The Lion Chapter 1

“Alright you can do this”, spoke a young girl as she stood outside of an inn. The building was large, larger than anything she had seen in her life. It stood a grand five stories tall and was five times as wide as any home. It was painted a pitch black and had a metal sigh hanging on it the size of a house. “The Den of the Disturbed”, spoke the young girl as she read the thing out loud. Her heart began to race as she began to walk toward the door. Most people knew of The Den of the Disturbed. It was quite the famous tavern in the Land of the Sound. It was the one stop location for anything one desired. On the first floor was the bar. Here one can get drunk on cheap liquor and tell stories of faded glory. This home of the mercenaries and the place where one can find both work and place jobs. Bellow it and located in the basement of the building was the black market. Here one can buy anything that was illegal. Be it arms and weapons to illegal drugs and technology. Two floors up was residential area. This is where one could rent a room for the night and sleep off the liquor one drunk below. The last two floors were off limits to the general population. This is where the weapons and the guards who ran the place stayed and above that was the dwellings of the Big Boss. Every black coin that flowed through this place first passed through his hands. He was a man not to be trifled with. I know you are wondering what in the world was a young girl, at the tender age of thirteen no less, doing in such a vile place. Her business was on the first floor, the home of mercenaries, and the profession she wished to enter. It took all the courage she could muster to come here. Her father had told her to avoid the place, but debut and hunger pushed her to its doors. “Alright Kin you can do this”, spoke the young lady to herself as she prepared to open the massive doors. At her side was her father’s broadsword and in her mind was the knowledge of her mother. Kin was ready for whatever lied through the gates. The only thing holding her back was the courage to go forward. With one last deep breath Kin threw her body forward. All sixty one kilograms of her smashed into the door sending it flying open. The two slabs of wood stopped with bang as they hit two nearby tables and the sound of ill swears could be heard on either side followed by ale spilling on the ground. Every eye in the room turned toward the young lady. You could feel the bloodlust radiating off them as scruffy men who had seen many years of war and violence ran their eyes up and down young lady. Kin’s face turned red as a pepper as she felt herself being violated by their unwelcomed stare. The young maiden was wearing nothing more than a blue crop shirt and a pair of short cut jean shorts. Most of her long legs however were covered by long black leggings which ran down into a pair of thick leather cowboy boots. She was far from the look of a mercenary and the only thing that told of her intentions was the broadsword that hung from her waist. For a moment everything was silent with the exception a few people cleaning ale off the floor. Everyone stared at her for a moment waiting for the young girl to move. Kin however was frozen still. She did not know what to do and her lack of movement made the situation even stranger. Finally though the silence was broken. The old bar keep, the most sacred and respected position in the tavern, opened his mouth to speak. “Young lady please close the door”, spoke the man as he turned back to his glass. Age had done its work on the man’s face, that and a life of fighting and mead had given him a gruffly look that was probably twice his real age. His hair was cut low and his right eye was covered by an eye patch. He wore an uncommon shirt that held both the symbols of the Land of Fire and the Land of Sound. The barkeeps’ voice broke the stalemate inside young Kin’s mind. The young maiden turned around and closed the massive double doors and took a deep breath. “Come on Kin you are already here”, she spoke as she turned around and walked toward the bar. The patrons of the din had stopped staring and returned to their conversations. As quickly as the maiden had stolen the show a normalcy had returned to the bar. Lost and bewildered Kin walked up to the bar. The maiden did not know what to do and by instinct she moved to take a seat on one of the stools. “So”, spoke the Barkeep before she sat down. The aged man walked from the other side of the bar over to where she was. He still stood behind the polished wood, but his presence was felt clearly on the other side. “You are one of those who seeks to be a mercenary right.” The old man read her like a book. “Yes I am”, she spoke as she looked him in the eye. The maiden lost her courage and turned her head back down to the bar. There was something intimidating about the man. She could not put her finger on it, but she could feel that he was something more than he seemed. “Hey hold your head up lass”, he spoke as he reached his hand down and touched her chin. His hand motion made her look up and stare into his eye. There was a stern glare coming from him. It reminded her of her father, but only when he was angry. It was clear that he was not pleased with her, but at the same time it looked as if he was looking through her. “If you want to be a mercenary then you need to learn to look a man in the eye”, he