A day and then some

Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:31 am

The sun had barely come over the horizon when Fukuro’s eyes came open. It always seemed like the nights passed so fast. The thing that sucked most about being asleep was you couldn’t even be awake to enjoy it. Fu could have easily slipped his head back under the covers for a few more hours of sleep but he didn’t quite have that luxury today. Sitting up in his bed the dark haired boy drew himself into a deep stretch, grunting a bit as he did. Looking around, Fukuro soaked in the cozy feeling of his room with the early morning light spilling into it. It was a fairly small room with only a futon and a small dresser in the corner. All he really needed, Fukuro could not stand staying his home for too long, so it was for the best to keep it minimal.

Still not convinced his laziness would beat out his determination Fu practically crawled out of the bed. His usual eagerness for a new day was completely murdered by the weakness of first light. Still, in time he had drug himself into the shower and was seeing to his morning routine. After a few minutes of cool water running over him the shinobi was far more prepared for his day. He ran a hand through his matted black hair, pulling it into some semblance of order before grabbing his forehead protector that laid on the dresser. The black sash and metallic forehead guard was a standard part of his uniform, especially as it held the symbol of the Hidden Leaf village. Fukuro glanced down at the metallic leaf before fastening the headband over his brow. With a tight pull he was certain it was secured and made his way to the closet.

Fukuro wore what he usually did. A set of black combat pants and a matching T-shirt. After slipping on his sandals and strapping them down he was ready to see to the day’s tasks. It was not long before Fukuro was making his way out of his house and down the main street of the Uchiha district. Today the Genin was tasked with guard duty, again. Although he was not happy to be on yet another security detail Fukuro was relieved to hear it was in the defense of a feudal lord. Perhaps his assignments were getting a bit more important? Making his way through the Uchiha district, Fukuro did not worry about his actual assignment, instead he was curious of a rather old Ninjutsu he had heard of. “The Needle Jizo. It’s a technique that wraps the user in his own hair for protection.” Fukuro had attempted the technique the night before, yet it had not quite gone as he planned. Rather than wrap himself in an iron-like shield he actually just trapped himself in a cage made of his own hair. Definitely not what he was attempting to do. His steps slowed into a halt as he realized he was ready to try again.

“Hope I remember the seals right.” As he spoke his hand flew through a series of handseals, each one feeling more familiar than the last. Tiger. Horse. Boar. Ram. Rat. Snake. Damn there were a lot of these seals. “Ninja Art: Needle Jizo.” Fukuro expended a great deal of chakra, pouring it into his hair and forcing it to grow far past its natural length. His hair would grow into a large shower that rained down over him. Although it did begin to wrap around him in a protective manner, he could see it was still far too weak. The jutsu barely covered half his body and what it did cover was almost as thin as plastic. He did feel the drain of the jutsu, however. Releasing the technique he felt his hair pull back from his body, watching as it retreated back to his scalp. Once his hair returned to its proper length Fukuro continued to move down the street. It was obvious he would need to practice this technique a bit more before putting it into action. Moving out of the Uchiha district Fukuro made his way down the road, where the parade was being held.

Even from here he could see the street was being prepared. Several vendors were setting up and a small crowd of people had already gathered.

“Hey, Fukuro.” A voice called from behind, causing the Genin to arch a brow. A small smile came to Fu’s face as he took notice of who it was. The olive green flak jacket that the man wore gave him away as a Chuunin, yet Fukuro knew him as his older cousin, Kenji Uchiha. “Hey, Kenji. How’s it going?” Fukuro asked, arching a brow at the man. Kenji, like Fukuro, had deep blue eyes. However that seemed to be their only shared quality as Kenji’s hair hung down to his waist while Fukuro’s was neatly trimmed over his neckline. “Not bad. You working guard duty?”

“Yea, Not sure exactly what I’m supposed to be doing though.” Fukuro shrugged, running a hand through his matted hair before arching a brow at his cousin. “What are you doing here?” Kenji snorted, as if the answer was obvious, however Fukuro did not know if his cousin was here or just passing by. “I’m running the guard detail. As for what you should be doing? Why don’t you give us some eyes? I could use someone on the rooftops above, just keeping an eye on everything.” Fukuro glanced up at the nearby rooftop before nodding back at his cousin. “Sure thing. How long do you want me up there?” He asked.

“I’ll probably have someone come switch with you in an hour or two. Just keep your eyes peeled. We have a feudal lord coming through in a while and I’d like things to go smoothly.” Kenji explained. Fukuro could see his cousin was serious about this assignment. “I’ll take care of it.” Fukuro promised before leaping up from the street, landing on the rooftop above.

