Mission Briefing:

As he trudged through the sweltering heat of downtown Sunagakure, Akarui couldn't help but believe that this was, in fact, the most exhaustingly boring mission in all of Kaze no Kuni. What kind of person sends a genin with no sensory prowess off to find a specific pet lizard in a veritable lizard paradise anyways? Perhaps what Akarui hated most about this mission was that it was turning him into a whining brat of a shinobi. Not that he would take the blame for it himself, of course. It was merely the fact that this mission he had been assigned felt more like an errand for some ramen shop intern than the graceful, exhilaratingly dangerous act of a Suna nin. Akarui wondered to himself whether this would be what his entire career as a genin would be like. It wasn't as though the world were at war, and life in Sunagakure was relatively stable. Finding a mission at all had been hard enough work, considering how little political strife there was these days.

It wasn't all bad, of course. This mission had given Akarui an excuse to go out on the town, partake in some iced treats, and feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. Perhaps picking up more missions like these would excuse him from doing more menial chores at home. The mochi ice cream he was enjoying was none too shabby either. This wasn't what he wanted to do for a living, of course, but it was a nice little vacation. The winds of fate, of course, never seemed to favor Akarui. Just as he was getting used to his enjoyable non-mission, he caught suspicious movement out of the corner of his eye. Stuffing the rest of his mochi ice cream cake into his mouth, Akarui turned to jog after the small creature. Although his head was pounding due to his poor planning causing an ice cream headache, he managed to pull the picture of the lizard from his pocket. As Akarui chased the brown blur down an alleyway, chewing on the freezing cold remains of his iced treat, he observed the picture on the mission briefing. It appeared to be a fairly sizable collared lizard, about the size of an iguana. It's most distinctive feature was the pink bow tied around its neck. Really, Akarui was conflicted at this point. Did he want to finish the mission and finally go do something more exciting, or did he want to keep milking it for some free time? Perhaps it would be easier to decide once the ice cream headache calmed down.

As the alleyway turned to a dead end, Akarui slid to a stop along the dusty sand littering the unpaved road. There was no denying it; the lizard before him matched the mission's description to a "T". The only differences were the now disgusting, stained and frayed nature of the bow and the lizard's cold, menacing hiss-and-glare combo. As the uncomfortable tension of this confrontation wracked Akarui's self esteem, he let out a pathetic roar before charging and tackling the beast. The lizard was none too impressed however; while it did stay in place for Akarui's attack, as soon as it was within his grasp it lashed out, cutting up his arms and escaping as Akarui groaned in pain. Akarui glared at his reptilian enemy as it waddled its way over to the drain pipe. As Akarui pushed himself up from the ground he wondered why Sunagakure even had drain pipes, but it was no matter. He slipped his shirt from his shoulder, and jumped once more at the lizard, taking this chance and knowing he would have no other. Sliding along the rocks, scraping up his chest against the rocks, he grabbed out desperately with one arm, holding his shirt in the other. Akarui just managed to snag the lizard's tail as its body dangled in the drain, a sinister grin forming along his battered face as he lay in the alley. With one swift movement he slung the detestable lizard from the drain, and captured it within the confines of his shirt; prisoner at last.


709 words
Mission: (600/600) Complete!
Strength E->E-1: (75/75) Complete!
34 for the trash

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