Reflections are Deceiving

His first mission after completing his exam. Dracoso stretched as he made his way down the path towards his destination. With each step, he thought back on the tasks he had completed to achieve his current rank and all the effort he had put in. His teacher had suggested he start off with some D rank or C rank mission as he already had a good variety of jutsus, but Dracoso had turned him down. He figured E-rank missions wouldn't be much more challenging than the tasks he had already been given, but at least he got to choose the challenges now.

The walk let him clear his mind as he wondered how much of a statue it could really be. The ones in town were tall enough that he could probably clean them off in about an hour or two with some careful water placement. The person who provided him with the mission said to expect to be at it all day, as it was quite far off from the village. It was only really maintained as a request from the village for the sake of appearances, but at least they were putting down some money for his effort.

Dracoso shook his head of those thoughts and focused forward. The path was a rather long one and led straight to the ocean. It was on the outskirts of a small town, where he might find some assistance if he really needed it. He chuckled at the idea of asking for help on a cleaning mission and figured that he could have a funny story of wiping Xyxer's rump for when he got back. 

The ocean appeared in the distance and Dracoso smiled to himself. The sun glinting off the surface made it look like a blanket of shimmering blue that stretched far past the horizon. The waves rolled in slowly and almost looked as if the ocean itself was breathing. With each step forward, the view grew more and more to fill his sight.

The first of the statue he saw was the top of its head. It slowly rose up into view, inch by inch. Dracoso smiled and began to take in the size as the head took form in his sight. Only...it took quite a bit for it to fully appear. Dracoso picked up his step and saw the thick neck form. By the time the shoulders came into view, he was already jogging and starting to get anxious. he had first thought that the statue was just standing reflected off the water in such a way that it looked to be magnified at a distance. He realized that it wasn't a magnification. The statue was still growing as he approached.

After running for a full two minutes, he finally got full sight of the statue. It was an impressive piece of stone, crafted with the man peering out at the water intently. He was dressed in armor and with one foot slightly forward, as if ready to move forward. The sun seemed to bathe it from head to toe, as if presenting it as its own masterpiece amongst nature. It was a model of a powerful man....and it was over at least a hundred feet tall. Dracoso came to a stilted stop as he looked on at the statue from a short distance. 

He originally thought the reason for the mission was because it was a bit of a ways from the village. He now understood that it wasn't just because of the distance. He thought back to his underestimation of the weed pulling task he was given and realized this was almost the same thing. The only difference was that this thing could kill him if he wasn't careful when he cleaned the top. 

With a soft shudder, he began to head towards the statue again. He found that, as he got closer, there were a few more problems with the statue than just the grime and muck that had been mentioned as possibilities. The first issue that jumped out at him was that the lower half of the statue had been covered in graffiti with different images of hand seals and inappropriate gestures. Birds had built nests on both shoulders, and it looked like the birds were roosting in the middle of the day. A few chips and cracks in the stone showed that time had taken its toll as well. 

Dracoso gave a small grunt as he tallied up the other issues he would have to deal with. There was a good amount of mud and grime that had built up over the statue and it looked like reaching the top would be troublesome. Moss was spreading up the sides like a cut skirt around the stone man's hips. As he came around to the front, he realized that there was also a bit of rotting food and trash which had been left out. Even some words were written around the statue's feet that spoke of Xyxer being a tyrant and a fool. Dracoso shook his head and took mark of each issue before walking a full circle around the statue. He couldn't see much more issue with his task, right up until he walked into it.

He barely jumped away as a small animal took a bite towards Dracoso's legs and scurried around him. He realized there were a few animals suddenly circling him, almost like a wolfpack waiting to pounce. Dracoso thought fast and quickly formed two hand seals and targeted all three of the surrounding animals. The air began to fill with a soft hanging mist as a second Dracoso stepped forward and crouched. It began to move menacingly towards the circling animals. A third appeared, followed by a fourth and a fifth. The circling animals seemed to redirect their path and grouped together, heading for an opening between the grey-haired ninjas.

As another Dracoso stepped out from behind the statue. The animals began to panic, seeing more and more of these men appear until they were completely surrounded. As the animals began to squeak loudly in fear, over a dozen ninjas stood over them and fell on top of the animals. 

With a soft sigh, Dracoso released the jutsu and let the copies fade. He walked up to the mist spreading out around the creatures and found them unconscious at the heel of the statue. The poor things had passed out in fear as his mist servants had fallen upon them. As he finally got a good look at them, he realized they were simply a trio of tiny boars who had dug up a small hole to sleep in. Dracoso looked around and realized that there were no other boars nearby and that it was possible these animals had been left to fend for themselves. 

