[Okada Goro]

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[attr="class","goropost"]The cavern that was now before them was eerie, the light disappearing into the tunneled entrance. Goro couldn’t see very far into the narrow shaft of the mines, which brought a bit of uneasiness. Outside of a small step back, he didn’t let it show, but the boy wasn’t fond of dark, cramped places. He liked the sun and the freedom of the outdoors. Not knowing who or what was hiding within the caverns wasn’t something he particularly was looking forward to. The darkness wasn’t a deal-breaker, but Goro’s confidence only went so far. He was only ten, afterall.

His blue eyes shifted from Uta to Yoshiko at the first mention of ‘bear’. He’d never seen one before, and certainly never thought he would be in the position to need to fight or defend against one. Just how big were they, really? He knew they were big, but how big? How strong? Were they fast? He asked himself these questions internally, perhaps losing a bit of color from his face.

He was fine dealing with people. Nothing about fighting an enemy shinobi scared him. If anything, the idea was thrilling. Animals, however, were unpredictable. They had a different type of fury than that of mankind. How do you fight something that attacks without thought or provocation? Predatory animals were another matter entirely–how do you fight something that was born to kill?

For a moment, he imaged their teeth–likely as long as his own hand. He thought of their paws–the size of his head. And he imagined their brute strength, naturally stronger than himself without the use of chakra or the Eight Gates.

Regardless of these internal fears, Goro didn’t waver. He stepped forward, reclaiming his place. He wouldn’t retract his statement. He’d stand by it, firmly and strongly. There would be no trouble in a team like theirs. He’d protect Uta and Yoshiko–not that they couldn’t take care of themselves.

As much as Goro was a rush in head first kind of knucklehead, he knew very well that wouldn’t fly in a situation such as this. Missions were to be handled with more care. It wasn’t just his own well-being that was at risk if he rushed into a dark mine by himself with no understanding or intel on the dangers within.

"Sure, let’s get an idea of what we got goin’ on in there. When we head in, I think you should lead, Yoshiko-sensei. Uta should be in the middle, and I can take the backline. You can sense ahead, but I’m the fastest between me and Uta, so I can react to something behind us or rush ahead if I need ta.”

Goro looked to Yoshiko for confirmation. Was his intuition correct?