Guard Duty

Guarding an Outpost:

The night has been long, Ryu had been training for the majority of it, his sleeping schedule has been flipped due to recent night missions. Ryu had been training recently to increase his elemental awareness and activate a third basic element. Ryu was stripped down to his shorts and sweat ran all along his body, forcing his body to change the nature of chakra was taking its toll on him. Ryu closed his eyes and focused on his core, chakra flowed in a circle calmly, washing against invisible walls and then flowing back the other way, only to hit another invisible wall and be turned back again. Ryu pushed his energy and the chakra swelled and began to rage, like an ocean caught in a storm. The chakra then was released from its invisible boundaries and begun to flow through Ryu's entire body, he imagines rivers coming off the ocean and flowed down the chakra channels of his body. As the chakra flowed through his arms Ryu imagined that the water-like substance started to lose its liquid consistency and harden to a solid-state and take on a more earth-like quality. As the chakra reached his arm it had a different feel to it, dusty and hard. Ryu had in his hand a piece of chakra paper and it started to crumble in an earth-like quality as it fell away like the edge of a cliff.

WC: 235

Ryu returned the piece of paper to his pack on his right hip and moved his way over to his belongings. Ryu put his clothes and his weapons back on and then begun to head back to his mountain home. When he got back to the homestead he made his way into the bathroom and stripped off his worn clothes and showered. 

Exiting the shower he wrapped himself in a towel and made his way back to the bedroom, there would be no time for sleep, he would be heading straight to the village for the day's mission. Ryu collapsed on top of the bed and rested for a few minutes. Ryu moved over to his cupboards and a simple Chester draws and picked out a set of clothing to put on, he then moved back towards a simple setup of a table and two chairs that took up one corner of his bedroom. Ryu sat on one of the chairs and closed his eyes, he started to meditate and visual check his training from the night before, this allowed some time to pass for him to air dry. Ryu stood up and removed the towel from around his waist and threw it into a nearby hamper for clothing that was ready to be washed. He then pulled on a pair of plain blue boxers and opened a nearby draw and brought out 4 rolls of compression bandage. Ryu gripped the velcro fastening and detached it from its polar opposite, and allowed the bandage to unfurl, when it was at its maximum length he began to wind the bandage around his toes and his foot. He continued to wrap it around his ankle, calf, knee and fastened it tightly when the wrapping reached its full length, this was halfway up his thigh. Ryu repeated the process on his other foot and leg. Ryu then put his thumb through the loophole on the next set of bandages and wrapped it diagonally up his hand and then once over his knuckles, he then wrapped the knuckles twice more before wrapping it back down towards his wrist, wrapping the wrist three times also. After he had wrapped his wrist Ryu then wrapped between each finger and then back to the wrist, once this was completed he then wrapped any part of his hands that was uncovered before winding the bandage up his arm and secured the fastening when it reached its maximum length, halfway up his bicep. Ryu took a few steps forward and transitioned onto the balls of his feet, his hands extending out high in a tai boxing style. He began to bounce from side to side and performed a few different techniques, the shadowboxing allowing him to test the effectiveness of his movement and affirming the wraps had the correct tightness. Ryu then selected a pair of black trousers that were made of a flexible but thought material, he pulled them up over his appendages and wrappings, securing the button at his waist and zipping the crotch. He then selected a belt and wrapped it around his waist and through the periodically spaced belt holes on the trim of the trousers. The belt was there to secure his trousers regardless of what movements would occur, but it also had a looping bit of thread for his katana scabbard to be securely tied to. Ryu then pulled on a blue and black checkered shirt that had accents of white, he pulled it over each arm and then pulled it together across his chest and secured the buttons from bottom to top, he then folded the collar down and smoothed out the edges. Ryu then picked out a coat that sat over his shirt but did not fasten at the chest, a Kumgakure village symbol was emblazoned across the back of the black coat. Ryu then secured his headband around his forehead and put his necklace on that held his clan ring. Ryu then put his weapon pouch on his back right hip, it held half of his kunai and shuriken, as well as his paper bombs, smoke bombs, rations pills, and ninja wire. Ryu also secured a weapon holster around his left thigh which held the other half of his shuriken and kunai. Ryu then moved to the front of his house and entered the dojo, he removed the sword from its stand and secured it to its fastening on the belt he wore. Ryu then moved to the front porch of his house and wrapped his sandals around his feet and ankles, he was then ready to move towards the village and start his daily mission.

