Rysano Itawaka took a deep breath as he exited his house in the Hidden Mist Village. The crisp air bit at the inside of his chest. The sun was just starting to dip below the horizon, and he was off to begin his next mission. The weather had been uncharacteristically dry recently, being almost a full week now since the last real rainfall they had had in the village, but the moisture in the air was still as present as ever. It was never absent here, regardless of rainfall. It hung on the air like a blanket, and it only amplified the chill. The city was beginning to slow down as residents were heading for the night. You could still smell the fresh food being served to those only just now getting off of work and settling down for a meal.

He decided he’d better get a move on. He wouldn’t want to be the last one there. He’d like to make a good impression on his fellow shinobi if he could. He hadn’t been a genin very long, and in that time he’d only taken on a couple D-rank missions by himself. He realized he didn’t even really know any of the other ninja in the village! Of course, he knew some people from his graduating academy class, but he hadn’t seen any of them in a long time. He had no idea what they were doing or if there were even still in the village. He really needed to take some time to meet some of the other ninja here. He knew it wouldn’t be hard to make friends with any of them. He had always had a natural gift when it came to befriending others. He had an infectious smile and truly cared for the well-being of others. Others seemed to be able to sense his genuine care and it naturally put him on their good side. He just needed to put himself in a situation where he could meet a lot of people, and he was sure he would walk away with at least a few new, close friends.

But there was time for that later. Right now Rysano needed to focus on the task at hand, and that was to keep watch of the northern entrance of Kirigakure. As he walked that direction through the center of town, he began to wonder what his partners for this mission would be like. Would the handlers pair him up with others who complimented his skill set with theirs? Or did they simply through a team together based on whoever they had on hand at the moment? He hoped at the very least they would be able to handle themselves in a fight. The area around the village seemed quiet enough and he knew of no ongoing conflicts that could possibly lead to any action during his watch, but even so, it would prove better to be safe than sorry. He knew his own abilities, and he also knew he isn't much use in a battle. He would be able to take care of allies if they were to get injured, but he was all too aware of his limitations, and just hoped his, albeit temporary, teammates would be able to pick up his slack.

As he neared the gates, he spotted an elderly woman returning home for the evening. He recognized her as an old family friend and called out as he began to jog toward her. He could see she was carrying a few large bags of groceries and wanted to offer to help her with them. She turned her head toward his shout and couldn’t help but smile as she saw who it was. She asked him what he was doing in this part of the town this late, and he explained to her his situation, asking if she would like any help with her bags. “These old bones aren’t all out of strength just yet, young Itawaka.” She would snap at him playfully as she unlocked her door, “Now you had better get a move on if you’re going to make it to the gates before nightfall.” Rysano realized in all his daydreaming about the other ninja of the village, his pace hadn’t quite kept up with what he would like, and now only the last fading slivers of the sun’s rays were visible as the moon-less dark crept into the sky. He thanked the old woman for reminding him and took off in the direction of the gates, shouting a goodbye as he ran.

Arriving just as the previous shift of guards were beginning to walk back to town, he stopped in front of who he believed to be in charge. “Genin Rysano Itawaka, reporting for guard duty sir!” He’d try to catch his breath as he stood in front of the uniformed man. “Ready for my mission!” The balding man looked at him with disinterested eyes, sizing the teenager up in a second. “Great kid. Sure is wild out there tonight. Keep your eyes peeled.” His subordinates burst into laughter at Rysano’s expense as they all turned to return to their homes for the night. He knew he might be a little too eager for a mission that seemed so rudimentary to people like them, but this was Rysano’s first opportunity to meet other ninja and he was excited to spend the night speaking with them and learning about their experiences. He wondered if maybe he’d be paired with a higher-ranked ninja. ‘That sure would be a treat.’ He thought to himself as he turned to stare out through the gates, down the path and to the forests just beyond. The night had fully crept in around him now, and with only a couple torches for light, he stood and wondered about just who would be joining him tonight.

