Escorting a CPSS Child | E Rank Modded Mission | Private

[Nazomeku]

The village hidden in the clouds was rightfully named, especially in the thick of the night when the country itself seemed to be the most alive. The Chakra Potential Screening Service was a boon for the village hidden in the clouds, but for the non-shinobi citizens of Kaminari no Kuni, it was one of life’s biggest fears. Most families never consented to having their child taken away from them to fuel the gears of the shinobi machine within the village unless of course the family was either a) too desperate and took whatever the village offered in place of the child, or b) the child’s ability scared the parents enough to want to get rid of him or her.

In this case, it was another girl who was showing signs of chakra control and her chakra was picked up by Kumo sensory type shinobi as they completed their routine scan for chakra signatures within the Heartlands of Kaminari no Zuni. It was unfortunate, having done this routine scan so many times that the number of children found and taken from the Heartlands had seemed to make the Jonin sensory-nins numb to this process. They already knew what was going to happen to children civilians turned shinobi from this part of the country. Without being close to their families, and their homeland pretty much being destroyed the Jonin sensory type shinobi who helped track down these rare finds found that their time in the academy would be harder. Their lives would be darker and their paths would be a bit more cruel because of this traumatic event at such a young age.

It wasn’t exactly how Kumo wanted to raise their next generation of shinobi; however, desperate times called for desperate measures. Their success at recruiting and finding new talent in the previous months was higher than average, so some of the Jonin even felt as though these set-up transactions of giving and taking children away from outer zone towns would cease. Or at least they had hoped…

The target for tonight’s mission was a young girl just over the age of seven years old. Officially, in the writings, the Chakra Potential Screening Services only negotiated children between the age of eight to twelve, yet in reality, they went as low as six years old frequently. The more time they could spend indoctrinating the children into the shinobi life the stronger they felt that generation of shinobi would be. It wasn’t necessarily true, at least not for all of the children they found, yet it was helpful in other ways. Some children wouldn’t even remember their lives before being given away, or taken away. Most children chose to quickly forget their poor lives in the outer village zone in exchange for the middle-classed life and honor given to a shinobi of the Hidden Village.

That too was dependent on how the family treated the child before they came of age to be exchanged. Some families had already started the heartless nurturing of their child who showed signs of a kekki genkai or an ability that seemed only natural for a shinobi, not the life of a farmer, or a hunter-gatherer family. They would be looked upon with contempt, and raised knowing that their lives in the forests of the heartlands would be short-lived.

In this particular instance, that very thing had happened for a young Tsuchimikado who started to realize her place in the world. Even though she had come of age for being sent away, without proper shinobi training, she was able to begin to unlock some of the techniques of her kekki genkai. One night her parents happened to stumble into her room while she was doing some sort of ritual, and that’s when the fear began. Ever since she would carry a talisman that she found, which happened to be nothing more than an owl’s feather that she found on day from working in the forest.

With her spiritual enlightenment, she didn’t know for sure what was bound to happen to her, she only knew that she was not meant to continue living here with her parents…

[WC: (695) 695 / 2000] [PC: 1 / 5]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami wasn't happy. This wasn't itself unusual, she had never really enjoyed classes, or training even now that she was taking it seriously and making real progress. Today, however, she was especially unhappy because she had been given a mission.

It stank. Leaving the village, alone, these things were bad enough signs but the topic of the mission itself was worse. She had a days notice and all it served to do was throw her stomach into knots leaving her anxious. She barely slept, which wasn't a wise course of action because she was still worn out from the extra training she'd taken on. It left her miserable but resolved.

This was her mission. Likely a test, a trial assigned specifically for her. The outcome of it was predetermined and she had no ability to alter it. She was a helpless agent of fate and so she would carry it out to the best of her ability.

It didn't help her sleep.

She grabbed the details of her missioned, listened attentively to the instructions, the targets name, the family, the location of the village. She didn't remember the conversation that occurred after, but she remembered how strange she felt walking out. Her skin felt electric, but she couldn't explain why everything felt like it didn't quite fit right. Her fingers, her toes, she could remember the detail of every step that took her out of the room, out of the building, outside. She was like a ghost, floating through the doors of the building. The cool breeze of the outside brought her back into her skin but she felt unwell.

To her credit, she made it far away from the administrative building before she threw up but she still couldn't explain what had happened. She was tired, she decided, she was tired and she tried to eat despite some kind of nausea and that was it. She'd made up her mind on the mission and that's all there was to it.

She steadied herself and looked over her home. Kumogakure. It was quiet now, the sun had set, she could see only a few sparkling stars in the sky as thick clouds gathered. The breeze, which had been building throughout the day had picked up now. A quiet howl. She gathered her cloak around her tighter and made a face. This was her first time leaving this place, she wanted to race towards the gate, see places she hadn't seen before, spread her wings for a brief moment.

She was frozen to her spot staring down at the city she had known for all her life, wondering if there was a way to get out of this. To fail and move on. To give up...maybe run away. She noticed the soft sound that grew into a gentle roar as the rain began to fall. A crack of thunder made her jolt and look up as drops of rain splashed across her face and woke her up. It was time to work. She set off for the gate immediately and began her mission. This was her life now.

518 words. post 1/5.

 

[Nazomeku]

The father of the young Tsuchimikado sat before the hearth, looking sternly into the fire that spit, hissed and flickered, consuming the dry firewood that had been procured the day before. The mother paced the floor back and forth, like a caged lion, impatiently waiting for something to happen ... anything ... to happen.

The house was dead silent other than the creeks on the floorboard from the mother walking in the same exact steps, over and over again and the crackling of the fire. The girl who was to be handed over to an escort shinobi of the Hidden Cloud village was strangely sitting in her room, alone, content with the supposed proceedings of the night. She could feel the discontent in the very souls of her parents. She knew from their stares and from their few, yet never polite words to her, that she was no longer loved or wanted.

It was a sad thing in the grand scheme of it all; however, she just wanted her new life to begin. It seemed as though her blood had given her a level of clairvoyance that far preceded the wisdom of any six year or seven-year-old child and because of this, she understood her place in all of these events seamlessly. In her room, she had prepared her last ritual that would ever take place in this house. For whatever reason, her dreams carried very vivid pictures and descriptions of symbols and she had inherently known that these were keys to her current situation.

She wanted to perform a blessing ritual for her parents, blessing them for making the right choice to let her go. The symbolism that appeared over and over again in her dream for the past week or so since she had the feeling of being surrendered to a new home, was hopefully, one of blessing. She was untrained and couldn't tell for sure, but it felt right.

She used a collection of sticks and stones to make the ritual symbol of "blessing," that she had seen in her dreams, and then spoke the words that too came along in her dream. They seemed piece-mealed in her deep REM slumber, but now they all seemed to make sense. She repeated the words over and over again, pushing what life force she could into the act...unbeknownst to her, it was the very chakra, that these Shinobi from the Hidden Village sought after.

The ritual would go on for a while... the small child repeating the words over and over again, focusing intently on the vision and the feeling of a blessed, happiness for her parents, without the child living in the same space and under the same roof no more. She envisioned comfort for both herself and her parents who still sweat walked, and stared lifelessly in to the fire in the other room; not even ten yards away from her.

[WC: (486) 1,181 / 2000] [PC: 2 / 5]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami passed through the gates without incident, she did, after all, have permission. It was official academy business, in spite of her age, her rank, the unusual mission was legitimate and the gate guards were probably aware of the situation and circumstance. More than she was, that was sure. She pulled the cloak tighter, tried not to think of the massive gate around her as the gate to the prison she lived the last five years. The rain came down harder as she took her first foreign steps to the outside world and brought along with it a miserable chill that helped her not to think too much. That was good, preferred, the less thinking the better.

The journey would take her most of the day, down the pass quickly and through the scant edge of the lowlands to the heartlands of the Lightning country. She didn't stop for much, the lowlands were a boring collection of flatlands farms and distant cozy houses she has nothing to do with.

A few hours into her journey and she reached the Heartland. She had to admit that compared to the lands before it was beautiful. Untamed, wild, and free, a forest that stretched as far as her eyes could see. There was something romantic about that, but she definitely knew from not only her geography lessons that this place was dangerous but from the mission briefing as well.

She stepped forth, scanned and craned her neck around and once she caught her breath took off. The reports she got were accurate, the place was thriving, animals were everywhere. She kept herself high up, moved across the branches of the trees close enough to make it possible. The rain had picked up, but the trees formed a dense enough canopy to keep her sheltered. The occasional slick branch wasn't a problem, she was, after all, one of the academy's best and brightest.

Five years. I wasn't like this when I left, was I?

She snatched a branch and let out a cry as her fingers slipped and she started to tumble. Two branches broke against her body as she fell.

I was weaker right?

She twisted around, opened her eyes and focused as the world rushed around her in freefall. She lashed out and caught hold of a sturdier branch, burning out her momentum in a swing.

I was scared. I remember being scared. No I was angry. No I was horrified. I didn't want them to get hurt. Who?

She hung there, suspended on the branch by her own firm grasp and took in deep breaths. She let out another scream, frustrated and angry at her own distraction, for not paying attention, for the rain, for the cold. For this dumb mission, for everything. She let her scream echo out into silence, drowned out by the rain. She wasn't thinking about anything. She slipped. Her fingers were getting cold.

She pulled herself up. The forest was quiet now, a dangerous sign. She didn't care. None of this mattered, nothing mattered. She'd be gone before predators came. Let them come. She pulled herself up and leaped to another branch. It wasn't much further. She was getting close. This mission would be over and she would move on with her life.

You remember right?

The woods had thinned out, she was proceeding on foot, wiping water from her face as she made her way out. Her skin was getting numb from the cold, it was fine. It was fine.

You know where you are don't you?

The familiar outline greeted her, like seeing a dream come to life. A small village carved out of the crook of the Heartland, on the edge of a wildland. A sleepy peaceful place. It had children who would run screaming through the village as they played. The gentle familiar smell of a fireplace crackling. Friendly faces, being scolded for getting into trouble. People working, living together. None of that was present now, the village was silent save for the rain but she remembered those sounds.

Home.

She stood still, too afraid to move, unwilling to close her eyes to look away. She remembered this place. Every roof, every house, the small changes over the year only seemed to make it more, real, more complete.

My home.

+725=1243 words. 2/5 posts.

 

[Nazomeku]

The ritual was complete, and without a word, the or a moments notice, the chakra that Tsuchimikado Kanashimi poured into the sticks and stones erupted in a bright, blinding white flash of light that could be seen from miles outside of the heartland.

Only the shinobi in the village looking over the gates would be able to tell if they bore witness to this event, although it wouldn't matter. What Kanashimi wished to accomplish, she felt as though she did, even though she wasn't one hundred percent sure. Her heart felt glad. The light disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. The fretful mother came running into her room once more, with the same look of bewilderment that she had always worn on her face. Especially since finding out her daughter possessed "chakra," which the villagers commonly referred to in the Heartlands as 'the devil.'

“Kana, what are you doing in here! I thought I told you not to do any of those demon rituals in this house ever again!”

The small child looked up at the person who stood in her doorway. She couldn’t even really see a mother there anymore. Though she tried to imitate as much love in her direction as she could muster, she knew that it was returned with nothing but hatred and malice for fear of self.

“I’m sorry, mama. That will be the last time.”

The mother’s face curled up in confusion. She didn’t know that her own daughter had suspected anything strange going on in the family in the house the past week or so, and especially not tonight. Yet she proved otherwise…

“I know why you guys are waiting up tonight. I know that you’re giving me away…”

“Shut up!” the mother cried. “We aren’t giving you away, we are making sure you have a better life. A life that is fitting for you.” Her words broken by snobs, uncontrollable tears, and weeping.

The loudest crack of lightning seemed to strike right over the house as those words left the mother’s lips. The village again seemed to fall into silence as the boom of the thunder set the stage. It’s hollow ringing taking the form of an unseen hand that touched the tops of the trees to stop them all from moving and even paused the wind for a moments notice.

The mom turned out of the room and back to the front door, opening it and screaming out inaudible words of pain. The pain of a mother who had to part ways with her child. The pain of a mother who knew that this would be the last time she would ever see her baby again.

[WC: (447) 1,628 / 2,000] [PC: 3 / 5]

 

[Nanami]

She trembled for a moment, uncertain, what did it mean? This was that place, right? She remembered the details, the moments, the faint traces of a life before the one she pretended was the only one she knew. Why was she here? Now? Why was she doing this? Who was behind this?

The rain poured down indifferently, soaked her clothes from head to toe, sounded out loud across the world in an even steady beat. This was the place she was born, had grown up, and been taken and set upon her new life. A life of struggle, conflict, life, and death.

She trembled against, feet stuck fast to the ground as her knees buckled slightly. A terrible tremor raced through her bones, cutting out the chill of the rain, filling her suddenly with an overwhelming feeling. She rose up suddenly, thrust upright as air filled her lungs and emptied as she screamed. "SO WHAT!"

She turned on her heels, behind herself screaming out at nobody, at nothing, at everyone and everything. "SO WHAT!?" Lightning crashed in the distance, its thunderous roar seeming only to echo her words.

She took another breath, her entire body trembling with anger. Was someone watching her now? Was this her test? "I don't care!" she screamed out again until her voice was swiftly drowned out by the rain. Her chest heaved with heavy breaths as she stood there, body rigid with muscles clenched tight. She turned again after a minute and faced her old home. Rain flooded her face.

Another flash erupted from the village, she flinched reflexively out of the way, shielding her eyes with her arm but the imprint of the village's burned into her vision like a strange tableau. What the...?

She didn't care. This didn't matter. This may have been her home, maybe she was wrong. Maybe maybe maybe. It wasn't her now, she didn't belong here now. She was Kumogakure. Nanami Hideaki. She surged through the short path of the city to the home she had been instructed to and without hesitation pulled in front of the door and knocked.

"Nanami Hideaki. Representing CPSS. I'm here for your daughter," she declared in a firm unyielding voice that she swore never wavered, not even at the end.

+366=1609 words. 3/5 posts.

 

[Nazomeku]

“It’s about time you showed up,” the mother said cutting off the girl that seemed almost robotic, at her doorstep. If it weren’t for the rain, and dull lighting in the middle of the night, with the lantern that hung over the porch as their porch light, the mother would’ve momentarily thought that she had recognized this girl. For now, and maybe never again would it cross her mind.

“Kana!” she yelled as she retreated for a moment back into the house to collect her daughter. Through the crack of the door, if the shinobi was being attentive, she could see the girl place a solemn hand of consolement on the shoulder of the father, who never stopped searching for something in the flames of the hearth. Maybe it was his soul, for he didn’t even react to anything that seemed to happen around him. He didn’t flinch when the light erupted from the house. He didn’t seem to even hear the thunder or the screams of his wife, or her constant bitching. He just seemed to be a true living dead.

“Take me to my new life,” were the first words that came out of the lips of Tsuchimikado Kanashimi to the girl who stood at her doorstep. She looked her up and down soaking in her uniform and wondered if that would be a similar look that she would be forced to wear the rest of her life.

Without even waiting for the girl who was supposed to be her escort, Kanashimi had begun sprinting towards the village exit path. Something within her, now shown like a compass, pointing her in the direction of the village of Kumogakure no Sato, her destination, new home, and new life.

“Did I hear you say your name is Nanami Hideaki?” she questioned the girl, yelling it to her over the noise of their boots that splashed in the mud as they made their way back, and the constant drum of the rain on the canopy of the trees.

“I’m Tsuchimikado Kanashimi. Don’t worry too much about the surname, I hate it anyway. But you can call me Kana for short. My name means sadness…” As she spoke she never looked the other girl in the eyes. It was as if she just wanted to say what she felt and what she thought to get it off her chest and mind equally, then continue the rest of the trip in silence.

The feeling that she got from this girl was that she too could feel her pain and her suffering. It was almost as if she had lived this experience before but in her shoes.

[WC: (409) 2,037 / 2000] [PC: 4 / 5]
Theme Song:We Think Too Much

 

[Nanami]

Nanami adjusted her hood, it cast dark shadows still across her face, the light now solely the home's lantern casting from a flickering flame. She didn't step in from the rain merely stood there looking between the cast of characters. She knew this woman, this family, not the girl but maybe the faint memory of this women pregnant? She glanced aside as the women left, retreated into her own home to fetch the girl.

She half expected a fight. Wanted one maybe? She took a breath and held it, used the pressure of her lungs to stomach her feelings. She had no part in this drama, this was hers, Kana. She was just here, observing it all happen. A witness to the act, not the reason it was happening. Right. Right?

Nanami snapped her gaze back to Tsuchimikado Kanashimi and studied her wordlessly for a moment. "Come along, then. You should bring a cloak, we won't be stopping until we arrive." She stood up straight, as tall as she could muster, spoke as plain as she could manage, a neutral tone stretched tight.

The girl walked past her and into a sprint, not to get away, as she first feared but simply out, away from this place. Too young to be this willing, this accepting. It irritated her, she followed after quickly. "That's my name," she replied plainly after a long moment as they moved towards the cover of the trees.

"I already know your name," she said quickly, coldly? She didn't want to talk, didn't want to know her name, didn't want to remember her face. She'd see her, day in and out in the academy, wouldn't she? Kana. Her name meant sadness. She almost scoffed.

"Don't run if you can't keep it up," she warned, "If you pass out I'm not going to carry you. And you make too much noise moving like that..." She'd learn, how to run silently, how to fight, maybe worse yet how to kill. How to die. "...Kana." She added, regretfully.

+334=1943 words. 4/5 posts.

 

[Nazomeku]

For whatever reason this Nanami chick seemed off. It was pretty obvious that her defenses were up and Kana couldn’t tell if it was because of the mission at hand, escorting her through the supposed “dangers” of the forest, or if it was for some other reason unbeknownst to her.

“I can keep up!” she bite back, fighting fire with fire. Possibly a rivalry that would continue throughout this new life that she was to take on…Kana wasn’t sure. “Well how else am I supposed to run?” she asked.

The journey felt much longer than it should’ve, primarily because the distance isn’t easily measured in the thick of the night, double that with the dampening affects of the storm.

There was a howl that cut through the silence of their journey, and it was followed by two or three more. “Coyotes,” Kana stated quickly, having been trained in the forest to identify all the nocturnal predators as quickly as possible.

“I can’t help you because I don’t have my papers to make seals, and even if I did, it’s too wet out here for them to last..so when they make themselves visible, you have to kill the largest Alpha first and the rest will disperse,” she instructed, assuming that Nanami had no prior training on how to handle the nocturnal predators of the outer village zone in the beautiful expanse of the Heartland of Kaminari no Kuni. “The coyotes are the most active nocturnal predators at night and if they caught on to your scent coming in, even through the rain, then we should be in the clear the rest of the way after you kill the big one.”

[WC: Complete] [PC: 5 / 5]
Mission completed after Nanami's next post.

 

[Nanami]

Nanami wondered how much of a pain it was going to be to bring this girl back, an untrained child half her own age. How could she maintain the pace? She was ready to be surprised, considering the flash it had to have been here, right? Who else? "You could just walk. It's a long walk but you'll at least get there without killing yourself," she said. Not out of concern, of course, it'd just be a mess to have to carry this girl on top of get back to the village. Content with that they settled on a pace the girl could maintain and Nanami kept close, guard up.

Simple, easy, focus on the job, focus on every sound in the woods, it's potential danger, right? Keep her safe. The tense silence, tense to Nanami at least, made the night drag on as the pair made their way back, Nanami's vigilance and fatigue were wearing her down. She wanted it to be over, she didn't want that girl's eyes on the back of her head. She didn't want to be doing this.

They were being followed, their pursuers were curious but not aggressive, she craned her neck when the howl rang out and let out a sigh. She looked at Kana and nodded. "Yes, I know. I don't need your help either. You know I'm the one escorting you right?" She gave her a stern look as she added, "Stay back and don't do anything." She expected...something more. This girl went so quietly, so willingly. She felt the anger as she stepped out the door, but it wasn't at her, shouldn't it have been at her? Shouldn't she have had to drag her kicking and screaming through the woods? It was all too easy.

Did I make it easy? Did they-

The sound of footfalls around them in the dark of night as they closed around the pair, far enough out that Nanami could only faintly make their shapes out in the dark. She clapped her hands together, dispelling the water around them with the faint his of power as her chakra began to form. A few months ago and all she might have felt was terror. Before she met Tenko. Before she learned. This would have been too much, more than she could have handled. But she learned so much since that day.

Three quick hand signs allowed her gathered chakra to focus, rushing through her body to the desired effect. The sound of rapid footsteps approach, the first of the coyotes appeared in the dark. Nanami's hands parted, gripping the rain-soaked cloak around her ripped it off, hurling it towards the first Coyote to appear.

Pandemonium ensued and almost as quickly resolved:

Nanami's skin glowed bright red, heat distorting the air around her skin accompanied by a faint mist as the water soaked in evaporated quickly like droplets on a pan.

The soaked cloak (nearly three times its weight soaking wet) collided with the bravest of the Coyote who started the attack and wrapped around its face. Nanami shifted out of the way of its blind approach and slammed a flat palm into its face with a sharp crack, a yelp, and a thud as it slammed against the ground.

The lead, or alpha as Kana described emerged to follow up, and Nanami was on it in an instant. She leaped through the air the short distance between them and snapped out a straight kick which sent it sliding into the dark. As Nanami's feet touched ground she began to form hand seals quickly.

A third coyote came out from behind, seeing Kana alone it sprang at her. There was a whistling sound, quiet at first but it grew louder as space seemed to warp, tearing through the rain as a bullet of condensed air ripped past Kana's head and into her pursuer sending them off once more into the dark.

Then silence, as still as the white noise of the rain that had accompanied them all along. The faint yelping and sound of footsteps as the animals retreated. Nanami fumbled in the dark and pulled her muddied soiled cloak free, and turned to Kana, wordlessly just watching her for a moment. The heat around her skin faded, returning to its normal color in the dark.

"...We'll be there soon," she said finally, and went to turn but stopped herself. She bit her lower lip and spoke again. "Don't..." She paused.

What could she say? Don't be afraid? She should be, of tonight, of tomorrow, of every day that was going to come.

Don't be mad? At her? At Kumogakure? At her country? At her village? At her parents? She should be mad, at all of them and more.

Don't give up hope? For what? What was there left for her but this? If she made it to the end, what then? What happy ending could there be?

She grimaced, looked down then back to her.

"Don't hesitate to ask me for help okay? We're comrades now. We're all in this together." She didn't wait for a reply, didn't really meet her gaze. She turned, made sure she was followed and returned to Kumogakure.

+832=2775 words. 5/5 posts.