Showing Face

Mission Details:

Things felt like it had been months since he had taken over the position of Village leader from the last one but in reality it had only been a few days. The amount of paperwork that had been left unattended since the village’s creation was enough to cause anyone to simply give up on seeing it, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he very much needed a break from signing and filling them out. So that was why he was out in the village now, Merlin smiled and waved to those he saw as he made his way through the village. He had already been a face known to the citizens of the village prior to his rise in position but now there was some extra notice. He didn’t allow it to make him slack on his training or allow it to go to his head and think he was somehow better then others as honestly his position was little more then a glorified judge.
 
Sakuragakure was a small village when the prior leader had purchased it from the locals and it was still very much so at the moment with some minor tweaks and improvements, there were defenses in place but nothing that would truly dissuade the most persistent and going off what he had found from the prior leader’s correspondences they had been in the talk with a handful of people, Merlin having interacted with one part of those people himself when he brought in a Missing Nin by the name of Arantima. That person had left without much interaction with the prior leader and Merlin did not know what happened between them, he only hoped that it had gone without much issue as he had no time to truly deal with the repercussion of the failures of the prior leader. Regardless they had enlisted a handful of strong comrades one being someone that had worked with Merlin and Shitai in the past back when he was still a vagabond. The other a talented young woman who handled the inner security.
 
Now that he had done his round in the village and shown his face it was time for him to continue to help the village progress and that meant undertaking some missions that had been left for far to long and needed to be completed. The more missions and requests the village completed and satisfied the more trust they would build with the surrounding citizens and those who didn’t live within the village itself. It also helped build up their storage of Ryo so that he could further put it to use to improve the village and its defenses. His main goal was to make sure that the average citizen was taken care and didn’t have to worry about their lives from a stray attack. He needed to get with Shitai and discuss future defense ideas and more along those lines, his friend was much better at tackling those areas then Merlin was.
 
So here he was at the request office and now it was time to see what needed done and what he could accomplish today. After some moments he grabbed four different requests, first there had been some bandits in the area that needed taken care of for public safety for those outside the village, another was to help with the clean up of the village due to the time of year being when the leaves of the surrounding cherry blossom trees were falling in great number, the next was to help with a crime that seemed to been done to one of the citizens of the village and had caused the person to lose their memories, the last was to help a prominent figure of the village and a veteran within the village’s shinobi forces. It was a good amount of stuff to undertake but Merlin was sure he would be able to undertake them personally though with the influx of new students and their growing forces of Shinobis he was positive others would be showing up to help with the requests.
 
With that understanding Merlin went to the appointed meeting place in the town’s center and grabbed a seat by fountain, he pulled out a book he kept on him and begun to read while keeping alert to whenever others would show up.
 
WC: 722

Kana knew she couldn't allow herself to become complacent with her current ranking, the promotion to Chuunin had been unexpected but was greatly welcomed, the pay and bonuses with the promise for exclusive jutsu to learn was cause for celebration but it wasn't quite enough for Kana just yet, there was still jounin and anbu to reach after all. So she set out to receive some new missions to work on and keep the higher ups nice and happy with her work ethic, a simple set of four missions with a few other people, it shouldn't be anything of real note that would cause any trouble to her, let alone a small group that was apparently forming up to tackle these missions. the only real worrying problem was a bandit problem thus probably why a group was being formed to tackle this batch of missions, although a part of her was curious who exactly would compose of this little group? Gunshin, Hanako and Sarin seemed like the most obvious group if it truly did come up as a four person squadron, the thought of the three little girls following the grown man around yet being far stronger than him was slightly amusing to envision.

What Kana wasn't expecting was to find the village leader waiting at the designated mission meeting spot, simply sitting and reading a book while he waited and Kana was quite frankly shocked, the idea that a village leader would be taking on a mission was such a foreign concept that she actually didn't think it was allowed, where the hell was the previous leader this entire fucking time? Maybe this was just a special occasion, Merlin deciding to tag along to see how his shinobi force could tackle a mission involving conflict, or perhaps just to flex his own strength over the average grunt to showcase why he was the new leader of the village? Either way, Kana swallowed her nerves and schooled her expression into a more calm and respectful one instead of her usual attitude, she wasn't going to risk fucking up in front of her boss.

"Interesting to see you out here sir. I assume you'll be joining in on the batch of missions?" Kana figured she should ask and make sure she wasn't jumping to conclusions, maybe he was just so happened to decide to wait here, or maybe he was just here to debrief them, wish them good luck and send them on their way, it was tough to tell since their previous leader wasn't exactly a man known for doing anything within the village and so Kana didn't really know what to expect from a leader who actually does something.

