[Mission] Shibata plays Pickup

Mission Details:

Shibata had fallen to sleep sometime just after sunrise the day before, so it didn't surprise him when he woke up to find it dark outside, revealing to himself that it was three o'clock in the morning by picking up a plate sized clock that had been hanging normally in the kitchen, but now had been been tossed around the cabin, settling in a heap of other similarly well hung decorations next to the entrance of the bedroom that used to hold the elder Nara clan member, Shibata's father. The father's room had been kept in remarkably good shape since his departure from the world of the living, as the Rebel Heart could never bring himself to properly enter his old man's room, leaving it for dust and the bunnies that dwell within said dust as he trashed the rest of the estate. The young Nara clan member then realized it would be best for him to get some sleep in an attempt to re normalize his sleep schedule, as he doubted much people would be around this early in the morning, but found that he had not a single sleepy bone in his skeleton, which prompted the genin to do the one thing he wanted to do the least in recent days, think. Shibata thought about his father, about how he wasn't coming back, Shibata thought about his mother, about how she seemed to be murdered by the village, and on a brighter note, Shibata thought about what he could do to get his mind off of the quite morose subject of his parents. Recalling that doing a mission, while only temporary, did in fact satiate his need for cognitive thought too intensive for the genin to be distracted by minor things like his family.

The young Nara clan member finally willed his way out of bed, mozying over to the bathroom to splash water in his face, which served as a shower enough for the apathetic genin, who then went to the kitchen and, finding the venison spoiled, routed around the torn up pantries and eventually came across, very fortuitously, a can of beans that had not quite hit the date of it's expiration yet, but was soon to be there. Shibata nabbed a can opener from a pile reminiscent of the other mound of random shit next to his father's bed room, with the only notable change being it's position in the dining room. As Shibata plopped the beans on a pan, he heated up the stove and cooked himself a breakfast that, while very hearty, left a lot wanting in terms of taste, and ate it up as quickly as possible, eliminating any idle time that potentially could have lead to the Rebel Heart thinking about his family again. After scarfing down the depressing pile of beans he called breakfast, he went to his bathroom for the second time to thoroughly wash that taste out of his mouth with the added help of a toothbrush and toothpaste, replacing his stale, bean like breath, with a minty fresh smell that was sure not to offend anyone, one that some might even find appetizing. After brushing his teeth, he found he still had a sort of malaise that comes attached with being conscious during off hours of the night, one that he attempted to and succeeded in washing away when he took a proper hot shower, which cleaned him much more thoroughly than the face splash of water that preceded it by about a half an hour. Having cleaned his body, the young Nara clan Inuzuka clan mixed breed punk slipped on his usual chiq, slipped on a leather jacket and tied up his headband to his arm in the form of an elbow pad. Now properly cleaned and clothed, Shibata stepped out of the hunting lodge that served as his domicile and took a breath of the fresh, early morning air, one that had not been tainted by any sort of hustle or bustle, one breath that was truly pure. The air was so fine it forced a cough out of the chain smoker that had regularly gone through one pack a day just as easily as one would drink a single glass of water in that same length of time. He didn't think he was worthy of this refined air, and thus put a filter of sorts up to his lips in the form of a smoke, not one of his mother''s "Third Strikes," but still one Shibata had some experience one, still a brand that he knew he could trust to sell a decent pack of cigarettes, "Hay Bailey's" the pack read, the picture of a country girl in front of a bail of hay displayed on the front.

The Rebel Heart took a drag of his cigarette before starting to resume his walking pattern, beginning the straight path to the main road into the village proper, before going forward on that very road, entering Konohagakure no Sato, and without hesitation heading in the direction of Mission Central so that he could start a mission early and not waste time thinking about things he frankly did not want to think about. He strode through the gates of Konohagakure no Sato, and found the village unfamiliarly empty, save the occasional sleeping homeless man, probably only sleeping on the streets as a result from the oppressive taxes originating from Kirigakure no Sato that took half their pay and all the stipend many of them had been reliant on to keep up their living expenses, Shibata was a lucky one, one who didn't have to make payments on his house or go to the grocery store, he could simply hunt.

After looking over all the poor wretches left in the street at this odd hour, the young Nara clan member finally reached the mission board, glancing over at the clerk in mission control proper, who was passed out with her elbows dangling over the wrong side of the counter. His focus returned to the mission board before him, and the Rebel Heart thought about what mission he might take upon with the intention of getting paid and making sure Konoha saw as little of the cut as possible. His eyes scanned over all the ranks, first over E, far too easy and not worth the miniscule amount he could get from them, then the precious baby blues of the Rebel Heart shifted all the way over to the A ranks. Hmm, Shibata thought, an intriguing possibility but that might just be overdoing it, not even sure I can do any of these, I think they require me to be a chunin or something. The same eyes and brain back tracked and he started back at the beginning, glazing over the E rank missions before taking a more in depth gaze at the D rank. Damn, Shibata thought, none of these look that interesting, guess I'll look at some C rank. But when he flipped through the C rank missions, he was left wanting, Double fucking damn it, another bust, he thought, guess I'm just gonna go straight into another fucking B rank mission, sure hope it doesn't fuck up my sleep schedule any further than the last one I just knocked out, I got to start normalizing my shit, otherwise that's just plain unhealthy. Shibata took a drag off of his cigarette lacking all self awareness as he lifted his finger and started going down the list of B rank missions until he felt one that he thought he might like and pressed down on it. His finger curled up and he grabbed the slip of paper, which read, "Wealthy Businessman and Steel Smith Gone Missing Upon Departure From Inn, Help Required." Shibata recalled his last mission and went on panic mode, what if this smith was the very same steel manufacturer he protected just the night earlier, what if his negligence is what allowed him to go missing, what if he was dead, what if it was Shibata's fault.

The distraught Rebel Heart approached the front desk and tried his best to politely and gently wake up the clerk, but when that didn't work in the slightest, he grabbed her by both her shoulders and shook the woman violently into the waking world. She let out a bit of the mix between of a mumble, a scream, and an assurance that she had not been sleeping before Shibata managed to calm her down. By the time she regained composure, Shibata was ready with a request for a dossier on the mission he had just picked up from the board, and did so, asking her much more politely than he had shaken her previously for information regarding the rovery of one steel smith.

"Here you go sir, please just don't tell my manager I was sleeping," the clerk said, handing the young Nara clan member a briefing folder, to which Shibata responded, "No problem, thank you very much and sorry for disturbing your rest."

The Rebel Heart's rebellious heart was seemingly pounding out of his chest as his anxiety rose to a climax while he opened up the folder slowly, scared of what he may find inside, and worried that he caused it. He read, and was saddened to find out it was in fact the steel manufacturer he had met only a night earlier who went by the name Okada. The genin couldn't help but blame himself at least partly for the sudden disappearance of Okada, after all, he was put in charge of protecting him the night before, and even though his position as guard was relieved, maybe Shibata had fucked up somehow earlier that allowed him to be caught and maybe killed.

Getting over his anxiety, at least momentarily, he started to read over the mission details, which revealed that Okada, the target, had gone missing somewhere between the Silver Star Inn, which the target stayed at the night before, and the exit gates out of the Village Hidden in the Leaf. He read further on into the dossier and saw that he was being escorted by a team of chunin, but that somewhere along the way, when at a time none of the chunin can quite agree on, the man they were supposed to be escorting disappeared, leaving no trace of his whereabouts. The chunin in question stationed themselves at the gates while asking for some lesser ninja to search the town, as the three had messed up keeping an eye on him, so who could expect them to be able to find the same guy they lost when they have no clue where he could be. An oddity was found on the mission request, a discrepancy between the description and protocol, where the expected mission drop off location is typically the mission control center, or the natural end point of the mission, the description in the briefing was made an addendum to by one of the chunin who requested the smith be brought back to them directly, which rubbed Shibata quite the wrong way. The mission was labeled as 48 hour urgent, meaning that the genin would have forty eight hours to find and bring back the body of Okada, alive or dead, otherwise they would assume that he would not be found, and whoever the mission pursuer is that attempted it would be cut off from additional village resources in accomplishing it, and would forfeit a majority of the payment, incentivising the Rebel Heart to try his hardest and act his quickest in order to get the mission accomplished, the person saved, or else he would suffer an, albeit limited, unwanted punishment. Knowing this and knowing that the life of the man he had protected a night earlier was in fatal danger, Shibata set out with great conviction to find and rescue, if not recover, the steel manufacturer known only to him as Okada. Departing from the mission control center, he made his way to that same place he saved him in, the Silver Star Inn.


WC: 2,014

Shibata arrived at the familiar inn and tavern combination, one that had served him many a drink while he was underaged, something he would have definitely exploited if he wasn't on duty and if it wasn't currently four in the morning, too far past last call to squeeze in some extra cash to greasen the ceased will at all at two hour mark post closing. Shibata knew he'd be getting nothing but a yelling and a grilling if he tried to enter the Silver Star Inn at this odd hour of night, so he instead strutted to just the front door, and started tracing the steps of the three chunin and the business man they were charged with guarding. After searching for a while, the young Nara clan member finally caught on to the trail they used and began to follow it. It was a pretty straight forward path, just went from the south district that held the Silver Star Inn, into the market district and from there through the northern district to the North Gate for the village.

