I've always wanted to be a sea captain

Mission:

As night shifted to day, towards the southern end of Kirigakure, the sound of a blaring alarm woke Kita Hajime. Kita groaned and turned onto his side, glaring at the machine with obvious irritation on his face. Kita sat up straight and slapped the top of his alarm, silencing the piercing shrieks of the machine. He rubbed his face and eyes for a moment, letting his hands stay there for a moment as he regained the last of his consciousness. It had been two days since he had returned from his last mission, and Kita was already being put to work on another menial task. Kita thought back the storm, and the many days that he had spent paddling through the flooded streets of north Kirigakure, having little food and sleep as he did. Kita dropped his hands and stood up, dressing himself for his next mission.

Kita made his way down to the dockyard where the boats were being held, weaving past a number of people in the streets on the way. After a while of wading through the clogged roads, eventually Kita came across the docks. It was a dingy little harbor, with only a few ships sitting there. A large, pudgy man was busy talking discussing something with a fisherman, who was pointing excitedly at one of the something. Kita followed his finger and saw what he was pointing at. Four boats sat on the shore, someone having lifted them out of the water for repairs. The wooden slats that had been used to build the hull were broken in several places, low enough along the frame to let water in. Utop the masts of the ship, several sails had been filled with rips and tears, and broken fishing nets sat along the sides of the ships. Just as Kita was about to turn around, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. "They're in pretty bad shape son. It's gonna take a lot of hard work to get them in the water again." Kita turned around to see that the pudgy man from before had finished talking to the fisherman, and had come to greet him. The man smelled like old fish, and his stomach jiggled as he spoke. "Sorry about that, I didn't see you there! I'm Kita Hajime. Are you the one who runs this dock?" The man nodded slowly, and looked Kita up and down. "The name's Ohara. I'm the dock master here at this little place." Ohara sniffled once before continuing onwards, "Are you the Genin that they sent to help me fix my boats?" Kita gave the largest smile he could, and proudly gestured to the symbol on his belt, denoting him as a Kirigakure shinobi. "Yes sir, that's me! Just point me in the right direction, and I'll get straight to work!" Ohara looked closely at Kita and shrugged, before scratching at the top of his head. "It's pretty simple work, but it's a bit too much for me to do. I'm getting a bit to old y'know." Ohara shook his stomach once to prove a point. "Just have the boats fixed by tomorrow, and you'll be fine. Lumber's right over there, and I left you a box of tools over by the boats there. If you need me, I'll be right over there." Ohara pointed at a nearby lounging chair, with a bottle of sake sitting next to it. With one hand raised in farewell, Ohara began to waddle over to the chair, leaving Kita to his work.

A few minutes or so later, Kita was carrying strips of lumber to a number of nearby fishing vessels. The typhoon that had swept through Northern Kirigakure had damaged the vessels pretty badly, but the damage wasn't unfixable by any standard. The main problem would be the wooden slats and the sail. After those were done however, the rest should be easy as pie. After a few hours, even in the damp, chilly air, Kita found himself sweating as he moved lumber back between various boats, and his hands were sore from the relentless pounding of his hammer, nailing in the boards needed to fix the vessel. "Somehow, I thought being a ninja would be more glamorous than this..." Kita grumbled through closed lips, holding nails in between them. "Maybe it's just about experience. Maybe if I get stronger, I'll get better missions than this." Kita pondered on that for a moment, letting the thoughts and fantasies of future events entertain him before continuing with what he was doing, hammering in the wooden panels on the side of the boat.


Eventually Kita shifted past the monotonous task of carrying the panels and nailing them in, he shifted into fixing the fishing net. Kita felt a little bit relieved, and eagerly got to work on the nets. "Thankfully I'm a bit better with my dexterity than my strength." Kita cut out the broken pieces of the net and replaced it with new material, weaving the two strings together into one whole line. Kita weaved in and out, falling into the rhythm of the work. He tested the net as he went, pulling slightly to ensure that any fish that the men caught wouldn't get out. As Kita did his tests, all of the lines held, and Kita looked proudly at his work. He stood up and looked around for his next task, noticing the broken fishing rods sitting on the decks of the boats. Kita felt his heart sink in his chest when he saw the numerous fractured pieces. He slowly moved his way over to the rods, rummaging through the toolbox that Ohara had left him. "Let's see... we have some fishing line, I'll definitely need that. A pair of pliers, those could come in handy. Oh! I can't believe he has it!" Kita held up a roll of duck tape and grinned, looking at the shattered pieces of the fishing poles. After a few minutes of taping the poles back together with an unreasonable amount of duck tape, Kita decided to end the day by fixing the sails.


By the end of the day, Kita felt that his hands were completely numb, and he felt hunger deep within the pit of his stomach. Kita put the last few stitches into a ripped sail, and set down his materials before standing up and stretching. He stood back and examined his work, a tiny bit impressed by what he had accomplished. Four small fishing boats had come in needing repairs, and after repairing the broken wood panels, fixing the ripped sails, reconnecting the fishing mesh, and sealing splintered fishing poles back together, Kita was finally done. Kita stood back and looked at his work, whistling as he examined the four vessels, standing proud. Tomorrow, they would be sent back into the water for a test run, and Kita was sure that they would stand up to the stresses and pressure of the waves. Kita smiled and said, "I think I might have a career as a handyman if I can't make it as a shinobi!" He chuckled a little bit at his joke. "At this rate, I don't think that there's much of difference between the two though. It seems like I spend more time taking care of minor village problems than actual issues." Kita furrowed his brow a bit at this, before shrugging and turning around. He could worry about it tomorrow. Kita began to walk back home, eager to rest and eat after a long day of work.


Word Count (Of actual writing) = 1257 Words

Claims=

Mission Rewards: 1000 Ryo

Stats: Speed +2 (200 Words), Vigor +5 (500 Words), Strength +5 (500 Words).
New stat totals=
Strength: 25
Vigor: 30
Speed: 32

Jutsu Claim:

Flying Swallow:

1000/1000 required words

Water Release: Water Needles:

257/1000 (Working towards it)

approved