Be Thankful, Not Ungrateful. [P. Chikara][Mission]

The Innocent Malice

Missions:

Haruna had never been fond of infiltration missions, having gone on plenty of them to know how boring they could be. Gathering, or stealing information had never been something she considered fun, not even when her mother or uncle accompanied her on these sorts of missions. They were boring, usually filled with the bickering of multiple individuals who didn’t kill one another due to the orders of their employer, or inattentive individuals who never noticed a stolen document until the day after the theft. Such situations were only made worse when these individuals were not mercenaries for hire, but regular old villagers who had never wielded a katana in their life, yet decided that they were fed up with their life underneath the rule of some business orientated person.

One could only imagine the disdain Haruna had for the ragtag group she had been employed to infiltrate, a group that consisted of not one shinobi or mercenary. Yes, these individuals were nothing but a group of local villagers that lived within their tiny settlement a good ten miles from Kirigakure. There were fifteen of them, all of which had been born within the tiny village with a population that didn’t quite meet the hundred mark. All of whom had been raised under the tyranny of the mafia, and all of whom Haruna would have thought to have the most sense. Yet, people did have a habit of being swayed by words, allowing their heart to make the decision instead of their brain. And these individuals were no different, for not one had stopped to think about the repercussions of their actions.

The mafia lord who ruled this small village as well as several nearby villagers wasn’t the kindest person to ever walk the earth, nor was he the cruelest though. Haruna believed the man to be fairly decent in all honesty, and that despite doing things the illegal way; he still wanted what was best for the villages he controlled. So, she understood his anger when he had heard that this group of fifteen had so foolishly blown up one of the many facilities that he owned. A large sum of product had been lost in the fire, and that meant a lot of cash was now gone. So, enraged that the group would spit upon his kindness, he had hired the Oshiro and the Shurajo to take care of the group. First though, he wanted to know what warehouse was being targeted this time, so that he could move the products before the group had a chance to execute their plan.

It showed her employer’s doubts about the two individuals he had hired, but it was a grand idea no less. Besides, Haruna was quite use to people doubting her capability because she was still a child, and knew that she would go under more scrutiny now that she took Chikara along on her assignments. It didn’t bother her one bit, she was going to complete the task and she was going to get paid, rather or not her employer believed she would be able to handle things. And since she had a certain someone with her, dispatching of the group of fifteen later would be a task completed within seconds. But first, she had to get the information of the next target facility and deliver it to her employer before she could start killing people.

Now that she thought about it, Haruna was quite curious to how the mafia boss couldn’t have simply taken care of the group with his goons. It hadn’t been hard to find them, there not being a lot of places where fifteen people could converge without drawing attention. And since none had any sort of training, it had been quite easy to slip into the building and take residence up in the rafters, where they couldn’t see her or her companion. Although, sending in his own goons would be more noticeable than sending in two unknowns into the village. No matter, what done is done, and this portion of the assignment would be over soon.

So, she relaxed, folding her arms across her shoulders as she leaned against the wall of the barn house.

Word Count: 701/1400

The Crimson Princess

“Those ungrateful little heathens!” Shouted the man that had become her most recent client, or should she say their recent client since Haruna was here to. It didn’t matter really, all that mattered that in the middle of telling the Shurajo and the Oshiro what had happened, he had began to ramble in righteous anger the more he thought about it. From what Chikara had managed to gather from the man before he became incoherent was that one of his various warehouses had gone up in flames just a couple days ago. Something she would had ruled as an accident, seriously there was plenty of flammable and questionable stuff in his warehouse, but it was a known fact that a ragtag group had formed just a week before the warehouse incident.

Fifteen, that’s how many there had been, at least that’s what he had told them, but she would have to confirm that with her own eyes. It brought up the excellent question on how fifteen known threats had been able to blow up a warehouse without much resistance from the man’s goons, but she decided that she would keep that to herself. He was mad enough as it was; there was no need to throw oil onto the flames, no matter how tempting it was. There were various questions Chikara wished to ask the man, like why the group hadn’t been taken care of before a warehouse was blown up, and why he had waited days before contacting any mercenary to take care of the group. It would have better to have the group wiped out immediately, but she wasn’t the mafia boss so she kept her mouth shut.

She turned her attention to her arctic wolf pup, Arisu, having left Kurisu at home this time around. It was the younger pup’s turn for some alone time with her momma, so that really wasn’t a big surprise. Yet watching this pup was proving just a little difficult, the youngling not liking to sit for a long period of time unlike her brother. So, Chikara had resulted to distracting the pup with her hand, for Arisu couldn’t help but gnaw on it for one reason or another. Either way, she paid the rambling man no mind, for there was no reason to exert energy deciphering whatever the hell he was rampaging about. She watched as the pup’s eyes followed her hand as she slowly moved it about, tempting the little thing to strike now. But Arisu waited for the right time before she would catch the hand in her tiny mouth, proceeding to gnaw on it as if it were a bone.

