Mission deets:

Chiaki walked slowly out of the administration office, having already put in a full day of paperwork and stretched, a scroll in her hand. She had to decide what to do with it. It was a B ranked mission that was given to her, or for her to give to someone she thought was worthy. She didn’t know whether she was even worth their time, but she didn’t much care either way. She had to do this mission, for the good of Konoha. The people of the village were counting on her. Nodding to herself, she moved with grace through the village, wondering if there was a way that she could find this person easily. The name, Mr. Fett, was an interesting one, and she wondered if he was a foreigner or something.

Shrugging, she moved through the crowd effortlessly. Chiaki moved through the crowd like water moved through the river rocks, clearly not moving any more than she had to. A woman backed out in front of her, she took one step behind the woman, rocked her hips backward, perfectly mimicking the woman and continued on as if nothing happened. It was a game that she played to help her with her speed and reaction time. She called it, "crowd movement." It wasn't fast, nor was it jerky, it just moved as the crowd did, but with all of the forward momentum that the self-same river would have behind it. She didn't slow for much, except to make sure that she didn’t bump into someone in front of them, sidestepping and weaving under a basket in the meantime. She had learned, long ago, that if someone was to push back against something, it was better to skirt around and try from a new heading, than to barrell straight forward into oblivion. Usually it didn’t get anything done, and Chiaki knew this.

She moved through the village with nary a hitch, making sure to move a bit faster than the crowd, always pleasant, always courteous, the river branched through the whole of the village, and though the streets were crowded, they weren’t unnavigable. She soon found herself in front of the bounty office, a building that looked like it was raising a rakish eyebrow at the world around it. The door even leaned a bit, taking a cocky look to it. The door was open and there was lamplight within. Chaiki stepped through, knocking on the wall to announce her presence.

“Guanyin, Chiaki here, reporting for the mission to bring in Aki Sato!” She called out, her voice echoing dimly around the small building, but being dampened by the wood, she wondered if her voice had been heard.

“Come in, come in and to the uhh.” The gravelly voice stopped for a minute, sussing out where they were, perhaps, “To the right second door.” She stepped in, following the directions of the voice she happened upon a man in a very tidy outfit, his most defining features were that white sash, which was tied around the waist of a brown tunic. He wasn’t wearing any rings, and his tanned skin didn’t show any scars. His eyes were a hazel, and his hair was starting to show a bit of grey with his continued years in his business, perhaps, but he was anything but old. His skin was too tight for it to be anything but. She looked around the room, everything here was tidy, as it was in her apartment and as she sat down, she noticed that there wasn’t a stray paper out of place. Tidy indeed.

“So.” He gathered his hands in front of him, placing them in front of his mouth for a judging second, his eyes scanning the girl in an appraising manner before continuing, “You’re the one who they sent to pick up my bounty.”

“Yes sir.” She nodded, feeling a bit out of place, everything here had earthy tones, even the wood was a darker, more natural color. She looked garish and out of place in this place, with all the muted tones, “I am.”

“Rank?” He asked, his hands still folded went to the table in a smooth motion, not making a sound as they touched the table. He was formidable, why didn’t he collect his bounties himself? Shaking herself mentally she realized that it was because he could afford to.

“Genin.” She admitted.

“And you’re going to take this mission solo?” He raised an eyebrow and looked her over again, this time in a demeaningly scathing manner, though his tone was even, almost too even. It had been practiced, a manner of coolness radiated from him.

“Ah, yes, I am going to, yes.” She stumbled over her words. Great, now he was going to think she was twice as green.

“Go home.” The man announced, blinking slowly. His eyes looked tired, and it looked like he didn’t have time for her. “You’re not ready for the task.”

“Excuse me?”

“Go home.” He waved her out the door with an open palmed gesture from behind his desk, not getting up, not even smiling at her, no emotion whatsoever, “You’re too green, go tell them that this mission needs to be assigned to a chuunin.”

“I am far more capable than some of the chuunin around here.” She said indignantly. She planted her feet, “And I am here to ascertain where Aki Soto’s whereabouts are.”

“And I’m not telling you.” The man said, his tone keeping even, his eyes moved from her, fluidly to the door behind her, and back, “So leave.”

