The thought of winter keeps you cold

Mission Scroll:

Her return to the village had been met with mostly positive thoughts, she had been welcomed with open arms after her and the rest of the team's success in acquiring the Wolf’s Den outpost. She remembered being the first to leave after the damage had been fixed, her body covered in sweat from the long grueling hours of work it took to place everything brick and stone back where they belonged. She had been the first to volunteer, the first of them to have killed one of the bandits that were stationed at the Outpost in a crude attempt to hold onto it for some sort of gain. Those bloody memories had caused her to almost lose her cool and had almost made her fully remember what had happened that eventful night of blood and fire. Her arms were no longer covered in slashes and bleeding, oozing wounds. Now they were clean, having been healed by Typhon Sepsus. Yet Typhon was stuck back at the Wolf’s Den, helping Sebastian set up for their fellow ninja to begin arriving. Now they’d have an outward defense in case another attack would happen again.

But in the meantime, Ryumi had all the freedom in the world to continue to push herself to train, to grow, and to get stronger now than she had in so many years. She had tasted victory, victory through her own merits and the ability to fight against those who could harm her village. Ryumi was unsure however of where to start now, this new power she had, this ability to grab reality and interact with it. She felt like she had a sixth sense, unable to truly describe or even process the feeling of being able to fully touch the air, holding onto it, allowing you to fully grasp it for a moment, before letting it go to follow the rest of the winds heading behind her. She realized how much potential this had, but with no one to learn from, she’d have to find a way to learn these new techniques, she’d certainly need a ton of practice, but what better person to ask than the one who had trained her? If there was one person who could help her figure out or acquire some form of scroll, it would be her father, Lloyd Hyuuga.

Sunshine was pouring into his room from the open blinds when Ryumi entered slowly into his room. She had memorized every single crack of the wooden floor to not alert him, yet she knew he was always watching her every move. His byakugan was certainly something, a hallmark of what his potential could be, and what it once was. His room was a dark navy blue, and shelves of books, tools, kunai, and shuriken lined every shelf with an impressive amount of organization. She remembered how happy he was that he could still move his arms, still be able to move half of his body throughout the ordeal. She was lucky that the religious folks cared about him infinitely more than they did her. It meant that he would survive, even if it meant she had to live with those scars on her arms constantly oozing out blood. When she had made her way halfway across from him, his head turned in her direction, a small smile on his face when he saw her outline.

“Ah Ryumi, how are you doing this morning?” His voice was soft, soothing to the core with every word he spoke. He was someone who always had a soothing presence to him. Her arms opened up slightly while she was walking, embracing her adoptive father in a tight embrace. She had always missed hugging him, it was a sign that she was safe, that she was protected. Yet now she was the one doing the protecting.

“I’m doing well, yet I was curious if you knew about something. . . Or mind if I show you?”

Before he had even gotten the chance to accept, Ryumi’s hand rose to the side of her, grabbing a hold of the very air itself in her grasp before suddenly her wrist began to shake, making the air start to ripple and move along with her wrist. Lloyd stared in amazement at what Ryumi had been capable of accomplishing. Yet he had no real idea what was going on, only that Ryumi had found something incredible before her.

“That’s an impressive move there? Yet I don’t think I can answer any question if it was about that, I’m sorry.”

Ryumi let go of the air, allowing it to return to the waves and ripples of life, she had a small feeling that he wouldn’t have known. Yet that left her without much in terms of options. Whatever this power was, she was curious as to how far it could go. Ripples and strength were everything. She had learned so much during her time in the Shinobi world. She had killed, she had won against so many threats in her life, so many of whom would have killed her without a second thought if they tried. Yet she was still standing, still standing in front of her father who had taught her how to fight. She knows how much it pains him not to be able to stand for her, to not hold her with himself still being able to stand. Yet she would get him help, she’d rise to the highest position she could ever hold in her life without a second thought. Yet his admittance to not knowing about what he had seen made her only wonder further about what she could do in this scenario. What was she going to do now that she didn’t have any lead to help her with learning the ways of this new ability?

“It’s alright Dad! I’ll probably figure it out on my own anyway!”

