Aboard the Dream Weaver Train [Event - Halloween]

Mission Details:

There was no way to describe the situation. Gun had woken up from her dream, only to find a buffet of an assortment of hard candies the size of baseballs. Something so delicious but too big to enjoy, one of the worst nightmares anyone with a sweet tooth could come up with. This was enough to startle the young kunoichi; sure, she had heard the rumors around the village about weird things going on lately, but none of it had happened in Gun’s own home!

Getting dressed, and grabbing a few of the hard candies (for evidence, not because she intended to try to eat them or anything weird like that), Gun headed out the door to Kana’s housing, provided to shinobi like her that didn’t have other places to live. Gun had even considered getting a place as well, but didn’t want to leave her mom all alone, yet.

Once she arrived, she knocked at Kana’s door loudly. She hated waking Kana up, but this was a matter that needed immediate attention, and for all Gun knew, something worse could be happening to Kana as she stood at the door.

There was really only one thing Gun deduce; that somehow here nightmares had become reality right there on her kitchen table. It was ridiculous to even consider, but the hard candies stored in her armor’s pocket were proof. No one but Kana knew about this recurring nightmare and Gun was sure that she hadn’t bought these crazily large candies and snuck into Gun’s house just for some sort of prank. There was just no way Kana would do such a thing… the sneaking part and the prank part, perhaps! But she certainly wouldn’t buy something just for a prank!

WC: 290

Kana slept peacefully within her small one bedroom apartment, an area provided for shinobi and kunoichi who didn't have their own housing and it left a lot to be desired for the average person, the entire apartment could best be described as 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, with one bedroom dedicated for the dining area, living room and of course the bed room. The other area of the house, only marked as a different room due to the different flooring, consisting of tile instead of the wooden flooring of the main area, this secondary room was the kitchen and it was even smaller than the already cramped living room with only the oven, fridge, sink and very few cupboards around to allow her to store her cutlery and few dry ingredients.

Despite all that, this might as well have been a mansion for the previously homeless girl. She now had her own bed, her own kitchen, her own food, her own washroom and a proper place to bathe and shower, it was almost hard for her to accept that this was her home at first, she didn't know what to do or how to maintain the house so she kept everything clean and tidy, afraid to damage anything, get anything dirty or "ruin" anything inside the house lest someone comes in to scream at her for fucking up the house they had provided her.

Nowadays, she had became a bit more laxed about cleaning things, no longer was everything spotless at all times, she allowed some dishes to build up, allowed some dirt to build up naturally, she even some times left her bed a mess to deal later on. One thing she didn't allowed however was for food to just lay out in the open like she had woken up to. Laying on the cramped kitchen counter was what could best be described as a Jenga tower of various foods, thankfully however it appeared was enough to keep it upright and while some of the food would be touching the plate of the other, it wouldn't be anything too messy like potatoes and instead it often touched the buns or meat to build up the tower of food that reached pretty close to her ceiling.

She stared blankly at the food tower for a few seconds, blinking away the sleep and confusion, confusion that only grew larger as the food tower refused to disappear with the sleepiness of just waking up. The very next thing Kana did was slap herself, trying to force herself to wake up from whatever weird dream she had "woken" up to but when that didn't work, she immediately flushed her body with chakra, utilizing the genjutsu release technique. And yet the food tower remained, standing tall and unwavering in it's strange appeal.

That was when she heard a knock on the door, wearily, she eyed the food tower as she went to the door, the tower stood strong as she walked by and she could smell the strong aroma of the various warm delicious foods within. When she opened the door, Gunshin would see Kana dressed in only her purple two piece pajamas and looking over at her left in suspicion, before looking toward her and down at the massive piece of candy in her hand. "Where the hell did you get that?" Kana asked in surprise as she looked at the candy that barely fit in Gunshin's small hand.

"Wait... Don't tell me, you woke up to that, didn't you?" Kana would quickly piece the recently news and the massive candy together, all of it finally painting a picture she could kind of understand. She had honestly written off the dreaming up reality thing as a joke or a genjutsu some amateur would fall for, but Kana felt confident in saying she could've broken most genjutsu at this point. "Same thing happened to me." Kana would add for explanation about how she guessed Gunshin's ridiculously large candy coming from a dream while stepping aside and allowing the meek girl to peek into her house, her bed still unmade and more importantly, the massive tower of food that almost seemed to call to Kana with the strong smell of a delicious... Everything. From breakfast to dinner, so much food was stacked and waiting to be eaten. Too much food for even the two of them... Honestly, most of it would probably go to waste even if she tried to store it all away, she'd probably end up having to give a large portion of the tower away.

