Construction, Carving, and Self-Care

The first day, it was utter mayhem. As the days passed after that, it only became marginally quieter and more peaceful. The night that his father brought his dog home was the first night that his father slept out in his shed. The boarlings had been in a panic for hours with his mother trying to calm them down all that she could. Dracoso and Sutsui had simply used their ability to deprive their own sense of hearing and sweet bliss took them to sleep. The next morning was no better. His father tried to enter the house with Kinou at his hip and the boarlings were immediately on guard and growling angrily. Kinou attempted to protect Dracoso's father, but no one could stop his mother from throwing both him and the dog back out to eat in the yard.

"Some people think it is just ok to bring in untrained animals into this household," she said as she put out a plate of food for Dracoso and herself. Dracoso simply kept quiet, knowing that no matter what he said, he would not add much other than making himself an additional target. "I do hope he trains that dog to be peaceful and civilized when it is around the children. Otherwise, they can both stay outside for as long as they need." She gave herself a nod which was echoed by the three boarlings. Dracoso just softly shook his head to himself with a smile. He was not sure exactly what to expect from all the animals being in one place, but at least no one was bothering Sutsui, and she liked it that way. 

Once the meal was done, Dracoso helped to clean up and made sure his mother had calmed down before approaching her. "Mom, I have Sutsui and you have your children. I think Dad was feeling a bit lonely or left out that we were taking on companions which we could bond with. When he saw me being dragged around by the dogs the other day, I think he just wanted to find a companion of his own. I don't think he really expected it to be easy. Sometimes, we just need another person at our side." Her expression seemed to soften as she listened and crossed her arms as she replied, "well, he has me for a companion. Shouldn't that be enough?" Dracoso put up a hand to softly assuage the intensity of her response. "I could ask the same thing of whether he is enough or not. It is not whether we can be enough for another person but understanding their desires and needs too. You did not need the children when they first followed me home, but you found companionship with them. Something called out to me that connected me with Sutsui as well. it is about the desire to have someone who may depend on you or who you can depend on. I know dad depends on you for many things. Ever since I grew up, the only people who depend on him are his customers. Maybe he wants that feeling of companionship for someone who depends on him."

His mother let go of her tension and nodded, looking Dracoso in the eyes. "It has only felt like a short time since you decided to take on the life of a ninja, and yet you seem to have grown so much. From the letters sent by the academy to convince you to just become a genin-" Dracoso blushed and looked away, "-to the occasional note from your teacher about trouble you caused-" he sighed and just shook his head, "-you seem to have come a long way. People are asking you questions now instead of the other way around. You always seem to have a direction you want to take nowadays, rather than just wandering around the village trying to learn randomly. I do wish you would take care of yourself better, though. You still come home exhausted after running around town all day and night." He nodded to her, "I will go see the doctor after I handle a few tasks for the day. There are a couple of missions that I had my eye on for a while..." His mother was given him a stern look when he glanced over. He put his hands up defensively as he said, "and I promise to go see the doctor immediately after they are over."

She gave a sigh, reminiscent of Dracoso, and gave him a shrug. "That is the best I am going to get out of you right now, isn't it?" She asked. He gave her a smile and a kiss on the cheek before saying, "sorry Mom. I do take after Dad's determination and your firm will after all." She gave him a warm smile in return and straightened his hair. He felt a bit embarrassed as she did so and she said, "as long as you get a clean bill of health, I will be happy." He gave her a nod before quickly heading for the front door. They said their goodbyes before he left. He passed his father and Kinou out front and told him what had happened. Dracoso suggested to his father to wait for a bit and to talk with his mother without Kinou there to at least come to an agreement. His father thanked him and wished him well as he took off for the mission center.

He took to the rooftops immediately to avoid any issues with neighbors and friends as he wanted to be in the best shape he could be before heading to the doctor. He knew that he wanted to do something a bit tougher than handling animals, but nothing that would truly wear him out. It was a peaceful jog above the crowd, and he made quick work of the trip down. By the time he arrived, he could softly feel his heart beating and a bit of a high from the exercise. He carefully jumped down and strode into the building to review the missions board. One mission caught his eye, but he decided to take it on a different day if it was still available. He grabbed up a pair of forms with matching D rankings and headed for the desk. Aki gave Dracoso a glance with a smile before looking over his forms and nodding to herself. She reached down into the desk and pulled out a third form and slipped it in front of him.

