It took a while but... I got another mission ready! Owando Midori's introduction two!
Mission 2
Midori was just setting up the last of her laundry when Team 8 arrived.
She set two clothespins to the white sheet and turned to the new genin and Kurenai. There was a terribly shy looking Hyuuga girl, an Inuzuka boy with an appearance that screamed brash and his puppy, and an Aburame who was… just the typical looking insect clan member.
"Ah, so you guys are harvesting my apples?", she smiled innocently.
The Inuzuka boy 'tsk'ed, "Yeah, yeah, just show us where they are"
Hmm, he seemed kind of rash. And a bit rude. No matter. She smiled even more sweetly.
"Yes, follow me", she lead them to the back of her house and watched happily as the dog boy's eyes widened.
Her trees were tall. And straight. No branches to hold on to. She cackled inwardly.
"Please put the apples gently in those baskets. They go bad if they're dropped. You can come get me when you're done. Ja ne!", and she started walking away.
It was the shy looking Hyuuga who stopped her by calling out, "W- Wait!"
Forest green eyes blinked at them. The girl poked her index fingers together, eyes flickering left, "Um… Where would we find la- ladders…", her voice got quieter as she talked.
She got a beaming grin.
"I don't own any", and the woman continued on her way.
Team 8 was left behind, Kiba spluttering and Hinata wide eyed. Shino was… stoic. But he had raised an eyebrow. Kurenai chuckled under her breath and turned to her team.
"Well, it looks like I'll have to teach you how to climb"
xXXx
"Haa- Ack!", Kiba fell, back first on the ground. He rolled back on his feet and glared at the stupidly tall tree.
How their client had grown them was a complete mystery and not something on his find-out list. Right now he needed to concentrate on controlling his chakra. And walking up the tree.
He got up and charged again with a yell, Akamaru yipping next to him.
Almost…! two meters…!
Slam!
He pushed too much chakra into the bark and it shattered, throwing him off with another yelp. Ouch. That hurt.
"Stupid tree!", he kicked it for good measure.
And watched, wide eyed, as three apples fell. He scrambled to catch them and sighed in relief to have them in his arms. He put them in the basket before grinning, an idea forming in his mind.
"Hey, Hinata! Shino! Let's try this!"
xXXx
It didn't work.
The three apples that fell from the first kick were already ready to fall. Shino got one and Hinata dropped four with her Gentle Fist style. That was the extent of hitting the trunk. Kiba was disappointed.
It was Hinata who got the next idea.
"U- Um. We could poke them down with a long stick", she said with a slight blush.
Shino adjusted his sunglasses, "That isn't going to work. Why? The forest doesn't have branches that are long enough"
She looked put out and sad, "Oh…"
Kiba patted her shoulder encouragingly before they resumed trying to learn tree walking. Shino got the best results.
xXXx
The three had gotten maybe a third of the apples down and were now panting on the ground. Shino was sitting and stared at the trees. He took out a kunai and threw it to one. An apple fell and he caught it easily.
"Tch. Way too slow", Kiba told him.
Hinata looked thoughtful. She took out a few shuriken.
"U- um. Please catch them for me!", and she threw.
Seven out of eight shuriken got an apple to fall towards the ground. Kiba and Shino were quick to get them and dump them in the baskets. There was a new fire in both pairs of eyes. Though one was hidden behind black glasses.
"Good thinking Hinata!", the dog boy praised.
Shino twitched. It had been his idea. Hinata smiled shyly and muttered something. They got to work again.
xXXx
Three hours later the trio was bruised and panting from the day's exertion and harsh training. But they'd improved leaps and bounds. Midori hummed appreciatively as she took one apple filled basket.
"Thank you all!", she dug out the pay and then signed for them to wait a bit.
Kurenai and her team watched curiously as she turned up again with four small glass jars full of grounded herbs. She gave each of them one.
"There you go. It should help with regaining your reserves. Speeds the process about a third!"
They were left behind the green door, blinking in bemusement. It wasn't really normal for clients to just give things like that. Especially in a ninja village. Shino had something else in mind too.
"...She invited us to get some apple jam tomorrow", he told his teammates.
Both snapped their head towards him, "Eh!?"
Kurenai smothered an amused smile. Gai had been right. This day was amusing. And productive. They started walking down the road as Shino explained how the number of trees, baskets, no ladder and four jars and envelopes gave out a code that said 'apple' and how she had signed standard signs with her left hand the two times they'd seen her. All adding up to 'apple', 'jam' and 'tomorrow'.
It was then Kurenai decided to take another mission from Midori. They really were much more interesting than normal D-ranks.
xXXx
Yeah. I dunno if any more oneshots come out but... Well. Stay tuned? Let me know if you get an idea. I might get inspired enough to write it.