Mission: Find a Cat

Kiigan stared at her with a blank mask, despite the grumbling in his mind. So she was no better with directions than he was? Then why not say so? Ask someone before the got lost? Or maybe it was neither of their faults and the directions weren't just something he couldn't understand, but something no one could understand. Either way, with the persistent fog it was hard to tell where they were going anyway. What kind of jutsu was she going for anyway? Wind to blow it away? That'd be nice.

"Sure. North." The heck if he knew which way north was at this point...or ever. The way she was pointing looked as good as any of the other choices, so that was the way he headed with this Ramen meals. "I get that genin like us need money, but you'd think ramen shops would just hire their own delivery ninjas or just regular people and have them in retainer. That seems way more efficient than this. And doesn't this 'noble' have his own cooking staff? That would make way more sense if they could just make whatever he needs in his home...man, I don't get it..."

"I don't know...." June replied as she took out the map and desperately started scanning across it. "Maybe he just likes the taste of fast food? That's a thing, right? Or maybe he's afraid people will try and poison him or something so he gets food from a place that isn't related to the people around him due to complex political matters such as bloodline succession and recourse management or mismanagement towards or not towards specific objectives that may or may not clash heavily with the goals and desires of specific individuals who probably aren't ninja but have enough knowledge and the right contacts to plant a mole close to him in hopes of getting a chance to poison food made in-house, resulting in this noble constantly switching between restaurants to minimize the chance that someone can both know where he's going to eat and also get poison into the specific food?"

After a moment of silence, the genin blinked a few times at the extended brain-fart she just rambled off. "... It's probably just the first thing, though.... That... or maybe he has a secret lover he doesn't want his staff to know about? .... A lover who likes restaurant ramen? What was the noble's name again? I kind-of spaced out and didn't pick up on it...."

This girl...her brain went places. That was a mind dump and a half, and he wanted to say it was stupid, but it seemed quite the opposite. June lost him somewhere after the fast food part aside, and he picked up a notion here and there like poison and politics... It made him feel a little crazy, which was plain by the expression he was giving her.

But after all of that in depth analysis of what ifs, she was asking the name of the ramen crazing rich guy. He paused, wracking his brain and thinking back to the office. He hadn't been paying too close of attention either, since the guy who gave them the mission put him off a bit. "Mister....Noodle? No, ah, Nookie? That's wasn't it..." he thought out loud. Something with an N, he was sure of it. Silence took him, replaying the moment and trying to pay attention this time. After a few seconds, he snapped his free hand's fingers. "Nodachi. I think. Right? It won't matter if we don't figure out how to find his estate. This ramen does smell good, so if we can't find out way back at least we have dinner..."

A slight laugh escaped her at the idea as June tried to cover her mouth to keep Kiigan from noticing that she found something he said funny. He really didn't care about taking someone else's food? Was this something he normally did to get free meals? Or was he just that impulsive now that he had the chance to do this? Either way, something about him randomly asking her to dinner out of frustration somehow came off as so off and out of nowhere....

"Hang on, let me try again. I think I've really got it this time!" She announced as the white haired woman put the piece of paper away before turning a random corner. "Okay, I think this is this way on the map, but there's only one way to know for sure." Without thinking things through, June quickly ran through multiple hand signs, her eyes closing in anticipation before she finally glared at the foggy road before her. Got it! Without warning, a bright spew of lava slush suddenly erupted from her mouth, covering the street in front of them, covering the ground completely!

The intense heat flowed from the newfound deadly creation of molten rock as it glowed ominously before, slowly but surely, the heat from the jutsu began to clear away the fog, replacing it with a much easier to see through steam that made it clear that the road extended forward into a split pathway.

"Yes!" June cheered as she excitedly turned around to face Kiigan. "I knew I could do it! I thought this might have been the way. All we need to do is go down there, take a right, and then follow the path!" A wide grin crossed her face at the thought. "Finally... I've finally mastered a real ninjutsu.... I... I'm not unable to do it! I can actually be a real ninja now! I.... I could do anything!!!"

(Ninutsu 3/3)

Spoiler:

Kiigan stared into her bright, excited eyes, his expression somewhere between amazed and disturbed. before he could formulate a ill-conveived statement, he heard the nibi in his mind again. She was really getting on his nerves today, butting in and policing him. "Don't be a jerk, kitten," she urged, sensing rightly that he had been seconds from saying something that would probably piss the girl off again.

"What? It's kinda...gross? She just puked like a demon-possessed volcano. It's not hot...er, well it's hot...like literal hot, but not the other hot..." Kiigan

Matatabi heaved a dramatic sigh. "Don't say any of that to her. Celebrate her achievement. That's what friends do."

"Stop bossing me around! Ugh," protested the man, though with the memory of her flare earlier he quietly took the advice.

"Good job," he awkwardly complimented her with a nod, searching for something more specific to say. It was clear this wasn't his area of comfort, if he had any areas of comfort other than smoking, drinking, and being generally irritable. "Lava...I've never seen it before. Very temperature hot. Dangerous. Cool. Now you're a dangerous shinobi..." he trailed off, eyes shifting to the buildings lining the alleyway that were starting to catch fire from the red hot lava touching them. "Er, we should hurry before someone figures out you were the one who set their stuff on fire..."

Carefully, June examined the buildings before her eyes began to widen in fear at what she had done. The buildings began to catch on fire as the lave sizzled and crackled, blackened segments being broken by glowing bubbles of hotter material before being dragged down and replaced by the hotter segments below before they, too, cooled into a semi-solid stone, showing no sign of stopping as the material slowly began to thin out across the ground in front of it, spreading further and further as it did so.

"It's a bit much...." She randomly mentioned, simply staring at what she had done for a moment. Right... this wasn't something to play around with. This type of power was really dangerous. But she was just so eager to figure it out that she never stopped to consider if she should.... But still, this was good. This was power. REAL power.

"Uhh, don't worry!" The ninja reassured Kiigan out of nowhere. "I think I saw a way around this in the map, so we should still be okay... but.... I just wish there was something we could do about these houses.... But- I'm sure someone in the land of mist could take care of this easily, right?"


Eventually, the two of them arrived at the noble's home, a large mansion near the outskirts of town. After quickly glancing at the red haired man wearily, June finally stopped and knocked on the door before it finally slid open with a heavy whoosh. Inside, varied paintings and shelves housing oddly shaped statues and treasures lined the walls as an older man dressed in black with grey hair bowed to the newcomers. After a moment he stepped to the side as a brown haired man with a pencil thin mustache dressed in red ornate robes stepped forward.

"Right, you're the delivery people. Took you long enough to get here." The man in red simply stated as he took the bowl from Kiigan. "The name's Nodachi, pleasure to meet you. And not a moment too soon, either." Without waiting on a response, the noble casually handed June a ticket of some kind. "Anyways, as I was saying...." Suddenly, Nodachi's eyes narrowed as he threw the bowl at his assistant with all his might, just barely missing the man! "YOU CALL THAT A STEW, YOU DAMN BASTAAARRRRRD!!!"

"I'm terribly sorry...." The older man sadly responded as he shuddered slightly at how ruthless his master could be at times.

A slight angry huff escaped Nodachi before he pushed the door behind him, simply stating "Now do it right or I'll have to order something to throw again you little-". The door shut firmly right as he was about to continue, interrupting him before the ninja sent to deliver his 'weapon' could gain any further context.