My Lucky Card {C Mission}

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mission Description

Spoiler:

Hard drops of rain pounded into the window, lit only by feint rays of street light - the only source of light this cloudy night. The sky was murky with clouds, same as yesterday and the day before and so on. It‘s been quite a while since anyone feasted their eyes on a beautiful, clear night sky, taking a moment to relax, ignoring the cold and taking in deep breaths of fresh air. The cloudy sky really did look as if affecting people‘s minds and feelings. There was this strange thing, when, during seasons like this, you constantly felt on a down, everything looked as if it‘s not going to work, every bad thing was getting deep into your head and every good thing just made you think of the bad things as it paled in comparison. Such was this autumn. This bad mood it brought was especially clear in the darker districts of the town or those with more concrete then green surrounding people. When you walk around, during days like this, in places like that, the mood is enough to make you cry all by itself, it takes either a very cheerful or a very dark person to be immune to this seasonal phenomenon.

Hisako Yoruma, was neither, she was just so consumed by this small piece of paper in her hands that she couldn‘t lay down to bed and kept re-reading it in her underwear before bed. She got a mission again, once again alone and without a squad, this , while very much to Hisako‘s liking, was a little disturbing. The mission that was given to her looked like one that would be given either to experienced Genin, or a squad of new ones. She was given quite some trust from the village since this mission may involve a contact with a hostile kunoichi. Not that Hisako was afraid, but assignments given to her were getting more interesting in a pace she never expected. That looked like a good thing, maybe she will get some actually interesting and dangerous assignments in the future. Though the content of the mission was kind of dull and looked boring to her, the possibility of facing another ninja in an actual combat situation was something she looked forward to, even if it won‘t get to that. The only bad thing in all this, she isn‘t allowed to kill, not directly, but if she kills, even by accident, the mission will be failed as Hisako‘s source of information is as good as gone. She had no chance to figure the tricks out by herself.

The young kunoichi could barely wait for the morning to start the mission, she just wanted to blast off and deal with it right now, but she had no idea where to start. The old man who tricked the client is long dead, his daughter‘s location is unknown and most likely she can‘t be found in any archive in Konoha, even the ones Hisako can‘t access legally. She did decide to go meet the old client in the morning, because he is most likely a peaceful old man and won‘t exactly talk in this hour. Hisako yawned and looked at her bed, trying to find any reason not to go to sleep, but couldn‘t. Even she had to rest sometimes. Slowly she stood off the chair she was on and went straight to bed. Loud shouts woke her up few hours later though, „Damn that gambling house“ Hisako thought to herself. It was built near her place just few weeks ago, everyday it‘s games culminated in some massive fight of some drunk gamblers, sometimes with bloodshed. At first they didn‘t even check for blades when entering, normal human logic wouldn‘t understand why one would take it to a gambling house but it wasn‘t common sense at work in those people‘s heads. Sometimes she even thought if those guys even need the house for gambling or the fights, coming up with more inventive ways to get more inventive weapons in. Once even Hisako got involved in the fight, indirectly, she was attacked by a band of beat up gamblers, trying to make up for their lousy night. Knowing she wouldn‘t get away with killing again, Hisako dodged their punches for a short while and fled in the darkness. She had to admit there were more people in those gangs then her common taijutsu skills allowed to take on face-to-face. Slowly that house was becoming a problem for the village.

