Escorting The Shopping Couple

Dangerous Shopping Spree Mission



“Hmm hm hmm. Hmm hm hmm hmm...” Hums vibrated Imane's throat in a cheery tone as she took toward the village gates of Hoshigakure. The skies were a lovely light blue and sun was brighter than bearable. Today, she had left her usual copper mask and family sword at her abode, opting for a katana instead sheathed to her left with some ninja tools strapped to the hip and a rucksack to match. A few of the villagers who reside the area who had gotten used to her presence didn’t provide such a nasty look this time around, but instead acknowledging her. ‘Oh!’ She thought to herself, ‘I suppose I’m starting to be warmed up to slowly.’ Her spirits for today’s mission were raised significantly. Speaking of, the gates now stood in front of Imane’s person which made her halt. A quick look around with a hand over her eyes to block the blinding sun allowed a survey of the gates. “Alright V.I.P., where are you?” She said to herself openly. Not long after her eyes set on a couple that hand been standing ready to exit the gates, looking into the village. Their backs carried brown baskets and they had a pack horse fitted with needs and extra storage. “There you are.” Letting her hand down, she walked over to the couple. They noticed her. “Hey, there you are. My wife and I are ready to head out to the trading town. Imawa, was it?” The cheery kunoichi turned an entertained face, while scratching her head she shook it with a nervous laugh. “It’s Imane. We should get going.” She had responded. 

 

“Imane? That’s an unusual name. Anyway, that sounds like a good idea. We can make it there before dusk with how far it is.” The man had replied, then he turned his back to the village in turn to leave, as did his wife who held their pack horse’s lead. Hooves clattered against the ground beneath before following with a neigh as the animal's presence was made. The wife patted his neck and stroked its hair to bring the beast’s behaviour in line. Imane sighed quickly to herself on his comment. ‘I didn’t expect my employer to be a little short’ she had internally said in regard to his demeanor. Nonetheless, she joined his party for the journey ahead as she was paid to provide protection. Imane came over to the front of the pack, keeping a five-meter distance. In passing, she nodded to the man to finish off their conversation. Together they all left the village and made way to a trading village a bit away from Hoshigakure. A looming feeling could be felt in Imane’s senses, the hairs on her neck standing as if on high alert. She kept a calm appearance while her eyes scanned constantly around them. 

 

A couple of hours went by before the party reached a small pond. “Alright, it’s time we take a break. We’ve been walking a long time.” The man suggested out loud. “Oh, yes, please. My feet are killing me.” Said the man’s wife. He had helped her onto the ground and unclasped a water pouch from the horse, handing it to the wife so she can hydrate herself, joining her to sit on the hot ground. The strong heat and blinding light made this adventure one of little desire to go on again in conditions like these. “Imane, we are about half way to the village at this point.” the man said in a holler to her while assisting his partner. Imane looked at him with a nod, remembering to keep her head on a swivel for anything out of the ordinary. Vigilance being her top priority would begin to pay off as she saw a small group coming from the southern direction the party just came from in their trek going north. From this distance, Imane counted seven thugs carrying various choices of weaponry. A quick survey around would them would reveal two more from the East. “Uh, yeah, about that.” Imane started to talk before preferring to set down her rucksack and open it to take out her own drink to quench her thirst before things got ugly. 
 
“What’s the matter? What do you see?” The man asked. Deciding to stand and join her, the man would share her perspective and looked around in haste. “Hey, that’s a lot of them, shouldn’t we go somewhere away from them.” Imane thought that was a foolish thought to have. Being in a barren land with nothing near but rocks and dirt, she shook a physical no to him before setting her water back into her ruck and closing it. “There’s nowhere to run.” 

 

“I’m not paying you to get us killed woman! You need to get us out of here now!” He demanded rudely. Imane snapped back at him, pointing to his wife's position. “How about you get over there and protect her and let me safeguard the two of you,” her tone provided emphasis to her next few words, “which is what you hired me to do.” 

 

He wasn’t pleased but he didn’t argue with her. Imane sighed in disbelief before looking at back to the crew approaching them, their speed being enough to gradually close the gap. Imane weaved a few signs with her hands to unleash two shadow clones side by side to her. “Alright you two. Stay here with the V.I.P. and let me handle the rest.  

 

“So, daring.” one clone commented while the other complained. “Sure, sure. Take all the fun why don’t you?” 

 

“Do you think this is a game?” The entrepreneur yelled to the clones. They both shot him a cold stare that screamed ‘I’m not dealing with your shit.’ This was enough for him to recede into a focus with his wife, leaving the kunoichi to her work. “Just trust the ninja, will you?” The wife calmly said to console him. 

