Recovering the Stolen Jewels [C-rank]

Aqua · 1 Recovering the Stolen Jewels [C-rank] Sat May 07, 2016 4:21 am

Aqua

D-rank

64

Spoiler:

Aqua pushed the shrubbery aside to give her a better look of the clearing. It was filled with greening grass, and was roughly ten meters in diameter, forming a rough circle enclosed from the rest of the forest by mature trees that rose as high as forty feet into the air. Aqua was currently hidden underneath one such tree, one hand resting on the thick brown bark, rough to the touch, while the other steadily held part of the bush aside so that she may look at the two individuals who stood at the center of the clearing, haggling about the price of a stolen item.

One of them was a thief. It was the person that her team had been tracking for the better part of a day. He had coveted a necklace adorned with a sizeable emerald at the tip, and the wealthy family that was the victim of this theft had put in a mission request almost immediately. Sumimoto had thought this an interesting mission to take, giving them the new task of doing recon in the village before they got to their goal, and it was Keishi’s Byakugan that had helped them the thief just as he was exiting the village gates.

While Matsu and Keishi were adamant on stopping him there and then, Aqua had felt differently. As there was almost no harm in doing so, and they were likely to be able to chase after him given that he resembled more of a civilian thief than a trained ninja, she had suggested that they trail him in case they were able to recover any further stolen goods, and while Keishi and Matsu were less than happy with the subtle approach she proposed, Sumimoto-sensei as usual had been impressed (and slightly disappointed) at her use of a more strategic approach to the mission, attempting to accomplish more than the minimum that the mission required, to retrieve the stolen emerald. The small tinge of disappointment he had expressed mainly to her teammates, who by now had been so used to his drawled lectures that they had quickly dragged her off to stalk the thief lest they were lectured for the next half hour by Sumimoto.

They had followed him for two hours, keeping at a notable distance away from him while separating from each other so their combined chakra signatures didn’t give it away that someone was trailing the thief, in case he had a ninja accomplice, or was adept enough in his line of work to sense such pursuers. It had led them to the forests, and while visibility had been impaired, it had also made it much easier for the trio to stalk him from a closer distance while Sumimoto went and did whatever he did while they were on C-ranked missions.

Aqua let her eyes drift to one branch, where she could see some white amongst the leaves, mostly hidden by the white shine that the sunlight cast onto, with the forty-feet-tall canopy having ended in the clearing. Her eyes then darted to the other end of the clearing, where she could see another irregular colour amongst the leaves. She knew these were Keishi and Matsu respectively, both hiding just like she was for the time they would spring out and capture the thief. This was likely as far as they went, if most of his prizes he sold off to a middleman.

The one to give the signal, Aqua shook the bush she currently had her hand on, creating noise that drew the two men’s attention. They both turned in her direction, suspicion clear on their faces, and irritation on the thief’s as his business had just been interrupted with his buyer putting away the sack of ryo in his hand. The two took a step to Aqua’s location, and Keishi took that time to drop out of the trees, landing behind the buyer and delivering a swift Gentle Fist-laced chop to his spine, incapacitating the man. As he dropped to the ground, the thief ran in the direction of Matsu, who jumped out at the last minute and used a localised Fire Jutsu to cut off his last route of escape.

“Nowhere to run now, huh?” Keishi asked with a smirk on his face with his arms crossed.

While Keishi and Matsu acted smug with themselves, ensuring that the mobile thief remained in the clearing, Aqua dropped own next to the fallen buyer and placed her index and middle fingers on his neck, feeling a sigh of relief as she checked his pulse.

“Do you have that little faith in my abilities, Aqua?” Keishi asked.

“No, but it doesn’t hurt to check,” she replied with a smile, looking up at his pouting face as Matsu swiped the emerald off of the thief’s person.

“She totally doesn’t have any faith in your abilities, Keishi,” Matsu joked as he turned the emerald in his hand, before tripping the thief as he tried to run away from him.

“Says the guy who’s going to set the whole forest on fire!” Keishi retorted, and Aqua saw the fire, localised as it was, slowly increasing in size.

“It’s totally under control!” Matsu shot back, ignoring the growing flames behind him.

Aqua watched their exchange in interest, before walking up to the two of them and throwing a hand around each of their shoulders, a smile on her face. “Well then! I’d say this is a successful mission!” she said, changing the topic. “If Matsu can put out the fire and Keishi can help us take care of the thief, we can just go back!”

“You got off easy, Kimura!” Keishi said, walking to the thief and jabbing his ankle when he tried to run, before continuing to disable the rest of his body, while Matsu stuck a tongue out at him and removed himself from Aqua’s hold to deal with the fire. He threw the emerald to Aqua, who pocketed it in her right strap as Matsu ended his jutsu, causing the flames to diffuse.

1 Recovering the Stolen Jewels [C-rank] Sat May 07, 2016 4:21 am

Aqua

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