cry wolf part 1(mission p nk)

mission details:

It was a beautiful day in the village hidden in the stars. That would change fairly quickly, but for now the conditions were perfect for a long day of training or, more importantly, a mission. Amber was up fairly early, having taken the time to eat a small bowl of oatmeal and spend time praying to the goddess of all. It wasn't really necessary, but old habits died hard. She considered from time to time the frivolous nature that was praying to a goddess you knew personally in order to recharge magics that she wouldn't have access too. Truthfully she didn't even need to pray when it came to refilling her mana, but still she did. It made her feel connected to the world around her, and more importantly to the love of her life.

Prayer was an odd topic for the demon of chance. She smirked as she passed through the buisy shopping district of the village hidden in the stars, simply because the concept of asking for favor with a higher power that had only proven it's hatred of her situation was laughable at best. It was fate, the assumed products of dieties well above her level, that had created the cruel creature. It was fates that had taken everything from her over and over. The world worked in mysterious ways.

She stood outside one of the larger shops situated dead center in the main thoroughfare of the stopping district. This was where she'd meet her team mate. SHe hoped the young ninja wouldn't be too late. If they finished this as early as the hoshi mission center had expected, then she could be back to training suiton by lunchtime. The alternative was her losing an entire day just for the sake of making some cash. That would be horrible(even if it were far too necessary). She regretted daily having spent the bulk of her funds on incense. Had she saved a bit of it, she wouldn't need to take work.

Her eyes darted about the packed city center, watching the flow of people shifting in and out of shops and stands. She knew there were complaints of theft, both items and money that had disappeared throughout the work day, and had been disappearing for over a month. It was deemed unimportant after the village had send a few teams, and each of them found nothing to prove the statements true. She expected to find the same.

"Where is this girl......" Kama was late... or at least not in her sight. Had she told the girl to meet at the ramen shop or simply made the decision and expected the girl to read her mind? The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it could easily have been the latter. It wasn't unusual for her to have had a convorsation so vividly in her head that she thought she'd said it out loud. As she waited, she noticed a short man moving swiftly through the main walkway. He had a long balck cloak covering his head, and something about him just seemed not quite right.

(520)

Today was, for lack of a better word, Kama’s day off. She had a pretty awful day yesterday, and was hoping to find a nice relaxing way to recover. It had been a bit of a warm day so the girl had proceeded out of her home in a orange tank top, the uzumaki symbol emblazoned on the back, and leggings that came to just above her ankles. Even her footwear was rather causal, her feet barely covered by a pair of tan sandals without even socks on. She was in no condition for a mission or any ninja activity, and didn’t expect to be thrust into a situation that would require her to be in better clothes. As she walked, she put her hair up in a ponytail, deciding food was going to be her first stop for the morning. She hadn’t eaten at all the day before, watching a gruesome bisection would do that to you, and was quite famished. Kama would have liked to find that ninja that had helped her, but she also wasn’t positive how that would end up going. What she would say, what they would discuss...none of that was coming to mind. Perhaps she just wanted more closure on why he had decided on such a brutal end to the man's life? Kama was now left with a gigantic sword she didn’t know what to do with as well, the blade sitting in her room until she could give it a purpose. Soon, the goal of her journey was in site. Her favorite ramen shop.

As Kama made her way to her goal of getting food, she noticed a rather attentive seeming Amber. It was a surprise the other woman hadn’t noticed the Uzumaki yet but then again, Kama was out of her usual attire and likely didn’t stand out nearly as much. Deciding to take a small detour, she would head to the taller woman. “Looking for something Amber?”

Kama would try to follow the girls eyes but none of the shops or restaurants really seemed the girls style. So was it a person the woman was looking for? Likely not a date as Amber's expression seemed more suspicious than anxious. Unless her date was late? This would be troubling. Amber did not seem like the kind of girl you stood up in the middle of town. Was she on business? That was a bit more likely but the girls eyes seemed to be following something in an alley not far off from here. Unfortunately Kama’s sight was blocked by people, the shorter shinobi not given the luxuries of another foot or two of height. It could be Amber was on a mission and the Uzumaki was now disturbing her. The redhead began wondering if she should just leave it alone and talk to the woman later...though she supposed she had already said something to ruin that. At least for the time being, this was taking her mind off the incident from yesterday.

WC: 500

"I was looking for you. Where have you been?!" she'd motion for the girl to follow, walking across the street to enter a general good store on the other side of the street from the shop they'd met up at. "You were supposed to be here like twenty minutes ago. We have a mission to do, remember?" She probably wouldn't. Even if amber remembered vividly having tracked the young uzumaki girl down and explaining the situation, and that she could use assistance in a mission that would net them some pocket change, that didn't make it a true statement. As was the case so many times, she'd remembered vividly the convorsation beause she'd had it in her head, mapping out exactly what to say and how best to describe the mission before them. It was one of her more unfortunate habits.

Still, unless stopped she would enter the shop as she explained to kama the basics of the mission details, speaking about the theft and the worries she'd heard from a few of the shop keepers. It was important to her to look into the situation, whether it was true or not, simply because one of those who'd found their items missing was the owner of the shop that sold her beloved incense. She knew that she was one of his few customers, and any loss to their profit could force them to close down. That wasn't something she would allow.

"Ah. You must be Amber. We've found that there is a similar path that whoever is taking things has taken. Just as I've expected, I counted my till an hour ago, and just now. I am now down around seven hundred ryo, which I had earlier in the day. It looks like the next shop to be hit will be the weapons shop on the outskirts of the district within the next half hour. " She knew that man looked fishy. As she thought back to the person she'd been following, she remembered him walking out of the shop they stood in now, and heading out of the main thorough fair. He could definitely be the culprit.

"Thank you. That has been very helpful. I assure you Kama and I will do everything in our power to find whoever is behind this and put a stop to it. " She spoke with a poise she'd not needed in some time. It was easy for her to take the part of the excited student, both because of the differences between her personality and her placeholders, and because she was actually an excited student, but when buisiness came to her attention, the smile faded and resolve reined.

"Alright. Kama. I think i saw a suspect in these thefts. Just before you showed up there was a man with a black hood pulled fully over his face. He was walking out of this very shop and heading the direction that this kind lady just said. We need to hurry off to head him off at the pass. "

(1023)

Amber had, apparently been looking for Kama which was news to the Uzumaki. Not given much of a chance to respond, she followed the older girl across the street as she beckoned. As Amber explained that apparently the two had a mission to do, and that Kama was late for said mission, the Uzumaki’s confusion grew ever deeper. She never agreed to a mission and the only reason she had been here was to get some ramen. In fact, she had yet to even get that and she was following Amber anyway.  The woman would, in the midst of Kama thinking, begin to explain the mission details and specs. It sounded simple enough, with Amber just helping out where the local ninja were stumped. They didn’t have the manpower to solve every problem of course, especially unproven theft. Before Kama could do much questioning, the shop-keep spoke up to Amber about her missing till and the next likely target to be hit. Had the shopkeepers been trying to solve the mission themselves? It bothered the girl that the weapon shop could be hit so easily as a target as well. Ninja depended on those weapons and Kama...couldn’t afford any price raises. She wasn’t paid enough as it was, frankly. As Kama was apparently volunteered for an investigation and the shopkeeper went off, the girl was still considering the evidence. Someone who was able to slip under everyone's nose like that had to have some ability in ninjutsu right? But a registered ninja surely would have been caught by now.

“Whoever this guy is...he may have some knowledge in ninjutsu. If the Star Ninja couldn’t find him, and even the normal shopkeepers couldn’t even get a look at their face...they may be dangerous.”
Besides that point, what did the shopkeepers know? Clearly they had more info then the last time any ninja had checked, as most would have tried to set up some kind of sting operation to catch the perpetrator. “Another thing, how are the shopkeepers so well informed? Are they investigating themselves or do they have like...a source?”
Even with all these questions, she would move with Amber wherever the girl saw the culprit so they could head them off. Kama instinctively reached down to her weapon ba- which wasn't there of course. The girl was on her day off and was not fit for duty in a combat situation, or even detective work. “Wait a minute I never agreed to this! I’m supposed to be having a relaxful day off! I’m not dressed for duty!”

Even as she complained she would continue to follow the woman. Kama wasn’t exactly dressed for ninja work but she wasn’t exactly a close range fighter either so maybe it would actually work out fine. Her ninja tools would come in handy, especially that katana she had though...it wasn’t exactly her weapon. This would probably be a short mission anyway. Then the Uzumaki could return to the ramen shop and have a nice meal in peace.


WC: 500

As they walked, heading towards the shop that was expected to be the next victim, Amber did 2 things. First, she quickly formed a set of six hand seals: bird. Rat. Ox. Monkey. Rat. Snake. As she finished the clouds began to grow darker. She knew the basic look of the person she suspected was behind this, or at least one of them. That meant she simply needed to find out where this man was. Through the rain tiger at will she would be able to see every individual person all at once. It didn't occur to her that this would probably make her young allies day significantly worse. The second thing she'd do was finally respond to Kama.

"So. The village sent teams to try and figure out exactly what was going on. They found nothing and assumed the merchants were making it up to try and get money form the village funds. That's why we're here. They asked me to assist, and the fisrt thing i felt needed to be done was to have the shop keepers actually communicate about when and what is being taken. As I gathered my things the person we just spoke to gathered the other merchants and went through their inventory. Thats how they found this trend. " As the rain began to pour, filling her mind with vision of the surrounding area she continued to walk, listening to kama's comments as they went quickly towards the weapon shop.

Kama commented about not being prepared for this, and amber sighed. Ninja should be prepared at all times.....right? There was no question that when she was out and about as the Demon of Chance she knew she needed to be prepared for anything, and that brought assumption that it was true for this also. Yea. That made sense.

"Don't worry. The pay is pretty good and this is just recon. All we have to do is find the person, or one of them, and figure out where their hide out is. Then we get our money and continue about our day. " She knew it wasn't that simple. As soon as they reported back to the shopkeeper chances are they would be asked to continue their investigation, but she figured it would be useful to comfort Kama.

"think of it this way....... This is practically free Wait I think i've found him. " She stopped mid sentence, turning her head as a figure who's eyes were hidden behind some sort of cloth entered her field of sensory.

"Be quiet and and quick. I think my rain has found something....." She rushed off, following the path towards her target. She wouldn't realize until after she'd gotten within range that the place she'd seen him come out was exactly where they were headed: the weapons shop. She held up a hand as they stopped at the doorway, motioning towards a large crowd of people. Their sight line on the man was hindered by the rush of bodies, but through the power of her rain she could clearly see her target.

(1534)

Kama would realize what Amber was doing with some annoyance as freezing cold rain began to fall, soaking her shirt and causing her to just generally be uncomfortable. She understood it was a sensory technique but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it's use when she was in civilian dress. Shaking water off herself she sighed. Amber had begun talking about what the villagers had done, explaining how she had gotten the shop keepers to work together so well, and how that’d been how they had gotten this lead. It was rather impressive for her to do on her own, as a task that the village itself didn’t want to really deal with. Kama was a little happier at the sound of being paid, as money was pretty important to a ninja for supplies and such.An easy recon mission sounded like a piece of cake. Amber was about to continue, but had apparently picked up on the target ahead of them. The Uzumaki hoped this wouldn’t turn too violent, as the girl was not sure how some of her jutsu would work in such close quarters. Poison mist especially could be a danger to Amber and any civilians around her. Kama needed more jutsu she could use with accuracy, but she had been unable as of yet to figure out any sort of elemental aptitude she may have. It had been a source of frustration for the redhead who desperately wished for new and different techniques to try out.

Kama was quick behind Amber, her size lending her a bit more nimbleness and stealth though any hope of that was somewhat broken by Amber being so close to her. Why the woman didn’t stick to the shadows with that neat shadow jutsu she had used days ago was beyond Kama. Regardless, they eventually made it to the weapons shop where a line of people was blocking their site. Well to be more exact they blocked Kama’s sight. Amber was likely able to tell with some accuracy what was happening due to her site through the rain jutsu, which was a neat trick that Kama would love to learn. Kama herself tried to spy anyone suspicious with no luck, her height just didn't lend itself to seeing over people's heads and it was rather frustrating for her especially in situations such as these. With a sigh she looked up at Amber. “What should we do? Some of my techniques are a bit...volatile so unless we can separate the suspect from the crowd i'm more helpful as support for anyone injured. Can you see where they are exactly?”
Kama knew the woman could, it was meant more on where specifically. If the Uzumaki had her senbon needles and had the target pointed out to her, she could at least slow them down with some quick throwing. Unfortunately she was no closer to having gear then she was to having dry clothes. It was up to Amber to lure the target out.


WC: 500

"Alright. So where are you going......" She closed her eyes, continuing quickly to follow the path she could sense the person taking. She wasn't even completely sure it was him. She hadn't seen him take anything, of course, but something about his look make her feel like he was the culprit. That and the fact that he'd just happened to be in every place they'd been just before they had arrived.

"I can see the target. I'm pretty sure it's the one we're looking for." IF kama looked forward she wouldn't be able to see the man for several meters, the mass of people moving to and fro about them were far too close together to grant sight. They continued almost to the end of the long walkway, and in an instant she held out her hand to stop the girl once more. She saw the cloaked man turn down a small alleyway to their left, dropping low in his stance as he began to sneak off, out of view of the crowd, and then suddenly out of view of her rain.

"WH... What. He disappeared. How can that be?" Rushing forward she floowed down the alleyway, assuming kama was directly behind. She studied the area, looking for any signs of the thief, either visually or through the power of her sensory rain, but found everything still asside from herself and kama.

"He was right here. I dont understand. " At this point she was at a loss. This was a dead end, and that didn't make sense to her. People didn't disappear into nothingness..... Well..... normal people didn't. Of course she'd done so easily enough back in the day, but the power of magic wasn't something people had access to here, and without that, the chances of being able to teleport or travel through the void wasn't really an option.

For several minutes she thought through the situation. It was frusterating and she could feel the pulsing in her temple begining. Had she gone soft? There must be something she was missing. From here she'd basically given up, and turned her attention to Kama.

"I can't figure this out. There must be something I'm missing but I just can't put my finger on what it is. "She'd allow Kama to take a look, assuming that she hadn't already been doing exactly that, and if she'd had well then... She'd allow her to continue. She needed this money. Things were up to the uzumaki girl now. As she waited she mentally went through the information she'd known, and once Kama figured out that there was obviously some sort of hidden entrance or something, and found it Amber would nod. THis meant their work was done and it was time to check in with the merchants. If kama didn't find the hidden entrance, then that would be rediculous and unfortunate, because I just suggested it was totally there. So, assuming that she did in fact find it as was said, They would head directly back to the first merchant to collect their money, and get updated mission specs.

(2050 claiming mission complete, 2k ryo, and 5 ap. 2050 wc towards amber's scythe and exit )

Kama herself would try and extend her senses to feel the man but was unable to. She just didn’t know what to look for and there were too many people, civilians and ninja alike who were gathered at this shop. Without Ambers jutsu they wouldn’t even know the person was there at all. This fact somewhat frustrated the genin who felt somewhat useless. Even if she was just there as support, there wasn’t a lot she could do to even be that when she couldn’t see through the thick crowd of people. If she had some kind of dojutsu then maybe, but unfortunately, she wasn’t born an Uchiha and didn’t excel in those kinds of powers. Amber seemed to know what she was looking for however, and Kama had faith in the girls ability to find their target. In combat, perhaps, Kama would be more useful. At least in the respect that she could drain a target of energy or poison them, though Amber would have to not be in front of her or risk being put inside a deadly poison. Suddenly, Amber began moving and Kama followed close behind the woman. She had to keep up so they both would find the target first, but Amber was a bit faster than the genin and knew exactly where she was going while Kama had only the womans coattails to follow, metaphorical as they may be. They raced down the alleyway after whoever Amber had seen but it appeared to lead to a dead end, much to Ambers distress.

“Perhaps they could sense your chakra in the rain and it tipped them off? It's odd that they are just.. Gone though. A Space/Time technique maybe? Teleportation is rare but… it's not unheard of. I heard there was a Hokage that could be in a hundred places at once if he so chose…”
As she spoke her mindset of shinobi took over and she began examining all the details of the alleyway they were in. As far as she could tell there was nothing unusual about the space but, the man had to have gone somewhere. If he had used a jutsu, then the pair likely would have been able to sense him. He would have had to suppress his energy and go through some escape route. There weren’t any sewer ducts or anything around for the young girl to see, so that wasn’t an option. Nor was there any easy way to climb up the building, at least not without detection. “Could there be...no that wouldn’t make sense…”
Even still, Kama noticed a piece of cloth on the ground, stuck under a cobblestone wall. It could have floated there or been stuck by someone but that would be too...convenient. The girl would bend down pulling the fiber and feeling alongside the bottom of the wall. There she could feel a...draft? There was something here...a door perhaps? They’d have to knock it down to be sure and doing that would most definitely tip off their targets. Slowly feeling up the wall she found a stone with some give and upon pressing it, the wall would open up almost faster than Kama could see. This tunnel, that's where the culprit had gone. “It's an entrance...this isn’t good. If they have something like this in the city…”
She didn’t continue. This mission had gotten just a little bit more complicated for Kama’s liking.


MISSION COMPLETE
TWC: 2,000
Claims: [2K Ryo/5 AP/2,000 WC towards mission weapon]

approved