Starring:
Date: August 10, 2016
Summary:
A small team works to help Sunagakure with the floods. Arika, Jiro, and Hiroto happen to run into some interesting creatures.
"The Birds and Chameleons - Fixing Up Suna"
Sunagakure
A day or two before the BIG JOURNEY, Arika figured that she should help Sunagakure with their whole water problem. That's something she never thought she would witness… Suna having a problem with /too much/ water. Arika was standing at the village entrance, knowing that Jiro and Hiroto were assigned to work with her due to the personal histories that connected each to her. She was bouncing in her spot, and there was a black lizard on her shoulder looking around… Grumpily. ~Is it time yet?~ 'Nope! Just wait a bit!' ~*sighs*~ 'Don't sigh! You'll sound like me even more!' ~I do /NOT/ Sound like you at all!~
Hiroto was heading towards where Arika was slowly. He was tired it seemed. Likely he had been pushing himself too hard since the flood doing a lot, but here Kori was dragging him towards where Arika was with a small huff that he wasn't more excited to go see Arika! Tenshi and Nisshoku were here too. Seemed he planned to bring them with him. Yuki might come along too truthfully, but you could never te with her and she was not yet with Hiroto to see about it. Not ong later and they stumbled across her. "Hey Arika…. Kori wouldn't let me even take a break for two seconds. Seems she really wanted to see you and I was keeping her from doing so." He eyes the bird who was now quickly rushing at Arika.
Jiro was yawning himself as he neared the front gates, letting himself drop off a nearby rooftop to land near the gathering group. Mid-yawn, he just gives a small wave with one of the hands currently resting atop his head as he looks lazily between the others. Seems he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. For good or evil however one may never know.
Arika hugs Kori, if possible, but would pat the bird on the head cheerfully if not. Regardless, Ari was happy to see the falcon. "Tha's cuz you're a slowpoke!" Arika says, nodding once before she would turn to Jiro. "Jiro-kun, wake up!" she huffs, poking at his side. "You should get more sleep!" That being said, Ari probably got about as much sleep as he did and she was still bursting with energy… Maybe she just is that kind of person… "Ne! I was thinking you two could mebbe try 'n help the village. I need t' go 'n make a bunch of ditches in the sand for Takeo-nii-san to put the water into."
Hiroto blinks and instantly wants to react like, 'what you think I been doing?' But she didn't deserve that kind of reaction so he calmly did something else. "Hmm? Are we to help you dig ditches then? Or did we have something else we were to do?" He asked with a raised brow. "Nisshoku. Fly into the air and scout out everything for me. See what locations would likely look best for a few ditches. And Tenshi just…. Make sure she makes the right choices." He chuckled. He also would let Arika direct Kori if she wanted to. He was trying to very much let those two act as partners even if just for simple things and not like combat such as what Hiroto and Tenshi do.
Jiro flails a bit at Arika's prodding hand. "I w's busy las' nigh'," he mutters as he moves his hands back atop his head. His eyes move skywards as various birds take flight to search out things for whatever it was they were doing. "'ow come we 'ave ta move'a bunch'a san'?" he grumbles at Arika, eyes moving from the birds down to her a bit grumpily, as if it's all her fault. Obviously.
Arika shakes her head a bit. "No, you dun have t' dig a buncha ditches, that's my job! Err… More like Hachi-jii's job, but still my job." She nods once, then she would take a breath and say, "You two are s'posed to help out the folk set up some of the water pump thingies and make sure they're all repaired! It's sorta boring, I guess… But then once 'm done with the ditches, then we c'n go off 'n visit all the Kage and stuff!" Both Hiroto and Jiro would already have received notice on the upcoming Journey. It was just a matter of taking a day or so to prepare before they set off. … is doing this sorta mission really that good an idea, then?! Arika didn't seem to care so much about that, making a single handseal so that another Arika would appear beside her. "Ne, Ko-chan! You should help me and tell me where Ten-kun and Nisshokun are pointing!" The girl would nudge the falcon off her head while the clone zipped off to chase after her.
Hiroto nods. "Well I will have those two report to you then." He smiled and moved a bit to look off into the distance better. Get about in the middle of a road and likely standing on water. Luckily he thought to learn that. "Alrighty Arika." He sighed. So much work. He would just start moving along once he figured out what he was gonna do nd he attempted to find some people who needed help with some water pumps. Probably would attempt to find good locations for those as well himself. Jiro he expected to either help or split off to do his own in another spot/sleep.
Jiro is likely to do about as much as a Chuunin as he did as a Genin. Perhaps steal a little less from time to time and pretend to be a little more alert. At least for now. Once a few more months passed he'd slip into the role better but, for now, he just was his normal self. As they started off he stuck with Hiroto, lazily loooking around with his eyes half closed as if he might have learned some ancient art of sleeping while moving.
