[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    From digging tunnels right into fortification repair; it seemed that Azusaki's missions were starting to turn him into a construction working as much as a shinobi. In all fairness it wasn't as if he wasn't capable given his skillset, but it wasn't exactly his preferred line of work. He definitely preferred the inside of a classroom to holding a shovel, but it was helpful for the village and the country, so he wouldn't have turned it down regardless. 

    Going through the same process as every other week he got his mission orders and headed for the location, this time meeting his mission partner there as he'd be running late comparitively. With his instructor duties he couldn't always take missions first thing in the morning, so it was likely work would have been well under way by the time he showed up.


    When he arrived, he was in a surprisingly good mood, mostly attributed to the beautiful surroundings this particular fort was built in the center of. He got lost in the thought of sitting in a high position on its walls looking out, picturing himself one of the stationed guards, but shook his head a bit as he reminded himself of why he was here and then work that lied ahead. Thankfully the other shinobi he was here to meet with was fairly easy to find, either back outside or still outside the walls when he went to find them, flagging down Kumori as he jogged up to them.

"Apologies, I couldn't get here any sooner. I'm Jūryoku Azusaki. You are Kumori, correct?"
    

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori is speaking to one of the workers, a war engineer of some kind, as Azusaki approaches, but the engineer at least gets her to turn around and include the other shinobi as he approaches, giving him one of the ravenette's rare smiles when he reaches them and introduces himself. After all, a gate guard also occasionally needs to appear welcoming, when they're not called to look intimidating. Gate guards require diplomacy just as much as they need strength after all. With him knowing her name, however, it's likely that he's her second on this particular mission, one of many that she's taken on since being given an opportunity of a lifetime from the Kusa Lord himself, though his plans were incomplete as yet.

"Ah! Azusaki-san. Yes, I'm Kumori. This man with me is an engineer, who says that building a moat and an extended perimeter wall will provide us with appropriate defenses."

She shrugs as the engineer steps past her, explaining in words too quickly for Kumori to really catch that he's using sulfide and methane gas chambers under the moat to create bubbles large enough to trap any shinobi that try to use the water walking technique to cross the moat, as well as deployable and flammable oil slick on the walls in order to stop shinobi from being able to climb over. Kumori herself shrugs at Azusaki from behind the engineer regarding the word vomit and shakes her head. She waits for the engineer to actually take a breath so she can get a word in edge-wise.

"In short, he wants us to gather manure first, then go to some nearby peat swamps for some of that precious bubbling grime. The manure is for some kind of defense in the moat, and the peat is for the wall's defenses."

[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    The moment the engineer starts speaking, there is a lot of smiling and nodding, getting the part about building a moat and a wall, but looking between them talking and Kumori to see if he was the only one this was partly lost on. The basic idea was fine, but the explanation was certainly more long winded than he cared for as he was ready to start.

"Sounds ambitious. As long as I don't need to know how it works I'm good. Just tell me what we need to do and where we need to do it."

    It sounded cool, but it just wasn't his area of expertise. When the explanation finally stopped he tilted his head to the side as Kumori explained in a way that didn't make him feel so dumb, then gave her a thumbs up.

"Got it. Collecting things. Put things in specific places. Where am I getting said manure and where do you want me to put it, and where is said swamp?"

    This place was pretty enough, but it's not like he had ever bothered to come out this far. Really what reason would he have had to come here unless there was a mission to do, or he was lost? All the same, he was eager to work, more so to start and then finish, but not necessarily in a rush. His enthusiasm to do anything but sit in a classroom today was fairly high.

[Futago Kumori]

At least Azusaki didn't seem to be too worried about getting his hands dirty. After hearing the description of what peat was like, that would likely be necessary, but at least they were being given boots and waders, and even gloves for their work, as well as shovels and wheeled carts for transporting the necessary material. Kumori has already been given the directions for where to find the manure and the peat, so she directs him towards the manure first. With her white cheongsam, Kumori didn't much like the idea of digging into the manure, but at least she wouldn't need to get her greatswords dirty in such grueling manual labor; it was all hand work.

"Luckily, we won't need to go to all of the nearby farmlands to gather the manure personally, the farmers have done that work of gathering it all in one place for us. The problem is that the locals don't want the stench of it near Hisui no Heiya or the nearby town of Nishigo, so it's still northwest in the countryside. The peat is a lot harder; peat swamps aren't really maintained by anyone, the stuff is too dangerous. The peat is farther west, past the river where it starts turning to hills. The peat bogs collect rainwater in the valleys between some of those hills."

In truth, the peat bogs were likely the more dangerous; deer sometimes fall into the bogs and become stuck in the sticky material, dying of starvation before they can escape.

[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    For all the dirty work they were about to do, he wasn't in fact worried about getting his hands dirty, but perhaps not for the assumed reason. In all honesty he didn't need to get his hands dirty, at least not too much anyways. For all the lack of worrying, he still put on the gear given because he hadn't thought to dress for such an occasion as picking up much more than dirt of rocks truthfully. Looking around at the tools they were to use, he made a bit of a face, then nodding with a heavy exhale of air, creating two specific hand seals. 

"Here, this should help."

    Placing a hand on Kumori's shoulder, she would have no choice but to notice the change, as a field of gravity, lowering the weight of things around her was created. Shoveling would have become no trouble, the shovel likely weighing near nothing, any carts or objects picked up or moved as if they were toys. Some objects would have flat out float if pushed, thrown, or moved in such a way to disturb them if they were light enough to begin with. Even the two of them would feel a bit lighter on their feet.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Sukunai jūryoku [Less Gravity]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low, Low (Drain)
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: 2 - Dog, Hare
DESCRIPTION:
A gravitational field is thrown outward of the user. Each field that is made can surround one object or person. Light weight objects will float while heavily ones, people, will feel lightened. This can increase their speed, but punching power will be affected if it isn’t properly compensated for. The item has to stay within the range of fifty feet (15 meters) of the user or the jutsu will dissipate.

"Careful not to uh, throw anything. Let's get the manure first and be done with it, then we can worry about the swamps. Lead the way."

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori is a bit surprised when Azusaki puts his hand on her shoulder, and she resists the instant reflex to try and shove his hand off. Not that she was put off by the young man, she just wasn't quite accustomed to being touched when she wasn't expecting it. It took some effort not to tense up, but once the technique was used, she was glad that she hadn't reacted as she very nearly had, because she felt significantly lighter. With this, even her Osobureki blade might have been easier to wield without all the training she'd undergone to increase her strength. Now, with this, she could almost feel weightless in comparison. She wondered momentarily what kind of technique was this, but then decided it wasn't something she'd likely have the skill or expertise to learn.

Kumori nods appreciatively at Azusaki, then gets their tools together, prepared to get the mission under way as soon as possible; the sooner they got the manure and the peat, the sooner they could both get back to Kusagakure and clean themselves. And then Kumori could get started on another of these missions in order to help the Kusa Lord see his vision come to reality, though it would still take a lot of work to get there. As it is, she easily lifts the back of the cart, wheeling it forwards and slowly turning it to guide it in the direction of that manure pile they were meant to carry back to the build site.

[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    He noticed the way she reacted, but luckily it didn't take much more than a touch and he was done, so he didn't need to linger for long with his hand on her shoulder. He could however see the way she reacted shortly after, and just gave her a slight not in return, and a knowing grin. It was always amusing to see the way people first reacted to such a thing, and no doubt it would take her a little getting used to, but it would no doubt make this work so much faster.

    With this amount of weightlessness added to everything around her, they could both get to their destination in near half the time, even with the gear they were carrying, and get back likely just as quickly. Jumping, almost skipping even, but with oddly high jumps and long strides, he moved a bit beside her and ahead of her, looking more like a kid the way he was moving, but his expression showing this was obviously a fairly normal occurrence.

"You don't need to push that, you can probably just pick it up."

    Making a motion towards the cart. All the same, it was a quick trip, as he would keep making it clear how much faster he could move trying to show her she could too. Unfortunately for all he could help with making the trip easier and faster he couldn't do anything about the smell. It didn't take long before they reached the destination and he grinned, pointing towards the cart.

"Want to make this really fast? Go ahead, pick that cart up, get ready to catch."
    
    Raising his hands as he smile widened, he quickly made two handseals as everything light in the area began to float up around him, quite literally. Grabbing a hold of the shovel as it began to float up as well, he began to not so much pick up the manure as he moved it around, and before long a large amount of it was floating around him. It was almost like a game, as he moved closer to Kumori.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Uku [Float]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low, Very Low (Drain)
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: 2 - Bird, Hare
DESCRIPTION:
A sphere of gravity surrounds the user fifty feet (15 meters) outward. In this zone, objects that don’t weight very much will get picked up by the reduction in gravity. The user will have no control over where things go, but they will float. This jutsu has no effect on humans.

"There ya go. Time saved. Just watch out for the floating poop."

    Using the shovel he pushed most of it together a bit at a time, aiming it in the direction of the cart as he moved closer. It was mostly just floating there, not really moving without being moved.

    

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori watches with excitement and a bit of curiosity as the strange young man actually makes the manure float with his own technique, as well as himself while he gathers the manure all in one location, and she smirks as he uses the simply shovel to start slipping it into the cart, but the kunoichi gestures him away instead. She waits until he's out of the way before she lifts the entire cart herself, swinging it by its supports that were normally meant to let it be pulled by cattle of some kind. With a rapid swing, she catches the manure in the cart all at once, carefully slowing the cart afterwards instead of immediately stopping it for fear of turning it into a catapult. She kicks up the shovel next to her, using it to pat down the manure until it sticks just enough to the inside of the cart that it won't fly out before she brings it to a gradual halt.

"Hah! I wish you had been with me for the Nokoribi mission! You would have made the mission child's play!"

With this job done and the manure collected, she leads the way back to the engineer, who seems disgusted with the smell, but happy with the amount, and gestures towards the other cart, though this one seems specially constructed to have a tarp placed along the inside, ensuring that the sticky peat won't be soaking into the wood of the cart. Hoping her newfound teammate keeps using his gravity-shifting abilities, she lifts the cart and follows his lead of leaping towards the hills, using their height to be able to move from hilltop to hilltop until she finds a suitable pool of bubbling peat to place the cart next to, along with a pair of shovels. Kumori isn't sure if his technique will work on the bubbling fluid-like soil, but she at least waits to see if it does.

[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    He wasn't expecting her to be brutish and uncoordinated, but he was all the same impressed with her agility to move the cart as smooth as she did. Perhaps this was simply a matter of dexterity wielding a weapon, which was something he couldn't admittedly say he fully understood as the only weapons he ever learned to use were fairly small or meant to throw away. It was impossible not to grin watching her so quickly using his jutsu and her skill together, nodding with an impressed look as she lowered the cart back down, even laughing a little.

"I like to be helpful where I can."

    Keeping his jutsu up, the trek back was at most a bit slower, only to make sure their cargo didn't get slung off into the air as they moved, but otherwise they were back in record time with a load that otherwise would have taken who knows how long. The cart they had left settled and creaked a bit as they were far enough away for it not to be effected by his gravity field, even a few tools and rocks that had floated when he was closer falling back down. 

    It was clear that by the time they were headed out a second time she was getting more used to his jutsu and the quickness with which they could move, so he sped up a bit more, watching to make sure they didn't move too far away from one another.

"Never touched this stuff before, so this could get awkward. I can't necessarily control how things will move, just that they certainly will if they can. Might want to be a bit more careful just in case."

    Dirt, rocks, even liquids would lift if they were light enough, but they didn't really go anywhere, and they were wildly floating as much as simply lifting up around him.

"The liquid this is resting in is likely to float to the surface along with anything else not too heavy. Might be best you handle this. If I move too move there is a chance we make a mess or I end up creating a moat floating around me. Pass me the cart and I'll keep ahold of it and this gravity field."

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori nods when Azusaki explains that the jutsu might have some unexpected effects on the strange fluid-like soil, and she hands the cart on over to the younger shinobi, letting him keep control of it and the gravity field while she gets to work on digging out the peat soil. It's hot and heavy work, but the kunoichi lifts the black tar-like stuff out with comparative ease; she'd wielded weapons that were far heavier, and she was stronger than most by far, so the work was at least simple and easy for her. The smell was strange and rather unwelcome, but if Kumori was bothered by it, she didn't show it so easily.

The more important thing for her was making sure she didn't end up getting the stuff all over her, and so most of her focus is simply on moving it from the pit and into the cart. At the very least, this mission was taking place close to a fort, so they weren't likely to meet any bandits, even in the hills around Hisui no Heiya. It takes only a couple of hours before the peat is extracted from the bog, with just a bit of the stuff left behind near the very center of the twenty meter wide bog; Kumori couldn't quite wade in far enough to catch the stuff, so she had to leave it and just take the ton of black tar-like soil back to the engineer.

"Oof. I can't wait to get a drink or two after we're done with this mission, at least just to wash down the smells we've had to deal with..."

She makes a face at him to show her discomfort with the stench of both the manure and the peat, but the engineer seems happy with what he's got, prompting the gate guard to wonder if he had lost his sense of smell at some point. The moat's already been dug, thankfully, and the engineer is already directing the other workers and ashigaru on where to place the peat and the manure to get the maximum effect, and Kumori turns back towards Azusaki with a shrug.

"Looks like our job is done!"

[Jūryoku Azusaki]

    One half of the job was fairly easy, quick even, but this one wasn't something they could rush. Certainly his jutsu and skill was making things easier, but without extra effort and the chance of some awkward effects after the fact, it was going as fast as it could go. 

"I'll take a nice long shower or bath before doing anything else. I'm gonna need to spend as much time washing my hair as this mission has taken."

    No doubt they both smelled less than pleasant, but the job was almost done from their end. He laughs and bit and nods in agreeance at the face she gives at the smell. It took them a bit to get back, but finally he had dropped his jutsu, not wanting any engineers tools to go floating around or an accident with floating manure a second time.

"Smells aside, that was fairly painless. guess our part is done."

    Looking around, he was impressed and surprised by how quick all the engineers were working, already have dug a large bit of the moat further just in the time they were running back and forth. Obviously it was their job, but he always had a fondness for those that worked with their hands, even if he quite frankly didn't love getting his dirty. 
    
"Back to the village. Good work."