Picking Flowers to Give a Furry Dog Friend a Bone

The Missions:

Ayane awoke early that morning as she prepared to undertake a rather busy day by her standards. She was a Genin of the leaf and it was her responsibility to complete the missions assigned to her, especially so early on in her career. That did not mean that she had to like them of course. With a loud and dramatic groan, she rolled herself gingerly out of bed and walked to her wardrobe. Usually she would have preferred to wear something cute and light, but the last time she had left her house for a mission her clothes had been a mess. So this time she decided to wear her Shinobi combat gear. A black crop top with long sleeves that were cut to expose her shoulders and a hood that could easily cover her entire head if she pulled it up enough. This was accompanied by her favourite black shorts and a leg cover on her left leg, just to be a little bit different. Splashing some water on her face, the young Uchiha made her way out of her bedroom and strolled past her older brother and sister who were having breakfast in their large kitchen. “Catch ya later Kay and Tensh! I’m off to be a super duper Kunoichi, or is it Shinobi? Is there a difference? Whatever, later losers!” Her siblings grumbled in response as she closed the front door behind her.

Looking down, she read from her notepad which contained the mission details for today. Missions in fact, as she had been given five E Rank missions to complete. Ugh, just my luck. They’re really making me work for it today huh… Whatever, it is going to look so good on my resume! She thought to herself as she skipped along the streets. Her first destination was to collect a large batch of flowers and deliver them to a shop belonging to a member of the Yamanaka clan. This would be easy enough, and it helped that Ayane herself loved flowers anyway. They didn’t call her the Rose of the Uchiha for nothing after all, although she herself claimed it was due to her beauty. She walked over to the recommended location that was given to her, it was apparently abundant with many different types of flowers, she was happy to note that roses were indeed amongst them. After around ten minutes of walking, she finally found the spot and was overjoyed to see the assortment of colourful flora surrounding the area. With a little squeak, she pulled out her basket and began to carefully pick them.

It took her around 20 minutes, but by the end of it the basket in her hand was full of a large variety of beautiful flowers. Giving herself a mental pat on the back, she began to make her way over to the Yamanaka shop. Thankfully, the store was nearby and it did not take her long to arrive. A small old woman was standing out the front, rearranging and organising the flower selection before it was time to open up shop. “Hello ma’am! My name is Ayane Uchiha and I have arrived with your flower order! I hope you like them!” The old lady turned around and looked the girl up and down with a rather discerning eye. After several moments she finally spoke, her voice was frail and shaky, but not unkind. “My my, I did not expect to have an Uchiha pick up this job. No matter, as long as the order is done that is all I care about. Come, let me have a look at the selection you’ve brought me today. The old lady inspected every single flower individually, occasionally grabbing one and throwing it out with a little comment. Ayane raised an eyebrow each time but held her tongue. She was not in the mood to argue with an old lady today. After looking through each one, the old lady happily took the basket and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Well done little lady, these are acceptable! Here, take this as an extra thank you from me.” She grabbed one of the roses and quickly pruned it of any thorns, before shortening it and placing it in her hair, just above one of her ears. With a kind smile and a thank you, Ayane was off to her next destination.

The next stop was to a local butcher who was located another ten minutes away. Taking a casual pace, Ayane began to hum to herself as she walked along the path. People were finally starting to emerge from their homes for their early starts, the young Uchiha was not used to being up so early in the morning, so this was a new sight to her. Many of them gave her a happy smile and wave as they passed, which she would often return while beaming. The rest appeared to be in far too much of a rush to even notice her, likely running late for their jobs. Ayane felt bad for them, she was definitely not a morning person herself, the young Uchiha would likely not last long in a job that required her to be up at such an early hour every day. She had made this clear to her brother Tenshi when he told her that she and her sister would have to work in his business. After her rant, he had relented and allowed her to exclusively do the afternoon shifts, meaning she could get plenty of beauty sleep.

In her day dreaming, Ayane found that she had finally arrived at the allocation butcher’s shop. It was quite large by regular butcher standards, seeming to be quite a popular one in the village. Looking up at the sign, she read the name ‘Balthazar’s Bone Breaking Butchery’ and let out a loud giggle. It was quite the goofy name and word play, but it was one that she liked. Her loud noise stirred the attention of someone within, as she heard the sounds of shuffling momentarily before the wooden front door slowly opened. A large stocky man with a thick and bushy beard walked out. He wore a brown apron over his black shirt and pants, but the dark colour barely covered the blood stains on it. He appeared very gruff and serious as he looked around for the cause of the commotion, but his face instantly softened up when his eyes fell upon Ayane. This was something that happened a lot around her for some reason, especially with the adult men. She was used to it by now, using it to her advantage when they always seemed to underestimate her.

“Oh hello little missy, are you lost? Or are you here to pick some food up for your parents?” He let out a big smile as he spoke, something that looked almost unnatural on his almost brutish face. Playing along with his kind attitude, Ayane playful rocked around on the spot with her hands behind her back. “No mister, my name is Ayane and I’m here because you requested a Shinobi to make a delivery?” The man’s face froze in shock at the discovery, he clearly seemed to have a very different opinion on what a Shinobi was or should be, and she did not fit that description at all. “Oh… um… are you sure?” He had to quickly shake his head and clear his thoughts before clarifying his words. “Sorry! What I mean to say is hello! Thank you for arriving so early. I just wasn’t expecting someone that… looked like you I guess… my apologies, I must be sounding very rude right now. Come in, I have the delivery in the back!” With his face almost crimson red in embarrassment, the man turned around and led her inside. Ayane suppressed a chuckle at the moron’s befuddlement, perhaps she could squeeze some free lamb or beef out of him as an apology.

She blocked her nose as she walked through the shop with him, the smell of dead animals was almost suffocating inside. He looked back and let out a gruff laugh. “Yeah, we get that reaction a lot in here. This place isn’t for the faint of heart.” After walking further, they arrived in a back room with a large crate and three enormous hounds panting as they approached. They looked at her with curious eyes but did not approach. The man turned to her and spoke again. “These were loaned to me by the Inuzuka clan for the purpose of your mission. They will help you by dragging the crate on a large trolley, you just need to guide them there. Once you take the crate to the clan’s compound, your mission will be complete.” He looked at Ayane once again. “It’s also worth noting that you will be going through a popular park on your way. There is a large squirrel in this park that has been terrorising the rest of the ecosystem. The Inuzuka clan has volunteered to help with the capture and study of it, before we release it outside the walls. Please make sure you do so and hand it over to the clan on your arrival. You can use this cage.” He handed over a medium sized cage to her.

The journey from the butcher to the park was not a long one, the hounds with Ayane were swift and responded well to all of her commands. The butcher had warned her not to pet them though, which was proving a hard task considering how fluffy and cute they were, but she resisted her temptations. When they arrived, Ayane had released one of the hounds with the instruction of finding the oversized squirrel. It was a genius move on her part, as the hounds all understood her words and one even spoke back. It was but a matter of minutes before the hound returned with the squirrel in its mouth, trapped but unharmed by the dog’s jaws. The squirrel was indeed a large one, but it was frozen in fear by the large creature that had grabbed it. It was a simple task of placing it into the cage and locking it in. After another ten minutes of walking, Ayane and her cargo all arrived at the front gate of the Inuzuka clan, where one of their Shinobi greeted her. She handed over the trapped squirrel as well as the large crate with the three hounds, the male Shinobi thanked her for her work in both missions before bidding her farewell.

EXIT

TWC: 1765

Claims: