Down to Earth (p)

Mission Link

Mission:

Kyo was all geared up. He got on his training gear and made sure to gather any supplies needed for his first ever mission. It was simple, he just had to check up and maybe babysit somebody's grandmother for a nice 1,000 ryo. This mission was going to be too easy for him, but his body was so sore that he couldn't imagine going through another training session today. Doing an easy mission today was all he could do for a day off. He couldn't stand still at home, so going off and meeting somebody's grand mom for ryo was the next best thing.
He adjusted his two weapon pouches on both butt cheeks and felt prepared for whatever this mission would give him. There was a chance a squad of missing ninja waited to take his life with the grandmother as bait, but there was a also a chance the grandmother just fell asleep and forgot to write back or something. Either way, he was going to head over there and be prepared for any of it. This was his first mission as a Genin and it secured his spot as ninja of Konoha. He adjusted his black muscle shirt and fiery red shorts. His rubber ninja shoes raced under each step he took to the grandmother's house. Towards the border of the village he went to see where this granny went off to. Kyo knew this was a job anyone could do and was disgraceful for a ninja to do, but the ryo made him think otherwise.
Slowing down, Kyo began to feel guilty for wasting time and feared his training was going to be lost if he didn't do something. Quickly, he picked up a rock as he knew earth was his next element he wanted to learn. Kyo kept the rock clenched in his hand within his pocket as he jogged towards the house. He felt up every little feature of it and tried pressing chakra through it every now and then. When it came to training, Kyo was quickly becoming an addict.
To imagine moving the earth itself, Kyo thought only of the destructive power it would give. He thought of sealing others into the earth, trying to form lava, and throwing boulders at others. He also began to flow his chakra through the rock and out back to his hand. The amount of chakra it would take to manipulate earth itself seemed rather extreme in his eyes. Maybe it was lack of training for it or maybe it was just that it was hard to flow chakra through the rock, but Kyo began to wonder how people even use earth style jutsu without passing out.
Regardless, he continued practicing on the rock and attempted to increase the flow of chakra through it. He was going through the very beginning stages of learning earth style, but he felt as though he could see progress already being made. At this rate, he felt he could learn earth style in two days if he started training seriously. It seems as though everything in life for him began to fall into place and he wondered just how hard it was going to be to become as strong as he dreamed of. Being a ninja seemed to just be a lot of training and easy missions to him. Where was the great filter that prevented everyone from wanting to do this job? What caused people to not want to be rich by the age of 30 depending on how strong they become? Kyo contemplated these answers and began to flow his chakra in erratic ways through the rock for a better feel of chakra through earth.

