Snapper's [Solo]

Mission 1:

It has been three weeks since Murata's arrival in Kirigakure, and one week since her conditional acceptance into its forces. 

Murata's first missions have involved a lot of sweeping. Truth be told, this isn't quite what she was expecting from becoming a shinobi, but she can't say she disapproves. The imminence of the return to a bloody lifestyle looms above her, but for now, it pleases her to be assigned such mundane and productive tasks. Though it was capacity for violence that brought her here, she feels like she is doing much more good sweeping up sand. It is a welcome break from the reading and practical lessons that have been necessary to swiftly bootcamp her into an acceptable - 'genin', that is her rank.

Her forehead protector feels awkward around her neck. Simultaneously too tight and too loose. For some reason, wearing it properly across her forehead feels both presumptuous and like a betrayal. She thinks of her useless armor, stowed away in her temporary apartment, and feels unready to leave behind the heavy forehead protector there bearing the mark of her temple. The shinobi design hanging from her throat is curious - so light and fragile, befitting an elusive, quiet sorcerer.

Presently, Murata is sweeping the sand from a little shop. A sign above the door carved into the shape of a turtle bears the name 'Snapper's, with lists of all kinds of deals and savings plastering the door and windows peeking into the crowded general store. 

"Ms. Snapper," Murata says casually, turning her attention to the elderly woman manning the desk of the shop, "Is that really your name?"

"It is a name, and it is mine," she answers, adjusting her glasses with a little smile as she works on some inventory paperwork, maneuvering around the calico cat, Queenie, sprawled across the counter. "You haven't given me your full name either."

"Murata is my full name! I told you that!"

"I know for a fact that people in Wolf country have both a surname and a family name. I have a cousin who worked there, you know."

"Well, I do not - oh! Tell me more!"

Ms. Snapper has an air of intrigue that Murata has learned is common to shopkeepers in this town. She has heard jokes that if the woman had been around in Old Kirigakure, she would have tossed the demon that leveled it right back out to sea and shouted at it for sullying the good name of turtles. Murata's working theory is that shinobi find it humorous to speculate that the people who provide them everyday services are, in secret, much more powerful than any of them. Perhaps it is a cultural incentive to treat them with respect and politeness. 

The woman herself is short, dark-skinned, with little glasses and dark pulled-up hair. She's laden with jewelry in jades and blues - not in a way that communicates exorbitant wealth, but rather a woman who simply treats herself on occasion, and has lived long enough to have many occasions to treat herself.

"Come back tomorrow, Murata. I have you booked to deal with the weeds out back."

"Ah. My first murders."

"You would have not been accepted as a shinobi so quickly if that were your first murder."

Murata sniffs. "You know, where I come from, people take that kind of thing more seriously!"

Ms. Snapper gives her a little wave of farewell. "Welcome to Kirigakure."

[570]

Mission 2:

"Queenie. Your majesty."

Murata sneezes as she looks through the dusty depths of Snapper's storage room. How could this cat survive in here? Surely the air is not breathable. There is also a frightening amount of weapons in the storage room, many of which are not stored in a very safe way. Are the people here so acquainted with the lives of their guardians that they all have no fear of blades? Murata did not see so many weapon shops back home, and certainly no regular old supply stores that sold the occasional sword! She delicately picks up a dusty kunai threatening to stab her if she moves further into the little room, turning it to point away from her.

Well, surely the cats know their way around deadly weapons, too. She'd seen a ninja running around yesterday with a cat bearing its own forehead protector. Absolute madness. 

Murata steps delicately further in, calling again. "Queenie. I have treats with your name on them!"

No response... but oh-so-quietly, somewhere in the room, Murata hears a quiet myaaaa. Much softer and tinier than Queenie's frequent demands for attention. Murata pauses - considering turning back to go find Ms. Snapper again. However, a slightly selfish part of her spurs her forward. 

"You know, Queenie, you did not need to go to all this trouble to hide," Murata murmurs as she dips through the storage room, lifting a heavy blanket thrown over a chair in the corner to reveal Queenie, the store's demanding calico, lying prone with a litter of kittens curled against her stomach. Queenie opens her eyes, flicking her ears back and giving Murata a baleful glare. "Ah, fine. It seems safe enough, as all of you in this village are insane," she says. "But I will be informing your mother."

Queenie seems to accept these terms, simply dipping her eyes back shut and adjusting, curling tighter to warm the kitten who had been mewling. 

---

It is a few weeks before Murata sees the cats again, brought to the shop once more to help with a product delivery. Queenie glares at her from around the corner of some shelves, her royal brood following suit like a gaggle of judgmental ducklings. Murata gives her a sarcastic curtsy, turning towards Ms. Snapper, who is looking over a box of tangerines. "What are you going to do with them?"

"I'm sure I'll be able to adopt them out. Why, you interested?"

"Maybe a little. It is lonely here."

"Well, you'll need a real place, first. One that allows pets. They're usually more lenient with shinobi about that, though..."

Murata hums. She has to be out of the temporary apartment... soon. She's been trying not to think about that too hard.

"I'm not sure they will like me anyway, judging by their mother."

"Aw. I'm sure they don't hate all life quite yet," Ms. Snapper says cheerfully, putting down her tangerines to expertly scoop up one of the kittens and place it into Murata's arms. Murata freezes up, as though she has just been handed a live bomb. The kitten meows in slight annoyance. "That one's Princess."

