The Academy Student Who Could

Mission Details:

It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. The Sakura trees were blooming and their charming pink petals lazily floated down on a gentle breeze, a sight that had brought both visitors and locals alike out to enjoy the occasion, something that Kana would've taken advantage of to pickpocket a few of the people if she was still a street rat. That wasn't the case anymore however, she was now on the path of becoming a proud Sakuragakure shinobi and as it turns out one of those steps involved running low end errands on behalf of the village. So now Kana had to duck and weave her way through the crowd with packages in tow, delicate tea sets, various tea blends and other fancy items related to tea that Kana didn't bother to look over. She had rarely got to try any teas but she found putting enough honey into any blend would make it taste good eventually, she didn't quite understand why people needed specific spoons just to stir the contents of the specific cup but it wasn't her job to question why people wanted them. Her job was to make sure the people got what they wanted safely and quickly.

A task that would've been easier if she could just barge her way through the crowds but then that would risk the tea sets so Kana was forced to carefully navigate her way through the sea of people, her smaller frame was both a blessing and a curse, she could weave through them easier but people wouldn't notice her as easily and many times she was forced to give a piece of her mind to some careless person who had nearly bumped into her but she was making steady progress on her journey. If she thought she was more skilled, she probably would've tried rushing through the trees and rooftops with the parcels but with her current skillset, she felt she would end up dropping at least one and frankly, she didn't want to leave her first official mission as nothing but a perfectly normal mission, done well without mistake or complaint.

It was only when she was left with 3 parcels to deliver that she finally took to the rooftops and trees, leaping and climbing and jumping her way through with a firm grip on the parcels. The difference in speed was night and day, she had decided to start her journey with the closest groupings of deliveries to be made and that had taken her nearly a hour while the final set of deliveries were to be made on the opposite end of the district, a walk that would've taken her another hour or so at her previous speed yet she was already there and dropping off the 1st parcel within 10 minutes. All that time spent training and working at the academy were totally paying off! Landing onto the ground, the last two places were in sight, on the opposite end of the streets and Kana eagerly set down the parcels, checking off the final items on the list and nodding to herself in satisfaction. Her first mission was complete, however as she begun to walk off, she couldn't help but notice a lone weapon's shop on the corner of the street. It wouldn't hurt to just check it out for a short bit, right? Not like she had to report the mission as complete as soon as possible.... Right?

WC: 584

Kana kept looking toward the weapons shop and the streets around her, as if she was expecting someone to come in and shout at her to report her mission as complete but as the seconds dragged onto minutes and nothing happened, she finally built up enough courage to enter. The shop was smaller and more cramped than she expected but there were so many items on display, the usual items one could expect were obviously on display, fine katanas, tantos and wakizashi but she glossed over them for the more exotic weapons. A nice looking war scythe was proudly on display right behind the merchant running the joint, her eyes trailing over the cravings engraved into the wooden staff, a show of the crafter's skills while the blade itself seemed simplistic in design, a simple curving sharp piece of metal, however she noticed the odd little hook at the tip of the weapon, as if it could be used to tear into flesh. Yet another part of her pointed out that it would more than likely got snagged on something and break easily.

Perhaps it was more for display rather than practical usage. Letting her eyes move from the war scythe, she'd look over at the many different smaller blades for sell on the lower shelves, her eyes glossing over the standard kunai and senbon and instead she would be looking over the daggers, brass knuckles and gauntlets. She wasn't entirely sure what weapon she should be looking into, she was still pretty weak all things considered and while she wasn't by any means the slowest, she wasn't exactly someone who could reliably consider herself the fastest in a fight. A close combat weapon like a dagger or gauntlet would give her the extra boost she needs in close combat and her smaller frame would let her avoid counter attacks easier but who knows if that would be a smart idea, she might just end up dead before she could draw her knife at that point.

Instead, she would wander over toward the ranged weapons, senbon, kunai, shuriken and the like were to be expected but her real focus was on the bows and crossbows on display, carefully examining them and considering how she'd use them against whatever her target may be. Perhaps it would be an animal for the first few missions, maybe it would be a person she could sneakily remove from a distance, slowly picking them off without anyone any wiser. Then she saw it. A finely crafted crossbow in the shape of an eagle, a strange storage that seemed to hold some bolts so the user can fire them one after another without the need to reload each shot manually. It sounded like it would be perfect for her, however she looked down at the price tag and then down at her little ryo purse and frowned. Perhaps next time she'll be able to afford it.

With a heavy sigh, Kana turned away from the store and begun to make her way down the streets back to the main office. She would be returning to that store when she was a real genin and walking out with that crossbow, she knew that much but it didn't take away the sting of realizing she was still no richer than she was before she had started training to become a shinobi.

WC: 562
TWC: 1,146

Kana had been completely caught up in her little moment of despair over her unchanging status as a poor girl that she had been completely caught off guard at the small bark and even smaller fur ball running at her, instantly getting onto it's two little feet and barking and biting up at her, it's tail wagging happily behind it as the small puppy seemed so happy and eager to just see Kana that she would be heartless to not forget her problems. Picking the small dog up by it's front legs and holding it out, she could see it was a male dog, well fed, it's white fur coat was fine and it's little tail just kept wagging as it looked at her, his tongue out and panting. "Where did you even come from little guy?" She'd feel the need to question, this puppy was too well taken care of for it to be a stray yet looking around, she didn't see someone trying to chase after him. At least until she seen a run down animal shelter and an open door that shouldn't really be open.

