Theft and Duets (C-Rank mission)

Mission Specs:

The sounds of croaking frogs and quiet splashes, mixed with the smell of crystal clear lake water painted a beautifully natural picture as Shinrah stood along the bank of a large lake in the Land of Rivers. A large country club could be seen a short distance away. Shinrah had only been in the land of rivers for a few days at this point but even so the scenery he had encountered was beyond the beauty of any he had seen before. The calm and life filled waters of the lakes and ponds reminding him of the village he had been born to in multiple different ways. For the first time in a long time, he had actually felt homesick, seeming to actually miss the life he once had before setting off on his journey. Leaving had been his best option at the time though and no matter how much he could ever regret this fact would always remain true.

"I wish you were here to bask in the beauty of this land with me right now.. Mother." Shinrah thought to himself as his usually emotionless and completely composed expression gave way to the formation of a single tear. As this single symbol of sadness ran from his eye to the bottom of his chin, Shinrah quickly wiped it away forcing himself to regain his usual coolness.

Staring into his reflection upon the water for a few more moments, Shinrah finally turned to leave when he noticed someone standing a few meters behind him. How long had they been there and how had they managed to slip under Shinrahs detection? These questions probed Shinrahs mind heavily as he stood staring down the figure from head to toe. The individual appeared to be about five and a half feet tall, with a slender build. From this Shinrah noted that it was probably a woman, though it was hard to tell as they werw cloaked in a long black trench coat with a hood covering their head and face. The hooded figures arms, which had been hidden by the cloak, then suddenly appeared from behind the individual, twin daggers held one in each hand. "Surrender all your belongings, or your life, your choice." The voice of the assailant was light and soft, further adding to the evidence that the person facing Shinrah was a woman.

In response, Shinrah merely scoffed at her, drawing his sword from its sheath upon his back and holding it tightly with both hands in front of him. They both stood motionless for a few moments, weapons drawn, before the cloaked figured decided to make his or her move. The figured rushed towards Shinrah, their speed actually quite impressive. Shinrah responded by swinging his sword in a wide horizontal arc when the figure was within range. To counter this, she simply leapt into the air above the katanas arc and attempted to land a midair kick to Shinrahs temple. Shinrah pulled his head backwards in just the nick of time, the assailants foot passing just centimeters in front of his nose. As the hooded figure landed upon the ground, they wasted no time and quickly attempted a flurry of slashes with her twin daggers. Shinrah did his best to deflect the blades away with his katana, but in such close quarters the much smaller blades offered his opponent too much flexibility in terms of speed as opposed to his much larger katana. This caused Shinrah to suffer a few minor cuts along his arms before he was forced to backflip away from the fight a few meters and disengage. Standing back on the edge of the water he actually appeared to be on the ropes.

The hooded figure then attempted to continue her rush, reclosing the distance between them. In response Shinrah formed two quick handsigns before inhaling deeply and exhaling a thick black cloud of smoke in a three meter cone directly in front of him. The smoke veil technique was quite useful against close quarters fighters as the smoke is nearly impossible to see through causing massive irritation to the eyes and airways of those cought inside. As the hooded figure entered the smoke cloud, they began to cough loudly enough Shinrah could discern their position within the cloud and where they would appear from. As the hooded figure came through the cloud of black smoke to the opposite side where Shinrah had originally been they were surprised to discover he no longer appeared to be there. A few moments later however, a sharpened kunai knife would be pressed up against the attackers throat from behind, a cold and calculating Shinrah wielding it, two simple words escaping his lips, "Check mate."

Just as he was about to finish them off however they finally spoke again, this time a much different request than the one they previously made, "Wait!" They exclaimed before turning around and lowering their hood, Shinrahs guard maintained in case they tried any tricks. As the figured dropped the hood covering their face, long black hair fell down the person back. A soft, light skinned complexion proving Shinrahs earlier suspicions. The woman appeared to be quite young, no older than Shinrah himself, but what was she doing out here all by herself attempting to get over on bystanders? Did she work for someone or was she independent?

