Owls of Myoboku

[Rosey Cross]

Walking through the streets of Kirigakure Shiroyasha crossed a street bustling with carriages. Passing him was a carriage covered in red ribbons and towing a cart. On the cart was a pile of mushrooms covered up by a burlap tarp. Shiroyasha looked at the carriage as it passed and his stomach felt queasy. He had never ate mushrooms, he was totally disgusted by them. The ninja stared on and imagined what other kind of horrors the carriage had inside of it. People who ate mushrooms were infamous for ingesting all sorts of strange toxins, hallucinogens and poison. Shiro would never, and he thought about it as he was standing still in the middle of the street.

"Ai!" Someone shouted. Another carriage driver was traveling fast at Shiroyasha in the road, and it was hauling even more mushrooms. Two hundred fifty pounds worth of spore filled caps. Shiroaysha jumped high into the sky and dodged the carriage. As he started to fall down he looked below him and saw the trailer filled with shroomies. He didn't just see them, he smelled them. The shrooms smelled absolutely disgusting and Shiro immediately started retching, airborne. Vomit spilled from above all over the carriage owners stock. Shiro hit the ground, weakened from the puking. His body fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes and puke was on his mouth.

Shiro stood up and wiped the puke from his mouth. "That's... foul." Shiroyasha said to himself and began dusting his deep blue yukata off. He liked to keep his clothes clean. Shiroyasha put together some handseals and his clothes suddenly became drenched in a surge of moisture. The linen soaked up the water, collecting the dirt in the liquid. Shiro performed another series of handseals and the water snapped out of his linen, back into the air taking the dirt with the liquid. His clothes were clean and dry, and the moisture in the air dispersed naturally. Shiro combed his fingers through his hair and tightened his pony tail, the Aisu always kept his noble, pristine, charcoal black hair up. Shiroyasha turned to continue his walk back home from his day of work as a genin, when he heard a familiar voice shouting at him yet again.


"You bastard!" The old man said atop his carriage. Shiro could sense the wretched mushrooms coming back around him and dry heaved a little. His eyes were widened and he looked up to where the carriage was parking in front of him. On the middle of the road.

"Ye ruined me crop!" The old man screamed. "Do ye smell that! Ye puked!" The old man pulled out a braided leather whip and struck Shiroyasha.

"The fuck!" The old man shouted at Shiro and whipped at him again. This second strike was caught mid hair by Shiroyasha's wakizashi handle, his hand holding the sheathed blades scabbard. Shiro quickly twisted the blade around the top of his hand and knocked the unsuspecting old mans weapon out his hand.

"Enough of that old man." Shiroyasha quietly said. He had a welt on his shoulder were the man had struck him but he didn't show any sign of pain. He wasn't angry with the man/ Shiroyasha was smart enough to surmise what was going on. The old man had been hauling the mushrooms. Shiro could smell the shrooms parked behind the carriage, and like the man said he could smell vomit too. Shiroyasha sighed.

"I'm sorry. I.. didn't mean to vomit." Shiroyasha holstered his blade. "How can I serve you, to make up for destroying your, crop?" Shiroyasha, the Aisu, was breathing out cold gusts of wind. He had paused at the idea of a mushroom yield being a crop. It was waste to him.

The farmer was at least seventy five and though he was in good shape he was clearly winded from the whipping of his offender. The sun was beating down on them, and the old man was sweating. He was staring Shiroyasha right swuare in the eyes, as if he were looking at his greatest enemy. The farmer spit at Shiroyasha's shoes and whispered, "You're going to help me make the money back. In one week." The farmer had robust brown eyes and Shiroyasha could see there was a lot of emotion welling behind them. In fact as he stared back a the farmer he wondered if the old man was in fact about to cry.

"Very well. One week, this crops worth of ryo. You have my word as an Aisu, bled to the Hirohito." Shiroyasha gave a slight bow, not breaking eyes with the old man.

"Get on the back, first you help me waste this haul then we work on making my money back. You're lucky I know people. A young man like you can make this in a few days. It won't take you no time, but dont forget this. Mushrooms are my life. You ruined my babies, and I'll never forgive you for that."

Shiroyasha got on the back of the trailer and held onto the burlap sack covering the mushrooms. There was puke all over it, and the smell of mushrooms had him totally sick to his stomach; but Shiroyasha held on. The old man took them out of Kirigakure and towards a swamp. Once they were deep into the woods the old man parked his horse drawn carriage.

"Unload it. Put it in the water. Lotus Moon Crabs eat em and it attracts rats. Before you know it this place will be crawling with snakes and I know someone who will but em at four ryo a head. You're doing this for free by the way." The farmer spit at Shiro again but the Aisu was already walking away from him.

Shiro climbed atop the pile of mushrooms and precariously perched himself on the ledge of the trailer. He stood above the mushrooms and began weaving handsigns. Shiroyasha focused Hyouton chakra inside the load of mushrooms and created a layer of ice that surrounded all the shrooms. Ice quickly formed along it all. Shiro jumped down and unhitched the trailed while still holding his left hand in a modified rat handseal. He kicked the trailed and it flung up, leaning itself over a big swampy area. Finally the Aisu performed his last handseals, dragon, monkey and dog. The ice around the mushrooms exploded and the mushrooms went forward with the ice shrapnels, into the swamp.

The old man couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen such finely crafted ninjutsu. "Well then.." He said and got back on the carriage. "Load it back up, get on and hold tight. We're going back into town for your first order of work." Shiro did what he was told and rode back into Kirigakure no Sato.

After the long ride back home it was night time and the fireflies were out. Shiroyasha tried to enjoy them but the smell of mushrooms was intoxicating. To his displeasure the man had been hauling rare mushrooms that were sold with the spore sacs still attached, so they were extra smelly. That was what had actually made him puke and the smell wasn't any easier to bear now. He puked all over the trailer. When he did the old man heard him and promised Shiro he would be cleaning the trailer up.

"This old man.." Shiroyasha groaned in between heaving.

They arrived where they were going and Shiroyasha quickly got off of the trailer. He was exhausted from all the heaving, but he was mentally prepared for the work ahead of him. It was late though and he wondered what exactly they would be doing.

"So, here in town we are going to clean off all these windows. My friend has contracts with the leaders of this market ditrict, they need their windows clean. I don't care how you do it ninja, just get it done." The old man spit at Shiro for the third time, this time aiming for his icy blue eye. Shiroyasha was ready for him though and blew his arctic breath forward, freezing the spit in mid air. It fell to the ground, weighted down by the air that had iced around it. "Very well." Shiroyasha said to the old man. and turned around to begin his work. He wasn't disrespected by the man, he understood the harm he had caused him and knew the man was simply acting as he felt right.

Shiro was understanding. He anticipated that there would be other circumstances behind his own that would make things more serious than he might expect. Shiroyasha had no idea the man was dying however. The mushrooms he sold were a medicinal treatment to a rare bone cancer the man had, and with that shipment destroyed the man would die. It was remarkable the old man didn't cry before all things considered.

Not taking it much into consideration Shiroyasha tended to his duties, using a water blast ninjutsu to clean all the dirt off the market districts windows. It took him a few hours, and he was extra careful not to accidently bust out any windows; but when Shiroyasha was done the market district looked pretty spiffy. He returned back to the old man at the carriage. Shiroyasha was a little wet and his cold breath was fogging up in the moisture. He looked a bit wore out but the ninja was definetely up for more work before the night would end.

Unfortunately that would not happen. When Shiroyasha got over to the old man he found him passed out in the drivers seat. The man looked pallid with seat and he was obviously sick without his mushroom ailment. Shiroyasha noticed it but tried not to pay the mans health no mind. This was a purely business arrangement as far as Shiroyasha was concerned and he would have it no other way. Shiroyasha leaned up on the carriage and stayed still for a few hours, waiting for the man to wake up.

When the man woke up he seemed to be different than before. He was exhausted and could barely stand up straight. The man acted as if nothing had changed about him and barked orders at Shiro as soon as he got up. "Drive the carriage to Tomoki bridge. We're going to help with the construction."

Tomoki Bridge was an old bridge that seperated two tiny islands comprising Kirigakure. The bridge had been under construction due to in house fighting at high points in the Karagata family. Or at least that was the rumor, no one knew for sure but what was certain was any construction done to the bridge was quickly reversed by acts of vandalism.

As the two rode the carriage to Tomoki Bridge the old man spoke the whole way. "My name is Genki. I'm a grandfather and work to support my grandchild." Genki told Shiroyasha as he sluped over in the carriage with his eyes closed. As the old man was opening up to him Shiroyasha considered asking him about the sudden change in his health, but he just couldn't bring himself to be so rude. It was clear the iold man was dying, and a part of Shiroyasha sensed that the mushrooms were a cure for him. Perhaps in part he was being polite, but another large part of him was afraid of finding out he had killed a man for the first time.

Whe nthe two of them arrived Shiro nudged Genki awake and the old man slowly awoke. He was more foggy headed now and definetely not so in your face. "So Shiro. Your job is to use your ice magic to create pillars for the workers to stand on. Find Foreman Ruu and he will tell you where to build them." Genki let out a cough and whinced as his bones snapped when he jerked his torso. "MAke sure you have enough energy, some of the pillars you build will be big." Genki closed his eyes again, still sitting in the carriage. He quickly fell back asleep in the hot morning sun.

Shiroyasha began wandering around the cnostruction site. He didn't know what Foreman Ruu looked like but he asked around and was given a good description. A short bald man with big black eyebrows and squinted eyes. Shiro looked all over but in a few hours he realized he might not find the man. PRetty soon lunch time was coming and the ninja was hungry. He stumbled upon a traveling lunch cart and got some street burgers. They were tiny hamburgers with lots of onions, and he got two. Shiro walked around eating them, looking for Foreman Ruu.

After he had eaten Shiro walked over to an orange garbage bin and threw the wrappers he was carrying away. "Ope!" Someone said and bumped into Shiro knocking the wrappers from their trajectory and onto the ground. To Shiro's surprise the man he had bumped into was Foreman Ruu. After an introduction Shiro explained how he knew Genki and what his task was.

Foreman Ruu was pretty impressed. "Genki is a good man. His heart softened after he took in his grandson and became wrought with cancer.. Well then you must be quite the ninja for him to expect that from you. Let's go." Foreman Ruu was quick and to the point. He started walking off towards where the construction needed Shiro's talent and as Shiro followed him he made a mental note of the cancer that riddled Genki's body. A few hours of work passed by and Shiro had erected enough pillars of ice. He guarenteed they would stand for at least two days in this hot summer Water Country weather. Shiro was truthfully exhausted and as he made his way back to Genki's cart he had forgotten about the old mans cancer. When he seen Genki's awake and writing a letter he was reminded by the pale complexion of the not so long ago healthy looking old man.

"There ye are." Genki said and let out a deep cough from his chest. "Yer done for the day. Go home and rest. Then meet me here in two days. And by the way," Genki folded up the letter he was just writing. "Hold onto this. Don't look either, ye scallywag." Genki gestured with his hand for Shiro to get on the carriage. "Take yerself home."

The ride was quiet and in the middle of the day there were enough distractions for Shiro to stay focused on besides Genki. He was coming to grips with the fact that he had killed the man. Shiro wondered what he had written on the note, but resolved not to look. With how fast Genki's health had been deteriorating Shiro wondered if he had two days left in him.
Shiro got home and wished Genki safe travels back to his own home. The old man had mentioned going back to his grandson, and Shiro was glad to hear it. The fact Genki was dying was very real, and Shiro knew the man wanted to be with his family.

At home Shiro stepped through the door and called to his mother. He was a momma's boy. Shiroyasha took his tabi off and let his dogs free. He had been wearing his ninja clothes for nearly three days now and he couldn't wait to take a shower. Before he would do that the thirteen year old genin would tell his mother all about Genki and what had transpired. Shiro's mother was a doctor and she enlightened him on the medical value of the mushrooms Genki had been transportion. Shiro was pretty certain the old man wouldn't make it back to Tomoki Bridge before he got home, but after talking to his mom it was a hundred percent certain. Shiro and his mom said a little prayer for the mans soul, and Shiro mentioned for the gods to bring good favor to his grandson. As they finished their prayer Shiroyasha's father came home from a long day of training. Shiro told his dad what went on and the man said nothing, like usual. He was quiet usually, and Shiroyasha strived to be like him. Instead of replying to his son Yusuke kissed his wife and went upstairs to shower. Shiro wondered what his dad thought of Genki, but didn't press his mother for her interpretation.

The next two days went by and Shiroyasha traveled to Tomoki bridge by foot. He was dressed in fine linen and looked to be fresh as can be when he arrived on the construction scene. Shiro knew Genki wouldn't show up, but a part of him hoped for the impossible. To his surprise Genki's carriage came rolling up. Shiroyasha smiled, something he rarely did.

"He's alive." Shiroyasha said to himself and waved to who he thought was Genki. It was actually his grandson.

Lukai, Genki's grandson, pulled up and without getting off the carriage shouted to Shiro, "My grandfather died thanks to you." The young teenager stared at Shiro, and Shiro stared back. The Aisu could sense animosity and before he could offer an apology or condolences the carriage pulled off.

Everything was silent for Shiroyasha. The realization that he had killed was sinking in quickly. Without thinking a thought Shiro began walking home. Completely blank minded he headed straight home. Shiro didn't call for his mother this time, instead he went straight to his room. The teenager pulled out his journal and wrote what had happened.

"Genki was just driving by, and i ruined his medicine. When it happened I thought he was just a farmer, but everything changed so fast. Am I a murderer?" Shiroyasha wrote. He didn't shed a tear, and in truth he wasn't really sad to lose Genki. Shiro understood that life had it's path towards death, and that was just how the wheel rolled. What shook him was how calm Genki had been. He wondered if he would be that calm in the face of death.

The next mornign Shiroyasha woke up three hours earlier than normal, when his father did. He made some oatmeal and drank coffee in quietness with his dad. When they were about to part ways Shiroyasha asked him if he could join his dad for training today. Shiroyasha had no clue what kind of training his dad did away from Kirigakure. He didn't know wher ehe went or for how long he left the village for. All he knew was that his father was a fearless ninja, and after seeing the frailty of mortality Shiroyasha yearned for that courage unlike ever before.

Yusuke, Shiro's dad, could see the resolve in his son. He sensed something had changed recently in his first born and made a resolution for himself. He would begin teaching his son the art of Sage jutsu.