A Day In The Life

Kaguya, Arashi would be driven to wake up by the enthusiastic and lovely sounds of birds chirping. The morning sun hung grandly over the village of Kumogakure no Sato, and from the streets below his bedroom window he could hear people already out and about in preparation for the beautiful day ahead. There was much sleep in his eyes, and all the young man of Kaguya heritage wanted to do was sleep. Much unlike those in the streets below, he did not want to face the day just yet.

'Five more minutes, man...' He thought to himself, closing his eyes again softly and resting his head firmly back into the feather-filled pillow. He adjusted himself underneath his thin but comfortable blanket, making himself as snug as possible, but leaving his feet arm arm dangle just beyond its polyester fabrics so that they would be grazed by the gentle breezes originating from the oscillating fan he had stationed a few feet away from the bed. 'These missions are gonna be such a drag...'

Arashi was, in fact, referring to the fact that he had been assigned not one, not two, but three entire missions to do on this very day. He had received the mission logs via messenger falcon the night previous, and while he knew he could not and would not back out of doing them, the assignments had really done a number on souring his chill and relaxed mood. He had initially taken it upon himself to visit his father and schedule some training for the day, but now those plans would have to be shelved for a later date. In the meantime, however, at least the young Kaguya could get his hands on some easy and extra ryo to help in keeping the electricity and water bills under control.

No sooner did Arashi get himself comfortable again when his alarm clock sounded off loudly in his ear. The beeping echoed annoyingly and unceasingly throughout the tiny bedroom of the one-bedroom apartment, and it reassured Arashi that it was now 6:45 in the morning.

"Ah, give me a break!"

Rearing up from the bed, Arashi threw the blanket off of himself and grabbed the small annoying clock in one of his big, calloused over hands before throwing it out of the window he had left open throughout the night to help with air circulation. The annoying beeping sound would continue to erupt from the clock as it flew through the air, even after it was out of the young man's view, and a short moment or two later it would finally stop. The faint sound of someone saying 'Ow!' grazed Arashi's ears delicately, and he couldn't help but cup his face into his open palms and let out a sigh of annoyance and displeasure. Knowing that his first mission would start at 8:00 a.m., which was just a little over an hour away, he found that it was just best to get up and face the long, strenuous day ahead. He would first start by closing the window and turning off the still revolving fan before heading out into the hallway. From here he would jump into a nice, warm shower that wasn't too hot, nor too cold, but just right, and he dressed himself up in what would be considered a rather unusual attire for himself. As opposed to his typical shinobi gear, he instead dressed up rather nicely in a business-casual red shirt, khaki slacks, and black dress shoes. From here he would cook himself up two poached eggs and a slice of toast, which he scarfed down before leaving the apartment to head to the village's administrative building.

Arashi would walk through the village at a steady yet relaxed pace, yawning all the while due to him still being tired. Within fifteen minutes of walking he would make it to the 'Kumogakure Administrative Office', and according to the large analog clock that was situated upon the face of the building, he had arrived a whole twenty minutes early. The still sleepy young man would proceed to walk up the steps leading to the large glass doors that separated the entrance hall from the outside world, but when he tried to pull one of the doors open he found that it was locked. It was then that he remembered the mission dossier had included a key that would unlock the door, but he had stupidly left the thing sitting on the kitchen counter along with the dossier itself. Knowing that he would not have enough time to go back home, collect the key, and make his way back without being late, Arashi would defeatedly lower his head with a sigh and started meekly knocking upon the glass, hoping to at least catch the attention of one of the other administrative aides or even one of the security guards who operated throughout the building.

Sure enough, one of the security guards would hear the unceasing and relentless knocking and come to check it out. The woman opened the door in a huff.

"The hell do you want, kid?" The woman asked. There was much bite and bitterness behind her words. "The sign clearly says we aren't open until eight o'clock on the dot. Can't you read?"

Arashi would typically do his best to defuse the intense situations that he found himself in, but he did not have the patience to do so today. In fact he was too tired and annoyed to even give the woman a sassy response. All he wanted to do was get to work for the morning so that he could leave at eleven o'clock and head to his next mission.