"Who sent you?" Shinrahs voice stern and deep as he asked the question with all seriousness. The woman, quickly raised her hand shaking it wildly in front of her. "No no no, you got the wrong idea. I work only for myself and have only myself to rely on. I just.. Do what I must to survive, but I never expected to encounter a skilled Shinobi like you all the way out here. What village are you from? You've gotta be pretty far from home."

Shinrah could not hold what the woman had said against her as he actually understood what she meant on a deeper level. In some ways, she was just like him, never relying on anyone but themselves and doing whatever's necessary to survive was just a way of life for them both.

"Not from any of the major villages, in fact I dont really have a home. I guess in that regard, im not any different than you are." Shinrahs expression remained calm and cold while his tone of voice seemed much softer. Something about her, reminded him of happier memories and warmer emotions, she reminded him of his mother almost in a way. Turning to leave, he gave her one last piece of advice, "You know, robbing petty vagrants wont get you too far. Gotta think bigger than that. Anyways, im off."

He took a few steps towards the treeline, the thick smoke cloud from before all but dissipated by this point. However, the woman caught up to him, apparently spured on by what he had said. She grabbed his jacket sleeve, stopping him. "Wait! I have an idea actually. That country club back there, most of its patrons are quite wealthy and it makes plenty of money based on the fishing proceeds from this land. Ive lived here a long time, but a job like that is something I wouldnt even dream of doing alone. You might just have the extra edge needed to pull this off!"

Shinrah thought it over for a few moments. A rich country club style building would probably be packed for the day and guarded at night. Still, something compelled him to help her in someway so, Shinrah gave a nod in response. Her eyes lit up as she laid down her plan of attack, it would appear she had been thinking this over for sometime just never had the means of execution. "Okay so, from what intel ive been able to gather. The buidling is owned by a wealthy ex shinobi turned fisherman. Political figures and rich socialites frequent there. Now one socialite in particular is someone ive been tailing for awhile. I know which room is his and where he keeps his safe."

Shinrah stopped her right there, curious as to how she had gathered all this information already. "How did you figure all this out?"

"Dudes an old pervert, and im an eighteen year old female with a curved figure.. Use your imagination." Shinrah, at that point, no longer wished to know exactly what she had done and had turned his focus back to the task at hand.

"Anyways, hes perverted and hes paranoid, when hes down in the lobby drinking and gambling he never leaves his stash of cash unguarded. The mercenaries he employs to guard it are no laughing matter either but, thats where you come in. Heres the main plan, use the transformation jutsu to transform yourself into a female and me and you will enter the buidling. We will make out way up to the room, with any luck we'll be able to convince the guards that we are there to, uh.. Satisfy.. The old man. Once they let us in, fill the room with smoke, knock out the guards, ill grab the safe and we'll make a swift exit out the window. His rooms only on the second floor so the fall shouldnt be too bad on our bodies or the contents of the safe itself."

Her plan was well thought out and seemed like it could work, though Shinrah wasnt sure he would be able to play the part of a woman very well. Normally, Shinrah would just barge through the front and take anyone who stopped him head on. However, stealth would favor them more in this instance, considering how crowded she had claimed the place would be. With any luck there would only ve one or two guards standing watch over the safe and Shinrah would be able to handle them quickly and quietly.

They allowed a few hours to pass, talking amongst each other a little bit before making their way towards the country club. Upon reachint a few meters distance from the entrance, the buidling seemed quite alive with lights and loud music and laughter coming from inside. Shinrah performed three quick handseals forcing chakra out from every point on his body. Following a puff of smoke, Shinrah would appear as a long red haired girl, deep green eyes, with quite the skimpy short skirt on and nothing but a sports bra covering her top.

"You could of held back a little ya know!" His female comrade yelled, scolding him for his choice of appearance apparently. After letting out a sigh and calming down however, she figured it would do well enough to accomplish the task at hand to say the very least. Moving inside the large country club, Shinrah followed her down a series of hallways towards a large pub type area. Many different shapes and sizes of patrons scattered about. One in particular, a rather robust and large old man with a thick beard, appeared to be their target. For his size, he wore a very fancy suit, a signal to all that he had something worth taking.

