A Trip to the Bath House [P]

Mission Details:

It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze in the air, it was the perfect day for people to simply relax and enjoy the simplicity of life. Sadly, such luxuries were never an option for Kana, instead she had taken another mission, a more dangerous mission than any other she had taken thus far but she felt certain she could handle it. Probably. She didn't know if having Gunshin as a partner was helping her or not, she didn't particularly care if she was caught in the explosion, chances are that she'd survive it but Gunshin? The meek girl was too... Not weak, but she lacked the will power, the tenacity, the determination to survive like Kana had. And that worried her more than she'd let show.

The mission would be simple, go in, find the bomb and disable it. The village even provided them with a seal to disable it since neither of them had any viable option to disable themselves, at least as far as Kana was aware. Fuinjutsu was something she was only starting to dabble in, finally learning how to store away her pesky items she didn't wanna carry around all the time like the books and the cooler. She couldn't say with certainty if Gunshin would be any better at fuinjutsu but the fact of the matter was that the village saw fit to provide them with a counter measure. That would serve their purpose well enough.

Finally arriving just outside the bath house, Kana would look at the small building, a modest size considering it's residence, the civilian district didn't need some big fancy place, it looked comfortable and affordable from the outside. She never actually used one of these things so she didn't quite know how these places were supposed to work, hopefully Gunshin would have a better idea than herself. Speaking of Gunshin....

Kana looked around the sparsely populated streets, wondering where that shy girl was, Kana didn't know if she got here early or if Gunshin was running late but it seemed she made it before her, so Kana simply leaned up against the wall by the entrance and waited, idly picking at a small cut she had gotten in a training accident. She probably could've healed it with a jutsu but she had used all her chakra and by the time she recovered, the wound had already scabbed over and began the healing process. A process that she was interrupting. Medically, Kana knew she shouldn't be picking at it, but she was bored and she never liked having scabs on her body.

WC: 440
MWC 440

Gun had been given the mission details only moments prior and she was nervous. She and Kana were going into the blast radius of an explosive, and whoever had planted it could set it off at any moment. Worse yet, if whoever it was caught wind that Kana and Gun were there to diffuse the explosive tags, they might set it off just to spite them. They likely didn’t set the explosive tags there just for some genin to come through and remove them. Either way, a misstep could end, not only their own lives, but the lives of anyone else in the bathhouse. Gun made her way to the location, seeing Kana as she approached. A slight wave was not necessary, but Gun’s natural excitement at seeing her bestie couldn’t be contained and resulted in the completely unnecessary gesture.

“So what’s the play?” Gun asked when she was close enough that a low whisper was sufficient enough to communicate. Gun wasn’t sure if they were supposed to sneak in like insects or pretend to be customers or if Kana had some other plan up her sleeve. The worry was that whoever had set up the bombs likely was watching to make sure no one came to diffuse them, otherwise their plan could go up in smoke without much effort on those attempting to thwart said plan.

WC: 227
TWC: 227
MWC: 667

As Kana idly picked at her scab, she was only a bit surprised when Gunshin finally made herself know, a small wave as she approached. She was stiff, nervous perhaps, Kana couldn't blame her but they needed to play it cool in case the bomber was watching so Kana only returned her own wave, choosing to forget the very active bomb threat and treat it as just a normal experience with her friend. Even as Gunshin quietly whispered what they should be doing, Kana only remained cool and brought an arm around her shoulders, bringing the taller girl close to her.  "Come on, don't be shy. It'll be fun!" Kana's voice came out normal, the only slightest hint of nerves hidden within that she doubted anyone would be able to pick up other than Gunshin or another shinobi who was actively looking for any sign of deception.

She quickly brought the meek girl into the lobby of the bath house, away from prying eyes and ears before she lowered her own voice. "Act calm and casual. We're going to be regular customers, leave clones and I'll show you a fun little trick I learned to sneak away and then we find that bomb." The plan was simple, she doubted the bomber would be expecting two young girls to be the bomb defusal squad but even if he somehow had eyes inside the building, their clones would provide more than enough of an alibi and thanks to her new jutsu? The two would be able to get away from the more public areas and into the more restricted parts of the building, where the bomb would likely be planted. "So uh.... Have you actually ever been to a bath house before?" She'd let her own voice turn to a normal volume and allow some more of her nervousness leak into her voice, a desire to sell the act and more importantly, because she had no fucking clue what the hell she was doing here.

"I don't know if I was supposed to bring any bathing clothes but I got some packed up in case I do need them. I didn't pack any towels but... They should have some here, right?" Kana would try to probe her friend for any information about what should be expected in such a place, a simple once piece swim suit had been an odd purchase to make but she could probably write that off as an expense to the village. She hoped. She was gonna be pissed if she bought the stupid thing for no reason. Doubly so if she needed a towel but incorrectly assumed this place would provide some.

WC: 445
TWC: 885
MWC: 1,112

Gun wasn't sure what to make of Kana as she put her arm around her and began guiding her inside. She caught on quickly though, they were pretending to be customers and they'd go from there, or so she thought. Gun had never been to one of these places, her mom never having the funds to really afford a posh bathhouse like this one. She looked around at the decor, not purposely acting like an uncultured girl, just coming by it naturally. Then Kana pulled her a little closer and whispered the plan to her. Gun smiled a bit, this was beginning to sound exciting with leaving clones and sneaking around... even if the bomb could go off at any moment. The kunoichi hadn't known it before, but since becoming a shinobi, she'd realized that she liked the subterfuge that came with it. Sneaking around and trying to do things without alerting others, it was fun for Gun.

"No," Gun said, answering Kana's question. "I've never been to a bathhouse before and this one sure seems fancy." All of the shiny decor, ornate things on the wall made Gun worried that she might break something and be unable to afford it if she did. When Kana mentioned towels, Gun just gave her a shrug, as she had no idea what sort of amenities a place like this offered. With how nice the place seemed inside, Gun almost figured they'd have everything one needed, but more of a hunch than something she was willing to wager on.

"Hello there, do you two have an appointment for today? Walk ins are welcome, so if you don't have an appointment, no issues." The teen boy said, he was probably 18 or 19 years old. Gun nodded negatively, indicating they did not have an appointment. "Just the 2 of you? Or should we expect more for your party?" The teen seemed very professional and Gun held up two fingers.

"Perfect. We have towels and everything you'll need in the changing rooms. Ladies," he said, his arm pointing to his right which happened to be the girls' left as they were facing each other. "changing room is over here. Have a pleasant experience." he added, with a slight smile.

WC: 374
TWC: 601
MWC: 1486

"Fancy." Kana said with a low whistle as they made their way into the lobby, the receptionist begun to welcome them into the establishment and Kana remained quiet as Gunshin seemed more than capable of communicating what was happening without words. A bit odd but if she wanted to handle it in her own way, Kana would let her and the guy didn't seem to particularly care about Gunshin's nonverbal communication, before waving them over toward the changing room. "Thank you." Kana said with a small nod to the receptionist as she lead the way forward into the changing rooms, her eyes idly taking notice of her surroundings, subtly scanning for anything that would look like the paper bomb yet finding nothing that immediately stuck out. "Scan the changing room. Change clothes, meet.... I guess near the exit and we'll go... Do whatever the hell people do here before placing the clones." Kana would whisper to Gunshin as they made their way into the modest sized changing rooms that were split down the middle by wooden shelves hosting a few clothes of other patrons, Kana would only give Gunshin a simple nod before going down the right aisle, splitting away from her friend for both privacy and to perform a quick scan of the room.

Looking around the room, it was clear that not a lot of people were currently in the bath house, most of the cubes remaining empty and a cursory glance around the empty cubes showed nothing hiding within, which probably would've been too easy, someone could accidentally find the bomb without meaning too if the bomber placed it somewhere obvious. But then again, she'd be kicking herself if she dismissed this place outright only to find the bomber actually did hide the bomb here. Doing a bit more careful investigating in the shelving with other people's clothing, she found nothing of note either, just the usual attire expected of others nor was there a bomb hidden within the shelving either. All together, checking for bombs, shifting through clothing and changing into her swimsuit only took Kana a few minutes.

