[Graded]Straightening Up

[Servant]

"Another mess?"

"Yes sir."

"Same place?"

"Yes sir."

"You have some genin assigned to clean it up?"

"About that..."

"Get on it."

"Right, yes sir," the young man who hoped to some day be on the council scurried out of the room. This was actually much better than the scenarios that had been running through his head. This way, he just looked a little slow or hesitant to act, but the truth was much worse. The truth made him look incompetent or clumsy; he'd summoned a team for this mission, only to find out that they had already been assigned to a mission. Upon being notified of that by his messenger, the young council-hopeful had remembered assigning that very team to a mission only the day before. In other words, he'd forgotten to change their status... he'd made a mistake. To correct this, he'd grabbed two genin files from the records, not caring if they were teamed up or even knew each other and sent messengers to retrieve them as soon as possible.

Inken Niku was just about to head to her grandfather's house when a messenger appeared at her front door. After handing the note to the genin, he took off, onto his next delivery. Niku opened the note, discovering that she'd been summoned for a mission. Normally, these things indicated the team, but this one mentioned Niku specifically. It was odd, but she ignored that headed to the mission center in town. She was ushered into a room and told to wait until the other member of the mission arrived. It seemed a little... rushed or out of the ordinary. Guess I'll just sit here and wait, she thought to herself as she pulled the chair out from the table and sat down.

[Isuzu]

Isuzu's team had the day off today, so he was spending his time researching a small passion project of his. He was researching fuuin, trying to find ways it could be improved on. Sealing Techniques have a powerful functionality, but they lack flexibility. Once a seal is written, it must perform in the way it was written - without exception. This made them rigid and impractical for many purposes. However, the young genin was looking for a way to extend past this barrier - to add some options to what the Fuuin could do, based on certain things. "..If I could ju.." A knock came from his front door, interrupting his reading. The genin marked the book he was reading and went to answer it. A messenger handed him a hastily scribbled scrap of paper, requesting him for a mission at once.

Zu was wearing his house clothes, so it took him a bit of time to change into something a bit more 'mission ready'. After 10 minutes, he was out of the house with his backpack and his shinobi gear. "..I wonder why the urgency of the mission? Why was I chosen, specifically? Why not my team?..". All of these questions would be answered soon enough, as the genin walked through the door of the designated meeting room for the mission. There was a young girl already there. His eyes darted to her and quickly darted back, now looking down towards the ground. Isuzu wasn't good at talking to people, especially girls.

He placed his hands in his pockets and used his foot to slide a chair out from the table, but accidentally knocked it over, causing a surprisingly loud sound as it impacted the ground. He'd tried to grab it but wasn't quite fast enough. "Heh, uh, wuh-whoops." His face turned red as he picked it up and sat it on its four legs before himself taking a seat. He didn't make eye contact with her at all, instead sitting with his arms and legs crossed and his eyes closed, in thought.

[Servant]

Having gotten word that both participants had arrived, the young assistant entered the room, a file in his hand. "Alright, thank you both for coming. Ready for your briefing?" He only waited a second, before going on. "This morning we got numerous reports of overturned trash cans. If this were a one time thing, there'd be no need for you, but this is the third morning in a row where this has happened. So you're being assigned to help with cleanup." He paused, sure that the two fresh shinobi would be displeased with the mission.

"Before you object, you're going for two purposes: first, to help the people who've already cleaned things up on their own the last couple mornings, and secondly, to show them that we, Konoha's shinobi forces, are listening to their concerns and can be counted on when needed. Believe me, I know picking up trash is not a job befitting of shinobi, but we need our civilians to trust us and this is just one small thing we can do for them," he took a moment to let everything sink in.

"Here's a map, places in red need to be dealt with." the young man said, handing each shinobi a piece of paper. "Any questions?"

Niku wasn't too bothered about cleaning up, she was just glad to get some more missions under her belt. She wondered about the other shinobi that had been summoned for the mission, and how he felt about such a mission. She looked at him again, curious if he had any questions.

[Isuzu]

Isuzu sat with his arms folded and intently listened to the entire briefing. He couldn't believe the importance that was being placed on such a menial task. "...why are they assigning shinobi to a task like this? This is something a normal person could do no problem..." The genin was a bit disappointed, though he managed to muster up a smile and a nod when the mission assigner asked if they understood. Isuzu came from big money, and something like picking up trash was looked down upon in that social circle.