Hisako cursed, realising she won‘t get any more sleep tonight and stood up, looking through the window. The house was all lights on and noises of drunk idiots yelling and some women shrieking won‘t probably go out. Hisako dressed up and took her ninja kit and wallet, even if she can‘t kill, she will definately beat someone up. It was actually getting more often when Hisako intentionally stranded off in the more dangerous districts at night to find trouble. Now that she had a mission, she will have that in mind but she was too enraged by the fact those drunk bums didn‘t let her sleep. Maybe if enough blood is shed, they will close the damn place. She went out into the cold chill of the night, the heavy rain before turned into a small drizzle now. It barely bothered anyone now and was pretty refreshing really. Just after few minutes Hisako got to the gambling house, the yard was already filled with few drunk guys in the mud and one guy holding his head, either from having to much drinks or just getting pounded hard. That was the outskirt of the village in all it‘s prime. Suddenly Hisako‘s anger changed into surprise as she seen a familiar figure in the house, the old man that ordered the mission. Slowly Hisako approached him. „Damn it“ he cursed, obviously getting a bad roll of the dices. He looked like having had too much drinks five drinks ago. With all heart Hisako hoped he wouldn‘t hurl up on the table or her, she needed the man conscious and alive and his company clearly looked like people that didn‘t like vomit on their table. „Hey, old man, can we talk?“ she asked the old man, who seemed not giving a thing about her. „Piss off ,ya whore“ the old timer snizzled in drunk tone, clearly trying to speak fast so that he looked less drunk. Hisako clenched her fist and punched him in the jaw. She didn‘t really restrain herself but the man‘s skull definately was as hard as you‘d expect a former shinobi‘s head to be. The man somehow picked up himself from the floor as his company were bursting down in laughs and stealing his money from the table „Awight...Let‘s take it outside“ the man gurgled up, inserting a hickup or two and stopping to keep his stomach content down. The man and Hisako went out, Hisako slammed him to a wall, she had no time to apologize, this man looked like he would go down into the puddle any time. „Where can I find the daughter of the guy that punked you?“ she asked in a husky and demanding tone, she could get sort of intimidating if she wanted. The man tried to keep himself straight but hardly could „I dunno...She‘s a wanderer...She‘s interested in tea though...Maybe near Royaru road...“ he mumbled, after the last sentence, Hisako quickly jumped sideways just as the man threw up. „Really charming“ Hisako whispered to herself, setting off to the gate, no way she‘s going to get any sleep after this...

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

The night was slowly moving away as Hisako was wandering around the woods, outside the village. She was looking for any further clues, besides the obvious one she got from the old man. Royaru road was a bit far away and Hisako hoped that she wouldn‘t need to go that far to find her kunoichi. She didn‘t even start thinking how she would get the intel out without either getting killed or killing the target. With every few minutes it was getting brighter and brighter as the dark shroud of the night was slowly fading away. Hisako tried her best not to get carried away with thinking of the weather. She didn‘t know what could be around the woods, just as the guard warned her. It took a lot of convincing and showing the mission sheet to the guard to get a permission to leave the village territory at that hour and she only got an agreement for less then a mile. She‘s been far further then that. She didn‘t understand why the guard was so reluctant to let her out, she was on a mission wasn‘t she? Suddenly Hisako smelled some meat nearby, the blessed smell of flesh roasting on fire made her want to check it out, slowly the young kunoichi started moving closer. The rate at which she moved, sadly, was horrid, she had to check if she won‘t rustle any bushes or do any similar things that would give her out. Those could as well be bandits roasting the meat. It was a funny thing of those bandits, some were just bandits that could be taken care of easily, but bandits also came in ranks that would pale Hisako‘s level of skill in comparison and she didn‘t want to find herself surrounded by that kind of thugs.

The people around the fire indeed did look like bandits. Most likely drunk as they were all asleep around the meat that was slowly getting burnt. They probably were suppose to go somewhere from the village but got drunk on the way and decided to camp in until morning. „What is it with me and drunk people tonight“ Hisako thought. „Whadya doin here?“ she heard a rather loud and high pitched voice behind her as her heart froze. That guy was away at the time Hisako sneaked up the camp, probably out for a pee or something and he just had to go back the way she was hiding in. Hisako quickly turned around and kicked the man in the stomach, luckily his reaction was off, whether it was because of alcohol or the half sleeping state he was in, the man fell down, unable to shout for help because of the good old air shortage. A trusty move that her father taught her. Hisako looked at the camp again, the men were starting to wake up and were staggering around, looking in the bushes nearby. „Could they‘ve heard something?“ Hisako thought as one huge man‘s shout answered the question, „There she is, in the bush“. The man was most likely either a sensor or had really good sight, the rest of the crew turned around and were all staring at Hisako‘s location. „Six of them...Varied skill levels from thugs to somewhat ninja-like...“ Hisako was mumbling to herself, trying to decide what to do as none of the men did anything but look at her direction. She could try to take them all out silently and would probably do it, she had plenty of cover to move around and it was still dark enough to obstract their vision somewhat, the problem was she didn‘t know who were more skilled then others so that she could plan who to take down and the men looked trained to deal with an assasin as they didn‘t just run into the woods where she had even more cover but stayed around their campsite, where Hisako would need to make her move and had less chances to remain unseen by the whole pack.

