Starring:
Kasuya, Hiru, Akechi
Date: October 8, 2012
Summary:
Three shinobi must go on a mission to rescue a rich woman’s precious cat. However, they’re in for more than they bargain for as they find it’s not just one or two thieves who are smuggling stuff.
Poster's note: Foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Cat Burglars"
Kumogakure Cove
Every mission is important. That's what Kasuya keeps repeating to herself through gritted teeth as she's assigned for animal retrieval. And because the lady is so filthy rich she can, for some reason, pay a small fortune for her missing cat to be retrieved. She calls him Snuggles, and describes him as a striped cat with a tiger's coloring that can fit in her hands.
And she's requested that she take shinobi with her. Kasuya picks the first two files she comes across. One is Akechi who she had on the top, considering but not taking him on certain missions.Not that he'll go with her after this travesty. The other is a villager…at least he won't be asking for much money. And it's getting some dumb tabby. So they're both summoned with promise of a fraction of the sizable fee, and the emphasis that this is an important client.
She even gives them a wagon to transport her dumb cat. So it's with a horse and a large cart that Kasuya waits at the entrance, looking as if she could eat the cat right now. Of all the missions…and asking for a Jounin…for some reason ever since her fruitless trip to Kiri she's been getting missions that seem to test the limits of her patience.
Akechi landed softly on the roof on the cart with the swiftness as he sighed "really we have to go get a cat? Isn't this a drank mission that they'll give a little genin squad?" Akechi sighed as he rested on the cart before looking to Kass with a rather confident smile on his face this time around than before hand as he fixed his lips to speak but nothing came out. "Wish I could say that this isn't going to be a pain in the whisker but as those think rolling clouds are moving in can because a little problems since cats really don't like rain." Sighing as he shifted his weight while he waited on the cart before speaking again "so enlighten me please, why the tail did she go all out with the cart and why are we taking a villager?"
"Geeze, how big is this cat?" Sashaying over to gate, Hiru is holding a mission slip so the guards won't question his presence. "It's a cat, Akechi-kun. You can just stand and look pretty while I do the hard work, if it bothers you." Hiru winks at the shinobi to show he's just joking. "So, are we going or what?"
The Jounin waits till they're both there to explain. Kasuya says, "The lady asked for a homey touch. She's afraid that shinobi who rescue her kitten might handle it too roughly. And as far as villagers go, Hiru is one of the best. He's from a clan. He's from the Land of Trees." Seems she did her research, as always. She smirks. "So if it's caught up in a tree, it's all up to you, Hiru-san."
She shrugs. "They're low thugs. I'll dispatch the enemy. You guys grab the cat. And she says it's a small cat. Colored like a tiger. She believes they're holding it because it's valuable to her, and she's very, very rich. We're being paid for an A-rank mission even though it's a D-rank. Get in the back. Let's go." They have the cart, might as well use it. So she flicks the reins and the horse would break into a gallop. They'd travel for two hours, in which time Kasuya proves her skills as a driver. She seems to have the skill to hit every rock in the rock, every hole, rattling them like dice in a jar. She drives with reckless abandon and a smile, seemingly unfazed by her insanity. And at last they're there. Outside a small bay with tall rocks, most of which are caves.
"There are about ten caves, we believe the tiger is in one of them," she says, as they hide behind a shelf of rocks peering out. "Let's stay a while and scope the place. Tell me what you see."
Scaning the area a sigh escaped his lips as he spoke softly "hmm it appears something is going on here, each and every one of these caves seems to have guards moving in and out of them. However it appears for the moment to have nothing to do with use thus perhaps we should check the first cave since if I was a cat and didn't know anyone I would try and stay away from them. Then again they could've possible thought that the cat might be a catch and thus forced it to the caves in the hopes of trapping it." Akechi would touch his chin for a moment as he started to speak softly before charging chakra and making a clone "if we have to check them all perhaps I could aid in man coverage,"
Hiru after gripping anything that might keep him from flying into the road from the bumpy cart ride, notices the dirt and wood chips in his fingernails, starts cleaning them. He looks up at Akechi's words and chuckles, "Heh, 'man coverage.'" Wiping his hands on his shroud, Hiru says, "There might also be something dangerous or worth more in there. But it's a kitten not a full grown cat, they probably already have it." He isn't at all happy about the amounts of bandits.
