Chores

Mission Info:

Ashitaka's Stats:

Ashitaka seriously couldn't believe the mission he'd been given. Hawkers of useless trinkets and outright suspicious fluids were hardly new, and he was not of the mind that someone should be punished for selling what some people were stupid enough to buy. Unfortunately, he wasn't hired to debate business ethics, but rather to deal with someone on behalf of a person who disagreed with his. On the bright side, at least the man wasn't hard to find. Normally, one required a business license to operate on Konoha's designated Market Streets, but things had been going so badly lately that that was hardly enforced. So all he had to do to track down his quarry was wander up and down said streets while listening for the guy shouting about eternal life potions.

"PHOENIX TEARS! GET YOUR HOT PHOENIX TEARS!" the merchant shouted, waving about a bottle of an eye-catching reddish-orange liquid. Although knowledge of the stuff included that it was just red-dyed water in clear orange bottles. "EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF IMMORTALITY! NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN FEAR OF THE REAPER'S SHADOW!"

Having found his all-to-obvious prey, Ashitaka cleared his throat to get the man's attention. And he got it. The con man's gaze snapped to the ninja as though he'd just bared steel here in public and in front of everybody.

"OH SHIT!" the man bellowed as loudly as he'd been advertising his sham product. "IT'S THE FUZZ!"

"Excuse me, Sir? If you could ple-" And he bolted, leaving Ashitaka to sigh in exasperation in his wake. Even having abandoned his worthless wares, there was no way the fat salesman was going to outrun the ninja. Still, the further the man got away from him before he gave chase, the longer this whole nonsense escapade would take to resolve. And frankly Ashi just didn't feel it was worth that kind of investment of time. So he started stalking after the man.

While he was no expert in hunting other ninja, civilians behaved much like animals when in flight, minus the fact that animals had instincts to compensate for the fact that they didn't have functioning brains and bodies built for the escape. Most people had neither. He would walk quickly in heavily-crowded areas, twisting and turning his body to slip past people without bumping into them since the advantage given by raw speed could be quickly eaten up by a single unfortunate collision. By contrast, the merchant bowled through the street like a boar in a porcelain store, ensuring that his trail was never lost and also drawing the ire of passersby.

Eventually the man tripped, though whether it was over his own foot impeding him via his incompetent coordination of them or someone else's in response to the contempt he inspired, or something else entirely, Ashitaka wasn't close enough to tell. However, he was close enough to catch up to him before he could even begin the struggle to return to his feet. The snake oil salesman was panting and sweating heavily, his face discolored from the exertion it was not accustomed to. None of these things applied to the pursuer, who didn't even see the debacle as light exercise.

"Please don't hurt me! I don't want to go to prison! I'm a legitimate businessman!" the obese man wheezed, earning nothing more than a quizzical look from Ashitaka.

"I have no intention of harming you, moron." He replied curtly. "Nor of taking you to prison. I believe you have a right to sell whatever people buy from you."

"Then-" the man started, his entire demeanor a combination of embarrassment and hope trying to overtake his crippling exhaustion. But the ninja held up a hand, palm out, indicating that he wasn't done speaking.

"However, by that same token, I have been paid to stop you from selling your "immortality potions". So promise to stop selling them, and we can both go about our business and put this whole mess behind us."

"It's a deal."

"I want it in writing."






[Mission Competed. WC 500/500. Total WC 672. Investing 4 points in Chakra and retraining 1 point from Strength to Chakra. New totals 135+25= 50/20/65/25. Claiming 1100 Ryo. (50%/550 to Kiri, plus "Beloved Presence"). New Total 4900. Training Chakra infusion 1039/2000. Claiming 5 AP. Total Bonus AP: 20]

Mission Info:

Stats:

As he headed toward the center of the slums which by this point were most of the village bearing what was clearly far too little in the way of food and water (a couple hundred pounds of rice and a few gallons of water seemed like a lot until one considered the thousands they were intended to feed) for everyone who needed it, Ashitaka stared at his mission card. He was wondering just what kind of person referred to the impoverished as "despots", which was not only rude, but also grossly inaccurate. People who couldn't afford rent were the exact opposite of tyrants with absolute power regardless of how they acted. Still, he wanted to help however he could and maybe a little pick-me-up would spur them into pursuing their own health and well-being again.

He neared the central soup kitchen, formerly a major park and community center, noting that he'd passed through what seemed like several instances of people standing in line along the way. As he got to the building proper and saw that they were indeed all standing in the same line, one which wrapped around the building several times before progressing down the street and around several blocks, it occurred to him that these people would be waiting for hours on end to be handed food and that only accounted for the ones who would actually get any today. It would have been faster and more reliable to go fishing or trap hunting, even as novices, and that was saying something. He'd been worried previously that the Akimichi feast had depleted the nearby ecosystem, but the Senju Forest's reserves of wildlife in all forms seemed to be functionally endless, so eating was really only a matter of going out and getting something. The fact that these people would rather stand in this patently absurd line to have food given to them was confusing and annoying.

