looking for lost pets. the lowest of the low in terms of genin missions. at the very least the client was willing to pay well so it wasn't a total loss but like, looking for pets was always something he had hoped to grow out of by now. still a job was a job and gauma wasn't going to go biting a gift horse in the mouth. if there was one thing to complain about it was how this one cat in particular was somehow giving he and his partner the slip at every turn. [break][break] each time it was spotted it was quick to turn the corner and leave no trace of where it went until it turned up right behind the duo of him and nomura and ran off when the two men turned to try and catch it. "its like its playing a game with us at this point." gauma groaned as he pushed himself off the concrete sidewalk where they had just spotted it only for the ginger male to literally pounce on it to try and grab it once and for all only to land face first onto said pavement with nothing but bits of dirt clinging to his face. [break][break] "think we might need to get some mouse-traps for it, but like cat sized. that is one slippery little pussy cat." he remarked further as he dusted himself off as he rose to his feet. "ya got any ideas nommy-kun on how to catch this beast?" he asked his partner already thinking of his own ways outside of a giant mouse trap to catch this runaway kitten. the closest that seemed plausible was a bunch of catnip under a cardboard box with a string attached to it.
"Nommy-kun? That's fucking terrible." shock, disgust, anger, regret, sham, and another 20 alternative emotions were all boiling in my chest. An overreaction? Of course not! That name is terrible! Had to spit out the takoyaki I was eating, clear the palette.
Appetite's gone. but how much of that was from Nommy and how much of that was his pussy joke, I couldn't decide. How dumb does Gommy-kun sound, huh? did echo through my head, more than once. Not quite strong enough to have the privilege's of speech, but worth considering.
He'd probably like it.
Throwing the rest into a nearby trashcan to Gauma's turned back, a sigh escaped me as I cracked my neck. "It's not gonna be easy to catch like this. We don't have enough hands to just grab it - not like we have enough alleyways to trap it in, either."
Kirigakure's structure was rather open, wide streets dividing several stone and wood structures. Narrow alleyways ocassionally sneaked at intersections, but almost all of them had multiple intersecting areas. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure neither of us actually know how the place it laid out. Experience, sure - but it was far from perfect.
true enough nommy-kun was probably right, they were only two people chasing a single cat in a large city. with what they had at their disposal it was going to be tough either way and his suggestion did make sense in gauma's head. "a map...well..." he looked around the area they were in for any sort of shop that might actually sell something like that to them, so far it seemed they ended up in one of the residential parts of the neighborhood so they would need to backtrack and gauma wasn't intent on letting the target get farther away from them, or in this case them get farther away from it. [break][break] it wasn't until he spotted some birds perched on a patio table that suddenly took to the skies that a light bulb suddenly light up in his brain. maybe what they needed wasn't a map exactly but a- "bird's eye view. what if we got one of those instead of a map. one of use could chase after it while the other guides them and checks up on where its heading. that way we can cut it off before it gives us the slip!" with a fist slamming into his palm he turned towards the buildings to see which one would give the best view..only for his optimism to fade as he realized something important. which one of them would be the spotter in this plan? [break][break] "uh...so did you wanna try and do that or should i be the one up there to try and be the bird in this case?" he asked as he tilted his head at nomura with a quizzical look on it, not even sure if the other boy was down for such a plan.
Scratching my chin in thought, I turned to look over the few streets nearby. Lips tightened as options were considered; the nearest place to find a map of the village was... Shit, the kage tower? Frustration boiled at the forefront of my mind, fighting to become audible. I'm not trying to lose my weekend for this cat.
"Bird's eye isn't bad." the words mulled over, continuing to turn my gaze out and up. No ladders in sight, but a few of the businesses had rooftop exits - something we might be able to take advantage of. A raised brow as my eyes narrowed further than usual, turning to Gauma. "You gonna climb one of these things?"