Kasuya only notices one thing, and it's not on the ground. It's in the sky. "Half an hour till noon," she says. "Bandit, shinobi or villager, everyone has to eat. And often together." Sure enough as they wait silently they'll get a more manageable idea of their rotations, and the bandits would converge into one of the caves that's no doubt the mess halls. Then she says, "They look almost packed up. Akechi-san, sneak down and sink the boats. Quietly. Fight as you will, discreetly. If you're spotted run to the south, over the water and go until you lose them."
She turns to her other team member. "Hiru-san I heard you have henge? Wait right behind that rock and when the first bandit comes out jump him, tie him up and start searching the first three caves as that person. Tie a band around your ankle to let us know it's you. If you're in trouble shout and use the words 'No way' in it. I'll come running."
Then she says, "I'm going to search the caves. When you've finished return here. No matter what, come back here in fifteen minutes max. This will be a quick mission."
Akechi thought for a moment long and hard about how he wanted to take the guy out and after a moment or two he had an idea how to do it shrugging his shoulders he would use his clone who tapped the man on the shoulder as the real Akechi touched him with a tag thus stopping him in his tracks." Both Akechi would then start to wrap his like a present and tossed him into a hidden spot for a moment he thought to draw on the man face but giggled and nodded his head. As Akechi moved into the boats that's where things started to get a little fun with one step a loud creak could be heard and thus he stepped away from that to go into a different direction but still the same results. Sweating bullets he would dash into the shadows and wait there with his eyes closed. "What the fur I'm a ninja?" is thought to himself as he waited.
Hiru nods at their leader, and runs very quietly on his bare feet towards a rocky outcropping where a guard is munching on his lunch, leaning against the wall. Laughing softly, Hiru gives the guard a sweet smile as he gawks open mouthed at the villager, and lands on him with both feet. Hiru makes sure he and his victim are out of sight, before he henges.
After tying a strip of white to his ankle, Hiru jogs to the second cave, glancing around casually and giving the bandit that happened to be reading there a wave before the man goes back to his book. He walks out after gleaning one of the maps. The next cave he goes to is filled to the gills with men. He gulps inwardly but wanders in, greeting those who appearently knew his disguise as though he were just passing through. Grabbing a canteen and walking out again, as though Hiru were just getting a drink for his lunch, he manages to escape without gaining too much attention.
While her teammates carry out their assignments Kasuya walks around wrapped in an illusion. A combination of her high genjutsu skills and the fact people aren't really looking for it allow her to sneak into the first two caves, and see that there are crates. She tips one up and looks at the contents. Wow. Maybe this wasn't as small as she thought. And what were they doing, stealing a rich woman's cat when secrecy was so important? The third one is long and takes her awhile to traverse. There's no one in it—a vacant one. If Hiru has managed to search at least one, that leaves six left.
Akechi moved once he notice that no one was coming after looking at his clone the two would come up with the plan to search all the boats nodding their heads they each moved to the further one and started to the search there. Akechi reached boat number two while his clone made it to boat number 10, for the moment all was going good and the boats seemed to be empty for the most part however this was boat number two and ten there were still seven more boats to search. Akechi spoke to himself after a long tried sigh escaped his lips "wait why am I do this again? Did she really think that these idiots would steal a cat? No kitten for that sake." Akechi would be rather groomed as it appear that he was wasting a huge amount of time.
Hiru calmed his nerves by hiding in a quiet cave next to the eating quarters, which turned out to be their sleeping space, and he counted out the beds. "15… Huh." He muttered before taking a gulp of water. He got his shaking knees to steady and he moved out again, moving towards cave number 4, he could see people moving near the docked boats and he hoped that it was his two ninja companions. Hiru made his way towards the boats, just to confirm.