Slamming her hands down on the chair’s arm rests, she flung herself upright and pointed at him. He sat there, the aggravatingly cool look still on his face, almost as if he were being yelled at by a child as she told him, “I’ll be back with Aki soto, alive, and then you’ll respect me for my next mission, got it?”

For his part, he didn’t even shrug, didn’t even do anything but blink and then smile, “Have a good day Miss Guanyin, I’ll see you when you’re ready to work for me.”

She pushed past the door, storming out. The scroll in hand, she had more important matters to take care of now. With this new obstacle, she would have to figure out not only where the bounty was, but get there before someone else got hurt, and her quarry was out of sight. She sighed, this was going to be harder than she thought.

Chiaki decided to do a stake out, then, wondering if it was the right thing, and waited outside of the establishment, looking more like a lost girl than a misguided youth that was lounging there for their own amusement. She was going to get the information as to where this person was, whether mister Fett wanted her to or not.

A couple hours went by, no one in or out of the building, and soon Chiaki wondered if her time would be better spent elsewhere. She didn’t want to lose where the girl Aki Soto was, but she also didn’t want to wait all day there either. Chewing her lip, she decided that it was best to, when in a plan, always stick to the plan, no matter the time investment.

Therefore, when the sun started to set, and the valley came to a hush, she was still there, on the side of the building, with no one in or out of the building all day. She wondered if he would even leave to go home that evening and as she stretched and yawned she heard footfalls coming from the front of the building. Someone coming out.

Looking up to the outside rafters of the building she jumped up and took a cat-like stance, watching to see who it was. It wasn’t him, and for all of her grace in moving up there, she still saw it in her mind’s eye like she had been spooked like a poor kitty.

Grumbling she spied someone actually come into the building after the woman left.

Chiaki snuck across the way, using the ballasts to tiptoe and then used the supernatural walking technique to hang from the rafter, her short stature didn’t afford her the luxury of watching the conversation, but she was able to get close enough to hear the conversation through the window.

“Ah, come in.” Mr. Fett’s voice carried over the din of the evening crowd, and she nodded, this would be a good vantage point.

“I am here to report the whereabouts of Aki soto.” came another voice, probably the person Chiaki had seen come into the building before she had walked over here, she assumed at least.

“Right, I knew that you would be coming to me. I had a bone headed genin from the administration office say that she could apprehend her all by her lonesome show up.”

They both laughed and Chiaki reddened with shame, and a bit of righteous anger. How dare he talk about her like that?

“She’s in a village, not far from here, dressed like a chuunin she is, and she is hanging around the bars there.”

“Not surprising,” Came Fett’s voice again, a shuffling of papers. “The northern one eh? And you’re sure it’s her?”

“Matches the description, and she didn’t notice me, I was more of a flirt for her to hit on as I was ‘passing through town.’ It will never cease to amaze me who people will interact with.”

“Mmm, don’t discredit her though, I mean, she was only in the village for a month, stole one of our outfits, and has been making a mockery of the hidden leaf ever since. She is dangerous though.”

“Yeah, I suppose you could say she is.” Chiaki leaned in, her ear almost touching the wood as the woman’s voice lowered, perhaps some identifier would come out.

“So what of your actual mark then?” The man named Fett spoke again, his voice making Chiaki’s heart leap up and almost stop for a couple seconds.

“No news, I have searched all the satellite villages, I think you might need to put it in as an A ranked mission.” The voice was soft, and seemed disappointed.

“Understood. Your next mark.” There was a sound of shuffling papers after the gravelly voice came to a close, and Chiaki overstayed her welcome. She walked up the side of the building and landed herself on the roof, letting go of the walking technique.

Village north of here, eh? Best chance for her to get a head start on whoever would be behind her if there was anyone.

Chiaki set off across the landscape, caught fire by the setting sun and burning with the pride of the village hidden in the leaves, land of fire. She set a grueling pace, knowing that the information would be handed to the highest bidder, rather than to the shinobi of the hidden leaf, and she had this one shot to get to Aki soto before anyone else did.

The clattering of the rooftop tiles beneath her feet set the pace for her heart, which swept her out of the village and into the dense forests surrounding the entirety of the village hidden in the leaves.

Chiaki moved among the leaves, wondering if she was ever going to get a mission that actually aligned with her personality. She remembered the earlier missions that she had, ones that she actually liked. Themissions that had something to do other than just making someone else’s life miserable. She wondered, also, whether she was helping this woman or just herself by taking her in. It was a surprise to her, caught in her thoughts like this, when she reached the village.

