[Netsu Midori]

Midori sighs with relief when it seems that the mass has fully retreated, now that she can see around Hotarubi's once-hulking body to reveal the new placidity ahead. She disperses the Kesshoton energy from both her hands, grunting a bit as she readjusts her own pack on her shoulders. It had jostled a bit during the fight, but at least her pack wasn't broken at the straps, so she could continue on much more easily than Hotarubi could. When the Chuunin asks her if she's good, she gives just a quick nod and a grunt of assent before she follows him forwards once more, though she was certain they had to be getting close to the end of the caves soon; the delay of the swarm had been annoying, but at least they were now back to the travel and one step closer to completing the mission.

It was actually a little surprising to hear the other ninja give her a small form of praise for her holding her own, but she takes it in stride. She actually had rarely received much in the form of praise since she'd finished training in Kesshoton meditation that had been needed in order to better use the Plasma Release without requiring conductive armor. Although she had only a little reaction to those two short words, she took them to heart and resolved herself not to berate or insult him for the remainder of the mission. Watching him slap the wall every once in a while made her curious, but she simply assumed that it had something to do with the way he'd been able to change his body with the earth that surrounded them in this cavernous tunnel. She'd certainly never heard of something like that, but then again, she'd been somewhat sheltered in her childhood and when she had been a teenager learning the Kesshoton meditation.

The weight of her pack is pulling her down a bit more, which makes her eyebrows furrow until she realizes that it must mean that they're gradually going upwards, towards a surface of some kind, so they're likely to be on their way out. Wherever the rat swarm has gone, there's a chance that they'll avoid actually running into it again during the mission, and they were even seeing a few less bats on the ceiling, which likely meant they were getting closer to an entrance.

[Akira]

Well - she was alive and unharmed as far as issues went so Hotarubi grunted. They could carry on: beside the noise of his clapping as they walked, he would gesture or speak to their direction. "Ah." The man made a noise at one point, probably to give some notice. "We're here." And bracing himself as he began to squint - light was bright as hell against the darkness of the cavern.

What broke into the next point of their journey would break them out of the twilight shroud and into actual sunlight was the canopies of the jungle - pushing nesting roots from an overhanging spot in their journey and into another muddied river. His shoes (while he wore shoes being a pointless purchase for him) were going to be so difficult to wash later. The noise of water was still apparent though: the noise and chirp of nature between the birds and cicadas, the croak of a frog(s).

There was, as he found, water - the river entrance they'd come from was usually waterlogged and the river it came from was usually much higher, but moving past some rocks and earth would break into a small river. Clamouring over small pebbles, and he would drop his feet into the ankle deep water. A sigh of relief as his shoes began to clear up.

But this did also mean that Takigakure's other village would be within a walking distance. Nobody seemed to be cropping out of the trees to see if they were wearing a seal or not but as they were breaking free of the chakra dense tree and forest: a sensor might've been more likely to sense them from afar. The cargo around his hand would grip tighter and the cough of material as it happened would keep him from snapping the other part of the material.

"We're on the closing stretch." He smiled. "I'm out of the village from here. Straight onto the next mission." Back where he could use actual Doton! He cleared his throat. Ready for the next one: as he tried to gather his bearings.

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[Netsu Midori]

Midori lets out a rare happy sound when they seem to meet with the sun once again, instead of the low lights they'd had to become accustomed to in the tunnels between Takigakure proper and the false village that acted as a front for the real ninja village. They come out into a somewhat scenic environment, and she watches as the river water trickles past some blockages that had likely allowed the tunnel rats to become an unruly swarm within the passageway, and the Netsu considers smashing away the blockages in order to flood the tunnels. Then she decides against that plan of action, since she'll still need to come back to the real Takigakure after their deliveries are done. She rubs her temples before turning away from the entrance of the cave, finding the whole thing a bit of a headache, especially with how bright the sunlight was after such a long time spent in the relative darkness of the tunnels. At least they'd had some low lights that allowed them to make their way through the caverns.

She's also glad that nobody seems to care about their seals or their chakra as they come into the false village, which she'd thought made the entire concept of sealing their chakra during the mission somewhat silly. While it might have been important while they were going into or coming out of the tunnels, so as to not give away the positions of the correct tunnel that leads to Takigakure proper, it would have probably required someone to know the general area that they would be coming out to be able to look for them. At least it means they probably won't have to explain where the seals are to anyone within false Takigakure.

