A Light Touch is All You Need

Dracoso browsed the mission board for a new task to handle. He found that handling simpler missions put him more at ease and let him get more accustomed to simpler skills. Many of the higher rank missions would come soon enough. For now, he figured he could practice and become stronger little by little. His eye caught on a flyer for a mission to help get some food to feed someone's pets. His experience at the adoption center would make this a breeze to handle. When he asked the assistant at the front for a few more details, that breeze slowly became a strong wind.

The old Mizukage's dogs were being held at a penitentiary and intelligence agency to keep a close eye on them. He could figure that they were probably some pretty strong animals, but he wondered why much of the details on the exact type of meat was hidden. When he pressed the assistant on what exactly he would be delivering, they apologized. The original shipment had been prime flank meat from buffalo in brought in from another country. Half of the shipment had been hijacked by bandits on the travel route. By the time assistance came, the majority of the goods had either been taken or dumped and were no longer recoverable. 

Dracoso was being asked to not only escort the shipment to the agency, but to also try to gather additional meat to replace part of the missing shipment. He sighed and agreed, figuring that he could try his hand at hunting for the first time. The assistant pulled out a map of the general lands around Kirigakure and pointed to a few areas on the map with wildlife. She described a few elk packs and some wild boars in the area that he could consider. Knowing that hunting boars would only upset the 'children' back at his house, as his mother referred to the boarlings he returned with from one of his earliest missions, he asked for any other areas to hunt. The woman thought for a few minutes and tapped two more spots on the map. "There are a few small packs of wild animals, such as chickens and geese that live near the bodies of water. There are also a few crocodiles in the swamps, but I don't think the dogs would like their meat very much.

Dracoso simply nodded and asked if he could borrow the map. The woman agreed and lent him the map and a treated sack to place the animal meat in for transport. Dracoso thanked her as he signed off on the mission before heading out the door. As he walked, he reached over his should and softly petted Sutsui on the head. She gently nuzzled into his finger and sent waves of comfort to him. He sent a few images back of elk, geese, and chickens and the idea of them caught in the sack. Sutsui sent an image of angry geese chasing her when she was little, telling him to not even consider it. He nodded out of instinct and shared a mental image of the surrounding area with a visual of traveling across the land while looking for animals.

Sutsui gave him images of a few other animals from the area, mainly birds that she would have to hide from now and then. One image caught his attention. A wild bull had been in the woods only a mile off from the village. It was lucky that it was in a separate direction from the forest of wolves, but a wild bull's meat was tough. From the rumor he heard off the assistant, the dogs used to love eating something a bit closer to humanoid-like meats and figured they enjoyed tougher flavors. A bull would be just the thing to feed these animals.

He was just about to head out from the front gate when someone called out to Dracoso. He turned back to see Chap and Pert striding up to him before patting him on the shoulder. They had not seen him for a while now and had been worried something might have happened. They heard that he had escorted Jamil successfully and suffered a few bruises for it. He caught up with them on the details of the escort mission and his mission to gather the mercury. Pert disagreed with dealing with anything dangerous that he could not fight and Chap figured it was for science, so it was probably for the best. He skimmed over the visit to the talkative family and mentioned the Painter Guild he helped recently.

"Oh yeah! We know those jerks!" Pert butted in, "we were sent once to get some small man to stop shouting at their neighbors. He kept ranting about how 'art is life and we are its wielders. Riffraff would not understand!" as he gave his best impression of Sturko. Chap chuckled behind a hand before stating, "Pert here almost got into a fist fight with him about strength of body being greater than strength of mind. They almost got into it until a woman came out and dragged the man back inside." Sounds like Atira is always dealing with Sturko. Poor woman, Dracoso thought to himself. 

