[wabisuke satoshi]

A series of circumstances has somehow led to this situation. Satoshi has seemed to be less incompetent than before in the eyes of his superiors, so sending a seasoned Genin on a C-rank seems fine if he's with a Chunin. Secondly, the academy is on a break right now syncing up with the ending of the Chunin exams, creating a shortage of ninja able to do missions right now, so Academy Instructors are being encouraged to participate.

This has led to the participants of the mission being Satoshi and Huhara. Huhara's time as an instructor began a decent amount of time after Satoshi's graduation, there was only a few years between the two in age after all. 

A C-rank mission to a fair few Genin wasn't really anything momentous, this did not apply to Satoshi. Even D-ranks he had to steele himself for, this was a whole different ball park, a person he doesn't know is going to be leading, he's half of a two man team undertaking this, it's all a bit heavy.

Nevertheless, Satoshi reported for the village gates as instructed. A D-rank scouting mission had been performed inside the village already, meaning it wasn't some sort of internal issue causing the souring of the World Tree's roots. This meant it was outside the village.

Satoshi stood at the village gates, a whirlpool of things that made him feel queasy ran through his mind, regardless, he tried to play it cool as he awaited his superior to come.

 tampered waters c-rank

♫

Oborozuki, Huhara

SPOILER: Click to show

Tampered Waters
Mission Rank: C
NPC Required: NPC[Optional]
Random Mission Scenario: Enabled

Description:
Reports have been made that one of the roots of the Great Tree in the village has begun to wither. The importance of this tree is that it mysteriously provides protection to the true location of the village itself. The source of this infliction seems to come from one of the many places in which a water supply is located, find the ones responsible for this and contain the situation...

[Oborozuki, Huhara]

The sound of wooden geta click-clacked against the stone paved ground as Huhara approached Takigakure's looming main gate. A cloud of smoked left the chuunin's pursed lips, flowing into the breeze. As he exhaled from the long wooden pipe, Huhara's chest fell to let out a long sigh. It wasn't often he would partake in such an activity, yet today he felt drawn to it. Lowering the old pipe to his side, Huhara's mind begun to wander on his duties today. Instead of his usual role as an academy instructor, he found himself leading a genin on a mission. It was his first mission in fact, since the incident many years ago. Maybe that was the reason he found himself compelled to smoke; he wondered.

As its embers snuffed out into a grey ash, Huhara placed the pipe away within his waist pouch. He looked toward the gate and saw the boy he was paired with for the day. Both were tasked to go investigate the distressed and withering World Tree. "Hello." Huhara's voice called out, raspy and deep.

"I'm Oborozuki, Huhara. And you must be Satoshi-Kohai. I suggest we don't waste time. If you're ready, we best be going. Anything we need to discuss can be talked about on our way there." he added.

Huhara simply walked passed the genin as he talked, striding through the open gates and moving further away from them.

-Notes-
N/A
-Word Count-
238

[wabisuke satoshi]

As much as Huhara's cold demeanor made him want to shrivel up on the spot, the fact socialisation wasn't going to be key on the following mission was a relief. 

There were a lot of thoughts aflutter in Satoshi's head about the nature of the mission and the dynamic about him being a Genin solo-assigned to a Chunin. What if this Chunin actually needed someone to be his backup for this? 

Satoshi listened to him, then gave a meek nod, scampering behind him. Immediately, the issue of skillsets came to Satoshi's mind, he wasn't debriefed on Huhara's capabilities, what if he was another med-nin?

After a fair bit of trekking quietly, Satoshi eked up the courage to chirp up, "Um, Huhara-san, I don't know if you were told about me but I'm a medical-nin who can track, I can use ninja tools too to help pin down a target but... I, uh, what sort of style do you use?"

All things considered, that came out pretty well as far as Satoshi was concerned, but the following was what would be important. He didn't want to convey how much of a burden he felt, but it could be heard within his tone and if Huhara bothered to look, his body language as well.

 tampered waters c-rank

♫

Oborozuki, Huhara

SPOILER: Click to show

Tampered Waters
Mission Rank: C
NPC Required: NPC[Optional]
Random Mission Scenario: Enabled

Description:
Reports have been made that one of the roots of the Great Tree in the village has begun to wither. The importance of this tree is that it mysteriously provides protection to the true location of the village itself. The source of this infliction seems to come from one of the many places in which a water supply is located, find the ones responsible for this and contain the situation...