Finally, Kyo was at the front of a worn, unkempt house the grandmother apparently lived in. He began to relax seeing the house showed no signs of breaking and entering and began to walk to the door to help the grandmother down the stairs or help her get her shoes on. The mission was lame as expected, but luckily he had this lucky rock to play around with. Who knows maybe the grandmother would be sweet and jovial, he thought as he clutched the doorknob and twisted. He opened the door to the house quickly and immediately shouted for the grandmother to hear.
"I am a Konoha Genin here to make sure everything is okay! I heard you missed yesterday's brunch and came to check up on you!"
Kyo looked around with a smile at the living room coated in dust. He began to feel a bit disturbed by the dead silence following and began to have the fleeting thought that maybe she had died. It wouldn't be nice of him to just call it a day here though, he walked around while still fiddling with his rock and called for the grandmother. Kyo began to explore the house noticing some of the strangest things within it. First, there was a pair of brown boots by the door that looked like they belonged to a adult boy. Second, there were trays of miniature pies within the oven that were never cooked. Third, there were random apples thrown all across the place. Maybe the grandmom had just lost her mind with dementia and was just lying in her room, he thought as he examined an apple only to find it was badly bruised from some kind of hard throw against the wall. He felt like he was investigating some sort of murder mystery even though he was sure the grandmother was just bat shit crazy.
Going up the creaky, wooden stairs, he noticed pictures of the grandmother with her family and husband on either side. He made his ways up stairs to find a bathroom, a bedroom, and a guest bedroom. The bathroom had prescriptions and mildew all over it and looked fairly normal. Oddly enough, the bathroom smelled nice for an old lady's bathroom. The guest bedroom was his next place to check and it seemed to be creepily bear themed. Pictures of bears were all over it and the comforter was bear print with pictures of sketched grizzly bears dancing all over it. The room was untouched and so dusty it caused him to get a dry cough.
Finally, he decided to try her bedroom, the last place he wanted to check. He was afraid she might be naked, dead, or that it would smell putrid in there. When he walked in, the bedroom was a mess with a lamp broken on the ground and sheets twisted and unmade. It smelled of well old people with a piss smell from the bed bin for when she couldn't make it to the bathroom.
Everything seemed normal except for the lamp still broken on the ground, but he still suspected she was senile and probably forgot about the broken lamp. Dodging the glass shards on the ground, Kyo looked in disbelief as the light in the bathroom connected to her room was still on with the door cracked open.
"Granny, are you in there? I am coming in. Please don't be naked!"
He pushed the door open to see the faucet was ever so slightly trickling water and that a bunch of ugly makeup was left sitting out. Half of the makeup appeared dried out and the powders seemed a bit misshaped from normal. Kyo didn't know anything about makeup, so he just turned off the faucet and light disappointed. She must have ran away, he thought. He looked over every room again and called for her many times. Kyo spent at least another hour in that house before going out the backdoor to see the backyard.
It appeared as thought the grass had all died and there was no sign of the grandmother anywhere. Kyo began to feel bored with the whole situation and checked out the outside of the house for any signs of where she went. Maybe she was at the store or maybe she was already found before he began this mission. He couldn't really tell what was left for him to do here. Since he completed his mission of looking for her in and around her house thoroughly, Kyo decided to just use the exposed earth in her backyard to practice with.
He took off his shoes and placed them upon the soil exposed from the dead grass. Focusing his chakra through his feet, he began to flow into the earth and realized he could easily lose all his chakra into the vast amount of earth beneath him. Steadily, he flowed his chakra deeper and throughout the earth and began to meditate solely on the earth below him. Through his feet, he could began to feel the clay and rock hidden beneath the soil, but then he began to feel something else beneath the earth. It seemed as though there was a large pocket of air beneath the ground. He focused harder on the dimensions and contents of this pocket as he started to realize what this air pocket could hold. From what he could tell, it could possibly support an entire person.
"Shit..."
Kyo began to put two and two together. Someone must of kidnapped her and then sealed her into the earth with an earth style jutsu. Maybe it was just a natural occurrence, but he had to try to separate the earth and see. This was his test. He was going to rip the earth back open below him. As he prepared for what seemed impossible, Kyo began to realize that his theory was proving true. The earth here had been separated and then pushed back together. He could tell because it felt unnatural. This was a matter of time too. He could recall those pies still being cold and the apples were relatively fresh. Kyo began to question whether or not she could still be breathing if she was down there.
"...Focus, focus, focus."
He began to attempt to rip the earth apart again and strained a large portion of his chakra to do so. When he went to push the rock apart, it seemed as though his chakra was just traveling outwards and he lost sight of it instead of it being helpful. He was just draining himself into the earth and he couldn't focus on moving just a few pieces of stone. Kyo began to try various hand signs in a desperate attempt to try to control his chakra. He was leaking out chakra by the second and beginning to be at a halfway point of his reserves. Kyo began to see this was futile. He began to lose hope with every attempt as no progress could be made. The ninja began to start beating the dirt with hands repeatedly trying to get some kind of reaction from it.

For a moment, he gave up, but then he started to feel something in the earth. He started to feel the walls of the air pocket being moved around and he focused hard to see it must have been some kind of sign of struggle from a human.
"SOMEBODY HELP! SHE IS DYING!"
He began to panic and bite his lip as he tried to move the crack open once more. Kyo just couldn't find a grip on the rocks beneath. Somebody's loved one, somebody's Reo, was dying before him and he was helpless to do anything. He pictured the grief of the family. His thoughts began to swirl as he thought of the earth. Then Kyo began to realize his problem. He left his thoughts to drain into the earth and steadied his mind. Kyo focused on sucess and knew this would be his last try. Feeling the earth's power with his chakra flowing like veins through it, he began to push parts of the earth against other, looser parts. He focused on just the tiny little aspects one by one and soon the earth was separating below him. Kyo heaved and sweated as the crack below him was slowly reopened to reveal the beginnings of grey hair. As he heaved and pushed the rest of the crack open, a flash of light zoomed down into it and returned before him. He could hardly make them out before realizing the ninja was right in front of him.
"I will take care of her. I was just on my way to the hospital for my shift and heard your yelling. Thank you."
The medical ninja fled from the scene as Kyo was just left traumatized.
"Mission complete?"
He asked himself as he walked to turn it in with almost all his chaka gone.

[WC: 2,109]
Mission Complete!
Claiming 1,000 ryo.
Claiming 3 Ap.
Claiming 2,109 words to learning the Earth element.
[exit]

Approved