Gone Fishin' [mission]

Age : 33 Posts : 159

Toyata was excited, very excited. He was going to his first C rank mission, and he had very high expectations for this mission, though he did not know very much about fishing other than his rather limited experience with the occasional fishing trips with an old fishing pole and a bucket of worms. As he turned a corner he was suddenly facing the fishing port with the numerous stalls with various fishing supplies and newly caught fish, he felt lost. The port reminded Toyata of a busy ant hill, everything was a blur of motion, with people running around the place trying to find the best and cheapest fish, boats unloading and a general commotion of curious villagers flocking around in large, confusing herds trying to find the best spots to sit and watch as the fishing contest was going to start in just under an hour. Overwhelmed Toyata had to lean on the corner of the house he had just passed. ”So this is what is feels like to be a fish out of water.” Toyata took a deep breath and started making his way towards the docked fishing boats looking for Fumou-san who had paid the village for Toyata’s services in this upcoming competition. As he came closer and closer to the docking area, Toyata thought back on his last mission, which had been disappointing at the time, but he had accepted that he had to start on the bottom of the food chain, even though he still felt that ordinary gardening and maintenance work was a waste of his time. The docking area was crowded, filled with bulky sailors and old boat captains aged by the harsh winds at sea. Toyata felt infinitely small in comparison though just as tall, but smaller by far in width. Toyata felt lost, ”I really should have asked for a picture of the boat or of Fumou-san back at the administration building.” ”Were you looking for me young man? In that case you must be the young shinobi that I asked for during this contest.” Toyata turned around towards the source of the aged and harsh, but still friendly voice. ”I am Fumou, the boat is docked over here, please follow me and quickly, the contest soon begins.” Fumou was a relatively short man with board shoulder, he was bald, but he still had a long grey beard. He only barely spoke his last words before turning away from Toyata and walking at a surprise speed for a man his age towards a part of the dock. Toyata quickly followed as he knew that if he lost sight of the old man he would be lost again.

Fumou-san’s boat was a short but wide vessel, the rear of the boat was a combination of empty crates, crates filled with ice, all different sorts of lures and baits, that Toyata had never seen before, and large bundles of rope and other equipment. Fumou had already stepped onto the boat, but as Toyata was about to follow him; ”Stop right there lad, before you get on you need to take a bucket and fill it with sea water, then when you get on my boat, climb the mast and SLOWLY pour the water down the mast. If you don’t do so, we will have terrible luck today, everyone knows that.” The look in Fumou’s eyes were both serious and desperate, he gave Toyata one last hard look and pointed to a bucket on the dock only a few steps from Toyata before turning around a start working on one of the pole which apparently gotten a little loose. They told me that fishermen were superstitious, but I hadn’t expected this. Toyata thought, but not wanting to cause any trouble (nor bad luck if it were true), he walked to the bucket and quickly reached down to the water surface and filled it. Returning to the boat Fumou was nowhere to be seen, but Toyata simple jumped aboard and started climbing the mast.

As he reached the top and looked around he was surprised to see just how many ships had gathered in this seemingly far too small port for this contest. Apparently this was not just about the large cash reward, judging from the arguments he saw from the mast and the desperate and nervous faces of fishermen all around the port, this contest was as much a matter of professional pride and status as anything else. Toyata also saw that he was far from the only Genin who had been assigned to working on one of the fishing ships during this contest. Even though he was unable to accurately determine who they were, they were easy to spot in this crowded area, most wore uniforms of outfits that very much stood out from their surroundings and many of them came heavily armed, like Toyata, with different kinds of swords, pole arms or other kinds of weaponry. And even though they were armed far better than they people around them, they, like Toyata, appeared to be nervous and feeling out of place. The only one who appeared to relax was a shinobi that Toyata had never seen before, but judging from his appearance he was not part of Hidden Cloud. A loud voice tore Toyata back to his present situation; ”Stop sitting up there like a dumb seagull and get down here as soon as have emptied that bucket, we have work to do.” Fumou had once again appeared on the deck of the boat and he seemed equal part nervous and excited. Toyata quickly yet calmly and without spilling a drop emptied the bucket on the mast as instructed and then climbed back down on the deck where Fumou was waiting.

”Took your sweet time, didn’t you. The contest is starting, untie the boat and get ready to start fishing. You do know how to catch a fish right?” The normally friendly voice came out harder than Toyata had expected. ”Uhmm… Yes, I mean I have gone fishing before, but only with an old rod and some worms for bait, but I do know how to reel in a fish.” Toyata tried to seem as confident as possible, even though he did not feel very comfortable with the responsibility of managing several fishing rods at a time on the little boat in the contest which obviously meant a lot to Fumou-san. Apparently assured by this Fumou looked towards the lone, small boat in the middle of the lake that will signal the beginning of the contest by igniting some fireworks. ”I guess that is something, either way the contest is about to begin so get ready.” Toyata went to the port side of the ship and checked that every hook had bait on it and then shifted his gave towards the little boat. Soon after a small rocket roared towards the sky before exploding in bright shades of red and orange. ”Here go kid, get ready.” The small fishing vessel shot forward in the water, the contest had begun.

Age : 33 Posts : 159

The small fishing boat raced across the water with surprising speed, or at least surprising to Toyata, who had never spent much time on the a fishing boat or any other kind of boat or ship. The waves and the salty mist around Toyata combined with the sunny day resulted in what seemed like a thousand different rainbows all around him, all different in a small way, but equally beautiful. Turning to Fumou with a wondering look in his eyes; ”Shouldn’t we throw out our hooks? All the other boats have dropped their nets and hooks in the water starting to pull in fish.” Fumou simply gave Toyata a little smile, but made no motion to bring the boat to a halt or start fishing: ”We are going somewhere else, a more isolated place, which is the breeding ground for some of the biggest catfish in the area. We might not get as many as some of the other boats, but they weigh far more.” The little smile on Fumou’s face had grown into a full-blown smile with his aged yellow teeth flashing in the sun. A short 15 minutes later they arrived to a small bay. ”We have arrived, get fishing lad, now is the time to begin winning this contest.”

Jumping to his feet, Toyata grabbed the fishing rod closest to him and cast out his line, then securing the rod to the deck of the boat before repeating this until all of the rods on his side of the boat had been secured to the boat and their lines were in the water, just waiting for a big, fat catfish to bite onto the bait. Toyata had only looked out across the water for a few minutes before he heard Fumou fight to bring in a fish, but before he had collected himself enough to rush to Fumou’s side and help him out, one of Toyata’s own fishing rods started moving, the movement shouting to Toyata that he had a bite. Take a hold of the fishing rod; Toyata instantly knew that it was a big one, at least compared to the small lake fish he had caught in the past. Using a large portion of the strength at his disposal, Toyata was able to pull the large catfish to the surface 5 meters from the boat. He had never seen such a large fish before. The catfish was only visible for a few seconds, and then it submerged back into the dark blue water taking with it several meters of line. The struggle between Toyata and the catfish lasted more than half an hour, but finally the struggle drained the catfish of its strength and Toyata was able to drag it to the surface and pull in onboard. Taking a quick breather after the fight with the catfish Toyata heard Fumou’s voice from behind him ”Nice fish, seems like you caught a big one.” Toyata turned around looking at Fumou and the large pile of different kinds of fish, mostly different species of catfish. It was hard to believe that an old man could catch that many in such a short amount of time. ”But you still have a long way to go” Fumou’s smile was wide and he was obviously found Toyata’s surprised expression amusing.

Fishing had never been a chore or something boring to Toyata even though he had never been very interested in fishing. However this began to change that day on the old, wind torn fishing boat with Fumou, the hours flew by and so did the fish, as Fumou had told Toyata this spot was filled with a seemingly endless supply of large catfish, however it was very hard work reeling them in it happened more than a few times that Toyata lost a fish trying to bring it in or simple watching a fish take the bait and then just swim away, as he was busy pulling in another fish. He was not the only one with sore muscles as Fumou also struggled to keep up and Toyata had a feeling that it wasn’t the amount of fish, but rather their endurance and stamina that would decide how many fish they would bring in. Over time his muscles ache grew worse and worse over time, and just as he felt like his arms was about to be torn from their sockets, Fumou came to him. ”The contest is over in half an hour, store the rods, we are heading back.”

Back at the port most of the other fishing vessels had already returned or was busy docking. Toyata kept a keen eye on the other boats trying to figure out how much they had caught compared to Toyata and Fumou, this was however not easy, as many other boats had used nets, and they caught was a strange mixture of small fish, shellfish, crabs and other garbage that need to be sorted, as only the caught fish counted in the contest. Other boats used rods like Fumou, but they had caught other types of fish, but it is very different how much each type of fish weigh compared to their size. Toyata fairly quickly gave up trying to figure out how their catch was compared to the others, but Fumou seemed happy with the catch even though Toyata still saw traces of doubt in his face.

The weigh-ins were held in the center of the main fish market of the port and as their competitors arrived had got their total weight Toyata began feeling increasingly confident. Fumou had been right to sail away from the main group of boats, as their general weight total was fairly low. One of the other competitors stood out, it was the one with the hired shinobi from far away, they had focused on the large bull sharks that roamed the water using nets to gather live bait and the catch the large sharks. They had not been able to catch more than three, but these animals were massive thus placing them first in the competition with a large margin. It was time for Fumou’s catch to be weighed as the very last in the contest. The shark team had a total of 760 Ib, Fumou’s catch was weighed in turns as the many large catfish couldn’t all fit on the scale on the same time, the first was 372 Ib, the second was only 211 Ib, and so the last needed to be at least 177 Ib, but there were hardly any fish left to be weighed. Toyata watched as the judges placed the last of the fish onto the scale, and to his left Fumou closed his eyes, turning titling his head slightly downwards and mumble a short prayer. ”And the last of the fish from Fumou-san weighs in at … 231 Ib… Fumou-san wins the competition!” The crowd turned from quiet spectators to a noise mob in an instant. Fumou had the largest smile on his face that Toyata had ever seen, and he couldn’t help but smile himself. ”See you next time…” Toyata whispered in Fumou’s ear before turning away and discretely making his way through the crowd, as many people made him uncomfortable. Thank you Fumou-san, you really opened my eyes today.

[Exit topic]