternoon.

She nodded hastily and took the piece of paper from him. "Right! Of course!" She said as she tore it open and read the instructions. It seemed simple enough. She just had to retrieve a boy who often skipped class back to the Academy. She nodded once again, to herself this time. "Thank you for bringing... this," Momotaro had already left without her noticing. Oh well. It was time to get her weapons ready just in case this went south. Albeit, the mission did specifically say that if the boy was hurt, Misao wouldn't get paid. She as usually good with children, though, so she wasn't worried about it too much. After all, how hard could this be?

[Mission: 600/600]
[Left over: 219]

She was wrong. Oh so wrong. So far, she had been pelted repeatedly with paint bombs and called all types of names by a kid that couldn't have been older than 7.

"You're a stupid looking little girl. What kind of get-up is that? Laaaame! You'e such a loser,"

"Now, now, you don't mean that -"

"Who says? You're stuuupid!"

The boy laughed, perched up on a tree. Misao had tried her best to do this peacefully. She was currently in the outskirts of Sunagakure, in one of the Oasis that lay outside of the village itself. Her robes were drenched in multiple colors of paint that was unlikely to be washed off, no matter how hard she tried. In other words, she would have to use the payout from this mission to buy new ones. Meaning that she had probably just wasted her time, seeing as she planned to use the money for the Temple's expenses. Great. This was just typical, something that she should expect by now, considering how well her missions usually went. And by well, she meant completely disastrous. At least she wasn't getting beat up by thugs on this one. "Look, your mom's worried about you, and don't you want to grow up to be a strong shinobi? Suna needs people like you!" she tried once again.

"She should worry for once! And I don't want to be a shinobi! They're all idiots!" Now, he actually sounded angry instead of mocking. Misao knew that tone. It was laced with resentment at both the boy's family and at the people who became shinobi. Misao could already guess at the reason why he was insisting on this rebellion. "What're you smiling at?" He asked, still sounding quite pissed off.

Misao shook her head. "Nothing, really," she said, sitting at the base of the tree. She stayed in silence for a bit before speaking again. "I have an idea. If I guess the reason why you're hear, you come back with me. If I guess wrong, I leave you alone. Sound fair?"

[Left Over: 577]

At this, the boy looked down at Misao for a moment, trying not to seem like he was interested in the small challenge. The young priestess heard a huff. "Fine, not like you'll ever be right," he mumbled. She cold practically hear him crossing his arms and glaring at nothing. She held back a giggle. For this to work, she had to make sure that he knew she respected what he was going through. She did, of course, but at the same time, she couldn't help but also find it amusing, in a way. Really, it was hard for her to explain. Nevertheless, she had offered a challenge and it was time for her to make good on her word. She closed her eyes and momentarily prayed for guidance and took a deep breath. To some, it might have seemed stupid and idiotic that she took this so seriously. Anyone else could have just dragged him off by the collar of his shirt and called it a day. But Misao wasn't like that. For better or worse, she cared. If she just handed him back to the Academy, the same thing would keep on happening, after all.




The young priestess began to speak. "You have a big brother, right?" She started her guess. "He's really strong, too, I'm guessing - always the best in his class, graduated early and is rising through the ranks because he has so much talent. You're happy for him - or at least you try to be - but you kind of wish that was you. Your mom is proud and all she can talk about is how strong he's getting and how he'll end up doing great things. It makes you feel like you'll never live up to that. You always be in his shadow, so what's the point of even trying? You'll only disappoint your family and yourself. So you skip class and you start hating anything that has to do with shinobi at all," she explained. It was quite detailed for just a guess. The boy's mouth was hanging open and his eyes were glued to Misao. "How did I do?" She asked, smiling a little solemnly.

"H-how did you know?" He finally managed.

Misao smiled genuinely. "I was the same up until a few years ago. My brother and my two sisters... They're super strong. They were all Special Jounin before they were teenagers! Mom was really proud. But me... I'm nothing special at all. But I realized that if I stop trying, I won't get anywhere and I'll never be able to protect the people I love. It might sound silly, but that's how I see things now," Misao shrugged.

"I guess it's not bad..." he mumbled. He clumsily jumped from the tree and landed next to Misao. She held back her laughter as he tried to regain his balance, but failed. She extended a hand towards him to help him up.

"Let's head back, ok?" He nodded and got up, but winced. Misao looked at him for a moment. "You probably sprained your ankle by jumping. I'll carry you," she offered. The young boy blushed as he climbed on her back. The young priestess was happy to have this over and done with. Hopefully, things wouldn't be any more difficult than this. She would just have to walk back to the village and call it a day.


[Speed from E to D-1: 1075]
[Endurance from E to E-1: 75/75]