Kinz doin some missions.

[Kinz]

firefly mission D rank:

Asa had a relaxing day. He was told of his mission earlier in the day, but he’d had to wait until dark until he could track this kid. Apparently there was a kid going around kumo setting fires. He hadn’t done anything to people or property. His fires had just damaged portions of a public park, but it’s very possible he would move on to other bigger fires after getting away with what he had. Asa needed to catch and stop him before he got that far. The question was probably not going to be “how” to catch him, but what he was going to do when he caught him. There wasn’t enough evidence left to convict him of anything. The best option was probably to scare him straight. But what scares a fire bug?

Asa supposed he would cross that bridge when he came to it. It was finally dark enough for the bug to go out on his usual burn fest, but he had no idea where to even begin other than “the park”. Well, he wasn’t going to find him sitting in this sparse apartment. It was time to hit the bricks. Picking up his gear Asa headed out and began moving towards the park.

The night was pitch black with the exception of a feint glow from the full moon. It was one of the rare clear nights in Kumo. Usually the sky would be littered with clouds spilling lightning and thunder from their under bellies. It usually was a relaxing sight. Even though it had much lower precipitation and much more aggressive storms, it had similar climate to his original home, and Asa wasn’t willing to let this fire bug destroy his current home. Asa was a heat seeking missile. This poor kid wouldn’t have any idea what he’d gotten himself into until it was to late.

[Kinz]

Asa’s body moved through the darkness like a snake slithering through a river: quick, agile, silent, and deadly. This kid was going to get scared straight, though Asa was unsure what he would actually do. He was better at spur of the moment thought, and assumed he’d think of something when the time came. The night was cool but after running for hours his shirt stuck to his chest from the sweat. He wanted to find this kid. He needed to be stopped. That’s when he smelled it, the smell of smoke.

Asa halted as he smelled it. He didn’t have the most acute sniffer in the world, not compared to some of the animal based ninja clans he had heard of, so he being able to smell the smoke meant that the kid was somewhere close by. “Where?” was the question that popped into his mind. The smell filtered into his nose making it difficult to think. He certainly was close, but not close enough for Asa to hear the crackle of the fire, or the sounds of the boy. That’s when the idea took him. Instead of listening he would simply sense for the boy.

A few quick handseals would be formed and he would slowly sink below the ground. As he did a whole new world opened up to his perceptions. A radar like sense cascaded over the surface of the ground. Every tree and shrub, a few squirrels running over their gathering ground, every thing that moved or existed that touched the ground was sensed. This included the boy who stood a few meters to his side. That must be him. There was a pile of something that Asa couldn’t quite make out near him. Asa made the assumption that that was the pile of sticks used for the fire. Now was his time to get him.

Emerging from the ground like lightning Asa sprouted in front of the fire bug. His hands clicked together in a flurry of seals and his right erupted in the lightning and loud noise of the chidori as his left gripped the boy around his collar and shoved him against the nearby tree. “YOU WANT TO START FIRES IN MY VILLAGE! That’s fine! But remember! Where there is smoke there’s fire, and where there is an asshole there’s LIGHTNING!” With that Asa’s chidori blew through the tree trunk that the kid was plastered to with fear. The boy then proceeded to pass out. Asa left him there content with the fact that he had probably set his last fire.

[Kinz]

name; trap city
rank; b
description; We have good news and bad news. Good news is we finally found a warehouse we can build that new gymnastics training center for our young ninja’s to train. The bad news is it was owned by a nutjob convinced the world would end and he’d need a trapped out fortress. That’s where you come in. We need you to get in to the warehouse somehow, de-activate the many traps and move all the shit in it, out of it.
reward; 300 experience, 5,000 ryo
minimum shinobi; one
mission status; interminable

Asa shuffled through the papers he had been reading quickly as the carriage he had hitched a ride on the roof of drove down the cobblestone main street of Kumogakura. The horses drawing the carriage moved at a quick pace, causing the wind around him to ruffle his papers as he read them, but it wasn’t difficult to get the gist of the mission. Apparently some asshole named Nigma had built a house where they needed a new ninja facility to go and he had automated traps inserted to screw with any would be intruders or something. Asa hated the idea of being in a clean up duty situation, but he would do this because he had heard how many people had succumbed to the traps already. Apparently nobody had made it past the foyer. There were details of spike pit traps, oil slick walls with spark casters attached to them. All manner of depraved things had hospitalized or killed quite a few Kumo shinobi who had entered this place.

The carriage passed the final intersection and began driving past the house in question. With the grace of a cat Asa hopped off the roof and landed with a light step on the side of the street. The entry way looked average enough. It was a big house to say the least, but the front stoop was seemingly made out of granite, probably stuff mind right here in the lightning country. The unenclosed porch after the stoop also looked average, if a bit to classy for this section of the village. It had a nice wood finished floor, a welcome mat and the door looked to be quite ornate with little sliver openings where glass had once been. The openings were now closed with boards. Other then merely walking in Asa had no idea what to do. There wasn’t anything suspicious yet so he put his best foot forward and stepped up the first step.

Good thing it had been his best foot though, because as his weight came down on the granite step a spring loaded board shot up underneath it forcing Asa up. If he hadn’t used his dominate foot it would have catapulted him up onto a specific spot on the porch. Because he had used his right foot and pushed off as the board up heaved he was able to jump back in time to save himself further traps. This certainly promised to be interesting at least.