She landed on the tree outside the village, the limb shaking and leaves scattering all over. She didn’t know whether or not to take this girl in by force, or try to lure her in using her words. Better to make a friend than an enemy. That was Chiaki’s modus operandi, was it time for her to get a new one?

Sighing, she moved from the branch, leaving the ghost of her footsteps on the branch, the whisper of her passing in the forest. The stare that came from the forest crept up her spine, and she turned around, looking back into the forest. She could have sworn… there was a presence there, and as she turned, she didn’t notice it anymore. So much for her Senjutsu being a good thing, being a thing that alerted her to a bigger presence than her.

It was supposed to detect threats, but it seemed to be sending warning shots off without her knowledge, nor consent.

She caught herself on a rooftop of the small and sleepy village, the darkness now crept around her like a cat, silent and watchful. She couldn’t shake the feeling. Shuddering, she looked back to the village. It , like all of the buildings of the village hidden in the leaves, contained mainly wooden buildings. The building that she was on top of was no exception to that rule. People still milled around the main drag of the village, a village known for its gamling and night life. It was more of a tourist trap than anything, and anything went in this village.

It was sort of the sin central of the village hidden in the leaves, and as Chiaki landed in an alley, beside her, she saw a woman pressed against a man, her dress pulled to the side, his trousers hanging loosely around his knees. They were caught in a warm and passionate kiss, unaware that she had dropped down next to them. Moving quickly out onto the street, she almost knocked into a drunk, barely swinging her body around, his hand brushing against her chest as he tried to keep from spilling it on her.

“Oy, watcher!” He said, a bleary and half hearted glare came her way, half hearted, probably, because of the amount that he had imbibed. His breath was sickeningly sweet and smelled strongly of the after-taste of alcohol.

She nodded, moving to the side with an apology and a “I think I have had too much to drink.” She laughed, a blush coming to her cheeks, her laugh a stage one, too loud for anyone that wasn’t truly drunk. Best to, when in rome, act  as the romans do. She didn’t want to make a scene, but seeing as he did, she stumbled to the side, making a grand gesture of letting him through.

“Damn youngsters can’t hold their beer, nor their piss.” The man muttered, slopping his drink down his gullet and moving in a drunken cadence towards a casino with a girl that was undressed from the waist up, holding a platter with drinks on it in front of her chest. She smiled, but her eyes were tired, perhaps from over work, perhaps from over exposure.

Chiaki grumbled and moved towards the nearest bar in this town, perhaps because she needed to get inside, and perhaps because her intuition told her this way was the right way. The people in the crowd, mostly scantily dressed and rubbing against each other made her going slow, and when she finally reached the respite of the bar, she had been groped more than once by a drunk and had to try to push a woman off of her, the woman deciding that she was going to take Chiaki home with her tonight.

Righting her dress, she looked around the bar and spotted, thankfully, a kunoichi who met the description. She was dressed in the typical chuunin garb, just as the woman said, her auburn hair reaching down the middle of her back, and the hazel eyes curved up in a smile. She was arm wrestling a man twice her size and twice her girth on the other end of the table. He was straining, his face red and facial muscles and veins showing the strain he was under trying to keep up with this girl. That was, before she saw that the girl’s foot was up the man’s thigh, rubbing his leg all the way down to the kneecap. Dirty fighting.

A sigh from Chiaki as she moved her slow way over to the girl. This was going to take less time than she thought. The man pushed her arm down and Aki Soto cried out in a cute, almost cartoony voice, “Nyahhh! You’re hurting me!” The other men around her and the man stared daggers at the man and he seemed to go limp for a second. A predatory sheen came to Aki Soto’s eyes as she slammed his fist down into the table, giggling triumphantly. “Thank you for letting me win!” she smiled and stuck her tongue out a little bit, trying to make herself look cute, no doubt.

If Chiaki wasn’t so annoyed with her, it probably would have worked too, as it did on the men gathered there.

The man started to get up and Chiaki moved to be next to the girl, “Why don’t you try a girl on for size then?” Chiaki smiled, a predatory gleam in her eye. The girl had a weapon, and Chiaki didn’t want any innocents getting hurt.