Chap turned to Dracoso, "so where are you off to this time? Going to stop a flood maybe? Fighting off more bandits?" Pert chuckled and chimed in, "Maybe he's off to see a lover!" Dracoso blushed and looked away. He received a nip from Sutsui on the back of his neck as he felt a wave of irritation roll off her. He shook his head quickly and ruffle the hair on his head, "nothing like that, guys. I have a mission to get some food to make up for a shipment that needs to be delivered to the old Mizukage's dogs." The two guards suddenly stood stiff, their eyes shadowed where he couldn't see them fully. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "are you two ok?"

Pert went to answer first, "well, you see we get a lot of post duty we need to handle from time to time..." Chap began nodding beside him. "Sometimes the duty has extra difficulties we take on..." The guard standing at the gate just sighed and shook his head before saying, a bit louder than needed, "these two were the ones who failed to recover the missing part of that shipment." Dracoso looked to the guard at the gate, back to the two standing beside him. They both seemed to be avoiding eye contact. He sighed and shook his head before asking, "How do you fail to recover the shipment?"

The two guards tried to talk over each other, cutting in as they explained the story, "We got to where they had been attacked and-" "there were geese everywhere! We thought they were going to kill us-" "but we were able to save the second half of the shipment-" if it wasn't for the bandits that suddenly attacked and stole part of it!" They seemed to pause before jumping on, "then the geese attacked the bandits!" "And before we knew it, it was a three-way battle-" "we barely got away with what we could!" The two guards looked at Dracoso expectantly, as if he was the one needing to confirm their story. He just shook his head and looked back to the gate guard.

The guard shrugged and said, "from the delivery driver's report, they had been about half a mile out from the village when wild animals suddenly surrounded them. They yelled for help and these two came running up to guard them. Apparently, one of them had picked up some baby gooselings from nearby to...'help' them and the geese had been riled up. They attacked the convoy until the two let the gooselings go. In the middle of all this, bandit descended on them and were able to make off with a few of the crates and ended up injuring one of the gooselings in the middle of it. This caused the geese to attack the bandits, which made them drop and destroy several of the packages of meat. Apparently, angry geese will attack anything that smells like meat. The convoy, along with these two, ran for the gates and got away with half the delivery."

With one last sigh, Dracoso looked back to the two guards who were still refusing to make eye contact. He said, "look, we all make mistakes. It is odd saying this since you two helped teach me how to avoid making mistakes. I can't undo the past, but I can go out and replace the lost meat. The problem is, I am not a hunter. If either of you, or someone you know might be, that will make my work a lot easier and probably help undo some of the issue that we currently have." The two guards looked back to him before looking at each other. They considering for a few minutes before Chap piped up, "well, there is Haseik. He used to be a guard up until things got a bit more peaceful after Xyxer passed. He became a hunter as it was his dream. He lives right outside the village as he loves to bring back meat to sell and talk about."

Dracoso nodded and got directions before saying goodbye to his friends and the gate guard. He headed out the gate and followed the main path until it branched off into one of the wooded areas nearby. He came to a cabin that was well shaded by the copse growing around it. He knocked on the door and waiting for a solid minute before knocking again. "I hear you! Just give me a minute already," said a voice from inside the cabin. The sound of shuffling feet and the door lock clicking came right before the door opened outwards. A well-kept man stood before Dracoso with a soft scent of alcohol coming off him. Dracoso could see a bow laying against the wall behind him with a quiver full of arrows next to it.

"Yes? What do you need?" the man asked roughly as he weighed Dracoso with his eyes. "Chap mentioned that you might be a good person to contact when it comes to hunting," Dracoso replied. The man seemed to relax at the mention of Chap and was smiling as he heard mention of hunting. "I see my reputation proceeds me. I go by Haseik, but you can call me Hase for short. You need to do some hunting? Do you need the basics? Maybe how to use a bow?" Dracoso shook his head with a smile at how jovial the man had become, "I am looking for someone to help me hunt something specific. I am on a mission for the old Mizukage's dogs-" The man's face was scowling in the blink of an eye.

