C Rank Mission - "Attack of the crab people!"

[fina]

"Fina Sasori, you have been requested to attend the following mission!"

A chuunin of Kusa now stands in front of Fina with a scroll in his hand; his name was on it. In instant, he opens it, excited to finally have a mission to do.

Name: Fina Sasori
Shinobi Rank: Genin
Mission Rank: C
Description: Weird men dressed in crab suits have been assaulting many of the candy stores in downtown Kusa. While they seem to have no purpose, they frequently enter and steal candy, as well as break many displays. Sick and tired of this, the many candy owners have rallied together and hired a shinobi for help. Now Fina must pose as a new candy owner, and face off with these hoodlums once and for all.

Once done with his reading, he darted to the officer in order to meet his contact.

[fina]

“Crab people!?”

”Yes!”

As incredulous as it sounded, the frantic man in front of the Uchiha appeared to be very serious. His plight was simple: crab people had been attacking candy stores, and they were tired of their bad deeds. He wished for a shinobi presence to stop them at all costs, even if violence was necessary. An in depth explanation regarding the crab people commenced, from descriptive sketches to verbal enhancements, bringing the man’s assailants to life.

“Excuse me sir, but are you out of your mind?”

While the question slipped from Fina’s mouth, it was merited. The man was in clear need of medical assistance, as his condition had far passed the point of medical remedy. Yet fury was thrown back at Fina for such a comment, as the man couldn’t believe one of Kusa’s “future stars” insulted his character. Threats of law suits and public scandal broke out as the man barged into the Kusakage’s office, demanding an apology.

What have I done

Unfortunately for the Kusakage, Fina’s personal attempts to keep the crazed man at bay and away from the village’s kage resulted in failure. Instead of dissuading the man from taking time from the Kusakage, bringing forth a silly request that would potentially back up the system- which was rather slow recently- he now gave the man more reason to send a request, empowering the man through doubt of personal word.

Amazing how much a man’s credibility in the eyes of others could drive...could motivate to do anything. As the doors to the Kusakage’s chambers slammed shut behind him, the man’s frantic voice broke through the wood, allowing Fina to hear every word. Of course a commotion commenced, but being a public agency, there was no option but to lend an ear and listen.

As time elapsed, the same explanation that Fina had painfully received earlier was delivered for the Aburame, albeit this one was even more fantastic than the previous one. The crab people now became twice as large and threatening, and went from stealing candy to money, as well as threatening to destroy their shape. One hand covered Fina’s face as he sighed and began to leave the premises.

But he didn’t travel too far before he would be bothered with this business once more. After a few steps outside, a light hand landed on his shoulder, accompanied by a soft voice. Fina turned around to find one of the kage’s many apprentices, eyes large and eager, requesting the genin to turn back, as the Kusakage himself had summoned him. When asked what for, all the young boy could answer was ‘a mission.’

The short trip back to the office was spent brooding over whether the ‘mission’ actually involved the crazed man’s antics, or whether coincidence merely timed it right so as to send Fina in a fit of worry and concern. The later had been adopted as truth; that is, until his hands pushed through the Kusakage’s chamber doors, and his eager gaze caught sight of the crazed man, now calm and collected, standing beside the Aburame with a smile.

An attempt to leave was made before his presence had been detected, but his choice of entry made this impossible, as the double doors leading in and out of the kage’s chambers created a spectacularly loud noise, drawing everyone’s attention to whomever entered at the time. As a conversation between the village leader and the man ensued, all eyes turned to him.

”And as I was saying, Fina is one of our BEST shinobi when it comes to things like these. He questioned you merely to ensure the validity of your claim, but in truth believed EVERY word you said”

I so did not!

But there was no use arguing or fighting it. Before a proper defense could even be thought of, the kage had the new client signing all the papers, and Fina’s name now gained a new C rank mission: to protect the candy shop owners from crab people. Dread forced the young man to slump over as the final arrangements were made, and seeing that his fate was inescapable, the boy excused himself, flopping out, waling over the wasted time that would now commence.

It took a few minutes before the client finally excited, but once he did, Fina’s pain began. With a forced smile, he apologized for the earlier comments, but reassured him his belief was 100 percent, and that doubt was natural in his line of work. Of course he expected much doubt and skepticism from the man, but a smile, a nod, and an ‘I know’ threw Fina way off.

