Broken Seashells [Mission]

Su-Jin wrote:Mission Name: Cleanup Supervision
Rank: D
Type: Protection/Supervisory
Character Requirements: --
Mission Location: Sunagakure - Village [Missing-nin contract]
Word Count Requirements: 1000
Challenges: --
Repeatable? Yes, for as long as Sunagakure is still a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
NPC? --
Reward: 1000 ryo

Task: The client, a smalltime missing-nin holed up in Suna, is bankrolling cleanup, debris removal, and demolition in one of the northern neighborhoods of the village. She's got a ragtag crew of civilians willing to work if they have a shinobi willing to stand around, look tough, and make working out in the open feel a little less dire for them. The client would like you to make sure that they're doing the job well, too. Actually helping them out is optional, but payment will be halved if any of them die.

---

The day is going quite well until the first time the cleanup crew has to pull a body out of the rubble. The curled hand, reaching out from between two slabs of fractured stucco, casts a quiet pall over them.

"Minami clan," one of the workers says after a half-hour of the group freeing the body. He's a gruff older man with broad, scarred arms and buzzed hair, crouching next to Su-Jin and looking over the face-down corpse before them. The ocean waves of the Minami crest emblazoning the dead man's coat still seem proud even caked with dust and blood. He leans in front of Su-Jin, subtly edging her away from the body. "Not sure if there are any still in the village to bring him to."

"My sister in law's a Minami by birth," a young woman adds. "I'll ask."

For now, they wrap the body up delicately. Though her strength was appreciated in freeing the man, she keeps her distance now. The Minami are a respected merchant clan from the south sea. If this were a shinobi, the whispering among them would be far more hostile. The way they regard the missing-nin among them is respectful but cool and distant, and Su-Jin feels only a little bit hurt from being regarded like a primed explosive tag. It's a reasonable position for... anyone, really.

She makes a small, frustrated noise, and returns to hauling bits of scattered rubble and ruined building into the carts.

"Ma'am." The young woman from before approaches Su-Jin, olive eyes wary. Su-Jin smiles, warmly, trying and failing to put the other at ease. The young woman nervously adjusts the neck of her dust-caked robe. "This being a Minami household, I would like to request that we allow the family time to recover belongings from the house before demolition."

Su-Jin nods grimly. Most homes had been thoroughly looted already, but this one had half-collapsed in such a way that it was inaccessible. "It'll be up to the client," she sighs, hating to disappoint. "Her type... she'll wanna keep anything vaguely interesting. I'll see what I can do."

It's late morning, the sun high in the sky. The heat is reasonable, today, which is still far too much for Su-Jin's standards.

[375/1000]

Amaterasu was perched delicately at the top of a halfway collapsed building, swinging her legs over the side of a torn sandstone wall with reckless abandon. Today, she was wearing navy shorts and a red tank top- leaving the world to see a rack of hideous burns, lacerations, and suspicious marks that look like something had outright tore through her body all up and down her left side. She wasn't particularly helping with cleanup, per se- she was people watching. A single yellow eye, the other one still wrapped firmly with bandages, surveyed the land below with a morbid curiosity. That could've been my body, she thought blankly. Had things been different. Who would search for her?

She took a bite off of the small naan she had brought with her. It tasted dry and garlicky, and she found herself craving water. A few figures have caught her eye- a couple of civilians who likely had come from noble houses, and a new figure she had yet to encounter. They certainly moved like a ninja, but there wasn't the hardened edge of a combat veteran she had come to expect from the likes of her boss. She knew that she looked kinda childish doing what she was doing now, but to be quite honest it benefitted her at this moment. Most of the village had come to treat her coldly at best, especially after news of what exactly she had done at the gates broke out. It was surreal to them, in a way. Perhaps most had come to associate ninja with older, more mature people, and the startling contrast between their expectations had led to their discomfort. After she finished the naan, she activated the Surface Walking technique and began a calculated yet swift descent of the rubble. It had taken a few minutes- she was up rather high, after all, and it wasn't as if she could fly.

She ended up approaching the group of workers from behind, careful to step around the cart and random bits of shrapnel that had been littered about the desert floor. She leaned forward on her feet, making her appear even smaller than she was normally, before speaking up. At this point, she was between two or three meters away from the group as a whole.