From above Fukuro could see the main road, but it was not like there was much to see. He could see that a few other Genin were placed as security for the parade route, but it just seemed like overkill to Fukuro. The Uchiha sat down, running a hand over the back of his head while he eyed the gathering crowd below. Fukuro would be lying if he said he had been completely paying attention to the people preparing for the parade. In reality his mind had been on the jutsu he failed to perfect. The jutsu required you to use your chakra to feed your metabolism at extremely ridiculous rates, which led to your hair’s growth and strengthening. It seemed as if Fukuro wasn’t pouring enough chakra into it, but he wasn’t entirely sure he had the reserves to devote to this jutsu. With a deep sigh Fukuro would try his hardest not to linger on his frustrations.

Hours would pass and the parade would commence. As expected the Feudal lord arrived, taking a position down the center of the street where he could best view the parade. Fukuro sat across from him on a rooftop, his eyes buried in a book that explained the Needle Jizo a bit more. There was a soft shift as Kenji landed behind Fu, speaking as his hand pressed against the tile rooftop. “It’s going well so far. The parade is already underway so it shouldn’t take much longer. Want a break? Go get something to eat?” The offer was considered but Fu waved his hand at the offer in declination. “No thanks. Trying to figure this jutsu out.” He muttered, before exhaling in frustration.

“Still trying to get that needle Jizo thing down?” Kenji asked.

“Yea, it’s a pain in the ass too.” Fu said, closing his book and tossing it to the side. Kenji seemed he was about to say something when he lowered himself down next to Fu, eyes narrowed as he peered into the distance, down the road. “Hey, what the hell is that?” He asked, before his eyes grew wide. Fukuro followed his cousin’s gaze and arched a brow at the man. “What are you…” Fukuro’s eyes went wide as well as he saw a group of brutish men seemingly plowing through the crowd. These men were strangely large, to the point of being giants. All three of them had to be over six feet and even from here it seemed they were drunk off their rockers. “What…what time is it?” Kenji asked while Fukuro stood up from his seat on the rooftop. “Like…Ten? Way too early to be drunk.” The two Uchiha exchanged a brief nod before they made their way over the rooftops and down into the crowd.

Moving through the crowd was a pain, however it was not like they were going to lose track of these three brutish men. Once they did get close to the trio it seemed the rest of the parade goers were giving the men a wide birth. The trio were singing some obscene and very off tune song that had to do with the Hokage and the Lord of Fire’s daughter. Fukuro and Kenji could not help but laugh at the lyrics of the song. Although they knew they could not let this continue. “Hey, you guys. Mind keeping it down?” Kenji called out, but was met with no response what so ever. The trio continued to stumble around and sing out. Kenji approached them and that was his fatal mistake. In their drunken stupor the trio turned to Kenji and one of them yelled something that made everyone around arch a brow. “Little bro! Hey guys it’s *hyuck* little bro Mishi!” Whether Kenji actually resembled these brutes brother or not seemed irrelevant, because now all three of the men were rushing Kenji, swallowing him into a monstrous hug of sorts.

Fukuro burst into laughter as he watched Kenji get all but swallowed into the group of behemoths. There were a few stray yells but they were entirely muffled by the mass of singing and flesh that smothered the man. “Sorry Kenji, nothing I can do.” Fukuro called out. Of course, that had been his mistake because another of the brother’s saw him and yelled out an all too familiar. “Little bro Mishi!”

“Oh no…” Fukuro muttered, as all three of the brutes locked their eyes on him in a familiar manner.

The three brothers charged, but Fukuro was not keen on being swallowed into the group of drunkards. His hand flew into a series of hand seals as he realized he had the perfect jutsu to solve this problem. Tiger. Horse. Boar. Ram. Rat. Snake. “Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!” Somehow the promise of being buried under a trio of giant sweaty, drunk, men was motivation not to be reserved with his jutsu. This time Fukuro poured his chakra out, allowing it to spill into his hair and force its growth. Just before the men were upon him his hair wrapped around him protectively. It was not a full shield but it was enough to ward off the drunks. Each one of them slipped a hand over one of the quill-like hairs, cutting nasty cuts into their hands. Two of the brothers gave out ear-shattering yells while the third merely bounded off with a loud scream.

As the other two brothers slipped off to join their fleeing brother, Fukuro exhaled in relief. That could have certainly gone worse. Glancing down to Kenji, who was laid out on the ground, Fukuro was now pleased with his quick thinking. As his hair began to slowly retract back into his head the man made his way over to Kenji. “Hey, want to get a bite to eat? The parade should be ending pretty soon.” Kenji laid on the ground with a defeated expression. He looked up to Fu with a curious gaze. “Thought you couldn’t do that jutsu?” Fukuro shook his head, chuckling as he did. “I’ll learn to use Flying Raijin if it means dodging the treatment you just got.” With an extended hand Fukuro would help his cousin to his feet. “Come on. Let’s go check on the others than we can get something to eat.” Agreed Kenji. The two would make their way back into the crowd, hopefully with no more incidents to be had.

WC: 2074
{Collecting Parade Mission 1000 Ryo, 2074/3000 Needle Jizo Jutsu, and 3 AP}