Crazy Money [C - Rank, Repeatable:

It was evening in the district when Lin was walking around the sky-bar, the last location that the thief was seen. The booming music of the bar was muffled by the people walking around. Their faces caught the strobe lights and multicolored flashes emanating from overhead.
Lin opened the scroll once more that had the man’s description inside, along with a rough sketch by a cartoonist. She held it up to the dying light and sighed, brushing her hair behind her left ear. Lin’s sense of sight was sharper than most in the academy, giving her an advantage over most of her classmates when she was in school. She would have to rely on that for this mission, because the area outside of the sky bar was abuzz with people. The noise was almost unbearable, and made it easy to mask noises that would normally give people away.
It wasn’t until she almost ran into the man that she saw him. He matched the description perfectly, and apparently the Anbu weren’t notified, nor the guards about his theft. It was up to the Chuunin and Genin of the village to deal with these sorts of matters. She slowed her pace, pretending to look at the menu of a restaurant. Noting the price of Miso she put down the menu in mock disgust and headed after the man.
Lin saw the ninja from the description, a hood which obscured his vision, and his face. Distinctive kunai on his hip along with a tear in his right collar. This had to be the person. Lin was told that she would have to approach the individual with caution, as he was trained as well, if not better, than her. She didn’t know the identity of the man, but he moved like he was trying to be non-chalant, though his purse and his stiffness belied other intentions. The purse looked heavily laden with ryo, probably the five thousand that the man described as having in there. She shook her head at the man’s stupidity as she tailed the ninja.
It was a loan-shark that her father had gone to for his house-bill once. That was where the man was headed, and Lin only had four more blocks to reach this man and stop him with Old man Chiho’s money. Lin looked up to the rooftops and sighed, it would be easier to trace him from above, but she would also need something on the ground in case he took a sewer to the place.
His haste was evident the closer he came to his destination, and so was his eagerness. He kept whipping his head about as he ducked into and out of alleys, took shortcuts that almost through Lin off because a normal person would not take such ways through the city.
Lin weaved the appropriate hand-signs and summoned five clones, who started to follow the man. He was hopefully sloppy enough to not notice five of the same person as long as they were distributed evenly through the traffic. No such luck. As soon as he spotted the second clone, he whipped his head around to make sure he wasn’t seeing things and took off in a sprint down the nearest alley. Lin groaned and shimmied up the pipe, trying to get a good look at where he went. She lost control of two of her clones as the other three were hot on his tail in pursuit.
Lin had to sprint full-speed to keep up with her clones, or else the fifteen foot tether would be broken. Cursing herself she threw one senbon at the man, aiming for his torso. He deflected her shot and made his own way up the opposite building, looking back she glimpsed a few of his features. Red hair, golden eyes, and a burn scar across his left chin.
Lin jumped, barely making it onto the roof as her clones scrambled after her. The man was already sprinting away, using the chimneys as he ran, trying to exploit all the cover that he could. Lin cursed and ran after him, her clones following her in an attack formation.
She kept her senbon out and used one of the chimneys that he was hiding behind to vault herself in the air. The ninja turned around and threw two kunai at her, trying to throw her off, no doubt. She was in the air and managed to parry one with her senbon, but the other stuck her in the left shoulder. Gasping in pain, she maintained her grip on the clones, sending them forward.
He stumbled on a loose roof-tile and took a tumble, almost falling from the roof. It seemed like he only had two kunai left. Taking the kunai into her hand, she handled it awkwardly. She wasn’t accustomed to fighting with Kunai, but she would if it came to that.
“Hand over the purse, and no one gets hurt.” She said the age-old adage. It was not the most eloquent way of saying it, but she was hurt and thought that at least she would give him the benefit of surrender.
“Hah, I said the same thing to the old man. Tell you what, I’ll give you half if you leave me alone.” The man took up a defensive stance, at the edge of another roof it would be impossible for him to jump to the next roof, her clones came in with her, two to her left and one to her right.
“Not a chance, I am getting paid to bring back the purse. The book says nothing about bringing you in. I’ll let you go on your way if you hand over the man’s money.” She held her senbon up and waited for his response.
Running at full speed at her was what happened at first. Her clones pressed forward as she jumped back, trying to make the hand-signs for Raiton: Yari. The tell-tale lightning weaved its way around her, her chakra levels depleted significantly. It was a technique that she had been working on.
She grit her teeth and growled, “Last chance.” As he cut through the clone in front of her, her other two not too far from him. He raced towards her, Kunai aimed at her like a two-handed sword. It would penetrate deep. She took one more step back, running into a chimney and jarring herself.
She managed to evade just as he thrust with his kunai. He punched her in the face, sending her reeling. His kunai seemed to be wedged in the chimney to the point where he was unable to pull it back out. Her clones rushed him, he kicked one and it disappeared in a cloud of mist before the other one attempted to trip him.
