Smoking Gun

Mission Link:

Mission Link:

There was no denying that the Sakura trees had an amazing allure to them. Their pink blossoms covered the village’s skyline, creating a sight rarely seen anywhere in the world. However, with beautiful blossoms comes a lot of errant petals and when they start falling, the village looks like it’s suffered from a pink blizzard. Now that Gun was a genin, she had been tasked with cleaning up after the little littering trees. She had been handed a roll of bags, so she could collect all of the petals. Naturally, with so many petals, she would need a lot of bags, there were more if she needed to get more. She set out to her assigned district and got to work.

She zipped down streets and alleys, picking up handfuls after handfuls of petals. Her assignment had been pretty clear that they weren’t looking for her to remove all of the petals, just gather a bunch of them. The idea was to get enough off the streets so the water drainage and sewers weren’t jammed up with the pink petals. Gun had a bag full in no time, placing it next to some trash cans that would likely be emptied some time soon. She whipped another bag off the roll before opening it. She hustled through the alleys, shoving the petals into the bag before moving on to the next alley. The monotonous work allowed her brain to wander as her body kept going.

She thought about the recent exam and how she’d managed to pass. She was now an actual kunoichi, able to take real missions. She wasn’t surprised, but Kana had also passed the exam. Gun knew the girl studied more than most, she had expected Lana to show her mettle in the exam. Her tenacity wouldn’t let her fail. She wondered what the future held for them both; being a genin was great and all, but she wanted to go further. More than just ranks, she wanted to get stronger. She knew she was at the very bottom of the ladder and she had no real skills or feats to speak of, but she was ready to learn more. The academy, naturally, focused on general skills and harnessing chakra, but they didn’t really spend any time on specific, well focused skills. Kana had shown that she was adept with chakra while Gun had proven herself to physically gifted. In Gun’s mind, that meant she should find a mentor in taijutsu and continue training in that field that the Academy just scratched the surface of.

Her hands were a bit icky from the wet petals that she shoveled out of the drain pipe with her bare hands, but she didn’t really mind. She was content to do the work and wash her hands afterward if needed. Gun wondered if there was some way to incorporate the water element that she’d discovered to have as her natural affinity with taijutsu. She thought she remembered the instructor mention nintaijutsu at some point, but Gun had no idea how to learn more about it. She was fairly certain that she should be getting a genin team assignment soon, then she could ask her sensei to teach her about it.

She was also excited to see what Kana was going to do; she had proven to be good at controlling chakra and the instructor mentioned that medics often had good control. Gun couldn’t help but wonder if Kana would become a medic, and the thought of harsh personality Kana attempting to baby and care for a patient made Gun grin as she dropped off another bag of petals. Kana's bedside manner was sure to be troublesome, but Gun didn't even really know what a shinobi medic's job was. If it was someone who provided emergency medical attention to fellow shinobi, bedside manner may not be all that important, she mused. In a way, Gun wondered if her path would ever intersect with Kana's again. The two were likely to become very different kunoichi and were likely to be assigned very different missions. If they never worked together, they would still be residents of the same village with the same employer, they could still keep up with each other.

It then dawned on Gun, as she scooped up more petals and shoved them into a bag, that if she were assigned dangerous missions with high chances of combat, then they may also assign a medic to the mission to ensure the safety of those involved. Gun's face lit up at the prospect of being able to work with Kana, the catalyst for Gun's evolution. She didn't really know what sort of missions she'd be assigned to do and she still didn't know if teammates could be requested. Kana and Gun wanted to work together and complete missions together, watching each other's backs. They knew each other and cared for each other, so it felt natural to have someone you're comfortable with backing you up. Expecting a stranger to watch your back wasn't nearly as comforting as someone you know wants to protect you watching your back. As she shoved another handful into the bag, Gun couldn't help but be amazed by the massive amounts of petals. She'd recently learned of augmenting, using materials with unique traits to imbue those traits into ninja tools, and she couldn't help but wonder how wealthy Sakura could become if these petals had some unique trait that the world needed. They certainly weren't in short supply, Gun could attest to that.

After dropping another bag off, Gun rushed down another alley, grabbing and picking up petals as she went. She seemed to also be training, purposely evading obstacles with acrobatic maneuvers that, while beautiful, were completely unnecessary in the alley while picking up sakura petals from the ground. Another bag was tied and tossed with a group of trash cans and Gun headed down another alley, using her speed to make quick work of the petals that littered the alley like snow after a blizzard. Gun's mind shifted back to her new rank of genin and the possibility of being placed on a team. The idea of a mentor, like her instructor at the Academy, to guide her towards becoming a better shinobi was a welcome idea. Instructors gave good advice, but it was generic at best, designed to help everyone. A sensei would only have a few students and they could focus so much better on providing true guidance that genin would surely grow in strength and power at rates that would make their growth as academy students seem super slow in comparison.

