A Looming Threat I [Story] - Brant, Takeshi, Anasyasia

Name: A Looming Threat I
Rank: D
Requirements: -

Description: There is something out there. The Council is worried. The village is worried. There have been a serious of odd events around the village lately, household items disappearing, noises at night. It has gotten people on edge and the council has tasked you to investigate the surrounding area for anything suspicious. Your job is to find anything strange and report back.

Mission Rules:
- Rp your search of the area around the village.
- Discover the following: Strange red symbol of a gust of wind, several cut down trees, a broken forehead protector.
- 1300 word count minimum.

Reward: 1000 ryo per participant. Unlocks A Looming Threat II [Story]
Milestone: At 3000 words an extra 1000 ryo per person.

Brant rolled the lollipop around in his mouth and tried his best to look bored. It was easy just to seem bored, but it was a special art form to look so bored people automatically knew you didn't really care about anything. He'd seen one of the older Genin pull it off the other day and he was in awe and had decided to use his time waiting for his teammates to try and replicate it. One thing in his favour was waiting for the other two to show up was actually quite boring. He vaguely remembered being told their names when he was assigned to take on this mission, but at the moment he just couldn't manage to bring them to mind. he didn't even know what they looked like. He stuck his hands even further in his pockets and slouched a bit, perhaps that was part of the trick.

Though a slight grin hung on my face it was nothing more than a lie, even with my carefree nature I was able to tell just how serious this might turn out to be. After all it took quite a bit to actually turn the eye of the council as a whole. Today I was to be put with a team of others for an investigation on just what was going on, I think they mentioned there being several teams like ours being sent out so this wasn't genin busy work like normal.

When I finally made my way to our team's meet up point I noticed that one person had arrived before me, and he looked extremely bored. I continued walking over and raised a hand to wave. Standing next to him now I decided to make some small talk while waiting on our final member. "So, name is Takeshi. Which one were you again? Lost my briefing papers."

Well at least it isnt walking a dog, I think to myself as I walk from my humble abode to the designated meeting spot for this mission. We have to explore the surrounding area for anything suspicious; a wide range of things could qualify as suspicious. I wonder from evil cat to 20 headed monster where on the spectrum of suspicious this mission will lead us. As I near the meeting area I see the squad I have been assigned to. One looks bored and the other seems a bit more serious, why does that always seem to be the case. They seem to be talking, I wonder if they know each other.

Whelp no time like the present; I walk toward them and put on the best impression of a smile that I can. As I approact them I wave awkwardly and say "Brant and Takeshi I assume, i'm Anastyasia but you all can just call me Anna."

Takeshi! That was the other one's name. he had completely forgotten, but how could he not? Who wants to remember another guy's name. Now Anna, that was a name to remember. Two smooth syllables identical in shape and size just dangling there in the wind. Very memorable. He stood up straight and crushed the lollipop between his teeth to finish it off and flicked the stick onto the ground. it was meant to look smooth but the stick more dropped than flew, he'd have to work on that later. he beamed at the two of his teammates, "Well shall we get going then?"

Before I could get an answer out of the boy our final team member appeared and introduced herself. So these two were Brant and Anna, they were names I'd remember for a while depending on how things went today. Giving a shrug as my happy face turned a bit more serious I answered the younger one, "Yeah, guess its time we get this show on the road. Between the missing stuff and people hearing things we have plenty to look into." I'd place my hands in my pockets and start walking down the road towards the house of someone who had reported an incident a few days ago.

They both suggest we get going and so we begin to move down the street. As we move down the street following to where the serious one seems to be leading us I look around at the buildings we pass. A ramen shop now a bakery, a ninja tools shop now a flower shop. These things happen around you all the time but it takes a truly long time of absence for the finality of things to really hit home. This is what happens when I am allowed to think without something to focus me, oh well. Might as well figure out where the heck we are going. "Hey", and I didn't actually catch which one of them was which, oh well i'm sure one of them has to say their name eventually, "where are we going?"

Brant tossed a glance over to Anna, and smiled as he placed his hands behind his head. "Outside I guess? I figure all the good stuff to find will be out there. The other teams will probably cover the village well enough." He was in his element now, a task to do and two others to help him do the least amount of work possible. He had no idea if there was anything worth finding outside of the village, he just felt like taking a stroll.

I gave a slight nod as I kept walking, "Correct, the report said that one of the first files in this string of missing property came from a farm house a ways outside the village itself. Shouldn't take but maybe ten minutes to get there at this pace." Something about this wasn't right, even with there being so many reports recently the council would normally have the police force look into this sort of thing and I couldn't tell how they were all connected at this point.

Well I the know the countryside like the back of my hand I use to train on a farm not far from where the serious one is describing. Edit knew the countryside, every building I used to play around in might be nothing but a memory now. The bored one still looks like nothing is wrong but the serious one's look is starting to give me a bad feeling. "I haven't been back in the village for long, do either of you know what might be causing all of these issues?" I ask as we continue down the road. "How bad is this compared to every day events now a days?"

brant stuck his hands in his pockets. he just couldn't seem to figure out where to put them today and was regretting finishing off the lollipop so quickly, it would have given him something to do at least. He was watching a cloud shaped like that baker's girl down the end of the road we lived on. "Who knows Anna, its probably just a bunch of the academy kids trying to pull a fast one on the village. if it was anything serious they'd have gotten the effing Chuunin" he said the word with a sneer, "to do it."

Brant was quickly reminding me of my younger siblings with the way he paused before finishing his sentence. I gave a short chuckle for a moment to break the serious aura that had built up around me as I agreed with the statement. "Brant is probably right, this is probably just nothing. Even so its something handed down by the council themselves so its worth looking into."

Aha a name finally, ok so the bored one is Brant that means the serious one must be Takeshi. Part of me seems relieved that both of my comrades think that this shouldn't be a big deal; the other bit is a bit annoyed. Ive improved my skills so much since I left but I haven't had a chance to show them off yet, oh well i'll find someone to beat up sooner or later. I give a slight chuckle at my inner madness as we near the farm house. Seems like a normal enough house from the outside but I expect it not to be as we get inside. "Well lets see what all of the fuss is about." I say as we approach the farm.

Brant took one look at the farm house and decided that he wasn't too keen on going inside. Farm houses had things like old people who wanted to feed you that cake they made a week ago and forgot about. Plus it would probably smell like that old jumper he'd found under his bed. Now he thought about it, he thought it was still there. "hey why don't you two check out inside? I'll have a look around the back." With that he whistled to himself as he headed for the trees behind the house.

It seemed one of us didnt want to go inside, not like it was a bad thing since he was willing to start looking around outside for us. "If we need you just listen for the call. Guess its just us going on inside then." As Brant made his way around back I knocked on the door and waited. After a moment an older woman came to the door and greeted us, inviting us in and showing us to a room with chairs to sit and talk in. I took a seat and started to think of where the hell to start in this investigation.

Me and Takeshi walk into the house as Brant walks around the back. We are greeted by and elderly woman and invited us to sit down and talk. After a couple seconds of silence I realize that Takeshi actually doesn't know what specifically to ask about. Well here goes nothing "You filed a report about suspicious activity and we have been dispatched to figure out what happened" I say to the old woman. "Could you give us any information about that report?" I ask her.

Now this was how every mission should go. Brant meandered through the sparsely placed trees and snagged an apple from a low hanging branch. he bit into it and screwed his face up as sour juices filled his mouth. he tossed it away to the side and started whistling again. This mission was easy. he wondered how the other two were doing with the old people, probably being forced to drink musty tea.

The old woman gave a slight nod as my partner gave a direct reason for us being here, making it a bit easier for me to make the follow up in a moment. "Of course, yes the report I sent in started with a simple theft charge. Someone had been taking our firewood to the point that our stock for the whole winter was almost not enough to last a week, but then when I finally caught the thief in the act I found that they were shinobi and needed professional help." I was shocked by this, true not all shinobi were pure of heart and some had resorted to a life of crime but stealing from a person like this, and of all things their firewood? I took a moment to think things over and clear both my head and my throat before speaking. "So, it was a ninja that has been taking from your home, since you were able to see them did you get a good look at their faces or some other kind of clue?" The old woman shook her head no as her shoulders seemed to drop in helplessness, "It was to dark for me to see who they were, I'm sorry."

Interesting so a shinobi is stealing firewood and that's why we were called here. Disregarding the fact that it is probably easier to just chop firewood then to go through the trouble of stealing it, it is a tad curious that things like this would cause the council to send out legions of genin to figure out what's going on. Oh well might as well try to see what we can do to help. "Do you remember the last time that your firewood was stolen?" I ask the lady. "Also if you could show us to where you store it that may help us to track down whoever has been stealing it. We will do our best to bring the culprit to justice."

It took a lot of effort to find the perfect place to slack off and take a nap. It had taken him a good couple of minutes walking around the trees to find a nice stump he could lean against. Now he was happily laying on his back and watching the clouds roll by. He felt a little guilty about slacking off on the mission, but really, what kind of a mission was it anyways? Talking to old ladies wasn't exactly important work. He looked around his little clearing and decided that it was almost perfect, he'd have to remember it was here next time he wanted to get away for a while. The only bad part was that one section opposite him with all the hacked up branches and that weird red symbol. Now he thought of it, that was a little out of the ordinary. He looked at it a little closer and stood up. His mouth dropped open as he looked at it and he said. "Oh shit"

We all stood up as the old woman led out out behind her home to where a rather pathetic pile of firewood stood. I glanced around the area for a moment until something shiny caught some sunlight  as well as my attention. "What the-" The item seemed to be lodged inside the remains of the wood pile, I took a moment to slowly dig it out until I had in my hand a forehead protector of the village. I was confused but it was upside down for now, upon turning it over however I was shocked to see that it was broken. The headbands were solid steel so either this was intentional or something quite powerful had been lurking around here. I'd hold the object out to my partner and grab her attention, "Hey Ana, what do you make of this?"