Her words, full of cheer, had made Lloyd crack a smile. One that Ryumi felt joyous to see again after so long after all of the work she had done back at the outpost. Yet she knew that the work was never going to be truly over until she had finally been able to rise through the ranks besides being a measly genin. She’d earn it, now was the chance for her to act now. She’d wave a farewell to Lloyd, beginning to get dressed for her assignment for today. She had a feeling that this was going to be rather filthy but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It was garbage duty today, and some had assigned shinobi to help with the current load. She was one of those many shinobi being called in to deal with the trash. She knew that working with trash sucked, it was gross, smelled like absolute crap, and sometimes you’d be met with liquid or glass protruding from the bags. Sometimes it was even both. Yet taking out the garbage was a job, one that anyone and everyone could relate to having to do one way or another. It was unique in its facets. Everyone didn’t want to do it, but some people would have to do it.

It still didn’t suck any less to do it, especially when she had been dealing with a few trigger-happy chunin who wanted to simply burn the fire to the ground. His hands had partially been weaving seals by the time she had arrived, wearing a ragged pair of sweatpants, an ugly brown tank top that she had gotten out of a yard sale, and finally, a blank black hoodie that covered the rest of her body. Her voice resounded through the landfill, causing the two chunin to stop what they were doing when they looked back toward the rather short woman. Ryumi’s physique has been hidden by the black hoodie that she was wearing. It was keeping her warm, even as she walked up towards the landfill sight with an annoyed glare at the two chunin, who only glared back.

“Is this all they had left? A girl who’s not even wearing proper shinobi gear? Who the hell do you think you’re yelling at?”

She’d roll her eyes in response, instead wanting to show them that they were wrong. She knew the actual process was going to certainly be annoying, especially with the smell. It reeked here. Most of it was filled with food and surprisingly enough cleaning supplies. Yet she’d begin by quickly picking up one of the massive garbage bags, carrying it over her shoulder without much effort, then she added a second one, then a third, then a fourth. Even with four, it was because she was too small to carry the massive loads of trash on her back. The small rustle of glass from inside the bag did not deter her, as a few other shinobi who were not the two chunin immediately went to work dealing with the trash before them. Yet the two Chunin only persisted in standing there and not doing their jobs. They only started in slight shock at how physically strong Ryumi was in comparison to the rest of them. She was like a black dot, constantly moving the larger dots without much effort, while everyone else was trying, and failing, to even move one large black dot. Yet Ryumi would continue to do her best in taking care of the trash situation. Even with her having to practically sacrifice her clothing, it at least was better than standing around and doing nothing for the entire day. The place smelled awful, but it was much better than doing nothing inside of Lloyd’s house.

She couldn’t sit still, not with how much garbage there actually was, Ryumi was baffled at the idea of how much garbage could be sent out in one single week. The Village must have had some kind of garbage problem for a while if this amount of trash was being thrown out every single week. She didn’t know if it was weeks or months, but it made sense since she did not remember it being so full a few days ago. The two chunin still only stood in straight awe at how Ryumi had been able to handle so much weight on her body, the both of them stepped off from their resting place, almost like birds flocking over to see their young. Ryumi had launched the final bag of trash from her arm when both of them showed up in front of her, demanding to know how she was so physically strong.

“Oh! I just. . . trained every single day!”

“That’s bullshit and we know it, there’s no way someone as young as you, a Genin no less, can easily pick up that much weight on you and without any fear of the glass cutting you, just who are you anyway?” One of the questions, his eyes staring back at her, indigo eyes traveling to inspect the boys further, tracing their shapes, matching who was who and what was what. It made her wonder if this is how some people looked at her, only inspecting them because of their bodies. But she was trying to inspect them to see how they did it so wrong. But she couldn’t find anything too out of the ordinary besides they were leaner than a string bean.

“Well, you guys don’t seem to have taken much physical exercise, that’s all really?” She bluntly pointed out. Her finger pointed at how they were rather lean, and especially how they didn’t have anything going for them muscle-wise.

“That’s because Shinobi should be stealthy, you moron! It’s no wonder why you're just a genin if you can’t get that fact straight into your head,” The other chunin commented. Ryumi could only chuckle at the insults constantly being thrown her way just because. She knew that people liked to talk shit, but this was certainly something funny to witness in person. She knew that becoming a chunin would allow her to grow much, much more as a shinobi and also allow her living situation to increase. But it didn’t matter to her in the long run, she was looking for something bigger, something massive to become a part of. The Nova Corps was what she was after, and the ability to call herself the greatest Taijutsu user in the world.

“Na, I get it, but I’m sure I’ll surpass you guys one day if I haven’t already~,” She said, sticking her tongue out before walking away from the matter entirely. Hands in her dirty pockets while she walked towards where the proctor was, knowing that she smelled, she wondered if she could go back to her house to shower and then claim the rewards for cleaning up all of the trash. The older gentleman, a few gray streaks running down his hair nodded while trying his best not to smell whatever was on her. She knew whatever it was, it certainly would not be good to pick up rewards in the outfit she was wearing. Her hoodie would certainly be the first thing to go, as she raced off back towards her house, knowing that they at least had running water without her needing to pay to get into a bathhouse of some kind. Her mind was rushing through the possibilities of what to do with the money she would be acquiring after the completion of the mission. Knowing that she had done an excellent job on it, she knew that a rather large payout was expected to go her way even for a C-Rank mission, but she knew that this money would only serve to temporarily hold the lie that she didn’t have a lot of money. All those weird places had graced her with thousands of Ryo, enough to be able to buy what she wanted when she wanted it. Yet she wanted that to be normal, to be consistent. She wished it because of how much she and Lloyd had to work and suffer while living in that small house near the top of the hill and overlooking the vast region of their village that they called home. She could always see the sun rising from the sea, witnessing its rise in the early stages of the morning before she headed out to see if there were any missions to be done. But it was something that she felt she could improve upon if she could walk out of a nice, newly furnished home, without the need to check around to see if anything was broken or leaking.

She had been assigned one last mission for the day, Ryumi scanned over the contents of what the mission was all about, it was rather simple really. One that she felt she was a bit overqualified for. Taking care of an old, musty, overgrown tree near the center of the village due to someone’s poor handling of a wood release jutsu did seem likely, especially since it would not be the only time that someone with Wood Release was within the village. Yet she knew that the tree itself being cut down could be useful for her specifically, as that wood could be used to create a simmering fire for her and Lloyd to sit next to for the night. It granted that she was able to start the fire. The smell of smoking wood filled her lungs at the thought, now wanting to deal with this overgrown tree more than ever, Ryumi headed off toward the center of the sprawling village, noticing that a crowd had begun to form to marvel at the massive tree that had grown from a small sapling.

Ryumi immediately jumped at the opportunity to show her strength to everyone, Her arm suddenly stretched forward, clasping onto the massive tree before the crowd, and dug her fingers deep into the bark. She felt herself having to hold back from simply crushing it entirely. But this was something special, especially as the crowd looked at her for one moment before seeing her on the tree itself. She’d hop down from the tree, breaking her fall by using the the lightness skill at the last moment, slowing her descent down before she’d see just how big the tree was, this would certainly be interesting to take out. . . She’d crack her fingers, before squatting down to grab onto the underside of the tree itself. The tree was large, massive even, but against her overwhelming strength, she didn’t care if it was as tall as the Hokage’s mansion. She’d still be able to lift it. As the crowd watched her, Ryumi would begin to lift, pulling her legs up slowly but surely until the roots themselves were shown, once they were shown, Ryumi formed a smirk on her face. One of her hands let go of the underside to shoot out and wrap around the massive tree before her. She’d begin to lift further and further, as other shinobi on the scene were showing up, mainly to cut the tree apart, but they instead were left to witness this young woman pulling out a massive tree on her own. She felt her muscles begin to flare up even more as she pulled, her body shifting, as she would slowly maneuver herself into the center of the tree. Using both hands now and as much leverage as possible, she began to push, more and more she pushed on the underside of the tree until she was finally able to lift it out, the roots were splinters and almost ripped out from the center, while she was holding it up for the entire crowd to see. Her physical strength was almost unmatched throughout the entire village. She’d slowly begun to walk, as the crowd cleared away for her to be able to move the tree, taking small steps all the while until she could safely place the massive tree on the road, clear a way out that caused almost no damage from the properties. She was caked in sweat, her limbs shaking for the time while she looked on with a small smile at her work. She’d need to do better on her strength next time, but for now, she was happy that she was capable of doing such a feat in front of the large crowd before her. She was not the safe girl that had been almost killed by slashes, she was so much more than that.

She was finding her purpose, and gaining fame throughout the village for her work. It also helped her when she came back into the rewards office to check in on her two missions, it seemed that others had heard of her feat of strength. Mentioning her name as she walked out of the building and back towards her home.

TWC:3164

Claims and Exit: