Sprucing up the Yard!

[b:5443:

Early to bed and early to rise makes a woman healthy, wealthy, and wise! That wasn't exactly the saying but it was close enough. Getting up early enough to still see the morning dew on the grass, Ningyo was the epitome of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She had been given another mission with her standoffish teammate, Senju Hiroji. She wondered why the two of them had been paired up so often lately without their third, Uchiha Akihiro. It likely had something to do with Hiroji's disposition toward her. A common way to make people get over their fears was to expose them to those fears. Perhaps this was a similar concept. If the two didn't get along then they would be forced to work together until they could. It seemed cruel and somewhat crude, but if it yielded results than who could complain?

The Hyuuga took a moment to stretch, joints popping after a night of not being used. She slapped her cheeks lightly, enough to get the blood pumping but not hurt altogether too much, and felt the residual effects of fatigue begin to fade. "Let's make the best of it!" She said with her usual spunk and confidence. With that small pep talk out of the way she began to leave the Hyuuga complex, a series of traditional wooden engawa verandas, sliding doors, and tatami mat flooring. Once she cleared the genkan she put on her sandals and was on her way to the less formal residential area.

Unlike their previous missions this one involved no breathing thing, though living was still on the table. The two Genin would be pulling weeds from a few of the yards of respectable families. While she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of dirtying her hands, after being in that tunnel with Hiroji on their first meeting she knew things couldn't get dirtier than that.

Whistling a subtle tune she zigged and zagged her way through the streets with practiced steps. Many times in her life she had run through these streets and many times she had played hide and seek among it's crooks and crannies. In almost no time at all she was in front of the first house. Burgundy-stained wooden roofing and stone foundation stood prominent among it's architecture and she could easily see that it was owned by a family that possessed wealth.

The yard was clearly not held in the same pristine care as the building itself though. A slight widening of her eyes as she took it all in. The weeds grew in thick clumps, each almost as tall as her waist. Patting the holster on her hip and thigh she let out a deep sigh.

"I would forget my kunai today."

Being assigned yet another mission with Ningyo, whoever handles assigning these sure love to put Genin in awkward social situations, as the last time Hiroji had been with Ningyo was... awkward at best, they really didn't see eye to eye but he had to embrace the fact that they're teammates. If he didn't get over that fact now, when would he? he did promise that he'd try to be a bit more tolerant of her, but her "everything is good in the world" attitude somewhat rubs him off the wrong way, despite his "apology" and him explaining why he didn't like her too much. It really didn't ease but he knows that a part of growing up is to deal with matters you don't like very much, and if he doesn't tackle this issue head-on now, it'll just build up to be worse later on.

His father had finally caught word of the team that Hiroji had been assigned with, not showing much anger in the fact that it's the Hyuug and Uchiha and more so on the fact as to why Hiroji hid about it in the first place, an argument of sorts happened between the two with his father ending up disciplining and punishing Hiroji for keeping such information to himself. Afterwards, he'd try to move past it as he made his way out of the Senju clan district and towards the residential district, but it wasn't working. The argument had constantly popped up in his head, the constant doubts of "I could've said this" or "Maybe I should've been honest with him in the first place.", two sides of the coin where he is in the right and where he's in the wrong. It made him completely forget about the fact of getting his hands dirty for the weed pulling.

He finally found Ningyo in-front of the residence where they're going to do the work, giving a light nod to her as a greeting of sorts, instead of his ice, stone like personality he seems to be a bit more reserved now. "This is the garden were doing?" he'd ask, sounding like he wanted to get this job over and done with.

A little rain cloud over her head would be the perfect representation of how she felt about the forgotten kunai. She turned in an attempt to beeline her way to the marketplace and buy one before Hiroji showed up. As luck would have it (darn you luck, you absolute jerk!) Hiroji was rounding the corner to the house. She was thankful for the sleeves that extended far past her hands. Surely he would have been able to see her sweating palms. She gave a nervous nod back to his greeting, smiling uncomfortably.

"Looks like it. I wasn't expecting things to be so unruly." Despite the weeds that pocked Miss Hasegawa's yard there were blatant signs that the woman enjoyed her gardening. Flowers of all different kinds, shapes, and shades lined the house. In the side yard and backyard there were also what appeared to be vegetables of different varieties being grown. She could see the growing tendrils of a tomato plant from their position in front of it. It was a familiar sight to the Hyuuga. Her family had a wonderful flower garden and grew plenty of vegetables of their own. While she had spent more time in the rock gardens practicing her zen rather than the dirt she respected them the same.

As she stood there her hands unconsciously met, fingers began to fidget among each other in a nervous tick. Mustering up the courage she finally decided to ask Hiroji the question she had tried to avoid since he arrived.

"You...don't have an extra kunai on you, do you? I kind of, uh, er, uhhhh, leeeffft mine at home."

Hiroji shook his head, he didn't see much shame in the question as honestly, he hasn't gotten around to supplying up on ninja weapons despite the amount of Ryo he's been earning from the missions he's been doing. "I'm afraid not, why? do we need kunai for pulling out the weeds?" he hasn't exactly done this type of activity before, as he just assumed that you pulled out the weeds or something but considering the pay of the Ryo, he guessed it was something a little more complicated then that. "I've been meaning to go to the marketplace in order to stock up on ninja gear properly." he'd say, as much as he's been procrastinating doing that very thing for some reason. With this in mind and Ningyo's situation of not bringing a kunai, he decided to suggest something.

"Have you got your ryo with you at least? we'll use the earnings we've gotten over the past few missions to buy some supplies at the marketplace, we'll get the tools we need and I'll get the supplies I've been meaning to buy, win-win in the end." with that, Hiroji started to make his way towards the secondary marketplace as luckily, it wasn't that far off from the residential area. As far as he knew, there wasn't much of a difference with the secondary marketplace and other marketplaces, it was simply there for more business for Konogakure in total and a better convenient spot for certain people who lived in the village, for today, it was awfully convenient for them as the trip wouldn't be that long.

Upon reaching the marketplace, the duo would see... as expected, a lively marketplace full of people buying and selling items on the street, with a few occasional in-door shops clearly shown here and there, with one clearly showing itself to be a place for weaponry and ninja gear. That's the place they were after, with Hiroji heading straight for it, regardless if Ningyo wanted to explore the marketplace a bit or head straight along with Hiroji.

Ringing her hands out in anticipation to be made fun of for leaving her kunai at home, Ningyo was pleasantly surprised when Hiroji didn't do that very thing. She let out a relieved breath before swaying softly, her arms loosely moving back and forth with the motion. "If you pull the weeds up from the root you'll fill the yard with holes and it'll look bad. It's better to cut the weeds as close to the ground as possible. It does mean that eventually the job will have to be done again but!" She lifted up her hand, the sleeve falling down and exposing a raised index finger that she touched to her cheek, "That just means repeat business!" It was the first rule of business as her father had taught her. Customers were good but repeat customers were great. That and with the way the rest of the yard looked it would be a shame to put holes in it.

As she thought about this, the Senju mentioned that he had meant to stock up on necessities himself. A stroke of luck (this time it was a good one!) and the Hyuuga was patting her pockets. She didn't carry all of her money on her but she had more than enough to buy a few kunai. The ones at home were growing pretty worn anyway and it was likely time she refreshed her stock. "I have enough on me, yeah. It's settled then, we're off!" She took off skipping, hands held behind her back and hair bobbing with each step.

Once the pair had reached the marketplace an unexpected and truly miraculous moment occurred! Hiroji acted exactly like he always did. Surprise, it wasn't a miracle after all. Making a beeline toward the weapon shops the Senju ignored all the other booths, fares, and fanfare. Rolling her eyes, the Hyuuga was quick to follow.

The only reason that the Senju was a bit more receptive and toned down this time around is because of trying to repress what had happened earlier with his father, and didn't want to do anything awfully bad to vent it out on the Hyuuga, growing some level of respect towards her. He still didn't think too highly of her because of her gender, but her clan, her clan's ability and her ability to become a good ninja makes up for it. It's something he had grow accustomed to if this Hyuuga girl would truly be a squadmate for the rest of his life as a ninja in Konogakure.

Anyway, that thought had quickly exited him when he entered the weaponry shop, the walls were stocked with finely-crafted iron weapons and the like, and on another side... tools and necessities that a ninja needs such as smoke bombs, explosive tags and so on. He had brought his full wallet this time around, so he could spend as much as he'd like to his heart's desire. Before the old guy behind the desk could even mutter a word, the Senju already started to place down what order he wanted. "A hip pouch, backpack, three holsters, hundred and fifty feet of steel wire, seventeen kunai, twenty shuriken, five explosive tags, three flash bombs and three smoke bombs, one bag of military ration pills and a Spring-loaded Kunai Mechanism... I think that's it." the old guy seemed doubtful at first, believing the kid couldn't have that much money but got the entire order down and started going around the shop, collecting the items he wanted.

As soon as the old man was done, he'd place everything down on the desk for the Senju, with the old man double checking everything is accounted for, along with numbering up the prices of everything. "That'll be 24,375 ryo." with Hiroji bringing out his wallet, bringing out a fair number of notes and passing it along to the old man, a bit surprised that the young man indeed had that kind of money, to which the Senju wasted no time setting up the new items he just bought around himself, such as placing the holster on one leg with a kunai, the holster on his other leg with ten shuriken, attaching the hip pouch behind him and putting the rest of the tools inside there and whatever he couldn't fit inside, he'd place inside his backpack.

Once the two had entered the shop they quickly parted ways. She looked over this and that but knew she wouldn't be splurging on anything today. She still had the plans for her puppet that she needed to make and that took precedent over a "treat yourself" moment. It wasn't easy though, no, not at all. So many tools and items caught her eye, a veritable kid in a candy shop but if that candy killed people in more ways than just diabetes. Refraining from spending the majority of her cash the Hyuuga pulled herself to just the projectiles portion of the shop. She grabbed a few kunai, just five, and a new holster and then made her way to the counter. She was surprised to see that she had beat Hiroji to it though as she had spent a good bit of time window shopping. She placed the small assortment of items onto the counter and the shopkeep gave her a wry smile and wily eye.

"550ryo there, little girl." She was not a fan of being called that she quickly learned. That was okay, once she passed over the few bills for her purchase she could just leave. That would be the case if it wasn't for Hiroji approaching with a near mountain of purchases. Grabbing her meager buy from the counter she rushed out of the way to allow the two to conduct their business. She loosened the holster from her thigh, the leather worn and near breaking and replaced it with the newly procured holster. She fastened it tightly around her thigh and placed the five kunai into it easily.

After some time the Senju's large order had been processed and he handed over a good deal of money. He set to work storing all of his items and a part of her wanted to ask if he'd like help, but the bigger part of her knew that he would just say no anyway. "Think you bought enough?" She chided him but her voice was light and gave away that it was obviously a joke.

Hiroji would unironically shake his head in disagreement to what the Hyuuga asked him, believing that she's serious. "No, I'll probably buy a custom order from a smith I've heard about, from what I'm planning to buy, it might be around the... 20 to 30k zone." his face was enough to tell that he wasn't joking about it. "But that's for later, right now I'm satisfied with the tools I have, it's enough for a full-fledged ninja really." realising that he might've gone overboard on it, but it just saves him the trip of doing it later and it never hurts to be prepared for any scenario, once he gets into a fighting scenario that is. For now it's simply just using his new arsenal, or just one kunai rather to cut out the weed from the garden back in the residential district.

"Alright, I'm done here. Let's go." the old guy seemed to be pretty pleased considering the amount of ryo he had received from Hiroji. It gave some doubt to Hiroji's mind that some of the equipment might be dull or something, but he'd find out later and he doubts that the shop would be even open in the first place if the old guy did something like that. Hiroji would finally walk out of the marketplace and back into the lively marketplace, even though it died down a bit in population from before, it was still pretty packed in most of the booths. "Anything else you need to buy? otherwise, we should just head back."

A blank stare - funnily enough coming from a clan without pupils - was all that Ningyo could muster when Hiroji took her seriously. Not only did he take her seriously he actually stated that he hadn't bought enough. What could one man need all that stuff for? Mainly that much wire? That was so much wire! She shook her head in disbelief before chortling once. "If you say so."

As always the Senju was eager to leave wherever it was that he currently resided in. The habit made her wonder how things were at his home. How often did he pace the floors of his room, unable to sit still for more than a few moments at a time? The image was mildly humorous but not enough to get a reaction out of her more impactful than a small lifting of the corners of her lips. She nodded in agreement and followed behind him out of the door before moving to his side once they had made it out of the weapons shop. Once clear of that portion of the marketplace he asked if there was anything else she needed. Rocking heel to toe and back she let out an audible "hmm" as she racked her mind for a few seconds. A look that screamed "lightbulb!" quickly manifested among her features.

"Would you mind if we took a moment to check out the hardware shop? I'm going to be working on my puppets soon and I'm admittedly rather ignorant to the costs of everything I'll need." Pink, the color of cherry blossoms cradled by a light breeze, danced on her cheeks as embarrassment flooded over her face. Knowing Hiroji's disposition against her, any show of weakness felt exacerbated. The Senju's glare turned trips into tumbles, turned a simple stumble of words into full blown stuttering. He had a way of amplifying the negatives; at least that's how Ningyo felt while near him.

Hiroji crossed an eyebrow, not in a negative way but showing more of a surprise to learn that she's a puppet user. "I guess that's fair, I don't know much about that profession so I suppose so." he left it on that note, not leaving much of a negative attitude to it as he really didn't see a reason to, in-fact it was as positive as it gets as he respected anyone who would seek to improve themselves, and going into puppetry like that was considered apart of that aspect. He didn't see it in a negative way by any means. He looked around the street once more, the shop having a questionable title but with enough clear thinking, could be suggested well enough to be what she's looking for. "Alright, let's go over to that shop then." it was just known as the "General Store" which he assumed would carry all sorts of items, with having no exception to wood that she's after.

He stepped into the shop, with the hope that the shop sells wood diminishing as the items scattered around the shop are well... very general and otherwise random. He decided to look around the shop a bit more though out of curiosity, as he'd leave Ningyo to buying whatever she needed to buy from the front desk, assuming that the shop indeed sells wood despite the rough interior of the shop.

Blinking rapidly, Ningyo moved her hands to her eyes and rubbed them before taking a second look at Hiroji. She even went as far as to activate her Byakugan as she was certain that this couldn't be the same Senju she had gone on previous missions with. She couldn't see a difference in him but then again her eyes weren't as developed as they could be. Relinquishing the gift of her clan she was filled with a sudden wash of excitement. Hopping up and down, giddy being an understatement, she quickly bowed deeply at the waist. "Arigato, Hiroji-san!" And just like that she was off. The path to the General Store quickly became a series of slalom gates as she darted between passersby with little regard to their personal space. If any of them recognized her at a later date she'd make sure to apologize but for now she was taking the time to be selfish for once.

It wasn't but a moment within the store that brought out her Byakugan again. There was just so much to look at! How could she not widen her field of view? It would just be inefficient, that's what it would be! She spun on the spot before running over to various cuts of wood. There were different types: maple, dogwood, cyprus, some she had never heard of before and some that seemed awfully exotic. A certain display caught her eye, well as much as any one thing could catch your eye when you could see everything, but it managed to grab her attention. She turned her head and waved Hiroji over toward the display.

"Your clan makes this?" She asked, her finger pointing toward a plaque that stated "Senju Wood". She turned her head again to look at him, a wide grin on her face. "What makes it so special?"

Hiroji's attention had been brought away when Ningyo asked for his attention, making a solid "Ah!" come out of his mouth when she pointed towards the Senju Wood on display. He seemed to be rather pleased about it as the wood does relate directly back to his clan. "It's the wood created by the Senju who unlocked the Advanced Element of Wood Release, a rare gene among our clan. It's the strongest wood known in the world hence having our clan name being slapped across it, it has a stronger resistance to fire then normal wood, with chakra flow having an easier time flowing through Senju Wood and the hardness of it is stronger then normal wood as well." he looked closer to the wood, being somewhat inspired by it that one day, he's hoping to reach the level of strength required to unlock Mokuton inside him, assuming that he's one of the lucky few to be dropped with that gene. "It's one of the reasons why I want to become so strong, to create and manipulate such wood and it's the pride of the Senju Clan." a bit of the real Hiroji coming back into play.

Since he was on the topic of Senju abilities, he thought he'd go on about the regeneration ability they are known for. "Were also known for regenerating any wound almost instantaneously that aren't severed limbs or heavily destroyed organs, it's known that Senju who master this ability don't even have to eat or drink for the rest of their lives. This ability is only awoken on a superhuman, physical training level... as you can guess by my build, I'm not ready for such intense training." even though a slap of pride is added to his explanation of his clan's abilities, he's happy to be explaining essentially the greatness of his clan to somebody.

"With Senju Wood being the strongest wood to be offered, that's also why it's ridiculously expensive, given the fact that Wood Release is rare among our clan." with that, he'd finally be done with saying his piece, believing that he's bragged about the Senju's great abilities well enough.

Like a man who's thirst hadn't been touched in days finally brought water, Ningyo absorbed everything that Hiroji said. Wood was the preferred medium for making puppets as steel was both expensive and heavy. To know that her teammate might one day be able to produce a product of this quality was quite exciting. Taking a few moments to fawn over the logs kept safe behind the display case. She definitely wanted some of it but the price just wasn't matching up to her funds at the moment. One day though, one day she'd have enough to purchase enough to make all of her puppets out of it! Her eyes showed amazement as she turned to Hiroji once more, "Too cool! All my clan can do is see really far, we can't make anything like this!"

The rest of his explanation of his clan fell on deaf ears as visions of all different kind of puppets pranced through her mind. A daydream that she could almost reach out and touch but alas, it was just a daydream after all. Clutching her hands to her chest, she shuddered and then threw her arms out wide. "When you learn how, will you make some for me? I know it's a lot to ask...actually...now that I say it out loud..." Her face visibly fell and she shot a hand to the back of her head, rubbing her neck softly and chuckling nervously. "Forget I said anything."

After that she made her way back toward the exit and then back toward Miss Hasegawa's house. She knew what she needed money wise and after being paid today she was well on her way to bringing her concept to life. She walked briskly, not wanting to waste any more time before starting the job. They had arrived early morning and it was already growing close to noon. The trip to the marketplace had taken longer than she expected and the cool part of the day had already passed. She let out a hefty sigh knowing that the rest of their day's work would be done directly under the watchful and warm gaze of the sun.

Hiroji wasn't too insulted by the request, as it's pragmatically smart but he'd get the feeling that members of the Senju clan wouldn't look so kindly to freebies being handed out like that, assuming he even unlocks a Mokuton gene inside him that may or may not be there. "Probably not, sorry." he'd bluntly give it to her. The wood itself is pretty amazing and he'd imagine why she would ask something like that but he didn't think the clan would like it to be abused in such a way. All though he didn't concur with her eyes. "At least it's a bit more flashy compared to mine."

Anyway, the discussion ended short on that note as they started to make their way back to the job that they were supposed to do this morning, he didn't mind this little sidetrip to the marketplace however as in his eyes, it was heavily needed for him to buy the ninja tools he would really need later on in his missions. "I'm glad we wrapped it up on that, we've really gotta start doing the job before it becomes the evening.", they managed to fully make it back to the front of the house and Hiroji didn't stop or waste any time, bringing out his new kunai from his left leg holster and placing his backpack down on the side, going towards the garden and already spotting the weeds.

He'd do it as Ningyo explained it earlier, to just cut of the bottom bit as best as he could which he did smoothly enough on his first try, despite a bit of hesitation and slowness on his part as a result of trying to not screw it up. He'd started to calmly move over the other weeds while doing his best to not mess up or destroy the more genuine plants as he started to cut those out as well.