Lin took the chance to run to gather some distance from the man. He seemed to be enraged, so she would have to cause serious injury to him. Turning, she growled and concentrated, bringing the three lightning bolts that were circling her head into a javelin. Hurling it, it streaked through the air, carrying with it a smell of ozone and moved in sporadic patterns. She hoped that it would hit.
It did collide with the man’s side. She had aimed for his stomach, and seemed to hit his kidney. Clutching his side, he fell to the ground as she reached for her senbon. It was better to be safe than sorry. This man had tried to kill her for his money. Lin threw the senbon at his hands and his kneecaps. Effectively making it painful for him to fight any longer. If he didn’t pull them from his hands it would cause further trauma.
“Surrender.” She commanded, standing over him, “Or die.” She hoped that he didn’t call her bluff, her own wounds bleeding some from the kunai that he threw, and the flesh on his side was severely burned and was bleeding profusely. It was going to be a matter of minutes before he passed out.
“Fine. Fine… I’ll give you the money." He said, holding out a purse for her to take. It had all the Ryo in it, and she made sure before nodding.
“Let’s get you some medical attention, those wounds will start to fester if you leave them.” She pointed to his neck with her kunai and motioned for him to stand up. He nodded and started to stand, but the needles kept him from doing so.
“Do you mind letting me take these out?” He asked, motioning to the needles with his head.
“Fine.” Lin answered, her eyes narrowing. She stepped back and let the man pull out the needles. Quicker than she could react he threw them at her and made the hand signals for substitution. In his place was one of the people from the market, looking around completely unaware of what was going on. The senbon that the ninja threw sank deeply into her skin, two in her chest and one in her left arm.
She gasped as she felt the sting of the needles when she landed. They ripped the skin, making the wounds hurt further. She pulled out the needles tenderly and blood oozed from her open wounds. She looked at the person that had taken the ninja’s place. Since he had a smock on she assumed that it had been a food-merchant of some sort.
“Um… If you’ll excuse me, I need to heal myself and then I’ll get you down.” She tried to smile, but ended up gritting her teeth as she sat down. Pocketing the five senbon and the one Kunai she considered the man.
“Wha- how did I get up here?” He asked, looking about, his hat flopping to the side quite foppishly. He had scruff, a five o-clock shadow that marked him as a northerner and scratched his head. “Last thing I remember-“
“Shut up for a second.” Lin barked at him, putting the purse in her pouch to her side. Seriously. Some people are just stupid. Obviously he had been substituted by the other ninja. Appearing in a cloud of smoke was a dead giveaway. It was lucky that he had substituted before Lin had time to react, or she would have thrown her Senbon and probably would have hit this merchant. And she would have aimed for the eyes. Not exactly a deadly shot, but wounding enough to incapacitate anyone.
She sighed, concentrated and made the hand-signs for her Kihon Kaishū-Hō, or hovering hands technique. Her hands moving over her wounds, especially the Kunai wound slowly, she felt a tingling relief of pain. Once all her wounds were healed she looked at the man, who looked about ready to explode with questions.
“Right, you were teleported here because I was hunting someone. I’ll help you down, just stay here and I’ll get a ladder for you. Are you hurt in any way?” she asked, her hands still glowing in a teal light.
“No… I suppose not.” He said, still looking at her in confusion. He opened his mouth but was cut off by a sharp glare from Lin. She let her jutsu go and sighed in derision. She would find that Kunai with her blood on it first, and then her senbon. Only then would she fetch a ladder for this merchant.
“Stay here.” She reiterated and stormed off. It was supposed to be a simple mission. One that she should have been able to handle on her own. By rights she should have been able to incapacitate the man, but her mercy had saved him, and let him go. He would probably go to the hospital for his wounds. She could alert the guards that he was going there, but it might bring flak her way. She checked her pouch to make sure that the ryo was still there. Nodding she jumped from roof to roof, looking for the kunai. She found it and picked it up, placing it with the other one. She jumped across three more roofs to find her senbon and retrieved it as well.
Sighing she slid down a rain-gutter and back onto the street. She smoothed her skirt and grumbled something about merchants and being worthless. The next fifteen minutes was spent asking around for a ladder. If she was anything, she was a woman of her word. She finally found a carpenter who was willing to lend it to her for a short while, especially when she told him about why she needed it.
Shouldering the ladder, she made her way through the streets to where she knew the merchant was. Lin set up the ladder and called out, “Right, I’m over here and so is the ladder.” She tapped her foot with impatience as the man seemed to crawl down the ladder, his knees shaking. It seemed that the ninja had chosen an acrophobic person to switch places with. It was a real pain when someone went out of their way to make the day harder for you. Lin grumbled and hit the wall with her closed fist on the underside. The dull pain helped clear her mind. She knew that she'd still have to get him down.
Taking the ladder back to the carpenter after making sure that the merchant was safe and sound back at his shop, she walked toward the Raikage’s office. She hoped that he wouldn’t be too angry that it took her this long to return the Ryo to Old man Chiho.

WC: 2351

Jutsus Used:

Jutsu:

Chakra used in thread: 40

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Using the Word Count for Speed D-3