Cleanup, and talent show

mission details:

Nagisa was early, and it was a good thing she was. She wore a simple black blouse with denim shorts. Her headband was tied around her left arm, and her feet were adorned with the typical black shinobi sandals. Black fish net mesh crawled up her leg and ended right where the shorts started. She wore a small black back pack just large enough to carry a stack of flyers and a few other useful items. The string of missions she was assigned today were hefty. She couldn't help but think that maybe the village's somewhat lower number of shinobi had somehow contributed to how many mission she'd just been assigned. I'll just do my best! The girl clenched her fist before pumping it into the air. She arrived at the mostly empty vendor area with a stack of flyers and a few large paper bags. The place was usually bustling with people, street carts, and vendors, but at these wee hours of the morning there was no one in sight. Not to mention the specific area she found herself in was in disrepair.  Today she was tasked with cleaning up this more dilapidated area with a few other genin that were assigned to the same string of tasks. Here she was to clean up a broken down street cart, bag up leaves so that they could be made into fertilizer, and hand out flyers for the new public service group that was going to try to start handling small tasks in the leaf village. The group was named the blazing saplings. They were a group of young people who decided they couldn't be shinobi, but still wanted to help with public works. Nagisa was happy to help spread the word for such a noble cause. She was also told that the pasts nights storm had toppled a powerline nearby, and that the group on genin would need to handle it. She didn't know much of anything about how they were going to do that, but she anticipated that the other minds could work with her to figure it out. After the clean up work was done they would head off to the academy to help secure the annual academy student talent show. It seemed like a lot of work in one day, but when you're low on personnel you just have to pitch in more. 

Nagisa set about to collecting the leaves around and bagging them into paper bags. The others were given this location so she was likely to see them soon. The girl stretched and yawned after filling one of her bags with leaves. She knew lynn wasn't assigned this task so she'd be meeting her first set of new faces since she started doing shinobi work. I wonder if I'll know any of them... She mused as she kept up the hard work.

---

WC:479

As was his practice, he got up from sleep at dawn. It was a time where he chose to be alone. Alone in his own thoughts as his mind traveled to different aspects of his own life in this village. The sound of birds served him as an orchestra would to an audience as a gentle smile crept upon his face. The garden of the inner courtyard was still wet from the nights dew and seemed as clear flecks of crystal that slid off the leaves in the birthing of the early morning sun. 

Time to head out


He loved the cool air as he breathed in deeply as his glowing blue eyes scanned the areas where he walked as he left his family's compound. He was on his way to meet other Genin to start a list of tasks that was supposed to be of a benefit to the village and it was. These menial tasks someone had to do them. He was getting paid but it was not like he was desperate for the money. He could still hear his father's words ring in his ears. 'You are to do these missions and use the money to buy your own things.' He was right. At his age, his father was already an accomplished assassin; working from the shadows. Angalito did not start exhibiting his clans abilities only until recently. His family had lost all hope for him until now.

His tank top was made of leather with belts strapped all over it. His pants were made of black cotton and on his feet were the usual open toed ninja sandals. White bandages were wrapped around his calves, ankles and forearms. His white Mohawk was in Stark contrast to his dark skin. On his face was a peculiar tattoo that was white in color and in the shape of a hourglass. He had no possessions other than a large leather sack bag that was empty. His forehead protector hung loosely around his neck.

Soon enough, he saw a lady with long black hair. She wore a black blouse and denim shorts. He observed her from a distance as he slowly walked towards her. She had a forehead protector toed to her arm. Maybe she was one of the Genin he was supposed to meet.

As he got about four feet from her he put on a  light  but genuine smile and said, “Hi good morning. My name is Akari Angalito. I'm just guessing but are you one the Genin that's supposed to do a string of missions?”

WC 425

Shin found himself given another set of assignments. It was unfortunate that he would not be working once more with Goto, but he couldn't really expect such a high ranking member of the village elite to perform tasks such as - he'd look the paper over once more, the briefing being rather detailed in what they needed to do in order to receive payment - picking up leaves to turn into compost and cleaning up after a lazy merchant that left their stall in shambles, along with posting up fliers and moving a fallen tree. Shin just shook his head at the thought of such tasks. He was a genin, so these sorts of missions were pretty commonplace, yet they felt so.... Hmm, what was the word? Mundane, or boring even. The pale youth was unsurprisingly tired, peaceful rest and sleep once again eluding him. He didn't really know why he regularly had nightmares, his amnesia on most of his past preventing him from fully understanding what few images and such could be recalled. His sour feelings towards these missions likely could be traced back to his general unwell feelings and fatigue. 

It mentioned that he would be working with a unit to complete these tasks, though he didn't really know a great many of the shinobi here in the Hidden Leaf. This would be a good chance to meet others and possibly make some friends. He was friendly enough in a typical setting, much like any child would be. It wasn't until he was in the heat of a real mission when his programming would kick in and overtake him, changing his thoughts and demeanor into those much more akin to an assassin. He of course was completely oblivious to this shift in perspective, making it hard for the boy to put together any sorts of thoughts that might better reveal something - anything - about who he was and his past. 

He found himself at the rendezvous point, two of the others already here and introducing themselves. It was a relief that he wasn't the only person that didn't know the others, as being the odd man out in such social groups tended to be a rather unpleasant experience. 

The pale boy would approach, his youth very clear compared to the much older shinobi already on site. He was wearing his light blue kimono shirts, a lighter grey obi/sash wrapped around his midsection, white pants, and black arm-guards and boots. His appearance honestly looked a bit... unnatural. He carried dark rings around his large eyes, likely due to his issues sleeping. He would approach and offer a light bow to his elders, "Greetings. I am Shin. It is a pleasure to meet you both." 

Once introductions were all out of the way, Shin would begin to pack the fallen leaves into bags. He contemplated if they could be a faster way to get this all done, but nothing really came to mind. If they just needed removed, a strong gust of wind or a controlled burn might be faster, but the village wanted them to be collected specifically to turn into fertilizer or such. Shin pondered why fertilizer was needed, considering the sheer amount of ninjutsu developed. He imagined there had to be a jutsu that someone had made that acted like fertilizer with the weaving of only a few simple seals. Shin wasn't familiar with the Senju, but if he were he'd contemplate if this mission was some sort of farce, a task fabricated purely to give genin menial tasks to keep them busy. Fortunately, though, Shin was not familiar with the details of what a Senju was capable of yet. 

"I read over the assignments we were given, but none seem particularly... stimulating." He would offer to the others. He wanted to make some conversation, hoping to help pass the otherwise boring time involved in collecting leaves. "Do you guys have any cool mission stories?" Shin would ask. 

wc: 659
twc: 659

"Ugh..." A heavy sign found it's way escaping from Roy's mouth as he perused the veritable mountain of tasks that had been foisted onto him for completion. Leaves, debris, flyers, tree, babysitting, and more babysitting. Roy peeled a sheaf of papers from the stack consisting of tasks that needed to be resolved today. "I'm supposed to work with a group for these too? Great..... even more babysitting." The tasks were so mundane in nature that Roy could only assume the 'group' aspect of them was a pretense for him to watch over some nobles' children while they shirked their responsibility to both the village and their family. Perhaps I am the proverbial nail and this stack of work the proverbial hammer. "Well they will find that I can handle more than they are capable of throwing at me. At some point they will have to recognize the value I bring to this village." The Meijin blood that he carried caused his eyes to blaze briefly as he finished his statement.

Roy took a few minutes more to down the remainder of his morning coffee and finish buttoning up the top of his military uniform, leaf headband around his arm, that was his typical attire while out working. The final touch was sliding on his white gloves that he was always seen wearing. His body was unnaturally hot owing once more to the Meijin 'Disease' inside of him and the gloves themselves served well in their capacity as an insulator between his body and others, not to mention that he had grown to find them quite stylish. The disease itself limited his elemental manipulation of chakra solely to the fire element, but it affected his body in more ways than just that. Either due to a lack of elemental balance or perhaps from that same fire element being enhanced by the bloodline his body reacted physiologically in ways that most people did not experience. So far he was aware of a blazing effect that would appear in his eyes when under emotional stress and a more constant effect that had his body's surface temperature sitting around an uncomfortable 106 degrees Fahrenheit in most situation. There could be more manifestations as his body continued to grow but he wouldn't let any such developments slow him down on the path he had set out for himself.

I guess it is past time for me to meet up with this group and get this work done.

Roy waved and spoke politely with his neighbors as he exited his home. They were kind people working hard to make a life for themselves as the village was rebuilding once more after serving for so long under subjugated rule. It was for people like them that he would fight through any obstacles in his path of ascension. The people of this village would not need to fear that the tragedies of the past would repeat themselves with him there.

