The wind blew with a howling whistle as the fields of rice blew in the wind, the appearance was different from the rice from before as some rice was white. However amidst the white rice was another very different kind of rice, it was a dark black rice that seemed to eclipse the snow white rice on the other end as a boy was laying back along the edge with the irrigation holding a good amount of water. He had learnt from a farmer that having a reservoir would be a good idea, but he had yet to build it as he needed more money to pay for that or at least the materials from the forest. He smiled as he looked up to the sky and began to wonder if anyone would come help him out in his field, he really needed to get quite a few things done and he even had his sign up which read.

"Help me please, going to be building a reservoir for my rice fields. Free bowl of rice fresh from the field and also need help with my new plants I am going to be growing."

Words 194

Sourai was heading towards the rice paddies that were found in the Land of Lightning, specifically one where he had heard someone complain about a small yellow monster creating havoc and wreaking the peace of the land.

“What kind of little creature can cause that much trouble?” he wondered.

His mind flashed back to a few days ago, where he had first heard of ‘the yellow beast’. According to some of the people hanging around the bars, they had claimed to have seen a yellow monster who words alone could deafen and whose actions were so deft that you were lucky to be alive after it made its move. At first, he had dismissed such claim as being completely foolish and nothing more than gossip that ran wild after several drunkards had one too many bottles of alcohol and were too busy enjoying their drunken stupor to look for flaws in their arguments.

However, in the next few days, Sourai had overheard a young woman complain to her neighbour about how there had been a yellow monster in the rice paddies, and how worried she was about the farmer who supposedly worked those rice paddies. She had been especially fearful that his absence meant that the monster had used him as a snack, and had stated that any mission request that had been submitted to Kumo had been turned down for no reason, as if the monster itself was some sort of village experiment.

Sourai had discussed this with his Jounin guard the next time they had their chase. He had used this new information as an excuse to leave the village, in that he was taking care of some business regarding a small little yellow monster that had been terrorising the Land of Lightning in hopes of putting the fears of the civilians of Kumogakure to rest. It had been enough to get him past the village gates, and as he had been prepared to sprint out of the village for the first town he could see so he could enjoy some of their fine wine, he felt the familiar chakra of his Jonin sensei flare, and the chase had been on.

Upon being caught, his Jonin sensei had been very amused at hearing of how he had exited the village that time, as compared to others, and had promptly written up a mission report for him to help the civilians deal with the little yellow monster. Sourai wondered why it took so long for Kumo to even draft a mission as simple as the one he had seen made in front of his very eyes, but paid it little mind, though his eyes did catch onto the small smirk that his Jonin sensei gave him upon his declaration that it would be an easy task.

Smirks like that were never good. People like his Jonin sensei were never fun. This was going to be a heck of a mission he would not enjoy.

Of course, that was what he had initially thought until ‘not enjoy’ just deteriorated into utter boredom because he had absolutely nothing to do. He didn’t want to waste his chakra in case this ‘yellow monster’ turned out to be something that he couldn’t handle without the full use of his chakra, but being relegated to walking all the way to the rice paddies was boring as all curse words would allow.

He finally reached the designated rice paddies, however, and he saw the wooden sign, slightly tilted, that read ‘Help me please, going to be building a reservoir for my rice fields. Free bowl of rice fresh from the field and also need help with my new plants I am going to be growing.’

‘Huh, I guess the farmer didn’t get eaten after all,’ Sourai thought. ‘Unless this was put up before he became a snack.’

Keeping his eyes alert, he called out in the direction of the rice paddies. “Hello, is anyone there? Anyone? Anyone at all?”

WC: 667

He heard a sound, the sound of steps, of feet not his own but of someone else as he sit hidden within the fields of long grown grassy rice. As he rose up he was getting the feeling the rice fields were outgrowing him. In that moment all that could be seen was his yellow tuft of hair as it rose up sticking out just above the top of the rice as it began to move.

