Paint Job (Mission)

[Kiba Takahashi]

Kiba woke up this morning, planning on going out and trying to train on his Ninjustu some more, something that he knew that he needed to work on along with his technique in throwing shuriken. As he got up this morning and put on his normal clothing, something that would allow him to blend in, he got a message from his sensei that he would be going on a mission with someone else from the village. Maeda Masumi. Kiba tried to remember that name and why it sounded familiar to him but he could not think of it at the moment so he would not give it any more real thought as he looked at the mission details he had to do. He was going to go paint a fence for an old couple. To some Genin this was degrading and something outside their status as Ninja, but to Kiba he didn’t really care as it allowed him to keep living the life he wanted and at very little risk to his life at this moment in time which he could live with.

Kiba fixed himself up some food and then put on the rest of his clothes, and he would walk out the door locking it behind him as he did so. As he walked through the streets to where he needed to go he would look up at the sky and see how clear it was, as he thought to himself “Well... at least the paint job will not be destroyed by rain more than likely.” And he would keep walking towards the paint job. It was in the middle of the Village, and the fence was rather long but it was very clear that it did need a paint job. This fence’s paint was peeling and cracking, so much so that Kiba could run his hand over the paint and it would simply fall off on his fingers. Kiba wiped his hands off on his pants as he waited for Maeda to show up to the mission.

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi had been awake before dawn, as always, sitting out and watching the stars - a much better use of her time than staring at the beige paint on the ceiling of her bedroom, trying in vain to lull herself into the void of sleep. She had retreated into her apartment shortly after dawn to make herself a cup of tea and explore the later chapters of the fuuinjutsu tome she was currently reading, in the hopes of learning how to develop her own sealing techniques to compliment her fighting style. It was going slowly, to her surprise. She had thought that, with her superior intellect, it would be simple - if not necessarily easy - to delve into making her own techniques. However, the chunin was not easily deterred, and she was thus determined to find something different she could do with the art. She was so absorbed in her reading that she almost didn't hear the knock upon her door. Slightly intrigued, as it wasn't often that she had visitors of any kind, she set the book down and went to answer it. She was handed a note by a nervous-looking genin, and shut the door on him before he could say anything. Disinterested violent eyes scanned the messy handwriting, and she sighed, crumpled the note, and dropped it in a wastebasket. Wonderful. She had been expecting a mission assignment - a B-Rank, something important, something worth her time - and had instead received this. A D-Rank mission. She hadn't done a D-Rank mission in several years, having graduated to C-Ranks near the middle of her genin career. She rinsed out her empty cup, put on a fresh outfit, and ran a brush through her long black hair, and then she was ready to go. It didn't take long for her to find the house of the elderly couple whose fence needed painting, and the genin she was supposed to complete the mission with. Masumi would never admit it aloud, but she was feeling quite petulant about this whole thing. Who assigned D-Rank missions to chunin? Surely there was something better she could be doing with her time. words: 365 | tags: kiba | notes: one of five | credit: akemi of btn

[Kiba Takahashi]

Kiba would be sitting there at the mission, and he would talk to the old couple for a moment about what they needed him to do as he was not fully sure if his partner would show up for this mission. They told him that they wanted all the paint taken off the fence and replaced with this new paint that they had. Kiba would simply nod and then using the supplies he was given would start on the far side of the fence and start to scrap the paint away. He had left his bag and stuff near the entrance of the place, with a note on it that said “They want us to scrap the paint off the fence… should not be to hard…” and next to that was a small tool to do just that with. This was clearly a sign for the other team mate once he/she got here.

Kiba ran his tool up and down the fence, the paint flacking off easily and without much effort at all, showing just how much this fence needed to be painted. Kiba watched as the paint flakes fell to the ground, which he would simply ignore as it got on his pants and shoes as he just wanted to get this mission done and over with as quickly as possible so he could go back to training. Kiba, while not as fast as the Chunnin, due to the fact he was there first he managed to get quite a bit done. Kiba then jumped to the other side of the fence and did the inside of it, quickly trying to get every flake of paint off. Even if he wanted to leave here as soon as possible didn’t mean he could do a crappy job. Kiba did not look up at the Chunnin as he was doing this job, because he felt like if he did, he might be forced into a social talk with someone and he would rather avoid that if at all possible.

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Hmm. It looked like the messenger had been a little late in getting to her apartment, and the genin had already started taking care of the fence. Well, she supposed it was better than him sitting around waiting for her to get there. She made her way over to the elderly couple first. "I apologize for my tardiness." she murmured, dipping her head politely. She didn't really know how to interact with people, but at least she had some form of etiquette. "Oh, it's alright, dear." the woman told her, patting the chunin on the shoulder. It took effort for her to refrain from recoiling from the woman's touch. She didn't appreciate being touched by... well, anyone, really, as self-contained as she was. But it wouldn't do any good to say anything about it. "We just need you to help that fine boy scrape the paint off the fence, and then put a new coat on it. I think the dear boy left a tool for you over there." She pointed to where the genin had left it, and Masumi hurried to retrieve it and start scraping away the paint on the portion of the fence as far away from the genin as possible. The job went quickly - perhaps not as quickly as she'd like, because she was making a conscious effort to avoid getting paint flecks all over her clothes - but it was fast enough. The genin hopped the fence and worked on the interior, and as soon as her half of the outside was scraped clean, Masumi did the same. He hadn't spoken to her at all - definitely a positive, but surprising. She disliked talking to people, especially genin, as they tended to be incredibly annoying. This one.. this one she could deal with. For now, anyway. words: 307 | tags: kiba | notes: two of five | credit: akemi of btn

[Kiba Takahashi]

As Kiba ran his tool over the paint of the outside, he looked over to see his partner show up. The girl was a little on the short side, and was very slim but under the clothing Kiba could see the distinctive features of muscles. Her eyes are a deep violet hue, nearly as dark as her hair, which is pitch black, but he could not seem much else before she started to look over his way and he would duck back into his work. As the job got done, at least on his side, he would wipe off the majority of the paint flakes, as he went over to return the tool and grab a bucket of paint. The paint was the same color as the old fence was at once time, and Kiba would simply nod to the old couple as he went back to work.

Kiba while he wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible knew that the fence would most likely need two coats of paint at the very least if it was going to last any long period of time and because of that he knew he would have to wait for it to dry a little bit. As he ran the brush he had up and down the post, he made sure that there was no streaks or air bubbles in the paint as he did this, knowing that if there was it would show though if someone was really paying attention to detail. While Kiba wanted to get working on his Ninjustu, this job represented what he is willing to do for this village and he wanted to show that he was able to the crap work to the best of his ability. As Kiba finished the outside of the paint work, he could not simply jump over the fence like he did last time so he had to walk around, and as he turned around to walk he noticed that Masumi was on that side and he would instantly turn around and walk around the fence the other way.

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi was so focused on getting the job done that she didn't notice how the genin paused to study her for a moment before returning to his work. And even if she had noticed, it wasn't likely that she would have said anything about it - that would have opened the doors for a conversation, and Masumi only ever wanted to slam those doors shut. She didn't talk to people. She just.. didn't. People generally weren't worth her time. Well, neither was this mission, but she was doing it anyway... if only because she was getting paid for it. And a fairly decent sum for painting a fence, at that. After all the paint was scraped off the fence, flecks littering the ground it, the chunin went to retrieve a can of paint and a brush. She would have liked to rush through it and get it done as fast as possible so she could return to her studies, quality be damned, but that was not the kind of person she was. Everything had to be done to perfection with her, or it wasn't good enough. And if it wasn't good enough, then she had to do it until it was, so it was simplest just to get the paint on the fence properly the first time around. She glanced over to the genin and noticed that he was taking care to avoid any bubbles in the paint or other mistakes as well. Good. She wouldn't have to reprimand him, then. She almost snorted as he went to walk around the fence, noticed that she was on that side, and did a one eighty to go around the other way. The operative word there being almost. While it was slightly amusing to see him go out of his way to avoid her - surely she wasn't that terrifying - the chunin refused to show emotions like amusement around other people. Why? Because she didn't really want to. No other reason, really. words: 338 | tags: kiba | notes: three of five | credit: akemi of btn

[Kiba Takahashi]

As Kiba walked around the other side of the fence, he did not notice the motions that would have allowed him to see a slight laugh or snort but as he walked around the other side he would not have really cared even if he saw it. Kiba simply went back to work, painting the fence as perfectly as possible as he wanted it to simply be done and doing it again later would not do him any good. Kiba quickly managed to finish his side with a single coat rather quickly, quickly enough that he had to wait for a moment for the other side to dry enough for him to put on the other coat so Kiba was forced to wait for a couple of minutes. Kiba would put the lid back on the paint bucket, and then he would sit down on the top of it, using it as a set as he then pulled out a small book and began to read it.

