Off Chances (P)

CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! Those were the words that spawned from the poorly lit bar in the cloud village, the loud voices singing in unison. Besides all that, it was a normal routine. Many villagers and ninja who get off there shift, headed directly to the bar to relax their nerves, drink their troubles away in song. It was the one place where everyone could come together and enjoy a good time. And that, is where we would find our would be hero Ganki, who came straight from his shift. The hero dressed in his usually cloud uniform, the headband tied loosely around his neck. His brown lengthily hair grew a little bit too long in the pass few days, he almost looked like a rocker, well...., he just might be one.

Bursting through the doors, the setting of the bar embraced him, the smell of liquor, the sweet talk of battle, and the devilishly mooching prostitutes that lurked all around the bar. Welp, that was Kumo. Ganki strolled around the bar, making his way towards the dancers that made their moves in the center of the building, on stage. There, Ganki pulled out a fresh stack of ryo, the rubber band still tied tight to the brick. Popping said band, Ganki threw out some bills, the attention was all on him. Soon after the "Moocher", came around. Dancing frontways, backways, sideways, and all. What a lucky guy, one whispered. "It's great to be me..."

But!! Like all good moments, there is always an end. Out from the shadows, came a big bang.

Ganki's head rose instantly, his form placed in a chair, which that said chair was placed in an office, which said Office was Ganki's. Which this office was rather large, 20x18 feet, the roof being a sensible height. The windows on the other hand could use some work, which were placed behind his desk were he was. It had appeared that Ganki didn't get off his shift as soon as he thought seeing that he was still in his office dressed in the same Jounin outfit in his dream. He was still on duty, shuffling through papers, a bit of droll stains left on some paper. What Ganki's goal was today, was to increase the activity of Missions being performed, which many in the village were severely lacking. Doing missions is what made a ninja known, preparing themselves for the "big one", the one mission that would gain them enough prestige to gain the rank of Master. Looking through the list, which was covered in wrinkles and slime, a name came across him that took his attention. the attention grabber had the worse mission record he could find, and it was then that Ganki decided to meet with him. With a nod to his subordinates, a mystery man dressed in a jounin outfit, would send word to Jinichi Terumi to come to this very office. The boy would not know of Ganki's true rank, only that a jounin had requested to see him. while waiting, he tried to fix up the office, until he would hear a knock from his closed door.

Ganki was not the only Kumo ninja who had finished his shift, it had been a couple of hours since the young, but ever so promising Chuunin prospect, Jinichi Terumi had also finished his shift, he was just staying at a small apartment in the busy Kumo market district, it was all he could really afford from the low-level missions, but the landlady was nice and didn't mind if he paid rent a little late, it was definately better than sleeping in the breezy mountainside like Jinichi did when he first transfered to this village from the cursed Volcano Village, needless to say, Jin liked life here a lot more.

He was seated cross-legged on his futon, his chuunin vest and black boots littered the floor. He was wearing a black traditional Chinese garb, it was a practical item of clothing which allowed for smooth strikes in hand-to-hand combat, plus, the extra-soft silk was delightful to the touch.

What was he doing after hours? What the hell could he do, he was only 14 years of age, he couldn't go out and get drunk and have sex with mindless wenches like most of his comrades could, and he received a lot of mocking for that, Jin didn't care though, he let his abilities do the talking, he could probably flatline most of the other Chuunin in the village, despite his age.

He mindlessly read a book showing various Kenpo arts, all while feeding his pet Quetzalcoatl, Kagu-Tsuchi, whom he found in the more mountainous regions of Funkagakure just after having left, Kagu-Tsuchi was rather small, not much larger than a average snake, but he would grow quickly the more he trained it, but for now, since it was a mere hatchling and had hardly any muscle for it to fly, it needed to be fed with small cubes of raw meat, this thing was a real pain in the ass to feed cause it was like a small bird. But it'd be worth it once he reached adult size.

After having been fed, Jin put the small sky god to bed in a shoebox, insulated with a scarf, it needed to sleep a lot but with the amount of food he had just fed it, it should live for a day.

