catching a monkey

Mission link

Den decided to bring Hiroko with him on his second mission. Not because he thought she’d be useful, but because he was supposed to show her more of the ninja world in order to gain the favor of her great grandfather, the snake sage. Den had actually met the sage a few times, and even learned a jutsu from him once. Den knew that the snake sage was powerful, and would be a valuable ally in his quest to defeat those who had killed Minorin, so he took this sort of ‘baby-sitting job’ he had with Hiroko seriously.

Hiroko was partially wrapped around Den’s torso, with her head resting near Den’s shoulder, she seemed to enjoy feeling the wind fly by them as Den jumped from building to building, forced to jump great distances due to the fact that the village was actually a bunch of islands. Den’s mission this time was to capture a monkey, he believed it escaped form a zoo or something, or maybe it had actually entered the village from the jungle around it? Den hadn’t really bothered with the details, though actually seeing as he was to release the animal into the wild it was probably not from a zoo.

“So why are we trying to catch this monkey?” Hiroko asked the question while they were standing on top of a building, Den surveying the area with his piercing blue eyes.

“Apparently it’s causing problems, not exactly sure what kind but that’s not really my business, all I need to know is that it’s causing problems and needs to be taken elsewhere.” Den’s eyes didn’t stop performing his task as he spoke, and his voice sounded somewhat distant, as his attention was elsewhere.

“My sister, Natsumi would be really good at catching the monkey. She could spit venom at it, and it’d die pretty quickly and you could dispose of it.” Natsumi’s ability did sound interesting to Den, however for this particular mission he didn’t think it would be that useful.

“I think whoever posted the mission wants the monkey to live, so her venom wouldn’t actually be that useful for this mission.” Den smiled though, and was talking somewhat cheerfully. It was nice that Hiroko was trying to help, and he didn’t want her to think he was annoyed by her attempts to help, or that he was insulting her sister in some way.

As Den continued to look, he felt another spasm in his body, though he managed to refrain from doubling over this time. Did it hurt less, or was he just getting used to the pain? He wasn’t sure to be completely honest, and he frowned for a moment as he wondered if he was dying. He couldn’t let this strange new mutation be the end of him, at least not until he had avenged Minorin. He would have to meet with his clones to increase the area of his search, while he attempted to solicit more help from the few allies he had. Maybe after doing some missions for Takigakure Taiga would be willing to assist him in some way, or perhaps his boss would be grateful for Den’s help in completing some of the many missions that seemed to be piling up in Taki, making the village seem more productive and be willing to offer him some other form of assistance in return.

While Den was thinking about this he spotted the monkey, climbing a nearby tree. Many people surrounded this tree, watching the monkey as though it was some spectacle. Moving quickly, Den jumped form the building he was standing on, which was 20 meters up and 30 meters away from the tree, and landed nimbly just next to the tree. A few people seemed surprised by him suddenly landing next to the tree, but most seemed to have suspected a shin obi would show up sooner or later to deal with the monkey. Den was given strange looks about the colorful snake wrapped around his torso, but Hiroko didn’t seem to mind them and Den certainly didn’t care.

Quickly scaling the tree with the use of his surface walking technique, Den approached the monkey quickly in order to catch it. The monkey attempted to swing at him as he grew close, but Den simply grabbed it wrist tightly, though not tightly enough to hurt it. Using his other hand to draw the monkey close to him, he felt Hiroko move as she began to wrap herself around the monkey and Den, squeezing the monkey close to his torso, and with Den’s help, moving him so that his back was pressed against Den’s. Hiroko’s head ended up in the same place, near Den’s shoulder.

“Appreciate it.” This left Den’s hands free, which was nice. He was worried he’d have to deal with a monkey constantly trying to hit him on the way back to the jungle, but Hiroko had wrapped around his arms and managed to restrain him properly.

“It’s no problem!” Hiroko sounded pleased that Den had thanked her, which he believed was good because if Hiroko liked him she would probably give her great grandfather a better review of his performance as her escort and he’d have a better chance of gaining the snake sage as an ally and summon.

It didn’t take Den long to get to the edge of the jungle, and even less time to get a few hundred meters into it. Den landed on the ground in a clearing, and let Hiroko unwind herself from around him and the monkey, setting the beast free. It quickly ran off into the trees, in the opposite direction of the village thankfully.

“It’s to bad we couldn’t have brought your sister along, her venom ability does sound interesting, if I ever get sent on a decently high ranked mission her ability could be useful.” Den spoke as Hiroko wound herself once more around his torso, he wondered how powerful Hiroko’s sister was.

“I’m sure it would be, she’s not much physically superior to me but her ability to spit venom is fairly potent. It’s not that special of an ability in my family, but she’s not much older than me and for her to obtain it at her age is interesting. Why don’t you summon her, and I could try and convince her to come with us on the next mission!” Hiroko seemed excited at the idea of her sister coming along, so Den sighed and performed the hand seals for the summoning jutsu, only needing to do half due to his hand seal mastery. Natsumi, a black snake with some very brightly colored details, appeared in front of Den. She was the same size as Hiroko, but for some reason Den could easily tell that she was older.

“Are you the one who used to summon Katsuro, and I see you’re in charge of handling ym sister while she tries to see the world.” Katsuro had been Den’s first summon, though over the past few months den hadn’t seen much combat and just hadn’t bothered to summon the snake, despite their friendship their relationship had usually been business, they had only talked to each other out of combat a few times.

“You’re sister wishes to speak with you about allowing me to summon you on missions, as you have an interesting ability I hear.” As he spoke Natsumi wrapped herself around Den’s upper torso, where as Hiroko had wrapped around his lower, and she rested her head on his other shoulder as he began to head back to the village.

“It certainly seems like something I’d be interested in.” those were the words Natsumi gave as they entered the office where Den was meant to be paid for his mission. After collecting his payment he would desummon both snakes back to their island, bidding them farewell for now. It seemed though he ahd gained another ally, another summon.

TWC: 1326
1000 towards Natsumi summon (complete)
326 towards Chakra monster
3 AP
450 Ryo

approved