Cats and Water [Mission]

Mission Name: Raw Rowdy Rocktails
Mission Type: Chore
Mission Rank: C
Mission Goal: Help some fisherman to catch a bunch of Rocktails.
Description: One of the strongest and hardest to catch fish is the Rocktail, which earned its name due to its sturdy tail with which it can deliver some powerful slaps that could hurt people very badly and is rumoured to even break rocks and the shells of crustaceans with it. It also has a pair of powerful boney jaws that can bite through the hardest leather with a single bite. No matter how tough they are though, their meat's a delicacy...
Payment: 15,000 ryo
Requirements: Chuunin or genin team

Ikomiki had a complicated relationship with the ocean. She hated the water, but she loved the fish.

It came in part with her feline heritage. Just getting close to the ocean made her anxious. It was a problem she faced during the boat ride here for the Chunin Exams. The fact that there were fancy ninja tricks that helped you walk on water made it a bit easier to deal with. After first learning that trick in the forests of Konoha she felt as if she had mastered water and would never have to fear it again. That was when the only thing she had known were rivers and lakes. Now, facing the ocean, it was a different story all together. It rumbled and growled at her. Just by the way it moved she could tell it was bloodthirsty, wanting to kill. The ocean was a terrifying beast. She hated it more than anything. One day she would tame it or conquer it or kill it. Something like that.

Staring out into the roiling sea, the gentle breeze would carry stands of Ikomiki’s white hair off behind her. The sky was clear, without any indication of a storm, but there was a light breeze coming in from the ocean anyway. She didn’t understand it and it made her suspicious. The ocean clearly had mysterious powers. Nobody in the village seemed intent on giving her a straight answer on how best to defend yourself against its power, frustratingly enough, and so she would be forced to go at it with only her instincts.

Carefully she would feel out the wood of the dock. Her weight would be testingly pressed against it, teasing the wood to feel how strong it was and what it could handle. It was nothing compared to the Senju Forests she was familiar with, and just seeing its decrepit appearance made her not trust it. As she felt out that it was able to hold her weight without crumbling into splinters she would slowly step out onto it.

The dock was full of small fishing boats various intervals, along with the bustle of what appeared to be sailors and fishermen. Her ears would twitch at the crowd. Already she wasn’t so sure about this mission.

The dock had no shortage of people, of humans, but there was one that stood out from the crowd. It was understandable, as they were waving around a massive sheet of steel that could generously be given the description of a blade if one were being charitable. It was massive, and just seeing her hoist it around as she did gave an impressive indicator to her strength. Ikomiki would be impressed, if the sheer thought wasn’t just terrifying. This lady could probably pick her up in one hand and with that same hand crush her entire rib cage. Maybe not anything that extreme, but that was the mental image that Ikomiki couldn’t help but get from the situation.

As mundane as catching fish was, this was a mission that she was on. She knew the description of those who she was supposed to be with. This lady was someone who she was, somehow, supposed to approach. It seemed the sailors all had the same idea, meekly getting out of the way of the lady who was waving around the giant cleaver blade. They all had the right idea.

“Here!” The source of the voice was an old tired man. He looked the sort that made his living doing this sort of work, from his balding and sunburnt scalp. Overweight, but not grotesquely so. A patchy mess of fuzz on his face that gave him the impression of a deadbeat along with his other physical characteristics. Ikomiki couldn’t smell him from where she stood but she imagined him to smell like a mixture of alcohol and sardines. “I put out the mission request. Now hold on.” He would turn back to his boat, a generic trawler that had clearly seen better days. It had some name scrawled across it, but the messiness of the kanji made it impossible for Ikomiki to read it. It didn’t help that her ability to read in the first place was questionable at best.

She approached as well now. The man had returned back onto his trawler, disappearing into one of the cabins on the interior. The fact that it seemed empty other than himself explained why he would need to hire shinobi to do a job like this for him. Parking herself behind the tall terrifying woman with a massive steel sword, Ikomiki would let her tail swish back and forth.

“That sword must be especially useful for fishing.” She would squint as she stared up at it, glaring a bit at the weapon that was being so casually displayed. “Or did you think you were coming here to chop down trees?”