Curious, Dracoso looked over the document. It described a mission that simply had the signed individual heading to the doctor to get a routine checkup. "What kind of mission is this?" he asked Aki. The assistant smiled and said, "you would not believe how often shinobis do not look after themselves. Some love to go gung-ho into combat and others just throw themselves into their work. Because of this, we end up with injuries and suffering left and right and most expect medical ninjas to handle them. Well, we recently started putting out a requirement that people see a medical professional from time to time, but we can't set a specific time on it. It was suggested that we compensate those who have difficulty otherwise making time for their doctor." Dracoso chuckled softly to himself and asked, "my mom sent a note, didn't she?" Aki simply nodded and tapped the form. "Sign this one, and I will sign off on the other two with it."

With no other choice, Dracoso simply shrugged and signed the form. Aki handed him all three once she was set and gave him a soft smile. "At least your missions don't seem too intensive. The bridge only needs a few more hands helping to renovate it and the senbon crew should be rather quick with getting you up to speed. Just make sure not to get too many cuts or bruises out there." He returned the smile and nodded, assuring her that he would do his best. He said his goodbye with a wave and left for the bridge. Along his trip, he stopped off at the main gate and chatted with Chap and Pert. They were impressed with his diligence and confirmed that they had seen him dragged around town by the dogs a few days ago. They were conveniently busy at the time, so they were not able to lend a hand. They all agreed to meet up sometime for a drink or two and to catch up more when they could.

Aside from the trip to the beach, it had been some time since Dracoso had left the village walls and handled missions further than the nearby forests. The bridge which was being build was only a few miles off and gave him some time to think on his recent experiences. From helping a drowned man regain his memories to silently putting a bull to rest, he had been rather busy. He had ended one life on one day and helped someone reclaim their life on another. He was feeling rather content with his accomplishments. He just wondered what other steps he could take to impact the world and start to carry it forward with his efforts. Each mission he completed felt like he was improving peoples' lives, but he wondered what further steps he could take. He knew that one requirement for him to be able to learn more powerful techniques was to hunt down a wanted individual and return with them, dead or alive. He would prefer the latter but knew that he needed to still grow before he would feel ready to take on that challenge.

The bridge seemed to already be in good shape as he approached. Large cables and wires, which appeared to have new layers added to them, held the bridge in place. Several of the workers were taking a break nearby and enjoying their lunch while a woman with a commanding aura marched down the bridge towards Dracoso. "No civilians on the bridge at this time! We are still working, and we can have you use the ferry nearby as a detour," she barked at him before turning around towards the bridge. "Just a second!" Dracoso said as he pulled out the mission form and held it out in her direction. She glanced back and saw the paper he was holding. After reading it through, she nodded firmly and pointed the paper towards a small pile of tools. "Grab up a hammer and some nails and start replacing any rotted wood you come across. From there, I am going to need you to help carry over the new metal glass sheets we had brought in and follow my team's directions on where to place them. Finally, you get to paint down the side of the bridge and put it to a nice sheen of silver." 

As she finished up, she headed over to the workers and declared that lunch was ending in five minutes. The team was finishing up their food as Dracoso grabbed up a hammer and a box of nails and began to survey the underside of the bridge. Several boards had gone bad and either had cracks through it due to rot or stress had warped the wood and was getting close to breaking off altogether. He borrowed a measuring tape and a bucket from the pile and made sure to write down the dimensions before carrying over one piece of wood at a time. He removed the nails from the old pieces of wood and placed them in the bucket before putting the wood aside. Once it was clear of any splinters or fractured wood, he would put up the new piece and wedge it into place before nailing it in. He worked steadily, spending an hour replacing several pieces closest to the shore on the underside. Several pieces simply broke into splinters and even the nails bent heavily as they were taken out. Little by little, the bridge began to look a bit better from the side. At least, for the several meters he had replaced.

