Mission Details:

It was finally time for Fuyuko to step up her missions, take it to the next level. So far she had only been doing the non-dangerous ones. The ones that would only cause her harm if she did it to herself. But this time, this time she wanted to do a mission where there was actual thread, but for that she needed a partner. But whom could she do it with? She didn’t really know anyone in the village to do the mission with, the only available option was Nozomi, but she wondered if she’d be interested at all in doing a mission so much lower than her level. However it was still worth a shot. Also, would Nozomi be capable to do so at all? Was she still too injured for it, well there was only one way to find out.

Fuyuko grabbed her best set of clothes for the mission, she wanted to make sure nothing from her clothing or herself could get in her way or cause her to make a mistake. Her hair pulled back tightly into a ponytail, a black shirt and a pair of blue pants that tightly wrap around her body. She checked her pouch to make sure all her items were there. She was ready to go, but she couldn’t help it but check everything again the moment she set foot outside. Having it checked one last time she headed over to find Nozomi’s house.

It took her sometime wandering through the streets of the village, she had never been in this part of the village and it felt very unfamiliar, but eventually she found the place. She hesitated. Her nerves were getting the better of her, she was just standing there in front of the door doing nothing. She probably looked like a creep to the people that were passing by, just standing there motionless in front of the door. Having taken her time to collect herself she knocked on the door. Her heartbeat raised as she anticipated the arrival of Nozomi at the door. Her golden hair, the cute few freckles on her face and those mesmerizing blue eyes with the green dots and that wonderful smile she had. Her face probably bright red by this point recalling her looks. It was after all their first time meeting after their meetup in the hospital. Fuyuko had been too busy to visit her more often, which she did regret, but it would be understandable right?

Once Nozomi would finally open up the door, Fuyuko would smile and wave. “Hai, it’s been a while, but I’m finally here. I was wondering if you would want to team up with me and do a mission together, that is of course if you’re able to, and well if you want to of course. I haven’t picked up a mission yet, because I wasn’t sure what kind I would be able to do today. So will you go on a mission with me?”

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Waking up to the sound of knocking at her door, Nozomi rolled off her bed fast, grabbing her main Tanto as she did so, and remained low. She had been quite paranoid as of late, and it was evident to anyone who had seen that little display, although there were no such people. Her fight had left her weak, and that would have been the best moment of opportunity that anyone would have to take her out, and she knew that there was stirrings of some sort of problem for the village. As a Hunter-nin captain, she was privy to certain secret information, and she knew there were people not pleased with Ayakashi or the current regime, who would take the opportunity to strike one of her stronger shinobi down.

That being said, she quickly assessed that nothing was wrong in her home, so she relaxed a little bit, and went to answer the door, still opting to take her weapon with her. Just because all was well didn't mean there wouldn't be some sort of surprise waiting for her at the door. Opening it up cautiously, Nozomi's gaze peered out through a crack in the door, and then a small smile appeared on her face. On the other side was none other than Fuyuko, the girl who had visited her randomly at the hospital and given her some small measure of joy. Opening up the door a little further, Nozomi would partially lean out to scan their surroundings and make sure nobody was hiding before she'd actually respond to the girl, who had asked her if she'd be interested in doing a mission with her.

After only a moment or so of actual time, Nozomi fully opened the door, tanto in hand, which had until that point remained hidden by the door frame. "Absolutely, I'd love to. Let me get some things real quick, and we can head out immediately." she said. She went back to her room, collecting her Kiri headband and attached some of her tool pouches to her, but other than that opted not to take anything else beyond her tanto. The weights were heavier than she wanted to deal with at the moment, and she really didn't need her armour. If Fuyuko had stepped into the house, she would have seen something that Nozomi hadn't really hidden, something that she probably wasn't supposed to see. Her Hunter-nin gear was stashed in a small corner of the house, her mask partially visible in it. It was well known to most shinobi that there was a particularly dangerous Hunter-nin who wore an angelic mask, but as of yet, nobody knew who was behind the mask.

