[Senju Kazuto]

Coming to the forest of death had become more and more an normal occurrence. So normal that it would be weird that he didn't come here to oversee training for ANBU within the vicinity infamous training ground. On top of a dire wolf as big as a house, he would see the tress behind him as a blur and the black and white maned beast simply ran in the forest as if it had been living here for all of its life. Clutching to the mane, the Senju would lean into the animal as branches passed and seemed to swing at his head until at last the wolf would lose its momentum, slowly coming to a halt as the trees and the bushes would reveal a hut hidden amidst the forest over a hill. No giant roadrunner but signs of activity as the wolf would take a final few steps and he would lay on the ground allowing him to step off the wolf. Softly pulling the fur of the wolf he would step away as the giant beast would lay down and close its eyes. "Saya... Are you here?" He asked outloud, hoping that someone inside would hear him, if there was someone inside that was. He would knock the door twice and after no answer had come, he would gently open the door and, revealing the place very much as it had been the last time that he had visited. "Guess she's not at home." He would breath and sit on a chair as the door that led into the hut was left half-way open, sure she would see the giant wolf that was now sleeping and would not attack her, he imagined that such would be a give away that someone was waiting for her. Once the door opened he would hope to see Saya through the door, surely with some form of prey in two after whatever she had been hunting.

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MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Saru Saya]

Saya enters the clearing with little flare, gliding down from the lowest branches of an ancient konoha giant and landing easily upon the sunlit grass. There was a big dog here. That was new. Pale blue eyes flick from the wolf to her home. Kazuto.

She approaches her little hut quietly though not in stealth, a pair of rabbits on a wire slung over her shoulder. She ignores the wolf as she walks past it, and ignores Kazuto as she walks past him. She seeks out the workbench in front of her home, setting her catch for the day atop it. She lets her gaze rest on the game she’d caught. It was still covered in soft fur, but was missing most of its organs. Lean meat, not the sort of thing you can hunt for in the Forest of Death. They’d make for a fine dinner, if she had the privacy to cook it.

She looks as she had before, no older no wiser. Clad in thin blue silk she was more curves than she knew what to do with, and her hair still fell long past her shoulders. Her left hand moves to the katana on her hip, fingers grazing the sharkskin and silk wrapped around its handle. Kazuto didn’t often seek her out at home. This had been the first time since she retired.

A cool autumn breeze cuts through the silence of the clearing, rattling branches and leaves on the periphery. She didn’t know why Kazuto was here, or why he always sought her out at home. Perhaps it was just the most reliable place to locate her, if you knew how to get through the forest. Was he here for more training? She wasn’t sure. She also wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that giant wolf before, but that was another matter for another time. For now she stands there quietly, waiting for him to speak.

[Senju Kazuto]

"You don't say hello anymore?" The Senju would speak, breaking silence with which Saya had regarded him after returning. Part of him was surprised that she hadn't attached the wolf, after all, how often you saw a wolf that big even in the forest of death. Somehow he had also expected the woman to say something in the words of "I knew one day I would find you here" but if she had, he hadn't heard it and as far as he had known about her, the woman had never been known for making remarks in that regard. He scoffed at that for a brief second, just thinking about what he had said before speaking again. "Saya I will be brief and cut through the crap." He would say before she could speak. "We're facing a threat we have never faced before." He said as he would raise from the seat he had assumed. "Yuki has one of our own, we need to get him back." And that was the reason of his visit. The Senju knew that the woman would know what he meant about one of their own, she knew in the very implicit way that current members of the organization spoke to those that had left the service. "I have no one I can trust for this, you're my last hope." He said as he would try to explain about his decision of disturbing her away well earned retirement. And if the records of the village would suggest about her prowess as a former ANBU, then he had made the right choice about this. "You're in your right to deny my request, of course." He said as he would look at the woman. "But it's not the village asking you, I'm asking you. We don't leave men behind." He said and allowed her time to think and enough for her to reply.

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MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Saru Saya]

Saya turns as Kazuto is talking and leans lightly against the worktable behind her. She levels her eyes on him and waits, watching him speak. She lets the words linger for a moment, curious and pondering what he’d said. It struck her as strange.

Kazuto was the head of special ops. There should be a multitude of people he could pick from to undertake such a mission. Before she was at the top of the list of agents to call upon for quiet infiltration missions, but she’d retired some time ago. Her immediate instinct, however, is to say yes.

Saya respected Kazuto, and he’d never asked her to undertake even a simple mission. He had asked her for training, and studied well, but he’d never asked her for something like this. She lifts her arms, crossing them in front of her.

"No. No we don’t.” She replies to his comment on leaving ninja behind. "You don’t have to be so dramatic. If you need my help, then you have my help. I may be retired but I would never turn my back when my village needs me.”

"Tell me what’s happened and what you need me to do.”

She keeps her reply brief, this didn’t seem the time for friendly banter or teasing. If this had Kazuto upset and he couldn’t handle it solo, it had to be something of a big deal. How on Earth did Yuki get their hands on a Konoha nin? She knew the exams had just happened, but the idea of traveling to the frostbitten hell of the far north did not excite her. Sunamaru wouldn’t like it either.

Meh, Yuki. A shame they had to be enemies, they’d be much better to just ignore. Safe just due to the inhospitable hell of their wilderness. The mist choked swamps of Kiri suddenly seemed like heaven. Oh who was she kidding, she loved the swamps.

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