Rising of a Ninja | Fumitake's First Missions

Sun Oct 23, 2022 4:42 am

Mission Lineup:

Minor Construction Help

The day always starts early in a village with shinobi. Fumitake sat up swiftly in his bed as his alarm rang, peeling like thunder through his entire body. He heard a soft knocking coming from the room next door. The dwelling next to his apparently got fed up with the alarm before he did. He knocked back as if to apologize and shut the clock off.

He leaned back, stretching his arms as far as he could as he lamented being able to see the sunrise. “Oh it’s far too early for this… Why did I have to go and sign up for a construction job of all things? Well up and at ‘em, there’s no telling what kind of trouble you’ll be in if you skip out on this one…” his words carried through his apartment, of sorts, reaching nobody’s ears but his own. After tumbling out of his bed and lazily completing his morning routine, he “got the lead out” as people say, and made his way toward the construction site he was tasked with assisting at today. His usual taste for baggy clothes proved inconvenient today as the wind decided to pick up. He would think something along the lines of “at least the weather’s nice this time of year” were he not still heavily in a haze from his sleep ending all too soon.

“Oh good, you’re here. You seem to be the last of them. Grab a toolbelt and get in there, we need stable feet to help get beams fastened to the load bearing supports.” One worker, presumably the foreman, sounded stern but pleasant enough.

“Aye, aye, sir” Fumitake grabbed the belt and, steeply slumped forward, began to walk straight toward the center of the construction site. It looked like they had large beams seated into the foundation and he, for now, just needed to climb up and place brackets with holes, presumably for more fastening, so they could begin blocking out the upper floors of whatever this building was to become.

Fumi stretched his legs and began walking up the chosen beam, focusing his chakra to his feat like his teachers had taught him. He lined up the brackets and hammered a nail through their premade holes. He started by doing this up each support beam. He normally isn’t one to care for the tedious jobs but he had to be honest, he was finding a pleasant rhythm with this. Few steps up a beam, crouch, hammer the bracket in place, a few steps up, repeat.

Once he had brackets in place, he began taking more boards from people below and placing them between the beams. Once they were seated in place, they just had to be nailed down as well. Once they were done they would have enough horizontally placed boards to allow the real work to begin. He was told once the basic structure was in place, they’d have him move to laying mortar and brick for not only the walkway but the stairs and ramp into the building as well. Fumi was always up to learn something new.

“Alright so what you want to do here is lay them out real even, into the mortar, and then use more over the top to fill in the gaps. You got that Fumi?” The foreman was patient but succinct. Enough words that Fumitake understood what needed to be done but didn’t get bored halfway through.

“You bet!” Fumi wasn’t sure where his enthusiasm came from. He had been working hard all day, but didn’t feel tired one bit! He, somewhere in his absent minded thought processes, would assume that being moved from one task to the next with little downtime between is probably keeping him stimulated.

The Young Ninja pressed forward. He had a straightedge and a trowel to be sure the path would be straight and properly constructed. Once again, after a short stint of getting guidance from another worker, he fell into a rhythm. Something freeing about not having to think about what you’re doing. You just do.

While Fumitake was plugging away at his current task he heard creaking. A soft but noticeable groaning. Dismissive at first he kept to his work but began to hear the creaking turn into a cracking. “Something’s coming down…” he thought. He wasn’t sure what, but something was about to topple. He set down his masonry tools and stayed in a crouched position, cupping a hand over one ear. “But where is it…” He listened to see if he could pinpoint where it was coming from.

“Hey, kid, what’s the matter?” another worker asked, with a concerned tone.

His eyes darted left and right trying to find what was going to fall. “The south wall. The one they’re still fastening.” Fumi’s mind was focused on that wall.

“No, everything’s fine. I’m going to go help them raise that wall for a minute. Watch my trowel.” Fumi spoke with an even and calm tone, but briskly moved toward where the others were pulling ropes to raise up a wall.

“Need any help?” He grabbed a rope and started helping them pull.

The other workers shouted as they all heaved in unison, bringing the wall into place. Fumi immediately climbed up and began fastening it in place, alongside another worker on the opposite side of him. This way they can get things secured quickly, to let the other workers release the strain. He maneuvered around almost like a monkey going after one connection point to the next. He looked over to the other worker that was nailing down the wall. The man, no more than just a few years older than himself, smiled and held up a thumb. Fumi took this as a prompt to jump down off the wall.

“Anything else, feel free to let me know, I’m going to get back to brick laying.” He nonchalantly walked back to the other masons laying down bricks. “Alright, guys, I’m back.”

Back to the bricklaying rhythm. Fumi feels good about his day so far. He usually isn’t much for manual labor but this has been nice. After smoothing out grout on the walkway up to the building, the sun begins to set. It seems his work is done for the day. Thanks are exchanged and Fumi is sent on his way with an accomplished feeling and a stiff back.

