Cleaning the Paint

Mission Details:

Hiroshi got assigned yet another mission, they seem to be pretty rapidfire these days which he didn't mind, since the pay isn't that bad but at the same time, he'd like to have a bit of a break every now and then if he could help it. It did help though that the mail about being assigned a mission came at warnings, so you at least had a few days to prepare for them but still, a set and allocated break would be nice to have instead of knowing whether or not a mission will come in the mailbox the next day.

This time though, the mission is slightly... interesting at best. He always wanted to go up to the Hokage's Rock and see the structure up close but not quite what he had imagined today, since some kids grew the nerve to vandalise the Hokage's faces with inappropriate images and crude words. He had only one opinion about that, and he thought that if you were going to do something on such a scale, do it right. Their skill with the brush was piss-poor and it could clearly be seen in their hasty done work on the faces.

Hiroshi is already at the bottom of the Hokage's Rock, with a bucket of water and a sponge in the bucket. The only problem that concerned him is how he's going to get up there, and how he's going to keep the bucket balanced while doing so... that's a bit tricky. He'd imagine there's a walkway somewhere, but considering he's at the bottom as it is, it would be quicker to just walk up the wall with the chakra feet technique, but that could easily flip the bucket over... decisions, decisions...

It was another sunny day in the village, the perfect time to be out and about! Unfortunately, for one aspiring ninja within the village, the sun's effects were lessened by the news he had heard and the job he was to receive. Those who knew him and greeted him as he walked by swore they could have almost seen fume coming out of his ears. It got so bad that every third or forth person to cross his path as he marched would not even have received a friendly "hello!" in response, but a forced "hi" instead.

Indeed, Sen was stomping through the main street of the village and up to base of the Hokage Faces. He could see it even from there, and heard word that some group of kids earlier had desecrated the statues celebrating some of the village's finest heroes. He could not think of even a single reason why anyone would do that! As thoughts sprang through his mind, conjuring speeches to reprimand the children should he ever find them - like those arguments one would have that they'd only think up after conflict with someone has already passed - he intended to plan his speech ahead of the curve on the chance he ever met them.

Nearing the mission objective however, seeing Hiroshi within sight, he began to calm down for the moment. Frustrations aside, it was still money and a mission meant to better his village - and he'd been getting many more of those recently. Even more than that, he was succeeding at them!

"Hey, Hiroshi!", Sen called out, waving as he made his way over to the bucket for their less than glamorous job.

When he made it over to Hiroshi, who seemed to have already gotten started, Sen let out a small chuckle.

"Seems we're meeting each other everywhere recently, huh? I'm guessing you took this one too?", Sen continued, pointing to the horrible graffiti job before them.

It definitely was a heated day, Hiroshi did feel it building up and he could feel his entire back neck going red, he already felt tempted to dump the bucket of water over his head but he might do that once the job's done, or at least part way through the job. He made the climb well enough, figuring out that he could balance the bucket of water on his stomach while waking his way up and it worked. After a few moments of reaching the top, he soon greeted Sen who he assumed took the normal route of taking the pathways to the Hokage's face. "I should've done the same... my lungs feel like they're about to give up on me." just a simple walk up with the chakra feet to the faces made Hiroshi's face bright red from the heat, almost in matching colour with his hair!

Hiroshi already took off his t-shirt, chucking it to the side and grabbing the sponge in his bucket of water, drenching it and bringing the sponge over the top of his head, squeezing it and letting the water flow through his body. As soon as he felt somewhat cool enough to start working, he did. "Yeah... sorry I'm not talking much, it's really hot today. I wish we could've picked a better day to do this damned job."

Hiroshi was exhausted, but Sen mistook the fatigue and red-hot complexion setting in for his passionate anger against the delinquents who ruined the stone faces. He nodded in agreement out of nowhere in response with an "I know" kind of look. Those kids had to own up to their mistake, but Sen figured the greatest payback of all would be washing off this paint, and making the faces look even better than they ever did before.

"It's okay! You don't need to talk all that much. I understand completely."

Sen grabbed a sponge from the wet bucket, dipping it in and out and swirling the water around to make sure the sponge was at full strength. With that, Sen left the bucket with Hiroshi without a second thought and, crouching down like a cat hunting its prey, and making a handsign signifying the activation of a jutsu, rocketed himself vertically up the stone faces while allowing his soaked and soapy sponge to slide along one of the faces that Sen was running up. It was a sudden burst of chakra-enhanced speed, the Body Flicker, designed to speed up the process of the mission and let out some pent-up aggression.

Finishing his sprint up the face, Sen looked down and called out to Hiroshi.

"If we do it like this it'll be faster! C'mon, Hiroshi! Faster is definitely better for this mission!"

Sen prepared for another charge, this time across, hoping Hiroshi would match his own passion.

---

Jutsu Used:

Hiroshi definitely wasn't for putting that much more effort into the mission, his head felt like a cherry already from the heat forming on his body, if he felt like if he went that extra mile like how he's doing it, he'd be running on fumes once their job is done... but he felt like he got roped into doing it either way and decided to join along, activating his own body flicker technique to go to the other side of the face and swiping back and forth down the face. After a few up and downs on the face, he took a slight break to catch his breath, before continuing the pace once more. At this pace, the first hokage's face would be fully cleaned in a few minutes.

During the process, he decided that if he's pushing forth this extra effort even though the heat is making him really slow, he might as well continue the conversation with Sen. "So... the prank that these kids did, what do you think about it?" it was just boring to mindlessly go up and down the face for minutes on end, especially on such a hot day. He might as well help alleviate the boredom by talking with his partner.

As Sen passed by a lap, he stopped to answer the question.

"Absolutely unforgivable! No matter how young they are or how little they understand, they should be taught as early as they know how to speak to respect the Hokage and others who put in the effort that they do. They keep us all safe, and everyone should realize that."

Sen let out a sigh, fuming hot now in his own kind of way. Doing another pattern up and down the face, he met Hiroshi in the middle again after a few more repetitions of the same.

"I think that once we're done here, we should track those kids down and scold them! And then report them to a chunin or jonin in the village. If it doesn't stop now, who knows what they'll do next?!"

With his hands on his hips, he let out a sigh with a drawn out, dramatic "hmph" noise. Speaking while getting fired up emotionally, combined with the heat burning down on them, the restlessness was even beginning to affect Sen. Up until this point he was doing fine with the rays shining down on them, but he wasn't above succumbing eventually. Taking off his jacket, he tied it around his waist, leaving his shirt on - he wasn't dying yet after all, just elevated above a comfortable temperature mostly due to his own ranting.

"What about you, Hiroshi? Do you think stuff like this is funny?", Sen returned the question, pointing at green graffiti obviously intended to emulate a booger hanging out of a Hokage's nose.

After being given a rather hefty opinion on the graffiti of what the kids did, he finally got a chance to give his own input. "Yes and no. I agree that it is disrespecting the Hokages, but even if we do turn them in to a Chuunin or Jounin, they'll just get a slap on the wrist for it since they're still children. If I saw the punks infront of me, I wouldn't be as kind either but I get the feeling that if it were up to the Hokage himself or a Jounin, it's a mature thing to look past their childish behaviour instead of scolding them heavily for it." he unfortunately didn't have that luxury, given his past with his dad as he was constantly reminded and punished for his mistakes but that experience is what makes him a bit more sympathetic to a harmless prank.

"Apparently this face has been graffiti'd many times, every generation that comes along it's just inevitable for it to happen, and in the same generation, a poor squad of Genin will be assigned with cleaning up their mess. It's a never ending cycle and it sucks, but we just have to deal with it." It seems that he somewhat dodged the question about the grafitti being funny, to which he elaborated on. "I don't find it that funny, I understand pranks like putting an eraser on top of a sliding door or a farting cushion on the teachers seat, but this is just a waste of time for everyone involved."

"I can't accept that that's just the way it is, though! There has to be something we can do to convince these kids to behave themselves, right?"

Doing another row to erase more of the graffiti, he slowed down once more to continue, almost out of breath.

"We're taught in the academy to serve the village, and to look to the Hokage and jonin of the village for inspiration when we're feeling sad or angry. If they aren't learning that, the rest is just pointless, right?"

There were many days where a Senju clan member wouldn't come back from their mission. Sen thought about it time and again, hearing the same words he was forced to accept every time.

"Killed by a rogue ninja"

He always interpreted it such that rogue ninja abandoned their families and friends out of spite for their village. That it wasn't a lack of knowledge or growth, but a lack of loyalty and discipline. Something they weren't taught at a young age forced them to abandon their village and in turn, kill their former allies sent to hunt them down. Some days the hunters succeeded, and all anyone ever thought about was another name struck from a book and a reward handed out to the hunter. But that rogue ninja had potential to do great things, and threw it all away. Even worse would be the days when that rogue would kill the hunters instead, and continue to bring grief worse than if they had just died.

The point? It all started here. Simple, childish disobedience as a child. Sen grew up with a heart burning to serve his village, but was often looked down upon for it. Those that viewed loyalty as a weakness grew up to be the kind of villains that would betray their homeland. It was waived off by the higher-ups as something that those kids will learn with time, but for those that never do? It was only a matter of time until those base-level acts of defiance turned into something much more major, wild, and out of control.

Sen's mind was unable to properly vocalize these thoughts, so he sputtered out whatever he was thinking to summarize it in the moment.

"Bad kids need to learn.", he spoke with a fire in his eyes.

Hiroshi simply shrugged at the rant that he gave out, while a certain loyalty is expected to be given towards the village, especially if you're in the academy to become a ninja, he just believed that isn't all there is to it. "They will eventually learn, they mature and grow in their own ways. Trust me... you'll find it astounding or weird how people can change given enough time." his dad nowadays is rather lax with Hiroshi, but while he was growing up his dad was rather strict and enforcing when it came to his rules around the house. He could personally attest to how time changes people.

"You believe what you want to believe, I don't think they should go unpunished but if you're too rough with them, it'll leave a scar on them and I'm not talking physically, which would push them even further away from the idea of "loyalty"" he said his piece, during which he continued to clean the face and surprisingly, they're just about done! it seems the idea of wasting time with a conversation did work. "C'mon, let's wrap this up and head off."

Sen shrugged at the response to his ranting. Different opinions and viewpoints existed, and while it was something he still had trouble accepting, it was a bit easier for him in this instance.

"Well, I can't say I agree, but..."

His attitude changed upon realizing that they were almost finished! And after a few more runs up and down the faces, sure enough, they wrapped it up. Wiping sweat from his brow, Sen tossed his sponge into the bucket and moved over to rest against the walkway railing.

"That was a good workout! I'm beat. Let's go report and get out of here, I need a break."

Sen carried the bucket and sponges with him off back into the village, looking down from the walkway to see a bunch of kids running around and playing down below. Looking at them for a moment, he pondered with a furrowed brow whether to go down there and see if any of them knew anything. After a moment though, he exhaled and continued on his way down the steps towards the village.

Maybe it's not worth it, after all, I guess. What would I even say?

[Exit]

Hiroshi felt like just dumping the bucket of water over his head to get some of the heat off, but it seems that plan was pretty much foiled after Sen took the bucket. He didn't mind too much as he could probably find some way to cool down once he got home, he wasn't far behind Sen at exiting the Hokage's rock and making his way to report that the mission is done, after collecting his pay, he'd make his way back home.

[Exit]