Her ears twitched, almost giving an annoyed swat at the woman’s fingers as she reached in close. The girl beneath would stare up, peering at the woman above with eyes that pierced green. Her tail, already having been waving freely to her behind would give a violent swat at the air. Defiance was strong within her, and even standing still her body language would expose what wasn’t immediately said. The target of her glaring had changed.


“Do you usually touch people without their permission?” The girl would ask curtly, although steady in her earlier tone. “I’ve only ever had perverted men try it before. Someone like you is a first. I suppose gender must have nothing to do with lechery then.”

She hadn’t considered the possibility of pirates, but at the same time she couldn’t imagine what good a sword would be for that. to be honest she wasn’t entirely sure what a pirate is, but the fact that it was some sort of hostile element was clear through just context clues. But to fight on a ship either meant jumping onto another ship or taking aim at something from the ocean. Neither were something Ikomiki looked forward to attempting.

Ikomiki would take a step backwards, putting herself outside of the arm's reach of the woman. Hopefully. If she really wanted, there was nothing Ikomiki could do to stop her. This bothered her quite a bit.

“It’s all the same.” Her eyes would turn over to the boat, along where the space where the captain had previously been. “I’ll be boarding the ship with you. Don’t cause me any trouble.”

“I hate water.” She said it with a strong deadpan. It was all taken as hostility to her, and she responded in kind. What sort of cat likes water? It must have been intentional as well, given how quickly this woman took notice of her ears. There wasn’t any ability to claim ignorance or any sort of misunderstanding. It was clearly some sort of underhanded taunt. It was punctuated with maybe something that could be interpreted as kind, but Ikomiki wasn’t sure how she felt about staying close to this strange woman going forward.

Ikomiki watched the strange woman as she jumped from the dock over to the boat. The boat was large enough that these sorts of slight movements didn’t register in a reaction, which gave her a bit of a secure feeling in its strength. At the same time, Akeruseirei’s behavior just became another indicator of her personality. The sort to flaunt their overwhelming strength. With narrowed eyes the catgirl would glare daggers into the woman’s back, although it would only last for a moment.

She would board as well, though through taking the boarding plank rather than leaping the gap like a marmoset.

Hearing the repeat of ‘it’s all the same’ would provoke a frown in Ikomiki. For some reason she didn’t enjoy hearing other people say the phrase.

“Why would I want to touch your ears?” The fact that she parted her hair to show them off was odd. She didn’t understand any of it. “Don’t be strange.”

The swaying of her tail stopped for a moment, and she would look over to where the woman yelled at for a moment. The old man without much hair , who is apparently a captain or something. Her eyes flickered back immediately afterwards, back to the woman. Ikomiki stood straight and tall, a proper posture with the exception of her drooping shoulders. Her arms would fold behind her back, and her tail would curl up to press into her open palms against the small of her back.

“Juice?”

Perhaps humanity had odd customs. She couldn’t imagine it being pleasant to drink juice while on a moving ship like this. It would surely lead to sickness. Although perhaps those native to this land were of a stronger constitution. Perhaps then it wouldn’t be unpleasant for her to try something so bold as well. Juice is good. It was something Ikomiki was fond of. She did admit that there were some clever things that humans came up with, especially when it came to food and comfort.

“My name is Ikomiki. Just Ikomiki.” She would say, peering down to the woman as she bowed. It was strange. So strange. Ikomiki diverted her eyes after a moment, looking off to the side. She stood like this, proper for a moment, before relenting and giving the woman the slightest bow in response. It was pure mimicry. She didn’t understand the meaning behind the movement.

Her eyes trailed, following the greasy man as he came back to the top of the ship. For some reason he followed the woman’s orders as she gave them. Perhaps this lady had some sort of a reputation. It seemed that, at least judging from the color of what he brought up to Rei, that her request for juice was a literal one. She had almost expected it to be non-literal and instead some sort of code for something most suspicious. Ikomiki’s attention was obvious, following the cup clearly with her eyes sas the gross man traveled with it and then focusing on Rei’s hands as it was placed into them. Rather than keeping eye contact this was much more important to her. The juice was such a pretty color. Ikomiki stayed silent.

“I’m from Konoha.” Her attention was eventually torn away from the glass in the woman’s hands. “The Land of Fire. Sora-ku, in the Senju Forests. I haven’t actually spent very long in Konoha.”

A few names were littered out in succession, with the first being discarded as quickly as it was announced. She didn’t wear a Konoha headband at the moment, despite being a Genin from that village. With the recent political turmoil in the village she was more eager than ever to distance herself from Konoha. Especially with the way she looked. The only reason she had reached out to the village in the first place was for safety, but now with how she looked she was lucky to not just get lynched on the street for the crime of looking like a cat. The idea of taking an extended leave in Kirigakure until the mess in Konoha blew over had crossed her mind a few times before, but at the same time that plan had its own vulnerabilities.

And she wasn’t really fond of the idea of living on an island either. Her eyes would turn out to the sea, staring at the slight movements of the water in the distance.

“It’s different here. I don’t like it, but I don’t want to go back either.” Helping the people. That was what she was doing, apparently. The idea was strange.

“Where are you from?”

“I hate it.” Her response was immediate. She didn’t spare the woman’s feelings as a native, instead just speaking the truth. “The city and the ocean and the humidity. It’s all terrible. I don’t understand how people live here. Although, the jungle outside the village is nice.” It reminded her of home, but seeing how this woman seemed to dislike forests there was no reason to share that. It seemed they had opposing views on the matter. Civilization was something she had difficulty appreciating. The city was just dirty and crowded. Full of feet and noise and filth and bugs. There was nothing in it worth having. This was the same as Konoha, and Kiri was no different. If she had the power to choose all of it would be burnt to the ground. “I’m only here for the Chunin Exams. When they’re over I’ll be leaving. Unfortunately. Assuming I haven’t died first.”

The glass that was offered to her would be inspected carefully. It appeared to be of the same amber fluid as the one that had been handed over to the strange woman. Ikomiki would lean forward as it was still in the man’s hand, giving it a testing sniff. It didn’t have the aroma of poison, and so Ikomiki would carefully take it from the man’s hands. She wouldn’t drink it just yet, choosing to watch how Rei digested it first.

“You’ve been to Konoha before then?” She had caught that bit as Rei said it. It was something to be picked at, even if she didn’t care to hear the answer. Just another curiosity that could be exposed to pass the time.

Ikomiki, despite how she dressed with her human trappings, could hardly be called domesticated. She was feral at heart, even if she barely looked the part. Or at least that was what she wanted to be. The things she had adopted wholesale since coming into civilization, being clothing and little supplementary hygiene devices like brushes and combs, made an incredible difference in her outwards appearance, but the way she behaved wasn’t all too different from when she had lived in Sora-ku. Defer to strength. Watch your surroundings. Keep your head down low. Show no weakness, but don’t make yourself a target. These were all rules that should work regardless of her surrounding, even if things became strange and confusing when involving the civilized world.

Her ears did indeed perk, although it came at the description of the cocktail she had been handed. Just fruits. She was still cautious, understandably so after what happened the last time she accepted food from strangers. That was an experience she didn’t want to repeat. At the same time the allure of the juice was powerful. Rei had already sipped at it too, and so it was unlikely that it was poisoned or anything along those lines. Slowly Ikomiki would raise the glass to her lips and take a small sip of the amber fluid.

The sweetness as it hit her tongue and the back of her throat immediately changed her demeanor towards it. She would take another sip. The glass was too tall for her to lick at it with her tongue like she would have liked, and so she was forced to drink in a human-like manner, but all the same it was delicious.

“I like this.” She declared, in the same way that a monarch would declare their approval for a servant, or a parent for their child.

She continued to sip at it, taking the smallest bit against her tongue each time. Little itty bitty baby sips. The rest of what Rei had said would be ignored, as it wasn’t important in comparison.

Ikomiki would turn up from her glass as Rei gave the offer. Somehow she had managed to read her mind. Or was it just that this woman was familiar with cats? Ikomiki didn’t know which it was, but it was more likely that she had a pet cat than she can read minds. Her desire to drink the juice like a cat was purely instinctual. She had opposable thumbs and hands, so drinking like a human would have been fine for her. Ikomiki lacked the whiskers that cats did as well, and so she had no real reason to enjoy drinking out of bowls. It was something that she did enjoy though, just after years of habit. Perhaps it could be described as something cultural.

“I would like that.” It came out quickly. Usually she was a bit more hostile towards strangers like this, especially ones who were so suspicious. Having been offered free food took away a lot of that attitude she normally would have had. “...How did you know?” She looked up at the woman, eyeing her for a moment, although her attention would be captured back down by the glass in her hands after a moment. She held it with both of her hands at the same time, wrapped around carefully. Part of it was her lack of experience in drinking in this human style, and half of it was fear of dropping it through the gentle movements that the boat had.

Her tail swished through the air behind her. It caught the ends of her hair, silvery strands that flowed far too long down her back. The hair would be parted by the movements of her tail and then sent moving with its own current from the momentum. Her tail stayed fluid throughout the entire encounter, moving as if it had a mind of its own and rarely coming to a rest. As another form of body language it was hard to tell if Ikomiki was even aware of her own movements. If one was familiar with their intent they would be easily able to read her mood, but even then the capricious nature of a cat made utilizing this difficult. Now it snaked upwards, standing tall above her back and amidst her hair. The tip curved inwards, forming almost into the shape of a question mark.

“It is. Bowls are easier to drink from than cups, and harder to spill. I don’t see why humans always insist on drinking from cups and bottles. It’s too inconvenient.” She looked down at her own hands, wondering how exactly they gave away all that information. Social interaction was an artform she had yet to master. Perhaps it would come easier to her in time, with more experience.

“What’s sake?”

It was an odd question, but someone so deep into human society might not be able to understand that, or why it was so strange. Ikomiki had an understanding of what liquor was. Fermentation could happen naturally. She was aware of these things when they occured, and even if she hadn’t been there was a certain amount of scavenging that she did while in Sora-ku. There was so much filth and excess that came from cities that it would sometimes end up even out in the forests where she made her home. The smell of it was something she could recognize, although more often than not it came disguised with something else.

But what was old enough to drink? Ikomiki didn’t know how old she was. In terms of a cat, she would be reaching the end of her life, but at the same time she felt spry and young. She matured slowly compared to other cats. Faster than a human would, but still slow compared to kittens who were springing around and starting to first go into heat at six months. There was no conception of time in her mind, at least not in the same way that humans had it. There were only milestones. Winters and summers maybe, but these all blurred together at a certain point.

“I don’t know how old I am. Or how old you need to be in order to drink.” She admitted, not having any shame in the fact. It was unimportant to her. All that mattered was that she was still young, which she could tell clearly just by how spry and quick she was still able to move. Nothing else was important.

The man would appear again, swapping the cup she had with a bowl. Ikomiki would look at him as he pulled away, learning back to light some paper stick in his mouth. She would silently thank him and then turn back into the wonderful amber liquid filling her bowl. It would be brought up to her chin carefully, and with her tongue she was lap at it in a very similar way to an animal.

“Why does it matter?”

[/q

“The fish.” She didn’t question it. Two times in a row of the correct guesses just made Ikomiki assume this woman was exceptionally intelligent. “The fish here are different than the ones in Konoha. They’re different shapes and more colorful. In Konoha there are mostly only long fish, and the most colorful ones are green or have a stripe of pink down the middle. I’ve looked in the rivers here and the fish are all sorts of different colors and shapes. Some of them look like they have hair, and some are flat and circular.” It was the most she spoke, and that she chose to open up on this topic continued her stereotypical feline behavior.

She had a lot of experience fishing in rivers before. That was mostly at the riverside though. Even though she said she hated the water, this was only true if her hair got wet. As long as her hair didn’t get wet she didn’t mind it. As her hair flowed down approximately to her thighs that meant not traveling any more than knee deep into water. This wasn’t difficult when in rivers, but when it came to the ocean it was an entire different beast.

“I want to see what fish from the ocean are like. What size and what shapes they are. I just wish it was easier than having to go out on a boat.”

[

Kitsuki breathed in the salty sea air as she headed towards the dock. When she heard that this mission was to catch a Rocktail, she couldn't pass up the opportunity. Kitsuki loved a good Rocktail. Being a pescatarian, it was one of her life's goals to sample every fish the world had to offer. Unfortunately, that was rather difficult when you kept eating the same types of fish again and again. The girl couldn't help it, there were some species of fish that were just too tasty to pass up and this was one of them. She expected to be paid in Ryo but if the fishermen threw in some Rocktail as an extra reward then that would be even better.

Kitsuki wore a black rain coat with golden buttons and a pair of stylish boats. When she came across the boat ties to the dock, she gingerly stepped aboard and called to the inhabitants in the cabin.

"Hello? Hellooo! I'm here for the mission....catching Rocktails"