The Mountain's Treasure

Starring:

Sachiko, Sado, Shigeru

Date: June 11, 2014

Summary:

Sachiko takes a mission and invites the little Yotsuki, Sado, and the visiting merchant, Shigeru. In truth, there's something more she wants from the trip, but why not look for a poor man's "lost" watch?


"The Mountain's Treasure"

Mountain Peak, Land of Lightning

Morning… Sachiko emits a loud yawn as she meanders up the mountain. As usual, she has her blindfold on, and she decided that… well, a mission once in a while wasn't a bad thing! This one seemed as though it should be fairly simple (and what, no, she didn't have her own reasons for climbing up this far, anyway… nothing like… a special herb she wanted to try and grow… nooo) so it was good for her and why not drag along little Sado and help Shigeru get some extra income while in Land of Lightning? (Huh? Guilt? No, that's silly.)
Regardless, it's quite early for her so she's really hardly awake, but she did at least try to explain what they were doing when she met them both at the gate. It would seem someone lost something while they were on a hike, and wanted a group to go get it for them. Lazy buggers… but that was beside the point. They were looking for a steel watch, supposedly, but Sachiko keeps sniffing the air. Of course, either of them could ask questions or what-have-you.

Shigeru had been healed up nicely by one of the medics int eh hospital so he was moving pretty well. Now and then he felt a pang from his injured knee but otherwise he seemed fine. Following Sachiko as they walked along the paths he kept glanceing about him, taking in the sights of the mountainside. "So they dropped a watch and were afraid to come get it on thier own? Or are they just more wealthy than smart?" He wasn't familiar with shinobi missions…

Sado didn't like mornings much, but he had been training so often lately that his body was beginning to get used to the pattern of an early morning. Heaving met Sachiko and the Rock Candy guy at the village gates, he was quickly briefed on what sounded like a mission with a high completion probability. He was glad, as it meant a little extra spending money for the week. Regardless, the young Genin would follow Sachiko up the mountain path towards the area.
"Does a steel clock give off a distinct smell, Sachiko-san?" Sado says as they walk, giving Shigeru a look to see if he found it weird at all that she seemed to be 'tracking' the hand clock contraption. He moves closer to Shigeru as they walk, leaning in to whisper, "Did you bring any Rock Candy this time?"

"Probably the latter," Sachiko murmured in response to the merchant. "I don't really know, though. It was posted. I didn't get the mission from the person requesting this…" At least a bit more awake, able to explain in more detail. Turning her head toward Sado, despite not being able to see him it would seem, she cleared her throat. "Uh, sort of… My nose isn't sensitive enough to notice it from a distance, but when close, steel does smell a particular way." As they whisper, a brow raises over her blindfold and she just shakes her head. They continue on until they reach the top of the mountain and she takes a deep breath, spinning in a circle and then humming thoughtfully.

Shigeru blinked at Sado then grinned and nodded. Shifting his pack to his front he dug around in the bag and pulled out a small package with the candy in it. He smiled at the boy and offered the package to him with a smile. It was clear that this was actually a pack for selling rather than Shigeru's personal stock like in the jar. The merchant listened to Sachiko as they walked and he appeared intrigued. "That's a fascinating ability to havee, Sachiko-san, the ability to smell so well? Is it like the Inuzukas of Konohagakure?" He was still digging in his pack as they walked. "Oh, do youw ant some candy too, Sachiko-san?"

Sado nods at Sachiko's explanation of how she was tracking the clock, having recently seen an Inuzuka at work, he was pretty sure everything could be tracked afterwards. As Shigeru nods his head and opens his bag, Sado's eyes go wide in anticipation, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. As he gets a package he looks at Shigeru. "This doesn't seem to be your personal stash. I feel awkward taking it, you sure?" he asks the teen, making sure he wasn't expected to pay or stealing it or anything.

The Iga considers the two and then raises a brow at being compared to the Inuzuka. "I guess, sort of… Though I'm not sure I'd compare myself to a dog." Sachiko hums thoughtfully and shakes her head. "No, but thanks. Maybe I'll take you up on the offer at another time. For now, we should spread out and find that watch. Keep within hearing distance of each other," she instructs and moves off to start looking through some brush.

Shigeru smiled at Sado and waved a hand. "It's just a small pack don't worry about it. You really enjoy the stuff and I enjoy watching you enjoy it so it's yours." He laughed, reaching over to try and ruffle Sado's hair with a light hand. He nodded to Sachiko and put his pack on his back again. "Oh I'm sorry! I didnt meant to compare you to a dog. I .. I guess I don't quite understand how the shinobi animals work… I meant it as a good thing." When she suggested that they split up to look for the stone Shigeru nodded and pointed at a side path. "I'll go this way then…" And he headed in that direction, eyes peeled.

RPCOMBAT: Shigeru defends against with a PERCEPTION…14

"Well the dogs are part of the team, but the Inuzuka are men and women like us." Sado states as if anyone didn't know. He turns to Shigeru and smiles, nodding his head as he pops one in his mouth and revels in the sugary goodness. As Shigeru moves off, Sado picks another direction and states "I'll go this way, then!" He moves over the land, keeping his eyes peeled for anything glinting or metal looking.

