Mission name: Verdant Vistas, pt I - The Odyssey
Mission rank: D
Objective: An artist has requested you to be his bodyguard during his search for a muse.
Location: Any non-Village
Reward: 150 Ryo for 750 wc (+ bonus 25 for 100 wc, up to max of +150 ryo for +600 wc)

Mission Description: An artist is in need of a new muse and has requested you to guard him on his journey through the nature's untamed environments. The artist admits to have little knowledge of wildlife or survival, hoping you'll be the guiding hand during this journey.

In part I, the time span is from early sunrise to noon. Ready to make it a great journey, the artists is full of fire and readily moves on to find the first of muses - a rare and exotic flower that will humble the vain and rekindle the beauty and elegance for the Arts again.

The greatest dangers you'll face is mostly terrain. Mud pools, river currents, quicksand, dangerous plants and territorial animals urging you to leave the area of their nests. While mostly harmless, caution is required.

Mission Details: One single NPC to take along the entire chain of missions. The NPC does not change in the course of the mission chain. Your duty is to protect the artist against the harm of wildlife and offer assistance on physical and mental level to overcome it.

Name: Machi
Age: Between 27 yrs
General Appearance: Simply dressed, with a splash of creativity in the clothes - style and paint marks alike.
Personality: First and foremost, the person is a creative person with a knack for artistry: sketching, drawing or painting. So absorbed in his desire to find a new muse, the artist is a bit of air-head, lacking most sense of danger and any sort of general knowledge of survival in wildlife. The rest is up to the undertaker's choice.
Goals: Finding a new Muse for artwork
Abilities: "Super Beast Imitating Drawing". The artist is able to bring back to life simple drawings (twice a mission) as assistance. While offering great versatility in utility, any one hit is enough to disperse the technique. The artist offers no offensive power.
Items: Any utensils required to sketch, draw or paint.

A postal bird. How unusual. Haka was rather accustomed to having one of the manor's visitors bring in the letters these days. Snatching the bird out of its landing perch before one of the spiders of the manor decided to fill its stomach on a small snack, she took the message from its leg and urged it to fly back as she recognised the bird's tag to indicate it came from the Administration. Her eyes darting over its content, she heard a disappointing chitter in the corner, a hungry spider complaining about her not leaving the bird inside. Haka would ignore the complaint, apathetic to the needs of her siblings. If they had wanted the bird, they would have to be faster.

Lady Haka Osada. Upon reading the introduction alone, the spider-nin raised an eyebrow. She was well aware of being named Haka Osada, but the title was a first as her Creator, Sero Osada, was still the Lord of this manor and the one that had claimed Spider Island as his rightful domain. Why she was to be given a title as the daughter was typically one of those human regulations that eluded her. For all she cared, she simply remained 'Haka' without anything more even if adding Sero's last name had proven to sway a lot of humans in favour of not annoying her as his reputation lingered in the Land of Water like the very mist itself. Disregarding silly human antics, she continued to read the letter.

"We have a request from an artist wishing to venture into the Swamp of Sorrows. Considering your peculiar origin and natural skill set related to that nature, we would greatly appreciate it if you could spare the time to spend a full day with this man as he goes to rekindle his artistic inspiration. Be advised that great dangers may lurk in the swamps, so be prepared to defend the man's life.

~ Kirigakure Mission Administration."

Running her hand through her long hair, Haka walked to the second floor and into a room she had claimed for herself just this night, where she would exchange her white dress for her usual schoolgirl outfit. That done, she would yawn at the boredom that would come her way with this mission despite just having come to accept it. Her interest lay not with the human, but the idea of picking up something about 'art' had swayed her decision in the artist's favour. That, and the possibility to find something within the swamps that might serve as a staging ground for her own little spider lair. Something to live in by her own since the manor's current activity was too high to her liking. There were so many guests coming in and out it disturbed her long-lasting quiet moments.

All dressed up for the occasion, Haka would leave the manor and flicker away from sight.

---

The only road sufficiently preserved enough so that civilians would use them was the path where Haka ultimately met a man about 27-28 years old. He was wearing a black shirt, green cargo pants and a good pair of brown walking shoes. For an artist, he was rather well muscled, hinting at a more physical approach to arts, and yet he carried a drawing book and a couple of stencils with him. When he saw Haka, he raised his hand, eyes seizing up the girl that was walking towards him.

"You Haka?"
"Yes."
"I'm Machi. Nice to meet you."
"You're an artist?"
"Yes, seree. I'm a clay sculptor, actually, but I need sketches to get my muse going. A plan that will allow me to keep vision of what I want to shape. I'm not really renown, but if you want to visit some time I can show you what I got."

He flashed her a bright smile, motivation clear on his face. She returned him a faint smile to assure him his motivation was well received. Just another sort of masquerade, really. To hear sketching and sculpting as a form of art seemed to run in line with her own desire to sketch and shape her little lair was quite interesting despite the boredom of the mission. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be the worst to take on.

"You wanted to visit the swamps?"
"Swamps are rich and diverse. I believe they could give me a lot of inspiration."
"Good. Stay close then."

With those words, the spider would move forward to lead the way.

---

[EXIT]

760
Reward: D rank jutsu - Reaper's Domain.

Verdandi wasn't sure why she had been invited to help with a mission that already had a C-Ranked individual assigned to it. By the time she arrived at the swamp however, it started to become more obvious to her. Haka was here. For a moment Verd just bit her fist and was considering to turn back around and go home. Not that she had a problem with Haka but whoever was pulling the strings behind Verd being constantly shoved into her proximity... it was creepy and annoying her. If they wanted her help to keep Haka in check from killing humans or to indulge her abilities of becoming more used to the human traits and behaviours, they could just ask her nicely. Instead they seemed to have a somewhat perverse joy in pulling the strings on Verdandi's ninja path, designing it all in whatever course they seemed fit for her. Or just using her as some sort of maid to look after the spider.

Verd sighed but swallowed her thoughts. It wasn’t bad. But she’d have to make a mission on her own towards finding who was doing this to her. For now, she did have a mission to attend to. Haka seemed to have already initiated the whole scene, she was obviously not expecting anyone else to follow suit. But she must have noticed how Verd had flickered in on the area, being very familiar with the ice princess chakra signature as by now.

After a short greeting period. Verd remained unusually reserved at this point. She couldn’t fully hide her disgruntled feeling towards being sent here like that. Even the client himself had not been aware of a second guardian. But Verd wouldn’t go into the deeper explanations. Showing the mission scroll that specifically told her to support the acting shinobi in this undertaking. Haka seemed curious as well but probably not as concerned about this as Verdandi. Eventually they would take off and step forth onto their journey.

While Haka’s and Machi’s shoes were getting dirty Verd had been using the supernatural walking technique to keep her feet above the surface and a steady layer of chakra between herself and the mud of the swamp. She didn’t even complain this time but her priority to sacrifice chakra over getting mud on her shoes and clothes was still something odd to begin with. She didn’t seem all too uncomfortable being in the swamps anymore, compared to her first visit here when she actually met Haka and well… tried to kill her for being a huge spider.

While they went forth, Machi would continuously trip, fall into little swamp holes and threatening to drown. Tripping over tree branches and almost breaking a leg. Falling off a swampy hill after running too fast. Holding onto tree bark that chipped off and make him loose his footing. Almost soiling himself after seeing a giant lizard move by the which was yet very uninterested by the visitors. So tame that Machi couldn’t help but run after the creature to try and get a sketch done. Which he did. Quickly. That was actually quite impressive. Despite the fact that he seemed to be a major clutz in basically everything he was doing. He certainly had a major talent in drawing.

Either Verd or Haka would keep securing him and protect him from his own falling or his suicidal clumsiness. The fact that he was trying to hide that he was drawing and sketching both Verdandi and Haka was amusing of sorts. Dandi had stood for many drawings of herself. But since the implementation of cameras, this cool old habit was about to die out. Technology would, at last, consume the nature of tradition. But his talent seemed more connected to the art within then the goal to perfectly document an object. Verd had to admit, again, that his artistic skill was beyond to what she had seen so far. Almost making up for his seemingly annoying inability to stay away from harm in such a harmless environment. The dangerous parts of the swamp were yet ahead of them and it would certainly be annoying.

On the way he kept stopping for breaks, saying he wishes to rest his bones while instead he just sat down and drew pictures of pretty flowers and awkwardly shaped mushrooms. A rather boring part of the mission so far. But it would certainly prove to become more interesting the deeper they would venture into the dark paths of the swamp.

[EXIT]

760

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