open~

[ghostpepper]

Who: Kushina and whoever
When: Arriving March 1st, late morning, until leaving March 9th, mid-afternoon
Where: In and around Konoha, between the village gates and the travel seal if you really want, ...seriously, just everywhere when she's not spending quality time with her family
Notes: Just come say hi 8| Aforementioned quality time with family will be most mornings from March 2-9, and all nights. But family teammates are always welcome to dinner. >3>


No matter how many times she came back to Konoha, she always made a point to walk around different parts of the village. It felt necessary to reacquaint herself with the streets and various landmarks after spending so long away from home. And meeting up with friends is a must too. On a couple afternoons she even takes some time in one of the training areas by the river. No reason not to keep sharp, even if she's technically on vacation.

Whether you're looking for her or not, that bright red hair of hers isn't hard to miss.

Comments

March 3rd

[thebestuchiha]

Obito was running over the rooftops when he spotted her, and he ended up pacing her for a good block before hopping down right behind her, trying, possibly in futility, to catch her by surprise.

"You know Kushina-nee, sooner or later you'll say hi to be outside my office without me hunting you down first."

[ghostpepper]

Nice try, Obito, but no dice. That sensation of being watched kicked in pretty quick. She stops in her tracks and turns as soon as she hears feet settling on the ground.

"And here I thought you liked trying to find me in the village. Besides, I gotta make sure being stuck in that office doesn't dull your tracking skills." Her tone matches her teasing grin. "But as usual, you found me before I found you. Maybe I'm the one whose skills are dulling from being in an office most days."

She finally opens her arms to him. Hokage or not, he still gets hugs.

[thebestuchiha]

He laughed and stepped in, clasping her in a hug without any hesitation. "Please, we'll have to do a game of tag one of these days then, you know, just to make sure we haven't fallen out of skill."

[ghostpepper]

Kushina hugged him tight for a bit before stepping back to hold him at arm's length.

"I like the sound of that plan. Let's make it happen... While I'm here this week? Even better, we could invite others to join in! Like Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, Kakashi, Rin... Not Minato, he can watch because let's be honest, he'd cheat. Unless we told him no Flying Thunder God..."

[thebestuchiha]

He laughed and gave her a wry grin. "My team, on both sides, you, and hmmm, anyone else? Because you know lots of people would be in on this. We could have Sensei weed out the slow ones."

March 2nd

[not_thedragon]

Sasuke had been doing a stellar job of avoiding everyone thus far, even if he did say so himself; slipping out of the house at the crack of dawn each day to train had certainly been useful on that score. He'd heard in a vague sort of way that Naruto's mom was back in town, or at least would be around soon, but he hadn't expected to actually see her.

That, of course, meant that he saw her as soon as he arrived at the training field he'd been using the past week and a half. Drawing up short at the edge of the clearing, he paused, then turned -- hoping to make a stealthy exit, or at least one uninteresting enough that she wouldn't follow.

[ghostpepper]

Unluckily for him, she did see him. And she stopped flinging shuriken at her targets to wave at him. Perhaps a bit useless if he couldn't see her, but it's what he'd see if he turned around again.

"Sasuke! It's good to see you again!"

[not_thedragon]

Of course she'd spot him; Sasuke stopped when he heard his name, considered briefly the merits of making a run for it, and decided that it really wasn't worth getting chased down humiliatingly quickly. With a concealed sigh, he turned around to lean back into the clearing with a half-hearted wave.

"Kushina-san. I heard you were back in town." He paused, and then with a vague gesture at her training weapons, added somewhat hopefully: "I won't interrupt your training longer."

[ghostpepper]

"Oh no, it's fine! Come talk to me, I haven't heard much of anything that's happened in the last few weeks!"

Bright and cheery as ever today. The last news she got from Konoha was Minato's last visit. And now he's on a mission and apparently not due back until that night.

