Mission Details:

Rayne strolled lightly amongst the houses, Li by her side. They had been given a mission. Most importantly, it was her first mission! She was a fresh genin, so It was the inevitable lame D rank mission a genin should expect. She held a scroll in her hands that showed the mission details. A resident of Sunagakure had lost their pet lizard, and had enough money to request a genin find it and bring it back. Rayne found it odd that genin were sent after such trivial things, but how else could they prove themselves? Rayne opened her scroll again and confirmed the address of the homr they were heading to. The lizard was a simple, and small species, the collared lizard. Virtually harmless but with it's colors, it would find hiding in this city quite easy.

In truth Rayne was excited to have any mission ,even one like this. She had done training but this was her first mission. She wore her combat / mission outfit. Pants and a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Her mothers old flak jacket with shoulder guards. Her whole outfit was covered in desert camp, the colors of it ranged from sandy tans and whites or browns. She lacked any real ninja tools yet, but she wouldn't need them for this. "Hey Li, what do you make of our first mission?" after a moment, the found the resident. She put on a smile and knocked a few times. Someone opened the door with a worried look. "Yes? Are you the genin who were sent to find my pet lizard?"

"Yep, that's us. Could you give us any clue as to what direction it went? Or what it would look for?" Rayne looked up for a moment at th clear desert sky. Fnding a lizard here would be like finding a needl3 in a needle stack if they had bad luck. Lizards were common desert animals after all. "Any unusual markings or colors? We don't want to come back with the wrong lizard." Because that would be hugely awkward, not to mention a rather pathetic failure.

"Well last I saw he headed north. His favorite food is ants. Oh! And he dropped his tail a week ago when he last nearly got away, so he has an unusually stubby tail as it hasn't fully regrow yet." Rayne sighed inwardly a bit, but at least it was something to go off of. Lizards often dropped their tales when in danger to use their wriggling tail as a distraction. So that would be helpful. It was midday, and lizards, being cold blooded, would probably be in someplace shady, that would be a good place to look. Rayne wondered if Li happened to have any questions to add to that.

Wc = 453

Li walked with his hands in his jacket pockets and a sucker in his mouth. He was wearing his usual outfit which consist of a black T-shirt with dragons on the front, His desert camouflage cargo pants that cover the top of his dark tan boots, and like always his short sleeved black over coat with his headband tied on his left sleeve. He also had his plane black wireless headphones and was listening to "One" but had one headphone off his ear to be able to hear Rayne. He was walking with her to the address of who they were doing a mission for. Just a regular Genin mission. He didn't mind what kind of mission it was just as long as he was able to get out of the house to do something, and earning some ryo would be a good idea if he ever wants to get a Katana and anything else. This mission would hopefully be a good start in earning his ranks and hopefully becoming a better ninja. A simple mission to catch a lizard would not do much for that though but everyone has to start somewhere and this seems to be the only way. it should not be too hard and hopefully after this He could get a mission to worth more ryo and more interesting. As he walked the song he was listening to ended and the song "Nothing else matters" had started. He kept walking while following rayne sense she had the scroll with the address written on it.

As they walked by house after house he thought of all the places the lizard could hide. it would camouflage with most of its surroundings so hopefully they would get more info on the lizard so they do not mess up. sense he was on a mission he had a serious attitude and was using his multitasking ability to his advantage. He was listening to his music with one ear while looking at his surroundings to get a feel for it and using his other ear to listen for Rayne."Hey Li, what do you make of our first mission?" He heard her ask him. "Well it's a simple mission but we got to start somewhere and besides simple missions may not be simple at all. until we get to the house and get more info it is just a plain, simple genin mission to me." He responded with a not as serious tone to keep from being rude to her. After a bit more of walking they had finally reached the house. He walked up to the door with Rayne and leaned up against a litt post the held up the porch fence as she knocked. He looked at the neighborhood as the owner opened the door and asked us if we were the Genin sent to look for her lizard. He just stood there and decided to let rayne do all the talking this time around while he went through his head about all the possible places the lizard could have gone.

He stood there listening to his music which had now started playing "Slacker" as he also listened to Rayne ask questions about the lizard. He could tell that she was worried about failing and bringing back the wrong lizard. It made him smile a bit. He knew that they would not fail and that they would bring the lizard back home. He had no doubt about that, and that is because he knew how skilled Rayne is. She wouldn't even need his help but he is the one who actually decided to do the mission and wanted her to lead. He hates it when she gets too worked up about failing or messing up, actually he hates it when anyone does. He is a bit of a hypocrite there though. there are times he gets worried about failing but he usually uses it to make himself work harder to not fail. he stood there waiting for any clues about the lizard from the owner as he fiddled with his music player trying to find a song he felt like listening to.

He stopped on the song "Vicarious" just as the owner gave them clues about the lizard. "Well last I saw he headed north. His favorite food is ants. Oh! And he dropped his tail a week ago when he last nearly got away, so he has an unusually stubby tail as it hasn't fully regrow yet." The owner told them. He heard Rayne sigh and shook his head it was not much to go off but still was better then nothing. "Is there anything else? Like did you put anything on him like a little necklace or something distinctive?" He asked to hopefully get more info. "As a matter of fact i have him wear this little ribbon around his neck. Its a blue ribbon." The owner said in response. "Ok thank you and we will be back with your lizard." He said with a little nod and started to walk away. "So what we are going to look for is a lizard with no tail and a blue ribbon around his neck sitting most likely somewhere where there is shade and near a good ant deposit." He said to rayne as he thought about good areas for ants. "I say we start at the food market. That would be our best possibility." He said thinking about how ants are attracted to the food people drop while they are walking there. "Also dont worry about failing especially on a mission this simple. anyone would be able to do this with no problems and sense the lizard has had human contact it should not be too scared and run from us when we do find it, and we will find it." He said to keep her hopes up and to stop her worrying. He kept walking towards the food market as he switched songs and started playing "Bleed it out".

WC=1002

Rayne sighed a bit and calmed her worries down. It was just a lizard. And a lizard used to humans at that. It might even come to them if they happened to find some ants as incentive. So really there was nothing to worry about. And that itself was a blessing. Anyone could probably do the mission, otherwise it wouldn't be D ranked. That said, that meant the village had low expectations for them. But then again was it right to expect otherwise? Frankly the idea of going on a B or A ranked mission was scary. She was clearly not ready for that. That said she would be one day.  For now though, she needed throw stronger and ready herself. And at this point... Well, that meant doing these low ranking missions. That said, she was happy to do these kinds of missions. She had a huge lack of equipment, and with money she could buy the things she needed. Like senbon and shuriken. Perhaps most importantly, bandages and a good splint. As a medic she was supposed to have the emissaries for caring for others. Right now she lacked that.

Besides this mission was, in it's own way, a form of training. A good ninja must be alert and be aware of everything around them. They would need these skills to catch the lizard. Lizards were fast, which would help them developers speed and hone their reaction time. Perhaps in a very real way these seemingly easy missions were a kind of test. Well, that's what Rayne was wondering at any rate. That said that logic could apply to almost anything. One could claim babysitting helped develope patience and that buying food helped develope good social skills that a ninja should have.

But at that moment Li snapped her out of her reverie. "Is there anything else? Like did you put anything on him like a little necklace or something distinctive?" That was a good question. That said why would one put a necklaces on a lizard? Maybe all those suckers we're affecting his brain. That said people dressed up their dogs...so It wasn't a huge leap. Rayne was, however, proven wrong when the client responded. "As a matter of fact i have him wear this little ribbon around his neck. Its a blue ribbon." Though proven wrong, Rayne almost giggled. She suppressed it and didn't let it show. She would buy Li some suckers for that. Rayne smiled broadly and considered what flavor of suckers to buy him. She kinda owed him for that joking comment, despite not saying it aloud. "Ok thank you and we will be back with your lizard." Right, twas time to head and and catch that lizard! Rayne smiled broadly and bowed quickly "Be back soon! And with your lizard!" Rayne waved goodbye, still smiling. This could be fun.

"So what we are going to look for is a lizard with no tail and a blue ribbon around his neck sitting most likely somewhere where there is shade and near a good ant deposit." Rayne nodded, thinking along the same lines. At least the ribbon would contrast with better. Now the, where was a shady place with ants and other bugs? Rayne came to the same conclusion and was just about to voice it when Li spoke first. "I say we start at the food market. That would be our best possibility." It made good sense. You didn't let food sit out in the sun, in a desert no less. Stalls would be shaded, so the area would be great for bugs. And lots of bugs would meant prime lizard hunting grounds. It just made sense. "Right, it makes sense. I was thinking the same thing."

Then it was time to head to the market. Rayne was feeling much better about it now. The ribbon would stand out more. And surely wild lizards didn't naturally come with blue ribbons. This was taking a turn for the better, that was for sure. "Also dont worry about failing especially on a mission this simple. anyone would be able to do this with no problems and sense the lizard has had human contact it should not be too scared and run from us when we do find it, and we will find it." Rayne gave a smile and felt somewhat better. That was true, and with the both of them together if the lizard was going to run it had better run fast.

Rayne smiled and grabbed Li in a hug. "Thanks for the pep talk." Rayne giggled softly to herself and let her mind wander a bit as they walked towards the market. A moving shape at the very edge of her peripheral vision caused her to turn and look. "Just a cat" Rayne imagined taking a bloody ribbon back to the owner and telling how a cat ate her pet, and resolved to keep an eye on that cat just incase. She kept her smile though and scanned the first stalls. Every minute or so her head jerked to the side as something moving at the edge of her vision caught her attention. A dropped purse, someone stumbling, that cat, a merchant trying to draw attention to his stall, a moving blue ribbon, and a dropped apple. Rayne almost did a double take, and her neck popped slightly with the speed of her turning head. There it was! In an alley! Rayne tugged lightly on Li's jacket. She pointed and walked over towards it very slowly.

As she drew nearer she saw a tiny mound. An ant colony. The lizard was standing nearly on it, licking pup the ants that came out. And then she saw a shadow moving in the alley. That dang cat! The lizard was hunting and being hunted. The cat drew slowly closer, and Rayne wasn't going to be fast enough to catch it. "Li! The cat!" she pointed, but doubted Li was unaware. Rayne starting running towards the alley, and th r cat drew closer, in it's pouncing position. Could she or Li catch It in time?

WC = 1064

Special Characteristics Used::

[exit]

Total WC=1002

Would like speed to D costing me 750 WC and 0 ryo leaving me with 252wc to spend on getting reaction time from E to E-2 costing another 225 wc and 0ryo leaving me with 27 wc left