Starring:
Date: July 12, 2013
Summary:
Miyo has a peculiar encounter with a trash-spreader.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Litterbug Problem"
Konohagakure Lake [Konohagakure]
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The large opening boasts the main attraction of the area, a murky lake from where the river leading from the Hokage mountain leads towards. The water appears to be a very dark grey color but shines a slightly blue when the sun catches it. Matters of critters come here to drink water in peace who don't seem to bothered by the presence of others strolling or sitting around the lake for a quite day of peace and quite. People often come here to have a quite day with the family or to meditate to the clearly heard mountain stream flowing off the rocks into the river.
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Y'know how new genin are often assigned D-rank missions that are essentially just grunt-work? Walking dogs, weeding gardens, that sort of stuff? Well, occasionally even academy students are roped into little tasks. Usually nothing back-breaking, but stuff that somebody's gotta do and nobody wants to. The kicker is, the students don't even get paid; it's passed off as part of their coursework, under names like 'Community Involvement'. :P And that's the sort of assignment Miyo been handed today: litter patrol near Konohagakure Lake. All the little scraps of trash blowing around have to be picked up and stuffed into bags for banishment to the dump. Get a move on, peon! *whipcrack*
Some people might be… distraught… at cleaning. Miyo likely would be as well, however, this had to do with her lake. HER LAKE. No one else's. She owned it, as far as she was concerned, and had even built a mighty tower in the largest tree she could find at the lake to make into her citadel. Cleaning around the lake? Well, that was just cleaning up scum that had been thrown around, and she even seemed to be having a good time with it. Very few people would use such a treasured tool as Benisakura, her beloved sword, as a trash-poker, but Miyo was rushing up and down the shore and around trees and in bushes, stabbing things and hacking them to bits before shoving them into a bag she was dragging around behind her, growing steadily larger. Occasionally she would manifest one of her long ropedarts from within her robes and stick a moving target, dragging it back to her like a big fish at sea.
Having a good time, eh? Well, that's lucky, because she's about to get more of it to do. Along comes Noab, walking along the lakeshore with a big bowl carried in one arm. A big bowl full of little candies, each contained in a typical candy wrapper. He plucks candies from the bowl as he walks, untwisting the wrappers, popping the sweets into his mouth…and carelessly dropping the papers in his wake. What a litterbug! How DURST he!?!? >:O …Quite easily, as it happens. e.U *munch, crumple, flick*
It takes Miyo some time to actually notice that Noab is wandering around and contributing to the litter that she is picking up, but when she does notice, she is furious, and runs over to him, waving her arms, and at the same time, most of her weapons. "What are yooou doooooooiiiinnnnggg!" She yells, pretty much getting all up in his face. "You're going to get cavities!"
Noab glances down at the student shouting up at him. He chews thoughtfully for a moment. "You get a few points for a lateral approach," he comments. "Not a very smart one, though. Trying to get an Akimichi to stop snacking? Verrrry low chance of success." :P Noab takes a wrapper and folds it into a shape like a tiny shuriken, then flicks it out over the lake. It doesn't get terribly far, but far enough that Miyo will have to get wet to clean it up.
Miyo watches as he flicks the shuriken thing out into the lake. "Hey… why did you do that? You know that people swim in that, right? They don't want your nasty beetle all out there in that stuff and stuff… and… stuff…" She turns and looks at it. It was the middle of winter and… the water was cold. She didn't reeaaaaallly want to go out after it, but she didn't think she could snag it with a ropedart if there was no solid surface beneath it. It'd just push it under water. "Grrr…." She grumbles a bit, and moves over to the edge of the lake, poking it with her fingers to test the temperature.
"Thought that's why you're here," Noab comments, unwrapping another candy. "It isn't practical to prevent trash from being dropped, so they send someone to clean it up every so often." Noab pops the candy in his mouth. "Assessing the situation and looking for optimal solutions is all well and good, but sometimes there's a cost associated with hesitation. Sometimes while you're trying to find away around what you don't want to do…" Noab drops the wrapper. "…the problem keeps getting worse."
"I am here for that! But… but…." she seems a bit crestfallen. She then turns and levels her sword at him. "Best way to eliminate a problem is the source. You are littering at my lake! Cease and desist or face my wrath… maybe…" Her bluff was bad, but she seemed somewhat confident in her attempt at harrangling the Akamichi head.
Noab shrugs. "Okay, little bit of progress there. Pitiful strategy for accomplishing your goal, though. I could take that sword from you with my bare hand." e.U Noab makes another paper shuriken and tosses it onto the water. "They'll sink eventually, y'know. Sometimes the little problems are more urgent than the big ones."
"Ah!" she let out a grief-filled yelp when he throws another and then rushes to the lake, hesitant to get into the cold water. "Grrr…" She quickly undoes the clasp of her heavy robe and drops it to the ground, kicking up dust and making a loud thud. She then wades out into the water in just her spandex shorts and other minor garments she wore beneath it. "Brr…"
Noab watches aloofly while Miyo goes about collecting the soggy shuriken. "That's a bit better. Now, think about that problem source again. Better come up with a more effective approach than threats of violence you can't back up." Noab affixes a wrapper to a real shuriken, then throws it. It sticks the paper against the trunk of a nearby tree, not terribly high, but requiring a bit of a climb to reach.
After getting out of the water, Miyo sort of.. shakes herself off. Thankfully, she hadn't waded out far enough to get anything other than her bare legs wet, so she re-dons her robe and lets out a gasp as he throws the other wrapper. "You are a bad person. I'm going to report you for littering! You menace!" She makes her way over to the tree and looks up at it. "Not cool."
Noab scratches his beard. "Hmm, somewhat more plausible threat, back it up with a greater authority than yourself. Still, not gonna work this time. I'm not particularly worried about being charged for littering." Noab drops another wrapper. "Try taking the 'cause' thing a step deeper. Not just 'that fat geezer's the cause of the mess', think 'what's causing the fat geezer to drop wrappers?'"
Miyo is busy climbing up the tree when she shouts back at him. "Cuz he's fat and he wants to get fatter and get cavities from eating a whole thing of candy." She snags the shuriken and drops back down and sticks the landing. "Whew…"
Noab rolls his eye. "If you let your frustrations get the better of you, you'll completely lose control of the situation. Now, there is one little thing in what you said that might be helpful, so you've got one more chance. I'm dropping wrappers as a side effect of eating candies, and I'm eating candies because I'm hungry. What can you do about that?
"Uhm… hmmm… take your candy away?" She ponders some stuff… "Get you food? I can't get you food…"
Noab raises an eyebrow. "You can't? What, don't your folks even give you an allowance? Or do you just spend it all as fast as you get it? Learn to hold some resources in reserve!" :P Noab hands Miyo the bowl. "Well, at least you thought of a decent solution, so here. Don't go eating it all at once, a kid like you really will get cavities." e.U Noab turns and hobbles back up the path.
Miyo shakes her head… "I'm rather poor…" She seemed a bit distraught about it, but she seemed a little happier when given the bowl of candy. It would make a nice addition to her treehouse to have some candy available. She then watches him hobble off before resuming her cleaning duties.