"There is a line of succession? Lucky you," Murata says to the kitten, who blinks blankly at her before casting her gaze to the ground, calculating how far she is willing to jump.

[554]

Mission 3:

Murata idly wonders if any of the weeds back here are capable of killing her. Surely there is some shinobi here growing deadly hybridized murder-plants. Surely they could go feral and threaten the lives of any that dare try to pluck them. Well, that is why she brought gloves!

The little empty lot behind Snapper's is choked with plant life, an entire ecosystem that she has been sent to deal with. It is not interesting or glamorous work, but much like with the sweeping, Murata does not mind it. It's funny how different the plants are to those she had seen elsewhere in Island Country. They are much more like those back home. It does suit the weather. Kirigakure is a strange village, so often choked in fog and cold. Murata had simply assumed that unseasonable weather had taken hold of the village - but the way people dress, the animals and the plants, they all point to a much cooler climate. It must truly be a world removed.

Her mind drifts back to the great nightmarish storm that she had bought passage through. Rain did not disturb their ship, the clouds parting around them, but she had heard the constant, ship-shaking booming of thunder from perilously close. Though the monks of her temple had created great displays with their chakra, the storm was something on another level, and it both terrified and fascinated her.

"Whew."

The mission didn't take all that long. Though the lot was packed with weeds, it was small - this area of Kirigakure is very dense, not leaving much breathing room with the opportunity to become wild.

"Hey," a giant hare says. "Are you gonna eat that?"

Murata blinks blankly at the creature, who has appeared to manifest from nowhere atop the building's second floor landing. A scar crossing one missing eye, the lapine half the size of her, brown-furred, and bearing a bandana around its neck. His nose wiggles adorably, in contrast with his deep, gruff voice.

"I was not planning on it," Murata replies carefully, the hare already hopping down and loping forward to gather up the discarded weeds in his arms hurriedly.

"Good, good. This is good stuff," he says, seeming to be in an awful rush. "You're a good kid. Bye." As suddenly as he appeared, the hare leaps back up from whence he came and vanishes over the roof, Murata staring after him and thinking that the ninja cat from a few weeks prior no longer seems quite so strange. Was this one even associated with an owner? Do intelligent creatures simply roam wild here? Sure, there were the wolves back home, but that was...

Murata re-enters the store through the back door. "I am finished," she says, speaking slowly. "A gigantic rabbit appeared and took all of the clippings."

"Well, did you charge him for them?" Ms. Snapper replies from the counter, not looking up from the newspaper.

"...What?"

"That's money just walking out the door. I really need to do everything myself around here, don't I..."

[506]

Mission 4:

Murata idly compares the grocery store she is currently shopping at with the one closer to her temporary apartment. Largely similar. This one charges more for bananas, but it is less cluttered. She has a fondness for the places she has been shopping as of late, but it is one that she will need to get over - it's likely that she will be moving to an entirely different neighborhood from her current place of living. The temporary housing there takes up the majority of available residential areas, much of the rest being more official buildings. It's been good to keep her in touch with the superiors in charge of her integration into the village, but very soon she will be cut from that support.

She pays and walks from the store, arms full of groceries and prescriptions from her previous journey to the nearby pharmacy. Next stop - a familiar storefront. She knows that Snapper's sells much of her haul, and she wonders why she's carrying it all this way. Perhaps Ms. Snapper simply doesn't want to dip into her own inventory for logistical reasons?

It's early evening when Murata arrives to one of the little apartments above the shop, one of four units. Ms. Snapper's apartment is a lot like her - lots of green. Murata wonders if one of the E-rank missions the woman keeps on the docket is to water all of her plants, and she simply never got assigned that. Either that, or it's a hobby that Ms. Snapper reserves for herself out of personal enjoyment.

With the store still open downstairs, Murata has the place to herself to put all of the groceries away, and she takes a bit of time to tidy up. She is just finishing when Ms. Snapper opens the door.

"It is a nice place," Murata comments as the woman enters. "I put your prescriptions on the counter."

"Next door's just like it. Bit of a mess, though, I haven't had a tenant in ages."

"That's a shame! It would a convenient place to live, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, yes, very. Especially for someone so busy."

"Well, I had better be leaving! You have a good night!" Murata says, making to leave.

"...you know, someone busy like a shinobi?"

"I'm sure somebody like that would appreciate the space, yes. Do you... need something?" Murata says, halfway out the door, confused as to why the conversation is continuing, and confused as to why Ms. Snapper is gazing at her over her glasses like that as though Murata is the most profound idiot she has ever seen. Did she forget one of her assigned errands?

"Murata. You need a place to live within the next two weeks."

"Yes? I am on top of it, I promise! Don't worry about me!"

Ms. Snapper simply stares at her for a long, long few moments, and Murata lingers in the doorway until her last two brain cells finally make contact.

"Oh. Oh! Thank you!"

"Just don't... burn the place down. Please."

[502]

[Exit]
[TWC: 2132]

Claiming:

2,000 ryo, 4AP
21 stats (going into Speed)
1,000 words into Mark Tracking
1,000 words into Gigavolt
132 words into starting Storage Displacement

Approved