Built To Last [Mission / Private]

Minor Construction Help:

Building Blow Up:

Kaito ran down the main road from the recycling plant back to the Sunagakure Shinobi Headquarters. He had just dropped off the trash from the last set of cleaning missions he had been tasked to do with Naki Choko, whom he would be meeting at the H.Q. any minute now, and was on his way back to H.Q. to collect his cash reward and to get another mission or two. He truly looked as though he had a completely different demeanor than the one he had earlier that morning, now showing a look of pure motivation and triumph. He really wanted to keep this momentum ablaze.

Within no time at all Kaito was back at the H.Q. building, and sure enough, standing there was none other than Naki. Not too sure if Kaito had been running a bit late or if Naki was just that fast to have gotten there before he did, Kaito decided to brush the thought from his mind.

"Naki!" He exclaimed, running faster and skidding to a halt roughly a meter away from his friend. "Sorry if I'm running late at all. Lines at the recycling plant were super long. Makes sense since it is trash day, but besides the point, let's go and get ourselves another mission."

Waiting until Naki was ready, Kaito walked at a brisk pace into the large building before him. The pace wasn't slow or in fact normal, but he was sure that Naki would be able to keep up. Kaito made an immediate right after walking through the glass doors and down a long and straight hallway until the two of them reached the seventh door to their right. Smiling back over his shoulder at Naki once the latter was in position, he knocked on the door with the back of his knuckle.

"Come in." Came a voice on the other side of the door almost immediately. Complying, Kaito proceeded to open the door and stroll into the room. The two walls of the room were decorated with wall-to-wall bookshelves, the back wall surly glass windows, but Kaito couldn't tell as the view beyond was blocked off by crimson-red curtains. The floor below his feet was decorated with a lush dark-green carpet and in the back of the room stood a big oak desk. Sitting beyond the desk was a gentleman in full Jounin garb shuffling through some paperwork and looking up towards the doorway.

"Ah! Kaito and Naki." The man said, setting down the paperwork he had been handling and joining his hands together, sitting them upon his desk. "I assume now that you two are back you have finished that laundry list of missions that needed to be done in the Grove?" Kaito nodded his head excitedly in reply.

"Yes, Sir." He said, walking further into the room to stand right in front of the desk. Reaching into his item pouch he removed the mission dossier and unfolded it. Looking around, Kaito knew he needed a pen to sign with, ensuring that the mission had been done completely, but he couldn't find one. "You wouldn't happen to have a pen, would you?" The man complied, opening the top drawer to his right before handing Kaito a red pen. "Thank you." Kaito said gracefully as he signed his name upon the bottom of the last page. Looking over towards Naki, he motioned for the other shinobi to also sign the paperwork.

Once the paperwork had been finalized, the man behind the desk took the papers and placed a big green stamp down upon it that read "COMPLETED" in bold letters. Setting all of that to the side, he reached into another compartment of his desk and withdrew a grand total of 6,000 Ryō; 3,000 for Kaito and 3,000 for Naki.

"A job well done, boys." He said as he split the handful of cash in two and sat one stack each in front of Kaito and Naki.

"Thank you, Sir." Kaito said. He grabbed his ryō from the desk and slid it into the pocket of his capri-style pants before arching his arms and resting his hands upon both of his hips. "You wouldn't happen to have any more missions for us, would you?" He asked with a grin. The gentleman made a "hmm" sound with his mouth, his lips still pressed together. He shuffled through the paperwork for a moment before shaking his head from side to side.

"Sorry, Kaito." He sighed. "I don't have anything else for you today. I'm sure if you come back tomor-"

"Come on, Boss! There has got to be something..." Kaito pleaded, almost begging. "Naki and I just did three missions together already in one day. We can't just let this momentum stop now!" The man sighed again, this time a slight hint of irritation filling his tone. Kaito didn't mind, however. Wanting to do anything but get sent out of the office without anything to do, he would do anything the mission-giver was able to provide him with. Another minute or two later, The man help up two dossiers and sat them down upon the desk in front of Kaito and Naki, motioning for the two boys to look them over.

"These two are a bit different than what you two have dealt with so far." He said, stroking the blackness of his long mustache. "They basically go hand-in-hand. The first one there is assisting with demolishing a decrepit apartment building and cleaning up the mess from the deconstruction. That one can be a bit dangerous so it has been given a "C" ranking. If you aren't careful you could potentially get injured or worse by falling debris or other potential hazards. The second one is a bit milder as you would just be helping with the construction of a new home upon the same land the apartment building stood, so it has been given a "D" ranking. As of right now, those are the only ones I've got for you." He paused for a moment, allowing time for the two boys to look over the paperwork. "Do you two think you are up for the task?"

Without any hesitation of his own, Kaito shook his head yes in response.

