Taking the first steps towards greatness

[abileunaspada]

Who: Adela Milani (abileunaspada) & OPEN
Where: Uzushiogakure Area
When: August 14th - 28th
Why: After recent conversation with the Godaime Hokage of Konoha, Adela has been sent on an observation mission in Uzushio with a mutual friend and ally who may help her have some insight on what she intends to get into, but for the most part it's a vacation away from her leave and an excuse to expose her to more of the political world.

This actually wasn't so bad.

When Obito had basically sent her on a two week observation mission, at first she didn't take well to it. Really, it was just... Observing for two weeks, observing politics, and all from a different village? But, when she learned that it meant potentially spending time with Kushina (and after some thinking realized just how valuable the experience could be), her protests were minimized and she went on the solo mission without qualm.

At some points she was in the kage's office observing missions, other times she was exploring the town and trying some of the local delicacies. Still, it wasn't uncommon to find her by the oceans to relax -- she found that it made her the most relaxed, to look towards the endless sea.

She'd heard that there was at least one other Konoha nin in the area, but she'd had yet to see them. Well, it was probably someone she didn't know anyway.

Comments

[ghostpepper]

She had gotten a hawk from Obito recently about a chuunin coming to the village for two weeks. An observation mission, he'd called it. Someone interested in becoming Hokage and coming to observe how politics ran. Before she could write up a reply asking who or saying it was fine and have it sent fast, her first of three secretary candidates arrived for their interview. The letter was soon lost under a pile of notes she took during each interview. Maybe she should have brought Kakashi in to keep everything organized, but she had already given him things to do for the day.

The next morning, she had two more interviewees before lunch and was dreading having to clean up her desk. So she was still slowly picking up the interview notes and setting them in on pile in between writing a letter to Minato when she heard a knock on her office door. The letter was hastily shoved in her desk drawer as she shouted to whoever was there. Maybe some new visiting shinobi on a courier mission had been delayed again while making the mistake of asking directions to her office. It definitely wouldn't be the first time some poor soul got shuffled around by defensive villagers wanting to know their business.

"Come in!"

[abileunaspada]

Well, it was more defensive local shinobi than villagers, but once her travel papers had been cleared as authentic there was little issue in being granted issue to the kage's office. Adela sighed, her shoulders slumping a bit as she heard the voice. The last time she had seen Kushina was that disasterous 'date' months ago, and honestly she wasn't sure if she was ready for this anymore. But... Well, there was no putting it off. This was the first thing she had to do.

"Hey, Kushina-san," Adela addressed the other a little less than formally as she peeked her head in through the office, her konoha headband prominent even behind a curtain of red bangs as she tried to see the other red head through the piles of paper work. Holy crap, she was starting to think more and more that being Hokage was constantly a desk job...

[ghostpepper]

She knew the voice addressing her and she sat upright pretty quick looking surprised. Where had she come from? The surprise fades off pretty quick and she pushes the drawer shut before getting up from her seat. All the papers stacked on her desk were forgotten in favor of her visitor as she came around, arms open wide for a hug.

"Adela-chan! I haven't seen you in too long! What brings you to Uzushio?"

[abileunaspada]

Adela never really knew how to react to Kushina's willingness for hugs -- she had definitely been more willing as a child, but she felt awkward just going up to Kushina and hugging her now -- especially since she was a foreign Kage. Even if she might as well have been her aunt by this point. That sort of made it more awkward. And would she do this in a foreign village...?

"Uhm... There should've been a message sent ahead of me, or at least that's what Hokage-Sama said. That I'd be coming to observe the office work and missions station for a couple of weeks."

[ghostpepper]

"A message?"

Her arms dropped before Adela could decide whether to accept the hug or not and she searched her memory for anything. A few seconds later...

"Oh! I forgot about that letter! Now what did I do with it..."

She turned around to dig around in the paper mess. Several packets that needed her approval or denial by tomorrow, papers she was going to foist on Kakashi after lunch, interview notes, more notes... Aha! A letter in Obito's hand. She squinted at it for a moment, adjusting her eyes to the careful print, then read it over again. A Hokage hopeful coming to observe how her village ran, and it was Adela. She set the message back down on her desk and allowed herself to grin for a moment. If she wanted to be Hokage, she had a long, hard road ahead of her. Kushina took a deep breath and hid her grin before turning back. She didn't do as good a job of it as she'd hoped, since the smile was still reflected in her eyes as she surveyed her.

"So, you want to be Hokage?" she asked, leaning against her desk. "I'll do what I can to show you how things run here, but you have to keep in mind Konoha runs a bigger operation than we do here. And don't worry about a place to stay, we'll get that arranged for you."