[Oborozuki, Huhara]

Huhara bent a knee slightly to push up off the ground, jumping into the tree tops. At a leisurely sprint the chuunin soared between branches, only increasing his pace once realising the genin had followed. It wouldn't be long until satoshi spoke out, telling Huhara his specialisation before questioning his own He scoffed at their statement; of course he'd read their dossier, and knew they were a medical specialist. He scoped the path forward as he provided the curious genin a short answer. "I specialise in Genjutsu" he repied.

For sometime the pair continued their journey without speaking, to Huhara's delight before he decidingly broke the silence. "There" Huhara quietly voiced as he stopped in his tracks.

Perched upon a particularly high branch, Huhara looked across a grassy opening at one of the world tree's gigantic roots. It looked damaged and diseased from the distance of his concealed viewpoint. The chuunin await for his partner to catch up before whispering to them in a dull, monotonic voice. "It looks like the reports were correct. Something insidious has happened to our beloved world tree. What do you think is the best course of action here?" He asked.

To be fair, he wasn't too interested in their answer and only asking as a way to teach the genin how to analyse infomation and formulate a plan. It was also a test for Huhara to determine the extent of Satoshi's non-combat skills.

-Notes-
N/A
-Word Count-
239

[wabisuke satoshi]

Huhara's response to Satoshi's inquiry about his skillset caused a swirl of uneasiness inside. "Oh god oh no oh shit", a loop of a self-conscious panicking came about, even cheery people Satoshi could misread and interpret negatively. Huhara's straight to the point attitude was one that did not bode well with Satoshi, taking it as a personal affront. 

He tried to occupy his mind thinking of how to pair best with a genjutsu practitioner whilst he followed wordlessly through the tree tops, trailing behind Huhara whilst peering over his own shoulder and sniffing out their surroundings. 

Once Huhara halted, Satoshi followed suit, coming to a stop. Once probed about what he thought would be the best way to continue, Satoshi paused for a moment. The situation wasn't particularly stressful and it was posed quite abstractly despite them being there, so the lack of pressure led to him being able to formulate some pretty cohesive thoughts.

"Well...I think the World Tree roots can take decades of punishment before they become inert, so we have the luxury of being able to wait and observe.

See if there's any animals or people doing something in particular that might be causing these roots to wither. 

While observing we can peruse the surrounding area... there's still a good chance the cause is something naturally occuring that the botanists back in the village would need to come out and handle.

Plus, I think whatever the situation is, if there's something we have to handle right now, our skillsets are a lot better when we get the jump on someone rather than the other way around. "

Treating it as something that just itched his brain rather than putting himself in the current situation was a method Satoshi had learned to make him act and think more rationally, something that would make him snap back into reality could really derail this though.  

 tampered waters c-rank

♫

Oborozuki, Huhara

SPOILER: Click to show

Tampered Waters
Mission Rank: C
NPC Required: NPC[Optional]
Random Mission Scenario: Enabled

Description:
Reports have been made that one of the roots of the Great Tree in the village has begun to wither. The importance of this tree is that it mysteriously provides protection to the true location of the village itself. The source of this infliction seems to come from one of the many places in which a water supply is located, find the ones responsible for this and contain the situation...

[Oborozuki, Huhara]

Huhara golden irises pierced the air, giving the genin a quick stare of disapproval. Another short scoff exited the man's lips as he rolled his eyes and looked away. He let out a heavy sigh, taking a moment to pause before replying. "You are partially correct. Waiting and oberseving is a good strategy. But first... we check the area. As you said, it may be natural in origin. Or Whoever.... Whatever... did this, might have left something behind to cause it." Huhara words exited his lips with abrupt pauses as he bluntly explained it to his lessor.

The chuunin stood from up on his branch, preparing to move down below. He looked back toward the obviously anxious genin. "Stay. If you see anything. Whistle." He said.

Without a moments notice, Huhara lunged forward and used his momentum to swoop down toward the ground. With the grace and finesse of an acrobatic performer, the chuunin tucked his body together and skilfully rolled to break his fall as he landed. From the roll, he immediately bounced back onto his feet and ran to approach the damaged roots. It only took seconds for the Chuunin to reach them.

Huhara looked up at the withered and sickly roots. Something was off with them. Upclose, small yet vivid red splotchs could be seen contrasting the natural browns and tans colors of the trees bark. As his eyes followed the roots down toward the ground; Huhara noticed the splotches worsen until completely covering the bark, exactly where the roots met with a small pond.

Something then suddenly distracted Huhara from further investigation...

-Notes-
N/A
-Word Count-
266