Shibata is a good (enough) guard

Sun May 24, 2020 11:29 pm

Mission Details:

Shibata had woken up, still depressed over what had happened in the past week. His father was dead, his mother's secrets revealed to him, showing that the village he had grown up with so much admiration for had been the reason why he was denied access to what he had envied over and had been so wanting of when he was young, a mother. He knew that his home had been the reason he had gone through so much grief when he was younger, and that he had done so much to help that poisonous, matricidal domicile he called Konohagakure no Sato. Shibata was brought thoroughly in the dumps by this cloud that had formed over his head, and he knew he had to find something to do in order to get his mind over it, and only one thing could come to mind for the young Nara clan member to do, a mission. Now that the Rebel Heart had much less than a positive opinion of the Village Hidden in the Leaf, it didn't bother him that half the profits of the mission went to a rival nation, even if that meant that the genin himself was getting a large amount less of the pay cut, anything to spite the fuckers that killed his mom.

Shibata outstretched his arms and payed his mother's old shack a visit, making sure to lock it up before he left the property, something he had forgotten to do the day prior as it had been quite the emotional event, his dear father's funeral and he was far too busy dealing with the many conflicted ways in which he was feeling to keep a mind up about what should and should not be locked. He then visited his father's grave site, also on the property, taking out one of the cigarettes from the pack of "Third Strikes" left to him by his similarly dead mother, before taking a second to admire the artwork that made up the logo for this cigarette company. On it's face was the picture of a baseball player holding a flaming match as a baseball bat, looking like he was striking out, with a freshly lit cigarette taking the place of the baseball itself, seeming to be lit by the swinging match. The umpire was made the sign signifying the batter had swung out and had a little voice bubble that read, "You are outta here! Now, time for a smoke break!" apparently trying to grab the cigarette-baseball hybrid that was the centerpiece of the whole marketing masterpiece. Shibata flipped over the pack to reveal on the back was a close up of the umpire smoking, face shield up, with a thumbs up and provided another voice bubble, which said this time, "That's a good smoke, that's a Third Strike smoke!" which gave a big smile to the now crying Shibata as he let out a laugh, remembering how his father always scolded him for smoking cigarettes. But he was dead now, so the young Nara wouldn't have to deal with any nagging as he put the cigarette up to his lips, covered it with his hand to form a shield from the wind that blew through the grave site, and lit it. As he inhaled, he was filled with the overwhelming thought and sensation of, god damn, which was so strong it compelled Shibata to say out loud, "God motherfucking damn that is a good fucking smoke, fuck, can see why it was my ma's go to brand, good shit. Think they just got another fucking life long customer."

Shibata's thoughts regained appropriate composure as he realized he was in front of his father's damn tombstone, so he continued enjoying the cigarette, smoking it to the nub before putting it out atop the headstone that told the world one thing, Shibata's father was dead. He dusted himself off, paid his respects to the deceased, and started his way off to the village, filled with a determination, albeit a slight one, one that was more out of spite rather than a wanting to serve his community, to get a mission done, and get paid. He cracked his knuckles, rolled his shoulders, and rolled his neck as he entered the village proper, walking to mission central gritting his teeth all the way, and thinking of what kind of mission he was going to take. Shibata had quite the attitude shift to missions compared to what he did before, where he once wanted to serve the public, now he wanted just to take his mind off his own problems, where he once was angry that Kirigakure no Sato was stealing half of his cut, he was now content knowing Konohagakure was similarly losing out on profits, and where he had once been careful about his mission selection, he know did not care about how dangerous any mission he selected was, he simply wished just to get the mission done so that he can get some experience, secure a tight little profit, and focus on something other than his hatred for the village hidden in the leaf, which had for now simply been a small flame, maybe torch sized of rage, but was dangerously close to a pile meters high of kindling (and for the sake of the metaphor, let's say the pile also had gasoline and nitroglycerin in it, just to further get the point that Shibata would soon explode in anger against the village he had spent all of his life living in).

Shibata finally arrived at the mission board, but this time his eyes wandered to a bit more of a forbidden fruit then he had ever attempted, a mission he knew the old Rebel Heart would never do but the new Shibata didn't care enough to worry about his own safety to be a perfect match for a higher rank mission than he had done before, this time he would take a B rank mission, one that had real risks, and really fucking good rewards. Although the rank of his mission selection had changed, his methodology in regards to determining the specific mission had not, and so he took a finger, traced it up and down the available missions, and eventually pressed down randomly on a slip of paper, before grabbing it off the board. Oh great, he thought as he read over the title, which displayed itself somehow arrogantly despite being just a piece of paper, as, "Wealthy Businessman in Need of Guard Service for Stay Within Village." Letting out a sigh as he knew that whoever this client was, he would probably just be some overly cautious, overly zealous rich boy that saw the same guy at the super market at the bank and is now concerned someone is seriously trying to track him down and kill him.