"Whatcha got there?" She was referring, of course, to the tattered corpse which had been pulled aside. Her blase attitude was simultaneously deliberate and natural. Corpses were always nice to have on hand, though she got the feeling that taking apart this one here and now would be seldom appreciated.

[WC: 434]
[Total WC: 434]

Su-Jin catches the descending figure out of the corner of her eye as she nears the bottom of the rubble, her voice turning a touch distracted as she speaks to the olive-eyed woman. Are kids normally that nimble...? Nah.

As Amaterasu approaches, a few of the group's eyes dart quickly sideways to Su-Jin, and they hesitate before anybody answers the girl. One of the older women, in the back, steps forward - looking bemused at the group's reaction, ignoring as they whisper and tug at her sleeve. Though not ancient, she certainly looks too old to be doing such rough manual labor comfortably - whoever hired these people must have been dealing with slim pickings. She's got darker skin and a patterned violet robe, wavy black hair with prominent white roots falling around her face.

"This poor lad didn't make it through the attack," the woman says, bowing her head solemnly. Su-Jin, at first skeptical of those hurried glances, joins the group now. The older woman looks over Amaterasu, mouth falling slightly agape at the sight of her scars, and opens her mouth. Right that moment, Su-Jin decides it'd be a good time to interrupt.

"Come on, you lot, don't need ten to hold a conversation," she says to them, and with a few final askance glances all save for the two women return warily to work - at a bit of a distance, now. Su-Jin offers Amaterasu an apologetic smile. Her read is that the girl is playing dumb or being actively rude. Living in Sunagakure, Su-Jin finds it hard to believe that this one's never seen a covered body before. "Morning," she greets, chipper as she can be while standing over a dead body, turning her gaze to the violet-robed woman beside her. "Friend of yours, Miss Onaga?"

[297]
[TWC - 672]

"Hm, poor lad is right," she spoke aloud to herself. "Say, do you think it was Konoha that did him in, or Kenshin?" a pause. "Judging by the, well, rubble and lack of eviscerated corpses, I'd guess Konoha. So much for being the nicest village, hm?" she eyed the woman beside the stranger. "You seem polite." she stated. "Polite is good." it sounded as if she was reciting something drilled into her head from countless months ago. "Friend? Wow, I love making friends. You'll be my friend, right?" her eyes trailed between the two older women as she said so. Depending on their reactions, she would react accordingly. Should they agree, she would clap her hands together in a motion that would likely make some of the surrounding civilians flinch- they knew that she didn't always need hand seals to cast jutsu, and she often substituted them with a simple clap. "I suppose you'd need help then, right? I guess I could lend an assist..."

Should they refuse, on the other hand, she would lean forwards mockingly, letting the air grow uncomfortably hot for a few seconds before all returned to normal. "Pity. I guess it can't be helped, hmm?"

[WC: 200]
[Total WC: 634]

Miss Onaga's mouth hangs open for a moment at Amaterasu's callous words - then her face twists into something at once sad, pitying, and afraid. "You could say that," she replies to Su-Jin, distantly. She turns to rejoin the rest of the group, offering a wave of goodbye to Amaterasu, watching out the corner of her eye warily as she goes. "I should get back to work. Have a nice day, miss."

Su-Jin watches her go with raised eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest. Then her gaze returns to Amaterasu.

"No nice villages, right?" she ventures in response, giving the girl a wry, tired grin. The way she says that 'polite is good' is... interesting, as though it's by rote repetition. Is somebody out there trying to give this girl social skills training? They need to try harder. Her words are, of course, somewhat uncaring... but she's so young that Su-Jin has a difficult time holding any animosity towards her. It's not naivete, really. There are a lot of little monsters in this world, but the rage in Su-Jin's heart burns for them, not at them. Usually. To Amaterasu, this deliberation plays out on Su-Jin's face as a friendly, appraising look. "Polite is good. I do my best."

Amaterasu's offer draws a hesitant chuckle from Su-Jin, and she gestures with her head towards the people behind her.

"I've no idea why they're so antsy around you, but I figure the best way you could help would be not helping," she says. "Hate to say it. Another shinobi would make this awful quick work. But yeah, we can be friends. Name's Su-Jin," she says, offering a hand - if Amaterasu turns up the heat, she holds it out steady, even as her smile wavers and sweat beads on her face. Oh, jeez, a fire nature too... Su-Jin can't help but think of her little sister, with burn scars all over her hands from pushing herself so hard to learn ninjutsu. Her next thought is that she might be incinerated in a moment.

[340]
[TWC: 974]

"Hmm..." She rocked on her feet as the older woman walked away. "You know, I get the feeling she really didn't like me much." it was simply a statement of fact, with little to no emotion behind it. A single, piercing yellow eye looked up. "Yeah, villages are stupid. I find it hard to take some of them seriously when stuff like this happens." her eye trailed around the scenery. "Ooh yeah, we gotta kill this guy. Some explosive tags might work. Let's shoot them towards the civilians he couldn't care less about." both of her hands, scarred and unmarred, were in the air, gesturing with her dry tone. A hesitant hand reached forward and grabbed the strangers, its placement awkward and jarring and uncomfortably hot. After a few seconds, she let go. "I suppose I could hang back." A conspiratorial grin. "I'm Amaterasu."

She kicked a rock at the ground, watching as it impacted some rubble a few meters away and fell to the ground. "These guys are kinda boring," she admitted after a while. "There's only so many bodies you can leave out before they start to smell... I'm honestly surprised nobody's caught some debilitating disease yet. Of course, they'd probably blame that on me, too." she brought her right hand up to her chin. "Perhaps they have, and they haven't told me. Say, have you been experiencing fatigue, sudden nausea, abdominal pain, or intense itching?" a pause. "...Just kidding." she stopped rocking for a moment and brought her hand back down. "No but really, if you have, you might've caught Hepatitis from one of the bodies. It's really gross. I'd recommend washing your hands thoroughly after you leave.

"There might still be some vaccines in the hospital, too, but it's kinda fallen into disrepair. No shinobi for maintenance and whatnot, so... Hopefully nobody's raided it." a nod. "That said, good luck, I guess. I hear the pay for this kind of stuff is good." she leaned forwards on her toes. "Though the more lucrative stuff can be found towards the industrial district at nighttime. That is, if you don't get caught." Inhale. Exhale. "I guess I'm keeping you, hm? Best get back to work."

[WC: 367]
[Total WC: 1,001]

Su-Jin's hand is rough and callused, engulfing Amaterasu's easily. She gives the younger woman a firm, short handshake before taking back her hand, planting it on her hip. "No, she didn't," she says, a thoughtful expression on her face as she glances towards the people working behind them. Miss Onagi had made more of an effort than the others, but it'd crumbled right quick. Well... she doesn't have much information. No need to get too judgmental.

"Do I look like someone that doesn't wash my hands? I'm hurt," she jokes, giving Amaterasu another wry smile. "'ppreciate the warning." This girl's talking a mile a minute. By the end of her chattering, Su-Jin is leaning more towards the idea that she is legitimately not so comfortable with people rather than putting on an act. Might still be a real good act, though. The suggestion that bodies are being left out so long sends a pang of sadness through Su-Jin. Nobody to claim them, then, or is it too dangerous to properly bury or cremate them right now? The bodies outside function as a message, but within the walls, it's just tragic and dangerous.

"You sound like you've got an eye for medicine, why don't you go poke around?" she says. This is somebody with a poor reputation, sure, but she seems to know what she's talking about. Su-Jin nods along thoughtfully with the tip to go poke around the industrial areas. Does she think they're looting? Why nighttime specifically, and who would be catching - Su-Jin stops the train of thought right there. No more feeding that curious line of thought. Instead, the woman rubs at her chin. "Don't go blabbing to the world about it, but I'm an Akimichi by birth. Come find me later if you want to get some decent grub. My client's housing me down near the indoor market." She politely leaves out that the tiny girl looks like she could get knocked over by a stiff breeze at any given time.

[334]
[TWC - 1308]

"Oh? You're trusting me with something like this?" The young Meijin tried not to let the surprise show too clearly on her face, tilting her head as the words came out of the stranger's mouth. As she revealed she was an Akimichi, Amaterasu let out a small breath. Why was she revealing information about herself so openly? Why was she...

