CSL - PART 2[Mission; Incomplete]

[Tanaka Shinji]

When Shinji had made the decision to become a Shinobi, he had done so out of an idea that a Shinobi's life was exciting. Going out of the village on missions, fighting head-on against other Shinobi with no certain outcome... He had definitely envisioned being a Shinobi to involve lots of fighting and bloodshed and tense moments of subterfuge. What no one had tried to tell him beforehand was that before you could do any of those things, you had to do the most boring of work imaginable. Rather than splitting heads, he'd been hired to split logs of wood - no doubt for firewood. The normally smirking Genin had a look of mild irritation, not in the least bit interested in the task ahead.

He briefly wondered what the point of it all was. For what reason did they have Genin running around doing Missions that consisted of little more than chores? What did they even intend to teach the Genin? A Shinobi was supposed to be an assassin. A soldier. A spy. A scout. Any one of those things and often all of them combined. But definitely not a lumberjack. His hand gripped the handle of his katana, wishing he could actually use it in the mission ahead of him. He wanted nothing more than to draw it on someone. Alas, it was not to be so. As long as they were Genin, they had to stick to D-Rank Missions. And so long as they did D-Rank Missions, they had to do chores.

Perhaps the only thing that would help to alleviate his boredom was the fact that he wasn't alone on this chore. Walking along the path beside him was a white-haired Shinobi - A Genin he'd come to know as Izu. All Shinji could hope was that the kid provided enough entertainment to keep Shinji going through the Mission. Looking ahead, the dark-haired youth scowled, wondering how much further up the road the house was. Normally it wasn't in Shinji's nature to be this impatient, but the knowledge that he was not doing an exciting mission had dragged his mood down by a considerable amount. At least he'd have some Ryo to take away from it, he told himself. That was something worthwhile, at the very least.

[Hoozuki Izūgetsu]

Not this again! His mind cursed the indisputable fact that he was sent to do yet another mission for this grumpy old lady. To make matters worse, it was the same excite mission. He still had pained arms from the constant repetitive swinging, despite he was used to it, it was just doing it for that lady made it hurt more than training normally. God, a being as cruel as they say, a slave to that of fate are humans. He cursed the day once more.

A deep sigh took place, followed by the positive things about this mission that could alleviate some of the visible aggravation and irritation he possessed. A black haired shinobi, once called a snaggletooth before, who was also a swordsman assigned to this mission with him. It did release some of the worries knowing that another pseudo-lumberjack would help him in his chores, and also be a companion for him to talk to while treking the outskirts of Kirigakure searching for this old lady's bloody house. While fixing the position his sword stayed on his back, "It's just the next corner." Assuring the boy of his location, he just realized at that moment that Shinji had no idea he performed this mission once before.

"Oh, when you get there, be ready to pull out your Hitai-ate, this granny is really suspicious of others." That was an undeniable fact from previous experience - not to mention she's stingy and grumpy all the time. Lady needs to get laid, if she can still walk that is, old-branch headed self, probably looking like the wicked witch. Izu chuckled to himself for the inner joke, despite not actually seeing her even once, he still had pictures brought up by the sound of her voice. The house immediately came into view. Guess it's time to get that grumpy attitude once more.

[Tanaka Shinji]

Shinji nodded without a word. At least they were close, he thought to himself. He continued to walk, spotting that they were nearing the turn that the white-haired kid had spoken of. Normally Shinji wasn't so easy to read, but right now it was clear that he was in a terrible mood. Anyone could see it. It stood out so strangely, given his usual penchant for sly smirks and bemused smiles. It was almost impossible not to notice it, just because it seemed so strange and foreign to see a frown on his face. He began to turn, moving around the corner just as the white-haired Genin spoke again, quick to point out to the dark-haired youth that he should wear his hitai-ate.

"Suspicious?" he questioned, raising a brow. What kind of old lady was she that she got suspicious of people responding to a mission request for a pair of lumberjacks? Shinji found that he couldn't make sense of it. For once, a person he wasn't quite capable of figuring out. Maybe she was just delusional or high. Or both. It wasn't entirely impossible, he reasoned. What else did old people have to do with their spare time? He couldn't imagine much. It must have been unimaginably boring, like this mission request. "Whatever. So long as she's got the money, I don't care if she's suspicious or senile".

Now the young boy could see the house. It stood alone in the distance just up ahead. Ordinarily he might have quickened his pace a little, but he didn't bother. He wasn't in a particularly big hurry and he was hardly enthusiastic about the whole mission in the first place. As they drew closer the young boy began to step up to the front door. Reaching into his pocket, Shinji pulled out a Kiri hitai-ate and began to fasten it around his forehead, partially obscured by his dark locks of hair. With the hitai-ate fixed around his head he raised his hand and began to knock against the door, waiting for whoever was inside to show themselves. May as well get it over with, after all.

