missions for kinz

[Kinz]

Baby sitting mission: D rank

Asa’s hair tussled as the wind caught it in the late evening breeze. It was a comfortable temperature within the confines of Kumo, offering the pleasing feeling of relaxation as one sauntered through the streets. Asa did just that. He knew many people within the village, including himself, had been working extremely hard since the catastrophes of yesterdays past, but those most hard hit were those who had children. Young ones didn’t know what to make of the situation the village faced, and their parents all were exhausted from working, and keeping food in the kids belly to really go into details. It was an unfortunate situation, but Asa knew he could sacrifice some time to assist these parents. Even if there was little to do in the village for recreation, at least a few hours away from the kids doing nothing was more then enough to reenergize a couple of parents at the end of their rope. Asa was happy to provide that brief reprieve.

Suddenly he made it to the door he was looking for. It was a oaken door that seemed to be made from bark. It spoke of shady construction, but people these days had little in the way of possessions, and simply having your own roof under your head was like being royalty to most. Pushing the rickety door open, Asa was confronted with a hallway that led down into a little basement type of building. There was the sound of laughter emanating from below.

[Kinz]

A short walk down the hallway led Asa to a small living area with a few other sections dug out to serve as rooms. It gave Asa a reminder of the ingenuity of the people of the cloud. They had no materials to build with, so they simply dug into the ground and used what they had to make what they needed. Bravery in the finest sense of the word. Within the room stood two adults, a male and female by the name of akimichi. They were heavy set people, filled with muscle and fat alike. Picking up their bodies off the couch they occupied seemed more then their tired bodies could bear, but they succeeded and shaking Asa’s hand, Mr. Akimichi gave him some basic instructions for little Shin Akimichi, and then they headed off. The information he had been given was nothing but basic child watching procedure, other then the obscene amount of food he was to consume.

Eventually, after setting some basic stuff down, Asa entered the boys room to meet his partner in crime for the evening. He was met by a young boy of about six of seven, who was pleasantly plump, but much like his parents he was built like a house. Wide, and strong. Asa couldn’t help thinking that he’d make a good ninja with training. Reaching a hand out to shake the boys hand, flashing his trademark smile, Asa was met with rudeness. The boy bit him. With a trickle of blood flowing from his palm, Asa pulled his hand back, staring at the evil whelp.

Leaving the boy in his room, Asa moved back out into the common room. He sat on the couch that the parents had recently vacated. It was warm from the heat of the parents body/ Sitting there in deep thought he saw Shinta poking his head out of the room. Once seen, Shinta recoiled quickly, only to come back and walk out of the room when he noticed that Asa’s gaze hadn’t faded from the doorway like he thought it would. Shinta came and sat on the couch alongside Asa. Perhaps they could get along after all. Asa tried to shake the boys hand once more, only to be bit again. This boy was like a rabid dog. A mongrel that needed discipline.

[Kinz]

Asa spent the remainder of the night comfortably lounging in the couch next to Shinta. Shinta’s arms and legs carefully bound in place. A sock gaged the boy, only being removed for one or two large helpings of the weight gaining food his parents had left for him, then quickly replaced. Shinta’s struggling eventually calmed as he fell asleep from exhaustion. It was a relaxing night for all involved. Removing the bonds, Asa carried the large boy to his bed, and covered him in a sheet, then replaced himself on the couch until the boys parents got there.

As the Akimichi’s returned, Asa noted that they looked less downtrodden then they had when they left earlier. The lines under their eyes, while not gone, seemed to fade from smiling. Asa was happy for them. After a careful explanation of the biting incident, and explaining how he handled it by forcing the boy to go to bed early, Asa found his way to the door. No doubt the parents would punish the boy for misbehaving and embarrassing them in front of Asa. The boys claims about Asa’s foul play would no doubt come off as a young mans lie to get out of trouble.

Asa smiled as he climbed his way through the village back to the mission bureau. He had taught the boy a valuable lesson. Don’t fuck with Asashio Uchiha.

[Kinz]

Village exploration mission: B rank

Asashio strolled back out into the desolation that was his village. He had been trying recently to assist in its reconstruction, but the efforts had been somewhat in vein. There was just to much destruction for him alone to make any visible impact. It was a very disheartening experience. His skin felt the warm touch of the Kumogakura sun, as he strolled, attempting to understand the damage that plagued his nation. Asa had always been one to associate with the common man. He figured, that if they were the most fun to be around, that simply made them better people. His principles often got in his way when dealing with the higher ups of his clan or of the village. They just seemed so ignorant of what went on right below their noses. His meeting with Araya had opened his eyes to something though. Live the way you want, and everything will fall into place.