"I just woke up and that was waiting for me... I'm surprised it didn't collapse in on itself..." Kana would say as she walked deeper into her house and toward the kitchen before looking over the various foods that made up the tower, some of the food she hadn't even tried before. She idly poked a cooked lobster stuck near the bottom of the tower, it's hard shell probably provided a strong foundation alongside whatever else was stacked within the tower.

Suddenly, they'd hear a scream emit from one of the nearby apartments and Kana looked up toward Gunshin. "Oh crap, one of my neighbors is some talented brat! Little bastard probably had a nightmare!" Kana would explain as she hurried over toward the next house, within she could hear a lot of movement and what sounds to be a struggle. "Take my tanto, go in first. You're better for close quarters than I am." Kana would say she unsealed the blade and handed it to Gunshin, prepared to follow her into the house of the child who seemed to have dreamed... Something that was attacking him.

WC: 950
MWC: 1,240

Gun was glad when Kana opened the door, though it was clear she’d still been asleep not too long ago. There was a sense of relief that she was alright; dreams and nightmares were all fun and games when they were inanimate objects, like hard candy, but when they became people or animate objects, they could definitely be a lot more dangerous. Gun also knew of some of the terrible things Kana had gone through before they’d met, so seeing her alright was definitely relieving. She then reached and unsealed one of the hard candies from her uniform. With her hand outstretched, Gun showed Kana the oversized hard candy.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Despite the relatively simple question, Gun was caught off guard: part of her had already deduced that it had come from her dreams… how that was possible, she didn’t yet know, but saying it out loud was such a foreign idea that she didn’t have time to respond before Kana intervened.

"Wait... Don't tell me, you woke up to that, didn't you?"

”Exactly!” Gun answered, amazed that Kana could piece together the recent rumor rumblings with the piece of candy together so quickly in her half asleep state.

"Same thing happened to me." With Kana’s words, Gun realized that her deduction hadn’t been solely based on the candy and the rumors. Personal experience had also been a clue to Kana’s quick conclusion.

"I just woke up and that was waiting for me... I'm surprised it didn't collapse in on itself..." Gun looked past Kana and saw the giant tower stacked inside. It was an amazing piece of architectural work considering it was nothing but food. In a dream, the rules of physics and logic can be suspended or outright ignored, but for it to transfer to the real world and still remain standing was really impressive. She followed Kana into the apartment, still giving the tower a stare of amazement.

A scream grabbed both of their attention away from the tower of food. “Oh crap, one of my neighbors is some talented brat! Little bastard probably had a nightmare!" Kana started moving, leaving the apartment and heading to the next one. Gun followed, still unbelieving that they were about to fight a dream. She didn’t even know how dreams and people interacted, could a dream be poisoned? Did dreams bleed? Could a dream kill or be killed?! This was not something the kunoichi was prepared to combat, but Kana’s confidence and decisiveness gave Gun no time to waver.

"Take my tanto, go in first. You're better for close quarters than I am." Gun took the offered weapon and removed her own tanto from her uniform. The uniform had been thrown on as a means of getting dressed more quickly before traveling across the village. Gun had not worn it because she had expected to need any of the items stored within it, but now she was glad she had the uniform and the items stored within.

With a tanto in each hand, Gun’s right foot went forward, kicking the locked door into the house. She hadn’t had time to mentally prepare for what could be inside. If it was a person, she wouldn’t be surprised; even if it was some sort of creature or puppet, Gun would be able to function normally. But Gun was not ready for this: standing there, over a young boy in nothing but tighty whities, stood what looked like an overstuffed teddy bear. It stood nearly 8 feet tall, and she guessed that it might be tall enough to scrape its ears on the ceiling if it weren’t leaning over the flattened boy. The bear was white and, oddly enough, seemed to be wearing a navy blue outfit that looked remarkably similar to Kana’s normal attire. The bear’s canine teeth were elongated, sticking out of the grimacing mouth that covered its face.

The pause that the sight caused in Gun gave her the time to realize that the bear wasn’t trying to harm the boy; instead, the boy lay squirming on the ground in a fit of laughter. The bear’s front paws moved swiftly over the boy’s sides, tickling him mercilessly. Regardless of the situation, Gun moved to intervene with haste, landing a kick to the bear’s midsection, sending him hurtling away from the boy on the ground. Gun looked down at the boy, still struggling to get his breath from all of his laughing. ”You okay?” She asked, before turning her attention back to the bear. She didn’t want to be blindsided by any attacker, let alone by an eight foot tall teddy bear.

The bear stood up and turned towards Gun, shooting her an evil stare that reminded Gun of Kana once again. She then wondered if the bear before her was some sort of dream fusion of the boy’s stuffed bear and Kana whom he lived near. The bear then began sauntering forward slowly and Gun didn’t feel like playing anymore, so she rushed towards it, burying both tantos into the bear’s chest before ripping them outward in opposite directions. White, cloud like stuffing was shot into the air as the bear’s two halves remained barely connected. Not knowing if this type of wound was enough to stop the bear, Gun brought both blades back towards the bear’s head. Its arms moved up, trying to defend itself, but Gun thrust each tanto through the bear’s ears until her hands felt stuffing around them.

