Mission: (Not quite) A walk in the park! - Side Story

The blare of the alarm wasn't the first thing to wake Kensai, he'd already been awake when the sun poured through the window at earliest part of dawn. After leaving the hot springs last night he'd walked home like a zombie, then collapsed into bed. He'd never trained so hard before in his life, and though his body was a little sore, there was no real stiffness, he'd have to go to the springs more often after training. Pushing himself out of the warm comfortable futon was the hardest part of getting up, but the likely hood of a mission sent the comforter flying off his futon, and brought Kensai to his feet.

Breakfast was Rice cereal, with whole milk, flavored by a little ground cinnamon  sweetened by Honey and given a little extra texture by small box of raisins he'd dumped in there. It was a poor mans breakfast, but it was filling and would provide energy through out the day. He would have a quick sponge bath and wash his hair, then dress in his next set of clothing, in the small chest of drawers he'd managed to scrounge up. He kept the sash and scarf from the previous day, only dusting them off. The rest of his clothing was beyond dirty and smelled with sweat. It was an odd thing comparing the crisp white clothing with the nearly brown dirty clothing of the previous day, another sign of his harsh training.

It wasn't more than a half hour from when the comforter was kicked off and hung up before Kensai walked out of the apartment, he felt refreshed and renewed and ready to take on the day. Upon climbing the stairs out of the apartment buildings basement entrance he looked up at the side of the building, it was between him and the Honekage's office. Well he would put his training to the test here and now. He took a run at the wall, made it three steps up before back-flipping off. His feet reminded him quickly that he'd done this nearly all day yesterday. However with the second try he would reach the top of the building, speeding by the roof and flipping forward to land on it with a soft thud. It was only five stories, but that was far enough for Kensai. From the roof of the building he could see the Honekage's office in the distance. He would jump down from the building and make his way there.

Kensai arrived right at the Honekage's office front doors and looked down at his watch, it was 0700, the exact time he'd been told to meet up with Team Megumi by Hirohata-sensei. He wondered what the mission would entail. Though he doubted it'd be very dangerous, he was ready to give it his all!

Kenji's morning began when Megumi quite literally kicked him out of bed. He fell to the floor in a tangle of sheets, still half asleep as he tried to get back to his feet. He managed only to promptly face plant against the floor. Megumi laughed, of course, and told him to get up and shower. She was all ready and waiting for him, with breakfast on the kitchen counter. She threatened to eat it all herself if he didn't hurry, and that was enough to get him in gear.

After breakfast, Megumi raced him to Setsuna's office. Granted, she ran backwards with her hands behind her head, mocking him the entire way to motivate him to go faster, and yell still she beat him there. They were a bit early, so Kenji waited outside while Megumi entered the office to see what missions were available. She doubted they'd get anything significant, but she would do her best to get something that challenged their skills.

Shortly after Megumi disappeared into the office, Kensai arrived to join him. He gave his teammate a wave and leaned back against the wall. "Hey. she's inside getting our mission now."

"Cool." Kensai responded, he was a little concerned that there might not be a mission for a freshly minted team like theirs to take on. "I don't know about you but I slept like a log last..." His words would be cut short by a sudden yawn, he would stretch to work the last of the tired out of his system. He wanted to be completely awake for this mission. With that out of the way he was practically dancing in his booties waiting for Hirohata-sensei to come out of the doors with their first mission. What exactly would they be doing on the mission?

Kensai's head was filled with missions in far of lands with strange people, and dangerous enemies...

"I slept mostly okay...but Megumi tends to hog all the damn blankets," Kenji muttered. "So it was a little chilly." Not that he minded too much, but still, it would be nice not to wake up shivering halfway through the night. Of course, whenever he complained about it Megumi slept on top of him to keep him warm, which then tended to be a little suffocating.

A few minutes later, Megumi strolled out of the office clutching a small sheet of paper in her hands. She grinned at them and raised the paper into the air. "We have our first official team mission!"

"What is it?" Kenji asked, trying to grab the paper from his sister. She simply tugged it back out of reach.

"We are going to be helping to lay a railroad today. Some good physical labor to work out today."

"Oh..." Kensai was a little let down, though they were a freshly minted team, he had to consider all of the options they were being given, the teacher and her students still needed to be proven. Well it was just a first small step on the way to becoming a Legendary Shinboi, so Kensai would take it happily.

He'd heard that Hone was getting a train-track built to service the growing commerce in their little nation and town. He would have a hand in that, they wouldn't be building a railroad they'd be building a lifeline for Hone, an artery of money flowing into and out of Hone!

He was doing his best to psyche himself up for what was to be some pretty heavy manual labor. "So when do we leave?"

"Right now!" Megumi marched out of the office, leading the way.

Kenji scratched his head a moment and sighed. "Well, I suppose building a railroad is better than running sprints for an hour. And we get paid for it, too."

It would take them an hour of moderate travel to reach the build site. The partially constructed railroad track was currently making its way through a small valley, with dense clusters of trees along either side. The construction crew was already waiting for them, although much to Kenji's confusion it looked like they already had a full team ready to go. They hadn't even bothered to wait for their shinobi hires to get there before starting work. Megumi didn't seem to questioning it, assuming they just wanted some additional hands to help keep watch for wild animals. From what she remembered, this area was particularly populated with bears. In the meantime, though...

"Welp, let's get to work!" Megumi hoisted a massive railroad tie onto her shoulder and marched it into place, where a man with a hammer was waiting to drive large iron spikes through it.

Kensai was quite happy with the pace of things! They just got their mission and now they were taking off on adventure! He would take off with Megumi and Kenji as they made their way through the jungle surrounding Honegakure, meeting up with a partially finished railroad, he wished that Hirohata-sensei would have let him navigate to the coordinates, while he'd paid attention in the academy, over land navigation wasn't his strong suit, and he needed no weaknesses if he were to be a Legendary Shinobi. However like the first step, there would be other opportunities to lead the way.

When they arrived, Kensai looked around at the group of men, and watched closely as each had a job they were accomplishing, it seemed like they weren't too short on workers. But there was something wrong, Kensai couldn't place his finger on it, but some of the men seemed on edge. Were they afraid of Shinobi? Unlikely, but if that was the case Kensai would pitch in as quickly as he could, starting to haul boxes of nails forward from the construction cars. They were only forty pound boxes but he wouldn't let their weight slow down the pace of work.

It wasn't long before the young Shinobi had worked up a sweat, Towel-sensei had mentioned that they needed to pack on more muscle, so this sort of lift and haul training was exactly what the teacher ordered! Though even as he worked to make a good face for the Shinobi there was still something amiss, he'd catch the railroad engineers looking into the treeline on either side of the cleared path for the railroad. Were they looking for animals?

Since Kenji was not what one could call a physically strong individual, he left the lifting and dragging to the other workers. And Megumi. He was starting to think she was showing off with the way she was hoisting upwards of two or three railroad ties at a time. It didn't help that halfway through the day she took most of her uniform off so she could work in just her leotard. She claimed it was because it was hot, but Kenji strongly expected she enjoyed the attention she got from the other workers constantly staring at her.

Instead, Kenji focused on pounding the nails into the ties with the large sledge hammer. He assumed it would be the easier job, until about an hour into it his arms started to throb and his fingers ached. He worked up enough of a sweat that he had to take his shirts and jacket off or risk broiling in his own clothing. He normally didn't mind sweating so much, but at the moment he was so slick with perspiration he practically glowed in the sunlight. He didn't like it, nor how gross he felt, but he kept working.

Four hours in, and they broke for lunch. Kenji wandered over to the shade of the nearest tree and flopped into the grass, his arms sprawled out at his sides. Oh how they throbbed.

Megumi leaned over him, dangling a plastic bag in front of his face. "Got enough energy left to eat, or are you going to lie there like a bump on a log?" She then looked up to find where her other student was. "Hey Kensai, food over here."