It wasn't until he got pretty far into the northern district that Shibata noticed something was off about the tracks he was following. Maybe it was because the high contrast of the dark shadows with the bright breaking of day, maybe it was because Shibata's mind was dominated by the anxiety and guilt related to Okada's disappearance. Shibata decided to back track, this time more so paying attention to the space between the three sets of footprints of the chunin, where the missing, possibly stolen steel smith should be walking. Eventually, after Shibata had entered the centerpiece of the town, the market district, he noticed the impressions on the ground had re emerged, showing that the elusive steel smith had been with them while they were here. Right by the medical pill shop, the one with the green glass door, and the overweight pill presser, the four sets of footprints had one that diverged, one that went down an alleyway writhing in the filth of those who came not to the market square to purchase goods, but in place to nab them from unsuspecting shopkeepers and run off before they could get caught. Now either the steel smith was getting a whole new interest in a different kind of steal, he wanted to give back to the community, or someone took him, either physically or with genjutsu, and forced him to go down this alleyway to his own potential doom.

Shibata started down the pathway between two store, cognisant of the eyes prying into his every fold attempting to find the wallet they presumed the Rebel Heart would be carrying or wearing on his person, not suspecting that it was hidden in a dimension of his own design, a storage displacement, all along, a place they had no hopes of robbing from. Having looked over the boy and seeing no fat coin purse, or thick wallet, brimming with bills, the denizens of the debt causing alleyway ignored the young Nara clan member, allowing him to pass by without too much harassment from the vagabonds that loitered around that very specifically shadowed spot in the market district while he continued down the trail of footsteps still associated with the businessman Okada, finding it exiting, and turning left, south, out of the alley back towards the way the merchant and his guards came from in the first place. Shibata traced the steps of his target and wound through the western district placing his boots in the outlines of those left by the presumably kidnapped Okada as his locale slowly transitioned into the very part of the southern district in which he started his search for the metal manufacturer Okada, the place in which Shibata had saved the poor old, unbelievably wealthy businessman dealing in steel manufacturing and smithing the night before, the Silver Star Inn and Tavern.

This pissed the hell out of Shibata, this whole time wasting time looking every which way till sunday for the mother fucker he had just saved, only to find out that all that hassle he was going through was pointless, unnecessary, as he could have just walked through the door he decided not to earlier in the morning and avoided the hassle and time wasted earlier, the worry that he would be too late to find him, all of that could have been so easily fucking avoided if Shibata just went through the fucking door that was right in front of him yet again. The Rebel Heart took a deep breath, assumed a angered face, and kicked down the door, entering the facility and calling out, "OKADA! I AM HERE TO RESCUE YOU'RE DUMB, SCRAWNY, ANCIENT ASS! LETS GET YOU OUTTA HERE!" before taking in a full view of his surroundings, assaulted with almost a sense of deja vu.

Around him were countless numbers of the same generic looking down on his luck bar goer, the same people Okada paid to do the very thing they were doing the last night. "Jesus fucking christ," the young Nara said exacerbated, "you never got fucking kidnapped you rich codger, you came back, but why on god's green earth would you do that shite? You had a trio of solid fucking guards making sure you'd get to where the fuck your trying to go as safely and efficiently as possible." Eventually Shibata relented, taking a moment to catch his breath at which point a man that looked equally similar to each of the other patrons as the next guy stood up and replied with, "Why would I do it? Exactly because of those guards. They were ready to kill me just as soon as I got out of the village and claim the price on my head, I demand you get me a new set!"

"Ergh, I suppose I can take you to mission central, where I am probably supposed to take you anyway, so you can request some new escorts, this whole chunin trying to kill you stuff seems above my paygrade, you can take it up with them" Shibata said, patience waning, "Now, follow me and this time don't run out by the market district." And thus marked the end of yet another B ranked mission for Shibata Nara.

(WC: 1,052, TWC 3,066)

MISSION COMPLETED
1.5k Ryo, 7AP
+15 Speed
continuing from https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t44773-shibata-is-a-good-enough-guard#351174
Chakra-Draining Seal 1.5k/1.5k
Majestic Fire Destruction 2284/2500
V6 Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique 100/1.5k

Approved

Re-approved