Making the Rounds [P]

Spoiler:

Nights—and summer nights in particular—had a strange way of lending a new character to places one only knew by the light of day. Shadowed alleys became more sinister, noises of some unseen animal became that of a prowling monster, and the lone passerby became a potential threat. And yet, there also existed some beauty in the darkness, as if the thin veneer of reality weakened and revealed its true nature to one willing to pull back the veil—it all allowed a certain oneness with the world that one couldn’t quite find under the watchful sun.

This evening, however, Ichika Zukumiki felt more on edge than ever, and the shadowed streets of Konohagakure seemed more a sea of a thousand possible threats rather than an existential trip. Typically more of a morning person, the genin found herself sent on a late-night mission. The mission itself was fairly straightforward: patrol the streets around the village headquarters and the adjacent entertainment district after dark and report any disturbances. Truthfully, she was acting as little more than a glorified nightwatchman, however, it felt more like something out of a horror movie than anything else.

Well past last call, most of the bars and pubs had closed up shop. This left the streets devoid of activity save for a few stragglers that bobbed and weaved across the main thoroughfare on their way home. Ichika, for her part, performed a similar zig-zagging maneuver as she leapfrogged from one pool of lantern light to another pool of lantern light.

In theory, there was nothing to be afraid of this close to the beating heart of Konohagakure. Help was just a shrill cry away and, by all counts, it was a quiet night. And yet, the genin couldn’t help the quickening of her heart and lengthening of her stride whenever she passed by a particularly dark alley. How strange that alleys she passed by on a regular basis would prove to be such a cause for concern now. The night, she concluded, was playing tricks on her mind.

SCREEEEEEeeeee…

The sound of nails on a chalkboard and animalistic pain set the genin’s teeth on edge, nearly sending her scampering back to the shelter of the nearest pool of lantern light. Of course, it had to be coming from a dark alley, and of course, it had to be on an empty stretch of street. Perhaps, she rationalized, it was her imagination, just the night’s tricks again.

SCREEEEEEeeeee…

Nope, nope, nope,  definitely not her imagination. Steeling herself with a breath and balling her hands into two tightly formed fists, Ichika took her first step into the alleyway. It couldn’t be anything that bad, right?

The darkness that had cloaked the main thoroughfare seemed to become all the darker in the alley. Sandwiched between a pair of four-story buildings, the small passageway seemed more like a hungry, shadowed maw ready to swallow any unsuspecting genin on their first patrol mission. And then, of course, there was the smell; the smell of rotting fruit mingled with something approixmating a poorly maintained restroom and three-day-old, sour milk.

It was like something out of a nightmare. Moving past the overflowing trash cans, Ichika crept deeper and deeper into the alleyway, trying her best to keep from making too much noise. Though, it almost seemed a certainty that anyone even remotely close to her might very well hear her heart beating out of control as her eyes flashed to light with the red of her birthright. If nothing else, she didn’t plan to go down without a fight.

SCREEEEEEeeeee…

The scream echoed out from a nearby dumpster in all its ghastly glory. Taking a deep breath, Ichika crept up to the edge of the dumpster and peeked in expecting to find the second coming of some eldritch horror. What she found inside, however, went well beyond any such expectation.

A cat.

A black cat, to be fair, but only a cat and nothing more. While her flight of fancy had taken her mind to a thousand things from an enemy shinobi to a many-headed monster, she had not even considered the mundane. How strange and wondrous the imagination could get in the dark of night. The cat wasn’t even stuck, as it mantled the dumpster in a single bound and disappeared into the darkness without another sound, leaving Ichika alone once again.

Returning to the main thoroughfare, the genin continued on her way. The night that then followed could only be described as uneventful when held up against her encounter with the black cat. A few times she helped a stumbling drunk home and more than once she found herself walking down another dark alley. However, such instances passed from memory as soon as they came, and soon the night became what it should have been: peaceful.

The report she filed the next day noted nothing significant. And, though she did mention the cat, she did not outline her less-than-professional reaction. Far better, she liked to think, to leave her emotions and internal monologue out of a report that was, essentially, a rubber stamp report. Surely, she hoped, no one would end up reading it. Rather, it would be filed somewhere in some warehouse alongside all the other unremarkable reports from gene undertaking their first patrol mission.

With any luck, the file would be lost and never seen again. At the very least, the pay for the mission was good, and it would reflect well on her whenever her profile came up for review next. In some ways, the life of shinobi and kunoichi was rather straightforward: simply perform the next mission without question or theatrics. There was a simplicity that Ichika could appreciate, especially now when she craved nothing more than to be on the move. Any downtime meant time to think, and she didn’t much like the thoughts that swam through her mind when she actually spent time thinking of late.

So, onwards it was and would be—anything to keep ahead of the past.
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TWC: 1002
+ 2000 ryo
+ 500 ryo for completing a E-rank+ mission as a genin, per dual rank rules
+ 10 AP
+ 10 Vigor
+ 643 words to fully learn Shackling Stakes Technique (643+544+864+449 = 2500/2500)
+ 359 toward mastering  Shackling Stakes Technique

Hayato in disguise approved