Kensai had stripped his scarf and mantle off, leaving him with the sleeveless undershirt, he'd even dropped his sash in the same place in the car where he'd been pulling nails from. Lifting all the weight and walking a few hundred yards with it was killing his hips and shoulders, though his arms were mostly okay, they'd been static to the lifting, and he'd used proper lifting technique to not injure himself through repetitive stress.

When Megumi called him over Kensai was quick to toss down the last box of spikes and wander over. In the four hours since they'd started, they'd only moved a little over a mile and a half, but everyone that wasn't weary looking was quite pleased with themselves. One of the men was talking about how they needed to get a cart to move more track forward! Most seemed rather impressed with the woman and young men that had come along.

The white haired Genin grabbed his food and found a shade tree next to Kenji's just a little way from Megumi. One of the men walked over to Kensai as he chugged down the canteen he'd brought along, he'd refilled it a few times out of the water tanker car, it tasted like metal but was clean enough that he could down it without much ado.

"Hey kid." He was a big man in overalls, with thick coarse hair on his arms and a bald head covered by a cap, "Good work out there. Don't wear yourself out too much, we still got a few days work at this pace." He appraised, "To be honest." He looked over at Megumi and Kenji, "You and yours are something else, I have to admit I didn't think much when you showed up to Pro--" He caught himself and feigned a cough putting his hand over his mouth, "Provide extra hands we didn't think you were up to the task. I mean most of us have wives and kids, and I dunno a woman that can hold two-or-three ties and look good doing it." He looked back over his shoulder again.

"Yeah, Hirohata-sensei is an excellent shinobi." He mused. "Please sit." he invited the man to sit down during their impromptu break.

"I'll say, though I don't know if she's helping boost morale or causing the guys to slack off and stare so much." He thought aloud, "Either way, I gotta say you boys are something else, I couldn't hardly get my own son to lift boxes of spikes or drive 'em for a half an hour and here you two are working four straight hours bringing nails forward and driving them like its..." He laughed a little and gave a jovial smile. "Childsplay. In hindsight it kinda makes us guys that do this for a living feel a little lack luster. But believe, you, me! We won't slow down to be shown up by two kids and a woman!"

"Hmm, and what exactly is wrong with being shown up by a woman?" Megumi leaned in behind the man Kensai was talking to with a sly smirk, evidently having overheard their conversation and dropping by out of curiosity. "I mean I can understand not wanting to get shown up by kids, but I'll have you know I'm not your average housewife. Perhaps you'd like to play a friendly game to...prove your manliness?"

From the other side of the tree, Kenji watched with a sigh. That was Megumi, alright. Anything to show someone up, even if it was someone who had no hope of providing a contest. Perhaps the guy brought it on himself with the offhanded comment, but still, they were shinobi, and this was just a bunch of average laborers. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

"Hey kid," a voice said. "Catch."

Kenji turned his head just in time to see an apple flying at his face. He caught it moments before it collided with his nose, then looked up to see who had thrown it. The person was...a woman, which surprised him. He hadn't seen any women working with them all day, but then he had been rather focused on hammering. She didn't look very tired or sweaty either, which meant she couldn't have been laboring with them for the past four hours.

"Uh...thanks?" he said, taking a bite out of the apple. "Who are you?"

"Name's Shay," she replied. "Just got here a little while ago with some more track since we were running low. Saw you working with that hammer, and I gotta say, nice work. Not too often you see the young'ins able to keep up with that hard sort of labor. Or even willing to try."

"Oh, uh yeah, well it's kind of my job. Just doing what I was hired for. Along with my teammate and our sensei."

Shay raised an eyebrow. "Ah, one of them shinobi types huh? No wonder you're so energetic. I tried that once, didn't really enjoy it. So now I work on rail lines. Might not be glamorous, but it's an honest day's work."

The bald man brought his hands in front of them and waved them to dismiss himself from any contest he might have with Megumi. Sitting in the shade across from Kensai, "Now now, I'm here to work and not challenge Shinobi to contests. I'm here to build a rail line." Boro would lower his hands, "All the same I'm glad the three of you are here."

It was funny for Kensai to watch Towel-sensei to get so worked up over the mindless offhand comment of some random worker, and want to prove him wrong, she was quickly shattering all the misconceptions he had about Jounin, and not in the worst way. "Thanks Mister." Kensai replied man's statement about his peace of mind. He would quickly finish the food that Megumi had handed off to him. He'd not brought anything but emergency ration bars.

When Shay returned, Boro waved to her, she was something else as well, but she was different from Megumi for sure, though both were effective workers from what he could tell. "My name is Boro, by the way."

"Kensai, It's nice to meet you Boro-san." Kensai responded again in a very polite tone.

"Mmhm, that's what I thought," Megumi said, with a matter of fact nod. "Just remember,it's never a shame to be outclassed by awoman if the woman is just that awesome.." She gave the man a wink and then made her way back over towards the other tree, where Kenji was talking to some other woman.

"So, you never gave me your name," Shay said.

"Oh, it's Kenji."

"Kenji, huh?" The woman nodded, giving a small smirk. "Nice name for a nice boy."

Kenji blinked a little and started to blush, so he immediately stuffed the apple back in front of his face and took another bite. "Thank you, ma'am."

When she saw Boro waving to her, she gave a wave in response and started towards them. "Nice to meet you, Kenji. Look forward to seeing you work some more." When she made it over to Boro and the other kid, she stretched her arms above her head and yawned. "Sup Boro? Who's this one?" She pointed her thumb towards Kensai.

When Megumi made it back to her brother, she eyed Shay a little with a bit of a grin. "Hmm, she's pretty hot, huh? Getting to know her?"

Kenji blushed harder, taking another bite of his apple. "Just...just talking."

"Riiight. Because that totally isn't the face you make whenever you see me in the shower."

Boro smiled nervously, that woman was more than he felt he could handle safely, in that she was some kind of predator or something. Either way Boro went back to his conversation with Kensai. "I think everyone here appreciates you pitching in to help us." Boro said like that wasn't what they were here for, but the slip still passed by Kensai like he was standing still.

"You're very welcome." Kensai smiled at the new comer to his and Boro's conversation.

"Shay, this kid is Kensai he's the bee's knees at hauling spikes." Boro introduced without much prodding, though the man was usually known to be pretty stubborn around camp.

"It's nice to meet you Shay-san."

Shay snorted a laugh. "The bee's knees? Man you are old. Who says that anymore?" With another chuckle she looked over to Kensai and held her hand out to shake. "In any case, nice to meet you, Kensai. Already spoke to your teammate over there, and I gotta say I like what I see out of you two. Couple of hard workers."

Boro raised an eyebrow at the old comment, he was nearly old enough to be everyone present's father. Including Shay. He would cross his arms and scoff playfully at the young woman. "Just wait till you're my age."

Kensai would jump to his feet and take Shay's hand, to shake it. "Thank you!" He said with a timid smile. Shay was quite beautiful, now that he got the chance to look at her up close. With all he'd been through with Megumi it was hard to look Shay in the eyes. Though he would still be pleasant as much as he could.

Boro pushed himself to his feet and stretched, "Well I guess since the next batch of ties are here, lets get back to work then. This rail line wont build itself!"

"Please, when I'm your age, I'll look ten times as hot as you do," Shay announced, with a flip of her hair. "But I suppose you're right, time to get back to work everyone!"

Megumi gave her brother an encouraging slap to the shoulder, urging him to get off his butt. "Lunch time's over, get back to that hammer." Meanwhile, she returned to the crate of rail road ties and lifted another couple out to bring them to the end of the line."

Kenji watched her a moment and then with a sigh got up to grab the sledge hammer he'd be pounding away with for another four hours. His arms were going to hate him tomorrow.

Kensai gave a little bow to Shay and then proceeded to stretch a little, he'd been hauling boxes for the last four hours, and after sitting his muscles had become stiff. With that he followed Boro back to the container car with all of the boxes of spikes in it and began to bring spikes forward, to where they were needed to fasten the rails to the ties. They had only started to move the ties forward, but he wanted to get a little ahead it would make catching up after water breaks that much easier.

The midday sun would beat down on them in the man-made clearing. Kensai could feel the sweat coming back to him as he put boxes of spikes onto the work car, with Kenji and Megumi helping on that end it was only the guys that were pushing the ties forward on carts that were holding them back, they however seemed to be the most motivated to keep up, and the pace of their railroad song was much faster than the hammer swingers or the tie layers.

It would be Kensai to be the first to stop and need a breather, he'd afforded himself the moment to breathe by getting a jump on the spikes, but he couldn't take too long. There were still more to do but for now he needed to catch his breath.

"Hey kid!" Boro called pulling the canteen from his belt and tossing it to the young white haired kid who he'd seen down his earlier. "Drink up and fill both it and yours." Boro would of course take an extra box for Kensai while he was tied up, refilling his and the boy's waters.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Kenji drove the spike through with a groan, letting the hammer fall out of his grip when everything was in place. Another few hours had gone by, and the sun was starting to hang low in the sky. By now he couldn't feel his fingers anymore, and his muscles felt like they were ready to explode. Somehow, this job was finding a way to be more physically demanding than training with Megumi had ever been.

"Hey kid, don't stop now!" Shay called, as she carted over another crate of railroad ties. "Never gonna finish like that!"

"Uh, right, just lost my grip on it. I'm good." Kenji immediately picked up the hammer again and waited for the next spike to come into place.

"Now that's more like it. Keep up the good work." Shay made her way past Kenji, giving him an encouraging pat on the behind. Kenji nearly bolted out of his shoes when it happened, once again dropping the hammer.

The little break was all that Kensai needed to re-energize him, and the moral support from Boro he might have given up on hauling boxes back and forth. The Extra strain really played havoc on his legs and waist, as he was back and forth with forty extra pounds of iron he was hauling.

As the sun started to settle on the Horizon the foreman called it for the night. The last box of railroad spikes clattered onto the workers cart right behind where the workers were driving them. The same place the white haired Genin set the last hundred boxes. He proceeded to fall back on his ass and take another breather.

The foreman, a taller slender man, about Boro's age but practically gaunt looking in contrast to that man, approached Megumi and smiled. "Good work today! We were right to enlist Shinobi help we're almost two days ahead of schedule because of you. There's extra rooms in the crew car we could put you three up for the night and provide breakfast, so that you could get a quick start in the morning without having to traverse the trip on the way out and back tomorrow." It was a very generous offer, then again most Shinobi missions were all expenses paid anyways. Especially since 'they' hadn't shown up yet. Maybe simply having the Shinobi around would change their fortunes.

The only one who didn't seem exhausted after the long day's work appeared to be Megumi, who was still about to carry more ties until the foreman told them to stop for the day. She actually seemed a little disappointed as she dropped them back into the crate. Kenji, on the other hand, released a breath of relief as he dropped the hammer and flopped to his back, unable to lift his arms anymore. How on earth was he supposed to do this again tomorrow?

"Hmm, free bed and breakfast, you say? I like the sound of that." Megumi reached down and hoisted Kenji up by his wrist, forcing him up to his feet. He grumbled as he went, arms hanging loosely at his sides. "We're more than happy to get a bright and early start tomorrow, isn't that right?"

"Sure..." Kenji muttered.

Well that was peachy. They would be staying the night on site and start helping earlier tomorrow and working all day tomorrow again. He was going to be able to lift railroad ties if it kept going like this. How much longer would they get to stay here? Was the contract until the railroad was done?