Taking a leap back, Gun kept both tanto in front of her in case the creature before her kept coming after her; however, it didn’t, instead it began to fall over backwards but as it hit the ground, it seemed to dissipate into nothingness. Even the shredded stuffing that had been thrown about in Gun’s onslaught faded away, no longer existing in this world as it once had.

Turning back to Kana and the boy, who by now had gotten to a sitting position, Gun looked at them both with a blush. She was a bit embarrassed about going full throttle against a stuffed animal… that and the boy was still wearing nothing but underwear and Gun wasn’t used to seeing boys in their underwear.

WC: 1042
TWC: 1332
MWC: 2282

Kana waited behind Gunshin, her body tense and ready to fight whatever the hell could've been inside the apartment, her neighbor was some younger shinobi that had graduated earlier than Gunshin or herself, a fact that annoyed her slightly but it didn't really matter when she was making far better progress now that she had a the basics down. Beyond that mild annoyance over his more natural talent for the shinobi lifestyle, Kana couldn't say she had any real strong feelings about him, he was simply a neighbor, someone she saw once in a while and said a casual greeting to if they ever ran into each other. However, he was a fellow Sakura Shinobi and that meant she was willing to step in to give him a hand against whatever dream he accidentally brought into the world to attack him, she wasn't sure what would be lying behind that door or how they could even handle it but the fact that she could still hear what sounded to be a struggle inside the building meant it could be fought.

If she can fight it, she can kill it. At least that was the logic she was choosing to believe, there had to be some way to contain a nightmare gone rouge otherwise this would be a far bigger problem than just a vague rumor people were writing off. The pure chaos that would erupt if someone dreamed up a demon that couldn't die would be a massive deal for whoever had to accept the fact that an un-killable demon was roaming their lands and enslaving or slaughtering their people. Kana steeled herself for a fight against some foul monster, something a little brat would get terrified about and could threaten to kill him, maybe some shadowy tentacle monster, a long limbed creature with sharp teeth and nails, there was so much that could scare a child that would prove a worthy foe if such things existed.

What she wasn't expecting however was for a strange massive teddy bear to be pinning the brat down to the ground. Kana and Gunshin froze as they observed the scene before them, the brat slept in only his underwear and dreamed a teddy bear was..... Was it fucking tickling him? The kid let out a loud shriek of laughter as the bear dug it's paws into his sides and Kana once more flushed her body with chakra, praying for this to be a genjutsu yet the white bear wearing an oddly and dangerously familiar dress continued to tickle the boy, who didn't even seem to notice the intrusion.

Gunshin finally moved in on the attack, kicking the massive bear away from the brat who fought to regain his breath from... the... tickle attack... Kana's eye twitched and her body was tense as she looked at the teddy bear rise to it's feet, glaring at Gunshin and she could see the stitching on it's right cheek. Stitching that looked an awfully lot like her own scar. The boy's only saving grace right now as the fact that Gunshin was inside the house, otherwise she'd have shot some fireballs into the room, close the door and call it a day. She was just glad Gunshin chose to attack the weird as fuck Kana teddy bear hybrid, the thing either lacked her own tenacity or it couldn't really fight back considering it was a creature made of stuffing as the bear barely managed to do anything before it fell over dead and fading away from this world.

"Not. One. Word." Kana would say as she glared down at the brat who seemed ready to say something, he at least had the decency to look ashamed and embarrassed. "We're going to pretend today never happened. But I swear to fucking god if I see any sort of weird fucking hybrid of myself anywhere near you.... I will not be responsible for what happens next." Kana would declare as she turned away from the brat and made her way back to her own home, Gunshin following along not long after. It was far too fucking early for her to deal with this shit.


WC: 695
TWC: 1,645
MWC: 2,977

After a few days, rumors turned into declarations and the weird stares people were getting turned into knowing nodding. It was no longer rare enough for people to disbelieve as nearly everyone knew someone who had been affected by dreams entering into our world. It had become so widely accepted that even the village had put out an announcement to the civilians telling them to remain calm and attempt to keep their dreams from getting out of hand. It was pretty clear to Gun that the higher ups had no real idea why this was happening, nor how to stop it. The fact that people could just go to bed one night and find their house burning down a few hours later was dangerous. There were reports of odd creatures, not unlike the teddy bear that Gun and Kana had encountered a few days prior, moving about the village's streets.