Isuzu had no further questions, and it didn't seem as if the girl they were with did either. He looked over the map with a creeping dread spreading over him. "...No no no! They're in the rich district - where all of my families friends are. If they see me picking up trash, they'll..." The boy hung his head low, not liking what thoughts were to come afterward. He then glanced over at his teammate, who happened to be also starring at her map. Begrudgingly, he rose from his chair and walked over to her. This was an official shinobi mission, and they needed to do their best!

"I'm Isuzu. N-n-nice to me-meet you." The boy bowed his head, as was customary amongst his folks. He the rose up, a follow up question already falling out of his lips. "How would y-you like to ddo this? Sp-split up? Or d-d-double team?" His stutter was always at it's worst when first speaking to someone.

[Servant]

The young man who'd assigned the mission when he found that neither genin was going to throw a fit about the mission ahead of them. Seeing the young man move over the girl, he listened as Isuzu questioned his mission partner. As Niku looked up from her map, the man before them spoke up "I hate to interrupt, but I wasn't quite done. That's the first, and much worse, part of the mission. The second part is to return to the area around midnight and stop this from happening again. A stakeout, if you will. You may deal with the culprits as you see fit, of course, no lethal force should be necessary. If you are unsure of how to persuade the culprits to cease these actions, you may capture them, but I hope that's not necessary." The man smiled, knowing that shinobi would much prefer the second part of the mission. In truth, he was hoping they'd handle everything from here on out and he wouldn't have to hear about any of this again. At least, that was his hope. Seeing that they had no questions, he made quickly exited the room through the door he'd entered.

Niku looked to Isuzu, before standing up and holding her hand out to him. "Inken Nikuya, pleasure to meet you, partner." Her large smile was definitely unwarranted, but she was happy to be busy. And meeting an attractive gentleman is always nice too, she mused to herself. She'd forgotten about his questions, due to the assigner's interruption.

[Isuzu]

The Hinoshi felt embarrassed that he'd interrupted the higher ranking shinobi during their mission briefing. He fell silent and listened to the rest of the details. "..well that at least sounds a bit more fun. More befitting of a shinobi mission, if nothing else.." The genin nodded when the higher up finished speaking, acknowledging his understanding of what was expected of them. His attention was turned back to his partner, who'd outstretched her hand for a greeting. This was the laymen, average folk greeting that Isuzu wasn't really accustomed to. His father was an aristocrat, and he'd been raised much more formally than most other shinobi he'd met along the way.

Extending his hand, he shook it about as awkwardly as he could've - the girl surely noticing his unfamiliarity with the whole ordeal. "V-v-very nice to meet .. you as well." He was still holding her hand, not really familiar with the greeting as, to be honest, he hadn't met many new shinobi before - and nerves were creeping in. Working with a cute girl always made things more tough. "So, about t-...the details..I say w-w-..we stick together." Although he'd initially wanted to split up, he thought it wiser to spend the day getting to know one another, since they were going to be staking out for the perp later that night. They'd have better chemistry that way.

[Servant]

Having been mostly raised by a real samurai who hailed from Tea Country, Niku wasn't familiar with the aristocratic greetings. In fact, she didn't even realize that what she was doing would be out of the norm for some people. That's why as odd look crossed her face as Isuzu had trouble with the shaking motion and held her too long. She finally pulled her hand from his grasp, a grin spreading across her face. "Sticking together sounds perfect! We can make quick work of some trash and then have time for you to buy me lunch!" She agreed with Isuzu, hoping up after she'd finished speaking.

She stuffed the map into her pocket and headed towards the door. "I'm not big on maps, you mind navigating?" she asked, though she was pretty sure she knew where to go.

---

It didn't take long for the two genin to arrive and it was pretty evident that something had happened. Considering this was one of the nicest parts of town, the sights of crumpled-up papers and trash cans rolling through the streets just seemed out of place. There were some people, seemingly servants or hired help, sweeping trash off of front yards, though they were just leaving it in the street for the wind to pick up and take away. Children were out, running around and kicking cans and other debris that littered the area. Every now and then, you could see someone actually picking up trash items and depositing them back into cans, where it belongs, but the sight was a rarity. There were definitely no aristocrats out here cleaning up.

Alright Isuzu, any suggestions or just pick somewhere and start going?" Niku asked, wondering if there was a better way of getting this done than she could think of.

[Isuzu]

"..Buy lunch? What kinda girl is this?.." Isuzu couldn't help but make a slightly strange face at the girl after hearing this. Where he comes from, it wasn't normal for people to ask for someone else to pay for their lunch. On the contrary, it was very customary to offer to pay for someone else, which Isuzu would've certainly done with no reservations. But to have it asked of him just felt...wrong. He let out a deep breath through his nostrils and managed a small smirk and a chuckle under his breath. "S-sure, why not." He had to laugh - mostly because he wasn't really sure how to react. She was being so kind, yet lacking manners at the same time. It was an odd combination and not one he was really familiar with, so it caught him off guard. He'd be wary of this girl, but open to her. She was sweet, from what he could tell. Plus, they needed to cooperate on their mission if they wanted to succeed.

Isuzu nodded and began walking behind her, analyzing the map to find what may be the best way to proceed. It was a map of the Richer District of Konoha, where his home was. Most of the trash seemed to be annexed to a specific area of the village, with a few key spots on the perimeter. Isuzu thought it wisest to focus on the largest area first, as getting the toughest task out of the way in the beginning, when group morale was highest, usually led to better moral towards the end. As the leaped across rooftops towards their goal, Isuzu continued studying the map to see if he could glean any additional information from it, based on the locations. "..The way the affected areas are laid out, it almost looks coordinated.."

--

They arrived in the rich district and, to Isuzu's delight, it seemed only the helpers were out and about. "..Good, maybe no one will se.." A familiar voice came from behind him. "Isuzu, darling - how are you?" Hair stood up on his neck as he turned, already knowing the voice. It was Miss Kiko, his mothers best friend, and wife of one of the village's leaders of industry. She was obnoxious, judgemental and, worst of all, nosy. "Eww! What's that smell?" The thin blonde woman placed two fingers over her nose to hold her nostril shut. "You there, pick this up at once." She spoke towards one of the servants who was already sweeping up the trash, motioning him towards a particularly smelly pile not too far from her. "I'm sorry, Isuzu dear, but I must run. I cannot stand this stench any longer." As she left, the man she'd motioned towards hurried over and began cleaning up the mess. Isuzu didn't like being lumped in with people like her - she gave other aristocrats a bad name. Though his own father wasn't that much better.

The Hinoshi looked towards Niku and nudged his head towards the pile the man was cleaning. "Ho-how-how about h ... he..here?" Without waiting for a response, he walked over to the servant cleaning things up and kneeled down beside him. "We're Kon-no-no-ha shinobi, here t-to help." It would be good for him to see how the other half lived, he thought.

[Servant]

Niku couldn't even smell anything, so when the woman made a show of closing her nose off, Niku was quite confused. Maybe she just has an advanced sense of smell, she mused before the woman started to leave. Niku was a bit bewildered, but she didn't bother to say anything: they had a job to do after all. "Sure, here's fine," she responded to Isuzu. She watched as Isuzu made his way over to help the servant who'd been ordered to clean up near them. Looking around, Niku headed a couple feet away for an upside down trash can. She grabbed it and flipped it right side up, moving it near Isuzu and the servant.

"So that lady knew you?" Niku probed, not really sure what she was asking. She bent over a couple feet from her partner, certainly within ear shot so she could hear his reply, and begin grabbing what appeared to be shreds of paper, as if some sort of animal had been clawing through paper. It reminded her of Akisu, her own cat, who liked to use his claws on whatever he could find. But, Niku and Akisu had come to a pretty good understanding and the caracal rarely messed with Niku's stuff, anymore. "I've never really been to this part of town, you must live around here."

[Isuzu]

Isuzu nodded to Niku's question, "Miss Kiko, My mo-mom's friend. Rather a-anno-a-annoying." This elicited a chuckle from the servant whom was picking up trash with them, causing a smile to come across Isuzu's face. He continued picking up trash, standing up to toss his handful into the can Niku had provided. "I grew uh-up right down there." The genin pointed towards his parents home, where he still lived. Well, the word "compound" probably fit it better, as they had a luxurious setup to say the least. "I can sh-show you once we're done." At the sound of hearing Isuzu grew up here, the servant scoffed audibly and walked away, knocking over the trash can with his hip as he did so, spilling all of the trash the two had picked up along the way.