"Kaguya, Arashi." He replied, keeping his head lowered. "I'm here for the administrative aide mission, but I forgot the key that came with the mission dossier." To help his case he would remove his black leather wallet from his pocket and showed the guard his shinobi identification card, which had been placed in the wallet's transparent fold. The woman examined the card closely before nodding.

"You better get in here then and get yourself ready, kid. Today's Friday, after all, and Fridays' are our busiest day of the week."

"Oh, how wonderful." Arashi replied with an air of annoyance.

Walking into the building through the still open door, the guard would close the door behind Arashi and directed him to take a seat at the large desk on the opposite side of the room. Doing as directed, Arashi took note of the fact that he would have a direct line of sight with the entrance that he had just been let in through, and he would almost certainly be the first face that those coming into the building would see. Another administrative aide was already present and accounted for, and she sat a few feet away from Arashi in a wheeled chair like he did. She would give him advice on how to handle the people entering the building, and pointed out a sheet of paper that he would use to direct their guests to the appropriate floors. No sooner did the same security guard open the door at eight o'clock sharp did people begin flooding into the building. Arashi would help them all out to the best of his ability, and on occasion would direct some individuals to the wrong floors by accident, but when he wasn't directing the guests he was directed to shuffle through the list of paperwork from the village's Ninja Academy. One of the files caught his eye, and by complete chance it was for one child who was to be graduating that very evening. The last mission that Arashi had been assigned that day was to babysit the graduate's younger siblings while they and their parents attended the graduation ceremony. As it turns out this person was expected to be a very viable shinobi given his track record at the academy, and internally Arashi wished the kid luck with his future career.

Come eleven o'clock Arashi would be relieved of duty when another aide came to take his place. He would leave quickly, wanting to ensure that he made it to the large lake on the outskirts of the village in quick fashion. The lake was the location of the young man's next mission, and he was to be a member of the waitstaff for a banquet of sorts that celebrated the anniversary of some individuals dumping bags of tea or something from a ship into the lake a very, very long time ago. To some this was a huge event, given the fact that hundreds of people attended this ceremony each year, but to Arashi it was just another annoyance. On the other hand, it was another paycheck as well, so Arashi would suck it up and go about doing the job requested of him.

He would arrive with only a few minutes to spare, was was immediately tossed an apron. The senior members of the waitstaff quickly gave him a crash course on how to handle the large serving dishes of hors d'oeuvres and drinks, and before he knew it Arashi was walking throughout the entirety of the event's vicinity like he had been doing this for years. He began to wonder if he should just quit being a shinobi altogether given the fact that he seemed to have a knack for this kind of work, but as soon as the complaints and annoyed responses began being hurdled at him, Arashi wanted nothing more than for this particular mission to be over and done with as quickly as possible.

Five hours later Arashi's desires would finally come to fruition. He would take some of the leftover hors d'oeuvres so that they did not go to waste and ate them on his walk to his third and final mission for the evening. He would find himself back in Kumogakure's housing district and chuckled in relief when he realized that the location of this babysitting mission was only three blocks away from his apartment. Fantasizing about having a good nights rest as soon as he got home, the young man cleared his head as he saw off the parents and the Ninja Academy graduate, making sure to personally wish them luck with their future as a shinobi. Thankfully for him the toddler he was supposed to be watching had already been laid down for their afternoon nap, and Arashi would let the child continue sleeping as he assisted with some of the long overdue chores the family did not have time to complete on their own time. The baby would only wake up only an hour before its parents and sibling would arrive home, and in that time Arashi would change the baby's diaper, give it a bath, and give it a bottle of warm formula. The parents would dearly thank the young man for all of his assistance, and he assured them not to worry about it and that he was simply doing his duties.

From here Arashi would finally begin his journey home, still fantasizing about what a good nights sleep he was going to have once he got home. As soon as he went to open the door to his apartment, however, he was greeted with yet another mission dossier that had been stapled to the door. With a huff he would rip it away from the door and read it to himself.

'Another one of those disgusting cubes has been seen in the village close to the housing district.' Kaito thought to himself, reading the mission dossier verbatim. 'Villagers in the area are complaining of the horrid smell radiating from it. Dispose of this thing by any means possible.'

Kaito shook his head from side to side and threw the dossier into his pocket, not even bothering to head into the apartment to change or to grab a bite to eat before heading back out. By this point he just wanted nothing more than for the day to be over and done with, and he swore to himself that if he came home yet again to find another dossier hanging on his door he would flip out with rage. Once outside of the building he would take to the rooftops, following the foul smell that was coming from the cube until he was sure that he was right on top of it. Looking down into the street below, sure enough, he found the disgustingly green thing. It almost seemed to be eyeing him with enjoyment for his displeasure and annoyance. Jumping down to the ground he would pick up the disgusting thing in his bare hand and ran in the direction of one of the many intricate bridges that made up Kumogakure's landscape. Once he arrived he would simply toss the thing into the gorge that the bridge spanned, and he watched it as it fell down into the darkness of the chasm hundreds, if not thousands, of meters below.

"Fuckin' finally!" He shouted, caring not if he woke anyone up at this late hour. Turning himself back around he would head off back in the direction of his apartment. Upon arriving home he would throw off his now very dirty clothing, took yet another shower to rid himself of the horrible smell from the gelatin-like cube, and threw himself back into bed.

Roughly two hours would pass, and by now it was well past midnight. Most of Kumogakure's residents were asleep, getting enough sleep to tackle the next day, but there were those who loved to stay out all hours of the night partying. Arashi's next door neighbor, Haruka, was one of these night owl bar crawlers, and on occasion she would awake Arashi from his sleep with her drunken rowdiness. After only two and a half hours of sleep this is what Arashi thought was going on when he heard a sharp pounding on his door. Fuming by this point he would get up, throw on a pair of shorts, and angrily threw open the door.

"What the fuck do you want, Haruka?" Arashi asked in a raised tone. He was ready to slam the door back in her face and tell her not to bother him again, but he changed his tone and demeanor quickly when he saw streaks of tears running down her face. Her mascara had been completely ruined, and there were a few fresh and deep claw marks on her arms. "What the hell happened?" He asked, his eyes wide in horror now. Haruka jumped into his arms, her sobbing louder now.

"A vulture swopped out at me and attacked me, Arashi!" She exclaimed, digging her wet face into the young man's exposed chest. "The stupid thing attacked me and stole my new purse! It was designer, too! You're a ninja, right? Can you go get it back for me? I'm begging you. I'll even go tell them at the shinobi administration to pay you if you do. If you can't I'm gonna go put it in as a mission request, anyways."

"I'll take care of it, alright?" Arashi replied, rubbing the woman's head comfortingly. "Tell me where it went off to and I'll bring your purse back."

Haruka told Arashi the location that the vulture had taken off too, and he would quickly get dressed and make his way there. In short order he would find himself back at the same bridge from which he had previously disposed of the gelatinous cube, and sure enough there was a vulture hovering around the edge of the ravine about twenty-five meters below. He couldn't very well see anything beyond that from his current position, so he would infuse both his feet and hands with some chakra and began scaling down into the gorge below. An awful smell would meet his nostrils. Believing it to the rancid cube his suspicions would be proven as fact when he scaled down far enough to see a nest with three large eggs nestled inside of it. The gelatinous cube had been added, seemingly by the bird or through great coincidence from Arashi previously throwing it down here in the first place, and now it made up part of the nest that was the bird's home.

'Now that is utterly disgusting, man.' He thought, wishing that he had thrown on a shirt rather than his one strap over the shoulder Kumogakure armor. The smell pummeled away at his sense of smell, and Arashi felt as though he was going to throw up into the gorge below if he didn't hurry things along. Looking around he would find the designer purse that had been stolen from Haruka, and the young man did not bother to take note of the vulture's loud and obnoxious cawing as it flew around in the air behind him. 'There ya are, you damn thing.'

Arashi reached into the nest, trying his best not to make contact with the cube again as to not risk having to take yet another shower for the third time that day, and he secured the bag firmly in his hand. He slowly and carefully pulled it out from the small break in the wall of the gorge, and once it was securely out from the hole Arashi slung it around his opposite shoulder. He was sure that it would not be going anywhere anytime soon.

