The Knight vs The Pawn [Mission/Calin]

Mission:

How hard was it to find someone with hair as white as snow and as tall as a tree? That was the question on Kazumi's mind as she wandered the streets, looking for a particular Kaguya boy. A few days ago, she had picked up a mission to put on a bit of a fight for some students at the village academy and had been informed that she'd be paired to fight another genin, Calin Kaguya, who she had the luck to meet and speak with for a short while before they went on with their day. She saw him a bit afterward, glances on the street, but that was about it. She showed up at the academy and spoke with the Chuunin, who after a few exchanged words had asked where the other boy who was supposed to show up was. In a bit of a panic, Kazumi said she'd go looking for him and bring him back, which brought her to where she was now, unable to find a single sign of Calin when she wanted to.

She checked around the food district, hoping to find him eating at some ramen stand or even sitting inside somewhere for a proper bite to eat, but no luck. Then she checked the shopping district. Maybe he was picking up some last minute supplies, or even just doing some grocery shopping. But no, no dice there either. It felt like the only place she hadn't checked was the Kaguya clan's district, but...she didn't exactly feel comfortable going there. Maybe it was her father's words getting to her. After all, Calin was the only Kaguya she ever got to speak to for an extended amount of time. But, a lot of them didn't exactly seem to take kindly to anyone other than themselves. She just tried to avoid conflict, and by extension, them.

Still unable to find the boy, she began to head back for the academy. She'd have to tell the instructor that the exhibition would have to be rescheduled unless she could find someone else to fight. It'd be a bit of a hassle too, she'd have to go to the office in the Mizukage's complex, tell them what was happening. Hopefully, she could work something out so that Calin wouldn't be punished. Just as she began to run through some excuses she could make for the Kaguya, she'd look up through the crowd in the streets, a difficult task for someone of her stature. Nonetheless, she'd see a vaguely familiar looking, white-haired figure, standing just outside of a shop on her roundabout back to the academy. She picked up her pace to move towards him, one arm raised in the air to try and stick out among the crowd while using her other to gently maneuver through the sea of people, all the while calling out to him in her trademark, monotone shout.

"Oooooi! Sir Calin!"

Calin was bored.

There was no other real way to explain or describe what he felt that day. He had gone through his morning exercises, meditated, and studied for a bit to keep his mind sharp. After all every weapon of a shinobi’s arsenal needed to have a keen edge and that included the mind. He had finally settled on moving throughout the village. This would allow him to enjoy the day and potentially relieve his boredom as sometimes, people could be the best entertainment one could ask for. Moving throughout the town he had simply enjoyed the morning. Although the sun was beginning to be high enough to start thinking of it as afternoon soon. He has a brief lunch at Kobayashi’s. His mind running to the young girl who had shown him to the small establishment just a few days prior. He did wonder how Kazumi was doing. Although he hasn't seen her. It wasn't truly centered on anything more than an idle curiosity brought on by visiting the very place she had shown him to.

After his own lunch he would move on to browsing the various shops of the village, moving up and down stalls and going in and out of buildings with the owners wares on display. It was while he was browsing through one such shops outside display that he heard a familiar voice. Turning toward it he wouldn't really see anyone, just the crowd of people moving about. This confused him mildly as he had been certain he'd heard his name. After a moment or two of waiting he would simply shrug and move on to looking at the shops display again.



20 exp

Wha - Was he ignoring her? He could’ve sworn he looked right at her. He had to be ignoring her, Kazumi thought. How could someone so tall not see her at all? Calin was so tall that he could probably see her by looking the other way and spotting her across the curvature of the entire planet. Well, she didn’t want to come back empty handed now that she knew he was at least out an about. Either she dragged him back by the seat of his pants or found out that he indeed had canceled or dropped out of the mission. Then he could at least inform the instructor and act from there. So it was decided, she would follow him through the crowd, continuing to shout in the hopes that he’d pay her any mind.