Isuzu looked at the man as he moved, swaying from side to side, perhaps drunk? Isuzu could hear him mumbling under his breath, another sign of intoxication. Too timid to say anything to call the man out, the genin simply let out an exhale and began picking up from the overturned trashcan, putting it's original contents back within. One of the other servants who saw this happen came over to where Isuzu and Niku were working, bending down to assist them. "Don't mind him. He's a bit grouchy these days." "..and drunk.." The man continued picking up the excess trash with the two genin, a wide smile on his face. "I'm Kitsuo by the way." He looked over at Isuzu, the dirt smudges on his clothes and face making it apparent what class he belonged to. He was a simple looking man, with short brown hair, a red shirt and brown pants. He wore wooden sandals on his feet.

"D-don't sweat it." Isuzu gave the boy a slight bow of his head."I'm Isuzu." Though contrary to what most may think, in rich culture, it was more polite to let each person introduce themselves, rather than doing it for them. Introducing someone gave a "greater than thou" aura that many of the rich hated to be exerted on them - though they were more than happy to exert that same aura on the lower class. Thus, Isuzu resolved to allow Niku to introduce herself as he continued cleaning.

[Servant]

Niku grabbed some more things, tossing them into the can as she listened to Isuzu mention Miss Kiko and growing up just down the hill. She looked the direction that had been indicated, curious if she could see it from her current location. When he offered to take her when they finished, Niku decided to tease him a little more, "Introducing me to your parents already? You move so quickly." Her teasing, however, was cut short by the departure of the first person who'd been helping them. He even knocked over the waste bin they'd been filling up. "Watch where you're going, clumsy fellow! she called out to him, not realizing that there were some other reasons for his clumsiness.

Niku gave up on the leaving man and went to help turn the can over, but she noticed that Isuzu already had help. She went back to collecting things from the surrounding area. Definitely have to wash my hands later, she mused picking up a half rotten banana peel. When Kitsuo mentioned that the other man was drunk, Niku felt a little dumb for not having noticed, not that she had much experience with drunkards: her grandfather didn't drink at all and her mother only drank a little and only in social situations. Niku came closer and dropped the collected garbage into the can just as Kitsuo was introducing himself. After Isuzu introduced himself, Niku spoke up "My name's Niku, thanks for the help." A bright smile was spread across her face as she moved away from the two, towards a few last remnants of trash, she grabbed them and rushed back to Kitsuo and Isuzu.

After dropping them in, she announced "Lookin' good! We should head over there," she said pointing in the opposite direction from Hinoshi's compound. "It looks like it could really use our help," she said a smile on her face. "You're more than welcome to keep helping us. It'll get done much quicker with more people," she said, lacking the appropriate subtlety to make the phrase work without being completely obvious.

[Isuzu]

Niku was quite the strange one. He never knew quite how to respond to her - which wasn't unusual for him with speaking to women, he supposed. Still, this one's playful nature was somewhat of a conundrum to him. "...what if...no, couldn't be. But maybe.." He'd read in books that this was called flirting, and usually happened with one person liked another. He'd never had a girl like him before, after all, he wasn't exactly the social, masculine type that women, especially kunoichi, went for. He pulled out his small notebook and made a note next to that girls name, reading:

Possible flirting? Does she like me? Investigate further. He placed his pen back in its slot in the notebook and tucked it back into his back pocket.

Niku's idea had sparked an idea of Isuzu's own. "..She has a point - the more people that were working on cleaning this up, the better it'd be.." Isuzu looked over towards Kitsuo, "Hold on a mom-moment, Niku. Kitsuo-san. I have a proposition" He looked around again, seeing the various servants cleaning the remnants of trash in an unorganized fashion. "Can y-y-you gather the oth-others??" Isuzu sheepishly looked away from Kitsuo, somewhat nervous about asking for a favor from a stranger. "Sure. Anything for a shinobi!" Kitsuo went around to the various other servants and gathered a crowd of roughly 20 from the nearby areas in the matter of a minute. One look at the shinobi headband sent a wave of mixed reactions through the crowd. No doubt they'd all had experiences with ninja in the past - undoubtedly some less than stellar. Rumblings throughout the crowd slowly increased in volume as Isuzu stood atop a small picnic table so everyone could see him.

