Catch of the Day (D Rank Mission)

Mission Name: Catch of the Day
Mission Type: Chore
Mission Rank: D
Mission Goal: Help the local Fishermen with their catch
Description: Head on down to the Hozuki Fisheries and lend a hand. Work at one of the fisheries for the day, pulling in nets with the days catch then sort the marine line and get them ready for transport. Don't hesitate to bring a friend or two to lend a hand.
Payment: 10,000 Ryo
Requirements: Genin+

Having woken up very early in the morning for a special occasion, Hao hopped out of his bed with a vibrant exuberance. Even when he was alone he tended to try and keep up his silly little persona as though it were practice for the actual thing. Given his crappy track record and supposed capabilities it seemed as though the village had decided that he would be best suited to work menial service jobs like fishing. The only annoying part about a mission like this was how early he would have to wake up in the morning and how cold the water was probably going to be. To his understanding there was also going to be another genin joining him today, but he wasn’t really aware of who they were nor did he really care all that much. Regardless, he was prepared to observe them and take note of whatever limited capabilities they might show while fishing today. As his morning routine didn’t take very long to complete, Hao was out the door and at the fishing docks around 6:30 am. Upon arrival he harassed the fisherman in charge of him and the other genin to give him a net and began to fish while waiting for the other genin to arrive.

Kiyoko would arise slowly to greet the day, the aching of her tired muscles reminded her that today would be yet another fruitful day in the village of Kirigakure. She had been assigned to several missions lately, working hard to increase her stock in the village as to better provide for her aging parents and loving sister. She knew there was really no need or rush to provide for either, but her love and dedication to both drove her to do incredible things for those who cared for her.

As such was the case, here she rose on a dreary Thursday morning, finally moving from her bed after a moment of contemplation to finally put on a suit of clothing befitting the task she was to fulfill today. Apparently the mission today was to catch fish for the village. A crucial task that was necessary to provide food and goods for merchants to trade later on. Of course she was only in it to pad her own mission stats so none of that really mattered in the end.

Today another genin was to join her, something she had gotten used to ever since graduating. It seemed no matter how menial the task, genin were required to at least work in pairs, and if possible, with a whole squad. It was something Kiyoko could appreciate but without a squad of her own, only further frustrated her due to working with random personalities that she couldn't handle. In any case, today was going to be a long day, that much felt like a guarantee.

Apparently the other genin that was going to show up was going to be late or something like that. Hao didn’t really mind this of course, but he didn’t know if the other genin working with him was going to get chewed out by the fisherman or not. Given that fishing was such a boring task it would be nice to have a bit of entertainment, even if it was at the expense of others. He just decided to keep up with his fishing while he waited for them to arrive. He wasn’t particularly gifted when it came to his strength, stamina, or coordination so he wouldn’t even need to fake his own incompetence when it came to fishing with a net. That was on top of having almost no experience with fishing in the first place. This didn’t bother Hao either of course, as he had a lot of experience with getting chewed out over his faked incompetence, but he was just hoping the other genin would show up soon so he could at least pretend like a decent amount of work was getting done. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone to talk to so he could keep his mind off of how disgustingly cold the water was this morning.

She would arrive late that morning, the distraction of the bustling city being far more attractive than any mission. It almost made her wish she hadn't taken this mission considering there were a few rare ores on sale today in the market. Alas, she had signed up for the duty and she was going to carry it out to the T. The fisherman in charge of the two genin had noticed her arrive shortly afterwards, and chewed her out completely for showing up what had to be an hour late. Luckily for him, fishing wasn't too far off a task from blacksmithing, tho of course she was only familiar with the menial part of the task, and not the actual skill needed to catch the damn fish. She would follow along the man's directions for a bit, working a bit harder to catch her groove before she finally noticed the other genin who had also been tasked with catching fish. Though there wasn't much there for her to notice so she kept her vague observations to herself and worked diligently at her task.

After some time spent only catching a couple of fish at a time inside of his net, Hao was starting to get bored with these menial tasks. The old man watching over him was a grumpy old fuck and not very talkative in the slightest, so whenever Hao tried to start a conversation with him he would just grumpily sigh and tell him to get back to work. Such actions made Hao feel almost depressed about his situation, but he endured until he noticed the other genin arriving. It wasn’t hard for him to notice them of course, on account of the bright as fuck red hair that signified they were probably an Uzumaki. That clan had always spooked Hao a bit to be honest, as they had all sorts of odd seals they could use on people to make their lives miserable. Regardless of such fears, Hao had a persona to uphold so upon noticing the red haired genin begin her work without really acknowledging him he stopped fishing for a moment, looked over at her, and said, “Hey there lady, how's it going, isn’t it cold out this morning? My name’s Tang Hao, what's yours?” He said all of this in a jumbled up mess of a run on sentence, not taking a breath once as he also pretended to be a clumsy idiot by moving one of his arms out of the water quickly in order to offer her a handshake, and in the process likely splashing her with a lot of water on top of accidentally lobbing a fish at her face.