The girl looked her up and down, noting the headband on the back of her neck, though with the plate where she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t tell that Chiaki was a part of Konoha. “Who’re you?” The girl squinted, turning her nose up, “And he has next dibs.” She pointed to a man who was drooling and clearly wanted to touch the girl’s hand.

Chiaki studied Aki soto, running her eyes over the calluses in her hand, a sword user indeed, but there wasn’t anything else to tell her what she was capable of. Best to be careful. She shrugged and made a ‘you go ahead’ gesture at the man. “I have next dibs then.”

The woman nodded, and smiled, the pretense bubbling back up as if she were a teen idol or something, “Alright, but please don’t go too hard on me!”

The next man fared almost as poorly as the man before, and the table next to the woman added another bag of ryo. Finally, Chiaki’s turn was there.

She sat down, clearing up some space in her bag from ryo, placing it in another separate bag, and placed it on the table, “Two hundred Ryo sound fair?”

“Whatever you’d like to lose darling.” Aki soto retorted, putting her elbow on the table, her hand extended in an arm wrestling stance towards Chiaki. Chiaki took her position and placed her small hand in the larger woman’s grasp.

The bigger woman had the advantage, Chiaki could tell already, but she wanted to get a look at what the woman was flexing before calling her out and bringing her back to the village hidden in the leaves.

The signal to start was given and Chiaki strained against the woman, the woman actually trying this time, it was a bit unsightly as she started to sweat. Chiaki held her own, and she panted, “Why don’t we make this… a bit more… interesting… Aki soto… If I win… You’ll come to… the village hidden in the… leaves with me… and submit… to questioning…” Chiaki grinned.

The girl’s face went a pale white and she jumped back as if she had been stung by an adder. “You, you’re a Konoha ninja after all.” Her eyes squinted in distrust. Chiaki shrugged in a non commital yes answer to the question. She had, after all, no choice but to blow her cover sooner or later.

“You… you’re just.. Just a bully.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she started to cry, “This is.. This is why I left the village hidden in the leaves.” The men around her all growled, and to Chiaki’s surprise a couple of them took out knives. Oh great, she had them on her side now. Gritting her teeth she wove a couple of hand seals and the kunoichi recognized that Chiaki was building for a jutsu, taking off on the run. Unfortunately for her, this one wasn’t meant for her. Chiaki slammed her palms on the ground and sixteen pillars sprang up out of the bar floor behind her, completely destroying the bar itself, the drinks behind it, and the roof of the establishment in an explosion that rocked the ground.

Lightning sizzled behind Chiaki as she turned to face where the woman was running, people outside starting to panic now. Chiaki had just about enough of this woman.

“No, leave me alone! The hidden leaf village is attacking everyone run!” The girl, Aki soto, was running around spreading panic, staying close to villagers so that Chiaki couldn’t get a clear shot and everywhere Chiaki went the people scattered and Aki soto stayed with the crowd. It was like Chiaki was a shark in a sea of fish.

Chiaki looked around, well, if a shark they thought she was, a shark she would be. She started to move in semi circles around an inn, and people were already ducking inside, only to cram to the windows, looking around. The night was filled with Chiaki’s electricity, the pillars standing out against the darkness as pillars of her anger. She was going to apprehend this childish woman and bring her back to Fett. Prove that she was worth the ryo he would be paying her. Prove she was twice the Kunoichi that he said she was.

The people started to pack into the inn that she had been circling around, and Aki soto, keeping with the crowd, was pushed inside. Good. Chiaki started to move towards the front door, and when she got there, she kicked at the place just below the doorknob, the door shattered under her foot and she walked in on the broken body of the door, her eyes flashing like the sea in storm. Everyone panicked and Chiaki pointed to Aki Soto. “Give me the Konoha ninja and you all will live.”

It was a bluff, but she had started to destroy the town, so why not? Aki soto was thrown bodily away from the crowd, their collective strength keeping her away from Chiaki.

“It’s, It’s not fair!” Tears brimmed in the other kunoichi’s eyes, as she looked at the crowd and then scowled at Chiaki. She took out her katana and then inhaled, breathing out a ball of fuuton energy. Now she showed her true colors. Chiaki went flying through the window behind her, glass cascading over her slim form and cutting her back into small ribbons. As she landed in the dirt outside, Aki soto jumped through after her, katana in hand. Chiaki wasn’t dumb though, this is what she had wanted. Hand seals already forming in both hands she parried the blow to her with a red senbon and kicked the kunoichi in the back, sending her sprawling ten meters away from Chiaki.

