Rounding up the Miscreants (Mission)

[Kildred]

There had to be a law or something against using the mission board for such trivial matters. There wasn't anyone else available in the entirety of the village who could be contacted for babysitting? Really? Sighing, Usio made his way to the front door of the home that had requested the assistance of the village ninjas. For the matter of watching their children. He couldn't get over it. Knocking a few times, the door opened to reveal a hurried man, quickly tying an elaborate piece around his neck. "Oh good! You're here. Honey, the babys-ninja! The ninja is here!" If he were a lesser person, he might have hit him for that.

A woman rounded the corner, dressed in a form-fitting gown that was pleasing to the eye. She had obviously done this before, and was scoffing at the man's inability to prepare. After an earful, the patriarch left to continue his dressing up. As he stood with the mother, Usio turned and questioned her about the children and any possible needs; allergies, medical conditions, and the like. "No, all of them are of the utmost health. The only thing you need concern yourself with is that they remain that way." The threat was thinly veiled, but given that she was talking about her children, he could see why she felt the need to do so.

When the man finally reemerged, he was shuffling a group of three children into the foyer. After they managed to stay in place, he moved to his wife's side. "Okay! Now, your mother and I shall be gone for the evening, as you know. You shall be under the care of Mister..." He dragged out the end of the word, obviously looking for him to finish. After Usio gave him his family name, the man nodded. "Yamamo-Yamamoto?!" Immediately, the husband and wife looked at each other in something akin to disgust."Yamamoto...I'm not sure this will work out." Usio sighed. Why did they have to make this difficult?

[Kildred]

"I have a pretty good idea as to why you suddenly have this idea that I wouldn't be a good candidate, but I implore you to look at the facts. I am merely related to Roji. My family runs a farm that does very poorly, which I assure you would not happen if we had access to funds the likes that my Uncle has. We do not associate with him, nor will we, until he has cleaned up his act and properly paid the people of the village back for his misgivings. Now this matter before us is very simple. I am here to do a job in order to get paid. I need that money to eat. Your worries that I am some corrupt individual are unfounded, based solely on my relation to Roji. Please, allow me to earn my food."

To top off his rant, Usio adopted a rather pleading look to his face. The man looks conflicted, and with some further prodding from his wife, reluctantly agreed. "I don't quite like the sound of it, but I suppose it isn't right to write you off as soon as we've met." Usio gave him a courteous bow, and sent them off to their party, or dinner, or wherever it was they were going. Turning around, he beheld the sight of three children, each varying in height and facial expression. The youngest appeared to be holing some kind of toy, and walked over to him. Kneeling down, he questioned as to what she wanted. The other two laughed like mad when she smacked him in the face with the rather dense plaything.

[Kildred]

Rubbing his nose, Usio stood back up. A quick reprimand later, the three kids started running around the living room. Boisterous if nothing else, he quickly came to the conclusion that simply asking them to behave would do very little in this regard. All he needed to do was keep them occupied until the parents returned, and what better way to do that than a game? Before he could come up with a proper course of action, however, he was approached by the middle child, a surly-looking boy. "Dad said you are a ninja, right?" He nodded, though technically ninja was a broader term. "Can you do ninja things?" After asking to elaborate, the boy crossed his arms. "If you have to ask, I guess you can't.'

With a single hand-seal, Usio conjured three normal bunshins. As they walked into the living room, he also formed two of his iwa bunshins. All his clones in tow, he walked up behind the child. "If you're asking about ninja stuff, would this be considered one of them? The child turned around, a bored look on his face up until he saw the six Usios. Looking around hurriedly, he gasped aloud, mouth agape. Had he never seen this before? Ninjas were more commonplace than before, weren't they? The youngest came around and looked at the group before approaching a single clone. She looked up and swung her toy again. This time, it went completely through and the clone disappeared. "Whoops, you missed me. Try again!" The littlest one giggled, swinging at another one and making it disappear. With a grin, Usio made a few more clones. This should occupy some time.