Arika-clone would follow Kori to a spot that was pointed out to her, and then she would wave the falcons away … far far away because what she was about to do might be considered stupid by some. The girl makes a handseal, gathering the chakra of the beast from within and letting him take over for a bit, even. 'So, all you gotta do is fire at the sand!' Arika tells him, to which Gyuki rumbles. They were in mini-beast mode, so Gyuki wasn't huge like he would like, but he still had the ability to use a tailed beast ball in this form. Which is why…
Poor sensors… hopefully they realize what's going on is /not/ an attack. Gyuki would aim a mini-tailed beast ball at the ground, unleashing a powerful blast to make a sizable ditch in the ground that could probably take a third of the water in Sunagakure. ~One.~
Arika would poke Hiroto. "Ne, Hiro-kun, Ten-kun and the others should figure out two more spots!" she tells him before racing off on her own. All three of them, regardless of location, would get to find citizens and shinobi alike struggling to handle these strange water pumps that are meant to pump water out of the city. … They're very crude, and they mostly just require a lot of fixing, by the looks of it. "Make sure it won't fall over!" huffs one man that seems to be in charge of the water pump that both Hiro and Jiro are at.
Hiroto was just working on a pump when Tenshi and Nisshoku returned. Kori likely was still watching Arika even though she was told to go away. She would be out of range of the soon to be trouble, but not too far that she couldn't see her. Hiroto would jump a bit when he felt a tiny shake and the sound of a likely loud explosion even then. "What in the world…. Tenshi go check that out.." And then an Arika poked… "Uhh…. Nisshoku… Go look for two more spots…" He paused. He shook his head before looking at the man. "Does it look like I am trying to let it fall over?" He asked before pulling an arrow out that had a forked arrow head and he stuck one of the beams in place without piercing any of the pump part itself so it could still work. "That should do until we get something better. Just need a few more." And he added more for that reason.
Even Jiro perked up a bit at the feeling of power that was released, but it doesn't take him long to figure out what it was. Ah well, that was one way to do it. Might be a little loud and scary for some people but oh well. When the man starts griping about the pumps falling over he just grumbles and grabs up some nearby rope. He wrapos some around the pumps, then goes back into the village area to find something near the wall to tie it onto for more support.
The Gyuki-Arika-clone peers down and seems satisfied at what was essentially a crater. Since that was one spot down, Arika chose to take over, much to Gyuki's dislike. "Okie! Now for the next spot!~" she says, looking up and around to find Kori flying and waiting for Nisshoku to find a second and third spot.
The real Arika finds herself spinning something that was /supposed/ to help give the pumps energy. The people probably figured that she had so much energy that they may as well put her to work on transferring it into getting the water out of the village. Silly people :| This was hard work! "I wan' mochi fer this!" she huffs at some of the people who were working on extending the pipelines and stabilizing them.
As Jiro wanders off to try and find something to tie his own section of the pump against, he would find a lizard! This lizard didn't look too pleased, and it was staring down at the water distastefully. Seeing Jiro, it would perk up. "Hey! Hey you! You there! Help me out!" … Wait, it was speaking? c.c; Why was a lizard speaking?!
Hiroto would find another falcon companion as he helped out. One that lands atop his head, and it isn't Tenshi. "Excuse me, Hiroto-san, is there any way I can assist? I noticed it looked like you needed some help with things here…" Shen would say. The summon-falcon was training for his own benefit around this time, likely, and was taking a break for favor of helping out this guy who was technically his friend! Technically… Shen enjoyed the Hayato's company, at least.
Hiroto was surprised to find Shen landing atop his head. Why was he here at such a time? "Uhh hello Shen. Maybe you can help out, but I don't know how. I figure you would be more useful doing something else. Not spotting for Arika.. "Is it possible that you could gather supplies to help tie these pumps in place? We had a flood in Sunagakure as you might've noticed. And these pumps are gonna be useful for removing the water." He stated. "Luckily it means we sorta have water…."
Jiro was tying off his rope to a post when he heard the lizard and looked over. Well, it was odd, but it wasn't exactly the strangest thing he'd seen. "Wha'd'ya wan'?" he asks the lizard, folding his arms over his chest and not seeming at all phased that he's actually speaking with a lizard that was speaking backw ith him.
Shen would blink at Hiroto. "I can do that, of course," he says with a small nod. "Please, direct me as you see fit," he requests, keeping on Hiroto's head since there wasn't anything to do otherwise. "This would be good for training as well," he comments. "If I can fly with supplies, then I can probably increase my endurance to a point where I will last long in battle… Excellent idea, Hiroto-san. What exactly am I carrying?"
