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"Ack." Hotarubi shifted some wood. This was a disgusting task for disgusting humans - not Shinobi. He was not a tradesperson, he did not want to be one: yet since graduating the academ yit seems as though this was all he was going to be used for - petty crime and manual labour. It was beneath Hotarubi, and yet he would not show it as he wondered where (and probably what) better task Nageku had been given. He himself was lifting lumber and moving it across: his great strength was of some use and so he had been put to the heavy stuff. It was still not easy nonetheless. See - he had tried to go for something much heavier than him and his shoulder set out of place. It was a feeling unique to the Yamakira when their body was displaced. It did not hurt, and reformation was needed, but he was safe. Still, it was not pleasant as things went. "Put it down carefully, Hotarubi!" He was being scolded by a Chunin, a woman, purple haired and a bang over one eye. The project manager for the fake village. "Yea, yea." Hotarubi didn't listen because he wanted to, but he respected power and until he realised he could put her in the dirt as well would respect it.

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That was the next step, he also needed to complete these grunt missions beneath him before he could go on the big stuff - accomplishing a wide variety of tasks would only lead to bigger and better things. So he thought for himself, and it had already entered the second day with nothing interesting happened - living in a jungle you would have expected there to be a lone panther or something going up. But, he wasn't made of human and so mosquitos would not bother him - and focused on the other sweating individuals instead. "Perhaps you should work in a human form, no?" The Chunin spoke to him as he downed some water, currently made of flesh and blood as he did so. It stopped him from drinking as he crossed eyes with her. She was a Yamakira as well? His eyes narrowed. She hadn't given her last name, just that she was 'Ma'am' for the duration of the mission. "No, ma'am." Hotarubi bluntly responded. It was already tough given they'd got him on the hardest job unlike the other Genin taking on more skilful and technical applications of building. They spoke for a while longer. It was tense, but Hotarubi didn't leave feeling any better about the situation and having wasted ten minutes knowing he could have been doing actual work. 'I could use this as training, I suppose. This is boring as shit fuck.' He wondered about her wisdom and whether or not he should have?

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So he gave it a go - later on in the afternoon Hotarubi could be found sweating like the other Genin. This wasn't so bad, he was tired, his muscles ached: he was actively using chakra as opposed to his normal earthen state and it was good for the body. He was strong, and this would be an opportunity for him to grow. Hotarubi nodded at the woman on his way past who had very much noticed, or noted his own sweating - even his sleeveless shirt was darker, where the sweat had pooled. He wasn't able to lift as much for good reason, but he was definitely pulling weight that civilians would cringe at. He had never been able to do this himself when he was a civilian and he loved it. What had made it a slightly easier mission is that he was starting to find fun in it by setting himself little challenges. Tired? Yes. Fun? Also yes. The call of a whistle signified that everybody needed to stop working. Hotarubi would stop what he was doing, following after the other people as "Ma'am" had something to say. "You're all doing well. Keep up the work -" and started to give orders in swapping around what everybody was doing. "-Hotarubi, you are to go and help with the sculpting efforts." Hotarubi nodded. What she meant was not literal body sculpting, he wasn't turning himself into a chisel: but the more technical aspects of the building. He would have to go and collect a hammer. But from where...?

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In the spirit of fun and training he wondered what to give himself the task of doing, and had settled on using the nails and hammer as an opportunity to practise precision. His strength was good as far as brutish-ness was concerned. But, his lethality? That needed to be sharpened. So, he was using the opportunity, sitting on one of the internal houses being improved, where the roof was being redone and nails were needed to support the house's tile infrastructure. Nail. Wood. In. Nail. Wood. In. Hotarubi was practising the mantra himself as he worked but this was boring. He wasn't built for the slow stuff... even lugging things around had some level of interest to it as was something he was always interested in developing. He wasn't really actively participating in it. Well. He was, but not in the way he wanted to. But, he supposed he was developing a bit more precision as his speed increased. Moreover, his chakra reserves would thank him later in his life. Speaking of his reserves, the use of chakra throughout the day led him to being ridiculously tired. That was something that he needed to work on besides his strength - his reserves. The more he could use techniques, the more damage he would do. And that was clearly corellated to worldwide rekown!

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The night had been rough and Hotarubi was not feeling well - into day three and his previous low chakra reserves made him hungry throughout the night when he couldn't actually eat properly. He tossed and turned during the night. He wiped at his eyes during the space travelling between the real village and the fake one, yawning as well. It was noticed by other individuals. "Shuthellup.." he mumbled, yawning again. His work was sloppier by comparison to the previous day - on the "sculpting" again, except rather than hammers and nail in an attic he was instead placing 'insulation boards up' and it required them to be cut to size. They were not cut to size. Gaps were being made and he was having to use excess amounts, and excess meant more material - and more cost. Luckily, "Ma'am" was not around to call him out for it. His chakra was replenishing by the less strenuous work in spite of it, but over the course of days work it was inevitably dwindling. He would need to rest - unfortunately, Shinobi did not rest. The morning was well underway and by the time the sun was in the sky, the jungle had already become a wet and temperate environment. Even though he wasn't working as hard as the others for the day today, he was still sweating. Still getting work done, though.

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Sometimes D-rank missions weren't meant to be fun, or engaging, or even helpful or necessary. They were just menial. As the sun rose high into the sky and into the midday, Hotarubi had sufficiently warmed up enough and though his human muscles were aching - had suitably worked himself into a comfotable rhythm. He took it in his stride - the lack of chakra was not the problem anymore since he'd managed to have a full meal on the mission - it was achieved by slinking away and paying for a few snacks. It was premediated, considering the past few days he hadn't brought anything but himself and his clothes. But, given the scowling face nobody had been to bother him about it - construction was always an ongoing job and so people were flowing in and out of the fake village. Not that people knew it was fake, but that was a part of the fun of being a part of the village which actually was hidden. On a separate note - it was nice to see the different faces. Different complexions, from different places: And Hotarubi couldn't wait to travel himself. That was one of his driving motivators beyond being strong - it was to see what else was out there and for him to climb to the top.

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He did mildly yearn for a bed, since the last few days had not been kind to his body. But, it was something he would take in his stride in favour of being human. Splinters, however, did not help. They hurt: and changing back into an earthen form because of his pains didn't help - the pain translated into whatever it was that was happening, not that he fully understood it. So, he would have to carry on - if he wanted to get paid. Hotarubi had been taking it easy in the form of slinking off but he felt as though he was being watched a bit more closely. Had he been seen? His quiet, monotonous presence wasn't something worth noting... so he wondered. Maybe 'ma'am' was keeping a close eye? His looking around did not prove to help. So he resorted to checking by hand to the floor. There were a bunch of people, but he wasn't that good enough to tell one person from the next - just that there was various movement. For the past few days he'd been focusing on wood and nails so he wanted to go and do something else. "Can I do anything else?" He'd asked to a superior. And so now there he was, on 'moving things from A-to-B detail'. Absolutely joyful.

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On one shoulder was a beam that was being delivered to the house he'd been working on. One beam became two, and three, and four - and so on. At least he was moving quicker than the people building (not that building roofs were easy work) but he was getting too heavy in order to sit up there, if it couldn't hold him then obviously it was a shit building. But, it did make him realise he should have probably get a home on a ground floor of somewhere... and not have second floors. Otherwise he'd end up through the floor at some point... He was having very languid, boring, 'what do I eat later?' thoughts. Understandable, but since he was being given the autonomy to not be told what to do, he was exercising his very human muscles and getting stronger because of it. Going above and beyond, if it were. Ignoring the part where you could also find him hiding inside the house on the hour - skulking about as though he were stealing. But what could he steal? Raw materials? In between chatting, skulking - the day was going by and the house was getting put together. Boring work made for boring fellows.

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Hotarubi also yearned for something more interesting to happen: he could hear Nageku now. 'Why are you doing weak people things?' and Hotarubi very quickly was having an argument in his mind with the figment of imagination creation that was his brother. Him, in a poorly designed shitty tattoo. Him, making them both look bad by continuing to be an academy student. But, if he knew his brother he knew that put spite would get him out of the academy in knowing his brother was a Genin. Hotarubi had been promoted from wooden beams to bags of rocks as if insult to injury. For that point, not that anybody would have known much but he did use his earthen form - packing the rock tightly into himself, and then expunging it into piles for the foundation of another house second to the one he'd been working on. They were pummelling it down and using it as a foundation... he didn't understand it. Was it to prevent the house from rotating? They needed a good Doton home. "Wait a second..." That was a thought! Why didn't he just create a little hovel made out of himself? Well. Earth. Rock. That was a fantastic idea! But a shout from behind him told him to hurry up since he'd been standing there for a hot minute.

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An executioner was the one to swing the sword and carry the sentence... that was the daydream going in his day, but as the days rolled by and he continued the menial work in lieu of the actual hardcore expertise that even civilians could do: he was just a little helper. Sweeping up and cleaning? Done. Handing tools over to a civilian? Also done. It was boring as hell, and he couldn't count however many times he'd been barked into doing another task - but, the fruits of his labour would show because at the end of the week, where had previously been empty land now stood two mostly finished (internally non-decorated) areas that were ready to be used. The land of Fake Takigakure was safe! The bad guys were defeated! Anything to keep his mind from descending into madness, although it could have been argued that he was already there. He wondered about when he would be leaving for the Chunin exams? It wasn't that far away... but for now. With him finally finishing, a mission report of sorts would need to be completed. Hotarubi got himself out of there, to the mission hub and collect his money. Boy, he would be eating well tonight! [fin]