Monkey Business!~

Monkey Business:

Kato awoke to the sounds of light tapping against the window of his apartment. He sat up, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched, letting out a large yawn in the process. "Hello little fella, what do you have for me today?" Kato opened the window and took the mission scroll from the carrier pigeon before feeding the bird some seeds as compensation for the scroll delivery. He could see straight away that this wasn't a basic E or D Rank mission as the scroll was a colour he had not received before. Eagerness overcame him so he broke the wax seal, unfurled the scroll and read the contents. If the scroll had not been delivered by an official pigeon carrier and didn't have the wax seal of the Mizukage on it he would have thought that there was a prank being played on him. "Intelligent chakra-enhanced, highly trained monkeys? What a random mission, am I still dreaming?" Kato pinched himself to confirm he was awake before reading over the scroll once more. "They really are a wacky bunch down at Kiri R&D but at least this should be interesting". Kato noticed that there was another two shinobi assigned to this mission and was pleased to see that he recognised one of the names. "Gonk has been assigned to this mission as well. I wonder what he thinks of the task we've been set"

Now that he had his instructions for the day Kato worked his way through his morning routine and left wearing his usual shinobi attire of black pants with a black kimono jacket emblazoned with the symbol of the Hyuuga clan on the back. His long red hair was tied back in a high ponytail, his Mist village headband was fixed around his forehead and he secured his two katanas on his left hip as he left his apartment. The scroll had stated that there were rumours that these chakra-enhance monkeys were sneaking off too one of the small periphery islands that surround the archipelago that holds the majority of the Mist village. Kato was eager to see what the mission had in store and so made his way to the bridge that joined one of the rumoured islands to the main archipelago that the Mist village resided on and waited for his team mates to join him. Kato knew one of the shinobi he was going to be working with but the other name on the scroll he did not recognise. While he waited he wondered what kind of shinobi the third member of his team was going to be.

[437]

As the sun rose in the world outside, the alarm near Kita's bed blared to life once again, waking him from a rather peaceful slumber. Kita turned to the side and narrowed his eyes at his alarm, debating whether or not to smash it against the wall. "I have never hated an object in my life more than I hate you." After shutting it down, Kita made his way towards the kitchen, grabbing a bagel before noticing a letter that had been slipped under the door into his apartment. Setting the food down, he worked his way towards the letter, snatching it up off the dusty floor and opening it. As he read through, Kita felt his eyebrow rising higher and higher on his forehead, and a slight grin forming on his face, wondering if this was a joke. As he looked at the letter however, he noticed a name that stirred something in his memory. "Gonk? He was the one that saved that woman in the typhoon, right? I wonder how he's doing. Guess I'll be working with him again for this mission." Kita went to his room and dressed himself, putting on his standard Kirigakure underclothes, and throwing on his gray kimono on top of it. Kita grabbed his ninja tools, and threw them around his belt, securing them tightly before examining his appearance in the mirror. "Guess I better go meet with my team for the mission." With that, Kita grabbed what remained of his bagel, and walked out the doorway.

After a small amount of time walking towards an island that the monkeys were stated to be on, Kita noticed two figures on the bridge. Walking closer, Kita noticed that one of them was indeed Gonk. With that, Kita gave a large grin, and waved a hand. "Hey! What's up? Are you two also here for the mission?"

Word Count = 312

Kato was not waiting long before he noticed a familiar face making his way towards the bridge, he shot Gonk a grin as he approached. "Good morning Gonk! Another day another mission for us it seems!" Kato spoke with a familiar tone despite only meeting the young shinobi a handful of times, chuckling as he spoke. Kato was quite the insightful and knew from their previous meetings that Gonk was passionate and capable, despite his young age. As the two Mist shinobi conversed Kato noticed the third member of their team approaching, he turned his head so that he could cast his eyes over the new arrival.

The third member of the team was another young boy, he looked around the same age as Gonk, maybe a little older but Gonk had the height on him. That being said Kato was clearly the tallest of the three, roughly a head above the young pair. He was clearly the oldest by at least half a decade, it occurred to him that he should probably lead the group of Genin. It made sense to him, especially when you factored in his Byakugan, he would be able to scout ahead for the monkeys location without having to leave the squad.