The lizard, or more accurately chameleon, would huff at Jiro. "I must go and see Itami! She is in charge of my training regimen, and I must see her immediately! I was trying not to see her earlier, but then all this water came and I found myself stuck on this building! It was terrible! Awful! The most horrendous thing since unsliced bread!" What a dramatic thing… Also, very wordy.
As Arika's two friends have met interesting animals of their own, Nisshoku has chosen another spot for Arika/Gyuki to blast, and Kori would lead the beast-Ari off to the selected spot so she could create yet another crater. The real Arika was sorta starting to get tired from running the machine by herself, though she hadn't been working on it al that long. "Is it running yet??" she huffs at one of the onlookers, who would shrug and examine the pipe he was sealing together.
"Probably rope. Sturdy rope though. Though now that I think about it, if you are able to carry more. Like some metal rods or something similiar. I figure maybe we could bend those a bit as more sturdy versions of it. If we get a earth user over here it shouldn't be too hard to do so. Have them use earth to bend the rods into place and use earth to hold them there. That way earth itself won't be there to eventually erode away possibly." He shrugged. "Can you do that for me?" He asked with a small smile.
Jiro's head tilted slightly at the lizard but then he shrugs. "Well we're tryin' ta 'elp get rid'da the wa'er. So I guess you c'n jus' wai' till it goes down'r somethin'." Part of him wanted to chide the lizard for running and hiding from Itami but honestly it's something that Jiro would do himself. And likely had done in the past.
Shen gives a nod and would flap off to go and find rope and metal … He's not actually sure where he'll find such a thing, but he's sure if he asks a few helpful people, he'll be able to find them! Definitely! Positive thinking, Shen!
There's another BOOM and shaking when Arika creates a second crater via mini tailed beast ball. Again, not the /best/ way to do that, but it's certainly very very effective… There's less of a stir now that it's more expected and a few warnings have been issued out. Folks are supposed to anticipate one more big BOOM like that and it would be over, according to this one Jounin who gets called 'Ping'.
The chameleon blinks one eye then the other at Jiro. "Nonononono! That won't do! You'll have to carry me to Itami!" he declares, hopping from the wall and attempting to take a perch on Jiro…
Hiroto watched Shen fly off and just nods before using a bit of rope they already had to tie the one they were working on down. "Okay… Is this good enough for this one? It took a lot to just get this far.. And we still have a few more to go so please let this be it." He said aloud not caring if they heard how annoyed he might be. Normally it wouldn't show, but he was tired. So much work through all of this.
Jiro glowers as the lizard thing takes a perch and he looks at it with a threatening gaze. "You try'n poo' on me an' I'll drown ya," he states flatly before rechecking his ties and then jumping up and back over to where he'd left Hiroto, checking on how things were going. The second boom comes and he hmms a bit, looking in that direction. "Guess she shoul' be jus'a'bout done…"
Arika is quick to find the final spot because the Falcons knew the drill at this point. She was getting tired, too, so it's probably a good thing this is the last crater to make. A final *BOOM* rings out, and then the clone goes poof, making the real Ari that much more exhausted. She has to wave away from the group that was making her work the pump system and wander back to where Hiroto is, much to the grumpiness of the one who had been taking a break from that same responsibility.
Shen returns in short order to Hiroto, carrying two metal pipes and a length of rope in his talons (or wrapped around his legs). The falcon would drop them off and then take perch on the Hayato's arm. "I found some!" he declares proudly. "It was very easy after asking for some direction. Where is Tenshi?"
The chameleon looks insulted for a moment. "I would never! So rude, assuming that I would do such a thing…" the chameleon proceeds to climb atop Jiro'a head, settling down so that he was comfortable. "Onwards!" he says in a cheerful tone.
Hiroto watched as Shen returned and he smiled a bit at the falcon returning. "Good. Thanks for the help Shen." He raised a brow once he asked of Tenshi's whereabouts. Though it wouldn't be long before he showed up himself and landed on Hiroto's head in such a way that he could look down at Shen. He just stared at him, and seemed to be wondering what he was doing here too. Hiroto then spoke up. "Looks like he is right here." He cuckled before moving to work on another pump.
As the rest of the group gathered together once again Jiro landed nearby, looking a bit grumpy at having a lizard thing in his hair. "Wha's nex'?" he asks as he looks at the poles that were brought, then at the various pumps that were set up.
Arika flops near her two friends, tired, and she yawns. "I'm tired!" she declares. "I think we're gonna be done soon, right?" She peers up at Hiroto and sorta blinks at Shen being there. Did Tenshi have another one that she didn't get to hear about? Hmm…
Shen bobs his head to Tenshi in greeting. "Hello there. How has the hunting been?" he asks politely, apparently choosing to pay more attention to the Hayato falcon since his own services were no longer required. The chameleon waves cheerfully to Hiroto. "Hello! Have you seen Itami? I was not looking for her, but I felt I should look for her soon. All this water does not make my training go well, after all. Not well at all!"
