New guard in Kumo [Missions/Solo]

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Nova was in a better mood today.

As far as she could tell, there was no reason for it. She'd simply woken up on the right side of the bed. Now, just because she was in a better mood didn't mean she was necessarily in a good mood. No, Nova was never in a good mood. She was snappy and grumpy at the best of times. She always retained at least some level of being pissed.

Nova stretched her neck to work out a crick and read the mission scroll once more. She was to work as a guard for a local weapon shop whilst it received a shipment of weapons. Not the most exciting of tasks, Nova could admit, but the chance of combat was exciting for Nova. It had been quite a while since her last fight, several months in fact. As much as she hated the whole system of the underground fighting ring she'd been a part of, Nova could still admit to enjoying the whole fighting part.

Nova made good time heading towards the weapon shop and arrived at the front without feeling fatigued at all. Nova took a second to recognize the progress she'd made in such a short amount of time, and opened the door.

Inside was about what Nova expected from a weapon shop, she thought at a bell announced her entrance. All along the walls were stacks of shelves with various kunai, shuriken, bolts, arrows. Nearly every type of weapon she could think of was there. The placement of two shelves in the middle of the room made a path leading to the counter on the far side of the room. Behind said counter was the most stereotypical blacksmith Nova had ever seen. He was a middle-aged bald man with a medium-length ginger beard. He was wearing a tight plain grey T-Shirt that belied his large, muscular frame. Upon seeing Nova enter, his face lit up into the picture of pure joy.

"Hello! Hello! Welcome to Blazing Trails, the finest weapon shop in all of Kumogakure! We sell weapons of all types, for ninja or civilians alike! Now, what can I fix you for?" The man said in a booming voice, kindness dancing in his eyes.

Nova winced as the larger-than-life man's voice filled the small room they were both in. People like him normally annoyed Nova; the loud, boisterous types. But she was finding it hard to be angry at a man so genuine.

"I'm, uh, here for the mission you posted? For the shipment or something?"

Nova didn't think it was possible, but the man suddenly seemed to radiate more joy than he had before. It was like an oppressive aura of happiness that was so obnoxious it completely wiped out all negativity and unhappiness in the world.

"Yes! Yes!" He whooped, getting louder, "A ninja finally shows up! You know, this is the fourth shipment I've tried to have delivered this week? Since ninja never accepted the mission, my supplies always got stolen! Haha, but that's okay because you're here now!" The man laughed. How someone could remain so positive was beyond Nova, especially when he'd apparently lost so much money.

The man practically leaped around the counter and honest-to-god skipped through the store to greet her, the weapons on the shelves rattled and Nova took a step back just in case. He offered a hand and Nova tentatively shook it, marvelling at how much his own hand dwarfed her own. If she were to put a number on it, she'd say he had a solid foot of height over her. The man was a giant.

"That's... good?" She hedged; if she was being honest, Nova had absolutely no idea how to react to this blacksmith.

Before Nova could come up with an answer, the blacksmith kept on talking.

"Indeed! Indeed!" He let go of her hand and stroked his beard thoughtfully, "The shipments in half an hour, so you're right on time! Tell you what - can I see your weapons?"

"Sure..." Nova said slowly and unclasped her weapon pouch from her thigh. He accepted the pouch in one of his big meaty hands and shifted through the contents with his other, a frown on his features.

"Pah, as I thought. Hardly functioning bulk-made 'weapons'." he said the last word with such vitriol that it made Nova almost step back, "What you want, little ninja, is one of Blazing Trails' own made, straight from the forge, kunai!"

He produced a kunai from... Somewhere and held it up like a proud parent. Nova gave it a flat look, then turned that look to the man who seemed so happy to be showing her the weapon.

"It looks like every other kunai I've seen." Nova delivered apathetically then for possibly the first time in her life she felt bad, "I mean, if you're offering it for free?" She left the question hanging

"Of course! Of course!" The man beamed and put it in the pouch next to all the other kunai, seemingly ignoring her first comment. The man handed her the pouch back and then tilted his head as if hearing something. "Ah, perfect! The shipment is here! Just stand about and look scary for me, please?"

Looking scary was one of the few things that Nova was good at so she nodded and followed the man outside.

Unfortunately for Nova, who was looking for some action to assuage her boredom, the shipment went off without a hitch. Some men in hoodies and masks appeared briefly, wielding various weapons. Nova had taken one step toward them, ready to serve them all a beating, when they simply ran away. It was very disappointing. Though in some ways it was satisfying; how could people running in terror from you not be?

When they got to the last box to be carried into the shop Nova, bored out of her mind, offered to do it for them. She lifted the box and got to enjoy the shocked faces of the delivery people as she single-handedly carried a box into the shop that usually took at least 4 of them to carry. To a ninja, especially such a physical one like Nova, it was a simple feat.