RPCOMBAT: Sado defends against with a PERCEPTION…20

Sachiko nods her head at the merchant and chuckles at him. "Don't worry about it." To Sado, she just raises a brow. "I am /not/ like a feral mutt," she tells him and goes about her search in the bushes. It's Sado who notices it, though, just that: a glint. But it's not on the ground. Instead, it's up in a tree, hung by chance it seems on what remains of a branch that broke off ages ago.

Shigeru smiled in Sachiko's general direction and chuckled at her words.He continued checking the rocks around him, his black eyes sharp and focused on the task at hand. He was usually pretty good at finding things — deals usually — But he had less training and experience as a full fledged shinobi and he'd chosen the wrong path to look so of course he found nothing. Once he was certain he was ont eh wrong path he returned to the main road. "Nothing over here…"

Sado notices the glint on his search of the area he chose, looking up at the branch it was hanging on. Sure would've been nice to master that tree walking training! "I found it. Or at least something." he calls out so that the other two can come view it and come up with ideas of how to get it down. He tries a jump, but isn't quite high enough to snag it off the broken branch.

Good. No argument on that account. Hearing Shigeru's conclusion, she grumbles. "Nothing here, either," she mumbled, only to hear Sado. Great! She wandered over to him and 'looked' up, sighing. It was a fair ways up. Jumping definitely wouldn't cut it… unless either of them was a flea… "Well… that's just great, isn't it? I don't suppose either of you know how to Tree Walk yet?" Sachiko turns her head toward the merchant, figuring that… is probably not something he'd have even thought about yet.

Shigeru responded to Sado's call that he found the watch… or something anyway. Once there Shigeru whistled. "That's going to be an interesting climb." He did not seem to know tree walking either and so looked to Sado and Sachiko for ideas. Her question about tree walking made him tilt his head. "Tree walking.. Ah right! Shinobi can walk on walls and water can't you!" He looked to Sado with bright eyes, excited to see this feat once more.

"Maybe try throwing a kunai hard, Sachiko-san. It might break the branch." Sado suggests as he looks up at the glinting watch. "I do have training with tree walking, but it is unreliable at best." he adds, to answer her question. He looks over at Shigeru, figuring it was a safe bet he didn't know it either. "And water." he adds to Shigeru's claim of wall walking, puffing his chest up even if he is fifty fifty at best with that technique as well.

The Iga takes a deep breath and sighs lightly. "Why don't you throw it, smarty?" She reaches out to gently shove Sado in a playful sort of a manner. With that, though, she hums thoughtfully. "Well… I /can/ Tree Walk. Maybe if I go up there and start pressing down on the branch, one of you can grab it. That's not going to hold me, though. Pretty flimsy." Again… Sachiko and her observations blindfolded.

Shigeru lifted a hand to his eyes, shadowing them as he peered up at the watch ont eh branch. "I suppose I could burn the branch off… If you think that would work Sachiko-san.. Uh.. you saw my flames the other day…." He looked at her with open curious eyes, unsure what would be the best solution.

"S-sorry, I just assumed you were a better shot." Sado says as he gets shoved. He turns to Shigeru and asks, "Do you feel accurate enough to not hurt or melt the watch? If not, we should go with Sachiko's tree walking technique, with us acting as a safety net to catch her if she falls." he says with a firm nod.

Sachiko hums at that and shakes her head. "With fire, we not only endanger the watch, but the forest. I can't control water… and I don't think you can, either, can you, Sado?" Again she reaches toward the boy, but this time to pat his shoulder. "I doubt it, honestly. I'm not a great shot." Ah well, here she goes. Up the tree she walks, making her way toward the watch, but then she pauses when she hears a noise. After a hum of thoughtfulness, she shifts and starts pressing down on the branch. Then that noise again and she furrows her brows. "Hey… Get ready to catch it, alright?" Then she shakes the branch purposefully, trying to get the top of it unhooked. She succeeds, it would seem, but instead of the watch falling to the boys, a fuzzy blur catches it, jumping from one branch to another with it. A squirrel, it would seem, which chitters unhappily at the group. "Oh, dangit," she mutters… "That explains the noise I heard. Gonna have to show the critter who's boss, I guess…"

Shigeru nodded. It was true, fire could endager the forest. But the removal of that made him pretty useless as it stood. "Most of my abilities involve flame…." The squirrel got a wide eyed gasp from him. He followed the squirrel's path from below, watching it carry the shiney watch away. Sachiko's words that they'd have to show it who was boss made the merchant look at Sado. "You can use lightning right?"
"Nope, no water here." Sado says with a shake of his head. He watches Sachiko climb up the tree with a wary eye, "Be careful up there now." he says as he moves beneath the tree just in case. As she shakes the branch and the squirrel pops out, Sado jumps in surprise. "Who could've seen that happen?" he says as he charges up some lightning needles in his hand to throw at the squirrel to attempt to stun it with the electricity.

"Don't worry about me, little one. I'll be fine, even if I do fall," she had mentioned. The squirrel 'yells' at them as it holds onto the watch, making Sachiko grumble. Sado's attempt to stun it, though, does seem to work. It squeaks in surprise and starts to fall, but before the watch gets all the way to the ground, yet another squirrel snags it. It, however, doesn't stick around to chastise them and scurries off in the trees. The Iga sighs and hurries back down the tree the same way she got up there. "Great. Thieving rodents… Let's get it." And then she's hurrying off after the thing.

Shigeru watched in disbelief as Sado's attack worked.. only for the watch to be claimed by another squirrel… Shigeru looked positively lost, however as he'd been told to avoid fire but that was pretty much the sum of his parts at the moment. Well, perhaps he could attempt a suprise.. He ran as fast as he could to get ahead of the squirrels and then threw a small fire flare out ahead of it's path hoping to shock it into dropping the watch…

COMBAT: Shigeru attacks target 1 with FIRE-FLARE with a roll of: 9

Sado slides and manages to catch the stunned squirrel before it hit the ground, cursing at the other squirrel that just took the loot and didn't help its friend. Sado had a kind heart when it came to animals, so he tried to deal with them as best as the situation allowed on each mission. Putting the squirrel on the grass against the tree, he nods his head and chases after the other squirrel with the rest, yelling obscenities that involved 'poo' and 'fart', some of the best he has learned.

Sachiko couldn't help but smirk a bit at how the Yotsuki caught the animal and snickered to herself regarding his curses. No one ever said the Iga was responsible, so while the boys chase the squirrel, she quite suddenly stops in her tracks. "Ah, there you are," she murmurs to herself, leaning down to start digging up what looks to be nothing more than a weed. Shigeru's tactic… almost works. The squirrel squeaks loudly in surprise but rather than dropping the watch, it changes course a bit, at least slowed down now.

Shigeru lets out a short 'che' as his attack failed. But it was close. "Quick Sado-kun! zap it like the last one!" Hopefully the slower squirrel would be easier to hit and Shigeru would be under it waiting to catch the watch if Sado succeeded.

Sado doesn't notice Sachiko reveal her true intentions as he is focused on catching the squirrel with Shigeru. As the merchant misses with his fire, Sado brings out another set of lightning needles to try to stun the squirrel, this time staying on the offensive in case another squirrel decided it was a fun game and tried to steal the clock again. "Be on the look out for reinforcements!" he says to Shigeru.

COMBAT: Sado attacks target 1 with LIGHTNING-NEEDLES with a roll of: 22

And indeed, that arch of lightning is enough to take out this squirrel too. There are a few squirrels in the trees that seem to look on longingly, but they don't interfere, watching their comrade (or rival?!) get shocked is quite the deterent. Even a magpie sits in the one of the trees, staring down at the sparkly object, but it doesn't try and take it from the Genin, either… Apparently the thing had become a commodity among the woodland creatures, so when the man tried to get his watch back… this happened. "Dang animals," Sachiko mutters as she finds them again, holding the weed in her hands, roots around her fingers. "That was /not/ part of the report," she claims.

Shigeru leapt forward to catch the watch as it fell, leaving the squirrel to Sado to catch before he turned to look at Sachiko. She had a weed… huh. "Is that something special Sachiko-san?" He looked quite interested in what she might say about it. After all he might be called on to get more of it for someone some day.

Sado leaps to catch the squirrel, placing it down on the ground like he did the other one. He turns with a victorious smile before noticing what Sachiko has in her hands as Shigeru comments. He looks at Sachiko curiously as well. "Some kind of herb or something…" he says, not being able to identify it off hand for Shigeru, so he waits for Sachiko to answer.

When asked about the plant, she first says, "Good job, you two. I'm impressed." Then she moves it to one hand and takes a leaf from it. Walking over, she says, "Open your mouth." If Shigeru does as she requests, she'll plant the leaf directly onto his tongue. It's got a unique spicy-sweet taste to it and smells good too. "I'm going to try adding it to my garden. It's more difficult to keep… since it's used to being higher up like here. Kumo is a bit different." Sachiko shrugs her shoulders and then turns toward Sado. "Want to try it too?" She'll give him a leaf too if he wants.

Shigeru blinked and opened his mouth obediently, curious what she was going to do but assuming she wasn't going to kill him or something. He's rewarded by the sweet-spicy flavor of the leaf. He ground the leaf between his teeth and grinned. "That's really good!" Looking to Sado he grinned. "Try it! Oooohh try it with the candy!"

Spicy-sweet. Sado didn't know about that, he wasn't sold on it anyway. He takes the leaf offering from Sachiko and pops it in his mouth, looking thoughtful as he lets it sit on his tongue. "Hm." he says, not sure of what to say about it, as he wasn't much of a connoisseur of herbs. But then Shigeru gets the brilliant idea of adding rock candy and everything comes together perfectly as Sado pops on in his mouth, looking completely sold on the flavouring as well as the smell and texture of everything mixing in his mouth. "mmm"

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