The short trip from his home to the designated meeting spot passed by uneventfully, with there not being a single woman out at this time of day to distract him from his duties for a bit longer. Roy's faux disappointment was quickly replaced by a combined feeling of vindication and surprise. The entirety of his group seemed to be assembled and while one of them did appear to be a child as he had assumed they would be, they were also one of the oddest and most unnerving kids that Roy had met. The other two weren't even children; they appeared to be of an age similar to himself though he did stand as the tallest of the group by a slight margin. The biggest surprise to Roy was the presence of genin headbands that identified them all as shinobi of the leaf.

Looks like it isn't a full day of babysitting then.

His attention was drawn to the lady of the group and Roy was quick to slide up to her and reach for her hand while introducing himself. "Well it must be a crime on someone's part that I haven't had the extremely distinct pleasure of meeting you before." Roy gave a full bow (while still holding her hand) as he spoke and tilted his head up to give her a wink as his statement finished. Then Roy would turn to the others present and introduce him while rustling his hair with one of his hands. "It appears I'm running somewhat late today. The name is Roy Mustang, sorry to have kept you waiting." Roy glanced down at the filled bags of leaves among the group. "Ah, and it appears that one of our tasks is already taken care of." Roy offered his own slight laugh with the joke.

After settling in with the group somewhat Roy would offer a suggestion on tackling the some of the rest of their tasks. "I think it may be most efficient if we split up some of these task and then meet back up after. How about you two work on cleaning up the broken vendor cart," Roy indicated to Angalito and Shin "while the lady and I post these flyers around? Then, once we finish we can all meet back up at the collapsed tree. What do we think?"

Roy sent a smile towards Nagisa. If things worked out his way he would be able to spend some time with her and get to know her a bit better while avoiding some of the hard labor entailed with the tasks.

---

WC: 922

Naigsa waived to each of the 3 others as they arrived waiting until they were all gathered to introduce herself. She made sure to affirm Angalito's question as the other two showed up. She hadn't met any of them before and didn't immediately recognize any of them. The Angalito guy seemed normal, but the the other two each had a quirk. Roy was obviously infatuated with her feminine wilds, and Shin well he was maybe just young but something about him was a little bit off. Not that she could put her finger on it. "I'm Nagisa Honemushi nice to meet you all..." She trailed off as she looked down to see Roy still holding her hand. She snatched it away and crossed her arms. "I think that's a fine course of action. Let's go..." She said in response to Roy, but Nagisa's expression clenched up in annoyance whether Roy or the rest picked up on it or not was up to them. I'll set this Roy guy straight and not embarrass him too much... for his own good. Nagisa was flattered, disgusted, and annoyed all at the same time, but what she felt the most was fear. If Lynn was around, who knew what she would try to do to Roy. Nagisa had no way of knowing who was the more talented or skilled shinobi, but something told her that Roy was a little wet behind the ears, and Lynn would have the element of surprise. Better to let him know that she's taken as quickly as possible. 

Nagisa reached into her pack and pulled out the fliers handing half of the stack to Roy. "Lets get this over with~" She said with a fake big smile before she started to trot off to where more than a few stragglers were. The center of the market district. She stopped and turned to Shin. "I've actually got a cool story from my girlfriends maybe I can tell you while we watch the talent show?" Nagisa's smile towards shin was gentle and filled with positive vibes. She'd make sure to tell Shin about it after their tasks slowed down.


As she walked towards the center of the market district she started to talk. "Look, I saw your goo goo eyes, and the way you shook my hand for too long, and didn't pay much attention to the other two genin. I'm taken, and very uninterested. Besides that my girlfriend is the stalker type and she won't take kindly to you making any moves. If you want to avoid a fight keep your hands, eyes, and thoughts to yourself. I'll turn you to cinder myself if you do anything weird, got it?~" She winked in a very patronizing way before jaunting ahead. She figured he'd understand and if he didn't well she tried. Nagisa would quickly attempt to hand out fliers to some of the shoppers. She made sure to smile and be very complimentary and sell the organization to each of the people should could manage to flag down. She had almost no struggle getting rid of her stack. I wonder how Roy is handling it? She looked over to him to see if he needed any assistance.

---

WC:538
TWC:1017

Shin would simply watch as the last member of the group arrived, his demeanor an actions a bit odd to the boy. Shin would make a mental note regarding the Roy fellow and his tardiness. Perhaps it was an isolated incident, but the only way to properly determine and confirm such would be to collect more data points. It wasn't even so much as a conscious thought to do this, as he simply wanted to know as much as he could about his fellow villagers and so his mind would soak up all of this information like a sponge. In reality, despite the man's decision to be late Shin didn't truly mind all that much. It was just cleaning up some leaves. The task was easy... tedious, but easy. He would note that Nagisa would quickly snatch her hand away from Roy, and her face seemed to have a look of... annoyance? Shin just casually observed, watching the others. He was happy to be meeting more folks from the village, he really was, though these missions were fairly boring. Fortunately, the others seemed to be quite interesting, though Angelito was a bit on the quiet side. Hopefully the boys questions about more exiting and cool mission stories didn't bring back painful memories for the young man. 

Nagisa seemed to have an interesting story, which Shin couldn't wait to hear. A good story was always an enjoyable experience, and a skilled storyteller can weave magic with just their words, taking the other person on a journey far from the realm they call reality and directly into the midst of the tale. Shin would offer a smile back, eyes wide with excitement and offer a simple, "Thanks!"

It would seem as though labor was divided up, Shin getting the chance to hopefully get to know this Angelito fellow a bit better. "So, what's your favorite thing to do in the village?" The Akari was quiet, though Shin didn't know what stemmed this sudden loss of words. Perhaps he was shy? Or maybe he didn't like how the assignments were divided? Perhaps it was something about the pale boy himself that was off putting? 

The pair would arrive at the abandoned cart, popcorn and candies littered all across the ground. It wasn't just the cart that was abandoned, but all of its merchandise as well. Shin wondered what could cause someone to just leave everything behind like that, but didn't spend too much effort on contemplation. He focused on cleaning up the area, shooing away all sorts off bugs and critters while he swept up the ground and dumped it into a trash bin. He didn't pay a whole lot of attention to his partner in this event, for the quiet unease between the two just alienated Shin a little bit and the boy didn't wish to make an uncomfortable situation any worse for either of them. It didn't take long for them to finish the task.

"Time to meet up with the others." Shin would say as he began making his way to the damaged tree. 

The scene was quite a mess, the power lines sprawled across the ground haphazardly. There were various obstructions placed down to prevent any citizens from accidentally hurting themselves via electrocution. Signs were put up, along with basic cones and blockades. The man at the scene mentions that the storms have caused all sorts of issues around the village and that this was just one of many calls he had to go to today. 

"Well, I can see what I can do. Just have to wait for everyone to arrive. Better to work collectively as a unit than each to try to do everything themselves." And with that said, the boy would wait for the others. 

wc:629

The work would quickly get completed to clean up the downed power lines. Despite all of his efforts to make friends here, they all seemed to be focusing on getting things done and weren't the talkative type, at least at the moment it would seem. It was a shame, for the boy really did hope to make some new friends in this village. Nevertheless, he would silently complete his tasks and then go home.

wc: 74
twc: 1362

---Exit---

Claims:

Completion of missions up to "Tax Dollars at Work"

3x E ranks complete
1x C rank complet

Total Ryo earned: 7000
Total AP earned: 35

1362 wc

13 stats (all vigor)
855 wc towards Wind Release: Wind Rejuvenation (completing it with wc here)
500/500 wc towards Wind Release: Sudden Rise

Shin of the Wind wrote:The work would quickly get completed to clean up the downed power lines. Despite all of his efforts to make friends here, they all seemed to be focusing on getting things done and weren't the talkative type, at least at the moment it would seem. It was a shame, for the boy really did hope to make some new friends in this village. Nevertheless, he would silently complete his tasks and then go home.

wc: 74
twc: 1362

---Exit---

Claims:

Completion of missions up to "Tax Dollars at Work"

3x E ranks complete
1x C rank complet

Total Ryo earned: 7000
Total AP earned: 35

1362 wc

13 stats (all vigor)
855 wc towards Wind Release: Wind Rejuvenation (completing it with wc here)
500/500 wc towards Wind Release: Sudden Rise

Approved

Adjustment to stat claims due to error on my part:

13 stats gained total

1 Stat into vigor (capping it)
12 stats into Chakra