Attaching her paper bombs to two kunai, Nozomi stashed them in one of her pouches, and filled another with senbon. She really didn't feel like arming up for a war zone, so she left the rest in her home, and beckoned the girl to follow her.

-

After having gone to the administration building, Nozomi and Fuyuko had been assigned to a simple defense mission, and went on their way to it. Of course, they'd have made some small talk on the way there and to their mission area, where Nozomi would have revealed that she was actually feeling quite well as opposed to the last time they'd seen each other. She wasn't up to her full strength yet, and wouldn't be for a bit, but she was still capable enough as a Jounin that it didn't particularly matter. The mission was only a C rank one, and she'd be able to help the girl out with little problem. Of course, she wasn't going to be doing the entire thing for her, as one of the best ways to grow as a shinobi would be to test and push yourself to your own limits to surpass them. Still, she'd do enough to ensure that Fuyuko would be in no real danger assuming nothing came that was unexpected.

WC: 664

Although the opening of the door only took a few seconds there was a noticeable sense of hesitation, especially the moment when Nozomi looked outside of her house first before answering her. It felt like she was expecting someone else, but whom that may be, Fuyuko had no idea. A smile appeared upon her face when she got the reply and made her forget her trail of thought. She patiently waited for Nozomi to get back when she was ready. However with the door open wide her curiosity rose with every passing second. She wondered how the inside of Nozomi’s house looked, was she a messy or a clean person? All she had to do was to take a step or two and she’d be able to freely look through the room. Even poking her head inside would probably be enough for her to get a decent look. With her curiosity continuously rising she got closer and closer to the door. She raised her foot and was about to take a step inside as she couldn’t contain her curiosity anymore. But just as she was about to do that she heard Nozomi walking back over and quickly put her feet back down, she was beckoned to follow and so she did.

The pair had received the mission to defend some builders of a fort which was located next to bridge. It got her excited, even though nothing may end up happening in the end. As the pair made their way over to their destination they conversed some more. Nozomi reassured Fuyuko that she was doing plenty better than the first time the two of them had met, and by the looks of it that was definitely true. It was a weight of her shoulders to know that Nozomi was there to help her out, however she didn’t want to have all the work done for her, she didn’t want to be dead weight.

Fuyuko suddenly remembered her conversation with the Mizukage the other day. A conversation that was about when does someone’s life truly end, when does someone deserve to die and when not. It was a rather heavy conversation in the short shinobi life Fuyuko had lived so far, but definitely an important one. Would she need to kill? “Hey Nozomi… Say we are attacked while defending…, do we have to kill?” she asked suddenly with clear hesitation in her voice. “I can go into detail later on why I’m asking this, but a simple yes or no will suffice for now” she followed up with determination on her face and in her voice. At this moment Fuyuko would follow up on any command that was given to her by Nozomi, she was first of all her superior and on top of that way more experienced than herself. So for the time being there was no room for personal feelings on the mission, at least not until she was strong enough to protect her ideals from anyone that opposed her ideals.

Having talked some more with Nozomi after the rather serious question the pair would finally arrive at their destination. It was a bridge of rather high importance, a lot of merchants that come from this island that want to travel to Kirigakure no Sato would come here. In order to make traversing the bridge a little safer a fort was built to help protect the merchants and common folk alike. Fuyuko walked up to someone who seemed like to be part of the builder team. “Hello, we’re shinobi send to help you with your request.” she said. “Aahh yes, thank you very much for being able to come so quickly. We’ve been raided not too long ago which has haltered the construction of this fort, and although no one was harmed that time and only goods were taken, we feel like that it won’t be the case next time.” “What makes you say that?” “Well you see, they left a note behind that if we continued building they would come again and burn the whole thing down. We didn't listen to their threats though, we kept on building. But just in case we want to make sure we would be able to finish it, so we have send out a help request.” “Oke, thank you for the information, we’ll make sure nothing happens to any of you or the building.” she said with a smile. She turned away and headed back over to Nozomi and told her what she was just told, followed up with a question. “So what’s the best course of action now?”


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twc 1292

Nozomi thought of her response to Fuyuko, not quite sure what had prompted the question. That was a difficult one. At one time, she would have said no without a doubt, as she wasn't really capable of taking somebody's life, but that had changed due in no small part to the time she had spent with Sero. He had taught her how to do it, and that if you didn't, you or your fellow shinobi could wind up dead, and that was part of the shinobi world. They were soldiers, trained to do what they had to in order to sustain their way of life. "If we are attacked, it may be impossible to avoid killing. If we repel the attackers, they might strike again. It isn't necessary to kill them, no, but not doing so may prove to be of little benefit. But don't worry, I'll take care of anything like that if you don't feel comfortable doing so."

Her brief response to Fuyuko came from a place of warmth, but she also knew that the young girl was just a genin. Sure, they were around the same age, but Nozomi had a wealth of experience with combat that afforded her a different outlook. The few years she'd spent as a shinobi had given her a slightly cynical view. She liked to fight, and didn't particularly mind killing, but her motives for leaving someone alive lately had been so they could get stronger and provide a fun challenge. She'd last killed Syn in order to keep herself alive, but she could have won without doing so. She just didn't really think about it anymore, it was just something she did at this point, and death was natural in their world. Still, Fuyuko was still a relatively inexperienced genin. Eventually, she'd be forced into a situation that required her to take a life. But Nozomi wasn't going to force her to do so. Those situations needed her to choose it on her own.

-

As they arrived, Nozomi let Fuyuko do most of the talking. This was her mission, Nozomi was only here to provide support for the genin, and make sure she stayed alive. Still, her guidance was necessary, in order to help give Fuyuko greater tactical prowess. She didn't know that Nozomi was a Hunter-nin Captain, and siege warfare and defense was something she'd already studied to get where she was. "Well, that's a rather simple question. The positioning of this defensive fort is a great one, which is why it was built. There's only one side to attack from, which means that our attention can be focused there. We have natural boundaries preventing side attacks, and whoever chose this location did so for that reason. That means our job is rather simple. We just stand guard and prevent anything from happening to the fort. We aren't going to be here long, just the night. Long enough to allow the rest of the guards to rest up and recuperate from the siege tactics that have been going on. It's almost finished, and they'll be able to hold out until it's done after a decent rest. I'm going to let you take care of any fighting that really needs to be done, as you see fit, unless your life becomes in any serious threat of danger. I'll provide you support so you don't die."

WC: 566
TWC: 1220

With the information Nozomi had given Fuyuko it was time to wait. Wait until something or nothing happened. The sun had set and the air was rapidly cooling this caused a small layer of fog to roll in from across the bridge. It had an eerie feeling to it, it was almost as if it was a bad omen. Not long after the fog had rolled by and covered the surrounding ground a shadowy figure would appear on the bridge. Fuyuko jumped out of the tree she had been sitting in all this time to keep a birds eye view. Quickly after the first figure had appeared another 6 of them would appear right behind the first one. Fuyuko grabbed her kunai out of it's holster with her left hand and gripped onto it tight. If you were close enough to her you could definitely tell that she was nervous, her hand was shaking a bit after all, but she was sure to not let it hold her back. “State your buisness!” she shouted towards the figures. She didn't want to mistakenly attack someone that wasn't the target. “We've come to destroy this damned fort, it's going to ruin our business and I'm not about to let that happen! Now get lost pipsqueak, before you get hurt. Go play with your dolls or something. Besides we enjoy hurting innocent people that support Kirigakure, the damned village should just disappear and let us rule the land.”

Without hesitation Fuyuko would dash towards the enemy, were Nozomi or the enemies to say anything to her it would definitely go over her head. Fuyuko had already snapped and would not really listen to any reasoning, at least not until her movements were completely stopped. Her hands moving in quick succession performing the seals boar, snake, hare, ox, snake. With the markings formed inside the palm of her hand she was ready to restrict the movements of at least one opponent, by this time she had closed the gap towards their enemies which had all assumed a defensive stance and had grouped up a little closer together. With her free hand she quickly grabbed a shuriken from her pouch and threw it at the target in front of her. He was able to easily reflect that shuriken with his blade, but this left him open for her next move. Fuyuko jumped up and flew straight at the target, stretching out both of her legs to use her speed and mass to knock him down. Landing both of her feet firmly onto his chest he fell backwards and onto the ground. A very audible groan could be hurt, and with the way his head fell onto the ground a slight concussion was definitely possible. Fuyuko then jumped off of the chest of her first victim and turned around mid air, one down, six to go.

Not letting her momentum in the battle go to waist she'd quickly charge at the next target. However her advantage had disappeared by this point, the remaining six targets would be prepared for what would be coming next. And so the targets blade and her kunai kept clashing against each other, Fuyuko would never go for a full block on the attacks made against her and instead opted to fend them off to the side, requiring less of her strength to defend herself. Whilst her target would keep her busy another person would join in on the fight taking a swing at her from her left side. She noticed the attack coming in albeit a little late. She managed to dodge most of the blade, but a small cut was made in the clothing of her lower left arm and a little bit of blood would come out of it. It woke her up, reminding her she was in real danger here, and so she snapped out of her 'rage'.

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Chakra 135/150:

Nozomi sat, her senses attuned to the surroundings, and seemed to zone out. She was still paying attention to everything, but her demeanor was not one that you would expect someone on guard to have. Then again, she was quite the perceptive individual, having honed her senses to some of the finest around. It was almost impossible to sneak up on her or catch her unawares anymore unless she was purposely ignoring something. That said, she knew something was wrong long before Fuyuko caught onto it. So now was the time that action would begin, eh? She couldn't wait to see what the genin would do.

Her attention split between the 7 enemies that would see their mission fail, and the young genin next to her, Nozomi watched their interaction with interest. Fuyuko was very obviously nervous, although she was sure that she was the only one who could see it. The others were far away, and she was right there, of course. She had grabbed her kunai though, to which brought a small smile to Nozomi's lips. The girl was ready to fight.

She leapt forward, and Nozomi wasn't about to stop her, it was their mission to protect the fort from any attacks. Instead, she slipped into the shadow of the girl, mirroring her own moves but staying behind a bit. She let Fuyuko take the initiative as she had previously said. She was only here to make sure Fuyuko made it out alive, but she wouldn't do too much to assist in the offense. Instead, she watched over her, covering any attacks that would come to her blind spots. Nobody was going to get the drop on her, but she would let them get close enough that Fuyuko was aware of her short comings. One didn't improve without learning to acknowledge their shortcomings.

As she took the small nick from one of their blades, Nozomi went on the offensive to force the fight back into a 1 on 1 for Fuyuko. Her tanto sang through the air, moving fast enough that none of them could probably see it, as her own speed was vastly superior to theirs. Her blade was of such a quality that it sank through the weak metal of their own weapon, coupled with her own strength behind the swing. Her leg lashed out and sent the man flying backwards as she once again fell back towards Fuyuko's rear. It was enough for her to showcase her own strength, they would know better than to try and do something foolish like that again.

Pulling out a few senbon with her off hand, she merely held the small needles and her tanto, obviously the more dangerous of the two. While she had yet to say a word, and was a deal smaller, or perhaps because of it, she had been completely hidden up to this point, and when she moved back behind Fuyuko, she once again became more or less hidden. To them, her movements may as well have been a spectre hitting their comrade and disappearing. If any of them moved to throw a molotov cocktail, she was prepared to knock the bottles of alcohol out of their hands before they threw them using a senbon. She wouldn't let them launch a flame towards her young charge.