He put the book down and sighed, he was tired since a lot of ninja weren't in the village, meaning had to do overtime, which sucked but it was his duty to serve the village without complaining about it.

He was sure that his day was over, but, someone rang the doorbell, he peered out the window to see a Jounin of his village call him down, he apparently had to meet with someone.

Letting out a long sigh he got fully dressed again, slipping on his boots and Chuunin vest and wrapping the village headband in the respective place on his forehead and headed outside to the office.

After a short journey, he knocked on the office door, ready to present himself to whoever summoned him, although, he knew for a fact that this wasn't the Kage's office, or Yaju's. This was most likely someone else's. He was a bit suspicious though, why was he being summoned here? Did he do anything wrong? He had no clue, he didn't let nervousness take him over, and got ready to open that door when he was allowed entry.

The jounin shuffled through his papers at the sound of the knock, the office was almost ready, but not fully clean. What was Ganki to do he wondered? Then, Looking at his file cabinet, he finally realized what he had to do. Grabbing all of the loose papers on his desk in a hurry, he then opened the file drawer with his right foot, carelessly stuffing all the supposable unwanted pieces of paper into the drawer, and with a bit added strength, he manage to close the stuffed drawer, hoping to never open it again...

Now with that ordeal settled, He calmly made his way towards the door.  His aura completely changing, more stern and strict. Opening the door, he then saw the pink haired boy. Ganki's eyes harden at the sight of the kid, "Your under arrest for treason against Kumogakure no Sato...", Ganki said in his cold voice, giving a pause before he would break character. "ha-ha i'm kidding Jini-... Jinichi, right? Come on in, and close the door behind you." Ganki loved to joke around, it was his nature. While letting the guy in, he would listen to anything he would say afterwards, if he still wanted to. If Jinichi would sit in one of the two chairs in front of the desk so would Ganki, hesitantly resting himself on his hard wood chair, which he despised to this day. When could he get some real chairs, like the ones at Sakura Corp, now those were some comfy chairs. His legs then swooped up onto the long table desk, allowing him to tilt back the chair enough for him to balance it with his body with ease. his hands were then brought back behind his head, his fingers interlocking one another. He simply looked at Jinichi, observing him a bit.

The reason why he brought Jinichi In here was to ask him why he wasn't a very active ninja, to that he meant why wasn't he making a name for himself, or even making any money for that reason? Everyone loves money, and it doesn't come easily. waddling his body slightly in his chair he would ask Jinichi, "Yo, I'm Ganki... Err so Jinichi, how's it like being a cloud ninja? I'm pretty sure you like the perks that come along with the job too right? The booze, the training, the long going training, the never ending training."  Ganki mentioned the training in an up beat yet sarcastic tone, he hated training himself. There was a lot more to being a ninja then to just simply train. saying this brought back a lot of memories. Memories of a half pint kid trying to break a plank in half to prove to his snobby instructor that he could do it, maaaan was he wrong.

Coming back to reality, his mind and focus was now on Jinichi. He then waited for a reply from him, his friendly face adding a friendly mood to the setting.

Jinichi heard the frantic sounds of paper shuffling when he knocked the door, making everything a lot more suspicious, the hell was going on here? Was it some kind of surprise party? Probably not.
Whatever it was, whoever was inside that room wanted to get something done in a hurry. It didn't really matter.

When the door opened he calmly entered, not at all fazed by the fact he was meeting someone who no doubt outranked him, Jin was about to present himself, until he got a rather dirty look and was then told he had betrayed the village of Kumogakure, Jin knew for a fact he wasn't doing anything illegal, unless harboring a dragon was illegal, in which case it probably was.

He just seemed rather puzzled, he raised an eyebrow slightly, obviously rather perturbed by this, he relaxed more when he was told that the ninja was merely kidding. Jin wasn't the kind of person to freak out so he was rather calm throughout all this.

"Yes sir, Jinichi Terumi, Chuunin." He introduced himself, although, he probably knew who he was already if he managed to summon him here, but it was for manners' sake.
He shut the door behind him and made his way to the seat facing Ganki. Sitting down comfortably, but still upright, while Ganki took a much more relaxed stance, surprising. 

