A chore a day... [Mission/Solo]

Spoiler:

"This has got to be a joke."

There was no response to the angry genin's question. Well, there was a response if one wanted to be pedantic; just not the one that Nova wanted. The one where someone jumped out and laughed about how she had been fooled, that this whole mission was a prank to draw in unwitting shinobi. Instead, the only response was the deceptively innocent cooing of an infant crawling around her lap. As she looked down at the baby on her lap with thinly-veiled disdain, the only word that popped into her mind was 'demon'.

As if to prove her point, a soft thump followed by a screeching cry sounded out from the room next to her.

"Shit!" Nova swore as she reminded herself that there were, in fact, three babies in the house that she was required to look after. Ignoring the baby on her lap repeating her swear word, Nova picked it up by the shoulders and plonked it down on the sofa next to her. "Stay." she commanded, pointing firmly. Hopefully, the gross creature would do as it was told.

The 18-year-old genin rushed through the door of the living room into the main hallway connected. She scanned the new room she was in quickly and her eyes zeroed in on the wriggling form of a baby stuck underneath a coat. Nova wasn't a detective but it was pretty obvious that the little bugger had gone wandering around the hallway and tried to climb up the coat hanger, where it had instead pulled one down and got stuck.

"Dumb fucker." she whispered harshly. Now no longer panicked about possibly having a hurt baby on her hands, Nova stomped over to the covered baby and lifted the coat off the floor to reveal a disgustingly cute baby with its little grabby hands reaching towards the ceiling. Its large eyes met her own as its mouth curled into a bubbly smile.

"I'm not picking you up," Nova said plainly, putting the coat back on the hanger to distract herself from its unrelenting gaze. She looked down again, "Go! Be free! Go explore like the little gremlin that you are."

It ignored her again; still staring, still smiling.

Nova sighed, her willpower wavering.

"Fine! But don't expect to use me as a free ride all the time, alright?" she huffed, picking up the baby from the floor. She held it carefully against her torso and felt it wrap its arms around her neck. She momentarily tensed as she remembered a fight she'd been in, in which she was very nearly choked out by her opponent who'd managed to get his hands around her neck. She shivered and took her mind off the memory by gently bouncing the baby up and down. 

"You know, you're not so bad." the baby cooed in response, "Less annoying than your brother for certain." the baby giggled, probably more from the playful tone of her voice than the content of her words. Nova walked herself back to the lounge where she saw the spot on the sofa that she'd told one of the babies to stay at was now empty. In fact, the whole lounge was empty. No baby in sight.

"Speaking of," Nova sighed, "Where has he gotten to?"

WC: 549

Claims:

• 500 Ryo + 100 extra ryo from Genin rank
  
• 5 AP
  
• 5 Stat points
  
• D-Rank Basic Medical Ninjutsu
  

Approved

Spoiler:

Another day, another menial task.

Nova brought her water bottle up to her lips and took a quick chug. Kumo's weather was usually mild at best, absolutely horrendous at the worst, but that didn't mean she couldn't work up a thirst from just walking around. Nova was just thankful that she'd had the foresight to actually bring water with her. At least she'd be able to do this boring-ass mission without the added weight of being dehydrated.

The mission was simple: get some old woman her shopping. Normally, Nova would have questioned the need to do a mission as simple as this, considering she was a shinobi. However, she had been doing a lot of e-rank missions recently, and it was becoming increasingly clear to her that stuff like this was expected of her since she was so low on the totem pole. Compared to other members of her village, she would still be considered trash, a small fish in a large pond. Where others would see that insurmountable gap and despair, Nova only saw an opportunity. She would climb up the ranks of the village with her own two hands, without the aid of any bloodline. But first...

She had to buy this woman's groceries.

Nova put the water bottle back in her pouch and brought the shopping list out in a smooth motion. It consisted of some fairly standard cooking essentials: flour, rice, carrots, eggs, tomatoes. Despite herself, Nova found her mouth watering just picturing what delicious meals the woman would concoct with the ingredients. Nova didn't have the kind of patience cooking required, and if there was anything Nova missed about her old house it was the food made by the family butler, Ace. As it was now, Nova just subsisted on bread and rice, and the occasional steak if she'd earned enough to pay for it.