spoke as he removed his hand. “If you can’t do that then you might as well go home and pick flowers. This is no place for little girls.” “I am not a little girl”, shouted Kin as she looked up at the man. The young girl’s true personality was starting to come out. The barkeep did not know it, but he hit the young lady’s berserk button. She did not like being called a little girl. The two words did not sit well with her. Sure she was young, but she was not small, nor was she naïve enough to be called a girl. All that went out the door a week ago when she watched her father bleed out and die in town square. Her sudden outburst caused the barkeep to raise an eyebrow. At this moment he was sure that she would back down and go back out that door. However the fire he seen in her eyes when he called her a little girl made him take a second look. Despite her small frame and fair face the maiden had a good bit of muscles on her. Her arms, legs, and even her stomach gave testament toward some form of physical training. Even more so with her being a women. Women gained muscles far less than men and the fact that they were showing gave testament to her physical training. “So then young lady”, spoke the barkeep as he began to run a dry rag through a glass. He kept his eye locked in hers to see if she would turn her gaze. “What is your name and how old are you. If you want to be a mercenary that works out of this hall I need to know both.” “Kin”, she spoke giving a small pause before she would speak again. “Kin Shi, spelled with both the kanji for gold and then with the kanji for death.” “Kin Shi”, spoke the barkeep as a wicked smile crossed his face. In English her name would come out as Gold Death. A phrase often used in the inn for a big pay day. The moment the words left the barkeeps mouth all the mercenaries turned and looked. The young girl had an interesting name, though her skill was yet to be proven. “Very well Kin Shi”, he spoke as he pulled out a big book marked with the letter Ki. He found an empty slot and wrote her name in it. “Your age” he asked as he came to the slot dedicated for it. “Does it matter”, spoke the maiden. She did not want to give it away. She knew gaining respect and jobs would be hard as it is since she was a women, but her age. Well it would make things far more difficult. “Yes it does”, spoke the man as he turned his one eye toward the girl. “If I don’t have it you can’t sign up for jobs. It is just that simple.” Kin gave off an unpleasant sigh. “Thirteen”, she spoke. Her voice was low and her tone in a hush manner. “Thirteen”, spoke the barkeep in a loud and bold tone. His voice carried around the bar grabbing the attention of a few more rowdy individuals. “Thirteen”, spoke one of the more drunk mercenaries. “You might as well be digging her a grave”, spoke the man. “Yeah”, spoke another as he chugged a mug full of green liquid. “Go back piah howthonsjsers” spoke the man before he passed out on the floor. The attention that was gained by the announcement of her age immediately died as everyone stared at the unconscious man drooling on himself. “What the hell was he drinking”, spoke one of the mercenaries breaking the silence. “You did that on purpose”, spoke Kin as she turned back and looked at the Barkeep. The aged man however had already moved and was pulling out a card made from pure bronze. “Here”, he spoke as he handed the young maiden the card. “This will get you any mission of bronze level. Anything above you are prohibited from taking. The guild has a reputation to keep.” “Wait what does this card mean”, spoke the maiden as she looked at the man. She had no idea about the ranks and organization of mercenaries. She just knew if she became one she could not only earn some coin, but become stronger as a result. “You don’t know”, spoke the barkeep as he looked at the young girl. Her bewildered expression told him everything. The aged man let out a sigh as he realized that she was as green as a newborn. “So you come here to become a mercenary but yet you understand nothing about how we work”, spoke the man. An embarrassing red line crossed Kin’s face as the maiden turned and looked away from the man. “Very well”, he spoke as he began to walk around the counter top and move to a giant board on the wall. “Come over here lass”, he spoke as he motioned his hand for her to follow. Reluctantly Kin got out of her seat and walked over to the board. He would rather he told her instead of simply showing it to her. Now everyone in the room knew she was a green as a bean stock, though it did not take the Barkeep showing her the board for them to know that. She told them that the moment she walked in. “Alright listen up”, spoke the man as he pointed to our separate sections on the board. Each section was marked by a solid plate of metal. There were no words, but anyone with a brain could understand. “Listen up there are three bars that mark the quality of the mission. The first is bronze bar. They are bronze level missions. The second is the silver bar and they are silver level missions. The last is the gold bar and as you can guess they are gold level missions.” Dauh, thought Kin as she looked at the aged man. She did not need him to explain that. It was obvious form the start. “Any mission that falls under the bronze symbol is a bronze mission”, spoke the Barkeep as he pointed toward the metal plate. Once again the old man was repeating himself. Kin wondered if he had Alzheimer’s or something. “These are the easy mission. They are small stuff like getting rid of wolves and tracking down lost cats.” “Wolves and cats”, spoke the maiden as she looked at the man with distaste. Kin did not come here to hunt down lost animals or clear out pest. She came here to get stronger and earn coin. The gold amounts on these jobs was pathetic. Some of them only gave you ten dollars. “Yes Wolves and cats”, spoke the Barkeep. “No one trust a novice, which is you by the way, to do anything big. They want experience mercenaries to do the important jobs. For example”, he spoke as he pointed to a mission located in the silver section. “In the silver section, which is the jobs for real mercenaries we have escort missions, raids, and duels. After you have finished a couple of small missions and the guild thinks your skilled enough to take on a real job then you can pick one these up.” Kin took a moment to skim over some of the contracts. The work there seemed like a real challenge. Some jobs were dedicated to whipping out dangerous creatures and others were request to hunt down other mercenaries. This was bounty hunter work people looking to take down real killers. “The last”, spoke the Barkeep as he pointed toward the golden plate. “These are the gold missions. Most mercenaries don’t make it this far, or refuse to even take contracts in this area.” “Hmm”, spoke Kin as she looked at the man. “Why would they not take these missions”, she asked. “The payout is good is it not?” “True”, spoke the Barkeep as he looked at the young maiden. “However the danger involved in these missions sometimes outweigh the money one gets in return. Gold missions involve the killing of high rank ninja or taking on jobs that mess with a lot of people’s money. The backlash from these jobs are usually not worth the benefit. Still as a guild we accept them and place them on the board. It is up to the mercenary if the risk is worth the reward.” “Wait what about this brown bar”, spoke Kin as she pointed toward a wooden plate. It stood a few feet away from the other markers and had very little missions on it. “Oh those”, spoke the Barkeep as he looked down at the young lady. “Those are the reject missions. Those are missions that were placed on the board and were accepted by may mercenaries. However over time these missions were never completed. The mercenaries who took them all ended up dead. The contractor however did not remove them from the board and instead reapplied them after the allotted time was up. Those missions are not limited to any card. Anyone can take them, but you have to understand they are more than likely to end in your death”, spoke the man. With that the Barkeep walked away and left the young girl at the board. Kin stared at the brown section for a moment. She wounded what missions lied in its sections. Curiously she walked over to it and began to read some of them. “Kill Orochimaru”, she spoke as she read one aloud. “Who in the world is Orochimaru”, she spoke to herself as she pondered why the mercenaries failed. A few of them had the names of kages on it. As if somebody would accept these. What fool in their right mind would think a mercenary could pull off such deeds? To her surprise one of them asked for mercenaries to clear out some Bees. Before she could voice the question to herself one of the old head walked up and answered it for her. “Don’t even think about it little girl”, spoke the man as he looked at her. “That job makes it sound easy, but that Bee hive it is talking about is sixty feet wide and fifty feet long. If you even get near that thing you will be swarmed to death in seconds.” The very thought of what the man said drained the blood from her face as she began to contemplate the pain of being stung by thousands of Bees. “Well never mind then”, she spoke as she moved to another mission on the board. The other missions seemed to follow a similar pattern. They were either assassination missions for high political figures or missions asking you to slay bit targets. However there was one mission that caught Kin’s eye. One mission that sent her heart racing. Kill Hidden Leaf Ginin, the words were written in bold letters and the details written below. Kin could not help but stare at the mission. The words Hidden Leaf called out to her as her mind began to think back on past events. The leaf village was neighbors to the great land of Sound. People fleeing the Land of Fire would often come to the Land of Sound to find shelter and refuge from things happening across the border. Sometimes those people were not peasants. Sometimes those people were Ninjas. As similar situation happened a week ago. A person connected to the great leaf village came to Kin’s home town. They simply wanted to stay the night and return to the road in the morning. Naturally the people in the village welcomed them and gave them the same hospitality they would any visitor. However this visitor was marked by the leaf village and as a result they were attacked by leaf ninjas. Naturally when someone sees somebody being attacked in there village they would move to help them. This somebody was Kin’s father. The man had a kind soul, but was foolish in his nature. He attempted to help this person escape the village and ultimately succeeded. However out of spite he was killed by the Lea Ninjas and Kin was forced to watch. That death started her quest to become stronger and started the flames of vengeance in her heart. “Leaf Village”, she spoke as she reached her hand out and touched the mission tag. Her eyes began to read the description of her target when she noticed a little tag directing her to see a certain individual. “What the”, she spoke as she read the tag. If one seeks the contract then show this symbol to the Barkeep. I to seek the target and we should both join forces for jolly cooperation. “Jolly cooperation”, she spoke as she looked at the tag with bewilderment. She had no idea who this person was or why they chose the words Jolly Cooperation, but Kin wanted to make this personal. She knew she promised her father that she would not seek vengeance, but she could not help it. She wanted blood for her blood. She wanted them to feel the loss she felt. The leaf village had to pay for this. Still, she was not strong enough. She knew it. Her blade, though fine-tuned, was still too weak. “Hey Barkeep”, she spoke as she pulled the job off the wall. The man looked up to expect her to have a bronze level mission in her hand, but to his great surprise she held a brown. A brown of all things. This green recruit was trying to take on a brown mission. He was not sure if he should be angry or if he should feel pity. The young girl clearly did not know her place, nor did she understand what she was getting herself into. “Young lady”, he spoke with a stern tone. However he stopped himself. The guild had rules. She was able to take any mission that fell in her ranking. It was not his place to tell her otherwise. “Never mind”, he spoke as he regained control over his emotions. “If you are looking for Mr. Jolly Cooperation he is over there” spoke the Barkeep. The aged man read the maiden’s mind. It seemed that she was not the only one who found his statement to be strange. As Kin began to walk toward the direction the Barkeep pointed too she began to understand why the Din of the Disturbed got its name. There were a lot of strange people here. One would not see them when one walked in, but if they walked back toward the furthest table and the darkest corner in the Inn you would see them. At the very back there was a strange man wearing a banana costume. It seemed to be made of metal and had a very peculiar look to it. Next to him was another weirdo. He had pointy ears and golden hair. He had a strange green hat on and wore an outfit that looked more like cosplay for some movie than an actual combat gear. Even further to the left was a girl who was far weirder than those two. She dressed like a witch out of a story book. She had the pointed hat and stick and all. “Umm I think I am in the wrong place”, spoke Kin aloud as she moved to turn around. “Hark”, spoke a voice from behind her as she made her B-line turn. “Do you not have my mission in thy hand”, spoke the voice. The sound was muffled, almost as if the voice was going through some kind of device. The young lady turned around to look to see where it came from and to her great horror it was the weirdo in the back. You know the one wearing the banana costume. With great joy and pride he walked up to the young lady. He stood at least a foot above her and the weirdness of his costume screamed at her. “Are you the guy who”, she spoke. He did not need to answer. His choice in clothing alone already told her. “Yes it was I who requested Jolly Cooperation”, he spoke as Kin’s eyes widen. This idiot was the one she was going to seek help from. The person who was supposed to fill the gap between her skill and that of the genin trained by the Leaf Village. “Hold on a second little girl”, he spoke as he reached his hand out and touched her shoulder. Kin immediately reacted violently. “I am not a little girl”, she shouted as she turned and sent a full powered punch toward the man’s stomach. This big lout was not the first man Kin had ever punched in the gut. When her father was alive his friends would come over. The fools would get drunk and joke around and inevitably one of them would end up calling her a little girl. That sound would usually end with her planning her fist in there gut sending them toppling over and throwing up there liquor. Kin had gotten proud of her fist over the years. She was sure she probably had the hardest punch in all of the Land of Sound. However she was wrong. Kin’s fist slammed into the man and was meet with nothing but solid steel. The force of the punch did not even leave a dent in the plating and a sharp spike of pain radiated through the maiden’s arm. “Damn it”, she shouted as she feel to the ground grabbing her fist. The force behind the blow nearly broke her hand. The maiden looked up to see the weirdly dressed man looking down at her, though she could not see his face. “You should not go around punching plate armor little girl”, he spoke again. His words sent a wave of furry through her blood, but the pain soon beat it down. The strangely dressed man reached down and grabbed the young lady by the arm and helped her up. “So what lvl are you”, he asked as the maiden shook her hand. “Well I guess it is not broken”, spoke Kin as she touched her fist with her other hand. It still hurt, but the bones were all in the same place. “What does it matter”, she spoke finally after the pain reached a bearable level. “It is a brown level mission. Rank dosen’t matter. It is pretty much a death sentence.” “So you are a bronze level then”, spoke the armored man. His words caused a frown to cross Kin face and a small blush to cross her cheeks. “Yeah I am, so what about it”, she spoke as she turned her head away. At this point she was sure that he was going to turn down his invitation for Jolly Cooperation. Who would want to team up with a green horn on such a dangerous mission? If you were going to salvage a brown mission you should at the least take somebody with noticeable skill, not some girl who just started. “I see”, spoke the man as he moved his hand up to the top of the banana. He rubbed it for a moment and began to think. “Let me ask you this little girl”, he spoke. Kin however had enough of that and immediately snapped on him. “I am not a little girl”, she shouted. She moved her fist to punch, but then she remembered the pain. “The name is Kin”, she spoke as she looked at the small holes, which she thought was a eye slot. “Just call me Kin.” “Well then Kin”, spoke the man. He had no intentions of insulting the young maiden. He simply wanted to talk to her. “Do you by any chance know any ninja arts?” The man stared down at her with a very serious and stern stair. However his face was completely covered by his helm and as a result the young lady had no idea that he was being extremely serious. “Ninja arts”, the young lady asked with a questioning tone. She looked at the man, but she could not get anything from him thanks to that hard outer shell. The word jutsu was banned from her as she grew up. Her mother was not a ninja, but she had ninja blood. She knew a little and left things behind so her daughter could learn. However her father told her to never reveal that she knew these things. Ninjutsu was a dangerous thing in there house hold and in the Land of Sound having knowledge of such was also a danger. Still that did not stop Kin from studying it, or at least what she could learn. Ninjutsu was a useful tool and Kin knew it would come in handy down the road. However she did not think that she would use it as a mercenary. “Yeah I know a little”, spoke with a hush tone. “Good”, spoke the man without hesitation. He did not even ask her what she knew or how much she knew of it. He simply wanted to know if she knew Ninjutsu. “Well then we should get moving. We need to reach the Land of Fire and set up a base of operations.” “Excuse me”, spoke Kin as she looked at the armored man. She did not even know him and here he was talking about leaving the inn and setting stuff up. Why would they even need a base of operations? As a matter of fact what was up with him? She had no idea who he was or what he was capable of. “Oh right”, he spoke as he slammed the palm of his hand against his armor. “I almost forgot. My name is Ramen-Dono. I am a gold class mercenary”, he spoke as he pulled out a golden card. The maiden’s eyes widen as she looked at the solid piece of precious metal. How was this weirdo a gold class mercenary and why did he suddenly decided to join up with her? Questions began to run though the young Kin’s head, but before she could ask Ramen-Dono began to speak again. “By the way just to let you know I knew you had Ninjutsu”, he spoke with a bold tone. His words opened the young maiden’s eyes as she looked the banana clad man up and down. “I was a friend of your father and of your mother. When word reached me that your father had passed I came to this town to see how you were doing.” “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute”, spoke Kin as she shook her head and held her right arm out. The information he was giving her was hard to believe and even harder to understand. “You’re telling me that you knew my father, and you were a friend of my mother?” “Yes I did”, spoke the armor clad mercenary. “So what is your point little girl.” “Stop calling me a little girl”, shouted Kin as she began to growl at the man. “Listen and listen well! What you are saying makes no sense! How did you know my father, but I have never once meet you? How do you know my mother if she was never around? Shoot how do you even know me if the two of us have never even spoken a word to each other? Lastly how did you know I would be here and pick up this mission and then come to you for aid? The armored man stared at her for a moment in silence. His stern expression was hidden behind his banana shaped helm. “Listen Miyoko”, he spoke. His words made tears come out of the young girl’s eyes. Miyoko was a nick name given to her by her father. Only he would call her that and only when they were in private. Hearing that name again made her think back to him and the pain that came with his death. “I understand that this is all confusing in all, but I am who I say I am. The reason why you don’t know me is because your mother and father had friends before you were born. I knew then in their youth and hung around them for a time. After a while we all went our separate ways. I became a mercenary and they became a guardsmen. Your mother Akastuki Shi' was the granddaughter of leaf ninja and”, he spoke, but Kin raised her hand for him to stop. The young girl needed nothing else. Her nick name was all she needed. Instinctively she latched onto the man and began to cry. A week worth of grief came flowing out all at once and the proud knight ended up with snot and tears on his armor. “I pray that this does not rust”, he spoke as the young girl cried away.