Gun's excitement to get stronger showed on her face as the giant smile covered her face. Her arms swooped down and scooped up more petals, shoving them into another bag. The academy had never focused a whole lot on utilizing weapons; naturally, they covered usage like kunai and exploding tags, but they didn't really allow students to spar with weapons. Tossing the filled bag aside, Gun took a moment to rest as she considered the likelihood of using weapons. Her physical capabilities would allow her to utilize weapons effectively, but Gun wasn't sure which weapons to use. They'd shown them a variety of weapons in the academy and Gun was pretty sure she wanted sharp. While her strength wasn't terrible, her speed was a more dangerous weapon for her to use. That meant slicing and stabbing things with a sharp weapon would be way more effective than trying to smash someone with a kanabo.

Gun turned down another alley, beginning to pick up the pink petals that lay atop everything. Swords and katanas had their draw, they were definitely some of the coolest weapons and most deadly in the hands of someone that knew how to use them. Her mind imagined herself in 5 years carrying a katana, slicing enemy shinobi in half. The image brought another smile to Gun's face. She was sure she could utilize a sword given the proper training and time, but they also had their faults. Sakuragakure no Sato's leader, Chiharu Misaki, used a guan do, or so Gun had been told. Guan do was like a staff with a sword on the end of it. That would naturally give a guan do user the reach advantage over someone with a simple katana. All of this was something to consider when picking up a weapon to master. Gun threw a few more petals into the bag before tying it up and throwing it aside with the other garbage. She was getting tired, both of the monotony of picking up petals and the speed at which she was going to get the job done. She knew she could slow down and use less energy, but she was using this as a sort of training to enhance her endurance. If she could go longer in battle at faster speeds than her opponent, she knew she could defeat anyone.

Gun kept pushing herself as she rounded the corner, her finger tips sliding across the ground as she swept up a large pile of pink petals with just her hand. She shoved them into the bag that her other hand was holding before swapping hands and doing it again with the opposite arm. Her breathing was becoming labored, but seeing it as training and not just a monotonous errand the village needed her to do allowed her to push through the exhaustion with a smile on her face. She'd never been one for physical exercise until she joined the academy, but now she loved pushing herself further in the physical realm to see just how far she could go. She tied up another bag, discarded it and whipped another one out from the roll. Gun wasn't sure how many bags she'd been given but the roll did seem much smaller than it had before she had started.

The constant bending over to pick the petals up off the ground was starting to make Gun's back hurt, but she knew it was just because she was exercising the muscles there that she didn't normally use, at least, she didn't normally use them like this nor this extensively. Gun had learned in the academy that you needed to listen to your body, when there was pain, one had to take note and be careful not to further the injury. An injured shinobi did the village no good, but Gun was pretty sure it was just the unusual maneuvers she was doing that was stretching and pushing the muscles differently than normal.

The young kunoichi tossed another full bag next to some trash cans and unrolled another bag. Gun was sure she had to be getting near the end of the roll. She sped down another alley, gathering up all of the once beautiful pink petals that now covered the entire district. Gun was sure that the district looked much better since she had started. There was a lot left, that was sure but one genin couldn't really clean an entire district by hand like this. She mused that someone with some Wind techniques might be able to blow all the petals into the bags or a someone with Fire techniques could burn the petals, but she had neither of those options so she was left with physically picking them up. Gun tied the full bag and tossed it aside before unrolling the last bag from her roll. She wasn't sure if that meant she'd completed the mission satisfactorily or if she needed to go back and get more bags, but she would cross that bridge after she had filled the empty bag that rest in her hand. She raced down the alley, grabbing up handfuls of petals and shoving them as best she could into the bag.

Gun tied the bag and placed it with some trash, she then looked down the alley to admire her work. It wasn't spotless, but she still felt like she'd done a good job. If she had done as well in the other alleys, then the district looked much better than before she started.

WC: 2025

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The building was dilapidated, at best. Gun stood in front of the building, staring up at it. It used to be some sort of mill or blacksmith workshop, it had a high roof and high ceilings, but the innards of the building were falling apart and the roof had obvious holes in it. The entire back part of the building had fallen off, leaving all of the rooms on that side open to the air. She had been a bit... surprised when they'd assigned her (a proclaimed bukijutsu specialist) to help with the destruction of a building. Standing in front of it, Gun could see why they wanted the building brought down: the location was good and they could do a lot of good with a brand new building here. She wasn't entirely sure how she could help, but she was there for the mission anyways.