She had been left to her own devices upon arrival, for whatever reason the old fucker was too busy grumbling at the young man who was paired with her for this mission. This suited her just fine as she was actually kind of struggling to locate the fish within the waters. It wasn't so bad that she hadn't caught any, but rather the murky waters were obstructing her view just enough to make it too hard for her to spot the difference between a rock covered in seaweed, and bass, and as such she unfortunately had a basket full of seaweed and a few fish to her name. Apparently while she was struggling to complete this fairly basic task, her partner had deigned it proper etiquette to introduce himself to her, something that she completely missed as she splashed into the pond to try and grab what looked like a fish only to grab yet another sea urchin. She exclaimed in pain as the damn thing stung her which unfortunately pulled her attention away from the scenario playing out just behind her as the fisherman had heard the young whippersnapper once again slack off in his work and turn towards the boy only to catch a wriggling bass to the schnoz. The slimy sea bass stuck to his face like glue for some odd reason before sliding off with a mucky gluck leaving just the poor tired old man with the goofy teen. The man's face held a look of dispassionate distaste as he contemplated his life's work where he broke his back every day only to be disrespected by some silly upstart. The old man would promptly resign himself to his anger before gripping the fishing rod he held firmly in his right hand before lifting it over his head with furious might and righteous anger. The action would happen so fast it almost would seem if the man was a ninja how quickly he reeled the unassuming weapon into a ready position before slamming it suddenly in the young man's direction towards the boys open head. The action had an indeterminate speed, as if this practiced motion was being performed by a professional, a natural at his craft, and truly he was. Years of fishing had perfected his reeling technique, only now instead of yanking in bass, he was using it to administer pain to a poor unassuming child. Kiyoko herself was too far away and engrossed in her own issues to even notice the interaction happening, but if she had been paying attention she definitely would have found it humorous, regardless of if the boy was hit or not. The fish had made a funny sound when it hit the man's face after all.

Apparently Hao had miscalculated in his effort to act like a total dunce. In his arrogance he accidentally launched a fish in the direction of his employer and got some sort of weird fish goo all over him. He was rightfully upset at this of course, but Hao now had to use his immense intellect to formulate a strategy that would involve him not being injured by a random fishmonger. The other genin seemed completely unaware of the situation at hand, with her getting stung by something or other. Hao had no awareness of that happening to the other genin but the only thing that was important about that set of actions was that she was completely unaware of her surroundings, to the point that she was well within the range of motion associated with the man swinging his fishing rod. Even being within one foot of the old man was enough for her to be completely distracted by the situation, and this was on top of being addled by the sting of a sea urchin. The swing made by the man, if it continued, would bonk her directly on the head, before throwing off the balance of his aim and causing the fishing line lobbed towards Hao head to veer off course. It would be difficult for the girl to respond to such a thing given her lack of attention, but in Hao’s case, all of his attention was focused on the scary old man, and as such, he immediately utilized both his chakra pool enhancing unique ability and formed a tiger handseal before the old man had swung his rod, forming a clone in the pathway of the man’s swing, just in case. If any physical portion of the rod were to be aimed at Hao’s real form, the clone would move in order to block the strike with its own body.

Spoiler:

This moment in time felt almost infinite as Hao watched the girl get bopped on the head by the angry fishermen, offsetting his attack by a large amount and causing it to miss Hao completely. Given that Hao was a ninja, his clone acted with great haste and rushed the old man, before wrenching the fishing rod from his hands in a way that did not harm the old man or the girl below him. Given that the girl had been bonked in the head and was obviously nursing some sort of painful sting, Hao had no idea how she would fare in the coming few minutes, but for now his focus was on the old man. After having taken the rod from the old man the clone said, “Sir, please calm down! It was just an accident….. I’m a bit clumsy you see...” The clone tried to chuckle a bit as it held the rod, making sure that the man couldn't take it from him even if he tried. At this point he just wanted to leave and get on with his life. To his surprise, his real body seemed to have caught enough fish to finish the mission in its entirety. What a lucky break. “Well…. Looks like this is a mission well done! Bye!” Hao would say this as he nervously chuckled and proceeded to run away from the scene of the incident, leaving his clone to keep the fishing rod away from the old man so the real body could escape. He didn’t really care what happened to the girl who got bonked at this point, so for all he cared, she could take the brunt of the man’s newfound range. After escaping to a safe distance away, the clone would poof and drop the rod at the man’s feet. Hao would then leave to go turn in the mission.

[exit]

Spoiler: