A couple days after Ashiro's first mission as a shinobi, he was given a very peculiar mission. It was to help a convenience store owner figure out why he had a high turnover rate at a specific branch of his store. Ashiro accepted the mission, as he didn't want to look like a picky genin, but he thought that this was a bit ridiculous. "Why are SHINOBI of all people helping a small company out?", he thought, "Well whatever, I always wanted to go undercover like the high ranking shinobi." Ashiro takes his new uniform, a red long sleeve shirt with the company's name printed on the top left, Leaf's Nutrients, and black pants with red shoes, and heads over to the convenience store. He walks into the store and is greeted by a bell ringing. The sound was sharp and soft at the same time. Looking around Ashiro noticed that nobody was there to greet him. Ashiro walks over to the counter and yells out for the owner. As Ashiro waited for the owner to appear, he looked around the store. It was a fairly large convenience store with a brown floor that resembled dirt, the walls were painted like the inside of Konoha with the exit being the gate leading out of the village, and the ceiling was painted with a beautiful sky, a sky so beautiful that it's rarely seen even for the nice weather of The Land of Fire. While, Ashiro looks around the store, the owner appeared from the back and knew that Ashiro was the shinobi that was assigned to help him figure out why only this branch had such a high turnover rate. His rough old voice spoke, "Ahhh! You must be the Nara boy assigned to help me with this store. I will tell everyone that you're a new employee here. Do whatever you want to determine the cause of the high turnover rate. I will be here for the rest of today, but only today. I must go manage my other stores." Nodding in response, Ashiro walks toward the cash register and gets ready for work. Ashiro didn't know what to think of the owner, but he at least seems to respect shinobi and regards them highly, especially since he basically told a genin that he could use any method he wanted. As the day went on, Ashiro met with the store manager, the other cashier, and the inventory manager. The store manager was charismatic and nice, while the cashier seemed shy and possibly aloof, but the inventory manager was the one he connected with. The inventory manager was relaxed and fun, he showed Ashiro the back and even goofed around with him on shopping carts during the slow times of the shop. The day came to an end with Ashiro finding no reason why someone would quit, especially since the employees working there were really nice. At the end of the day, Ashiro closed the store with the manager and chatted with him for a while. The conversation was mainly small talk about the hobbies and interests of Ashiro and the manager, however, as Ashiro asked the manager if he had a wife, his response was kind of strange. The manager said, "Well I think having a wife may actually impede my interests with women, the similar to how the owner messed with my routine. He scrutinizes everything we do and it makes it hard for us to be ourselves." They close up shop and as Ashiro walks back home. While he's walking home, Ashiro tries to piece together a reason on why the store has a high turnover rate. He thought that based on what the manager said, it might just be that the owner isn't giving their employees enough freedom and they are quitting due to the discomfort that the owner is generating with his presence and watchful eye. Ashiro, confident in his reasoning, he heads to sleep thinking that he will watch the other employees tomorrow to see if they are more relaxed without the owner. The next day rolls around and Ashiro heads into work wearing his uniform. The bell dings as he enters and he is greeted with the employee who is changing shifts with Ashiro. A polite exchange occurs and Ashiro is back behind the register scanning items and giving change. As a method of mitigating the tediousness of being a cashier, Ashiro sparks a conversation with the other cashier. After a few exchanges, Ashiro asks her what reason for working here is. She replies, "I always went to this store as a child with my parents. Since we lived outside the village, sometimes it feels like we really aren't citizens of Konoha, but this shop made me feel like I really was a part of the village. The decor and aura of the store that screams "Welcome home" is what made me really like Leaf's Nutrients. It always hurts whenever I leave the store because the gate drawn on the door makes it feel like I'm leaving the village, then shortly after, we leave the village to head back home. But this visual of the village entrance is, really, what made me want to work here, it's just so warm and welcoming." She was trying hard to hide the smile that had crept up while she was monologuing. This caught Ashiro off guard, since we wasn't expecting such a serious answer. After the conversation, Ashiro took a moment to take in the decor of the building. Looking at each of the walls and remembering his new coworkers, he understood what she said. "This store really does have a warm feeling.", Ashiro thought, "Oh well, time to goof around with the inventory guy, now that there's nobody left in the store." Ashiro goes in the back and meets up with the inventory manager. He sees the inventory manager sitting in his chair with a bunch of new cardboard boxes. Seeing Ashiro, the inventory manager says with a smile, "Hey! We just got some more goods shipped. Wanna guess what's in each one?" Excitedly, Ashiro agrees. After all the boxes were revealed, Ashiro went back towards his position as the cashier. As he reared the corner Ashiro saw the manager standing behind the other cashier uncomfortably close. Taking a closer look Ashiro sees the manager whisper some words into the other cashier's ear. Her face freezes for a moment and almost as if time had slowed down, Ashiro witnesses the manager move his hand out of his pocket and onto his coworker's ass. Ashiro's face turned sour and he instantly went over grabbing his coworker's hand, flinging her behind him. "What are you doing?!", Ashiro exclaimed. "I'm not doing anything if you ever want to move up the company, but if you can't handle how things are run here, you can just quit. However, if you say a word of this to anyone, you'll never find another job ever again and they probably won't even believe you. Do you know how well I've networked with other companies? Nobody will ever believe a nobody." Ashiro became infuriated at how cocky and insulting the manager was. Without a word to the manager Ashiro took his coworker with him outside, yelling to the inventory manager that he might have to cover for both the cashiers. After leaving the store, Ashiro told her not to worry about him and that he will be fired soon. Ashiro told her about his mission and that he was a Konoha shinobi, specifically leaving out the part of him being a genin. On the verge of tears, she says, "Thank you so much. I thought I might've never been able to see the warmth and welcoming feeling of that store ever again because of that bastard." Ashiro told her to head home and come back tommorow so she can watch the fucker pack his shit. Waving her bye, Ashiro went to find the store owner. He tells the owner the abuse of power that the manager is participating in and how he took sexual advantage of one of the employees. Ashiro made sure to include the manager's dislike of the owner's watchful eye as a preemptive strike on any possible arguments the owner had. The owner responds saying, "Thank you. This is a error on my part for overlooking my managers when I check on my stores. If this had gone on any longer, then serious problems might've arisen. I'm going to need to look into my managers more before I hire them. Don't worry, I'll take proper action to address this situation. Once again, Thank you." Ashiro felt euphoric knowing that he saved a girl's positive image of the village that he so dearly loved and the take-down of an asshole. Ashiro goes to sleep thinking about his family and friends that he sees in his daily routine as a shinobi. "There really is no place like home.", Ashiro thought. Falling into slumber, Ashiro was glad that the village assigned him this mission, it really helped him appreciate his home and allowed him to get to know the everyday workers/citizens of his home. The next morning he heads into the store and instead of seeing the manager packing his stuff, the Leaf's police force was inside putting him in stone handcuffs that must have been created from a Stone release jutsu. Looking around, Ashiro finds his coworker smiling, but this time she wasn't trying to hide the smile.






WC: 1623

1623 - 750 = 873 Word Cost for Mission Completion
873 - 750 = 123 Ranking Endurance from E -> D
123 - 75 = 48 Ranking up Speed from E -> E-1