Chapter 12: Chapter 12: B-Rank Mission!
"Do you see him?" Shin asked the cat crouching next to him as he hid within the branches of a tree, "Meow ~_~" "It's fine." Shin consoled the cat as he closed his eyes and focused on every minute sound, '*Swish* Wind and leaves, *TakTak* a squirrel with a nut, *rustle rustle* a small animal in bushes, *Snap* dried branch!' Shin jumped from his hiding spot and launched 3 shuriken at the sound. Atsuki, the cause of the sound and already aware of his blunder, threw the kunai from his hand at him as he jumped back. Shin didn't dodge as he moved his fingers, manipulating thin strings attached to his fingers, and the shuriken turned mid air as one of the shuriken clashed with the other two, deflecting them towards Atsuki.
*Thuk Thuk* The shuriken found their target but with a puff of smoke, a log had replaced Atsuki. Shin tsked as a black shadow swept in front of him, appearing next to him, Pineapple held Atsuki's kunai in its mouth. 5 Months of training with Fujio sensei had turned his lazy cat into a ninja cat. *Woosh woosh* Shin heard two shurikens flying towards him so he stepped back and used a kunai to deflect them, "Go!" he told Pineapple as she ran towards Atsuki. Pineapple was not strong after it was only a cat but it was fast and holding a kunai so Atsuki simply defended before flickering away but Shin was waiting for this opportunity as he cashed Atsuki along with Pineapple.
Facing the dual assault, Atsuki couldn't run since both of his opponents were faster than him so he held his ground and chose to fight. Weaving through seals, he kicked the ground and sent 4 chunks of rock hurtling at Shin while yelling, "Earth Release: Rock Shuriken!" "Stop shouting out the names!" Shin yelled at the boy while his hands went through seals before slamming the earth, 'Earth Shore Return!' The ground before Shin rose into a wall as the shuriken struck the wall he went through another set of hand seals before jumping, 'Wind Scythe Jutsu!' He prepared to attack Atsuki only to find him missing. Mid-air, Shin looked around as he heard cracks below him as Atsuki emerged from where he was just standing. Shin quickly sent a wind blade towards Atsuki, slamming him to the ground, as he himself flipped himself away using the earth wall and sent a tagged kunai at Atsuki.
Atsuki rolled away and prepared to carry on before a voice stopped him, "That's enough, Shin wins." A purple haired woman appeared beside him. "But sensei!" Atsuki tried to argue but ended up with a knock to the head, as she pointed to the kunai that Atsuki had just dodged. "If this were a real battle, the explosion tag would have sent you flying." Fujio explained but Atsuki was still unsatisfied, "It's not fair! Shin has tags and Pineapple! I want a ninja pet too!" "Well no one is telling you not to use those tags you know, you don't even use them in missions." Shin said as he walked towards his teammates. "That's because they are so expensive!" Atsuki argued, he usually got the explosion tags and sealing scrolls from Shin but once he asked for the price at the weapons shop and was left flabbergasted. A single explosion tag cost the same as what he would earn from 2 d-rank missions! Not to mention the sealing scrolls which were even more expensive.
"Alright, that's enough, tomorrow is mission day so go back home and get ready. Replenish your supplies and rest up. This is going to be our first official B-rank mission." Fujio said with a smile as Atsuki pumped his fists, "Yahoo! Finally!" "Alright, see you kids tomorrow." and with that Fujio disapparated, I mean flickered away.
Shin and Atsuki gathered up the weapons they had thrown out and headed into town. They had been doing 2 C-rank missions and 2 D-rank missions every month for 3 months since their first C-rank mission. After 6 months of constant training, they were finally going to get their first official B-rank mission. It wasn't their first B-rank mission though, they had stumbled upon some unknown ninja during one of their excursions while picking up some information from a town near the border of Amegakure or Village hidden in the Rain. Shin was really nervous to be so near the Akatsuki headquarters but luckily they didn't even have to leave their borders. They just disguised themselves, separating before entering the village and converging near the handout spot. Shin was incharge of making the contact and getting the information scroll while Atsuki kept an eye out for any trouble and Fujio supervised from somewhere hidden.
As Shin made the exchange, there was only a single contact with the person, Shin simply hung out in a restaurant, disguised as an arrogant old man. While ordering he said the key words to notify the spy who, in a drunk state, "stumbled" onto Shin's table, knocking his food away and slipping him a small scroll. The man quickly apologized and ran out without even giving anyone the opportunity to recognise him, while Shin yelled at the waiters and flung the food at walls while swearing to never return and leaving without paying. It was mean but most people completely forgot about the "drunk man" and only remembered the "rude old man".
On the way back, they encountered an ambush of root ninja in disguise, all Chunin level at minimum. Fujio was encountered by a Jonin who led her away before the others attacked Shin and Atsuki. Luckily Fujio realized this and returned before the boys got roughed up too badly. This mission was reclassified as B-rank. Shin guessed Danzo must have wanted the information from the scroll for himself without Hokage's knowledge but didn't expect Fujio to return to our side so quickly.
"Shin, what are you thinking about?" Atsuki broke Shin's chain of thoughts who shook his head, "Nothing, let's go in." The boys were standing in front of a shop with glass windows displaying a manner of weapons, kunais, swords, Kanatas, Tantos, shurikens and even some kevlar and steel mesh jackets and arm guards. This shop was tucked away from the main busy market in the commercial district but was twice as big as others on the same street. The boys entered and saw a few men and women browsing the various weapons and tools on display while haggling and flirting for discounts.
There were 4 attendants in the shop, one a beautiful mature woman, wearing a tight dress, who flirted/talked with a blushing man in Chunin garb as she "suggested" him to buy a few more shuriken and recommend the shop to his other friends, a young girl with blond hair and chubby cheeks who was showing some wire to another female ninja, a Hyuga with long and loose black hair and a playful grin, talking to a pair of kunoichi and finally a huge blond man with a man bun who sat at the counter.
Shin and Atsuki walked straight to the counter and greeted with a smile, "Hello Uncle Ibuki! How are you?" The man looked up with a big smile, "Ah Shin! How are you my boy!" He immediately got up and hugged the boy by picking him up before turning to Atsuki, "You too Atsuki! Doing well?" he inquired and gave the boy a pat on the head. "Yes, thank you uncle Ibuki." The boys replied. As he opened the small door to let the boys inside. "So what brings you boys here? But first, what would you like? Juice? Cake?" The man asked before turning to the Hyuga who was all but inviting the kunoichi for some private time and making innuendos at every sentence. "Kazumi! What did I say about flirting with the customers!?" The big man yelled, "Go and get something to eat for the boys! You better be back in 5 minutes or find another job!"
The Hyuga straightened up, saluted the blonde man and hurriedly left the shop, not before kissing the kunoichis' hands and giving them a wink. Ibuki facepalmed himself as he sighed, turning to the boys, "That boy is a stain on the Hyuga name, though he is also directly responsible for a quarter of our sales every month." "It's fine Uncle Ibuki, sorry to bother you during work." Shin apologized. "Nonsense!" Ibuki immediately denied, "You are family Shin! You call me uncle and then apologize? You are like a son to me! You can come to me anytime you want. After all, this is your shop." the man smiled as he ruffled the boy's hair. It was indeed true, this shop belonged to Shin's father and after his death his friend Ibuki had offered to rent it from them, later on, using the inheritance from Shin's grandparents, Ryouka had brought the neighboring shop and renovated the whole place. The shop and house that his grandparents owned had ended up in the newly constructed commercial district at a prime location so it was easily rented to a famous merchant group, the rent from the two shops was nearly 5 times their monthly budget and that budget included a generous pocketmoney for Shin. Along with the earnings from the missions, Shin's wealth kept piling up but neither he nor his mother had any interest in it. Shin didn't care because he knew that money was useless in front of beings that could and would soon flatten the whole of Konoha, Ryouka didn't care about any luxuries but did her best to manage the money well so Shin could have an easy life in the future when he got married.
"So what brings you here?" Ibuki asked Shin. "Oh we just wanted to replace a few of our blunted weapons, oh and this." Shin took out a few scrolls that he had gotten from home on the way here. "Oh fantastic! I had run out! These things are a hot commodity you know!" Ibuki immediately took the scrolls and studied them for a while before putting them away. Shin had been selling his excess explosion tags and sealing scrolls to Ibuki to fund his rather expensive hobby. The fuinjutsu scroll Shin had gotten from Haruki was already memorized but he had hit a deadend since fuinjutsu knowledge was highly regulated and a normal genin could not have access to it without getting accepted to the Sealing corps. This would provide Shin with knowledge of fuinjutsu quickly but also halt his progress in every other department. Since Shin would have a lot more access and freedom after he became a Chunin, he decided to take things slow, 'I still have like 8 years before canon, no need to rush.'
"Hi Shin. Hi Atsuki." A small voice brought their attention to the young blond girl that was previously attending to a customer. "Hi Chikori, how have you been?" Shin smiled at the girl and the three children got engaged in a conversation. "How has your training been going? Don't push yourself too hard." The girl requested. "Huh! What do you know!? We've gotten so strong that we are even going to go on a B-rank mission tomorrow!" Atsuki replied. "B-rank!? Shin Isn't that dangerous?" Ibuki was surprised, "It's only been half a year since you guys graduated from the Academy!" "It'll be fine Uncle, Fujio sensei will be with us anyways." Shin replied. "Father, is B-rank mission very dangerous?" the girl asked. "Well, it's almost a guarantee that there will be a fight with the enemy ninja." Ibuki explained with a worried expression. The girl hesitated before running away and bringing two healing ointments and first aid kits for the two of them and handing them over to Shin and Atsuki, "Try to not get hurt." she said with a teary expression.
The boys stayed for a bit before leaving, the father and daughter sent them off, "Shin, visit often, Chikori misses you!" The man said loudly as the girl turned red and buried her face in her hands, peeking from the gaps of her fingers, "Father!" she yelped which only made the man laugh harder. Shin looked at the girl's eyes and thought, 'I wonder if it's me that she misses.'
As the boys left the shop, a white robed youngman rushed towards the shop, "Kazumi! you brat what did I say!?" they heard Ibuki yell, "But boss! It's not my fault! There was this girl-" "There is always a girl!" The man yelled, "Get in there and start polishing all the weapons! They better be spotless, you hear me!" "YES SIR!" the Hyuga replied with fervor and rushed inside the shop. The boys smiled as they went back home and prepared for tomorrow's mission.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
HermitOfLifeMount
HermitOfLifeMount The sun lights up the world so we can see around us, but many prefer the comforting darkness of the night.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone