Chapter 2: What Spoils the Bunch

[Savine]

Chapter 2: What Spoils the Bunch

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Pinesol Square

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Shorter days stretched across Matsugakure until a week had passed from Team 3's karst training. The week itself was filled with light training, lax work details, and even the occasional dango until the day came when a clumsy owl smashed itself against the nearest window, street pole, or monument wherever you were, bearing a single message from your sensei.

"Pinesol"

The center of Pine Village. Usually reserved for one or two things: village governance and the annual Solace. Given it was currently winter (or White Bear season for Anika), the genin knew the time had come. Their first C-rank mission. Only time could tell what was in store for the lot.

When the team met up outside the Kage Administrative Building, commonly called the KAB, the fact that the group was down a member fell upon them. Poor little Emika's grandmother had protested greatly against her heir’s involvement in the Chunin exams. Apparently, family duties were more important than the dreams of the shinobi. That didn't stop Mari-sensei from rolling up her sleeves and visiting the Ōtsuki household almost daily to voice her strong disapproval over the matter. No luck on that front.

But here, in front of the stone admin building—uncharacteristic of nearly every wood-based structure in the village—with its stone bricks baked to a faded off-white under an unknown number of intense summer suns, Team 3 heard the sound of play and laughter.

A rambunctious bunch of tykes plays in the freshly fallen snow. Half of them are bundled up as if they were stuffed to the brim with a whole closet of clothes. One of them merely waddles in place, his nose running so freely it looks like it’s swinging from side to side. The others rush past him gathering up powdery snow in their mitts and launching a barrage of loose snow at each other, screaming in ear-piercing pitches. Away from them is the last group gathered around a mound of snow that had fallen off the KAB’s first level’s eave. One snow-white-haired lass stands atop the snow, pointing and jeering at those below who are trying to climb the mound but fall right through the snow powder.
 

Mari-sensei is overlooking the children, her arms planted on both hips, surveying them all making sure not a single one of them escapes her view. That is, until she turns around preternaturally when Team 3 groups up. The jonin waves the team closer.

“Saplings! Good, you’re all—” a vein pops at her temple “—here. Anyways, I need to go see if the Village’s-Favorite-Shiha is here or not. Keep an eye on the Seedlings, won'cha? There should be 10 of them…” She points at all of the kids, counting in her head. She hesitates for a beat until one of the girls pops her head out of the snow pile, grinning widely with her two front teeth missing. Mari sighs with relief before walking off towards the main entrance.
 

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A newly formed team, and they were already down a member. Ahei didn't know how to feel about the news. On the one hand, Emika seemed the least suited to life as a shinobi. But who was he to judge? If she was here, he'd support her choices. And if she wasn't, well then she was another member of Matsugakure he would strive to protect.

But for now it seems, they had to make sure none of the munchkins ran off or got into too much trouble. "We'll keep an eye on them, Mari-sensei." He promises their mentor, mimicking her hand-on-hips stance as he turns his head to track the movements of the children. Of course, having a whole extra pair of eyes makes such a promise easy to believe, the focus of his eyes granting overlapping fields of vision that encompass the area.

Since his cloth mask had been destroyed while setting fire to the snow avalanche of the training mission, Ahei had a new accessory that covered the lower half of his face - a carved mempo mask. There was a gap between the lips of the mask - a solution that should make his tricks less destructive to his own clothing. It had the side benefit of meaning his voice was less muffled than it had been before.

 

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It felt strange leaving Emika behind. Usually she was walking with him en route to their training time, so heading to their meeting spot alone was a bit weird. But she seemed, well, happy enough. She loved her family and was sad that she was being pulled back but her, their grandmother wanted her to be safe and neither really could fault that (he didn't mention the tears. She wouldn't have wanted that and he respected that decision). It was interesting hearing Mari-Sensei rip into granny, but he supposes it being an heir matter did weird things.

So when he groups up with the others, he bows his head briefly at Mari-Sensei's hesitance at the reminder of Emika's fate. He then looks over the kids, and offers a nod at the request. "Gotcha." He steps past Ahei, pausing briefly. "Cool mask." was his comment with a toothy grin, then settles himself down on the snow nearby. He attempts to project a stern expression, banking on his fearsome appearance to keep them docile, but he either messed up in looking scary or the kids have heard the rumour that he was actually soft like powdered snow.

Next thing he knows, several of the kids were climbing over him as if he was a jungle frame, his large bulk just adding to the adventure and was now being accosted by a 5 year old to hold out his arms so they could swing on them.

He was weak and now he had a pair of kids hanging off each arm.

 

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At least to Akami, Radka didn't hide her pleasure at Emika's "eviction" from the team. It was like a pinprick removed from her fingertip. Not a great loss.

When she joined up with the rest of the squad today, although she bore her usual scowly face, there was something relaxed about her, as there had been ever since the day after the karst training... Or maybe the day after the day after? Something had definitely changed in her moment-to-moment attitude with the team. She didn't look like she didn't want to be with them. Progress?

"Hiya." She even said hello, now. "Excited, are we?" After their brief meeting, she just stared at Mari go, beating back a few strands of white hair, before turning to the kids. She looked at them, blinking in disbelief; was that their mission?

A few moments passed, and she grew bored. "Hey, Seedlings. How 'bout snowballs? You get 1 ryo per hit on me." She stood there, a spark of competition in her eye; if any kid took the bait, she'd give it her all: she intended on not having to give up any money.
 

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Three of the kids rush from the bottom of the snow mound toward the genin. A cacophony of glee and questions assault Team 3, mostly directed at Yoshi:

“Woah! You’re ssso big!”
“You’re a Gakihoshi, aren’cha?”
“That’s Hoshhhigaki.”
“What? Isn’t that a fruit?”
“How big are your parents?!”

Two of them climb up Yoshi’s arm, trying to get closer to his height and talk eye level with him, while one—easily matching the other two’s weights—shows off his strength by doing chin ups on Yoshi’s right arm.

“Heeeeeave-ho! Heeeee-”

Those that were flinging snowballs at each other snap their heads towards Radka’s direction, ryo signs plastered all over their eyes, sans for the lone eye hidden behind an eyepatch. The one with an eyepatch licks his frozen, chapped lips. He stretches his snow-filled hand back and whips it forward with all his might.

The snowball lands meters off target.

Radka finds herself pelted by similarly misaimed snowballs. None even close enough to warrant a dodge.

 

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Anika looked at the swarm of unruly kids and raised both eyebrows. Even when several villages, including her own, got together to celebrate an event the children weren't THIS wild. She lets out a silent sigh and just stares at the swarm while shaking her head.

They sure could use Emika's help, and Anika missed her sister, but she fully understood that sometimes duty and family comes first. She wasn't mad either. She knew that even though Emika wasn't part of the Team 3 now she had an open invitation to visit the village whenever she wanted.

A now for the task at hand. She had heard a saying that sometimes the foreigners' used 'Divide and Conquer." and this seemed like a good time to use that piece wisdom.

Trying to ignore the snowball fight going on with Radka and Yoshi’s new exercise buddies, Anika says in a loud voice

"It might be easier if we divided the kids between us. Not only will it be easier to keep track of them, but if we separate them, they might calm down a little."

Nothing Mari-sensei had done so far has been as easy as it looks. Anika had a feeling that this was not going to be the exception....

 

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Radka stared at the kids, eyes wide in disbelief, and her arms outstretched as if to make herself an easier target. "You guys are so bad at this!"

She had a thought to show them how to actually throw a weapon, but Anika's call took her attention away. She frowned and talked back flippantly, "what, do you think this is our actual mission or something...?" Always so serious.

 

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The smile can't be seen, but it can be heard in his tone. "This might actually be good practice." Ahei comments idly. "If you think about it, Radka and Yoshi are our best frontline battlers." He points out how they are distracting the kids. "First of all, that keeps you, our best medic, nice and safe if they're taking the brunt of whatever our foes throw at us." He raises a single finger as a point. "Two, it allows the rest of the team to gain position on the enemy, perhaps by flanking." He raises a second finger as he begins to circle the children, crouching down to gain a clumped handful of snow.

"And three, it allows us to strike when least expected!" He concludes, hurling his snowball, not at one of the hapless children, but instead at Radka.

 

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Yoshi was not prepared for all the comments from the kids... Well, he was, but kids usually had this way of just being baffling.

“Woah! You’re ssso big!” "Well I."
“You’re a Gakihoshi, aren’cha?” "It's..."
“That’s Hoshhhigaki.” "Close but."
“What? Isn’t that a fruit?” "No, its..."

“How big are your parents?!”

And that one had him short circuit. And now he was racking his brain trying to remember. They always were huge, but when you were a little kid, most adults were huge. Were they bigger than most normal people? Smaller? He probably got his height from one of them but his few memories of them not dying didn't show his bulk so maybe? He should know this. If not his father, then at least his mother. It was right there, on the edge of his memory...

“Heeeeeave-ho! Heeeee-” He blinks and looks at the kid doing chin-ups on his arm. That's right, he needed to help handle the kids, and that memory he was trying to pull had already scattered like a shower... He does his best to take a calming breath. Then turns to the others.

Who was starting a snowball fight...

Well. That was another thing entirely, and decided to settle in and be used as a wall if the snowballs heads his way.

 

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There's a simple joy to a snowball fight. For years Ahei watched the snow from his window, jealous. And then he drew the blinds so he didn't have to see what he was missing. He shut himself away.

And now here he was, out in the world again, out in the snow again. He'd always loved trying to catch his sister with a stray snowball. But she was always too quick. Bigger and older meant that in the years when he could still go outside, she outclassed him. But perhaps now it would be a fair fight. And if Radka was anyone to him, she was a sister. And little brothers were creatures of mischief.

The second snowball sails from his other hand, following closely after the first. Unlike the first throw, however, this one flies true, catching Radka right in the face, the powdered snow bursting harmlessly against her forehead. It's followed by a different sound. A new one for the team, and an old one for Radka. Ahei, doubled over, shaking. Laughing.

The sound of joy.

 

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Asuka looked with a faint smile, as the team began to engage in some horse play, but her heart really was not in it. She really was taken aback by Emika’s loss both to the team and personally. I mean she had tried to speak with her but Emika had more or less dodged Asuka’s effort to date. They were friends, so that hurt. But at the end of the day she had to go with Emika’s desires and step back... for now at least.

Maybe she would engage in the coming snowball fight and maybe not. She probably should. The best news was Radka seemed to be partaking that was really nice to see. Certainly the kids were having fun as they should. It was a big part of why they did what they did after all.. So, was she going to just let herself stand there and be the stick in the mud this time? Hmm....

 

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To her credit, Radka didn't flinch.

She blew away the snow that covered her mouth with a sharp breath, and let out a chuckle, just as she slipped two fingers in her waist bag. Ahei knew her well enough to recognize that this was of the "I'm gonna get back at you, little shit" variety. She shook her head wildly to remove all the snow, "Well done, here's your coin."

She tossed that coin with far more strength than necessary.

 

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He should have known what was coming. He was smart enough to anticipate her probable actions. And he'd known her long enough to expect it. He'd seen her throw things before. He knew what kind of unerring accuracy she possessed. It shouldn't have come as a shock to have the coin he'd 'won' hit his head with an odd 'clunk' noise. In a rare occurrence, he was glad for his artificial body.

"Ow." His fingers caught the coin as it fell, and his other hand rubbed the spot where the coin struck him. Even behind the mask, he managed to look sheepish.

 

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The snowball-hurlers drop their cocked munitions, their eyes changing like slot machines from ryo signs to stars upon a closer look at Ahei.

"Puppet!" they scream in unison.

The trio rush forward, kicking flurries of snow into the air in their wake. The tallest of the kids asks a loads of questions to Ahei. "Woah, I heard about you guys, you hide weapons all over your puppets. Are you, like inside there? Or are you hiding around? Can your puppet make their hand into a blaster?!"
 

***

Before the kid can continue on with a litany of more probes, the KAB's front doors burst open with Mari-sensei holding her chin up as two aids trail her, their shoulders shrugging in acquiescence and words filled with apology.