Hiroto raised a brow towards Arika. "Hmm? I don't know Arika. Probably will be." He stated before tying something down. Tenshi was watching Shen closely still and sat there quietly for a moment. When Shen asked his question he bobbed his head in return and would speak in his language right into Hiroto's ear. He had said it went well, but suddenly Yuki showed up. She was actually there the whole time being a white dot among the sand. Her gaze on the summons bird. When she came she quickly found a spot next to Shen and spoke some herself "You can speak? You speak well May I ask how you -earned." Seems starting words with l is still tough. Hiroto ignored them and Tenshi being in his ear in favor of speaking with the lizard. "What? Oh no. She probably is busy even though she should still be resting. Maybe you want Tenshi to carry you there?" He grinned.
Let the lizard be taken by a predator, smart. Jiro doesn't seem to care however as his arms simply fold over his chest and his eyes roam the area checking to make sure nothing else is amiss with the pumps. They should've planned those pumps out better dangit! He leaves the little lizard thing on his head for the moment though he's pretty ready to be rid of it. How'd he become it's chaperone anyways.
Shen would blink when a white falcon suddenly appears, and he bobs his head in greeting. "Ah, of course. I am Shen, of the Falcon Tribe. …" he seems to frown slightly and look uneasy before his usual cheer/politeness comes back into play. "I learned when I was very young, probably around your age. Words were very difficult for me back then, but I persisted and eventually was able to overcome such difficulties. I'm sure you will be able to someday as well." Shen puffs his chest up a bit, obviously proud.
The chameleon frowns at Hiroto. "Nonononono, that will not do!" he declares. "If you must carry me, then I'd rather go back to that building I was stuck on!" Mitsutsune no Konshosaki would hop from Jiro's head to take perch on Hiroto, only to be smacked back to the ground (and into the water…) by a neat flat of Shen's wing. "ACK!!! HELP!! I'M DROWNING!!!" he says, flailing atop the water and sending droplets all over the place. In truth, he was just laying on top of the water's surface because he knew how to water walk perfectly well. He was just a dramatic little critter…
Arika peers down at the talking lizard. ~He's …~ 'I dunno.' The girl would pick up Mitsutsune by the tail, which results in a great deal of flailing from the chameleon. "Hiro-kun, who's this?" she asks, shaking the chameleon by the tail and making him wibble-wobble all over the place.
Yuki bobbed her head in return before speaking. "Would you be able to help me with bigger words?" She spoke fine really. Though it was a litte slow and it was obvious she was sounding it out a bit still. "Thanks for the co…conf… fidence." She said before watching the lizard get knocked right off of Hiroto. And they literally were still on the water and not even drowning. As Hiroto would point out. "I mean.. If you were drowning I doubt you would be able to speak." He watched Arika grab the lizard. "Oh that is a friend of Itami's. You should take him to her. They are the best of friends." He chuckled lightly. "ANyways. Shen you should meet all the falcons. There are others that aren't here right now." He said before stretching a bit.
Jiro just watches as the little lizard thing jumps off of him and he finally is able to move his hands to flop on top of his head once again. "It sai' it w's tryin' ta fin' 'tami an' wanted 'elp. I dunno who'r wha' it is." Jiro shrugs slightly, looking at the various birds as they talk or attempt to talk but doesn't respond to them, instead just looking back at the lizard thing when it's picked up.
Shen considers Yuki's request for a few moments, thoughts flitting back to when he was younger than he was now… A happier time. "Very well! I'd be happy to teach you," he says cheerfully, seeming brightened by Yuki's thirst for knowledge. "So, madam, what might your name be? I can't very well have a student whose name I do not know…" Shen would take off, beckoning for the younger falcon to join him so they could talk in peace for a bit.
Arika peers at the chameleon. "Alright! I'll take him to her! I think we're done f'r the day, so…" She shrugs and grasps the chameleon by the stomach, much to Mitsutsune's dismay. "Hey!!! Careful!!! >.<;;" he huffs, flailing his limbs and flicking his tail at Arika. "I'll meet you two t'morrow at the gates so we c'n start traveling!" she says cheerfully before she disappears in a burst of wind.
The villagers that are helping with the pipe work seem to have gotten things under control now that they had a system going, and the extra supplies from Shen would help a lot. So Jiro and Hiroto were dismissed so they could get some rest!
Yuki bobbed her head in response and spoke her own name. "Yuki." And Yuki would indeed follow Shen into the skies. Hiroto watched the both of them fy itnto the air before Tenshi suddenly is landing on his head. "Alright Arika. You can find me and Tenshi… And likely any other falcons who plan to join us, at home." He would wave to Jiro and then head off. He didn't want to do anything but sleep after such a busy day. Also a busy week truthfully.
