Team Building Exercises

Mission Details:

Mistu was an interesting sort of person, never one for grumbling or sincere complaining which is why this particular morning her behaviour was quite concerning. While she normally rose with the sun and practiced her yoga and her dance with a cheerful smile on her face, as the sun crested the horizon she merely pulled the covers back over her head. Mitsu wasn’t known for sleeping in and her mother tried her best to coax the girl out from beneath her nest of fabric but to no avail. Mitsu was determined to sleep as long as possible having woke up on the ‘wrong side of the bed’. It was probably a result of her staying up far too late, training her combat and techniques so as to keep up with the other shinobi of the village. She knew she was lagging behind, being more interested in the unique patterns she could draw in the sand as she danced rather than any practical application in her skill.

After a couple of hours of letting her daughter sleep her mother finally decided to be more forceful with her tactics. With the kind of swiftness only a mother could harness she would yank the covers off of her lazy daughter and demand she get up in a sing-songy voice. “Mitsu darling, the sun has been awake far longer than you! Time to get up, the desert won’t dig itself up!” Mitsu would laugh and jump up, she’d forgotten about the mission she was supposed to go on today. Her tiredness was instantly put out of her mind and she rushed to get ready. “You know mom, you should have started with that, I would have got up right away.” The women would continue in their cheery manner as Mitsu got dressed, putting on a soft white colored dress; short and flowing, barely covering enough to make the outfit decent. Not that Mitsu was particularly concerned with the man-made construct of ‘decency’ - she’d been taught to be proud of her body and didn’t consider not covering pieces of it as some sort of crime against humanity.

Once dressed she would grab her kunai, placing it in the leather strap on her right thigh next to her row of four senbon and two shuriken. She had already acquired the shovel and bag from the merchant, he had been in such a state about the whole affair. She wasn’t sure exactly how valuable the things he had lost were, but she assumed they must be incredibly valuable based on his near panic when explaining things to her. She wasn’t sure if anyone else would be joining her on this mission, she didn’t need the help though, digging things up in the desert was kind of her forte. Her supplies in hand and a smile on her face, Mitsu would head out towards the spot she thought the man had described.

Kenpachi would wake up to the smell of breakfast being prepared by his mother. It was a couple of hours past sunrise, his usual time to get up. Kenpachi was a very punctual person, he was laid back about most other things. He preferred to let events unfold around him going with the flow as long as it suited him. Today he would take extra care getting his equipment ready, it was the day of his first official mission after all. He would put on his usual black pants and coat taking the extra time to do up all of the buckles on the coat. Carefully strapping his yari to his back and grabbing a few kunai from his dresser and slipping them into their holster on his thigh he would head downstairs, kiss his mother goodbye on the cheek, grab some food for the road, pick up the provided shovel and sack then head out the door.

He would whistle a jaunty toon as he headed off to the place described by the merchant. Trying to think up all possible scenarios and how they might play out in his head, he needed to stay alert as the merchant had mentioned that others, possibly with ill intent, might be going after his items. Truth be told he was a little nervous but more excited than anything. This would be his first chance to prove himself. As he neared the edge of the village he would spot a woman in a very short white dress, the same color as her hair, carrying a shovel and sack the same as him. Kenpachi had never seen anyone quite like her before, he felt it was safe to assume that she was also collecting the merchant’s goods for him. Two hands were better than one he would think to himself and approach her saying ”Hello, did that merchant talk you into this gem in a sandhill hunt as well?” If she responded favorably he would fall into step beside her, otherwise he would head off on his own.

A storm had made the footprints impossible to find, but that didn’t stop the Ronin as he tracked his prey, his vision impossibly good as he could see to the horizon line provided there was nothing in the way, and even if there was, his ability to sense peoples’ Ki proving itself tremendously valuable. He wore fresh linen robes over top of the banded armour that was made over ebony, recently finished and custom made for him while being stamped with his family crest. The helmet had a feline face, looking like a black panther prowling the sands in order to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. The Katana and Wakazashi were firmly held in place i nthe Sarashi around the Samurai’s waist, along with his wakazashi and arrow quiver, and his Yami was in his hands, arrow knocked and ready to let loose on the unsuspecting bandits.

