Sato Hibiki - Paint the dancers?

D- rank mission: Painters Guild Part II
D-rank mission: Why don't we Dance Part 2

The low sound of rumbling thunder echoed in the distance as the new genjutsu technique had been implemented around the entire village, clouding it in thunder and lightning to deter intruder and weaken them unless they bore the mark of either Raijin’s rage or Fujins’s Fury. Hibiki touched his Raijin’s Rage tattoo beneath his shirt. It had been painful and still itched a little but was a necessary annoyance in service to the village. Hibiki thought the tattoo was pretty cool and best of his was that his parents couldn’t even object since it was required for all ninja. They never would have let him get a tattoo unless he could argue he was following orders of the Raikage, Hibiki may have exaggerated the order part but in a way it was partially true. Everyone knew the Raikage had approved and ordered the new village defences be activated after all. The new rule implemented by his parents was that he was to keep it covered when working in the inn and about in the village. Like I would walk around topless just to show it off to everyone! Hibiki paused to consider the idea before shaking his head. Nah I would get cold in winter.

Hibiki wandered across the village heading towards the painters guild as he had accepted a job to do some renovation work on local buildings a that were looking a little worse for wear and apparently needed a clean and a new coat of paint. It seemed like a nice job and he figured it was pretty easy money, besides it was good to give back to the village and Hibiki fully understood that the life of a villager was not always easy. There was always the risk of enemy ninja infiltrating and if war broke out then the hidden villages were often prime targets for enemy ninja. Hibiki didn’t train just to be a weapon and took pleasure in finding new ways to use and adapt his skills and jutsu. Of course sometimes mistakes were made and accidents did happen, like the time he singed his bed covers whilst sneezing during a mock practice of using a new fire jutsu, the third and perhaps final of the chakra elements he had discovered he was able to use.

Upon arriving at the painters guild he was sent to fetch the paint and materials that would be needed. A few pots of paint of various colours, brushes and a roller. Hibiki frowned then snapped his fingers as he came up with and idea. He sought out one of the guildsman. “Hey I am here to help clean and paint some of the old buildings nearby, do you mind if I take a few extra pain rollers?” The guildsmen looked at the genin with some suspicion before responding. “We do have some spare, are you expecting friends to help you? If so you will need to split the reward. We won’t pay you for conniving students to help you out. We figured out that scam years ago but there always seems to be some genin that try.” Hibiki looked a little put out by the comment and the insinuation that he would not be doing the work himself. “No I will be doing the work myself but I have more hands can use, look.” Hibiki quickly formed the hand seals of Rat, Dog before a collection of purple particles gathered around his hands and grew rapidly into the shape of a tall humanoid figure before coalescing into the form Jorogumo, Hibiki’s puppet. He connected his chakra strings, allowing them to be visible and made a few deft movements with his index finger before Jorogumo revealed its additional four arms.

The guildsman’s eyes widened slightly as Jorogumo was revealed but otherwise he made no comment as to the appearance of the puppet. Living in a ninja village made you adept at expecting the unexpected but puppet users were not the most populous type of ninja that he typically met. He was a consummate professional however and refused to seem to have been caught off guard. “Well if you make sure to return them all then I doubt there will be an issue with lending them to you. So long as you return them.” He looked at Hibiki with a warning glare emphasising the requirement to return them. “Of Course! I will even clean the off for you how about that?” The guildsmen considered the offer and smiled, almost warmly, his professional demeanour showing the barest of cracks. “No need for that, just make sure you return them all when you are done. Some other genin or students will likely be given the task to clean the equipment."

Hibiki returned Jorogumo to the storage displacement space as well as gathering his equipment and similarly transporting it. The storage displacement was perhaps the most useful and handy jutsu he knew outside of surface walking. It didn’t take long for Hibiki to arrive at the location and he quickly chose the first building to start on before once again making the Seals of Rat and Dog to retrieve the painting equipment as well as Jorogumo. Hibiki decided to paint form the top down and hopped onto the wall with his surface walking whilst controlling Jorogumo with his chakra strings. In short order Jorogumo began rolling paint with four rollers, one in each arm as Hibiki practiced controlling it with only the 5 threads on his right hand, becoming more accustomed to complex movements using smaller and more efficient movements. It didn’t take long for his hand to tire so he split the strings between both hands, lessening the effort required.

A few hours passed and the first building was complete but Hibiki felt it looked a little plain and so he decided to try something different and a little more exciting with the second building. He opened the chest section of Jorogumo and accessed the liquid storage tank pouring several different colours of paint in before sealing it shut. With several moments of his fingers the puppet began rapid spinning as if following a dance but began increasing at speeds that would be almost impossible for a regular person to attain without serious injury to the joints and muscles. Fortunately |Jorogumo had no such issues. Jorogumo stopped spinning and Hibiki pulled 3 strings tightly, activating the mechanism inside Jorogumo, forcing its chest cavity to contract rapidly with great force as the mouth section split open four ways and erupted a vivid splash of bright purple paint onto the wall like a liquid shotgun blast.

Inspired, Hibiki quickly began making Jorogumo paint with the rollers, first of all to thin the paint on the wall without destroying the shape of the paint bullet to much, trying hard to maintain its unique appearance. Once the purple paint had been thinned a little and the excess removed with the rollers, Hibiki used the red and blues to create corresponding bands of colour outlining the shape of the purple paint splat to create bands of colour that radiated outwards and got light towards the edges. Hibiki then armed Jorogumo with a pain brush in each hand and made the puppet dance across the wall, slashing at imaginary foes with the brushes and creating a series of spiralling slashes of colour across the wall like a strange mural. Hibiki lost himself in his creative passion and finally stopped to observe his work with panting breath as he returned the paint brushed to the pile and disconnected his chakra strings, causing Jorogumo to crumple to the ground. The wall was a live with colour and shapes which Hibiki found pleasing, though it now contrasted in an almost hideous way with the surrounding buildings.

Hibiki began resealing the pain tins and packing up the equipment to be transported into the storage displacement with Jorogumo before heading back to the painters guild, unknowingly covered in large spray and splashes of paint which gained a few odd looks from the passing villagers. He headed to the cleaning area and placed the equipment down before drawing some water to clean out Jorogumo and flush out the storage section of the drying paint. Once Jorogumo was clean again Hibiki re-stored it in storage displacement before being over the entertainers troupe that he had helped out before, hoping to give them  anew act they could try out to keep things a little fresh and maybe even make some more money from it at the same time. Hibiki arrived at the entertainers troupe still covered in paint and bust In with an excited rush. “I think I have a new idea for your performance! You seek I was just painting this house and used my puppet, then I created this cool splash and used all these paint brush strokes and it was awesome!”

The puppeteers looked at the paint splattered boy as they quickly tried to process what he had actually said. “Lets start from the top, you said something about a new performance idea yes? Perhaps explain that. Also did you know you have a lot of paint on your face?” Hibiki wiped his face with the back of his hand, unsuccessfully removing the majority of the dried paint and frowning. “Well that’s less important now. So my idea is to combine other entertainment with painting” Hibiki paused dramatically  expecting a rush of excitement and praise for such a  brilliant idea. A few moments passed and Hibiki realised they did not quite fully understand what he meant. “So you could get a canvas and place brushes on the puppets feet, a different colour for each puppet and make them dance or fight or whatever you wanted over the canvas. Afterwords you could sell the canvas after revealing the canvas right? They could be like a memento of each performance and gifted to the village or town on the last day? If you practice enough I bet you could even create some neart pictures or calligraphy using the puppets movements. Imagine how cool that would be, you wow them with a puppet performance then reveal you were also a painting a picture or writing a message the whole time! I bet people would love it and I am sure merchants or rich folk would pay well to own a unique piece of art for the performance as every one would be slightly different and so unique. Kind of like how people collect weird or rare things you know?”
This time the pause last longer thought the puppeteers were deep in thought. “ I suppose it is possible and would make for a god ending to the night. If they did become popular we could may integrate it with other acts as well. We could ask the painters to teach us the basics strokes and images and work with the dancers to practice a choreography.” The other puppeteer considered the idea more and responded. “You know it might be worth a shot, if its successful we could translate it to all sorts of things. Imagine a drama using paint, we could hide the brush and make it appear they were cut or maybe even fake ninja techniques using liquid paints or powders. I bet that would draw a crowd for sure, a comedy or maybe a homage to great battles fought. Yes there is definitely potential to work with but it will take some time. Hibiki, take this to the missions office and claim your reward, we have been looking for new ideas and though I cannot be sure it will work, it certainly gives us something new and fresh to consider so I would say you have earned it.” The puppeteer handed Hibiki a hastily written note and signed it, passing it to the young Genin. “Let me know if it works out, maybe by then I can show you something really cool with Jorogumo as well!”

Hibiki smiled to himself as he dashed to the mission office to claim his reward.

2007 WC

Claiming mission rewards:
- 5000 Ryo
- +12 AP

Claiming Stas:
- +20 Chakra

Claiming skill: Beloved Presence - 2000 - 2000/2000