Highs and Lows.

Mission:

Things were getting ugly in the Village Hidden in the Clouds lately. Kumogakure was facing an unprecedented Civil Unrest. Two very foolish shinobi were complacent in the unfortunate death of a civilian worker that was caught in the crossfire in a battle…between both of them! Yes, they’re actually practicing in a construction site and one misfired lighting jutsu fried the poor man. This event has fired up the hearts and fighting stances of the people like never before, and for the last couple of days, many protest, riots and even violent events were happening every single day, with the village’s streets being taken by the protestors.  Jun studied the whole history of the new home of his clan, Kumogakure no Sato, and there is not a single event registered in the history books such as this one. Shops and markets were being looted, and a state of emergency had been declared in the village, but Kumo’s folks weren’t backing down, as they were REALLY pissed at the village’s Shinobi this time.


The leader of the protests was Mio Hasuka, mother of the civilian killed by the two Shinobi. Her sheer determination in seeking justice for his son and her fiery speeches inspired the people more and more to protest against the ninja in the village. The protestors claimed two things: that the ninjas who had killed Mio's son be arrested and punished, and that the high command of Kumogakure's ninjas committed themselves to preventing more tragedies like this from occurring, with a more humane and respectful treatment with the civilians of the village, who felt slighted by the self-centered ninjas.

And where did the young Shibasaki clansman fit in all this madness? Well, even that he despised and agreed that some Kumo ninja were too arrogant and did not treated the civilians properly, he was still a Kumogakure shinobi himself, and as such, he was chosen by his captain, Teru Agamoto, to try a diplomatic approach directly with the protestors leader herself, Mio Hasuka. The captain was betting on Jun’s young age and beloved presence to soften the grieving mother and thus potentially cooling off the tension between villagers and shinobis. But there was little a problem with this plan: the protestors, so far, were absolutely adamant on not negotiating at all. They were tired from all the shinobi’s promised, and they demanded action this time. 

Furthermore, being Mio the centerpiece of all this “revolutionary” movement, and as such she was being guarded at all times which has led to some more fighting amongst the villagers and the shinobi who tried to approach her. So, Jun’s job was not only convincing the protests’ leader, who lost her eldest son to the shinobi’s irresponsibility, but also to sneak into the “headquarters” of the rebels, passing through a furious mob and many guard willing to give their lives to protect their leader. Piece of cake.

The young genin was heading towards the shopping district, where Mio Hasuka would give a speech later on tonight to all the protestors there in the hopes of amassing greater popular support and to keep the already inflamed people mobilized. Jun was under covered as a civilian, so he wasn’t wearing any of his usual shinobi clothes or carrying any equipment with him besides some meters of rope, tied to his side. His plan was simple, to blend in the protestors to watch Mio’s speech, follow her after it was done to discover where she was staying and later infiltrating that safe place so he could have a little chat with her. For Jun’s surprise, when he arrived at the shopping district, there was already a huge gathering of people there waiting for Mio’s speech, even if it was scheduled for 10pm and it was currently 7:30pm. This made Jun to change his plan, so he looked for a nice spot in a tall building nearby where he would have a good look at the little stage the protestors placed for Mio. After locating the best spot to do it, Jun entered a narrow, empty alley nearby and used his shinobi skills to climb up the nearest building, and he stealthily jumped from roof to roof until reaching the appropriate building. From there, he would keep hidden at the top of the building until the hour of Mio’s speech.

In the meantime, while he waited for the great leader’s arrival, Jun was already trying to figure out what the hell to say in order to convince Mio to cool things down. For the first time in his ninja career, Jun had absolutely no idea or no plan at all to solve the task at hand. “Well… looks like that the time for me to finally improvise has arrived at least”. As the time passed, more and more people arrived at the square where Ms. Hasuka would speak, soon the place was absolutely packed with people, way more than there should be in such a narrow space. “Things can get really ugly if something happens during the speech…”.

Jun kept himself hidden as time passed, and after a while finally the center piece of the widespread protests arrived, and in what resembled a famous biblical passage, the sea of people opened in half giving Mio Hasuka space to slowly walk with her entourage towards the stage at the square. She was solicitously greeting everyone she could along her way, as the crowd chanted “MIO-CHAN, MIO-CHAN, MIO-CHAN”. Ms. Hasuka was a she was a frail little lady, with dark hair and a fragile complexion, around 60 years’ old and slightly hunchbacked. She kindly greeted some other folks before climbing up the stage. 

