6.
"Team Ten, requesting another C rank," said Kurenai, coming with her team into the mission assignments room one day.
"Well, Kurenai-san, I have a weird one for you. Will you take a weird one?" the mission assigner asked.
"Sounds interesting," said Anko, grinning.
"Weird in what way?" Kurenai asked, frowning.
"Weird in that the person paying for the mission wishes to remain anonymous. You are to go to a certain fence near one of the war memorial stones, and he will talk to you from the other side of the fence. There, he will explain the mission details," replied the mission assigner.
Kurenai shrugged and looked to her Genin. They all seemed curious. "Alright," she agreed at last. "We'll take it."
They walked up to the fence at the appointed time and place. Anko leaned against the fence, her arms crossed; TenTen and Ino both stood near Kurenai.
"These things are all dead depressing," said Anko, eyeing the war memorial stone.
"They're necessary, Anko," Kurenai scolded gently. "They remind us of the cost of our good lives."
"I know. And I understand why we had to learn about preparing graves at the Academy. Death is a natural part of ninja life and we're not supposed to weep lots of big tears over it, I get that," said Anko, rolling her eyes. "Doesn't mean it's not depressing."
"It is sad," Ino and TenTen admitted, uncomfortable.
Just then, a male voice echoed from the other side of the fence. "Hello? Are - are you here? Is that you?" The voice was hesitant, almost shy.
"You're our client?"
"Yes."
"Alright. What's our mission? And why remain anonymous?"
"I... have a confession to make," said the man.
The girls were confused, curious. "Alright... what is it?"
"... I'm gay," the man admitted softly. Anko's eyebrow quirked, Ino frowned, and TenTen seemed nonplussed.
"Okay," said one of them at last. "And?"
"A certain lord at the Daimyo's court - Lord Ayase - has found out this about me. If he talks of my sexuality at court, it could ruin my good position. I want you to frighten him into keeping silent about my... condition."
"Frighten him?" Kurenai echoed, as if making sure she heard this right.
"Yes. Don't kill him, please! Just - just frighten him." The lord sounded nervous.
"Sir," said Anko at last, "why is this such a huge deal? I mean, who gives a fuck if you're gay?"
"You don't understand," the old man despaired. "When you tell them you're gay, people - people look at you differently. They treat you differently. Some are disgusted, some are horrified. A few won't talk to you anymore. It's like you become this - inhuman - thing. Like you're reduced to a stereotype or a few stereotypical characteristics.
"I just fall in love with the wrong people. I can't help who I fall in love with. Who I would do anything for. To me, it's a beautiful thing. But other people don't see it that way.
"So I live like this, in hiding. Hoping I don't do anything that makes me look gay, hoping no one ever finds about my gayness. Hoping I never have to put up with that drama. I've spent years hiding this. I can't just have all that ruined.
"He'll reveal me to everyone. I just know he will. You have to help me. Please." He sounded desperate. None of them thought they had ever heard a lord sound like that before.
"... Okay," said Kurenai quietly. Her Genin were frowning, swallowing. Reassessing their opinions of certain things. "We'll help you."
Lord Ayase was currently staying right in Konoha - in a large manor house with a beautiful surrounding garden complete with fountain. This guy had it made.
Team Ten used stealth to creep onto the property when night fell. They felt out, searching for surrounding chakra signatures. There were four, and only one was male. It was in a bedroom on the third floor.
They walked up the side of the manor using chakra, alighting silently on balcony. They crept into the bedroom, hiding in the shadows of the room, staring at the bed. It had a great canopy, a lone man sleeping ensconced within its blankets.
That would make this much easier.
TenTen walked over and stood on the bedstead, her weapons poised at the ready above the man's head. She and Anko's eyes met, and she nodded, once. Then she stabbed downward - not stabbing the man, but pinning him to the bed by his pajamas. He woke with a start and saw, not TenTen, but an illusion.
It was a great, green, scabby head, complete with gaping maw and rolling mad eyes. The stench coming from it was incredible. After a moment, it formulated into a dragon, with sharp teeth. The dragon roared at the man, who sat upright, shouting.
Others stirred awake in the mansion.
Ino hurried to connect with the man's mind. Terrified as he was, what she wanted to do was relatively easy. She rooted around, sifting through his memory bank, shifting for the right piece of knowledge...
TenTen and Anko, their parts finished, went over and kept the door shut by shoving a chair under its handle. The doorknob rattled, people trying to break through into the room beyond.
Almost there... Ino thought.
"Ino, come on..." Anko muttered, anxious.
There it is! She grabbed the piece of knowledge - the knowledge of a certain lord's homosexuality - and stole it neatly from the man's mind. Then she came back to herself.
"Alright," she said, her head lifting upright again. "Finished."
They sprinted to the balcony and threw themselves over the side of it, just as the man came to himself, awake again, and the door burst open, revealing his wife, daughter, and housekeeper.
All four of them stared at the open window in befuddlement, its curtain flowing gently in the evening breeze.
"... I'd never thought of it like that before." TenTen and Ino turned idly to Anko, who had spoken. The three of them were spread out on a rooftop, staring at the moon. "I mean, I'd always known homosexuality existed. Of course I did. I just... never knew it was so painful for some people."
"I bet a lot of other people don't know either," said TenTen. "If we didn't, I bet a lot of people never think about it in their daily lives. I guess it's one of those things that's just... not talked about."
"So, what do we want to do about that, though?" Ino sighed, staring up at the moon. "I mean, what could we do?"
"... We could gather a bunch of stories from homosexual people together in one place," said TenTen. "And then show those stories to other people."
"So... like a blog?" Ino said thoughtfully.
Anko suddenly sat upright, her eyes alit. "Yeah," she said. "Guys, let's do it! We could call it Troubled Royalty."
"So we're ninja turned entrepreneurs turned... bloggers?" Ino grinned. "I actually like the sound of that. Let's do it, let's start a blog on gay rights."
And so the blog was agreed upon.
One night, Ino, TenTen, and Anko all met up late, dressed in black clothes. They had bottles of spray paint carried with them. They snuck through back alleyways, staying away from main streets.
When they found a good, empty wall, they began throwing spray paint all over it.
Anko had admitted that one of her bucket list things to do was paint a graffiti mural. So Ino and TenTen had decided to help her make that fantasy come true.
They sprayed everything - from cool little symbols, to wider pictures of a little boy becoming a ninja, or of a kunoichi with tape over her mouth. Some of the images were cultural and sentimental, some were political and rebellious.
At last, a man caught a shadow of them and ran toward them. "Hey, what are you doing -?" he began. They all high tailed it and ran away, TenTen throwing ninja wire and sharp objects behind them to delay the man's run. Then they sprinted as hard as they could until at last they were on open land - they'd hit a park.
They all gasped for breath and fell over, grinning like idiots.
"That - was the stupidest thing - we have ever done," Ino gasped. Then she grinned and said, "I used to be so boring before I met you guys."
Anko and TenTen started laughing. And they lay there, staring up at the stars - best friends.