"Hey how's it going? My name is Kato Hyuuga, you must be Kita Hajime." That was the unfamiliar name that was on the mission scroll Kato recalled. "I'm sure both have you have read the details of the mission. Quite wild don't you think?" Kato spoke with a bit of a chuckle before returning to more of a professional presentation. "Looking between us it appears we're all Genin. I suggest we appoint a leader so that we can work and communicate effectively. I personally put myself forwards as leader, with my Byakugan I have excellent observation skills. If anyone else would like to stake their claim to leading the team I'm happy to hear it." Kato paid close attention to the other two shinobi and listened diligently.

[334]
[TWC = 771]

Kita walked the rest of the distance to the bridge, standing before the two ninja that he would be working with. Kita gave his biggest smile and nodded to the two ninja. "It's nice to meet you two! Or for you Gonk, it's nice to meet you again. It's good to be on a mission where I'm not soaking wet and freezing." Kita scratched the back of his neck and looked a bit closer at Kato. Looking at Kato, he noticed that he seemed a bit more sure and confident in his movement, and Kita assumed that he was a bit more experienced than the other two members of the group. "I'm fine with Kato leading. I'm not too experienced myself, and if he has a sensory technique, it's probably better if he leads. I'll trust your judgement Gonk." Kita looked at the two ninja, examining them closely. He was familiar with Gonk, although not by a large amount. He could tell from his grey skin and scales that he was a member of the Hoshigaki clan, but now that Kita saw him without a poncho in the sun, his purple hair was especially strange to him. Kato on the other hand, Kita was entirely unfamiliar with. He wracked his brain for a moment, trying to remember what little he could about the Hyuuga clan. He remembered that they possessed a strange dojutsu that was highly beneficial in tracking missions, but couldn't remember more than that. Kita smiled more, and continued chatting cheerfully. "I won't lie to you two, I almost didn't show up to this mission. I was convinced for a good few minutes that this was a joke! Chakra Enhanced monkeys are a bit too crazy, even for a shinobi." Kita paused for a moment, and furrowed his brow before turning to Kato. "Before we get going, can you still track these monkeys, even if they aren't human? Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I'm not very familiar with how your clan works."

Word Count = 336
Total Word Count = (312 + 336) 648

Kato was happy that the three shinobi were in agreement. Conflict or disagreement at this stage of this mission would not off been a good sign. He gave Kita a grin as he commented on the strange nature of the mission "I had to give the mission scroll a thorough examination myself, I think we were all suspicious of some kind of practical joke" Kato chuckled a bit before continuing "but it doesn't surprise me too much. Have you seen the training facility? there is all kind of wild stuff in there. The Kiri R&D department are definitely creative!" after sharing in the joke for a little while Kato turned his head back to Kita to address his question "Ah don't you worry about that, if they were just regular monkeys I could still track them. The fact that they are chakra infused might actually make finding them easier with my Byakugan. Speaking of which, I should start working on trying to locate them. Lets see whether they're in range.." As Kato's speech trailed off his eyes pulsed, the veins in his forehead bulged and his vision expanded to a 360 degree field around him. No sign of the monkeys in the 100 meters around them but that was to be expected, it wouldn't be a C-Class mission if it was that easy. Kato began to channel chakra into his Byakugan eyes, increasing their scope as he stretched his vision forwards for a mile, slowly scanning the island on the other side of the bridge. After a short while he noticed a collection of monkeys in a grove of trees on the east of the island. "Are these the chakra infused monkeys we seek" Kato thought to himself before addressing the team "I have located a small troop of monkeys on the east side of the island before us. I'm unsure whether they're the monkey we seek or if they're just natives to the island. It's our first lead so I suggest we get closer and investigate" Once he had relayed the information that he had gathered to the team he began making his way across the bridge in the direction of the troop me had located. As the team travelled across the bridge Kato added "Remember the details of the mission, we have been tasked to locate and observe, it is not necessary for us to make contact so we should move stealthily"

[405]
[TWC = 1176]
[Byakugan activated - AP cost = 5]
[551 - 5 = 546 AP remaining]

Kita paused for a moment, drinking in the words of his companion. Kita placed his fingers to both sides of his temples, and began to rub them, wracking his brain for a potential solution to their problem. "I certainly hope that isn't the case. It would be hard enough to find them without some kind of chakra suppression ability. Plus, if they can use jutsu, that could prove to be highly problematic for us..." Kita paused for a moment, a dim light beginning to flicker on and off inside his brain. "Wait a minute... If we operate under the assumption that the rumors of these intelligent monkeys going rogue are true, and there are indeed monkeys in the area, and they're intelligent enough to use jutsu, then they would likely have the knowledge and skill set to hide themselves from a trope of foreigners. The way we are now, we stick out like a sore thumb. However, if we looked more like the monkeys in question..." Kita reached into his pocket, and pulled out the mission details, re-reading the section that details the type of species that they were looking for. It was a species scientifically classified as the Rhesus Macaque, or the Rhesus Monkey as it is commonly addressed. The monkeys have a white dyed tail tip to identify them as Kirigakure Research and Development property, as well as a subject number tattooed on their foot. Kita gave a slight grin, and pointed it out on the paper to his squad mates. "Hear me out. It would be more beneficial for us as a group to attempt to blend in with our surroundings. If we treat this as a standard espionage mission, the most useful trick that we have is espionage. Even if we don't gather any new information, we wouldn't be giving our cover away." Kita held his hands together, and began to channel his chakra. He tapped into the surging well of power inside of himself, and began to channel it into his hands, morphing and altering its function with a hand seal. Kita held up the dog symbol, and a puff of smoke engulfed the young shinobi as he cast the transformation jutsu. When the smoke settled and cleared, Kita Hajime no longer stood in front of his companions. Instead, they saw a money, identical to the ones described in the mission report. The monkey extended it's arms outwards, like a magician that was performing a great trick, and began to speak. "If the monkeys happen to see a ninja, they'll scatter, and we won't make any progress. If they happen to see another monkey, it wouldn't raise any suspicion at all. If our theory is right, we should be indistinguishable from any other intelligent jutsu using monkey. If it's wrong, at least we won't be making the monkeys scatter in panic anymore."

AP Count (Originally at 300 AP from 30 Vigor, -5 AP for transformation Jutsu, 295 AP Remaining)

Word Count = 447 Words

Total Word Count = 1095 (312 + 336 + 447)

As the team closed on the small troop of monkeys, moving silently on their approach they soon realised that these were not the monkeys they were looking for. Kato began to scan the surroundings once more with his Byakugan as he listened to the words of his team mates. Gonk had pointed out that the monkeys they were looking for could be identified by tails that had been dyed white, a clear identifier that Kato kept in him as he scanned. Kita, the other member of the team proposes a good plan, a little out of the box but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. This mission was well out of the box after all.

" I like the plan Kita, that's good creative thinking. We should all disguise ourselves as Rhesus monkeys using the transformation technique, that way our approach will definitely be covert. " After speaking Kato quickly formed the Dog handseal channelled his chakra and then transformed himself into a monkey with a similar appearance to the Kita-monkey, only a little bit taller and with pearly white pupil-less eyes. Kato had not used his Byakugan in combination with the transformation technique before, apparently there were some kinks he needed to work out in order to achieve a complete transformation. It was almost as if he had transformed into a snow blind version of the monkeys they sought. Monkey-Kato gave Monkey-Kita a thumbs up and a grin as he waited for Gonk to transform. AsKato stood there he continued scanning the island for any other signs of primate life, finding no luck on the small island they found themselves on.

" There are no signs of additional monkeys on this island, we should move to the next. " Kato waited to see that the team had acknowledged his orders before leading the way to the next island, stretching his Byakugan to its limit in order to catch a glimpse of the island they were about to check next. As the team got closer to the second small island Kato's vision of their new destination improved the closer and closer they got. Using the 'spotlight' aspect of his Byakugan Kato scanned the new island the team found themselves on and spotted a new troop of monkeys. He tried to see if their tails had been dyed but it was difficult as they were lounging in a hot spring and a good proportion of their bodies were obscured. " I've spotted another troop in a hot spring not too far from here. I think they may be our target but I am not certain, we should get closer so we can get a better look. " Kato slowly began to make his way stealthily towards the hot spring beckoning with silent hand signs for his team to follow.

[462]
[TWC = 1638]
[Transformation Technique AP cost = 5]
[546 - 5 = 541 AP Remaining]