Struggling to his feet, Kensai found a hand up in the form of Boro who'd seen the boy collapse. "Good work, young man. Both of you." He said looking to Kenji. "Never seen anyone younger than twenty drive so many spikes."

"Kenji-san," Kensai called to his teammate. "We should switch jobs tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Kenji said, with a genuine look of surprise. He had no idea what hauling boxes of spikes was like, but it couldn't have been as bad as hammering all day. Kensai was either insane or a masochist. Or just didn't realize what the work would do to his arms. "I mean, if you insist, then yeah."

"Good work everyone!" Shay marched u pto the group, coming behind the two younger boys and planting her hands on their heads. "Especially our youngest workers. Showed up quite a few of our more experienced members, I think. Isn't that right, Boro?" She sent him a teasing grin and then pulled away. "Alright, better get your rest because tomorrow is gonna be just as back breaking!"

Megumi smirked, watching the other woman walk away. "Gotta admire her enthusiasm, that one. Got a great rack, too."

"Well you look like you could use a break." Kensai responded in tone, he was genuinely worried about his teammate who seemed like his arms were about to fall off, where as most of Kensai's work was leg and Lower back. He also wanted to switch up to give his try at pounding the iron stakes, he could also see about improving the pounding sledges a little bit by prototyping his Omni-weapon into a hammer.

Boro would smile back at Shay, "Yes I would say I'm impressed."

The foreman looked at Boro and Shay and addressed both of them in earnest. "Clear up the fourth Sleeping Car so that our guests can stay there too." Shay was the only one that slept in the fourth sleeping car, because she was a woman mostly, however since they had guests that would best stay together it was best to put them all up in that car and leave the rest of the workers in their beds. Because Shay was the only one to sleep in the fourth car it was also used as an impromptu storage, which was where Boro came in, he could move the heavier boxes out of the way, for an old box thrower like him it would be nothing, and he couldn't inconvenience the people that'd put him nearly a half day ahead of schedule.

"The rest of you, get fires going for dinner." The Foreman called to the men who were recovering form the hard day's work. He would then turn to Megumi and ask, "I hope you don't mind bacon, beans and rye bread. Do you?" It was a very protein rich food that helped with the recovery of the workers especially in the early parts of the project.

"Well, looks like you all are bunking with me tonight," Shay said, with a casual thumbs up. "It'll be just like those sleepovers I had as a kid. We can tell stories, braid each other's hair, play truth or dare, have a pillow fight..." She tried to hold in a straight face, but burst out into laughter a second later. "I'm kidding, of course. But it'll be fun I'm sure." With a wave to Boro, she started off towards the fourth train car. "Come on old man, let's get that place cleaned out to make room for our guests.

Megumi turned to the foreman, and her stomach promptly rumbled with hunger. "Ha, you had me at bacon. Nothing like a good plate of meat after a hard day's work. Would have preferred sausage, but I'm not one to complain."

Kenji narrowed his eyes at his sister. There was a euphamism in there somewhere, but he was too exhausted to find it. Instead, he just raised one of his hands weakly and offered the most pitiful thumbs up he could muster to Kensai. "Sure thing, we can switch."

The men would hustle gathering wood for the fires and bringing forward a log, on the carts the used for rails, then two of the spike driving crew would take a saw and splitting wedge and maul to it to start separating it. Boro would follow Shay back to the

Kensai looked at Shay as she left then to his partner once she was out of earshot. "I think she likes you." He teased his new friend, of course this caused him to blush a little bit too, though in the low light it wasn't very noticeable. Though to be fair he felt that the hair braiding comment was at him, since his messy hair was that much longer than Kenji's.

Dinner would be beans with thick cut bacon mixed in, and small loafs of quickly baked rye bread had been made earlier in the day, and was cool by the time the work crews got it. By this time it was dark and the crews were spending time drinking beer and chatting around the fires, most of the talk was however about Megumi. Kensai would be happy for the ass-time but his ass hurt just as much weather he was sitting or walking, however the rest of his legs didn't hurt when he was sitting so he'd decided that was the better option.