Waiting by the exit toward the bathing areas, Kana would be in her blue one piece swimsuit and a towel wrapped around her body. She didn't like how exposed the swimsuit made her feel, her dress was simple and covered most of her body, to have something that clung onto her body and only covered the torso felt odd. She probably should've bought one of those silly swimsuits with the frills on it just to help her feel a bit more covered up but alas, the cheaper price on this swimsuit won out. That was clearly a mistake. At least only Gunshin would be seeing her in this stupid thing, she didn't want to imagine doing this mission with anyone else, that would've been a whole other level of awkward.

WC: 483
TWC: 1,368
MWC: 1,969

Gun nodded her assent to Kana's plan. It seemed like a good play: use clones as decoys and then attempt to move about unnoticed. Splitting up in the changing room was a bit nerve wracking for the kunoichi who would prefer to have her close friend nearby, especially in the vulnerable position of being undressed, but she understood the logic. If they split up, they could ensure the entire changing room was "clean" of the paper bomb they were attempting to disarm. Of course, if they found it there in one of the changing stalls, the mission could be done and over and, maybe, the two could actually enjoy their little spa day. One could only hope, Gun then headed down the left aisle while Kana went down the right.

Gun wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for: she had seen exploding tags at the Cherry Bomb and she had some experience with fuuin, so she presumed the paper bombs would look something like that, but that was more of a hunch than anything. She wondered how many there were and how they would know if they found them all. How terrible would it be if they said the place was clean and then a tag goes off and hurts someone? Not only would Gun feel bad for letting someone get hurt, but they'd also probably get in trouble for not doing a thorough job. She sat on the bench in front of all the cubes and slid her hand on the underside of it, checking it to see if the evil doer who was trying to blow up naked people while they were bathing had attached the paper bombs there. Finding nothing, she focused in on the cubes which were designed for guests to keep their belongings. Even though many of the cubicles were empty, Gun looked inside pretty thoroughly, sliding a hand over the sides and top. She even slid her hand into the cubes with belongings inside. She figured they wouldn't mind as long as she didn't take anything and she didn't plan to take anything. She was on the job after all. Besides, if it meant ensuring the citizens' safety, she was sure they'd allow the shinobi to search their things.

After checking all the spaces, Gun started slipping out of her clothes. She hadn't planned ahead, so she didn't have a swimsuit. The more she disrobed and the more she thought about it, she figured being naked in a bathhouse was alright. And for some unknown reason, taking her clothes off didn't make her seem any more nervous than before she'd entered the building. Once she had taken everything off and wrapped a towel around herself, she headed towards the exit. For some unknown reason, Gun was more concerned with running into people and being expected to interact with people than being naked in front of them, though she hoped this mission wouldn't come to that. As she approached the exit, she nodded to Kana, her naked shoulders clearly indicating that she wasn't wearing a swimsuit. A shrug of the shoulders was all Gun thought it would take to tell Kana that she had found nothing related to paper bombs. Now, the two were onto the next part of their plan...

WC: 547
TWC: 1148
MWC: 2516

As Kana waited by the exit, she wondered if someone should go check the guy's side of the changing rooms before promptly shooting that idea down was a simple "We'll do it later" when they had actually finished investigating the rest of the building first. Hopefully by then, they'd have find the bomb and defused it without any hassle so they wouldn't have to decide who would go sneak into the changing room. Which Kana strongly suspected would have to be her since Gunshin struggled to talk with other people, she didn't want to imagine how embarrassing it would be for the meek girl to have to check out the guy's changing rooms, especially if there were other guys around. Kana wasn't exactly thrilled about going in there either, she didn't really interact much with the opposite sex beyond some of them teasing her for her scar or having to fight them during the sparring classes back in the academy, both of which occurred when both parties were fully dressed and proper.

