sunshineverse | Let's take one more breath

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Let's take one more breath

Who: Neji, Sakura, Karin, and Kushina
When: April 17th-21st
Where: Uzushio
Notes: A-Rank mission to assist in the safe transport of Uzushio's historical masks.

An A-Rank mission for a two-man team comprised of a single Jounin and Chuunin was unusual, but as far as they'd heard it, they're a small squadron among a few sent along to aid Uzushio. The probability of running into trouble was low, but as they drew closer to the village, Neji activated his bloodline just in case.

As for his Chuunin counterpart.. Haruno Sakura had recently been promoted from Genin, but she was already highly skilled. He got the sense she'd be recommended for Jounin before too long, and this was about as easy as A-rank missions got if Obito was looking to prepare or gauge her capability.

The gates of the rebuilt village were in sight of his Byakugan before long, and Neji dropped to the ground, signalling for Sakura to do the same.

"It seems there's a small team awaiting us," he mentioned offhand to his subordinate. "Uzugakure Genin by the looks of them. They're likely our escorts to Kushina-san."

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It's not the first A-Rank mission she's ever been on, but it is the first where she was assigned it personally to act as support for other jounin, rather than Team Shirakumo picking up an easy A-Rank for one reason or another. If she were completely honest, it's less the mission itself that is notable to her (given it's easily B, perhaps even C, were the items involved not so valuable and the alliance to Konoha so close) but the company. Rather, the lack of Kiba Inuzuka.

It wasn't like she was never assigned personal missions, or paired up with other ninja than Team Shirakumo, but she did appreciate whenever her partner happened to be more like Shino than Kiba. Neji Hyuuga semed to be of that sort, and if nothing else, she appreciated the quiet trip.

She dropped to the ground after the older jounin only once he signaled for her, and glanced briefly over at him as he spoke. There wasn't much point in scanning the area ahead for the genin he spoke of--some Byakugan could see for miles, couldn't they? That's what she'd heard of the Hyuuga clan, anyway.

"Genin? I hadn't heard Uzugakure had its own Genin yet." Then again, maybe it was mentioned in passing near her at some point. It sounded vaguely familiar, after all.

Neji blinked, frowning to himself for a moment. Which was to say his expression didn't change while he briefly attempted to sort out if he'd heard about the information on an official basis or in Headquarters from one of Izumo's reports. He was pretty sure it was in the Jounin lounge, but in any case, it wouldn't matter soon. He'd just have to be more careful with keeping the two separate in the future.

"Yes, they recently graduated the first official class of them around the beginning of the month," he expanded, Byakugan fading as the gate and small group of people-shaped chakra systems came into normal view. "Kushina-san has been making steady progress on that front."

And perhaps unsurprisingly, the eldest of the group- looking more around a typical Chuunin's age- had shockingly bright red hair.

Well, either way he clearly had better information sources about Uzu than she did. Chuunin groups mostly just spent their time talking about which ones would be Jounin first...and she would easily admit she lacked many connections in the village to get her that kind of information unless she directly investigated it.

"Oh..." Good for them, she supposed. "That's to be expected from the wife of a former Hokage, though."

...And. Oh. Look. Bright red hair, clearly they were in Uzu. She'd never seen ninja with hair as bright red as Uzumaki. She, of course, made no move to approach or communicate with the escort ahead of Neji. As the Jounin, it was to be expected he probably knew more about what to say than her upon meeting their escort...and even if not, it would be unprofessional to speak before her current Jounin commander.

Neji nodded an agreement and stepped forward to greet the small team, catching the red-haired girl's eye to address her directly. As the eldest, he assumed she was more or less in charge of the younger ones.

"This must be one of the first new teams of Uzushio," he said with a mild smile. "Congratulations. I'm Hyuuga Neji and this is Haruno Sakura. We've been sent from Konoha at Kushina-san's request."

Edited 2014-04-22 07:47 (UTC)

Karin was waiting her foot tapping away much to the unease of her new teammates. It was a little disconcerting to have them after being the villages only genin for over a year now. She'd periodically scanned for approaching chakra to see where the Konoha nin were, it was becoming something of an annoying process as her hands shifted through hand signs to do so once more, one of her teammates coughing as they had done every time before.

In the end it was unnecessary as the two came into view. Dropping her hands she shifted slightly, straightening her posture and shaking out her hair. If there was one thing she appreciated about being teamed with twelve year olds they were keen to follow her lead as they also stood up straighter though their eyes were expectant. It wasn't every day such a huge piece of village culture returned home, even she felt a buzz of excitement.

"Thank you, we're all very excited to see how the teams progress and grow," She smiles though it's a little tight around the edges having to play both the role of genin and diplomat. "Karin," she introduces herself and makes a motion to have her team introduce themselves, it would help she hoped with making them feel like they were her equals.

She nods, "Of course, Kushina-sama sends her apologies for not being here to greet you herself and escort you to the new storage temple as village business is keeping her a little longer than expected. She has arranged for us to give you a tour of the village and then escort you to the temple, is that amenable?" She pauses waiting for the inevitable interjection that they don't have time for sight-seeing, that they're only there to escort the masks and nothing else.