And so Shibata, although he may not have liked the random mission he picked up from the onset, decided just to go for it, and went over the dossier on the mission that he picked up from the mission central, which outlined the basics of what Shibata was going to be up to for the next- his eyes scrolled down the page to the subsection "duration"- twelve hours. Wow, the young gening thought to himself, just half a day? And a B rank mission with as high a pay as three thousand ryo, damn shame I'll only see half of that, but that's still easy money. The Rebel Heart continued reading up on the mission summary, which requested a capable shinobi or kunoichi to defend a wealthy business man that has had several legitimate threats placed against his life within an inn that they would be staying at for a night until a chunin team would escort the business man out of the land of fire the next day. The man was in charge of a wealthy steel manufacturing company and was worth quite a pretty penny, in addition to outplaying his competition, causing said competition to seek the assistance of illicit assassination requests and attempt to take his life so that they could take out one more competitor from the rivalrous corporate world of steel manufacturing.

And so Shibata straightened out his leather jacket, tightened his belt, checked his weapons pouches, and started strutting his way to the inn outlined in the mission request, one "Silver Star Inn," which Shibata was familiar with as plenty of times he had exercised their lax policy regarding minimum age requirements for alcohol consumption. And so, having prepared himself for his mission and straightened out his look as best he could given the circumstances, Shibata entered the Silver Star Inn and took a look around. No one around here looked particularly affluent, but then again no one had recently, on account of all the taxes emanating for the Village Hidden in the Mist. Eventually Shibata gave up in his quest to see if he could, well, see the wealthy merchant solely reliant on looks, and instead decided to just shout out his name. "Okada!" he yelled, and then waited a second, "My name is Shibata of the clan Nara, and I am here to be your bodyguard, your little mission request didn't mention a room number so I am here to fucking ask for your presence so I can start my job and ensure your fucking safety." And just like that, as Shibata scanned the room of all the remarkably similarly looking fellows, one of them stood up and announced, "I am Okada, I am the client you will be working for."

WC: 1,600

Mon May 25, 2020 2:41 pm

As the man stood up, Shibata looked him up and down, taking in his appearance. The Rebel Heart was left wanting as he found the man looked exactly as... well, exactly as everything as any of the other men in the inn excluding the barkeep, it was remarkable just how unremarkable the man was in the crowd, which seemed a bit larger than it ought to be now that the young Nara clan member was thinking about it. He looked around for a second before understanding what was going on, before understanding that this was a very cautious businessman, and that he had devised a method by which to weed out potential assassins by paying some of the local riff raff more than the village could after taxes to sit around and look like generically the same person in order to prevent an assassin from easily strolling in, picking Okada out of the crowd and taking him out, Shibata also assumed that this wasn't the real Okada, as he knew that this was a conniving son of a bitch and that he had most likely either disguised himself as a member of the crowd, or had found a safe place to retreat to while he waited for the "real" bodyguard to show up.

Shibata opened his mouth once again, this time simply speaking loudly, projecting his voice, in place of the shouting he had done prior, saying to the crowd of similarly looking men, "Listen, I know whoever this poor fucking fella you're paying isn't the real Okada, just listen here, I pinky fuckin promise I'm not an assassain in some sort of disguise, I'm just a lowly Genin here to get a job done, and that is that. If you are gonna continue keeping this front up I'm going to have no option but to blacklist you from giving missions again, now, I have the dossier here as proof so why don't you reveal yourself so I can secure some proper preventative measures that don't potentially get innocents killed, and so that I can maximize the amount of safe time you get the luxury of experiencing."

This verbose statement was followed with quite the long awkward silence as all the inhabitants of the inn looked at each other, puzzling and questioning as to what they should do amongst themselves, until finally, after about ten minutes, a man that looked just as similar to the others as any of the others came out from beneath the counter and announced his presence, telling the similar looking audience, with the exception of Shibata and the Innkeeper that, "I am the real Okada, glad to see by guard has finally arrived, each of you may now leave, you have faithfully fulfilled our contract and you have all earned your proper 100 ryo," and just like that the crowd dispersed as many similar, but not too similar, looking people exited the bar, seemingly content with the hours work they put in and happy that they were getting some ryo among all this Kirigakure no Sato over taxing business.

Now there only stood the owner of the establishment, the Rebel Heart, and the wealthy owner of a lucrative steel manufacturing company who all in the building know knew with quite some concreteness was named Okada. They looked at each other until eventually the youngest of the three, the only real shinobi of the bunch, piped up in his usual manner, impolite and impatient, stating as a matter of fact, "Listen, I expect you are going to be wanting to sleep sometime in the near fucking future, so if you'd kindly comply with the things that are going to be coming out of my god given gabber, I can assure you this will go as smooth as possible. So, first up we need to secure the goddamn bedroom you'll be using, now I got two questions, which bedroom is that and shopkeep, you got any tin cans?"

"Only the nicest for milord Okada, he has the best room in the entire establishment with a great view of both the sunrise and the sunset," the innkeeper answered, "and I believe I have some aluminum cans around, what do you need them for?"

