Mission: Bear With Me

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The sun flicked above in the cloudless sky its warmth beaming down as midday fast approached. A lone hand was elevated blocking the suns ray of light from its owner. A pair of stagnant gray hues glared upwards at the offending ball of fire all the while ignoring the sea of people around their owner. The owner a young male sixteen years of age brushed a stray bang of slick black hair to the side. His waraji padded against the stone pathway as he made his way through the village of Kumogakure towards the mission tower. His most noticeable traits being his height easily towering over most adults and his noble look many would assume as if a member of the royal court was visiting, if they did not know any better.

The young genin made his way through the crowd gently brushing past the merchants and shoppers that crowded his path. It had been a few months since he had taken joy in accepting a mission for the village, he had spent the past years furthering his own skills honing them to a fine point in order to cover his bases however there were still a few kinks to iron out but that would come with time as he gained more experience in this world. His eyes never stayed ahead moving slowly from place to place picking up as much detail as possible; he was on edge guarding his body as his right hand brushed against the Tsuka of his katana that sat on his left hip nestled into his purple obi.

The village as always was a flutter with noise the civilians running about as if nothing else mattered, to them the world was peaceful, but that was only a falsehood. It was his job to protect the village, to keep the civil folks in their world of illusion. He would slay all who deemed to disturb such peace. Perhaps that was why he first became a shinobi? Or perhaps it was to simply surpass his mother there could be many reasons as to why he first decided to become a Shinobi, perhaps it no longer matter all that mattered now was he perform the tasks which the village set form. A shinobi must not value himself but rather adhere to his village's ideals. One of the many rules he followed that belonged as part of shinobi code.

He turned his attention forth drawing away from his own thoughts as the mission tower came to view. Pushing the door open he slowly made his way in, the Haori upon his shoulders flapping as a small draft of wind blew by. Closing the door behind him he made the slow journey towards the mission desk directly ahead, eyeing the stack of missions upon it with slight indifference. His vision turned to the left taking in the sight of three genin like him chattering loud amongst each other, they looked like fresh graduates just out of the academy, loud and boisterous. He gave them a single glance before turning away all the while thinking 'they won't last long'.

He approached the desk noticing the chunin behind it holding out a single document for him. Raising his right eyebrow he took the offered item opening it to satisfy his curiosity. It seemed he had been personally tasked with his own mission, eradicate a bear that has been troubling the villagers and stealing their picnic baskets, how odd he thought. Tucking the document into his kimono he turned walking away deciding he best begins. The first thought that ran through his head was to set up a trap. He would raid the fridge at home and create a 'picnic basket' in the hopes of luring out this so called 'smarter than average bear'. It wouldn't matter the beast would taste his blade like all others.

Kagirinai made his way once again through the crowded streets towards his home that which he shared with his loving parents. The Genin had yet to leave; he still had much to learn from his mother regarding her sword style the Tenraitouryuu. Sliding the key of the two story four bedroom house into the doorknob he turned the metal item allowing the door to unlock with a click. He pushed the wooden construct forward allowing entry. Closing the door behind him he took to the kitchen down the hall to the right retrieving a basket on the way along with a blanket from a built in cupboard on his left. Placing the basket on the kitchen bench he took to the fridge directly opposite of the bench. Kagirinai opened the appliance taking a look inside for the necessary items. He gathered up a tub of butter, loaf of bread, block of cheese cheese, a tomato, few slices of ham, a lettuce and even a bit of turkey meat to prepare a number of sandwiches for his endeavour. He grabbed a nearby kitchen knife and a chopping board from beneath the bench for preparing the trap.

After ten minutes of preparing the necessary tools his basket was complete a number of sandwiches neatly stacked inside with the blanket on atop, a canteen placed in last. Taking the handle he headed out needing nothing else for this task. He had never faced a bear so it would be a new experience would he would welcome, hesitation is death, forgiveness is a luxury, the failures or successes of one affect the whole and lastly A shinobi must always carry out the mission assigned. He shut his eyes taking in these vows. Before every mission he would recite each shinobi principle in his head to prepare himself. He opened his eyes no emotion within as he hardened his heart for the task ahead shutting the door behind him.

Kagirinai took to the roof tops jumping up onto the closest building and taking off for the village gate at maximum speed in order to get the job done quickly and efficiently. His Haori fluttered behind him as he leapt from roof top to roof top. He could feel the soft breeze of the wind brushing against his skin, the lingering feel of its gentle and calming touch soothed his soul. As he travelled he began to mull his strategy over in his head. He slipped an exploding tag inside the basket deeming that an appropriate strategy in order to catch the bear off guard. He had aligned a number of kunai that were inside his kimono with exploding tags ten in total. He carried very few tools on his being roughly ten kunai, ten shuriken and about twenty exploding tags preferring to use his swords instead.

Once the tag explodes, using the debris and dust that would rise from the explosion as a distraction, he would throw in armed kunai and detonate the tags in the hopes finishing the bear off. If not he would use his Kiretsu to get in close and aim towards its neck at the jugular. A bear’s skull would be incredibly thick so no scalping. Perhaps it would be best to Kiretsu behind the bear and slap an exploding tag on the back of its head and detonate that way? Take out the back of its skull, a rather quick method of death probably painful though.

Kagirinai landed at the gates handing his mission to the guards allowing them to stamp it giving him the authority to leave the village. With a courteous nod he took off again taking to the branches of the surrounding forestation moving towards the area where the bear has been sighted the most. Fifteen minutes of high speed travelling allowed Kagirinai to reach the necessary hot spot rather quickly. Hopping down to the ground he grabbed the blanket setting it on the ground placing a tag beneath the basket as well for extra kick before setting the item down atop the blanket and leaving the flaps up. He glanced around the area dusting his pants off and headed towards a nearby stream with a small canteen flask in hand pretending to head to a nearby river to fill it up. The moment he entered the bushes he jumped up into a tree and crouched on a branch using the leaves to hide his form from view. From his position he was roughly twenty away from the basket. With that he began to wait for his target.

A sweet delectable scent drifted through the air, its aroma reaching the unprepaired nostrils of a local bear. However this was not your average bear, he was not some run of the mill mammal that just rummaged around for scraps or dirty fish, no he had a sense of taste, and only went after the best. The issue was the best did not grow on a tree or bloom in the forest, the most delectable thing to him was human food, sweet breads, yummy salted meats and amazing sweets. It was odd, most bears just ate fish, dead deer or would occasionally rummage through a nearby village trash dump, but not this bear.

Yogisura, or Yogi as his friends called him, was an elegant bear who preferred the finer things in life, but this was hard for him to achieve, after all he was a wild bear, and most people ran from him. They saw it as him attacking or trying to destroy them, when all he wanted was to share their cultures. However being a savage animal that did not speak their native tounge, made it hard to get anywhere. So he kept to himself most times, trying every now and then to communicate with a local, never finding any success. However the scent that was drifting through the air smelled way to good to leave alone, and he needed to find the source. Standing up on his hind legs he sniffed out the direction.

One of his best bear friends, Buu Buu, had stayed over that night, and Yogisura thought it would be rude if he did not invite him along to enjoy such a tasty meal. So the two took off, leaving the cave and ventured into the woods. Only minuets of walking brought the duo to what Yogi often found when chaseing human food. A decorative blanket was laid out, and a sweet smelling basket was laid out upon it. However there was no one nearby, which was odd. Most people did not leave such a wonderful meal all alone. So Yogi decided to try out something, his curious mind often thinking more than a normal bears would. He sniffed at buu buu and signaled for him to go retrive the basket, and watched as he did.

Buu Buu narrowed in on the basket, yogi remaining out of sight of the imidiate area, trying to play sneaky. The young foolish bear ventured onto the blanket, poked his nose into the bag, sniffed and lifted his nose. The basket hung on the edge of the young bears nostrils. With a proud smirk Yogi watched as his friend began to make his way back with the basket.

Kagirinai’s eyes narrowed never leaving the basket as he remained still upon his crouched position upon his tree. It had been half an hour now and yet no sign of the bear, but he had patience. He didn’t doubt the creature would come, he would just have to be patient, as patience was a virtue as they would say.  If he grew angry from waiting it would merely cloud his judgement and he didn’t need that especially on a mission, he needed his thoughts clear of all emotions. He doubted that this bear would be able to outsmart him but he wouldn’t underestimate the beast best to overestimate it in order to keep on his toes.

His ears twitched as he heard movement turning his head to watch as a bears slowly began to narrow in on the basket he had laid out. He waited not sure if this was the bear or not he would track it back to its cave before activating his hidden explosive tag. He watched as the bear lifted the basket with its nose, cleaver beast he thought and slowly began to walk away heading towards another location. His eyes narrowed as he leaped quietly onto another tree branch followed by another closing in on the bear landing a few trees away from him but high enough to clearly see what it was up to. To his surprise he saw another bear.

He slowly brought his hands together forming a hand seal and let the tag activate with a sizzling sound, “Katsu” he thought allowing the explosive tag to detonate erupting into a large ball of fire whether it got the bears or not he wasn’t quite sure. He was already on edge retrieving six kunai each armed with explosive tags wrapped around the hilts and let them loose into the already unleashed explosion. In mid flight the moment the kunai entered the ball of fire he activated the tags as another six explosions rocked the forest.

As the area shook Kagirinai was already molding lightning nature chakra into his legs stimulating his nerve system and pushing his chakra into his feet that the moment the explosions cleared he would use his kiretsu to vanish with a loud thundering boom onto the forest floor to perform an inspection of the hopefully dead bears.

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