You know, I was so hyped up about visiting the capital city that I forgot one tiny detail about populated centers in the past. They smell like shit. Literally.
Even though plumbing was invented a few decades ago, the capital city still reeks. There must be a subpar sewage system over here, and I hate it with all my heart. At least none of my teammates have sensitive noses like the Inuzukas, now I understand why no one took this mission. It's not just because it's high profile, is it?
My teammates and I are used to the fresh air in Konohagakure because of all the trees and stuff, and they both visibly cringes more and more when the caravan gets closer to the city. It really is horrible over here, I can tell you that much. The stench of industrial smog and human waste when you are used to living in a village that's surrounded by beautiful forests and lakes really is unpleasant.
At least Shinya is still excited, despite the smog. You can always count on him to bring up the mood! This guy really is perfect for parties. He's the kind of guy to hype people up, chant chug when people drink and then call an uber if the guy gets too drunk.
Oh! The market of the capital city, that's our stop right there. The leader of the caravan pays us half of the mission fee and tells us that they're going to take some time unloading the cargo from their carriages, bringing said cargo to their buyers and sell some valuables, so we should probably plan for a one-night stay and escort them back tomorrow at a later date.
At least the pay's pretty good, so we can get situated in a pretty decent hotel, and not the kind of hotel that has damp mattresses. We could tell that spilled water probably isn't the reason those mattresses were damp the first time we tried to stay in a cheap hotel like four years ago, and with the smell of hormones…
Yea, not thinking about that one! I'm almost fifteen now, so I'm going through my teenage phase pretty quickly. At least the adrenaline rush during missions kind of suppresses my certain desires, since potentially getting killed does turn me off. I really don't want to entertain the idea of completely trusting anyone other than my close friends and people I kinda adopted, and being intimate requires a lot of trust.
Anyways, Shigeru seems to be interested in poisons lately, and there are some plants available in the capital that are hard to come by at the village, so he drags me out for shopping while Shinya decides to go find a place for takeout. We never stayed at one shop for too long and after a few hours, we visited a lot of shops with plants that have names I have never heard of before. Since the day's almost over by then, we decide to get back to the hotel just to see Shigeru coming back holding two bags filled to the brim with some nasty looking plants that probably cause hallucinations, if my sixth sense doesn't fail me.
We talk for a bit, and apparently he has one plant that is so dangerous the shop owners were glad that he was able to take it off their hands, so I'm not very eager to know what that one does.
As for me, the shopping done before was pretty fruitful. I bought some basic jutsu scrolls and some chakra paper for identifying a person's chakra type. I already knew mine and my teammates, and Sasuke already got his checked at the academy, but Sora still doesn't know his. And the jutsus I bought are for civilians to help them in their daily lives, so it should be perfect for Sora to practice his control. Who knows, he might even be able to water walk soon! I trained Sasuke and Sora to tree walk just a few weeks ago, and only Sora succeeded since he already had pretty good chakra control. Me and Sora spent the entire afternoon watching Sasuke getting owned by a tree, and we had to stifle our laughs a few times. I'm sure Sasuke was pretty dazed and had a concussion, so he probably didn't know that we were having that much fun watching him bash his head at a tree trunk repeatedly or fall headfirst to the ground. Of course, we healed him when his injuries began to actually hurt him, so no biggie.
I also went into an expensive shop reserved for ninja and samurai. Inside were the more advanced jutsu scrolls and high-quality weapons. I already have a chakra enhancing sword, and the Uchiha left me a lot of good weapons and advanced jutsu scrolls so I didn't buy any for me. What caught my eye was some summoning scrolls on sale. Some had requirements for the summoner, so no one was able to use them yet, and some were just plain expensive, so there were still a lot of summoning scrolls available. There was one for owls, and it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. I guess owls really wouldn't do well in fights, so people didn't have as much interest in them.
I quickly bought it. Hey, a bargain's a bargain, and even though there are some summoning scrolls in the clan storage, all of the animals are only content if they're contracted to an Uchiha, so Sora's probably going to get rejected by them. If he contracted the owl summons, it might give him an edge when he fights in dark places in the future. He might never get to use it if he gets a better scroll, but better safe than sorry.
The shopkeeper looked pretty happy when I bought the scroll. I guess it really was just sitting there gathering dust for a while before I bought it, such a waste. If Sora ends up not using it, I'm sure some Genin or Chunin out there would appreciate a random birthday gift.