After an hour of walking, Ryu entered the village gates and had his customary social discussion with the pair on gate duty. He expected to see tighter security due to the recent riots over the appointment of Noboru Kaito to Raikage. Ryu moved his eyes to the rooftops and windows on upper floors and tried to pick out any hidden positions. Ryu could not locate any but he was sure there were Storm Ops there somewhere. The feeling he had gotten during his last time in the village was still there, it had not hit him till he reentered the village, but it was noticeable different, almost like the village was teetering on the edge of something. Ryu removed the thought from his head forcibly, and he pushed his way through the village. Ryu noticed that many businesses that had no reason to be closed during the middle of the day were still closed and shuttered up, had they been shut since the riots two days ago? Were they damaged or did they also feel like something was still likely to happen? Many questions rushed through Ryu's head as he made his way through the village towards the admin building. 

When Ryu arrived at the admin building he was greeted by two Storm Ops guarding the door, the same as on the night of the riots. Ryu approached and announced himself "Ryuzaki Nara, here to pick up a mission scroll". The man to his left made an almost unnoticeable motion with his hand and a checklist appeared in it. He took a second to flip through the pages "Approved, move-in". Ryu nodded to the two and made his way into the building. Ryu was relieved to see that inside it was relatively normal, no rushing about and no additional forces. Ryu made his way up to the desk and spoke to the receptionist "Ryuzaki Nara, here for my daily mission" The women looked up from whatever work she was doing in front and smiled "One second" she replied as she opened a cabinet below her desk and started to sift through unseen files. She pulled out a scroll and handed it to Ryu "C-rank today, there is another genin assigned to this mission, she is waiting outside". Ryu nodded to the woman and took the scroll off of her.

Ryu exited the building and walked across the street. A short woman dressed in chain mail with a jacket and shorts covering it stood there. On her head rested a Kumogakure headband and she had a weapon holster on each leg. She looked like a genin to Ryu so he took a guess she was his partner. Ryu put up his hand and put a wide smile on his face "Hi there, I'm Ryuzaki, Ryu. Are you waiting for me?" The girl looked up from her hands, where she was twiddling her thumbs "HiHI" She replied in a loud friendly tone "I'm Hali Yonusuke, it's nice to meet you Ryu" she extended her hand and closed her eyes as she spoke. Ryu took her hand and shook it lightly "So shall we set off?" he said quickly. "Yes, I'll lead I've been there before" Ryu nodded at this suggestion.

The pair traveled for half an hour, jumping through the trees and traveling off the path on the ground when there were no aerial options. They shared tactical discussions between the two as they went, speaking about their strengths and abilities. Once that was out of the way they chatted about their academy teachers and friend circles. Ryu enjoyed the social interaction and it was a good step forward for him as he had not interacted with members of the opposite sex in social situations much, apart from his friend in the academy. Due to his upbringing by a single father and their position outside of the village he was quite isolated and it was only since he became a genin that he was trusted into these situations more, but he was making an effort to get to grips with them.

Once the pair arrived at the outpost they relieved the pair of genin that were already there. Ryu and Hali then went over the sector of the outpost they were guarding and devised up patrol paths and watch hours. Due to the 12 hour length of the mission neither would need to sleep, so they would patrol constantly and have the other member of the team stand guard at the actual outpost. Ryu took the first patrol and took off to surveil the border and get a look at each checkpoint along the route. In each of these checkpoints, there was a logbook for the patrolling person to note down the time they checked in and if there was anything to take note of. Ryu made his way back to the outpost and swapped jobs with Hali, this happened several more times throughout the day. Luckily the pair encountered no resistance, and they did not even have anyone pass through that was legitimate. Ryu studied the logbook and realized that was not uncommon. After the 12-hour shift was up another pair of genin showed up and relieved the pair. Ryu journeyed back to the village with Hali and then they both stopped at a van to enjoy some dinner. Afterward, they both made their way to the admin building to receive their pay for the mission that day. Ryu pocketed his money, he was going to have to be more sparse with his spending now as he had just given the lion's share of his savings to the Raikage in payment for the Byakugan that was settled within his eye, it had not yet been activated. Ryu then returned to his homestead and spent some time playing and resting with his dog Taco. Then he went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately due to being up for the past 30 hours.

WC: 1767
TWC: 2002

Claiming 4100 ryo, +20 Ap, 1625 words for 2000/2000 for third basic element earth using 50% coupon discount - previous wordcount. 375 words for 375/750 for Hiding like a mole C using 25% max stat discount.

Approved