"You!" a man with a hard hat and some facial hair had called out, pointing at Gun. "You ninja, take this" he said, holding out an ax, "Go in there and bring as much of the walls down and bring it all out." As Gun took the handle of the ax, the foreman turned to some other workers and began telling them what to do too. Gun looked around for a moment, unsure if he really meant her. When he glared at her, she took off, making a bee line through the front door. The building was pretty large and the inside had been partitioned with wooden walls, making a few small rooms within the larger building. Naturally, some of the walls had been corroded and fallen to bits, but the wooden frames remained. Gun lifted the ax, testing its heft in his hands. Then, with all her strength, she swung the ax at the wooden frame. The head of the ax slid through the two by four with ease, easily slicing through the next three before lodging itself about halfway through the fourth one. Gun's eyes opened wide as she stared at the ax before moving her still highly opened eyes up the ax's shaft to her own hands which held the ax. She could scarcely believe that she had really done that. She knew she was pretty capable physically, but that was far beyond her expectations.

With a little flick, she was able to remove the ax from the wood and swung it once more. The wooden framing began to waver under the effects of gravity given the damage Gun had dealt to it. She took one final swing and took out a few more two by fours before the whole wall tumbled over. She set the ax down against one of the walls that hadn't been knocked over yet and then began picking up the wall she had just chopped down. She grabbed a few large pieces and dragged them out the front door. Once outside, she looked around, not sure what to do with the rubble that she was dragging. "Over there!" one worker barked at her, pointing in a direction. Gun saw what appeared to be a big pile of trash and carried her stuff over to it. After tossing a couple pieces on top, she started heading back inside. Some of the other workers had grabbed some of the other pieces and were bringing them outside while she was entering the door. She was glad that some of the others were helping, so she grabbed the ax and got back to work.

Her heightened strength and speed allowed her ax to tear through the wooden framing like none of the other workers could manage. Once they realized how effective and efficient Gun was, they started just grabbing the debris and taking it out to the trash pile. She could take down all the walls much quicker if she didn't have to take the stuff outside, so they did that work for her and she just kept tearing walls down. Once all of the wooden framing was down, Gun helped grab the pieces and began taking them outside. After a couple more trips, they had all of the walls out of the building. Now that there was nothing left inside the building that could catch fire, they were ready to start placing the explosives.

Gun was approached by another shinobi, easily identified by the ninja headband he wore. ”Alright, you want to help me set the explosive tags?” His hand was extending outward, toward her, with some tags in hand. She looked at them, a bit of worry showing on her face. "Ha, don't worry, I'll show you where to put them and inspect your work when you're done before we blow this thing up." Gun's worry dissipated and she reached forward and grabbed the stack of exploding tags. She then followed the man inside what was left of the building.

"See this wall is holding up a good bit of the rocks that make up the front of the building. The beams over there," he said pointing to the opposite side of the building. "are holding up what's left of the back. To keep the debris from going too far, we'll place tags about halfway up the wall, on the outside of the building, pushing the upper half of the wall inwards when we detonate. We'll then detonate the bottom ones to bring it all down on top of itself."

Gun and the other shinobi headed outside and then used the Surface Walking technique to scale the wall. He pointed to a couple spots and Gun placed the tags. They moved around the building, placing more as they went. After a few minutes, the two came down and entered the building again. Gun went ahead and placed tags based on the shinobi's earlier instructions. The other shinobi talked to the man who'd given Gun the ax when she first arrived while she finished placing tags. All of the workers had already begun moving a safe distance away as the demolition shinobi headed inside to check Gun's placement. He only moved two tags, explaining why he was doing so and making it clear what his thought process was to Gun. The two shinobi headed outside the soon to be demolished building. "Here," he said, handing her another tag. "Channel a little chakra into that, it'll set all the others to your signature so you can detonate all the tags."

Gun felt a little nervous knowing that she would have the metaphorical button but she was sure things would be alright since this shinobi seemed to know what he was doing. Gun took the tag and channeled a bit of chakra into the seal. "Before you blow it, do one more sweep to ensure everyone is out and safe." Gun nodded and then took off, her impressive speed on full display. She moved around the building and through it, coming back to the other shinobi in no time at all. A grin formed on the other shinobi's face, he was highly skilled in fuuinjutsu, so he didn't have the speed to match the young genin next to him. He didn't want to admit to her that she was likely faster than most chuunin, but instead he simply nodded. Gun turned her attention to the tag that she was holding, the detonator tag. It was time, she looked forward and then channeled chakra into the seal, telling all of the exploding tags that it was time to do what they were designed to do: explode.

