Sixteen Years Old
The first words out of Makoto's mouth when he was told their mission were, "we're hunting what?"
Closely followed by, "they do know we're not exterminators, right?"
(He had yet to master the art of 'keeping sarcastic remarks to yourself' outside of life-threatening situations.)
"You'll do what you're told," the woman handing out assignments said, with the air of someone who had had this conversation multiple times already that day, and wasn't looking forward to having it again. "You're with squad leader Kiyomizu."
He repressed his instinctive reaction, which was a frown, simply tilting his head and turning to head toward the staging area Kiyomizu preferred. It wasn't any of the ones he was used to; he hadn't ever worked with her before. Presumably they were making a point of some kind in doing this, but he wasn't entirely sure what. Moreover, he decided he didn't care. As long as Kiyomizu was competent and didn't bug him about the way he handled things, the only issue was the mission.
He met up with her and the rest of the squad, consisting of two bedraggled-looking newbies. Revise that to 'definitely making a point,' then. And he still didn't care.
Kiyomizu was a few years older than him, around his brothers' age, with wavy brown hair that went halfway down her back and bright green eyes. She was wearing mostly black, with a red scarf tied around her neck that looked, to his trained eye, like it doubled as a weapon. Her gloves were white with greenish accents and also looked like they were weapons. Good; no sensible ninja was without a backup. Makoto had packed his own, a pair of serrated knives that he'd made deliberately similar to the ones a teammate from a previous mission had used.
"Last one? Good," she said briskly. "Now that we're all here, we can start. I'll brief you all on the way. You'd better be prepared."
Makoto, who always prepared before he left home, fell into easy step behind her and to the right, while the other two made nervous noises. Kiyomizu didn't even bat an eye at this, and they soon fell in behind her. Her aura of command, or perhaps it was just intimidation, kept the two mousy excuses for ninja from attempting small talk with him. He thought there was one of each gender, maybe siblings, but couldn't be sure without hearing them speak.
Kiyomizu didn't start briefing them until they hit the woods.
"As you've already been told, we're hunting a creature in the swamplands that's been attacking people," she began, tone brisk. "There have been a few civilians heading through there, taking shortcuts through the swamplands to move between towns, who've been attacked. One man lost his leg. There have been a few missing persons reports that we believe this creature, or these creatures, have taken. And a regular ninja team sent out to investigate last week wasn't able to subdue whatever it was, and in fact we still don't know what did it due to their vague descriptions." She sounded aggravated at the last part, as if incompetence actually pained her. "Questions? Not stupid ones, please."
Why were civilians--the complete idiots. When neither of the others spoke up, Makoto felt he could.
"Were any of the previous team poisoned?"
With a glance back at him, Kiyomizu nodded slightly, apparently approving. "Good question. No, they were only mauled. Whatever we're hunting probably isn't venomous itself."
He nodded back and then checked his weapons again, just to be sure. The blades might be better than the parasol, unless it started spitting acid or something else unpleasant.
Neither of the other two seemed to have questions even now, so Kiyomizu turned back to leading the group and they followed her in silence. Come to think, they were both edging a little bit away from him too. How were these Wardens?
He must have said that part aloud, as Kiyomizu glanced over her shoulder back at him and grinned, as if to say 'good question.'
"Kiyomizu-senpai is scary," one of the mice offered. The girl.
Makoto snorted. "That's ridiculous. Until and unless someone attacks and harms you, you shouldn't be afraid of them. And even then you shouldn't, because you're--allegedly--Wardens of Moon, and you shouldn't be afraid of people attacking you. Much less jumping at shadows."
They had made their way to the swamp outskirts now, and were picking their way through it carefully, trying to stick to grassy patches.
"You've never been in one of her training sessions, then," the boy muttered.
"Training is not and cannot be scary, presuming you know what you're doing," he said flatly. "I am to assume you don't, then, and treat you both as liabilities rather than assets in this. Good to know."
His hostility must have also been unnerving, as the two of them stayed as far as they could from him as well.
They were well into the swamp by now, mucking through it. Makoto wrinkled his nose at the smell, and Kiyomizu was grumbling as she dragged her boots through the muck. They were rapidly losing the ability to wade in the shallows, too, and swamp water was becoming a bit of a concern. His boots weren't tight enough to keep the water out, and water sealing only worked for so long when you were half-swimming through swamp water.
Not to mention the bugs. Ech. If he hadn't pulled up a chakra armor earlier, they'd be eating him alive. From the yelps behind him, the others hadn't bothered to do that.
The bugs weren't bothering Kiyomizu, though. Bugs apparently knew what time it was.
"U-uhm, Kiyomizu-senpai?" the girl mouse spoke up. "Is. Is there a mission-critical reason why we are walking through the water? Are we trying to conserve chakra by not walking on it?"
Kiyomizu stopped dead, hands still pulling her pant legs up a bit in a vain attempt to keep them from soaking through. Makoto halted immediately behind her, similarly dumbstruck. The hell didn't I think of that?
That was the same thing Kiyomizu said a second later, albeit accompanied by a large amount of profanity and a large amount of the water in front of them sloshing upwards and out to crash back down on top of another part of the swamp with the typical loud sounds of rushing water. At the same time, Kiyomizu stepped up on top of the water herself, and Makoto followed her lead; presumably behind him the others did as well. The water rapidly leeched itself from all of their clothes and back into the water, apparently at Kiyomizu's bequest.
Ah. She's an actually competent water user.
Apparently roused by this display, a snarling sound came from the other side of the swamp. Kiyomizu didn't even blink before whipping the red scarf off of herself and snapping it outward. It immediately stiffened into a blade, or at least the end she wasn't holding did. Makoto whipped out his knives in the next instant and moved forward. While he was dual-wielding, he couldn't cast as easily, but he could get around that minor difficulty with channeling.
The creature, when it surfaced, turned out to be a very large alligator.
There was a general disappointed air, and even the mice came forward at this. The boy had a crossbow, and the girl was wearing some kind of weighted gloves, hands glowing faintly with Earth-element channeling.
"That's it?" the boy said, disbelieving. "The team of normal ninja couldn't handle a regular maneater-turned crocodile?"
Kiyomizu's snort was contemptuous. "Probably a team of green, overpaid fucks just out of exams. I'm pretty sure we've got this."
Her whip sword lashed out as the creature boldly charged, knocking it back. Makoto took advantage of the opening to dive forward and slice at it, the properly-tuned metal easily cutting through the creature's hide. A crossbow bolt embedded in the thing's belly, and he slashed at it again, opening the wound further for the girl to punch it hard in the gut. Ribs cracked.
During this, Kiyomizu had switched weapons, tying her scarf back around her neck and deploying knives from her gloves--rather, retractable punching daggers. When the mouse girl's punch made the creature fly into the air, Kiyomizu seemingly casually leaned over and tapped the creature in the head with one of her gloves.
It landed fifteen feet away, belly-up, bleeding from its head.
"That was disappointing as fuck," Kiyomizu observed cheerily. "Come on then, let's head in. You with the crossbow and you with the gloves, grab the corpse so we can show people. Drinks are on me after debriefing. You with the knives, with me."
Quirking an eyebrow, Makoto sheathed his weapons, somewhat feeling the disappointment too. But hey. A mission was a mission, and 'easy' to a team of trained Wardens wasn't easy to everyone.
"You're Kanashimi's brother, right? You look like him." No preamble, just blunt statements. Part of her charm point, apparently, and her reputation among the others. "You've got the same sensible no-nonsense type thing as him going on, too. I'd like to work with you in the future again.
He thought of her general competence, her ability to suppress small talk, her apparently exacting standards.
"Likewise," he agreed.
The first words out of Makoto's mouth when he was told their mission were, "we're hunting what?"
Closely followed by, "they do know we're not exterminators, right?"
(He had yet to master the art of 'keeping sarcastic remarks to yourself' outside of life-threatening situations.)
"You'll do what you're told," the woman handing out assignments said, with the air of someone who had had this conversation multiple times already that day, and wasn't looking forward to having it again. "You're with squad leader Kiyomizu."
He repressed his instinctive reaction, which was a frown, simply tilting his head and turning to head toward the staging area Kiyomizu preferred. It wasn't any of the ones he was used to; he hadn't ever worked with her before. Presumably they were making a point of some kind in doing this, but he wasn't entirely sure what. Moreover, he decided he didn't care. As long as Kiyomizu was competent and didn't bug him about the way he handled things, the only issue was the mission.
He met up with her and the rest of the squad, consisting of two bedraggled-looking newbies. Revise that to 'definitely making a point,' then. And he still didn't care.
Kiyomizu was a few years older than him, around his brothers' age, with wavy brown hair that went halfway down her back and bright green eyes. She was wearing mostly black, with a red scarf tied around her neck that looked, to his trained eye, like it doubled as a weapon. Her gloves were white with greenish accents and also looked like they were weapons. Good; no sensible ninja was without a backup. Makoto had packed his own, a pair of serrated knives that he'd made deliberately similar to the ones a teammate from a previous mission had used.
"Last one? Good," she said briskly. "Now that we're all here, we can start. I'll brief you all on the way. You'd better be prepared."
Makoto, who always prepared before he left home, fell into easy step behind her and to the right, while the other two made nervous noises. Kiyomizu didn't even bat an eye at this, and they soon fell in behind her. Her aura of command, or perhaps it was just intimidation, kept the two mousy excuses for ninja from attempting small talk with him. He thought there was one of each gender, maybe siblings, but couldn't be sure without hearing them speak.
Kiyomizu didn't start briefing them until they hit the woods.
"As you've already been told, we're hunting a creature in the swamplands that's been attacking people," she began, tone brisk. "There have been a few civilians heading through there, taking shortcuts through the swamplands to move between towns, who've been attacked. One man lost his leg. There have been a few missing persons reports that we believe this creature, or these creatures, have taken. And a regular ninja team sent out to investigate last week wasn't able to subdue whatever it was, and in fact we still don't know what did it due to their vague descriptions." She sounded aggravated at the last part, as if incompetence actually pained her. "Questions? Not stupid ones, please."
Why were civilians--the complete idiots. When neither of the others spoke up, Makoto felt he could.
"Were any of the previous team poisoned?"
With a glance back at him, Kiyomizu nodded slightly, apparently approving. "Good question. No, they were only mauled. Whatever we're hunting probably isn't venomous itself."
He nodded back and then checked his weapons again, just to be sure. The blades might be better than the parasol, unless it started spitting acid or something else unpleasant.
Neither of the other two seemed to have questions even now, so Kiyomizu turned back to leading the group and they followed her in silence. Come to think, they were both edging a little bit away from him too. How were these Wardens?
He must have said that part aloud, as Kiyomizu glanced over her shoulder back at him and grinned, as if to say 'good question.'
"Kiyomizu-senpai is scary," one of the mice offered. The girl.
Makoto snorted. "That's ridiculous. Until and unless someone attacks and harms you, you shouldn't be afraid of them. And even then you shouldn't, because you're--allegedly--Wardens of Moon, and you shouldn't be afraid of people attacking you. Much less jumping at shadows."
They had made their way to the swamp outskirts now, and were picking their way through it carefully, trying to stick to grassy patches.
"You've never been in one of her training sessions, then," the boy muttered.
"Training is not and cannot be scary, presuming you know what you're doing," he said flatly. "I am to assume you don't, then, and treat you both as liabilities rather than assets in this. Good to know."
His hostility must have also been unnerving, as the two of them stayed as far as they could from him as well.
They were well into the swamp by now, mucking through it. Makoto wrinkled his nose at the smell, and Kiyomizu was grumbling as she dragged her boots through the muck. They were rapidly losing the ability to wade in the shallows, too, and swamp water was becoming a bit of a concern. His boots weren't tight enough to keep the water out, and water sealing only worked for so long when you were half-swimming through swamp water.
Not to mention the bugs. Ech. If he hadn't pulled up a chakra armor earlier, they'd be eating him alive. From the yelps behind him, the others hadn't bothered to do that.
The bugs weren't bothering Kiyomizu, though. Bugs apparently knew what time it was.
"U-uhm, Kiyomizu-senpai?" the girl mouse spoke up. "Is. Is there a mission-critical reason why we are walking through the water? Are we trying to conserve chakra by not walking on it?"
Kiyomizu stopped dead, hands still pulling her pant legs up a bit in a vain attempt to keep them from soaking through. Makoto halted immediately behind her, similarly dumbstruck. The hell didn't I think of that?
That was the same thing Kiyomizu said a second later, albeit accompanied by a large amount of profanity and a large amount of the water in front of them sloshing upwards and out to crash back down on top of another part of the swamp with the typical loud sounds of rushing water. At the same time, Kiyomizu stepped up on top of the water herself, and Makoto followed her lead; presumably behind him the others did as well. The water rapidly leeched itself from all of their clothes and back into the water, apparently at Kiyomizu's bequest.
Ah. She's an actually competent water user.
Apparently roused by this display, a snarling sound came from the other side of the swamp. Kiyomizu didn't even blink before whipping the red scarf off of herself and snapping it outward. It immediately stiffened into a blade, or at least the end she wasn't holding did. Makoto whipped out his knives in the next instant and moved forward. While he was dual-wielding, he couldn't cast as easily, but he could get around that minor difficulty with channeling.
The creature, when it surfaced, turned out to be a very large alligator.
There was a general disappointed air, and even the mice came forward at this. The boy had a crossbow, and the girl was wearing some kind of weighted gloves, hands glowing faintly with Earth-element channeling.
"That's it?" the boy said, disbelieving. "The team of normal ninja couldn't handle a regular maneater-turned crocodile?"
Kiyomizu's snort was contemptuous. "Probably a team of green, overpaid fucks just out of exams. I'm pretty sure we've got this."
Her whip sword lashed out as the creature boldly charged, knocking it back. Makoto took advantage of the opening to dive forward and slice at it, the properly-tuned metal easily cutting through the creature's hide. A crossbow bolt embedded in the thing's belly, and he slashed at it again, opening the wound further for the girl to punch it hard in the gut. Ribs cracked.
During this, Kiyomizu had switched weapons, tying her scarf back around her neck and deploying knives from her gloves--rather, retractable punching daggers. When the mouse girl's punch made the creature fly into the air, Kiyomizu seemingly casually leaned over and tapped the creature in the head with one of her gloves.
It landed fifteen feet away, belly-up, bleeding from its head.
"That was disappointing as fuck," Kiyomizu observed cheerily. "Come on then, let's head in. You with the crossbow and you with the gloves, grab the corpse so we can show people. Drinks are on me after debriefing. You with the knives, with me."
Quirking an eyebrow, Makoto sheathed his weapons, somewhat feeling the disappointment too. But hey. A mission was a mission, and 'easy' to a team of trained Wardens wasn't easy to everyone.
"You're Kanashimi's brother, right? You look like him." No preamble, just blunt statements. Part of her charm point, apparently, and her reputation among the others. "You've got the same sensible no-nonsense type thing as him going on, too. I'd like to work with you in the future again.
He thought of her general competence, her ability to suppress small talk, her apparently exacting standards.
"Likewise," he agreed.