With another sigh, Dracoso softly scooped up the animals and moved them a little way away from the statue into the shade of a nearby tree. As he placed them down, one stirred from its shock and nipped at his hand, leaving a bit mark in his palm under his pinkie. He looked at the creature, realizing it was still scared. As he looked closed, he realized it was walking tenderly on one leg. He thought back to his books on animals and how they handled injuries and realized he needed to show it that he was not a threat. He gently held one hand out, palm up, and let the animal sniff at it. The creature gave a small defensive growl and looked at him cautiously. 

Dracoso kept eye contact with the boar as he slowly made the two hand seals and rested his hand on the injured leg. Chakra flowed through him and into the boar, making the small animal's hair stand on end. The boar immediately bit at Dracoso's hand, leaving a mirror image of the earlier bite on his opposite hand. Dracoso winced, but let his hand there, the chakra slowly tending to the wound and the boar steadily released its jaw on his hand. As he finished, it opened its mouth off his hand and looked down its leg. It took a few gentle steps on it and found that it could put its full weight on it.

Dracoso sat back with a soft breath out. His hands felt a bit sore, so he began to bandage them. He reached into his bag for his bandages and felt an odd, wet sensation on his other hand. The boar had moved over and was licking the bite mark on his hand. A soft shuffling noise made him notice that the other two boars were already awake and were scooting over to his legs. They seemed comfortable and Dracoso realized they had possibly watched the small healing exchange. He chuckled and softly petted each of them before wrapping up his hands. His palms felt a bit better now. Perhaps the boar's saliva had some kind of natural minor healing effect.

With a shrug to himself, Dracoso stood up and turned back to the task-at-hand. The statue loomed over him and he knew he would need to start removing each problem one by one. He figured he would start with the moss and work his way up. As he took a step forward, he almost tripped over a small boar. 

They looked up at him, almost expectantly. He scratched the top of his head and decided they might be hungry. Reaching into his bag, gave them some rice that they ate quite ravenously. He left a small pile of the rice nearby and slipped up to the foot of the statue, taking out a small knife and feeding some chakra into his hands and feet. He began to climb on all fours up to the hips of the statue and carve the moss from the top down. As he dropped small chunks onto the ground below, a soft squealing noise below got his attention.

The birds seemed to have been ruffled from their nests as he had started his climb up and had come down to search for him. As he was in the shadow of the statue, they must have missed him and spotted the boars eating below. The half dozen or so birds were pecking at the boars' heads and harassing them to leave. Dracoso looked at the moss, then back to the boars and clicked his tongue. he slipped down the statue, considering his options along the way. 

By the time he reached the ground again, the birds had split with a bird each fighting two of the boars and a small flock of four was chasing the healed boar. With a quick succession of gestures, Dracoso grabbed up one of the larger chunks of moss he had tossed down and threw it at the flock of birds. As it flew towards them, it suddenly reformed into Dracoso in midair, flailing and colliding into the birds wildly. The birds scattered at the sudden intruder and tried to regroup. As they did, Dracoso released the jutsu, causing it to erupt into a small cloud of smoke. The birds took off from the sudden poof and flew off in all directions. 

The boar, exhausted from all the chasing, collapsed in the grass. Dracoso checked it to find minor scratches and cuts, but nothing too serious. The other two boars seemed to be facing off against their respective birds and were staring each other down. Wanting to avoid hurting the birds and the boars, Dracoso formed the trio of seals needed and water slipped from the flask on his hip and up into his fingers. Two needles formed between the fingers of each hand and he quickly tossed them towards the birds, crossing right in front of them. 

Both the birds and the boars pulled back back, with the prior taking flight and heading off towards the ocean. The boars looked over towards him for a moment before running over to the resting boar. Dracoso followed them to administer aid and to help the boar recover from its wounds. Once it was resting easy, he moved the boar back over to the shade where its two fellow boars laid beside it protectively. 

Dracoso returned back to the statue and continued his cleaning. He slowly worked the moss off of the statue until it was fully bare. With some of the ocean water nearby, Dracoso was able to begin scrubbing down the graffiti with ease. This worked well up until he heard a soft cracking noise and noticed a few flecks of stone had fallen off near where he had been scrubbing. He looked closer and realized something. Salt water is not good for stone. With a bit of anxiety driving him, he quickly rubbed off the salt water with more water from his hip flask and sighed before any more damage could be done. 

It took him a few hours to work with the fresh water from a small river that ran a quarter mile off from the coast. The bird's nests held a few eggs in them which he knew the birds wouldn't come back for if he moved the nests. He decided to gently pick them up and take them back with him, just in case there was a way for his village to help tend to them. Once done, he carefully scrubbed from the top of the man's head all the way to his feet and made sure to sweep up the trash into a nearby collection bin. 