She spent some time waving at the protestors, who kept chanting her name. Soon after, a tall man that was accompanying her asked for the crowd to be silent for Mio-chan’s speech. Slowly, all the voices and all the chants muted and the mob was in complete silence, eagerly awaiting word from their leader. The old lady then gave a little cough, as if preparing her vocal chords, and finally she began speaking:

“People of Kumogakure no Sato, you all know me. You all know my story… all I ask you now is to hear me! Now it is not the time to step back! It is not the time to back down! It’s time to FIGHT! Fight for equality, fight for our rights as citizens, FIGHT FOR JUSTICE! Justice not only to my dear boy Rui… but for all victims of the Shinobi’s arrogance, for all victims of the Shinobi’s warfare! ENOUGH! All we want is PEACE! And even if we need to take it by force, we’ll have our peace! So hear this message, Kumogakure Shinobi, because I know there are many of you hearing this speech: We won’t rest, we won’t stop, we are not backing a single inch down, there is no turning back! Or you will give the peace we desire, or we will END YOU! WE’LL MARCH TO THE KAGE’S OFFICE AND CLAIM OUR PEACE! ONWARDS! FOR PEEEAAAACE!”


“FOR PEACE!”

“FOR PEACE!”
“FOR PEACE!”

And every single person chanted their motto. “That sounded a bit aggressive for who only wants peace…. but I got a give her that: that speech was like throwing gasoline into a bonfire, that crowd is on fire now…”. The protestors kept chanting louder and louder, and the frail but incendiary Mio Hasuka started climbing down the stage to leave the scene, as the crowd now started marching towards the Kage’s Office direction, with stones and torches in hand. “I don’t have much time before this gets out of control… where is the old lady heading?”

Jun activated his clan’s doujutsu, the Tengan, in order to upgrade his visual abilities, being able to locate and trace Mio’s heath signature through the giant crowd while she moved into the opposite direction the mob was heading. Again, using his shinobi skills, the young Genin kept jumping from building to building, following Ms. Hasuka and her entourage from above. After a couple of minutes, the entourage finally arrived at their destination: an old warehouse, that had many guards carrying swords guarding its entrance. From the building in front of it, Jun started analyzing the building with his heath vision prowess, gained via Tengan.

Seeing through the walls, the young Shibasaki clansman could see that the place was swarming with armed guards on both floors, with the old lady heading towards an office on the left corner of the second floor. With the two guys guarding the entrance, and Mio’s entourage, Jun could count over 20 foes. “How the hell are this guys so organized? They have weapons, the guys patrolling the building seem to be professional… they even have their own fortress… it’s like this demonstration were carefully planned in advance…”. As Jun kept observing the place, more and more this hypothesis was more likely. The patrol in the building took pre designed routes, with almost all places in the warehouse being covered by the patrolling area, with almost no blind spots. But there was something off as well… when observing the separate office that Mio Hasuka was at, Jun could not detect the heat signature of any objects besides the chair she was sitting in and a mattress on the floor… no books, nothing to write on…. And the two man guarding her weren’t outside like regular bodyguards normally would be, they were actually inside the office along her, standing still with their arms crossed and were weirdly staring at her at all times without moving their heads. “That looks more like the treatment you would give to a hostage rather than a powerful leader…”

Jun’s brain had many ideas on what the hell was going on, but he did not had time to theorize as the angry mob was marching on towards the Kage’s office and consequences could be dire. Yes, it would be tough to sneak in, there were many guards at the warehouse, and Jun was only one guy… but none of them had the heavenly eyes of the Shibasaki clan, the Tengan, and this gave Jun tremendous advantage. With his visual prowess, Jun was able to determine the best way to get past all the goons guarding the building: there was and old ventilation duct that came all the way down to the second floor from the building’s roof, and the roof was only guarded by a single man, so Jun could easily sneak in the duct, get to the second flood and from there he would be closer from his target.

