Everybody ELSE is Fighting Giant Monsters!

Spoiler:

A young girl was playing in the desert. Giggling and skipping along the hot sand, she kicked off her sandals and squealed with delight as her friends joined her, chasing her through the rolling, sandy hills of Sunagakure. The girl, whose jet black hair and dark blue eyes, coupled with her fair complexion, made her stand out from her fairer-haired, well tanned friends. None of them seemed to be bothered by this, though it was clear that she didn’t belong. These were some of the fleeting moments of happiness that were enjoyed by Rakka Yuki.

She doesn’t remember their names. She never had time to learn them.

The girl’s laughter is overshadowed by the angered shouts of a large man, well-tanned and fair haired. He stormed through the sand and grabbed the black-haired girl by the wrist, dragging her home, kicking and screaming, leaving her friends standing there, confused. This man was her father, and she knew what was coming next.

The scene shifts, and the her father is holding a cane, about to bring it down on the little girl’s head. She panics, raising her hands and screaming, as spikes seem to form from the air itself, flying forwards and impaling the man in the chest. Blood splatters across the girl’s face, mingling with her tears, as her father falls to the ground, dead.

Rakka sat bolt upright, awaking in a cold sweat as something tapped on her window. She stared into the dead space of her small house, dark and quiet as always, a sliver of light entering through the window. The tapping sound repeated itself. Taking a deep breath, Rakka pulled back the curtain, where the all-too-familiar messenger bird awaited her. She retrieved the message, reading through it quickly.

She’d been assigned to work with Ren again, the girl she’d met on that other mission. Smirking slightly, she slid out of bed, getting herself dressed. She pinned another little note to the bird’s leg, instructing the girl on where they would meet, her handwriting and overall tone a little too cutesy for how Rakka would normally speak to someone, especially an underling in rank. Signing her name with a heart was the cherry on top for this most out-of-character letter. Of course, hardly anybody knew her well enough to know just how concerning this was.

”At least they finally started putting me with someone cute.” She smiled to herself, pulling on a button-up shirt and pulling a leather jacket over it. Holding a piece of toast in her mouth, she got dressed and ready, and was out of the house and on the move. She walked through Kirigakure wordlessly, her hands in the pockets of her jacket, she travelled to the bridge where they’d find a boat, for their use in reaching their destination. Leaning over the rail to affirm it was there, she saw confirmation in the form of the shittiest looking boat she’d seen in her life. It was a cheap, dry old boat, a glorified piece of driftwood, really, but considering the nature of their mission, Rakka didn’t think it would survive the journey home anyways.

Rakka turned, leaning with her back against the stone railing of the bridge, before noticing a bar across the way. As she waited longer and longer, she contemplated hopping in there for a quick drink. After all, who’d know? Just one drink wouldn’t make her any worse at her job, after all. She started to push herself off the railing, but hesitated, then finally retreated back to the rail. She was trying to impress, after all, and it wouldn’t do to get hammered. Reluctantly, she waited for Ren to arrive.

Ren yawned, before taking a sip of whiskey and going back to his writing, memorising words from the text he was copying from on the art of creating clones from water; one of the many disadvantages of running an academy was that even on his day's 'off' he was here, in his office, signing orders, looking over new potential teachers, of course a Shinobi's job is to protect his village today Ren was not called upon to protect from the back, but from the front. As Ren wrote out the plan's for the next Genin Exam a quite tapping sound echoed throughout the room 'no doubt just a tree branch, I really need to have that tree outside my window' Ren thought, pulling out another sheet of paper and quickly penning a short letter to the grounds staff insisting they rectify the situa... Tap, Tap Tap. With a sigh Ren stood up, crushing the paper into a ball and tossing it across the room to bounce off the wall and land in the waste paper bin sitting by the wall, as he decided to just deal with the issue himself. 

