To Kill A Merchant (Akira)

Misson Details:

Down by the shore of The Land of Lightning stood a pretty young ninja, leaning up against a small boat. Coco Wei, the radical chic from the land of rain. Patiently Coco twirled her umbrella over head. Now a days the thing was used more for shade than anything else. Still she loved her old friend. She'd spent most of her ninja Career under it's shade. Plus it could shoot Senbon, which made it awesome. Over head the oppressive head of the mountains sun bounced off of her umbrella, but she could still feel it's head coming through. She wasn't sure she liked the sun all that much. When she lived in Amegakure she wanted to see it more than anything else. Now a days it was just some jerk Coco didn't appreciate. But such is life.

Her yellow rain boots padded softly along the grass as she twirled herself around. Akira should be arriving Shortly. They were on a mission you see. Top secret, real hush hush. But they were suppose to be killing  a man today. Yeah that's right, imagine waking up to that news. Some traveling merchant had snuck into a noble man's house last night and stolen a scroll from their estate. While Coco wasn't all that scared of a merchant, apparently he'd been a pretty high ranked Ninja back in the day. That was what scared her. She'd barley been able to handle a few bandits back in Ame, she'd wondered how she was going to do against an actual ninja.

She shrugged the thought away and wadded into the water. Small little waves crashed against her legs, and she breathed in the Sea air. As the light from the sun shone across the azure surface, like a mirror. It looked like this watery expanse stretched on for ever. Yup it was a pretty wet thing. Not half as wet as Ame during monsoon season, but it was a good try, ocean. She wasn't all that worried about the mission to be honest. Akira would be there with her. And if Akira fought, half as well as he cooked they'd be home again in time for dinner. She just hoped he wasn't holding a grudge about that whole kiss thing. Or lack there of.

She giggled to herself, it'd been a mean trick. But she'll be darned if it wasn't funny. No no it'd been pretty rotten of her. Because he was actually going to kiss her! Dummy. She should know better than to lead people on like that. It was hardly lady like, and pretty disrespectful of her Senpai. Still he did kick a can at her. she had a red ring on her forehead for a week!

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He was late. Of course he was, a man like Akira had a lot to do, especially when it involved cleaning up bits of vase which were scattered around his living room after Coco's little visit. Granted, they managed to get quite a bit of stuff done back then. Akira had even managed to teach her a whole A-rank jutsu. So he thought it was a pretty good day. Minus the whole having his face covered in slime, having a clan heirloom shatter or even being kissed by a damn Salamander. That witch Coco led him on so badly, he knew he was gonna be embarassed the moment he showed up. How was he supposed to even see her after what happened as he literally went for the kiss. They both knew what that meant, he literally had to hope she didn't remember anything or at least chose not to speak of it cause it was a truly embarassing moment.

Turns out today, an assassination was the order of the day, a travelling merchant or whatever. Honestly Kumogakure nin probably wouldn't gain the best rep if they were out killing and assassinating people like they were today, but whatever because there were some serious bucks involved provided they succeeded. And they had a very real chance of dying, so this would put his student to the test in a very real combat situation to the DEATH.

Akira was cool about it though. A little nervous as he didn't know any of the abilities his foe would be using but that was to be discovered, he'd just have to hope that his tactics were on point once the fight started. 

He had finally arrived, appearing with a flicker onto the shore of Kumogakure, wearing his usual blue coat, his black hair gently flowing in the breeze. Here he was. And he could already see Coco. He approached her, and first thing he said? "I don't want to talk about it." He grumbled, he knew she knew perfectly well what "it" was. The whole Salamander fiasco. He really didn't want that to even be mentioned today, infact he'd probably prefer just forgetting the whole thing but he knew that memory was going to haunt him probably for the rest of his life. Damn that woman, why'd she have to be so cute? The little temptress, he was gonna get her back if it cost him his life.

So, they had to find this merchant and take him out. Location said the outskirts of the Cloud Village, well considering the Bijuu Island shore was in sight from where they were standing, they were ready. 

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Coco's face lit up like a Tomato. Well that couldn't have been more awkward if the two of them had tried. She just shrugged, and hopped inside the boat. She felt is shift through the wet sand as she positioned herself near the front. Usually when guys said that they didn't want to talk about it, she always felt like that meant that they really really wanted to talk about it. She'd come to that conclusion after have a grand total of zero boyfriends throughout her life. Sure the rain village may have been a wet place, but it was awfully dry in the relationship department.

She lurched as she Felt Akira push the Boat out to sea and jump in. Quickly the two of them began paddling towards the Island on the horizon. Now this Coco could handle. Coco had spent many hours of her life paddling through the mangrove swamps of Ame with her father. She blushed a little thinking about it. She missed him dearly, and was counting the days before she'd get to see him, and her mother again. She sighed, The Raikage sure was taking his sweet time about sending help.
From her peripheral she could see Akira's legs on her left and right. Still she wouldn't have minded a larger boat. Especially considering the circumstance. They needed small boat in order to not be noticed as they came to the island. But she'd almost prefer announcing their presence and avoiding the awkward closeness that this boat ride would inevitably turn into.

As their boat glided smoothly through the calm ocean water Coco could feel the silence weighing down on her shoulders. "That's a weird looking island isn't it?" She announced still staring ahead. "Never seen anything like it." He paused for a quick second. Then before he'd even have time to respond she kept on talking. "Listen about the whole salamander thing..."

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Akira's face pretty much flushed red once he had seen her. Yep. It had just gotten awkward, great cause that was the last thing he wanted when they had to go on a rowing session on some tiny boat to an island a couple miles off the coast. So this required a bit of rowing. Granted they both probably could've run across the sea since they were ninja but apparently this boat ride was the way to go. Perhaps the sea was too wavy for a bit of running.

Akira clutched the front of the boat and gave it a shove, sending it into the sea as he simultaneously hopped in. Hmm, this boat was cramped -- she was literally almost sitting on his lap. Then again Akira wasn't short like quite a few ninja were. At a height of six foot, this boat wasn't doing his height any justice at all. Poor guy. It didn't help that if she leaned back she'd literally be resting on him.

He was gonna speak, but it was too late, she had already brought up the unspeakable. The Salamander Fiasco. "Oh god, what now?" He huffed, still rowing the boat hard to get them quickly towards the island shore. 

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Coco continued with her long and carful strokes. She closed he eyes for a second and just listened to the slapping sound of wood against the water, and the wet splashing of the waves. She huffed at Akira's response. Oh no! She'd done the worse thing a person could ever do to man. She'd hurt his ego! Alas poor Akira, caught in a world where Coco Wei, and her hijinks ran loose. She sighed to herself for a brief moment. Puffing out her cheeks in annoyance. Men!

"Listen here Senpai!" She announced doubling her rowing effort. "You can bill me for that Vase!" She paused. "That didn't have anything to do with the conversation, but I had to get it out of the way, any who...." Oh no it was happening. Whenever Coco got really uncomfortable she couldn't stop herself from talking. She could tell right now this was going to be a bad episode. She could feel her serious businesslike persona chipping away.

"Like I was saying Senpai, I'm awfully sorry about pulling a dirty trick like that on ya. It just wasn't the right time ya know? I'm gonna be starting a clan one day. Can't let people know I let my senpai kiss me after the first meal he made for me. No sir. I'm a strong womanly character! I've gotta make you work for it!" At that point she jumped to her feet and turned to Akira pointing her finger at him. The whole boat lurched forward at the sudden change of weight. "And there's no need to be embarrassed by it senpai! Just look at me Senpai!" She gave her booty a playful slap. "I'm Regal, Barely Legal, and absolutely dripping with sex appeal!" With that she Slung her jacket off of her shoulders, and revealed that she was only wearing a Blue T-shirt underneath it.

now to the untrained eye that should have been a pretty standard conclusion. However to the die hard Coco fans out there you'll know that Coco never! Ever. Wears only a single layer of clothing. Which could only mean one thing...

Coco leaned in a bit, again distorting the balance of the boat. She held her had up to her mouth, like she was about to tell a secret. "In case you didn't know that means." She took a deep breath, and let the blush crawl up her face. "I.....Whaaaaaa!" Finally after all her dancing, the boat finally flung Cooc backwards, and sent her stumbling. With a shocked look on her face, she began falling backwards into the water. Unless stopped *Wink*

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Wasn't sure this gif was entirely apporiate so I didn't post if, but I you want the general Idea of What Coco's Confession was going to look like: Le Link Only it'd be "I like you too, not... well you know."

Akira looked away as he rowed, he couldn't look at her when she was mentioning that incident right there. That was bad, and he was definitely embarassed - way more red on the cheeks than he had ever sported around a girl. This was some seriously uncomfortable territory here, he was truly in front of the firing squad right now.

Problem was was that he was a pretty proud man, and to have his ego shattered like last time actually gave him more of a life lession, yeah he was compassionate. But maybe being a tad more humble would make him generally more attractive as a person and perhaps lessen the pain that those kinds of accidents brought.

But he didn't know where she was getting this heap of charm from, Akira was usually pretty tame but something about her seemed to get his cheeks burning like a furnace! And he pretty much went completely red when she removed her jacket, and the slap...He was pretty much speechless, and all he could do was listen. 


Well, she wasn't wrong. Akira's eyes were pretty wide at this point, he didn't expect this sort of outburst from Coco of all people. She was unstoppable, going on some massive seductive monologue like this...The poor man hadn't come prepared for this! 

"Coco, the boa-!" He exclaimed, or rather complained at the ship's lack of balance at this point, but it was too late.

Then he noticed that she was mere inches away from taking a nice dip in the ocean, despite being pretty shocked from the speech, he managed to react fast enough to grab her arm and gently yank her back into the boat, which would pretty much make her topple into his strong, manly grasp. "You were saying?..." He spoke, cheeks red with a smile on his face. Wondering exactly what the secret she was gonna tell him was.

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Coco's heart was racing. That was a close one. She almost took a bit of a dip there. Man, she liked getting soaked about as much as a cat. Coco looked up at her Senpai, and sighed. That was pretty smooth she had to admit. She looked into his dark blue eyes, darker then even the sea they were sailing upon now. She gave a big shrug and smiled. "Yeah I guess that was good enough." With that she'd lean in for a kiss.

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Akira's heart pounded, he wasn't really sure what she had planned, and Akira hated being cliffhanged, he knew her last sentence started with 'I' but what was the rest? In any case Akira had to deal with another issue now, Coco was leaning forwards and expecting a kiss. Naturally Akira was skeptical, it wasn't that he couldn't trust her, but after the last incident, anything involving her asking for a kiss seemed to be pretty fishy to him. He kept his eyes open, hoping not to get fooled by any salamanders this time around. He was gonna go insane if she did that again.

Her lips made contact with his and it seemed to be genuine. With that he held her waist and closed his eyes. Breaking the kiss after a few seconds. "Before you almost fell in, you were gonna say something. What was it?" He asked, a blush on his face.

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As the Row boat rocked back and forth, Coco felt a bolt of lightning flash through her. He'd returned the kiss! Success! She was pretty scared that he was going to pull something, but on the other hand she was confident that he felt the same way about her. Nervousness, and distrust aside it was a pretty magical kiss. Under the bright Kumo sun, in a vast expanse of crystal blue water. With the segals giving their little "Scrt" Not to mention that he was a pretty good kisser. She assumed. She'd never really kissed anyone so heck if she knew. Still she sure enjoyed it, and that's all that really mattered to her. Also he avoided giving her his tounge, which she appreciated. Just one in her mouth was more than enough for her.

She felt her heart skip a fiery beat as they pressed their lips together. Her eyes flew open, almost in  shock. He'd actually kissed her back. Well now! Wasn't that something? Slowly she let her eyes flutter shut, as she drifted away in the bliss of the moment. Yeah, not a bad first kiss at all.

Akira's voice snapped her out of her haze. "Oh." She announced, as she looked up at him. The sun was up above him, and he looked obnoxiously handsome in it. Plus from this angle, it was just ridiculous. That fact that Coco had her pants on at all was a miracle. "Well it's pretty dumb, now that we've kissed." Her blush never really went away since her speech, it still glowed brightly. "I..." She announced picking up from where she finished. "...have never let a person outside of my family see me in just a shirt." She wiggled her eyebrows and gave him a wink. "So for me this is like being naked." She lowered her voice to a comically husky whisper. "You can actually see my figure." She took her voice back to it's normal octave. "Now don't be a horny guy and take that the wrong way. I'm just saying trust wise it's like being naked."

She leaned upwards, and got about an inch from his face. "You may have smoothed moved your way into that kiss, but that'll only get you so far." She gave him another wink.

"So what I was going to say Akira, is that I trust you. Trust to you to be a gentleman around me, protect me, and be my first kiss when the time comes." She gave a week laugh "but that part of the speech is already out of date."

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The boat was a bit unstable at this stage due to the weight within it shifting around so quickly, but it steadied quickly enough for the both of them to be completely immersed in eachother's embrace. Even if it was a brief kiss, instead of the cheesy ones which seemed to last years. Akira still thought he could give her a better kiss, one where he wasn't so tentative or expecting some sort of prank to be pulled on him. But he knew he'd have plenty of time for that later. He was going to kiss her until she went cross-eyed. 

He smiled and listened to everything she had to say, clarifying that the reason she stripped down to a shirt in front of him was because she trusted him, and in a way that it felt as if she were naked around him. And that pretty much said it all. Akira's cheeks stood flushed, he felt humbled, proud and pretty embarassed too.

God she was cute, every bit of her. The way she rambled on and on every time she thought she said something embarassing, every little mistake she made. Every time he'd peer into her viridian eyes it made him feel truly special. And the fact he was seeing her like this? Made him feel like no other man could feel. 

Then he heard the rest of it. He held Coco close to him when her face approached his once more. He couldn't help but smile and almost wander off into the depths of her forest green eyes. "Coco. I've always considered myself a lost soul. But I think -- right now my soul has finally found its' place..." He smiled and leaned in to whisper into her ear, his cheeks flushing red again. "Beside you..." He finished. Damn, he figured he pulled that off pretty well, now it was just time to see how she'd react to it.

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