Mission Taken - Guard Duty (C Rank):

No longer sad. No longer tired. No longer frail. In the short period of time since she had been adopted officially by Strafe she had undergone some serious changes. She was no longer the broken and frail child she had been, but had instead returned to the little girl who would one day grow up to become a fine warrior. She had every intention of getting back into training, every intention to become the strongest Genin she could be and to make her father proud. Kaia knew that this all wasn't training though: missions gave experience just as much as hours spent in the library or the field. So, like a very eager beaver, she had made her way to the mission board and taken the best one she could manage to score: A C-Rank. She knew this wasn't going to be boring or dull like the usual D-Ranks she had always taken, but that also meant that it was going to take a bit more work and likely be dangerous to a degree.

Her task this time? Well, according to the mission information she was to be preforming guard duty. She wouldn't be the only one, there would be others out there in case she got into a tough spot, but she didn't plan on allowing anything to get the jump on her. No, if she could do this on her own safely then that was what she wanted to do - she wanted to prove that just because she was only ten years old did not mean she wasn't up to handling an 'adults' job. She had surpassed many her age already, proof enough in such an early graduation from the academy, so she wanted to continue to prove herself even now - more-so now that she was living in a new land where she wasn't known much at all.

So, as Kaia prepared for her night's job she made sure that all of her weapons - the little few she managed to have at least - were properly strapped to her being without her having to worry about them coming loose and losing them when she would need them the most. That would just be counter productive to what she wanted to prove and do after all. She also made sure she ate and had a good bit of water to drink before she left: she was going to be working through the night which meant she would have to have plenty of energy to keep her going so that she could avoid falling asleep on the job. She did not want to disgrace herself, and by extension her new father after all.

Once Kaia was absolutely sure she was as prepared as she was going to get, while making sure she wasn't about to be late to recieve the location she would be guarding, she said goodnight to her father and then headed out the door. She made quick timing to the rendevous location thanks to all of the exploring she had done over the past few days of the village. She didn't know it quite as well as a local - that would take far more time before that would be a thing - but she was pretty confident in her ability not to get lost now. Thanks to her knowledge she arrived just as the bulk of everyone else who would be working that night did. Waiting patiently Kaia kicked at some of the dirt on the ground, digging the toe of her shoe in a bit as she waited to be acknowledged and given her assigned area.

"Kaia Mai, this is your assigned area. Take the map with you and make sure you stick to it. Patrol around, and watch your back - there have been reports of some wild dogs or something sniffing around in that location." Kaia nodded with a verbal "Got it!" thrown in to show she understood, took the map, and gave it a quick look over. She was easily able to recognize the area and knew she wouldn't have to worry about getting lost. As she headed out she kept in mind the warning she had been given: wild dogs had been seen in the area which meant they likely had been causing some trouble if someone had bothered to notice them at all. She would have to stay on her toes.

As Kaia started her patrolling, keeping the entire time in the back of her mind the warning her father had given her, she made sure she kept a vigilant watch on everything going on. Thankfully, the area she was assigned to was rather peaceful and thus the night began to pass without incident or worry.

However, as it began to draw toward three o'clock in the morning Kaia felt the tiny little nearly invisible hairs on the back of her neck stand up and a chill run up her spine. It was at that point that she noticed just how quiet things got: no more bugs making their various singing noises, no late night birds chirping... nothing. Something was very wrong. Kaia glanced about as she came to a slow stop, trying to figure out what had disturbed the otherwise peaceful world around her. At first she couldn't see anything different, at least not until a vicious sounding growl pierced the night.

Kaia turned, her hand going to the pouch at her hip that held her weapons and removing a kunai. As finished turning she found herself staring into the feral eyes of a wolf - one who had backup creeping up behind it. Neither looked friendly: fur standing up on end, body posed in a classic animal style attack pose, and teeth bared viciously. No, neither one of these wolves wanted to be friends. The wolf up front lowered itself further toward the ground, growling viciously, while its companion suddenly lept at Kaia.

Using her smaller size to her adventure she ducked down, allowing the wolf to begin to pass over her - biting and snapping toward her as it went. While still ducked down, just as the belly of the beast was over top of her she struck out with the hand which held her kunai. She felt a 'pop' of flesh as its belly gave way and then heard the sound of flesh and fur ripping as she successfully gutted the first: causing herself to become splattered with blood in the process.

Kaia quick turned her attention onto the second wolf as the one who had attacked her already howled in agony and dropped to the ground withering in pain and biting at itself. The remaining wolf suddenly lunged at her, this time keeping lower than the previous one had. Kaia knew she wouldn't be able to duck under this ones attack like she had the last so at the last minute she spun off to the side, striking out with her bloodied kunai as she went and hitting the wolf in the side. The wolf lunged at her again as it began to blood only for Kaia to repeat the same process as before. This dance went on another three times before the wolf, who had lost a lot of blood by that point, limped back off into the darkness to likely die like it's fallen comrade had.

With the trouble past Kaia made quick work back to the rendezvous point to report in about the dead wolf lying in the streets and the other who had limped off into the darkness of an alley way to likely follow suite. After being given a chance to clean herself up - which she declined since her shift was almost over - she finished up her route before heading home to shower and change: hoping as she did so that her father wouldn't freak out to see her coming home covered in blood.

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