„That bitch is crazy“ the man Hisako kicked down yelled out as he crawled out of the woods. Hisako didn‘t see him recover, he could‘ve attacked her but he just went back to the group. There was an idea in Hisako‘s mind that first came up when she seen the varied skill of the group and coordinated training but she got sure now. Slowly she moved around the bush, trying to sneak up on one of the group using the large patches of grass. She wanted to take down the big one first as he seemed to be the only one who could find her, even though now he kept looking at the old hidespot. Swiftly Hisako jumped out, trying to put a kunai to his throat, however a tight grip of the man‘s hand caught her neck. The man was aware the whole time that she was sneaking around them but was fooling her, looking into the wrong spot. He really does have some sort of enhanced perception. He pulled Hisako up to his eyes level as she tried to struggle in vain. He gripped her neck tight enough to take all the air out. Just as the man Hisako knocked out couldn‘t do a thing, she couldn‘t now as well. He threw her out into the open small grassland of the camp, Hisako rolled backwards and pulled her kunai out. The man laughed „We aren‘t looking for a fight, not with you anyways“ he was huge and hulking, the kind you wouldn‘t want to face in an open field. „So you guys are bountyhunters?“ Hisako asked still holding up a knife. „Sort of, we‘re all looking for a wandering kunoichi, straw hat, dressed like a farmer, seen one?“ the man asked. Hisako stood up tall, putting the knife back, „Before you kill her, I‘ll need to get some info out of her“ she said. „Well it looks like we could use your help, no other guy who took her on her returned, that‘s why we are moving in six-pack“ the man smiled and sat back down to the burnt piece of meat. Hisako sat nearby, waiting until the pack will move. Sticking with them is her best chance of finding the girl.

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

The big man, whose name Hisako was unable to get because he never told anyone that, was leading the whole pack of mercenaries and Hisako in the back. The two days they‘ve been walking around, bar to bar, picking up clues were sort of a job Hisako has seen before, but it was really getting to her as she could‘ve done this whole thing herself and currently she had some serious doubts of travelling with the group. Her membership in the group was doubtful and Hisako did her best to show that to everybody, constantly mocking people who talked with her with short, offensive answers, refusing to sleep near the common fire or share the food with the others, even if it was free. The leader was only amused by this behaviour even if the rest of the group were somewhat irritated and constantly asked the huge man why she tagged along. The leader didn‘t have a clear answer, but it sometimes seemed to Hisako that that he wanted her around, as if they may really need her if they ever find the kunoichi they are looking for.

Then, during the third day of wandering, the man finally said he has got a scent of her chakra, confirming Hisako‘s speculations of his sensory skills, even if, when asked before, he denied it. „I‘m a dropoff in sensoring, only somewhat decent at best“ the man explained when Hisako confronted him about it. The pack didn‘t seem to be making any plans in capturing or killing the girl off, they were just drinking and eating the whole time, this did seem odd to Hisako, the leader was the only one who didn‘t drink. „The lineup of the pack changes everytime“ he explained to the girl „They aren‘t that much of fighters, just people who thought bounty-hunting sounds fun, the ones that are experienced consider this an easy job“, „Do you?“ Hisako asked. The man didn‘t answer, Hisako stood up and left to the lake nearby, delving into her thoughts: the girl was a wanderer, meaning she was supposed to be given order to be retrieved, she must‘ve taken out many people sent at her. Suddenly this mission got a whole new shade of bleak to it, Hisako looked back to the fire. If she was sitting there, bonding with those people and tomorrow they end up dead, what is the point? She could end up dead as well with those guys, in that case they won‘t care since they never knew her much. What difference would it make to Hisako if they care, if she was dead? A dead person is dead, no matter how highly people talk of it, they don‘t watch over you, don‘t talk you out of stupid things, don‘t help you as many people foolishly believe.

