Advanced Guard Duty

Advanced Guard Duty:

It was the crack of dawn when Kizmaru had suddenly woken up from his slumber. He was fixing to go to a place that involved escorting some rich noble from one place to another. The man specifically requested Anbu but Anbu aren't obligated to answer his calls or pleas and he decided to settle for Jounin. Little did that noble know though, he was actually getting the Mizukage to personally guard his carcass and belongings. He remembers the kind of tone of voice that he was given too when it came to negotiations and personally, if this person hadn't invested so much in the village himself, he'd have stuck him with some genin led by  chuunin and waited for his inevitable demise. But alas, that's not how you run a village, at least not successfully. Letting out an irritated sigh, he already forgot the reason why he volunteered to do this one personally. He knew it would aggravate and piss him off in the long run but he was too stubborn to back out even though he never gave his word or anything like that, he just needed some quick cash. Occasionally, he'd contemplate embezzling funds but he decided against it for the sake of advancing his village further. 

Finishing packing the things he wanted to take, he put on his weapons pouch attached to his attire of his standard Jounin outfit. His yellow button down shirt, his navy blue pants and his ninja Tab. He also equipped his Katana and weapon pouch he just finished packing and decided to head out. As he walked towards the door, Kizmaru had walked into something he didn't see, stumbling and almost falling over. He was sure there was nothing in his path so he wondered why that just happened. Turning around to see what might have caused him to almost trip, he saw his companion Ram, curled up into a ball. He didn't notice him before and Kizmaru walked over to pick him up. As he lifted him up, Ram had relaxed and stared at Kizmaru blankly. It took him a while to notice since Ram always kept his head in his shell, but Ram was being awfully pouty. He wasn't sure why Ram would be like this as he had just fed him a few hours ago. Attempting to put Ram down Kizmaru lowered his arms as he squatted down to release his companion. However Ram had a different idea and began to cling to Kizmaru's right arm. This startled Kizmaru a bit, once again stumbling and almost falling over because of the awkward position he was in.

W.C: 437

Yosei was lounging on a beam in the rafters above the stage in his parent's theatre, leaning his head against a klief light. Laid out on the wooden beam was a long scroll with assorted calligraphy supplies next to it, a half finished piece sketched onto the scroll that would eventually become a hanging for his apartment. Below him, early morning rehearsals for the night's performance were beginning. They'd finally replaced the sub-par Waki, relegating him to the chorus instead of the primary supporting role. Even from his elevated vantage point Yosei could tell the cast wasn't at their best. They were turning in sub-par performances at best, considering they were doing an adaptation of Lady Kaguya, one of the finest works in the third category of Noh from all of antiquity. Generally actors in the Hisori theatre were only passing through, hoping to move onto something better in a place that appreciated the arts a bit more or move into something more mainstream. Yosei could hardly blame them.

Once rehearsal ended, he descended from the ceiling gracefully to catch up with his father who was overseeing the troupe's run through. His father sighed, a little twinged by the shame of the sub-par performance and they talked shop for a little bit.
"Can't expect too much out of them, given what they're being paid." He said.
"Hopefully I can bring in a bit more money soon. I'm trying to make Chuunin."
"Well, that'd be great, but keep your money. Worry about getting yourself set up, don't spend it all trying to patch this place together. What would really help would be you stepping in to take over for the Shite."
"Tempting. You know how long I've wanted to give that role a shot. But alas, I'm pretty busy. I need to head over to a mission as it is. With the reward I get you can at least buy the troupe a round of sake."
His father nodded, clapping him on the shoulder and wishing him well. The two sometimes struggled to be close because Yosei's father couldn't express an emotion to save his life, but their relationship came alive in the theatre at least.

Stopping by his apartment on the way, Yosei strapped on a piece of grey chest armour and his long pink fingerless gloves, then carefully draped his blue kimono over the ensemble. He placed his katana on his back and secured his fans into his belt before tying his weapon pouch onto his left leg and finally exiting via the balcony. He wore his female ayakashi mask today in honour of the performance being reheased. Hopefully he could do the subject matter better justice himself, out on the field.

On the menu today was guard duty for a noble. Yosei liked this kind of mission because he always felt like he could handle the uppity rich types and make a good impression on them. He hadn't taken the time to see who he'd be working with but no matter, he'd find out sooner or later.

WC: 509

"I do not intend to be rude..."

"Mm."

"...but I specifically requested ANBU. I am not sure who is in the office taking care of clients, but somebody should have a word with them. This is absolutely ridiculous."

Each word is punctuated with pointed gestures, long, elaborately painted nails jabbing towards Murata's chest. The willowy middle-aged woman, swaddled in delicate silks, glares evenly at Murata. The door of her palanquin is just slightly ajar - just enough of a gap for her to adequately vent her outrage. Inside the comfortable and lavish vehicle, two of her personal attendants do their best to pretend they do not exist. 

Murata blinks blankly, bemused that this woman's anger is being directed in such a way.

"Now, after having the wrong rank printed on my invoice," she says, waggling a wrinkled paper with the Mizukage's office stamp in the air with a self-righteous flourish. "You don't even send the Jonin that was listed here and that I paid for. Can you please explain this to me?"

The noble's rage appears performative. Some manner of social power display? Murata's eyes drift to the four carriers of this expensive palanquin, doing their best to remain stoic. Unfortunate that their mistress' status dictates that her vehicle not be dirtied by the ground. At the very least, they have not been carrying her long. Murata is meeting this little procession just inside the gates of Kirigakure, and they would have just had to disembark their ship and head over to the meeting point. Perhaps they had a rough ride and it has made their client grumpy.

"There is a jonin partaking in this mission, your grace! They will be arriving at the pre-arranged meeting time." Murata replies, chipper. There is no need for her to take this personally, after all. It's all a show, intended to make this woman feel more secure in her social position. Her only concern is that she may be misjudging her relative position as compared to the shinobi of Kirigakure, which may have consequences for her when Murata's colleagues arrive. From what she has gathered in her time here, Murata has learned that shinobi elude the social system of their society in a most curious way.

The woman scoffs. "Not even an apology from you. What do they teach you here?"

"There are regrettably few apologies in this line of work," Murata admits with a lazy shrug.

"I will have to just have a word with your squad leader about your conduct, then!"

[419]

Stumbling and bumbling across his apartment, he was still being clung to by his familiar who seemed awfully pushy today. This made Kizmaru begin to attempt to wrestle his companion off of his arm but to no avail he was successful as the creature was leagues stronger than he was. He gave an aggravated sigh before asking what Ram wanted which made Ram respond with an annoyed grunt of his own. Kizmaru then came to the realization that he always let Ram tag along wherever he went, no matter the destination. Now that he took the time to ponder on it, he could have been correct in his assumption and decided to give it a try. "Okay, okay, you can tag along Ram, sheesh. You could have just said something instead of attempting to yank my arm off," Kizmaru had said in defeat. This actually got Ram to let go and grunt happily before crawling and sliding away on all fours towards the apartment entrance. Well, at least he was happy now. Finishing up his preparations, Kizmaru decided it was time for him to head out of the door and travel to his destination. Walking towards the exit, Kizmaru picked up Ram in his arms, placing him on his back before opening the door and closing it after making his exit.

Making his way to his destination, Kizmaru hummed a little jingle that was stuck in his head, related to the food stall he had found Ram near. Nearing his destination, Kizmaru began to have a terrible feeling in his gut about what would transpire today as he had already dealt with this person once before as the Mizukage. They were even haughty towards somebody that ran the entire nation's military so that kind of attitude must be magnified by ten when dealing with somebody who they think is beneath them. Well, here goes. Arriving at his destination, Kizmaru could see the woman already telling somebody off in place of Kizmaru so that was somewhat of a relief. It didn't take long before the noble's attention had turned from the newcomer to Kizmaru, before she waddled over in order to talk to him. "Now see here boy, I've been waiting for you and your rabble of genin to get here all morning and I'm almost late for the big event. This was my chance to show off what goods I got and I'm not about to have it ruined by some lowly genin and some unknown Jounin! Where's the last one, are they here yet??? We have to go quickly! I'm late!"

The woman continued to ramble on as Kizmaru shifted his eyes elsewhere in an attempt to drown out the incoherent ranting that followed of being late, insubordination from the person they were talking to and what not.. He too, hoped the third member of the party would arrive soon so they could get a move on. Not because they were late, they were actually ahead of schedule, it was that the client was impatient and probably in a bad mood that Anbu wasn't sent to guard her and her cargo. They weren't even going to a relatively dangerous area, just a place with minor misdemeanors. As soon as the third person had shown up, they would have been on their way to the client's destination. He kind of hoped that all that happened was the client was attacked by unionized monkeys or something. There goes his imagination again.

W.C: 580

Well look what happened Yosei. After how many occasions on which you arrived embarrassingly early to an event, twiddling your thumbs until the others arrived, finally you manage to delay just long enough to be only a few minutes early and this is what you get.

The noble's indignant tone reached his ears before he had quite arrived at her Palanquin, and for a moment he wondered if it was too late to call in sick. He made out Kizmaru in the distance, currently being chewed out by the client. It would be unfair to poor Kizmaru to leave him to that fate alone, no doubt this kind of thing chafed on him even worse than the average person. There was another ninja there too, but Yosei didn't recognize her. It was possible that she attended the Academy with him since he was generally pretty bad at remembering people, but perhaps she came up while Yosei was taking his year abroad studying nature chakra.

Quickening his pace, Yosei caught up to the group and removed his mask before appearing before their client. The noble peered down at him over the edge of a fan she had been furiously abating her temper with until he arrived.
"There you are. Should I have been assassinated on this journey, you would have scarcely made it in time for the funeral. What is the explanation for your tardiness?"
There were times when his profoundly stunted emotions came in handy for Yosei, and this was one of them. His effective immunity to provocation, though slightly diminished of late as he was coming out of his shell more, allowed any amount of upper crust condescension to slide off of him like water off a duck's back. Yosei bowed, qucikly but humbly, and elected to ignore the fact that he was not remotely late, reasoning that it wasn't worth arguing with her.
"I profoundly apologize, my lady. I shall double my efforts in this mission to compensate. It is after all, an honour to be in the employ of one with exquisite taste for once, if it is not too bold of me to comment on your choice of refinery."
The noble seemed to be just the slightest bit caught off guard by this, and fanned herself gently before narrowing her eyes.Even flattery did not seem to appease her.
"Indeed," She said. "Well see that you do. And let's get moving already!"

Briefly regarding the palanquin bearers with pity, Yosei activated his Mind's Eye of the Kagura to quickly scan the immediate area. He greeted Kizmaru with as much familiarity as he permitted himself, which was fairly formal, and then nodded to him.
"We're clear to go on your order. I'll maintain my sensory jutsu as we travel and inform you of any surprises."
Turning to Murata, he flashed her an empty smile.
"Yosei Hisori. I don't believe I've had the pleasure, but I look forward to working alongside you."

WC: 494

Murata opens her mouth to greet her presumed squad leader upon his arrival... but their client, quick as a whip, changes gears to start laying into him. Ah, she's quite experienced at this.

Their squad leader greets the woman with stoic silence. It's as effective a strategy as Murata had been applying, as this woman seemed more interested in hearing herself speak than anything. Still, Murata finds herself perturbed by this mutual disconnection, and she realizes that she had made little effort to reach out and connect with this woman either. Is this a situation where she is fully willing to compromise on her beliefs?

It's been hard to pursue her spiritual obligations and carry out her duties as a shinobi at the same time. Her position tends to put others on guard, and other shinobi are always guarded. It is a puzzle, but not one that she yet feels defeated by.

Murata is roused from her thoughts by the approach of her final squadmate. Their mask is oddly familiar, though Murata cannot place where she has seen one like it. Comically - Murata believes this is known as the rule of three? - their client then takes her attention totally off of Kizmaru to ensure that Yosei is thoroughly browbeaten into perceived submission as well.

"Good morning," Murata says to her squadmates cheerfully, as soon as their client is safely back within her palanquin (and out of their faces).

"No, Yosei, we've never met!" she says, sounding pleased as punch to be able to meet a new person - as well as slightly amused that he would suggest that they ever had. "My name's Murata. I am happy to work with you both today."

She grins broadly at Yosei, leaning in conspiratorially. Personal space? What's that?

"Sensory technique! What are you seeing? Anything cool?"

[302]
[TWC: 721]

Enduring the verbal berating Kizmaru was experiencing, he wanted so badly to watch this particular person get hurt or maybe have an even worse fate. Even if he thought it would sate his momentary need to see people he had a mild dislike for to get what he felt they deserved, as the Mizukage, it would actually hurt him in the long run since this person was such an influential person in the economic department of things for the village. At some point, the client's attention had moved from him to somebody else while he was trying to tune them out. Paying attention again, Kizmaru noticed the client had turned their discontent towards the newcomer that had arrived on the scene. Even though the client had been blocking them partially, Kizmaru could make out the person to be Yosei. Once again, the client had this false illusion that she was now late to her destination and began to ridicule Yosei for it. The unexpected thing was how well Yosei had handled the situation by apologizing and even making the client pause briefly. This kind of made Kizmaru smirk before feeling an uncomfortable tug on his shirt once again. 

It was Ram on his back, between his shoulders which all of a sudden got another craving for his yellow shirt collar. He had forgotten he was there which means he finally got used to the weight of him. Now if he could only get used to the chewing of his shirt, things would be a lot better. Well, he'll continue to let him do what he wants anyway until he has time to properly train him. When all was said and done, the client went about their business and Yosei came over to greet him and the newcomer. Kizmaru was also a bit curious about the newcomer and he decided he would greet and introduce himself to them as well. "Good day, I'm Kizmaru, pleasure to make your acquaintance. This is my companion Ram, greet her Ram." The armadillo briefly stopped chewing his shirt collar in order to stare at the new face in front of him. After a few seconds of staring, he went back to chewing the shirt collar. Kizmaru gave a shrug, giving a toothy frown at the creature's response. Maybe he's only used to Kizmaru for the time being and would warm up to others later. For now, he'd focus on the mission at hand. 

After a few more moments, it was time for the group to head off to the destination of the client. The start of the journey was a bit rough, here and there. There were some delays and procedures that had been when passing through each checkpoint of the nation. Eventually, they made it to their destination without much of a hitch, or so he assumed since he wasn't too invested in keeping the lady completely unarmed and Kizmaru was finally lucky to be rid of that client after a little more berating. Never again, will he personally volunteer for guard duty of nobles and the like. He'd bid his farewell to the other two unless they were going to accompany him back to the other side of the country where their home lies. He thought to himself this would be the perfect time to begin ram's training.

[Exit.]

W.C: 541
T.W.C:1,558 (x2 August event 437*2 = 874 + 580 + 555 = 2,009)


Loot Claims
Claiming 3000(x2 Event = 6,000) ryo and 7AP

Stat Claims
Claiming 40 AP

Ability Claims
Using 1,500 words to learn Water Trumpet

Yosei was mildly caught off guard by Murata's friendly demeanour and found himself freezing up in the way he usually did when faced with cordial familiarity. Acting on sheer instinct, he ventured to return it in kind.
"Oh, nothing yet. Although, hold on - I'm detecting three powerful chakra signatures in the area. Shinobi, by the looks of it. Not a problem though, they're only rank and file jounin and genin. Not even ANBU or anything."
Hoping his debilitatingly stiff delivery didn't kill his joke, once Yosei finished chatting with Murata he stayed focus on the mission. He spent most of the journey travelling ahead of the rest of the group as a scout, reactivating his Mind's Eye periodically to ensure that there wouldn't be any surprises. He relayed a code to his teammates in order to signal any danger on the road ahead by always travelling with one fan open in his left hand. One fan meant it was safe to proceed, while closing it indicated they should be wary and move slowly. Finally, two extended fans signalled that a full stop was necessary and something was about to happen.
Fortunately, the mission remained uneventful and all in all the only real threat to the noble's life was the possibility of her own poor attitude proving too much for her servants' patience, leading to the palanquin bearers tossing the whole vehicle off of a bridge at some point. They remained remarkably unflappable however, and Yosei had all the respect in the world for that.
Once the journey was complete, Yosei got a crafty little idea in his head. Requesting permission from one of the servants to address the noblewoman, he produced two tickets from his Kimono and offered them to her, framing it as an apology for the tardiness he had caused. He hoped he did it with enough to discretion to not seem cheap, like he was bribing her, but she seemed more than accustomed to receiving gifts and accepted them with a haughty sniff before leaving. They were tickets to a performance at his family's theatre of course, and even if she didn't have to pay it was always good for business to have someone reputable be seen in attendance there. Impressing an aristocrat could be just what the cast needed to get more motivated.
Before parting ways with the other two, Yosei sheepishly offered them the same.
"I had intended to give those tickets to my colleagues today but honestly if you're interested, I can always get you in. It would be a great privilege to have either of you attend."
He was a little nervous extending this to them as Murata was little more than a stranger and Kizmaru was... Well, more than likely restricted in how charitable he could be with his time if Yosei had the right idea of things. Still, they were both nice people it seemed so why not?
After bowing deeply and hearing their responses, if any, Yosei bid farewell and made his way home on his own as he was now in sore need of some alone time to recharge after a long day of interacting with others.

WC: 528
TWC: 1531

[Exit.]

[CLAIMS:

Mission Rewards:
6,000 Ryo & 14 AP

WC Claims:
1521/2500 words to Lord Kanami
15 AP

Yosei's delivery slows the reception of his joke, Murata gazing at him with eyebrows slightly raised. After a long, awkward moment, she breaks out into laughter. "There is no need to flatter me! I know my chakra is just a gentle creek,"  she says, slapping him roughly on the back. "Perhaps our boss is making me look good, huh?"

Upon Kizmaru's introduction, Murata looks pleasantly bemused by the exotic creature upon the jonin's shoulder. "A pleasure to meet you, Kizmaru! And your lizard."

Over the course of their mission, she learns a few new things about her surroundings. For example, just how long the bridge checkpoints can take for non-shinobi, and exactly how much frustration a traffic jam can impart upon the entitled. Luckily for them, the shinobi are now formally on the job.

"You, with the unsightly tattoos,"  the client calls out the window, gesturing. "What is going on, out there!? Why aren't we moving?"

"Oh, dear, is that a giant albatross?"  Murata calls back distractedly, slipping for the moment out of view. "I should look into that. Potentially very dangerous."

Eventually, the journey is complete - their client delivered safe and sound. Murata sits atop the roof of the palanquin, having insisted for the final length of the journey that it is the most efficient vantage point to protect against intruders. Seeming spooked by the final neighborhood they had arrived in, their client had agreed to this arrangement of mutual comfort with little resistance. She peers over curiously as Yosei asks permission to address their client - oh, you were supposed to ask? Perhaps that is why she has been so cranky.

"You are a clever entrepreneur,"  Murata says to Yosei once their client is on her way - she does not seem at all bothered that he had changed his mind as to who the tickets went to. "I would be honored to attend, ah... what were those tickets for - oh!"  She lights up with realization. "The mask theatre, of course! That is where I recognized your pretty mask from!"  she says. "I've seen the posters. I would be thrilled to attend."

Once their arrangements are made, Murata takes her leave. Not to rest, of course. She has another mission to do - and training! Perhaps she'll even wander back to where she saw those posters, too - she isn't entirely sure exactly what she's gotten herself into, but she is confident that it will be great fun.


[406]
[TWC: 1127]

Claiming:
3,000 ryo, 7ap.
11 stats, 6 going into Speed, 5 going into Strength.
500 words into Genjutsu release and Mastery (reduced handseals.)
627/2000 words into Chakra Infusion.

Approved for Murata's exit and mission claims!
* Later Edit* Approved for Kizumaru Senju and Yosei's exit and mission claims!