"..Eh-excuse me." The genin said sheepishly, though not nearly loud enough for the entire crowd to hear, expecially above their own grumblings. He retracted in on himself, nervousness creeping throuhg his veins. He didn't like speaking infront of others. He glanced over at Niku, who was watching him quietly and waiting for more words. [color=teal"...come on Isuzu, she obviously likes you. Don't let her see you cower away..."[/color] The genin looked down and took another deep breath before looking up towards the crowd. "h-h-HHHEEYYY!" The grumblings in the crowd died down as everyone around him looked up towards him. "...I have their attention. Now to give them the news..."

Isuzu explained his plan, essentially organizing into 4 groups of 5 people apeice to go around to the "hot spots" marked on the map and clean, thus producing a more coordinated effort and saving time for everyone. Working smarter, not harder, as it were. He used the map to show everyone where they should go, noticing those who asked questions more frequently and dubbing them the "leaders" of each "squad". The whole effort had taken at most five minutes, but would likely shave a couple off hours off of total cleanup time. "You're all honoray sh-shi-shinobi today." The crowd left feeling motivated and inspired to work, much to his surprise. Maybe he did have the heart of a shinobi in him after all.

As for he and Niku, they were on a smaller squad with just Kitsuo to work with - and they'd volunteered to finish cleaning their initial spot they'd been working on the whole time. "Well boss, let's get to work." Kitsuo slapped Isuzu on the back, knocking him a bit off balance. For a servant, he was certainly stronger than Isuzu had anticipated. Blushing a bit at being called "Boss", Isuzu shuffled on behind Kitsuo and continued cleaning the area.

[Servant]

Niku simply watched and listened as Isuzu implemented his master plan to get all of the servants that were already cleaning to work together to finish the job at a quicker pace. This way, Niku and Isuzu wouldn't have to clean as much, not that she minded too much. Hard work is like training, she thought, they both serve a purpose and skipping out leaves you worse for wear. She had heard the term working smarter not harder and that seemed to be the path Isuzu was working towards.

"I see we have a smarty pants on our hands," Niku teased. She was getting warmed up and was using her exceptional speed to its advantage, rushing from one piece of trash to another. All in all, their area was looking pretty good. "So boss," she said with a teasing tone, "if we finish early should we go check the other areas or just pop a squat and rest?"

[Isuzu]

Isuzu watched as Niku flew around the area, picking up trash at nearly twice the rate of either himself or Kitsuo. He continued at his own steady pace as well, never one for competition in mutually beneficial missions. He realized perhaps Niku saw this as more of a physical training, but for Isuzu it was definitely more mental. He and Niku were the 'leaders' of this mission as shinobi, and they needed to get the place cleaned up as fast as possible. He was flexing his organization and teamwork muscles, while Niku was flexing her typical shinobi abilities of speed, etc. They were two totally different styles, but definitely a stark contrast to the minimal power struggle that was his actual team.

"Uhh-heh." The genin let a rather awkward sound escape his mouth as he placed an admittedly dirty hand on the back of his head, scratching slightly as he closed his eyes and blushed. Realizing how dirty his hands were, he quickly removed it and made a mental note to wash his hair extra well once he arrived home. The boss word was something he wasn't quite used to hearing. The joking tone she said it with made the Hinoshi second guess if she truely saw him in that light. "A true l-l-leader always leads by ex-...-ample." This portrayed that he thought they should definitely help the other areas once they were done, as they couldn't leave until the entire area was clear anyway. "b-b-but a quick rest won't hurt." A playful smile creased across his lips, though he wasn't sure Niku would notice it.

He rather liked this girl...as a friend.

[Servant]

Niku's feet stopped moving, allowing her to slide to a stop just a small stretch away from another piece of debris. Leaning over slightly, she picked it up before rushing back over to the trash can they'd been using. Niku was beginning to think that Isuzu was lazy, because he'd created this union of honorary shinobi to do the mission that Niku and Isuzu were assigned to. She felt like he was doing it to get out of his assignment, but she was very pleased when he said they should help out in the other areas after finishing. If he were lazy, he'd have just suggested waiting till everyone else was done. It proved to her that he was simply a more tactical or strategic shinobi than she was, which is good, Konoha needs all types of shinobi.

From the looks of things, their area was nearly done. Niku wasn't tired, but she wouldn't mind a rest to recharge before charging into one of the other areas to help the others. "I wouldn't mind a quick rest," she said, a genuine smile crossing her face. With that said, she headed over to the what appeared to be the last piece of trash. She picked up the banana peel before heading back to the can, sliding to a stop before dropping it into the trash can. "So quick rest, and then where do we go to help?"

[Isuzu]

Niku cleared the last of the place as Isuzu himself threw away the last bit of trash he'd found into the garbage container. Looking around, things looked much clearer and cleaner, and he was pretty happy with the time they'd taken to do it all. "Phew!" Kitsuo wiped his brow, bent over from helping the others. He had a big smile on his face and looked to be happy to be helping. "Not too shabby, Boss. What's the move, now?" Isuzu could see the heavy panting coming from Kitsuo, as surely it was difficult for him to keep up with two shinobi - all be it only genin. Glancing at Niku, he could tell the girl was a bit tired as well. They'd both asked him the same question - and Isuzu always took a bit of time before answering questions. He liked to think through his options first. "...So, judging by the sun, it's about 4 in the afternoon. I'd like to think the other locations have gotten a decent bit done. If we take a break, we'll be more energized to continue working.." He placed his hand on his chin in a "thinking" position, continuing his thoughts.

"...If we keep going, we can get finished sooner and have some resting time before we set up for our stakeout tonight..." He himself wasn't feeling that tired, and the others could probably persevere and continue working. "Well, w-w-we could take a break if you really want - but I say let's go ah-ahead and wrap this up." His eyes cut over to Niku, the glare signifying his intentions to wrap up early in order to get a head start on their night plans. "Boy, you shinobi are everything they said you were." Their servant friend took a quick breath before looking cracking another smile and looker towards Isuzu and Niku, who were both standing near each other at this point. "I can't let you show me up though! I'd never live that one down." Upon uttering his last words, he turned on his heal and began walking towards the closest group, fingers interlaced behind his head as he walked.

Isuzu waited a moment before he began walking, hoping to catch a word with Niku. "S-s-so, what do you d-do for fun?" Kitsu must've heard Isuzu asking and turned his head to the side, half of his face now visible. "Not like that, boss. Ya gotta tell her she's pretty." Isuzu's face turned red and he quickly knelt down to grab a stray piece of trash on the path they were walking on. Hopefully, Niku's response wouldn't cause him further embarrassment.

[Servant]

Niku took a few deep breaths as Kitsuo and Isuzu interacted. She wasn't nearly as worn out or tired as Kitsuo seemed to be, but she was definitely feeling how much her cardio lacked. She made a mental note to incorporate stamina training into her regimen. She couldn't help but wonder how well the other 'shinobi' were doing with their cleaning: she was a little worried that they'd do a poor job, or not do any at all. She heard Isuzu suggest they keep going, quickly followed by his glare. She wasn't entirely sure what it was meant to suggest, but she figured it had something to do with the second part of the mission. Niku simply nodded in response.

As Kitsuo announced that he wouldn't let the shinobi 'show him up', Niku smiled to him, in appreciation of his willingness to work hard. "Thanks Kitsuo, it means a lot to have you helping." As he began walking away, Niku took a couple steps as well, following him. But she realized that Isuzu was waiting, so she turned to him in order to see what he was up to, figuring he wanted to speak to her about the mission. He then asked about her hobbies, only to be 'reprimanded' by Kitsuo. "He has a good eye," Niku joked, indicating Kitsuo with her thumb. "I am pretty afterall. But as far as fun... I don't know." She seemed to be thinking as she took a couple steps in the same direction as Kitsuo. The young kunoichi hadn't noticed Isuzu drop down to pick something up as she walked and thought about what she did for fun. "Sounds kinda silly, but I think I train for fun. I mean, I like hanging out with friends too," she finally said, turning back to Isuzu "What about you?"