Pitter patter, soft silent sounds as he made his way barefoot within the fields making his way towards the stranger as he jumped out from the fields with a giant flying glomp. The only reason anyone would come to his field would of course be to help out right, if not he could always use this chance to attack them before they could attack him. You might think a glomp would be a bit much but he was worried no one would come so the excitement of someone arriving was just too great. If allowed to latch on to his target he would with a smile say.

"hi, thanks for coming here to help me" though that might be very girly sounding since his voice was still quite feminine which was another story altogether. His eyes were bright red however they had begun fading recently for reasons unknown to those around the village he was changing and with good reason. He spent his time in the rice fields avoiding the other villagers since his chuunin exam success seemed more of a burden then anything else, but not only was he their champion but Kumogakure were now two time back to back winners of the Chuunin Exams.

He was living a quiet life and little known was it to him what the future would hold in this mysterious encounter of the small boy with the golden hair and the young man with the equally golden hair. It was the bonding of blondes if it ever got to that point as the main thing now was whether this was an ally or an enemy.

Words 194 + 348 = 542

Sourai put both hands on his hips in exasperation as he waited for an answer, though he didn’t get one immediately. He then interlaced his fingers, with them facing outwards and his arms straight and almost parallel to the ground, before stretching. He heard the small distinct cracks of the joints in his arms and fingers, which did begin to feel slightly sore after hours of inactivity save for the travel.

“Maybe the farmer did get eaten after he put up that sign. Huh, poor sod. Okay then, it seems I have a monster to hunt,” he said, more so to himself than anyone in particular.

Sourai had been about to carefully walk into the square rice fields when suddenly, he saw a tuft of yellow hair pop up out of nowhere. Instantly, his mind latched onto the description that had been placed in the mission description, reading in a very panicked voice (or handwriting) ‘yellow monster’. While this looked more like a tuft of hair than the beginnings of a beast, he wasn’t going to throw aside the possibility that it was the yellow monster he was hunting and exterminating for the sake of the people.

He bent his body down slightly, especially at the waist and knees, so that he could gain more balance, and began to slowly inch towards the rice fields, when once again, suddenly, the tuft of hair began to rapidly approach him. The rice fields began splitting, giving way to the rapidly approaching object. He prepared to launch a jutsu, with his fingers needlessly weaving through a few sets of hand signs to further augment his concentration and chakra control, building up his chakra subtly so that he wouldn’t alert his target, or cause a panic in case it was the farmer himself.

What happened next Sourai would undoubtedly laugh over dinner.

A small figure leapt out of the edge of the rice fields, and Sourai almost launched a wind jutsu at him with the speed at which he was jumping. It was only the startling realisation that it was a small child with blond hair and red eyes that Sourai had managed to step down and avoid tearing the boy to pieces. In his hesitance, though, he was instead attacked by the child, who hugged him (yes, hugged him; god he was never going to live this one down if word got out) and latched onto him tightly.

“Hi, thanks for coming here to help me!” he said, though in a surprisingly feminine voice.

“Uh, yeah, sure, um, person,” he said. “Are you the farmer here? Have you seen a yellow monster around anywhere?”

Words: 444 + 667 = 1111

He was not sure why the man seemed so surprised which made him wonder if he did something wrong as he looked up to the man. He heard the man ask if he was the farmer and mentioned something about a yellow monster. He thought about it for a moment and looked up to the man almost as if there was a bit of pity in his eyes before looking down.

"This is my farm..." as he looked to the side before looking back up to the man slowly. "There is no yellow monster, the farmers were just making fun of me cause you can only see my hair. They must be laughing about it really hard." He looked down and had tears building up in his eyes before sniffing as he looked up now releasing the man from the hug before falling to his knees and splitting his legs apart slightly. "So you not really here to help me."

A part of it was genuine and to some degree he was exaggerating just a bit, but he had been asking for help for days now and no one ever wants to help him. The other farmers are too busy and most normal people do not want to be stuck doing farming during the day, not counting that it can be hard work. He even tried to convince some shinobi at the headquarters but they said they were better off sparring or training in the woods. Did no one understand the beauty of raising life, or growing your own food so you can eat whenever you want to.

Would this strange man help him and how could these farmers do such a thing scaring people away from his farm like that.