The leader poked her head down and gave him a firm nod before saying, "time to move those glass plates. Going to need all the help we can get." Dracoso wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and jogged back up to see the workers moving plates in teams of two to get them down the bridge. He glanced at the plate and saw that it was at least three meters tall and two meters wide. He quickly summoned up a pair of shadow clones and the three were barely able to move the plate to where it needed to go. They would take short rests after each pane and the workers offered a hand here and there to speed it up. They would give minor directions on how to place it and stand it up so that it could be welded into place. The plates stood on either side of the bridge, creating a see-through wall which protected from the wind and the rain. Dracoso knocked on one of the panes softly and found it to be extremely dense, with very little give.

After moving two dozen or so glass plates, the woman walked up with a man in tow and announced that it was time to paint the section of the bridge. She dropped two large canisters of silver paint and pointed a thumb back at the man. "Polet here has the brushes and the rollers. Make sure to give it an even layer and give two to the thicker wood, so it looks nice." At her word, the team gathered up the tools and got to work. Dracoso had a pair of water clones assist and focused on painting more of the detailed areas where the wood and metal met and covered even the hard-to-reach spots. The leader saw him working and simply gave him another nod before surveying her team's work. It took another hour of careful handiwork before they declared this section of the bridge complete. 

Dracoso asked the leader how much more work was needed, and she chuckled at him before answering. "Kid, this bridge reaches from one island to another. It will take months to fully renovate this thing. We handle it one section at a time so that we do not bite off more than we can chew. The mission is to help with the section we are working on that day, and we are already done. Thanks for the work. You got a pretty good eye when it comes to planning. You could use a bit more muscle and patience, but you are worth the pay," she finished with a shrug. She signed off on the form and handed it back to him before giving a wave of dismissal and returned to her team.

He chuckled at the somewhat compliment she gave him and headed back towards the village. He felt a good soreness settle over him from the work and stretched out some of the small knots that had formed. Relieving the tension in his fingers and elbows with soft pops, he jogged back through the main gate and followed the familiar path towards the crafting area of town. The lane through this area had specific crafts buildings lining it on both sides. Many crafts exist in Kiri, including leatherworking, blacksmithing, glassblowing, electricians, builders, and painters. On that last note, Dracoso snuck past the Painter Guild with Sutsui's help in camouflage. The last time he had left, he knew that Atila would respect his request to not be pressed into becoming a member, yet the rest of the guild may delay him from his next task.

With the guild behind him, he came up to a large building fronted by an open yard. Stacks of thin metal bars sat on one table while a dozen individuals moved crates and bars to and fro across the yard. A man standing near the entrance walked up to Dracoso and asked what business he had coming here. Dracoso held up the second mission form and the man reviewed it. "Well, we can't really have you making the bars or packing the crates. The process to make the bars and the material we use to pack the crates are secrets, but you can help with shaping the bars down and stacking them for us to move," the man explained. Dracoso gave him a nod and followed him into one of the workshops.

Two long lines of tables stood against one another down the center of the room with crates sitting opposite towards the walls. People stood at each of these tables spinning wide sharpening whetstones that gave off a dull hum. On either side of the whetstones sat an odd, short plush wall. "Shadow Stethen here," the man leading him said, patting the man at the frontmost table. "He will give you an understanding of how to shape the bars and how to place them so they can be safely prepared for packing." With a nod to Stethen, the man turned away and headed back towards the entrance. Stethen motioned to Dracoso to sit beside him and watch. Stethen pressed a small pedal under the table and the whetstone began to spin. Taking a metal bar in his hands, he gently pressed it to the whetstone and allowed it to shave off layers of metal into a small collection bin below. "You want to give more pressure towards each end and allow it to gently smooth inwards towards the center. This creates the shape of the senbon and allows it to be as strong as possible. You want to avoid having to take it fully off the whetstone until you reach the center and you do not want to return to anywhere besides the tip at either end."

Dracoso followed his instructions and watched for three presentations before attempting it himself. His first attempt was a bit heavy on the center and became more like a thin dreidel than a senbon. His second attempt was closer, but he ended up thinning it too heavily and it felt more like a toothpick. He finally got a nod from Stethen on this fifth attempt and the comment, "that would be considered passable to our clients. Keep improving." His fingers slowly adjusted to the pressure and the movement of the whetstone and felt more confident with each senbon he made. A small stack had formed beside him with Stethen gestured to the full collection bin below him. "Take that to the doors of the workshop and dump that in so that it can me smelted for future work." Dracoso carried the bin up front to find a much larger bin on either side of the doorway and tipped his shavings into it. As he returned, he saw one of his senbon stuck into the plush wall beside his whetstone. It rested pointing at an upward slant with the tip driven into the wall. "Insert them downwards into the wall so that it is easier to grab them back out. Your mission is done once you have covered the walls on either side of your whetstone," Stethen explained as he continued to shape his own bars.

Dracoso stuck his already completed senbon into the wall one by one, filling in the small gaps that lined the plush wall. The two dozen he had completed took up roughly half of one of the walls. He gave a sigh, already feeling a bit tired from the intensity of the work, and picked up another bar to begin shaping. Time seemed to flow more and more quickly as he worked, losing himself in the motions and process. Seconds became minutes which became hours, and the sun was already setting by the time Dracoso slid the final senbon into the second wall. A pat on the shoulder made him glance up to see Stethen give a small smile and nod to him. "Good work. This batch will go over well. Thank you." Dracoso returned the smile with a tired one of his own and yawned. Stethen signed off on his form and wished him well as he headed back for the main roads of the village.

These two jobs ended up being far more draining than he had expected. He imagined making senbon to be more about caution and careful hands. It ended up being an intense practice in timing and patience that taxed his ever-busy mind. The bridge mission had mentioned fixing and painting, but nothing about needing to carry wooden beams and large glass plates. There was nothing he could do now, and he had taken on the missions, so he could not complain. At least his final mission was to be a simple check up with the doctor. 

A chill ran down his back as each time he had thought something would be simple, it rarely turned out to be the case.

The doctor's office was only a few blocks down from his own home, so the trip was down a familiar route. He remembered pestering this doctor about all the different questions he could think up about medicine and patient care when he was a child. As it was only a short way from his home, he stopped off frequently to learn as much as possible. As he stepped into the office and the nurse raised both eyebrows, he knew that she recognized him. "Welcome back Dracoso. Are you here for your health or to take a bit more of ours?" She asked with a chuckle. He gave a tired smile and replied, "it is for my health today. I need a checkup to make sure that I am still in good fighting shape." The nurse nodded, "well, you are a bit late for your appointment, so you may need to wait before the doctor can see you." 

With a nod, Dracoso took a seat in the waiting area and watch the clock tick by. The office was rather quiet at this hour and only one other person was waiting to see the doctor. He closed his eyes to relax and let himself settle in his seat. What felt like moments later, the nurse was softly tapping his shoulder and waking him up from his nap. "The doctor is ready now. Head on in," was all she said. Dracoso nodded and headed through the door into the back and followed it down to the usual room he received his checkup in. The room was rather small, with a table-sized chair for the patient to sit or lay down on and another chair for the doctor to sit in. The window looked out onto a side street and had the last rays of the setting sun coming through. Dracoso sat upon the larger chair and waited for the doctor to arrive.

It took only a few minutes and the door opened hesitantly. The doctor peeked in and looked at Dracoso carefully. Apparently, the doctor also remembered Dracoso's pestering as a child. Dracoso tiredly held up his hands to assuage any thoughts of pestering and settled back on the chair. The Doctor stepped in and looked him over as he wrote a few notes. "So... here for a physical I take it?" he asked Dracoso. He nodded in response to the doctor and said, "as requested by my mother, and the center assistant, and possibly even my old teacher." The doctor gave a small chuckle and shook his head, "you have been gone for some time since I last saw you. I think it is getting close to three years at this point. You are quite overdue." Dracoso nodded tiredly, closing his eyes as he spoke, "I have been keeping myself busy being a ninja and helping people. Not too much time to get checked up by a physician sadly." The doctor nodded with a sad smile and said, "that is fine. We will not take too much time here. So, you can get checked up, get your shots, and get right back out to it."

