Playing Detective | Mission [ HAKAI KIDDOS ]

Mission: Thief in the Village
Rank: D-Rank
Link: Thief in the Village
Requirement: 2000 Words

There was nothing but a buzz in her mind. A slow hum that added to the usual monotonous of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Saya stared ahead with a blank expression. It was only two days prior that Saya was hit with the reality of the shinobi’s life. Her sensei had gone missing. Yes, missing. Not dead. He couldn’t. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes as she pressed her back against the tree where they had all gathered together. Deep inside the genin knew that she was lying to herself, but if she denied it so much - would the Fates bring him back?

Exhale.

Saya let out a dry laugh at her own thoughts. Stupid girl. Her eyes blinked open as she tilted her head upward, squinting at the rays of light pouring through the leaves. It was late morning, about ten-ish. Though she supposed it could be considered early afternoon as well. Today the girl had put herself in for a mission along with her teammate, Renji. It would just be the two of them for now. She couldn’t face Max. Not yet. It was still too fresh for her, but with Renji… Maybe, the girl thought, they could make sense of it together. Or, alternatively, they could both ignore it and use the mission as a means to push it away.

She wouldn’t mind it if they did the latter. In fact, it would be her preferred choice. Saya immediately let out a groan and thumped her head against the bark of the tree, ashamed that she was even thinking of such things. Her hands moved quickly, colliding with her cheeks with minimal force. Just a sharp sting to shock her into getting rid of her negative thoughts and focusing on their mission.

Their assignment for the day was to catch a thief. Not a lot of details were given except for the fact that a few citizens’ belongings had gone missing around a particular time, which was nearing in about a couple hours or so. Between her and Renji, if the burglar was a normal civilian, they would be able to solve the case easy-peasy. If not… Well, Saya guessed it would take a while for them to figure out how certain heists were done and all.

With her cheeks tinged with a bright red color her eyes roamed the open area, spotting an unfamiliar figure heading her way. Saya titled her head in confusion. No one was suppose to be entering their meeting spot, but certain circumstances would certainly deny that notion. The person headed her way was extremely tall and a bit intimidating.

She could feel the ends of her lips pulling down to a frown, and wondering what their business was.

WORD COUNT: 461
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 461

As the three exchanged greetings and introductions, a small green speck shouted from the horizon, running along the sidewalk like a kunai sailing through the air. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! Shien cursed, sprinting across the pavement.

His alarm had decided to malfunction in the middle of the night. Or someone unplugged it, rather. And, as such, he had to run all the way here from the academy whereas the others likely had a soft, light walk through the mountain air. Shien bubbled with jealousy and anger, but fear took him more than any emotion. These missions were part of Hakai’s own standards, and performing poorly would likely result in double working hours. Hakai was devilishly cruel in that way. Old bastard. The Doku seethed, half-joking.

When at last he arrived alongside the three shinobi, he had to pause for a moment, leaning over to catch his breath. “Some…” he started, panting. “Someone.. Ughhhh,” he groaned, standing up straight and taking deep breaths. His eyes fluttered closed as he swallowed. “Someone unplugged my alarm… so I… had to sprint all the way here…. Gods, this mountain had too much incline.” It did wonders for his calves, though.

He swallowed once more, following with a groan before finally catching his breath. “Anyway,” he said, waving at both Saya and Kay, though he knew neither. “Name’s Shien, nice to meet you,” he said, his words running together. He groaned once more, bending over. “My clan can’t sweat, Ikigai. I’m.. I’m really hot.”

WC: 255

Following the tall figure was a contrastingly small form. Saya raised a brow at that. She hadn’t quite seen or experienced such a disparity with height. It was kind of cute. Moreso when the genin was able to discern their physical traits as they stopped before her. Again, the difference between them was eye-opening and funny. Mr. Blue Boy (or Ikigai as he had offered his name) had some features in line with a shark. She tilted her head at his cooly tinged skin and sharp teeth.

“Kay,” on the other hand, was as normal as a person could get. Pretty with golden blonde hair and a seemingly easy-going disposition with the grin on her lips. ”Yeah, I’m Saya.” Saya could only nod at their entrance as her greeting. She had not seen them before. Not around her usual hang out spots which only included the hospital, the training grounds, and anywhere nature-y. While it was almost always nice to meet new people from her village, the absence of her teammate was worrying. They had agreed on taking the mission together, but Saya supposed that he wasn’t ready to deal with her presence yet. He probably only accepted with her feelings in mind and couldn’t cancel on her himself.

At such reasoning Saya could only ground her teeth together for a split second before focusing on the company before her. Either way, she did take the document into her hands and gave it a quick read before handing it back to Ikigai. ”Pleasure to meet you,” her eyes rested on Ikigai before switching to Kay. ”Ikigai and Kay. Have both of you been - “ Saya paused in the middle of her question when her ears caught onto something in the distance.

It should be their fourth member if she had read the memo correctly. She waited until he was before them, huffing and puffing like a poor piggy running from a big bad wolf. But the boy wasn’t a pig; he was more of a reptile that stayed out under the sun for too long.

Saya glanced at Ikigai and Kay. So, they knew each other? That was a good thing. Less stress and talking for a pre-mission meet up. ”Saya. Glad you could make it, Shien.”  Courtesies done and over with, Saya was itching to get to the root of their congregation.

”As I was going to ask earlier… Have you guys gone over the mission details?” She asked as she gestured for the trio to follow her. If she had been aware of the sudden change of teammates, she would have picked an easier meeting spot for them instead having to travel back through the throngs of shinobi on the training grounds. Her was pace easy to keep up with. It wasn’t too fast for the recently arrived Shien nor was it too slow for the pair that had arrived earlier.

WORD COUNT: 492
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 461 + 492 = 953

The blonde girl was rather interested in what her fellow kunoichi to say, but alas she was led to turned towards the new arrival, cocking her head in curiosity, but this time without the flashy grin she had shown to Saya. Ikigai had blue skin and gills. Sure, Kay had come to accept this as normal in her short time knowing him. But then here ran a boy with green skin, more spotted, with green hair to match. If Ikigai was a shark, this boy was definitely a reptile. Why not. In a world where people could control elements, nature, even space and time itself, of course there would be animal based people. Shien. Another name for her to memorize, another face to her to know. He seemed rather friendly with Ikigai, so Kay would assume the two knew each other. This Shien fellow had not been there on her first day it seemed, but perhaps he was a member of the academy as well? If he was, Kay would wait for Ikigai to introduce them.

There it is.

Once Ikigai had introduced the girl in her stead, she began to raise her hand to do a two finger salute, but stopped short of doing it, instead pulling her long hair out of her eyes and scratching the back of her head with a smile on her face. “I just joined the academy, so sorry I didn’t meet you sooner.” She looked at him, silently hoping that the lizard boy did not have eczema or some other skin condition, especially one that was contagious or anything. That would just be horrifying for such a young girl to turn into one of those lizard things.

Kay thought about speaking up to clarify that, no, she did not go over the details, but thought that that might be counterintuitive. Instead, she was relieved that Ikigai had decided to spout off the mission details in the stead of making the girl have to read the mission details or anything. “We could always split into groups of two and two,” the girl suggested without the sound of commitment. It was just a thought was all, and she would be fine being paired with anybody. Unless Shien was contagious. Otherwise, Kay would listen to any game plan anybody else came up with.

Regardless, she wore a crooked grin on her face, still trying to conceal the excitement of her first mission. After anything and everything had been sorted, the girl would clasp her right fist into her left hand, making a small clapping noise as she held her fist. “Let’s get started.”

WC: 692

Shien, still bent over, swallowed, nodding his head at the introductions between Saya and Kay. His raised one of his clasped hands from his knee and waved, looking at each of the girls through his brow. The reptile leaned back, taking one last deep breath before finally catching it. “Ikigai,” he said, turning to the Hoshigaki. He raised his eyebrows, widening his eyes. His smile was forced, open, and his face was almost vacant. “When I see that little....” Shien paused, maintaining the borderline-psychotic expression. His eyes darted between Saya and Kay, then back to Ikigai as if he were checking for something. “...twerp.. again, I’m going to murder him.” the Doku finished, widening his expression further for emphasis.

The green-skinned Shinobi closed his eyes, rolling them around beneath their lids. “Alright,” he said, opening them once more. Before he continued, something Kay said managed to catch his attention. “Hey, wait a minute, Iky told me about you!” He looked to his fishy friend, a sinister look painting over his face. He raised his eyebrow, smiling at Kay devilishly. “Poor man’s been talking about you nonstop. Obsessed really.” Shien raised his hand as a shield from Ikigai, using it as a wall against his toothy mouth. “I think he likes you,” Shien whispered not-so-quietly.

Things quickly got down to business, and, despite his urges, Shien begrudgingly started to participate in the serious talk. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a thief. Should be easy enough,” he said, nodding. “I’m a pretty good tracker, if I do say so myself.”

Upon the suggestion to split up, Shien immediately smirked at Ikigai. “Why don’t you go with Kay, Iky?” the genin said with a fox’s tongue, holding back his laughter.

WC: 547

Saya had listened to Kay and Shien’s introduction to each other with a slight interest. Given how Ikigai knew both, the girl had thought that the other two were familiar with each other as well. Of course, that was not the case as they were both exchanging names and the shark boy did call them noobies just a minute or so ago. She almost questioned Ikigai on what he meant before Kay revealed the answer she was looking for - the academy.

An academy, huh? There were only two academies that Saya was aware of that molded young children into expert fighters - the ninja academy and the doju that revolved around swords. That must be what they were referring to. Saya was content in letting the others interact with each other as it provided her the chance to observe the newcomers and think on how they were going to do the mission. It would be fairly easy to catch the thief with the four of them prowling around.

While the small group moved out of the training grounds and to their destination - a relatively medium sized neighborhood within the inner wall of Kumogakure - Saya glanced between Kay and Ikigai. Shien had been teasing them, well, teasing Ikigai. The coupling was odd but she supposed she saw how they could fit each other. ”Are you guys okay with that then?” The genin asked, eyeing the nice looking houses. They were owned by the rich and powerful citizens of the village, the ones that were quick to bend the knee to Lord Mortarian.

”Me and Shien,” Saya pointed between herself and the reptilian boy before switching her index finger to the other pair. ”Then Kay and Ikigai.” She waited a moment for their confirmation or their denial, it didn’t matter to her. Saya was adaptive, having had to deal in high pressured situations back in the hospital. Grouping up was hardly challenging. Whether they changed partners or remained the same, the girl would agree with whichever decision they made before continuing on with their mission details.

”From what I’ve seen and figured out about our culprit, he or she tends to hit up houses within a certain area.” Saya stated, her gaze shifting from house to house and roof to roof. ”There.” She pointed to a well-developed neighborhood store, where locals drifted in and out of the small building. ”From that place, at the center, their hunting grounds extend up to 10 kilometers in every direction.”

Turning to Ikigai, who had read up on their mission, she raised a brow at him. Perhaps he could give the team more information than what she had managed to scrounge up.

WORD COUNT: 452
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 953 + 452 = 1405