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"Well, now that is just wonderful." Phaeton said brightly as the young kunoichi stepped up to take the mission. He would have assumed that more than a genin and a Chuunin would leap at this type of mission, but he apparently was wrong. He continued reading the scroll. It gave3 out several mission details like location, current intel (which was next to nothing), and possible Leaf Village interests that could be protected (which, in all seriousness ended at just location). Phaeton. Phaeton's face shot up when he was told that he was leading the mission. Well, this would definitely be a new experience. He was about to put on his big daddy britches, but Aya seemed to take over and give some really good suggestions as opposed to his 'leave right away' desire. He smiled brightly as he nodded in ascent to her plan.

"Oh please don't call me senpai or sensei. I am neither. I am just Phaeton." He said absently. The idea of being someone's teacher at his current level. He waved to Aya, as he went down the stairs trying to memorize every bit of the mission dossier, but he settled for knowing the problems before reaching his home and walking inside. His sister was there, and her face went ghost white, as she realized what he was reading. He smiled a sadistic sort of way. He had been named the mission leader, so he would be able to exclude them and, considering the rank of ninja they allowed to participate, he gathered he would not need them. He simply walked past her and walked up to his room, before gathering a few items.

Phaeton spent a relatively quiet time ducking his sister and his brother considering they had immediately tried to sign up for the mission and were told to consult the mission leader who had vehemently denied them. As Aya walked up to the tea shop, Phaeton walked out with an exasperated look on his face. He smiled brightly as Aya walked up, but you could still see that he was annoyed though he was trying not to let it affect his current mission. He looked at his receipit. He had chartered the boat as asked.

"Hello, Captain. Are we almost ready to get on going?" A larger man nodded in gruff agreement though didn't seem to say anything. He noticed that the two were carrying packs. He gestured to a door where they would be safe. Then, they were off across the sea to the devastated Village of Markry.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE WORKING FOR THE RAMEN SHOP!" Hisaki screamed, smashing his hands on the Mission Assigning Spec. Jonin's desk. "No, no, no, no, NO! I'm not doing that for you! I know what this is all about! I know you've been racking up debt at the shop! You aren't getting me to do your work because you feel like being a lazy bum!"

Satoru-senpai, as he was called in this building, leaned back in his chair cooly, kicking his feet onto his desk. With the kind of sly, sadistic grin he had on his face, it was obvious he was enjoying tormenting young Hisaki with the daunting task of working off over three hundred and fifty ryo by delivering meals for the shop, "Hey listen up dumbass. You came here to me, looking for a D-Rank Mission. Here you go. This qualifies as D-Rank."

Hisaki's face went red, "No! It doesn't! The work isn't worth the pay OR the kudo-points! No one even requested this job to be done did they!?" Hisaki grabbed the nearly blank mission briefing form and glanced over it. Out of all the fields, only four were filled. This first was the names of the participants, Hisaki Hyuuga and Yuki Yamanaka. The second field was the rank of the mission, Rank D. The third was the Description, filled with the simple phrase, 'Deliver Ramen' Followed by a Chibi face blowing strawberries, with the word 'Baka' in a speech balloon (This was the ninja copy already ripped off from the other carbon copy forms). The final filled field was all the way at the end of the three page forms. For the client field, the signature was obvious, it was Satoru-senpai's.

Hisaki slammed down the sheet infront of the Jonin, "See! You came up with this!" Hisaki then flipped the page to reveal the chibi face, "And you call yourself professional?! We should be assigned a real D-Rank Mission; not this crap you're pulling from your arse!"

Satoru was starting to get a bit irritable. A loud, obnoxious Genin was only amusing for so long, "Listen kid. There's nothing wrong with this mission. It takes ninja skill and speed to deliver ramen on time, before it loses its heat or the customer gets angry. The fact of the matter is that there are currently no other D-Rank Missions open for you, and I'm doing you a favor for giving you this assignment. Now Hisaki, and you too Yuki, if you have any other questions, ask now, or leave and report to the shop."

"Dude, don't worry about it. What's he gonna do? Suspend our 'ninja license'? If he did, we wouldn't have to do cruddy missions like this..." Hisaki mumbled as they walked down the traditional oriental hallways out of the building. Hisaki's eyes rolled, "Man, this is such a drag. I was hoping for something good, like delivering a message for a medium-profile family, or catching some scummy vandals. Or... or... or... I'd even rather pick up trash than pay off this guy's debt! Ugh, I'll get him back some how." An evil grin grew on Hisaki's face as a devilishly troublesome thought came to mind, "Hehehe... I'll have to do that later... He'll regret messing with me..."

As they exited the building, Hisaki's temperament changed, from devilish and conniving to his normal goofy-friendly disposition, "Maybe if we finish this quick, we can stop somewhere and go to a barbecue buffet or grab some dango before our next mission. I could really go for a sesame one to be honest..." Or maybe I could grab one on the job... On the way back for a second shipment maybe... I'd like that.

"Anyways, lets get this done quick. I don't want to be doing this all day, you know? Maybe if we finish fast, there will be another mission for us to do! One that isn't a waste of our time!" Hisaki's immortal grin grew wider as the prospect hit him. He then said with intense excitement, "Come on, lets go!" Hisaki then jumped up to a nearby tree near the pathway, and quickly jumped tree to tree and rooftop to rooftop into the heart of the Village Hidden in the Leaves to get to the ramen deliveries.

Hisaki pushed away the dirty cloth hangings at the doorway and entered the restaurant. It was simply as dirty as you'd expect from the outside. However, it smelt very good inside. The thick aroma of stewing ramen was in the air, and the crackle of frying chicken and beef could be heard in the kitchen beyond. Clashes of metal on china could be heard behind another cloth hanging, presumably to the dining area. Hisaki took a cautious look back as Yuki, then approached the counter. He looked around for a bell to hit, and when it was found, he gave it a quick ding.

A loud booming voice came from the kitchen, "One sec!" Hisaki stepped back, and closed his eyes, hungrily absorbing the atmosphere without sight. Without the sight of the dingy store, everything felt like a top-class restaurant: the aroma was magnificent, the sounds were tantalizing, and surely the taste were as decadent as the rest of the sensory ensemble. With a wooshing sound, the swinging double doors to the kitchen opened. Hisaki opened his eyes to see possibly the most massive man he'd ever laid eyes on. With a salute, Hisaki spoke loudly over the dull roar in the dining room and kitchen,"Hisaki Hyuuga and Yuki Yamanaka, reporting for duty under orders from Satoru-senpai!"

The man laughed, and pointed to himself as he spoke, "Sosuke Akamichi. You know, when I gave Satoru that deadline to pay me back, I wasn't expecting he'd send help." Sosuke groaned, "Fine then... I do have a few deliveries to make." The man went into the kitchen, and in a few seconds, appeared with a pair of white, two foot tall cases. Following those two were two more carried by an assistant. The cases had wooden handles and a metal, sliding front plate stamped with the kanji-signature of the store. Sosuke chuckled, "Alright then. Take these things to their destination. All of them are heading to the same place. Here's the address." He placed a note onto one of the cases.

"Now listen. Theres three rules to delivery. First and foremost is speed. I want these things at their destination within the next fifteen minutes. Secondly, do not, under any circumstances, let these tip. The bowls on the inside are sealed with plastic wrap, but it won't hold much more than the usual bumpy ride. Third! Make sure you collect the money from the customer, and all tips go to me. If they don't, you'll just be doing more deliveries. Got it?"

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Yuki followed Hisaki into the foul looking stand and wrinkled his nose at the sight. Why does Satoru eat here? It looks ridiculous, and it does not look sanitary at all. Ugh, I'd rather give the Konoha elders a sponge bath than work in here. Yuki closed his eyes and chuckled, Then again, we will not be working here, we're delivering Ramen.

Hisaki introduced the two of them to the gargantuan cook, who introduced himself as Sosuke Akamichi. Satoru had a deadline, no wonder he forced this mission on us. Yuki shook his head at the thought and payed attention to their instructions. They were relatively simple: get the packages to their destination in fifteen minutes without spilling and take the payment from the customer. It sounded even easier when all of the cases were going to the same destination, and with Hisaki and himself delivering them, it was child's play.

"Alright Hisaki, you take two, and I'll take the other two." Yuki picked up the address of the case and pondered for a quick minute, "The fastest way to our goal is to take a right out of this shop, and halfway down that road should be an alleyway. If we cut across that, it should save us five minutes of travel time. At the end of the alleyway we will end up near the academy, from there we take a right and then travel straight. The customer's house should be on the left side." As he told Hisaki his directions, Yuki had a mental image of the Leaf Village in his head, and their path of travel was highlighted in red. He smirked, knowing it was the most efficient.

He picked up his two cases with a small grunt and then exited the shop, "I figure, the faster we get the cases over there, the bigger tip we might get from the customer. Just be careful and not break anything, please?" He whined slightly, knowing how reckless the Hyuuga could be.

Hisaki nodded and picked up the pair of cases. They were slightly more heavy than he thought they'd be. He then called up to Yuki, "Sure thing man." Hisaki exited the shop, and began to pick up speed. Pushing his more-fit-than-Yuki's body to move faster, he quickly passed Yuki running up the street. As he caught sight of the alleyway up ahead, he sped up, then began to slow down, preparing for the corner.



Meanwhile, back at the shop, Sosuke wiped his hands with a damp towel. From behind, the two doors opened suddenly. The chef's younger, scrawny assistant stepped through, and looked around the shop for the pair of delivery ninja. Seeing they were gone, the assistant turned to go back into the kitchen. Just as he touched the doors, something hit him. He spun around and said, "Eh, Sosuke? I just noticed, I don't think you ever mentioned the ninja team that's been causing trouble lately?"

Sosuke shook his head, "No. I didn't for a good reason. If I did, they might have choesn to turn down the mission in favor of something less dangerous. We need these orders to get through; we don't need any more delays or lost orders on top of our list."


Hisaki turned the corner and went into a full sprint through the alleyway. Just as he reached the end of the corridor, he felt a sharp cutting sensation all over his body. He momentarily stopped movement, then flew backward, carefully and quickly righting the ramen as he did. Hisaki looked up to see the shining dots and lines that meant that invisible trip wire had been set up there. Hisaki got up from the ground and looked around, "Yo, Yuki. I think we have company of some sort..."

From above, a dull, gruff voice said, "You can say dat again!" Hisaki looked up to see... apparently a trio of ninja on the rooftop overhead. A sharp, demanding voice said, "Ey! Stop yapping and play the damn tape!" There was a scrabbling sound, and a gruff, "Yes, boss." Suddenly, an epic track of music came from overhead. As the music beganin, the three ninja rappelled down on thin ropes As they touched ground, Hisaki got a full look at the trio. All three enemies were dressed in near-identical costumes that made them look like classic ninja. Black robes, black ninja shoes, a black mask, a red scarf, and a rather simplistic tanto made up their full getups.

The one in front, the leader, pulled out his tanto and began his sentence, "This is..." he then paused as he flourished the blade, gesturing towards Yuki, "A mugging. Daidai! Pull the fourth rope now!"

The larger one pulled over a fourth rope that had been hidden next to his own. Once he had hold of it, he gave it a hard pull, nearly jumping in the air to increase the pull. There was a sound of metal on metal from the way they had come. It was a trap! In an instant, a new barrier wall of threads blocked the entrance. As soon as Daidai let go, all four ropes ascended up and over the roof the building they came from.

Now that all five of them were closed in, the leader began again, "I'll tell you who we are," As he said so, the third, lanky one pulled a switch from his pocket and clicked it. Immediately, the boom box above changed tracks. Instead of the epic opening music, the box played a fanfare-esque tune. In a loud, articulate voice, the leader began his motto, "Prepare for Trouble!"

The lanky one mirrored the leader's actions, pulling out his tanto and flourishing the blade. In a tone that almost sounded seductive, he said, "Make that double." A deep mumbling, "Triple..." Came from the oafish Daidai, twiddling his fingers behind them. The Leader and the lanky one ignored his correction and continued to exchange the motto, "To denounce the evils of truth and love!", "To extend our reach to the stars above", "Ringo!", "Nashi!", "Team Kaju, bursting in at the speed of light!", "Surrender the ramen now, or prepare to fight!"

Again from behind came another unenthusiastic rumble from Daidai, "Daidai... Um... Yea, something like that..." Just as they finished, the music turned off, and Ringo, the leader, stepped forward, "Now. Give us that ramen, and we'll be on our way."

Hisaki was behind the group during the intro. Now that it was over, he placed the ramen down. "No way losers," he said as he rolled his neck around and loosened his shoulders, "You guy's picked the wrong ninja to mess with. I'm already in a pissed off mood today, and I think you'll make the right trio to take it out on."

Ringo took a side glance at Hisaki, "Daidai. You take the kid in back," Daidai responded with an accepting grunt. Ringo then looked forward at Yuki, "Nashi, you take the guy in front."

Nashi replied with a clever snicker, and said, "Oh goodie, I get the pretty one." Ringo gave Nashi an odd stare, then continued to explain his part of the operation, "I'll be taking the ramen while you two play offense. Got the plan guys?" The other two nodded in recognition. As the two offensive ninja moved in with their tanto and other classic ninja weapons like kunai and shuriken, Ringo jumped onto the side pipes of the building, and in a flash, was on the fire escape ten feet above the other four.

Hisaki called over to Yuki, "Hey Yuki, you wanna do your thing with the big guy? It might put you at risk for a sec, but he'd be the best in the bunch to use it on I think."

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