Now, one of the children had gone overboard. He hadn't just brought glittery creatures to our world or created mountains of desserts, but he had somehow dreamed an entire castle into being, with himself set as the king. Not too far from Gun's house, one of the other houses had been enhanced into some sort of spire, nearly 200 feet tall, with a wall around it. The King inside had dreamed his regular house into an amazing fortress, which Gun and Kana had now been tasked with invading to ensure the boy's safety. Others had tried to get in, but the Dream King's fortress seemed to have decent defenses. Even the King's parents had been thrown out of the fortress before they could speak any sense into their son.

Gun looked forward, seeing the wall in front of her and then looked upward, wondering if the top was where they'd find the king. The reports from other shinobi had indicated that the fortress seemed to have some sort of anti-shinobi coating over it, meaning they couldn't simply walk up the walls as their surface walking tech wouldn't work. Also, there were reports of flying monkeys acting as sentries to ensure no one got too close to the fortress. No one had made it inside, but prevailing theories are that there must be more creatures inside to defend the fortress from the authorities. And if all of that wasn't enough, the kunoichis had been ordered to ensure the boy's safe return.

Gun looked to Kana, making sure that she was ready. The first obstacle was the wall and flying monkeys that would try to stop them from entering the fortress' grounds. Once she was sure they were ready, Gun moved towards the wall. It wasn't terribly tall, likely only 15 feet tall, so Gun was sure she could simply jump it. Her hands already clenched around her javelins in case some monkeys were to attack. Like before when Gun rushed into the boy's apartment, Gun was acting as the vanguard, rushing in and trying her best to remain safe while dealing with whatever comes up. She didn't mind the job and she was glad she could provide a role in her working relationship with Kana. Her body lifted off the ground and as she effortlessly landed on the top of the wall, she looked around. There was no sign of anything coming, so she hopped down, inside the wall. As she landed, three monkeys came out of the fortress. What was odd was that they seemed to emerge from the material of the building, rather than using a door or a window. Without waiting, Gun reared back and launched a spear at one of them, piercing the monkey without much trouble. The other spear was launched as well and a second monkey was impaled before disappearing from this world like it had never existed in the first place.

One thing that Kana had mentioned was the possibility that these monkeys were somehow infinite in number. Taking two out didn't necessarily mean that Gun and Kana were closer to their goal, if more monkeys could just be 'dreamed up' when needed. Gun used the Armoury Seal to recall both of her javelins to her hands, readying herself for an interaction with the third monkey.

WC: 702
TWC: 2034
MWC: 3679

-20 AP (10 for each javelin)

The days following the incident that won't be spoken, things only seemed to become more bizarre, to the point that it almost became normal. Key word was almost, while the higher ups issued announcements to maintain safe dreaming habits, alongside little pamphlets encouraging people to think happy thoughts before sleeping, there was still the occasional nightmare or simple dream that spiraled out of control. Creatures quite literally ripped out of nightmares had yet to claim any lives just yet although Kana suspected that might just be because even in the subconscious part of the mind, the children didn't think the monsters could kill and as such when the monsters were brought into the world of the living, they simply refused to kill anybody. Sadly the same couldn't be said for injuries, which were fairly common and due to the close proximity to the dreamer, it was the children that were mostly being affected. Since then, the higher ups stationed sentries for rogue dreams throughout the village and a few shinobi were expected to be up and ready to fight before the sun had even rose, ready to intercept whatever dream had started to cause problems.

Due to these precautions, Kana and Gunshin were the unlucky people being assigned to handle a child who had decided to dream big and declared himself the "Dream King" with quite the impressive fortress acting as his throne, the spiral easily dwarfed the surrounding residential homes around it and the walls themselves seemed quite impressive, a solid stone wall and the fortress could be one of those generic castle designs found in some children's book. "Alright, let's get to work, I did not wake up this fucking early just to deal with some brat who's ego is so big they decide to try a hostile takeover of the village via dreams." Kana grumbled as she followed after Gunshin, jumping up the wall with just a bit of trouble unlike the meek girl who did it with ease.

She wished her chakra would've worked on the walls, climbing it and then climbing the spiral could've been so much easier but alas it seemed the brat knew shinobi wouldn't take so kindly to someone proclaiming themselves king and decided to somehow "dream" up a perfect defense on the walls. He was probably the type of brat to say "But I got a super power that makes me invincible!" while playing pretend with his friends. The worst part was due to the nature of dreams, it just seemed to carry over and essentially made the walls chakra proof. If such a defense existed in the real world, chakra proof materials would be the most valuable material out there and wars would be raised just trying to claim it lest the enemy claims it for themselves and you find a large wall protecting their village and making the act of scaling it far more dangerous than before.

Landing inside walls of the fortress, immediately they'd be attacked by the monkey sentries, something Kana thought looked vaguely familiar but couldn't quite put her finger on where she seen it from. Not that it mattered with Gunshin going on the the attack, the screeching monkeys barely had time to move before they were swiftly impaled by Gunshin's javelins and Kana's lone kunai. Gunshin's javelins impaled the flying monkeys into the wall while Kana's kunai only caused the third monkey to fall lifelessly to the ground before all three of them began fading away into nothingness like the last dream they had dealt with. "If these things can come out of the wall like that, there's no point fighting them, the wall might just act like a summoning point for the monkeys and if that wall can deny chakra, there's no reason it can't just keep throwing monkeys out." Kana said as she picked up the kunai that fell to the ground without the monkey's body existing and keeping it off the ground, looking around the big field that lacked any detail beyond the big castle doors waiting in the center of the spiral.

"Kid probably doesn't know what's inside the castle.... Only saw the spiral so his mind just decided to create the spiral and the walls...." She spoke her thoughts out loud, looking toward the singular large building that could vaguely look like a castle if one were to look at the outlines. It lacked the consistency found in most buildings, segments and modules being built up, instead it looked all connected with stone, no archways, support beams, or anything else that would make it feel more natural. "Let's not kill anymore monkeys and just sneak up on the brat. I'll cloak us and you can put him down. Choke him or knock him over the head, whichever you feel will cause the least damage." Kana's mind raced with a quick and simple plan, avoid all obstacles and simply sneaking into the building should be fine as long as they didn't touch the walls.

"Don't worry about hurting the brat either, I'll fix him up before we take him in." Kana added as she ran through the hand seals for her favorite jutsu and just like the last time Gunshin saw it in effect, her body would essentially look as if it was fading away as her chakra ran up and over her body, hiding her from view until she made contact with the meek girl and allowed her chakra to cover Gunshin as well, hiding the duo while letting them see each other. "If anything gets in the way, feel free to take it out. I can reapply the chakra, I don't think I'll be using it for much else." Kana said with a simple shrug of her shoulder as she lead the duo into the castle, the big wooden doors creaking as she pushed them open to reveal the interior.

It was straight out of a book, the castle floors black and white tiles with a big red carpet leading to and up the stairs, while the walls seemed bare except for the torches that lit the room, alongside the massive chandelier hanging in the center of the building. Knights stood still against the walls and seemed almost statue like but it was hard to tell with this being a dream, the kid could simply think the knight statues were actual people who remained unnaturally still or he could've realize they were statues and just made them life like by accident. Servants walked around the large room, cleaning the random fancy furniture that seemed haphazardly placed inside the main building, once again probably a result of vague ideas of what a castle should look like. "Kid can dream big, I'll give him that much..." Kana couldn't help but stare at awe at a frankly massive emerald sitting on a pedestal, a maid dusting invisible dust away from it before moving on to clean another untouched piece of furniture.

WC: 1,160
TWC: 2,805
MWC: 4,839

"Let's not kill anymore monkeys and just sneak up on the brat. I'll cloak us and you can put him down. Choke him or knock him over the head, whichever you feel will cause the least damage."

Gun nodded in agreement with Kana’s plan. They couldn’t be sure how these dream creatures interacted with their world, did they see, like humans, or did they simply sense presences? They could only find out by trial and error; with each new attempt, Gun and Kana could deduce things about these creatures and what they were capable of. There was the possibility that they didn’t all interact in the same way, but that was a bridge they’d cross if they encountered creatures that seemed to react differently than others.

Being cloaked was always a bit weird, you could just walk right up to people and they’d never know. Sometimes Gun felt like people didn’t see her anyways, not that it bothered her. She actually noticed people acknowledging her more since she became a genin and wore Sakura’s headband around. Maybe they don’t see me, just the headband that I wear.

"Don't worry about hurting the brat either, I'll fix him up before we take him in."

Gun nodded once again, her usual chattiness with Kana had seemingly been put on the back burner as she focused on the mission in front of her. It wasn’t a conscious decision to purposely hold her words, it just came naturally with her enhanced concentration. Her eyes were peeled for attackers, as they were behind enemy lines. Gun didn’t plan to hurt the boy that had created this castle of dreams, but it was reassuring to know that Kana was here and could patch the boy up if needed.

She watched as her partner did hand seals before seemingly fading from this world. Then, she touched Gun and she was able to see Kana once more. She was glad to see Kana, for two simple reasons: first, it was nice knowing someone was there to have her back and, second, it was much easier to protect Kana if she knew where she was.

"If anything gets in the way, feel free to take it out. I can reapply the chakra, I don't think I'll be using it for much else." Gun simply nodded again, taking the kunoichi’s words as a gentle reminder of the requisites of Kana’s technique. Attacking would end the technique and Kana would need to recast it if they wanted to remain cloaked. Gun was curious to see what they’d encounter, especially something that could break through Kana’s cloak. As Kana opened the door, Gun looked up at the fortress they were about to enter, she could see more flying monkeys just patrolling the skies up there. Leaving them behind and sneaking in was definitely a wise choice.

Gun was amazed at the inside of the lobby. The red carpet was soft beneath her feet and combined with the opposingly colored tiles made quite the contrast. Despite the intricate setup, Gun’s eyes scanned the area, trying to maintain her awareness in case anything tried to attack them. Even the lifelike knights standing by the walls could attack at any moment, so Gun needed to remain vigilant.

"Kid can dream big, I'll give him that much..."

Gun nodded as the two moved past the various servants and statuesque knights. Kana was in front, but that seemed alright in their cloaked state. Neither the servants that were cleaning nor the knights, if they were even capable of movement, reacted to the duo of kunoichis as they moved along the red carpet to the stairs. The carpet seemed to be part of the tile floor as it zig zagged up the stairs, a unique aspect that likely couldn’t be replicated in the real world.

The two made their way up the stairs, the knights in the lobby seemingly the only form of combat they would encounter as they climbed and climbed. Occasionally, there would be a servant coming down the stairs carrying something, one time it was a tray with dirty dishes on it and one time the maid had a broom, as if they had work to do, but even as the two kunoichis sidled up to the wall to let the servants by, none of them ever seemed to acknowledge them. Whether their cloaking was a success or the maids were programmed to do their work and ignore all else was up for debate, at a later time when our heroines weren’t deeply embedded in dangerous territory.

Finally, the two reached what appeared to be the summit as the stairs ended, flattening out with a door standing before them. Looking at each other, the two decided to move on. Gun’s first instinct was to knock, but she quickly realized that it would be ridiculous to do so. She stepped in front of Kana as they approached the door, the two were beginning to develop a working relationship where verbal communication was unnecessary. That working relationship, of course, was built on their personal one and it allowed the two to function together without worrying about who was in charge. Naturally, there may come a time when that doesn’t always hold true, but for now it was working quite well for them.

Pushing the door open abruptly, Gun took a few steps in. The regally dressed boy sat upon his throne which faced the door. The boy, naturally, was startled by the door opening, seemingly all on its own,

”Who did that?! Who’s there?!” The boy couldn’t see the cloaked kunoichis even though they stood before him. His voice gave away his fear, the childish fear of someone who jumps at every bump, creak, and gust they encounter. The boy had also presumed that he was safe in his castle walls that no shinobi could scale with flying monkeys as sentries outside and knights in the lobby for any that managed to get that far. However, the boy’s imagination was dwarfed by shinobi’s reality, as they can hide from sight with relative ease, something the boy had never considered. And now he shook in fear, staring at the door to see if someone would jump out at him. Gun moved slowly and quietly, the boy’s fear seeming to indicate that he had no more defenses lined up, but she inched towards him regardless of her intuition.

The idea of knocking the boy unconscious seemed wrong considering how fearful he was. There was no ill intent in the boy as his muscles cowered in fear, but Gun didn’t know what else to do. The higher ups had said that they were impressed with him, due to how well and easily he’d been able to manipulate the dreams into what he’d created so Gun worried that smacking him now may turn him away from the possibility of becoming a shinobi later. She didn’t think ‘shaking the boy awake’ would work either, so she paused, looking back to Kana with a questioning look.

While the Dream King had constructed an enormous castle and had guards and things to protect it, he was also a scared little boy… Gun then realized that perhaps he dreamed all of this up to protect himself from the dreams of other children. He wanted to be safe, protected, even from the things he was using to protect himself. In her head, it made sense to her. If all he was looking for was safety, maybe promising him that they’d protect him would be enough to get him to deconstruct this monstrosity.

Gun knew attacking would eliminate Kana’s cloak, but she wasn’t sure if talking would… she’d just have to see what would happen. ”Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you.” Gun took a breath, letting that sink in. ”We’re here to protect you.” She wasn’t sure whether or not this would work, but if he tried to do something sneaky or hurtful towards either of the kunoichi, she was close enough that she could close the gap between them in no time at all.

WC: 1350
Total WC: 3384
Mission Total: 6189

The walk up the stairs were done without anything of real note, there were times where they had to press themselves against the walls to hide away from the servants coming and going from upstairs but considering they were both fairly small and skinny, they had easily just allowed the servants to pass by with only a few seconds of being pressed up against the wall before they could resume their journey. They may have been invisible to them all but she was certain these dream servants would realize something is wrong if they bumped into an empty air of space, either assuming them to be shinobi sneaking in or some hidden demon from a nightmare. Or maybe they'd just keep going, it was tough to tell how... Sentient these dream servants actually were, they could just be following a set code of rules that the brat thought a servant should follow, cleaning and serving food without ever being able to do anything out of the ordinary, but even if that was the case the brat might think a servant should report anything strange to him as well and bumping into the air would be quite strange.

It didn't truly matter however, Kana wasn't so curious to find out how they'd respond that she'd risk putting in more work than necessary to complete this mission, so the duo just quietly made their way up the spiraling staircase and toward the top where a single room resided, undoubtedly the throne room if Kana had to guess. Kana only nodded as Gunshin took point, the physically stronger girl would best be suited to deal with any nasty surprises while Kana could provide support from afar if necessary, however she doubted it would come to the point of her having to actually fight anything, the brat could dream up quite the defenses but he was still just a child who didn't truly understand everything, there was always going to be gaps to exploit and use against him. A smarter person would've wrapped the entire area in a dome of anti chakra for starters, alongside a method to see anywhere whenever he wanted, even a simple floating eyeball that he could see through would've made this mission a lot harder as he could've directed his forces against them. Instead, this little dream king could only work with what he knew, he probably didn't even realize shinobi could become completely invisible, nor did he think they could jump as high as they could or those walls would've been a lot higher.

As Gunshin slowly pushed open the door, Kana was prepared for whatever could be waiting for them, she doubted he would be ready to attack and would probably only assume the door opening would be another servant here to do whatever servant things he thinks they should be doing. At least until he realized there was nobody at the doorway, Kana followed Gunshin into the room, looking around the throne room, the throne itself was on a bit of a elevated platform with the red carpet leading directly up to it and on either side of the room stood those same knights from downstairs, standing perfectly still and Kana still couldn't be sure those were just statues or actual knights. They wouldn't be able to do anything before Gunshin could strike down their little dream king and hopefully snap everything back to where it should be, otherwise things would be very awkward to explain when people asked about the large spiral in the middle of the village.

What Kana wasn't expecting however was for the meek girl to look back at her questioningly, unsure of herself or what to do next as the so called dream king cowered in fear from what appeared to be the door just magically opening by itself. And the world outside changed to reflect that, Kana could see dark clouds forming around the top of the tower and bathing the area in shadow, the once warm and inviting candles dimming to provide just the slightest bit of light from the darkness of the staircase, she could even hear the wind pick up and take on an unnatural howl like sound as the kid jumped at his own fears and backed away from the open door. Such a little change and his mind turned on him so quickly, a once impenetrable fortress now a prison of uncertainty and fear.

It seemed the change in atmosphere had also caused Gunshin to make her move, yet not in the way Kana would have preferred it to be done, the stupid meek girl had decided to try and talk to the child, her voice seemingly coming from nowhere to the child yet clearly audible as the dream king flinched and back away in fear, a strange white ghostly figure taking shape right in front of Gunshin. The words of comfort were twisted into the manifestation of a ghost, although it was tough to say if the ghost would take on the protective nature that Gunshin spoke of or would've twisted it into another fear. Nor was Kana going to give it a chance, she moved quickly before the ghost could make it's intentions known and swiftly knocked the kid out with a chop to the back of his head, the dream king stiffening for a moment before collapsing, Kana gently cradling the body close to her as he fell.

"Remember. Assume everyone that isn't partnered with you is an enemy. From the innocent orphan asking for an apple, to the kind old man who fell down the stairs. They could be genjutsu illusions or a transformed shinobi seeking to use your bleeding heart." Kana spoke as she looked down at the kid, letting her hand glow green to heal the bruise that was already forming from her strike. Around her, the world itself was slowly fading back to normal, stretching and changing to how everything was before this little dream king sought to rule over it all. "This kid, even if he didn't mean to, or even didn't realize it, could've been a great danger to everyone and himself. That ghost... If it was out to kill him, do you think your blade or fists would've done anything?" Kana continued to scold Gunshin, the world finally returning back to normal fully and bringing the two kunoichi and dream king back to the child's bedroom before he begun to groan and mumble out something Kana didn't care to hear.

"The brat will wake up in a bit, he'll be fine. Maybe a small headache... But better than risking any further danger." Kana would declare as she put the kid onto the bed, dusting her hands off and turning toward the exit, leading the way out. "It's fine to care about people Gunshin... You know a shinobi took a chance to save me... But remember to be prepared for things to go wrong." Kana would add as she walked pass the meek girl and through the empty house, yet she could already distantly hear the sound of people approaching, probably the parents eager to see their precious little dream king now that he no longer transformed their home into a castle. Yet as Kana exited the house, she spotted a shinobi dashing off somewhere near the outskirts of the village, clearly in a hurry. Alongside another... And another... Something was going on. "Let's check back with the mission board, I think something is happening." Kana urged her meek friend along as she hurried back to the mission desk, curious what had happened while they dealt with the little dream king.