Jinichi seemed rather puzzled by the question, "Uh, y-yes, definately. I mean, it's hard work since I have to work overtime now but I really like this village and I like my job." He responded, what followed was something he got a lot of slack for, Jin was 14, and he looked it. He wasn't that tall and obviously pretty fresh-faced. So he never got served at a bar, not that he really cared much about drinking. "Uh, I'm 14, so I don't really think I can purchase liquor...B-But I don't mind training." Obviously not taking his sarcasm to note, Jin actually wasn't that lazy, but the training was definately hard work, and could easily be a nuisance, he wasn't going to diss his village in Ganki's presence.

Jin expected Ganki to arrive at the real motive for summoning him to his office, Jin was hoping it was an opportunity to get more work in, maybe some high-ranking missions. Jin wanted to be an ANBU, it was his dream to don that grey flak jacket and the white mask which differed with each member.

Sitting in his chair, taking note that Jinichi did not seem to react to his little joke, led him to believe the kid was all about business. No fooling around of the sort, just business. Yes, it is important to stay focus on the task at hand, especially when on missions, but Ganki felt that you could turn switch the serious demeanor off every now and then. It was either that, or perhaps Ganki didn't know Jinichi that well, who knows?

Listening to Jinichi talk about working overtime and felt ok about training sort of puzzled Ganki, but then again he does seem uptight from wear Ganki was sitting. With a sigh, he waited to hear the rest of Jinichi's words, till finally he was done. The jounin decided that it would be for the best to cut to the chase, this oak seemed a bit to uptight to mess around with yet. Ganki then removed his legs from the table, his formed leaned forwards slightly, searching the table for the paper that contained the rest of Jinichi's information. Upon shuffling it was then that he remembered where the paper was, his eyes slowly shifted downwards towards his file drawer, that aint happening.

Quickly reconnect his sight with Jinichi, eye to eye, he spoke about the real reason why he was here. "Right, I brought you here today because of your record, your Mission log." Ganki tilted his head slightly to the right in train of thought, till it finally returned to its original position. "...From what I can recall, you've barely completed any missions that would fit your rank's quota. In fact, can you tell me how many mission you've done in your career so far?" Ganki's body leaned backwards at the end of his sentence, ready to hear the kids answer. "I mean, don't you want any money in your pocket, that S rank you did was ok, but that's all I saw in the reports. The rest of those missions can barely pay rent, to the average joe, am I right?" He thought his words to be a bit pushy, the subject of money tends to bring out certain sides of people. "Yo Jinichi, I don't mean to push, it's just that I don't want any of the ninja here doing anything stupid just to catch a quick buck, like robbing a fellow ninja, or jumping village to find some work. Its has happened before, you know?", he said with a slight laugh.

For now, Ganki would give Jinichi the mic to speak, to hear the little chuunin out.  The more ninja that preform missions, the more money they get to put into their pockets, and the more money they get to put into their pockets, the more powerful they will become. With that money, they can purchase more weapons, become stronger with each buy, which some of those buys involving Sakura Corp as well. It's simple business, which eh all learned from his dad. Was Ganki a merchant of death, he didn't seem to think so. Thinking about Sc reminding him that they were about to unveil there new line of weapons, Ganki had to be there for the event.

Ganki then reminded himself that he had yet another dreaded ANBU meeting to attend, another member was killed on a Search and Destroy mission. It brought a bad feeling to his gut whenever he would receive such news, but, as an ANBU Captain, he had to learn to deal with it and adjust the Ops accordingly.

Jinichi heard the Jounin out, and he could immediately see where in which direction this was heading, to his dreaded mission report, Jin never really thought of going and doing proper missions, he mostly just did patrols, he knew that now that the Kage wasn't around, he wanted to be there if someone decided to take advantage, but also, he knew that he'd never become an ANBU if he didn't prove that he could cut it in the missions, whether they be quick and easy, or long and life-risking, Jin mostly proved his meddle in the Battle Royale, where his superior tactics and advantageous strikes led him to a Chuunin promotion, and also on the S-Rank mission where he killed numerous threats to the village. But, apart from that, most of the missions he had done were easy, he probably did about 6 or 7, Jin was obviously pretty uneasy at being asked this question, and it showed, at least it'd show Ganki that Jin did have emotions other than seriousness. 