Niku didn't know Isuzu that well, but he seemed like a more cerebral shinobi leading her to imagine that he was going to answer with something like puzzles or strategy games. She was curious what he'd say though.

[Isuzu]

"Ahhaha. I like this one, boss. She's spunky." Kitsuo laughed a bit more to himself as he continued to eavesdrop on their conversation. Isuzu felt his cheeks becoming flush as his anxiety began to take effect. Had he really been that obvious to Niku? Did she know he thought she was cute? "I, uhh-hh..." The boy felt his heart begin to beat faster. He'd never been in this situation before and was feeling rather uncomfortable - yet also a strange feeling in his stomach. It felt empty and oddly ticklish. "...is this the phenomena known as 'butterflies in your stomach'?...". He kept walking, but held his arms close to his chest and poked his index fingers together. This was one of his many nervous habits he'd picked up over the years.

Once she moved on to what she did for fun, Zu felt a natural place where they could keep the conversation moving past the awkwardness a few moments earlier. "Ohh, cool." He said, a small smile on his face as he said this, before transitioning to his interests. "We-well.." Thoughts of what he'd been doing lately for entertainment crossed his mind. "I l-like to read. And str-stra-strategy games, like Go. I enjoy puzz-zz-zzles." Isuzu looked away sheepishly. He'd heard her mention that she enjoyed hanging out with friends - maybe after this mission she'd want to hangout with him again, as friends this time! How much fun that would be.

"M-m-maybe when th.." Kitsuo interrupted Isuzu with a rather loud exclamation, "Welp, we're here everyone!" The other who were cleaning all turned to look at the trio, now walking up. "So no need to fret! We'll help your lazy asses get this place ship shape." That statement was met with heckling and a few pieces of trash being thrown towards Kitsuo, who took the barrading just as good as he gave it. Isuzu seperated from Niku and began walking towards an area that needed their attention before Kitsuo walked up beside him, leaning over and placing his hand around his mouth to whisper into Isuzu's ear. "Bossss, let her ask you to hangout. You'll seem much cooler that way." As Zu looked over to Kitsuo to continue the conversation, he walked away from him with his hand raised behind him in a waving motion. "That's why you're the best, boss" Kitsuo had been sure to say that loud enough for everyone to hear, especially Niku. Isuzu being clueless to this sort of thing simply looked at him with confusion in his eyes before shrugging slightly and getting back to cleaning. There wasn't much left, and his stomach was beginning to growl..

[Servant]

Niku listened as Isuzu listed off some of his hobbies like reading, puzzles, and strategy games. She couldn't help but grin a little, though she tried to ensure she was looking away from Isuzu as she did so. Wow, I was on the money with my predictions and they say I'm not very smart, ha! After collecting her composure she turned towards Isuzu when he began to speak; however, her head quickly slung back around towards Kitsuo, as the man cut off her fellow shinobi. The kunoichi couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that Kitsuo had done it on purpose. She didn't dwell on the thought long though as Kitsuo's fellow 'honorary shinobi' began to heckle him in response to his words, causing her to giggle at the situation.

Niku looked around before realizing that Isuzu had already headed towards an area that needed help. Kitsuo was near him, so she decided to head to another area. Close enough for Isuzu and Niku to communicate, but it would require raising one's voice to do so. Niku leaned over and picked up some trash, something that was quite disgusting, if she were being honest. She couldn't help but admit that Isuzu's plan to organize the servants had worked out well. The area just had a couple spots in need of attention and with everyone helping, she was sure they'd finish in less than an hour. Of course, she couldn't say how long it would have taken them without their help, but she was pretty confident it would have taken a good bit longer. In a way, she was proud of her partner because his plan had worked out well, but some small part of her wondered if that made him a better shinobi than her.

She glanced over to Isuzu as she dropped her disgusting piece of trash into a container that was already storing trash from other cleaners. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she could take him in a spar, but then the nagging thought came back to her mind: Would beating Isuzu in combat mean that I'm a better shinobi or does doing a shinobi's job better make him a better a shinobi? If he looked to her as she was looking to him, she'd give a polite smile in an attempt to push her own doubt aside. After a couple more minutes, the group had complete cleaning everything.

"Great work, Isuzu. Now the fun part," she said with a smile as the pair set off to get a snack.