“Sir Calin! You’re late!”. Kazumi weaved through the crowd, her small stature not doing her any favors in her endeavor. Turning a corner, she’d come upon another street of side to side shops, but no white-haired boy in site. He must’ve ducked into one of the buildings. She didn’t know that in addition to training to become his Clan Head’s dedicated protector, that he also took up a bit of practice in urban stealth. She exhaled a short breath through her nostrils and began to move through the street again, taking quick looks inside for any white-haired individuals hitting their heads off the ceiling.

Eventually, she’d find him, staring at a display set in a metalworks shop. She wanted to make sure he saw her this time. Not taking any chances, she’d approach the male, reaching out to tug on the hem of her shirt gently as she spoke.

“Sir Calin, there’s something we were supposed to be doing today.”

“There it was again.” He would muse quietly to himself as he turned around. He briefly considered what the words had to say. ‘Late? I’ve never been late to a thing in my life..’ He thought, mildly indignant at the idea. Before the person who had been calling him finally managed to catch up to him and tugging on his shirt and prompting him to turn around to face his follower. ‘Kazumi? Well I suppose that would explain why I couldn’t see her, she’s so tiny the crowd would accidentally hide her.’ He thought as she explained that they had something to do today. “What do you mean Kazumi? I’ve never been late to a thing in my life and I’m not scheduled for anything to do that I’m aware of.” He would say curiously, cocking his head to the side in mild puzzlement.

He began to consider what all they could be and it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Why one might ask? Because there was no other reason for Kazumi to come hunting him down. It would have to be a mission. However he was never told of a mission today, crap, well he wasn’t doing and hopefully they weren’t too late to start the mission. He didn’t want that on his record after all. Assuming she had already explained this much the Kaguya would nod in understanding before speaking, “I was never informed of said mission. However that is irrelevant, let’s go.” He would say before moving out and following her lead to return to the mission location.

Indeed, the Yuki would explain the situation to the boy, down to their arrangement at the academy. She found it strange that she’d be specifically told that she’d be paired with Calin on this mission, yet he wasn’t informed of it. Seemed a bit inefficient if they just expected her to grab him herself and expect him to believe that he was assigned a mission that he’d surely get paid for. Whatever the case was, Kazumi would note this fact for a later date.

As Calin took off towards the academy, she’d follow just beside him. She looked at his person, devoid of any equipment. She tilted her head slightly before looking over her own self. A stocked hip pouch, a stocked thigh pouch, two holsters holding kunai, and a sword at her hip. It was understandable that the Kaguya didn’t have anything, he probably didn’t anticipate having to do anything today.

“Hey,” the girl began to get the white-haired boy’s attention, gesturing to her very equipped self. “Did you need to borrow anything?” she asked? If they were going to have a fight, she’d feel pretty bad about using weapons while Calin had nothing but his hands. Well, maybe she could at least use the dull side of her sword if it did come down to that. Though, maybe he wouldn’t have much of an issue doing that. Despite putting practice into combat skills and techniques, Kazumi hadn’t planned for actually having to fight others in her career as a shinobi. She really just wanted to focus on helping others, but to go up through the ranks, she needed combat prowess primarily it seemed.

"I don't think I'm gonna need...all of this."

They would walk, side by side toward the Academy and the class that they would be fighting in front of. The next generation of killers that would sell their very soul for their own village. All in a sense of loyalty. Calin briefly wondered if it went any deeper for them. Or if their loyalty only was toward the village itself. Calin’s was to his family, that was all that mattered to him. He wanted them to thrive in their world and is the Queen thought that Kirigakure no Sato was the best place for them then that’s the place Calin would give his service to. But his loyalty, his heart, that would always belong to the clan. He considered the idea that some members of other clans were in the class as well and began toying with the idea of really showing off what some of those within his own could do. It would be a good wake up call for the students if they saw how hard they would have to work. How far they would have to strive in order to be strong enough to truly protect themselves and their home.