 

Imane walked toward the group, leaving the flank to the clones. Standing in wait, she held her hands at her hip until the group was in shouting distance. “Stop right there!” Her voice boomed to them. One towering male who led the crew yelled back. “Get out of our way shrimp. We are going to get that corrupt piece of shit one way or another. Do you want to die here?” The threat hurled at her meant nothing and she already knew there was no talking them out of their poor choice. Their rusty looking armor and improvised weaponry were not ideal for fighting this village genin. Imane unsheathed her katana and stood in a square stance with a backfoot put in place, two hands on the handle. “Turn back now!” A final warning was offered and ignored. A minute passed before they were within 100 meters. The boss stood while he sent forward two lackies to attack. In unison, they came running at Iname with nailed-bats attached to a ball-in-chain. They were left open and vulnerable enough that when they came into a twenty-meter range; Imane dropped her stance and took two kunai from her weapon pouch for launch them in aim for the men. They didn't seem to realize what came to hit them as both the tools struck them in the chest close to the heart, forcing them to painfully groan on impact before they fall onto their backs with, her presuming them to be dead. 

 

Five remained as the boss called for an all-out attack on the girl. “Get that bitch then kill the husband and wife!” He and the four beside him charged at Imane from different angles, drawing close to her. She would smile in a devilish manner as the thrill of combat would flare a feeling of excitement in her while adrenaline began kicking in. With her katana in one hand, she would reach into her pouch with the offhand. Taking out an explosive tag in her offhand, she had noticed a rock half her size a little bit away, being about half her size. She knelt down, slapping the tag to the ground right behind her body. From their angles, they couldn’t see what she was doing. ‘There’s plenty of distance between us and the couple. This is okay.’ She thought as the set some chakra into the tag to fuse it. A soft hissing sound can be heard if close enough to it. The crew drew in dangerously close, 10 meters and closing. In Imane’s fast speed, she pulled off five hand weaves and held the final sign of the combination, snake. “Die!” The boss yelled as they all came to stab her in. Her technique went off and she substituted her position with the large rock 10 meters away, revealing the explosive that was placed. The thuggish groups eyes widened in surprise. In the distance, Imane quickly casted her snake seal to set off the charge, sending a blinding light in close vicinity before blowing up the paper seal. With the wrathful explosion, 4 of the underlings succumbed to a painless end. The boss, however, remained conscious with a blown off arm. This stunned Imane greatly. “How the hell?”  

 

He was standing with blood spewing from the now gone limb, his chest moving quickly as he panted fast and hard, his eyes show pained winces every breath he takes. “Heh. My men died for me and took most the damage.” He responded to the expression. “You’re a crafty little shit but now you’ve got nothing going for you.” Imane took one step back in her mind and set aside the miracle, a laugh helplessly overcoming her. “What’s so funny? You’re about to die!” The barbaric male yelled as he gave another charge to her. “Oh, not with that arm” She told him, thinking about the irony of this battle. With a swift crouch and the back of the katanas blade pressed against her waist as if in a samurai squat. Next came a darting dash of speed from her spot with her katana slashing across, syncing up with her movement to be able to cut across the man’s torso from the upper to middle sections, taking his lacking limb side to advantage, allowing her to keep him from countering her at all. This move had been taught to her by her father and she’s trained on it many times in practice, but this is her first time putting it into real use. A silent moment came before the man coughed out blood, falling flat on the ground against his face as he accepted his swift death. 

 

Meanwhile, the clones had a battle of their own against the two-henchman flanking shopping couple. Like the first two that rushed the original Iname, these shared that lack of battle experience and kept a vulnerable stance all the same. Once clone darted in and hurled into the face of one to knock the thug back a step before following up with a barrage of punches aimed toward the stomach, landing in rapid succession. The second clone met up to the second flanker with an arm bash. This one had enough awareness to stop in place before smacking the clones in the face with the weapon, causing enough damage to dispel the clone. With one out the way, this one began charging the couple, swinging wildly his own ball in chain in the opposite hand to his main nail-bat weapon. A gasp escaped Imane’s mouth when she would glance as the clone's link to her fed her information on the battle. She looked at the couple before making the Ram seal. ‘Body Flicker Technique!’ Her mind screamed, the immense speed surged within her as she launched herself, allowing Imane to almost blink into place of the couple to get in front of an attack now being done by the thug with a swing of his ball-in-chain. Imane would catch the heavy ball dead in her right ribs, the blow would immediately drop her down the ground, on her ass, in a harsh reaction of pain. The last standing clone would continue to barrage one flanker with many punches until satisfied they were unable to fight before looking over to their original.  

 

“Hey! You’re not supposed to get hit you know!” The clone yelled to the original before rushing back to the couple. 