Sighing, Kana carried the little fur ball toward the shelter, she could barely afford to take care of herself, she couldn't afford to care for an animal, no matter how cute and adorable he was. Walking into the worn down joint, she was surprised to see nobody inside the reception area but she could definitely hear the staff busy in the back trying to contain what sounds to be a lot of animals, barking, whining and even some cats that hiss and meowed loudly in what sounds to be a massive animal break out. Looking down at the puppy, she considered just placing it in the reception, walking away and forgetting this problem but something about it's puppy eyes staring into her soul caused her to simply sigh, take a deep breath and walk into the backrooms with the rest of the staff and animals.

She almost instantly regretted her choice, so many dogs were roaming the backrooms. Different breeds of dogs were eagerly chasing each other while an older lady kept trying to calm down the animals and stop them from killing each other. "Max! Leave Snowball alone! Bolt, get down from there! Mittens, that isn't food!" The older lady kept crying out orders as she rushed back and forth, not even noticing Kana as she placed the puppy down and let it run around the backrooms. "Excuse me.... Do you need help?" She'd find herself having to ask, she knew she could've sneaked off but then what would happen to the rest of the animals? She didn't want to think about what would happen if the dogs decided to get rough, she had seen that enough back on the streets to know it wouldn't be a pretty sight, much less a fun thing to clean up.

"Oh! Please, that would be so nice of you! The dog's broke out of their pens, I told them that they'd need to be replaced but nnnoooo, it's fine they said...." The older lady had sounded so glad and thankful before muttering to herself about the problem that had spiraled into this mess. "I can fix them. But you might need to replace them anyways." Kana told her with confidence she didn't fully have, she hadn't been much for fixing things, breaking was easy but fixing wasn't really something she had to do beyond fixing herself from cuts and scratches. She didn't think slapping a bandage or gauze onto herself would be as easy as fixing whatever kept the animals contained.

"I'll make sure the owners know to replace them, we can't exactly run an animal shelter that can't shelter animals. The dog's pen is on the right. I'd help you bu- Max, stop that!" The older lady had readily agreed and forced a weak and tired chuckle from her lips as she joked about the state of the animal shelter, however as she kept speaking she must've noticed one of the dogs doing something and quickly ran off, leaving Kana to do her work as the animals seemed too busy hunting each other. Rather to play or to attack, she didn't want to know or find out and she quickly examined the pens of the animals, Quite a few dogs were left whining and trying to get attention or their own freedom like the others had. It seemed mostly the bigger dogs managed to break free as she watched a chihuahua barking like crazy at it's own pen, agitated and trying it's best to break free.

Looking at the closest broken pen, she was surprised to find abandoned tools and materials the older lady was likely going to use to repair the first pen but once the first one broke free, the other dogs probably been pushing and whining to be free and like this pen, the latch couldn't hold onto the rotting wood, so it gave way and the dogs suddenly found themselves free. It was a simple fix, tedious but simple. It only took her a few minutes to reattached the latches onto more studier pieces of wood, the materials she'd needed were only a screwdriver and screws most of the time, the latches only fell off and were mostly fine to be reused. "The pens are fixed ma'am." She'd call out to the older lady as she tried to wrestle a bigger dog away from a small dog, the poor thing barking back at the larger dog from the top of a desk. "T-Thank you.... Could you... Could you help me put them back?" The older lady requested as she was still struggling against the larger dog, her voice nearly drowned out by the barking.

Again, it was simple but tedious, she let the older lady handle the bigger dogs after all while she quickly gathered the more smaller dogs, ignoring their whining and barks. A few had tried to bite at her, but a bop on the snout made them rethink their actions and after a few more minutes of wrestling some of the dogs back to their pens, Kana and the older lady made it back to the reception desk, tired and exhausted but finally done with the doggy break out. "Again, thank you so much, that would've been so annoying to deal with by myself." The older lady said as she fanned herself while sitting at the desk. "No... Problem.... I better go now, I almost forgot to report my mission a success." Kana said as she stretched her muscles a bit, some of those larger dogs were stubborn about not going back and she was by no means the strongest person in her class. "Here. Consider it a thanks." The older lady called after her as she tossed some ryo toward Kana, the younger girl nearly dropped it in surprise. "Thank you. Goodbye now." Kana said quickly, unsure what else to say or do other than run away and hope the older lady wouldn't change her mind. Exiting the building, she ignored the older lady calling out something and instead Kana took off down the street. It was probably nothing, the more rational part of her said that as a kunoichi, she should be used to getting paid for menial jobs like that, yet she was too used of her beggar life style, getting money and running. She'd worry about it later on, right now she just wanted to report her success and go home.

WC: 1,259
TWC: 2,405

[Exit]

Claiming:

Mission Rewards: 3000 ryo and 15 AP
2,405 TWC from thread

Using 2,000 to learn slotted skill; Adaptive Deprivation[V7.2]
Using 405/2,000 toward learning slotted skill; Ninshū

Also claiming the 24 stat points and spending them

Stat Changes:

Approved