Oh well, it did let me get Sora a wonderful gift, so I guess I should be grateful. Since people here don't make it a habit to celebrate birthdays, I guess I'll give it to him as a graduation present? Sasuke can be satisfied if I hand him the scroll for the Majestic Destroyer Flame and give him some tips on it. Also, it's probably years until he can get the chakra reserves for a jutsu that large, so it will be a great motivator for him to keep getting stronger.
I'm already thinking about their graduation gifts now, my kids really grow up so fast!
Oops, almost tripped, got to focus and watch where I'm walking. Shinya didn't buy anything for himself, at least I don't think so, but to be fair he probably doesn't need anything here since all he's interested in is Fuinjutsu, and all the books and experts of it are all in or will be visiting Konohagakure. He probably won't find anything useful here except some high-quality ink and paper for him to make tags.
We arrive at the hotel with Shinya already setting up dinner for us. He bought some rice with pork knuckles back from a restaurant a while ago, and we start to feast and chat about our day.
It was apparently pretty overwhelming for Shinya alone, since we were trained to always be alert to our surroundings. The city is foreign territory for us, and he's hyper aware about everything that's happening around him. We ninja are a paranoid bunch, and he had to double back and take a few twists or turns to shake off some thugs or pickpockets that he thought were following him. I had it easier since Shigeru came with me. Still, nothing major happened at the end, so everything turned out to be fine.
I'll give Shinya the only bed in this room to himself, since me and Shigeru left him alone. The both of us can just sleep on the sofa or the floor, could be worse. Definitely nothing compared to missions that required us to camp outdoors, especially in swampy areas or when it rains.
When we wake up, hopefully the caravan will be ready to leave. Sora gets cranky when I'm not working at the hospital for a week straight, and Sasuke will definitely stick to my side for the whole day since he does it when I'm gone for a long time. His dependency isn't healthy, but I really can't say no to his puppy dog eyes. It's too powerful!
At least if Shinya sleeps in this time because of his comfy bed, I get to dump a bucket of ice-cold water on him. It's payback for that one time he kicked me off the tree. Well, I kicked him off his tree first, but he doesn't get to do that to me!
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We are about halfway to Konohagakure with the caravan, when I have a sudden desire to ask a question lingering on my mind.
"Hey, guys? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" I ask my teammates. They're looking at me like I am crazy. Well to be fair I kind of am, but just a tad. It makes me less boring and gives me character, I think.
"What?" I shrug at them. "It was a valid question! Our village is surrounded by trees, and I bet the elders and important people could take this question and spin it into something educational."
"How can that be turned into anything worth anyone's attention?" Shigeru sounds genuinely perplexed. A caravan hand pops his head out and nods. Uh, who knows, but I'm pretty sure this is something from my previous life. Some copypasta, and if I still remember it it's probably memorable?
"Hey, they are politicians, they can pull shit out of their asses, and it will sound inspirational. Plus, everything has propaganda value! Maybe they could spin it into something like… We like our leaf and tree analogies, right? Trees could be ninja, and it could be a lesson about going out in style or never being too stubborn or prideful to scream for help or something, and at least let people remember you, since if no one hears you fall in a forest, does it make a sound could be twisted to mean that if you did nothing important and fucked off to die in a ditch, you won't be remembered by anyone." I mean Danzo already made up like ten different speeches regarding the tree and roots under it. It's like he's afraid that people can't figure out he has a secret ninja army or something. It's a secret army, Danzo, come on. Don't go out spouting its name every minute, god damn!
"I never thought of it that way. Say, Akari, you're the temporary clan head of the Uchiha, and will be heir until Sasuke gets a kid, right?" Shinya replies. Hearing that, my face scrunches up and my mouth curls into a frown. I never will get used to talking about engagements for a literal child, even though it came up several times before since Sasuke is one of the last Uchihas around. At least no one tried to force me in an engagement yet, so thank god for small mercies. The day I get a marriage proposal in my mail, is the day the stash of explosive tags Shinya gave me a while ago gets used up.
I think it's only because I proved to be a skilled ninja long ago and hold some political sway over some clans. This world really is shitty, huh? I really wish that those village elders aren't so cliche and aren't comically evil all the time…
"You probably could be a better politician than most of the people on the ninja council. I mean, you are a Chunin, and are currently a clan head, so you technically have a seat there. Who knows, you might make a positive change to the village!" Shinya cuts in and sits on top of one of the caravan carts. He's getting bored again, isn't he?