The book was one of the normal books that the teachers gave to rookie Genin to teach them about Ninjustu and what needs to be done about it. Kiba looked though the book several dozen times, but he didn’t really care as he needed something to do to pass the time as he waited for the paint to dry and he was not about to talk to the Chunnin, who was clearly just like him and didn’t want to talk to begin with and was most likely not happy to be put in a D-rank Mission. Kiba thought to himself “I wonder how pissed off she is that she was forced to be on this mission… I figured they would not send a Chunnin for this simple thing… I could have done this one on my own. I guess the leadership of the village thought it would be a chance for a Chunnin to impart some words of wisdom to the new Genin about his future or something…. Too bad they picked the person that is more or less like me… “

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi was rather upset about this whole thing - as upset as someone like her could get, anyway, which wasn't much at all. The most she'd do about it would be to silently complain a little and request harder missions in the future; it wouldn't do anyone any good for her to be struck by a burst of petulant immaturity and act out simply because she didn't like one particular mission. That would be so unlike her; she never complained about anything shinobi-related; you got farther in life if you just went with what you were given and didn't raise a ruckus about it every five minutes. After finishing the first coat of paint, the chunin walked around her area of the fence to double check that she had gotten everything - and that she hadn't made any mistakes. And, just because she could, Masumi checked the genin's side of the fence as well. By the time her thorough inspection was complete, the paint was nearly dry. She didn't have to wait much longer to be able to pick up her brush and paint and start on the second coat. Of course, she took just as much care with this coat as with the first. It didn't matter how nice the first coat looked if the second one was sloppy. The genin had sat there and read the entire time the paint was drying, a commendable use of the time. It looked like he was perusing one of those guides for rookie genin; she'd never liked those, having had no need of them when she was a rookie - even though she'd read them anyway, searching for anything that might have been helpful to her. There hadn't been anything, and she had quickly moved on to heavier tomes - both in weight and subject material. words: 314 | tags: kiba | notes: four of five | credit: akemi of btn

[Kiba Takahashi]

As Kiba read though his book, he quickly finished it and then looked back over at the fence and even he could tell that it was not fully dry yet. Kiba sighed as he would then put his book away and he would then walk over to a nearby rock face and he would close his eyes for a moment. Kiba focused his charka to the soles of his feet, and once that was finished he would simply start to walk up the rock face. This skill was beyond what a normal rookie genin should be able to do, but Kiba was here doing with some seemly little effort to no effort. Kiba got to the top of the rock structure for a moment, his hands in his pockets as he walked up the sheer face, as if he did this on a daily basis.

Once Kiba reached the top of what he was able to do, within the time limit he gave himself, he would turn back around and then walk all the way back down. Once that was done, he would simply go over to his paint brush and can and start finishing the second coat of paint. As he did that he would still be focused on what he needed to do, which was finish this so he could get back to working on his weak point, which was Ninjustu. Kiba finished the second coat of paint as quickly as he did the first, and once that was finished he would put the lid back on the paint and he would take it back to the old couple. He was completely silent the entire time, as they told him where to put the paint can and once he was dismissed from the job, he would walk over to his pack and easily throw it over his shoulder and walk off.

If the woman was still there, he would look over at her for a moment, and he had a feeling that she would feel his eyes on her and he would simply flick his hand in a waving motion, simply saying good bye. This was less of a conversation as a politeness factor, at which point he would simply turn back around and walk away. Kiba had training to do.

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Well, the genin was certainly dedicated to training. He actually reminded her of herself - a little bit, anyway. After he'd flipped through the book what looked like a dozen times, he started practicing his chakra control - which did seem impressive compared to the usual rookie genin. Of course, she had also had good chakra control as a rookie genin, but she wasn't the norm by anyone's standards. They made quick work of the second coat of paint; Masumi finished before he did and went around to inspect her half, just as she'd done with the first coat. Finding it satisfactory, she moved to the genin's side and painted a couple of fence posts for him instead of just standing around and waiting for him to finish. And she still didn't say a word to him - not that he was looking for a conversation. She put her paintbrush and can where the boy did, said a quick farewell to the elderly couple, who had tried to offer them cookies - Masumi was quick to decline; she didn't take food from anyone. You never knew what they might have done to it, after all. The old woman insisted, however, pressing a container into her hands. She repressed a sigh and turned to leave, and seeing the boy wave at her, she returned the friendly gesture. Now, for a D-Rank mission, this hadn't been all that bad. At least the genin hadn't been obnoxious, like so many of the others she'd had the misfortune of working with. He had actually been downright pleasant, simply because he knew how to keep his mouth shut. At last, she got to return home to her studies. That fuuinjutsu book wasn't going to read itself, after all. words: 301 | tags: kiba | notes: five of five | credit: akemi of btn