She looked around and stretched, her joints popping into place after being kept still for so long. Honestly, this was the most boring mission yet. Even shopping for some grandma had provided more excitement. 'If only those guys had tried to steal the shipment,' she lamented with a sigh.

Nova nodded to the blacksmith to say goodbye and headed back home. While it wasn't the most exciting of missions, Nova could still feel her abilities steadily growing. It was just a matter of time.

WC: 1125
Claims:
None yet

It was always going to happen eventually, Nova thought as she read the mission she'd been assigned. It was always going to happen... But that didn't mean she was going to be happy about it.

Something dark settled in the pit that her stomach had turned into as she read the mission one more time. She was to act as a guard to a warehouse, which was already bad enough considering how boring she'd found the last guard mission. No, Nova had to guard a warehouse owned by her parents. The same parents who'd basically ignored her for her entire childhood only to disown and kick her from the family at 12-years-old. The only reason Nova had never changed her surname was that she refused to let her parents take anything more from her, even if it made her angry every time someone referred to her with her full name.

Nova grit her teeth and crumpled the scroll in her hand, she had all the information she needed from it anyway. Plus there was a certain satisfaction in destroying an official scroll with her family name on it, it felt symbolic. Did nothing for her foul mood though.

The citizens of Kumo clung to the sides of the street out of genuine fear as Nova stomped down the middle of the road. Her entire body was tense, locked up. If one were to describe it with more flowery language, they would probably refer to her as a coiled-up snake ready to pounce and choke the life out of its prey. An apt comparison, considering what happened to the poor young couple who'd been so engrossed with each other that they'd completely missed Nova heading straight towards them. One second, their mouths had been locked in a passionate kiss, the next they were both on their ass as the woman responsible carried on, not even sparing them a second glance.

"Oi! What do you think you're-" The boy choked and froze mid-accusation as Nova, eyes now a deep hate-filled crimson, looked over her shoulder at him. The snarl on her face was savage, almost feral in appearance. The boyfriend was a smart man, if a little impulsive sometimes, so he could recognize situations where shutting up was the best option. Now was one of those times. So he sat back down, closed his mouth, and prepared for a stern scolding from his girlfriend. No amount of pride was worth broken teeth, or worse.

Nova continued on towards the warehouse, thoughts of the couple already out of mind.

Since Nova wasn't ninja-running across the rooftops like she usually did nowadays, it took her a little longer than usual to make her way across Kumogakure to the warehouse. When she arrived, Nova was wholly unimpressed. The only defense the warehouse had was a simple chain-link fence going all the way around with a single entrance gate with two bored-looking guards at the front. Nova didn't consider herself a genius, but there was a glaring weakness in the defenses of this warehouse: if one wanted to gain access to the warehouse, they could simply go around the back with a pair of bolt cutters. Plus, Nova thought with a disgusted sneer, the guards didn't look in the best of shape. A literal child could probably run through the front if they so desired.

She scoffed - it was just like her parents to skimp on the important things.

"You the ninja?" One of the guards said as she approached, giving her an unimpressed look.

Nova didn't respond verbally and instead just angrily gestured towards her belt with a 'what the fuck do you think, idiot' gesture. Turns out Nova was very good at somatic communication when pissed.

"Ah, right... Uh, my mistake..." The man spluttered, taken aback by the woman’s blunt response, “Right, um, if you’ll follow me I’ll show you around. My name’s Ted, by the way”

“Sure. Don’t care.” Nova said unflinchingly. There were a few awkward (For the guard) seconds where they both stood and stared at each other, a contest of wills. Nova won easily and the guard quickly bowed his head in submission and turned around to lead Nova inside. Nova was many things, but her most admirable trait - if one wanted to call it that - was her sheer stubbornness. Nova could out will anyone with pure spite if she wanted to.

She followed the man through the gates where she was given a brief tour of the grounds. It was quite large - again, just like her parents to spend extra money on useless glamour - for a warehouse, and the grass around the warehouse was well-maintained. Nova’s first observation was correct with the backside of the warehouse having only a thin chain-link fence as a defense. She pointed this out and got to watch as the guard squirmed under the scrutiny.

“Yeah, i-it was the Tsuba’s decision. They didn’t think we needed any defense back here, and it turned out that they were right!” The man laughed nervously and looked around, as if he was scared his employers were going to hear him, “No one has even tried to sneak in back here! Crazy right?”

Nova groaned as the man tried desperately to spin her parent’s dumb decision to save money into a positive thing. God, suck-ups pissed her off so much.

“Don’t defend the shitheads for making your life harder for fuck sake.”

“I’m not-” He started, only for Nova to whirl around and interrupt him with a glare. The second time she’d done that today, she noted.

“Don’t. I will actually punch you.” Nova warned as her blue eyes flashed red, which was more than she usually did so the guard should consider himself lucky.

“It’s been… Difficult working for the Tsuba’s, I will admit.” He finally confessed, still looking deathly pale. Why was he so scared of her parents? Did they actually have snipers trained on him at all times or something? Nova almost scoffed; her parents were complete and utter dick heads, but they weren’t the type to murder someone.

Maybe. She didn’t actually know her parents all that well.

“Good, was that so hard to admit?” Nova let the question hang, “Is there anything I should know about what's in the warehouse? Is it the kind of thing people would kill to get their hands on?”

He shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. We just store freshly made weapons before they’re shipped out to Kumo and other countries. They’re high quality,” Nova snorted, as if her parents would ever waste money on something high quality, “so I can imagine someone wanting to steal them. Kill for them though? Only the truly desperate would do such a thing.”

Nova nodded seriously and cracked her knuckles. She still felt like shit to be doing something helpful for her parents, but she felt better about it now. The fact that they were assholes to everyone, even their own employees, filled her with hope. Getting the guard to admit, albeit somewhat reserved, that her parents were dicks was immensely satisfying. Maybe one day the rest of Kumo would see her parents the way she saw them.

“Good. You can go… Guard the front or something I don’t fucking know,” she waved a hand dismissively, “I’ll be on the roof keeping a look out. Shout me if you need anything.”

“O-okay.” The guard stammered, and he scurried away.

The day quickly turned to night as Nova sat and waited on top of the warehouse. The warehouse was a fair way away from the main infrastructure of Kumogakure and was surrounded mostly by rocky terrain. It was calm, tranquil. Even Nova, the eternally angry genin, couldn’t help but breathe out a deep breath of relaxation.

She took a deep breath in and focussed inwards. She could feel her chakra network flowing through her body, could feel where the flow was ‘bunched up’ for lack of a better term. Due to her training, she knew these disruptions in the flow were her Eight Inner Gates or her limiters. She’d conditioned herself to be able to sense and open up these gates during her other missions in the week, but she had yet to actually pull it off. Part of the reason she had yet to do it was that she was scared; limits existed for a reason. The other was that she simply had no idea where to even begin.

A curious sound interrupted Nova from her thoughts and she opened her eyes to look around. The roof was clear so she moved to the back edge to check and, sure enough, a man in a mask was attempting to cut through the fence at the back. Judging from the ease at which he was doing so, Nova pegged him as a ninja. Her face twisted into a cruel smile at the thought of finally getting into a fight after all this time.

With a loud thud, Nova leaped off the building and landed behind the man attempting to break in. To his credit, the man reacted instantly by whirling around and settling into a combat stance Nova recognized as the one that was taught at the Academy. Now that she was closer, she could see his build clearer. He had a few inches on her and had a lithe, compact build. He was definitely a fresh out of the academy ninja, why was he trying to steal from the warehouse?

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Nova said impatiently, she wanted to get to the good part. But first, she had to do her part as a guard.

"Nothing..." The man said lamely as if he wasn't holding a pair of bolt cutters with a hole in the fence behind him.

"Right, well I didn't really care anyway." She clenched her fists together and stretched her neck, "I'm going to kick your ass now."

Before the man had a chance to react Nova had already crossed the short distance between them in a blink of an eye. He started to back up but Nova was way too fast and she'd already sent a fist directly into his stomach. His body folded around the impact zone as the air was forcefully vacated from his lungs and he was sent straight through the hole in the fence he had made and into the wall of the warehouse. Where he remained, desperately trying to reclaim the lost air.

"Was that it?" Nova growled, disappointment dripping from her tone. She wanted him to get up, to put up a fight. But Nova rarely got what she wanted and very soon after he hit the wall he passed out, the damage he'd sustained proving too much for him. "Fuck sake..."

"What was that? Are you okay?" The guard she'd spoken to earlier came rushing around the corner, chubby cheeks glowing red from the short burst of exertion. He stopped as he reached the corner and looked between the hole in the fence, Nova, and the crumpled form of the intruder. "Is he..." The guard trailed off, not wanting to know the answer.

"What, dead? Nah, just passed out." Nova looked back at the intruder with contempt, "Fucker couldn't even take a single punch."

The guard breathed a sigh of relief and he walked over to the passed-out intruder and checked his pulse to confirm what Nova had said. He was already fretting about having to explain the hole in the fence to his bosses but was secretly pleased. He'd warned them that something like this was going to happen, but they'd waived his concerns.

"Right, thank you for keeping the warehouse safe. If you want you can go home early, I doubt anyone else is going to come."

Nova nodded instantly, "I'll do that. See you never, probably." She said with a wave.

WC: 1991
TWC: 3116
Claims:

• 6200 Ryo from 1 D-Rank mission and 1 C-Rank mission with extra 200 from Genin rank
  
• 30 AP
  
• 31 Stats
  
• 1350 words into completing Weaponry Spec, rest of the words from here
  
• Mastery of Genjutsu Release for 250 words
  
• Generic Sealing Technique v7 for 500 words
  
• 1000 words into Eight Inner Gates Gate Of Opening
  

Approved