With a tired, yet happy, sigh, Dracoso stood back to look over his work. The statue gleamed softly in the light of the sun and stood proudly once more. There was no more sign of nature having taken hold of the man standing before him, other than the cracks that stood along it. Dracoso took note of it and figured they could send someone out to repair the stone. With a nod to himself, He turned back towards the path and began to head home.

As he slowly marched, Dracoso felt like his new jutsus were truly coming in handy. Each one that he learned, he found more and more purpose for. Each step he took felt like he was moving towards his future. Even as he could hear the seven resounding steps he took.

Dracoso stopped. The sounds of walking continued for a moment before it became silent. He slowly turned around and found the three boars walking single line behind him.

Dracoso held up both hands and waved at them to not follow, pointing back at the statue to stay behind. The boars looked at him curiously, then seemed to group up and stand behind him in a line. He tilted his head to one side and looked around the area, hoping to spot other boars. It appeared as if the boars had been left here for some reason. As the boars looked at him and he thoughts how to resolve this, an elderly man nearby cleared his throat. "Looks like you did quite a good job cleaning up old Xyxer there. Glad we still have people who care about our history."

Dracoso turned to the man and nodded slowly, "Yes, it is always important to remember where we came from. I just wanted to make sure I did a good job." The man returned the nod and then chuckled as he noticed the boars before saying, "Looks like you made some friends. Those three have been here for a few weeks now, I believe. Just wandered in randomly." Dracoso looked back to the boars, then turned hopefully to the man. "Could you help me with finding where they should go?" The old man laughed and simply said, "not my problem! Maybe take them back to the wilderness. Of course, who knows if they will survive!" He turned back towards the town nearby and took slow steady steps away from Dracoso.

As Dracoso walked back to the village, several unified steps could be heard for the first half of the trip. As the second half started, three sets of steps resounded clearly. As he was reaching the gate to the village, only a single set of footsteps could be heard, joined by the laughter of the guards.

"I understand you went to clean the statue...," his old academy teacher began, "but how did it end up like this?"

Dracoso stood, slightly hunched, as a boar was carefully balanced on each shoulder and the top of his head. From all the excitement and travel, they had been so exhausted that they had fallen asleep on their feet. Dracoso had picked each one up, not wanting to leave them where they might get hurt, and carried them back. By the time they had returned, the boars had settled in comfortably in his hair and against his neck so it almost appeared as if he was wearing them. The guards had started laughing the moment they realized what the little balls of fur were.

"I just helped take care of one and protected them from some birds. There weren't any other boars around and one of the locals told me that they didn't seem to have any parents that came with them," Dracoso said. His teacher shook his head and just looked at the sleeping boars. He rubbed the back of his head and closed his eyes before saying, "maybe you can take them over to the old adoption center to see if anyone wants them. They might be a good pet or farm animal for someone."

Dracoso nodded with a relieved sigh. He opened his bag and held up the two birds nests which had been placed over one another to keep the eggs contained within safe. As he revealed them to his teacher, the teacher simply put his hand to his forehead. "Did you have to bring back all of nature with you?" was all he asked. Dracoso explained how the birds had been run off and how he needed to remove the nests. The birds probably wouldn't take the eggs back once the nests were moved. His teacher directed him to deliver the eggs to the ANBU as they might be able raise the birds to carry messages or possibly, depending on the breed, to act as summons. 

Once this was settled, Dracoso gave his report on the details and all that had occurred. His teacher nodded and congratulated him on his first successful mission. His only comment beyond that was, "I can't believe you tried to wash a stone statue with salt water." Dracoso blushed and figured he would just need to think a bit more next time.

{Exit}

E-Rank mission: Monument Mopping

AP Spent
20 AP, Mist Servant Technique - three targets
10 AP, Healing Hands
5x 2 AP, Surface Walking twice
5 AP, Substitution
10 AP, Basic Medical
20 AP, Suiton: Mizu Senbon
Total Cost: 75

Reward: 1000 Ryo + 5 AP

WC Total - 3120
+31 stats (15 Chakra, 12 Vigor, 4 Speed)

Jutsus Learned:
C Rank - Water Release: Water Cutting Sword - 1000
D Rank - Chakra Flare - 500
C Rank - Third Eye - 1000
D Rank - Spine Chill - 500
C rank - Summoning Technique - 445/1000 (adding 120 to the total of of 325/1000 from the previous post, When Minds meet Challenges)

Approved