A special structure was recently commissioned to honor both those who have and will fall. As well as a piece to remember the fires of Amaretsu. All materials for construction had been gathered and sat waiting to be put together. Several slabs of a dark granite lay on a cart to be put up, while a large statue had been previously sat ready to be erected in it's new home. Overall the plan was simple though would likely take it's time and be tedious. The day would consist of setting up the slabs of granite to form a pair of walls to display the names of the ninja who have fallen in defense of Kiri, this alone would likely take hours, each name was still to be etched into the granite. A waterfall was to flow between the walls, into a pool of water. The Amaretsu statue was to sit within the center of the pool of water. The statue was to display the names all who fell victim to the Amaretsu fire.

Kaguza woke up early that morning though mainly to make a quick run to what was acting as the administration building during reconstruction. A large scroll sat on his shoulder, it's content was all those who ninja who had died in action over the past few hundred years. It was a miracle that most of the village's records had survived the fire. The crew to put together the memorial sat around socializing and having a laugh. Unless a higher ranked ninja was sent to oversee the project, Kaguza was in charge. Though knowing what construction crews were like from his father, he would only make sure everything was in order for them to work efficiently. With the scroll in hand, there was now nothing to halt their work, aside from waiting for the sun to rise a bit more to provide better lighting. Setting the scroll down with his hammers next to it, Kaguza sat down leaning against the cart carrying the granite slabs. It was likely he'd be doing a lot of heavy lifting today.

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Tsuneko woke up in a room shared with a few other girls that had been a part of the crew sent down for the reconstruction. It was a weird feeling, waking up among these strangers. Before the fire, she had always had her own room, and after the fire, she had been put up in a small apartment by herself in Konoha. She looked forward to the day when she had a place that she could call home again, instead of this temporary housing that they were all staying in; however, the rebuilding of private property was not very high on the priority list. Getting dressed in her normal ‘work’ attire, the girl slipped on a crimson, sleeveless shirt and a charcoal-colored, short skirt over a pair of fitted black shorts. Picking her Kirigakure forehead protector up from where she’d tied it around the footboard of her simple bed, she hesitated only a moment before tying it in its traditional place, on her forehead. Although her white bangs were long, they didn’t completely mask her clan’s marks. Being back in Kiri brought back the memories of prejudice that the villagers held against members of her clan who inherited their Kekkei Genkai, and although she had resolved that she could no longer deny her bloodline trait, it was easy to fall back into the habit of anonymity, when it came to her clan, when walking around the village. She tied back her long hair with an elastic as she walked into the common room. Picking out breakfast from their stores, Tsuneko ate on the way to the Administration Building, or what was being used as it for now.

Receiving her assignment to work on the construction of a memorial, Tsuneko headed over to the site. She had been told to look for Kaguza Myugan whom had already been sent there. The name sounded familiar. One of the ninja who had traveled here from Konoha, probably, but if it had been someone in her group, she would have remembered him better. ‘Kaguza…Kaguza…Kaguza…’ she thought as her lilac eyes scanned the group of people gathered at the site. Spying a blonde standing separate from the others, she headed that way. As she neared, she recognized him as the late-comer, particularly the one that was the oldest of the group but still managed to arrive late. It looked like that was an aberration from his normal behavior as he had beaten her here today, and the sun was barely up. When she was within a comfortable speaking distance she offered the older shinobi a smile. “Hey there. I’m not sure if we were ever properly introduced. My name’s Tsuneko. It looks like we’ll be working together today.” Her tone was friendly enough.

While waiting for a response, she looked over at the cart he was leaning against. ‘Those slabs look heavy.’ She was fairly strong for her size, but her size, at five feet, two inches and just over a hundred pounds, was not very large. Despite her second specialty of Taijutsu, her physical training had fallen a bit lax over time. Between trying to hide her bloodline abilities as a student to not appear threatening to the judgmental civilians and the interruption of the fire once she had graduated, her skill with Medical Ninjutsu was definitely predominant at this point. ‘What better way to get back in shape?’ she asked herself, for this job would definitely require some strength. ‘Surely they have some sort of pulley system set up though…’

Spoiler:

Kaguza stood back up when he saw Tsuneko approach him. He recognized her from the trip back to Kiri, he was late that day so he didn't catch her name. He had been given the lead for this project, so it didn't seem likely that this girl was higher rank then he was, though his ability to judge people had yet to yield any merit. Tsuneko also seemed bout as young as they come, though again he was hardly ever accurate, this time he wasn't going to question it. "Kaguza Myugan, I look forward to working with you. I remember you from Konoha, though no, we didn't have to opportunity to be introduced at the time."

Picking the foreman out of the small groups, Kaguza inquired if the construction crew were ready. With the crew being ready, they began there work. The area had been previously cleared away. "Tsuneko why don't you oversee the waterfall, just keep in mind that were here to help with what ever we can, not actually order the work crew around. I'll help out with the memorial walls." He didn't know what skill set this girl had, though for a project like this it wouldn't hinder there schedule.

Nothing overly exciting occurred over the next hour or so as the crew set to installing anchor points to hold the granite slabs. With a few joke that bordered inappropriate specially for children, the atmosphere was fairly calm even laughter broke the rhythm occasionally. Kaguza's ability with earth and earth chakra came in handy, though his skill with hammers were enough. Eventually it was time to start putting up the granite slabs. With the help of several others, the cart carrying the granite slabs was easily moved to a position allowing easier placement of the slabs. One problem did arise, this was a project more to boost moral. All the cranes that had been constructed or repaired were in use for more required projects. Setting his hammers aside as well as his coat, Kaguza saw it more as a challenge. He stretched while a few men set up the first of the slabs. They simply pushed one off the top and stood it up into place. With a deep breath, Kaguza slid one of the slabs and focused his chakra to lift the slab. The chakra was almost visible as he boosted his physical strength, though he was moving slow, he managed to get the slab up by himself.

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Tsuneko stood back as Kaguza called the foreman over, not troubled as he took the lead on this mission; he was noticably older than she was, and it just seemed natural for him to take that role. As the crew split into groups, she took his instructions with a nod and went to see what she could do. Finding her group clustered around another cart, she headed over that way. Taking up essentially all the room in the cart was a large black sculpture. The stone was carved to resemble the black fire of Amaterasu, and the sculptor was clearly quite skilled as the different tongues of ‘fire’ seemed to flick up and around, twisting in and out of eachother. Inspecting it closer, she found that the structure already had the names of the burned engraved into it. Apparently the artist did not want to risk an amateur flawing his sculpture with a careless blow from a chisel, and she understood why: at the tips of the flame, the stone was rather thin and a heavy blow could have potentially snapped off a part of it. The structure was obviously quite heavy, and to lessen the amount of distance they would have to carry it, she asked one of the workers to bring the cart over, closer to the water.

Kirigakure, being within the Water Country, was not lacking of waterfalls. As such, there was no need for a ninja to create an artificial one for this memorial. Ignoring the fact that to create a self-sustaining waterfall from a jutsu would take a very powerful ninja, if it was even possible, there was a nice aesthetic in using what nature gave them. While they moved the cart, she waded into the chilly water to see what they would have to deal with; she found it only a couple feet deep and bottomed with pebbles. It probably would have been easier to sit the statue in a mud-bottomed pool, but at least there weren’t any large rocks that they would have to move before proceeding, which is what she told the crew watching her.

Coming out of the water as the cart neared with the statue, one of the men commented, “Someone’s gonna have to hop up there and push it out.” Seeing how the statue was situated, she saw that he was right. It was clearly too heavy to pull out, if they could even get a grip on it, which was unlikely. The fire was seated upon a square base a couple feet tall, clearly made to raise the ‘fire’ out of the pool when it was placed and that base fit pretty snugly in the cart and the smoothed rock didn’t allow any good handholds for them. Seeing them all staring at her, Tsuneko realized that the space between the statue and the front of the cart was rather small… Too small for the burly men that she was with to fit. Clearly she was the one to do the ‘hopping’. Taking their cue, the girl grabbed the side of the cart and used it to vault up and into the front.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver up here. Tsuneko frowned, uncertain on how to proceed. Looking for a place to grab, she saw the symbol for Kaguya etched onto the flames. Reading the names of her extended family numbers saddened her. The Kaguya family had already been small ever since the attempted rebellion against Kirigakure all of those years ago, and now its numbers were cut down again… She forced those thoughts from her mind. She could feel the crew’s eyes upon her and reminded herself that this was a mission; she had to focus. Crouching down as best as she could within the space, the girl braced her feet against the front of the cart and laid her shoulder against the square part of the structure. Using her legs, the Genin pushed against it as hard as she could and was rewarded with the sound of stone sliding over wood. Pausing to breathe and release the tension in her legs, she found that the statue had moved only an inch or so. ‘This is going to take a while,’ she thought.