As soon as he finally located the camp he had been searching for, he adjusted his positioning of his bow, aiming towards where he know the Ki of one of them would be and firing of an arrow which would snuff out one of the Ki sources. He would quickly dash forward, focusing his Ki and whipping up the winds around him into a frenzy to hide his body within the storm as he housed the bow back into his spots over his shoulder and placed his hand on his saya, thumb pressing against the Tsuba of his katana before pressing it out to draw the blade and strike down two of the bandits. The confusion would work to his advantage as he would systematically pick apart every person in the camp, soaking his natural linens red with the blood of the fallen and leaving none alive...

The blood soaked samurai would drag the body of the leader of the bandit camp with him, a sour look on his face as he did so. He didn’t like showing off his kills, but proof of their eradication had been requested by the nearby village that they had pillaged and he wouldn’t keep that satisfaction from them. He looked towards the horizon line and saw two other people nearby, digging in the sand. He could feel their Ki, much stronger than the bandits, and he frowned as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply before making his way towards the sources of Ki. He imagined he would be a bit of a terrifying visage that might not be optimal for people to see in the desert, but at least with the menpo of his kabuto removed it should be slightly less imposing.

“Not the best time to be out in the desert. Lots of bandits coming to take advantage of the storm...”

Chakra - 109.5/110 Sensory
(20 exp)

Mitsu would have been perfectly content to do the mission alone, but when she was approached by a remarkably handsome blonde man who asked if she was doing the same thing she was delighted. She always preferred to have company and especially when digging in the desert, so without any hesitation she would beam at the man and speak in her usual melodic voice. “Oh! Hello there! If you mean the mission to retrieve the merchants goods, then yes! I’m so happy to meet you! I’m Mitsu. . . well, Mitsukira, but my friends call me Mitsu, so you can too.” She would walk along with the man until she found a suitably diggable sand dune at which point she would drop the linen sack onto the ground and begin excavating. As she dug she would hum and ask rather mundane questions to her digging partner. “Do you think we’ll get another storm? The last one was quite exciting, don’t you think?”

Mitsu continued digging and chatting with her mysterious companion assuming he answered her until she heard another voice nearby. She would look up from her work, somewhat startled, and shade her eyes from the sun with one hand to observe the newcomer. Not too far away stood a tall helmeted man, in red. . . no not red, blood soaked robes. Her eyes would narrow suspiciously at first glance, she had been told that others may come looking for the treasure. His mention of bandits being about made her somewhat more inclined to believe that he was merely some random, well geared and clearly weapon capable traveller. She liked to think the best of people after all, and a more jaded person would have suspected that he was a bandit and just making a bad joke. But being the person she was, would stab her shovel into the sand and lean heavily on the handle. “Well hello there! Are you here to help with the mission? It seems you’ve already done your part in clearing out the bandits.” With her last comment she would gesture to the nondescript, and very dead looking bandit nearby.

Kenpachi was taken aback by the beauty of the woman as she smiled at him and introduced herself as Mitsu. ”It’s nice to meet you too. My name is Kenpachi, I’ve never really had a nickname before so you may call me Kenpachi.” As they started digging he realized that she liked to talk… a lot. ”Yes I think we’ll get another storm, I suppose the last one could be called exciting. This is my first mission since graduation, how about you? No, I forgot to bring water too.” Kenpachi would continue to dig and converse with this oddly happy maybe friend for some time.

As he stopped to eat some of the food he had brought, offering some to Mitsu, he would hear another voice nearby. He would look around and see a man wearing full armor and covered in what appeared to be, upon closer inspection, blood approaching them. Kenpachi’s gut told him that this man was a very capable fighter and that he better avoid a confrontation at all costs. I’ll hold my tongue until I get a feel for this man’s current temperament. He would think to himself, quickly taking in the dead body the man was dragging he would thrust his shovel into the sand and mentally start going over how things might go down and what he could do for each situation. All the while Kenpachi would pay very close attention to the newcomer.

The woman would speak to him, asking him something about some kind of mission that he knew nothing about. He would look at the shovels in the two individuals’ hands and would cock an eyebrow. She seemed friendly enough, though the man with her was quite quiet. He supposed it was likely that his visage was quite offputting and he decided he would remove his kabuto, exposing a sweat covered brow and slick white hair beneath. He would try to seem less threatening still by speaking once more, attempting to break the ice and extrapolate some information at the same time.