Walking up to the window Ren was surprised to see a small messenger bird sitting in the wind and rain as it tapped impatiently against the window. Opening the window, with a rush of wind blowing in and whipping up his long white hair, the bird fluttered in to the room and sat upon his desk. Curious as to who would send him a messenger bird at this hour Ren shut the window and strode over to his desk where the slim little creature allowed him to remove the small note from the water proof tube it carried on its leg. The note seemed to be from that stern woman Ren had worked with a short while ago, they'd been assigned to work together again, Ren smiled a little at the thought of working with the woman again, he couldn't deny that it was fun working with her, even if she was a little unpredictable. Scanning the rest of the note Ren was surprised to read just how cutely the note was written. 'I really didn't pick her to be the type to dot her I's with hearts' Ren thought shrugging off his confusion and now a little more intrigued with the girl.

Ren strode over to his door and grabbed his coat, tossing the long grey woollen trench coat over his casual jeans and white dress shirt outfit that he always wore and flipping up the fur collar before striding out of the accademy and off to the docks, walking down to the edge of the sea Ren glanced around looking for the woman and not seeing her. 'Huh, I must have gotten here before her' He thought to himself before glancing around and noticing a bar off to the corner of the street, after a few more moments Ren sighed and strode over to the bar, grabbing two glasses of the top shelf whiskey and taking a seat by the window so he could watch and wait for Rakka to show up.

As the wait grew longer and longer, Rakka assured herself that the very moment she stepped into the bar, her teammate would arrive, and she’d look incredibly foolish. Still, she looked longingly at the bar, realizing now how badly she wanted a drink. She hadn’t thought to pack a flask for their journey, nor had she had anything to wash down the spot of toast she had for breakfast. Glancing at the bar once more, she looked into the window, and was surprised to see a familiar white-haired figure sitting in the window with two glasses.

Oh, she was good.

Chuckling a bit, Rakka pushed herself from the wall and made her way into the bar, pushing open the creaky old wooden door of a bar that Rakka herself frequented quite often, she was surprised to see that Ren had chosen the very seat she’d sat in the last time she’d spoken to Xyxer. The irony was not lost on Rakka as she took the spot where The Mizukage resided.

”Slick.” She said, slumping down into the chair and taking hold of a glass. ”This one’s for me, right?” She asked, turning the drink in her hand. Obviously, she wouldn’t down the thing until she was given the okay, but it was pretty obvious what was going on here.

Ren sat at the table, swirling the glass of whiskey in front of him as he sat there taking the occasional sip from the glass, after a few minutes Ren pulled out his pocket journal and was just about to start flicking through when he saw his partner stepping out of a little alcove and stride towards the bar. 'Oh shit, I must have missed her there' Ren thought, blushing slightly as he caught her eye through the window, 'I hope she wasn't waiting for me long.' He thought as Rakka strode into the bar and took a seat next to him. "Yeah go for it, I don't mind sharing" Ren said with a genuine smile when she asked if she could have one of his glasses. 

Ren paused for a moment, casually taking a sip from his glass and waiting to see if Rakka had anything else to say, if she just sat there Ren would after a moment speak up with a smirk, "So what brings you here on such a fine day?"

The blush on the other girl’s face was legitimately adorable, and it elicited an uncommon smile from Rakka, who sipped from her glass, noting that it was real whiskey, the top shelf stuff. What a catch this was, a girl who enjoyed hard liquor, just like Rakka.
”Thank you.” Cooed Rakka, who liked to hold her whiskey in her hand as if it were exotic wine, swirling it and hearing the ice cubes clink. ”This is really sweet of you.” She said, holding her drink across the table. ”Cheers, eh?”

With that, she’d down most of what remained in her glass, the familiar burn soothing Rakka in a way little else could. When she drank, she felt her problems melt away, and with good company like this, there was little else that mattered in the world. ”I didn’t realize I’d kept you waiting. To think, I almost came in here to do the very same thing. Great minds, huh?” She chattered, making conversation quite easily. Reserved as she was, when she finally had good company, Rakka really did like to talk.

”So, as much as I’d love to stay here all day and drink together…” Rakka began, winking and taking another sip of her whiskey. ”...We do have an assignment. The boat is under the bridge over there.” She explained, pointing to the bridge she’d been waiting at. ”It’ll be just the two of us, drifting out at sea, hunting for monsters. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, if you ask me.” She grinned.