She pushed herself off the desk and passed Adela to stick her head out of her office door and yell at her imported assistant to get an apartment ready for Adela by two that afternoon.

"Uh... So while that gets taken care of, I was just organizing my desk. There'd be less paper, but I'm kinda in the middle of hiring a new assistant."

[abileunaspada]

"W-Wait, it says that in the letter?" Obito... God damn it, she didn't want to just say it! Adela was torn between looking like a deer in the head lights and sighing in defeat, so eventually she settled on shaking her head before approaching, "I figured, since Uzushio is still recovering isn't it? So more of your efforts are focused towards infra-structuring and re-settlement. I can help you with organizing those, if you don't mind me handling them."

Starting easy would help -- true, she didn't even have time to drop off her stuff, but she might as well get right on it.

[ghostpepper]

"Yeah, but he didn't say who it was," she said with a shrug. It didn't matter anymore, she would've gotten super nosy about why Adela was studying village politics anyway. "But you're right, even if we've come a long way in the last five years, we've got a long way to go before we're anything like how we used to be. But if you wouldn't mind, come help me get this in order. You take infrastructure and mission reports, I'll handle my notes and letters from other villages. Okay?"

She crossed back and dragged over a chair for Adela to sit in if she wanted and plunked down in her own chair again.

[abileunaspada]

"Sounds good," She nodded with that and set her things down in the corner, approaching the desk to start sorting through the pile so that she could get what she needed to. But, unfortunately, Adela was unable to keep her eyes from wandering and that was when she saw it; a recent mission report regarding the disappearance of a jonin and two chuunin from Uzushio.

Adela couldn't help pausing at it, her expression steeling into something cold before she took a breath and set it down. It was higher priority than the closed missions as, even if it seemed hopeless, the case was still out for it. It wasn't her place to ask though... She'd have to wait until she was told if it was relevant. She'd at least be respectful to Kushina's position in that regard.

[ghostpepper]

Her notes were safely stowed in the drawer with her network scroll where she'd be looking after lunch. Other assorted papers were slowly making their way into appropriate piles. She glanced up as Adela put down a paper she thought she had misplaced and bit down on her lower lip.

She set down a letter she had to send to Nagato in the foreign correspondence pile before plucking up the mission report and tucking it in the drawer with her notes.

"My assistant was on that mission," she said as way of explaining. "There hasn't been any sign of them for a few weeks now."

She shook her head and scooped up a few more papers for sorting before changing the subject.

"How about you think of what you want for lunch. We can either go together or you can look around for somewhere yourself and we can meet back here later before some mission assignments go out."

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi had only been in Uzushio for a little over two weeks and already he'd started to memorize the winding paths the village had to offer. Most importantly, however, he'd managed to commit the locations of the best food vendors to his memory; complete with a mental list of places he had yet to try.

He was on his way to sample one of them now, book in hand as he wandered slowly in the direction of his chosen haunt for that evening. Kushina had him running around through midday and when faced with the choice of either feeding himself or staying on top of his duties, he'd apparently completely forgotten that his body needed food.

It was only when he turned onto the street where the barbecue grill in question lay nestled that he chanced a glance upwards at his surroundings. Everything was as expected, save for the glint of a foreign headband amidst a shock of red hair. Those clues coupled with the rather lost, tourist-y look on the girls face cemented Kakashi's theory that this might be the girl he'd been room-hunting for all day.

He headed over with a pleasant look. "How are you settling in?" he greeted without so much as an introduction. "It can be a little daunting at first, but you get used to it. Uzushio is surprisingly similar to Konoha."

[abileunaspada]

Ah? A man with a mask... And a konoha headband. Was this the guy who Obito said was already in Uzushio ahead of her? Adela just blinked at him before shrugging, straightening as she relaxed a bit. It wasn't as if they were in enemy territory, and an attack in the middle of a ninja village was unlikely at best, "I've been settling okay. It's a little confusing, but trying to figure out Konoha the first time was worse. I guess you had to do the same thing?"

What? If he wasn't going to introduce himself, why should she have introduced herself? Besides, it wasn't like there were a ton of red heads in Konoha, and she knew she was infamous as 'the forge girl' already. Though, this guy kind of seemed familiar... Why was that?

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi blinked at that. So she wasn't Konoha-bred? That was interesting.

"Ah," He waved his hand passively. "I was born there, learning my way around came second nature to me."

His mask pulled to indicate a smile as he studied her. In some way or another she looked familiar, but he supposed that probably had something to do with her red hair. He knew for a fact he'd never spoken with her before; despite his laid back work ethic he had a decent memory.