"Cool. Now lets get the hell outt-" Arashi's voice was cut off by the loud cawing of the parent vulture. Turning his head in its direction, Arashi could see that it was not at all happy. The ravenous creature made a swooping action directly at him, and with a swift motion it dug its claws right into the young man's shoulder. An intense and firely pain filled his senses, and he almost lost his concentration of chakra. Acting quickly he would surge the chakra back into both of his hands and feet, knowing that a fall down into the deep gorge below would be more than enough to kill him outright. "Gah! Aye, man! Chill the fuck out!" The bird would not listen to Arashi's command, instead letting out another caw and swiping away at him with its talons and pecking away at him with its sharp beak. Not thinking to have brought his trusty cleaver sword with him, he continued climbing as quickly as he could and defended himself by punching away at the relentless bird. Eventually he found himself back up atop the gorge and back on hard ground. The bird still did not stop, but Arashi would quickly outrun it and make his way back into his apartment building. Finally feeling as though his day would finally be over he delivered the purse back to Haruka and went back home to nurse his wounds.

He was wide awake by this point, and he was now more sure than ever that he would never ever get back to sleep. Precious, precious sleep. Feeling hungry now the young man would fix himself up a very late night snack. He quickly threw together a concoction of different small dishes and allowed them to heat up in the microwave above the stove before eating them slowly and reading as he did so. Reading would quickly get old for Arashi, however, and he was still very much wide awake from having been woken up by Haruka and being attacked by the damned vulture.

Cursing to himself, Arashi found himself leaving yet again and venturing off into the darkness of the village.

'Might as well make some pocket change seeing as I'm still awake.' He thought to himself as he made his way to one of the many mission boards that were scattered all throughout the village. 'Its not like I'll be able to fall asleep anytime soon, anyway.'

In short order Arashi would fin himself coming face to face with the board on the outskirts of Kumogakure's housing district. He looked the entire thing over, narrowing down his search for anything to do down to only two missions. They both were to be undertaken at the prestigious 'Thunderpeak Campus'; a place that Arashi himself wished to study and train at someday. He knew from having explored the campus previously that it was open at all times of the day except on special holidays, and the library as well was open at all times of the day and night. The campus library was the location of these two particular missions, and they both revolved around cleaning up, organizing, and rewriting some of the village's most important information regarding techniques and the like if needed.

Setting out toward the campus, Arashi would arrive within the hour. The large analog clock along the face of the campus library advised him that it was now a quarter till four in the morning, and Arashi sighed at the revelation. Not allowing himself to dwell on the fact, however, he simply made his way into the well lit building and discussed the missions with the late-shift librarian. The man advised Arashi that he had picked a most perfect time to undergo the taking of the missions, seeing as none of the students and others who trained there would be arriving for at least a few hours. The young Kumogakure shinobi would first set to work organizing and separating the reading materials into separate piles, one of which was to be taken to the library's archives to be rewritten due to aging that had not served it well. This task in and of itself was relatively simple, but what would come next was much more tedious and time consuming. The next mission revolved around going through the latest mission reports that had been sent to the campus archives, and scouring through all of them to seek vital information regarding knowledge from outside of the village. Arashi was starting to feel very tired again by this point, but he stuck out the task and even learned some more valuable information himself. He would keep this knowledge to himself, however, and he would not dare using it in any way, shape, or form at the risk of otherwise being interrogated by the village's police force and/or imprisoned.

Once Arashi finished transcribing the knowledge that had been obtained from the mission reports he would finally go about leaving the immense campus. The morning sun was once again arching high above the mountaintops that dotted the village and the Land of Lightning as a whole, and students and teachers alike were starting to make their way to their morning classes. Arashi would make his way toward home again, and as soon as he arrived, noticing that there was finally no more mission requests on his door and feeling that nobody would be coming to request his assistance again as Haruka had, he undressed and laid back down, covering himself once again in his comfortable blanket. He adjusted himself enough so that both his feet and his arm were easily caressed by the gentle breezes from the revolving fan beside the bed, and allowed himself to fall asleep to the gentle sounds of birds chirping away outside...