>>5920127>>5920185>>5920669>>5920957>>5921164>>5921815>>5923449You spend the next month back in the swing of things, which is to say, doing a job. Still D-ranks, but you’re getting out of the zone where you’re simply doing odd jobs. Even within D-rank there’s a hierarchy of missions that go from “tutorial” missions to things that actually matter.
Hell, you actually suspect that a lot of the easier D-rank missions are genuinely planted and funded by the village council specifically to ease new shinobi in and give them some money while extending their education. For that reason, it’s extremely gratifying when Hotaru is no longer sending you out to find that stupid goddamn cat.
You’re more than likely on short term escort or investigation duty these days; walking people to somewhat nearby locations like Kenji, investigating issues going on with someone’s field to see if petty foul play is lowering their yield, things like that. Low speed, but at least respectable.
During these jobs Hotaru has made a point of not going with you anymore so that she can randomly ambush you with bizarre scenarios. Every once in a while water clones transformed to look like generic enemy shinobi or bandits would burst out of an alley or forest with a surprise attack or some kind of unexpected jutsu, and your team was expected to cope and take out the clones as fast as possible.
It was never too difficult, but Hotaru explains that it was necessary training to reduce the amount of time you spend flatfooted and surprised in case something happens, as pretty much every conflict in your line of work is going to revolve around being on the giving or receiving end of a surprise assault out of nowhere.
You’re clearly deficient compared with the others. Naoki jumps into action immediately every time, getting his dukes up and immediately focusses on whatever the problem is, whether that be deflecting attacks or bull-rushing the center of danger. Masami was also pretty much good to go in a surprise attack; her modus operandi being that she immediately jumps into Naoki’s shadow so she can let him cover for her while she draws her blood for a summoning contract and keeps an eye out for what her best course of action is.
You, on the other hand, have a bad, BAD habit of standing around pondering the situation. Apparently, unless you’re in direct, imminent danger you have a tendency to stand there impassively analyzing the situation until you formulate a plan. This, as often as not, leads to Naoki or Masami having to spend a critical second or two preventing you from getting hit until it occurs to you to do something. And unfortunately, in a fast-paced scenario it often takes you too long to know what to do.