Jin noticed that his desk was basically empty, and usually his mission log would show the list of missions he had done, it seemed Ganki didn't have it, could it have had anything to do with the frantic paper shuffling before? Probably, Jin didn't think about it.
"Maybe 5 or 6, if you count the Battle Royale." He replied nervously, and he wasn't gonna sugar coat it, that wasn't great, but then again, he was caapble of doing more and he wanted to prove that, so Jin was going to try and accomplish missions more often in the hopes of getting that promotion.

Then came the discussion about finances, and again, Ganki was right, but, Jin didn't really care about money, the reason he wanted to be a ninja was to show the world what he was capable of, and also to eventually leave the cursed Volcano Village, and he had done just that.
"I appreciate the concern, Ganki-sama, and you're right, but I grew up alone in the Volcano Village, I didn't have anything so I learned to live on the bare minimum, I don't need luxuries to survive. As for money, that's not the reason I became a ninja." He continued. "I became a ninja because I wanted to honor my clan. I won't betray my village and its' people. Especially not for something as trivial as money." He spoke, determined to get his motives across here, he didn't have that "Get rich or die trying" attitude, Jin was all about honoring his clan and showing that the Terumi live on. "I came to this village so I could escape the corruption, waking up in the morning wondering if I was next to die. This village took me in and made it my home, and in return, I will fight for this village and I will stay in this village." He spoke, he shocked himself at how inspired he was to get his point across, but Jin loved Kumogakure, he loved everything about it, he loved living in the mediocre apartment he lives in, he loved making it into a squad and getting promoted.

As for luxuries, Jin didn't need them, he grew up training barefoot in hot coals on the volcanoes of Funkagakure, he lived in poverty, but, he wouldn't mind getting new gear, but he really didn't need it, all he needed, were his trusty hands and feet.

As the Jounin, now sitting back on his unbearable chair, his head now rested on his right hand at the chunin's answer to how many missions he had completed, among other things as well.. At last! Finally, Jinichi showed a different emotion, other than the emotionless drag routine. But, Ganki nodded his head slightly side to side. "No, the Battle Royal does not count", Ganki said with a smile at the end. Sure it a test to see how well you can perform to be promoted to the rank of chunin, but last time Ganki checked, you don't get paid for it.

The statement of him proving himself to his clan did kind of jab a bit towards Ganki. Why? Because Ganki himself did not belong to any clan himself. No special eyes, no special jutsu, nothing. It was him and his body.

Looking at Jinichi, it was clear that money wasn't going to motivate him. The only thing Ganki could go on was that Jinichi was running on loyalty. But, to Ganki, he would prefer to add in another incentive, to keep his ninja always up to par. Perhaps the reason to why Jinichi was like this was because he never had a taste of the life of Luxury. Ganki did grow up around noblemen, even thought he himself was far far away from being such. "Right right right, I get the whole "Long live the Village", sort of speech. The point is I need you to become active. From now on I'll need you to perform some missions to boost up your resume, so to speak." Ganki's eyes looked down at his drawer once more, but then shifted his eyes back to Jinichi, nah that's not going to happen. Besides that, if money was not a good enough incentive, what about rank. Ganki knew for a fact that every ninja loved to get promoted, this thought gave Ganki another thing to say to Jinichi. Lets see if the chunin was too good for a promotion, Ganki's face widened with a plotting smirk.  

