5 D-Rank Missions [Grinding]

Suffocation… he couldn’t breathe. The voices… the mocking laughter. The shadows… the shadows that would not leave him alone. All the familiar faces that he had watched die, unable to do anything. Unable to help, or to protect. He was weak. The faces that blamed him. The people he would never see again. Again and again he saw them. He’d see them from the corner of his eyes within a shadow, and immediately they’d disappear if he looked directly at them. They blamed him. It was his fault they all died, or were orphaned, or will never again be able to find even the smallest scrap of happiness… every bit of it was his fault.

His eyes opened and he was screaming. There were tears running down his cheeks and his screaming continued, impossible to distinguish between fear, guilt, anger, or almost any other emotion. His entire body shook and a cold sweat took over. He shivered, and he was hot. He lay wet in his bed soaked in sweat, in the dark, his throat hoarse from the sheer volume at which he’d been screaming. At nightmare… again. They’d plagued him over the past few months, and he couldn’t shake them. They were terrifying.

He was psychologically frail now. He was just… fragile. Slowly, he rose from his bed and switched on the light to the bedroom where he’d been staying, not allowed to live on his own because of his age, despite being a capable ninja and being expected to be able to spend weeks on end in the wilderness, alone. It was strange. The woman who allowed Roku to stay here was a sweet old lady, and she’d do almost anything for a complete stranger, so the young Genin had to return the favor in cleaning the bedroom before he left.

He stripped his bed of all its sheets and blankets and threw them in the wash, he wiped off the nightstand next to his bed and replaced his alarm clock and lamp back onto the table after he’d moved them to the floor to clean the nightstand. He swept the floor twice, and once again scoured it for any bits of trash he may have forgotten, before placing the broom and dustpan back in the cupboard where they belong. He checked under his bed, behind and under tables, and everything else before moving to the living room and bathrooms where he did the same thing. He made sure to avoid the lady’s bedroom, however, in an effort not to disturb her because he always rose fairly early.

When he exited the house, a piece of paper lay on the porch with his instructions for the day. A list of D-Rank missions. The village had a surplus of higher ranked Shinobi, so Roku had almost no chance of getting a C-Rank mission, let alone a B-Rank mission for the Chuunin Exams that were to be coming up soon. But it was okay. The young Genin found these missions to be oddly soothing, docile in comparison with the rest of the chaos in his life.

As he walked down the street to his various clients for his D-Ranked missions, Roku saw an old lady walking across the street with a terrible load of groceries wrapped around each of her wrists. Feeling sorry for her, the boy took off at a run, hurrying to catch up with her. He called after her a few times before she actually answered, probably bad hearing that came with her advanced age.

“Hey! Hey, ma’am!” Roku yelled after the old lady.

The old lady turned around, slightly confused. “Yes, son? What do you need?”

“I just wanted to offer to help you with your bags.”

“Oh, son, that’s really not necess-“

“Nonsense, let me help.” Roku cut the woman off as he grabbed at her bags, making sure to get most of them. Even he struggled with these, so he had little clue as to how the woman had lugged the bags this far. He nearly tripped at one point and had to react very quickly to keep himself standing. Somewhat embarrassed, Roku smiled at the old woman, speaking casually, “I’m glad that wasn’t you, ma’am, you aren’t a trained Shinobi.”

The old lady simply laughed, and, in a comical manner, said “Well, honey, I don’t think I would have tripped over nothing either.”

“Fair point,” Roku laughed.

“Ah, we’re here. Just go ahead and take these inside and I’ll get you some cookies! How’s that sound dearie?”

Though he was about to protest, Roku realized he hadn’t had anything sweet to eat since his home village was destroyed, so he agreed to join the lady for milk and cookies. She told him stories about some cats that he cared little about, but he laughed anyway so as to avoid being a rude guest after she offered him some cookies. The cookies tasted great, and they reminded him of when his mother would bake him cookies after a hard day of training and improvement. However, though he felt bad for doing so, he had to eat and run, for the young boy had other things to attend to that day. He left the old woman with many thanks and promised many times that it wasn’t a hassle to help her with her bags – though, of course it was, but he wouldn’t tell her that – and he left the house quickly.

On his way out, he saw some children run by the old lady’s house followed by a frazzled young teenage girl. Spotting Roku, and probably his headband as well, she asked him for help. “Ooooohh you’re a ninja! Help, my boss is gonna kill me!”

Shocked, Roku responded with a bit of concern, though in a joking laugh as well, “I left the front door open when I went to make the children at the daycare lunch and they all got out! I don’t know where any of them are and I’m really worried about them and my job security.”

“How many are there?”

“Fourteen in total, I already rounded up five, so nine. But I have to get back to the daycare before they get out too, can you help?”

“Yes, sure, hurry.”

She poor girl – pretty though she was – gave the young boy a piece of paper that seemed to be class photos of all the children. The ones already caught had an ‘X’ beside each of their names, and the rest were up to Roku to catch. The two that were fleeing the girl before were bore down on almost instantaneously, no match for Roku’s speed. He scooped them up and made them follow him back to the daycare. He, in turn tracked down each of the other seven small children and returned them to the daycare. Upon his return with the last child, the young girl thanked Roku endlessly and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to freeze almost immediately, blushing hard.

“Thank you so much! Thank you thank you thank!”

“Uhhh… it was uh… no problem.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was a hassle, thanks!”

Blushing, Roku left after she handed him some money for a job well done.

Now, the young Kaguya headed back to the Hokage’s mansion to turn in his missions for the day. Along the way, he saw another old lady weeding her garden and he stopped to help. He pulled all the unwanted weeds up quite quickly in comparison to the speed at which she had been operating, though he did accidentally pull a beautiful flower which wasn’t supposed to come up. He apologized endlessly, but she assured him it was no problem. She rewarded him with cookies as well, of which he ate a few, but once he was out of sight of her home, he threw them away because he had already eaten so many earlier.

Again, however, he was stopped, when he saw the fourth elderly lady raking her own lawn, struggling valiantly to do so with almost no success. Wordlessly, Roku approached her and took the rake, pooling all the leaves into one pile with his extreme speed and dexterity. Next, he placed all of the leaves that he had gathered into trash bags and placed them on the streets to be picked up later by the trash crew. This lady offered cookies as well, but Roku politely declined, saying he needed to make his way back to the Hokage mansion to report.

On his way, he saw many more struggling old ladies, but he didn’t stop to help them because he was so low on time. He hurried to the Hokage’s mansion and turned in the paper that was placed in his care that morning and signed in all the places he needed to sign before signing a full report of all he’d done that day. He worked anxiously, in a hurry to be able to go out into the woods to train. Finally finished, Roku placed the report on the desk and sprinted out the door.