Midori is a bit surprised when Hotarubi mentions something about "the next mission", and she raises an eyebrow at him. She was often the type to avoid making friends with anyone, if her insults aimed at Hotarubi were any indication, but she felt that they weren't a bad match as far as missions were concerned, and Takigakure had something of a ninja availability issue. It wouldn't hurt to be amicable with someone that's always ready to do missions that are somewhat close to her rank, so she might as well extend an olive branch to the strange rock-bodied ninja.

"Sounds good. I hope the next one is a bit more exciting..."

[Akira]

"Yeah. Heading out to the capital." The man wasn't going to explain much further but that it would be a better use of his abilities out there he hoped. The man had been trying some new styles of techniques and he wanted the opportunity to put it into practice. But they'd got onto road and finally into the false village, much to his own appreciation - but there was one final stop to go which was to drop some of their things at a distribution point.

Through some double doors, glassed walled and standing between Hotarubi and the delivery point with an old woman on the opposite side was a tall, taller than Hotarubi even, darker skin than most and with a facial expression plastered to their face as they noticed the two of them entering. Hotarubi first looked at midori with some disbelief but made his way over to them first. "Items for delivery?" Hotarubi nodded. "Yep." "Name?" "Yamakira, Hotarubi." All seemed bureaucractic until the penny dropped.

"Why was it you were both pinged a quarter of a mile out, Yamakira?" Hotarubi's mouth was left a little agape. They knew, huh? His face twisted quizzically. The older - presumably Jonin - would quiz Hotarubi on a few more questions as they tried to build up to an accusation at him, and it was clear that Hotarubi was starting to get a bit more aggressive.

"eH?" A drone emitted from Hotarubi's mouth. So that was how they would be able to find out. "We got on the road, and we were by the village?" The snarl on the man's face became apparent, increasing the density of the wrinkled lines. "Office. Now." Hotarubi would look back at the woman - the genin. A contained sigh from Hotarubi would he uncurl his arm holding the backpack and placed it on the floor in front of Midori. His expression was monotonous but that actually seemed to say more as he locked eyes with her. "Ja ne." and he would go skulking off behind the superior officer, but not before looking back at her one last time - and disappearing into a building.

What would follow, was Hotarubi being chewed out: being told that 'if an enemy had been surveying the area' this, and 'noticing sudden shinobi appearing out of nowhere' that. Hotarubi remained tight lipped, but was not happy about the perceived failure even if it had been for legitimate purposes. It had simply been his failure, even when explaining the rats - that they could not do it without the use of chakra.

Apparently, the commanding officer did not appreciate being told that it should have been so easy to deal with hundreds of ravenous rats with a single kunai while protecting a Genin. Midori received zero blame in that conversation and it was clear it was being penned on him for his '

So while the mission would be marked as complete, it would not be rewarded any sort of pay for Hotarubi. That was offence enough, but having a mark noted on the file... that was a sour taste that would be left in his mouth.

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[Netsu Midori]

Midori is a bit surprised by the duo standing at the delivery point, herself, particularly the Jonin that was standing by with the old lady. This seemed like quite a low-level job for a Jonin to involve themselves in anything going on with it, so she gives Hotarubi a shrug when he turns towards her with an expression of disbelief. She doesn't really understand it herself until the questioning switches from questions about the mission to questions about why their chakra signatures were picked up. Midori's face instantly turned to a frown, with something of a rebel snarl growing on her black-painted lips. Despite her reaction to the news that they'd been somewhat having their chakra signatures "watched" in a sense in the fake Takigakure and now they, or at least Hotarubi, was being chastised for the necessary removal of the seals in order to protect themselves, the Jonin really seemed to have it out for the Chuunin and not her, likely due to the fact that Hotarubi was the higher ranking ninja.

Although Midori considers telling off the Jonin, she also figures that Hotarubi can probably handle it as he and the higher ranking ninja go into the office, with Midori being left with the completion of the mission. She couldn't hear what was really going on with their conversation as she gives the older woman a hard stare, as though daring her to start a blame game while the Genin takes her payment for the mission, leaving behind Hotarubi's share. She figured he would still want his portion in order to help him prepare for his next mission, while Midori wanted to go and do some training back in the ninja village proper. While some training was allowed in the false village, most of it was required to be fairly low-level, and she wasn't the type to put much stock in lower level techniques herself. She grunts as she drops her own pack to the ground and leaves it for the old lady to figure out what to do with it; as far as she could tell, they only needed to get the goods to this position, and with that portion of the job done, Midori left to return to Takigakure itself, although she kept in the back of her mind the strange treatment Hotarubi had received for what she saw as excusable in the context of the mission.

[THREAD EXIT]