It wasn't really a surprise to see the eldest was the de facto captain, given her age she was probably on the cusp of being a Chuunin herself, so she'd be given chuunin responsibilities in anticipation of her promotion (particularly if Uzu had very few Chuunin to go around).

She resisted the urge to glance over at her Jounin superior, while she was curious how he handled diplomatic situations, she suspected his expression would remain unchanged anyway (he did, after all, remind her of Shino in his general behavior). Ordinarily, on a mission like this, such a delay before going to their mission would be a test, an insult, or something to be suspicious of.

Given Uzu's relationship with Konoha, however, it seemed to her that the tour might be the opposite, and rejecting it would be rude--particularly when the wife of the former hokage was the one to arrange it.

With that in mind, she smiled and responded herself, rather than waiting for the Hyuuga to speak first. "If that's the case, I'd love to have the tour." Singular, of course. It did allow them to split up if necessary, or at least allow Konoha to appear gracious.

Tour were multi-faceted in his experience. A delay tactic, distraction, or otherwise. He always found himself amused however, because they always acted like he wasn't Hyuuga and couldn't map out the entire village in a matter of minutes. He never said as much of course, and he would've given in to the courtesy simply to observe the growing village and report its progress back to Obito upon their return if he hadn't known that the Hokage himself had just come through here with his team some days ago.

Sakura's acceptance surprised him, but after a moment, he appreciated her consideration. She could take a tour of the village and leave him free to do what he needed to.

"I appreciate it," he told Karin with a smile. "But if Kushina-san is occupied, I'd like to make sure the temple area remains secure until we begin our mission in earnest. As a member of Uzushio, I'm sure you understand the importance of their safety and my eyes can only be beneficial to their security."

There's a long moment where Karin remains still taking in the offer of both Konoha nin before her. She can feel the little ones on either side shift waiting to see. There's a tiny part of her that wants to remind them this is by far the least tense situation with foreign ninja they'll encounter but that can wait until later. They had work to do and it would be better served by her making the best decision for all parts.

She took a quick glance at both her teammates, somehow she doubted either would really appreciate splitting up.

"We'll escort you to the temple and then commence the tour. Kushina-sama would not like it if we ignored protocol." She gives both visitors an apologetic smile. She had no doubt he could find his way without the escort, she'd heard stories of the Hyuuga when she'd lived in Konoha.

While she might have preferred not to go on the tour at all and get straight to the mission, at least volunteering herself would keep one of them on mission while she toured the village. And, she supposed, it would be interesting to see the new village. She'd heard about it off and on, but she'd yet to have a mission that allowed her to see it until now.

At the oldest's words, she gave a small nod and a small smile of acceptance. Ideally, when they arrived at the temple they might be interrupted so that the tour didn't happen and they got right to the mission itself. If not, at least she didn't have to wait to contribute to the team.

She settled her hands behind her waist, and watched her superior, waiting for the genin and the jounin to begin moving in the direction of the temple before she would. She doubted any further prompting would be necessary to get them moving, but if there was, the Hyuuga would be the one to do the agreeing and get them moving, not her.

There wasn't much his Byakugan couldn't see, but there were some seals that didn't allow even his doujutsu to penetrate. And a few of those seals inside the temple were creating cloudy anomalies in his vision now.

With no intention of drawing any attention to that however, Neji briefly took inventory of the other shinobi stationed around the area before grayed vision alighted on the well of chakra that was their client.

"Kushina-san," he said, stepping forward as he released his bloodline. "Hokage-sama has sent myself and Haruno-san to assist you."

Kushina arrived with a pair of what were unmistakably ANBU in tow once her meeting let out. She hadn't been sure if the shinobi delivering the masks were still around, but she and her honor guard were going to check on things anyway.

And what a pleasant surprise! Her long-distance student was among those selected for her mission.

"I'm glad to see Obi-- Godaime-sama, picked a fine team to help," she said, correcting herself to formality. "I hope there weren't any problems on the way here."

Even as she spoke, her eyes were flitting from one shinobi to the next. Several of Uzushio's own volunteers were busy placing the masks in their new home. But there was one that she needed to unseal herself. Where was its box...

Somewhere, underneath her professionalism and careful silence, she felt somewhat anxious at meeting someone as prominent as Kushina Uzumaki. Even before she'd re-established Uzu, she was the wife of the Fourth Hokage, and a close associate of the Fifth. She wasn't the sort of person Sakura expected to encounter...really at all, except to perhaps pass by her by chance.

That said, she was aware silence on her part wasn't a mandatory thing. Nothing of vital importance (that she knew of) needed to be communicated with an urgency that her speaking would interfere with.

She just...chose not to speak anyway. Neji had introduced her already, and would be the one more appropriate to respond to Kushina's question, being the jounin in command. It suited her just fine to remain quiet and observe patiently, rather than become actively involved in formalities that didn't involve her.

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