After the reveal of where she lived, her brows furrowed further. This was a trick. This was all just a trap, and she was the target. A pause, before she shifted back into her ordinary expression. She couldn't afford to show too much of herself, if her suspicions were correct, so it'd be best to hide her true emotions behind a proxy. "I suppose I could take a look for you, hm?" the words came off with a saccharine flair, and she found herself climbing through the rubble and slipping between small cracks with what seemed to be reckless abandon. It was, of course, calculated in its own efficiency, but control over how one came off was always something that was more beneficial to have on hand than not. A sharp piece of jagged, leaking pipe passed a few centimeters from her shoulder, and after she squeezed through, she found herself in a somewhat intact interior. Most was as it had been before the attack, she imagined- tables, chairs, and even dinner plates had been set out. A few things towards the ends of shelves seemed to have fallen to the floor, some broken and some not. There were no bodies to be found, but some valuables. She took a sharp inhale of the dusty air, sneezing it out almost immediately. The biggest thing she sensed from that was mostly leaking pipes and sewage- rotting bodies and blood had not registered.

She coughed out another dust cloud before making her slow and steady ascent, using the ninja patented Surface Walking Technique to slowly crawl and scramble her way up walls and half fallen lattices. After a few minutes, she peeked her head out about fifteen meters off the ground. Deactivating the jutsu, she grabbed firmly the sides of the sandstone and pulled her way up. Despite having meager strength, it was easily enough to lift her small form long enough to swing her legs over and slowly walk down. Around a minute later, and she was on the ground as normal, albeit somewhat dirtier. She tilted her head curiously before speaking out. "Well, there's no more bodies. In that area, anyway. I suppose you're all in the clear medical wise unless you somehow catch something from the guy down there," she pointed towards the body that was now wrapped in cloth. A few sighs of relief swept the area, though most people still seemed to be uncomfortable with her presence... Oh well. Can't win them all. She gave a wave to Su-Jin, though, as she slowly made her way back towards the small apartment where she stayed. And if she went out of her way to watch the older woman when she knew she wasn't noticed... Well, who's to say?

[WC: 520]
[WC: 1,521]

(Exit)

Claiming:

500 words to the mission, which i'm nabbing 1 stat from.
1,000 ryo
3 AP
260 words to http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t42338-burn-up#336048
1,000 other words, which i'm gonna use to claim 5 more stats for a total of 6
1,265 words to http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22920-v6-mystical-palm-technique

Approved

Su-Jin studies the girl's face. Her admission of her family and lodging seem to actively stress the little one out. The older woman makes no move to backtrack, simply giving an easy shrug and a little smile at her offer being pointedly ignored.

"I like to trust people sometimes. Keeps my life interesting," she says.

Amaterasu angling towards the collapsed house draws a raised eyebrow from the woman. Ah, misunderstandings. No need to tell her that she'd meant the hospital, though, if the girl's so eager to be helpful this works out just fine. Su-Jin watches her navigate, quietly judging. Nimble as a cat, this one.

The most interesting thing to catch Amaterasu's eye inside a fallen box of seashells, contents scattered in shattered pieces across the floor.

"Appreciate it," Su-Jin says with a grin upon her return. Though most do remain skeptical, Amaterasu also gets a soft, relieved smile of thanks from the olive-eyed woman. Su-Jin returns the wave goodbye, and watches her new friend go for a moment before returning her attention to the group. They've been doing fairly brisk work, today, even with the distractions. Should be done just before sundown at the latest.

"Aren't you supposed to be keeping the dangerous ninja away from us?" the muscular man asks, as soon as Amaterasu is a safe distance away.

"She's not here anymore, is she?" Su-Jin replies casually, eliciting an annoyed noise from the man. She gingerly lifts the covered body and brings it to a shady little spot by the side of the house, out of the way for now. "Come on, let's get this all finished up. And you can all tell me why you're so scared of a - how old was she, five?"

"Oh, for --"

"Kidding, kidding!"

[Exit]
[292]
[TWC: 1600]

[Claiming: 1000 ryo mission reward + 100 ryo D-rank bonus, 3AP, +2 Strength, +2 Stamina.]
[Claiming: 200 words to master Genjutsu Release (50 words trained in a previous thread), 500 words to learn Leaf Whirlwind, 500 words to learn Aerial Strip, 250 words to learn Flickering Lantern, 150/500 towards Chakra Anaesthetic.]