Shaking out the jitters he had just been handed by the awkward trap, Asa took a nice deep breath inhaling the rich mountainous air of his village and took a running start. This time he wouldn’t use the usual means of entry. He aimed his way for the banister surrounding the porch. He would leap to the top of it and then survey the porch from their. His legs leapt off the ground with a mighty push, causing him to soar through the air like a bird. This birds flight could end up in tragedy though, as he began to land at his intended destination he finally caught a glimmer of light reflecting off of the banister. There was something shiny coating its surface….”Oh Shit!”

*crash*

[Kinz]

The sickening sounds of the goo beneath his feet made him nauseous as he began sliding feet first off the banister towards the most likely trapped porch. He only had moments to react. Forming some fast seals he extended his hands towards the barrier. The kenji for his summoning family appeared in mid air as a large snake appeared coiled around the banister. The snakes body wrapped around the banister and kept it stable as the remainder of its tail lashed out and caught Asa just as he was about to hit the neatly sanded wood of the porch. The purple scaled snake that eh had summoned was Etsuki, one of the females of the snake family.

“Assssssa, what are you doing ssssssummoning me in a plasssse like thisssss?”

The elongated S’s of the snakes always made Asa double take when listening to them talk. He still was getting use to their mannerisms. Etsuki’s forked tongue lashed out with every word, smelling the air. Asa needed to respond. She hadn’t reeled him in yet and he was still in quite the spot. “Well my friend…..this place is full of traps. You were the only one I thought wise enough to help me not only survive, but disable them. I mean, only someone with the true cunning of the serpent family would be a match for so many traps all in synch with one another.”

Many of the snakes were easy to win over with a few kind words and Etsuki was among them. Her mouth curled into a smile, or as close to one as a snake’s mouth could and she pulled Asa onto her back. They both sat perched on the railing now. Etsuki began extending her head portion over the porch to look at things closer without touching them. Asa looked from the railing and together they began to piece together where seems in the wood looked to be. Some were most likely false, but avoiding them all would prove much healthier in the end. After a few long moments studying they began setting to work thinking out a plan.

Etsuki’s idea of a plan was to merely use her long tail to reach out and cave the door inwards. She phrased it as “Ssssssplintering it to bitsssss”. Asa wasn’t sure, but he was in no position to argue with his compatriot. She lashed her tail forward with enough might to blow the door inwards towards the foyer. The only interior room that any of the other ninja sent had been able to make it to.

[Kinz]

Asa was shocked. Etsuki’s tail blasted through the door with no traps being triggered. Apparently only the floor in on the porch had been trapped? They must never have anticipated a long range, or aerial assault. Etsuki’s long neck seemed to fly as it stretched out into the doorway. It quivered a bit as she had a look about then she retracted it.

“There doessssn’t sssseem to be anything in there Assssssa”.

He didn’t know what to make of it, but the other traps thus far had been difficult to spot. Pondering the situation Asa’s hand stroked the stubble on his chin. He couldn’t help but think about needing to shave, but his mind wondered back to the task at hand eventually.

“Etsuki, do you think you can reach far enough in to grab a hold of something and carry us both through the door in the air? Like another banister?”

Her purple scaled head bobbed up and down with a nod and began extending. She continued into the building and eventually as she reached the limit that she could extend and still hold the banister, she wrapped her tail around Asa and began reeling him into her coiling body. Asa never could quite get used to the feeling of being wrapped up in one of the snakes tails. They always looked hungry when they did it. Asa had a feeling they did it to scare their summoner, but he really did suspect they were just hungry. Etsuki kept licking her lips with that forked tongue. After a few moments Etsuki placed him out of the coil and rested him on her back. Now he was inside the house.

The foyer was quite pleasant. There were some couches and clocks littering the scenery. Everything you’d expect in a reasonably expensive house. Here Asa could see an opening in the floor. At the base of the opening were spikes with some rather grotesque remains, most of which had cloud village symbols nearby. These were the comrades who made it the furthest, and he had surpassed them. He felt sorrow at that thought, but he had no time for such weakening thoughts. He looked around a bit. There had to be some way to deactivate all this crap.

[Kinz]

Sitting there on Etsuki's back Asa tried to think of what he would do from here. As his mind raced over the possibilities he was startled by the sound of laughter. Maniacal laughter. Etsuki's head began swiveling trying to scan every corner of the room at once. Asa recognized he was doing the same thing a moment later. It took Asa a moment but he finally realized that the laughter was coming from these speakers set into the walls of the room. Eventually the laughter stopped and the voice behind it spoke up.

"Well well well, we got another one? When will you bastards realize this is my SHIT!? You're friends found out the hard way, I aint getting out. So you and your little snake bitch can go die in that hole right there."

Etsuki was not appreciative of the comments, and Asa was enraged. The nerve that this villager had, killing his comrades. Asa was of the mind set that this man no longer deserved his life after all the lives he'd taken without remorse. He wished there was something he could do now, but he'd have to wait this out. Etsuki wasn't of the same mind set. The banner they were on wasn't slick, so coiling her tail around Asa she set him on it and set to satisfying her anger. She nearly flew. Her head was like the tip of a spear. she crashed into the steps of the stairway and broke straight through.

Asa realized what was happening. Her tongue that had been sniffing around the entire time had finally caught the bastards scent. He could hear the screams coming from below the broken wreckage that was the stairs. Hopping into the new opening Asa looked around and saw two things. The first was a seemingly complex system of wires and computers. The second thing was the mound of snake known as Etsuki who currently had a huge bulge in her belly. He could see some movement from it, and he could hear screams. Apparently she had had her lunch. Asa went over to the computers and turned off the ones that were currently lit up. Etsuki went home with her full belly. Asa was ready to make his report, even if he felt bad about the results.

[vegapunk]

55 EXP @ Kinz