Suddenly Hiru would see Kasuya standing right there, though to others she's hidden by an illusion. "Don't look at me, don't speak to me," she whispers. "I'm sure of it now. The tiger is in the first cave, with the tense guards. I'm going to create a distraction. Go in, grab the cat. Even if you see other valuable objects only go for the cat. Take it back to the cart we've concealed quickly. Do this in five minutes and not before, that's when our rendezvous is scheduled. There's too many here but our cart is fast. And if the boats are disabled they won't be able to circle in force along the coast to stop us. In the meantime, see if you can get in there. If not, wait for the commotion."
A sudden explosion from boat number ten goes off killing his clone however it gave him clues on what's going on here. After gaining the information of the fallen clone Akechi was able to scope out that these are nothing more than decoys however he would have to search one more the center boat to be sure. The young ninja would become rather tense as he was more than sure that the noise would attract unwanted attention. Akechi wasn't in the best mood to deal with others however it appears he had no choice so he got ready as he started to plant explosive tags around the next couple of boats he crossed.
Hiru doesn't even nod, he just turns towards the cave Kasuya indicated. He stops at the explosion from the boats. The bandits start rushing out from their various caves, two from the one in front of him. They start asking questions and Hiru managed to sound just as baffled as they, telling them he was just coming to relieve them of guard duty. The smack him on the shoulder, telling him to go guard the animals while they go see what's up. "ANIMALS? Not cat?" He mutters to himself and goes into the cave.
Hiru freezes once he sees the first cage. There were a LOT of animals, cages of colorful birds, bear cubs, a big bird the size of a man hissing at him, and more. But there was only one cat. And it was not a frickin' kitten.
"How big is this lady's hands?!" It was a white tiger, pacing the cage, it's head came up to Hiru's chest, it's length suggested it was taller than him by 3 feet if it stood on two legs, and it's barrel was fully twice his shoulder's width. "Because she must be GIGANTIC."
Kasuya flinches when she hears the explosion. "What does he not understand about discreetly," she hisses, covering her face. Well, that takes the distraction away of them trying to man the boats. She sighs. Well, immediate change of plans. A few moments later Kasuya is there with Hiru saying, "They'll realize it's a distraction any time. Hope Akechi can get away, crazy bomber is all on his own now. Maybe he'll get back." She looks around and when she sees the cat she lets out a groan. Snuggles? A kitten? This lady is stark raving mad to call that thing anything but a huge tiger.
She goes over to grab the bars of the cage. At least the tiger is probably tame so… "OWW!" The cat tries to bite her fingers off, though only ends up trying to graze her. So with great delicacy Kasuya draws back her fist and punches through the bars, knocking Snuggles out cold. She turns to Hiru. "Grab the other side, help me get this." She'd lift the cage up with Hiru and start moving for the wagon.
Hidding the young man would try everything to find a spot and hideout making sure to keep out of sight. For the most part it appears that this me until one spots him in the corner." A sigh escaped his lips as he jumped down and tapped his foot onto the ground as he slipped on so gloves. "Come on let's make this quick I don't have all day." Akechi would close his eyes and see if he could feel the attacks out rather then make a whole barrier and thus he would use body flicker technique to defend each and everyon.
Hiru heaves a long suffering sigh as Snuggles and Kasuya's altercation comes to an end, "This is why you should trust the money and not the people. Lots of cash, lots of trouble. Lesson learned." He shrugs and cracks his delicate knuckles. "Right then," he grabs the opposite side and does his best to hightail it to the wagon with Kasuya. The commotion outside becomes a brouhaha as Akechi reveals himself, and the 2 manage to make it to the wagon without any bandits noticing them, and only one slight, literal slip up by Hiru. "I never want to lift this enormous monster ever again."
"Look it's so beautiful and peaceful sleeping," Kasuya says, almost fondly. Actually, it looks uncomfortable and as if someone had just punched it in the face to knock it out. Not a big difference though. She reaches in pats it. But whether by adjusting for a more comfortable position in sleep, or channeling an unconscious hatred, the tiger reaches up to try and swipe at Kasuya. She yanks her hand back. "Why you lousy piece of—"
Meanwhile, Akechi would be beset by bandits. Fortunately, it wasn't quite within hearing of the dining hall or there'd be about fifteen bandits all over him. The three seem to think they can take him, and one says, "Why are you here? How did you find out about this place?" That's actually a fairly good question—how had the woman known where to point them to fetch Snuggles?