The morning breached and the pack moved, with Hisako in the back. She wasn‘t very trusting of the deal she made to get the info she needed out before those guys kill the kunoichi, she may as well end up facing the pack as well as the kunoichi. The leader pointed at a small, wooden building nearby, suppose to be a bar of some sorts. Two guys quickly climbed up on the roof, two stalked near the side windows while the leader with the last remaining guy got ready to march in, Hisako would enter later, not to raise supission of being seen with the two men. The small, wooden door‘s rusted iron handles clanged as the hulking leader of the pack barged in, with his goon following. Hisako looked inside, hidden to a wall for a brief moment, before the door closed. She heard a loud thud, the crew inside must‘ve sat down, she now had five minutes until they burst out and kill her. The black haired girl opened the door slowly and gently, not to act too intimidating and slowly got up to the counter, where her target was sitting. She was a short, rather young girl with red hair, dressed as a farmer with a straw hat, just as the pack described. Hisako sat down and ordered some water. „So, assasin, came here to kill me?“ the girl asked. Hisako‘s heart went to her toes, how did the kunoichi know she‘s here for her or that she‘s an assasin at that matter. „A Yoruma right? Can‘t forget those eyes when you see them, if you‘re lucky to actually see them before your death, those two jocks yours? Thought Yoruma work alone“ the girl kept whispering, Hisako looked back at the sensor leader nearby, he looked normal, the kunoichi‘s chakra flow didn‘t change, which means she‘s not afraid. „Just tell me your father‘s trick and go down, it will be easier that way“ Hisako whispered back. „Easier for you maybe, my father has a lot of tricks, and I will tell you the one you seek, then I‘ll rip your throat out so that you won‘t be able to tell anyone, just like I can‘t“. She can‘t tell it what does that mean? „The trick you‘re looking for is the trick that everyone wants, the pride of my father. The whole deck of cards is marked with a symbol, but you can‘t see it when you examine only one card for marks, so the cheater gets full prediction of one‘s cards if he memorises the patterns on the back...“ Before the kunoichi finished her sentence, Hisako threw her glass at her, she got the details and didn‘t need to get to the part where she get‘s attacked unprepared so she decided to be the one to strike first.

With amazing speed, the girl dived out of the glass‘s way, making it shatter into a wall further, she then pulled out a katana from behind a counter, giving Hisako only very few moments to get some distance between them. The side windows shattered, two goons jumped in and attacked the kunoichi, who unsheathed the sword with speed that Hisako had never seen. Two stripes of blood splattered on the wall as the men fell down, the roof opened, revealing the two goons above, who tried to attack her as well but they shared a similar fate. The goon nearby the pack leader charged in as well but the girl dissapeared, only to reapear behind him as she cut him down. The whole confrontation took less then three seconds and she killed five people without any effort. This was someone far surpassing Hisako‘s skill, even if she thought she could see and somewhat match the kunoichi‘s speed. The entire bar‘s clientele ran out, they didn‘t seem surprised, probably seeing similar every day. The hulking leader of the pack stood up, charging at the kunoichi, as well as Hisako with her knife, she jumped in the air to avoid the man and blocked Hisako‘s slash while in mid air, performing a slash on the man as she landed. The man looked relatively unharmed though, whether it was a jutsu or he had some armor below that shirt, Hisako didn‘t bother to ask. The kunoichi smiled as she snapped her fingers. A card cut into a wall in front. The man collapsed, Hisako was completely phased out, the target killed out the whole pack in under seven seconds, even if most were without any fighting skill, she killed a man such as the pack‘s leader by tossing a card.

Hisako and the kunoichi clashed knife to sword few times, as predicted, Hisako‘s speed was only slightly below the kunoichi‘s her amazing speed before was cause of the fact it was planned during the time she told Hisako the trick, she must‘ve noticed the men near the windows and on the roof as well. Despite somewhat similar speed, Hisako‘s weapon was a lot shorter and to some point useless in this situation, the kunoichi flipped above after another clash, slashing Hisako‘s shoulder, releasing a small stream of blood. „She didn‘t care giving the secret away, she knew she‘d kill me later“ Hisako thought, she noticed the kunoichi getting a bit worn, only natural from all the fighting and jumping around, her arm reached for a pocket in sideways. „The card!!!“ was all that occured in Hisako's mind, turning sideways as quickly as she could as she knew that once she sees the card thrown, she will most likely be dead. A striped splash of blood hit the wall together with a card. Hisako stumbled back and fell on her knees, grabbing side of her neck. She dodged most of the swipe, and the wound was no where near lethal but blood was difficult to keep in place with her palm. Hisako kept looking, she had to see when the kunoichi would come and finish her off, the red haired kunoichi braced and charged at Hisako, but the blade met some resistance and Hisako was still alive. Hisako didn‘t manage to lift her head up to see what saved her life and passed out, hearing only one phrase „It‘s your lucky day, girl.“

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Hisako‘s eyes opened slowly, initially a little suprised and the girl had to take few seconds to understand that she is not dead. Hisako looked around and realised she‘s in some sort of cell, decorated with furniture. It looked like a cell because it was very small and from what Hisako got while being a bit dazed, could probably only host a single person. The girl slowly got up, being able to do it, but when she tried to look at the floor, she felt a slight strain in her neck from the wound she got in the earlier fight. She also felt a slight strain from the bandage on her neck, scratching it softly to numb it out. The wooden door on the right opened, a man entered and smiled, he seemed happy seeing Hisako awake, his white smile was especially clear in the dark, that mucked up the view otherwise. „Barfights are fun, but when girls do it it‘s a whole new level don‘t you think?“ the man asked as he came up to Hisako, removing few parts from her bandage. „Hmmm she threw an ace, she was desperate, you had her cornered...Lucky to be alive, still“ he kept mumbling. As he closed up to Hisako she could see his garments and face, some of it. He wore a remain of some ancient formal jacket, incrusted with some strange cloth, looked really ancient and only during it‘s time it must‘ve looked nice as now it was covered in dirt and dust, torn and shred in places, under the open jacket he wore ordinary farmer outfit, his hat was similar to the kunoichi‘s but didn‘t look like straw-made. „So did she tell you the trick?“ the man asked, slightly tilting his head, revealing a black goatee and his messy back-length black hair. Hisako nodded her head, checking if she could still move her head upwards and downwards, she could with only minimum pain, the wound looked like it healed neatly.

An hour later, Hisako was already practising outside, from what she figured she wasn‘t far away from the bar that the man picked her from. From what the man told her, he was a wanderer just like the kunoichi, getting his bread by cheating with cards. He claimed he didn‘t have to cheat much because locals didn‘t know cards that much and treated it like an exotic game, still they were rather eager to try it out and lost their fortune to the man. However the drunkards got very feisty when they lost everything and beat the man up few times, so he had to figure out how to defend himself. He created a fighting style, composed of throwing cards with bladed sides, this helped him. The man came up to Hisako while she was practising, mumbling something how she and the kunoichi named Aimi were similar. „How do you know her?“ Hisako asked, before she figured that the kunoichi was unknown to the man but several times he let out some comments about her. „One day I met this guy who sold me his own daughter to learn my card tricks, I only taught him one and he looked satisfied, a strange fellow, to him money meant everything. For some time I didn‘t know what to do with the kid, she was nice but whenever someone spoke of her father she attacked that person“. The man took out a deck of cards and signaled Hisako to come closer. A bit unhappy to be interupted, Hisako came up. „Then I noticed the girl could control this energy called she called chakra, one guy called her a kunoichi or something so I let her to the Academy, hoping she would help me protect myself in my dangerous life. It was then when she learned the card tossing, as she grew up, she learned putting that energy into the cards, that was just amazing“. The man continued to explain how she asked him to teach her the trick he taught her father in exchange of teaching him how to put chakra in cards and how to control it. „Then she left and I only heard rumors of her, how she left the village when her father was called a criminal on some record and was living a life of a wanderer ever since...You should feel happy I came up to that bar that day...I could‘ve been anywhere, also you were lucky she stopped when she seen me, she could waste me anytime“.

Hisako was furious, she was beaten so easily, the whole squad she went with slaughtered, she knew that her mission was completed and she felt zero grief over those deaths, still she wanted veangance, her inner self craved violence. When she asked the man what chances did she have in beating the girl, he shrugged „Without knowledge of her kazazz very little, if you figure it out, quite big“. He even offered to sell her secret for all the money and the weapons Hisako had on her, she pulled her knife and put her to his throat „If I wanted I could make you sing it in reverse spelling“ she grunted out, then she put it back and went outside. „Imbuing chakra into blades on her cards...She has to have a system how much she channels...She‘s not that skilled to toss even amounts of chakra, being a dropoff“ she tried to figure the style out in her head. She then remembered the fight, the length and the size of the cuts varied, the one she hit the leader with was thin to cut below his armor and precisely, the one she thrown at Hisako was pulsing with chakra and the slice was very long and strong. The man claimed she thrown „an ace“ at her, could she be putting more chakra into higher cards, that would be an indicator for the user on how much chakra one must channel if one isn‘t so skilled, her deck may not be full but composed of cards that match her chakra level so that she knows how much she has. If only Hisako could guess what card the girl throws, her katana wouldn‘t be that hard to handle...It was then when an idea hit Hisako, crave of violence and revenge for her defeat will be satisfied, the young kunoichi burst through the wooden door „Show me your deck“ she shouted...

The sun had set, it‘s been three days since Hisako woke up, she was now lurking in the shadows behind the trees, near the same bar, she just had a hunch that Aimi would come, the gambling traveler always kept saying that the girl never moves on in her life... And so she did, Hisako‘s heart pounded in joy, as it always does when she is right. Hisako threw a smoke bomb, then charged out, as expected Aimi cut the clone in two with no effort, however while the clone dissapeared, Hisako had her chance to sneak up from behind, after slashing with so much momentum and force, someone of Aimi‘s build had no chance to dodge a blow. Aimi grunted as a punch with lightning chakra ran through her. „That should even up our speed difference for a while“ Hisako thought.

Spoiler:

Aimi tried to cut Hisako down few times but Hisako dodged with ease, even inflicting few cuts on Aimi‘s shins while dodging. Then she jumped back into the shadows. Fighting in the night and outside was definately on Hisako‘s list of advantages but Aimi‘s speed would‘ve still been too much, now that that is taken care of, Hisako can easily count on her strategy to work the charm. Aimi probably understood that her struggle might be her last as she was quickly down to only one trick, that was shown on her frightened face. „I told you the trick...What do you want from me?“ she shouted. Three kunai flew from the dark, Aimi dodged two, the third went in her shoulder, reducing the effectiveness of one hand. Her cards were in the pouch on her other side, she could only count on one hand to throw the cards now, just as expected Aimi ran into the lit and four walled bar, where she thought she could utilise her cards better then in the open field...

Hisako bursted in as well, knowing that Aimi would try something when she entered, she rolled behind a table to dodge two cards. It worked well, the light from the fire inside lit the symbols on the cards back, Aimi actually was using her fathers trick, marking each card differently, Hisako spent two days memorizing the thirteen possible patterns, planning this meeting, nothing will mess this up. Aimi kept tossing cards, huffing more and more after each, Hisako knew just how she must dodge each „Two – Five – Jack“ she kept mumbling to herself. After couple of minutes of tossing, Aimi fell on her knees, her deck of cards scattered on the ground and she used her katana for support. Blood bursting from her wound in the shoulder and cuts on her shins and her fatigue...Hisako‘s target looked down, the young girl stood up tall and straight, pulling some of the string out, "I...don't understand...why?" Aimi almost laughed out... Aimi struggled for a minute or two, then as her muscles relaxed, Hisako let her go. A lifeless body hit the ground. Hisako had no reason to kill or even to fight Aimi, she had little justification for what just happened, she was lead by some frenzy, the amount of detail she put into the planning of this fight that wasn‘t even necessary was scary. Scary even to Hisako, even when five hours later she neared to the village gate with a senseless face...

Spoiler:

Mission Complete