Date and guard quest

Spoiler:

https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t47466-conflict-of-interest

Mission Name: Conflict of Interest
Rank: C
Mission Location: Hoshigakure

Challenges: --
Task: One of Hoshigakure's many festivals are coming up, and this time, you've got a date! Look at you, lucky duck! But then, despair - you receive a mission slip in the mail stating that you've been assigned to patrol the festival and deal with any trouble. There's no getting out of it. Will you be able to both woo your sweetheart and fulfill your obligations to the village?

Word Count Requirement: 2,000
Reward: 4,000 Ryo / 20 AP

Character Requirements: Hoshigakure shinobi
Character Exclusive: --

Link to Legacy Mission: --

Return to the Mission Directory




It was late in the afternoon, bordering on the evening, and Madara was sitting in a restaurant across from her date. His name was Charles and he held the menu up in front of him. He had an expression that was a mix between a smile and exasperation. He looked to Madara who hadn’t even picked up the menu yet and asked, “want to get out of here? You look super distracted.” The boy who spoke was sweating slightly, thinking that he might have done something wrong already. Girls had seemed so simple not too long ago and now they seemed so complicated, like a puzzle that he had to solve just to get their attention. He hated it but also loved the challenge of it at the same time.

Madara was busy looking around the restaurant. Well, for one, she was on a mission to look out for trouble so that was her main motivation to stay alert. She also had a habit of looking at people, seeing where they seemed to keep their valuables, and generally sizing people up to see if she could steal from them. Not that she thought she could, but because she wanted to. All the time she put in practicing opening locks and untying purses from belts had to be put to good use eventually. She felt like she was just on the cusp of actually being able to pull of a theft but she also felt like she spent much too long identifying where people kept their belongings. One would think that such a thing was obvious, but one did not usually get a second chance. It was one thing to know that a purse was tied to a belt but another thing entirely to know exactly where on the belt it was tied and what kind of knot might have to be undone. Or perhaps whether it was loose enough to be cut free from the belt entirely without being noticed.

Just as Madara finally notice someone reaching for their waist she was interrupted by her date. She turned to look at him with a livid look on her face. “What Charles?” She saw the look of fear on the boy’s face and she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Her temper was usually what made people dislike her if they got to know her. It was something she knew was a problem but it was not something that she often worked towards improving. It was her own fault, anyway, and she knew it.

“I was just saying that we can go to a different place if you don’t like it here,” he said nervously. He was not quite sure why his date was acting so mad at him. He almost wanted to leave and see what Madara would do. Would she try to stop him? He started fantasizing about what kind of things he could do to force Madara’s attention onto him.

Madara let out a deep sigh and said, “I’m sorry, I get distracted with… things. Sometimes. Sorry, I really am but… anyways, never mind that.” she held her tongue because she was about to say something along the lines of ‘don’t you dare ever distract me again’ but she quickly remembered that she actually liked this guy. He was the son of a hunter, someone who lived in her area for the past year or so and Madara fancied how he looked and how he could shoot a bow. Shooting arrows had always appealed to Madara, but she just wasn’t built for that sort of activity. Madara had always dreamt about a strong husband anyways.  

“Right…” Charles said back, “so what is it you wanted to order? I was thinking about getting this.” He pointed to something on the menu, not that Madara could even see such small writing from across the table. Charles was very keen on getting the food in him because at least that would give him something to do other than staring at a very distracted date. Madara’s apparent lack of interest in him made him feel weird inside.  

Madara looked at the menu and pointed at the first thing she saw because she knew he was waiting on her. Something with vegetables. She hurried to start a conversation about hunting and Charles started telling her simple stories about what kind of stuff his father taught him. He went over the very basics of skinning animals and how pelts were handled and what it was like to find a bunny in a trap. It was not a very good topic to have over a meal and Madara was very grateful that she did not have any meat on her plate. She felt like gagging more than once and Charles thought it was funny how grossed out she was.

The food itself was fairly mediocre. This was one of the cheaper places around and they only had so much money that they’d each had to save up to make this date happen. Even still, Madara appreciated it because her parents didn’t cook all that well. This meal was a nice break from the same three or four meals that she’d get at home. Charles didn’t care one way or the other. He was only here to get more confidence talking to girls. He had plenty of great food at home given his father hunted for a living. Plus, if he was at home no doubt he would have work to do.

Neither of the two were great shakes this whole dating thing. This was Charles’ second date ever and Madara’s first dinner date. They talked about this and that for a time but they quickly ran out of things to talk about and by the time the food was all gone they just sat around waiting for the other to suggest that it might be time to go home. It was embarrassing for them both, but mostly for Charles because Madara seemed increasingly disinterested as time went on. Her eyes kept wandering to people seated around them. Every time she thought she saw someone reach for their belt she would look and see whether they’d been going for their purse or not. She thought that if she could pick up on the right motions then spotting that activity from the corner of her eye would come naturally… but she made little improvement due to her very split attention.

There was a man in the corner was mourning his teacher. Madara thought he was suspicious so she went to talk to him and ask if he knew of any crimes around. He didn’t. He did tell her about his story though. The teacher he lost was not a father or anything, that was good. It showed that he had some basic respect for the authority figures in his life, but she doubted that it would be any crippling sorts of mourning. She had known people who had shut down when they were mourning, who were close to killing themselves because other people had died and... well, hell, she had been one of them! If it wasn't for people like him, she would not be here right now having this discussion, which probably showed a level of difference between her and the man who was kneeling next to her. It was the same difference between a man who'd lost his house in a fire and a member of Hoshigakure. Not that they weren't both traumatic, she could imagine them both being horrifically traumatic, but they were nothing to eternally whine over. That could be left for things like losing your entire family over. He was probably one of the ones in the world who had dealt with their situation the best, albeit with help.

However, as the man went on and on, Madara raised his eye. The only people who worked within monasteries were monks.. well, ,monks, abbots, nuns and friars, although really they were the same thing. They were basically just people who were dressed in unnecessarily old clothes and had schizophrenic discussions with a god that only really existed inside their heads. At least, that was Madara’s take on the issue. She didn’t want to get too religious and discuss the one thing that created every living thing and for some reason was already pre-existing, existing before existence was even possible. She was not a believer in such a thing, but if people wanted to bend logic and believe in stuff that made absolutely no logical sense and only felt good to those who wanted to believe there was some greater purpose, that they weren't all just living in a world of chaos where the only sense is that that people make for themselves then it was fine by him. As long as they didn't force their mantra down his throat as so many of them seemed to do, she was absolutely fine with it. Since this man wasn't going into any details about his religion - despite being a monk, or at least she was the student of a monk so she had to assume that this guy was also a monk - she was also fine with this guy. Or, more than fine since she clearly showed respect to someone, something that a lot of the members of this village seemed absolutely incapable of doing.

Madara went back to her date and the two stayed seated until a waiter came along and said it was time to pay and leave, which they did. Afterwards they hurried home because they’d realized that it was getting pretty late. Madara tried extra hard to keep a lookout for danger since she had heard many cautionary tales from her parents about what could happen to people who stayed out too late. She suddenly wished that Charles had his bow with him. Every shadow seemed like a stranger that was up to no good. She found herself instinctively clinging to Charles’s arm as they briskly walked all the way until they made it to her home.

While they walked, Madara was sure to inspect whether bad things were actually going on. She flashed her sharingan in the darkening area and made sure to look to see if the shadows were actually more than just shadows. Luckily she didn’t spot anything. The walk home was fairly long too. They had to make it all the way across town which resulted in a fairly decent patrol range if anyone cared to nitpick how much actually patrolling was done.

“I had fun, bye,” Madara said before running inside. More elegant words escaped her in the moment and she felt like an idiot as soon as she was safe inside her room. She hurried to her diary and jotted down the main points. How she felt and what she thought about every boy she’d gone on a “date” with was neatly recorded in a small diary that she kept hidden underneath her bed. She even went as far as to tie it to the wooden frame of the bed so that it was impossible to see even when peeking under the bed. For all she knew, she was the only one who knew about her secret hiding spot. She didn’t think much of Charles after getting to know him more. He certainly looked the part to be her boyfriend but he didn’t seem to know much about anything other than gross hunting stuff. She was not sure she ever wanted to know what it felt like to hold an intestine in her hands. She gave him a three out of ten and then snapped the book shut before changing her clothes.

Charles shrugged. He had enjoyed his second date. It certainly beat his first one where he’d argued with a girl for half an hour before the two of them returned home with angry tears. He happily strolled home and was eager to tell his father about his evening. They’d likely enjoy some leftovers together and have a good laugh.

Madara didn’t share the details of her dates to her parents and they’d stopped asking a long time ago. They often followed up with the parents of her date to find out how things went, though Madara had talked with so many different boys by now that it was impossible to find the time to micromanage her social life. No, once Madara got home she’d always head to her room and then she was always busy with something or another, as if the date itself had just been a break from whatever she’d been working on before.

2100 wc
+4,000 Ryo
+20 AP
15 Tickets
learning B rank of https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t47898-chakra-mask#368462 for  1500*.75 (max stat discount) = 1125 wc
learning C rank of https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t46370-seal-sense#360665 for 1000*.75 = 750 wc
tossing rest of wc

Approved