"Yes, Mari-sensei, I understand the inconvenience, but you know how Ororakage is."
"Indeed! It's just one of his episodes he has every month."

The lavender-haired jonin gives both of them side glares and humphs. The aids look at each other, the older of the two nodding solemnly. "Of course," the younger one with pink hair begins, "Kage-sama said nothing about you visiting him... I'm afraid he's holed up in the hospital."

Mari pauses mid-step. "Again? If the man wants to be a doctor, he should just resign already."

The jonin snaps her attention back to Team 3 and the kids. "Alrighty Saplings and Seedlings, eyes front!" The three that were hanging off Yoshi immediately drop from his arms, the snowball fighters' eyes turn back to their regular irises, the one with mucus hanging from his nose twists around with the globular bottom of his snot swinging around with him. Mari-sensei nods to herself at each one's attention, until she looks up at the snow-white-haired girl atop of the snow mound. The jonin raises one eyebrow before the girl slides down promptly.

"Eight... That leaves Little Mari and Debi. Yoshi-kun, be a dear and step to the side, Little Mari is hiding behind ya."

Just as the jonin said, a little brunette tinier than all the other kids peers around the Hoshigaki. The little one has a hand covering her mouth and the whites in her eyes go wide when attention is drawn to her. "Meep!"

Mari-sensei surveys the rest and looks back towards the KAB. Sat down listlessly against the stone wall is a lanky pre-teen with all black hair and matching clothes. The jonin sighs and retrieves the girl from the wall, but rather than helping her up, Mari-sensei merely takes her hand and drags the girl across the snow. The black-clad pre-teen doesn't protest at all and stares up at the gray sky.

"What is life but a dreary wasteland of disappointment?" she says as she's dragged to the rest.

"Okay! Y'all didn't lose any of them, good good. Though, next time, Radka-chan. In a snowball fight, it's bad manners to throw anything but snowballs, m'kay?" Mari-sensei nods to herself and looks at Team 3 and the kids. "Sorry folks, Kage-sama isn't around to officially hand our mission off. Seems like we need to take a detour at the hospital to corner him," she says in a tone that sounded serious but betrayed by her incessant eye-rolling.
 

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Radka chuckled when the kids swarmed Ahei. Suddenly being the center of their attention should teach him right. And speaking of teaching...

Her attention snapped back to Mari, stepping out of the KAB building. She looked at her argue with the other two, a question mark almost visible above her head, so much her face was plainly curious. She didn't move and didn't say anything until her teacher pulled the black-clad kid to the group. "Oh look, it's Dreary Debi."

Mirth melted away all but immediately, following Mari's chiding. "You don't like me for my manners, Mari." What it melted into was absolute peacocking.

 

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Anika let out a silent sigh of relief when Mari-sensei returned and an even bigger sigh of relief when all the kids were accounted for. Who knows what would have happened if the count came up short. Anika shuttered at the thought.

Anika then watched the chaotic activity going on all around her. Snowball fights, kids swarming team members, Mari-sensei dragging kids all over the place.... Ankia scratched the back of her head in puzzlement. It's a wonder that anything got done at all!

Looking at the groups Sensei, she asks in a very slow and confused sounding voice.

"No mission yet? Does this mean that we are going on a hunt of some kind and capture this Kage-sama?"

At least that's what it sounded like the Anika. One corners prey when you hunt it and capturing usually means you killed it......

 

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Mari-sensei's lips form a thin line as her cheeks flare in the lightest of pink shades at Radka's retort. Thankfully, Anika swooped in just in time to save the stupefied jonin. "A hunt?" Mari directs some of her attention towards the tattooed genin, "No, no, nothing like..." she pauses. "Well, kinda. Seems like our village's beloved kage has got himself rooted up in the nearby clinic. Seems like we'll have to corner him to make sure he officiates our first C-ranker." The lavender-haired jonin gavels her fist against her other open-palm hand. "Ok! Saplings and Seedlings! Ten-hut!"

Most of the kids snap up straight, most meaning everyone except Debi who was making a half-assed snow angel. "Anika-chan, I liked your previous suggestion. Splittin' the young-ins up. We'll call it a bud system. Seedlings, line up tallest to shortest so your wonderful senpai get a good look atcha."

Everyone lines up with a few disagreements between those with arguably similar heights. The child with a runny nose gets into an argument with the lisping lass, for instance. Debi was in a whole class of her own, finding herself on the ground last behind the demure child antsy about no longer having Yoshi to hide behind.

"Saplings, feel free to introduce yourselves. The kids have been looking forward to seeing you all~"

 

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Mari's reaction, or lack thereof, emboldened Radka. She stepped forth, looking down at the kids with a smirk.

"I'm Radka," she said, whipping out her arm outward, a gust of wind pushing snow away in a mess, "windweaver, and deadly fast." As she said those last two words, she crooked her fingers into her palm, snapping back to her the kunai she had just sent with her wind.

She leaned forward, free palm gaveling the butt end of her weapon in a gesture quite similar to Mari's just before. "My squadmates point me a target and I—"

She vanished in a poof of wind, teleporting being the kids, from where she shouted, "—destroy it!" She chuckled at the seedlings' surprise... if any.

 

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Most of the kids seem to dance antsily in place, looking at the genin team. They've been waiting for this moment, and Radka doesn't disappoint. The snowball chuckers stare, agape at the fluid motion of the kunoichi. Then, the troublemaker vanishes from their view only to appear behind them. The shortest girl squeals a terrified 'Meep' and hides behind the next tallest. A few of the boys let out awe-struck woahs.

The girl missing her two front teeth whistles as she loses her wind in the sheer awesomeness of a badass ninja.

 

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Ahei steps forward after Radka, raising a hand in greeting. "Imaya Ahei." He gestures at the excited kids who had come running up. "As some of you noticed, I'm a puppet user." He says quietly. "My tricks are...less impressive than Radka's." His tone is almost apologetic. "What I do is...kind of a secret. Some ninja fight with their strength or their speed." He gestures at Radka's skills. "Some with their brain." He points to himself. "I like to be prepared. Part of that means I can't really show off like some of my comrades can. Keeping my opponents guessing is important."

He shrugs. "But I suppose I can show you this one." He points his hand at the awning of the building and fires his grappling hook from his hand, catching the edge of the roof easily. With a whirring sound coming from his arm, Ahei begins to ascend, apparently needing no effort to do so.

 

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Yoshi watches the kids, and fights back the feeling of self-consciousness. He watches Radka and Ahei wow the crowd, and ponders himself what he could do. "I'm Yoshi Hoshigaki. I support my team as a utility Ninja, which means I can do a little bit of a lot of things. I can help patch up their wounds, help with stealth, and I'm also pretty capable of being pointed at something and just..." He flings his fist out to the snow bank to the side, and despite being almost almost a dozen feet away, explodes in a poof as if he did punch it.

"Or I can just, throw water around." He lets that statement hang for a moment, sounding completely underwhelming, before he is surrounded by a vortex of water. No hand seals, just one moment he's standing there, the next he was inside a whirlpool. It drops after a few seconds but now he had a giant mallet made of water being held over his shoulder, giving a toothy grin.

 

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While her teammates introduced themselves, along with displays of some of their abilities, Anika looked at the children without any expression on her face. She had no idea how to handle foreign children, whose earlier behavior was so different than those of her own people's children. The power of the Forest Bear Spirit of wasn't to be used to entertain foreign children, at least not yet. She'll have to teach them some the ways of Forest Bear People first.

After Yoshi was finished introducing himself, Anika stepped forward and introduced herself the traditional way.

"My name is Anika, from the Village of the Bear and the Forest Bear People. I am my people's shaman and future leader, and I welcome you to my land with open arms."

She hesitated for a second and then added

"Normally there would be a big celebration at my village honoring new friends, however we are not in my village, so such celebration can't be held without my people."

She then stepped back to where she was originally standing, without making any attempt of showing some of her ninja abilities.

She had no idea how they would react to this, not knowing her people's way of life, but it would give her a good sense of what she will be dealing with.

 

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The moment Ahei's grappling hook shoots out and over the kids, their beady eyes go wide in wonder as he launches up towards the KAB. Snot-nosed-kun whips his head following the shinobi's trajectory. His globular mucus swinging wide as he turns. "Woah," he lets out under his, admittedly, nasal breath.

The kids that were playing monkey bars with Yoshi's arms, their jaws drop cartoonishly down at the giant water mallet. All three turn to look at each other to confirm they're all looking at the same jaw-dropping scene. A beat later, they're all shaking with nervous energy like wound up toys ready to spring into action. The kid that seemed oddly beefy for his age tries to whistle out his appreciation, but he seems to have had little practice doing so. When that doesn't work, he settles for clapping and cheering for the Hoshigaki.

By the time Anika finishes her spiel, most of the kids are busy goggling at giant hammers, flying puppets, and deadly cool kunoichi. But, suprisingly, the foreigner that seemed to spend most of her time lying on the ground is mere feet away from the shaman. Little Mari seems even more surprised when she looks to her side to see Debi had disappeared from her spot.

"So, like, are those tattoos real?" she says, her eyes locked dead straight at Anika's face. "They're pretty badass."

 

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Anika looked back at the foreign pre-teen, marveling at the straight forwardness of her. There was one thing Anika has learned about these foreign children. They tend to say it like it is and they express their individually or their outlook on things in how they dress. Dark Debi was a perfect example of this. She looked dark and depressing and probably wasn’t happy about something, so she dresses in black to express this. Yet there is curiosity in her and Anika was pretty sure that calling her tattoos ‘badass’ was a good thing.

”Yes. My tattoos are real."

Anika takes her hand and rubs her face to show that they don’t come off. In a gentle voice she continues.

”If you are thinking that these are tattoos of a warrior, and then I’m afraid that you are wrong. These are the markings of my people."

She points to the thin black strips that run from her ears across her cheeks to the sides of her nose.

”These marks show that I’m a member of the Forest Bear People. Everyone in my village gets these when they turn 13.”

She points to the solid black tattoo around her mouth.

”This one shows that I’m going to village leader one day and that when I speak, I also speak for my people.”

She then points to the black stripe that runs from the middle of her lower lip down to her chin.

“This special mark, as simple as it is, is the mark of the kamuy that protects my people. Only those who are picked by the kamuy, the Forest Bear Spirit, are allowed to wear this mark.”

Anika didn’t know how much Dark Debi understood or if she really cared at all. It didn’t matter. As long as she understood that sometimes tattoos have meaning that was good enough for her.

 

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Debi focuses intently on Anika's explanation. Her pale skin coloring just a bit with excitement, "Woah, so your tats mean stuff in your culture? That's cool, I think I read about stuff like that." She pauses for a beat, mulling over something. "Over here in Matsu... tattoos are all about self expression, some might not even have meaning other than looking cool." The black-clad pre-teen continues on discussing about counter-culture as if it represented the entirety of the village and only stops when Mari-sensei drags her back in line.
 

***

When Team 3 finishes off its flourishful introductions, their sensei clears her throat to grab everyone's attention. "Alright, good job, Saplings. No doubt, the pipsqueaks are rearin' up to join your ranks~" Mari-sensei gives a mischevious grin before continuing, "Ok, Seedlings! Your turn. Nothin' too fancy, just name and somethin' special abou-cha."

First up is the kid with an eye-patch. Even without his spikey red hair, he was the tallest of those in line. It takes him a few breaths to collect himself before making his introduction. "I guess I'll go first," another big gulp of air, "My name is Noa, and something special about me... Um, I prefer night time over day time?" Noa thinks for another moment before nodding his head in aggreement that that was enough.

Instead of one kid stepping up next, two step up in unison. Both with straw-blond hair, light-green eyes, and even matching heavy-wool outfits. The only difference between the duo is one has their hair parted in the middle and the other lazily to the side. "I'm Saga," the middle-part one says. "I'm Agas~" the other says before turning just in time to see their twin looking back at them. Both nod their heads simultaneously. "And we can tell what the other is thinking!"