“I don’t know what mission you’re talking about, but I can’t imagine that it would be ‘dig a hundred graves for the bodies of the bandits that Kensai has killed so he doesn’t have to do it himself’”. He would chuckle slightly at his joke, finding himself hilarious. Often people didn’t seem to get his sense of humour so he was never offended when that was the case, but he would wait a minute for a response before continuing on.

“I come into the desert after sand storms and try to clear out the bandits that inevitably tend to show up looking to pick off merchants and others who got trapped in the storm.” He would look towards the two of them with a serious face, all traces of the joking gone now. “People like you tend to be targets unfortunately, unsuspecting hard working folk who aren’t properly paying attention to everything in the area. They love to set up ambushes in the sand dunes and all kinds of fascinating places. I can’t sense any other Ki at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that more bandits will not come...”

Ken would stroke his chin and pull out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling deeply before looking towards the two of them once more. “So what is the mission you’re out here for anyway?”

Chakra - 109/110
(40 exp)

There was a moment of tension in the air as three of the four people sized each other up. The fourth having no useful opinion on the state of the desert after a sandstorm, save for the obvious repercussions of banditing in the same sand heap as the fairly intimidating man in front of her. Kenpachi said nothing, which may have been the wiser course of action considering the stranger was covered in blood. But she put it out of her mind and laughed heartily at Kensai’s joke. “Oh, that is a good one. I guess it is kind of ironic, us being here with shovels, you being there with a dead body. It’s nice to meet you Kensai, I’m Mitsukira, but you can call me Mitsu. This is my friend Kenpachi, he doesn’t have a nickname.” She would continue laughing for some time, holding her hand over her mouth so as not to interrupt the white haired man’s speaking. She didn’t want to appear rude after all.

Mitsu listened as best she could to the warning in Kensai’s words, trying to put on a grave face. She was only moderately successful, her mirth at the man’s joke still sparkling in her red eyes and shaping the tone of her voice. Clearing her throat she answered with far too much information. “Well. . . I’m not so sure that we would be targets, we don’t even really have pockets so we clearly aren’t carrying anything of value. We’re just out here doing a mission for the village.” She would pause and point towards Sunagakure as she continued. “There was some poor merchant that lost a lot of their jewel crafting supplies and that’s not the type of thing us shinobi usually do, but I wouldn’t expect him to come out here on his own and dig everything up. Like you said, there’s bandits everywhere. Speaking of bandits, what are you doing with that one?” She would gesture towards the dead man at Kensai’s feet with a quizzical look on her face.

Kenpachi’s first thought about the newcomer who kindly introduced himself was that the man had a very odd sense of humor. Upon hearing Mitsu’s laughter at the “joke” he would chuckle for a moment or two, her laughter was infectious. He would smile and say in his friendliest voice ”As she said I’m Kenpachi nice to meet you Kensai. I feel like the shifting sands of the desert will do a much better job burying all the bodies than we could. Oh and thank you for clearing out the bandits, you’ve made our job easier for it.”

After listening to the Kensai’s warning and Mitsu’s abundance of information he would say ”Let’s hope that it stays that way until we are done with this task, I’d rather not fight if it can be avoided.” Kenpachi would then reach into his pocket and offer Kensai his last rice ball saying ”I have some onigiri left please accept one as a token of my thanks for killing off a potential problem, it was made by my mother and she’s quite good. I believe this last one has a plum inside” If Kensai refused the offer he would return the rice ball to his pocket with a shrug. He would then await the answer to Mitsu’s question as he was curious about what the man was doing with the body as well.

Finally, someone with a good sense of humour...

Kensai would look back and forth between the two in front of him. He was introduced to the young man, who he would inspect once more after he had introduced himself as well and nod. “No nickname eh? Very well...I shall refer to you as...Kenpachi.” He chuckled to himself once more, realistically he had heard the man say this earlier, his extremely impressive hearing unable to let the comment pass, but it had made him laugh and it bared repeating. He would look down at the body he was dragging, picking it up so it was standing and looking into its cold, dead eyes.

