Name: Delivery Boy/Girl Wanted
Rank: D
Custom Or generic: Generic
Participants: Gennin or Gennin Team (Jounin not required)
Description: Ming's delivery boy had just called in sick on a moment's notice and he is now in need of your help. Ming has no time to find another replacement due to the fact that the order has already been made and he has a new policy: "If we don't deliver your meal in 45 minutes, your meal is free." so you need to make it there in record time to finish the delivery before time's up or he will not be paid for the meal.

Primary: Complete a delivery to the shinobi apartments.
Secondary: Be sure to make it to the shop and complete the delivery in 45 minutes.

ETFC IC: 45 minutes OOC: 24 hours ll Word Count: 2979 (I got bored... ... okay...)
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“Hello, sir, what can I do for you?” asked one of the Chuunin Assistants for the day. Gaeul’s smile was hidden behind his mask, but all the same, she could see the light in his eyes. “I’d like to sign up for a mission.” The request was a simple enough one, but one he had had to come to terms with. He had really been hoping that his first official mission would be a team mission, but… well the ninja system was currently still in a fix and he hadn’t been assigned a team yet, for a long time, but still, he had to get back into the habit of doing missions didn’t he? He was a ninja after all. “Let’s see… we have a new set of missions for today, but I think this one would suit you best, ne?” she asked, unclipping a mission detail from her clipboard and passing it over to Gaeul.

Taking his hands out of his pocket, Gaeul took the slip of paper from her and read over it. ‘Hnn, a delivery run? That doesn’t sound too bad or boring. I’ll go for it!’ Handing it back to her, he nodded. “I’ll take it. I think I can do it pretty well. I’m not the fastest around here or anything, but I can manage.” Nodding, she went through the process of signing him up for it before giving him additional information.

“Alright, Ming’s Meals on Wheels is located in the lower business district. His business isn’t all that popular, but the meals are pretty good, probably the only reason why he’s still in business. He’s trying to improve his revenue, and his latest advertisement was that if the meals didn’t get there in forty-five minutes or less they’d be free. His sales spiked up considerably, well, as much as they can for a small business, but his deliverer for the lower end of the ninja apartments is sick today. Ming would absolutely be indebted to you if you could just deliver this one meal today. After that, he can rearrange his other deliveries to cover the ninja apartments,” she explained rather quickly, pausing just slightly at the end to see if he had understood it all.

Gaeul noticed the pause and nodded once more, aware that she had sighed just a little at the end. “I think I could run meals all day… I mean, I got nothing else to do today anyway, so I might as well—” he started, figuring that he might as well help out Ming some more, before the Chuunin got out of her seat and abruptly hugged him from across the table. “I could kiss you right now!” ‘I guess she knows Ming personally or something…’ he thought as he took a step back and rubbed his neck. ‘She has a pretty strong grip…’ “I’m sorry, but it’s just that I order a lot from Ming’s and if he went out of business I’d be devastated! He’s the only one who knows how to make the curry I like! Thank you so much! I’d cut out a portion of my paycheck for you, but…” “It’s okay. I don’t mind, honest. Ming can just give me a free meal every now and then I guess. I dunno. I’ll work it out with him,” replied Gaeul, smiling with eyes closed. “I better get to his place though, or else he’ll go out of business there.”

It was a bit of a stretch, getting to Ming’s Meals on Wheels, but he got there within due time. Pushing the door open, a small bell went off and someone from behind a counter looked up for only a second. “Welcome to Ming’s Meals on Wheels! What can I get for ya?” he called out, turning back to the kitchen oven and hurriedly putting together a meal. Still taking in the wonderfully lavish scents of the shop, Gaeul replied that he was looking for Ming and that he was the replacement. The man stopped for another second, looking at him again before turning back to this work. “I am Ming! You arrived just in time. Wait a few more minutes and the meal will be ready. You’ll have about forty minutes to deliver it. After that, just drop by here and—” “Ahh, I’m actually offering to work here all day.”

“SPLENDID! Alright, here’s your package. Most of my deliverers usually ride bikes to their destinations but we don’t have any spare ones at the moment since most of them keep their bikes, but you’re a ninja, so I figure you can make it there pretty quickly on foot. The address is located on the package itself. Be careful not to jostle it too much or you’ll spill and mix the contents together. You’re lucky it’s just some fried rice and eggrolls that this guy asked for, but he wanted the sweet sauce with the eggrolls so be a little careful. They’re in their own container, but the lid pops off pretty easily. Now get going!” he ordered, speaking so fast that Gaeul barely managed to keep up with him and pushing a package towards him so hard that he almost fell on the floor before he managed to take a step back in time to steady himself and walk backwards out the door.

Once outside, he took a second to glance to down at the paper and get the address in his head before sprinting off towards the ninja apartments at a steady rate. ‘Damn, this guy talks fast! The only thing I got was that I had to be careful.’ The scent of the fried rice and eggrolls were also tantalizing and making him hungry, despite having just ate breakfast about a quarter of an hour ago. ‘Alright, I’ll just deliver this as quick as I can and stop by here again and check out the food before I report in that my initial mission was completed.’

At first, it was pretty easy and he was making good time, fifteen minutes into the delivery since there really wasn’t anyone out and about on the streets and there wasn’t anything blocking his way, after all, even if the business were open at six in the morning, not a lot of people rushed to get there as soon as the stores opened. But then he hit the ninja district. Ninja were definitely up and about, crowding the streets and the rooftops.

Most of the ninja here were small ninja families with a couple of kids, or lone ninjas living on their own away from their family. At first it was okay since the little kids were still inside, probably sleeping, and the adults that were about were Chuunin and Jounin—so they were all pretty fast and observant. Most of them kept out of his way because they saw the package in his arms and that he wasn’t traveling at a normal rate. They figured he was a mission and avoided him. But this was the upper district. Most of the experienced ninjas lived up here.

It was only when he began to transition from the upper district to the middle district that he came across ninja that were closer to his skill level and experience. They didn’t keep out of his way. Most of them got in his way and wouldn’t move, forcing him to quickly take into consideration the surroundings and find an alternate. He was lucky he was familiar with the ninja district, he supposed, or else it would’ve taken him a lot longer, but the other thing was that sometimes there simply wasn’t another route and he was stuck traveling along behind people slower than him. That and random ninjas would pop out of nowhere and make him come to a grinding halt, almost spilling the contents!

He had felt the precautious styrofoam containers inside sliding a few times, but he didn’t think he had actually spilled anything or make the food become a pile of mush quite yet. They had slid slowly, not fast, and they definitely hadn’t hit the sides of the box yet either.

It took him about twice the amount of time just to cover the middle districts than he did when he was on the upper end of it. That meant he had around five minutes left… ‘Damn it! I’m gonna have to go faster but… if I go any faster than this my foot pace is usually pretty uneven… the stuff inside might spill or collide with the walls faster…’ Still, he had to try.

In the lower end of the district now, he had come to travel in an odd sort of way with short bursts of speed when there was a fair bit of empty track ahead of him and slowing back down to a more manageable pace when it started to get crowded. ‘I never knew so many ninja woke up this early for practice or missions!’ Seeing a bit of people-less street before him, he quickened his pace again, and glanced back down at the package. The recipient lived upstairs. Great.

Three minutes left, he slowed down as he came to the building in question and quickly looked for a flight of stairs but found none and instead picked up his speed again as he aimed for a steep side of the building mostly void of obstacles and sped up across the back end of the building. Halfway up and out of breath, he swung his way onto the flooring over the railing and rang the bell with a minute left. “Who is it?” asked a feminine voice as Gaeul heard the latch being undone. “Ming’s Meals on Wheels at your service!” he breathed out breathlessly, hoping the woman would be able to understand. “Just in time! My boyfriend just woke up,” she said as she opened the door and took the package from him just a few seconds before the time limit ended. ‘So much for me thinking this would be an easy mission!’ thought Gaeul, clutching his side as he struggled to breathe in a ‘fashionable way’.

“Onee-chan…” groaned out a teenage boy as he unsteadily walked to the door, “I… don’t feel well… can we order some of… Ming’s Soup? I get a discount there… anyway…” he asked, sniffling and coughing in between the words. “Yes, I’ll call Ming right away. Go and get some sleep, Daisuke.” “Misa, is the delivery here yet?” yelled out a rougher voice from within. “I’ve got to get going on a mission in the hour. I need to eat now!” “It’s here!” she yelled back. “Thank you for the delivery~” And with that said, she paid him for the meal, shut the door again, locking it, but not before Gaeul heard her talking to Ming. “Yes, I’d like to place an order for some of your soup.”

‘… F MY LIFE!’ thought Gaeul as hurried back down the building and off towards Ming’s place again. This time, drawing upon what he had learned, he used his chakra to speed back to Ming’s place. No doubt, the ninjas about him were annoyed, seeing as he was not only speeding past them by squeezing through the narrowest of places, dancing in and out of the crowd, but also jumping up from the ground to the sides of the buildings and running along their side before jumping back to the ground, or throwing thin, nearly invisible shards of ice into the air above their heads and using them as foot holds in the air before dropping back to the ground.

