Having a monster of a time (IO)

The Mission: Stop the Beast

Masashi's Stats at the time:

It’s been a few days since his last assignment and things were going smoothly for Masashi Uzumaki-Akari. His team was getting along and their training was proceeding apace. They may even do well in the upcoming Chuunin Exams, not that placing well meant a guarantee that they’d get promoted. When you place a promotion as a reward for winning, it brings out the worst in people. Masashi believed that the exams should be a place to build camaraderie and showcase the skills they’d been honing. It was not a place for dirty tricks or to beat down your opponent mercilessly.

His musings about the Chuunin Exams were interrupted by his butler arriving with a new mission report for him. Masashi accepted the scroll and opened it; there was some kind of monster causing problems on the route through the Tachibana Wildlife Reserve. The reports weren’t too specific, just something big and fast that’s been causing a lot of damage and has killed quite a few people. Hoshigakure leaders determined that it’s well past the point that the monster be dealt with. That apparently fell to Masashi and two others; Keina Schwachling and Akaboshi Uzumaki. ‘Seems like we’re getting teamed up more and more’ he thought to himself. Not that he minded, Keina and him always got along and Akaboshi held his own in that hostage situation. A pair of very capable shinobi, and there’s few people that Masashi would rather have at his back. Masashi put the report down, collected his things, and made his way to the meeting point for this mission, at the gates heading towards the Tachibana reserve.

He was the first one there again, likely because he was early as always. He’d spend his time waiting for the other two to arrive, checking over his gear, and making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything important.

WC: 308

Stat page:

Another day, another mission. Lately more and more work started to flood in and Akaboshi wasn't all too sure how he felt about it. Keeping busy is part of a shinobi's duty but he wouldn't mind some time off. There were things to do and plans to be molded but alas, when duty calls you answer. And so the red haired Uzumaki was preparing himself to go out once more as he set out on a journey to complete the mission. The task at hand being rumors about a demon terrorizing travelers and killing them on the road to Hoshigakure. They didn't know much about this so called monster, only that it was more active at night. The redhead didn't really believe in monsters but he'd never know when the day would come where he would meet his first.

Dressed in his usual attire and lighting up a cigarette Akaboshi was headed to the foreseen location where he would be meeting up with two familiar faces being Masashi and Keina. Two of Hoshigakure's shinobi with who he successfully took care of the hostage situation not that long ago. Which is why he figured today's mission would be brought to a good end as well. As expected the red haired Uzumaki noticed his companion had already arrived at the scene, he knew his fellow Uzumaki made it his habit to get to places early. "Ah, Masashi. Nice to see you again, I hope you are doing well? Ready to catch a monster? Looks like we're waiting on Keina?" Once the kunoichi appeared the mission could officially begin.

(WC: 266)

Keina's Stats:

Writing is a fun hobby. Keina enjoys her writing.

Sometimes, she writes something she really likes, and wishes to share it.

She made a friend a few years ago, who lives outside the village, but still in Haven. Cute boy. Taken, but cute.

He and his hubby were dear friends of Keina's, and the only two people she trusted to read her stories and offer helpful feedback while also not telling anyone about the content.

It helped that they lived a long ways away from Hoshi, so even if they DID spread rumors, they'd be lost in the wind.

Today, Keina was sending a special manuscript to the couple. This one was a labor of love. She had typed it up on her laptop, and then, after rereading the whole thing? She had decided to write it down. All the many pages of it now sat in a folder, housed within a protective envelope.

This was no ordinary folder though. She had an old friend who was skilled in fuinjutsu. Any who opened the envelope and saw the folder, without using the deactivation code, would be instantly hit with a "knockout jutsu" and there would be a loud, funny sound.

Keina had asked why there was a loud, funny sound once.

Her friend responded "it's easier to leave it in than take it out."

Keina had no further questions for him.

Anyways, it was half a joke, and half Keina protecting her dignity. This was NOT a manuscript she wanted read by anyone else than the intended recipients. As such, a final part of the seal was added: if triggered, the folder would burst into flames, destroying the manuscript.

All those hours of work transcribing would be worth it to avoid a random missing ninja reading the story and tracing it back to her.

She could not possibly imagine the embarrassment.

On her way to meet others for a mission, Keina dropepd the letter off at a post office. They would manage to get it where it needed to go.

With the proper postage, of course.

Having paid the fellow, Keina continued on towards meeting her companions on this mission: a mission to track down a dangerous, deadly beast that many are calling a "demon".