The sense of mystery about her meant he couldn't help but be curious about her purpose here. Kushina had been as vague and professional as ever, slating his curiosity where it stood at every turn as he went about fulfilling her commands. Regardless, he was quietly thankful that he wouldn't have to make two journeys to direct her to her new - albeit temporary - abode.

"Kakashi," he held out his hand to shake, eye creasing into a crescent with his covered smile. "And you are?"

Please correct me if I'm wrong, just assuming it's Icha Icha. Thought it'd be funny

[abileunaspada]

Better. She smiled just a bit as well, shaking his hand with firm confidence as she returned, "Adela. It's good to meet you, Kakashi-san."

Hm... Maybe she'd seen him in the shop at some point. Maybe she didn't serve him directly, but sometimes when her uncle was managing the front and she was observing or something. Well, she saw a lot of ninja that way so that was probably it. Still, seeing him there did have her curios, "I guess you got sent here for whatever reason too? I doubt you'd be on vacation in full uniform."

... She'd just... Ignore the book in his other hand. That was the professional thing. Even if it kind of bothered her. Seriously, porn? Well, maybe he read it for the plot, and not for the sex-based adventures the main hero got in. She'd only heard about Icha Icha before, so what did she know? Oh god but it was porn wasn't it? No, she'd be respectful, he was older and likely the same rank or higher ranked than her, and he wasn't acting like a creep so who cared what he read? But oh god it was a fucking porno...

No. That didn't matter. It didn't matter. It didn't matter. IT DIDN'T MATTER. Even if he was holding it and reading it in public-- GAH!!

Internally Adela struggled with herself then, determined not to mention it or to even give a hint that it bothered her as she waited patiently for an answer - even if it seemed like he should have given it an eternity ago, although truthfully it probably only seemed that long because she ended up giving so much of her focus to the damn book.

Heh.... It's definitely Icha Icha.

[scarecrowboy]

He nodded his greeting and his approval at her strong shake. It was rare to find a shake that confident, which only helped to make him all the more interested about her.

"Ah, no. No vacations. I'm here on a mission as Lady Kushina's assistant," he explained with an idle shrug of a shoulder. It was difficult to keep his typical level of ambiguity when his mission was so atypical of what he was normally assigned to, but he supposed that here it didn't matter much since Adela would have to find out sooner or later when Kakashi gave her the details for her lodgings.

The scent in the air swiftly changed and though Adela looked on the whole as relaxed as earlier, there was a certain rigidness to her posture. He couldn't pretend he didn't see her eyes glaze over his book, and that evidence coupled with the smell of embarrassment rolling from her in waves gave Adela's inner struggle away wordlessly.
He'd almost forgotten, being so used to being open with it in Konoha, that not everyone appreciated his choice of literature.

He closed the book after marking his page with the dust cover, then slipped it back into the pouch at his back and opted for a change of subject.

"So, what brings you here?"

[abileunaspada]

Huh? Oh, right, her mission. She cleared her throat then, going a little pink as she realized that she had been... Well, struggling not to make a comment on his reading choice. The fact that he put it away helped, and she managed to regain composure as she nodded, "It's more of a personal mission than anything official, if that makes sense. Hokage-Sama sent me here because he wanted me to observe how the missions office and paper work duties work, but he couldn't have me shadowing him so a trusted ally was ideal. That and Kushina-San and I know each other, so he thought it'd be good for me to visit while doing some work. We'll probably be seeing a lot of each other for the next couple of weeks."

It really was easy paperwork, now that she thought about it. So far it wasn't anything new, though observing where the mission classifications actually went was interesting enough. It'd probably be better if she didn't exactly mention why though, it was embarrassing enough that Obito had mentioned it in the letter and Kushina found out right away...

[scarecrowboy]

"It seems so," he agreed, unable to quench his curiosity on what he'd told her alone. He didn't mind so much if he came off as nosy, but being stuck in Uzushio meant that a lot of the gossip he would have been privy to in Konoha had to come through other means, and his sources were incredibly tight lipped. Even if it was something and nothing, it was better than sitting back and watching the water flow, letting the world back home pass by without him.

"I feel as though I've done more paperwork in the past two weeks than I have this year," he muttered absently, almost as if he were talking to himself. "I've never met a single person who enjoyed doing paperwork - so what in the world are you doing spending your free time observing how the system operates?"

[abileunaspada]

...

Damn it.

Her shoulders slumped with a sigh and she felt her face getting more red. If he was Kushina's assistant here... Chances were that he'd hear eventually, from her or from Obito. Damn, she really didn't want to spread it around. But she managed to appear unabashed again, completely serious as she looked him in the eye.