She stomped her way to the market angrily, her mood soured after having reminded herself of her parents inadvertently. The citizens of Kumogakure gave her a wide berth, which was smart; if anyone tried to talk to her she'd probably accidentally lash out and punch them in the face. As she got closer to the market, crowds began to become thicker. People were finding it difficult to move out of the way of the scary girl, and those who didn't quickly found themselves on their asses from a particularly strong shove.

Thankfully, Nova knew the market well enough to chart a course to all the stalls she would need to go to. First, she went to the fresh produce stall where she thoroughly scared the merchant after he tried to charge her 20 Ryo for a singular lettuce.  Then the butcher for the various meats on the list, and finally the fresh produce stall again since she forgot to buy the milk. The merchant, fully cowed by her presence, didn't overcharge her this time, much to her satisfaction.

With the 'mission' fully done and everything double-checked to make sure she hadn't missed anything, Nova made her way back to the house of the old woman.

WC: 515
Won't make any claims yet

Spoiler:

Nova could feel that she was on a roll after doing the shopping mission, and also the babysitting mission the day prior. It really wasn't much or impressive in any way, but Nova felt accomplished nonetheless. It certainly didn't feel like it now, but it was all adding up. Every time she did a mission, every time she trained; it was all bringing her goal to reach the top closer to fruition.

After dropping the groceries off at the profusely-thankful lady, Nova traveled across the village once again to pick up another mission from the board. As she ran across the rooftops, Nova found herself thinking about how she could improve herself. Every shinobi needed an edge, something to give them a boost at a vital moment. Without that edge, shinobi would be fodder for those that did. As a clanless taijutsu specialist, Nova lacked a lot of options. That didn't mean that she was completely down on her luck, however. Nova wasn't much of a reader, but she had read about techniques used by taijutsu masters to temporarily lift restrictions on their bodies and hit way above their weight class. Now, Nova didn't know much about chakra theory, but she knew that the place to start was in her brain somewhere.

Nova finally reached the mission board to see there was only one E-Rank mission left for the day. That was fine with her since she wanted to head home for the day afterward anyway. With a shrug, she took the mission from the board and accepted it.

First thing's first, she traveled to the animal pound where she was given information on where some strays had been reported recently. She was also given instructions to put down any animals she found that were rabid or feral, to protect the citizens of Kumogakure. Nova wasn't sure how to feel about that - she loved animals, especially dogs. While killing an animal was vastly different from killing a human, Nova still felt as strongly about animals as she did humans, perhaps more so.

With her mind set, Nova left the pound with a net affixed to her back and a list of locations of potential strays.

It took a few hours, but eventually Nova managed to successfully capture 23 strays and bring them to the pound. The reason it took so long was that Nova didn't have any way to bring more than one animal back with her, so she had to make several round trips all around Kumogakure to get them all. She got a few injuries, of course, most of them came from having to carry particularly unwilling animals across rooftops and through streets. Nova was a tough girl, though, she could deal with a few scratches. One animal that stood out was a particularly vicious corgi that was lashing out and acting violently because it had a deep scratch on its underbelly. Thankfully, using the medical technique she had learned the day before, Nova had managed to subdue it and heal the cut with no issues.

Although the mission was simple, it had ended up taking a lot out of the poor girl. She returned the net to the pound and ran back to her apartment, thoughts returning back to the edge she needed. Throughout the day, she'd been experimenting and she thought she might of had a brief period when dealing with the dogs that she'd grown slightly stronger and faster. It could have been a placebo, but Nova was still happy with the progress she made.

As Nova collapsed into her bed, she fell asleep instantly. She dreamed of puppies and steak.

WC: 606
TWC: 1121
Claims:

• 1200 Ryo (1000 Ryo from 2 E-Rank missions, plus the extra 200 for being a genin)
  
• 10 AP
  
• 11 Stats
  
• 1100 words in to Eight Inner Gates (Skill)
  

Approved