It was a bold initiative he knew, but one that might prove to be worth the effort. After attending the daily ANBU meeting at the mission headquarters, Asa had taken a mission for himself from the chart on the wall. He found many of the missions to be dull, or taken, but this one suited his mood to a tee. Exploring the village. It was a useful quest for him. He'd get paid, have time to analyze the destruction that he sought to remedy, and have an opportunity to look for new lodgings away from the heads of the Uchiha clan that he felt were so obtuse. It was a winning situation for everyone involved.

[Kinz]

Asa continued his stroll through the village, eventually coming upon a group of workers that he had met previously. The men, looking much better rested then the last time he saw them, were busy working on a stone paved road way that had been laid through the main street of that district. Asa was the creator of the path, having taken rock from a near by peak and laid it over the road. The men were merely filling in gaps that had been left at various curves, and doing basic stone work to smooth the majority of the path out. One man had a thick black goo that he seemed to be mixing. Apparently it would seal the stone against the average rain or poor weather. An attempt to make the path last for a while.

The best part about the path that was sitting there, was that it provided a much needed escape from the mud that marked the surface of most of the village. Kumo wasn't known for its rain, but instead known for its thunder and lightning storms. Rain did accompany the flashy, skyward display, but not as often as it did in other countries like the Rain country. Still, these village paths were traversed daily, wearing them into tightly packed dirt roads. Rain found salvation in such hearty structure, lodging itself in and making the ground nearly useless. This lead to difficulty for the building crews. Machinery becoming stuck, tiredness from pulling one's boots from the muck. The list of what mud could do to devastate a work site dragged on. This road would alleviate some of that difficulty.

Finding a seat near the men he had previously helped, Asa poured a black, steaming cup of coffee from the brew they had sitting on their crude camp fire, and began conversing with the men. The aroma of the coffee was like heaven to a man this early in the morning. It removed the dull edge that had settled over his senses leaving him with a clear mind. It certainly wasn't the best coffee he had ever tasted. There was no milk or sugar for mixing, that was a luxury most couldn't afford. It did the trick for Asa though.

[Kinz]

The workmen he was sitting alongside were busy telling crude jokes, the kind Asa enjoyed, when he stood to leave. The gentlemen frowned at his departure, having enjoyed the break time with him and realizing it heralded the signal for more work. Asa gave a final wave as he strolled off towards the southern half of the village.

The coffee had left a warm feeling in his chest, and a delicious taste in his mouth, that seemed to make every step less tiring. His feet, clicked along the stone path he had helped to create the previous day, and the sound added to his energized feeling. The day was turning out to be pleasant…as pleasant as a B ranked mission could go.

Asa passed throngs of people, young to old, pretty to ugly, all going about their business within the village. The shop keepers cried their wears, and other less savory groups of workers called crude comments at passing females. Business as usual. Eventually, Asa found something out of the ordinary. His eyes had simply been scanning the crowd, people watching as it were, when he noticed a young man run past an older man. The older man didn’t feel it Asa assumed, but Asa had noticed the younger man had used an extremely fast motion to remove the coin purse from the others pocket. A thief on his streets? Not likely.

[Kinz]

Asa’s robes fluttered as he moved with great haste over the roof tops of the street, tailing the young man. He would not escape Asa if it could be helped. His chakra made him significantly faster than the boy but Asa wanted to see where he was going, not so much stop him then and there. The older gentleman’s purse was of little concern. The man looked well enough off. Asa had noticed the bulging of three other fat purses beneath his garments anyway.

The boy he tailed seemed to zig and zag across numerous streets as Asa lunged after. The streets below began to disturb Asa. He had only ever taken the main roads through the village, believing that they were the fastest and best mode of transportation. While this had always held true, he wished now that he had paid more attention to these side streets. All around him, the cries of the infirmed, and destitute plagued his ears. Burning their way into his memory and causing his eyes to nearly tear. He knew the village was in a bad way after the recent troubles, but this was terrible. No wonder street crime was on such a rise in recent days. His hands clinched in anguish. The Uchiha district was so full of prosperity, he hadn’t imagined the lower ends could be this retched. He nearly broke of pursuit to reset his frame of mind. But he trudged on, unwilling to stay where he could hear the sounds of fear and crime any longer then was needed.