[Kildred]

Having played with two of the kids, Usio realized that the eldest had wandered off. Moving to make sure she wasn't getting into something she shouldn't be, he made sure that the last two clones had the younger one's attention. Closing his eyes and forming a single hand-seal, he managed to locate her in the back of the house. The hallway seemed unnecessarily big, every step seeming to echo around him. When he finally found the girl, she had gotten into her mother's (at least, he hoped it was her mother's) make-up kit. She had smeared something over her eyes, completely overdone it with the lipstick, and the blush she had put on made her look like some kind of lady of the night. Oh dear.

"Okay, what are you doing?"

"Making myself prettier! Mom does it, and she looks fabulous!"

"She also knows the correct way to put it on." Sighing, he lead her to the bathroom. "You don't need to make yourself prettier, as you're cute enough already. Adding to that won't do anything." She simply gave him a questioning eyebrow. "In any case, let's get you cleaned up. You messed up on this, but if you're set on learning, you should wait until your mother gets home so she can so you the proper way to put it on." He managed to get her face somewhat presentable, and the second he dried her face off, she bolted into the hallway. Just in case, he closed the make-up kit and put it back in the drawer.

[Kildred]

After returning to the living room, Usio was rather surprised to see the youngest on top of a tall bookcase. How did she even get up there? His clones were trying to coax her down, and she seemed to be keen to the idea, only she felt like jumping was the best solution. With his clones rocky arms, they would assuredly hurt her when they caught her. With a quick motion, he made a hand-seal and kawarimi'd with the closest clone, reaching out and matching her downward motion to soften her landing in his arms. She giggled as he put her down on her feet. Questioning her on how she got up there in the first place, she simply replied, "I climbed up!" Of course.

Moving to the kitchen, he saw the middle child rummaging through some food. Questioning him, the boy looked up. "Mom and Dad didn't make dinner, so I'm getting something to eat. Usio brought his palm to his face. They didn't feed them? They weren't going to be gone that long. He was really starting to hate the rich in this village. He shuffled him out of the room.

"Here, I'll make you all something. Go play with my clones." Grabbing a pot, he filled it with some water and placed it upon the stove. He lit the fire and made sure it was directly over the appropriate area. After going the pantry, he came across some noodles. Taking them and placing them in the put, he made sure the fire was spread out and properly fed. Placing another pot, he filled it with water and set it to boil as well. After a quick check to make sure nothing was happening with the children, he stirred the noodles a bit and got some bowls out. Once the noodles seemed done, he put out the fire and poured the hot water from the second pot into the bowls and mixed them with a bit of hot sauce. Pouring four equal servings of noodles, he placed them on the table.

[Kildred]

Walking into the living room, he came upon all three kids crawling over his clones. They were still standing, and doing their best to keep the children from both staying on them and falling off. These were some very acrobatic kids. "Okay, you all. Oi! I got some food over here for you. Nothing fancy, just some noodles." The three scrambled off of the rocky bunshins and moved to the table. They seemed to have a negative reaction to what he had placed out before them. "Hey, I can't cook anything fancy, alright? This is the best I can do." After some more grumbling, the kids started to eat. The clones walked in, and deciding they weren't needed right now, he dispersed them.

The front door slammed shut, alerting Usio to the arrival of the parents. "Honestly, that man is far too testy for his own good. How is it going to look for him when he keeps ending his parties prematurely just because he feels insulted? Thin-skinned fool if ever there was one." After placing some personal belongings on a shelf nearby, they walked forward and noticed the children eating. "Oh, you made them dinner?"

"Nothing big. Just some noodles in a bit of hot sauce. They might still be hungry afterwards."

"Ah. Well, thank you anyway, I suppose." Getting his mission slip signed, Usio said his goodbyes and gratefully left the house. He had had enough of rowdy children and condescending parents. Maybe he'd get lucky and his next mission would be to act as a repo man for one of these damn families.

-thread end

[KEITH]

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