“Come on, you aren’t still upset about that last mission are you? We had to do whatever it took to complete the mission,” Bokuden appealed to Satomi who was still furious over the recent shoe incident.

“That was not a mission, it was a joke. How about next time YOU smell some old fat man’s sweaty shoes and track them down with your nose,” Satomi snapped back.

“I already told you it was a onetime deal. Before long we will be out of D rank hell and working out way up to real shinobi work where your talents will really shine,” Bokuden said as he compelled Satomi to quell her anger, “You are a tracking animal after all, and besides we have another mission to take care of already.”

Satomi stopped in her tracks and glared at Bokuden. “Yes, a new mission indeed. One that you conveniently neglected to enlighten me on the nature of. I swear if this ends with me smelling some old man’s shoe again I’ll-“

“No tracking or shoes this time I promise. The mission briefing said that we merely have to pick up a couple of packages that came in and deliver them to a shop in town. We’ve lived here forever, this is going to be just like any other day roaming around the city except now we get paid,” Bokuden interrupted before Satomi could finish her sentence.

“What’s in the packages?” Satomi inquired in response to her short briefing on the mission.

“Didn’t say all they said was not to open the packages,” Bokuden replied, ”It looks like they are finally beginning to give us more respect after how gracefully we handled the last few missions. We won’t even know the destination until we reach the gate and pick up the packages. If whatever is in those packages is important enough to have its contents and travel kept in such secrecy and require a shinobi escort even within the village they must be extremely important."

As the duo approached the gate there was a man waiting by the gate who fit the description of who they were supposed to meet and pick up the packages from. “Ah, looks like the delivery boy is here,” The man said, waving in Bokuden’s direction.

“Uhhhh… excuse me?” Bokuden replied with a puzzled look on his face, “You must have me mistaken for someone else. I’m the shinobi escort here to safeguard the shipment.”

After a moment of pause the man burst out in laughter. “Shinobi escort?” the man laughed, “Alright kid, why don’t you be a good escort and go ahead and ‘safeguard’ these boxes of metal down to the weapon shop? While you’re at it sign these release forms so I can get the hell out of here.”

Bokuden now shared the same angered expression as Satomi as he signed the paper confirming the pickup of the shipment. As the delivery man made off Bokuden was stuck to figure out how to transport these relatively large boxes to the weapons shop in the town market. Obviously carrying them was his first idea. As Bokuden lifted one up, he made note of the weight. It was decently heavy, not something that Bokuden had not encountered before in his training, but carrying all three of them at once would be troublesome.

“I guess you have no choice but to carry them one at a time,” Satomi teased.

“And just what are YOU going to do?” Bokuden replied.

“Sit here and watch the other boxes of course. Maybe work on my tan,” Satomi answered sarcastically.

She wasn’t kidding and Bokuden knew it. This was probably payback for the shoe incident on their last mission. Wanting to get this whole thing over with as quickly as possible, Bokuden lifted the first box and took off for the delivery point. Bokuden was tall and strong enough that the added weight from the box wouldn’t prevent him from moving well across rooftops. The process continued for the next two boxes until completion. During the delivery of the final box Satomi finally decided to get up since the mission would be completed anyway.

“Did you have fun?” Satomi asked, clearly poking fun at Bokuden.

Bokuden replied with a simple, “Shut up,” and the two left the weapons shop, having completed their latest mission.

Word Count: 735/600