WC: 450
MWC: 1,172

as the day started, Sairin woke up from his modest and austere room. He lived on the edge of town, a bit of an hermit in a old bamboo shack, nothing too luxirious. As he sliped out of his bedsheets to get ready, he could hear the slow rain fall onto the wooden roof tiles. But his house was well built, none of his historical research or archeological finds would receive water. As he got ready, he knew today was a special day. He was finally assigned to some missions along others sakuragakure shinobi. Surely he would be amongst the eldest, as he had met previously the others and they all seemed to be young. This of course, didnt change anything. Sairin had passed the majority of his life as a traveler, an historian and archeologist on the past of the ninja world, mainly on the past of his clan, the Uchiha. While others maintained and trained their skill at jutsu and chakra, he was a bit late. Nonetheless, he had a gifted talent for ninjutsu and genjutsu, so he would certainly add to the squadron, even if he was probably the least experimented ninja of the bunch.

As he walked from the edge of the village more toward the center, the sun started to rise and the day welcomed him, as well as the rain stopping and letting place to a nice sun piercing the clouds. Still, Sairin still wore his large conical straw hat as a precaution should more rain fall later. He wore his classic attire, his loose dark black shinobi pants with sandals, as well as his unique kimono, black and red with with flames and the uchiha symbol on his back. He wore too his shoulder scabard, holding his Tanto and senbons onto his shoulderpad, for easy access and in true Uchiha fashion. His walk continued until he arrived at the central place of the village, seeing Kana, whom he previously met, and another older man, whom he didnt yet have the pleasure. But, judging from his countenance and garb, as well as the reaction and attitude of Kana toward him, Sairin guessed that either he was a high ranking ninja, or he was their own village leader in the flesh, ready to do missions with his citizens at a minute notice. 

Sairin had only recently arrived into the village hidden in chery blossoms, so he was still oblivious to politics. He knew however that the village changed leader quite recently, and it was well due. The previous leader was from what the Uchiha gathered, a lazy tyrant, rulling only by fear and status quo of doing nothing for his village. After discontent, citizens rioted, and Merlin was the designed leader. Well, all and all, politics still didnt interest Sairin, but he admired a man who took mater into his own hands for his people, and loyalty meant everything to him, meaning doing whats right for the village, at all cost. He approached the pair and, out of respect, removed his hat to keep it in his hand, doing a slight bow toward Kana, but a larger and lower one toward Merlin, signifying his understanding of the positions they both occupied.

''Well it seems we have the pleasure of being assigned together, have we? A pleasure to meet you my lord, I'm Sairin Uchiha, a recent addition to Sakuragakure. A pleasure to see you again too Kana.'' said the Uchiha tall man, his voice deep and gravely, but calm and full of assurance.

As they reviewed together the missions, it seems today would be a filled to the brim day. Sairin would get the chance to prove his usefullness, as well as his mastery of the art of genjutsu. With a bit of luck, he would be able to use his wits and knowledge of the shinobi world rather than showcase his abilities, as he was still rusty from practicing.

''Lead the way'' added Sairin with a faint smile and his voice still the same, his hand pointing in the direction they needed to go to start the missions.

After sometime people who Merlin assumed were the ones that would be joining him on these missions started showing up. One was a familiar face that he had met prior with their partner and had personally promoted them to Chunnin, the young Kana. A young girl who excelled in medical techniques and the likes, she was typically with Gunshin but it didn’t seem like they would be joining the group today. “Good Morning Kana. How are you doing today?” Merlin asked with a smile and putting his things down to give the girl his attention, “Yes I will be, there is much to do to get our little village up to the standards that I envision and it won’t get there if I’m just stuck doing paperwork all day.” The young Sarutobi jested, this was also a way to simply get away from doing more paperwork but it also helped show the people that he was here for the long haul and actually helping, Merlin was tasked with the job of rebuilding the trust between the people and the leadership of that village. It certainly has been some hectic times.
 
The next addition to the group was a young man with long black hair and a firey themed outfit. The individual seemed respectable going so far to give a deep bow to Merlin after giving a shorter one to Kana and even calling Merlin “Lord”. Merlin returned the greetings with a smile and nod of acknowledgement, “A pleasure to meet you as well, Sairin. I am Merlin Shinto the newly appointed Village Leader of Sakuragakure. I have read your file, from what it says you are quite the skilled individual at the art of Genjutsu.” Merlin mentioned simply showing his knowledge on the people who were in the village, “As expected from one of the Uchiha bloodline. I expect great things from you in the future.” He said as he stood up ready to head to the next place to get a start on their missions for the day. “The first mission we will tackle today will be cleaning up the surrounding areas of the village of bandits that have seemingly decided to try and take from our people and those who live in the area.” Merlin explained as they made their way through the village, “We will not be taking anyone back for questioning this will be a purge of the group in its entirety. We will meet with some locals first to gather any additional information and go from there.” He said as they were almost to where the local they would be speaking to had gathered.
 