"I mean who knows Jinichi, one spectator might catch a glimpse of you. Seeing your record that shows you are qualified to take on the most tedious of missions, might request you to be ranked up to Jounin, or even request you to join a special task force. I mean, I knows this because this happened to a friend of mine, who I rarely see anymore because he is always busy doing "stuff", what a liar. I think he's with Anbu, he's got to be, ya know? I mean, who goes out in the middle of the night, for 2 weeks straight and play dumb saying that they had to go out to see his girl. No one's that dumb to believe that lame ass story. Like he's that whipped...,and the way he-" Ganki soon paused himself, realizing that he was running on for too long. He rest himself, "You get what I mean right, about the missions, ya know?"

The moral of Ganki's run on speech, was that if you put yourself out there, you might get the break you need to be recognized in this village as a strong ninja. Don't, then you will be stuck at your rank doing patrol after patrol around the village.

Jinichi listened Ganki out, and, he seemed rather perplexed that Jin didn't really seem to fazed by money, but then again, maybe that extra sense of security when you had a bit more cash in your pocket than usual. The feeling that, yeah you were rich enough to pay those bills and not get harassed. You had everything on a plate, the world was your oyster. Jin thought a bit more now, and it could show on his face that he was being easily convinced here.

Was that really his clan's way? To stay miserable and poor, no. Jin should be someone to remember. Someone iconic.

And the more that Jin thought about it, why settle for living like he did in Funkagakure? He seriously wasn't doing himself justice here, now that he was in Kumogakure, he deserved to live like a king, not some poor ass peasant in some lava-ridden village. Yeah, Jin found himself getting more and more convinced by the idea of money.

Jin didn't understand what corrupted him this badly. But he definately didn't want to be poor anymore. He was going to do these missions and he was gonna get one hell of a salary out of them. He could get out of a small apartment and get himself into some serious living.

Besides, why not be like the big boys, spend a lotta money on awesome shit, do ridiculous things, go a strip club. Live a little.

Jin had gotten so used to living in a shell due to poverty that, he never looked at the big picture, besides, as a ninja, he could probably die during a mission or an attack, so he shouldn't be spending his entire life sheltered in poverty doing fuck all, he should be showing off his superior salary to the other chuunins, despite being much younger.


"But, I never said I didn't like getting money." He grinned at Ganki, leaning forward and waggling a finger Ganki woulf probably understand where he was getting at, Ganki was a man who loved money, and Jin was beginning to thing that, maybe. Money wasn't such a bad thing after all, but loyalty to the village was a first, he wasn't going to use his funds to cause any harm.

Understanding that he needed to get more active, and that Ganki 'needed' him to do more missions, Jin, obviously not knowing Ganki's ANBU rank, didn't understand what he was implying, but he was right nonetheless. He would never be the first name on a strike-force if he didn't do the missions to prove it. While Jin had talent, he had to prove it. There were many other capable ninja here who could do the job also, Jin needed to show that he'd be indispensable.

He sat back upright on the chair.

He had to prove himself, and he wanted to prove himself. He had to show that yes, he was one of the village's best.

"Got it. From now on I will be resuming active service."
He heard Ganki's story, and he couldn't resist putting on a "holy shit what is this guy saying" type of face, he didn't really see the point he was bringing across, but he got the essentials, knowing that getting that ANBU rank, meant good ass pay, and that was mouthwateringly tempting.

And going out and assassinating, doing Search and Destroys, or even spying was a hell of a lot better than merely patrolling, the village would survive a day of Jin not being there, he hardly knew what he was thinking before, his intentions were pure, but useless at once.

"Know of anything in particular?" He asked inquisitively, wondering if Ganki had gotten a lick of a good mission which would prove his worth, or, if he knew a stable source of missions that didn't have anything to do with delivering or saving fucking cats.

Besides, Ganki's previous story was rather suspicious, was Ganki just the "stay in the office" entrepreneur? Likely not, very likely not. Maybe this guy got up to serious shit. Jin thought.

At last, finally he seemed to sing to Ganki's tune, well just a bit. The facial expressions and gesture that Jinichi made was all Ganki needed. There is no need to be so uptight for every little thing, Ganki sat back amazed at what he had accomplished in his first meeting with Jinichi. Thinking back to his old squad members, his last two rag tag teams he was in charge off, he never seemed to do anything with them. It was only during the meetings he would get a chance to see them, never even bothering to check up on their sensei. What Ganki saw in Jinichi, hmm, perhaps he could pass on what he knew about how the village worked. Just as long as he didn't mind making some money on the side, which didn't seem to be a problem now. Still looking at Jinichi, he heard a request from him, implying that he would take on a mission he had. Alight then, Ganki thought, Jinichi was ready to roll.