“I bring him along because he’s a fantastic conversationalist, and it gets lonely in the desert...” He would look deadly serious when he said this, looking between the two for a second before dropping the body and saying “No I’m taking him in as proof of completion of a mission. This is the head of a specific camp of bandits. AND THIS...” He would lift the bandit once more by the hair “Is the head of the head.” He would shake his head (not the bandit’s) and look back towards the two shinobi, graciously taking the onigiri from Kenpachi (He’d shorten it to Ken but he already knew one of those) and taking a bite. “This is most appreciated friend, thank you.”

chakra - 108.5/110
(60 exp)

Kenpachi was definitely the more levelheaded of the two Genin, that much was made obvious by the way he addressed Kensai. She maaaaaaaaaybe should have considered being a bit more direct and responsible when speaking to the scary bloodsoaked man. She also thought Kenpachi’s idea about the sand burying bodies was also incredibly practical.

Without even being certain that Kensai was joking Mitsu would burst out laughing when he talked about why he was dragging a dead body around. She laughed so hard she stumbled and nearly fell as the shovel she was leaning on shifted in the sand under her weight. Her laugh rang loud enough that she barely heard his actual explanation but managed to calm down long enough to put the pieces together and just in time to see Kensai lift the bandit’s head and she cracked up again. This bout of laughter would be enough to see the shovel fall to the ground taking Mitsu with it. She was glad that Kenpachi thought to offer the heavily armored man a gift, in truth she wished she had thought of it, had she not been lying on the ground and hugging her sides to keep them from splitting she may have even thought of it. But as it was she was struck dumb by the hilarity of the situation and it was with considerable effort that she took several deep breaths and would climb to her knees wiping away the couple of tears of joy that had appeared during her fit. “I am so sorry Kensai-san, you are hilarious. I swear I’m usually much more calm and graceful. Usually. Would you want to maybe hang around for a while? I’m sure Kenpachi wouldn’t mind would you? I know I could definitely benefit from a few more jokes.”

Kenpachi would mentally groan at Kensai’s continued jokes making a mental note that he would be called Ken for convenience, it didn’t occur to him that his own name could be shortened the same way. He was a bit distracted by Mitsu’s sudden outburst of laughter, he did laugh a bit when she fell over clutching her sides. Although his attention had wavered he still managed to catch wat Ken had been saying. His reasons for carrying a corpse made sense thankfully. Kenpachi was glad that Ken accepted his gift for he seemed an honorable man and not the type to kill someone who had just given him a gift even a small one. He also didn’t miss the man calling him friend between both of these observations Kenpachi was able to relax a bit. ”I would indeed welcome your company Kensai, your presence would make me feel more at ease in case other bandits were to show.” Wether Kensai agreed or not Kenpachi would say ”If you will excuse me I need to get back to finding these materials, I’d hate to dawdle and have to be here after dark.” Unless otherwise engaged in conversation he would pick up his shovel and continue his search for the merchant’s lost items.

(flashback)

The samurai watched as the young woman collapsed to the ground due to laughter, cocking an eyebrow in the process. He was pretty hilarious, he knew that much to be true, but at the same time this might have been a bit of an over reaction. The man, on the other hand, didn’t seem to react much to his jokes, which was fine. This was more or less what he was sued too as people generally didn’t get his particular brand of comedy, which was really unfortunate for them. They would both invite him to stay, and he would nod and try to think of what he could do besides just standing there telling jokes. He was used to having to do all of the work when he was accompanying the majority of shinobi on their missions, since they seemed to be pretty damned useless, but these two seemed content to work on digging by themselves.

He would focus his ki within himself, moving it into the air around him and causing the winds to stir. He would then force the wind deep into the sand away from the other two, ensuring that neither of them would get hit by the sand and it wouldn’t interfere with their work. It would dig deep into the sands, tearing the sand up around it as the great vortex would bury itself deep into the earth. It would be an impressive display, but at the same time likely not overly great on someone’s eyes were they to get too close. Many objects would be tossed up from the ground, which he would use his impressive reflexes to pick out of the gale as they went. He would examine them before placing them on the ground besides the other two...

