Tick, tock, tick

It's been ages since I've been on the active mission roster, and finally I'm cleared to go do my thing, happy days. First day available, and immediately someone assigns me and my team a C-rank mission. The troubles of being a desired woman, I suppose?

It's not even a problem, I've been itching to get out and stretch my legs outside the village for a long time. Still, I don't know how the Hokage did it. The guy had to convince the populace that sending one of the two remaining Uchiha loyal to Konohagakure out of the village was fine, and the complaints delayed me getting any missions more than a D-rank for a while. Not as long as it should have, though, since apparently Hiruzen's a miracle worker. I guess the ability to sway public opinion is one of the reasons he's still in charge.

It worked out at first when I had to take care of Sasuke. Some extra time on my hands also made it easy for me to meet a few friends and learn how to fight without any depth perception, but after a bit it started to get repetitive. Keep doing pet retrieval missions or cleaning graffiti off the walls is no way for anyone to earn a living.

I was so bored I tried to activate my Mangekyou sharingan ability. It's kind of irresponsible, but I wanted to play with my new shiny toy. So imagine my dismay when all I got was a bleeding eye. Maybe it's a Genjutsu, or only activates on the living, but I can't really test it on actual people unless I want to be on the run for the rest of my life.

I thought about testing it on a random rabbit or something small, but I don't want to just make my eyesight worse without a guarantee that I'll figure my ability out. Definitely not just because I can't handle pain well, nope.

And yea, that's why I still have no idea what my magical eye does to this day. Fingers crossed it's badass and complicated, like one of those concept abilities that needs a whole essay to properly explain its effects. A simple power boost or something like that black fire thing is decent, but it's boring, you know?

I am a bit worried that I have to go out on a mission out of the village before gaining full control of my powers, but it is just a C-rank, something has to go terribly wrong if I need to even activate my Mangekyou. Plus, my Genin team was team ten, so I probably won't have the team seven C-rank curse, hopefully!

After a few heartfelt goodbyes from Sora, Sasuke and the rest of the hospital staff, me and my team set out for a simple retrieval mission. Some noble lost his rare coin collection, and he thought brigands or simple thugs stole it. Why that warranted him hiring a full Chunin team of three is a mystery to everyone, but if everything goes well me and my mates might not even need to fight a proper ninja, so I'm not complaining. So here we are, the three stooges, tree hopping to retrieve a rare coin collection.

"Hey, have you ever wondered why people even keep rare coins as collectibles?" Shigeru asks, "Seems pretty pointless to me, some of the coins are so old they can't even be used as currency anymore."

"Beats me," I shrug. In the few previous occasions where my team plus Yui sensei had to do retrieval missions, it was always some artifact or some pricey gem, so this really is a first for us. "What I really want to know is why anyone bothered to steal them. I guess it could be used as stuff for ransom and to get a quick buck, but they could literally steal any other artifact and sell it for a large sum of cash."

"I guess it doesn't really matter, maybe the thief's just not ambitious enough, or maybe the coins are some sort of artifact as well. That aside, want to make a bet?" Shinya stops tree hopping and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. "A thousand ryo that the thieves won't last a minute against us."

"Two thousand ryo on half a minute." Shigeru pulls out a wad of cash and stuffs it in Shinya's collar, who squawks and hurries to grab the cash before it falls.

"What the hell, guess we're doing double or nothing today. Four thousand ryo on them surviving for more than two minutes!" Now everyone's staring at me. "What? I have faith in their abilities to at least delay their demise for a while if they put their backs into it."

"Sure, Akari. Just get ready to pay up." Shinya smirks. "You might have inherited a lot of cash, but you're going to lose it all one of these days, you gambler."

I kick him off the tree for that one while Shigeru just watches as Shinya falls. What a prat.

____________________________________________________________________________

So the noble lives in a remote village with his own militia force made out of peasants with pitchforks, with one or two wielding a sword or a spear. They look underfed, and are pretty pathetic. I don't think any of them actually know how to use their weapons well, so no wonder any rogue could easily steal from him and his citizens. The only fighters worth noting are the Konohagakure forces stationed there, consisting of half a dozen career Genin.

The noble's face is sallow, and his eyes look sunken. He doesn't seem to be sleeping much lately, and there's a half-eaten meal in front of him. He immediately turns to us after we come in, his face lighting up.

"Hello!" He greets us enthusiastically. "Hello, and hello to you too. I'm so glad that you came this fast! The last time I hired mercenaries, they took a week just to come here, and I can't just send away the ninja responsible for my safety to deal with the usual raiders and brigands."

I make sure to smile charmingly at him. "Thank you for requesting our village for this mission, Mr Tokugawa. We will make sure to return your valuables back to you as soon as possible."

The man beams at my words. "None of that, none of that. Please, call me Hideshi." He takes out a map and points to a mountain near the village. "My scouts informed me that this is where the thieves ran away after stealing my coin collection. It's slightly fortified, but I imagine that this won't be a problem for you lot." He hands the map to us and waves to a servant. "Now, unless if you wish to join me for lunch, you are free to leave. Payment will be given when my coin collection is retrieved."

We bow slightly and leave. This mission doesn't look like a handful, so we should be fine if we do things properly. Someone has to scout the area where the supposed brigands were staying, so might as well go there first. The mountain has several cave entrances that can serve as a base of operations for bandits and thieves, so it's pretty handy that Shinya made a bunch of explosive seals. We can just blow the place up if the enemy's too strong and leave them to starve. It probably won't come to that, but that's an option just in case. 

We leap towards the mountain, with Shigeru pausing frequently to reapply Genjutsu that masks our approach and me leading the way.

"There are a lot of cave entrances here, should we split up? It's gonna be riskier, but there really shouldn't be a force able to handle any one of us." I say, grasping a kunai. "Shinya, would you mind staying outside and see if anyone escapes? Flare your chakra if you're in trouble."

"No problem, I'll set up some barrier seals for protection." He replies, grabbing a handful of seals and slamming them onto the ground. "Go on and be careful. Tell me how long they last, alright? I've got some money to win."

I roll my eyes. What idiots.

Me and Shigeru move silently through the caves, checking for any movement or signs of life. We quickly locate some crudely made traps and disarm them. We continue on searching for a minute when we see some light from a fire. There are some poorly armed rogues sitting next to the fire cooking some food, and some chests and a cabinet further in the cave. We sneak past the thieves, with Shigeru casting a noise canceling Genjutsu for us to open the chests and check the cabinet without a sound. We don't find the rare coin collection, but we do find some pieces of jewelry. More shinies for me! I might be rich now, but I won't pass on the opportunity to get richer.

"So, do we knock out those poor sods? The coin collection isn't here, so it's probably in their hands." I whisper, holding out some senbon and coating it with a mild paralytic. Nothing lethal, but civilians won't wake up for hours if they get injected with it, so these people with pitiful chakra reserves will be out for at least two hours.

Shigeru nods, and we knock out all the hostiles within ten seconds by paralyzing them. We then fish the bag of rare coins out of one of the thieves' pockets and that right there is a job well done. It's anticlimactic, but that's the best kind of mission for a ninja. Lost the bet, though…

The next moment, Shinya's chakra flares up. We both rush to the exit to regroup with him. Of course my first proper mission since forever can't be normal and stress-free. Nope, the world just has to screw with me. Whatever, I've been stuck inside the village for so long, I'll treat this as a warm-up and shake the rust off.

Me and Shigeru run out of the cave at the same time, noticing a dozen ninja with slashed headbands surrounding Shinya. They have some cool cloaks on, kinda like some off-brand Akatsuki. At least their cloaks only have a poem about courage at the back, but I can really see the similarities. I guess cloaks do look good on almost anyone, so I guess it's only natural.

I immediately go to Shinya's side and Shigeru starts setting up layers upon layers of Genjutsu. Looks like only one of the enemies have Jounin level chakra, while the rest barely have the chakra reserves of a Chunin. The rogues aren't panicking so they probably faced ninja before and think this will be a cakewalk. They're probably thinking that they can overwhelm us with their numbers. Sure, if this was a normal team they might have the upper hand, but my team's special, ya know. Sounds arrogant when I say it like that, but that's the truth.

"That's a nice coin collection you got there, mind if you hand it over?" One of the rogues asks. "It's just business, so there really is no need to fight. You're outnumbered, and we don't really make a habit of killing if we can help it."

"What are your motives? Why even try to steal this junk?" I dangle the coins in front of the group, gouging their response. I'm trying to buy some time as well, since Shigeru's more complicated Genjutsus are harder to cast.

The man that seems to be the leader steps forward. "This rare coin collection can be sold to nobles in the land of tea for a hefty sum." He speaks. "We will be rich men after this heist, so we won't hesitate to kill. This is our ticket out of this life, and our chance to live like kings! I advise you to hand it over, before you're forced to." He gestures to Shinya, who is slightly roughed up with scratches and tears on his uniform. "Your teammate here is skilled, but he is already tired out. You can't defeat us with only two ninjas and an exhausted one, so just give it to us and we can both go our merry ways."

I mean, not a bad offer if my team's actually weaker than his, but the truth is we're calling the shots here and he just can't see it. "I can't really do that. We were hired to do a job, and we really can't give up without a fight or a good reason. It's a matter of pride and honor and all that shit. Plus, think of our village's damaged reputation! Sorry man, I really can't just give it to you, so we might as well get on with the fighting."

"Then you leave us no choice." He makes some hand seals, covering his fists with lightning. He then signals his men to charge at Shinya and Shigeru, and he lunges at me alone. The others are either caught in Shigeru's Genjutsu or targeting Shinya, so I guess I'm stuck with the strongest opponent, bummer.

I catch his hands and activate my sharingan. "That's not very nice of you, we hardly even know each other. How come you're already trying to kill me?"

He's pretty taken aback by my sharingan. "I thought the Uchiha were all dead. What is this trickery?" He demands, and ramps up the intensity of his attacks. Wow, this is kind of troublesome, actually. He's stronger than his chakra suggests.

I smirk. "It seems your intel is outdated, how unfortunate for you. Most Uchiha were killed, not all. As you can clearly see, I am not dead."

"Yea, I can see that, but you will soon be!" He's rushing at me again, uh oh. I parry one of his blows and stick a senbon in his chest. He winces and aims a kick at my feet, trying to make me lose my balance. I back away immediately, eyes tracking his movements. His hands form some unfamiliar seals and a bright light is emitted, temporarily blinding me. I get my sight back just in time to see him slash at me with a sword. I block it with a kunai and try to swipe at his sword arm but just barely misses him. He seems frustrated that none of his hits landed. Ha, is he upset?

"Why won't you die?" He grits out, his face contorting in fury. He's now more reckless, looks like someone's completely giving up on defense, "It doesn't matter how you struggle, I'm sure your eye will sell for an even better price. You can't surrender now even if you want to!" He locks eyes with me. Big mistake.

I cast a Genjutsu that blocks me from his view, and manage to quickly make a lightning clone and send it to fight the rogue instead. He slowly overpowers the clone, and a sword strike pierces the clone's hand, pinning it to the ground. "Not talking much now, are you?" He says, plunging his hand down to the clone's heart, and it turns into electricity and shocks him. Ha, works every time, never punished. Welp, time to cancel the Genjutsu and finish him off, don't want him to get back up and think about revenge-

My thought process is cut short as pain suddenly bursts in my blind spot and I quickly jump back, on guard. Bloody hell, someone stuck a kunai in my ribs, who the fuck did that, man?

"Did you really think someone of my caliber can be fooled by a hastily constructed Genjutsu?" He smirks and appears in front of me, swapping with a log and slashes at my legs. "I'd admit, you're stronger than the average Chunin, but I'm not sure if it's because of your blinded eye, you've got quite a lot of weak spots to be exploited."

Oh boy, kinda in a pickle here, and both Shinya and Shigeru's occupied. There's an easy solution staring me in the face and that's the Mangekyou sharingan's ability, but it's pretty risky. Still, it might be worth a shot. 

I try to activate my Mangekyou sharingan ability and the pain in my eye intensifies. I feel blood trickling down my cheeks. But I can't really bring myself to care about how everything hurts right now since everything's shifting. Holy shit, my plan actually worked! I was fully prepared to just stand my ground awkwardly and just spam some jutsus if the ability did nothing, but never punished, I say. For real this time.

"Alright, I'm going to name this… Okuninushi." I mutter to myself. It really is a fitting name for my ability. The god of agriculture, medicine and protective magic.

I witness thrown weapons going back to their respective pouches and shifted terrain from destructive jutsus reverting back to their original state. I see my teammates and enemy stuck in their initial stances, unaware of what's currently happening around them. Everything is as it should be, and everyone unfreezes. In their eyes, nothing happened. For me though, everything changes. I can already imagine the many possibilities this power has given me.

I inhale deeply and put on an unsettling smile towards the group of rogues. Alright, you cunts, time for round two. Not letting any one of them get me that easily this time.