But he had a job to do and he was damned if he wasn't going to do it to the best of his ability. So he pushed his way past the people standing in their ridiculous line and headed straight for the service door. He knocked on it three times, paused for a few seconds, then knocked a fourth time. He repeated this signal until someone opened the door and let him in. He'd barely gotten the pack of his shoulders before hearing the knocking pattern again, which prompted him to stand up straight and march over to the door he'd just come through. Opening it, he glared down at the gang of men not much older than himself who'd surrounded the door and were now doing a poor job of hiding their knives. He may have only been a rookie ninja freshly graduated from the Academy, but he still cut the imposing figure of a man who was visibly not one to be trifled with.

"Hey, uh... Mister! We was wonderin' if'n ya needed an extra helpin' hand or two back there!" the apparent spokesman of the gang and likely also the one who knocked, given the scarcity of brain matter among petty thieves, lied in his effort to distract the shinobi from their botched ambush.

Ashitaka's sour expression didn't waver even slightly. To think that these people would not only wait in line to be handed food, but planned to mug the soup kitchen to steal it made his blood boil, but his training helped him keep that fact away from his face. His mission was to deliver the food and water to this location, however he didn't see it as too much of an overreach of his duties to protect the site instead of joining the dispension line.

"Get out." he commanded coldly. "You idiots have just lost yourselves your places in this line. I'll be here all day, and if I ever see you again, the only things you'll be eating are those knives you think you're hiding."

"That's not fair!" one of the thugs shouted, now openly brandishing his weapon and so garnering Ashitaka's complete attention. The others backed away as they knew a fight was about to break out. "You can't do this to us!"

"I know what you're thinking of doing. Don-" Ashi started, but the gangster lunged at him. In a blur of singular fluid motion, the shinobi slapped the man's knife hand, knocking out the weapon and causing it to embed its tip a couple inches into the sign indicating the service entrance, backhanded the crook, and punched him in the throat. All in succession and using the same hand. The others watched their accomplice crumple like a dropped sack, unable to even register what had even happened. "That was your only warning. Take him and go. I won't be so gentle a second time."

The thugs gathered their fallen comrade and bailed, promising revenge for what happened, but the rest of the day passed without incident.



[Mission Completed. WC 500/500. Total WC 825. Investing 5 points in Chakra and 3 points in Vigor. New totals 143+25= 53/25/65/25. Claiming 1100 Ryo. (50%/550 to Kiri, +Beloved Presence). New total 6000. Training Chakra Infusion 1864/2000. Claiming 5 AP. Total Bonus AP: 25]

approved

Mission Info:

Stats:

Ashitaka had to admit that there was something Zen about the menial tasks like raking leaves still being a necessity in spite of the village's dire circumstances. It was just like needing to make sure his "coyote hole" type mini well or any campfire he made was clean and protected from the elements and animals. So it was that he raked. And raked and raked. And raked some more. Damn there sure were a lot of trees. Also, if he didn't bag the leaves immediately after piling them, it was inevitable that a child, dog, or even full-grown adult would hurl themselves into said piles as though he were setting them up for that exclusive purpose.

It was a minor frustration though, not one worth getting worked up over no matter how many times it happened. Ashitaka just wanted to focus on getting the job done, so he shoveled the leaves into the "garden bags", which were really just large extra-durable trash bags and hauled those to the collection point. From those, they would be compacted and baled then taken on to compost heaps around the city and outlying area where they would be left to rot until they could be used to fertilize various farms and gardens doing their best to keep the failing village fed.

It wasn't just one long day of grueling, menial work, but several. The Village Hidden in the Leaves, of course, had leaves everywhere and cleaning all of them up was a task whose monumental effort belied the consideration it was given. Not that the actual action of raking leaves was in any way demanding on one's abilities, let alone risking more than blisters and splinters from extensive use of rakes with poorly-sanded handles. No, the burden of this responsibility stemmed solely from its sheer volume.

Also it was boring, no matter how hard Ashitaka tried to be disciplined and meditative about it. He'd been able to deflect the stir-crazy the task inspired for the first couple days, but after that it seemed as though the trees were dropping fresh leaves onto areas he'd already raked over. The task was as endless as it was monotonous. But, he was being rated by quantity of leaves gathered not the cleanliness of the parks after he was done, so he tried to banish the despair from his mind and just continue working. Since he had no other way to occupy his wandering mind while he raked, he chose to focus on his posture while doing it. Then his grip on the rake's handle. Next was the way he moved his body as he pulled the leaves into piles to be bagged. Finally, he developed his footwork and movement patterns as he raked in repeating spirals leading inward from a given tree's outermost branches. He was sure he wasn't getting any more done than he had been, but he felt a bit better about doing it.

Eventually he met his quota and was able to turn in his mission card in exchange for payment. As he prepared himself to move on to his next mission, he looked over the area he'd worked and sincerely wondered if he made a real difference, either to the cleanliness of the parks or to the provisions of its farms.




[Mission Completed. WC 500/500. Total WC 548. Investing 5 points in Speed. New totals 148+25= 53/25/70/25. Claiming 1100 Ryo (50%/550 to Kiri, +BP bonus). New total 1850. Training Chakra Infusion 2000/2000, and Flying Swallow 412/1000. Claiming 5 AP. Total Bonus AP: 30]

Approved of fixing AP Claims.