Going Gardening

Mission Brief:

It had been a few days since the training session with the rest of Team Summer and Kiryu hadn’t heard from any of them. The Genin wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the seemingly loose structure of the team. On one hand, there was much more room for him to train, improve, and carry out missions on his own. That gave him freedom that many Genin teams didn’t have. On the other hand, it also left him relatively aimless until he was called upon.
 
A letter through his mail slot was enough to snap him out of the thoughts of his teammates, however. A mission! His excitement only grew when he saw the stamp on the heading: his first D-Rank mission. It looked as though the training wheels were finally being taken off and he was coming into his own as a shinobi. Unfortunately, as he continued to read the briefing it seemed that his excitement had been premature. ”Gardening?” he grumbled as he crumpled the paper slightly in frustration. ”How is gardening considered at D-Ranked mission?” Maybe the higher-ups still didn’t have faith in him. He had improved so much, but the missions that he was being assigned weren’t allowing him to demonstrate that. Still, he had made his commitment to be a shinobi and so he would follow the orders that he was assigned. Loyalty was a virtue that the gods held in high esteem.
 
After putting together his uniform and gear, Kiryu was off. The plants that needed tending to were just outside the city gates, which meant that the equipment to do so would be stored in the gatehouse. He said his greetings to the other poor Genin who were stuck on guard duty, and grabbed a watering can and a pair of water storage scrolls. He would come back for the trimmers once he had determined which plants actually required trimming.
 
Thank the gods for water storage scrolls,Kiryu thought to himself as he reached the far end of the area he was responsible for watering. A single scroll could store a few gallons of water, yet weighed the same as a normal piece of paper until activated. He released some of the water from the first scroll into his watering can and began watering the nearby cacti and hedges that lined the walls of the village.
 
As he watered, his mind wandered back to the training match from a few days ago. He hadn’t really spent a lot of time going over the fight, but this relatively mindless work was the perfect opportunity to reflect on it. Kuniko hadn’t done much in the actual fighting it had seemed, but that wasn’t really the role of the medic anyways. Nobody had gotten seriously injured either, so he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to show off what he could do. Kiryu trusted him from their mission together, so he wasn’t too concerned about his ability. Sakuragi was a very competent fighter, if a bit too impulsive. He was clearly the most powerful out of the three of them in combat, but he fought in a way that exposed him to a lot of risk. He would have to watch out for him in a fight to guard him from any unexpected counterattacks from the enemy.
 
Before he knew it, Kiryu had finished the watering of the plants. There had been a fair number of them that really needed trimming, so it was off to work on that. He returned to the storage room in the gatehouse and replaced the watering can. In exchange, he grabbed the trimmers and started to walk down to the first of the plants he had noticed. As he started mindlessly cutting the branches, his mind drifted back to the last member of Team Summer: Tsubaki, the team captain. Tsubaki had used a strange type of jutsu that had created a large tree. He had never heard of a jutsu like that before, and it didn’t fall under one of the five elemental natures he had learned about. From the interactions that he’d had with her, she also appeared to have a connection with plants; nurturing them and assisting them as they grew. She even seemed to take the same approach to training. Perhaps there was merit to that way of thinking though.
 
He stopped working for a moment as he examined the plant he was trimming more closely. Maybe I should treat these plants with more respect. They’re a living creation of the gods as well, and here I am just mindlessly cutting them apart.” He started to cut the branches with more reverence, paying attention to the way the shrubbery was shaped. It needed to reflect the symbiosis of Hoshigakure as a human creation with the natural beauty of the landscape that surrounded it. As he focused more on this, he found that the task he had been assigned turned from a boring menial labor to an opportunity to reconnect with the gods in a way he hadn’t experienced for quite some time.
 
Some of the plants simply needed trimming to accentuate their place among the others, while some required other maintenance to prevent damage. One tree had started to become infested with termites which, if left unchecked, would destroy it from the inside. That tree had to have multiple branches cut off in order to save the main body. Another cactus had started to rot, and had to be completely removed. Kiryu wouldn’t have noticed these details if he hadn’t begun to see each plant as an extension of the village. The sun was beginning to set by the time he hung up the clippers again, having completed his mission. The walk back to his apartment was a peaceful one, and he had almost forgotten the disappointment he had felt when he had first discovered what the assignment was. Perhaps the gods and the higher ups in the village were both allowing him to remain at this level until he had gained a sort of enlightenment. If that was the case, he would ensure that he learned from each and every assignment he was given. He would become a shinobi that was not only strong enough to defend others, but wise enough to make the right decisions when necessary.

[exit]

WC: 1,051

Claiming:
+1,100 Ryo (1,000 for mission, 100 for Genin stipend)
+3 Bonus AP
+5 stats (+5 Vigor)
570 words toward Rasengan (2,500/2,500)
481 words stored until Jutsu are updated for V7 (if possible)

Banking WC is currently not allowed, so those remaining 481 can be put towards something else. 

Approved of everything else