A sweeping arm gestured, pointing to the few rooftops I could discern a visible doorway. "I think those three have ways for one of us to get there a little easier." The street view was important, too - to me, at least. Might be some weird cat club in town we didn't know about. Really hoped there wasn't though.
"Rock paper scissors for it. Loser does street patrol for the cat." a smile cracking wide. "Even let ya do two out of three if you're a sore loser."
Gauma Gaojima | 202 words | they'll look up at me, screaming for help
"ooooh rock paper scissors? sure man." there was never any reason to turn down a challenge after all. even for the age old contest of rock paper scissors! of course time was of the essence so they would need to be quick if they wanted to get this done and over with or tell some poor client how they lost their cat. even that would be pretty bad for them than one of them losing a game such as this. well sometimes it was the principle of the thing that counted. [break][break] "just don't go crying home to mama if you lose as well. one round is enough for right now though, so ready...rock paper...scissors!" with that he raised up his fist high and mighty to the air and brought it down, opening up two fingers into a snipping movement as his hands mimic the motion of scissors marking his choice for this little game.
The swing of a fist, not once, not twice, but three times. Slammed down in an open palm, reveled into one of three shapes - an ancient, ritualistic game. Mainly originated for designating duties that no one else wanted to do, Rock Paper Scissors - or Janken - was an important part of being a shinobi.
And I fucking ruled at it."Rock, paper, shoot!" The final concussive blow of my hand moved to reveal... Nothing! A rock standing mighty and firm, a pair of scissors erupting from the other genin's hand. My smile cracked a little further, lifting a mock v to my eyebrows as I saluted Gauma.
"Have fun combing the streets." I chimed, not leaving him any space to conject the two-out-of-three I had offered, instead all but running to the nearest rooftop access I saw in my search. Ideally, I'd be able to do something with the birds' eye view, yell down to Gauma in the streets to tell him where I saw the cat. Or something like that; I could just tell him to run around like a moron.
It was going to be a divisive decision, either way.
Gauma Gaojima | 190 words | and i'll whisper down: lmao
well it seemed like gauma was on runner duty. that was fine, he liked the thrill of a good hunt. he just hoped he was fast enough to react accordingly to finally catch this pussy cat bastard. "alright well guide me well little birdy!" he called out to nomura as the younger genin climbed the buildings while gauma raced off towards the direction he last saw the cat head in. it was time to get this done and over with. [break][break] "so where is it heading next?!" he called out to his eye in the sky as he turned the corner and saw the cat weave its way between the people that were passing through, the vision of its form getting mixed together with the legs of the crowd making it hard to swee where it was going from ground level. but up top? perhaps they would have much better success at keeping track of it.
More of the same cutesy crap. I'm gonna have to beat the shit out of this guy if he keeps this up. an inner monologue started to form, brushed away with a shake of my head. Let's go ahead and get this done with.
Sliding open a door, I was met with a shopkeeper and his two assistants. A faint glance at the shelving showed an array of various pottery, some cooking utensils... My gaze slid back, noticing the massive kiln that branched upwards into chimneys. "Excuse me, how do I get to your roof?" the door closed behind me, a finger pointing to the sky - my other hand held on my sword.
A nervous look between the two assistants, but the shopkeep replied curtly, even confidently. "Ladder out back. You're welcome to it, but don't try anything." A nod to a door tucked against a wall, turning back to his wares before I could reply. A smile followed, nodding to the other two as I made my way outside and up.
The roof was barren, a small set of soot stained footprints showing a few dozen trips from ladder to chimney. Must be how they clean it. My gaze turned outwards, peering down between streets, following the marker of Gauma when I could spot him. A darting movement caused me to spin, eyes wide as I tried to piece together every person and animal moving underneath. That's.... The bakers.