Eventually, Asa’s pursuit led him to stop on the top of an abandoned warehouse. The boy had gone inside a few minutes before, but Asa had seen only a few lights on near the upper floors. He assumed it meant that was where the boy would be heading. A nest for him and the other thieves, the rats they were. His feet covered in chakra as he scaled down the wall, and hung relaxed against a window where light emanated. There were people inside, he could hear voices. Asa pulled a kunai from his pouch, and barely poking it out over the edge of the window frame, Asa used the glitteringly polished surface of the knife to watch the scene inside unfold. He had difficulty hearing what was happening, only catching the odd word when the wind subsided slightly. The wind where he hung was terribly vicious.

The boy finally entered the room, and seemed to be presenting the pouch he had taken to the man who was presumably the leader. The leader sat behind a rather nice wooden desk, and sported gold on every finger. A vicious sickle shaped sword was held by each of his retainers. So this boss ran the crime here? The boy could be forgiven. He was probably starving or had some other sob story that merited his fall to crime, but this leader seemed to have more money than god. Enough to rebuild the entire district given enough time. Asa was pissed off at this. It would not stand.

[Kinz]

Replacing the Kunai without another look, Asa prepared to make his move, but just as he did the wind subsided for what seemed like an eternity, as he heard a heart wrenching noise. The sound of metal meeting flesh, and the cries of a man….or rather a boy in the last throws of life. Forsaking any semblance of a plan, Asa crashed through the window, his earthen armor protecting him from the glass, but his hands lashing out to launch the shards at the retainers.

One of the sword bearers was standing over the pickpocket, blade drenched in sanguine vileness. He never saw the shard coming as it lacerated his throat, allowing red to burst forth from his body’s confinement. The other guard was a little luckier. Asa’s brash move had provided him time to collect himself and though he was unable to pull his sword free, the scabbard it sat in worked just as well for deflecting the glass. Standing there now, Asa and the retainer squared off. One man to protect the scum, the other to protect the honor that needed to be reestablished in the world. Asa’s hands couldn’t unclench. His adrenaline was simply too out of control to allow for something so calming to happen. Crimson pupils filled his eyes, as he gazed at the soon to be dead guard.

[Kinz]

It was near impossible to figure out who had moved first, Asa or the guard, but Asa was sure the guard should have moved quicker. The skin over his throat was now broken by the short blade of a shuriken. He seemed to gargle the blood as it welled up into his mouth. The pain he felt had to be immense as he wasn’t able to do anything other then convulse, and flop over onto the floor. Asa’s glare now turned towards the seated leader of this filth. The leader merely smiled, an all to confident one at that. Then, like oil sitting upon water, his words flowed from his mouth and through the void to Asa’s ears.

“So, what is a chunnin doing in a place like this? You’re a long way from your barracks young man. Perhaps you should head back there now, before something more regrettable transpires here.”

Asa shook his head, knowing he had the man in the palm of his hand. “You sir, are a dead man. And your money will go to restoring this district.”

The man seemed to roar as the laughter hit his lips. He was enjoying this stand off. Asa was not amused. His hand lashed out, grabbing his gladius in one fluid motion, pulling it clean from the sheath. His charge was like that of a bull who had seen red. The man would die. His blade plunged forward through where the man had been sitting, and made a hollow thud as it pierced into the back of the chair. The man was … insubstantial? Pulling his sword free, he saw that while the man sat there, his image seemed to flicker and fade, suddenly reforming. Looking closer there appeared to be a device emanating light up to the ceiling from the seat of the chair. A hologram. The fits of laughter from the hologram enraged Asa to no end. The bastard wasn’t even there. A king holding court, but being cautious of spies. The irony of it all.

[Kinz]

Sheathing the gladius, Asa moved with visable frustration towards the pickpocket. He knew he was to late before he had commenced the fight, but he needed to make sure. As he suspected, gore was all there was lying there on the floor. The sad end to an even sadder life. Asa sighed, trying to simply breath the anger out of him. He would find the man he had seen. He would make him pay, and he would find a way to help this district so no other young men had to turn to crime to live.

Jumping back out the window, Asa slowly, and sadly walked down the terrorized street below. A few times he noticed unwashed faces eyeing him, apparently deciding whether or not they could free him of his purse. A simple glare held them at bay. Eventually, Asa came to the beginning of the main road and began heading back towards the village proper. No matter how much he wanted to, there was simply nothing he could do for those people. Staying there only drove that point home all the harder. Suddenly he was confronted with the object of his aggression. On a sign in front of him sat the image of the leader. A fat, pink man with a smile like a serpent. He pulled Asa’s attention. Apparently he was the treasury manager for the Daimyo? This…this was unexpected, and out of Asa’s league. He would need to consult with the kage. Perhaps he could advise Asa on a course of action. But what if raikage-sama was implicated?

Asa would have to handle this on his own. He wouldn’t let it stand, and force the burden on the village to fund inquiries into the matter. Plus, speaking out against a higher officer like that could land him in hot water without some sort of proof. He needed to get evidence of wrong doing that would hold up. Not just a hologram.

[Kinz]

Asa looked at the paper on the street pole and after a glance at the text he saw that it told about a meet and greet with the treasurer of sorts. The treasurer would be at a nearby guard house that evening, in an effort to hear testimony about the villagers monetary needs. They would have the opportunity to address him directly, instead of being forced to go through all the usual bureaucratic processes. It was a good opportunity to meet the man in person Asa surmised.

Quickly ripping down the poster, Asa applied chakra to his feet and began his ascent into the roof tops to try his hand at handling the situation. His feet cascaded over the slate tiles that made up the condemned buildings within the area, until he reached the guard tower. Night was falling. This particular tower was in disrepair much like the rest of the village, but with all the efforts for the treasurers safety it seemed to be the nicest building in the area. Arrow slits dotted every side of the tower, and inside Asa knew it would be constructed so that every hallway had the opportunity to become a murder hole. A passageway were it would be easy for a small group of men to hold hundreds at bay. Asa quietly approached.

Scaling the wall with chakra on his boots, Asa was careful to avoid the various slit openings. One person detecting him would spell the end of this endeavor and would put him in some hot water. Eventually he made it to the top of the tower and opened a small, nearly hidden trap door in the center of the roof. The spiral stairs that climbed the tower were used for defensive purposes, but it left the center of the tower completely exposed, allowing a clear line of sight to the floor below. There sat the quarry. The treasurer sat on a little chair while the guards allowed peasants in one at a time to address him. He looked board. Pulling a kunai from his pouch Asa planned to make this a quick and clean job. That is, until he noticed the little object casting light from the corner again. If he hadn’t seen one already he would have never known it was there. This was a hologram as well. Frustrated Asa replaced the weapon, and would head for home. He would need the kages help he assumed. Keeping him out of the situation was impossible now.

[Kinz]

The library smelled of must and old paper. Asa often found solitude the best method for clearing ones mind, and with the difficulty he had on the last mission, Asa assumed he would need the clearest mind he’d ever had to handle the trouble he was about to be in. Claiming the treasurer was a villainous monster wasn’t going to score him any points in the kage’s book. He almost wished he didn’t have to tell him, but his conscious wouldn’t allow such a cowardice action. It was an inevitable outcome to finding corruption within government. Sighing, Asa sat his head upon the table he sat at. Aside from a group of children in the far corner, Asa was the only one who sat in the comfortably furnished library. Many had pulled cushioned chairs to tables where they studied. This was where most people went when preparing for eventualities within the chunin exams. Asa remembered the simplicity of those days with a longing.

The librarian sat at the registration desk stamping the bindings of some of the covered books, but it was the boys in the corner that Asa took particular note of. They were being rather loud for the confines of a library. They seemed to be enjoying some form of card game, yelling when one of them made a particularly interesting move. The three boys, Asa remembered them from the academy. Young genin, freshly graduated. They should be spending their time doing something more productive, but Asa wasn’t one to judge work ethic. He was one of the laziest ninja in the village. He moved over towards them, and gazed at the game they played in an attempt to understand the rules.

Apparently it was a ninja card game. Some group had artistic renderings of some of the most famous ninja of all time, and each had individualized stats for combat against other cards. It allowed the children a frame of reference to imagine some of their heroes to brawl in. An interesting concept. Asa couldn’t help wondering if he had a card somewhere amongst the packs.

[Kinz]

To Asa’s frustration, he wasn’t famous enough for such a thing to exist. Of course they had replicas of past and present kages, men who were particularly famous, or who had done exceptional feats. Not everyone got a card. Asa took note of seemingly the newest card in their deck, the image of Faust Uchiha, the clansmen he had who single handedly assaulted Iwa and survived. Not the most heroic of feats in Asa’s book, more foolish then anything, but he had a card, he must have done something right.

The thing that caught his attention most however was a card who’s image sported a wide smile. The same smile he had seen the corrupt treasurer sporting when he had gazed at the hologram. The man in his card looked a lot younger, but there was no mistaking that grin. The sickening disposition of it taunting Asa with its happy smirk, while others around him were suffering. Reaching out, Asa pulled the card from the table to the insulted eyes of the boys. They looked up at Asa with condemnation at his intrusion. Reading what he thought was a back story for the depicted ninja, Asa thought he’d figured a bit out about the man. He apparently was a ninja who hadn’t been seen since the recent troubles in the land. Originally his home was taki, a now destroyed village, to small to stand the test of the tumultuous troubles within the land.

So, The treasurer was a foreigner? This cards information wasn’t enough to prove it, but Asa’s gut was telling him to follow this lead. Apparently the man was a water master? Well, his abilities wouldn’t out him if Asa couldn’t get him alone, and if he did get him alone he wouldn’t have any witnesses to testify that the man in fact knew ninjutsu. Even if he did find some way to out the ability in the man, that alone didn’t make him some crime lord. Asa was leading himself in circles. He needed help.

[Kinz]

Replacing the card on the table for the boys to rework into their game, Asa began heading for the entrance of the library. The time there had left him with no answers, and a slew of new variables to deal with while trying to bring this man to justice. He needed others to assist in this matter. But who could he trust to not go directly to the kage? It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the kage, he simply didn’t know him well. The man would be daft to take Asa at his word and lay accusations against the treasurer of the thunder country. Of course the daimyo would support his man and call the loyalty of the accuser into question. It would be bad for the village as a whole if the kage got involved and leveled his diplomatic power into the fray.

The head of ANBU could sanction a black ops investigation, but how would something like that unfold without a leader of the ANBU. The kage had yet to find a suitable person to take up the slot. He knew there were a few who had been raised to the rank of ANBU that he could ask for help, but he wouldn’t risk bringing them into a mission without proper sanction. They were to loyal to the village, and to useful to be implicated should something happen. He needed to think of a good group that could assist him, and how to utilize them.

Perhaps the Uchiha leaders? They had the money to back a mission like this….but they wouldn’t risk their village standing over a matter of this low caliber, without any proof. And they certainly wouldn’t take Asa at his word. What resources were available to him?

[Kinz]

Asa’s feet clicked off of the slate roofs of the still standing buildings within this district, as he sped through the village, lost in thought. His hands flew behind him like streamers, only coming forward to check his pockets for anything that would give him an idea. That’s when he found the slip of paper that that genin from the temple mission gave him. It had the address for a teashop where he would buy Asa a drink for the assistance. Also, Asa had ben instructed to assemble a team of genin before the chunnin exams started in a few weeks.

Thoughts pelted against his mind as he began running scenarios. He could adopt Atlas and a few of his genin compatriots as his men for this mission. They were relatively unknown to outsiders since they never had done a chunnin exam, so they wouldn’t implicate the village if discovered. It would also give them experience for the exams. It seemed to be a win win. But Asa’s mind wouldn’t let the issue rest with this idea. Sending genin into a hornets nest like this was a terrible idea. He knew nothing of them, or their attributes. What made him think they’d be useful? Even if they were useful at intelligence gathering, they probably wouldn’t even know what to look for. This would probably equal that of an A rank mission. How could he throw them to the wolves in this situation, when they weren’t even allowed on B ranks alone?

There was nothing for it. Asa had no other options. He wouldn’t force them. He would simply bring the idea to them. He felt like a heel, since he was fairly sure any genin would jump at this chance…but he had nowhere else to turn. His feet echoed off the pavement, heralding his foolish ideas into the world. He would head to the mission compound to turn in the exploration mission as if nothing happened, leaving out some details about the boys demise, and then head to the tea shop he had been invited to. He would propose the idea he had to all of them. Hopefully he could talk himself out of this foolish decision before then.

[exit to mission thread then the teashop thread with my genin to continue the plot this mission started.]