"I said no fucking questions, what are you fucking deaf, you hammerhead?" Shibata snapped. "Doesn't matter why I need them, I just need you to go fucking get them, on the double!" the young Nara clan member continued, "And you, fat stacks, I'm going to need you to try your best to relax and get ready for the god damned sand man to give you a fucking dream as you falling asleep is all I need from you, don't you worry a bit, I will set up an alarm system around your perimeter to make sure no 'vagabonds,' no 'unseemly characters,' and no generally undesirable fuck heads show up in the Silver Star Inn, let alone anywhere close enough to you to take you out. Do you understand what I am saying, rich boy?"

"I'm not sure I like your attitude son, but I understand I might not be the most security apt fellow in this here room, so I will defer to your judgement, yes I do understand, Shibata. That was your name right?" the businessman replied snidely, all the while sizing up the genin that was assigned to guarding him, as his eyes took in the well toned body of the Shinobi, he was reassured, realizing that this was a ninja that had seen combat before, and allowed it to harden him, allowed it to mold him and make him stronger. Okada had confidence in his bodyguard, and obediently followed his requests to help insure his own safety.

"Yeah, that is my fucking name, codger, don't wear it out," Shibata answered, filled with the same attitude that had dominated their conversation together. "Now go up to your room, and I'm going to go up with you," Shibata continued, "I got to set up proper alarm systems up there. HEY! INNKEEP, WHEN YOU GET THEM TIN CANS JUS' LEAVE 'EM ON THE COUNTER THERE!" And so as the Rebel Heart devolved into shouting, both him and the business man known only as Okada went up to the second level of the inn and entered the room of the wealthy business owner.

(WC: 1,057, TWC: 2657)

Mon May 25, 2020 3:44 pm

The Rebel Heart and the Wealthy business man entered the room, a grand affair with two huge windows viewing sunset and sunrise, with a door for the bathroom and a door for entrance from the hallway. This layout was not optimal for protection, but it was workable, it was certainly workable. Shibata started working his jar, announcing his actions as he started to do them, "Alright, I'm going to start by putting wire over both windows without separating any of it, then I'm going to nail the wires down, before putting it over the bathroom door, and the main door to guarantee no one can enter this fucking place without tripping one of them. They will all be attached to a taut wire that will lead down to the main lobby where I myself will be stationed, and in there will be threaded through an assortment of cans that will be caused to rattle should anyone enter this very room, you got me?"

"Sure thing, but my one question is, can I use the bathroom?" replied Okada.

"Use it now before I wire is up, but if you want to be safe, I'd suggest not," answered Shibata, who then waited for the business man to, well, do his business before finishing his duty in wiring up the place, and leading the wire to the main floor to create his make shift alarm system. And so the young Nara sat, and the young Nara waited, not getting any younger as the time passed until eventually he heard the slightest rattle, it was go time. He sprung up and dashed into the suite that his client was staying in, seeing a man that had managed to catch himself in the wire that Shibata had already set up. Looked like his job was already done, but to make sure, Shibata willed his shadow to immobilize the intruder , announcing, "Shadow imitation jutsu, complete," before summoning two shadow clones, having made the proper hand signs, to start pummeling the strung up caper, knocking him out for at least the rest of the night. They then properly tied him up using more wire in a more organized method, and Shibata resumed his guard duties. The night passed by without any further incident, and when the morning finally came, the Chunin team came to relieve the Rebel Heart of his duties, and so he took the buddy he had made the night prior, still tied up, into mission central to submit the criminal and claim his reward.

Shibata had worked through the entire night, and thought he was more than owed a break, so he returned to his hunting lodge, more a zombie than a proper human just from the pure exhaustion he was going through. Shibata once again visited his father's grave before hitting the sack. The sun had still been rising and the way it lit up the headstone once again started to bring the now orphaned genin to tears, but he stopped himself, took a deep breath, and held the tears in. He knew that his tears would mean that his father was gone forever, and that there would be nothing Shibata could do to bring him back, and although the Rebel Heart wanted to pretend he was perfectly fine, he knew deep down in that rambunctious, eponymous heart of his, he wasn't ready to admit his father was dead, he wasn't ready to take a life of his own. He stepped into his house and once again entered sleep with the support of his old friend, sake.

(WC:594, TWC 3,251)
MISSION COMPLETE
+1.5k Ryo, +7 AP
+17 Speed
Continuing from Shibata Deals with Family Issues
v6 Summoning Technique (1k/1k)
Leaf-Style: Willow (500/500)
Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique (1k/1k)
v6 Chakra Absorption (1k/1k)
Chakra-Draining Seal (34/1.5k)

Mon May 25, 2020 4:04 pm

Approved

Shibata is a good (enough) guard

Shibata is a good (enough) guard

Re: Shibata is a good (enough) guard

Re: Shibata is a good (enough) guard

Re: Shibata is a good (enough) guard