”Now, let’s go catch ourselves some crab people!"

[fina]

Fina was once more forced to endure the torturous story regarding these crab people, albeit this was done while they walked over to the business section, the area where the robberies took place. Despite being drowned in unbearable pain due to the current conversation that took place, Fina’s senses were awake enough to realize continued traveling in his current outfit would certainly drive off all ‘crab people’ and that a proper disguise needed to be chosen now.

During the course of the man’s speech, Fina began to devise various possible disguises. Given the targets, coming up with a plausible guise would be harder than initially thought. Despite the objective view Fina had of the situation, he was still under contract, and would have to give the same effort as if he was on a rescue or assassination mission.

The man spoke vividly, giving specific detail to the crab people. From outer appearance to tone of voice, the man had now fully divulged every aspect of the crab people, right down to the last detail. Fina couldn’t help but smile at the man’s complete eagerness to have the genin know everything, especially since they had a ‘rough’ initial meeting. Still, it seemed their first altercation left the man unphased, and in fact it appeared as if the man actually liked Fina quite a lot.

He would end his phrases with buddy or bud, and would tap the genin’s back frequently. He even promised him a large stash of candy once the mission was done, with the assurance his candy was the best in the Grass country. With a smile, Fina nodded back, and quickly apologized for his comments earlier. Of course the man denied the apology, and instead acknowledged his objectiveness, as his line of work must bring weird requests all the time.

After an awkward silence, the question that had lingered inside Fina’s mind for the longest time finally emerged: what did the crab people take? At first there was no answer, but instead an odd, vacant stare on the owner’s part. However, after a minute of silent walking, he replied.

”Candy! All they take is candy and nothing more!”

While appearing very, very odd- something the candy maker actually verbally confirmed- it actually aided Fina in learning more about his enemy. So far, he knew they preyed on candy stores only, dressed up in authentic crab costumes, and too nothing but candy, leaving potential large stashes of money safe and sound. Just as he prepared a hypothesis, the candy man uttered one more word, which revealed everything to him.

”And they used kunai!”

Did they now?

After that, nothing more was said of the matter for the longest time, since the evidence provided was small enough to require lots of time for review. A simple request for the man to go on ahead while he took care of a few things was made, which initially met resistance, but pushed through when Fina told him it had to do with the mission.

Full of joy, the fat old man ran off, happy everything would be taken care of thanks to the genin. Surely he would address the current mission through this little detour, and in fact would hope to find an answer, although the reasons might not have appeased the old man, since he still doubted his sanity, and wished for opinions from others around the area that were victims of these robberies.

Yet much to his astonishment, every word the old man said was true. Despite his winy, high pitched voice, and exaggerated mannerisms used when talking, he had told the entire truth. With a chuckle, the genin began to make his back to the man’s candy store, when a revelation was presented: several young boys enjoyed endless amounts of candy.

Now there was nothing wrong with children having candy, since their palette was what these majestic sugar items were made for. However, their outer appearance spoke of poverty and hard times, making it almost impossible to own that large amount of candy legitimately. When asked where the candy came from, the boy politely responded it was given to them by the crabs.

That’s interesting

And at that very moment, before he could entertain the thought further, a flashback of a few days back played itself automatically. It showed a few academy students running around with regular children, doing what children were known to do. Fina would’ve not looked twice had he not noticed the students teaching the boys a few hand seals, all pertaining to the basic skills of the academy, including false place, cloning, and…

“Transformation”

And with that, he ran full speed back to the candy store, ready to put an end to the candy crime spree.

[fina]

As he ran towards the store, a smile continuously crept over the man’s face at the sudden revelation. It was so obvious! The perpetrators were nothing more than children, all employing the transformation and copy jutsu so that they could appear menacing. Once their guise was complete, they would further take use of the shinobi influence from their other friends, using kunai and stars as weapons.

In truth they had not hurt a single person, and took nothing but candy for the sake of pleasure. Yet their methods were not good at all, and their partners in the academy had broken a few rules by letting loose their teachings to outsiders; this situation would have to be handled with the utmost care.

Reporting his findings prematurely would not end well for the parties involved, as Fina’s hunch took a life of its own, playing out the next day under these circumstances. A review of the store owner’s words revealed a large shipment to arrive today, which meant the children might execute another hold up and attempt to score big. While sounding silly, the plan, in the mind of a child, appeared golden and legitimate.