As they walked Kazumi would gain his attention and gestured toward her equipment pouches. Wondering if he needed to borrow anything. He’d give a small chuckle at her question and shake his head. “I should have been more prepared. We don’t always have the luxury of preparing beforehand for combat. I’ll respectfully decline your kind offer. Besides, I have plenty of options in combat my friend.” He would say with a small smile. His tone was friendly, yet confident. He was downplaying her own abilities, he wasn’t acting condescending, he wasn’t even trying to instill a sense of intimidation. He was completely calm and at ease, for it was a simple fact. He did in fact have quite a few options open to him. So he wasn’t concerned in the least about his chances, for he knew he still had just as high of a chance to win as she did.

“I have a question for you as well.” He would say, giving her a moment to give him her attention. “I personally feel it wouldn’t be a bad idea to show those kids how hard they’ll have to work. I know we’re supposed to motivate them. However, I want to take it a step further than that. I want to demonstrate what we can do and instill a sense of a gap between where they are now and where we are. What do you think?” He would ask, sapphire eyes curiously looking to his vertically impaired companion as he walked, mindful of his steps.

60 exp

“Well, if you’re sure about it.”. As long as Calin was confident that he’d be able to put on a to put up a good fight. At the same time, she could only hope she’d be able to do the same. Being armed to the teeth didn’t do much for her when she hadn’t done much with any of her weapons in terms of practice. She had a bit of basic practice with her sword, but the only style she’d managed to get down in any sense of the phrase was something designed for beginners. What if she ended up looking like a complete fool? Kazumi started to feel immediate regret, not even because of Calin’s confident attitude, but for the fact that she took up a mission that explicitly involving showing off a skill that she only now apparently realized she put little to no prioritization in.

For nearly the rest of their walk, Kazumi would be zoned out in her state of panic, only snapping out to find herself and the Kaguya at the academy. “Huh?” she asked, her head snapping to look up towards the white-haired male. She listened to what he had to say, nodding along all the while. She thought that was already the point of the mission, to show the students how far they’d have to go to reach just a rank above themselves. But she didn’t believe the boy was that redundant, and that he must have had a specific idea in mind.

“That would be better than just have a normal spar,” she’d note, tilting her head to the side just slightly. “But what exactly did you have in mind? Were you wanting to like, roleplay something? Or make it interactive somehow?”. How they’d go about furthering the idea of a skill gap between themselves and the students aside from a display of such skill escaped her for the moment. As she’d wait for the boy to elaborate further, her mind would once again wander back into uncertainty, reminded of the first time she spoke with Calin back at Kobayashi’s

When asked about what he wanted to do in his career as a shinobi, Calin answered with certainty, conviction, and confidence. He wanted to protect his queen. It was grande, it was noble, and it was something definite to strive for. There was no specific end goal, only the aspiration to become stronger and stronger so he could be as capable as possible of making sure so harm came to her. But when asked what she wanted to do, what did she reply with? She wanted to be an instructor for the academy. Was that all she really wanted to do? Teach and guide the next generation?

At the time, it sounded like she had good intentions with an answer like that. But it was something she decided there, on the spot out of uncertainty. She just didn’t want to answer truthfully. That she had no idea what she wanted to do with herself. She became a kunoichi, a soldier, but felt so averse to fighting. She thought it’d be a good way to help people, and a few years back, that sounded like a good justification for her decision. But if it came down to it, would she be able to fight for her village? For the people she said she wanted to do what she could to help? Would she manage to be anything besides cannon fodder if she did inevitabilityf to fight?

Was she uncertain of it all, or was she just trying to run from an inevitabilty?