(TWC: 1,087)

Ren smiled and tapped his glass against Rakka's with a "Cheers" before taking a significant swig of the golden liquid that rested in his glass, as he savoured the pleasant warmth that flowed down his throat; the pleasant clink of the fine glass wear ringing around them and punctuating their conversation. Ren aloud himself a melodious chuckle at the girl's words "Oh, no I wasn't waiting long at all, in fact I only sat down a moment ago, I guess its just a fortunate accident that I just missed you" Ren said, his smile broadening a little as he spoke, finding himself a little more at ease with this girl that he would be with most people...

”So, as much as I’d love to stay here all day and drink together…”

Ren found him blushing again at Rakka's words, 'I-is she flirting with me' Ren thought, a slight grin forming on his face as he felt a slight rush of confidence that the girl might find him attractive. "That sounds swell to me, shall we then?" Ren said, draining the last of his drink and standing to leave. Assuming Rakka did the same Ren would stride over to the bar and ask the waitress for the rest of the bottle, passing the girl the payment and letting the bottle sink into his hand; disappearing from sight before leaving the building with Rakka. As they strode down to the dock's Ren would make some polite conversation with the woman. "So Rakka, what do you do in your free time?" He asked as he casually strode towards the dingy little boat they were to take on this mission.

Rakka sighed in relief when Ren assured her that she hadn’t been waiting long. She’d feared she had made a bad impression, but it seems she’d only arrived a moment after Ren.
”A fortunate accident indeed…” Purred Rakka, shamelessly flirting. That adorable blush returned to the girl’s face, and she knew she was making far better progress then she’d expected. It appeared that Rakka had finally gotten her mojo back.

As the other girl finished her drink, Rakka would do the same, putting down the empty glass and following her as she procured yet another bottle of whiskey. A mischievous grin on her face, Rakka watched the other girl walk out, and quickly procured another bottle. She pondered getting lemons and syrup to make a Whiskey Sour, which was her favorite drink, but decided that they’d be better off drinking it neat while at sea. She decided on some Rum to compliment their whiskey, deeming it most appropriate for a trip out to sea.

Bottle held behind her back, she followed Ren to the boat, down to the docks. Rakka would climb right in, sliding the bottle in the side, where the oars went. As she climbed in, Ren asked her what she did with her free time, a most uncomfortable question for Rakka, who was something of a shut-in when she wasn’t drinking.

”Uuuh, well, mostly what we were just doing.” She admitted, pushing the boat off the dock and letting the current take them into deeper water. ”The company isn’t usually as good, though.” She added, starting up the motor that powered their boat, which quickly took them out into the bay. ”What about you?” She’d ask, steering the boat into open water.

The sea was calm today, which was good, because Rakka had no fucking clue how to drive a boat, she was just bullshitting things as they came along. She was doing quite well, all things considered, even though she’d never actually been in a boat before. Indeed, even when she’d first come to Shimagakure, she’d walked. Across the fucking water.

”So, uh…” Rakka would say, looking around now that they were pretty far out to sea. ”Do you have any idea where we should look? I can’t sense anything.”

Ren blushed again ever so slightly when Rakka said he was good company, although he was starting to get a handle on his body a bit more now, the red flush fading almost as quickly as it appeared. 'She's definitely flirting with me' Ren thought, a little unsure how to react to that information, 'She's certainly attractive, I'll give her that... I guess it couldn't hurt to get to know her a little better.' Ren thought, giving himself a subtle nod as he made that decision. "What about you?" the question broke Ren out of his train of thought. What Ren did was a bit of a complicated topic, In all honesty whilst he had his own hopes, dreams, and hobbies he rarely got a chance to indulge himself with free time. "Well to tell you the truth, I'm quite the same, between running the accademy and co-ordinating the research and development department I don't have much time to myself; Usually I'll indulge myself with a drink or two while I catch up on some research" Ren said, rubbing the back of his head as he let out a slightly awkward laugh as he finished his explanation, slightly embarrassed that he didn't have anything more interesting to say about himself.