[Hoozuki Izūgetsu]

By the way Shinji's voice sounded, he could tell he was curious as to what he meant by suspicious. He wanted to divulge further into her personality quirks but he might as well allow him to see for himself. Better that way. Not to mention, what Shinji said quite plainly was indeed the truth of the matter. As they got closer to the door, Izu bore a bent lip throughout the entire time, as if the place itself was foul in some way, in truth it was just annoyance and anger for not getting some apple pie from before.

It was hard to get excited from this mission after knowing what it entails through the entire time - cutting logs for an extensive amount of hellish time. God, this is going to be beyond boring, yes indeed, yes freaking indeed. Shinji took the first initiative by knocking on the old-fashion crafted wood door, it had a vey sweet sound when shinji knuckles collided with it. Good wood. His mind just appreciated the quality of the wood, and awaited the grumpy lump of a female that laid behind its quality.

It took a few seconds but the door slowly opened as it once did before, "Who's there?" That cheeky yet plastic voice she possessed was beyond annoying. "It's me," He said as if the grumpy old lady had some modicum of memory to remember the sound of his voice, "We're here to cut the wood." The moment of silence occurred and the door creaked open slightly as if she was going to allow them in, but yet again, it was but a trick, "We?" She said dubiously. "You brought a gang with you? You want to take advantage of this old woman, huh!? Why would i let you in!?!" Her annoying and incoherent suspicions made Izu frown in anger, he wanted to smash this ladies face in, but then he just calmed down with a scoff and begun to talk calmly. "It was requested by the shinobi military due to the amount of work that the previous mission bore, it will allow us to get it done faster, and there's only two of us." Half of that being a bullshitted lie, while the other being the truth.

A calm silent happened once more, "Aight, there's logs in the back, hurry and cut them then be on your way." Finally. He looked to Shinji with a "i told you so" facial gesture.

[Tanaka Shinji]

Shinji merely stared silently as the old woman began to rant and rave, raising a brow slightly as she remarked how he must have tried to assemble a gang of thugs to kill her. Who was this woman? What the hell was wrong with her? He glanced to the side for just a moment, catching a sly look just as she began to finish speaking - the sort of smug look that could only ever mean 'I told you so'. With the old, suspicious woman done speaking the dark-haired youth was ready to begin, at least. Hopefully this job would not take them long. He already felt like he'd wasted enough time after all. Walking around to the back, Shinji came across the logs in questions - and the axes for chopping them.

The Genin gripped the handle of one of the axes and raised it, noting to himself that handling an axe was much like handling a sword in the same way that kicking was the same was punching. They both accomplished the same thing, although simply thinking about it made it clear that it wasn't really the same act. He held the axe in both hands, but his arms were further apart from one another and the blade much smaller. Shinji glanced at a log placed down for him to chop in half. Raising the axe carefully, he made a note of where he was going to strike and then began to move.

His arms swung the axe-head down, splitting through the wooden log. The movement was different to what he was used to and it showed - the cut wasn't as clean as the kind of cut he could accomplish with a sword. He frowned to himself, unimpressed with his own work. Still, he was quick to replace the log, putting another in position as he began to raise the axe once more. It ultimately didn't matter how clean the cut was - what mattered was that he got the work done.

"At least I'm cutting something," he remarked aloud. It didn't do much more to alleviate his boredom.

[Hoozuki Izūgetsu]

The situation occurred all to similar to his first collision with this woman's deluded sanity. It was almost as if reliving the same event without the apple pie and the company of another for the task. Well whatever, if it did feel like slight Deja Vu, then it did. The two of them, Shinji and Izu, turned to the location of the logs to find a couple of axes with a bunch of logs once more. Axes? They weren't there before - strange. Well, whatever it was, like before, it didn't matter. He neglected to grab an Axe, he performed this act before with his Katana and thus shall do the same act with the same Katana. Unsheathing his blade, he could see Shinji took an Axe and prepared himself to chop wood.

He watched for a few seconds as Shinji cut through wood after wood in an unclean fashion. Izu gave out a small chuckle at his attempt. "Aren't you a swordsman?" Izu asked rhetorically. "Then use your blade." A swordsman was more skilled with his blade than an foreign weapon, despite their purposes being the same - to cut - their weight, handle, and capabilities differ. If you're more used to a blade, you should use a blade when cutting.

Grabbing a log, Izu threw it up, got into proper sword stance with his blade at front, the moment it got into position, a quick diagonal slash cut it directly in half - perfectly. With a smile, he turned to Shinji, "See?" He continued this, picking one up, throwing it, and slicing it. It made a huge pile in the matter of moments and he was already half way done with the sections - being used to it and all. Now what was left was Shinji's stack, and he would be ready to depart and gain his earnings from this mission. It was definitely less tiring than before.