Inside a hut just on the outskirts was a group of people who technically lived outside the village but had been given permission to enter freely due to the circumstances, this was a variety of people but they all had the same look about them. “Greetings, I am Merlin Shinto the Village Leader for Sakuragakure. We are here to rid the area of the bandits that have been plaguing you. Is there anything we should know about before we begin our operation?” Merlin said with a serious tone as he looked through the group, a man in his mid-40s spoke up, “Yes they have taken some of our children. Holding them hostage for some ransom that even if we were rich we wouldn’t be able to afford.” The man said with visible anger on his face and in his voice. A solemn nod from Merlin was all that was given as he waited for others to add to the talk, “There is about 20 of them in the group.” Another shouted, and the bits of information started pouring in. Some were kind of pointless like how bad they smelt but others were good for the operation like where they seemed to come from with every attack, what kind of weapons they used and how they moved were all things that gave Merlin more pieces while he formulated a plan in his head.
 
“Thank you for your help, we will rescue your children and dispatch these bandits. Rest, we will not be gone long.” The young man said with a bow to the people, with a turn he headed back out the hut and expected Kana and Sairin to be behind him. “First we will find the hideout, keeping an eye out for sentries and patrols. We will dispatch the ones we do find on our way to whittle down the numbers, preferably we will use stealth when doing so but if you need to go loud then do so. These are bandits who care not for human life, Be quick, Be strong and do not hesitate in your actions.” Merlin said as they grew closer to the area the citizens had told them the bandits had been coming from generally during their attacks. Merlin noticed the signs of constant back and forth movement through the area, these criminals hadn’t bothered hiding their tracks or anything all because they thought they had no threats in the area.
 
Merlin planned to capatilize on that mistake as he lead the group deeper into the forest and after quite a bit of time they had found the first group of sentries. A pair of bandits where animal skins and seemingly gambling while on post, that was good for the group. They just needed to dispatch this pair and continue to move around the area to find the others, Merlin was sure the bandit group probably only had about four pairs of sentries watching the major directions and the rest where probably within whatever hole they had decided to call home. “Move when I move and don’t stop till they are all dead.” He said as he took out his Tanto and dashed towards the first bandit, a quick stab into his collar bone killed the bandit without so much a noise, just as quickly he took out the tanto and sliced it in a wide arc slicing the other bandit’s throat. Merlin took that one to the ground quickly and give him an additional stab to make quickly dispatch the life. It was now time to continue the rotation around the area till all the bandits outside were dead. Then they would move onto the ones inside with a focus on trying to find the hostages first if possible.
 
WC: 1064
TWC: 1786

The confirmation that Merlin would be joining them for this batch of missions was interesting to say the least, Kana never didn't really know what the protocol was for working with the village leader on account of the fact that the previous one was so distant from the village that she didn't even consider the fact that the man was even allowed to do missions, part of her had assumed it was more of a retirement position rather than a position similar in nature to being the kage of one of those bigger villages. "I'm doing well sir, I hope to perform up to your standards." Kana returned her own polite answer to the man's question, she wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the man other than he had likely killed the previous leader to take on the title and while she assumed the older guy was strong, she didn't exactly know how strong he was so Merlin was in a weird state of power to the girl, he was probably stronger than her and the only thing she could really detect from the man was that his chakra was pretty strong, nearing her own level if she had to guess so that probably meant he was more focused on the chakra aspect of being a shinobi rather than focusing on the physical aspects.

"Sarin. Nice to see you again too." Kana nodded her own greeting toward the Uchiha, curious to see how much he had improved since their last encounter in the training facility and having two fully grown adults around for a battle against bandits would be enlightening experience, her only real combat experience she could remember off the top of her head was her part in the whole nightmare invasion thing that had plagued the world and she didn't really consider any of that to count on account of those being dreams rather than fully sentient and capable humans. Actually fighting against others, even something as simple as bandits was going to be an experience and actually let her gauge her abilities as a true kunoichi, helping the village in a more supporting role was nice and dandy but Kana had to admit she thought she would've seen actual combat by now and was surprised her first brush with combat was going to be under the eye of the village leader.

Kana listened with half an ear as Merlin addressed those affected by the bandits plaguing the village, forming her own plan on how to handle the group of low lives that seemed to be made up of roughly 20 people and now currently holding hostages in the form of helpless children, a recipe for disaster if she had ever heard one, they close in too fast and they might try to bargain using the children as a their ticket for freedom/safety but come in even faster and harder, then they might panic and kill one of the children. "Sir, I can enter their hideout and secure the children first when it comes time to clear it out if you'd like. I'm quite capable of hiding my presence as a sensor." Kana spoke up as the group made their way toward the area the bandits seemed to favor, Merlin laying out his own plan that was probably similar enough to what Kana would've employed if she was brought in with Gunshin, however without having to worry about her friend it did grant her more unique options, splitting off from the group would've been the last move she made and would've instead brought Gunshin in so she can set the meek girl off from within while Kana guarded the children, a move that might've gave the bandits enough time to flee from the area.

"I can also hide another if you'd like me to take Sarin with me, or if you wish to join me so we can attack them from two fronts." Kana added as an afterthought, it was a trio after all and assuming Merlin was both fast and strong enough, he could probably secure the outside and hold it while Sarin cleared off the inside with some assistance from Kana, although personally she'd probably have the duo stay outside and fight their way in instead of risking the Genin in a battle against the bandits. Speaking of bandits, it seemed it was finally time for combat as the trio stumbled across the first set of sentries, simple folk who didn't look like they could pose much of a threat to any mildly decent shinobi but that was assuming they'd take them serious and wouldn't get themselves surrounding, death by a thousand paper cuts was a very real threat when faced with enough bandits and who knew how many exactly laid within their hideout. Unsealing her Tanto, Kana watched as the village leader swept in and mercilessly wiped out the first pair with ease, neither of them truly getting any sound out of their mouth beyond the gurgling of the man with a slit throat. Talk about memories.

"Not bad..." Kana muttered to herself as she nodded with approval, the leader was efficient if nothing else as he quickly stabbed his blade into the lone bandit that was slowly choking to death. "I'll start making my way into whatever place they'd hiding at and keep the kids safe. Once I start to hear fighting, I'll pop some shadow clones to come help fight from within." Kana declared as she begun to make her further north and into what she was assuming to be the main area that the bandits would be hiding in, judging by the fact that this little group of sentries were facing south rather than north, it would be stupid to look anywhere but away from their little base of operations.

WC: 970
TWC: 1,420
MWC: 2,718

As Merlin introduced himself as the village leader, Sairin was happy to finally meet him, and to have betted correctly on his identity. After all, he was an historian, an intellectual, so investigation and a good sense of guessing was his forte. He listened carefully to the missions they had to do, and to the way the leader of the group, and coincidently of the whole village of sakuragakure, wanted to do, how he wanted to proceed. As they walked through the village, Merlin explained carefully the details of the first mission.

“The first mission we will tackle today will be cleaning up the surrounding areas of the village of bandits that have seemingly decided to try and take from our people and those who live in the area. We will not be taking anyone back for questioning this will be a purge of the group in its entirety. We will meet with some locals first to gather any additional information and go from there.”

A total massacre ? No prisoners? Sairin grinned as he heard those terms be employed. Of course, prisonners could have value in warfare and life in general, but those were common bandits, nothing less than vermins to be stepped on, squished and forgotten by history all together. This would be an occasion for him to fight for once, instead of reading over and over battles of the pasts, and to experience battle not only trough scrolls and manuscripts, but in the flesh. He would be able to spill blood in a battle. Not that he never did, but to partake with other ninjas, and to not just commit silent killings one by one, to be in an actual open conflict, was exciting for Sairin. After all his reading, he would battle like the Uchiha he read so much about, he would become one of them. But of course he knew he had to get stronger. His goal of becoming the head of the Uchiha clan was something hard to do, and he would have to become far stronger than he is now. He was eager for the massacre of the bandits for a reason closely tied to his progress too, and more tied to his bloodline. He wanted to awaken his sharingan, the dojutsu of legend his clan possessed, one that was more often than not awakened during a violent event, or a traumatic experience. Normaly, individuals wanted to prevent that from happenning, but Sairin wanted to cause it, to jump ahead into it, to access his rightfull clan power, and to reach levels he couldnt achieve otherwise.

As they reached the place, the group discussed with the villagers, and Sairin was like Kana, he listened with half a ear, as he was letting the leader do the talking, himself too green in the matter of missions to do it, leaving the job of diplomacy to professionnal for now. Still, he listened from one side, trying to learn from the leader of the village, Merlin, who seemed to be a wise and very intelligent man, altough on the power side, he still didnt display anything, leaving Sairin wondering about his true power. On the side, he watched the rest of the situation, staying on high alert and acting like a sentry, guarding and scanning the place for any potential danger. He was also in his own mind, thinking of a plan. When he heard that the citizens children had been taken hostage, he immediately had an idea to free them, and Kana seemed to have one too.


''My lord, I may have an idea on how to approach if you'd like. Lets discuss it on the way to the bandits lair.'' said Sairin, loud enough for people to hear. He wanted them to see that they wer professionnals, but didnt want to discuss it here, not wanting to risk a potential leak should one of the villagers be in league with the criminals. After all, it remained a possibility since they had their childrens. Parents are ready to do everything in order to save their child, treason being only one of the thing possible. And so Sairin waited.

As they walked toward the camp, he approached Merlin and Kana did the same. She too wanted to infiltrate the camp, by being invisible with her sensory abilities. Interesting. That would be very usefull! As she said she could bring Sairin too, he injected himself into the conversation, feeling it was the perfect moment to graft his plan onto the plan already established by Kana and the leader Merlin too.

''I will go with Kana. With cunning and deceit, I'll shape myself and transform into one of theirs, idealy one we know isnt present in the camp by the time we get there. A sentry prehaps? With his appearance, and Kana invisible by my side, we will deliver the kids and signal from the inside the attack. With my genjutsu, I can paralyse those overlooking the childrens while you kill them all Kana, and then we move on to the rest. Since Merlin you are stronger than us, you can attack from up front. Before doing all of this, we need to take out the guarding perimeter.'' said in a low and deep voice Sairin, making sure eveyone was in agreement towards the plan.

As they approached the first pair of lookouts, the trio all unsheated their tanto, looking each other in the eyes to understand the situation and how to tackle it. With a nod, Sairin understood that Merlin was going to takeout those two, so he went to the right, circling the camp as Kana and Merlin approached these two. Sairin in his turn, arrived toward 2 others, who were drinking and were drunk. This was perfect. They would be too slow and too dumb to be able to defend themselves nor signal to the camp what happened to them. As he dashed toward them, he stabbed one right underneath the jaw, his tanto blade sticking out on top of his head, Sairin having pierced his skull and killed him immediately with this move. While stabbing, Sairin looked the other one in the eyes, and he was tottaly paralysed and disabled, dropping his weapon on the ground, and gawking, as if he saw the most evil thing ever. In the bandit fragile mind, the world around him had turned to ash, the forest all gone to leave only burnt stumps filling a large cinder and soot desert, with the sky aflame. All around him was hundred of thousands of dead bodies, decaying, all with his own face uppon them, screaming as if tortured for hours. Sairin was still there, looking at him, but his appearance was of a demon with fire instead of eyes, and red skin, with 6 rows of enormous and sharp teeth lunging at him. 

By the time he could tell it was an illusion, Sairin released him from the illusion, but he was still too shook to talk or move, and the dark haired uchiha closed in on him, stabbing him in rapid succession in the guts, holding him by the shoulder to stab him with more power each time, before dropping him silently towards the ground. 

With a fast walk, still sneaking, he rejoined the other two, and saw that they were done too with the two bandits lookout that they were killing. 

''This gets my chakra flowing. Killing and seeing the fear in other man's eyes. Lets go Kana, lets show them true horror and free these kids. Happy hunting my lord. The signal will be a scream, i'm sure you'll hear it *chuckle*'' said sairin with a low and deep voice, whispering but still having a smile.

As they both sneak toward the camp, Sairin perform the Transformation jutsu, changing himself into one of the bandits that was a lookout, copying in exact replica his appearance, but also his way of speaking, voice, and body language. With Kana beside him, the pair start to approach the camp, going toward the cages at the back of the camp to free the childrens.

Luckily it seemed the others were properly prepared with their own plans and creativity on how they wished to proceed for this delicate mission. As long as they quickly took care of those who would harm the children Merlin didn’t care how it was accomplished. They were here to erase the group from existence and make this a show of force to any other bandit groups in the area that Sakuragakure wasn’t a place that would just take people stepping on them and roll over for anyone. They were a young village and barely had the fighting force to really compete with even the minor villages around the world but they were more then enough to handle the ones who only relied on harming others to survive.
 
With the quick dispatch of the outer forces and the plans of the others the inside was dealt with as well. They found the children being held against their will and released them guiding them back to their families. With words of gratitude and happiness Merlin lead the two others to continue onto the other requests that they had to fulfill by the end of the day, things had drawn out a bit to long for the young Sarutobi’s like. The next mission was one of cleaning up all the Sakura blossom trees in the area. It was the time of year where they were in full bloom and while it looked beautiful and was a sight to behold the amount of leaves that fell was enough to be a major hassle for foot traffic in most of the village so every season the village put out requests to help speed up the clean up process and that was what they would be doing today. “Now to turn our focus on something less octane and thrilling, We are in charge of cleaning the district of petals. Requests like these are the ones that will help the common people come to trust and respect the Shinobi’s of the village beyond the more dangerous tasks that come up from time to time as they will see us out here helping them directly and the more they trust us the better the growth of the village will be overall.” Merlin explained as they grabbed some cleaning gear and he began to go to work cleaning up.
 