"Eh, maybe I can do something about the hospital and medical programs. Those stagnated since Tsunade went on her little trip, and now only small clans care about expanding the hospitals and training more Medic-nin." I ponder about it some more. "It would be nice to have more branches of the hospital in the village, like separate branches for poisons, and branches with basic medical practices without chakra for civilians. Might even recruit some professionals to get started on making better prosthetic limbs for ninjas that got their arm or leg cut off during a fight." So many possibilities, and not enough political power to enforce it, what a shame, eh?
Wait a minute, shouldn't Shinya be guarding the front of the caravan? I glare at Shinya. "Hey, are you really going to neglect your escorting duties in front of your team leader? Get the fuck back in the front, you gremlin! No slacking off on my watch!"
He returns to his post and lets out a loud sigh. Seriously, we can talk like miles away from each other because of our enhanced hearing and the civilians won't be able to hear us, why even risk getting a complaint from our clients doing this?
I shake my head. No use dwelling on what Shinya does, since every action he takes is him constantly trying to screw with your mind, that twat. Maybe he's trying to get me thinking about the power I hold? You can never know about that guy.
Wait, is he the uncle Ben in this scenario? All he needs to do is spout that iconic 'With great power comes great responsibility' line, and I might get struck down from the heavens by Sony because of copyright…
Wow, I really am sleep deprived, huh? The caravan didn't stop to let us rest yesterday since the one who hired us seemed to be in a hurry, and I don't even have coffee to keep me awake.
Oh well, there's just one day left until I can sleep in a proper bed again! I really look forward to it. I can avoid sleeping for about three days straight until my combat and healing abilities become severely impaired, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
I really miss air-conditioned train carriages. Slept like the dead on those long-distance train rides back when I was a relatively normal girl in a much more advanced world. Who knows? Maybe if I live long enough here, I might see something like that get invented and built, now isn't that an interesting thought?
I stare into the forest and think about the possibilities of me living past thirty. It might be possible for a skilled ninja, but as a person with this cursed eye of mine, I'll probably die before I reach twenty, no matter how skilled I am. After all, even reincarnations of gods almost died to the Akatsuki and the many ninjas after the Sharingan, and I am nowhere as strong as Sasuke is going to be at his prime.
Well, I'll at least go out with a bang if I get targeted by those twats. I'll put up a real fight worthy of those S-rank monsters. Who knows, I might even drag one of them down to hell with me if I'm lucky!
I quickly slap myself to get rid of that train of thought. I really am letting the sleep get to me if I'm spouting out death flags like this during a normal mission. At this point, I'm practically begging for some bullshit to happen to me and my team.
You know what? I'm just going to focus on my actual job and guard the caravan, at least I'm almost home, so that's a relief!
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"There's the gate, thank god I don't have to deal with any more bandits." I stretch and pop my joints. They are incredibly stiff after standing and sitting still for hours, and I didn't even have to move a muscle to scare off some hooligans. "I literally just threw kunai over the top of their heads and they pissed their pants and ran away, can you believe that? Criminals these days are so bad at their jobs, why do caravans even need guarding at this point…"
Shinya snorts. He quickly looks away when I glare at him, so I stick a gold star on his face for having good survival instincts. The one good thing about being the team leader is that I can just stick a golden star-shaped sticker on my teammates when they do anything worth praising and they can't do shit about it. Sure, it pisses them off sometimes, but the important thing is that I am having fun while doing it. They aren't really that angry about it and sometimes just give up on trying to pull the stickers off, since I used superglue to make the stickers. Muahahaha, fear me.
He looks at me with a deadpan expression and Shigeru smirks. He quickly schools his expression after I turn and look at him, so I'll give him a break this time.
The caravan and my team show the needed identification papers and pass the gate. Some guy pays and dismisses us soon after. With a small leap, we leave the caravan to their duties and start walking to the mission tower to report another successful mission.
"Hey, any chance that the strong and kind leader would do their always helpful teammates a favor by filling in their mission forms for them?" Shinya chirps without any hint of shame. This guy is unbelievable.
"How lucky I am to have a teammate like you two." Can you hear the sarcasm oozing from my voice? If he wants me to fill in his mission report, he better have Danzo's dead body in a scroll somewhere as payment. Equivalent exchange, chump!
"That's right, cherish me while I last, There isn't going to be anyone like me for many years to come!" He puffs out his chest, and I stifle a laugh. "I truly am a gift to mankind." How can he say those words with a straight face? He should be in one of those movies, he definitely has the talent for it.
"Uh huh, sure you are." I smack his head and Shigeru trips him. Ha… Love the energy, lads.
Team Akari has another successful mission under its belt and its mission completion rate stays perfect, so let's keep it that way, shall we?