“There’s something to be said for being able to just take your mind off things and get things done.” Fumitake thought to himself as he began his walk home. A sudden wave of realization hit him… He suddenly felt incredibly tired.

Total WC: 1105

Mon Oct 24, 2022 4:19 am

Day One at the Academy:

With a clacking and a slipping of fabric, Fumitake adjusted his shoes and tightened his headband. As new students were being enrolled in the Academy to begin their ninja training, he had been asked to talk to the students, show them a few techniques and give them some encouraging words as inspiration. Get them set off right.

“Well if they really think I’m good for the job…” Fumi’s uncertainty was noticeable for anyone who would walk by. He stared toward the ground as if he had been watching the grass grow. He was waiting outside for the group of students to come by. “Oh I hate waiting…”

He squatted down, perched on his toes, crossed his arms, and leaned forward and closed his eyes. He let out a steady yawn and tried his best to relax. The gentle morning breeze was soothing he even started to drift off to sleep for a moment before his peace was interrupted by the voice of a few kids. Younger than he was.

“Uhhh excuse me? Are you Fumitake Muto? Sensei told us to come find you”

He opened a single eye and looked up at the student. He started to say “just five more minutes” in protest but stopped himself.

“Oh… OH! Yes!” He stood up straight, puffing out his chest, trying to look as impressive as possible. The students… don’t seem impressed.

He looked out across a small sea of unimpressed, shocked, and otherwise confused faces. He wasn’t sure what they expected from him, or what he should do to impress them. Guess it’s going to be a little of everything.

“Uhh, how about I start by showing you a few things and maybe give you a few words on what it means to be a ninja of Hoshigakure?”

He was met with silence, a few nods, and one enthusiastic cheer. A little disheartening but that’s fine. Fumi put his hands together into the ram seal and smirked.

“Well if one of me doesn’t impress you…” In a cloud of smoke 4 more Fumitakes appeared, as he, himself, ducked out and ran around the corner and up to the roof. “How about 4 of me?”

Some of the students let out gasps of astonishment at the sight and sound of 4 of this person talking in unison. Not specifically because this is an extraordinary feat but it’s something special to see a ninja in action. Fumi could relate. He was always extremely impressed by watching ninja higher up than him performing feats he could only dream of at that point in his life.

“Don’t worry, I’m not done yet.” The Fumitake clones ran around each other in a path that kept it straightforward to keep track of the one that was replacing him where he was standing, giving the illusion of them watching him as the clones began to walk up the side of the building.

More astonished eyes and a few more cheers. He smiled while he was hiding on top of the roof. “Just wait, the show’s barely even started,” he thought.

Fumitake had the clones seem to slip as they got high up on the wall. The kids below shouted as the ninja meant to demonstrate being a ninja began to fall off the wall. He cast off 3 of the clones, forcing them to vanish to further sell the illusion. They were just kids so he didn’t want to push it so about ¾ of the way down, he dispelled the last of his clones, revealing he was never in any dange. The kids looked around confused as Fumi moved into place, and slid a crate over, using the substitution jutsu to pull off one more trick.

“A ninja must misdirect!” He shouted something he remembered hearing in the academy. “Be it through words or or be it through actions. If you want to win, if you want to protect, you need to remember this critical lesson.”

“Fumitake” jumped down off the wall and as soon as the fake hit the ground, another puff of smoke, and there sat a broken wooden crate.

Murmurs of confusion and a couple questions of concern spread through the class. One kid spoke up asking “where did he go?” and Fumi, now squatting behind the class, stood up and cleared his throat.

“So. Who here can tell me what it means to be a Ninja?”

The kids whipped around to see the Genin standing right behind them as if none of the displays they just witnessed ever happened at all. Many of them let out cheers. But none answered his question.

“Well I imagine everyone has a different answer for this but…” He was a little embarrassed to share his opinion on this but, he turned his head to the side and tugged at his hair a bit, “To me, being a Ninja means protecting your family. Whoever that is to you. I never really had a family, so to me, the village is the closest thing I have as a family. So I guess that includes all of you. And that’s why I became a Ninja. I think the idea is for all of you to find your own reason for becoming a ninja and having a clear goal gives you motivation and makes it easier to get to where you want to be…”

There was a long silence before Fumitake met all of the kids’ eyes again.

“So do your best!”

The students crowded Fumitake and showered him with questions such as “how did you do that?”, “Can I learn to do that someday too?”, and many others he simply smiled and tried to answer best he could where he could. Trying to be as reassuring as possible to the kids. He knows this kind of thing helped him quite a lot when he was their age.

After the students were called back, Fumi stood and waved at them as they left. Most of them waved back as they were taken back to whatever the day had in store for them. He silently wished them luck and immediately realized exactly how tired he was. He walked back home, dragging his feet the whole way. It was time for a nap.