It wasn’t something that would make you famous or as thrilling as the mission they had just undertook with the bandits but as he already had said to the others this was more to help the village proper and the people who lived within it. Hearts and Minds was a valid strategy to make sure that those around you saw your forces as a positive inclusion to the area. Unlike with the prior leader who had done basically nothing besides purchasing the land the village was built upon, Merlin and the others doing constant missions to show that they were here to help no matter the issue would greatly show that the change in leadership was a good thing and that they wouldn’t just be left to fend for themselves. It was one of the major reasons why Merlin had been reaching out to those who lived nearby and old comrades to help reinforce the village. With improvements to both the defenses and structure of the area, the more content and safe people will feel which will in turn bring more businesses and merchants to the area. No one wants to travel to a place where they fear that they will be attacked at any moment. At least not those who are sane.
 
With some time they had completed their task for this district and it was once more time to move onto the next request. They only had two more to undertake and both would need a bit more diplomacy and thought then the first as the next ones involved solving a mystery that involved someone being assaulted in their own home, but no signs of forced entry. Though it does seem from the report that some things had been taken though the owner didn’t seem to care much about them being gone. Their job this time around was to try and gather as much information as possible that could either lead to the discovery of the culprit or at the very least help local authorities narrow down possible suspects.
 
“For this next task we must be gentle and cautious, if we can capture the culprit great but no harm must fall to the people in the area and if given the chance we must do this discreetly away from sight of the common folk.” Merlin explained as he talked of the report to the others and gave some information on what they were expected to do this time around. With that bit of exchange done they moved to the house in question of the original victim. It was a single story home that was quite well built and decorated, it was well kept and pristine. It was both a modest home but from a glance you could tell the owner was one to have a good amount of wealth. Merlin knocked on the door introduced himself and the others and began asking question to the owner, though there wasn’t much to be gleaned that wasn’t in the report as it did seem the victim was still suffering from the blunt force trauma that had happened during the initial crime. They claimed to have amnesia and couldn’t remember when or where the attack happened, though they were more then happy to describe the minor things that had been taken. It seemed like the owner’s own viewpoint on the things skewed on how valuable they were, the list of things taken were of things that to others would be of decent value especially if you were trying to make some quick Ryo. Though to the owner they were just trinkets and things they had picked up on their travels.
 
Once they had gathered the information they had needed Merlin allowed the others to do whatever investigating they wanted and once that was done they regrouped outside the property. “I believe that the culprit probably plans on reselling what they sold at a nearby market due to what was stolen. While the owner doesn’t believe them to be overly valuable to them, I have a feeling that these will be quickly sold to unsuspecting passersby.” With that direction given Merlin lead them to the local market area and kept an eye out on anyone trying to keep a low profile and looking to undersell things of similar association. In the back of the market was a young man with brown hair and eyes that both seemed friendly by constantly shifted and avoided anyone that could be visibly seen as a possibly member of the shinobi force. Merlin locked eyes with the young man and with a hurried hand the young man tried to quickly pack up the things he had for sale though by this time Merlin was more than close enough to put a hand on the young man’s shoulder and gently guided him to a place out of view to not startle the locals. Once they were out of sight he continued to guide the man to the authorities and dropped him and the things he had with them and allowed them to take over from there.
 
Now it was time to take on the last mission and call it a day. They would need to settle the difference between a shinobi and a community welfare work it seems that they are in a relationship and are requesting the help of a third party to mediate between them to get their worries and complaints to the other and decide if they should split apart or be able to work through their issues. This was certainly not like any request that Merlin had dealt with before in an Official capacity but he was more than willing to listen and help those who needed the help. With that they moved to the meeting place and begun to listen to the issues from both parties. The shinobi was a hard working individual that was pushing themselves greatly to continue to protect the village and the people inside it most importantly the welfare worker. They wished to move through the ranks so that they could bring home more ryo and stability while also growing stronger to make sure nothing could harm the worker. On the other side the Welfare worker was pushing themselves in their work to get away from the thoughts and worry of the shinobi who was constantly coming home with injuries but also wanted to help reduce the occur of crime and the less fortunate to do their part on making the village a safe place so that the shinobi could afford to relax and rest when possible.
 