Keina... used to not believe in demons.

Ever since getting stuck in a parallel universe looking place for a da, though, Keina is much more accepting of the seemingly impossible.

She was happy to see she was working with Masashi yet again.

She was also working with Akaboshi again. Not an unpleasant surprise, although he had not quite been whipped into shape yet, at least not by her standards.

In the distance, she spotted her two would be comrades. Waving, she hastened her pace to reach them, realizing she may be running late! Shipping the package today was a bit of a spur of the moment decision when she remembered there was a post office barely out of the way.

Today, Keina had decided to pack it light. It was hard to be stealthy in the forest, but she did not want anything making it harder. Form fitting, covering clothing was on the budget today, alongside actual shoes. If you count those glorified mesh socks that wrap around each toe as socks. Her hands were also tied in bandages, ready for whatever may come.

[559]

There was nothing going on at the North gate this morning, which suited Masashi just fine. Most of what has been going on lately seemed to be things just happening out of the blue; the two incidents at the academy, the fight here at the North gate the other day, the monster rampaging in the Reserve all of a sudden. It would be nice for there to be one mission that went without any kind of “plot twist”.

His mental complaining was interrupted by a familiar face arriving. Akaboshi walked over at that point, which elicited a smile from Masashi. They’d worked together on a few missions so far, and they’d started to develop a good sense of camaraderie. “Good to see you too Akaboshi. I’m doing really well thanks, and I hope you are as well.” At the question of the mission, Masashi could help but laugh. “I certainly hope so. As long as we don’t have any interruptions like our patrol mission.” He was of course referring to their patrol with Keina and Zeo where some random “infiltrator” tried to barbeque three of them. Of course that didn’t end up happening thanks to some well-timed kunai thrown by Keina, Masashi’s mentor. Coincidentally Keina was the one person that they were waiting on to get the current mission started. “I’m sure she’ll be along soon. For all we know she could already be there dealing with the monster.” He said with a smirk.

Not long after that, he could see Keina making her way over to them, showing up just a few minutes before the mission start time. ‘She probably thinks she’s running behind’ he thought to himself as he watched her not quite running over them. Masashi would wave, a grin forming as he thought of a great way to greet his friend and mentor. As soon as she caught up to them, he said “no sundress today?” It wasn’t anything huge, but it was a playful jab at what Keina wore on their last mission together. He could get used to see her in sundresses, but that wouldn’t likely ever be a common article of clothing in her wardrobe. Regardless of her reply, Masashi would look between her and Akaboshi. Since the squad was now here, it was time to get the mission started. “I guess we should get a move on, we don’t want whatever’s in the Reserve causing any more damage than necessary. How do you both think we should proceed?” Once they all decided on a plan of action, they would head out.

WC: 429
TWC: 737

Akaboshi was glad to hear his companion, Masashi, was doing well. The red haired Uzumaki made it his habit over the past years to always check on how the people, be it his friends or people regardless of their rank, were feeling. A healthy mind in a healthy body if you may. After exchanging a little bit of small talk here and there the moment for Keina to show up had arrived. The first one to greet the kunoichi would be his fellow Chuunin. After all, it made sense for Masashi and Keina to get along pretty well considering the history they had. If the redhead recalled correctly, he remembered the two of them having a student-teacher relationship, so it wasn't that out of the ordinary for them to be getting along.

Once the female Jounin had joined them, Akaboshi simply greeted her as they were now prepared to start the mission. "Glad you could join us Keina." Now that the three of them were present and ready to begin, Masashi asked how they should proceed. In his mind he started to think back about what the mission report mentioned and what exactly their task was. He really doubted there were monsters running around in the Land of Haven but you could never be too certain. "Well, first we should investigate whether or not the roads are being terrorized by an actual monster or if it's just a couple of bandits or simply just an animal." It wouldn't surprise him if they were dealing with something entirely different than a beast. 

(WC: 261, TWC: 527)

"Sorry if I am late," Keina would say as she approached the pair. As she was seeing this, she saw a grin spreading across Masashi's face.

She was admittedly confused, what would he be grinning about? She tilted her head a little looking towards him, but before she had a chance to really ponder, or ask, about it, he spoke up. Keina now knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was a playful and mischievous grin. Which made sense.