Words 542 + 291 = 833

“This is my farm,” the small boy had introduced, which had actually taken Sourai by surprise.

He never would have thought that anyone that young would be working a farm alone. He had thought to ask if the boy’s parents were around to ask them a few questions, or if they were even helping him with the farm at all, but then decided against it. With how he was living out here, he probably had lost his parents, and asking about it would only bring up bad memories. Besides, ask about it or not, it didn’t change the fact that they weren’t here, and it wasn’t something for Sourai to focus on.

“There is no yellow monster,” he had said after looking around for a bit, probably to confirm that there really wasn’t a yellow monster lurking nearby. “The farmers were just making fun of me cause you can only see my hair. They must be laughing about it really hard.”

Well damn. That threw a wrench into his plans. If there was no yellow monster to hunt, there would be no yellow monster to bring back. And, if there would be no yellow monster to bring back, there would be no way to convince them that he had managed to get rid of the yellow monster, which meant that his C-rank mission would be completely annulled. There would be no C-rank to complete, and if there was no C-rank mission to complete, there would be no C-rank mission reward to get and… Damnit!

That bastard Jonin-sensei of his… No wonder he had been so ready to give Sourai this mission to take solo! It wasn’t to train him up; it was just because that damned guy was too lazy to do it himself and needed someone to help him debunk the rumours that he already knew the truth to!

In retrospect, though, Sourai would never have believed the man if he had told him that the yellow monster that the entire village had been going on about was just a small blonde farmer whose height didn’t even breach the rice paddies’. Worse still, these rumours had been spread by other farmers, probably just a bunch of old geezers who were trying to make fun of a young boy trying to encroach on their profession, either for the very fun of it or out of fear for their own business. Either way, Sourai wasn’t impressed, but he would do his job and debunk these rumours anyway.

He just hoped that debunking them and putting the village at ease would earn him a small fraction of the ryo. Even a small miniscule fraction would be enough! That was all he would ask for!

“So you’re not really here to help me,” the boy then said.

Sourai found himself between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, he had a mission to complete, and given that he had technically discovered the truth to the rumours and was able to confirm that there was indeed no monster, he was required by Kumogakure’s policy to report back to the administration building as soon as he could to collect his reward (at least he hoped there would be a reward this time) and put the people’s minds to ease. However, on the other hand, this boy was also a native to the Land of Lightning (well, once again, he hoped so) and he was possibly also from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, just like himself, so he would be going against his very nature to avoid helping this boy. Heck, this was a boy! What kind of a person would he be if he ignored someone who was in need of help like this boy?! Why, that would make him almost as bad as the farmers!

Sourai sighed and bent down to the farmer’s level. “Hey, what’s your name?” he would ask. After getting his name, he would say, “Well then, I need to return to the village to debunk all these yellow monster rumours. It’s a duty of the ninja of the Cloud, after all. And after that, I’ll come back and help you with your crops. And I might even bring some friends along, now that they know there’s no yellow monster to be afraid of!”

After this, Sourai turned away from the farm, returning to his village, with every intent on fulfilling the words that he had promised the young farmer. He would return here with some help the next day, and he knew the farmer could count on it just as much as he could.

Of course, a small part of him was planning to pay his sensei a little visit as well. That damned man had known all this while that there was indeed no yellow monster for Sourai to fight. That man had played Sourai like a fiddle and gotten him all excited for a fight for nothing, and that man was probably sitting back in his home right now smoking a pipe and feeling smug about himself.

Well then, Sourai would see who would have the last laugh, when he would draft his lazy ass bum of a sensei who only knew how to drag him back to the higher ups every time he performed a 'misdeed' as one of the few people he would be bringing back to helping the young farmer with his farm.

And he knew that this one he could most definitely count on happening.

[Exit thread]

OOC: Sorry for the late reply. I actually forgot about Saga for awhile. My bad.

Words: 935 + 1111 = 2046

Training everything from E-0 to E-2: 225 x 5 = 1125
Training everything but Strength from E-2 to E-3: 225 x 4 = 900

That leaves 21 words unused and discarded.