"Yeah, same. Any later and it would get way too hot." It was a rather mundane thing to say that heat would be the factor she cared the most about. As a shinobi she was aware that she would be working in environments and conditions that would not always agree with her. This was a very shallow example of that kind of thing but still, if she could get through this without sweating too much she would prefer it that way.

She reached down toward her newly purchased holster and flipped the top of it open with a soft click! Her hand wrapped around the handle of the nearest kunai, pulling it out and twirling it once in her grip before holding it with the blade pointing away from her body. She nimbly made her way over to the nearest clump of weeds. The kudzu was coarse and rough to the touch, stems growing out in thick lines. Wrapping her hand around the top of one of these stems, she pulled the intrusive plant taught and slashed the sharpened edge of her kunai at the base of it. A warm knife through butter would be the best example on how easily the tool managed to dismember the weed. Looking at the point of the cut she was rather content with it. It wouldn't be likely that she could cut closer to the ground than that so then that would be her benchmark!

Setting into her work a quick tempo came to be. Crouch, tighten, cut, toss, rinse, repeat. She quickly became a human lawnmower, hands adeptly moving the tool around and around the plants that Miss Hasegawa had actually planted. The work wasn't necessarily hard but it was mindless and repetitive, a dangerous combination for a young Genin.

It had started to become repetitive and dull for Hiroji too, decide his proud and "get on with it" attitude the menial task had kept reminding him about his father's words from earlier, and tried to snap out of it and into other thoughts but somewhat failed at this, this inner conflict was enough to trouble and make Hiroji pass the time throughout his mind, not having too much trouble cutting off the rest of the weeds at his end, with time flying by pretty fast and before they knew it, the job was pretty much done, the exhaustive, repetitive work was finally done and the Senju had let out a sigh, which said quite a bit considering the stamina he usually carried when it came to these types of jobs.

He rubbed off the dirt of his kunai before gently placing it back into his left leg's holster, feeling slightly good about the fact that he has a toolset to depend on now as a qualified ninja. He would reach to the front of the house and see how the garden looks now with the disgusting image of the weeds out of the way. "Not a bad view... I might have to paint it someday." Hiroji had muttered to himself, he's been so focused on these past few missions that he hadn't indulge in painting for a while. It's his way of stress relief and it's probably something he'll immediately work on the instant he's back home.

"I think that's it, another job done. I'll head off home now." a bit of his coldness coming back but the interaction between the Senju and the Hyuuga girl were a bit better today, as a result of his father's argument with Hiroji but once he builds back up his confidence a bit more solidly, he might not act so kindly next time. If Ningyo didn't have anything else to say, the Senju would just make his way home.

(Exit)

With sweat on her brow and dirt under her nails, any hope of remaining cute were thrown out of the window as she hunched over the weeds. Her back was beginning to ache as she moved through the same motions over and over. It was only the mental fortitude that came with knowing that each weed cut was one step closer to being finished that carried her from the front yard around to the back.

The remnants of cut kudzu began to mound and before long was standing nearly up to Ningyo's chest. She wondered when the last time Miss Hasegawa had her weeds cut. It had to have been months! Silently cursing under her breath she hacked away at the last few bunched groups of weeds more decimating than cleanly sheering them. The entire going about it took roughly two hours and her stomach rumbled for lunch. Thankfully Hiroji either ignored it or was out of earshot for that. Once the last weed had been cut she wiped the blade of her kunai off on her already dirty leg wrappings before placing it back into it's holster.

Standing, she stretched her stiff back, placing her hands right where it met her hips and leaning backwards while applying pressure. The stretch helped a little bit but she knew she would need to do more than just that to feel up to snuff again. Endurance seemed to be a shortcoming, or was it strength? Either way it was definitely a display that she needed to work on herself. As she worked out the kinks in her suddenly old body, Hiroji did his thing and with a few short words, went home. That left her with the mound of kudzu to dispose of. She let out an exaggerated sigh before moving her arms up away from her sides. From under the sleeves that constantly extended past her hands, visible threads of chakra moved outward and lassoed around the cut weeds. Taking care to fully envelop the cuttings with her chakra she carried the bundle off toward the nearest bin.

[Exit]