Mission 16: Ninja
"Sign here," Yuffie eyed the paper Reno was holding. "Is that what I was called here for?"
"Yes," the Turk replied holding out a pen as well. The Wutai pagoda could be seen in the background, surrounded by complaining tourists that were not allowed to go up.
"I guess you don't mind if I read it." Yuffie wasn't stupid. Her father had called her claiming that she needed to perform an important task for the benefit of her country, and that just made it seem all the more suspicious.
But Reno had nothing to hide, "go ahead, there are no tricks."
Yuffie took the paper and read it. "So basically it says that I gave you a tour of Wutai and discussed important historical events. You want me to skip all that and sign this, right? This is part of Shinra's good image propaganda! They want to prove that the Turks enjoy and respect the culture of Wutai even if it's a big fat lie. I refuse to sign this!" The ninja stomped her feet, feeling the beginning of a temper tantrum.
"Wait a minute!" Reno countered, "I appreciate Wutai and if you would just sign it so I can call my mission done, I will continue appreciating Wutai. Besides, I'm bringing proof just in case." Reno wasn't wearing his uniform for this mission. Instead he was wearing, jeans, sneakers, a Tshirt with a picture of two ninjas and the word 'Wutai' written in bold font, and a metal plated headband with a W.
"Covering yourself in souvenirs is not the same as appreciating Wutai's historical value! We're not just a tourist trap!" Everyone could hear Yuffie yelling, and a group of tourists was starting to form a circle around them assuming it was some kind of tour guide promotion, oh the irony.
"Fine, then you can enlighten me about Wutaian history in that restaurant over there," Reno pushed past the crowds, leaving Yuffie with the unsigned paper.
The ninja girl followed the Turk, "I'm not done talking yet!"
Once seated in the restaurant, it became apparent that Reno would pay more attention to his food than to anything Yuffie would say, but she hasn't even starting talking anyway. "You can start the history lesson any time."
"Right," deciding that she might as well try to enlighten the Turk, and this was as much attention as she would ever get, Yuffie began the lesson. "Wutai is a proud nation of ninjas, or at least it was until Shinra came to invade us and turn this place into a pitiful tourist trap! My father has no sense of Wutaian pride; I think I'm the only real ninja left around here!"
"Wait, are you going to give me stuff to write on the report for Tseng and Rufus, or are you just going to vent?" Reno interrupted.
"This is important!" Yuffie took a deep breath; she would at least try to share some Wutaian history, if only to satisfy her own ninja pride. "Wutai was founded on... on this land, by... a ninja. Our culture is very interesting and..."
"I think the tour guide booklet explains it better, not that I actually read it," Reno interrupted the so called lesson.
"Fine, so I paid even less attention in history class than in the rope escape lessons," Yuffie admitted. "But that's not what Wutai is all about!"
Reno's PHS beeped, it wasn't a call but a text message. He looked at the sender and opened it. But before he could read the message, the PHS was gone, seemingly vanished into thin air. "What the hell?" He was holding the PHS a second ago and now his hand was empty.
"This is what Wutai is about," Yuffie held the PHS victoriously, "ninja skills!"
"I didn't bring my materia," Reno pointed out.
"That was the first thing I noticed," Yuffie read the message, "from your girlfriend?"
"Give that back, it's from work!" Reno attempted to recover his PHS but Yuffie ran away with it.
"From work? I don't believe it!" Yuffie ran out of the restaurant with Reno chasing after her. The owner didn't make a fuss, and simply added the unpaid bill to Shinra's tab, assuming Reno was on a paid company vacation, though he hasn't had that in a while.
"It's true!" Reno yelled as they ran all the way to the pagoda, pushing past the crowds of tourists.
"So who at work calls you Ren-cake?" Yuffie pocketed the PHS and bolted past the guard inside the pagoda.
Reno hit the guard with his electrorod, and followed Yuffie. "Fine, so it's not from work."
"Yuffie!" A little girl from Wutai who aspired to be a ninja like Yuffie called out to her. "Look how far up on the pagoda I made it on my own! Let's train together!" She ran over to Yuffie.
"I can't talk now," Yuffie continued running, this was kind of fun. "Turks are slowpokes!"
"Who are you calling a slowpoke!" Reno continued giving chase.
The little Wutaian girl pointed at Reno, "you're not supposed to be here!" But he had already run past and didn't listen.
When they finally arrived at the top floor, having beaten all the enemies that got in their way, Reno chased Yuffie around in circles for a while, trying to recover his PHS. This went on until the same little girl arrived, "you're in big trouble Mr. Turk! I called your boss and told him that you're in the pagoda!"
"How do you even know Rufus' number?" Reno didn't believe her.
"It's on your PHS," the little girl held up the devise victoriously.
"What? How? Hey!" Yuffie pointed and jumped around. Her little prodigy had stolen what she stole first. "Not fair!"
"I'll take that back now," Reno took his PHS.
The little girl returned the PHS without complaints. "Its okay Yuffie, I told his boss so now he's in trouble!"
Reno rolled his eyes, "tattle tell," and he headed downstairs to leave the pagoda.
"Must train harder..." Yuffie muttered, though the little girl was only trying to help, Yuffie couldn't let her young fan surpass her.
As Reno came out of the pagoda, several tourists took pictures because it was very rare that someone who wasn't from Wutai went up to the pagoda, though the pictures didn't show he forced his way in.
It turns out the little girl from Wutai wasn't very specific during her call to Rufus, and the president was left with the impression that Reno was actually allowed to go to the pagoda. With people's vacation pictures being sent over Shinra's internet service provider, it was easy to get some of those pictures and the mission was considered a big success even if Reno never obtained the signature of someone from Wutai's leader family.
End of Mission 16
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 16 is for les yeux sans visage. As a random piece of irony, when I was proofreading this, I found that the word "tourists" had been changed to "terrorists". The spell checker is crazy sometimes, gotta be careful with it.