Compared to the graceful elegance of the twins' synchronized actions, the next pair shove at each other trying to get a word in edgewise. "No, I'm taller!" the flaxen-haired girl missing her two front teeth says, pushing the overly bundled-up snot-nosed child. "Nu-uh!" "Uh-huh!" Fed up with the competition, the boy twists his torso away from the girl, winding up his entire body and swings it back. With the follow-through, the dangling globular swings like a wrecking ball and decks the girl right in the face. She falls on her bum in shock. She brings a trembling hand up to her face and wipes off crystallizing mucus. Her face twists into a thousand lines of disgust as she casts the meanest side glare at her now nemesis.

"Phew!" the snot-nosed kid sighs relief as if coming off from a titled match. His entire body is bound in layers upon layers of warm clothes as if he was more cloth than kid. Not even his hair peaks out from what has to be about two or three hats on top of his head. He makes a grandiose sniff as the huge ball of mucus returns to its normal length. "The name's Tai and I like to collect..." he reaches under his coat into another coat's pocket to pull out a... "Pens!" With great pride he holds it out for everyone to see. Inside his hand is a colorfully purple pen with its ink pouring out of its barrel. Tai looks down at it in utter horror. He rummages his free hand throughout his other layers of clothing pulling out other equally broken and leaking gel pens of a cornucopia of colors. Magenta, teal, metallic gold, and more.

Tai falls to his knees, his hands bleeding a liquid rainbow. "Noooooooooo."

 

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As Tai goes catatonic over his broken pens, the lass he lashed with his mucus rolls her eyes and steps ahead of him. After straightening out her coat and pants, she shoots out a peace sign at Team 3. “Y'all call me Elena! Ssso ya know,” she whistles through her missing front teeth, “I love to draw, sssing, dance, and tell ssstories. And, I am definitely taller than Tai, that’sss for sshure.” She crosses her arms and does a big humph at the other pre-teen whose irises seem to have disappeared from his shock.

With that, Elena backs off and makes room for the next kid who seemed to take up double the width of Elena. The short and stocky kid does a flip forward onto his hands. His legs dangle freely in the air and his longish red hair brushes against the snow as he walks one hand before the next. This takes quite a bit of work as each hand sinks first into the snow with a satisfying slosh of snow with each 'step.' The kid pauses with his back turned to the shinobi. With careful moves, he turns his whole upside-down body to face them.

"¡nsʇɐW uᴉ ʇsᴉʇɹɐ nsʇnɾᴉɐʇ doʇ ǝɥʇ ǝq ʎɐp ǝuo oʇ ǝdoɥ I puɐ ƃuᴉsᴉɔɹǝxǝ sᴉ ʎqqoɥ ʎW ¡ǝɹǝɥ oʞnoſ" Jouko says before hand-walking back in line, his face already turning beet red to match his hair.

Next up is the most elegantly dressed pre-teen there, her embroidered clothes clearly hand-made, depicting a mural of imagery reminiscent of some of the more popular legends and fairy tales in the Pine Village. Her snow-white hair flows behind her as she steps up. Her crystal-blue eyes measure up all the genin one by one. "You can refer to me as Tapani, thankyouverymuch." That is all she says before returning in line.

There's a solid minute before the next boy in line perks up at the realization that it's his turn. "Oh! Um, my name's Guy?" If it wasn't for his heavy jacket, Guy would look almost paper-thin compared to upside-down Jouko. He digs his foot into the snow as if still mulling over his next words. "And, uh, I don't really have any hobbies, I guess. Or special talents... I do have a dog back at home. I guess Bambi counts, yes? Yeah."

Once Guy fades off from his introduction, the whole front line looks to Little Mari. The tiniest of them all flushes pink and tilts her head down as she sways left to right. She tries to hide her eyes behind long, brown bangs, but with everyone's attention on her, she gives up hiding. "Hello everyone," she says tapping the tips of her index fingers together near her chest, "I'm, um, Little Mari, hee." The tyke smiles briefly before continuing. "And I'm the youngest here." She does a quick curtsy to everyone before rushing to hide behind Guy.

Last up, Debi drags herself up from the snow ground. Little Mari watches in amazement as the black-clad pre-teen stands heads and shoulders above her. In fact, if Debi didn't have such poor posture and actually straightened herself instead of slouching, she'd easily be the tallest of the kids. "You already know my name," she says patting down her back, freeing up the stuck snow. "As you can tell, my 'special something'—" Debi makes air quotes, "—is that I love fashion." Draped over Debi's shrugged shoulders is an oversized black trenchcoat with spike studs lining its shoulders. Half of her face is hidden by black hair and the other half is covered with eye shadow. "I'm a Grade-A fashionista."

Mari-sensei blinks at that.

"Okay... Saplings! Seedlings! Bud system time~ Break yourselves off into four teams, then we'll go on our little hunt for Ororakage."

 

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"Alright, line up." He gestures to the three who'd expressed interest in his abilities. "Agas, Saga, Tai. You and I, I think we can do this better than the others. What do you think? We might not be as fast as the fastest Genin this side of the Northern Wind, but we've got more eyes." Behind the mask, no smile is visible, but it can be heard in the tone of his voice alone. Conspiracy, mischief, and a smidge of challenge.

He winks at the trio, and readjusts his mask, revealing the second set of eyes set lower on his face. "Whaddya say? Wanna win a challenge?"

 

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"Okay—"

Radka slammed her fist into her hand, smirking in Ahei's direction, and she flitted over to Jouko, leaving hardly a trace in the snow, "You—"

And to Debi, "And you—"

Before standing tall, arms crossed over her chest, "You're on my team. Jouko, stay on your hands, and Debi, just be yourself. It'll go great."

She looked on to see their reactions—before she struck! "Dodge!" she called out, tossing her kunai at Jouko, and then at Debi. She needed to test her seedlings.

 

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Yoshi raises an eyebrow at the other two, then turns to give Anika a shrug. Then back to the kids, in particular, the two that hung off his arms. "Guess I'll take Guy and Elena with me." He ponders for a moment. "So how do you two wanna go about this? Walk around, or hang off my arms or sit on my shouders?"

 

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[Savine]

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Anika looks at the three remaining kids. An eyebrow goes up. Are these children really ready to hunt down someone? Or would they even care? They probably won't take it seriously and only see as a game, or at least a guided tour of some kind. After seeing how unruly foreign children behaved, she didn't have too much hope for them. Then again, maybe the Pine Village leaders saw her the same way she is now viewing the kids. All she can do is to do her best and see what happens. Maybe her charges will surprise her.

"Alright. It looks like Noa, Tapani and Little Mari are with me."

Anika suddenly lowers herself so that she's eye level with her new team. In a hushed voice she addresses them.

"Don't let the others bother you. There's an art in hunting down prey and I'm going to show you how it's done."

Looking at each of new teammates, she asks each of them a question.

"You wouldn't be here unless you have something special you can do. In order to be a hunting party, I need to know what that special thing is. That we can work better together and catch our prey before the others do."

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The twins become blur lines as they rush to line up in front of Ahei, their eyes perpetually stuck as larger-than-life stars. They nod their heads in tandem at the thought of working with the puppet-nin. "Yes! Robo-sensei!"

Tai, on the other hand, crawls through the snow, sparkly rainbow ink trailing him like a neon-colored bloodstain. Frosty tears stop right at the top of his cheeks as he looks up at Ahei, on all fours. The smallest of stars shining through the depths of salty tears.
 

***

Debi starts as Radka singles her out. The black-clad pre-teen looks in shock at the kunoichi then back at Anika, then back at Radka. Her shoulders drop even further as she drags herself up toward the speedster. Jouko is already at the ready, jittering in place. Whether that was due to his excitement or the fact that the snow was starting to freeze his palms was yet to be seen.

At Radka's command, Jouko gives an emphatic reverse nod. Debi shrugs. Then, without warning, the kunoichi's kunai slice through the winter air at the two. Jouko leaps up into the air to dodge (clapping his hands mid-air just to add a bit more difficulty), but Debi just looks up at the incoming blade. Her shoulders relax and she stands up tall again. Debi doesn't even move out of the way. Instead, she raises her arms wide to accept the kunai that lodges itself straight at her sternum. The goth falls back first into the snow, kicking up a poof of that frigid white powder.

A serene smile crosses her lips as she whispers, "Oh sweet embrace..."
 

***

"I'll just walk, I guess? Don't wanna be a hassle or anything, really." Guy says, bobbing his head back and forth as if he was second-guessing his decision. But before he can backtrack, Elena shoves in front of him and climbs up Yoshi so she can saddle both of his shoulders. "PIGGYBACK! LESSSS GOOOO!" she shoots a finger ahead as if directing the Hoshigaki forward.
 

***

Little Mari clutches the embroidered coat of Tapani, her face half-hidden behind the white-haired lass. She nods slowly at Anika's declaration of teaching them how to hunt. Noa, however, cocks his head and knits his brow at the kunoichi's question. "But I thought we weren't allowed to tell you our—Ow!" Tapani kicks the eye-patched kid in his shins.

"She's obviously asking about our talents, nitwit." She glares at the taller kid for a second before humphing. "I, for one, am absolutely elegant." Tapani punctuates her sentence by resting her chin between her thumb and pointer finger, her eyes glinting into a cocky sight.

"Oh." A sweat bead falls down Noa's temple, "In that case, I'm pretty good at math, yeah. And 'Little' Mari over there is good at playing hide and seek, well, the first half of that at least."

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Radka's kunai sharply returned to her hand—she was staring at Debi, eyes squinted. Not that she was trying to figure out what the kid's deal was: she was focusing to keep the sweat beads away, more worried about saving face, really.

"You're great!" she told Jouko, pointing at him and, in the same movement, casually sending her kunai at him again.

She caught it back as she stepped forth and leaned over into Debi's vision. "Is that a cool tactic, or are you actually dying?"

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Debi lays motionless on the ground, arms spread wide in the snow, her pale face peacefully at rest, the kunai embedded like a mounment at the center of her chest. Her ear twitches and she sleepily opens one eye to look up at Radka. "Alas, not today it seems," The black-clad pre-teen says as she pulls the kunai out of her.

She gets up and pats the snow from her back with her free hand before handing the stainless soft iron kunai back to Radka. "What a drag."

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"Alright!" Ahei gives a thumbs up, imagining that he looks way cooler that is probably true - at least in the eyes of his young proteges. Stepping over to the still sad member of his team, Ahei kneels down to get to his eye level. "Team Robot looks after it's members, alright?" He gives gentle encouragement to the young boy. "Win or lose, I'll help you replace your pens, okay? And maybe I'll even work on a special carry case so you don't suffer another pensplosion - even on the toughest missions!" He gives him another thumbs up.

"Deal?"

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Yoshi gives a grin as Elena clambers onto his shoulders. She settles in almost the exact same position as Emika used to do it, and fights down the pang of sadness at losing that tradition. He instead gives a grin and starts to stroll towards the hospital. "Right-o. I do help out at the Hospital at times so I know where to go. But we should stick together so we don't bother the other doctors and nurses too much. Kay?"

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Still at eye level of her three charges, Anika eyes dart between Little Mari, Tapani and Noa. They were clearly hiding something. This won’t do. Trust is what keeps a group together. She'll have to encourage it out of them. After the three of them got done telling her their talents, she nodded her head in approval.

” Excellent skills you have. They will help in our hunt. However….”

Anika lowers her voice to a whisper.

”You are keeping a secret form me aren’t you?”

Anika raises her head and looks around. She then lowers her head back down to their level. She whispers once again.

”I’ll tell you what. I too have a big secret. It’s something that only I can do. If you tell me your big secret, I’ll tell you mine. O.K.?”

Anika raises her head again, looks around and lowers it.

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Tai sniffs a bit but accidentally snuffs up a mixture of snot and ice that causes him to sneeze. He wipes his nose with a rainbow-stained sleeve and nods slowly. "Thank you, Robo-sensei..." The starry-eyed twins shoot up their thumbs at Ahei's remarks.
 