WC: 553
TWC: 1773

Having calmed down a little bit and having Nozomi help her out of her sticky situation Fuyuko quickly re-assessed the situation. There were 6 enemies remaining, she had her limb restriction jutsu ready in her left palm. She had Nozomi in her rear protecting her from any extreme harm, however she didn’t want to rely on that, because after all Nozomi wouldn’t always be there to protect her. Because of that she wants to take it a little more slow, but the enemies seem to be a little bit baffled by Nozomi’s display of skill. So in the end she decides to still keep up the tempo for the time being. “Thank you” she mumbled as she dashed in again switching over her kunai to her right hand.

Dashing towards the last target she was attacking she faked a strike a wide strike hoping that he would either try to block the strike or swing back at her. She was hoping that he would choose for the latter option, he had a longer reach than her after all. Sure enough he was going in for a strike back at her, stabbing his sword at her like he was carrying a rapier. This somewhat surprised her, that the enemy had decided to lunge towards her, as this would make it rather easy for her to counter the move. However this also slightly threw of her plan of  using her prepared jutsu. Regardless she ducked underneath the blade at the last second and swung her kunai across the groin of the target, followed up by a punch to his stomach staggering the guy backwards. With a cut like that she assumed another one was down for the count and she faced over to the next person that was already trying to sneak up on her once more from her right side.

The next person came in swinging at her from high up  giving her not a lot of time to react to it. Fuyuko quickly deflected the blade making sure it wouldn’t hit her and as the person came ‘flying’ by her she tapped the person high up on his thigh with her left hand. Placing the jutsu on his right leg and rendering it immobile for a while. It also made it impossible for the person to make a proper landing and sure enough the person faceplanted into the ground with his right leg awkwardly up in the sky. Without hesitation Fuyuko’s kunai swung towards the Achilles tendon on the right foot and severed it. However by doing this she had done exactly what she wanted to avoid, to rely on Nozomi. She had left her back exposed to the majority of the enemies.

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Nozomi was impressed with Fuyuko's tenacity, to be sure. Even though the girl had reservations about killing people, she wasn't without the skill and talent to should she choose to. Nozomi shifted her focus around to the surrounding enemies. While she more or less let Fuyuko continue on with her own attacks, she herself was busy keeping her flank protected.

She didn't have to actively do anything, her mere presence and gaze was enough for her to intimidate them back from trying to take advantage of Fuyuko's back being turned, having delved deep into the pack of enemies. Anytime an opening would present itself and a strike looked to be made, Nozomi's gaze would shift, and she'd move just enough to cover the opening.

It started out as small shifts, the enemies having been grouped up tighter to start, but as they spread out to try and surround the two of them, her own shifting became much more pronounced and intimidating. She was not there one second, and there the next, covering an open flank from being taken advantage of. The coordination of the bandits was not enough, as they hadn't practiced teamwork nearly as much as Nozomi had.

Her vast experience with working with one or two partners allowed her to transfer that skill set to any different type. On the other hand, these bandits seemed to have skill only in numbers, and weren't used to fighting against such a cohesive unit, even if Nozomi wasn't doing anything, and Fuyuko wasn't that experienced. Nozomi had the skill to carry the fight herself, and her obvious ease in the situation was unnerving enough for them.

One of them drew a molotov cocktail, and as he lit it, the bottle dropped from his hand with a yelp of pain and surprise as a needle found itself embedded in his hand. Nozomi launched it with such speed he hadn't even noticed her move or change her attention. The bottle shattered on the ground, spreading the flammable fluid over him. As it was lit, this set him ablaze.