She sighed, and looked towards her once (and kind of still, sometimes, maybe) tutee. "Why, would you prefer one over this?" she would say. One leg stepped in front of the other, and she shifted her weight and position so that her legs were crossed. This involved turning her body slightly, so she would have no longer faced directly towards Masashi if not for adjusting her head to keep looking at him, a grin spreading across her own face.

Her hands rose up, pointing towards her body, with palms up and elbows out. She started shifting them down from their starting position, which was just below (and slightly in front of) her armpits. As she did, the fingers went from pointing slightly upward to being straight with the palm. At the same time, her palms pointed downwards slowly, then sped up on their downward tilt after becoming mostly straight with the fingers. Her hands also went further and closer to her body, in a weird sort of... three shaped movement, almost. Pretend that you start with the number three, written such that the meeting point in the middle is further back than the two ends. Then, separate the two halves a bit, and place a curve connecting them, with the curve going the opposite direction of the curves on the rest of the three. A better starting point would actually be a lower case Greek epsilon, but three is close enough and can be written in that way, though obviously backwards, so it does work.

After this, Keina put on a proud face, tilted her chin up, and pushed her arms straight. They sat slanted away and back from her body, just a touch, and the palms faced the ground with fingers straight pointing away from her legs. They were just barely not tilted enough to be parallel to the ground. After holding this pose for a moment, she assumed a more casual, normal pose.

Looking to the two, she listened to them discuss how to proceed. After Akaboshi made his recommendation, Keina decided it was time to speak up. "What if we took some bait? Or if we were bait? Someone could walk through the forest carrying some food, and the other two of us could, like, hide out in a cart. Better yet, make it a small cart, carrying some cooked food, something raw, and an obvious chest. We could get all of those things from shops within like... two minutes of here, and I am basically positive we can borrow a cart. And... pick a cheap one in case the cost of a replacement comes out of our paychecks. How's that sound, you two?"

[528 words]

Masashi waved off her apology. “You’re not late.” He said to her. “If anything, you’re a couple minutes early.” Before they could move on to the actual mission, Keina HAD to have the last word. In this case, Masashi didn’t mind, as she decided that her last word would be posing for them in a sensual manner, accented by the form-fitting clothing. Masashi waited for her to finish, gave her a very slow look up and down, a smirk on his face. “I don’t know, do that again in a sundress and I’ll let you know which one I liked better.” Hey, he liked to get the last word too. Anyways, time to move on.

Both Akaboshi and Keina has some good points to add in regards to how to start this mission off. Akaboshi wanted to scout out the area first to see if they could glean any intel on who or what was causing problems. Keina wanted to…go on a picnic? Just kidding, she wanted to lay a trap for what whatever it was that was out there. Masashi was good with either one to be honest. The three of them would be more than enough for whatever was out there. “Definitely bringing supplies wouldn’t be a bad idea. At minimum, if it turns out to be a monster of sorts, perhaps the meat could be a good distraction. Once we’re around the site of the reported attacks, we can work on figuring out who or what is actually responsible.” Should the other two be in agreement, Masashi would follow Keina to acquire the “supplies”, she was mission leader after all and she had the last say in these things.

WC: 282
TWC: 1019

Akaboshi would witness the banter between Masashi and Keina as the two were going back and forth, teasing each other. The red haired Uzumaki almost felt like a bystander or a spectator watching his two companions joke around. It remembered him of his time when he still served in the Queensguard. The feeling of friendship, camaraderie. Even when on a mission there was still room for a little bit of fun. And the redhead got the same idea from looking at these two. Of course it helped a great deal that the two of them had known each other a long time, you don't simply grow a bond over night. 

He would then listen to Keina's proposal as she suggested to use bait to lure whoever or whatever was causing trouble. Not a bad idea indeed. Perhaps if they were dealing with a wild animal of some sort, it would be attracted to the meat or whatever else of supplies they could come up with. "Alright, sounds good. I suggest you two gather some supplies while I get ourself a cart. I know a guy." Someone he helped in the past lived not too far from there and surely he'd be able to arrange Akaboshi something. While both Masashi and Keina would gather as much food as they could get their hands on, the redhead went out to arrange the means of transport.

It only took him a couple of minutes to get one and once he made it back to the meeting point he would wait for his two companions to return from their search. Assuming they did he would speak up once they arrived. "You two seem to get along fine, why don't you get in the cart while I push it?" All was said with a smile, but Akaboshi wouldn't mind being the one pushing the cart.

(WC: 310, TWC: 837)

A simple task, the two ninja had taken on.