BOOOOOOOOM

Gun watched in amazement as the building, which once stood nearly 30 feet tall, folded in on itself and fell to the ground. It was nothing more than a practically flat piece of junk now. "My job is done. See ya" He then wandered off, leaving Gun and the other workers to clean up the debris.

"Ok, let's get this stuff out of here, NOW!" All the workers began working and Gun did too. She was impressed with how hard everyone worked. They grabbed pieces of what used to be a large rock wall and carried it to the pile. Gun did the same and as she tossed the rock wall chunks onto the pile, she saw another shinobi sitting under a nearby tree, not doing anything. Everyone was working so hard and this kunoichi was just lazing about. It got Gun's blood boiling. She went back to work, knowing she was nothing but a genin and didn't have the right to say anything to a higher ranked shinobi. She grabbed a few metal beams and dragged them back to the pile. As she worked, she realized that the demoliton ninja had also come to do a single job and left, meaning the lazy ninja likely had some sort of specific job to do too. That made Gun feel better, but also made her curious as to what could possibly be left to be done after they moved all the debris and wreckage from the building site.

The whole team seemed to be working hard to get the rest of the stuff cleared. It didn't take too much longer with everyone working together. They all stood around, some of the foundation from the building still submerged squarely in the earth. That's when Gun saw the lazy ninja get up and move towards the crew. Gun looked on excitedly, curious to see what this kunoichi could and would do. The shinobi did a few handseals and then placed her hands to the earth. The earth began to move and shake and then all of the beams that were buried began to move upwards, seemingly of their own accord. The beams would begin to fall as they were no longer held in place by the earth and the rocks that had formed the foundation also began popping up, becoming much easier for Gun and the workers to pick up. Gun was amazed but got to work quickly, as did the other members of the crew.

She knew that Kana could do stuff like that if she learned to utilize the earth element, but Gun wondered if she'd ever be able to utilize elemental ninjutsu like that. It certainly made removing those rocks and beams much easier. Gun carried one of the beams and dropped it next to the pile of debris. As she turned, she saw that the lazy ninja was still there. She was walking around the debris, looking at it intently. She turned her head to the side a few times, getting a different view. Gun wondered if she were trying to find something or if she wanted some of the junk, but she went back to work and moved the rest of the rocks. Gun was curious if the lazy shinobi had more to do or if she was just hanging out because of boredom.

As they moved the last of the beams and rocks, the lazy kunoichi moved back to the dig site and did some more hand seals. She placed her hands to the ground and it began to move and swirl as if a great wind were controlling it. When all the earth settled, the dirt was compacted nicely and the site of the new building was completely flat. Gun was once again amazed. The crew seemed to be wiping the dirt off their clothes and grabbing all of the tools they'd brought. "Good work, ninja." The crew foreman called as he began walking off, a collection of 5 axes slung over his shoulder. Gun looked around as the others began leaving too, until she saw the lazy ninja heading over to the tree where she had been resting earlier. She grabbed a large bag, opened it and pulled out a massive sheet.

Gun watched closely, wondering what the lazy kunoichi was up to. She moved towards the large pile of debris that used to be a building and then swung the sheet over it. As the sheet unfolded, Gun could clearly see that it was covered in a really large fuuinjutsu. The sheet seemed to move of its own accord, though Gun presumed it was actually the kunoichi controlling it somehow, as it completely covered the pile. Gun then realized that she must be planning to seal all the trash inside that sheet. It would make moving all that stuff so much easier, that a single person could do it. As the shinobi did a few handseals, the sheet began to get flatter and flatter as the pile got sucked into the fuuin. Gun's eyes went wide as she watched the giant pile literally disappear before her eyes. Once the sheet was flat on the ground, the lazy ninja grabbed the sheet and, through some magical means, began folding the giant sheet until it settled into her arms as a small, foot by foot sized pack. She stuffed it back into the bag, turned to Gun and smiled, and then headed on her way.

Gun stood in awe for a second before heading home to take a shower.

[Exit]

WC: 2178
TWC: 4203

Claiming
Mission Rewards: 8000 ryo and 40 AP
4203 WC: using 2k words to unlock advanced element Poison Release, 1100 WC to learning Total Concentration Breathing and 1103 WC to learning Sacred Spear
42 stats: 8 to chakra, 34 to vigor
Milestone: Amateur Ninja: Complete one C-Rank mission. For a C rank Jutsu Scroll