"Not interested. If you want to hunt down people to feed those damned beasts-" He started to turn around as Dracoso cut in, "Not people. A bull" The man stopped at mention of this and glanced back over his shoulder. He weighed Dracoso from foot to head and back again. "You? Take on a bull? You look like you already met its horns with your complexion. How are you expecting to take down a bull?" he asked. Dracoso tilted his head from side to side as if weighing options, "I know several things about chakra and hand seals. I figured we could knock it out or at least kill it together and bring the meat back." The man let out a deep chuckle before saying, "kid, if we could 'knock out' a bull that easily, I would be a rich man."

The man released a soft sigh before saying, "we can try to take it, but it won't be easy. You want the meat in the best shape and, knowing those dogs, you want the best shape meat as well. First thing to know, the quicker you can kill the creature, the less time it has to run adrenaline into its bloodstream and toughen the meat. Second thing to know, bulls have tough hides and strong spots you need to avoid. It has weak spots you can exploit, but getting the angle is not easy. Do you even know how to field dress an animal?" He looked at Dracoso who gave him a confused shake of the head. The man ran his hand through his hair before clicking his tongue, "so many people want to hunt, but don't even know how to do it right."

The man tapped his foot as he thought to himself for a minute. He spoke up after he finished his thinking, "first off, I will let you take the majority of the best cuts for your mission, but I get everything else. If it is the bull I am thinking of, you should get eighty to ninety pounds of good meat off that. I will do the field dressing and the clean up afterwards, but you get to handle the tough part. I will be there as support if you need it, but I will teach you how to approach it, how to hit the weak spot, and how to avoid getting injured on the way out. Some animals like to try to take the thing that killed them down with them. Since you don't seem to have a bow, do you have any kind of ranged implement?"

Dracoso described a few of his techniques, from his senbon to his poison mist, even his water beast and water prison abilities. "The prison and poison won't help. It will only make the animal panic and that will just put more tension on the meat. The needles sound like they could do a good bit, you would just need the animal to go down quickly. Leave your beast for a last resort, but I think that is all I need to know." The man reached back and picked up his bow before reaching into a closet at the front. He pulled out several arrows with much thicker metal tips that looked to be steel. 

They headed out together, crossing several miles before settling on one side of a small hill. The man described how tracking animals could take time and that they would need to use their senses to slowly keep an eye out for the animal. Dracoso thought on their abilities for tracking and decided to bring out Sutsui and introduce her. The man pulled back at first, then introduced himself once he came to understand the circumstances. As Dracoso explained her abilities and training, the man nodded and said that she could act as a scout for us. 

Dracoso let Sutsui slide off down his arm, letting a soft wave of discomfort as she left the touch of Dracoso. She headed off into the woods, letting off her abilities to disappear without a trace and began scanning the nearby areas. A clone of Sutsui returned and sat on his shoulder. he and the hunter headed into the woods, keeping a small distance between them, as they scouted the area. It took a few hours, and a few additional clones that returned to him, before one gave a small spit of water in front of him, directing him towards the animal. As they approached, Sutsui returned and showed him an image of the bull standing towards the edge of a clearing.

They held off on getting too close and simply tracked the bull so that it would move to a preferred location. Sutsui acted as a middle person, keep a good forty meters off from the creature and letting it wander. Eventually, it moved to a watering hole where Dracoso and Kase took up positions across the water from the being. They quietly discussed a plan and agreed before Kase began to shift around the watering hole, keeping amongst the trees. Dracoso shifted on his stomach, which made Sutsui send little giddy waves to feel him doing. He sent back sensations of calming and focus as he reached the edge of the water. he silently created two water clones and had one slip into the water to hide in the waves. Sutsui slipped along the bank of the watering hole as she watched the bull. The water clone reached twenty meters out and very slowly formed, trying to keep a water-like appearance, before forming several hand seals. 

The bull's eyes seemed to take on a somewhat dazed look, as if following something right in front of it. The clone guided it to stay close to the edge of the water while Sutsui slipped along the grass. Once close enough, she released a mist around the beast, letting it spread. The beast seemed to not mind it much as the other snake clone slithered up and sprayed the syrup starch field over the beast, quietly sticking it in place. The mist had dulled the creature's sense of touch and smell and so the syrup landed unnoticed to stick the beast in place. To be safe, Dracoso masked his own scent and moved quietly up to the beast from the water. Once he was within range, he ran chakra into the palm of his hand and slowly placed it over the beast's neck. The beast seemed to sag and shifted down until its head lolled on top of the water. 