***

Tapani glares at the tattooed genin, her eyes becoming wickedly narrow. "I don't know who you think you are—" she looks Anika up and down "—or where you come from, but we from Matsugakure don't disclose secrets in trade." Tapani crosses her arms and gives a quick humph looking away and toward Mari-sensei who stands discretely away from the Saplings and Seedlings. "What would your sensei think if she knew you were so willing to barter away a 'big' secret?" Not willing to wait for a response, Tapani takes Little Mari's hand and walks forward, not before glancing back at Noa and goading him to follow with a tilt of her head that screamed, 'This way, peasant.'
 

***

Mari-sensei nods to herself and walks over to the group and stops near Yoshi. "Actually, Yoshi-kun, I'm positively sure most of the medical staff have asked for their leaves today." She gives the Hoshigaki a knowing glance before walking ahead of all the groups. "Alright, everyone, let's mosey on over and get this outta the way..."
 

***

Unlike the stone admin building, Matsugakure Central Hospital is entirely wooden. However, instead of showing off its polished and lacquered beams and planks, Central covered it all up with a muted ash color that would've been dull in any painting but here it clashed against the natural wood colors of the surrounding buildings. As if you found a flat gray obelisk in the forest.

Mari-sensei leads everyone inside, fighting against the flow of heavy foot traffic, which is expected. People are rushed in on stretchers and wheelchairs, which is expected. People are queuing in front of reception, which is expected.

What's not expected: all of the hospital workers have the same masked face.

The receptionist, the intern, the nurse, the passing doctor. All of them are unmistakably Sano Hyugo, Matsugakure's own Ororakage.

The Seedlings go wide-eyed (even Debi) at the sight of the village's sole surviving Shiha. Their heads twist in all directions as the Kage walks in and out of the waiting area, calling out names and writing notes on clipboards. Mari-sensei rolls her eyes as she cuts the line to the receptionist—a Hyugo who wrapped up his motley hair into a ponytail.

"Ah, Mari," he says looking at her while filling out a form even with his divided attention, "What brings you in today? Backaches for carrying so much responsibility, hmmmm? Ah, here you go, Sami. Wait for one of me to call your name." He passes the sheets of paper to the woman sitting across from him.

Team 3's sensei stares at the Hyugo-Receptionist, her expression flat. "Can you tell me where the real you is so we can get to the mission and leave before it gets dark?" A beat. "Please?"

Hyugo-Receptionist blinks. "I am the real one. But I don't know what you mean by mission. That sounds like something you should bring up with the Kage..."
 

***

Moments later, Mari-sensei returns, pinching the bridge of her nose and counting to herself. "One lily pad, two lily pad, three lily pad..." One breath in, one breath out. The jonin collects herself and looks at the gathered genin and academy students. "So, there's a little weed in the plans. We need to find the Ororakage." She pauses, expecting an inevitable question or two.

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Turning to his young proteges, Ahei kneels down. "Okay. A twist in the plan." He gestures to the veritable sea of Kage working in the hospital. "I guess our only option is to take this room by room, and be methodical." He gestures to the hospital map on the wall. He turns his head to look at Mari. "What do you think, sensei? Should we divvy up the hospital and just go from room to room? Or is there a place that he hangs out the most in?" He asks, looking for guidance on how to proceed.

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Yoshi stares blankly at the scene ahead of him. It's happening again.

The first time he witnessed this was a day of pure confusion. Sure, it was fun and all. A day for the staff to relax and recharge instead of the usual hustle and bustle of a chaotic hospital. Still, it did mean that Hyugo-sensei would always be here and just him.

...

Which did bring to mind, why? "It happens every now and then. Hyugo-Sensei just, taking over the entire place. Honestly, most of us interns were just glad for an extra day of rest, but now I'm wondering if something else is at work here. Taking over a whole hospital, using such amount of clones and being the kage of this village is a lot of work and Chakra..." He narrows his eyes, idily tapping his arm as he crosses it, mindful of his piggy-back passenger. "Wonder if it's something to do with that..."

He vageuly recalls a pair of doctors discussing something on his first day. A strange thing to remember, but the entire hospital staff were given a day off so anything not to do with plans for that evening like going out for drinks or going out on a date was embedded in his memory. And he recalls the doctors talking about seeing someone rocking back and forth, but that didn't seem important as they could have been talking about a paitent.

Thinking back to this, and now with a better idea of people and responses, he had a theory. He glances at Ahei, and that theory starts to solidify as he recalls Ahei's recovery from his own incident, on top of his own mind and emotions when he lost each parent. He glances at Mari-Sensei. "Lets try some of the more quiet and distant rooms. I think I have a theory on why Hyugo-Sensei takes over the whole place, but it may also be something he doesn't want most people to see or know about."

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Anika watches Tapani, Little Mari and Noa in great puzzlement. She scratches the back of her head in equal puzzlement. Foreign children are so different from her people’s children. By their age Forest Bear children are already learning how to hunt, forage in the woods for food and building materials and learning how to making things. All the necessities needed for survival. They learn teamwork and are given responsibilities and jobs to do. They are becoming adults. But the foreign children? They are still carefree without any worries about the harsh realities of life or how they will survive the winters. They are still children being children.

Anika stops scratching her head, as a thoughtful look now replaces the look of puzzlement. An eyebrow suddenly goes up. ….Still children….? Perhaps she should treat them more like adults. Perhaps give them something to do. Something to be responsible for. As Anika was turning ideals around in her head trying to figure out how to deal with the foreign children, she didn’t realize that Mari-sensei had left and returned to the group. As a matter of fact, she didn’t notice she was inside the hospital until Mari-sensei announced that they would have to look for the Ororakage. So the hunt was still on. She looks over at the clones and at her three charges. Suddenly she smiles. She had an ideal.

Looking at Mari-sensei Anika asks her in voice that was gentle, yet loud enough for her three charges to hear.

”Sensei. I have a question about the clones. Do clones just look like the person they are imitating, or do they have the same sent and smell as the original has? If they don’t them perhaps me and my three hunters can go to his office or someplace else and find something that does have his sent on it?”

She turns and addresses her three hunters in training.

”The first step in hunting is to know your prey and its habits. Find out where the game lives and the places where it travels to. It’s territory if you will. Once we find such a place your job is to find something that has his smell on it and give to me. Then I’ll show you the next step. Do you understand your mission?”

Anika’s voice was firm and she didn’t talk down to them. She addressed them just like an adult talking to another adult.

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Radka considered the situation. Briefly.

Very briefly.

"Jouko! We clear out the clones, attack on sight!" And so, Radka launched her kunai through the air at the receptionist, and chained two more attacks with blinding speed, grabbing her weapon back with ease every time it flew back at her. "Debi, I guess you can just stay here and look cool."

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Mari-sensei fields the questions and suggestions rapid-fire: “Methodical. Yes, that should work, Ahei-kun, but instead of every room…” she snaps her fingers at Yoshi's idea, “Right. Quiet, secluded areas are where you’ll dig him out, leave it to our resident hospital mole to figure it—” Anika’s question, however, gives her pause.

“Not all clones are the same, Sapling. For instance, my wood clones? Perhaps an astute enough nose could pick out the timber of their construction. Hyugo…sama’s are more like reified memories. They may be overly simplified, but there’d be no difference from the originals.” The jonin cradles her chin between her thumb and index finger, considering the question more. “Then again, there would still be differences, I suppose. If you had a strong enough capacity to detect hormone levels, maybe you could sniff out the original, but you would still—”

At that very instant, Mari-sensei turned her attention to Radka.

Team 3’s sensei saw everything: the cocky smile of a genin who thought she’d solve the riddle in record time, the kunai piercing Hygo-Receptionist right in the chest, the shrieking scream of Sami as the clone wavers before blinking out of existence.

The cramped area freezes in a stand-still as Radka flashes from spot to spot unleashing two more kunai at other clones. The one who held the door open for patients. Another that was walking hand-in-hand with a toddler and their family. A kunai lodges itself into the lattermost clone. His body ripples as the toddler stares bewildered at it. Their fingers suddenly grabbing onto nothing as the kindly masked kage beams at the toddler with a kunai in his forehead and vanishes

More screams. The sound of people running out of the hospital. Raising shouts from all around. A cacophony of complaints and curses assail the genin from all around.

“Rotten!"
"Treasonous!"
"Troublemaker!”

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Radka truly had this. The clones poofed out of reality one after the other, her weapon unerring. She felt great, and her form was perfect; she would go through the hospital in a short time; Mari was even looking at her go—

"Rotten!"
"Treasonous!"
"Troublemaker!"

The genin looked like she had screeched to a halt, frozen as she was in the middle of her quick, intense movements. Her kunai flew back to her hand from the last clone, slipping between her fingers discreetly, while she looked on at the interlopers. Mari and anybody who had their attention on her could see the shift from confident, decisive Radka into belligerent, wounded Radka, knuckles tightened against her weapon.

"What?! They're just clones, you dimwits!" Her ice-cold glare flicked from stranger to stranger, judging them back. For a moment, it felt like they would all be better off with the same fate she offered Hyugo's duplicates, but she brought her defiant stare over to Mari, instead.

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Mari withers at Radka's defiance. Her age starts to show as crow's feet deepen around her eyes. How many years had the jonin spent raising generation after generation of shinobi? Out of those, how many had been rebellious weeds that kept cropping up?

Was Radka just another number to her?

"Alright," Mari-sensei cups her hands together in front of her and steps up to the crowd of concerned citizens, "I know what this must look like, but please understand this is all just a drill. We're on official duty on route to—"

"What kind of teacher are you? Siccing ninja on Hyugo-sama?!" Someone shouts from admist the mass.
"I can assure you—"
"Look how traumatized our child is!"
"I understand your concern, but—"
"This is why ninja should be separated from us regular folk!"
"Yeah!"
"Here, here!"

Mari unclasps her hands as they drop listlessly to her sides. Seeing she was clearly making no headway with the group, she turns her attention to Radka and with it a biome's worth of tiredness a parent might have for a kid refusing to leave the nest or a partner might have for someone fully rooted in their own ways. Whatever arrangement of the letters 'a', 'e', 'n', 'p', 'r', and 't', the jonin's face read pretty clearly: "Really?"

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Anika is startled as she watches as Radka starts attacking the clones. Then chaos insures. And now she's defying Mari-sense. Something seemed off. But Anika couldn't put her finger on it.

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Yoshi stares blankly at the scene infront of him. He would say something, but with everyone riled up like this he would probably just make the situation worse.

Still, he shuffles closer to one of the remaining clones. "Can someone go inform Hyugo-sensei that we're going to need some more clones out front? There's been an incident." He gives a glance at the crowd. "And do you need me to call in some of the staff?"

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"Of course," Radka muttered under her breath. Never take the shortest path from A to B, you might offend the slowpokes.

With very slowed down and deliberate movements, Radka walked towards Mari, ignoring the stares and heckles and just about everybody else. Don't lean on your strengths, you might offend the weaklings.

Slowly, she reached up, kunai in hand, and offered it safely to Mari, eyes set in hers. "I can't ever see the forest for the trees, right? Give it back to me when you approve of a single one of my decisions." If Mari wouldn't take it, she let it fall to the ground, and turned on her heels.

"Jouko, come along. On your feet. Gotta be Kage to use your abilities here." She signaled the one seedling, and walked away, on a subdued pace. She intended to walk up to the roof.

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One of the Hyugo-Helpers cocks his head at Yoshi’s suggestions. “I am Hyugo-sensei… and help is already on the way. Though I don’t think we have to worry further, you see?” He points at Radka holding out her kunai to the jonin sensei.

Mari accepts Radka’s kunai, staring at it for a long beat before nodding at the genin. It could’ve been read as a flippant response to the situation, or it could’ve been seen as an act of accepting the natural hierarchy of the team. Whatever the case, Mari-sensei used the situation to her advantage with the crowd.

”Look, weapon seized. No need for alarm.” She says, showing off the steel weapon to the onlookers. One of them raises a finger, ready to retort. ”I said, No need for alarm,” the air grows denser as Team 3 recognizes a gargantuan amount of oppressive chakra bearing down everyone in the waiting area. For shinobi, it’s easy to recognize an intimidating show of power. But for those not in tune with their inner chakra, Mari-sensei’s display is more like a vacuum in space sucking the air right out of the crowd. Complaints die before they even leave lips, asphyxiated by the jonin’s chakra presence.
 

“Great!” she returns to a more cheery expression. “As you can see, Ororakage has already sent in replacements.”

Indeed, more clones have already taken up spots in a seamless transition. One even coddles the hand of the bereaved toddler.

For most, the clones have seemingly popped out of nowhere, but both Anika and Ahei notice how they’re sneaking in. Shadows outside the windows fall from out of the sky, tumbling on the ground when they land. These Hyugos nonchalantly walk in from the entrance or flash step from the outside to appear instantly in their appropriate positions.

The four-eyed puppet-nin sees all this one other interesting thing. A transparent bubble in the shape of Little Mari is cowering behind Anika.
 

***

Jouko collapses to his back. His face tomato-red from all the blood that pooled there. He gasps for oxygen as he looks up to Radka. “Ma’am, can I—” another gulp of air, “—request we take the elevator?”

Debi clutches her right tricep and looks at Radka: “So, uh. Is that your thing? You just throw kunai at everyone?”

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"Sure," Radka answered coolly, changing course for the elevator. As they made their way to it, she pulled out her water bottle, offering it to the heads-down kid. "Breathe slowly and drink."

She then glanced at Debi. "Not anymore, I guess." She looked back into the hall, at Mari, and at how she handled the mob. She smirked. "If I was smart, I wouldn't be wielding kunai," she concluded, stepping inside the lift.

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"You." The puppet-nin points at the adults who turned on one of the villages protector's at the mildest provocation. "Are very rude." Four eyes blink, the two pairs slightly out of sync. Inhuman. His appearance a stark reminder of the price of carelessness. "Radka-chan is precise. She would never harm any of you. And this is how you act?" He folds his arms, and shakes his head. "What do you think your behaviour achieves? If you want her to be different, do you think outrage is the answer?" He shakes his head. Despite a lack of expression, his voice communicates his disappointment loudly.

He very pointedly turns to the trio of kids under his wing, kneeling down to get onto their level. "We won't beat Radka there if she knows where to go. So do you want to have fun instead?" He asks the trio. "We could grapple to the roof. What do you think?" He winks, both of his right eyes closing slightly out of sync.

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Yoshi just sighs. It was always weird talking to Hyugo-sensei when he was like this, but he always attributes it to the clones he uses since his own Water clones don't behave like this. So he instead gives another look around. At least Mari-Sensei was dealing with the situation. He, probably wasn't the best to deal with that. One-on-one, sure. Maybe with a couple of them. But more than 3 was just awkward as they seemed to operate a herd mentality at that point.

At least Ahei voiced his disappointment in their behaviour, not like it'll matter to them. Civillians tend to believe whatever they want and are notorious in being stubborn about it unless their life or comfort is on the line. Yoshi was instead busy commandeering some paper to compile a mini-report on the situation to tell the supervisors and staff when they come back. He knows the crowds would get a second wind at some point after Mari-Sensei was gone to continue their complaints so best get the staff in the know rather than let them learn through rumours and colour their opinions of the team.

"Right, the roof is a good spot to check. But the back rooms may be good as well since they don't get so much traffic, so I'll check there." He finishes the report and tacks it the staff notes box for whoever comes on shift first after Hyugo-Sensei finishes.

He then gives a wary glance at the crowd, knowing that they can turn on things at a drop of the hat, whether it's someone taking out a clone or whispering about a lost parent as the child walks by. Instead, he folds his arms into his kimono sleeves and strides to the back rooms.

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Tapani opens her mouth to respond to Anika’s instructions, her face clearly still frosted over with contempt at being told what to do, but her inevitable protests die in her throat as Mari-sensei’s overwhelming chakra bore down on all of them. Noa starts and lifts one leg as if ready to sprint away but his other is frozen in place by terror. The two pre-teens look from Team Three’s sensei back to the tattooed genin in front of them.

Both nod their heads sheepishly.
 

***

Elena leans over to look Yoshi in the eyes while perched on his shoulders. “Mr. Hoshhhhigaki, sssseems like you work here too?” She cocks her head, her eyes looking over his report. “Probably not a doctor. Ma ssssays they write like chickenssss…“ she whistles.

Guy is slouched forward, nervously looking back at the reception area with the crowd. The young man is still shivering from the jonin’s presence.
 

***

The crowd is already cowed before Ahei steps up to them, all four eyes aflame with indignation. Most just look away, while those that meet his glare, cautiously look at the lavender-haired kunoichi leering from behind the puppet-nin, arms crossed in front of her. No one says a word. Some of the older folk, Ahei would notice, even have a hint of something in their eyes. Something verging on pity for the sentient puppet.

Not paying them much attention, Ahei turns to his underlings. Tai is almost as speechless from the genin’s offer as his sensei’s overwhelming aura. “Oh. My. Kami. Yes. A million times yes!” The twins, however, stand shoulder-to-shoulder as if using each other as support. “Um, robo-sensei, I dunno how to mention this, but… Agas is a little… um…” Saga lowers his voice to a whisper: “Afraid of heights.”
 

***

Hyugos move to and fro past Radka and her underlings. Each one coming in and out of offices and wards with differently colored masks. None of them pay much attention to what’s happening around them, their attention centered solely on the path they are walking. The moment the trio ignore the flood of Ororakage, they start noticing the non-clones: mainly, doctors and nurses still making their rounds even as some have to push through a group of Hyugos to get by.

By the time the group turns a corner for the lifts, Radka spots a slender woman next to the elevator panel, her supple, pale-skinned hand pressed firmly against the up button. In her other hand is a magenta hardcover, its original dust jacket completely removed. The woman’s gray hair frames the book. And even nose-deep in the book, Radka could still make out the scars that ran through the woman’s right side of her face.

In fact, Radka knew every rigid tissue on that face, since for Radka it didn’t just belong to any other woman.

It belonged to Akami.

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There was a halt in Radka's step, when she made that corner. Just a brief one, the surprising sight momentarily stopping her in her tracks; then, she smiled—nothing like a smug smirk from before, or her confident grin when she chose her underlings, nor quite like the smitten look she thought nobody noticed when she mentioned Mari—Akami brought forth upon Radka's face a smile of true joy.

And suddenly, she was right by her best friend's side. "Hey bookworm, what floor you going up to?" she asked, leaning into Akami's field of view.

 

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Yoshi gives a nod at that. "I'm more of an Intern here. I help out where I can and I have a bit of medical training, but not enough to be a fully fleshed medical-nin. Although as it happens, one of my jutsu is a healing type, so that helps in emergencies."

He adjusts his arms slightly, placing a hand on the back of Guy in a gesture of comfort while keeping the other ready to catch Elena if she falls off. But her comment about handwriting did make him chuckle. "Yeah, their handwriting is atrocious. But it is readable so it's fine. I'm not going to badger the guy fixing up someone's spleen to improve their handwriting over, y'know, fixing someone. Maybe after their shift, but that's really it." He gives a little peek into each room after confirming it's not a occupied by a paitent.

 

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Ahei's head tilts to one side, considering the conundrum. "Well, Agas." He begins gently. "If you want to become a shinobi, you'll need to face your fears at some point." He reminds his young proteges. "And the best time to do that is when it's safe. There's no danger here, after all. And I won't let anything bad happen to you, I promise." He does his best to assure the twin.

"I was afraid of things too. Being underwater, mostly. But my friends helped me get past that. So now it's my yurn to help you. Cool?" He holds a hand out to Agas. "You don't even need to open your eyes." He couldn't smile, but his voice was warm, gentle. He hoped his encouragement would go a long way. "If you like, I can show you how my grapple hook works. A special thing, for being brave, eh?"

 

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Anika is busy watching the chaos of the hospital setting in great bewilderment. Many questions started to pop into her head. She had heard of the foreigner’s hospital and that it’s a place where they place all their sick and dying. But why would you put all of your sick in one place? Didn’t they know that’s how all kinds of illness spread? If you place everyone together like this, something terrible is bound to happen. And why in the world would you place someone who is dying in a crowded and noisy place like this? One should be surrounded by their loved ones in the comfort of their own home so they can die in peace and with dignity next to a burning hearth. That way their souls can pass to the afterlife. The mixing of the living and the dying made Anika visibly shutter. Then a brief look of disgust crossed her face. She’s sure that people who have died in such a place have NOT crossed over into the next world. Without a burning hearth fire how can 

Kamuy Fuchi guide their souls to the afterlife? This place must be full of lost 

Abe-ra-un kamuy

This place must be haunted. This place is a grave. Can’t stay here any longer than necessary.

A place of lost spirits is a bad place to stay in. Without proper treatment of the dead body, its soul cannot rest in peace in the world of the dead. For this reason, illnesses serve to remind the Bear People and others of their misconduct. And this place is full of illness and no one is heading the warnings.

Anika turns and looks at her three charges. Regardless of the method they use, the prey must be flushed out of his hiding place, and fast. Anika addresses Tapani, Little Mari and Noa.

” When you have a lot of prey that look the same, like a heard of deer, you focus on one individual, cut it from the heard and catch it. This is what we are going to do right now.

I have a mission for you. Find where Ororakage’s….the preys office is. Once you find it, let me know where it is. I don’t care how you do it. It’s up to you on the method you use. I’ll be outside, waiting for your signal, while I make sure he isn’t hiding outside the building. Once you find his den, I’ll show how to flush him out. Your mission starts now.”

Without waiting for a response, Anika heads straight towards the doorway and exits the hospital. While she waited outside the hospital for her charges signal, her body shutters once again. While it was looked down upon to stay in places of the dead, it wasn’t taboo. And there were always exceptions to the rule, such as in the case of emergencies. This wasn’t an emergency, so there was no reason to linger in a place of the dead.

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Tapani and Noa give each other a look. One with an arched eyebrow, the other with a sheepish twitch of a brow. Little Mari appears from behind Noa and stares at the two, unsure if she could even control her eyebrows to add to the conversation. The de facto princess of the bunch rolls her eyes and stomps towards the back rooms, challenging anybody to stop her. The two other academy students skitter behind her.
 

***

Before Yoshi can go deeper into the hospital, he hears the door to reception slam open with powerful footfalls stalking behind him. It doesn't take long until Anika's retinue catches up to the kimono-wearing Hoshigaki. "Shark-man, the one with tattoos told us to follow you." Tapani declares. Not being one to take lip from even her obvious chaperones, the silver spooner will goad her lackeys to follow Yoshi and his seedlings regardless of what he says.

And just like that, Yoshi finds himself leading five kids through Matsu Central.

As the group walks deeper into the hospital, Yoshi sees the hustle and bustle of the Ororakage. A stream of Hyugo's walk bristly between different departments and offices. Some are dressed in scrubs, others in dress shirts, but all are colorfully masked no matter their dress. With every Hyugo they pass, Yoshi starts to pick up on something. None of them seem the least bit concerned. In fact, the clones seem to share a default state of expression. Determined, eyes forward, shoulders squared.

Yoshi guides the Seedlings towards the lounge where all the interns, residents, and staff relax at. It was almost sacred ground for everyone that worked at Central. There was a running pact that no business could barge in. If any of the doctors were needed, a reverse seal would be sent to one of their pocket notebooks filled with scroll paper. Yoshi didn't know the full mechanics, but the whole procedure would entail a chakra jolt from the notebook to alert the staff and the latest scroll page would ignite with a seal that gave all the details of what was needed of them. Everyone at the hospital called this being paged.

The genin softly opens the lounge door and pokes his blue-skinned head in. Inside, he spots an exaggeratedly rotund Hyugo slouched back in a chair at one of the dining tables, asleep. The four legs of the chair seem to bend outward from the Hyugo's massive weight. A giant snot bubble inflates and deflates with his snoring. The bubble gets so large that it starts pushing against a tower of empty pizza boxes.

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Yoshi just gives a toothy grin and a shrug at Tapnai's comments, before continuing to lead the others to the lounge. He pokes his head in, and proceeds to stare for a full minute at the scene, before ducking his head out and blinking at the seedlings. "Well, we've found Hyugo Sensei... But there is a rule in place that no business goes on inside this room so that's going to make things a bit difficult since we have business with him..." He does idily wonder if he should tell Mari-Sensei about this, but there was a good chance she'll barge right on in and the room was pretty sacred for being a place of rest.

Well, this was awkward. His duties as a Intern at the hospital was clashing with his duties as a Genin. What to do...

He has a plan. He pokes his head back in, and gives it a good look around. Just encase he missed something, as well as looking for the drinks and snacks section. "Sometimes, you need to use loopholes to your advantage."

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Akami starts at Radka's voice and snaps her book closed. The slightest of blushes hides between the crevices of her scarred face as she sees more than just Radka approaching. The gray-haired kunoichi glances at the non-Hyugos. First at Jouko and his heavily sweat-soaked shirt, and then her attention falls to the black-clad, lanky Debi.

Akami's unscarred side quirks up in a playful smirk, her espresso-colored eyes dancing in the sanitized lighting of the hospital.

"Don't tell me. Mad Mari has you babysitting."

Even though they were all waiting around the same elevator, time seems to crawl to a stop for Radka. The conversations of passersby meld together into an incomprehensible molasses of murmurs. The mechanical floor indicator of the elevator seems frozen at floor 6, the wooden arrow doesn't progress an inch further. Such phenomena were common for the speedster on the battlefield, but when it came to standing in Akami's presence—well—it was hard to tell if it was one of the Uchiha's tricks or something else entirely.

***
Outside, Ahei's attention breaks slightly at Anika's hurried exit from the hospital without her Seedlings. Fortunately for the puppet-nin, he could keep two eyes on her and the other two on his potential protégés.

Agas cautiously steps closer to Ahei. Barely into his teenage years, the twin wasn't ready just yet to shake off his childhood fears. "Um... m-maybe if you show me how it, uh, works..." his voice breaks a little as he contemplates the genin's offer. "Ok, yeah. How does it work Ahei-sensei?"

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[Savine]

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Yoshi gives a nod, then opens the door the rest of the way (in a rather noisy manner) and strides in, ushering the kids in with him. He gives a wave to Hyugo-Sensei (if he is woken up), and strides over to the snack corner. "Right, we have a few different snacks here and various drinks. So feel free to pick one up and then we'll head on back to Mari-Sensei." He briefly eyes the pizza boxes, and on the chance that Hyugo-Sensei had woken up... "I'm not picking that up."

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Radka beamed even further, in response to Akami's sudden book-closing and surprise for the unusual company. Radka deigned a lazy look towards the kids, obviously way more interested in the Imaya woman, now. "Yeah, that's Jouko and Debbie, I don't know why they're with us, but we need to find the Kage for our mission," she said, her voice staccato and sounding breathless—she wasn't bothering to watch the speed of her delivery, not with Akami.

For a moment, she just looked at her friend. She didn't realize how time felt, initially—after what happened in the hospital lobby, she felt a swell of reassurance to find Akami right here, and she simply enjoyed that. Just standing there, completely within the other's personal space—to neither's displeasure. Until she heard a buzzing, distorted noise coming out of Debbie that wasn't actually her voice. Her eyes left Akami, swiftly scanning around—

"What're you doing? Stretching the moment?" Radka teased, poking at Akami's hand, glancing at the book's title on the way.

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Anika stood outside of the hospital, embarrassed and ashamed at what she just did. It was not the behavior of a leader of her people. She just walked off the mission and abandoned her charges and for what? For projecting her beliefs about how the Forest Bear People view dying and death on to the foreigners who don’t believe the same way she does? Yet, there is was, right in front of her, a place full of lost souls and death. She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread, yet at the same time, she knew she had just betrayed her people and herself. She was chosen to be the next leader of her people. And what did she do? Ran from her duties, both that of her people and that of Village Hidden in the Pines. She would have to put herself at the mercy of Mari-sensei and accept any punishment she gives out. And the Forest Bear Spirit? He sees all and knows all. She would have to go the forest and ask for his forgiveness too. But for now, Anika would have to try and rectify this best way she can, and she can start by finding her three charges and continue their training.

After fighting back some tears that had started to flow down her cheeks, Anika wiped her face with her sleeve and took a deep breath. The horrible feeling of dread was still strongly imbedded in her, but she fought it back and headed back into the hospital. She kept telling herself that no Forest person had died in the foreigner’s place of death which gave her a little comfort, but not much. She had instructed them to find Prey Ororakage’s office, so that’s where she will start her search. After asking around, Anika eventually found the way to the office and headed straight there, all the while looking around, half expecting to see spirits of the dead at any moment.

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As Yoshi barges into the lounge with five Seedlings in tow, the oversized sleep bubble bursts with an almost concussive amount of force that knocks the teetering tower of pizza boxes over and nearly blows off the leaves of the potted plants inside. “Wh-What?!” the Hyugo exclaims, his poor wooden chair buckling further under the strain of his girth. “Oh, Yoshi-san, it’s just you. Well, you, Elena-san, Mari-san, Tapani-san…” Hyugo’s eyes grow heavy, “Guy-san, and…” Hyugo’s eyes shut for good as a loud reverberating snore escapes his mouth.

***

Akami shrugs up her shoulders that plainly read ‘You got me.’ She tucks her hair behind her right ear, revealing all her scars. A sign of how comfortable she felt trapped in a time warp with Radka. “Figured you’re always in a hurry, so…” She lets the sentence linger in that bubble of time and space. Radka can read the gold-faded title of the hardcover, partially obscured by Akami’s one arm: The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

***

Anika’s first impressions of the hospital seemed apt enough from what she could tell walking through the busy pathways behind reception. The walls, the floor, and even the people—well, mostly the Ororakage—seemed unbearably sterile. Smells of detergent, soap, and other chemicals the Forest Bear Person had only started to memorize the names of flooded her senses. Compared to home, this place lacked everything that could have made it feel warm and familial.

In front of Hyugo’s “office” door—most of the staff seemed hesitant to call this room an office—Anika smelled something off. Mainly, her Seedlings were nowhere nearby. Before the destined tribal leader could consider her options, a throat clears itself behind her.

“Something wrong, Sapling?”

 

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Ahei nods, ruffling the hair of the young future ninja. "Alright, check this out. I designed it myself." He says with no small amount of pride. Holding up his left hand for the group to see, his metallic hand folds back against his forearm, exposing a hollow space inside his wrist. There is a click, and a four-pronged hook juts out in the place his hand occupied. "One day, I’m going to rebuild the whole thing." His tone is determined. "Right now I have to use a special chakra reserve to make it work - but one day I’m going to perfect it." He tilts his head to one side, a question. "How about it?"

 

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Anika almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice behind her. It was bad enough that the lost souls of Abe-ra-un kamuy were wondering around the hall of this place of death. Now they were talking to her? …..No that wasn’t it……Someone just snuck up behind her and she didn’t hear them because she was too wrapped up in herself. If that had been an enemy…..

Anika suddenly whirled around and faced the source of the voice.

 

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Yoshi stares for a moment, then sighs. "I swear, you need to get a checkup at some point to check for any sleeping issues. And such a mess..." He eyes the pizza boxes, then sighs again. Turning to the others. "Feel free to grab a snack or two and some drinks. I'm going to, tidy up before we start to get roaches and other insects. Really don't want to ask an Aburame to come in and clear up the place." And now he starts to pluck up some pizza boxes.

 

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Radka smiled—Akami's all but immediate grab of this opportunity was endearing, but also worrying; and so, that smile didn't last. "I'm not in a hurry right now," she said, subconsciously slowing down her speech. "So how about sticking together for a while, hm?"

She did decide to slow down till Mari gave her back her kunai, after all. It would just be a lot easier with Akami around, and the mission(s) could wait if her friend needed her.

 

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Agas eyes the contraption and cocks an eyebrow, “How much weight you ‘spose it can carry at once?” The twin looks at the puppet-nin and the other Seedlings, his fear already replaced with nervous curiosity. “Will it really hold all four of us?”
 

***

All five of the Seedlings go wide-eyed at the huge Hyugo. Little Mari squeezes Tapani’s hand, her knuckles turning white. Guy just gives the enlarged Orokage the briefest of looks before sauntering over to the fridge and cracking it open.

Inside, the fridge is stocked to the brim with paper containers, each one bearing Hyugo’s name in bold brushstrokes. “Uhhh… You don’t think Aurorakage would care if I took one, right?” Noa rushes towards the open fridge and nearly plows through Guy with an elbow. “It’s Ororakage, dummy.” “That’s what I said—”

Tapani, leading Little Mari, walks past the boys and rolls her eyes, Elena following behind with her hands clasped behind her and her eyes darting all across the lounge as if the place was somehow sacred or at least restricted to kids like them. Sorta like the teacher’s lounge back at school.

The three girls stop in front of Hyugo. Elena approaches the larger-than-life snot bubble. “Woah, it’sss bigger than Noa-kun’sss!” she whistles. Giggling, she starts to poke the bubble, trying to test how far her finger could press it before it pops…

 

 

***

Standing behind Anika is none other than Team 3’s jounin sensei, arms akimbo which seemed to be the kunoichi’s resting position. She starts a little seeing how fast the genin spun to confront her. “Oh, didn’t mean to startle ya, Sapling. Just, uh, saw ya rushin’ past everyone and got a lil’ concerned, s’all.” Mari-sensei rubs the back of her head, a sheepish smile on her face. “Noticed you left your Seedlings behind, too. Just wanted to check in on ya.”
 

***

Akami tilts her head at Radka, slight surprise crossing her face. “Oh, well, I’m just doing some errands for my mother…” Time seemed to gradually catch back up with the young women. The incessant chatter of the hospital growing in volume until it dominated the background. Radka doesn’t miss when Akami ruffles her bangs back into their original position, covering her scars. She smiles courteously at the Seedlings behind the kunoichi and nods her head in greeting before looking back to Radka.

“You were looking for Ororakage?” She says looking at all the clones around them. ”I could probably hang around for that.”

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For one fleeting moment, Radka was dumbstruck staring at Akami's face—her friend's mask of aloofness ever so slightly broken. With her hair and her walls out of the way, beauty washed over Radka as a wave unlike any other: beyond even appearances, this was a side of the Imaya that only ever was revealed to her. The uniqueness of that bond always felt like fire alighting her soul—

Radka breathed out evenly, eyelids closed over the hearts in her irises, and her hand balled into a fist before her mouth. "Seedlings!" she said, her voice sharp, and her gaze now suddenly on the two kids, "This is Akami Imaya, and everything she says goes as if I had said it!"

Her crimson eyes were cold and unbending as her homeland. Or at least, that's how she imagined them. Authority wasn't exactly her strong suite without a deadly scythe swinging from her hands. "Now, is that lift here yet?" She twirled on her feet, messy white hair flapping into Akami's face.

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Yoshi had managed to move the stack of pizza boxes to the corner, and stares at them as if they had personally affronted him. He turns back to the others and opens his mouth to say something before watching. "If that pops, are you going to get covered in snot?" A childish thought pops into his head and he wonders if it would count for his water Jutsu? Snotty Jutsu? He shivers at that. "Let's, head on back to Mari-Sensei and let her know we found him." He was going to respect the "no disruption" rule. But if Sensei doesn't, well, that's not his problem.

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From amongst his clothing, Ahei retrieves a special scroll. There is a puff of smoke as he summons what looks to be a strange puppet with a round body, round head, and three sets of legs and arms. With a click and a whir, this waist-high construction of wood and metal splits into three much smaller replicants of the original design, although each with one one pair of arms and legs. "These are my friends." He introduces the triplicate puppets. "I've been redesigning my grapple, so each one has one right now." Strings of light shimmer from his fingertips as he makes each one reveal a hand that transforms into a grappling hook. A twitch of his fingers, and each one holds it's arms up to one of the four, minus Agas. "They'll be strong enough to carry one of you each." He says, the puppets mimicking a flex in time with his words. "And you'll come with me, alright?"

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Anika looked at Mari-sensei in surprise. Not because Sensei's wasn't detected, it was because she knew what had happened and was inquiring a reason for it. Was Sensei watching her Saplings? Of course she was. So was Forest Bear Spirit.

Anika takes another glance around, takes a very deep breath. She reaches into one of her outfits pockets and pulls out a small piece of green stone carved in the shape of a bear. Looking Mari-sensei straight in the eyes, Anika holds out the carved bear and presents to Mari-sensei.

"It a custom of my people to present something personal to someone they have offended. I have failed in my given task and abandoned my charges. There was no excuse for my behavior."

Anika hesitates for a second and then continues.

"When one of my people are dying, they are at home surrounded by friends and families. A hearth fire is burning so that their soul can pass to the other side. I had heard the stories of the foreigners' hospitals but didn't believe it until I came to this building. A place of lost spirits and death, where many are sent die without family and without the comfort of their homes, with no fire to help guide them. While staying in a graveyard isn't taboo for my people, it's discouraged. I was overwhelmed by the thought of being surrounded by spirits that had no place to go and the possible miss fortune they might bestow on me. I ran from this place and left my charges behind."

Anika takes another deep breath.

"I will accept any punishment you see fit. I then must return home and face the Great Bear Kamuy for I also have failed him. My brother Nitay will inform me if I have to return or not. "

Anika continues to hold out the carved bear and raises her head slightly. She was fully prepared to accept any punishment and take responsibility of her actions.

She takes another deep breath.

"I think I'm ready to continue my mission, if you see fit. I was actually on my way to find my charges when you startled me. I will try not to let the lost spirits....get to me...."

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Mari's pale eyes soften at Anika's explanation. Her akimbo arms fall to her side, her shoulders slagging ever so slightly as if taking off a mantle. "Oh, Anika-chan, you're only seeing half of it." The jounin sighs a little without any exaggeration. "Ya know, I was there during the signing of the alliance between your people and Matsu. Part of the deal was cultural exchanges. And I haven't been keeping up my part in engraining some of those values in you..." Mari-sensei rubs her chin for a beat before snapping her finger at some epiphany.

"We don't have much time, so let's speed things up a bit." The lavender-haired jounin jabs a finger against Anika's forehead.
 

***

Blackness.

Not just any ordinary blackness, a certain void the Bear Clan Priestess could taste. An utterly tangible nonexistence that could drown her at any point.

Ok, no worries, Sapling. Her sensei's words came not as sound, since voice could never travel through the oblivion-made mucus, but more like an impression like an inner voice given its own awareness. What you're experiencing now is just being disembodied. Try focusing a bit, and you should be able to ground yourself.

With nothingness surrounding Anika's entire being, it was hard not to focus on any iota of input. But without a heartbeat, time in suspension felt unbearably long before she sensed something. It wasn't like hearing the rustle of pine, seeing a cascade of color in the sky, or feeling the prick of winter's first frost. Instead, it hit her like a wave of scents Anika would experience in her bear form.

She could taste a discordant cacophony of emotions solidifying into colorful shapes before her nonexistent eyes.

Now, you spoke of death, Anika-chan. But there's so much more that goes on here...

Anika felt stuck in a corner, unable to move, but the shapes and emotions coalesced into identifiable containers. One full of pain to the point of breaking, others full of nerves and hope. The last full of anxiety and determination. Each figure grew in intensity, eclipsing and consuming any minor emotions until a great crescendo broke. Feelings gave way to Joy, Relief, and an inchoate dot of Hunger.

This place isn't just where stories end. It's also where they begin. It's where families come together. We spill blood on the battlefield in hopes that these people can live their lives and fight against the end for as long as they dare.

The scene before Anika evaporates, and she finds herself immobile in another space. New and old emotions take the shape of new and old figures. Boredom, Horror, Excitement, and Curiosity flow past her in ethereal ribbons running from one spot to the next.

Now, you were talking about fire, right? Something that shines in the darkness and guides your people home. Just keep focusing, and you'll see what most people here follow.

Mari-sensei's words melt away behind an inferno of Melancholy. A deep regret that threatens to turn everything to dust. Its tongues lash out in every direction, touching every other person and thing in the hospital. But after so long in this weird state, Anika begins to understand the flash of colors and shapes. Without any of her senses, something inside her starts to forge a new path of interpretation. As a bear, her smell could pick up images of the past, but here she could see things for what they are.

And for her, this all-surrounding forest fire took on a single shape.

The Ororakage.
 

***

Color, temperature, and texture flood back into Anika all at once when Mari-sensei removes her finger from the exchange genin's forehead. Mari-sensei looks straight into Anika's eyes, her pale grays searching. "Sapling, foreign things don't have to be so alien. Look close 'nuff, and you might even find them sharing the same roots." The jounin beams a toothy grin at her genin. "Anywho, let's go get the others. I saw your Seedlings with Yoshi-kun in the lounge."

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Before Ahei can realize it, Tai stands ramrod straight next to him, his starry pupils expanding in all directions, his snot bubble looking small in comparison. His wordless breath cries gimmie. It doesn't take a second for him to yank the small puppet to him and aim it toward the sky. Saga graciously accepts one of the other puppets, not without giving his brother a worrying glance.

Agas shuffles in place a few times and closes his eyes. One breath is all it takes before he nods and awkwardly wraps his arms around the puppet-nin's shoulders. His eyes were still clenched tight.

Tai cranes his neck around the puppet quizzically. "So, is there a button or—" The Seedling's entire body zips away in a flash, leaving nothing behind but a globular snot bubble, unaware it's detached from a nose. Gravity catches up to it and it falls.
 

***

Jouko starts at Radka's sudden call for attention. His sweaty, red face musters as much strength as possible to stay attentive and focused. He salutes Akami, who responds with a slight wave of her hand and a demure smile. Lanky, black-clad Debi shrugs her shoulders in greeting, "Yo."

The elevator's buzzer rattles as it arrives on their floor. The surrounding Hyugo clones step aside for Radka and the rest. Each one greets the group by name as they pass by in the same tone and inflection. Once inside, the Hyugos all look at each other and silently line up, with some in the back coming to the front, those in the front moving to the middle, and others staying in the same spot. They cram into the elevator, personal space retracting until everyone stands shoulder-to-shoulder.

Only when the elevator is full does it start its ascent.
 

***

Noa and Guy shoulder each other in front of the open fridge, ransacking off all the high-sugar junk they can find. With their arms full of confectioneries, they grin madly as they march up to Yoshi. "Want some? We got Shuribursts, Kaze-Heads..." As Noa lists their loot, Elena is still merrily poking at Hyugo's giant bubble. Standing around her, Tapani and Little Mari watch wordlessly, one at a loss for words and the other in amazement.

Then, without warning, the door busts open.

Every Seedling jumps at the same time. Time slows down to a crawl as Elena's finger, already pressed deep into the snot bubble, pierces it as her finger drags across it from starting in fright. A chain reaction starts as the bubble pops with altogether too much force.

The force of its burst disperses Elena's hair in all directions. Her eyes shut tight against the incoming mucus. Tepani's face contorts in disgust as Little Mari uses the haughty lass as a shield. Next to Yoshi, candy starts to fly in every direction as Noa and Guy throw up their hands in surprise.

Even the large Hyugo is not immune. The pop jolts him awake, but his chair buckles under his shifted weight and he collapses back, bashing his head on the ground. His whole body ripples at once like a blob splashing against the floor, and he shimmers out of existence.

Left awkwardly balanced on one leg, the other raised up after kicking open the door, Mari-sensei blinks in confusion at the whole event.

***

"Oh dear…" Akami says as her eyes zip from one Hyugo to the next. She inhales a lungful of air just as the nearest Hyugo's stomach simply drops out of shape with a slightly protruding gut. Then another Hyugo does the same. And then another until all at once, Radka, Akami, and the Seedlings get smooshed together. Radka sandwiched right between a mortified Debi and Akami.

A little giggle escapes Akami's lips as her face is pressed against Radka's. "Didn't see this coming."

The elevator groans but continues to chug along.


 

***

"Wooohooo!" Agas lets out. Ahei can feel the Seedling raising one arm in excitement. To Ahei's right, Tai has his eyes clenched shut, tears leaving a trail of droplets behind him. To the puppet-nin's left, Saga's open mouth flaps against the onslaught of wind.

But before the ride can last any longer, the puppet-nin leads the Seedlings to land safely atop the roof. It takes a little encouragement to get Tai to reopen his eyes. Once the kids are settled down, they look around the vacant roof.

Vacant except for one figure sitting on the roof's ledge, one leg dangling off the edge and the other pressed against his lithe chest and wrapped in his arms. Hyugo stares out towards the fjord.
 

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Ahei smiles inwardly at the collected experiences of his wards. A combination of fear, excitement and joy fills them to varying degrees, and that in turn bring some joy to Ahei's heart, artificial though it may be.

Seeing the lone Kage idly relaxing on the edge of the roof nearby, the puppet-nin approaches with a nervous wave. "Hello, Hyugo-sama." He greets the Kage politely. "I'm sorry to disturb you. I'm on Mari-Sensei's team. We needed to see you about our mission?" He says, combining an apologetic tone with an explanation for his sudden arrival.

 

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Yoshi was about to pick up the shuribursts when the door bursts open and the snot bubble pops. He spun in place, shoving the two kids behind him and entering a defensive stance, only to stare at the effects popping the snot bubble had on the room. He blinks, then sighs. So this wasn't the Oroakage then, whoops. "Yes, yes you did get covered in snot." He makes a brief gesture to the more empty side of the room, letting the snot all pool together and form some piranhas out of them (just to get it in one place and off everyone else). He then turns to Mari-Sensei, rubbing the back of his head in embarressment. "So we found another clone of him. Ehehe."

 

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Anika followed Mari-sensei in silence. She was quite surprised at what just happened. She always thought that her people were the only ones that had visions or went on visions quests. She was wrong. Even though Anika didn't understand much of what the vision was about, she knew that would come in time with more experience among the people of the Pine Forest. Mari-sensei was right. Anika needed to spend more time among the people of Matsugakure. Perhaps they could help her in the interruption of some of her visions.

As they headed towards the lounge, the tattooed genin stared at the jounin's back. Suddenly an eyebrow raises up as a thought raced through her mind.

A vision with just a touch of a finger....I going to have to learn how to do that. It's a lot easier than finding certain plants out in the woods.......

Anika almost rans into Mari-sensei who just kicked a door open and then suddenly stopped, with one leg still held up. Bearly avoiding knocking down her sensei, Anika suddenly stops then takes a peek from behind Mari-sensei, also watching the chaos that was going on in front of them. The other eyebrow goes up.

...What...?

 

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The situation was initially a lot to deal with already. Waiting for a slow elevator, squeezing in between everybody, and waiting again. And then, somehow it got worse?

Radka let out a pained groan, eyes fixed on poor, fragile Debi. She looked horrified by the situation but unhurt. Thankfully... "Jouko? Still alive?" she called out. She could see his feet and legs, but she couldn't quite tell if he was still breathing, or simply pinned against the wall by clone flesh.

Windmill was already thinking about how to take them all out as soon as possible, when a giggle rang in her ears—her perspective on the whole situation suddenly shifted when she realized it wasn't another Hyugo resting against her cheek opposite Debi, but Akami. Cool as she may be, the surprise was translated into a luminescent blush across her face.

"I — uh — yeah, well, me neither, I don't have your eyes — so..." Radka's fragmented, high-speed speech crashed into silence. She thought she could see a smirk draw up Akami's lips... Blink. She couldn't see the future, but she could perfectly imagine the forthcoming teasing about all this.

 

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A sharp, cold gust slices through the air from behind Ahei. Even against his partial-skinned body, the wintry wind leaves a frosty trail in its wake. It twists and cycles ahead of him, its motion captured precisely by the puppet-nin's preternatural eyesight. The wind bursts past the Ororakage, blowing his muffed hair wildly.

The masked kage in surgical scrubs turns his head away from the fjord and settles his eyes on the genin and his charges. His pale green eyes seem lifeless for a split second before crow's feet break out at the edges of his eyes. The only sign of a smile from the Ororakage. "Ah. Ahei-kun, yes. Wonderful. Just sit tight. I'm sure the rest'll be up shortly. Yes..." His eyes hop from one of the Seedlings to the next. He says nothing else and turns again to face the fjord.
 

