[solo] A germaphobe's greatest test

The Mizukage Monument

Mission Details:

Well, everyone got stuck with this job eventually, Yosei supposed. It was bound to be his turn sooner or later. He looked at the duty roster and recognized several of the names from previous weeks. What was even happening to this statue that it needed to be cleaned so often? As if in answer, a gull squawked overhead as it painted a shop’s canopy white with it’s droppings. Yosei stifled the urge to regurgitate the three almonds he’d had for lunch that day. He did not usually handle things of that nature well. Anything messy or unseemly put him at unease, but he could by no means handle cleaning up feces.
He shuddered and finished his tea, dropped two coins on the table and waved to the owner on his way out. It was a nice, overcast afternoon in Kirigakure, the sunlight filtering through dense banks of not-quite opaque mist. He took his time sauntering over to the Mizukage monument, with two buckets freshly filled with soapy water and brushes and sponges hung on the sides of them for good measure.
Once he arrived, Yosei swallowed hard at the sight of the monument. As he feared, it was speckled with bird poop, around the shoulders, on top of the hand, and random other spots all the way down to the plinth at the bottom. What did birds have against the Mizukage anyway? Yosei sprang up the statue using surface walking technique and set about cleaning the parts he could bare to touch. When it came to cleaning off the animal leavings, however… His hand froze. He couldn’t bring himself to get too close to it. He knew he would have to shower several times tonight just to feel clean again.
Getting an idea, Yosei sprung off the statue and landed a few feet behind it. He wove the hand signs for his False Surroundings jutsu and used the illusion on himself to make the statue look pristine. That should allow him to get over his block.
But it wasn’t that simple. This time he couldn’t bring himself to even go near it. The idea that he wouldn’t know where the filth was, and could be touching it at any time - No, it was too much. He cancelled the Genjutsu.
Damn it, he thought. If I can’t even handle cleaning a statue, what kind of ninja am I?
He sat down, cross-legged, and tried to think of a solution. He needed to clean every mark off of the statue without physically touching it at all. The ideal way would be some kind of long range jutsu, but he would have to have the precision to clean it all at once and without leaving any marks or damage on the surface.
Casting his mind back, Yosei reminisced on one of the lessons he’d received. This wasn’t a memory from the academy, but from before he had even started down the path of a shinobi. His family had once endeavoured to have their kids meet with a legendary wandering dance instructor known as the Sage of the White Petals. She was a mysterious figure who had allegedly mastered many Shinobi arts decades ago, but gave it up and decided to study performative movement instead. She travelled the world, teaching her arts to the rare few who could learn them, and those who lived and worked in the theatre and dance communities regarded her with great respect.
So Yosei’s parents, aunts and uncles ushered him along with his cousins, Yusari and Yonei, to meet the Sage and beg her for a lesson. They found her in a clearing in the woods on one of the more remote isles of their country, and though the three children were shy they were spurred on by their parents to plead for the Master’s indulgence.
Yosei has never forgotten that woman. She stood there in the middle of the small copse of forestry, having travelled on foot for days, in a long white robe that had not a single grass stain or dirt smudge on it, her hair the same colour and just as pristine, her eyes a pale pink and pupil-less. It was as if she learned to move in such a way that she gathered nothing as she walked unless she wished to. He often compares his own motion to her unassailable grace to this day, longing to attain her level of skill.
She had laughed, dryly and a little condescendingly, as the children reluctantly implored her. It was said that she was a descendant of both the Hyuuga and the Uzumaki, and thus had inherited not only the Byakugan but a long life as well. In her long years, she knew the Hisori clan as a family that preserved many theatrical traditions and so she indulged them. She told them to gather around her and watch carefully. They had to repeat her movements perfectly, and those who made a mistake would be omitted from further lessons.
The first movement was an incredibly slow and graceful sequence of steps, the simple kind that you would learn for the plays that the Hisori family put on. Yet there was something different about it too, slightly more complex. Yosei and Yusari, the older two, did alright but the sage saw something in Yonei’s movement that was wrong, and he was forbidden to continue. The second movement was more difficult but did not go any faster. Instead, it was even slower, and even more exact. Yusari was extremely put out when her younger cousin succeeded but she was told she had held her left pinky in the wrong position.
The third move took the sage three minutes to finish completely. Yosei knew before he even began that he couldn’t perfectly recreate the sequence. Thirty seconds into his attempt, the sage sharply clapped her hands and pointed to his right ankle. A centimeter out of step, and that was the end of their lesson.
Before she left, she told them all that they had learned much even in their failures, for once they mastered slow, complex movements, all that was needed to become an expert in dance, acting or even Taijutsu, was to perform the same moves slightly faster each day. Then, in demonstration, she produced a bowl of figs from her sleeve and told them that it contained fifty of the fruit. Then she put her right arm behind her back and in one swift motion tossed all of the figs into the air and dropped the bowl onto the grass. With one hand, she plucked each fig out of the air individually and dropped it into the bowl before they could hit the ground.
“Seek me out for another lesson when you can repeat this move, and not before.”

Back in the present, sitting before the Mizukage Monument, Yosei made up his mind. This wasn’t just a chore, it was an opportunity to catch up to his idol. He wove the signs for Mizu Senbon, using the soapy water in the buckets. Each drop of soapy water formed into a needle, perfect for precise cleaning. He quickly performed the dance move he had failed to copy back when he was a kid, but approximately one hundred times faster, completing it in a matter of seconds. The water Senbon followed the movements of the dance and circled around the statue, landing in exactly the right spots with precision. If he made any errors, a needle could mar the surface of the statue itself, or leave a dirty spot unwashed.
When he finished, he looked up at his completed work to see the statue dripping wet and gleaming in the rays of sunlight that had broken through the clouds. Not even a soap bubble remained. Still, he noticed a single smear on the Mizukage’s forehead. He quickly ran up, jumped off the arm and wiped it away with a single sweep of a sponge. Landing on his feet, he shook his head.
“I suppose I haven’t caught up to you yet, Great Sage.”
Extending his hand fans, he used Wind Release with them to blow the water off of the Monument, leaving it dry and clean. The statue glared down at him, gloriously clean now, an imposing testament to his unmet potential. Choosing to feel inspired rather than defeated, Yosei gathered the buckets and made his way home to practise the movements once more.

[WC: 1418]
[TWC: 1418]

[Exit.]

[Claims:
1 AP x 2 (Event)
500 Ryo x 2 (Event) = 1000 Ryo
1418 Words x 2 (Event) = 2836 words
Learning Great Breakthrough skill for 1200 and Tree Binding Death for 1500 words. ]

Hello there @Yosei Hisori.

You still have about 136 words leftover after allocating your total word count towards the two jutsu you put it towards. Do you still wish to discard the leftover wordcount or put it towards another thing?

It can be discarded, I don't have anything really to put it towards right now, but thanks!

Alright then, approved!