A little more time passed before chiaki was ready, and in that time, the girl righted herself, looking at the red senbon. It glowed a dark, blood red, and the establishments had started to turn off their lights, for fear of being wrecked or targetted. She stood there in the blood red glow, the lightning flashing to her left, forming chakra in her left hand condensing it, condensing it down to a ball the size of her forearm, hovering over her palm. It twisted and churned in her hand. Aki soto took a deep breath, and as she did so, Chiaki hurled the ball at the Kunoichi, jumping backward. The ball hit next to her, the kunoichi thinking she had won opened her mouth and a dragon started to come out, but the vortex jerked her head to the side, along with her body as it expanded and Chiaki barely was missed by a giant water dragon issued forth from the mouth of the other kunoichi.

The vortext expanded rapidly, almost catching Chiaki herself and it pulled the other kunoichi towards the center. When the torrent finally stopped, after a few seconds, the Kunoichi was left lying there, Chiaki weaved new hand seals in the meantime, walking towards her. Two jutsu in her hands already.

“Wh-who are you?” The other kunoichi asked, fear brimming in her eyes.

“I am Guanyin, Chiaki.” She announced, “Genin of the hidden leaf.”

The other woman started to laugh and plunged her katana into Chiaki’s side, rupturing her kidney. Chiaki winced and snarled at the woman, slamming both of her palms into her chest. “Double heavy water jutsu!” the woman’s arms and legs slumped to the ground as she had started to try to get away and after a few grunts and twistings of her torso, she started to cry bitter tears.

Chiaki pulled the sword out of her, gasping in pain. “Damn you.” Chiaki’s eyes burned with rage as she took the katana and raised it above her head, her eyes on the other Kunoichi’s neck. Blood poured from her wound and as Aki soto looked up, terror in her eyes Chiaki stopped.

No, she wasn’t a monster.

Chiaki threw the Katana into a nearby post, it stuck there with a dull thump. She wove more hand seals, this time a dark teal chakra came from her, a cyprus color. It formed into a senbon and she dug it into the wound, the wound closing in around itself. Her side still hurt from where she was stabbed, a phantom pain, and she moved to throw the Kunoichi over her shoulder.

A shout came from the now dark village, as she let the pillars go, “Get out of here Konoha ninja!” It was followed by a shout from another person, and another of the same ilk.

Chiaki took off into the forest, dragging Aki soto, now quiet and calm over her shoulder the entire way. As she made her way to the gates, she smiled at the guard, now familiar to him, she didn’t need to show ID anymore. “Bounty for the bounty master.” Chiaki nodded.

When she alighted on the doorstep of Mr. Fett, she knocked, and entered without hearing anything first. The door was open, so was the one to his office. He was sitting there, and when he looked up, she threw the other kunoichi bodily into the chair next to him.

With a couple of hasty hand seals chains sprang from the ground, made of stone, and twisted their way around the Kunoichi, holding her in place.

“Your quarry.” Chiaki announced, glaring daggers at the man.

“I see that.” He looked a bit puzzled and shrugged, the cool mask resuming, “Your reward is with the missions office. Thank you for bringing her alive, this is your compensation for that.” He threw another bag, filled with, no doubt a couple hundred ryo in it at her. “You may leave.” His gaze never left Aki soto, not the entire time.

“You can’t leave me with him, no, not with him.” She twisted her torso, but with Chiaki’s chakra still coursing through her, she couldn’t strain against the chains effectively, “No, you can’t please, Guanyin-san!” she looked up, her eyes pleading.

“You made an enemy of the hidden leaf, and for that you’ll do your time. I will see you when you’re done in prison.” Chiaki announced, leaving the building.

She made her way home, but she didn’t remember much of the journey. It was a bit disconcerting, actually, but her mind was on other things. She had just… left the girl to her fate. Didn’t let her defend herself. What did that make her?

She didn’t head to the administration office, nor the missions office the next day. She called out sick, sick more with herself than in body.

What was being a Kunoichi turning her into?

WC: 4755

Training Dexterity to C-3: 4500 words.