Ren would no doubt continue the pleasant small talk with Rakka until she started talking about the mission, "Oh! Right, I almost forgot we were out here for more than just the pleasure of each other's company" Ren said, surprising himself at how smoothly the compliment came to mind... Ren paused for a moment, perhaps the slightest hint of surprise on his face before he came back to himself. "Right, give me a second" He would say, closing his eyes and focusing his chakra, slowly little flickers of light came to view in his mind, the tiniest fragments of chakra that all the many fish and other small aquatic life that surrounded, Burning brighter than all those fickle flames of life stood a mass of chakra right in front of him, the chakra burning bright and strong, and yet it felt cold to him... As tempted as he was to prod a little closer at the girl's chakra, to investigate it more closely Ren reminded himself why he was here. Extending his consciousness out into the ocean Ren read the flow of chakra in the world around him, the small lights dimming and flickering out as his view expanded to large to be able to detect such small flickers of chakra. In the distance Ren detected three masses of chakra far larger than he'd seen before, two of them were currently entangled with chakra signatures that he recognised, one of them his silent partner, altar... the other was a darker chakra that left a sour taste in Ren's mouth, the tyrant. With a silent prayer that the tyrant would be killed by that mass of chakra... whatever it was, Ren would point in the direction of the third chakra source, the smallest of the three. "I can sense something in that direction" He would say, indicating an island in the distance just barely visible to the two of them.

To Ren's comment, Rakka would smirk mischievously. 
"Save that for another time, I suppose." She teased, allowing Ren to sense for anything particularly interesting. "I'm counting down the moments." She sassed, popping open the bottle of rum and taking a big swig. Slamming the bottle down at her seat, she took a deep breath of the sweet sea air, smiling. "Yo ho." She said coolly after realizing she probably looked pretty dumb.

As she pointed to the island, Rakka followed her finger by steering the boat, noticing that through the mist, she was what appeared to be the silhouette of a man beating a huge beast with... A giant tentacle? Right, staying clear of that, that definitely wasn't their jurisdiction. As she turned the boat, a massive, ear-shattering screech echoed in the distance... Wait, no, what was she thinking, nothing happened. Oh wait, there it was again. No wait, no, that must have been her imagination.

As they steered towards the direction Ren had pointed her, Rakka let out a sigh. She didn't have any particularly potent sensory abilities, so she really had no clue where they were going. She was completely at Ren's mercy. "Just don't get us marooned, I dunno how much gas this boat has." She sighed.

Ren simply smiled at Rakka's comment "Lets hope those moments don't take too long then" Ren said before focusing on discerning the chakra signatures around him for the time being, of course when Rakka knocked back the bottle of Rum, that was enough of a sign for Ren that he was in company that didnt mind sharing a drink with him on the job. Holding out his hand Ren would take the bottle from Rakka when she finished taking a swig and hummed that ever familiar tune. Taking the bottle in hand Ren would speak, in a plesant sing song voice that sounded far more effeminate than he'd like to admit. "and a bottle of Rum" Ren began, taking a long swig from the bottle before continuing "Drink and the devil had done for the rest" he finished the line of the song, placing the bottle back between the two of them with the pointed *clunk of a half full glass bottle on wood.

Feeling the pleasant buzz of a warm drink and more than pleasant company in his throat Ren went back to his searching of the area, finding the smallest of the three massive chakra signatures Ren indicated a tiny island in the distance, just barely visible to the two of them, "I can sense something in that direction" Ren would say before smirking a little at Rakka's reply. "Well I cant make any promises, after all being stuck on a desert island for a few days wouldn't be entirely unpleasant now would it; I've always wanted to try spear fishing come to think of it..." Ren would trail off, a clearly playful smirk on his face as he started to find his feet flirting with the young woman.

After a while traveling towards the island Ren would speak up, "It's close, now; we should make it to the shoreline quickly and then move into the tree line before whatever it is can see us." Ren would say to his companion, his tone regretfully turning serious as he switched from relaxed to alert and his words moved from playful to direct and to the point leaving no room for doubt about what he meant. "I'll give us a mist to use as cover as we approach the island" Ren said, forming the hand seals and bringing up a mist from the water around them. "That should do the trick, once we get to the shore we should probably make a break for the tree line." Ren would say, waiting to see that his companion agreed with his analysis.