(Total WC: 1040)

Tue Oct 25, 2022 4:36 am

Patrol Intern:

“Alright thank you, I’ll do my best.” Fumitake thanked the overseer of the patrol shifts tonight, and adjusted his equipment. As he left the Headquarters, the sun was just starting to set. He made sure a flashlight was somewhere on his person and began scaling the side of a nearby building. He decided to start his rounds on rooftops looking down. Once more people returned to their homes for the night, he planned to resume his rounds on the ground. For now, until something happens, it would just be people watching which was fine.

As he jumped over an alleyway to finish his first time around the circumference of the area he was told to watch, he could hear a conversation between a child and their father.

“Did you enjoy dinner?” the father spoke quietly with a gentle voice.

“Yeah! I did! But what about dessert?” The child was eager and unthinking of the people around her. She was nearly shouting her request to her father.

“Ahaha, well I’ll make you something at home? Would that be okay?”

The child nodded her head enthusiastically and the two continued on their way home.

It was nice to see the village like this, peaceful, everyone simply going about their day. He knew people who would get jealous if they saw family walking about together, but not Fumitake Muto. He was happy for them, being jealous doesn’t get you anything but a stomach ache.

As he crossed over to the other set of buildings, he continued looking down through alleyways and down streets. Nothing major is happening in the village. There was a street lamp that Fumi had to kick a couple times to stop it from flickering, but so far it has been very… placid. After a few minutes more of roof-top rounds, he started to hear the sound of rushing water. Perhaps he was nearing the fountain, or there might be something blocking one of the spouts, causing it to hiss louder.

“No that’s not right…” he thought “It’s something else…”

He looked around high and low for the source of the sound, wracking his brain trying to figure out what could be making such a sound. He was perplexed but like lightning, it hit him. He leaned off the edge of the building he was on, steadying his feet to walk down in order to get a better look. “Sure enough” the Ninja thought.

“Hey you down there!” He shouted trying to sound more pleasant and curious than stern and enforcing. “What have you gotten up to?”

He dropped down onto the alley floor and looked to see 3 kids spray painting the Hoshigakure Star on the side of the building.

“Hey, that looks pretty good.” Fumi, keeping his voice somewhat raised, tried to sound as kind as possible. Not that his intention worked.

“RUN!” The kids scattered to the wind.

Fumi, with a hand outstretched, started to shout out after the kids to tell them they weren’t in trouble, but it was already too late. He, instead, pulled out a notebook to write to their physical descriptions in case they were actually in trouble to include in his report after the night was over. He wasn’t sure if those kids would get in trouble or not, but in his eyes they’re just kids and it’s not like they painted anything profane.

“Well in any case, back on the rounds.” He spoke to himself as he resumed his patrol, on the streets this time. Now he was in the weeds so to speak. People are still shuffling around, the smells and sounds that you’d expect from a village at night before the lights go out. His stomach rumbled, but he had to keep going.

He saw a lot of familiar faces and exchanged a few hellos but eventually, his patrol shift came to its end. He opened his notebook to scribble down a few more things for his report when he returns. Before he went back to finish off his duties he sat down on a bench for a few minutes to look up at the stars. He imagined the lines drawn between them, making constellations that weren’t there. He stood from the bench and started walking back to the headquarters so he could fill in the supervisor that his patrol was pretty much normal.

On the way back the cool breeze was soothing. It made his baggy clothing sway in the current reminiscent of a flag on a pole. He grabbed both sides of his coat and fastened it shut to cut down on the strange whipping about of fabric. There were far fewer people on the street now, it was eerily quiet and yet it was nice. It’s surreal to see your village be so empty when your past experience dictates that it should be busy. Strange sensations aside, Fumitake found himself outside of the headquarters, face to face with the ninja overseeing tonight’s patrols.

“Sir, I’m here to give my report of my patrol.” He started flipping through his notebook “At 21 hours I found 3 children with spray paint cans emblazoning the Hoshigakure Star onto the side of a building. They didn’t mean any harm but I did collect their physical descriptions if you wished to enforce the clean-up of… Unwanted paint.”

He cleared his throat “Ahem. One boy standing no more than 5 feet and 6 inches, dark straight hair reaching just past the ears. Tanned skin. No discerning features aside from that. Another boy standing a few inches taller than the last, pale, messy, nearly white hair, I noticed blue eyes. The third was a girl, standing around 5 feet and 5 inches, blonde hair, it was tied back but the hair reached well down her back. At 21:30 I… Erm… Performed percussive maintenance on a lamp post. After that I have nothing to report. It has been a pleasure working with you sir.”

The much older Ninja smiled “Relax, I appreciate the formal tone you’ve taken, but it’s late. You can relax. And Fumitake, you’ve done a fine job. Now get some rest. I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for anything tomorrow that may suffer from a lack of sleep. Now, go.”

A pleasant older man, Fumi quite liked him. He wasn’t all business, he felt like an actual person to talk to. After the supervisor’s kind words, Fumi gave him a wave and made his way home. More So than he had been recently, he was desperately tired…

(WC: 1088)