Open Clean up on Aisle Three... [Class]

[Ryuu Nozomi]

The Hot Springs looked… quieter now. Not peaceful, there was too much damage for that. It was like a battlefield after the smoke had finally cleared and the survivors had walked away to lick their wounds. Steam still rose in thin ribbons from fractured stone, and the mineral scent hung heavier than before. White bone was everywhere and their was a faint metallic tang of dried blood that hung in the air. Some of it jutted at awkward angles from the ground like the ribs of a beast who had fallen here. Other pieces lay shattered or fused where detonations had been controlled just well enough to prevent further catastrophe. Calcified plates clung to walls and pillars that were still being warped by heat and stress. Even the bamboo fencing bore the scars of battle as they were now splintered and bent, but mercifully still standing.

Nozomi stood at the edge of the ruined pool, hands folded loosely behind her back, and surveyed it all with a critical eye. This is the consequence, she thought. Training without aftermath was fantasy yet the guilt of this display having occurred here still weighed on her mind. Power without responsibility was just destruction.

Nozomi stepped carefully onto a stable section of stone and crouched, placing one gloved hand against a thick bone ridge that had once tried very hard to kill a very angry academy student. The surface vibrated faintly in response to her touch, a residual echo of chakra still trapped inside the structure.

She closed her eyes and breathed slow. The mouths in her palms shifted restlessly and their teeth started grinding in anticipation. She did not let them open just yet. This was not demolition, it was cleanup. Even though it may require a bit of rough around the edges.

With deliberate focus, she began to draw the bone inward instead of forcing it outward. Calcification softened at the edges as it lost rigidity due to the reverse flow of chakra. Sections broke off in controlled sheets, collapsing into pale fragments that could be safely gathered or dissolved later. It was slow and precise work that was dreadfully boring.

She straightened and glanced toward the entrance, where foot traffic had been blocked off and warning tags still fluttered weakly in the humid air. Ruri would arrive soon, she’d expected that much at least. The girl had grit which means she’s ready to learn something less glamorous, Nozomi thought.

This wouldn’t be about heroics or survival today. There were no bone walls to climb or explosions to dodge. Just control, patience, and accountability. A lesson in how to dismantle chaos without creating more of it.

Nozomi rolled her shoulders once, feeling the familiar hum settle into a tolerable register, and waited...

[Class Post: 1/5, WC: 457/1,000]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

The message reached Ruri late in the afternoon, slipped to her by an academy runner with a look that suggested they’d been told not to ask questions. The paper itself was plain, folded once, Nozomi’s handwriting was tight and uneven as if written in a hurry. It was brief, an invitation more than an explanation. An invite for training and clean-up in the hot springs. Ruri was intrigued and didn’t hesitate. Less than a week had passed since the incident, but the memory still sat close to the surface of her thoughts, sharp and vivid. The operation to remove the bones had been… unpleasant. She’d endured it in stoic silence, jaw clenched, nails biting into the cot as the medical-nin carefully extracted each shard from her arm, thigh, and shoulder. Healing chakra had closed the worst of the damage, but the spots were still tender, wrapped in clean bandages that showed faint pink where skin was still new. She moved fine, better than fine, according to the medics but she could still feel the echo of it all in her bones.

The springs came into view long before she reached them. What had once been a place of calm now looked like the aftermath of a small war. Pale columns of bone still jutted from the ground at odd angles, some snapped and fractured, others intact and reaching skyward like the ribs of a buried giant. Cracked tiles lay half-submerged in shallow, murky water, the pool itself drained unevenly where stone had ruptured. Every so often, a low creak or pop echoed as something settled deeper beneath the surface. The smell hit her next, sulphur, thick and sharp mixed with damp stone and something faintly organic. It clung to the back of her throat, unmistakable and heavy, a reminder of how violently the springs had been torn open. Steam still rose in lazy, uneven curls, drifting through the destruction as if nothing had happened at all.

Ruri slowed as she stepped into the women’s side of the complex, bypassing the warnings to remain clear. The chaos was frozen now. No movement or hostile chakra, just bone and rubble and silence. It was unsettling in a different way, like standing in a battlefield after the fighting had stopped. Her Byakugan confirmed what her instincts already knew, the terrain-altering jutsu was gone, its lingering chakra little more than a fading residue soaked into the unnatural bone structures. She flexed her bandaged arm, feeling the tight pull of healing skin, and exhaled slowly.

"It's strange, how peaceful it is." She comments to herself.

A week ago, this place had tried to kill her. Now it waited, quiet, broken, and oddly calm, for whatever came next. Through the drifting steam and pale bone, Ruri caught sight of Nozomi near the centre of the ruined springs, her silhouette unmistakable against the rubble. She lifted a hand in a brief wave and called out, voice carrying easily through the hollow space,

“Hey, Nozomi. I got your message.”

[Class Post 1/5]
[Word Count - 502]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

Nozomi turned at the sound of her name. She had been standing knee deep in the draining basin with her sleeves rolled up and hands already stained with white residue. Bone littered the pool floor around her but the worst of it had gone inert days ago. When she saw Ruri, whole and upright despite the bandages, something in Nozomi’s chest loosened by a fraction she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“I’m glad you came,” she said, her voice carrying but measured.

She stepped closer, stopping at a respectful distance. Just close enough to be heard without raising her voice. Her eyes flicked briefly to the wrapped arm, leg, and shoulder. Seeing her all patched up and made whole again was reassuring, and yet it came with a twinge of guilt.

“I should have checked on you sooner,” Nozomi continued. There was no flourish to the apology, just simple truth.

“The medical reports told me you were healing well, but I should have visited you.”

She gestured around them with an open hand, encompassing the ruined springs, the pale bone jutting at odd angles, the cracked stone and warped tiles.

“This...” she said quietly, “Was not supposed to be a trial, and yet you adapted under pressure that most academy students never face.”

The steam drifted between them in still in those slow curls as Nozomi exhaled and straightened slightly, shifting gears with deliberate control.

“So,” she went on, her tone changing to be a bit more upbeat.

“Maybe cleaning this up together is a suitable task, and it will do you well to keep those muscles loose.”

She crouched and pressed her palm flat against a broken column of bone. It shuddered faintly as the surface lost rigidity, as if heat had been applied from within. The structure began to crumble inward, collapsing into chalky fragments that could be cleared safely.

“I’ll destabilize and retract what I can,” Nozomi explained. “Anything fully inert, we break down manually and remove. We take our time though, there's no rush. No need for heroics today.”

Her gaze lifted back to Ruri.

“And if at any point something feels unsafe let me know immediately. I'm here to help.”

She straightened and offered a small, genuine nod. The ruined springs lay silent around them as Nozomi turned back to the nearest cluster of bone and rolled her shoulders once more, settling herself to continue the decomposition of bone structure.

[Class Post 2/5, WC: 862/1,000]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Ruri felt a small, unfamiliar warmth settle in her chest as Nozomi spoke, not pride exactly, and not embarrassment either. It was something she'd honestly not felt before. It was sweet of her to worry so much about her, even though, to Ruri, it was just another day, this girl had been worried for her. No one outside of her family had ever shown that kind of emotion and even then, it felt rigid. She rolled her bandaged shoulder once, testing it, then gave a sharp nod.

“Don't worry, I made it through just fine.” she said easily. “I appreciate the thought though and I'm good to work.”

Physical labor was simple and easy, it didn’t ask questions or care about awkward silences. As Nozomi moved to destabilize another column of bone, Ruri activated her Byakugan, pale eyes sharpening as the world shifted into layered clarity. Chakra bled through the ruined springs in faint traces, most of it dead, inert, soaked into stone like old stains. But not all of it.

“There,” Ruri said, pointing with two fingers toward a jagged cluster half-buried in broken tile. “That one’s still got something in it. A faint trace of chakra.”

She then moved without waiting for acknowledgment, stepping up to a fully inert pillar nearby. She squared her stance, feet planted firmly against the cracked stone, and struck. Her palm connected with a dull crack, the vibration rattling up her arm. Pain flared briefly where the bandages pulled tight, but she ignored it and struck again, this time with a short, sharp exhale, chakra snapping outward in a controlled burst. Fine fractures spiderwebbed through the bone’s surface. She worked methodically after that. Elbows, palms, short kicks when leverage allowed. Gentle Fist wasn’t meant for structures, and it showed, this was slow, grinding work. Bone dust coated her hands and forearms, chalky white against tan skin. Sweat built quickly, dampening her hair and rolling down her spine as steam swirled in the air around her and to her credit, she didn’t stop. Each impact chipped away more material. Pieces broke loose and crumbled under repeated strikes, reduced gradually to manageable fragments. Her breathing settled into a steady rhythm, movements efficient even as fatigue crept into her muscles, this felt close to the training she did at home, only that was against wooden stakes. After several minutes, Ruri stepped back, hands on her hips, chest rising and falling as she assessed the damage she’d done. The bone was smaller now, but far from gone.

“…Okay,” she admitted, glancing over at Nozomi. “This works, but it’s slow as hell.”

She wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her wrist, leaving a moist smear behind.

“You’ve got more experience with this stuff than I do,” Ruri said plainly. “Is there a better way to break these down without just… punching them until my arms fall off?”

[Class Post 2/5]
[Word Count - 484]
[Total Word Count - 986]