[not_thedragon]

Ah ... not having heard much of the news probably explained it. The people involved had meant that what would have otherwise been a routine mission cock-up had somehow become a well-known fact. Maybe that would mean not having to talk about it and field questions about whether he was fine as if he'd been the one injured.

"Nothing much has gone on in the village," he said, conveniently leaving out that stuff had happened outside of it. "What you did was probably more exciting."

4th

[dangodragon]

After being assigned a mission as the Hokage's personal guard, Itachi realized how long it had been since he'd actually had to guard someone. Usually he was killing, infiltrating,or destroying. He was even more likely to run a kidnapping or impersonation mission than a standard guard the target mission. His ANBU specialization sat in another area, and he thought the last mission he'd had guarding someone had actually been over two years ago.

With this realization, Itachi decided he needed to brush up on his technique. Of course, he expected if it came down to a fight, Obito would be able to pull his own weight. Still, Itachi would have to fight with the intent that nothing was more important than keeping Obito alive and in one piece. Itachi's priority was generally keeping himself alive and his eyeballs out of enemy hands.

For Itachi, review meant more going over the fights he'd had through-out the years and getting his mind and muscles used to the moves he had, at one point, memorized. He'd been running through kata all morning now, and after a small break for lunch and a lot of water, Itachi was stretching out his sore muscles and getting ready to go again. Now, he really needed a sparring partner, but he wasn't sure who he could find...

As he straightened up, Itachi saw a familiar head of red hair. He smiled, more because if his good luck than anything else. It was nice to know Adela was up and about again after the mission that had recently gone horribly, and Itachi should take a much heavier interest in this girl if she were going to be giving Sasuke chocolates.

Itachi raised a hand in greeting. If she were busy, he'd have to find someone else.

Whoops didn't see this earlier

[abileunaspada]

It had been a rough time after the mission, with Adela only having been cleared to train and resume missions recently. Even so, she still didn't feel quite like to do anything. Not really. Maybe working in the forge was something she could do, but as a kunoichi... She felt like a complete failure, still.

It was then that she spotted Itachi, her eyes widening briefly before she glanced away and tried to walk away from him quickly. No, Itachi definitely wasn't someone she could face then, not until she proved that she wasn't a complete failure as a chuunin to herself.

Though, that would mean that she wasn't completely watching where she was going, and she grunted when she bumped into a taller red head as a result of her inattention. Adela almost stumbled back completely, wincing before looking up to the person she ran into, "... Sorry."

it's fine~

[ghostpepper]

To be fair, Kushina had stopped for a moment, swearing she saw a flash of long white hair, but a second glance told her it wasn't who she thought. When Adela bumped into her, she caught her balance in a step before turning and laughing sheepishly.

"Guess I stopped where I shouldn't have."

Oh hey, it's the other village ginger.

"Well, look who it is. I wasn't expecting to run into you today, Adela."

[dangodragon]

Well, Adela certainly didn't want to be around Itachi, it seemed. Itachi sighed and dropped his arm. Had he done something, or did this have something to do with Sasuke? Whatever it was, Itachi would have to go find someone else, then. Itachi decided he needed more friends, or at least acquaintances that were willing to spar with him once in a while.

Itachi watched as Adela ran into someone, considered Kushina, and decided that despite his reputation, he wasn't sure he wanted to spar against Kushina. He'd heard stories.

[abileunaspada]

"Kushina-san," A long time ago, Adela had learned the hard way to always always always refer to Kushina with an honorific. It doesn't take Adela too long to try and keep going however, not paying Itachi any mind as, at the moment, she wanted to keep to herself.

5th

[gentledheart]

The whispers that Kushina was back in Konoha took a while to reach Hinata, mostly because she was spending the better part of her waking hours trying to go on like she hadn’t been told to avoid using her Byakugan wherever possible and to take it easy. The family doctors cleared her of any lasting damage but they didn’t want her to push too hard too soon. As such she spent much of her time either working with her sister or in meetings with elders.

Today was the first day in a while she’d gotten more than a hour to herself and she was not going to squander it as she made her way to the markets. She was desperate to be around people just enjoying their day and not afraid to show it. Which is exactly how she stumbled upon Kushina a short while later as she wandered among the merchants munching delicately on a piece of fruit she’d purchased from a vendor for a very good deal.

“Hello Uzumaki-san.” She greeted coming up slightly to the side of the woman so that she wouldn’t surprise her. “Welcome back.”

[ghostpepper]

She had just left from visiting with a friend and was passing through the market on her way home. She was debating on buying ingredients for dinner when Hinata's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Hm? --Oh! Thank you, Hinata! I'm glad to be back. How are you doing?"

[gentledheart]

She smiles at the red head as she falls into step. "I'm well," she says after a moment of hesitance. It was a little more complicated than usual to answer, but if she took away the mission performance issues that were still bothering her she was well enough.

"How are you?"

[ghostpepper]

"I'm doing alright, besides landing in a bit of trouble, but it's no big deal." She laughs and waves her hand as if she could simply fan it away. After all, the amount of damage to one of the training areas wouldn't go unnoticed. And in a village where everybody talks...

[gentledheart]

Tilting her head slightly, Hinata looks on confused a moment before the whispers that had made the rounds of the compound drifted back to mind. Her expression shifting from confusion to shock and settling into mild amusement as realization dawned on her.

"So that was you, someone said one of the jounin had been practicing creating a new jutsu and it backfired on them." The village might be full of people that talked, but the story always ended up mutating somehow along the way. Though it's clear that she's taking that story with a considerable amount of doubt. So far the only confirmed details she had was that a jounin was involved.

March 7th.

[mikotouchiha]

Purposefully walking through the market streets of Konoha with a fond smile on her face, the raven haired Mother muses endless thoughts, all the whilst shopping for necessities. Mikoto turns her head when a flash of red catches her eye. She, of course, expected it to be some sort of tower of tomatoes, but she hadn't expected it to be a familiar face.

"Kushina... Welcome back!"

[ghostpepper]

A familiar voice calling her name? That definitely caught her attention. Kushina turned around and waved when she saw her friend.

"Mikoto! I was going to pay you a visit today! I meant to drop by earlier this week, but other things kept popping up."

She trotted over with a sheepish grin, but clearly pleased to have run into her.

"It's been too long, how have you been?"

[mikotouchiha]

"Of course you were, Kushina, of course you were. Did the ramen or your blonde boys distract you this time?"

Mikoto teases the red head kindly, extremely pleased to see her friend again, "I've been fine, even if I have been reduced even more to nothing but a lovey housewife again. How was the trip?"

[ghostpepper]

"Neither for once. Some messages came in from the council about some new arrivals and other village business. It would figure something would come up while I'm on vacation. I'm so relieved we got it all settled."

She waved her hand as if to brush the thought of it away.

"Everything's been going good. There's still a lot of work to be done, but some of the academy students look promising, so we may get some talented new genin to start helping out with missions. Speaking of missions, if you get tired of the housewife thing, you should take some on here and there." She dropped her voice to a low whisper, leaning in to Mikoto's ear so only she could hear. "I haven't even told Minato this yet, but I'm gonna be needing some talented ninja in the next month or two for a very important mission. I know I can't pick who goes and I haven't submitted the mission yet, but I'd trust you to be in on this."

[mikotouchiha]

"Ah..." Mikoto bites her lip at the new information, processing it through her well organized mind, "Do you honestly trust me enough for something you deigned a 'very important mission'? I haven't been an active jonin in a while and though I 'love' the fact that you chose me first without approval..." Now that she thought about it, Kushina did have a tendency to do such; jump into things without thinking. Mikoto was ever so thankful that she was the red head's friend and that Minato was her husband, lest the Red Habanero be jumping around without purpose.

But no matter the fact that she hadn't been a 'ninja' for a while, she was always willing to help her friend out. With that, Mikoto smiles a little, "You know I don't accept missions anyways without detail, detail, details! But, if you need help, I won't mind."