Trained – Wind Release Pressure Damage
(70 exp)

Mitsu was still kneeling on the sand trying to catch her breath when she heard Kenpachi echo her request to have Kensai stay while they dug. It was surprising to be sure, to have someone agree with one of her suggestions, but of course Kenpachi’s reasoning was much more practical. It didn’t take her long to come to the conclusion then that these two were going to need a lesson in how to have fun, probably Kenpachi more so than Kensai. At least Kensai had told some jokes. Still, they were both so. . . serious. And as far as she was concerned that was no way to live, you missed out on all the excitement of life if you spent all your time containing your emotions.

As Kenpachi went back to digging, she would groan and pick up her fallen shovel as she rose to her feet. She liked digging in the desert, it was one of her family’s favourite activities, but it didn’t look like anyone else was really enjoying themselves. She tried to figure out why that could be, and came to the conclusion that perhaps Kenpachi just needed some validation or encouragement. Or both! That she could do, it was as if she had trained her whole life just for this particular moment. Before she returned to digging for the lost supplies she would go to put a hand on Kenpachi’s shoulder comfortingly. “You’re doing a fine job of digging Kenpachi, I’m so glad that you and I are on the same mission together! You’re a digging natural; did someone teach you? I really couldn’t have asked for a better partner!.” Mitsu would wait until she received some sort of acknowledgement from Kenpachi to turn back to Kensai.

As she turned to look at the bloody samurai she noticed he was engaged in some digging of his own, the sort that involved tiny tornados. She became very excited and laughed and clapped while she spoke just a little too loud. “Oh my! That is genius! And who knew that you could control wind? That’s amazing! You’ve gotta teach me that one, it looks crazy fun and useful to boot! Best two attributes to have in a jutsu I always say. Well, my parents always said that their parents always said that. So I sort of took on the saying, you know?” She would move closer to the spot where the wind was funneling its way through the sand, too close as it happened as some of the sand made its way into her face and caused a fair amount of sputtering. With a light hearted laugh Mitsu would brush the sand out of her long hair. “I don’t know why I didn’t expect that to happen. You’d think I’d never been in the desert when it was windy before. Thanks for helping though, oh heeeeeeeey if you help out, you can get paid too! That’ll be nice eh?” She would bend down and pick up the pieces that Kensai found and put them in the bag with the others, she wasn’t particularly concerned with which bag, she wasn’t sure it mattered. She began humming a tune as she playfully danced her way over to her previous digging spot.

(100 exp)

Kenpachi would be diligently digging away when he would feel Mitsu’s hand alight upon his shoulder causing him to pause. He would turn to face her and give a genuine smile, his mother always said could light up anyone’s day when he truly smiled, saying ”Thank you, you’re not too bad with a shovel either. I’m glad that we met on this mission and would be happy to call you friend and maybe partner up for future missions.”

As he gazed past Mitsu he would see Ken begin to use a jutsu to help them dig up the goods. Kenpachi had never thought to use a jutsu for such a simple task. To him, jutsu had always been something to not be used so casually. Seeing the ease with which Ken was unearthing objects from the sands made him reconsider his position, maybe he should learn some jutsu that could be used more flexibly than what he currently had. Lost in thought he wouldn’t notice Mitsu running over until he heard her sputtering. Seeing the sand all over her face he could guess what had happened, the mental image of her sticking her face in a jutsu made sand tornado would cause him to break out in hearty laughter. Kenpachi would think to himself ”If I stay friends with her my life will be anything but dull! I would like to befriend Ken as well, while he has a very strange sense of humor, he will be a strong ally in a fight. Perhaps he could help me think of other uses for jutsu as well.” Raising his voice just a bit to be heard by Ken he would say ”Thank you for your help friend, this will go much faster now.”

As Mitsu came back Kenpachi would ask ”Do you remember how much stuff the merchant said he lost out here? I must confess I seem to have forgotten that detail.” Kenpachi would wait for her response if they needed more materials he would return to digging.

Continued from here.

Once a decision had been made Mitsu gathered up the materials in the sack and skipped her way back to the village in the fading sunlight. It was a quick matter of returning the goods to the merchant and after smiles and thank yous were exchanged she would head back home.

{Exit Thread}

(140 exp)