So with full speed and determination, Fina sprinted towards downtown Kusa, resorting to the rooftops when the roads were overly clustered, a situation all too common since the bustling village had a steady flow of commerce at any given time. Due to this, his travel had elongated to almost double its normal time, especially as he neared the store, since his identity was meant to be kept covered as a preventive means, in case the children had spies outside that would alert them to the presence of one more superior.

What would this do? Again, thinking through the undeveloped, irrational mind of a child, it would turn the innocent burglars into aggressive assailants, capable of hurting anyone within a half a mile of them. Children had always been a proponent of fear, especially if they had power, as their actions often based themselves impulsively, and were not well thought out; what appeared good now might not be so pleasant later.

Finally, when it appeared he had been doomed to an ever looping sprint through a sea of bodies, all eyeless and thoughtless, driven by a single cell driven thought to buy, the candy store appeared in the near distance. As described, a large sign above the rest, shining brightly, with arrows and cute drawings, all very visually appealing. Standing from the outside allowed him a peep into the action inside, and what he saw made him twitch…

The crab people had arrived once more, this time very demanding, allowing their voices to raise to a shout. Several of the outer spies had now been spotted, yet action against them was not taken, for the owner and his assistant required immediate attention. So with that decided, Fina’s hand danced one more, this time to the transformation tune, allowing his well built figure to change into a…

Crab.

This is somewhat embarrassing

But it would save lives. Fina’s entrance into the shop made the owner and his assistance grow even more worried, as more of their enemy agents had appeared. At first he said nothing, but his periphery caught sight of the outside spies, and how some ran off, disassociating themselves from the gang of children when the older boy presented itself, or fidgety while trying to figure out how to alert his buddies.

Before the other boys could come in, Fina quickly moved around and mixed in with the others, making detection impossible. Just as his positioning was ensured, two of the three boys busted into the shop, huffing and puffing, attempting to warn them about Fina’s intrusion as they desperately gasped for air. Adding to this were the many angry store owners outside, all waiting for the robbery to occur so that the culprits could be caught. No longer were they afraid of these monstrosities, finding strength in great numbers.

Masses of them lined up outside, armed in many conventional weapons, as well as makeshift ones that could be found at their respective workplaces. Escape was no longer an option, although this method somewhat pressured the kids, making them feel as if violent measures would resolve it all. Much confusion ensued, and Fina internally chuckled, knowing they were caught, and all that was left was the guilt to come forth.

While most of the crabs began to drop their weapons, what appeared to be their leader got severely desperate, yelling left and right, making severe demands. The others moved away from him and to the door, deactivating their costumes, revealing them to be nothing more than hopeless children. Of course this left ninety percent of the inhabitants in a confused state, but two crabs remained, one heated, demanding money and candy, the other calm, coolly, and completely without incident, his crabby eyes burning into the back of the crab in front of him.

It took the leader a minute to realize Fina was not one of his crabs, and when he did, he directed his yelling to the genin. As this happened, the store owner and assistant- no longer being watched and threatened- reached under the cabinet and pulled out several sharp weapons. Eyes burning with hatred, they moved onto the kid.

“Stop”

Along with his order, Fina gave the leader a hard slap with his claw, triggering both of their costume off. What was revealed was now a fearful young man, wearing academy clothing, and a somewhat disappointed genin. No one made a move except Fina, which grabbed the boy with one hand, and handful of candy with the others.

“Your crustacean problem has been solved. If there’s ever any incidents of this nature, you know who to call!”

Half joking half serious, Fina gave each child a piece of candy and led them out and towards the headquarters. Punishment was due, but the circumstances were delicate, as the academy student had exploited many of these children’s weakness, being extremely poor and helpless, in order to achieve his own goals. The student now began to beg and please, but Fina would not budge.

“I’m in a crabby mood now, so leave me alone”

He was now doomed to his punishment, inescapable and inevitable.

The End

[||Yuuku||]

Wow. Its short but...I dont know what to say. That was genius.

Not enough to be worth a C rank normally, but the sure greatness of it was overwhelming. Normally Id only accept 5 pages...but these 3 are better than 5.

Mission Passed: 1000 Ryo awarded.