"It's because I'm working on becoming a candidate Hokage - Obito-San's successor. In this way they're giving me a chance to learn what it really means, besides just being strong. I've done paperwork around the Hokage's office before, but I'm learning more about the inside to understand how the system works in detail right now."

August 19, afternoon

[sensethis]

Coming off an eight hour apprenticeship in the hospital meant that Karin was tired…and stiff. She stretched and then meandered her way toward the market. She still didn’t know what exactly she wanted to have for dinner if she wanted to cook something or just get something quick from a stall. Quick sounded appealing if only because she was feeling a little lazy, and didn’t want to sweat over the stove.

Somehow in her wandering, Karin found her way to the shore. It wasn’t quite where she intended to go, but she wasn’t going to deny that the shore was just as good a place to end up. The sound of the water lapping at the sand was just as relaxing as having someone else making her dinner. And she wasn’t alone it looked like. There was another red head and at first she thought it was one of her many distant relatives, but upon closer inspection she realized it was the girl from the forge at the chunin exams.

Striding over she plopped down in the dirt, feet stretched out before her. “How are you enjoying your stay?” She leans back on her hands, head tilted toward Adela curious.

Re: August 19, afternoon

[abileunaspada]

Ah? She blinked, a little confused before just who this particular red head was clicked into her head. Right, the girl that had entered the forge with her team, and the one Kushina was looking at...

"It's pretty nice so far. It's been a few days and I've finally stopped getting lost everywhere."

She allowed a small smile to tug at her lips, feeling in a pretty good mood at the time and wanting to let the other know that it was good to see her through minimal conversation.

"What about with you? You look kinda beat..."

[sensethis]

Karin grinned at the girl, entirely amused with how the girl seemed to take a moment to recognize her. She supposes it can't really be helped considering how many red heads live in the village. Still it amuses her from the standpoint that the hair is really the only unifying feature for those Uzumaki in Uzu. There were other faint similarities but it was mostly the hair.

"Good to hear. The village can get a little confusing for visitors. I got lost a lot when I first moved here." But then there was still heavy construction going back then and many of the roads and lanes in use now were just being developed five years ago by the paths the workers were taking.

"I am, it's been a long day, the medics insist I participate in a full shift even as a student." She rolls her eyes but there's a smile still present on her face. As much as she may be complaining she does actually enjoy her time there learning.

[abileunaspada]

Adela whistled low, her eyebrows raised as she let her admiration show just a little bit, "Guess that proves how little rank can mean. People at the hospitals wouldn't trust their health with just anyone, so you've gotta be really skilled if they're putting you on full time."

[sensethis]

Karin laughs a little awkwardly. "I wish that were the case. If I'm not fetching coffee or bandages, I'm holed up practicing on minor injuries in the clinic." Or animals but that always left her feeling a little gross so she didn't mention it. Still it was exhausting playing gopher and nurse. "Sometimes they let me observe as they do rounds." She tacks on quietly her head dipping so Adela can't see how much this annoys her. She's not a child and her chakra control is better than the majority of the fresh genin.

[abileunaspada]

"Hey, the important thing is that you're still learning and you're showing talent for it. I tried medical ninjutsu once -- the proctor said I was probably the second worst he'd ever seen and that my strengths were clearly elsewhere."

Adela laughed as well, shaking her head as she leaned back on her palms. Uzushio really was a lot different than Konoha... "If they didn't just ask you to leave, they've gotta think you'll be able to keep learning and become really good at what you do. A lot of people underestimate just how important medical ninjutsu is, honestly..."

[sensethis]

That brought a smile to Karin's face. "I sort of demanded Rin-san teach me." Probably not the best way to go about finding a teacher for something she may or may not be good at but it hadn't blown up in her face. And when Rin did give her more than gopher duty she was pretty decent at it. Showed promise was some of the exact phrasing floating amongst the medics. Though she tended to take that with a grain of salt since it wasn't coming from Rin directly.

She shrugged, "The minor injuries are boring though. Basic cuts and scrapes. I can heal them in my sleep at this point." Rin was just busy and she was working hard to make up for her mistakes during the June chunin exams, this time she was going to make it through and be promoted. She was not still going to be a genin at 16. That would just be horrible.

"So important questions what haven't you had a chance to see yet?"

[abileunaspada]

"I really have no idea. I've been spending a lot of time getting lost after helping Kushina-san around at the office," Adela just sighed heavily, shaking her head as she sighed at the water before her. It was kind of embarrassing to admit, but really... Even if this place was smaller than Konoha, it was kind of hard to tell where everything was between the construction and simply not having been there before.