Weeds! [Mission] [Closed]

[sesshi]

"It must be here..."

The sound of Sesshi's large, gray fist pounding violently on the door echoed through the seemingly deserted house, but to no avail. It was not until the sixth pound that he heard a faint voice muttering: "I'm coming...I'm coming...". And a horribly long minute later, the front door swung finally open and revealed the elderly man whose garden Sesshi would be tending today. "Mister Ayabito, I presume?", Sesshi began, but the man nodded even before he had the chance to finish his question, only to beckon the Genin and lead the way towards his back garden. The was no questioning, no introduction, only routine. Sesshi was obviously not the first Genin to stop by to get rid of the old mans weed, he should have known better than to chitchat before getting down to business.

As Sesshi followed mister Ayabito into his backyard, he developed a wide variëty of feeling towards his employer. On one hand, he was a brittle old man, way over his peak and incapable of looking after himself. Someone who relied on others, a weak link in the chain of the village, a burden, the kind of person Sesshi despised. On the other hand he radiated a certain authority and wisdom and the fact he founded his own profitable Flower Shop demanded a certain respect from the youngster who, fair enough, was about to act has his servant for the next few minutes and get rid of his weed. Sesshi grinned, revealing his disturbingly sharp teeth. It looked like strength was not everything in this world. Despite this weakness, the old man still had Sesshi serving him.

"I think you know what to do from here on", Mister Ayabito muttered in his creaking voice as he gestured towards the exotic collection of plants and weeds he referred to as "garden", only to turn his back to his employee and make his way back into his house. Before taking that final step into his hallway, he stopped briefly and added, without looking back and with a slight chuckle: "Oh, and try not to pull out anything that isn't weed"

[sesshi]

Sesshi sighed as he stepped around in the garden and observed the numerous species of weed it harbored. It was hard to believe that this was actually a weekly mission. On the other hand, the wet Water Country climate was known for preforming miracles on plants. It was a seemingly endless job, as well as a seemingly useless one. Even if Sesshi rid the garden of its weeds for now, it was likely to be overgrown by next week. The shark-boy shrugged. It didn't matter. It was jobs like this that kept him busy and got him paid. He'd better get started.

After casting a sad look in his weapons direction, Sesshi placed his spiked mallet against the wall and took of his shirt, like he usually did before getting busy. Although he preferred to solve his problems with a well-aimed smack with the hammer, it looked like that tactic simply wouldn't cut it today. Especially now mister Ayabito had asked him to watch out for his flowers, bludgeoning the weeds into submission just didn't seem like the way to go. He folded his large hands around the first weed he could find and, using his infamous, raw, bloodline strength, began uprooting the green pests. No jutsu, no weapons. All todays mission needed was patience and a little bit of aggression.

[sesshi]

"Oh come on, doesn't this ever stop!?",

Sesshi moaned as he his large claws plowed through the old mans garden. Every ounce of his strength and concentration went his light-speed weed-picking, but it proved hard to remain motivated when every hortensia and tulip he shoved aside revealed yet another bundle of weed. But a mission was a mission and the Genin worked on, on at the cost of his temper. To make things even worse however, the usual black clouds filled the Kirigakure sky and slowly but steadily began pouring their water over the village. And creeping closer to the breaking point with every raindrop connecting his rough skin, Sesshi increased his picking speed as the rainfall became worse.

"Use it. Guide it. Focus it."

That's what his sensei would say about Sesshi's aggression when he would once again lose his temper during one of his training sessions. Oh, the countless afternoons he spent with that old man in the Hoshigake dojo, trying to unravel the mysteries of Suiton Ninjutsu. It seemed like every session ended in Sesshi losing his patience and battering the living daylight out of his dummies with his mallet. Despite not necessarily being a cruel person, it had always appeared to Sesshi that every problem he failed to solve, could be solved with some raw strength. Why would he obliterate the dummies with a jet of water, if a powerful strike with the mallet would offer the same results? Why did he need to learn how to form a barrier when his body was perfectly capable of standing through everything that came his way? There had been no point where life gave Sesshi lemons and he found himself incapable of mauling them into lemonade. Still, the old sensei was a wise and powerful shinobi. And with no doubt, there must have been some wisdom behind his advice that Sesshi simply could not grasp at his current level.

Following his old teachers advice, Sesshi ignored the rain and put his temper to good use by projecting his anger on the weeds as he began uprooting them at an even greater rate, carelessly tossing every uprooted plant over his shoulder. This was simple work. Simple, but time consuming. And yes, the weather was horrible. And yes, this was not the kind of work Sesshi preferred to do. But inspired by the words of his sensei, the hot-headed youngster would utilize his irritation to complete this chore even faster.

[sesshi]

It was a mere 30 minutes later that Sesshi pushed open worn back door of mister Ayabito's house, instantly welcomed by the pleasant smell of fresh coffee, yet finding no trace of its drinker. Even for a man alone, the kitchen was exceptionally small and, considering it was being used by a man who couldn't even tend his own garden, surprisingly well ordened and cleaned. Bright white cabinets, despite their light color free of stains, filled the wall and displayed several ancient sets of porcelain cups and dishes, decorated with a rather simplistic, blue flower-pattern. The one small piece of bare wall had been hidden behind the small picture of a young, brown-haired woman, smiling at the camera with a rather uncomfortable grin. If it wasn't for the tiny clouds of vapor escaping the iron kettle, not a single aspect of the kitchen would suggest someone even inhabited the apartment.

"Heloooo, mister Ayabito?!"

Sesshi took a step into the hallway. Its old, wooden floor let out load moans as the exceptionally large youngster shifted his weight from one plank to another. But beside the wood and the faint echo of his voice, the house remained dead silent. Like when he arrived, it took the old man ages to respond. But eventually, the flowershop owner returned a short and clear grunt from upstairs.

"Up here, kiddo. Aren't you done yet?"

"Yeah, I am. It was easy enough. This is no work for a real ninja! I'm just stopping by to tell you I'm finished and leaving"

There was a moment of silence upstairs, followed by the continuous creaking of planks as mister Ayabito made his way towards the back of the house; peeking out of the window to check his work, Sesshi guessed. A small feat which, once again, took the old man an impressive amount of time to preform. Sesshi killed the time by observing the hallway, a space not nearly as interesting as the mans kitchen. It was a bland room, almost completely built out of wood. The floor, the wall, the ceiling and even the stair had been made from plants, though the types of wood seemed different. The only real eyecatcher was a large rug nailed to the wall rather than placed on the floor. It was old but, like the kitchen surprisingly clean. But before Sesshi had the chance to wonder how someone to fragile kept his maintained his property so well (was the old man more vital than he appeared, or was someone else doing the work for him?), his employer had returned to the top of the stairs.

"You left quite the mess for a 'real ninja', don't you think?", he spoke in his deep voice with a faint spark of sarcasm. Took a fraction of a second for Sesshi to figure out what the man meant, but then it occurred to him. He had been lopping uprooted plants over his shoulder the whole time, the garden must've been a disaster by now. "Oh, right, thàt mess. Just give me a moment, I'll...""Never mind that, I've seen worse from some of your predecessors. It will wash away. Just remember this for next week. You can go, kid"

Sesshi left. Into the rain, but smiling. It was most kind of mister Ayabito to not make a hassle out of the plant waste. On the other hand, it was shocking he was unable to preform a task even as simple as this completely right. Ah well, he learned. Despite his hot-headed and stubborn nature, the young Hoshigake became wiser every day. Even on meaningless missions such as these: Learning.

[Exit]