"I'm raring to go, Sir!" He replied gleefully before looking over at Naki. "How bout' you, Naki? I understand if you aren't up to it with these missions being a tad more dangerous than the other ones we did." With that question being asked, Kaito eagerly awaited Naki's response. Was the fledgling ninja in, or was he out?

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[Word Count (Post) - 1,097]

[Word Count (Total) - 1,097]

Kaito smiled at Naki's reply for his offer to join him on the two new missions they had just been assigned to.

"Alright, chief. We'll take em'." With that, the Jounin took his pen in hand again and signed the two mission dossiers to Kaito, a look of concern on his face. Kaito noticed this and chuckled lightly. "Don't worry. I'll make sure the both of us make it back in one piece." Without a moment of hesitation, Kaito took the mission dossiers in hand, shuffled them into his item pouch, and turned back towards the door. "Let's go, Naki." He said simply, his arms folded behind his back to where his hands were crossed behind his head, making the Inuzuka appear to be very much relaxed, cool, and collected.

Waiting for Naki to join him, he proceeded out the door and into the hallway once the aforementioned shinobi was ready. Kaito looked over his shoulder as he walked, smiling back at Naki gleefully.

"I like your 'go get em'' attitude, kid." He said once they got beyond the door and back out into the great outdoors. "This may be a bit out of the blue, but I want to tell you the reason I became a Shinobi." Kaito kept his rather leisure pace as he strolled through the village towards the housing district and their missions, pausing as to give Naki time to say anything else in reply to his rather out-there request. "Well," He started, keeping his eyes on the clouds above his head. "I became a Shinobi to help protect the people of this village. You may not realize it yet, Naki, but in my eyes, all missions, even the ones where we are simply cleaning up garbage similar to the ones we did earlier, are all based on that structure." Kaito paused again, yet another smile appearing upon his face. "As you heard me claim earlier, I want to become the Kazekage so that I can live up to that view. However, just because we as Shinobi are strong, we cannot allow others to stay stagnant. I want to help the people of this village, and the village itself, prosper and become stronger than ever. That is why, no matter how big or small the mission that is thrown my way is, I'll do it."

Kaito rounded a corner as he continued on talking, his grin getting even bigger with each word. The building the two of them would be helping tear down was now within view, the sounds of construction equipment meeting the Inuzuka's heightened senses due to his family lineage.

"Seeing you take on these missions, even though you may have never done anything like this before, makes me believe you also have that drive. Honestly, it pleases me. I think you are going to make an excellent Shinobi, Naki, and I want you to know that." Kaito couldn't help it as his face started to become red. He shot his head back up towards the clouds quickly, feeling embarrassed that he may have gotten too sentimental or excited.

"So tell me, why did you become a ninja?" The question he asked reminded Kaito of Arantima, whom he had met just a few weeks beforehand. He had been the first shinobi that Kaito had come across when he had become a ninja himself. Arantima had asked him a very similar question upon their first meeting, and the question had helped Kaito to build upon his own nindō. He looked up to the older ninja as a 'mentor' of sorts and deep down Kaito hoped that he could be seen and held in the same regard in Naki's eyes; someone whom Kaito could help shape into an excellent shinobi.

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[Word Count (Post) - 624]

[Word Count (Total) - 1,721]

Within no time at all Kaito and Naki made it to the construction site. Looking upwards Kaito noticed a three-story building that was under heavy deconstruction. It appeared that the majority of the job was already finished as all of what remained was just the walls and floors. Just about everything else had already been loaded into huge dumpsters at all edges of the property, to the left and back of which was clear of any other buildings or structures of any kind.

"Well, this must be the place." He said to nobody in particular, looking around to see whom he and Naki would be reporting to in regards to the missions. There were many men and women in red jumpsuits and yellow work hats all keeping themselves busy, but he couldn't tell which of them was in charge of the project. Just then Naki asked what it was they were supposed to do next. Kaito scratched his head questioningly. "I'm not too sure myself..." Still looking around Kaito noticed one person who was wearing a blue jumpsuit in place of the normal red one. In their hand was a clipboard and pen that was clicked open and closed anxiously in their free hand. "That must be the foreman." Kaito said, pointing as to draw Naki's gaze towards the person in the abnormally colored jumpsuit. "Let's go introduce ourselves."

Kaito began walking towards the person who he assumed was the foreman of the deconstruction project, pulling out the mission dossier from his item pouch as he did. Suddenly the person turned around towards them and revealing a heavily disheveled gentleman. He appeared to be really confused and upset, still clicking the pen in his hand. He took no time at all to address Kaito and Naki.

"There you two are! Finally, something goes right!" He said with a sigh of relief. He began walking towards the duo and outstretched his arm. "Name's Kenta Yamaguchi. I'm the foreman on this project and it is nice to meet you both." Kenta took Kaito's hand in his, almost forcefully, and shook it frantically before releasing his grip and moving onto Naki. "This project as a whole has just been one headache after another. We were originally supposed to have a safety barrier set up so that debris from the explosives didn't end up being thrown everywhere, but the guys who were going to set it all up this morning came down sick with the flu." Kenta made quotation marks with his fingers when he said "the flu", indicating not-so-subtle disbelief in his crew members' claims of illness.

"Sorry to interject, Mr. Kenta, but without this protective barrier being set up we can't continue with the demolition, can we?"

"That is correct, Kid. Unless, of course, we take it down brick by brick, and that would make us even more behind schedule than we already are."

Kaito pondered for a moment, stroking his chin as he did so. The home they had to erect after the old apartment complex was all cleaned up had to go up no later than mid-morning the next day according to the dossier, just in time for the homeowners to start moving their belongings in. With no safety barrier, both missions would technically be classified as a failure, and a failure would not look good on his or Naki's records. He started thinking much harder. He was a shinobi so he had to be able to find a way to turn the tides of things in everyone's favor. After a few moments of uneventful pondering, Kaito had an idea.

"What if..." He started, still stroking his chin thoughtfully. "What if I was to go ahead and use my Earth-Style Jutsu to erect a make-shift safety barrier? I can only do two sides before having to wait a while before using the Jutsu again, but I'm sure it will be fine if I just do the right side and the front side of the building since there is nothing else to the left of nor behind the building..." Kaito locked thoughtful eyes with Naki before shifting his gaze to Kenta, who himself stood by idly as well. "Do you think that would work, Kenta?"

"That would work, no problem at all! You ninja really are amazing problem solvers, I'll give you that much." Kenta exclaimed excitedly. He pointed his hand over to a trailer that Kaito assumed was for the workers. "Before we get this started though I need you two to go get changed into the two green jumpsuits waiting inside. I'll have my guys get things ready for you to erect your barrier, Kid." Kenta started walking away towards the building, knocking his fist against the helmet upon his head. "Oh! And don't forget to grab a helmet too. We can't have you two getting hurt on the job." Kaito acknowledged the statement with a nod before smiling back over towards Naki.

"Well, looks like we got a long job before us, Man." He said, walking over towards the trailer. "I guess it's time to go get changed and then we can get down to business."

[15 Minutes Later]

Kaito exited the trailer, waiting for Naki to join him outside once the latter had finished up changing. He had made sure to grab a yellow construction helmet, but he couldn't get over how awkward the jumpsuit was to him as opposed to his normal choice of attire. As much as he didn't like it, however, he knew that it would all be over soon.

As soon as Naki was standing outside alongside Kaito, Kenta walked at a brisk pace over towards them.

"You two ready to shine?" He asked with a smile, showing a very different personality from the confused and disheveled person they had met earlier. Not waiting for a response, the eager foreman motioned for the two shinobi to follow him. "Mind yourselves now." He directed, walking them under a sea of wooden boards the men had used to walk out onto the awnings of the upper floors. Once they were in position eight meters behind the corner of the front and right sides of the building, Kenta motioned for Kaito to get started. Looking around, Kaito realized that all of the workers had been sent on break. There had been nobody else stationed in or around the building other than the three of them.

"Alright!" He exclaimed, cracking his knuckles before rubbing his hands together. In a blur, he began forming one-handed variants of the "Ox", "Serpent", "Boar", and "Monkey" hand seals in both of his hands. Once he had the appropriate amounts of Chakra brewed up in both of his hands, he threw himself forward into a crouched position and slammed both hands into the crisp sand at his feet, his palms open.

"Earth-Style: Wall Jutsu!" He exclaimed as the very earth below his feet started to shake, the sound of shifting and molding sand creating a small rumbling sound. Eight meters in front of Kaito, Kenta, and Naki, two large brown formations started to show themselves, raising ever at a steady pace from the sand on the ground. The one was directly parallel to the front wall, the other parallel to the right wall, and both continued to rise until they stood a total of 20 meters in length, 10 meters in height, and 3 meters in thickness.

Upon the completion of the walls, Kaito rose back to his feet, wiping massive amounts of sweat from his brow. He took a seat upon a pile of wooden beams that had been removed from the structure at an earlier point of its deconstruction, wishing now more than ever that he had filled his drink flask back up earlier before starting this mission. Kaito had never used up so much Chakra in one go and hoped, at least until he got more used to Chakra control, that he wouldn't have to again.

"All done, Kenta..." He said simply through exasperated huffs. "Now you can detonate the explosives safely..."

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[Word Count (Post) - 1,340]

[Word Count (Total) - 3,061]