Fight Club [Nejiko, Yuugao]
[Takes place before Tentsuke's return. Will figure out exact timing of this (aside from February) tomorrow. Right now Bel and I are just getting this thing frelling posted. The comment count is why. If anyone wants the Teal Deer quick summary, either poke me or wait until I get around to timelining.]
[Thread-posting still a work-in-progress. Will note when it's complete.]
Nejiko was not a consummate actress. This amongst other things thus generated severe limitations as to the kinds of undercover missions she could participate in, be they ANBU or not. Better, in her opinion, she simply undertake such straightforward missions as 'search' or 'search and destroy'. Best use of her Byakugan and her skills, and more expedient. She liked to undertake a [sufficiently challenging] mission, focus on the objective and how to reach it, and nothing more. Prancing about pretending she was something she was not left a quietly sour taste in her mouth. If she was contracted to protect a person, she would prefer to be allowed her uniform or at least something most decidedly not civilian issue.
But for this mission, however...
In a very prosperous town, it wasn't unusual for fights to happen. Nor was it entirely unheard of for the fighters to organize themselves, giving birth to gangs who staked out territories and mercilessly attacked those who would infringe upon them. Or, alternatively, a different alternative could arise. Underground tournaments, or fight clubs, that could promote the prowess of an individual fighter that would nevertheless have ripples throughout the fighting community. Municipal authorities would do what they could to put down such competitions with varying degrees of success.
This was a little different. In a village named Hijikawa, located a few hundred kilometers inside the southeast border of Earth Country, one fighter was achieving such prominence as to give authorities a reason to worry. Not only was he very good at winning, but from the word of paid informants he was also using the fight club to weed out the good fighters to join his slow-growing but already decent-sized army. Threat of rebellion was very real, and the city officials had pulled their money to hire Konoha ANBU to take down the leader and disband the group "by any means necessary."
Admittedly, Nejiko liked that little clause. What she didn't like was that in order for she and Yuugao-taichou to make entrance into the club to find out just how far-reaching it was, as well as to assess the group as a whole, she needed to dress as a civilian. A civilian not too many steps up from poverty herself, and whose taste in clothing was decidedly nothing like her own.
Here her black shirt was ragged at the ends of the short sleeves and at the bottom hem which exposed her midriff (and the twining trunk of her tattoo), and the low-ride cut-off denim shorts didn't exactly hide the circular scar on her lower right abdomen. She had wanted a judicious addition of fishnet to her ensemble (she had more costumes of a similar vein for this mission) but it was pointed out that she was going in as an experienced fighter, interested in attaining a good position, and that her scars would tell much more about her before even spoke a word.
And she could even tell the mostly-truth about how a crossbow bolt had shot through her, if she needed. (Thankfully, she hadn't.)
The saving grace thus far, if there really was any, was that she wasn't required to curb her temper for this mission. She could be as bitchy as she wanted, which was actually harder than anyone realized given the Hyuuga training to not show emotions. Being encouraged to show them, however, only irritated her more which was probably the intent. Adding to her annoyance was that with the Fate-forsaken contacts in, not only did her eyes itch constantly but people knew when she was looking at them, as it was obvious now. The time their target had caught her giving him an assessing glance to measure his potential skill and ability before seeing him fight, he'd responded with a leering grin. His once-over of her in return had been slow, lingering, and unfortunately not unexpected.
And though he had done a good job of covering it, Yuugao's quiet bristling only made her wish she could get away with smacking him so as to get him to cease behaving as an idiot. She and he would need to have a talk after this--beyond a professional one as her superior and also as a sparring partner or a teacher, he had no claim to her and therefore no business getting upset because (surprise, surprise) another male was interested in her.
Times like this really made her wish she was homely. This sort of attention was quite undesired. She huffed an inaudible sigh and focused on Yuugao's fight.
[Thread-posting still a work-in-progress. Will note when it's complete.]
Nejiko was not a consummate actress. This amongst other things thus generated severe limitations as to the kinds of undercover missions she could participate in, be they ANBU or not. Better, in her opinion, she simply undertake such straightforward missions as 'search' or 'search and destroy'. Best use of her Byakugan and her skills, and more expedient. She liked to undertake a [sufficiently challenging] mission, focus on the objective and how to reach it, and nothing more. Prancing about pretending she was something she was not left a quietly sour taste in her mouth. If she was contracted to protect a person, she would prefer to be allowed her uniform or at least something most decidedly not civilian issue.
But for this mission, however...
In a very prosperous town, it wasn't unusual for fights to happen. Nor was it entirely unheard of for the fighters to organize themselves, giving birth to gangs who staked out territories and mercilessly attacked those who would infringe upon them. Or, alternatively, a different alternative could arise. Underground tournaments, or fight clubs, that could promote the prowess of an individual fighter that would nevertheless have ripples throughout the fighting community. Municipal authorities would do what they could to put down such competitions with varying degrees of success.
This was a little different. In a village named Hijikawa, located a few hundred kilometers inside the southeast border of Earth Country, one fighter was achieving such prominence as to give authorities a reason to worry. Not only was he very good at winning, but from the word of paid informants he was also using the fight club to weed out the good fighters to join his slow-growing but already decent-sized army. Threat of rebellion was very real, and the city officials had pulled their money to hire Konoha ANBU to take down the leader and disband the group "by any means necessary."
Admittedly, Nejiko liked that little clause. What she didn't like was that in order for she and Yuugao-taichou to make entrance into the club to find out just how far-reaching it was, as well as to assess the group as a whole, she needed to dress as a civilian. A civilian not too many steps up from poverty herself, and whose taste in clothing was decidedly nothing like her own.
Here her black shirt was ragged at the ends of the short sleeves and at the bottom hem which exposed her midriff (and the twining trunk of her tattoo), and the low-ride cut-off denim shorts didn't exactly hide the circular scar on her lower right abdomen. She had wanted a judicious addition of fishnet to her ensemble (she had more costumes of a similar vein for this mission) but it was pointed out that she was going in as an experienced fighter, interested in attaining a good position, and that her scars would tell much more about her before even spoke a word.
And she could even tell the mostly-truth about how a crossbow bolt had shot through her, if she needed. (Thankfully, she hadn't.)
The saving grace thus far, if there really was any, was that she wasn't required to curb her temper for this mission. She could be as bitchy as she wanted, which was actually harder than anyone realized given the Hyuuga training to not show emotions. Being encouraged to show them, however, only irritated her more which was probably the intent. Adding to her annoyance was that with the Fate-forsaken contacts in, not only did her eyes itch constantly but people knew when she was looking at them, as it was obvious now. The time their target had caught her giving him an assessing glance to measure his potential skill and ability before seeing him fight, he'd responded with a leering grin. His once-over of her in return had been slow, lingering, and unfortunately not unexpected.
And though he had done a good job of covering it, Yuugao's quiet bristling only made her wish she could get away with smacking him so as to get him to cease behaving as an idiot. She and he would need to have a talk after this--beyond a professional one as her superior and also as a sparring partner or a teacher, he had no claim to her and therefore no business getting upset because (surprise, surprise) another male was interested in her.
Times like this really made her wish she was homely. This sort of attention was quite undesired. She huffed an inaudible sigh and focused on Yuugao's fight.