Any further thinking was cut off as Kana finally noticed Gunshin approaching, she turned to regard her friend but only paused as she noticed her bare shoulders on display. Unlike Kana's shoulders that had the straps of her bathing suit clinging to them. Was Kana the weird one for wearing a suit or was Gunshin the weird one for going naked? Why the fuck was Gunshin going naked in the first place? Of course Kana knew they both had the same parts, she wasn't exactly stupid but Gunshin was supposed to be the shy one. The one who can barely speak to other people, yet here she was about to go into the bathing areas naked. While Kana wore a bathing suit. There was always a possibility that Gunshin was just wearing one of those weird strapless bathing suits, which still seemed a bit bold for a girl like her but it made more sense than just going in naked, she would've assumed Gunshin would wear one of those frilly swimsuits or at least an one piece like herself.

Putting away her thoughts about their vastly different swimming attire that was making her worried she was already fucking up the whole bathing house business for a second, she saw Gunshin shrug her shoulders and she took it as a sign that the meek girl didn't find the bomb either. "Nothing on my end either.... We'll just continue the initial plan, head in, place some clones and I'll give us the opening we need to sneak into the backrooms to search for it there." Kana spoke mostly just to get her mind back on track toward the mission, she can worry about looking stupid later. "You seem to have an idea of what to do at a bathhouse.... Or at least more than me, so I'll follow your lead." Kana would decide, feeling a bit bad about having to rely on her meek friend to guide her but she was already feeling self consciousness being exposed in a bathing suit which apparently might make her stick out more than if she just went nude like Gunshin had decided to do.

WC: 531
TWC:1,899
MWC: 3,047

Gun couldn't read Kana's face as she approached, but there was definitely something going on in that brain of hers. Gun noticed Kana's straps sneaking out from her towel and heading over her shoulders, but didn't pay it any mind. Everyone should be comfortable, she supposed. She then heard the plan again and nodded in agreement. In the back of her mind, she wondered if this was some sort of hoax: send a message demanding money, if they give you money, cool, and if they don't, it doesn't matter cause you didn't really go through any trouble of putting  bombs at their establishment. It would make their search for paper bombs rather unsuccessful.

Gun was curious to see what trick Kana had up her sleeve because "I'll give us the opening" made Gun think Kana had something planned. They'd both been doing a lot of training lately, and not always together, so Gun presumed that Kana had learned a new technique. Gun was always a bit envious of Kana's ability to learn new stuff, especially that didn't involve pointy weapons. While Gun was determined to get better at the things she was good at, she sometimes wished she was better at other ninja stuff besides just bukijutsu. She was sure there were lots of interesting things she could learn, but she still had a lot to learn where she actually showed talent, so she was content learning things there for now.

"You seem to have an idea of what to do at a bathhouse.... Or at least more than me, so I'll follow your lead."

"What?!" Gun didn't know what Kana was saying, or alluding to. She looked around, wondering why Kana thought she knew what to do. Seeing no other choice, she headed into the main room of the bathhouse. It was a large room: one wall had various shower heads on it, some had stools in front of them, another section had a couple over sized pools with built in benches for bathing, and that was just what Gun could see from the entrance. There were many doors around the perimeter that undoubtedly went into other areas, the areas they planned to search once their clones were set and Kana had set a diversion. There were a couple heads emerging from one of the pools, chatting quietly to each other. Another person was scrubbing at one of the shower heads.

Seeing just a few people and none of them even turning to look at them, Gun wondered if they should make their clones now. Leaning close to Kana and whispering "Clone here?" She turned back towards the entrance, making sure no one else was entering right behind them.

WC: 450
TWC: 1598
MWC: 3497

Kana wasn't entirely sure why Gunshin was surprised or caught off guard, the meek girl clearly had to know something Kana was missing if she felt she even could go in nude, the thought didn't even cross her mind that she could enter without any sort of clothing, yet Gunshin was more than willing to be nude which might even be in a front of random people. Maybe if it was just gonna be her and Gun, Kana might've considered going nude as well but something about so many people seeing her naked felt too weird for her. Hopefully she wouldn't ever have to return to a bathhouse after this mission, this entire mess would be better left forgotten.

Gunshin lead the way in and Kana looked around, mostly out of curiosity rather than actually scanning the area for the paper bomb. Looking over at the various areas to clean oneself, Kana was trying to figure out what one would even be expecting to do in these places or what purpose they could serve. Bathing was obvious but.... Why specifically come here instead of cleaning at home? Even in the barracks, Kana could get some semblance of privacy but here? She could see everyone, a little too much for her own liking. This was a horrible place and a horrible idea. Maybe back in the day when water was scarce, it would make sense for a community to have a single place to bathe but now? This a relic of a past that she'd be fine with being forgotten. So when Gunshin whispered rather or not to leave the clone here to blend in so they could sneak off? Kana couldn't agree any faster than she did. "Yeah, we'll leave the clones and then I'll get us out of here."

Kana quickly went through the hand seals for the clone jutsu, something she hadn't really done since the genin exam now that she actually thought about it. It kinda felt fitting that she would use this jutsu for her first official mission with Gunshin. Although technically this would be their second mission together but their last "mission" wasn't really official considering Gunshin had just kinda shown up and agreed to tag along to help Kana rather than being assigned in any official capacity and even then that was just some E rank chores. With a small puff of smoke, besides Kana stood an exact copy of herself who only glared at the real version of herself, something she didn't blame it for either. Poor thing was going have to suffer standing out here in the open while she got to go do real shinobi things.

Seeing her own clone ready, she waited until Gunshin finished setting down her own clone before Kana would begin to weave more complex hand seals, one that required far more of her focus as she closed her eyes to run through them properly, molding her chakra in the same way she had practiced numerous times while trying to learn this technique. Once she finished the final hand seal, her chakra begun to envelope her small frame yet this chakra was special in that it was designed to reflect any and all light away from her body, effectively creating a transparent space where she stood. For Gunshin, it would appear as if Kana was being wiped away from reality as her chakra flowed upwards from her feet, hiding whatever her chakra was covering until the top of Kana's head disappeared entirely, leaving absolutely no trace of the shorter girl.

Going quiet, Kana would subtly move behind and around Gunshin, moving from her right to her left while being careful to avoid making noises. "OoooOoooo" Kana would whisper from the opposite side of Gunshin in an attempt to mimic a ghost, partly to showcase just how effective her jutsu was but also to try and keep the atmosphere light, the fact that there was an active bomb around was not something she wanted to focus on until it was time to proper search for it. Only after seeing Gunshin's reaction would Kana touch the meek girl's shoulder, thus allowing her chakra to cover Gunshin and also allowing her to see Kana once more while erasing her from view to any onlookers. "Pretty cool, right? Everything is invisible, shadows, items we're holding, everything can't be seen. Even if it was cold here, our breath would be covered by my chakra, the only thing we have to worry about for now is sound." Kana would explain with a quiet whisper and a wide grin on her face, pleased that it had worked out so effectively, this would mark the first time she used such a high profile technique and showed Gunshin just what she could do.

WC: 797
TWC: 2,696
MWC: 4,294

"Yeah, we'll leave the clones and then I'll get us out of here."

Gun, following Kana's lead, began to also go through the clone jutsu's hand seals. When she took her genin exam, she had been thoroughly worried about performing the clone jutsu successfulluy, but she had become much more proficient in the jutsu since then. She had actually become much more proficient in ninjutsu in general, but it had taken a decent amount of work on her part. It was something she wanted to be good at so she'd spent a good deal of effort and time training herself in that field. After the seals, a second Gunshin appeared beside the original, covered in nothing but a towel just as the original was. Gun wasn't sure what the clone should do... she didn't really want it disrobing and bathing, maybe the two clones could just sit and pretend to be having a conversation. Oh well, she thought to herself as she turned her attention back to the real Kana (or so she thought).

Gun watched as Kana did the complex string of hand seals for their 'disappearing' act. She was envious of the girl's ability to perform such complex techniques and hoped that she could some day also perform techniques at the same level. She had known Kana was special ever since the academy and her ability to perform these high level techniques was just the proof of that belief. Gun was then surprised as Kana finished and she began to disappear right in front of Gun's eyes.  First, her feet disappeared, but the rest of her didn't come tumbling down like one would expect if their feet ceased to exist. In Gun's mind, she knew that Kana wasn't being erased from existence, just appearing to be erased, but it was still pretty cool to see firsthand. After her feet, her ankles and then her calves disappeared; the rest of her soon followed. Gun was now looking at one Kana, where there used to be two, and one Gun, because she couldn't see herself anyways. Gun knew she was supposed to be included in the disappearing act, but she wasn't sure if she had disappeared too. She raised a hand and she could still see her own hand, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be able to see it or not. As she looked back up, she thought she could see something moving. It wasn't like a real thing, it was like a shadow that moved when you tried to look at and focus on. She wasn't sure what she was seeing, but forgot all about it as she heard a noise.

"OoooOoooo" Gun jumped a bit, scared by a noise coming from somewhere that shouldn't be able to make noise. She was about to swing her arm around, but her rational mind stopped her. It wasn't an attack, just Kana playing around. Even if it was an attack, swinging could cause Gun to hit Kana and that wouldn't be good either. Her face got a little red as she came to the conclusion that it was Kana and that she'd gotten the best of her, she was a little embarrassed by her own reaction.

"Very funny," Gun whispered to her invisible friend. She then felt a slight touch on the shoulder which brought Kana back into Gun's field of view. A small grin crossed Gun's face as she could now see her friend that had spooked her just a moment before. The technique was pretty cool and Gun was impressed with how well the technique had worked, even on her. Gun looked around, still not sure if she was visible to them or not.

"Pretty cool, right? Everything is invisible, shadows, items we're holding, everything can't be seen. Even if it was cold here, our breath would be covered by my chakra, the only thing we have to worry about for now is sound." Kana remarked, causing Gun to presume she was now just as invisible as Kana had been. It was a remarkable technique, even hiding shadows and breath, and sound could be erased in other means which would only make this technique more effective. She was also glad to have the knowledge that she had to be wary of making too much noise.

"This is amazing Kana," Gun whispered, not sure her words really did how she felt justice. She wasn't sure of all of the limitations of the technique, but it would certainly make covert missions much easier. It would also likely allow them to sneak up on enemies. The applications were numerous and Gun couldn't even fathom how useful the technique could be to shinobis in many types of missions. "Truly amazing,"

Gun was still amazed at the person who'd agreed to be her friend just a short time ago, when they were both nothing but Academy students. Now she was casting high rank invisibility techniques... Gun was sure this girl would become a pillar of Sakuragakure no Sato some day. There was little that could get in her way, or so it seemed to Gun. The little grin on Kana's face told Gun that she was proud of herself and Gun was also proud of her. That was when someone at one of the showers dropped something and it clanged loudly throughout the bathhouse. The sound pulled Gun from her little reverie and reminded her they were here on business. The alternative was that Kana wanted to sneak around and look at naked people, so surely they were here to find those bombs.

Gun began sneaking off, being careful not to make any noises. She also waved to the real Kana for her to follow her, leaving the two clones standing together. She moved over to a door that said Maintenance, looking around to make sure no one was looking. She had forgotten for a moment that they were invisible. Still, opening the door could draw attention and she needed to wait for Kana who was moving a bit slower than usual to make sure the duo made no sounds. Once Kana got to the door, Gun would open it slowly and try to sneak in without anyone noticing, holding it so Kana could do the same. The kunoichis still had to find and defuse this bomb in order to complete the mission.

WC: 1063
TWC: 2661
MWC: 5327