Giving Back (Solo Mission Run GO!)

Spoiler:

Charity. That was the task set before him today. Charitable service, giving back to the community. This was not only a facet of the shinobi of a ninja village, but a necessary goal to eventually step away from the eternally warlike days before the hidden villages: the era of the clan wars. Still, even if it didn't strike him as that productive a thing to do, it was one of the few things that was available to him and also the most appealing. So, Liu Jin, foreign-born from beyond the sands, now had five tasks laid before him, each of which would demand a considerable portion of his time. Well, only four would actually require much time from him, the first task, the lowest-ranked mission available to all ninja of any caliber was ... quite peculiar.

"Compliment the citizenry of Sunagakure, a friendly disposition is important for all Suna-nin, and failing that, be willing to provide any sort of assistance they require to show your goodwill."

Hypothetically, a plan that could endear the ninja to the people even further than before. In reality, likely sending ninja who were highly trained and capable of untold amounts of destruction to go out into the world and do public service sounded like a recipe for chaos, property destruction, and good deeds done at terrible, terrible cost. Still, given he was still recuperating from injuries five years ago and had lost all but the most basic essentials skills that were beaten into him from his academy days, perhaps this mission was an excellent choice to ... 'get back into the way of things' as the expression goes.

Before exiting the simple housing provided to him by the effective state, which would be the Council of Elders and the Kage and quite possibly lower-ring bureaucrats, Jin peers at a small hanging mirror. His attire was in check, his hair was in check, his face seemed to be alright, and ... ah yes! He had nearly forgotten, the forehead protector headband. The cloth and metal piece given when he had graduated the Academy ... he'd need that for today wouldn't he?

'So they know I'm a ninja of Suna. Not some treacherous foreigner ...' His neutral expression gently scrunched together, a frown now forming. Was this really what he wanted? To play civil servant to people who had trouble looking past what he was, and instead at who he was? The genin shakes his head abruptly, dispelling those thoughts as quickly as they had crept to the front of his mind, and sets and ties the headband snugly against his forehead.

Today, in spite of all things, he was Suna-nin. One last deep breath, then his hand reached for the door's handle.

-

The village was lit by the morning sun, brightly burning and beating down on the desert and settlement within. But, like any morning, there were plenty of people about their daily business. It wasn't hard finding people to greet and approach ... but it was difficult to find someone who would return his salutations. It certainly wasn't done maliciously, but instead out of confusion to see him garish in both appearance and attire bearing the engraved headband that marked him as a shinobi of this land. Unsurprisingly, this hurt less than he'd expect it to.

"Good morning." He tries one last time, before calling this mission bust and moving on to the next task.

"Good morning, child." The elderly woman whom he'd chosen to address seemed to nod back at him. ... Wait, had she greeted him? Did she say good morning back?

"Uhm ... lovely weather we're having?"

"You're not quite good at this are you dearie?"

"... ahaha, no ma'am."

"That's quite alright."

'Well, that could have gone better ... Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, you're so polite. I could use a bit of help carrying some things, if you don't mind?"

Well, it's not like he could mind, so the genin gave his best smile and a quiet nod, seeking not to embarrass himself further by speaking. Fortunately, the things in question were simply groceries and a few miscellaneous sundries, nothing he couldn't quite handle. Perhaps it was seeing him performing this act that changed the way the people present on the streets viewed him, but that could have only been possible had the elderly woman not have responded to him in the first place.

Honestly, though, once people got over their fears, it was surprising how many of them would gladly take free help when offered. A man looking for his mischievous child, hiding from him among the crowds of people. A young girl whose ball had ended up stuck up a tree. A quarreling couple complaining about each other's lack of passion in the bedroom.

That last one forced him to leave in a hurry.

OOC:
Wordcount - 800
Target - 300 (D-rank)
Excess - 500

Spoiler:

Next on the agenda was to attend to the gates. Although guard duty was a potential option listed, that would require a significant portion of time since he'd be filling in for a complete shift on the watch. Considering nighttime would be coolest here in the desert and that particular job provided inadequate cover from the glaring sun, Jin decided it was best to take a night watch. After all, work on Sunagakure's gates was practically around the clock, and if not then guards were necessary to keep that vulnerability of the village from being exploited.

So, first things first, he had to offer some assistance in the reconstruction. And that meant finding the one in charge to make sure he was doing something ... beneficial. Certainly he couldn't do that much damage to the project at this stage, given his lack of knowledge of Doton ninjutsu. Hell, frankly he couldn't remember much about ninjutsu at all, or even what his elemental affinity had been. But, even if it was unlikely he could derail this project more than it already did simply by existing, given Suna was surrounded by a natural rock barrier that kept intruders out. Adding a wooden gate to that seemed like a ... well ... needless procedure. Really, said gate wasn't even going to be tall enough to reach the top of the cliffs, there just simply wasn't enough trees nor anyone willing to trade that amount of lumber to construct such a gate. And said gate, even if it should function as a checkpoint into the village, would be more a nuisance to keep out immigrants, merchants or traders rather than, say external forces seeking to antagonize Sunagakure.

BUT! He wasn't the one in charge of anything, and surely this gratuitous waste of manpower, resources and time was likely the brilliant creation of the Council of Elders, as opposed to the Kazekage, who likely approved the matter to get the old farts off his back and to at least look like Sunagakure was spending some sort of money for a public resource, in this case safety and protection.

With a harrowing sigh, the anxious teen hauled himself towards the man he identified as the 'leader' of this collection of fools forced by a bureaucratic machine to perform a needless task. The foreman supervising the project was, suffice to say, both surprised and pleased at his arrival. Surprised that Suna-nin were willing to offer themselves up as grunts for manual labor. And pleased that a Suna-nin, namely Jin, was idiotic enough to think this was a good idea. Though the job was classified of the utmost importance for Sunagakure's development, a lack of civilian constructors was impeding the project as a whole, which would explain why the mission was simply to do whatever grunt work was needed. Perhaps he should have read the fine print further before mentally groaning and being assigned to assist with ... smoothing out the cliff faces?

In fact, he hadn't quite been here in ... a long while. Most of his life was spent within Sunagakure, and his conscious time as a genin, however brief, was spent similarly. The destruction wasn't exactly ... pretty. Awful would be an understatement, considering the cliffs that had guarded this place were smashed. The cleft between the cliffs that had led into the village was less a narrow passage now, and instead a massively gouged out trench, wider at the most exterior of the rock formation, and the faces were jagged and cracked with slight crumbling from all the damage. In short, it was a goddamn mess that broke the natural defenses of Suna and made a gaping hole while it was at it.

So his task at hand was to even out the jagged remainders of the cliff and ... honestly, what was he even doing here? Sure, grinding down rock was apparently important to the task, after all a gate would need to be set up against flat surfaces. That said, there was a noticeable lack of ... wood, come to think of it. Was the plan to set up a checkpoint here in lieu of a proper gate? That seemed like a more practical way of dealing with having a gaping hole blown through the cliffs that served as walls. As opposed to wood.

Still, this didn't change the fact that progress was unbearably slow, more so given his inability to do much else but attempt to toil with his hands, given his non-extant skill in Ninjutsu at this time (cursed rehabilitation). So much so that after a few hours of sweating it out, the foreman took pity on the genin who clearly had no idea what the fuck he was doing. Instead, Jin, being the colossal schmuck he is and having decided he would see this mission through to the end, was assigned as a errand boy. This was a sizable large project after all, and not everyone working on it was necessarily on the same page nor had everything they needed.

'... I wonder why I think this is even a good idea.' The thought passes his mind as he was now in full sprint up the carefully carved but steep path along the side of the cliff faces straight up to the top. In his arms were apparently a few scrolls - notes, plans, something special. The foreman below needed a gofer to deliver communication, and he sure as hell got one for free, the youth mentally curses. At the very least, he was getting in good exercise, what with the heat and the fact he was in constant motion. Also going down from the top of the cliffs was significantly easier as it was practically a downhill, winding serpentine run.

This would persist for sometime, and it seemed to make up for the fact he was entirely useless, he always had to pick up a note or plans or even tools and ferry them as fast as his legs would go to wherever work was on Suna's only defense against the outside. While the entrance, gate or no gate, was of utmost importance, there were other breaches in the cliffs that needed to be sealed off or otherwise dealt with. Had he known this job would have entailed tremendous amounts of running, he would have spent more time with aerobic exercising. Perhaps a lovely pre-dawn jog along the circumference of the walls?

'Just another hour and I'm done.' There were worse things he could have done than have an eight hour shift, half and half being foolishly thinking he could smooth stone and running around like beheaded fowl.

