Assisting the Smithy

Mission details here

A brand new day held many possibilities, and they could be good or ill. Some days held the promise of something good, and others, not so much. The day before this one, Sadame had reported at the Mission Command, Konoha, to get herself one of those E-rank missions. She wondered what strange task they would cook up for her this time. Was she going to wash all the bowls in all the ramen stores? Or be enlisted to take part in an embarrassing ad? Frankly, the girl was not feeling very eager as she reached out and selected a scroll at random from the lowest level category of missions. She opened it, preparing her mind for the worst. However, rather than the feeling of dread, or the "face-palm" reaction, Sadame felt a tinge of excitement as she read through the details of this mission. It wasn't every day that one got to assist the blacksmith at his smithy. Most people saw Sadame as a nerd, only without the glasses, mostly because she was always trying to know a little about everything. Working with the blacksmith would allow her to learn a little more about how weapons and armors functioned, and she would probably gain more respect for common tools that she usually paid little heed to. The mission was to commence the next day, so she would have the whole of this one to prepare.

On the day of the mission, Sadame got up earlier than normal, did everything she needed to do round the house, took a light breakfast (as she often did before each mission), and went to the forge. Her grandfather was not up yet, or he was, but he had not come out of his chambers. She often wondered if the old man ever slept. As she waited for the blacksmith to show up, she tried to think carefully about the questions she would ask him. She had considered writing them down, but she felt it would be awkward pulling out papers to read from, when her hands were expected to be working...

"Hmm... you came early, young lady. I assume you're Sadame?" A deep voice broke into her thoughts. She looked up and saw a burly man with a thickly bearded but pleasant face, watching her with his head slightly tilted to the left. She nodded and bowed respectfully. "Yes. It's an honor, Azuma-sensei." The man hardly had need to introduce himself; he was one of Konoha's finest smiths. Azuma began unlocking the heavy doors to his workshop, speaking as he did so.

"Good thing you came early. There's a bit of work to be done, and my apprentice had to travel to see his kin. I hope you don't mind a little heat and noise?"

"Not at all," Sadame replied, hardly knowing what she was getting into. The doors opened, and she found the interior of the forge to be very cool. This of course, was because the furnace was not yet heated up. Azuma opened a panel, performed a series of handseals, and fired a steady stream of flame from his mouth into the opening. "Are you a ninja?" Sadame asked, surprised that he could use fire techniques, and feeling slightly intimidated that she could hardly use them. "hmm? You could say I was, but I realized the life of fighting was not really my calling. Besides, I've always been good at this."

In a moment, the furnace was heated, and work began in earnest. Sadame mostly watched Azuma as he worked, and helped to clean up the parts of his workshop he was no longer using. In return, he showed her how to polish metals so that they had that shine that was so attractive, and she also better understood the meaning of the term, "strike the iron while it is hot." The work was a little bit tedious, in her opinion, and the heat could be sometimes overwhelming, but Azuma was obviously used to it, due to his many years at work in such hot conditions. She assisted in sharpening kunai and shuriken, and also saw a little about how swords were forged.

After a long, sweltering, sweaty, grimy-ish day, all the work was done, and Azuma was quite impressed with her assistance. "You might just have what it takes to be a good smith, you know?" Azuma commented, a theory Sadame quickly denied. The work was fun and all, but she found the heat and noise to be overwhelming at times. And while she knew she could get used to it, she was not ready to drop her dreams of becoming a ninja.

Bidding the large man farewell, Sadame returned to her home, exhausted but pleased with the day's proceedings. She needed a good sleep... no, a bath had to come first. Then supper. Then, a good, good sleep.

Approved, again don't forget to claim Ryo