Advertising(Mission)

Mission Details:

The past few days have been somewhat interesting, getting assigned on these missions that Genin usually have to stick with. He guess that the workload wasn't that bad and the pay behind it is especially nice, but he wanted more. Something a little prestigious just for once, like taking that shift at the gates for Hibiki, even though they were learning on the job, he felt like he was contributing to the village's safety, properly in a way instead of just doing some typical mission with someone's dog. He wanted a better taste and he believes that with the recent string of successful missions, a mail might finally pop in with a mission that's more to his standards.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. As soon as he got the mail for his next mission, it was some advertising job to place posters and flyers around the village for this candy store. He didn't even like sweets that much! it didn't sit right with him but he still had a job to do, and he couldn't just abandon it because it's not prestigious. He prepared himself the next day and he could already be sighted at the front of the candy store, awaiting for a supposed partner on the job who he already assumed to be Sen. He seemed to be paired up with him rather frequently and it's not that he didn't mind the kids presence, he just wanted a little variety in partners every now and then.

Sen woke up this morning feeling great. Everything was going the right way after his prior mission learning guard duty. His headache stopped, he learned a bunch, and he overall felt... different. He hasn't had anything to eat or drink in a while now, but has felt completely revitalized regardless - as if he simply no longer required food or water. By now he'd be munching down grain snack after grain snack, and while they still taste as sweet and savory as they always have, he no longer felt compelled to eat them for anything other than luxury.

His mind focused on his objective, Sen wandered towards the meeting spot for the mission and spotted a face he had become very familiar with for the last while.

"Hey, Hiroshi!"

Sen ran over bursting with energy, ready for another day of service. While this job didn't feel like a step up, he knew he was getting better at many aspects of this lifestyle - his most recent streak of luck with missions and breakthroughs in his training being evidence. In a way, he attributed this luck itself to Hiroshi's presence.

"Ready for another day in the life? Today's gonna be great, I can already feel it!"

Hiroshi didn't give much of an optimistic response to the leading statement that Sen gave, but he gave him a slight glance with a light nod of his head, before shifting his attention back to the candy shop. "Sure thing Sen, I just hope we get a better mission at some point... don't get me wrong, these sorts of missions do oddly give some experience and the pay behind them is nice as well, but I don't want to be walking dogs, cleaning dogs or weed pulling forever, you know what I mean?" he let out a sigh, realising that his slight rant is pointless since it really won't change anytime soon. "I suppose we just have to keep doing these missions, see when they decide were ready for a proper mission." referring to "they" as the people who assign these missions at the mission office.

He walked into the shop soon enough, candy all around with what seemed to be numerous types to buy from, not that it interested Hiroshi that much since sweets really wasn't his thing, he didn't even bother to read the names of the different types of sweets. A man eventually came enough, a bald-shaved man with smart glasses and a friendly smile... he somewhat weirded out Hiroshi, he just didn't know why. "You two are doing the flyers today, yes? the stack of advertisement papers are by the desk, as well as a box of nails and a hammer for each of you. Good luck." short and sweet to the point though, that's something Hiroshi can respect.

Guessing how Sen might be, Hiroshi didn't mind sticking around the shop for a while if he wanted to see all the different types of sweets there are but he didn't want to take up too much time as they do have a mission they have to complete.

Walking into the shop after Hiroshi, Sen admired the various sweets as they passed by them towards the counter. However, his usual gluttonous tendencies didn't kick in as they made their way to talk to their employer. Occasionally commenting about how amazing the place smells or how delicious some of the sweets looked, it was entirely window shopping - Sen felt no strong compulsion to devour these delicacies whole and make animalistic grunts as he usually did. Instead they were mood enhancers, rather than distractions.

They received their "briefing" if it could be called that for such an unimportant mission in the grand scheme of things, and it was summarized and simplified quite nicely. Sen nodded along as the brief explanation was gone over, and he eagerly went to pick up his share of the advertisement supplies after being informed where it all was.

"Let's get out there! We don't have all day, do we?"

Sen gestured for Hiroshi to retrieve his stack of the supplies so they could begin the mission in earnest.

Hiroshi was surprised, he held back on grabbing the advertisement supplies because he believed Sen would've wanted to spend a portion of their time in this shop, but seeing him not even react to the sweets in a way that he usually would to sweet snacks was rather odd... did something happen at home? he also grabbed his share of the advertisement supplies and went out the door with Sen. On their way out, he decided to start the conversation by inquiring about his reclusive attitude of sweets today. "Not feeling the sweet tooth today? I'm not much of a sweets guy myself, but I know you are, what's up?" he could appreciate a serious attitude, he just didn't expect one from Sen of all people.

Going down the street, a large wooden pole wasn't that far off from the candy shop, leading it to be a solid point where if people noticed the poster on the pole, they'd look down to see the candy shop right there. It's a good spot to be eye-catching. Hiroshi placed his tools down next to the pole and started to do the first poster, placing it in at a reasonable height level and nailed it by the top and the bottom of the paper, setting it up well enough. During this though, he expected Sen to open up with a reply.

Sen put a finger to his mouth in contemplation at the question he was asked.

"I'm not really sure. I haven't really eaten anything in a while, or had anything to drink lately. At least, not since that last time when we were on guard duty together."

Opening a grain snack as they walked, he looked at it for a moment and saw no real desire to eat it. He just looked at it with a blank expression, and then gestured with it to Hiroshi.

"You want it? I tried eating some earlier in the morning for breakfast but I could only really get through one before I got kinda bored. I usually drink water in the morning with them too, but the water didn't give that usual refreshing feeling either. It's really weird honestly."

Waiting to see Hiroshi's input on the whole predicament, Sen followed his lead and began nailing posters. He did his best to follow his partner's example, copying the height level and procedure of nailing the posters. He wasn't really thinking of much while he did this. The posters were literally displaying the most scrumptious, mouth-watering treats that would've completely broken his concentration days ago. But now it was only images on a poster, serving his village by allowing others to treat their stomachs.

"Maybe I'll try one after this, see if it does anything."

Hiroshi shook his head to say that he didn't want the grain bar, he wasn't really that hungry either and any appetite he might've had at all is just ruined by the supposedly appeasing images of sweets that they're putting up. Hiroshi could handle a little sweetness but too much of it just didn't appeal to him at all. Hiroshi could only guess with what's happening to Sen as he doesn't know what goes in the boys head, but he could only assume that something major happened at his home or something if he's acting like this, something that has somewhat brought him down and the usual human desires aren't just doing it for him, yet he didn't seem to be depressed either. He really had no idea.

He just nailed up posters at every corner pretty much, or at spots that would compel people to look after the image would be in the corner of their eye. He wasn't really an advertising expert so he wouldn't know much about specific positionings of this type of advertising as he only went on common sense.

"Well, suit yourself."

Sen began to eat the grain snack in between hammering nails into the posters. Unlike before, it seemed to be a routine rather than something he enjoyed. It still tasted sweet, but the overwhelming joy was dissipating from the act. A few times when he looked down to eat the snack he swore that he accidentally bashed his finger and chipped his nails while hammering, but when he looked back up at his fingers to check how bad the injury was, he found his hands to be completely normal.

Huh, that's odd...

As he was off on his own side of the street hammering away, he didn't bother to ask Hiroshi if he saw anything. It was probably just his mind playing tricks on him.

"Is someone playing a genjutsu prank on me? Or maybe this is what that 'phantom limb' thing is about? But isn't that only when you actually lose it? Hmm..." Sen muttered under his breath, pondering.

He rolled up the rest of his snack into its package and tossed it into his backpack. At this point it was only a distraction from the task at hand.

"Hey! Are you almost done on that side? I'm about to wrap up here!"

Sen began carrying his tools and posters over towards Hiroshi to see his progress, taking care to glance down at his left hand every couple seconds to see if there was anything wrong with it, or if anything were to change about it. Nothing.

Hiroshi didn't see it, and just focused on his side of the street, getting the rest of the papers up as he was pretty much out of it. He might've gotten carried away with the positions but either way, he believed that he did a good enough job to get the word out about the store. He was sure that the store owner will be pleased about it. "Yeah, I'm just about done here." Hiroshi answered, grabbing the box of nails which only had a few left and the hammer. It was time to head back and return it to the guy, at least that was the plan until a few familiar faces to Hiroshi came out of the corner, a group of three boys around Hiroshi's age made their way towards him, visible gigging could be heard from them.

"Hey there Hiroshi, how's the road to becoming a Hokage coming? I didn't know you were some sweet stores lapdog, not very Hokage like, is it?" Hiroshi already felt compelled to open the box of nails and throw them over the group of boys, and to get a punch in before he might get overwhelmed but he believed that would just be childish, and his days of having such petty feuds were over. It seems that these boys weren't planning to let it go though. "Nothing out of that? when did you become spineless Hiroshi? usually you'd punch me at the smallest insult, not so tough now?"

Sen carried his supplies back over to Hiroshi, just in time to hear the conflict brewing in the middle of the street. The young Senju frowned, and then approached the situation with a neutral expression. He set the box down next to Hiroshi and then stood next to him facing the group of what Sen could only call bullies.

Sen's hand fell on Hiroshi's shoulder, and he turned to look at him.

"Hey. Let's report back, okay? We're pretty much done here." he spoke aloud to Hiroshi.