Chikara had little concern about her pup gnawing on her hand, Arisu knew not to bite her or she would receive a swat upon the nose. Now that she was distracted with gnawing on her hand though, the Shurajo turned her attention to Haruna, who had remained quiet during the entire meeting. Whatever was running through the mind of the Oshiro wasn’t privy to her, but she wished she knew. She sighed deeply; Haruna not looking like she was going to interrupt the rambling man and the man didn’t look like he would stop rambling anytime soon. So she leaned back in her chair, unlatching Arisu from her hand and laying the white pup on her chest.

She had a feeling this would be a long and boring meeting.

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Chikara had been right about the meeting being boring, the man had rambled for twenty minutes before Haruna had finally told him to shut up and get on with it. Of course, he hadn’t exactly apologized for wasting their time; instead he regained his composure and straightens his tie before telling them the details of the mission. With the information gathered, Haruna and herself had left the office and immediately set out to track down the groups meeting spot. Which hadn’t been hard to find since there wasn’t a lot of places a group of fifteen could meet without drawing attention, though they could had chosen a better place than a barn. But she didn’t complain, she wouldn’t be there for long and she would be barely listening to the chit chatter of the group below the rafters she stood upon.

Arisu was quiet, for the pup had been instructed to stay quiet, and she always obeyed the commands of her momma. So, waiting for the location of the next warehouse the group would decide to blow up, Chikara silently stroked the fur of Arisu.

Word Count: 756/1400

The Innocent Malice

Haruna had always liked the sight of blood, she doesn’t know why but there was something about seeing the crimson substance that got her giddy. She liked slashing people just as much as she liked strangling them to death, though she usually resorted to the latter for reasons she deemed to be quite obvious though it may not be for other people. Yet, she had been raised under some unusual circumstances, born the heiress to the Oshiro clan, the second-generation electron user, unaffiliated with any major village, and part of a family that has allied themselves with the Akatsuki, yeah her upbringing had been strange. But she had enjoyed the opportunities it had presented her with, for she had traveled to every single nock and cranny of the world before she had even reach the age of nine, though she could hardly remember them.

Yet that was the past, and though she may have plenty of fond memories, she needed to focus on the present and her future. And the present event at the moment was handing the sole survivor of the massacre over to her employer. It had been just two days ago that Haruna had infiltrated the vigilantes group to find out which warehouse they were going to blow up next. Something that hadn’t been hard to find out since they had never noticed her presence or that of her companion’s during their meeting inside of the local barn house. It was a warehouse that was located a mile North of the small village, and apparently was one of the major warehouses owned by her employer. She had stayed hidden until the meeting ended, for there was no reason for her to risk getting noticed now and the group changing their plans. And when they had finally left, she relayed the details to her employer, Chikara by her side.

The man had muttered several unkind words about the group, before proclaiming that they were definitely biting off way more than they could chew targeting that warehouse. It had seemed like her services wouldn’t be needed, until Chikara had politely pointed out that the group had managed to defeat his goons and blow up a warehouse, so his men was not all that they cracked up to be. It had earned the Shurajo a glare from the employer and chuckle from Haruna, for the words were very true. After some banter between the Shurajo and the mafia boss, the latter finally decided that his men would be far too busy moving everything out of the warehouse to worry about a group of fifteen coming to blow up the warehouse. Besides, having two shinobi who could make quick work of the group as well as lower the chances the warehouse went up in flames to zero was much better than what his own men could do. Of course, Haruna’s companion had helped him arrive to this conclusion, though she knew the man would claim it as his own idea. Nobody liked being outsmarted by a child, nonetheless a ten-year-old.

So, with their new assignment and the promise of a bonus when the task was complete, the two children departed from the office. They only had one rule, the leader of the group had to survive, everybody else was to be killed. Now why the mafia boss would want the leader of the group to live didn’t matter to her, but she imagined that he wished to kill the man himself. Or perhaps, make an example of the man to minimize the chances of another group rising up against him. Either way, it didn’t matter to the Oshiro than and it didn’t matter even after the deed was done. Since the group had been made up of civilians, it had been quite easy to dispatch of them. She had allowed Chikara to take care the majority of the group, and boy she didn’t show any mercy as she mowed them down.

With fourteen out of the fifteen dead, and the warehouse safe, Haruna would deliver the leader to her employer. The mafia boss eyes had shone upon seeing the man who had rallied up some villagers and managed to destroy some of his product. Yet before he would have his fun, he had paid what he owed the duo, and the two didn’t stick around to watch the group leader’s public execution.

Word Count: 1433/1400

The Crimson Princess

 
 
 
 
 

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Word Count: 1467/1400