Starring:
Chitose, Kuoroke (emitter)
Date: March 10, 2013
Summary:
Chitose is saddled with a boring mission, but proves she can stick to her duty despite some distractions.
"The Unmeddling Kid"
A village in the Fertile Plains in the Land of Wind
The mission that has been picked for Yamauchi Chitose to perform today is neither glorious nor pleasant, but someone's got to do it. In one of the Fertile Plains' villages, she has the duty to guard some wealthy man's home, who is not so much in actual danger as paranoid. In practice, this boils down to standing on her post for the entire shift and not doing anything of interest. Considering she's got the early afternoon shift, it further means standing in the harsh sun of the Land of the Wind, with little shade, and not doing anything of interest.
And for the first time in a while, Chitose lets out a pained sigh at having to do this mission. Most of her missions she takes with a grain of salt but this one is really and truly miserable. As she is force to go stand out there, she looks at the area around before finally taking up her spot and putting her arms across her chest. She lets out a slow sigh before simply…standing there. Chitose's eyes going a bit distant as she watches for all the fake evil this wealthy man's mind can dream up.
As anticipated and reiterated with sympathy by all who know what her job is, the minutes stretch on before, with excruciating slowness, coalescing into tens of minutes and half hours. People pass before the house, but they mostly ignore Chitose, and the house she's in front of, busy with everyday affairs. After about an hour and a half of this massive boredom, something finally changes. At first, it seems like nothing: a group of kids… well, teenagers, so to many of the village's ninja, peers, playing soccer in the street, in the shadow of one of the houses. Its square shape gives them something of a playing field. From the other direction, a gentleman walks down the street. Over his shoulder is a bag sticking out of which Chitose can see several rolls of paper. As he passes the children, the ball bounces between them and then suddenly heads in the direction of the man, who remains oblivious until it hits him in the chest, throwing him off balance for a moment. The boy that seemed to be headed after the ball, suddenly loses all interest in it, and runs by the man, yanking the bag off his shoulder. At first, the man looks shocked, wasting several seconds, and then, without moving an inch to reclaim his possessions, instead begins wailing, "Thieves! Catch them! They've got my bag!" pointing in the direction in which the boy carrying his bag ran off. The rest of them, in the meantime, begin scattering in all directions, through side alleys.
With a glance in the direction of the ruckus, Chitose looks over and spots the incident happening. She hurrms as she spots it and then whips out a kunai with all the speed that she was taught. With a turn and a throw, Chitose sends her kunai speeding into the path of the child…not meant to hit him at all but the kunai is meant to be seen by him. She stares at the boy, pulling out another kunai as she watches to see what he will do in light of this.
The boy runs on while the kunai flies past his and embeds itself inside his field of vision. Then, not having realised what's going on, he continues for two more steps, and as realisation dawns on him, he looks behind with surprise and fear on his face. His eyes flit back and forht over the scene for a few seconds while he's trying to figure out the origin of the kunai. As he sees the girl, there's a moment of confusion, he glances back to the kunai, and then with a yelp he continue running with redoubled effort. The man reacts similarly, if a bit more early: when he notices the kunai, he looks at it, then traces its path back to Chitose and exclaims, hands spread wide, "You missed! Don't just stand there! -Get- it!"
"And leave my post?" Chitose tilts her head at the man before pointing at him, "You going to guard this man's house in my stead?" She hmms and then sh akes her head, "I don't think so." She then sighs, "As much as it pains me…I'm loyal to my village and therefore to my missions." She looks after the boy, "I am not here to police things." She then looks at the man, "And how do I know you aren't just here to get me to leave my post so you can kill the man?" She hmms and raise sup her kunai, staring at the man.
As the child carrying his bag gets some more distance, he throws another fearful glance over his shoulder, he turns down another street and vanishes from sight. In the meantime, the victim's face turns red enough to cause serious worries about it exploding. "What?! Wh- You could've caught him! He had my bad!" he screams, angrily. "And you… you just let him go! You couldn't even be bothered to throw another knife at him! I'll have you fired for this! I'll make your life a hell! Do you have any idea how important that bag is?! How important I am?!" As he speaks, he walks towards Chitose, wildly gesticulating.
A glance at the man and Chitose blinks, backing up a little before using her hand to lift her kunai, "You can try, sir." She states with a bit of a shake in her voice, "However, I know you know I'm a genin of Sunagakure." She nods her head, "I am on a mission to protect this house and the occupant inside." She then swallows, "My uncle taught me…to break with my mission is to commit suicide." She eyes the man, "Besides…I'm far more afraid of the man that sent me here than I am of you."
The man stops in front of the little girl, staring at her with bulging eyes, his neck bulging with veins. "You… You let those little thieves -go- and now you pull a kunai on -me-?! Oh, you've made a mistake. You've made the mistake of your life, kid! I don't care if you're the genin of the village hidden in the solid gold and you're here to guard a god, I will find out who you are and I will -crush- you for letting my plans be stolen! I will break you!" His voice rises to a high-pitched, hysteric scream at the last one. The man throws his hands up in the air, lets out some sort of frustrated yelp, and abruptly turns around, pacing down the street and fuming. A few houses further, he turns around and screams, shaking his fist, "This is not over!"
Letting out a sigh, Chitose shakes her head and puts her kunai away. She stares at the ground a moment before looking back at the house. She then looks forward and then shakes her head again, "Nope…no matter how bad taht was, still not as frightening as Kuoroke or Suterusu…" She then stands up straighter and looks around before frowning, "Come on…lets hope some other little kid steals something."