Akechi would keep his eyes closed as took a single hit from them thus wincing in pain as he shifted. Akechi would shift about to get just a little serious as he blocked the first two attacks with seal rather easily but the sure numbers made the last one slip through cutting the young man on the cheek. Akechi would be holding an explosive kunai in stand as he tossed them towards the crowd of bandits blowing up a bunch of them in one go. "Alright I guess it's about time I show you guys the best of kunai!" two more tags resulted in the same thing another crowd would be blown away. However their numbers seemed endless.
Hiru leans casually over the edge of the wagon, watching the messy battle Akechi is fighting. He glances over his shoulder at his team leader, he carefully suggests, "Y'know, right now is the perfect time to leave…" This is punctuated by an explosion and a battlecry from the bandits. Hiru sighs as he feels Kasuya glare at his back. If looks could kill… "Ugh… Fine… I'll go lend him a hand." He gracefully, and grumpily, sashays close enough to the fray to perform one of his few shinobi-class skills. He charges a ball of glitter with his chakra and writes the wind seal onto it before casually flinging it into the fray. There is a small 'WHOOMPH' and a gale filled with sequins and sparkles blinds the mob. Hiru calls out, "Akechi! We're leaving you!"
"It's been long enough," Kasuya says. "Off we go." She's about to flick the reins when she sighs as Hiru goes off to make his first real mistake in this mission. She shouts after him, "Ten seconds! That goes for you too." Great, now she's just going to have Snuggles going on the way back. She really needs to solo these types of things. Well, Hiru's glitter bomb would work for a moment and the bandits would be blinded for a second. Unfortunately, the bandits in the mess hall have finally heard the commotion. Five more come pouring back out. Kasuya sighs as she watches the whole thing unfold. Seems she's going to be sighing until the end of her days.
Akechi would sigh as he notice his good old pale the none ninja was fighting his heart out, he couldn't leave him behind an thus with his new technique vector sealing he was able to cover the distance rather instantaneously. Holding Hiru as if they were married, "tsk, you say nothing or else I'll toss you overboard." Akechi would have smile on his face as he shifted and sighed. "Well that was easy enough." Akechi would be relaxing for the most part since they made it to the cart all in one piece.
Hiru finds himself left behind and hedged in by bandits, when he then finds himself scooped up bridal style by a certain blonde ninja and carried off way too fast to the cart. He opens his mouth to say something and then he gets threatened. He does make sure he's properly secured (and difficult to dislodge) before he comments, "At least you're finally taking responsibilty for our sordid love affair, Akechi-kun."
Well they both manage to get back on the wagon. Kasuya glances back at the bandits running after them. Then, she flicks the reins hard. The horse breaks into a gallop that soon outpaces them. They go this way for several miles before Kasuya goes to a more normal pace. That means rather than the cart bouncing and jerking five feet into the air, it just feels like someone has grabbed them and is shaking them violently. But Kasuya's voice is quite steady and audible as she speaks. Then she says, "Let me tell you a little war story, guys. We're all about the same age. In fact, Hiru is a bit older. When I was ten, I was already shinobi espionage. I stole, I spied, I killed." She chuckles. "When I made a threat I always carried it out, and I never missed a mark. I once told a man I'd kill him in four days if he didn't pay up, slept well every night, and killed him on the fourth day as he fled. I keep my word. Always."
Then she looks back at Akechi. Her voice is quiet and low. "Akechi-san, you blew up the boats. If you ever fail to listen to my orders again, I'll kill you. If you fail to follow my orders, I'll kill you. In fact, if you do anything that displeases me on a mission we do, I'll kill you. Here are the four options for you. The first is to obey orders. The second is to never go on a mission with me again. The third is to get strong enough that I can't kill you. And the fourth is death." Then she'd turn around and lash the reins, driving on as if nothing had happened. Thus ended their mission.
Hiru, despite being shaken like a martini, manages to coo at Kasuya. "Oooh, Kasuya-kun, keep talking like that and you might make me fall for you." He's completely convinced that she'd do it because that delivery was absolutely devoid of emotion, he's just being horrible. Hiru purrs, "That made me tingly all over. Although, that might be because you're driving over every bump in the road."