Both sides only wished to help the other and after some time of talking through the issues and giving each the proper time to explain their thoughts and feelings Merlin and the gang were able to offer solutions to help them understand one another and come to terms with things overall. To Merlin it looked like the two individuals would continue to be together but it wasn’t up to him or anyone else to make that decision for them. They were only there to help them speak their minds and mediate so there wouldn’t be any fighting, to give them a place to not worry about emotions getting to heated and overwhelming.
 
Overall the mission was a success in the scheme of things and it was time to wrap things up for the day. “Congratulations you two, we have completed the tasks we needed to get done today and I’m very proud of both your abilities to act quickly and decisively. We need more of that in this village for it to grow and prosper. Make sure you turn in your slips for your rewards and get some rest, you both deserve it.” Merlin would say to the two that were with him. He would eventually turn in his own slips and enjoy a good cup of tea to relax to before he went back to his mountain of paperwork that never seemed to diminish no matter how much he did.
 
[Exit]
Claims: 
+16000 ryo, +16000 Ryo from BP, +40000 Ryo from Village leader bonus to completing missions
Total Ryo Gained: 72000

+80 AP, +80 AP from BP
Using Strawberry Cake to Double WC bringing total WC to Spend from 3515 > 7530

Training Purely AP for a rate of 4 to 100 WC for a total of 75x4 for 300 Bonus AP
Total AP Gained: 460
AP: 1383 > 1843
Ryo: 0 > 72000

Transferring 72000 Ryo to Sakuragakure Vaults
Ryo: 72000 > 0

WC: 1729
TWC: 3515

The Uchiha deciding to tag along wasn't something Kana had expected but it wasn't something she was going to complain about, instead she merely nodded and allowed the older man to accompany her as they began to make their way deeper toward the bandit's home of operations, the trio walking forward in silence until they encountered another duo of sentries as they seemed to be starting their own patrol, something Sarin was intent in silencing them before they could set out and potentially discover the bodies, Kana watched as the older man quickly set to work on killing the duo, the first was impaled through the skull with his blade while the second had been ensnared in a genjutsu she recognized as the same he had used against her, whatever illusion the man was trapped in, it left him defenseless for the Uchiha's follow up attack.

"Whatever floats your boat old man. We'll make sure the kids are safe before we go loud sir." Kana spoke to Sarin first with a roll of her eyes before turning her attention toward the village leader, speaking in a more respectful manner as she began to weave a set of hand seals and molding her chakra in accordance to the hand seals, the movement fast and almost second nature at this point due to how often she had spent using this jutsu in particular. With the final hand seal of Horse, Kana allowed her chakra to cover her in a thin veil from the feet up, to the others they'd see her simply begin to vanish starting with her feet and as her chakra moved up and began to cover more of her body, the rest of her would begin to disappear until there was nothing left. "I'll secure the kids, you can get yourself in where you can do the most damage. If they ask about your "buddy" say he's using the washroom or something. You're a big boy, you'll figure something out." Kana explained a bit more about the plan as the duo parted from Merlin, Kana following behind the older man and content to let him lead them, mostly so the man could open the doors for her since she was pretty sure the bandits would notice a door opening on it's own.

"I'll pop my clones as soon as I hear your signal, they'll do what they can to kill anyone nearby. I'll be staying with the kids and make sure nothing happens to them." Kana whispered to Sarin as soon as they finally found the kids inside the lair, the sight of various kids trapped and locked away in cages like animals made her uncomfortable, it wasn't like she wasn't unaware that people kidnapped kids for whatever reason, hell Kana was pretty sure at least one of her fellow street rats probably were taken in the same manner, but seeing it up close like this was far different than being able to pack that particular baggage into the corner of her mind to be forgotten. "Find me if you get hurt, I can patch you up easily enough but do try not to be stupid, I cannot heal a dead body. Yet." Kana told the man as she allowed him to set off while she sneaked her way closer to the guarded section, a lone man watching guard over the kids rather than watching for intruders and as such, it was pretty easy to silently puncture one of his lungs with her tanto, the stunned man only letting out a faint wheeze as he struggled to say anything while Kana dragged his body away from the kids, it wouldn't do to make them start to scream and freak out over seeing their first dead body.

Eventually when the time came and Sarin launched the first strike, Kana was true to her word and she popped her shadow clones so they can begin to weave havoc wherever they could away from the area while Kana readied herself, casting another jutsu to hide herself, an inferior version but one that would still let her remain hidden and out of sight as long as nobody was directly looking for her. By the time somebody walked in, Kana was pleased to see it was both Merlin and Sarin, the fact that she didn't gain any new memories just yet must've meant that her clones hadn't even been dispelled yet. "Good work, let's get the brats home." Kana praised the duo before they began the process of freeing the kids to return to their home, joined by the two shadow clones to help them along and she could only assume seeing a triplet of kids helping them was a far more welcoming sight than two old guys who had just finished butchering a whole lair of people, granted she was pretty sure her clones had helped but not like the kids would assume she is just as deadly as either of the two older men.

Once it was all said and done, it was onto the far less exciting tasks that the mission details had outlined, something about a man being robbed, helping a couple and some cleaning, something that she wasn't exactly all too eager to do but at least with the two clones and the two other people, the cleaning would go by quickly. "Yeah, yeah.... Clean and show them all we're useful and helpful to the village... I get the reasoning... Just wish we could pawn this off to the brats in the academy." Kana grumbled her complaints as the 5 person squad went about cleaning the district, she fully understand why they some times were given such simple and stupid missions like this but it truly did feel like the type of mission any brat from the academy could do considering it was just cleaning up after the Sakura trees, the biggest threat here was dying from boredom and the occasional asshole who somehow didn't see the 13 year old girl and bumped into her as she cleaned. Once they had finished cleaning the place, Kana finally allowed her 2 clones to dispel themselves, she didn't think the extra pair of hands were needed anymore since it was mostly going to be a petty thief and what sounded like talking to two idiots who didn't know how to talk to each other.

Kana could only hope that the whole burglary thing wouldn't take so long, she wasn't exactly a detective so it would be up to the others to lead the investigation into the whole mess. Sure enough, Merlin had taken point and asked the questions as Kana looked around and poked at the various objects in the house, noting a few herbs that Hanako had declared very valuable and here they were being kept as mere house plants just for fun, further confirming the village leader's suspicions that the man didn't truly know what exactly he was selling here. "Yeah, there were some fancy herbs just sitting there, I doubt the burglar knew how much that was worth either so we know he isn't a medic or gardener at least." Kana supplied what little information she managed to gleam from the crime scene, helping them cut out any people that were trying to sell herbs and like at the very least as they began to search the marketplace for their burglar.

The capture didn't go as Kana kinda hoped it would, she thought that the man would at least try to fight back or do something other than just quietly try to run before completely giving up by a mere shoulder grab but maybe the guy knew that he was being escorted by the village leader who was currently being flanked by two shinobi, running was probably not going to work out so well if he had decided to try it. "That was surprisingly easy." Kana couldn't help but mutter out loud as they dropped off the thief to the authorities, the man hadn't even tried to hide what he was selling and didn't even put up much of a fuss over being caught, Kana would've at least tried to fed them a story about how she was given the items to sell by a friend or something before trying to make a run for it when that backfired. Then again, Kana never really had to deal with the leader of the village before, she probably would froze if the old village leader had been the one to catch her in the middle of her own crime as well.

Once more for the final mission, Kana was another lost fish, she knew her people's skill were lacking so she kept her mouth shut as she allowed the two grown ups to handle the conversation between the couple who were struggling to show how they care about each other, another topic that made Kana slightly uncomfortable but she could only roll her eyes considering how trivial the results seemed to be as the two shinobis seemed to provide enough input to to give them the tools to figure out how to settle their problems rather than directly leaning one way or another. Although Kana was personally more on the shinobi's side of things, the career was inherently dangerous, the only safe job one might even be get would be teaching and she doubted just any schmuck could settle in as a teacher in the academy, if the other person couldn't handle that then it was a recipe for disaster in the making. Still, Kana kept her mouth shut and allowed the duo to impart whatever wisdom they gained through the years, they were probably better at this whole social and relationship thing than she was anyways.

"Thank you sir, it was a pleasure to work with you. I hope we can continue to work together going forward. And you were alright too, I guess." Kana addressed Merlin first, once more keeping her respectful tone before addressing the Uchiha, her dismissiveness more playful in nature rather than any dislike to the man, after the more boring parts of the jobs she felt she earned the right to try and create her own fun wherever she could find it, if it meant trying to ruffle the older man's feathers than she was sure he could survive.


WC: 1,725
TWC: 3,145
MWC: 5,240

---

Claiming:

Mission Rewards: 16,000 ryo, 80 AP
3,145 TWC from thread

As Kana hit max stats, I'll be using the 3,100 words for 124 bonus AP
For a total of 204 AP

Using the 142 AP for conversion of 50 ryo per 1 AP
Converted Ryo: 10,200

As Kana reached Chuunin rank, I earn 2,000 ryo per mission completed
4 missions completed: 8,000

Total Ryo Earned: 34,200