Dracoso nodded at first, then paused. "Shots? What do you mean shots?" he asked, feeling his anxiety rising. "Well, you have been gone for a few years and you missed a few of your booster shots for certain diseases. We will need to also draw some blood and make sure you are healthy across a small battery of tests," the doctor responded. "Can we just skip the shots and go on to checking my pulse?" Dracoso asked hopefully. With a nod, the doctor replied, "of course, we can check your pulse first, test your heartrate, then do the shots after." Dracoso felt that hope begin to dwindle. He stood up and stretched and said, "I am already feeling pretty good, as you can see. I do not think there is a need for-" The nurse walked through the door and closed it behind her. She was carrying a tray of what appeared to be syringes and small tubes to be inserted and replaced. Dracoso's anxiety spiked, and he rapidly began to make the seals to flicker away. The nurse caught his hand in mid motion and shook her head. "We deal with many ninjas who come for their checkups. Why do you think we use such small rooms?"

Dracoso felt Sutsui stir from his shoulders, and he rapidly sent sensations for taking action to camouflage him or to distract the two medical practitioners. Sutsui slithered up, shimmering softly as she formed her jutsu and appeared over his shoulder. The doctor took a glance at it, gave a small shake of his head and pulled out a lollipop that he held towards Sutsui. She took a glance at each of the individuals, looked them over with her mind's eyes, then wrapped her mouth around the lollipop and pulled back into Dracoso's shirt. Betrayed, Dracoso looked confused at the doctor. He just gave a smirk and said, "your mother and teacher both told us all about your familiar and how you two are inseparable. We also heard about how a small boy spoiled your familiar before you bonded with her. She seems smart enough to know that you are not in any real danger."

Dracoso slumped back into his seat and deflated. He had his pulse checked, his breathing listened to, his body examined, and his sight and hearing tested. The shots were quick and hurt only so much, even though Dracoso twitched and tensed up before each one, only suffering more for having done so. He felt Sutsui shiver softly and felt from the sensations that she was enjoying the lollipop as much as his discomfort with the shots. He sent sensations back with images of when they would visit the vet and she became very solemn and silent. All-in-all, it took an hour for them to finish the checkup and Dracoso received a lollipop of his own for sitting through it. He considered tossing it away, but with Sutsui sending nonstop sensations for it, he handed it off to her and send an image that conveyed that she had better not betray him next time.

He felt far sorer from the shots and the blood drawing than his work earlier and sagged slightly as he walked home. The lights were on out front, and his mother welcomed him as he came in. She asked him why he seemed so tired from an easy day and all he said in response was, "blame the doctor." He made his way up to his room and collapsed on his bed. He was asleep before he knew it and woke up only once to the sound of his door closing. A plate of food from dinner sat at the edge of his room with a small note. The note read "Good Job Honey! Keep up the good health!" He chuckled weakly to himself and smiled as he ate through the warm food. Maybe some self-care is not all that bad when mixed in with fulfilling work. At least it made his mother happy.

{Exit}
Missions:
D-Rank: Renovate the Bridge
D-Rank: Sharpening Senbon
D-Rank: An Apple A Day...
Total Rewards: 6000 Ryo + 30 AP
Total Event Rewards: 30 Beachside Tickets

Total WC: 4701 (rounded to 4700)
Maxed Stats, Maxed AP - 25% off Jutsu

Jutsu Mastery:
E rank - Wind Release: Quiet Footsteps - Handseals (Sealless) 187.5 (originally 250)
E rank - Genjutsu Release - Handseals (sealless) 187.5 (originally 250)
B rank - Hidden Mist Technique - (2) Handseals (sealless) 2250 (originally 1500 x 2 (3000))
A rank - Mystical Palm - Handseals (half handseals) - 1875 (originally 2500)
Total: 4500

Jutsu Learned
D-Rank - Leaf Whirlwind - 250/375 (originally 500) (Adding 200 to the 50/375 from It's Raining Dogs and Cats and... Posters?)