WC: 356
TWC: 2129

Much to Fuyuko's surprise no one had even gotten close to her backside, despite having it open to most of the enemies for the longest of times. Seemed like Nozomi was keeping her save enough to let her do her own thing, this made her both happy but also a little bit disappointed in herself. She didn't want to rely on Nozomi too much after all. Her trail of thought got interrupted by a loud yell, followed up by a frightening screech. Fuyuko's head quickly turned herself around towards the origin of the sound. One of the enemies had been lit on fire. Most of his legs were set well ablaze and seemed to be slowly creeping upwards.

No matter how mad Fuyuko could've been at them earlier on for their statements, she felt just as sorry for them now, well at least for the guy that was on fire. It seemed incredibly painful and for a few moments all she could do was stare at the person as the fire was creeping up his clothes while he was running and rolling around trying to get the fire to stop. Fuyuko just couldn't keep on watching as the man struggled to save his life. She molded some chakra inside her as she raised her hand towards her mouth. When it reached her mouth a jet of water came rushing out towards the man on fire, slowly but surely dousing the flames till they were all gone. Once the flames were out he'd stop moving and collapse on the ground groaning in pain.

Fuyuko spoke up to the remaining three enemies that could still freely move without looking at any of them directly, her attention was mainly focused on the half burned person. "It should be obvious to you all that there is no way for you to win this fight. I'm inexperienced, I don't really know all that well what I'm doing, yet we're beating you easily. So go pick-up your 'friends' and just leave and don't come back." With that said Fuyuko completely lowered her guard. If she were to be engaged on she was sure Nozomi would save her and even if she didn't, whatever injury would be afflicted to her she felt like she deserved it. Looking at the other people she had taken out she was unsure what had overcome her. Yes she had managed to not kill anyone, but she did inflict some rather serious wounds to a couple of them. Some that may never heal properly. Having never felt this way before she was a bit scared of herself, she never knew she was capable of doing these things.

Seeing as the enemies didn't really seem to disagree with her, she slowly walked back over to the tree she was initially in to keep watch. The evening was still young and they still had an entire night left to keep watch over the fort. As much as she wanted to go home and get away from the scene, her duty came first.

[Attempt exit thread]

wc: 522
twc: 2930

Mission: 2930 - 1500 = 1430 wc
Str D2>D3: 1430 - 450 = 980 wc + -75 ryo
Payment increase: 980 - 900 = 225 ryo

As it turned out, Nozomi’s presence was all that was necessary to change the tune of the criminals. Realizing that Fuyuko was inexperienced, they had tried to take advantage of her openings, but with Nozomi guarding her at every turn, her openings weren't there. Fuyuko put out the man that was on fire, and asked them to leave, this time, the bandits taking her up on the offer. The damage had been done.

After the bandits had left was the only time Nozomi had turned and let her guard down. It wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility that they were going to try and attack while they let down their guard so Nozomi kept watch for a few minutes before she went back to her post.

"You fought well." She commented briefly, saying little more than that for the moment. She needed time to think, and Fuyuko's actions were somewhat troubling in the scheme of things. There would be time for a lesson on her actions later. "You leave yourself open sometimes, but you're not too bad for a genin."

She wouldn't say anything further, instead going back to watching the road and listening to their surroundings. The night wold go by uneventful from that point on, but Nozomi was troubled. If Fuyuko showed mercy like that to every opponent she faced, enemy of the state, or even more dangerous opponents who a little fire wouldn't bother after being put out, then she could cause the deaths of her comrades. The girl was too nice.

Letting the bandits go was a bad call. Maybe they would learn their lesson, but it wasn't their way. They didn't ever learn. Being a bandit in Kiri was a known death sentence, and they found the risk worth it to begin with. She'd memorized their faces and would hunt them down later, but that was to clean up loose ends without upsetting Fuyuko.

The girl would have to learn to kill eventually. Otherwise she was more of a danger to her friends than she was of help. It was a lesson Nozomi had learned, and it was one Fuyuko would need to as well. There were no prisoners in Kiri. The ones who would wish death on others died, and otherwise they would be made to pay penance and reform. Or shipped away.

-Exit thread