So the young Shibasaki clansman jumped from the building his was observing the warehouse to a closer building, and then to another and another in a highly skilled fashion, before finally landing into the warehouse’s roof, while the lonely guard up there had his back turned. He stealthily removed the duct’s exit and ducked all the way down to fit into the small space of the duct, not before closing the exit behind him to not alert the guard. Crawling slowly so as not to make any noise and using his tengan to see through the walls of the ventilation shaft, the young shinobi made his way to the second floor. He knew, via his doujutsu, that there was an air vent exit in a room right next to the one Mio Hasuka was, and that room only had one goon, that was actually taking a nap, so that was the spot he would exploit and little by little, he approached the room.

Upon finally arriving there, he could see that the guard was still fast asleep, so he gently removed the lid of the vent shaft, and dropped down to the floor and gently as he could, using all the techniques he learned while at the academy to be as silent as he could. Luckily for Jun, the goon sleeping in the room never heard a single noise, so the genin had no trouble at this first part. His next step would be to actually get to Mio’s room, but not only there was 2 awaken guards that were constantly keeping an eye on her inside the room as there was another guard guarding the entrance. “Think Jun…think! Maybe a distraction? Or maybe that sleepy fella can be useful…”. Jun first knocked out the sleepy guy an immobilized him with his rope, and so he used the very basic Transformation Technique to become an exact doppelganger of the tied up goon.

The now under covered Jun slowly opened the door of his room an called the man guarding Mio’s office:


- Yo man, my wife made me some red velvet cake for me, do you want a piece?


- Hell yeah, I’m hungry as fuck… but you know I can’t leave my station…


- Come get some, brother. I won’t tell nobody, and you’ll be done eating in a minute

The guard looked both ways to see if there was anybody around, a quickly came towards the room Jun was keeping the sleepy guard tied.


- Right here, come inside…. The cake is on the table. – the dishuised Genin showed the guard the way, letting him enter first.


As soon as he was inside the room, he saw the tied up an unconscious goon but before he could have any reaction, Jun applied a rear nake choke on him, choking him out after he struggled for a while. He once again activated the Tengan to check if there was any movement inside Mio’s room or if any other patroller was around, but luckily no one seemed to notice anything unusual, so he again deactivated it. Jun tied with some rope he had left the second guard, and again used the transformation jutsu to disguise himself as the recently knocked down guard. “Now into the other room… and I think I know how”. The young Shibasaki clansman grabbed an empty coffee cup that probably belonged to sleepy guard and headed towards the other room’s door.
Jun knocked twice before opening the door, with a smile on his face and offering some coffee…


- Yo, any of you guys want some coffee?


- You’re not supposed to get inside here!


- Get out of here you fool – one of the guys than approached the disguised Jun, and the genin swiftly shut the door behind him.


One of the guys watching Mio grabbed Jun arm violently, so he head-butted the guy so hard he was instantly knocked down. Before the second goon could react, Jun threw with all his strength the coffee cup right at his head, breaking the cup and also putting him to sleep in the process, with everything happening in a matter of seconds. Jun looked towards Mio, who seemed very afraid.


- I’ll start screaming if you try anything!


- Relax! I’ll do you no harm. I just got rid of your captors and that’s how you thank me? - said Jun, before turning back to his regular appearance.


- Captors? How… how do you know that?


- I’am a shinobi, some of us are actually pretty clever… so, what the hell is going on grandma?


- O jeez… I’ll tell you everything young man… so, it is true that my son was kille by the shinobi, but as much as this pain me to say as a mother, he was not innocent at all… he got caught in the middle of a jewelry heist, fought the shinobi and died in combat… I grieved, I cried, and at first I was very mad at the ninjas… so I started the protests as part of my grief. It was something very small at first, but soon some shady guys approached me, giving me ideas on how to… “improve” my story and making the protests bigger. As they said, no one would have compassion for a thief, but many would have compassion for a grieving mother who lost her innocent son… and so at first I accepted this out of sorrow, and as soon the protests started growing more and more with their back up. They started spreading rumours and other stories about the shinobi’s violence, and soon most of the civilian population had joined the protests… and that when the riots, the looting and the violence started. At this point, I realized that this shady people were only trying to create chaos and to destabilize Kumogakure, so I refused to keep on helping them… but I became the symbol of this protests, and they would lose their “symbol” and the protests would start to slow down… and that’s when they started to threaten me… to threaten my other daughter, and they kidnapped me… and since that they are forcing me to give more and more fiercy speeches, that they write by the way… and… and know I’m just a slave for them… a pawn… and soon they will overthrow the shinobi’s ruling… I don’t know who they are, but this seemed planned for a long time…


- Don’t worry, grandma. You are indeed the symbol of this protests, I saw with my own eyes your speech… you started all of this, and you can stop it! I’ll break you free from this prison and I’ll take you to my captain, he will send shinobi to protect your daughter and we gotta put you to give a speech and calm down that furious mob you stirred up… you can trust us, even if you hate us… that is our job, and I give you my word…


- Alright, alright… but how we are leaving this ware house?


- Watch this…

Jun activated his Stage 2 Tengan, making his eyes glow intensively and again scaring Mio. He turned around into the room’s back wall, and after doing some handseals, he shot a big solar chakra beam from his shinning eyes, opening a huge whole on it.


- Shall we? – said Jun, as he put Mio on his arms and jumped through the hole on the wall before anyone got even react.

After a couple of minutes of jumping from building to building while carrying Ms. Hasuka, Jun finally arrived at the Ninja headquarters doors, gently putting her back to the floor. They enterend and Jun quickly briefed captain Teru Agamoto, who swiftly sent some of his ninjas to Mio’s daughter house. After the old lady again explained her story, the captain agreed with Jun’s idea of using her to calm the mob down.


- Great work, Jun! Now, I’ll take Ms. Hasuka to the kage’s office so she can try to calm things down… you can go home to get some rest, by I want a full report on your mission by 9AM at my desk, you got it?


- Yes, sir!


“Thanks for such a great reward, captain…” 

---

3145 WC

Mission #2:

But it turned out that the young genin did not handled his report on time. Jun was absolutely exhausted by all the action and plotting he saw last night and overslept for a little bit. He instantly jumped out of bed when checking the hours on his alarm clock, and rushed as fast as he could to the ninja’s headquarters. He was able to arrive mere 5 minutes late from his deadline, but captain Teru was a very strict dude and did not forgave Jun being late.


- Right when was giving more responsibilities, young man… I’m disappointed.


- I’m sorry, sir! But the report is done and mission was accomplished with Mio-chan, right?


- Yeah, yeah, the old lady did calm the mob down and the protestors opened negotiations with us… BUT, discipline is very important, kid, and even if you think that you’re some kind of hero, you must maintain discipline and humility! It seems that you’re very full of yourself young man…


- I never said…


- ENOUGH! I got another mission for you, Mr. Big Time.


- Yes, sir!


- Yes, I just hope that such mission is at your level… Kumogakure's aviary, very necessary for communication within and without the village, aka the place our beautiful falcons and ravens are kept, is in dire need of a cleanup. Go assist the keepers of the aviary and scrub some bird poop, I bet that there is a lot…


- … Yes, sir…


Jun left the headquarters and headed towards the aviary. He was livid, “One day I’m facing bandits, the other I’m cleaning bird poop… son of a…”. But nevertheless, Jun would fulfil this “mission” like every other he ever took. After some minutes of walking, he finally arrived… and boy, the situation was worse than he thought. The young shinobi had no idea how much birds could poop. Not only they pooped on their cages, but also pretty much everywhere as they would usually do the deuce when arriving or leaving the aviary, dropping it like bombs. There was poop on the walls, near the roof, and in inexplicable places. The guys that worked in the aviary removed the birds from there so the place could be cleaned properly.


- Huh, you’re the poor lad Teru sent this time? Good luck with the bird poop, boy! – said one of the aviary employees, while handling Jun a mop and a bucket.

And there he went, first the floor “scrub scrub scrub”, then the bids cages “scrub scrub scrub”, the walls using surface walking technique “scrub scrub scrub”, next to the higher parts of the wall, near the birds exits “scrub scrub scrub”, all the day Jun scrubbed every single part of the aviary. It was impeccable when he was done with it.


- Well done, lad. You really put some effort in it, didn’t you? You know what is so funny? That tomorrow when we put the birds back in here they’ll start popping over your hard work all over again and in a month the place will be covered in shit as always hehe… - said that same employee from before


“That guy… what an asshole…” 

---

WC: 530
TWC: 3675

CLAIMS:


2x Mission Rewards with Beloved Presence; 14,000 ryo, 70 AP

New Balance: 69,970 ryo


750 words towards Summoning Technique (25% discount by having max stats)
1500 words towards  One-Handed Seals  (25% discount by having max stats)

Approved