[999 Word count]

Rysano started a little bit as his attention was pulled away from the treeline just outside of the village. He turned around to see the man whom he introduced himself to and had just made a joke at his expense being dragged toward him by his shirt collar. But his attention was quickly diverted to the figure dragging the man. The first thing he noticed was the striking waves of fiery red hair on her head. Although she was a good head shorter than him, she cut an imposing figure, not lessened by the whimpering guardsman she man-handled with such ease. "Do you think the safety of the village is a joke? I'm from Suna, the village elders sure were comfy before Lamya showed up. You have heard of what happened to Suna right?" She would spout at him. It would seem the man would take this very seriously and recognize the young ninja. He quickly sputtered an apology and ran off into the distance after being released from her grip. Rysano had heard about the tragedy that had happened in the Sand Village. It was before he graduated from the academy, but he still didn’t realize any of the ninja from there had come to Kirigakure.

‘What an interesting person.’ He would think to himself while trying to match her imposing for as she watched the man run. He did his best, but despite his height advantage, he was ill-practiced at cutting an imposing figure and he failed miserably. His soft face and smile wrinkles betrayed him for the caring person he was. As she turned back toward him a smile grew across her face and she let out a hearty laugh. Rysano decided to drop his failed tough act as well and replaced it with his trademark smile as she introduced herself. “I'm Izumi, you must be Rysano. It's nice to meet you. Don't let people walk all over you like that. It's good that you're excited.” Rysano had definitely had that problem in the past as well. Some people just found it easy to take care of his good nature. He knew it happened, but he always tried to see the best in people, even after they’d given him reason not to. He’d have to get better at reading people from now on. Letting someone take advantage of you as ninja can be a deadly mistake. Izumi seemed genuinely friendly to him though. “My friend Nova should be here soon too. Tell me about yourself, we're in for a long night might as well get to know each other. It helps keep the sleep away too.”

It was now that he noticed she was wearing the flak jacket of a higher ranking ninja over her other clothes. ‘Oh wow,’ He thought to himself, ‘Not only did they assign two other ninja to this mission, but at least one of the is a higher rank than I am. This is so cool!’ He would really have to pick their brains about what it was like to be ninja for so long and go on high-ranking missions. But for now he needed to focus back on the now. He extended his hand toward her and flashed his flawless, practiced smile. “Yep! I’m Rysano. It’s a pleasure to meet you too. I’m excited to meet a high-ranking ninja.” After the exchanged handshakes he would gesture back towards the village where the guardsman ran off. “Thanks for doing that for me. Sometimes I can get a little too eager. I just haven’t been a ninja for very long yet and I want to do my best.” Rysano would watch her reaction as he spoke. He was sure she was probably not too happy about being reduced to guard duty after all the cool stuff he was sure she had done, and now she’d have to deal with an inexperienced genin as well. He just hoped he’d be able to stay out of her way if anything happened. “I mostly specialize in medical ninjutsu. I can do a little bit of regular ninjutsu as well, but I never spent much time working on it. My parents were both medical ninja, and I was always really interested in what they did.” He told her. He wanted to make sure she knew what he was capable of, or more like what he wasn’t. “I try to focus as much as I can on the medical stuff. I’m not much of a fighter, but I try to patch everyone up as best as I can.”

It was at this point the he would notice another figure approaching from inside the village. Actually, he realized it was a few different figures. In the lead was a girl of equal height to Izumi, with equally bright hair. ‘This must be Nova.’ He thought to himself as she approached. He saw the other figures were in fact puppets. The one that really took his attention looked to be modeled after some sort of scorpion creature. It was very intimidating as Rysano had never seen anything like it before. When she got closer he realized she was limping towards them. Was she injured? Rysano began analyzing her to see if he could spot what had happened to her. It was then he spotted the Kiri headband affixed to her left leg, which appeared to be some sort of prosthetic. He relaxed a little at seeing this, as it meant she was not presently injured. Arriving, she would give Izumi a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek, after which she would turn to him and give him a nod. “Hello! Sorry for the delay! My name is Nova.” As he expected, she was their other teammate for tonight. She would extend a hand to him, which he would grasp while revealing another brilliant smile. “Rysano Itawaka. A pleasure.” He would say to her as they released each others grips.