Roleplay? Interactive? Nothing quite so exotic. After all kids weren’t stupid. They would potentially see through some badly put together script or tell that they weren’t being themselves. Then making it it ‘interactive’ had a certain degree of danger for the kids. For how exactly does one make a fight where one it supposed to show their capabilities ‘interactive’? Or at least, how were they supposed to do that while keeping it safe for the kids that were going to be watching them fight? That wouldn’t be easy, no, Calin had something different and far simpler in mind. “Nothing quite so exotic. I simply don’t want us to hold back in our fight. If the kids see what we can really do then they’ll probably realize that have a lot of work to do and buckle down.” He would explain simply as they traveled down the road. The Academy was coming into view now and it was getting to the point where he’d have to let Kazumi lead on. Since she knew where in the world they were going and he simply did not.

He wasn’t exactly sure what in the world had happened with his mission briefing. Could it have simply been a glitch in the bureaucracy? That could certainly start to get dangerous if it starts to become a problem and is probably an issue that would have to be handled quickly and efficiently. It didn’t matter now however, since he was here now and was willing and able to fight. He’d begin to follow Kazumi to where they needed to be once they arrived at the Academy proper.

80 exp

“Don’t hold back?” Kazumi asked. Her expression and tone would convey that she was simply asking to confirm with the boy, but in reality, she was hoping that there was enough doubt in his mind that he’d take the suggestion back. She was not confident at all in being able to put on a decent display to the children, at least in comparison to how she assumed Calin would fight. She was sure he didn’t make his career goal to be to protect his queen if he wasn’t capable in combat.

Herself though, coming from a clan of warriors, known for selling themselves as a mercenary force and ravaging the seas outside of the Water Country, and she had this aversion to fighting. She would’ve liked to pretend that she had no clue why she was like this, but she had a good feeling why. She was scared. She was scared of the idea of hurting others, of putting herself in that kind of position of risk and responsibility. She wanted to live up to this children’s fantasy of a ninja that helped the little people and could be a face for the community but wasn’t ready to accept the reality of her career. She was a soldier, and as such, would more than likely have to do things she wasn’t exactly comfortable with.

She wouldn’t be able to suddenly change that now, but she could definitely try to gradually peel that band-aid off if she tried. She just had to start, and the sooner the better.

Kazumi guided Calin inside the Academy, moving through the hallways until they were outside once again. They’d find themselves in a fenced-off plot of land just behind the Academy, the chuunin that had been waiting for the two since Kazumi first showed up.

“Cool, you found’em,” He’d say, biting an unlit cigarette between his teeth. “You two ready to go? I uh - I didn’t really have anything else planned for today, I’ve kind of been improvising a lecture while you were gone.”

“That’s right.” He’d say simply, as they walked. The silence that followed would seem to last the entire rest of the way to where they needed to go. For when they finally arrived they ran into a teacher with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. He looked happy to see them. “My apologies, no one informed me I even had a mission today.” He would say after the man explained that he was improvising a lecture since he had nothing left to do that particular day. “Calin Kaguya, at your service.” He would say with a polite bow of greeting. The man was about the same height as Calin, lanky, with the kind of muscles a triathlete might have. Built for endurance, and long lasting combat. The man probably preferred speed and skill as opposed to brute force and spamming high powered ninjutsu. “If you’ll just show me where we’re supposed to fight. Are there any rules we need be aware of before we begin?” He would ask respectfully, wanting to make sure he got all of the mission parameters before Kazumi and him began. Since he didn’t actually get informed of the mission he never actually got an official briefing. So his hope was the teacher, who undoubtedly would know what in the hell was going on. Would be able to provide one.


(100 exp)

"Uh..." The instructor raised a hand to rub the back of his neck as he looked over towards the small crowd of children, who one could assume were all students of the academy. Most seemed around the ages of ten to twelve, probably approaching graduation. “I thought here would be an alright place,” he said, lowering his hand down to his side. “So, rule wise, as long as one of you doesn’t kill the other, and you can put on an act entertaining enough to get’em actually excited about graduating, that should be enough. You'll go at it until one of you is either immobilized, or god forbid knocked out.” He explained. After doing so, he’d raise a hand up once more, snapping his fingers and holding out his index finger. At its tip, there’d be a small flame, just large enough for him to light the tip of the cigarette in his mouth.