While she continued to inch the sculpture forward, the men working with her were tempted to laugh at the sight of this little girl trying to push a statue that was taller and easily weighed many more times what she did. However, picking up on her serious nature, they refrained and talked amongst themselves as the time passed. Eventually, she had gotten the sculpture far enough forward that there was room for another up in the front of the cart. Calling one over, he climbed up and joined her. Working together with more room to maneuver, the two of them moved much more quickly, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the crew was able to get underneath the statue and move it out of the cart. Her helper in the cart jumping down to join them, Tsuneko hung back, resting on the edge of the cart. They knew what they were doing, and she would only get in the way. “Is this where you want it?” one of the workers called out to her after a few moments. Looking up, she saw that they were standing in the pool. Scooting down off of the cart, she headed over to them. “A little to the left,” she advised. “That’s it. You’re good.”

They settled the sculpture into the pool and waded out. “Thanks for the help,” one said, as he clapped her on the shoulder. She smiled up at him and followed them over to where Kaguza was putting up the walls. He had already put up the slab by himself by the time they got there. Seeing the blank slab standing there on top of another, she noticed that the walls were already getting pretty tall. Slipping through the people, she made her way over to Kaguza. Standing back so as to ‘give him some air’, as he’d just done a difficult feat, she asked politely, “Do you think that we should, perhaps, go ahead and put the names into the granite before the walls become too tall to reach?”

Spoiler:

The memorial began to truly take shape, the walls were going up and the Amaretsu stone had been successfully placed. The workers were eager to complete the project and call it a day. Kaguza took a moment after moving one of the granite slabs, thankfully he could keep going. He only had to get the slab on top of the one the workers were laying to the wall, that was as high as they were going. Tsuneko appeared to have no problem in helping with the statue and it's placement.

"Unless you do stone carving in your spare time, a separate group of workers will etch the names into the granite. We'd likely be called away to another assignment before they even get half way finished." Kaguza had brought the scroll that listed the names to go on the wall, it was large enough to carry on his shoulder. "Anyways the names need to be legible and uniform. My handwriting isn't exactly a work of art, it's more of an abstract that you throw away." Kaguza laughed as he mocked himself. "Soon as the last of the granite slabs have been placed, our job here is 99% done." One of the workers standing at the top of the wall yelled out at Kaguza since he was taking too long, "Oi! You need a drink already? I'd hate to see how easy it would be to drink ya under the table." Kaguza turned and gave the worker a dirty look, "You can't beat my old man, what makes ya think you'll beat me." It was easy for him to rebut such simple taunts, or rather shake them off, either way no one could beat a male Myugan in a drinking contest. "Let's hurry up and finish the job for today." With that last comment meant for Tsuneko, Kaguza returned to moving the slabs, and getting them up on the anchors. Though it felt like a few hours mostly in his arms and legs, the site was constructed. Tomorrow a group of sculptures would come in and begin putting up the names, the man leading the group had already picked up the scroll and scrutinized the construction crew's product, it was passable.

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‘We….A bad word choice.’ Tsuneko hadn’t meant to imply that she presumed to do the carving herself. ‘Note to self: making inclusive statements isn’t always the best choice.’ She didn’t really understand why the sculptors wouldn’t have added the names before they assembled everything; wouldn’t it be easier to work on something flat? But it wasn’t her place to question. Kaguza was right; she didn’t know anything about stone carving. When Kaguza mocked himself, she responded with just a small smile and a nod, very business-like. She was overly aware of the presence of the workers and felt like they were examining her, just waiting for her to screw up so that they could denounce her. However, in truth, the crew could care less, just thinking that the girl was a little stiff, especially in contrast to her personable counterpart.

“Let’s hurry up and finish the job for today.” Tsuneko moved to help the workers, trying to make herself useful. However, when they found out that she couldn’t ‘do the super-strength thing’ that Kaguza had managed; the crew didn’t have much use for her. Her chakra was accustomed to being used in small, precise jutsus, the delicate process of knitting muscles and tissues together. As much as she might like to, she couldn’t just flip a switch to use it for manual labor. “Girlie, we got this covered. We have a way of doin’ things out here. Works best if it’s just us fellows, ya understand?” She nodded; she understood. This was their job. It was just like civilians trying to help out at the scene of an accident: sometimes they could help out by pushing on something, but in the end, it was easier if they just got out of the way and let the professionals do their job. Fortunately, the rest of the mission didn’t take too much longer, and she only had to awkwardly stand by for a short while.

After the inspector declared the work passable and the crew went about their other business, she turned to Kaguza, hoping that there was something else for them to do. They had started early in the morning and it was sometime around noon now, a good bit of time was left in the day. She was trying hard to keep busy so that she wouldn’t have time brood and despair of their destroyed village, instead using that energy to work on rebuilding it.

Spoiler:

Kaguza sat down against the cart and took a moment to catch a break. His arms and legs were tired, "Good job today Tsuneko." Breathing hard, his sentence was short. "The rest of the day is yours, I'm off to my usual spot, get some more training done for the day." Standing back up, his legs felt very weak, but he still managed to put both of his hammers back into the harness on his back. "Your free to join me, if you want." His stomach seemed to roar, as if demanding he do otherwise. "Or maybe a quick bite to eat would be a better idea. What do you say? My treat." He didn't think that Tsuneko wasn't at least mildly hungry by this point. Though it might look weird for a twenty one year old to have a meal with such a young girl. Though his height didn't make him look that old, but still. He always got crap for being a genin at twenty one, why should this bother him. He was just trying to be nice.

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Tsuneko felt oddly guilty when she realized how worn out Kaguza was. ‘Stop feeling bad. Everyone has different strengths… his was just better suited to this task,’ she tried to console herself but was not very successful; the feeling of being useless was difficult to deal with. At the mention of food, she noticed that she was hungry. She jumped on his invitation to join him, “How about both? Lunch and then training?” she suggested brightly. "Besides, fatigue puts you at higher risk for injury, and it'd be irresponsible of me to let you run off to train later then trip and break an ankle without anyone there to patch you up." The gap in ages and any weird looks that it might draw didn’t really cross her mind. To her he was, basically, just another Genin, and even better, a Genin that could keep her from being alone with her ghosts, for a time anyways.

Spoiler:

"Lunch it is then" Kaguza wasn't one to let a day go to waste, though he didn't do much outside of train and practice his jutsu. Double checking that he had all his stuff on him, which wasn't much, he began the walk towards the village. Stretching himself out as he walked, his body was stiff at this point. He listened to Tsuneko as she spoke, he laughed to himself, there were several occasions where he had injured himself but least nothing major. It would be nice to have a medic there to patch him up should he hurt himself this time. "It's nice to see someone worried about me. Careful though, to some it might seem like there could be deeper meaning to those words." Kaguza simply poked fun, implying Tsuneko having a crush on him, though he didn't think she did. "I'm flattered either way."

((Exit Thread))

Tsuneko beamed; she wouldn’t be stuck by herself all day. She wasn’t always the most outgoing person. She was more of an observer and tended to fade into the backdrop in groups. Because of her reserved manner, she often ended up eating and training on her own. It’d be nice to have some company for a change. This would also, perhaps, give her an opportunity to see the Myugan Kekkei Genkai in action. She had a vague idea that their Chakra made them drunk, but being a clan that originated from Suna, she didn’t know much more than that odd rumor. Looking over at him as he teased her, she laughed and gave an expressive shrug. “Well, you asked me to lunch,” she replied, putting the joke back on him.