OOC:
Wordcount - 1100
Target - 600 (C-rank)
Excess - 500

Spoiler:

After that ... peculiar experience, Jin took a short break to restore his lungs and heart back to normal, and also cleaned himself for the next task. Midday had passed into the late afternoon now, and the third and probably second-most difficult task lay before him. Although they were colossal beasts, the bijuu that did the damage that Sunagakure was still recuperating from acted deliberately and with particular targets in mind, given how they could have leveled the entire village and made it uninhabitable. So that spared him from witnessing the horror of the beasts themselves, just not the devastation they brought. Still, this mean that delivering these letters, supposedly penned by the Kazekage himself, would be a difficult task. He didn't have their same perspective of loss ... and even if he did, would he be capable of comprehending their grief and suffering?

'Probably not.' He immediately answers his own question while dusting himself from the omnipresent sand again, making sure his clothes were in place. That previous job had the added benefit of at least providing some sort of work clothes so his own wouldn't be dirtied by sweat and god knows whatever it was they were using. Now, he was making his way towards the Kazekage's office. The primary administrative building in all of Sunagakure. First order of business was to secure the letters of condolences writ for the families of the council members who had perished. They weren't sealed, strangely. Perhaps he should ...

"No, if this is how the Kazekage wants them delivered, then." He gingerly pockets the letters except, taking care to set them so that they wouldn't be too horribly ruined as he left the administrative building. Although he knew of the council like any good citizen of Sunagakure, remembering how they were, where they lived and who all their families were was something he hadn't committed to memory. So he would have to deliver each letter one at a time, going off the address labelled on the small, thin scrolls, in the elegant light green of the Kazekage's office and bearing a small ... was it a seal? Or was it a mark? Either way, proof of authenticity.

The first home was not difficult to find, surprisingly. Though, it was unlikely all five of the letters would be delivered to homes in such proximity to Kazekage's offices. Still, Jin decided to proceed with his task and lightly rapped on the door to the modest-sized home in this residential quarter. To his surprise, his knocks were replied with a spontaneous, echoing thud. As if someone's fist or foot was being rammed against the door in anger or frustration, and then a hoarse voice, gruff in nature and tone barks out "The fuck do you want?!"

Well ... that was new.

"I have a letter from the Kazekage, it is-" He begins to explain, after all failure was not an option.

"Don't want your fucking letter. Don't need the fucking letter. Take it and shove it up his ... your precious Kagekaze's asssss!" Well that was unexpected, it seemed whoever this ... man, it seemed, was he was clearly intoxicated, inebriated or in-something. Still, he had only one job, and that job was to make sure the letter was delivered. And if his nagging thoughts were right, and this was the right address, then whoever inside must've been a grieving family member of some sort.

"He wants to apologize." It was worth a shot

"For what? Letting her die? Not like ... like he's the toughest of youuuu goddamninjas."

"For your loss, yes. It's in this letter."

"Dunwannit."

"Then I'm not leaving until you take it, or sober up then take it."

"HAH! Try it you liddl'shit. I gots alllllllllll fuckin naught. Neight. Night."

"Or you could just take it and set it aside. Read it when you're ready."

"Why should Iiiiiiiiii? It's not liiiike the kage's done nothing for meeeee. Dunwanna."

"Are you sure?"

"Goooo away, shiyeeeeet-stain. Drink'sss not gonna finish itsseelf."

Well, he tried the diplomatic approach. Desperate measures called for desperate times because he sure as hell didn't know how to handle consoling someone drinking himself into a bottle. The genin turned away from the door, intending to scour the area for a rock of some sort. Before he even took a step away, there was a rustling noise and indistinguishable conversation going on. Mostly he couldn't tell since it sounded like a new person was shouting profanities at whoever it was that was clearly drunk and at the door, who in turn was making some unwholesome noises. Not long after that, things quieted down ...

And then the sounds of locks being undone could be heard, and the door creaked slightly open.

"... Hello?" Jin asks, a bit confused as to what was happening before him.

"The letter. Please." The new individual was female, but deliberately choosing to hide herself from view.

"It is a letter of condolence from Kazekage, for the-"

"I know what the damn letter is for! Give it to me already!" An awkward silence settled after this other person snapped and demanded him to turn over the item.

She speaks again to break the physical discomfort of the quiet, "... I'm sorry. It's just, it's been a stressful time. Losing family, to something outside of our control. Outside of anyone's control, even someone like the Kazekage."

"I understand" He says these words because it is true. Not because he believes he can.

"Please, the letter. I'm sure you have more to deliver ..." She was right, and while this situation was both strange by normal standards and alien to him, he could not help but agree and hand over the letter clutched in his left hand. Before the other unseen speaker closed the door, she finished "And I hope delivering the rest won't be tense as this one."

The door shut, the locks could be heard set back in place.

And Jin backed away.

This exchange had been more of annoyance to him than anything, which was odd? As he produced the second letter and began to examine the address, the nagging sense of contempt lingered in his mind.

'Is there something wrong with me? Or them?

He dismisses these thoughts again, grief was an experience unique to the individual, and how they processed it was not something that could be measured or categorized neatly. So instead, he proceeds on, the afternoon sun beginning its slow descent shining down on him and the streets he traveled. There were four more letters, and while they would not be as uncomfortable as this exchange, they would still be grief-stricken moments.

OOC:
Wordcount - 1100
Target - 600 (C-rank)
Excess - 500

Spoiler:

When those letters were delivered, he had one final task before taking a night shift on the walls for guard duty. This one likely was going to be the most difficult, if only because dealing with little kids was not his forte. Hell, it's unlikely that such a task was any individual's specialty, short of parents. BUT, if discipline was called for, then he could probably put his own experiences of when he was a little shit at the academy to good use.

The white-haired teen snorts a little, 'Little shit. I really was a bit annoying when I was younger.' His thoughts wander off to those days, when he hadn't yet become a genin. Those days before everything ... changed? What was he even like back then? He couldn't remember much. Just, an insatiable curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.

Still, if these kids weren't anything like him then, this would be a simple mission because, contrary to conventional wisdom, a rambunctious child was easier to capture the attention of as a shinobi, if you knew what to do. The first example would be to find your way up to higher elevation, as he did by scaling a building closeby to where the report had said these fresh delinquents would gather. Suna's rounded buildings were most definitely not helping make this pseudo-assassin stalking business any easier, but he eventually made his way over to the children's hideaway, behind some small business, hidden in the shade cast by the descending sun.

"You don't believe me? I totally snuck a kunai off one of the ninjas!" The tallest (though not by much) and rowdiest of them all was the one who commanded their attention like a leader, and also boasting of that small accomplishment of his.

"Wooow"
"No way!"
"Show it!"
"They didn't see you do it?"

"Ohhhhh, is that so? Why don't you kids show me?" Jin joined in the little cacophony of demands for proof and single question with another question of his own as he stood on the edge of the building, squatting over the side and look down to the left to watch the kids below suddenly whip their heads towards him, bug-eyed like adorable desert mice, their faces dirtied from the dirt and sand.

"Yo!" the snowy-haired teen calmly waves at them and gives a light smile, hopefully to reassure them. Or remind them that their fates were now sealed.

"Split up, guys!"
"Run away!"
"It's a ninja!"
"I don't wanna get in trouble!"
"If I get in trouble, it's all your fault!"

"Tch, kids these days. Normally you wait until the seeker starts counting to play hide and seek. I'll give you ten seconds to run, brats!" Jin clicks his tongue and sarcastically quips as he watches the kids scurry.

"Nyeeeh!"
"Like you can catch us!"

"One ... two ... ten." He counts off idly, watching the kids wisely split up, one decided to try and take high ground, probably being bait to lure him away from the others. He was running up along the side of the building and had scaled it before he even started counting, and stuck his tongue out at him. Chasing the fastest one, even if he was the leader, would be a nuisance. So instead he noted where the other four children were headed. The two girls stayed together, rounding the corner intended to head to the front of the store. They would be next to last, the other boys split off in opposite directions attempting to rush to the ends of the street and likely make sharp turns to break line of sight.

Unfortunately for all of them, he touched the ground just as he finished counting and, putting as much strength into his legs, broke out into a full sprint. The first was one of the two boys on the ground who made the mistake of running in a straight line, also for being a slow little chubby thing. The adequate punishment here was a light vertical, open-palm chop straight to his head. Thwack.

"Tag, you're my prisoner now." He cheerily says, after swishing his hand and gently knocking the kid on the skull.

"Owwww. Wait, prisoner? Noooooooo!"

"Oh you are just a treat." He replies his smile never leaving his face, before turning around and seeing the other boy on the ground stopping to see what happened. That was the perfect opening for Jin to rush straight at him, covering the few meters within the amount of time it took for the other brat to blink twice in confusion as to how he did that. And then look up to stare at him.

"Tag."

Thwack.

"Owwww!"

"Now go meet up with your friend back there and stay put, or else I'll get really mad."

"... Are ... are you gonna eat me?"

"I might if you don't listen!" At this point, he leans a bit forward to bring his face uncomfortably closer to the slightly scared child, and smiles widely.

"O-okay! I'll listen!" The child hurriedly backs away and rushes to the designated area.

With that, Jin turned to his right and here was a pathway back to the main street that the store earlier would face. If those girls had rounded around that building ... well, going down one path of the street would lead to the nearest residential quarter, which means they'd go the other way and that means .... He rushes forward again, by no means was he that quick in the realm of ninja, but for civilians, he covered ground ridiculously well. And that would come in hand as he then stopped the running motion, stepping out with his left foot and pivoting his body towards the right. The total result was he, the white-haired demon, would slide out just as the two girls thinking themselves clever were about to reach this small intersection of the street and the path.

Both of them naturally were terrified and let out little squeals before Jin suddenly sliding out of nowhere, directly in front of them. Also towering over their tiny selves, arms outstretched. And then he leaned forward and they flinched, eyes shut for a moment in panic from the adrenaline and the suddenness of it all.

He pats them both on the head.

"Tag! Now you both gotta listen to me, okay?"

And with that he lead the girls back behind the building where, to his great amusement and surprise, the other two boys had been willing to stay put. Currently they were sitting on medium size rocks, that were lying about, perfect size for them to be chairs for the kids.

"Alright, so where's your fearless leader?"

"Dunno."
"Long gone."
"He'll be back, maybe."
"I guess ..."

"Hrm, that's not good. I need all five of you kids. Where could he have go-" A faint, but quietly dangerous creaking noise sounded above him in the middle of his talk. And rooftops generally don't have much activity going on them unless the building was in need of repairs or renovation. Also given the brat leader had taken to the rooftops, it wasn't very hard for him to guess that he was now hiding above, waiting for an opportune moment to strike.

"Ah, I know!" The genin snaps his fingers as if he had an epiphany, all to mask the abrupt end to his previous sentence, "Do you know where his house is? I imagine I should go tell his parents."

The kids sitting on the rocks look aghast, would he really go to his parents? Would he go to all their parents? Their eyes were beginning to get misty as they were overcome by the fear of, having been caught now, turned over to their parents for their behavior.

Before any of them could bawl though, Jin smiles and closes his eyes, lazily cocking his head to the right, and kneeling down to better look at the kids face to face. As he did these motions, he brought his hands up, as if all defensive.

"There, there, don't cry. I'm just jokin-"

"HIYAAAAAAAH!" The leader brat chose now to strike, shouting first before taking a running jump off the building and coming down on Jin who only had to lazily shift his eyes upwards to see ... that the brat had a kunai in his hand. 'Tā mā de ...' he curses in the native language of his family, a foreign tongue in this land, that once was just as foreign to him before. Fortunately, his hands were already brought up, close together, and the other brats were now looking up towards the building, their backs turned to him and heads looking up.

In a blur of movement, he began to form handseals as the leader hit the edge of the roof. He planned to jump up, as opposed to dropping down straight in for the kill. Those seals, formed in a blur at a third a second each, were Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog,  and Snake. His chakra moulded, and with his speed, he quickly slid his left leg out into a rock, wedging his foot beneath it's rounded surface and fling it gently over into an arc that would land where he was currently in a strange, flexible position in. The jutsu and decoy in place, he slid his other leg outwards, falling flat against the sandy ground, on his left side, and rolled backwards to avoid having the rock strike him, instead thudding into place where he had been squatting. At this point, the leader brat, making the mistake of jumping, reached the height of his arc of motion, just in time for Jin to push himself off the ground with his hands and hurriedly skedaddle over into the small alley beside the building whose shadow they were resting in, and turn around to watch the mayhem. And that mayhem was the child leader looking down after he had moved out of the way and see the illusory body-double of him, via Replacement Technique (actually a rock), still squatting low.

The brat would drop down and over, driving his kunai into what would have been Jin's back. But instead it cleanly went through and met a hard rock, as the child also faceplanted (really landed on his shoulder. Jumping and then diving was always such a terrible idea) into the sand below. The illusion was dispersed after the failed attack, revealing the rock he had set in place. Had he been better with ninjutsu and taijutsu, he wouldn't have had to take as much effort to set it up convincingly.

"Bravo, bravo!" He slowly claps while leaning against the side of the building, catching his breath. The leader child hurriedly sat upright, but couldn't find the energy to stand up and run, the remnants of a broken kunai handle was in his hand.

"I guess you really DID steal a kunai from a ninja!"

"... ... yes?"

"I must say, unless they were distracted really bad, that's actually pretty cool that you did that."

"... Am I in trouble?"

"Only if you don't listen to what I say~"

"... okay."

"Now, kids. I just want you to all know, I'm not a stick in the mud. I'm not even an adult myself! So I know that sometimes school is boring ... and sometimes parents can be annoying. And that sometimes, you just wanna do really fun things for cool. I mean! Cool things for fun! BUT! What you..." His left finger pokes out from its position in his crossed arms, directly at the child who had attacked him. "You did something that's not only very wrong, but dangerous. Because of that, I can't let you all go free today."

The kids nervously gulp when he says this, what sort of punishment were they going to receive?

"If you're gonna learn about ninjutsu, ninja tools and just the general way of the shinbi, which ... I mean, it is really cool stuff, but you can't just learn about the cool things! You gotta learn about the spirit of being a ninja, and to treat friends and innocent people with respect!" This was certainly not the lecture those kids were expecting it seems, given their quizzical looks. Would they not be punished today?

"SO! I'm gonna conscript your all to be junior ninjas for today and you're gonna learn to be proper people by helping others!"

At which point the kids collectively groaned, THIS was their punishment? Chores?! They'd rather he take them home and tell their parents at this point.

"Tut tut! No complaining! Otherwise we'll go for two hours instead of just one!"

Another chorus of groans.

OOC:
Jutsu used - Body Replacement Technique(E): 5 chakra * 0.9 (10% reduction, Nin-2) = 4.5 Chakra
Remaining Chakra: 100(Pool) - 4.5(Deduction) = 95.5
Wordcount - 2100
Target - 600
Excess - 1500

Spoiler:

The last mission for today was the easiest. After herding a pack of small children like a confused paraplegic, drunk shepherd, guard duty was a piece of cake. The evening sun was now setting, casting an almost blood-red light over the desert and Sunagakure. But within the walls and natural barriers, the sun had fallen low enough to make it appear as if it were night already. The guard captain on duty at the time was, like the foreman before, unsurprised both at the fact Jin was here for volunteering and also the fact that in the grand scheme of things, Jin was bit unimpressive. What he was surprised by was his volunteering for a night shift.

"In the dead of night, where barely anyone signs up voluntarily and we actually have to draw lots to figure out who to assign. Why would you want such a terrible thing?" The wizened captain stares at him intensely, questioningly studying his posture, his bearings, was he checking if Jin was mentally unwell?

"I figured it'd be cooler?"

"It's guard duty, son. Nothing cool or glorious about it, you'll usually be the first line of defense if anything goes wr-"

"No, no. I mean like, less warm. Cooler."

"... Bwahahahaha!"

After getting laughed at for a few more minutes before the captain had regained his composure and breath, Jin was then assigned to watch from the upper vantage point, directly atop the cliff face. After the umpteenth climb to the top, the teen stopped to take in the sight. Despite the numerous times he had rushed here, ferrying and carrying things and messages, he hadn't really ... stopped to take in the view. The last red rays of the sun shone over the horizon, basking the ground and the sand dunes beyond in a glorious light.

"Quite the sight, isn't it?" An unfamiliar voice sounds off from behind. Jin slightly turns back to see ... one of the guards. Definitely not a shinobi, given lack of any identifying markers of one, but then that would mean a civilian guard? Not unheard of nor uncommon, given most guards were merely watchmen, scouring the desert to observe any movement, and report. Since ninja were expected to go about missions that could conflict with such a responsibility or even be deployed off in a foreign land, it was only logical for civilians to be contracted

"Yes. You are ... ?" He politely answers the ... likely rhetorical question, before studying the guardsman. Whoever he was, he didn't seem to be all that old, frankly, more likely a young adult or barely past the cusp of adulthood. Yet, here he was with a career as a civilian guard.

"Kenryuu, Kurou. And you?" He replies genially, before turning the question back on him with a bit of a smirk. Jin blinks, once, twice and realizes his blunder. Asking someone for their name without first introducing himself, goodness.

"Liu, Jinxiang." He stammers.

"Hrmm ... not a name from around the Land of Wind. Guessing you or your family wasn't from around here originally?" Damn, the Kurou person was perceptive. Or maybe his name was noticeably different?

"Family wasn't. Immigrated here ... actually, I think I was just a baby when we came here. So I guess I'm also not from around here originally, either."

"Well, pleased to meet you either way. Night watch's pretty dull given it's pretty quiet."

"Yeah, I can ... uh ... hear that, ahaha ..."

One last laugh between the two of them, before night settled. In a few hours, his shift here would be done, and he would return home, enjoying the cool night air

OOC:
Wordcount - 600
Target - 600