Help the Fishermen

Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:30 pm

Mission Details:

A ninja may not have an assignment everyday, but that does not give a ninja an excuse to slack off. As with all things, one must strike a balance in their lives. For the young Terumi, this balance was a delicate thing. Whenever he was assigned a mission, he put his mind and body into it: as a genin he was given menial tasks, which were meant to allow a genin to slowly adjust to the position they now held, and at the same time, said missions fulfilled the function of integrating the genin as a part of the village's infrastructure. For this reason, Kazushi always made sure to interact politely with the village's people, even if he didn't care for them at a personal level, it would still create a sensation of cohesion, essential to prevent the fabric of society. On the other hand, the missions were mostly physical labor, and as such he used them to work as hard as he could for as long as he could, straining his body so as to build resilience and trust in his capacity.

On the other hand, in the days that there were no missions, he took very precise care to not let himself laze about the house, instead he performed some necessary tasks of maintenance, such as dusting the furniture or scrubbing the floors. He detested cleaning his bathroom the most, but he did it nonetheless. He felt if his Uncle ever returned and the house was a mess he'd be hearing it for weeks, but at the same time he didn't know if he was taking care of his own place at this point or not. Today, he would take care of the kitchen; the sun was steadily rising and the mailbox had yet to make a sound, so it looked like it was going to be a relaxing day at home.

Until the mailbox swung about, and a letter fell through. A summons to a mission; inside, a note about how he should go to the beach to assist the fishermen in the stead of a fellow genin who was not available. The young Terumi sighed and went to get ready for a day out and about.

Finally, he would go to the beach.

Even though he knew people would usually go to the beach in light clothing, people also used to go to the beach in warmer weather, but Winter encroached on the Archipelago and with it came the fog and rain, so the young Terumi wrapped himself in his usual garb; a white t-shirt to go with the bandages underneath it that covered most of his skin, a fishnet shirt over that, his Uncle's old chunnin vest, nothing but a useless relic at this point except for the protection against the elements, his pants and sandals, his headband resting on his clavicles, and last but definitely not least, the blue jacket of his father. For a moment, looking in the mirror in the corridor, he looked into his own eyes and recalled how his mother would compliment his eyes. "You have my eyes", she would say, "and your father's jacket makes them almost look grey. You'll be a handsome young man when you grow." For a moment his eyes glistened from the surge of emotion he felt when remembering his mother, but before it went any further, he made his way out of the house.

Arriving at the beach, the weather didn't seem to be ideal to go out fishing, but then again he was no fisherman, so he wouldn't judge it, much like he wouldn't expect a fisherman to explain to him how to mold his chakra. He climbed down the wooden staircase and stepped into the sand, stickier than it might usually be due to the humidity in the air, which made trekking in it much harder than in dry sand, surprisingly. A group of people seemed to be waiting for a boat to approach, and once they saw the ninja, they wasted no time giving him instructions as though he were another one of the boys surround them and learning the art.

Once the boat drew closer, lines were thrown, and the boat was pulled towards a line of logs meant to assist in drawing the boat back into land and onto the beach. A couple of the fishermen jumped off the boat and straight into the land in an incredible display of strength and agility for a regular human; most likely, they were retired ninja. All together, they managed to pull the boat into land, aided by beasts of burden; it was no great boat, instead a raggedy thing crewed by 5 people total, however, the haul within was amazing; a huge net with more fish together than the young Terumi ever saw outside a marketplace. It fascinated him. The stench of it was something he could without though. Nevertheless, on they went, making sure to tie the boat down still on the trail of logs that facilitated the boat's transit into land. They explained that due to the whims of the ocean, docking the boat regularly wasn't their best bet.

On they went to separate the fish into boxes; they had to be careful though due to spider fish which had a sting in their head and could cause serious pain. As they sorted the fish into many boxes, Kazushi learned that bandages were not ideal for this sort of work as they quickly absorbed water and smell alike, but that was a lesson to take into consideration next time.

Now with the many boxes filled with ice and fish, it was time to move them. This was Kazushi's time to shine. He grabbed two at a time, and using his youth and energy, leapt and bounded off the beach and up the stairs, following the indications of the fishermen to hop from rooftop to rooftop to deliver the fish to the market where it would be sold fresh. He repeated this a few more times, im and out, being cheered by the civilians that transported the boxes individually and on hand. It made the young Terumi feel good to be cheered so gleefully, in a childlike sense of wonder.

By the time he returned to the beach and noticed all boxes were taken care of, he took a few minutes to exchange pleasantries with the two retired ninja turned fishermen. They had made quite a bit of money in their time as ninja and bought boats to become career fishermen, before the Hidden Mist being established on the archipelago. They awarded Kazushi with a fresh fish for himself, even taught him how to prepare it over a fire with proper seasoning. Kazushi thanked them and made home.

Once there, he put all his clothes to the wash and dispensed the bandages into the trash directly, and scrubbed the smell away from him as best as he could in an uncharacteristically warm shower. Falling back into household loose clothes, he prepared the fish as he had been advised, with herbs and lemon, rock salt and crushed peppers aplenty, and delighted in the taste of fish prepared over a fire, with some baked potatoes on the side with a couple lines of olive oil on them. Satiated and satisfied, the young Terumi fell back into his bed and fell into a deep slumber.

***
WC:1232
Claiming 1100 Ryo + 3AP
Claiming 3 Stamina
Claiming 1037 words towards C-Rank Bull Rush where D-Rank had previously been unlocked partially here.
Claiming 195 words towards Genjutsu Release.

Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:34 pm

Approved nerd

Help the Fishermen

Help the Fishermen

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