Truly, a simple task. There was a simple list of simple things for them to buy. Some cooked food, something raw, and a chest. Getting cooked food was easy. Keina led the two to a bakery and a bit extra was paid to get a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven and to have it very shortly thereafter wrapped somewhat tightly. Bread was, after all, rather flavorful to the nose. Aromatic, to use an actual word, and not an awkward phrase used to replace a forgotten word. It was also rather easy to go to the butcher and get a side of boar. Well, not an entire side, that would be completely insane. But Keina was able to pick up some cured belly fat, a slab of raw belly fat, two pigs ears, and some cooked ribs.

More difficult was finding a chest and some fake stuff to fill it with. At least, that was more difficult until Keina had an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT idea.

A costume shop would have so much good stuff for this, and there was a... well, not a costume shop. But there was a theater shop not far from where Keina currently was. She would describe the idea, because frankly she was not sure if a theater shop would have the stuff she was thinking of.

"Ok so, the idea is that we get something that looks like a chest of gold, jewelry, something. I am not willing to spend that much on something like that, though, so here is my idea. And realize that I have no idea if the store I am thinking of will have the stuff." Keina took a deep breath, and then spoke. In fact, she spoke rather quickly, as if trying to get the entire idea out of the way quickly. "So there is a theater supply shop not far from here, and the first thing I thought of was a costume or holiday shop, but the only thing I know about nearby is the theater store, so hopefully it is close enough, but anyway what I am trying to say is, I think we can find a fake chest, or some cheap chest, there, and probably a bunch of fake jewelry, and maybe even some fake gold, and it should be rather cheap, you know, because it-"

Keina ran out of air. She had lost her challenge to herself. Dammit!

Regardless, Keina finished her thought. Cheap, because they were fake.

She hoped that Masashi could correct her, or that their journey to the theater shop would be fruitful.

______________

Returning to the cart, Keina would hear Akaboshi's suggestion, and take a moment to process it. "Wait, you mean... A fuck it, somebody has to hide. Sure, I will slip under the sheets for the safety of our task. I shall endure the bumps and jerks along with the roughness. Speaking of, did anyone grab a blanket or sheet? I forgot to buy one, but, maybe one of you two got one when I was not looking?"

[A bit over 500]

Akaboshi split off to go get a cart from someone he knew, while Masashi and Keina went off to go grab the “bait”. Gathering up food was the easy part, since there were plenty of shops in the village that provided those services, raw and cooked food. The Uzumaki Chuunin let her make the decisions in terms of foods, she was the mission leader after all. She took a deep breath before moving on to part two of her plan, but he didn’t question it and let her continue. The second part of their shopping expedition was to find the lure if the monster rampaging the Reserve wasn’t actually a monster. Keina had an idea of using fake jewels and gold, hidden inside a prop chest, something that they might be able to find in one of the shops nearby that cater to those particular situations. She was describing the idea rather quickly, and close to the end she exploded her breath outwards. Almost as if she had been holding her breath the entire time. Masashi raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes I don’t get you,” he said with a chuckle. “The food I understand, but why would we need to purchase fake loot. One of us can just use the transformation technique to turn into a chest.” He was surprised at first that Keina hadn’t thought of that but then he remembered that she was someone that had an almost hilariously low level of chakra, so the number of jutsu she’d be able to use on average was minimal.

Either way, they would grab any other supplies they need. Masashi would also grab a tarp, just in case the cart didn’t have one of its own, along with any other necessary supplies. Once their task was complete, they made their way back to the meeting point where Akaboshi was with a successfully acquired cart. Masashi would accept the offer of riding in the cart, since he was going to be transforming into the chest. He draped the tarp over top of the cart and climbed inside, immediately using the transformation technique to turn into a wooden chest filled to the brim with gold and valuables. Once they were set up, they could get the cart moving, heading out the North Gate towards the Tachibana Reserve.

The trip into the Reserve was fairly uneventful for the first hour or so. About 30 minutes of walking inside the trees, Masashi picked up sounds of rustling bushes and footsteps that were a little heavier than a normal denizen of the forest. “I don’t think it’s bandits,” Masashi whispered, chest lid lifting comically. “Prepare yourselves.” About 30 seconds later, a large panther lept out of the trees. When I say large, it wasn’t just big-boned, it was easily 10 meters long and could cut one of them in half with ease if they weren’t careful. ‘Welp, It’s not bandits.’ Masashi thought to himself as he dispelled the transformation and got ready for the fight.

WC: 505
TWC: 1524