He turned over to look among the bullies and sized them each up. They were still young, and as a result probably at the same skill level and ranking as the two of them. He smiled and without thought, began to speak his mind.

"Oh! You're the kinds of guys that, when you walk your dogs, you don't pick up the poop afterwards! Right?"

Chuckling to himself out loud, he found the image of it in his head humorous. He had been around people like that in the academy before, who took the responsibility they were training for lightly. They bothered him, but he wasn't in a position right now to reprimand them, he felt. While feeling obligated to scold younger kids for straying from the moral path, he felt he had no place to tell other people of his own age and rank what to do. They were equals, in a way, and while that thought didn't sit well with Sen, it was what it was.

"We're doing a mission and getting paid for it. We're genin. I think that's really all there is to it, y'know?", Sen continued after a small laughing fit, trying his best to defuse the situation without any violence.

Hiroshi did his best to just ignore them, but it seems Sen's own insult just tipped them to continue their little fun, laughing at Sen's attempt at insulting them. Hiroshi let out a quick sigh, he suddenly went into the earth with his hide-a-mole technique, surprising the three boys and in just a few seconds, their legs started to get pulled into the ground, locking them into place before Hiroshi moved back up on the surface. "He- hey, help us!" Hiroshi let out a chuckle, picking back up his equipment and making his way back to the sweets shop. "Have a good one boys!" their pleas to get out of their dilemma was ignored by Hiroshi, it was up to Sen whether or not he wanted to help bring them out of the ground, either way, Hiroshi wasn't planning to help.

Whether or not Sen would come along, Hiroshi eventually made his way back to the sweets shop and placed the nails back on the desk of the store owner, giving a smile that almost all the nails were used. He offered a few sweets as a side reward but Hiroshi refused it, the same offer would extend to Sen should he want it.

Sen walked over to them and knelt close to their panicking faces stuck in the ground. He made eyed contact with each of them, and then sighed.

"Well, come on. Get up."

Taking the time to pull the three boys out of the ground, he looked down at each of them once they recovered with a stern look on his face.

"It's not nice to pick on people! When someone's trying their best to do something, you should acknowledge the effort. Everybody starts somewhere small before they accomplish something great. That goes for all of us. You aren't better."

He wagged his finger at them as he spoke, almost as if he was emulating an academy teacher. He wasn't very experienced in giving tips to others, but he'd heard words like those enough times to know the routine of it. These kinds of people usually learn by realizing the consequences of their actions, and in a situation like this Sen could only hope that was the case.

"Anyway, I'm off. Try to think on this, okay? After all, if someone hanging up posters and advertising for a sweets shop can make you useless that fast, you're really gonna need to get stronger!", Sen finished, with that last part ending with a smile and a wink.

Afterwards, Sen ran to catch up with Hiroshi who had already grown disinterested in the whole event. They wrapped up the mission, handed in the remaining supplies, and accepted the sweets as a bonus reward.

Standing outside the shop, Sen turned to his mission partner as he opened the packaging for one of the sweets.

"So, you know those guys from somewhere in particular?", he questioned.

Before exiting the sweets shop, he decided to answer Sens question as to whether or not he knew them. "They used to be my friends back in the academy, you could say we were like a gang of sorts, we did a lot of stupid stuff. I started to grow mature over the years as a teenager however and all the stuff we did just grew distasteful to me, when I tried to leave, they didn't appreciate it too much and they believe I have some arrogant complex that I'm better then them, now they take any chance to look down on me." he just simply shrugged on the matter, they used to be the type of friends where you felt like they would be friends for life, but it didn't end out that way and Hiroshi just saw them as a bother nowadays and nothing more then that.

"Anyway, the mission's done and I taught them a lesson. I think that's as good as it gets, I'll see you later Sen." with that, Hiroshi left the shop after a job well done in his eyes.

[Exit]

"Yeah! I'll see you later."

Watching his partner walk away, he bit into the sweet treat. Afterwards, he examined it over carefully. Turning it around, while inspecting the different flavors in his mouth. When he wasn't gorging himself like a wild animal he had the opportunity to take in the different flavors of the things he ate.

"Hmm. Tastes alright."

He walked down the street as he finished it, enjoying but not indulging in it. It was odd. What concerned him perhaps a little more was how he was starting to grow accustomed to it slowly.

Even more odd was something Hiroshi said before they parted ways, that struck Sen as odd when reflected on himself. Something that dug into his mind when he really took a moment to think on it.

Friends...

Stopping his walk and swallowing down the rest of the food, he raised a hand to his chin for a moment in thought. His expression grew curious for a moment, and then morphing into concern.

Did I... have friends back at the academy?

[Exit]