He took a long, much-needed drag, exhaling a cloud of smoke from one corner of his mouth into the air. “If there was anything else you wanted to ask, I’ll be more than glad to answer, but these kids would normally be home about an hour ago, and they’re gettin’ antsy about it. Otherwise, just take meet each other about right in the middle there - ” He gestured with one hand towards the spot of the lot that centered between the group of students and the Academy itself. “- and we can get this started.”

Kazumi herself wouldn’t have any questions for the moment, and would simply walk to the center of the lot, waiting for the other two to meet with her.

The rules were simple, good. So long as they didn’t literally kill each other they would be fine. Obviously mass property damage and injuring civilians too would be frowned upon. Although they were ninja’s that were told to fight. So that might just be asking a bit too much. “Those rules sound easy enough of course.” He would say with a small grin. “I assume mass property damage is out of the question too.” He would say with a cheeky grin, more of a joke statement than an actual question. Of course, they’d have to give the kids something worth watching since they were forced to stay here for an extra hour just to wait for them. For him, specifically. He felt bad about that. Keeping innocent children away from playing, spending time with family, or even training of their own. He’d most definitely have to make it worth it. Feeling himself get hyped up over a desire to give the kids a show he’d move over to his own starting position, jumping in place a little bit with excess energy.

Calin was more than ready for this spar to begin. So he would proceed to drop into a simple stance that would allow him to counter easily if required. “By all means, the lady should go first.” He would say simply, giving her the universal sign for ‘Bring it bitch’ by beckoning toward the shorter opponent with his hand. “Try to make it worthwhile.” He’d add on, with a confident grin. His personal love of battle beginning to rise up in anticipation. His spar with Alkaid had been fast paced, and brutal. He learned a smorgasbord of techniques and ways to use them and he was excited to try them out on someone not of his clan.

120 exp

It seemed his mission partner was prepared to wait to begin her assault. That was okay, for Calin was exceedingly patient. He had no issues with waiting as long as necessary and it would even show the kids that it was important to make sure you were prepared before you began to move. Slowly Calin would begin to speak “As you can see class, neither Kazumi-san or I are wanting to make the first move. In a battle you can either move first and take the initiative, or wait for the chance to counter somehow. This is what Kazumi and I are doing, neither of us want to move first.” He would say, not taking his eyes off of his opponent at all as he waited for her to attack him.

140 exp

"Of course, sometimes they take it a little too far." He would say, a minute or so later. She seemed really into this whole 'waiting game' idea. Did she forget that they had to get this going so that the students could go home? That they were already an hour late as it was? Honestly, it seemed he was late physically, but she was late mentally. Had she not been sleeping or something? Or maybe she just needed to eat? He wasn't exactly sure, but he knew they needed to get this show on the road soon. He'd give her another minute or so before he himself launched an attack.

(160)

She began to move

Not for a charge, she didn’t speak, she didn’t run at him, she did not perform seals. No dancing, or anything of the sort.

She fell forward, collapsing onto the ground with a dull thud as her consciousness left her. A few scant heartbeats later and Calin was kneeling at her side, gently rolling her over. “Kazumi?! What the hell happened?” He would cry out as he looked her over, he didn’t see any bumps on her head, and that was about as far as his own medical knowledge went in terms of checking for injuries that could cause a spontaneous collapse. He gently, yet firmly smacked her cheek a few times to try to get her awake. It was to no avail however, Calin would sigh, deeply before lifting her over his shoulder. “I need to take her to the hospital. Sorry folks.” He would call out, already heading toward the medical facility as he spoke.

[Exiting with Kazumi]

180 EXP
TWC: 2187