 

Imane winced in pain as she sat across from the couple winded by the strike. “Ha ha ha! You made a mistake taking that hit young lady.” Once more, the bandit would wind up the ball-in-chain and swung it around to a moderate speed. “You get to have pain on more pain. Don’t you lov-” His speech was interrupted to Imane’s clone pushing the man from the back. His balance was lost and his legs gave in from the force in a fall toward Imane. The weapons flew out of his hands while his stance was over with, his body nearing Imane’s downed spot. Through the pain, Imane would take this opportunity to set her katana up just in front of her with a free hand to let him fall right onto the blade, digging all the way through his chest. His heavy weight bore down on her, shoving her back flat into the ground until his fading eyes met hers. “Who made the mistake now?” She uttered in pain and groans from the impact blow a second before. The clone quickly came to help Imane out by removing the now lifeless body off her. “Shit, that hurt, a lot.” Imane noted before the clone reached out her own hand to meet the original. A dual pick-up attempt got Imane onto her feet and she thanked her counterpart, now returning to the couple with a satisfied smile, a hand holding her side as if to soothe the pain. “Let’s go. You’re safe now.”  

 

The man was in shock of what he had just witnessed and was in an obvious amount of stress in comparison to the wife. The wife was simply thankful to be out of danger. The couple stood up and nodded. “Thank you so much.” He told Imane. 

 

“Of course... Now, let’s move.” She ordered them before walking off. “Uh, already? You just got hurt.” The wife shouted. “You’re going the wrong way!” She yelled. Imane stood halt and sighed before turning to the couple, waving a hand that asked them to make way. The man went with it and grabbed his surprisingly calm horse and wife. Together, three would move onward with Imane behind them, walking with the support of her shadow clone. By dusk they reached the trading village. Imane had gotten over the pressure of her injury but the pain stood. She decided to take it easy and keep the clone around. “Let’s rest for the night.” The man suggested before he and the wife would take their bodyguard into an inn for some rest and food. They paid for a night at the in before waking in the morning to enjoy the market hours. Imane shadow clone sat awake all night to watch over her and the group for any other troubles. “Thank you for your work, me.” She giggled with a well-rested vibe before dispelling the clone and joining back with the couple before they all left together. Imane would sit watch around the area, keeping a close ear and eye to nooks and crannies and any signs of danger. For the most part, this place was peaceful aside from the arguments heard around in bartering attempts.  

 

The couple has been checking out a linen stand when a voice yelled out in the distance “Hey you!” It sounds like a man close to her mission asset. Imane fixated her attention on the couple to see them being approached by the two guys similar to the crew she had fought. Coming close to the couple, she got in between them and the two guys. A look at their chest and she could see bandages wrapped around their chests. “Ah, you were the first two to go down. I remember you.” She said as her katana was ready to be pulled out, the hilt coming slightly of the sheathe with a push of her thumb. “it won’t be the same this time, you’re going to go down now.” 

 

“Oh, really?” She asked him. “You should know your boss and the rest of your friends didn’t make it. Why don’t you leave and rid yourself of this barbaric burden you carry?” The two guys became dumbfounded in the new information. They must’ve been knocked out while all the fighting happened because they don’t remember seeing their boss. “Now that you think of it, where is he?” One lackie asked the other. “I haven’t seen him...” They muttered about amongst themselves before darting a look to Imane. “Hmph.” One quietly disregarded her so they can both turn and walk away. Imane’s cold approach only lasted so long before the pain in her side had been present to the point she felt the need to cling to it like yesterday. The wife put a hand to the young kunoichi’s shoulder. “Thank you. This is all we really need of you. We will be staying here. Please, go back home.” She pleaded before kicking the husband in the ankle. The man came into alert, “Oh. Y-yeah, go home. You’ve done enough for us.” He said as he reached into his pocket and gave an envelope to pay for her mission participation.  
 
Imane faced the couple with a smile and nodded. “You two have a safe journey ahead, okay?” She wished them the best before she made her departure from this trading village. Within almost two days' time and a smooth walk with no delays, Imane found herself back in Hoshigakure and checking into a hospital to get her wounds looked at. She appears to have suffered a cracked rib and will need some rest and proper medicine to heal.

[EXIT]
WC: 3005

Claiming 30 stats (+10 Vigor, +20 Speed)
Claim Wood Release: Nativity of a Sea of Trees 1500WC
Finish One Handed Seals [1876/2000] -> [2000/2000] 124WC

Previous claim here


Put remaining 1381WC toward Wood Dragon A-Rank [1381/2750]

Approved

I forgot to say claim my mission rewards from the global rules. Those still apply though, right?

Requesting forgotten claim of Mission Rules rewards.

20 AP + 4000 Ryo

approved