“So did I miss anything? Any threats we should be on the lookout for tonight?” Nova would say, looking around the area. Of course, in the wake of his teammates arriving, Rysano had completely forgot about the reason they were actually all here. He quickly spun on his heel to face out the Northern Gates again. The trees were swaying slightly in the breeze and the smell of fresh water was flowing by as well. The torchlight didn’t illuminate much past the gate itself, so it was hard for him to see much aside from the silhouette of the treeline against the sky. “Nothing I was told about tonight. The previous guards seemed to get a big kick out of how easy this post was going to be.” He spoke with just a hint of bitterness about the encounter earlier. “I’d say we’re most likely in for a quiet night here.” He would move to the side of the gate to lean up against one side of the wall there, giving him a good view out of the village towards the road and back to where the two girls were standing as well. For the time being it was quiet, so this would be his chance to ask the stronger shinobi some questions.

“So Izumi, you mentioned something about Sunagakure. Are you from there? How long have you been in Kiri?” He didn’t want to overwhelm the two of them with too many questions, there were just a lot of things he was curious to learn about. Luckily it seemed like they had gotten off on the right foot so far, so maybe this wouldn’t be his last chance to talk to them. “Have you two known each other very long?” He opened the questions up to both of them now. “Nova, I can see that you are a puppet user. That’s very impressive. I would never have the focus to be able to use puppets.” He looked back toward the red-head. “What is your specialty Izumi?”

After the two of them were finished with his small-scale interrogation, a long drawn-out howl would break the quiet of the night. A flock of birds would be scared out of the tops of the forest and would take flight through the night sky. Rysano’s attention would snap back to the treeline as he scanned for any hint of what could have made the noise. Even after walking about thirty meters out from the gates, he still couldn’t see much that far out, as his perception wasn’t as trained as he would like it to be. The other two had probably already spotted the two shapes barreling toward the gates of Kirigakure. Long masses of gray-brown fur running of four legs, mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. Rysano couldn’t see them until they got much closer to him. “Wolves!” He would shout, jumping back away from them towards the gate and drawing a kunai. He was prepared to defend himself from the wolves as they arrived at the gates of the village.

[ WC 1500/2499 ]

As Rysano leaped away from the wolves in preparation for defending the village against their attack, his thoughts turned to his comrades. This is where he would actually see what these two were capable of, and if they would be able to make up for his lack of combative abilities. He knew they were powerful ninja and they should be more than enough to handle anything out here, but there was a small shadow of a doubt in his mind that, if something were able to make it past the two of them, he wasn’t sure how well he could handle it on his own.

He began thinking of different tactics to employ utilizing his teammates in the battle. He saw now that there were, in fact, four more wolves, on top of the two he had originally seen. ‘That’s okay,’ He thought to himself, analyzing the situation before him, ‘If they can keep at least four of them distracted, I should be able to occupy at least…’ Before he was able to think too deeply about his new friends and how they would deal with the enemies, Izumi lept into action. With a quick channel of her chakra, her body disappeared from view in a blur of her blazing hair.

The next time she was visible to him, she had grasped one of the creatures by the neck as it lunged at her, teeth shining in the torchlight. She deftly tossed its body off to the side before quickly turning and seemingly being surprised by a second opponent. Rysano watched as the beast clamped its jaws around one of her ankles, only for the shinobi’s body to be replaced by the jugular of the first wolf she had apprehended. ‘Incredible move.’ Rysano watched wide-eyed at the display. He could hardly see her movements as she made them, but the results were obvious. One last movement showed her ending the shocked beast’s life with a blade before disappearing one last time to reappear next to Nova.

There seemed to be a transfer of position as now Nova entered the fray in Izumi’s place. Rather, she didn’t enter into the fight herself but instead moved her hands in a way that the chakra strands that ran to the back of her puppets seemed to dissipate from view, but the puppets themselves did not collapse as is normal for puppets with no strings attached. Instead, the one modeled after a scorpion suddenly dove straight through the earth underneath it and disappeared from sight and the spider-shaped puppet ran directly towards the shaken group of canines.

Each footfall of the spider clanged against the packed dirt as it made its way towards the snarling foes, their attention undividedly focused on the incoming figure. Nova relaxed as her puppets began to work independently. The wolves now circled and snapped aggressively at the spider puppet, which after reaching its destination in the middle of the group, seemed to halt function and slump over. Just as one of the beasts came closer to investigate the motionless target Rysano saw a large blade exit the ground and plunge itself directly into the closest wolf. Immediately following, each of the scorpion’s pincers erupted nearby to catch two of the remaining targets in their grasp.

‘Very clever,’ Rysano spectated with a curious smile, ‘She used her numbers for an interesting distraction and surprise tactic.’ He tore his gaze away from the action to glance at the two girls standing together. ‘These two are definitely something else.’ As his view returned to the battlefield, he saw the final wolf being dragged back towards the waiting scorpion puppet, impaled by an arrow attached to its tail by a silver chain. The only sounds filling the air were the rattling of the metal as it was retracted and the pain yelps of the final dog, which were quickly silenced as it reached the puppets. Rysano only then realized that he had been standing, slack-jawed at the entire display. His hands, still clutching the kunai, laid limp at his sides, as if even they knew he would be of no use in that battle. He felt a twinge of regret in his chest that all he accomplished was being a mere spectator then entire time. He hadn’t even attempted to act. He simply watched as someone else took care of the mess.

He returned the knife to his equipment pouch and slowly approached the two women. They looked pleased with their work as they surveyed the outcome together. He reached up to scratch the back of his head as he flashed a sheepish smile in their direction. “Well, I’m sorry I didn’t exactly jump into the action there.” He laughed nervously at the two of them. He started to worry about what they would think of him now. Would they believe him a coward, too afraid to enter combat with even as lowly an opponent as some mangy wolves? Or perhaps they would just assume he was a useless genin, unfit to don the villages headband. These thoughts weighed on him, but the smile never dimmed in response.

“But that was incredible out there! I’ve never seen anything like that.” He gestured to Izumi, “I mean literally I could hardly actually see you.” And looking back toward Nova, he would bow to her, “And I have never witnessed such masterful manipulation of puppets. You two are truly amazing.” He would rise from the bow and smile as large as he could. He raised one hand and willed his medical chakra to encompass it, giving it a warm yellow aura that shone slightly in the dark around them. It was purely for the looks. “If either of you had actually been injured at all, that’s where I would come in,” He let out another set of nervous laughs, “But it’s quite obvious that I won’t be necessary in that department either.” And he let the chakra fade from his hand as it returned to his side.

Quickly, he turned on one heel and walked out toward the puppets and mangled corpses of the wolves. A breeze from the north brought with it the smells of the forest, unable to completely neutralize the prevailing smell of blood in the air. It was a smell not favored by the young medical ninja, but not one he was unfamiliar or accustomed to. He would quickly survey the land that stretched out in front of him for any other threats. Seeing none in his immediate view, he would return to the gate and rest against one of the sides, attempting his best nonchalant lean. His body was still fairly tense from a mixture of watching all of the action and his own encroaching self-doubt, but he masked it with another large smile.

“So!” He would gesture for them both to join him on the side of the opening. He would open a pack he had brought with him and left near the guard post and reveal a few different sweet pastries he had brought with him and offer them to the girls. “I want to hear about your adventures as high-ranking ninja. What kind of missions were you assigned while you were still in Suna? What were the Chunin exams like?” Yet again, Rysano was interrogating the two of them like a child who had just met a celebrity and was brimming with a thousand questions. But he knew they had the rest of the night to discuss things, so he would pace his questions. He had hoped to have made a good impression on them so far, and he didn’t want to ruin his chance at his first real friends within the village by asking too many questions.

They would talk for the rest of the night, Rysano listening intently to everything the other two would say. He learned much about their lives as Suna shinobi and their adventures. The rest of the guard shift passed by without incident, and as the sun began to crest the horizon and guards arrived to replace them, the three ninja said their goodbyes and headed on their way to their respective homes for a well earned rest.

[Exit]

[WC 1367/3866]

[1500 to complete C-rank mission]

[500 words for extra 125 ryo mission payment]

[STR E-rank —-> E-3, PER E-1 —-> E-3 | 825 Words]

[C-rank jutsu (Secondary Shield Projection) | 1000 words]

[41 words wasted]