They made their way up to him, Shinrahs female companion speaking up first. "Fancy seeing you here again, oh it must be destiny!" The sarcasm in her voice almost unbearably honest.

However the burly man seemed to fall for it, turning his attention instead to Shinrah his disguise holding foe the time being. "Whose your friend there?" The man said ruffling his beard with a single large hand.

"Oh, this is Shila. I was talking about you and she said she just had to meet you. We were hoping for a more.. Private setting though." Shinrahs comrade stated with an exaggerated giggle. The old mans face breaking out into a deep blush for a few moments before he was able to speak.

"Yes well, you know which room it is. I take it you havent forgotten. Tell the guards ill be up in a jiffy and to make sure you ladies are comfortable." Shinrah and his companion both bowed a sarcastic bow of false respect before she led Shinrah away to a flight of stairs nearby. Once they had gone down a few more corridors and after a fww minutes of rushing between hallways, they soon reached their target room. Shinrahs comrade took the front, knocking on the door softly.  A few moments later a large man, probably well over six feet tall answered the door. Apparently this was nothing new to the guard, as he allowed them entry almost immediately.

As they entered Shinrah took notice of a second guard in the large suite style room. Once the first one had let them in, he returned to the table that the second was sitting at on the opposite side of the room as they appeared to be playing some kind of card game. Shinrah, seeing his oppurtunity, nodded to his partner signaling that he was making his move. She moved quickly behind him, as he dropped his transformation and quickly formed another few handsigns. This time for his smoke veil technique, blasting hot smoke towards the guards before they even had time to really move from their seats. Such hulking bodies were quite slow after all.

Aa the black ash enveloped them, they could do little but gasp for air. While they were unable to see or breath, Shinrah slipped quietly into the smoke. Then based on the sound of their gasps alone he was able to kill both with a single deep slash to the back of the neck from his katana severing the spinal cords and causing death instantly. As they dropped to the floor, his partner, now holding a small box with a large lock on front of it, stood staring at him in disbelief. "I said to knock them out! Not kill them!" She screamed.

Shinrah quickly grabbed her by the arm pulling her towards the far window of the room and jumping through it with her in tow. As they landed, she dropped the locked safe which Shinrah retrieved before helping her to her feet.

"Look, we can worry about the details later, for now just shut up and keep moving!" Shinrah yelled as he dragged her along. As they kept running, into the dark of night, they stopped themselves from looking back only giving themselves a break once they were at least good distance away, a few hundred meters minimum. Now finally able to look at the safe a bit further, it appeared to be small metal box with a large padlock on the front. The padlock was somewhat worn but still seemed suited to doing its job.

One good wack from Shinrahs katana however, broke the lock clean off, proving it hadnt aged beyond its appearance. On the inside Shinrah and his female cohort found a few thousand ryo and a couple large gems. Shinrah quickly snatched the loose money, totaling about two thousand in total. He left the gems for the lady, he figured they were more valuable anyways. "Well, I suppose these gemstones can fetch quite a price. You sure your okay with such a small cut?"

Shinrah spoke back calmly before standing up straight, "Sure, you could use the extra more than I could. Besides I dont have time to find a buyer for those. Ive gotta keep moving, I simply stopped to do a job." After speaking Shinrah turned to walk away. He only managed to get a few feet away however before the lady tugged on his coat the same way she had before.

"Will I see you again?" She asked softly.

Shinrah simply nodded in her direction before pulling himself free of her grip and continuing onward into the darkness. In truth however, he wasnt sure he would ever see her again,as he had a long roaf ahead of him and many things left undone. Who knew how many lifetimes it would take before he was free of burden and able to return.

[Exit]
[WC: 2,673]
[Mission Complete]

[Claiming]
+2,100 ryo (2000 mission + 100 commissions)
+5Ap
+16 Stats
+ A-Rank Sage Transformation (1000/1000) (Previous ranks trained/approved Here
+Pheasant Hunter (1,444/1,444) (Previous wc trained Here
+C-Rank Chakra Shroud (229/1000)

Approved