"Go to the bakery!" I yelled down, starting a run back to the ladder. "Tanigakis!" Hopefully he knew where to go; my feet touching the ground as I started to run, aiming to meet my fellow genin there.
the bakery. got it. [break][break] "guess the little guy's hungry!" the redhead calls out to his partner in crime as he turns on a dime and changes course. if its the same bakery he's thinking of on this street then there was a way he could probably cut it off if he was quick enough. as gauma gained momentum he could see the sign of the bakery up ahead and started to do...something crazy. his focus started to form a tunnel around him as he suddenly jumped onto the canopy of a store and used it as a trampoline of sorts to jump onto a large statue outside another store. with that he managed to jump off the statue and not only avoid the crowd who were glancing at his direction but also manage to land in front of the bakery and slip around to its corner to keep his presence hidden. [break][break] from his little stunt he managed to catch only a small tail going through the crowds and he knew that he was the one to reach it first between the two of them which meant one thing, now he could be the trap set for their furry friend. sure enough he could spot the cat walking up to the bakery sniffing the air as if the smell of fresh bread caught its attention. gauma didn't waste even a second before jumping out of his corner and nearly pouncing onto the cat grabbing its forelegs as it looked on in horror hissing and its hackles raised. [break][break] "haha gotcha!" the redhead yelled out as he held the cat up as it tried to scratch at the man's arms with its hind legs, but gauma wasn't going to let a few scratches loosen his hold, instead it only tightened it. "nuh uh uh pussy cat, your mama's worried about you. gotta return you to the nest after all! hey nommy-chan! i caught it! we really did it!" he exclaimed as he noticed the white mop of hair approaching the bakery and wore a grin on his face while holding up his prisoner.
A few bumps of the shoulder, the tussle of a moving crowd in midday being more of a hassle than I expected. Nearly tripping a few times in my mad dash, dirty looks were not few, nor far between. Long as I can get my afternoon back, fuck all of you. Maybe not the healthiest worldview.
Finally, I'd manage to pop out into a much less crowded walkway, leading past a corner and towards Tanigaki's Pastries, a rather large bakery that opened a few years past. Always heard good things, never bothered to hunt it down. Thankfully, the red-headed loudmouth waving his arms made the place a bit easier to find.
Raising my own hand in response, I took a step forward to only be assaulted by a small swarm of cats, seemingly materializing from underneath a bread dumpster. Running between, around, and some almost aiming to go up my legs, the tumble of fur was gone in a flash, leaving me with a sash of fur I neither wanted nor requested. "I- yeah, okay, that was weird." Commenting, I finally caught up to Gauma, reaching into my waistband.
"Alright, let's see if that's the real cat." I motioned him forward, pulling out a small rat-shaped doll. "Lady said the cat would go crazy if we showed it this. Only way to know its the right one, she swears." Not like she could've told us any unique features the cat had, just that it was orange.
Coulda swore I saw another three orange cunts in that group. Almost muttering it out loud, I tossed over the toy. Hoping - almost praying - for it to be the right one.
the swarm of cats sure was a surprise that nearly took gauma off his feet as he lifted a leg to let some of them pass underneath him. [break][break] that was when nomura produced a toy that was supposed to help them identify the cat and tossed it towards their little catch. the cat's head seemed to turned towards the toy and focus its gaze on it before doing something...well... [break][break] swinging its legs it managed to flip in gauma's grasp and plant its feet on his face before spring boarding off of him, the surprise at such a thing a cat could even do making him drop his grasp as the cat went sailing through the air to catch the rat toy in the air and land on its feet pawing at the thing, rolling around with it in its mouth as if it had it in a death grip. as it did gauma nearly fell back onto his ass as he wiped away at his face. "augh that thing almost scratched me! but...i think we found our man, er, kitty." he let out a sigh of relief as he looked down to see the cat completely enamored with his toy. [break][break] slowly gauma reached down to scoop up the cat into his arms, this time it looked like it was too busy with its toy to even mind or care that he was doing so which would make taking it back to its owner that much easier. "well...looks like a job well done to me. don't you think?"