***

Even with all the added weight, the elevator slugs its way up the floors. Each floor emptying to make space for another wave of chubby Hyugos. Fortunately, every new floor only adds less of them than before. But even with more space in the elevator, Akami seems apprehensive about moving away from her Windmill. "So... you sure I'm allowed to hang out with you? Seems like you're on a mission, no?"

Ding!

The elevator opens one last time on the highest floor. Hyugo clones shuffle out, and those waiting outside patiently wait for Radka and her retinue to exit before cramming in. Jouko strides out, breathing less heavily with color returning to his face, his hands wrapped behind his head. Debi saunters out with her shoulders hunched. Akami waits for Radka to exit first, staying one step behind.

It doesn't take much work to spot the stairs to the roof nearby.
 

***

The lavender-haired jonin blinks some more as she peers into the room. "Ah, you found the Root," Yoshi and Anika could hear her capitalize the word. "Don't worry, uhh, when Hyugo dismisses the Root, it just gives all the other clones a..." She looks down the hallway. If Anika follows her look, she'll notice a stream of overweight Hyugo shuffling between rooms faster than before. "...boost."

Mari-sensei returns her attention to the lounge and counts off the Seedlings. “Good! Looks like everyone's accounted for. Let's move already! Ahei's already found the Ororakage. Rooftop. Y'all think the Seedlings are good enough to take the stairs?”

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Yoshi makes an ah noise at that. "Right. Um, maybe? Otherwise I can run up the wall and carry one or two with me?" He looks down at the seedlings around him, enquiring without saying anything if they were good to take the stairs.

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Radka was relieved when the elevator finally stopped, and everybody exited. There were better places to snuggle, places with a lot less people, especially. Where nobody could catch glances or witness red cheeks, or whatever... Ugh.

She turned to face Akami, only the two of them left in the lift. There was no hiding anything from her especially, and for an instant, Radka felt her best friend was being strange, and more demure than usual. No Snake Tongue lashing out was worrying. "Yes—yes, a very difficult mission, for which I need your help, now come." She blabbed this out in a flurry of words, then grabbed Akami's hand and pulled her out, along behind her as she made her way to the rooftop.

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Mari-sensei gives Yoshi a toothy grin. "I'm sure the kids'll love the ninja way. What say y'all, Saplings?" Guy and Noa's eyes go big and they laugh and skip outside, their arms full of whatever snacks from the ransacked fridge. Tepani shrugs her shoulders as she follows them, walking at her own pace. Elena whistles to herself as she holds Lil Mari's hand.

The jonin leader counts the Saplings as they exit the lounge and nods to herself. Once Yoshi exits, she reassuringly pats both his and Anika's shoulders at a job well done. "Don't waste any of your chakra. I'll take care of the young'ns..."

***

The seedlings next to Ahei shuffle nervously in place at the uncomfortable silence. They stare straight ahead at their Ororakage, unsure whether to break him from his obvious brooding. The man was a symbol amongst the village, a hero even their parents looked up to. How do you interrupt that?

With a hardly-ever-used creaky rooftop door, apparently.

Ahei turns all eyes towards the roof access and sees Radka, Akami, and two Saplings arrive. The twins snap their attention back, smile in sync, and rush towards Jouko. Agas and Saga nearly trip over themselves before crowding around the stocky kid. Both wave their hands frantically, pantomiming their previous experience firing Ahei's grappling hooks. With the puppet-nin's ocular prowess, he could see stars forming in Radka's athletic charge.
 

***

"You shoulda saw it!" "Yeah! We were all like swish—" "—and whoosh!" Akami raises an eyebrow at the kids' excited storytelling, her attention tracking between the twins and Ahei up again.

"So, all of you are babysitting, I'd take it?" she tucks her book a bit deeper into her arm. "You know, not that bad of training if they all expect you to assume leadership roles... Huh." Her eyes look up at the gray-white sky in thought. "Ha, picturing you as a team leader," her mahogany eyes fall upon Radka, an ember spark of amusement in them, "I can almost see it."
 

***

As everyone is about to finally group up, a giant wooden tendril bursts from alongside the hospital. The rest of the team ride its sandy brown surface, Mari-sensei seemingly surfing its side and twisting around it in impossible angles before somersaulting off its end and twirling down onto the roof.

Behind her, five branches slither down, gently releasing the other half of the Saplings. Tepani has her cheeks flush red and claws at the branches to let her go. Once she breaks free, she huffs and stomps ahead away from the rest, who stare at the tree in wonder.

The lavender-haired jonin scans the roof, counting all the heads, and nods to herself before walking towards Ahei in front of Hyugo.

"Looks like we're all here."

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Yoshi gives a grin and makes his way outside. As Mari-Sensei pats his shoulder, he tries not to mention how she was on her tippy toes to reach it, then tilts his head as she comments about not wasting his Chakra on the saplings. He then blinks and stares up in awe as the tree grows next to the hospital, then glances at Anika. "Well then. Shall we?" He gives a grin, and then leaps up onto one of the branches, and starts to hop between the branches to make his way up. He wasn't really that worried about his Chakra since he had a lot of it, but it would go low eventually so he may as well do a bit of extra exercise and jump up.

He does pause every now and then to wait for Anika to catch up, just encase she falls because a fall from this height is a bit dangerous.

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Radka marked a pause in her step after the door, watching Ahei, and the other kids running at her own charges. She smiled inside, unwittingly remembered of that day with Tsukiko, how they three—Akami, Ahei, herself—got the sheltered kid up the roof.

Akami had looked up at the sky back then just like she did now; the pictures compounded together in Radka's eye. She caught the whimsy in Akami's stare, and turned her gaze away with a sneer, her silky hair moving in kind like a curtain of snow. "Maybe when they run out of options. Little brother there will be first, though." She pointed with a lightning-fast flick at Ahei—

A conversation interrupted by an erupting plant wasn't so uncommon, all things considered.

Radka bumped Akami's side after that spectacle. "C'mon, she won't bite you." And she walked forth, ever so slowly for her, to group up with everybody. "Can we finally get to why we're saddled with babies?" she asked loudly—Radka was Radka, but she was Radkaer when Akami was around. Almost puffing her chest like a peacock fanning their whole tail out.

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On the inside, Ahei grinned. Behind his mask, and behind the mask that covered his face, he smiled so wide for a moment he worried if his face might split open. Scars tugged at flesh and memory like a prickly tree branch, and mentally Ahei had to raise an arm to defending himself. True joy was hard to find. And long denied to the puppet-nin.

To see his wards express such joy at his creations was gratifying. For so long, his tinkering had been his, and his alone. Sharing it in this way was strange. Letting part of himself be seen, and to have it seen so innocently was like drinking water when you hadn't realised how thirsty you really were.

Not even the serpent tongue of his sister, with her laughing eyes, could spoil it. "I liked it." He confessed simply. "And Radka liked showing off." He added, his hollow taunting tone filled with amusement. He didn't get much else of a chance to comment before their Sensei appeared in typical fashion. He adjusted his stance to gesture for his wards to pay attention, but he let them hold on to his companions - temporary trophies of their day's adventures.

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Anika looked at her charges, the tree, Mari-Sense and back to her charges. She then looks over at Yoshi and nods her head. She leaps up on the branch and maneuvers around the branches with ease. After all, her people have been climbing trees for generations to gather food or building materials among other things.

As she followed Yoshi in silence, Anika was still angry at herself for being such a fool. Not only did she fail the mission, she also let down her charges who are supposed to be learning from her. Some village leader she'll make! It was also now blatantly clear the culture gap between her people and the foreigners. She must try harder to understand things from their point of view if she is to avoid another hospital incident. Or at least not let their strange ways and beliefs of doing things distract her from doing future missions.

As soon as they reached the top of the hospital, Anika walks towards her charges..no saplings... and stands beside them. She'll have to apologize to them. She doesn't know how right now, but she must make things up with them, somehow. However, for now, she was focused on Mari-Sense and Hyugo.

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A silence fills the rooftop as Hyuugo continues looking out over the hospital. The Seedlings share nervous looks with each other, some start rubbing their hands together as the lack of frantic energy made them realize it was still a cold, wintry day.

Mari-sensei clears her throat.

Hyuugo turns his head glacially towards his tiny audience. The Ororakage scans the genin and students one by one, his crow’s feet splaying out as his gaze settles on each person. His expression is nearly unreadable from behind his mask until his sights fall upon Akami. Hyuugo’s eyebrows bounce up in surprise.

“Ah, Akami-san. Did you need something?”

Mari-sensei snaps her attention toward Akami and Radka and tilts her head, her eyes squinting in calculation.

Akami starts, her head turning ever just slightly to her unscarred side. She glances at Radka and back at the Ororakage and lavender-haired jounin, her pale cheeks picking up a faint shade of pink—certainly not from the chilly air.

“Oh! My apologies, Ororakage-sama. Just running errands and ran into a friend…” Akami already takes a few steps back towards the roof access, “I can leave you all be to your ninja work, ha…” She steps even further away.

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Radka briefly met Mari's gaze, but Akami's reaction instantly called her attention back. She turned to look at her friend as she shrank away towards the roof exit—Radka's look was long and heavy, her expression almost vacant, in the purposeful way one would shove feelings away from the surface of their body.

Radka didn't know whether it was the Ororakage's question that made Snake Tongue recoil, or if it was Mari's piercing eyes. Either way, she chose to not intervene, and let her closest loved one go—she'd melt under the spotlight, otherwise. She gave her a fast wave, then pulled her cloak closer together as she whirled back to face the rest of the assembly. "Can we get on with it, already?"

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[Savine]

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As Akami closes the door behind her, Hyugo nods to himself and motions for everyone to come closer. The Seedlings all nervously approach in a rough semi-circle near the roof's edge with the Ororakage still motionless, propped up along the edge with a dour glint in his eyes and one leg dangling precariously off the building. As the children wait with bated breath, the team sees a frown weighing down on their sensei’s face, threatening a decade’s worth of age in that one gloomy look.

“Hyugo, where is Asuka?”

The Ororakage rests his chin on a gloved fist. “There’s been a slight change to your roster—”

“We had an agreement. Six were necess—”

“Yes, yes. I know…” The masked kage looks away from her and at the village. “You’ll have your replacements, Mari.” Mari-sensei’s mouth forms a line, clearly suppressing further commentary. After a beat. Hyugo languidly swings his dangling leg back onto the roof and stands. If his shoulders weren’t so drooped, he might even seem imposing in height. “Team Three,” he says to the whole gathering, “My apologies for whatever delay my… apprehensions have caused.” Hyugo digs into his lab coat, stylized as one of the cloaks worn by the kages in the Great Countries, and pulls out a red-stained scroll case. 

“Your mission is ranked C. Reserved normally for chunin, but also promising… genin like yourselves.” He clears his throat before cracking open the case and sliding out the scroll. Hyugo stares at it in his hand, his knuckles nearly puncturing his cloves, the parchment creasing at his grasp.

“Your task is escorting,” he says without reading the scroll he’s unraveling. “Ten students from Softwood Academy. Destination: Bilröst.” Hyugo cranes his neck just over the scroll, scanning his small audience. “You are to ensure their protection en route to the village. Further instructions will be provided at your destination by your team leader.” He eyes Mari.

“Any questions?”

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[Pheonixfire]

Yoshi Hoshigaki
AC: 20 | Max HP: 53 | Max Chakra: 59 | Speed: 40 ft (+Swim) | Init: +3 | P. Per: 15 | Sheet

 

Yoshi tucks his hands into the sleeves of his Kimono as Hyugo-sama tells them the mission. A C-Rank mission, an escort from what he hears. All the way to Bilröst. Great. "So we have the approval to go to this village. Do we have an estimate to how long we should be prepared for?" He hopes it'll only take a few hours, and not days. Getting the supplies for the team AND the seedlings would be a pain otherwise.

Edited May 9 by Pheonixfire (see edit history)