WC: 1,275
TWC: 4,080
MWC: 7,464

Things hadn't gone too well in their mission to stop the Dream King. Gun had faltered at the finish line, letting her compassion rule her decision making process. Kana had been forced to finish the mission and scolded Gun the whole time. Her head had been lowered in shame all the way back to the mission board. She felt like she'd let them down, like she'd reverted back to the girl who almost bolted on the first day of the academy. Of course, it wasn't the same: that girl ran from the things that made her feel uncomfortable and Gun wasn't trying to run from the Dream King, but she was trying to take the easy way out by talking the young boy down from the ledge.

She was kind of down on herself and wasn't really paying much attention as Kana led the way back to check the mission board. With all of the dreams coming to reality, new notices were being posted frequently. Gun barely looked up, wallowing in her self doubt as Kana looked them over. The kunoichi was sure there would be more chances to prove herself and make amends, but she still felt like a bit of a failure. All the training that she'd done with Kana to toughen her up and teach her how to act like a shinobi had failed her and she couldn't shake the feeling that this line of work may not be what she was suited for.

As Kana read some of the potential missions aloud, Gun's mind was elsewhere. She was sure there were some other "Dream King like" missions and some "protect people from their nightmare" ones and Gun just didn't feel invested anymore. She didn't even acknowledge when Kana mentioned something about an anomaly. She simply followed along as Kana started heading towards whatever it was they were supposed to investigate. She knew that she'd have to get her head in the game if she wanted to be useful to Kana and the village as a whole; being lackadaisical could get shinobi killed.

WC: 346
TWC: 3730
MWC: 7810

Kana knew Gunshin was taking her failure hard, the meek girl was practically radiating with shame as the duo made their way through the village and back to the mission board to figure out what was causing so many shinobi to be running around everywhere, she knew there was other situations to be handled, nightmares and other inconvenient dreams were keeping things quite lively in the village but after the first few days, Kana and most of the populace grew accustomed to the increased shinobi activity but she could tell this was something new that was causing yet another uptick in terms of shinobi being dispatched throughout the village. Something that she knew she had to investigate for better peace of mind, being left in the dark in a scenario like this was bound to cause troubles later down the line, she would've been completely caught off guard if she had a nightmare and found it waiting for her in her little apartment. She had since fixed that mistake by sleeping with her weapons nearby and at least had the forewarning to be prepared if she did end up having a nightmare, the fact that she hadn't just yet was nothing short of a miracle and instead she had been using her dreams to think up new furniture to keep for herself, thinking a lot about how her little room should look tended to help her dream of something even slightly related to the furniture... She still didn't know what to do with the actual live sheep that had appeared when she tried to dream up a plush of a sheep.

Kana wasn't quite ready when she read about a strange set of rifts being spotted throughout the village and people were being dispatched to investigate in teams of threes if possible due to the high number of both dream and nightmare creatures being spotted around the same general area. "Great... Going to be even more harder to keep people safe... We'll probably be put on a shift to watch one of those stupid things too..." Kana grumbled to herself as she went through the process of getting the mission checked out for her and Gunshin, her only friend, was still feeling down and bad about herself, something that was stupidly making Kana feel bad about as well. She didn't want to make her friend feel bad, she just had to teach her to be more careful about showing mercy when danger was still very much active, she knew she probably could've been nicer about it or something but she didn't quite know how she could've been nicer, she didn't know what words would've got her point across any better without making Gunshin feel bad about her misguided attempt at compassion.

"Alright, we're going to investigate a rift that opened up. Apparently it might be acting like a beacon to the dreams and nightmares or something else entirely. We might have to fight, so be on guard." Kana would declare as she finished registering for the mission, putting the scroll away into her own sealing scroll and stuffing that into her pouch. "It's just on the outskirts of town, nearby the dream king's house so we'll be heading back down that way." Kana explained as she begun to lead the meek girl back down the same streets they had came from, although Kana had the feeling that Gunshin wasn't even fully aware of what she had been saying, Gunshin had seemed so lost and caught up in her own world and that was both pissing Kana off and making her feel pretty shitty about herself as well.

Kana didn't know what to do about that, she wanted to speak up and try to get Gunshin to snap out of it but she didn't want to fuck it up any further either, yet another part of her didn't want to start with mission while Gunshin was like this, not only was it dangerous but it felt wrong to put her friend's feelings aside for the sake of some stupid mission. With a quiet sigh, Kana already knew what she'd have to do even if it wasn't her strong suit. "Is.. Is everything okay Gun? You've been pretty quiet.... I know I was a bit of a bitch but you know it's only because I want to help you, right?" Kana asked as the duo made their way toward the rifts, choosing to take advantage of the empty streets to talk with her only friend, her voice coming out hesitant and uncertain.

WC: 760
TWC: 4,840
MWC: 8,570