"I see, someone getting the hang of it now. And guess what, your in luck. I have a couple of missions that just came in today. I planned to give some out to all the ninja I brought in today, you see, your not the only low-balling ninja out here, ya know." Ganki said giggling a little.

With that, Ganki rose from his seat, walking over to his other counter that was placed against the wall to his right. It was there that many folders were scattered amongst the table. Before looking around at the folders, Ganki remembered about his little adventure in the raikage's office. Doing so reminded him to tag this place as well, for easy traveling purposes. Ganki was becoming so lazy these days, because of this technique. His hand pressed against eh table, that when he removed it, a seal was left in its place. Now, taking a good long look at the pile, he picked out a folder that would proven to be a bit of a walk in the park. Picking the folder up, he then walked back to his chair, simply handing over the folder to Jinichi. Should he take the folder, it would reveal a S rank mission that was to be completed. The mission was simple, to retrieve missing documents from a group of bandits. The mission was also very lucrative as well, due to the information that was stolen, which had to be retrieved back as soon as possible.

If all went accordingly, Ganki would sit back, waiting to see if Jinichi had anything to say after looking in the folder. The following last question would also be said. "If there is anything else you need, if there is anything else you want to know more about, feel free to ask, ya know?" Perhaps the kid might wanted to learn more about how to stick out better, or maybe get to know more about how to get recruited into special teams and the like.

The day light was now gone, it was now night. And Ganki had to be some where soon, damn meeting he thought. Might even have to fill in a replacement for the KIA, poor guy he thought. The member was an old guy, very skilled in hand to hand combat surprisingly. Ganki need to make the arrangements to deal with the body, and the old man's family.

Jin had a successful genin year, actually surviving Yaju Hayate's tough training, he learned a lot from Yaju, especially in terms of hand-to-hand combat, but he hadn't seen much of his old sensei, especially now that the teams were different and that Jin no longer had one, but that was okay, it meant he could focus on becoming an ANBU, where was Yaju? It had been ages, he was probably off escorting the Raikage to one of the other villages, which was understandable due to his position in the village.

Nonetheless, now was time to show his professionalism through the Chuunin ranks, he wanted to join the strike-force, and so he had to succeed whatever high-ranking mission there was. And Jin was relieved to hear that Ganki actually had just the thing. He gave him a folder, which Jin examined before opening, looking at the briefing. Bandits, Jin's killed a lot of those in his short life, he let out a grin, a bit more of a bloodthirsty one than his usual smile, killing bandits was a real hoot, and this mission should also test his abilities, especially against varying enemies, so far, Kenjutsu users were the bane of his existence due to Jin preferring close range combat with his fists, he didn't really like going against all that were bladed weapons, Jin thought about learning more weaponry skills, but right now, Jin was mostly ninjutsu and taijutsu based, and it seemed to work well for him, but he needed to look into other ninja arts.

Mission concept was simple, get a dossier from the bandits, might as well kill them all while he's at it. Easier said than done of course, a lot of bandits were actually rather experienced at ninja arts, so there was no idea as to who he'd be facing, all he knew is that the bandits wouldn't want to just give away a dossier which is important enough to warrant Cloud shinobi to take it.

After reading through the folder, he closed it and handed it back to Ganki "Heh, bandit killing, I can do that." He spoke with confidence, accepting the mission.

Also, he might as well ask while he was on the subject of the ANBU. "Any tips on getting noticed? I've been looking to join the Black Ops." He announced, that was a lifelong dream, and he hoped that this mission would even slightly increase his chances of making it there.

Jin figured he should get started soon, they wouldn't expect an attack at nightfall, plus, they'd probably have set up a camp by now, so they'd be easier to search and destroy.