He paused for a moment, looking over the beast as it lay neutral and helpless in front of him, unaware of its own predicament. He released some anesthesia so the bull would feel nothing before summoning his water sword and driving it caringly, and deeply, into the heart of the beast. The animal's breathing slowed gently, the heart beating heavily as it vibrated against his hands. He watched as the bull's eyes closed and its head fell into the water fully.

Dracoso let the blade dissipate in his hands. He sat back and stared at the silent beast while the clones around him slowly deformed back into water. Sutsui slid up around the back of his neck and sent waves of caring as she felt the solemn sadness Dracoso was experiencing. He hung his head as he kneeled over the creature, showing it respect for its death. Kase walked up slowly and rested a hand on the bull and a hand on Dracoso's shoulder before softly saying, "that was very good. It did not look like it was in any pain when it passed and it did not look scared." The man looked Dracoso in the eye, "you may not have the skills of a hunter, but you have the heart of one in my book."

Kase dressed the animal in silence and removed the best cuts to one side. Once they were cleaned and cared to, they filled the sack with the meat and closed it. The sack was treated so that it would keep the meat fresh and undisturbed as they traveled. Dracoso created a couple more clones and the four of them were able to drag the rest of the bull whole back to the man's cabin. The sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon as they got back. Dracoso thanked Kase for his help and his support in all this and said he would visit on his travels to and from the village when he could. The man chuckled and told him to put the lessons to good use.

Dracoso headed back into the village, carrying enough meat to almost double his own weight. Sutsui helped a bit with his posture and supporting him to relieve the tension of carrying it. They headed back in to where a small wagon was prepared and ready to head out to the agency. He let the driver examine the meat to which it was approved, and it was added to the cargo. Dracoso chatted with the driver as they headed out. The trip was relatively peaceful, just a goose or so in the distance watching them with disdain.

The agency was a bit smaller than Dracoso had imagined it and, once the driver identified their business, they were let in. Dracoso helped to unload the meat and headed into the main halls. They were led back to one of the side areas where small dividers were set up. Dracoso suddenly realized how familiar it looked to the adoption center where each of the dogs received their own area. The main difference was how clean and well setup the place was for the animals. The dogs could head out to exercise on one side of their areas, and they could rest and relax on what looked like soft beds in each divided section. 

The meat was cut into strips before being tossed into food bowls in each section. The dogs seemed to quite enjoy the meat, especially the cuts of bull meat, and were quite content. He patted one or two on the shoulder caringly, making sure to pay attention to body language as he reached in. Once done, they were shuffled back out and were leading an empty cart back out the front gate. The night had slipped in and the air was cool as Dracoso leaned back in his seat. The driver asked, "so, where did you get that meat exactly?" Dracoso closed his eyes with a smile and began to explain the story of the guards, the hunter, and the bull.

The trip back was peaceful, and he felt like he had come a step closer to nature by learning the uses of stealth and silence. He also felt the life of a being leave its body and the weight that came from its limp remains. He thought an easy job meant a relaxed mission. He still had a lot to learn in time.

{Exit}
E-Rank Mission: Pet Food Delivery
Reward: 1000 Ryo + 5 AP
Event Reward: 5 tickets
Total WC: 3650
Stats Maxed: Converted to AP - +72 AP
Learning Element: Wind - 4000/4000 (adding last 750 to 3250/4000 from last post: Creativity Starts with Motivation)
Learning Advanced Element: Ice Release - 2000
Learning Skill: Chakra Suppression - 400/2000 

Jutsu Learned:
E-Rank - Ice Release: Token Creation - 250
E-Rank - Wind Release: Quiet Footsteps - 250

Approved. Enjoy the Ice