Yes, he was using chakra, but what the hell did he care? The mission was not only about speed, but also overcoming as many obstacles as possible as soon as possible. In this way, he reached Ming’s place at half the time it originally took him. He, apparently, had learned (and was going to learn) the hard way that making deliveries isn’t as easy as they appear to be. Taking a few minutes to catch his breath and ask Ming for some water and something to eat to replenish his energy and stamina, he soon shot off back towards the sick delivery boy’s apartment. Very ironic, yes, but this was his job for now.

By the end of the day, he had a newfound respect for deliverers—that and he absolutely hated the job because of all the running back and forth and practically no breaks in between. How Ming’s regulars did it was a mystery to him. It took about 45 minutes to get there in the first place, less depending on traffic, and just about the same amount of time to get back, only to have to go to the same district yet again. It made sense to him then that Ming would have at least two people covering the same district or something, but he had never really met any of Ming’s other deliverers during his work.

It was only until the very end that he managed to meet everyone else, but by that time he was too tired and exhausted to properly mingle with them. They however, were all jubilant and talkative. At some point they did mention something about seeing a white haired kid running on thin air. ‘Wait a minute… that’d be me, wouldn’t it?’ So, he supposed there were other people running his route too, but he wasn’t going to ask, not when he was trying to breathe and eat and drink at the same time.

“So, you’ll be here tomorrow then?” asked Ming, sliding over another bowl of fried rice to Gaeul. Taking in several bites of the wonderfully, delicious food, Gael swallowed and took a sip of Sprite before answering the guy. “I’d love to… but tomorrow I’ve got to rest and train.” “Too much for a Genin, ehhh?” he chuckled. Gaeul just nodded and kept eating. He was lucky he had a pretty decent chakra control or else he would’ve used up all of his chakra and been left to doing the work on foot alone. “You did good though, real good. My business spiked up a lot cause of you! Next time I have a Genin help me again I’ll be sure to make them wear a sign or something. I should’ve thought of that a long time ago! You ran all over the ninja district and even into the civilian’s sector sometimes on the walls and on top of buildings and on thin air! You even danced with the crowd.”

Confused, Gaeul looked up at him, chewing as quickly as he could. “Wh—” Ming patted him on the shoulder and pointed at the phone. “I had people calling in all day, some of them recognized the pale blue package you had as the stuff I put my meals in and asked who you were. I got some complaints from some girls too. Something about you touchin’ them?” Gaeul reddened slightly. “I-I didn’t mean to! It’s just that there was the time limit and all and if I didn’t you’d lose business and well when I went through the crowd there would be people all around me and I’d brush up against them and I didn’t really want to say anything since I needed to keep—” he explained, swallowing what was in his mouth. “It’s alright!” laughed Ming, patting him on the back. “They weren’t really complaining. Just a few actually complained. The others wanted your number.” That only made Gaeul redden even more. He knew that some girls in the village liked him… but he wasn’t exactly comfortable with being remotely intimate with them or had really thought of girls as anything more than friends.

‘CRAP! I forgot to call in and tell the guys over at the Administrative Office that I was done!’ thought Gaeul as he finally remembered he had never once called in to confirm he was done or even check in (as if that was possible). “Can I borrow your phone? I need to make a call,” asked Gaeul. ‘Man, I really need to get back into the swing of this!’ “Sure you can, but why? If you need to call in that you’re done, I already did that with the first delivery and told them you were running another delivery for me.” Gaeul’s tense body relaxed and he let out a sight of relief. “Thanks.” “Not a problem. Now hurry up and eat that plate. I gotta close up in a minute.”

Nodding, Gaeul hurriedly finished his food and took his time to get back home. He had made so many trips back and forth into the ninja district that he was plain outright sick and tired of seeing the looming apartments so many times. At least he knew almost every single street in the ninja district now… ‘I guess I did learn a lot today…’ sighed Gaeul irritably, annoyed at how sore his feet felt. He was definitely going to sleeping in tomorrow. Now he was almost glad he didn’t have a Genin Team or Jounin Sensei. It meant no rigorous training exercises day after day, or mission after mission. ‘Maybe I ought to work for this guy now and then… get my stamina up. Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll drop by tomorrow and ask him if he’ll call me in to work for him when he needs a replacement or that maybe I can help every weekend or something. This is a pretty good way of building up my stamina and speed in a productive way. I can work on my chakra control too since I was using chakra a lot to climb the walls and use Ice Disk and Glass Ice too. Yeah, I’ll do that! This might have been stressful, but it was way more fun than just outright raining!’

[Topic Completed]-Archived